Happy Monday!  As a teacher and writer, I’m thrilled for it to be summer.  I’m still teaching part-time, but fewer hours means I’m fully in get-Child-of-the-Kaites-ready-for-release mode.  I always feel the need to qualify statements about the future, as I have no idea what the next minute even holds, but as of now Child of the Kaites is on track to be released this summer!!

Look for more information about this on the 9th of July.  You can also follow me on Twitter or Facebook for more in-the-moment updates on how the process is going.

For today, it’s my delight to bring you a prequel to CotK.  If you subscribe to Phoenix Fiction’s newsletter, you may have already read my short story, “The Lake of Living Water.”

“The Lake of Living Water” is now available to you even if you haven’t subscribed to the PFW newsletter.  You can find links to acquire it for FREE here.  At present, it’s available through Kobo, Scribd, and Angus & Robertson, but it should be available through a few more channels in the near future.

(Sidenote–in going about this process, I discovered that The Weavers’ Blessing is for sale on Barnes and Noble’s website–how awesome is that?!?!!!)

Here is the synopsis of “TLoLW”:

Life is perfect.

Life is good.

At least, that’s all Nhardah has ever known. He and his siblings embark on their greatest adventure yet: They plan to climb the tallest mountain into the heavens, where they can sing with the stars.

On the way, Nhardah discovers marvels he never dreamed of. Then he encounters something better–and worse–than his wildest dreams.

Set in the world of The Firstborn’s Legacy series, this Christian fantasy short story mixes the Biblical story of the fall with dragons and talking animals. It is a story of discovery, loss, and hope.

This story was equal parts fun and challenging to write.  I decided to tell it from Nhardah the Firstborn’s point of view, as if he were telling a story to his children.  Nhardah’s one of my all-time favorite characters; I enjoyed getting deeper into his head.  At the same time, I found it incredibly difficult to write a story taking place in a perfect world.

On July 9th, “The Lake of Living Water” will no longer be free–so get it while it’s hot!  After you do, please take a quick moment to leave a review on Goodreads and on whichever platform you acquire the story from.  Reviews help readers find their next books and help writers gain more readers, which gives writers bursts of inspiration, which results in new stories being written, which results in a happier you because you get to read new stories.  And who doesn’t love new stories?

Now I’ve written myself into a grammatically tricky spot.  The answer is, “Nobody doesn’t like new stories,” but that’s a double negative, so you see why I’m in trouble?

I’d better sign off before this situation gets even trickier.  May your week be full of wonder and hope!