The Land of Two Moons

Mar 4
4 min read

1) Hi! I’m looking forward to featuring your book this week. But first, please introduce yourself. You can use a pen name if you have one.

D.L. Gardner

2) What genre(s) do you write?

YA Epic Sc-iFi Fantasy Adventure

3) Pitch your book in a single sentence.

Political unrest, war over valuable mines, forbidden love, and a homesick dragon bound in chains threaten the land of two moons.

4) That sounds exciting. What else can you tell me about your book?

Land of Two Moons

"The gritty reality of trench warfare and the smoky chaos of riots is striking in D. L. Gardner's Land of Two Moons...a rich and ambitious fantasy novel that successfully builds a world trembling on the brink of magical and political upheaval. This is a delicate, intricate novel that rewards patient reading." - Independent Book Review

Arthur and Hallie are twin siblings, son and daughter of the Duke of Lodesmoor. Humble teenagers who befriend the village people and sympathize with their grievances. Their father, Lord Balmier, whose duchy is approaching financial collapse, uses his subjects as pawns in a battle over a string of valuable mines.

Lord Balmier sees his son's sympathy toward the serfs as an alliance against him and soon acts to squelch Arthur's sedition.

Hallie clings to a forbidden love, and both siblings must resist their father's harsh rule.

All the while they are unaware that their mother keeps a mystical dragon named Killian, bound in chains by a spell, whose fate will affect them all.

As the twin moons approach a rare and magical eclipse, alliances shift, secrets unravel, and Arthur and Hallie must choose between loyalty, freedom, and sacrifice to save their people and themselves.

5) You are currently running a Kickstarter campaign. Where can we find that?

You can check out the campaign HERE!

6) You also have a book trailer. Where can people watch that?

https://youtu.be/R-l7KrR5p6s

7) Where were you born/grew up?

I was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1949. I remember the swans at Euclid Beach, the Steeplechase Carousel and walking in the beautiful park. I had a boyfriend in Cleveland when I was five, and we used to watch bugs on the sidewalk together.

My family moved to California in 1955. Back then California was wide open, still had movie sets that you could visit where actors would have gunfights in the streets. I was there for the opening week of Disneyland and helped Walt Disney conduct his orchestra on Main Street. He even gave me his conductor’s baton as a souvenir. I wish I had kept that. You don’t think you’re going to grow old when you’re a child and that those kinds of things would mean more than face value in the future.

Other things I should have kept?

· My Barbie dolls. My dad worked for Mattel Toy Company on Rosecrans in CA, and I had the very first Barbies that they ever made. I also had holsters and cap guns from back in the 50s too. We’d play Rawhide. Clint Eastwood was my idol.

· All the real silver dollars that my folks brought back from Las Vegas when slot machines spat out genuine money.

· My Ginny dolls and all the doll clothes my aunt made for me and my sister by hand.

· My horse statue collection.

I grew up in Southern California. When I was a teen my friend who had her own Mustang convertible, would pick up a bunch of us girls, and we’d cruise Hollywood on warm summer evenings, keeping our eyes out for celebrities. We thought we saw Donovan once.

We’d also cruise 101 along the coast and ride as far as Malibu all the while checking out the surfers, the Beach Boys playing loud and us singing along!

Other friends would have hootenannies. I had a banjo and my best friend played guitar, and we’d join other folks, maybe twenty sometimes, in different people’s homes and sing all the songs. You know, Dylan, Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio, Mamas and the Papas, Peter, Paul and Mary.

Those were high school years that soon got interrupted by the Vietnam War, and sadly most of the guys in our class and the class before us got drafted. Many never returned.

When it was time to apply for college, I applied to out-of-state colleges and got accepted into Northern University. From there, I lived twenty years in Arizona, in places like Cottonwood, Jerome, Clear Creek and Winslow. Those back to the earth experiences inspire some of the situations my characters in my books experience. Eventually I moved to the Pacific Northwest, (Washington state), where I live to this day and spend my time writing.

Did I get sidetracked?

8) Haha! Anything else that you would like people to know about you?

D.L. Gardner is an award-winning author, artist, filmmaker, and screenwriter with over 28 published works to her credit. Writing and painting are her passions and fantasy her forte. When she's not pounding keys on the computer, she's canning salsa, picking apples, listening to the voices of critters in the woods, or watching flowers grow. She loves visiting far-off lands through books by both reading and writing.

Her genres include all fantasy, historical, and mystery.

Currently a FINALIST (2025 March) in the Cannes World Wide Film Festival for her screen adaption of her book An Unconventional Mr. Peadlebody.

Other awards include Wishing Shelf book Award 2023 for audio, B.R.A.G. Award 2022 for the Cho Nisi series, Book Excellence Award 2019 and 2015 for Ian's Realm and Cassandra's Castle. Best Screenplay adaptation from her book Dylan at the Paris Screenplay Awards, Mile Hill International Screenplay Awards, L.A. Edge Awards, European Cinematography Awards, and Moondance Film Festival. Best Screenplay Award for adaptation from her book An Unconventional Mr. Peadlebody at Veers Film Festival, Best Screenplay Award for adaptation of Ian's Realm at the Twin Falls Sandwiches Film Festival and many more.