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The Source by Paul Yoder

Title:

The Source

Author:

Paul Toy Yoder

Series:

The Bracken Covenant, (Book Three)

Genre:

Suspense, Contemporary Fiction, Supernatural, Paranormal


The Bracken Covenant series is a modern-day fiction, delving just enough outside the bounds of reality to make the reader question “could that happen?” with deep ties to the occult and the dark myth of Dracula spawned from the Wallachian king, Vlad the Impaler.

Book Description

Few who have gone toe-to-toe with the devil worshiping cult, the Bracken Covenant, have survived. Certainly none have ever considered to have bested the cult in recent years—except, perhaps, one man. The reflective English professor, Dr. Carver, still thinks daily on his previous terrifying dealings with the fanatic group. His world is overturned as the Bracken Covenant rips his loved ones away from him. Forced to follow and to relive the horrors of the den of the Covenant, Dr. Carver plunges into the darkest, most central gathering point for the pervasive evil cult. His foes, ranging from beast, to man, to beings speculatively immortal, attempt to put an end to his, and his loved ones’, lives.... This demonic cult chose the wrong English teacher to sacrifice.

Excerpt from The Source

The grass was frozen, crystalline, showing no sign of thawing anytime soon. Breathing in the cold, biting air, Dr. Carver realized that he was on the run from a predator. For hardly ever being hunted in his life, he fell into the role of “prey” quickly—naturally—almost unnaturally so.

       He ran from his pursuer, though if it was beast or man that stalked him, he didn’t know, and somehow, it didn’t matter to him.

       In the farthest recesses of his mind, he felt the distant shadow of his consciousness telling him that he was existing in a dream, and he even believed it. But, at the moment, his instincts ruled his actions. He was running for his life.

       Then there was a reprieve, but it was only a reprieve from physical exertion. He pitched into an icy grass clearing, collapsing on the ground, taking a moment to catch his breath. He could not shake the overwhelming notion that, even if this were a dream, the danger of being caught by this predator meant fatal consequences in the real world.

       This feeling began to overcome him, and a presence of extreme strength began to manifest itself in the form of two piercing eyes, cold and staggering. He was frozen, just like the grass beneath him, showing no sign of thawing soon enough to react to the juggernaut stalker. He was helpless against this foe. The beast’s eyes made sure he knew his doom before it had even made a move.

Interested? Well what are you waiting for? Pick up a copy today and start your adventure!

as an eBook on Kindle

as a paperback on Amazon or Createspace

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Quick Update on The Bracken Covenant Series

It's been so long that I thought I'd let you guys know I'm not dead, and that I'm in the last stages of finishing up the third book in The Bracken Covenant series. Nikki (my wife) has needed a lot of help with her business, so the last two months have been quite busy, but like I said, the third book's around the corner, guys. I'll update you when it's finished and available.

Signed Copies of The Covenant

I just got a shipment of my own book, The Covenant. I don’t have many, but if anyone wants a signed copy of my book, all I’m asking is for you to cover store price and shipping (should come to $14 or so, depends on where I’m shipping it to). Hit me up in the comments section below if interested.

Writer's Thoughts

There I sat, for the one-hundred-thousandth time in front of the computer, staring at the screen, waiting for inspiration to come to me so that I could pick up writing my story from the day before. Fifteen minutes passed with not a single key press occurring. I got some snacks, I had a drink, I checked my email, I played some music, I took a walk around the house, I did everything but write the next paragraph in my story.

I was about to give up and close down the application window, frustrated at how this creative impotence recently had become a common occurrence, when, one-by-one, my characters floated through my mind. They depended on me. Is it strange to care about fictitious characters? They really don’t matter, they’re not real, but it felt that I owed them life. Could what they are be considered life? I wondered if the more read and appreciated a fictitious character became, the more “alive” they became.

I pondered the strange paradox I had stumbled upon until the answer came to me, the answer to my writing hold-up. These characters, they are alive through me. In some way, in my head, they act and react, and then come into existence once put down on paper. Having given them personalities, they each respond in different ways to different circumstances. So, all I needed to do was take care of the circumstances in which they were placed, then get out of their way—they’d tell their stories just fine.

Moving, What Sweet Sorrow

The path to writing a book is a long and difficult one. I rarely get writer’s block, but I think I’m starting to hit a bout of it. It might have something to do with us moving this week. My brain seems to want to be in planning/packing mode, and the creative side of me is taking a vacation. Anyways, just wanted to give a quick update with where I’m at in my next book (the last book in The Bracken Covenant series) since it’s been a while since I posted, and might be a bit before I post again.

The move is going to make my life crazy for a bit, so that may mean a few weeks without posts here. But, if you’d like to follow me on myauthor’s Facebook page, I’ll still update that since I can post sentence-long updates instead of feeling like I need to write paragraphs.

The last book in the series is almost complete. I’ve only got a few more chapters to write; unfortunately, my writing juices ran dry throughout the last few attempts to write. I think I need a recharge instead of just powering forward. This week is moving week, so I’m going to just focus on moving and not worry about getting my daily word count taken care of. I’m still on track to finish the book by the end of the year, so all is good.

I don’t usually do life-updates, but figured on letting you know where I’m at with the next book, and why I might go silent here for a bit. Thanks always for reading, and if you haven’t yet picked up the other two entries in The Bracken Covenant series, here’s a link to them below.

Tome of Victims (Book One)

The Covenant (Book Two)

The Source (Book Three—I’m finishing it currently)

On a side note, I've been working on the image for the book cover, and thought I'd share my initial sketch. I rarely enjoy showing unfinished art. Just realize There's much to do with this piece before it's completed (obviously, it's just a line sketch).

Winter Shadows by Casey Bond -BOOK REVIEW-

First off, what’s it about

Winter Shadows is a coming-of-age apocalypse/survival type of book. The closest book I can compare it to is The Hunger Games, but with a protagonist that’s 19 instead of 16, and though the government is corrupted in Winter Shadows, somewhat as it is in The Hunger Games, here the majority of the book takes place in the wilderness away from the government rather than under the government’s watchful eye.

What kind of read can you expect from Winter Shadows?

Taking place mostly in a cave in the wilderness, Claire, the main protagonist, learns to cope with the others that inhabit the cave, her new found home, and with living in the wild. Both the environment and other passer-throughs pose a dangerous threat to her and her friends while there, and by the end of the book, learning to cope with death has been established as a reoccurring theme.

My thoughts on the book

This is a promising beginning to an author’s career. Bond has command of certain key storytelling elements (such as an excellent use of suspense, knowing how to use just the right amount of love interest without making a scene sappy, bringing grit and authenticity with her outdoor descriptions) and she doesn’t ease back on her strengths as a writer the entire novel. If you like the first few chapters, you’ll like the rest of the book—there’s no ebbs and flow with her talent, it’s there throughout the entire story.

The characters are believable, and the scenarios that they must deal with are as well. I always appreciate when a Christian character’s personality and lifestyle isn’t hampered by the author’s standoffish tendency to not want to get into religion, thinking they might offend readers who want nothing to do with religion. Claire struggles with her faith throughout the book, and it’s good to see that struggle, and it’s good to see that Bond doesn’t hide the lifestyle of the other religious characters that are present in her book.

I really enjoyed this book, even more so than I did The Hunger Games. Where The Hunger Games seemed overly sensationalistic to me, Winter Shadows feels more down-to-earth, the characters and the scenarios that play out felt more relatable and meaningful.

Length, pricing, where can I get it

Winter Shadows is 183 pages. The pricing and outlets are listed below.

Amazon Kindle edition $9.99

Tate Publishing as a paperback ($13.99) or in eBook ($10.99) format