Trillian Anderson's Blog, page 3

Dawn of Dae is free today plus a bonus short story–happy holidays, folks!

The Christmas shopping mayhem has begun. To celebrate and give book lovers a little something for themselves, the Dawn of Dae is available for free today and tomorrow on Amazon. (December 7 & 8, 2015.)

Already have the book? That’s okay, too. There’s something here for you as well. I wrote a Black Friday shopping mayhem story for Literary Escapism’s Black Friday story extravaganza. You can read my contribution here!

It features characters from the Dawn of Dae, and takes place after the novel. (You may want to read the book first, but if you dive right into the short story, that’s okay, too! There are only a few minor spoilers in the story.)

Happy Holidays, Readers!

2016, A Year of Reading

Most people start thinking of their resolutions for the upcoming year in December, and I am no exception. I have a list of things I want to do, but something in particular stands out to me. I love books. I love writing books, and I love reading them. A great deal of my daily life involves writing books. It’s a lot of work preparing a novel for the world. if I’m working for 8+ hours a day, I can write a novel in a month. That makes a few assumptions, including a seven day work week. I like taking two to three months on a title, mainly because I’m working on more than one novel at a time.

In 2016, I plan on releasing Unawakened, The Hound and the Chameleon, Summit, World at War, and Feather’s Angel. Yes, that is five new Dae Portals novels. Unawakened releases on January 26, 2016, and I hope you all have as much fun reading it as I have had writing it. I’m hoping to have The Hound and the Chameleon ready in either February or March, but we’ll see. I’ll be moving sometime between now and then, so it’s a bit up in the air.

I have recently acquired a lot of new books, so I’m going to share my super crazy to-be-read list. I’ll be (eventually) reviewing every book I read, so if you want to follow the shenanigans, follow me on GoodReads.

Onto the books!

New Acquisitions

Leighann Dobbs: Dead Wrong
Christina L. Rozelle: The Treemakers
Christina Benhamin: The Genova Project: TRUTH
Rachel Higginson: Love & Decay
Casey L. Bond: Reap
A.W. Exley: Nefertiti’s Heart
Tasha Gwartney: Fated
Jeffrey A. Friedberg: Red, White, and Dead
Terry Schott: The Game
Craig Halloran: The Hero, the Sword, and the Dragon
T.L. Shreffler: Sora’s Quest
S.D. Donovan: Harbinger of Justice
R.A. Hakok: Among Wolves
Carol Berg: Sanctuary Duet (Dust & Light, Ash & SIlver)
Julie Wetzel: Kindling Flames: Gathering Tinder
Mellisa Wright: Frey
Jasper T. Scott: Dark Space
Anthology: Naughty or Nice
Christian Warren Freed: Armies of the Silver Mage
Julie Owen: The Boy Who Fell from the Sky
Craig Halloran: Smoke Rising
Tyffani Clark Kemp: Beast Within
Nicholas Erik: The Emerald Elephant
B.B. Griffith: Follow the Crow
Daniel Arenson: Requiem’s Song
Jospeh Lallo: The Book of Deacon
T.W. Piperbrook: Contamination (Boxed Set)
Laekan Zea Kemp: The Girl in Between
R.S. Ingermanson: Trangression
Michael R. Hicks: Empire
David Beers: The Devil’s Dream
Stacey Marie Brown: City In Embers
Genevieve Jack: The Ghost and the Graveyard
Edward W. Robertson: Breakers
Nathan Van Coops: In Times like These
M.P. McDonald: No Good Deed
Trish Marie Dawson: I Hope You Find Me
Gillian Larkin: The Death Planner
Patricia Briggs: Fire Touched (When Released.)
Jim Butcher: Peace Talks  (When Released.)
Robin Hobb: Third Fitz book (When Released. If Released? AAAHHHH…)

Revisiting Old Favorites

Sherwood Smith: The Trouble with Kings
Patricia Briggs: Cry Wolf
Patricia Briggs: Moon Called, Iron Kissed, River Marked
Jim Butcher: Dead Beat, Cold Days, Skin Game
Julie Czernada: A Thousand Words for Stranger
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes, The Entire Freaking Collection.
Vince Flynn: The Survivor (This book will ruin me dead. Someone send me tissues.)
Vince Flynn: Kill Shot, American Assassin
Tom Clancy: Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Cardinal of the Kremlin, Red Rabbit
Mark Greaney: Dead Eye, The Gray Man, On Target, Ballistic
Robin Hobb: If I feel like dying inside, the entire Fitz series again. Someone send me tissues.
Anne McCaffrey: The Dragonriders of Pern Books 1-5. Someone send me tissues.

There are more… a lot more. But, this is a good start of what I’d like to read this year. What are some of the books you are hoping to read in 2016?

A Walk on the Wild Side

photo credit: RNML_gazettes via photopin (license)

I’ve been pretty quiet lately. Sorry about that. I’ve been really busy. With the Dawn of Dae finally out in the wilds, I’m finally slowing my pace down a little bit. Not much, mind you. I’m hard at work getting Unawakened ready for its January 26, 2016 release date. Sometimes I don’t think scheduling through well enough.

It’ll be a working Christmas for me this year, but I don’t mind. I really do enjoy what I do… most of the time, that is.

I talk more about other writers than I do myself, so I thought I’d take a few minutes out of my day to catch you up on me. November was insane. I went to World Fantasy Con, which is a convention for authors, publishers, editors, and so on. It was held in Saratoga Springs, and it was a lot of fun. I got to meet a bunch of fantastic authors and other professionals in the field. Despite appearances, us authors do sometimes enjoy being social creatures–especially when we’re with people who understand our special brand of craziness.

One of the challenges I often face as a writer is trying to put myself in the readers’ shoes. What do book lovers really want in a book? In a blog? From me in general? When I think of myself as a reader, the answer is everything!!!! I love knowing everything I can about my favorite writers.

Not to the creepy level, mind you, but I enjoy knowing things. For example, does my current favorite author like horses, too? I like seeing what basic things we have in common. While it has zero bearing for me on the books, it does make it feel like I have some sort of connection with them.

That probably makes me human.

So, I’m going to step out of my comfort zone for a while. Real Me is pretty chatty and open about just about everything, but I’ve kept New Me a bit more restrained. Ironically, it isn’t because I’ve changed that part of myself. It’s more because I just want to write. So, that’s been what I’ve been doing. Real Me has also fallen off the edge of the world, too. I’ve just been losing myself in my books, working hard to prepare titles for publication.

Writing a book is really hard. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, and if you’re anything like me, you’re probably rolling your eyes a little. I mean, yeah. Everyone says it. Writing is hard.

I’ve spent the past week or two really questioning why I put myself through the rough process of publication. It’s a pretty tough gig. There are no guarantees when publishing a book. Will I find readers who like what I write? If I were drawing answers out of a hat or shaking a Magic Ball, I’d probably pull a no each and every time. But, I don’t let it stop me.

Usually, that is. The past two weeks have been really rough. To prepare a book for publication, there’s a lot that goes on. There’s the obvious ‘write the book’ part of things. Then there’s the edit the book part of things–and the editing the book part is tough. I’m not, by nature, a perfectionist. As an author, I need to be. I’m learning to be, but it hasn’t been an easy road.

But, I’m getting there–at least according to some of my fans, who have been there from the beginning. Each book is cleaner, tells a better story, and has better characters. That sort of thing keeps me holding on when I am asking myself why I put myself through the stress of publishing a book.

Publishing a book is a bit like exploring a jungle, alone, while being chased by an anaconda. A very hungry anaconda who hasn’t had anything to eat in weeks. A very hungry and angry anaconda, because I stepped on its tail while hacking at the foliage with a dull machete.

I considered hanging up my writing hat several times recently. I love writing, but I’ve been really wondering why I put myself through so much. Deadlines can’t be missed, things have to be prepared and followed up, and I spend a lot of time not writing.

When I released the Dawn of Dae, I spent a staggering amount of time preparing some advertising promotions to help get the book in front of potential readers. Some of my plans fell through, and one of them was my primary traffic source. So, instead of the strong launch I had been hoping (and planning) on, I did a pretty good imitation of a goldfish flopping around in a drying puddle.

Rolling with the punches gets hard when there are a lot of punches coming all at the same time. That’s been the last fourteen days for me. But, instead of quitting, I’m shaking my head to get the stars out of my eyes, spitting out the blood and broken teeth, and diving back into the fray.

Writing is hard, but I guess I’m just not ready to quit quite yet. I have stories to tell, and I want to share those stories with you. The lack of financial security makes it a tough journey, but so long as I keep making enough to keep writing the next book, I will. I keep telling myself that to counter the little demons on my shoulders whispering some bullshit about hanging up the whip and quitting.

I think I’ll be hunting down a few new books to read this weekend to remind myself why I love books so much. Reading is a pretty good cure all for me. It lets me step out of my own head for a while and forget about all of the struggles involved with publishing a book. The scramble back up into the saddle sucks after a fall, but I’ve got a pretty hard head.

The wild side is a bumpy ride, but worth it in the end, flopped launches and all. At least, I think I like to think it’s worth it… which is enough for me.

Happy reading, book lovers.

 

The Dawn of Dae is Here!

The chance to attend college is just what Alexa Daegberht needs to break out of the mold of her caste. If she can become a Bach, she can escape the poverty she’s endured ever since her parents died when she was five. Only through education can she rise above her birth caste–and she knows it.

All of her plans fall to dust when she opens a portal within her refrigerator, turning her macaroni and cheese casserole into a sentient being. By dawn the next day, the mysterious dae have come to Earth to stay. Hundreds of thousands of people vanish into thin air, and as the days pass, the total of the missing number in the millions. Some say it’s the rapture of the Christian faith.

Alexa knows better: their dae ate them, leaving behind nothing more than dust as evidence of their hunger.

As one of the unawakened, she doesn’t have a dae, nor can she manifest any forms of magical powers. She’s lacking the innate knowledge of what the dae are and what they mean for the world. Now more than ever, she is an outsider. Her survival hinges on her ability to adapt to a world she no longer understands.

Unfortunately, one of the dae has taken notice of her, and he’ll stop at nothing to have her. Alexa’s problems pile up as she’s forced to pick her allegiances. Will she submit to the new ways of the world? Will she become some monster’s pawn? Or, against all odds, can she forge her own path and prove normal humans can thrive among those gifted with powers once the domain of fantasies and nightmares?

Buy now at Amazon!

from chapter one…

My first real memory of my parents was also my last.

It was the refrigerator’s fault I remembered. I should’ve known better than to expect new appliances in my new apartment; I was lucky to have appliances at all. I sure as hell couldn’t afford to buy new ones.

The refrigerator, however, was a problem. Every time I looked at it, I remembered—and my first memory of my parents was how I, Alexa Zoe Daegberht, had killed them with a wish.

It was the same refrigerator, right down to its smoke-stained, pebbled surface and its loose handle. The years hadn’t done the damned thing any favors, and I wondered if the door would fall off its hinges when I opened it. Then again, they had built things better when I had been a child.

It was too bad I hadn’t been built a bit better. A lot of things would have been different. It wasn’t my father’s fault no one could touch me without irritating my sensitive skin. It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t kiss my cheek like other fathers could with their daughters.

It was his fault he had forgotten; if he hadn’t, my face wouldn’t have been itching and burning. If he hadn’t forgotten, I wouldn’t have run to the fridge, using it as a shield against his touch. If he hadn’t forgotten, I wouldn’t have parroted what he too often said while fighting with my mother:

If you walk out that door, don’t you ever come back.

Because I had believed it, had wanted it, and had prayed for it, wishing on a shooting star that night, I had gotten exactly what I wanted. My parents had walked out the door and left me behind, never to return.

The ocean didn’t like giving up its dead, and planes smacking into the water didn’t leave a whole lot to salvage.

I dropped my bags on the kitchen floor, spat curses, and kicked the refrigerator.

It won; beneath the plastic was metal, and it refused to bend. All I did was crunch my toes, and howling, I hopped around on one foot. Through tear-blurred eyes, I glared at the offensive appliance.

“I’ll end you,” I swore.

Maybe I could spray paint the damned thing pink; it’d be at least four years before I earned my degree and rank as a Bach, and until then, I was stuck with it. Once I became a Bach, I’d be elevated to a better caste—a caste with a future, and a bright one at that. Once I was a Bach, I could afford to buy my own appliances, and I’d never have to see that make or model of refrigerator ever again. If I scored well enough on the exit exams, I had the slim chance of being accepted for Master training.

I had my entire life ahead of me, and it would be a good one. There was no way I’d let a stupid refrigerator take that from me.

I kept telling myself that, but I didn’t believe it.

I gave up and went for my last ditch resort; if macaroni and cheese couldn’t make things better, nothing could.

I left my apartment to explore my new neighborhood and find work, leaving behind the devil-spawned refrigerator with a week’s worth of macaroni and cheese casserole cooling inside. If any of the other students found out I was surviving on pasta flavored with neon-orange powder, I’d be the laughing stock of the college.

I wanted to create the illusion of having come from somewhere other than the poorest district in the city, and to do that, I needed money. Merit-based students like me paid off tuition and housing in labor; I was doomed to at least four years serving as some professor’s slave. At least I had ranked high enough to have an apartment instead of a closet in the shared dorms, but unlike on-campus students, I was on my own for the basics.

There was one place I knew I could find a job in a hurry: the Inner Harbor. If I had come from any other district, if I had belonged to any other caste, I wouldn’t have needed to turn to Kenneth Smith for work. But Kenneth took in those others wouldn’t and made them do his dirty work.

Unfortunately for me, I was good at doing his dirty work. Sighing, I ducked my head, adopted a brisk stride, and headed towards the water.

Baltimore was a big place, and it took me an hour to navigate my way through the city’s heart, skirting around the fringe I had once called home. On the surface, it was a clean, quiet place with carefully trimmed lawns, neatly pruned trees, and flowers contained in concrete planters.

The scars of rebellion pockmarked the brick buildings, a reminder of the violence Kenneth Smith and his cohorts had stamped out years ago, turning a slum into the elite’s paradise.

Once upon a time, the Inner Harbor had been the entertainment district of Baltimore, a place prone to rioting, a place everyone, no matter what caste, could go and gamble away their money or find other pursuits, many of them illegal. Sporting events were popular—if you could afford the entry fee.

I couldn’t, and Kenneth Smith counted on that. He didn’t want me as a client, anyway.

He wanted me as one of his hounds, a dog of his endless drug war, hunting down his non-paying clients, sniffing out dirt on them, and either luring them into one of his little traps or otherwise acquiring his money. The method didn’t matter; the money did, and that was that.

I hated the Inner Harbor; if I had a pack of matches, I wouldn’t have hesitated to light one up in the hope of burning the whole place to the ground. My temper soured the closer I got to the little townhouse located where the fringe began and the elite’s playground ended.

No one in their right mind would have believed, not even for a moment, that Baltimore’s charming, ruthless, and despicable criminal mastermind lived in such a dingy place, and that was exactly the way Kenneth Smith liked it.

I knocked four times, paused, and because I was in a bad mood, I gave the dark-painted door a solid kick, jamming my already aching toes. I didn’t hop around as I had in my apartment.

One of Smith’s bitches didn’t do something so undignified, not in public.

The pain I wanted; it served to focus my attention and remind me of the misery my boss would inflict if I screwed up. Clenching my teeth to keep quiet, I waited. I heard the thump of someone coming down the stairs, and several moments later, the lock clicked. The door opened, and Smith’s favorite dog answered, glaring at me through narrowed eyes.

“You again?”

I smiled at Lily because I knew it would piss her off. “What do you know? It is! Astonishing. Can I come in, or are we going to put on a show for everyone in the neighborhood? I didn’t dress the part. I left my lacy panties at home.”

I didn’t own any lacy panties, but all things considered, I was going to die a virgin anyway. A kiss on the cheek was enough to give me hives. What would happen if someone tried to kiss me on the mouth—or do something far more interesting with me?

I’d probably die.

Lily snarled something incomprehensible under her breath, stepping back to let me in. “Prissy bitch.”

Blond-haired, blue-eyed, pasty-skinned Lily belonged in a doll shop, but instead of telling her to go back to selling herself on the street like I wanted, I asked, “Where’s the boss?”

“Down in the den. He’s with a guest. Wait in the parlor. He’ll come for you himself, I’m sure.” Lily glared at me, slammed the door, and stomped her way up the staircase to the second floor, leaving me to mind my own business in the entry.

I waited by the door.

The parlor always reeked of drugs, but I had kicked my various habits years ago. As always, the parlor made me want a hit so I could forget everything, right down to who I was and what I had done to get by.

I had changed. I wasn’t going to let anyone forget it, myself included.

Published December 1, 2015.

Author Interview: Chrysoula Tzavelas

Popular fiction has a lot of stereotypes and tropes associated with them. From vampires, angels, demons, and werewolves, people have a certain expectation for certain stereotypes and tropes. Chrysoula Tzavelas has been kind enough to stop by to discuss popular subjects in fiction and how they affect us as readers—and as writers.

Trillian: We all have a favorite trope or stereotype to read; I love werewolves with unique twists. What is your favorite trope or stereotype?

Demons, specifically well thought out demons with a sympathetic perspective. They can ultimately be bad or have secret hearts of gold (or both) but… yeah. Demons. And the trope itself goes straight back to Paradise Lost, so there’s a lot of history behind it!

Trillian: What is your least favorite trope or stereotype in fantasy fiction?

A broad topic, and harder to answer because I spend a lot less time thinking about stuff I don’t like. Let me see… Right, okay. The medieval focus of second world fantasy. I actually generally don’t like the spatial/temporal divisions: you want contemporary technology alongside magic? It takes place in an alternate version of modern Earth. You want steampunk? An alternate version of Victorian England. Kings and queens and epic sweeping scope? The late middle ages, and you ought to make it seem like a different world.

An early work of mine (currently unfinished) was set in a post-war industrial revolution in a completely new world where the industry was powered by enslaved spirits. The people doing the enslaving didn’t even know what they were doing. And there were elves, too, but they were the secondborn race, and humans the firstborn. Damn, I loved that setting.

Anyhow, there’s definitely a slow drift toward more diversity of the temporal/spatial/storytype limitations but it’s still hard to sell because it’s risky.

Oh! Bonus disliked trope, from contemporary fantasy: the idea that ordinary humans are only worthy of narrative attention as victims. And that if you are awesome enough to have agency it’s because of something inborn (a GIFT or intrinsic inhumanity) or imposed from outside (turned into a werewolf/vampire/etc). I’m always pretty meh on that. It’s okay as part of the genre but all the time? Meh.

Trillian: Fantasy gets a lot of flack over certain stereotypes. A good example of this is Twilight. However, the tropes and stereotypes used in Twilight have brought millions of young readers to fantasy fiction. Has the success of the truly popular tropes/stereotypes affected your writing? If so, how? If not, did you avoid them for a reason?

Oh sure, I’m influenced. When I’m deciding what to write next, I look at my trove of ideas and I pick something that I think has a tiny chance of being commercial. I need to have some way of making the decision!

When I was younger I worried a lot about being ‘original’ but it turned out that stressing about that just stopped me from finishing anything. And hey, bonus, it turns out even when I try to write highly derivative work I’m hailed as ‘original’.

Trillian: Men and women alike fall victim to stereotypes in fantasy fiction. What gender-based stereotypes do you hate the most? Why? Do you feel the existence of this stereotype harms the fantasy genre as a whole?

I hate the Exceptional Girl in urban (and other) fantasy. I hate the lady protagonist whose friends are all men, who ends up viewing almost all other women as rivals (or actual enemies) or jokes. I understand (some of) why it appears so often–why waste time on friendly girls when you could make those friends boys your straight protagonist could have tension with? But it is so different from my actual life (and so insulting to all the women who have supported me) that I just can’t ever implement it.

As for whether it harms fantasy? I don’t know. That’s the sort of fandom discussion I tend not to attend. It requires defining what ‘harming fantasy’ means. It certainly entertains readers. But I don’t think it’s helpful to society in any particular way.

Trillian: You write stories involving angels and the mythos surrounding them. The inclusion of angels has certain connotations. Have you found these stereotypes have affected your readership—and your writing?

The only time anybody has commented on the angel mythos in specific is when my original publisher offered on the novels. She praised my research and nuanced approach to old mythology, which I was amused by since the ‘research’ was just… the contents of my head by then. A lifetime of interest in angels/demons made manifest.

I have had to make decisions about things I suspect other urban fantasy authors don’t need to worry about early on: the nature and status of God/the Creator (read and find out!), what I was going to do about Jesus Christ (I made an important decision about what he was but it may never come out), and so on.

Trillian: You write about a subject most consider fringe—or taboo, depending on their personal beliefs. What challenges have you faced with your choice of subject material? How does your writing break the mold in terms of the angelic stereotype?

While I’m writing the kinds of stories I’m interested in, they actually have their own lineage. You can start with Paradise Lost (if you want) or just jump ahead to things like Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN (and Mike Carey’s follow-up LUCIFER) and movies like PROPHECY. So I don’t think of my stories as breaking molds, really. The idea that God is remote, angels are imperfect, fallen angels aren’t always evil and humans are amazing all go back to the beginning of angel lore.

The biggest ‘challenge’ I’ve faced in that regard is what to do about the Known Angels. Names like Gabriel and Raphael and Lucifer all have a LOT of narrative weight to them. Getting entangled in that is a huge challenge. I eventually came up with a solution I like, though, that leaves them as part of the setting while letting me use original characters for the real storytelling work.

Trillian: The fantasy genre has been under fire due to certain social issues, including gender bias and sexual orientation. What’s your take on this subject?

It’s deserved.

Trillian: Do you believe authors can make a difference in regards to these social issues in their writing? Have you intentionally addressed these issues in your books? If so, how?

I’m not going to change the world with my books, even if I was as successful as JK Rowling. Nobody is going to say, “Wow, I was wrong about X!” as a result of my book. But here’s the thing. Back in 2009 I read some personal anecdotes of little girls in India who read fantasy fiction and didn’t realize they could be princesses too, because they weren’t white. And I remembered that when I was a little girl I got pretty frustrated that my fantasy destiny, if I had one, was to be a wife and mother to some awesome man. This doesn’t hit all little girls who read fantasy–some of them are able to say, “It’s fantasy!” and overlook the gender issue– but it hit me. It hurt. So I empathized with those little girls from India. I don’t aim to change the world, but I do want anybody who picks up my books (but especially those who are underserved in escapism options) to feel welcome. I want them to know that I believe they can be a hero, too.

So what I do is this: these days when I create a new character, I do my thing, come up with my vision– and then I ask myself, “Is there any reason this character needs to be white/straight/cis/male?” And you know, a lot of the time the answer is actually, “Yes,” to one or more of those, because of stereotypes or tropes or power structures I’m representing. But when I don’t have a good reason, I change things up. I try to stay flexible.

Also: all of INFINITY KEY. Branwyn’s story is about facing down entrenched systems that consider her a weaker and less valuable member of society, clawing her way into personal power and forcing them to take her seriously. Not-so-coincidentally, Branwyn is fiercely, actively feminist.

Trillian: What’s your favorite book? What’s your least favorite book? Why do you love / hate these titles

The Most Reread titles are split between Terry Pratchett and Jane Austen. I love both authors for their keen insight into the ordinary elements of humanity: the way people live and how that impacts others. I like Pratchett for other reasons: the poetry of his language, his complex approach to good and evil, his compassion for individuals and his faith that even Magrats can punch Fairy Queens in the nose. Do you want me to pick a favorite book of his? I’ll suggest Nation, then. It’s not part of Discworld and I’ve only read it twice because it’s emotionally rawer than most Discworld books. But it’s amazing.

I’ll also throw out a plug for Gunnerkrigg Court which started out as a webcomic but hey there’s now 4 print volumes of a really excellent fantasy+robots boarding school story.

Least favorite… this could get me in trouble. Um, I’m not a fan of various super-popular urban fantasy series with lady protagonists. There are some I like! But the ones I don’t like all have certain things in common. Protagonists who are described as awesome and wonderful by the narrative but actually act pretty incompetent. First person protagonists who talk about their bodies with a third person perspective. A massive focus on irrelevant details like doing laundry. Stuff like that. I don’t know if I’d hate these books so much if they weren’t so very popular. But as it is they’re the ones that get the one stars.

Trillian: I try to leave all interviews on a fun and quirky note. There are a lot of doomsday scenarios surrounding the end of Earth as we know it. What’s your favorite of them?

Hah, well, I’m the kind of killjoy who doesn’t find doomsday scenarios “fun.” Sorry! When I was growing up on Air Force bases that were primary targets in the inevitable nuclear exchange, I liked to plan out how I’d survive and that was kind of fun then, but these days I just end up worrying about my kids. Having a special needs kid makes it hard to pretend we’ll do well in a zombie apocalypse.

BUT I do have an uncommonly discussed End Of The World scenario to pitch. It’s not the least bit original–I picked it up from a Hugo winning novel–but at least it’s not zombies or solar flares or alien invasion or cataclysmic climate change. Instead, manmade biological self-aware cellular computers infect…. everything alive, which causes the collapse of the universe due to too many minds. Then everybody transcends to a higher plane because the cellular intelligences are basically benevolent. Yay!

Yeah, okay, I’m a killjoy.

As a note, the Senyaza series is all about a slow progression towards a doomsday scenario, but I’m not telling what that one is.

Thanks for the interview!

About Chrysoula Tzavelas

Chrysoula Tzavelas went to twelve schools in twelve years while growing up as an Air Force brat, and she never met a library she didn’t like. She now lives near Seattle with cats, dogs, adults and children. They graciously allow her a few hours to write everyday and one day she’ll have time to do other things again, too.

She likes combed wool, bread dough, and gardens, but she also likes technology, games and space. This probably goes hand in hand with liking Jane Austen, Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks.

Chrysoula Tzavelas’s Website | Chrysoula’s books: Matchbox Girls | Infinity Key | Wolf Interval | Etiquette of Exiles | Divinity Circuit

#NaNoWriMo – Reader & Writer Challenges, Part 1

It’s November 2, and I suppose if I had been on the ball with everything, I would have started making these posts yesterday instead of today. I was traveling, and then I got caught up in working on a fun project. (It isn’t even a Dae Portals book! I’m just playing around on something new because I can.)

I’ll begin with the Reader Challenge, since everyone who loves books can participate. While National Novel Writing Month typically focuses on the writers, so many of us are readers, too. Today’s reading challenge is a book hunt–of a title you’ve already read.

If you haven’t read a title fitting this criteria, you get to go find one and add it to your “To be Read” pile. Try to prioritize it to sooner in your lineup to keep with the spirit of the challenge! (Or cheat and locate a passage in a book you haven’t read yet.)

the reader challenge

Name a title containing a unicorn. The unicorn can come in any format; it can be a character (such as in the Last Unicorn) or it can be a mention of a mythical beast. Share why you like or dislike this title–and if you could change any one thing about the book, what would you change?

It’s okay if you think the book is perfect. If you think this is the case, why is it the perfect book?

My Answer: The Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Anne Pierce. There’s nothing I would change about this book. It’s written for a younger audience, and it does such a fantastic job of bringing the legendary to life… and turning humans into strange and mythical beasts.

writer challenges

Since the reader challenge today is about unicorns, the writer challenges shall focus on these wonderful and strange beasts.

plot challenge

Include a unicorn in your novel; it can be a mention in dialogue, as an actual character, or as a tidbit of fact, fantasy, or general flavor. The unicorn need not be real, so long as you include one in your book.

Bonus points if the unicorn actually alters your plot.

If you choose to do the following character challenge, have the character drop and break their favorite unicorn-themed mug.

character challenge

To help facilitate the plot challenge, write a character who is obsessed with unicorns. This obsession should affect their everyday life. They own a unicorn mug, and it is their favorite thing in the world.

Word challenge

Juxtaposition:

From Dictionary.Reference.com. 
noun
1. an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.
2. the state of being close together or side by side.

Juxtaposition by Piers Anthony is, indeed, a novel containing unicorns.
theme challenge

Lost Youth.

This theme trope is about the transition from childhood to adulthood, and features the moment where a young adult realizes their childhood has–or is–slipping out of their fingers.

One of your characters is going through this in your novel. Attempt to capture this moment and have it affect the entire novel.

Happy Writing, folks!

Disclaimer: I have no official capacity relating to National Novel Writing Month. I’m merely a participant who enjoys the program. If you want to learn more about National Novel Writing Month, please visit the site for more information!

Author Interview: Diana Pharaoh Francis

Today, I’m joined by Diana Pharaoh Francis, who happens to be one of my favorite authors. We’ve also become friends, which has given me a chance to bring some interview questions to the table I don’t often get to ask–simply because I don’t (usually) know the author well enough. Onward, to the interview!

Thanks for joining me on my blog today, Diana. Lots of bloggers enjoy talking to authors about their writing style, their influences, and fiction. We’ll do that—a bit, but later.

Trillian: What is your day-to-day life like? What sort of things do you enjoy when you aren’t writing your books?

Reading, digging in the dirt, playing with rocks, and tangling yarn, and providing adequate service to the corgi boys.

Trillian: You have pet dogs. Tell us about them! And so we can maintain the illusion this interview has something to do with writing, do your dogs affect your books? If so, how?

Two corgis, Voodoo and Viggo, and as I said, I am servant to them. My husband likes to say that they are so spoiled they have maggots crawling on them. Personally, I don’t see it. Voodoo lays under my desk when I write and when I go into my office, he bounces around like I’ve made the Best! Choice! Ever! Viggo is more slothful and lays at the end of the desk and wonders aloud why I don’t spend more time petting him, and shouldn’t I go sit on the couch where he could be on my lap and oh, by the way, he’s hungry.

I have an idea that I want to put a pushy dog into a book soon. I’m just not sure when or in what book. Maybe a demon dog. Hmmmm.

Trillian: You love crows. Why do you love them? Have crows played a part in your writing?

I love all the crow family and their snarky relatives—magpies, ravens, jays. I like that their smart, mouthy, opinionated, and pushy. I love the studies on crows that show how smart they are and how well they remember people. They have such personality, too. I watched two crows chase a hawk away recently. They kept dogging it for miles. They weren’t content just to get rid of it, they wanted it to know it should never come back. What’s not to love about them?

Trillian: I love your Path books. What inspired you to write them? I guess there won’t be any more of them in that same world, will there? A girl can dream… right?

I’ve thought about returning to the world with some stories, but at this point, I don’t that I ever will actually do it. I really liked Reisil because she got to be Chosen and said no. I mean, who does that? Who gets to be selected by the powers that be for a special honor and ability, and then says, no thanks, I’m good. She also wasn’t particularly powerful or amazing. She’s pretty normal. She’s smart, though, and she’s loyal. I wanted to tell a story about how a girl could be chosen, and eventually come to accept her new role, and see what she made of it. What’s funny is that the first book I meant to stand alone. But then, after it was done, I kept wondering about something.

I’m a huge Babylon 5 fan, and there’s this episode called, “What ever happened to Mr. Garibaldi?” He’s a character who goes strangely missing and shows up again and this episode shows what happened. In my mind, after Fate was done, I kept thinking, whatever did the wizards do at Mysane Kosk? Then the answers hit and the books practically wrote themselves.

Trillian: Unbeknownst to the audience, we share a love of shiny rocks. What rocks are your favorite and why? Has your interest in gemstones affected your writing?

There you go with favorites. Like I don’t love and covet them all! I have a really cool piece of chalcedony geode that I dug myself. It’s a donut, with the chalcedony inside. (Chalcedony fluoresces under black light, btw). I also have a really neat cark red carnelian sphere on my desk with white quartz running through it light lightning. I love the flash of labradorite, too. Oh! I have some great tigereye runestones that I sometimes use for writing ideas.

I love the idea of these treasures in the earth and when you dig them, you hardly know what they are, most of the time, because they are just dirty rocks. I think that idea comes into my writing—that notion of not judging the book by the cover, as it were, because there may be amazing treasure inside. I have a little bowl of polished rocks I’ll play with when I’m feeling stupid and the words won’t come, and that sort of tactile fidgeting usually helps jumpstart me.

Trillian: We both love books. What types of books are your favorite? Who is your favorite author? What’s your favorite book?

I have no favorite author or book, to be honest. Too many choices. I love Jane Austen, particularly Persuasion. I love Dickens and Faulkner and Hardy’s poetry and Tennyson and Yeats. I love reading fun regency romances, magical cozies and mysteries, urban fantasy and paranormal romance—really all forms of fantasy. Some of my go-to writers are Patti Briggs, Carol Berg, Ilona Andrews, Laura Griffith, and Jaimie Lee Moyer.

Trillian: Are there any social issues you specifically address when you write your books? If there are, what are they and why do you include them in your fiction?

Not really. I mean, obviously issues will come up as characters interact. I don’t generally set about dealing with social issues, though my Crosspointe books do revolve around colonization and how that continues to play out over time. But really, any social issue that crops up usually comes out of a character’s situation and life.

Trillian: You have been sent into the future and you can bring one person (living or dead) and one object with you. This individual and your object will showcase Earth in the ‘modern’ era. Who/what do you bring with you and why?

Well isn’t that a ridiculously difficult question. The answer probably shouldn’t be Rush Limbaugh and a Big Mac, should it? Okay, showcase earth in the modern era. Whatever showcase and modern means. I think I’d go with, Jon Stewart and a surveillance camera. The latter because this modern earth seems to be all about watching and seeing and knowing and yet not doing a whole lot. And Jon Stewart because he captures a lot of the best of us, plus he would give a lot of perspective on our world today.

Thanks for having me today! Though now I want to ask you that last question and see what you would answer. So . . . go ahead!

Trillian: Well played, Diana. Well played. For my object, I would send a pair of my t-rex earrings. Why? Because as a society, we’re fascinated by weird stuff with little use that shows our personal style. That, plus I’d like to watch them try to figure out why the hell anyone would send a pair of t-rex earrings to the future. (My ‘useful’ object, if I had to send one, would be a tablet with wikipedia in its entirety downloaded to it. I’d write “Don’t Panic” on the cover.)

As for my individual, I would send Patrick Stewart. He’s one of the classiest celebrities I know, charming, sophisticated, and representative of what so many of us wish to be. While he’s famous, he’s the type of man who carries himself like a normal person–a normal person so many admire.

A recovering academic, Diana Pharaoh Francis writes books of a fantastical, adventurous, and often romantic nature.

She’s owned by two corgis, spends much of her time herding children, and likes rocks, geocaching, knotting up yarn, and has a thing for 1800s England, especially the Victorians.

Check out samples of just about everything on her website.

Diana’s Website | Diana’s Books | Diamond City Novels

 

Preparing for #NaNoWriMo: Planning a Novel

National Novel Writing Month is coming soon, and many prospective authors are preparing for a month of writing. Some will choose to write off the cuff without any preparation (often called pantsing) while others choose to plot their novels out in advance.

Both ways are correct. Pick the way that works best for your writing style. I’m a plotter. I find this helps me focus on what I need to write and accomplish in each scene rather than trying to figure everything out as I go. This won’t work for everyone, but if you like having a guideline when you’re writing, this may be of use to you. Those who enjoy writing with little preparation may find the concepts here useful, even if you’re not writing down the details.

Everyone has a different process, so this is how I start conceptualizing a novel.

preparing to plot

Before I work on the story, I have some physical preparations to do. I don’t use a computer to store my story information. I create journals (or story bibles, as some call them) for the purpose of tracking characters, plot information, and so on. So, I’m going to take a moment to go over the materials I need to start the planning/plotting work.

the journal

I use Levenger’s Circa system (often with Staples’ Arc covers) to store my novels. Here is a photograph of one of the journals I have. To avoid Dae Portals spoilers, I have photographed my newest journal, which will store notes on a project kicking around in my head but cannot currently pursue.

I like the layout of Levenger’s paper, as it allows me to take margin notes alongside the primary summaries. Once I have the journal set up, I can proceed with the real work–planning my story.

The picture quality sucks, but it’s a purple leather cover with silver-colored aluminum rings. Each one of these journals is pretty expensive, but they last a long time and the contents can be replaced as needed. (Once I’m done with a series, I will to shift the entire thing to plastic rings and cheap covers for long-term storage so I can use the nice journals for the next project…)

the pens

I use Pilot FriXion pens for planning out a series. Having the ability to erase the ink is extremely useful.

planning a novel
what is my story about?

Before I can begin writing a story, I need to know what the story is about. Sometimes, I start with a single line of description. Other times, I write pages of ideas out. No matter how little or much I write, I need to know the following bits of information:

Who is the story about? (A good series often has one lynchpin character who carries most of the tale–even if there’s a great and large supporting cast.) Sometimes, there are 2+ main characters. (Martin’s Game of Thrones follows families more than characters, since everyone dies in that series anyway.)
What genre is your story? Try to get specific. “Fantasy” is a pretty broad genre. You can figure out the tone of your story by knowing what subgenre it fits into. An example of subgenre is dark epic fantasy or paranormal romance.
What is your characters’ motivations?
Location, Location, Location.

These three things are critical for me, so I’ll dig into them one by one.

genre

Knowing what type of story you plan to tell is really important. Feel free to slipstream genres–which is taking two different genres and mashing them together. What’s important is that you have a basic guideline for the tone and flavor of your story. Your choice of genre can make a huge difference on the background and current mentalities of your characters. After all, people are the product of their environment and upbringing.

location

I mentioned this under the genre heading, but people are the product of their environment and upbringing. Ask yourself why someone is like they are. Is it nature? Is it nurture? Knowing the environment they grew up in–and live in currently–can really help you solidify what your story is about.

Main characters and character motivations

Since these two are closely related, I’ll handle them together. I need to know who the story is about. If it’s a romance, it’s the main two characters plus those who want to interfere with their romance. Antagonists play as much of a role as protagonists.

For the good guys and the bad guys, I need to know why they are doing something. Sometimes, the reason can be as simple as, “I love this person.” Sometimes, it can be as complex as, “I want to rule the world and need to do this, this, and that to make it happen.”

When I’m building a world and story for the first time, I try to look at the main characters from different angles. Here’s a quick list of things I think about:

Personality type. (I use tropes and stereotypes to build a character’s foundation.)
Age/Sex/Gender/Sexual Preferences/Physical Traits. (Anything that will change a character’s personality, for better or for worse.)
Interests/Motivations/Goals in life. (Why is this person doing what they’re doing? Answer is usually here.)
Background. (I look at all of the above and try to think about what sort of life this person lived in order to become who they are now.)

the plot

Now that I have an idea of the foundation work, I begin trying to figure out my plot. I like character driven stories, so that means I will often build plot and characters side by side. Without characters, the plot is simply a sequence of events. I try to fashion my plots where they happen because of the actions of characters rather than by happy accident.

When I started outlining the Dawn of Dae, I began with a novel summary. It’s actually fairly similar to what’s on the product page now, although I did have to adjust it to account for changes I made to the story as I got around to actually plotting and writing it. It’s a general guideline, so it’s bound to change.

Some of the ideas I made up as I went–others I knew before I started the summary. The summary became the heart of the first book–and a guideline for the rest of the series. I knew I wanted to partner some science fiction elements with urban fantasy elements, which is why the story takes place in the future rather than an alternative now.

Once I had the short summary, I began to write a synopsis. A synopsis is a summary of all of the events of the book. Take the summary (or back of book blurb) above and expand it so that all of the major plot points are covered. That’s a synopsis. The synopsis for the Dawn of Dae is eight pages long.

Once I had the synopsis, I wrote a three page list of plot events, character motivations (or why these plot events happened), and consequences of the events. This helps me do a ‘sanity check’ of the plot line. If I can’t come up with a realistic explanation why a character would do something, the specific plot point (and possibly the triggering events) is adjusted so the plot makes sense. Once I’m done, I’m pretty much ready to begin writing.

Through the entire synopsis and plotting process, I am actively working on figuring out my characters, what makes them tick, and how they’ll develop and change over the story.

I will often figure out their backstory while drafting the story. This helps me build circumstances of their past to fit with the choices they make. I know a lot of people spend an extensive time planning a character’s history, but I don’t do this–it ruins my ability to be flexible with them–and build a background that fits who they were at the start of the story. Yes, sometimes I have to change/fix the story as a result.

remember, your outline is a guideline.

Something new plotters struggle with is the concept that their outline isn’t actually set in stone. If something isn’t working, change it. Make a notation of the change you made, look over the rest of your outline, and ripple the appropriate changes throughout the outline.

It’s okay to change your outline.

Sometimes, you’ll have to scrap much of your outline to account for the new changes, keeping key ideas and reworking them. That’s okay. It really is. Your outline is a tool to help you write the story, not an execution notice.

If your story strays from your outline, change your outline to match what your characters are doing. Learning to outline anticipating how characters react is a skill learned with experience. If you lack that experience, you’ll make mistakes, and that’s okay.

Learn from them, make the necessary changes, and keep writing.

Good luck with your novel!

An Introduction to National Novel Writing Month #NaNoWriMo

Every November, writers from around the world gather in force to participate in National Novel Writing Month. Some people love it, some people hate it, but one thing is certain: a lot of words are written as a consequence of this challenge. For writers, it’s a chance to join others on an adventure to write a novel in a single month.

For readers, it’s a chance to connect with writers–and see the novel-writing process in a whole different way.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo for years, both as a participant and a volunteer organizer for a region. I’ve had a chance to watch hopeful authors tackle their novel projects–and seen many decide reading is more up their alley than writing.

That’s okay. NaNoWriMo is as much for readers as it is for writers, especially if you’re interested in reading books before they’re, well, real books. (Hairy warts, hilarious spelling mistakes, and plot canyons and all…) Since I started participating in NaNoWriMo over a decade ago, I’ve seen authors seeking beta readers for their projects. There are entire sections of the forum dedicated to such things, so if that’s up your alley, go have a look at the site and have a look around.

Generally, it is for people who are interested in writing fiction. The rules are pretty simple:

Write a piece of fiction.
Complete 50,000 in the month of November.
Don’t start your project until November 1.

Rebels are those who work on projects they have already started or aren’t writing a fiction piece. While technically against the rules, no one really cares–the point is to write, and most everyone looks the other way.

I’m a rather large fan of the challenge. I’ll be participating this year, working on Unawakened, book two of the Dae Portals series. Honestly, I wasn’t going to participate originally, but my schedule worked out where I’d be working on the book during November anyway. Admittedly, I’ll probably be a rebel of some sort this year–I work as time allows, and if I have time to start early, I will.

Still, how I approach the month won’t change, and I’ll be sharing my progress with Unawakened. I’ll also be presenting some writing challenges and reading challenges for those who want to join in with the festivities. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting about how I prepare to write a novel, as well as some tips and tricks I use to keep going even when the going gets tough. For readers, I’ll be challenging you to find titles with certain elements–and sharing my favorite books containing those elements.

Happy reading–and writing!

Amazon Strikes Back: Fake Reviewers Face Lawsuit

When I posted on Friday about publishing news updates, techcrunch followed up with a very interesting article about fake reviewers and Amazon’s efforts to put an end to the illegal practice. Yes, illegal practice. It is in their terms of service that users may not post fake reviews; by using their site, authors and readers alike agree to submit to the legal ramifications of those conditions. Please take a moment to click the link about: It shows a screenshot of a job description highlighting one of the major issues with the practice of purchasing fake reviews. (It will open in a new window.)

In short, you give Amazon the right to file legitimate lawsuits against you for posting fake reviews–and potentially for hiring someone to post fake reviews on your behalf. With the help of fivrr, Amazon has begun tracking down individual reviewers and pursuing them in court for attempting to rig the book purchasing system.

Not too long ago, I discussed how readers can check for fake reviews and filter them out of purchasing decisions. Amazon’s move to pursue lawsuits against fake reviewers is good news for everyone–except the cheaters. It is important to note that this lawsuit won’t affect book bloggers, who receive copies of the book for free in exchange for an honest review, often coordinated by a third party. Many of these tour group coordinators do accept payments for the work involved with matching authors and bloggers. This is an allowed practice.

Once again, combating fake reviewers is everyone’s job, but to see Amazon stepping up aggressively to deal with this issue is good news for everyone–especially customers. By working to put an end to the practice of fake reviews, authors who deserve attention will have an easier time being seen.

Best of all, these reviewers will likely have all of their falsified reviews removed from Amazon, which will ensure legitimate reviews float to the top–and give customers a better idea of what they’re purchasing.

If you want to help combat fake reviews, when you read a title, leave an honest review–even if you disliked the book. Just try to say why you didn’t like it, even if it’s just a few sentences. It may not seem like much, but it’s important for everyone. If you can spare the time, list the redeeming factors of the title, too. After all, what you may not like in a book may appeal to someone else, and that’s what reviews are for: to help readers just like you find a book they’ll enjoy reading.