A Dewdrop Away by C.A. Allen

Fantasy

Date Published: March 2013

Rupert has lived his entire life under the cruel reign of the black squirrels. When he finds out that the artifact that causes the immortality of his enemies is missing, he is sent on a quest to find it and claim it for his own. Rupert is determined to overthrow the evil Emperor Venul and rule justly in his stead, but he is warned by the wise white squirrel Zirreo to be cautious, for countless things can go wrong when holding an object of magic.

Years later, the Dark Wanderer, a shadowy figure claiming to be the servant of the squirrel goddess Astrippa, is loose in Arborand. When friends Mae and Flor accidentally cross paths with him, they get more than they bargained for when they discover that the darkest, wildest legends are often true.

Meanwhile, Theo, an orphaned half-breed squirrel, finds a compass that doesn’t point north and is compelled by a series of disturbing messages to set out with his faithful chipmunk servant Parris to follow where it leads.

What if inequality threatened to take over the land?

What if the gods who ruled your childhood fears came to life?

Would you bow down, or would you fight?

What if fate gifted you with only one journey on which to find out?

Guest Post:

My Five Necessities for Writing (in no particular order)

I work best as soon as I get up, when it’s the first thing I do in the day. As the day goes on, it only gets harder for me to motivate myself to write. I have rare occasions where I’ll start writing again at night, but when I say rare, I mean rare!
This goes with number one to a large degree, seeing as the only time I drink coffee is in the morning and coffee really goes a long way towards empowering me to start putting words to the page.
A schedule. This is so, so important to me. I know writers who only write when they’re inspired, or who still function when left to their own devices with more wiggle-room, but I have to be strict with myself or nothing comes out. I try to aim for the same time every day, and a minimum number of hours to sit in front of the computer.
A lot of smaller goals leading up to the finish line. It really helps me to set myself weekly goals for word count- I make mine 10,000 words a week. This allows me to write less some days and more on others, but it doesn’t allow for me to slack off- at the end of the week, I can be assured I’ll be 10,000 words ahead of where I was the week before.
It’s not always possible, and I’m actually pretty good at working with white noise- say if I’m at a coffee shop or there’s a tv on in the background, but my ideal environment is quiet. I have the hardest time with music, particularly if it’s music I really like. I wish I was the type of writer who could make a nice playlist for my book and listen to it while writing, but alas, I am not. I get so caught up in the music and my imaginings that I can’t follow the train of my current plot and how to proceed.

Meet the Author:

C.A. Allen lives in the Northeastern U.S. with her family and one incredibly quirky corgi. She enjoys black coffee, thunderstorms, and the majesty of trees, which inspired the creation of Arborand. From a very young age she observed the secret life of squirrels in her back yard and decided they were an excellent subject for story-telling.