Christopher Dunbar's Blog: Morrigan's Blog, page 9

What are we working on? Why should we tell you? Uhhh… OK…

I (Chris) have been bad… but so has Heather!!! =-P~ We are not living up to our plan of posting more updates about stuff. Spank us (her)… we (she) deserve(s) to be punished. So what are we working on now? Stuff and junk. What kind of stuff and junk you ask? Book writing stuff and junk. Yes… please hit me (her). OK OK OK… here is what we are working on:

Morrigan's Brood: Odin's Chosen and Morrigan's Brood: Dynasties of Night

While you readers are waiting for Book 3 of the Morrigan's Brood Series to come out, we co-authors are writing books 6 through 8. Did we skip a few? No… let me explain. When Heather and I write a manuscript, we write until the story is done, then we rewrite and rewrite, mostly trimming or revising, but sometimes adding new stuff – especially when we find something that doesn't jive anymore with how things ended up, as we need to add introductory content earlier in the story.

After we finish writing the manuscript, we send it to our editor and then incorporate her suggestions. After that, we will end up with a manuscript the equivalent of 700 to 1200 novel pages (were we to format the manuscript for book printing) in length. Anybody want to spend $40 or more for a single paperback novel as thick as a big city phone book? I didn't think so. Depending on the post-layout page count, we will break the manuscript into two or three manuscripts, one each for a different book.

We look for obvious breaking points in the plot in order to split the manuscript into two or three, and thus far, we have had no trouble finding these breaking points. With the manuscripts now separated, we add prologues and epilogues where appropriate for each manuscript, and we also reintroduce settings and characters, to a degree, to the other manuscripts, so if you the reader were to pick up a book out of sequence, you would still know who the key players were and what they were about. Of course this also means that we need to come up with additional book titles, cover art, interior art, appendices, and other things, but that is part of the fun!

This also means that when you ask us about books 1 through 3 at a book signing event, we will blush and with embarrassment admit that we had completely forgotten writing about such and such in book 1. I have to skim our books before a book signing event in order to prepare myself for questions. Sometimes I don't even remember writing scenes in one of our books (probably because Heather wrote it). Well, it is because we wrote books 1 and 2 over ten years ago, and what became book 3 we wrote about 5 years ago (though I will soon be giving it my final rewrite, so it should be fresh in my mind).

Getting to books 6 through 8, we have titles for two of these books, Odin's Chosen and Dynasties of Night, but the title of the third book escapes us… not even sure yet how long the manuscript will be, but we know it will be at least two books' worth. The emphasis of Morrigan's Brood: Odin's Chosen is a new line of blood-drinkers derived from, as you guessed by the title, Odin. A majority of what we are writing now is in this vein. In the 9th century CE, a Nordic king is chosen to lead a group of einherjar (warriors, called by Odin, who journey to Valhalla to basically fight, party, eat, drink, and fight some more) on a mission of vengeance against the Celtic blood-drinker lines. As with other lines of blood-drinkers, the einherjar, while in Midgard (earth), must consume blood to live and will die if scorched by sunlight or if decapitated.

Dynasties of Night, as the name implies, introduces in more detail some of the various Asian lines of blood-drinkers. This novel takes place when Japan began forming its own cultural and artistic identity, separate from China. Anymore about this book would reveal one of our most closely guarded secrets. Sorry, but no hints. None. Absolutely none. You will have to read books 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 first. Sorry… but we love to torture our readers… If you only *knew* the secret. Yes… that big. Bigger than the end of book 2. Yes, that big. No more about it.

Morrigan's Brood: Madness

Has anyone read our pre-release of our first short story, Morrigan's Brood: Madness? If so, please comment. If not, please read, and then comment. Please? Thank you!

Events

For upcoming book signing events, look on our Goodreads calender.

Thank you friends and fans of your friendly neighborhood authors of the Morrigan's Brood Series!

Contest Winners

Our latest contest is over, and we now have three winners to announce. Their names are:

Jonathan Nagel
Cindy Tibbitts
Matt Lucas

Heather will be contacting Cindy tonight via email, and I will be contacting Jonathan and Matt via phone by tomorrow evening; of course, if our winners see the contest results and would like to head us off at the pass, please email me your snail mail address at chris_dunbar@triscellepublishing.com. We will ship our winners signed copies of Morrigan's Brood and Morrigan's Brood: Crone of War this week. If we are unable to get a hold of a winner to confirm his or address by Friday, that winner will be forfeit, and Heather and I will draw another name from our selection of entrants who will become the winner.

Thank you everyone who entered, and keep watching our blog for new contests. You never know… we might throw in an ARC of Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance.

Oh, and don't forget to check out our first short-story, Morrigan's Brood: Madness!

Thank you friends and fans of the authors of the Morrigan's Brood Series!

Contest and Morrigan's Brood: Madness

Oops! We forgot to do the drawing Monday night. Well, it wasn't so much that we forgot, both Heather and I (Christopher) had massive headaches after a very busy day, so we just didn't remember to do the drawing… um, isn't that forgetting? D'oh! OK, so no hate mail please… we will do the drawing tonight, after Heather comes home. She even sent me an email reminder that says, "contest". We will announce the results on this blog tonight, and then will I contact winners with email addresses tonight and winners with phone numbers by tomorrow evening. Promise! (Barring unforeseen calamities.)

Morrigan's Brood: Madness

OK, has anyone read Morrigan's Brood: Madness? Anybody? Did you enjoy it? Did you not? Please comment on the short-story's page.

Houston Indie Book Festival, Contest, oh, and a Short Story

Welcome fans and friends, new and old! We just got back from the Houston Indie Book Festival, and boy are we tired. All day in the humid, sweltering heat became quite taxing. Still, we met many new friends, and we bumped into a few old friends there as well. If you visited us at the Houston Indie Book Festival, AggieCon42 (which we were at last weekend) or some other event, please feel free to say hi in the comments below. I (Christopher) have some pretty cool news to tell, so be prepared for some good reading.

Contest

As Heather announced on Facebook and to many of our guests today (those who stayed around to chat or who noticed "free contest" written on a box with a slot in it and a roll of tickets), we are giving away some signed books – 3 sets of books one and two of the Morrigan's Brood Series (Morrigan's Brood and Morrigan's Brood: Crone of War). These sets of books will be signed by us, the authors. We will announce the winners from a random drawing of both in-person and on-line entrants. IF YOU STILL WANT TO ENTER, YOU CAN!!! Send an email, by Monday at noon CDT, to chris_dunbar@triscellepublishing.com saying you want to be entered into the contest, and you will be entered. Heather or I will announce the winners Monday evening on our blog, and we will also try to contact the winners using the contact information they provided. If you already bought book one from us, you can choose to receive a second copy, or we can work something else out. Good luck!

Short Story… Morrigan's Brood: Madness… now available in pre-release form

It is done, well mostly. Heather and I have finished writing and editing, with the help of Jill Rosenburg, the one of the two short-stories which take place between Morrigan's Brood: Crone of War and Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance. Morrigan's Brood: Madness, the first short story, examines the activities of our good friend Mandubratius ("good friend"?!?!?!?!?!), whereas Morrigan's Brood: Reckoning examines the activities of the delightful and hilarious Marcus Galerius Primus Helvetticus and the whimsical and hysterically funny Máire (adjectives do not accurately reflect the characters of these… characters).

Sadly, Morrigan's Brood: Madness is not ready for eBook release; I still need to figure this who eBook thing out. However, as a treat to our readers of our blog, I have posted the entire short-story here, on our blog. Well, not "here"… but HERE! Oh, and you can see "Morrigan's Brood: Madness" on a tab in the upper-right corner… right…. there. Found it? Cool. Click it when you have finished with the news. When I figure out this who eBook thing, we will release the short-story in formats for the iPad, Nook, Kindle, and whatnot. Until then, please enjoy our blog version.

Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance

Without beating around the bush, Heather and I decided to delay the release of Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance until September. We want to invest more time in pre-release promotion, and we felt July 1 was way too soon for us to market it. We will be investing in some ARCs, which we plan to send out for reviews, and we will be planning some kind of small release event, even if it is just for the two of us (our anniversary is in early September). So, we will have more about that later. Sorry if you were chomping at the bit for a copy in July.

Thank you friends and fans of Triscelle Publishing and we authors of the Morrigan's Brood Series!

Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance (Book 3) Free Read Now Available

Have you been waiting patiently for Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance to come out, or are you ravenous vampire fans who can't wait to slate your thirst?  Well, I offer you a taste, a sample of the book we plan to release July 1.  Yes… a free read for Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance is now available.  I (Christopher) will provide links below.



In addition to the free read, Heather and I have been getting to release free eBooks of two short-stories we wrote, which take place between the events of Morrigan's Brood: Crone of War (Book 2) and Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance (Book 3).  The short stories are called Morrigan's Brood: Madness and Morrigan's Brood: Reckoning (we thought single-word titles for short stories would be a good idea).  Heather is reading through Madness, and as soon as she is done and our proofreader is done, we will be releasing that to our readers… for free.  (Oh, I suppose I said that already… my bad).  Yes, free.  Morrigan's Brood: Reckoning will also be… now wait for it… free.

So, until Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance and the short stories come out, you can read books 1 and 2 of the series, or you can read the free read.  The two places I have posted it are… Goodreads and Manic Readers, though it will take some time getting Goodreads' version formatted properly… better go to Manic Readers.  Enjoy!

Book Signing this Weekend at ConJour!

Heather and I will be at ConJour this weekend selling and signing books, plus we have lots of stuff we are giving away… OK, just post cards, bookmarks, chapter books, and maybe posters. Still, that is free stuff. Oh, and maybe we will have some kind of free giveaway… maybe… to be announced

For information about Conjour, click on the appropriate phrase: what and when is it, where it is, what is going on, how much is it, and who the heck are you?

See you there!

Book Reviews, Interviews, and more news, oh my…

We've decided to throw in a book review once in awhile

And interviews with authors, artists, and editors that we work with and love.

This review will be one of the first and we hope that we can interview talented author, Tami Jackson soon!

We're done with the first draft of our short stories and we can't wait to share them with you when they're completed!

Anyways, on with the review…

*****

There is much to love about Ravena & the Resurrected.

However a few notes should be made about the formatting of the books. It can take awhile to get used to the paragraph numbering. However, it's a useful tool to find your bookmark when you're reading it. It distracted my 'flow of reading' for the first chapter or two though. Then, I became used to it and didn't seem to notice it. It's probably very helpful for ebook readers.

I loved the hyperlinks. One of the newest trends in books for the juvenile and teen market is to utilize hyperlinks to help them learn more about the material. It's a way to learn, while reading something for entertainment. This is the first time I've seen them in adult fiction, but I love it. As I understand it, the links don't work as well within kindles or nooks, so I'd suggest reading this book as a pdf as I did.

Anyways, hyperlinks! I love pointing and clicking to learn more and get a feel for Ravena's world, and what a fun world it is. Some may feel it's a distraction, yet I could go on for pages about how this is going to become more popular and it's worth embracing new ideas. Yet I digress and I'm pretty sure nobody wants to read 15 page papers about library technology and trends.

Ravena works as an IT guru at the Seattle Central Library (click on the links, it's such a cool library). I worked in a central library (as a librarian) and at a helpdesk as a techie. I can tell you that author Tami Jackson's descriptions of the workday are quite accurate. Though, if she hung out more with the librarians, she'd probably find a few kindred spirits as librarians are typically weird oddballs who like vampires and other supernatural beings. We may be gossipy, but we're not nearly as nasty in reality as the staff at the Central Branch in Seattle *wink*.

I loved learning the history of Seattle and witnessing Ravena's interactions with others of her kind and the rest of the hidden supernatural community of the city. I laughed and emphasized with her during her journey. I enjoyed reading how the reality of vampire life differed so much from her fantasy because that shows a wonderful development of character and growth.

Once in awhile a grammar or punctuation issue would throw me off and I would exit the ride, but I managed to jump back on and continue. For example, semicolons are something my editors said readers of non-college material didn't get. So, I always was told to use periods or commas as appropriate. Also there was a bit of head-hopping in chapter 41 that kinda threw me off, but maybe that was the effect of cold meds.

There were instances when the author spoke of things and instances that had occurred instead of showing them 'as they happened' yet, they were explained in the past. It seemed a bit odd, but to each their own. It's easy for one author to find favor with one method of storytelling over others. Yet all that really matters is that the reader can jump back into the book, and I could easily do that.

The end to the tale was satisfying and definitely has me wanting to read more of this world. I am happy to see that it is the first in a series of tales and I'm anxiously awaiting another story.

Writing Session X+4, Prequel to Dark Alliance

Ever had a writing epiphany? You are in your writing environment, ideas coming at you but perhaps glancing off… then it hits you, knocking you out of this universe into the next – a great idea that brings several threads of ideas and story together into a fine tapestry. Heather and I have had a few such moments, more than a few such moments, actually… many we can't talk about because they occurred while writing later books that have not yet been released.



However, we did have a few moments like this come up with Book One, one of which was figuring out what the artifact was that the Lamia had been seeking in order restore to them Rome's former glory; it was my idea, and I admit to being slightly drunk at the time, but Heather loved it, and it was incredibly plausible. (If you are reading this Sally, you will see evidence of a few other such epiphanies, and I can't wait for your feedback when you hit those spots.) For those who don't know, Sally Aalderink is our editor, and she is reading the second half of Book Four and all of Book Five (see list at the right for actual titles and links).

Anyway… another great writing epiphany occurred last night, while Heather and I were writing the prequel to Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance, which as you have guess takes place after Morrigan's Brood: Crone of War concludes. As you may know from recent writing I (Chris) have made about our up and coming new book, 237 years take place between the end of Book Two and the beginning of Book Three… 237 years… wow. So Heather and I are writing these mini-stories to somewhat bridge the gap.

Well, we decided to write one short story/novella on Mandubratius, which we will call Morrigan's Brood: Madness. Why? If you have not finished reading Book Two, you will have to for the title to make sense. We are more than half-way finished with the first draft, but last night, wow… We decided to look more closely into why Mandubratius is the way he is and how he makes the transition from being Book Two Mandubratius to being Book Three Mandubratius. Yes, there is a difference, and Sally definitely knows, having edited Book Three and half of Book Four for us already.

Without giving too much away, Mandubratius, as you know from the title of the story/novella and from the end of Book Two, is quite mad, and as *everybody* knows, people who are quite mad have delusions, visions, nightmares, or what have you. Well, our epiphany last night was to bring back, in one of these visions, the Sponsor of Mandubratius, the one who transformed him and Amata into a Lamia… and that person is…..

Felician.

"Who the heck is Felician?" you might be thinking… I just told you. Geez… OK, these are spoilers if you have not read Morrigan's Brood, but here it goes…

Felician, while searching for the prize in 55 BCE, finds Mandubratius, spiked to a tree, on a beach in Eire near Loch Garman. Amata convinces Felician to sponsor him as a Lamia, and they live happily after… right? Until 410 CE, when in Rome, Amata and Mandubratius conspire to murder Felician on the floor of the Lamia senate in the Lamia catacombs beneath the Temple of Mars. *breathing heavily from rapidly spewing out all of this exposition…*

So, what the heck happened those 465 years in between? How did Mandubratius get along with Amata and Felician? Who was Felician beyond what little we have written about him thus far? Why is Mandubratius so messed up? The answers to all of these questions and more came to us last night, and we will be happy to share them all… when we publish Morrigan's Brood: Madness.

As an aside, we would like to thank Amanda, aka Mandi (funny coincidence, since when Heather and I write, we refer to Mandubratius as Mandy or Mandi) at Norton's Grill and Pub for such a wonderful writing environment and great food last night.

More to come later.

Cheers!

Christopher

About Our Cats – Ophelia

Ophelia Poses Reluctantly

Wow… has it been months and months since I wrote about Lucius? Or has it been months and months and months?!?! However long it has been, somebody (Heather) has been pressing me (Christopher) to git'er dun (Texan for "go forth and accomplish"). Besides, Clyde has been harassing me to write about him, but I told him I had to write about Ophelia first. He did not understand why that was necessary and insisted I not dawdle if I insisted on writing about Ophelia first. Ophelia has been silent on the matter, though her claws have been cutting more deeply, of late… perhaps this is here way to emphasize that either I write about her soon or she will gouge out my eyes. So, here it goes… Ophelia.



Where do I begin? Well, Heather and I were living in "Gunspoint", which is the colloquial name for the Greenspoint area of Houston. We were living in a cheap apartment in a complex on the western edge of Greens Road, which spanned to the east, lined on both sides with apartment complexes, and the further one traveled east, the crappier the apartment complexes became. Since ours was the furthest west, right next to some nice hotels and high-dollar corporate real estate, ours was the complex of choice – at least that is what we had convinced ourselves.

I was working on a contract with MD Anderson Cancer Center support their business continuity operations – this was why we uprooted from Dallas in late November of 2000. Heather wasn't working at the time, so she had plenty of time to write, but the katkid Lucius kept whining for attention. Even when I was home, we could not give Lucius enough attention.

I had gone one Saturday early in December 2000 to the Petsmart on 1960 and I-45N to get litter and cat food, but then I noticed that the local pet adoption agency had several cats up for adoption. I don't recall whether I was consciously seeking out another cat but one of them bewitched me into looking at her. There before me, looking at me with intent, was this beautiful short-haired black kitten with the most unique cat eyes I have ever seen – gold on the outside and green in the middle. I could tell she was female without looking at her chart, but I looked at it anyway to see her name: "Ophelia".

I remember staring at her for several minutes, oblivious to the volunteer who had asked me whether I wanted to hold Ophelia. I think Ophelia had to look away for the spell to be broken so I could respond to the volunteer. Well, of course I wanted to hold little Ophelia. As soon as the volunteer placed her in my arms, she curled up and started purring. I am tearing up a bit at the memory… She was so tiny in my arms. She sometimes nudged her nose into the crux of my folded forearm. I knew she wanted me to take her home.

I remember calling Heather and telling her that I had found this kitten that wanted to come with me and that I wanted to know what I should do. I have this vague memory of driving home with the adoption forms to get them signed by the apartment people (the adoption folks wanted to make sure that as an apartment tenant that we had the landlord's permission to have an additional cat, and they like that sort of thing in writing). I also recall, I think, getting the paperwork signed and then return with Heather and Lucius, who was in his carrier.

Lucius and Ophelia became introduced through the cage's metal grating, and they seemed OK, well enough, at least. Well, we took Ophelia home that night. Per the volunteer's instructions, we had planned to keep Lucius and Ophelia separated until they could become familiar with each other's scents through the closed door. We put Ophelia in the second bedroom of our two bed two bath apartment, and Lucius was free to roam the rest of the space. I don't remember if I slept with Ophelia and she slept with Lucius that night… I do remember, however, that either when we woke up, or perhaps it was after we went somewhere Sunday and came back, we received a big surprise.

You see, the door knobs in our apartment were intended to meet ADA standards, that is they were levers instead of round knobs. While we were gone (or asleep – I still can't remember), Lucius had figured out how to stretch up to the door lever, pull down on it with his clawed paws, and push his body weight forward, because the door to the second bedroom was open, and Lucius and Ophelia were inside having a polite conversation, and they had not torn each other to shreds.

The two kitties have gotten along for the most part. Occasionally, Ophelia has seen fit to mount Lucius – a little gender confusion for these fixed cats, though perhaps Lucius was being a pain and Ophelia wanted to show him who was Goddess in our house. "Who's your Goddess?" "You are!" Heather and I have even had to take Lucius to the vet because Ophelia had scratched one of his eyes with her claws. Lucius is so much bigger than Ophelia, such that when we had brought her home, we were worried Lucius would be beating her up… definitely not the case.

Heather and I both believe that Ophelia has been a bad influence on Lucius. The boy cat had been so well behaved – he stayed off the counters, off bookshelves, and off the fridge. After we brought home Ophelia, we started to see a pattern of mischief on the part of Lucius. We would find him on top of counters, bookshelves, on the fridge, and he even got on top of the kitchen counters! I remember Heather and I running around the apartment, looking into all of the cabinets and cubbies, looking for him, fearing he had escaped out the front door when one of us had last passed through it. Of course there was Ophelia sitting pretty in the kitchen with a slightly bemused expression, as if she knew something that she wasn't telling. Then we heard a "meow" from above us, and upon looking up, there was Lucius, standing above the china cabinet seven feet above the floor. I had to get the step stool, I think, to get him down, since I think coaxing him didn't work. When we finally got him down, I caught him staring long and hard at Ophelia, and it almost seemed like Lucius was chastising Ophelia for talking him into climbing up there.

This was not the last time Lucius was caught doing something naughty where Ophelia was close by. Let's see… toppled garbage can with trash strewn about, dishes knocked crashing to the floor from counter tops, unattended people food eaten upon, books pulled from bookshelves… all of these things and more Lucius was caught doing in the presence of Ophelia. Each time, Lucius seemed to say, "but Ophelia talked me into this," or, "Ophelia made me do this."

So let me tell you more about Ophelia. When she was younger, she, like Lucius before her, liked to get on my back, when I was on all fours, and ride me around. I would crouch under one of those cat toys that hung from a plastic arm hooked over the top of a door, and she would jump and stumble, but she loved playing like that, for a while anyway. Now that she is an older cat, over ten years now, she doesn't play as much.

When we pet her, she makes biscuits / kneads her fore-claws, left then right then left again, all the while purring. She does this whether she is on the carpet, furniture, bedding, clothing, or bare skin. She will even do air biscuits, though she tries to grab something, typically my arm or even my face, when she is so aroused (being petted). She loves her belly rubbed, and she will sometimes lift her leg and wrap it around my or Heather's arm while we are petting her. I joke with Heather that Ophelia is trying to get more leverage… Ewwww…..

Ophelia loves chewing plastic. She will scour the house looking for it if she is feeling slightly peckish. She rarely actually eats the plastic, but she does chew it to death. I think she also likes the crackling sound it makes, which is why she is attracted whenever Heather or I are eating a snack from a bag. As soon as we start making that noise she loves, Ophelia comes running, jumping into the lap of whomever has the treats – human treats. She will nuzzle the bag and get in the face of whomever is holding it. If one of us passes the bag to the other, Ophelia soon follows. Ophelia is also a flirt, and she really loves the guys. She is all over any man who visits, and she really likes contractors. She also likes shoving her fanny in people's faces and whapping them with her tail – she loves doing both to me. She is such a flirt… However, she hates women. She hisses at both Heather's and my mother and other women who happen by. Of course she loves all over Heather.

That reminds me… some new age health fair we went to did some kind of past life regression for cats… weird, right? Well, we thought it would be a lark, so we paid the money and had a reading on both cats. I think I already covered Lucius' reading in the previous post… Ophelia was believed to have been a 1920′s flapper who had become a burlesque dancer, and apparently she had lived a long life.

Anyway, Ophelia used to sleep with us more often, that is before Clyde arrived in our lives. Lucius owns the bed and chooses to stay curled up between my ankles. Ophelia, however, would either curl up between Heather and I. Now she demands Heather's pillows. When Ophelia was ready for us to feed her in the morning, she would whap Heather's face and head until she would wake up. Now that we have Clyde, I have to carry her to bed, but she will only stay for a while – longer if I pet her. She nearly always leaves to sleep on the couch in the front bedroom or on one of our recliners. During the day, she sleeps on Heather's discarded jeans or my shoes. She is friendly when she wants food, and she demonstrates her hunger by first rubbing up against my legs and then sitting in the kitchen in a posture akin to Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in that scene where Agent Starling first sets eyes on him. I have to wonder whether Ophelia wants to devour cat food or me…

Sometimes, Ophelia can be downright vicious. I mentioned how she hisses at women; well, she is even worse when she goes to the V-E-T. Every time… EVERY TIME… she has to go to the V-E-T, it is an effort to first get her in her cage. She whines on the way, and when we get there, she will not come out. She swats with full claws any appendage or object that comes near the opening of the cage. Every time, we have to disassemble the cage in order to get her out. Until recently, that meant unscrewing a bunch of fly nuts. She would hiss, she would growl, she would spit… For some procedures, the vet or vet assistant could immobilize her, somewhat, with a towel, but in some cases, she would have to be chemically sedated. It's like she is some wild animal, not the sweet, loving cuddle monster (and I say monster because of her excessive use of claws as my multiply-scarred shoulders, arms, and chest can attest to) that I know and love at home. I am genuinely embarrassed by her behavior every time I have to take her in. When she comes home, she has a running hissy fit with Lucius. I have to put vanilla extract on all three cats so they smell alike – that actually works. I loathe taking her to the vet – the other cats are so well behaved, Clyde even more so…

The vet is not the only place where Ophelia's animal nature has reared itself. One weekend, our friend Laura and her hubby Gary were visiting us, and they had brought both of their dogs with them, neither was larger than Lucius, but each was more densley packed with muscle and exuberant energy. One of them, Trinity, I believe, had sneaked behind me into the bedroom the cats were sequestered within and proceeded to prod the cat's food dish. Ophelia was cowering under the bed, and barefoot me walked over there. Then suddenly, OWWWWWW!!!!!!!! Ophelia had leaped at my unprotected feet and raked both sets of talons across the tops of both feet – I don't think I fell, but boy was in pain. Ironically, I was about to head off to a podiatrist appointment. I think she had thought my feet were Trinity's and that Ophelia was protecting her food; she had reacted, and caught me instead. Well, I am glad Trinity wasn't hurt, I just wish I had not been either.

There is one other occasion where she attacked me at home. We were living in San Antonio when I had gotten a job offer in Kingwood, Texas, of all places – that is northeast Houston for those unfamiliar with Houston – Greenspoint was north central Houston. Anyway, for three months, I commuted between San Antonio and Kingwood each weekend, and every trip I made, I hauled a load of boxes and furniture with me to a storage room I had rented on Kingwood Drive across the railroad tracks from work. Well, a couple had made an offer on our house, which we had accepted, so in February or March 2008, I think it was, we decided to rent a U-Haul truck and auto trailer and move the rest of our stuff into a storage room next to the one we were already using. The cats knew something was up. We had even given them drugs we got from the vet to knock them out for the long drive.

We had just finished cleaning up before leaving the house either Friday or Saturday night when it was time to pack up the cats. Lucius was easy to get into his carrier, but Ophelia would not abandon HER home. She cornered herself in the kitchen, I think, and refused to let me get close. Well, I had to get her into her cage, so I tried to rush her, but she dug her claws in and went to town. Though bloodied, I managed to grab her, and I carried this spastic ball of claws and teeth to her carrier. She would not go in willingly, so I had to restrain all four legs, all the while she is wiggling and biting me, but I managed to get her inside and close the door. I was crying, and I am tearing up now thinking about it – not because I was in pain, and boy was I hurting. No… it was because I hated myself for taking Ophelia away from her home. Her home. I'm not sure she has forgiven me.

Well, we found out that Sunday, after spending the weekend packing, driving to Houston, handing the cats off to Heather's parents in Katy, and unloading in the wee AM hours on Sunday at the storage place, the mortgage company for the buyers of our home went out of business (the economic crisis of 2008 hits home), and the buyers could not find alternate funding… Damn was I pissed, and in the American sense, not the Australian or UK sense… We had moved all of our stuff, taken Ophelia and Lucius from their home, Heather left her job (though she was able to work from Houston for a time after that), all for nothing…

Three months later, we were able to sell our home, thanks to our wonderful real estate agent. We were staying with Heather's parents until we could sell our house and buy another home. The cats sometimes had to stay in our bedroom, but most of the time, they had full roam of the house, save for Janice and Jim;s bedroom and Jim's workout room. Well, we bought our new home August 8, 2008 and moved in two days later, per the previous owners' request. As soon as we got to our new home, the cats explored it. Lucius and Ophelia seemed to like all of the window sills and windows around the house. They have since become accustomed to their new home and have even found favorite napping places. Ophelia likes the couch in our library (dining room), the bed in our front bedroom, the second chair in Heather's office, the tops of either cat throne, or any of the cloth recliners. Her preference varies with the seasons and the time of day.

Well, both cats were getting older and becoming more sedentary. Heather and I felt we needed some new blood in the family, someone to play with the older cats and perhaps get them more fit. That's why we adopted Clyde, but that is another story I will continue later.

Back to Ophelia… Things had been going well in the new house. Lucius, Ophelia, and later Clyde were getting along as well as before, and until Clyde came along, Ophelia still considered herself the baby of the family. Then a few months ago, I noticed that Ophelia was feeling bony and was acting lethargic. A regular vet visit indicated that she had lost a few pounds, but that was attributed to her diet. However, she continued to degrade in body fat and weight. I had also been noticing that she wasn't eating – she would sniff at dry food but not eat it, and she barely nibbled at wet food. I remember taking her in for another visit, when the doctor noticed an odd growth and wound on her lips. Her initial prognosis was that this was a cancerous growth and that it could only be treated with chemotherapy, which was horribly expensive. The doctor had taken some blood work and tissue samples and was sending them to a lab for analysis, but it didn't look good. Heather and I began to come to grips with the possibility that we would need to put Ophelia down so she would not have to suffer.

Fortunately, the tissue was not cancerous, and the doctor was able to remove the bad tissue and stitch up the wound. Ophelia's wound healed, and she felt well enough to return to eating. She had been 7 pounds when she went in for surgery, and she is back up to around 12 or 13 pounds, where she needs to be. I am glad she had healed up, and so too are the other cats.

Today, Ophelia is still somewhat sedentary, but Clyde, as intended, manages to get her up and running quite frequently. Both she and Lucius get much-needed exercise, thanks to Clyde. Ophelia still likes to cuddle, but she just loves digging in her claws and climbing up to my neck, digging and purring all the way. She seems to love to inflict pain. I still love her, as whacked as that seems. She is my little girl, after all… Daddy's girl.

I hope you enjoyed that brief (yeah, right) tale of Ophelia. One of these weeks, I will write a follow-up story about Clyde Monster. Until then…

Cheers!

Christopher

Creating a Writing Environment

Yeah, we've been bad about posting again. It's kind of been a stressful week despite the holiday. I (Heather) had to take a day of furlough. Many librarians are having to take similar actions as opposed to dealing with a layoff. However, it's still stressful to think about a lost day of income.

I think part of this blog entry came to mind because of how difficult it's been to write lately. Stress is always a factor for most writers. Yet sometimes there is a method to getting in the zone. Sometimes…

I'm lucky and I'm spoiled. I get a room to myself for my projects. So does Chris. Granted they're tiny rooms, but it works for us. In the past we had a long master bedroom and we partitioned it off into 'bed' area and 'office' area with some celtic artwork sheets we had. It's not hard to find a space for yourself if you de-clutter. I'd also suggest 'reclaiming' the wasted space in the dining room. Lots of people have turned theirs into offices, libraries, etc. Some lucky people have finished basements to use and they suck Okay, they don't suck, it's just like my characters, I like being underground in the dark sometimes…and I'm secretly jealous of that! hehehe

Anyways, I tend to turn out lights, light candles, incense, or oil burners, and turn on the music. Sometimes I have to kick out the katkids. Queen Ophelia is usually quiet during my writing so if she's there, she gets to remain with me and she'll purr, contented that she gets to sit on the other office chair. Lucius and Clyde on the other hand are always chatting. So generally the noisy boys are removed and then start crying at the door. Then they get distracted by something shiny and leave for a while.

Music is also a big factor for me. However, I'm oddly specific about my music rules. If there are words in it, they must be in a foreign language so I don't try to sing along or think about the lyrics. I'm great with movie soundtracks or TV show soundtracks. I love the Lord of the Rings soundtracks. However, I'll admit that the first and second book of the Morrigan's Brood series were written to Dead Can Dance, Clannad, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Medieval Babes, and Lisa Gerrard CD's. Some of the characters spend a great deal of time in the middle east and a lot of the action also happens in Ireland so this really pulled me into their world.

The next three books had a soundtrack primarily consisting of Corvus Corax, which is this awesome German group that primarily plays pipes, horns, and drums from around the world. There were also liberal sprinklings of Vas, Azam Ali, Qntal, Estampie, Stellamara, Irfan, Faun, and Omnia. Omnia has a wonderful song about Morrigan which just worked so well, even though it's sung in English and is majorly distracting.

Getting back to candles and incense and burning stuff… I'm big on good smelly stuff. I tend to like blends that aren't too distracting. However, one of the best things I've found to do is to cleanse the place with something like lavender and lemon a day before. Then you don't have layered scents upon scents. Sometimes peppermint is good for stimulating creativity. Sometimes I like a blend I call 'Dragon's Breath' where I mixed some florals with Dragon's Blood. I also like orange and clove. I guess I'm really scent-driven.

Now, hopefully I can take my own advice and get writing tonight!

Writing Session Blog: Prequel to Dark Alliance

Heather and I thought it would be fun to occasionally include little bits of our writing sessions, which we do from time to time, usually when we eat out. We don't have lofty goals of 1,000 words a day like some writers (more power to them if they can keep that up), in fact on average our writing volume is probably less than a third of that. However, keep in mind that including Morrigan's Brood: Dark Alliance, we have three fully-written novels in queue for publishing, and each of those will average around 370 pages. We have also written a novella, which we just sent to our editor Sally, half of a manuscript for a non-Morrigan's Brood book that takes place in the same universe, and of course books six and seven (and perhaps 8 ) of the Morrigan's Brood Series.



Since we are authors and operators of a small-press publishing company, Heather and I have to divide our time between writing, re-writing, marketing, promoting, publishing, working the day job, and living a life. I am sure if our original publisher had not gone out of business prior, which happened prior to our signing with them, we would be able to focus more of our time on writing, as we would not be running a publishing business. However, as many authors who are fellow members of various LinkedIn writing groups say, even traditionally published authors now share a burden for marketing and promotion, and many who still benefit from advances are electing to invest that money in marketing instead of pocketing it. There have been a few horror stories of authors who have collected their advances only to have to pay back the publisher because book sales were not high enough.

So back to last night… We had been working on scenes from Morrigan's Brood: Odin's Chosen (Book 6) for the last several months, but because somebody leaked out in this blog and other places that we would post prequels of Book 3 prior to its release, well somebody had to write that stuff. Therefore, last night, we began to write about what happened to Mandubratius after… (SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVE NOT READ BOOK 2, DO NOT PROCEED)

(PROCEED ONLY IF YOU HAVE READ BOOK 2)

… his defeat against the Deargh Du. We spent the first fifteen to twenty minutes pitching ideas about when these blurbs would take place, how the scenes would evolve, what our end goal was, and which characters would be involved. One of the challenges is that 237 years passed between the end of Book 2 and the beginning of Book 3. Somewhere in that time frame, Mandubratius recovered and went on with his nefarious life, though as a changed man. When we start book 3, which you will get a glimpse of once I finish proofreading it, Mandubratius still has some… discomfort… from his ordeal, but hey… it's been 237 years; surely he had been fixed up long ago. Right? Well, I don't recall that we had gone into a lot of detail. Hence the need for these tidbits in between.

We are going to publish these blurbs right here after each blurb is completed. These will be in the form of scenes, much like we write our other books. We started with a table read, and then later, Heather will write on the computer based on her notes from the table read. Afterward, we will both re-write, and then I will proofread before we post. Once we have finished publishing each of these blurbs, I think we will combine all of the scenes into a brief novella and share that as a free read. I might even look into a print version if anyone is interested.

Anyway, stay tuned for more stuff.

Cheers!

Christopher

Thank you Friends and Fans of Triscelle Publishing, Home of the Morrigan's Brood Series!