Celia Roman's Blog, page 8
January 17, 2021
Open Discussion of Devil’s Branch
We've been talking about doing a book club discussion of Devil's Branch (Sunshine Walkingstick, Book 5) over in the Facebook group.
Originally, we planned on doing a Zoom meeting. However, due to the current state of things, I decided to do an open blog post discussion instead with an eye on a "live" meeting at a later date.
Here are the rules:
Spoilers are welcome, so if you haven't read every book in the Sunshine Walkingstick Series, you may want to skip this post until you have.Every book is open for discussion with one exception (see Rule #3), so feel free to bring up evolving points or stuff from earlier books.That said, discussions of Hunter (other than brief, non-spoilery mentions) are not welcome. It just came out three days ago. Let's give everyone a chance to read it before bringing it up in a spoilery way.Be polite. Be respectful. We're all readers here and we all have different takes on the books we read.No politics and no religion unless it's part of the stories themselves.GiveawayI'm doing a giveaway with this one, too. Everyone who participates will be thrown into the pot for a chance to win a signed paperback copy of Devil's Branch or, if you live outside the US, the equivalent in an Amazon gift certificate. This will be a random drawing. You must be 18 or over and otherwise not legally prohibited from participating in order to be entered into the drawing..
Everyone gets one entry regardless of the number of comments they make, but let's be fair here. Post to discuss, not to enter, ok? And especially post on each other's comments. We're looking for a discussion. Be creative with what you ask. I've gotten some great questions from readers over the years. I'd love to see some of those here.
In order to determine the winner and prize, in your first comment please begin by stating your general location. For example, "I'm Dawn from North Carolina." Or if you're not comfortable getting that granular in public, state your country of residence. This is for giveaway purposes only, but it's pretty important, so don't forget.
The discussion can continue ad nauseum, ad infinitum, but for the purposes of the giveaway, I'm cutting off entries at 11:59 p.m. EST on 22 January 2021.
Over to YouOk, it's up to you now. If you have questions or comments on Devil's Branch and/or the series as a whole, post them below. Have fun!
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January 15, 2021
Get Hunter now!
I'm so excited to tell you that Hunter, Sunshine Walkingstick's origin story and the first Magic, Mayhem & Monsters: Origins story, is finally live!
Sunny and I have been discussing this particular story for a while, but it wasn't until I ran the idea by the Facebook group that she really started filling in the details. The result is an emotional, action-packed story that will hopefully help you understand Sunny's back story a little better.
Ok, no more talk. Go grab a copy. It's available in all the major retail stores.
Get the eBook at:Amazon | Apple | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | Kobo | Other Retailers
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January 7, 2021
Yes, Readers Influence These Stories
My newest series kicks off in nine days with the release of Hunter, the story of how Sunshine Walkingstick became a monster hunter slash paranormal investigator.
Sunny and I have been discussing this story for a while, but it wasn't until I ran it by readers of the Facebook group that I decided to buckle down and write it.
It may surprise some people that readers can have such a big influence on what writers, well, write.
In my mind, though, if writers aren't listening to their readers, they're making a huge mistake.
For one, readers signal when they want more of a certain world. Now, there are plenty of reasons for writers not to continue a series or branch out into different series set in the same story universe. I've ended series for a couple of reasons, one because it wasn't selling and another because writing in that story world drained me to the point of not being able to write. I've got two more series that will come to an end in the next couple of years, both because they've reached their planned ends once the final books are published.
But the other reason writers should listen to readers is because we're too close to the stories; we can't always see the glitches. Readers come at stories from another direction, and so they notice things that writers may not.
In the Sunshine Walkingstick Series, take Sunny's relationship with Riley, for instance. I was all set to continue the (really) slow build of their romance for a couple more books. Then I happened to check the reviews of Book 3, Cemetery Hill (I think it was), and readers were getting tired of Sunny dragging her feet. So I switched things around so that the relationship moved at a slightly faster pace. Readers really enjoyed that, too, judging by the feedback I've gotten.
Another example is Sunny's relationship with Belinda. It's always going to be a touch antagonistic just because of their background, but readers have noticed the (deliberate) contrast between the two and they don't always like it.
Now, I'm not going to soften a story for anyone; that's just not going to happen.
But in that case, I thought it would be advantageous to Sunny's growth as a character to have her and Belinda interact in a more positive manner. They have to grow out of their high school days at some point, right? So some of that foundation was set in Book 5, Devil's Branch.
And finally, there's the continuation of the series itself. I was all set to give up after Cemetery Hill's release because the books just weren't selling as well as I'd hoped they would. It takes a really long time for each one to earn out its costs, far longer than it should by indie standards. Plus, Sunny can be a difficult character to work with, though she's always interesting.
However, readers wanted more stories, and it was because of their encouragement that I continued the series with Witch Hollow (Book 4) and Devil's Branch. Right now, Sunny and I are planning for the series to end at nine books, but I am only committing to writing the next one (an as-yet-untitled sixth installment) because of what's going on with my main pen name.
That said, when readers really liked the idea of Sunny's origin story, it was easy enough to expand on that idea and include other characters' origin stories, too, while I'm waiting for Book 6's plot to evolve enough for a full novel. Readers exhibited enough interest to make writing the Magic, Mayhem & Monsters: Origins Series worthwhile. And when readers like an idea, that can be the incentive writers need to jump on a story and make it happen.
Not always, no. Writers usually have valid reasons for not committing to the writing of a story readers really want.
But sometimes, it's good to listen. I'm certainly open to that as long as readers understand that I have the final say in what I do with my writing time.
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January 5, 2021
Preorder Hunter, Sunshine Walkingstick’s Origin Story
The first Magic, Mayhem & Monsters: Origins story is up for preorder.
Hunter, the first one, is Sunshine Walkingstick's origin story. Or rather, it's the tale of how she became a monster hunter.
No spoilers, but this is a dark one, and also fills in some details that I think will help readers understand the Sunshine Walkingstick Series (and the titular character) better.
Four other origin stories are planned for this series: Missy, Mary Alice/Old Mother, Libby, and Nora.
Hunter will be available 15 January 2021 at a wide variety of retailers.
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November 27, 2020
Devil’s Branch is here!
Devil's Branch, the fifth book in the Sunshine Walkingstick Series, is now available!
Sunny gets up to her usual hijinks, this time with Greek deities and monsters thrown into the mix. Nora Vargas, from Witch Hollow, also has a huge role to play, plus we hear more about Teus and Miss Jenny as well as the rest of the gang.
And, of course, Riley has his hands full trying to keep Sunny from going off half-cocked. She's getting better, but that urge to leap head first into a fight may never fully leave her.
This is a fun read and full of surprises, so go pick up a copy and have fun.
Happy hunting!
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November 6, 2020
Preorder Devil’s Branch, Plus News on Its Release
Devil's Branch, the fifth novel in the Sunshine Walkingstick Series, is now available for preorder. The official release date is 27 November 2020, which is Black Friday here in the US. I thought readers might need a good story after fighting through crowds (online or off) during early Christmas shopping.
This was an interesting story to write because of the subject matter, namely Greek mythology. A number of Greek gods, personalities, and monsters make appearances, including a cyclops named Bob. If you've read Sleeping Gods, then you have a head start on other readers as Eros and the entity he's harboring in Sleeping Gods both make appearances in Devil's Branch.
The first scene is up on the book's page, so go take a gander. There's a preorder link there, too, if you need it.
Also, because of reader interest in certain aspects of the publishing business, I wrote a post on my personal blog about the post-first draft editing and publication process. It contains stats on the Sunshine Walkingstick Series, which may or may not be of interest.
Long story short, Devil's Branch marks the exact midpoint in the series as far as the number of planned books goes. The seeds of books 6, 7, and 8 were planted within its boundaries. I'll be interested to know if readers pick up on those, as some are quite subtle.
Naturally, I'm not going to release details of future books until readers have had a chance to read this one.
Go on, then. Preorder Devil's Branch. It'll be here before you know it.
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March 29, 2020
Two Cherokee Myths Used in the Sunshine Walkingstick Series
I have always been fascinated by mythology and folk tales of all kinds. When I was a teenager, I devoured every book on mythology that I could get my hands on, mostly in the Greco-Roman traditions as those were what my local libraries stocked.
Later, after wandering through other majors, I finally settled on archaeology and expanded my mythological readings into other cultures like those of the tribal peoples of the United States. I grew up in Cherokee country, so this was a natural direction for my interests.
In my readings, I discovered History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, one volume containing two books based on the tales and history of the Cherokee as collected and compiled by James Mooney. Mooney's work eventually became the basis of later histories on the tribal peoples he studied, and was so important to the tribes themselves, that they often referred back to his work as a way to cement their own historical memories.
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February 20, 2020
Evolving Plots: Sunny and Riley’s Relationship
Over on my personal blog, I just posted a winding overview of a plot thread related to the growing romantic relationship between Sunshine Walkingstick and her boyfriend, Riley Treadwell. As originally conceived, two related scenes in Witch Hollow (Book 4) were supposed to happen in a slightly different way. Go here to discover how those plot threads came about, how they were originally supposed to be written, and why I changed them.
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January 10, 2020
Painter Tales
By popular demand (of four people in the Facebook group), here are some tales of panthers, also called mountain lions and cougars.
For me, the tales have a distinct beginning, and that beginning is with Foxfire, specifically the issue of Foxfire Magazine that gathered tales of haunts and haints and other folktales of the southern Appalachians.
I'm not going to go into the creation of Foxfire or the program's influence on my and other families in this area; there's plenty of history out there for those who are interested. Suffice it to say that it was a continual part of my life on many levels during my formative years.
This particular issue of the magazine (the haints and haunts and such) is now out of print. I don't even remember the issue number or when it was published, only that it was blue and contained some interesting local legends. For example, the legend of the man-sized catfish hanging out in Lake Burton at the bottom of the dam was collected in that issue.
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December 27, 2019
Monster Bright
I've been gearing up for 2020's workload. Part of that is creating new covers for the Sunshine Walkingstick short stories. If you've been poking around the website, you've already seen the cover for Death Omen. The covers for the short stories were, let's face it, a bit scattered visually, so new covers were definitely needed.
Plus, with a new novel coming out next year (Book 5!), it was time to take a step back and reevaluate the covers for the entire series. I'm not worried about the novels for now, so don't worry overly much that the beloved original covers will be changing at some point.
While I was rearranging things, I decided to take the Sunny short story published in Dreaming of a Dark Christmas ("On the 7th Day of Christmas") and publish it on its own. That way, fans of the series have the option of getting that one story instead of having to buy three others just to get the one.
To mark the transition from collection to stand alone, I gave "On the 7th Day of Christmas" a brand new name, Monster Bright. No other changes were made to the story, so if you've already picked up Dreaming of a Dark Christmas and the Sunny short there, you're getting the exact same story in Monster Bright.
As with all the short stories, Monster Bright is available in a variety of online retailers for just $.99.
And if you're wondering where this short story falls in the grand scheme of things, I recommend reading it between Cemetery Hill (Book 3) and Witch Hollow (Book 4).
Happy New Year!
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