Intisar Khanani's Blog, page 6

Defying Doomsday Read-Along: Discussion Part 1 (Stories 1-4)

Introduction

Welcome to the first discussion post for the Defying Doomsday Read-Along! If you missed the starting post, you can check it out here. In a nutshell, we read about four stories a week, with questions posting on Thursdays. Feel free to jump in and join the read-along at any point. You can answer the questions in the comments, or answer on your own blog and share a link below. You can also tweet as you read using #readDefyingDoomsday.

For next week, we’ll be reading stories 5-8 (“In The Sky With Diamonds” through “Selected Afterimages of the Fading”).

Below are the first set of discussion questions. (Yay!) Because these are short stories and it can be easy to confuse titles (if you’re me), I’ve given a one line reminder of sorts for each story before the question. Also, while some of these questions are more reflective and thoughtful, I also wanted some to be just plain fun. Here we go!

Discussion Questions: Stories 1-4

1. What do you think of Robert Hoge’s statement, made in the introduction, that ‘People with disability already live in a post-apocalyptic world.’?

2. In “And The Rest of Us Wait,” Iveta and her family join a multitude of others in an underground shelter to wait out the impending meteor impact. Many of the other refugees show anger and resentment about the “special treatment” received by those with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Is it really special treatment? And do you think this portrayal of resentment was realistic?

3. In “To Take Into The Air My Quiet Breath,” three sisters journey to a hospital through a land devastated by a flu epidemic. Despite the closeness of these sisters, there are so many silences, so many secrets being kept—and finally shared. How much hope do you have for these characters at the end of the story?

4. In “Something in the Rain” Holly takes good care of herself and her cat, despite something hungry in the rain. My question is, are you as much of a cat person as Holly is?

5. In, “Did We Break the End of the World?” Jin and Aisha are scavengers in a city after the Pulse knocked out electricity and left only teenagers. What would be your specialty to scavenge / sell at a market after the apocalypse?

6. Are there any other thoughts or comments you want to share?

Intisar’s Answers

1. This statement really struck me. It’s made me think a lot about how much privilege and ease I experience as an able-bodied person, and how much of human society and created spaces are structured in ways that exclude and/or dismiss people with disabilities. And, in the current context of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, watching our senators vote down amendments that protect the level of current health coverage, that assure coverage for those with pre-existing conditions (e.g. chronic illnesses), and so on–this statement as rung even more true my ears.

2. I’ve seen this kind of resentment before, and I most often associate it with someone of privilege who resents not being further privileged–without understanding just how narrow and self-serving their perspective is. So no, giving some an equal chance at survival is not special treatment, at least not in my book (no pun intended!).

3. I loved this story, though I have to say that the priest in the prologue, who told the twins they had roses in their lungs, made me want shake my kindle in anger. Gah! I did love how this was a story of leaving a safe space to take chances, and that included each of the siblings finally leaving the safety of silence to speak their secrets. I think the author wanted us to have a sense of hope at the end, with the moonlight shining on the rosebuds, and I suspect that if anyone can survive this particular apocalypse, it will be these three–and, I hope, Baby. They have grown up with pain and they have seen a great deal, and they know how to prepare and plan, and they are resilient in a way that many others are not. So I’ve got hope, here, even as I know that they’re living a particularly barren and terrifying post-apocalyptic world.

4. I’m with the cat. I loved the the ethical grays of this story, and the mix of pragmatism and love that we see in Holly. And, having young children and teaching them about rules and logical consequences, I was both shocked by and appreciative of just how that played out.

5. As a wordsmith, I’m having a hard time thinking about how to sell my art in a scavenger-based market. But then again, when you’re facing the end of the world, maybe stories become that much more important. I might have to work on my oral storytelling skills though, supplemented by scavenging and selling the best stories out there (and whatever survival guides I can find!).

6. I’m really just loving this read as much as I did the first time through. I’m hoping you’re enjoying it as well!

I’m looking forward to the discussion here!

Disability in Fiction: Top Ten SFF / YA Books – A Guest Post by Tsana Dolichva

Today I’m really happy to welcome Tsana Dolichva to the blog with this guest post on her top ten Speculative Fiction / YA reads featuring characters with disabilities or chronic illnesses.  I reached out to Tsana about this post after reading (and falling in love with) Defying Doomsday, which Tsana co-edited along with Holly Kench. If you’re interested, I just kicked off a read-along of Defying Doomsday – feel free to pop over and check it out (and join!).

All of Tsana’s links in her post are to her reviews of these books, so if you’re looking for more info, click away! And now I’ll turn it over to Tsana…

When I started writing this post, I didn’t think I’d read ten books with disabled or chronically ill main characters. They are books that are few and far between, but thanks to a list I’ve been keeping since we started working on Defying Doomsday, I had more than enough books to choose from.

That said, this list isn’t supposed to be the ultimate list of best books about people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. I haven’t read every book out there and for this top ten I’m only drawing from books I have read. I’m sure there are others I haven’t gotten to that deserve to be on this list (indeed, there are a few in my TBR pile that I’ve been promised are excellent). I’ve gone for the best that I’ve read, in terms of both representation and writing quality. They are listed in roughly descending order and I’ve included links to my full reviews of each book if you want to read more details about the plots and so forth. 

Also, be warned, some of my comments about the books listed below may be spoilers, especially when the representation becomes more relevant later in the book or in a later book of the series.

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis is a YA novel set in the same world as “And the Rest of Us Wait”, her story in Defying Doomsday. On the Edge of Gone is narrated by an autistic teenage girl living in Amsterdam immediately prior to and during the time an asteroid hits the Earth. It’s mainly about her surviving, trying to keep her mother and sister safe, and dealing with the people she meets along the way.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness is a YA contemporary fantasy novel about a group of teens in small town USA. The narrator has convincingly portrayed OCD and anxiety and a key secondary character, the narrator’s sister, is recovering from anorexia. 

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis is a YA portal fantasy featuring as protagonists a boy from Earth who lost a foot when he was younger and a girl from the fantasy world without a tongue. Several of the secondary characters from the fantasy world also don’t have tongues and all speak using sign language.

The Assured Destruction series by Michael F Stewart (Assured Destruction, Script Kiddie, and With Zombies) is a contemporary YA series I picked up without any expectations of disability etc representation. But the teenaged protagonist’s mother has MS and is in a wheelchair, which was realistically presented in the context of the protagonist’s life. Throughout the series her mother’s health waxes and wanes and in the third book we additionally see the main character suffer from acute stress disorder herself (again, very realistically, given the events in the book) and spend some time in hospital because of it.

The Children of the Black Sun trilogy by Jo Spurrier (Winter Be My Shield, Black Sun Light My Way, and North Star Guide Me Home) is a grimdark fantasy series in which one of the key characters (there are several point of view characters) deals with chronic pain from chronic injuries. The final book also deals with amputation and its aftermath, including cognitive impariment due to blood loss in a world without transfusions.

Planetfall by Emma Newman is a science fiction novel featuring a main character with a mental illness. She’s the narrator, so it’s not immediately obvious to the reader based on what she tells us (I also love an unreliable narrator), but it comes out in the course of the book that’s she’s a severe hoarder. It’s also the only book I’ve read focussing on that particular condition.

Dangerous by Shannon Hale is a YA superhero novel (it has aliens and magic, classify it how you will) featuring a main character who has only one hand. The story is heavy on action and adventure and saving the world. As far as representation goes, the main girl does get a robotic arm with pretty magically advanced technology, so it’s not perfect and bordering on the magical cure trope.

The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig is a post-apocalyptic dystopian novel in which everyone is born with a twin. One twin has some sort of physical deformity and is forced to live life as an outcast, while the other is “normal” and allowed to be part of the proper society. The main character is not disabled, but the main secondary character has only one arm and there are many minor secondary characters with various disabilities. The nature of the society allows for much commentary on the disabled experience and their exclusion from society, including dealing with the social model of disability.

The Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant (Feed, Deadline and Blackout… and now a fourth book about other characters that I have yet to read) isn’t perhaps the most obvious choice for disability representation since it is a series set post-zombie apocalypse. The medical stuff behind zombism is fictional, but some aspects lead to conditions analogous to real life issues. In particular, one of the main characters — who are a group of journalists covering a US election campaign trail — has light sensitivity which means she wears sunglasses most of the time and is frequently inconvenienced in her day to day life because of it. 

The Blackcoat Rebellion trilogy by Amiée Carter (Pawn, Captive and Queen, the last of which I haven’t read yet) is a YA dystopian trilogy featuring a dyslexic main character. I liked the representation of something I haven’t seen in many books. I will note, though, that after the beginning of the first book it was often brought up for plot reasons more than anything else.

A huge thank you to Tsana for sharing this awesome list of reads. I am really looking forward to them! If you’re looking for even more books, be sure to also check out the Disability in Kid Lit Honor Roll.

Tsana Dolichva is an astrophysicist and a science fiction writer originally from Melbourne, Australia who travels a lot. When not writing, reading or blogging, she studies dying stars. You can connect with her on Twitter, Tumblr, or through her website.

Defying Doomsday Read-Along: The Starting Line

Introduction

Today we’re kicking off the Defying Doomsday Read-Along. I’m so excited to see where this goes! You can join at any point through the read-along, so don’t be shy. I’m hoping we’ll have some fun discussions in the comment threads as we jump into this awesome set of stories. You can also tweet about the read-along using the hashtag, #readDefyingDoomsday.

The discussions questions for the first four stories will be posted next Thursday. Today I’ve got some preliminary questions to get us going. Feel free to answer the questions in the comments here, or, if you prefer, answer the questions on your own blog and leave a link in the comments. Either way works great!

But Where Do I Find It?

If you’re looking to nab your copy of Defying Doomsday, there are lots of options, including Amazon. You can also head over to the publisher’s release post for a full list of links.

The Schedule

Thursday, January 5 – Start Reading!
Thursday, January 12 – Questions on Stories 1-4
Thursday, January 19 – Questions on Stories 5-8
Thursday, January 26 – Questions on Stories 9-12
Thursday, February 2 – Questions on Stories 13-15
Thursday, February 10 – Wrap Up and Review Link Up

The Questions

Why did you decide to join the read-along?
Is this your first time reading apocalyptic fiction? Or is this a genre you’ve enjoyed before?
Have you read any other books featuring disabled protagonists that you’d recommend?
If you were to write a short story about surviving the apocalypse, what kind of apocalypse would you choose? (It can be as realistic or fantastic as you like!)
If you were facing an apocalypse, what one fiction book would you stick in your pack before fleeing whatever’s about to take out your neighborhood? (No survival guides–let’s be real, you don’t even have one your shelves right now….)

Intisar’s Answers

I decided to join because it would be really bad manners to run a read-along and not join. (JK!) I’ve read a few books with disabled protagonists, but Defying Doomsday blew me out of the water with the sheer breadth of experiences, realities, and fictions covered. I really wanted to share it with more people, so when I decided to run a blog post series on Disability in Fiction, this book was the obvious choice to me for a read-along.
I actually don’t read much in the way of surviving-the-apocalypse stories. I’m much more of a high fantasy or fairy tale type person, but I went through a serious SF phase as a teen and I still very much appreciate well written books where the magic is technology–or just where the characters are real and the story won’t let me go.
It’s rather embarrassing to admit that I’m drawing a blank right now. I’ve read a number of books I wouldn’t recommend per se–so, for example, while I enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, I found out pretty quickly that it did a terrible job of representing individuals with autism. The list of woulds seems far sparser, especially since I can’t count books with secondary characters, though I must say I enjoyed Bleeding Violet for both its weird horror-like fantasy vibe and the depiction of the heroine’s bipolar disorder.

**Edited to add: I forgot about our heroine’s love interest in the Nyssa Glass series by H. L. Burke. There’s some serious backstory regarding just what his father was willing to do to “fix” him (it’s messed up!), but Ellis himself is a great character.
It feels like everything’s been done, so I guess for me the question is, what could I make mine? Also, I’m rather depressed about climate change and the spread of Zika and twenty other things, so I’m going fantastical with this one. As such: A unicorn apocalypse brought about by corporate investments in shady genetics experiments. Oh, and a horde of infected mosquitos. Um, yeah, reality doth interfere.
Since I can’t take my Kindle (who made these rules? That sucks!), and I don’t want to haul around a massive tome, I’d limit myself to Pride and Prejudice. This is the book I read every summer for years on end, and with every re-read I found something else to laugh at or enjoy. Also, that world is long gone, so escaping to it wouldn’t involve mourning it as well.

Happy Reading, Everyone!

Disability in Fiction: A Blog Post Series Kick-off and Giveaway!

Today I’m really excited to kick off a new blog post series on Disability in Fiction. Over the next six Mondays I’ll be hosting a series of guest posts from #ownvoices authors, bloggers, and disability advocates. It’s going to be awesome! I’m also hosting a read-along of Defying Doomsday, an anthology of apocalyptic short stories featuring disabled protagonists. Just for kicks, I’m giving away an e-book of Defying Doomsday, so make sure to scroll down to enter. This read-along will actually be a re-read for me, as I read this antho this past fall and loved it. So join me every Thursday to talk books!

But why?

Because what we read informs how we see the world, and how well we can empathize with someone whose lived experience is different from our own. And goodness knows we could do with more empathy in the world today.

Here’s what I mean: when I stop to think about disabled characters in the books I read (which are mostly YA Fantasy / Spec Fic, go figure), I notice that there aren’t actually that many. And they also usually fall into one of a handful of tropes.

Disabled Person as Motivation / Inspiration – You know what I’m talking about. This is the Tiny Tim of YA Fantasy, that kid we need to save, because they’re small and scrappy and keep on trying but they’re not going to make it without us. So we can be heroic and save them. And that, my friends, is the definition of heroism, or so we are led to believe. I saw it in Angelfall by Susan Ee, which I enjoyed overall, but Paige was rarely more than a plot device in either this or the second book. Perhaps that changed in the third book, but these two books definitely use Paige as the driving force behind Penryn’s actions while Paige remains in perpetually in need of help. Gah!

Case in point… I searched “saint” on my image website of choice and came up with an image of Frida Kahlo. I can’t even. She was amazing. She was not a saint.

Disabled Person as a Saint – because clearly a person must be perfect if they’ve learned to live with whatever their disability may be. Well, no. They’re human. They have good days and bad, and they get drunk or cuss or get in fights just like the next person. We see these “people” in fantasy as momentary blips on the journey of our heroes, saintlike crippled children (OMG it’s Tiny Tim again!), that “special” child in gothic stories who either saves the day or dies (or both), and on and on.


The Disabled Villain – which is pretty much the polar opposite of the last trope. But the idea is that they’re as “ugly” on the outside as they are on the inside–Darth Vader, Captain Hook, and so many others. They’re easy to hate, and their disability makes them even more loathsome–whether it’s the eerie sound of Vader’s breathing, or the sickening scratch of the iron point of that hook along a wooden railing, their disability is intimately tied to our sense of their evilness.

There are probably at least a dozen more awful (and common) tropes that disabled characters fall into that I haven’t listed and am not aware of–but that list right there makes me angry. I’ve spent enough of my life (all of my life?) dealing with people’s stereotypes and assumptions about who or what I must be, because of any number of character traits about me, and it sucks.

As Holly Kench wrote in this blog post, “We need diverse books. We need disabled characters. We need meaningful storylines for these characters to show that, like everyone else, they/we are just human. They/we are not a symbol for uselessness, monstrosity, or inspiration. They/we are people with full lives and a multitude of experiences.”

So there you have it. Join me Thursday to kick off the read-along of Defying Doomsday, and stop back again on Monday for the first guest post in this awesome series! Here’s the expected schedule, which I’ll update with links (and final titles) as posts go live.

I’m totally excited about this–are you? And is there something more you’d like to see? 

Disability in Fiction Blog Post Series

Kick-Off Post (that’s this one!)
Top Ten Spec Fic Reads with Disabled Characters – Tsana Dolichva
Disability in the US – Ari Ne’emen
Ableism in Fiction – Alyssa Hillary
Favorite Reads via The Disability Visibility Project – Alice Wong
Writing Disabled Characters – Elsa Henry
Reflections and Wrap-up

Be a love and help me share the word about this too!

Those Books Aren’t Going to Write Themselves (My 2017 Writing Resolutions)

On a regular basis, I find myself astonished at the realization that the books in my head are not going to jump wholly-formed and fully edited into my computer without me. It’s as if I internalized Newton’s (unwritten) Law of Writing that quite reasonably asserts that a book in need of writing will automatically write itself. I mean, what’s with all the stress, and anxiety, and laboring over ideas, and writing and rewriting and rewriting again, and thinking? How about: I’ve got an idea, hey look, now it’s a book!

Apparently not.

Who doesn’t want this as their vehicle of choice?

So, in an effort to take myself to task, I sat down and hashed out my 2017 plan. Don’t be mistaken! I also have a ten year plan. It’s beautiful. And scary. Very, very scary. It’s also regularly inaccurate, since I don’t have a nice blue police call box that can help me zip about through time and fix (my) mistakes. Or a supersonic keyboard. *sigh* At least I’m married to a doctor (of the political science variety).

So here we have it, my 2017 Writing Goals as per my highly terrifying ten year plan:

1. Write and Revise Sunbolt, Book 3: I’m hoping to complete the draft I have, send it to beta readers, and then revise it following their feedback. While there’s not much I can guarantee, I can promise this: Book 3 won’t be ready for release before the end of 2017. Even with the most planning I have ever done (read: over two months spent hashing and rehashing the outline), I still expect that I will need at least four revisions and two beta reading rounds. Hopefully, though, by the end of the year I’ll have a good idea of when it might release.

2. Revise Theft (Rae’s story): Because otherwise I might get lynched. Also, because Rae’s ready to get written, and I’ve found some good options for sensitivity readers and consults regarding Rae’s disability. I’m also hoping to get this to beta readers sometime this year.

Someone make this happen, please.

3. Revise one other work: Mostly because my calendar seems to think I can do this, even though I think that might be insane. I will get to pick between a novella-sized retelling of a Celtic fairy tale I have sitting on my hard drive (about a girl who can run like the wind and outwit giants) and a novel-sized retelling of an Arab fairy tale (also sitting on my hard drive) about a girl who rescues the prince from captivity among the jinn. Any thoughts on which one you’d want to read?

4. Oh, and publish some sort of comic short: Because CLEARLY I have oodles of extra time, I have started a comic project that I am hoping to eventually develop into a graphic novel. I am still figuring out what the smartest, most strategic way to get there is, but I’m going to start with something short to test out both the medium and whether the story itself elicits any interest. As for the story… it’s set in an alternate, steampunk inspired, magic-riddled India, with a heroine who has a highly unusual magical talent and really doesn’t want it. Good times.

Nab Sunbolt and Other Awesome World Fiction Reads on InstaFreebie

Today I’m excited to share a fantastic promo that I’m taking part in–books that feature diverse cultures and races that are currently free on InstaFreebie.

Sunbolt has never been free before, and I’m not sure that it will be ever again after this spring, so if you’ve been wanting to pick up this little story, now’s your chance! Who doesn’t need a street thief with a dangerous sense of honor and a magical talent she doesn’t quite have perfected in their life?

To download the book, you will have to sign on to my monthly newsletter, but if you don’t like it, you can always unsubscribe.

Today Only: #KidLitForAleppo Fundraising Awesomeness

We’ve all heard the terrible news from Aleppo, and it’s easy to feel helpless in the face of such violence, so far away. But there is something we can do!

Author Dana Alison Levy and Rachel Allen came up with the idea of #KidLitForALeppo – a flash, Twitter-based fundraiser. Here’s the skinny, pulled directly from Dana’s website:

WHERE: TWITTER – look for the hashtag #KidlitForAleppo

WHAT: A group of authors will offer these prizes under the hashtag #KidlitForAleppo on Twitter. Prizes will include critiques, signed books, signed advanced reader copies of books not out yet, and more!

WHO: Anyone who donates to one of the following organizations, or another proven organization doing work on the ground in Aleppo. Just screenshot your donation (keep private info private, of course) and respond to the author’s tweet.

RULES: Only one prize per donation, using the honor system. Don’t be a jerk.

DONATE: Any one of the following organizations are amazing and worth your money:

The White Helmets
Doctors Without Borders
International Rescue Committee

To read Dana’s full post, check out her website.

I’m giving away some great prizes for #KidLitForAleppo, and so are many other authors! Here are direct links to the prizes I’m offering:

Signed copies of THORN: https://twitter.com/BooksByIntisar/status/810499988283424769

Signed copies of SUNBOLT: https://twitter.com/BooksByIntisar/status/810500207515500544

One set of SUNBOLT + MEMORIES OF ASH: https://twitter.com/BooksByIntisar/status/810505225895378944

**edited to add this one too!

Haven’t read Sunbolt or Memories of Ash yet? Make a $5 donation to The White Helmets (proven organization helping folks on the ground in Aleppo), and send me a pic on Twitter @BooksByIntisar –I’ll send you download links for both in return! All entries win!

Even if you can’t donate (I know money can be tight this time of year), consider hopping on Twitter and helping to share the word by retweeting and talking up the event!

Thank you all for helping to make this a success.

SFF Matchbook Promo: Buy the Book, Get the Kindle copy free!

Amazon has a Matchbook program that seems to be pretty well under wraps… when you buy the paperback of a book enrolled in the program, you can get the Kindle copy at a discounted price … or in some cases, FREE. Yup, folks, buy a friend a paperback for the holidays, and you can keep the Kindle copy for yourself. It’s a win-win!

Today I bring you a whole host of Science Fiction and Fantasy books enrolled in the Matchbook program with their Kindle editions set to free–including my own novel, Thorn. (Sunbolt and Memories of Ash are also in the matchbook program and set to free, so if you’d rather go for them, you can!) To check out all the participating authors and their featured books, click here.

Happy reading!

Final Recap: 2016 Writing Resolutions @BooksByIntisar

You know how everyone’s starting to think about their New Year’s Resolutions? (Okay, maybe not everyone, but since I don’t have Christmas to keep me busy, what else am I going to obsess about? I mean, if I’m trying not to think about the news….) SO, it occurred to me that I should revisit my 2016 resolutions. I’m not really sure why, other than that I’m taking this “public shaming to achieve one’s resolutions” thing as far as I can.

But I have good news! I’m a total superstar! I achieved at least ONE of my goals! Next year, I’m aiming for two. (Ha!) Here they are…. updates and all.

Publish Memories of Ash – DONE! – May 30th marked the release of Memories of Ash. I really cannot describe the incredible sense of relief I felt in releasing this book, compounded with the utter terror of knowing I have two more Sunbolt books left. *dies*

Not quite a bull’s eye….

Share two original short stories with my newsletter subscribers – Kinda done! – In January / February I released Dragon Slayer Number Nine to my newsletter subscribers. It was a very short story but lots of fun to write and share. If you missed it, it’s now available as a free download to all new subscribers. Then I decided to play it a little fast and loose, and submitted a fantasy short to Fantastic Creatures, an anthology that released in November and is FREE on most platforms (so it’s totally still a free read for subscribers, right?). Don’t answer that. But go grab a copy of Fantastic Creatures if you haven’t already….
Revise the first installment in Rae’s story – Kinda not done… – This was on the calendar for the fall. And I really, really intended to work on it. But this fall hit me hard. I actually ended up changing gears to revise a manuscript to submit for traditional publishing, which then stalled out after the US election (the manuscript, not traditional publishing). I’ve spent the last month beating my creative head against various walls. It hasn’t amounted to much in terms of writing. But I’ve put Rae back on the calendar for the spring. I do love her, and I do hope to bring you her story as I’m able.
Complete a first draft of Sunbolt Book 3 – Um, nope. – I have nine chapters! Four of which will probably be summarily tossed out, which means I’m only slightly further along than the last update I provided. I do have the Most Extensive Outline I have EVER written, which actually amounts to about two months of writing for me. Yes, I spent two months on an outline. I really, really, hope this means fewer revisions and a shorter overall timeline. We’ll see!

Random Other Things

I also revised two other short stories that have yet to see the light of day. One, Vegan Dreams, is a contemporary retelling of Hansel and Gretel from the witch’s perspective. The other goes hand in hand with The Bone Knife, except that it centers on Rae’s little sister, Bean. I’m shopping Vegan Dreams around to various podcast and ezine options, and I’m hoping to give Bean’s story another polish before deciding what to do with it. (Newsletter subscribers may just get a sneak peek….)

AND, I started writing a comic script. (!!!) It’s still in development, and too early to give any detail, but it’s been the thing that has helped me to get back out of my writing rut. I’d been developing ideas for it since this summer, but only started seriously moving towards writing in the last two weeks. Exciting times, and totally not on the agenda. However, I’m trying to balance it with also working on my novels, hoping that one will give me the energy for the other. We’ll see how that shakes out!

If you don’t know where you’re going… this sign post definitely won’t help. Having goals, on the other hand, might.

Lessons Learned:

I should maybe kinda recognize my own humanity and not expect to revise and/or draft three full length works in a year. Two may be more realistic. Plus a couple of shorts–because, while I thought I disliked writing shorts, it turns out that sometimes working on a short is the change of pace I need between larger projects. So you might be able to expect a couple shorts from me next year as well.

Now to start stewing about my 2017 resolutions….

Where The Waters Turn Black: Book Birthday & Author / Character Interview

Today we’re celebrating the release of Where The Waters Turn Black, an epic fantasy novel inspired by the myths and legends of the South Pacific. Does that not sound utterly intriguing? Plus, I’ve got a special treat for you–a chance to get to know author Benedict Patrick and his heroine, Kaimana, through a super fun author / character interview. But first, this gorgeous cover….

When gods and monsters battle, her music will not protect her…

The Crescent Atoll is a remote string of tropical islands, connected by long canoe journeys and a love of stories.

When Kaimana, a young ocarina player, discovers the lair of a taniwha – a legendary monster – she finds herself inspired. The song she is composing about their encounter will be her masterpiece, but her disturbance of the beast attracts the ruining gaze of the god of war. She must convince the taniwha to trust her if they are both to survive.

Where the Waters Turn Black is a standalone novel from Benedict Patrick’s Yarnsworld series. Inspired by the myths and legends of South Pacific island cultures, this book is perfect for those seeking fantasy stories with a hint of the unfamiliar.

Buy it on Amazon.

There’s also a Goodreads giveaway running this week, so be sure to check out the book page and enter! Now, for let’s hear a bit directly from Benedict and Kaimana…

To start us off, can you, Benedict, sum up your novel in a tweet?

Young woman travels the islands, looking for inspiration for her music. Finds giant monster instead, and attracts attention of the gods.

So, how did you two meet and how long ago was it?

Kaimana: I was… it felt like a long time ago, wasn’t it? And I was very different, too. Younger.

Benedict: That’s right. Back in 2002 I spent the summer travelling around New Zealand. I was fascinated by Maori culture, especially the mythology. At that point, the image that would first turn into Kaimana popped into my head. She was a lot younger at the time – just a toddler – but I’ve been nursing the image of an island girl with a dark, formless monster lurking in the water beneath her for quite a while.

Kaimana: I can’t remember that far back. For me, it felt like we only met a year ago. Yes, a year ago you brought me back to the island I was born on.

Benedict: That’s when I finally started writing the story.

What was your first impression of each other?

Kaimana: He was a little boring. Sorry, Benedict but you just kept going on and on about your kids and the books you’re reading, and your writing…

Benedict: Thanks! Kaimana is… well, she is very curious. One might also say nosey-

Kaimana: What?!

Benedict: Let me finish – more than anything, however, she struck me as someone hungry for success. That, I can relate to.

Kaimana: I don’t like that word, ‘hungry’. I just… I just want to show people what I can do, the music I can play on my ocarina.

What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s happened between you two?

Kaimana: I’ve made a lot of mistakes since we first met, and you’ve seen them all.

Benedict: Yes, but in fairness, I did help you make them. I think the most embarrassing conversations we’ve had – and none of this has made its way into the book – are the ones about your romantic thoughts.

Kaimana: That’s not something I’m interested in right now.

Benedict: I know. Believe me, I know. But let’s be honest, even though you never say or do anything about it, there is someone who you meet in the novel that has been keeping you awake at night.

Kaimana: Don’t be stupid. Can we talk about something else?

Benedict, what do you feel the worst about doing to Kaimana?

Benedict: Oh, definitely the sense of failure she has at the start of the novel. Kaimana returns back to her parents after spending three years travelling the islands, playing her music, and they expect her to have achieved something great. She hasn’t. That’s a tough load to bear.

Kaimana: What, you don’t feel like mentioning the numerous house-sized monsters and all-powerful gods that are chasing after me for most of the story? I think they deserve at least some sort of lip service.

Kaimana, if you could say just one thing to Benedict, what would it be?

Thank you, I guess. I mean, things get rough for a while – very rough – but I prefer who I am now after everything I’ve been through. And what I’ve gained after all my adventures… well, thank you.

If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you each do?

Benedict: I’d probably be writing, wouldn’t I? There are plenty of answers I should give you – spending time with my family, sleeping, eating – but at the moment I can understand the urges that consume Kaimana at the start of Where the Waters Turn Black – I’d like to be writing, thank you very much.

Kaimana: I can’t really copy you, can I? All right, I’d like to spend some time with my friends. Playing in the sea, hiding on the beaches, that sort of thing.

Benedict: Really? Honestly, I don’t think you could keep that up for a day. You’d be itching for your ocarina after an hour, tops. That part of us is too much alike.

Do you think you two will meet again in the future?

Benedict: I have no doubt.

Kaimana: Brilliant. Some more challenges to look forward to.

Kaimana, what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done to someone? Why?

I left my parents three years ago. You see, in my world, most people develop one Knack, a magical talent. My family is a family of fishing Knacks, but when I found mine, it was a Knack for playing the ocarina. They were… disappointed. Not angry, just… sad. When I had the chance, I left with a performing troupe to travel the islands of the Atoll to play my music. I think it broke their hearts to see me go.

Benedict, what does Kaimana do that annoys you the most?

I think it is fair to say Kaimana is a little bit selfish. She’s well intentioned, but it takes a pretty big push for her to give up something that she wants. As you might imagine, that gets her into more than one scrape.

Benedict, what have you read in the last few months that you really enjoyed?

I’m ploughing my way through a number of indie titles from this year’s Self Publishing Fantasy Blog Off. I’ve recently read Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft, What Remains of Heroes by David Benem, and am currently dipping into Path of Flames by Phil Tucker. I’ve also been discovering audio books for the first time – just polished off The Martian, and I’m hooked on the format now.

Thanks so much for the interview! I’ll definitely be checking out those new reads too!