R.M. Archer's Blog, page 43
September 19, 2018
Character Interview: Kaitlyn Walker
I’m sorry this is going up later than usual. I’ve been off my game with almost everything this week. :P Things should smooth back out next week, and I have a fun announcement set to go up next Tuesday!
Kaitlyn is another The Shades and the Elect character, a friend of Madi and Braedyn‘s, and she’s simultaneously fun and terrifying. (At least in RPs.) She’s a daredevil, practically fearless, and loves bringing her friends on her adventures. She’s also fiercely competitive and will about kill you in soccer. Enjoy her interview. :)
Kaitlyn: *enters the interview room and shakes the interviewer’s hand* Hello!
Interviewer: Hello. How are you today?
Kaitlyn: *sits down* I’m doing well. How are you?
Interviewer: Doing all right. Are you ready to get started?
Kaitlyn: *nods*
Interviewer: What’s your name?
Kaitlyn: Kaitlyn Marie Walker.
Interviewer: How old are you?
Kaitlyn: Seventeen.
Interviewer: Do you have any siblings?
Kaitlyn: Nope. Just close friends. *grins*
Interviewer: Do you have a job?
Kaitlyn: I’m mostly occupied with school.
Interviewer: Do you have a favorite subject?
Kaitlyn: Gym. *grins* We play all kinds of sports and I’ve gotten pretty good at a lot of them. Soccer’s definitely my favorite, though.
Interviewer: I don’t think I’ve heard a lot of people say gym is their favorite subject. *laughs*
Kaitlyn: You’d probably find more at my school than anywhere else. It’s hard work, but a lot of fun.
Interviewer: What are your hobbies, aside from sports?
Kaitlyn: I enjoy pulling pranks. Jeevan and I pull pranks all the time. There’s actually a huge rivalry between us to see who can do the better prank. *grins* Also watching movies with the gang, and going on various adventures, that kind of thing. I enjoy pretty much anything I do with my friends.
Interviewer: It sounds like y’all are a pretty close-knit group.
Kaitlyn: Oh, definitely. School has done a great job of bringing us together. *grins*
Interviewer: What’s your favorite movie?
Kaitlyn: Um… I think I’d have to say Lord of the Rings. We have an annual marathon and it’s the best. We’ve all about memorized the whole trilogy. *laughs*
Interviewer: That sounds like a lot of fun. Do you dress up or cook special food or just watch the movies?
Kaitlyn: It depends on the year. We’ve dressed up in the past—I’m always Legolas—we’ve made a whole big banquet with all the hobbit meals, but some years we just sit curled up under blankets with popcorn and enjoy the movie. *smiles*
Interviewer: Why Legolas?
Kaitlyn: He’s just cool. And his hair is always perfect. *laughs* Although one year Braedyn and Madi convinced me to go as Pippin instead so Jeevan and I were Merry and Pippin.
Interviewer: *chuckles* That sounds like a lot of fun. Is Legolas your favorite character, then, or do you just enjoy dressing up as him?
Kaitlyn: No, Pippin is definitely my favorite. He’s a lot like me, getting into endless trouble and wreaking havoc. Although I do it intentionally more often than he does, I think.
Interviewer: We’re coming to the end of my list. Which of these is most important to you: Kindness, intelligence, or bravery?
Kaitlyn: Bravery, for sure. Life is really boring when you don’t dare to live. *grins*
Interviewer: And honesty or selflessness?
Kaitlyn: Honesty.
Interviewer: What’s something you can’t leave home without?
Kaitlyn: My bracelet. *lifts her hand to show an amber-bead bracelet* Jeevan got it for me shortly after we started dating and I haven’t taken it off since.
Interviewer: All right, well that’s all I’ve got. *smiles* Thank you for your time.
Kaitlyn: Absolutely! Thanks for having me. *grins and heads out*
September 16, 2018
Snippet Sunday: The Heart of the Baenor
Catessa stepped onto the porch of the temple and clambered up one of the pillars. The carved stone dug into her hands and scraped in places the architects had failed to smooth, but she ignored the pain. She reached the top, sprinted across the roof, and perched herself atop a lonely spire. From the spire she could see across the glowing city to the place she despised the most- the inner ring. She stared at it for several minutes before tearing her gaze away in rage. The night sky glittered from the light of a thousand stars as she pulled out her pendant. Hate filled her gaze and blurred her vision as she pulled her arm back and threw the jewel as hard as she could to the slick gravel. It glistened in the torch-light and hit the ground with a brittle crack. As she peered down, she could have sworn the firelight shone white against the purple jewel.
It’s just a trick of the light, she told herself. But she couldn’t keep her eyes from it. Something about it had changed.
She slid down from the spire, darted back across the roof, and climbed down the pillar, muttering to herself all the while about stupidity and good-for-nothing nobles. When she reached the ground, landing hard enough to jar herself, she sought out the pendant. It was open. Her heart thundered as she picked the locket off the cobblestone.
Inside there were no drawings, no notes. Only a single white rose petal, brittle and aged under Catessa’s fingers. Catessa snapped the locket closed in disgust. She didn’t need this. But still, it could lead to-
What am I thinking? she asked herself. They’re nobles!
She threw the locket down again, and this time it didn’t snap open. She began to walk away, but stopped short and turned back to pick it up, shaking her head the whole time.
September 13, 2018
Book Review: Through the Pages by Annie Louise Twitchell
Spring will always follow Winter.
Misty doesn’t know who she is. Nineteen years old, she’s trapped inside who she has been, with no idea who she could be.
When she goes to Mill’s End to take care of her stubborn, book-loving grandmother, she finds herself torn between past and present. The answer to who she is lies hidden in her grandmother’s library. Her path to find herself takes her through the fading pages of dusty books and the memories of a woman who has lived a full life. It is up to Misty to write the final chapter to the dearest story of them all.
Through the Pages read like a Hallmark movie, and, fortunately, I have a soft spot for Hallmark movies. It’s sweet, predictable, follows the basic plot formula of: Girl with no purpose moves to a country town, meets a challenging friend/family member, learns important life lessons, and finds her purpose, all while falling in love with a sweet country boy. I think the thing that draws me to these stories most is a combination of the characters and the whimsy of the setting, and that was no different in Through the Pages. The characters, while simple, are endearing. Misty herself wasn’t my favorite, but it’s common for the main character to not be my favorite so I don’t think that was necessarily an issue with Annie’s writing.
I did think that character development and character relationships were rushed in a lot of places. Misty’s emotions tend to ping-pong, especially at the beginning, and I saw a lot of conflicting feelings more than a smooth progression. Obviously having the change be too smooth and agreeable would be unrealistic, but I think Misty’s character arc needed some refinement.
The timeline in this book is rather rushed through, which works most of the time and fits the story, but I feel like we lost some vital relationship growth and individual character growth through the timeline gaps. If we’d been able to see the character growth that happened in between it would have been fine, but it seemed like the characters’ arcs didn’t progress during the weeks and months that were skipped and we were just thrust back into the same struggles they’d had before.
The setting of Mill’s End, however, was wonderful. Particularly in the first half, as we were becoming familiar with the town alongside Misty, it had a great whimsical feel to it and I loved the details that went into that. Misty’s first date was probably my favorite section; the Lakeside Diner really caught my attention and made me wish I could go to a small town for a while and enjoy the peace and quiet and community.
Overall, the characters and setting were enough for me to enjoy this book a lot even though I would have preferred more depth in the character development. The overall themes were good, and I consider Through the Pages a four-star book.
The e-book edition of Through the Pages is on sale for the remainder of the blog tour (until Saturday) for $2.99, so go check it out!
About the Author
Annie Louise Twitchell is a homeschool graduate who is obsessed with dragons and fairy tales. She enjoys reading, writing, poetry, and many forms of art. When she’s not writing, she can often be found reading out loud to her cat, rabbit, and houseplants, or wandering barefoot in the area around her Western Maine home. In addition to seven published works, she has several poetry awards and pieces in four anthologies.
September 12, 2018
Character Interview: Braedyn Carter
Braedyn is a character from The Shades and the Elect, like Madi from last week, and another RP favorite. He’s sweet, loyal, and protective. He’s a mechanic on cars, the rare airship (as in: he built the only one in existence as of SATE), and watches. He adores building and repairing watches. He’s also one of those people who’s good at just about everything, so in addition to being a mechanic he also plays a handful of sports and at two musical instruments. (Where he gets the time, I don’t know. But I can tell you for sure that such people do exist, so it’s not… quite as unrealistic as it sounds. XD)
He’s one of my favorite characters of my own, and I hope you enjoy meeting him. :)
Braedyn: *comes in and shakes the interviewer’s hand with a smile* Good morning.
Interviewer: Good morning. *returns the smile* How are you today?
Braedyn: I’m doing well. *takes a seat* How are you?
Interviewer: Also doing well. I’ve heard a lot about you and I look forward to talking to you.
Braedyn: *chuckles* What all have you heard?
Interviewer: You’re a whiz at everything you try, according to your friends. Particularly mechanics.
Braedyn: *laughs* That’s not true. I’m good at a lot of things, but I’ve definitely tried things I was bad at, and I wouldn’t say I’m a whiz at most things. I do think I’m a pretty good mechanic, but I don’t have exceptional proficiency with anything else.
Interviewer: I also hear you do a lot of different types of mechanics. What’s your favorite?
Braedyn: Watches, definitely. I like playing around with all the tiny gears and making more and more elaborate watches that are still practical.
Interviewer: Do you do that for a living or just as a hobby?
Braedyn: That’s a hobby. My living comes from car mechanics.
Interviwer: Do you have any other hobby projects like that?
Braedyn: I do, actually. I generally have a vehicle I’m working on for a while, and currently that’s a DeLorean like from Back to the Future. I’m working on getting it to fly right now.
Interviewer: Oh wow. That’s impressive.
Braedyn: I know the basic procedure, since I’ve built other flying vehicles before, but applying that to an old car is a bit harder. *chuckles*
Interviewer: What sort of flying vehicles have you built?
Braedyn: A couple of years ago I finished building an airship.
Interviewer: And what is that like?
Braedyn: The ship or the process of building it?
Interviewer: The ship.
Braedyn: It’s big, probably the size of a small cruise ship. It was built of a bunch of abandoned car parts so it has more seams than I’d like, even though I welded all the pieces together as smoothly as I could. But it’s nice and shiny black, since my friends helped me spray-paint the whole thing. And it’s safer than you’d think, to see all the seams; I’ve taken it out on multiple flights and it’s a sturdy thing.
Interviewer: I’ve heard you also do sports and play instruments. How do you balance your time among all your hobbies and work?
Braedyn: *takes a breath* Well, the sports are kind of tied in with my boarding school; we play a lot of sports to stay fit. And I’m not great at all of them, despite what I know my friends would say. *laughs* I’m really only great at football and basketball. With the others I’m mediocre, at best. And my instruments are a lot more of a side hobby. I can go months without practicing because I get busy with everything else. The hardest thing to balance is probably school and work. School has a really… fluctuating schedule, so I never know when I’m going to have time off to go home and work at the shop. Fortunately, everyone back home knows me pretty well as a mechanic and they’re not put-off by the weird schedule.
Interviewer: Where is home, for you?
Braedyn: The Emerald Edge, which was called Manhattan back before the Catalyst.
Interviewer: That’s really cool. So you’re versed in old-world history?
Braedyn: *nods* Another hobby of mine, and another that ties in with school. The Catalyst was what brought about the need for the school in the first place, so it’s helpful to know how it came about and what happened before and whatnot.
Interviewer: Y’know, I actually haven’t gotten to my question list at all yet. *laughs* I’ll try to be selective with my questions, since we’ve already talked a lot.
Braedyn: *eyebrows raise* Oh wow. Yeah.
Interviewer: *glances at question sheet* How old are you?
Braedyn: Seventeen.
Interviewer: *eyes widen* Seventeen? And you have a reputation in Manhattan for mechanics and you’re keeping up with a billion and one hobbies?
Braedyn: *chuckles and looks at the floor* Well, I wouldn’t say ‘keeping up,’ necessarily. But yeah.
Interviewer: Do you have any siblings?
Braedyn: No, but Jeevan’s like a brother to me, and Madi’s kind of like a sister. Jeevan and I grew up together, and Madi’s parents knew my mom so we became friends pretty early on, too. The other members of my class are close, too, but not as close as Jeevan or Madi. And I’m pretty familiar with Madi’s siblings, too. *smiles*
Interviewer: That’s awesome. Were you and Jeevan neighbors, school friends…?
Braedyn: My mom took him in when we were about three, actually. My mom knew his parents and when they were killed in an accident Jeevan was left with us.
Interviewer: I see. Was it weird having him move in?
Braedyn: *shrugs* I was little, so mostly I was just excited to have a brother. And that hasn’t changed. *smiles*
Interviewer: That’s awesome. Um, do you prefer movies or books?
Braedyn: Books. Especially Wayne Thomas Batson’s Dreamtreaders and Miranda Marie’s Fire Rain Chronicles.
Interviewer: Both old-world series.
Braedyn: *nods* The literature was really good back then, as a whole, and there hasn’t been a whole lot of new writing since the Catalyst.
Interviewer: That makes sense. I really enjoy both series, as well. Which of these is most important to you: Kindness, intelligence, or bravery?
Braedyn: Kindness. Both of the others are valuable – bravery, in particular – but I think kindness is the most important, and the key to the others being effective.
Interviewer: And honesty or selflessness?
Braedyn: Selflessness. It’ll bring about honesty, and it also provides value to the kindness, intelligence, and bravery from the last question.
Interviewer: What’s one thing you can’t leave home without?
Braedyn: A tiny flat-head screwdriver and whatever watch I’m currently working on. I like working on them as I travel and whatnot.
Interviewer: *nods* That’s really cool. *extends a hand* It was great talking with you.
Braedyn: You too. *smiles and shakes the interviewer’s hand* Thanks for having me.
Interviewer: Oh, my pleasure!
Braedyn: *heads out*
So what do y’all think of the idea of joint character interviews? Kind of like the one with June and Wren, but usually more civil, lol. I think it would be kind of fun to be able to show the character relationships between some of them (like Braedyn and Madi), but I want to know what you all think first. Maybe I could make those my last-Wednesday interviews, rather than guest interviews? (Since I don’t do those often enough anyway. :P) Fun? Not-so-fun? Let me know in the comments!
September 11, 2018
My Writing Process
I’ve written this post once before, but my old version was less about my full writing process and more about how I organized my writing after starting a bullet journal, so I’m going to make an actual “My Writing Process” post now.
Step one: Have a BRILLIANT idea
I couldn’t find the “Lightbulb” gif, so this is gonna work. At some point (likely in the middle of the night) I’ll be hit with a FABULOUS idea that consumes my brain for the next… however long. Characters, plots, and worlds do acrobatics in my head and turn themselves into something workable, providing a launching pad for more focused brainstorming. (Wait… do I do that?)
Step two: Let the idea take over
For a limited amount of time, sometimes a day or sometimes as long as a week, I jump full-force into the idea. I put together a Pinterest board, write down everything I know about the idea so I have it for later, sometimes brainstorm places that aren’t quite working yet, etc. I mostly let the idea grow naturally and don’t stop it for a day or a week.
Step three: Set the idea aside
Because, chances are, I’m working on another project at the moment and don’t dare start another one until the first is finished. The new shiny gets set on the back burner to be added to very infrequently as ideas come up.
Step four: Forget about brilliant idea
As I take years finishing my main project (and the main project after that. and the main project after that.), I completely forget about the new shiny. Completely.
Step five: Find brilliant idea years later
When I finally have time again and I want a story to write (who am I kidding. those random story ideas will never get written. I have too many series for that.), I pull out the Pinterest board and basic ideas I put together when the idea first came to me and get hit with the stroke of GENIUS that must have brought this idea about. (Or the sheer idiocy. It depends.)
Step six: Set up a basic outline
I don’t like this part, but I have to have some sort of loose outline or I’ll aimlessly wander and never get the story finished. *cough*TheShadowRaven*cough* Soooo, I plan. At least a little bit. :P
Step seven: WRITE!
I start cranking out the first draft, which is… sometimes faster than other times. I can look like Flint here, or I can look more like a snail trying to type. Ideally I look like Flint, so we’re gonna go with that. I may start my novel in November and get as much done as possible during NaNoWriMo or, more often, I start a novel in the middle of the year, make some progress on it, stall, and then get another boost for NaNoWriMo. Whatever the case, I write about the first half.
Step eight: Crash into a brick wall
Eventually, I will stall out. I will fall down some major plot hole or have no idea how to get the characters from point A to point B, and I will stall. For too long. And kinda-sorta half-heartedly brainstorm ways out of the dry spot. And then I’ll talk to my dad about it and he’ll solve the problem in fifteen minutes.
Step nine: Finish the novel and have a party
Actually, I generally don’t officially celebrate finishing novels (I should), but there’s often a lot of internal celebration all the same. That book is FINISHED. For now.
Step ten: Take a break
All right, who am I kidding? I’m always working on some project alongside my first draft. I’ll still be working on whatever that is. (Later draft of an earlier novel, editing for someone else, blogging at the very least…) But I take a break from this project and let it sit so I can come back to it later with fresh eyes and…
Step eleven: Edit
This is where I come back to my book, realize it’s a total disaster, and start totally reconstructing it. It can take me at least three months to deal with the second draft, depending on the extent of reconstruction necessary and what percentage of the book’s development actually went well in the drafting stage. (The Shadow Raven is going to be a nightmare to edit.) But once I get into it, assuming I like the story, it’s actually pretty fun for me. I enjoy turning the mess I made in the first draft into something salvageable, and then good, even. It’s a really nice feeling to make something better.
Step twelve: Repeat step 11 anywhere from once to five times
House of Mages had three drafts. The Heart of the Baenor is going to have five before I even send it to a professional editor who’s not my dad. *in TV ad voice* Repeat as necessary for your book to reach its highest potential.
Step thirteen: ACTUALLY have a party
I’ve been working on this thing for at least a year, it’s finally as polished as it’s going to get, you bet I’m actually celebrating this time. Ice cream, cake, new books that I really don’t have space for on my TBR…
Step fourteen: Plan out all the pre-publishing stuff
This actually happened during some round of edits, because this stuff takes a lot of planning. Brainstorming social media promotion, blog promotion, ways to make promotion appealing instead of salesy (possibly the hardest part. easier, though, when you’re planning ahead.), brainstorming blogs to contact for a blog tour, etc. There’s a lot of stuff to get done. All of which probably gets scheduled/done before I finish the final draft (at least ideally), but I have yet to get here so we’ll see.
Step fifteen: Publish the book and have another party
You have come to the end of your work with this novel. Go celebrate! All of your hard work has finally paid off and now you just have to get your book into the hands of readers by force of will and… do it all again with another novel.
September 10, 2018
Snippet Monday: The Archery Champion
I said I was going to do a snippet this week because I haven’t the past two weeks and then I was busy all day yesterday and today, but I SAID I WAS GONNA DO IT AND I’M GONNA DO IT. Better late than never, right? (I need to get back to Saturday being my blog-post-writing day. :P)
The Archery Champion is some book in the Daughters of the Hylands series (I can never keep straight what order books 3-5 go in.) It’s about Malanda, oldest daughter of King Elk and Queen Crimson of Remera, who are main characters in The Half-Elves before they become king and queen. (They’re also my favorite.) Malanda loves archery and decides to start entering tournaments in The Hylands, which are known for their archery, and then… I’m not sure what happens because the planning in this series was terrible. But I have that much and I’m working off of that for this excerpt. XD
Without further ado…
Malanda took a deep breath and stepped onto the range. The crowd erupted into cheers and she smiled and waved once before taking up her place across from the second target. She adjusted her grip on the bow, carvings pressing into her hand, and shifted her fingers along an arrow in the other hand. She kept her eyes focused on the target in front of her, but kept aware of her surroundings. Soren was to her left. Eli, Annika, and Cornel to her right.
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, almost as loud as the roaring crowd, and she tried to tune out the noises. Soren glanced at her, and she thought she saw him smirk. Was he still that cocky?
Leomer took his place to the left of the range and some tension loosened in Malanda’s shoulders. She finalized her grip on the bow as the announcer lifted his arms. The crowd’s roar died down. Malanda’s gaze didn’t move from the tiny red dot in the center of the target.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to the semi-finals.” Leomer allowed the crowd to cheer a moment before silencing them again. “Our remaining champions are Soren Mallenor, returning with a two-year winning streak.” Another crowd eruption. “Malanda Arun, crown princess of Remera.” Malanda took deep breaths as the crowd cheered. “Eliam Reyn, duke of Lanestyr. Annika Mallenor. And Cornel Iren, duke of Oryan.”
When the roar had died down again, Leomer looked toward the contestants. Malanda took a deep breath.
“Contestants, ready!”
Malanda knocked her arrow. Breath out.
“Aim!”
She brought the bow up, pulling the arrow back. She breathed in as the feathers brushed against her cheek. She was just as taut as her bowstring.
“Fire!”
Malanda let go and joined the chorus of twanging bowstrings, her breath leaving her as swiftly as the arrow had.
Thunk. Her arrow hit dead center of the target. She finally let herself look toward her opponents. Soren had made a bulls-eye, of course. Eli was a hair too far left. Annika had struck true.
There was no arrow in Cornel’s target, and she found out why as soon as her gaze strayed to him. His bowstring was broken and he was glaring straight at Soren, red-faced.
“You cheated! You sabotaged my bow!”
“I did no such thing.” Soren was calm. Collected. Haughty as always.
“The round will need to be replayed,” Leomer said. “Sir Iren, go see to a new bowstring.”
Cornel stormed off.
September 6, 2018
Book Review: The Clocks Have Stopped by J.L. Oakman
This book is rather difficult to review, because it’s an anthology containing numerous short stories and poems, and obviously I’ve enjoyed some of them more than others. All of the pieces in this collection are poetic and thought-provoking, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with the philosophy presented in all of them. The writing style, though it varies from story to story, is extremely engaging and otherworldly, like the stories themselves, and many of the stories take unexpected twists that leave you mildly bewildered (which, in the case of this book, was a good thing). I particularly enjoyed Deux Ex Experia; that twist was wonderfully executed.
I don’t tend to be a huge fan of poetry, but the majority of those contained in The Clocks Have Stopped were engaging and read more like stories than poems (though, as I said, the whole collection had a poetic tone to it).
While there were a few pieces I found myself not enjoying, they were only a few, and in a collection like this you can stand to read a few less enjoyable pieces among a lot of more engaging pieces.
I would warn that there is language used, and there are a few instances of other more mature details (nothing too glaring for me personally), so you may want to read with caution.
Overall, it earns four stars from me.
September 5, 2018
Character Interview: Madison Thompson
Madison is the main character of my novel The Shades and the Elect, which takes place in 2315, several decades after Earth collapses and the United States becomes Concordia. She’s part of an elite group called the Elect, who protected Concordia from supposedly mythological creatures when they were first formed and who now mostly protect against Shades, corrupted members of their order. She also has a superpower, because she’s descended from one of the original Elect, and can control fire. I hope you enjoy her interview!
Madi: *steps into the interview room and takes her seat with a smile, extending a hand to the interviewer* Hello.
Interviewer: *shakes her hand* Hello. How are you today?
Madi: I’m doing great. *grins* How are you?
Interviewer: I’m also doing well. What’s your name?
Madi: Madison Thompson. But everyone calls me Madi. What’s yours?
Interviewer: I’m Isabelle.
Madi: Ooh, that’s my sister’s name!
Interviewer: Really? How old is she?
Madi: She’s eight. I also have a five-year-old brother, Landon.
Interviewer: How old are you?
Madi: Sixteen.
Interviewer: Is it hard for you to connect with your siblings due to the age gap?
Madi: It can be. The bigger issue is that I recently moved… basically to a boarding school? I don’t know how better to describe it without revealing confidential information. But it’s on the opposite side of the country from my family, so now I don’t get to see them.
Interviewer: I already know about the Elect; you can talk to me about it freely if you want.
Madi: Oh. *eyebrows raise* Okay. Well then you know the Reaches. *chuckles* I’m all the way in there, and my family is in D.C.
Interviewer: What other family members are you close to?
Madi: My parents… especially my dad… *swallows* And a lot of my aunts and uncles and cousins, actually.
Interviewer: Is your dad okay?
Madi: *shrugs* Comparatively, I suppose? He’s not dead and doesn’t have a terminal illness, if that’s what you were thinking. Generally that’s what people assume when I mention him. *chuckles slightly* He went to jail about two years ago, right after Christmas, when he was framed for the murder of my great-aunt and -uncle. A Shade was possessing Uncle Billy at the time, after already killing both Uncle Billy and Aunt Georgina, and my dad threw a knife at him in an attempt to kill him. The Shade got out before he could die, but Dad’s fingerprints were on the knife in Uncle Billy’s chest. Now he’s in jail with no expectation of getting out soon.
Interviewer: That’s awful. And I assume there’s no way to prove it was the Shade, given the nature of Shades…?
Madi: Not unless he were to confess for some reason. But he’d likely have to do so within an innocent host and that wouldn’t be any better.
Interviewer: I’m very sorry. *offers Madi a sympathetic look before glancing at her question sheet* So, are you Potent Elect or just Elect?
Madi: Potent. I have fire powers, which is pretty cool. Several years ago my mom was baking cookies and I wanted them to cook faster, so I ended up setting the oven on fire by mistake. I had no idea at the time that I’d done it; I thought the cookies had just spontaneously combusted. *laughs* I learned after coming to the Reaches that those were my powers.
Interviewer: *laughs* I hope you made a new batch. *winks*
Madi: *laughs* I think we did.
Interviewer: Do you have a favorite food?
Madi: Chocolate chip cookies. Not just because they happen to be on my mind. *grins*
Interviewer: A favorite color?
Madi: Orange. It’s kind of “my color.” My friends and I formed a club when we were kids and one of the rules was that every member has to have a pair of Converse in “their” color and then various other things could be color-coded accordingly. I’ve loved orange since I was little – it reminds me of watching sunsets with my dad – so I went with that. Braedyn has dark green, Jeevan has yellow, Kaitlyn has brown, Juliet has blue, Zachary has black, Jara Lee has– had neon green. *frowns*
Interviewer: Did Jara Lee leave the club?
Madi: No. She was killed in a recon mission a few months ago. Before I was brought to the Reaches.
Interviewer: Oh. I’m sorry. It seems like you’ve experienced a lot of loss in the past couple of years.
Madi: *nods* I generally try to focus on the friends and family I still have. I think the loss has given me more of an appreciation for spending time with the people in my life before they’re gone. *offers a wry smile*
Interviewer: That makes sense. I’m sorry that appreciation came through so much pain.
Madi: *nods a bit, looking around the room, eager to move on*
Interviewer: Do you prefer movies or books?
Madi: Books, but I enjoy both.
Interviewer: Do you have a favorite?
Madi: Of which one?
Interviewer: Either.
Madi: Favorite book would probably be Dreamtreaders by Wayne Thomas Batson. I love all of his books. Favorite movie… I think I’m going to go with Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. She did an excellent job with the character. *smiles*
Interviewer: I agree. Do you have a favorite Dreamtreaders character?
Madi: Oh definitely Kaylie. She’s so much fun. *grins* Second place would probably be Amy.
Interviewer: I wouldn’t be surprised if Kaylie is everyone’s favorite. *laughs* She’s a wonderful character.
Madi: She is.
Interviewer: Do you have any hobbies?
Madi: Aside from reading, I listen to music and I play soccer and Braedyn is teaching me basketball and football. I’ve watched football for a long time, so I catch on pretty quickly with that one, but I enjoy basketball more. Even though I’m short. *laughs*
Interviewer: Yeah, that would be a disadvantage.
Madi: And Braedyn is almost six foot, so he has a clear advantage when we practice. *laughs*
Interviewer: So it seems like you have a pretty good group of friends around you. What’s one of your favorite things to do with your friends?
Madi: Hmm… I enjoy most of the things we do together. We tend to go on a lot of adventures, whether they’re just trips to the ice cream shop or they’re Elect missions. Somehow even the missions feel less daunting with that group around me. *smiles*
Interviewer: I think the best Elect teams are like that, all the way from the first Elect. You can have fun in the down time, and you know they’ve all got your back when things get dark.
Madi: *nods* Definitely. It’s a really healthy dynamic, I think.
Interviewer: *nods* Which of these is most important to you: Kindness, intelligence, or bravery?
Madi: Bravery. But kindness is also extremely important.
Interviewer: And which of these: Honesty or selflessness?
Madi: Selflessness leads to honesty.
Interviewer: Is there anything you can’t leave home without?
Madi: Well I literally can’t leave without my griffin, Maxon. *chuckles* But as far as a trinket or tool or something like that… I usually bring along my MP3 player.
Interviewer: Do you have any favorite songs or artists?
Madi: Favorite songs is hard, but I really like old music like MercyMe, Lexi Walker, Lindsey Stirling… I like a broad variety, but I generally tend toward old classic styles, instrumental, and Christian music.
Interviewer: *nods* That’s a good selection. *smiles* We’ve actually reached the end of the interview. It was great to talk to you. *extends a hand*
Madi: Yeah, it was great talking with you, too! *shakes Isabelle’s hand* I’ll talk to you later. *smiles and leaves*
September 4, 2018
A Guide to Blogging for the Fiction Writer
Almost everyone says you need a blog as part of your author platform. It’s a great way to connect with readers, and the core of it is writing, which is what we authors are good at. It’s pretty easy to find out how to do the technical stuff to start a blog, but you set up your blog and then… what? How do you actually use it to attract readers and build a platform? What do you write about? You actually have quite a few options.
Character Interviews
The most important thing for readers to connect to in a book is the characters. If they don’t connect with the characters, chances are they won’t be wowed by the book. With a blog, you have the perfect opportunity to get your readers engaged with your characters early with character interviews. I have a default list of questions for mine, but honestly that gets a bit boring after a while, even when my characters go and run off with extra explanation and the “interviewer” can ask follow-up questions. If you want a bit more variety and want to get your readers even more engaged, you could consider giving brief summaries of the character in advance and letting your blog readers send in questions. Then they’re invested in that question and answer and they’re more interested in the interview and character as a whole, plus you’re giving them the information they want about the character.
You could also have a longer list of questions that you rotate through, if you want something preset, somewhat varied, and less involved than collecting questions for every individual interview.
Story Snippets
You can also share actual snippets of your writing. This gets your readers familiar with your writing tone, and they can decide whether or not it’s a style they’re going to enjoy a full book’s worth of. (For some of them it won’t be. That’s okay.) They also get to know some of your characters, world, and writing all at once.
You can make these a regular thing or a more rare thing. (I’ve found I’m more excited about bloggers posting story snippets when they’re not something they usually share, but if you have a lot of stories and people are responding really well to your snippets it can also be effective more frequently.)
Once you’re further along in the writing process and have books published or about to be published, you can use snippets to heighten interest and drive sales, either with snippets directly from the published book or from related stories. For instance, I’ve used snippets from various stories set in Concordia as an opportunity to share my short story collection, because they’re related.
(As a side note, I apologize that I haven’t gotten snippets up the past couple of weeks. Snippet Sunday will be back next week.)
Book Reviews
Chances are, if you’re a writer you’re also a reader. Which is great, because so are your potential readers! Through your blog, you can review books in your genre and connect with your readers over common likes and dislikes, rant together about hated tropes, and fangirl (or fanboy) over amazing books. If people enjoy books similar to yours, chances are they’ll enjoy yours once it’s published, and you can use that to your advantage in marketing (using comp titles and similar methods). You can also use book reviews as an opportunity to show that you know what makes a story work or not with more detailed critique.
Writing Status Updates
You can also keep your readers up-to-date on what you’re working on currently. Are you struggling through a first draft? Moving steadily through edits? Breezing through a short story? Readers like knowing how far along their favorite authors are in their books, especially if you establish excitement early on (not too early, or you could end up putting too much pressure on yourself) for that specific book. It might also surprise your readers how long a book can take. (Or how little time it takes, if you’re one of those magic speed-writers. I applaud you.)
Honesty and vulnerability is also going to get you a long way with readers. If you’re struggling with some part of the writing process, don’t hide that from your update. You might be able to make it an encouragement for someone else or share a lesson learned. Even if you can’t, you’re going to earn points with your readers for your honesty. We like seeing that the people who have it all together are human too, and chances are you’ll also get some much-needed support and encouragement. (To clarify, I’m not saying to be mopey to elicit sympathy, but sharing your weaknesses can benefit both parties.)
Writing Tips
This is a bit different from the others, because it’s not likely to attract a whole lot of readers, it’s going to attract writers. Which is still good, because the writer community is awesome, and we’ve already established that writers are also readers, but these are people who are going to keep coming back for writing advice rather than in anticipation of your next book. Still, if you mix writing tips with book-related posts, chances are your writer followers are going to be almost as excited for your book as your reader followers (assuming your book is in their genre, and sometimes even when it’s not).
In addition, writing advice posts can be great learning opportunities for you. Putting your process and your thoughts on various aspects of writing into an orderly post can be great for revealing tidbits you hadn’t even consciously realized before, or shifting your thoughts to see things from a different angle.
Other Interests
Do you have another big interest that you can tie in with writing and reading? Are you a history buff who often ties history into her stories? Do you love music and find that becomes a big part of your writing as well? Or even if you don’t naturally tie the two (or more) together, is there a way you can bring them together for your blog? I have multiple posts here about music, because music is another thing I’m really passionate about, and I try to tie those in with writing. I also wrote a short story centered around music.
Related posts:
September 1, 2018
Farewell to August
I wrote about 24,500 words last month, out of my 45,000 goal. I don’t know how much of that went toward The Shadow Raven in the end, but it’s words toward something, at the very least, lol. There were a few days – including a couple in a row earlier this week – that I got a lot written of The Shadow Raven (1,500+), but overall it’s still slow going.
I just got The Heart of the Baenor back from my betas and I’m super excited to get to work on my 4th draft. ^-^ I didn’t come close to reaching my Kickstarter goal (I raised $168 of $1,500. :P), so I’m not sure where I’m gonna go beyond the 4th draft yet, but I am excited to edit it some more.
The first five chapters of The Last Assassin also made it into the top 800 of the Wattys Awards on Wattpad! (Basically a contest to find the best stories on Wattpad.) I’m not 100% sure how that happened since I’d thought I’d withdrawn it after removing chapters 6-30 because I didn’t think five chapters was enough to enter (not because it’s against the rules, just because it’s not that much), but scoring in the top 0.53%? Sure, I’ll take it, lol. I didn’t think it was even that good. (I’ve had a lot of people elsewhere tell me it feels like being pushed into the middle of a series, it feels like they’re expected to know too many characters up front, etc. and that’s something I want to fix when I go through and edit it.) But it’s pretty cool, and now I’m curious to see how far I end up getting.
I also became marketing manager for a project one of my writing groups is putting together, which means I oversee the people working on social media, I’m going to design the website once we get there, I help put together a logo, I help put together the brand aesthetic and figure out how to cater to our target audience, etc. I’m working with about six other people, so it’s not too difficult to keep everyone organized but communication is harder than you might think. Getting everyone on the same page, getting everyone working on what they need to work on, etc. But I’m enjoying it, for the most part, and I’m looking forward to getting to a point where I can start sharing more with everyone. :)
August’s Reading
I’ve actually finished ten books this month. I think this might be a record for this year. XD I read:
A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews (5 stars)
Fawkes by Nadine Brandes (4 stars)
The Extroverted Writer by Amanda Luedeke (5 stars)
Flames of Courage by Hannah Heath (5 stars)
I Am the Nightmare Slayer by Ryan J. Penland (5 stars)
Chronicles of Steele: Raven: Episode 1 by Pauline Creeden (5 stars)
and Eric Liddell by Catherine Swift (5 star story, 2 star writing)
I also finished:
Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris (5 stars)
Infraction by J.E. Purrazzi (5 stars)
and Quest for Seven Castles by Ed Dunlop (5 star story, 3 star writing due to the target age group)
Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good reading month. Although four of the books I read were short and one was for schoolwork. (Which also explains how I did so much reading and don’t particularly remember doing a lot of reading except for reading A Thousand Perfect Notes in one sitting.)
My current reads are:
Dragons’ Bane by Melody Jackson
The Sorcerer’s Daughter by Terry Brooks
The Clocks Have Stopped by J.L. Oakman
King’s Warrior by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt
and This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti
Other Stuff
My best friend launched her blog, Of Rainy Days and Stardust Veins, and it’s super cool! She shares her observations in a beautifully poetic style on a myriad of topics and her posts are really thought-provoking and lovely. Go check out her blog, see what she’s about, and if it sounds like something you’re interested in then give her a follow. ^-^ (No, I’m not just gushing because I’m her best friend. All of this is my 100% genuine opinion, mildly biased though it may be.)
What’s in store for September
Writing
I’d like to write 45k words this month, on any projects. Ideally 20k of that will be on The Shadow Raven and I’ll finally meet up its timeline with The Last Assassin’s, but we’ll see.
I’ll be working on the 4th draft of The Heart of the Baenor, which happens to be the perfect length for me to try out Fictionary with (it’s 15 chapters long and Fictionary has a 14-day free trial), so I’ll be doing that.
I’d like to also finish one short story and write two more in the Mirror-Hunter Chronicles series (which begins with Bag of Beans) so I can edit them in October and publish them as a set in November, but they’re a background project so that might not happen.
Reading
I want to finish all four of the books I’ve started so far, review three of them, and possibly read an ebook or two.
Other stuff
I’m planning a blog/Twitter event for October that I’ll be working on September, which I’m super excited to share with you. ^-^ I won’t be sharing details until it’s closer (probably the last week of September), but I can tell you it’ll be full of inspiration before NaNo. If you have a blog and you’d like to co-host for the second week of October, send me a message through my contact page and I’ll send you more details. ;)
This is all I can shaaare. D:How was your August? Did it fly by for you the same way it flew by for me? Did you have any big accomplishments? Letdowns? Do you have plans or goals for September? I’d love to hear about it down in the comments!
