You may or may not know (if you read the header ... you probably will) that I write young adult books. I write fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal fiction. My debut, the first book in the Lux Guardians series, THE FORGOTTEN, is a young adult dystopian.
I'll put the blurb at the end of this post, but I wanted to talk about the other important thing about The Lux Guardians. The fact that it's free. I've always wanted to release a book for free. Reading is a form of escape, and a very common one. So many people turn to books to get away from their problems, to escape from real life, to immerse themselves in a world where they do not need to face or acknowledge anything from the 'real world'.
I am one of those people, and though I have always been surrounded by books and the worlds tucked away inside their pages, sometimes I need a new world to run to. Sometimes, though familiarity is comforting, books you know by heart are not enough. Sometimes you need to read something unknown, to be caught up in the mystery, in not knowing what will happen next, and in a completely new setting with new characters.
But new books cost money. And young adults don't always have money. Hell - even adults don't always have money. But then there is no new book to turn to, no sanctuary to fall into. And that is why The Lux Guardians is free.
Also it's kind of going back to how stories were passed on through word of mouth, through family member after family member after family member. Stories were free then. My stories are free now. I'm sure eventually I'll need to publish my books through a publisher, that I'll need money to support and sustain myself, but for now my words are free. That being said, I do accept donations. So if you want to support me ... that's how!
Anyway, enough of that, here's the summary of The Forgotten:
Good and goodness will prevail.
Twenty five years ago the world was set ablaze when solar flares obliterated three quarters of the Earth’s population and wiped out whole continents in one blow. The flares brought with them The Sixteen Strains: agonizing and fatal diseases that plague each of the forty one zones of Forgotten London and the rest of the world. The only places that escaped fatal damage were two countries now known as The Cities – States and Bharat. The rest of the world – The Forgotten Lands – is contained within borders for the people’s protection against even deadlier Strains outside the barrier. But fifteen year old Honour thinks differently. He thinks that they’re kept inside the fence for other, more menacing reasons. He thinks that States are planning to kill them.
Branwell and Bennet Ravel are twins living in a world of danger and secrecy.
In Victorian London, years before the solar flares hit, the Ravels’ world has just been turned upside down. Their father, poisoned by something even genius Branwell can’t determine, has passed away. His dying words were unnerving orders to keep each other safe no matter the cost, and to hide everything he has ever invented. When one of his creations goes missing – a device named The Lux that can generate unlimited energy – the twins are shocked to discover that their very own government has stolen it and, according to their father’s journals, are planning to use it to create unfathomable explosions to destroy their world.
The Ravel twins will have to find and reclaim The Lux if they are to stop their world’s planned destruction, but when they’re transported to an unfamiliar, derelict world, the search for the device will become harder than ever. Honour and Horatia, against all odds, will have to find a way to stop States before the remainder of Earth is eradicated and their world is lost for good, or somehow get every single citizen of Forgotten London outside of the fence.
The Forgotten will be released 20.06.13 in eBook, and 30.07.13 in paperback. For a paperback copy sign up to the waiting list.
If you made it to the end of this post, and read the entire thing, you should be knighted. Thank you.
