Lissa Dobbs's Blog: Shadow Walkers of Grevared, page 17
March 8, 2017
I’ve Been Playing with All of Them
These are the new covers for The Chronicles of Ethan Grimley III. I think I spend more time messing with these than I do anything else. Still, though, it’s a chance to learn photo manipulation, even if it isn’t perfect.
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
March 7, 2017
Progress on Gwennyth
[image error]Well, I finished one round of edits last week, but I still want to go back through the story again. I’m hoping to release it on March 21, so I want it to be as good as I can make it.
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
March 6, 2017
New Wolf Covers
Those who’ve followed for a while know that I like to play around with things, particularly my book covers. Learning new things is fun, and I’d rather enjoy the process than hire it out, even if it means sacrificing potential sales. That being said, I have a couple of new covers for Wolf in the Shadow, and I would love some opinions on which one to use (or to keep the one I have and toss these).
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
[image error]Cover: Wolf in the Shadow
[image error]Cover: Wolf in the Shadow
The Story:
Something is killing the good folks of Black Crystal. People are dying, and the remains discovered are unidentifiable. Sheriff Avery Smitherton has no idea what’s going on, so he calls on the Shadow Walkers, for they are experts in weird and expendable.
Timothy Hawkins and Eleanor Hestenfield are awakened in the middle of the night by Justin Harper, their friend and fellow Shadow Walker. After taking the overnight locomotive to Black Crystal, the trio is ready to tackle the threat. But all isn’t what it seems, for the forest holds a secret, one unknown to the citizens of Black Crystal. The Shadow Walkers must now face an undeniable truth that shakes the foundation of their purpose and their friendship, and the thing in the forest becomes the least of their worries.
March 4, 2017
March 3, 2017
Writing Update
Well, I’ve managed to finish the edits on Gwennyth. So, yay! I haven’t gotten as much done on other things this week as I’d’ve liked, but there’s always next week.
I have two short stories available for preorder on Amazon. Both are Rise of the Mad Gods. One is the story of Augustus Hopperton, a scavenger who thinks he’s finally found real treasure in the Heap. The other is the story of a slave girl who thinks the voice in her head is her imagination. It’s only when wounds heal and power flows through her that she comes to realize the voice just might be real.
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
March 2, 2017
Lilokirachi
[image error]The Lilokirachi are one of the subculture groups of Corleon.
The Lilokirachi inhabit the northern reaches of Corleon around the Hellwater. They tend to be puritan in their beliefs, and married women are required to wear bonnets and ankle-length dresses at all times. Young girls dress in dark colors and keep their hair braided. The men wear black trousers, white shirts, and black jackets. Almost all have beards.
Men and women are segregated until after marriage. Each family unit has its own wagon, and only immediate family members are allowed inside the wagon. Brothers and sisters sleep on opposite ends with the parents in the middle. Chores are divided between the genders, with the men doing the hunting and protecting, while the women care for the wagons and meals and lead the religious services. All tribes are led by a venerated female, one whose husband was sacrificed at the birth of the eldest great-grandchild.
Women whose husbands have passed away fall into the care of their sons or brothers. If no male relative is present or willing to take her into his household, the woman is then bartered off to another tribe.
The Lilokirachi spend the winter months in the mountains north of the Hellwater. They have small communities there with buildings mostly built of wood. They remain there for the winter and build up trade goods – skins, bones, etc – for the warmer months.
They are an insular group and don’t particularly care for outsiders. The children are educated within the tribe and are not encouraged to interact with others. The women, likewise, are kept within the group, with the men handling most of the trading and purchasing of supplies.
They celebrate the seasons as a tribe or family, but, other than weddings and funerals, there are no individual celebrations. They have a strict code of conduct for all their members and severe punishments for those who don’t follow the rules. Those who are too old or too injured to be productive members of the community are ‘put to rest’ so as not to become a burden to others.
Lissa Dobbs
February 28, 2017
Finding Peace
[image error]Most of us have a lot going on at any given time. We have jobs, families, and responsibilities of all kinds. We rush and we hurry, then we collapse at the end of the day. It’s nothing new. It’s the way things are.
I’ve spent the last few evenings reading the Lois Lowry series that begins with The Giver. I’d read the first book, and taught it to sixth graders, but I’d never read the others. There just hadn’t been time. When a friend of mine loaned them to me, I decided to kick back and get them read, to find out what happened to Jonas after he left the Community.
The books are good books, literary, but there isn’t a lot of action. They aren’t books that are going to keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what happens next. Not really. But they’re peaceful books, books you’d like to curl up in a chair with and leave off all other sound.
Reading these books, without the TV or music playing, has brought a bit of peace back into my life. There was no need to hurry, and I found that I even curled up in the chair in my bedroom to finish reading the last one (at 3 am). It was a time simply to be, and I’m grateful for it, for it reminded me that I’d been pushing too hard, rushing too much, and carrying a load that was far too heavy. It gave me time to reflect and to rest, something we all need now and again, something I would like my books to provide readers – a place to escape and to just be.
Best wishes!
Lissa Dobbs
When God Speaks
The sun shone through the window and made it nearly impossible for me to see the cash register. The typical morning rush was in full swing, and help wasn’t expected for another two hours. Nothing new. The same old, same old. That was just how my weekends were. But there was something odd about this […]
via Tuesday’s Tales: When God Speaks by Lissa Dobbs — Tracee Ford
February 26, 2017
Listening to the Birds
[image error]I try to start my writing days with a few minutes just sitting quietly. This morning the birds are out in full force, and they’re louder than the traffic going by. While I’m usually ready and willing to work on my writing, whether it’s editing or creating, today I just want to sit here and listen to the birds.
There’s something calming about watching them flit from limb to limb, and there’s something peaceful about the clouds hiding and revealing the sun. It reminds me of earlier days when there wasn’t quite so much to get done and of a time when the whole world was open before me. It reminds me of dreams I held as a child and all the things I wanted to do with my life, things that are no longer possible, and I wonder how many others work day after day knowing the dreams that meant the most of them are gone in the wakefulness of everyday life. Do we ever get those dreams back? Do we ever have the courage to truly reach for them? Or are we caught up in a world of responsibility and practicality that allows for nothing more?
Lissa Dobbs
February 24, 2017
Meet the Characters – Vonner Calerook
Name: Vonner Calerook
Age: 160
Species: Human Wizard
Home: Crowrest, E’ma Thalas
Personality: Vonner is a kind and caring person, and he’s a hard worker. He likes to keep to himself and work with the animals in Crowrest Keep. He’s not a big fan of going out into the forest, though he does enjoy standing on the battlements and looking at it.
Magic: Vonner’s magic usually shows as orange, and his strength is in battle magic, though most would never know that because of his personality. There is an additional dimension to his magic, one that comes from his parentage and of which he’s unaware.
Favorites: Vonner loves animals and spends his work time in Crowrest Keep taking care of the horses. He doesn’t care much for sweets, though he loves large meals.
Friends: Vonner’s best friend is Gwennyth Grimsbane. The two of them have been together since they were small children. Other than that, Vonner is a bit of an outcast, or was as a child. Even as an adult, he tends to stay to himself.
Goals: Vonner doesn’t have a lot of personal goals. He’s content with his life in Crowrest and prefers peace to anything else.
Faults: Vonner can be whiny and dependent. He clings to Gwennyth and relies on her for any sense of self-esteem he possesses. When put to the test, however, he will step up and take charge.
Excerpt:
“But the only clue your mother left was ‘look not in the places of the gods’. What’s that supposed to mean?”
I sighed and rolled my eyes and continued to make my way through the woods of E’ma Thalas. Vonner had talked incessantly for five days, and his chatter was beginning to wear on me…
…
I tried to answer, but my tongue flapped uselessly in my mouth, and my lips tingled. I pulled up the hem of my robe and pointed to where the infant asing sat attached to my ankle.
“Oh, gods. Here. Sit down.”
Vonner took me by the shoulders and eased me onto the mossy bed of the forest floor. My mind entered a fog of pain as Vonner pried the creature from my leg. White-hot flares of agony shot from each point the asing’s teeth penetrated my skin and tore through nerves to seep into blood and bone. I don’t know how long this continued, though surely it was only moments, before the cooling salve chased away the anguish and left me in a haze of relief.
“Better?” Vonner asked.
I nodded but couldn’t speak. Vonner made camp, and we rested until the following morning.
Now, though, his chatter and doubt did nothing but make me long for solitude.
Shadow Walkers of Grevared
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