Jacqui Murray's #CoverReveal for Laws of Nature, VIDEO: Our First Valentine's Day Excerpt from Arranging a Dream

 

Valentine's Day, February 14, has passed,
but February is the month of love.
Let's celebrate all month and beyond!!

Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog. 

I hope you had a delightful Valentine's Day. When we were in the floral business, Valentine's Day was one of the biggest holidays for florists. In 1976, it was our first holiday in the business. What a learning experience with OJT (on-the-job) training! Did we survive??? Check out the reading from my memoir, Arranging a Dream, about that first Valentine's Day holiday. You'll find the answer to that question!

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Please welcome back multi-talented author, professor, blogger and reviewer, Jacqui Murray. Read her bio after the articles. You'll be amazed.

Her focus at the moment is on prehistoric fiction with her saga, Man vs. Nature. It’s a series of trilogies set in seminal times of man’s evolution. The first is Dawn of Humanity, about Homo habilis, with one book completed, Born in a Treacherous Time. The second in the trilogy, Against All Odds, will be out 2021. The second trilogy, featuring Homo erectus, is Crossroads with the first two books out, Survival of the Fittest and Quest for Home. The third and final, In the Footsteps of Giants, will be out Winter 2021.

I am delighted to introduce you to her new upcoming release this summer, Laws of Nature.

Thanks so much for revealing your cover today!

Thank you, Janet, for inviting me to share the #CoverReveal for my upcoming book, Laws of Nature.

Good news! I can reveal the cover, fresh from my design folks at Damonza.

Laws of Nature by Jacqui Murray
Pre-historic Fiction
Book 2 in the Dawn of Humanity Trilogy

A boy blinded by fire.

A woman raised by wolves.

An avowed enemy offers help.

Set 1.8 million years ago in Africa, Lucy and her band of early humans struggle against the harsh reality of a world ruled by nature, where predators stalk them and a violent new species of man threatens to destroy their world. Only by changing can they prevail.

If you ever wondered how earliest man survived but couldn’t get through the academic discussions, this book is for you. Prepare to see this violent and beautiful world in a way you never imagined.

I sure hope you like it because it's too late for changes!

I might publish Laws of Nature to Amazon as a pre-order soon. An Indie friend did that with a publication date in late summer. Any thoughts on that?

You can find all of my books through my Amazon page. I'm on KU so if you are, they're even free!

Thanks, again, Janet, for hosting #CoverReveal! 

Jacqui

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Click here to visit Jacqui's guest post on this blog for the first book in the series, Survival of the Fittest.

Click here to visit Jacqui's guest post for The Quest for Home, Book 2 in the Crossroads Trilogy. series.

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About Jacqui Murray

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and Born in a Treacherous Time, first in the Man vs. Nature saga. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for TeachHUB and NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.You can find her tech ed books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning

Click on the links below to connect online with Jacqui :

Twitter http://twitter.com/worddreams

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/askatechteacher

Linked In http://linkedin.com/in/jacquimurray

Word Dreams (Jacqui's blog) https://worddreams.wordpress.com

Jacqui's author page https://jacquimurray.net

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Jacqui-Murray/e/B002E78CQQ/

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VIDEO: Excerpt from Arranging a Dream: A Memoir--Our First Valentine's Day

Paperback book is available at amazon.com and bn.com

Click the Buy Now link below to purchase the eBook for Arranging a Dream: A Memoir 

Buy Now

New Release: Prehistoric Fiction, The Quest for Home by Jacqui Murray

The Quest for Home by Jacqui Murray
Driven from her home. Stalked by enemies.
Now her closest ally may be a traitor.

Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog. So glad you stopped in so you can be part of the celebration of my friend Jacqui Murray's release of the latest in her Crossroads trilogy series, The Quest for Home, a prehistoric fiction novel. 

Jacqui shares the Five W's in this unique story that takes place 850,000 years ago!

Thank you, Jacqui, for being my guest. 

The Five W's for The Quest for Home by Jacqui Murray

The 5 W's in Story: The Quest for Home by Jacqui Murray

As laid out by JQ Rose, the 5 W's of a story are who, what, where, when and why. These important W's make up the bones of a story. Today I'll show you how they apply to my latest prehistoric fiction, The Quest for Home:

The Quest for Home Prehistoric Fiction Book #2 in the Crossroads Trilogy

WHO--The main characters of The Quest for Home are Xhosa and Nightshade, two early humans who lived 850,000 years ago; and Wind, an advanced human who saves Xhosa’s life in Book 1 and becomes an integral part of her journey in Book 2. Xhosa and her People are a tribe of early humans who time has preserved mostly through bone fragments and stone tools. In this trilogy, I flesh out their desires and challenges to give readers a peek at life long ago when Nature was king and our goal was simply to survive.

WHEN— The story is set 850,000 years ago, a time in prehistory when man populated Eurasia. He was a violent species, fully capable of addressing the many hardships that threatened his survival except for one: future man, the one destined to obliterate any who came before.

WHAT—In this trilogy, Crossroads, we join Xhosa as she searches for a new home after being chased from her East African home by a more advanced form of man who would ultimately replace Xhosa’s species, Homo erectus. She is joined by other groups of Homo erectus, also driven from their homelands in South African, East Asia, Indonesia, and the Levant. They ultimately travel across Europe and settle on the Iberian Peninsula, hoping that will become their new home.

WHERE—In an effort to find a new home, Xhosa leads the combined Peoples across Eurasia to the Iberian Peninsula where they are stopped by the Atlantic Ocean. Here, they must make their stand.

A map of the route traveled by the combined ancient Peoples tribe.

WHY— Chased by a ruthless and powerful enemy, Xhosa leads her People and four other tribes on a grueling journey through unknown and dangerous lands. As they struggle to overcome treachery, lies, danger, tragedy, hidden secrets, and Nature herself, Xhosa must face the reality that her most dangerous enemy isn’t the one she expected. It may be one she trusts with her life. Based on a true story, this is the unforgettable saga of hardship and determination. Xhosa and her People must be bigger-than-life, prepared time and again to do the impossible because nothing less than the future of mankind is at stake.

Click these links to purchase your copy now.

Available at: Kindle US   Kindle UK   Kindle CA   Kindle AU

Click here to visit Jacqui's guest post for the first book in the series, Survival of the Fittest.

About Jacqui Murray

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and Born in a Treacherous Time, first in the Man vs. Nature saga. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for TeachHUB and NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. ou can find her tech ed books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning

Click on the links below to connect online with Jacqui :

Twitter http://twitter.com/worddreams

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/askatechteacher

Linked In http://linkedin.com/in/jacquimurray

Word Dreams (Jacqui's blog) https://worddreams.wordpress.com

Jacqui's author page https://jacquimurray.net

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Jacqui-Murray/e/B002E78CQQ/

The 5 W's of Story: Researching the Setting in Jacqui Murray's Survival of the Fittest

The 5 W's of Story

Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story blog. This week, talented author Jacqui Murray joins us for the popular series, The 5 W's in Storytelling. Guest authors share the who, what, where, when and why in their stories. I'm thrilled to introduce a new-to-me kind of fictional story by Jacqui Murray. Her new release is a pre-historic fiction novel, Survival of the Fittest, Book 1 in the Crossroads series. 

Jackie has chosen to tell us about two of the w's needed to tell a story--Where and when her story takes place.

  

Welcome, Jacqui! Thank you for joining us in the 5 W's of Stories series. 

Survival of the Fittest by Jacqui Murray

Book 1 in the Crossroads series, part of the Man vs. Nature saga

Prehistoric fiction

Thanks, Janet at Focused on Story for hosting me to during the blog tour for my newest prehistoric fiction, Survival of the Fittest.  It is Book 1 in the trilogy, Crossroads.

How Jacqui Murray Researched the Setting in the Prehistoric Novel, Survival of the Fittest 

The most challenging part of writing this book--by far--was the setting--it takes place 850,000 years ago! When I wrote my two thrillers--To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days--these happened in present day, giving me three surefire ways to explore the location:

• Google it--plug wherever I needed into the search engine and sort through the hits.  I knew enough about the setting (say, Chesapeake Bay) that I could sort reliable from opinion.
• Talk to fellow writers--there are many people willing to share their knowledge. A search for topical forums or blogs usually turned up someone with direct knowledge of the setting I struggled with (like where students at Columbia University liked to congregate).
• Use Google Earth and its Streetview functions--I've written about this in the past because it is an amazing way to explore settings, see what's on the street characters walk down, to explore obstacles characters face in a park they must run through, or to understand how far apart are places they must drive to. Searching on Google Earth and then dumping yourself into Street View gives you the most authentic experience available, almost like being there.
• Use Google Earth's Time Slider--by sliding the bar, you can reshape geography and geopolitics to be what it was long ago--up to a couple hundred years. If you're writing about the recent past, this is an amazing feature.

But none of these work for my newest prehistoric fiction because it takes place 850,000 years ago. Back then, mountains were plateaus, and savanna was jungle. Even the shorelines and fjords of continents were not like they are today. Since my characters walked from China to Spain along first the Indian Ocean and then the Mediterranean Sean, I went to great lengths to be accurate about what they faced.

Because I couldn't use any of the options above, I talked to experts in the field, researched best-guesses, and extrapolated from everything I could find. It took a long time which might explain why the book took over a decade to write.

How do you make sure that the locations your characters visit in your books are as accurately represented as possible? Please leave a comment below.

Survival of the Fittest by Jacqui Murray

Book 1 in the Crossroads series, part of the Man vs. Nature saga

Prehistoric fiction

Five tribes. One leader.
A treacherous journey across three continents
in search of a new home.

Back of the Book: Chased by a ruthless and powerful enemy, Xhosa flees with her People, leaving behind a certain life in her African homeland to search for an unknown future. She leads her People on a grueling journey through unknown and dangerous lands using an escape path laid out years before by her father as a final desperate means to survival. 

She is joined by other homeless tribes--from Indonesia, China, South Africa, East Africa, and the Levant—all similarly forced by timeless events to find new lives. 

As they struggle to overcome treachery, lies, danger, tragedy, hidden secrets, and Nature herself, Xhosa must face the reality that this enemy doesn't want her People's land. He wants to destroy her.

Available at: Kindle US Kindle UK Kindle CA Kindle AU

About Jacqui:

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the Man vs. Nature saga. 

She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for TeachHUB and NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. 

Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Quest for Home, Summer 2019. You can find her tech ed books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning

                                                             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Author Jacqui Murray

 Click the links below to connect with Jacqui online:

http://twitter.com/worddreams                                                    

http://pinterest.com/askatechteacher

http://linkedin.com/in/jacquimurray

https://worddreams.wordpress.com                                             

https://jacquimurray.net

Thanks, Jacqui. I'm intrigued by a story that takes place 850,000 years ago. What about you? Please leave your comment below. Thank you.