Beth Alvarez's Blog, page 8

And suddenly, dog

For the first month of the year, everything was moving right on schedule. My last book, The Spymaster’s Prize, was finished right on time. It got published, I made plans for the next book, I made good headway on some of my doll hobby projects, was getting good news back from the doctor about my long-running health issues, and was looking forward to attending the ceremony for a literary award, where my book Spectrum Blade ultimately placed as a finalist. Whew… that’s quite a list.

I am not sure why or how, but somehow, my family reached the conclusion that this moment where everything was finally working well was the perfect time to introduce a new four-legged friend to our family.

This, I fear, has proven disastrous.

My husband likes dogs. My daughter likes dogs. I… am a cat person, but I know having a dog is important to the rest of my family, and I don’t mind having one around. We found a husky and decided she’d b e a good fit, because we have been husky people and missed our old girl, who passed last summer. The problem is there are huskies like Xochitl, and then there is this one.

To say Tozi has been difficult may be an understatement. This dog has single-handedly—er, pawedly?—upended our entire schedule so effectively that nothing is happening but dog, and it’s put a damper on everyone’s creativity. I’ve gotten essentially no writing done since she made her arrival, and haven’t made progress on any of my hobby projects, either.

What has happened?

Dog.

And so, this is getting posted on a Wednesday instead of my usual Tuesday, because for the past several weeks, I haven’t had time to eat lunch, never mind writing blog posts. Or anything else, for that matter.

I’m reworking my schedule to deal with new setbacks, so a revised schedule will be coming soon. Things will go back to normal eventually (I hope) but for now, the next few books may be delayed…

The general state of things

Back in the old days of the internet, we had blogs instead of social media. Most of our general life updates went on our own blogs. Some of the old blog platforms are still around and in use, but most people have migrated to social media for general updates because it’s faster. Sometimes I wonder why that is. There are no rules to how blogs have to be used. I’ve seen some people use it just like they might use Facebook, sharing a two- to three-sentence general comment on things each day. Sometimes that sounds nice. Sometimes, though, it sounds more like an overload.

But it’s also nice to blog general updates of things, and I haven’t done a lot of that this year, so I figured it would be good to do one now since I’m beginning work on my next big project.

Paragon of Light is being written now; I started at the beginning of the month. I’d originally wanted to start in February, but I had so much work left over from January that I wasn’t able to. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get Paragon of Light out in May like I wanted, but perhaps in June. There’s still a chance I can get 4 books out this year (like I planned) but 3 won’t be a letdown! My cover artist and I are working on developing the cover and I absolutely love the direction it’s going thus far. I’ll share the first peek with my newsletter as soon as it’s ready, though I’m not quite sure when that will be! I guess it doesn’t matter too much, since I’m not done writing the book.

I’d planned to do two Spectrum Legacy releases this year and two Artisan Magic releases, but I am not sure if that will still be the case. Ideally, I’d want the third Artisan Magic title out in the fall–but I still anticipate not being able to get any writing done over the summer, which makes that seem a little out of reach. My focus may be on trying to wrap up the Spectrum Legacy books, because there are two more left after Paragon of Light and I think it may be possible for me to write the ending of the series before the end of the year. Doing so would push the third Artisan Magic book back to early 2024, but I admit that series feels a little less urgent since both books currently in the series tell a story on their own and make a perfectly reasonable stopping point. Even if The Spymaster’s Prize includes a small teaser at the end.

A few other things have kept me busy lately, too. While I’m still working slowly and at a reduced capacity due to my health, I’ve finally moved on to the process of casting the doll I sculpted for Tahl, which I shared all the way back in the summer of 2021. I have my own home casting studio to produce pro quality dolls now, which means he’ll be going up for preorder soon. My first doll in production! I’ll probably blog a bit about the process once I get things underway, because there are a lot of moving parts to it.

I haven’t done as good a job of making videos as I’d like. I film vlogs but have trouble finding time to edit them, and haven’t been able to do as much work on doll things for the aforementioned health reasons. So my projects have been a little slower in coming together and there’s not much to share. I’d love to get to a point where I can stream or something, because I miss the social aspect of video sharing online, but not until a few things settle, I guess. I’ve got several doctor appointments across the next week, more tests to try and figure out what’s going on with me and how I can improve my health, and maybe I’ll have more answers after that.

In the meantime, the biggest thing that eats up my free time and makes it hard to work is the addition of a new furry family member, who I shared a photo of in my newsletter last month. After our sweet white husky reached the end of her days last summer, I knew my husband would miss having a dog, and our daughter did, too. It was right around Christmas that he said he wanted another dog. I’m not much of a dog person, mostly due to bad experiences, but I told him if we could find a husky so I’d know what we were getting into, I was okay with bringing one home. Now we have Tozi, and she is a handful.

Don’t let the sweet sleepy photo fool you; she’s a ceaseless fountain of energy with needle-sharp teeth.

I’m not sure how I’ll work out filming and streaming with a very vocal puppy around, but I know she’ll settle as she ages, and it’s fun to watch her play in the remnants of the fall’s leaves out back. It’s a nice excuse to do my writing outside in the sunshine and pleasant early spring weather, too, whenever it’s not raining. She can’t be trusted out there on her own. Huskies love to dig, you know…

Tea Review: Raspberry sun tea from Oliver Pluff & Co.

Early this month, a very sweet friend sent me some books to read for our new book club. Along with the books (Which are delightfully annotated, by the way!) there was a birthday treat: An adorable teacup for my collection, and a can of tea in a variety I’ve never tried before.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure why  I’ve never made sun tea. And let me tell you, the bags for a whole pitcher of tea at once are huge. This one is raspberry sun tea from Oliver Pluff & Co. From the can alone, I had a feeling I’d like it.

Oliver Pluff’s thing seems to be recreating historical teas. I don’t know a lot about the history of sun tea, admittedly, beyond the fact that it’s not always safe. Tea sitting out at room temperature for long periods of time can grow unpleasant things you don’t want to drink. The modern way to make sun tea apparently doesn’t involve the sun at all: Instead, you put it in the fridge.

Five hours later, I added sugar (which might have gone better if I’d mixed it into warm water and poured that in, instead of trying to stir sugar into cold water…) as directed and gave it a taste. The end result?

Way too sweet.

The instructions on the can said to use two thirds of a cup of sugar to the full gallon of tea, but that result was something like the super-sweet, rot your teeth kind of Deep South sweet tea. Fine for some people, and I guess it makes sense, but the tea has so much powerful natural sweetness from the raspberry that it’s really not necessary to use that much.

The flavor was very smooth and lacked any hint of bitterness, since there was no heat to draw out the tannins from the black tea, so it very well would have worked as an unsweetened iced tea – as horrible as that may sound to some. Honestly, it might be the only time unsweetened iced tea is acceptable.

The berry flavor is vibrant, but blends well with the strength of the black tea and doesn’t overpower it. Nicely balanced, well-formulated, and delightful. I kept the pitcher in the fridge so it would stay cold, but pouring it over a glass full of ice made it super refreshing, and perfect for the particularly warm early spring days we’ve had the past few weeks.

As far as fine quality teas go, it’s reasonably priced for the massive quantity that goes into each tea bag, and this is going to be a wonderful treat for the hot summer days ahead – I’ll be saving the rest of it until late May, when we start to have super-hot temperatures, but this is a great addition to an under-served portion of my tea collection: Teas meant to be served cold.

The power of tea in fantasy fiction

There’s probably little surprise that as a writer, a lot of my life works its way into my writing. My tastes, my hobbies, things I love or find important. One thing that often works its way into my fantasy stories is tea.

It’s strange to think of something that’s a pleasant, everyday part of modern life being so integral to things around the world and throughout history, but tea has been a staple here on Earth for as long as civilization has been around. Vikings are said to have used it as currency, and multiple wars started with tea. With that in mind, is it any wonder tea can be used as a powerful cultural asset in stories?

Tea was a known drink in China as far back as the third century AD, but its use may have found its roots thousands of years before that. In addition to its place as a daily staple, its use is also steeped (ha!) in tradition. in China, tea is a symbol of friendliness and grace, while in Japan, tea ceremonies represent respect, harmony, and serenity. In India, tea represents hospitality. Even in the United States, a cup of tea is often taken for a quiet moment, representative of comfort and peace. In some ways, this gives it a sort of meditative quality, which allows us to connect it to the mind and spirit as well as simply being a comforting drink.

This opens a lot of doors to its use in fantasy fiction. Obviously, we can build fictional cultures that use tea the same way, either as merely a popular drink, or something that represents respect or tradition, but we also have the option of using it as a representation of a spiritual connection to the greater forces present in a fantasy world that help make it… well, fantasy. Not only can it be used in ritualistic ways that help characters connect with a spiritual realm, but it opens the door for interesting ways a character might connect with some sort of power. Even in the real world, there are those who use tea leaves for a form of divination.

But the simple drink also helps ground us in stories, connecting us to things that make our world real. A character offered tea as a symbol of hospitality has the option of making us feel as if we might belong in that setting… or it could be an opportunity for a social faux pas, where cultural misunderstandings could rise from how the drink is served or whether or not a character chooses to partake. How they react could, too, be a small way to show how a character expresses their personal beliefs or traditions, and through repetition of tea time throughout a story, it gives an opportunity to share growth.

In that respect, tea may be under-utilized. If not tea, then maybe something like it. Whether used as simple symbols of culture, a taste of realism in a story, or a way to connect to something deeper, it’s something to keep in mind for building believable fantasy worlds.

How would you expect it to be used?

The Spymaster’s Prize is now available!

It’s been a busy couple of months getting this ready, but here it is!
The Spymaster’s Prize is now available on Amazon in ebook format, with paperbacks coming soon.

A trip to buy baking supplies shouldn’t have ended with kidnapping.

Now Elia is one of only two witnesses in the disappearance of her friend, and Cass, the surly woodsman who aided her escape, has only one goal: to get her home safely and wash his hands of the whole ordeal.

Elia knows they can rescue her friend, if she can only convince Cass to help—and no matter how prickly he may be, he can’t resist her sunshiny ways. But when her plea for the crown’s assistance results in her rescuer crossing blades with the king, it becomes clear Cass is more than a mere woodsman.

To spare his life, a deal is made, and Elia’s new job is simple: Follow Cass, discover his secrets… and avoid falling in love in the process.

The Spymaster’s Prize is a fantasy romance with no spice, but contains high action and some combat violence. It is a full stand-alone story with a happily-ever-after ending of its own, though readers may enjoy the additional context provided by previous Artisan Magic books.

Ready to read?

Get your ebook copy on Amazon here.

Ordinary women in fantastic fiction add value

So I mentioned it on social media, but keeping up with all the social… everything… when I am in writing mode is really tough. The Spymaster’s Prize is done now, though, and it’ll be released on Saturday. You can preorder your copy on Amazon here, if you haven’t yet. Otherwise, if you’re waiting for the paperback, it’ll be along in March.

The release of the second Artisan Magic brought up an interesting conversation with a friend, though, and it occurred to me that it might be something worth writing a post about. See, in The Spymaster’s Prize, Elia is accidentally swept off on quite an adventure, but she’s not equipped for it. Like her cousin Thea in the first Artisan Magic book, The Assassin’s Bride, Elia is… well, ordinary.

Over the years, ordinary women seem to have vanished from fantasy fiction. There’s nothing wrong with the hardened warrior women or strong, talented mages. But at some point, the push to have perpetually stronger lead ladies did something to me, specifically: It made me feel like fantasy was no place for me.

It’s cool to have role model characters to look up to, who inspire you and challenge you to reach for new heights. But as an exceptionally ordinary person, it also began to feel a little out of reach, distant from real possibilities for me. As I faced a lot more health challenges over the past year, that became a little bit sharper of an ache. Everywhere I looked, there were either crazy strong, hardcore women who can lay a smackdown on evil and sass everyone along the way… or there were the wilting waifs of much older fantasy, damsels in distress who could do nothing on their own. Where was the in between?

When I settled in to write The Assassin’s Bride, that was one thing I wanted to address, creating a character with generally ordinary skills–those of a seamstress, if a magical one–and no experience with adventure. She could have been me, a woman swept out of the doldrums of hemming trousers and whirled away into something that demanded more. Don’t get me wrong, Thea is wilting flower. Something she does in one of the combat scenes (in which she is an active participant!) is one of my favorite pieces of the whole book. But her strength isn’t defined just by the fact she holds her own in a fight when the cards are down. It comes from that ordinary women are already capable world-shapers, just as we are.

Following that framework, Elia’s story is similar; she’s a homebody and a baker, someone eager to fix the problems of her loved ones, someone who can be caring to a fault. Yet she’s also the first person to bludgeon someone in the story, and she never backs down. Her background isn’t extraordinary, but it’s her strength of spirit and her determination that simply being herself is enough that carries her through the story on the quest that eventually makes her a hero in her own right.

That means the story won’t be for everyone. People who are looking for the formidable fighter or fainting flower won’t find it here, but if you’re looking for a regular person who overcomes challenges and proves they had remarkable strength without ever having to change who they were… well, that’s a different story.

Blending magic systems

Back when I started planning to write the Artisan Magic books, I spent some time dipping back into the subject of writing craft–specifically, rules for writing fantasy.

Obviously, when talking about something like fantasy, the very concept of “rules” is a little shaky,  but exploring how others approach world building always helps me figure out how many things have already solidified in my mind before I start writing a new world.

One thing stood out while I was reading, though. There was a lot of debate over which magic system was better to use, but something a lot of writers commonly agreed on was that it was important to establish whether your world’s magic system would be hard or soft magic. I’d already decided on the path I’d take for the Artisan Magic books, but for me, seeing everyone agree on that subject made me keenly aware of the fact there’s a third path, because it’s what I took in writing the Snakesblood Saga.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept of hard and soft magic, it’s pretty easy to explain: Hard magic follows strict rules for how it functions, as well as what it can and cannot do. Soft magic is far more ambiguous, largely unexplained, and how it works and what it’s capable of is generally a mystery.

Gandalf’s powers in The Lord of the Rings is based on a soft magic system, where it’s a strange, otherworldly thing that everyone knows exists, but no one is quite sure how it works or what it can do. And for hard magic, the popular children’s show Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great example, where powers are neatly categorized and there are solid rules, even when it falls outside the skill set of a typical bender.

Pretty much everything I’ve ever read or seen falls into one of these two camps, so where’s the third I mentioned? Well, it seems to be an unpopular choice, but in the Snakesblood Saga… I used both.

Bound mages follow strict hard magic rules. They’re limited in what they can touch and what they can do, and their power is generally well understood. The other side of the coin is the free mages, who are exceptionally rare. Their power is raw and unrefined, a power source that defies all known rules and cannot be understood. While it can be wielded with clear intention, what it can and cannot do is unknown, which is part of what makes them dangerous–they have no obvious limits.

The strange thing is that I never intentionally combined hard and soft magic systems. That was something that grew organically in the story as I wrote and developed it. Since becoming aware of it, though, I’ve been on the lookout for more stories that include both hard and soft magic in the same world, and I haven’t been able to find any good examples yet.

Which do you prefer, hard or soft magic? Have you ever read another story that combined both?

A short list of my favorite unpopular tropes

One of the more interesting discoveries that came with being involved in various book communities over the years is that there are a few things that can be found in some stories that people seem to hate. That probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most people… but particularly in communities like the bookish side of Instagram, there are a few that really surprised me. Things that people really deeply revile, that the entire book community seems to revile. Two stood out in particular, and part of what made that strange to me was that as far as story tropes go… the two most universally hated tropes were two of my favorites.

So this post is as described on the package: A short list of my favorite unpopular tropes, because we’re only touching on two, but they were big ones for me. One’s easier to understand, but we’ll start with the one I like more of the two.

Favorite unpopular trope number one: Pregnancy.

Apparently, a huge number of readers hate when a lead character becomes pregnant and/or has a child along the way. Me? I love it.

I can understand why some don’t, because I’ve definitely seen instances of it being done badly. Sometimes a character’s pregnancy is used as a source of dramatic conflict, forcing people together or apart in ways that seem stilted and unnatural. But when characters whose life ambitions involve raising a family of their own are able to do it? Ah, that’s a thing of beauty in a story. Even if the circumstances surrounding the child’s arrival are a surprise or a bittersweet note in a story, I love it.

Since I grew up reading a lot of epic fantasy, extremely few characters had children along the way, and it was essentially never the hero or “chosen one” in the tale. I’ve always felt like that was a niche that hadn’t been filled, and while it’s more common in stories than it used to be, characters settling and having kids is usually post-script.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but as a parent, I especially prize stories where the heroes have kids along the way and figure out how to make it work. Seeing the heroes have kids during the progression of the adventure, without having to step aside and let the adventure move on without them? Those stories are treasures, things that make me feel seen and acknowledged as a mom, and I’ve greatly enjoyed including the arrival of kids in some of my books as something that’s part of the adventure, not the end of it. After all, that’s what real life is like for a huge number of us.

Favorite unpopular trope number two: Miscommunication.

This is the one where it’s easier to see why people don’t like it. It’s often done badly, amping up problems when sitting and having a conversation would resolve everything. So people get unhappy with this being used as part of a story, because people should just sit and talk!

But the thing is, real life isn’t like that. People don’t sit and talk. We don’t sit down and clear the air and fix everything just like that. A huge number of problems in our real lives aren’t resolved by sitting and talking, so why would we expect fiction to reflect our idealized desires and not our actual behavior? A well-done miscommunication, whether mistake or misunderstanding, can be an exceptional story addition because it’s a realistic way for characters to behave. The important thing is ensuring it’s a genuine obstacle the characters work around, not an artificially inflated plot device just to make them suffer and struggle without a satisfying resolution.

And that’s it. My short list.

Now, let me hear yours. What’s your favorite story element that other people seem to hate?

Tea review: Peaches and Flowers by Independence Coffee Company

So let me start by saying this: me and peaches don’t get along. I like the idea of peaches. I like the smell of peaches. And if you like the smell of peaches, wow, you’re going to love the way this smells the moment you open the package. The concept of peaches is nice. The flavor of peaches… unfortunately, doesn’t always get along with me.

The sunflowers are an exciting pop of color in the mix, and I love that! Unfortunately, it’s too peachy for my tummy, so I couldn’t drink much before it didn’t get along with me anymore.

Despite that, I still have nice things to say about this, and good, since honestly, drinking peach flavored tea when I know peaches upset my stomach is not the smartest thing I’ve ever done. But like I said, it smelled good, it looked good. I wanted to know.

This tea is a really great blend, where the peach is super strong in fragrance, robust in the first sip, and strong in the aftertaste. It’s smooth, has a juicy quality to the flavor that I haven’t experienced in a lot of teas, and the fragrance is absolutely heavenly!

The brew is really golden and the sweetness is intense, so this needs nothing to be delicious. I could imagine it being great with milk added, it would probably take on a peaches and cream type flavor? But I couldn’t hang in there that long, so I don’t know for sure.

So, if you like peaches, you’re going to adore this. It’s bright. It’s colorful. It’s super peachy, really rich peach flavor. It’s just not for me, and honestly? I’m kinda sad, because as far as peach things go, this is really, really nice.

178 Days

After the struggle to find writing time last year, I sat down with a different plan in mind for this year: I printed out a calendar, and the first thing I did was mark out every day I knew I wouldn’t likely be able to write. Holidays went first. Then weekends, because those always fill up with other things. Birthdays. Spring break. An estimated week for fall break. Thanksgiving. And then, the one that hurt the most, summer.

I’ve talked about how I’ll be planning this year in a way that will minimize stress and frustration for health reasons, but at the end of marking everything, the result was disheartening. A maximum of 178 days to use for writing, and that’s assuming nothing else ever comes up and nobody ever gets sick.

I should probably drop the estimate to 150 days, but for now, I’ll hold to what I can and try to plan with buffers for each writing project. The goal is to complete and publish 4 books this year. I only got 3 out in 2022, so this seems like a bit of a lofty challenge. But that said, two of those books were Spectrum Legacy titles, which are pretty beefy, and this year, two of the books on the table are considerably shorter.

The basic order of events should hopefully be this:

The Spymaster’s Prize in Q1
Paragon of Light in Q2
A third Artisan Magic book in Q3
Paragon of Shadow in Q4

Will it happen? I guess we’ll see, but this is what we’re hoping for. The Spymaster’s Prize is crawling past the midpoint with a goal of being done at the end of this month, but between doctor appointments and unexpected events, it may creep over into February before it’s finished. On the plus side, edits will be quick and easy and the cover is ready and revealed, so the book will be able to launch fast.

Will blocking out huge sections of the year work to help reduce the stress of my workload? I guess we’ll find out, and I’ll do a summary of how it’s going toward the end of the month.

A little different from my usual yearly plans, but variety keeps things fresh, right?