Featured Friday
Hidden Earth Series by Janet Beasley
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Author Bio for Janet Beasley
Janet Beasley,
author of The Hidden Earth Series (a
six novel series), is successfully carving her niche` in the inspirational epic
fantasy genre for middle grades and YAs. Even the young at heart are enjoying
the escape her writing style presents. By appearing at local and out-of-state
events, book signings, and speaking engagements, audiences are now perking up
when they hear this author’s name. Janet is multi-talented when it comes to her
creativity. She excels in multi-media presentations, event planning (currently
her company JLB Creatives is a proud presenter of the Authors in the Park Event
Series), has developed a training center and its curriculum for AV technicians,
and produced – directed – and served as a theater technician. She has written
fiction - non-fiction – stage plays - and an autobiography. She has crafted
award winning poetry, been published in anthologies and trade specific
magazines. Janet enjoys the outdoors by kayaking and hiking with her husband,
and photographing nature. She also loves animals (dogs are her favorite),
spending time with her family, and baking cupcakes.
Book Blurb for Hidden Earth Series Volume 1 Maycly the Trilogy
Maycly is a
world everyone longs to experience, but for Iona
it has become a fading dream. Get ready to experience the epitome of epic fairy
tales.
In Part 1 of the trilogy, “Two Altered Worlds,” the reader briefly meets Iona
on Earth. She is forced to fend for herself after her family mysteriously
disappears. Her health deteriorates, money dwindles, and heartbreak and
emotional drain bring her to a personal promise: “I will never love another
living being.” But the Grand Wizard, SUL (Sorcerer of Unequivocal
Leadership), has a plan. An abandoned puppy magically shows up on Iona's doorstep the day before she is evicted. Breaking
her own promise, she falls in love with the puppy, and together they embark on
a journey in search of her family. The story shifts to Maycly 100 years prior.
It drops the reader into a world of both whimsical and frightening lands and
characters undergoing the onset of Evil. (Fun fact: There is an acrostic in
Part 1, inspired by Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass). Part
2, “The Battle of Trust and Treachery,” opens
with Mayclysians preparing for the arrival of their long-awaited queen. It
climaxes in a battle between Good and Evil with tactics that will surprise even
the most seasoned battle aficionado. Evil is overcome but not obliterated. In “The Queen,” Part 3, the reader
will rejoice when Iona is reunited with her
family. But conflict soon returns. Earth has fallen prey to Evil, and
destruction is the only solution. Iona must
save Maycly from consumption by Evil while SUL nearly exhausts His creative
magic annihilating Earth with the Evil from Maycly. But in His omniscience, SUL
hides four pieces of Earth (only Iona and the reader are privy to this) and
selects one special inhabitant on each to help Him create His new Earth; hence,
the next five themed volumes (Planet Land, slated for a 2013 release, Planet
Water, Planet Sky, Planet Fire, SUL's New Earth). The
reader will identify with Iona during her
quests, her friendships, and at times, her flawed ways of coping, as her
character develops throughout the series.
The Hidden
Earth Series Project
Volume I, Maycly the Trilogy, has received
excellent reviews, including one that compares it to The Wizard of Oz,
but unlike the land of Oz, the world of Maycly is not the result of a young
girl's dream. Volume I is self-published and has sold 1500+ copies
worldwide in paperback and ebook formats. Black and white illustrations and
maps are dispersed throughout and have received accolades by middle grades,
YAs, and adults. A self-published full color illustration book and a cookbook,
pet treats, hand crafted jewelry, and related paraphernalia accompany Maycly
the Trilogy. Plans are to expand the next five volumes in similar ways,
thus making the Hidden Earth series an entire project. The Maycly
collection appears on shelves at small business establishments, in schools and
libraries, and on Amazon where, on 12/31/12, it claimed the first three positions in its
genre, and landed ahead of The Hunger Games in another. It is being
considered for classroom application and placement on national reader lists by
Macaroni Kid and YALSA and is entered in two 2013 national contests.
Maycly is a magical book it takes you back to that lovely childhood
feeling of when you still believed in the tooth fairy.
I'm loving every minute
of my journey through Maycly and I can't WAIT to share it with my students! The
imagry is so clear I feel I could be right on Maycly living with the chukkons!!
A must read for the whole family!!
I am enthralled by this wonderful new world. Reminiscent of the
character journeys of both Star Wars and Wizard of Oz, I am looking forward to
the complete epic of Hidden Earth.
This is the kind of book that you'll want to keep for your children as
they grow older. It has just the right balance of reality, fantasy and magic -
everything that makes childhood a little more exciting.
Interview with Janet Beasley
You mentioned a cookbook. Would you like to tell us
more about that?
I’d love to! Before I was a full
time author, I was a full time food-industry fanatic. I had developed a bakery
and a BARK-ery. From there I had several themed restaurants laid out complete
with menus, venue layouts, recipes, etc. ready to build. I collapsed health
wise causing me to put the dream aside. Not being a quitter, I pulled out my
novel, Maycly, and began to get serious. After putting myself through writing
school at age 49 I was able to complete the story – but surprisingly it took
many different directions. One being the cookbook. My husband graciously
suggested since I had all of the “hard work” done on the restaurants, why not
incorporate them onto the world of Maycly? Long story short. . .after a few
renditions, developing the owner (character) histories, and pulling out the
stops with my love of photography. . .voi-lah!. . .a fairy tale cookbook was
birthed.
Is there any way we can catch a sneak peek at Planet Land?
Sure! This adventurous, cowboy
fantasy was so much fun to write. I don’t want to dish out any spoiler alerts,
but I will tell you it stems from Volume 1 Maycly the Trilogy in a way you
can’t even imagine. Volume 2 Planet
Land takes place in the
Lower West. Cub and his best friend Nash have found a land they didn’t even
know existed. But fate has a funny way about getting you where you need to be,
and usually right on time. It’s modeled after the old west, but carries ab
element of fantasy that is sure to keep the reader entertained. It’s targeted
at MGs and YAs, but like Maycly, adults who are reading the ARCs are falling in
love with this action packed tale. We’re hoping for a summer 2013 release.
Now you’ve got us going! Any chance you want to
drop some nuggets regarding any of the other volumes in the Hidden Earth
Series?
Absolutely! While Planet Land
has been in editing, I’ve been working diligently on Volume 3 Planet Water. With
its floating islands and icebergs, underwater haunted caves, unique inhabitants
including Vikings and draugar, readers will have the chance to not only sail
atop the water on a magical tall ship, but also dive into the depths where
danger awaits. It’s all up to Arrowanna, a teenage girl who has been given a
task she’s not too sure she’s ready to handle. But if she doesn’t do her part
SUL’s grand plan will not come to pass and Evil will consume all.
You mentioned
event planning and the Authors in the Park Event Series. We’d love to hear more
about that.
I need to start by saying I am the
owner/founder of JLB Creatives – a subsidiary of our company Multi-Tech
Productions, Inc. JLBC handles the literary side of the business. Authors in
the Park is an event series that was brought to the table by JLB Creatives
executive team member, author Mark Miller. Mark, myself, and JLBC team
executive team member author Jean
E. Lane have put together a series of events where
local authors can “strut their stuff.” Our goal is to produce four events per
year. Each event has its own theme, and we try to showcase a few new authors at
each event. We just finished our Spring Into Art ~ The Gallery Walk event. It
was a huge success, and we’re already in the planning stages for our next event
coming July 6 – Picnic with an Author. For more information, and to keep up
with all the AIP news I’d love to
personally invite you to visit and become a fan of Authors in the Park on
Facebook. Here’s the link: FB.com/AuthorsInThePark
That sounds amazing! Would you be willing to
elaborate on your company JLB Creatives?
I’d be honored. JLB Creatives was
developed by authors, for authors. In addition to producing and hosting the AIP
events there are many things we offer. Hot off the press is our newly
developed, ready-to-go, educational review and critique sessions we’ve titled
Lit Wits. In these sessions aspiring writers will have the opportunity to have
their short pieces reviewed anonymously. After the review and critique portion
the aspiring writers will have the opportunity to probe the minds of the JLBC
executive team regarding the writing industry. In addition the aspiring writers
will be given the opportunities to be featured on the JLBC Blog as well as be
published in an anthology created from the short stories of those at the Lit
Wits Sessions.
Along with event planning and Lit
Wits, JLBC offers services such as book cover design, formatting, query letter
assistance, and other services specific to the writing world.
You will also find myself and my
executive team at book festivals throughout the year. Our next one will be April 13, 2013 – The UCF
Book Festival. We will have JLB Creatives information and books available,
along with taking Lit Wits registrations for the 2013 schedule.
Where can we find your books and information
regarding JLB Creatives?
Thanks so much
for having me Jo. It’s been a pleasure.
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