Tuesday, December 1, 2020

My Newest Novel - Hidden Library

Hello, My Dearest Readers!

As some of you may know, I'm set to release the second spell book, Hidden Library by Winter Solstice 2020. 

This is the sequel to Behind His Mask, except the main characters are not Sarah and Evander.   This time, we go to Emi's old coven where her cousin Veda is having troubles of her own.  Veda dreams of the day when she'll have one of her books included in her coven's hidden library, a special place for housing spell books.  Except before such a thing can happen, Salinger strides in with his newly authored spell book.  He thinks nothing of the honor of having his spell book included in their sacred place, and only which girl from Veda's coven he can spirit up north.  

I love romance.  I love this romance.

Of all the books I've written, I feel that this one captures the spirit of my hometown.  Those of you who know of the sleepy little prairie town where I grew up will undoubtedly find all the witches, conjuring, spells, switchblades, and needles in this story surprising.  But to me, it feels perfectly natural.  There weren't the exact things portrayed in the book, but there were bats swooping, Venus shining like a diamond over the horizon, white clouds lit by moonlight, and cousins everywhere.  I had way more cousins than Veda.  

I wrote this book at the lowest point I've had in 25 years of writing.  As I worked and reworked it, I had a deep fear growing inside me that it would be my last.  I wish I could explain how I found the time and how the book turned itself ever so slightly so that I was able to finish it.

It's a special book to me because the whole time I was writing it, I was thinking that it couldn't be about this one thing.  When I got to the part where I was supposed to put the twist in, the twist was nowhere near good enough.  I had to pause, figure out who I was, what I had to write, and what this book was really going to be about.  At first, I shied away from how great this story could be because I was scared to talk about something I feel so strongly about, but in the end... it was about the thing that made me uncomfortable.  It's about a lot of things that make me uncomfortable.  

That's where it is brilliant.  

This story takes me in its arms and whispers in my ear that it understands my struggles, fears, and disappointments.  I cry at the end of Behind His Mask and I cry when I read certain passages in Hidden Library.  It's funny because I don't do that.  I don't cry when I write like a sap... until I do.  So far, I have written 22 books and these two are the only ones I cry in.  

Here's the link to preorder the ebook on Amazon.com.

https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Library-Second-Spell-Book-ebook/dp/B08P6LKC5B/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1606855048&refinements=p_27%3AStephanie+Van+Orman&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Stephanie+Van+Orman




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