Andrew McDowell's Blog, page 2

Maryland Renaissance Festival Tickets Reminder

My signing will be on August 30th, a month away! I’ll be there alongside fantasy authors Anna Bright and Daniel M. Ford. It will be done with MDRF’s bookstore Page after Page. Tickets are required for entrance to MDRF and must be bought in advance, online only. They will go on sale August 4th at 10am Eastern Time.

There will be copies of Mystical Greenwood and Beneath the Deep Wave as well as three anthologies featuring my poetry and/or short stories: Faery Footprints, Fae Dreams, and Into the Glen: Into the Light. The novels will be on sale at $20 each, and the anthologies $10 each. If you buy both novels, or all three anthologies, you will get a 10% discount!

The event is on Facebook if you would like to join there or invite anyone you think would be interested. Please share it as well. The more people who see it, the better!

On a different note, today would’ve been the birthday of my first dog, Brandy. She was the inspiration behind Yseult in the One with Nature series.

She had a long life with us, and she even went to Japan with me and my parents and back. So, like her literary counterpart, you could call her a well-traveled dog.

Interview with Melissa Lemay

Many thanks to Melissa for this opportunity to talk about my books and my writing!

Telling a Story Well: An Interview with Andrew McDowell

Merry Writer Podcast II

This is my second time appearing on the Merry Writer Podcast, which is hosted by authors Ari Meghlen and Rachel Poli. Many thanks to both of you!

You can also listen to it on Podbean. There are many other places you can choose from to listen to it as well.

I wish all my fellow Americans a Happy Independence Day tomorrow.

Maryland Renaissance Festival Multi-Day Passes

My signing will be on August 30th, a month away! I’ll be there alongside fantasy authors Anna Bright and Daniel M. Ford. It will be done with MDRF’s bookstore Page after Page. Tickets are required for entrance to MDRF and must be bought in advance, online only.

Multi-day passes will be available soon, on July 7th 10am Eastern Time, and can cover any specific range of days depending on which pass you choose. Individual day tickets will go on sale August 4th at 10am Eastern Time. These tickets will likely go fast, so make sure to plan on buying them right away if you want to come.

I will have copies of Mystical Greenwood and Beneath the Deep Wave as well as three anthologies featuring my poetry and/or short stories: Faery Footprints, Fae Dreams, and Into the Glen: Into the Light. The novels will be on sale at $20 each, and the anthologies $10 each. So, plan accordingly.

The event is on Facebook if you would like to join there or invite anyone you think would be interested.

The Hero’s Journey: Initiation

Years ago, I talked about the influence of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (one of my recommended resources), and how I saw Mystical Greenwood as the Departure phase in the hero’s journey. Thus, I planned for Beneath the Deep Wave to be the next phase, known as the Initiation. Likewise, I sought to look for little ways to stand out from the traditional storyline.

The “Road of Trials” is most prevalent in this phase, so I knew there would be a lot of traveling like in the first book. However, when I look at both books together, in terms of plots spelled out in another resource I recommend, 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them, I see Mystical Greenwood more of as an actual “Quest” story whereas Beneath the Deep Wave is much more an “Adventure.” The seeking more aligns with what the book refers to as the MacGuffin (made famous by Hitchcock). It makes sense, I suppose, since the Trials are meant to prove the hero’s worth.

I knew going in also that Beneath the Deep Wave was going to include romance, so this would tie in more with the “Woman as Temptress” rather than “Meeting the Goddess,” as I’d imagined Dermot might be faced with a dilemma: would his love compromise his vows to his magical order? Then, of course, there’s the “Atonement with the Father.” By the end, I don’t know whether this is a combination of “Apotheosis” and “Ultimate Boon,” but in some ways, akin to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, I thought about physical vs. symbolic treasures, in this case tying them in with the elements and the natural world. I shouldn’t say any more, for fear of spoilers.

I’ll end this post by saying that the last phase, the Return, will be and is an inspiration for the plot in last book in One with Nature. Happy Father’s Day!

Upcoming Events Updates

I have a few author appearances coming up in the next few months. Mark your calendars!

In a few weeks, I’ll be participating in Balticon 59. This will be my second time at Balticon. I had a good time last year and hope I will have a good time this year as well. Here is my schedule:

Friday 5/23From Concept to Final Draft, Guilford Room, 4-5pm.Sunday 5/23Lightbulb Moments: How Authors Develop Ideas, James Room, 11:30-12:30pm.What’s in a Name? Kent Room, 1-2pm.Autographs, 5th Floor Lobby, 4-5pm.

I will be the moderator on the Name panel, a subject I was eager to contribute to, having done . And my autograph session will be alongside one of the guests of honor this year, Sebastian de Castell!

I also have an update on tickets for the Maryland Renaissance Festival, where I will be doing another author signing on August 30th, Labor Day Weekend, from 11-5pm. Tickets are required for entrance to MDRF and must be bought in advance, online only.  Daily tickets will go on sale August 4th 10am Eastern Time, and multi-day passes will be available July 7th 10am Eastern Time. Also, the event is on Facebook.

On a last note, the Maryland Writers’ Association is accepting presentation submissions for their annual conference in October. The deadline to submit is at the end of the month. I hope to present myself, but I’ll have to wait and see whether that’ll happen.

Kelpies and Selkies (Guest Appearance)

Many thanks to Esther Chilton for giving me a guest writer spot opportunity to talk about the two mythical creatures I introduced in Beneath the Deep Wave.

Guest Writer Spot

Six Wives

Many thanks to Barbara Leonhard of MasticadoresUSA for publishing another one of my poems. I’m sure it’s no guess as to whose wives this poem is about. I hope you, the reader, enjoy it!

“Six Wives” by Andrew McDowell

Tranquility

Here’s an anthology featuring five of my haiku poems published courtesy of Gabriela Marie Milton.

Amazon | Goodreads

This is the second anthology from Gabriela’s publishing company, Literary Revelations, that has featured my haiku poetry. Here is the first:

Amazon | Goodreads

“Downton Abbey” Poem

Many thanks to Barbara Leonhard of MasticadoresUSA for publishing another of my poems, a pantoum inspired by the franchise of the same name. If you’re a fan of the said franchise, I hope you feel this poem does it justice, especially with the third and final film months away.

“Downton Abbey” by Andrew McDowell