Son of Dragons (Legends of Oblivion #2)
In a time of false peace, the dead rise as soldiers for the Warloc’s scheme. For thousands of years he has stood ready for the final battle. Though the witch and her cursed Elvin have destroyed his physical body, now with his protégé, he has honed a new way to wage war.
Shunned by her own people and weary-hearted from centuries of lost loves, Elvin warrior Mirhana scours the land to silence the undead. Her heart has turned as cold as the sword she wields, until a prince seeks her aid.
Never has Prince Landon met a woman like Mirhana. Both beautiful and deadly, she haunts his dreams. The battle at hand becomes more enchanting than fighting to remain true to his unseen betrothed.
When a traitor emerges, new alliances are tested and the only remaining hope is to follow the prophecy and find the … Son of Dragons.
~ Bewitching BT

Guest Post: Never say Never
by Andrea R. Cooper
If someone tells me that I cannot do something, I will do everything in my power to prove them wrong. For example, my first grade teacher told my mother that I “had a reading disability and would never learn to read.” Well, my mom got mad. She and my sister worked with me with flashcards. Every day after dinner (when I could have been playing or watching TV) I had to do these cards.
It was bad at first; I had no word recognition whatsoever. I would say ‘cat’ when the word was ‘pail’. Finally, I decoded the words and learned to read. Then I scored above average in reading on aptitude tests.
Ironically, neither the teacher nor the school offered testing or help.
Since I was never tested, I cannot say that I had dyslexia. However, voluntarily I took a test in college. They could not find anything except that I have a spelling disability (thank goodness for spellcheck). Some of you might be thinking, just memorize.
It is not that simple. Some days I can spell chandelier or conscientious or pneumatic. Other days I cannot spell twenty or doubt—even though I spelled both hundreds of times—and other days they do not trip me up.
Sometimes when I am reading letters do flip. I remember once when I was in college I saw big block letters over a display in the museum. I was not familiar with the word (I don’t even remember what it was). However, I said the word aloud. My best friend who was with me said, “that’s not a ‘W’ it’s an ‘M’. And the letter flipped in front of me—I am pretty sure most people don’t have that happen.
To this day, it is hard for me to pronounce words or names I have never seen before. I have tried phonics but I usually have to have someone tell me the word.
Recently, I spoke with a musician and band director who was struggling with a dyslexic student in his class. He said the child had problems with pitch perception, among other things. Then I thought back to my own band and choir experience. I realized I had a difficult time sight-reading. And I could not sing back a long string of random notes. They became a jumble. But put words that mean something, like a song, and I can remember them pretty well. I found this note online from Harvard: “Since tone-deafness is a pitch-related impairment and dyslexia is a deficit of phonemic awareness, we suggest that dyslexia and tone-deafness may have a shared and/or common neural basis.”1
Dyslexia is a broad term and everyone’s type and severity differs. Here are some ideas if you or someone you know might be dyslexic:
– Try not to read black ink on white paper. Use a colored transparency or overlay in green, blue, or orange. Or if reading on a kindle or computer, try making the white paper a cream color.
– Follow along with a book, article, etc. while either someone reads aloud, book on tape, or a text-to-speech program. This also helps when writing as the computer or program will read what is written and not what I think is there.
– Get tested, get help. Lots of organizations and tutoring centers can help. Don’t think that it is too late.
– If in music, try putting words to the tone of notes in each song that make since and can be repeated/memorized. Not the Every Good Boy Does Fine or Pine-ap-ple for rhythms, but for the pitches themselves.
– Many famous and intelligent people had the gift of dyslexia: Thomas Edison, Einstein, Anne Rice, Leonardo Di Vinci, Agatha Christie, Whoopi Goldberg, and Muhammad Ali. There are hundreds more.
Never say you or someone cannot do something. Unless they are, like me and will strive to prove you wrong.
Bibliography:
1 http://scholar.harvard.edu/psycheloui/publications/relating-pitch-awareness-phonemic-awareness-children-implications-tone-deafn
Excerpt
” Clean from the bath, Landon let the air from the open window dry his hair. Dressed only in trousers, he leaned against the windowsill.
He thought he smelled the hint of roses and heat on the breeze. Movement from the street below caught his eye. He leaned out, squinting into the night.
Torches lined the cobbled street corners. A cloaked figure waited. Then the innkeeper rushed outside. His hands flew in gestures as the figure nodded.
Then he pointed to the window where Landon watched. At the same instant, the cloaked figure followed his finger’s path to Landon. Green eyes that seemed to glow met his.
Landon jumped up and cursed when his head hit the bottom of the window. When he looked back, both figures were gone.
Thinking the innkeeper would send guards, he waited with his sword in hand and his stare riveted on the door. No one came. He must be getting paranoid, thinking there was a ghost or enemy around every corner. His eyelids grew heavy as he waited for a fight that failed to materialize. Finally, he rolled his shoulders back to ease out the tension.
Still, he couldn’t stop thinking about those piercing emerald eyes. They’d belonged to a woman; he could tell. There was intelligence and cunning in them. Her stare felt as though she saw through the façade he often wore as prince and to please others, and into his kajh.
A woman who was not afraid, but used to being feared. It unnerved him, yet excited him. His pulse quickened and his loins tightened at the thought of those eyes filled with passion for him.
Better get some sleep before the night was gone. Tomorrow, he’d tell Gillespie about what he saw. He doubted he could explain those captivating green eyes that continued to haunt him even now. ”
Giveaway

About the Author & Links:
Growing up in Houston, Texas, Andrea has always created characters and stories. But it wasn’t until she was in her late twenties that she started writing novels.
What happened that ignited the writing flame in her fingers? Divorced, and disillusioned by love songs and stories. They exaggerate. She thought. Love and Romance are not like that in the real world. Then she met her husband and realized, yes love and romance are exactly like the songs and stories say. She is now a happy wife, and a mom to three kids (two boys and a girl).
Andrea writes paranormal and historical romance. When not writing or reading, one may find Andrea dancing in Zumba.
She believes in the power of change and counting each moment as a blessing. But most importantly, she believes in love.
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Oh interesting. I’d not heard the trick of using different color overlays. i’m so the same way when told I can’t do something. Whew that’ll get me going. lol
anna@herding cats & burning soup recently posted…The Virgin’s Guide to Misbehaving (Bluebonnet #4) by Jessica Clare
I think I saw some documentary about a Proff. who came up with tinted-lens glasses, she said they helped out. It’s very interesting, right?
And ditto on the getting me going thing xD
Livia,
Tinted-lens glasses? I hadn’t heard of them, but will have to look them up 🙂
Thank you!
I saw an episode on some medical-like show, maybe as part of The Incurable series? Not sure, but I definitely saw this professor lady who made these glasses. And there was this man that had glasses like those, his lenses were red-colored, and he said it helped him a great deal.
I’m terribly sorry I didn’t remember a name or something 🙁
Anna,
Let me know if the different cover overlays – or switching the kindle/nook page color to something other than white helps. Glad to know I’m not the only one who hates to be told I can’t do something 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.
Great post, and how inspiring! I have a similar story, although I was (and still am, LOL) a bit dyslexic, but it was my mother who worked tirelessly with me to teach me to read. I was in the second grade, and it was NOT fun, but eventually everything connected, and ever since then . . . BOOKWORM. So glad you were able to overcome your struggle as well 😉
Jessica @ Rabid Reads recently posted…Early Review: The Queen of the Tearling
Very inspiring, right? Working hard at things isn’t fun when we’re kids, but it’s so worth it in the long run 🙂
Jessica,
It is surprising how many people have/had dyslexia and were not given formal testing or help. Great job of your mom working with you.
Thank you for coming by.
Thank you for having me on your wonderful blog today! 🙂
Honored to have you over 🙂
I have a spelling disability as well and have the same problem. Sometimes I can spell a word and then the next time I won’t be able to. Reading though was never a problem. Thank God.!
Thanks for sharing that! And yey for the bookworm factor going strong, right? Hehe.
Ella,
I think I still would fail a spelling test 🙂 LOL
Thank you for sharing.
A very personal post so thanks for sharing. I’ve had this happen to me and the opposite (someone tells you that you will do something when it is not what you want)
Toni,
I don’t think I would like that either. Thanks for stopping by.
Depending on how long ago gr 1 was and the country – getting help for a learning disability was practically non-existent. Heck – with cut backs so vicious in education -getting help now is major problem. It was wonderful your family stepped up and proved your teacher wrong.
Daryl Devore recently posted…Covergasms – A hop with covers to make you…uh…gasp
Daryl,
Yes, I was extremely lucky-many are not as fortunate to have help. Thanks for stopping by.
As a teacher, I’m angry that the teacher didn’t do anything to help. There are so many different strategies today that we use. There are hand signals now with sounds that allow students to have a visual and sound cue to help sound out words and blend sounds. I am very proud that you fought so hard to overcome this issue and have become such an amazing author.
I also tell my hubby that he shouldn’t tell me what not to do… cuz I always do it too!