Within the Vale

I saw a brief preview of this book some months ago when the author posted possible cover arts in a Facebook writers group, and the idea of this book and its story intrigued me even then. What I hadn’t anticipated was not being able to put the book down, because it caught hold of me so entirely! The journey the main character must make and the choices along the way aren’t straight forward and there are a lot of hidden and calculated depths to the surrounding characters. The world building is phenomenal, and there is wit, humor, clever word play, and incredible dialog throughout. I’m an avid bibliophile who literally reads every day, and I write at times as well. I can tell you right now as a reader and writer,, this book is worth picking up, and I cannot wait until the next installment!!  -Amazon Review

 

Within the Vale:
Book One of the Vale Trilogy

As an accomplished cutpurse, Eldin has used her Talents of escape often. She can compress herself under doors and jump from dizzying heights to land catlike on the ground. She can even render herself nearly invisible. But these abilities come at a steep price. Every Talent creates a ripple in the Vale, allowing the Brotherhood to feel her presence—to find her.

For thousands of years, the Brotherhood held the energy of the Vale over Visgaerd, for both the country’s protection and for their own power. Anyone capable of touching the Vale belongs to them. And, during that time, the Brotherhood has never found a woman with the ability to draw on its power. Or so they say. But Eldin is sure the Brothers mean to end her. Or they will when they meet her in the flesh and discover that she is not the ‘Brother’ they expect. What is a girl to do, when cornered at long last?

About the Author

Jen Becker I have always loved stories. I have been an avid reader all my life, going back to the days when my mom read the works of Roald Dahl and Judy Blume to me, and I would jump out of bed to read by my night light after she had tucked me in. I even tried writing a few short stories through adolescence. As I got older, I tried writing more seriously, but had no idea what I was doing and never got far. Somewhere in my early twenties, life and family got serious and the idea of writing a novel fell by the wayside, though always stayed in the back of my head.

I got married, started my first real professional job, and had my son. I work for an electronics distributer, over twenty-one years now. I started in sales, moved into purchasing, and eventually into business and data analytics. It’s all very left brain, without much creativity in the mix, and I have always needed a creative outlet. I dabbled in ceramics, candle making, scrap booking, and eventually learned glass lampworking (making glass beads over a torch) and silver smithing. I ran a jewelry business on the side for about ten years before the idea of writing surfaced again.

I had just read two popular series back-to-back and was HIGHLY disappointed in the endings. I thought, I can do better than this. At least I would want to read it. So, I started writing. And I found that with maturity, some life experience, and a vast improvement in my typing skills, I could get the scenes playing in my head onto the page. I studied the craft of storytelling, while writing my first book. In retrospect the book wasn’t great, but I enjoyed every minute of it, and continued through its two sequels. By the time I finished the third book, I felt I had found my groove. I gave up the jewelry making business in favor of writing. Someday I may go back and rewrite that first series, but for now, I have enough ideas to keep me dangerous.