Phyllis Moore's Blog, page 9

Who is Krunkie?

I’ve been posting about writing a 6-book fantasy series, but I have not told you about Krunkie.

For now the title of the series is Krunkie and the Last Dragon Eggs. There are three dragon eggs, but Krunkie and the last Three Dragon Eggs is a bit bulky. The word “three” disrupts the flow of the title, thus, Krunkie and the Last Dragon Eggs. The title is not set in stone and may change, time will tell.

Everyone knows what dragon eggs are, but what or who is a Krunkie?

Krunkie is a made up magical creature. No one in the story really knows who he is or where he comes from and yet he’s in all the books.

Krunkie looks a lot like a Ringtail Lemur, which looks a lot like a monkey, but is a prosimian, which means “before monkeys.”  Ringtail Lemurs only live in Madagascar.

Krunkie’s body fur is sliver with black fur legs and arms, and has a sliver and black ring tail that changes lengths and fluffiness, at will. I haven’t decided how human his face will look, but he does have two large orange eyes. This magical creature looks and acts like a juvenile, but he’s really, really old.

In the first book, Krunkie seems like a minor character, but he’s keeping an eye on things. It’s not until the last book that we fully understand who Kunkie truly is.

The eggs are introduced in the second book and also become more important throughout the story.

Krunkie eventually hides the eggs in our world where he enlists a set of twins to help him protect them from an evil sorceress.

Hope that makes sense. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Are you working on a new book? How is it going? Anything you want to share?

Are you reading a good book? Want to tell the rest of us about it?

Crab Apple Blossom

I love spring flowers, but they come and go too quickly. I want them to stay well into summer. I feel the same way when fall colors come to our trees. I want the colors to stay longer than two weeks.

Click on Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge and check out Cee’s photography she has some amazing photos. Tell her I sent you.

Spring Bloom

Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge

Mississippi River Invading the Forest

Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge

I Lost it All

I lost everything. Well, maybe not everything, but it sure felt like it.

I had two folders on my computer desktop with several files of notes and plot outlines of my 6 book series. One folder held the older stuff and one held the newer plots from 2022.

On Monday, April 25, the spot where the new folder sat on my desktop was empty. I stared at the spot for a bit mostly because I couldn’t believe it was gone.

I searched for it through out my computer files, trash, backup files for the next 40 minutes. Then I called Apple support. The tech guy did everything I’d done, then looked in places I hadn’t. Since my files are in Microsoft Word, tech guy went to Microsoft support page.

Nothing we did worked. 

The real problem is, I have a very old computer, and right now, I’m not able to buy a new one.

I considered crying but didn’t. I considered forgetting the series and moving onto the next idea. But my brain is too embedded to move on.

For the first time in a long time, I felt lost and didn’t know what to do. I was in a funk. I think I was in mourning. I didn’t have the energy to write anything. I couldn’t conceive of trying to recreate the past couple of months’ work.

Thursday April 25, I tried again.

I’d changed a couple of characters’ names, and had been using those new names in the search box, but nothing came up. This time, I typed in a previously used name and everything came up.

But wait . . . before you get too excited . . .

I had everything from March 6 and earlier. Everything I’d written after, all the rest of March and April was gone and most of that was on the second plot.

For the next week, just thinking about rewriting was still a disappointment. 

Here’s the good news. I like to write on paper. As in, after the computer is off and I’m trying to do something else like watch TV, but my brain is still working, I take notes. Or the time, I was at the gym to get away from overhead construction roofing noise. All those hours of work was handwritten.

Praise God.

I’d typed a new beginning for the second plot from my brain directly into my computer. That’s done. But to my amazement, I’m remembering it. Maybe not exactly. Some of the original was better and some of the rewrite is better this time around.

The important thing is, no matter how bad it was to loose so much, I still have a lot of it available to me because I have a lot of notes.

Two weeks later, I’m finally recovered emotionally and am happily writing again.

Have you had a similar problem where you thought something was permanently lost, but in the end it was as bad as you thought? Tell us about it.

My Time at the Gym

I’ve been spending three hours a day at the gym. Don’t be too impressed.

My apartment is on the top floor of my building. For the last four days, I’ve been awakened by the patter of work boots right over my bed. Workmen had come to repair the roof of my entire apartment. This was a good thing, but they worked from 8:30 AM until 1:00 in the afternoon and were noisy.

The first day wasn’t too bad, but after three hours, I went to the gym for a walk and a short workout, had lunch, and returned home.

Second day, I ate breakfast, got ready for the day, packed up my writing materials, and headed for the Gym.

As time progress, the overhead work became louder.

Third day, I made breakfast and took it with me to the gym.

Fourth day, the noise was such that I got up and headed for the Gym! I bought a large sandwich. I eat the first half for breakfast and the last half for lunch.

I arrived home just in time to learn the roof was finished. Yea!

While at the gym:

I’d been reading Conflict, Action and Suspense by William Noble and was behind on my reading. The gym was a good place to read and be inspired.

I worked in half hour shifts, read the book, then applied what I learned to my series. The next half hour, I walked a half-mile and lifted lightweights. I repeated the shifts until I was ready to go home.

I got a surprising amount of work done.

What about you? Have you had something unexpected happen were you got a lot accomplished?

When Best to World-Build

In my last few posts, I’ve written about my next book series and how I’m writing the plots before I start working on individual books. A blog friend, Crispina Kemp, and author of her own five book series Spinner’s Game, posted a comment saying she starts with world-building, then characters and plot, which started a thought process for me . . .

I pulled Orson Scott Card’s book How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy from my library shelf. Like Crispina, Orson also starts with world-building.

He likes to doodle maps starting with the outline of the land. He adds rivers, land features, and man-made buildings. He names things and wonders why he used that name and why things are where they are. He wonders who would live there, what problems they might encounter and why. He eventually wonders, “Who is the hero of the story and what is his or her role?” The answers inspires a story.

My plots are character driven, therefore, I start with characters, and develop the story around them.

My series is set in a fantasy world. Fairy folk live in Fairyland and humans live outside Fairyland. The two worlds never mixed until I interfered and created conflict.

While I was going through the though process of how I write compared to those who start with world-building, I considered that maybe I should do more world-building before I continue onto the next three plots, then I realized something very important.

I start with characters, and develop the story around them, at the same time I build the world around them. 

In this case, I set my humans in a part of the world where there wasn’t magic. I slowly introduced magic and fairy folk into their world and explained how they got there.

In the beginning of the series, Fairyland has a protective barrier that keeps humans out of their land. But by the third book, the barrier is down and bandits are raiding fairy folk villages.

What happened to the barrier? Dragons left the land. They were the ones who built the barrier and maintained it, and when they left, it crumbled.

Why can’t magical creatures protect themselves? Because they’ve become depend on dragon magic and let their magic go dormant.

Why did the dragons leave? Because someone is taking their eggs.

Yes, I know why the eggs are missing, but if you want to know, you’ll have to read the series. ;0)

My point is, for every question, I created an answer. I not only developed the story I also build my world.

There is no one-way or correct way to write. We all think differently, therefore, we write differently, which makes for more interesting stories.

Even if you’re not writing fantasy or science fiction, you still need to create a world for your character. Where a person leaves, determines who a character is.

I’m from USA, therefore, I think differently from some one who comes from any other country in the world. Our fictional characters are the same.

Jim Butcher of Dresden Files created a detective from Chicago, Illinois, USA. Harry Dresden thinks like some one from Chicago. But his mother was a fairy from the underground world, beneath Chicago, which greatly alters who Harry Dresden really is.

Jim Butcher built two worlds, the real world Chicago and the magical world underneath, and created a character who lives in both worlds.

How do you start writing? Do you start with character, story, or world-building?

End of the month goal

My goal for March was to finish the first three plots of my Krunkie and the Last Dragon Eggs series.

For the most part, I did accomplish my goal. The first three plots are set. I know what’s happening and were the story is going. I still have a few details to clean up. But I won’t say I’m done because every time I do, I think of something else to add, which is good.

By the time I start writing the books, the story will mostly be finished. I’ll need to add distribution, detail, and character development. I’m hoping by the time I’m actually writing the books, it won’t take me that long to complete a novel.

I’d like to finish a book in a month. Ah, but by now, I should know better than that. I always think, “I can finish in a couple of days, in a week, a month.” Then my imagination kicks in and I do far more writing than I planned. Which is good, because the story is always more interesting when I finish, than when I started.

How do you write? Do you sit, write, and see where the story goes, or do you plan the story first?

How-to-write books

Currently, I’m reading Conflict, Action & Suspense by William Noble. I like to read how-to-write books while I’m working on a story. I am reminded of story elements I had forgotten but I always learn something new. While reading, I get inspired regarding the story I am writing.

If it were up to me, I’d finish the plot and publish the book and you could fill in the blanks. But that’s now how it works. There’s conflict, action, suspense, description, dialogue, and let’s not forget character development.

Continual learning is one of the best ways to improve my writing. No one how-to-book can cover everything. There are many great books to read and many are worth reading more than once.

Start a library of how-to-write books of your own. That way the books are always available when you need them. If you aren’t sure which books to buy, there are two great places to start reading.

For a monthly fee you can read as many books as you want on Amazon Prime Reads. And the author gets paid for every page you read.

A second option would be your local library. If they don’t have the book you want, they can borrow it from another library within your state. You can also suggest the library buy a book you’re interested in. A book in the library is a good advertisement for the author.

As Priorhouse blog just reminded me, you can also stop by your local used book store.

Or ask your friends for a recommend.

Which books do you recommend?

the tale of a book cover

Ever have an ha ha moment because you realized something you should have realized a long time ago? Well, I just had that moment with the cover of My Haunted Bed & Breakfast.

I’m not into horror, therefore it didn’t occur to me that haunted would be associated with horror. (I know, not bright, but let’s face it, we all do it.) People who like horror, thought, “Good another horror story.” But when they learned it was a heartwarming story, they weren’t interested. When those who were looking for a heartwarming story saw haunted, they thought horror and weren’t interested. What a mix up.

I checked out horror book covers. My cover looked a lot like theirs.

The best thing would be to redesign a new cartoon-like cover, but I don’t want to deal with that right now, therefore I kept the same imagine of the house but changed the font.

I changed the old font from cracked to comic sans. I changed the color of the font from white to orange because, in USA, orange reminds us of Halloween, which reminds us of parties and candy, which makes people smile.

I’m hoping to present a happier mood. What do you think?