writing | Meredith Mansfield, Author

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Blurbs

Posted in writing, tagged blurbs, e-publishing, fantasy, Goals, Learning, Pitches, research, sequels, series, writing on November 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

First, let me say that the release of THE VOICE OF PROPHECY is still scheduled for December 15th.

Second, I know I said that I was targeting November 17th for the pre-order. That may not happen for a couple of reasons.

I’m still assessing what information I can gather about Amazon’s pre-order system. I notice that people who generally know a lot more about how these things work than I do have chosen shorter pre-order periods. There’s a reason for this. (Maybe more than one.) It has to do with the way Amazon helps with the discoverability of some books. This was a huge factor for me with THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, and I don’t want to screw it up with this one.The thing is, Amazon has several lists. One of them–the Hot New Releases–is only available for thirty days. As far as I can tell, that could expire before the book is ever released if I start the pre-order to early. I’m not sure about that, though. I may have to contact Amazon for a final answer. It wasn’t in their FAQs.
The second reason is more practical. Before I can expect anyone to order it, I need to have a good blurb. And, like everything to do with a sequel, that’s harder than it was for the first book. Trying to balance enough information, potentially for people who didn’t read THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, with an enticing peek at this story. Well, let’s just say I may not have that by the 17th. I’m leaning toward this:

When the two kinds of magic combine, unexpected things happen.

Vatar overcame his tribe’s superstitions to accept his own magic. That doesn’t mean he’s prepared to tell them about it. He’d rather keep that secret forever. Especially when unprecedented things start to happen that even the experts in magic can’t explain.

Even more when a mysterious voice only he can hear starts volunteering information Vatar can’t possible know.

After enduring an Ordeal to prove he wasn’t possessed by an Evil Spirit, Vatar now thinks he may be after all. Or losing his mind. Or cursed. It’s enough to make him want to give up on magic altogether.

But he’s going to need all his wits—and all the magic he can muster—to defeat those who want to use him and his magic for their own ends.

But that’s not right yet. For one thing, the word “magic” is used five times in as many paragraphs. For another, it lacks enough specifics to grab a new reader. And third, some of hte references are probably confusing for someone who hasn’t read the first book.

Oh, and I also have to whip a couple of chapters from the first draft of Book 3 (probably to be titled BEYOND THE PROPHECY) into shape to include as an excerpt.

Yeah, nobody said this part was going to be easy.

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Almost

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, revisions, sequels, series, writing on November 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’m now on the very last chapter (for this round of revisions). That doesn’t mean it’s done. There’s still some work I need to do on it. At least two more passes, actually. More extensive revisions (but only in some parts) and a polishing edit. However, it does mean that I’m confident enough to plan dates.

So. I expect to put THE VOICE OF PROPHECY

up for pre-order on November 17. The pre-order price will be $0.99. With a release date of December 15 (when the price will go up).

Now, I have to polish up the blurb:

When the two kinds of magic combine, unexpected things happen.

Vatar overcame his people’s superstitions to accept his own magic. That doesn’t mean he’s prepared to tell them about it. He’d rather keep that secret forever. Especially when unprecedented things start to happen that even the experts in magic can’t explain.

Even more when a mysterious voice only he can hear starts volunteering information Vatar can’t possible know.

After enduring an Ordeal to prove he wasn’t possessed by an Evil Spirit, Vatar now thinks he may be after all. Or losing his mind. Or cursed. It’s enough to make him want to give up on magic altogether.

But he’s going to need all his wits—and all the magic he can muster—to defeat those who want to use him and his magic for their own ends.

I also need to start planning for both launches–pre-order and release. Oh, and finish those revisions by at least December 5.

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Prequels and Other Things

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, prequels, revisions, sequels, series, world building, writing on November 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Other things first:

I’m two-thirds of the way through this round of revisions on THE VOICE OF PROPHECY.

And I’m starting to form plans for the launch. Actually, there’ll sort of be two launches–one for the pre-order and one for when it goes live. The pre-order price is going to be a good deal (probably $0.99 pre-order only). And I’ll likely plan a few other things around those same times, so stay tuned.

Prequels:

There’s quite a lot of backstory that’s never explicitly addressed in the DUAL MAGICS series, because it’s not needed there. But I know it. And it has the potential for a good story–or three (maybe four). So, there’s a pretty good chance that there might be a prequel series at some point when this series is complete that will explain things like:

Why are the Valson and the Fasallon so similar when they live on opposite sides of this world?
How did the Fasallon come to be the ruling class all along the coast (and up a couple of rivers)?
Why do the Dardani have such a strong distrust of magic?
Why do the Modgud, who are in all other ways like the Dardani (and for a reason), live in isolation on their plateau, barely interacting even with the Dardani?

In other words, what happened in the history of this world to cause all these things? Hint, it all started with one decision.

I don’t know at this point whether the prequels would be novels or shorter–novellas maybe. I’m not going to do anything more about them until this series is complete. But the possibility is out there.

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Halfway Home

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, short stories, writing on October 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Revisions on THE VOICE OF PROPHECY are going well.

In fact, I’m just about at the halfway point. It really is mostly downhill from here. Most of the revisions for this round were in the first third or so of the book. I’ve been picking up speed over the last couple of days after I passed that point.

With any kind of luck, I should be able to finish this round by mid November, maybe sooner. Which means, I’ll feel comfortable (I think) putting it up for pre-order on Amazon. Watch for it.

There’ll be a celebration of some kind at that point.

I also now have a good idea what I need to do to make the tie-in short story, “Modgud Gold”, ready. I think it’s doubtful that I’ll be able to publish that next month as I’d originally hoped. More likely sometime after the first of the year. I already have a good idea what the cover art will be.

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Back to the Drawing Board

Posted in writing, tagged critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, writing on October 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Well, not all plans work out. I last posted about my plans for chapters seven, nine, and what was then ten (now eleven) of THE VOICE OF PROPHECY.

Chapter Seven worked out pretty well, I think. Chapter Nine didn’t. I followed my plan with the mini-flashbacks and still just wasn’t in love with the result. So, I went back to the drawing board.

Chapter Nine had three main parts (which were not necessarily separate scenes). The last, which is now a separate chapter, allows one character to reflect on what had just happened and reveals to the reader a few things this character knows or suspects that he hasn’t–yet–shared with the others. That stayed. It had to be a separate chapter because it needs to be in his POV and the rest of the chapter isn’t anymore.

Right before that is a discussion of the current problem, along with a magical experiment to test a hypothesis. That has been revised a bit, but basically remains intact.

The first part, though, was mainly a retelling of something that had happened in the first book, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

That part is what needed work. The mini-flashbacks helped liven it up, but just not enough. So the next thing to do was decide just what I needed out of that part.

Now, because this is book two of a four-book series, sometimes I need to include things that aren’t immediately important, but will become important. (Like Harry Potter had to go through Professor Lockhart’s Dueling Club in order to learn the expelliarmus charm that he would ultimately use to defeat Voldemort.) But, you know, I don’t necessarily have to spend pages to establish it.

I’d already added a short “The Story So Far” at the beginning of the book. So, the information is there for anyone who needs a refresher–or who didn’t read the first book. What I chiefly need that part for is to expose an unusual magical gift that Vatar possesses and that he hasn’t had a reason to bring up before now. (Like Harry doesn’t think it’s unusual to be able to talk to snakes, until Ron and Hermione tell him.) And I found a way to fold that into the second part above. So the whole retelling can be cut to just the parts where the retelling is interrupted by one of the listeners for clarification. Much better.

Now it’s on to Chapter Eleven and what can be cut from there. I suspect a great deal can be included just by a quick reference later, rather than drag the reader through it.

The point is to get to where things really start moving quicker.

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Revision Plan

Posted in writing, tagged characters, conflict, e-publishing, fantasy, Goals, revisions, sequels, series, short stories, writing on October 19, 2014| 2 Comments »

Revisions on THE VOICE OF PROPHECY are proceeding well.

The first thing I did when I started this round of revisions was make a plan. It started with going through the various critiques I’d received (three and a half–one person didn’t finish) in detail. I marked up each comment in my master manuscript. (Well, except for the ones I addressed immediately, like the few typos.) I also put some thought into the more extensive comments made at the end of those critiques (partly in response to some questions I’d posed, partly volunteered) and marked those up either at specific places in the document or at the top. I asked one of my critique partners some clarifying questions.

Now, as I proceed through the revisions, I have three main goals.

Clarifying. This is especially the case for those critique partners who had not read the first book, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. This involves mostly minor revisions, often just a sentence or two, to provide a little background to those readers who didn’t read THE SHAMAN’S CURSE first, or who might have forgotten certain aspects. This will mostly be in the first quarter or so of the book. One or two scenes that I’d deleted earlier may make it back into the book.
Tightening. Especially in the first part of the book, I may need to just cut a bit more, move the plot along a little more briskly. In fact, I’ve just gotten to one chapter in particular that I need to look at seriously for this. This goal, of course, is slightly at odds with the one above. That’s the way it sometimes goes.
Upping the Central Conflict. The first two will likely be completed in one pass. This one is more likely to require two passes. The heart of this book is essentially a mystery concerning the magic. Something (actually some things) happen that either aren’t supposed to be possible or are very disturbing to the main character. This is, in fact, where the issue of the Dual Magics comes out into the open. There are probably at least two things I’ll need to do to fix this. In some places, I’ll need to just make everything scarier. Others I’ll need to drag out for longer. (I allowed part of the mystery to be resolved too quickly. Need to fix that.)

That issue with the conflict is also the reason for the title change. I think some readers just had the wrong idea about what kind of conflict they’d be getting in this book. Of course, there are quite a few supporting conflicts that demand the use of magic–and sometimes spears–too.

When I feel like I’ve got a good handle on these revisions (possibly after I finish the first pass), I’ll put THE VOICE OF PROPHECY up for pre-order. This will be my first experiment with pre-order on Amazon, so I’ll be interested to see how that goes.

So, that’s what I’ll be doing for the next month or so. I also need to do the same thing for the related short story “Modgud Gold”, which needs some work before I can publish it.

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The Key

Posted in writing, tagged characters, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, inspiration, Learning, sequels, series, writing on October 15, 2014| 2 Comments »

As I start on the revisions to THE VOICE OF PROPHECY,

I stumbled on this series of posts about character arc and suddenly the whole thing becomes clear. It gave me the key to some issues I was wrestling with. I now know what needs to be emphasized.

The linked articles outline a version of the three-act structure which actually breaks the character arc into four parts. Coincidentally, DUAL MAGICS is a four-book series and fits this structure remarkably well.

I love serendipity. Moving forward with more confidence now.

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Office Progress

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, Real Life, revisions, sequels, series, writing on October 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’m ready to really dive into the revisions on The Voice of Prophecy, now.

I’ve got all of the comments from my critique partners marked up in the manuscript. The beginning needs to be tightened–a lot. Maybe a little more action added in. The world building needs to be filtered in much better.

Meanwhile, I’ve made some really good progress on my new office space.

Not nearly done yet. But I predict much better productivity than in my previous cramped space.

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Cover Reveal, Revisions, and the Sale’s Still On

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, world building, writing on October 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Want a sneak peek at the cover of THE VOICE OF PROPHECY (which used to be called THE IGNORED PROPHECY)?
Here it is.

Love that feeling of a wave about to crash (as opposed to the lightning strike on the first cover). Both are very apropos for the character’s experience in those books.

Look for a possible pre-order on Amazon as soon as I have a good handle on the needed revisions.

Meanwhile, I’m busy going through my beta readers’ comments in detail and planning the revisions to make the story even better.

Not surprisingly, some areas need to be tightened up. Some may need a little extra attention. The main thing is that I need to do a much better job of reintroducing the world, the cultures, the locations, and the people (just in case someone picks up this book first)–all while not bogging the story down for people who did read THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. Okay, that may not be as easy as I just made it sound.

Also, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE

and FIRE AND EARTH