Dragon Apocalypse Blog Tour! (+$25 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: Dragon Apocalypse

Author: Josh Powell

Series: The Berserker and the Pedant

Pages: 244

Date Published: 2015

Publisher: Pedant Publishing

Format: Kindle

Genre: Fantasy 

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours
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Synopsis:
On their way to apprehend a temple thief, Gurken Stonebiter, a templerager of the temple of Durstin Firebeard, and Pellonia, a little, but infuriatingly clever, girl stumble onto a quest to save a town from an evil dragon. The dragon is demanding sacrifices of maidens, and the town is fresh out. Can they discover a way to sate the dragon's bloodlust and save the town?

Along the way, Gurken and Pellonia meet up with Maximina, a half under-elven woman that also happens to be a tad psychic, a ranger with a dash of necromantic ability, a smidgen of samurai training, and just enough time living as a rogue to acquire the ability to sneak up on and stab a foe in the back. Maximina is full of clever ideas on how to gain a tactical advantage over her foes, and on occasion they even work.

During their adventures, Gurken, Pellonia, and Maximina face a snarky unicorn, do battle with a terrible frost giant, contend with a rival adventuring party bent on their utter humiliation, and confront the end of the world in the form of an evil sorcerer and a teeming dragon horde. Can they save the world one more time?

~5 Ways to Write with a Full Time Job~

1)     Go to bed and get up early

The single most effective way to carve out time to write is to go to bed early and get up early.  Some nights I go to bed at 8 pm and get up at 3 am to write for up to 6 hours before heading into work.  That’s the most extreme, normally I wake up at 4 or 5.  I have the home to myself because my family is still in bed and I get can a lot of uninterrupted writing done.

At night, I’m too tired to write and end up watching a few hours of TV instead.  Much better to spend my time at night sleeping and wake up rejuvenated and ready to write.  It’s much easier to write funny fantasy stories when I’m awake, and my sense of humor is operating on all cylinders.  Maximina Nobility, the half-under elven (don’t call her a drow!) warrior who enjoys trying out new and clever tactics that either work brilliantly or... not so brilliantly, was created in the wee hours of the morning.

2)     Write on your lunch break

Another way to squeeze in another hour or so is to write on your lunch break.  Instead of gabbing with friends, puttering around on Facebook, or putting in extra unpaid time at work, find a quiet space, wolf down your food and type away.

While this doesn’t work out every day, I can usually eek out three days a week using this tactic.  Three hours of writing a week isn’t much, but it helps.  I wrote the scene where a small village is in trouble because it has run out of maidens to sacrifice to the dragon on my lunch break.  This excerpt is included at the end of the article.

3)     Write on your commute

This one may involve changing your work commute around.  If you can telecommute, that will save you up to an hour a day you can put towards writing instead.  If you can take the bus or train to work, you can fit in some time that way as well. I was able to telecommute to work once a week.

4)     Stop doing unessential things

A good friend of mine once asked me how I managed to write a book; he barely had time to read even one. Later in the conversation he told me that he’d watched over eighty basketball games that season.  Eighty!  At two hours each, that’s 160 hours of writing time.  Four full-time weeks of writing.  That’s a big chunk of a novel.

When I’m writing a novel, I also give up reading.  Time spent reading is time spent not writing.  I save my reading for when I’m not writing a novel, or I listen to audiobooks on my commute.

5)     Take a writing vacation

If you get vacation days at your job, use them to take some time to write.  If you don’t get vacation days, you’ll have to evaluate how much you need the cash from working against how badly you want to write.

There you have it, five ways to steal time to write your novel.  If you think of any other ways, please contact me on twitter @seasoup.  You can also find me on my website at www.pedantpublishing.com

~Try an Excerpt!~

“We’ve run out of maidens,” the mayor told the crowd in the morning, shaking his head sadly.  The mayor stood beside a wooden pole with chains and manacles attached to it.  The manacles were empty.  “I’m afraid that last night, the last maiden in the city, shall we say… disqualified herself. 

“Trollop!” said a voice in the crowd.

“In about five minutes, the dragon will be here and we’ll all be scorched and eaten alive.  Please, don’t panic.  There’s nothing to be done.”

The people in the crowd looked around at one another.

“Can’t we still pretend she’s a maiden?” said a voice in the crowd.

“A good idea, for sure,” said the mayor.  “But the dragon can tell these things, he’s got a unicorn with him.  I’m afraid we’re doomed.  Nothing to be done about it.”

“You can’t fool a unicorn,” someone in the crowd shouted.

“How about a male maiden? I’m sure we’ve plenty of those.  Roger here, for example.”

“Hey!  I’m not a maiden!”

“Sure, sure, we all believe that.”

“It’s no good anyway.  The dragon quite prefers that the maiden in question be a woman,” said the mayor.

“The dragon’s really quite particular,” another voice criticized.

“What about a young maiden?  I mean, technically, if we can just find someone young enough…” said someone in the crowd.  He turned and looked at Pellonia, as did the rest of the crowd.

~Meet Josh!~ 

JOSH POWELL, wielder of the Sommerswerd, destroyer of the thread, expeditioner to Barrier Peaks, discoverer of his magic talent, and venturer into the Tomb of Horrors is known for having survived a harrowing adolescence full of danger and fantasy. He's gone on to write The Berserker and the Pedant and Dragon Apocalypse and is currently working on the yet to be named third book in the series.

He also spends some not inconsiderable amount of time wiggling his fingers over a keyboard as a software engineer.  He lives with his wife, Marianne, and two amazing children, Liam and Chloe, in sunny California, where winter is, most decidedly, never coming.

 Josh will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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