Posted in writing, tagged characters, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, sequels, series, writing on January 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »
One of my characters from the DUAL MAGICS series has a habit of getting into trouble. He showed it in a minor way in the first book, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.
He got into more trouble in the second book, THE VOICE OF PROPHECY.
And I’m happy to say that he hasn’t lost his touch. He’s just managed to cause a really big problem in book 3, BEYOND THE PROPHECY. I have a suspicion that he’s going to be something of a rebel where his part of the story is going to take him next.
This should be fun.
Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, sequels, series, short stories, writing on January 18, 2015| 2 Comments »
Those of you who’ve read anything I’ve written can probably tell I don’t seem to be able to write anything without squeezing in a little romance along the way. I once wrote a short story that had literally one character (man-against-nature) and I still got a little romance into it if only in the character’s thoughts and motivations. (That story has ties to my Dual Magics series and may get a brush up and see the light of day–be published–sometime in the next year or so.)
Romance, while not absent, isn’t usually a huge element of Epic Fantasy or Sword and Sorcery, yet there’s been a consistent strain of it in my Dual Magics series, too.
THE SHAMAN’S CURSE had a romance threaded through it that actually played a major role in the main character’s ability to overcome his inhibitions about magic–which, in turn, allowed him to finally triumph.
Romance was a smaller element in the second book, THE VOICE OF PROPHECY, but there was still a mostly behind the scenes love story between two of the side characters.
The parts of that romance that were cut from the book may also make an appearance some day as a tie-in short story.
Now, in writing the third book, presently titled BEYOND THE PROPHECY, I get to write another romance that, like the first, is more central to the overall plot. This one is between two of the younger characters. (If you’ve read “Becoming Lioness” you know which two.
“Becoming Lioness” is free, by the way.) This is the early part of their relationship and they’re going to have more to overcome before their Happily Ever After. Still, it’s a lot of fun writing this part.
Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, sequels, series, synopsis, writing on January 11, 2015| 2 Comments »
I hate synopses. I’m pretty sure I’ve blogged about that before. I hate writing them. I’m not very fond of reading them, either.
And I shouldn’t have to do them for books I publish myself, right? Synopses are just something agents force us to do, right?
Wrong. See, one of the decisions I made when I published The Voice of Prophecy
was to include a synopsis of what had happened in the first book, The Shaman’s Curse.
Just in case anyone picked up the second book first, or, you know, didn’t remember what had happened in the first book. It turned out not to be as brief a synopsis as I’d hoped.
I just finished adding the synopsis for The Voice of Prophecy. About 18 pages combined. If I keep this up, by the fourth (and final) book, I’m going to have a very long synopsis. Which means I need to do some more work, revising this monster down to a more manageable size. Trying to make it more interesting wouldn’t hurt, either. I think I’ll have to get some of my critique partners involved in that.
Also, because of Amazon’s Look Inside feature, I may have to consider moving the synopsis to the back of the book. Which doesn’t make very good intuitive sense, but that may be the way it has to be.
Especially since I’m also considering adding other ancillary material. I still haven’t got the map quite the way I want it, but maybe in time for Beyond the Prophecy.
Through the second book, nearly everything took place in Caere, at Zeda, or in the Valley. Or, of course, somewhere in between those points. So it was possible to follow pretty easily without a map. In the third book, more parts of this world start to come into play, especially Kausalya and Tysoe.
And then there’s this quick reference to how the characters are related to each other.
Hmm. Maybe I’ll break that last one into two charts.
Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, reviews, sequels, series, Young Adult on January 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Prophecy of the Six released yesterday, but I got to read it early. Here’s my review.
I love this sequel to Alchemy even more than the first book. And that’s saying something.
Imagine that magic is contagious. And causes insanity. Mages who survive the initial infection have to be controlled, sent to special schools that resemble prisons, or locked away in insane asylums.
Now prepare to follow four infected teens as they try to navigate the fine line between magic and madness—and determine who they can really trust. And just what part they have in the Prophecy of the Six. For that matter, what is the prophecy? Because no one will tell them.
Suspicious Seb, super senses and healing, for whom odors, sounds, bright colors, and rough textures are torture and who lives and breathes conspiracy theories.
Alternately fragile and daredevil Ana, alchemy and prophecy, who possesses the rare ability to invest inanimate objects with magic. Sometimes stolen magic. Sometimes her own. But whose sanity is threatened whenever such an object is used.
Confident Sam, temp and pushing, maybe the sanest of the four—if love doesn’t destroy him and take one or more of the others with him.
Snarky Juliette, alchemy and pushing, whose infection has robbed her of everything she loved or wanted. Her anger and fear could take them all down, but her magic may be the most powerful of all.
You’re in for a great roller-coaster ride with this book.
I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review. I honestly loved it.
Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, sequels, series, short stories, writing on January 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »
I know I’ve blogged about this before. I consider myself a modified discovery writer. Modified because I once wrote a whole novel-length work that didn’t come out to be a story. I knew it wasn’t a story as I was writing the end, though it took me–back then–a few tries to figure out why.
The reason was because it wasn’t organized around a central conflict. Once I figured that out, I knew how to fix it. (I’ll confess here, that not-a-story, written back in 2009, was actually the very earliest version of what became THE VOICE OF PROPHECY.)
See, you really can fix anything in the revisions. I need to keep reminding myself of that as I work on the first draft of Book 3 in the DUAL MAGICS series, BEYOND THE PROPHECY. Part of my brain keeps wanting to slow down and make it like a revision, not a first draft.
Just get the story down. Fix it later.
After that experience, I no longer just launch blindly into a story. (Well, sometimes I will on the rare occasions that I write a short story, but that’s not nearly the same investment of time that a novel is.) I try to at least map out the central problem and the high–or low–points of the story. Not anything like a real outline. Just a few paragraphs to guide me along the way.
I’ve done that for BEYOND THE PROPHECY, but that doesn’t stop me from getting things a little out of order.
Sometimes, that central problem is the antagonist. The Dark Lord (whichever particular variety of Dark Lord appears in a given story) must be stopped. And the main character’s internal journey and growth is a secondary plot. But sometimes that’s reversed and the internal journey is the main conflict, while the antagonist is more of a complication. THE VOICE OF PROPHECY was like that, which is probably what threw me off years ago and why it took me becoming a better writer to be able to pull it off.
BEYOND THE PROPHECY is not like that. In Book 3, the antagonists come back to the fore. Yes, I meant that to be plural. There are two. If you’ve read the excerpt of BEYOND THE PROPHECY included in the (ebook version) of THE VOICE OF PROPHECY, then you know Gerusa’s back and making more trouble–and not just for Vatar. The other antagonist is actually someone (or someones) from the first book, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. (No, it’s not the shaman come back to life.) And, eventually, they’re going to join forces.
The reason this topic came up today is that I started to write that chapter, then realized I was making that alliance way too early. That’s got to happen much nearer the end of this book.
That’s okay. I’ve written the chapter (or most of it) and it’ll probably stand as is, at least for the first draft. Just not where it is. Now I have to go back and figure out what does happen in that space. My few paragraphs of proto-outline don’t cover everything.
And remind myself, it doesn’t have to be perfect in this draft. That’s what the final draft is for.
Posted in writing, tagged critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Middle Grade, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, short stories, writing, Young Adult on December 31, 2014| 2 Comments »
For 2015 my writing goals are:
Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, Learning, Multiple Projects, revisions, writing, Young Adult on December 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Well, it’s that time of year. Time to look back and see how well–or poorly–I did in meeting my goals this year and look ahead to what I want to accomplish next year.
My 2014 goals were:
Done.All in all, I think I did quite well on last year’s goals. Wednesday, I’ll lay out my goals for next year.
Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, reviews, sequels, series, writing on December 17, 2014| 1 Comment »
only became available three days ago and it’s already got four reviews. Good ones, too.
This makes me very happy. It’s really hard to overestimate the importance of reviews to a writer–especially an indie author. Reviews act as a kind of social validation for new readers that other people have read this and liked it. It makes it just that bit more likely that they’ll buy it.
They might help the book get onto certain lists at Amazon, which increases visibility. (The Voice of Prophecy has been doing well on both the Top 100 and Hot New Releases lists for Sword and Sorcery and Epic Fantasy, too.)
Reviews also help to make certain types of ads possible. Most of the better performing sites won’t even consider a book without a minimum number of reviews. Again, visibility.
The less-good reviews and even a (hopefully) few bad reviews will come, too. I try to take those philosophically. No story works for everyone. And the bad reviews serve to validate the good ones–or so they say.
These reviews are a great early Christmas gift. So, thank you to everyone who takes the time to leave a review.
Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Real Life, sequels, series, writing on December 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The Voice of Prophecy is all set to release tomorrow.
In celebration, The Shaman’s Curse will be free tomorrow only. So, if you haven’t read it, here’s your chance.
And now I’m beginning to build up momentum on the third book in the series, currently titled Beyond the Prophecy (subject to change, just like The Ignored Prophecy became The Voice of Prophecy).
I’m on the second scene of Chapter 11: Escape. (See how I just threw that title in there to pique your interest? Who’s escaping? And from what?) And I’m really excited about a couple of the upcoming chapters. So, full steam ahead–or at least as much as the demands of the season permit. I’ve got a couple of weeks off coming up, so I hopefully will make some real progress during that time. (Of course, there are some other projects around the house that need to get done–or at least started–during that time, too.)
Back to work, now. Well, after I take the dogs out, anyway.
Meredith Mansfield, Author 