Update on Betrayer

     Hello again! Well, I hope everyone reading this had a great Resurrection Day. I know we did, spending the day with family and friends, and getting to enjoy a little of that sunshine. Bring on garden season, baby!
     Things have been pretty hectic around here lately, with work, the holiday, and gearing up for summer. In the midst of it all, we are moving toward the launch of Betrayer, which is planned for the beginning of July. Hopefully soon I will have a definite date for you!
     I'm super excited about to see things beginning to come together. Tiffany Hilterbrand, who is doing my cover artwork, has been sending me some teaser sketches, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I feel like a kid at Christmastime!
     Meanwhile, I'm still somewhat in shock that all this is actually happening, after almost ten years. And I'm beginning to realize just how close my release date is. With that mind, I'm working on final things like promo blurbs and typo re-re-re-rechecks.
    Here is what I've come up with for the book's back cover. Tell me what you think!


 

 If the price of betrayal is death, how do you pay for a second chance?

Free spirit Evie Drake attends a local Renaissance fair, where she gets a henna tattoo of an ancient symbol. Legend says it will open a door to the Otherworld, but the last thing Evie expects is for the legend to be true….

Alone in a strange world, with danger closing in, a dryad comes to her rescue. But in this world where songs have power and words are sacred, safety is fleeting. One bad decision, and suddenly Evie is being hunted—pursued across two worlds by creatures intent on possessing her soul, and by a man ordered to bring her to justice. She would give anything for a second chance… But will the price of her life be more than even she is willing to pay?

 

 

     Well? Does it sound like something you'd like to read? Or could it use some tweaking still? Feel free to leave comments!

Lullaby of Hope

This is a lyric I wrote a while back as a sort of prayer...


Lay me down and sing to me
     Ease my breakin' heart
Worldly cares are crushing me,
     Tearin' me apart.
I know that's not Your will for me,
     So precious Jesus sing to me

Sing me a lullaby of hope.
     Forgive me for my wanderin' ways
Remind me of your faithful mercies
    And with dawn's light I'll sing your praise

Why Wonder?

Wonder can be many things… A sense of awe at a masterpiece, or a mountain range, or a winter’s sky full of cold, glittering stars… A feeling some something bigger and grander than ourselves that we can’t quite grasp, and can’t articulate… An idea, an image, a strain of music that makes us feel for just an instant as though we’ve come that close to grasping something beyond our existence—something eternal.

The world these days seems to frown on the idea of stopping to smell the roses. Life is a whirlwind of busyness, technology, and seeking after pleasure, and the faster we spin, the more pleasure we consume, the more we crave.

What is the use in excesses of pleasure, when we don’t stop to savor? To enjoy each blessing, to remember that life is short, and whether we’re in good times or hard ones, to be thankful. To take a timeout and be in awe at the night sky, or to delight in a wagging tail, a roadside sunset, or a friend’s smile.

Wonder is about shedding the calluses of life. Renewing our minds and emotions.

About Shari Branning

       Wonder. Surprise. Admiration. Awe. That feeling that you can never quite put into words, when your heart starts to dance, and you know that, for just a moment, you’ve brushed up against something inspiring, something magical, something eternal.

       Wonder Redeemed is a place for the dreamers, the seekers, the stare-off-into-space dwellers of fantastical places. You know you are surrounded by marvels—in the seen, in the unseen, and in that which is only imagined. And in finding wonder in the world around you, you find joy as well.

       I’m peeling back the layers of the mundane to see what realms wait beyond. I’m looking for inspiration in the unnamed things that lie just beyond what others are willing to see. And in finding hidden worlds, I’m learning to appreciate our own world, and all its splendor. After all, this universe that God spoke into existence is much more fantastical than anything we humans could ever dream up.

 

       Writing is what I do. Writing is breathing, and I’ve been doing it longer than I can remember. Fantasy is my thing, though not everything I write has to do with fairy tales… Here on Wonder Redeemed I’ll be exploring the things that make my eyes go wide, that make my heart skip, and my imagination go wild. I’m resolute in the conviction that wonder, joy, and delight are not only for children. Grown-ups just have to look a little further to find them.

So here goes! Along with pursuing this theme, I’ll be posting some of my other work on here, and hopefully sharing some of the other things that have inspired and motivated me on my journey through writing and life.