worldoftraegonia

BOOK REVIEW: Traegonia: The Ember Rune by K. S. Krueger as seen on Creating Childhood Memories One Day at A Time

traegonia — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:25:33 +0000

Traegonia: The Ember Rune is Book Two of the Traegoina series and is a Young Reader Fantasy Adventure Fiction.
The story continues with Dino, Juna and Karia almost a year after their first encounter in Traegonia: The Sunbow Prophecy. (you can read my review here.) The three have adjusted nicely from the previous years mishaps; each coming into their own as they explore their forest and continue to bond.
When Dino’s parents announce a family vacation to California for a week, the two Traegon’s feel the need to travel with Dino. Karia has been having strange dreams about fire that has her worried and Juna has always wanted to see the mountains. Between the three of them, they come up with a plan that will enable them to travel to California.
After a few narrow mishaps on the journey, they arrive safely and begin to explore their new surroundings. When the three of them meet Jade, Autumn and Fletch, their vacation is about to take on more than they can handle. Karia is still acting unlike herself as she spends more time alone trying to decipher her dreams and Dino is excited to be able to share his stories with others of like mind.
During their quest, the three begin to realize what is at stake when Karia’s dreams begin to unfold. Will the children have the courage to do what is needed or will they fail the Ember Rune?
I cannot say enough good things about this series, it is fantastic!! I love how the author writes the tale of the Traegons, the world and character building is phenomenal and you cannot help but feel captivated by the events unfolding. The passages will make you laugh and cry as you peruse the situations that the three find themselves in. The airplane trip was nerve-wracking as well as hilarious to read and I couldn’t put the book down until I knew the outcome. There are many instances throughout the book in which you will find yourself quickly turning the pages in order to keep up with the events.
I love Dino and think he is an amazing child, his depth and breadth of himself and his surroundings is remarkable and many children could take lessons from his moral tenets. The underlying message concerning the environment and how we are the caretakers is written in such a subtle way, you don’t realize your being reprimanded for not doing your part. There are many life lessons to be learned from Dino and his friends.
I would give Traegonia: The Ember Rune a five out of five stars. This book delivers fun, excitement, chaos and dilemmas, all designed to keep the reader moving forward and you will want to. From beginning to end this book is full of entertainment and is a must have series to have in any library. I cannot wait to see the next adventure…very excited to read more and K.S. Krueger has the ability to make you fall in love with her words, her characters and their lives.

http://www.creatingchildhoodmemories.com/2012/01/book-review-traegonia-ember-rune-by-k-s.html

A Simple Answer…

traegonia — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:09:21 +0000

What if the answer to the end of the world was simple? What if it was within our individual control? Would you step up?

Would you be excited and positive and eager to do what it takes?

What if you were told today, that all you need to do to save the world is put aside your ego and think and act in a positive way toward every living thing. All you need to do is put aside your belief that you are all that is important in this world and look at each person or animal with kindness, compassion, tolerance and openness. Humans have warred over religion, race, gender equality, and age, among other things, since the beginning of time, but forgotten one simple fact; we are all human, living, breathing, loving human beings. And because we have forgotten, or chose to overlook this fact, we find it easier than not to be selfish, individualistic, ego centered and self-centered. Now although this may sound harsh, take a look at this simple scenario.

A woman of any other race but your own, steps onto a bus, she is overweight and has mild body odor. She walks with a slight limp but has a smile on her face. There are no seats available, as the bus pulls forward she stumbles a bit but catches herself, giggles a little and makes a comment out loud to whomever wishes to listen about being clumsy. Did you smile at her? Did you offer her your seat? Did you wonder about her circumstances or send a positive thought her way. Or did you do nothing? Or did you think a negative, hurtful, inconsequential thought.

Regardless of religious background, any kind, tolerant and compassionate person will tell you there is power in prayer, and prayer to some is thought, to others it is called meditation or the process of manifestation. And when positive thoughts are sent outward into the universe they are picked up by others; humans, god, angels, whatever you call your creator and that is because thought is energy and we choose, every moment of every day to put out positive or negative thoughts, without ever giving it much… thought. Every thought has power and power amplified by the number of people thinking and acting in a particular way can cause change in the world, good or bad. Now, what if I told you that all everyone had to do was be kind, honest, and compassionate, smile at one another and think positive thoughts about everything and everyone, every day. What if I told you that was all it would take to save the world from certain end? Some would say, “That’s not hard I already do that most of the time; when I think about it.”, or some might say, “That’s a load of @#$%, it cannot be that simple.” And yet others might say, “Sounds like a hippie love fest, it won’t work.” Or “Even if I do it others won’t; and then it wouldn’t work anyway.”

How do we think positive about the world and our lives when everything is a mess, the economy, unemployment? There is always some way to take a negative and turn it just a little to find something positive. Every rejection is one step closer to acceptance. A heavy rainstorm is a free car wash. There is a reason and a purpose for everything, find the positive, but try. And remember you never know who you might be talking to, so always be kind and considerate, gentle and positive. Remember the woman on the bus, what if she was your creator or a messenger to your messiah, just checking in to see how you are doing, asking nothing of you, just checking in. Now ask yourself; How are you doing?

Take personal responsibility for your thoughts and actions; don’t let your choices depend on the actions of others. If enough of us decide to ” just be good, be kind, be compassionate, be positive, think positive and think of others in a positive light”, who knows, in one year we just might be able to change the outcome of 2012.

Remember, once upon a time a man built a big boat because people were unkind and selfish and the world needed a good toilet flushing, let’s not watch history repeat itself. Take personal responsibility; “Be the change you wish to see in the world and others will follow.”

By Kim Krueger

A Thought for 2012!

traegonia — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:49:51 +0000

Believe!

I believe that everyone is amazing and special, in their very own way. What if one day you opened your eyes and you could see the wonderful talents that everyone possessed just by looking at them? What if you could see the beauty in everyone regardless of what they looked like on the outside? How do you think it would make you feel inside?

I believe that each of us has awesome and incredible talents, that most of the time we don’t give ourselves enough credit for. Because it comes easy to us we tend to take it for granted. It is only when someone else who doesn’t have that same talent, is awed by what you have accomplished, that we notice ourselves a little more.

I also believe that when someone puts another person down it is because the person saying the hurtful things, in some way feels better about themselves when they do it. Or at least they think they do, or it makes them look cool, or they think it does.

I believe that we can live in a world, where each of us can respect others for who they are and what they can do, no matter how small or big, without feeling threatened or inferior.

Why is it easier to say I can’t than to try?

In 2012, let’s, try something. Let’s be kind, every day, to at least one person. Compliment someone on something they have done or something about them. Seek out being able to see the beauty and uniqueness in others and if you have nothing nice to say…say nothing at all.

Let’s notice the awesomeness in ourselves. We don’t have to brag or be boastful, just notice it and the things you are good at. Maybe even try something you have always wanted to do but never have. Find your talent, your passion and believe in all that you can do.

Talk to another person about bullying. Start a dialogue, with your friend, your mother, your child, or even the person sitting next to you on the train. Stand up, hold your head high and make a difference in this world, today, tomorrow and always. We will always live on this planet with others. You can choose to hate and be angry and frustrated or you can choose tolerance and love. It is of course your choice, I know what I will choose, do you?

I believe that life is a fascinating, wild rollercoaster ride full of new experiences, awesome people and lots of adventure and when things get crazy and overwhelming I hold up my arms and say “WEEEE”. I believe in me and I believe in you. Now it’s your turn…

What do you Believe?

The World of Traegonia a Year in Review (As seen on Cafe Dreams)

traegonia — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:38:58 +0000

The World of Traegonia

A Year in Review

(As seen on Cafe Dreams 12/6/2011)

Ringing in 2011 in the World of Traegonia began with Dino and I working hard to get book 2, Traegonia the Ember Rune, to print. As I continue to write and create the words, Dino worked hard to turn out the illustrations. We found ourselves pushing deadlines, not wanting to rush the book, but hearing our fans’ excitement grow as they kept checking our website, Facebook as well as checking in at shows and through email for the release date. All of this while working, taking care of my family, marketing and selling books several weekends a month at craft and Art shows.

I had made the decision to republish our first book, Traegonia the Sunbow Prophecy, at the same time with a new publisher. Smoothly is not the word I would use to describe how things went. Stress was high and as I was made aware later, Mercury was in retrograde; I told my family it felt like the planets were out of alignment or something. I’d say I worried all the time but I didn’t even have time for that. Finally we set our release date for the first week in August. We were scheduled to attend a wonderful festival called World of Fairies Festival, held every year in South Elgin, IL. We were to be the featured artists this year and were so excited to pair these two events together. Would we have books? We did, some, but our customers, fans and friends, (that is three words for one in the same), were awesome as usual. We sold out of the second book by 1:30pm on Saturday; we offered our customers a free set of our character post cards with every order placed with us at the show. We still had first edition copies of Traegonia the Sunbow Prophecy and plenty of other items to sell. It turned out to be a beautiful and productive weekend. I love this show.

The following weekend was scheduled to be our first go at Wizard World Comic Con in Rosemont, IL. This would be a four day show of new clients who were into the fantasy genre. We truly didn’t know what to expect. Then a day before we were to set up for Comic Com, my daughter who is in college for marketing had a bright and crazy idea, Raffle off a sculpture! But we knew there was more, the sculpture would be created in the likeness, (I prefer ‘essence’) of the winner and would become a character in our third book. We all loved the concept. We posted it on our website and Facebook and the response was overwhelming. Understandably, the chance to win a custom sculpture of a Traegon worth $350 that would become a character in the next book, all for just $1 chance. Tickets were selling like crazy and the excitement of our loyal fans and our new fans was amazing. The winner was chosen on Sunday, the last day of Comic Con, and the weekend and the raffle were a huge success. The only thing Dino and I didn’t expect was to feel sad for those who didn’t win. But we understand that that is how a raffle works. We will do it again next year, it is so much fun to interact so closely with those who are as excited about our book and sculptures as we are and how cool is it, that some of those fans will be characters in one of our future books.

Since then we have continued to do shows and have received several orders for the sculptures. I have started book 3 in the series and we have decided to put the books on audio as well, so I will start recording the audio books very soon. The decision to do audio books was due to multiple requests by those too busy to read and for the struggling readers out there, including one of my own daughters.

So much more happened between all of this including revamping our website and going ecommerce with the books, sculptures, and other wonderful items we have available. We continued to do shows and school visits all while living and working. As the year winds to a close it is fabulous to have this opportunity to look back on the wonderful, experiences, opportunities, and friends we enjoyed. We are greatly looking forward to 2012 as we plan to do more fantasy/ sci-fi shows, continue on with book 3, work on the audio books, and possibly even a coloring book for our youngest fans and aspiring readers. We continue to look for new ways to get the books out into the world and share our inspiration and love of Traegons with the world. So please stop by our Facebook page and ‘like’ us there for future events and updates in the World of Traegonia. No matter what you do Always Believe!

Have A Peaceful, Joyful and Harmonious Holiday Season and A Prosperous and Healthy New Year!

Kim Krueger

(K.S. Krueger)

www.WorldofTraegonia.com

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/World-Of-Traegonia/93885228559

Traegonia: The Sunbow Prophecy Virtual Book Publicity Tour December 2011

traegonia — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:39:48 +0000

Join me each day on a new stop on my Virtual Book Tour. Stop by these blog sites and discover new things about myself and how the World of Traegonia, the books and the sculpture collection came to be. We look forward to seeing you there.

Exciting News from World of Traegonia 11/28/2011

traegonia — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:30:48 +0000

Hi Friends,

I invite you to join me on two virtual book tours in December. The first one will be for Traegonia the Sunbow Prophecy and run from December 5^ththru the 16^th and the second for Traegonia the Ember Rune which will run from December 19^th thru the 30th. This is the first time we are doing something like this and would love for some of our friends to join in on the comments thread. I hope to see you there. Below are the links to the pages. I will also be interviewed on a pod cast “Stories from Unknown Authors” on December 8^that 8 PM Eastern/7 PM Central. I will post a direct link on our Facebook page as soon as I get it. It would be great if you could pass these links on to anyone you think might be interested.

http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/11/05/traegonia-the-sunbow-prophecy-virtual-publicity-tour-december-2011/

http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/11/05/traegonia-the-ember-rune-virtual-publicity-book-tour-december-2011/

Sculptures

The interest in our custom sculptures has been wonderful. Following our appearance at Wizard World Comic Con in August, we have created and sold 3 additional sculptures. One was a reproduction of Sir Antar and the second a new oracle with a Halloween Motif who we decided would represent our Oracle in Traegonia the Ember Rune Oracle Qendrim. We welcome Scotty Gerhardt to our friends and collectors. Follow the link to see these two new sculptures.

Dino met with our sculpture winner, Sylviette Young, recently and delivered the newest sculpture and character in our third book, Sylverna. If you haven’t already seen her head over to our website or our Facebook page and you can see this beautiful Traegon. The newest sculpture and collector will be posted soon on our facebook and website, so watch for him. This one is being created also in the collector’s likeness and is adorned with a few items of his owner. The sculptures name is Kailash and his bio will be posted along with upcoming photos. Dino will be using the long winter months to create several new sculptures that will be offered at our shows for next season. He is working on a new smaller, more affordable, limited edition series collection. Full size Traegon sculptures will still be available by custom order.

COMING SOON: AUDIO BOOKS

We will begin recording the audio book for Traegonia the Sunbow Prophecy early December. Both Audio books should be available later next year in an MP3 file and on cd. We will keep you updated as we move forward with this project.

Count down to the selection of winners for our ‘Start Seeing Traegons’ writing contest. If you want to join you need to get your sightings in to us ASAP. We hope to see some more entries come in. For details please check out our contest page at http://www.worldoftraegonia.com/contest/

World of Traegonia Blog

For those of you who do not have a Facebook and anyone else who would like, you can subscribe to our blog at http://worldoftraegonia.wordpress.com/. I am going to try and keep up with this a lot more; I will post our newsletters and updates. Hopefully I can figure out how to link it to Facebook so all of those posts show up there. If anyone knows how to do that, it would save me some research. I will also post a link from our website to the blog. Forgive me if you see duplicates as I experiment on this.

Finally we hope that everyone has a Safe, Joyous, Peaceful and Happy Holiday Season. You have all been a huge part in the dream of Traegonia becoming a reality and we wish for you Every Dream that you may Dream Come True!

Peace, Love and Light,

Kim Krueger and Dino C. Crisanti

Happy Thanksgiving!

traegonia — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:33:54 +0000

Wishing all of our friends and fans a truly blessed and beautiful day to celebrate the gifts we are so fortunate to have in our lives; family, friends, health, love and peace!

Sculpture Raffle Winner

traegonia — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:15:52 +0000

Dino met with our sculpture winner and delivered her beautiful, one-of-a-kind Sylverna. Sylviette Young, our winner who purchased her ticket at the Comic Con weekend in August, was thrilled with her prize and we are thrilled for her. This was such a fun raffle we will probably do it again, so keep checking our facebook and website, for updates.

News from Traegonia

traegonia — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:04:54 +0000

Hello All,

It has been a very busy year for us, as most of you know book 2, Traegonia the Ember Rune, released back in August, to a very warm and anticipated audience. Thank you all for your patience and interest. I know everyone is busy and will get busier as we approach the Holiday Season, but I need to ask anyway. We Love Feedback and it helps us in our marketing, to gain more readers as well as helping to generate interest in school and library visits. That being said, if you can find a few minutes in your busy schedules to write a few sentences in an email that we can post on our website, or hop over to our Facebook and post it on our wall or in our discussions under ‘Reviews’. These are greatly appreciated. We are also open to gentle critiquing, what you like what you didn’t and what you might like to see in the future. That is one of the cool things about a series in progress, and we definitely are in progress on our third book in the series. We do not have a title yet but the characters are in development and the Location has been determined. We also will be posting the Curriculum/ Study Guide for Traegonia the Ember Rune in the next couple of weeks. The curriculum for both the first book Traegonia the Sunbow Prophecy and Traegonia the Ember Rune are available for you to download for free to use in classrooms or for home schooling. Just pop over to our ‘;For Teacher’ page and you will find what you need.

We love seeing you at the different shows we attend and next year we are going to be trying several different ones. In August we attended our first Comic/sci-fi type convention. Traegonia was received incredibly well and we have decided to try several more in 2012. We invite you to go to our Facebook page to view the awesome and funny pictures from “Wizard World Comic Con”. We hit 300 likes on Facebook last month and are welcoming new friends every day, so if you have not liked us on Facebook yet, we would love to see you there. I works well for us to quickly post updates and events as sometimes emails can fall into spam folders and get over looked. Hope you will join us. We also have a few new sculptures that have been posted to the Facebook and will be posted to our website in the near future, along with updates on the Sculpture for our Raffle winner. It has not been completed yet but Dino is working on it and has said he would post photo updates as he goes. Our winner was Sylviette Young, she is a resident of Chicago who likes Karaoke, traveling and life.

I was working on the essence of the character and have already shared my thoughts with Sylviette so I’ll give you a sneak peek into this character. She is a Traegon from New York City; she is the girlfriend of one of the overloads. (Not the word we are going to use but they are part of a group of rogue Traegons.) Any way this female character lives in or around the Palace Theater in Time Square, she loves shiny things and is amazed by the wonders of the humans and theater life. She sneaks away into the dressing rooms when all the humans are gone and adorns herself with things she finds their. She even sometimes randomly breaks into song. Her name is Silverna. She will be a little more colorful and have more human world items about her. We hope you are as excited about her as we are. Dino has already posed her and I know she will be beautiful.

We have three more shows this year, We will be at the 32nd Annual Christmas in the Country Arts and Crafts Show in Sandwich, IL next weekend Nov. 12 and 13. It is a huge craft show held in three schools, Sandwich HS, Sandwich Middle School and Haskin Grade School. There is a shuttle bus that takes patrons from one shhool to the next and runs all day both days. We will be in the Haskin Grade School small gym, same as always. We will be at the Tinley Park Convention center, Dec. 3rd and 4th for the “Festival of Arts and Crafts” this is a great venue. And finaly we will be back at the College of Dupage Dec. 10th and 11th for our final show of the season. Remember if you would like to order signed copies of the books for Christmas you can always contact us directly through this email or by phone at the number at the bottom of the page. Our Events are posted on our Website and will be posted to Facebook as well.

Along with the additional event venues and working on the third book, we are going to be working on an audio book in an MP3 format and a coloring book called ‘Ige’s Quest’. For those of you who are not familiar with Ige, he is a toddler Traegon form Traegonia the Ember Rune. His mim is Zuri and she is ‘with Traegon’ (Having a baby Traegon) Ige’s quest will be to find the perfect name for his sibling. Stay tuned for updates on Ige’s Quest and up coming contests.

One last thing, we are coming into the last month of our current contest. Our ‘Start Seeing Traegons’ Writing Contest ends December 19. If you haven’t gotten your submission in yet, it is time to “GET ON IT” Head on over to our website for complete details and your submission form.

We hope everyone has a Safe and Wonderful upcoming Holiday Season and Joy and Fun with Family and Friends. Please always remember those less fortunate. Seems there are many more in this trying economic climate. I send with this email, thoughts to all for peace, strength and love, what ever your situation.

Onward Friends of Traegonia

We Love You!!

K.S. Krueger

(Kim)

Gratitude:)

traegonia — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:56:21 +0000

When things in my own life feel like they are going just as bad as possible, I try to remind myself that there are others out there who have things much worse than me. And then my thoughts turn to gratitude for what I do have and how fortunate I am for the simple things. So for now I will be grateful and allow the gifts to flow into my universe. I am grateful for my family, my friends, my ability to work, to write and to dream. May we all find gratitude in our daily living.