Eldin of Yashor, C. Tyler Storm – Author Guest Post & Giveaway

In a world where nothing is quite what it seems, the fate of Yashor rests in Eldin’s bloody hands…

A savage war rages between the patriarchal Drakknians and Yashor, a society of Amazons where male-children are second-class citizens. Eldin, one of the fiercest Amazon warriors in the land, is attempting to lead her troops to victory, while protecting her male sibling and advocating for his equality on and off the battlefield.

Against the backdrop of this conflict, a treacherous coup brings an unforseen catastrophe and threatens to rip apart the very fabric of Yashor society. In order to save all that she loves, Eldin must journey directly into the heart of an evil empire, encountering a cast of meaningful…and magical…companions along the way, including the beautiful healer Kiya.

When Eldin meets the enchanting Kiya, she feels a powerful and extraordinary love, somewhere between destiny and darkness…as if she has found her soul mate. But she is haunted by her past and the loss of a former true love to an unspeakable tragedy. Does this make it impossible for her to love again? Does the battlefield conquer love or does love conquer all?

In this maze of politics, betrayal, love, lust, and heartbreak, Eldin must find a way to save those she loves and her beloved Amazon society before it is too late. – FROM THE AUTHOR SITE

AUTHOR GUEST POST…It is the holiday season, the perfect time to discuss my new novel, Eldin of Yashor. It is set on a distant planet that seems somewhat familiar to us, yet is very, very different at the same time. You see, on this planet evolution chose women as its champion, and they have grown to be the bigger, stronger gender.

The premise of my novel grew from several events that happened in my own life. I was raised to believe that a woman could do anything she wanted. Anything. Really? I wanted to be in the infantry of the army! ‘Oh, well, you’re a woman…you can’t do that.’ Why not? ‘Women aren’t strong enough.’ But I am 5’3, 169lbs (when I was 18 and joining the army) and can dumb bell press 200 lbs (that’s a 100 lb dumb bell in each hand for those who don’t lift weights).  I can leg press the entire rack of weights. ‘It doesn’t matter. You are a woman, and women aren’t allowed.’

I have spent my entire adult life bumping into those barriers for women that I was raised to believe did not exist. I was boxed in! If we examine the attitudes of most men, we realize that society is just a product of its lessons, and men are no different. They are taught from childhood that they need to be strong and ‘suck it up’ when they are injured and hurt. They must ‘provide’ for their families. They must ‘protect’ their women. So many unwritten ‘gender rules.’

This doesn’t even scratch the surface of our bigotry. We don’t like homosexuals. We don’t like blacks, yellows, reds, or purple with pink polka dots. We certainly don’t like them getting married to each other! We don’t like anything that is different. If you are too smart, or too dumb, or too (fill in the blank), our society has a way of hurting you while minimizing your pain. Why do we do this to each other? Why do we pass laws that don’t affect us in any way, shape, or form, yet limit the possibilities of another? We love to hate. C’mon, we have all sorts of reasons to justify it, religious teachings, societal teachings, community teachings…but blow the smoke away, and the mirrors remain. Why do we do these things? Because in our hearts we fear what is different from ourselves. That is our most basic truth.

What we fail to realize is that at the end of the day…we all bleed red, we all are born, and at some point, we shall all die. We all want to love someone and to be loved. We all want to build a life for ourselves, to carve out a special place that is just for us. We want to fill it with our personal treasures. Perhaps, we are not so different after all…

Eldin of Yashor is first and foremost the first in a 13 book epic fantasy adventure series called The Yashor Scrolls. If you care to look deeper, you can see the themes that are evident or you can simply enjoy the wild adventures. The choice is up to you.

While I wrote Eldin, I had several quotes that ran through my head. Eldin is based on these:

“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” George Eliot.

“So many gods, so many creeds
So many paths that wind and wind
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.” Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” Mother Teresa

Happy holidays everyone! May our words be a little sweeter, and our actions a little kinder in the coming year…C. Tyler Storm

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…C. Tyler Storm was born December 31, 1966 in Amarillo TX to a 16 year old girl by the last name of Wolf. Given up for adoption, she was transplanted to Enid, OK, where-in the fourth grade-she wrote her first
novel. She went on to win a city wide essay contest in her sophomore year, and wrote for the school newspaper.

After high school, Storm served overseas in the US Army, helping to tear down the Berlin Wall while stationed in Germany. Out of the Army, Storm’s passion for writing was reignited during attendance at the University of Connecticut.

Storm had always enjoyed traveling the world in search of adventure, and continued to do so after her discharge. She jumped off the tallest building in New Zealand (twice), swam with the dolphins in the Bay of Islands, went blackwater rafting in the Waitomo caves, and scuba diving off the coast of Kauai. She has been to Africa twice, the middle east, and left footprints all over western Europe. She has camped in the Alps and swam in the Mediterranean Sea. Storm also had the pleasure of feeding and playing with a pair of eight week old tiger cubs.

When not circling the globe, Storm resides in Sacramento CA with an onery kitty kid, Kia Ora, and attends classes at Sierra College while doing research for a lesbian police series. – http://www.ctylerstorm.net/

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…Thanks to Storm for taking the time to write a guest post for us here and for sending me a copy of Eldin of Yashor for a future review. In the meantime, I will be hosting a book giveaway that will run now through the end of December (12/31/09). ONE commenter will be randomly selected and notified via e-mail. The winner will have 48 hours to reply back with their mailing address (No Restrictions) or it goes to the next person.

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