The Halberd

The Halberd A retelling of Beauty and the Beast

On Kindle $2.99
In paperback $6.99 + shipping

The Halberd is the third in a series of retellings of Beauty and the Beast; along with Be Our Guest and White Elephant, it is part of Beasts of Ayutthaya: Three retellings of Beauty and the Beast. Phang is in love with an elephant, Naresuan, in 18th century Thailand. She is a mahout, an elephant trainer, while he is a white or albino elephant, the most royal of the royal. It is a turbulent time in Thailand, with King Taksin the Great reuniting the Siamese yet losing his mental stability. Enemies conspire to keep them apart. In modern Ayutthaya, a young boy finds a halberd, an ancient weapon used by people who fought on elephants. Relics of the ancient capital stir up everyone's imagination.

kind of a wild night tonight - a tornado warning, a kid's birthday, a few flash floods due to driving rain. the tornado appeared to pass over us - no actual tornado hit near here that i know of - though there might have been one in Brimfield nearby - but the rain was falling hard, and there were places i wasn't crazy about driving through. one was the low tracks on chambers street. water was a couple feet almost, on those tracks.

the sky had a kind of artists' pallette as the sunset hit all those clouds. i was driving though and watching out for the telltale funnel. saw a rainbow and some nasty clouds - never saw a funnel.

finished and published my book, The Halberd. it's the third part of a three-part book called Beasts of Ayutthaya. it's been incredibly hard finishing it. but i'm proud of myself, it's only my second true novel. and i could only write in three pieces, one at a time. took me forever. i have lots of projects backed up.

the publishing is actually a many-part process, and i had to take a day off for april fools, you can't publish a book on april fools. you publish the kindle, you publish the paperback, you grab the isbn from the paperback and put it back on the kindle, you finish proofreading (which i do better on the kindle for some reason), then you get the word out, put it on all the sites - my own facebook, my blogs, twitter, instagram, etc. it will be a lively pr season here pretty soon.

april in general is a lively month. i have a birthday. things happen. lots of birthdays in the family, starting with one today. spring pops. things turn green. tornados rake the county.

we have a charger issue. kids are always borrowing my charger for their tablets. i end up, up here, phone low, computer low, but it's ok i'll get my charger back. i am dad, after all. they'll fork it over if they have to.

that big huge puddle on the chambers street railroad crossing still hovers in my mind's image storage. i held my breath and drove my tiny honda right through it. could have been a fatal mistake i suppose. or maybe there could be animals in water like that - alligators and such. but i made it, i'm still alive.

and one kid's nine today, never to go backward, never back to eight. she fortunately is just nine. her sister is ten going on fifteen.