Back Cover Blurb for Nalia and the Rise of the Marés (Book 2)

The Land of the North may be restored but it doesn’t mean that all is right in Aetheria. 

Nalia’s mother is still missing and it appears her world may now hold greater threats than anything she could have imagined. When several people begin dying in their sleep, young and old, the rumors surrounding the evil rising in the East looks like it may become a reality. Nalia is soon convinced she is the target of the marés-the dream invaders. 

But when Nalia finds it near impossible to get anyone to even mention the subject she goes on mission to reclaim what they have stolen and find her mother in the process. With the reluctant help of Lyris and their new friend Logan, Nalia must battle the challenges of a new school, new adventures and a quest that will threaten everything she holds dear. 

Update!

I am still editing Nalia and the Potion Maker and I have 3 1/2 chapters left of Nalia and the Rise of the Mares. Things should rap up by the end of summer.

Nalia and the Potion Maker Wordle

Pain of Rejection Joy of Success.

I was speaking with a writer friend of mine and I finally realized my biggest roadblock in getting my book out there is my deep fear of rejection and failure. She quickly scoffed and said, "Oh you're going to have to get over that real quick!"
    She's was right. I am still not there yet, but I am committed to getting there, because I realize that if I am overcome by my fear of rejection I will never know what it feels like to one day succeed. There is no way around this truth. Every writer must face this.
   It's not easy though, finding your audience. Finding the group that truly understands the words that you have labored over. The words that define you.
    Writing is personal. A good writer gives a piece of themselves in what they write. I am all my characters (even the most treacherous)––and conversely I am also none of them as they are their own.
   As I have stated previously, there can be no doubting your own creative expression. Doubting yourself, gives others permission to doubt you as well.

Why A Writer Writes

   
   I thought about this recently, as I do quite often, as to why am I doing what I am doing. Sometimes I sit glaring at the computer wondering why on earth I am here. Will anyone read this? Am I wasting countless hours of my life desperately clinging on to some useless pipe dream of living freely as a writer. I call it living free, well, because most people work in jobs that enslave them. Jobs they hate. Jobs they can't quit. I don't want to be like that and I think writing is the only way I would truly feel free in the long run.
   I always knew that I would want to write stories for children after I taught them. But what if I write something that doesn't mean anything to anyone? What if what I write won't leave the confines of my macbook or what if it gets lost and buried on Amazon? What I am really asking is what if I don't mean anything. What if my name gets lost and buried. Perhaps it will. Statistics say that this is a likely event. Does this mean that I should quit writing and smother the deepest most vital part of myself?
    I don't think I could. Even if I were locked away in one of the dreary prisons I write about in my books, I would still find a way to write. I can almost see myself etching on the stone walls of my cell.
   Real writers don't have a choice. They have to write the story inside. One way or another it will get out.
I am a firm believer that ever book has an audience. Finding that audience, this is the hardest part I feel. But even if I never find them I can hear Richard Peck's words ringing in my ear, responsibility to the word, to myself and to the reader. 
   I write first for myself and then for my future readers. Because I have a story to tell that only they will understand. Anyone who has been heartbroken, been in love, lost someone they love will understand. It will mean something to them. Every writer is unique and the story you tell can only be told by you.
    This is also the very essence of why people read. They want something than can see themselves in––something they can relate to. And, by chance, solve the puzzle for ourselves of why we are here and what we are meant to do for the duration of it.

A Writers's Responsibility

Wonderful worlds from well renowned author Richard Peck.

Pain Comes Before the Pen

I am coining a new phrase, pain before the pen. What does this mean? Simply that writers usually write in the first place because they are trying to deal with something they are going through. This is the case for artists in general. Can you create good art unless it means something to you? I'm not really sure you can.
    But then again, that is subject to what we consider good. Is what you write good because it has high sale numbers? Is what you write good because it has meaning to someone else's life-mabye even a complete stranger?