A story addict since an early exposure to Dr. Seuss, award-winning author of over 30 novels and novellas, Michelle Levigne has been creating her own stories, heroes and adventures since junior high. She ventures into many sub-genres of science fiction, paranormal, romance and fantasy, including Greek mythology, Narnia spin-offs and her futuristic universe, the Commonwealth.
Michelle writes something for everyone! After all, since she likes to read all over the board, why not WRITE all over the board?
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TRAITORS by Michelle Levigne
The Faxinor Chronicles Book ThreeLord Edrix Faxinor regretted his brilliant diplomatic insight the moment he realized it landed him in the role of ambassador to Sendorland, the hereditary enemy of his country, Reshor. Still aching from the death of his betrothed, he set sail in the hopes of bringing peace between the two warring nations.
Arriena of Traxslan was the lowest of the low -- a poor relation, living on the charity of her domineering, cruel cousin, Lord Mordon Traxslan. She had dreams of being a scholar, despite the "sin" of being born a woman, with supposedly limited intelligence.
Then her cousin offered Arriena a chance to have some choice in her future -- but it could cost her life. Because she resembled Faxinor's dead betrothed, she was ordered to enchant and ensnare him, to give Sendorland power over him, and force him to betray Reshor.
Arriena had grown up unable to trust anyone. Could she trust Edrix with the truth, and possibly her heart? To save Arriena, could Edrix risk becoming a traitor?
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WIN - Today EVERYONE WINS - Leave Michelle a question today at her Cyber Launch Party (along with your email, so we can get your mailing address) and you'll be sent a party favor that includes a sampler CD which includes a free short story in the Faxinor chronicles -- A Wedding in Faxinor, white rose suckers and other promo goodies! And then THREE winners will be drawn to get a beautiful peacock journal!!! Be sure to leave your email so Michelle can get you out your party favor!
Awesome post !!! Thanks so much for bringing this author to my attention !
ReplyDeleteI would love to know where your inspiration for writing comes from ?
Desere
desere_steenberg!yahoo.com
thanks for the awesome party favors !
Congrats !!
ReplyDeletereginamayross@gmail.com
Congratulations on your new release. How many books will be in the series? Do you have to read them in order?
ReplyDeletesstrode at scrtc dot com
Good morning, everybody.
ReplyDeleteI'm here for a quick stop between chores -- I'm actually in the middle of making my book trailer for the entire Faxinor Chronicles, and hope to post the link here in another hour or so, so everyone can see it.
There are three books in the Faxinor Chronicles -- SO FAR.
Heir of Faxinor
Lorien -- winner of the 2006 EPIC Award
And the newest title, Traitors -- which is actually about the PARENTS of the heroines in the first two books. I figured, I made reference to their romance and life-risking adventure in the first two books, why not tell their entire story?
The series actually got its launch with a dream I had maybe 13 or 14 years ago. Just a fragment remained when I woke up, but in it, I was in this old fort in the middle of the forest, that was being used as an inn.
Already, there was a medieval/Robin Hood era feel to it.
In the dream, I had to protect my baby sister, and my mother had been kidnapped, and we were in big trouble. And I broke my sword, fighting off someone.
So I had to go looking for a sword.
And that was how the story of Andrixine, Sword Bearer, Heir of Faxinor, got its start.
Don't you just love magic swords that choose the ones that carry them? That's what happens to Andrixine.
Lorien's story is basically dealing with all the politics that comes with being the voice of prophecy and first defender of the country. Especially when your mother comes from an enemy country and those nasty relatives you never wanted to meet decide to lay claim to your family for their own nefarious ends.
(Just love it when I can actually use a word like nefarious!)
Anyway, that's just a taste of things. For now.
I hope to be back in about an hour with the trailer done.
OH -- One CORRECTION.
I'm giving away white rose lollipops and sampler CDs to everyone who visits and leaves their email, and THREE people will get peacock journals along with the other goodies.
NO T-shirt today. Sorry. Guess the boss didn't get the message. [G]
Back soon!
Good morning Michelle and super congrats on the new release! And thanks for the great goodies you're giving away to everyone who stops by today (and leaves their email addresses)!
ReplyDeleteLove that you're giving the parents their own story! How many more books do you plan for this series?
Can't wait to see the trailer!
Enjoy your cyber launch today and hope the new book is your biggest seller yet!
Congrats on your new release Michelle.
ReplyDeleteThe Faxinor chronicles sounds like one I need to get on my books to buy list. I'm a little OCD about what order I read a series in, so I would like to know were "A Wedding in Faxinor" fits in.
drainbamaged.gyzmo at gmail.com
Congrats! How awesome, another release! Whoo hoo! Your are one busy lady. How long does it take you to write? (You seem to release a book at least once a month, which is awesome!!) Traitors sounds like a great book! What are you planning on writing next? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteshadowluvs2read(at)aol(dot)com
Whew! I'm back.
ReplyDeleteDon't you know, it's like a jinx -- you set a deadline to get something done, and then the Internet and your computer refuse to cooperate ....
The less said about all the roadblocks in uploading and assembling this trailer, the better!
[G]
But here's the URL, so you can check it out yourselves.
The video will also be included in the sampler CD, but why wait to see it?
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=f654dfff6f7f6dd6e69085&skin_id=701&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
It's also on my blog:
www.MichelleLevigne.blogspot.com
as well as the Author Island blog, and a group promotion blog I belong to now:
www.Spinning-Tales.blogspot.com
To try to answer some questions ...
"A Wedding at Faxinor" takes place near the end of "Heir of Faxinor."
In the book, I went from what happens to Andrixine and when she elopes with her warrior best friend the night before their big fancy wedding, to the journey to the capital city to meet with the king.
Well, gee, the readers got gyped of the actual wedding ceremony and party ... and what happens when a spoiled brat neighbor tries to interfere. So, that's the short story. Better read "Heir" before you read "A Wedding."
You don't need to read "Traitors" before you read "Heir" and "Lorien," and you don't really need to read "Heir" before "Lorien," but it would help you get people and places and certain world-changing events in place.
Does that make sense?
[G]
As for how many more books I plan ... well, there are 7 Faxinor children, and I've only written books about the 2 oldest. Plus there's the story of Andrixine's twin sons, so ....
Who knows what the future will bring?
Enjoy!
I'll be back soon.
Gotta get some money-earning work done today, somehow ...
LOL, great to hear about this latest, Michelle! Congrats on the new installment--glad to hear there are more books to come!! I do love a good series! Did you go into book one knowing that this was going to be a series? (Did you mentally map it out that way?) Or did the sequels just sneak up on you? :)
ReplyDeletef dot chen at comcast dot net
Hey, let's have a vote -- which Faxinor story should I write next?
ReplyDeleteOf course, it will be at least 2 years, maybe 3, before it's published ...
Depending on how much work I have to do, what books I've promised to other publishers, it takes me about a year to get a book roughed, revised, polished, sent in, then edited. IF the publisher wants the book. I have the next year-and-a-half pretty much scheduled with rough drafts and revisions, mostly with the next 8 books I just contracted in the Tabor Heights series, so it might be a while before I start writing another Faxinor.
Doesn't mean I can't make lots of notes and outlines and plan scenes.... [G]
I try to do the first draft in a month -- I started doing that trick when I started doing NaNoWriMo -- which is going to start in November. Anyone up for the challenge?
Anyway -- which story should it be?
Derek, the third-born Faxinor, and the oldest son?
Or should I tell the love story of Rakleer, Andrixine's predecessor and mentor?
Or the story of her twin sons, when they're old enough to learn that one inherits Faxinor, and the other becomes the next Sword Bearer?
The next paranormal romance will be a 2-fer -- sort of.
ReplyDeleteIn October, Desert Breeze Publishing will be releasing TWO of my stories.
A full-length novel, "Blue Fire" -- which is actually a re-release.
And a novella, "That Synching Feeling," which is set in the Borealis Universe that our intrepid editor/publisher, Gail Delaney, created.
The best way of describing Borealis is to take Babylon 5, and set it in the evil empire portrayed in the Classic Trek episode, "Mirror, Mirror."
The heroine of "Synching" is best friends of the heroine in "Blue Fire," and gets pulled out of her home universe into the Borealis Universe -- and has to find a way to get back through the space anomaly before it closes.
In "Blue Fire," the heroine is a military brat, who goes home to the colony world where she was born, to investigate some pretty suspicious circumstances involving sentient canines, a group mind, alien bug invaders and lots of nasty political game-playing.
Check out Desert Breeze later in the month for sneak peeks. I'll also announce the release and information on my blog -- www.desertbreezepublishing.com and www.michellelevigne.blogspot.com
Do you find that visuals inspire your writing more or print work?
ReplyDeletelenikaye@yahoo.com
Congratulations on the new release!!
ReplyDeleteFrom your comment, can I assume you were clever enough to make the trailer yourself?
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Re: the question on visuals vs. print work ... it all depends on the mood I'm in, what's going on, what catches my imagination. I get ideas from all over the place. Something might catch my attention and I'll write it down and save it for later, and that tiny snippet of scene or imagery will fit into a hole in something that I've been assembling at the back of my mind, consciously or unconsciously, for years.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten ideas from a movie or TV show I've seen that I either didn't want to end, or was so bad, I knew I could write the story better -- or have it end the RIGHT way (my way, of course. [G]). And I've gotten ideas from books, and from listening to friends discuss stories they wanted to write, or something they didn't like that should have ended a different way.
I can't point to any one specific avenue of inspiration -- I get bits and pieces from all over, from all senses.
As for the trailer .... I use very simplistic software at an online site. I create my script, I decide what imagery I want in the trailer, then I upload, attach the captions to the pictures (this is where I took three times longer than I should have, thanks to software/computer/Internet problems this morning) and then pick a piece of music, which is offered by the site.
What's nice about OneTrueMedia is that they upload my trailer to blogs, to YouTube, to Facebook, give me two different files with my trailer to download, and give me embedding codes, so I can put it on my web site. Definitely, I'm renewing my subscription to this site at the end of the year. Well worth the money -- just wish it didn't take so dang long!
The simple software is best. Because I sure couldn't figure out how to do it myself!
I can't shake the concept of Babylon 5 smashed with Classic Trek! Traitors sounds like a really interesting read. When you first envisioned these characters and this world was it fully formed or has it slowly unfurled for you?
ReplyDeletejepebATverizonDOTnet
Nope, nothing every comes together in a complete picture. It takes years to come together. Bits and pieces, that I either actively, consciously look for, or things that just appear out of the blue. Sometimes it feels like they whack me between the eyes and say "Look! I'm what you need!"
ReplyDelete[G]
Kind of like that, anyway.
Sometimes it feels like the books write themselves. Sometimes it feels like I have to pull out each thread with pliers and a lot of sweat.
I have general ideas of what I want to do with the series, but what I write in each book influences what happens in the book that follows.
A good example is what happens in Traitors is distinctly influenced by what Andrixine and Lorien both say or learn about their parents' romance, in their individual books. That information was just different enough from the vague outline in my notes that I had to make changes.
Weird, huh?
Okay, it's been a really long day. I'm proofing the master for the PRINT version of "The Second Time Around," one of my Tabor Heights novels, which should be available by April -- just in time for the Romantic Times convention!
ReplyDeleteIs anyone going to RT in Chicago this year?
I'll be there -- look for me! Desert Breeze Publishing is going to have a lot of things going on, so look for us in Club RT and other places.
Anyway, I'm going to sign off, finish this chapter, and head off to bed.
Thanks for coming to the Cyber Launch. I'll be contacting everybody who left their email addresses, to get your mailing addresses to send out the party favors.
And if you're just stopping in, after I signed off, please do leave questions -- I'll try to check back tomorrow and answer -- and remember to leave your email address!
G'night!