Smashwords Sale Ends Soon!

We're at the last couple of days for the Smashwords sale of the ebook editions of my books from Five Rivers Publishing. If you're needing some good ebooks to read this summer, look here for not only my novel Tower in the Crooked Wood, and King Kwong (my biography of hockey hero Larry Kwong), but my biography of Pierre Trudeau that's due to be released in December.

It's always fun to have plenty of ebooks on a reader. When you go to the link, be sure to look at the other fine titles from Five Rivers too!

Smashwords Sale of My Books at Five Rivers

Another great ebook sale for this summer! Five Rivers Publishing has just announced a half-price sale of all their ebook titles on Smashwords, for the month of July. Time to load up on summer reading.
The ebooks on sale include my novel Tower in the Crooked Wood, which makes excellent summer reading as a novel short enough to read while you can still remember the beginning. Or if you're into print copies, it's a book slim enough to fit into your lunch bag or beach bag.

For those who are more sports oriented, my bio of hockey hero Larry Kwong will score. King Kwong is also available in print copies that fit neatly into a sports bag for moments when you're sitting around waiting for the game to start or your ride to get there.

Book Launch on Saturday June 27

Just a reminder that for people in and around Victoria, you are all invited to attend the book launch for three authors on Saturday June 27 at 3pm in Britannia Branch of the RC Legion at 780 Summit Ave. There's parking and good bus access. See you there!

-Dave Duncan will be launching his 50th fantasy novel, The Eye of Strife. If you are one of the many fans of his Omar books or his Apprentice series, you'll appreciate the review at this link.
As well, Dave is announcing the release of the omnibus edition of his historical fantasy trilogy The Adventures of Ivor, which you can read about at this link.

-Nowick Gray will be launching his mystery novel set in 1960s Ungava in Canada' North, Hunter's Daughter. He was interviewed here in a podcast: http://www.fiveriverspublishing.com/2015/04/michell-plested-interviews-nowick-gray.html
The novel has already had an excellent review: http://www.fiveriverspublishing.com/2015/06/5-stars-for-hunters-daughter-at.html

-Paula Johanson will be launching her 30th nonfiction book, King Kwong: Larry Kwong, the China Clipper who broke the NHL colour barrier. The publisher has a cheery article about this book on their website.
As well, Paula is launching the new edition of her fantasy novel Tower in the Crooked Wood, a newly-expanded edition from Five Rivers Publishing. There's another cheery article at this link.

Book Launch Saturday June 27 3pm

Dave Duncan and Nowick Gray and Paula Johanson are doing a Book Launch of our new books just released from Five Rivers Publishing. These books are The Eye of Strife, Hunter's Daughter, and King Kwong -- one fantasy, one mystery, and a bio, for an eclectic mix.

Join us on Saturday June 27 at 3pm. We'll be in Victoria BC, at the Royal Canadian Legion's Britannia Branch at 780 Summit Avenue (corner of Summit and Nanaimo near Mayfair Mall). There's good access by bus, and plenty of parking.

Come celebrate three books at once. No, five, and all from Five Rivers! In addition to Dave's 50th novel The Eye of Strife, he will in June see the release of the omnibus edition of his three novels of Ivor the Runner. And the new edition of my novel Tower in the Crooked Wood will also be released in June. All five of these books are from the Canadian publisher Five Rivers which is based in Neustadt, Ontario.

Now available -- Tower in the Crooked Wood

Tower in the Crooked Wood
Five Rivers Publishing
ISBN 9781927400913 $12.99

eISBN 9781927400920 $4.99

available as a paperback or an e-book 

 -click here for a link to the publisher's website, where this book can be ordered-

-click here for a link to Kobo, where new customers are offered a $5 credit-

-click here for a link to Amazon-

They were stolen in the dark to work for a night and a day, building a tower for the wizard Krummholz on faraway Copper Island, in a place where the trees grow twisted in a poisoned bog. Some of the unwilling workers were returned bewildered, bruised and marked by whips — others died as the uncaring wizard called new workers to his tower. Now Jenia is the only one left of her family willing to leave her orchards and walk five hundred miles in search of her abductor, and the answers to questions burning inside her.
Why was she stolen out of the dark? What is wrong at the heart of the tower? And why does the magic twisting the very trees strike a strangely familiar note? All Jenia knows for sure is that she will not let herself be made a prisoner again, not by magic nor by force of arms. When a soldier tries to trap her in a lord's garden, and a village of gentle people tell her to give up her hopeless quest, Jenia has to choose where to place her trust: in friends, in strength, or in the cunning in her own two hands.
And then the wizard Krummholz sends his call out again….

Review of Tower

A wealth of realistic detail lends authenticity to this engrossing tale of a young arborist, “a scholar of trees.” Paula Johanson has created a magical alternative world both mythic in feel, and hauntingly evocative of our own.

— Eileen Kernaghan, author of The Snow Queen

New edition of Tower in the Crooked Wood -- released today!

Just a quick note to be enthusiastic about today's release of the new edition of my novel Tower in the Crooked Wood, from Five Rivers Publishing. You can read about it here!

Review of Tower in the Crooked Wood

It was so good on May 25 to see Ursula Pflug posting on Facebook a link to her review of the first edition of Tower in the Crooked Wood back in 2009 for the Peterborough Examiner. That review is excerpted below. The new edition of Tower in the Crooked Wood is due for release from Five Rivers Publishing in early June 2015!      

Tower in the Crooked Wood is a female lead tale set, as are so many fantasy novels, in a vaguely medieval forested land. High Fantasy has changed in the decades since the publication of Tolkien's LOTR trilogy; contemporary readers want to know more about the lives of ordinary folk: what they eat, what they wear, how they raise their children and make a living.
Johanson is brilliant at this kind of local colour. For example, in her travels Jenia relies on her training as an arborist to rehabilitate a martial lord's neglected orchard and later to recognize the dark magic afoot in the crooked wood. The trees within are not what trees should be, and because of it Jenia recognizes that she is close to her goal.
As in all the best quest novels, Jenia learns about herself, about others, and about her place in the world. Just like in real life, work, friendship and storytelling are important parts of Johanson's beautifully built world. The author is an avid kayaker and her love and knowledge of the outdoors imbues her narrative with a rich verisimilitude. As well, the reader will remember spunky, sympathetically drawn Jenia for a long time.

Ursula Pflug is author of the novel Green Music and the story collection After The Fires. Visit her on the web at: http://ursulapflug.ca