Author Interview (and a Giveaway!): Dawn Shipman & Kingdom Lost

Please join me in welcoming Dawn Shipman to the blog today to chat about her young adult fantasy novel, Kingdom Lost!

Dawn Shipman knew she wanted to be a writer since Mrs. Juell’s 10th grade Creative Writing class. Before she starting writing novels, she’d written stories, poetry, plays, puzzles, quizzes, and a mass of magazine articles, including interviews, how-tos, and personal experience stories. She is fully convinced freelance writing is the ideal occupation for those who are nosy by nature and like asking people personal questions.

Dawn makes her home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest where she lives with her long-haired, IT-guy husband, a gregarious German Shepherd, two disdainful cats, and four horses–two large ones and two very small (but mighty!) ones. She loves reading, writing, riding her horse, and traveling.

You can connect with Dawn on her website, Facebook and Instagram.

KINGDOM LOST by Dawn Shipman
SERIES: Lost Stones of Argonia #1
GENRE: Inspirational Young Adult Fantasy
PUBLISHER: Elk Lake Publishing
RELEASE DATE: October 31, 2021
PAGES: 344

Winner of the Cascade Award for Published Speculative Fiction!

A Kingdom in Chaos. A Merciless Enemy. A Desperate Quest.

Heat radiated from the gem against her palm, and like a burning ember, the opal stone glowed red.

At seventeen, Princess Lyric rides a horse better and faster than do any of her father’s prized knights. She knows how to dance at the palace balls, how to flirt with the guards, and how to cajole the king into giving her almost anything.

But she’s never learned that non-human, intelligent beings—some of them savage—live in her world. She doesn’t know the gem in her necklace is far more than a family heirloom. And she doesn’t realize the visiting prince who has come to court her wants much more than her hand in marriage.

Overnight, her kingdom is torn from her and her only option is to run. Accompanied by a maidservant and a handsome lieutenant in her father’s palace guard, she must learn to fight, to lead, and to trust those at her side—human or not. If she doesn’t, she won’t live long enough to reclaim her throne.

affiliate links used

Hi Dawn! Welcome to the blog!

Dawn: Dogs. No one demonstrates unconditional love like a dog! I’ve often thought that’s one of the main reasons God created them. We hear about unconditional love, but with our dogs—we see it. 😊

Carrie: so true!!!

Dawn: Audiobooks because I love stories and am the slowest reader EVER! I’ve had to pull off the road when driving because I was listening to a tear-jerker and the people around me weren’t safe because I was bawling! (Thanks, Nicholas Sparks!)

Carrie: haha!

Dawn: Coke! If you have to ask, I can’t explain! 😊No, really—Pepsi is too sweet. I love the kick I get from Coke!

Carrie: agreed! Pepsi is too flat for me. Diet Pepsi is even worse.

Dawn: Print! As others have said, I love the feel and smell of “real” books! This is probably also the reason I worked at our public library for so long and why I go to Barnes and Noble just to hang out! Plus, I’m on computer screens too much already!

Carrie: I definitely prefer print too but lately I’ve had to stick to ebooks where I can enlarge the font. However, it recently occurred to me to try reading glasses (when you already need contacts to see 2 inches or more in front of you, it’s not second nature to get MORE vision correction devices lol) and even though it means I’m ‘that old’ now I’m happy about getting to read print copies again 🙂

Q: Around here I like to say that reading is my superpower. If YOU had a superpower, what would it be?

Dawn: Falling off horses. I’m really way better at it than I should be. I don’t even practice! ☹

Carrie: oh gosh! lol

Q: Other than the Bible, what are five of your most cherished books?

Dawn: Okay, I’m cheating because most of these are series, but I think of each series as ONE large book! The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Little Women, The Mark of the Lion series and Redeeming Love.

Carrie: haha I’ll allow it 🙂

Q: If I asked your characters to describe YOU as an author, what would they say?

Dawn: She’s SO disorganized! And she’s Slow! Why can’t she just get our story written and move on! No, not really–my characters are really nice. I’m sure they don’t think that!

Carrie: I’m sure they don’t!

Q: Did you have the whole plot outlined before you started writing Kingdom Lost, or did you let the characters dictate what came next?

Dawn: I had the basic idea but the characters pretty much took over and I let them. I enjoy writing like this but it can be a pain when you really need to come up with an ending…and your characters turn to you and shrug their shoulders!

Carrie: lol that does seem unfair

Q: What is one of your favorite quotes from Kingdom Lost & why do you love it?

Dawn: “She shook off her tremors and stared up at the ivory disk of the moon. She wouldn’t stop (fighting) either. She wanted her kingdom back. She wanted justice. She wanted revenge.”

(Spoiler Alert!) In Kingdom Lost, Lyric (the main character) has been uncertain about what steps she should take for a long time. After a horrible, shocking experience, she realizes that if she wants to stop the evil that has invaded her world, bringing death and destruction to so many, she needs to step into the leadership role she was born to and become the queen she was always meant to be. It’s a life- and destiny-changing experience for her, and I think readers will be cheering her on. I know I was!

Carrie: i love that!

Thank you so much for taking time to talk with me! 🙂 Before we say goodbye for today, tell us what‘s coming up next for you.

Dawn: I’m putting the final touches on Battle for Argonia, the final book in the Lost Stones of Argonia trilogy. I’ve also begun a prequel to this series: To Soar on Jeweled Wings, which tells of an earlier time in Argonia’s history and sets the backdrop for what we read in the trilogy. I’m having an absolute blast with it!

Dawn Shipman is offering a print copy of Kingdom Lost to one of my readers! (US/CAN only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What about you? What makes you want to read Kingdom Lost by Dawn Shipman?