Today we’re kicking off the Blogger Book Fair, master-minded by author and blogger Kayla Curry. The focus this time is on speculative fiction—Yay!—From November 10-14th, visitors to the participating blogs will find all kinds of free and bargain ebooks. They’ll also get a chance to enter drawings for Amazon gift cards ($50, $30 and $20). Be sure to read to the end to enter the giveaways, and then go VOTE in the BBF Reader’s Choice Awards!
D.H. Aire has walked the ramparts of the Old City of Jerusalem and through an escape tunnel out of a Crusader fortress that Richard the Lionheart once called home. He’s toured archeological sites from diverse cultures that were hundreds, if not thousands of years old… experiences that have found expression in his writing of his Highmage’s Plight Series.
D.H. Aire’s is the author of two novels: Highmage’s Plight and its sequel Human Mage. A number of his short stories appear in Separate Worlds first anthology, Flights of Fantasy, Vol. 1 (available on Smashwords.com and BarnesandNoble.com). His story, Crossroads of Sin, appears in the anthology RealLies (2013).
Highmage’s Plight, upon which Dare2Believe is based, is published by Malachite Quills Publishing. Link to the ebook to read sample chapters at: Amazon. (Also available in print on Amazon.)
The author is originally from St. Louis, Missouri and currently resides in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
~Interview~
When did you start writing?
I started writing as a teenager, but really started writing and sending out stories, which earned me rejection letter after rejection letter while in college. Those rejection letters, even when they came with advice or an encouraging line, hurt. So, I suppose you could call me a “closet writer.” I wrote my stories and re-wrote them, draft after draft, just for myself for the next twenty years before sending one off to a contest, which offered publication in an ezine. I won and ended up serializing two of my books in my Highmage’s Plight Series as well as excerpts from two others (all now published).
The story that earned me that encouraging line with the rejection letter so many years ago (after I don’t know how many revisions at this point) appears in my debut novel, Highmage’s Plight.
What inspires your writing?
I can’t not write. I love stories and always have. So, everything inspires my writing. I’ve found ways to write what I know and that means more than pulling from my own life. I write fantasy and science fiction, but do not exactly live in the future. However, I have always loved learning about history and visiting archaeological sites. I’m fascinated imagining myself walking through the past, overlaying the history I’ve researched or learned. That inspires my writing.
What is the best part about being a writer?
The best part of being a writer is holding your book in your hand for the first time, selling a copy to someone excited to buy it, meeting a reader who loved it. I also like sharing my experiences as a writer, helping others to sell their stories.
Is there something special or unique about you or your book you’d like to tell us about?
I have walked the ramparts of the Old City of Jerusalem and through an escape tunnel out of a Crusader fortress that Richard the Lionheart once called home. I’ve toured archeological sites that were hundreds, if not thousands of years old… experiences that have found expression in my writing of the Highmage’s Plight Series. I am originally from St. Louis, Missouri and currently live in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Finally, I’ve an unusual vision for this series, on a meta level. I don’t see publishing in the digital age as having to let books cease evolving once they are printed on a written page. So, I’m experimenting a bit on a number of levels.
Highmage’s Plight is like many epic fantasy series, up to a point. To learn how it’s different visit Wattpad.com and check out Dare2Believe, where the opening chapters of my forthcoming Young Adult Urban Fantasy novel can be found. Wattpad.com is a free reading site with over 5 million readers.
Reading Highmage’s Plight will enhance reader’s appreciation of Dare (featured here for the BBF). You’ll have even more fun whether you are a young adult or not. Dare2Believe is the first book in a four book series.
The Highmage’s Plight Series: Highmage’s Plight (Book 1) $2.99, Merchants and Mages (Book 2) 99 cents, Human Mage (Book 3) $4.99, and Highmage (Book 4) $4.99.
Also offered for free on Wattpad is my Young Adult science fiction short story, Time Out.
Dare 2 Believe, my friends, Dare 2 Believe.
– D.H. Aire
Professor George Bradley, computer staff in hand, “envisions” an archaeological site, which could turn history on its head. Then he falls through a ripple in reality.
He enters a world where: trolls think they are human; elves believe humans can’t do magic since they don’t have souls; a child of prophecy is dying of a curse; a shape-changer is bent on killing him; a seeress keeps too many secrets; and an ogre and a boy struggle to defend a keep against the evil ruling it.
This is a world where a starship crash landed, bringing about a war, which led to the laws of magic defeating those of science.
Here a demon rages, intent on destroying all life, its minions intent on killing the human mage from another world.
If that wasn’t bad enough, George’s computer is now rather sarcastic.