Goodread Giveaway of Guardians of Aandor Book 1: AWAKENINGS

In association with Goodreads.com, I am giving away signed copies of the first novel in my Guardians of Aandor series from Tor Books.

The Giveaway ends Dec. 15, 2016, so sign up today. (If there are more than 2,000 contestants, five more books will be given away in January.) 

To win a paperback copy of Book 1, Awakenings click here. 

“Combines crossover fantasy in the style of Charles de Lint and Mercedes Lackey with urban fantasy reminiscent of Jim Butcher in a hard knocks action tale.”—Library Journal

"This solid debut will appeal to fantasy fans looking for familiar bones under a modern skin."--Publisher's Weekly

"Awakenings in a weird, wild, adventure that heralds the arrival of a new voice in the field of science fantasy." --Ben Bova

"Lazellari's debut fantasy foretells a promising career."--Glen Cook 

Awakenings

Cal MacDonnell is a happily married New York City cop with a family. Seth Raincrest is a washed-up photographer who has alienated even his closest friends. The two have nothing in common—except that they both suffer from retrograde amnesia. It’s as if they just appeared out of thin air thirteen years ago, and nothing has been able to restore their memories. Now their forgotten past has caught up to them with a vengeance.

You may find the series anywhere novels are sold.

These books are available at

Awakenings Amazon 

Awakenings Barnes & Noble

Awakenings KOBO

        The Lost Prince Amazon 
The Lost Prince Barnes & Noble

The Lost Prince KOBO

 Book 3, Blood of Ten Kings, Coming Soon

Pushing The Envelope In Fiction; Navigating A PC-Centric Media Universe

[This article was originally published at civilianreader.com]

So you're going to be a writer? Awesome. You are never going to please everyone, so own it; the thin-skinned have no business being authors (or auteurs). Words have put the most popular and successful authors on the painful side of a controversy (Sometimes it's intentional.) That said...keep an open mind to the opinions of critics and friends. If you are going to create fictional scenarios that skirt the edge of mass acceptance, know why you are writing those actions. When George R.R. Martin decided to have brother and sister lovers in Game of Thrones, he was setting up the premise of the entire series. The question of legitimate authority and unraveling of Westeros as a society came out of that relationship. Everything that happens in your story, no matter how taboo, should serve the narrative.

Writing Through Hurricanes, Grumpy Spouses, And Maniacal Bosses: Finding Your Default Self

 [The following blog was first published at mylifemybooksmyescape on  Monday Aug. 29th, 2016.]

The universe is trying to keep you from writing. It will throw all manner of distraction and chaos at you, bind you with obligations--girlfriends who cry neglect, boyfriends who threaten to step out on your monogamy, bosses who insist that your not getting the work done in 40 hours is your fault not the workload. You will try to reason with the universe, work out a mutual arrangement where you borrow three hours here and two hours there to ply your craft--but the universe is a fickle bitch that knows full well you need uninterrupted blocks of time with which to craft your tales--time to let your story ferment and then time for revisions. You need a thousand hours to write two hundred decent pages. Lie to the universe, steal the time you need, sacrifice personal pleasure and socializing, and then maybe...maybe, you will have a story of note at the end of the run.

Guardians of Aandor Movie Casting Game

What author doesn't dream of having their work translated into another medium? Now that the final manuscript to the trilogy has been turned in, people are asking when we'll see a Guardians of Aandor movie? My people are  working to make that happen. But I thought it might be fun to play Hollywood casting director in the meantime and cast characters from Awakenings and The Lost Prince based on Hollywood's current talent crop. [Spoilers for those who have not read the series]

Review: You Know When The Men Are Gone

Writer Frank O'Conner emphasized that loneliness and isolation were the most compatible themes with the short story's formal qualities. In that spirit, "You Know When The Men Are Gone" by Siobhan Fallon is the quintessential short story collection, and Siobhan Fallon one of the best new writers to arrive in many years.

These series of stories are at heart about isolation even in the midst of a community that makes great efforts to reach out to those affected by deployment over seas. You never know the private battles your neighbor is going through, and they come in many shapes and sizes: PTSD, physical trauma, lost limbs, infidelity, graft...as if life isn't hard enough, being married and in the military dials up the pitfalls and trials to eleven. Fallon's voice rings true in these tales, and why shouldn't they? She was a military spouse stationed in Fort Hood while her husband completed two deployments in Iraq. A marriage that survives base housing and deployments has the legs to hold together a hundred years.

The Star Wars Prequels Were More Creative Than The Force Awakens

I know I'm going to get crap for this--but before you throw that crate of tomatoes...

Say what you will about the George Lucas' Star Wars prequels (episodes I, II, and III), one thing that you cannot take away from them, despite flaws in the story and Jar Jar Binks, was that they were infinitely more creative than The Force Awakens.

I loved The Force Awakens and am a fan of the original trilogy, but visually, from a design and production standpoint, the prequels were stunning to look at. The new characters were exotic and interesting, even the ones that smacked of racial stereotypes. All our criticisms of those films had to do with story and casting, but the costumes, headdresses, ship and set designs, and characters were extremely novel, and Lucas directed them expertly. Lucas showed us a Jedi order in its infinite diversity--knights from all over the galaxy in all shapes and colors. The pod races on Tatooine were fun and exciting. Yes, the race might have been shorter and been written with more important context to the overall story, but Lucas has said over and over he always saw Star Wars as a soap opera for kids. Kids loved the pod races. Staying true to his belief, Lucas, as an artist, delivered the vision he intended.