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  • Book 1: Rider’s Revenge
  • Book 2: Rider’s Rescue
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Alessandra Clarke

~ Author of The Rider's Revenge Trilogy

Alessandra Clarke

Tag Archives: rider’s revenge

Some Quotes and Some Books To Check Out

07 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by Alessandra Clarke in Reading Related, Rider's Rescue, Rider's Revenge

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promo, quotes, Rider's Rescue, rider's revenge

I’ve been having a little fun with GIMP lately, trying to take images from the Rider’s covers and pair them with some of my favorite quotes from the books. There are a handful more quotes that I like, but this is what I came up with so far:

First to Stand 2

Riders Quote6

RR2 quote stand alone 1

You can tell what events were happening in the real world when I was writing those novels, can’t you? Or maybe just I can.

Anyway. Those were fun to do. Feel free to share if you like them.

More importantly, if you’ve been looking for a new author or new book to read, there is a big promo this weekend: http://pattyjansen.com/promo/ that has 100 different SFFH books available for 99 cents. It’s worldwide and there should be titles available on every platform. (Rider’s Revenge is included, but I’m assuming you’ve already read it at this point which leaves potentially 99 other titles to choose from.)

(And if you haven’t finished the entire Rider’s series, this is the weekend to pick up books 2 and 3 for $3.99.)

Book 3 Release Date Set and Thoughts on Romance

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by Alessandra Clarke in Rider's Rescue, Rider's Revenge

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Tags

book 3 release, fantasy romance versus fantasy with romantic elements, Rider's Rescue, rider's revenge, sale, what is romance

Alright, I’m procrastinating a bit, so figured it was a good time for a blog post.

First, I think we’re far enough along with book 3 that I can announce a release date of June 11th.

Also, I’m planning on a short pre-order period and introductory sale price for book 3 as a thank you for those who’ve stuck with me, so keep an eye out.  I’ll announce it on FB, Twitter, here, and through the newsletter when book 3 is live so pick your poison in terms of where to look.

And, finally, because I’m also starting to think about “what do I write next”, I thought I’d talk just a bit about the Rider’s series and romance.  Possible spoilers follow so if you haven’t read the series, might want to stop reading now.

Okay.  So…

There is a romance in the Rider’s series.  K’lrsa does meet Badru and they do fall for one another and they do have some challenges to their relationship that keep them apart, both big and small, and they do overcome those and get together.  (At least once…)

But, at the same time, when I was writing this series, I wasn’t writing it as a romance.  I was writing a coming of age action-adventure fantasy novel.  My focus was on K’lrsa and her growth as she learns about how different the world is from what she thought it was and how her mastery in the world she knows is challenged when she’s put in a new setting.

I wanted her to be strong, to solve her own problems, and to be the heroine, but I also wanted to explore how what made her successful in the tribes could be harmful when she was put in the setting of the Daliphana.

And I was also exploring, hopefully on a second level of the story that doesn’t get in the way of the main adventure story line, issues of women’s roles in society and how they’re treated based on where the men around them place them or how the men around them perceive them.

And, of course, I touched on other issues like grief and parental relationships and friendship and being young but trying to be a leader and (in book 3) trying to integrate people from two very different cultures and how people aren’t necessarily bad, they just have different perspectives, and on and on.

So the romance in these novels was not my focus.  I wasn’t spending most of the time on the page trying to show why these two should be together.

I do write romance novels under a different name (contemporary, not fantasy) and in those novels I take a very different approach.  Even though the characters are dealing with something else (grief in this latest one, cancer in the one before that), how the main character finds her happily ever after with the hero is the focus of those novels.  Everything else that happens in the books is just part of those two people finding one another.

That’s not the case in the Rider’s novels.  In the Rider’s novels, the focus is on K’lrsa and her journey. Badru is a very important part of that journey, but he’s not all of it.  Large portions of her journey don’t include him.  (Which doesn’t mean they won’t end up together, so if you were reading for the romance, don’t hate me…I’ve got it.  Trust me.)

Anyway.  This is my long-winded way of saying, I’m not sure which direction I’m headed yet for the next series.  I can write another one like this where there is some romance, but it’s secondary to the story, and the focus is on the main character’s journey.  Or I can write a more traditional romance structure, likely in the spirit of Nora Roberts’ fantasy novels, where one couple gets together in each book of the trilogy and you follow all three couples.

I have about ten different ideas, a few that are stronger candidates than the others.  All of that may change after this writing workshop I’m headed to which I hope will up my writing game to the next level.

But…If you have strong opinions about what you liked or didn’t like in the Rider’s series or what you like or don’t like about fantasy novels in general, let me know.  Drop a note in the comments, send an email, leave a review, whatever way works best for you.

I can’t promise it’ll happen, but knowing what my existing readers like or don’t like, helps. A lot.

Taking That Leap

11 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by Alessandra Clarke in Rider's Revenge

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Tags

fear, new release, publishing, rider's revenge, writing

I put Rider’s Revenge up for pre-order on Amazon and all the other retailers today.  LOVE my cover, by the way.  Kirk did such an amazing job with it and I’m so glad I reached out to him to see if he’d take me on.

I have to say, this was one of the scariest things I’ve done in a long time.

It’s not the first title I’ve self-published.  I’ve put up about eighty titles give or take across a variety of pen names and in various genres.  Mostly shorter works.  And I’m proud of every one of them and wouldn’t have written them and put them out there if I didn’t think they were worth reading.

But this one.

This is the one that matters to me.  I’ve spent hundreds of hours on this novel.  And it’s the type of thing I love to read.  An adventure featuring a strong but not perfect main character.  Some crazy twists and turns that I didn’t see coming until they happened.  Focused on the individual experience of the characters but with larger issues at play.

And if I can’t write what I love to read, what good am I?  Right.

So I sit here, now that it’s too late to take it back, and worry.

What if people hate it?  What if no one even reads it?  What if I put it all out there and…crickets.

Well.  There’s only one way to know and that’s to just go ahead and do it.

So here goes.  Time to leap off that cliff and hope it turns out well.

September 29th.  That’s the day of reckoning.  Wish me luck.  Let’s hope I can actually fly after all.

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Publication Day!October 1, 2015
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