Prophecy Revealed VBT

Blurb:  

Daniel Marten crossed the Burning Sea and convinced himself that he is the Prophesied One.  But what does that mean?  In this second installment of the Prophecy Chronicles trilogy, Daniel forges new alliances in his bid to save Naphthali from the Emperor.  He meets the Tene’breon, a magical race that has evolved to use the Weave as effortlessly as he breathes air.  The leaders of this race recognize him for what he is…but they also see something more.

Naphthali has been dramatically altered by the rule of a new governor, a man whose power is tied to Daniel in a horrifying way. How far will Daniel go to save Naphthali?  And what is the secret that binds his destiny with his new allies?  Only time will tell in The Prophecy Chronicles: Prophecy Revealed.

Excerpt:

Daniel gasped and pulled in a lungful of air, forcing down the agony. Still bent over at the waist, he snapped his eyes forward, to where another man just entered the room from the opposite side. He was at least six and a half feet tall, his head wreathed in wavy brown hair. He wore silk robes, beneath which muscles bulged and tensed as he studied Daniel, his bright eyes narrowing. It had to be Bertolli.

Daniel forced himself to stand upright. "I…" was all he got out before everyone reacted on reflexes alone.

The man cut him off, bellowing, "Guards!" He started to take a step forward, but then sensed movement to his right. He spun to his left just before Broken Bow's great sword made a low whistle as it sailed through the air where he'd been standing. Without even realizing he was doing it, Daniel pulled his throwing knife and let fly. The large man was too fast, though, prancing back the other way before the blade reached him. He reached around his waist and launched both throwing daggers in rapid succession, but the man merely knocked the small blades away with the backs of his hands.

Behind him, Daniel heard guards slam into the door, but Bastion was able to push it back and hold them out, at least momentarily. Bertolli spun away from another unseen attack by Broken Bow and froze, reversing course at the last moment. He ripped a dagger from his belt as he did so and whipped around again, aiming low. He led with the blade until it stopped, seemingly in midair. What Daniel heard next made his blood run cold.

Ron, thanks so much for stopping by. So, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself? 

Thanks for having me!  I’m very excited to be here today, to share a little bit about my new book, The Prophecy Chronicles: Prophecy Revealed.  I am an Iowa farm boy, born and raised.  I was born in a tiny town called Albia, and now live in Ottumwa, which is about twenty-five miles from where it all started for me…  My full time job is as a pharmacist, and I have three kids.  Now, if any of you work in healthcare or have kids of your own, you’re probably wondering when I have time to write.  I always answer, with a smile, that I just don’t sleep.  Seriously, most of my writing comes between the excrutiating hours of 10:00pm and 2:00am, when everyone else is in bed and there are still a few hours until I have to go back to work.  I am a pharmacist, but writing is really my passion.  I’d love to do this full-time, if only it paid the bills!

How did you get started writing?

I remember when I was in grade school deciding I wanted to write a novel.  I sat down at the computer and cranked out about five or six pages of my masterpiece…and ran out of material.  At that point I realized writing was probably a little more challenging than I first thought!  I am a voracious reader, though, and have been ever since grade school.  At that time I kept reading, but I put aside the idea of writing for the time being.

It wasn’t until about seven years ago that I seriously considered writing again.  At the time I had a job that I had to travel a lot for, and the hours in the car gave me time to think, to nourish kernels of ideas, some of which had been bouncing around in my head since I was in high school.  I can tell you, if you have several hours a day to drive and think, James Blunt’s music can be one heck of a muse!  Most of the broad strokes of the Prophecy Chronicles trilogy were nailed down in my mind at that time.

I wrote an outline for the trilogy then, but again I got side-tracked and it was about another year and half before I actually started writing the books.  Prophecy Foretold and Prophecy Revealed are available now, and the final installment of the trilogy is being polished as we speak!

What was the inspiration for your book? 

My overriding inspiration is and always has been my family.  Without their love and support I never would have completed the Prophecy Chronicles.  In fact one day while I was driving (and missing my family) I started thinking about what it’d be like if a man were pulled from his family and thrown into circumstances far beyond his control.  What would he do to get back to them?  What wouldn’t he do?  Prophecy Foretold was dedicated to my wife, Leslie.  Prophecy Revealed is dedicated to my kids.

What’s the one genre you haven’t written in yet that you’d like to?

I have a great idea for a science fiction novel I’d like to write someday.  A while back I was thinking about alien abductions, and I thought, “Why is it that when everyone is abducted, they always see the same aliens?  Wouldn’t there be other varieties out there, aside from the big-eyed ones?”  I came up with an interesting idea for that, and I just may flesh it out some day…

Are there any genres you won’t read or write in? Why?

I don’t think I could write a romance novel.  I do believe in true love, and I believe in being bowled over by it.  My relationship with my wife is proof of that.  I think I would like to write a love story someday, but it would have to be in the mold of either fantasy or mainstream fiction.  Just thinking about the heaving loins and ripped bodices in romance novels makes me giggle like a school girl…

So, what are you working on right now? Got any releases planned, or still writing?

Currently I’m working on revisions of the third and final installment in The Prophecy Chronicles trilogy, which is tentatively called Prophecy Fulfilled.  Hopefully I’ll be finished cleaning that up by mid-fall, and it might be available by late winter or early spring.  I’m also working on a new book that is more mainstream fiction.  It will look at forgiveness, and what happens when you do (and don’t) ask for or receive it.  I’m about three-quarters of the way through the rough draft in that, and it has been a lot of fun so far!

Alright, now for some totally random, fun questions. Favorite color?  

Blue.  Not some silly one, like baby or powder.  A nice manly one, like navy, or royal!

Favorite movie? 

I don’t really have a single favorite movie.  I suppose the one that comes closest to that title all-time would be Star Wars, but I watched it so much when I was young, and more again now with my kids, that it’s lost some of its appeal for me.  In the last couple of years my favorite movie would probably be a toss-up between The Heat and Guardians of the Galaxy.  Both made me laugh out loud, and left me wanting more, just like a movie should!

Book that inspired you to become an author?

There have been lots of books that have inspired me, but probably the one that had the biggest impact on The Prophecy Chronicles was Lord Foul’s Bane, by Stephen R Donaldson.  That was the start of an epic fantasy series in the ‘70s.  It is based on an antihero, a man from our world that is thrown into a strange new one in a traumatic accident.  When he arrives, everyone recognizes him as something special, but he doesn’t see it.  There are definitely echoes of The Prophecy Chronicles there…  Mr. Donaldson also has the distinction of being the only author to ever write poetry that I committed to memory and can still recite today, more than twenty years since I read the books.  The poem was actually presented as a song the giants sing in the second trilogy of his series.  It starts with, “My heart has rooms that sigh with dust, and ashes in the hearth…”  Wow, that takes me back.  It brings a tear to my eye, every time I think about that poem, and how completely it captures the heart-broken love of losing someone that is a part of you.

Alright, you have one superpower. What is it? 

The ability to move people with my words.  Now, I’m not talking about flinging someone across a street or anything like that.  I’d be content with being able to make people truly feel something with what I have to say.  To make them look at themselves and find something new.

You can have dinner with any 3 people, dead, alive, fictitious, etc. Who are they?

Without a doubt number one would be my wife Leslie.  She is my best friend and confidant.  How could there possibly be anyone better?  Actually that is kind of cheating, because I eat dinner with her every night.  The other two would probably be Harry Potter and Julius Caesar.  They are both fearless, and could probably tell one heck of a story!  I’m a sucker for a good story…

Last question: Which of your characters are you most like and how/why?

I’m the most like Daniel Marten.  We’re both pharmacists with families we love, and it would probably kill us both if we were separated from them and never be able to make it home…  We also are not exactly outdoorsmen.  The thought of being lost in a strange world, where I have to rely on my survival skills, without a cell phone or a car is pretty scary!

That’s all from me, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by!

Thank you so much!  I really enjoyed being here today.  If anyone has any other questions, or would like to learn more about The Prophecy Chronicles, please visit my website at www.prophecychronicles.com.

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Author Information:

Ron Hartman has had a life-long passion for the written word and is an avid reader.  The Prophecy Chronicles are his first written works.  The first in the series, Prophecy Foretold, was released in October of 2012.  Prophecy Revealed is the second in the trilogy.  Ron graduated from the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy in 2000 and lives in Ottumwa, Iowa with his wife and three children.

Website link

Purchase link at Rogue PhoenixPress