Christiane Knight's Blog, page 7

Rapid Fire Reading at Balticon 57!

If you’re going to be at Balticon 57 this Memorial Day weekend, please stop by for the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading on May 27th!

It’s happening at 5:30pm in room 7029 and includes Randee Dawn (moderator), Morgan Hazelwood, Roberta Rogow, D. H. Timpko, and myself. It’s my first RFR with Broad Universe so I’d love to have friendly faces there!

I’ll be reading an excerpt from Cast a Shadow of Doubt and giving away some books and bookmarks/postcards.

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SPFBO and Being Brave and Bold

One of my pledges to myself this year was that as soon as I was stable enough, health-wise, I was going to start making up for all the things that I’ve missed out on thanks to being sick – and to be brave and bold and go for opportunities, even if I’m unsure how they’ll work out for me.

It’s not that I’m risk adverse. In fact, I’m laughing as I type that, because anyone who truly knows me absolutely knows how bold and occasionally rash I can be. As the Eleriannan might say, “audentes fortuna iuvat” – and that’s been proven true for more times than I can count. Being brave and bold gets you more than sitting around waiting for things to fall into your lap, y’all.

All this is my long winded way of saying that I entered In Sleep You Know into the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off or SPFBO 9, which is a contest designed to put a spotlight on, as the title suggests, self-published fantasy novels. It is organized yearly by Mark Lawrence, and this is the ninth year. Three hundred book submissions are divided amongst ten blogs, who read, review, and eliminate the selections until they find the one book they’ll put into the final round.

The second round is where all the judging blogs get the finalist books to review and make a decision between. At the end of the process, a winning book [and also a winning cover, in a separate, concurrent contest] will be chosen and crowned the winner of SPFBO. Yay! The entire process takes about a year, so expect occasional updates as things progress.

I’ve gone into this with zero expectations in any direction other than finding some new reads, getting some exposure, and making some new writing and reviewing friends/contacts. The experience is worth it! [though of course I want to win, but truly that’s not the reason to enter]

If you want to see all of the entries and what blogs will be doing the reviewing – which I highly recommend, get you some new reads – you can go here [there’s also stats about SPFBO and other interesting info] and here [a gorgeous visual layout where you can see all the covers and click easily on each story’s link].

In other brave and bold news:

I’ll be participating in the Broad Universe members Rapid-Fire Reading at Balticon! As soon as I get the scheduled time and details I’ll make sure to post them. I decided that I’m going to start taking a writing class monthly, to continue to hone my craft and re-invest in myself. The one for June is going to be Embodied Characters, taught by my brilliant friend Marianne Kirby! It’s being hosted by Neon Hemlock and if you’d like to take it too, the link is here – https://www.neonhemlock.com/neon-salonI started going back to the gym this week! This is a huge deal because I’m trying to regain strength and stamina that I lost while I was mostly housebound. I’m glad to report that I’m not nearly as weak as I thought I might be!I had an iced chai latte with almond milk and it didn’t wreck my guts. *throws confetti*

What brave and bold things have you done lately? I want to know! Hit reply and leave a comment so that I can cheer you on, too.

Today’s brave and bold soundtrack: D-Day by Agust D. Stream it here: https://open.spotify.com/album/446ROKmKfpEwkbi2SjELVX?si=t4gM9tqBT6ysbTDP3tz3JQ

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Getting Close Now: progress check-in

Hello friends! It’s time for an update on my writing progress, and it’s great news – I am SO CLOSE to getting the first draft of this book finished!

As of this blog post, I’ve got about 21,000 words to hit my word goal!

That’s about five chapters, to put it into perspective. I know, right?

Some things to know about the whole process:

This is a tentative goal, but I generally aim for about 120,000 to 125,000 words for a novel. The word count will change as I go into revision.This is my first draft, so some things may change drastically when I revise, but usually that’s not the case for me.A chapter for my books usually runs an average of 4,000 words. I’m at the point now as a writer where I seem to know instinctively where to start gathering all the various plot points together. When I realized that, I was blown away!The last ten chapters seem to take the longest to write.

Expounding on that last point – my whole writing process slows down when I get to the last parts of the story. And it makes sense, of course, because there’s usually so many things to carefully weave together, making sure nothing gets left behind. Plus, this is where the “big action” of the story takes place, often with physical scenes and a lot more character interaction that all has to be carefully plotted out and sometimes even acted out by me to make sure that it all makes sense and reads properly.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to pose myself to make sure what I’m describing makes sense and works the way I want it to, ha. Or research things like, I dunno… sun angles, location maps, names of specific armor, animal facts. The list goes on and on. Recently I got sidetracked by a search of specific nautical terms.

Photo by Barna Kovacs on Unsplash

Once I’m finished with the first draft, I’ll go in for revisions, round one. Some people pause between phases of writing their book, and I like to pause between revisions and editing. I prefer to revise while the story is fresh in my head, and while I remember exactly what I knew I’d need to go back and rearrange or pretty-up. Sometimes, you just need to get the scene down on the page, you know, before you lose that spark.

So I’ll revise, then I’ll rest the story for a short period and work on other things, so that I can come back to it with fresh eyes and mind for the editing process. Once I’ve gone over it approximately ONE MILLION TIMES I’ll send it to a professional editor. Then they’ll go over it a bunch and then it comes back to me for changes and EVEN MORE CHECKING.

You may have noticed that this means I’ll have read this story a substantial number of times before you ever do.

I’ve probably read my stories more times than anyone ever will. Not because I’m my #1 fan or anything, but to fact-check, to re-immerse myself in the storyline, to look for quotes, and… sometimes just for fun. THAT’S RIGHT, I SAID IT. I read my own books because I like them!

I love my characters. I mean, they live in my head, I’m close to them! I also love the settings in my books, and they’re detailed enough that I have to go back and check “Was this on the left or the right? Where exactly is the door to the courtyard in relation to the kitchen?” Trust me, those little details matter. Someone will notice if I screw it up! I actually recently wrote out a long walk-through of The Maithe for that reason. Maybe one day I’ll share it!

That’s my update for now. Once the first draft is finished I’ll talk some more about it and start giving you more thorough introductions to the characters and what they’re all about. But for now, thank you for reading, and if you have any questions about my process, please do reply below!

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My Secret Pen Pal Revealed

When I write journal entries these days, I address them to Yoongi. He’s like a secret pen-pal, except these are letters that I’ll never mail, to a person I’ll never know.

There’s a good chance you’re asking who that is, so let me explain.

Min Yoongi [ 민윤기 ] is part of the rap line in the Korean band Bangtan Sonyeondan – 방탄 소년단 – otherwise known as BTS, where he goes by his stage name SUGA. He’s also a solo musician under the name Agust D. He recently released the last album in his trilogy using that name, a series of works that delve deep into his pain, fears, and inner workings in a way that is astonishingly vulnerable and soul-shaking.

I’m used to people tuning out or worse when I mention BTS, which is something that deserves its own essay, because I’ve seen too many folks dismiss them for superficial reasons that have nothing to do with their music. But if you’ve ever struggled at all with mental health, or fighting your way up from nothing, or battling yourself as you try to heal and understand who you are and can be, Yoongi has words for you. He’s got empathy and shared tales of pain and insight to spare. And hope, so much hope to share with us.

Quote from Yoongi: translated/shared thanks to DoolsetBangtan.

He wants you to dream, but he also tells you that it’s okay if you don’t have one. He advises that quitting decisively is also a form of courage. Those are messages that are rare to hear in this world where everything’s about measured and flaunted successes. He even honestly points out that for a long time he fell into that trap of being greedy for success, a shadow that almost swallowed him.

He understands that failing also teaches important lessons, and pain can lead to breakthroughs, if we dare to face it so that we can understand why we’re in pain. Again, it’s a message that doesn’t get said enough.

I started addressing my journal entries to Yoongi about a year ago. Things were going really poorly for me, health-wise, and I was deeply depressed and scared and felt very alone. Those feelings also dredged up a lot of past trauma, because even when you’re healed or as close as you can be healed from past events, they still live in your brain. [see Agust D’s Amygdala, which I mention below]

I don’t really have people I can tell all the details about the things I feel when it comes to my illness. I mean, I could tell some of the ones I’m close to, but I don’t want to. There’s a lot of reasons for that, but one of the big ones is that it changes how I feel when I talk to them. I’m not worried about the ones I trust most being disturbed or uncomfortable by what I tell them. I don’t think it would affect how they see me. But it would change the nature of how I see my relationship with them, and I would feel like yet another thing was the victim of my disease.

I know that isn’t based in anything solid or real. But that’s how I feel.

So I confess to someone who I don’t know except through his songs and media presence, in a journal I write on paper in my language, which even if he could see, he probably couldn’t read because his main language is Korean. And of course he has no idea who I am at all.

In those pages, I can tell this imaginary version of a musician who lives on the other side of the planet all my fears and pains and damage without judgment and with no fear of being ignored or misinterpreted. I don’t have to worry that he’s too busy or that I’m scaring him. If he could read it, he’d understand. That’s something I know in my heart.

A still from the Amygdala video.

This week he released the MV for his new song Amygdala. [SERIOUS trigger warning for the video; if you want to hear the song and read the translated lyrics instead, go here. If you can handle the video it is a beautiful but heart-wrenching piece of art that visually explains his struggles. I also suggest looking up some of the analysis of the song to understand more of the story and symbolism.]
It is the most raw and vulnerable dive into the pains and trials that made him who he is now. I can admit that I bawled the first time I watched it, just like I did the first time I heard the song. Even before I got the English translation, I could feel the hurt, the anguish, the search for answers within himself in the music. It was painful to witness, but also a cathartic moment for me.

Like Yoongi, I’ve had a terribly hard life. I don’t say that lightly, or to gain sympathy from people. In fact, so many people that I know – and know well – don’t even have any idea about most of the things I’ve been through.

The clues for a lot of the challenges I’ve faced are in my writing although a few of the worst may never come forth for reasons that are less about me and more about protecting others who could get hurt.

One day. Perhaps.

But also like Yoongi, I write about those times and situations for two important reasons. One is to face them and work through how they affect me. The other? It’s to connect with others who have gone through similar things and hopefully give them something they need. Maybe it’s just being seen, or perhaps there’s advice or catharsis for them in my writing. It could be as simple as feeling less alone.

I’m willing to be vulnerable if it means that someone else can get help or solace from what I share. It’s one of the first things I liked about Yoongi, too. If talking about how we’ve suffered can help even one more person get through bad times, we will do it without hesitation. And we want others to feel safe to do the same.

Why am I telling you all of this? It’s a personal share, I know. I’ve told absolutely no-one until now that I, a 56-year-old English-speaking USian person who is known for being a fantasy author and a goth/industrial DJ, writes journal entries addressed to a 30-year-old K-pop idol, rapper, producer, musician who has no idea I am.

This is me being vulnerable, too. I’m giving you insight into one of my coping mechanisms.

I’m telling you think because I want you to be able to talk about the things that haunt and hurt you. I want you to find it possible to be vulnerable and open, and to heal and grow. And I can say with all the confidence in the world, that even though I don’t actually know Min Yoongi, he want that for you, too.

Even if you have to start out by telling someone you don’t know through letters to them in your journal, I hope you find a way to let your pain out. When you face it and find your way to work through it, you leave so much more room for joy, for love, for hope.

I can’t tell you that everything will be better. But I can tell you that even if you don’t know me and I don’t know you, I’m out here cheering you on, hoping for you to heal and grow and thrive and dream.

And even though Yoongi may not be aware of either of us, I know he feels the same.

Note: This was difficult to write and share, but I did it anyway. Finding a title for it even more so, because everything felt trite after this deep confession. If it resonated with you, it was all worth it.

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The Power to Pivot

This isn’t about writing, not exactly.

It’s about how life can change in the blink of an eye. And it’s about how those changes can be traumatic but also can usher in a new – and possibly better – phase of one’s life.

In tarot, the Tower card is generally viewed with trepidation, if not some well-founded fear. It’s all about seismic change, the upheaval of everything you’ve become accustomed to, whether you like it or not. Sometimes that means chaotic change. Other times that change, although life-altering and possibly painful, leads to better or at least more grounded things. A lot of the time, how it resolves depends on how you respond to the events.

Thing is, inside that Tower moment, everything sucks. It’s traumatic! Change, especially unexpected change, is difficult to process and often painful. But it can lead to transformation, too. There’s a reason why the Star, a card of hope, follows the Tower.

For a lot of people, the COVID lockdown was a Tower moment, and understandably so. There were so many changes in such quick succession! Even now, things are different than they used to be in many ways, and we’re still figuring some things out. For me, the lockdown was actually the transition from the Tower to the Star.

See, I was rushed to the hospital with my emergency small bowel resection at the end of August 2019. THAT was my Tower moment: I could have died, it restructured everything that I knew about life, and I was put out of commission for months. I’ve written plenty about it, but here’s where the title of this text comes into play – because just when I started to pick up the pieces of my life and contemplate returning to what I used to do, COVID showed up and kicked all those plans in the nuts.

You might know that I was a full time fiber artist before I wrote In Sleep You Know. It’s a very physical job that had me doing a lot of events and making yarn and fibers to sell every day. I loved it, and I was doing pretty well at it before everything went bust pun intended]… but I was feeling pretty burned out, too.

In part, that’s because I’d been sick for a while but I didn’t really understand that. Crohn’s presented a lot of symptoms that I excused as being “just a touchy digestive system” or “a picky gut.” I mean, you feel like that every day and you learn to adapt or convince yourself that you’re just being a big baby about it or whatever. Also, I hadn’t had much luck in getting doctors to take me seriously, so there was that. So I was tired and in pain a lot, and that made it difficult to do what I loved, and tough to love what I did.

I’d actually just started coming back to working with fiber and doing shows after the surgery when the lockdown happened. My last show was in March of 2020. I was so happy to be there but physically, I was miserable. I was wondering if I was ever going to be able to do a bigger event again.

I was ready for the pivot. I just didn’t know it yet.

I spent some time over that first Lockdown Summer doing online teaching and a creativity group. I love teaching but there’s a different skillset that you need to do it through video, especially for something hands-on like spinning yarn. I adapted, but I didn’t love it. And my medical treatment wasn’t doing enough, so I was tired all the time… and depressed. I could feel the depression looming. It had been building since the surgery, because so much changed, including me and my body.

One day, I was digging around in my files, and I pulled out an old story fragment that I’d written a while back. I re-read it, and my spark to spin tales reignited. Suddenly, I had motivation again, as the story of Merrick and Aisling and the Eleriannan started to blossom in my mind, and I began to write down the new story that came from that fragment.

At first it was just something to entertain myself. Escapism, maybe? A Baltimore with a secret Fae population was a lot more exciting than a city where no one could see each other face-to-face. But as the story grew and my love of writing came back to the forefront, I began to wonder… could I publish this? Could I become an actual “legitimate” author, and not just someone who used to get published in small press ‘zines?

I whispered the idea to a few friends, slipped one or two people an excerpt. I was enthusiastically encouraged to keep going. My confidence built, and then I decisively proclaimed one day, “I am writing a book! I will be publishing it soon!”

Pivot achieved.

Obviously, a LOT more happened after I made my great pronouncement. But the act of claiming it for my own, that was the important point.

It took more work on my part to start telling people that I am an author rather than a fiber artist. That has been my major identity for almost 20 years! I’m still a fiber artist, of course, just like I’m still a DJ even though I don’t spin music at clubs or on the air anymore. Those are part of my identity.

But these days, being a published, honest-to-goats author is my main identity, and it’s one I dreamed about since I learned to write. So in a way the pivot is me coming back to my earliest sense of self. A homecoming, if you will.

There’s so much power in that. Here I am, living my childhood dream.

I didn’t get here in the way I expected, but if it wasn’t for that Tower moment I might not have ever have found my guiding Star.

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Flights of Foundry 2023 Schedule Announced!

Earlier this year, I blogged a list of things I’d like to achieve in my writing career [which is a little different than goals as a writer, though there’s some overlap] – from small to outrageous.

One of those was to start regularly being a panelist at prominent SFF conventions. And here’s the first on the list!

I’ll be taking part of Flights of Foundry, which is a virtual-only con happening on April 14th – 16th 2023, as both a panelist and reading a selection from Stories of the Eleriannan. *cue biodegradable confetti*

My schedule –

Saturday the 15th, 4pm EST: Stories of the Fat Body, with Jennifer Spirko and Jennifer Hudak.

“Fat acceptance, body positivity, healthy at any size: fatness and awareness of the issues surrounding it is having a cultural moment. Panelists will discuss our stories about fat bodies, from the cultural touchstones that reinforce, or undermine, fatphobia, to ones with good fat representation. What are the tropes around fatness we’ve seen too much, and what do we want to see more of?”

Sunday the 16th, 6pm EST: Reading with Christiane Knight

It’s free to attend and if you’re interested in speculative writing, art, comics, media, etc. then you should definitely check it out! You can register here: https://flights-of-foundry.org/

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If I build it, will you come?

What I want, as a writer, isn’t for someone to tell me their One True Way to be successful at what I do, or the Best Way To Write A Novel, etc etc etc.

The world is FULL of people offering that. And I’m not knocking anyone who sells that, or who wants to consume it! You do you, boo. I can’t determine or decide what you best need in your journey as a writer.

What I’ve noticed, though, is that there are so many products and communities built around people who haven’t written their first book/story yet. The other one I see is centered on those who have something written but haven’t sold it yet. They’re both valid communities to serve, with lots of people who need that direction.

But that’s not me.

First, I don’t want to be “sold” anything.

If I choose to buy a class or a program, it’s because I found it on my own while looking for a solution. I don’t want to be marketed to, and I don’t want to have to pay a ton of money to people who often I can’t even find credentials for. I choose classes from established authors or editors that I know and respect. I am extremely picky because my money as a working author is hard earned and scarce!

What I really want is a community.

Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash

I want a community of like-minded people who are sharing their experiences honestly and candidly, so we all can learn from each other. I want people who are traveling a similar path and who are ready to cheer or console or advise each other as needed or wanted. I want us to support each other with our time and money as needed and as we can afford to, without any pressure or, goats forbid, marketing.

And I want it in a container that feels safe and welcoming and nurturing.

Is that too much to ask?

When I started posting on Ko-Fi about my own journey as a writer under the title A Writer’s Life and Craft, I made it a paid tier because a. I am poor and need money, and b. my experiences are worth something and it does take time and energy to write about them. I set the price as an affordable one because, well, see “a” – I understand that lots of us are poor. I want to reach people like me, who aren’t adverse to supporting folks who are sharing their hard-won experiences, but don’t have a lot of money to spare.

I even set up a Discord for my Ko-Fi, with separate spaces for readers and writers. I was hoping a community would build there, but it’s mostly a ghost town. I’m sure in part it’s because people who aren’t Ko-Fi supporters don’t know about it. I want a community to grow organically, just like support for what I do has done.

But with that being said, how do I carefully nurture and build what I want to see in the world? If I build it, will you come?

* I’m giggling over the lead photo, because I wanted a writing community shot with representation of many different people. What I got was a math study group. But this is an equation I can’t seem to balance, so I’m sticking with it. Also I like that pom-pom pen.

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Growing a Plot From a Stem

So last night it started. What, you ask?

The dreams. Dreams about my current story, the characters interacting, the plot and where it’s headed.

When this happens, I know my brain is in full storytelling mode. And this is when the real magic starts to happen for me, because I’ll be thinking through scenes in my head in the shower, while grocery shopping, or eating dinner. It’s so exciting!

When I start writing, I have characters and a vague idea what the story’s about, and not too much else. I let the characters and mood develop and then the plot will reveal where it’s going. If it sounds like I’m kinda hands-off-the-wheel in this process, you’re right. I trust that there’s a plot there, and there always is.

This particular story grew from a stem I’d wrote down years ago. It took that long to get here, but I knew it would bloom when it was ready. Trust!

I wrote that earlier today over on Mastodon, and I wanted to expand on it here, because there’s a lot to talk about!

Plots, pants… plants?

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that in a world of writers that often divide into “plotter” and “pantser” camps, I’m definitely a “planster.” I can hear some of you asking, “What’s the difference?”

Planners are all about drawing up an outline and strongly defining their plot before they get started. They know where they’re headed, they’ve got the map at the ready, and generally the ride is smooth because of all the planning they did before they even started writing the actual tale. There’s a lot to be said for this method because of that.

Pantsers are the total opposite: they sit down and turn loose the ol’ brain on the paper or keyboard. They might have a general idea of where they want to go, or maybe they just metaphorically get in the car and drive around as their heart leads them. It’s basically discovering the story as you go, which is exhilarating but also can lead to frustration if it remains aimless for too long.

Plansters? [I’ve also seen it as plantser] They’re somewhere in the middle, and the degree to which they lean to one side or the other can vary wildly. It’s okay to claim one of the first two titles as your method and still use some techniques from the other, by the way. I think most writers do, again to varying degrees.

The way I create my stories works in this way:

I’m an extremely character-driven writer, so the main character[s] show up first, usually in an opening scene that sets the tone of the story to come. I do a lot of pre-writing in my head, playing out scenarios like I’m telling myself a story, before I ever commit the characters to the page in any way. This way I can see if there’s a viable story to be shared, or if it needs to be shelved for later.

That’s actually what happened with the current WIP, which I’ve been talking about under the acronym ATKOM for now. When it first appeared, the MC was a guy, and someone who had given up on any artistic abilities early on in childhood. Now the MC is non-binary, and a talented photographer. What stayed was the muse love interest and the MC’s extreme shyness and awkwardness. Oh, and the art collective with the unpleasant leader, Joolie. The story’s plot also has gone in a completely different direction than I originally imagined that it would, and I feel it’s much stronger for that.

So I come up with characters, or more properly – they show up, and I put them in a scene and see how they work and what happens. When it gels and feels exciting, I keep going. At this point, I generally have no idea where the story is going. I just let the scenes unroll naturally and explore from there.

Using In Sleep You Know as an example: I knew my opener was Merrick showing up uninvited to a party, which unbeknownst to him was being thrown by a house full of Fae. Classic, right? Lots of possibility in that scene.

I also knew Merrick was a musician, and kind of aimless and unmotivated but clever and resourceful enough when his back was to the wall. Every single thing else happened in the exploratory first chapter without a plan. Aisling showed up with her ability to walk in other people’s dreams, and Cullen, who started out as jaded and just tagging along for a good time but quickly warmed into a likeable guy.

From there, things changed rapidly. When I started writing, there was no Lucee or Sousa or The Maithe, and certainly no Gwyliannan of Tiennan House. Vali showed up all on her own and she and Sousa carved out their own subplot without any conscious input from me! Which really is something, as Vali is one of my favorite characters to date.

What happens next?

So here’s what usually happens after the characters establish themselves and the story starts to get some ideas of what it wants to be. [Yes, I’m anthropomorphizing my stories and characters, but in many ways they really do have lives of their own.]

About 20,000 to 30,000 words in, I sit down and think about character arcs and where I want the story to go. Usually at this point I already have a good idea of what I want, but no matter how I loosely plot out things I always leave room for sudden changes and swerves. These characters will do unexpected things, I tell you! For example, originally I thought Brenna would be the one to show Merrick how to shape a raven, but our small and gentle friend Quillan stepped up instead. He’s another character who I didn’t have plans for but he insisted on being more important than I would have guessed.

Photo by spencer vandermeer on Unsplash

Okay, so far I:

Imagine some charactersPut them in an opening scene with a vague idea of what I want to happenStart writing, letting the characters do their thingIf it’s gelling, around 20,000-30,000 words sit down and make a loose outline and character arcs if I haven’t already*

My outlines are basically me sitting down and writing out beats – the important moments that drive the story along – making sure to include key interactions between characters that I want to see happen and why, as well as where plot points might converge or reveal important details. It sounds more complicated than it really is. I mean, here’s the fleshed out beats from the first couple of chapters of ISYK:

Merrick goes to House MirabilisMeets Aisling, she saves him from Edana, Cullen tags alongThe Ladies go after Merrick, Morgance loses and has to offer name [no one is sure why they go after him so hard]Merrick is introduced to Fallon and she says he is under their protectionHe joins the party, meets Sheridan, drinks and eatsFallon asks who will stand for him, Aisling, Cullen, and Sheridan say yesFallon tells him who they are [fae, Eleriannan] and asks him if he will join them for seven years. He says yes.]

Note that I wrote this part of the outline *after* I wrote those chapters. My outline for the last part of the book is a lot more vague:

construction of gates so that there can be free movementwhy does Genaine claim no knowledge of gateswho will guard gateswhat comes from Lucee’s pledge to Genaine [redacted]Vali’s graffiti[redacted]Vali wards The Maithe, Grimshaw attacks in front, they grab [redacted]Tell them that if they surrender The Maithe, [redacted] will not be harmed

So you can see, it’s more about what I know I need or want to cover, less about “this is how it’ll go” – there are even some things in that outline that I didn’t share here that never came to pass. I guess in some alternative timeline, maybe they did?

I’ll tell you the truth here – I didn’t even write this part of the outline until I was at what I knew to be the last third of the book. Right around there everything came to me in a rush, and I knew where the story was going, though the last couple of chapters still shocked the heck out of me. If you’ve read ISYK feel free to message me and ask what the surprises were!

So this is a pretty long post and I’ve got more to say, including tips for managing all the bits and pieces floating around waiting for that outline to corral them, so tune in for Part Two to learn about things like how a planster manages characters over a long arc that isn’t really planned out at all, and how character-driven plots work for me.

Until next time!

The post Growing a Plot From a Stem appeared first on Christiane Knight.

What is the Stories of the Eleriannan series about, anyway?

Even with blurbs on the back of novels that aim to get you interested in a book in a couple of short sentences, there’s still so much an author can say about their stories to entice a reader without giving too much away. Since I get asked the question “What is your series about?” all the time, I figured I’d give y’all a little more!

In Sleep You Know

In Sleep You Know is a twist on the classic tale of what happens to a hero who stumbles into Faerie and ends up sworn to them for seven years. Except in this story, our hero Merrick drags the members of his post-punk band along with him and they all find themselves aligned with fae – The Eleriannan – in a fight against forces invested in keeping the city of Baltimore entangled in negativity.

The book addresses ideas like:

how stagnant thinking can be seductivemotives can be easily misunderstoodcommunity is everything, especially found familywe are more powerful together than apartCast a Shadow of Doubt

Cast a Shadow of Doubt starts a few months after the end of ISYK, and is very much a summer book, where ISYK is an autumn/winter book. Where ISYK focused on Merrick, CASOD is all about Lucee and also Vali, and how they fit into the new connections that the Fae are building. There’s an old adversary and a new one, plus more magical graffiti, friendly tree beings, a big summer arts festival, and encore appearances from fan favorites: the grandmotherly personification of the City and the creepy Ladies, who have more pointy teeth than they probably should.

This book touches on:

family trauma that comes from expectations and controlimpostor syndromethe search to belong and find one’s placea deep debate on forgiveness of those who have hurt you.Photo: Thomas Willmot on UnsplashWriting Hope

I’ve said it before, but I’ll put it here too: I write magical books for people with trauma who need to see good in the world. Also: my stories are hopeful stories, filled with magic and people who you care about. My characters are vibrant and relatable, and the thing I hear most often from readers is that they feel like they know them so well, they are like old friends by the end of my books. [What a compliment, let me tell you!]

I also touch on some of my personal interests in my stories. There’s the obvious things like music and performing, street art, coffee and food – but also topics like the unhoused and how they are treated, urban gardens/food deserts and gentrification, and care of waterways and nature spaces in city environments. These are part and parcel of living in an urban space in my mind and I don’t think I could set a story with powerful characters in a city and not address them in some way.

Baltimore is the canvas for my stories and I subtly put a lot of local flavor in, but not so much that it reads like a travel ad! I like the idea that you might recognize the areas I write about if you visited, but also that these stories could happen in your closest city, too. Baltimore’s a complicated place, and I’ll admit that my version of it is maybe a little kinder than reality, but that’s hope too. I love my city and I want the people who live here to succeed, especially the ones who struggle the most and have had the hardest starts. My characters talk about using the power one has to try and make a difference, and that’s my philosophy too.

I’m currently working on the third book in the Eleriannan “universe” – if you’re interested in following along with my progress on that, I suggest giving me a follow on Mastodon or supporting me on Ko-fi. I share updates, behind the scenes snippets, and current soundtracks. I’d love to hear what you think, too!

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A Book Birthday for CASOD!

A year ago my second book in the Stories of the Eleriannan, Cast a Shadow of Doubt [aka CASOD], was released to the world. It centers on Lucee Fearney, a character who surprised me while I was writing In Sleep You Know with just how important and loveable she is – and I knew the second book needed to center on her.

The thing about Lucee is that she cares deeply. She’s a good friend, willing to put herself out to help the people she cares about, even to risk her life if she has to. She wants to do good in the world, and she’s willing to give people a second chance, no matter how large their mistakes are. She struggles with impostor syndrome, though everyone respects her and thinks she does an amazing job – especially as a once-mortal leading a complicated group of Fae. Her experiences as a young Black woman who grew up in a difficult home situation with only her best friend Merrick for support are why she loves and protects her found family so fiercely.

In CASOD I also tease out some of the connections that surround Lucee, especially her friendship with Sousa and her relationship dynamics with Cullen. I always think about how difficult it must be for the long-lived Fae, with their perspective over extended timelines, to watch their mortal beloveds struggle through growth and change. Especially for Cullen, who had kept away from love for a very long time – his coping mechanisms definitely involve pampering those he cares for. [I’d love a Cullen in my life; he’d definitely fill the house with flowers and my belly with delicious food!]
Sousa’s story to Cullen about how he and Lucee met is one of my favorite parts of the book. I actually wrote that very early on while working on CASOD, but the story’s been in my head since the beginning.

Trufax – I wasn’t sure how that guitar was going to show up later. Just like so many things with The Drawback, it all resolved seamlessly when the time came.

You know, there’s so many things I’d love to talk about when it comes to the books, but I am a firm believer in not spoilering, so I hold myself back. Maybe I need a secondary mailing list to discuss these things?

What a cast, eh? I love all of them so much.

If you haven’t read Cast a Shadow of Doubt yet, it’s available from me directly via my Ko-fi, or if you’re short on cash and like paperbacks, right now Amazon has it and In Sleep You Know selling for under $10 each. There’s no knowing how long that’ll last, so I’d jump on it now if you’re interested. [I still make my full royalty, no worries!]

Thanks for coming along on this Fae-tastic ride with me. I will be posting later this week about some of the themes I write about and why, and what’s coming next. Make sure to follow along to get all the background info!

[Some of these links are affiliate links. What that means is that I am referring you because I like and use this item, and I’ll get a little bit of cash for recommending it, which supports me and my work. Everyone wins!]

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