Azalea Dabill's Blog, page 8

2017 Beginnings–Scop Talk

I’m hungry for a deep talk about meaning in writing—about why, and a little about how, books impact you and I. If you want to join the conversation, please leave your thoughts in a comment at the bottom of this post.

Authors who have taken me on deep journeys to far places of great import include Patrick Carr (Shock of Night), Tessa Afshar (Land of Silence), JRR Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Anna Thayer’s (Knight of Eldaran trilogy) to name a very few.

I’m hungry, not for a fast read, but a complex world that is so real it scares you, enthralls you, lifts you out of yourself to a higher plane. And then when you return to your own world, you bring that life experience, that bravery, that truth, back with you and apply it, even in some small way, to yourself. You make that sacrifice that is required for the life of another, face down your fears and take the next step on a dangerous journey to your goal, or simply do the right thing, which we are sometimes such great cowards about doing. At the least, you experience through other eyes that another road is open to you.

In author lingo—seize the hero’s journey. For it has certainly seized you, if you draw breath in this world. The battle is on!

In every true hero’s journey, the hero or heroine never makes it alone. First we need our Creator, who made the bridge across the gulf between us, then mentors, companions, friends, teachers, and good relationships of all sorts. Then, and only then, we truly come alive and our training begins in earnest. As our training goes, so goes the lives of those people authors write about, even if only by extrapolation.

So dig deep in past experiences and in books, fight the good fight every day, pray for courage to face the morrow if things are looking dark, and lift your sword high. So we are fitted in some small way to write and to live what we have seen and imagine of our own and other’s failures, victories, and growth.

Write deep, write true, write well, for your reader and yourself, and always write first before your Creator. And if you’re a reader, live deep, live true, live well, for yourself and someone who may someday write about you. I do realize that “writing or living well for both yourself and others” appears to hold a stiff contradiction. But I believe there is a path that treads between, and touches, both.

For if you serve one without the other, both can become pitfalls. If you serve your reader alone, you will most likely end by betraying what you know, believe, and love. If you serve yourself alone in your writing, it will become dark, dull, and stale, not to mention hard to read.

Why is that? If life in its multitudinous outpourings comes from our Creator, anything we shut him out of (as much as is possible to us) begins to die. People who write stories know how much beginnings have to do with how our hero’s journey plays out.

Never compromise a good beginning, or the journey is ended before it has begun. Some things are black and white. Truth and falsehood.

Without truth there is no life, and without falsehood there is no story, at least in our world. For here, that is where conflict reigns. So take up your blade and the light, descend into the valley of crisis, be counted by our enemy in the battle, defend the defenseless, and subtly reveal the power of his saving might. The might of the one who will not leave us to darkness, unless we cling to it.

I encourage you all, go on and write, go on and live, as he would have you, and know your words have eternal import and impact. So do those you read. Strive for the right words, for better craft, for life and enjoyment. What better task could a writer or reader have?

Go on, leave this post and get to it, whatever you know in your heart is your next step on the way to the goal. To write and live deep, write and live true, and write and live well. 

Azalea Dabill

Editor and Author of Historical and YA Fantasy

Crossover: Find the Eternal, the Adventure

75-100 Best Fantasy Experiences Blog-to-Book Overview

Shelley Hitz of Author Audience Academy suggested in a FB session that I post this question about my blog-to-book plan for 2017-2018 and ask your opinion. I decided to include the whole layout, so you can get a general idea what I’m planning to share with you. And you can tell me if it’s something you’d love.

So thank you for your opinion, if you’d give it at the end!

I decided to come up with some serial blog posts/stories with lasting meaning for readers, not for writers. Not because I have anything against writers, (I’m one) only because most of you are YA, fantasy, and speculative fiction buffs. And so am I, and this is something I treasure. I’d love to make a book with you!

As I said in my January Blog Letter, I plan to turn this blog post series into a book at a later point, but I need to test it against your loves and dislikes. (And if you have a favorite fantasy experience and want to be a part of creating this book, sign up for my Blogletter in the sidebar and email me personally at azaleadabill@gmail.com.)

Without further ado, here’s the plan. Don’t feel overwhelmed, though it looks like a lot, because these posts will spread over a year or more.

We’ll start with a minimum of 48 posts/topics (1 a week, though I will write them all before I post any, to keep the train of thought/continuity throughout).

With the main serial post I will include a short fair-use quote of the particular authors’ books to show how these great stories impacted me, and possibly what I learned from it on a meaning/personal change level, (your burning fantasy/speculative fiction experience will go here too.) I do reserve the right to edit any material you submit as needed.

2. I will include a quote and link to another popular author or commentator’s post on the same theme if possible.

3. I will include a quote from my fiction illustrating the theme or topic.

4. And I will link to another of my series posts, interlinking them in a web of experience, in other words.

5. Then, as a bonus, I will invite you to “steal” the quote graphics I’ll be making (they will be public domain). All I ask is that you link back.

This will create a web of great fantasy experiences  and generate interest in these epic stories, told in an adventurous story form. We will showcase great fiction, the kind of fantasy we love, and offer the path of our adventures in these realms.

The topic outline below looks completely non-fiction, but this blog-to-book series, 75-100 Best Fantasy Experiences, will have a high speculative/fantasy feel by the time I’m done.

At the end of this post see my list of authors and stories I’m using, and some I’d like to use. If you’ve read them, and would like to contribute your fantasy experience, please join my blogletter in the sidebar, and email me at azaleadabill@gmail.com.

This blog-to-book project is not anything like your common review, but something much deeper. How you and your best and favorite stories interact on a spiritual and experiential level.

How did this adventure, romance, tragedy make you feel, what did it show you, how did it encourage you to change, what blew you away, made you cry, rage, or laugh? What people, weapons, warfare, ways of living, and new worlds did you discover, endless and fascinating? This is the kind of story post we’re aiming for, with a particular quote from the story to share a taste of your experience, your glimpse of joy.

Those who got my Blogletter can skip the following quote, I’m just reiterating for blog readers.

As Orson Scott Card says of readers, (you and I) in his March 1991 introduction to Ender’s Game:

For all these readers have placed themselves inside this story, not as spectators, but as participants, and so have looked at the world of Ender’s Game, not with my eyes only, but also with their own.

This is the essence of the transaction between storyteller and audience. The “true” story is not the one that exists in my mind; it is certainly not the written words on the bound paper that you hold in your hands. The story in my mind is nothing but a hope; the text of the story is the tool I created in order to try to make that hope a reality. The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears.

The story of Ender’s Game is not this book, though it has that title emblazoned on it. The story is the one that you and I will construct together in your memory. If the story means anything to you at all, then when you remember it afterward, think of it, not as something I created, but rather as something that we made together.

So is this blog-to-book project something you’d like to read, or write with me?

Here’s my personal list of authors and stories I’ll draw from:

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin, The Door Within trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson, The Bonemender and Bonemender’s Choice by Holly Bennett, River of Time series bks 1-3 by Lisa T Bergrin,

Vanquished by Katie Clark, The Sword the Ring and the Chalice trilogy by Deborah Chester, Foreigner and The Fortress in the Eye of Time by CJ Cherryth, Patrick Carr’s The Shock of Night and other works,

Azalea Dabill’s Falcon Chronicle series,

Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher, Ziva Payvan series by EJ Fisch, Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan,

Alton Gansky’s stories,

Karen Hancock’s Arena and Legend of the Guardian King series. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, The Seer and the Sword and Healer’s Keep by Victoria Hanley, Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina,

LA Kelly’s Tahn series,

Stephen Lawhead’s King Raven trilogy and the Song of Albion series. Tosca Lee’s Havah, Terri Luckey’s Kayndo series, CS Lewis’s Narnia and space trilogy, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Swiftly Tilting Planet,

 

Dennis McKiernan’s The Silver Call, Hel’s Crucible duologies, and the Iron Tower trilogy. MI McAllister’s Urchin of the Riding Stars series, Mardan’s Mark by Kathrese McKee, George MacDonald’s Curdie and other stories,

 

The Floating Islands and the Griffin Mage trilogy by Rachel Neumeier,

Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet,

Dragonspell and others by Donita K Paul, Eragon by Christopher Paolini, Andrew Peterson’s The Wingfeather Saga,

AA Radda’s Numin U’ia series, Way of the Wilderking trilogy by Jonathan Rogers, and Astray by Jenn Rogers,

RA Salvatore’s The Dark Elf trilogy, Anne Elizabeth Stengl’s Heartless and other books, A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith, Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn,

of course JRR Tolkein’s LOTR, Anna Thayer’s Knight of Eldaran trilogy, and Firebird, One Mind’s Eye, and Shivering World by Kathy Tyers, Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief and other books.

Then there’s the Blood of King’s trilogy by Jill Williamson, The Short Victorious War and some of the other Honor Harrington books by David Weber (I hesitated to add this author because you have to sift through his books, but the good ones had an undeniable impact on me–maybe this is a call for someone to write a clean space fantasy), the Crown of Eden and Bride of Stone by Thomas Williams.

For a list of books I’d love to include but haven’t read–maybe you have?–see the end of this post. Pick one you’d love to explore, and share your journey in our blog-to-book.

Then here’s the 11 topics and 68 sub-topics I brainstormed from the above 44 authors and my favorite best reads. Most of the fantasy and sci-fi stories fit at least three topics.

(If you want to add a theme or topic I have not included, let me know with your opinion in the comments, or email me). We may end up with more than 75 serial posts.

Intro: I love the vicarious adventure of seeing other worlds through new and yet familiar eyes and hearts, minds and souls, through others’ breath and bone.

This blog-to-book will give you a look through many eyes, both authors’ and readers’. We hope these cameos of fantastic experience will inspire you to embark on these great adventures yourself.

1) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s) into another being’s experience:

a) another mind/soul/heart b) the widened horizons of new worlds c) new peoples

2) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s) into your avatar/hero/heroine:

a) mind – the simple, complex, alien, male, female, animal b) spirit/soul – in pride, humility, grace, mercy, perseverance, struggle c) body – in learning physical things about combat – touching on my martial arts background, dance, etc., the weak, strong, everyday man/woman/child

3) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s) across widened horizons:

a) mountains b) plains c) forests d)rivers and lakes e) oceans f) cities g) villages h) stars/space

4) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), discovering the quest:

a) the soul/spirit quest b) the world quest c) the kingdom quest d) search quest e) love/relationship quest f) cross cultural quest

5) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), the childlike adventure:

a) the beauty of love, loyalty and bravery b) inventive language/characters c) startling truths d) cost and worth of truth e) order of the universe/hierarchy of good and evil f) the power of joy and faith

6) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), the romance:

a) between repentant villain and the innocent b) between warrior types c) between races d) romance exploring treachery e) true relationships in f) afraid to trust/wounded/abused g) as between fish and bird on the religious and genetic level

7) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), the war:

a) hand to hand fighting b) engagement tactics c) weapons d) armor/defenses f) fortifications g) guns/futuristic weapons h) spiritual gifts i) magical gifts

8) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), exploring othe r peoples:

a) feechies b) eldila c) elves d) men e) dwarves f) hobbits g) halflings h) pixies/fairys i) intelligent animals j) dragons k) griffins l) mythic beings – Lewis’s dryads, other mythic beasts/beings m) magicians/wizards n) languages o) habits

9) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), the evil peoples:

a) dragons b) elves c) men d) dwarves e) orcs/goblins f) trolls

10) Going deeper into “Christian” books I avoid and why some are dangerous:

a) false views of God b) false relationships c) false experience/sentimentalism instead of genuine feeling/emotions (I don’t think I’ll name authors here.)

11) Going deeper with the fantasy sub-genres (definitions):

a) Court intrigue fantasy b) Alternate history/futuristic fantasy c) Historical low fantasy d) Juvenile fantasy e) Quest fantasy f) Crossover fantasy g) Romantic fantasy h) Military fantasy i) High fantasy j) Epic fantasy k) Medieval fantasy l) Science fantasy j) Christian fantasy k) Fables and fairy tale fantasy

As I said in my blogletter, if you want to share about one of the stories I’ve listed below, or one I haven’t, please feel free. Your experience or story may be better than mine, or from an angle that completes the tapestry puzzle of our story experience. Or you may (very likely) have discovered a worthy story I have not read.

Our blog-to-book project depends on you!

Here’s a the list of books I’d like to explore and include, thanks in large part to the library at Speculative Faith. Have you read a speculative fiction or fantasy you’d like to share about? Let me know along with your opinion in a personal email, azaleadabill@gmail.com.

The Songkeeper and other books by Gillian Bronte Adams, RJ Anderson’s No Ordinary Fairy Tale series, Scott Appleton’s Sword of the Dragon series,

Chuck Black’s Kingdom series and Wars of the Realm series, Sigmund Brouwer’s The Orphan King, A Time to Die and others by Nadine Brandes, Morgan Busse’s Follower of the Word series, and Tainted, D. Barkley Briggs’s Legends of Karac Tor series,

Shaman’s Fire by Sandy Cathcart, Eyes of Everia by Serena Chase,

Shadows, Book of Aleth by Michael Duncan, Throne of Bones by Vox Day, Melanie Dickerson’s The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest and others,

Brian Godawa’s The Dragon King and others, LB Graham’s Binding of the Blade series, and Wandering series, S D Grimm’s Children of the Blood Moon.

T L Higley’s Seven Wonders series, The Cradleland Chronicles by Douglas Hirt, Robin Hardy’s Annals of Lystra, Sharon Hinck’s The Sword of Lyric series, Leviathan by James Byron Huggins, Robert Don Hugh’s Wizard and Dragon series,

Resistance by J L Knight,

CS Lakin’s The Gates of Heaven series, The Sword by Brian Litfin,

The Darkcycle series by Rachel Marks, Mirklin Wood by Lela Markham, The Windrider Saga by Rebecca P Minor, The Blades of Actar by Tricia Mingerink, Calvin Miller’s Singer trilogy

K G Powderly’s A Broken Paradise,

The Bloodheart by Steve Rzasa, Lorilyn Roberts’ Seventh Dimension series,

The Oneness Cycle by Rachel Starr Thompson, Robert Treskilliard’s The Merlin’s Spiral series,

Tales of Faeraven by Janalyn Voigt,

and Michael D Warden’s Waymaker, KM Weiland’s Storming, Dreamlander, and others.

The Elite of the Weak and others by Precarious Yates.

That’s it, so let me know in the comments if this blog-to-book idea, 75-100 Best Fantasy Experiences, is something you can’t wait to be a part of. And if you have a friend who would be interested, please share this post using the social media buttons below or in the sidebar. 

Thanks so much for reading this humongous post! To our future adventures, (and much shorter) posts,

Azalea Dabill

Editor and Author of Historical and YA Fantasy

Crossover: Find the Eternal, the Adventure

75 Best Fantasy Experiences Blog plan to Book Overview

Shelley Hitz of Author Audience Academy suggested in a FB session that I post this question about my blog-to-book plan for 2017-2018 and ask your opinion. I decided to include the whole layout, so you can get a general idea what I’m planning to share with you. And you can tell me if it’s something you’d love.

So thank you for your opinion, if you’d give it at the end!

I decided to come up with some serial blog posts/stories with lasting meaning for readers, not for writers. Not because I have anything against writers, (I’m one) only because most of you are YA, fantasy, and speculative fiction buffs. And so am I, and this is something I will treasure.

As I said in my January Blog Letter, I plan to turn this series into a book at a later point, but I need to test it against your loves/dislikes. (And if you have a favorite fantasy experience and want to be a part of creating this book, sign up for my Blogletter in the sidebar and email me personally.)

Without further ado, here’s the plan.

We’ll start with a minimum of 48 posts/topics (1 a week, though I will write them all before I post any, to keep the train of thought/continuity throughout). We’ll start with a minimum of 48 posts/topics (1 a week, though I will write them all before I post any, to keep the train of thought/continuity throughout).

With the main serial post I will include a short fair-use quote of the particular authors’ books I’m using to show how these great stories impacted you and me,and possibly what I learned from it on a meaning/personal change level, (your fantasy/speculative fiction experience will go here,)

2. I will include a quote and the link to another popular author or commentator’s post on the same theme,

3. I will include a quote from my fiction illustrating the theme or topic

4. and I will add a link to another of the series posts, interlinking them, in other words,

5. then as a bonus, I invite all of you to “steal” the quote graphics (they will be public domain), all I ask is that you link back.

This will create a web of our experiences with great fantasy, and generate interest in these epic stories, all told in an adventurous story form. We will showcase great fiction, the kind of fiction we love, and offer the experience of our adventures in these realms.

The theme outline below looks completely non-fiction, but this blog-to-book series, 75 Best Fantasy Experiences, will have a high speculative/fantasy feel and impact by the time I’m done.

At the end of this post see my list of authors and stories I’m using, and some I’d like to use, if you’ve read them and would like to contribute your fantasy experience. This is not your common review, but something much deeper, how you and your best and favorite stories interact on a spiritual and experiential level. How did it make you feel, what did it show you, how did it encourage you to change, what blew you away, made you cry, rage, or laugh? What people, weapons, warfare, ways of living, new worlds did you discover and find fascinating? This is the kind of thing we’re aiming for, with a particular quote from the story to give a taste of your experience, your glimpse of joy.

Those who got my Blogletter can skip the following quote, I’m just reiterating for blog readers.) As Orson Scott Card says of readers, (you and I) in his March 1991 introduction to Ender’s Game:

For all these readers have placed themselves inside this story, not as spectators, but as participants, and so have looked at the world of Ender’s Game, not with my eyes only, but also with their own.

This is the essence of the transaction between storyteller and audience. The “true” story is not the one that exists in my mind; it is certainly not the written words on the bound paper that you hold in your hands. The story in my mind is nothing but a hope; the text of the story is the tool I created in order to try to make that hope a reality. The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears.

The story of Ender’s Game is not this book, though it has that title emblazoned on it. The story is the one that you and I will construct together in your memory. If the story means anything to you at all, then when you remember it afterward, think of it, not as something I created, but rather as something that we made together.

So read below: is this something you’d like to read, or do together?

Here’s the 11 topics and 68 sub-topics I brainstormed from 44 authors and my favorite best reads: (If you want to add a theme or topic, let me know with your opinion in the comments). We may end up with more than 75 serial posts.

Intro: I love the vicarious adventure of seeing other worlds through new and yet familiar eyes and hearts, minds and souls, through others’ breath and bone.

1) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s) into another being’s experience:

a) another mind/soul/heart b) the widened horizons of new worlds c) new peoples a) another mind/soul/heart b) the widened horizons of new worlds c) new peoples

2) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s) into your avatar/hero/heroine:

a) mind – simple, complex, alien, male, female, animal b)spirit/soul – pride, humility, grace, mercy, perseverance, struggle c) body – learning physical things about combat – touching on my martial arts background, dance, etc., the weak, strong, everyday man/woman/child

3) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s) across widened horizons:

a) mountains b) plains c) forests d)rivers and lakes e) oceans f) cities g) villages h) stars/space

4) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), discovering the quest:

a) the soul/spirit quest b) the world quest c) the kingdom quest d) search quest e) love/relationship quest f) cross cultural quest

5) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), the childlike adventure:

a) the beauty of love, loyalty and bravery b) inventive language/characters c) startling truths d) cost and worth of truth e) order of the universe/hierarchy of good and evil f) the power of joy and faith

6) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), the romance:

a) between repentant villain and the innocent b) between warrior types c) between races d) romance exploring treachery e) true relationships in f) afraid to trust/wounded/abused g) as between fish and bird on the religious and genetic level

7) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), the war:

a) hand to hand fighting b) engagement tactics c) weapons d) armor/defenses f) fortifications g) guns/futuristic weapons h) spiritual gifts i) magical gifts

8) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), exploring other peoples:

a) feechies b) eldila c) elves d) men e) dwarves f) hobbits g) halflings h) pixies/fairys i) intelligent animals j) dragons k) griffins l) mythic beings – Lewis’s dryads, other mythic beasts/beings m) magicians/wizards

9) Going deeper with (AUTHOR/s), the evil peoples:

a) dragons b) elves c) men d) dwarves e) orcs/goblins f) trolls

10) Going deeper into “Christian” books I avoid and why some are dangerous:

a) false views of God b) false relationships c) false experience/sentimentalism instead of genuine feeling/emotions (I don’t think I’ll name authors here.)

11) Going deeper with the fantasy sub-genres (definitions):

a) Court intrigue fantasy b) Alternate history/futuristic fantasy c) Historical low fantasy d) Juvenile fantasy e) Quest fantasy f) Crossover fantasy g) Romantic fantasy h) Military fantasy i) High fantasy j) Epic fantasy k) Medieval fantasy l) Science fantasy j) Christian fantasy k) Fables and fairy tale fantasy

As I said in my blogletter, if you want to share about one of the stories I’ve listed below, or one I haven’t but am considering, please feel free to do that, because your experience or story may be better than mine or from an angle that completes the tapestry puzzle. Or you may have (very likely) discovered a worthy story I have not read.

It all depends on you!

My list of authors and stories to draw from: A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin, The Door Within trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson, The Bonemender and Bonemender’s Choice by Holly Bennett, River of Time series bks 1-3 by Lisa T Bergrin,

Vanquished by Katie Clark, The Sword the Ring and the Chalice trilogy by Deborah Chester, Foreigner and The Fortress in the Eye of Time by CJ Cherryth, Patrick Carr’s The Shock of Night and other works,

Azalea Dabill’s Falcon Chronicle series,

 

Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher, Ziva Payvan series by EJ Fisch, Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan,

Alton Gansky’s stories,

Karen Hancock’s Arena and Legend of the Guardian King series. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, The Seer and the Sword and Healer’s Keep by Victoria Hanley, Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina,

 

LA Kelly’s Tahn series,

Stephen Lawhead’s King Raven trilogy and the Song of Albion series. Tosca Lee’s Havah, Terri Luckey’s Kayndo series, CS Lewis’s Narnia and space trilogy, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Swiftly Tilting Planet,

Dennis McKiernan’s The Silver Call, Hel’s Crucible duologies, and the Iron Tower trilogy. MI McAllister’s Urchin of the Riding Stars series, Mardan’s Mark by Kathrese McKee, George MacDonald’s Curdie and other stories,

The Floating Islands and the Griffin Mage trilogy by Rachel Neumeier,

Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet,

Dragonspell and others by Donita K Paul, Eragon by Christopher Paolini, Andrew Peterson’s The Wingfeather Saga,

AA Radda’s Numin U’ia series, Way of the Wilderking trilogy by Jonathan Rogers, and Astray by Jenn Rogers,

RA Salvatore’s The Dark Elf trilogy, Anne Elizabeth Stengl’s Heartless and other books, A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith, Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn,

of course JRR Tolkein’s LOTR, Anna Thayer’s Knight of Eldaran trilogy, and Firebird, One Mind’s Eye, and Shivering World by Kathy Tyers, Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief and other books.

Then there’s the Blood of King’s trilogy by Jill Williamson, The Short Victorious War and some of the other Honor Harrington books by David Weber (I hesitated to add this author because you have to sift through his books, but the good ones had an undeniable impact on me–maybe this is a call for someone to write a clean space fantasy), the Crown of Eden and Bride of Stone by Thomas Williams.

Here’s a the list of books I’d like to explore and include, thanks in large part to the library at Speculative Faith. Have you read a speculative fiction or fantasy you’d like to share about? Let me know along with your opinion in a personal email, azaleadabill@yahoo.com.

The Songkeeper and other books by Gillian Bronte Adams, RJ Anderson’s No Ordinary Fairy Tale series, Scott Appleton’s Sword of the Dragon series,

Chuck Black’s Kingdom series and Wars of the Realm series, Sigmund Brouwer’s The Orphan King, A Time to Die and others by Nadine Brandes, Morgan Busse’s Follower of the Word series, and Tainted, D. Barkley Briggs’s Legends of Karac Tor series,

Shaman’s Fire by Sandy Cathcart, Eyes of Everia by Serena Chase,

Shadows, Book of Aleth by Michael Duncan, Throne of Bones by Vox Day, Melanie Dickerson’s The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest and others,

Brian Godawa’s The Dragon King and others, LB Graham’s Binding of the Blade series, and Wandering series, S D Grimm’s Children of the Blood Moon.

T L Higley’s Seven Wonders series, The Cradleland Chronicles by Douglas Hirt, Robin Hardy’s Annals of Lystra, Sharon Hinck’s The Sword of Lyric series, Leviathan by James Byron Huggins, Robert Don Hugh’s Wizard and Dragon series,

Resistance by J L Knight,

CS Lakin’s The Gates of Heaven series, The Sword by Brian Litfin,

The Darkcycle series by Rachel Marks, Mirklin Woo by Lela Markham, The Windrider Saga by Rebecca P Minor, The Blades of Actar by Tricia Mingerink, Calvin Miller’s Singer trilogy

K G Powderly’s A Broken Paradise,

The Bloodheart by Steve Rzasa, Lorilyn Roberts’ Seventh Dimension series,

The Oneness Cycle by Rachel Starr Thompson, Robert Treskilliard’s The Merlin’s Spiral series,

Tales of Faeraven by Janalyn Voigt,

and Michael D Warden’s Waymaker, KM Weiland’s Storming, Dreamlander, and others.

The Elite of the Weak and others by Precarious Yates.

That’s it, so let me know in the comments if this blog-to-book idea, 75 Best Fantasy Experiences, appeals to you. And if you have a friend who would be interested, please share this post using the social media buttons below or in the sidebar!

Thanks so much,

Azalea Dabill

Crossover: Find the Eternal, the Adventure

Turning Point 2017 New Year Breakthrough

I decided to be transparent, bite the bullet, and bare my soul. 

These are the kinds of books I love: the ones that pull you deep into a a story world you wish didn’t have to end. The poetic painting of a place where you sense loyalty, love, and goodness rising to do battle against deception, despair,  and hate. From the little things like the ups and downs between companions on a great journey, to the soul-tearing decisions of romance, or the life-threatening choices before you, as the hero or heroine.

A world where conflicts are fought within and without. In the intricate vales of the human spirit; in the broad ‘scapes of the land, terrible, beautiful, or engagingly homey; and most of all, in the battle between soul and soul, where the conflicting desires of a villain or villaness (if I can coin the word) and the hero or heroine, drive everything from large armies to their companions, sycophants, or honest followers. What they see and how they react decides their impact on their world, whether they spread darkness or light.   

Besides the tried and true we all know, like Tolkien and Lewis, Anna Thayer’s The Knight of Eldaran trilogy, CJ Cherryth’s Fortress in the Eye of Time, Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword, Sherwood Smith’s Crown Duel, Dennis McKiernan’s The Iron Tower trilogy and The Silver Call duology, Patrick Carr’s The Shock of Night: these types of stories all draw me like a lodestone. In the good conflict contained within them, I glimpse the Morning Star. 

This is the very reason I began to write, for those glimpses of joy, beauty, and adventure. And I have feared letting other people know how very much I like poetic, deep themed, character and conflict driven fantasy: historical fantasy, and every other kind of fantasy. Even to other genres. Except for horror and dark. 

Because there is darkness enough in our world, enough emptiness, enough despair. What some call realism–the idea that we exist by chance, (which means we have no purpose, no part to play) is actually despair, not the true state of affairs in our world.

Part of Webster’s dictionary definition of despair is “without hope.” And a definition of hope is “to…hope with the expectation of attainment.” If you have no hope of attainment, (which holds solid meaning in its very definition) why do anything? What’s the point? Or why not do whatever you feel like? Tomorrow we die, with less impact than a grain of sand.

When I was a teen, despair almost ate me alive. Partially it was because I was sick, which tends to make everything look black or grey, and partially it was the horrible things I began to see in myself, in life, and in the books I was reading. Where I looked for joy and beauty I began to see betrayal, which brought unhappiness and ugliness. (Fantasy has a strange way of highlighting whatever it portrays, whether darkness or light.)

Suffice it to say, I was learning. But also absorbing what was around me without perspective. I saw a picture in my mind of dominant, rampant evil smothering good, and of despair, a kind of creeping death drawing its shadow over the world. The younger, happy me I used to be was gone, without return.

Then I began to realize, without knowing it at first, that there was more. All who follow good must fight evil, or we will be overcome. And goodness often exists, apparently overcome, but triumphant in the end.

Yes, there is darkness, and fear, and despair, and hate in us and in our world. There is also beauty and joy and hope. Because we were sent here, particular in every area of our being, of time and place, and our every step resounds through the fabric of time, and beyond.

Does this sound like a sci-fi or fantasy story? 

It is. And this story is true. Because it’s true, it’s quite natural we find it reflected in many books, the great conflict between dark and light. Not always portrayed clearly or truthfully, but still glaringly there.

With God, all is hope, however we feel about it, for he works all things (even the things that hurt) to our good when we walk with the great dance of his universe, not following the destructive road of the great rebellion. The difference between books of despairing realism and those of hopeful adventure are created when we who write them see the real world, the true story, reality, as we name it, through what we believe. Here it gets tricky. You have to pay attention.

What is true, is true, whoever sees it. But the person who sees the clearest will see the most truth. God is absolute truth, and in his light, we see light. I don’t mean here that we ever see the complete truth, for we see dimly, but we can point to him, who promises to teach us.

So, what fits the world we see, and our experience, best? 

That intricate and full of life as we are and our world is, all is for nothing? And consequently there is no good, and no evil? No purpose? Not even for a grain of sand?

Or that someone made all this, and us, and we can find joy and beauty and adventure in him? That we can fight evil, and it will mean something in the end, we can really save something or someone? We can really be a hero or heroine?

These opposing beliefs determine whether you see a grey world, or a world alight with its true splendor, a glory of golds and blues and greens, silver and brown and white as snow–and blackness, dark as the pit. That is not gone, just because we see the good. In fact, it becomes all the darker, revealed by the light.

As many others have said, truth makes stories possible. Truth shows good and evil as they are, opposed; shows the mixture of good and evil motives we often are, and the two roads we are torn between. Truth reveals, moment to moment, which road we are on.

I write my fantasy adventures, historical and otherwise, for teens and up, for those disillusioned or discouraged with the rampant ugliness in our world, so often showcased in books. I write for people who yearn for hope, joy, and beauty, wrapped in the clarion call of adventure. 

I hope this post, my turning point in 2017, helps you. That my breakthrough, that I had a wall of my own to overcome, namely fear of you, gives you courage to cross over whatever life-changing wall looms over you this coming New Year.  

Crossover: Find the Eternal, the Adventure

Yes, start this very moment.

Define good and evil, and continue your journey with truth. Make a great impact on your world. 

I will feel it from here! Let me know in the comments about your wall, and how you will overcome it.

All the best,

 

Azalea Dabill

Editor and Author

Crossover: Find the Eternal, the Adventure

 

 

A Bit of Soul Baring – Hunting Adventures

You never know what you’re going to find out in the woods, or see. Hunting is no exception. Here’s my story in pictures. I didn’t get the elk or bear meat I was after, but I got something greater. A glimpse of the vast beauty of our created world.

You never know what you’re going to come across in the woods.

An unusual arrangement of fungi . . .

Last night’s snow . . .

Or a bear crossing your track within ten minutes of you.

This morning heavy mist rose from the ground . . .

We came to a stream . . .

Where I admired frosted leaves . . .

Clear water in the sun . . .

A frost-riven rock . . .

Minute,delicate fungi . . .

A forest giant . . .

And at last, elk tracks!

I followed the elk tracks 3/4 mile to private property, and on the way found . . .

Other fantastic creatures.

An elk rub bolstered my spirits after an uphill hike.

I wandered and rested until evening, marveling at this fallen giant . . . with my rifle for perspective.

Over a hundred feet tall, now long.

The intricacies of life we seldom think of, yet so important.

Evening fell, with no elk or bear, but a great sense of God’s goodness and beauty. 

The hunt was worth it all.

K M Weiland’s Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide

Customer Review





This book will stay on my shelf., November 15, 2016


By 
Azalea L. Dabill














This review is from: Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure (Helping Writers Become Authors) (Volume 7) (Paperback)

This book is so good. I was given an e-copy for an honest review, and I just bought the print copy.

I’m a real write-by-feel historical fantasy author, but this comprehensive breakdown of how characters and their arcs tie in and support and drive plot is invaluable. I have a feeling I’ll be coming back to this book again and again. And the nice thing is, the author doesn’t give you the impression that “this is the way it is,” but “this is what’s possible,” and “discover greater possibilities.”

I also love the quotes in her book, especially Flannery O’Connor’s: “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” This aptly frames and explains how the “Lie” a character believes challenges “Truth” and loses. I actually found myself applying this to my life as well as my characters.

By touching me, K M Weiland has done what every writer strives for – helped a reader’s life.

To get her book or enter for prizes during her launch, click here.
Thank you, Katie! If you need help with characters, plot, or the structure between these two, this book should help. It clarifies in detail what you have or don’t have, yet leaves room for improvisation.
Azalea Dabill
Editor and Author

21 Adventures Christmas Book Bundle Giveaway – Historical Spec-Fantasy

All right! We’re on the move.

I’m hosting a giveaway for my friend Mary Calvert who just released her first book The Healer of Guildenwood, book one of The Soultrekkers trilogy, published by Westbow. In honor of her accomplishment, I asked some other authors to join our giveaway from November 15th to December 15th, 2016. That means more books for the winner.

All the authors were so courteous and helpful.

In an email Patrick Carr had this to say:

Azalea,

I would love to participate. I will donate both The Shock of Night and The Shattered Vigil.  I have the covers attached.

Thanks for thinking of me.

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And Melanie Dickerson said:

That sounds great, Azalea! Thanks for including me. I’ll be happy to give away a hardcover copy of The Golden Braid and one of The Silent Songbird.

Melanie Dickerson

This time of year I love to remember the reason for the season.

Thank you so much for sharing this bundle of adventurous reads, for Christmas or otherwise. Maybe even a gift for yourself? We all need them from time to time.

Without more ado, here’s your giveaway. Cheers!

21 Adventures Christmas Book Bundle Giveaway

And here are the Young at Heart Coloring Book covers (now at the Illustrator’s) of the coloring books I will personally be adding to the giveaway prize as a bonus! 

Have a great day,

Azalea Dabill

Editor and Author

The Beauty of Darkness . . .

In my last post I invited you to get The Beauty of Darkness, by Mary Pearson. 

Well, I finished reading my pre-ordered copy and I wanted to let you know you might not want to get it. Some of it had some very good things: loyalty, kindness, compassion, and courage, but there were also some bad things. Two in particular.

First, there are two instances of sex before marriage, where they’re setting themselves up for heartache. Second, the vague “going with your gut feeling” throughout the book, which will get you in trouble as often as not. If a “feeling in your gut” is based on everything you’re adding up: the truths you know, the circumstances, and the “gut feeling,” that’s well and good because it’s not just going on feeling, but if it’s truly “gut feeling” alone you’re blessed if somehow it doesn’t get you in trouble.

So you’re probably better off spending your money on Anna Thayer’s The Knight of Eldaran trilogy, which is solidly good.

Thank you, and happy reading! Until next time,

Azalea

Coloring pages sample . . .

I’ve been working on coloring pages for Trencher and Board: food and recipes of the Middle Ages, an Adult Coloring journey.

Here’s what I have to date. Trencher and Board coloring pages sample. I know I said in my blog letter I’d give a few samples, but I decided to give you what I have so far. The recipes themselves are forthcoming, in the completed book format.

If you like the sample, would you leave a comment on how the coloring pages worked for you? I’d like to know if the grayscale and traditional coloring mediums work together, and whether the pages work well for you for markers, pen, or pencil. (I’ve been using pencil.)

On another note, Mary Pearson’s The Beauty of Darkness the third book in her trilogy, in hardcover, is cheaper than the $9.99 e-book, and just released the 2d. Don’t miss it! That is, if you like YA fantasy. I tried her books out from the library first, but this one I’m buying.

Thank you so much!

And have a great August!

Azalea

 

Ruthlessly slash What??

It’s summer, and the game is afoot!

If you’re an author or reader, you’re either furiously creating or relaxing in your favorite warm spot with a book. Or you may do both consecutively. That’s two blessings of the land we live in, the USA, and I hope you’re enjoying reading or some equivalent summer fun. This is the time to be out of doors!

And we never quit learning, it seems. I enjoyed these interesting editing tips, Kristen Lamb’s article on what to ruthlessly slash, passed to me by a bestselling writer, KM Weiland, who wrote Storming, a great steampunk historical. I loved (still do) this daring air pirate adventure.

There’s more. It’s time for The Clash of The Titles, and I’m voting for Jenn Roger’s new release Astray, book one of the Ariboslia series. If you want to vote for her or your favorite title, go here starting Wednesday, June 22, 2016.  Page is not live until Wednesday.

There are many great reads and blessings – what are some of yours, if you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comments. It may take me a little time to get back to you, but I will!

PS. If you would like inside news and special offers on my books and coloring book projects and you are not yet on my list, join my blog letter in the sidebar. I won’t give your info to anyone else, and you’ll get the inside scoop bi-monthly or less.  

Have a great summer!

Azalea