Raven, Romda and Ravai: Malketh and the Undead, Vol.2
by Dave Maruszewski
GENRE: Middle Grade, Fantasy
BLURB:
Raven, Romda and Ravai are settling into their new knightly duties well. With the Dark Beast defeated, their normal tasks almost seem mundane.
Amidst the boredom, Ravai asks, “Why does no one talk about villains from the past?”
Romda reasons, “What would be the point?”
There is a point. Even though villains may have been defeated in the past, they may still be around, waiting in the background ready to resurface once again.
Malketh has returned to the kingdom, but something is different about him this time. He is back with an entire army … an entire army of undead soldiers!
“Whether you want to read this aloud to your little one or let them explore this magical world on their own, parents can rest assured that this second installment in the Raven, Romda, and Ravai series will be a playful, whimsical addition to their bookshelves.” –The Book Review Directory
“… the squires are appealing characters, as is their comical banter.” - Blue Ink Review
A great story for the fantasy loving youth, this adventure will appeal to those who like action and humor in an easy reading environment.
Excerpt:
Romda says, “Wait! Don’t do it!”
“Don’t do what?” Malketh muses. “Destroy you like your kings tried to destroy me?” Malketh stops for a second, then talks a little lower, mostly to himself. “You know, you think that the king would send more than three saplings to stop me. I’m a little offended.”
“They didn’t try to destroy you,” Romda interrupts his train of thought. “You brought the dead back without permission, even raising the king’s grandmother. So, they had to stop you.”
Malketh does not believe what he is hearing. “All that I wanted was to be the best and to please our king. For that I am punished? For that I am banished?”
Romda does not let his words faze her. “I think you tried to please yourself first.”
“Bah,” he retorts.
Romda continues, “How did you know what the king wanted? Did you ask him? Or, was it just a way for you to satisfy your own desires?”
These words enrage Malketh, “You are like the rest. You only seek to confine me, to put me in my place. Well, here is your place!”
Before Romda can speak again, Malketh goes into action. With his staff, Malketh makes a motion and calls down lightning upon Ravai and Raven. The smoke clears and he looks around. Everyone is totally unhurt. Romda has her hand extended, holding up the Ring of Reversal.
Malketh brims with anger and says, “You think that ring will stop all my lightning. Let me show you what true power is!” He takes up his staff again and the winds swirl, clouds go around in circles and circles, coalescing to a very bright culmination of power. A large shaft of energy comes tunneling down.
Interview with Dave Maruszewski
Is your life anything like it was two years ago?
Not much! My wife and I decided to move to Indiana, and we did it a little over 2 years ago. We moved from Maryland, and we haven’t regretted it. However, 2 years ago to this day we were moving in, getting things on the house fixed, trying to meet people. It was crazy. Sometimes a more boring life is more satisfying!
How long have you been writing?
For books, I started it around 5 years ago (2016). It started out as an oral tales, but then I brought it to type about 3 years ago. I now have mixture of oral tales mixed with paper developed plots.
What advice would you give a new writer just starting out?
Just jump into it! Naiveté gets more done than pessimism, or even realism. Getting published is very involved, but once you have written something you love, you’ll do what it takes to get it published. If you worry too much about the details early on, you’ll talk yourself out of it.
Do you truly want to write a book? If you can imagine yourself writing while making a small salary with no fanfare, do it. Have fun with it and keep going. If you can’t, maybe you aren’t in it for the right reasons. You might have skills and tools for another similar career. You may have a calling to use your writing skills in something that more suits you.
Pay someone else for something you can’t do as well. You have to remember that you’re an author. You write books. You aren’t responsible to be great at everything. People with experience can help make this happen for you. In some cases, work may be too costly, but balance that with how much time that you think you’d waste doing the same task. Also, you can always do side work to pay for it. Sometimes, that’s time better spent.
Tell us something about your newest release that is NOT in the blurb.
At the end of the story, Morgan Freeman makes an appearance. Not really … unless he is interested.
I think the hard part for me to get across is the use of comedy that I use. One of my goals with my books is to use conflict and action. For this reason, my books tend to come off as grave and high danger.
In reality, I like to insert a ton of humor into them. Partly, I do this to keep my books from becoming too dark, but just to keep it fun. It engages the readers more often and can break up a story that might be as drudge to read.
How do you keep your writing different from all the others that write in this particular genre?
My big thing is to let the readers’ imagination in as much as possible. I actively resist explaining or describing too much. If I err, it is definitely on being sparse. I do this to get non-traditional readers involved. They tend to prefer larger interaction with their entertainment. Since forms of other type of activity are out (as in games, etc.), I try to engage their imagination often.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Dave Maruszewski is blessed with a great family. He was originally inspired to write stories by his wife and son.
He strives to develop stories with sound moral values that will be enlightening as well as entertaining to youths and adults. The Raven, Romda and Ravai books are targeted especially for children who shy away from reading. His stories are created from an accumulation of experience from careers/backgrounds as a physicist, engineer, teacher, artist, video game designer and software developer.
In between writing stories and running his own company, Digital Tumult (DigitalTumult.com), Dave enjoys video games, watching internet videos and hanging out with his family.
Connect with Dave Maruszewski
Book ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ NetGalley ~ Amazon
5 comments:
Thank you for having me today :-)
Sounds like a good read.
How long does it generally take you to write the drafts for the books in this series?
Looks so cool! Thank you for the excerpt & interview! :)
Thank you all for your nice words. I hope that you all enjoy the book. I may not be understanding, but I can't see how to reply to individual comments so I will do this in bulk :-) The drafts don't take a terribly long time in terms of hours but in days its a lot because I tackle many things in a day. So, it may take over a year to actually get the first draft written.
Post a Comment