M.B. Aznoe's Blog, page 6

Auxland Available for Pre-Ordering!

Auxland, book 2 of the Swordflower Saga is available for pre-order on Amazon (kindle only). Unfortunately, Amazon does not allow pre-order for paperbacks, but one will be available on the release date, December 1st!

You can pre-order the book here.

 

The Goodness of God

Today I (B.) was reading in the Psalms and came across a verse that leaped off the page. “Announce every day how He delivers!” ~ Psalm 96:2b. This both convicted me and made my heart rejoice. The last few weeks have been hard with hospital visits, hacking attempts, allergic reactions, and the weight of responsibility when one’s spouse is ill.

And yet God has delivered beyond our expectations. Somehow through these hardships, we’ve been able to do a lot of editing on our new book as well as some important housekeeping things for Elvensty. These glimmers of hope in the midst of darkness are what keep us going in the dry deserts. This song, “Prayer for Rain”, epitomizes our feelings over the last two weeks.

So now we have revamped our website, have up a picture of us on all of our social media sites (thanks again to Through the Lens 406), and are over halfway done with edits on Auxland!

As a side note, More Than i is what we publish our songs under. Any song not cited in our books is original and copyrighted under the creative commons copyright. We hope to eventually get the sheet music for them up here as well.

Writing Together

One of the first questions we are asked when we say that we write together as a couple is “How do you do it?” The simple answer is: together! Here is a picture of our computer setup (complete with our feline critic).

 

My wife and I (M.) sit in our own chairs, and usually, I have the keyboard (what can I say? I have control issues).  Then we work through each scene together with each giving input into the writing.  Often I start typing the sentences with B. critiquing my grammar and style.  We typically work in the evenings once the kids have gone to bed for 2-3 hours, though during crunch times, we also will work on the book in the mornings and weekends.

And then, of course, we talk. And talk. And talk… until our kids are almost tired of hearing us planning out our story. For every hour of writing, we probably have two hours of conversation while we are driving to the store or to church or getting ready for work, eating dinner, cleaning, etc.

Just like in marriage, communication, time, and patience with one another are the keys. We have both learned to hold to our writing loosely as we have both had to see some treasured descriptions or conversations be sacrificed for the sake of the overall flow and direction of the story.  It can be tense at times as we cut favorite scenes and even characters.  But we each recognize the need to tell the story that God has given us, and sometimes scenes distract from the greater story.

We also recognize that together we are far better writers than when we are apart. I (M.) am generally stronger when it comes to descriptions, prose, and flow. I can visualize a scene, and I have a strong desire for accuracy and fidelity in the story.  I even have made spreadsheets for keeping track of calendars, weather patterns, distances traveled, and other boring stuff.

B.’s strength comes in the dialog and the characters. She has the better feel for the cadence and speaking styles of the characters (except for Lu, whose way of speaking appeals to my more flowery style of writing). She also keeps us on task with the overall plot and makes sure we actually make progress when I start getting bogged down trying to get every word perfect.

Without B., I would be lucky to finish a chapter, let alone a book, but I am able to rework B.’s great ideas into a more compelling narrative that has better flow and style. Honestly, I am generalizing a lot here and maybe overstating some things. Our strengths and weaknesses overlap quite a lot so that it is really hard to see where one begins and the other ends at times. All we know is that when we work together the result turns out pretty well!

And under-girding all of this is our common faith in God. We know that there is a deeper purpose behind what we are doing that motivates and propels us through the hard times both in writing and in life.  We are both pursing knowing God more fully and intimately, and that has continually upheld us throughout our fifteen years of marriage.  God knew what He was doing when He brought the two of us together, and it is a thrill to see where God is taking us on this new adventure of writing.

M.

Auxland is coming!

Well, we have now finished the second round of edits for the next book in the series: Auxland.  It continues to amaze me how God graciously gives the ideas and brings them to fruition in ways we never expected.  In answer to a common question: Yes, we do have an overarching plot throughout the entire series, but no, we do not have the minute details worked out.  As we write, we constantly have to ask ourselves what the ramifications to the rest of the books in the series will be.  It’s a constant struggle as we work through each book not to write ourselves into a corner.  However, once we finished this draft, we looked at each other and said, “I think that’s it.”  There will still be polishing and tweaking to the book, of course, but the main plot is done.  It is a great feeling to reach that point in any book and even more so since it looks as though we will meet the deadline we set for December of this year. (We have gone through doubts as we struggled through the first drafts.)  Now we will be concentrating on doing a few miscellaneous things while we have a few friends read through Auxland and give feed back on it.

If you haven’t done so already check out our page on Facebook.   We are also on Twitter and Goodreads.  And then you can always sign up for our newsletter.  Don’t forget to do the email verification or we cannot send it to you.  We are working to keep all of these things updated more regularly.

B.

And our Wandering continues

It has been a difficult month. In addition to all of the normal school wrap up, the house we were renting was sold, so that meant yet another house search with yet another move. Fortunately, we serve a God who always provides what we need, when we need it. And once again, God demonstrated his faithfulness.

Our new house fell into place just when we needed it. We are technically moved in. I say technically because we still have a garage full of boxes. M. made the mistake of asking me the other day where something of his was and I, being the kind-hearted wife that I am, replied, “It’s in the garage.”

So now with most of our essentials unpacked, we are trying to get back into the habit of writing once again. When we took our moving hiatus from writing, we were over 330 pages into Auxland but had decided to go back and rewrite quite a few scenes. So we are in what we call our 2nd Draft. Here’s a quick snippet from scene 1:

The Ghor Mountains loomed to their right. Their white peaks glistened in the afternoon suns, but dark clouds loomed ahead promising yet another winter storm before the night ended. Khomar had assured Aya it was beautiful up here in the highlands in the summer when the verdant meadows were dotted with lilac and cerulean wildflowers and the mountain streams were loud and full. All she had seen so far was frozen and cold. And white, endless white. She wanted nothing more than to feel her feet sinking into the warm sand of the beaches back home.

His Hand (full version of the song)

The song “His Hand” was originally written almost 20 years ago. It was penned during the worst business trip of my (M’s) life (if you want to read the story, go here). While writing Elvensty, when we reached the scene where Aya was playing Dhrudmon’s lute, we realized that the lyrics of that song matched perfectly with the fears and doubts that Aya was feeling in that moment.

If you were curious to know what the song sounded like, here is a recording we put together several years ago with the complete lyrics to the song. We hope it encourages you!

(ps. We apologize in advance that it does not feature a lute.)

His Hand (full version)

The song “His Hand” was originally written almost 20 years ago. It was penned during the worst business trip of my (M’s) life (if you want to read the story, go here). While writing Elvensty, when we reached the scene where Aya was playing Dhrudmon’s lute, we realized that the lyrics of that song matched perfectly with the fears and doubts that Aya was feeling in that moment.

If you were curious to know what the song sounded like, here is a recording we put together several years ago with the complete lyrics to the song. We hope it encourages you!

(ps. We apologize in advance that it does not feature a lute.)

The What-ifs Behind the Story

The concept of the world behind Elvensty began as a series of what-if’s that came to my (B’s) mind when I was a teenager.  I had read a book set in the time of Noah.  Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of it nor who wrote it.  However, I do remember its concept was that the people of Noah’s time may have been more advanced than we are today.  The people in Genesis lived longer than we do today but were still just as smart and capable, if not more so, due to their longevity.  How many times do we hear of a brilliant person dying young today and wonder what they could have accomplished if they had been granted more years?

So the thought came to me: what if sometime, either pre-flood or even around the tower of Babel, people actually made it into outer space?  I remembered in the Biblical account of the tower of Babel, the people were trying to reach the heavens.  So I began to think, what if our understanding of Babel is wrong?  What if it was actually something that enabled space flight (to reach the heavens)?  What if a group of people made it to a distant planet before God confused the languages?

These people would have lost contact with Earth when the peoples here were scattered.  They would have developed cultures and traditions in isolation from those here on Earth.  They would probably be behind Earth technologically because of the relative scarcity of people on that distant planet.  They would be starting virtually from scratch with only the knowledge they brought with them.

God desires that all men be saved.  So if this had happened, would not God want them to be saved as well?  What if He allowed spaceflight once again just so we could reach out to those people on that distant planet to tell them of the salvation to be found in Jesus? What if, upon arriving on the new planet, those missionaries found themselves cut off from earth and forced to live among the peoples there?  How would the Gospel translate into that new world with its own calendar, traditions, and history?

These questions form the back drop to the world of Elvensty.

B.

Elvensty is Available on Kindle!

Elvensty, book one of the Swordflower Saga, is now available on Kindle!

If you read the book, please consider leaving a review to help other people discover this book too!

Coming Soon – Elvensty!

Coming May 2018: Elvensty- Book One of the Swordflower Saga.

Khomar’s innate ability to block all empathic attacks had cracked open the doors to the Elvensty Academy, despite his being half Auxule. But it was his secret gift, one he could barely control, that would send him into the Wylds of Dalmain with Aya, a Jyrye girl he barely knew.

With the Crossing of the two suns about to unleash the bitter winds of winter, Khomar is charged with leading Aya to safety while being pursued by rogue empaths. As questions surrounding Aya are answered, they will find their faith in God pushed to the limit as their lives are irrevocably changed.