Tag: regnum trilogy

It’s Been a Long Year… Or Two

Ellie Penner

Hey Readers!

It’s been a wild couple of years since I last gave an update on all things Regnum. Since August 2020, I’ve:

  • Survived a pandemic (phew, that was a thing)
  • Moved
  • Gotten a new job, woot!
  • Gotten a new job, again.
  • Gotten another new job (this one’s the keeper, I can feel it!)
  • Started working remotely full-time
  • Tried my hand at writing in the Adult Fiction genre
  • Sent my oldest kiddo off to Kindergarten
  • Began raising chickens (yeah, don’t ask…)

And a whole host of other things that have basically contributed to the delayed release of Hespera, Book #2 in the Regnum Trilogy.

But last week, after wrapping up the final chapter in my latest adult fiction novel, I’m pleased to say I’m firmly back in the world of Regnum Terra and churning out chapters as I try to make up for lost time.

So, barring the start of WWIII or some other catastrophic event, expect to see Hespera coming soon to an online bookshelf near you!

Thank you for your continued support, interest, and encouragement!

It’s Friday!

Ellie Penner

Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!

For all of you loyal fans who have read through to the end of Regnum Terra, thank you! And I’m sorry… I know ending a book on a cliff hanger like that is particularly cruel.

So…

To make amends, I’m posting the 1st draft of the prologue to the sequel of Regnum Terra.

Without further ado, I would like to introduce the beginning of my second novel, Hespera.

Spoilers!

Hespera

He knew he was dreaming. Happiness like this could never exist in any real realm. It was too clean and pure; too pleasant to be anything other than a dream.

            Reality was always much harsher.

            The river running beside him was a sheet of polished crystal gleaming in the light of the warm summer sun. He heard the water racing along; heard the splash and jump of fish in motion, and yet the river was perfectly, unnaturally still.

            The last time he had been in this shadow world had been a lifetime ago. He wondered how he had wandered here, out of all the hazy dream worlds he could have stumbled into.

            He wondered if it was possible that she was really here too.

            She was curled up beside him, her head on his lap, her hair shining brighter than the river where the light of the sun caught it. He traced the hints of auburn and gold lurking amidst the chocolate-brown strands; the touches of color gently teased out by the late-afternoon sunbeams trickling down from the heavens.

            She shifted slightly in her sleep and he winced as she brushed across his healing side. The sharp touch of pain threatened to wake him, the edges of the dream world blurring as the air around him thickened uncomfortably.

            His breathing quickened as he struggled to stay here, in this gleaming haven with this angel perched on his lap. He knew that if he left, he might not be able to find his way back. Worlds were tricky things, and with the stargate gone…

            As the image of a looming, ancient tree filled his mind, the girl sat bolt-upright as though startled into wakefulness, her brilliant blue eyes wide and fearful.

            Their gazes met, emerald and sapphire sparking against one another across the divide.

            A wistful smile lifted the corners of her mouth as she looked at him. He saw the pain in that smile, and his heart ached in his chest. She probably thought he was dead; a mere ghost her memory had filtered into her dreams.

            He wondered painfully if, outside of dreams, she even remembered him at all.

            Timidly, tentatively, she stretched her hand toward him as though to test his physicality; as though worried that her fingers would pass right through him like trees through a heavy fog.

            The air grew slick and oily, the pressure dropping suddenly as his breath caught in his chest. He stared into her gleaming eyes hungrily, hoping that, just by looking, he could cross the space between them and come home to her.

As her hand gently landed on his chest, the mark on his hip blazed a brilliant, blinding white. Her eyes widened hopefully as the world dissolved around them; the frozen river disappearing in an angry, consuming flood of starlight.

Happy Monday!

Ellie Penner

We’re officially three weeks into the school year, and I think I may have caught my breath enough to actually continue working on Book 2 in The Regnum Trilogy! Too bad the attached meme is ridiculously accurate…

If you haven’t read Regnum Terra yet, you’d better hop on the bandwagon now! Here’s your chance to be the ultimate hipster and like something before it’s cool 😉

Check out our Shop for links to purchase your very own copy of Regnum Terra! And take some time to watch Lord of the Rings today… you know you want to.

What I did this summer…

Ellie Penner

After much waiting, wondering, and worrying, I finally took the plunge.

My debut novel, Regnum Terra is now officially published!

The Kindle and Nook versions are already available online, with paperback and hardcover editions coming soon.

I spent the last week working on this beauty:

I can’t wait to see this cover spread on an actual, physical book!

A huge thank you to all my diligent and supportive beta readers. This monumental project would not have been possible without your insight.

Follow the links below to order your very own copy of Regnum Terra!

Order via Amazon

Order via Barnes and Noble

Meet Kenzie-

Ellie Penner

“Wait, so he like, fixed your hair?” questioned Kenzie through a mouthful of salad the next day at lunch. “Sort of,” I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

I had told Kenzie everything, desperate for her opinion on the events of yesterday, and I could almost see the facts sinking into her brain. Kenzie was the closest thing the world had to a boy-translator: she could take a single conversation with a member of the opposite sex and unpack it the way some people could unpack the symbolism in a novel. If anyone could tell me what Alek was thinking, it was Kenzie.

I hadn’t worked up the courage to tell her about the dream I had had of Alek though; I didn’t want to lose my only real friend because she thought that I was crazy. I hadn’t been able to shake the sense of deja-vu I felt around Alek; the sense I had that I knew him, or had known him, or something like that…

“I’m so glad you and Josh aren’t together anymore, though,” Kenzie interrupted. “I can’t believe he actually had the nerve to grab you. I don’t know what you ever saw in him; he’s a total creep!” I nodded fervently, relieved to know I wasn’t the only one who found Josh’s behavior exceptionally disturbing.

“Alek though, he’s kind of a weirdo too,” continued Kenzie thoughtfully, twirling her fork between her fingers absentmindedly. “I don’t know what he’s thinking. He followed you around yesterday like a stalker!” She frowned, concerned.

“My thoughts exactly!” I mumbled through a mouthful of what was supposed to be mac and cheese. “He kind of dragged me out of History too, and wanted to walk me home.”

“Hang on, he dragged you? As in, by-the-hand actual draggage? You didn’t let him walk you home, did you? Oh my gosh, please promise me you didn’t get in a car with him!” Kenzie almost shouted, her eyes wide.

“Shhh, everyone’s going to think we’re even crazier than they already do,” I said, glancing around the crowded lunchroom. “I didn’t give him a ride, or let him walk me home, or anything. Promise.”

“You had me worried that I was talking to a ghost!” Kenzie laughed, relieved.

“Nope, still alive, unfortunately,” I responded, looking gloomily down at my unappetizing meal. “Maybe this will kill me off and rid me of my misery.”

“Hey now,” Kenzie shook her finger at me reprovingly. “At least you have a boy that’s showing some sort of interest in you! Granted, it’s a weird kind of interest, but some people are really into that. Don’t tell me you’re into that kind of thing though; it might put a damper on our friendship.”

“Do you think he likes me, though?” I asked, my voice coming across a little whiney.

“Is that even a question?” Kenzie replied with a smirk, catching my blank look before quickly adding, “Yes, dear, he likes you.”

“Then why is he acting so weird?” I complained, stabbing my food with a little more force than was probably necessary.

“Because he’s a teenage boy,” she said with a shrug. “They’re always weird, and then you add actual emotion into the mix, and it just amplifies the weirdness.”

Updates! (Or a Lack Thereof)

Ellie Penner

Hey guys! Not much to say this week… I’m still in the midst of querying literary agents, which is quite the grind. Imagine online dating, but much more rejection, and no weirdly awkward first-dates to break up the monotony. Pretty rough.

Which brings me to my main point: even though querying kinda sucks, you guys keep me at it! Your enthusiasm for my writing helps reassure me that I shouldn’t just shelve this project and give up on my dream of authorship. Thank you so much for all of you who read my random, weekly updates. Thank you for being willing to beta read my novel, and sparing me the embarrassment of typos in the manuscript I’m sending out to agents. Thank you for listening while I geek-out about the latest plot twist I’ve cooked up. And thank you for believing in me, even when I struggle believing in myself.

If it takes a village to raise a child, it certainly takes a village to publish a book.

Thanks for being my village.

Meet Alek-

Ellie Penner

Outside of Mr. McKlellin’s room we stopped. I stared down at the floor as the boy’s hand dropped to his side. “I don’t really know your name,” I admitted, embarrassed. A beautiful, crooked smile flashed across his face.

            “My bad,” he said, eyes twinkling. “I should have introduced myself sooner. But I’m going to be mean, Hazel,” he paused, the twinkle in his eye looking slightly wicked. “I’m going to make you guess my name.”

            “What?” I replied, caught off guard. “Why?”

            “I want to see what you’ll come up with,” he laughed, leaning against the door frame casually. “What kind of a person do I look like to you? Am I a Toby? Or a Clarence? Stanley? Because if you guess any of those names, I’ll know you’re not into guys like me and I’ll leave you alone.”

            My cheeks flushed crimson.

            “Are you flirting with me?” I blurted out, mentally cursing my lack of feminine wiles.

            “Not if you think my name is Toby,” he replied with a wink.

            A wink? Seriously?

            “Well, I guess I can rule out Toby, Clarence, and Stanley…” I said, ruefully engaging in the game as my carefully built wall crumbled slightly under the intensity of Alek’s vivid gaze.

            Alek.

            Where had that come from?

            I felt the same, eerie sense of familiarity that had washed over me when I had first laid eyes on the boy; a tingling through my veins that both excited and terrified me.

            “You look like you’ve picked a name,” the boy said, his grin teasing. “What’ll it be, Hazel Anderson? Take a shot.”

            I hesitated, tasting the name in my mind.

            Alek.

            I looked the boy up and down, from his slightly scuffed jeans to his messy, ebony hair.

            “Your name is Alek,” I said, my voice surprisingly confident. The grin on the boy’s face faltered slightly, his shoulder slipping down the doorframe in shock.

            “Oh shoot, I’ve offended you,” I muttered, running my hands through my hair in chagrin.

            “No, that’s not it at all!” he replied, a crooked grin slowly spreading across his face. “You must either be a psychic, or really, really lucky.”

            “No way…” I breathed, my heart pounding like I had just won the lottery. “I actually guessed it? Your name really is Alek?”

            “Unless you hate it, of course,” he grinned, “in which case I’ll gladly change it. ‘Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptiz’d,’ and all that.”

            “Did you just quote Romeo and Juliet?” I asked, my eyes widening incredulously.

            “It’s not a problem, is it?” he answered with another wink.

            “I’ll let you know,” I said with a tentative smile, pushing the classroom door open as the bell sounded loudly above us.

Writer’s Block

Ellie Penner

The other day, I had a student come up to me and ask for some advice. He’s been working on several science fiction novels, and one story in particular has been hard for him to move through. “There’s just this scene that I have to write,” he complained. “It’s so boring, but I need to include the information, or else nothing afterward will make any sense. If I’m this bored while writing it, there’s no way anyone will want to read it. I’m stuck! What do I do?”

Personally, I hate writer’s block almost more than anything else. For me, it comes when I start judging my work too harshly. I’ll re-write a paragraph ten, fifteen, twenty times (not even exaggerating), and still feel like what I’ve written is clunky, boring, or just lame. This contrasts with the times when my fingers fly across the keyboard because the story seems pre-written in my head and I’m just typing it out. Hitting the metaphorical wall that is writer’s block hurts, in a very emotional-hurt kind of way. I start to worry that I’ve lost any skill I’ve had with writing. That I’ll never finish writing the chapter I’m on, much less the rest of the book. That I’ll never be able to write anything readable ever again. (Yes, my brain is ridiculously histrionic, and tends toward worst-case scenarios).

Although I don’t have a sure-fire cure for writer’s block, there is one thing I’ve found to be particularly useful when I’m faced with the beast:

Move On!

When I find myself ramming my head against the wall, trying to perfect a paragraph that refuses to cooperate, I have to remind myself to take a step back. I look at my painfully messy writing, and I tell myself “you’ll come back and fix this later.” And then I move to the next scene, or the next chapter, or the next part of the story that just works. I move on to convince myself that I can still write, and that this story that I’m crafting is actually going somewhere beyond the scene I’m struggling with.

As the amazing movie, Meet the Robinsons says, “Keep Moving Forward.”