Spring Read an Ebook Week Coming Soon

I’m excited to announce ALL OF MY BOOKS will be promoted as part of a special sale on @Smashwords to celebrate Read an Ebook Week 2024 from March 3-9. Be sure to follow me for more updates and links to the promotion for my books and many more! #ebookweek24 #Smashwords

To see all the books I have on sale, click on the Ebooks on Smashwords tab at the top of this post or click this link https://mgddasef.blogspot.com/p/ebooks-on-smashwords.html

https://smashwords.com/shelves/promos

Read an Ebook Sale at Smashwords

 Wallapalooza of a Sale Going On

Many Smashwords authors are throwing down huge discounts on their books. You can find them all at the sale site at Smashwords. Discounts range from 25% to 100% off the retail price. Yes, 100% off makes the book absolutely free. Smashwords Promo Page with all books on sale.

You can also go directly to my books which are discounted a lot. Here's the place to go and the sale price of the book:

To see my sale books with their prices (a whole lot of them are free), just go to my Smashwords Author Page for a complete list with prices.  Marva Dasef's Ebooks on Smashwords

All #FREE with code EBW100

Eagle Quest: A Vision Quest turns deadly when four friends confront eagle poachers in a wildlife refuge.

Missing, Assumed Dead: When Kameron McBride receives notice she’s the last living relative of a missing man she’s never even heard of, the last thing she wants to do is head to some half-baked Oregon town to settle his affairs.

First Duty: Nyra Hutchings, a young woman born into a life of servitude on a repressive factory planet, is desperate for a different life. When she's accepted into the Space Service, run by the organization that enslaves her planet, she discovers the truth behind generations of rebellion. Now, she must decide what to believe, where her first duty lies, and fight for more than her life against impossible odds.

Ultimate Duty: The same story as First Duty with some sexy scenes and a battle scene or two. 

The Tales of Abu Nuwas Two books in the series and both are free:

Setara's Genie and Faizah's Destiny

The Compleat and True History of the Witches of Galdorheim - 5 books and stories in the series for free free free free free.

Bad Spelling   Midnight Oil    Scotch Broom   Spellslinger   Blood Ties Tested

Big Sale at Smashwords 3/6-3/12

 READ AN EBOOK WEEK COMING NEXT WEEK!

Many books are  free!

Read an Ebook Sales Ends March 10

READ AN EBOOK WEEK SPECIALS ENDS March 10th

Smashwords all ebook formats - #FREE to 99 cents (code RAE50)

Did you know that Scotch Broom follows the general plot of Wizard of Oz? Kat (our heroine) accidentally gets stuck in the Otherworld (Oz) where she meets three magical creatures. A wicked witch (the winter goddess Cailleach) is out to get Kat to steal her magic. Rather than melting the witch with water, Kat pushes the old biddy into a cauldron of whatever the witch had been brewing. I resisted the urge to have Cailleach, the evil goddess, cry out "I'm melting!" Yeah, that's a spoiler.

One other departure from the general Oz plot is that one of Kat's companions is a traitor working with Cailleach. You could read the book to find out which of these companions turns out to be the bad one.

Sianach: "Monster." In Scottish Gaelic oral tradition, a extra large predatory deer. Other research indicated that the basis for Sianach might be the Irish Elk, which is now extinct.

Cusith: An enormous hound of the Scottish Highlands. It is said to be a dark green in color, with a long braided tail and the size of a bullock. Whenever his baying was heard on the moors, farmers would quickly lock up their women because the hound's mission was to round up women and drive them to a fairy mound so they might supply milk for fairy children.

Cait Sidhe: In Celtic mythology, there’s a fairy (or fae or faerie) for just about any purpose. Cait Sidhe is a shape changing creature who spends most of her time in the form of a very large black cat with a snotty attitude.

I couldn't resist having a horse of a different color (you know what I'm talking about Wizard of Oz fans), so I included Diamond a Unicorn. Who doesn't love unicorns?

Bad Spelling (Book 1 of the Witches of Galdorheim)
A klutzy witch, a shaman's curse, a quest to save her family. Can Kat find her magic in time?
Smashwords (all ebook formats - #FREE)

Midnight Oil (Book 2)
Shipwrecked on a legendary island, how can a witch rescue her boyfriend if she can’t even phone home?
Smashwords (all ebook formats 99 cents using code RAE50)

Scotch Broom (Book 3)
A magical trip to Stonehenge lands a witch in the Otherworld where an ancient goddess is up to no good.
Smashwords (all ebook formats 99 cents using code RAE50)

Spellslinger - A Witches of Galdorheim Short Story
What does a teenage half-warlock, half-vampire do to have fun? Why build an old west town on a glacier in the Arctic. 
Smashwords (all ebook formats - #FREE)

Rune Magic

READ AN EBOOK WEEK SPECIALS

Smashwords all ebook formats - #FREE to 99 cents (code RAE50)

A lot of fantasy novels based on Euro-centric mythologies use Runes in their plots, be it a tattooed rune on the hero’s chest, the discovery of a runic tablet that leads a worthy band of heros on a quest for dragon’s gold, or a villain who casts his dark spells in the ancient runic language. All very cool stuff.

In my Witches of Galdorheim books, I decided to use runes as the magic language. Kat, the teen witch introduced in Bad Spelling, just couldn’t get the pronunciation of the runes right. The results she got were often spectacularly wrong. In other words, she was a bad speller.

I researched runes and found a few I could use to give some depth to the magical language of the witches. Runes are like hieroglyphics in that each run stands for a word or concept rather than a letter. I found a handy phrase chart and stole what I could. Elder Futhark is the oldest known runic alphabet. Each rune has a name. Each rune is a word of power.

In Bad Spelling, Kat’s teacher listens to the misspelling witch as she attempts a simple transformation spell:

Kat held her wand over the pentagram and repeated the spell, omitting the spell’s finishing word. Miss Mariah shook her head. "Katya, you said îgwaz instead of perßô."

Later, Kat’s aunt Thordis uses a runic spell to enable her to speak with Katya’s dead father. I found this spell to raise the dead on an Icelandic runic stave site (how cool is that!).

When she felt her magic to be at its peak, Thordis opened the book to the chapter titled Speaking to the Dead. She zipped through the incantation:

Þat kann ec iþ tolpta,
ef ec se a tre vppi
vafa virgilná
sva ec rist oc i rvnom fác,
at sa gengr gvmi
oc melir viþ mic.

But nothing happened. She slowed down and spoke the spell with precision, putting as much magical force as she could into it. Finally, she felt the spell break through the barrier.

Bad Spelling (Book 1 of the Witches of Galdorheim)
A klutzy witch, a shaman's curse, a quest to save her family. Can Kat find her magic in time?
Smashwords (all ebook formats - #FREE)

Midnight Oil (Book 2)
Shipwrecked on a legendary island, how can a witch rescue her boyfriend if she can’t even phone home?
Smashwords (all ebook formats 99 cents using code RAE50)

Scotch Broom (Book 3)
A magical trip to Stonehenge lands a witch in the Otherworld where an ancient goddess is up to no good.
Smashwords (all ebook formats 99 cents using code RAE50)

Spellslinger - A Witches of Galdorheim Short Story
What does a teenage half-warlock, half-vampire do to have fun? Why build an old west town on a glacier in the Arctic. 
Smashwords (all ebook formats - #FREE)

Charmed I'm Sure

Find all ebooks in the Witches of Galdorheim Series on Sale at Smashwords

How Charming!

A magical item comes in handy in the Galdorheim series. In Scotch Broom, the charm bracelet gifted to Kat by Mordita is an integral part of the plot. 

Charm bracelets aren’t just jewelry. The wearing of charms may have begun as a form of amulet to ward off evil spirits or bad luck. During the pre-historic period, jewelry charms would be made from shells, animal-bones and clay. Later charms were made out of gems, rocks, and wood.

For instance, there is evidence from Africa that shells were used for adornments around 75,000 years ago. In Germany intricately carved mammoth tusk charms have been found from around 30,000 years ago. In ancient Egypt charms were used for identification and as symbols of faith and luck. Charms also served to identify an individual to the gods in the afterlife.

During the Roman Empire, Christians would use tiny fish charms hidden in their clothing to identify themselves to other Christians. Jewish scholars of the same period would write tiny passages of Jewish law and put them in amulets round their necks to keep the law close to their heart at all times. Medieval knights wore charms for protection in battle. Charms also were worn in the Dark Ages to denote family origin and religious and political convictions. (Thanks to Wikipedia for the information on the history of charms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charm_bracelet).

And, of course, we should not forget Lucky Charms (General Mills) which provide us with food just like Kat’s little pig charm does in the story.

So, here is it. Scotch Broom complete with the most charming bracelet. If you can't quite make out the figures, here's what they are and what they represent as related to Kat by the gifter, Mordita.

Excerpt from Scotch Broom: 

“Hold out your hand,” Mordita ordered. Kat laid the gift packets on a side table and held out her right arm. Mordita grabbed her wrist and Kat felt something slide around it followed by the faint snick of a latch. Mordita let go. “Look closely, and you’ll see the charms on the chain.” Kat examined the bracelet. Five tiny charms hung from it, evenly spaced around the bracelet’s length.

I can’t quite...oh, now I see them. Thanks, Mordita. It’s very, umm, pretty.”

“Fiddlesticks. These are useful charms. They’re not meant to be just decorative.” Mordita held up Kat’s wrist and poked one of the charms. It squealed. Kat jumped. “Shush, you silly thing,” Mordita said.

“This little piggie provides food where none is to be found. Nutritious food, that is, so don’t be hoping for candy.”

“Oh. That’s handy.” Kat peered closer at the pig charm. It looked back at her and winked. She grinned. What a great charm, she thought, and charming, too.

Mordita poked at another charm, and Kat heard a muffled purring sound. “This little kitty finds a warm place for you to stay. Nothing fancy, just basic shelter.”

Mordita stroked the next charm, and a muted honk came from the tiny goose. “Early warning system. Activate it when you want protection from unpleasant surprises.”

Kat laughed. “I might need that the second I put foot in Great Britain. It’s all new to me.”

Poke. Whinny. “This pony will bring transportation, for example, a cab in London. The drivers would as soon run you over as pick you up.”

“Cab? I don’t know— Is that a vehicle you can hire to take you places?”

“Indeed. Now, use this last one only in case of dire emergency.” Mordita pointed at the charm but didn’t touch it. “Best let sleeping ogres lie. You’d better have a desperate need for an eight-foot tall, five-hundred pound, angry ogre.”

Kat gave the charm a dubious look. “Will it attack me?”

“Of course not. I imprinted your personality on all the charms. They will serve you and only you. Of course, you must have the bracelet on for the charms to work.”

“This is a great gift, Mordita. I can’t thank you enough.”

“Not at all. Hopefully, you won’t have any need of the ogre.”

Find all ebooks in the Series on Smashwords

Priced from Free to 99 cents for Individual Books
Code RAE50 from March 4th-10th
Spellslinger - Free
Bad Spelling - Free
Midnight Oil - $0.99
Scotch Broom - $0.99
Multi-Book Volume (all of the above) $2.00

Thar Be Monsters!

READ AN EBOOK WEEK - March 4th-10th

Free to 99 cents at Smashwords - Use Code RAE50

The entire Witches of Galdorheim series has a few characters featured in all the books. I thought introducing the stars of the series a good setup for the Smashwords sale going on this month. Oh, yeah, it's going to be BIG! All four books in the series will be free or 99 cents in ebook. 

Two more major forces in the Witches of Galdorheim series aren't witches or warlocks, but they are magical in their own ways. 

Salmon the Orca: Heroes don’t need to be human or even a sexy male alien. When a witch’s power is speaking to animals, a hero can turn up anywhere, even in the middle of an icebound arctic sea.

In the Witches of Galdorheim series, Katrina the teen witch, has the ability to speak with animals. She doesn’t even know she has this ability until she leaves her home, Galdorheim Island. Since the island is somewhere in the middle of the Barents Sea above the Arctic circle, leaving home isn’t a walk in the park. Crossing iced over water in bitter cold weather is hard enough, but when the ice starts to break up and some dangerous creatures appear, it becomes a life-threatening situation. Kat and her brother, Rune, confront an angry and sleepy polar bear. He wasn’t in the mood to chat.

Fortunately for the kids, a HERO appears. Just because he happens to be an orca (killer whale) makes him no less heroic.

Ceto the Sea Monster: In the second book of the Witches of Galdorheim series, Midnight Oil, our erstwhile heroine, Kat, gets a little help from an unusual source. Did you ever wonder why there are so few sightings of the Loch Ness monster? Well, Nessie vacations on Ultima Thule, which may be the remnants of Atlantis.

She's not fond of the name Nessie or Loch Ness Monster and prefers to go by Ceto. From http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Ceto :

In Greek mythology, Ceto or Keto (Greek: English translation: "sea monster") was a hideous aquatic monster, a daughter of Gaia and Pontus. The asteroid (65489) Ceto was named after her, and its satellite (65489) Ceto I Phorcys after her husband. She was the personification of the dangers of the sea, unknown terrors and bizarre creatures. Eventually, the word "ceto" became simple shorthand for any sea monster. The term cetacean represents a case in point. Her husband was Phorcys and they had many children, collectively known as the Phorcydes or Phorcydides. In Greek art, Ceto was drawn as a serpentine fish. Ceto also gave name to the constellation Cetus.

Find all ebooks in the Series on Smashwords
Priced from Free to 99 cents for Individual Books
Code RAE50 from March 4th-10th
Spellslinger - Free
Bad Spelling - Free
Midnight Oil - $0.99
Scotch Broom - $0.99
Multi-Book Volume (all of the above) $2.00