M.C. Moore's Blog: M C Moore

"Trefoil" went live as free this morning at Amazon, and with the help of some amazing people, has been climbing steadily up the rankings all day long. I wanted to thank everyone who had gone out and got a copy. For those of you who haven't, here is a link to my book at Amazon. (It is also free at Smashwords, Diesel, Kobo, Sony eReader bookstore, and iTunes.)

Keep sharing my book with your friends, I'm now ranking in contemporary Fantasy fiction at Amazon.

#850 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#22 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Fantasy > Contemporary

Get "Trefoil" for free at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0068CHD0Y

Thanks,

MC

Just a heads up: The first 7 chapters of "Trefoil" (which is still free at Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...), the first 3 chapters of "Aquanis" which will be out Jan 20, and "the Morrigan: A Trefoil Short Story" all up at Wattpad.

http://www.wattpad.com/user/M_C_Moore Trefoil

CONTEST! When I hit 500 Likes on Facebook, I will give away a signed copy of "Trefoil", a signed copy of "Aquanis" (due for release Jan 20) and a $10 Amazon gift card to three lucky fans. Contest begins the day I hit 500 followers, I will then cut 500 small pieces of paper and draw a 3 numbers between 1-500 (1 being my first fan and 500 being the last fan to like at 500) The followers will then win the prizes in the order pulled. Share with your friends.

Oh and I'll webcam the number drawing!

http://www.facebook.com/mcmooreauthor...

Just a little update on the progress of my current project "Aquanis", book two of the Trefoil trilogy. I am currently going over my editor's notes, which means lots of adjusting, re-writing, and some grammar corrections. I am very excited to get it out because there are so many things that I want to share with the readers of my books. There is a lot more action in this book than in the first, more romance, and more magic. I don't want to rush it though, so right now I'm sticking to my January 20th release date.

I have cover picked out, so I hope you will take a look at it on my website.
For those of you that have not read the first book, I'm working on putting it out for free. I already have a coupon code for it at Smashwords.com, so if you would like a free copy, use this coupon code, WC37W.

Here is a snippet of book 2 for your enjoyment:

Chapter 1

Meckenzie

“Kellan!” Meckenzie screamed as she awoke to the sun peeking into her bedroom window. For three nights, Meckenzie had been plagued with the same dream. Kellan lay unconscious on a stone floor, blood flowing from her nose and mouth. It was hard for Meckenzie to tell if it was a dream or a vision. A few weeks ago, Meckenzie had started having visions. The visions were one of her new found gifts that came along with her newly discovered ancestry. Meckenzie was a fairy, not just any fairy, she was a fairy princess. Even more than that, she along with her brother and sister are the legendary Trefoil.

Sleep had been elusive for Meckenzie since Kellan had been kidnapped the night of their eighteenth birthday party. Kellan was taken by Ty Rabe and his brother through a portal created by a rifter. Rifters, fairies who had the gift of opening a portal between worlds, were rare, and the fire fairies had one. They could have taken Kellan anywhere.
Meckenzie had tried, with her fairy powers, to reach out to Kellan telepathically for some sign that she was still alive, but it had not worked. Isabel, Meckenzie’s great aunt and her nanny for most of her life, was currently working on a potion that might enhance Meckenzie’s powers to allow her to reach out across a great distance telepathically. They all felt like they were grasping at air trying to find Kellan.

Meckenzie was a triplet, besides her sister Kellan, she had a brother, Taggart. After Kellan’s kidnapping, they had been brought from their home in New York City to the castle in Aquanis. Aquanis was the home of the water fairies, and just a month earlier, they had been told that their mother, who had left when they were ten, was the Queen of Aquanis. She had not wanted to leave them, but for their protection, she had returned to rule when her brother was assassinated by the Clan of Tine, the fire fairies.

So now Meckenzie and Taggart were here with their mother, in a castle, being addressed as Princess and Prince. The strangeness was just not with their new titles, there were so many things that were different about this world. Some of the modern conveniences were missing. Meckenzie's iPhone did not work here, but she was given a communication device that had similar principles to a cell phone. She need only speak the person’s name she wished to talk to and it automatically called them for her. The IPC, inter-personal communication device, was on a network within Aquanis and only one IPC was registered to one fairy. Meckenzie had asked about being able to call other clans, but had been told that the IPCs were only issued to water Fae and on a very privileged basis.

There was no internet, but they had computers that held all the histories, books, and biographies of anyone or anything you could think of. All the cars were electric and smaller, they ran on solar power that was stored in cells the size of a water bottle. The fairies still wrote letters long hand, and it had shocked Meckenzie that within the first twenty-four hours of being in Aquanis, she had received fourteen welcome letters.

Her mother, Queen Diedra, in one of their daily meetings, had told Meckenzie that she would need to write a thank you letter to everyone that had written her. Meckenzie had spent four hours composing those thank you letters, only to be handed twenty more the next day.

Diedra had been another strange thing for Taggart and Meckenzie to deal with. She insisted that they have breakfast together every morning. Diedra said that she wanted to make up for all the time she had lost with them, and it reassured her to have Taggart and Meckenzie with her first thing in the morning so she was sure it wasn’t a dream. So for the last three mornings, Meckenzie, Taggart and their mother had met in her sitting room of her living quarters and had breakfast. The first one had been kind of awkward, no one really knew what to say. The small talk was a mask for the hurt they were all feeling with Kellan’s absence.
So this morning, Meckenzie climbed out of bed and headed for the shower to prepare for another family breakfast. The face in the mirror had aged five years in those three days. Dark circles surrounded her normally sparkling blue eyes. Her hair seemed to feel the sadness as well; its blond luster was limp and dull. She ignored the pain stricken girl in the mirror and climbed into a hot shower. Letting the water wash away the pain and hurt that filled her with every breath she took, Meckenzie stepped out determined to reach Kellan today.

She brushed her hair out and quickly braided it tying it with a ribbon that had been in her room when she arrived. The closet had been stuffed with clothes her mother had picked out before her arrival. Meckenzie pulled out one of the many dresses that she now owned and slid on some comfortable, flat shoes. She smiled at herself, and headed out into the hall.

Taggart was coming out of his room as Meckenzie headed down the hall to her mother’s quarters. He looked as if he had not slept well either, but he managed to smile.

“Good morning darling sister. I don’t think I need to ask how you slept, it is written all over your face.”

“Do you have to be so chipper?”

“I am trying to make the best out of a situation that I have little to no control over. My chipperness, as fake as it is, is an attempt to balance your sullenness. If you are not careful, mom is going to have Isabel mix up a sleeping potion for you. Bowen told me that she could make those and that they would knock you out for three days. So you might want to at least try to act like you slept.”

“I will put on my best happy face when we get to her room, but until then, can you just let me be me?” Meckenzie grimaced.

“Sure, though at this point you are acting more like Kellan.” As soon as the words came out of Taggart’s mouth, he wanted to take them back. Kellan had always been the pouty one of the three of them. She had the temper and was temperamental, so it was as true a statement as could be made, but it didn’t make it hurt any less.

“I know Tag. I know we both miss her. I know we are both worried about her. Maybe I’ll be able to reach her today.”

They had reached their mother’s rooms. Taggart knocked on the door to let Diedra know they had arrived.

“Come in.” Their mother’s voice from behind the door sounded as tired as Meckenzie felt. As they entered the room, Diedra turned and quickly added a smile to her wardrobe.

“How are my darling children this morning?”

“I am starving.” Taggart said as he made a b-line for the breakfast table that Diedra had set up in her room.

Diedra came over to Meckenzie and gave her a quick hug. She took a long look into Meckenzie’s eyes, what she was searching for Meckenzie wasn’t sure, but it was reassuring to feel her mom’s touch on her shoulder and cheek.

“How did you sleep Meckenzie?”

“Same dream. Same amount of sleep.”

Meckenzie didn’t gloss over the truth of how her nights had been going. It was going to do no one any good for her to pretend that she didn’t dream of Kellan every night.

“Maybe we should go and speak to the Morrigan today.” Diedra suggested.

“Oh, can I come?” Taggart said from behind a mouth full of pastry.

The Morrigan were the spiritual leaders of Aquanis. Every generation there were a set of triplets born that were thought to be the fairy incarnation of the Goddess Morrigan. Three girls, all with uniquely different hair colors, were taken from their families at birth and raised by the previous Morrigan. They would take their vows on their sixteenth birthday and live the rest of their lives in the temple. Meckenzie had communicated with Morgan, one of the three, when she was back in New York City. It had been in a dream state that the two had stumbled across an open path of communication between the two worlds. So for Meckenzie this was an exciting prospect to meet her telepathic fairy pen pal.

They discussed the details of the visit to the Morrigan over breakfast. It was an ordeal for them to leave the castle due to the fact that there had been many assassinations over the years in Aquanis. It was necessary to move them with as few people as possible knowing about their movements. They would travel through secret tunnels beneath the city that were protected by powerful spells and charms.

Taggart asked many questions about the tunnels and if there was a map. His interest made his mother proud, Diedra was happy at least one of her children was excited about being here. Diedra knew that Meckenzie’s lack of excitement had a lot to do with Kellan’s absence. Meckenzie felt responsible for the kidnapping; even though everyone assured her that it was not her fault.
There had been an opportunity in New York for them to kill Ty and his siblings. Meckenzie had chosen instead to make a deal with them. The deal was that there would be no fairy actions in the human world until the triplets had graduated from high school and journeyed to Aquanis. Ty had agreed to the terms so that Meckenzie would return his brother and sister who had been caught during a fight in Central Park. Kellan would not be missing if Meckenzie had listened to Bowen, one of their teachers and body guards, and had them killed instead. Somewhere deep inside of her, Meckenzie didn’t want to be a killer, but she knew that this war between the fairy clans was going to force her to be one.

After breakfast, Meckenzie went on a search to find Isabel. She needed to know if Isabel had completed the potion that would enhance her telepathic powers. Since they had arrived in Aquanis, Isabel had been Meckenzie’s constant advisor. She had been there for her throughout her life, but now, Isabel was literally her advisor. It had been determined that all three of the triplets would need Fairy advisors to instruct them on everything that they needed to know about Fae customs, politics, religion, spells, and history. Taggart had been assigned Bowen, which worked out wonderfully because they had grown very close over the last month they had spent training in New York.

In those weeks after receiving their Fae gifts they had been training in their New York City home with Isabel, Bowen, and Ardan. Ardan had been sent out on assignment as soon as they had returned to Aquanis. He hadn’t even said goodbye to Meckenzie. They were both told that their romance, which was basically non-existent, would not be allowed to move forward at this time. Meckenzie knew that her mother had sent Ardan away to protect her. Her heart on the other hand did not understand. Though nothing had happened between the two of them, they had been together every day for a month. His absence left sadness in her heart that was only overshadowed by Kellan’s absence.

Meckenzie felt like in her heart there were three holes left by absence. On the morning of their journey to Aquanis, Meckenzie and Taggart had to say goodbye to their father as well. For eight years he had raised them on his own. He had been there every night for dinner, been to every awards banquet, every doctor’s appointment. They had all cried that morning, not knowing if they would ever see each other again. He did not tell them where he was going, just that they could contact him through his lawyers. The consensus had been made that for his safety he should hide out in the human world. So he liquidated most of his assets, promoted a partner at his investment firm, set up a series of monetary trusts, and he would slip off into the great big world. Meckenzie had promised as soon as they brought peace to the land, they would come find him. She was determined that if she had to give her own life for him to come out of hiding and be reunited with his children, then that is what she would do. She would give her life right now for all of those she loved to be safe, but she really hoped it didn’t come to that.TrefoilTrefoilM.C. Moore

Thanks to everyone who participated in the book giveaway, I really appreciate it. The amount of requests was overwhelming and I hope all of you will check out my book if you get a chance.

I will be running another giveaway in January with the release of the second book in the series, "Aquanis". I hope you'll check it out if you get a chance.

Thanks,

MC

When self publishing, the writing of the book is the easy part. The flow of words as this idea that you nurture like a child and grow into an outline that then takes the shape of sentences, paragraphs and chapters, it is the art, the creativity that a writer feels within them. Then there is the other side of the coin, the editing, the publishing, the marketing, oh the marketing. That side of the self publishing world is the antithesis of the writing. It is the painting your child up in his Sunday best and trying to get him or her married off.

This is where I find myself now. My first book "Trefoil" was a learning experience for me, I feel I did so much wrong. The editing done by my friend and librarian was excellent. The rush that I was in to get it published did not give it credit as there are grammatical errors that I missed and several rewrite errors. So with the second book "Aquanis" I promised myself I would be more vigilant, more attention to detail oriented. As I shall, but it has created a scheduling nightmare.

Long story short (too late) I will be postponing the release of my second book till January. I am hoping to get it out by January 20th, and if it comes out earlier yeah, if not, then we know that I am no good at scheduling.

Thanks everyone for your patience and I hope you enjoy the first one while you wait.

M C Moore