Welcome to my tour stop for The Dawning of Firebird Alex by Orren Merton. The tour will consist of reviews, interviews, guest posts and spotlights and runs April 27- May 8th. Check out the tour page for more information.
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The Dawning of Firebird Alex by Orren Merton
Eighteen-year-old Alexandra Gold is a Seduman: her humanity and compassion come from her deceased human mother, and her powers over spirit fire and super-human strength from her demon-like Sedu father. Collecting the first three novels inThe Sedumen Chronicles, this volume includes:
Firebird Alex: When Alex unearths her father’s Sedublade, it sets in motion a journey that challenges everything she thought she was. Rescuing her friends from another Seduman gives her a taste of the heroine she might become.
Lady Firebird: Her old nemesis, down but not out, executes a horrific plan to conquer both Earth and Sediin. It’s up to Alex to assume the mantle of Lady Firebird and hunt her adversary across universes.
Firebird Vengeance: Just when Alex thought she’d won, she discovers her victory has unleashed a horrible vengeance that threatens to destroy human and Sedu alike. In order to save everyone, she must convince skeptics in both universes that she truly is the heroine that she claims to be.
Also in this collection Firebird Manor: In this bonus novelette, Alex and her friends unwittingly awaken a murderous eldritch horror in a beachside manor. They must defeat the monster before it kills again.
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Guest Post:
Guest Post:
Ten things to know about The Dawning of Firebird Alex
For my guest post on Book Lovers Life, I'd like to offer up ten details about my newest book, The Dawning of Firebird Alex:
1) Three novels, one story. While the first three three short novels in The Sedumen Chronicles each stand alone, I wrote them to work as one complete story arc. That's why I wanted to compile them together.
2) Don't forget the novelette. On my site I offer a free download of Firebird Manor, a creepy, fun haunted house novelette that takes place right after the end of the trilogy. It made sense to include it as a bonus, especially since it sets up a few things for Book 4.
3) We're all "Young Adults." I consider The Sedumen Chronicles to be YA because it's in the voice of a teen girl discovering who she is, and because there's no heavy profanity or erotica. But the events, themes, and emotions in these pages aren't dumbed down for "kids."
4) S is for spirit. The parallel universe of Sediin, the origin of the Sedumen, is not a physical universe of matter, it's a universe of spirit. While that universe is fantasy, I truly believe that we are not only beings of body, but beings of spirit, of soul.
5) Mythology, folklore, and Kabbalah. Lots of urban fantasy uses mythology and folklore, but for my parallel spirit universe I also drew on Jewish Mysticism, called Kabbalah.
6) The real is real. While the parallel spirit universe is fantasy, I tried to ground those scenes that take place on Earth as much as possible. Of course I made up some places but where it made sense I used real cities, streets, institutions, restaurants, etc.
7) A little bit of me. It's true, authors like to put themselves in their novels. So every character, while unique, contains at least some element of my personality or ideas. Some more than others, of course!
8) Firebird Alex almost wore spandex. Well, not really. But when I first started thinking of a series featuring a teenage half-demon girl, I was toying with the idea of writing a comic instead of a novel.
9) The heroine's journey. Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey has become the standard origin story. When writing Firebird Alex, I also drew on The Heroine's Journey by Maureen Murdock.
10) Easter Eggs. I like to put little "Easter Eggs" in my books. In each of the three novels in the trilogy at some point Detective Godinez says "I wasn't fishing;" there's another one too, see if you can find it!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Orren Merton started writing fantasy and science fiction at an embarrassingly young age. In high school, he picked up guitar and start playing up and down California in a few bands, culminating in his industrial rock band Ember After. During that time, magazines, developers, and corporations began to pay him to write and edit music software related articles, manuals, and books. Since then he has written the urban fantasy novel The Deviant and the science fiction novel Skye Entity before working on his current series of YA novels. He lives in Southern California with his family, pets, collection of sci-fi/fantasy memorabilia, and curiously large stuffed animal collection.
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GIVEAWAY
Orren will be giving away ecopies of his book to 5 winners of the below Rafflecopter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.
Wonderful list! I definitely agree about authors putting little bits of themselves in. I think it just makes it more real.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting a tour stop!
I agree Candace :)
DeleteThanks for letting me post my list!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome. Thanks for taking the time to do it for my readers :)
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