Melissa A. I. Murray's Blog, page 2

Live Q&A on Facebook!

Hey guys! So next Saturday (26 September), I'll be going live on my Facebook page to answer your questions and talk about some of the different sentient species that occupy my fictional world of Aorea: the lanti, the sierrens, the freesians, and the evrae! There are a heckuva lot more peoples that populate the mythical, mystical otherworls--dracora, niethera, kemdar, etc--but I'm sticking with these four because a) I don't want to blabbing for hours, b) I want to save time to answer your actual questions, and c) those are the four species that most resemble, well, humans. As far as your questions go, I'll be happy to answer anything - progress on Hidden, my various fur- (and feather-) children, how my music and any other side projects you might be curious about are coming along.

With only a few months left before Hidden's release (21 December 2020), I'm really excited to sit down and talk with you guys. So drop by, leave a question in the comments (or just come and say hi!), and we'll have a grand old time! I've since figured out the technology issues that plagued my previous Facebook Live session, so fingers crossed, everything should go smoothly this time around. Hope to see you there!

Section reading from Bound on the Vlog!

Tomorrow you can watch (or listen, should you so prefer) to an excerpt from my novella Bound, which takes place approximately two years after Destined leaves off and a few weeks before Hidden begins. The excerpt is posted over on my YouTube channel, so enjoy! (And don't forget to subscribe!)

Rewrites, Guitars, & Other Updates

Whew, been busy lately doing *all* the things. I've received some more input from my beta readers, so the grueling process of rewrites continues as I filter through their feedback and adjust the story. So far all the changes are absolutely necessary, and you will have a better novel to look forward to because of it! But I won't lie:

Rewrites are Not. Fun. At. All.

At least, not usually. There are some scenes that I have a blast reworking. For instance, when I lost 115 pages and 4 chapters worth of work during the Great Laptop Crash, although it was largely miserable, some parts not only improved drastically by being rewritten from the bottom up, but actually--in my opinion, anyway--turned out a lot more impactful or (as in the case of the opening to Chapter 3, which you will understand once you get there) much funnier. Despite the overall darker themes of this book, I still try to incorporate my customary sarcasm and awkward humor and the occasional pithy comment...or the occasional lame dad-joke worthy pun, usually uttered by Gren and met with eye rolls by all.

In addition to rewrites, as you may have guessed from the title of this post as well as the attached picture, I have acquired myself a new guitar. She is beautiful and plays like a dream and her name is Hela and I love her. I decided to get back into music and poetry about two months ago, and I'm so glad I did. One might think that adding another creative focus would reduce the amount of time and energy I have to make Hidden happen by this December, but honestly, the opposite is true. Having a musical outlet again--beyond my private dance and singalong parties in the kitchen while cooking dinner or doing the dishes, or while weeding the garden or changing the chickens' water, that is--has helped me channel some of that anxious energy elsewhere so that I am in a better headspace for my prose. Considering I've been into mostly metalcore and power metal lately, that probably makes sense.

I have another creative side-project to announce as well, and I promise this one won't take away from my novel writing either! As much as I would love to be as successful as GRRM, I'd also like to think I'm not going to let myself be distracted from *actually* putting out that next story...but we'll let that shade just lie there where it landed. **Glares in: where's my Winds of Winter!?!?** Anyway, I'm going to keep the particulars of this side-project vague for now since the project is just getting off the ground, but let's just say there's some collaborative screenwriting in my future. As we get further along--perhaps once shooting begins--maybe I'll release some tidbits here and there, but we shall see.

That's all for now! I have some more scenes to edit and some more scale drills to run. Gotta rebuild that grip strength and improve that speed, after all.

Slavic Tarot Decks Are Back!

By popular demand, I restocked my

,A full deck of 78 cards, including both the Major and Minor Arcana, based on Slavic mythology, folklore, and fairy tales and featuring original artwork. The deck comes boxed, complete with a booklet explaining the story behind each card as well as its divinatory meanings. Each card is labeled in both English and Russian, and the booklet is written in both languages as well. From Ivan the Fool to the Tsar of Cups, the Slavic Tarot deck is the first of its kind and features original artwork on every single card.

,The Major Arcana includes folkloric heroes like Ilya Muromets; deities from the early Slavic pantheon such as Perun, Mokosh, and Svarog; fairy tale heroines like Vasilisa the Beautiful; and even the darker figures like Baba-Yaga and Koschei the Deathless. The Minor Arcana includes the four familiar suits, but with a unique twist: in addition to the usual elemental associations, each suit is also linked with a season of the year as well as a specific subgenre of Slavic folklore, including ,skazki, and ,byliny,.

,My take on the tarot is a little different. Although I kept the same basic four suits of the Minor Arcana, I--and I am in the minority on this, but I assure you I am not alone--prefer to associate Wands with the element of Air and Swords with the element of Fire (usually the associations are the reverse, but again: it varies). So let me take this opportunity to explain why. For me, Swords represent the heat of battle, the passion and energy and danger of quick decisions made during chaos. How could that be anything *but* fiery? Wands (or Staves, etc), in contrast, are smooth and elegant, reaching upward, and instead of the heavy arc of a sword, it's a delicate swish through the air. I am not sure of the reasoning behind having that association in the other direction; the reasons I've read about make no sense to me. While a stave can certainly be used as a weapon, its other use as a walking stick or a wizard's/witch's wand brings to mind associations of wisdom, contemplation, and the ethereal magic workings that to me are all aspects of the Air element. Swords, on the other hand, have no other purpose but war and violence. While Fire, as an element, is not solely linked to such matters, they are certainly a key aspect.

,As for my choice in seasons and folkloric subgenres, I wanted the Minor Arcana to tell a story and represent a journey through the wheel of the year, not just the cycle of a single life. Thus, cycling from Spring to Winter--and this seasonal association is, to my knowledge, unique to the deck I created--the four suits of the Minor Arcana circle around the Wheel of the Year:

,,Wands,: Air, Spring, ,Skazka

,,Coins,: Earth, Summer, ,Skaz

,,Swords,: Fire, Autumn, ,Bylina

,,Cups,: Water, Winter, ,Volshebnaia Skazka

,A labor of love, I was first inspired to make this deck because I was looking for any kind of tarot deck based on Slavic mythology and folklore, yet could find nothing. I scoured the internet, every store I knew that sold tarot decks, and every craft fair and gathering I came across. Yet there was nothing. Not one to let something as trivial as "it doesn't exist" defeat me, I set out to make one. Six researched-filled years and numerous hand-cramps later, the deck is finally printed and ready to go! And now, less than a year since that original printing, we're already on our second run!

Out of the Shadows

I admit I've been pretty absent from social media lately--this fantabulous blog included. Since sending Hidden off to my beta readers for an initial round of feedback, I have not done terribly much by way of *technically* writing, although I have already started working on more detailed outlines of future stories and have even sketched the dialogue for my next novella, Frosted. I had planned for this one to be called Frozen (have I mentioned my tendency to plan books and books in advance? Yeah...all these stories have been in the works for over a decade now) but then that whole movie franchise happened so I had to change the title. Legally, I suppose, I could have gotten away with still calling my novella Frozen--you can't copyright a title, after all--but I'm pretty sure I've got nothing on Disney's army of lawyers. Besides, the title Frosted has grown on me. As one of my wonderful beta readers pointed out, it evokes the image of frost on metal. Which, considering the events of that forthcoming novella--probably some time in 2021; Hidden remains my focus for this year--that image is rather apt. Anywho, the cover art for the novella is already complete, because again, I play the long game here. I would not put it past me to finish the cover art for the rest of the series this summer...but I'll try to refrain from overdoing it. No promises.

As for everything else I've been up to while (im)patiently waiting for my beta readers to send me feedback (Jess, the little tidbits we have discussed are keeping me sane right now), there has been a heckuva lot of gardening. Despite the ants and aphids wrecking havoc on some of my leafier greens, our apocalypse garden seems to be doing pretty well. Having never tended more than a small herb garden (and poorly tended, I might add...I have a terrible track record of *not* remembering to bring my cold intolerant potted plants inside before the first frost kills them) and then last year's cucumbers (and let's be real, the cucumbers did all the work there), this much larger plot with lots of veggies and herbs and even some fruits is turning out to be way more work than anticipated. Weeds grow SO fast. Fortunately, so do my squashes and, apparently, sunflowers. Fortunately this week it has rained just about every day, so I haven't had to water, at least. Just weeding. And admiring the tiny little flowers. ANd wondering how the heck I'm supposed to tell when the peas are ready to pick? And discovering that, now that I've weeded everything, we actually have a blueberry bush and the white sage sprang to life. Those two have fruited and flowered respectively for the first time since we moved to our little farm in the woods, so that's exciting.

But as for writing? Mostly just planning, and then arting. I've sketched some scenes from the first chapter of Hidden, as well as a few scenes from the following novella. Ordered another printing of my Slavic Tarot cards, so hopefully I'll be able to re-list those on my Etsy shop soon. Other than that...I've been reading. And in general, hiding from the world, because the world sucks right now, and apart from continued donations to organizations that know how better to fix things than I do--or at least have a plan to that effect--I am feeling likely as angry and helpless as everyone else. So here's to solidarity...stay safe, my friends. Stay sane. Play in the dirt a little--it helps me, at least. If you don't have a garden in which to wallow, find somewhere else you can ground yourself and reconnect to who you are, and who you want to be.

The Dumpster Fire

There's a lot going on in the world--there's a lot going on in the country of my birth in particular--and because of my specific profession (outside of writing and art, that is), I am legally constrained from commenting on most of it the way that I would like to, and probably, the way that I should. What I can say is this:

Racism is garbage.

The fact that, in this day and age, in this country supposedly founded upon the ideals of equality and liberty and representation, there are people (and some of those people occupy positions of power) who think one race, color, religion, etc of human beings is better than another, is terrifying. Worse still, many of those people--heretofore known as "racists"--actively work to perpetuate those beliefs by systematically disenfranchising those they consider lesser. That, my friends, is garbage. Racists are garbage, and they live among us. They vote. They incite violence. They run for office. All too often, they win.

Yet, perhaps it should not be so surprising. There is hypocrisy in our past, and it goes back to the very beginning. The USA as we know it would not exist without the genocide of America's indigenous populations. Those losses can never be recovered, and those actions can never be atoned. ,The land of the free and the home of the brave was founded on oppression, racism, and slavery. The least we can do now is to remember, to mourn, and to stay vigilant so that the mistakes of our collective past are not repeated in our future. We owe our ancestors, of blood and spirit, better. We owe our children better.

We owe Earth better.

,The system is in dire need of repair, but I would like to think it is not broken beyond saving. Of course, if I did think the system should be disassembled and rebuilt from the bottom up, I certainly couldn't say it. I wish I had the answers, but at the end of the day I'm just another citizen, and I am not nearly as informed as I should be. I am working to change that, but I have a long way to go. We the privileged--in whatever form and to whatever capacity that privilege exists--have a duty to use our voices to fix the system. At the same time, we cannot let our voices drown out the voices of those who actually ,need, the system to change. The system works in my favor already--it should work in favor of ,everyone,.

I try to make my books inclusive. I often fail. I am working on making my art more inclusive. I often fail even worse. I am not perfect, and neither is my work. They say "write what you know," but if I did that, I would only ever write rather vanilla prose about upper-middle class white people in suburbia. Who wants to read that? I certainly don't. But though I have characters from diverse walks of life and diverse backgrounds--heck, most of my characters were born in different time periods, let alone locations--there are countless cultures in this big, bright, beautiful reality of ours that I have not yet captured in my prose, and to which I could never hope to do justice. But inclusivity is important, and I will continue to strive toward it. I will continue to do my best to portray my characters respectfully and authentically, and if I fail...call me on it! PLEASE let me know so that I can keep become better as an artist, as an author, as a human being.

I acknowledge that it is no one else's job to educate me on these matters except my own, but we all have blindspots. We all need to learn and grow...just some of us a little (or a lot) more than others.

In closing, racism is garbage.

Multilingual Website Update

It took forever to do, but the *whole* website is now available in several different languages for your viewing ease! The current list includes: Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. The next up in my list to translate is German, so in a few days that will be an option as well. That said, I am by no means fluent in all of those (Google translate was my friend), so if you *do* happen to be proficient in one of those, please please PLEASE let me know about any mistakes you find So I can fix them!

Story Excerpt Time!

It's been a while since I've posted a longer excerpt, so here is a little segment. It's impossible to avoid all spoilers, but I try quite carefully to ensure no *major* spoilers are given away. This segment comes from fairly early on in the novel, and features the return of a certain sarcastic tree spirit who first appeared in Destined. If you've already read my novella Bound and the short story "Faerie Stones," the references to Sam, Sarah, and Wendy will not be confusing. If you haven't read either, I highly suggest you do so--at least before Hidden comes out this December. They are not required reading by any means (you will still be able to follow the plot of Hidden if you have only read Destined), but they will certainly help introduce these fun three characters and give you a better sense of their relationship with Mari and Gren. Anywho, I hope you enjoy this little snippet, in which our hapless heroes are chilling in a tavern in northern Nomansland awaiting instructions for their next journey. Sarah, eyeing Mari’s half-drunk wine, commented, “You have got to be the slowest drinker I have ev—what in the seven hells is a leshii doing in the Alpines?” The whole table followed Sarah’s astonished gaze. The leshii in question stood out from the crowd even more than the humans had. Despite the winter weather, the petite woman wore nothing more than a sleeveless ivory tunic that fell in soft folds to just above her knees, secured by twisting vines entwined about her waist. Flaming red hair tangled about her shoulders, shedding bits of leaf whenever she tossed her head and revealing pointed ears just a hair smaller than that of the evrae who surrounded her. The tankard of sparkling cider she held dwarfed her hand, and her skin, white as birch bark, glowed a pale green in the scattered illumination from the chandeliers, yet she cast no shadow. When she turned and made eye contact with Mari, a bright smile of recognition flashed across her fine-boned face. Brae’s bare feet skimmed across the floor as she approached them. “Mari, Gren! What a lovely surprise!” she saluted, depositing her cider on the table and hauling over a chair between Gren and Ruv. “What brings you to the frosty north this wretched time of year?” Perceiving no reason to hide the true reason for their visit from someone who had helped them so much during their previous one, Mari answered, “A mission from the Spinner. We’re meeting one of Laria’s contacts here with the details at some point in the near future. You?” “Oh, nothing nearly so exciting,” Brae said between glugs of cider. “I’m just on my way back from visiting my sister. She moved a little further north, testing her limits. She can stay away from her roots for a full year now.” Ruv sniffed in the direction of Brae’s tankard. “Did you add quartz to that?” he asked. Brae looked coyly out of the side of her eyes as she responded, “But of course! It enhances the flavors. One shot is good, two is better.” “Oh, I think I’m going to like you,” Ruv disclosed. Shortly thereafter the tavern activity noticeably picked up with many of the patrons milling about the room or acquiring additional food and drinks. “I do believe it’s time for another round,” Sarah declared, scrutinizing the crowd. “Anyone want anything? Actually, no. You’re all getting quartz, and you’re all going to like it.” “I don’t intend to get completely goosed, you know,” Wendy said. She removed her glasses to polish them on the hem of her shirt. “Last time that happened I woke up with a tattoo I don’t remember getting.” “I’ll help you carry,” Sam offered with a wink as he rose and joined his sister. “Are we just going to ignore the fact that Wendy has a tattoo?” Gren insisted. Wendy exchanged a glance with Mari, the only other person in the present group to have seen her tattoo, and grinned sheepishly. Ruv tapped his fingers on the table and considered Wendy. “What’s it of?” he eventually asked, his normally jovial expression neutral. Wendy stared at her empty bowl. “Just a few feathers falling from my left shoulder and down my bicep. I liked it the next morning, so I kept it.” Gren and Ruv both dipped their heads appreciatively, but Sarah just rolled her eyes and sashayed into the crowd, her brother Sam following close behind her. While normally lithe and graceful, Sarah had suddenly developed a case of the clumsies, bumping into the tavern’s clientele right and left. She also appeared to have developed an abundance of cordiality that was likewise out of character. Her victims, distracted by Sarah’s gushing apologies, failed to notice Sam’s quick fingers. However, their activity did not go unnoticed by Brae. “That disreputable pair of sanguines over there,” she said with a nod in the twins’ direction, “friends of yours?” “Sorta. It’s complicated,” Mari equivocated. “I suppose now’s a good time to fill you in.” Mari and Gren then recounted the tale of the rest of their journey to the Spinner’s sanctuary—how they met Ruv and his wolf pack and then parted with Laria and Hal—as well as how they rescued the twins from Kutkah’s cave, then came to meet Wendy in Scotland. Brae listened attentively to Mari and Gren’s abbreviated account of the past few years’ events, then summarized her own travels since she had last seen them in Vesna’s cottage. Halfway through Brae’s tale, Sarah and Sam had returned to the table, arms laden with tiny crystal glasses and a large decanter of the pungent liquid every bit as colorless and iridescent as its namesake. When they resumed their seats, no one was surprised to hear their pockets jingle. Brae raised an eyebrow and tossed Sarah a knowing smile, but made no comment as she continued her story. Once she had finally finished, she asked, “So, where is this Spinner’s mission of yours taking you? If it’s somewhere I haven’t been before, I’d like to tag along.” “Ya sure?” Mari said, searching Brae’s emerald eyes. “We don’t know where we’re going yet, or even what exactly it is we’re supposed to do. We could be gone a while, and I know you can’t stay away from your roots for too long.” Brae took a sizable swallow from her quartz-spiked cider. “I could do for a bit of spontaneity,” she said. “Besides, you humans are, if nothing else, never boring.” She fluttered her lashes at Ruv, then turned back to Mari. “Give me a few days to get in touch with my stationary half—I haven’t been back to the Birch Forest in half a year as it is—and then, if you’re still around when I return, I’ll join your little adventure.” Mari and Gren exchanged pensive looks. “It could help to have an Aorean native with us,” Gren admitted. “There’s still a lot we don’t know about this world.” Sarah, Sam, and Wendy all nodded their accord. Mari extended a hand toward Brae and said, “Deal.” Brae took the offered hand, smiled, and downed the remainder of her cider. As she made to leave, Gren inquired, “Do you want me to sing you down to the Birch Forest and back?” Brae returned the suggestion with an ambiguous smile. “No need. I can get there and back by my own means in about five days, and as I’m sure remember, I’m not on the best of terms with my own kind…I wouldn’t want to announce my presence with a big splash of magic like circle travel would trigger.” Witnessing the human’s stunned expressions in response to her claim—for who could possibly travel hundreds of miles both ways by foot in only a few days?—she rolled her eyes and quoted, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio.” She glided toward the tavern door and slipped into the night.

First Draft is Complete!

After years of planning (and stalling after the first chapter), months of furious writing and rewriting, I have officially written the entire first draft of Hidden, the second full-length novel in the Circle series. Having reached this point is a huge accomplishment for me because a) it took so long, b) this novel is really fun but at the same time darker than the first and b) all of these stories have been cluttering up my head for a decade and a half now and I *need* to get them out. Nevertheless, much editing remains in my future after I take a few weeks hiatus. I always take a break in between the draft and editing phase, and then again between subsequent edits. Whenever I try to edit right away, I have found that I am still too close to the story. I see not what I actually said, but what I meant to say. Thus, it is harder to find holes and inconsistencies and typos. Taking a break helps me regain a bit of distance and objectivity. I plan to do one full round of edits and rewrites before I send the second draft out for beta reading (my fearless beta readers, you know who you are, and please remember that true friendship requires honesty, and I fully expect you to rip this story inside out--that's the only way it'll get better! Dishonest feedback does no one any good). If I haven't already asked you about being a beta reader, let me know if you'd like to be on the list. The one caveat of getting to read my manuscript before publication: You have to PROMISE me you'll actually provide feedback! Last time I had nearly twenty people request to be my beta readers, and I only received comments back from three of them despite numerous efforts on my part to remind them to please tell me what they thought, what they liked, what could be better. Thus, I'm going to be a lot more judicious in who can be a beta reader this time. Once my beta readers have had a chance to tear it apart, I'll then begin the lengthy process of sewing the narrative back together. I actually enjoy this phase of the writing process, because throughout the rewrites you have this awareness that with each word, each sentence, each paragraph you refashion, the story is getting better. Reworking clunky sections. Filling in plot holes (but not too many! Gotta leave some things to the imagination). Cutting extraneous dialogue and unnecessary exposition. Each rewrite brings the novel that much closer to perfection, not that any work is truly perfect, but we can all hope to approach it. I love that feeling, I really do. And finally, several months in the vague future when I have finished all of the rewrites and beta reading and second round of rewrites, will come the final round of copy-edits to catch any typos. This is my least favorite part. The boring part. The grueling work part. However, it is arguably the most important part after coming up with the story itself...if a novel is filled with errors, no one will read past the first chapter, and sometimes not even the first page. Catching these little buggers is a nightmare, but it is a necessary evil. So what can you expect as far as updates go during my writing hiatus? Probably a lot of art, and possibly some plans for the third book: Vanished. I have a rough outline for that already, because I am a Virgo and accordingly have the entire series already outlined, but that is as far as I have gone with it. Thus, I hope you are looking forward to a drawing and painting and bejeweling spree in the mean time.

Chapter 11: Complete!

As of yesterday, I finished writing chapter 11, which means there is only one chapter and an epilogue standing in between me and a completed first draft. I o...