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Thursday, December 14, 2023

The River Against the Sea by Z. Lindsey - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hi, lovelies!!  It gives me great pleasure today to host Z. Lindsey and his new book, “The River Against the Sea,” here on FAB!!  For other stops on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $20 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!  Also, come back daily to interact with Z. Lindsey and to increase your chances of winning!!

Thanks for stopping by!!  Wishing you all lots of good luck in this fabulous giveaway!!

The River Against the Sea

by Z. Lindsey

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GENRE:   New Adult Fantasy

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BOOK BLURB:

Some heroes have swords. Essimore Darkenchyl has a pen. But it’s a magic pen.

Some wizards have spellbooks. Essie has Gossen’s Guide to Shipping Law. But it’s a current edition.

Some sailors have . . . experience. Essie has a new diploma and a year-long contract, and her people have won wars with less.

And that’s good, because between stolen weapons, a coup, and a strange disease creeping in around her and the crew, she might need to win a war.

In a world that blends traditional fantasy with the Age of Exploration, Essie knows a pen is mightier than a sword, especially since hers sometimes shoots lightning.

But what she thinks is a routine political dispute turns out to be something much, much more, and she may have finally met the one problem she can’t talk her way out of.

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EXCERPT TWO:

“My cousin believes they’ll attack on One Wyrm.”

“One . . . Wyrm?” Essie asked as she tried to adjust the ropes around her.

Bunts scoffed.

“Didn’t you read your briefing?”

Essie felt the blood rush to her cheeks.

“I read about the calendar, but it was confusing. It was like math, but it had this religious undercurrent going on. Did not like.”

The captain squinted at her and raised his lip in distaste.

“Bunts, tell our bureaucrat what One Wyrm is.”

“Heh,” Bunts said. He cleared his throat, then shrugged.

The captain squinted at him, too.

“One Wyrm is New Year’s Day.”

“New Year’s Day, of course,” Bunts said. “Those jerks.”

“And what do you want me to do about it?”

“Nothing,” the captain said. “Report that the cargo got handed over and let us go on our way.”

“And if I don’t agree, you’ll throw me off the ship,” she said.

Bunts snorted.

“Seriously?”

The captain scratched his chin.

“To be honest, I was just hoping you’d agree. If you don’t . . .” The captain puffed up his cheeks and stared at the ceiling in thought. “I guess we’ll lock you in the brig until the weapons are safely delivered and we’re back at sea. That’ll give me a good lead on any Agency cutters.”

She tried to adjust herself in her chair, but couldn’t do much, so she frowned. Slowly she turned to Bunts and gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.

“Can’t you undo these bonds?”

Bunts shook his head.

“Nuh-uh. I’m told you’re stronger than you look. And that you eat people’s hearts.”

Essie frowned.

“Not raw.”

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GUEST POST:

Beyond Brutality: Writing Realism in Low-Stakes Fantasy

For years, it’s been impossible to talk about realism in fantasy fiction without violence and grit. In A Song of Ice and Fire and its TV counterpart, protagonists are murdered, sexually assaulted, and subject to infection and disease. Even when some fans complained, George R.R. Martin justified it as realism.

Lately, fantasy writers have become interested in cozy stories--ones without high stakes, where death is rare and the major dangers are social. If the past was so brutal, is it even possible for cozy fantasy to be “realistic?”

Well, yes, for two reasons. The first is that classic literary realism never required brutality as a key component, and the second is that while there were certainly dark periods in our past, humans are a hopeful lot in general, and there were also many good times. Considering how well-covered the days of war and violence have been, I think these peaceful times are ripe for literary exploration.

Literary realism goes back to the mid-1800s. The real in realism didn’t originally mean brutal, but quotidian. Its writers focused on the middle and lower classes and rejected Romanticism. By some definitions, no speculative fiction can be realist--blood-drenched or not. But to me, a cozy fantasy story about foreign gnomes struggling to adjust to a town of elves can be realist if the gnomes faithfully reflect the human emotion of being an outsider in another community.

Balzac’s realist masterpiece Le Père Goriot is not a cozy novel by any means. It’s a sad story, and the stakes are high for Goriot, if not for the other characters. But the warmth of the boarding house scenes and Rastignac’s obsession with getting into the good graces of high society through almost any means necessary are different from the cold realism of ASOIAF. Much of early literary realism is the same way.

I’m not sure fantasy always needs to faithfully reflect our past, but many of the folks who argued in favor of violence in ASOIAF implied that fantasy should do that. As an archaeologist by training, I would say if that’s the case, there is an element of realism missing from fantasy that only deals in violence and disposable kings.

For example, I study Mesoamerica. Thanks to the Spaniards and media like Apocalypto, we think of it as a pretty bleak time and place to live. But if you were basing a fantasy story on Mesoamerica, there are stories for you to tell that don’t involve human sacrifice or even the threat of it!

Let's imagine a person in ancient Veracruz. She grew up in a small town making the happy ceramic figurines with big heads, cute eyes, and giant smiles that were popular there. As a teen, she competed to study at the ceramic school in a big city. Then she came back to her community to teach others how to make cute li’l ceramic figurines. And she might've lived to a ripe old age; we have bones of folks from Mesoamerica who lived well into their eighties.

Our fictional Veracruzana might not have seen a bloody war or been dragged to the top of a pyramid, but she might've experienced doubt, imposter syndrome, heartbreak, and loss. There are infinite stories based on the lives of people like her waiting to be told, and none would be inherently unrealistic because they don’t involve sexual assault or heart sacrifice.

Fantasy stories win us over with the emotional turmoil of their characters. Our heart breaks for Sam and Frodo not simply because Middle-Earth is a land of conflict, but because their emotions are real. As gritty as Ice and Fire is, we empathize more than we want to with Dany not because of the brutality in her life but because of how it breaks her.

If a writer deftly captures the turmoil of being an outsider suggested by our gnomes-in-an-elf-town example above, this can be more realistic--and more gratifying as a reader--than the dirtiest grimdark sword fight with accurate details down to the quillons and the size of the wounds. Realism isn’t about detail, and it isn’t about violence or grit. The real should come from emotions, or even the best worldbuilding will fall flat.

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AUTHOR BIO:

Zac Lindsey is an anthropologist and a linguist who focuses on the Maya people of Quintana Roo. Since childhood, he's had a not-so-secret love of weird, silly, and well-structured fantasy. When other people's parents were reading them picture books, his mom was reading him Terry Brooks. He typically writes hopeful and character-driven fantasy.

Today, he lives in Quintana Roo, Mexico with his wife, daughter, and various stray cats.

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CONNECT WITH Z. LINDSEY:

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550498257222

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/z.lindsey_fiction

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/43825020.Z_Lindsey

Goodreads Book Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198376633-the-river-against-the-sea

Amazon Author Page:

https://amzn.to/3Nr87nR

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PRE-ORDER BOOK BUY LINKS:

**The River Against the Sea will be released on December 18th, 2023 and is currently available for Pre-Order at the links below!!**

Amazon Kindle eBook:

https://amzn.to/47X4Vsr

Amazon CA Kindle eBook:

https://www.amazon.ca/River-Against-Sea-Z-Lindsey-ebook/dp/B0CH3TW3YD

Barnes and Noble Paperback:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-river-against-the-sea-z-lindsey/1144077772

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Z. Lindsey will be awarding a $20 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner’s Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this blog.  This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those fabulous community outreach projects and awesome giveaways on here**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions.  Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.

18 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for hosting and featuring this intriguing guest post.

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  2. Thanks so much for posting this! I had a ton of fun writing it.

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  3. I really like the cover and excerpt.

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  4. WHAT GENRES OF BOOKS DO YOU LIKE TO READ FOR PLEASURE?

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  5. WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO TO RELAX?

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  6. DO YOU READ REVIEWS OF YOUR BOOKS?

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  7. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE "GUILTY PLEASURE" FOOD?

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  8. DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE MEMORIES OF SCHOOL WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?

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  9. IF SOMEONE WERE TO MEET YOU ONLY ONE TIME, WHAT IS THE IMPRESSION OF YOURSELF THAT YOU WOULD WANT THAT PERSON TO HAVE OF YOU?

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  10. TO YOU, WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD STORY?

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  11. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE VACATION SPOT?

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