Emily H. Bates's Blog, page 4

Through the eyes of a story

“Stories give you a way to see things. A way to understand the events of your life. Even if you don’t realize it while you’re hearing the tale.”

Icefall, Matthew Kirby

Visual Inspiration

One of the fun things about being an author is that it brings you into contact with so many incredibly talented creative minds. With my cover now out in the world, I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to the man behind the cover image.

Let’s start by sneaking a look at the photo that ended up on my cover:

Isn’t that stunning? I saw this picture on Kesler Ottley’s Instagram when I was just starting to think about how I wanted my cover to look, and I knew it was PERFECT. It’s basically...

All covered!

Today’s the day! With one month to the release of Stone Alliance, I’m pleased to present . . . THE COVER!

Ready?

I’m biased, I know, but . . . I love it! Stars and clouds and ocean and craggy rocks . . . happy sigh. Here’s the lowdown on what you’re in for:

Haunted by his transformation, Rustav returns home to a war-torn land. More attacks from the island demons ravage the peninsula each day, and a centuries-old grudge threatens to tear down the last wall standing between Rustav’s people and...

The Magic of Words

“I find I think of myself not as a writer so much as someone who provides a gateway, a tangential route for readers to reach the circus. To visit the circus again, if only in their minds, when they are unable to attend it physically. I relay it through printed words on crumpled newsprint, words that they can read again and again, returning to the circus whenever they wish, regardless of time of day or physical location. Transporting them at will.

When put that way, it sounds rather like magic...

The Power of Focused Creativity

When I was in college, I dreamed of the day that I would be graduated, published, and making enough money off of my books that I could just spend all day writing and be so productive all the time.

But an interesting thing happened. There were a few months in my life where writing was pretty much my sole focus and priority, and you know what?

I wasn’t really that productive.

Now, I have a little girl with another on the way, and I teach piano. Those two things alone take up a lot of time, and...

Naming beyond the names

When I was on study abroad in Berlin, our professor came to have dinner with the family that was putting up with–I mean, putting up six students from our university. This professor was an 80-year-old German who was kind of a grandfatherly figure among the students: gruff, soft-hearted, funny, exasperating, totally uninterested in political correctness, and dear to our hearts in spite of the times he drove up absolutely up the wall.

We, being young American students, generally addressed him as...

Progress

“Would you think I was joking if I said that you can put a clock back, and that if the clock is wrong it is often a very sensible thing to do? . . . We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer.” (CS Lewis, Mere Christianity)

Show Tunes and Character Voice

I grew up playing piano. And there was a very long stretch of time where “practicing” meant resentfully plopping down on the bench and plunking out whatever notes I’d been assigned from my method books that week.

Thankfully, my mother was more persistent than I was stubborn, and I eventually reached a point where I could play the songs I wanted to play, rather than those I had been assigned. One of those songs was “All I Ask of You,” from Phantom of the Opera.

I learned the notes, and I could...

The Care and Keeping of Your Writerly Friends

Let’s face it: we writers are a quirky bunch, sometimes requiring special care. Here are some suggestions to pass on to anyone who might need help knowing what to do once they have unwittingly befriended a writer:

Get used to stray pen marks. Hands, face, couch, clothes–writers can’t be bothered with neatness when they’re trying to capture the fates of their characters in a flash of blinding inspiration. Don’t be offended if your writer friend stops talking mid-conversation. Just give them a...

The Lie That Tells the Truth

“We writers – and especially writers for children, but all writers – have an obligation to our readers: it’s the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were – to understand that truth is not in what happens but what it tells us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.” Neil Gaiman