This page is dedicated to all the reasons you, Gentle Reader, should be excited about Laconia.  1. Donaya Haymond's story of geeky obsession turned success is an inspiration for awkward, daydreaming teens everywhere.
2. Number of reviews for Halloween Romance back at Fictionpress.com before it was deleted for contractual reasons with Eternal Press: +200.
Number of reviews one person may give per chapter: 1
Number of chapters: 16 (has since been condensed)
Number of people who reviewed every chapter: Less than 5.
Negative reviews: 2
3. The books are not just about magic or even love. They have humor, action, and drama. They also frequently examine social issues.
4. This site will offer special-edition short stories tying into the novels to celebrate holidays and other major events.
5. As you can see in the picture Donaya commissioned above, Ferdinand is not only sexy, but realizes that his fangs make good letter openers.
6. Each book adds more characters to Laconia, and they all turn out to know each other somehow.
7. Because all but one of the books are already complete, readers will have less than a year to wait for the next one, assuming they get accepted.
8. The proofreader for Bite Me frantically e-mailed Donaya at the last minute with a substantial mistake that needed correcting. She apologized that she was so immersed in the story that she didn't notice until long afterwards.
9. The author is eager to answer all correspondence and queries from readers. She may be private, but she is certainly not aloof.
10. The following extracts from a recommendation Sally Odgers made to the head editor of Eternal Press:
This may sound odd, as vampires, weres, and elves abound, but they are also very human in their pains. For example, Ferdinand, the vampire, is no romantic Lord of the Night. He’s a melancholy young man trying to make meaning of a life that was changed without his consent...
...As you probably know, I assess a lot of mss [manuscripts] outside EP… usually a couple of hundred a year. I am impressed enough with about 5% of these to write a letter of rec. The Laconia series is my favourite of any novel/novella mss I’ve dealt with, in or out of EP, over the past decade. The books fit in the tiny percentage of mss I would reread more than once, for pleasure, and also in the category where I think about the characters in their absence, as if they were people I know.
11. This assessment from Alyson Hagy, Creative Writing professor at the University of Wyoming: I've read a lot of fiction in my day. Two things strike me about HR. [The] use of dialogue is very, very good. She uses it for character development, plot development, pace, change of tone--and she uses it with a natural ease I rarely see. (An ease I don't myself possess.) She also has a sharp and instinctive sense of scene. This is something most writers don't "get" very quickly. They spin their wheels. They write scenes that don't have a reason for being...And if you can write scene and dialogue, you can master plot along the way. Or that's how I see it as someone who works with writers. I look forward to sharing
her work with my students who enjoy fantasy fiction, who often share it
online, and who could use some focus in their endeavors. Plus, her
fiction is just plain fun. She enjoys writing it--and that infectious
cheer spread right to this reader. Who doesn't love a good
werewolf/vampire saga? Kudos. |