Acquired Book By: During my 3rd Year of co-hosting @WyrdAndWonder, I was able to participate on my first blog tour with Storytellers on Tour which was featuring the author Brianna Sugalski on her “Disenchanted” blog tour. What I appreciated about Storytellers on Tour is their dedication to Indie Authors of Speculative Literature and their ability to find authors who are telling stories in Fantasy which intrigue me to read. Fantasy has been a challenging genre for me to explore even a bit moreso than Science Fiction – which is why I feel blessed to be on their blogger team. Whilst some of their tours I might seek out a book to consider for review, I also actively enjoy hosting creative content using book photography and/or featuring their authors in conversation (ie. interviews) or giving them the breadth of joy to write a guest post based on a topic of my choosing. Overall, Storytellers on Tour are dedicated to creating community and for championing those of us who are choosing to share our readerly lives each day we bring content to our book blogs.
I received a complimentary copy of “The Living Waters” direct from the author Dan Fitzgerald in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I admit, today is a bit of a somber day for me to be hosting for Storytellers on Tour – as this lovely touring company I’ve been hosting for the past few years now is closing its doors by the end of 2021. I won’t be able to host for them moving forward into 2022 and that is quite a sad reality for me – as I have truly loved being a Roadie (part of their book blogging team) all the years I’ve hosted for them and have come to appreciate the authors, stories and series they’ve hand-selected to feature within the Speculative realms of Indie Publishing.
For those who follow me throughout the years, you’ll already note I love focusing on Indie Fantasy storytellers myself every #WyrdAndWonder (annually in May; follow us socially on Twitter via @WyrdAndWonder) – which I briefly mention at the end of this post. The reason I love Indie Speculative Fiction is because the writers of those stories are happily giving me wicked good stories to ruminate over and enticingly intriguing worlds to explore.
This year I’ve tried to juggle working full-time (now with two jobs since the end of October) and maintaining my blogging and online life. I recognise that I’ve not quite struck the proper balance between the two but I’ve tried to keep surfacing on my blog and social channels – despite the fact I completely missed #SpooktasticReads and #SciFiMonth this year – hopefully, by the time next October and November come round in 2022, I’ll have more to share with everyone! I’ll be sharing a bit more about this during my next #TheSundayPost but for those followers and readers of Jorie Loves A Story who’ve wondered about the reduction in my presence online, it is due to limited days off and a heavier work load now that I’m balancing two jobs full-time as well as the fact my Mum has been having some health issues recently herself.
I am just thankful I could join one of the last blog tours for Storytellers on Tour and be a part of their final tours before they close their doors. The author surprised me with a lovely piece of the artwork (its a art photograph I believe!), two bookmarks and a lovely bookplate when he sent me the book! I was so thankful to receive them as my copy arrived damaged from the post office – to find those enclosures still with the book was quite the blessing indeed! I cannot wait to frame the artwork, too!
As a result of having limited reading hours recently, I had to scale back my post from a full review to be featured today to a #25PagePreview wherein I share my thoughts about the first twenty-pages instead. It is my goal to share a fuller review before the close of the blog tour this week.
Until then,
Brew yourself a cuppa and let’s find out more about “The Living Waters”!
The Living Waters (#25PagePreview)
Subtitle: Weirdwater Confluence : Book 1
by Dan Fitzgerald
Source: Author via Storytellers on Tour
When two painted-faced nobles take a guided raft trip on a muddy river, they expect to rough it for a few weeks before returning to their life of sheltered ease. But when mysterious swirls start appearing in the water, even their seasoned guides get rattled.
The mystery of the swirls lures them on to seek the mythical wetlands known as the Living Waters. They discover a world beyond their imagining, but stranger still are the worlds they find inside their own minds as they are drawn deep into the troubles of this hidden place.
The Living Waters is a sword-free fantasy novel featuring an ethereal love story, meditation magic, and an ancient book with cryptic marginalia.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 979-8493260940
Also by this author: The Living Waters
Published by Shadow Spark Publishing
on 9th October, 2021
Format: Paperback Edition
The Weirdwater Confluence series:
a duology featuring:
The Living Waters (Book One)
& The Isle of a Thousand Worlds
← *forthcoming January, 2022!
NOTE: It is independent from the Maer Cycle trilogy, but there are a few points of contact, and both are part of a planned larger universe called the Copper Circle, which will include a trilogy called the Time Before, set 2,000 years before the Maer Cycle. Found this sidenote about the duology from the author’s website and felt it was relevant to share in case others are keen on reading serial fiction with the foreknowledge of how different duologies, trilogies and universes in an author’s collective works interconnect.
Published by: Shadow Spark Publishing (@ShadowSparkPub)
Converse via: #Fantasy, #SpeculativeFiction and #FantasyRomance
as well as #storytellersontour & #EnterTheFantastic as #JorieReads
| The Living Waters | by Dan Fitzgerald
This is such a curiously written world by Fitzgerald – as part of the background of his worldbuilding is the concept of painted faces. Wherein all persons (male or female) do not emerge outside without their faces properly painted. I am uncertain as to what started the tradition though at one point, the lead character’s Mum mentioned it might have something to do with the sunlight and offering protection against its strong rays. In that regard, it would be an interesting twist on protection from sunlight as compared to otherworlds and our own.
What struck me the most though initially is how this world is set against a society which values self-learning and the artfulness of scholarship. Sylvan is about to undertake quite the journey – wherein he’ll be exploring a river and that takes him out of his own comfort zones but not without the hopefulness of what he will discover as he takes on the adventure of seeking what is not yet known. You could feel his enthused reaction to the quest and the hesitation of his brother Artemis who is not as adventurous as Sylvan. Yet it was their mother who provided the best surprise as the mysterious book centred in the story was gifted to Sylvan before he undertook the journey and it was that particular book which I felt held both clues and disclosures of truth that perhaps no one in this family was ready to find revealled. In that, my attention was fully grasped.
Temi was determined to shake free of the lockhold her family had on her as I noted their adversities in life seemed to be hinged against whether or not she would marry well or choose a path in life that would be both worthwhile to substantiate the wealth of the family against any happiness she might choose to seek out for herself. You could understand why she wanted to take an adventure and see if there were a secondary path she could opt for instead – one where her fate remained her own choosing and where the difficulties of home could either work themselves out or find another solution elsewhere which was not co-dependent on her own life and the choices she wanted to make for herself therein.
And, yet just after glimpsing sight of Temi, Fitzgerald introduced us to Gilea whose a woman of her own destiny – that much is readily noted and seen due to how she carries herself along with her bold self confidence which I believe might not be quite the norm in a society dictated by rules, decorum and tradition such as this one wherein Sylvan and Temi find themselves restricted.
Part of the tradition of this journey Sylvan and Temi were undertaking is that they each had to contribute manual labour to the construction of the boat they would be navigating downriver. That in of itself was a bit of an interesting twist because neither of them seemed to be very outdoorsy to me in the beginning – in fact, I think part of this journey was meant to challenge the person to be more than they were when they first started and/or to test them in a way that could not be accomplished in another capacity. Both of them became fast friends and companions with each other but that spoke of the ease in which they both had a bit of their own self-confidences to depart to others even though I felt of the two of them, Sylvan knew more about what he wanted out of life than Temi knew of her own heart’s desires.
It will be interesting to see what becomes of their time together – what they discover about themselves as individuals but also what personal growth is meant to be undertaken as well. I had a feeling that despite the fact they were both put together on this journey, they each had a different path to follow afterwards or at least, perhaps they both had a different destiny to put it that way instead!? I wasn’t entirely convinced they were meant to be together in the traditional sense because I felt this was one journey which would encourage self-awakening discoveries. And, of course the artwork eludes to another conclusion altogether, too!
On the Speculative and Fantastical writing styling of Dan Fitzgerald:
Fitzgerald is quite the subtle writer – he doesn’t envelope you in the Speculative and Fantastical elements of his story and series straight-away but rather prefers to introduce you to his lead character and to get your bearings within his world. It is a refreshing spin on how Fantasy duologies and series are generally begun and of course, in recent years, I’ve come to enjoy Low Fantasy novels which equally have their own unique tempo of revelations. To me, this felt a bit Low Fantasy in the beginning but it was too early-on to know if it would maintain that effect as I felt this was more of a story which brokered itself somewhere befitting a Portal Fantasy & a Fantasy Romance with Speculative undertones which were nearly fitting of a Magical Realism plotting. Time would tell of course if that first impression will hold true until the end.
This blog tour is courtesy of:
Follow the Virtual Road Map
as you visit others participating:
As this particular one has a bookaway along the route:
NOTE: Similar to blog tours wherein I feature book reviews, book spotlights (with or without extracts), book announcements (or Cover Reveals) – I may elect to feature an author, editor, narrator, publisher or other creative person connected to the book, audiobook, Indie film project or otherwise creative publishing medium being featured wherein the supplemental content on my blog is never compensated monetarily nor am I ever obligated to feature this kind of content. I provide (98.5%) of all questions and guest topics regularly featured on Jorie Loves A Story. I receive direct responses back to those enquiries by publicists, literary agents, authors, blog tour companies, etc of whom I am working with to bring these supplemental features and showcases to my blog. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them: I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers. Whenever there is a conflict of connection I do disclose those connections per post and disclose the connection as it applies.
{SOURCES: Book cover for “The Living Waters”, book synopsis, author biography, artwork featuring Gilea and Temi, the tour banner and book tour banner as well as the extract from the novel were all provided by Storytellers on Tour and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: #25PagePreview banner, Book Spotlight banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2021.
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