On August 13th, 2025, my newest novel, Lordins of Fire, will be released on Amazon. It will be available on both Kindle and paperback.
Lordins of Fire is a fantasy novel set in a world in which sorcerers, called Lordins, have conquered most of the lands, and the sapients (humans), are trying to stop them from seizing the last two kingdoms. The story begins with a knight named Ryder, and his team of allies, who are part of the Royal Guard. Their mission is to protect the royal family, but soon, things take a turn for the worse, and Ryder must venture off into treacherous territory to survive.
Lordins of Fire is filled with adventure where the characters are faced with various obstacles to overcome, including powerful enemies and harsh landscapes.
I had a lot of fun writing Lordins of Fire, especially with the world-building aspect, and developing the characters and kingdoms. It was also exciting to see how the characters would handle certain situations, and how they evolved throughout the course of the story.
I have also created a Goodreads Giveaway for the book, and have included the link below.
One of the challenges with reading a book is finishing it. When starting a book, it’s fun and exciting to explore the world brought to life by the pages. But as the days pass and we try to progress, things can get in the way. Chores, obligations, work, tiredness, etc. Then when we return to that book, it’s all that more challenging to finish.
I try to stick to a rule where I read a certain number of pages/chapter(s) a day. If I find myself unable to meet the goal, I will adjust the page/chapter count to make it more manageable. Using a book app that measures your reading progress can be helpful, as well. After you’ve reached your goal, you can either keep reading or stop. I find this helpful as a way not just to measure my progress, but to encourage me to read each day.
When someone recommends a book to me, I’m more inclined to read it than if I came across the book in a digital catalogue. It’s different than reading a book review, too, since there is more conviction when someone says you you ought to read a book. Or if they personally give me a book to read, it carries more weight, like they want to pass it along where it can inspire a new reader.
At times, that book might sit around for years on the shelf until it finds its way into my “to read” list. Sitting on the shelf, collecting dust, until finally, the pages come to life.
But if the book ends up sitting on my shelf again (after reading it), I might explore the works of that writer, who might even become one of my favorite authors to read.
I’ve made it a goal to read at least one chapter a day. I’ll read more if I can, but on days where I’m busy or am too tired to read, this goal has kept me on track with finishing books that I would otherwise not finish.
This would assume that the number of chapters determines the number of days it’d take to complete a book. 20 chapters means 20 days. 40 chapters means 40 days, etc. To the contrary, I often finish books much sooner. Why, you might ask?
I’ll challenge myself to read further ahead, reading 2 or more chapters if I’m really immersed in the story. Once I’m near the end, I’ll read the last 30-40 pages or so without taking a break, even if there are more chapters ahead. It’s a great feeling to finish a book early, since there’s more time to read other books.
I made this rule for myself because, so often, I wouldn’t read from time to time, and that would stretch out to weeks or months, resulting in me not finishing books (only completing them halfway, for example). By following this simple rule, it has helped me to finish books, regardless of how long they are, or how long it would take to read them.
My newest novel, Into The Other Side, will be available on Amazon on March 1st, 2025.
What would happen if there was a world hidden within our own, holding back creatures that want to invade our reality?
That’s what Into The Other Side explores. It is a novel that follows a drama professor named Phaedra, who finds a pair of sunglasses that allows her to see strange, monstrous creatures whenever she removes them from her eyes. Nobody else can see the creatures except her, leaving her to face them on her own. As the creatures wreak havoc, she must find a way to stop them, or else break the curse affecting her eyes!
I wrote Into The Other Side last year on a typewriter, which was my first time completing a novel on one. It was a lengthy process, and it took some getting used to, especially the clacky sounds that echoed off the walls, not to mention that I could type much faster on the computer. But the patience required to type on a typewriter allowed me to think about every sentence and word I wrote, since it required effort/force to press the keys firmly enough for the ink show up on the page.
Below you can find the link to the Goodreads Book Giveaway for the book. The print and ebook versions of Into The Other Side will be available on March 1st, 2025 if you want to get a copy before or after the giveaway ends (March 4th).
Thank you for visiting, and I hope you enjoy the story!
I’m excited for the Kindle release of The Sea Rescuers tomorrow. The paperback version for it will be available on September 16th.
The novel started off as a short story, but as I wrote it, the story grew, and it soon expanded to different locations with new characters and world-building elements that took on a life of its own. It was one of those stories where each time I worked on it, I saw something new that I didn’t see before. It was a story I had a lot of fun with, since I imagined it very much like a movie, and I wanted to capture each scene emotionally and visually with words.
There is also humor sprinkled throughout the story, and a lot of research went into the sea creatures, as well as the technology of ships and vessels. I find that with each story I write, I learn a lot in my research as if I were working on a nonfiction book. It makes you appreciate the different fields that are out there, and how much there is to learn about the world.
What I learned the most while writing The Sea Rescuers was to stay true to your vision and to be persistent in completing a story you’ve started. There were times when I was exhausted, times when I wasn’t sure if I would finish the novel. But then it occurred to me that a story won’t finish by itself, and I have to put the time in to complete it, or else, it’ll remain an unfinished work.
I wrote The Sea Rescuers in the spirit of an adventure story, and so it has many suspenseful moments, and includes twists and turns that keeps the characters on their toes. In addition to these aspects, the story explores themes about the environment and biotechnology. One of the great things about literature is that it not only entertain us and gets us turning to the next page, but it can make us think long after we’ve finished reading a book.
My newest novel, The Sea Rescuers, will be available on September 10th, 2024 on Amazon. Sometime after that, the print version will be available for sale.
The Sea Rescuers is a science fiction story that begins with a shipwreck on a deserted island, leaving two people stranded. For the next several days, they explore the island to find food and resources while salvaging supplies from the shipwreck. Day by day, they become more adept at survival, making use of the sea and jungle to acquire food. But the island is rife with danger, and they must find a way off after a close-call encounter, or else, figure out how to survive until help arrives.
As the story progresses, the twists and turns lead to new adventures for the characters, where they face off against vicious creatures. In the process, the story explores themes such as biotechnology, and humanity’s relationship with the environment, marine animals, and so on.
I had a lot of fun writing this novel, and with each draft, I felt like I was uncovering new facets of the world, story, and characters. It’s probably my most optimistic and hopeful story of all the ones I’ve written. In the end, it’s a story about choice, and how making better choices will make the world a better place.
I hope you enjoy The Sea Rescuers and have a lot of fun reading it!
In my previous post about reading a book halfway through, I mentioned how I would move on to the next book before finishing the one I had started. But weeks or months after putting that book down, I’d finally return to it, discovering it anew like a forgotten story I had once read.
At first, it’s like being flung into a scene where the characters are in a heated debate. You know not what’s going on, but you can’t help but finish the chapter given how tense it is. And as you turn the pages, the characters from chapter 1, 2, etc., slowly return to mind, and all the details and plot elements begin to take shape as you reconnect all the dots.
It’s kind of like reading a short story, even if you’re at the middle of the book you took a break from. For a short story can drop you in the middle of the action/scene, and as you read, you slowly catch up (and see) what’s going on.
As the book ultimately reaches its conclusion, it’s too late to put the book down and read something else. With the end in sight, to stop and read something else now would spoil the impact of the last pages. Besides, wouldn’t you want to know what happened at the end?
Sometimes I’ll read a book halfway through before moving on to the next. For some reason, after the halfway point, it’s difficult for me to progress and finish a story. Whereas in the first half of the book, I could easily read 20 pages or more in a single sitting, after the halfway point, I might read 5 pages at a time.
Then I’ll start another book, and the process will begin all over again. I’m not sure what it is about the halfway point where I feel like I’ve reached the end when I’m only halfway through. Part of it is that my focus (and interest) will begin to wane, and given how many other books I want to read, my focus will drift to the others.
Some of the stories I’ve finished have felt like a marathon. It’s like a push (or race) to the finish line, where I know I’m almost at the end, but I have to mentally tell myself to keep going. It’s one of those things where I just have to tell myself “just a few more pages,” and say it on repeat. If I do it enough times, I’ll make it to the end.
I’m excited to share the release of my newest novel: The Cast-Iron Owl.
Click the book cover to watch the book trailer (on YouTube) for the novel.
The Story
The Cast-Iron Owl is a supernatural thriller about a mother and daughter who find an antique cast-iron owl at a thrift shop. The daughter, Mary, can hear a bell-like sound emanating from it, and she begs her mother, Jane, to buy it. Jane is reluctant since she thinks it’s overpriced, but soon, they will discover that there is something ominous within the cast-iron owl that will change the course of their lives.
Book Cover Design Process
It took several iterations to create the final book cover that you see above. What’s interesting is that at each step of the process, I felt satisfied with the result I had, only to feel like I had to continue modifying it since it seemed inadequate. The process to arriving at the final book cover was a gradual one–one that was the result of countless adjustments and meticulous changes that led to a design where I felt that any additional changes was no longer necessary. Or to put it another way: any additional changes would only lead me to undo them.
Writing the Story
The idea for the story occurred to me over a year ago. It’s one of those concepts where one thing happens that leads to a chain of events that spiral out of control. It took awhile to work out the premise and concept behind it, although actually writing the story didn’t happen until much later (once I had a clear vision of the story, much like a filmmaker who has a vision of the look of their film).
When I first wrote the story, I wanted it to primarily focus on the point of view of the mother and daughter. However, as I started to edit it, I realized that I needed to tell the story from different points of views to show the impact of the objects on the other characters.
Another thing that required a lot of planning was the sequence of events. Since the events can sometimes overlap on certain days, I had to organize and plan out how one event at one location would affect a character(s) at a different location. It took some time to straighten out all of the details, but in the end, it will read seamlessly as if the events are occurring naturally.
Where to get The Cast-Iron Owl
The novel is available for pre-order on the Kindle, and it will be released on 8-16-23.
Fallton Havenstonne 