Guest Post with Donna Galanti

Photo Content from Donna Galanti

Donna Galanti is the author of the Joshua and the Lightning Road series and the Element Trilogy. She is a contributing editor to International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and blogs at www.project-middle-grade-mayhem.blogs..., a cooperative of published middle grade authors. Visit her at www.donnagalanti.com and www.ElementTrilogy.com. Donna wanted to be a writer ever since she wrote a murder mystery screenplay at seven and acted it out with the neighborhood kids. She attended an English school housed in a magical castle, where her wild imagination was held back only by her itchy uniform (bowler hat and tie included!). There she fell in love with the worlds of C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl, and wrote her first fantasy about Dodo birds, wizards, and a flying ship (and has been writing fantasy ever since). She’s lived in other exotic locations, including her family-owned campground in New Hampshire and in Hawaii where she served as a U.S. Navy photographer. She now lives with her family and two crazy cats in an old farmhouse and dreams of returning one day to a castle.

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Joshua and the Arrow Realm (Lightning Road #2)
by Donna Galanti
Publication Date: August 30, 2016
Publisher: Tantrum Books

Praise for JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM

"Vividly imagined characters in a gripping action fantasy that never lets you go until the very last page." —Jenny Nimmo, author, Midnight for Charlie Bone, on Joshua and the Lightning Road

"A heart-pounding thrill ride." —Midwest Book Review on Joshua and the Lightning Road

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WHAT FICTION MOST INFLUENCED YOUR CHILDHOOD AND WHAT EFFECT  DID THOSE STORIES HAVE ON JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM?

My love for writing and reading went hand in hand right from the beginning. I began writing plays and acting them out with the neighborhood kids when I was seven years old. At the time I lived in England, where I attended a Harry Potter-like castle school.

Progressing from plays to stories, my first short story was about a flying ship, wizards, and Dodo birds. At that same time I vividly recall the first book I fell in love with: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I read the entire Narnia Chronicles curled up in a nook in my gray and pink woolen school uniform (bowler hat and tie included!). I then gobbled up all of Roald Dahl’s books and especially loved Mr. Fantastic Fox and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

After England, we moved to rural New Hampshire where my parents owned and operated a campground and along came Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Little House Books. We had barns and hogs and chickens, and how I loved gathering the rotten apples in the orchards to feed the hogs. One fall day we rounded up the hogs for slaughter and I dreamt of being Laura Ingalls blowing up the pig’s bladder like a balloon and tossing it about and roasting the pig’s tail – just like Laura did! Although, my mother was not so thrilled with scooping out the eyes to make head cheese as Laura’s mother did!

When I became a teenager, Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings came into my life and I was swept away to Middle Earth. One Halloween at school I even dressed up as Aragorn (what I envisioned he looked like at the time) and of course no one knew who I was in my cloak, boots, and dirt-grimed face.

As a child, fantasy was my reality. I read fantasy and also created fantasy worlds living out my favorite books so it’s no surprise that I write fantasy! From that first story about a flying ship to Joshua and the Arrow Realm, fantasy has always claimed me. Growing up on a mountain as an only child, I spent much of my time roaming the woods with my notebook in hand, putting stories on the page in hidden glens and the nooks of trees. My love of the woods and fantasy both fueled the wooded world of Joshua and the Arrow Realm, where Joshua must survive the hunt and discovers a hidden tree world of other kids!

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Joshua never thought he'd return to the world of Nostos so soon. But, when King Apollo needs his help in the Arrow Realm, Joshua's will and powers will be tested in order to save him.

With his loyalties divided between our world and theirs, Joshua wonders whether he alone can restore magic to the twelve powerless Olympian heirs, or whether he is being tricked into making the one mistake that might cost them all.

JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM is the exciting follow up to JOSHUA THE LIGHTNING ROAD which the Midwest Book Review called, "a heart-pounding thrill ride."

You can purchase Joshua and the Arrow Realm at the following Retailers:

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