Last week for Free Copy of "Not an Egg!"

In celebration of the success of Dragons' Geas Children's books, Rebecca and I are giving away five copies of Not an Egg!

We are currently in the process of story-boarding our next children's book as well. Sign up to win a copy today before it ends! Last day will be April 8!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Not An Egg

by Cheryl Matthynssens

Giveaway ends April 08, 2014.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Fear of Rejection

Fear is the bane of any unpublished writer.  I have started many books and left them on the wayside. I wish I had copies of them as a few were pretty good ideas.  But I would get to that point of decision; I am either going to finish this or toss it.  I would toss it every time.  Why?  It was not that I did not think it was a good story. It was that I knew if I finished it, I would have to do something with it.  So despite teachers telling me to finish, friends... family... doing the same,  I would give up and not write for awhile.  

The problem is, I am one of those people that can't live without creating.  So I channeled that energy into roleplaying games and SCA for a time.  It was never quite the same but it eased that need to create. Overcoming this fear was the biggest hurdle in my life and I am not young.  I am a grandma, really not young.

A popular positive thinking guru taught in one of his seminars that FEAR stood for false evidence appearing real.  He went on to teach that surveys showed that people feared speaking in public more than death.  I feared rejection of my writing more than death.   Rejection and speaking in public rarely cause death.  I mean for speaking in public you pretty much have to be assassinated.  Yet this fear feels so very real, as if behind that rejection letter or that podium is a real tiger lurking. 

When I overcame my fear for the first time, it wasn't even with my work.  I took something my mother had written and with her permission reworked it.  However, when I didn't receive instant rejection, I tentatively put out a second children's book of my own.  I have a great illustrator named Rebecca Hunt that created a friendly looking children's dragon type for my work. 

Emboldened by that experience, I finished one of the many novels I had started and with great hesitation, put it out there.   It got positive acceptance.  I realize now that even if it didn't get positive acceptance, it was not the publishing of it I needed most in my life.  It was the writing of it.  When I pushed that send button to send it out into the world, I achieved a life goal.  I realized my goal was to be published,  being liked was the icing.  

I still had one real fear left.   I had to get myself out there.  I created a website, a blog and learned how to use twitter.  That done, I braved my last real fear, I stepped into a bookstore and sold myself.  I walked out with my book on their shelves and a book signing scheduled for March 22, 2014 in Omak, Wa.  The last of my huge fears had been conquered.  I could have danced all the way to my car. I might have actually.

For those still writing but not publishing, I actually recommend if you want to independently publish that you look at bookbaby.com.  I started with Createspace but that limits you to Amazon.  I have no objections to Createspace.  They have been great and supportive.  But they want to corner you into the Amazon world.  I want Nook readers to have my book too. 

I have one fear left, flying. But I have learned I can handle that one.  So, if any of you want to meet up, just find a bookstore willing to let me sign for a day and I will come where ever I am bid.  After all, it will give me more opportunities to put this last fear down as something I have overcome!!

2nd Children's Book is Released

Artwork by Rebecca Hunt 

NOT an Egg! hits both Amazon print and Kindle Select!

Rebecca Hunt, one of the illustrators at Dragons' Geas, has outdone herself with this children's book. Her unique rendering of dragons insures that they are not frightening for a child's book.  The little dragon Seaferia shows emotion in her tears, her surprise and even her feeling of dejection.  This brings the tale to life in a way that words alone could have never achieved.  I am proud as the author to have had her at my side for this book and though she will blush when she reads this, I am not ashamed to shout it out to the world.

"Not an Egg!" is both a touching tale of a little dragon's reactions to a new baby but also is a great way for children to learn that what they are feeling is normal.  Research has shown that a child's personality will affect how they react to a new baby.  With this is how close the older child is to their mother, the closer the relationship to the mother the harder time they have.  This is why father's are encouraged to work in developing that relationship when a new baby is expected as it helps children transition when the mother's time is taken up by the needs of a new born.  

Preparing your child is another important step.  "Not an Egg!" has plenty of places to stop and discuss how your child is feeling.  Are they adamant it be a boy or a girl? My grandson was so adamant that his upcoming sibling be a boy that when I asked him, "what if its a girl?"; he answered.  "you can have it."    In addition to reading books such as "Not an Egg!", you should get out baby pictures of your child and talk about what it was like when he/she was a baby.

Most importantly, "Not an Egg!" is about dragons and that is our favorite topic here at Dragons' Geas.

We hope you will enjoy it as much as our own children and grandchildren did.  You can order it on our website at dragonsgeas.com .

Meet Becky! Our Children's Book Illustrator.

Rebecca Hunt - Click to see other artwork

Hello, I am Rebecca, though most of my friends call me Becky. I am a twenty-something mom of one adorable little boy and wife to an amazing husband. I have been born and raised in Minnesota my whole life and love it here.

As a child and young adult, I loved to draw, color and paint. I was rarely without some kind of drawing utensil and something to draw on. During junior high, I was drawn to the kids show Veggie Tales, not only for their cute stories, but also the computer animation. I decided then that I wanted to work at Big Idea, the creators of Veggie Tales, and so that fed my passion for art. Throughout junior high and high school I took all the art classes I could, trying to focus on my drawing and computer skills. After high school, I went to college for graphic design and got a diploma in that field. I worked in the field for a short time before I discovered that it was not what I really had wanted to do. But, the good news is that my college experience gave me the skills to do what I am doing today, which is illustrating books for my good friend Cheri.

After over 5 years of hardly touching the hobby I called a passion, Cheri inspired me to draw up her story, so I did. And now, after all that time, I am a published illustrator. My passion for fantasy art and culture fuels my creativity in my drawing. Now as we work on our second book together, I am inspired to  draw so much more. I cannot wait to see more of our books hit the shelves, and I look forward to getting more of my art out to the masses.

Excitement Builds with the Dragons' Geas Team

So while doing a search to see how my Amazon listing was ranking in the search engines, I came across a big surprise.  We have been picked up on Barnes and Noble on their online site.

Barnes and Noble Link

This was exciting news for us as we were automatically placed in the Amazon arena by the publisher we are working with to promote this children's book.  To have it picked up by other suppliers and book companies was up to us.  Due to the size of Barnes and Noble, we had not pitched it to them yet.  It got picked up on its own.

So today, our little team at Dragons' Geas celebrates!