This one is for all of the kids and kids-at-heart who love epic fantasy. Read an excerpt from Dave Maruszewski's The Dark Beast as well as a guest post about how he crafts his fictional world. Be sure to check out the rest of the tour for even more fun. Best of luck entering the giveaway!
Recently knighted squires Raven, Romda, and Ravai are tasked to help a nearby priest. However, this simple errand turns into much more. They cross paths with the Dark Beast. After that brief encounter, they soon realize the Beast’s plans to destroy an entire town. They journey to this town, meeting residents who tell large tales about the Beast. How much of stories are true? The three will find out. The Dark Beast is coming.
Read an excerpt:
The Dark Beast lunged toward Agnew and grabbed him, but his hand smashed into something. The wizard had put up as a barrier, invisible to the Beast.
“A nice spell,” the Beast said, “but there are ways around it, as well.”
“It will be too late,” the wizard said. He then shot out a large burst of blue energy. The Beast jumped out of the way, grabbed onto one of the rafters, and did not come back down.
“Do you know what your problem is?” the Dark Beast asked.
“Right now?” Agnew replied. “You.”
“No,” the Dark Beast continued, “even in my form, you are more than my superior. You have great power.” Agnew almost seemed pleased to hear this.
The Beast continued explaining. “However, you are too vain and unwilling to get your hands dirty. No one turned me into the beast that you see before you. I chose to do it. It made me stronger. You would never do it.”
The wizard released another blast, almost missing, but indeed striking the Dark Beast. He fell to the ground.
“It would appear that you have overestimated yourself,” Agnew proclaimed. “I stand above you, and you are defeated.”
The Beast looked up and said, “But you won’t touch me, will you, even if I am dead?”
“Of course not,” Agnew replied. “That is why I have guards.” He raised his hand to give the final blow.
The Dark Beast rolled and smashed another vial on the ground. The mist penetrated Agnew’s shield. When he smelled it, he immediately got sick and tried not to vomit.
The Beast slowly rose with a glare aimed directly at Agnew. The Beast was unaffected. His form was resistant to the sickly fumes.
Buy on Amazon
(affiliate link included)
Just $0.99 during the tour!
Once, a very good artist and teacher said to me, “Don’t put every detail into your painting. If you do, the people will have no way of let themselves into it.” Even though I used quotes, this is a bit of a paraphrase. Nonetheless, what he meant was that if I put in too much detail in my painting, viewers won’t be able to use their imagination to “fill in the blanks” so to speak.
The above concept is a method I have kept in a lot of my creative endeavors. It is also what I employ in my Raven, Romda and Ravai series. In these books, you’ll see scant description of the three characters appearance. Furthermore, I practice this pretty much for every personality in the books. I want you, the reader, to make a picture of each person that is specific to you.
When I talk about a sunset, I don’t want to describe it perfectly to you with wonderful style. Instead, I want to take you back to a sunset you remember and put it into my book. This is part of my goal to create a little bit of interaction with the reader.
Another reason that I do this is to engage readers who are less apt to love reading. These type of readers see fiction as a static, impersonal way of presenting material and not a beautiful, expressive way that book-lovers have discovered since written stories were invented.
This style can be scary. My writing may turn off the traditional reader. Even more intimidating, this may gain me low scores with the professional critic, who evaluates books based on traditional methods. After all, I’d like to sell books and make a small living from it. However, what if I don’t choose this way? Who will reach these youth?
We are seeing a decline in reading, and I don’t see it coming back up to levels it was at before. Maybe, it isn’t important to start all children on the classical methods of writing. They are living different times than when reading was more prevalent. They may need different approaches to writing as much as they need different genres. And why not? So, they aren’t ready for Shakespeare or Milton as quickly. If they learn to read, they will learn to read more. Then, let’s see where it takes us.
His stories are created from an accumulation of experiences from careers/backgrounds as a physicist, engineer, teacher, artist, video game designer and software developer. He strives to develop stories with sound moral values that will be enlightening as well as entertaining to youths and adults.
In between writing stories and running his own company, Digital Tumult (DigitalTumult.com), Dave enjoys video games, watching internet videos and hanging out with his family.
Book: www.ravenromdaandravai.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dave-Maruszewski-Books-100693982454237/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21946064.Dave_Maruszewski
Dave Maruszewski will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteAn awesome cover and synopsis, this sounds like a great book to share with my grandchildren. Thank you for posting
ReplyDeleteThe Dark Beast by Dave Maruszewski looks like a book that would give you the shivers in a good way!
ReplyDeleteNancy
allibrary (at) aol (dot) com
Thank you for hosting and thank you all for the comments.
ReplyDeletelooks cool
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really interesting!
ReplyDeleteI love the cover and the excerpt.
ReplyDelete