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Braving The Elements!
Braving the Elements
A Fantasy Anthology
By Various Authors
Publisher: Roane Publishing
Release Date: September 4, 2017
Claire Davon – The Dragon, the Witch, and the Swordswoman
Michael Siciliano - Forging Mettle
Kelly Said - The Myth of Mount Agony
Terri Rochenski - Mist Weaver
Rebecca Hart - Alice and the Egg
The Dragon, The Witch, and the Swordswoman
By Claire Davon
As the person responsible for calling the bronze dragon that destroyed her village, Losha is tasked with killing it. Failure to do so means she will be outcast from everything she has ever known. Yet one she is on the road, two local women in tow, she finds that she is strangely reluctant to harm the beast that lurks in her mind.
After an encounter with an oddly familiar old woman and a knight in a small hamlet Losha is more confused than ever. On one hand, failure to slay the dragon means she cannot return to the promise of marriage from a local boy yet the more she learns about the dragon the less she wants to harm it. It, like the bronze sword that is her only defense, speaks to her in a way nothing else has.
The stage is set for a final showdown between knight and beast when the knight’s true quest is revealed and Losha must choose between all she has ever known, or the companionship of an old woman…and a dragon.
Forging Mettle
By Michael Siciliano
Xander, a teenaged street thief in the grimy slums of Low Town, discovers he has an innate magical talent on the same night his father is killed. Intent on getting revenge, he attempts a risky robbery which goes bad. Rather than face the hangman’s noose, Xander agrees to accompany a group of soldiers intent on finding a powerful magical artifact. But the Beggar’s Hand isn’t what the King’s sorcerer thinks. Deep in the mountains, Xander must make life and death decisions, not just for himself, but the Kingdom he calls home.
The Myth of Mt Agony
By Kelly Said
Meadow’s mere presence ensures the Morningstar farm produces with preternatural abundance. A dirt-dusted foster-child, she hungers for harmony with Auric’s lands.
Valcone is the reclusive prince of Auric. Confined to his room—for the safety of his subjects—he craves control over his persuasive powers.
The prince and the farmgirl’s powerful personalities will collide with epic force when a war erupts between Auric and a neighboring kingdom. With Auric’s fate on the line, Valcone tests the limits of his ability. He amplifies his steady push into a forceful shove against Meadow’s gentle Nature. The Earth-shaper finds herself between a rock and a hard place, literally, where the only choice to save her family may lie in surrendering to the destructive force of her ground-breaking ability.
Mist Weaver
By Terri Rochenski
Dolan wants nothing more than to escape his village for the big city where his small stature and unpleasant features won’t make him the recipient of constant ridicule by the lord of the manor and his heir, Gilroy. The mist that dances to the sweet notes of Dolan's flute is his only camaraderie and the only beauty in his life—except for Keavy.
When the kind milkmaid is faced with unwanted attentions, Dolan must defend her honor with a choice that will ultimately change his life.
Alice and the Egg
By Rebecca Hart
Alice would do anything for her father, the only parent she’s ever known since her mother’s death in childbirth. When he falls ill, Alice doesn’t hesitate when the opportunity to barter her life for his is presented by Jayden, the prince and only heir to the Dragorean throne.
It doesn’t take long for Alice to realize the palace has secrets. Ones that relate to her own past more than she could ever have imagined. If she can find a way to play the game of secrets well enough, not only could she save her father, she just may manage to save herself as well.
Let Get To Know Our Authors A Little Better
How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
Terri
Since I started writing years ago, I’ve read a ton more fantasy novels/series. They’ve all influenced me in one way or another—either through world building, character arcs, and amping up the conflict and tension.
Kelly
I've evolved creatively by pushing myself beyond the boundaries of my comfort zone, reading more widely and more diversely, studying viewpoints that oppose my own, and being open to trying different avenues of creative expression.
Claire
With each new novel or short story I try to stretch myself creatively, even if the story is similar in idea to something I’ve done before. So if I’m writing a romantic short story I look for something different in that story from what I’ve done in the past. While it’s likely true that there’s nothing that hasn’t been done, it’s in making the world, and the characters, believable and interesting that make the story stand out.
Rebecca
I think sometimes I have de-evolved. There was a time I could spill words onto paper and then sort it all out once it was out there, but I have become a terrible, paralyzing, self-editor of late. I miss the days where I didn’t worry so much, or agonize over every single word as I put it down in my drafts.
Michael
I’ve come to understand that what matters to me in a fantasy story are the people—what they feel and how the story changes them.
It used to be that I liked the uniqueness of the fantasy world. I wanted to know about the nations and the people in the larger picture, but as I’ve aged and grown in my story-telling ability, I realized that the fascination with those details was intellectual at best. Those details didn’t tug at my heartstrings, didn’t make me pull for the people that I followed with a passion because I was at a distance.
Now, the real joy for me is experiencing a character or group of characters struggle through their try/fail cycle before they succeed, but only if I can feel what they feel. The failure, the disappointment, the loss, the tragedy before the success makes the success far, far more sweet.
In addition, I find super-characters (those who are the smartest, strongest, most courageous, and/or most cunning) to be boring. They have nowhere to go, nothing to learn. Why would they learn anything? They’re already the masters of their environment. Also, everyone, including me, loves rooting for the underdog, the little guy/gal. When they finally make it through their try/fail cycle, and topple their Goliath(s), it gives us all hope that in our real lives we can overcome towering adversity if only we muster the courage to persist.
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