Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Tuesday's Special Is...Rowan of the Wood!


ROWAN OF THE WOOD by Christine Rose

Buy the paper back here or the Kindle version here.

Visit Christine's website.

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After a millennium of imprisonment in his magic wand, an ancient wizard possesses the young boy who released him. When danger is nigh, he emerges from the frightened child to set things right. Both he and the boy try to grasp what has happened to them only to discover a deeper problem. Somehow the wizard’s bride from the ancient past has survived and become something evil. (National Best Books 2008 Awards Finalist.)



Christine Rose…. author, artist, filmmaker, gypsy, dreamer, & feral hippie… is an entrepreneur at heart. Often described as a “free spirit” she is believed to have gypsy blood running through her veins, which explains why she moves around so much. (Although some claim that she has ants in her pants.)

Christine produced two documentary films and has credits on IMDB.com. The first film enjoyed a theatrical premiere in Paris and a considerable amount of international press. She also planned and executed a 40-US city promotional tour for it. She has had articles appear in several magazines, including MovieMaker Magazine and IndieSlate Magazine discussing her career as an independent filmmaker.

Excerpt from ROWAN OF THE WOOD:

Cullen's eyes filled with tears. He covered his mouth to stop himself from crying out. He flattened himself up against the wall of the stall and pinched his eyes shut tight. He heard a scream and he crouched down, grasping his ears, trying not to hear the ordeal outside the stall.

"Oh, the wittle giwl is scared!" Rex chided. He jerked her up roughly then grabbed her cane from her and began tapping her with it from behind. She turned toward each tap until she looked like a dog chasing his own tail. They taunted her, laughing and passing the cane around. Fred turned the water on in the nearest sink and began throwing it at her, splashing her. Each time she tried to run, they pushed her back into the center of their gibes.

Cullen trembled, crouched in the back corner of the stall between the toilet and the wall—terrified; and he hated himself for it. Dangerous brutes tormented his best friend in the world, and he had precious few friends, but he lacked the courage to help her. What of all those glorious dreams where he, as her noble knight, rescued her from goblins and demons to earn her undying gratitude? Some knight he turned out to be, cowering in the corner of a toilet. Ms. MacFey would be so disappointed in him. He hated himself and cried. His fear felt as if it would burst through his skin, and then the nausea came.

A sharp pain filled his chest, and he couldn't catch his breath. At first, he thought it was the pain of his heart breaking, but as he grabbed at it, a light began to shine forth from under his shirt and between his fingers. He fell back against the toilet in pain, yelling and ripping his shirt open. The tree on his sternum glowed brightly.

Rex froze at the commotion from within the stall. His cronies stopped as well.

"What the...? Who's there?"

They heard agonizing sounds of pain emerge from the closed stall door. Beams of light emanated from under and around the door in rays of brilliance.

Rex started to get nervous at the strange sight and sounds. He turned back to his followers and said, "C'mon, let's go."

The walls of the stall began to vibrate and then to shake violently. The bullies began to back slowly towards the door, unable to tear their eyes from the trembling walls. The stall door burst open. Rex and his companions gaped dumbly as a grown man of about forty stepped out. He held a knobby wand in his hand. He stood six feet tall, dressed in a deep forest-green ceremonial robe. His blue eyes gleamed in anger at what the boys had done to April. His hair was red, not a suggestion of red like Todd’s buzz cut, but a full-blown, deep red. A short beard hugged his chiseled jaw, taut with rage. He stood in front of the decimated stall door, taking in the scene before him.

When Rex saw the wizard, he burst out in fake laughter, trying to salvage his courage with false bravado.

"Dude, the D&D convention was so last decade," Rex mocked with a flap of his wrist. Turning back to the boys he said, "Take care of this fag."

Fred and Todd hesitantly moved toward the man, while Rex and Scott turned once again to April. Scott grabbed her again to continue their torment. Both of their backs were to the wizard.

"Luchan!" breathed the man and gave a swipe of his wand. Fred and Todd unexpectedly found themselves much smaller and furrier, with a strange desire for cheese.

*************************
Ready to compete for a free copy of ROWAN OF THE WOOD?? Answer the following question and wow Christine. If you just want to hang out and chat, that's cool too!

You're about to be mugged. Give us your best Dungeons & Dragons inspired line to scare off your attacker.

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome Christine! Welcome everyone! Today's a good day to turn up the heat!!

(I'm posting early because I may scarce for the first couple of hours.)

Chris Eldin said...

Good morning!! I don't read too many fantasy books, but this will definitely be an exception!

Somehow the wizard’s bride from the ancient past has survived and become something evil.
LOL!! There is no such thing as an evil bride. Only a clumsy groom...
;-)
(a small joke to warm things up...)

Christine Rose said...

Thanks for stopping by Jason & Chris! I'm ready to turn up the heat! Especially after such a cold, windy weekend in Norman, OK at the Medieval Faire!

I'll be around in and out all day, so fire it up!

Julie Marie said...

That was a really fun excerpt. I'll have to think about a D&D response.

Good luck, Christine, and thanks to Book Roast for another fun author.

Ethan Rose said...

"Taste the wrath of my can of +4 mace!"

I stopped updating the game after Advanced D&D. After all the game is about imagination not rules. I assume the magical refrences are still the same.

Anonymous said...

"Turn and run away, before I shove my athame where you really don't want it!"
Well, considering I've never done the whole D&D thing - that's the best I could come up with.
Cool excerpt! Am going to have to add Rowan of the wood to my must read list!

Joan De La Haye
http://joandelahaye.wordpress.com/

Anonymous said...

Sorry guys, I just had a marathon visit as the dentist. 4.5 hours. I think I died and drifted to an alternate dimension.

Any (un)cool dentist stories, Christine??

Christine Rose said...

Hey Joan! Nice answer! I've never done the D&D thing either, but my husband was some kind of Grand Master Wizard or something :-D

I know you're into eBooks, Joan. I put a link to get the PDF eBook version on the Rowan Website. It is also available via Amazon on Kindle.

Jason: As for dentist horror stories, I have been blessed with pretty strong teeth, so I don't have any good ones. Ethan does, though. He'll be on shortly to tell you one.

Ethan Rose said...

When I was a child I was the victim of a cosmetic dentist who filed all my teeth down so that they would be even. The resulting loss of enamel has resulted in major cavities ever since.

Charles Gramlich said...

I like the idea of the wizard imprisoned in his own wand. Neat. And the surviving love interest who has become evil.

As for my best D&D line: Humn, maybe:

"I've only killed three goblins and four Orcs already today and my magic sword is still hungryyyyyyy."

Anonymous said...

Ethan, that's horrible. Sorry. My adult teeth were stained from an antibiotic when I was an infant. I had bondings done at various times, but I reached my limit with them. I've had to go with veneers now. I hope they last me a while. 20 years would be nice.

Anonymous said...

I would simply yell "Roll for initiative" and then kick the would-be mugger in the nards and run away.

Christine Rose said...

Hey Charles & strugglingwriter (aren't we all!) - Welcome!

Remember, if you don't win the copy today, you can still get a copy via Amazon! I'm doing a #tweet4loan marathon on Friday 4/10 on Twitter, where we'll be trying to meet our banker's challenge to sell 300 books in a day. If we do it, she'll give us a loan for our summer book tour! SO FOLLOW ME!

Keep those D&D responses coming!! They're great so far!

Anonymous said...

Christine, where do you tend to look for inspiration for your novel?

Julie Weathers said...

"You call that a knife? Let me show you a knife. Gnife, kill." Releases barbarian berserker gnome named Gnife.

Christine Rose said...

Great one, Julie! :-D
Thanks for stopping by!

Jason:
I don't look for inspiration more than it finds me, usually when I'm least expecting it. It's like love in that way. :-D

It can be in the smile of a stranger or even a scowl. It can be overhearing a heated love spat. It can be seeing two people obviously in love. It can be in the trees or in the eyes of my beloved husband. Sometimes, it just hits me.

When I must look for it, I look for it among the trees, and there I usually find it.

Anonymous said...

"Step back, miscweant! Or I will injure you gwievously with my speaw and magic helmet!

Obviously spoken by a knightly sort (who, in this case, might be a bit short.)

thelittlefluffycat said...

Back off, Jack. I've got a d20 and I'm not afraid to use it.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Great answers, folks!

Christine, unlooked-for inspiration is the best. I agree.

Christine Rose said...

Hey Taerin & LittleFluffy - Thanks for coming by!!

Nice answers!

Selestial said...

From my husband:

Don't even bother, you can't possibly get past my Thaco!


From me:

You've obviously never assaulted someone who can shift into wolf-form. My advice? Run now and run fast.

Anonymous said...

As the queen knights the paladin with a vorpal blade.

I knight you sir.
oops, not again.

@BaronofBanagh

Anonymous said...

how meny giants does it take to
change a light bulb

3

one to hold the bulb
and 2 to turn the house round

@BaronofBanagh

Anonymous said...

what do you call a drow with a
sense of hummer.

And elf.lol

@BaronofBanagh

Sarah Hina said...

I'm not too familiar with D&D, but I'm intrigued by your documentary experiences, Christine. Can you tell us a little of their subject matter?

Your excerpt is excellent. It absorbed me right away. I also loved your answer regarding inspiration. :)

Best of luck on the book's success and all your future endeavors!

Anonymous said...

so.
what happens when i snap
a Staff of the Magi.


@BaronofBanagh

Anonymous said...

The last words of a dwarf to an amazon. Should'nt you be home washing dishes. :-)

@BaronofBanagh

Anonymous said...

Last words of a thief. There are no more traps. trust me its my job.thwak

@BaronofBanagh

Anonymous said...

There was a mistake in the link to Christine's website. I've fixed it!! Feel free to drop over for a visit. Christine is serving mojitos. (Alright, that last thing isn't true.)

Christine Rose said...

Thanks Baron, Selestial, & Selestial's husband for your responses!

I'll be picking a winner at about 9:45! Just one more hour!

Sarah:
Thanks for asking about my documentary days.

I made two political documentaries in 2003/4 and 2005. Liberty Bound and Internationally Speaking, respectively. I had moderate success with the first one, including a theatrical premiere in Paris, France; but I was too burned out to effectively promote the second.

The greatest things about making them was the people I met and got to interview (like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, among others).

Ultimately, I find both politics and the film industry to be rather soul-sucking. After one back-stabbing too many, I decided to move into writing fantasy to keep my sanity. :-D

Anonymous said...

In Uk. so would't put me in draw. cost a fortune to get it here :-).

was fun.

@BaronofBanagh

Christine Rose said...

Ooops! I realized I didn't answer your question, Sarah!

Liberty Bound is about life in the US in the few years after 9/11 when people were suffering Civil Liberty violations and the US was beating the drums to go to war with Iraq.

Internationally Speaking is about the world's view of US Foreign Policy, and it was done with my own "Coalition of the Willing": a group of independent filmmakers from several different countries.

:-D

They are both available on Netflix, Amazon, etc.

Anonymous said...

Excellent day everyone! Thanks!!

It's that time of night. I'll go ahead and close the contest portion of the roast. Christine, go ahead and select your winner. :)

Christine said...

Wow! They were all so good, it was really hard to choose!

I enlisted the help of my husband, as he's the D&D guy.

Christine Rose said...

Okay! That posted before I was finished! (Long day)

So... I enlisted the help of my D&D expert husband, as I didn't know what a Thaco, d20, or initiative roll was.

And the winner is...
strugglingwriter ...

"I would simply yell "Roll for initiative" and then kick the would-be mugger in the nards and run away."

This made him laugh out loud. :-D

Okay, strugglingwriter, contact me, so I can get your address and send you your book!

But, really... they were all great.

Anonymous said...

Yay! I just got home from driving around trying to get the baby to sleep (unsuccessfully) and find out I won! Thank you!

strugglingwriter

PS Finally my love for the word nards has paid off!

laughingwolf said...

uh-oh... knew i forgot sumpin :(

Simon said...

D&D Quote?
I think it's pretty tricky to deliver one to a non-D&D'er...
Maybe,

"... You should know that these are the deadly hands of a level 20 Monk! One poke of my pinky can Death Blow your nuts!"