If you want a copy, and you’re local to Second Looks Books, and it’s easiest for you to drop by the store, then by all means do so. Otherwise, please order it through Amazon. It’ll cost you the same amount, but your purchase will go toward the book’s ranking. If you want it signed and/or inscribed, then click on the “add gift options after you “Proceed to checkout” and entering the info in the window provided. You can also send me a separate email with that info if that’s easier for you.
2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner
Tales, unlike stories, never lie. You see, a tale is an account of things in their due order, often divulged secretly, or as gossip. Would you like to hear one? —Lord Autumn
Uncle Ebb was so good at telling his tales of the Moon Realm that sometimes it sounded like he’d been there himself.
As children, Lily and Jasper listened raptly to his bedtime tales of a place where nine moons swirled around one another, each inhabited by strange and wondrous beings: magical lunamancers; undersea merfolk; wise birds; winged dragons; and Lily’s favorite, the heroic, leonine Rinn.
There was only one rule: don’t tell a soul.
But now, years later, Uncle Ebb is missing. Lily has learned the secret behind the tales, and soon Jasper will too. But there’s one big problem. You see, something terrible has happened in the Moon Realm. . . .
Featuring twenty-two stunning full-color illustrations by Carolyn Arcabascio. Volume One of the fantasy adventure series The Moon Realm.
Amazon introduced a new Kindle format with the release of their Kindle Fire, called KF8. It allows me to do things I couldn’t do when The Moon Coin first debuted in September of last year. With KF8 I can embed fonts and add fun formatting features that heretofore were only available on the iPad. If you already own The Moon Coin and you want to get these new features and content, just email kdp-support@amazon.com. Include your Kindle account email and tell them that you want to re-download The Moon Coin. They’ll email you back with instructions. It’s completely free. The new content (cover, map, and character pages) is available for all the Kindle Reader Devices and Apps.
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If you have an iPad, simply open the iBooks app, hit the edit button, tap on the old version, hit the delete button and then download it again. Very intuitive. I didn’t even have to google that one.
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The update has gone live for the Nook devices (Barnes & Noble), too!
First up: it’s got a new cover!
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DropCaps at the beginning of every new chapter! Yay! (For the Kindles, this feature only works if your device supports the new KF8 format.)
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This map of Treling, which was made for the print edition, is now available for all eReader devices and apps , and if you have the iPad, Nook Color, or Kindle Fire: it’s in color! Whoo-hoo!
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These character pages were another addition planned for the print edition that’s now included with the eBooks. And if you have a Kindle Fire or iPad, then you’ll get to see the character names in sporty SmallCaps! These are the features that make typesetters drool, people! 🙂
Technically, these are digital proofs, but they’ve been made to look exactly like traditional blue-lines burned from negatives, which I think is really cool! (Although dang hard to read!) Each page is a separate piece of paper, double-sided, formatted, and paginated exactly as it will appear in the book—except, of course, the light blue will be replaced by black ink! 🙂
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I love the Gibbering Gnome Press colophon (that’s the little silhouette thingy above the press name) Carolyn designed.
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This map of Treling is new for the print edition.
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The pages with illustrations are on normal paper so I can spec the color.
“Lily is a great protagonist. In books, female protagonists are often dependent on men and I could never recognize myself in them. But Lily has an adventurous spirit that makes it more feasible she would survive all the different moons she is thrown onto.”
“The Moon Coin is truly a beautifully written fantasy novel with rich, memorable characters and gorgeous illustrations that brings the Moon Realm to life.”
4 Stars
Click HERE or the image directly above to read the review.
After the print editions of TMC arrive, a 20″ x 30″ poster of this is going to go up on the door at Second Looks Books.
Here’s the blurb:
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“Tales, unlike stories, never lie. You see, a tale is an account of things in their due order, often divulged secretly, or as gossip. Would you like to hear one?”
—Lord Autumn
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Uncle Ebb was so good at telling his tales of the Moon Realm that sometimes it sounded like he’d been there himself.
As children, Lily and Jasper listened raptly to his bedtime tales of a place where nine moons swirled around one another, each inhabited by strange and wondrous beings: magical lunamancers; undersea merfolk; wise birds; winged dragons; and Lily’s favorite, the heroic, leonine Rinn.
There was only one rule: don’t tell a soul.
But now, years later, Uncle Ebb is missing. Lily has learned the secret behind the tales, and soon Jasper will too. But there’s one big problem. You see, something terrible has happened in the Moon Realm. . . .
Featuring twenty-two stunning full-color illustrations by Carolyn Arcabascio. Volume One of the young adult fantasy adventure series The Moon Realm.
“Tales, unlike stories, never lie. You see, a tale is an account of things in their due order, often divulged secretly, or as gossip. Would you like to hear one?”
—Lord Autumn
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Click the image above to enlarge or HERE to download a PDF.
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Here’s the final cover. The book measures 7.5″ x 5.5″, has 3″ flaps, and an inch spine. It’ll will weigh in at 304 pages. Should be ready by June.
2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner
When I was working on the eBook version of The Moon Coin, I was very limited in what I could do. Since then, Amazon has introduced a new Kindle .Mobi format that promises a slew of new features, including embedded fonts. After I finish evaluating what that means for users of older kindles, I may adopt that new format later this year. Similarly, Apple has recently introduced iAuthor, a new proprietary software program to build their ebooks. It also promises a slew of new features.
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First up, a presentation shot.
Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.
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Here’s a detail shot of the graphic elements in the header.
Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.
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Here’s a detail shot of the graphic elements in the footer.
Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.
I reached one of my favorite book-writing milestones today. I’m sick of my book! Don’t worry. It’s mostly temporary, I hope, and it happened at just the right time: seven years and about twenty-five editing passes in. (If I’d gotten sick of it earlier—trust me—I’d be seriously depressed.)
What did I do to celebrate, you ask? Well, yesterday, as the printer in my hallway was still warming down its jets (ink-low lights blinking furiously), I slid into the Post Office just ten minutes before closing time, slapped a delivery conformation sticker on my handmade cardboard box, and sent it roaring off to Carolyn Arcabascio, the illustrator extraordinaire for The Moon Realm Series.
Sure, The Dragondain still needs more work, but I’m looking forward to being truly ill? during the final read-through and polish. 😀 I’M SO HAPPY!
“The Moon Coin is a beautifully written fantasy novel, perfect for middle graders to pore over themselves or as a bedtime story for younger kids. The descriptions of everything, from Uncle Ebb’s electronic fish-bird hybrids to the fanciful creatures Lily meets in the Moon Realm, are so rich that the action instantly comes alive for the reader.” —Molly Horan of ForeWord Reviews
Click HERE or on the image directly above to read review.
You might not want to read the chapter text below the illustrations too carefully. I don’t think you’ll find any huge spoilers, but you could pick up on some cool bits that you might not want to know beforehand. 🙂
Click HERE or on the image directly above to enlarge.
Click HERE or on the image directly above to enlarge.
Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.
Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.
Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.
Click HERE or the image directly above to enlarge.
For the curious, these are iPad 2 screen shots that I later stitched together with Pixelmator 2.0.1.
"Tales, unlike stories, never lie." 
