Fantasy Novels
The Saga of Magiskeep
Jean E Dvorak
News and Events
Book 5 in the Saga is currently being edited and will probably be published some time in June.
In the meantime, I am working on the last novel, The Fifth Dragon.
My most recent blog entries ( Magiskeep ) are focusing on educational issues in my home state, New Jersey. If you have read my novels, you know that many moments take place in the classrooms of Magiskeep. My experience as a teacher has had a great influence on my writing.
Education is an important issue in the world and as a teacher, I have many opinions about it. Right now there is great controversy over all the high stakes testing in our nation's classrooms. My teaching was impacted by the importance of these tests, and I am discussing that in my latest blog posts.
While I might keep the blog strictly about my novels, I feel there are far more important topics in the world to discuss. So feel free to drop by. You never quite know what might show up.
After all, it is a most magical site.
Plans for the future:
I guess it's time to do some publicity for The Saga. I am already advertising on BookDaily, BooksonLine and other sites. It's hard to tell how much that has helped sales.
I would like to expand my audience and one way is to offer book talks at local libraries. Once I get some practice in there, I may be able to set up an Author Day at the area Barnes and Noble. This does get a little complicated as the book store needs to have copies of at least the first novel Since it's a "print on demand," they do not normally stock them. Apparently, it can be done, but I need to go in and do a bit of a sales pitch.
I've done some work on this website to get search engines to direct more traffic this way.
The fact is, marketing takes a ton of time. I am still editing White Wind and writing the final novel at the same time. I honestly never expected to be so busy after I retired from my teaching job. I have no idea how I found the time to write Kingdom, Honor's Way, Wall, and Shards while I was full time in the classroom. No wonder it took so many years!
UPDATE: May 16, 2015
I am waiting for confirmation of the final proof of "White Wind." It should be published within the week.
In the meantime, I have worked on editing of a Romance Novel, "The Loving Cup." The story is very much centered around the world of horses and a related mystery. I hope to publish this book within a month or so.
UPDATE: May 19, 2015
White Wind has been published and is available for Kindle at Amazon, and other EReaders at Smashwords. The paperback will be available at Amazon soon and is available at CreateSpace now.
UPDATE: June 26, 2015
"Blackwing Rising," The fourth novel in the Saga is ready for editing. I plan on publishing it in the fall. Meanwhile, "The Loving Cup" is in formatting stage ready for a July debut. It's very "horsey" but so far, my "beta" reader had no trouble following that part of the story and actually found it interesting. As far as the mystery goes, the last time I spoke with her, she was still guessing and following the red herrings.
"The Fifth Dragon," the final Magiskeep novel is in the works as well. It's a bit of a "fits and starts" writing adventure as I had to work out some of the plot details before I was able to move on. I think I'm almost settled on a significant part of the story that needed some sorting. Writing a novel is an advneture in itself sometimes.
Cover Design
The final novel in "The Saga of Magiskeep" needs a cover. I have two choices at the moment. Both depict pivotal moments in the novel, so each suits. I am thinking perhaps I could release two covers for the same book if I can't decide on just one.
