Saturday, 29 June 2013

Book Launch Blog Tour


So the days have flown by and it’s now just one day until the release of my first novel -  THE LAST KNIGHT.

To be honest, in a weird way I am almost numb to the excitement now – part of me just wants it over with.

However, I am excited to announce that I will be doing a blog tour for THE LAST KNIGHT! This is something quite new to me, but I’m so pleased and grateful to the wonderful people who are taking part. Below is a list of the blogs and dates.

30th June – Down Under Wonderings - http://downunderwonderings.blogspot.com/ - The Truth Behind the Legend Guest Post

1st July -  Delirious Musings of a Writer - http://deliriousmusingsofawriter.blogspot.com/ - Q&A with my own lovely self!

2nd July – The Tracery of Ink - http://thetraceryofink.blogspot.com – Interview with me – because I’m great!

3rd July – Yatopia - http://yatopia.blogspot.com/ - Interview with the gorgeous, sexy and mysterious Lance.

4th July – Cassandra Page - www.cassandrapage.com – Self-Publishing Guest Post

5th July – The Fault in Our Words - http://www.faultinour-words.blogspot.ie/ - Ideas and Sticking with Them Guest Post

6th July – Hexbound – http://www.hexbound.com/ - Self-Publishing Guest Post

7th July – Book Nerds Anonymous - http://avasmith.org/ - Book Review

Hope to see you all there!

Friday, 21 June 2013

The Last Teaser...


So it’s getting real now, people. Just over a week to go until THE LAST KNIGHT hits the shelves.

Nine days to be exact.

Nine days. Wow, that’s a scary thought. Emotionally, it’s been a crazy rollercoaster ride over the last couple of months. I’ve gone from incredibly excited to feeling sick with fear and worry. And I doubt that’s going to change in the next week.

I’ve had days where I am so excited to get this book out there – to see what people think. And I’ve had days where I think I’ve made some huge, crazy mistake.

But what’s kept me going along this path has been the overwhelming support of the people around me. Friends, family, people I barely know,  who are still supporting the launch of this book. They have all made it possible for me to follow through on the promise I made on the spur of the moment back at the beginning of April.

Spur of the moment it might have been, but it’s still the right decision. Panicky feelings aside. This is the right choice for me. Because being a writer for me was never about making money or being famous. It was about telling some stories that are fun and entertaining, and hopefully touch people in some way. I don’t have to have a publisher or an agent to do that.

So this week, seeing as we are getting so close to release day – just a teeny, tiny snippet of a teaser, from about midway through the book. It might give a little something away, but it’s not too spoilery.

 

My fingers tingled with static electricity building in the air. My heart hammered in my chest.

I turned the corner and stopped dead, like I’d hit a solid brick wall.

At the far end of the corridor was a big glass case with a suit of gleaming armour. I could have blamed the overhead light for the way it glowed, but I’d have been lying. Perhaps to anyone else it looked like a regular display, but not to me.

I edged forward, my feet like lead weights. The glass case grew closer, and I could feel Lance just one step behind me.

There it was in front of me. A huge broadsword hung on a set of supports. The hilt was bound in leather, turned black with age, and a blood red stone was held in place on the pommel by a metal griffin, so perfectly moulded that it almost looked alive, its eyes tiny chips of ruby. The blade was unmarked and undamaged, as flawless as the day it was forged.

Excalibur.

 

Chapter Twenty-One, THE LAST KNIGHT

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Friday, 14 June 2013

Not Long Now!


So another Friday has rolled around, and it is now only 17 days until the release of my first novel. Wow!

It’s strange. When I first started on this journey, when I first decided I was going to self-publish, it felt like I had so much time ahead of me to plan and work, but the time has flown by and suddenly in just over two weeks my first novel is going to be on sale.

It’s a scary, exhilarating feeling! There are still parts of me that are terrified. I’m scared that people won’t like the book – that perhaps I have jumped the gun and published THE LAST KNIGHT before it’s really ready. I’m worried that even if it is good, it simply won’t sell – that no one will ever hear about it.

But that said I have been incredibly lucky to get more support than I could have ever expected. Not just from my family and close friends, but from everyone around me. Friends who have gone out of their way to spread the word for me – to try and get this book out there in the public eye. Their support is invaluable. The lovely Sharon Johnston gets particular thanks in this regard.

For this week’s teaser I’m going to just give you the ‘cover blurb’, the synopsis that is hopefully going to make people want to read the book:

Seventeen-year-old Cara Page knows what mark she's going to get on her English test next week. She knows in three days her history teacher is going to be late because his car broke down. She knows she's going to give the new boy a nose bleed on his first day.

She knows because every night she dreams of the future, and every day those dreams come true.

Now she's dreaming of a boy, and a future that can't be real. Because if it is, then everything she thought was myth and legend is actually true, and there is an evil coming that will tear the country apart.

Lance Filwer is a boy with secrets of his own, and a past full of mistakes he can't undo. Cara is his second chance, his chance to succeed where he failed before - if only she'll trust him enough to let him help her.

Cara needs to know what's happening, but the answer lies in a long forgotten past, and an ancient legend. To find it Cara will have to travel into the depths of Wales, and the heart of ancient Britain.

With Wraiths, creatures from the darkest of myths, dogging her every move, Cara knows it's only a matter of time before they catch up with her. And myth or not, they will kill her.

Her only hope is Lance, and the birth right she must claim, if she is to prevent the future she has foreseen.

I honestly believe that writing the cover blurb was ten times as hard as actually writing the novel!

I’m going to leave you today with a few links:

Follow me on Twitter - @NSDorrington

Like THE LAST KNIGHT on Facebook - THE LAST KNIGHT
Or add it to your shelf on Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18048103-the-last-knight

Friday, 7 June 2013

Book Cover!


Time for this week’s teaser – and this time it’s something a little different. With just 23 days left until THE LAST KNIGHT goes on sale I have finally gotten my cover art work finalised, thanks to my wonderful sister and my brother-in-law who put this together.

I am incredibly happy with it – it feels just right for the book – and I am still hoping one day to see it on  proper hardcopy version.

But for now, here it is.

Saturday, 1 June 2013

Another Tasty Teaser...


So I’m a day late, but a few real life things got in the way!

This isn’t even going to be a long post, just the promised teaser. It’s getting harder to find good scenes that don’t give away too much of the story!

I had the next period free and found a quiet corner of the courtyard to read the book we’d just started in class. It was freezing cold, but there was no way I was venturing into the Sixth Form common room. As far as I was concerned it was one of the circles of hell.

“So, Cara, getting in with the new boy I see,” a familiar voice drawled from above me.

“Go away, Anderson.” I didn’t look up from the page of my book, even though I wasn’t seeing the words anymore.

The bench creaked beside me. “Well, that’s not very friendly, is it?”

I looked up when he sat down next to me. James Anderson. Brown haired, green eyed, and Captain of the school rugby team. My ex-boyfriend and bane of my existence, and the person who still made my heart clench painfully every time I saw him.

“What do you want?”

He smiled. To anyone else it might have looked like a friendly grin, but I knew the viciousness lurking behind it.

“Can’t I just be friendly?”

“You’re never friendly. Least, not to me.”

Looking away from me, out across the courtyard, he shrugged. “Maybe I’ve changed my mind about you.”

I snorted. “Bullshit.”

“Yeah, you’re right. You know me too well.” He paused, a smirk playing on his lips. “Bet you were excited about the new guy. Did you think maybe you’d finally found a friend? Someone who didn’t know what a crazy, psycho bitch you are?” He spoke so calmly, making it sound like a statement of fact rather than an insult.

My body tensed. So that’s why he was here. To let me know they’d already told Lance all about me. To let me know that making my life miserable was still top priority.

“I don’t care.” I said the words, but I didn’t mean them. I did care. I cared a lot, too much probably. It was hard to believe I’d been in love with Anderson once. It was a misplaced love, and trust, that had turned me into a social outcast and the betrayal still hurt like hell.

“Oh, come on, Cara. Samantha and Rebecca were just doing their civic duty. Got to warn the poor guy about you after all.”

“They didn’t have to,” I muttered.

“No, but they wanted to.” Anderson smiled down at me, his green eyes cold.

As I looked up into his eyes I wondered again what had possessed me to trust him. But I had. I’d told him everything. About my mum, and my dreams.

It might’ve been alright if I’d kept it vague. He might’ve thought I just had a wild imagination, that maybe I was an attention seeker. But I hadn’t, I’d told him about the latest dream, the dream about his sister and the car crash. He’d told me I was sick and refused to answer my calls or texts.

It might have ended there, but four days later his thirteen year old sister had been killed in a horrific car accident, and every time I thought about it I felt sick to my stomach.

When Anderson had returned to school after his sister’s funeral he’d told the whole school about my crazy mother, and that I was crazy too. Of course, in his version I’d made up the dreams after the accident. I still didn’t know if he really believed it, if somehow he’d twisted it in his own memory because it made more sense, or if that little flash of emotion I saw in his eyes sometimes was fear. Fear because he alone knew even if I was crazy, I wasn’t lying. I really had seen the future, and he blamed me for it.

He was still looking down at me. I blinked first and looked away, and he chuckled. Leaning back on the bench he stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankle, the picture of ease.

“Do you think you’ll start hearing voices soon, like your mother? ‘Cause I really want to be around when they cart you off to the mental institute.”

I stood abruptly. “Go to hell, Anderson.”

“Only to watch you rotting there,” he called after me as I stormed away.

THE LAST KNIGHT, Chapter Two

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