Sarah Scheele's Blog, page 15

Just Plain Strange: Artie and BeBe

I’ve noticed there are characters in my books who are just plain strange. They always come in pairs—and who better to start with than Artie and BeBe from Bellevere House?

Artie is like something out of a freak show. He is the son of a radio producer—perhaps constant immersion in show business accounts for his being out of touch with normal life. He wears plaid suits and just zones in on Bebe. Zones in. She’s interested in voice acting, so he targets her. He doesn’t marry her even though he’s actually in love with her. Instead she gets pregnant, for almost no reason, he picks on her eating and table manners (what the heck!?!?) Then he disappears into the blue and pretends to forget about her. Later, they pop up happily married and he hopes her dad will accept him. He doesn’t seem concerned whether BEBE will accept him, although I think that should be a serious IF. If I were her, he’d be dead. He would no longer be a part of the world of the living. He would be gone from the Earth as we know it, right about the time I first met him.

There’s no explanation of BeBe’s reasoning—seriously, who would be interested in this guy? She gets in a lot of trouble with her dad after Artie runs off and diffidently assumes she could never even dream of getting married to Artie. After all Artie is—is—is what, exactly? A freaky guy in plaid who treats her terribly for some unexplained reason. Like he’s trying to impress her with how knowledgeable and distant he is, how hard to attain, how critical about how to eat crackers? Artie ISN’T hard to attain. He followed HER around from the first. BeBe is quite self-centered. That must be why she doesn’t see him the way he is. She doesn’t see him at all.

I think she’s perfect for him. The person married to Artie should be blind as a bat.
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And there will be more updates. 

Celesta is Coming (And The Rebirth of Facets)

Soon I hope to release a little story I wrote about 5 years ago. I’m not sure if it will be before or after Temmark Osteraith, which I’m also working on. This story, Two Days in Celesta, is a little variation on Cinderella that talks about the fairy godmother's backstory and tweaks Cinderella's adventures so the prince isn't who you expect. I briefly included this story in an older version of Victoria/Alyce from last year, but decided it would do better separately. I might even extend it to include a few more characters.

Facets of Fantasy was originally published 10 years ago--yes, TEN--and this year I'm going to move it out to some wider platforms. In short, to republish it, in a way. Not that I regret any of the past ten years' experiences with it, but that it's time for my authorship to take a new direction and where better to begin than at the beginning!

Facets of Fantasy will be on preorder for a few weeks starting early April (I hope.) I'm also mulling the possibility of a hardback book, largely because they hold up to wear and tear much better. Still thinking about that . . . but back to the preorder. Facets will be the first of several books to be re-released in this way. And I'm planning a new cover for City of the Invaders . . .

So excited . . .

And there will be more updates.

How The Amulet of Renari Suffers From Overseriousness

It’s not hard to see why Violet might be a little angsty. After all, she’s got practically no friends, the other kids told her she’s weird, and she’s stuck in a really unlikable, creepy house. It’s mostly work and no play for Violet. She reads, cleans house, cooks, and supervises a bunch of refugees. On top of that, she has no boyfriend. Until the creepy wolf-elves show up, the only boy of her age who seems to exist is her conceited, irritating cousin, and of course she can’t be with her cousin.

No wonder I always imagine her with a sort of glare on her face. I mean, that’s no life for a teenage girl. Sometimes Violet seems to like it. At least, I think she does, in which case the whole situation of her family being friends/enemies/slash friends again with a bunch of uptight, hysterical non-humans warped her personality.

Still, everything in Renari has a pomposity to it that doesn’t always seem deserved. After getting kicked out of that house—good riddance, perhaps I should write a sequel in which she comes back to Vailsgabel and deals with the fact wolf-elves were MURDERING her family for literally almost forever—she travels to see a king who is bitter because he’s been boring for so long people are discarding him. Then they drift to a musty old ruin and rave about how beautiful it is and how it represents something amazing, when it looks pretty shady actually. With great ceremony some nomad with a veil is proclaimed king and they act as if this is the culmination of everything great in recorded history. I mean, it’s a nice idea that he gets to come home and no one is begrudging him that, of course.

But sometimes fantasy can be overserious, that’s all. Maybe that’s an okay thing, in the end, once you admit it.
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And there will be more updates.

Not Quite The Hero: Bruce

This month I’m starting another blog series about the “secondary hero.” The guy who isn’t quite the hero of the story, but he’s always lurking in a corner. And sometimes it’s those quiet ones who matter, so it makes sense to start with Bruce. City of the Invaders is built on interactions that are hidden—people are not revealing how they feel about things. It makes sense for the EC to put on plays and for the Invaders to come see them, because these two groups of people are constantly acting in real life.

Bruce is pretty popular. He also appears in the shorter story “The Trouble with Taranui,” and as he’s called there, “the cool boy,” he’s the EC’s Justin Bieber. Bruce is born for the stage and usually played the lead role until the director decided to cast uninterested—and uninteresting—newcomer Frank. His laid-back personality makes it easy for him to handle endless rehearsals and all kinds of attention and he’s a good sport. He doesn’t at all mind taking a break by doing the side role of a boring king with flat speeches—after all, Bruce has a good voice and can make almost anything sound acceptable.

Bruce is like vanilla ice cream, but there’s a reason he was pushed into the forefront—he isn’t all he looks like. The EC and Invaders have fairly good manners though, even when they’re shooting each other, and don’t reveal some of the strong, invisible feelings that dominate their lives.
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And there will be more updates. 

Victoria: A Tale of Spain Free Day

Victoria: A Tale of Spain, called informally Victoria/Alyce, is FREE today and tomorrow on Kindle. If you’re reading this on Saturday, you can still get the deal. Go ahead and download it and get the book’s sales ranking up. (Oh, and enjoy the book too, of course.)

Victoria: A Tale of Spain Cover Reveal

I'm so excited! Finally . . . Victoria: A Tale of Spain (the new Victoria/Alyce story) has a new cover to complement its makeover. I've worked through and touched up numerous covers for my books over the past year, but only Consuela got a completely "new" cover from the one it was released with initially, so this is a big thing that means Victoria is being re-released. I'm so grateful to my cover designer for helping me through the last year with multiple projects!

And there will be more updates. 

Not A Man of the Previous Generation

“Jesus was a man of His generation. He was not a man of the previous generation.”
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Dr. Bunsen the new pastor of Squarespire Baptist Church, in A Year with the Harrisons, has just arrived to a large congregation that includes the title family. He is a sincerely religious man. Despite appearances otherwise, I never intend for you to think he’s not sincere. He might be a bit aggressive, but sometimes religious people are. I know from the inside that they care passionately about their culture. They don’t view themselves as marginalized, but as proudly independent.

Dr. Bunsen’s sermon isn’t funny because his beliefs are being mocked—it’s because he’s SO sincere that he’s getting a little out of hand and firing bullets at the congregation without getting to know them first. His wife, Mrs. Bunsen, has the same strong feelings when she talks to the music minister about instituting a band. (Actually, it’s not hard to imagine Mrs. Bunsen with an actual rifle.) But though she might seem a little hostile at first, Mrs. Bunsen is a loyal and devoted mother and a good friend to people she agrees with. If you’re her friend—probably in that case you have the exact same thoughts about music—you can trust her absolutely, and that’s a great quality as opposed to duplicity. In this aspect, at least, the Bunsens really are living out the Christian message.

At the end we still don’t get to know the Bunsens or many people in the church very well, as the Harrisons decide to go to another church. But we do know they are go-getters. If there’s an old abandoned grocery store, before you know it they’ll turn it into another little Bunsen church like their old one at Rocky Creek. And in a world where Christians are often shown as shy and self-conscious (people would rather say you had a bar mitzvah than that you were baptized!), I wanted to show something more realistic. Church people can be FIERCE.

And there will be more updates.

Jane Austen-Inspired Valentine's Day Event

Jane Austen. There's nothing quite like her. She continues to inspire us all these years later. This Valentines Day, myself and a few authors came together to bring a special sale and giveaway.
Twelve books are on sale for $2.99 or less. Books like Tracking Ruby and Water Princess and Fire Prince, feature characters who adore and quote Jane Austen's stories. Most of the books take the beloved classics and retell them in a new setting. Each book is perfect for those who want a little touch of Jane Austen and romance for this Valentines Day.
                     


a Rafflecopter giveaway
An author's participation in this giveaway does not mean they endorse all the books included. While all books are considered clean, they may not reflect the values of the other authors.

Mr. and Mrs. Liesel Are Totally Random

In Consuela, there are a few characters that are still a bit Dickensian and the funny thing is that Mr. and Mrs. Liesel are even though they didn’t come out of the book. Liesel is (incredibly loosely) based off of a character called Mrs. Leo Hunter. She was a woman who was obsessed with writing as having a celebrity status, did hobby writing herself, and constantly sought out famous people. This woman, like Liesel, was married to a husband Dickens viewed as very silly. (Although I think Mr. Liesel is actually even sillier and basically strains credibility.) And like Mrs. Leo Hunter, Mr. and Mrs Liesel are totally random characters.

There are always some totally random people poking up at the edge of books, like dust in corners that escaped the vacuum cleaner. Readers shouldn’t even bother to feel they’re honestly annoying, because that’s the POINT of random characters. Random characters like Liesel and Mr. Liesel (he’s never even given a name of his own, how absurd!) are there to be ignored. For instance, during the times they are prominent in Consuela, readers—and Miss Plummer—should be thinking about the other social situations in the story. Why do Miss Plummer’s supposed old friends seem not to like her anymore? What’s really going on in the politics of this country? Why does that Nesya guy HOUND a harmless old woman and keep telling her he hates the EC?

During times when readers can be thinking about situations that have just happened, Mr. and Mrs. Liesel fill up space so there’s no content occurring in the plot right now. If you want to look at something else, they’re doing their job! Oh, and it’s true Mr. Liesel doesn’t have a name. Maybe I should invent one. Hugh. He looks like a Hugh to me.

And there will be more updates.

That Hidden Girl Series: Crissy

Every heroine in my books has a girl she knows closely. This girl is in a lot of scenes and is neither in the background or the forefront—she’s just there. I think that’s an important character, actually, for tying the whole story together. And the one I’m talking about today is Crissy from Ryan and Essie.

This story has always had a powerful hold on my imagination and its hold on other people must be equally powerful, perhaps more so. Crissy tells us a lot about Caricanus, the book’s setting. It’s a place the kids don’t know anything about and it doesn’t really look it, but it’s dangerous. Even at the end, they don’t know quite how dangerous it is, since they only deal with one aspect of it in a typical kid’s fantasy plot. But something else in Caricanus is always there.

Crissy is a Diante—a plant-person. She is attached to a plant stalk and grows out of the ground, though she leaves the plant to travel with Essie. Essie doesn’t respect her needs and takes her to a cold place where she dies. This might seem tragic—and her long-time friend Prince Alavtar is pretty cut up about it—but Crissy is a part of the planet and will return to it. Anything sad in her death will go back into the planet with her. And if any part of her is angry, that will also become part of Caricanus for the future.

Nature is always shown as powerful. In Caricanus, Nature can take on human forms and human thoughts, like Crissy. Essie is reassured that Crissy isn’t truly dead—she’s just continuing somewhere else. But maybe that’s not so reassuring. Eventually, she’ll figure out what Crissy still being here is all about.

And there will be more updates.