Undawnted Presents: A WordCrafter Blog Tour, My Backyard Friends, Meet Heather Hummingbird & Review of "Heather Hummingbird"

Introduction

Heather Hummingbird is a busy little hummingbird bird who earns the nickname Hyperactive Heather which her forest friends have given her. She’s constantly on the move, gathering insects and nectar, chasing bees, or migrating from her winter to her summer home and back. But she always finds time to help out her friends, even when her help is only grudgingly accepted.

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Mini-Interview with Heather Hummingbird
[Interview with Heather Hummingbird]

Forgive me if I don’t perch for very long. You see hummingbirds have lots of energy, so if I zip away suddenly, don’t worry. I’ll be right back. I’ll just be working up energy that is building up, like this .Zwippp.

Ziiing.

Were you afraid to speak to an eagle?

Well, no. I’d seen Ethan around the forest. He’s a big bird, but he’s a fledgling. I might even be older than him, so I wasn’t scared of him. Zwiiiipp.

Ziiiiiing. I couldn’t help but notice his curious behavior and when I realized I could help him, I did.
 

How did it feel to make a friend?

Well, I was glad to have him as a friend that autumn, when I couldn’t fly south on my own. That’s for sure.
 

How did it feel when you had to part with your new friend?

The trip south was a long one, and I felt really close to Ethan by the time we arrived. I knew he had to go back to the forest he knew, but it was sad watching him go. But I didn’t let it keep me down because I knew I’d see him again the next spring, and I did. Zwiiip.

Ziiiing

Thanks for having me here today, but I need to go find some flowers to recharge. You’d be amazed by how much nectar is required to keep up this pace. Bye. Zwiiiiip Zwing.

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My Review

My Backyard Friends, Heather Hummingbird edition, is a cute read for adults and children alike. Heather goes on her own adventure as she zips around the landscape. She meets other animals to be her friends.

Beautiful and insightful, this book guides readers on a path toward wisdom only found with a wildness full of backyard friends. 

Be sure to Pre-Order your copy below.

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Fun Facts About Hummingbirds

• Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly forward, backward, sideways and upside-down. They are also the only birds that can hover in mid-air.
• They have the highest metabolism of any bird species. They consume twice their weight each day.
• Hummingbirds can beat their wings 70 times per second, and 200 times per second when diving. The males do elaborate aerial acrobats during the mating seasons to attract the females, traveling high up into the air and looping around to dive back down toward the ground, making a high-pitched whistling.
• Some species of hummingbirds migrate up to 2,000 miles twice a year.
• Their hearts can beat up to 1,260 times per minute.
• Hummingbirds migrate great distances from their summer to winter homes and back, up to 3000 miles each trip, 6000 miles per year.
• Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world, averaging 8.5 cm long and weigh between 2.5–20 grams.
• Hummingbirds have forked tongues and have tiny hairs on the tips of their tongues to help lap up nectar.
• “On most hummingbirds, the coloring of the feathers does not come from pigmentation, but instead from prism-like cells within the top layer of feathers.
• The colors you see depend on the angle of the light when it hits the feathers.
• When hummingbird feathers reflect light, which make the gorget (throat patch) look like it’s glittering from certain angles, but at other angles will make the feathers look dull.” (Southwest Audobon. “Fun Facts About Hummingbirds”. 
• https://southwest.audubon.org/conservation/fun-facts-about-hummingbirds)
• When they are low on energy and no food source is available, hummingbirds go into a torpor state to conserve their reserves.

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Pre-order the My Backyard Friends books here:

Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend (Ages 3-5): https://books2read.com/u/471vzj

Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans (Ages 3-5): https://books2read.com/u/3LL5K7

Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home (Ages 6-8): https://books2read.com/u/md2YLO

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About Kaye Lynne Booth

Kaye Lynne Booth is a freelance writer, editor, multi-genre author and independent publisher. She holds dual MFA in Creative Writing – Genre Fiction and Screenwriting, and an M.A. in Publishing. To earn her publishing degree, she worked under the mentoring of International Bestselling author, Kevin J. Anderson on the Gilded Glass: Twisted Myths & Shattered Fairy Tales editorial team from Western State Colorado University and WordFire Press and she compiled and edited Weird Tales: The Best of the Early Years 1926-27, under Jonathan Maberry.

 

About Robbie Cheadle

South African author and illustrator, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated sixteen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, and written and illustrated three poetry books. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.

Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

Find out more about Robbie Cheadle on her blog here: https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/

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Undawnted's DL Mullan can be booked for your online Blog Tour, Book Event, Book Review (w/ARC), Interview, Writing Conference, or Genre Convention. Ms. Mullan has years of experience in public speaking, readings, presentations, events, and tours.

Book a quality author and presenter with Undawnted: Bookings online form. 

Rounding Out Spring Dreams 2023 with Legends and Lore

This season, Undawnted has added a few new embellishments to our Spring Dreams lineup.

With combining our seasons with the Hero's Journey, we are tailoring each quarter with a different motif:

Spring Dreams brings science fiction, fantasy, and legends/folklore to life! It is Act I of the Hero's Journey: Beginning of the Adventure. Answer this Call to Action, and become the characters and be your own hero with Undawnted.

This definition will give our audience the action and adventure that comes with swashbuckling hero's such as Robin Hood, of our ground-breaking Hode series. Undawnted brings legends and folklore alive.

After a long, cold winter, readers want to jump into the warm weather, and have their trusted fan favorites to guide them onto their first steps of their journey. Undawnted has also curated future projects to help with our Spring Dreams. Anything to help shed our winter coats and cabin fever.

Additions to our schedule include:

• Metamorphose 
• Seasons change, we have to change with them.
  
• Stonehenge
• An ancient monument that ripples through time is full of lore.
• Whiskey Jack
• A humorous take about Jackalope with an addiction problem.

What is on your list of Spring Dreams? 

Undawnted's unique take on the seasons and our combination of creative writing, the Hero's journey, and so much more! 

Let the energy guide you to Be Your Own Hero! 

 

*****

A writer at heart, Undawnted's own creative spark, DL Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Ms. Mullan decided to showcase her literary talents by publishing collections of her poems. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art.

Ms. Mullan has a number of poems published in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She produces her own book cover designs for herself and others. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet. 

Currently, she is embarking on a successful prose career. Join our community of creators... become a Fearless Phile.

Be a part of Undawnted's growing community!  

Join A Novelist Idea on Undawnted's Private Substack.  

 

 

The Hero's Journey: First Day of Summer (Solstice) is Your Call to Adventure

Today is the longest day of the calendar year (14 hours and 22 minutes in the Sonoran Desert) and on the cyclical hero's journey, the Summer Solstice is the threshold into a wider world.  

Summer is about energy and movement. We are energized by the sun's power, heat, and majesty- our mere mortal's Supernatural Aid. We are thrust into action: pool activities, sports, and whatever we can do to soak up all that Vitamin D. 

We go from the Known World into an Unknown World. Summer is where our adventures lie away from work and school with vacations and hiking. Summer Solstice on June 21st this year is the day our new Call to Adventure begins. 

The human condition is about achieving our own personal goals in the Hero's Journey of the story of our lives. What tests, trials, and temptations have you overcome? Are still overcoming? 

That is your story. The story of the individual. The individual is the ultimate minority. No one else has a story like yours.

So we honor this cycle in our oral traditions and written histories. We also write about the Hero's Journey in our poetry and novels. Creative writing has become the vehicle for which we celebrate our growth as a person from childhood to adulthood.

Join Undawnted this season: Summer Time in our Special Engagements as well as Seasonal Reads program to explore the initiation into the Hero's Journey.

Have a great and wonderful journey.
 

 

 

Saint's Arrival in July

As apart of Undawnted's Summer Time reading program, Saint will be available in July 27, 2018.

This novelette combines adventure and supernatural elements for a unique story you will find nowhere else.

So buy your copy as soon as the book comes out!

To read more, visit Saint's dedicated book page here on Undawnted.

Have a great and wonderful day!

Updated Synopsis for Nocturnal Redemption

I have been creating promotional pieces for my various publications. Since I want to release Nocturnal Redemption as soon as the novel is ready, I revised the old synopsis in lieu of a more accurate teaser. 

If you would like to read about this paranormal adventure/romance, then please visit the dedicated page for Nocturnal Redemption. 

The promos will be added to the page once the novel has been published. 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

Just Leaving It Hanging

A fellow writer had brought up the subject of using cliffhangers for novel endings. 

My response was to use cliffhangers if you are going to answer the question in the next book of a series, but if you only write one book, then make sure to resolve everything by the end. 

My stories are not long as a full length novel. I write shorter novels, but not less complex ones. 

I make sure there are subplots and character developments. In the end the stories are completed and the reader feels they have taken a journey with my protagonists. Yet, to spur on interest for the next book, I give a little taste of what is to come... with a cliffhanger in some, but not all cases. 

Someone reacted indignant to this use of cliffhangers as disrespect to readers and to yourself as a writer. I do not agree. If you have everything pretty much sewn up and there is a last minute act or realization, then the reader can decide if the next book will be for them or not. 

I am upfront that I am writing a book series, not a stand along book. So the reader has to expect something to cross over into the next story line. Or why would it be a book series? 

So In the Name of Blood had the main character, Riley Austen, have an epiphany at the end of the book... to be carried on in Book II. Will this series go to Book III? I am letting the characters decide. Many times the characters also decide the end of the novel. Riley sure did. That ending even surprised me!

With Nocturnal Redemption, I can go either way: a clear cut ending or a cliffhanger... 

As writers, should we not tease our readers a bit? 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

Paranormal Romance for the Election Hangover

This national election cycle left me dreadfully dreary. Votes are still being counted. In order to cure my election hangover of too much television news, brightly lit electoral college maps, and a host of very unhappy commentators on CBS and PBS, I began to edit and write. 

I have been working on getting two different types of paranormal romance novels ready for publication. Romance is a bit of a stretch since I am not a romance type writer. I write for plot and character, not to be provocative. 

We will go by the Merriam Webster definition of romance:

a medieval tale based on legend, chivalric love and adventure, or the supernatural (2) :  a prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious (3) :  a love story especially in the form of a novel

That better suits the way I write: for love. I will leave the reader to fill in all the blanks!

How about you?

Have a great and wonderful day! 

In the Name of Blood Trial by Fire Ending

Want something to get you into the mood... for Halloween? 

In the Name of Blood is still available for free until 11:59pm on Halloween! Action, suspense... of a crime drama. So it's not your typical vampire novel.

Riley needs a life makeover but when she crosses into the supernatural, she realizes her boring life may not have been so terrible after all.

Have a fright filled night!

Knight's Way Crossing Added

I found an archived story: Knight's Way Crossing.

Kaitlin Lane has a problem. Everything about her is fake. Her name is borrowed. Her life belongs to someone else. The one gift that is hers is to speak to the dead.

Don't get excited; she's not. 

If you would like to read more about this upcoming release in 2019, visit the Knight's Way Crossing page here on Undawnted!

Have a great and wonderful day.