I am very happy today to welcome author Linda
Ulleseit to my blog.
Linda was born and raised in Saratoga, California, and has taught elementary
school in San Jose since 1996. She enjoys cooking, cross-stitching, reading,
and spending time with her family. Her favorite subject is writing, and her
students get a lot of practice scribbling stories and essays. Someday Linda
hopes to see books written by former students alongside hers in bookstores.
Her first
novel, ON A WING AND A DARE, was published in 2012. It is a Young Adult fantasy
set in medieval Wales, complete with flying horses, a love triangle, and
treachery. It’s sequel, IN THE WINDS OF DANGER, was released March, 2013. The
focus of that book is the misty past of a groom and the murky future of a
rider. The last book in the trilogy is UNDER A WILD AND DARKENING SKY, May
2014. It follows a brother and sister, new to High Meadow, who become involved
in a plot to steal flying horses.
As a child,
Linda always loved to write. She took her first creative writing course in
seventh grade, accumulating a closet full of stories that she never showed
anyone until 2007. At that time, she gave the first draft of a flying horse
book to a teacher colleague to read. ON A WING AND A DARE began as a NaNoWriMo
novel in 2009. It was revised with the help of reviewers on
thenextbigwriter.com over the next two years. For NaNo 2011, Linda drafted the
sequel, IN THE WINDS OF DANGER. NaNoWriMo 2012 brought the first draft of UNDER
A WILD AND DARKENING SKY, and NaNoWriMo 2013 saw the completion of UNDER THE
ALMOND TREES. This last is a historical fiction that follows three women who
struggle for women’s rights in early California.
Linda is celebrating the new school year with a month-long blog hop. Check out her novels below; you just might find your next favorite book. You can visit Linda at her blog Books Books Books
ON A WING AND A DARE
Purchase
Book Blurb: Flying
horses…a love triangle…poison….Welcome to Tremeirchson.
In Tremeirchson, a barn leader’s children are expected to follow their
parents into the sky, becoming riders of the magnificent winged horses that are
the medieval Welsh village’s legacy. Neither Emma nor Davyd, however, want to
follow that tradition.
Sixteen-year-old Emma risks losing her family by following her heart.
Eager to take her place in the air, she longs to ride a forbidden winged colt
born in barn of her father’s biggest rival. She also dreams of the rival’s
sons, not sure which she truly loves. Bold and exciting, Evan will someday lead
his father’s barn. Davyd is quieter, more dependable, with an ability to get
things done. Her father disapproves of both boys and pushes her toward an
ambitious newcomer. He also insists she ride the colt he’s picked for her.
Davyd, also sixteen, is plagued with a secret—he is afraid of heights.
Refusing to become a rider means public humiliation, his parents’
disappointment, and lifelong ridicule from his brother, Evan. He reluctantly
prepares to join his family aloft in the Aerial Games that provide the entire
village with its livelihood and tries desperately to think of an alternative.
As Tremeirchson’s barns prepare for the Rider Ceremony, winged horses
suddenly start dying. Shocked, the adults hesitate, mired in tradition and
politics. Is it a disease or poison? Accidental or purposeful? Someone must
discover the answer and act before all the winged horses in the world are gone
forever.
IN THE WINDS OF DANGER
Purchase
Book blurb:
Nineteen year old Nia is shocked when she is secretly
offered the leadership of Third Barn. This new barn full of flying horses will
need someone confident, experienced, and innovative, so why are both warring
factions pursuing an untried girl? Suspicious that both sides want a puppet
instead of a leader, Nia races to discover their secrets before making the
biggest decision of her life.
Some of those secrets are unknowingly buried in the
disconnected memories of a young groom named Owain. Terror and guilt haunt
Owain’s dreams – and then a face from his nightmare arrives in High Meadow.
Owain looks for answers in his past and uncovers a dangerous plot that could
doom High Meadow's future. How can he foil the plot and save his people as well
as the winged horses?
UNDER A WILD AND DARKENING SKY
Purchase
On Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/437332
Ralf knows he must take over his father’s bakery, but is it
wrong to want some adventure before he does? New to High Meadow, he is
befriended by the beautiful and dangerous Branwen, who has her own goal—to
entice Ralf to help her steal a winged horse and return it to Tremeirchson.
Meanwhile, Ralf’s sister, Alyna, dives into barn life.
Becoming a groom to a winged foal is a lot of responsibility to the horse, to
the barn, and to her father, who idolizes the wrong barn leader. Politics,
greed, and revenge swirl around the teenaged siblings as they struggle to be
true to their family and their future.
WINGS OVER TREMEIRCHSON (a flying horse novella)
Book Blurb: Eighteen year old Neste rides a
winged horse in Tremeirchson's Aerial Games and she is betrothed to the barn
leader's son, Hoel. Life would be wonderful if Hoel wasn't so unpleasant to the
other riders. Adam, on the other hand, is handsome and nice but a terrible
rider. Together, Hoel and Adam are the perfect man. Obviously she can't have
both of them. When Neste's winged horse is involved in a terrible accident, her
life changes and she must make different choices about her future. Can she go
against her father's dying wish that she marry Hoel? Can she forgive Adam? Can
she make a life away from the barn and the winged horses she loves?
ALSO BY LINDA ULLESEIT:
UNDER THE ALMOND TREES
Purchase
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/438310
Under the Almond Trees is the story of my family – three
ordinary women in California who lived extraordinary lives. It started with a
falling tree branch that killed Ellen VanValkenburgh’s husband in 1862, forcing
her to assume leadership of his paper mill, something women weren’t allowed to
do. Women weren’t allowed to vote yet, either. Ellen decided that had to
change, and became a suffragette. In 1901, Emily Williams , Ellen’s
daughter-in-law, became an architect – very much against her family’s wishes.
No one would hire a woman, but Emily would not be deterred. She and her life
partner Lillian set out to build homes themselves. By the 1930’s women enjoyed
more freedom, including the vote. Even so, Ellen’s granddaughter Eva
VanValkenburgh chose a traditional life of marriage and children, even closing
her photography business at her husband’s insistence. When he later refused to
pay for their daughter’s college education, Eva followed the example of her
Aunt Emily and reopened her photography business. I am proud to call these
women family and honored to share their story.
