Welcome to my tour stop for The Dragon Scale Lute by J.C. Kang! This is a mature young adult multicultural epic fantasy. The tour runs April 4-15 with reviews, interviews, guest posts and excerpts. Check out the tour page for the full schedule.
For a limited time The Dragon Scale Lute is on sale for only .99 cents for Kindle!
About the Book:
Kaiya’s voice could charm a dragon.
Only the handsome Prince Hardeep, a foreign martial mystic, recognizes her potential. Convinced Kaiya will rediscover the legendary but perilous art of invoking magic through music, he suggests her voice, not her marriage, might better serve the realm.
When members of the emperor’s elite spy clan-- Kaiya’s childhood friend and his half-elf sidekick (or maybe he’s her sidekick?)-- discover mere discontent boiling over into full-scale rebellion, Kaiya must choose. Obediently wedding the depraved ringleader means giving up her music. Confronting him with the growing power of her voice could kill her.
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***EXCERPT***
Kaiya
looked at the instrument in her hands, then up at him. Of all the
pipas, he had chosen this one. “Do you know the significance of
this lute?”
He
shrugged. “It drew my eye. It was the most beautiful in the
storeroom.”
“Yanyan
used it during the War of Ancient Gods.”
His
mouth formed a perfect circle. “Then you must play it.”
She
studied the pipa. She might be a talented musician, but… “No
human in living memory has coaxed a sound out of it.” Hushed rumors
spoke of the elf lord Xu playing it for Father twenty-nine years ago;
other than that, the last masters to play it lived almost three
centuries before, and had all died of bizarre circumstances.
Tapping
his chin, he regarded her. “You won’t know unless you try.”
Kaiya’s
head spun. If she succeeded where even the best musicians in the
realm had failed, it would prove the worth of music. Her
worth. Then again, if the pipa didn’t respond, it would only
confirm what Eldest Brother Kai-Guo and the other lords believed: her
only value was that as a bride to General Lu. Even worse, Prince
Hardeep would think less of her. She met his gaze again.
His
kind eyes encouraged her on.
Yes.
She could do this. Had to do it, even it were just to prove to
herself she could. She scanned the music book, memorizing the complex
changes. Settling on the edge of the chair, she took a deep breath
and plucked out the first note. A beautiful sound emanated from the
resonator.
Kaiya’s
heart jolted and she nearly dropped the pipa in surprise. It couldn’t
be. It had to be her imagination. She looked up to Hardeep.
Beaming,
he nodded her on.
Could
it be? She strummed a chord, emitting a wondrous sound. There was no
mistake. Heavens, she had done it! Something no one else had
accomplished in over two centuries.
Plucking
each string, pressing each fret, the music came out inspired. The
joyous soul of the song bounded off the page, swirling in seemingly
tangible currents.
*************
About the Author:
A Chinese Medicine Doctor and Martial Artist by trade, JC Kang would have never started writing fantasy stories save for two fluke coincidences.
In the Christmas of 2010, while cleaning out childhood junk from his mom’s house, he came across his old Dungeons and Dragons campaign world. Before relegating the binder of maps and notes to the trash where it belonged, he decided to peek back and see what his 13-year old self had created.
He couldn’t help but laugh at the silly ideas that had crossed his teenage brain. Rivers flowed uphill. Empires produced resources out of thin air. However, a few interesting premises had potential.
For the next six days, he redesigned his world, taking into account things he’d learned over the last 25 years. Advanced stuff like gravity, evolution, and supply and demand.
On the seventh day, he rested. Looking at his glorious creation, he was hit by the realization that he’d never play D&D again.
A month later, the second event occurred: three weeks of major snowstorms. Stuck indoors for days at a time, he used his skills as a professional technical writer and pumped out a 120k word novel set in this world… only to find out that fiction writing and technical writing were two different beasts.
He set off to study the craft, and learned advanced ideas like characterization, point of view and tension. After revising the first book, he wrote a prequel. After the prequel, he wrote a sequel. And finally, he wrote the prequel to the prequel: the Dragon Scale Lute.
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GIVEAWAY:
One (1) winner will receive a $25 Amazon Gift Card (INT)
One (1) winner will receive a paperback copy of The Dragon Scale Lute (US)
Ends April 20, 2016
Prizing is provided by the author, hosts are not responsible. Must be 13 or older to enter and have parental permission if under 18. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary to win.
This looks like a great fantasy book to explore.
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