Three Book Giveaway Drawings! Read the details at the end of this post.
About Janalyn Voigt
It happened over time. My father instilled a love of literature in me at an early age when he read chapters from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Robinson Crusoe” and other classics as bedtime stories. When I grew older, and he stopped reading bedtime stories, I put myself to sleep with tales I “wrote” in my head.
As a precocious reader, I soon graduated from storybooks to the novels in my parent’s bookcase. I’m sure those books contributed to my growth as a writer. Eventually, I scribbled my own stories on paper. A teacher noticed my ability to tell a story when I was twelve. As a result of his encouragement, I identified my desire to write novels.
DawnSinger is my debut as a novelist and the first book of my Tales of Faeraven epic fantasy series. In addition, I write historical fiction. My genres are not that disparate when you consider that the world found within DawnSinger is based on 13th-Century Europe. Elements of history, romance, suspense and fantasy or whimsy infuse all my stories.
If you’d like to know more about my life as an author or more about my writing, I hope you’ll visit my Janalyn Voigt website at http:/janalynvoigt.com. While you’re there, be sure to take a look at my Creative Worlds blog, where I share fascinating tidbits from my research, a travel journal, and updates on myself as an author and about my books.
About DawnSinger
The High Queen is dying…
At the royal summons, Shae mounts a wingabeast and soars through the air to the high hold of Faeraven, where all is not as it seems. Visions warn her of danger, and a dark soul touches hers in the night. When she encounters an attractive but disturbing musician, her wayward heart awakens. But then there is Kai, a guardian of Faeraven and of Shae. Secrets bind him to her, and her safety lies at the center of every decision he makes. On a desperate journey fraught with peril and the unknown, they battle warlike garns, waevens, ferocious raptors, and the wraiths of their own regrets. Yet, they must endure the campaign long enough to release the DawnKing—and the salvation he offers—into a divided land. To prevail, each must learn that sometimes victory comes only through surrender.
Author Insight
My Tales of Faeraven series, of which DawnSinger is book one, began as a story to entertain my little girl during a drive. For the main character of my story, I twisted the name of her doll, Cinda, and came up with Syl Marinda, a half-breed princess in a divided land. Long after my daughter had forgotten that first story, the world of Elderland took shape in my mind. I could picture its trees, creatures, and landscapes. As time passed, the characters deepened and grew, and so did the struggles of the alliance of Faeraven, a group of kingdoms unified under a High Queen in Elderland. Through several attempts, I tried to record the story as it unfolded for me, but I kept backing up in time because much of the history in the story demanded to be told. Syl Marinda doesn’t even enter the scene until close to the end of WayFarer, book two in the series. She is the heroine of DawnKing, book three.
I had quite a story lodged in my mind, but I needed to grow as a writer before I could do it justice. I gleaned magazine credits, but I seemed unable to take the next step into becoming a published novelist. I needed to let go of my own vision of how my writing career would play out. It took my receiving a series of disappointments and turning away from writing for a number of years for me to do that. When I returned, I prayed about what I should write, and the answer popped into my head almost immediately. DawnSinger, the first novel of the series I’d abandoned all those years ago. Although I abandoned my writing dream, Tales of Faeraven and its people never left me. If anything they matured as I did, becoming more complex. I now knew them well.
A little over a year after I began writing DawnSinger, I signed with a small press that would later back out of the contract. That was devastating, but I needed to see that I wouldn’t turn away from writing ever again. I signed with Harbourlight just a few months later. I lost a contract for one novel but received a two-book contract and found an agent in a single day. Barbara Scott of Wordserve Literary offered to represent me.
First Paragraph
A crosswind caught Kai’s wingabeast as lightning
flared too near. Shrilling, the winged horse tilted in
flight, and Kai’s stomach lurched. A gust snatched the
hood from his head and roared in his ears. He blinked
to clear the stinging rain that drove into his eyes.
Thunder boomed like a timpani, shaking the air. Flecht
shuddered beneath him, and Kai placed a calming
hand on his wingabeast’s straining neck. He did not
like this long flight through the wild night any better
than did Flecht.
Excerpt
If the PDF fails to display, click here: DawnSinger Excerpt
Purchase at Amazon in Paperback: DawnSinger
Purchase for Kindle: DawnSinger (Tales of Faeraven)
Purchase at Barnes and Noble in Paperback: DawnSinger Purchase for Nook: DawnSinger (Tales of Faeraven)
DawnSinger Giveaway Drawings
There are currently three giveaway drawings for DawnSinger at the following addresses:
©2013 by Janalyn Voigt
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Excellent article, Janalyn. Thanks for sharing this. Hope you have a blessed day.
Jeff
Thanks, Jeff.