Gina Rae Mitchell

The Order of Time Series by Scott P. Southall | $50 Giveaway, Guest Post on Middle-Grade Fiction, Excerpt

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

The Order of Time by Scott Southall
Published by Seaview Press Holdings on 01/21/2020
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fiction, Fantasy, Middle-Grade, Myths & Legends, Time-Travel
Format: eBook, Hardcover, Paperback
Pages: 264

"If you're into secret societies, time-travel, dangerous artifacts, deadly assassins, evil priests, and vengeful gods then I've got a story for you..."

Anastasia and Edward Upston are eleven year old twins who are different in almost every way. Despite this they are inseparable and the best of friends. They tackle the highs and lows of sixth grade together whether they are fending off bullies at the elite Blake Academy or examining rare antiquities at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Then: life gets complicated.

They discover that their friend and mentor, Dr. Gregorian, is part of a secret society called the Order of Time. It turns out that time is not fixed, it's a fluid continuum where changes to the past can create ripples all the way through to the present. It unwittingly falls to the twins to travel back through time to ancient Egypt where they must overcome deadly assassins, evil high priests and vengeful gods in order to prevent disaster. Together Anastasia and Edward must navigate all obstacles to preserve the past and find their way back home.

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Excerpt from Order of Time

They started to leave when the room suddenly lit up with a strange purple light coming from under a closet door.

“Why is the closet glowing?” asked Edward, his voice trailing up an octave. “Maybe we should get out of here.”

“What if Dr. G’s in there? You know he always locks his door, but it was open tonight. Maybe he’s still here. He might need our help,” Anastasia said emphatically.

The light was getting brighter by the second. Now Edward could also hear a low humming noise.

“Stop being crazy, Anastasia! This is the part in the movies where you yell at the screen for the characters not to open the door. We are not going to open that door.”

“I’m not being crazy. If Dr. G is in there and needs help, we’ll never forgive ourselves.”

Edward looked at her pleadingly, but she wasn’t giving in. His shoulders slumped in defeat. Oh god, please don’t let there be a monster or anything really scary in there. Anastasia dragged him over to the closet door. The light pouring out around the cracks was incredibly bright and the humming was getting louder. She gripped the large, brass doorknob, took a breath, and opened the door.

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Purchase Links for Order of Time

Amazon     Bookshop/IndieBound

    The Book Depository     Waterstones

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Top 5 Pros and Cons of Writing Middle-Grade Books

by Scott Southall

The middle-grade genre is typically identified as books targeting readers between 8-12 years of age. It has produced amazing books and series like Harry Potter, the Chronicles of Narnia, and Percy Jackson. My writing, The Order of Time Series, also targets middle-grade readers. Here is my top 5 list of pros and cons of writing middle-grade books.

Pros:

• Being silly is completely acceptable and actually preferred as a middle-grade writer
• You get to blow kids minds by introducing them to ancient civilizations and their mythologies
• Your son and daughter get to tell their friends that their dad’s books are in the school library
• You get to read other middle-grade books under the guise of market research
• You have the chance to inspire kids to become avid readers

Cons:

• People assume that you are an expert in child development
• Once your kids have read a poo joke you made within a book it can be very hard to put that djinn back in the bottle
• It’s a small market. Only 6% of the population is between 8-12 years old in Australia where I live
• Middle-grade writers aren’t always considered “serious writers” by other writers
• There aren’t’ that may cons. Being a middle-grade author is awesome!

Fascinating Facts About the Viking Age

For many people what they know about the Viking Age and Norse mythology is what they have seen in Marvel’s Thor movies. While the images of Chris Hemsworth and Asgard are captivating, they don’t provide an authentic view into Viking civilization.

The Viking Age was a period in the middle ages between 793 and 1066 AD when the people living in modern Scandinavia, known as Vikings, were actively raiding, colonizing, and trading across Europe. The start of the Viking Age was marked by the Viking raid of the Lindisfarne Abbey in North Umbria England. The monks of the abbey were killed, thrown into the sea, or carried away as slaves along with the church’s treasure. The Vikings were soon raiding across the modern-day United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal among other locations. The French region of Normandy is actually named after the Viking invaders – “Norrmani” or men of the north.

Viking raids and exploration were enabled by the design of the longships which were the most feared naval vessels at the time. The ships could be sailed or rowed as required and could reach speeds of up to 17 knots. The shallow hulls also enabled the ships to make shallow beach landings and sail up rivers. The longships were often made even more fearsome through the addition of decorative headpieces, often in the shape of dragons or serpents, on the front of the ships.

The Viking’s longships were also capable of navigation of the open sea which led to their discovery and settlement of Iceland around 830 AD. Erik the Red, who is a central character in The Order of Time and Odin’s Door, settled in Iceland after his family was exiled from modern-day Norway. Erik was famous for colonizing the inappropriately named Greenland. His son, Leif Erikson, was the first European to sight  North America. Almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

Although the Viking Age ended almost a millennium ago, the characters of Norse mythology still intrigues inhabitants of the twenty-first century. Symbols of the giant ash tree Yggdrasil, which sat at the center of the Norse cosmos and its nine realms, can still be found in jewelry and online. Gods like Odin, Thor, Loki, and Hel all feature heavily in the movie theaters and on Netflix. Norse mythology was also full of amazing beings and monsters like elves, dwarves, giants, draugar , krakens, and dragons. I can also attest that they make great fodder for middle-grade books.

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I love my Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription. So many books, so little time!

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Purchase Order of Time online from a local book store.

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Full Tour Schedule

November 16: Andi’s Middle Grade and Chapter Books
November 18: Literary Gold
November 23: Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read
November 30: Rogue’s Angels

December 2: Hope. Dreams. Life… Love
December 7: Nickie’s Views and Interviews
December 9: Novels Alive
December 14: Fabulous and Brunette
December 16: The Avid Reader
December 28: All the Ups and Downs
December 30: The Faerie Review

January 4: Our Town Book Reviews
January 6: Eye-Rolling Demigod’s Book Blog
January 11: Read Your Writes Book Reviews
January 13: Sybrina’s Book Blog
January 18: Gina Rae Mitchell
January 20: Splashes of Joy
January 25: Westveil Publishing
January 27: Sandra’s Book Club

February 1: The Pen and Muse Book Reviews
February 3: Jazzy Book Reviews
February 8: Kit ‘N Kabookle
February 10: Author C.A.Milson
February 15: Coffee and Wander Book Reviews
February 17: Don’t Judge, Read
February 22: Hope. Dreams. Life… Love
February 24: Long and Short Reviews

March 1: Welcome to My World of Dreams
March 3: Books in the Hall
March 8: Girl with Pen

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