Bad Spelling

Bad Spelling --BONUS: you get the complimentary short story Spellslinger with purchase

Book One in The Witches of Galdorheim Series

Author: Marva Dasef

Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary Fantasy

RATING: L=1    S=1    V=3

Release: October 14, 2011

Editor: Nancy Bell

Line editor: Penny Ehrenkranz

Cover artist: Kaytalin Platt

Words: 41514

Pages: 124

ISBN: 978-1-927085-74-5

Price: $5.50

Blurb:

If you’re a witch living on a remote arctic island, and the entire island runs on magic, lacking magical skills is not just an inconvenience, it can be a matter of life and death–or, at least, a darn good reason to run away from home.

Katrina’s spells don’t just fizzle; they backfire with spectacular results, oftentimes involving green goo.  A failure as a witch, Kat decides to run away and find her dead father’s non-magical family. But before she can, she stumbles onto why her magic is out of whack: a curse from a Siberian shaman.

The young witch, accompanied by her half-vampire brother, must travel to the Hall of the Mountain King and the farthest reaches of Siberia to regain her magic, dodging attacks by the shaman along the way.

Quotes from Pre-release Reviewers:

In a world of witches, warlocks, and trolls, one girl seeks the family she’s never known. A powerful shaman is determined she’ll never find them. This intriguing story of magic, family, and secrets, will captivate readers and leave them begging for more. I highly recommend Bad Spelling by Marva Dasef. – Cheryl Malandrinos, author of Little Shepherd.

Excerpt:

“All aboard!” the driver shouted. Rune climbed into the car behind the driver’s. Kat thought of it as the engine, something she’d read about in her history book. However, it didn’t appear to have any motive power, just the troll holding the brake.

Andy hugged his brothers, Endy and Indy, for the last time. They patted him on the back and murmured in his ear. Kat assumed they were wishing him a good journey. When she saw tears in their eyes, she turned away to give them some privacy. Maybe Andy would never have left the trolls if it hadn’t been for her. Yet Andy seemed eager to find his original family in Siberia.

Kat asked Rune for cushions. He shook his head and said, “Wimp. It’s only ten minutes. You’ve got plenty of padding already.”

Brothers! However, she realized she’d never have gotten this far without Rune. She swung a leg over the edge of the same car as Rune had hopped in. Not sure what to expect, she sat in the back corner and braced herself as best she could. Andy climbed in and sat kitty-corner from her at the front. Rune wedged himself in the opposite corner from Kat.

It was a good thing she was holding on tight. The driver released the brake, and the train shot forward. Her head snapped back and hit the side of the car, making her very glad she’d also thought to pull up the hood on her parka. She had a certain grim satisfaction seeing Rune wince when his head bounced off the backside of the car.

The train picked up speed until the walls of the tunnel became a blur. As the train rushed forward, spirit lights flicked on before them and winked out once they passed. Kat wondered whether she wouldn’t have preferred to travel in the dark; the motion and the flashing lights were making her dizzy. Besides moving at a horrendous speed, the cars rocked back and forth on the track. Her tailbone suffered in earnest within a minute.

Then it got worse.

The train pitched downward at a frightening angle. Feeling herself slip, Kat pushed her feet out away from the wall. She scrabbled trying to find a foothold to keep herself from tumbling forward. Unbelievably, the ore train picked up even more speed as it raced down the rails. Kat risked lifting her head enough to peek over the edge.

She immediately wished she hadn’t. The troll who was supposed to be controlling this headlong rush into oblivion was standing at the front of the engine car with his arms waving in the air! Andy wasn’t holding his hands up, but he still had a big grin plastered across his face.

“Brake! Brake!” Kat tried to scream, but the wind pushed her words back down her throat. Her eyes wide with fear, tears streamed from the corners. She looked at Rune in the other back corner of the car. He, too, had his arms stuck up in the air. His mouth was open, so he must be yelling something, but Kat couldn’t hear anything except the clattering of the wheels and the horrible rush of wind as the car barreled down the slope.

None too soon for Kat, they reached the bottom and ran along on level ground for a minute or so. She took this chance to reposition herself and get more firmly braced. Still, the train traveled so fast, the wind roared in her ears. Rune mouthed something at her, but she couldn’t hear anything he said.

Finally, the cars slowed. Kat sighed in relief. Was the journey over? The troll said ten minutes, and she felt like they’d been racing along for at least that. She saw the engine car start to head upwards. Good, she thought, the train would slow down even more. That proved to be the case. In short order, the cars slowed so much, she could now make out the details of the tunnel walls. She could see vertical lines evenly spaced along the walls.

Kat looked toward Andy and yelled, “What are those lines?”

Andy glanced at the wall and answered, “Boreholes.”

“What? I don’t understand.”

“You didn’t think we chipped out all these tunnels with a pick and shovel, did you?” Andy answered, “We blasted! Most fun we had in years.”

Kat wrinkled her forehead in thought, trying to understand how blasting would create such evenly spaced and identical lines. The trolls must have drilled down from somewhere above, loaded the holes with explosives, and blown up the rock. The lines were one-half of the boreholes, left over after the blasting.

The cars leveled again, so Kat looked forward to see what lay ahead. She gasped and shut her eyes tight. The engine car dropped out of sight as it topped the next peak. All she could do is grit her teeth to keep from biting her tongue until they reached the end of the long downhill run.

Then the train took a sharp left turn. The right side tipped up so high Kat feared the car would roll over. Next, the car lurched to the right. Her eyes flew open. She gasped as she stared down into a deep crevasse. The trolls had suspended the rails on a rickety bridge over the gap. Kat nearly lost her lunch on that one and shut her eyes again.

At last, the train leveled again and slowed to a full stop. Kat opened her eyes and breathed a deep sigh, relieved to see they had arrived at a platform like the one from which they’d departed in Norway. This time, she spotted a sign: East Ural Mountains.

Congratulations to Marva Dasef for coming in 2nd place for November's You Gotta Read Video Contest. Kaytalin Platt is the cover artist for Bad Spelling, so a round of applause to both ladies.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Customer Reviews:

Long ago the witches fled to the north, to Galdorheim, the island of witches.rnrnKat grew up as a witch in a land of witches, knowing it was her heritage to wield magic and cast spells. Wouldn't it be easier growing up as a witch of a wizard, never having to wonder who you really are? But what if everything you know is false?rnrn All of Kat's spells go crazy, causing chaos. It seems she has no magical ability at all. It turns out her father wasn't a witch at all, but a traveler, one of the Sami people of Siberia. Now a curse hangs over Kat, threatening to destroy everyone she loves and everything she knows.rnrnAlone she must leave her home and travel across a frozen arctic wasteland to lift the curse and save her world. She will face polar bears and killer whales and battle trolls and giants, in a journey ever closer to the source of the danger that threatens. Can she overcome hardship and magic and fantastic creatures? Can she survive the journey when she is not even a witch?rnrnAnyone who liked Harry Potter will like Bad Spelling by Marva Dasef.

Bad Spelling is a tension-filled, heartwarming and hilarious read. As a fan of Harry Potter and Terry Pratchett's books, I thoroughly enjoyed Marva Dasef's novel. She skillfully plays with familiar themes and myths, but weaves them into an intriguing and original story. Bad Spelling had me laughing out loud several times, then the story quickly sucked me right back into its strange and fascinating world of magic, well-hidden from those dangerous humans with their stakes and pyres. Great challenges await a young witch with spelling problems and her half-brother, a warlock-vampire cross-breed with his own tribulations, while trying to save their enchanted island. Every time I thought I'd figured out what might happen next, I was in for another fun surprise.

Witches wear black and travel everywhere by broomstick, right? Wrong! Ms Dasef's witches are very much of the modern world, despite living in the Arctic. Snowmobiles and cellphones lie side by side with magic wands and scrying artifacts. rnThis is the wonderful story of Kat and her brother Rune as they travel to find Kat's paternal family. The story is fast paced and intriguing and surprisingly light hearted. Trouble shadows Kat from the moment she is born. Her magic always goes wrong and on their travels it seems everything is out to stop them succeeding in their quest. I love the way the words flow onward to take us on Kat's travels so that the reader feels the cold, the fear, and the warmth of family love. Well done Ms Dasef I look forward to commenting on the second book in the Witches of Galdorheim Series.

Bad Spelling is a book that continues to cling to my mind.rnrnThis book held me spellbound, if you'll forgive the pun. Marva is a wondrously witty author, who had me smiling and laughing throughout the whole book. But that doesn't really tell you what it's about, does it? Let me give you a quick sketch.rnrnKat is a witch -- only she has trouble using her powers. When she discovers that this is due to a spell on her father's frozen corpse, she and her half-brother Rune set out from their small arctic island to Siberia in order to find the shaman causing the spell and take it off. rnrnThat, in a nutshell, is what the book is about, but those few sentences don't do it justice. I immediately connected with Kat, and loved her sometimes snarky brother Rune. The story kept me reading when I should have gone to bed. The excitement and adventure had me glued to the laptop, reading on. The world Marva created here was exquisite. Even something as simple as a never-ending ice box or a clock that verbally told the time when you asked. Each of the characters was engaging -- even though I wished bad things upon those who made fun of Kat. I can't wait to see the next book and discover whether or not the spell really will put an end to Kat's "bad spelling."rnrnCan I think of a bad thing to say about this book? Not really. It stands out in my mind as one of the best books I ever devoured. I can't wait for the sequel -- which can't come soon enough for me!rnrnDon't believe me? Try out the book for yourself.

I"ve had the opportunity to read Ms. Dasef's first in her series, Bad Spelling. Excuse the pun, but it kept me spellbound all the way through. What a fun read for all ages. And what an imagination the author has. Loved the trollercoaster. I can't wait until the next book is released.

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