Author Archives: Azalea Dabill

About Azalea Dabill

Azalea Dabill grew up in the California hills, building forts in the oaks. Homeschooled, she read The Young Trailers and fantasy adventure to her siblings. Now she enjoys growing things, old bookstores, and hiking the wild. Never finding enough tales of adventure, romance, and mystery in the world, she non-fiction, medieval historical fantasy, and just plain fantasy. Words hold so much power.

Azalea’s Scop Talk: Lance and Quill

It’s here!

Lance and Quill is proofed and published in ebook and print. Thank you for your patience. You’re the best. 🙂

This medieval fantasy will romance your summer hours! I’ll be posting a link to friend and author, Kathrese McKee’s post tomorrow. Check back for my author interview. And don’t forget, there’s a special on! Share these with your friends who like books. Link: Lance and Quill.

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And another! Check out Kathrese’s ebook special here: Turning Point.

Product Details

Have a great summer!

Azalea Dabill

Crossover: Find the Eternal, the Adventure

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Azalea’s Scop Talk

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Mythic fantasy often displays the moral war, an adventure we are all embarked on.

Path of the Warrior: First Entry, is my opening story about how Tae Chisun, respected warrior from Korea, Land of the Morning Calm, seeks to save his people from annihilation by making peace with an attacking enemy in secret.

His Kuksun (general) exiles Tae from his love and his life, setting him on the path of a wanderer, where he will save enslaved stronghold daughter Kyrin Cieri of medieval Britain, impacting the lives of many in their stories to come.

Path of the Warrior explores how compassion, anger, and love can motivate a man to sacrifice everything. When Tae sees his Kuksun foolishly determined to die with all under his command, dooming their people to death, he seeks terms of peace with the enemy. He must kill a master above him who taught him what he knows of war, yet betrayed them all.

In spite of his Kuksun’s wrath, and about to be executed, Tae thinks of his wife, Huen, the Kuksun’s daughter, and begs him to give her his sword and his mother’s land. His general decides to let the gods decide Tae’s fate and has him thrown over the wall to the enemy. Thus the Chronicle begins …

How compassion and mercy can coexist with killing, and drive a person to kill to protect others, is important. Warriors are not necessarily evil. In fact, killing is sometimes necessary. It depends on the warrior’s motive. If it is worthy, a warrior is truly a hero or heroine, as the case may be.

Our motives of love, mercy, kindness, fear, revenge, and anger can become quite tangled. Our desires tend to be mixed at the best of times, but that does not let us off doing the best we can. And if we are God’s forgiven child, he is growing more love and compassion in us all the time.

Genuine care for some people’s lives may require the loss of other’s lives. Many people who do evil will not be stopped by niceness—they are set on their path to destroy others, to achieve what they want at any cost—deadly force is the only thing that will stop them. We are given responsibility in the way of the warrior to save life in just defense. 

The moral war yields good story fodder. And always growth. Downwards or upwards. The choice is ours.

Crossover: Find the Eternal, the Adventure

P. S. Lance and Quill is still in my editor’s capable hands, and events there have pushed my publishing date a few weeks forward. Thank you for your patience, and enjoy summer!

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Azalea’s Scop Talk

 

Falcon Heart

If you’re in the Klamath Falls, Oregon, area and want local good eats, community artisans’ craftsmanship, and an enjoyable stop to booth-shop, come join me at Shepherd’s Spring Fair.

This Friday-Saturday, May 15th-16th 9 am-5 pm. 

Hosanna Christian Academy, 5000 Hosanna Way, Klamath Falls, Oregon 

Falcon Heart will be there too, and I’ll be happy to autograph your book!

Have a great day,

Azalea

 

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Lance and Quill Update

4/25/15

Old grunge paper.

Hello all!

Proofing Lance and Quill is going well—I’m now at page 76 of 170. My ASUS PC, only four months old, is going back to the factory under warranty. So I’m on my laptop with no way to format in InDesign or tweak covers in Photoshop Elements. But I should have my PC back in a couple weeks. I’m working on it!

I’ve been reading Sherwood Smith’s Twice a Prince, and admiring the humor in it. Much of the humor is good. You do have to ignore a reference or two to Eastern philosophy, but there is much good in her writing. A sense of family, loyalty, and compassion, gotten across in a rousing adventure.

Speaking of adventure, it’s been a whirl with the release of Falcon Heart. I thank you all for your support in so many ways. Your good wishes and enthusiastic admiration have meant a lot. But also, don’t be afraid to mention weaknesses you see in the book in your reviews. If you would let me know two weaknesses or things you believe could be improved, as well as two strengths in Falcon Heart, I would be grateful.

We writers need all the help we can get, and I want to write adventures you enjoy. I will do my best to use your insights well.

Thanks so much,

Azalea

 

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Lance and Quill

Old grunge paper.

I apologize to all my readers who have come looking for Lance and Quill. Lance and Quill will be up ASAP. It needs proofreading and changes made before release. Also, getting my books available for purchase on my website is still in progress. Thank you for your patience!

Azalea

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Falcon Heart is official!

Well, it’s official. My book Falcon Heart is finished.

The print proof came in yesterday evening, and it looks great! I’m so thankful and excited. This has been a long time in coming, and the Lord has brought it together.

Falcon Heart is available in both print and ebook on Amazon. My appreciated reviewers, readers, and friends, I hope you enjoy it! I also just applied as a GoodReads author today. Thank you so much!

Have a great day.

Azalea

P. S. Below gives readers a little idea what Falcon Heart is about if you want to forward this to a friend…

A strange dagger…
Adventure beyond fear…

Slavers seize Kyrin Cieri from the coast of medieval Britain and sail for Araby. With a dagger from her murdered mother’s hand, an exiled warrior from the East, and a peasant girl, Kyrin finds mystery, martial skill, and friendship closer than blood. 
The falcon dagger pursues her through tiger-haunted dreams, love, and war in the Araby sands. Kyrin is caught by the caliph’s court intrigue and faces the blade that took her mother. One thing can give her the will to overcome, justice against hate, dagger against sword. 
Murder, sacrifice, vengeance…compassion and the art of war.
Crossover: Find the Eternal, the Adventure

Whether you love historical or Christian medieval romance with a touch of martial arts fiction, or need a young adult epic fantasy series for teens, Falcon Heart, Chronicle I is a solid choice. 
Read the excerpt of this medieval adventure and discover the magic of Falcon Heart. A medieval fantasy of romance and mystery from Britain to Arabia and back.

Old grunge paper. And here’s the link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Falcon-Heart-Chronicle-Azalea-Dabill/dp/1943034001/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428611962&sr=1-1&keywords=azalea+dabill

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Intriguing…a book review.

Midnight_Captive_Front (2)

Midnight Captive was an intriguing read for me, and this review is a few of my thoughts on it.

At first I was a little put off by the confused similes and metaphors and the less-than-stellar grammar. But I was drawn into the story and came to care about the characters deeply.

True, they could use fleshing out, but they hold crystal truths up to a reader’s eyes all the same. Prince Sheridan’s discovering his own identity apart from his brother, Princess Hermione daring to believe in sacrificial love, the minstrel, Alyn’s, bravery in so many ways, and Phaedra’s perseverance and hope of freedom from her and her sister’s curse. Even the evil Seanan was a person with more than one facet.

I would love to see Midnight Captive rewritten in a fuller version.

Some of the logical transitions between various characters’ actions are missing. As in the king’s sudden change of heart toward his daughter after four years of trying to free Phaedra from the curse. His change of mind needs to be shown—how it came about. I hope this makes sense. And if you don’t mind my two cents, a different book cover might serve you better. Midnight Captive’s current cover says Victorian/love story era to me, not fantasy. (I’m a fan of Cameron Dokey’s fairy tales. You might like them too.)

Thank you for the privilege of reading your work, Emilie. Keep writing. I see a lot of promise in how you wove Cinderella, the Pied Piper, and other tales into a new story. Just be true to the vision you see in your mind, see the vision as clearly as you can, and find words that fit that vision. Be picky about the words. They make or break your tale.

Alyn’s climb into the tower to see Princess Hermione and the humor there was good. J In the end, this line of the book stood out to me. It rings with Midnight Captive’s theme of freedom:

“Do it for yourself, Minnie. You are just as cursed as I am. You might see the day physically, but you are not seeing the real beauty of it. You are too much a prisoner of the night.”

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