The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol (A Dragonstone Story) by Mark M. Even

Welcome to the Name Before the Masses tour for The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol, the first book in a series about Mandy Mandez and her extended family's special magic. Check out an excerpt from this book and a special preview of the next book in the series! Be sure to follow the tour for even more. And then enter the giveaway for a $20 gift card at the end!

The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol is an outstanding fantasy that shows how Mandy discovers her magic under strange circumstances. It focuses on how Mandy will get home and how she'll discover her real purpose in coming to this land, providing the basics of how this new world operates in a manner that elementary-level readers can readily understand: "The parasol and the dragonstone work together to sense the presence, or lack of presence, of the inner magic of the person holding the parasol. The dragonstone uses the infinite power of the sun to tap or channel or access that magic. And one way it does that is to transport an individual to Storyworld.”

As Mandy harbors a secret, puzzles out how to use the dragonstone, and interacts with her family while battling lizards and building an army, young readers will relish the blend of real-world family dilemmas and fantasy world encounters.(D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review)

Read an excerpt:

She opened the parasol and placed it on her shoulder. Just as she started twirling it, she heard the creak of the back door to the house open. Grandma rushed out, waving her arms and shouting, “Mandy, wait! Don’t!”

Too late, it’s my turn! Mandy thought.

A blue glow fell across her. Her vision blurred in the blue light. She felt like she was standing still… and spinning at the same time. Indistinct, blurred images appeared and disappeared in front of her, quickly fading away. She felt frustrated; she couldn’t quite make out what the images were.

Finally, she found herself standing on a desolate hillside. Below spread an open vista of hundreds of acres of land covered in boulders. Across this landscape, large and small vents spewed steam, which condensed into shimmering silver, white, and blue water vapor rising into the stark blue sky.

Turning to her right, Mandy saw a large unevenly formed mountain some distance away. On top of the mountain sat what appeared to be an old stone castle with massive parapets and what Mandy thought was… a drawbridge.

There were some… creatures flying around the castle and in between the fortifications and towers.

“I wonder what those are,” Mandy said aloud, squinting her dark hazel eyes to try and make out their shapes.

Behind Mandy, a deep bass voice loudly said, “Oh… no! How did we get to Talon?”

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Take a sneak peek at the next book:

The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol is the 1st book of a 4 (currently) book series. The subtitle of the book, “A Dragonstone Story”, identifies the ongoing story of Mandy Mandez and her extended family as they deal with the magic they can wield through a dragonstone.

The 2nd book, The Power of the Emerald Ring, continues the story and tells the reader how the family copes with using magic in the real world rather than within the fantasy worlds that the magic parasol had provided. While they struggle with hiding their powers from the authorities, they also decide that they want to use their powers to help mankind. And in doing so, they discover that they are not alone – that there are others that are also magical, but that use magic for their own personal benefit.

The Power of the Emerald Ring is in the final stages of editing by Cresting Wave Publishing and will be available September 2020.

Here is a preview of the cover art for The Power of the Emerald Ring:

About the author:

I retired from almost 40 years working for IBM in Mar, 2017. I’ve been married for 43 years to my wife, Joyce and have 3 children and 8 grand-children. I enjoy golfing, fishing, bird-watching and travel.

Shortly after retiring from IBM in 2017, I was at a small-town celebration in northern Wisconsin and noticed that a number of the little vendor booths were people selling children’s books that they created and self-published. I looked at these and told myself that I could write something like that. And I did, but these were the type of books that were targeted at small kids and needed vibrant pictures and artwork.

In the spring of 2018, I was visiting my niece and her family, and she told me of this wonderful idea for a story for a children’s book and after talking with her about it, we agreed to collaborate and I took on the task of writing the story. After many iterations, The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol became a reality.

www.dragonstonestories.com (Mark Even website)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Even-Books-106679040686753/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19679689.Mark_M_Even

www.gocwpub.com (Cresting Wave Publishing)

Mark M. Even will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway