Lindsay McCafferty's Blog, page 5

A Fantasy Author’s Search History: What is the definition of arcane?

I came under the impression that arcane meant magical. I don’t know why. The actual definition means secret, obscure, and mysterious. I used it incorrectly in Reawakened Flames to mean magical, but I think it is still okay in how it is used.

A Fantasy Author’s Search History: When was the medieval period?

Perhaps the most important question when writing medieval fiction is to know when the real medieval time period was so that when you do research, you can be mostly accurate on what kinds of things are in the book. Of course, there’s always room to take some creative liberties.

From what I have looked up, the medieval period (Middle Ages/Dark Ages) seemed to last from about 500 to 1500 A.D. (or C.E.). I’ve also seen more exact numbers of 476 to 1492.

Journal Entries Part 8

This entry was basically just providing little updates and containing more stepping on toes of copyrighted works. I had been able to get a lot of work done because it was Christmas break. During the school year, work on my personal writing was spotty at best. Also, I accidentally put the year of the entry as 2008. Do you ever do that, forget to use the new year number for a few weeks at the start of the year?

January 1, 2008

I am happy to report that the story is picking up speed....

Amelia Quote

There’s something about Amelia. She has a more complicated past than you think that will be revealed in due time.

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.