Marissa Priest's Blog, page 5
August 7, 2015
The Dawn of Two Rogues
Cayden, Nisa, and their adventures together are consuming nearly all of my time. It's a wonderful sort of consuming though, as the writing and editing is going very well. Three excellent (in my opinion of course) novellas will be gracing virtual shelves in 54 days.
These two started out in a short story called "The Prayers of Another" which has been remastered into the novella "The Lost Prayers". I was inspired by statues trying to communicate through magic. This is actually something that happens quite a lot in these stories. It was in a way inspired by the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who and the moving statues in Dishonored's DLC. I sent the short story to a few places, then tucked it away after the rejections.
Nisa and Cayden showed their faces during an open call for an anthology all about rogues, Blackguards by Ragnarok. I loved so many of the authors in it, and was so happy for a chance at submitting my own story. I wrote "The Red Crown" for that submission, which of course received a rejection. The call of the Muse kept me from doing anything else with them as all she wanted to think about was the Victorian era.
The final story is little more than a scribbled note, but I suspect it will be just as fun as the other ones. I've missed working in a fantasy realm that I've created from scratch. I have tried to keep away from the popular motif of a scruffy dark haired man wandering through a quasi-European kingdom. Instead, I have the perky Nisa and clever Cayden making their way through desserts and sand strewn kingdoms. Magic is creeping just underneath it all, which makes their heists much more thrilling.
BookLyss has given me a chance to return to these great characters, and I'm ecstatic. I haven't gotten all my other projects either, but these two deserve all the attention right now.
These two started out in a short story called "The Prayers of Another" which has been remastered into the novella "The Lost Prayers". I was inspired by statues trying to communicate through magic. This is actually something that happens quite a lot in these stories. It was in a way inspired by the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who and the moving statues in Dishonored's DLC. I sent the short story to a few places, then tucked it away after the rejections.
Nisa and Cayden showed their faces during an open call for an anthology all about rogues, Blackguards by Ragnarok. I loved so many of the authors in it, and was so happy for a chance at submitting my own story. I wrote "The Red Crown" for that submission, which of course received a rejection. The call of the Muse kept me from doing anything else with them as all she wanted to think about was the Victorian era.
The final story is little more than a scribbled note, but I suspect it will be just as fun as the other ones. I've missed working in a fantasy realm that I've created from scratch. I have tried to keep away from the popular motif of a scruffy dark haired man wandering through a quasi-European kingdom. Instead, I have the perky Nisa and clever Cayden making their way through desserts and sand strewn kingdoms. Magic is creeping just underneath it all, which makes their heists much more thrilling.
BookLyss has given me a chance to return to these great characters, and I'm ecstatic. I haven't gotten all my other projects either, but these two deserve all the attention right now.
August 5, 2015
WIP Wednesday!
As a tease for the first adventure with Cayden and Nisa, here are the opening three lines!
"By all the spirits!" the castle guard shouted seconds after he stepped into his narrow room. A lean figure occupied his bed, yet did not move in response to his cry. The light of him dim lantern revealed an amber skinned woman reclining backwards.
"By all the spirits!" the castle guard shouted seconds after he stepped into his narrow room. A lean figure occupied his bed, yet did not move in response to his cry. The light of him dim lantern revealed an amber skinned woman reclining backwards.
August 2, 2015
Meet the New (but really old) Neighbors!
As I already touched on, the series of stories set to come out this fall are a little outside what I've been talking about lately. While I originally started writing this world back in late 2013/early 2014, I haven't touched it since I finished two of these short stories. They were submitted, rejected, and then added to the pile. Since then, I started focusing on the Victorian fantasies. Now that they are back into focus, I think they deserved a proper introduction.
Meet Nisa and Cayden! A pair of rogues exploring the far off realm of Meijra amidst a traveling troupe of performers. For now, they start in three tales:
The Red Crown: With the city occupied by both a holy festival and civil war, Nisa seeks out her old friend Cayden for some assistance in stealing an ancient and powerful relic. The pair reunite after years apart while attempting to solve the puzzles hidden within the temple.
The Serpent's Horde: As the troupe flocks between villages, the pair of rogues hears local legends regarding an ancient demon and caverns of treasures. With nothing else to do, Nisa whisks Cayden off into the depths of the forest.
The Lost Prayers: After a fine evening of dancing and snatching purses, Nisa and Cayden find stumble upon an abandoned temple. Their search for treasure uncovers something far less pleasurable.
I hope you are all excited about reading these. I simply cannot wait for them to come out!
In the meantime, I should probably get to work on finishing them.
Meet Nisa and Cayden! A pair of rogues exploring the far off realm of Meijra amidst a traveling troupe of performers. For now, they start in three tales:
The Red Crown: With the city occupied by both a holy festival and civil war, Nisa seeks out her old friend Cayden for some assistance in stealing an ancient and powerful relic. The pair reunite after years apart while attempting to solve the puzzles hidden within the temple.
The Serpent's Horde: As the troupe flocks between villages, the pair of rogues hears local legends regarding an ancient demon and caverns of treasures. With nothing else to do, Nisa whisks Cayden off into the depths of the forest.
The Lost Prayers: After a fine evening of dancing and snatching purses, Nisa and Cayden find stumble upon an abandoned temple. Their search for treasure uncovers something far less pleasurable.
I hope you are all excited about reading these. I simply cannot wait for them to come out!
In the meantime, I should probably get to work on finishing them.
August 1, 2015
Exciting News!
I am pleased to announce that this fall, yours truly will be offering a selection of short stories and novellas as eBooks!
Hooray!
These are going to be exclusive to BookLyss, a newly formed and author friendly online store. I am incredibly excited with this project, and could not be happier. I'm actually going to be the featured author for the first month. Isn't that exciting!
Now, what tales will be available for you to buy and read? Tales of fantasy and adventure! Of rouges and magic!
What about historical fantasy and mystery? Those tales are already on their path, and we don't want to disrupt the Muse too much, do we? I am actually taking advice from Michael J Sullivan, who is an author I greatly admire. He has written a number of posts on the advantages of "hybrid publishing" or a mix of traditional and self.
My plan is to keep the historical mysteries of the same plan as ever, while simultaneously offering my fantasy tales through BookLyss. I was thinking about self publishing these for some times, so this works out well. While the market for shorts and novellas are growing with eBooks, traditional publishing is still getting there. I see absolutely no downside to this!
I hope you are all as excited as I am about this news. I get the chance to share with you both new and old characters that are very dear to me.
Stay tuned for more good news!
Hooray!
These are going to be exclusive to BookLyss, a newly formed and author friendly online store. I am incredibly excited with this project, and could not be happier. I'm actually going to be the featured author for the first month. Isn't that exciting!
Now, what tales will be available for you to buy and read? Tales of fantasy and adventure! Of rouges and magic!
What about historical fantasy and mystery? Those tales are already on their path, and we don't want to disrupt the Muse too much, do we? I am actually taking advice from Michael J Sullivan, who is an author I greatly admire. He has written a number of posts on the advantages of "hybrid publishing" or a mix of traditional and self.
My plan is to keep the historical mysteries of the same plan as ever, while simultaneously offering my fantasy tales through BookLyss. I was thinking about self publishing these for some times, so this works out well. While the market for shorts and novellas are growing with eBooks, traditional publishing is still getting there. I see absolutely no downside to this!
I hope you are all as excited as I am about this news. I get the chance to share with you both new and old characters that are very dear to me.
Stay tuned for more good news!
July 23, 2015
The Art of Expansion
This is a subject that I suspect I will be dwelling on for quite some time. In my editing/rewrites, I have found quite a number of scenes which require a good deal of changing. This is all as a result of having expanded the history of my setting and characters through the short stories. The changes are nothing drastic to the plot, but merely proving extra layers.
I've already touched on the way I rewrite a few times here. It's not nearly as tedious as it sounds. Though, I have developed a habit Tolkien had for most of his life. He tended to rewrite, and rewrite constantly. But each time, he started over from the beginning. It's why there are so many variations of tales in his history of Middle-Earth. Many are not even finished.
While Tolkien is my hero and inspiration, I do not want to fall into some of the same issues he had. First, I refuse to allow myself to leave work unfinished any longer. I already have too much of that. If I have to rewrite or change something, I try to limit myself to restarting at the beginning of that scene. This is only after trying to go in and tweak line by line.
I am also trying to condense my various drafts into one. There are quite a number of tales where length requirements required me to make a lot of cuts. I always save each version, but then review them all when trying to rework a story. My current project is seeming to require me to start from the beginning just because it's been through so many changes. But more on that later.
The other danger of expansion is simply padding on scenes and words to fit a minimum length requirement. You have to make every word actually count for the story and the characters. This might limit your market of submissions, but it's worth it. I had actually been in touch with an editor that I thought would be a good fit for one of my steampunk novellas. Even though she liked the pitch, she said they simply could not accept it because of the length. She and I both agreed adding a few thousand words would not be the right choice, and I would have to carry on the search.
On the same note, this is why I want to stop finding a market and then writing. It's really putting a limit and strain on the Muse. Write first, then find a publisher. It's what I used to do, and want to want to get back into. The work itself should come before all else. And if that doesn't work, there is always self publishing!
I've already touched on the way I rewrite a few times here. It's not nearly as tedious as it sounds. Though, I have developed a habit Tolkien had for most of his life. He tended to rewrite, and rewrite constantly. But each time, he started over from the beginning. It's why there are so many variations of tales in his history of Middle-Earth. Many are not even finished.
While Tolkien is my hero and inspiration, I do not want to fall into some of the same issues he had. First, I refuse to allow myself to leave work unfinished any longer. I already have too much of that. If I have to rewrite or change something, I try to limit myself to restarting at the beginning of that scene. This is only after trying to go in and tweak line by line.
I am also trying to condense my various drafts into one. There are quite a number of tales where length requirements required me to make a lot of cuts. I always save each version, but then review them all when trying to rework a story. My current project is seeming to require me to start from the beginning just because it's been through so many changes. But more on that later.
The other danger of expansion is simply padding on scenes and words to fit a minimum length requirement. You have to make every word actually count for the story and the characters. This might limit your market of submissions, but it's worth it. I had actually been in touch with an editor that I thought would be a good fit for one of my steampunk novellas. Even though she liked the pitch, she said they simply could not accept it because of the length. She and I both agreed adding a few thousand words would not be the right choice, and I would have to carry on the search.
On the same note, this is why I want to stop finding a market and then writing. It's really putting a limit and strain on the Muse. Write first, then find a publisher. It's what I used to do, and want to want to get back into. The work itself should come before all else. And if that doesn't work, there is always self publishing!
July 22, 2015
WIP Wednesday!
Rewrites can be so very demanding. I have about nine pages I'm redoing right now, and it's driving me bonkers. The new notes and ideas in my head are so much better than what I put on the page months ago. Tweaking the original document is not quite working out as well as I thought. So it's opening a blank page and re doing the entire thing! Thank God, there is no deadline.
It's worth it for the story, in the end.
"What on earth was that?" she inquired, but no one stopped their own revelry in the rain to answer her. She dropped her skirts despite the mud gathering under her feet in order to shield her eyes from the consistent downpour. Her head turned towards the continuing rattling noise, and then jolted at the sight of smoke billowing from a mechanized carriage.
It's worth it for the story, in the end.
"What on earth was that?" she inquired, but no one stopped their own revelry in the rain to answer her. She dropped her skirts despite the mud gathering under her feet in order to shield her eyes from the consistent downpour. Her head turned towards the continuing rattling noise, and then jolted at the sight of smoke billowing from a mechanized carriage.
July 14, 2015
A Brief Look Back
This is a lovely little feature from The Submission Grinder to show how my attempts at actually getting published are going. I'll admit the numbers are not entirely impressive, but everyone starts somewhere. It helps to stop and take pride in what you have actually accomplished. First, this isn't really a "Lifetime" status. It's missing the sporadic submissions and writing I did before 2014. It doesn't count the attempts at getting any of the novels published either. It really just shows how things have been since before I "restructured" my attempt to get published.
All my life, I've had the same end goal. It's the one most writer's share. Now, I'm trying to get more serious about the whole thing. Not that I ever wasn't serious. I just thought someone would stumble across me and instantly publish everything I ever penned. How silly of me!
So now I'm trying to keep myself on the straight-ish path. Writing, editing, constantly sending stories out. I'm about to start querying book agents. I wish I had taken this a lot more seriously before, and maybe the Acceptances would be larger. Or maybe just the Rejections would have grown.
In the end, I'm proud of all 16+ of those pieces. I'm proud of how far the Muse and I have come. Things are different from the first rejection, where I spent the following days curled up in a ball refusing to leave my misery. We will get to the dream one of these days, won't we? I have faith.
July 10, 2015
A Most Stubborn Muse
She really is the worst, isn't she? The best as well, which I do not intend on forgetting. The fair Muse has decided that editing is in fact very inspiration. So inspirational, that she is filling my head with ideas for novellas.
The novella market is growing, so I am happy for any new ideas. I just wish she would have provided these ideas months ago when several publishers has open calls for novellas. Oh well. More will come.
The "plan" now is to try and split my time between editing and writing. It's worked before, and it shouldn't slow me down at all. I really don't have any hard deadlines at the moment, or any open calls to respond to. Plus, this isn't really straying from the idea of finishing longer works while sending out the already finished shorter ones.
I will say, that I tend to write better with looming deadlines. It discourages me from slacking off or telling myself it can wait five more minutes...and another five more minutes. I'll have to set up better self imposed deadlines.
The novella market is growing, so I am happy for any new ideas. I just wish she would have provided these ideas months ago when several publishers has open calls for novellas. Oh well. More will come.
The "plan" now is to try and split my time between editing and writing. It's worked before, and it shouldn't slow me down at all. I really don't have any hard deadlines at the moment, or any open calls to respond to. Plus, this isn't really straying from the idea of finishing longer works while sending out the already finished shorter ones.
I will say, that I tend to write better with looming deadlines. It discourages me from slacking off or telling myself it can wait five more minutes...and another five more minutes. I'll have to set up better self imposed deadlines.
July 7, 2015
Slight Deviation from the Master Plan
I suppose that doesn't come as a suprise. My schedule keeps on changing, but this should not derail things too much.
I'm still focusing on getting the novel finished. But it doesn't seem wise to leave the pile of 15 or so short stories just sitting there. I've decided to spend one day a week sending out an old story to a new market. To be honest, I should have been doing this all along. I did a few times, but the constant cycle got tiring. I think spacing it out to once a week or every other week will be better for my state of mind.
I'll of course give each one a quick edit, but it won't be constantly switching between projects like before. Plus, I think this might help when I get stuck on editing The Resurrected Thief. But I am following up on avoiding themed submission. Hopefully that helps with the whole "not quite the right fit" rejection I get all the time.
Here it goes!
I'm still focusing on getting the novel finished. But it doesn't seem wise to leave the pile of 15 or so short stories just sitting there. I've decided to spend one day a week sending out an old story to a new market. To be honest, I should have been doing this all along. I did a few times, but the constant cycle got tiring. I think spacing it out to once a week or every other week will be better for my state of mind.
I'll of course give each one a quick edit, but it won't be constantly switching between projects like before. Plus, I think this might help when I get stuck on editing The Resurrected Thief. But I am following up on avoiding themed submission. Hopefully that helps with the whole "not quite the right fit" rejection I get all the time.
Here it goes!
June 25, 2015
My Poor Eyes
I don't what it is, but lately I cannot stand staring at a computer screen for so long. The day job requires doing so for a very long time. And I've been relying on pen and paper to help ease away writer's block. Now, as I'm chugging along at The Resurrected Thief, my eyes itch and I get antsy from it.
I currently have almost 150 pages to sift through, with plenty of edits and new scenes to add. I don't have any set deadline, so it's not like I have to worry about time constraints. While there is always the anticipation a big publisher might open their doors, I do not want to rush it. I want this book to be perfect.
I just don't want to stare at a computer any more.
I currently have almost 150 pages to sift through, with plenty of edits and new scenes to add. I don't have any set deadline, so it's not like I have to worry about time constraints. While there is always the anticipation a big publisher might open their doors, I do not want to rush it. I want this book to be perfect.
I just don't want to stare at a computer any more.
