News from Frances Ellen, author of The Aster Prequel Trilogy, April 2022

Published: Wed, 04/20/22

Hi , and welcome to my newsletter.

In this edition there will be reveals, insights and updates, as well as news of free fantasy e-book giveaways, and finishing off with a limited-time discount offer on the prequel trilogy.

I hope you enjoy reading this email.

Thank you for being part of my publishing experience❤️

Best wishes

Frances

The Reveal

Blurb reveal - From Fury Reborn

It’s been a challenge but I think I’ve managed to produce a spoiler-free description of From Fury Reborn.

Six months ago, the new Dark King of South America emerged. In his opening play he killed their Queen.

For a time he was silent. But now he shows his face again. And the Asters are ready for anything.

Or so they think.

As they travel to the southern continent, Nathan, Sky, Sophie, Matu and Lian learn that what they thought happened six months ago, couldn’t be less true. Those who were thought to be dead, are not, and their powers could re-draw the battlefield.

The Asters are tasked to find out the King’s new plan, and use their magic to save the innocent from the guilty. The victims from the monster.

But the Amazonian jungle isn’t as black and white as they would presume.

And the new King isn’t the only monster on the loose, ready to strike.

Faced with evidence of their own biases and flaws, the resolve and abilities of the Asters have never been so tested. Can they succeed in their most demanding mission yet? And at what personal cost?

It's not set in stone just yet. I'd love to hear from you if it grabs your attention and if you have suggestions to improve it.

Bonus reveal - the opening sentence of From Fury Reborn

The basketball court was a million miles away from the Asters’ near-fatal mission in the North American Underworld just one month ago.

Bonus reveal - the last two sentences of chapter 2

Nathan stared at the Disciples coming his way, his mind racing. He and his mother would be trapped by the higher ground if they didn’t move now. He turned around to tell his mother, only to find a terrifying sight in front of him.
   “Nathan! Answer me,” Axel demanded.
   But Nathan couldn’t answer his Ambassador. For in front of him stood his mother, with five Disciples standing around her. One of them had an arm around her chest and arms, and a knife at her throat.
   “Do not call for help,” the Disciple warned. He pressed the knife against Rose’s skin. “This is between you and me, boy. If anyone else shows up, she’s dead.”

I'd love to hear your thoughts about any of these reveals.

A Book's Journey

The Dream Team swings into action - beta reading

Last time I shared an excerpt of a piece of edited text to show how this works for me in practice. This time, as the next step in my book's journey, the focus is on my beta readers. These lovely people are not there to pick up typo’s or grammatical errors (although they often still do, even after several rounds of editing already, and I thank them for that, too). They are there to judge the pace and flow of the book, flag up any gaps and inconsistencies, suggest improvements to scenes and dialogue, and share back their feelings during and after the read through.

This is one of my favourite pieces of feedback – you might gather that Lian is their favourite Aster………

Is there a passage in a book where you've felt as strongly? Please do share it with me.

The Day Job (for now?)

If you've come across my Author Bio you will know that I train guide dogs for the blind. The organisation has their own breeding programme, for Golden Retrievers, Labradors, and German Shepherds, and crosses between any and all of these breeds. With the arrival of a new litter, the breeder is given a letter of the alphabet, and all puppies from the same litter have names starting with that letter. You can imagine it gets tough for the breeder who gets the letter X …..and in this latest alphabet round, Q was also skipped 😖.

Here are seven of a litter of twelve Labrador/Golden Retriever cross dogs, with names all starting with the letter F. Of the other five, two of them are sponsored so I am not allowed to share their images, and three of them have not yet come from their foster homes to begin guide training.

Top from the left – Flipse, Frodo, Fender. Bottom from the left – Franklin, Fiona, Fenna and Falcon.

Don’t they look amazing? Of these I trained Flipse, Fiona and Frodo for the first eight weeks of their training (Flipse was my favourite 🖤).

Discover New Fantasy Reads

To find new readers for my books I work with fellow (usually also indie) authors to promote our books to each other’s email list. We offer an e copy of a book, novella or custom story for free on sign-up to our newsletters, to help the reader decide if they want to keep following the author. Currently I am offering A Queen To Come.
This time I am sharing offers that have two different themes, both of which are present in the world of the Asters - sword and sorcery, and diversity.

Interested? Just click on the images below to get to the web site, browse through the free books on offer, and take a punt. And feel free to share the link to friends and groups you know who may also be interested.

Updates

Cover design for From Fury Reborn and The Asters Original Series

In last month’s newsletter I asked for feedback on if the cover of AQTC was what drew you to the book, and what about it. This is because I was deciding whether to continue the theme into the Asters Original Series.

The responses were really helpful ❤️ As a result I am leaning towards continuing the theme from the trilogy – a single strong image, the same fonts, some swirly magicy stuff, and a dominant colour – in this case, green (because as I also revealed last time, the book will be told mostly from the point of view of Nathan, the Aster of Flora).

Limited time offer

If you are missing any of the prequel series, or want them in a different format, or perhaps you’d like to treat yourself to a signed and personalised copy, you can order all three novellas, and in all formats, at a discount for a limited time, only direct from my bookstore. All e-formats are at a 25% discount, and all paperback copies, including signed and personalised, are at a 15% discount. These offers are valid up to and including April 30th.

Go to my payhip store, choose your product, and apply these codes at check out:

- for ePub and mobi formats, 25% discount: 8NB8ANFVRF

- for paperbacks, 15% discount: SGUUV626AC

If you encounter any problems, or have questions about theses offers, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected]

If you know of someone who you think will be interested to follow my publishing journey with the Asters, please feel free to forward them to my newsletter sign-up page on BookFunnel, StoryOrigin, or MyBookCave, or to the sign-up form on my website.

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