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Blood Crystal Blog Tour

Unlikely Heroes

Superheroes are all the rage on the big screen. Super-heroes have super powers, snazzy suits, impressive physiques and side-kicks. They laugh in the face of danger, amaze us all with their stunts and tricks, and despite the super-villains they are pitted against, they always save the world – or the cosmos.

Do you remember Susan Boyle when she first walked on the stage. No one took her seriously, no one thought she could sing – until she opened her mouth and the world gaped. Often we are so fixated on image that we miss the substance. In real life – heroes come in all shapes and sizes. They don’t necessarily have perfect figures, flawless hairdos and the latest fashion sense or the coolest technology.

The twins, Delvina and Retza, may not look like your typical heroes – but I think they are. In Blood Crystal, they undertake an epic journey across a hostile landscape to save their realm. They dare to attempt what others are too afraid to, they have the grit to keep going and faith that they will find answers. They care what happens to each other and the people they know.

Can you think of some unlikely heroes? What do you admire about them? What can you learn from them?

YA Fantasy Adventure in the lost realm Under the Mountain – Book 2

The underground realm is under attack from mad Overseer Uzza and the Crystal Heart is failing. As things become desperate, Twins Delvina and Retza must brave a treacherous journey to seek help from Zadeki and his people.

Will they find the answers they seek before it’s too late? Is the blood of Uzza’s children the only way to restore the Crystal Heart? What are the twins prepared to do to save their realm and those they love from certain destruction?

Blood Crystal is the second novella in the Under the Mountain series. Like most of my fiction, it is set in the world of Nardva. Available from Amazon, or Kobo, Nook and other retailers.

Blog Tour

A few days ago, we launched Blood Crystal – sequel to Heart of the Mountain.  Over the next couple of weeks – Blood Crystal will be featured on a different blogs as part of the Blood Crystal blog tour.

There will be –

Reviews of Blood Crystal

Interviews of both me and maybe even a character

Reflections

Competitions &  Scavenger Hunt.

Opportunities to win:

Throughout the blog tour there will be many opportunities to win prizes.

Comment below

Comment below on this post (and on any of the posts in the Blood Crystal Blog Tour) – the best comment (imo) will win a copy of Heart of the Mountain: a short novella.

Heart of the Mountain on Amazon

Scavenger Hunt

Blood Crystal Scavenger Hunt will run throughout the  Blood Crystal Blog Tour.  Each blog will have a reflection or memory related to themes within Blood Crystal – and a related question. The first person to answer all NINE questions  right will win a $50 Amazon voucher. The runner up will receive copies of both Heart of the Mountain and the sequel Blood Crystal.

Follow each post on the blog tour to find the questions & list your answers in the comments on the final blog post of the tour on 28 July. There will also opportunities to win prizes at each blogspot.

Glow Worm Caves

In my twenties I stayed at Lune River Youth Hostel south-west of Hobart. Apart from a pet possum that would scamper up guests’ legs to reach their heads, the Youth Hostel was close to some famous glow worm caves (in the Hastings caves area).

Getting to the caves involved driving into the bush on dusk, stopping at the side of the road as the sun set behind the horizon and them hiking in 20 minutes to an abandoned site, using old railway lines as a guide for part of the way. As the light faded, we secured our miners lamps and jumped down to a creek (or small stream) and followed it as it disappeared under the hill into the spacious caverns. We walked some distance in, staying in the main cave, and switched off our lights. Slowly above us the cave roof filled with bright stars in swirls and clusters denser than the milky way in the middle of the outback – glowing lights produced by a colony of insect larvae. Did you know that glow worms only found in Australia and New Zealand?

After we had enjoyed the wonder and beauty of their magical lights, we clambered out from under the mountain, up from the creek bed and walked back through the bush to the road in the dark. Glow worms are small, seemingly insignificant – yet produce inspiring beauty as they shine in the dark – perhaps unlikely heroes.

It was an amazing experience, one which I drew, on along with a visit to the deep underground mines in Mt Isa, when writing Heart of the Mountain and Blood Crystal.

Question for the Scavenger Hunt:

Where do Glow Worms live – and what kind of animal are they?

Next Stop

The next stop on the blog tour – is Paula Vince. She will be giving her review of Blood Crystal  If you haven’t discovered it yet. Paul gives thoughtful, entertaining and intriguing reviews – including a fresh look at our favourite books through lists – in the Vince Review. Check it out here.

Blog Tour Schedule

 

Jeanette

18 thoughts on “Blood Crystal Blog Tour”

  1. Love the way you introduce the twins, with the superheroes and Susan Boyle… I think everyone saw the ‘sniggering’ but she wowed them.
    So, too with your writing.
    Books sound interesting enough to catch the interest of a certain grandmother. Wtg Jeanette

    • Thanks Susan 🙂 Susan Boyle certainly did ‘wow’ them. Such amazing talent. Love to hear what you think, if and when you do read the twins adventures 🙂

  2. Wow, those glow worm caves sound amazing, especially with a lot of them confined within a small space like that. It would be well worth a visit.
    Unlikely heroes are some of my favourite sorts. I think Delvina and Retza are pretty cool too. As for others, hmmm, there’s Harry Potter and his friends. Nobody would have expected young Hogwarts students to defeat full grown wizards. The Pevensie siblings also behaved heroically in the land of Narnia, helping to bring down the White Witch, who filled the land with winter. And in Hunger Games, nobody expected Katniss and Peeta to make it through. Maybe they’re so good to come across in literature because they may inspire us to imagine we could pull out some heroic qualities in our every day lives too.

    • The caves were amazing and all the more because it took such effort to get to them.

      You’ve mentioned some of my favourite unlikely heroes. I think you are right that it inspires that we can do great things too.

    • Great picks, Christine. I love the way God often choose the unlikely heroes. Thanks for commenting.

  4. Great post Jenny. I’ve always liked underdogs. You just want to cheer for them, especially if they topple the big guys in their wake (e.g. Frodo and Sam). And I love your example of Susan Boyle. I used to show her audition clip in my social psych class as an example of how first impressions can be wrong. I’ll look forward to seeing you on my blog next Wednesday 🙂

    • Thanks Nola. Yes, Frodo and Sam are the ultimate unlikely heroes yet they carried the day. I’m looking forward to Wednesday too 🙂

  5. I saw glow worm caves in NZ, I agree they are fantastic. Its a good reminder, I must use them in a book!
    Heroes? I always think of the Shawshank Redemption. It takes courage to survive in jail if you are guilty, even more so if you are innocent.

    • I love that glow worms are a southern hemisphere thing, though it surprised me when I first heard it, growing up visiting glow worm caves.
      And yes, surely would take courage to survive jail when unfairly convicted and even more strength not to allow it to embitter one. Great choice.

  6. I love unexpected heroes and find I usually tend to write about them! My latest book has one in the lead. There’s something really appealing in the ‘underdog’ story. Although it’s not a book, Darryl Kerrigan in ‘The Castle’ springs to mind. 🙂

    • Hi Lynne – they are fun to write and there is something about barracking for the underdog. Darryl Kerrigan in ‘The Castle’ is such a great character 🙂

  7. Congratulations on the new novella, Jeanette! The glow worms cave sounds amazing. I didn’t realise you could find them in Hobart. If I’d known I would have gone there when I visited there 6 years ago! It will be interesting to see how that acts as inspiration in your stories.

    • Thank you, Sally. It was a fair way south of Hobart but well worth seeing. The glow worms are mentioned in both books, though feature more in Heart of the Mountain. Hope you enjoy the stories 🙂

  9. Hi Jenny, loved your thoughts on Delvina and Retza as superheroes and I really appreciate the fact that they are flawed superheroes at that. 🙂 I didn’t know that glow worms are only found in Australia and New Zealand. We live in a pretty special part of the world 🙂

    • Thanks Linsey. It’s easier to related to flawed heroes 🙂 And yes, we do live in a great part of the world 🙂

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