M.B. Aznoe's Blog, page 5

Contentment

But godliness with contentment is great gain. ~ 1 Timothy 6:6

I (B.) was recently convicted (again!) with this verse.  I think contentment is one of the hardest virtues to attain especially for Americans.  Our entire marketing system is based on the sad reality that no one ever thinks they have enough.  And authors are not immune from the pull of discontentment.

We are bombarded constantly by things that promise larger audiences or help in “hitting it big”.  We are told that “just a few more reviews” will help get us there.  Or a better book.  Or a better whatever.  In the face of all of this, it’s hard to keep our focus on the One who gave us the stories in the first place.  Lack of contentment grows strong in the void created by lack of thankfulness.  We forget to thank God for how far He’s brought us and trust Him to guide us to where we need to be.  And often we forget to be thankful for the readers we have.

So as we’ve just passed Elvensty’s first birthday, we just want to tell all of our readers how thankful we are for them.  Thank you for all of your support and encouragement.  Thank you for reading our blogs and posts on whatever platform you follow us.  Thank you to those of you who have left reviews and ratings on our book.  They were and are a huge encouragement to us.  All of this also helps us to keep going when discouragement hits and we question why we are even doing this.  And it helps to know that there are some people just as excited about Dalmain as we are.

We pray that you will be strengthened and encouraged in God’s presence today and all days.  May we give up the striving for our glory and instead glorify the King of Kings.  May we never forget to be thankful for that which He so graciously gives us.

Because of Jesus,

M. B. Aznoe

Elvensty Discounted Through Sunday, April 21, 2019

For Easter weekend, we are running a sale through Sunday evening on Elvensty.  Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CWL97JJ

Literacy: An Amazing Gift from God

The other day, we went to watch a movie. We don’t often watch movies anymore because we simply don’t have time and too often the values presented within are contrary to our own. However, this movie intrigued us, so we took our oldest three children and went. It was called Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy.  It began as an apologetic for Mosaic authorship of the first five books of the Bible and ended up being an exploration of the amazing invention of the alphabet. Instead of thousands of unique symbols, one for each word, which required years of dedicated study to master, the alphabet translated the unique sounds of spoken language into a much smaller set of characters.  This, combined with the later invention of the printing press, allowed the written word to be learned by virtually everyone.  As we walked out of the movie, we couldn’t help but reflect on how God has been working throughout history to bring His very own words to the hands of His people. Often, living here in the English speaking world where books are affordable and plentiful, we often forget how precious the ability to read is.

Many people groups around the world are without a full translation of the Bible.  Not only do translators have to translate the Bible’s Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into the language of the local people, they often are faced with creating a whole new alphabet.  They set up schools to teach children and adults how to read their written language, usually using the Bible as the curriculum. The belief that God gave us His written word has driven His people throughout the ages to teach literacy so that people could read the Bible for themselves — first with the Hebrews and later in the Christian church.

We tried to capture a picture of these challenges in our books.  Like many people in our world today, the Jyrye do not possess a full translation of the Bible in their language, having only picture books to tell the stories.  Palo, an uneducated former Fleggish slave, does not have the ability to read. The Dormankye have never seen the Book of the Way in any form.  On top of this, cultural differences create their own unique challenges, much like missionaries face in our world.

When we hold a Bible within our hands, do we even realize how much of blessing it is?  God had given us a precious gift in His written word.  We should read it, treasure it, and never forget that we are called to share it with the world.

Where It All Began

The story of Jerro that we reference in our books is an actual book that I (B.) wrote before we even started writing Elvensty.  It was to be the first of a series written for a junior high audience.  Though we never released it, the story helped flesh out the concepts that eventually became backstory of The Swordflower Saga.  In Elvensty, Palo gives an abbreviated version of the original “legend”, but his version is not quite accurate as so often happens in oral history.  In Dalmain, we plan to go to the Halls of Knowledge where Palo grew up and where the story of Jerro started.

While the Jerro book is mostly complete, it still needs some polishing before it would be fit for publication.  We may yet release this story, but for now, we have a series to complete!  However, we thought that we would share the first few paragraphs of that book with you.

On Spreadsheets and Calculators

One of our main writing tools is spreadsheets.  This is M.’s specialty, and he may go a bit overboard in the use of them.  We have our Master Calendar Spreadsheet along with book specific sub-calendars.  We have a spreadsheet of the temperatures for the Crossing and the Hiding and how they would affect the planet’s climate.  We have a spreadsheet for the characters split into Auxule, Jyrye, Fleggish, and Dormankye along with a separate spreadsheet for terms and definitions.

Probably our most used spreadsheet though is the distance and time sheet.  M. found how long each method of transportation takes, how far each city is from one another, and made a calculator so we can plug in distance, method of transport, how many hours traveled per day, and find out how many days it would take to get from place to place.

 

It’s amazing how often the distance that we calculate end up being perfect for what we need in the story though often we add in what we call fudge factor since we all know that nothing ever goes as planned.  And yes, there are a few new towns in this sheet that you haven’t been to yet, but that is all we’ll say about that.

Be Still My Soul

We were snowed in on a Sunday afternoon, so we decided to put together a video for one of the songs from Auxland.  This song was played on a flute by Palo in the story, and we wrote new “translated” lyrics based on the hymn “Be Still My Soul”.  This is one of our favorite hymns, and we really like how the lyrics turned out, combining a couple lesser known verses of the hymn.

You can see the video here.

True Companion

 

This song was written many years ago when M. was having a pity party (not unlike the one Aya had in Auxland!).  He was the worship leader for the college group and had scheduled a practice only to have no one show up.  So he did what anyone might of have done and skipped the main church service.  As he was struggling through the feeling of loneliness, bells began ringing around the town he lived in.  Sitting at his keyboard, he began to play along with the ringing bells and this song was born.  As he prayed over the situation, he began to realize that though everyone might fail him, God never did.  And beyond this, he failed God all the time.

God is the only one who never fails us, and it’s because of His faithfulness that we are able to trust in Him even when everything falls apart around us.  It is this hope that keeps us going every day.

The Uniqueness of Similarities

As an author, one of the most difficult things is writing believable characters. Every person has oddities and unique foibles that make up who they are and yet there are enough similarities to have them begin blending together. For example, one of the popular personality tests places everyone into 16 little boxes which gives indication that each personality type is the same. The idea of certain love languages makes one think that we each want certain things to the exclusion of others and the idea of certain learning types makes us cater to each person in that specific way.

The problem with all of this is that each person has flavors and nuances that make them stand out from everyone else. We are dealing with similarities but not sameness and we are not allowing for the growth of the person. I think most of us just want every person put in a nice, neat box that we can plug in our formula and make them happy. However, most of us, if we are honest, know this is not reality. Sometimes even those closest to us can surprise us with unexpected behavior, and there are times when we are on the receiving end of the surprised looks when we do something seemingly out of character.

The fact is the Bible deals with individuals and not generalities. The only generalities it deals in are the common sins we struggle with. While it points to pride, greed, selfishness, and the like as the root cause for our problems, it leaves it to us to wrestle with how each of us struggle with them and what it looks like for each of us. We know everyone is sinful and everyone needs a Savior, but when you talk to people individually, you quickly find each story of salvation is unique according to what God knew they needed. It makes each person’s story a marvel, no matter how much they think it’s hum-drum.

Stepping off of my soapbox, I’ll return to the concept of story characters. It’s hard as an author to quantify each of our individual characters. What really makes them tick and how really would they act? One of the things my husband and I like to speculate on is what each character would have done if they had been placed in a certain situation. For example: What would Kintrye have done if he had been the one to marry Aya? How would that relationship have worked? What would Lu have done if Khomar had not rescued Aya when he did?

Delving into the what-if’s can help us formulate who each character really is and what motivates them. They are not merely a personality type but a living breathing person who may break out at any moment and surprise you. But just like when those real people around us do it, they must do it with motivations that are believable even when they never come into the story.

So as we go into the New Year, maybe we should all resolve not to box in our friends and loved ones but instead allow room for Christ to work in their lives, even as we allow Him to work in ours. Don’t allow the world to define what you should look like but focus on the One who not only created you in the womb but sustains you throughout your life. Perhaps He is calling you to break out of your own box and step into a role foreign to you. Perhaps He is doing so to someone you love. If God is calling you into something beyond you, remember the words of God spoke to Joshua:

Aventye

When B. first envisioned the world of our books, it had a dual star system. This begged the question: what kind of impact would such a solar system have on its inhabitants? In two star systems, the suns typically orbit around each other, so they would likely mark their calendar by the orientation of their two stars. As each sun passed in front of the other, the temperatures would drop much like it gets cold during a solar eclipse on earth. We decided to make one sun larger and warmer than the other, so when the smaller one crossed before the larger one, we termed it “The Crossing”. It was this event that triggered the planet’s winter season and marked the New Year.

Now came the question of holidays. Part of the backstory to our tale was the arrival of scientists and missionaries from Earth (Territes). In a world whose calendar is very different from our own, how would they commemorate such events as Christmas and Resurrection Sunday? When considering their solar calendar, the answers became obvious. Christmas became Aventye, a four week celebration that begins at the height of the Crossing, based on our own Advent. Resurrection Sunday became Pasyaltide during the “Hiding” when the smaller sun passes behind the larger one (more on this when book 4 comes out).

So, as we enter our own Christmas season, we introduce you to the first holiday of Elvensty, the Aventye of Hope. For our characters, this carries a double-meaning: the hope of the New Year as the promised hope of the Messiah that was fulfilled when Jesus Christ was born. It is on this day that we remember the days of Moses, the prophets, and the nation of Israel as they looked forward in Hope for the Savior that was to come and atone for their sins.

Auxland has been released into the Wylds!

Auxland, Book 2 of the Swordflower Saga

Auxland is now live on Amazon and available for Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Paperback. We currently working with Amazon to get the versions linked on their site, but for now, here are the links for the two versions.

Kindle

Paperback