Hunters of the Dream

Hunters of the Dream

by Ingrid Koivukangas

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GENRE: YA Fantasy

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BLURB:

When the summer holidays begin, Aurora thinks she’s just a normal teenager about to have another boring summer. Then, for her seventeenth birthday, Nana Brin gives her a long-silent Oracle that has been passed down through their family for generations. The mysterious Oracle soon awakens in response to the creeping Darkness that is escaping and destroying all worlds. Aurora must quickly find the courage to come to terms with her calling as the Huntress of the Dream.

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EXCERPT:

The cards rustled, shifting in their dusty threadbare bag. They had lain dormant, forgotten, for generations. The Oracle woke slowly, like a hound sniffing the wind, trying to catch the scent of what had disturbed it, before calling forth a warning. The Oracle bristled. Attuned to the subtle vibrations of the Worlds it sensed a shifting in the balance of energy. The Darkness was once again pulsing, sending out tendrils of elusive gloom. It too had lain waiting, patiently. Over time it had slowly gained power, recruiting those it could ensnare with its black promises. It could not yet escape from the confines of the agreement reached during the Great Darkness...but soon the winds would shift and change. Fully awake, the Oracle began to cast out its own response, filaments of white light unfurling, in a quest to find the Huntress before the Darkness did.


A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR:

1. When did you first realize you wanted to become a writer?

It’s so strange how some moments remain so clear in one’s memory. Knowing for certain, that I wanted to be a writer is one of them. I remember being seven-years-old and visiting friends of my parents. Their children were years older than us, and in university. One of them had a portable orange typewriter in their bedroom. Seeing it was a profound moment…kind of like in a Monty Python movie when the clouds part upon a revelation! I knew in that moment that I would write, well, type stories. I had just written and illustrated a story about a mouse and I thought that a typewriter would help me make the story be more like the books I was reading. More like a ‘real’ book instead of child-writing in crayon.

2. Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre that you write?

I don’t have one favorite author. I read books in many different genres, so I have many favorite authors. As far as my favorite fantasy author, it’s definitely J.R.R Tolkien.

3. What are reading right now?

We recently bought a ten-acre property, that we call Alchemy Farm. We are creating a small working farm with a variety of crops, including flowers for market. So, I’m reading a lot of gardening and small farm books, like: Crop Planning for Organic Vegetable Growers, The Market Gardener, The Flower Farmer and The Herbal Medicine Maker’s Handbook. I’m also taking a bee apprenticeship program – we have two hives arriving this spring – which means I’m also reading books on bees and beekeeping. My favorite bee book is Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive by Mark L. Winston. I’m sure looking forward to having time to read some fiction next winter!

4. Which one of your characters is most like you?

Perhaps every character a writer brings into being has some element of the author in them? When I think of my characters I can see this. With Beaumont Seabring, the time traveler, I know that I share his sense of adventure. Aurora and I share a sense of innocence about the world and outrage at injustices. Nana Brin, the mysterious grandmother, and I share a love of teaching about the natural world and magic. Vaadin, the Shaman who has been mysteriously transported thousands of years into the future, and I share a similar genetic and ancestral bond.

5.Which of your books is your favorite? Why?

Hunters of the Dream is my first book. Perhaps it will always remain my favorite book, because of this.

Thank you for hosting me! 

It was a pleasure, Ingrid.

Ingrid Koivukangas, BFA, MFA, is an award winning environmental artist, writer, designer, Reiki Master and educator.

As an artist Ingrid works intuitively at sites creating new works in response to sites and their energies and histories both natural and human. Her work encompasses many media including site specific ephemeral, large scale public works, writing, video, photography, sound, web, sculpture, painting, drawing and printmaking.

Ingrid's artworks have been exhibited in Canada, the USA, Europe and Asia. She's been featured as an artist in residence on CBC-TV; has had numerous gallery exhibitions; has many site specific ephemeral works left in situ and large scale permanent public art projects.

Ingrid's artworks have been included in many publications and books including: Art in Action: Nature, Creativity and Our Collective Future, published by the Natural World Museum and the United Nations Environmental Programme and Art + Science Now: How scientific research and technological innovation are becoming key to 21st-century aesthetics by Stephen Wilson, Professor of Conceptual and Information Arts at San Francisco State University. One of her favourite publications to be included in is Scholastic Book's Now See This! Art That Influences.

Ingrid has a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with Distinction, from the University of British Columbia Okanagan and a Master of Fine Arts, Environmental Sculpture, from the University of Calgary. You can view her work at: www.ingridkoivukangas.com

Ingrid lives on Salt Spring Island with her husband Robin, two dogs, Lucy and Scout, and a fierce cat named Hunter.

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Links:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13548228.Ingrid_Koivukangas

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IKoivukangas

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HuntersTheDream

Website: www.IngridKoivukangas.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hunters-Dream-Book-One-Gathering-ebook/dp/B0194J80JA

Chapters / Indigo:  https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/hunters-of-the-dream-book/9780973632767-item.html

NOTE: Hunters of the Dream will be available at Amazon from February 22 to March 20 for only $0.99

Get a free online Eco Heart Oracle reading. http://bit.ly/FreeEcoHeartOracleReading

Visit the World of Wonder membership site. This site is for Hunters of the Dream readers. Continue exploring the world of Hunters of the Dream: http://bit.ly/EnterAWorldofWonder

Ingrid Koivukangas will be awarding an Eco Heart Oracle Deck valued at $28 US, (the Eco Heart Oracle is an integral part of the Hunters of the Dream trilogy) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour (International Giveaway). Use the link below to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway