Jennifer M. Zeiger's Blog, page 13

The Rug and the Scribe – A Mystery of the Golden Shells Story

For the next six weeks, I’ll be posting a short story each Thursday that gives everyone a peek into the background behind my upcoming book, Mystery of the Golden Shells. These aren’t really meant to be full stories, but I figured I’d share them just for fun. So without further ado, here you go

The Rug and the Scribe – A Mystery of the Golden Shells Story

The rug was not pretty. In fact, it rivaled the court jester for garishness with its yellow and red pattern. But Marissa Carey, Queen of Capital City and its lands, loved it. It had been a gift from her father upon marrying King Ashwin, and unbeknownst to anyone but herself and her father, it harbored cooling magic worked into its tight weave.

Her father had known the heat of Capital City would not be easy on her and so, he’d gifted her a rug that could ease her longing for home. She’d placed it in her sitting room, where she often sat reading or painting. Sometimes, when no one was around, she even laid down on the garish thing in the most unladylike fashion, simply to feel the flush in her body bleed away to a comfortable calm again.

But now the rug was ruined.

The tightness in her chest hadn’t eased since watching the pot of ink slip off the writing table to splash across the floor. Nessen, the court’s scribe, scratched behind his ear, leaving a streak of ink in his blond hair from the quill still in his fingers, and shrugged.

He shrugged!

Marissa’s fingers curled, wanting to grab the thin man by his lapels and shake him. That would be better than the tears threatening to escape her eyes.

“Out!” she hissed.

The man froze like a startled rodent, but then he bit back. “Your letter’s not done. Would you like to write it yourself?”

He knew she couldn’t, not under the agreement of her marriage. To avoid any chance of apparent espionage, she was not allowed to write her own letters. The letter she’d been dictating, one to her father ironically, still sat on the writing desk with only a couple of lines on the page. But just thinking about it, and the details that made it necessary, made her flush with renewed fury.

“I said out!”

“It’s just a rug,” Nessen said, backing toward the door.

“Just a—just a rug!? Maybe it’s just your job! Maybe—”

Nessen’s shoulder’s stiffened as she spoke and color stained his cheeks. He was a good scribe, the best in the kingdom, but Marissa couldn’t get her words to stop as her sense of loss shoved them out of her throat before her brain could catch up.

Thankfully, before more tumbled out, Robert, the King’s Hand or steward, stepped through the door. His white brows about touched his hairline.

“Sir,” Nessen greeted him.

Marissa pressed her lips together and tilted her chin at the older man. Looking at him reminded her so strongly of her father with his white hair and kind eyes that the tears took over from the anger.

She swallowed. “Excuse me,” she whispered, spinning away and escaping to her dressing room where she firmly closed the door. She did not slam it, although she wanted to.

It’s just a dumb rug. I’m queen now. I can’t act like that.

She pressed her forehead to the heavy wood of the door, her hand still on the knob.

“Am I losing my position over an ugly rug?” Nessen’s voice carried from the other room.

Even through the door, Marissa caught Robert’s sigh. “The King won’t care about a rug, but he will care that you spoke back to his Queen.”

“A Queen he doesn’t even trust.”

“We have peace now because she agreed to this marriage. It’s an ugly rug, but it’s one of the only things she was allowed to bring with her from home. Show some respect.”

The tears ran freely at the Hand’s words. He rarely raised his voice. He didn’t need to as he was highly respected in the castle.

And now, Nessen’s silence spoke volumes.

Finally, he said, “What is my punishment? I’ll clean the rug.”

Marissa almost opened the door at that. Cleaning the rug would ruin any residual magic in the weave, but then she stalled herself. What did it matter if the rug no longer worked?

“No,” Robert answered. “I suspect a few days away from the Queen’s sight might be better. Report to the public library for transcription work this week.”

Steps shuffled against the floor and Marissa sighed, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. When she opened the door, she stopped mid-step, surprised to see Robert still in the sitting room.

“Will that suffice, Your Majesty?” he asked. “It won’t replace the cool breeze of home.”

Panic shot through her but his expression remained gentle, knowing.

“It’ll do,” she said, thankful for one person who didn’t view her as a foreigner.

The End

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. Pre-orders for Mystery of the Golden Shells will open on August 1st.

Mystery of the Golden Shells Cover Reveal!

Look! Look! I have a cover for Mystery of the Golden Shells! Sorry, didn’t mean to shout. I’m just super excited to finally be sharing stuff about the book.

There’s a moment in book publication where you reach the summit and the rest feels like a downhill slope. That moment for me tends to be when I hold the first physical proof of a book in my hands. It’s then that I feel like I’ve overcome the biggest obstacles and I can see the actual publication happening.

Last week, I received that proof for Mystery of the Golden Shells! I can’t express how cool opening the package was, but I can start sharing with you book details. So for today, I get to share the cover. Unlike with Discarded Dragons, I had no idea going into this what I wanted for the cover, which was kind of a scary feeling. However, after seeing some of the illustrations, an idea started to form and Justin Allen, the designer and illustrator, pulled it all together beautifully. I rely heavily on his artistic talent and am never disappointed. Next time I’m stressing about it, I should remember that!

With every book, I try to share some illustrations and formatting details leading up to the date of publication, which is August 15th for Golden Shells. Illustrations because I usually can’t wait to share them and formatting because without the online community helping me figure out technical details, I never would have figured out formatting in the first place. This is my small way of paying it forward every time I learn something new.

Also on the fun side, I’ve written a set of short stories connected to Golden Shells. Since the book’s a mystery, a who-done-it of sorts, the short stories give you a peek into the suspects in Golden Shells. Those will start posting this coming Thursday. I hope to see you then. 

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. Happy belated 4th of July to those in the United State

Life and Updates

We fool ourselves sometimes by thinking we have complete control over our schedules. We plan and think everything is laid out nice and neat like rail road tracks leading into the distance. At least, I fool myself that way. Maybe for a brief while I can follow those tracks, but then life throws a rock and I don’t even realize what happened until I look back and see the shattered bits of the wheels in my wake.

My husband and I unexpectedly ended up spending half the week in the hospital last week. Just to be clear up front, we’re okay, but as you can imagine, this derailed any plans I had, writing or otherwise. And I had to take my own advice from my last post and Just Breathe even though I’d just started getting back into a solid writing schedule to finish the Hidden Mythics II manuscript.

Despite the disruption, however, things are still getting done. Here are the updates:

Hidden Mythics II (Still no official title)

I’m now at 94K words out of the original 100K goal. As some of you may know, my writing tends to be a solid mix between outlining and writing by the seat of my pants. So the 100K goal was based off a guess-estimate from the outline. Now that I’m so close to that finish line, I can safely say I’m going to need to stretch that goal if I want to finish the book right. Quaking Soul was closer to 135K in rough form, so that’s where I’ll set the stretch goal. No matter how you look at it, though, the rough draft is in the home stretch.

Mystery of the Golden Shells

The first physical proof arrived this week! It’s like opening a present on your birthday when a package arrives with the first print of a book. I’ll be posting a lot more in the next month but I can now safely say that the book will publish on August 15th!

Wax Eater (Short story spin off from Discarded Dragons)

A while back I mentioned a short story of mine got picked up for an anthology called Paradoxical Pets. I didn’t have any specifics at that time but I now know the anthology will be published in December and is being produced by Word Balloon Book Anthologies. They just came out with a similar Middle Grade or young reader anthology titled Beware the Bugs that looks super fun.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I just wanted to stop in to say I’m still on the tracks. I might be traveling by one of those little hand carts, cranking the handle for all I’m worth instead of enjoying the luxury of a steam engine and a sleeper car, but I’m moving forward and the writing journey continues! (I might also be a little over-dramatic at times). Thanks for sharing the journey with me

Blessings,

Jennifer

Just Breathe

A deadline passes without the goal being accomplished. Then it sits in the mind, nagging away that the goal still needs doing, and other things are piling up around it, falling farther and farther behind. It becomes a snowball rolling downhill. It gathers bits and pieces of broken plans until it’s a giant mess, gathering debris with no end in sight.

There are times in the writing/publishing process that this is exactly how things seem. One small deadline passes without something to show for it, and then all the following deadlines feel like that looming snowball threatening to engulf you.

But what I must remind myself of—and maybe encourage you with—Is it’s a choice to get ensnared in that crushing weight. I can become crushed, feeling like I have to fix it all and get back on schedule, or I can adapt and overcome.

When I worked in dispatch, my husband coached me through the stress of it with two key sayings, “Work the problem,” and “Adapt and overcome.” Both of these started with the advice of, “Just breathe.”

It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and then lose sight of the bigger picture. We can choose not to, however.

All this to say, some of my plannings for this year have gone awry from my original schedule.

Breathe.

That’s okay. I have no control over getting some of it back on track. For instance, I can’t control how long it’ll take for the printer to get me the proofs or the stock for Mystery of the Golden Shells. I’m still hoping to publish the book by August 15th in time for Soda City Comic Con on August 20th and 21st.

Breathe.

What I can do is start formatting as I receive images from the illustrator and have the manuscript ready for the printer as soon as possible. I’ve started on this and seeing the book come together is like watching magic happen.

Breathe.

I’ve also fallen behind on finishing the rough draft for Hidden Mythics II. I can’t go back and change that.

Breathe.

But I can get back to my writing schedule and finish the manuscript now. Instead of focusing on what didn’t happen, I’m choosing to focus on what I can do moving forward.

So obviously, I’m still working on that 1500 words per writing day that I posted about back in January. (Achievable or Not?) And my new goal for Mystery of the Golden Shells is to get the book to the printer for a proof by the middle of June. We’ll see how it goes.

How are your own goals going? Is there anything you need to take a breath about?

Blessings,

Jennifer

Stretching My Comfort Zone

I was told a while ago that I should start doing author panels at conventions.

Umm, what?

Me, in front of a bunch of people. That sounds terrible.

Thankfully you can’t see the shaking in my hands in a picture

The closest I’ve come so far is doing a short author reading at an outside event. I was terrified for just that brief exposure.

However, the thought hasn’t left me. So I went to watch an author panel at a recent author fair. Mind, I wasn’t on the panel, I was just there, doing research and such. Yeah. That’s it. I’m preparing myself for down the road.

Anyway, one of the questions was, “What’s the one thing you’ve spent money on for publishing that you would absolutely spend money on again?” (Errr, it was something along those lines.)

I was excited about this question because I actually had an immediate answer.

It’s a tossup for me between a cover designer and an editor.

Although people say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” they absolutely do. Discarded Dragons sells way better than The Adventure and a good chunk of why is because it’s got a great cover. (It also doesn’t hurt that there’s a dragon on the cover, but we won’t go into that today.)

And once you get people to read your work, you have one chance to make an impression. The words should fade into the background. If they don’t, you’ve probably lost a return reader. Simple as that.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by for my random ramblings. Someday maybe I’ll write about being on a panel…

Blessings,

Jennifer

 

Sneaky Beliefs

Some beliefs sneak into our heads without us even being aware of them. It’s a strange phenomenon. Then, down the road, we run headlong into those beliefs like they’re the shadowy guy hiding in the alleyways of our minds. It’s only when we see him in full daylight that we realize how truly ugly he is.

One of those beliefs for me happened to be about reading level. Somewhere along this author journey, the belief snuck into my head that to be a professional author, I had to write at a certain level. Maybe this came from newspapers that are generally written at an 8th-grade level and up. Or maybe it came from my love of epic fantasy with its in-depth world-building, long character arcs, and even longer page counts. I can’t exactly say what planted this belief, but somewhere in my brain lurked this expectation that I had to achieve an 8th-grade level or higher in my writing.

So it disturbed me when I figured out how to check the reading level on my stories and kept finding them averaging at a 5th or 6th-grade. Every time I ran the check, the thought lurked in the back of my head that I wasn’t there yet. It kept telling me that I wasn’t succeeding, I wasn’t good enough.

That’s a lie and it’s totally inconsistent with the goal of the Adventure Books, which is to encourage young readers. I just had to realize that I’m writing for Middle Grade readers and that my “reading level” expectations weren’t in line with anything else I was doing.

Our brains are weird.

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. For those who might not know, Middle Grade simply means content-appropriate books written for children between the ages of 8 and 12. The Adventure Books, including Mystery of the Golden Shells, fall solidly into this age range.

This Crazy Beautiful World

I grew up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where the dry heat in the summer brings out the sharp smell of pines and juniper and the snows in winter can stack up in feet and not just inches. Where sometimes it snows on the Fourth of July and lightning travels miles to strike a tree on a distant mountainside.

With such influences, of course these settings make it into my writing. They’re so vivid that I can practically taste the pine sap and feel the cool breeze.

This is also why I love to travel. The exposure to new environments feeds into new, vibrant settings.

So, it’s only natural that South Carolina has started filtering into some of my newer stories. It’s so drastically different from Colorado that I can just sit and soak in the differences. The world here breathes the odor of moldering leaves and damp earth. Sand sneaks into shoes and lizards skitter across brick walls. Flowers bloom year-round in a menagerie of colors and instead of snow, it rains leaves and buckets of water.

Thus, the newest adventure book boasts twittering warblers, sandy shores, and the thick foliage of magnolias, palms, and pines. (I’ve yet to find a place that doesn’t have a pine or two).

It’s a different feel for the story, and I love the variety this crazy beautiful world offers. I’ll never grow tired of exploring it. What influences your settings? Or what do you notice most about the place in which you live?

Blessings,

Jennifer

Sometimes It Gets Edited Out

Last week I posted about That Question. It’s one of the questions authors seem to get a lot. It goes something like this:

“Where do you find your inspiration?”

As many of you probably know, I’m working on a new adventure book to publish this August/September time frame. It originally started as a shorter adventure here on the blog.

The inspiration for it?

I saw a box of sand. It looked like an ant farm where the box was clear glass on either side and you could see through it to all the color variations inside. When flipped over, the sand would fall like wisps of rain, sandy clouds at the top and sandy dunes at the bottom, until all of the grains had fallen to settle.

It made me think of a world where sand falls like rain. That’s how the adventure started.

In the many permutations of the story since, this aspect of it has gotten edited out. I may in the future revisit this idea, but for now, it’s been put back into the “possibilities” list.

This often happens with inspiration. What originally sparked a story may not survive to the finished piece. I’m coming to learn, that’s okay.

Blessings,

Jennifer

That Question

Gracious! It’s been far too long since I posted last. Before I dive into this post, let me just update everyone on the current book in progress. Mystery of the Golden Shells is now in the professional editor’s hands!

Now onto the regularly scheduled post

“Where do you get your inspiration?”

This is probably one of the top five questions I get asked anytime someone finds out I’m a writer. And in talking with other authors, I know I’m not the only one who gets asked it a lot.

The authors who write all the time seem to find this question strange. The ones who struggle to even sit down and don’t know where to start seem to crave an answer.

I think the difference is in that distinction. Let me explain.

Recently, my dad was getting rid of one of his old cameras and offered it to me before he gave it away. (Bear with me, I promise this will all connect.) I decided to accept the camera. I mean, it’s time with my dad and it’s learning a new skill. Sign me up.

And when I say it’s learning a new skill, this camera isn’t simply a point-and-shoot thing. It’s changing the film speed, F stop, and lighting just to start. Yes, there are manual options and they’re great, but some pictures just have to be personally configured to get right.

This is a picture I got recently at an air show!

So far, I’ve only been out with my dad a couple of times to practice but after each time, I find myself spotting things later that would be great pictures. Before I’d merely see a bush but now I spot the bee’s wings sticking out of the pink azalea flower. Or I’d see the streak of a jet but now I wonder if I can catch a picture of the thunderbird on the underside.

But without the time out practicing, I’d never have seen these things.

I think the same goes for writing. This seems counterintuitive. I don’t have an idea what to write about, so I don’t sit down to write.

But I’ve found that if I sit down anyway and simply try, something lands on the page. Often times it surprises me. And the more I show up and put words to the page, the more often I find inspiration while wandering through everyday life. I think it trains the brain to look for it.

This is why those authors who write all the time never seem to run out of ideas. They sit down anyway, and then the ideas find them waiting and ready, even when they’re not looking for it.

Blessings,

Jennifer

In Other News

First of all, I miss the interaction on the blog, so hello

This is just a quick pop-in again to update you on a couple things that are non-Work-in-Progress related. Both these things relate to Discarded Dragons.

Number one, Discarded Dragons has been nominated for the Palmetto Scribe Awards that AtomaCon does each year to recognize South Carolina authors. Yay! I’ve never had this opportunity before. This is one of those fan voting awards, so to win, a book needs readers to vote for it. Here’s the link if you’d like to give Discarded Dragons a chance.

And number two, I met another author by the name of James Maxey at Soda City Comic Con last year. (I’ll be attending again this year!) He writes cool dragon books and has been doing the convention thing for a long time. It was great to pick his brain about stuff. Anyway, he mentioned that he’s producing three short story anthologies that focus on Middle Grade readers. Seeing that I write adventure books for that age group, he suggested I submit a story.

Ummmm, I haven’t submitted anything in, well, years! I had to think long and hard to figure out if I had a story in me to fit one of his three anthologies. Then someone suggested, “Why not write a story based off of a Discarded Dragon ending?”

Hmmm, this sparked an idea. After mulling it over some more, I did just that, writing a story for his Paradoxical Pets Anthology. Then I went searching for the formatting to submit short stories because such details just don’t stay in my brain unless I use them regularly. Then I emailed the story off.

And I waited. This is expected when you submit a story, but I’d forgotten that feeling that maybe they forgot about you or your manuscript got lost in the email world somewhere.

A couple months later, I heard back. Mr. Maxey accepted the story!!!!

I have no details beyond that at the moment, but I wanted to share my excitement. Thank you all for joining me in this journey called writing.

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. If you missed last week, I finished the rough draft of the next adventure book, The Mystery of the Golden Shells. It’s in the editing process now