Review: The Sands Of Time (The Witching Pen Novellas #2) By Dianna Hardy + Guest Post

Title: The Sands Of Time (Witching Pen Novellas #2)

Author: Dianna Hardy

Published: January 26th 2012

Published by: Satin Smoke Press

Genre: PARANORMAL ROMANCE, DARK FANTASY & URBAN FANTASY

Ebook

Pages: 126

Goodreads Synopsis:

(Book Two of The Witching Pen Novellas)

Seven days ago, Elizabeth May tried to commit suicide. She was found by Paul, her husband, who took her under his wing and back to their home. But the attempted suicide is not Elizabeth's main problem -- Elizabeth can't remember who she is, or a single thing about her life beyond the past week.

Plagued by nightmares about a familiar black panther, and a terrifying snow leopard, she is convinced that the dreams are trying to show her something important, and is determined to regain her memories, one way or another.

Meanwhile, Pueblo -- the demon blood-bonded to the witch, Amy -- is going insane trying to find her. Amy disappeared one week ago, and it seems not even their bond is strong enough to penetrate whatever magic hides her.

As Pueblo enlists the help of angels and demons alike, Elizabeth begins to piece together parts of her forgotten life. But what she uncovers may just have her wanting to turn away from who she really is ... for good.

Excerpt from The Sands of Time

"Amy!"

Someone had her roughly by the arms.

"It's me, Amy, look at me."

The past warred with the present, and Amy felt five years old again, lost, afraid…

I'll be damned if he's getting me this time!

She kicked out with a foot and caught something soft, which had her assailant swearing blue murder. Then she turned and ran … and stopped … where the hell was she? Where were the woods?

A low growl sounded from behind her. "Christ, woman! You do that again, there'll be no more phenomenal orgasms for weeks."

No more what?!

She turned and looked at the man staring her down with yellow, slitted eyes, and another memory entered her mind, of those same eyes coming at her from out of the shadows of her bedroom. Her fear diminished, replaced only by a mild sense of annoyance. "Pueblo?"

He paused, and looked surprised for a moment, then irritated again, as he rubbed his … OH MY GOD … naked crotch! And she was naked too.

Her annoyance turned to anger. "Why am I always naked when I see you?"

"You're not always naked, you're just naked now … and once before. Are you remembering stuff?"

She paused, trying to gather all the loose strands of her memory.

"Do you remember what we just did? Please tell me you remember what we just did."

She briefly toyed with the idea of lying and saying no, just to see the look on his face, but she'd had enough of having her brain played with – it wouldn't be too sporting to do the same to him. "Yes, I remember, and don't you think for one minute that just because you had me on my back screaming I was 'yours'," she waved four fingers in quotation marks in front of his face, "that it gives you any kind of ownership over me, because it doesn't."

He looked annoyed, then relieved, then he laughed. "Yeah, whatever, baby."

Guest post with Dianna Hardy

Why Novellas?

Self-publishing is part-art, part-skill, and part-learning as you go… It makes me cringe when I think how little I knew two years ago, and I’m sure I’ll be cringing in two years time at how little I know now, lol.

I’ve tossed and turned with the notion of whether it was a good idea to call my series, The Witching Pen Novellas. I called it that, because, in all honesty, I was not planning to write long stories for each of the three couples in the trilogy. The first book is just over 37,000 words long, the second is about 40,000 – I didn’t want anyone complaining that they were expecting full-length novels (which generally starts at around 60,000 words) when they downloaded my books, so I thought I’d make it obvious in the title, by labelling them ‘novellas’. Also, they were going to be paranormal romances. It’s not uncommon within the romance genre for a book to be shorter than normal, particularly if you stick sex scenes in there. Not sure why – it’s just some silent rule of thumb. Maybe it’s because romance is a sister to the erotica genre, and it’s very normal to find erotica short stories…

Anyway, what I didn’t realise when I started to market my books, was that people didn’t buy novellas – not really. People have a [valid] preconception of what they are and what they are not, and many people won’t touch them because they’re expecting not a hell of a lot in terms of plot and character development.

That was the first hurdle I hit. My novellas are full of plot and have good character development (or so I’ve been told)… now how on earth do I convince everyone else, when I’ve gone and used the label of ‘novella’ for a series?

The next hurdle I hit was that – surprisingly – the readers taking to the series were not your usual romance readers, but those that read paranormal fantasies and have a particular love of YA fantasies (even though I’m not writing for a YA market). So now, I had to market the concept of ‘novellas’ to a spectrum of readers I was not expecting to be marketing to!

To make things more confusing, it turns out that the third upcoming book is a full-length novel. I didn’t plan it this way, but what happened was that, unexpectedly, readers have loved the characters and the plot. It’s not that I thought they wouldn’t – rather, I simply didn’t think about whether they would or wouldn’t. But as I started to get the good reviews, and bona fide fans of the series (from a market I never expected to be reading my work), those characters took on a life of their own. This is the intriguing thing about ‘fandom’ – whether for books, TV, films, music or theatre – the fans help to infuse life into the characters / songs, not just the author / musician.

And suddenly, I wasn’t really writing romance anymore. Yes, The Witching Pen Novellas is a romance trilogy, but it’s so much more than that: it’s about friendships, and bonding, and trust, and faith… it’s about what happens when you have to face your own darkness in order to make a needed change – all set in an urban fantasy environment with some steamy scenes thrown in.

The omnibus edition (the entire trilogy, plus the bonus read, Wilted), will be available from December, and I’m hoping that this will attract more readers who want a ‘full-length’ read, and that it goes some way to dispelling the notion that novellas cannot be good.

I’ve thought about changing the title of the series, but I love surprising people more. I love it when a reader goes into my novella thinking, ‘I’m not expecting much from this’, to be hit by a plethora of action. And I don’t plan to stop writing novellas – sometime a shorter, fast-paced read is just what the doctor ordered for the plane journey (or whenever you’ve got 4 hours to spare).

I’ve always said that reading a good novella is like watching a TV episode of a series - something's happening in every scene and there's always one hell of an ending!

The Witching Pen Novellas are available in digital format, with the first trade paperback having been released in April. All info and buy links can be found on the series website The Witching Pen Novellas.

And thanks so much to Nancy for taking the time to read and review this series.

My Review:

The following review is my opinion and not a paid review. I was given a copy of The Sands Of Time by the author Dianna Hardy for an honest review.

I read and reviewed the first book of The Witching Pen Novellas called The Witching Pen. It was an amazing read. When I wasn't reading I thought about it all the time. Always wanting to know what was happening. I couldn't wait to start the next book in the series called The Sands Of Time.

The Sands Of Time starts where The Witching Pen left off with Pueblo the demon blood-bonded with Amy. He is going crazy trying to find her. Pueblo can't even find her with their bond. He can't feel her. Pueblo knows that if he can't feel her she must be lost in a time loop.

Elizabeth can't remember who she is. Nothing seems familar to her not even her husband. It just does not seem right to her. I mean if two people love each she should have some kind of memory or feel for him, right? but she doesn't. She has dreams of a black panther that she has a physical feeling for. She is very determind to find out who she really is.

The most mysterious character in the book was Mary. I couldn't quiet figure out exactly who or what she is. When she is blamed for murder and put in jail Gwain is the only one that can help Mary with the nighmares that she has. Mary has a problem that no one knows about but Gwain is the only one who knows and can help her after she has one. Gwain becomes very attached to Mary. I hope in the third book of the series The Demon Bride due to be published August 31, 2012 that we find out more about Mary. August seems like a very long time to have to wait for The Demon Bride. I am just like a little kid with a new toy I want to read it now.

Thanks Dianna for letting me read The Witching Pen Novellas.

About the Author:

Dianna Hardy is a multi-genre author of paranormal things, dark things, poetic things, sexy things, taboo things, and sometimes funny things. She writes about witches, demons and angels. All info about her books can be found on her website Dianna Hardy

Look for Dianna Hardy on the web:

Web site - Dianna Hardy
Web site - The Witching Pen Novellas
Goodreads - Dianna Hardy
Goodreads - The Sands Of Time (Witching Pen Novellas #2)
Facebook - Dianna Hardy
Twitter - Dianna Hardy

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