5 Star Review for Silver Knight from Readers Favorite!

Thank you Brenda C.!
Posted February 27, 2012

My only warning is that once you start reading this story you are not going to be able to put it down!

Reviewed by Brenda C. for Readers Favorite

All I could think once I started reading this book was WOW! It's Diana's last days as a high school junior, and she is looking forward to becoming a senior and perhaps being voted president of their book club. The thing is that she has always been plagued with haunting dreams, and often the dreams are of people being killed. While the dreams seemed very real, she had always thought they were just that, dreams. When she sees a video on YouTube of a priest from the Vatican asking for warriors to join his crusade in trying to rid the catacombs of the demons that are living there, she is surprised to realize that she actually recognizes this priest from her dreams, and in her dreams she had saved him! When she calls him, she is shocked to find out that he knows her and that he wants her help. She decides to take the trip and invites two of her best friends from high school to go along. The journey she embarks upon not only helps her understand her past and her destiny, but it also allows her to meet with a man whom she has been tied to for centuries! Will Diana and her friends survive the journey, and what about the man she meets, just who is he and how does he play into this story?

It's a leap year!

I'm feeling my mortality today. Is it because it's a leap year and our leap day is tomorrow? I feel like we're making up time (which of course we are) but I never seem to be able to make up my time. And since our moon cycle is reaching its first quarter for 3/1, and the crescent moon is the symbol of silver, I thought this might be appropriate:

Crescent Moon

Green September gone to October brown,

Fair November led to December’s frozen ground.
The seasons stumble round,
Our drifting lives are bound
To a falling crescent moon.

Fair the clouds cry the veil of tears to earth,

Morning gray time, no one sees a bird’s quiet mirth.
Dressed in a brand new day,
The sun is on its way
To a falling crescent moon.

Somewhere in a fairytale forest lies

One answer that is waiting to be heard.
It speaks to us of love
Flying in on the wings of a dove
To a falling crescent moon.

You and I were born like the breaking day.

All our seasons, all our green September’s burn away.
Slowly we’ll fade on our cue
Into the sea of midnight blue
And a falling crescent moon.

School Fundraiser

With the poor economy our schools' funds are stretched thin. I offer both the ebook and paperback version of Silver Knight as a school fundraiser. If your school is looking to offer something other than candy and donuts, check out the details on my website: www.caronrider.com or email me at caron@caronrider.com.

Something to Strive For

If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worth reading,
Or do things worth the writing.
                    -- Ben Franklin

Lover's Leap

Centuries ago long before the paleface came to the Ozark Mountains, there was a tribe of natives known as the Osage Indians who lived on the north shore of what is now known as Ha Ha Tonka State Park. A son of Chief Neongo of the Big Hills tribe, Conwee, was in love with Wasena, the daughter of Elkorn, Chief of the Little Hills. He desired the lovely maiden and wished to make her his wife…but she refused.

Not to be dissuaded, late one moonlit night he and several other braves crossed the Osage River close to the junction of the Niangua and snatched Wasena and her friend Irona from their beds. Fleeing the pursuit of the Big Hills tribe, Conwee, his braves, and his captives took refuge within a beautiful, stalactite filled cave as the sun rose. Wasena managed to escape and fled upward to the edge of a towering cliff that looms hundreds of feet above the Niangua River with Conwee closely pursuing. Eluding his grasp and without a backward glance, she ran forward and shot into the open air before plummeting to the valley below—death preferable to being with one she did not love. The cliff became known as Lover’s Leap.

All or nothing…in love there are no half measures.

Jimmy Carr Jokes

Jimmy Carr is a comedian from the U.K. A few of my favorite Jimmy Carr jokes:

“David Cameron says he’ll put a cap on immigrants coming into the UK. That’s wrong. Immigrants should be allowed to wear what they like.”

 “They’re going to ban smoking in private vehicles. That’s left smokers fuming. But not in their cars.”

His absolute best pick up line in a bar: "Does this cloth smell of chloroform?"

Never tell me "NOT" to do something!

Many years ago, I had a professor who went on and on about "not" using cliches. Perhaps if he had not gone on about it so much, I would never have written the following for him. While I agree that in your writing you should watch your use of cliches, I think you should always write true to yourself!

The Ode Cliché

            by Caron Rider

A far cry from all and sundry

that is the born loser.
By and large each and every day
he uses determination.
He uses brute force.
He is down and out.

On the spot with hat in hand,

man to man he learns the facts of life.
And rain or shine, the powers that be
attempt to wrest from him a square meal.
Sooner or later past his salad days,
almost at the eleventh hour,
life seems as the sour grapes.

With him it’s touch and go.

And by the time he can smell a rat
the sad awakening has begun;
the naïve has become worldly wise.
Therefore, step by step,
his is a dog’s life.

While attempting to gild the lily,

the true blue go up in arms
and set off a hue and cry.
But though he values their judgment,
all cannot be well and good.
So when they shout, “Hold the fort!”
He returns with, “Hold your own!”
 
Mark my words, to pay the piper
takes a lion’s share to make good.
Now or never the rank amateur
must pull the strings of life.
So in a nutshell or in a word,
we all must be to live and learn.

Silver Knight Book Trailer and Silver Demon Info

Continuing to work on the trailer for Silver Knight. If you haven't listened to the music, check out the link in the previous post and let me know what you think.

Also, continuing to work on Silver Demon, which picks up right where Silver Knight ends. If you've gone to my website you know that I only have 120 more days until the release of Silver Demon! I'm freakin' out here!

So Silver Demon starts out on the first day of Diana's senior year and we learn that over the summer the vice-principal has died in a suspicious car accident and the police are investigating. In addition, there is a new vice-principal to contend with. And most distressing of all, a serial killer has apparently come to town. As Diana and her friends come under suspicion (and have suspicions of their own), they eventually have to flee to New York where they meet some "new" old friends and discover the key to the demon's plot. After all, if you've read Silver Knight, don't you want to know why the demons were hanging out in the catacombs of Rome with all the high tech equipment?

eBook and Paperback Give-A-Way

Be sure to check out my interview on the I Am a Reader, not a Writer Blog and sign up for the give-a-way! It will run from 2/19 until 3/14. http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com/2012/02/author-interview-book-giveaway-silver.html

There's also a give-a-way on Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/21256-silver-knight

Silver Knight Book Trailer

I'm hard at work on the trailer for Silver Knight. Here's the link for possible background music. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.danosongs.com/music/danosongs.com-today-then-tomorrow.mp3

Friends and Followers

I am desperately trying to figure out all the social site "stuff." Believe it or not, I can take a computer apart and put it back together so that it works, build one from scratch and can do most things with hundreds of software products.  What I haven't figured out is Facebook, blogs, and the art of computer social networking! So please bear with me as we travel along this learning curve!  This is, of course, because instead of following another's blog, I now appear to be following myself! :)

How a man provides for a woman!

Here's an excerpt from Silver Knight to enjoy for Valentine's dinner:

That evening when I walked into the dining room, we were the only ones there.

“Where are Jarvis and Third?” I asked.

“Jarvis retires early these days. His bones ache even in the heat of summer he says. Third had a date with a young girl named Mary. He doesn’t go out often, and as he’d already made plans, I didn’t see any need to make him stay just to wait on us.”

“No certainly not. We can fend for ourselves,” I said looking around at the long, empty table. The dining room was a large rectangle with dark wood paneling on the walls and wooden beams criss-crossing on the ceiling. The lighting was muted with wall sconces and two crystal chandeliers overhead. The table itself was an oblong with two pedestals and would probably seat twelve comfortably.

He grinned at me and suggested, “Why don’t we go in the kitchen and see what we can scrounge?”

“Sounds good to me.” I was adept at scrounging because I was usually alone. The kitchen we entered at the far end of the dinning room through a swinging door had been completely renovated with what looked like restaurant quality appliances in a stainless steel finish. There was an island counter with high back stools that Jarret pointed me towards, and then he opened the refrigerator.

After looking inside for a moment, he turned and asked, “You like peanut butter sandwiches?” I burst out laughing, and he joined in.

Paperback Coming Soon!

Just wanted to give a shout out to Stormi of Lightning Book Promotions for helping me find ideas and photos to use for my new cover design for Silver Knight. Thanks! Little does she know that Silver Demon (book 2 in The Silver Series) will be in dire need of her assistance as well. :)

The paperback version of Silver Knight is well on its way (finally) with the completion of the new design. Check back for final dates.

Favorite Authors 1

People have been asking me about my influences and favorite authors, so I really have to recommend Andre Norton. She began publishing back in the 1950s and the genre is sci-fi and fantasy and good for all ages. Really excellent. I've noticed that several of her books have been re-released with two books in one binding. One of my favorites is Perilous Dreams. We've all sometimes thought that what we were dreaming was actually happening...then we wake up. Perilous Dreams is about Tamisen, a girl who can dream about alternate realities and take a passenger along! They are betrayed and get stuck traveling through different worlds trying to find a way home. It's a great read and if you're looking for a new author to get hooked on, check out Andre Norton!

Silver, Silver, Silver

For my Silver Series I've done a lot of research about silver. I was amazed at how many different ways in which we use silver. It is used for jewelry, vases, armor, eating utensils, and mirrors. Silversmiths use the metal at room temperature working with gentle strikes of a hammer to shape it to the desired form.

Silver has been used as currency for millennia. Archaeological evidence has shown that it was being separated from lead as far back as 6,000 years ago. The most well known use of it as currency is described in the Bible. Judas is infamous for taking thirty silver coins to turn Jesus Christ over to the Romans.

Silver has the highest thermal and electrical conductivity of all metals. Its properties allow it to provoke or speed up chemical reactions. For instance, during long sea voyages throughout the ages, sailors would place silver coins in barrels of water and wine to keep the liquid drinkable, and pioneers crossing the Great Plains used the same idea.

It’s also used in topical gels and bandages due to its anti-microbial properties, as well as a disinfectant. Finally, the ionized form of silver forms strong, molecular bonds with some substances used by bacteria to breathe…in effect suffocating and quickly killing it.

This might be more than you wanted to know about silver but its properties are key to its destructive capabilities towards demons.