Knitted by God's Plan: How I discovered Ilyon Also: Cover reveal!

Sunday, May 24, 2015

How I discovered Ilyon Also: Cover reveal!

This month, one of my favorite books, Resistance by Jaye L. Knight, has had its it's first anniversary of publication - and so Jaye is having a party. (And three wants to come. So three takes five and ... Okay ... blast from my childhood right there. Points to anyone who has ANY idea where that comes from.)

Anyways, part of the celebration is that we can write up posts about how we discovered Ilyon and became die-hard fans. I'll admit that I originally wasn't going to participate in this part of it ... not because I didn't want to, but because I thought I'd already posted it on one of the cover reveals.

But then when I went to hunt it down so I could give it to Jaye ... it turned out that I hadn't put a discovery explanation on either cover reveal - but on my review of the Makilien Trilogy before Ilyon was published, before she was officially Jaye instead of Molly.

My bad. I'll correct that now.

My story begins with the fact that I, myself, am an author. Have been for three and a half years now (Gasp! Has it really been that long?)

Well, about Christmastime directly following the publication of my first book, Amazon released a new promotion gimmick - KDP select. Basically, I told Amazon that I'd only distribute ebooks through them, and in exchange, they'd allow me to have my books for free five days out of every three months. (There's more to it than that, but that's the gist of it.)

So I regularly took advantage of it, since I was eager to get Sew, It's a Quest into the hands of all it's potential adoring fans. Directly following a free spin I would (1) check Goodreads to see who had added it and how eagerly they were reading it and (2) check the list of "Customers who bought books by this author also bought books by these people" in hopes that there were awesome books there that were free and I could read. (And review on my O.Scarlett blog)

Well, one day following one such free spin, I checked said list and saw a "Molly Evangeline." Not the most eye-catching name, I'll admit, but you see, I'd been following a photography blog called "Evangeline" and it'd recently dropped off the internet - so I clicked through in some vain hope that it was the same Evangeline. (My logic is weird, what can I say.)

Not the same Evangeline, but I was confronted but a collection of GORGEOUS COVERS, and a selection of books in CHRISTIAN FANTASY and CHRISTIAN HISTORICAL FICTION, two of my favorite genres.

Alas, the books were not free, and this was before my days of a disposable income. So I added her blog to my google reader and kinda forgot about them.

Several months later, she posted a plea for reviewers. I was a reviewer - I had a blog dedicated to self-published books, after all, so faster than you can say "Free books" I shot her an email asking to read Truth.

I loved it. Perhaps I didn't quite connect with the main character, but the world had captured me, and I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happened next.

So naturally, I shot her another email asking for the next book. (She'd said I could do this. I wasn't being presumptuous ...) I devoured Courage, though I was a bit disappointed with the plot that seemed to be just a repetition of the previous book. But THAT CLIFFHANGER ENDING!!!!! Alas, the last book was still being edited, so I read The Pirate Daughter's Promise to tide me over in my wait.

Thanks to Swagbucks, I had a tiny bit of amazon money when the publication of said third book rolled around - and she had it on a initial 99 cent sale. I snatched it up IMMEDIATELY and had it consumed within twenty-four hours - a first for me.

And then I was sad because no more Makilien books.

I had a dance of apprehension when she announced the Ilyon Chronicles. On one hand, NEW BOOKS BY MOLLY, but on the other NOT DOLLENAR! I loved the world of Dollenar, and wanted to spend more time there. (Yes, I was very happy when she published "Captivated," such a sweet little story that I'd considered writing fanfiction about)

So I watched her steadily work on this new series, meanwhile I read Makilien a second time (a first for me. I never reread) and had a personal fangirl party over at my blog (which is when I wrote my "how I discovered Makilien stuff"), and managed to squeeze a sneak peak out of her during an interview.

And then, as I was sitting on the edge of my seat, scanning down her pinterest page drooling over all the gorgeous pins on her Ilyon boards (and perhaps stealing some of them for my own boards...) she shot me an email asking me if I wanted to take part in the cover reveal/blog tour/READ A PRERELEASE ARC.

Did I turn her down? Ha ha - NO!!!

Did I have any need to be apprehensive? Ha ha - NO!!!!

(And for the record, her Crete culture is on my list of "societies I would gladly go join if I could.")

Also, this month, she's doing a cover reveal for a prequel novella about the hero, Jace, and the terrible life he's lead. I was supposed to post this two days ago ... but my creativity has been drained by work and fully absorbed by Water Princess, Fire Prince, and I've falling off the blogging ball. So .... since she gave me a readymade HTML thingie, I'm going to let her take over from here.

Check out the cover of Jaye L. Knight’s upcoming novella, Half-Blood, and learn about this prequel story to Ilyon Chronicles! Make sure you also enter the giveaway at the bottom!

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000040_00026]

About the Book

The gasps and murmuring grew. Though some were hardly more than whispers, clear words reached Jace’s ears—dangerous, monster, animal, soulless. He tried to back away from their accusing eyes, but the collar pulled hard against his throat and held him in place.

For all his years as a slave, Jace has known nothing but the hatred people hold for his mixed blood—one half human, the other half the blood of a race considered monsters. Always, he is the outsider and quickly learns it is better to keep to himself. But, when his volatile ryrik blood leads him to do the unthinkable, he is thrown into a world of violence and bloodshed.

Forced to become a gladiator, Jace finds more and more of his heart dying as his master works to break down his will not to become the monster everyone believes he is. When a stranger interferes with his master’s harsh punishment, Jace’s world is upended yet again. But with it comes the possibility of hope that has long since died. Could the man possibly hold the key to escaping the hopeless darkness that is Jace’s life? Is there such a thing as life beyond the cruelty of slavery?

See where Jace’s story all began . . .

Coming This Summer

About the Author

Jaye L. Knight is an award-winning author, homeschool graduate, and shameless tea addict with a passion for Christian fantasy. Armed with an active imagination and love for adventure, Jaye weaves stories of truth, faith, and courage with the message that even in the deepest darkness, God’s love shines as a light to offer hope. She has been penning stories since the age of eight and resides in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

You can connect with Jaye on her website, blog, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

Giveaway

As part of a month long celebration for the one year publication anniversary of Resistance (Ilyon Chronicles - Book 1), Jaye is giving away several fun prizes! Enter for a chance to win using the form below! U.S. entries only please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway