The Kingdom Lights Blog Tour! (+$50 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title:Kingdom Lights

Author:  Steven VS

Series: N/A

Pages: 264

Date Published: October 17th, 2014

Publisher: Neverland Publishing

Format: Paperback

Genre: Steampunk

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tour
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Synopsis:

In a world where cities float, airships sail the skies and mythical creatures are summoned in a pinch…Celes Vale is distinctly average. Living in the shadow of his talented cousin, his powerful aunt and uncle, Celes is resigned to his future of soot, factories and well, more soot. But on the night of his twelfth birthday everything changes. A blinding light, a whispered voice and in an instant Celes becomes the first ordinary child in all of history to develop magic, sending him on a fast track ticket to Gardarel, the greatest of the floating cities.

Though some welcome Celes others want the dirt-ridden up-start off their city – preferably head first. Nowhere is this clearer than in beautiful and haughty Lady Ban and her sneering nephew Marcus Blackwood. But Blackwood, with his gang of goons and unimaginative one-liners, is soon the least of Celes’s problems. With a little magic and a lot of detective work, Celes unravels the dark truth behind Lady Ban’s prim, perfect smile – an alliance to the villainous Wardens and the masked man who leads them. But in his bid to expose Lady Ban, Celes unwittingly stumbles on to an even darker conspiracy – the complete destruction of Gardarel itself.

~Guest Post!~
Writing Middle Grade Fiction

Really I think there are lots of different ways writing for MG can go, and that there has definitely been a greater trend in recent years to make writing for MG more fantastical.

I know I’m not that old, but even still when I was growing up there was never the distinction between YA and MG. For me what is now today known as MG was always hard-hitting stuff, with a strong sense of morality where the heroes were in true peril. What made these stories so compelling were never the fantastical elements, it was the characters that were a part of them.

I would say the most important thing to remember, not just for MG or steampunk, is that you should not just read within your genre – read a lot and read widely. Read genres that you think your don’t like, read things that are popular, read things people have never heard of. I have always approached writing with the idea that I would read widely, do all the leg work and then condense everything I had learned into something fun and enjoyable so my readers wouldn’t have to.

I think you need to learn to enjoy yourself, and that often means one or two jokes. When you are dealing with such high stakes, it can get a little tiring, if you are constantly at that level. Having some levity, having the ability to laugh at yourself, without making it a parody, I think these are very important elements to have.

I would say that the best, and most epic MG writing combines a lot of different things. One of the key reasons I chose to write in the MG steampunk genre is that one moment you could be saving the world, the next worrying about school, and in the next dealing with your rival. Epic stories are made up of lots of little ones and by writing in this genre it freed me up to tell all the stories I ever wanted to tell within it. 

~Try an Excerpt!~

With his immaculately polished shoes, carefully preened suit and even more carefully preened moustache Jaime Milton was the last person one would expect in the sooty factory city of Midgard. His father, Lord Milton, Sr., a great wobbly man with fat flapping fingers like purple bananas was a close second.

It was a brilliant June morning and the city of Floating City of Midgard was alight with life. Jaime walked through the weathered cobblestone streets and watched as houses flung their windows and doors open, lapping in the sunlight. Jaime had not been here for two years and yet the City of Factories was exactly as he had remembered; there were rows of homes huddled together, tightly packed into the little street as high rising billows of smoke sailed into the sky. The cobblestones of rose-tinged granite underfoot were boisterous and uneven and Jaime had to be extra careful so as not to fall over as racing children zoomed past, chasing one another furiously through the street. Some were covered in soot whilst others were rosy clean but, he noted, all were breathless.

Jaime Milton couldn’t help but smile.

“What are you smirking about?” barked Lord Milton, Sr. as his son pushed him through the streets in a beautiful silvery wheelchair.

“Just thinking about the first time I came to Midgard,” replied Jaime. “It was a…”

“I didn’t ask!” announced Lord Milton, Sr., brandishing his polished walking cane. “Always answering questions I didn’t ask! And stop your smiling! There’s no reason to smile!”

~Meet Steven!~ 

A resident of the sleepy coastal town of Bexhill, East Sussex, England. Steven graduated in the summer of 2013 from the University of Southampton with a Bachelor of Medicine Degree and a Master’s Degree in Global Health from Sussex University – where he spent the majority of his time in Shawcross writing this novel!

In between writing and dreaming Steven is a medical doctor and has worked at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire and the Princess Royal where he fights the system with quirky lanyards.

Steven’s debut novel steampunk fantasy The Kingdom Lights is out on October 17th published by Neverland Publishing.

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