Cover Reveal: The Determiner!
Aug 09, 2022 10:52 pm
Whew! It was a long wait. The cover artist and I kept going back and forth, trying to merge our visions. It needed to look like fantasy, but I wanted it to show the White House setting. It needed to be clear that this book was targeted to a middle grade audience, but I didn't want it to look derpy, and I wanted grown-ups to know they could enjoy it too! I'm very pleased with how it came out!
I'm currently releasing The Determiner on Kindle Vella first. To begin reading right this second, go HERE. It's that simple (first three chapters free plus 500 tokens FREE!--more on that in a sec).
A little about the book:
Secrets are nothing new to the president's son.
But when a mysterious assassin attacks thirteen-year-old Henry Miller, he uncovers a strange power: the world slows down while he speeds up--stronger and faster than his short, stout body has ever been. Trouble is, Henry can't seem to talk about it. Literally. Or make this new strength happen at will.
Which means that when he uncovers an even bigger plot against his father, all he can count on are his non-existent athletic skills, his best friend Lucy, and his new nemesis, Reylin.
A combo that just might work out. Except that the closer Henry gets to finding the assassin, the more he starts to wonder if it's really the president at stake. Or is Henry's father just a pawn in a chess game where they need to find the king?
And now, a little about Kindle Vella. (P.S. If you subscribe to my women's fiction/nonfiction newsletter, you've already heard this spiel--sorry for the duplication).
Vella is Amazon's new serial reading platform. And if you are like, "What the heck does that mean?" then you maybe don't have teenagers. It's something like Wattpad or Radish (or Webtoons if we're talking comics)--a platform that releases one chapter or section at a time. And even though this is all the rage among the younger set, it's not without historical precedent. Both Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle both released their books serially (one chapter at a time in magazines). And people were practically rabid waiting for the next installments. These serials were so popular that supposedly Americans would wait on the dock for the ship to come in from England with the next installment of Dickens' current book. Super-fan-style.
Anyway, the first three chapters of everything are free on Vella. So it's fairly easy to go check out. Even more exciting that that, right now Vella is offering your first 500 tokens free (through August 15th). So if you read the first three chapters of something (let's just say The Determiner for hypothetical reasons and all), you'll get the option at the beginning of the 4th episode to get your 500 free tokens (about 50,000 words of free reading) and then you can "unlock" the next episodes. To find The Determiner and start reading, you can click HERE! It's as simple as that. Right now I've got nine episodes up and I'm releasing an episode a day.
If you'd like to troll around on Vella further, here's a little tutorial.
You'll find something like this on your screen (this is my desktop). Go to the Kindle store. Then click on Vella (circled for you in black) and then just hop around the platform (warning: many of these books are spicy hot, and those are popular, so maybe don't let your kids troll around on it at first). To find certain tags, you can search in the genre you'd like, such as 'young adult' or 'fantasy' or whatever. Once you're there, you can look around, read chapters, whatever. Kind of fun!
And that, my friends, is today's ad for Kindle Vella (you're welcome, Amazon--I'm sure you needed my support). But seriously, I've been bumming around the platform reading people's stuff, and it really is kind of fun. It's the perfect thing for a doctor's office waiting room, or the school pick up line. A quick bite of a story really fast.
But! If you don't want to read that darn Kindle Vella, no worries. The Determiner will release as a regular book around November.
Featured Books (My normal disclaimer: I haven't read these, but thought they looked fun!)
BOOKS:
Of Stone and Spark by Jodi L. Milner (free with newsletter sign up)
When the past comes hunting, it should pick a better target
War's Ending by A.J. Park (free with newsletter sign up)
Royal Blood. A Floor Length Gown. Neither is any use in a battle...
Shadow of the Sword: A Tale of Alamore by C.J.R. Isely ($2.99)
Captured and bound for death. The only way to escape?
Trust the very Prince who imprisoned him.
Fire and Inferno by Luna Fox and F. Lowberry ($.99 or free on Kindle Unlimited) (also, it's clickable, not sure why it's not showing in blue--just click the title or the cover picture)
The "Plight of the Dracomancer" series is the sequel to the "Dracomancer" series.
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