Worthy of Song and Story - Book Tour and Giveaway

Worthy of Song and Story
Stian the Viking Series Book One
Neal Chase
Middle Grade Fantasy

Twelve year-old Stian’s plans to be The Greatest Viking Ever appear to be over before they even begin. He’s captured by Dahlia—a dark elf and a girl. If that wasn’t bad enough, he discovers he may be the son of Loki, the greatest enemy of the Viking gods and the one foretold to bring about the end of the world.

Knowing he is meant to be extraordinary, Stian decides to discover the truth for himself and free Loki from the clutches of Odin. Only then, will he discover who he is and what he is meant to do.

Stian must out-think, misguide, and defeat Thor’s children. To do this he will need the power of Gram—a sword with magical powers. There is one catch, only one pure of heart with the desire to help others, is worthy of wielding it. If Stian succeeds, he will become the world’s most famous Viking, but if he fails he will fall victim to the gods’ merciless justice.

Neal Chase lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife, two children, two dogs, and a bird, which strangely has the same name as his dad. He is a member of SCBWI and the Writers’ League of Texas. When he is not writing and reading, you can find Neal coaching football or adventuring with the help of his PlayStation.

http://ncchase.com/
https://twitter.com/ncchase
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What inspired you to write this book?

The first time someone asked me why I wrote Worthy of Song and Story, I’m sure I had the deer in the headlights look. After stumbling through the answer, I realized it came down to wanting to write about something I enjoyed and a desire to entertain kids and hopefully get them to discover that reading can be fun.
Ever since I was a kid, Norse mythology fascinated me. Its stories are big, full of adventure, and largely not well known, which is great for story telling. I just needed to put my own twist on them. Not the same old Thor did this or Odin did that. I wanted a hero who saw the Viking world unlike anything seen in the traditional myths. Thus, Stian was born, a twelve year old wanna be Viking, desperate to show the world his greatness.
Now that I had a story idea, I wanted it to appeal to both boys and girls. With all of the options out there, tablets, youtube, video games, etc., it’s hard to encourage kids to read. If a book doesn’t grab them right away, they’ll put it down, Even if it does manage to get their attention, the book still needs to hold it all the way through. A couple boring chapters and goodbye book. And good luck trying to peel their hands away from the electronics next time.
Kids think a lot of the books they have to read for school are boring and because of this, many think all books are boring. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and ask them. They aren’t shy about telling how bad something is and how it’s a waste of time. I wanted to write something they actually wanted to read. Something to take them away from their normal day to day world. Kids face enough real life issues and troubles already, they need somewhere they can escape and their minds are free to wander and imagine. Magic, gods, giants, and Vikings are pretty hard to beat for that.
That is why I wrote Worthy of Song and Story. What kind of stories did you read and enjoy as a kid? What type of stories do you think will get kids to put down their electronics and read?

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