The Storm is here...
About Stormdancer:Days after the events featured in The Watcher, the Watcher is taken hostage by a dragon, leaving Kristen, Will and Nicki alone in a strange new world. With no choice but to try and rescue their friend, Kristen and the others must travel through ancient cities, forgotten burial grounds, and eventually into the heart of the great storm.
Faced with the unknown, will they be able to traverse the storms that stand before them as well as ones within their own hearts?
Book Details:Title: Stormdancer (Sequel to The Watcher)
Author Name: JoshuaPantalleresco
Genre(s): Poetry, Sci-Fi, Dystopian
Tags: Poetry, Epic, Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, science-fiction, dragons
Length: Approx. 104 pages
E-book: 978-0-9947490-4-8
Paperback: 978-0-9947490-3-1
Release Date: October 1, 2015
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing (
http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com/)
Appropriate for all ages from Young Adult to Adult.
Follow the Tour to Read Exclusive Excerpts, Guest Posts, and Reviews:http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/blog-tour-schedule-stormdancer-sequel.htmlGuest Post:Why Joshua Pantalleresco Writes
So before we begin, I want to thank Sharon for having me. She's secretly a unicorn, and that story will have to be told some other day, but she's a kind, sweet lady and it was a pleasure to be asked to come here and write.
I am going to write about my books, why I wrote them, and the lessons you can learn from them. Stormdancer is book two of the Watcher Saga. In it, the Watcher, the main character from book one is kidnapped leaving Kristin, Nicki, and Will to chase him down. The journey is improbable and fantastic and in my opinion the kind of magic a good story creates.
I want to talk about some of the themes of the story. In particular, dealing with grief and changes. Because entering into this book, I was left in a quandry. The Watcher was the Watcher's story; about his journey to discovering who he was, and more importantly, what he wanted to be. This wasn't the Watcher's story anymore. It is the first line in book two.
“This is not my story anymore.”
That was deliberate, conscious line that illustrated the problems I had starting book two. I wanted to flesh out the characters I introduced at the end of book one, yet I didn't want to lose the strong presence the Watcher had in book one.
So who were the three kids I rescued? I chose Kristin as the main character in book two. They had just gone through the loss of everything they knew. Kristin represented that tragedy. Losing a family.
It parallels my own story. Not that I lost my whole family, but my whole family situation collapsed at a very young age. My mom and dad fell apart and I remember that when I was younger it was like my fault. Why did two people I love have to do this? Why did things have to change? It messed me up. I tried to tell myself I was over this pain of not having this unit in my life. I ran away from home at one point because of the pain.
I was very fortunate. I had two teachers look after me. One of them a principal, and the other was my grade four teacher. I was her last class. We didn't make the greatest impression, but to my surprise, she was there for me when I least expected it.
That's Kristin in chapter three. She was happy in her life – it was all she knew. And that turmoil is expressed very much in all her actions for the first half of the book. She has become my favorite character to write in the saga so far. Watching her rise above her own stuff was a vicarious experience.
I had to learn at a young age that life was a struggle. A lot of kids have their childhoods end a lot sooner than maybe they should. I thought the three kids had been through hell, and it was just beginning. Making them grow up happened to me.
The silver lining going through grief is that people come together. Family isn't just blood. It's the people you go through things with, that are there with you through thick and thin. Going back to the very beginning, it wasn't just the Watcher's story anymore. It was about the kids, and going through their own fires, and becoming closer for it.
So if you are a kid reading Sharon's blog, I hope this book teaches you to be brave. I'm not going to lie to you; life is hard. Chances are you have gone through some painful things and are probably stronger and braver than I was ever was. I'm not going to make you a promise that it'll get any easier. What I can tell you though, is that you can overcome. The big secret that most adults don't even know is that if you believe you can do it, you can. You are strong and powerful and can do anything.
But I'm also going to say that there are people who are there for you no matter what. People that believe in you. They will be there when you fall, and they will be there to help you rise. They are the people worth being with.
Read an Excerpt:STORMS WITHIN
he ran
disappearing into the night
leaving us all alone
we tried to follow him
but were unsure of the trees and trails
we went slowly
we knew something had happened
when we found his blades in the forest
blackened and alone
he had come
like a force of nature
wrecking our lives
in the name of freedom
freedom from what?
the hollow embers and ashes we found
I didn't build them
those ruins were his story
not mine
never mine
I...was happy
yeah, I was happy
is there something wrong with that?
my parents loved me
I didn't care about anything else
the dragons were bastards
but I understood the game
the moves that could be made
with one flick of a blade
he changed all that
shattered the illusion with a roar of rebellion
now my life is here
in this forest
now he had vanished into the night
leaving me abandoned
leaving everything in shambles!
Purchase Links:Amazon
http://amzn.to/1jjBlnYMirror World Publishing
http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/products/stormdancer-e-bookMeet the Author:Joshua Pantalleresco writes stuff. It's even on his business card. This is a succinct way of saying that in addition to writing poetry, he also does interviews, columns, comics, prose and anything possible with the written word. When he isn't writing, he's playing with podcasts, filming stuff, fiddling with alternative medicine, travelling, talking to people and pretending he is a rockstar. Stormdancer is his second book through Mirror World Publishing. He lives in Calgary.
Hello again! This is my first blog post in a bit as I have been busier than George R R Martin avoiding questions on when he’s finally going to finish the Game of Thrones series.
I spent most of last month working on a conference, getting married in Fiji and taking a short honeymoon on a boat in the Whitsundays, all of which were blessed with stunning weather and incredibly slow internet connections. (You try getting your email while anchored off the glorious blue and white of Whitehaven Beach. Or caring about getting your email when you have urgent swimming, snorkeling and reading in the boom-net to do.)
In the interest of my (and my new husband’s) sanity, I decided to take a month off blogging about books. But taking a month off blogging is not the same thing as taking a month off reading. I was well prepared and equipped. I loaded my e-reader with endless awesome texts, packed a few hard-copies into my luggage in case of power failure, and then came back from vacation to discover that Australia Post had been holding on to enough posted book parcels to necessitate thinking about purchasing (yet another) bookshelf. My to-read list doth runneth over, frankly, as does my “books I must post about” list.
Also running over is my poor credit card bill which, in addition to the cost of the honeymoon and reading material for it, has also just soaked up a bill for a book launch. And not just any booklaunch. Melbourne’s tallest man*, Jay Kristoff, will release his debut novel, Stormdancer, on Friday September 7. It’s a Japanese-inspired steampunk fantasy (Jay once described as “‘Free Willy’ meets ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ in Steampunk feudal Japan with a Rage Against the Machine soundtrack), the first installment of what will be the Lotus War trilogy and, as I was one of the lucky advance reviewers I can tell you, it’s very very good.
It’s got a glowing review from Patrick Rothfuss (who wrote the excellent Wise Man’s Fear). It’s garnered a hard-to-earn Kirkus Star and got a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly, and was also their PW Pick of the Week. Most importantly, it kept me sane and happily entertained over a period of three days before getting married when fretting over details and guest-mishaps was causing most of my brain run “what-if” disaster videos on a loop and for that, I can not recommend it enough.**
According to Jay, everyone is welcome to come on the launch night but don’t expect much standing on ceremony.
“I’ll mumble my way through a half-assed speech and then will be totally happy to sign your books. We’ll have books on sale there on the night, but if you want to bring copies bought elsewhere, all good too.”
If you’d like to get your mitts on a signed copy, Jay will be signing books on Friday September 7th from 7.00 – 8.30pm at the Dymocks City Store on 234 Collins St in Melbourne. Everyone is welcome but I have it on good authority that people who feel like coming to the Afterparty following the launch will be particularly welcomed and even more so if they buy Jay a drink.
* I may be making this up.
**Also he’s absurdly tall and if you don’t buy his book he will come in the night, dr