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.

Keeping Quiet

Hi All,

As mentioned in the last blog, January was a great month of birthday celebrations! Here’s a few pics documenting the fun:

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This month I had the opportunity to do a bit of one of my favorite things – travel! I got to meet my new nephew in Seattle as well as have my first getaway with my husband (post baby) to NYC. Travel continues to fuel my already over active imagination. In fact, I’d be embarrassed to admit how many times my husband asked, “You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?” Stories are always running through my head!

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In addition to turning one, my little blue-eyed girl hit another big milestone – walking!

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Life is very busy, and though I love this season . . . sometimes I feel like it’s going by far too quickly. After much thought in an attempt to simplify my life and give the best of myself to my family and my best writing to you readers, I’ll be updating pretty infrequently in terms of social media/marketing . . . ahem, not that I’ve been the best blogger anyway. So, if you don’t see any book posts for a while on social media please don’t mistake my quiet for inactivity. I’m still here but am choosing to maximize my free writing time for book writing only. I will, of course, continue to answer emails and be in touch as much as time allows. Thanks in advance for understanding! I am so grateful for all of you and thrilled at how many of you have enjoyed Flight To Facilis.

Much Love!

M

Birthday Month Hiatus

My family has a thing for the month of January. Really it’s true! My nephew turns one next week and his daddy (my brother) will also turn another year older. My birthday comes a week after my brother’s which also happens to be the due date of my sister’s first baby this year. AND, my sweet little Izzy will cap off the month with her first birthday.

Have one big bash you say? Nah, that’s not how we do things. If there’s a reason to celebrate, we do! That being said, I’ll be taking a writing hiatus for a little bit. If you’ve read Book Two, don’t worry. The 150 pages I cut from the original manuscript is Book Three’s introduction. So, technically I have started the third installment. I will also be pushing most of my speaking engagements to early spring (I am SO excited to connect with my readers!).

And by the way, a big THANK YOU to all those who joined Joel on his Flight to Facilis! I hope it brought you loads of light and perspective for what you’re accomplishing on your own journey. You can find or share all the purchasing information here.

Excited to see what the new year brings!

m

P.S. We did sneak away to Paris over Thanksgiving (see below). The place always inspires new ways to describe things.

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Cover Reveal and Accelerated Reader Test

Sorry it’s been so quiet, but I promise I’ve been busy working! Since my last post (June) Book Two went through one more rewrite (yes, I’m serious), got a name, got a cover, and is ready to be in your hands in December. We’re very excited to offer Flight To Facilis in ebook, paperback, AND hardback. Hooray!!!

FlightToFacilis-Cover-F-2In addition to completing the second book, I traveled all over Alabama for the Alabama Library Expo Tour in October. I enjoyed meeting and hopefully encouraging many of the wonderful librarians in my state. In fact, one of them was kind enough to create an Accelerated Reader Test! Here is the link to download the test for your school: ARQUIZ Escape From Differe. To officially be on Accelerated Reader, a request must be made by a teacher, media specialist, student, or parent of a student. So, that means it is up to the readers! Here’s the link if you would like to suggest a quiz (Takes 3 minutes – the information needed is listed at the bottom of this blog post): http://www.renaissance.com/customer-center/suggest-quizzes

Tour

So, you want to know what you’ll find out in Book Two? Here are a few tidbits readers can expect to discover:

Sebastian’s Age
Isabelle and Augustine’s connection
How Andi got his scars
Where Joel is from
If Corwin really is a spy

P.S. You may also find trap doors, tunnels, lightning, horses, disguises, and see a smooch or two between a few main characters.

Cannot wait to put this one in your hands!!!

M

Accelerated Reader Info: Quiz Type: Reading Practice/Literacy Skills; Book Title: Escape From Differe; Author Name: Mikelyn Bolden; ISBN: 9781414122779; Publisher: WinePress Publishing; Age Level: Middle Grades Plus; Year Published: 2013

A New “Normal”

Most “normal” folks with “normal” jobs take a maternity leave right after their child is born, but when you’re an author and your former publisher calls two weeks before you have your baby to tell you they’re going out of business, well, things look anything but “normal.”

I want to express my sincere thanks to all you readers who’ve been patiently waiting for the second installment of The Waiz Chronicles. I’m sure many of you have graciously excused my media absence and delay of the second book on my little lady. Unfortunately there’s been a little more to it than that, but before I go into detail here’s a picture of little sweet cheeks: securedownloadI mean, seriously, is that not one of the best things you’ve ever seen???

So as much as I hate to admit it, I can’t say I remember much of her first two months of life. If I wasn’t feeding, rocking, bouncing, bathing, cleaning, and most definitely NOT sleeping I was frantically closing and reopening all of the accounts for Escape From Differe, canceling former contracts, filing copyright infringements, and shipping the remainder of the printed copies to, uh, the “Bolden Warehouse.” I even learned how to upload eBooks (wowsers). Oh, did I also mention about this time the editors decided I needed to change the ending of Book Two? My poor thumbs typed this rewrite on the iPhone while baby girl slept on my chest (Warning – do not do this or you will have to get a cortisone injection aka “the devil shot”). Needless to say this wasn’t how I’d pictured spending my first few months as mom, so after Book Two was sent to the practice readers in the beginning of April I decided to turn off my computer for a few weeks.

I did however have some previous engagements on the schedule, which were a breath of fresh air after an exhausting fall and grueling beginning to the year.

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I had the privilege of speaking to a creative writing class—most of whom had ALL written or were in the process of writing their own books. I was so inspired!!!

 

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I also enjoyed a full day of speaking in Mrs. Aycock’c English class at Geneva City Middle School. The 8th graders were a blast!

I look forward to sharing in the schools more next year and am SUPER excited to be speaking on the Alabama Library Expo Tour this fall!

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So, these are being returned with really positive feedback. I LOVE hearing that some of the readers favorite portions were the ones that went through a dozen or so rewrites and several rounds with the editors—SCORE!!! My writing is a little different in this manuscript . . . more on that later. Stay Tuned! Once we get the rest of these back, I’ll comb through the book (basically read it aloud) one more time to make the final corrections. After that is the fun stuff – typeset, maps, cover, and finally PRINT!!!

Whew, another book almost done. I never planned to do this and certainly never thought I would. Thank you for trusting me with your time—I treasure it!!!

M

P.S. This is obviously the “nutshell” version of the past 6 months, but I hope this shines a bit of light on the holdup. I’m not one to spill my guts on the internet—I leave that for my books. Thanks for sticking with me in this season of change!

P.P.S . If you liked the first book, we would so appreciate a good word on Amazon or iTunes (we are in the process of reapplying with B&N). . . unfortunately all our past reviews were deleted during the transfer: Amazon Review   iTunes Review   THANK YOU!!! 

What If?

The stories we tell come from our hearts, or, are at least derived from our own grid of thinking. My fellow author and friend, Nathan Lumbatis, recently signed with Ellechor Publishing and will be releasing his first novel in the summer of 2015. He chose a more specific genre to tell his tale. See his reasoning and get a sneak peak of his book below:

Christian fantasy is interested in the “What if?” It presumes a Christian worldview, but then lets the imagination run wild.

What if you and your siblings discover that a musty wardrobe will transport you to a magical world where animals talk, magicians are fallen stars, and a Wild Lion is willing to sacrifice himself for your brother?

What if you find yourself stumbling through the tombs of Anak, desperately trying to solve the mystery behind a sinister family and the treasure it’s hoarding?

What if the Ancient One gave you gifts of prophecy and wisdom to lead a nation to greatness through your protege Arthur Pendragon?

Many of you may recognize these story lines from The Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis), The Tombs of Anak (Peretti), and Merlin (Lawhead). They all have Christian themes, but if we’re honest, it’s the way those themes are interwoven with the mythological and supernatural that give them such strong appeal.

In my novel, Daniel and the Sun Sword (Summer 2015), the main character is thrust into a world where Christianity and mythology intersect. The plot presumes that the myths of the world were born from mankind’s fleeting glimpses into the battle between God and Satan. In this, the first book of theSons and Daughters series, Daniel and his two friends are transported to Machu Picchu, Peru, where they find that the gods and monsters of Incan legend are alive and kicking. . . or so it seems. An ancient deity known simply as the Father adopts him as his son, and sets him on a quest to unite the shards of a magical sword. But when that quest pits him against the “god” of the underworld, Daniel discovers he isn’t simply battling for a sword of legend. He’s partaking in an ancient battle between Life and Death and the supernatural forces behind them. There may be more to his Heavenly Father than he first realized.

With the success of series like Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Kane Chronicles, mythology is in the forefront of teen literature. The “What if?” of Daniel and the Sun Sword takes that interest and focuses it on the Gospel.

What is your favorite “What if”? If you’re a writer, what “What ifs?” could you weave into your next story?

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Nathan Lumbatis is an author and therapist in Dothan, AL.
 Check out Nathan’s website at www.nathanlumbatis.com
to get more news about his first novel, Daniel and the Sun Sword,
which debuts in the SUMMER of 2015.