Excerpt & $50 GC Giveaway: The Chronicles of Antecede: Lost and Found by C.M. Sage

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

 

Description of The Chronicles of Antecede: Lost and Found

 

Sometimes things are lost for a very long time…and then they are found.

 

Take Gracie for example, a woman who lost everything, her life, her family, even her name, but now she is a Cathalian warrior of Antecede blessed with powers, which aren’t yet fully realized.  Her elder and nemesis, Donavan, finally granted the former professor an opportunity to train a new warrior.  Her joy turns to shock when she meets her great, great, great, great grandson, Henry, accompanied by his wisecracking best friend, Milo.  Henry recognizes his long dead ancestor right away, and it doesn’t take the Cathalians long to realize that this meeting was no accident.

 

Gracie and the warriors of Antecede soon discover that they aren’t the only ones laying a claim on their new charges.  Menacing enemies from the South and their hired mercenary assassin, Revilan, the Bowman, have also taken an interest.  Come along with Gracie, Donavan, and their fellow warriors on a perilous quest to protect all that is good and right from the evil that threatens it, and along the way discover what else was lost. 

 

Read an excerpt of The Chronicles of Antecede: Lost and Found

 

Gracie hadn’t seen Donovan since he rendered her and her charges unconscious, except to sense him speaking to Henry earlier in the day. He appeared to be his normal, arrogant self then, but right now he looked a bit wild. He was truly splendid like an untamed avenger, and she was a little in awe of the warrior coming towards her. Again, it was unfortunate for Gracie that she wasn’t as quick as her little beasties and didn’t think to try making herself scarce. She had never mastered that skill as a mortal or as a warrior. Drama followed her wherever she went. She met Donovan’s stare head on, shoulders back.

 

He stopped, breathing hard, hands on his hips, not far from where she stood, and now she realized Donovan wasn’t just angry, he appeared almost unhinged, and something else, some other undefined sentiment, which he quickly tried to hide. She caught the emotion with her amplified senses but failed to decipher it before it disappeared. Her elder’s appearance perplexed and confused Gracie. He was pale, and it was no small thing for a man so bronzed to look like a ghost. As if on cue, the wind picked up upon his arrival, and his hair whipped around his face. Donovan held Gracie’s stare until she dropped her eyes because the residual fire in his unnerved her.

 

Guest Post: Critique Groups and Other Landmines

 

On my way to writing Lost and Found, the first book in the Chronicles of Antecede series, I became a member of two formal critique groups.  Neither experience turned out the way I expected, but I learned quite a bit from both.

I am still a member of one of the groups.  We started with seven writers I think, but it soon dwindled to the four remaining members.  We are all at different stages in our writing careers, and we all write in different genres.  We read each other’s work, provide suggested edits but in truth our critique group is often more of a support group.

I’m not knocking it…we have gotten each other through a pandemic and have been going strong for almost three years.  Our love of writing and books brought us together and there is a camaraderie that works. But I thought I needed the opinions of others who write in my genre, so I joined a Science Fiction/Fantasy critique group.

The group was made up of lovely people.  The person who got us together was amazing.  He set everything up and kept us straight and on task.  I learned that the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre is very broad.  When I gave my critiques, and they gave me theirs, I could tell that if the stars hadn’t aligned and put us in this critique group, we would never read each other’s work.  Each of us wrote in such a different way, with such different styles, it always felt like we were trying to make each other’s writing sound more like our own.  On the other hand I did get some fantastic ideas and used them!

I think I may have stuck it out because of that good feedback, but I learned the hard way that maybe one critique/support group is enough for me.  I felt so overextended with my day job and classes I was taking that something had to give, and for me that something was the second critique group.  I worried and felt guilty about leaving, but I also felt so much calmer after I did.

I realized something else…a formal critique group isn’t always a necessity.  I have an informal network of trusted readers who are quite capable of being ruthless when they read my work…and then they’ll fist bump me and buy me a glass of wine

 

About Author C.M. Sage

 

Lost and Found is author C.M. Sage’s first book in the Chronicles of Antecede fantasy adventure trilogy.  She loves writing, reading, and traveling.  Most of all she loves spending time with her beloved family and friends…and yes, that includes her furry friends.  Life would have been much less sunny without them.

 

Visit the author’s website and subscribe to her newsletter at:

https://cmsage.com

 

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/authorcmsage

 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/cmsage

https://www.amazon.com/C-M-Sage/e/B0B4RQSPTS

 

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

 

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