Shadow Over Avalon-Awesome Review

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5.0 out of 5 stars THE LIMITS OF THE MIND April 29, 2014
By Robert
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
REVIEW BY ROBERT K. SWISHER JR.

Growing up fantasy books to me were Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarks. Then for many years I did not read any fantasy or science fiction. On recommendation from a friend I purchased SHADOW OVER AVALON. That night I went to bed, normally reading for thirty minutes before I turn the lights off.At 4am I finished the book. It is a mesmerizing story, fast paced, with a plot that verges on being beyond imagination – people below the ocean, people on the surface, creatures from space, all woven into the fabric of the future so tightly you are there. For the lovers of fantasy works you SHOULD read this book.

Shadow Over Avalon Shortlisted.

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Shadow Over Avalon is on the shortlist for the People’s Book Prize. To go any further in this competition it needs votes from readers. If you have a spare moment, I would be thrilled if you would consider voting for my book. Here is the linkhttp://www.peoplesbookprize.com/book.php?id=1096Image

Please help me give a warm welcome to A G Chambers! Ali is hopping around to different Facebook pages today and I am glad to feature her as well! Ali has a fantastic book out, Jaded Youth. She’ll be here in a little bit to give us some more information. In the meantime, here is a synopsis of her book. Please also stop by her FB page to give her a like and check out her book on Amazon! (links are in the comments)
Book Blurb:
DINM’s destruction made Jade’s team invincible in the eyes of every Doppelganger, giving Adrian and Joanna the chance to finally prove themselves and explore the tempestuous relationship brewing between them.
Both have memories that would be better off buried and people they wish they could forget. Joining together might just give them the redemption they both so badly crave. But there’s trouble boiling within the government as the treasury continues to be drained, disappearing without a trace. Adrian is enlisted to ghost the perpetrator with his Orb, and Joanna’s help.
Their progress is stunted before it can even begin, their contracts ripped away from them as the team realise that the aftermath of DINM reaps more problems than rewards. When the minister they’ve been shadowing inadvertently introduces them to a man both Adrian and Joanna recognise, their dark pasts become entangled in a twist of fate none of the team saw coming.
Comment section:
Link to Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GwynethLesley
Link to Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/A-G-Chambers/e/B009NQ7VPE/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1397810719&sr=1-2-ent

A G Chambers
A G Chambers is a kiwi author currently writing the Jaded Series. “Dark Angel meets X-Men meets James Bond..cleverly seductive. A highly recommended read.”
Hi guys, A G Chambers here! Thanks so much for having me! I’m trying to think of a title for book three and would like a little help. So let me know which one YOU prefer:
a) Jaded Death
b) Jaded Demise
c) Jaded Downfall

Worldbuilding

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I am currently working on the construction of a religion. It actually has to be believable to the characters or they won’t look plausible doing what they do in the name of this.

Needful is the manufacture of metaphysical state caused by imposing the juxtapositions of esoteric and unprovable statements that cause detrimental hardships in the day to day existence by instigating stringent and often contradictory clauses to behavior modes. I haven’t quite decided who the whipping boys are going to be, and there will have to be a people/race/set of alternative beliefs that will have to be persecuted at full intensity by my characters. They have to feel sanctimonious in order to appreciate the ritual deprivations on themselves designed to generate obedience, awe and fear. After all, one of the clauses will be ‘be good followers/worshipers or I will destroy the world like I did before’. There also has to be some sort of nebulous reward system, such as the imagined life after death, or why go through all the deprivations and grovelling?  Now this will depend very much on the general character of the type of people involved in the entrapment as to what is important to them in how they perceive the next emanation. 

It might also be amusing to have a reverse bigotry going on and stick women above men. Given most of the current religions in our world, and a goodly many of the past ones, held men in esteem and women as chattel something slightly beneath an ass or an ox, then it would be a change. Of course, all this might be subject to alteration as the story progresses. I can never stick to any sort of restriction, however loose the outline might be. 

 

April 18th, Northern Hemisphere.

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I was hoping to go rake the thatch out of the grass today. I was thinking about putting some of my outside plants, you know, actually outside on the deck. I was going to cut some pussy willow branches off one of my trees for an inside flower arrangement over Easter. But no. In the hours of darkness a shroud of white did fall upon the land. (AKA snow on all horizontal surfaces. About three inches of it.)

This is April in Alberta, a landlocked Province that merges into the Rocky Mountains to the west. We are at a high elevation, about 300ft above sea level, so yes, this is not unusual. What it is is flocking annoying when a person is antsy to get on their yard and has actually seen the brown stuff that will become grass with a bit of sunlight and encouragement. 

Yes, I know full well that I will not be putting out any bedding plants until the last week in May. There are too many night frosts to risk anything before then. However, I was hoping to put out my sprouted roses in containers. House temperatures and heating are very dehydrating for them and I want them to have a good start in my new, (when I can get a fork in the ground, and don’t need a jack hammer), rose garden. 

What I shall do, aside from a big spring clean of the house, is plant my begonias in containers. They should be sprouted nicely by the time I am able to plant them outside. I could also sew some seeds in containers on windowsills. Yes, that sounds like a plan. I can pretend it is spring.

MY WRITING PROCESS – BLOG HOP

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MY WRITING PROCESS – BLOG HOP

I was tagged by author Gillian O’Rouke– http://gillianorourke.com/ – to partake in My Writing Process Blog Hop!

 

What am I working on?

I am up to the concluding chapters of the third book in my Shadow series. The first being Shadow Over Avalon, http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Over-Avalon-C-N-Lesley ebook/dp/B00GAN6HMG/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_d_1. The second book, Sword of Shadows is due out in September. I am also working on the sequel to Darkspire Reaches, http://www.amazon.com/Darkspire-Reaches- http://www.amazon.com/Darkspire-Reaches-C-N-Lesley-ebook/dp/B00DJE8RP4/ref=la_B00DJS9QP0_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397755020&sr=1-1 and that one will be called Serpent of the Shangrove. Aside from this, I am tweaking a fantasy novelette.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I think my stories are different as I can’t contain them in one genre alone. They are all cross genre in one way or another. Shadow Over Avalon is ccience fantasy with a touch of history, mystery and romance thrown in. Yes, the sci fi is researched, as is the historical aspect. With Darkspire Reaches, the story is a mix between fantasy, dark romance and has a touch of the paranormal. Upcoming stories are similar genre mixes.

Why do I write what I write?

The stories have all come to me in dreams and I just have to know what happens next. It is usually a few scenes like an opening gambit, or sometimes a character in the middle of some awful circumstance. I suppose my dreams are flavored by my favorite reading genres, so yes, they would be sci fi and fantasy.

How does your writing process work?

Having got the opening scenes, or an idea, I just let the story come to me and it usually does in linear order. Keeping track of the various sub-plots requires deep concentration, so I tend to keep working on books once I open the file. After the first draft I like to let a book sit for a few months. I need the distance to see what is working and what is not. Then comes the second edit and another waiting time. The last couple of passes are for mechanical glitches. Sometimes, the rare err jumps at me in the end process and I have gone through an entire manuscript to alter the name of one character before. Why? Because I was tired of people telling me the name belonged to another gender, despite the different spelling. I figured if my friends found it annoying, then so would my readers. Simple fix.

 

As to methods, yes, I am a pantzer. I have tried to outline and it just doesn’t work for me. I can have a wonderful outline with everything carefully detailed and then I start to write. For some unknown reason the story develops legs and runs away from me in a totally new direction. The careful plan is now toast and may represent two days of hard work down the toilet. I don’t bother anymore as I am never going to win this one.

 

And as a finale, I get to tag a few authors now to hop along this blog! Good luck!

Crash Frolich- https://www.facebook.com/crash.froelich?fref=ts
Joel Cornah- https://www.facebook.com/JoelCornah?fref=ufi
Martin Adil-Smith-  https://www.facebook.com/martinadilsmith?fref=ufi
Rhonda Garcia- http://rsagarcia.com/