Release Day Book Blast: Reclamation (book #3 Leland Dragon Series)by Jackie Gamber

Looking for a YA fantasy about dragons? Give Jackie Gamber's Leland Dragon series from Seventh Star Press a try. One of the best things about a Seventh Star Press book is the inclusion of interior art work. Check out two pieces from Reclamation (book #3) by artist Mathew Perry.

Be sure to grab Redheart (book #1) and Sela (book #2) also.

Leland Province remains in danger. The sinister Fordon Blackclaw has returned from the shadows to strike at the heart of neighboring Esra, killing its Venur and making clear his intentions to retake what was once his: Mount Gore, seat of the Leland Dragon Council.

All around, the land grows weaker and weaker. Leland, once thought saved by Kallon Redheart, is without purpose, and within its borders, Murk Forest, a place of mystery and danger, has driven its inhabitants to seek aid. Esra is in flames, and the Rage Desert grows. Dragon and human alike struggle to find their way, and the wizard Orman can sense that there may be more at stake than the affairs of dragons.

Hope remains, yet it is not without obstacles. In Esra, Sela, the daughter of Kallon and Riza, found the well, a source of life, and made herself whole again. But her homecoming is not what she had imagined.

Old wounds buried deep must reopen if life is to continue. Dragons, humans, wizards, and shape shifters are all at risk as the peace between dragon and human has finally been broken.

War is here.

The stakes?

Perhaps the whole world.

Buy links: amazon

other platforms will be posted once they go live sometime today.

Redheart (book 1)
Enter the lands of Leland Province, where dragon and human societies
have long dwelled side by side. Superstitions rise sharply, as a severe
drought strips the land of its bounty, providing fertile ground for the
darker ambitions of Fordon Blackclaw, Dragon Council Leader, who
seeks to subdue humans or wipe them off the face of the land.

As the shadow of danger creeps across Leland Province, a young dragon
named Kallon Redheart, who has turned his back on dragons and
humans alike, comes into an unexpected friendship. Riza Diantus is a
young woman whose dreams can no longer be contained by the narrow
confines of her village, and when she finds herself in peril, Kallon is the
only one with the power to save her. Yet to do so means he must confront
his past, and embrace a future he stopped believing in.

A tale of friendship, courage, and ultimate destiny, Redheart invites
readers to a wondrous journey through the Leland Dragon Series.

Sela (book #2)
Peace was fleeting. Vorham Riddess, Venur of Esra Province, covets the crystal ore buried deep in Leland's mountains. His latest device to obtain it: land by marriage to a Leland maiden. But that's not all.

Among Dragonkind, old threats haunt Mount Gore, and shadows loom in the thoughts of the Red who restored life to land and love. A dragon hunter, scarred from countless battles, discovers he can yet suffer more wounds.

In the midst of it all, Sela Redheart is lost, driven from her home with only her old uncle to watch over her. As the dragon-born child of Kallon, the leader of Leland's Dragon Council, she is trapped in human form with no understanding of how she transformed, or how to turn back.

Wanderers seek a home, schemes begin to unfurl, and all is at risk as magic and murder, marriage and mystery strangle the heart of Esra. A struggle for power far older and deeper than anyone realizes will leave no human or dragon unaffected.

In a world where magic is born of feeling, where the love between a girl and a dragon was once transformative, what power dwells in the heart of young Sela?

About the Author:

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As an award winning author, Jackie writes stories ranging from ultra-short to novel-length, varieties of which have appeared in anthologies such as Tales of Fantasy and Dragons Composed, as well as numerous periodical publications, including Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, The Binnacle, Mindflights Magazine, Necrotic Tissue, and Shroud. She is the author of the fantasy novel Redheart, and writing an alternate history time travel novel. She blogs professionally for English Tea Store.com, where she reviews classic science fiction and fantasy novels and pairs them with the ideal tea-sipping companion.

Jackie is a member of the professional organizations Science Fiction Writers of America and Horror Writers Association. She was named honorable mention in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Award, and received a 2008 Darrell Award for best short story by a Mid-South author. She is the winner of the 2009 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award for Imaginative Fiction for her story The Freak Museum, a post-apocalyptic tale that looks closely at perceptions and outward appearances and how they affect the way we see ourselves. Jackie Gamber was co-founder and Executive Editor of Meadowhawk Press, a speculative fiction publisher based in Memphis. One of their novels, Terminal Mind by David Walton, won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award in 2009. Jackie also edited the award winning benefit anthology, Touched By Wonder. She has been a guest lecturer at Memphis Options High Schools, and is a speaker at writers’ conferences from Michigan to Florida. Jackie is also the visionary behind the MidSouthCon Writers’ Conference, helping writers connect since 2008.

Seventh Star Press

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Seventh Star Press is a small press publisher located in Lexington, KY. SSP specializes in speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, and horror). The company was established in October of 2008.

Sheep Interview: Jackie Gamber Sela Blog Tour + Give Away

check out Jackie's theme music! Excellent choice
We have a really cool author here today. She writes about dragons! Her recently released YA Fantasy Sela, book #2 in the Leland Dragon series, is getting great reviews. Check out her theme music and hold onto your pants; we talk about her books, touching old things and dragon poop! I know, right? So please welcome black sheep loving Jackie Gamber! Stick around because Seventh Star Press is offering 3 winner's some awesome prizes, including a print copy and I Smell Sheep will give sheep swag including winners choice from the sheep store!

Sharon: Do you smell that? It is the flock welcoming you! Don’t worry you get used to it after a while. Grab a moonpie and some kool-aid and take a seat on the dragon throne; we brought it in just for you.

Jackie: Thank you, it’s very comfy. For the record, I love farm animals. I come from a farming heritage, and I always wanted one of everything that lives in a barn. Especially sheep.

Sharon: Flattery will get you everywhere *passes dragon tiara to Jackie*

Sharon: For all our readers who don’t know about your YA fantasy series The Leland Dragons, could you tell us a little about it?

Jackie: Sure! In Leland Province, dragons and humans once worked together, a pretty symbiotic relationship, sharing land and fighting wars together. But that was a long time ago, and now dragons and humans fear each other. Resent each other. And in particular, recent months have brought a drought to Leland, and her farmlands are all but dying. Book One, REDHEART, is the story of Kallon Redheart, and Riza Diantus, a dragon and human that manage to connect among the danger, superstition and political morass of their time. Book Two, SELA, is the continuing story of the second generation in Leland, and the ever-present threat of war.

Sharon: Same characters or new ones?

Jackie: SELA has the cast of the same characters, as well as some new ones.

Sharon: Book 2, Sela, just released. Do readers need to read the first book, Redheart before Sela?

Jackie:I’m one of those sticklers in my own reading that must read a series starting with book one. I have a few “Book Two”s on my bookshelf I haven’t started reading yet because of that. But! Life is a complicated thing, and not everyone gets their hands on a series from the beginning right away. So I did write SELA with that in mind. I’ve had readers say they read SELA first and enjoyed it as a fully-fleshed story unto itself, and then went back to read REDHEART. Totally doable. But of course, the spoilers are pretty magnificent that way, so I’d suggest reading them in order.

Katie: I'm exactly the same about reading in order! We understand.

Katie: Game of Thrones is a huge hit right now, both in book and tv, do these types of shows help top fuel your creative fire?

Jackie:It depends. I don’t actually watch a lot of tv because there are only so many hours in a day, and I’m not always up to date on the current hits. And for a book (or tv show, or movie) to jazz me up, it has to be pretty well done, and hit me at a time between projects when I can give it my full attention and appreciate it.

I will say, though, that any time a writer (of books or screenplays) finds success, I’m so happy for them! This is a brutal business. Making one’s way is a challenge, and any success of a fellow writer trickles that positive energy out to all of us.

Sharon: How many books do you have planned for this series, and has the story deviated from your original idea?

Jackie: So far, the story is on track to my original conception of it! I’ve always envisioned it as a three-part series, and so my intentions are to have Book Three be the last.

Sharon: Do you already have another series waiting in the wings? Can you share? 

Jackie: Waiting in the wings! Great pun. I don’t have a series of books planned, but I’m working on a steampunk fantasy novel now. Also, my husband and I have established Allotrope Media, a movie studio, to produce short films as tie-ins to my writing projects. Many of the shorts will be a series to follow, with novels or a novella as the fully disclosed story ending. We’d like to get our fans and friends involved in the storytelling as well, with ways to vote and participate in works-in-progress.

Sharon:  Writing fantasy involves an incredible amount of world building. In the beginning did you plan out everything so you wouldn’t get lost or do you let the story take you where it goes?

Jackie: I did both. Once I had cemented the world in my mind, and had characters populating that world with wants, dreams, and hopes, I let the story take me along with it. One of the drawbacks to that is coming to a place in the story that’s a surprise, even to me. If I let a character get in too much trouble, how do I get them back out? On the other hand, that’s exactly the fun of writing, too.

Katie: If you had the chance to ride on a dragon where would you go?

Jackie: If I had a chance to ride a dragon, I would swing over to Europe. England, as a first stop. I’ve always wanted to run my hands over buildings older than the U.S. as a country. To walk down streets Charles Dickens once walked, and to see the view from a knoll in the English countryside.

Katie: On the back of a dragon no less!

Sharon: I went to London back in college and went to the pub where he would go and write J

Jackie: Color me jealous! I guess that would be green.

Sharon: Why did you choose to write a dragon YA instead of an adult?

Jackie: I wouldn’t say I actually chose to write YA. In the early days, I didn’t even realize that’s how it would be classified. I was just writing from the heart, and exploring things from a character who is searching for his place in the world. His reason for living. Kallon Redheart’s personal struggles are set against a society that he doesn’t understand, and doesn’t want to be part of, directly. I think it’s a universal struggle of mankind, but is most keenly felt in our YA generation, and so is closely identified with that reading group.

Sharon: Is there romance in this series?

Jackie: Romantic tension abounds! Subtle, in places, where the characters call for that. More overt for others. But romantic interest is a strong drive in most our real life stories, and so it’s a natural (and interesting!) element to fiction, I think.

Sharon: smut love makes the world go round, right Katie?

Katie: Oh, for sure! Smut love makes all things just go round and round…

Jackie: Romantic tension, you guys. The series is YA, after all!

Sharon:  You lecture about writing at high schools. What is the most helpful advice you try to give these kids?

Jackie: One thing I try to press into artistic minds (including the mind of my own kids) is to KEEP DOING what you’re driven to do, designed to do, whether it’s writing or fine art, or graphic/digital works. Even when people don’t “get” it. Even when others might discourage or mock. When we repress our own work, we lose a part of ourselves, and that’s not doing anyone any good. Keep writing. Keep practicing. Keep reading. Even if it’s only for the pleasure of it, it’s still valuable time.

Sharon: Okay, now it is time to get personal! If every time you walked into a room theme music/song played. What would yours be?

Jackie: Ooooh. Do I get to choose the theme song? Or do I get stuck with something just appropo? Are there any songs about being a doofus?

If I get to choose, I’d pick “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield. I remind myself every day that:

"Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten"

Sharon: nice choice…

Sharon:  This is a very important question I have been pondering about dragons. How come in books and movies no one ever runs across a big pile of dragon poop? You know it has to be huge! Do dragons poop mid-air like birds?

Jackie: That’s a great question. Would you believe I’ve discussed this with my family? Like that scene in “Jurassic Park” where the paleontologist is trying to figure out why one of the dinosaurs is sick. She slides on a latex glove as long as her arm.

From talking about the delicate subject with dragons I know, my understanding is that they are careful about their droppings from survival instinct, much like a cat buries their scent. So lobbing from mid-air is out of the question. Except, perhaps, aiming at their worst enemies.

Sharon: I can buy that theory…wouldn’t it be cool if it had magical powers, like makes you look younger if you bathed in it?

Katie: *gags*

Jackie: I guess I’d rather rest in a field that’s been fertilized with it, rather than make direct contact.

Sharon: What in nature do you find breath-taking?

Jackie: Mountains. Shaggy, rumpled mountains covered in trees, and draped with fog as delicate as grandma’s Irish lace. I adore the Smokies, and I would live there in a heartbeat. Except I might not get any writing done, because I’d just stare at them all day.

Sharon: No kidding?! I have lived in NC my whole life and right now I live about 1.5 hours’ drive Boone, NC. I absolutely love the mountains too. I drive the Blue Ridge Parkway every so often just to rejuvenate my soul.

Jackie: Egads, jealous again! I’ve been to Asheville, and felt as though I was stepping into a dream land. So beautiful.

Katie: Something you MUST do before you die is….

Jackie: See the Grand Canyon. Haven’t made it that far west, yet. And, of course, see Europe.

Sharon: that’s right; you want to run your hands over old stuff. Just don’t touch any old people they might not understand

Katie: I can think of some old dudes that might understand just fine. *winks*

Sharon: *gags*

Time for a little Rapid Fire!

Sharon: tadpoles or frogs?

Jackie: Both!

Katie: Draco or Toothless?

Jackie: Draco, seriously.

Katie: Well, Toothless is too freakin cute!

Sharon: hiking boots or sandals?

Jackie: Hiking boots. To get me closer to those mountains.

Katie: Willow or Labyrinth?

Jackie: Yikes, toughie. Willow.

Sharon: I am not sure I could pick either…

Sharon: Coke or Pepsi (and yes, you have to pick…it is a moral imperative)

Jackie: Diet Cherry Pepsi? Does that count?

Sharon: why yes, yes it does! *fist pump*

Katie: Pfft. Whatever. Not like I care. *starts crying in lap*

Katie: You'll never take me alive! or King Kong ain’t got *beep* on me! ?

Jackie: You’ll never take me alive!

Sharon: math in your head or on your fingers?

Jackie: Fingers.

Sharon: I am a finger counter too

Katie: Boat payment or Sports car payment?

Jackie: Had a boat payment once. We sold it!

Sharon: The Terminator or Jason Voorhees?

Jackie: Terminator.

Katie: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today Jackie, would you like to add anything before we wrap?

Jackie: Come and find me on the web, and keep an eye out for Book Three of the Leland Dragon Series and other exciting projects I’ve got going on. I try to make it easy on people. Here are all my addresses:

For more information about Jackie and her mosaic mind, visit
http://www.jackiegamber.com

And meet Jackie elsewhere on the world wide web at:

https://www.facebook.com/AllotropeMedia

http://www.amazon.com/author/JackieGamber

http://www.twitter.com/JackieGamber

http://www.facebook.com/jackiegamber

http://www.lelanddragons.com

Check out the other sites hosting Jackie's Sela blog tour

through Seventh Star Press here

~~~GIVE AWAY~~~

First place: print copy Sela + set of Sela Art cards and bookmark (US/CAN only) + Your choice from the Sheep store!
two runners-up: ebook set of Redheart and Sela (INT) + Sheep swag packs

*all prizes come with Kool-Aid

 and zombie hunting license.

Sheep Store Swag (no you can't have Baaart)

To Enter: 
1. leave a way to contact you
2. If dragon poop had magical powers, would you bath in it?
*as always, followers of the flock get double entries -mention how you follow