The Blurb for Trapped

Hello, everyone.  I'm currently tearing my hair out as I try to craft the blurb for Trapped, so I thought it might be fun to see what all of you think.

My four best attempts so far are below-please use the comments section to let me know which is your favorite!

Attempt 1:
Kristin had her future all mapped out.  She just needed to finish off her last two years of high school and then she was almost certain to swap her existence in small-town Idaho for four years at Harvard or Princeton.

Rather than continuing along her carefully planned route, she’s now running for her life from a threat that she couldn’t have even imagined just a few days before. Her pursuer is relentless, and her only hope is the handsome stranger who has managed to keep her alive so far.  Before their flight is over Kristin will find out just how big of a sacrifice is going to be required for them to survive.

Attempt 2:

Ash appeared out of nowhere and saved Kristin from a threat that didn’t belong in her small-town world of classes and test prep.  Their pursuer is a relentless killing machine that Kristin is starting to suspect is unstoppable. Her situation is too bleak to be thinking beyond the next hour, but more and more Kristin finds herself attracted to her mysterious savior.  The more drawn she is to Ash, the more she realizes what each of them is going to have to sacrifice if they are going to have a chance to be together. 

Attempt 3:

Anton is a nearly unstoppable killing machine.  He’s spent the last two hundred years killing whomever he wants, but when he targets Kristin, a small-town teenager, he’s foiled for the first time in decades.

Ash is an exile.  Stronger and faster than any normal human, he’s still forced to keep a low profile to avoid tangling with all of the things out there that are even more dangerous than he is.  He knew Anton was trouble, but he still couldn’t bring himself to let that kind of monster kill her.

Kristin only ever wanted a normal life, college and then a good job in a big city somewhere.  She didn’t count on Ash or the way that she would start to feel about him as they ran for their lives.  They are in too much danger to let emotions get in the way, but neither Ash or Kristin can help the attraction growing between them.

Attempt 4:

Kristin has always been firmly grounded in reality.  Trading in small-town Idaho for an Ivy-League school wasn't going to be an easy proposition and making it happen wasn't going to leave her time for unnecessary things like crushes on boys.

Kristin is about to find out that all of the creatures she thought were nothing more than myth are actually quite real.  One of the worst of them is after her, an unstoppable killing machine that will chase her across a continent.

Kristin is completely out of her depth.  Her one hope is a mysterious guy with dangerous skills and a dark past.  He's the kind of guy that Kristin knows she shouldn't get involved with, but as their attraction grows it becomes apparent that being with him is going to require an even bigger sacrifice than she realized.

The Greater Darkness is Live!

I'm happy to announce that Greater Darkness is now available for purchase!

As I've indicated in past blog posts, I’m releasing this one under a pen name because it’s a bit darker than Broken, Torn or The Guadel Chronicles.  Torn is a bit heavier on the action and lighter on the romance than Broken.  The Greater Darkness is even a bit lighter still on the romance and heavier on the action than Torn.  Because of that I didn't want people to buy it based on my name without first giving them a heads up that it is a bit of a departure from the other stuff I've written.  That being said, while the romance isn't as strong in this book, it sets the stage for not one, but three separate love stories, so for those of you that like romance that is a bit more subtle and which develops slowly, over the course of several books, this could still be right up your alley.

I've actually written three different blurbs for The Greater Darkness, one focusing on the action, and one more focuses on one of the romances that it lays out in this installment.  I wasn't quite happy with either of those options so I've got a third blurb that tries to combine both elements.  Without further delay, here are the setups.

Balanced (Combined) Setup:
Something powerful is stirring in the darkness.  Something so ancient that even creatures who've been alive for hundreds of years have long since discounted this new threat as nothing more than myth.

Geoffrey knows even less than most about this rising menace.  His memories were all violently ripped away from him, leaving nothing of his past but dreams containing haunting glimpses of a beautiful girl.

A chance encounter offers up a possible link to his past, but forces beyond his control are threatening to push him into the middle of a conflict that could sweep away everything, and everyone he’s been fighting so hard to protect.

This time, saving the girl may very well cost Geoffrey his soul.

Action Setup:
Something powerful is stirring in the darkness.  Something so ancient that even creatures who've been alive for hundreds of years have long since discounted this new threat as nothing more than myth.

Normal humans will be caught in the crossfire, but then that's always the way of things.  Geoffrey has no memory of his past life or any idea how to survive in the violent, dangerous world in which he's trapped. Despite his best efforts, he's about to find himself in the middle of a conflict that threatens to sweep away everything, and everyone he's been fighting so hard to protect.

Romance Setup:
Geoffrey’s memories were all violently ripped away from him, but his dreams still contain haunting glimpses of a beautiful girl that he somehow knows was important to him.

Forces beyond his control are quickly arraying against him but he can’t abandon his one possible tie to his past life.  He knew going in that it might cost him his life, but now he’s realizing that his determination to save the tiny flame of goodness she represents, might cost him his soul.

The Greater Darkness is available at the following retailers:
Amazon US ($4.99)
Amazon UK (GBP 3.00)
iTunes ($4.99)
Barnes & Noble ($4.99)
Kobo ($4.99)
Smashwords ($4.99)

My Favorite New Epic Fantasy

Some of you will have read some of my early interviews and blog posts where I talk about how excited I got after reading the first two Twilight books.

I recently found a new epic fantasy series that I really love and I wanted to share it with those of you who have read and loved The Guadel Chronicles.  Partly that is because I think it’s a good match taste wise with the Guadel Chronicles, partly it’s because I've enjoyed the series (so far) a ton, and partly it’s because this is exactly the kind of thing that I appreciate all of you fans and super fans doing for my writing.  I guess this is me trying to pay it forward a little even though by all appearances Mr. Wells is doing quite well and doesn't really need me cheerleading for him. :)

Without further ado, the series is The Sovereign of the Seven Isles and the first book is titled Thinblade.

Here’s the setup from Amazon:
When second son Alexander Valentine loses his brother to an assassin’s arrow, he discovers that his family protects an ancient secret and reluctantly finds himself at the center of the final battle of a war that was supposed to have ended two thousand years ago.

Pursued by the dark minions of an ancient enemy, Alexander flees to the mountain city of Glen Morillian where he discovers that he is the heir to the throne of Ruatha, one of the Seven Isles, but before he can claim the throne he must recover the ancient Thinblade. Seven were forged by the first Sovereign of the Seven Isles and bound to the bloodline of each of the seven Island Kings in exchange for their loyalty to the Old Law. Each sword is as long as a man’s arm, as wide as a man’s thumb and so thin it can’t be seen when viewed from the edge. Thinblade is the story of Alexander’s quest to find the ancient sword, claim the throne of Ruatha and raise an army to stand against the enemy that has awoken to claim dominion over all of the Seven Isles.

My Thoughts:
I’m not sure why I picked Thinblade up.  Frankly I didn’t love the cover and I thought it was probably going to be one of those stories where the ‘magical sword’ was overpowered and ruined the balance of the book.  I couldn't have been more wrong!

David A. Wells knows how to tell a story.  He’s got a tremendous amount of back story behind the novel, but he doesn't just dump it on you all at once.  Nope, instead you get bits and pieces as the story goes on.  It leaves you wanting more, which I think is exactly the way to treat back story.

Wells also knows how to balance a world.  He’s got magic and magical items scattered all over the series, but none of them felt overpowered to me.  Instead I almost felt like a kid at Christmas as I went through the series.  I just couldn't wait to see what neat new toy the main characters unwrapped next.

The characters were very believable and three dimensional too.  It was just a dang good book.

Here are links to the first book at Amazon.  Unfortunately it looks like Mr. Wells has chosen to go exclusive with Amazon.  Hopefully he’ll change his mind sometime in the near future and get his books out to all of the other retailers.  If you click on the below link and buy I’ll make something like $.06, but I’m putting the affiliate code in there more because I’m curious to see how many people go buy off of my recommendation.  Maybe someday I’ll meet Mr. Wells and be able to tell him that I helped grow his reader base by a couple of hundred of the best fans in the world!

--Dean

Buy Thinblade from Amazon ($.99)