Writing with my children

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The exciting day is here! Dragon Diplomacy, my first Middle Grade novel, is available in print and on Kindle, to my immense joy and satisfaction.

Let’s face it, with how little time I have, writing is often a guilty pleasure for me, and I go back and forth a lot on how long I can allow myself to spend it without neglecting my family. This book, however, had a different birth process. It was written with my children’s active contribution, and the reading aloud of each chapter was beautiful family time I can fondly look back on. We also drew the characters and made maps (not included in the book) and thought of ideas for sequels (working on that now).

The most important lessons I learned from writing this book are probably, 1) Kids love dragons, and 2) Kids are a brutally honest audience. My daughters had no qualms to say, “this is boring” or “change the ending”. I followed their advice, of course. What choice did I have? 

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My first children’s book is here! (updated)

An unusual path to dragon-taming

I am happy and excited to announce my very first children’s fantasy novel, Dragon Diplomacy, is now available in print. The Kindle edition is available for pre-order now, and will release at the end of the month.

From the blurb: “Loriel is an inquisitive 12-year-old fairy living in the enchanted forest kingdom of Silverbell Wood. The peace and tranquility of Silverbell are disrupted by Gadrak, a troubled dragon who comes to live in the middle of the fairy domain. The dragon’s incessant raids on the bordering human kingdom of Elderland cause the wrath of its people, who are determined to invade Silverbell – a prospect that might end in disaster, with the protective enchantments broken and the delicate balance of the fairy forest disrupted.”

As all my fiction books, it is published under the pen name of Hannah Ross.

I really can’t say this often enough: I appreciate and love the readers who support me by buying my books. Without you, I would never be where I am today, with 12 novels and 4 nonfiction books under my belt, and more to come. So a huge thank you! You make me doubly excited about sharing my writing with the world, and you rock.

Environmental sci-fi book giveaway

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Short promo break: if you are into environmental sci-fi, The Last Outpost, first volume in my Antarctic saga, is free on Kindle until the end of the week. Features a global war, dark secrets, government conspiracies, and prehistoric monsters frozen in ice. From the description:

Scott “Buck” Buckley, an environmental scientist, accepts the position of general overseer at the McMurdo Antarctic research station. After signing a secrecy declaration, Scott becomes privy to the existence of Geyser Valley, an area with a unique warm microclimate, which is home to the mysterious indigenous Anai people. In an outrageous conspiracy, the world governments are keeping the existence of these people a secret, to avoid limitations on the division of land for natural resources.

I love writing environmental sci-fi because it allows me to explore my favorite premise: humans don’t own the world, and if they get too arrogant, nature might just have to show them who’s boss.

So if you’re looking for a weekend read, go ahead and snag a copy while it’s free.

Exciting News – Double Book Release

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I love writing fiction, and feel so incredibly lucky to have several books out in the world now, with more planned to come under my fiction pen name, Hannah Ross. Wild Children, the first part of a post-apocalyptic saga, was released close to a year and a half ago, and I’ve been working on the sequels ever since.

This project has been a long time in the making, because my publisher and I made the decision to release not one, but two sequels simultaneously.

The Hourglass is told from the perspective of Priscilla Dahl, a 16-year-old girl who forfeits her privileged position in society to seek justice. Freeborn is the story of the backlash that occurs when the government decides to rein in the outlaws it has shunned for many years. The beloved characters from the first book – the children from the orphanage, Benjamin Grey, his parents Rebecca and Daniel, and the new friends he makes in the world of freedom and precarious life on the edge – are all there in the sequels, too.

A few months ago, just as we were finalizing some details of the impending release, a dear and beloved friend of mine, Julie Ryan, unexpectedly passed away. As I was reeling from the shock of these horrible news, my publisher asked about the book dedications, and I thought that it would be a fitting tribute to dedicate The Hourglass to Julie. The theme of this book is time – the running out of it, and doing things that will make every hour and day of our allotted time count. This is something Julie understood well, and taught me – in her life, and ultimately in her sudden death. She made every day count. She lived her life to the fullest. So, dear one up above, this book is for you.

In celebration of this double new release, Wild Children will be free on September 15th and 16th, so go ahead and download your copy. Your support in the form of shares, reviews and social media mentions is always appreciated. Thank you.

 

The Last Outpost: new environmental sci-fi novel

THe last outpost

If you are fans of environmental science fiction, I hope you check out my new novel, The Last Outpost, now available both on Kindle and in print. It is set in Antarctica, with its theme being the precarious balance between man and nature. Also features a mysterious indigenous tribe, an outrageous government conspiracy, and ancient monsters sleeping under the ice.

From the blurb:

“Scott “Buck” Buckley, an environmental scientist, accepts the position of general overseer at the McMurdo Antarctic research station. After signing a secrecy declaration, Scott becomes privy to the existence of Geyser Valley, an area with a unique warm microclimate, which is home to the mysterious indigenous Anai people. In an outrageous conspiracy, the world governments are keeping the existence of these people a secret, to avoid limitations on the division of land for natural resources.

Scott is fascinated by the unique culture of the Anai, visiting them and learning from them as much as he can. In the meantime, the world becomes more and more unstable as global war is about to break out. Just before darkness sets over Antarctica, warfare tears the world apart, and the research station finds itself completely isolated for the long and sunless winter.

In the loneliness of the winter, Scott remains facing difficult questions all alone: who are the Anai, and how did they come to Antarctica? How much truth is there in their legends about giant ancient reptiles frozen in ice, waiting to come back to life? How is McMurdo going to hold on until the communications and supply lines are restored? And where are the limits one is not allowed to cross, not even in the name of survival?”

I’m also looking to hand out 5 review copies (in digital format), so if you are interested, please get in touch with me through the contact form. Thank you!

An update and a book review

First off, I would like to thank all the amazing people who left me comments and private messages following my last post. We are slowly coming to terms with the tragedy, and I was finally able to sleep a whole night. Above all, I’m praying for strength for my poor friend and her children, and for wisdom for our government, who must finally wake up and understand that the only way to increase its citizens’ safety is by harsh measures and an unapologetic stance, rather than by finessing and beating around the bush and PC talk.

In the sleepless nights that have been my share this past week, I’ve been reading John Seymour’s The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency. There’s nothing to take one’s mind off things like reading about malting or raising goats. Though much of the information in there will never be relevant for us (such as anything that has to do with raising pigs and rabbits), I’m loving the book; it’s the ultimate, most well-rounded and practical DIY guide to all things a homesteader, on whatever scale, might need, from tilling land to baking bread, from building fences to raising and managing livestock, and everything in between. Sure, it branches off into chapters that have enough fodder for specialized books on their own, and the savvy reader can find manuals that focus on, say, just animals (such as, for instance, my The Basic Guide to Backyard Livestock, and other, more detailed works) but it’s the best introductory condensed guide to self-sustainability I’ve read so far.

Winter is for Writing

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Winter is a great time for me to work full-steam on writing projects which I might not have as much head space for in busier seasons, and so I am wrapping up 2017 with a new historical fiction release, Land of the Lost Tribe (published, like all of my fiction, under the pen name of Hannah Ross):

“The 9-th century A.D. is drawing to a close, and Simien, a Hebrew domain in the heart of Africa, feels the threat of its powerful Christian neighbor, the Kingdom of Aksum.

A courageous traveler named Eldad ha-Dani sets out upon a journey to rediscover his long-lost Jewish brethren and save his kin from spiritual isolation. But when his only companion meets a brutal end and Eldad remains alone in the desert, it looks like the people of Simien might never be known to the rest of the Jewish world.”

Now available in print, and at a limited-time launch price of 0.99$ on Kindle.

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