Get ready.
Scroll down to see the awe-inspiring beauty of my new Young Adult fantasy novel, The Crescent Stone, book one of the Sunlit Lands Trilogy!
GO ON! DO IT! I am biting my nails here waiting to hear your opinion….
I love this cover so much. I also love this novel. A lot. It might be my favorite thing I’ve written, and it’s definitely the most fun I’ve had writing a book.
The art is by the talented Matt Griffin, and the art direction and cover design is by the amazing Dean Renninger.
Here’s Matt’s art without the words, so you can see it in all its glory (click to embiggen):
I’m going to share a quick synopsis, then tell you a little more about why I wrote this and what you have to be looking forward to!
Madeline, a teenager with terminal lung disease, meets a mysterious stranger who offers to heal her in exchange for one year of service in his world, the Sunlit Lands. Madeline and her friend Jason travel to the Sunlit Lands to work for the Elenil people. There is much to discover and enjoy as privileged members of the fantastical Elenil society, but Madeline and Jason soon learn that magic must be bought at a high price.
Argh! I can’t wait to share this book with you!
One of the secrets of staying in love with writing is this: write the book you wish existed.
I love books that are fun, surprising, entertaining, and make me laugh. I love fantasy worlds. I enjoy a book that says something important about both the people in the book, and the world I live in.
The Crescent Stone does all those things. It’s a story about learning our place in the world, realizing our own strengths and weaknesses and advantages and privileges and taking responsibility for those things.
The two main characters, Madeline Oliver and Jason Wu, enter into a strange land where they don’t know the rules. Madeline can breathe because of the magic of the Elenil, but along the way she discovers that things aren’t quite as simple as she thought. What if doing the right thing means a personal loss for her? What if she has to choose between justice and breathing?
And yes, it’s funny. I laughed to myself more than once as I wrote it. In fact, to be completely honest, I may have cackled like a villain in a melodrama as I loaded a few surprises into the plot for my dear readers.
In the months to come I’ll be sharing more with you about this book… why I wrote it, what some of the themes are, and more. If you have questions you want answered, send me a note and I’ll throw them on the list.
The Crescent Stone releases August 7th, 2018, but you can pre-order a copy now!
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