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Today, we have author Will Granger featured on the blog’s ‘Indie Saturday‘ for his children’s Adventure series ‘Anabar Trilogy‘ – currently with two books out – Anabar’s Run and Anabar Rises.

Will Granger’s ‘Anabar Trilogy‘ was one of the highly recommended books from our consultant for this month – ERIK of THIS KID REVIEWS BOOKS!. Erik described the ‘Anabar Trilogy‘ as adventure books that are great, and gave Anabar’s Run a score of Four out of Five on his review!

Will Granger writes :

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to discuss my Anabar series of books for middle grade readers and some other things I am getting involved in with my writing.

First, Anabar is the main character of my books Anabar’s Run and Anabar Rises. He is a typical young man struggling with deciding what to do with his life. I started writing these books with the basic idea that anyone can achieve their goals, that it doesn’t take wealth or social status to be successful. I created Anabar as an orphan with no obvious advantages or powers. Although this is an adventure series, I purposely left out any magical or fantasy elements. Anabar makes it through hard work and determination.

From that beginning, Anabar seeks adventure and takes on the goal of becoming a member of the Scouts, a secretive band of swordsmen sworn to protect their nation of Semdela. At this point, the story took me in a direction I did not expect. As Anabar faces a series of difficult challenges, he becomes unhappy with the prospect of an approaching war with the neighboring nation of Ricamareth. He ultimately must decide between three difficult choices: fulfilling his duty as Scout and fighting in the war, escaping the war to seek of the love of a princess, and risking everything – his status as a Scout, the princess, and very possibly his life – to try to bring peace to the land.

This strong message of peace surprised me, but I am happy the story took me in that direction. I really did let the story grow. Stephen King, in his book On Writing, says he writes with just a basic idea and no clear outline or conclusion. I tried to do the same thing with Anabar’s Run and Anabar Rises. I enjoyed writing that way, but it was a bit uncomfortable at first just letting my imagination take over. I also did not begin with a certain age group of readers in mind; it just developed into a story I think is best suited for middle grade readers, although I think older readers can also enjoy it. I also think parents will like the fact that there is nothing vulgar in the books, although there is some violence, but nothing extreme or even close to what you will find in a PG movie.

In the end, I am very happy with the story. I have just started writing the third Anabar book, which I am tentatively calling Anabar’s Night. In this story, the adult Anabar faces different challenges and responsibilities as he tries to hold on to his basic morality. My goal is to finish writing it by December.

In deciding to self publish my books, I have explored many different options online to help my readers and promote the stories. I am especially proud of my Anabar Series Blog. On the blog, I have created maps, photographs, posters, journals and other information related to my Anabar books. This is all original material, and not found in the books. I have even written a poem, which I really enjoyed doing, and I am currently hand drawing several maps of locations featured in the books. I want my blog to be a fun addition to my books, and I plan to continually add to it.

I recently started something very exciting with Anabar’s Run. In March, I was fortunate to travel with a group of students to New York on a mission trip to help homeless people. We worked with an organization called The Relief Bus, which does an amazing job providing food, clothing, counseling, and prayer to the homeless in the New York metropolitan area. I came home inspired from the trip, and thought about how I could continue to help. I have decided to donate one half of my profits on Anabar’s Run for 2012 to The Relief Bus. I hope this is effective and that I can send a big check to the folks at The Relief Bus. I write about this on my Author Will Granger blog.

So that is my story about Anabar. I am enjoying writing the new book and helping the series grow through my blog. In addition to Anabar, I have also written several short horror stories, which I feature on my blog, Bad Dreams from Will Granger. I have always enjoyed the horror genre, and find it great fun writing short scary stories on a variety of themes. These stories are not for younger children and are more suited for older teens and adults. I’m currently finishing a story about an old teacher who grades a few too many essays and faces some very unpleasant consequences.

Finally, I was very happy to have recently joined a new organization called Independent Authors International. We are 12 authors, designers, and marketers dedicated to working together to sell our books. Our basic idea is to help each other produce books, by cooperating with writing, editing, and promoting. We want the Independent Authors International name to be a symbol of quality and professionalism that will appeal to publishers, agents, booksellers, and especially readers. I will soon post more details about this on my Author Will Granger blog.

Thanks for taking the time to let me share a bit about my stories. I am confident that my Anabar series will continue to grow through new books and my blog, and I have more ideas for some fun, but scary, short horror stories. Most importantly, please consider helping me help the homeless through my effort to donate to The Relief Bus.

Will Granger was born near Pittsburgh, PA and grew up in New Jersey and Geneva, Switzerland. He spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, where he was able to travel around the world. Scenes from his travels appear throughout his books. He also attended James Madison University and earned his MA in Language Arts Education from the University of Central Florida.

Will Granger and his family live on the East Coast of Florida. When he isn’t writing or teaching, he goes to church, goes sailing and fishing, and enjoys living close enough to Orlando to have an annual pass to Disney World.

Anabar’s Run and Anabar Rises are available on Amazon in Kindle formats. Check out Will’s Amazon author’s page for more info!

To learn more about Will Granger, follow Will on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/will.granger1, Twitter: @WillGranger1, Goodreads and Shelfari. Drop by and say hi!

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Do you want to be a featured ‘Indie Saturday’ author too? Go here for more info!

Read an embedded sample of “Anabar’s Run” after the jump!

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