Children of Lubrochius by Matthew D. Ryan Virtual Book Tour Guest Post and Giveaway

Children of Lubrochius

by Matthew D.Ryan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

The vampire, Lucian val Drasmyr, has been defeated, but not destroyed: Now he serves another evil: Korina Bolaris, a young and gifted sorceress bent on subverting the power structure of Drisdak. Only Coragan of Esperia can hope to stop them. But is even he prepared to face the dark cult who claims her as their own: the Children of Lubrochius?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guest Post;

Thank you so much for giving us your thoughts on eBooks vs print copies;

Topic: Your opinion of eBook vs. Print

I grew up reading books. Real books. With sturdy jackets, and clear, typeset pages. When the first eBooks hit the market a few years back, I reacted much like many other long-time readers. I thought, No way am I going to read a book like that. I want the real thing. Not a fancy, flashing screen. But then I started hearing the reports of others, that they weren’t that bad. That some people, heaven forbid, even preferred them. So, I gave them a try. I read a few ebooks on my phone. The first was a thriller that I paid $0.99 for. The novel wasn’t bad; I think I gave it three or four stars after reading it. But I was more intrigued by the reading experience. It was nothing like what I expected. Flipping your finger across the screen to turn pages felt natural. The whole experience felt natural and rewarding. I mean, it didn’t blow me away so much so that I would have nothing to do with real books, but I rated the experience a close second.

I still prefer the print books. Not because of the way the pages smell (I’ve read of people who give that as a reason and that just strikes me as odd), but I’ve grown up with the experience of holding a solid book in my hands; it just feels right. EBooks feel natural. Print books feel more natural. But not by much. I have no qualms about purchasing an eBook these days. I’ve read a good number of books as eBooks now—mostly on my iPad instead of my phone—and I have grown quite comfortable with it. I’ll still purchase print copies of books I really enjoy or want to collect, but I won’t turn my nose up at an eBook.

Well, perhaps that’s not quite true. For some reason, I expect eBooks to be priced lower. Intellectually, I know it’s the exact same material and with the Cloud the book is pretty much as safe as, if not safer than, a regular print book, but I still feel a little leery about purchasing a stream of electrons as a permanent object. A print book I can see, I can feel and look at whenever I want. An eBook I have to turn on my iPad and go searching for it. It’s not too difficult, but it is like one step removed from obtaining a print book.

I’ve also noticed some other differences from the two types of books. The biggest of these is writing style, I think. The speed and ease with which the reader flips through pages of an eBook influences the way they perceive the story, I think. It alters one’s perceptions; the rhythm of the story must be accelerated to match it. I think that a slowly paced print book can still be a rewarding effort, but that the same book when read as an eBook might come across as tedious. The reader is constantly flipping pages, trying to rev him/herself up to the action, but the plot just plods along. The result is that an excellent, time-honored book might come across as slow and ponderous in eBook form. Has anyone else noticed that? Maybe I’m off-base, but it just seems that the new form of presenting the material may alter the material in some hard-to-describe way and subtly transform the whole reading experience. Writers in this new era must be aware of that.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on eBooks and print books.

Excerpt

A change came over the body. Wisps of white mist, like smoke began issuing from his mouth and nose, and from the sides. The mist grew thick, coagulating around the edges of the corpse and rolling down the sides of the altar. Soon, the mist darkened, turning grey, and then black. Then, the body convulsed and burst aflame. The fire quickly spread across the altar and even down around it on the floor, coming into being everywhere the mist had spread.

Korina felt a wave of ungodly heat blast her in the face. Though she remained on her knees, she backed away somewhat until the heat of the fire was more bearable.

There was a terrible keening scream. The fires writhed, stretching upward toward the ceiling as a figure appeared on the altar amidst the flames, slowly coming into existence like a solidifying ghost. It stood seven feet tall and wore a simple black robe adorned with runes of power stitched in white. Its scaly skin was a marbled mix of black and red; its reptilian head bore two long horns stretching toward the ceiling, one over each glowing, green eye. A forked tongue periodically snaked between its razor-sharp teeth, and a thin stream of drool depended from the corner of its mouth. The robes it wore must have had a hole in the rear, for two enormous bat-like wings protruded from the creature’s back and spread outward like battle standards on a field of war.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Matthew D. Ryan is a published author living in upstate New York on the shores of Lake Champlain. Mr. Ryan has a background in philosophy, mathematics, and computer science. He has a black belt in the martial arts and studies yoga. He has been deeply involved in the fantasy genre for most of his life as a reader, writer, and game designer. He is the operator of the web-site matthewdryan.com which features his blog, “A Toast to Dragons,”a blog dedicated to fantasy literature, and, to a lesser extent, sci-fi. Mr. Ryan says he receives his inspiration from his many years as an avid role-player and fantasy book reader. He has spent many long hours devising adventures and story-lines for games, so it was a natural shift moving into fantasy writing.

Mr. Ryan is the author of the exciting dark fantasy novel, Drasmyr,, its sequel, The Children of Lubrochius, and a growing number of short stories. His first novel, Drasmyr, has consistently earned reviews in the four and five star range and serves as the prequel to his upcoming series: From the Ashes of Ruin. In addition to Drasmyr and The Children of Lubrochius, Mr. Ryan has published several short stories on-line, including: “Haladryn and the Minotaur,” “The River’s Eye,” and “Escape.”

Links to the Author on the Internet

Author’s website: http://matthewdryan.com

Author’s Smashwords Page: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/matthewdryan

Author’s Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000038781652

Author’s Amazon Author Central Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/matthewdryan

Author’s Goodreads Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/579148.Matthew_D_Ryan

Buy Links for The Children of Lubrochius:

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/415779

The prequel, Drasmyr, is currently available free as an ebook at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and elsewhere.

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131156

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Drasmyr&sprefix=Drasm%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ADrasmyr

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Drasmyr?store=allproducts&keyword=Drasmyr

Lulu (Hardcover Print Book—$24.99): http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?type=Print+Products&keyWords=Drasmyr&sitesearch=lulu.com&q=&x=0&y=0

 there is a 50% off coupon for this book at Smashwords.  Readers may click here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/415779 and then use coupon code: LX23U to receive 50% off. Coupon expires June 28, 2014.



 

 THE PRIZE THAT THE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVING AWAY:



Matthew will be awarding a $20 Amazon Gift Card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, and a $10 Amazon Gift Card to a randomly drawn host.



  a Rafflecopter giveaway