The Viper's Creed Blog Tour!

I am pleased to have been asked to participate in another blog tour. As before, this blog tour is hosted by Tams Two Cents Book Blog. So … The O’Raven Chronicles is proud to present The Viper's Creed Blog Tour for Author T.L. Shreffler.

Author Spotlight;

T.L. Shreffler

Author bio.;

Ms. Shreffler is an author and journalist living in Los Angeles, CA. She loves diversity, fantasy, romance, iced tea, long walks, philosophy and thrift store shopping. She currently holds a BA in Badass (Creative Writing) and her poetry has been published consecutively in Eclipse: A Literary Journal and The Northridge Review. She is the author of two published series, The Cat’s Eye Chronicles (YA fantasy) and The Wolves of Black River.

She also puts her creative talents to use as a graphic designer, painter and illustrator. By day, she works as the assistant editor for Tinsel Tokyo Magazine, a fashion magazine specializing in the LA underground art scene.

"T. L. Shreffler definitely has a writing style that I love to read and the ability to draw me into her world with an ease that I don’t find often. She manages to find the balance that so many other writers don’t achieve in their work, scenes were neither over written nor understated and I enjoyed every page. I was eager to reach the end to learn the outcome but at the same time I was sad for the story to be over." - Lindsay and Jane's Views and Reviews

Website for T.L:

http://www.runawaypen.com

Facebook for T.L.: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/tlshreffler/info

………  

Viper's Creed;

Sora is having visions. Strange, terrifying visions brought on by her Cat's Eye necklace, an ancient and magical device. Spurred to action, she leaves her mother's cabin to find Crash, the mysterious assassin who once changed her life. She is certain that together, they can discover what the necklace is trying to tell her.

Crash is still on the run from the dark sorcerer, Volcrian, but now a plague is spreading across the land. Volcrian's quest for vengeance has awakened something far more evil than himself; a force that could destroy the entire kingdom. Together, he and Sora must harness the power of the Cat's Eye and kill the sorcerer before it's too late....

Excerpt from Vipers Creed;

“……Towards late afternoon, the city made its first appearance. It began as a small speck, then grew rapidly in size as they neared, spiraling towers stretching up towards the sky. The closer she got, the more ornate the walls appeared; they were limestone yet painted with curving, swirling shapes, as though gusts of wind had solidified into rock. A gentle chiming met her ears. The closer they came to the city, the louder the sound grew.

The wind blew again and she saw glints of metal flash in the sunlight. Perhaps thousands of small, metallic shapes were hanging from the large wall—wind chimes? She squinted. The wind blew again. Yes, wind chimes—perhaps hundreds of them, dangling from every available surface. Charms and baubles swirled and danced in the light. With each gust of wind, glorious sound cascaded through the air, shockingly akin to music, a wondrous cacophony that made her jaw drop, mouth gaping in amazement. It must have carried for miles across the plains. Perhaps even more shockingly, it was pleasant to the ears; not a chaotic splash of noise, but a soothing rush, ebbing and flowing like a passing river.

She stared in fascination, then her eyes traveled to a large building that towered above the walls of the city, jutting up like a giant, spiraling seashell. It was dome-like in structure, with towers and scaffolds, the roof tiled with a swirling mosaic of brightly colored stones, lime greens, deep purples and brilliant reds. She recognized the golden emblem perched on top of it, spinning on a weathervane. This was it—the Throne of the West Wind.

“They founded the city here because of the intense winds,” Burn explained, following her eyes. “Something to do with the land formations. The winds here never stop, and at certain times of the year, it can be deadly. They say entire houses have been uprooted from the ground.”

Sora nodded, too shocked to say anything. She imagined an entire house being lifted into the air. She had noticed the weather; the breeze faded at times but never disappeared, blowing dust and pollen in her eyes.

The city grew larger and larger. She couldn't believe the size of the walls. They were built of a dull gray stone that was obviously native, an extension of the surrounding bedrock. She could see where an older section of wall abutted the hills east of the city. She pointed them out to Crash. “It looks like the walls were rebuilt at one time,” she said, indicating the brighter, newer stone.

Crash nodded, though he seemed distracted by his thoughts. “This city was a fortress once, back in the time of the War. It's been destroyed and rebuilt several times. These walls are hundreds of years old.”

“Aye,” Burn called, overhearing their conversation despite the racket made by the bells. “The sewers run through the buried streets of the old city.”

“Creepy,” Laina added.

Sora looked back to the walls with renewed interest, swept up in her imagination. She pictured a fortress smashed by magic, leaping flames, shining weapons, siege engines and war…..”

Widgets;

Book tour stops;

Lindsey and Jane Reviews and Reviews   http://lindsayandjaneviewsandreviews.blogspot.com/

10-22-12.. Character Interview with Sora

Rose's Book Corner  http://rosesbookcorner.blogspot.ca/

10-23-12.. This & That

Shadow Mundane  http://shadowmundane.blogspot.com/

10-24-12.. Author Interview

Jean BookNerd  http://www.jeanbooknerd.com/

10-25-12… Spotlight only

Between The Bind  http://betweenthebind.blogspot.com

10-26-12.. Interview & Excerpt 

A Never Ending Fantasy  http://aneverendingfantasy.blogspot.com/

10-27-12.. Character Interview with Crash/Viper

Paranormal Book Club  http://paranormal-bookclub.com/                                                   10-28-12.. Top 10 Favorite Things

 rmfabbookreviews  http://rmfabbookreviews.blogspot.com/

10-29-12.. Author Interview

The O'Ravens Chronicles  http://revloush.blogspot.com/

10-30-12.. Spotlight, book excerpt

Tams Book Blog  http://tamssbookblog.blogspot.com/

10-31-12.. Guest Post, Release day!

Rafflecopter;

Giveaway to run from

10-22-12 until 11-7-12

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Cutter's Lesson! A Poem by L.C. Bellami;

     

          ~ A cutters lesson ~

Sometimes the pain is too much to deal

Sometimes the pain won’t let you heal

Pick up the blade and press it in

A few small cuts upon my skin

Blood seeping from my torn flesh

A little taste of coming death

Now I forget the pain inside

Just for a while I can hide

The pain outside of my own head

Has left me numb as I lie in bed

A few small cuts upon my skin

They keep me sane, they hold it in

As I bleed it pours away

All the pain I felt today

Every bloody line a trail

Every row a story tells

The scars are like a holy writ

And sometimes like a movie script

But eventually the cuts just fail to work

No longer numb to all the hurt

If only I could gather the pain they took

And use it to kill with just a look

I would kill and kill again

I would give away my sin

So as I pen this, thanks again

To the few small cuts upon my skin

..........

Note: there was a period of time when I was in high school and dealing with a lot that I went through a lot of stupid things; cutting for one example! It worked for a while and distracted me from all the pain; at least for a few minutes at a time. The pain outside was easier to deal with than the pain inside! But it doesn’t last! Only a path of true healing which leads one to wholeness will last! So if you are currently a cutter, and are so for the purpose of not dealing with your pain….put down the razor blade or whatever you are using and go get some real help for yourself or at least find a better way to deal! Cutting is just stupid…and since I used to be that kind of stupid I can say something about it! The lesson that cutting taught me was that there are no easy fast roads to real healing! You have to take time to actually deal with things. This lesson is a huge and very great lesson in life! If you are a cutter, I hope perhaps I can help you learn this lesson!

By L.C. Bellami in the month of Reed moon, before the festival of Samhein, in the year of our Lord 2012

Healing is possible! Reach out to someone, find the path to healing and wholeness! Don't give up and Don't ever give in! Help is all around us if we just ask for it!

Celebrate.....Let your heart dance and make merry......For God will give you the Oil of gladness and fill your heart with great Joy, Faith, Hope, Love, and Peace! Kindness and Mercy are his to dispense, and he gives them freely to all who seek it! Everlasting Friendship is in his power and he will give that unto you! Turn your heart to him and lay your burdnes down at his feet, at the base of his throne and he will lift you up higher than you have ever imagined you could be! 

Irish Prayers and Blessings; 

Deep peace;
Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the Son of peace to you

An Irish Blessing Triad;
May you always have these Blessings;
A soft breeze when summer comes
A warm fireside in winter
and always the warm soft smile of a friend

Bless to us;
Bless to us Oh God

The Moon that is above us

The Earth that is beneath us

The Friends who are around us

Your Image deep within us

^{Matthew 11: 28}  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

John 16:33	[Jesus said] "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Romans 5:1	Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 3:10,11

...He who would love life and see good days...Let him seek peace and pursue it.

2 Corinthians 13:11

Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

The 151st psalm: Testify to Love, a song;

Find one thing a day that is Good in the world and cherish it, hold on to it, let it prove to you that Love is real and attainable, and be grateful for it with all that you are!!! That is how you will find a road out of your sorrow and into Joy! 

The Wisdom of Tolkien as spoken through the Character of Samwise: A message of Hope;

 

Artist Spotlight and Interview for Ibrael!

Ibrael;

His website;      http://www.ibrael.com/

I am so pleased to be doing this Artist Spotlight. Meet Ibrael, an extraordinary Artist whose art depicts one of my personal favorite subjects as you will know if you read my blog lol….namely the male form. Ibrael is one of the artists whose work inspired several aspects of my own writing and it is an honor to have had the chance to talk with him online the other day and I want to thank him for allowing me to do this Spotlight and also a brief interview with him for The O’Raven Chronicles! I can't tell you how excited I am; not only is this my first Interview, but it is with a great artist! So another first for me on this Blog, I have been having a lot of firsts lately.

Ibrael is a proud 34 year old Gay artist in Spain. I have been a fan of his animated men for a while now. He is partly responsible in fact for the creation of some of my characters in the novels I am writing; one in particular.

It was hard for me to select which out of all his fabulous works I wanted to highlight here. I have so many that are personal favorites and it has taken me all day to try to shorten the list for this post. I wanted to show a range of his work to you so you can see just how talented this man is. So here is a series of 8 works of art. It starts with a face, then goes to clothed bodies, and then gets into the nudes. Within the beginning of the nudes there is a series of 3 that are particular favorites of mine. They show one model in the same position who transforms from a seriously hot man, to a fucking hot angel, and finally into a sexy little devil! I hope these selections properly demonstrate his range of work and his talent.

So without further ado here are the pieces he has generously allowed me to select to share with you;

Please go check out his pages and his works! 

The Interview; 

Question;  "How long have you been doing art and what inspires you"?

Answer; "I’ve been drawing since I was a little child; but only on march-2011 I started drawing on my computer; so I can honestly say that I’ve been very little time doing it this way.

On the other side, I started writing stories based on gay characters since I was 18 years old (that means a long time ago ;D).

The beauty of the young human male body, and the normalization of the homosexuality with gay characters is my main inspiration, and the relationships between them and the world; on my illustrations and stories, I use too a big variety of situations, from superheroes, angels/demos, to fantastic middle age, actual/realistic age… I’m always traying to change and make something new".

Question; "When did you first, really get into art"?

Answer; "The first time I started drawing seriously, trying to improve and feeling real nice with the good feedback of my friends, came when I was 15 years old, trying to draw the best “Dragon Ball” (a manga serial) characters I could. It seems I did it well ;D".

Question;  "Who are some of your favorite artists"?

Answer; "Ismael Alvarez is the one who inspired me most to do it on the way I do actually. But I’ve been reading comics (American and manga) since I remember, and I’m sure that influenced me a lot. The new comic line of DC Comics (those doing the line “the new 52” are awesome) are now top of my list".

Question; "Can you share some of your favorite Books, Shows, Movies, and Music with us"?

Answer; "Books: The Lord of the Rings is the best one. Currently I’m reading Game of Thrones, and the rest of them… well, its difficult for me to know the translation of their tittles in English.

. Films: Alien and Prometheus, many of superheroes (Superman, Batman, Spiderman…), Silent Hill, Constantine, Matrix, of course the Lord of the Rings again… and in “gay” subjet, Get real is very good, as well as  Shortbus and KingSize.

. Music: I like hearing celtic music in general and Enya in particular. I like pop music like Owl City, Madonna, Roxette…".

Thank You Ibrael for Gracing The O'Raven Chronicles with your warm presence and your terrific works of art! 

His facebook page;  http://www.facebook.com/JuanAracilAnton

On a side note people.......isn't he seriously nice to look at lol?!!! 

My Anger Issues;

                                                                

As of late it has been brought to my attention several times that I have anger issues as if I didn’t know this. Who among us doesn’t have a few at least? So as a cathartic therapy for myself I want to talk some of my issues. First off….I have a lot to be angry about. This isn’t an entitlement thing, or a wound-ology thing; it’s just a fact. I grew up differently than a lot of people. I had to parents who were both selfish in their own ways. My sperm donor as I like to call him was an abusive asshole. He was abusive to various degrees in every way that someone can be abusive. He also set a bad example of what a man is supposed to be. Besides being abusive he would constantly loose his job for years at a time while my mother had to work and support everyone. My mother well, she was selfish in a different kind of a way. She wanted me to be everything that I am not. She wanted me to be the way she thinks a man should be. I wanted nothing to do with the concept of manhood in her limited way of thinking. Somewhere deep down I know she knew that I was gay from a very young age. She did her best to squash every dream I ever had. She tried to change everything about who and what I am; everything that makes me…me. she tried to make me into someone I not only didn’t want to be, but someone I hated. I had gifts they didn’t want me to talk about. I had interests that were probably in their own way declarative of my sexual orientation. The truth is, despite what she likes to think even now, my mother hates me and everything about me. At least that is my truth, the truth the way I see it.

(Me and my Gran-ma) 

 I am thankful that I had two very kind and loving grandparents who raised me as best they could from the age of twelve or thirteen on. In a some ways however as blessed and thankful as I am to have had them and still have them; they became my crutch in life. They made me so dependent on them for everything that I never really learned to fend for myself. Emotionally and mentality, and to a huge degree even spiritually however I was left to raise myself. I was put through the wretched behavior of several private religious schools who liked to inform me constantly that I was worthless and was destined for hell. As if I didn’t get that message enough from my parents. Then I was taken out of private school, and thrust into the public school system. This is a fresh kind of hell I could never have imagined. This was real and true torture in every sense of the word. I will not bore anyone with all the details of what I went through at the hands of the kids or at the hands of the public school system. There aren’t enough blogs on the planet to tell my whole story of that. At one point in my life all I wanted to do was to die. I wanted to not be here anymore. I knew there was something better waiting for me on the other side. I arrogantly thought that I should be able to go there when I wanted…instead of when I was called. I learned better…thankfully! Really what I wanted was to feel loved....to feel like I mattered to anyone; to feel that I was worth it. My whole family was always full of endless drama and fighting. So what I really wanted besides love, was peace. I just wanted an end to all the war. I left school….the years of my life rolled by. I grew up in a world that has grown darker with each passing day. People are killing the planet. World leaders are more interested in who is right, than what is right. Our technology has becoming far more prevalent than our humanity. The art of communication; story telling, art, music, letter writing, and land line telephones….is all but gone. Now it is replaced by internet, cell phones, and twitter. Media outlets are controlled by the worlds governments and do nothing but lie and give editorials instead of facts. Commentary of someone’s perspective of the truth rather than the actual truth. This is not to say that there are not good things in the world. To be sure…I see at least one thing everyday that proves God’s existence, and proves that God is Love!

                                                                          

                                 

 Sometimes it is so hard to get past the hate in the world. Right now, my truth is that the hate stems from five major sources; The Republican party, The Democratic party, Evil fundamentalist Preachers, Stupid Cowardly Atheists (the ones who bully people), and fundamentalist Islam. These five sources spread hate like a never ending disease on the earth. Who am I most angry at in all of this? The preachers! The men and women who go around and I God’s name spread fear, and hate, and ignorance, and intolerance, and evil. I am most anger at these people because out of all the others…they should know better! They should know that telling people to hate each other and to want to deny equality and rights to each other…is not only wrong, but far beyond evil. It is in fact a whole new level of evil the world has only touched lightly upon in the rest of human history. Now I can feel people out there reading this, going “Oh no…history is filled with hate and violence, and slavery”…and while that is true; never before has it been as easy and swift to spread hate as it is now with our inhuman technology. Recently an acquaintance got irritated at a statement I made that must have seemed plain stupid to him. I said… “When Land line phones go, that is when I will want to end it all”. To most people it would sound stupid. This is because they think I am merely talking about wanting to stop progress. What they fail to see in their limited view of the world is that to me land-lines are a tangible symbol, a real life metaphor that you can see, and hear, and touch that talks about happier times…at least some of the few happy times in my life, before the world went completely insane with this lust for power, hate, control, and this total wicked obsession with technology. 

You might think this an ironic statement since you are reading this on the internet, on a computer. I promise the irony isn’t lost on me. Don’t misunderstand, it isn’t that I hate all technology. Quite the contrary in fact. What I hate is technology and so called progress at the cost of our humanity, and at the cost of getting rid of that which is good in the world. Now I go online every day and see endless news stories about hate, and all the negative things in the world. I see evil cowards like Richard Dawkins who tell people that God is a delusion, because he is too afraid of what it means if there is a God, and what that says about his own stupidity. It is not enough for people like him to tell people there is no God. They have to go on crusades to re-write history and travel the world trying to convert people to believing in nothing which is a huge part of the worlds problems. We have a planet full of people who either don’t believe in anything anymore, or who don’t know what they believe, or who don’t know how to express what they believe with love and respect for their fellow human beings! It is the greatest kind of cowardice to try and make other people not believe in something just because you have nothing to believe in inside of yourself! Then we have the two party American system who want to control everything we say and do. The democrats want big brother to decide everything for us…to force us to live the way they think we should live. They want to turn this place into a socialist communist dictatorship that even tells us what we can feed our children. They want to tell us that we don’t have the rights we were given at the founding of this nation. They want to take away our right to free speech and our right to bare arms, and our right to practice religion and spirituality as we so choose to. Then there are the republicans who are even worse because they want to do the one thing that our founding fathers would have hated even more; they want to try and use religion to control us. They want to turn this place into a theocracy. Never mind that extremist Islam, Extremist Roman Catholicism, and the extremists in the church of England should have taught us the absolute perils of doing this! Just look at history and also the current reality of the middle east and then try and tell me with a straight face that theocracies work well for humans. Human beings find new ways everyday to try and proclaim themselves gods over each other and control each others lives….and yet…joke of all jokes; I am not supposed to ever be angry. I am so sorry…not….but really…how am I supposed to not be angry? 

Don’t get me wrong. Anger is not all I feel! I feel grateful despite all that. I feel truly blessed! I have people in my life who I love….and who I know love me in return! I have real family and real friends now. Also …again…I get up every day and see at least one truly good thing about the world! One truly beautiful thing that tells me how real God is….and how Loving and Awesome God is! Something that tells me, that I am surrounded by Love, and that God is all around me. I see something that tells me that we are all worthy even in our unworthiness. Something that tells me about the goodness in the world…and how deep that goodness truly goes. So I hang on to that one good thing each day, and I marvel at it, and I weep at its absolute beauty and miraculous-ness. I practice saying to God how thankful I am….even for all that is not good because the bad things teach me about the things that are good! So yes…I am angry…I would have to be dead or insane not to be, in my own opinion! I am also thankful for every minute I get of this life that I once wanted and tried to throw away, and now cling to with a desperate kind of hope and appreciation! I love being alive! I love seeing all the goodness in the world, though it gets a little harder each day. The harder it gets…the more I know…the harder I have to try. Because Life is a gift…not a right, but a privilege. A precious gift that should be treasured inside a thankful heart. So this is my resolution; I promise to try and be less angry. I also know that I will often fail at this; so I forgive myself ahead of time along with all the people in the world and all their negativity. It is all learned behavior, that can be unlearned. I also give myself permission to feel however it is I am going to feel…even angry, if that is what I feel! I give myself permission to stand up and be honest about my anger, and my gratitude…and anything else I feel. Now all of you reading this…forgive yourselves, forgive each other, remember to acknowledge and thank God, and give yourselves permission to feel…whatever it is you are going to feel. Feel it and let it go. Then find love, and feel thankful for it, find life; and feel thankful for that too! Blessed be!  

Me again at different stages...

I leave you with these songs as a line of thought.....