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Legacy – Publication Date/Cover Reveal

Dayo Benson

legacy.jpgI’m excited to announce that Legacy (Crystal 9) will be out on Monday 27 June. Really…I’m excited. That’s just over a week away! Legacy is the last book in the Crystal series, and I’m really proud of it. I can’t wait for you to read it. Oh, and I love the cover, which my husband designed. He’s a gem.

Here’s the Back Cover blurb for Legacy:

A powerful wizard is destroying America, one city at a time, and it’s up to Crystal and her friends to stop her.
It’s been a year since Luke and the SOT fell, but the battle is far from over. There are deadlier, more ruthless, practitioners out there. Practitioners who want to see the Enlightenment Agenda implemented.

Crystal has faced many challenges, but now she faces the greatest personal test yet. How far will she go to protect the people she loves?
How far she will go to survive?

Judgment Day has arrived.
Juda has spent the past year in jail, awaiting trial for crimes Luke made him commit. Crystal and her family may have shown him mercy, but it is certain that a court of law will give him only justice. With a new practitioner on the loose, Juda is released to fight one more mission with the team. But the success of the mission will mean the end of his freedom.

How will he cope when justice is served?

Legacy is the intensely gripping conclusion to the Crystal series.

***

Over the next week, I’m going to be publishing lots of blog posts (maybe even 1 a day), just giving you my random thoughts about the Crystal series and explaining certain things about the ‘craft’, what research I did, etc. Legacy takes place a year after Powerful Enemies, so I’ll also do posts about what some of the characters have been up to in that time.

Jailbreak (Crystal 8.5) sets Legacy up nicely, so if you haven’t read Jailbreak yet now is the time to do so. Get Jailbreak now at: Amazon US, Amazon UK, iTunes, Kobo, Smashwords, or Barnes and Noble.

And…make sure you’re on my mailing list so that you’ll get an email as soon as Legacy goes live. Sign up Here!!!

So excited 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Update/Crystal 8.5 Book

Dayo Benson

jail break2Hi Guys,

I’m really sorry I’ve been so silent since releasing Powerful Enemies. I have a good excuse though: I’ve been working hard on making Legacy (Crystal 9) as good as I can 🙂

When I released Powerful Enemies, I suddenly felt this pressure to make Legacy, the final book of the Crystal series, even more awesome than Powerful Enemies. I started getting feedback about Powerful Enemies the day I released it (some of you guys read so fast!), and the feedback was so good that I did a typical writer thing: I got worried that none of my subsequent books will ever measure up. Ha! We writers are so weird. I absolutely loved the feedback, in fact I was moved by a lot of the emails I received, and I am really happy at the positive reception the book received. In fact, I ended up on my knees thanking God about it all. But, I started thinking that Legacy wasn’t good enough. So I tore it apart and rewrote the whole thing. It was only about 40,000 words, but now it’s about 97,000 words. It’s more than doubled in length.

To be honest the book was seriously lacking. And the crazy thing is, what I added was so obvious, but I didn’t think of it until I started praying about how to take the book to the next level. I hate it when fiction writers say God speaks to them and they write what He says word for word. That might happen to some people, but I’d feel really presumptuous to say that. So, I ain’t saying that at all. But I am saying I get totally awesome ideas when I pray. I love that that happens to me 🙂

(Random info: my 2-year-old daughter, Esther, is singing ‘mummy finger, mummy finger where are you?’ at the top of her voice right now. I think she deliberately picks moments when I’m trying to concentrate on something, lol. My own fault for trying to write a blog post at 8pm. She’s so adorable).

Anyway, I’m so excited for you guys to read Legacy. I’ve had it back from my beta readers so it’s going to my editor next week. I still can’t give a date for when it’ll be out because it just depends on how long my editor takes. Sometimes she has a lot going on and it takes her a little longer than usual.

So, how about I give you a little adventure to read while you wait for Legacy?

I’ve had a few readers email me about whether there’ll be an 8.5 book and I said no. But I’ve changed my mind now. I cut out a whole chunk of stuff from the beginning of Legacy because I thought it made the opening too long. So, guess what? I jazzed up the bits I cut out and I’m going to release it as an 8.5 book. In fact, I’ve already published it but it’s not live anywhere yet (apart from Smashwords.com who are super-efficient). I’ll email my mailing list once it goes live (that will probably be tomorrow morning – UK time).

Crystal 8.5 is called Jailbreak. Here’s the synopsis:

Crystal never imagined that marrying Juda would make her a target for practitioners who want him to return to the occult, or that she would be given an ultimatum to leave him or die. Kidnapped from an airport, she must come up with a plan to escape.

Jailed for crimes his father forced him to commit, Juda Lincoln is not in a good place. The last thing he needs, the weekend before his trial begins, is practitioners attempting to break him out of jail. Will anybody believe he had nothing to do with it? And will Crystal stand by him now that the whole world knows who he is and hates him?

I’ve had such a blast writing about the Crystal series, but at the moment I’m cleansing my palate with some sweet romance. I’ve been editing Pressure–remember Pressure? The Pure Passion Series book that I never released? Anyway, I’m actually enjoying it. No practitioners, no supernatural stuff, just a guy and a girl falling in love and learning to trust God with their baggage. Not that I don’t love Crystal & Juda, and Alejandro & Max etc. But it’s nice to work on something less ‘serious’ and ‘intense’. More about Pressure another time 🙂

Click Here to sign up for my mailing list so that you’ll get an email once Jailbreak, Legacy, and any book I release, goes live.

God bless.

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Cover Reveal: Powerful Enemies (Crystal 8)

Dayo Benson

Powerful Enemies

Hi Guys,

Here’s the cover for Powerful Enemies. Powerful Enemies is still in pre-flight checks, but it’ll be out on Monday (22nd Feb). I can’t wait to hit publish. If it’s ready before then I will definitely publish it sooner. Make sure you’re signed up for my mailing list HERE so that you get a notification as soon as it’s out xx

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Coming VERY Soon – Powerful Enemies (Crystal 8)

Dayo Benson

 

Hi Everyone,

I’m so excited, Powerful Enemies is almost here. I am literally going to read through it one last time and then hit publish. But before you get too excited and start doing a happy dance, you should know that I am a very slower reader when I am reading one of my own books. I really want to catch any final issues, and I am quite obsessive about my final read through. I’m starting the read-through tonight. It’ll probably take me a few days, judging by how long it took me with Sleeper, but then Powerful Enemies is a longer book, so we’ll see how it goes.

I can’t wait for you to read this book. Here’s why:

1. Juda confesses to Crystal’s parents

I don’t want to say too much about this just in case people read this and haven’t read books 6 and 7 and don’t know Juda’s secret. But, Juda confesses, and I actually had some tears in my eyes while I wrote that scene. Thankfully, I was alone–nobody to give me strange looks.

2. Jesus is finally an on-screen character

Quite frankly, I’m sick of even typing about the devil and typing his names. It’s necessary when writing from a ‘practitioner’s’ viewpoint, but it quickly began to annoy me. I got to write about Jesus and angels quite a lot in this book and it was truly humbling and awesome for me, ha ha.

3. There’s a Wedding!!!

I’m not telling you who. There are lots of couples in the Crystal series. I know everyone wants to see it happen for Crystal and Juda, but there’s Alejandro and Anabelle, Jamie and Carsten, and even Kyran and Trixie. Trixie could have a miraculous conversion in this book…you never know…

Here’s two random pictures of gorgeous wedding dresses.

      

And a picture of me when I got married six years ago this April, ahhh.

I felt like a total queen, lol. And it was a big wedding. I think we had like 700 people. No way was my church letting me show any ‘back’ or ‘cleavage’, hence the shrug. I love my church. And I love my dad (he’s the pastor; yes, I’m a preacher’s kid 🙂 ).

Anyway…

4. Shola Cardoso is a POV character

In Powerful Enemies you get four viewpoints, Crystal’s, Juda’s, Shola’s and Luke’s. Shola’s POV was fun to write. A new female villain is introduced and it was fun to write about her twisted ‘feminist’ philosophies and how she tries to get Shola to buy into them.

The whole point of the Crystal Series is to remind people that we’re in a battle, and we’re not fighting against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6). It’s easy to forget that life is a journey, a probation, and a battle (as well as a gift and a privilege from God). I just want to get people to think.

By the way, you guys wanted a longer book, and you’ve got one in Powerful Enemies. It’s the longest book of the series, almost double the length of Insurrection and Secrets.

 

From the Back Cover

Love shouldn’t be so hard…

Juda’s secret has the potential to change everything. Crystal knows that whichever choice she makes, it won’t be easy. She must decide whether the pain of his secret is greater than the pain of letting him go. Either way there will be pain.

Freedom should be a right…

But Luke doesn’t think so. As violence, destruction, and death take over the nation, the powers-that-be turn to Crystal and her team for help. But is this battle too big for them?

The past two years have presented challenge after challenge for Crystal. However, she is determined to see things through to the bitter end. Luke is powerful, but there is One more powerful than he. Right now, He is their only hope.

**If you’re not on my mailing list already, sign up HERE so that you’ll get an email alert as soon as Powerful Enemies comes out.**

***On another note, I’m thinking of doing character interviews. Who would you like me to interview first? Alejandro, obviously, wants to be interviewed first, but I told him it would depend on what the audience wants 🙂 Leave a comment or email me (dayo@dayobenson.com) with who should be interviewed first and what questions you like to ask them.***

God bless.

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Survey: What do you want to read next?

Dayo Benson

confused cartoon downloadGuys, I’ve been working on my 2016 books, and I just have too many ideas; it’s hard to decide what to do. I’m praying about what projects to focus on in 2016, and I would also like some feedback from you about what you would like to read next. I’ve thrown together a questionnaire, and I would so much appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete it. There are only 9 questions.

Please click here to access the survey.

Thank you in advance for your response 🙂

And thank you for taking Sleeper to no. 1 in its category on Amazon UK and no. 3 in its category on Amazon US. I’m totally overwhelmed 🙂

Quick update, I’m working on editing Powerful Enemies (Crystal 8). It’s a long book, the longest of the series so far, so I know I have to cut it down and sharpen the prose. I also have a 7.5 book called ‘Wedding Kidnap’ which I will be releasing in a week or two. After Powerful Enemies will come Legacy (Crystal 9) and that will be the end for the Crystal Series. I’ve had a blast writing the books and I’m so glad many of you are enjoying them.

After I finished writing the Beauty for Ashes series, I felt a little sad at saying ‘bye’ to those characters, but I was mostly relieved. I was sick of the books because Raw Deal had been on my laptop for six years, as had rough outlines for Red Carpet and Refiner’s fire. I’d read Raw Deal over and over for six years before publishing it. I really wanted to move on to new books and characters. With the Crystal series, the idea was in my mind for a few years before I started writing it last year, but it was pretty vague until I started writing. Because I only started writing the series last year, the series and characters still feel new-ish to me. I feel like I could easily write another ten books about them. But I have other characters in my mind too, whose stories I want to tell, and other ideas I want to explore.

I’m still trying to work out my ‘author brand’ and determine where I fit in the marketplace. My books are all too different from each other. I have both romance and supernatural suspense books; books about adults and YA/NA books; books with white main characters and books with black main characters. At the moment I just categorize my books on a book-by-book basis.

I guess, I just like the freedom of writing about whoever and whatever I want. I’m an independent author, so why not? If I had a publisher there is no way I could write the Beauty for Ashes Series and then follow it with the Pure Passion Series. Neither would I be able to write sweet romance and then follow it with a series about a cult. Only the biggest authors are allowed to genre-hop, and even then, not very much.

Anyway, I’m thinking about my brand so that readers know what to expect from me. A lot of my readers are so sweet and have followed me as I’ve genre-hopped all over the place, but I want to settle down now, enough playing the literary field (ha ha). I want people to know what to expect when they pick up a book by me. Denise Hunter has been my favorite author for a while, probably because she writes sweet romances that relax me. I can’t read anything too suspenseful while I’m writing suspenseful books myself. It’ll be suspense overload. I know what to expect from Denise Hunter. I know what to expect from Francine Rivers. With most authors you know what to expect. I’d be completely shocked if I opened a Denise Hunter book and there were angels in it? If I wanted angels I’d go to Frank Peretti. So, I think brand is important. I’m praying about it. I wonder if my brand can be that I have no brand, and that I’m unpredictable, lol.

Please don’t forget to complete my short survey. Here’s the link again.

Have a great week.

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Big Sigh – Update on Secrets (Crystal 6)

Dayo Benson

sighYes, as I sat down to write this post I sighed heavily. Because I feel really bad. Secrets was supposed to be out in August. Today is August 31st. As at Friday I was still optimistic that it would be ready, but it’s not. I guess I could release it as it is, but I’m not happy to do that. I need to feel confident as I push the button on Amazon that I’m putting out the best product I can.

I feel really bad for the people who message me almost weekly asking when the next Crystal book will be out, so I’m going to add a little bonus to the book as a sort of ‘thank you for being so patient.’ You’ll find out what it is when I release the book. It’s just a little extra to say thank you.

Bear with me guys. Things happen. You go to the hospital for a routine check up and get told you’re not allowed to leave and need an urgent x-ray and then they make you stay overnight and stab you with needles (yes, that happened to me last week on the day I arranged to be off work so that I could focus on putting the finishing touches to Secrets. I’m fine though, thanks for asking 🙂 ), editors get busy moving house and can’t work on your book as fast as they usually do (yes, that happened this month too), beta readers hate elements of the story and you have to rethink everything (ha, ha, I love my beta readers. I used to be very thin-skinned but they’ve toughened me up).

Life is all fun and games isn’t it? How on earth do people do it without God? That’s what I was wondering as I sat grumpily on a hospital bed a few days ago. As soon as the doctors told me they weren’t letting me leave I just began to pray on all the scriptures I could find about health and healing. And then I wondered what people who don’t have God do. If they’re Juda I guess they try to heal themself, ha ha. If they’re Alejandro I guess they call up a woman. Can’t really think what Max would do.

secrets5So…it’ll be a few more days before Secrets hits the virtual shelves at all the online retailers. But I hope the bonus I’m going to slip into the book will make it easier for you to forgive that 🙂 Make sure you’re on my new release list so that you get an email alert as soon as it’s out. Join my list by Clicking Here.

By the way, some people have already pretty much guessed what Juda’s secret is. I didn’t approve their comments on this site so that they don’t ruin the story for those of you who haven’t guessed. What do you think Juda’s secret it?

God bless.

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Cover Reveal: Secrets (Crystal 6)

Dayo Benson

secrets5The cover for Secrets (Crystal 5) is finally ready!!

I’m so excited about this book because you get into Juda’s dark mind for the first time, and it was a challenge to write from his POV. He’s tortured, troubled and constantly second-guessing himself because he doesn’t know if he’s acting/thinking in a ‘normal’ acceptable way or not. Since meeting Crystal, he is desperately away of his abnormality and it’s a struggle for him.

It shouldn’t be too long now before the book is ready. Here’s the description:

Two unlikely people. An undeniable passion. A devastating secret.

Two passions consume Crystal: vengeance over the SOT, and love for Juda. Nothing may ever come of either.

Juda feels connected to Crystal in a way he has never felt with anyone before. But a devastating secret holds him back. Crystal may be the most forgiving person he’s ever known, but even she would never forgive him if she finds out what he did.

Some things are best kept secret.

But can he live with himself if he doesn’t tell her?

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Cover Reveal: Delirium (Crystal 5)

Dayo Benson

Happy New Month Everyone!

Delirium2c The release of Delirium is fast approaching. I was thinking July 1st, but it might even be before then 🙂 I’m a little apprehensive about Delirium because readers finally get into Alejandro’s head, woohoo, and it’s a pretty weird place. Alejandro is a womanizer with a one track mind, but this series is still supposed to be ‘clean’ and Christian, lol.

Delirium follows Crystal and the team as they create an antidote to the drugs in the water and then try to get their antidote released to the nation. It also follows Alejandro as he tries to seduce older married women, including Crystal’s mom, Lexi. The challenge when I was writing this book was to keep Alejandro’s character authentic without going too far, since he’s not a Christian, he can be pretty crude, and he thinks about sex pretty much constantly. I think I did an okay job and managed to strike the right balance. I’m sure you’ll all tell me if I didn’t, lol. But you have been forewarned. There’s nothing graphic so don’t worry. Anyway, here’s the synopsis:

A frantic race against time

A cocktail of dangerous SOT-made drugs has been released into the water supply, and everyone is going nuts…

The SOT’s plans seem to be coming together nicely, while nothing that Crystal’s team is doing seems to work. With the opening of new ‘spirit centers’ all over the country to ‘combat’ the effect of the contaminated water supply, America is falling prey to the SOT’s agenda. Can Crystal and her team create an antidote before it’s too late?

***

Over the past two weeks I’ve been back and forth with my poor cover designer. I’m actually very easy to please when it comes to book covers, but I didn’t have any clue what I wanted for this book. Then when I got the cover with the girl in pink with New York City in the background, I really liked it, but Crystal’s skin is a lot darker than that girl’s, so I had to go back to the designer about it. You can see the transition below.

Delirium

 

 

 

 

 

Delirium2 Delirium2b Delirium2c Delirium2d

 

 

 

 

 

If you’ve been reading the Crystal Series, or if you read the Beauty for Ashes series, you’ll know

Cmillian that Crystal has a drop of Cuban in her. It’s not a big deal, but I do want the girl on the cover to be true to the description of Crystal in the book. I imagine her skin colour to be similar to the gorgeous Christina Millian (right).

I think I’ll be going for the third version of the second cover.

What do you think?

Dayo x

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Crystal Box Set on Sale/Writing Update

Dayo Benson

Crystal Box Set JPEGHi Guys,

The box set of the first three books in the Crystal Series just went on sale at 99 cents/pence. If you haven’t started the series yet this is your chance to try it at little cost to you.

By the way, I’m so grateful to all my readers because I released Allies (Crystal 4) last week and it hit number one in its category and stayed there for three days. I was over the moon. I felt like my name had changed to Karen Kingsbury or something. Right is the picture of when it had the cool bestseller tag on it on Amazon. It’s gone Allies no 1now, as it only says that while the book is number one. Not forever, sadly. The book needs reviews though so if you enjoyed it please do me a favour and review it. If you haven’t read it yet and would like a review copy email me at dayo.benson@ymail.com.

Anyway, I’m on a major high right now because I finished writing the final book of the Crystal Series, Legacy (Crystal 9), last week Wednesday. I’m so happy that the series is all written. Now, I have to do the hard work of editing, looking at structure, consistency of characterization throughout the series, etc. But I’m glad I decided to get all the books written before releasing them all, rather than writing them and releasing as I went along. Before I released Searchlight (Crystal 1) I had already written Surrender (Crystal 2) and Insurrection (Crystal 3). I would recommend this method to any writer. Get the whole series written before you publish the books. There were things I didn’t see coming, and because I have only published books 1-4 I can still go back and amend previous books. But if I had been publishing each book as I wrote them, it would have been almost disastrous. For a trilogy it won’t matter so much, but for a nine book series, it does matter.

cookiesI had white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies as a treat for finishing another book. Honestly, you need to get yourself down to Subway and try them. Life changing! They’re only nice if they’re fresh, though.

You can see that I am motivated by unhealthy goodies 🙂

I’m planning to write a few novellas to support the series and fill in some gaps, and I might also write a few books about Juda’s background, so when I finish those I will be well and truly done with Crystal and her comrades and I’ll get myself a nice big reward, like a meal out with my hubs or a spa day, or something. Maybe both 🙂

Anyway, for those of you who have already read Allies and are eagerly awaiting the next installment of the series, Delirium (Crystal 5) should be out in June. Sign up for my mailing list Here so that you’ll get an email as soon as it comes out. I’ll do a cover reveal soon.

Ciao for now x

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Book Update

Dayo Benson

Allies_500x750Hi Guys,

Further to my last blog post, I didn’t hear back from my editor so Allies (Crystal 4) is now being edited by another editor. I don’t want to give an exact release date, but I should still be able to publish it this month.

In the meantime, why don’t you check out an interview I did with a fellow author, Remi Roy: http://thelightedgirl.com/2015/dayo-benson-prolific/

I will be interviewing Remi on my own blog soon. She’s a fantastic author that I think you’ll love.

God bless.

Dayo x