Guest Post: Marjorie Mallon | beetleypete

Thank you so much to Pete for celebrating the launch of my 2nd book, Golden Healer in The Curse of Time series with this fabulous guest post

I’m chatting book series… pitfalls, things to do and not to do…

Do find out more at source: Guest Post: Marjorie Mallon | beetleypete

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Book Review The Reviled @MorganBC728 #NextChapterPub

In the mystical realm of Jyndari, a relationship blossoms between two unsuspecting yet kindred souls.
Ayla, a Light-loving Guardian of Childfey, hides more than a few secrets-ones which isolate and set her apart from the rest. Yet Ayla’s veiled confidences entice one who lurks in the shadows. Silent and watchful, this dangerous presence knows all too well the secrets she wishes kept hidden.
The Darkness-revering Fey bids his time, waiting for the ideal moment to step away from the shadows and reveal himself to Ayla. But doing so will irrevocably alter the course of their lives … and shatter both their worlds.
Brimming with magic and mystery, beauty and enchantment, Dark Fey, The Reviled is a fantasy like no other; one that is an adventure for both mind and spirit. 

My review

This is so me! I loved it from word go… I loved its take on dark and light winged creatures. I listened to The Reviled on audible. It’s an enthralling dark fantasy tale which would appeal to young adults and some older readers too. Friendship and a blossoming love interest at the beginning between Ayla and her suitor Marden capture the readers attention.

Ayla is a fae of the light, she is empathic, clairvoyant and can perceive truth from lies. The whisperings of a mysterious dark fey visitor begin – Gairynzvl. He is frightening as all dark fey are to the fae of the light (they steal young ones from the nursery and change them from light fae to dark.) In time Ayla’s impression of Gairynzvl’s intentions change, she realises his actions are not what she expects.

The pacing is slower in some parts, with a fair amount of detail describing the two Fey but during the battle scene the pace is fast and engrossing.

There is a developing love triangle, with a struggle for the three to escape the feared Centurion of The Reviled dark clutches.

This is for you if you like tales which are emotional, heartfelt and mystical with light and dark aspects. It is a beautifully expressed story, with passionate and descriptive writing. The final scenes are so emotionally charged that they will stay with me for a long while. I would definitely like to read more from this author.

My rating an easy 5 stars!

I featured Cynthia Morgan recently on my blog:

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#TANKATUESDAY WEEKLY #POETRY CHALLENGE @ColleenChesebro NO. 239 #EKPHRASTIC #PHOTOPROMPT #Tanka

Observe blue, fine trains
Bright and low in the night sky 
Dazzling hours
Heaven sparkling its light
Creating magic and joy

I hope you enjoyed my tanka for this week’s Ekphrastic Photoprompt for Colleen Chesebro’s poetry challenge.

I’ve a fair amount of news! I would like to share that my YA fantasy Bloodstone is in The AllAuthor cover competition! I’d love it if you could vote for it. It is doing really well and at the last count was at #23 in the voting ranks. I’m hoping with your help it will go through to the next round.

To vote: https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/12131/

News To Share!

Thrilled with these two new 5 star reviews of Bloodstone. Thank you so much to Helen Pryke and Denise Finn for reading and reviewing!

Helen Pryke https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4176712706/

D L Finn: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4164151591/

A big thank you to Sally Cronin who has featured her review of my poetry book, Lockdown Innit Poems About Absurdity in her Smorgasbord Book Reviews Rewind. Do pop over to her blog to read her review:

Smorgasbord Book Reviews Rewind – #Poetry Lockdown Innit by M.J. Mallon

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Friday with Friends: Embracing Change – M.J. Mallon | Meet The Authors @CamillaDowns

Thank you so much to Camilla Downs for featuring me at her blog Meeting the Authors – Friday with Friends – blog post. I am talking about embracing change!

I have a new release, or should I say rerelease!
My debut novel has been re-released with Next Chapter Publishing, Bloodstone The Curse of Time #1. This YA Fantasy novel is primarily prose but each chapter starts with a short poem, so there are masses of poems!
Good grief, it has been an interesting and somewhat daunting experience relinquishing control of my book to someone else – especially as I’m republishing a version and if you are a control freak like I am… there are obstacles, difficulties and invaluable lessons to be learnt.
Metadata, title changes these all effect your novel and make the process much more complicated. But I am hoping that the initial niggles will be overcome and it will be worthwhile.
Change is challenging but sometimes you …

Find out more at source on Camilla’s lovely blog: Friday with Friends: Embracing Change – M.J. Mallon | Meet The Authors

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8 Steps to Side Characters #ARC #Review #Launch @Sacha_Black

MJ’s Review

8 Steps To Side Characters is part of Sacha Black’s many writing craft books – other titles include: 13 steps to Evil, 10 steps to Hero, and the Anatomy Of Prose.

Thank you so much for an ARC copy of 8 steps to side characters which I freely give my review and opinion of.

Sacha Black’s writing style is engaging, humourous, clear and informative. I definitely learnt a lot about writing side characters and also discovered how important these pesky folk are!

I had some laugh out loud moments. Here’s an example:

“If you don’t layer your conflict, and you only have world ending levels of conflict at every opportunity, it’s like electrocuting your readers over and over again.”

Yes, this had me in chortles.

Also, there are many light bulb moments too.

“It’s a misnomer that to create big universal feelings you have to describe giant emotions. It’s actually the small, unique and intangible things about our loved ones that create that effect.”

And…

“One thing all readers share in common is a heartfelt solidarity for a character going through shit times.”

“Just because you craft characters to be one way for the majority of the time, say, kind and tolerant, doesn’t mean they have to be that way or feel that way for the entire story.”

I read this on my kindle and highlighted lots of passages to refer to later.

At the end of each step she summarises all the important ideas that she has mentioned. There are also Questions to consider. Plus she makes it all really clear with real examples from film, and books (with spoiler warnings for well known books.)

Recommendation: Read this! Highly recommended – a must read and one to refer back to. 5 stars.

INSTAGRAM / YOUTUBE TIPS SERIES

She’s been sharing a tip a day from the book in a IGTV / Youtube video series. If you’d like to watch the tips or share the series, you can by visiting her on instagram or YouTube:

Instagram: http://instagram.com/sachablackauthor/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCmGEeUxCRW5ZVxwJ_mEunw 

Live Events

Join Sacha on launch day, 29th July, in her Facebook group for a live Q&A session. If you have any questions about writing, publishing, marketing, her books, unicorns or anything in between, hit her up on sachablack@sachablack.co.uk and let her know, or drop it in the Facebook group/event page here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/rebelauthors/

Event: https://fb.me/e/GVZcAjmm  

 Your Side Characters and You LIVES

As part of the launch week, Sacha will be interviewing nine authors all about their side characters, their favorite side characters from books and films as well as their tips for creating better characters. And She’ll be doing that all LIVE on instagram every night at 8pm from the 30th July to the 8th August.

  • Friday 30th July – Mark Lefebvre from Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing Podcast
  • Saturday 31st July Jeff Adams from Big Gay Fiction podcast
  • Sunday 1st August Katlyn Duncan YouTuber and author
  • Monday 2nd August Daniel Willcocks, my Next Level Authors cohost, book coach and horror authors
  • Tuesday 3rd August Crys Cain, host of Write Away, cohost of TASM and author
  • Wednesday 4th August Kristina Stanley, CEO of Fictionary.co
  • Thursday 5th Helen Scheuerer author of fantasy
  • Friday 6th Miranda Bridges romance author
  • Saturday 7th Elaine Bateman urban fantasy author and staff writer at Indie Author Magazine
  • Sunday 8th August – if I haven’t collapsed, will be a solo show from me!

Buying Links:

Universal purchase link textbook: books2read.com/sidecharacters 

Universal purchase link workbook: books2read.com/sideworkbook 

Impressive! Or what…

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Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Update – #Reviews – #Poetry Balroop Singh, #YAFantasy M. J. Mallon, #Romance Jacquie Biggar | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Thank you so much to Sally for this lovely update featuring reviews for Balroop, Jacquie and myself. Do pop over to see Sally’s update  – link below.

Source: Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Update – #Reviews – #Poetry Balroop Singh, #YAFantasy M. J. Mallon, #Romance Jacquie Biggar | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Oh and while I am here, just to let you know you can request a review copy of my YA Fantasy Bloodstone via Book Sirens: https://booksirens.com/book/H4SI6L4/Q9PZX3A

and for those who are on Netgalley: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/230784

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