New book cover for The Forest King’s Daughter and enter to win your #FREE ebook copy!

Today I’m excited to be revealing the brand new cover for my historical, coming of age, folk novel The Forest King’s Daughter.

The novel was published back in 2015 by Pilrig Press and was inspired by my imagining what life might have been like for a young woman emigrating from Sweden to America back in the late 19th century. The title is taken from a fairy story the main character tells her grandkids at the beginning of the book.

Here’s the blurb:

The year is 1886 and Swedish teenager, Ingrid Andersdotter, is about to face a series of life-changing events. When Ingrid forgets to close the barn door one freezing cold night, there will be dire consequences for her family. To make matters worse, her attraction to the new school teacher leads to ostracism and shame. Ingrid’s strong opinions and the pressure of the powerful village church to conform to ideas she doesn’t believe in put her at odds with her traditional community.

Her only option is to leave her home and family. But is she brave enough to make an ocean crossing to a strange new land on her own, leaving everything she knows far behind? And will she find the freedom she dreams of if she takes such a risk?

Told through the lens of a Swedish fairy tale, this epic coming-of-age story, is both a page-turning personal account of one feisty young woman’s determination to seek a better life, and the tale of many single women who emigrated from Sweden to America in the 19th century.

Here’s what readers are saying:

“A moving read which deserves every one of its five stars.” Marianne Wheelaghan

“A thoroughly enjoyable read.” C Gault

“I became so involved with this feisty young woman I couldn’t put it down.” Virginia King

To celebrate the novel’s re-release, I’m giving away one free ebook of The Forest King’s Daughter. All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment on this blog, giving one word to describe my new cover, then click the Rafflecopter link below. Meanwhile, I’ve kept a secret list of ten words which I think capture some element of my new cover. When Rafflecopter chooses the random winner, if your word is one of the words on my list, you win the book! In the event that no one chooses a word from my secret list a winner will be chosen at random.

The competition will run from today, the 29th January, until midnight on the 5th February. I’ll then announce the winner on my blog and Facebook page the following day.

Good luck!

And the winner is…Marilyn Pemberton!

Congratulations, Marilyn! I’ll be sending you your copy of The Forest King’s Daughter ebook.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

If you’d like to purchase a copy then you can do so through Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forest-Kings-Daughter-Kendra-Olson-ebook/dp/B00UBTSNBI/

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Kings-Daughter-Kendra-Olson-ebook/dp/B00UBTSNBI/

Itunes/Ibook: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-forest-kings-daughter/id975044199?ls=1&mt=11

New Year Update

Photo courtesy of matthew_hull at https://morguefile.com/p/171780

Happy New Year everyone! Yes, I know we’re now into the third week of January but my year has gotten off to a slow start due to my extended winter holiday visiting family in the States. Still, I’m determined to make 2018 a success. This year I hope to make reviewing a regular feature of my blog again, release a new (modest length) book and re-release The Forest King’s Daughter. This is in addition to expanding some of my editorial offerings over at kendraolsoneditorial.com (more on that later!).

What is this about re-releasing The Forest King’s Daughter? Well, for regular readers of this blog, you’ll know that my debut novel came out back in 2015. When it was released I was studying for my MLitt in Creative Writing and had very little time to devote to marketing. Getting my blog and Twitter account up and running felt like a huge success in its own right. I wasn’t fully prepared for my book release and didn’t really understand how to promote it.

Fast forward a couple of years and I have a blog with several hundred followers, I’m a member of some supportive book groups on Facebook and have additional contacts who (theoretically) might be interested in the book. But I didn’t want to just start talking about the same things again and posting the same images around, so I thought “why not change the cover? It could be fun.” And it was.

I consulted with Les of German Creative over on Fiverr to come up with a beautiful cover I felt reflected the story and genre in an effective way. I was really pleased with what she did as her design grew organically out of my ideas while simultaneously being totally new and creative.

I’ll be revealing my brand new cover here next Monday the 29th January at 7am, UK time. And, to celebrate, I’ll be hosting a competition via Rafflecopter. All you’ll need to do is to come up with one word to describe the cover and, if that word is on my secret list, you’ll receive a free copy of The Forest King’s Daughter! In the event that no one chooses a secret word from my list a winner will be chosen at random. The competition will run from 29th January for one week. I’ll then announce the winner on my blog and Facebook page the following day. Good luck, and thanks for reading!

About The Forest King’s Daughter:

The year is 1886 and Swedish teenager, Ingrid Andersdotter, is about to face a series of life-changing events. When Ingrid forgets to close the barn door one freezing cold night, there will be dire consequences for her family. To make matters worse, her attraction to the new school teacher leads to ostracism and shame. Ingrid’s strong opinions and the pressure of the powerful village church to conform to ideas she doesn’t believe in put her at odds with her traditional community.

Her only option is to leave her home and family. But is she brave enough to make an ocean crossing to a strange new land on her own, leaving everything she knows far behind? And will she find the freedom she dreams of if she takes such a risk?

Told through the lens of a Swedish fairy tale, this epic coming-of-age story, is both a page-turning personal account of one feisty young woman’s determination to seek a better life, and the tale of many single women who emigrated from Sweden to America in the 19th century.

The Forest King’s Daughter is available to purchase from Amazon UK and Amazon US.