So, the royal twins are here again. You can read more about us here. Nicolas, scoot over. I can't comfortably reach the keyboard.
Nicoline, stop it. You have plenty of room. And you'll have to excuse us, random people. We've taken it upon ourselves to put together this cover reveal post for Kiri.
Only we've never done a cover reveal before.
We've never done much of anything before on the internet.
Anyway, this is for Kendra Ardnek's newest book, a wonder of a thing called Lady Dragon, Tela Du.
Kiri got to read the first one, and I think she rather enjoyed it.
Enjoyed it? Didn't you hear her squealing about it? If I could figure out how to use her Kindle, I'd read it.
Wait, so is that what an ebook is?
I guess. I'm slowly figuring these things out.
Ha! Slow is the right word for you. Ouch!
You deserved that slap, you little wretch. Now let's do this cover reveal thing. I don't think we're doing it right just yet.
No. First, we need to post a summary of the book. Do you have it?
Two girls with one face
Two girls with twisted fate
One in purple, one in red
One shall speak the other’s death
Who shall win their final war?
Lady Dragon or Tela Du?
Amber, the Lady Dragon, has been promised a fifty-year reign over Rizkaland and nothing can stop her from claiming it. But when you've lived six thousand years, fifty is such a pitiful number. Only one person can keep her from making this reign permanent - the Tela Du, a girl who shall share Amber's face.
The last thing Petra wants is a magical world interrupting her plans for a normal life, let alone an ultimate battle against the Lady Dragon with only one prophesied survivor. She has her childhood best friend, Reuben, at her side, but she's not sure if he's more of a help or a hindrance right now. Though she'd much prefer to just return home and forget about this whole crazy affair, things change when she discovers that the world has surprising connections to her own family - including her sister who disappeared without a trace two years before. Still, Rizkaland can't possibly expect her to risk her very life, can it?
Annnd then, about the author.
No, we're supposed to post Kiri's interview first.
No. Author biography!
Interview!
Nicolas!
Kendra E. Ardnek is a homeschool graduate who picked up a pen at an early age and never put it down. The eldest of four, she makes her home in the Piney Woods of East Texas with her parents, younger siblings, giant herd of giraffes, and honor guard of nutcrackers.
You really are a pest, you know that, right?
Oh, of course, sister dear. Otherwise you wouldn't love me like you do. Hey, look, she likes giraffes and nutcrackers!
I'd like a nutcracker!
You are a nut without a cracker. Ouch!
Time for the interview. Kiri was pretty excited to post this one. She told me so. Ready?
1. Just because I'm fascinated with editing right now *cough*noreason*cough*, what was one of the hardest scenes to edit in this book?
I do this thing while I'm editing that I just delete all memory of struggling as soon as it's done, so ... I'm having trouble calling something to mind. However, the scene I'm working on now has been a bit difficult. It was a lot of action and description, and I had left it clunky while writing, so it's been difficult to clean it up.
2. What one (or two or three) Pinterest pins did you find yourself most inspired by when working on this book?
Since Petra had two sisters who disappeared only to be forgotten by all of her family, it’d be understandable if she’s a bit wary of the same happening to her. This pin represents a touching scene between her and Reuben on that note.
Reuben and Petra gain telepathic powers over the course of the book, and I blame this pin for some of the finer details of their mental link. It may not be immediately obvious what those details might be, but you’ll find out over the course of the book.
The chapter that this pin inspired happens to be one of my favorites in the entire book. I had found a whole bunch of romantic pins that day, involving different degrees of hugging and handholding. This one I put the caption, "Reuben, go put on a shirt." "You need a hug." on it because I don’t normally post pictures of shirtless guys … and I probably would have left it alone and pretty much forgot about it, but one of my readers posted the comment, “Fine, I’ve been hugged, now go put on a shirt.” and I knew I had to include the scene in the book.
3. And I'm shamelessly stealing this question from some of your recent interviews, but it's an epic question, and I'm *really* curious now. Please tell us a little bit about your MBTI personality type and how it affects your writing?
I'm an ENFP, one of those rare extroverted writers. The most obvious effect is that there are a lot of ENFP's among my characters. (Petra, remarkably, isn't one - she proved to be an INTJ instead ... but her love interest, Reuben, is an ENFP.)
I've always had a huge imagination and have thrown myself into my stories. When I played with my dolls, I became them, I didn't just direct the story. I never had an imaginary friend, because I was my imaginary friends. The same is true of my writing today. My characters aren't people I watch, I live their stories with them, which is why I write deep POV, usually Limited Third or First. The few times that I've attempted Omniscient ... usually end up predominately in one character's head by the time I'm done with a scene.
I'm not afraid of risks and going against the tried and true. I write the stories I want to write because those are the stories I want to write. I don't like writing rules, and I don't like people telling me that something's cliched. In fact "cliche" to me just means "this has lost all meaning, time to infuse new life into it!" It's also why I love world building - I get to create so many brilliant what-ifs and watch them work.
I'm a social writer. Writing is a way for me to connect to people and I love talking to and engaging with my readers. I'm also very open with my writing and I'm not afraid to let people read my rough drafts.
I don't outline. As a P, I like to keep my options open. This doesn't mean that I don't have the story planned (because if I don't, it ends up a mess), but I never write any plans down beyond what I call "snippeting" - or in other words, writing scenes ahead of time to get a feel for the story and characters. I want to be able to change the story based on the nuances of the characters, and I want the characters to surprise me.
And, finally, it means I'm easily distracted and terrible with - oh look, a squirrel!
Now can we post the cover?
Sure, let's post it now. I think we've managed to cover everything else.
And make sure you put it in really big.
I like that! Now Kiri's gonna have to get it, so I can read that one, too.
Hey, look Kendra sent a snippet! Let's post that!
She navigated through the bookshelves and got turned around a few times, but she finally found a corner with a number of large, fluffy chairs. Reuben was sprawled in one, nose buried in one of the books, the other three on a small table beside him.
She hesitated a moment, reluctant to interrupt him as he looked like he was enjoying the book so much. But since she knew that he would never forgive her if there was food involved and she didn’t offer it to him, she marched over, pulled the glasses off of his face, and deftly tucked them into his shirt pocket. She had long ago discovered this to be the quickest, most efficient method to bring him back from the realm of story.
He blinked and looked up at her, though his mind was clearly still miles away. “Have you any idea how to get through the Mountain?”
“No. I don’t. Are you hungry?”
He blinked twice, and this time she saw him pop back to the here and now. “I am, now that you mention it.” He snapped the book shut – allowing Petra to see that the title was Water Princess, Fire Prince – and stood up. “What is there to eat?” he asked, setting the book on the top of the stack.
And important links. Can't forget about those.
Thanks so much for helping me with the cover reveal, Nicolas and Nicoline. You two are such fun.
ReplyDeleteOh, and to use a kindle, you find the "on" button, usually on the top or the bottom of the device, depending on the model, and then use either the arrow keys and select buttons, or the touch screen if it has one, to find the book. They're really easy.