The Ankulen by Kendra E. Ardnek - cover reveal!

Hi guys, my blogger friend Kendra (from Knitted by God's Plan) is coming out with her fourth book on September 5th!
She released the book's cover today and I'm doing my part by posting about it!
Here is the beautiful cover:

 

I've said it before and I will say it again, self-published authors have the best covers. They're just so creative and beautiful! With very nice color schemes, I may add.

Here is the book's blurb:
Fifteen-year-old Jen can't remember her imagination. She knows she had one once, though, and honestly, she'd like it back. It's been eight years. One day she finds a young boy who claims to be one of her imaginary friends and that her imaginary world is being eaten by a hydra-like monster called the Polystoikhedron. He helps her find the Ankulen, a special bracelet that had given the ability to bring her imagination to life and together they embark on a quest to find friendship, healing, and perhaps even some family.

Sounds pretty exciting!

So who's the writer behind the words?

Kendra E. Ardnek  is the eldest daughter in a homeschooling family of four. She has been making up stories since an early age and published her first book, Sew, It's a Quest, when she was sixteen.

When she isn't writing, she's usually knitting, crocheting, making swords out of paint-stir sticks, or looking up random facts. You can follow her writing adventures on her blog, Knitted by God's Plan.

 

 

And now a mini-interview with the author herself:

 

How did you come up with the name Ankulen, and how do you pronounce it?

Honestly, I have no idea where the name came from. My Grandpa is constantly giving my siblings and I random and unusual objects, and one Sunday while my cousin and I were plotting the play that would become this book, he gave me a cheap, plastic, yellow bracelet. I stuck it on my arm and brought it home. On a whim my cousin and I decided to shove it in, and I think Ankulen was just a string of syllables that fell out of my mouth when the thing needed a name. It stuck and has been the official name ever since.

It is pronounced An-koo-lin, and I honestly don't care anymore which syllable gets the emphasis, thanks to listening to Microsoft Mary reading it to me on my kindle.

You talk a lot about worlds... the world of the Ankulen is partly set in our world, and partly set in Jen's imagination, if I'm correct. Would you ever write/do you have plans to write any other books set in Jen's imagination?

Well, there is another layer to the world that I haven't mentioned before, but you'll have to read the book to find out what it is. So, as far as you're concerned, you're pretty much correct. The book is mostly set in Jen's imagination, but there are about four and a half chapters in the real world.

I've been waiting for someone to ask me if I was going to write anything more about Jen and her imagination. Truth is, when I started the book, I thought it was a standalone. I'd write the story, polish it up, hit the publish button and then wash my hands of the whole affair. However, by the time I finished the first draft, I realized that there was still a lot of story potential, and that this was a lovely little world that I would love to spend more time is. When I wrote the second draft, I purposefully left some unresolved plots and hinted-at secrets. It will be at least five years before I write an official sequel, however I plan to have a short story about one of Jen's childhood adventures in my next collection, and Jen has been talking about writing a Little Mermaid inspired story about Mynna the mermaid princess for NaNo. I also have some books set in the imaginations of some of the minor characters planned. So yes, I plan to keep writing about Ankulens.

 

Did you have fun writing The Ankulen?

No. I didn't. Every word was agony and I was bored out of my wits.

Do you detect a high level of sarcasm?

I did have fun writing The Ankulen, perhaps more fun than I've ever had writing a book. There were times when I wanted to pull my hair out, but that wasn't often. This book behaved beautifully, and beautifully behaving books make for a happy author.

Kendra always has very fun parties for the release of her books, and this time it's no different. So head over to her blog (link above) and check it out!

 

Live long and prosper!
P.S. Here is the link to The Ankulen's Goodreads page:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18331720-the-ankulen

Bacon. Welcome home bacon.

Some people have comfort food. Or comfort blankets. Or comfort stuffed animals.
I have a comfort author.
Whenever something isn't quite right I go and revisit my favorite books by Sharon Creech (namely 'Ruby Holler', 'Replay', and 'Bloomability.')

 

This January has been a tough month for me and so I pulled out Ruby Holler and re-read its careworn pages.

 

This was the first Sharon Creech book I ever read years and years ago. It it definitely the one of the best, in my opinion. I decided it needed a review.

Title: Ruby Holler.

Author: Sharon Creech.

Synopsis: Dallas and Florida are Trouble Twins. Thirteen years ago they arrived as infants on the steps of the Boxton Creek Home for Children and have been there virtually ever since. Sure, they've been taken in by many families - the Cranbeps, the Creepy Dreeps, the Burgertons.... but the metaphorical revolving door keeps sweeping them back into the Home.
Tiller and Sairy are an elderly couple living in their cabin in Ruby Holler, a beautiful wilderness. They are planning trips, but aren't going together. Tiller is going to sail down the Rutabego River, and Sairy is going to Kangadoon to find the Red Tailed Rockingbird.
They go to the Boxton Creek Home in search of companions. They decide to take Dallas and Florida on their trips with them.
But Dallas and Florida have other plans. They have never known love, not from the families they were placed with, and not from the Trepids, the couple running the Home. Dallas and Florida want to run away, catch the night train. Will they actually do it? Or will they accompany Tiller and Sairy on their trips?

My rating: 9/10 stars.

Why I liked the story: I can't really explain it. It's just one of those stories that makes its way into your heart and won't leave. It's well-written and the characters are such... characters. As Tiller says, "I will try to become Mr. Personality." From Tiller and Sairy, the old couple in love that everyone wants to become, to Z, the mysterious man working for Mr. Trepid.
Dallas and Florida will break your heart, because they've never been loved and can't recognize love when it's finally shown to them. They really change throughout the book, though - great character development. They go from mistrusting all grown-ups, to finding a family.
It's a very warm story full of fun characters and the hilarious things they do.

Why I disliked the story/what you should know: Hmmm... nothing really. Sometimes Sharon Creech skips ahead or goes back in time to explain something, leaving the reader going 'huh?' until she explains it.
Also, for those who are really sensative about crude words... Florida says 'putrid' and 'crud' a lot.

Have I read it before? Yes.

Will I read it again? Yes!

Would I recommend it? Yes!

Live long and prosper!

P.S. I forgot to mention this the other day... Thank you all so much for all the ideas for the second half of the Defenders of the Realm Prologue! I'm still not sure what to do, but you gave me some really good ideas - stuff I wouldn't have thought of. Thanks!
Also, the title of this post is a quote from the book.

SIGH

That (above) is my bookshelf.

 

I have a place for my Warriors books to go (they take up a whole shelf....).

I have a place for American Girl Doll books (they also take up a whole shelf.... Except for the one or two maze/search and find books off to the left).

I have a shelf for misc. books that I love. There's a whole collection of Sharon Creech books.... Inkheart by Cornielia Funke..... The Doll People... Treasure Island... The Freddy Series.... Watership Down.... E. Nesbit books.... Journey to the River Sea..... Lord of the Rings.... other books.... and (OF COURSE) Tintin!

Then there are the above books....
Usually they look like this, piled in front of (and on top of) my other books:

My books have overflowed off of my bookshelf. Yet I still bring home more.

Do you, my readers, have this problem as well? I bet you do. Unless you have more than one bookshelf... Which I'm sure you do.

Most of my family's bookshelves are overflowing.

What can I say, books are amazing!

But I haven't come just to talk about my bookshelf.... I have come to talk about the perils of being a book-loving-writer.

If being a book lover isn't bad enough.... People who both love books AND write never have a free moment. Add music lover in there and your set for life....

I happen to fit all three of the above criteria.

Books have a way of sucking certain people into their depths and once you get a taste of a good, well-written story (*cough cough* Classics! *cough cough*).... Well, let me just say you will NEVER be the same! You will want to get your hands on any and every book that comse your way. You will find good books and bad books.

As a writer, you also get pulled into the abyss of words.

Once you start to write (and find that you are passionate about it) you can never go back. It's kind of like Facebook.... Once you start, you keep going for life.

Book lovers and writers will collect their favorite books (note: never ask a book lover what their favorite book is unless you want a detailed list of every plotline for about 100+ books) and litter papers with half-written plotlines everywhere.

Add sheet music and a few instruments to that and a house will clutter up pretty fast. I have a dreadful suspicion that when I move into my own home I will have books, music, and paper everywhere, with my piano crammed somewhere in the middle. I have a vision of me sitting at a desk in a cluttered, one room apartment writing furiously with stacks of paper and books around me with Beethoven blaring in the background.

And that is exactly how I want it to be.