Author S. T. SANCHEZ: June 2019

Sunday, June 30, 2019

July Middle Grade Summer Reading List

Here's a few more fun reads to get your kids excited about reading. Enjoy!!

Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.

Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.

All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.

So he tries his best to do his worst - and fails at failing.

Now the Magisterium awaits him. It's a place that's both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.

The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come . . .

From the remarkable imaginations of bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a heart-stopping, mind-blowing, pulse-pounding plunge into the magical unknown.

Amazon

The book that kicked off the phenomenon is now reissued with brandnew jacket art in honor of its 20th anniversary. Readers will delight anew in the thrilling adventures of young Matthias as he discovers the hero within. Brian Jacques? classic tale of peaceful creatures forced to band together in battle has never felt more timely or full of life.

Amazon

Akram is a nosy little boy. His friend Peeper is a Jinn, banished from his home among demons for his tendency to empathy and kindness. Both are shocked at the injustices of the world and wish to right wrongs. Together they spy upon neighbours in Akram's street and discover sadness and trouble behind the closed doors of the various houses. They use Peeper's special powers to help, but their efforts result in uproar, and they pray for things to be set right.

A charming story of concern for others and the world, Peeper and the Peeping Boy shows the dangers of being too nosy and the danger of making hasty judgments without knowing both sides of a situation. It teaches the wisdom of informed action and shows that even the worst of people can be led into a better path.

Amazon

NERDS combines all the excitement of international espionage with all the awkwardness of elementary school, and the results are hilarious. A group of unpopular fifth graders run a spy network from inside their school. With the help of cutting-edge science, they transform their nerdy qualities into incredible abilities! Their enemies? An array of James Bond–style villains, each with an evil plan more diabolical and more ridiculous than the last. Publishers Weekly raved: “Buckley has a flair for exaggerated humor.” School Library Journal said: “Funny, clever, and thoroughly entertaining.”

Amazon

PORTIA’S INCREDIBLE JOURNEY addresses many timely issues that confront young people; such as bullying, peer pressure, parents’ divorce and the need to belong. On top of the aforementioned problems, eleven-year-old Portia Maddox has one more life-threatening issue- type 1 diabetes. This in itself was a major huddle. Portia’s journey through a year of crises makes her a compelling role model. Children can relate and identify with Portia and especially those experiencing similar challenges in today’s world.

Amazon

Orphaned sisters Sabrina and Daphne are sent to live with their newly discovered grandmother, Relda Grimm, in the strange town of Ferryport Landing. The girls soon learn a family secret: that they are descendants of the famous Brothers Grimm, whose book of fairy tales is actually a history book. When a terrorizing giant goes on a rampage through the town, it’s up to the Sisters Grimm to stop him and to solve the mystery of who set the giant loose in the first place. Was it Mayor Charming, formerly Prince Charming, who desperately wants his kingdom back? The Three Not-So-Little Pigs, the shifty town cops? Or one of the many other fairy-tale characters who seem to have it out for the Grimms?

Amazon

The living and the dead coexist in a mirrored world. A fine line keeps them apart. So what happens if the mirror breaks?

Luhonono, a place people first stood up, first discovered fire, first spoke and first walked the earth. It’s a place of strange beliefs, peculiar powers, extraordinary demons, and the gateway to a spiritual mirror world. Fate brought three teenagers to Luhonono and together, Magdalene, Gimbo, and Peter must find the four legendary animal guardians of the mirror gate. If they fail, the place where life began will also be the place where it ends.

Amazon

Join Nathanial “Nate” McGray, a lanky fifteen-year-old boy on an unforgettable adventure to prove a peasant can become a wizard in the magical World of Zndaria.

After a mysterious elf saves Nate from the town bullies, they embark on a journey to the Halls of Magic. Together, they encounter Dread Vikings, vicious bounty hunters, and a deranged beast. A beautiful musician steals Nate’s heart, but they must part when a devilish army attacks his Kingdom.

Will Nate become a wizard? Can he save his Kingdom? The adventure unfolds in Scrolls of Zndaria: The Golden Wizard.

Amazon

In the long-awaited sequel to Fablehaven, the dragons who have been kept at the dragon sanctuaries no longer consider them safe havens, but prisons and they want their freedom. The dragons are no longer our allies....

In the hidden dragon sanctuary of Wyrmroost, Celebrant the Just, King of the Dragons, plots his revenge. He has long seen the sanctuaries as prisons, and he wants nothing more than to overthrow his captors and return the world to the Age of Dragons, when he and his kind ruled and reigned without borders. The time has come to break free and reclaim his power.

No one person is capable of stopping Celebrant and his dragon horde. It will take the ancient order of Dragonwatch to gather again if there is any chance of saving the world from destruction. In ancient times, Dragonwatch was a group of wizards, enchantresses, dragon slayers, and others who originally confined the majority of dragons into sanctuaries. But nearly all of the original Dragonwatch members are gone, and so the wizard Agad reaches out to Grandpa Sorenson for help.

As Kendra and Seth confront this new danger, they must draw upon all their skills, talents, and knowledge as only they have the ability to function together as a powerful dragon tamer. Together they must battle against forces with superior supernatural powers and breathtaking magical abilities.

How will the epic dragon showdown end? Will dragons overthrow humans and change the world as we know it?

Amazon

The first book in the #1 bestselling phenomenon sends readers around the world on the hunt for the 39
Clues!

Minutes before she died Grace Cahill changed her will, leaving her decendants an impossible decision: "You have a choice - one million dollars or a clue."

Grace is the last matriarch of the Cahills, the world's most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahills, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 Clues hidden around the world will reveal the family's secret, but no one has been able to assemble them. Now the clues race is on, and young Amy and Dan must decide what's important: hunting clues or uncovering what REALLY happened to their parents.

Amazon

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Meet Kathy Armstrong Walters

One unexpected perk of being a writer, is getting to meet other fabulous authors. Kathy is going to be visiting Dallas LDS Books. Be sure to stop by and meet her and pick up The Arydian Chronicles. Both excellent books that I didn't want to put down. I can't wait until book 3 comes out. If your in the area be sure to swing by. If you can't make you can still check out her books at the links below.

Aqua

Aftershock

Happy Reading!!

Monday, June 24, 2019

Interview with Orrin Bradford author of Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat

Let's welcome author Orrin Bradford to the blog. Orrin, tell us a little about yourself.
What got you into writing?

My journey to becoming a writer started in the fourth grade when my next-door-neighbor took pity on my single mom who I was driving crazy to come out and play with me the summer we moved to Raleigh NC. Mrs. Crabtree just happened to be the children’s librarian at the main library and she had the perfect solution, a stack of books hand-picked for a boy my age.

It worked. Once I finally opened the first book, I was hooked. While I don’t remember what the book was, I’m pretty sure most of those books were either science fiction or fantasy. Even back then, I had the thought that one day I’d like to give back by writing my own books.

It's never ceases to amaze me how one persons kindness can help shape the life of a person. Will you share a short excerpt from your novel?

From Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat book 1

Ellenore Mishner discovered the Muse sleeping on her porch when she returned from her volunteer work at the local soup kitchen. Once again, she'd been convinced to help out at the homeless shelter by her best (and if truth be told, only) friend, Allison McKemp, the same way Allison always convinced her to do crazy things -- by making her feel guilty.

“You have to go. It's the right thing to do. You should want to help out those poor wretched people,” Allison had said. What had ever happened to, “It'll be good experience for your writing,” a common theme Allison had used in years past to spur Ellenore out of her tight little shell of a life?

Well, maybe even Allison realized that ladling soup to an endless line of crotchety old men with halitosis from their rotten teeth might be a good writing experience for a Hemingway or Faulkner, but not for Ellenore, who only wrote stories of romance. She trudged up the walk to the white cottage with jade green shutters that had been her home for the forty-seven years she'd been on Earth.

Ellenore looked up from the sidewalk where she'd been concentrating her gaze to avoid walking on a crack so she wouldn't break her mother's back, even though her dear old mom had been dead for almost five years. Old habits were hard to break, and she'd avoided those dangerous cracks for close to half a century.

But for some reason on this day, she found herself suddenly staring at a large lump of fur, leaves, and horns that had pushed aside the two rocking chairs that were normally lined up neatly on the porch. In the process, she stopped dead in her tracks on a crack. On the other side of town in a poorly manicured graveyard, Mrs. Mishner's backbone crumpled into a heap of dry bones.

Ellenore's first inclination was to run screaming from the yard that had been her haven for so many years. But a combination of realizing the beast on her doorstep was snoring pleasantly away and her recent memory of Allison McKemp's advice from years ago, "This will be a great experience for your writing," kept Ellenore standing open-mouthed before the beast. Something told her this might just be the time Allison had been talking about.

Ellenore pulled the dull gray wool coat closer around her frail body, suddenly chilled despite the day being warmer than most for this time of year. What is that? She wondered as she finally noticed where she was standing and quickly skipped a couple inches forward.

She didn't have long to wait to have her question answered. No sooner did she think it then the mountain of flesh shuddered, looking strangely like a South Pacific island during an earthquake. It stretched its full length of eight or nine feet, licked its thin lips with a fat purple tongue, and turned its black-pupil eyes flecked with rims of gold dust full upon the diminutive Ellenore.

When you pick up a book, which do you prefer: print books or ebooks?

Either works fine for me, but what I most enjoy of all is immersion reading which is reading and listening to the audiobook at the same time. This allows me to read faster while really getting into the story because I tend to speed up the audio to 1.5 to 1.75. I know, narrators hate to hear that but hey, I read faster that way so I end up buying a log more book, audio and otherwise.

I speed up the volume to. Lol. Glad I'm not the only one. Currently, what are you working on?

Actually, I’m working on three projects which isn’t that unusual for me because they are at various phases of the process.

I’m writing the first draft of Rabble, the second book in the Cosmic Conspiracy series.

I’m in the final stage of revision with my beta readers for Ghost Elephant, book three of the Zak Bates Eco-adventure series.

I’m also about to do a big promotion for the two books of the Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat series, which is where the excerpt is from.

I think it's good to keep busy. Three projects is a lot. I normally try to limit myself to two or I can't keep it all straight. Tell us a little bit about your main characters of the Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat series.

Her name is Mimi Rawlins, and she’s the narrator of the stories that make up the two books. Think about many of the books of Ray Bradbury that are composed of interconnected short stories. Or if a series of original Twilight Zone episodes were connected by a common locale, ie in this case, Foster Flat. I enjoyed creating Mimi so much that I ended up bringing her back in the later books of my FreeForm technothriller six-book series.

How did you decide on what to title each book?

Well, I live in Flat Rock, North Carolina so it wasn’t much of a leap to come up with Foster Flat. Both are located in the NC mountains, and both are magical and mysterious in their own way.

Is this a stand-alone novel or part of a series?

Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat has evolved into a series. I so enjoyed writing the first book and discovering new story ideas from the area around me, that book two was a natural. And yes, I’ve started collecting stories for a third book.

I love how writing can evolve. I learned to give an estimate of how many books will be in a series, because sometimes there is just more to write. What is the easiest part of the writing process? What is the hardest?

I love the brainstorming and outlining of stories as well as developing the characters. I’ve always loved stories with unexpected twists so it’s fun to see how twisty and curvy I can make my own stories. For sure, there are plenty of that in both of the Fantastic Fables books. That’s why I gave book one the subtitle of Suspenseful Tales with a Twist.

The hardest part for me is the editing and writing of blurbs/descriptions so for the most part I don’t do either any more. I farm both out.

Blurbs! I think those are my nemesis. Do you have people read your drafts before you publish? How do you select beta readers?

Yes, most of the time. I find my beta readers from my “Amazingly Awesome Readers” which is also the name of my newsletter. When I need beta readers, I put the word out through my newsletter describing what type of feedback I need and so far my readers have been very generous with their time and input. (Thanks, guys and gals.)

Who designed the artwork for your cover? Or did you design it yourself?

Victor Habbick designed both covers for the Fantastic Fables series which I think are two of my all time favorite covers. He’s done several other covers including the covers for the six books of the FreeForm series. http://www.victorhabbick.com/

I think that's great when you find a designer who can see your vision or sometimes even comes up with something better than you were dreaming. What are your hobbies aside from writing, if any?

I love sports especially softball and pickleball. I use both to destress after a full morning of writing. My typical routine is to write in the morning from about 9am to 12 or 1 pm, then break for an hour or two during which I play pickleball, then devote the afternoon to marketing and promotion.

It's funny I just found out what pickleball is a couple months ago. I had never heard of it. I hear it's great fun. Since you wrote in this genre, do you think you will ever write in other genres?

Probably not. I love everything about science fiction and fantasy, both reading it and writing it. For me they are all about wonder, awe, and possibilities.

Any last words?

Just that if you also enjoy the books and stories of Ray Bradbury as well as the original The Twilight Zone, I encourage you to check out Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat and Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat Volume Two. From June 24 - July 3 both books will be available at discounted prices.

Thanks so much for sharing with us. Happy Reading!!

You can also learn more about my other books at:

www.wbradfordswift.com

or on my Amazon’s Author page at: Author.to/wbswift

My author’s Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/wbradfordswift

Orrin Jason Bradford's Multiverse on Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/245108559236914/

BookBub: https://partners.bookbub.com/authors/1574829/edit

Friday, June 21, 2019

Interview with author Kandi Wyatt

Today I'd like to welcome Kandi Wyatt to the blog. Let's begin with you telling us a little about yourself.

The fact that I love cultures and languages and use them in my stories shouldn’t be surprising. In reality, I’m a blend of multiple cultures. I was born in Iowa along the Mississippi River, but at age four my family moved to the center of the state where we lived for another four years. When I was eight, my dad visited a seminary in Washington State and decided that’s where we would live while he went to school. I quickly adjusted, but there is still some residual Mid-western culture in me.

For the last thirty-four years, I’ve taught in some capacity or another. Currently, I teach junior high and high school students. I love my job, but I am so ready for summer break!

Summer break is the best. I work for a school also, and I am enjoying every minute of it.What got you into writing?

As a teenager, my sister and I would take Friday nights and write stories. By the time I was a junior in high school, I’d been chosen for a writer’s conference for teenagers. Like many of my hobbies, writing was put on hold due to college and then a young family. Seventeen years later, after reading a young adult book, I picked up writing again, only this time for my own kids.

That's amazing. It just shows it's never to late to do what you love. Will you share a short excerpt from your novel

An Unexpected Adventure

After a few more minutes of digging, the stone came free. Will wriggled it until we could get a grip underneath and lift it out. I really had my doubts we could pick it up; I was sure it’d weigh close to a hundred pounds or more. However, to my surprise, it came free and up without a hitch, absurdly light for its size.

“Should it be this light?” I squinted at the rock in our hands.

“I don’t know.” Will shrugged his shoulder.

Chace shifted his grip. “I’ve never seen a single rock this big before. But it should weigh more than this. I still say it’s an egg.”

I was beginning to believe him, but there were some good reasons to doubt it, too. “What bird’s this big, and how did it get here? We’re a long way from the game park.”

The game park was the closest thing to a zoo we had. They had wild animals and some pet deer, sheep, donkeys, geese, goats, and peacocks to feed. They even had an emu and an ostrich, but I still couldn’t imagine either one having an egg quite this size.

Chace shook his head. “I don’t know, but listen.” He took a free hand and tapped ever so gently on the surface.

It echoed hollowly. Before anyone could say anything, a second fainter tap came as if in reply.

“What in the world?” I exclaimed, jumping and almost dropping the thing.

“It’s an egg,” Chace said with firm conviction. “I don’t know what kind yet, but it’s an egg.”

“Wh-what do we do with it?” Will looked like he wanted to toss it in the ocean.

“We keep it.”

Both Will and Chace looked at me as if I had just turned down a shot at a five-point deer during hunting season. I don’t know what I was thinking, but suddenly a fierce desire to protect the creature inside came over me.

If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go and why?

Wow! I have a long list of places I’d love to go. First on my list is Hyderabad, India. Our church supports an orphanage there, and I’d love to go visit and meet the kids face to face. From there, Ireland would be next on my list because I’ve traced my dad’s family to Ireland in the early 1800’s. I have no clue from there who my ancestor’s parents were or where he’s from, but it’d be fun to go explore. The list goes on from there just because they’re amazing places—I’d love to return to Ecuador and Peru, maybe visit Machu Pichu, see New Zealand and Australia, and New England.

I agree, there are so many amazing places in the world, it's hard to pick just one. Currently, what are you working on?

My work load is rather busy. I’m trying to get book three of Myth Coast Adventures out by September. It needs to go through proofreading and get its cover and illustrations.

I’ve sent an Ancient Egypt Biblical retelling through critique edits, and it’ll go to my editor next. I have book 2 of that series needing some good beta readers and adjustments. I’ll need to write book 3 yet.

However, in the process, I started what I thought would be a short story. It ended up being a full novel. It’s not finished, and I’m enjoying delving into a new world where a young stable boy is chosen to be a knight and travels partway around his world, meets kings, and eventually finds a new home.

I’ll be submitting a short story to an anthology. It’s part of Myth Coast Adventure and takes place between books 2 and 3. Karlie discovers a mysterious sword with powers that help her overcome her fears and push her to become a courageous person.

Wow, it looks like you have a lot on your plate. Two projects at a time is my limit. Tell us a little bit about your main characters.

Harley: is an eighth grader whose parents run one of two B&Bs in town. He loves to ride his bike around time, play video games, and run both cross-country and track. He’s loyal and vows to protect Steria, the dragon they find.

Will: This truly is my favorite character of the series. He appears in all three books and grows and blossoms from a quiet kid who’s worried about money for his parents to a confident teen who’s able to take on responsibilities of a small business and help a friend in need of moral support.

Chace: If you envision rural Oregon, Chace is it. He wears logging suspenders, a hat, and Carhart jeans. His dream is to be a logger like his dad. Life up Myrtle River on a farm is quiet and the perfect place for him to keep Steria.

Cherise: The main girl in An Unexpected Adventure is carefree and not easily swayed. Her love is her dog, Finn.

Ana, Daisy, and Karlie are the main characters in An Unexpected Escapade. Daisy is shy unless she’s around horses. Ana’s dad owns the Crab Shack that Will works at. The three of them take on a poacher to protect a unicorn.

Franklin discovers the portal where the mythical creatures are coming from. As he vows to protect the portal from the poacher, he learns sometimes he may have to trust someone beyond himself to protect family.

How did you decide on what to title each book?

The series originally was Mythical Creatures of Myrtle Beach with book 1 being Myrtle Beach Dragon. From there I adjusted it to Myrtle Beach Adventure, Myrtle Beach Escapade, and Myrtle Beach Exploit. My editor actually suggested I change the names. I took her suggestions and it became Myth Coast Adventures with An Unexpected Adventure, An Unexpected Escapade, and An Unexpected Exploit.

Is this a stand-alone novel or part of a series?

It’s a trilogy, with a short story added.

Who designed the artwork for your cover? Or did you design it yourself?

As I considered this series, I knew I wanted to use photography for making the covers. When my original photographer fell through, I decided to use my husband’s skills as photographer and hire my original cover artist, Amalia Chitulescu. I love Amy’s style. She’s continued to improve over the years.

Can you tell us, Kandi, what brought about the idea for your book?

During my first year as teacher at Pacific High School, I watched as several sixth graders and a couple of eighth graders struggled. The eighth graders were put down for representing the roots of our community. I wanted them to be proud of who they were. The sixth graders wouldn’t read a book if it was set in front of them. I wondered if I wrote them into one, if they’d read it. As these thoughts floated around, I drove over the Coquille River bridge at Bandon, Oregon. As I did, I envisioned a dragon flying along the sandbank. That was the start, but then I wondered about three books with different characters focusing on a different mythical creature. Two seventh grade girls caught my attention, and I decided their love for horses would be the perfect backdrop for a unicorn story. I didn’t know what to do for the third book, though.

Fast forward to April of the next year. I had the idea of book 1 and book 2, and no clue for book 3. I’d even started writing book 1. In one week, I had two different students come up to me. One was one of the girls. She said, it’d be really cool if I wrote a book about some girls, horses, and the ocean. She kind of stumbled over the idea of the ocean and my heart hurt for her. She’d lost both parents in less than a year—and her dad to the ocean. Little did she know she was the inspiration for one of my books that dealt with horses and the ocean. Within that same week, a sophomore boy came up to me and suggested I write a story about a boy and Sasquatch. I accepted his suggestion with outward calm but rejoiced inwardly. It was the perfect idea for book 3!

What are your hobbies aside from writing, if any?

Besides teaching, I’m an artist. I love drawing with graphite and colored pencils. I’m also starting to delve into Photoshop to create fantasy photos. My two favorite images so far consist of a pirate looking out to sea and a fairy sitting in a cage. If that wasn’t enough, I am photographer’s assistant for my husband’s portrait studio and have my own essential oils business.

I wished I knew more about photoshop. It's something I want to learn more about, but I haven't found the time. In your novels, which character is your favorite?

Hm, that’s tough. I love most of my characters. In the Dragon Courage series, I’d say it’s Kyn. He’s most like me. In Myth Coast Adventures, it’s definitely Will. He’s so kind and compassionate, and the real-life inspiration for Will has really grown into a young man with a heart for God.

Thanks so much for sharing with us today. Find out more about Kandi Wyatt at the links below. Happy Reading!!