Best Seller! Must Read! Page-turner!

Wait? How does one define precisely what these are when, to coin the over-utilized phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder”?  What makes a book something you cannot put down; what compels readers to forego sleep in order to delve deeper into the tale?  The answers might be as varied as the stories themselves and as opposing as the increasing influx of dichotic material available to read.  So when I ask myself if my own writing is Page-turning or a Must Read Best Seller, I often end up more muddled than before I began musing.

Sure, you and I and every other author vying for public attention dreams of giving J.K. Rowling a run for her money and I think we would all agree that finding our book listed as #1 on the New York Best Sellers list would be cause for celebration; yet, for myself, I often end up shaking my head. No, I find myself saying.  I am not honestly sure I want Dark Fey to be mixed in with the hoopla that makes the big bucks.  Yes, awards are an honour. Yes 5-Star reviews make my head spin, my heart hammer and often are cause for a good (happy) cry, but at the end of the day I am not worried so much about the golden glory of the spotlight, the red carpet hullabaloo, or crowds shouting for autographs….no really. Honest, I’m not.

I just want to tell a story that will linger in the thoughts of a reader, perhaps even take up residence in their hearts, and share a gentle message of Hope that might, just possibly, maybe, brighten someone’s darkness.  I long to share the power of acceptance and forgiveness that can alter our reality for the better in a quiet, memorable way that might, maybe possibly, make someone smile, or, even better, change someone’s perception of that guy across the street or that lady down the hall or that kid on the bus; because, at the end of the day, as Evondair in Breaking Into The Light so eloquently says: “The only way to achieve Peace is to become Peace.”

At this festive season of the year, this simple, yet powerful thought/ mantra seems to be even more poignant, so to illustrate just what I’m blather on about, I’d like to share a short passage from book three of the trilogy…

The slurking emptiness of the portal spiraled in confounding directions, blackness folding upon darkness, disorientating and robbing him of every sense. Silence filled his hearing, emptiness touched his hands, and piercing blackness robbed his sight as he forced himself to step through the numbing cold nothingness.  Three steps, Gairynzvl had told him; three steps and he would be through the portal, but in the darkness where he lost all perception, including that of his own body, he could not be sure how many steps he had taken and the slowly turning abyss offered no perspective.  Wholly uncertain, Evondair took another step.

The scrunch of gravel beneath his boots reoriented his senses as he took a final step and found himself standing on a dusty, barren track of greyish gravel surrounded by jagged outcroppings of bare rock.  A fetid stench hung upon the thin air and leaching downward from a colourless sky, sooty rain in the form of a heavy mist shrouded everything.   As the remaining Liberators crossed into the Uunglarda, Evondair moved away from the portal and gazed around curiously; yet even as he sought to familiarize himself with the empty wasteland stretching away before him in both directions and ignore the malodorous stench that made him snort in disgust more than once, he reached out through his exceptional gift of discernment.

The action was instinctual; a means of understanding his surroundings and those within it, but opening his mind to the darkness of the Uunglarda was not only an ill-conceived idea, but a thoroughly dangerous endeavor and he instantly regretted it.  With the force of a rushing tide, desperate loneliness and unremitting anguish poured into his being, overwhelming him so completely that he raised his hands to cover his eyes and doubled over with physical pain.  Memories as scathing as a lashing torment serrated through his thoughts; sadistic brutality and remorseless cruelty that drew a profound groan from behind his clenched teeth before the irrepressible tears of more souls than he could number pressed into him like a thousand blades.

He did not say a word, in truth he could not, but as the waves of despair and suffering sought to drag him into the colourless shadows and ensnare him, he fought to withdraw his discernment from the darkness even as it grasped and clawed at his mind like a ravaging monster.  He could have screamed; he could have cried bitter tears; he could have cursed repeatedly in fluent Dlalth as the comprehension of the dark language of the Reviled filled his mind as clearly as his own did, but he did none of these things. As the deluge of misery wrenched at his mind and heart and the dejectedness of the lost Fey of the Light tore at his sanity, he centered his thoughts on the only thing in all of existence that was capable of defeating the darkness.  Filling his mind’s eye with an image of bright, clear, sparkling Light, he focused his attention on the wails and screams shattering his thoughts and answered their cries for mercy with the strongest weapon at his disposal.

Unspoken, yet heard as clearly as thunder rolling across the scorched heavens, the compassionate love that filled his entire spirit reached outward benevolently, silencing the calamitous uproar as a breathless pause stretched across the gloom.

A Preview from book three of the Dark Fey Trilogy:  Breaking Into The Light

Discover more about the Dark Fey Trilogy at its website.

About the author

Cynthia A. Morgan is the creator of the mythical realm of Jyndari and author of the epic fantasy Dark Fey Trilogy, which is based, in part, upon the true-life events surrounding the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and draws readers into a mystical realm of primordial forests, magic and the lives of Light-loving and Darkness-revering Feykind.  Not to be confused with pixies or “Tinkerbell” type fairies, the feyfolk of Jyndari are winged beings the size of any human who live in a realm where tradition, magic, and spirituality are fundamentals of everyday life.

Dark Fey has earned many 5 stars reviews, including one of the leading industry review organizations, Readers Favorite.  Dark Fey The Reviled was also awarded the New Apple Literary Agency 2016 Book Award for Excellence in Fantasy.  Compared to a fantasy version of a play by Shakespeare, Dark Fey is a brutally beautiful story of Love, Hope, and finding Peace in the Darkness.  Published by Creativia Publications in January 2015, Dark Fey is already among the top #50 in several Fantasy genre categories on Amazon.

Morgan is also the author of the popular blog “Booknvolume” where her ever-increasing number of followers are regularly treated to Morgan’s own brand of poetry, English Sonnets, and musings about life.  She is a current member of the Poetry Society of America; is ranked among the top authors on the Independent Author Network; has had poetry published on numerous poetry websites and is rapidly becoming an Author to keep your eye on.

Some of her other interests includes a deep love for animals and the environment.  She is passionate about music and theatre; is frequently heard laughing; finds the mysteries of ancient times, spirituality, and the possibilities of life elsewhere in the cosmos intriguing.  Morgan Believes in the power of Love, Hope and Forgiveness, all of which is reflected in her lyrically elegant writing style.

You can find Morgan through social media in the following places:

Dark Fey The Reviled on Amazon/Kindle

Readers Favorite 5-Star Review

Dark Fey Standing In Shadows on Amazon US

Readers Favorite 5-Star Review 

 Twitter @MorganBC728   Facebook   Blog / website  Pinterest

GoodReads   Amazon Author Page   Website   Creativia Author Page

Book One:  Dark Fey The Reviled 

Ayla was discovered at a very young age to have an especially rare combination of gifts: empathic telepathy, discernment, and the gift of healing. She was dedicated by her parents to become a Guardian of Childfey and spent her young years in the seclusion of the Temple where she studied magic and the ancient rites; where she was taught about the mortal enemy of all Fey of the Light, The Reviled; and where she attempted to learn how to protect herself from the emotions and thoughts of others, although never successfully.

Gairynzvl is a Fey of the Light who was abducted by The Reviled at the age of seven and suffered the intentionally cruel process of neglect, abuse and deprivation is designed to turn childfey from the Light and twist them into monsters. Now fifteen years later, he is a Dark One. He comes in shadows and silence; lingering near Ayla and trying to communicate with her. After many months and while she is alone guarding a childfey, Gairynzvl crosses into her home, but he is also unlike anything she ever imagined a Dark One could be. Rather than opening a portal for his Legion so they may enter and take what they want; he commits an act of treason against his own kind and closes it; protecting her as well as the youngling in her care from their cruelty, but what he wants from her is just as terrifying and equally as dangerous as a full Legion of Reviled. Through her extraordinary gifts she listens to him when no others will; she touches his pain and discovers she cannot turn aside from helping him, but the conflict that unfolds is vicious and exceedingly costly, pushing them to their limits and forcing them to grow beyond them.

Dark Fey The Reviled is an epic fantasy filled with suspense, mystery, action, magic and romance. It shares the inspiration of positive hope; the resilience of love, and the power of forgiveness through a tale that is rich with beauty and horror alike.

Book Two:  Dark Fey Standing In Shadows 

Gairynzvl risked everything to escape his captivity in the darkness, including committing an act of treason against the Reviled. Yet, in spite of the dangers involved and the very great risk of sparking full-scale war with the Reviled, Gairynzvl has an irrepressible need to go back into the darkness to rescue as many of the childfey trapped there as he can find. The success of his plan will hinge upon more than courage and military strategy; it will call upon the unique skills and magic of each individual who chooses to join his band of Liberators, and it will require a level of dependence upon each other for which few of them are prepared.  Their actions will test all of their limits, could easily divide loyalties, and will shake the foundations of everything The Fey of The Light have accepted as truth for thousands of years.

Slipping into the darkness through darkness is easy.  Escaping out again with terrified childfey is another matter, but if they are captured by the Reviled, the band of Liberators will pray for death long before it comes.  The risks are enormous and the possibility for success is doubtful, but the compulsion to do what is right and what is necessary is too great to ignore.

Inspired in part by the true-life events of the Lord’s Resistance Army or LRA, a rebel militant group in Uganda that commonly abducts children and forces them to commit horrifying acts of violence against each other and their own people in combat, Standing in Shadows reaches deeper into the darkness, but never strays entirely out of the Light.  Relating a tale of both fear and hope, the story allows readers to share Gairynzvl’s journey into a restored life; his challenges in making new friends and forging alliances, and the struggle to trust, rather than fear, those around him.