My Grandpa John Woodall could hardly speak of this war that the United States entered into after the attack on Pearl Harbor! Let us never forget the sacrifices, the bravery and the honor of those who served after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Never forget the lives lost during the attack and the call of action that was declared that those men did not die in vain. God Bless our brave soldiers!
****Eisenhower, commander of allied troops in Europe, delivered this message to allied forces just before they embarked on the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944:
“Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you.”****
Thank you is just a,simple word for an author of a book series to use in regard to their work being plagiarized!
If wasn’t for the editor of the series and the loyal readers that took this serious offense to heart, I believe I still would be fighting for the rights to my book. I’ll let the images I post speak for themselves!
Sorry, Nick….my editor, readers and copyrights scared her off before your response!
Now, let’s get back to the REAL DEAL! Getting Ancient Guardians Book III PUBLISHED!!!!
Most authors, as well as readers, have visual images of who they see as their characters…and I did the same thing.
As I wrote, “Ancient Guardians: The Legacy of the Key” I had an image of my main hero character. At the time, he wasn’t known throughout the world, until Man of Steel hit the silver screen! As I wrote my manuscript, this man… Henry Cavill was the only person I could relate to Levi…not only by certain looks he had, but his personality nearly fit Levi Oxley’s perfectly. A perfect gentleman, chivalry and most of all loyalty! Now, don’t get me wrong…before you hit Google of images of him, I have to say, there are only certain pictures of him that resemble Levi.
Anyway as I worked hard on writing, editing and preparing my book to be published, I was informed that there was a fangirl following and rooting for him to be the lead character in the best selling book series 50 Shades of Grey. (Have not read it, but from what I learned…definitely NOT Levi. Then another following for him to play in another erotica book series if it became a movie. With all this said, I had to let go of this image of Henry as Levi. There was no way I would associate him with the book as there were other well known book readers obsessed with him as their lead man! Perfectly fine!
And then came…Man of Steel! Mr. Cavill was now known around the world as Superman. Following this actor before this incredible breakthrough for him, made me so happy that he finally did it! He not only was known around the world, but he landed one of his dream roles…Superman! Way to go, Henry!
So, by chance and with great surprise, I came across another actor that really hasn’t had “the breakthrough” yet. Amazingly, he fits my image of Levi Oxley perfectly!
Well now that I’ve let the cat out of the bag…I’ll give some images of what I saw as Levi through Henry Cavill! Enjoy.
Make sure you keep up, Man of Steel 2, Batman vs Superman comes out soon!
First of all, to my surprise…my fictional character, Harrison, just became “nonfiction!” As if he doesn’t give me enough trouble documenting his, Reece and Levi’s story…he goes and blows his cover! Now he’s on Facebook and when he’s on Earth, there is no telling what other social media sites he’ll randomly show up on! He better not give any secrets away!!! 👿
Harrison's new FB account
And now for a little sneak peek into my favorite book in the Ancient Guardians Series! Book III 🙂
Will the Guardian warriors risk everything they are known for to recover what is theirs? Book III brings us more thrills, adventures as we follow the Pemdai warriors as they journey into the unknown….You will not want to miss this third installment of the series, as Levi and Reece’s love grows stronger and Harrison steps up into a main character roll with them!
Still under edits and revisions, and hoping for a late 2014 release!
I promise to keep everyone who is excited for Book 3 in the Ancient Guardians series updated on release dates!
😎 Summer is almost here and the wonderful world of readers are already suggesting wonderful books to read! They have their favorites and I have mine. (I am not biased AT ALL 😉 First up and FREE on the sites below! (Free in Ebooks only, paperback for both novels are also available and on sale)
Teaching my daughter to overcome life’s obstacles…the fun way!
Yesterday we experienced a torrential downpour from out of nowhere! It was sunny one minute, omnious clouds and an incredible downpour the next.
My daughter stood staring out of the window watching the rain pouring down in awe. Amused at the sight of her, I came up from behind her and whispered, “Are you afraid to go outside?” She answered, “Yeah! It’s pouring rain and I’d get wet. Look, mom, the streets are already flooding!”
I laughed and softly sighed. Then said, “It looks like it’s time to go dance in the rain!”
She looked at me like I was crazy.
I gave her a quick kiss and said, “We’re going to dance in the rain…go get the camera!” Disclaimer: There was no thunder or lightning associated with this downpour!
The pictures below show our fun of dancing in the rain! The pictures may not show it, but it really was a torrential downpour!
She didn’t think I was going to do it.
….but I did! Give me a downpour and I will be out, dancing in it!!!
Liberation 🙂
She laughed the entire time… Watching her crazy mom dance around, soaking herself in the rain…
Then I challenged her: You coming???
She screamed in delight, practically threw the camera and ran out into the rain….
And that is Parenting 101!!!! 🙂
One of my favorite quotes
One of my favorites by Tom Hiddleston, well known
as Loki in Thor & The Avengers
I hope everyone feels the same! Life is too short to hide from the troubles it brings our way! We have to learn to find humor in the hard times, so that we can get through them and learn from them!
Mothers Day is turning out to be everything I didn’t think it would be! Jaci decides to join me on a shopping trip to the grocery store…
Dad gives her free choice of anything in the store for her to pick out for Mom on mother’s day! Well, when you walk my daughter through a million beautiful displays of flowers…she’s going to pick those!
I managed to convince her, that it’s a waste of money, they will die and Dad already bought me a beautiful ring! My idea: I’ll take a picture with the display and it will last longer and we’ll consider them to be ALL MINE! IT WORKED!
Blurry, but they were all mine
Then we came across a particular type of flower and she just had to say: “Mom, they’re colorful flowers like the ones in your book! We HAVE to get them!”
Great! She just had to compare them to the unique flowers in Pemdas! So, Jaci wins….
She was so happy I gave in, she buckled them up! I had to snap a picture!
So, here I am with my beautiful flowers from the weeds of Pasidian Palace’s gardens and Jaci!!!
My oldest son appreciating the fact that Jaci pulled one over on Mom!!! Gotta love my fun little family!
Happy Mother’s Day to all you Mom’s out there! We do deserve the best! And Happy Mother’s day to my Mom, without her I would definitely would have never had the courage to play with my creativity and one day write a book series!
Me and my beautiful Mom! Wish I could spend Mother’s day with her…sending love all the way from Texas to the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California! Love ya, Mom!
Photo credit: Above photo all rights of the actors in The Hangover 2 and the picture unedited belong to The Hangover movie series!
The photo above is a perfect example of how I look after nearly killing myself (along with my editor killing herself) while polishing and preparing a book for publishing!
By this time, we have already gone through the manuscript a million times, content editing, line editing…etc! Then we send off to test readers to find any missed errors!
(Disclaimer: We are all human)
None is at fault here for missing an error. And, yes, our test readers did find obvious errors!
So, now we run final test read to ensure that the book is ready to go….
Then it’s time to pay to have the books professionally formatted for all reading devices! Once that is done and finalized, it’s time to publish the book and hope it’s well received by the world of readers. (My anxiety is at it’s maximum at this point…) So I publish, but can’t walk away….I read again! How I am able to do this is unexplainable, but I guess it shows how dedicated I am to my characters and books as the author) Once I start reading the published versions….
This is when, what I like to call ‘easter egg’ errors pop up right before my paranoid eyes! This is how my luck runs….I see them (only after the book has been published) My reaction?? Everyone I tell that helped to test read for errors reactions? (See the above photo! :-)) I despise these errors, because even though they may be read-over errors, they are still errors and have the potential to rip a reader right out of the book. They also have the potential to show that I didn’t spend ‘quite a bit of money’ to have a professional editor edit the book! I work too hard for these little gremlins to show up in my books! Fortunately my husband introduced the books to a friend of his, who has an incredible talent for finding these errors and she was more than willing to help me remove them! (She’ll be on the editing crew for the rest of the books and I couldn’t be more grateful)
So, with that said, errors are fixed and both Ancient Guardians: Books 1&2 are currently being reformatted TODAY!
I know we are all human, and even the greatest of authors have errors in their books, but I try my best to publish books that the readers can enjoy without a ‘the the’ error showing up somewhere while they’re reading.
Sure there will be readers that will not enjoy the novels, error free or not. Of course I, just as any author, prepare myself for those reviews…but the errors have to go!!!
So enough of that, not only are the books being reformatted and republished but the NEW COVER for Book 2 “The Uninvited” is ready for publishing as well!!!
Here’s the new cover….
It was designed to match the colorful cover for book 1, The Legacy of the Key! I love it!!!
Okay, so I’m a little late getting around to finally watching the first episode of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
I’m not sure who has or hasn’t watched the episode, but Will Smith is his first guest.
When Jimmy asked Will how he manages life in show biz. Will’s response was that he manages well, but, with his kids coming into it…it’s a whole different story. When he told Jimmy the advice he gives his children. I paused the DVR right there, I had to write this down. I think this advice is useful for everyone and I had to share it!
Will Smith’s advice to his kids: “Keep Loving People. Make sure with your art that it is a gift to people, to help their lives be better-to be brighter! People who are in it for their own ego’s and doing it for themselves are the ones who fail!”
I couldn’t agree more, because it’s the only reason I had the courage to share my novel series with the entire reading world. I enjoyed writing it, it was an exciting story for me, and I published it in hopes that it offer the same excitement for others who read it as well. ***At the time, I never thought the characters would hold me hostage and write five books about their adventures! ;-)***
Happy Reading! Happy Writing! Just be HAPPY!!!!
In the third book of the Ancient Guardians series, this was one of my favorite chapters to write. It was the first draft, of course.
What is the quote; “Write with the door closed, edit with the door open?”
And here I am…with the door open…
I have done A LOT of research on how to write a ‘love scene’ between two characters in the genre my book is in. As a writer, you have a lot to consider with who your audience is and you must respect that in your writing.
The Ancient Guardians series follows a young college girl who is swept into the enchanting dimension of Pemdas. The man (Levi Oxley, The Emperor’s son and also the man who served as her guardian on Earth) that she slowly becomes ‘taken with’ and eventually (spoiler alert) falls in love with and he admits his love for her as well! (Given the ages of these characters, this book is technically not a young adult series.) But, I have young adults reading it and enjoying it)
In the first two books of this series, I got to play with the two main character’s affection toward each other…and it was definitely fun writing those scenes! However, we are now in Book 3!
When I first started thinking about how I would ‘take on the writing’ of their night of…well, let’s just say, Passion! I literally asked the question; why did I do this to myself? Why did I have to make two characters fall in love and build up to their ‘Wedding night?’ (Maybe I should just make them break up? Ha! Just kidding…might as well end the series there ;+}) Not happening…there are too many adventures ahead of us).
This is where I went to other Author’s and their blogs for advice! (They’ve been down this road)
I have learned quite a bit from these excellent authors and how I should approach this particular chapter without embarrassing my characters, the readers or myself as the author. This series has attracted readers from ages 13 and up to ages 70!
Writing explicit scenes is definitely not my personal style (there are plenty of other books out there, by great authors, to help appease the reading audience that would enjoy that, thank goodness for that ;-}) But, as the author of the Ancient Guardians, I’ve created a different standard with my characters and also a much different style of my writing to show the heated passion between these two characters…and now, in Book 3, we are bringing it up a notch. How will SL Morgan approach this? Very carefully!
So in my research, two questions by these helpful authors were asked of me! 1. Do you chicken out, and kick the door closed and leave it a mystery to your readers? 🐣🐓🐣
My answer: I can’t necessarily do that, I’ve enjoyed building up to this special moment for the readers! Why would I give them more passionate scenes in previous books, tease them, and then just shut the door on them when the moment FINALLY arrives between my two little love birds? So kicking the door closed is definitely the easiest way out…but I don’t operate, or write, that way! I LOVE a good challenge in my writing…and I’m about to take it on!
Second Question:
2. Do you give the readers just enough, and let their imaginations do the rest….
My answer: Yes, that is exactly what I do. It’s a special moment my between characters. Believe me, they have waited for it, and endured through quite a bit to achieve their special night!
So, here I go….writing a scene that is respectful to my characters, readers and the novel series. This challenge will be fun, exciting and hopefully after the editor and I have approved it…it will be well received by its reading audience!
I have to look at it all this way…
If I can sweep readers into a captivating dimension and help them escape reality with the other two books, I think I can find the proper words to deliver the fun, loving and passionate romance of these two characters without making readers cringe!
Now, I’m off to take my personal challenge!
Happy reading, writing & editing.
Here we go……
Ancient Guardians: Book 3
“A night to remember!”
WHO HOLDS THE POWER: BOOK ONE In this epic coming of age story, we meet Ivan Thompson. A mild mannered, well-cultured and distinguished working class youngster who finally comes to terms with an ongoing issue. With plenty of humor, fun, love, some romance, laughter, and uncensored hand to hand combat, the story talks about bullying. The rewards and the benefits one reaps when they take a stand and push back. And the consequences against those who dare to use it.
Author S.L. Morgan 