Eight magical objects. Eight adventurers. Eight stories.
Tales of Ale and Chainmail
Volume 1
A Fantasy Anthology
with stories by
Dave Deickman, Kate Longstone, Jonathan Maloney, Alan Kent,
Thomas D Moore, Ashley Bravington, Crystal Roles, Lucina Nyx
The simplest of choices are often the most necessary.
Eight magical objects. Eight adventurers. Eight stories.
Across the world of the Western Shield, long hidden artefacts are found by those who adventure into the forgotten corners of history. From the boiling volcanoes of Holfursland, to the booming industrial port of Helvenica, to the dwarven city of Ironvale, the adventurers are drawn together to tell their stories, and how they came into possession of their particular item, in the Glass Dagger Corner Club.
Featuring stories from Dave Deickman, Kate Longstone, Jonathan Maloney, Alan Kent, Thomas D Moore, Ashley Bravington, Crystal Roles, and Lucina Nyx, Tales of Ale and Chainmail (Vol 1) explores the dungeons, temples, and societies of the Western Shield world in pursuit of knowledge, answers, and lost family members.
Skynation Publishing * Amazon * Google * Kobo * Bookbub * Goodreads
Started in 2021, SkyNation Publishing is based in Brisbane, Australia. Specialising in fantasy fiction, SNP revels in bringing a change to traditional publishing, through different mediums, and partnering with other small businesses to add an extra spark to their title releases.
Getting to know Crystal Roles
Stuff about Me
My maternity leave was up. I was a brand-new mum diving back into full-time work. I had no time to even remember my lifelong dream to be a published author, let alone the energy to imagine it coming true! But one thing about dreams? They have a habit of resurfacing when you least expect them. Usually at odd, almost inconvenient times, leaving you with a choice to either dive in, or let it pass you by.
When I was approached to write this story I initially had a panic – would I be able to fit it in? Would I let down my new son, my partner, my job for taking time for myself? Was I good enough?
However, despite the knee-jerk anxiety I can have, I also I have a long history of diving in to things head first and knowing right down to my toes that I can make it work. I have to make it work. Thankfully, this dream was no different.
Stuff about the Book
The Golden Bells was a melting pot of ideas, including the nursery rhyme ‘Hickory, Dickory, Doc’ (which gave a nice starting point for naming my girls) and the writing prompt – what if a DnD party formed in the girls bathroom?
Initially the story came to me in Deidre’s voice, but as I sat down to write, Doc’s emotional state demanded way more attention. It wasn’t long until I realised; she was the lynch pin. Have you ever had that? You start out writing from one character’s perspective and realised it wasn’t their story to tell? Yeah, it happens to me a bit. That’s usually how a story comes to me, a character starts to ‘talk’ to me, then the story spins out from there. And boy did it spin! Before long the three main characters were all weaving their melody of a tale and I felt more like an observer than a creator.
I had thought it was going to be a stand alone story – Doc’s origin story – but one sleepless night and I have mapped out the next two parts to this story and I’m itching to write more!
Stuff about Writing/Reading
As a new parent, I realized I had to be a little more structured in how I wrote [and by ‘little more structured’ I mean ‘have any structure at all’] so I created: “The Spreadsheet”.
1) I broke down how many words were required.
2) Worked out when my first deadline was.
3) Did some fancy math and calculated how many words I needed to write per night to achieve the word count before that deadline.
4) I then set up a column of ‘should be written’ vs ‘actually written’ that I updated every writing session, so I knew if I was ahead/behind.
This may sound a little intense, but in all honesty, it is what kept me on track and let me know that little by little, I was achieving my dream.
I wrote a brief outline of what I thought the story was about and key scenes. This worked in two ways – linked the story together and gave me a focus point to jump off from when I actually got the time to write.
I carved out about 1 – 2 hours each night to focus on writing. Some nights were better than others, but showing up, night after night, got the story out on paper rather than mostly floating in my head, and that is the secret to being a writer. Get the story out! Once it’s out, you can work on it, mould it, refine it. If it is only in your head, that is where it will stay.
Oct 13
kickoff at Silver Dagger Book Tours
Craving Lovely Books
Oct 14
The Sexy Nerd ‘Revue’
Oct 15
Bedazzled By Books
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Ilovebooksandstuffblog
Haley Cavanagh Books
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Lady Hawkeye – GUEST POST
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Author Sahara Foley
All Things Dark & Dirty
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Books all things paranormal and romance
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Anna del C. Dye official page
C.A.Milson
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All The Write Stuff
Book Reviews by the Reluctant Retiree
Oct 24
4covert2overt ☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼
#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog
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Celticlady’s Reviews
eBook Addicts
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Country Mamas With Kids
Girl with Pen
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Insane Books
Inside the Insanity
Oct 30
Kenyan Poet
Literary Gold
Oct 31
❧Defining Ways❧
Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read
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My beauty my books
Reading Authors Network
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Tina Donahue – Heat with Heart
Scrupulous Dreams
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Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin’
Sylv.net
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The Book Dragon
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The Bookshelf Fairy
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Painting With Words
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A Wonderful World of Words – REVIEW, GUEST POST
Nov 13
Royally Insane Books
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
Paperback copy – 5 winners, WW! ,
$20 Amazon – 1 winner