You don’t have to have read Sundered, Among The Mythos #1, to enjoy these stories. They take place long before, when the world was different.
I have reviews for A Christmas Dragon and Strings and an exciting excerpt to share with you, along with a guest post from the author about her writing and characters.
And a giveaway. So don’t forget to enter!
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Guest Post
Enjoy this wonderful guest post by author Ruthanne Reid. I was curious whether the characters came first or the plot when starting her stories and how she chose the characters names.
That’s a delightful question, and it has a funny answer. I wanted to be a plotter. I admire plotters with a fierce and fiery passion. Plotting and following an outline seems like weird and wonderful magic to me, I have absolutely no idea how they pull it off.
Every successful story I’ve written has come from characters themselves. The best ones blossom fully in my mind, usually without my permission, and most often name themselves after. Notte, for example (who has a cameo in Strings) told me his name meant night, and has changed throughout the centuries. He uses “Notte” right now because he likes Italian.
One of my recent short stories (“A Hotel Room, a Knife, and a Bottle of Chardonnay”) is a perfect example of character-plot-name: this young man showed up in my head, freaking out over blood and the fact that he couldn’t die. I wrote it down in a furious rush, and only when I’d finished the first draft did he give me his name: Joshua Run. I feel like this name will mean something in later books, too – as if he’s going to be told to run. I can’t wait to get there.
In The Christmas Dragon, Katie Lin named herself, though I didn’t know why she chose Lin at first because that’s not exactly a Welsh name (the reason tickled me pink when I figured it out). Grey also named himself, though it took a while to pry his “real” name out of him. In fact, he never gave me his name, technically; I read it on an envelope that magically appeared in his car!
The stories tend to follow the characters, as does world-building. When I see who they are, I want to know why. The answers to what drives and shapes these characters shows me their environment and the people of influence in their lives, and once you have that many characters running around, plot is inevitable. Desires, dreams, anger, love, and conflict blaze like fire.
Fun fact: the only name I wish I could change is Harry Iskinder’s, from my 2012 book, The Sundered. Why? Because there are already a lot of Harrys out there! Unfortunately, he gave me no choice, and the name stuck. Far be it from me to be the one in control here!
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The Christmas Dragon/ Strings
by Ruthanne Reid
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*The Christmas Dragon*
My Review
In a world filled with all types of beings, Katie just wants to live a normal life. One without magic.
She’s doing just that until someone leaves a box on her doorstep. The box looks so innocent until it jumps. And jumps some more. To keep her neighbors from seeing it, she scoops it up and takes it inside.
Opening the box, she is instantly enchanted by the tiny irridescent dragon. It’s all cute and cuddly until it vomits fire and about burns her kitchen down.
Her attempt at a normal life might not have appeared to be a great success but she was happy. Now Katie’s being dragged back into the dragon war. She has something the Hunters want and an ancient relative may be the only one to save her.
Poor Katie. She’s a descendant of the great wizard, Merlin, so how could she expect to ever live a normal life. Can’t blame her for trying though.
Grey is an elf, but don’t let him hear you say that. He despises that tag and insists on being referred to as a Fae. He’s a preener, young, arrogant, and a bit reckless. I wondered if he and Katie might get together. Didn’t really see it in this short story but who knows.
My fav is Versavious. A perfect name for the little darling. A pearl white baby dragon who threw up on Katie and nearly set her shoes and house on fire. He’s so precious and Katie had her hands full sneaking him to Merlin’s island.
Never dull, no fluff. Just fun and danger on every page. I’m moving on to read Strings, the next short story, now.
4 Stars
*****
Blurb
All Katie Lin wants is to get away from her family: from the magic, from the mayhem, and from the never-ending war.
Unfortunately, someone has other ideas, and sends her a box. A box that jumps.
The tiny fire hazard inside may just force her back to Wales – and right into the path of a dragon war, the Crow King, and at least one reluctant elf prince. Sometimes, running away just doesn’t work as planned.
*Strings*
My Review
It appears John Grey hasn’t changed much since his adventure with Katie Lin in A Christmas Dragon. This story takes place some time later and Grey is marked by some deadly creatures. He can’t fight them in the Ever Dying land of Manhattan and needs the help of humans to defeat them.
This doesn’t sit well with Grey at first, The Ever Dying (us humans) have no place in his life. He doesn’t like them, prefers to avoid them.
So when Grey had to align himself with a group of humans I was curious if his feelings for them would change. They had to. He was fighting for his life and they were risking theirs to help him.
One in particular had Grey looking at humans differently. The bartender he escaped with from a horrific attack. But his distaste for humans makes him wary of him. Grey senses something’s not quite right about the bartender. He seems to know more than he should.
Notte is back. He really creeped me out in the earlier book. He’s kind of a vampire, but different, even scarier. In this story he shows a different side of himself, a nurturing one, as he tries to help his friend, Grey.
By the end of the story, I began to see some redeeming qualities in the arrogant, brash, John Grey. And his power that flows from his music and song is fascinating.
This is darker than the first adventure and added to my enthusiasm for this world. I’m hoping Grey and Katie bump into each other again in the next one.
4 Stars
*****
Blurb
Need help? You probably shouldn’t ask Grey.
A runaway Unseelie prince, Grey feeds on love – a commodity he conjures via music and magic in late-night Manhattan. It’s a sweet gig, if lonely, and Grey is almost sure the dire warnings he was given about New York in December won’t come true.
Then a monster from his childhood attacks in the middle of the night, and everything changes.
He survived, but he’s marked, and more monsters are coming for him and everyone who survived. Grey has no plans to be a hero but fate doesn’t care what he wants. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you aren’t the one pulling the strings.
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Excerpt
The Christmas Dragon
The box jumped!
Boxes are not supposed to jump. It’s a law somewhere, I think. Maybe Guyana. Apparently not in New Hampshire, because the box kept jumping.
I sat in my idling car, puffs of exhaust rising in my rear-view mirror, and stared at the uncoordinated box-dance. It was wrapped in the loveliest paper, too, which was a shame, because bouncing on my boot-scraper had roughened all the corners and torn one edge. The bow was big and purple and covered in small green somethings. I wasn’t close enough to make them out.
I didn’t want to be close enough to make them out.
If I didn’t do something soon, the neighbors would notice. The box probably hadn’t been jumping all morning, or there’d be a crowd. Or maybe it was already on YouTube. I didn’t know.
So much for a safe, boring life among the Ever-Dying. New Hampshire, you have failed me.
I turned off the car. Time to go see what invaded my (mostly) magic-free space.
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About Author Ruthanne Reid
Indie author Ruthanne Reid writes about elves, aliens, vampires, and space-travel with equal abandon. She is the author of the series Among the Mythos, and believes good stories should be shared. Subscribe to her free email newsletter for free books and more at http://amongthemythos.com. You can connect with her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ruthannereid), Facebook (http://facebook.com/mythos), or Tumblr (http://ruthannereid.tumblr.com), where she looks at too many kittens and Avengers blogs.
Ruthanne’s love of magic, urban environments, and deep space birthed a strange world with undercurrents of faith, magic, villainy, and heroism (along with swords and lasers, on occasion). Among the Mythos showcases aliens with all-too-human feelings, entire societies on the decline due to greed and fear, protagonists who might actually be the bad guys (or vice-versa), and endings every bit as messy as the world that creates them.
Ruthanne knows from experience that endings are messy. No matter how exotic the setting, how many limbs the characters have or what (if any) genders, the problems and questions addressed by a good story are very real, and that’s why they have power. If she has a theme, it is this: keep fighting, and keep pushing toward hope, because the struggle is worth the finish-line.
Links
Website ~ Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook
Purchase Links for The Christmas Dragon
Kindle ~ Nook ~ Kobo ~ Google Play ~ iTunes ~ Scribd ~ Oyster ~
Flipkart ~ Txtr ~ Smashwords ~ Paperback ~ IndieBound ~ Bookfinder ~ Powell’s
Buy Links for Strings:
Kindle ~ Nook ~ Kobo ~ Google Play ~ iTunes ~ Scribd ~ Oyster
Flipkart ~ Txtr ~ Smashwords ~ Paperback ~ IndieBound ~ Bookfinder ~ Powell’s
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