EARTH'S END TRILOGY

We got free books comin’ your way. Tomorrow, October 13, through October 15th, the first two Kindle eBooks of the Tales from Earth’s End Saga will be FREE on Amazon. (Or at least I hope they will. Lady Grace will be for sure and I marked The Angel down to 99 cents in case . . . There’s a story here and here.) And Goodreads.com is holding a giveaway of my print books.

It’s your chance to imbibe the Tales from Earth’s End Saga––for nothing. Here’s some info about the books in the promotions. Note: Two promotions.

• The first one is for free Kindle eBooks on Amazon. Links next to the pictures below will take you right to the books on the Kindle store. As always, check to make sure they’re still priced at $0.00. Amazon rather arbitrarily turns these promotions on and off.
• The other promotion is on the reader-friendly site, Goodreads. That promotion is for five paperback books each of Lady Grace and Sam & Emily. These giveaways will be over around Oct 15, 2012.  That’s three days plus a few hours. When I last checked, only about 100 people had had signed up for each of the auctions, making your odds of winning a book pretty darn good.  Why would you want a print book? Because they’re gorgeous. If you think those covers look good on-line, you should see what they look like when you hold them in your hands. The workmanship of my books– the covers, interiors, and overall design– is superior. That’s why I won all those awards. I’m going to put the links to Goodreads below. Click the link, go to the page and click where it says Enter to win. Fill out the entry. Goodreads will tell me who wins and I’ll ship out the books.

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Embraced in the Arms of Epic Love (Tales Book 2) THIS IS THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY PAGE.

Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground(Tales Book 2) THIS IS THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY PAGE.

REMEMBER: THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY IS OVER IN 3 days +  October 15 th 2012 or thereabouts.

THE BOOKS: (Keep scrolling down if the screen appears to be blank below. Three books + more are there. The programming on this blog is a bit wonky.)

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy: Tales from Earth’s End Saga Book 1

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy  The first book in the Tales from Earth’s End Saga gets the ball rolling. What’s the ball? The planet Earth. Tomorrow morning, a nuclear holocaust will destroy the planet. Two people carry the keys to survival: A teenage boy and an intergalactic traveler. And a bunch more fascinating characters, too. The book is an ensemble piece where the prize is survival. The link above will take you to a lot more info, and a place to buy. For nothing!

Winner of 4 national awards, including the Gold Medal in Visionary Fiction at the IPPY Awards.

This Kindle eBook will be free, maybe, October 13, 14 & 15. If it’s not free, it will be 99 cents. That is still a deal!

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love (Tales from Earth’s End 2)

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love Tales from Earth’s End Saga, Book 2. Here’s a review that says it all:
“FIVE STARS! A MODERN SCI-FI MASTERPIECE Lady Grace was first-rate science fiction and one of the most absorbing page-turners of that genre that I’ve read in years. Author Sandy Nathan exhibits the imagination of Ray Bradbury combined with the whimsicalness of Douglas Adams. That’s high praise, but it’s warranted. The story includes so much action; tense, suspenseful drama; and two charming love stories that it’s irresistible.” J. Chambers, Amazon Top 50 Reviewer (#29 at this writing)

This Kindle eBook will be free October 13, 14, & 15.

This book is included in the Goodreads Giveaway will be over about October 15. (Check site.)

Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground

Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground Tales from Earth’s End Saga, Book 3.The book is a love story; it focuses on a relationship and has a different feeling than the other two books. This is my favorite book. Here’s a review:

5 stars out of 5! A gripping story of life after the world ends . . . fascinating and reminiscent of Stephen King’s epic masterpiece – The Stand.  Sam & Emily is by far my favorite . . . in the series.  It will leave you thinking well after turning the last page.
Todd A. Fonseca, bestselling author of The Time Cavern

This book is included in the Goodreads giveaway which is over about October 15th. It is not included in the free Kindle eBook promotion.

Some info about all three books: I’d give the books of the Tales from Earth’s End Saga an R rating if they were movies. They contain violence, strong language, and sexuality. I’ve been having fun writing some blog articles as The Plucky Grandmother. Be aware that  don’t write like a grandmother, but I don’t go over the top, either. The books are about the end of the world, a police state and people fighting for survival. Despite that, they’re quite spiritual and uplifting, not to mention really romantic.

Tales from Earth’s End: The Complete Series

THE BIG NEWS:

Tales from Earth’s End: The Complete Series Boxed Set  A giant eBook containing all three books is in production!

This set is not included in either promotion, but will be in the future promotion.

Sandy Nathan’s writing has won twenty-two national awards. She’s won in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children’s nonfiction. And more.

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)
Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground (paperback. Kindle coming)
Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love (paperback. Kindle coming)
The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy
Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money
Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could
Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

I’ve been blog touring recently. People are reading my blog posts about the Tales from Earth’s End Saga. One reader said, “Oh, boy. I’m so excited about finding new YA reading.” The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy’s hero is a sixteen-year-old boy; thinking the series is for young adults is logical.

Hold on just a big minute! I would NOT recommend the Tales from Earth’s End Saga for YA.

Some people would. It’s a matter of how you view the world. I had one writer and blogger of YA read The Angel a while back.  She LOVED it, put me up as her Writer of the Month, and gave the book a 5 star review. She’s still a fan. Another YA reader/reviewer read The Angel, give it 4 stars, said it was a great book and ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR YA.

I agree with her. I wouldn’t let kids read it. (And I wouldn’t let them read or see The Hunger Games, either.) As I’m writing this, I’m thinking , Sandy, are you nuts? Don’t you know how violent and suggestive kids’ video games are? How about the content and emotional tone their comic books and graphic novels? Kids are inundated with violence, sex, strong language and all that from the culture at large, and from the entertainment industry––much of it targeting the YA age group. Why should   The Angel  or any of the Tales bother anyone? Compared with the rest of our culture, Tales from Earth’s End is mild.

I’m writing about this blog post because I don’t want readers to expect one thing and get something else. The Tales are luminous. Characters like the angel Eliana, who came to earth to save her planet, are breathtaking. But the world the angel finds is rough. What happens is rough. I don’t think it’s for youngsters.

The Angel takes place right before the planet is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. The ensemble of people in the story––our heroes––know that the world is ending, but most of the population doesn’t. It’s a very dark reality; it IS the worst case scenario. The story takes place in a police state; there’s violence and some pretty heavy duty things going down. (When I write a bad guy, he or she is BAD.) The heroes are running for their lives.

How would you feel under those circumstances? I’d be freaked out. Panicked. I might let a bad word slip, or take a swing at someone. I  don’t know what I might do in such a terrifying time. So The Angel contains strong language, but not outside the bounds of what people might say in the circumstances. And the bad guys are in shoot-to-kill mode, do-whatever-you-have-to-get-the-information mode.  And they do.

I don’t think The Angel, or its sequels, are for kids. They ARE for adults.

I want to be very clear about how I define adult reading. I don’t mean smutty. I don’t mean appealing to prurient interests or parts of the human psyche that should have been dumped fifty bazillion years ago, but are still circulating, filling up the Internet and scuzzy bars. I don’t mean anything you’d see on a flashing sign on some storefront with XXX in front of it.

That type of thing is childish, not adult. Regressed, undeveloped, and appropriate for . . . what? Not children. Dopes. The people entranced by such vulgarities are immature in every way, the opposite of adult.

Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground

I  write for people who are truly adult. Psychologists have a few criteria for personal maturity. It means the person  is  1) able to hold long term employment, and 2) able to have and maintain a long term relationship. Those are two criteria of emotional stability.

Not only are true adults mentally stable, they are interested in the larger questions of life. Why am I here? What is life about? Why does evil occur when it’s just as easy to be good? Why don’t we support activities that will change society positively? Why can people get away with really bad crimes? Financial crimes, like the crash in 2008?

Many big questions exist. My readers think about them.

My readers are spiritual, but not necessarily prudish. My readers want a good story that’s thrilling as well as deep. That means my work includes violence, shocking situations, love and sexuality. Things like the world coming to an end, and really bad bad guys. The Tales from Earth End Saga and Bloodsong Series have all of those. They are written for maximum impact. I have some things I want to say and problems I want to address. My fiction expresses my feelings and helps me––and hopefully you––work out those issues.

There’s another thing about writing for adults. The material can include sex. Do you know the type of writing I consider the least sexy? What’s produced by the romance industry. When I was getting Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground ready for publication, I was thinking of it as a romance. I signed up for a bunch of the romance pages on Facebook and set about getting acquainted. One extremely well known romance writer said, “Oh, read the first chapter of my new romance!” She gave a link.

I followed it and read. Gasped. Read a bit more. What I was reading was perversion, not romance. Nothing romantic about it. It was disgusting and poorly written.

I changed Sam & Emily’s genre from romance immediately. It’s a love story. Is there sex in it? Yes, but it doesn’t step over a line. One of the guys who worked on the book prepublication said, “You don’t go on for pages and pages about what they do. It’s in good taste. You don’t go over a line.”

My mother’s famous advice, “You have to have sex in it, Sandy. No one will buy it otherwise.” Isn’t she cute with her little poodle?

My ultimate arbiter for what’s OK and what’s not is my mom. If you have permission from your mom, you can do anything. Here’s a link to an article about some writing advice my mom gave me once. The whole article is great, but here’s the bottom line:

“Why, Sandy, you have to have sex in it. No one will buy it otherwise,” mom said.  What else do I need?

The focus of my work is Visionary Fiction, which I define as fiction having a moral core, “Do good, avoid evil,” and a positive thrust. No matter how bad things get, humanity does point toward the good road. It may be just a few humans–as it is in The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy––that do right, but we do. We’re on a road to being all we can be, no matter where that road takes us.

Reading  the three books of Tales from Earth’s End is like embarking on a journey. You shove off the river’s shore, struggle a bit, and then you’re swept away. You enter a new world, a new reality.

I think the books get better as the series progresses. I’m so in love with Sam Baahuhd that it’s not funny. You see him in The Angel, but he dominates the last book, Sam & Emily, which is a love story. The story of Sam and the love of his life.

Here’s a blog post from yesterday (I don’t know how long they’ll leave it up, so I’d read it sooner rather than later), that talks about Tales from Earth’s End and where it came from in greater depth.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please stop by my blog tour when you have time. It runs through the end of November. We’re got a free Kindle Fire to give to someone, so be sure and scroll way down on my blog tour page and register for it. Sandy’s Blog Tour Web Page.  Cash prizes go to the reader who comments the most on the blog stops and the blog host with the most traffic.

Oh! Here’s something cool: a video about the Tales from Earth’s End. See and feel what the books are like:

Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-two national awards for her writing. She’s won in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children’s nonfiction. And more.

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)
Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground (paperback & Kindle available)
Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love (paperback & Kindle available)
The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy
Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money
Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could
Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

WANT SOME GRACE IN YOUR LIFE?  CLICK HERE ON SUNDAY AUGUST 5TH AND MONDAY AUGUST 6TH AND DOWNLOAD LADY GRACE FOR FREE!

Here’s the background: A couple  of weeks ago, I gave away an angel––my sci-fi, fantasy, visionary fiction novel, The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy. The Angel is Book I in the Tales from Earth’s End Saga. Well, a lot of people wanted free angels, and I was a happy author at the end of that promotion. Here’s a picture of The Angel  up there next to fantasy mega-success, George R. R. Martin.

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy hit #1 in Free Science Fiction Adventure it kept that spot for most of a day. The only difference between out sales was that Martin got paid.

Try clicking on the image to enlarge it.

What do you do for a follow-up when you’ve given away an angel? That’s a hard one,, but I’m giving away GRACE Yes, Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love.   Lady Grace has been called a “Modern Sci-fi Masterpiece”, but we’ll get to that.

There’s a big philosophical  question here: How do you give away grace? Grace is essentially and inherently free. Can’t be earned, bought, sold, cajoled. Nothing but given away. Grace is a gift from God, or  however  you conceptualize the Creator of the universe. It’s what makes the good times roll. In fact, it is the good times.

In this case, grace is pitched a little lower: I’m giving  you a bunch of pixels  that add up to a wild, fantastic, terrifying, sexy, loving, redemptive, unbelievable story. Really. Here’s a bit about the book.

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love

Lady Grace begins a few thousand years after  The Angel ends, when the radiation clears. The Earth blows up at the end of The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy, Book I of the Saga.

OH! YOU DIDN’T KNOW! OH, GEE! I’M SO SORRY. But that’s actually the least of the action coming down in the book. So don’t worry. Lady Grace is free-standing, so you don’t have to have read The Angel to get it, though you’ll probably want to.

* * *



When the earth blows up at the end of The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy, that was it, right? The characters go off in all directions, nevermore to be seen.

Not exactly.

In Lady Grace, a few survivors of the nuclear holocaust make their way back to Piermont Manor, Jeremy Edgarton’s ancestral estate. The radiation is gone and it’s finally safe to go home. 

What awaits them makes their worst dreams look like Bollywood frolics.

Right away, they find out that evolution can work for evil as well as good. Going home requires a battle more deadly than any they’ve fought.  

The returning characters appear from everywhere, in ways you’d never believe.

Some of them you’ve met before; some are new to Tales from Earth’s End. 

Bud Creeman and Wesley Silverhorse, characters from earlier  novel, Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money, drop in from the year 2015, thousands of years before the time of Lady Grace. Bud and Wes provide needed Native American skills and spiritual power.

Shining through it all is Lady Grace a phoenix rising from the devastation of her civilization, unrecognizable as the person she once was.

It was a new world, 
but was it one that permitted love?

REVIEWS:
“FIVE STARS! A MODERN SCI-FI MASTERPIECE!
 Lady Grace was first-rate science fiction and one of the most absorbing page-turners of that genre that I’ve read in years. Author Sandy Nathan exhibits the imagination of Ray Bradbury combined with the whimsicalness of Douglas Adams. That’s high praise, but it’s warranted. The story includes so much action; tense, suspenseful drama; and two charming love stories that it’s irresistible.” 
J. Chambers, Amazon Top 50 Reviewer (#39 at this writing)

 
“LADY GRACE HOLDS ITS OWN WITH THE BEST OF TODAY’S SCI-FI PAGE-TURNERS while accomplishing much more. Nathan’s second book in the Tales from Earth’s End is just as much a spiritual and psychological exploration as it is science fiction/fantasy thriller. Nathan has created a unique niche that leaves her without rival in the canon of contemporary fiction.”

Nathan Fisher, MBA Stanford Graduate School of Business

“MUCH, MUCH MORE THAN FANTASY!
 Lady Grace could well be categorized as suspense because the author skillfully keeps the reader on edge wondering what will happen next. The novel’s fantasy world holds the potential for unexpected, monstrous perils and magical, heroic rescues. Sandy Nathan never fails to surprise with plot twists and character transformations. But Lady Grace offers more than an exciting read. The author shows us the possibility of redemption and illuminates the power of having a spiritual practice without endorsing any particular religion. A must read for fantasy lovers who appreciate the transcendental.”
Kathleen McGuinness JD, author of Terminal Ambition, A Maggie Mahoney Novel

 
“I LOVED LADY GRACE! FROM THE FIRST MOMENTS, I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. Sandy Nathan has done it again. Within her believable, gripping tale of people who have somehow survived a thousand years, Sandy explores instant telepathic teleportation, human-animal relationships, survivalism, personal relationships, social experimentation, dehumanization, and the most of these . . . Love. The twists of Jeremy’s evolution with Eliana and his mother, Veronica Edgarton, are breathtaking.”

Ilene Dillon, MSW, Host, Full Power Living Internet Radio, www.emotionalpro.com

 
WANT SOME GRACE? CLICK HERE ON SUNDAY AUGUST 5TH AND MONDAY AUGUST 6TH AND LADY GRACE IS FREE! THE REST OF THE TIME, SHE’S A VERY REASONABLY PRICED $3.99

SANDY NATHAN

Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-two national awards for her writing. She’s won in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children’s nonfiction. And more.

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)
Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground (paperback & Kindle available)
Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love (paperback & Kindle available)
The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy
Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money
Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could
Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

You don’t get a chance for a free angel very often, but you will this weekend. My book The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy, will be FREE through the Amazon KDP program. If you have a Kindle or one of the apps for Kindle, you can download your own angel. Or book about an angel. Or about a dancing extra-terrestrial. OK. So she’s not an angel. Depends on how fussy you are about definition.

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy is a story about a girl from out of town–way out of town, another planet––who drops in on a mission to save her planet. Little does she or anyone on her planet know, things on Earth have reached a very bad state. So bad that we’ll blow the place up––all of it, every living thing––the next day unless someone does something right away.

Eliana doesn’t know this. She knows she must find “the Golden Boy.” She does this effectively, finding him at an upscale high school for the arts in New York City. But he isn’t who she thinks he is. And there the plot doesn’t just thicken, it explodes.

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy  is the winner of four national awards, including the coveted Gold Medal in Visionary Fiction from the IPPY (Independent Press) Awards. Also won the Visionary Fiction category in the National Indie Excellence Awards. The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy  has 22 reviews on Amazon with a 4.6 out of 5.0 possible rating. I like the book, and other people like it, too.

You can find more information about it on its Amazon page The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy and my website, The Angel’s page on Sandy’s site.
There’s an excerpt here, and on Amazon & my site.

THE IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER IS: YOU CAN GET THE ANGEL FREE ON SATURDAY & SUNDAY JULY 21 & 22! CLICK ONTO THE PAGE AND DOWNLOAD IT. Be sure and check the price to make sure it’s still zero, though. Amazon gives me two days to offer the book free, but they don’t tell me when it goes on and off sale.

Lady Grace, Book II of Tales from Earth's End

Lady Grace, Book II of Tales from Earth’s End will be officially launched on May 1, 2012. We at Vilasa Press think you’ll be as pleased with the book as we are.  We’re looking forward to gala launch activities. We’ll be announcing them here. We’re providing more information about the book here. You can also read about it on author Sandy Nathan’s website.

Barry Nathan, publisher, Vilasa Press

* * *

BEYOND THE END OF THE EARTH:

Three stories intertwine:  Earth is devastated by a nuclear holocaust. Technological wizard Jeremy Edgarton and a few of his friends are whisked off planet moments before the disaster by the goldies, a race of super-evolved aliens. They seem too good to be true, and unfortunately, they are. The humans want out.

Jeremy’s mother, Veronica Edgarton, awakens from a cryogenic sleep in a chamber deep beneath the ice. Next to her is her husband, one of the most ruthless and cruel men ever to have lived.

The inhabitants of the gigantic underground bomb shelter Jeremy and others built are preparing to emerge. They were supposed to become a super-race. Regrettably, evolution can work for evil as well as good.

Each of these events is potentially volatile. Combine them and the results are explosive! The players from across time and space are catapulted into a struggle of cosmic scale, challenging them to draw upon every ounce of their physical, intellectual and spiritual strength.

Lady Grace is a thrilling, action-filled adventure wrapped in the embrace of epic love.

* * *

Praise for Lady Grace:

Lady Grace holds its own with the best of today’s sci-fi page-turners while accomplishing much more. Nathan’s second book in the Tales from Earth’s End is just as much a spiritual and psychological exploration as it is science fiction/fantasy thriller. Nathan has created a unique niche that leaves her without rival in the canon of contemporary fiction.

– Nathan Fisher, MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business

A gripping original sci-fi tale that brings politics, spirituality, and personal responsibility into the mix. As in all interesting tales of good versus evil, the path to outcome is not predictable but the trip is super enjoyable and will keep you clicking for the next page.

– Consuelo Saar Baehr, author of Daughters

I LOVED Lady Grace! From the first moments, I could not put it down. Sandy Nathan has done it again. Within her believable, gripping tale of people who have somehow survived a thousand years, Sandy explores instant telepathic teleportation, human-animal relationships, survivalism, personal relationships, social experimentation, dehumanization, and the most of these . . . Love. The twists of
Jeremy’s evolution with Eliana and his mother, Veronica Edgarton, are breathtaking.

– Ilene Dillon, MSW, Host, Full Power Living Internet Radio, www.emotionalpro.com

* * *

An Interview with Author Sandy Nathan: Questions Answered Here––

The following sample interview is provided for the convenience of the media and book groups.

Where did you get the idea for the novel?

About five years ago, my brother died suddenly and tragically. He was my only sibling and adored little brother. I was grieving, with all sorts of thoughts and feelings arising. About three months after his death, I had a dream. In the dream, a shining creature like an angel hovered above me. She was absolutely good, a being of love and light. She appeared to me as light. The light dropped closer and finally merged with me, so that I got to feel what it was like to be that angelic creature.

That was the angel in the first book of the Tales from Earth’s End Series, which my creative process turned into an angelic alien sent to earth on a vitally important mission.  That was The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy.

The rest of the plot of The Angel popped into my brain in the next few days. When I finished writing that book, Lady Grace was rocketing around in my brain. I just wrote it down. Lady Grace is the story of what happens after the radiation clears enough to permit life on earth to continue. None of the survivors knows exactly how much time has passed. When I finished writing Lady Grace, its sequel was front and center in my mind. That sequel is Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground. It will be published in early 2012.

Lady Grace, like the other books in the series, is an action-filled adventure with elements of sci-fi, and fantasy. And it’s a love story of epic proportions. What’s unusual about it––besides pretty near everything––is that two of my characters from the Bloodsong Series’ first book, Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money, “jump ship” and have roles in Lady Grace. This was really fun to write and I hope you enjoy reading it. The idea of having Bud, Wes and Will Duane show up just happened––serendipity. But they solve an important problem.

How did you come up with the title?

The book is about rejuvenation and personal change. It’s about grace and the power of grace. The title is also the name of one of the characters. You’ll see when you read it.

Who is your favorite character?

My favorite character is Lady Grace. I’m not going to spoil things by saying more. I will say that I noticed after writing the book that its major heroes are women. I wrote the story without being aware I’d done it that way.  I guess I’d have to say that my favorites are all of those tough and wonderful women that save the day.

Do you have plans for sequels? Can you describe them? When will it/they be released?

Yes. I have at least two sequels in the works. The first, Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground, is a breathtaking romance of legendary proportions. It takes place in the underground bomb shelter on the Piermont estate after the nuclear meltdown. I’ve been told it’s the best thing I’ve written. It will be out in Spring 2012.

And, a fourth story in the series is shaping up in my mind and partially written. That follows directly on Lady Grace. This is going to be a few years out. The Bloodsong Series and Tales from Earth’s End are going to touch in a major way.  They may even merge.

Numenon, the first book in the Bloodsong Series, takes place in 1997. When we see Bud and Wes in Lady Grace, it’s 2015.  Eighteen years have elapsed in the world of Numenon’s characters. That’s lots of water over the bridge. We have to see what happens to our billionaire, Will Duane, and his little band of outlaws. We have to see what’s going on in the world. My writing focus is going to be on the Bloodsong Series for the next period of time. Lots happens there––I’ve got drafts for many stories.

How long have you been writing? How often do you write?

I’ve been writing full time since 1995. Before that, I wrote academically and professionally. I write every day. I don’t set a particular time or word goal for myself. I write until I deliver a scene or chapter the way I want it. I quit working when I get a feeling satisfaction with my work. That can take a long time to achieve.

What authors have inspired you?

My favorite writer of all time is the Icelandic Nobel Laureate, Halldor Laxness. His Independent People is a masterpiece. Laxness can write two simple lines about a fish and have me in awe and tears. That’s good writing.

D. H. Lawrence is a favorite. Lady Chatterley’s Lover is one of my favorite books, as is Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

For more popular authors, I love Diana Gabaldon’s work.  I’ve read the entire, massive Outlander Series three times (!), plus the associated Lord John books, and I even have the graphic novel of Outlander.

I also read lots of books by independent authors. Consuelo Saar Baehr is a favorite.

* * *

PRESS RELEASE: AUTHOR SANDY NATHAN REDEFINES VISIONARY AND NEW AGE FICTION WITH HER TALES FROM EARTH’S END SERIES

SANTA YNEZ, CALIFORNIA – Lady Grace is Sandy Nathan’s latest Visionary and New Age novel. With it, Mrs. Nathan continues to redefine the genre. Many think of Visionary and New Age fiction as an uplifting (if perhaps preachy) category that carries a positive message for humanity. The good guys are pretty much assured of winning, or at least their cause is. New Age fiction in Sandy Nathan’s hands is a no-holds-barred war between good and evil where nothing can be taken for granted.

“No one––on a spiritual path or not––is guaranteed a smooth ride through life,” Sandy Nathan says. “Existence has the same end point for all of us. We may be on an upward learning curve and have enlightenment as a goal, but the path is not easy, nor is the outcome assured. That’s reality.

“I like reality. My stories feel like they might have happened, even if they’re totally fantastic. Being real includes the possibility that the bad guys might win. In allowing for any outcome, I want my writing to make the literary quality of New Age fiction stronger. And keep its mystical nature.”

Lady Grace, the second book in the Tales from Earth’s End Series, continues the story line of the first book, The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy.  The Angel ends with a nuclear holocaust destroying almost all life on earth. Lady Grace begins with survivors attempting to create a new society on a planet blasted to a prehistoric state.

As the characters come together, three separate stories emerge and intertwine. Each thread is volatile. Together they are explosive.

The characters of The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy return for new adventures surpassing any you can imagine. New voices come forth, including some surprises. “I borrowed from my other series, the Bloodsong Series, and brought a few characters you’ll recognize if you read my first novel, Numenon. Lady Grace spans time and reality for a mix that’s part sci-fi, part fantasy, and definitely Visionary and New Age,” says Mrs. Nathan.

Sam & Emily: Romance from the Underground

The sequels to The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy are on the way! If you haven’t discovered The Tales from Earth’s End Series, you have a treat in store.

The Tales from Earth’s End Series introduces characters pushed to their greatest extremity––to the end of the planet and their own lives. The people of Earth’s End must cope with nuclear holocaust, survive on a planet reduced to prehistoric standards, and  adjust to life in an underground tomb––the bomb shelter on the Piermont estate. And you were thinking life is rough!

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy shows a group of people attempting to escape a nuclear holocaust in a ruined future world. It’s part teen romance and part coming of age story, with overtones of 1984. It’s won two national awards in visionary fiction, another in new age fiction & still another in fantasy/sci-fi.

The second sequel, Sam & Emily, is a love story involving two characters from The Angel. It’s an epic romance that takes place in the Piermont Estate’s underground bomb shelter after the nuclear bombs have gone off. Sam & Emily can’t escape a passion that lasts a lifetime. This book sizzles.

All three books have a transcendent, looking-for-a-better-world quality. The protagonists are pitted against horrific difficulties. They’re thrillers and well as visionary fiction.

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

WAA-HOO! The results from the Best Books of 2011 contest (sponsored by USA Book News) are in! The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy is an:

• AWARD WINNER the “Fiction: New Age” category of the Best Books of 2011 Awards . 
• The Angel is also a FINALIST in the “Fiction: Fantasy/Sci-Fi” category.

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy has now won four national awards:

* 2011 IPPY (Independent Press) Awards Gold Medal in Visionary Fiction: The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy The oldest and largest contest for independent presses. Almost 4,000 books were entered in the IPPYs this year.

* 2011 National Indie Excellence Award Winner in Visionary Fiction: The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy The Indie Excellence Award looks for a book’s overall excellence. Content, cover design, interior and exterior, and everything that goes into the production of a book are evaluated.

And the new wins noted above:

* Best Books of 2001 sponsored by USA Book News: The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy is an AWARD WINNER in the “Fiction: New Age” category.

* Best Books of 2001 sponsored by USA Book News: The Angel is also a FINALIST in the “Fiction: Fantasy/Sci-Fi” category.

THE ANGEL & THE BROWN-EYED BOY  HAS BEEN ENTERED IN THREE CONTESTS. IT HAS WON FOUR AWARDS IN NATIONAL COMPETITION. IT’S WOWED THE JUDGES, CRITICS, AND REVIEWERS: 

Red Adept Reviews gave it FIVE STARS OVERALL.

The Midwest Book Review gave it FIVE STARS!

Check out its Amazon Reviews, too.

If you like Fantasy, Sci-fi, Visionary Fiction or just a good, engaging read, check out The Angel.

Not only is The Angel an incredibly inventive book with a message and a heart, two sequels are in the process of being published. Find out what happens after the world blows up.

Coming very soon:

Lady Grace brings The Angel’s characters back together and puts them in another struggle for existence. This time, they’re fighting against the elements and a degenerate society which the nuclear war has spawned.

Sam & Emily: A Romance from the Underground is The Angel‘s second sequel. Sam & Emily, is a love story involving two characters from The Angel over a span of more than 30 years. It sizzles.

Sam Baahuhd--"Sam" of Sam & Emily. A more masculine man would be hard to find. In the book, Sam has hair and wears clothes.

I’m writing a romance, a first for me. I wanted to give you a run-down of the romance genre and tell you that mine ain’t no ordinary romance.

The romance industry (the major publishers) has rules about romances. They have to go like this: Boy meets girl. (Right away, you see the limitations of the form.) They fall in love, with lots of explicit sex. More than lots. A terrible barrier arises that separates them: She discovers he’s married & has six kids. He discovers she’s got hoof & mouth disease. They part, but struggle to overcome the Awful Barrier. (No sex here.) Then an elephant falls out of the sky. A Really Awful barrier. Boy, they really got problems.

Many romance writers are EXTREMELY CLEVER about getting their hero and heroine out of the pickle they’re in. There’s more explicit sex. (The romance genre does offer some entertaining reading––hot, too––as well as skilled writing. I’ve checked it out.)

The industry has other rules. No one under 18 has sex, explicit or not. And the book has to end happily. As you will recognize from your own life, this is highly realistic.

That’s traditional, major publisher romance.

Which is why we have independent presses. My romance isn’t like that.

My upcoming romance is outside the parameters of the traditional romance genre. That means that a happy ending is not guaranteed. (Though it could be happy.) This is like life. I will guarantee that an elephant will not fall out of the sky, though pretty much anything else might. You won’t see what’s coming next and you can’t second guess the ending.

Emily--"Emily" in Sam & Emily. Not your ordinary gal.

The sex in this romance is steamy, though not particularly explicit. By my standards, anyway. I am writing this book at the express direction of my mother, given years ago. Read this, she’ll tell you, too.

My work is character driven, which means you will want to marry the hero or heroine. (I’m in love with Sam, myself.) If you’d like to know more about Sam––depicted by an artist in the accompanying image––read the attached interview. This comes from his role in The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy, my award winning novel, which is currently available. You can read it now so you’re up to speed when Sam comes out in full glory. (And he is glorious.)

We’re hoping that will be before Christmas. I’ll keep you in the loop.

Oh, yeah! There’s another sequel to The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy.  Lady Grace tells what happens after. Really after The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy. We’re hoping to have it out by Christmas as well.

All the best,

Sandy Nathan
Winner of twenty-one national awards! Yep, Best Books of 2011 (USA BOOK NEWS) just announced their winners, bringing the total number of awards my books have won to twenty-one. The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy WON New Age Fiction! It was a FINALIST in Fiction Fantasy/SciFi. It’s now won in every contest in which it’s been entered. Want a good read? Three panels of judges picked The Angel above the competition.

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link for more information. All links below go to Kindle editions.)
The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy
Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money
Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could
Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

Two sequels to The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy are in production with an early 2012 release date planned. If you liked  The Angel you’ll love Lady Grace and Sam & Emily.