Title:
Firebolt
Author: Adrienne Woods
Series: The Dragonian Series
Publisher: GMTA Publishing Mythos Press
Release Date: Nov 20 2013
Back Cover Blurb:
Dragons. Right. Teenage girls don't believe in fairy tales,
and sixteen-year-old Elena Watkins was no different.
Until the night a fairy tale killed her father.
Now Elena is in a new world, and a new school. The cutest
guy around may be an evil dragon, a prince wants Elena's heart, and a long dead
sorcerer may be waking up to kill her. Oh and the only way Elena's going to
graduate is on the back of a dragon of her own.
Teenage girls don't believe in fairy tales. Now it's time
for Elena to believe in...herself.
Promotional Blurb:
I’m going to create with my illustrator a book trailer out
of this. But it won’t be available for a couple of months.
The Belly of a huge blue beast on four
legs, the size of tree stumps, stood in front of the pickup.
Elena Watkins loved the fairy tales her father used to tell
her.
Another dragon came out of nowhere. His
scales appeared to be copper. He sank his jaws into the blue dragon.
Tales of heroes. Tales of magic.
The copper dragon bit fiercely into the
blue dragon's neck. Blood pooled on thick puddles on the road.
Tales of dragons.
The copper dragon trudged toward the
pickup. He hooked one of his talons into the windshield - and ripped it off.
But that was when she was little. Sixteen year old girls
know the difference between fairy tales and real life. And everybody knows...
The dragon started to shrink.
there are no such things ...
The dragon's huge figure melted away into a
copper blob. I shrieked...
as dragons.
as the blob transformed into the fugure of
a man crouching low to the ground.
Elena knew that too. Until that night. The night a dragon...
My father. And he was dying.
...killed her father.
Now there's a lot more that Elena has to learn. And not just
about dragons. Because for Elena, not all the fairy tales are false - and not
all the real world is real. And if Elena is going to get through what's coming,
she's going to have to know a lot more that the difference. She's going to have
to get to know someone she's never met. Someone she doesn't know if she can
believe in.
Herself.
For the love of blueberries, Elena Watkins was destined for
greatness, even though she didn’t know it. Forced to travel from home to home
every three months Elena’s life was a never ending blur of new towns and new
faces, that is, until the night her father was killed by a creature she thought
only existed in fairy tales – a dragon. With her father’s death leaving her
orphaned, Elena is whisked away to her true birthplace, Paegeia.
Arriving at Dragonia Academy, the premier school for young
Dragonians, she begins to feel a sense of belonging in this strange world; a
school she was never meant to attend because her father was a dragon. Elena is
soon swept up in the rigor of her new life and the new set of skills she now
needs to survive: Latin, Art of War, and Enchantments.
Entranced by her new reality Elena learns about the dragons
and humans who inhabit her new home. There are two classes of dragons that soar
through Paegeia distinguished by their instinctual pretense for either good or
darkness. The distinction between these two very different species is vital to
Elena’s success in her new world because she has been marked as a Dragonian, a
human preordained to ride and tame a dragon of her very own.
With the help of her new friends, Elena is able to navigate
the complexities of her new home. Her new roommates Becky and Sammy are even
more amazing then she could have ever imaged and to top it all off, Sammy was a
dragon. Sammy’s is also the devoted sister of Blake, the most attractive boy at
school and the Rubicon; the only dragon of his kind with the abilities of all
the dragon species with a pretense for evil. Elena soon finds the love she
always wanted with Lucian, the Prince of Tith, who actively pursues Elena
throughout her time at Dragonia Academy, winning her heart with his absolute
adoration and unshaken dedication.
Unbeknownst to Elena danger is lurking behind the enchanted
vines concealing the once thriving capital of Paegeia – Etan. Goran, the darkest
sorcerer to ever practice his evil arts in the realm, has lain dormant for over
a century behind the crumbling city. The first step in his menacing plan is to
destroy the only weapon that can kill him – the King of Lion Sword.
When the sword is stolen Elena doesn’t think twice about
seeking it; knowing deep down that it is her destiny to save her new home. She
travels to the Sacred Cavern, and discovers the nefarious actions of an unknown
man lead to the swords destruction as she follows the trail revealed in the
prophetic waters of the cavern.
Elena and her friends engage the mysterious man revealing
their existence to Goran and fighting for their very lives.
I was born and raised in South Africa,
where I still live with my husband, and two beautiful
little girls. I always
knew that I was going to be a writer but it only started to happen about four
years ago, now I can’t stop writing.
In my free time, If I get any because Moms
don’t really have free time, I love to spend time with friends, if it’s a girls
night out, or just a movie, I’m a very chilled person.
My writing career is starting with
Firebolt, book one with the Dragonian Series, there will be four books in total
and two to three books that is about the stories taking place inside The
Dragonian Series.
I do write in different Genres, I have a
woman’s fiction called the Pregnancy Diaries, but it would be published under
another name. And then I have a paranormal series, called the Watercress
series. There are about ten novels in that one.
So, plenty of novels to come out, so
little time.
I hope you are going to embrace the
Dragonian Series as much as I loved writing them.
Kind Wishes,
Adrienne Woods
Author Links
A girl singing her heart out about a
miracle boomed inside my ear. A miracle would get me what I needed: a chance at
a semi-normal life.
The bedroom door
hitting the wall expelled the thought from my mind. With his hand tangled up in
his copper hair and with huge brown eyes, Dad's figure filled the entire
doorway. “Pack your bags.” He had that set to his jaw, the one that meant there
was no way out of this. He bolted out of the room just as suddenly as he had
appeared.
My teeth ground
hard against each other, and the sharp pain behind my eyes, I guessed from the
lack of sleep, grew stronger. Every fibre of my being wanted to explode.
Ever since I
could remember my name, Dad and I had been on the run. From what? Beats
me.
For the last two
weeks, I'd been pacing up and down through the house, struggling to fall asleep
at night, waiting for this day.
For the love of
blue berries, no sixteen-year old should live this way!
I climbed off my
bed, and the first step I took left my toe tangled in the wide leg of my
jeans. I tried to regain my balance as
the closet inched closer, but with wildly flailing arms, I came crashing down.
The thud reverberated across the wooden floor, and it sounded as if I'd broken
something.
Dad darted back
into my room. "Are you okay?" He lifted me back onto my feet as if I
weighed nothing.
Tears lurked in
the corners of my eyes, threatening to burst, as I stared up at him.
"Don't give
me that look, Elena. Please, we need to hurry.” He pulled my suitcase from the
top shelf and chucked it haphazardly onto my bed. “We need to go. Now.”
"Dad…"
He started to
grab my clothes from the shelf and tossed them messily inside my small
suitcase. Then he paused, sighed, and looked up with soft eyes. He stroked the
side of my cheek with his hand gently. “This wasn't the right place, bear.
Please, you’ve got to trust me.”
His hand reached
back to pull everything off my shelf, while my hands curled up into balls of
fury. My heart pounded fast as those two words bounced inside my skull. “Trust
you, Dad?”
"Elena, we
don't have much time,” he yelled. “Pack your bags! You can ask questions
later." He left, and the hollow “doof” sound from his footsteps stomped
loudly as he made his way into the hall.
Ask questions?
Yeah right! I’ll only get answers that don’t reveal why we are on the run for
the gazillionth time.' “Trust me” and “I'll tell you when the time is right”
were the only two answers Dad gave. 'Guess time with him will never be right.’
It was no use
arguing with him anyway. The last time, he threw me over his shoulder and
carried me out without any of my things.
So I grabbed the
stuff I needed: my mp3 player, a photo of Mom that Dad didn't know I had, and
my journal from underneath my bed. I tossed them into my backpack. It wasn't
much, but it was the stuff that made my miserable life felt less pathetic. I
zipped up my suitcase and took a deep breath. Looking around my bedroom for the
last time, I said goodbye to my sixtieth-something room.
Dad almost ran me
over in the hall with his army bag slung over his shoulder. He grumbled, which
I assumed was an apology, took my suitcase, and ran down the stairs. He always
rented these huge old houses, pre-furnished and near the countryside, and we
always left after three months.
The pickup's horn
honked as I shut the front door. I closed my eyes and took another deep breath.
Just two more years, then I'll be eighteen and free from this freak show. Huge
raindrops fell hard onto the ground. The smell of wet dirt filled the air. It
was my favorite smell.
The water that
pooled on the ground covered all the gaps in the driveway, forcing me to
hopscotch around all of them. My shoe got caught in one of the gaps and I
smacked down hard in a huge puddle. By the time I reached the truck, my jeans
and shoes were soaking wet.
Warm heat from
the vents inside the truck hit me full blast as I jumped in; a million goose
pimples erupted across my skin. As soon
as I shut the rusty door, Dad floored the gas pedal. Tires screeched and the
truck spun away as if the Devil chased us.
My lower lip quivered softly as he swerved onto the road. The
streetlights flew by in a blur as I plugged in my earpieces. The same stupid
song about a miracle boomed from my mp3, drowning the sound of the engine and
the hard dribbles on the roof, a percussion that became the perpetual
soundtrack to my misery.
A feeling of
utter loneliness consumed my heart as I stared out the window. Homes with white
picket fences and the convenient store whizzed by in a flash. A tear rolled
down my cheek as I said goodbye, and my breath on the glass created a foggy
condensation. Reaching out my index finger, I drew a small heart. These were
the reasons why Mom had left. She couldn't handle his paranoia, but why she’d
left her daughter to deal with it was a mystery. Dad constantly reminded me of
the latter, and that was the only time he ever spoke of her. If he ever
discovered I had that picture, he would kill me. That was how much he hated her
for leaving us.
The lights of a
vehicle in the upcoming lane shone directly into my face. I shut my eyes,
waiting for it to disappear. As a little girl, I used to watch Dad as we drove
away from yet another house. He would glare into his rearview mirror every five
seconds, every muscle in his face clenched, and his knuckles white on the
steering wheel. I hadn’t been able to force myself to peek out the window then,
as it used to scare the living crap out of me to consider the possible reasons
he was fleeing from, or who might be following us. Now, I didn't look at him or
care much for what he was going through. He created this problem. With me
becoming the luggage. It was a ritual I endured every three months, and nothing
over the past sixteen years had ever changed that.
The “Interstate
40” sign flew by in a whirl, and the pickup slowly moved onto the turnoff lane.
My eyes started
to burn as I stared at the rain running down my window. Each rivet resembled
another town, another place I would never again call home. Exhaustion consumed
me and my eyelids felt heavy. I laid my head against the window and struggled
to stay awake.
Suddenly, a dark
and huge figure flew past me. Dad swerved to the left, which made me crushed
into the side of the passenger’s door. My entire body pumped with adrenaline. I
jumped straight in my seat and wrenched the seatbelt over my shoulder to buckle
myself in. I tore out my earpieces as I tried to process what had just
happened.
“What was that?”
I looked at Dad.
He stared
straight ahead with huge eyes. Beads of sweat rolled from his hairline down to
the side of his temple. He looked terrified, something that conflicted with his
personality. I'd never seen Dad look that scared in my entire life.
“Dad!”
“Did you see
where it went?” he asked, attempting to inject calm into his voice, but I could
hear the fear lacing each syllable.
“See where what
went? Dad what was that!”
“You wouldn't
believe me if I told you.”
“For once in your
life, just tell me!” I screamed. Sixteen years of frustration exploded from my
lungs. I couldn't take the unknown anymore.
“Fine.” He mumbled
something else that I didn't catch. "Do you remember the stories I used to
tell you?"
“Stories? What
stories?”
“The ones about
Paegeia, Elena.” He looked in his rearview mirror again with huge, unblinking
eyes.
Vaguely, but I didn't
tell him that. "What does that have to do with this?"
“They're real.”
I froze and I
stared at him.
“All of it, it’s
real. The dragons, the magic, the wall, everything is real.”
