Darksire Reaches, a different world.

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Here is where I envisaged the aerie of Darkspire Reaches. Actually, this is my own photo, taken at 5 a.m in the morning in the foothills of Mount Robson when the rising sun was melting off the mist from the peaks. If the picture looks familiar, then I use it for my banner. Anyhow, a place needs to be big and majestic to house the mighty Drakkens.

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And here is the same mountain later in the morning from a slightly different angle. What a difference a few hours can make.

This is a story of self -discovery as well as survival. When a world changes and the rules alter, what must a person do to keep one step ahead? How can they spot a traitor? Who do they trust? Here is what one reader thought about the story. See below.

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful Fantasy Experience,
Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Darkspire Reaches (Kindle Edition)
Darkspire Reaches by C.N. Lesley is a mixture of fantasy, self discovery, magic, and romance. Raven is no ordinary girl, however it takes quite a few chapters until her true potential is evident and her character builds from a low serving girl and healer into a magical creature, who causes a stir on her journey through kingdoms and tribal territories.

I enjoyed this book immensely and not just because of the compelling story. Raven, Margie, Connor, Captain Merrill, and the others, owe their character’s appeal to the author, who weaved their personalities with style and wonderful visual descriptions. It does not take long to immerse oneself into the world where these characters live, fight, survive, and love. it was also very apparent to me, that this was a book of exquisite fantasy. By that I mean a book, which captured my mind, and took me to another realm of existence. This is what fantasy is supposed to do, although not all books in this genre manage that with such aplomb.

I am hoping that there is something more to come? The book and story ended yet I find myself thinking that Raven and Connor’s journey is not entirely over and that maybe, just maybe we will hear from some of the other wonderful characters again, in another story.

The writing was as smooth and as clear as glass, as was the dialogue and speech patterns of the colourful array of characters.
I take my hat off to Ms Lesley, who did not take me out of her world for one second, but kept me there from beginning to end.

http://www.amazon.com/Darkspire-Reaches-C-N-Lesley-ebook/dp/B00DJE8RP4/ref=la_B00HTV3GV8_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422363798&sr=1-1

Making a King

Shadow Over Avalon, an epic science fantasy set in the far future, still only 99c.

So how does someone recreate an ancient king, who had no known surviving offspring? The scientist would need to reach back into the ancestry of the person to manipulate the exact genetic combination that resulted in the original person. Given the technology available to the scientist, and the ability to manipulate people, this isn’t a problem. A strand here is attached to a thread there and slowly, so slowly, the line becomes pure again. Of course, the scientist would have had to know Arthur in the first place, wouldn’t he?

SOA Postcard

This is not pie in the sky supposition, it is based on real studies as I did happen to major in Zoology and both genetics and embryology were special topics. Actually, on the subject of the latter, an early stage embryo will have gill slits in its neck. The changes are quite fascinating as the new person matures into viability. Genetics? It is possible to recreate a species, and has been done by backtracking along the ancestral D.N.A. but that is for a more modern creature. Something as ancient as a dinosaur would require some sort of blueprint and a more sophisticated technique than we have now at hand, but it could be done with fossil remains in a reasonable state, as I believe some of them have been found. The question is why would someone want to inflict such a terrible species on a human population? Easy enough to see if the intent was to keep the human population under strict control. Isolate people enough and civilization will reverse, especially if there is no means of electronic communication on one’s captives and they are expressly forbidden to use the written or drawn media for distance communication and are restricted to glyphs on message sticks. The problems arise, from the captor’s point of view, when the amphibious mutant  start sticking their oar in what should be none of their business.

How does all this come about? Read the book and find out. This is the first book of a series. The second book, Sword of Shadows, is newly released. The story continues.

Trailer

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/shadow-over-avalon
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shadow-over-avalon-cn-lesley/1117299037?ean=2940045359054
http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Over-Avalon-C-N-Lesley-ebook/dp/B00GAN6HMG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Building a new character.

Something was missing from a current work in progress. It lacked drive and angst. The solution is both simple and yet not. What I needed in there was a new character to be both a driver and a love interest gone wrong. The bad news is this effectively means I have to go through every single chapter to make sure all is in place and the continuity is not upset.  The good news is the sparkle is not there in full measure.

However, a lot of work needs to be done on the construction of the person. It isn’t so simple as just making up a name and an appearance and moving the strings and the action goes on. This character must have wants, wishes and needs. They must have a past and an intended future. I have to know everything there is to know about them in order for them to come to life and act in a way that is true to who they are. Oh yeah, I can have lots of fun with this one.

In other news I suppose I should go look for a pair of scissors presently. I need to take about two inches off my hair. Fortunately, the raggedy look is in fashion, so I won’t look silly. No, I am not going to the hairdressers. I am tired of having bad cuts and in the rare event of finding a good stylist she is gone the next time I visit. The problem here is I cannot tolerate the fumes coming off perms so will not visit a salon that does them. This means my choices are limited to Supercuts, which should be fine in theory as they are trained to do set cuts, again in theory. The problem is that because they don’t do perms they can’t give the full validation, or whatever it is, to their trainee stylist, hence a revolving door happening. So I get out the scissors and do it myself. At least I am not paying for a bad cut. LOL.Color Dragon

Once upon a time…

A big publisher, Del Rey, a branch of Random House, had a bright, new, shiny idea. How about gathering all the wannabe authors into an online workshop and setting up a monthly editor’s choice? The winner might get published in their brand new ebook scheme.

And so it came to pass that a multitude of us wannabe authors were gathered together in the Online Writers Workshop for Science Fiction and Fantasy. We learned a lot and we also made lifelong friends. Of course, all good things come to an end, and the publishing house decided not to continue with its ebooks at that time so had no use for sponsoring loads of wannabe writers. However, writers won’t be put down and the site was organized to operate without the publisher, although we all now had to pay. It didn’t matter. What price can a person put on the ability to talk to another genre writer about the problems on their manuscript? And so we thrived.

In the fullness of time a goodly number of the veteran members have been published, including myself. I have a special shelf for their books, signed or not. I have read them all in various stages before the paperback ever came to my hands, but it doesn’t matter. I could read these books over and over and over. They are old friends, familiar and comfortable, as well as thrilling. Looking up at this shelf I can see my author friends from all over the world. Now that is one heck of a buzz. Of course, anyone can pull up a picture of one of us from their website, or Amazon, or Goodreads, etc. This thing is we can pull up memories, conversations, trials and tribulations as well as the photo of the person. It might be a friend at distance, but this is still very much a friend. There is very little as personal as sharing a raw manuscript between fellow authors.

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Magic moments.

I suppose I am thinking of this as I have been working on a passage of magic usage today. Oh, that and working a pig into the script. Yes, a pig. I gather the Oxford University Press is banning all mention of all things porcine in case it offends anyone. The thought of Pigling Bland from the Tales of Beatrice Potter ever being on a banned list offends me greatly and inspires a sudden plethora of little piggies. But I digress.

Serious magic in a fantasy setting is not legerdemain and nor should it ever appear as such. Magic is an element and as such, must have an origin. What the origin is doesn’t really matter as long as it is well thought out and very plausible. In the case of Darkspire Reaches, which I mention as I am polishing the sequel, Serpent of the Shangrove, the magic is twofold as I have a creature of earth and water and one of fire and air. Now for the later there is incredible energy put into the making of jewel stones. What if these could be used as a source of fuel? Fire and air would be a perfect match. Water and earth are a lot easier with the raw power of nature. Consider the energy of a waterfall, or the power of a tree root splitting rock. So there it is. One answer. Now I wonder if I can justify a flying piggy? Probably not.

One for vegans

The weather being seasonal for the Northern Hemisphere, I am on a soup kick. With me, this involves using whatever I happen to have on hand. Soup de jour was a cream of asparagus and celery. About four servings

8 spears of asparagus as that is what I happened to have left over. Chopped and the tough end bit discarded.

4 sticks of celery. This would be the tender inner bits as that is the loose celery I buy and I pick through it to get the good bits. I think it works out to about one and a half cups.

I small potato peeled and chopped.

1/2 parsnip peeled and chopped. I did say it was on hand, didn’t I?

About two teaspoon full of chopped parsley, fresh.

3 green onions chopped.

I tablespoon of margarine.

2 vegetable bullion cubes

I cup of white wine.

Sweat veggies in margarine until soft. Dump in cubes and I pint water. Purée, add pepper and wine, bring to the boil and ready to serve decorated with the leaves of the fresh celery reserved especially. Goes well with fresh bread sticks.

Health tips. Asparagus is good for the liver and celery is a mild diuretic. The wine is just nice. I am sure I could justify it if I really had to do so. Enjoy.