It is ongoing right now! Readercon 2015 is taking place July 9-12, 2015 at Burlington Mariott in Burlington, MA.
If you are in the area, stop by to meet W. B. J. Williams, the author of the enchanting medieval romantic adventure “The Garden at the Roof of the World.”
W. B. J. Williams will be appearing on multiple panels, and can also be seen in the dealers’ room, which sports a beautiful display of Dragonwell titles:
Happy reading!
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To celebrate “Read an Ebook Week” (March 1-7), Dragonwell Publishing is offering one title for FREE and discounted six others to only $1.50.
And there is more: with every paid order during this week, you will receive a $6 gift certificate for Dragonwell Publishing bookstore. This means, you can download four more books at promotional price.
The deal will run from today March 4th until March 7th. Don’t miss it!
Just click on the title to go to the download page, and feel free to spread the word!
A historical fantasy/mystery/adventure.
“Lex Talionis” by R. S. A. Garcia
An award-winning dark fantasy based on Russian fairy tales.
A pre-apocayptic dystopian fantasy, highly critically acclaimed.
An Arthurian tale of chivalry and dark magic.
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Dragonwell Publishing got great exposure at Readercon this year, with the author W. B. J. Williams attending multiple panels and doing a reading from his debut novel “The Garden at the Roof of the World”. The convention took place in Burlington, MA on July 10-13, 2014. Also in attendance was the author Anna Kashina, presenting her newest epic fantasy novel, “Blades of the Old Empire”.
Here are some pictures from the event:
W. B. J. Williams reading from “The Garden at the Roof of the World”:
W. B. J. Williams with co-panelists:
Dragonwell Publishing books in the dealers’ room:
Anna Kashina’s “Blades of the Old Empire”:
Our next destination is World Fantasy Convention in November.
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To celebrate summer solstice, download a copy of Anna Kashina’s MISTRESS OF THE SOLSTICE” and W. B. J. Williams’s THE GARDEN AT THE ROOF OF THE WORLD for 99 cents at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or Kobo. Here are the links to the Amazon pages for the books:
MISTRESS OF THE SOLSTICE by Anna Kashina is a dark romantic fantasy set in the exotic world of Russian fairy tales, the silver medalist in 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards.
THE GARDEN AT THE ROOF OF THE WORLD by W. B. J. Williams is a medieval historical fantasy about the journey of maid Gwenaella and the unicorn Britomar to the mythical Garden of Eden.
Both authors will be attending ReaderCon from July 10-13, 2014, so if you are an attendee, this is also a chance to reserve your copies to have them autographed.
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Read this great interview with W. B. J. Williams talking about his historical romantic fantasy “The Garden at the Roof of the World”, a spiritual quest of maiden Gwenaella, the unicorn Britomar, and their companions across the world.
Follow this link to the interview:
http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/56926/wbj-williams-on-unicorns-religion-and-women-in-fantasy/
And this link to buy the book on Amazon:
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A SACRED QUEST OF HEALING, MAGIC, AND LOVE
To save her brother’s life Gwenaella risks her own in a magical forest to seek a unicorn’s healing magic. But the remedy comes with an exorbitant price. She must commit to a perilous journey through Europe, the Middle East, and India, to the high mountains of Tibet, to seek the hidden Garden at the Roof of the World and pluck a fruit that would restore the father of all unicorns to health. Joined by a few trusted followers called by the unicorns’ magic, she will face many dangers on her epic journey. To succeed, Gwenaella must find a balance between faith, friendship, and love and discover the true meaning of sacrifice.
The Garden at the Roof of the World is a stunning debut fantasy epic in a rigorously historical 13th century setting, with vivid characters and a thrilling, romantic story that spans cultures and continents.
“This modern fantasy in the style of a medieval romance tackles themes of love and lust, faith, and the nature of the divine.” — Publishers Weekly
2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semifinalist.
For the next three days, download a free Kindle copy at:
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“I appreciated the different tenor of this novel; the fantasy and mysticism created a new perspective on old religious accounts, and the ultimate story is one of friendship, love and bravery.”
Click the link to view it at Amazon.com
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Amazon prime members can read free copies of “The Garden at the Roof of the World” and “The Loathly Lady” for the next three months. These two stunning historical adventures, featuring the world of the Arthurian myths and the unicorn tales of the Rennaissance Europe from two emerging new talents are the newest releases from Dragonwell Publishing. Download your own copies for Kindle and Kindle apps at Amazon:
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I’ve been thinking long and hard about some of the things that came up in my discussion with Dr. Gillian Polack in the CoyoteCon workshop on writing historical fiction set in the middle ages. She asserted that people write historical fiction set in the middle ages to explore the pageantry of the time, explore a thesis or educate the readers. My position was that you wrote historical fiction in any age to understand the people who lived then. After all, you can’t understand what pageantry is without understanding the people who celebrated it.
We also disagreed on where you start in writing historical fiction. She posted that you start with the history, and I wrote that you start with the person and then look to understand them in their culture at that time in history. Now, I firmly believe that you can not separate people from their history, nor from their culture, so in a way, we were saying the same thing, like two sides of a coin. You can’t understand people’s decisions, nor can you make sense of their goals and what they were trying to achieve if you don’t understand the history and the culture they lived in. However, what does it mean to start with history and culture, or to start with the person? Especially since the history, the culture, both impact the goals and conflicts that a person will face in their life. History will also impact their lives, as known events overcome them as the characters strive for their goals.
A person is much more than their time and place, however, their time and place define what the expected options are and offer up the consequences from deviation from them. As an example taken from my own fiction, a person in the eighth century France is not likely dreaming of a marriage to their beloved, but a person in the thirteenth century is not only likely to be hoping for a marriage to their beloved, their social institutions are changing rapidly to support these hopes while many held onto traditional views of parents choosing the right spouse for their children. So many of the stories of the era show this conflict unfolding. And if the character is from the south of France, they may be daydreaming of having many lovers instead of a loving husband, and the stories and songs of the region reflect this regional difference.
As an example, in the south of France, in the mid 13th century especially in the aristocracy, a woman was expected to court many lovers, and a man of station to court such women. In my Garden at the Roof of the World, the Lady Elisabeth du Chauvigny was raised to believe that one sought lovers, courting many a man to serve and worship her as their lady, but she lives on the edge of the ideas circulating in the north of France that one should marry for love. She lives in a region untouched by the Albigensian crusade, but the confusion of what is the right way to live and love complicates her life and makes her story that much more authentic to the time. As we live in a time when the definition of the right way to live out a loving relationship is also being redefined in our society, it is worth looking at her life and considering the impact of such change and confusion on the people we know and love.
Before you ask what kind of character you are writing, you need to understand the era, the culture of that time and place. That will help you define how others in your story react to the person, if their actions and decisions are viewed sympathetically or with disgust. However, in the end, a story is about a person striving, and every time and place have an infinite variation in the people who lived and strove. If you start with understanding the person, their goals, their hopes, their fears, their relationships and then put those things into the context of culture and history of the era, you will have a well defined person who fits within the history of the age, the culture of their society, and a story that pulls you into the richness of lives past and deeds worth telling.
W. B. J. Williams is the author of THE GARDEN AT THE ROOF OF THE WORLD, a medieval adventure fantasy released by Dragonwell Publishing on August 30, 2013.
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