Author's Blog

A New Member to Our Family

We recently had a new addition to our family – a Siberian Husky.

Naiya Pic close up

 

Life in our home has certainly changed due to this one and half year old pet that my son has adopted.  I’m certainly getting more exercise with needing to take her for frequent walks. Better yet, with her energy, she is walking me.

We have only had her for a few weeks, but she already has become a family member. Amazing how quickly we all fell in love with her. 

 

 

I read a quote the other day about dogs and their personalities that I found interesting. 

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.” – Arthur Conan Doyle

I wondered  if  there is truth to this statement? As a new dog owner, I went to “Cesar’s Way” website and found this article written by Nicole Pajer that says what your dog’s behavior says about you.

http://www.cesarsway.com/dogbehavior/basics/What-Does-Your-Dogs-Behavior-Say-About-You#ixzz32V7NLvZW.

What do you think about this?

Publication of “The Alkahest”

Today was a special day for me – my fantasy novel, “The Alkahest” was published!

the-alkahest-book

This book has been a long time in the making – many years in fact and to finally have it published is a dream come true. The characters are dear to my heart, and it’s a privilege for me to share their story with you.  The epic fantasy was initially written as one long story, which I have broken down into numerous books.  The Alkahest is the first of the Thoughtmover series, starting the characters off on their extraordinary journey.

Map-of-Kaldanien-preview

My web-designer and I worked many long hours on designing the map of where the story takes place – The Land of Kaldanien. It went through several iterations over a period of a year until we were satisfied with the end product. Likewise with the cover, which also went through numerous iterations.

Thank you

A few people were instrumental in helping me to ready my book for publication. I would like to thank them for their help.

  • My web-designer, Alex for his great work and long hours on the website, book cover, and map.
  • Pat LuBruto, my New York editor for his outstanding editorial skills and helping me to become a better writer and for allowing me to keep my own writing voice throughout the process.
  • My characters who inspired and guided me down this enjoyable and rewarding path of writing.

I’m currently working on book two of the Thoughtmover series that continues my characters’ epic journey, which I look forward to sharing with you in 2014.

Purchase “The Alkahest” here. 

Enjoy!

Alandra CL

New Website Design Launched Today

I am thrilled to be sharing with you my new website. It has been a long time in coming but the wait was well worth it.

paint-tray1In designing the site, I worked closely with my web-designer and graphic artist, Alex to produce a website that reflects my personal style along with those of my genres. His extensive knowledge and amazing artistic skills have made an attractive author website that I previously only dreamed of having. Aesthetic, simplistic in design, and ease of usage were our main focus – I think we accomplished all and more.

Thanks, Alex! Great job. It was a pleasure working with you on this new site.

 

The timing of the launch matched perfectly to my soon-to-be released thriller “The Sussex Deal”. This edge-of-your-seat thriller deals with the purchase of the Sussex property by real estate tycoon, Dominic Lombardi and the deadly conspiracy that follows.

With the lengthy break that I had taken from my writing for personal reasons, I am excited to finally be back and creating full-force. I have several novels to be released in the upcoming months, and I will work diligently with my web-marketer to make them and my future novels a success.

Glad to be back!

 

 

 

 

 

Forget the Trials and Tribulations

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New Year’s is just around the corner, and like many, I couldn’t help but reflect on the year gone by. As I do so, I realize it hasn’t been that great of a year. Personally, it was a stressful year as we were building a house on top of all our other work. Anyone that has built a house knows the stress involved. I chuckled when a friend of my asked whether my husband and I were still together during the nerve-wracking ordeal. We lost six people very dear to us; God rest their souls. With our teenage son, there were a few grey-hair moments that we would have preferred not to experience. And even with my writing, I had missed a number of great opportunities that literally put me into tears.

 

 

disappointmentThe more I thought about all the things that were terrible about 2012, the more depressed I got. To get out of that depressive mode, I began to make a list of all the good things that happened, or things I learned from the things that did not go well, making me a better person.

 

 
check_mark• All the effort, time, and money that we put into our new house, produced a beautiful dream-home for us, and the stress our relationship as husband and wife endured made us closer as a couple.
• There is nothing nice about losing a loved one, but we cannot stop the circle of life. We have our cherished memories that enrich our lives, and  others are expecting new bundles of joy to help fill the gaps.
• Through the trying ordeal, that we endured with our son, in the end, it worked out and made our relationship with him stronger and better, something that could have easily taken a turn for the worse, causing us to lose him.
• As for my writing, my husband said, “Don’t cry over spilt milk.” And he is correct; there will be many more opportunities that come along. The time was obviously not right for me, and it gave me the opportunity to be better prepared to find those opportunities and be ready for them when they come my way.
• In the greater scheme of things, my problems seem miniscule and unimportant when I compare them to some of the catastrophic events that have taken place across the globe in 2012, shedding a new light on what I should be focusing on.

Trials and tribulations will always come along; it is, after all, a part of life. I guess what is important is not to dwell on hardships, but to learn from them, being better prepared for them, and maybe even avoiding some from happening with the wisdom that has been gained.
wine_glass (2)

I look at the coming year of 2013 as being a new opportunity, allowing me to clear the slate and start a new year with optimism and hope. I need to remind myself that ‘viewing life as the glass half-full’ makes it a far better ride.

I wish all of you a happy and healthy New Year! May all your dreams and wishes come true in 2013.