LANCASTER, Texas (Oct. 21, 2008)—The Green Stone of Healing® epic fantasy website is among the finalists of the 2008 National Best Books Awards, HealingStone Books announced today.
The award-winning website is honored in the Best Website Design category. The site provides much-needed background for a complex saga packed with romance, intrigue, mysticism, and adventure.
First-generation heroine Helen Andros is also now contributing “Helen’s Harpings” to the series’ blog, StoneScribe.
More than 500 winners and finalists were chosen in over 140 categories covering print and audio books. Awards were presented for titles published in 2008 and late 2007. Jeff Keen, president/CEO of USABookNews.com, which sponsors the awards, says there were an unprecedented number of entries for the contest’s fifth year.
The Green Stone of Healing® fictional epic explores what happens when politics and piety collide in an island nation called Azgard.
Theocrats plot to impose total control over Azgard but end up destroying their country and much of the rest of the world. The books portray four generations of strong-willed heroines who use their mysterious gem to offer a healing, inclusive alternative to the hate-filled bigotry of religious tyrants.
“The website tries to convey a sense of doom and hope at the same time,” says C.L. Talmadge, author of the series, which is published by HealingStone Books.
In addition to keeping readers posted about news and gossip from Azgard, Helen also plans to blog about political events in the author’s world.
“Just like Democratic candidate Barack Obama, I am a mixed-race person,” she points out. “He seems to be doing a much better job than I am in bridging two races and cultures. My author says she is voting for him, a good thing since she will hear about it in no uncertain terms from me if she does not.”
Want a Better Website is the development-design team for the website.
The first three books in the series—The Vision, Fallout, and The Scorpions Strike—are available as paperbacks at any online bookstore or by order through traditional outlets and as e-books.
“The Scorpions Strike is fast-paced, action-packed and full of surprises,” writes Anne Garber, managing director of evalu8.org. “Just when you think you have figured out where these events might be heading, everything you imagined is thrown out the window.”
Calling the series “masterful,” Garber concludes, “Hooray for Helen Andros and the behaviour-models she has spawned. What an important void this character, and C.L. Talmadge's inspirational story have filled!”
The first two novels in the series also have drawn high praise.
“Exceptional job of writing, and keeping this story tightly together in a genre that is certainly difficult to do such, our author is top-notch,” Shirley P. Johnson writes about Fallout in Midwest Book Review. “If you love an intense read, packed with sinister power seekers, grueling heartless characters, yet laced with mystical moments, the lure of peace and healing, and the hope that goodness will prevail, this read is for you.”
“Helen is a formidable protagonist,” Kirkus Discoveries says about The Vision.
Readers may also browse through the entire contents of all three books at the series' online bookshelf.
