The Claus Box Set
Now you can purchase all three books in the Claus Series together!
More About the Series
Claus: Legend of the Fat Man
(Claus #1)
by Tony Bertauski
by Tony Bertauski
YA Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Holiday
Paperback & ebook, 326 Pages
June 19th 2012
Paperback & ebook, 326 Pages
June 19th 2012
The Christmas story you never heard.
In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean. The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient.
Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions -- time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically-modified reindeer that leap great distances. They’ve even unlocked the secrets to aging. For 40,000 years, they have lived in peace.
Until now.
An elven known as The Cold One has divided his people. He’s tired of their seclusion and wants to conquer the world. Only one elven stands between The Cold
One and total chaos. He’s white-bearded and red-coated. The Santa family will help him stop The Cold One. They will come to the aid of a legendary elven
known as...Claus.
Jack: The Tale of Frost
(Claus #2)
by Tony Bertauski
by Tony Bertauski
YA Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Holiday
Paperback & ebook, 290 Pages
October 17th 2013
Paperback & ebook, 290 Pages
October 17th 2013
Sura is sixteen years old when she meets Mr. Frost. He’s very short and very fat and he likes his room very, very cold. Some might say inhumanly cold. His first name isn’t Jack, she’s told. And that’s all she needed to know.
Mr. Frost’s love for Christmas is over-the-top and slightly psychotic. And why not? He’s made billions of dollars off the holiday he invented. Or so he claims. Rumor is he’s an elven, but that’s silly. Elven aren’t real. And if they were, they wouldn’t live in South Carolina. They wouldn’t hide in a tower and go to the basement to make…things.
Nonetheless, Sura will work for this odd little recluse. Frost Plantation is where she’ll meet the love of her life. It’s where she’ll finally feel like she belongs somewhere. And it’s where she’ll meet someone fatter, balder and stranger than Mr. Frost. It’s where she’ll meet Jack.
Jack hates Christmas.
Flury: Journey of a Snowman
(Claus #3)
by Tony Bertauski
by Tony Bertauski
YA Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Holiday
Paperback & ebook, 300 Pages
November 15th 2014
Paperback & ebook, 300 Pages
November 15th 2014
Life hasn’t been kind to Oliver Toye.
As if juvenile diabetes isn’t enough, he’s forced to live with his tyrannical grandmother in a snow-bound house. He spends his days doing chores and the nights listening to the forest rumble.
But when he discovers the first leather-bound journal, the family secrets begin to surface. The mystery of his great-grandfather’s voyage to the North Pole is revealed. That’s when the snowman appears.
Magical and mysterious, the snowman will save Oliver more than once. But when the time comes for Oliver to discover the truth, will he have the courage? When Flury needs him, will he have the strength? When believing isn’t enough, will he save the snowman from melting away?
Because sometimes even magic needs a little help.
Amazon - Barnes & Noble
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
CLAUS
And in March of 1820, just as the sun had begun to rise
from its long winter disappearance, they set out to do what no human – Inuit or
otherwise – had done before.
They would touch the North
Pole.
The Arctic was stunning.
The sky was clear blue and at night it was lit up with
strange red and green and blue lights. The snow shimmered like sheets of diamond
dust. There were only the sounds of cracking ice. The dog sleds carried enough
supplies to make the trip. Halfway, they stashed a cache of food to gather on
the trip back.
It was challenging. And difficult. It was everything
they hoped it would be.
But then it got strange.
Occasionally, they would see polar bears in the distance
that seemed to be watching them. But these bears would stand on their back legs
and appear to have a total of six limbs (not four) before diving into the snow
like a prairie dog jumping into its den. There were sounds, too. Moans.
One of the Inuit claimed to have seen something flying.
Not flying, but leaping hundreds of feet from one ice ridge to another, like
some Arctic mountain goat.
Goats did not live in the
Arctic.
They had pitched tents to gather a few hours of sleep.
They couldn’t stay long because the ice floes slowly drifted away from the North
Pole. They needed to be efficient with their time. Food was their
clock.
But when the Santas exited the tent, the Inuit were
gone. Completely. Like they’d never existed. The dogs, the sleds, the tents were
gone. Not a trace. No tracks or evidence left behind.
And the food, gone.
The Santas were left with a few days of food in their
packs.
“We can’t…” Nicholas started. He didn’t finish.
Jessica knew.
Nicholas calculated their position. He thought they had
reached latitude 85˚ N. The North Pole was at 90˚.
“We can reach it,” he said. “We can reach
it.”
Jessica nodded.
Jon looked back. He knew there was no other answer. As
he had always done, he accepted what was in front of him. When his parents gave
him the choice to stay in London, he chose to come with them. When they gave him
the choice to return on the Alexander,
he chose to come with them.
“No one will know we reached it,” Jon
said.
“That’s not why we came,” Nicholas said.
We follow truth, his father always told him.
My
heart sings for adventure, not for others to
approve.
Jon gathered his pack.
The Santas began the final leg of their journey.
They would end it together. They could think of no
better way.
About Tony Bertauski
During the day, I'm a horticulturist. While I've spent much of my career designing landscapes or diagnosing dying plants, I've always been a storyteller. My writing career began with magazine columns, landscape design textbooks, and a gardening column at the Post and Courier (Charleston, SC). However, I've always fancied fiction.And I'm a big fan of plot twists.
Tour Giveaway
$25 Amazon gift card and the Claus Box Set ebook
Follow the Tour!
1 - Launch
5 - Mythical Books & fuonlyknew
7 - Hope To Read
12 - The Review Notes & Book Babble
14 - Grand Finale
I really enjoyed the excerpt. This sounds like an exciting story with a great plot and I want to read more... I got chills
ReplyDeleteI love following and reading your reviews but this is so hard to read with the color scheme that it hurts my eyes.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to see what you're seeing. I see a white background with black lettering. Is that too bright? Should I darken the background?
DeleteThanks to this and a couple of other blogs, I am just hearing about these books. They sound FAB!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this giveaway and what a lovely excerpt. However, in the giveaway widget. when I try to follow @MaryTerani, it say "Sorry, that page doesn't exist!". Would you kindly assist? Have a merry Christmas.
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