Hollywood and Vine to Darling Harbor?

Hollywood and Vine? Yup, we have that intersection up here in Alaska, too...Wasilla, to be exact. It’s not my jumping off place, but it’s close.

And, in case you didn't know, Darling Harbor is in Australia: Sydney, New South Wales.

The airfare and hotel are booked and paid for. January 12th, 2014, I will be in Sydney. After taking a day to adjust to the time difference and the 23 1/2 hours spent in the air or in airports, I’ll be walking the same beaches as did those First Fleeters (is that correct terminology?): the convicts and mariners who first set foot on Australian soil to establish a colony for England in 1788. 

I'm going south (just about everywhere in the world is south from where I live in Alaska) to research FAIRIES DOWN UNDER, the fifth book in THE FAIRIES SAGA. 

I’ve read volumes, both online at websites and in paper and e-books, but I want to ‘feel’ the air in January, smell the trees and dirt (arboretums, here I come), feel the ocean beneath my feet. You see, even though I am very prone to seasickness, I will even sail on a big ship, the 1874 barque James Craig, to get as close as I can to being in the shoes of one of my time travelers.

Oh, and it will be deep into our Alaskan winter, with only 6 hours of daylight, when I go down to the middle of a Sydney summer. Counting down, just over 100 days left!

Free stuff can be priceless

No, it's not an Easter gift (well, not really), or a bribe to encourage warm spring weather to come to Alaska  (I doubt anything would work for that!), or an homage to the writing muses.

I'm giving away free copies of the e-book version of The Great Big Fairy: Back Again (part one of three parts). It's a painless, priceless way to see if you like my style of writing. I figure that if you like it, you'll tell others and (hopefully) will give me a good review or thumbs up, encouraging other readers to purchase my books. Hey, what can I say? I'm a capitalist at heart, and would love to quit my day job and write for a living.

And you get to find out how to time travel...at least according to the HOOTT (Haviland Opinion Of Time Travel)!

A free, extended preview of part two (TGBF: The Bartered Woman) is included at the end of part one.

Tell your friends and Facebook buddies, Twitter to all (please), that Easter weekend is their chance to snag a 'Great Big Fairy' for free.

click below to go to Amazon:
Free 'The Great Big Fairy: Back Again (Part One)

(Here I am, giving a print copy of the full book to Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. All three parts of The Great Big Fairy is available as a complete e-book from Amazon, or hard copy from Amazon and other booksellers)

Thanks for serving, Senator Murkowski!

Blake Shelton as Benji

Every author has a visual image of her characters in her head. If she finds the right words, her readers will see whom she sees, too.

Okay, that's a perfect world. If books did it all, no one would ever go to the movies.

So, here's a shortcut, a cheat if you will. Blake Shelton was my inspiration for Benji, THE GREAT BIG FAIRY. Oh, and if you didn't already know, fairies are time travelers.

I needed someone tall, blue-eyed, red haired, and with dimples. Well, Blake Shelton is three out four...or four out of four if a box of Nice 'N Easy is thrown in. And my Benji loves to sing. Would that make Blake a five out of four?

Buy or borrow THE GREAT BIG FAIRY on Amazon and spend time with the good humored, gorgeous hunk of male, Benji MacKay, the 6'7" former wrestler and reluctant porn star as he seeks a way to return to the 18th century. And find out what happens once he's there and why it is so important he come back to the 21st century.

Thanks for looking,

Dani Haviland, author

THE FAIRIES SAGA

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Fairy-Fairies-Saga-ebook/dp/B005ITNIPM

p.s. I don't know who took the photo; photographer and source weren't identified on Google, but thanks for sharing.