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May 10, 2016 by Phyllis Wheeler

Looking for clean fantasy reads for your teens?

Author Azalea Dabill was homeschooled, now writes epic fantasyNote: enter to win a 21-book sampler below.

Like many of you, I’m a home-school girl, and I love to read. At nineteen I was discouraged with the YA and fantasy books available in my library. I’d devoured the clean reads and was repeatedly forced to put down excellently written books because the stories were immoral or had a twisted worldview. (By “immoral” I mean sexual inappropriateness or violence for the sake of violence or bad language.)

I hated seeing despair running rampant in contemporary authors’ YA and fantasy. In my Oregon home one day, I thought, Maybe I could write good books about hope and adventure. So my journey began.

By the time I started my second medieval fantasy, I was again discouraged. I had not completed the first book. I’d given up too easily.

So I told the Lord I would finish this second book unless He showed me He wanted me to do something else. Eventually I discovered my second book was the bare bones of two: Falcon Heart and the sequel, Falcon Flight. With God’s help and the assistance of countless people, I did not give up!

The second book, Falcon Flight, is coming out this  month. I’m throwing a family-friendly 21-book giveaway here to celebrate, with the help of many of the authors of great-and-clean YA books I’ve met along the way.

You can even get my first book for free, 5/13 – 5/16: I’m giving free Falcon Heart Amazon downloads. The brand-new sequel Falcon Flight will be on sale for $0.99 here.

—

Falcon Heart, epic YA fantasyAzalea Dabill grew up in the California hills, building forts in the oaks. She remembers the fuzzy sweet smell of acorns and moss, the perfume of lupines and golden poppies, the night-song of crickets. Homeschooled, she read fantasy and adventure to her siblings. Now she enjoys growing things, old bookstores, and hiking the wild.

Not finding enough tales of adventure, romance, and mystery in the world, she writes young adult fantasy. Mythic tales of medieval stronghold lords, a desert prince, and a stronghold daughter; a sword of power and a princess running for her life; an outcast at the dawn of time caught in a dragons’ war; and a tale of sleeping Briar Rose and her sister and the battle for their hearts. Mythic fantasy spans worlds near and far, past and future, worlds of wonder and adventure.

Azalea took writing for her Associate of Science and devoured how-to books from James Scott Bell to Sol Stein. A member of the Christian Proofreaders and Editors Network, she holds an editing certificate from the American Copy Editors Society.

 

Filed Under: Fiction for Homeschoolers Tagged With: author, Azalea Dabill, Christian, clean, e-books, fantasy, giveaway, home-school, homeschool, young adult

April 19, 2016 by Phyllis Wheeler

Called to Write: Author Terri Luckey shares her dreams

Terri-LuckeyIn the fifth grade I became convinced I was meant to be an author, but Dad said most authors don’t make enough to support themselves. My advisors in college agreed so I majored in Journalism, writing for newspapers, radio, and TV. But the desire to write a novel never left me.

Then I read an article that claimed God gave man dominion over the Earth so it was our right to use it however we wanted. I didn’t agree. Weren’t we supposed to be caretakers? I couldn’t help but wonder what God must think about us polluting the oceans, cutting down the rain forest, and driving animals to extinction. Hadn’t humans with our selfish desires proved that we were rotten at caretaking? If left to our own devices, would we destroy the world completely?

That night I dreamed that wars ravaged our world. Only ash was left and a few survivors. God was sickened and He did intervene. He sent the survivors a guide in the form of a wolf to teach them how to take care of His creation. Some of the survivors formed tribes and lived with animal companions while others lived in cities, but technology was banned.

That’s how the Kayndo series was born. And every time I slept I’d dream more. It became not just one book, but a trilogy. I used my journalism experience to research tribal cultures, weapons, hunting techniques, edible and medicinal plants, and animal behaviors, and incorporated all of that into the books. I made my characters sixteen because it was a coming of age story and in a tribal society teens make the transition to adults at a younger age than now.

I posted information on edible and medicinal plants, animal tracks and weapons on my website at terriluckey.com so homeschoolers and anyone else interested can access it. There are even some animal track games on there that can be downloaded.

KayndoThe series has gotten awesome reviews. Adults and kids from the ages of ten and above had raved about them. A grandmother told me it was hard for her to find books that her grandson likes, but he loved these. Another set of home school-parents told me their son loved my books so much they had to literally pry them from his hands. I sure loved writing them, and it thrills me that people are enjoying reading them. I’m so glad I didn’t let the naysayers stop me. And I feel very blessed that God kept inspiring me through my dreams to keep writing. There is a great satisfaction in fulfilling the purpose I feel that I was meant to—I was called to write.

Check out Terri Luckey’s website at http://www.terriluckey.com/ and her books on Amazon:  https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/books

 

 

Filed Under: Fiction for Homeschoolers Tagged With: boys, Christian, Christian fiction, dystopian, fiction, home-school, homeschool, teens, TTerri Luckey, young adult

April 7, 2016 by Phyllis Wheeler

Teach using stories, not sermons

Homeschoolers can find current imaginative stories If you want to reach children with the gospel, learn from C.S. Lewis and find some good stories that will communicate the gospel to them. These are far more effective than a typical children’s sermon, says theologian Alister McGrath. McGrath happens to follow somewhat in the footsteps of C.S. Lewis, being a Christian thinker teaching at Oxford.

For homeschoolers, that probably involves reading the Narnia tales, and then looking around for more books like them written for kids and teens. More recent books probably will be written in a more accessible style than some of the wordy books of 100 years ago. And these books are being written. So look for them!

Want to read more of McGrath’s thoughts? Here’s the link: http://www.premierchildrenswork.com/Past-Issues/2016/April-May-2016/Narnia-Why-stories-matter

 

 

Filed Under: Fiction for Homeschoolers

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