Tag: witching license

5 Great Books for your Fantasy Reader in 2021 – The Pixelvania Publishing Holiday Gift Guide 2021

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Most fiction lovers enjoy a receiving new paperback around the holidays, but it can be tricky picking out the right book for your fantasy reader friend. Do you buy a popular title that your reader may already own? Or do you send a gift card and hope opening it doesn’t feel lackluster on the big day?

Here’s another option: consider buying a fantasy book written by an independent author like me, Danielle Williams! It’s fun discovering a new up-and-coming writer who hasn’t yet caught the wave of popularity–and it practically guarantees your fantasy reader won’t have a copy in their collection yet.

To help you shop, here’s 5 books from my catalog that would make a great holiday gift for your fantasy reader friend!

This list includes the the title’s paperback page count and assigned content rating from MyBookRatings.com

Cover for MIDWINTER MAGIC: A stylized glowing reindeer leaps against the blue Northern LightsMidwinter Magic (91 paperback pages, rated All Ages)

Three interconnected fairy tales reimagine the origins of the Christmas elves, flying reindeer, and Santa Claus in this collection filled with timeless charm. Midwinter Magic is a terrific gift for fans of Jane Yolen or Ursula Vernon.

Get the book Find out more

 

Cover for THE CAPRAMANCER NEXT DOOR: A laughing woman wields a glowing shepherd's crook while a goat leaps through a portal overhead The Capramancer Next Door (175 paperback pages, rated Mild+, Also available in large print.)

A down-to-earth mage and her magical goats must protect their new neighbor when he crosses an angry fairy in this short novel. Grown fans of Harry Potter are sure to like The Capramancer Next Door for its magical yet grounded adventure that’s sprinkled with of humor and romance.

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(And if your reader likes stickers, grab our cool Elvis the Goat sticker here on Redbubble!)

Cover for STEEL CITY, VEILED KINGDOM, PART 1 - A man in a labcoat holding a rabbit on a strange device, with a monster in the background. A seafoam green banner and some text near the bottom indicates that this is the first part.Steel City, Veiled Kingdom, part 1: Surface (246 paperback pages, rated Moderate)

In his darkest hour, an ambitious young scientist strikes a deal with the bizarre Queen of the faerie world. Little does he know her help comes at a cost even he cannot calculate.

Blending the sci-fi/fantasy flavors of Star Trek, GATTACA, and even The Fifth Element, this novel full of colorful characters and unique cultures spans five volumes and is the perfect match for the Brandon Sanderson or Dune fan in your life.

Friends with a voracious reader? Grab ’em The Complete Edition ebook instead–it’ll last ’em a while, believe me!

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A GINGERSNAP CAT CHRISTMAS Book Cover: A ginger cat with a halo smiles at a terrified black and grey kitten hiding behind him.A Gingersnap Cat Christmas (199 paperback pages, rated All Ages)

For Christian kids and kids-at-heart. If you ever wondered what HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN would’ve been like with feline stars, you’ll love A Gingersnap Cat Christmas. This full-length novel is available in two formats: eBook AND paperback–because everyone loves to unwrap a book.

This book is a great gift for:

      • cat lovers (of course)
      • fans of feel-good Christmas specials (like yours truly)
      • Christians (especially ones who want to see their faith positively portrayed)
      • voracious young readers (the paperback’s 200 pages!)
      • time-strapped families (25 chapters means you can read one a day until Christmas)
      • dog lovers (yup, couldn’t leave out the talking dogs!)
      • readers who enjoyed The Purrfect Christmas (you’ll see why in chapter nine 😉

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Cover for the large print edition of THE WITCHING LICENSE: A green hand grabs a purple witch's hat trailing stars against a magical glowing blue moon. The Witching License (Large Print Edition) (135 large print paperback pages, rated Mild+. Also available in standard print.)

A dying woman uses her last night on earth—and newfound magical powers—to right the most important wrongs in her life. By turns sassy and touching, The Witching License is a quicker read that your seasoned fantasy reader can enjoy in large print format.

Pixelvania Publishing’s large print books are designed according to specifications recommended by the Council of Citizens with Low Vision International, which gives these books a radically different look than my other paperbacks, so be sure to use the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon to make sure it’s what your reader will want!

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The Purrfect Christmas (Cover). Three animals: a smiling Golden retriever wearing a sequined santa hat to the left, a gently smiling orange tabby wearing a green bow to the right, and frowning in the middle, a grumpy longhaired brown tabby.

BONUS! Need a last-minute digital stocking stuffer? The Purrfect Christmas is a great choice! (digital only, rated All Ages)

A widow’s cat teams up with neighbors to save Christmas in this cute, Christian short story about helping others. Terrific for families who want something shorter to read together. With 12 chapters, you can read one chapter a day for the twelve days of Christmas, then finish the epilogue on Boxing Day!

Get the ebook Find out more

There you have it! My  gift recommendations for fantasy readers this 2021 holiday season! Happy shopping!

Danielle

Check out my behind-the-scenes interview for THE WITCHING LICENSE

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People are always asking authors, “How do you get your ideas?” Well, you can find out a little bit about how I got my idea for The Witching License (along with some other behind-the-scenes tidbits) in this interview I did with A.L. Butcher.

Read now

The Witching License is now available with 12 other fantasy stories in the new Here Be More Magic ebook bundle.

The HERE BE MORE MAGIC ebook bundle, visualized as a boxed set of books

 

The HERE BE MORE MAGIC Ebook Bundle–a terrific value for fantasy readers!

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Are you a voracious fantasy reader? Then listen up, ‘cuz I’ve got a tasty bargain for you today! THE WITCHING LICENSE, my gentle tale of regret, romance, and righting wrongs, is in a new book bundle, called HERE BE MORE MAGIC!

The HERE BE MORE MAGIC ebook bundle, visualized as a boxed set of books

This bundle’s an amazing value–for $5.99 you get my story, THE WITCHING LICENSE, plus 12 other stories by other fantasy authors, eight of which are NOVELS. That’s a baker’s dozen of enchanting tales!

Get your copy here!

 

The Pixelvania Proclamation o’ Progress, February 2020

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The State of the Pixelvania Pixelvania Proclamation o’ Progress is a semiannual post detailing what’s going on around here, and what might show up in the future. It’s only posted twice a year so as not to clog up your valuable, beautiful brain space.

The Recap

Since the last post, I’m happy to announce the publishing of:

(As you know, that last one’s been a long, long time coming!)

Additionally, I upgraded Pixelvania Publishing’s site theme and tinkered with the organization some. Hopefully, it’s easier to find any story to match the mood you’re in. If there’s an organizational category you’d like to see added, please drop me a line.

Currently in Production

Steel City, Veiled Kingdom (SCVK) – Print Books

Funny story—up ‘til December 2019, both me and my lovely print formatter, Colleen, thought we’d be publishing this behemoth as a one-volume paperback. One book. But after she received the final manuscript, she realized this CHONK of a novel was too big for Amazon’s Print-on-Demand to handle. She notified me of the hiccup and advised me to do the paperback in five separate chunks, to go with the five different sections of the story.

I agreed.

I spent all of December scrambling to get 6 ebooks—each of which needed slightly different cover designs to differentiate between parts—out by January 11th.

But none of the ebook OR print work could go forward until I created five new book descriptions, one for each of the now-separate parts. Keep in mind the original book description (currently in use for the Complete Edition) took me over a year to develop. Read More …

New Release and a SALE!

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Cover to THE WITCHING LICENSE. A green hand grabs a purple witch's hat against a whimsical night sky and blue moon.

Mavis Burnsides is on her deathbed when her best friend brings her a Witching License. Now she’s got magical powers—and one last night to make up for a lifetime of regrets.

By turns sassy and touching, The Witching License is a gentle tale of regret, romance, and righting wrongs.

Just in time for Halloween, a feel-good. fountain-of-youth story with a senior citizen heroine discovering her inner girl power. Fans of Cocoon will get a big smile out of this one. And it’s available in LARGE PRINT!

Read an excerpt here at this book’s Pixelvania Publishing page.

Buy the ebook from your favorite retailer here (includes Amazon).

Buy the paperback from Amazon.

In other news, one of my midlength stories got a cover makeover for its print debut! Here’s the before and after:

Out Where the Sun Always Shines (Cover) - A man facing the mountains during a rosy sunset. Out Where the Sun Always Shines (Cover) - A man in the shadows smokes a cigarette, whose smoke swirls around a woman looking wistfully off into the sunset.

Tres noir, non?

To celebrate this makeover AND four other Pixelvania ebooks debuting in paperback, the following ebooks are discounted to just 99 cents from October 1st through October 7th, 2019:

What story of mine would you like to see in paperback next? Let me know!

Happy reading!

State of the Pixelvania, August 2019

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Introduction

Like a lot of entertainment, much of story writing is an invisible process to the end audience. While I’m hard at work on projects, y’all see nothing but a silent website. I want to change that.

At the same time, I don’t want to post for the sake of posting—that would just add to the tsunami of digital clutter that’s already got us addicted to checking our devices (read: miniature slot machines). With that in mind, I’ve decide to start a semiannual post, tentatively titled “The State of the Pixelvania” where you can get a picture of what’s going on around here and what might be showing up in the future.

This semiannual post was inspired by a recent video by Christopher Barnatt at ExplainingComputers.

What I’ve Been Working On: New Stories

Last year I realized I had a fair amount of stories under Horror and Humor but not even a scant handful in Wonder. Yet here I am on a purple website, calling myself a scifi/fantasy author! So I set out this year to fill out the Wonder section of my works, starting with a one-story-a-week challenge in Feburary! It…didn’t go so well.

This was also the first year I’ve tried submitting to the magazines. It’s been a good experience, though I haven’t had any stories accepted yet! Let’s look at this year’s crop o’ stories so far. Read More …