Sarah Scheele's Blog, page 10
February 6, 2020
The Five Central Characters
First, I want to let you know about a GREAT sale on fantasy ebooks, that you can catch from now through the end of the month! Prices vary—my book, Facets of Fantasy, is in this bundle and is priced at $2.99. For fantasy readers, this is a great chance to find your new favorite author. Even if you don’t buy anything (although of course all the authors would love it if you did) you can find them on retailers, read samples, and learn about their work through this event, The Adventure of Fantasy. So come on over and check it out here. . . . . .
When I first started reworking my published material, it was a lot like cleaning out an old shed where your family has stashed a variety of things for decades. (Going through such a shed was something I also did a few years ago, so the comparison really rings true.) Each book had many characters, but I had no idea which were the most important ones. Of course when the stories were in my head, each character was equally valuable to me. But which ones would a reader focus on? Which ones were jumping out of the page?
Eventually, I tried to locate the five central characters in each book. They might not always be a protagonist—all of us have read great books in which the main character was actually the most boring. But, usually, these five are important to the story and have a big role in developing it. At times I was still blurry about exactly which characters composed those five—so I did lots of blog posts, lots of Facebook posts, and listened to people by noticing which statements fell flat and which seemed to strike more of a note with readers.
In the process, I went from my own notions of my characters’ identity to seeing a bit more of who readers might think they were. Obviously, the books that were published first have been around the longest and have the most established reader interaction. So, I’m still trying to find some last bits of character focus—a big clue to what the story is “about”—for the last couple of books. My first book was The Birthday Present and its five central characters are:
Lord Harry
Alyce Lomlossa
Emperor Aure
Ralph Henderson
Lucy Hintara
I’ll talk about them in a post next week. After all, if someone is the big central focus of anything, including a story, it’s best not to cover them at the tail end of a blog post.
January 30, 2020
Pop Out, Fly in Your Face, and Boom
Welcome to more new subscribers! If you’d like to learn more about my writing and what motivates me to do it, there’s a link at the bottom of this post to last week’s post which gives a little info on What I Write and Why!
And now for this week’s post . . . .
Victoria: A Tale of Spain, my 17th-century lower YA adventure story, wouldn’t have come about without a European trip I took about 9 years ago. The concept for the trip wasn't mine--I hadn’t even thought about going to Europe--and none of the locations and itinerary were chosen by me. In particular, I’d never thought of visiting Spain and I ended up staying there about 7 weeks one summer. If I had considered a trip of my own, it would probably have been focused on the British Isles because that’s the Europe I’m most familiar with from books and movies.
But sometimes things in life just JUMP out at you. They fly in your face and you seem surrounded by a milling blur of impressions, people surrounding you, loud voices, and confusing activities launched at you. Sometimes a story is hiding somewhere in that blur. A story that is launching itself directly into your face. And when anyone is coming straight towards you, let alone a story, you might as well say, “Well, Hello There” and accept it.
At first I didn’t get a lot out of that trip. Secretly, I’d always assumed it couldn’t have the slightest usefulness to my storytelling and to me, writing stories is absolute as a grade for whether I care about it. As a trip it was fun, yes, and had memorable moments. But I didn’t feel they were USEFUL moments. I didn’t see any incidents or places that I wanted to write about after months spent abroad. And when I’m not getting an idea for a story, I feel like moving on. But several years later, I wrote a small draft of a story set in Spain. It wasn’t much good—very angsty and melodramatic, with tense and unhappy family relationships and symbolic action sequences. Later I merged it into a light-hearted little novella that had used some of the El Escorial palace setting as an influence, though not much else in Spain.
I didn’t want to work on the merge of the two because it was a lot of effort for a setting and type of story that was so unusual I couldn’t see much of a real market for the completed book. But the story continued to call my name and Boom, Fly in My Face until I worked on it. And in the end, I’m glad I did. Victoria is a more interesting story than I believed it was and it definitely occupies a place in my books. After all, I like to do unusual ideas once I realize they DO have an audience.
And there will be more updates.
And now for this week’s post . . . .
Victoria: A Tale of Spain, my 17th-century lower YA adventure story, wouldn’t have come about without a European trip I took about 9 years ago. The concept for the trip wasn't mine--I hadn’t even thought about going to Europe--and none of the locations and itinerary were chosen by me. In particular, I’d never thought of visiting Spain and I ended up staying there about 7 weeks one summer. If I had considered a trip of my own, it would probably have been focused on the British Isles because that’s the Europe I’m most familiar with from books and movies.
But sometimes things in life just JUMP out at you. They fly in your face and you seem surrounded by a milling blur of impressions, people surrounding you, loud voices, and confusing activities launched at you. Sometimes a story is hiding somewhere in that blur. A story that is launching itself directly into your face. And when anyone is coming straight towards you, let alone a story, you might as well say, “Well, Hello There” and accept it.
At first I didn’t get a lot out of that trip. Secretly, I’d always assumed it couldn’t have the slightest usefulness to my storytelling and to me, writing stories is absolute as a grade for whether I care about it. As a trip it was fun, yes, and had memorable moments. But I didn’t feel they were USEFUL moments. I didn’t see any incidents or places that I wanted to write about after months spent abroad. And when I’m not getting an idea for a story, I feel like moving on. But several years later, I wrote a small draft of a story set in Spain. It wasn’t much good—very angsty and melodramatic, with tense and unhappy family relationships and symbolic action sequences. Later I merged it into a light-hearted little novella that had used some of the El Escorial palace setting as an influence, though not much else in Spain.
I didn’t want to work on the merge of the two because it was a lot of effort for a setting and type of story that was so unusual I couldn’t see much of a real market for the completed book. But the story continued to call my name and Boom, Fly in My Face until I worked on it. And in the end, I’m glad I did. Victoria is a more interesting story than I believed it was and it definitely occupies a place in my books. After all, I like to do unusual ideas once I realize they DO have an audience.
And there will be more updates.
January 23, 2020
What I Write and Why
With so many great books already out there by other people, why do I want to contribute any of my own? What are my stories about? Since a lot of you have just recently heard of me, most through reader magnet signups, I'll have a brief get-to-know-me post. I have also (finally!) merged my two email lists into one. The lists were duplicates in the weekly content they sent out, so subscribers merged into this list won’t see anything different except the email subject line is a slight variation and the emails go out on Saturday instead of Friday. (And the email header image is updated.)
Essentially, I write because I like to take on ideas that I see other people aren't doing as much of. My stories aren't oddities--they should feel at least moderately familiar--and all are family-friendly. I don't do less common concepts because I want to include above-common levels of violence, for example. But if there's something "different" about an idea it's usually because that idea has a different audience attached to it. Perhaps an unexplored or even an actively secretive audience. Genre concepts on, for instance, the future can seem similar in many books after you've read a lot of them. But what if there's someone out there--someone lurking--who has a quite different view of the future? In their fiction, their cliches and world-building might surprise you. And just because they're not as visible doesn't mean they're not out there.
I've been publishing for 12 years and I mention futuristic fiction as an example because many of you will have downloaded The Birthday Present. (And it's also the first sample in the 9-chapter Sampler others of you might have caught.) The Birthday Present, which is a set of two stories, was actually my first publication all those years ago. For many years I was so wrapped up in throwing out all these obscure ideas as they came to me that I didn't do a good job of marketing at all. So starting in 2017 I reprocessed my publications so they could be more accessible. In a sense, more competitive. The front page of my website briefly overviews some of the improvements to my work's marketing during this time.
And there will be more updates.
Essentially, I write because I like to take on ideas that I see other people aren't doing as much of. My stories aren't oddities--they should feel at least moderately familiar--and all are family-friendly. I don't do less common concepts because I want to include above-common levels of violence, for example. But if there's something "different" about an idea it's usually because that idea has a different audience attached to it. Perhaps an unexplored or even an actively secretive audience. Genre concepts on, for instance, the future can seem similar in many books after you've read a lot of them. But what if there's someone out there--someone lurking--who has a quite different view of the future? In their fiction, their cliches and world-building might surprise you. And just because they're not as visible doesn't mean they're not out there.
I've been publishing for 12 years and I mention futuristic fiction as an example because many of you will have downloaded The Birthday Present. (And it's also the first sample in the 9-chapter Sampler others of you might have caught.) The Birthday Present, which is a set of two stories, was actually my first publication all those years ago. For many years I was so wrapped up in throwing out all these obscure ideas as they came to me that I didn't do a good job of marketing at all. So starting in 2017 I reprocessed my publications so they could be more accessible. In a sense, more competitive. The front page of my website briefly overviews some of the improvements to my work's marketing during this time.
And there will be more updates.
January 16, 2020
All Of That Comedy and Crunch
This week’s post is about Ryan and Essie, but before I launch into the post you should know about a GREAT giveaway opportunity. Until the 31st, my book The Birthday Present is free as part of a big January all-genre free book event. Many authors participating and over 80 books available. Download as many books as you want to by subscribing to the author’s newsletters here storyoriginapp.com/to/R78Fzt0
For people already subscribed to my newsletter, you can get a copy of The Birthday Present as a perk. Just hit this link and verify your email. And check out all the other great authors!
storyoriginapp.com/directdownloads/7130f675-a672-4b67-aba8-93078e505036
. . . . . .
Ryan and Essie have always been there. When I was a little kid, I first drafted part of a story about how these two children found a distant planet. As a teen the royalty of Caricanus and their intrigues started to show up, with Tarvelas and Viltan. The story was finished much later, as an adult, when I added the ending and stitched it all together.
But I didn’t realize until even more years had passed that what had always been there was a sense of humor. Behind the zany comedy and adventure of kid's books lie a good deal of accidental (or at times intentional) satire of the adult world. Many things are mentioned in comedy for children as a way of exploring them. Adults often take things too seriously. Life is a serious, serious business. People have to work hard, be attractive, get married, get good jobs, plan for retirement, bury their parents, pay for health insurance, and make sure Christmas-with-the-relatives goes off perfectly. But what about the fun people had as kids?
Ryan, a miniature grown-up in the making, is already no fun. He’s uncurious, plays it safe, and always thinks about the bottom line. And he is also a funny character. It also makes a good learning experience for kids, who are used to having the adult world made fun of in their stories. Essie is all child and has the exact personality that makes many adults wish children would sit still. But kids don’t do that. And when Ryan wishes Essie would do that, when he is himself a kid, they are thrown into outer space in the sort of way that children like.
Well, until they grow up to be like Ryan.
And there will be more updates.
For people already subscribed to my newsletter, you can get a copy of The Birthday Present as a perk. Just hit this link and verify your email. And check out all the other great authors!
storyoriginapp.com/directdownloads/7130f675-a672-4b67-aba8-93078e505036
. . . . . .
Ryan and Essie have always been there. When I was a little kid, I first drafted part of a story about how these two children found a distant planet. As a teen the royalty of Caricanus and their intrigues started to show up, with Tarvelas and Viltan. The story was finished much later, as an adult, when I added the ending and stitched it all together.
But I didn’t realize until even more years had passed that what had always been there was a sense of humor. Behind the zany comedy and adventure of kid's books lie a good deal of accidental (or at times intentional) satire of the adult world. Many things are mentioned in comedy for children as a way of exploring them. Adults often take things too seriously. Life is a serious, serious business. People have to work hard, be attractive, get married, get good jobs, plan for retirement, bury their parents, pay for health insurance, and make sure Christmas-with-the-relatives goes off perfectly. But what about the fun people had as kids?
Ryan, a miniature grown-up in the making, is already no fun. He’s uncurious, plays it safe, and always thinks about the bottom line. And he is also a funny character. It also makes a good learning experience for kids, who are used to having the adult world made fun of in their stories. Essie is all child and has the exact personality that makes many adults wish children would sit still. But kids don’t do that. And when Ryan wishes Essie would do that, when he is himself a kid, they are thrown into outer space in the sort of way that children like.
Well, until they grow up to be like Ryan.
And there will be more updates.
January 9, 2020
The Last Days of the End
This post is about The Birthday Present, but I'll start by mentioning a GREAT bundle where you can find fantasy and historical books for review! For the next 2 weeks I and 13 other authors are offering adventure books for review. Mostly fantasy, with a few historical and steampunk titles. I’m providing 2 books, Facets of Fantasy and The Test of Devotion. All the authors want reviews! You can read a sample (first two chapters, in my case) before committing to the book, so that then you’ll be confident of actually finishing and reviewing later. Authors will give books through download or through Amazon gifting. Click this link to start looking for a book to sink into. https://storyoriginapp.com/to/LMsaifd
. . . . .
Something about The Birthday Present would never blend into my other story collection, Facets of Fantasy, although I could see the practicality of not burdening people with too many drifting little collections. Wouldn’t it be so much better to present them with just one? But The Birthday Present, although it seems similar to the Facets stories, is actually more realistic and not so much of a fantasy adventure. "Millhaven Castle," however, in spite of its superficial lightness does share that realistic-even-a-touch-depressing quality. Which brings out the question—what makes a story seem lighter and what makes it seem gloomier?
It’s not a quality in the plot’s incidents, since "Millhaven Castle" is mostly a comedy of manners (since it’s in an imaginary world I imagine fantasy of manners is most accurate.) It’s in the state of the world the characters live in. Millhaven’s dippy little rural kingdom isn’t as extreme as the far-future world of Birthday Present, but both societies are at the same point. They feel hopeless and almost bored, locked in a long-going dispute with another group of people, an endless civil war of sorts, that has ground them into a state of futility. They really are going in circles all the time, with nothing to say, going over these same concepts without any freshnesss and increasingly without any interest. But it’s the way they’ve always lived and they can’t change.
Or can they?
TBP isn’t a hopeless story at all and neither is "Millhaven Castle." Both stories start at the end of this long, useless path the characters have traveled, and by the end things are looking up. People start to make positive changes. They start to express individuality, their own wishes, and independence. Breaking out of this stagnated system into new life. The last words spoken in The Birthday Present are (guess what?) “Happy Birthday.” Birthdays are celebrations of the life you’ve lived the past year, not a statement of defeat. And they promise another year to come. Birthdays are about hope. And Alyce, finally released from a tedious and very selfish hostility that has culminated in a king viewing her as a threat, decides to burn that old ball dress she was forced to wear to visit him. “Which, now she thought about it, was what she’d always really wanted to do.”
Now that’s a happy ending.
And there will be more updates.
. . . . .
Something about The Birthday Present would never blend into my other story collection, Facets of Fantasy, although I could see the practicality of not burdening people with too many drifting little collections. Wouldn’t it be so much better to present them with just one? But The Birthday Present, although it seems similar to the Facets stories, is actually more realistic and not so much of a fantasy adventure. "Millhaven Castle," however, in spite of its superficial lightness does share that realistic-even-a-touch-depressing quality. Which brings out the question—what makes a story seem lighter and what makes it seem gloomier?
It’s not a quality in the plot’s incidents, since "Millhaven Castle" is mostly a comedy of manners (since it’s in an imaginary world I imagine fantasy of manners is most accurate.) It’s in the state of the world the characters live in. Millhaven’s dippy little rural kingdom isn’t as extreme as the far-future world of Birthday Present, but both societies are at the same point. They feel hopeless and almost bored, locked in a long-going dispute with another group of people, an endless civil war of sorts, that has ground them into a state of futility. They really are going in circles all the time, with nothing to say, going over these same concepts without any freshnesss and increasingly without any interest. But it’s the way they’ve always lived and they can’t change.
Or can they?
TBP isn’t a hopeless story at all and neither is "Millhaven Castle." Both stories start at the end of this long, useless path the characters have traveled, and by the end things are looking up. People start to make positive changes. They start to express individuality, their own wishes, and independence. Breaking out of this stagnated system into new life. The last words spoken in The Birthday Present are (guess what?) “Happy Birthday.” Birthdays are celebrations of the life you’ve lived the past year, not a statement of defeat. And they promise another year to come. Birthdays are about hope. And Alyce, finally released from a tedious and very selfish hostility that has culminated in a king viewing her as a threat, decides to burn that old ball dress she was forced to wear to visit him. “Which, now she thought about it, was what she’d always really wanted to do.”
Now that’s a happy ending.
And there will be more updates.
January 2, 2020
And That's How You Get Into Trouble
I was aware when I started Bellevere House that Mansfield Park was a dangerous topic. It’s a sensitive book for many Jane Austen fans going back at least a hundred years. By now the old tropes of “the book is so boring, although we talk about it all the time like it’s interesting, and the Crawfords are the ONLY good thing, which is odd because we certainly have a lot of opinions on Sir Thomas and Edmund, and we’ve hated on Fanny for so long that now we’re actually changing it up sometimes and saying we like her, and there’s always the lurking issue of Mrs. Norris, and how Edmund could be attracted to both Henry and Mary, and WHY did Jane Austen even write this book, but it does have a lot of meat in it and some great characters, not that we’re specific about who they are exactly except sort of the Crawfords and kind of Fanny although she’s so problematic too . . .” are starting to feel quite familiar.
Ad infintum. Sometimes people just like to beat an old horse to death and that’s how they show they care about the horse. (Although this does seem kind of hard on the horse!) And I knew going in that it would be almost impossible to create a version of Mansfield Park that people really liked, because disliking it is how they like it. Even Mansfield Park’s many admirers are bound to complain about something that isn’t just perfectly right. Nobody else’s vision for these characters, including Jane Austen’s, is quite absolutely theirs and what they’d prefer to see in the story matters to them. It matters a LOT.
But then, if it matters so much, that means they really love Mansfield Park regardless of what they say about it or how they fuss about the particulars of any version. And they really love almost every movie and fan retelling of it ever made, although all do legitimately have flaws and they acknowledge those flaws. Their concern over every detail is a sign of their intense passion for the story and the conversation would be so much tamer, so much duller, if there weren’t something to argue about. This passion is something that Austen fans are noted for. They feel proprietary about her work as if during the course of two hundred years it had somehow become their work, really written by them.
So naturally, if I do a rewrite of Mansfield Park, as in Bellevere House, and put in any details or exclude any when they would not have made those decisions, they are going to feel pretty personal, as if they and not I had written Bellevere and they would be associated with what I did in the book. As Jane Austen herself might say if she were still alive, so much interest is a great thing, but any book that you took the trouble of investing time and money in is YOUR book, not someone else’s. But in any case, she could rest easy knowing that her world was so fascinating that after centuries, people still get so worked up over those Bertrams.
And there will be more updates.
Ad infintum. Sometimes people just like to beat an old horse to death and that’s how they show they care about the horse. (Although this does seem kind of hard on the horse!) And I knew going in that it would be almost impossible to create a version of Mansfield Park that people really liked, because disliking it is how they like it. Even Mansfield Park’s many admirers are bound to complain about something that isn’t just perfectly right. Nobody else’s vision for these characters, including Jane Austen’s, is quite absolutely theirs and what they’d prefer to see in the story matters to them. It matters a LOT.
But then, if it matters so much, that means they really love Mansfield Park regardless of what they say about it or how they fuss about the particulars of any version. And they really love almost every movie and fan retelling of it ever made, although all do legitimately have flaws and they acknowledge those flaws. Their concern over every detail is a sign of their intense passion for the story and the conversation would be so much tamer, so much duller, if there weren’t something to argue about. This passion is something that Austen fans are noted for. They feel proprietary about her work as if during the course of two hundred years it had somehow become their work, really written by them.
So naturally, if I do a rewrite of Mansfield Park, as in Bellevere House, and put in any details or exclude any when they would not have made those decisions, they are going to feel pretty personal, as if they and not I had written Bellevere and they would be associated with what I did in the book. As Jane Austen herself might say if she were still alive, so much interest is a great thing, but any book that you took the trouble of investing time and money in is YOUR book, not someone else’s. But in any case, she could rest easy knowing that her world was so fascinating that after centuries, people still get so worked up over those Bertrams.
And there will be more updates.
December 26, 2019
A Cluster of Little Updates
This week I'll just run through a number of things I have going on. The first is that my WIP, The Girl from the Village, is going to be medieval fantasy, with a bit of epic fantasy. At least the way it's looking right now. Every writer knows about the unpredictable directions that a story can take you when it gets a mind of its own, but at present the genre for the story is looking this way. TGFV isn't the only book I have planned. I would like to do an adventure story set in Scotland, in somewhat the style of Victoria, and a concept for a paranormal thriller keeps developing more day by day. That one is a surprise to me because detective and FBI agents haven't been my preferred way to express ideas. But maybe all of that detailed investigation into my own published books awoke some critical-thinking skills in me!
I've recently begun examining ideas out there that are similar to my books so I can make market comparisons for the readers. As in, "it's like a combination of Divergent and the Lone Ranger." Trust is a vital part of book reading. If someone recognizes another idea that is similar to your work, they have a factor immediately on what to expect from you. This doesn't mean all my books are like each other--but each one of them IS like something else out there. My books are not oddities. I like to do ideas that people might be overlooking because they don't fit into the majority of projects or concepts out there. If something isn't similar, it raises my curiosity about why that is, and usually it's because that book has a different audience attached to it. But there is a precedent for each of my books in the work of other people.
For example, think of City of the Invaders & Consuela (the Palladia stories) as like Adam West's Batman set in the future and starring teenagers. So with a dash of Tomorrowland, but with the comedy, cheesy villains, and light-hearted action you associate with an older view of Gotham. Not the serious tone of more recent Batman. Invaders (ironically, given its name) is more about the EC, while Consuela shows things from the Invader point of view. It's not like one side is bad and the other is good. In fact, no one in Palladia is particularly perfect, but they manage to defeat the bad guys anyway.
And there will be more updates.
I've recently begun examining ideas out there that are similar to my books so I can make market comparisons for the readers. As in, "it's like a combination of Divergent and the Lone Ranger." Trust is a vital part of book reading. If someone recognizes another idea that is similar to your work, they have a factor immediately on what to expect from you. This doesn't mean all my books are like each other--but each one of them IS like something else out there. My books are not oddities. I like to do ideas that people might be overlooking because they don't fit into the majority of projects or concepts out there. If something isn't similar, it raises my curiosity about why that is, and usually it's because that book has a different audience attached to it. But there is a precedent for each of my books in the work of other people.
For example, think of City of the Invaders & Consuela (the Palladia stories) as like Adam West's Batman set in the future and starring teenagers. So with a dash of Tomorrowland, but with the comedy, cheesy villains, and light-hearted action you associate with an older view of Gotham. Not the serious tone of more recent Batman. Invaders (ironically, given its name) is more about the EC, while Consuela shows things from the Invader point of view. It's not like one side is bad and the other is good. In fact, no one in Palladia is particularly perfect, but they manage to defeat the bad guys anyway.
And there will be more updates.
December 19, 2019
The Return of the Old School
It didn’t begin this way in the initial drafts, but by the time The Test of Devotion was completed it had grown into a celebration of old-fashioned storytelling. In fact, I thought it was going to be rather a modern story, a genre-market oriented short western romance (think the now defunct Love Inspired Historical.) Since that didn’t work out, the story drifted for a long while until I was seized with a new idea for it. And I love new ideas because they tend to mean a new audience. I was pleased there might be a new direction for this forgotten story and the rewrite moved pretty far towards describing that new concept—the “Why Don’t They Make Them Like They Used To?” feeling in so many of us.
You’ve read and seen it many times in reviews for classic vintage and retro products, in back-cover copy for classic TV shows, in casual conversations with friends. Someone always laments that “they just don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Stories we grew up watching and reading from when we were kids—stories we were raised on by our parents and grandparents. It’s not a feeling of nostalgia, which is rooted in the past, but a respect for something you’d like to continue into the present day. To reboot, to bring again. You regret that new generations can’t be exposed to these classics.
For The Test of Devotion two such “good, old-fashioned” ideas merged into one. The vintage television western, like Roy Rogers or Bonanza, with its family-values tone that didn’t scrimp on the action-packed adventure angle. And the classic novels that so many kids find on library shelves alongside modern bestsellers like The Lightning Thief. Tucked into any kids or young adult section of the library you’ll find older stories like Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, and Ivanhoe—and, in the case of influences for this book, Kenilworth by the same author as Ivanhoe. Books that certainly inspired me to read and write more when I was growing up.
Why don’t they make them like they used to? Well, the answer is simple. Because they DO make them. The minute someone says that, it means they’d like to see something old-fashioned repeated again. People have been saying that since the dawn of time, harking back to a perennial yearning for Eden. And once they express that wish, a new old-fashioned story pops up again.
And there will be more updates.
You’ve read and seen it many times in reviews for classic vintage and retro products, in back-cover copy for classic TV shows, in casual conversations with friends. Someone always laments that “they just don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Stories we grew up watching and reading from when we were kids—stories we were raised on by our parents and grandparents. It’s not a feeling of nostalgia, which is rooted in the past, but a respect for something you’d like to continue into the present day. To reboot, to bring again. You regret that new generations can’t be exposed to these classics.
For The Test of Devotion two such “good, old-fashioned” ideas merged into one. The vintage television western, like Roy Rogers or Bonanza, with its family-values tone that didn’t scrimp on the action-packed adventure angle. And the classic novels that so many kids find on library shelves alongside modern bestsellers like The Lightning Thief. Tucked into any kids or young adult section of the library you’ll find older stories like Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, and Ivanhoe—and, in the case of influences for this book, Kenilworth by the same author as Ivanhoe. Books that certainly inspired me to read and write more when I was growing up.
Why don’t they make them like they used to? Well, the answer is simple. Because they DO make them. The minute someone says that, it means they’d like to see something old-fashioned repeated again. People have been saying that since the dawn of time, harking back to a perennial yearning for Eden. And once they express that wish, a new old-fashioned story pops up again.
And there will be more updates.
December 12, 2019
The Birthday Present (incl. Millhaven Castle) Cover Reveal
The Birthday Present (incl. Millhaven Castle) has a lovely new cover! This was the first of my books to be published. Ironically, it's also the last to get a new cover. I tried renovating the cover several times this year, but I kept returning to old images and ideas. But this time something entirely new was brought forward in the design. The tricky part has always been articulating why these two stories belong together, but I'm learning more and more about the stories and that is shown in the new cover. With a serious, foggy-morning sort of ambiance and a strong blue color scheme, this cover reflects "The Birthday Present" story. And the historical (but not too accurate) nature of the girl's costume and her braided, elegant hairstyle bring in some of "Millhaven Castle."And there will be more updates.
December 5, 2019
The Continued Growth of Facets
Facets of Fantasy started out as a five-story collection and my aim in publishing it was practicality. At that time I hadn’t yet written a full-length novel (although I would be doing the first draft of the Harrisons the next year) and most published books I saw were long. I knew readers were more likely to buy something longer because they felt more pages = more bang for your buck. Of course that’s not quite true if the content in the pages is just bloated, repetitious, or poor-quality, but they’ll only find that out AFTER they read the book. So longer was more of a sell, initially.
I didn’t intend for the Facets stories to tell any sort of story together. Actually, I didn’t feel that was important. Short story and novella collections were groups of unconnected little tales, after all. But as the years passed and passed I grew to feel there was a similarity in the three stories that are now in Facets: Halogen Crossing, Jurant, and The Amulet of Renari. "The Trouble with Taranui" grew into a longer novel, City of the Invaders. And "Millhaven Castle" had originally been published in another book. The more I looked at it, the more I felt it didn’t really fit into Facets of Fantasy’s personality.
What is great about this is that the 3 Facets novellas have a distinctive tone, so you know if something belongs with them or not. This means they also have a distinctive audience who wouldn’t be interested in other stories like Millhaven. In fact, the readers of Facets of Fantasy are so distinctive they might not enjoy my other work overall. Facets of Fantasy, with its blend of three different kinds of fantasy types, has a tone unlike any of my other books—a crafted, elevated, broad-reaching tone in which strong characters grapple with a deeply structured world to which they belong. It’s a fantasy book for fantasy lovers. And although I write whatever ideas come into my head, I understand that love for fantasy, so I’m glad I have a book for the fantasy buff.
And there will be more updates.
I didn’t intend for the Facets stories to tell any sort of story together. Actually, I didn’t feel that was important. Short story and novella collections were groups of unconnected little tales, after all. But as the years passed and passed I grew to feel there was a similarity in the three stories that are now in Facets: Halogen Crossing, Jurant, and The Amulet of Renari. "The Trouble with Taranui" grew into a longer novel, City of the Invaders. And "Millhaven Castle" had originally been published in another book. The more I looked at it, the more I felt it didn’t really fit into Facets of Fantasy’s personality.
What is great about this is that the 3 Facets novellas have a distinctive tone, so you know if something belongs with them or not. This means they also have a distinctive audience who wouldn’t be interested in other stories like Millhaven. In fact, the readers of Facets of Fantasy are so distinctive they might not enjoy my other work overall. Facets of Fantasy, with its blend of three different kinds of fantasy types, has a tone unlike any of my other books—a crafted, elevated, broad-reaching tone in which strong characters grapple with a deeply structured world to which they belong. It’s a fantasy book for fantasy lovers. And although I write whatever ideas come into my head, I understand that love for fantasy, so I’m glad I have a book for the fantasy buff.
And there will be more updates.
