Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Now in Paperback! FORETOLD (Legends of the Forsaken Empire #4)

 

FORETOLD has been released in paperback! This series was hit with more delays than any I (R.J/Kacy) have ever experienced. Some pandemic-related, others due to my tumultuous work schedule, and at least five times by health struggles--my own and others'. Thank the Lord this series is finally complete~~celebrating!

While I'm delighted to wind up the series with FORETOLD, which is my largest-ever published book, I'm sad to bid farewell to the characters. We've been through so much together. 

What's next? I'm beginning research on a new volume in the Genesis Trilogy--a companion story that has haunted me (Kacy Barnett-Gramckow) for years. It's every bit as daunting as the original three volumes, but just as exciting, and I can't wait to dig in! 

Wish me blessings!

Praying for you all, 

R. J. Larson/Kacy Barnett-Gramckow

Foretold is now available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and other online retailers. 

Friday, March 25, 2022

Coming soon! Legends of the Forsaken Empire: FORETOLD

It's been a long, LONG road, rolling volume three (Volume four if you include the prequel, Realm of Thorns) of the Forsaken Empire series to publication, but we've almost brought this big baby home!
FORETOLD, Spring 2022

Through the usual full-time job schedule's hectic pace, two bouts of COVID, one concussion, and some discouraging setbacks that carved away huge chunks of writing time during these past two years, I'm able to catch a breath of relief. FORETOLD is in the final stages of publication! Thank the Lord! (Exhale.) It's been humbling to research the struggles of medieval believers, recorded by chroniclers, who fought for the right to possess and study the Scriptures--a right we've often take for-granted in modern times. Another topic for a future post!

FORETOLD is the final, and largest book in the Legends of the Forsaken Empire series--the largest, because I didn't want to write two smaller books to finish this series. Though I tried to trim and write sparingly, I couldn't whittle Tarian Savtroi's story lower than approximately 164,000 words. By contrast, FOREFEITED and FORSWORN each finished slightly below 120,000 words, which is usually my goal for historical novels. If you're a reader who delights in swift reads that you can polish off in a few hours ... forgive me. But for those of you who love huge, epic, fantasy-realm family sagas inspired by actual history, I pray you enjoy Tarian's story as much as I did while researching and writing it for him.

Love and blessings, and thank you for your patience and encouragement, 

Kacy Barnett-Gramckow, writing as R. J. Larson.


Thursday, December 03, 2020

At last! FORSWORN

At last, FORSWORN--the second full book in my new fantasy series--has hit the shelves. Again, Julaiin and her family are struggling to protect their family's most cherished secret, while her enemies, mortal and immortal, are hunting her down to permanently end her rebellion. 


But Julaiin, her family, and friends are feverishly praying and implementing a plan to destroy their enemies' control over all the souls the Eternal holds dear. To remove the false pedestals from beneath those who hold the faithful captive for power's sake.

Inspired by actual accounts of medieval scholars, FORSWORN is a family saga of faith, and devotion--even when all worthy causes seem lost. 

Thank you, dear everyone, for waiting so patiently as this series makes its way to retailers. 

Blessings, 

R. J. Larson


Thursday, July 30, 2020

Bring on the Fall Giveaway: FORFEITED

While censorship is comparatively new to the modern-era faithful, history reveals that the battle to control and suppress the Scriptures has been raging for millennia. 

Set in a fantasy realm, FORFEITED takes readers into the heart of one family's continuous struggle for freedom to read their sacred Scriptures.




"Legendary creatures have emerged from ancient realms to stalk mortals. Words, long forgotten, are spoken for the first time in a thousand years, and the soul of an ancient forsaken empire is stirring to life. One family has been entrusted with a treasure that endangers all who possess and understand its mysteries—no one is safe.



More than a thousand years after the fall of the Syvlande Empire, a humble cleric, Brother Davin has escaped his order with a forbidden book—the ancient Rone’en. As Davin translates the sacred texts, terrifying truths emerge, defying the realm’s spiritual stranglehold over its faithful. The lives of all who accept the Rone’en’s sacred words are forfeited—including Davin’s cherished pupil, Julaiin Valo-Treor."


Dear readers, thank you for all your encouragement and support while I've written this series. I hope you enjoy the story of Julaiin's family!


Are you following the giveaway? 

Here's a link below!

Fall is officially here! The leaves are turning, the weather is cooling, and it is time to curl up with a book! 

We want you to have a chance to win 40 of books or a $350 Amazon card to buy a ton of books yourself in the Celebrate Lit Bring on the Fall Multi-Author Giveaway!


The event and giveaway is going on now through October 18!

Sunday, July 05, 2020

Waiting and ...

Each month this year, I've held off writing a blog post, thinking that SOON, any day, I'd receive word that the next book in the Legends of the Forsaken Empire series will hit the shelves--virtual and otherwise. Unfortunately, the unspecified technical glitch that's hindering the publishing process continues.

So I wait.

Am I going nuts? Yes. And no.
Calligraphy Practice While Waiting

Yes, because I feel as if I'm losing my writing momentum. This more-than-a-year-long wait has dragged at my creative flow like a wet blanket in a humid climate, smothering all initiative and sense of purpose. I didn't realize I'd become so dependent upon the completed cycle of publishing. Yet I am.

And no, because it's been a learning experience. A time to remind myself of discipline, study, and vigilance. Discipline to write during all available hours. Study, intentional study, to keep my sense of wonder and curiosity fresh. Vigilance to remain focused in faith and life. Waiting works too, with purpose. Prayer. And gratitude.

I'm grateful to you all for being there. For encouraging notes I've received. Thank you, dear everyone, and remain safe. I'm praying for you as well during this long, unwantedly eventful, memorable year. Despite everything I could say about this wait and this year, the Lord is GOOD. Always. More news SOON!




Monday, March 30, 2020

DAWNLIGHT: just in time for Easter Reading!


Just in time for Easter reading! My novel, R. J. Larson as Kacy Barnett-Gramckow--and vis-a-versa, Inspired by Matthew 27, DAWNLIGHT, the Kindle edition, is on sale for $2.99 through the end of April!

Interested? 

Start here!

DAWNLIGHT

 By


Kacy Barnett-Gramckow






Gram-Co-Ink




Copyright 2014 by Kacy Barnett-Gramckow

Researched and written by Kacy Barnett-Gramckow
Editors: Kathi Macias, Jerry Gramckow

All rights reserved in all media. Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission.

For permission requests, please contact:

Printed in U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and legitimacy of the references, referrals, and links (collectively “links”) presented in this e-book, Kacy Barnett-Gramckow is not responsible or liable for broken links or missing or fallacious information at the links. Any links in this e-book to a specific product, process, web site, or service do not constitute or imply an endorsement by Kacy Barnett-Gramckow of same, or its producer or provider. The views and opinions contained at any Links do not necessarily express or reflect those of Kacy Barnett-Gramckow.
Cover design by: Kacy Barnett-Gramckow
Image cover: Ekaterina Shamrai, Shutterstock

Scriptures referenced in this book are paraphrased, with the original Hebrew and Greek  meanings  scrupulously heeded.

Links and contacts for Kacy Barnett-Gramckow:






To my brother Joseph, this book’s instigator, who has the most wonderful laugh in the whole world. 

Chapter 1

Awareness returned to John with an unexpected sense of calm. Eyes still closed, remembering his previous agony, he touched his throat, testing with his fingertips for a wound. No. No blood. No pain. But he found a scar and traced its subtle ridge…slowly encircling his neck. How could it have healed so quickly? How could it heal at all? 
Opening his eyes, John found himself in a limitless space of grayed hush. Others were here. He sensed them nearby. One presence in particular—perfect and all-encompassing—permeated this place, lulling John with a peace surpassing any he had ever known. 
You are here, he thought to the Spirit. And I am not where I was. Again, he touched his throat, still amazed to find it restored. I am not what I was….
Memories of the past intruded now, shaking his tranquility. Fears and inadequacies gnawed hard and he cried to the Spirit in anguish. I have failed!
The Spirit answered in calm, wordless clarity. You did not fail.
But my work is incomplete.
You will complete your work when His time is completed. Until then, rest.
Obedient to the Holy One, John settled into the hush and awaited his liberation, at rest with the righteous souls brought to this place before him. 
And with those yet to appear. 
A joyous calm slipped over him as the Spirit promised, Your Redeemer nears!

***

Joseph understood what had happened.
He was in a place that wasn’t supposed to exist: Sheol.
I’m alive! My soul lives! I’m here…. His elation faded as he remembered his vulnerable young family.  How could he protect them from this distant place? From beyond time?
In despair, he appealed to the shaded hues of quiet surrounding him. The Lord’s Spirit was near. Joseph felt the blessed presence and pleaded with all his soul’s might, They need me!
The Spirit answered his soul in reassurance, with a promise. They are remembered. Rest and wait. He is near.

***

Restless, the Adversary traced the fringes of the place he could not enter, not permitted because of It
Loathsome Spirit.
And pacing from here to stars in protest would avail nothing. Nor would an audience before the throne of Almighty Him, arguing legalities that should be considered. “The earth is mine—it was given to me. This place is also within my realm.”
Yet the Almighty sheltered these souls within this place…these pathetic beings, no less contemptible now that they were freed from their dust-formed flesh. Why did He protect them so avidly—as if they were treasure?  
The Adversary continued his zealous watch, peering inside, longing to grasp those protected souls and confront them with all their wrongs, to prove their unworthiness of the Almighty’s regard.
But they had somehow escaped him. 
He must therefore exploit other options.
Anticipating further maneuvers, he departed, calling his shadow-silent followers to ensnare those yet-walking, still-breathing souls bound by flesh and time.



 Chapter 2 


Jerusalem’s House of the Lord dazzled in the late winter sunlight like a bride in purest white, its pristine marble crowned with gold, its whole presence perfumed with incense that beckoned those who loved her.
Feeling like a bride herself, Elisheba climbed the crowded southern stairs to the Lord’s House, varying her pace to match the differing treads of each stone step. How difficult it was to conceal her eagerness when each step took her nearer to her love, her husband, Joseph.
And to You, she told the Lord, sensing His presence, delighting in His Spirit.
A small body collided against Elisheba’s legs, catching at her blue tunic and veils, almost making her trip. Her four-year-old, Benjamin, righted himself, staring at the Roman soldiers who lingered near the steps, all conspicuous in crimson cloaks, their helmets, weapons, and shields glinting in the sun. 
“Watch where you’re going,” she scolded softly, taking her son’s hand. 
“I am.” But the little boy continued to stare at the soldiers, his brown eyes wide. Clearly their weapons fascinated him.  
“Really!” Elisheba began in pretend complaint. Glancing beyond the edges of her sheer blue veils and head-covering, she stopped suddenly, realizing the soldiers were watching them—watching everyone—hard-eyed, as if prepared to attack anyone who caused a scene.
She tightened her hold on Benjamin’s hand. Should she should turn around and take him home? Her servants still waited in the huge public courtyard before the steps, guarding her small blue-curtained litter. They could leave almost immediately. 
But what if Joseph was in danger?
Elisheba’s stomach clenched at the thought. Trying to reassure herself, she prayed beneath her breath, “Please shield us, Almighty Lord.” She urged Benjamin up the myriad steps, moving quietly amid the other visitors and worshipers past the temple’s usual Levite guards.  
By the time she and Benjamin made their way through the huge, double-arched doorways and tunnel and then entered the vast sunlit stone-paved Court of the Gentiles, Elisheba was sweating despite the cold air. People were gathered here and there throughout the pale marble court: bright-clad Greek-Jews and Persian-Jews, boisterous merchants and herders with their animals, somberly robed Pharisees, and aristocratic Sadducees. Some smiling, many grim, all gossiping as Elisheba walked among them.
Threads of conversation reached her in snatches of Aramaic and Greek. 
“They beheaded the Baptist in his cell.”
“… the Immerser-Prophet, John, for a dance—a girl’s dance!”
“He spoke against the Lady Herodias,” a dark-clad scribe sniffed, gaining Elisheba’s attention with his contempt. “The man was a fool if he thought they would tolerate his outbursts. Prophet, indeed!”
The prophet was dead? Elisheba faltered, her steps slowing with her stumbling thoughts. How could this be true? Only ten months past, she and Joseph had listened to John the Immerser proclaiming the truth of their Almighty Lord with such an unquenchable passion that their lives—their souls—were forever changed. How could he be gone?
Swallowing, she crushed her impulse to cry. What would onlookers think? If Joseph’s aristocratic father, Lord Pallu, saw her tears, he’d belittle her. Scorn her as a childish female and send her home.
“There’s Abba!” Benjamin announced in Aramaic, tugging against Elisheba’s grip. 
Elisheba looked beyond the money-lenders’ tables and saw her own Joseph, slim and handsomely robed in crimson, his rich dark beard neatly trimmed as many young Sadducees’ beards—much shorter than the Pharisees deemed proper for a devout Jew. Yet, despite his worldly appearance, Joseph was truly devout. Even now, he was talking seriously to three of his closest friends, his comrades in prayer, Stephanos and Andronikos—who were also Jewish but Greek-born—and Kore, a young prankster whose family had returned to Jerusalem from exile in Persia only one generation past.
Glimpsing her husband’s fading color, Elisheba winced. He’d obviously just heard of the Prophet John’s death. And like her, he was fighting his distress. If Lord Pallu noticed and suspected that they had followed the Immerser, the Baptist John, and his Prophet-cousin, Rabbi Yeshua, Lord Pallu would all but disown Joseph.
Controlling herself, Elisheba released her son’s hand. “Go to Abba.” 
Benjamin ran happily, his dark curls shining in the light. Her small sweet messenger, announcing her presence to Joseph. Married or not, Elisheba couldn’t speak to her husband in public, particularly not here. The Pharisees would take great offense at even the appearance of impropriety between a man and a woman in the Holy Courts of the Lord. But Benjamin could speak for her. He was also her excuse to draw near. 
Joseph and his friends straightened, startled as Benjamin scampered into their midst. Recovering, Joseph caught Benjamin beneath the arms and swooped him up protectively. “You can’t stay long,” Joseph told Benjamin. He kissed his son then cast a subtle worried glance toward Elisheba.
Slight and scholar-gentle, Stephanos also looked concerned. And Kore, twitching with adolescent tension, seemed ready to bolt from the Gentiles’ Court at the slightest excuse. But Andronikos, the tallest, spoke quietly in Greek, his bronzed face cool. “We should delay the Capernaum journey.”
“I agree.” Joseph shifted Benjamin in his arms, turning him toward Elisheba, almost making her smile in gratitude.
The young men resumed their conversation as if they wanted her to hear what they were saying—and indeed they should. They’d been planning to travel to Capernaum after celebrating Passover to hear the Rabbi Yeshua again—Master Iesous, as Joseph’s friends named him in Greek. Elisheba’s spirit sank. How long would the journey be delayed? For weeks, she’d anticipated sharing the journey with Joseph and Benjamin as soon as the weather warmed. Indeed, her soul had thrived on the hope, for beyond Lord Pallu’s strictures, beyond his mansion in Jerusalem, she was free to enjoy her husband’s company.
Kore, turning paler than Joseph, asked, “Should we go into hiding? Is Jerusalem no longer safe?” 
Elisheba froze. If Herod the Tetrarch, ruler of this particular fourth of Judea, had turned against the Prophet John, then surely his supporters must hide in fear of losing their lives. 
But Andronikos shook his dark head, calming Kore. “No. We’re probably in more danger from the Romans crushing riots than we are from Herod.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Joseph said. “If Herod wanted to imprison the Baptist’s followers, then he would have done so before news of his death became known.”
“Even so…” Kore’s whisper went thin. “… what sort of girl would request a prophet’s head?”
“No normal person would,” Stephanos muttered, glancing around, clearly afraid they’d be overheard and punished. “Someone coerced the girl.” 
Herod’s non-wife, Elisheba guessed. Herodias, mother of the errant girl, had hated the Prophet John for speaking against her publicly.  Even if the prophet had simply announced what everyone thought, what everyone whispered within these sacred courts and beyond these walls
Giving Benjamin a hug, Joseph set the little boy firmly on the slab paving. “You should go now.” 
Benjamin looked hurt. But as he opened his mouth to protest, Joseph became unusually stern. “Obey me. And obey your Ama. Go home now.”
Joseph was right, Elisheba realized. If a rebellion developed as this news spread through the city, then the safest place was in their own household, away from the Roman soldiers. Clasping her unwilling son’s hand, she gently addressed Joseph through Benjamin, as any proper wife would do when she wanted to make her thoughts known in public. “Come, my son. I pray your father and his friends return safely to their homes. And soon.”
“We should go,” Kore urged the others as Elisheba turned away. 
She didn’t hear Stephanos or Andronikos reply. 
It wasn’t until Elisheba was outside the courts again, preparing to climb into her blue-curtained litter, that she realized Joseph’s three friends had cautiously trailed her and Benjamin outside, all the way down the public steps. Her silent guardians.
As she glimpsed their concern, an unaccustomed tremor passed through Elisheba, of near panic, weighted with dread. Throughout their journey home, she prayed for the three young men and for her husband.
Let Joseph be well. Lord, keep him safe!


Friday, February 21, 2020

JUDGE: German Translation!



Books of the Infinite, Volume 2

Exciting news this week!


JUDGE, book 2 in the Books of the Infinite series has just been signed for by ReformaZion Media to
produce a translation in the German language! The paperback version is expected to reach shelves in October.

Thank you, ReformaZion Media, and dear readers in Germany, who have requested Kien's story. I am praying you enjoy reading it as much as I (Kacy as R. J. Larson) have enjoyed writing it.


Blessings, and more news soon!