Joshua and the Arrow Realm (Lightning Road #2)
by Donna Galanti
Publication Date:
August 30, 2016
Publisher: Tantrum
Books
Joshua never thought he'd
return to the world of Nostos so soon. But, when King Apollo needs his help in
the Arrow Realm, Joshua's will and powers will be tested in order to save him.
With his loyalties divided
between our world and theirs, Joshua wonders whether he alone can restore magic
to the twelve powerless Olympian heirs, or whether he is being tricked into
making the one mistake that might cost them all.
JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM is
the exciting follow up to JOSHUA THE LIGHTNING ROAD which the Midwest Book
Review called, "a heart-pounding thrill ride."
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OTHER BOOKS IN THE
SERIES
Stay away from the
window, don’t go outside when it’s storming and whatever you do, do not touch
the orb.
Twelve-year-old
Joshua Cooper’s grandpa has always warned him about the dangers of lightning.
But Joshua never put much stock in his grandpa’s rumblings as anything more
than the ravings of an old man with a vast imagination. Then one night, when
Joshua and his best friend are home alone during a frightful storm, Joshua
learns his grandpa was right. A bolt of lightning strikes his house and whisks
away his best friend—possibly forever.
To get him back,
Joshua must travel the Lightning Road to a dark place that steals children for
energy. But getting back home and saving his friend won’t be easy, as Joshua
must face the terrifying Child Collector and fend off ferocious and unnatural
beasts intent on destroying him.
In this world,
Joshua possesses powers he never knew he had, and soon, Joshua’s mission
becomes more than a search for his friend. He means to send all the stolen
children home—and doing so becomes the battle of his life.
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Guest Post:
Characters
That Create Themselves!
Characters
can definitely arrive of their own will and on their time! Two examples of this
happened in my book, Joshua and the Arrow
Realm. The first is the character Oak. He suddenly appeared to me a third
of the way through writing the book. His rough voice rang out and I saw him clearly
as if he was sitting across from me. Here is what the main character, Joshua,
sees when he first meets him:
“At
the table sat a man with long, red, wavy hair tied behind his neck and a full
mustache that curled up on either side of his mouth. His baggy yellowed shirt
emphasized his thin arms, and a chain hung from his neck across sharp
collarbones. A black square pendant with braided edges and a lion etched on the
front dangled from it. One bony hand fingered a huge hunk of bread, green with
mold. He ripped off a chunk with his chipped teeth and swallowed it in one
bite, then he picked up a small rusty knife and twirled it in his hand as if
debating whether to cut open one of those nasty looking potatoes. His eyes were
like shards of amber glass, gleaming luminescent in the golden candlelight.
They tightened as he studied us.”
Another
example is Ash, leader of the Wild Childs. She magically appeared in the first
scene literally from the snowstorm that blew in! She lives in tree houses as a
Wild Child to escape the hunt of Queen Artemis. Here’s Joshua and his first
encounter with her.
“The
girl looked older than me, about seventeen, and as skinny as Charlie. She was
dressed in snug pants and a tunic made of animal skin that fell above laced-up,
fur rimmed boots. Her right leg twitched, revealing the top of a knife glinting
from a leg holder with a handle wrapped in an oily rag. The girl shook her
dripping hair, and a tangy smell of dying leaves and wet leather lifted from
her. She leaned forward. Her suede satchel slid off her shoulder and down the
arm of her baggy coat lined with buttons made from birch bark cut into ragged
squares. A closer look at her lopsided clothes made me think they’d been cut
from a crude pattern and unskillfully sewn with crooked black stitches.”
The
first thing that appears to me when I write a book is dialogue. I think this is
why characters pop to me out of nowhere! They appear and start talking to me
without any prompting. It’s up to me as the scribe to tell their story. There
is a scary outcome to this. In reading through the first draft of Joshua and the Arrow Realm, there were
many scenes with characters I did not even recall writing! I contribute this to
being in the “fiction dream” while writing as my characters literally speak
through me. My husband knows I need to run off and be with my “other
people”. I’m sure glad he’s okay with
that.
Donna is the author of the
Joshua and the Lightning Road series and the Element Trilogy. She is a
contributing editor to International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine
and blogs at www.project-middle-grade-mayhem.blogs..., a cooperative of
published middle grade authors. Visit her at www.donnagalanti.com and
www.ElementTrilogy.com. Donna wanted to be a writer ever since she wrote a
murder mystery screenplay at seven and acted it out with the neighborhood kids.
She attended an English school housed in a magical castle, where her wild imagination
was held back only by her itchy uniform (bowler hat and tie included!). There
she fell in love with the worlds of C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl, and wrote her
first fantasy about Dodo birds, wizards, and a flying ship (and has been
writing fantasy ever since). She’s lived in other exotic locations, including
her family-owned campground in New Hampshire and in Hawaii where she served as
a U.S. Navy photographer. She now lives with her family and two crazy cats in
an old farmhouse and dreams of returning one day to a castle.
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Giveaway Information: Contest ends September 16, 2016
·
One (1) winner will receive a scrabble tile book cover charm (US ONLY)
·
Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Joshua and the Lightning
Road AND Joshua and the Arrow Realm by Donna Galanti (INT)
