The Dragon Tempest Blog Tour: Featuring KJ Hawkins

KJ Hawkins is a young fantasy author making her way into print. She has had a strong love for fantasy since she was nine years old.

As an adult the magic stayed with her inspiring her to write stories of adventure and magic. Hawkins, at her best, brings personality to every word she writes, exciting her readers with every page.

Fun Fact

KJ Hawkins is actually a pen name taken from the initials of her real first and last name. Hawkins came from her favorite childhood film, Treasure Planet, the lead character is James Hawkins!

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About Dragon Tempest

The Dragon Tempest offers a collection of short stories in a variety of fantasy genres, including dark, light, adventure, and epic. Creatures from all worlds abound: dragons, angels, centaurs, witches, gods and goddesses, and those lurking below the water’s surface. Whether you’re moved by tales of battle and bloodshed, suspense, humor, or enlightenment, The Dragon Tempest will leave you craving more from each author. Such a diversity of great fantasy tales to enjoy will leave no room for disappointment.

Judges

Allison D. Reid
KJ Hawkins
D.B. Mauldin
Joshua Robertson

1st Place Winners

Christine King
Katie Roxberry
Winter Bayne
Jane Dougherty
Wilson F. Engel, III

2nd Place Winners

Christine Haggerty
Randall Lemon
Deborah Jean Anderson
J. Abram Barneck
Louise Findlay

3rd Place Winners

Samuel Milner
Karen Brown

Buy The Dragon Tempest on Amazon, Smashwords, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and it is also available in print on Createspace.

KJ's Other Work

Trisha's Escape: A Short Story in The Magical Muse

Get it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

A Father’s Protection 

The land beyond The Forest of Ferrês belongs to the kyres mortal enemies the twin-tailed foxes. Standing on the borders DarkDeath will have to plunge into the unknown to save his adventurous pup.

Will he be able to find Digger and make it out alive? The battle to protect his own will be tested when DarkDeath faces off against an old rival. Death lingering over his pup’s head will test his strengths as DarkDeath braces himself for battle.

Now Available for Pre-order on Amazon Kindle and Nook

An Interview with the Author

Why did you decide to be a writer?

I wouldn't say I decided to be a writer. It more or less chose me. When I was younger, I loved reading and writing stories. After awhile my love of writing left me due to my issues with English courses. However, I never stopped reading, and finally, in my freshman year of high school, I found my love of writing again. Thanks to my biology teacher who asked everyone in the class one day what we wanted to be. I didn't know what I wanted to be, and he took one look at me and said I was going to be an author. That being because I had a book in my hand everyday.

Do you have a "day job"? If so, what do you do?

Yes, actually I have two. The first one is my own business, The Book Stalkers and Dragon Knight Chronicles. The second one is working as office help and as a caregiver at Visiting Angels.

I spend a lot of time between writing and my own businesses on the computer. So being able to work for Visiting Angels gets me out of the house and socializing. It is also a big plus helping those that need the assistance.

What genres do you write?

Fantasy, duh :)

Is there a genre that you've been wanting to experiment with? If so, what is it and what attracts you to it?

I would have to say that some romance/dramas have caught my attention, along with mystery and horror. But if I had to pick one I would like to dabble in I would have to say romance.

Like most women I haven't found Mr. Right. The idea that I can create a world for my character to find love really interests me. I am more career oriented right now so the idea living through my written words kind of helps me through those lonely times.

What inspires you to write?

This is a hard one...hmmm. I would say that I get inspired by life. I meet people, see wonderful places, and have animals that have me laughing. All these reasons make me want to write.

Of course I also have several characters in my head that are screaming to get out. So that doesn't help much either.

What are your goals as an author? Where do you see yourself in five years?

Like most authors, I would love to make a full time career out of my writing. I, of course, would always run my business, The Book Stalkers & DKC. They have been a big part of my advancement as an author into the indie community.

In five years I would like to have my Half-Blood Academy series going strong. Along with having the first full novel of Tarzinea on shelves. Other than that, I am looking forward to what the next five years will bring.

Does your family support you in your writing, or are you on your own?

I get support from my mother regularly. She is a big fan of my writing when I am actually able to finish something. Where my sister and I are concerned that is a different situation all together.

What made you decide to self-publish?

When I first started working on my own writing, I wanted to submit to big publishers. I grew up reading books from their businesses. When I was in the researching phase, I found several authors that self-published.

I fell in love with their books and wondered why they weren't traditionally published. So with their help, and researching some more, I made the best decision of my life, to self-publish.

Maybe one day I might try, just for the heck of it, to get published through a small press, but right now I am happy with doing it myself.

Are you a pantser or outliner?

I used to be a pantser till my author friend, Renee Scattergood, converted me into an outliner. There are still times when I am outlining that I will stop and write for awhile. Then, when I get to where I stopped in the outline, I will start figuring out the next section. I mainly do this because I get too excited or impatient to wait.

How do you come up with the titles for your books? Do you find it difficult?

When I come up with titles, I try to figure out the purpose of the book or story. It can be a bit trying, but I will make a list, sometimes small, sometimes huge. I will go through and pick my favorites then ask for feedback from other authors and friends.

I only have to do that every once in awhile when a title really stumps me. The last few titles have come easy since they run into a theme, since they are a part of a short story collection.

The Dragon Tempest Blog Tour: Featuring Randall Lemon

Although Randall's driver license says he lives in northern Indiana, he has actually lived in the vivid landscape of his imagination for most of his life. He has lived out these fantasies as an actor and director in numerous theatrical productions. He taught in English, Speech and Theater bringing the love of literature to countless students over a thirty-four year career. He was a world class role player for many years and at one time was ranked number 1 in the world and was never ranked below third in the world in all that time.

Randall did some writing for various magazines early in his career but put all that on hold while teaching, getting married and raising a family. Now Randall has returned to writing. Since December, 2013, he has had one shared novel (Gryffon Master: Curse of the Lich King) and nineteen short stories published in fourteen separate anthologies. He is enjoying himself immensely and hopes that his stories will bring a sense of joy to those who read them.

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About Dragon Tempest

The Dragon Tempest offers a collection of short stories in a variety of fantasy genres, including dark, light, adventure, and epic. Creatures from all worlds abound: dragons, angels, centaurs, witches, gods and goddesses, and those lurking below the water’s surface. Whether you’re moved by tales of battle and bloodshed, suspense, humor, or enlightenment, The Dragon Tempest will leave you craving more from each author. Such a diversity of great fantasy tales to enjoy will leave no room for disappointment. 

Judges

Allison D. Reid
KJ Hawkins
D.B. Mauldin
Joshua Robertson

1st Place Winners

Christine King
Katie Roxberry
Winter Bayne
Jane Dougherty
Wilson F. Engel, III

2nd Place Winners

Christine Haggerty
Randall Lemon
Deborah Jean Anderson
J. Abram Barneck
Louise Findlay

3rd Place Winners

Samuel Milner
Karen Brown

Buy The Dragon Tempest on Amazon, Smashwords, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and it is also available in print on Createspace.

Randall contributed Tears of Regas in The Dragon Tempest

Being a god isn't all that easy and it certainly can be far less than fun. Regas has lost his mentor and only real friend recently. This left him feeling oddly lonely. Why oddly, you might ask? Because Regas was the god of solitude one might think that he would be content in his loneliness, but you would be wrong.

Now Regas has decided to find a companion by taking a human and granting her the divine spark. But even the best laid plans of mice and gods oft go astray.

More about Randall

Randall took a sabbatical from writing and that period of rest lasted almost three decades.  At one time Randall was a regular fixture of the role playing community.  He was one of the top ranked players from the inception to the end of the RPGA ranking system.  He also served as a high ranking tournament judge, marshal and coordinator of various events at Gen Con and other gaming conventions.  During that time, he was a frequent contributor to Polyhedron magazine perhaps best remembered for the creation of one of the most beloved establishments in the Living City, “Embrol Sludge’s Eatery and Seashell Shoppe.”  Along with a co-author he created the adventure known as “Eye of the Leviathan.” Randall also wrote articles for Video Review Magazine and the Quarterly Journal of Speech.

Hailing from Northwest Indiana just across the line from Chicago, Randall graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor’s degree.  While at Purdue he was a winner of the prestigious Purdue Literary Awards contest.  He then received his Master’s degree from the University of Southern California and did some work toward the PhD at the University of Illinois.  He taught high school for thirty-four years, has two children and a wife, all of whom he loves dearly. 

Now Randall has returned to writing.  This time he is concentrating on flash fiction and short stories.  “The Treasure of Freedom” is Randall’s first endeavor with A Good Tale and he looks forward to many more.  Recent publications by Randall include the round-robin novel, Gryffon Master:  Curse of the Lich King, the story, “A Mouser, a Keg of Rum and a Gunnery Mate” in the Anthology, World of Pirates and Randall’s story, “Mercy Killing” in an anthology called Lava Storm:  In the Neighborhood.  He also has two stories each in the anthologies, Dangerous Days and Aspiring Writers 2013.

Randall will have some of his short fiction showcased in a number of anthologies scheduled to come out in 2014 or 2015 and is currently working on a solo attempt at a fantasy novel.

Flight of Destiny by Francis H. Powell

My family background and some history.

I come from a family of five. I am the youngest, perhaps the free spirit of the family. I was educated at various schools, before going on to Art Schools, to do a degree in painting and an MA in printmaking. I loved most of my time at Art school, having experienced a painful time at school, where I was an outsider. Moved to Austria in 1995, lived there for two years and began teaching English as a foreign language. Alongside this I have always followed a lot of other creative activities, including music. During the nineties, did many concerts/raves and some short tours, playing electronic music. While in Austria, began to write stories. Moved back to England, where upon pursued teaching career, including teaching English (literature/language) and Art. Decided to move to France at the end of 1999 have lived there ever since and have taught among other things British and American culture and Architecture.

This my life in depth.

What better way to put all my angst into short stories. Born in a commuter belt city called Reading and like many a middle or upper class child of such times I was shunted off to an all-male boarding school aged eight, away from my parents for periods of up to twelve weeks at a time. In such an institutions, where I was to rest until my seventeenth year, there was no getting away from the cruel jibes hurled at me from taunting tormentors. My refuge was the arts room, where I started to find some kind of redemption from the stark Dickensian surroundings, whose aim was nurture the army officers, businessmen, and gentry that dominate the class ridden world I was born into.

The seeds were sown, I was an outsider, Happier times were to follow, I went to art school, where I attempted to exorcize my time spent at school. At eighteen I turned my back on a parentally enforced weekly visit to church and my head was filled with a range of nonconformist ideas. While at my first Art college through a friend I met a writer called Rupert Thomson, who was at the time in the process of writing his first book “Dreams of leaving”. He was a bit older than myself, me being fresh out of school, but his personality and wit resonated and despite losing contact with him, I always read his latest published books with not only great expectation and unabashed admiration, but also a fascination for a person I had really looked up to, his sentences always tight, shooting arrows that always hit the mark. 

My yearning to be creative stayed strong and diversified, from my twenties through to my thirties and forties I made electronic music, doing concerts, in front ecstasy infused crowds, at a point I was making videos and short films. When the age of the internet arrived I was really able translate my creative endeavors into something really tangible. 

To earn a living I have worked as a teacher. I moved to Austria where upon I thought I would try writing. It is sure that my writing at that time was rough and rugged and without direction. I dived into a story about immortality, the story remains vegetating on some dusty floppy disk. Then tried short stories for children with illustrations to go with them. 

It wasn’t until I was in my mid-forties that my writing took shape. I was at this point living in Paris, France. I spotted an advert for short stories. The magazine happened to be called Rat Mort (dead rat) I sent off a short story, in the hope it would match the seemingly dark world the magazine seemed to embroiled in. I got no answer. Not put off I sent two more stories. Finally I got an answer. It seemed the magazine editor was a busy man, a man prone to travelling. 

It seemed my first story really hit the right note with him. His name was Alan Clark. He had a flat in the Montmartre area of Paris, where he seemed known to all, especially those who frequented his favorite drinking haunts. He offered me many words of encouragement. I was writing stories that were coming into my head at regular intervals, as if a monster had suddenly awakened. I was writing them on scraps of paper, less I would forget them, while I travelled on the Paris metro, going about my teaching work with staid business types. I had found a format for writing that worked, as well as a hunger to write about the demons of my past that still haunted me. 

Moving closer to present times, the desire to put together an anthology seemed to resonate in my mind. The Flight of Destiny evolved slowly. Many trans-Atlantic exchanges between myself and two editors seemingly far away. This evolution took my writing to a new level and the stories more depth and resonance.

As a writer.

I have had poems and short stories published, in books, magazines, and on websites. I have had short stories published in an arts magazine called “Freakwave”. 

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About my stories in Flight of Destiny

Flight of Destiny is a collection of short stories about misfortune. They are characterized by unexpected final twists, that come at the end of each tale. They are dark and surreal tales, set around the world, at different time periods. They show a world in which anything can happen. It is hard to determine reality and what is going on a disturbed mind. People's conceptions about morality are turned upside down. A good person can be transformed by an unexpected event into a bad person and then back again to their former state. The high and mighty often deliver flawed arguments, those considered wicked make good representations of themselves. Revenge is often a subject explored.

Some of my favourite characters in the book.

Bugeyes

We live in a world of body image stereo types, are perpetuated by the media. Those unfortunate beings, born with abnormalities, could face a lifetime of cruel jokes, and in this story's case rejection.

Bug-eyes was destined to a life of toil. As his mother, Lady Harriet Lombard, remarked gruffly when holding her swaddled first born, "He has disproportionate eyes," adding tersely, "the child's abnormal." As she handed the squalling reject back to the doctor, she decreed, "Drop it down the well for all I care."

Maggot

“If you want to feel rich, just count the things you have that money can't buy” Not all follow this proverb. A rich person thinks that his money will buy the beauty of a young girl, while her father thinks her sale will solve his money problems, both are in for a surprise, even the most beautiful of apples can go bad.

Maggot was enraged and banged his fist on the table! Knives, forks, spoons and plates flew into the air, tossing food everywhere. Up to this point, the banquet had been cordial, even good-humored. Necessary pleasantries and toasts had been exchanged. But as soon as serious negotiations had begun, as soon as money was brought into the equation, everything quickly went wrong.

Get it today on Amazon!

The Dark Tides: Book Two of the Forever Avalon Series by Mark Piggott

Mark Piggott enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1983, beginning a 23-year career. He served on three aircraft carriers and various duty stations as a Navy Journalist before attaining the rank of Chief Journalist. Now retired, he is the public affairs officer for Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, Va. His first novel, Forever Avalon, was published in 2009. He and his wife, Georgiene, live in Newport News, Va. They have three children.

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About the Book

Lord Bryan MoonDrake-as he is now known-has attained the rank of the Gil-Gamesh, protector of the realm. He helps his wife and children build new lives in a medieval society. But all is not well in the kingdom. Dark forces arise to fulfill a prophecy to resurrect Morgana le Fay, the most powerful sorceress in the history of Avalon. If successful, she will unleash the Dark Tides to destroy the line of Pendragon once and for all. To save his family and his king, can the Gil-Gamesh overcome incredible odds and powers beyond his comprehension to rid Avalon of Morgana’s evil forever?

Buy it Now on iUniverse Bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

An Excerpt from The Dark Tides

The Cult of Darkholm came to rise after the Gil-Gamesh killed Lord Kraven Darkholm in a wager by battle … A duel to the death. The death of Lord Darkholm meant the end of the line of Morgana le Fay. The cult believed that they must kill the Gil-Gamesh in order to restore balance to Avalon.

“How many more of you fanatics do I have to kill to end this idiocy?”

“You cannot kill us all Gil-Gamesh … Death cannot kill that which never dies!”

“Never say never zealot!” the Gil-Gamesh shouted as he leapt at his attacker, swinging Twilight down toward the cultist’s head. But before his sword strikes, he cried “Incandesco!” causing Twilight to burst with bright light.

With the attacker temporarily blinded, Hunter and Nevan drew their GunStars and fired a volley at the attacker. The spell shots erupted as a single fiery projectile that split into many fiery projectiles.
The cultist waved his wand and chanted “Caligo Obscurus Cimmerii”—an incantation Bryan had never heard before. Tendrils of darkness flowed out of the wand like an octopus attacking its prey. It reached out to form a protective shield in front of the cultist, swatting at the meteor swarm to dissipate as it impacted on the barrier.

The Gil-Gamesh couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d seen spells that blocked magical attacks or deflected them, but never cancel them out like that. He knew he had to take a different tact against this madman.

He sheathed his swords and motioned for Hunter and Nevan to back off. The cultist expected the Gil-Gamesh to attack him, swords swinging like a whirlwind, as he is known. He tried a different tact against the champion of Avalon.

“What’s the matter Gil-Gamesh? Are you afraid to use your vaunted swords against me? They are the only reason you have any power on Avalon. Without them, you are nothing,” he taunted.

“You know, I’ve been here for more than 18 years …” Bryan lamented as he removed his gloves, tossing them to as he untied his cloak, letting it fall off his shoulders. “… One would think you idiots would take the time to do your homework.”

“Acheron Draconis!” he commanded. His body erupted with magical energy as it flowed around him until it takes the form of a dragon that acted as an extension of him. The people of Emmyr stared in awe of the Gil-Gamesh, but especially Ashley and Andrew. She had seen her father do some amazing things before, but nothing like this. 

The cultist quivered slightly as fear raced through his body. He wondered if he made a mistake in taunting the Gil-Gamesh, but he stood firm.

“I am Lord Bryan MoonDrake, Gil-Gamesh of Avalon, 17th DragonMage of the Wizard’s Council,” Bryan announced as he cupped his hands in front of him, drawing power from ground and focusing it through the dragon stone that hung around his neck. His eyes pulsated with magical energy in an unnatural glow. “You are sadly mistaken to think that I am powerless without my swords. But that is a mistake I will gladly help you resolve!”