Morgan L. Busse's Blog, page 24

The Sea People of Avonai

Readers have told me they love the sea people of Avonai from my book, Daughter of Light. For those of you who have not read it yet, they are a race of people who live along the eastern coast of the continent and are so connected to the sea that they can feel the sea inside their veins and their eyes change to match the color of the waters.

One of my main characters, Captain Lore, is from this race (from his mother’s side). His connection to the sea creates a unique problem for him. Most of his people grow up near the sea and build up a tolerance to the sea’s moods. But Lore grew up in the White City, far from the sea, and so when he goes near the ocean, his seablood can make it hard for him to focus, or worse, during a storm, can physically hurt him.

So where did I come up with this idea for a race of people who are connected to the sea?

It started with my own experience with the ocean. As a child, my only memories of the Pacific were visits to the beach in California. I remembered how dirty the beach was, how hot, and, in my own opinion, how ugly. I did not like the ocean.

It wasn’t until shortly after I was married that my husband took me to visit one of his favorite places: Whidbey Island in Washington State. I stood on that rocky shore, with the wind blowing and gray clouds overhead, crabs crawling over seaweed, colorful starfish along the cliffs and white gulls crying above me that I fell in love with the sea. That moment took a hold of my soul.

Later, I remembered this quote from Legolas (from Lord of the Rings) when he first saw the ocean: “…then I stood still, forgetting war in Middle-Earth; for their wailing voices spoke to me of the sea! The sea! Alas! I have not yet beheld it, but deep in the hearts of all my kindred lies the sea-loving, which it is perilous to stir.”

I was blessed later to live on the Oregon coast. I watched how the ocean would change. Calm one day, furious the next. And all the beautiful colors it would turn: blue-green, a deep gray, soft blue. That’s when I came up with the idea to have a race of people connected to the sea. And have their eyes change to match those beautiful colors.

I was also told early on in my manuscript that Lore was too good. I realized that by having him part of this race of people, but not growing up near the sea, would create a part of Lore that he could not control (and Lore doesn’t like to be out of control). It is one of his flaws (another one to come in Son of Truth). Having flaws made Lore more human.

So that is how I came up with the idea to have people connected to the sea.

 

First Book Club

I had the privilege of visiting my first book club as the guest author. The members were incredibly friendly and welcoming. They also had some great questions. Thank you ladies!

Forgiveness

Forgiving can be a difficult and painful process. But it heals the soul in the end. Here is my post on Forgiveness at oneanotherliving.com.

 

Marcher Lord Press Collaborative Story

Hey! Today I am a guest blogger at Marcher Lord Press as one of their collaborative story writers. The overall story is a fantasy about 5 companions who are dumb…er…brave enough to embark on an adventure no one else in their right mind would do . Enjoy!

But Who Would Be Dumb Enough To Even Try It?

 

Lessons Learned from a Guinea Pig

Vanilla and Butterscotch

Butterscotch and Vanilla. No, they’re not flavors, they are the names of my two guinea pigs. Vanilla, the white one, is very vocal. He squeals whenever the refrigerator opens because he thinks I am going to get him carrots. He also loves to be petted and purrs loudly whenever I do so.

Butterscotch, on the other hand, is a very quiet pig. He looks around with inquisitive pink eyes and never lets his guard down. I can count on one hand how many times he has purred for me (and they were very quiet purrs).

As I petted them one day, I realized something: how such two small creatures had such different personalities. And it made me think of God. God could have made the whole world with only a few varieties of animals and we would have never known. But no, He created a vast amount of life, each unique.

Then I thought about how God could have given each animal a bland personality. You know, all dogs the same, all horses the same, all mice the same. But instead, He infused each animal with his or her own personality and quirks. He placed his fingertip on each animal and left it unique and special, all for His glory.

I stopped petting Butterscotch and Vanilla. Butterscotch looked at me while Vanilla tried to position his body under my hand again.  I looked at them and felt such awe at a God who is so connected with His creation. Even the smallest detail never escapes His eye.

Amazing how God uses two little guinea pigs to reveal Himself to me .

 

*Originally posted July 2, 2010

When Reading Loses its Magic

When I was a child, I devoured books. In fact, I broke the record of the most books read in one year at my elementary school. I read anything I could get my hands on. I even read Shakespeare, biographies, and encyclopedias .

As an adult, my love for a good story continued. I found myself blessed with a husband who loved reading. Even better, we loved the same kind of books. We read Star Wars novels together, Harry Potter together, even Twilight. And I would read whatever nonfiction he was going through, whether it was on church ministry, leadership, or spiritual disciplines.

It wasn’t until I became a writer that reading began to lose its magic. I still read, but now that I was learning the craft of writing myself, I began to critique what I read. I couldn’t help myself. If I learned to stay in one-person point of view, then every book I read that didn’t follow that rule I thought was wrong.

As an author recently put it, reading a book is like watching a magic show. It’s fascinating and you are caught up in the spectacle. But when you start to learn the magician’s tricks, the show loses its charm. You know how he does it now. And you begin to critique the magician if he doesn’t do it right.

So how does a writer find her way back to the magic of simply enjoying a story? That’s a hard one, a feat that has taken me almost 2 years to learn.

One, I had to learn to turn off my inner editor. If there is one thing I have learned in writing, it is there are many styles of writing. And one style is not necessarily better than another. Just different. Both accomplish the same thing: a well-written, emotionally engaging book. But if I let my particular style drive my reading, then I am bound to be disappointed in a book that is different than me.

Two: don’t go into a book with preconceived ideas or emotions. What do I mean? In this industry, it can be easy to let jealousy come in and distort my view of a book. That is not right. If I am jealous, I will not see the good in a book, I will only be looking for the bad. But if I learn to rejoice with my fellow authors when they produce a good book, then I will enjoy their written work (for more on that topic, click here).

Thirdly, I need to let myself enjoy the experience of reading. Drink a cup of tea, curl up on the couch. Allow myself to be drawn in and taken to another place. And make the writer part of myself stay home! It has no place in my pleasure reading.

When I do this, I am finally free to just simply read. I get to experience the book as a reader. And the magic of reading comes back, just the way I remember it as a child.

 

Book Review: Finding Angel

Finding Angel by Kat Heckenbach is a story placed in our world about a girl who discovers she has the magical ability to “find” things. Because of her ability, the villain tried to murder her when she was seven and take her ability (in this story’s framework, if you kill someone with magic, you absorb their magical ability).

Angel is now in her early teens living in a foster home with no memories of her past. But when a young man comes into town, magic starts to happen. Angel finds her way home to Toch Island and begins to remember her past and her magic.

Finding Angel is a YA novel. It’s not very fast pace, but it is filled with interesting magic ideas and twists and turns as Angel unravels the mystery of who she is. And the writing style of Finding Angel reminds me of Madeleine L’Engle’s.

*Spoiler* The only caution I will put in is there is a bit of violence at the end involving genetically manipulated animals (being an animal lover, that was hard to read).

YA is not really my genre of choice, but I know that my younger self would have devoured this book. So I would recommend this book for anyone who loves modern day fantasy or YA fantasy.

 

Sex, Romance, and Books

I read about a series that hit the bestsellers list on a blog a couple weeks ago. Intrigued, I went to Amazon to check it out… and stopped cold after reading the first review. My heart sunk and I felt sick. The descriptions the reviewer used made me blush and wish I had something I could clean my mind out with.

Shortly afterward, everywhere I looked, the book series kept popping up. I found it on lists, more blog posts, and everyday conversation. But what struck me the most were the people interested in reading this book: Christian women.

The book I am referring to is Fifty Shades of Grey.

Fifty Shades of Grey is about a young woman’s encounter with a brilliant, handsome man. A man who has dark tastes when it comes to the physical. They embark on a “daring, passionately physical affair” where the young woman explores her own dark desires.

That description alone made me hesitate, but then the reviews talked about all the sex in the book. Graphic, erotic sex. And then the blog posts started coming in. Even secular bloggers were taken back by all the sex. And not just regular sex, but more. No, I have not read the book, but when it shows up at the top of a list labeled “kinky sex” (I replaced a word), then there is definitely something disturbing (at least for me).

So why do I bring this up? To slam a series? No, to share my heart with you. What makes a book filled with descriptive sex any different than pornography? Both are visually stimulating. Both contain graphic content. And both are addictive.

You will never find a book with a white bunny and photos of nude women on the bestsellers list (at least I’ve never seen one). However, it seems that if the images are enclosed inside a story, then it’s okay. And to me, that is scary. Unlike a TV show or movie where you can just fast-forward through the scene, I find myself scrambling to a stop halfway down the page. But by then it’s too late. The words are already there, inside my mind. And with my photographic memory, they will never leave.

I write this post as a call to Christian women. For some, it is a warning about books like these. I stumbled into these kinds of books when I was a young girl and wish I had never opened the covers. I had no idea books with graphic sex existed. I had been taught that to look at naked people in photos was wrong, but not about books with naked people. So as a fellow Christian woman to another, I am warning you now that these books exist, and to be careful with what you read.

For others, this is plea to not go down this road. I will be the first one to say I love romance. I think it has been ingrained in us since the moment God first brought Eve to Adam (see my post about romance here ). But consider the romance in these books. Is it really romance? Or simply lust?

And I would take it a step farther and say reading books like these is no different than your husband sitting down with the latest Playboy. How would you feel if you saw him do it? How do you think he would feel about your book?

My friends, the images and scenes you read generally don’t stay in the living room. They follow you to the bedroom and can destroy the intimacy between you and your husband. Your husband will never live up to the hunky hero in a book. So it can be tempting to replace your husband inside your mind with the hero from your book. Or wish for a more exciting sex life, instead of finding fulfillment and pleasure in your husband.

Romance is good. Sex is good. But there are just some things that should be left behind closed doors and not displayed for the entire world to see. Even on the page.

For another great article about this subject, check out Mommy Porn is okay, But Daddy Porn is not

Marketing for Writers on a Dime

First, my philosophy in marketing is how effective is whatever I’m doing compared to the time/money I have to put in? As a mother of four kids and the wife of a pastor, I have limited time to use toward my writing and marketing. So unless it guarantees a big return, I am reluctant to do something that requires a lot of time.

Same with money. My family just came off of being unemployed for a year and we are currently recovering from that. And as a small indie publisher, I have very limited resources from my publisher. Not that I’m complaining, I absolutely love Marcher Lord Press and there are some benefits you get with going with an indie publisher vs a traditional publisher (that will be a topic for another time ). Lastly, I see marketing as a small, step by step, reader by reader process. If I gain even one more reader through my endeavors, then I see that as a win.

So here is what I have done that has required little time and money:

-I started a blog 2 years ago (and here it is ). I love blogging and so it’s not a hard thing for me to do. I blog about anything and everything on my heart and am not afraid to bring up sticky issues like what does a person do when they have lost their faith or how to deal with bitterness. Through my blog I have found a small readership who isn’t just writers. They appreciate my candid approach to faith and that readership has transferred over to my book.

-Build a relationship with the people you interact with on Facebook, don’t just talk about your writing life. Most of the people in your life do not understand the writer’s life nor do they really care. But when you are a real person with kids who do funny things or issues you are passionate about, you build ties with readers.

-Send arcs 3-4 months in advance to some big review places like Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, even Locus magazine. I sent to about 10-12 places and only heard from 2. But that was 2 more than I had the day before .

-I chose not to do endorsements. At the time I was getting ready for my book release, I was also getting a house ready for the market and moving across states. Since endorsements have never influenced my choice in books, it wasn’t high on my priority list. And I didn’t really know anyone personally to ask, except one friend. She had just signed a contract for 2 books (hurrah!) and was honest and said she didn’t have the time, which was fine by me.

-Reviewers: I’m still learning this aspect of marketing. I do a lot of research into a reviewer before I ask them to review. I see what their site is like, do they like my kind of book, do they post their reviews in other places besides their blog? I know traditional publishers can send out a lot, but since every review book I send out comes out of my own pocket, I am selective on who I give one to.

-How to find reviewers: I just spent yesterday looking up quite a few of them. I looked over amazon’s top 150 reviewers, saw who reviewed my kind of book and sent them a nice, polite email with a request for a review. I also see who is reviewing my peers’ books and see if they would review mine. I have already received responses, all positive, and half of them said they would review.

-Always be respectful and polite. For one thing, you are an example of Christ to whoever you interact with (for the Christian writer). Secondly, it might win you a review. I had someone respond yesterday that they were so impressed that I actually took the time to look at their blog and read their posts that even though she was bogged down, she was going to make a spot and do a review for me.

-Be a part of Goodreads. I had never heard of this site before, but it is a great place to interact with your readers. Also check out Shelfari.

-Do a book giveaway with Goodreads. I am finding that a giveaway gives your book great exposure and it’s free advertisement! And it’s going on right now, so if you’re interested, here is the link: Goodreads book giveaway

-Book trailers. Not everyone likes them, but some people do. And it might bring them one step closer to purchasing your book. If you have a mac, it comes with iMovie. That is how I made mine: Daughter of Light Book Trailer

-I have not done a blog tour, but thinking about it.

-Remember, you can’t do everything or you’ll go crazy (not to mention not have time to write!). Do what you are good at. I don’t twitter or do pininterest because I don’t know how or have the time to keep either updated. I’m good at FB and so that is what I do for now.

- And lastly, remember God might have different plans for your book than you do. Keep your priorities straight: God, spouse, family, then writing. Sure, there are seasons when writing needs to take a front seat (like that dash to the release date), but it shouldn’t stay there. Be who you are suppose to be, have eyes open and ready for opportunities, and give your writing and marketing to God.

When you think you did it all yourself, you take the glory away from God. But when you give your marketing to God’s control, He might surprise you and in the end, all you can say is “God did it, not me!”

 

 

Book Trailer: Daughter of Light

Book Trailer: Daughter of Light, posted with vodpod