Release Day Party Sunbolt: A Cause for Concern

I’m hosting the release day party for “Sunbolt” today, a YA fantasy novella by author Intisar Khanani. As part of the release day, the author asked bloggers to post about a cause that concerns us. There are lots of things in this world that concern me, but I’ll post about one topic here.

My aunt is mentally handicapped. I’ve grown up knowing her unable to read, do basic math, and do a lot more things I considered easy to do. The problem was, and still is, that there aren’t sufficient facilities to take on the charge to take care of handicapped people. It took us five years after my Grandma (my aunt’s Mom) got ill to find a facility that would house my aunt. My Mom was ill-equipped to take care of her, as she was a single mother after my Dad passed away, and had to raise me at the same time as taking care of my aunt. Without proper guidance, it is hard to deal with people with handicaps. It was like walking on eggshells day in, day out. Everything we said could possibly upset my aunt, and she could do something that could possibly have disastrous consequences any moment of the day.

It concerns me that there’s still no proper care for people with mental challenges, no proper housing and no proper schooling or day-time-activities.

“A Cause for Concern” celebrates the release of Sunbolt, a YA fantasy novella by Intisar Khanani. Sunbolt tells the story of Hitomi, a young woman with a propensity to play hero when people need saving, and her nemesis, a dark mage slowly amassing power in a bid to control the Eleven Kingdoms. Stories often have an issue at their heart, however big or small, global or personal. This week offers a chance for bloggers (and readers) who love stories to share the issues that are close to their hearts. What do you wish you could change in the world?

About Sunbolt

Title: Sunbolt

Author: Intisar Khanani

Genre: YA Fantasy

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.

Purchase:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sunbolt-The-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00DE2RXEM/

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sunbolt-intisar-khanani/1115656459

Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Sunbolt/book-6RT3k6M3HEqIDYPN-Nv7Yw/page1.html

Author Bio

Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. Born in Wisconsin, she has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah on the coast of the Red Sea. She first remembers seeing snow on a wintry street in Zurich, Switzerland, and vaguely recollects having breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo when she was five. She currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and two young daughters. Until recently, Intisar wrote grants and developed projects to address community health with the Cincinnati Health Department, which was as close as she could get to saving the world. Now she focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fantasy. Intisar is hard at work on two new projects. The first is a companion trilogy to her debut novel Thorn, following the heroine introduced in her free short story The Bone Knife. The second project, The Sunbolt Chronicles, is a novella series following the efforts of a young mage as she strives to bring down her nemesis, a corrupt and dangerous Arch Mage who means to bring the Eleven Kingdoms under his control.

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17317370-sunbolt

Intisar’s Website: http://thornthenovel.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/booksbyintisar

Giveaway

A signed print of this artwork is part of the giveaway:

T.L. Shreffler on her “Cause for Concern” artwork:

“My “Cause for Concern” is the steadily declining quality of our natural habitat: the earth. We have holes in the ozone layer, global warming, polluted oceans and diminishing forests. I think it is our duty as humans to nurture the earth and protect it, especially because it is in our power to do so. This piece of art represents the love and reverence that we should hold for mother earth.”

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