The Wrath of Monsters – #NewRelease @DanRiceWrites @WildRosePress

While I am taking a blogging break, this is a scheduled guest post and I do hope you’ll all step up to support Dan Rice with his new release! Don’t you love this cover?

Hi, Jan. Thanks for having me on your fantastic blog. It’s a pleasure to be here. Today, I’d like to discuss character names and drop a few words about my new release, The Wrath of Monsters.

A Task I Dreaded

            When I started my writing journey, I dreaded naming my characters. Having predominantly read fantasy growing up, I have encountered scads of characters with unpronounceable names—at least, for me. Other names were exotic, commonplace, or downright hokey.

            As you might imagine, generating character names comes down to doing the legwork. I’d make lists and scour baby name websites for names that roll off the tongue just right. Of course, I was writing secondary world fantasy in my younger days, so I’d try to devise clever variations on my favorite names, often with poor results. The name of a character whose stories have never made it into the literary wilderness is Rangthor. My writing group thought it was a fantastic name for a fantasy character. Still, someone did point out that the handle is reminiscent of Ragnar from the popular television show Vikings.

Oh, the vagaries of naming characters. It’s like when you come up with that perfect, absolutely unique book title only to find dozens of novels by the same name already on sale on Amazon!

Practice Makes it Easier

            As with many things in life, I’ve found naming characters becomes easier with experience. Also, making the switch from high fantasy to urban fantasy helped. I can name a character Joe without having the designation sound totally out of place for the story.

            I still rely on baby name websites and lists to find the right name for my characters. But I’m no longer concerned with the names sounding exotic or fitting into a secondary-world fantasy setting. Instead, I’m most concerned with the names sounding nice, especially when I drop a character’s first and last name.

My stories feature fantastical creatures, so I try to give them names you wouldn’t encounter daily. Still, I don’t need to go out of the way to make the names sound fanciful. In my young adult urban fantasy series, The Allison Lee Chronicles, the dragons, faeries, and other magical creatures live among us, masquerading as humans, so they wouldn’t want to go around with names that would draw too much attention. I think I’ve done a pretty good job with their names. Dr. Frederick Radcliffe, Jett, Mauve, and Gore are interesting names without being over the top. At least, that’s how I feel, but you be the judge.

The Wrath of Monsters

            The third volume in the Allison Lee Chronicles comes out on June 19, 2024. If you want to read it as soon as it’s available, it’s already up on pre-order. Here is what the Midwest Book Review said about the novel.

“No prior familiarity with Allison’s prior adventures is needed in order to appreciate the fast-paced action and encounters she confronts in The Wrath of Monsters.

All that’s needed is young adult interest in fantasy stories filled with confrontation and realization—which is present here in droves, powered by Allison’s astute and clever pursuits.”

Right now, I’m busily hacking away at the rough draft for the fourth and final installment of Allison’s adventures. In the meantime, here is the blurb and an excerpt from The Wrath of Monsters.

Blurb

Can Allison and her friends save the world without becoming monsters?

Allison hoped her life would be free of torment after escaping the faeries. No sooner than Allison and her friends return home, the government imprisons Bria and Haji on a military base where scientists experiment on them. Allison’s plan to rescue them backfires when she reveals Bria’s location to the faeries, who mount a raid to capture the faery child. With Bria’s blood, they can create more enthralled super magicians to wage war against humanity.

The attack on the military base is just the beginning. When an electromagnetic pulse knocks out the power for the west coast of the United States, it is clear more powerful foes than the faeries are invading Earth.

Excerpt

Remote school is deadly…for my mental health. So is being locked up in my room. Of course, I choose to be locked up in my bedroom, but still. I never chose to have security agents, some of them actual magicians, stalking me through the house twenty-four by seven. I never asked for any of it, but here I am, staring at my laptop’s screen, trying to do pre-calculus homework. The problem is I can’t make heads or tails out of linear equations and logarithmic functions.

My hand strays from my wireless mouse to my camera on the study table beside the laptop. My fingers brush against the device’s cool metallic and rubberized body. I’d love to go outside to take pictures, but I need permission to leave the house from Agent-in-charge Leroy McAllister. Sometimes I wish that man had his neck twisted like fusilli, I really do, but then I remember Agent Deveraux’s neck misshapen like that, and acid rises up my throat. My hand goes to my chest. My throat and back of my mouth burn.

I stand and reach for the laptop to close it but stop myself. Dalia promised to help me with my math homework. She might video call or message me any time now. Instead, I wrap my fingers around the camera’s grip and enjoy the tactile nature of the rubber. My go-to photographic subject is a precarious stack of dirty dishes on the tabletop behind the computer. The acid on my tongue turns me off from photographing anything remotely related to food.

I try to take all my meals in my room; it’s the only place I won’t have an agent watching my every move. I glance around the bedroom, eyeballing every corner. Presumably, they don’t watch me while I’m here. I wouldn’t believe them, except I’ve scoured every nook and cranny of the room with my prosthetic eyes, zooming in and out, and searching for heat signatures or the lack thereof in IR mode. Never found anything. I wouldn’t put it past the magicians from the UN Draconic Task Force to surreptitiously observe me by magical means, but my father, who is the last remaining archmagus, ensures me they aren’t watching. If I can believe him after sixteen-plus years of lies.

Buy Links

• Amazon
• BookBub
• AppleBooks
• GoodReads
• BN

Author Bio

Dan Rice pens the young adult urban fantasy series The Allison Lee Chronicles in the wee hours of the morning. The series kicks off with his award-winning debut, Dragons Walk Among Us, which Kirkus Reviews calls, “An inspirational and socially relevant fantasy.”

While not pulling down the 9 to 5 or chauffeuring his soccer fanatic sons to practices and games, Dan enjoys photography and hiking through the wilderness.

To discover more about Dan’s writing and keep tabs on his upcoming releases, check out his blog and join his newsletter.