New Release and Review: Immortal Writers by Jill Bowers

Immortal Writers
by Jill Bowers

Description:
Young up-and-coming author Liz McKinnen has no idea that her life is about to change forever when she comes home from her first book tour.

When she's kidnapped and told by her captors that she has to kill her fantasy book's antagonist, she thinks that she's fallen into the hands of crazy, dangerous fans... until her antagonist sends a real, fire-breathing dragon after her. Liz is quickly initiated into the Immortal Writers, a group of authors from throughout time whose words have given them eternal life, and whose prose is so powerful that it's brought stories over from the Imagination Field into the Reality Field.

As Liz meets authors such as William Shakespeare, JRR Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jane Austen, she has to learn how to control magic, fight dragons, and face her own troubled past before her power-hungry villain takes over the world. Will she survive the ultimate battle against the dragon lord whom she created?

My Review:
Immortal Writers takes a rather literal spin to finding immortality through the written word. Imagine learning, as an author, that your plot twists, dashing heroes, and darkest villains have come to life. Not just come to life in the minds of your readers, but in reality. All I can say is Liz has her work cut out for her.

First off, I love how the story brings to life some of the things writers often say about writing. That they’ll live on through their words, that their characters take over the story, that the story itself has to happen the way it does, despite their intentions. I’ve felt this in my own writing, but to imagine that all of this might happen because the story is becoming real is just mind-blowing.
I also love which authors were chosen to be featured in this story and how they’re portrayed. Poe is one of my favorite characters in the story, mostly because of how the other authors react to him. But as a fantasy/sci fi fan, I particularly loved how Anne McCaffrey, J.R.R Tolkien, and even Gene Rodenberry make an appearance. And not just an appearance, some of them get involved in the plot personally. There’s mostly an air of fantasy, but also a few elements of sci fi, based on the writer’s who’ve been immortalized and the aspects of their writing that have leaked into the real world.
Now, all that’s related to the premise, but the story itself, the struggle and the romance and the personal growth of the main character, Liz, are all handled exceptionally well. It’s a satisfying read, and Liz’s story seems complete at the end.

That being said, there were points where the famous authors’ cameos made me roll my eyes. Just a little cheesy at times. And it was funny that Shakespeare seems to be the leader of all the immortal writers.

For folks looking for a book club read, there are some questions at the end specifically for that. In my opinion, this story would make an interesting discussion topic, particularly in book clubs where the members also enjoy writing.

Overall, I loved this book. I think folks who like to write, whether published or not, will be entranced by this story and the way it unfolds. Fantasy and sci fi fans in particular will dig the references to their genre and likely their favorite authors.

I received the review copy of this book from NetGalley.


About the Author:

Jill Bowers is a technical writer by day and a fantasy author by night. She is one of two composers-in-residence for the Westminster Bell Choir and has a great love for all music. She used to be the writer and host for the award-winning radio show Olde Tyme Radio on the Aggie Radio Station at USU and has dabbled in stage play writing as well.

Jill enjoys attending Utah's Comic Con and Fantasy Con and has an unhealthy attachment to Netflix. She lives in Utah and has a lovely dachshund that needs to lose weight because she probably doesn't get enough walks and is too cute to not feed. Jill attended Utah State University for their creative writing program, where she actually specialized in creative nonfiction rather than fiction. However, Jill loves delving into different worlds in fantasy and sci-fi novels and is excited to have people enter the worlds she has created.

Author Links:
w: www.immortalauthor.com/
t: @Jilliard08
f: facebook.com/immortalauthorjill
g: goodreads.com/user/show/2509616-jill-bowers
p: pinterest.com/jilliard08/
i: instagram.com/jilliard08/
y: youtube.com/channel/UC4FH9bS51qVga7rPot7awTw

**Updated 05NOV2017 with Author Info and Links!**

Tour Stop and Excerpt: The Dragon Sphere (Nation of Dragons #1) by Abel Gallardo

This is my stop during the blog tour for The Dragon Sphere by Abel Gallardo. This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 8 till 21 August, you can view the tour schedule here

The Dragon Sphere (Nation of Dragons #1)
by Abel Gallardo
Genre: Fantasy
Age category: Young Adult
Release Date: July 20, 2016

Blurb:
Landon Brown, fifteen year old high school football star, is always on the top of his game. That is until he receives a visit from an uncle he’s never met with information about Landon’s father, who disappeared without a trace thirteen years before. Landon learns that the life he’s been living is a lie and that his true nature is powerful and dangerous. He’s half dragon and a threat to the delicate balance that has kept dragon society hidden from humans for hundreds of years.

Landon now must learn about his dragon heritage and train to control his incredible abilities with the help of the Elder Dragons, a bizarre trainer named Alpha, and other dragonoids like himself.

He quickly realizes that the mysterious world of dragons, spirits, and secret societies are not for the weak. Tasked with finding the Dragon Sphere, an ancient relic harboring a terrible power that could destroy the world, Landon recognizes that he just might be way in over his head. Will he be able to control his newfound power in time for the fight of his life?

Excerpt:
“I want you to close your eyes. Okay, now visualize your target. Just relax your mind and let your body sense the distance. Let the ground tell you where everything is. Do you feel the burning sensation in your chest?” Alpha asked.

“Yes,” I responded.

“Good―now push that energy towards your arms. You should feel them get tense. Good, it looks like you got it. Now when I say go, I want you to unleash that power right underneath the target. Ready… set… go!”

 I felt energy pulse through my arms as I raised them in the air, willing the ground underneath a wooden dummy to rise and knock the target forty feet high.

 “Now volley him!” Alpha ordered. Just before the wooden dummy hit the ground, I willed the earth to rise again at a forty-five-degree angle, knocking the target left. Then I did it again, but this time to the right. I continued to volley the wooden dummy, watching as wooden limbs started flying everywhere. When I stopped, the only thing remaining of the doll was its torso.

“Good job, Cyclops,” Alpha said encouragingly. “You’re getting better at controlling your power, brah! It will only be a matter of time before you have full control.”

It was nice to hear Alpha’s encouragement. I had been training with him and the other trainees for two weeks now. He had been drilling us so we could learn how to control our powers, especially after I caused a small earthquake in the cavern by accident. A nightmare had triggered it; I still don’t think I could’ve controlled it.

“Okay, so you’re progressing well on manipulating the earth, but we still need to work on the quakes,” Alpha said. “Maybe one of these days you could set us up for some mud surfing!”

“What is that?” I asked.

“I’m just joking, brah. It includes you causing a mudslide and riding it like a righteous wave. Sounds amazing, right?” I nodded my head, pretending that the idea was a good one.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Alpha said, “you have a visitor coming in fifteen minutes, so you should get cleaned up. We’re just about done for the day anyway.”

I asked Alpha who it was, but he ignored me and went on to help one of the other trainees. As I walked up the rocky slopes, I noticed some of the other students working on their powers.

Aurora was showing off as usual. She had pockets of air swirling around her in the form of three funnels. The rotating air picked up loose rocks, dirt, and anything else that got in its way. Much closer to the main cavern entrance, I saw James Braddock crushing large boulders with his bare hands. He punched one boulder so hard that it exploded on contact. It didn’t crumble or split into many pieces. It literally exploded! What was interesting about James was his ability to breathe poisonous gas. His mother Jada is a green dragon, and from what I hear, the poisonous gas that they breathe is among the most lethal in the world. Once Alpha and James went down near the valley, and Alpha showed him how dangerous it was. He had James blow out the poison gas onto a flower―and immediately, it .

***End of Excerpt***

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You can find The Dragon Sphere on Goodreads

You can buy The Dragon Sphere here:
- Amazon Paperback

About the Author:
Abel Gallardo was greatly influenced by Greek mythology, comic books, and the fantasy/mystery novels he had read as a child. Shortly after graduating with his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology, he began writing stories that reminded him of the adventures he cherished growing up. Abel Gallardo now lives with his wife and children in Albuquerque, NM.

You can find and contact Abel here:
- Website
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Goodreads

Giveaway
There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of The Dragon Sphere. Two winners will each win a 10$ amazon gift card!

For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter giveaway below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Woot, 2014 NaNoWriMo Target Hit!

I am thrilled, to say the least. Finished with eight days to spare and two thousand more words than I'd estimated. Whew!  Now, to rest for a little while and think up an nice ending for the story. Final battle and narrow escape, all good. Now to draw the conclusion.

No idea when I'll publish this...

NaNoWriMo Status Update: Great Progress, Still Stressed

This year is the first time I've actually started my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) novel on November 1st, and I'm hoping to finish early.  I base this on the fact that I've managed to finish on time the last two years, while starting late.

So, how am I doing? Pretty good, just about exactly on target for the challenge, but then again, my target is to finish early.  I've figured out that based on my formatting, I need 60 pages of rough draft to hit 50k words. I'm at 18 right now. I want to finish about 20k per weekend.

That means I just need to knock out 2 pages today, right? Wrong. Why? Because now that I'm going, I don't just want to finish early, I want to finish way early. Le sigh.

So, status. I'm at 15239 words of 50k. I'm on target to complete right on the 30th and pretty close to my side goal of finishing early if I knock out a couple more pages today. And, I'm stressing because I want to see if I can round this weekend off to 20k words or more (that would be 10k words today).

Hmm, why can't I be this motivated when I write books any other time of the year? Don't know, but despite the stress, I dig the game. I guess that's why I keep coming back for more.


So, who else is playing along with NaNoWriMo this year? What are your goals? How are you doing? And, most importantly, are you having fun?