Lindsay McCafferty's Blog, page 5

Narnia Series Influence on Sparks Shall Rise

The Chronicles of Narnia’s largest influence on Sparks Shall Rise was how C. S. Lewis used talking animal characters. I love them in the books and how they were portrayed in the movies. They could feel like something more than just characters made for children.

A Fantasy Author’s Search History: What is the difference between a knife and a dagger?

While I was writing, I suddenly realized that there is probably a difference between a knife and a dagger. A dagger is symmetrical and double-edged and is definitely used as a weapon while a knife is normally only sharp on one edge and is more of a tool. Of course, I’m sure there are always exceptions to the rule. I’ve ended up writing characters having knives that are used for battle.

A Stormy Release

This year is going into my sixth year of self-publishing. I haven’t made it to where I want to be, but I feel like I’m finally getting my feet under me. I know what I want out of publishing and am ready to keep moving forward with putting more books out, including a few fun book side projects that you will find out about soon.

In the process of figuring out how I wanted my own publishing journey to go, I looked through all of my stuff and restructured everything to make it more simple an...

Book Duds

I publish my print books through Amazon KDP. Most of the time, the proof and author copies come in great condition. I don’t know what happened here in this older author copy. It put the half title page in the back of the book. Any book duds that you’ve encountered?

World Book Day 2024

Happy World Book Day! I wanted to highlight both the best books I have ever read and that the Lord of the Rings greatly influenced my fantasy series. This is the series that got me into the fantasy genre and helped lay a foundation for my own writing from medieval settings, fantasy battles, and fantasy creatures, as well as the epic scale of the story.

A Stormy Path Final Word Count

The final word count for A Stormy Path is 25,506, and there are 26 chapters. This is compared to the 16,897 words and 24 chapters in the first draft.

A Stormy Path Map Edits

The map for the Sparks Shall Rise series is always in a state of being updated book to book. When I need to tell my designer what edits to make, I upload the map into Paint and add or erase whatever I need to. And then Miblart makes my rough drawings prettier.

A Stormy Path Map

This is the updated map featured in A Stormy Path, illustrated by Miblart. I decided to add things like structure drawings to make more room for other text. And the drawings add more charm to the map. I also realized that I never had a name for the ocean, so that was added.

World Poetry Day 2024

Happy World Poetry Day! This is a poem pulled from my third book, A Stormy Path. I had mentioned in Reawakened Flames that Aria likes to write poetry, but I never featured any poems. So I made sure to expand on that idea in the third book.

Today was actually another stormy day, so the poem works perfectly.

A Stormy Path Full Cover

Here is the full cover of A Stormy Path designed by Miblart. I continue to be amazed by how beautiful these covers turn out. And they fit the tones of the stories so well.