{Author Guest Post + Giveaway} Janet Lee Carey of Dragonswood

Today’s guest, Janet Lee Carey award-winning author of DRAGSONSWOOD apart of The Teen Book Scene Tours

One Girl. Bound by Fate. Breaks Free In a dark time when girls with powers are called witches, Tess escapes the witch hunter and hides with a mysterious huntsman until magical voices draw her deeper into Dragonswood where she learns the secret of her birth. Caught between love and loyalty, Tess chooses the hardest path of all – her own.

It’s great to celebrate the book release here with you today, Amanda. Thanks for inviting me to talk about one of my favorite topics -- Author Outreach. Each story can raise awareness and make us feel more closely connected with ourselves and our world. Because of this closer connection through story, I like to celebrate each new novel by linking the book launch with a charity that highlights an aspect of the book. Here’s how it works.

Outreach begins with Story: First I search the novel for hints regarding the right type of charity to match the book. Take Dragonswood, for example. 

On a small, little known place called Wilde Island, Queen Rosalind set aside Dragonswood forest, providing a safe place for Dragons and Fairies to live. Her story is told in the first Wilde Island book, Dragon’s Keep. By the beginning of the next Wilde Island novel, Dragonswood, the forest sanctuary is threatened.

The fairy, Onadon, tells Tess: “We’ve come here from every corner of the world. The fairy folk have been driven out of every land no less than the dragons. If this sanctuary goes we will be scattered to the winds.”

Dragonswood is still protected by the monarchy. It is against the law for people to enter the sanctuary, but that doesn’t stop them. Battles over land use are fought along the woodland borders. People want to cut down the trees for firewood and building materials. They’re set on hunting the wild game in Dragonswood. Many islanders want to and take back the forest which they see as “rightfully theirs.” Sound familiar?

From Fairytale to Fact:

Fairytale: Already in medieval times the Dragons and the Fey face extinction. They need their protected wilderness to survive.
Fact: In our day many wild animals face extinction. They need protected wilderness areas to survive.

Finding the Right Outreach Organization: Considering the Fairytale/Fact link, I looked for the right charity for the book launch. After a long search I found Defenders of Wildlife (http://www.defenders.org/index_v2.html )

Queen Rosalind saw the importance of setting Dragonswood aside for the endangerd dragons and fey. Defenders of Wildlife sees the importance of maintaining wilderness areas for threatened wildlife to survive. I encourage readers to swing by and see the great work they’re doing. They offer lots of ways to help. You can adopt an endangered animal and help save it and its habitat from destruction. Readers can also find out more about this organization on the “giving back” page on my website http://www.janetleecarey.com . Our family chose to adopt a snowy owl. Snowy owls depend upon threatened places like Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to survive. We couldn’t resist adopting an Arctic Fox as well.

Those who read Dragonswood will notice Tess’s fascination with the magical forest. It’s a forbidden place, yet she’s drawn inside night after night to scale the tall pine trees to glimpse the illusive fairies and the dragons. I grew up in a redwood forest. Like Tess, I’m also a tree climber. In my teens I climbed the redwoods after dark and sat in the branches during a rainstorm. I called it “riding the storm.” I still try to climb a tree every year on my birthday, which is in January (a perfectly stormy month!). Did I do it this year? Ask and I’ll let you know.

The Giveaway:Winners of the Dragonswood giveaway contest here at Seeing Night Reviews can win a signed copy of Dragonswood. They can also win a little plush snowy owl a perfect little desk guardian or snuggly toy for a little one.

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

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+1 Tweeting: 

Enter to win 1 signed copy of Dragonswood by @janetleecarey + plush snowy owl over @SeeingNight http://bit.ly/wTLvSy #yalit #fantasy #win

Ends Jan 18th
CLOSED
Winner: Linda: Book Ninja