Cover Reveal: Prophetess of Arden

Today I’m helping reveal the cover for this new book but I have nothing for you just the cover. No description, no pre-order link, no Goodreads link. Why? Because this reveal was on Bookstagram but I am not on Instagram so I have to post here.

I can tell you that this book is the first book in an epic fantasy series called the King and Prophet Chronicles. I am reasonably sure it takes place in a kingdom called Arden. I can also tell you with certainty that there is also a prophetess in this book. I am even willing to bet that she is the main character.

I can also tell you that I am an early ARC reader for this novel and as soon as I finish it I will share a review here for you, right now I have one more book to read before I can get to it.

Prophetess of Arden is expected to release on or around March 24th.

You can find L. A. Thornhill at her website http://lathornhill.com

And on Instagram @lathornhill

Black Friday E-Book Sale

Last year I participated in a massive group Black Friday sale hosted by Perry Kirkpatrick. And I’m doing it again this year.

Go to https://sale.perrykirkpatrick.com to find hundreds of books for less than a dollar. Book prices are only guaranteed through cyber Monday, of course always verify prices before purchasing.

This year you can pick up my novel Runaway Lyrics for only ninety-nine cents and my Steampunk Christmas short story for free.

Did you know that Amazon will let you gift E-books? It’s true. Just select the send as gift option when

If you are gifting someone an e-reader this is a great opportunity to load it up with tons of books for very little money.

Did you want to give someone a signed paperback of Runaway Lyrics? I have nine copies left from an author event earlier this year. If you are interested I have a google form, you can fill out. I am charging $15 shipping included for addresses in the United States. I will ship international but it will cost more. How much more depends on the destination.

Signed Paperbacks can be ordered here: https://forms.gle/e46rrfZq9P5ZcXnZA

Are you looking for a gift that keeps on giving? There’s a new subscription available called the Story of the Month Club. you can check it out here*: http://chellespreciousprintables.com/cpp-amember1/aff/go/cobonham?i=5

I may have contributed a story or two.

*The link listed is an affiliate link. Using it does not increase your cost to purchase but if you choose to buy a subscription, I will get a little extra back from it.

Happy Birthday Runaway Lyrics!

Today is a very special day. It marks the one-year anniversary of my first novel.

That’s right Runaway Lyrics is one-year-old today!

In case you’ve forgotten what Runaway Lyrics is about:

What each sister has she must share with the other . . .

Snow loves music. She has spent her entire life learning new instruments and memorizing new pieces, only to while away her life in a country manor with only her mother and twin sister as company. If only she could get out on her own and play in front of a real audience.

Rose loves magic. The things she can do with music would amaze her twin sister, but whenever she shows her, Snow quickly forgets as if the event had never happened. If only Rose could get out on her own and work some real magic.

When an airship crashes near their home, Snow’s magical abilities awaken. Together the sisters must learn to use their magic, rescue a pair of cursed princes, and discover their own secrets.

Discover the magic of music in this retelling of Snow White and Rose Red.

You can click on the Runaway Lyrics tab above to find all the fun things I made for last years release including downloadable wallpaper and a YouTube playlist of music that inspired the novel.

So this is the part where I ask you to buy my book?

Yes. But first an announcement.

There was a lot I wanted to have done by now, I wanted to have an audiobook version, some character art, and I wanted to have a sequel ready. I am so sorry that I couldn’t have any of those things ready for today. All of those fun things have one thing in common. They take money.

That’s why I’ve made the executive decision to join the Amazon Associates program. That means from now on every link on the website will be affiliate links. (Don’t worry I will not be going back to update old blog posts.)

This just means that if you click on a link to a book and you buy it Amazon will give me a kickback. A tiny kickback but every bit helps. It doesn’t change the price you pay, and it doesn’t affect what the author gets paid either. (As an author that part was very important to me.)

And yes I will disclose this on every page with this super fun disclosure I wrote:

*This website uses affiliate links through the Amazon Associates program. Every time you buy a book using one of these links the blogger gets pennies from Amazon and those pennies will add up into nickels and eventually dimes.

Okay maybe it’s not that fun. I’ll keep working on it. Anyway the point is, if I post about a book that interests you and you would like to buy it, please consider using my link and spare some change for a poor blogger.

If you have firm convictions about affiliate links, or convictions about Amazon, then I promise there will be no hard feelings. Please purchase the book in whatever why feels right for you. Just don’t pirate it please, we will brook no pirates here.

Will you please buy my book? Today is its birthday!

Buy Runaway Lyrics *Yes this is an affiliate link. And yes I see the irony in trying to make more money off a book I already get royalties from.

I also want to shout out the Spellsmith and Carver series which was a huge influence on my book. It also is on sale for 99 cents now through September 22nd, 2022. Get it here: Spellsmith and Carver boxset.

So what do you think? Affiliate links yay or nay?

Reader Nominated Award

Are you tired of looking at lists of award winning books that you haven’t and don’t plan on reading? Well never fear the Realm Awards Readers choice contest is here to save the day.

From April 2nd-23rd (I know I’m so late telling you about this) any reader can nominate books that they feel deserve the award.

There are some stipulations though: You may nominate up to three different books for the Realm Award Readers’ Choice Contest. To qualify, books must be:

  • Speculative in genre (Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, or any of their related sub-genres)
  • Written by a professed Christian author
  • Published between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021
  • The first instance of publication of the work (no new editions, subsequent printings under a new imprint, etc.)
  • Novel length
  • A single work (no anthologies, collections, or compilations)
  • Written for middle grade, young adult, or adult audiences.

You’ll need the complete and accurate book title and author’s name for each entry as they appear on Amazon.

All these books written by my D&D party qualify!

It just so happens that my novel Runaway Lyrics qualifies.

I would be super honored if you would consider nominating my book but I understand if you have other books that you love more. Seriously, choosing only three book is very hard.

To avoid swaying you I won’t tell you which three I nominated. (No I did not nominate my own book even though there doesn’t seem to be a rule against it.)

All of the Frosted Roses novels qualify except The Bear which is too short.

Here are a dozen books that I loved from last year that qualify for the award (the three I nominated are on here somewhere):

Power Play by H.L. Burke

Secrets in the Mist by Morgan Busse

Shadow by Kara Swanson

Amok by Anna Tan

In Real Life by Elisabeth Warner.

A Castle Contended by Sharon Rose

The Fey of castle Garden by Naomi P Cohen.

Discernment by Lauren Salisbury

Wishing Against the House (Steel City genie book 3) by Janeen Ippolito

Gilded in Ice by Sarah Pennington

Traitor by Laurie Lucking

Silence the Siren by Michele Israel Harper

Don’t forget about Runaway Lyrics!

These books from members of my critique group qualify as well.

Are any of these books your favorites?

Which three will nominate?

Nominate now before time runs out!

Valentine’s day surprise!

Happy Valentine’s day! As a single person I don’t usually go all in on celebrating Valentine’s day. But this year I have a book with a very minor romantic thread in it, so I thought I could share that with you.

For today and tomorrow (February 14th and 15th 2022) Runaway Lyrics eBook will be free on Amazon. So feel free to snap one up if you haven’t already. If you have a copy already will you consider sharing this deal with your book loving friends. (I’m hoping to get a flag on Amazon.)

Runaway Lyrics was nominated for the Fellowship of Fantasy Indie book club group on Facebook. My takeover event is today (2/14/22) and you can join now to check it out.

I also made a fun Character Quiz for you.

Click the button to learn which Runaway Lyrics character is most like you.

Black Friday Book Bonanza

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving yesterday, even if you are outside of the United States, there are always reasons to be thankful.

But now the food has been eaten and the dishes are done and thankfulness gives way to rampant consumerism.

I have some big news for you if you enjoy books. The news gets better if you also enjoy saving money on books.

It’s Black Friday so that means you get all the books at rock bottom prices!

Black Friday Ebook Sale $0.99 or Free! Princesses, Fey Folk, & Happily Ever Afters. http://sale.perrykirkpatrick.com

This sale has 136 different fantasy books. All the Ebooks are 99 cents or free. Including my own Runaway Lyrics which is 99 cents through the sale dates.

Remember the Frosted Roses Collection? Four out of the six book in that collection are on sale for 99 cents each.

Five Frosted Roses at Black Friday prices. http://sale.perrykirkpatrick.com

Look for: Runaway Lyrics, Gilded in Ice, Rose Petals and Snow Flakes, and Secrets of the Mountain, in fantasy and The Bear in historical fiction.

You can also check out The Clockwork FaerieTale Novellas, #1: Red As Blood It may not be a Frosted Rose but it looks like an amazing steampunk retelling of Snow White and Rose Red.

I know what you’re thinking, “I prefer physical books.” We’ve all been there, and I hear you.

Runaway Lyrics Paperbacks are on sale too!

Grab yourself a physical copy of Runaway Lyrics from Amazon for the low price of $8.99. That’s four whole dollars off the regular print price.

That’s all for now! I hope you and your families have a happy and safe holidays and also that your book haul may be large and satisfying.

NaNoWriMo 2021 and Runaway Lyrics takeover

Hello Readers, I hope everyone is doing well. It’s been a minute since my last post. I’ve had to cut back on my reading lately to give myself time for National Novel Writing month, you the time of year where everyone is struggling to write a novel in 30 days AND cook dinner for thirty family members. Writers are crazy.

My project for NaNo is Shattered Lyrics. It’s the sequel to Runaway Lyrics that released this past September. Behold my Inspiration collage:

I’m about seven thousand words in right now. (Yes I am way behind in NaNo.)

Once again I am writing this story as part of the Arista band of fairy tale retellers challenge. In 2021 the challenge is to write a Snow Queen retelling.

Snow Queen is a hard fairytale to retell, it is very meandering and has a lot of characters.

Thankfully Runaway Lyrics had a lot of characters too.


In other news: This happened.

My book Runaway Lyrics was nominate as the November book of the month by the Fellowship of Fantasy Indie Book Club.

I did not get the coveted spot but I was a runner up. As a result I get an author take over day. That day is today! (November 10th 2021)

Please join the Book club’s Facebook group if you would like to see me share about Runaway Lyrics and get in on my giveaways.

Also as a side note, The winning book was written by my cover designer. I’ve read it before and it is very good, Beauty and the Beast meets Norse mythology. She is so talented at both art and writing.

Dive-in Review: Traitor

It’s time for another book release from L2L2, they publish amazing YA fantasy books, and today’s book is a sequel to one of their previous releases. Click here to check out my review of Common, the first book in the tales to the Mystic’s series.

About Traitor:

Princess Penelope has finally found a way to redeem her past mistakes—if only it didn’t require betraying her new fiancé. Princess Penelope has been the object of gossip and ridicule ever since she returned home in disgrace following her failed engagement to the Crown Prince of Imperia. When her father offers a new start in a country far across the sea, she has no choice but to accept.

Even if it means another betrothal, this time to a total stranger.

Penelope arrives in Delunia determined to avoid bringing further shame upon her family. But her devoted, caring fiancé makes it harder to guard her heart than she anticipated, and rumors of dark magic haunt her with memories she’d rather keep buried far beneath her pristine exterior.

When a poverty-stricken village outside the palace gates looks to her as their hope for a brighter future, Penelope embraces the opportunity to make amends for her transgressions. But in order to help, she must manipulate her new fiancé, putting her reputation on the line once more. And her heart.

Can Penelope rise above the failures of her past, or will she forever be branded a traitor?

Ready to order?

All of the purchase links can be found here (L2L2 website), as well a link to Common.
https://www.love2readlove2writepublishing.com/books/traitor/

My Dive-in Review:

Traitor, by Lauri Lucking, is the sequel to her debut novel, Common.

Having previously read and enjoyed Common made me both excited and hesitant to dive into Traitor. Traitor is about Princess Penelope, the antagonist of Common.

I really struggled to get into the story, at first. This girl was really unlikable in the first book, and I was not ready to forgive her.

But surprise, forgiveness is the whole theme of the novel. This story was an excellent example of forgiveness, how we can never do enough good on our own to earn it, it is a gift, and how sometimes the person we most need forgiveness from is ourselves.

Once you spend a couple chapters with Penelope, you will like her, I promise. She knows she did wrong, and she has to live with the consequences. But she also works really hard to redeem herself by learning from her mistakes.

What I most liked about this book was the country of Delunia. It has a very exotic / Asian feeling compared to the very European feel of the previous book’s Imperia.

One thing that struck me as odd about Common was how magic was not mentioned until suddenly it was. Traitor mentions magic from the beginning and naturally builds to its climatic moment.

Lucking also does a fantastic job of building in the twist ending. I kind of suspected that it might go that way, but I wasn’t really sure until it did. Those are the best kind of twists. Obvious, but surprising.

*I received an advanced copy of this book. A review wasn’t required, but I left one anyway, because that’s how I do things.*

About the author:

Laurie Lucking loves hoarding books, singing at the top of her lungs, playing games that
don’t involve too much strategy, and spending time with her husband and three energetic
kids. A recovering attorney, she now spends her days as a stay-at-home mom and has
discovered writing young adult romantic fantasy is way more fun than drafting contracts.
Her fairy tale–inspired stories combine the excitement of discovering new worlds with the timeless enchantment of falling in love. Find out more about Laurie and her writing
adventures at http://www.LaurieLucking.com

Social Media Links:
Website: www.laurielucking.com
Blog: www.landsuncharted.com
Amazon Author: www.amazon.com/Laurie-Lucking/e/B0796DGHX8
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/laurielucking
Instagram: www.instagram.com/laurielucking
Twitter: www.twitter.com/LaurieLucking
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/luckinglaurie
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorLaurieLucking
FB Reader’s Group: www.facebook.com/groups/faithandfairytales

Halloween 2020 Anthology

I got published again. This time it’s in the Halloween 2020 short story anthology. It’s like the 2019 Halloween Anthology I was in last year, but you know, for this year.

There is no doubt that Halloween 2020 is going to go down as one of the strangest holidays ever. With lockdowns, social distancing, masks, politics, lies, violence and hate dominating every news report–every thought at times, celebrating takes on a different aspect this year.
Some people are determined to act as if everything’s normal while others are devastated that they can’t have their annual Halloween gala. Trick or treating has either been cancelled or there are so many rules in place to protect everyone from Covid-19 that it barely resembles its previous incarnations.
For the 2020 Halloween Short Story Challenge, I tasked the authors to look at Halloweens past, present and future. I suggested they view the holiday through the out-of-focus lens of 2020, but they didn’t have to. I challenged them to search outside the box, inside the box and all around the box, until they found something that resonated within them.
For many, this year has been one of loss, fear, uncertainty and apathy. It’s been hard to get out of bed let alone be creative. That’s why this was an especially difficult, yet important, Challenge.
The authors in this anthology accepted that challenge and they’ve written an incredible, eclectic assortment of Halloween stories and poems. They’ll terrify you. They’ll delight you. They’ll make you laugh. And hopefully, for at least as long as it takes you to read them, you’ll be distracted from the real-life horrors of 2020. Enjoy!

Buy it on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3o1DuqM

Not every story in this anthology takes place in 2020 though, some stories are more like memories, others are just fun Halloween centric stories.

My story is a very 2020 centric story. In a world where trick or treat has been cancelled, Halloween becomes, “The Night of the Masked Children.”

So if you’re looking for seasonal read go ahead and pick up Halloween 2020 today. You might just decide to keep some candy on hand after all.

Available in eBook, paperback, and Kindle unlimited: https://cobonham.com/2019/10/24/halloween-short-story-challenge-2019-anthology/

Rapunzel Tour: Diamond

Blog Tour Banner

Hey there, thanks for coming back for my second round on the Rapunzel tour. If you missed my first post, a dive in review of Misfortune click here to check it out.

Today I’m giving you my dive in review of Diamond book #3 in the Once Upon a Twist series.

Diamond

This time, Rapunzel’s not the one stuck in the tower, but the secrets he brings with him may cost her own life.

CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), quality = 85Once Upon a Twist #3
Diamond leads a quiet life with the woman she calls Mother. There isn’t much to pass the time save for excursions in the forest and one-sided conversations with her pet rabbit, Hobie. Men are cruel beings who care only for themselves and must be avoided at any cost. After all, Diamond’s own father gambled her away once. What other terrible fates might await her if people knew she existed?

 Seth Stendahl is an alchemist with a middling proficiency in the Rohesian tongue. After growing up with and surviving six sisters, there shouldn’t be anything too difficult for him to master – except maybe breaking his leg and being locked in the top of a ruined watchtower.

 This is Rapunzel with a twist like you’ve never seen it before.

Order Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0872MC72P/

Add Book on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48984508-diamond

Explore the rest of the series! Goodreads

Author Bio:

KirstenKirsten Fichter is a twenty-something Christian writer who loves being the wife to her favorite person ever, mommy to two precious blessings, a piano enthusiast, a dragon buff, a serious bookworm, and an INFP synesthete. Fairytales have always fascinated her, and she has made it her goal to rewrite as many as possible and become known as the “Grimm Dickens” (i.e. mixing Grimm fairytales with a Dickens style). Diamond: A Rapunzel Story is her third published fairytale retelling. You can find out more about her on her blog, A Synesthete Writer.

Find her online at:  Blog || Goodreads || Facebook || Twitter || Instagram || Amazon 

Diamond Review:

Not all Diamonds glitter.

This Diamond is a girl. Her mother keeps her hidden away, always obsessing about her nearly eighteen feet of golden hair.

Before you start thinking you’ve seen this Disney movie before, you need to know that this is a non-magical story. Everything it totally plausible, well except for the alchemist, he’s still not magic though, just very fashion forward with the goggles and the foreign accent.

I loved the main characters who are super cute together. Seth, with his six older sisters knows how to say just the right thing. And poor Diamond, who has never spoken to another soul in her life let alone a man, has no idea what to say.

I also loved the gender swapping element of Seth being the one stuck in the tower, even though Diamond still had the long hair. It was an interesting twist that added originality to the story.

mock-00173

Okay so yes there are nods to everyone’s favorite Disney movie too. The jokes about the horse not acting very horse like were a particular favorite of mine. But Diamond shines (Pun Always Intended) on it’s own as a unique fairy-tale retelling that is sure to remind you why you love Disney movies in the first place.

*I was slipped an electronic copy of this story, secretly in the dead of night, for purposes unknown. I willingly relate to you now my honest opinion of the material so that you may be informed and forewarned about the contents.*

Today’s Tour Stops:

May 18
Kirsten Fichter – Seth Stendahl and his Alchemy
Interviews:
Reality Reflected – Delshad
Reviews:
Morgan Elizabeth Huneke – Misfortune
Fairy Dust on My Pen – Diamond
C.O. Bonham – Diamond

Please visit this page for the full schedule: https://kendrasgiraffecrafts.blogspot.com/p/a-twist-of-rapunzel.html

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