Fabulous and Brunette: The Fallenwood Chronicles by Leslie D. Soule - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway

The Fallenwood Chronicles Series

Books 1 - 4

by Leslie D. Soule

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GENRE: Fantasy

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BOOK SERIES BLURB:

The Fallenwood Chronicles is the ongoing story of Ash Kensington, a young woman who finds herself transported into a fantasy world, where she must take up arms in a battle of Good vs. Evil, against the Dark Lord Malegaunt. Tragedy strikes her life in the real world, but she finds friends in Fallenwood, like her mentor Will Everett, a talking cat named Greymalkin, and a court jester named Terces.. Working together, they battle against the odds as Ash faces attacks from the world and from within. Eventually Ash finds the strength within herself, to attempt the fight against Malegaunt, against overwhelming odds, come what may.

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EXCERPT TWO:

“A dark, difficult, dangerous path lies before you, Ash Kensington.” Ash’s heart grew heavy. In truth, she knew that she was destined to some terrible, dark fate. For so long, her life was filled with sadness and doubt, and one horrible thing after another. What else can I hope for? “But Ash, you must not lose hope. Our world needs you, and you must learn to be strong, so you can find the power within yourself to change things for the better. Prove that you are stronger than your Fate. Prove that you are worthy of this life that you have been given. William Everett has agreed to guide you, and there will be others in this realm that you must learn from. But your future, your life—everything from this point on is up to you. For you have been granted a precious gift—to return to the place and time you left in coming here, once your quest is through.”

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GUEST POST:

The Background Of The Fallenwood Chronicles

So let us begin at the beginning. I’ve always written myself stories, as a matter of habit, ever since I was little. I never questioned what I was doing, back then, as I typed away on my StarWriter word processor – I just did it, imagining quests and strange characters and scenarios that never were. And eventually I hit upon a character – Ash. She came to me first, as a character I could loosely base on myself, and then I wanted to give her friends. As a child and teenager, I had this cat named Bogey, and he would always sleep at the foot of my bed every night, and was the sweetest little creature I knew. [Photo of Bogey is below]

He was named Bogey because my stepfather was an avid golfer, and that’s who named him. So it seemed natural that I should give Ash a friend who was a cat. The cat character was going to be based on Bogey. And at the time, I’d been reading MacBeth, and there’s one part where the witches say, “Come, Greymalkin”, and I knew that that’s what I wanted to name him. So there we had Ash and Greymalkin. And the story grew from there.

The various characters that show up in the Fallenwood Chronicles, all have little pieces of me in them, though some of them are based on real people, like Will Everett.

Victor Hugo wrote that, “A writer is a world trapped in a person.”

And so it was, with me. I never expected to write four novels that would become a series. In fact, Forgetting Fallenwood (book 2 of the series) was something of an experiment. Could I transport Ash back to the real world? Have her follow me through my state job, and see how she would react? And why did my own world seem to fall apart when I tried to act the way society says you should? I demanded answers of the universe.

Well, Forgetting Fallenwood flowed effortlessly from my imagination. Where Fallenwood had taken years to write, I wrote book 2 in about six months or so. But critics were not so kind. I did not receive words of praise, for book 2. While I managed to avoid the topic of suicide that the first book took on, I still managed to write a book that received negative criticism. So I shelved my writing career for years on end. I thought I was a bad writer. And I didn’t touch the Fallenwood series again for quite some time.

But then I realized, that writing isn’t about sunshine and roses. It’s about “writing clear and hard about what hurts”, like Hemingway said. It’s about bleeding your heart onto the page. So I determined that I would keep on going, and write as clearly as I could, about all the ways in which the world had come to hurt me. Book 1 (Fallenwood) is about Death and coming to grips with it. Book 2 (Forgetting Fallenwood) is about Identity and loss of memory. Book 3 (Betrayer) is about Betrayal. And Book 4 (Retribution) is about Revenge.

So there you have it. At the end of the day, I’m proud of having written the Fallenwood Chronicles, despite whatever negative feedback has come along with it.

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AUTHOR BIO & LINK:

Leslie D. Soule received her M.A. in English from National University. She is a scholar, artist, citizen journalist, and martial artist. She has been an established writer for a decade, and has novels published by Melange Books, Terror House Press, Gypsy Shadow Publishing, and Nat 1 Publishing. The Fallenwood Chronicles is her 4-book fantasy series and features the novels Fallenwood, Forgetting Fallenwood, Betrayer, and Retribution.

Twitter handle:

@Fallenwood1

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