Book Trailer for The Watchers Book 1: Knight of Light by Deirdra Eden

I've been paying more attention to book trailers as I've started work on mine, and keeping an eye out for the ones that succeed in getting across their book's tone and plot. That synched up nicely when I was invited to help Deirdra Eden celebrate her book by sharing the trailer! I love the imagery in this one:

The Watchers Book 1: Knight of Light

 In England, 1270 A.D., Auriella (pronounced yurr-ee-ella) flees her village after being accused of witchcraft. Pursued by nightmarish creatures, she struggles to accept the truth about her humanity. Filled with fairies, dwarves, pixies, dragons, demons, and monsters, Knight of Light is an enthralling tale that will capture the imaginations of readers young and old.

The Watchers Series has been described as Braveheart meets Supernatural. The mythology for the series is based on many theological texts from dozens of sects with correlating themes. Ancient writings include The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Traditional Apocrypha, The Pearl of Great Price, and The Kabbalah.

“The Watchers” are supernatural beings in human form whose duty it is to protect and guard mankind from the armies of darkness. Unfortunately, as the Book of Enoch mentions, some of these Watchers go bad. Although the mythology is based on these texts, Deirdra Eden’s The Watcher’s Series is written in a traditional fairytale style with a young girl’s discovery of incredible, but dangerous powers within herself, a cast of humorous side-kicks, a quest for greater self-discovery and purpose, and villains of epic proportions

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About the Author

"My goal in writing is to saturate my books with intrigue, mystery, romance, and plot twists that will keep my readers in suspense. I want to see fingerprints on the front and back covers where readers have gripped the novel with white knuckles! Aside from writing, I enjoy jousting in arenas, planning invasions, horseback riding through open meadows, swimming in the ocean, hiking up mountains, camping in cool shady woods, climbing trees barefoot, and going on adventures."
-Deirdra Eden

Find Deirdra Eden and The Watchers Series online on Amazon, Deirdra's website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Wattpad, and Pinterest.

Snapshot

My husband's been working on his genealogy, and fortunately for him his grandmother has a treasure trove of photos. And even more fortunately, he has a wife that knows her way around Photoshop. It was pretty warm today, so we decided to stay in the a.c. and work on some projects.

This one is slightly larger than a postage stamp and in pretty poor condition (not unexpected since it's from the early-to-mid 1930s) and I thought I'd offer a little glimpse of the process (to see more of a progression, click on the first photo and it will open them as a viewer):

Can't you just see her catching some outlaw's eye? She was living in Moss Landing, California, when this picture was taken.

More Photo Inspiration for Crow's Rest

Whenever we travel, it just makes me love where we live even more. Not because traveling is such a nightmare, but because we live in a place with beautiful vistas: rivers, lakes, mountains, rolling hills, quaint historic towns, and only a few hours from the Pacific coast.

Makes perfect sense that I would choose to set my WIP in a Sierra foothill town, albeit a made-up one. Crow's Rest is a thinly-veiled amalgam of several foothill towns, some of which can be surprisingly urbane. Not urban, mind you, which is part of their charm, but with fabulous restaurants and impressive locally grown wines.

One such town is now a state historic park, and I used to be a docent there about a decade ago. We went back recently and the pictures I took are the perfect subjects for a photo essay (click on each one to see it bigger):

An overview of the town nestled along the American River

Detail of the oak trees with their woolly fall coat of moss

One of the historic churches

A springhouse along the trail

 And my favorite foothill find--historic cemeteries!


Hope you enjoyed this vicarious trip!

YA Market Listing: Call for Pugalicious Press Anthology

Update March 2013: Pugalicious has unfortunately shut down. 

Details from their blog:

"We are looking for YA short stories to include in our first ebook anthology, titled Timeless!

If your short story is between 3000 and 7500 words and fits into the genre of YA historical romance we want to read it. The story can include steampunk, fantasy, or adventure, as long as it includes some historical elements then we are interested in reading it.

Submit the whole manuscript as a Word .doc file (no .docx) by March 30, 2012, with the subject heading: submission–YA anthology.

Please include a bio, publishing credits if any, and a synopsis."



Update March 2013: Pugalicious has unfortunately shut down.

A Tourist in Your Own Town

My current work-in-progress is set in a fictional small town in California's Gold Country (fictional because it's an amalgamation of several towns) called Crow's Rest. So to help me establish the details and the atmosphere, my husband and I set out for a drive to some nearby Gold Rush-era towns last weekend.

Camera in hand, we visited some spots that the locals know about, like this historic cemetery:



where I found the perfect character name:



There's an interesting dichotomy, in that the locals are sometimes unaware of the nearby treasures. I used to be a docent at a historic park and the highway runs right through the middle of it; I'd have people tell me, "I've lived in the area for years and I never stopped to see what was here until now." Usually they were there with their child's fourth grade class, as a required field trip for California history.

As a historical fiction writer, one of my favorite places is a real snapshot of history in Sutter Creek: when the owner of a general store passed away in the 1950s, she left the store and its contents to the city, to be used as a museum or library. It's now a museum, with goods from the 1890s all the way through the mid-20th century, but it's rarely open because they don't have enough volunteers to staff it. My husband and I lucked out and got to go inside one afternoon, and I could have spent hours in there.

And yet, people that have lived in the area for years have no idea that it's there. I kind of like the feeling of it being a bit secret, but it's a shame that it doesn't get more attention. You know who usually knows about these kinds of places, though? It's the local kids. How great is it to grow up in a place where ruins and old mines are literally in your backyard?



What about you--have you recycled bits of your locale or hometown into your writing?

Soulless Confession

Yesterday afternoon I was all set to post for Road Trip Wednesday, but I made a rookie mistake with the new Kindle:

I downloaded a sample of Soulless by Gail Carriger. Then I read the sample. Then I hit buy. Then I did nothing but read Soulless for the rest of the day and evening.

Laundry? Pfft!
Dinner? Boil some turkey hot dogs and open a can of beans, toss in direction of husband.
Finish the reading for Thursday's critique group? There's always Thursday morning . . .

I know I'm somewhat late to the game for this title (again!) I really don't know why it took me so long to read it, there are so many great elements: vampires! werewolves! steampunk goggles (man am I jonesing for these for myself)! bustles! unseemly wrestling on the settee! witty banter!

What more could you ask for? Exceptional writing, you say? That's there too! And yes, I enjoyed this book so much that it justifies all these exclamation marks cluttering up my post!

Fellowship Opportunity for Historical Writers

Do you write historical fiction, plays or poetry and have a stack of research questions you've been waiting to answer? The American Antiquarian Society offers a fellowship, including a stipend and housing, while you use their resources.

The AAS is "calling for applications for visiting fellowships for historical research by creative and performing artists, writers, film makers, journalists, and other persons whose goals are to produce imaginative, non-formulaic works dealing with pre-twentieth-century American history. Successful applicants are those whose work is for the general public rather than for academic or educational audiences."

The deadline to apply is October 5, and best of all there is NO ENTRY FEE.