Young Adult Fantasy ARC Giveaway #IWSG

If all goes well, I'll be releasing my debut novel in October. It's a young adult fantasy adventure set on the high seas. Although it's part of a series, it reads as a standalone. I have completed the maps for it, the covers for all three books in the series and I've even worked out the formatting for the ebook (For the ARC version, anyway--there are still some tweaks I want to do). That was a victory and a half. The formatting for print is yet to come. Eek.

Right now I'm looking for lovers of fantasy who are interested in an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) of Wielder's Prize, book one in the Wielder's Storm series. In exchange I'd deeply appreciate an honest review. Shoot me an email (lynfaw[at]gmail [dot]com) or say "Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!" in the comments ;) I'll be sending out a limited number, so be quick.

My current tagline for book one: No training. No discipline. No time.

The IWSG question of the month: Has your writing ever taken you by surprise?
Sometimes I do a detailed outline before I write. Other times I just wing it. When I wing it, anything can happen. Surprises galore! It's lots of fun. Of course, outlining does the same, only earlier in the process.

July Reading

July was a slow reading month because I was down with the flu for half of it and super busy the other half. It was also a month of thrones. Giggle.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas is a young adult fantasy, the first in a series. I quite enjoyed it, though it wasn't quite what I expected based on the cover and blurb. It still carried me away to another land, and I like that in a fantasy.

The Templar Throne by Paul Christopher is the third in the series about Doc Holliday's adventures of tracking down ancient Templar relics. Each book has been different in its own way and all of them have been enjoyable. I think there's another four or five in the series. They are a light, fast read and full of action and intrigue. The first is The Sword of the Templars.

That's all I have for July. I've been reading lots of short stories lately too. It makes me want to write more short stories.

What have you been reading lately? Has your writing ever taken you by surprise?