Guest Post: The Chosen by Annette Gisby

Description:

The neighbouring kingdoms of Oscia and Arcathia have been at a tentative peace for three years after centuries of warfare. Prince Severin of Arcathia has been brought up to put duty before all else and as the only son of the King and Queen, it is his duty to marry and produce an heir. His parents want him to marry an Oscian princess to cement that tentative peace. Unfortunately Severin isn't interested in princesses. Now, if he had his pick of princes that would be another matter.

Havyn has been a slave all his life. When his aptitude for wizardry is discovered, he finds himself purchased and freed by Prince Severin and apprenticed to the royal wizard, Ildar. His duty is to stay chaste to keep his powers strong, but his feelings for Severin sorely test his resolve.

With kingdoms at war, the throne hanging in the balance, magic in the air , and outside forces trying to keep them apart, can the two men find happiness together, or is duty more important than love?

GUEST POST

A Tale of Woe - A Fairy Story 

Once upon a time there was a writer, a writer who dreamed of being published, of seeing her name on the cover of a book. 

She did all the right things, she took writing classes, she read books on how to write the perfect query, the perfect synopsis, how to approach the right publisher or agent. 

She used the knowledge gained to send out lots of queries, included her SAE and waited for replies. And waited. No agents seemd interested, and neither did the publishers. 

Did that mean she had a bad book? It was difficult to say, so as a test she offered readers the chance to read the manuscript electronically and give feedback on it. Feedback was good, they thought it was a good story. 

But what to do about the lack of interest by publishers? 

On the internet she discovered some POD companies, could this be the answer she was looking for? At first she thought it might be, but no, sales were good, but the royalties owed were not forthcoming so she tried again for a traditional publisher. 

And then one day it happened. "Please send the rest of your manuscript." The writer could hardly contain her joy. She thought back to her query letter, what was different? In this one she had mentioned "sales" from her POD book, did that help? 

A contract was offered and she accepted, thinking that all her problems were over. No, they were only just beginning. 

The writer had designed a beautiful cover, but the publisher didn't approve and wanted to use their own cover. The writer agreed, reluctantly, she really hated the cover and so did anyone else who looked at it. 

But the problems didn't end there, after having signed a contract giving away world rights, the writer discovered that the publisher had no intention of marketing worldwide, just in the US. Which was a problem for a writer who had readers in the UK. So thinking it over, the writer decided to leave that particular company. 

But now she was back to square one and all the querying started again. A few months later, the manuscript was requested and a contract offered. Again, the writer thought that things could only get better. No so. 

First it was the correspondence, or lack of it. Emails went unanswered, the website remained static for months on end. Were they having problems? An email was sent to all the writers asking for investment in the company. Were they having financial difficulties? Why was nothing said sooner? Would the writer's book ever be out? 

There was nothing left but to cancel the contract, but even though all the problems were caused by the publishers, the writer wondered if her book was jinxed and she was wary of sending it off to another publisher. 

So she sat down long and hard and had a talk with her fairy godfather (also known as her husband) and decided to completly self-publish her novel, no publishers involved anywhere. 

Will there be a happy ending? That depends, it is a fairy story after all, and we would expect so.

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About the author:

Annette Gisby grew up in a small town in Northern Ireland, moving to London when she was seventeen. Being a very small town there were no bookshops and a small library. When she'd devoured every book she could get her hands on in the library, she started writing her own stories so she would always have something to read later.

When not writing she enjoys reading, cinema, theatre, walks along deserted beaches or wandering around ruined castles (great places for inspiration!) New Zealand is her favourite place and she hopes to travel back there one day. She's a fan of Japanese Manga and Anime and one day hopes to learn Japanese.

She currently lives in Hampshire with her husband, a collection of porcelain dolls and stuffed penguins and enough books to fill a small library. It's diminishing gradually since the discovery of ebooks but still has a long way to go.

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