Mia Darien's Blog

Character Interview: Danica James & BR Kingsolver

Danica James: Magitek, Book one of The Rift Chronicles

Danica James: I’m a cop with the Mid-Atlantic Metropolitan Police Arcane Division. I work homicides, human trafficking, and other major crimes. I’m a magitek, a mage who can manipulate mechanical and electrical equipment. My grandfather was the most famous magitek. You probably heard of him, Hunter James? He broke the world and opened the Rift.

Danica James: BR is an imaginative author, who writes rather unique stories, but he’s kind of lazy. I wish he’d get the next book written so I know what’s going to happen to me.

Danica James: It’s kind of confusing. I get all these cases thrown at me, and they seem to be unrelated, but the same names keep coming up. And the suspects keep dying. I also feel like I’m being pulled in a lot of different directions. The deputy police commissioner, my boss, wants one thing, my father’s family wants another, my mother wants something else, and my roommate keeps telling me I’m an idiot for being a cop. But if people would stop trying to kill me, I think it would be more fun.

Danica James: It beats the hell out of working in a magitek factory ten hours a day. Booorrrring.

Danica James: I hope I survive. BR hasn’t told me anything about the next book. It looks like there’s going to be a war, but no one is really sure who’s on whose side. I keep hoping I might get a date. One my grandmother didn’t arrange.

Danica James: Oh, yeah. BR says this is going to at least be a trilogy. He has some kind of grandiose idea about writing what he calls an “epic” urban fantasy.

Danica James: Oh, I don’t know. She’d have to be a big girl, and not a kid. I’m thirty-six. Tall and with some meat on her bones. Some muscle. And she’d have to be able to ride a motorcycle.

Website ~*~ Facebook ~*~ Twitter

~*~ Buy the Book! ~*~

Pro-Tip: Editing Dialogue

In a word? Do it cautiously!

The fact is that almost no one, not a single one of us, speaks perfectly when we’re speaking. “People don’t always talk good.” So when you’re editing dialogue, resist the urge to edit it to perfection! Make sure this isn’t a natural way of speaking or a character-specific style.

I apply this to journal entries, emails, and texts written out in a book.

I edit only as much as needed to make sure it’s not totally confusing for the reader, and even then, only if the author didn’t specifically say it was babbling! Context is important. Natural flow is important!

New Release: Written in Blood

Beware the Of

Beware! Beware of the word “of.”

The fact is, you don’t need to use it as often as most people think they do. And using it when you don’t need to can hamper the flow of your sentence. For example, “She walked down the steps of the porch.” Doesn’t this sound better when written as, “She walked down the porch steps.” Small change, but tighter, less passive, and better paced.

“Off” rarely needs the “of” that it’s given too. Again, the ubiquitous porch… “She stepped off of the porch” versus “She stepped off the porch.” Tiny change, but it makes a difference, doesn’t it?

An Editor’s Two Cents (Quirks!)
October 1, 2019 LKJ Leave a comment
Every editor has quirks, just like every author. Some changes may seem odd to you. Or you may be uncertain why the change was made.

I prefer to turn “OK” into “okay,” or “goodbye” into “good-bye.” These are all accurate, but this is my idiosyncrasy. I think it reads better. I think it looks better. And visual aesthetic, even when it comes to grammar and formatting, is important too.

So remember when you’re working with an editor that we all have these quirks. Not every change is a “quirk,” of course, but it’s something we all have! And if you’re wondering about a change, it may be something to keep in mind.

Beware the Onomatopoeia

onomatopoeia
noun. the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named

Aside from being remarkably hard to spell, this is one of those writing acts that can be very useful but very easy to overuse.

When something BAM! crashes into something else, or air HISS escapes through an airlock, or SQUELCH someone sinks into mud…

Sometimes dotting these around to parts of your prose can be good and make an impact BAM! but do it too much and your book starts reading like a comic book.

But if that’s what you’re going for, be my guest!

Guest Crazy

This is what happens when a friend is nice enough to let you set your characters loose on their blog. BR let me do this a couple years ago, and I post it here for new enjoyment with a little editing update!

P.S. BR has written many other urban fantasy books since this time and you should totally check them out!

Dakota: Where the hell are we today? This doesn’t look like Thorne’s place.

Sadie: We’re guests at the blog of BR Kingsolver, who wrote The Succubus Gift and Succubus Unleashed.

D: Succubus? I’ve had enough of them.

Sadie: Different kind. Calm down.

D: *mmph*

Dakota: Men can be so melodramatic.

Sadie: Oh really? Miss hiss-like-a-viper-at-drop-of-hat?

Dakota: Seriously? You sound like an idiot. What is wrong with you?

Madison: No one really knows yet.

Sadie: *sigh* ANYWAYS. We are guests of BR Our lovely author even helped out on some of the book covers.

D: What, just doing covers for our books isn’t enough for her any more?

Madison: She enjoys doing it, and helping out other authors with reasonable fees. Are you really going to give her shit for that?

D: No, not for that really. I think all the shit she did to me in Blood Moon is enough to give her crap for. I mean, was it really fucking necessary to…

Sadie: Shh! Maybe some folk out there haven’t read it yet. You don’t want to give away all the secrets.

D: Come on. It’s my life she’s writing about! I should be able to say whatever I damn well please.

Dakota: I bet you’re regretting saying that I am the most troublesome one now, aren’t you?

Madison: You’re still a pain in the ass.

Dakota: Look who’s talking.

Sadie: Don’t make me separate the two of you. We’re here to talk about Thorne’s books. BR has been kind enough to give us a spot on the blog to get the word out, so let’s not waste it with bickering, okay?

D: Fine. *sighs* Well, her latest Adelheid novel tromps all over my existence.

Madison: You could be a little more diplomatic.

D: Isn’t honesty better?

Madison: You’re incorrigible.

D: Fine, you do it.

Madison: Fine, I will. *pauses, takes a breath* The third book in the Blood Rights Series follows D–the cantankerous Southern bastard who can’t play well with others sitting here with us…

D: Hey!

Madison: …as he makes something of a personal journey through the preternatural life, and there’s some other stuff going on that tries to make his life just miserable. As I’m sure he’d tell you.

D: I seriously don’t see how that was any more diplomatic than what I said.

Sadie: I really can’t take any of you anywhere.

Dakota: Can I point out that I’m the best behaved person here today? *pauses* In fact, we’re on book three and I’m book two. It’s done. Why am I even here?

Sadie: Because Thorne likes you. You are the narrator of the second book so might as well get some shout-out going.

Dakota: Then why is Madison here? None of the books are hers.

Madison: I’m so not feeling any love here.

Sadie: Because she’s a nice girl. *pauses* And she threatened to leave the curtains open while I was in the daylight coma.

D: Doesn’t sound very nice to me.

Madison: Nice doesn’t mean that you can’t be practical.

Sadie: This could get ugly.

Dakota: We’re two bloodsuckers and two half-animals, could we really get any uglier?

Sadie, Madison & D: Hey!

Dakota: What?

Sadie: Before this gets any worse, I’m going to tell our readers that you can find out more about the Blood Rights Series, as well as her other works, at her website.

Dakota: Which is oh-so-creatively called: authorkbthorne.com

Madison: It’s easy to remember. I would have thought you’d like that.

D: Would you all just shut up? You’re giving me a headache.

Sadie: I can’t imagine anyone wanting to read more about the lot of you after this, and BR is never going to invite us again…but if anyone does want to read more, there are book covers, blurbs and links on Thorne’s site. Please feel free to stop by. I promise I’ll make them behave.

Dakota: *snorts* Fat chance of that.

Be Bold!

Something that I commonly change in the prose of stories is that a character will start to do something or begin to do something, rather than just doing it. In many cases, “beginning” to do the thing isn’t relevant.

They end up doing it without interruption. So why specify that?

Over-qualifying is a pretty common issue. Tied to passive versus active voice, which writers see talked about everywhere. It’s a matter of being assertive in your writing.

“He began to get up, heading over to the table.”

Why do we need to know that he began to do it? Why not just say “He got up and went to the table”?

It’s a simple change, but it makes a very active impact on your writing. It’s more engaging and less drawn-out, which is very important to the flow of your story.

Different Eyes

Why is Adelheid told with different First Person narrators?

There was a brief review for the original publications of books two and three where a review said simply that they were surprised that the narrators were different than the first book. This sort of thing doesn’t surprise people in stories written in Third Person, but Blood Rights is written in First Person. Normally a series written in that narrative voice follows the same character for each story. I’ve chosen not to.

One of my primary reasons for doing so is because I came up with a cast of characters that I think are fascinating, each in their own right. I wanted to more faithfully and completely tell each of their stories. Writing in First Person lets you delve deeper into the head and the heart of a character than Third Person, at least I think so. It also gives you the intrigue of how a story changes because of the perspective of the character. Everyone “sees” things differently, and in First Person, your character’s perceptions can change and shade the narrative.

My second reason is, as funny as it sounds, one of realism. In a good suspenseful story, you have to put your characters through a lot. If I took all the things I do to my characters in these stories to the SAME character? They’d be lunatics before long! There is a creative freedom to this approach, and it allows me to do more and to not have to change my ideas to fit the same character. If one idea doesn’t fit one narrator, I can hold it for another book and another character.

My biggest hope is for readers to like my stories, to enjoy them, and to enjoy reading about the characters that I write. I hope that readers enjoy getting inside the heads of my cast of interesting folks, and that they gain a new perspective for the whole town when they see it through these different eyes.

Flash Fic Series: Blackout (Part 4)

And now for the finale! You can read Part One Here, Part Two Here, and Part Three Here!

Nykk

Getting caught at the Coven House during a blackout wasn’t my idea of a good time.

I’d been there on business, but was getting ready to leave when the lights went out. I knew that none of the vampires would actually attack me–they could do that just as well in light as well as dark, after all, as I was only human–but there is still that human primordial fear of the dark and the things that go bump in it.

I was suddenly in a house full of bumping things that could see far, far better than I could.

“Well, this was unexpected,” Jade said.

The leader of the Coven House had been standing with me in the back, politely escorting me out. She was beautiful, like a perfectly sculpted porcelain doll, and made me feel very insecure in my own physical presence, plain and scarred as I was. But hey, can’t change the past, a lesson I’ve learned better than most.

A moment later, we heard D roaring about Abby and then Abby giggling, but then we heard the door, the window, the shriek, and the running.

I didn’t know for sure, but I got the feeling that Jade frowned.

“I’d like to help here, but…” I began.

“Indeed,” was all Jade said, in her usual understated way.

There was a clanking sound in the basement, followed by the lead coven warden (Shayna) cursing, then the whirring sound and the lights came back on. Jade was already walking away, leading upstairs to find out what was going on up there–as there had been another round of door opening/shutting and footsteps–when I saw a mini-cyclone bowling down the stairs.

Instinctively, from years of police training, I just held out my arm as it brushed past Jade and came right for me. Something solid connected with my arm and knocked both I and the thing on our collective asses, but D came thundering down a minute later and jumped on it. Faint buzzes of electricity sparked against his skin, but he held firm.

“Any time now, Donovan,” he pushed through gritted teeth.

“This is a demon?” I asked, horrified now and on a very personal level.

Donovan smiled apologetically at me, since he understood my terror, as he began drawing on the expensive wood floor with some chalky white paint-something. Sadie was right behind him.

“How did you do that?” she asked. “It was a freakin’ demon and you clothes-lined it.”

“Sometimes power comes when you don’t know what you’re dealing with,” I said with a weak smile.

Sadie’s smile was a little more genuine. Maybe even a little…evil. “Man, Dakota is gonna be pissed.”

“Why?”

“Cause she missed all the fun,” Sadie said with a smirk that seemed not at all sorry, “and she’s still stuck in jail.”

Mutiny of the Other

Every story has Main Characters, Secondary Characters and then those Other Characters, who have names and enough bits and pieces to make them interesting but aren’t as three-dimensional as a Main or Secondary. They aren’t meant to be.

They exist, from a writer’s perspective, to make your world interesting and sometimes give the Main and Secondary Characters someone to interact with aside from each other, or to be sources of amusement or animosity or information. Other Characters serve these vital functions, but aren’t designed to be front and center.

However, every writer knows that sometimes characters have a mind of their own and decide they are going to be more important than you planned.

The third book in the Blood Rights Series released two days ago. I wrote this story once before some years ago, but decided to rewrite and revise to put it into the Adelheid universe, but several of the characters are the same. One of the background characters — an Other Character — was a bartender named Quintus.

Quintus came a little more to the forefront in this version, even first making a cameo in Blood and Thunder. He’s a very old (600+ years) vampire who owns a vampire bar named 5, who gives Dakota some information. He’s much more pivotal as D’s friend in Blood Moon.

Aside from name, age/species and career, I only knew that he was huge (6’6″ at least and nearly as wide) and had very dark skin. I had the basic idea of what he looked like and his personality, but just enough to write him.

However, as I wrote book three, he decided he wanted to be more and started becoming a lot more interesting. He’s started showing his history to me, even though I didn’t ask for it! He is starting to tell me an intriguing back story involving his parentage and early life in ancient Rome. He has even given himself a back story connection to another character in Blood Moon that I had never planned to tie him to!

He is, in fact, making himself so interesting that he might end up getting his own story some day. He may well get his chance to shine, despite all attempts to make him just an Other Character.

This is a cautionary tale to all writers who think they are creating background characters, because they don’t always listen to what you tell them and stay in their place. Sometimes, they decide that they have much more complex and rich backgrounds than you thought, enough that they demand a story about them. So all writers beware of those Other Characters that might just stage a mutiny on you, like Quintus has done to me!