This is my post during the blog tour for The Clandestine Queen by Brandon J Greer. In The Clandestine Queen a fifteen-year-old abandoned witch must find her way home to become queen while trying to escape from a demon hell-bent on destroying her.
This blog tour is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours and the tour runs from 29 March till 18 April. You can see the tour schedule here.
The Clandestine Queen
By Brandon J Greer
Genre: Fantasy
Age category: Young Adult
Release Date: 12 April 2022
Synopsis:
A shard of ice hides in her chest
A raging fire burns in his.
A lost queen
A desperate assassin
Together they will change the world.
Maggie Abernathy always thought she was human, even though she could do the most peculiar things. Things no other girl in her village could do. Fifteen years after being abandoned as a baby, she begins to question who she is, where she belongs, and what she might be capable of. When a mysterious letter from the past calls her home, she embarks on a journey that will change her life forever-if she survives.
Loravain-an enslaved, ember-breathing witch hunter-is hot on her trail and gaining fast. If he can find and kill her, he will win what he has sought for twenty years: freedom from the demon he serves. But he knows he isn’t supposed to be the villain, and his conscience weighs heavily even as he continues his hunt. Will the prospect of freedom overpower his desire for redemption?
As their fates intertwine, neither knows what the future truly holds.
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***Guest Post***
What inspired you to write young adult fantasy?
Do you remember the last time you were sick enough to throw up? I know, that is the most random question to be asking in a post about young adult fantasy, but that’s what comes to mind when I think about the inspiration behind my writing. It was during the winter of 2001. That’s right. I have not thrown up in over twenty years. What is my secret, you might ask? The short answer, I am terrified of throwing up and I have learned to deal with the pain of holding it in. Anyway, that is neither here nor there. The last time I was sick enough to throw up, I was still living at home and I was hunkered down in the living room on the La-Z-Boy. And I was bored, though not bored enough to risk getting up and moving around, which would bring back the nausea. No, I was happy just dealing with the boredom.
I had been out of high school for a few years at this point and had basically given up on reading, but on the table beside me was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I glanced at it, wondering if reading would be better or worse than the boredom I was facing. Giving in, I reached over and picked it up. I guess you can say and the rest is history, but there is a little more to this story. As I read, I learned about this tiny little house-elf named Dobby, and that’s when my dad showed up and attempted to ruin everything for me.
“That’s a good book, huh?” he asks.
I glance at him with only my eyes because it’s still a bad idea to move much. “It’s okay.”
“What did you think about the first one?”
“The first what?” I ask.
“The first Harry Potter book.”
“I haven’t read it.”
That was the wrong thing to say. He started yelling at me because “you can’t start a series on the second book. You must read the first book first.” Insistent that I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone first, he brought it to me. When he handed it to me, I plopped it right down on the table and continued to read the second book. Again, the wrong thing to do. We had a little fight about how to properly read a series, and I really wanted to read them all out of order just to spite him, but I had too many unanswered questions. Do you know why? Because my dad was right, which I hate to admit. So, while he wasn’t around, I read the first book. There, now I can say and the rest is history. My hesitancy to read fled and I read anything I could get my hands on.
Over the years I learned that I didn’t like to tread too far from the fantasy genre, but I absolutely loved young adult and middle-grade fantasy. I still gravitate to those types of books because I don’t have to worry about content. I don’t want to worry about running across too much gore, language, or sex in the stories I read. In most cases, I don’t think scenes like that further the plot at all. So, when I am asked what inspired me to write young adult fantasy, I think that is my answer. Oh, there are plenty of things in my life that inspired my love of fantasy, but the desire to read something clean was the biggest inspiration behind wanting to write something clean. Here is the truth. When I write, there are three things I focus on. First is how to best tell the story I would like to hear. Second is magic. There must be some kind of magical element, because, you know, magic. Third, I picture moms and dads reading my books to their kids. Those three things are the biggest driving force behind what I write. I want to write stories that gets entire families lost in their words and pages where no one has to worry about what might show up next.
***Read the first 5 chapters!***
Want to read the first 5 chapters of The Clandestine Queen for free? Get the first 5 chapters here
***About the Author***
Brandon J Greer is the second and third oldest in a family of eight kids. (He was second oldest until a new marriage brought a new child that bumped him to third.) To set himself apart from so many siblings, he discovered the arts. Drawing, acting, and writing pulled him in at a young age. His first book, Around the World in About a Year, was written in the sixth grade, complete with hand-drawn illustrations. The book was garbage but won him a place in an arts competition at the local university. Now living in northern Utah with his wife and daughter, he travels as much as he can. His favorite places to go are Yellowstone and Peru.
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***Giveaway***
There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of The Clandestine Queen. Five winners will each win a signed copy of The Clandestine Queen (US Only).
For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:
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Kelsey Ketch 