The Rebel Group of Original Elementals

Hi all!

As promised, here is some more information about the rebel group in Original Elementals!

The group is lead by Francesca, who is also the founder. She started the group in response to rumours about the scientific facility in their hometown doing unethical experiments on dragons. In the Elemental Dragons universe there are several species of dragons that each support the ecosystem of the areas. For example: Fairy Dragons are omnivores, they will eat pests such as mice and flies. They can also be considered pests themselves however, as they will eat crops as well. Francesca turned out to be right, but she hadn't realised the extent of the experiments.

All nine of the main characters are members of the group, and although there were others, they have since left or gotten bored and moved on. A lot of the others joined at the prodding of their parents or just something to do after school. Some of them don't want to be there at all, but don't want to be at home either. This is before dragon companions and elemental powers were commonplace, so there wasn't as much adventure as in the Elemental Dragons series.

At first all the group did was peaceful protest outside of the facility. They held up signs and refused to move from specific spots. Each time the police would come and break them up, but wouldn't charge them due to the fact that all the protestors are teenagers. Benjamin, wanting a bit more excitement, decided to break into one of the vans that goes in and out of the facility. This sparked an idea in Francesca, who wanted to break into the facility and get solid proof of the experiments that they're doing.

The adults in the town aren't bothered about the protesting teenagers. They prefer them sat outside the facility in silence than rioting in the streets. The group isn't taken seriously, but that also means they can get away with a lot more. Francesca uses this to her advantage, testing the water into how much trouble they can get into with the lowest repercussions. Once they get hold of dragon eggs however, that's when their little group turns out to be more than a minor inconvenience...

I still haven't named the group, purely because I can't decide on a name I like. Closer to November I will run a poll to see which name you like best.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week.

PS; this is your last chance to pick up these FREE books before they’re gone!

Dragon’s Lair

A Glimpse into the Main Characters of Original Elementals

Hi all!

As I'll be starting to write the books in the Original Elemental series in November I thought that I would give you a glimpse into the main characters! Each book will feature one of the below characters in their point of view. In no particular order:

Francesca.

The Original Ice Elemental, nicknamed 'Frost' in a book about her life. She's the first one to get a dragon companion, Frostbite, and the leader of the small group rebelling against scientists torturing dragons. She's very loud spoken and a fierce optimist.

Maria.

The Original Water Elemental, nicknamed 'Marine' in a book about her life. Her dragon companion is Maelstrom. The complete opposite to Francesca, she's quite shy and reserved. However, that doesn't mean she's unwilling to fight for what she believes in.

Oskar.

The Original Dark Elemental, nicknamed 'Opaque' in a book about his life. His companion is Shadowhunter. He is the most cowardly of the group, and loathes confrontation. He tries to coast his way through rebel life doing the bare minimum to help, but Francesca is always there to drag him back into the fray.

Benjamin.

The Original Fire Elemental, nicknamed 'Bonfire' in a book about his life. His dragon companion is Devouring. He's headstrong and stubborn, and doesn't get on with most of the group. His closest friends are Logan and Lucia. Although he doesn't like getting his hands dirty, he's willing to if needed. He also sees himself as having the worst dragon, as she is more of a player than a fighter.

Su-hyeon.

The Original Wind Elemental, nicknamed 'Squall' in a book about his life. His dragon companion is Tempest. Generally quiet and introverted, he'd much rather be in bed than out hunting dragons. He joined the rebels initially to get his parents off his back about not having any friends. Despite this, he loves studying the dragons and spoils Tempest with everything she wants.

Lucia.

The Original Light Elemental, nicknamed 'Luminous' in a book about her life. Her companion is Sunrise. Although stuck up and spoiled on the outside, she's secretly insecure. Her looks mean everything to her, and she'd rather have others do her dirty work for her. Her and Benjamin are an item, but she is constantly afraid that he will leave her for someone else.

Logan.

The Original Electric Elemental, nicknamed 'Lightning' in a book about his life. His dragon companion is Stormburst. Logan is quite overprotective of his friends and isn't afraid to stand up for them. His first thought is to use his fists, which often gets him into a lot of trouble. He was pushed to join the rebels by his parents, who thought it was a harmless group that he could blow off some steam with. He's obsessed with flying.

Tiegan.

The Original Earth Elemental, nicknamed 'Terra' in a book about her life. Her dragon companion is Turf. She hates the rebels, but only stays for the free food. The others don't know that her family have abandoned her, and that she actually sleeps in their hideout when they've all gone. She's too proud to ask for help, and is also jealous of the fact that everyone else seemingly has a perfect family.

Stella.

She is the Original Elemental to gain all the elements, and is supposed to be the leader of the group. She's nicknamed 'Stellar' in a book about her life and her companion is Arcturus. She's extremely shy, and doesn't talk unless necessary. She has a strong connection to all dragon species, being able to calm them with her presence. What she doesn't tell the others is that all of the Elements cause her great pain, and her body is constantly fighting the effects of this. Some days are better for her than others.

The designs of the dragon companions are being chosen monthly by my newsletter subscribers! Do you want to help design the characters and have access to book deals and monthly short stories? You can sign up here: My Mailing List

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading this little insight into the first generation of Elementals. Next week I'll tell you a bit more about their rebellious little group, which is as of yet unnamed. See you next week!

PS; looking for some free fantasy books? Check out the ones in this bundle!

Dragon’s Lair

Mute Cover Design

Hi all!

If you haven’t seen my social media posts, then you might not know that I have revealed the cover for Mute! Without further ado…

Again, this cover has been designed by the wonderful people at Deranged Doctor Design! As with all of my previous covers, I thought I’d explain some parts of the design!

• The cat on the cover is Solaris, one of the guardians. He is not the main character, but he does assist her in her fight against the wendigo.

• The colour scheme for this book is grey and pale green.

• The background is a forest that is present in the book. Audra will sometimes dream herself there and be pursued by the wendigo.

• The buildings in the background are also a part of the forest, where the wendigo hunts.

• The blade beneath Solaris’ paws is a dagger, which Audra uses to defend herself against the wendigo.

• I originally wanted the wendigo to appear on this cover in some form, but I thought it would look too messy and also doesn’t fit with the overall look.

• I had a difficult time picking the font for this one but I think the one I chose is easy to read and also very fitting for the story.

• The cover is very dark and dreary, fitting the horror theme of the book.

• The design put my author name at the bottom this time as it is more standard for horror books.

All in all I am very happy with how this cover turned out as I’m not as well-versed with horror covers as I am with fantasy. I’ve a lot of people tell me that the cover reminds them of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, and that was the book that got me into horror!

Mute will be out in October 2021, pre-order will be available in August!

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week!

PS; love reading about dragons? Check out this bundle full of FREE dragon books!

Dragon’s Lair

Elemental Dragons in a Physical Bookshop

Hi all,

This week I've got an announcement to make: a bookshop is now stocking paperback copies of all of the Elemental Dragons books!

This is a huge milestone for a self published author, as most bookshops won't even look at our books. I pitched quite a few bookshops last year, but got disheartened by the amount of negative responses. Due to publishing through Amazon, which is the biggest rival to bookshops, they weren't interested. After about a hundred pitches, some of which got extremely rude responses, I gave up. It was only when someone in my writing group mentioned that a new bookshop had opened that I decided to try again. I wasn't expecting anything to come of it, but they agreed to stock my books!

My books listed on the shop’s website

I'm glad that I've managed to hit another milestone in my author career. It's also quite surreal to see my book in a physical shop!

For the time being I'm not going to pitch to any more bookshops. The negative responses I got the first time round effected my anxiety, to the point where I didn't want to check my emails. I know that bookshops don't have to stock books they don't want to, but I think the rude responses were unnecessary.

I considered going through IngramSpark, as they have a high distribution rate with bookshops. The only issue I found is that it can be quite pricey just to set up one book on Ingram, let alone the four that I have. I've put that idea on hold until I decide whether the benefits will outweigh the costs.

If you want to check out the bookshop, you can do so here: Bookshop

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week!

PS; looking for some new fantasy books? The ones in this bundle are FREE to download!

Dragon’s Lair

Elemental Dragons Complete Collection Pre-Order Live

Hi all!

If you haven’t been keeping up with my social media, the Elemental Dragons Complete Collection is now available for pre-order! It will be out in ebook format on July 13th 2021.

The Complete Collection contains all of the books in the Elemental Dragons series in one neat little bundle!

You will receive:

Blood and Water

Venom and Earth

Glass and Ice

Cinder and Fire

While waiting for the Complete Collection to come out why not join my mailing list? You’ll get exclusive short stories, cover reveals and a chance to vote on what characters look like!

In return you’ll get a free ebook that can’t be downloaded anywhere else. I also plan on adding more free books in the future, so it’ll definitely be worth your while signing up!

Coming over the next year will be the following FREE enovellas:

Famished - a prequel to Mute

Sif’s Peak - a spin-off in the Years universe

Seashine - a look at the origins of a character in Celestial Plague

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week!

Before you go, this is the last chance to get some free books!

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

The Story of the Guardians

Hi all!

This week I'm going to tell you about the guardians - the ones in Mute whose job it is to prevent the wendigo from eating people. They also stop people from turning into wendigos by killing them. I thought I would tell you about their story, and how they became guardians.

In the Mute universe, cats are the guardians of the underworld. Their job is to guide new spirits into the underworld and prevent old ones from escaping. There are billions of spirits, so there are also billions of guardians. Some are assigned to keep watch further in the underworld, while others watch the gates. Despite the sheer amount of guardians, Solaris and Lunaris are the most well-known. This is because they made a grave mistake, allowing a certain spirit to escape. A spirit that would become the first wendigo.

Solaris is a ginger tom cat with green eyes. His sister, Lunaris, is a grey molly with blue eyes. Lunaris is the older of the twins, daring and more confident than her brother. Their first job when they were made guardians was to guard one of the gates. They both did their watch dutifully for a few years, until they got bored.

What Lunaris looks like

Solaris created a ball out of moss and grass, which he then started to play with. Lunaris joined in, with the two of them batting the ball between each other. However Lunaris got too excited and hit it too hard, meaning it rolls away from the gate. Without thinking, the two of them rush after it, eager to continue their game. While they were distracted, a vengeful spirit managed to escape. It attacked a Native American tribe and influenced a living man to kill someone and cannibalise their corpse. That spirit then took over their body and transformed them into a wendigo. Using their own flesh, they fed it to the corpse and created another wendigo.

By the time the twins realise what has happened, there are several wendigos. The two of them are scolded by the other guardians, and are punished with the task of getting rid of the wendigos for good. However, they are given powers to help them. Their claws will grow to three inches long when needed, and are made of the same wood that grows on the wendigo. The guardians also craft a dagger, which can be used by a human to subdue the wendigos. The two of them are then cast out, not allowed to return until all of the wendigos have been returned to the underworld. This brings us to Mute, centuries later, where the twins are still trying to correct their mistake.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week!

PS; looking for some free books to add to your bookshelf? Check out the ones in this bundle, all Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

The SoundArt Dragon Award and Radio Interview

Hi all!

This week I'm going to talk about a radio interview I did a few weeks ago. You may remember John Eden from previous blog posts, who interviewed me on SoundArt Radio about the books in the Elemental Dragons series. You can check out SoundArt here:

In this interview we talked about Elemental Dragons as a whole, in order to get onto the topic of Cinder and Fire. We discussed the characters and my reasons for writing the books, as well as I'm what I'm planning for Elemental Dragons in the future. This interview was a little different, as we couldn't actually meet face to face in the studio. Instead we did it over webcam, although John couldn't see me!

He presented me with the SoundArt Dragon Award, which sits above my bookshelf (mainly so Mishka can't knock it over).

The SoundArt Dragon Award

Although the interview was a bit different from usual, it still followed the usual format. I had three songs played, which were:

Til The Love Runs Out - One Republic

Hey Brother - Avicii

It's All So Incredibly Loud - Glass Animals

We discussed Draca and the Wyrms again, as well as the characters in Elemental Dragons. We also discussed a blog post I made a few weeks prior, about the element of metal. He wanted to ask more about the Elemental Dragons series, but unfortunately I couldn't give too much away thanks to planning the Original Elementals series!

Mute and Years were brought up again, the next two books I'm planning to publish. I talked about what a wendigo is and how it features in the story of Mute. Audra as a character was also discussed, as she is the first character I've written who never verbally speaks a line of dialogue. I did mention the gore, but that didn't seem to put John off!

Mishka was constantly wandering in front of the camera throughout, which lead to me losing my train of thought at times! Luckily I was able to keep her from walking all over my laptop, which was her primary goal.

I read a bit of Cinder and Fire, and I think this time I managed to slow down a bit more. I tried to make my voice more steady, and I don't think I stumbled as much as I have in the past. Thanks to doing this twice before, I think it alleviated my anxiety a lot. I knew the format, I knew what was going to happen. That definitely helped with my nervousness.

That's it for this week, next week's blog post will be dedicated to a bit of Mute's lore which I hope you will find interesting. See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books without breaking the bank? Check out this free bundle:

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

Books That I Would Love to Read More Of

Hi all!

This week I'm going to talk about what kinds of books I would love to read more of! For once, this will not be about cats or dragons... Probably.

Giant Sharks.

I absolutely love b-movies, and can't get enough of books that are also like b-movies. The best ones for me will always be ones containing giant sharks. The ones where the sharks are gigantic due to nuclear waste or scientific experiments. They're usually super silly and such a joy to read!

Dinosaurs.

I can't seem to find many fiction books about dinosaurs. I'd love to read more about dinosaurs that have escaped from captivity, or have somehow survived the extinction event that wiped them all out. My favourite dinosaur of all time is the velociraptor, and I do love films and books about them.

Monsters.

To me, there's nothing better than a good monster story. Some people accidentally wake up a monster that's been sleeping for a thousand years, and it starts to wreak havoc. Unfortunately I can't seem to find many of these books that I can really get into.

Giant Bugs.

Again, this goes back to b-movies. I love watching some poorly designed 3D spider attacking people in a sleepy village. I managed to find a series about smarter, larger pests that I devoured. Now I'm hoping to find more books like it!

Monster Fights.

One monster being pitted against another. Which one will survive? Will the humans kill both? Nothing beats a good monster rumble. Whether it be between Crocoshark vs Sharktopus or Godzilla vs King Kong, I'd love to read more books where this is the focus!

That's it for this week! Next week I’m going to talk about an award - the SoundArt Dragon Award, keep an eye out for that post!

PS; looking for some free books? Check out the ones in this bundle - all Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

Middle Quotes - Camp NaNoWriMo April 2021

Hi all!

If you read my blog post in December you’ll remember that when I participated in NaNoWriMo I posted a compilation of quotes from the book I was working on - Halfway. I’m now doing the same for Middle, except this time there’s a quote for each day! I’ll do this again in July when I’ll be working on the final book in the Curse of Anubis series - Dual.

Days 1-10

Days 11-20

Days 21-30

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! Next week I’m going to talk about books that I would like to read in the future. See you next week!

PS; looking for some free books? Check out the ones in this bundle:

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

Why I Dedicated a Book to PewDiePie

Hi all!

Now that Cinder and Fire is out I'm going to talk about the book dedication, and why it's so different from the ones before it. My other books have been dedicated to family members and a friend, so where did a YouTuber come from?

For those who don't know, Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie, is a creator on YouTube. He's been on there for years making a variety of content, starting with gaming and then branching out to music videos and commentary. I first discovered him when he was just starting to gain popularity, though I can't remember the first video of his I watched. Soon after discovering him I binged most of the videos that he uploaded.

I was depressed during my teenage years, though I didn't know it at the time. Coming home to see Felix had uploaded a video always put a smile on my face. Throughout his videos I would laugh and feel normal for the first time that day. When he uploaded multiple times a day I would watch one video and then wait for the next one to be uploaded. This continued for years. The fact that a new video would be uploaded after a bad day at school gave me a reason to keep going. Although I felt alone, when I watched his videos I could forget about that, even if for only fifteen minutes. Now I don't rely on his videos to bring me happiness, as I have found it in other ways, such as my boyfriend and my writing. I still watch his videos when I have the time though.

He has had a lot of controversies in the past, and while I don't agree with that behaviour, I commend him for taking responsibility. He promised that he would do better and he followed that promise, he showed that he could improve. The amount of charity work he's done over the years is amazing as well, though it's a fact that most of his haters like to ignore.

I know the likelihood of him finding out about my book is slim, but I still wanted to thank him in some way.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week.

PS; looking for more fantasy books to read? Check out the ones in this bundle!

Dragon Eggs for Easter!