Christmas Vacay Read: Daniel and the Sun Sword (Blog Tour, Day 5)

Most of you know that I don’t read fiction when I’m writing, but when a friend of twenty years publishes his first book you make an exception. I got a behind-the-scenes look as this book was birthed, which made reading it all the more delightful. My buddy Nathan’s  imagination probably tops mine as we have been telling each other stories for a long time – thankfully there’s much less acting them out and more writing these days.

His first book, Daniel and the Sun Sword is nonstop action that would occupy ANY middle schooler from cover to cover. His main character is thirteen-year-old Daniel who is about to be adopted. When he learns his new family wants him as a slave, he runs away with the help of his new neighbors, the naïve and cowardly Ben and Raylin, a mysterious girl with a shady past. He begins to second-guess his decision, however, when the cave they hide in transports them to the ruins of Machu Picchu, where they find themselves embroiled in a battle between ancient gods of Life and Death. To top things off, the God of Life draws Daniel into the fray by adopting him as his son and setting him on a quest to complete a broken, mystical sword, a task that will pit him against the god of the underworld.

Now, Daniel and his friends have just one weekend to find the shards before a hoard of supernatural enemies catch up. But that’s not all they face. A trap has been set that even Daniel wouldn’t expect, and he just took the bait. Will the power of his Heavenly Father be enough to save them?

I’ll admit that the few times I read the book before bed I had to turn some more lights on, and I also maybe checked my closet or under the bed for any lurking creatures.

Curious? Read an excerpt from Daniel and the Sun Sword, the first book in author Nathan Lumbatis’ trilogy series, Sons and Daughters below.

Nathan

Daniel and the Sun Sword

Daniel felt the ground vibrate underneath him. Something huge was approaching.

The torchlight in the room flickered and grew dim, and a cold feeling settled into the pit of his stomach.

“Why worry about defeating a slave,” it said, “when its master comes against you?”

The two Creeps still standing fell to the ground, groveling toward a monstrous shape crowding the hallway.

It stepped into the light, and Ben cried out in fear, dropping to his knees. Raylin turned pale and took several steps backward into the shadows.

Daniel let the Sun Sword drop to his side, and his legs felt weak.

He had never seen anything like the creature that faced them now. It looked like it belonged in a horror movie; although, he could never imagine anyone paying money to see something so frightening.

It stood at least twelve feet tall, with long arms that reached to the ground. Its hands were enormous, with jagged, broken claws that rasped the stone with each lumbering step it took. It was mostly bald, but here and there dark patches of fur bristled out like fungus.

But its true terror was its face. It had three jet black eyes and an oozing hole where its nose should have been. Its mouth was full of long, yellow fangs and was so big its lower jaw hung perpetually open, resting on its chest.

Even though Daniel wasn’t sure it helped anything, he found himself hoping that Ms. Julie had kept her promise to pray for him.

To find out more about Daniel’s story, my friend Nathan, or purchase the book locally check out his website here. Click here to purchase the book on Amazon. You can also click on the links below to follow his blog tour. 

D&SS Blog Tour Day 1:  Peter Younghusband 

D&SS Blog Tour Day 2: Ashlee Willis

D&SS Blog Tour Day 3: David Bergsland 

D&SS Blog Tour Day 4: Brent King 

D&SS Blog Tour Day 5: Mikelyn Bolden

D&SS Blog Tour Day 6: Katie Pottle

 

 

Hello & Book Three For Christmas

Hello. Cue Adele’s voice singing in your head.

It’s already been said on this blog that I hate getting personal, mostly because it’s like any other form of written communication. Unless I put twenty emoticons along with my message you may not know exactly what I’m saying or how I meant for you to receive it. But because I’ve kept you waiting (er, ten months since my last post) I thought it only fair to share a few more details on what happened in 2014 aka bring perspective.

Book One, had its own challenges certainly (like when the actual books showed up halfway into the release party), but Book Two almost took me out. I mentioned before that the publisher of Book One called two weeks before I had my baby girl to tell me they were going out of business. Cue embezzlement, cue all royalties gone, cue my files being sold to another publisher without my knowledge, cue filling my garage with over 1,000 books, cue B&N pulling the books due to verification issues on the paper, cue being given faulty printing info, cue fighting with Amazon for ten months on copyright infringement . . . I should probably just stop there.

So after going through all of that, WHO was going to publish Book Two? NOBODY but me.

Now, if you’ve ever tried to publish your own book and your degree is in speech-language pathology it’s kind of like watching my almost two-year-old “steer” her trike or “color” a picture of Elsa. I’m serious. We’re talking as bumpy, messy, and unprofessional as it gets. What makes it more fun is if you can find other folks in completely different fields to help you too, like an investment analyst and English teacher (okay, so that was actually helpful) as your editors and a pharmaceutical sales rep as your formatting expert.

People ask me for book advice all the time. At this point I can probably tell you more about what not to do than do. What I do not recommend is trying to navigate a publishing horror story, motherhood, and self-publishing all at the same time. Some things, the really important things, might begin to unravel. And, if that happens be smart enough to pull back.

Book Three for Christmas? I suppose the answer is obvious now, but no, no book for Christmas. I put together a plan for the final two books in this series and how they will be released last February. It’s BIG, and you’re going to love it, but to make it work I had shift my focus away from books for a little while . . . this absence has made my heart all the more ready to share Book Three and Four with YOU! Book Three has a terrible cliffhanger, so I need a little more time to prepare Book Four so the releases are close—I promise you’ll thank me later. I cannot thank you enough for being on this wild ride with me. I value the time you’ve take to even read this update.

I’m looking forward to wrapping up my first book series in 2016, or saying hello from the other side.