Doing a Little House Keeping

REMINDER :) THE REIGN OF A QUEEN IS COMING SOON!!!!!! Just a couple of weeks now (March. 11, 2020) and Reign of a Queen will be live on Amazon :) I am so excited about this first series of three books being completed and Rayelynn, Farrow and Drayden's stories told.

After that, the next book will be a stand-alone, Desdemona due out in the summer of 2020...more on that later.

So...as I have started writing books under Azriel Hope, I've been learning a lot about self-publishing. As I learn, I adjust. I am so grateful that people are enjoying The Fall of Arcades and The Rise of a King and I'm so excited to publish the Reign of a Queen which I think is the best of all three books. However, with that said, I have gotten a few bad reviews for The Fall of Arcades to accompany the many good ones.

It was the first book in the series and I wrote it with so much passion, my beta readers loved it, my editor loved it and well...I thought the world would love it. But after some very well thought out and lightly scathing reviews from two reviewers, I decided to look at the Fall of Arcades again and address some of their concerns.

While I think reviews are often a matter of taste, and to those reviewers, the book and therefore the series was perhaps not to their taste, they had made some wise observations. One is that the Fall of Arcades was a little overwritten and two had some minor errors and formatting challenges. There was also mention that Rayelynn was too weak in the beginning, but I think she is where she needs to be considering who she becomes in the Reign of a Queen. She was an abused daughter who lived a lifetime of verbal and physical abuse, she wouldn't come out with her dukes up, she'd be who she was to survive the abuse at first until she knew herself better, so that note, I didn't see as being necessary to change.

I did go back into the book and I have made some minor adjustments. I don't think it changed the story at all, but it did make it a little tighter, cleaner and hopefully more accessible to people who are sensitive to minor errors. I can't guarantee they are all gone and I thought my editor got most of them, but there are fewer errors, better formating and not so many words to describe things.

What I learned is you won't please everyone, but you can make compromises and continue to whittle, hone and polish until your masterpiece shines. While The Fall of Arcaders isn't a masterpiece, it sure is a fun, angsty, dark romance that gets your blood pumping....so out with the old and in with the newer. :) Enjoy, the new draft will be up on Amazon this weekend. (January 26)

AND.....HERE COMES THE QUEEN!!!! March. 11 2020 :) I can't wait...I hope you can.

Rise of a King is FREEEEEE

Grab a copy this weekend as The Rise of a King is free until tomorrow (1.11-1.12) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0814XX5M8/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

And....as you enjoy this book know that THE REIGN OF A QUEEN comes out Tuesday, January 28th, 2020...I'm excited for the last book in this series of three.

It is epic!!!!!! and fun.

Look for my interview on Author's Spotlight on morganhazelwood.com  coming on January 28, 2020

Changing the Cover Art for The Reign of a Queen and Music that Inspired the Story

I just never was that into my book cover for The Reign of a Queen, I thought it was sort of cheesy, but then I didn't, then I did, and then I found this!!!!!! YES! This one tells the story much better.

My fourteen year old agrees this is the one. So...three more weeks and The Reign of a Queen will be here. 

As a tidbit to tempt you I'm including a few songs that are fueling the writing at the moment. 

I Want You to Want Me

Gary Jules

I love this... it's so haunting...Farrow's Song

This is also so sad and beautiful

Jasmine Thompson cover of Everybody Hurts ..Rayelynn's Song

So dark, deep and uplifting...Drayden's song.

Disturbed - Sounds of Silence

and Hallelujah by Pentatonix

and lastly, my daughter's choir :) but seriously this song got me...and it definitely foreshadows the end of this book and the trilogy :)

Sisi ni Moja (One World One People)

The Fall of Arcades is Free for a Few Days

The Fall of Arcades is free for a few days on Amazon...grab it up before it's gone. Woo hoo. From 12/30 to 1/2

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Arcades-Fallen-Immortal-Romance-ebook/dp/B07NWSYQ1F/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Azriel+Hope&qid=1577693719&s=books&sr=1-3

And in other news The Reign of the Queen is almost done :) and boy it is a doozy of an end to this trilogy.  Here is some teaser concept art to make you go hmmmmm... (all images totally just lifted from the internet. I'll commission the illustrator I work with for images for the book or further work) hint...one of her pictures is here :)

WARNING: Little itsy bitsy spoilers ahead....nothing that will change the journey only a nugget to make you wonder...

Someone might end up in Martu Mara!

and spoiler...

Rayelynn finally meets her real father and brother

and becomes a powerful Queen, Goddess, and Mother.

and Farrow a good father...

But at what cost?

That's all for now...The Reign of a Queen is coming soon.

The Rise of a King is on Amazon

I am so excited about this book....

THE RISE OF A KING IS FINALLY HERE...

https://www.amazon.com/Rise-King-Fallen-Immortal-Romance-ebook/dp/B0814XX5M8/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=The+Rise+of+a+King&qid=1573662838&sr=8-5

And...I'm already deep into book three which will be even more epic than the first two.

I hope you enjoy Rise of a King and please if you like the book, could you leave a review on Amazon.

Tomorrow I will be showing some concept art for the Reign of a Queen as a teaser...ENJOY...EVERYTHING!!!!!!

Music for The Rise of a King

Music, as well as pictures, is another thing that inspires me to write, often lingering in my head for days and days on end. I always write with music in my mind. This is the music that inspired Rise of a King.

Sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to why I listen to certain songs, but they just bring it out of me...whatever it is I need.

So for the Rise of a King, the story is dark, it's lonely and it's hopeful. So songs that expressed longing were the ones that drew me in. For whatever reason, I was obsessed with the Greatest Showman...so here are the two that stayed with me hard!

Rewrite the Stars. I feel like this is Drayden being romantic. He wants what he wants, even though it might be for the wrong reasons...he still is hopeful about it.

The next one is also from the Greatest Showman.

Never Enough. For this song, the context comes from Rayelynn's point of view. No matter what Drayden offers her and all that he tries to woo her with will never be enough because she loves Farrow. Love is deep and inexplicable and hers runs to the depths of her soul and though she learns to love Drayden...he will never be enough.

So as the story progresses, Drayden darkens...and I, without giving too much away of the story, I see Closer by Nine Inch Nails being kind of the vibe Drayden is working within the end...and it's super dark but still loving....ish.

Another storyline is Anastasia's where she must carry some of the weight that Farrow bears by necessity because Farrow is so lovelorn he is almost ineffective. She herself begins to feel overwhelming love and it overcomes her to the point she's not sure what she is anymore...it's beautiful and transformative and for some reason, this song spoke to me...I love how vulnerable it makes her.

And back to the Greatest Showman....for the end of the book....totally. Can't say why until the book comes out...but yes.it.is!!!!!

Hope you enjoyed this musical journey!!!!!!

And a freebee....this was just in my head. :) And not for any particular part, but it was there so...it's here.

The Rise of a King Character Concept Art

Whenever I start a new book in the series I always look for character concept art to inspire the story...

As I am now done with the second book (being published in 10 days!!!!!!!!) I'm looking towards the final book in the trilogy, but first I am going to share the concept art for the characters from the Rise of a King. These are all completely just lifted from a Google search of the internet, I don't have any rights to anything. :) Just a fun way to visualize a story. But readers can see them however they envision them, that's the beauty of reading...just move along if you aren't interested.

Now, these images aren't exactly perfect...but a good approximation for different reasons.

Drayden. At the beginning of the story Drayden is handsome, alluring and the all-powerful prince of the Cirque, but as the story progresses he becomes more and more destroyed by his own self-hatred and longing for something that is not his...

 This is how I see his progression... from all-powerful to conflicted and destroyed.

Farrow. This piece of art I am getting licensed as it will be in the second book. I see this as Farrow being pensive and having to lead the Arcades but feeling reluctant, forlorn and managing his separation from Rayelynn.

Rayelynn. Being in the Cirque isn't really fun for Rayelynn. The first image is how I think Drayden sees her...as an object; meek and attainable...

This second image is how Rayelynn sees her time in the Cirque, living on the outside of life, trapped and longing.

This last image is of the end of the book when Rayelynn awakens to her beauty, self-worth, sensuality, and power...

This is the only image that I found that really spoke to me for Anastasia. While there is only one image...this is exactly how I see her. Beautiful, sexual and dark.

This is how I see Naida, also beautiful...maybe not exactly this strong though. 

This one shows a little less power and would be more the way I see her...

For Drayden's lovers, this was exactly how I saw Baltane, strong and seductive.

And these pictures are the way I thought Margravana might look, beautiful and powerful.

The silver fairy Gillaine feels like she'd look like this. She's been through a lot so she's cold and jaded but grateful to be alive and able to raise her son, though she fears both her life and her son's could end at any time.

As for the Yardang Fairy trapped in the Arcades, I saw Gor as being beautiful, but not very...more powerful and brave than beautiful.

This is exactly how I see Aelden :)

As far as the elves go, these felt right as Elogyn and Alora.

And the seven gods which apart from Artemis are pretty hard to identify in The Rise of a King but become more significant in The Reign of a Queen...

There wasn't a great depiction of Queen Catalina as she isn't young anymore (fairies in the series age but very slowly) and so this was the only one that spoke to what I thought she might be like...

Artemis

The most powerful god and the father of Queen Catalina and grandfather of Drayden

Via, an aphrodite type goddess...who is the goddess of love and lovemaking...

Gregorian, the god of war and leadership is helping Anastasia rule the Arcades while Farrow is awaiting trial...he admires Anastasia and offers her wise counsel and support.

Raan is the god of science and earth. He's soft-spoken and beautiful...

Shanti the beautiful dark-skinned goddess is in charge of magic.

Milos is the god of the arts...

And Cail is the goddess of intuition and intellect

And lastly, for the Reign of a Queen the babies....which feature very heavily in the last book and are perhaps the spin-off to the next series. 

The most major kiddos are Rayelynn and Farrow's fraternal twins...Raven (the girl) and Farren (the boy)

Raven the bright spirited child who sings and has healing powers like her mother, but will also understand evil...she's not evil, but she can live among evil people and tame them...

Farren understands evil even better than his sister and he's the dark brooking fallen angel/fairy halfling, his magic is thought...he stops people from acting on impulse, while he's teased for it being a weak magical power, it saves the world from mass destruction and he learns to love his introverted temperament and the fact that the one and only time he acts on violent impulse it destroys a valuable life.

Anastasia and Naida's adopted fairy daughter Ella is sweet and beautiful...but is also part fallen angel and grapples with a darkness she doesn't understand because (like Drayden) she's so bright and beautiful no one understands that she has fallen angel blood. 

Anastasia is pregnant at the beginning of the Reign of a Queen and we find out she's not having a boy as most would expect, but she is having a daughter...and like Ella they both are half-fallen angel, though Anais is part demon as well and she seeks to find her good when she feels compelled towards the darkness...

Last but not least is Gillaine's son Dahs (Fredrick) who is raised in hatred, darkness and anger...he struggles more than the rest of them and becomes a true nemesis. 

And those are the characters as I see them...at least by the pictures I could find on the internet :)