sequels | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘sequels’

Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, Real Life, revisions, sequels, series, writing on April 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’ve started the first round of revisions on BEYOND THE PROPHECY. I’m all the way up to Chapter Five out of fifty-one, so I’m not exactly racing through it. In fact, I don’t expect to get anything done on it at all today. It’s just been one of those days. My alarm not going off was just the start.

I usually like to try to get at least a chapter done a day, but Chapter Five has some particular issues that might take longer.

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking.

About the ending of BEYOND THE PROPHECY, which I’m still not entirely thrilled with.

About the fourth and last (and so far untitled) book in the Dual Magics series. Especially about where it starts, which might be an issue. Because, as things stand, it would start with several chapters in which Vatar doesn’t have a part. Hmm.

And trying not to think about another story altogether which has started calling my name. Not yet! But DREAMER’S ROSE is starting to get awfully insistent. (It’s a riff on the myths and legends of Hercules, but reversed. Sort of.) So far, I’m just jotting down notes and hoping I can get away with that. I have to finish Dual Magics first. Really. (Wouldn’t be the first time I ended up working on two first drafts at the same time, though.)

Read Full Post »

Additional Content

Posted in writing, tagged Additional Content, e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, short stories, writing on April 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

First, the Dual Magics tie-in short story, “Modgud Gold” is now available on Amazon.

Changing his apprenticeship from the Smiths’ Guild to the Merchants’ gives Arcas a second chance. Not just for a career that suits him far better, but also to prove himself worthy of the lovely Elaria.

But to accomplish that, he must leave his seaside city—and Elaria—for a year. In that time, he travels among the barbarians, hoping to find something to trade for that will be worth the hardships and dangers.

Something like gold.

“Modgud Gold” takes place during the first half of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. If you ever wondered how Arcas knew enough about the Modgud to recruit help for Vatar during the Ordeal, here’s your chance to find out.

Second, today I’m officially back working on BEYOND THE PROPHECY.

It hasn’t had quite as much time to cool as I’d planned, but I’ve finished all of the other things I intended to do during this break from it, so it’s time. I’m starting with some of the bonus content.

The Map, because this story travels around more of this world than the previous two did.
Vatar’s extended family tree and/or a cast of characters.
A glossary of the different groups/cultures involved in these stories.
And a vastly shortened summary of the salient events of the first two books.

All of that will be at the back of the book, at least in the e-book. (I may move the map and the family trees up to the front in the print edition. Plenty of time to worry about that later.) That way, they won’t be the only thing a potential reader sees if they look at a sample of the book.

Read Full Post »

Done!

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, sequels, series, writing on March 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Earlier today, I typed “The End” at the bottom of the last page of BEYOND THE PROPHECY.

That doesn’t, of course, mean that it’s finished. As first drafts go, this one’s pretty rough. But now I have a draft to revise. That should go faster. It usually does.

The story threw me a curve right at the very end, too. I’d had in mind a particular ending. Not the resolution of the conflict. The denouement, setting the characters back down to rest–until the fourth and final book, anyway.

However, that ending depended on an event that has an unalterable real-world time period to completion. Well, it’s a fantasy. I suppose I could have altered it, way back in THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

But, since I didn’t alter it there, I can’t change it now.

I’d been struggling with this over the last few chapters, making myself a note to write out a detailed, month-by-month timeline to make it all work. And then, half-way through the last chapter, I realized I had it all wrong.

That event can’t happen yet. Well, it could, but it shouldn’t. It needs to happen not in the fall, but in the spring. And since there are other events that need to happen over the winter–and which are slated for Book Four–it can’t happen in this book. Talk about throwing a monkey wrench into the works.

I had to think up something else to land this book on. I think I have. We’ll see what my beta readers have to say about it when I’ve gone through a couple more drafts.

The important thing is that I have a draft to revise. First it needs to rest a little. So, look for a preview of the cover art for BEYOND THE PROPHECY soon. Also the tie-in short story, “Modgud Gold”, now that I’ll have time to revise it.

And, of course, likely sometime in May, the unrelated story, Daughter of the Disgraced King.

Read Full Post »

Home Stretch and Interim Projects

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on March 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Woo hoo! I’m trying to finish up the first draft of BEYOND THE PROPHECY this week. I’ve only got two and a half chapters to go. It should be totally doable.

All rough drafts–at least all my rough drafts–need some work. This one’s going to need more than most before it’s ready for my beta readers. Still, with luck, I hope to be able to have it published by September or October. That’s the plan.

Before I can start the revisions, though, it’ll need to rest for about a month. That’s so I can clear it–or the version of it I meant to write, but didn’t quite–out of my head so I can look at it with fresh eyes. One of the best ways to do that, is to fill my head with something else.

So, during that month, I have a couple of things queued up.

One is to epublish a book I wrote over a year ago, now: Daughter of the Disgraced King. Here’s an advance look at the cover:

Ailsa’s father was forced to abdicate when he married a mage. And things have only gotten worse for mages, since, due to the new king’s paranoia. Ailsa’s spent her whole life trying not to become a target of that unreasoning fear. But, if she’s going to save her magic-starved homeland, she’s going to have to learn to stand out and put her own considerable magic on display. Her first love may turn out to be more obstacle than help, but Ailsa won’t have to stand alone.

(Yeah, that pitch still needs some work.) I’ve already started the read-through to make sure it’s ready. There may be one or two small things I’ll want to adjust, but that shouldn’t take long.

Second is the Dual Magics tie-in short story, “Modgud Gold”. This one has been waiting for some attention for a while now.

This one is about Vatar’s cousin, Arcas, and takes place during the same period as THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. I’ve got a couple of other tie-in stories to do eventually, too.

Third, if I have time (which I likely won’t), is a read through and possible revision to my upper middle grade fantasy (ages 10 – 12), Mage Storm (written back in 2011).

Everyone believes usable magic died in the Great Mage War along with its practitioners. Then a violent storm infects eleven-year-old Rell with leftover magic which threatens to kill him. In a world now hostile to magic, Rell’s survival depends on finding a mage to help him–one who doesn’t want him dead.

Middle grade is hard to publish independently–successfully, anyway. So this one might get sent out to a small press once I’ve gone through it again. I have other stories I want to tell about these characters and this world.

So that’s what’s up for the next month or so for me.

Read Full Post »

The Shape of a Story

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, revisions, sequels, series, writing on March 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’m a discovery writer. I know, I said that before.

One of the things that means is that I don’t always see the shape of a story when I start. In the case of BEYOND THE PROPHECY, which is the third book in a four-book series, I knew most of the events that would take place. I knew the theme. I knew the main conflicts. But I didn’t have a real feel for the shape of the story–the way those conflicts would fit together to bring the story from its starting point, through the climax, and on to some form of resolution.

I’m kind of a stickler for some kind of resolution to each book. That’s partly because as a reader I hate to be left hanging in the middle of a long story for months or a year for the next part–which often still doesn’t resolve anything. So I always try to structure my stories to reach some intermediate resolution in each book. I want each book to feel like a complete story in itself, as well as part of the larger story of the series.

Now, as I’m writing the beginning of that climax, I have a really good feel for that shape.

The downside of being a discovery writer is, as always, that the story needs more revision than a plotter’s might. All those things I figured out along the way are going to need to be set up in the earlier parts of the book. And they’re not set up in the first draft because I didn’t know about them when I wrote the first chapters.

That’s okay, because I actually don’t mind revising. Good thing. Even if I’d been keeping count (which I don’t), I’d be embarrassed to say how many revisions THE VOICE OF PROPHECY had to go through.

Certainly a record, even for me.

Read Full Post »

Writing and Music

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, inspiration, sequels, series, writing on March 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Spring cleaning and writing are not the best combination. I’ve been giving the kitchen a deep cleaning. Now, normally I can pace myself. But there are just some things that have to be done all at once.

I saved up a couple of the hardest tasks for the weekend–naturally. Yesterday I pulled to stove out and cleaned behind it and cleaned the grease out of the vent-a-hood above it. Wasn’t good for much the rest of the day. The stove’s on the list for today–along with more other chores than I’ll possibly get to (mowing, getting ready to paint the house, cutting that bishop’s cap vine away from the side of the house–again). Plus, I want to finish the chapter I was supposed to write yesterday and at least start the one that I was supposed to write today.

Writing an action scene while I’m still wiped out from yesterday. That’ll be fun.

So, I’m going to have to find a way to energize myself. Music.

Normally, I don’t listen to music while I write. I like vocals, mostly, and me singing along–off key, because I can’t carry a tune in a basket–interferes with getting the words down for some reason.It’s not that I don’t enjoy instrumentals as much as the story-obsessed part of me just loves the tiny stories encapsulated in songs. Usually, I just have a news channel on in the other room for a little background noise.

So, I’ve just raided my old CD collection for some marches. Think I’ll start with my Hollywood Marches CD (Raiders of the Lost Ark, among others). Maybe that’ll get the blood pumping.

I pulled out a bunch of other CDs, too. Maybe I’ll start using more music while I write if I queue up some instrumentals.

Read Full Post »

Things Are Coming Together

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, inspiration, sequels, series, writing on March 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’m a little more than three-quarters of the way through the first draft of Beyond the Prophecy, the third book in the Dual Magics series. I’m at a point where I’m making a lot of notes of things that need to be fixed in the revisions.

This is the first book in the series in which things are moving on two fronts. Not that I haven’t occasionally cut away from the main character to show what was going on somewhere else. But now it’s not something that’s going to impact him later. Now, while he valiantly tries to put a lid on things over hear, they’re boiling over somewhere else. And, being only human (if a magical one), he can still only be in one place at a time.

The thing was, I didn’t have a good way to connect what’s going on in one place with the issues in the other–at least until everything blows up in the fourth (and last) book. That is–until yesterday, when the solution occurred to me.

I also had a couple of characters who’d played a part in the second book, The Voice of Prophecy,

who had virtually disappeared in this book. I wanted to at least have them show themselves, since they’ll have roles in the fourth book.

And the plan came together. One of those characters is the perfect link between at least part of what’s happening away from the main city and what’s going on in the city.

I’ve backed up to add a chapter. That’s not something I usually allow myself to do in a first draft, but I’m making an exception this time.

Read Full Post »

Graphic Design and Book Covers

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, marketing, research, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on March 1, 2015| 2 Comments »

I’ve been reading–admittedly slowly because it’s just not as much fun as reading fiction–a graphic design book, trying to improve my understanding of what I’m doing when I design a book cover. I actually looked for a course at my local community college, but they didn’t have one. Graphic Arts, yes, but not Graphic Design, specifically.

I think typography will likely be an area where I need to get into more depth. I have a tendency to just pick a standard font and go with it.

This is particularly apropos because I’m trying to get a start on two covers right now. The one for BEYOND THE PROPHECY, the third book in the Dual Magics series. And one for DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING, a young adult fantasy romance that I wrote over a year ago.

I actually have the concept for BEYOND THE PROPHECY pretty well in hand. Not that it will hurt to have a better understanding of the principals of design. But the background theme–blue and red on a dark background–is already well established. The backgrounds advance from lightning, to a veritable storm of lightning, to smoke, and finally to flames. The only thing I really need to choose for those covers is the foreground image. For BEYOND THE PROPHECY it will be a white eagle (or as close as I can get, which may be a gyrfalcon. There aren’t very many images of truly white eagles.) That might, or might not, give you an idea of what happens in the story.

DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING is proving more difficult. I think I may finally have a concept. Something I may try out on a couple of Facebook groups I belong to, to see how it flies. That’s very helpful, too.

Indie authors have to wear a lot of hats.

Read Full Post »

Evolving Ideas

Posted in writing, tagged characters, e-publishing, fantasy, inspiration, sequels, series, synopsis, world building, writing on February 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

So, that series guide I was thinking about in my last post. It probably won’t be something to put in a future newsletter after all. It might just be right here on this blog, with links added in the ebooks.

There’s already a good deal of information about the world of the Dual Magics series right here under the Worlds tab. Now, that could definitely use a bit of reorganization.

Right now, there’s a lot of the world building information about each of the different cultural groups in the story and a map. And more could be added to it.

Some of that would be new information, like a version of those synopses that have been bothering me, so that anyone who wanted to update themselves on the major events of the previous books could find that information here. Maybe even a brief history of how the Dual Magics world got to be the way it is at the beginning of the series answering questions like:

Why do the Dardani fear magic so much?
Are the Valson and the Fasallon really related and why did they separate?
And, for that matter, where did they come from and why did they leave?

Now, I’m still thinking of writing some prequel stories–possibly novellas–about that history. But . . . well, we’ll see.

And everything could be livened up with some images that show what I was thinking about when I wrote that part. Like, for example, this photo which is what I think Thekila looks like.

© Aksakalko | Dreamstime.com - Portrait Of Young Beautiful Red-haired Woman Photo

I’m liking this idea very much. Stay tuned.

Read Full Post »

Series Guide

Posted in writing, tagged characters, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, inspiration, marketing, sequels, series, world building, writing on February 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This is a fun idea brought to my attention by fellow writer Donna K. Weaver, based on something she’d seen another author do recently.

Create a little guide, probably .pdf, of the series. It could include extra materials on the world building and history along with images of things that were part of my inspiration. Maybe other fun things, as well, like deleted scenes.

It seems to me that a newsletter would be almost a necessity to distribute something like this. That’s something I keep saying I’m going to do and somehow never get around to. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants I need.

At any rate, I’ve had some fun this drizzly morning looking up and collecting images that reflect what I see when I’m writing these stories. Like this one:

© Prometeus | Dreamstime.com - Aborigine Photo

That’s a pretty good image of my concept of the shaman from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. Right down to the raven mask. (But less the heavy eye make up.) So good, that for a while it was a contender for the cover. Might have made it, too–if I’d been able to figure out what I could do with the other covers to unify the series.

That’s not as much of a sidetrack to working on the first draft of BEYOND THE PROPHECY as it might seem. This kind of inspiration can also help to recharge the creative batteries. I may have to do some more browsing later.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »