Last Stand of Daronwy

I have been waiting and working for twenty years to write these five words:

MY NOVEL IS GETTING PUBLISHED!

It’s true, it’s happening! Barking Rain Press has decided to publish my young adult fantasy novel, Last Stand of Daronwy. That’s its new title. If you’ve ever heard me talk about it, it’s the novel about the boy and the magic forest, and it was once called “Call of the Trees”. Here’s the official teaser:

Twin Hills is a dying forest in an abandoned Texas oil field, now skirted by a residential neighborhood. Its protector is an ancient oak tree called Daronwy, who has turned the forest’s pain into a dark magic that it hopes can keep the remaining trees safe from further harm. The spell was working, too—until a young boy from the nearby neighborhood, Jeremy Trahan, is drawn to the woods in search of the magic he senses instinctively. By finding the magic, Jeremy hopes it will help him escape the boredom and bullies that plague his life—just like in all the books he’s read. But as he gets closer to discovering the gateway to the other world that the spell hides, land developers descend on the fragile forest with bulldozers and chainsaws. Will Jeremy seize the chance to leave his mundane world behind, or will he stand and fight for his haven?

Last Stand of Daronwy is slated to be ready this winter. It will be published in both paper and electronic formats (Kindle and Nook etc). Right now, I’m working hard on the final edits and putting together a new website at clinttalbert.com.   Now that this is official, I’ll be talking more about the process of taking a book from manuscript through to its finished product. (And I thought I was finished when the manuscript was done!)

Writing a novel is a very solitary pursuit for much of the time. But there are times like this when you’re celebrating, and you look back to see all the people that helped you along the way. First, this idea would never have gotten off the ground without the encouragement from two of my childhood friends, Aaron and Mina. Several great writers lent their time to review hundreds of pages of early drafts; the example they set of persistence and tenacity has kept me going through the years it took to get here. Check them out: Gabrielle Faust, Christina Johnson-Sullivan, Jen Mahon, Gabrielle Harbowy, RaeLynn Fry, Dave DiGrazie, and Beth Albright.