Aaron's Quest at Wonderland Books!

That's right, Aaron's Quest is available for purchase at Wonderland Books and Toys, Rockford's only independent bookstore. It's located in Edgebrook

Market on North Alpine Road, Rockford, Illinois. I love it, personally, and not just because they're carrying Aaron's Quest. It's a small little shop with ivy covering the front exterior, and inside it's filled with books for kids from tots to teens.

The recent explosion of Speculative Fiction into the mainstream story world is quite exciting to me. Walking through Wonderland Books and Toys, I found a shelf where my book, The Land Between Time, would fit in perfectly. Between the books about paranormal romance and post-apocalyptic depravity, the shelf practically called out for good wholesome stories like what I and many of my friends write. (Apologies to those who like post-apocalyptic; I do, as well, but I haven't run across many that appear to be well done.)

Looking at all those books, I have realized something. The old saying about not judging a book by it's cover; well, it doesn't seem to be completely true. There were so many amazing, eye catching, and intriguing covers for the books in that store. People do judge books by their covers, and often rightly, When it comes to cover art, the goal is to accurately convey the message and feel of that specific story to a buyer in one glance. That saying that pictures are worth a thousand word, that one is accurate. I can often tell whether or not I will appreciate the style of story being told simply by looking over the cover, or at the very least I'll get a general idea as to what the chances are of me liking it. It's very fascinating. Where 'not judging a book by it's cover' becomes more applicable is when one remembers that you cannot get the entire story simply by studying the cover.

Anyway, if you're in Rockford and love books, I recommend checking out Wonderland. I take Rosie there with me now and then, and I can barely manage to drag her out again!

A Quest of my Own

Well, this is Aaron. Say hello, Aaron.


"Hello...."

There's a good boy. He's not used to me talking to him, so he may seem slightly hesitant. Why don't you tell our readers who you are, Aaron.

Aaron clears his throat. "My name is Aaron Troughton, son of the town weaponsmith in Kanterville."

Which is in Ynera, one of the kingdoms in south-central Xystia.

"Aye."

Aaron is the main character of a short story I wrote, oh, about three years ago, I believe. I can't recall for certain, but at any rate, I wrote it for a short story class my brothers and I took some time ago, and since then, I have been editing it off and on between working on the Outlander Trilogy and other writing projects. Well, finally, the time has come to actually publish it. My family -- my grandfather in particular -- has been nagging me to get something published. "Official", as they call it, and I attempt not to take offense at that. I have about a million things written that took quite some effort to get out of my head and onto paper, thank you very much. Just not as much of it is coherently edited, much to, it seems, pretty much everyone's great dismay and exasperation.

Aaron doesn't care either way, do you, Aaron?

Aaron scratches his head and shrugs.

See? Anyway. I'm posting this to say a couple things. The first thing is obvious; I'm publishing Aaron's Quest. Well, the first edition of it, at any rate.

The second thing is that I'm going to the 2013 OYAN Summer Workhop with my brother, Seph, which starts this coming Monday. That means I won't be around to post anything for at least a week. We're bringing back Ani and Dana and Wynni to stay with us for a week or so after that, so I'll probably be busy then, as well. I promise to do my best to take as many pictures as possible, as well as some video of this year's Celtic Day at the SW.

So, until I get Aaron's Quest published, that's all for now. Say goodbye, Aaron.

"Farewell." Aaron smiles and waves.

He seems such a sedate little fellow--

"I'm not little."

--but he has quite a bit in him, I assure you. He does turn up in book three of the Outlander Trilogy, at least once. Deciding that actually made finishing his story tolerable. I've been editing that dratted manuscript so much it drove me bonkers. Only near the end did I decide to set the story in Ynera, one of the kingdoms in Xystia, which is the story world for the Outlander Trilogy. Rather than medieval England. Research.... Not my favorite thing in the world.

And neither is formatting. FORMATTING. Ick.

Aaron fidgets."Should I say farewell again, or can I go?"

Say farewell again, because I'm done now. Really.

Aaron waves again. "Farewell!"

Dia duit,
~Penny

PS
Gracious, I can't believe I forgot to mention this! The illustrations in Aaron's Quest, including the one of Aaron that I included in this post, were all done by Robert Carter. He did an excellent job; the cartoon style drawings fit perfectly with the tone of the story itself. Thanks, Robert!