R.M. Archer's Blog, page 23

Preptober Prompts Day 4-5 – 2020

Today we get to dive into my personal favorite topic: Worldbuilding. Today’s prompt is

How has your character’s home changed within their lifetime?

This is an especially interesting question for The Half-Elves, because Elk hasn’t been home for most of his lifetime. If we’re talking The Hylands as a whole, an entire village has been mostly destroyed since Elk (or even Saria, his youngest sibling) was born. It was destroyed only a year before the Elfbournes returned to The Hylands, and though it’s been cleared of all the raiders who initially made a mess of it, it remains largely a ruin.

Around the castle, specifically… There’s a head astronomer position that didn’t exist until a few years before the Elfbournes returned, a couple of traveling merchants have come to be frequent visitors, the gardens have expanded, a new Dewin has been appointed and taken up residence in the castle, another is in training, one or two children have been born, and one of the royal dogs has grown quite old. The castle itself hasn’t really changed much, aside from the expansion of the gardens; only its inhabitants.

Has your MC’s home changed over the course of their lifetime? Have they noticed, or has it been so gradual they’d only see it if they looked back on it? What do they think of the changes?

Preptober Prompts Day 3 – 2020

Today’s prompt is a flash fiction prompt from R.A. Oke.

What would push your protagonist to become an antagonist? Write that scenario.

This would be too easy to answer for Leafman, so I’m going to go with Elk for this one.

“With King Julen back again, we’ve decided we’re sending Leafman and Saria back to Earth.”

Elk blinked at his father in disbelief. They’d just come back, and already Lorcan was shipping them off again? Maybe Leafman was right and they simply didn’t want them around. Elk’s chair screeched across the floor as he leapt to his feet.

“No. They’re staying put. You already sent them away once.”

Lorcan’s expression hardened. “The decision has been made. They will be safer on Earth.”

“And what about Sarabrina? Twilight? Me? I’m starting to think you just don’t want to deal with children.”

Lorcan rose so fast Elk struggled not to step backward. “You know nothing.”

“You’re right. I do. Because I haven’t seen you in ten years!”

Valda stood, hands folded in front of her, and frowned at both Elk and Lorcan. “Gentlemen. You’re behaving like children.”

Elk and Lorcan stood glaring at each other, locked in a battle of wills, before Elk shook his head. Lorcan wasn’t worth the effort. Elk turned on his heel and walked out, boots clicking on the stone floor. These awful boots. He couldn’t believe he’d ever thought they were cool. Had ever thought maybe he belonged here. Behind that kind, caring facade, Lorcan was just as self-absorbed as King Julen was said to be.

Elk climbed the stairs to his room and slammed the door shut behind him. The boots were the first thing to come off, then he traded his Hylian garb for the cuffed jeans, t-shirt, and plaid button-down he’d arrived in. As he tied on his green Converse, he took a deep breath. This was who he was. Not that stuffy prince he’d been playing make-believe as.

Although…

What if he could have the best of both worlds? Keep the place he’d grown up, but also defend his siblings without Lorcan’s ignorant interference?

What if he wasn’t a prince?

What if he was a king?

A smile spread across Elk’s lips. Yes. He could send Lorcan to Earth instead of his siblings. Make him understand what they’d gone through. He certainly wouldn’t miss another lost decade with his children; he’d already chosen that once.

Elk skipped down to Leafman’s door and knocked.

So, the golden boy can go dark. How about your MC? What would push them over the edge?

Preptober Prompts Day 2 – 2020

Another day, another prompt. Today, Maple‘s dare is to

change up your outlining process for a day!

I usually make a pretty straightforward outline—describing what each scene in each chapter needs to contain—but this post on Fearless Type about using mind maps to plot came into my inbox last night, and it looks like the perfect method for me to try out today. The Half-Elves is kind of a disorganized mess at the moment with a lot of pieces I’m not sure how to fit together, so hopefully mind mapping will help me organize all those pieces and see them more clearly (and not miss any of the little things I’ve started to set up for). The post mentions a handful of mind map format options, but I personally like using a digital program like FreeMind or Scapple, since it gives me infinite space and somewhat more order than I would have with my own handwriting, lol.

How about you? What does your plotting process usually look like, and what method would you like to try today?

Preptober Prompts Day 1 – 2020

Happy October! Brisk weather, changing leaves, pumpkin and apple everything, extra excuse to wear flannel (and boots!)… And, of course, Preptober Prompts! If you’re unfamiliar with how this works, check out this year’s announcement post.

Because of how this month is laid out, I decided to do “Reader’s Choice” prompts for these first three days of October instead of at the end, and I asked for prompts from members of one of my writing groups. I didn’t get a whole lot of submissions, so these first two happen to be from this year’s Flash Fiction co-host, Maple! She’s an awesome blogger and author, and she has something up her own sleeve for Preptober that I’m super curious about, so go give her a follow! (Plus, you don’t want to miss her flash fiction prompts later this month. ;) )

But without further ado… this year’s first prompt!

What change does your main character need to make to become a healthier them?

I’m working on The Half-Elves this year, and I think I’m going to answer this for both Elk and Leafman. (I could answer for Sarabrina, too, if I went off of which characters are primary enough to have POV chapters, but let’s keep it a little simpler.)

Elk: I have this one character type that I have a tendency to idealize (I should work on that), and Elk strays kind of close to that type… But even so, I do know he could be more gracious toward his siblings (and Leafman, in particular). He tries, and he usually does a good job of being a big brother, but he can be pretty impatient at times and still struggles to fully understand what’s going on in his siblings’ brains so he can love them better. (*cough*totallynotinspiredbymyself*cough*) As far as the actual “change he needs to make,” it would probably be taking a moment when he feels himself getting frustrated with a sibling to think through their perspective and try to understand where they’re coming from.

Leafman: *sighs* Leafman is… a dear. But he’s a very emotional, angsty dear and he reminds me a lot of myself when I was 13-14. Which means… very angsty and very oblivious to reality, lol. I simultaneously want to give the poor kid a hug and to shake some sense into him. XD So the main thing he needs is to get out of his own head and start focusing more on other people, because right now he’s sabotaging himself and doesn’t even know it. (Oof, the flashbacks.)

After discussing my characters, I’m curious: Do the main characters of your WIP have significant portions of you in them? And, of course, I’d love to hear your response to the prompt! ^-^

September 2020 Wrap-Up

Writing

I have two more chapters to go with this round of Calligraphy Guild edits, which I’m hoping to get done today so I can switch my whole focus to The Half-Elves in October and November. For some reason, while working more emotion and description into others’ books is a strong suit of mine, it’s an area in which I’m quite weak when it comes to my own work, which has been frustrating through this part of the process. :P But I’m hoping to strengthen that skill as I go through further rounds of editing, and hopefully that will not only benefit this project, but also those that come along down the line. :)

A lot of my focus this month, though, has been on non-fiction. I wrote out my entire Christian fiction series and planned something cool to close that out, and I’ve also been working on getting things together for a series I’ll be doing early next year. Plus, preparing for Preptober Prompts! I’ve had a lot of fun with all of these projects, and I’m super excited to see them come to completion. :)

Reading

Women of Kern: Book Two by Maris McKay
None of the Above by Joseph Farah
The Youth Builder by Jim Burns
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

All of this months reads were 4-5 stars, so I’d say this month’s reading went pretty well.

Women of Kern was more evidently adult fiction than its predecessor, unfortunately, but the worldbuilding and characters were as rich and engaging as in Book One, so with some skimming I was still able to enjoy it.

None of the Above is a political book written around the time of the 2008 election that discusses why neither candidate is worth voting for and why voting third party is worthwhile. While many of the specifics are obviously outdated, the principles still stand and I’d definitely recommend this book.

Children of Blood and Bone wasn’t really my thing, between a magic system I just didn’t click with and a romance thread that irked me, but the craft was fantastic and it was definitely a “me, not you” situation.

It’s so sad finishing The Lord of the Rings. I love this conclusion to the trilogy (who knew the Scouring of the Shire could be so relevant?) and I’m hoping not to leave so much time between rereads moving forward. There’s so much to love about RotK, but I’ll spare the fangirl ramble. XD

Other

I got my driver’s license! :D I’m super, super excited and I’ve already been out more in the past week than I’d probably been for the whole month prior. XD So this has been a huge blessing and my mental health has been quite thankful. XD

I also started my self-led classes, although I didn’t gain any real consistency until this past week or so. I’m hoping that consistency carries through and I’m able to get more done in the coming months. :)

Plans for next month

Preptober Prompts! That’s the big thing next month. Or… one big thing. But the other one I can’t talk about yet. Anywho, Preptober Prompts is going to be awesome, and I have a good feeling about its consistency this year. (I know I haven’t been the best at keeping up in years prior… it’s something I’m working on ;P) So I’m super excited!

I’ll also be posting the second half of my Christian fiction series, which I’m even more excited about. I’m super passionate about this topic, and I love hearing y’all’s thoughts, and I pray that God works through these posts to encourage other Christian authors and prompt some thought. :)

And I plan on driving more. ;)

I don’t have any solid TBR for October, since I’ve been mood reading a lot more lately, but I’ve started A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (which is awesome so far) and I might give in to the spooky aesthetic (thanks, Jill) and read The Quick by Lauren Owen this month. Beyond that (and books on history), I guess we’ll find out when we get there!

How about you? How was your September? What are you looking forward to in October? Will you be plotting a writing project for November? Do you have any books you’re dying to read?

Why Christian Fiction is Important

Now that I’ve established the different kinds of stories that I mean when I say “Christian fiction,” but before I get into my encouragement posts, I want to explore a few of the reasons Christian fiction is important, in all its forms.

Fiction Impacts Culture

Everything we take in affects our worldview and our behavior. Fiction—whether in the form of books, movies, TV, or music—is something that we take in a lot of, and it shapes our thinking and our approach to certain issues. Just as one example, taking in a lot of media with “mild” language can cause us to become less sensitive toward that language and can even lead to our using it ourselves. But beyond behavioral things like language, perhaps more important is its ability to shift our thinking on issues of morality and social norms. If our worldview is unsteady and we read a lot of fiction with premarital relations in them and no consequences presented, will we begin to wonder if those relationships are really so bad?

But just as fiction can have negative impacts on our worldview, it can also have positive impacts. If we see honorable characters praised, will we have a stronger desire to be honorable ourselves? If we see characters who are firm in their biblical beliefs, will we dig our heels in deeper to the truths we believe ourselves? I think we will.

So why are we letting secular authors (and filmmakers, and artists of all kinds) be the loudest, most skillful voices in the media? Why do we settle for sub-par media from our own communities, and why don’t we do more to produce quality content that shows realistic consequences for actions and biblical morals? Now, I’m not at all saying we should shove our beliefs down people’s throats, nor am I saying that it’s unreasonable or surprising that there are more secular authors than Christian—there are fewer firm Christians than unbelievers, and even fewer of those are artists—but can we do better? And can the Church do better to encourage those who are aiming to produce godly media? I think so, and that’s the purpose of this series.

Quality Christian Fiction Encourages the Body

Many, if not most, people read fiction, and that’s just as true in the Church as outside of it. Fiction that is honest about the Christian life, fiction that provides hope in contrast to real darkness, and fiction that simply allows for an escape can all be encouraging and edifying to a Christian reader. We need to see the real struggles of the faith and know that we’re not alone and we’re not expected to be perfect, but that encourages us to do our best and stand on truth. We need fiction that isn’t afraid to show darkness, but shows an even greater light and reminds us that all is not lost. And we need fiction that doesn’t try to be anything but a good story, that allows us to escape from the real world for a little while and take a deep breath. All of these allow us to grow in our faith and in our character, all of these allow us to draw closer to God, and all of these—when done well—fulfill their purpose of entertaining and educating a reader in some way.

Quality Christian Fiction is an Outreach Opportunity

Whether it’s a good story that happens to have some biblical themes, a dark story that points to true hope, or any other skillfully woven story written by a Christian, fiction is an opportunity to reach unbelievers in a way that is entertaining and doesn’t shove the gospel down their throat, but that hopefully also leads them to think and to ask questions. While it’s fully God who changes hearts, He can and does work through fiction. Whether we’re “raw” authors reaching people where they are in their brokenness, not shying away from the harder parts of life; or we’re “clean” authors providing examples of honorable characters and characters who struggle and including themes of grace or unconditional love or justice… God can use our work to reach the lost. I believe it’s an important calling, and one that the Church can often overlook. Jesus Himself frequently spoke in stories. Why would story be any less effective now than it was then?

Biblical Purposes for Writing

These are just some Bible verses I want to bring up as food-for-thought as we talk about writing as Christians, and understanding and encouraging those who write, whether writers in general or writers who specifically write a different “flavor” of fiction. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions and your own personal convictions from these, and I encourage you to explore Scripture yourself on this topic to gain a fuller understanding. (And I’d welcome your thoughts, if you’d like to share.)

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. – Ephesians 5:11

My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. – Psalm 45:1

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. – 1 Corinthians 10:31

But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. – 2 Timothy 2:16

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. – Philippians 4:8

“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” – Matthew 15:11

He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. – Romans 14:6

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. – 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly. – Psalm 40:10

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. – Ephesians 4:11-16

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” – Matthew 10:16

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic. What are some reasons you think Christian fiction is important? Or even reasons you don’t? What is your view on the purpose of Christian fiction (either how it should be or how you think it is, if they’re two different things)? What are some books you think have fulfilled the purpose(s) of Christian fiction particularly well?

Flavors of Christian Fiction

Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately is the idea of Christian fiction. That specific phrase, “Christian fiction,” puts an unfortunately sour taste in my mouth. “Christian fiction,” to me, means a lackluster story that really only serves to push the gospel and be squeaky-clean and happy-go-lucky and show that Christians are good and nothing bad ever happens to them and non-believers are either malicious or stupid. But “Christian fiction” isn’t what I’m going to be talking about today (and over the next few blog posts). For the purposes of this post, and those that follow, I’m using the term to refer, quite simply, to fiction that is written by Christians. No Christian themes attached, no specific “cleanliness” level… just fiction that is written by Christians. And I specifically want to talk about two varieties of fiction-by-Christians (though I’ll mention three).

Candy Land Christian Fiction

This is the horror that I described above. It’s squeaky-clean, paints the Christian life as all sunshine and rainbows, and everyone ends up a Christian at the end because the whole thing is one big sermon and obviously that’s going to convert people. The reason I dislike this category so much is because it appeals to no one. (Unless maybe you’re a Christian who really believes life is all sunshine and rainbows in which case… how?) It doesn’t appeal to non-believers because it’s too-good-to-be-true, paints Christians as faultless angels who look down on those around them, and is constantly trying to shove the gospel down their throat. And it doesn’t (or maybe shouldn’t) appeal to believers because we know life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, we know we’re fallible (ohhhhh… maybe the target audience is Christians who want to feel better about their faults), and we know (I hope) that wrapping the gospel in a half-baked story idea isn’t going to convert anyone.

Am I being too harsh on this particular category? Maybe. If anyone wants to defend Candy Land Fiction and point out its appeal, go ahead. I just… genuinely don’t see the point of the category, personally.

“Clean” Christian Fiction

This is the category that I feel like is most widely accepted in Christian circles. It’s what I write (for the most part) and it composes a lot of what I read, personally. Generally speaking, authors in this category strive for quality of writing as well as “quality” of content and will often specifically aim to subtly display Christian themes in their books. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this category. (As a category. Obviously there can be bad books in any category.) It’s clean, so people of all ages can enjoy it and more conservative readers don’t have to worry about stumbling across objectionable content. There might be a cuss word here or there, or some subtle hint of something less-than-“clean,” but it’s generally very “appropriate.” An argument could also be made that it simply provides quality storytelling that can be enjoyed by both believers and non-believers and provides a testimony to our way of life through its cleanliness. (I’m not aiming to make that argument at the moment.)

While it’s “clean,” it also doesn’t aim to skim over characters’ faults or the difficulties of life, it simply… softens them a little sometimes. This contributes both to its cleanliness and its appeal as relatively feel-good entertainment, though the best “clean fiction” is still as honest as possible within the confines of “cleanliness.” Those that don’t tend to veer toward “Candy Land Fiction,” in my opinion.

Obviously, this category has value. It appeals to a broad audience, doesn’t offend anyone, and is still quality storytelling. It’s a witness to Christian values and Christian craftsmanship, which ideally bridges the gap between Candy Land Fiction, which is often of poor quality, and what I’m going to call “Honest Christian Fiction.”

“Raw” Christian Fiction

“Raw” Christian Fiction is a category that I think a lot of the Christian writing community doesn’t understand and doesn’t appreciate enough. “Raw” Christian Fiction doesn’t cling to a “clean” label, but instead isn’t afraid to venture into topics that are harder to swallow. It doesn’t revel in these topics, but it seeks to expose them and be honest about them from a Christian standpoint. This standpoint isn’t always overt, but a Christian’s worldview will leak into whatever they do, and this is no less true in “raw” fiction, in which the aim is to provide a wholesome conclusion to a given topic even if the Christian worldview isn’t obvious.

I think “raw” fiction makes the Christian writing community uncomfortable, because (when done effectively) it forces the reader to confront and wrestle with dark truths. We’d rather stay in our comfortable church bubbles. But these issues are things we need to face, even though they’re uncomfortable, and “raw” Christian authors are the ones to do it. Storytelling is a powerful medium, and I think it’s a fantastic way to present issues in a way that causes us to think about them without necessarily feeling like we’re directly threatened. Though the best of them will bring to our awareness things we should be doing and move us to action, fiction is a relatively non-threatening medium.

Who does “raw” fiction appeal to? First, it appeals much more to non-believers than Candy Land or even “Clean” Fiction, because it’s not afraid to step into the dark when necessary. And how are Christian artists going to reach out to unbelievers if we’re not willing to meet them where they are? Or even if we’re simply afraid to be real about the darkness of the world? Second, it should appeal to Christians, if not for our own sake (though it should, because it can open our eyes to things we need to see) then for the sake of the unbelievers who could be ministered to by it. Even if a well-established Christian doesn’t need to be evangelized to, they should still be able to appreciate the work of an evangelist, and I think the same principle applies here.

We need to stop writing off “Raw” Fiction and instead recognize that “there is diversity of gifts, but one Spirit” and work to encourage and build up “raw” authors as much as we do “clean” writers. We may have a personal preference for one category or the other, but both are important. Both can bring glory to the Lord and minister to readers. And both should be accepted and built up in Christian writing communities.

I also view this as something of a spectrum; some authors are closer to the “clean” end but still aren’t afraid to be “raw” when necessary, and some “raw” authors have certain things they keep “cleaner” than others. I don’t think there is, or should be, an inherent dichotomy between the two. This is just to lay out the basic ends of the spectrum, as I understand them.

In my next post I want to share some encouragement for Christian writers, and maybe a little bit of a challenge, and I want to follow that with a post on how best to encourage Christian writers and minister to those who are seeking after the same goal as you are: writing well-crafted stories to the glory of God and the benefit of others.

But for now, I want to hear your thoughts. What do you think of the categories I talked about? Which category do you tend to gravitate toward, and why? Do you see both categories encouraged in Christian communities, or just one? This is a topic I’m really passionate about, and I’d love to discuss it with y’all in the comments. :)

NaNoWriMo Alternatives

I’ve been participating in National Novel Writing Month since 2014, and I think the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 months is a great tool to get people writing and foster community among writers and just overall encourage authors. Lately, however, the NaNoWriMo organization has been making a lot of decisions based on politics, and they’re decisions that I personally think are detrimental to the encouragement of community that is central to what NaNoWriMo has to offer. You’re welcome to agree or disagree with me on that, and through this post I do not mean to advocate for leaving the NaNoWriMo organization or suggest that it’s the best option—I haven’t even decided for myself yet whether I’m staying or leaving. This is simply intended to be a gathering of resources in case anyone has seen NaNoWriMo’s recent changes as deal-breakers, or to provide additional resources for those who are sticking around but maybe want additional tools.

Word count tracking: myWriteClub

myWriteClub is a site that allows you to track writing goals, not only in words but also in chapters, scenes, to-do items, pages, percentages, lines, and “other.” It also allows you to archive goals when you’re finished with them, and to un-archive them at will. It doesn’t have any fancy stats attached, so it won’t tell you how many words you average per day or what time of day you write most often or anything like that, but it functions to keep you on track with a writing goal.

It also allows you to follow other authors and comment on their goals to cheer them on, and vice versa. And there’s a word sprint tool which allows you to see real-time progress—both your own and that of those you’re writing against. You can either start your own sprint “room” or join the “global sprint.” The tool has a timer at the top set to the Pomodoro Technique, so it counts down 25 minutes in green and then 5 minutes in blue and then 25 in green, etc., but it doesn’t prevent you from writing during the intended breaks.

Overall, it’s a really handy tool.

Word count tracking: Svenja Gosen’s word tracking calendar

I’ve used these calendars for three years now, and they’re super cool. They’re Excel spreadsheets that are completely set up to calculate average words per day, average words per month, total per month, how many words left to reach a monthly goal, average time spent writing, etc. All you have to do is enter your word count and how long you spent writing. And the artwork is beautiful. So if you’re looking for something with more stats than myWriteClub, this might be a good fit. The calendars are sold according to a donation system, so you can shell in for them to keep them going or you can get them for free if you don’t have the money to donate.

Word count tracking: Pacemaker

I think I’ve used this once, but I then forgot about it and now I can’t remember my login. So obviously I can’t speak much to how it works. But Pacemaker looks like it could be a very handy tool. It’s set up not only to handle fiction projects but also academic projects, marketing… even training and saving or spending. It has tons of options and is super flexible, even allowing you to set your own method of reaching the goal—whether you want to write a steady amount each day, put most of the work in the middle, work up from small goals to larger goals… It also allows you to set whether you want weekends (or other specific days or dates) to be different from normal days.

Community: Kingdom Pen

Kingdom Pen is a Christian blog and community that’s been around for a while. It saw a year or two of down time in the middle, but it’s recently returned and seems to be thriving again. It’s primarily intended for teen writers, and it’s a really fun group of people.

Community: Story Embers

Story Embers is kind of like an all-ages version of Kingdom Pen. It’s also a Christian group, and it focuses more heavily on how best to glorify God through writing. This group is also fantastic, and there are a lot of great conversations on the forums, both deep and meaningful conversations and those that are more just-for-fun.

Community: Scribes & Archers Discord

I have a Discord channel for interacting with you all, my readers, and sharing what I’m working on and hearing about what y’all are working on. I’ll admit I’m not great at getting/keeping conversation going, which is definitely something I need to work on, but we’d love to have you join us and get to know you better!

(Joining the Discord channel also includes perks like access to the resource library and the first chapter of Calligraphy Guild.)

Wherever you stand on NaNoWriMo, I hope this list has been helpful to you. What tools do you use to track writing projects? Are you part of any public writing communities?

Book Review: Of Myth and Monster by The Phoenix Fiction Writers

PFW is releasing another anthology, so you know I jumped on it. I’m super thankful to have gotten another of their ARCs, and this one is quite possibly my favorite yet. It’s definitely their best anthology yet, and if they keep improving their quality at this rate I’m going to have to create a six-star rating or something. XD Anyway, into the actual review. (And here’s the necessary disclaimer that even though I got an ARC I wasn’t required to give a positive review and this is all my honest opinion.)

Mistakes Were Made

Everything about this story is fantastic. The tone of finals week at a space-fantasy-style university, the characters and their snark and values and just… character, the folklore-inspired worldbuilding, the voice of the prose… Oh, and did I mention that this one starts a trend of diverse characters with struggles and strengths and whatnot that aren’t often portrayed in fiction? Because that’s one of my favorite things about this anthology, as a whole. I love getting to see different types of people represented, and Of Myth and Monster does a fantastic job of that. Guillerma is diabetic, which is not only a fact of her character but plays deeply into the story as such things should. Hannah does an excellent job of this throughout all of her stories, and Mistakes Were Made is no exception.

This story is funny, too. It had me legitimately laughing out loud multiple times, and it was just so much fun to read. But the humor doesn’t detract from its depth, as the relationship between the two main characters is explored and Mundo’s motivation, in particular, is revealed.

Anyway, just a fantastic story all around.

The Boy Who Listened

In an effort to avoid repeating “Everything about this story is fantastic” at the beginning of each review… I’m just going to say now that they’re all all-around fantastic and you should just mark the book’s release date (this Saturday) on your calendar now and buy it as soon as it comes out and enjoy it and then come tell me so I can say I told you so and we can freak out about it together.

Did you mark the date? Awesome. Back to the review.

Magic academies are awesome. Greek mythology is awesome. Neurodivergent rep is awesome. Sphinxes are awesome. So, naturally, this story is also awesome. It’s also written beautifully, as is pretty much always the case with Shultz’s work, it’s thoughtful, and the character voice is spot-on. And what I said about things like diabetes and neurodivergence being woven with the story, not just disconnected facts? That’s true of this story, as well (and the others in the anthology, too). These authors understand those issues, understand character, and understand storytelling, which leads to a skill in telling stories that are incredibly effective in their purposes.

H.E.R.O.

Urban fantasy. Anxiety rep. More Greek mythology. Oh! And a pet phoenix! The worldbuilding in this one was really interesting, putting creative twists on Greek mythology. I really enjoyed the blend of ancient mythology and a sci-fi urban world. I also especially loved the conclusion of this story.

The Gods of Troy

This one blends Greek mythology with space-based sci-fi, and I liked the worldbuilding of the Titans. The story stays very true to its source material, while still putting an interesting spin on it. I liked it a lot.

The Unicorn Tamer

Andorians are adorable, the writing of this story is hilarious, and grumpy characters are super fun to read about. Probably my favorite moment in the story has to do with fuzzy copyright laws. XD (Which is a pun, come to think of it…) There’s also a unicorn named Greg, another phoenix (because phoenixes are epic), and… an unexpected ending. Overall, thoroughly enjoyable.

Lamp of Silver

This story was an intriguing look at both a different kind of genie from most and a deep theme. Plus, pirates and others who live on the ocean are cool. I don’t have as much to say about this one specifically, but it was well-done.

The Staff of Callewhyr

This story centers around a monk, which is super cool because I feel like we don’t get enough scholars and religious folk as MCs in epic fantasy and I love reading about those aspects of a world. The Staff of Callewhyr did not disappoint. The world is fascinating, the characters in it both involved in it and deep in their own right, and the writing befitting of classic epic fantasy. I very much enjoyed reading this story, and I would love to read more about this world and these characters.

Aura

When I first read this story I described it as “sad and beautiful,” and I stand by that description. Philbrick seems to have a knack for those types of stories. The characters and their relationships form the core of this story, and they’re done extremely well. Philbrick does a good job of writing emotional stories, and that’s exemplified in Aura.

I think this isn’t my most coherent review, which is a side-effect of waiting too long to write it and my just getting over a mental health dip, but hopefully I’ve communicated that Of Myth and Monster is amazing and you should definitely check it out and support these fantastic authors and read some awesome stories. ;)

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Preptober Prompts Announcement!

Two years ago I started an event called Preptober Prompts to get people excited and thinking about their NaNoWriMo novels for the month of October (also known, in writer circles, as Preptober). And we’re approaching that time of year again!

Here’s how the event works. The prompts are centered around a theme (“change,” this year), and each week features a different category of prompts: worldbuilding prompts, character prompts, plot prompts, and flash fiction prompts. In addition, each week is hosted by a different blogger. I’m super happy to announce this year’s co-hosts!

Hosting character prompts for the second week of October, Evelyn of The Rain-Drenched Writer.
Hosting plot prompts for the third week of October, Emma of Bleeding Ink.
Hosting flash fiction prompts for the fourth week of October, Maple of Maple Quill Penning Magic.

All of these ladies are great bloggers and lovely people, so definitely go check out their blogs, subscribe, follow them, all that jazz. I’m super excited to be working with all of them on this event. ^-^

Every day of October (except Sundays) will have a prompt. Each prompt will be posted by its week’s respective host, along with their response to the prompt for their own NaNoWriMo project. (The three days at the beginning that aren’t part of a full week will be pre-chosen prompts from one of my writing communities.)

How does Preptober Prompts work for you, if you’d like to be a participant? You can interact through social media by sharing the day’s prompt graphic (I’ll release a folder of the graphics closer to October) and your response, tagging me (@rysaarcher on Twitter and Instagram, R.M. Archer on Facebook), and using the #PreptoberPrompts hashtag; or through the host blogs by putting your response in the comments of the day’s prompt post.

I’m super excited for this year’s event, and I hope y’all have a lot of fun with it and it helps you prep for November! :)