D.M. Fike's Blog
August 4, 2021
Happy Birthday, Rising Scorn, Magic of Nasci Book #6!
Rising Scorn, Book 6 of the Magic of Nasci nature wizard series, is live!
http://mybook.to/Nasci6
Honestly, I could have left the series to end at Book 5. It had a plot arc that I was happy with and explored a decent chunk of the magical world I intended to build. The series, being a mostly urban fantasy but with YA elements and decidedly NOT set in a city, has been tough to promote. My goal with writing fantasy novels was to make part-time money, and I'm definitely still way off from getting there. In some ways, moving onto a new series makes a lot of business and creative sense.
But I still have a lot of stories I yearn to tell about Ina and the shepherds of Nasci. It's so easy for me to slip back into this world because I know most of these characters and their lives very intimately. I'd also garnered a decent fan base who keep asking when the next book is coming, which is immensely gratifying since that's never happened to me before. So I decided to commit to another 3 books that follow the events of Soaring in Air.
I hope you enjoy reading Ina's next adventures as much as I had writing them.
http://mybook.to/Nasci6
Honestly, I could have left the series to end at Book 5. It had a plot arc that I was happy with and explored a decent chunk of the magical world I intended to build. The series, being a mostly urban fantasy but with YA elements and decidedly NOT set in a city, has been tough to promote. My goal with writing fantasy novels was to make part-time money, and I'm definitely still way off from getting there. In some ways, moving onto a new series makes a lot of business and creative sense.
But I still have a lot of stories I yearn to tell about Ina and the shepherds of Nasci. It's so easy for me to slip back into this world because I know most of these characters and their lives very intimately. I'd also garnered a decent fan base who keep asking when the next book is coming, which is immensely gratifying since that's never happened to me before. So I decided to commit to another 3 books that follow the events of Soaring in Air.
I hope you enjoy reading Ina's next adventures as much as I had writing them.
January 27, 2021
A Childhood Dream 20 Years in the Making
I released 5 books in 2020, but I'll always consider Magic Portal, which releases today, my first polished book. Anyone who's suffered through me talking about writing a fantasy novel has heard about Llenwald. It's a magical world connected to our own that I've spent 2 decades fleshing out. I first wrote about this fairy-filled fantasy world back in high school, scribbling furiously on lined notebook paper.
It took me 5 years to finish the first 2 Llenwald books, and then I shelved them for good. They were exactly what you expect from a teenager: rough with no real overall vision. Although those first 2 books will never see the light of day, they became the world-building exercise I needed to flesh out the details of what would become Magic Portal. I wrote that book's first draft while teaching English in Japan after obtaining an undergraduate degree. I joined a writer's group that critiqued the first few chapters in between karaoke sessions. I finished a draft of that book in a year, but again, I shelved it because I knew it needed a lot of work.
I kept thinking during my graduate studies and my first job in the video game industry that I would come back to the novel. But when I switched from being a project manager to an actual game writer, writing in my off-hours after work was too draining. Then, I had kids and was emotionally tapped out. But I was always thinking about when I would actually finish a Llenwald novel for publication.
I finally returned to this book about 4 years ago. I edited it for a year before I realized it would be better served as a trilogy. It took me another few years to smooth all three books and finish the trio. I'd grown from meandering teenage babbler to seasoned storyteller: where characters grew, the plot made sense, and surprise twists were carefully constructed and not just dumped into the reader's lap.
Today, I believe this introduction to Llenwald is a solid story. I'm proud that this book represents my writing journey. If magical adventure, humor, fae folk, and portals to another world are your thing, I hope you enjoy reading this labor of love.
It took me 5 years to finish the first 2 Llenwald books, and then I shelved them for good. They were exactly what you expect from a teenager: rough with no real overall vision. Although those first 2 books will never see the light of day, they became the world-building exercise I needed to flesh out the details of what would become Magic Portal. I wrote that book's first draft while teaching English in Japan after obtaining an undergraduate degree. I joined a writer's group that critiqued the first few chapters in between karaoke sessions. I finished a draft of that book in a year, but again, I shelved it because I knew it needed a lot of work.
I kept thinking during my graduate studies and my first job in the video game industry that I would come back to the novel. But when I switched from being a project manager to an actual game writer, writing in my off-hours after work was too draining. Then, I had kids and was emotionally tapped out. But I was always thinking about when I would actually finish a Llenwald novel for publication.
I finally returned to this book about 4 years ago. I edited it for a year before I realized it would be better served as a trilogy. It took me another few years to smooth all three books and finish the trio. I'd grown from meandering teenage babbler to seasoned storyteller: where characters grew, the plot made sense, and surprise twists were carefully constructed and not just dumped into the reader's lap.
Today, I believe this introduction to Llenwald is a solid story. I'm proud that this book represents my writing journey. If magical adventure, humor, fae folk, and portals to another world are your thing, I hope you enjoy reading this labor of love.
September 2, 2020
When Real Life and Fiction Collide
Book 3 of my nature wizard series, Running into Fire, came out today as an eBook and in Kindle Unlimited. That, in and of itself, is a huge deal to me, but the book's launch came with a strange coincidence. Although the plot focuses on Oregon's fall fire season, I wrote this story in the spring when Oregon is overcast and wet. I chose a location for a forest fire not thinking much of it, but three days ago, an actual real forest fire started where I wrote one in the book.
Luckily, as of this writing, there's been no homes or lives lost, and a barrier has been placed around the entire blaze. However, things can change from moment to moment, and our community only reached this point through the hard work of some brave heroes. So here's to all the firefighters, both in Oregon and across the globe, who are battling fires during the summer season. I appreciate all they do.
Luckily, as of this writing, there's been no homes or lives lost, and a barrier has been placed around the entire blaze. However, things can change from moment to moment, and our community only reached this point through the hard work of some brave heroes. So here's to all the firefighters, both in Oregon and across the globe, who are battling fires during the summer season. I appreciate all they do.
June 3, 2020
Naming the Shepherds of Nasci
One of the most challenging part of writing a story is to come up with character names. In the past, I've used names that have personal meaning to me or just "sound cool." For Chasing Lightning, though, I wanted the names of the shepherd characters to reflect the fact that they were part of a secret society of nature-based magic users. Because of that decision, most of their names have a hidden meaning.
My most nuanced name goes to the main character, Ina (rhymes with "Tina"). The daughter of a white woman and a Japanese man, I wanted her name to not only reflect her upbringing, but her unique position as the only lightning wielder among the shepherds. The name on her birth certificate is "Imogene Nakamori." Her last name by itself in Japanese, 中森, means inside the forest, foreshadowing her nature-based powers.
When she became a shepherd, she took the first syllable from each name ("I" or い in Japanese) and ("Na" or な) to create her magic name ("Ina" or いな). "Ina" is a nod to the Inari shrines of Japan, which are heavily associated with fox spirits called kitsune (狐). Kitsune are powerful supernatural creatures in Japanese mythology, often sly and cunning, and sometimes possess the ability to generate lightning.
Most of the other followers of Nasci also have hidden name meanings:
Guntram, the experienced mentor figure who trains Ina, literally translates to "war raven" in German. This pairs well with the flock of kidama ravens that always follows this elemental air master around.
Darby and Tabitha, aka "the Sassy Squad" that antagonizes Ina, mean "deer" and "gazelle" respectively. Again, this tracks with the fact that augur Tabitha commands kidama black-tailed deer, and her pupil Darby follows strongly in her footsteps.
Sipho, forgemaster extraordinaire, has a southern African name meaning "gift" because without her etchings and charms, the shepherds could not survive their vaettur encounters.
Even the animal companions in the book have appropriate names:
Fechin, Guntram's number one henchbird, means "little raven" in Irish.
Jortur, one of Tabitha's kidama black-tailed deer, is a corrupted version of the old Norse name Hjortr, meaning "hart, stag."
Nur and Kam, Sipho's mountain lions, are both derivatives of Swahili names that reflect which parts of the day each cat is active. Nuru means "born in daylight" while Kamari means "beauty of the moon."
My most nuanced name goes to the main character, Ina (rhymes with "Tina"). The daughter of a white woman and a Japanese man, I wanted her name to not only reflect her upbringing, but her unique position as the only lightning wielder among the shepherds. The name on her birth certificate is "Imogene Nakamori." Her last name by itself in Japanese, 中森, means inside the forest, foreshadowing her nature-based powers.
When she became a shepherd, she took the first syllable from each name ("I" or い in Japanese) and ("Na" or な) to create her magic name ("Ina" or いな). "Ina" is a nod to the Inari shrines of Japan, which are heavily associated with fox spirits called kitsune (狐). Kitsune are powerful supernatural creatures in Japanese mythology, often sly and cunning, and sometimes possess the ability to generate lightning.
Most of the other followers of Nasci also have hidden name meanings:
Guntram, the experienced mentor figure who trains Ina, literally translates to "war raven" in German. This pairs well with the flock of kidama ravens that always follows this elemental air master around.
Darby and Tabitha, aka "the Sassy Squad" that antagonizes Ina, mean "deer" and "gazelle" respectively. Again, this tracks with the fact that augur Tabitha commands kidama black-tailed deer, and her pupil Darby follows strongly in her footsteps.
Sipho, forgemaster extraordinaire, has a southern African name meaning "gift" because without her etchings and charms, the shepherds could not survive their vaettur encounters.
Even the animal companions in the book have appropriate names:
Fechin, Guntram's number one henchbird, means "little raven" in Irish.
Jortur, one of Tabitha's kidama black-tailed deer, is a corrupted version of the old Norse name Hjortr, meaning "hart, stag."
Nur and Kam, Sipho's mountain lions, are both derivatives of Swahili names that reflect which parts of the day each cat is active. Nuru means "born in daylight" while Kamari means "beauty of the moon."
