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Tell us about The Last Pendragon Sarah:
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He is a king, a warrior, the last hope of his people - and the chosen one of the sidhe... Set in 7th century Wales, the Last Pendragon is the story of Cadwaladr (Cade), heir to the throne of Arthur, and his love, Rhiann.  Born to rule, yet without a kingdom, Cade must learn to be both Christian king and pagan hero, and Rhiann must decide how much she is willing to risk to follow her heart.
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A Brief Chat With Sarah:


 
 
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Tell us about God Wars:Living With Angels:
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Sixteen-year-old old gymnast, Diana Jalinowski, had it all, including a shot at the Olympics, thanks to her talent, dedication, and a strange “other” power that allowed her to do things others couldn’t. Then a deranged hoodlum drove Diana off the road and into a wheelchair, killing her family in the process.

Years later, as a paraplegic law student, Diana meets Professor Lessage, an odd, brooding man who talks her into doing a paper on the legal ramifications of the Salem Witch trials. Suddenly Diana’s life takes another sharp turn, right into witchcraft, a demon she can’t resist, an angel she can’t trust, 3-foot tall aliens she can’t defeat, and the chance to get even with all the bad people out there… unless of course she destroys the world in the process.

Diana has justice in her hands, and she’s really, really pissed off.

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Tell us about yourself Rob:
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I am the father of two amazing sons, Brian and Josiah, husband to equally amazing wife and occasional co-writer Leslie Coogan.  I'm a novelist, screenwriter, script doctor and former feature film development executive.  I've authored "How to Write High Structure, High Concept Movies" through Xibris Press and "The Screenwriting Formula" through Writers Digest.  

Leslie and I live in sunny Hunting Beach, California with our crazy dog Shackobe.  I was born in Timmins, a little northern Canadian mining town (home town of country superstar Shania Twain) and I enjoy the sun, the beach, snow skiing, dinners out with Leslie and a nice reisling (or La Capilla Margarita) and sitting in cool little coffee shops writing my ass off, and I am endlessly grateful to the universe for giving me such a wonderful life.

 
 
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Tell us about Miya Black, Pirate Princess: Adventure Dawns:
[Click for Ben's website]
For Princess Miya Black, home is Clover Island, a tiny dot of a place not even named on most maps. Founded fifteen years ago by her parents, ex-pirate Tomas "Boots" Black and ex-princess Lilith "Lily" Brightburn, it's a place for second chances and new beginnings. It's there that Miya was born, there she grew up, and there she now lives, spending her days riding with her best friend, practising swordsmanship with her fake uncle, sailing with her father, and avoiding book lessons with her mother. To Miya it's the best place in the entire world, and she knows how lucky she is to have it.

So when her home is threatened Miya doesn't just sit around around sulking. She's the princess of Clover Island, with the blood of pirate legends running through her veins, and she'll do whatever it takes to protect her kingdom.

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Tell Us About Yourself Ben:

I'm Ben, Benjamin Joseph Kuniyoshi White if you're not into the whole brevity thing, Ben White if you're somewhere in the middle, and I write books. Books about pirate princesses, books about would-be greatest superheroes, books about gloomy girls bashing zombies about with baseball bats. Most of my books would fall squarely in the sub-sub-genre of 'Girls Kicking Arse', and if you had to choose a section of the library to put them in, Young Adult would be the safest bet.

I live in Nelson, New Zealand with my wife and two busy young daughters, and in pretty much every spare moment I have, I write.


A Brief Chat with Ben:
[Click for Ben's blog]
When I was a little fellow, my local library didn’t even have a Young Adult section. What my library had was a Kids section, and then everything else. Sometimes there was crossover; some of Terry Pratchett’s books were in Kids, some were in Fantasy. It’s only recently that the Young Adult section was created, a pleasant little corner which also happens to be the busiest part of the library–with good reason. Whenever I go there now, and look at all the books on display, I always think “This. This is what I was always looking for, as I wandered between Kids and Everything Else.” Don’t get me wrong, I read a lot of great books when I was young (and a lot of not so great ones, too), but I would have loved a Young Adults section.


Young Adults. I like the implications of the term–that once you’re around ten or eleven or so (depending on your precociousness) you’re not quite a child any more, but rather a ‘young adult’. Teenagers don’t get enough credit, I feel. “But look at this YouTube clip of a boy sticking a skyrocket up his bottom and lighting it!”, okay fine so yes, there are idiotic teenagers out there. But there are also a whole heck of a lot of so-called ‘grown-up’ idiots out there, too. If you’re going by percentages I’d say teens have a slight edge over us older peeps, in the ‘unjustified idiocy’ stakes.

I let myself run off there for a moment, it’s a bad habit of mine. But really, I remember being a teenager, I remember not being taken seriously and having to fight for every scrap of respect I got and even after I’d proved myself over and over and over again STILL being underestimated by the world at large. Now that I’m older it hasn’t gotten that much better, to be completely honest, but at least I’m not judged by my age any more. Well. Not as much, anyway.

What I write are mostly stories about young people trying to find their way in a world of adults. Trying to make their mark on a world that doesn’t take them seriously. Fighting for every scrap of respect they get, proving themselves over and over and over again until the world has no choice but to sit up and take notice of them. Stories about young people taking charge of their own destinies and showing those crusty old adults how to get things DONE. Also about growing up; about realising how big the world really is, and how small you really are, and being shown that one person can’t really make much of a difference at all … and then SHATTERING this misconception. One person is all it takes to change the world; they just have to be in the right place at the right time … and make the right choice.

Why yes, I am a champion of the individual, how ever could you tell?

I write young adult fiction because I like young adults and I like telling stories about young adults–which is not to say that I feel older people or older characters have nothing to say or contribute, quite the opposite. It’s just that I like showing things from a younger perspective. Also, despite being nearly thirty and being married and having two daughters, I still feel more like a ‘young adult’ than a ‘grown-up’. I like games and cartoons and poison-coloured fizzy drink, and I’d feel more comfortable talking about what my favourite Pokemon is than discussing world politics or fine wines.

(It’s Jolteon, by the way.)

If I tried I could probably write a thriller or a romance or a literary novel (whatever that is), but those don’t really interest me, not when I could write about pirates and superheroes and zombies instead. To me, Young Adult fiction means ‘freedom’, the freedom to explore complex themes and issues and ideas within a more simplistic and enjoyable framework, with characters just as deep as those in other genres–deeper, in a lot of cases. Sophistication often hides superficiality, and simplicity does not always indicate a lack of depth. Just like young adults are often underestimated, I think Young Adult fiction itself is underestimated. It’s the bravest genre. It’s the most open genre. It’s the genre that offers the widest diversity, the greatest depth, and sometimes the most honest truths.

Why do I write Young Adult fiction? Honestly, why wouldn’t I?



Connect with Ben on Twitter @BJKWhite
 
 
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Tell us about In Search Of A Soul:

[Click for Dannii's blog]

Have you looked out at the sea, felt its pull and wondered what it would be like to sail to exotic lands? At sea there are only three things that matter: the sea, the air and the boat.

Come along and join a man who sails alone upon the incessant waters just to survive his life. Douglas Durian is a former Navy SEAL that nearly lost his mind because of a tragic incident on his last mission. Now to save his life he seeks the solitude of the sea. His only companion is his boat and she holds him close and guides him until he is needed again.

Douglas is learning to live again and enjoy the magical ocean he rides upon and it’s all because of a child he has rescued from the sea. Mei Yue escaped from servitude and sees her chance to be safe in Douglas, but he must remember his past. She is a willful and precocious child and guides Douglas and makes him live again because she knows danger lies in her future.

Together they explore the Pacific and all its beauty and danger. All the while there are people searching for the child.

Mei Yue is abducted and Douglas’s world crashes down around him until a friend from his past and a love he thought lost forever come to him and aid in trying to recover Mei.

You will ride along on an adventure of desperate action as Douglas battles the sea, Mei’s abductors and his past. He is willing to give up everything to get the child back—including his life.

What he finds may surprise you.

 

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Tell us about yourself Dannie:

I am a writer with two published novels, In Search of a Soul and Tyler Hill’s Decision, and a Fantasy Adventure, Outer World Prairie, coming out later this year.

I have lived in the Marshall Islands, Budapest, built a church in Brazil and served in the U.S. Army in Viet Nam. I grew up in North Carolina and carry my southern heritage wherever I go.

I now live in Thailand with my wife where I write and have a small farm. Thailand is the perfect place for me to write because it is a quiet, exotic and beautiful land.

I’m an avid sailor, ride motorcycles, and enjoy most thing involving the great outdoors. I’m also a voracious reader of most any kind of fiction and I write with the reader in mind. I write novels that I enjoy reading!

I have always been a daydreamer and found that I can put these dreams to paper to make wonderful stories.


An Excerpt from In Search Of A Soul:
Mei Yue had a natural talent of getting the best speed out of Tirak. She could feel the wind and learned to observe our surroundings and anticipate slight shifts. Tirak responded with leaps and bows as she sliced through the water.

I spent time with her explaining reflective wave patterns and we watched as errant waves occasionally passed us by, with their secret of land in their wake. She took this knowledge in and it amazed me how she never seemed bored or at a loss with nothing to do. The sea was in her blood and would demand her return all through her life.

I recalled even when hiking the rocky plains and mountains of Afghanistan I could feel the ocean’s pull. With sudden clarity I knew that I had spent time in Afghanistan and with the memory came a soulful pain that staggered me but the why remained a mystery.

Three days out from our port of call the wind dropped to nothing and it was overcast except for sporadic openings letting the sun through. The sea continued to undulate in orderly wave patterns but it took on an oily thickness.

I called Mei to come on deck and we walked out to the bowsprit to see a phenomenon of rare occurrence. With the overcast and sun streaming through at the correct angle shining into the water ahead, the sea turned a thick molten metal color that had the appearance of liquid mercury. Our sight could not penetrate the surface of the water.

I told Mei that this was called Silver Sea and she stood in awed silence. I had only seen this two other times— once in the water off the Bahamas and once near the coast of Chile. This time the water had a decidedly silver-blue tint and shown like a mirror. It held her until the clouds changed the angle of the sun and then the ocean returned to its depthless clear blue. An hour later the wind returned as if it had never left and we continued on.

The weather began to change but the winds held true. Localized storms flirted around us and we had to remain vigilant. Inside the small disturbance the winds would howl and swirl with surprising strength. Mei laid out our foul weather gear and I went over our tactics if a squall line was unavoidable. We practiced shorting sails until she was adroit at the maneuvers. She looked forward to applying her new found skills and was rewarded in the late afternoon when a strong, several mile wide squall rushed at us.

We went through our paces and she took the helm as I stood close behind her. The ferocity of the squall took her by surprise and at first I had to help her hold a course but within a few minutes she pushed me away and took command. Her strength still amazed me and her appreciation of my trust warmed me. The squall lasted only about forty minutes and once in the clear we reset Tirak’s sails and drove on toward night.

Once during the very early morning hours a small squall came at us and I prepared Tirak to join the battle without Mei’s aid. As the storm and winds hit, she rushed on deck with the light of anger in her eyes but said nothing as she stood close and watched me at the wheel. After the storm passed she helped shake out the sails and returned to her bed, without a word.