tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522733626986718932024-03-13T20:38:45.847-07:00Kingdoms Gonehappily ever after, take two.Frances Paulihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11690177907315923299noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-452273362698671893.post-52408106035457106272014-01-22T09:14:00.003-08:002014-04-28T21:54:08.426-07:00KINGDOMS GONE<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0bPf6bvBITDEezCJMVgPN8iCInHwPhAR2lN26VMejKEq8w5FLhup5b8L0lUOpnYzfG3z4ecp0TCFvUGNHl2QSKSfSsj6vLwQVEoSTBTVE6lgdhFZtaGWBFlhDQOxFuIMcb9cQ-sFAQ8/s1600/kingdomsbanner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0bPf6bvBITDEezCJMVgPN8iCInHwPhAR2lN26VMejKEq8w5FLhup5b8L0lUOpnYzfG3z4ecp0TCFvUGNHl2QSKSfSsj6vLwQVEoSTBTVE6lgdhFZtaGWBFlhDQOxFuIMcb9cQ-sFAQ8/s1600/kingdomsbanner.jpg" height="56" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Happily Ever After: Take Two</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4irSjcfQZAs" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #f6ffe9; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative; text-align: start;">
<a href="http://kingdomsgone.blogspot.com/2012/05/in-event-that-something-remains.html" style="color: #7f7f7f; text-decoration: none;">In the event that something remains...</a></h3>
<div class="post-header" style="background-color: #f6ffe9; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; text-align: start;">
<div class="post-header-line-1">
</div>
</div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8261422674145946907" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: #f6ffe9; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; text-align: start; width: 570px;">
How does a man know what is to come of endings? I write these words on the eve of one, amidst the rubble and the aftermath of the Final War. Yet still, even when all things worth saving have long since perished, when all one's efforts have refused to bear fruit, when hope has died, the mind still looks onward. The eye turns inevitably toward the future.<br /><br />Even when it doubts that one might exist.<br /><br />We stood for a time in grandeur. We knew the glory of the Kingdoms unified, powerful, opulent, destined to fall. My people witnessed the failure of all that we helped to create. We watched as the nobility split and argued. We saw the birth of this Final War and were vain enough to think that we could save it, that magic could stop anything. All of us fools. Fate and the Powers taught us that lesson, and with more than our share of devastation riding on their backs. Perhaps our fair share, after all.<br /><br />Nothing of us remains, and yet, something lives still. In the shadow of the great Houses, ordinary man will suffer the least. He, I suspect, will continue his drudgery. Perhaps for a moment, he will cheer, celebrate the fall of the pompous rulers who wasted a whole world to solve their differences. Perhaps that common man will cheer the loss of magic as well. He'll raise a glass to our passing, laugh as the Gentry fade back into their pocket worlds, taking the last of power with them. For a time, I think, this must be the case.<br /><br />But even he will feel the loss in time. Even Everyman will suffer. For who will make the waters flow clean when we are gone? Who will keep the walls sturdy, the streets safe? Who will rule--and make no mistake, someone shall--this broken world?<br /><br />Perhaps my fate is kindest then, I who die in the fallen stones of a once great palace. The last of my kind. My magic has long since fled, stolen back by the very Powers who gave it. My steel was never worthy, and only my words are left to me. You who read them, if eyes still exist that can do as much, know this...<br /><br />Whatever you have learned, what stories they have told, what whispers have survived, all begin with a lie. The last act of an unrepentant Nobility is always the lie, and war--any war--is born in only one way...through evil deeds.<br /><br />And so, if you sing songs at all in the world you make upon our ashes, sing them to trust nothing, believe no one, and hold in truth only that which you witness with your own eyes.<br /><br />And, perhaps, the kingdoms gone are better left forgotten.<br /><br />Mastral Werdewell<br />First Mage, and poor counsel, to<br />King Leopold <i>the Liar</i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
Frances Paulihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11690177907315923299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-452273362698671893.post-11448999342096128912013-09-22T10:54:00.003-07:002013-09-22T17:04:12.654-07:00FORGOTTEN: Kingdoms Gone Flashback<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Forgotten</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Kingdoms-Gone-ebook/dp/B00FCMS6HK/" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Kingdoms-Gone-ebook/dp/B00FCMS6HK/</a><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNKj8rlt23lHSmJkgkfvlhGmBtHZw4sZMjb9qsLQM4VUD1eHHydMJnRgGehPw5EydB_JqFLiEoL8-X6UfQGepTNOtER15Di-UsdAX7L9bv-oiskCMq5RH3VZquIKFFzRuAaCOFK5kGij8/s320/forgottenfinal.jpg" width="213" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
available on <a href="vhttp://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Kingdoms-Gone-ebook/dp/B00FCMS6HK/" target="_blank">Kindle </a>today</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Two women on opposite ends of time. Between them is the war that will change their world forever… </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Payne lives a cursed life. Her touch brings death, and her memory is damaged. She has only an aging mage for company, and he could easily be her enemy. When a stranger tears her away from her temple’s safety, she finds the world outside just as empty of answers. Who can she believe and who, if anyone, can break her curse and free her from a life that is rapidly slipping toward darkness and destruction?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Farine has been blessed with everything she’s ever desired. Her father is the king, her friends surround her and her life seems perfect. Until a strange User dares her to look into the unicorn’s eye, and the veil of illusion is lifted. Now her father’s perfect kingdom shows its true colors. The walls are crumbling and the enemies no one believed they had are marching for the gates. As the Kingdoms crumble, Farine must choose between trusting her old friends, or her newly awakened heart.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">One woman living on the eve of the Final War and one dwelling in the aftermath. Only by untangling their destinies will they find the answer that could save them both.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;"><br /></span></div>
Frances Paulihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11690177907315923299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-452273362698671893.post-86573450316429797592013-06-20T11:29:00.000-07:002013-06-20T11:29:04.348-07:00The Soulstone Prophecy<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>One hundred years to own their sins,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>one hundred years to wait.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>And when the towers rise again,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>a gobelin army at the gate.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>The Guardian of living stone </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>will fetch the horde so wild</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>And send the Bearer far from shore</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i> to find a royal child</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>The Heir shall make the sacrifice,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>the Powers that be awaken.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>When royal blood has paid their price,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>restore what time has taken.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><b>The Soulstone Prophecy</b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Recorded by Mastral Werdewell as spoken by...</i></div>
Frances Paulihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11690177907315923299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-452273362698671893.post-84247494037494256182013-04-21T16:17:00.002-07:002013-04-21T16:17:45.752-07:00Horded<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/43KTnrS2BkI" width="480"></iframe>Frances Paulihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11690177907315923299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-452273362698671893.post-32649053148438552732013-04-05T11:56:00.001-07:002013-04-05T11:56:58.156-07:00Gobelins <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
HORDED</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maera lives as an outcast by choice. Guilt-ridden over her
past, she hopes only for the punishment she deserves. But when a gobelin
warrior steps out of thin air to claim her, Maera is torn between the debt she
owes her people, and the selfish yearnings of her own heart. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tal is the lowest gobelin, the cursed brother of the horde’s
greatest warrior. When he stumbles onto a legendary castle, however, he
believes his luck is about to change.
But the horde’s enemies have found the thing as well, and Tal’s brother
breaks gobelin law to chase a human who is more trouble than she’s worth. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now Tal and Maera are the only ones who can save his
brother, the one person they both love and the only thing they can agree on. If
they fail, the horde will never believe them, and the castle of prophecy will
fall into enemy hands. If they succeed, they’ll have to stand together against
the full fury of the gobelin horde…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
COMING APRIL 10</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Author Adriane Ceallaigh was a beta reader for Horded, and she's posted a really wonderful tribute to the book on her blog here: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.adrianeceallaigh.com/2013/04/a-new-beginning.html">http://www.adrianeceallaigh.com/2013/04/a-new-beginning.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Okay, it's not just about Horded, but she's been an awesome friend, a great fan of Kingdoms Gone and a wonderful support to me along the way. I can't express how tickled I am that she loved this book. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She is my Gobelin champion! And now, I'm about to introduce the elves...a unicorn, and even more imps in book Three, Forgotten. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back to they keyboard!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
~ Frances </div>
Frances Paulihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11690177907315923299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-452273362698671893.post-6209853608409308402013-02-25T20:40:00.001-08:002013-02-25T20:40:39.578-08:00Launch!It's officially live now. Kingdoms Gone, Unlikely is up and available at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unlikely-Kingdoms-Gone-ebook/dp/B00BJTBN2U/">Amazon</a> and <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4155857">Createspac</a>e.<span id="goog_1346622318"></span><span id="goog_1346622319"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a> Thanks to everyone who supported getting the first step out the door. <div>
~Frances</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVG4M9KEuxA0PB0ktWxlpfObsVwu3sxFKWxw1rjCg-wAC6B_j0vH2qPiQQstshPITD7RdaPCa-akwAlmc7hlnaOEeEy-55-eIUiqhl2-ovYBpu0dVz-k908OzVIgcEsrfsU8nJfFcI98/s1600/onlinecover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVG4M9KEuxA0PB0ktWxlpfObsVwu3sxFKWxw1rjCg-wAC6B_j0vH2qPiQQstshPITD7RdaPCa-akwAlmc7hlnaOEeEy-55-eIUiqhl2-ovYBpu0dVz-k908OzVIgcEsrfsU8nJfFcI98/s320/onlinecover.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>
<div>
And next up...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqJgCoMAnlNnXz8VtVbK20CsWLSkbJyzPItTdhDC87uVYmjQzyEdTwxzhn97Ptoe0lfqT6p4L5uP8GrfWpC0GU8PXu6Mjee-9sFLP7J3ZMtT36jRx3XmphZSEm_JN4cV3C-EqeW588kto/s1600/horded2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqJgCoMAnlNnXz8VtVbK20CsWLSkbJyzPItTdhDC87uVYmjQzyEdTwxzhn97Ptoe0lfqT6p4L5uP8GrfWpC0GU8PXu6Mjee-9sFLP7J3ZMtT36jRx3XmphZSEm_JN4cV3C-EqeW588kto/s320/horded2.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Frances Paulihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11690177907315923299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-452273362698671893.post-39473092513179497502012-12-04T15:58:00.000-08:002012-12-04T15:58:21.694-08:00Coming SoonTrailer for the first book...which should be coming out near the first of the year.
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oDXVTKzU4as" width="560"></iframe>Frances Paulihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11690177907315923299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-452273362698671893.post-82614226741459469072012-05-24T12:06:00.004-07:002012-06-29T23:44:04.302-07:00In the event that something remains...How does a man know what is to come of endings? I write these words on the eve of one, amidst the rubble and the aftermath of the Final War. Yet still, even when all things worth saving have long since perished, when all one's efforts have refused to bear fruit, when hope has died, the mind still looks onward. The eye turns inevitably toward the future.<br />
<br />
Even when it doubts that one might exist.<br />
<br />
We stood for a time in grandeur. We knew the glory of the Kingdoms unified, powerful, opulent, destined to fall. My people witnessed the failure of all that we helped to create. We watched as the nobility split and argued. We saw the birth of this Final War and were vain enough to think that we could save it, that magic could stop anything. All of us fools. Fate and the Powers taught us that lesson, and with more than our share of devastation riding on their backs. Perhaps our fair share, after all.<br />
<br />
Nothing of us remains, and yet, something lives still. In the shadow of the great Houses, ordinary man will suffer the least. He, I suspect, will continue his drudgery. Perhaps for a moment, he will cheer, celebrate the fall of the pompous rulers who wasted a whole world to solve their differences. Perhaps that common man will cheer the loss of magic as well. He'll raise a glass to our passing, laugh as the Gentry fade back into their pocket worlds, taking the last of power with them. For a time, I think, this must be the case.<br />
<br />
But even he will feel the loss in time. Even Everyman will suffer. For who will make the waters flow clean when we are gone? Who will keep the walls sturdy, the streets safe? Who will rule--and make no mistake, someone shall--this broken world?<br />
<br />
Perhaps my fate is kindest then, I who die in the fallen stones of a once great palace. The last of my kind. My magic has long since fled, stolen back by the very Powers who gave it. My steel was never worthy, and only my words are left to me. You who read them, if eyes still exist that can do as much, know this...<br />
<br />
Whatever you have learned, what stories they have told, what whispers have survived, all begin with a lie. The last act of an unrepentant Nobility is always the lie, and war--any war--is born in only one way...through evil deeds.<br />
<br />
And so, if you sing songs at all in the world you make upon our ashes, sing them to trust nothing, believe no one, and hold in truth only that which you witness with your own eyes.<br />
<br />
And, perhaps, the kingdoms gone are better left forgotten.<br />
<br />
Mastral Werdewell<br />
First Mage, and poor counsel, to<br />
King Leopold <i>the Liar</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4irSjcfQZAs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Frances Paulihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11690177907315923299noreply@blogger.com