Raven, Romda and Ravai: Malketh and the Undead, Vol.2 by Dave Maruszewski | Excerpt ~ Author Guest Post about Negative Feedback ~ Gift Card Opportunity
A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me with the information for this tour.
Book Details
Malketh and the Undead by Dave Maruszewski Series: Raven, Romda and Ravai #2
Published by BOOKBABY on April 18, 2023
Genres: Epic Fantasy, Middle-Grade
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 100
Raven, Romda, and Ravai are settling into their new knightly duties well. With the Dark Beast defeated, their normal tasks almost seem mundane.
Amidst the boredom, Ravai asks, "Why does no one talk about villains from the past?"
Romda reasons, "What would be the point?"
There is a point. Even though villains may be defeated, they may still be around, waiting in the background, ready to resurface once again. From the rubble and debris in which he was buried, Malketh has returned. Presumed dead, he now rises with a fury. His rage is fixed on what he believes belongs to him, the entire kingdom.
Malketh was not always like this. Once known as a mage of incredible knowledge and aptitude, he had admiration and opportunity. He started to investigate ancient and intentionally abandoned magic. That investigation became his downfall. When his mechanizations went wrong, Malketh was expelled from the kingdom.
Malketh has returned to the kingdom … different. He is back with an entire army … an entire army of undead soldiers!
Raven, Romda and Ravai are thinking, maybe hoping, that their hardest task is behind them. However, they will be blindsided by this coming force for which they won't be ready. Their banter will soon be replaced by a call to action. And, action will come a-plenty.
How do you defeat an army with three people? Raven, Romda, and Ravai will have to face this new challenge and rise up like Malketh and the Undead.
An excellent story for the fantasy-loving youth, this adventure will appeal to those who like action and humor in an easy reading environment. Following their adventures in The Dark Beast, this second book in the Raven, Romda, and Ravai series raises the stakes in the continuing journey of the three.
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Excerpt from Malketh and the Undead
Romda says, “Wait! Don’t do it!”
“Don’t do what?” Malketh muses. “Destroy you like your kings tried to destroy me?” Malketh stops for a second, then talks a little lower, mostly to himself. “You know, you think that the king would send more than three saplings to stop me. I’m a little offended.”
“They didn’t try to destroy you,” Romda interrupts his train of thought. “You brought the dead back without permission, even raising the king’s grandmother. So, they had to stop you.”
Malketh does not believe what he is hearing. “All that I wanted was to be the best and to please our king. For that I am punished? For that I am banished?”
Romda does not let his words faze her. “I think you tried to please yourself first.”
“Bah,” he retorts.
Romda continues, “How did you know what the king wanted? Did you ask him? Or, was it just a way for you to satisfy your own desires?”
These words enrage Malketh, “You are like the rest. You only seek to confine me, to put me in my place. Well, here is your place!”
Before Romda can speak again, Malketh goes into action. With his staff, Malketh makes a motion and calls down lightning upon Ravai and Raven. The smoke clears and he looks around. Everyone is totally unhurt. Romda has her hand extended, holding up the Ring of Reversal.
Malketh brims with anger and says, “You think that ring will stop all my lightning. Let me show you what true power is!” He takes up his staff again and the winds swirl, clouds go around in circles and circles, coalescing to a very bright culmination of power. A large shaft of energy comes tunneling down.
Excerpt provided by the author/publisher for use in this post.
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Purchase Links for Malketh and the Undead
Amazon – OneLink for every country
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Guest Post from Dave Maruszewski, author of Malketh and the Undead
How to handle negative criticism.
I developed this over time. A writer can get a lot of criticisms and suggestions. You should evaluate them as much as they evaluate you. I ended up coming up with the following to handle it appropriately:
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- Note the Nature – If someone is rude or hostile, it’s not worth bothering. You can’t affect your writing based on someone’s bad attitude or day. If people come at you with general interest, try to stay open as long as you can.
- Professionality – if someone criticizes your work with a professional tone, they probably read your book with that same professionalism. That’s a good thing even if they say something bad. Note that professional doesn’t mean “stick in the mud.” People can be funny, happy, pleasant and still be professional just as at any workplace.
- Evaluating Properly – I had someone criticize my book after they admitted they expected it to be something else. As they wrote, it was also clear that they hadn’t read my book (at least closely.) I threw that one away.
- Look for Executables – Criticism isn’t very useful if it just exists. There should be something that can improve your writing. You should be able to come out of the critique with at least one or two concrete things that you can actually do.
- Attention to Subjectivity – Yours and theirs. Make sure that they don’t come from a place where they are telling you their favorite things or their specific rules for writers. They might push you into being a second rate version of themselves. Then, if they pass that test, don’t read things in a direction that you want to go. Often, you have to change your writing in a way that will stretch you in ways that aren’t comfortable.
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Read my post about book 1 of the series, The Dark Beast
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I love my Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription. So many books, so little time!
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About Dave Maruszewski
Dave Maruszewski is blessed with a great family. He was originally inspired to write stories by his son. His son and wife eventually encouraged him to put his bedtime stories on paper.
His stories are created from an accumulation of experiences from careers/backgrounds as a physicist, engineer, teacher, artist, video game designer and software developer. He strives to develop stories with sound moral values that will be enlightening as well as entertaining to youths and adults.
Dave specifically tries to reach Young Adults who don’t like to read but appreciate quality content and deeper themes. From his own experiences, he knows that the hardship of reading doesn’t mean that a person isn’t capable of harder material. It may be due to disorder or anxiety.
In between writing stories and running his own company, Digital Tumult (DigitalTumult.com), Dave enjoys video games, watching internet videos and hanging out with his family.
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Purchase Malketh and the Undead online from a local bookstore.
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Easy Amazon Info Link
Amazon – OneLink for every country
If the above link does not take you to your country, here are a few more:
Please send me a note if your country isn’t listed and you would like to purchase using my links. Using my link does not change the price you pay. Amazon pays me a minimal amount out of their share.
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Giveaway!
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
Visit more stops on this Goddess Fish tour for extra chances to win!
Official Tour Page for Malketh and the Undead
Full Tour Schedule:
March 27: Books in the Hall
March 27: The Faerie Review
March 28: Read Your Writes Book Reviews
March 29: Hope. Dreams. Life… Dream
March 29: Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read
March 30: The Avid Reader
March 31: Sybrina’s Book Blog
April 3: Westveil Publishing
April 3: It’s Raining Books
April 4: Write. Read. Live.
April 4: Sandra’s Book Club
April 5: Fabulous and Brunette
April 6: FUONLYKNEW
April 6: Literary Gold
April 7: DSDehel
April 10: All the Ups and Downs
April 10: The Pen and Muse Book Reviews
April 11: Long and Short Reviews
April 12: Kit ‘n Kabookle
April 12: fundinmental
April 13: Country Mamas With Kids
April 14: Jazzy Book Reviews
April 14: The Obsessed Reader
April 17: Author C.A.Milson
April 18: Boys’ Mom Reads! – review only
April 18: Paws.Read.Repeat
April 19: Welcome to My World of Dreams
April 20: InkSpired: Musings On All Things Literary – review
April 20: Straight From the Library
April 21: Gina Rae Mitchell
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Looking forward to reading this
Thanks Elaine!
The excerpt sounds really good.
Thank you very much!
Sounds like an interesting read.
Thank you Sherry!
I liked the excerpt. Sounds good.
Thanks, Rita!
Thank you for having me today!
Lots of comments on various Facebook writers groups about reviews/ratings. I’d add to Dave’s list to take into consideration the writing capability of the reviewer. Here’s a 2* review I’ve copy & pasted exactly as it appears from the Netgalley listing for my thriller “Whatever Happened to Cathy Martin”: This book was not for me I’m afraid but look another person could love it, it’s all about one’s own tastes in books, but to much going on in it for me but still not a bad read
That is tough, Mim. I’m really not a fan of the star rating system. It’s so flawed. I’ve rated a book a 4 then the next day raised it to 4.5 or even 5, after I’ve replayed it in my mind. I try to award points for the various aspects that are important to me, then translate that into stars. But it’s a tough process.
“to much going”, lol. That’s the mark of an experienced reviewer. Yeah, you can probably throw that opinion out. Thanks for the good post!
Also, you have to wonder why they gave it a 2-star if it was “not a bad read.”
A great story and to me could be made into a movie!! Good luck on your book!!!
Wow, thank you so much for the compliment! Have a great day!
Thanks for hosting!