Saturday, April 30, 2016

New Release, Excerpt, and Giveaway

The Gladiator and the Guard by Annie Douglass Lima

 I'm excited to announce that my young adult action and adventure novel, The Gladiator and the Guard, is now available for purchase! This is the second book in the Krillonian Chronicles, sequel to The Collar and the Cavvarach. 

 First Things First: a Little Information about Book 1: 
Bensin, a teenage slave and martial artist, is desperate to see his little sister freed. But only victory in the Krillonian Empire's most prestigious tournament will allow him to secretly arrange for Ellie's escape. Dangerous people are closing in on her, however, and Bensin is running out of time.  With his one hope fading quickly away, how can Bensin save Ellie from a life of slavery and abuse?
What is the Collar for, and What is a Cavvarach?


The story is set in a world very much like our own, with just a few major differences.  One is that slavery is legal there.  Slaves must wear metal collars that lock around their neck, making their enslaved status obvious to everyone.  Any slave attempting to escape faces the dilemma of how and where to illegally get their collar removed (a crime punishable by enslavement for the remover).  

Another difference is the popularity of a martial art called cavvara shil.  It is fought with a cavvarach (rhymes with "have a rack"), a weapon similar to a sword but with a steel hook protruding from partway down its top edge.  Competitors can strike at each other with their feet as well as with the blades.  You win in one of two ways: disarming your opponent (hooking or knocking their cavvarach out of their hands) or pinning their shoulders to the mat for five seconds.



Click here to order The Collar and the Cavvarach from Amazon 
for $2.99 a discounted price of just 99 cents through April 30th!
 
And now, The Gladiator and the Guard, with another awesome cover by the talented Jack Lin!


Bensin, a teenage slave and martial artist, is just one victory away from freedom. But after he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he is condemned to the violent life and early death of a gladiator. While his loved ones seek desperately for a way to rescue him, Bensin struggles to stay alive and forge an identity in an environment designed to strip it from him. When he infuriates the authorities with his choices, he knows he is running out of time. Can he stand against the cruelty of the arena system and seize his freedom before that system crushes him?

Click here to order The Gladiator and the Guard in Kindle format from Amazon 
for $2.99 a discounted price of just 99 cents through April 30th!


Click here to order The Gladiator and the Guard from Smashwords (for Nook or in other digital formats) 
for $2.99 a discounted price of just 99 cents through April 30th!


Annie Douglass Lima spent most of her childhood in Kenya and later graduated from Biola University in Southern California. She and her husband Floyd currently live in Taiwan, where she teaches fifth grade at Morrison Academy. She has been writing poetry, short stories, and novels since her childhood, and to date has published twelve books (two YA action and adventure novels, four fantasies, a puppet script, and five anthologies of her students’ poetry). Besides writing, her hobbies include reading (especially fantasy and science fiction), scrapbooking, and international travel.


 Connect with the Author Online:
Now, enter to win an Amazon gift card or a free digital copy of The Collar and the Cavvarach!


Or find the giveaway at this link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ad2fd99a3/?

Excerpt from The Gladiator and The Guard:
“It isn’t quite like I expected here,” Bensin admitted. He had been lashed three times that morning, and in addition to the fiery welts under his shirt, he still felt trembly from the electric shocks. Whips like that ought to be illegal.
Everyone in earshot chuckled. “It isn’t like anyone expects,” another man told him. “You think people out there have any idea what our lives are like? Nobody would want to be a glad if they knew. All you see before you’re here is the glorious side of it, the combat out on the sand, not the everyday side, with the dartblowers and shockwhips and kravicks for trainers.”
“You’ll get used to it, though,” Fifty assured Bensin. “The first couple weeks are the worst. ’Course, it never really gets easier, but eventually you just learn to live with it.”
“Until someday you don’t have to anymore,” put in the man on his other side. “You probably got three, four, maybe five years here at the most, depending how good you are, and how lucky. Then someday one of the Blues or Greens will be a split second quicker with his blade than you, and that’ll be it.”
Another serving dish appeared nearby, and Bensin reached for it, but one of the other glads pulled it away, grinning. Bensin glared and dug into his broccoli, waiting for another chance. “How long have you been here?” he asked Fifty.
The gladiator smiled, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m the current record holder. Five and a half years. Feels like that many decades.”
“His days are numbered,” quipped the guy beside him.
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