Tracy Falbe's Blog, page 68

The Rys Chronicles fantasy series in the German Amazon Kindle store

Amazon Kindle Store expands into Germany bringing The Rys Chronicles fantasy series by American author Tracy Falbe with it. My fantasy novels that have been in the Amazon Kindle Store in the United States and the UK since last year are now available to German Kindle users. Over the years I've had readers in Germany purchase my fantasy ebooks through my website, so I know that some Europeans have enjoyed my fiction. I now hope that more people in Germany will have a chance to discover my series.

If you are a German Kindle owner who likes reading fantasy here are the links to The Rys Chronicles in the German Kindle Store. 

* Book I Union of Renegades
Book II The Goddess Queen
Book III Judgment Rising
Book IV The Borderlands of Power

* If you would like to read Union of Renegades for free, you can download it to a computer right now.

Click this link and select the .prc file. This will work on your Kindle. Of course to get the free version you'll have to use a USB connection from your computer to the Kindle.

If you decide you like The Rys Chronicles please consider buying your Kindle compatible versions directly from me. My system converts many currencies, including Euros, and the ebooks are instant downloads after payment. Germans might actually save a little money buying through my U.S. website. For example, today one of my ebooks that retails for $4.95 US is exchanging for 3.40 EUR, a touch less than the novels at the German Amazon site where they are listed for 4 EUR. The exchange rate varies by the day of course, but typically offers people spending Euros a savings. The small amounts of potential savings may not matter to most readers, but when a reader buys directly from me, it always makes me happy. It means I don't have to wait months to get paid or give up a big percentage to Amazon.

Myths to Live By written by Joseph Campbell released as ebook

I've been enamored by the teachings of Joseph Campbell for several years. I have difficulty explaining his points using any words other than his, but I believe the points he makes through the study of world mythologies help me better understand humanity and inject greater meaning into my fantasy writing.

As an associate member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation I was pleased to receive an email yesterday about the upcoming release of Myths to Live By in ebook format. It is a collection of 12 essays delivered by Joseph Campbell in the Cooper Union Forum between 1958 and 1971.

Here's the description of Myths to Live By provided by the foundation:

One of Joseph Campbell's most popular works, Myths To Live By is considerably enhanced through the electronic format (for example, editor David Kudler has been able to include 80 illustrations, including some photographs actually taken by Campbell, that would be cost prohibitive in a print edition; there is also a discussion link at the end of each chapter). First published in 1972, Myths to Live By has long served as an easily accessible introduction to the wide scope and range of Joseph Campbell's work.

I have checked out Myths to Live By from my library several times. Every essay gives me plenty to contemplate. Sometimes I just read two or three and then return it to the library until I am ready to consider more of what Campbell discovered. Now, I have these essays at home with me all the time because I bought the epub version this morning from the Joseph Campbell Foundation. For foundation associates it was $5.99. When it is released for wider distribution after the end of April, it will $9.99 at the Apple iBookstore and other outlets. The writings of Joseph Campbell are worthy of any thinking person's library. His insights prod my intellect and inspire my creativity every time I read them.

Related post: Joseph Campbell on tapping into your creative unconscious

Poll: Have you ever had a paranormal romance?

I've started another poll at Goodreads.com. If you belong to Goodreads, you can click the answer links and have your choice recorded there. Otherwise, just leave a comment at this blog with your response. Enjoy.

Poll Have you ever had a paranormal romance?



This poll is meant for laughs but also to help us really think about what is so darn appealing about the popular paranormal romance genre. Please comment with your opinions after voting.
I only date vampires.
Once, but I got sick of that werewolf shedding.
Never, but I'm interested.
No. I just want to find someone NORMAL.
Once, but it's over because that witch/warlock was too controlling.
I'm married to a shapeshifter and never been happier!
Does that fling on Spring Break count?
Dating me is always MAGIC.comments and details
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Paranormal fantasy character profile: Diana from God Wars: Living with Angels

God Wars: Living with Angels by Rob Tobin presents a complex urban fantasy of witchcraft and revenge. Author and professional screenwriter Rob Tobin introduces Diana, the Witch in the Wheelchair.

As a teenager with telekinetic powers, she is paralyzed from the waist down when a gangbanger attacks her and kills her parents in the process, the trauma destroying her psychic powers. Years later Professor Lessage, a mysterious figure who turns out to be a demon trapped in a human body, introduces her to witchcraft which allows her to reclaim her powers and then some, and she goes on a rampage to exact revenge on all the evil people in the world. But she goes too far and opens the gates of Hell, releasing Lessage and his demon cohorts.

Diana is an incredibly complex character, at once a good person seeking to prevent others from suffering the unspeakble pain she's suffered in her short life, but also bitter and vengeful and willing to risk the fate of the entire world to resurrect the gangbanger who put her in the chair and her parents in the grave, just so he can be killed again, this time by her hand. Law student, psychic, witch, bitter but good hearted, in love with an angel she can't trust, devastated because her paralysis makes it impossible to live a normal life or a love life of any kind, she is in danger of succumbing to the very evil she claims to want to destroy. And through it all, she's still that sweet sixteen year old girl who woke up jammed against a car dashboard and smashed windshield, paralyzed from the waist down, her dead parents staring lifelessly from either side of her.

God Wars: Living with Angels is a new ebook available at numerous retailers for $2.99.

Smashwords

Omnilit

Barnes & Noble Nook

Kindle

Also go to Rob Tobin's website to learn about his screenwriting services and the films he has worked on. And since he's part of the film business, he likes everyone to know that the film rights for God Wars: Living with Angels are available.

I can't find my DVD The Chronicles of Riddick

About every six months I get the urge to watch the Chronicles of Riddick starring Vin Diesel. I'm very overdue because I have misplaced the DVD. I'm about ready just to add it to my Netflix cue.

Why do I need to watch The Chronicles of Riddick?

Because it is kickass sci fi adventure with a compelling antihero. Riddick embodies wonderfully the concept of the bad guy as the hero. Is he evil? Yes. Mostly he's dangerous, lethal, and not the least bit interested in the goings of so-called decent society. Riddick is a killer, and he's spent so much time in the deep pits of interstellar prisons that he's had his eyes altered so that he can see in the dark. He prefers the darkness and always wins the game who can kill the most. If Riddick defends or avenges a good person, it is because of a personal whim or simply from the fact that he is strong and aggressors naturally seek to subdue him.

When Riddick encounters the Necromungers, a vast horde that is the scourge of worlds on a journey seeking the Underverse, he is confronted by true large scale evil. At first Riddick is not particularly concerned about the invasion of Necromungers because very little bothers Riddick. When he interrupts the Necromunger leader as he is converting the masses to his religion and threatening to rip their souls into oblivion, Riddick sardonically says, "Look, I'm not with these people."

After several awesome fights, Riddick is rescued from the Necromungers by the bounty hunters that have been pursuing him across planets. Riddick considers capture to be rescue because he knows that whatever prison the bounty hunters deliver him to will not be able to hold him.

Meanwhile the Necromungers continue to hunt Riddick because he is the lone survivor of the genocide perpetuated on Furia by the Necromungers. As the last free Furian, Riddick is supposedly destined to destroy the Necromunger lord.

Spoiler warning - Stop reading and go watch the movie if you haven't already

After a wild escape from prison and a huge fight with the Necromungers, Riddick appears on the verge of defeat, but a high ranking Necromunger turns out to be a Furian converted long ago to serving the Underverse. This remnant Furian releases Riddick and confesses to doing "unspeakable things" in the name of something he does not believe in and then he kills himself in an epic suicide scene. It's one of my favorite parts of the movie.

Every part of the Chronicles of Riddick is just awesome. It's a spectacular adventure. Vin Diesel really thrives in the role. I know that he usually comes across as just reading cue cards, but as Riddick he truly becomes the most dangerous man in the galaxy.

After watching this movie you'll learn two things: Take the money and you keep what you kill.

The Chronicles of Riddick has an awesome ending too. I don't know if this movie was a hit when it came out. I was busy with a newborn, but I certainly would have gone to the theater to see it if I could have. Now if only the elves that stole my DVD would quietly return it, then I could indulge in one of my favorites. The epic scale and sheer sinister joy of this story inspires me every time.

Character profile: Clarence Knight from Silent Knight by Kimberly Ranee Hicks

[image error] Meet Clarence Knight from the thriller mystery Silent Knight. He's an aspiring film maker searching for a lost friend and making a documentary in the Projects, where he's forced to live after his family's suburban lifestyle falls to pieces.CLARENCE KNIGHT is a warm, loving, intelligent and friendly person, when he gets to know you, but somewhat of a loner. His greatest weakness is being too trusting sometimes. It was his lifelong dream to become a film maker like the man whom he idolized as a child, Melvin Van Peebles. And later through his teenage years when an aspiring film maker, Spike Lee, hit the Hollywood scene that gave him more hope to finally fulfill his dream.

Clarence's parents had every intention of sending their son to film school, but through tragedy, he didn't think he would ever be able to go. Ironically, it was that tragedy which later helped to fund his college education. Clarence was originally from the suburbs of Crescent Hills, but his family was forced to move to the projects, a place in which he feared.

SILENT KNIGHT opens with Clarence going back to the place he vowed never to return, Woodland Heights. While he's there paying his respects to his best friend's father, Reggie Dunn, Sr., he decided to surprise his friend with a camera crew and create a documentary about their childhood, the way it was in the 70s. And he also had another reason for wanting to make the film, he was anxious to find out what happened to a friend of theirs named Marcus Paige.

Quotes from Clarence:

As Clarence thought back to something his baby sister, Gilda asked? "Clarence, what is this place? Where are the houses?" Those were very good questions Gilda asked, and I honestly had no answers for her, so I chose not to answer her at that moment. She yanked my hand harder. "Clarence, why are there so many windows to these big houses? Where's the backyard?" Still in shock myself, "These aren't big houses, Goodness Gilda, these are a bunch of apartments, better known as the Projects."

"The rap group, Whodini, asked it best, Friends. . .how many of us have them? Friends, ones we can depend on? Friends. . .before we go any further. . .let's be Friends! No one knows this better than I, for I wouldn't trade my best friends for anything in the world!" Clarence Knight, Film Maker.

To purchase a copy of SILENT KNIGHT, go to http://www.70silentknight.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Knight-Kimberly-Ranee-Hicks/dp/1456860909/ (Available in Hardcover, Paperback and Kindle Bookstore). Kimberly Ranee Hicks is a member of the Independent Author Network. Catch the SILENT KNIGHT book trailer on IAN and YouTube. Follow her on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/kiwes.

Want your character to appear on Her Ladyship's Quest?
 
Authors please refer to the post how to submit your character profile. I look forward to reading about the children of your minds and Muses.

Results from my readers' poll about sex and love scenes

Two weeks ago I started a poll at Goodreads seeking opinions about sex scenes in books. Voting ended yesterday and the results indicate strong support for sex or love scenes when they contribute to plot and characterization.

Thirty two readers responded to the poll.

Do you like sex/love scenes in the books you read? I ask because some people really like them, some people don't mind them, and others definitely want their fiction to go through a prude filter. Plus it's interesting to discuss.

* Love scenes are fine if they contribute to characterization and plot. 22 votes, 68.8%

* I really enjoy sexuality in fiction. 5 votes, 15.6%

* No nookie for me. I don't want to go there. 3 votes, 9.4%

* Some sex is OK but only in small doses. 2 votes, 6.3%

* Love scenes are why I read! 0 votes, 0.0%

After the most common response, readers appeared equally split between really liking fiction to be bumping uglies and a definite disinterest in a story including sexual elements. Overall, from this tiny unscientific sample, I'm willing to proclaim that most readers like some sex in their books.

Even though the poll is closed at Goodreads, feel free to leave a comment on this subject if you like.

Real life more epic than any fantasy novel

Earth is an astounding place that provides my active imagination with endless bounty. Although I write fantasy novels, I am a firm believer in the adage that fact is stranger than fiction. Sometimes I am asked where I get my inspiration. I believe anything I experience or learn bombards my imagination and keeps it fertile. For example, just this week I was astounded by Michael Finkel's article "Volcano Next Door" in the April 2011 National Geographic magazine. His article about Mount Nyiragongo on the Congo Rwanda border informed me of a situation shaped by colossal natural forces and the serious potential to inflict a terrifying natural disaster on an epic scale.

The Doomed City of Goma

With a population approaching one million people, Goma is packed with refugees from the atrocious prolonged horror that is the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Rwandan genocide. Lava flows from recent eruptions of Nyiragongo have already overtaken tens of thousands of homes and displaced hundreds of thousands, and people are building shanties on the new lava rock. In addition to the near certainty of being overrun by violent rivers of lava, Goma is on the shore of Lake Kivu. Huge reservoirs of methane and carbon dioxide under the lake could be ruptured by a violent eruption of the nearby volcano and engulf Goma in clouds of toxic gases.

The facts of the volatile situation in Goma could make a riveting setting for a novel. You can surely imagine how such a story would climax with characters performing heroic deeds to save as many as possible from the expanding inferno.

Of course, I do not wish to minimize the plight of Goma. I'm well aware of the relentless and hopeless despair that has been inflicted on the Democratic Republic of Congo for years. Millions have died in its war fueled by child soldiers, systematic rape, and extraction of valuable resources. My point is that the real world offers more than enough dangerous drama to inspire any writer. I think we like our adventures in novels precisely because it's not entirely real and there's hope that someone will escape.

May Mother Earth be merciful to Goma.

Fantasy character profile: Keyotie the Trickster from A Plethory of Powers by Gerald Costlow

A Plethory of Powers by Gerald Costlow
The Trickster Coyote comes to us from ageless myths and the soul of Mother Nature herself. And in the hands of fantasy author Gerald Costlow, he becomes Keyotie the Trickster, one excellent character.

I had the pleasure of meeting Keyotie when I read The Weaving by Gerald Costlow (see my review at the Fantasy Tavern), and now Keyotie is back in a new novel A Plethory of Powers.

Costlow has provided quotes from both novels, The Weaving and the prequel A Plethory of Powers, to help readers get to know the ingratiating Keyote.

Keyotie, the Trickster

"As much as I like Keyotie, it's impossible to believe his wild stories about being around since the beginning of time and knowing the Creator personally. He is the finest storyteller I've ever met, though." ~Rose, Witch of the Woods

"Keyotie the Trickster? I've met him once or twice. Little dark-skinned fellow. Shape shifter. Always wears the same fringed leather outfit when he's not running around in what he calls his 'true form'. Some sort of dog, apparently. He owes me money." ~The Deacon of the White College

"Don't let Keyotie hear you call him a dog, or you'll receive a lecture about his noble coyote heritage." ~ Rose, Witch of the Woods

"The Trickster is wanted for theft, breaking and entering, destruction of property, multiple escapes from custody, and skipping town without paying debts. There's also a charge involving an act performed on a dog that I'm not going to discuss in front of the ladies. Reward offered. If seen, notify the nearest Royal Guard immediately." ~Sheriff of Whitecastle

"I am NOT a dog!" ~Keyotie

"I've got a friend, runs a tavern over in Crossroads. Way he tells it, this little bitty guy everyone called the Trickster took on the entire tavern and was the only one left standing when the sawdust settled. Told me to be on the lookout for him, 'cause the guy skipped town without paying for the damages." ~Barkeeper in the Troll and Dragon

"The Trickster? Oh, you must be talking about Grandpa. He was quite the rogue back in his day. Rumor is, he met his end when a husband came home and caught him in bed with the man's wife and maid at the same time. Grandpa made it out the window, but the balcony gave way." ~Keyotie

"Keyotie has refined lying to the point where I believe even he can't tell the difference." ~The Lady

"I've never claimed to be a God and I'm not immortal; I'm just hard to kill." ~Keyotie the Trickster

Both novels by Costlow are for sale in paperback and ebook forms at the usual online booksellers such as B&N and Amazon, and at the Pill Hill book store, http://www.pillhillpress.com/shoppe-novels.html

Want your character to appear on Her Ladyship's Quest?
 
Authors please refer to the post how to submit your character profile. I look forward to reading about the children of your minds and Muses.

A thriller novel driven by shamanism

Recently readers met Claire Milton, the heroine of Jaguar Sees: The Lacquer Box as part of this blog's character profiles series. Today, the author Ann Simon is back to explain the shamanism that is part of her novel and how she used it to develop the plot and action of her thriller.

Shamanic overlay in my novel Jaguar Sees: The Lacquer Box
by Ann Simon

I had a good idea. I had time. It was all simple and straightforward: all I had to do was sit down and write the novel.

Okay, when you pick yourself up off the floor and stop laughing, you can continue reading.

The plot revolved around a puzzle with a souvenir Russian lacquer box leading to a tactical nuclear weapons smuggling ring. Tactical nukes are small nuclear weapons that don't need a highly technical delivery system. You could, say, deliver them with a tank.

I ran into a problem though because most of the action took place when my heroine Claire was alone. The absence of husband and friends reduced both dialog and obstacle extraction opportunities. I needed some way for Claire to get new ideas, have some dialog and change the course of the plot while she was by herself. When I meet an obstacle like this, I access the creative side of my brain through the practice of Shamanism.

Shamanism is the earliest of human spiritual practices. It involves going into a meditative state known as a journey where, on a spiritual level, one visits other worlds, and gets information and guidance from spirits. The spirits can take the form of supportive animals. Each power or spirit animal has attributes that help its human partner. Everyone has a spirit animal in the same way people believe everyone has a guardian angel.

I'd practiced Shamanism for 15 years. While I was off romping in a Shamanic jungle, it struck me: why wouldn't Shamanism work for Claire? It would be cool if her spirit jaguar, a source of emotional support, became a source of physical support as well.

Shamanic journeys and spirit animals aren't real, not in the sense of being in the here and now, being solid, being within the space/time continuum. Okay, I'm not sure what other way you might define "real," so let's just agree that Jaguar didn't exist, so how could a journey, no matter how inspiring, be a physical force against very real, dangerous men?

I developed an internal logic for the story that allowed Jaguar to slowly develop a corporeal presence in our world and therefore be able to provide more and more help to Claire as she discovered and then struggled against the smugglers. Claire is unsure of which characters in the novel she can trust including Jaguar. Is she depending on a spiritual manifestation, a mental construct of her own intuition, or a hallucination? This uncertainty heightens the tension of Claire's predicament.

Then I found myself in another quandary. If Jaguar crossed over to our world, wouldn't that open a portal that allowed other spirit animals in as well? Now the fun began! I imagined what each of the bad guys' spirit animal might be, keeping in mind that the spirits themselves were not evil but were protective of their humans just as Jaguar was protective of Claire. I was cooking; all I had to do was follow the progression of spirit animal and human interaction as it paralleled the smuggling operation, following both to the exciting, event-packed conclusion.

Jaguar Sees: The Lacquer Box by Ann Simon is available at the Amazon Kindle store, Windows 7 phones, i-pads and other i-products. The Kindle app is currently free.

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