K.M. Frontain's Blog, page 20
September 26, 2012
Merrick by Claire Cray
Merrick by Claire Cray
GLBT Paranormal, Vampire, Romance
I bought this last night and swallowed the story whole. This is a well-written indie pub. The story had a nice combination of mystery, romance, sex, angst and, of course, vampire lore. The lore included a nice twist different from what I’ve seen in previous vampire novels I’ve read. The protagonist felt very real and his ‘voice’ was very personable. Excellent short novel. Highly recommended.
Small edit: I’m very interested in a later character introduced near the end. I hope she will take up his story. I love irreverent, playful, scary fellas.
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September 25, 2012
Another review for The Disposition of Ashes set
This is Prince Ugoth, fan art by Ambra. Ugoth is a major character throughout The Soulstone Chronicles.
the twists in this series is amazing. I am loving these books. On to the next one.
Thank you, Rick Petrey. 
My tweets
September 24, 2012
My tweets
September 23, 2012
New Reviews for The Disposition of Ashes
This is, from left to right, Kehfrey Ihmel, Tehlm Sevet a.k.a. Marun, and Vik Ihmel, as they would appear in The Bound in Stone set in The Soulstone Chronicles.
I’ve posted fan art by a writing friend who is also a fantastic artist, Tressa Green.
Smashwords reader Samdarius has been purchasing The Soulstone Chronicles since August this year and has kindly left reviews for each book in the series. The Dispositions were the latest three novels to receive reviews. The one for Disposition 3 made me very happy. Quoting:
After finishing the third book I’m still wanting more. Normaly after so many books (nine so far) the story is getting slowly stale but not so in this series. There are still new ideas, new characters and situations that keep you interested.
Nine books and not stale. Win! Happy dance!
So right after getting a notice of those three reviews, I also had a notice that the next three books were purchased in one shot, including today’s release of Redemption 3. I’m thinking same reader, so I hope you enjoy them too, Samdarius, and thank you for the reviews and your encouragement.
For those of you visiting my author page, you will see that I use the same cover for a set in the series. The background colour of each set usually goes with a theme. Red for Kehfrey, green for Hanicke, blue for Ufrid, brown for Sevet. The Sun Bane set is supposed to be an opalescent whitish silver. Not sure if I’ll be able to pull that off yet, but I will try.
Some day, I hope to publish these books as paperbacks with individual covers for each novel. Now that I know about crowd funding, I believe that’s how I will go about getting the cover art.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/172748
The Redemption of Tehlm Sevet: Volume Three is also available on Amazon now.
My tweets
September 22, 2012
There will be a Redemption Four
I like to think the monastic figure in the foreground is Herfod skulking about outside the city of Durgven. This is more fan art by Ambra.
I’ve been doing some thinking and it involves the word counts of the books in The Soulstone Chronicles. As it stands now, the word counts (which include the title page material) are:
Bound in Stone
Vol 1 ~ 122,381
Vol 2 ~ 133,111
Vol 3 ~ 145,129
The Gryphon Taint
Vol 1 ~ 105,377
Vol 2 ~ 135,135
Vol 3 ~ 152,769
The Disposition of Ashes
Vol 1 ~ 126,825
Vol 2 ~ 126,657
Vol 3 ~ 125,085
The Redemption of Tehlm Sevet
Vol 1 ~ 159,178
Vol 2 ~ 169,653
As you can see the Redemptions are huge, but the last one, volume three, is too huge. I have a good spot right now, where I can cut the draft into two novels, and the new volume three will be roughly 134,910 words. I would then use the remaining parts of the old version of Redemption 3 to become Redemption 4.
I’m thinking as I write. The reason for this latest ramble is that I’ve had fans waiting years for the remaining volume in the Redemption set. I think they deserve to have something soon, definitely before Christmas, maybe even before Canadian Thanksgiving Day, and I know the draft I have now is going to be too large for a single volume if I keep it together as one book. It currently stands at 186,857 words and it’s going to be bigger. I still haven’t written certain scenes that are necessary to finishing this cycle of Herfod’s history.
So, for the first time, I am looking at four volumes in a book set. It may be the only time I do this. But then again, as you can see up there in that list, the Redemptions are the biggest books in the series so far. There is a lot to cover at this stage in the story, and if I rush it, I gyp myself and the reader. A volume four will allow me to cover all the subject matter without detracting from the story.
I think I’ve talked myself into a Redemption 4. I don’t have a concern with making a fourth volume large enough. At the worst, it’ll be as short as Gryphon 1 and I can lower the price. Chances are, it’ll be as big as one of the Dispositions. I already have 50,588 words in the cut portion to use as part of volume four.
Ok, that’s it. There will be a Redemption 4. I am setting up volume three for publication. Yep. I may have volume three on Smashwords very soon.
My tweets
September 21, 2012
Character Voice
Fan art by Ambra, based on the beasts in The Soulstone Chronicles, a very large fairy tale. With no sign of fairies so far. The small type, I mean.
A member of my writing circle on G+ mentioned authors who effectively write in a character’s voice, and this triggered in me a list (Darn but I hate reading lists on the web.) of all the steps (Steps! Haaargh! Steps too!) that resulted in any ability I may have to write in a character voice. They are (Here it comes. Yep. List-steps.):
Read out loud to an audience, this includes kids. It especially includes kids, small ones at least, because then you can play at being the characters you read.
Act. If you’re also an aficionado of lying, this helps. (And I admit right now I looked up the spelling of affici…whatever. No, I never lie. Ever. Nope. Don’t have the gene.)
Be a Dungeon Master, at least the old style version played twenty years ago. I don’t know what they do today. But when you’re everyone except your players’ characters, and you’re trying to kill them, it’s a win win… No, I am not a psychopath. You wanna be an ally, a bit part, an idiot or evil incarnate, the Dungeon Master can. (Oh, damn. Song smashed into my head! Who can eat an rainbow! Belch it out in goo! The Dungeon Master can! Okay, I’ll stop.) RPing (role playing) is another way to go about having the same skill training.
Just read good books. You’ll notice the stories you really enjoy have characters that play out in your head like they’re real. When you see that, pay attention. Analyse how the author managed it. It could be a conversational style responsible, or consistent action on the part of the character, or even key emotional facts inserted where necessary, or all of this.
And last, beware of character inconsistencies as you write them. Unless your character is supposed to be inconsistent, you want to rein them in if they run amuck doing as they please without regard to, well, going too far. Characters can take over the story like they’re alive, but does that mean you let them turn your plot into a series of false statements? I’m reminded of a writer who stated in her story, over and over, how nice her male character was, but he was an ass! He was a jerk! His actions and his conversation did not match the statements in between. And of course that dropped me out of wanting to read the story. You NEVER want to make your reader drop out of wanting to read the story. If you can help it.
And that’s pretty much it, from earliest training to latest experience. So go! Charge into a crowd of children with a book of bloody fairy tales and scare the living bejeezus out of… Well, no, don’t do that. At least not the charge… Read to your dog. Okay?
