Rani Divine's Blog, page 18

Cheeky Monkey

Hey-O! Welcome back, and thanks for sticking with me for what is perhaps my current favorite television show ever. I go back and forth.
Now, this is a show that literally no one else I know watches. I’ve watched it by myself since the very beginning, and no, I haven’t finished it, so please don’t spoil it if you have. I’m planning on binge watching it as soon as I have time to do so, as I have all the remaining episodes on my DVR. 
12 Monkeys
It started out as a movie, apparently, though I haven’t seen that movie. What I have seen is an amazing television show that somehow managed to surprise me time and time again throughout the seasons.
So I’m going to try to write this without giving you any spoilers, because I really think you should watch it.
What’s it about? Well, it’s a time-travel science-fiction story, about a post-apocalyptic world in which people are trying to go back in time to kill the guy who makes the apocalypse happen—only they get it wrong on the first try, and discover the end of the world isn't exactly what they thought it was. I’m not counting that as a spoiler because if you didn’t see that coming, you shouldn’t be writing. You should be able to predict some basic things, at the very least. ;-)
Through the duration of this series (up to what I’ve seen so far, of course) they’ve developed twists and turns in the opposite direction from what I expected of them. Almost literally everything was not what I expected it to be. Yes, there were some parts that contained some predictable moments, but overall, I found myself constantly shocked by what was going on in this television show.
And that’s really freaking inspiring.
See, there’s this thing that writers say these days, about how every story has already been written and if you can’t find a unique twist then what’s the point—but 12 Monkeys found a way to turn that on its head. They write a similar story to one that we’ve heard a hundred thousand times before, but they do it in a way that keeps us guessing.
That’s what I want to do. That’s what inspires me when I watch this show.
I want to write something like that, I want to keep my readers on their toes and keep them guessing. I want everyone to wonder what’s coming next from me, I want them all to read my books and be utterly surprised by what I’ve done.
And 12 Monkeys is a show that’s proved to me, time and time again, that it can indeed be done.
Because before this show, Inception was the only thing I’d ever watched where I didn’t know how the story would end (within the first twenty minutes).
[love]
{Rani D.}

Oh lordy

Hey guys!
Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! All month long, we’re talking about televisions shows, books, and the occasional movie I’ve gotten inspiration from when it comes to my writing—and today we’re talking about one of my all-time favorites. In fact, I even got a tattoo about it.
 The Lord of the RingsJ.R.R. Tolkien
Yeah, I bet you all saw this one coming in the list. I love Tolkien. I do. I’m even a little snooty on how to pronounce his name (he told us how to say it, people!). I’ve been a hugefan of The Lord of the Rings since the first time I saw The Fellowship of the Ring—because, yes, I saw Fellowship before I even knew the books existed.
But why is The Lord of the Rings so inspiring to me? The answer might not be what you think.
See, in this day and age, there’s a certain stigma about having too many characters in any given work of fiction. Most writers say that you shouldn’t focus on more than four characters within a single book, because it just gets confusing and readers have no hope of latching onto any of them. So, why bother? That’s just what people today seem to think readers like. But… The Lord of the Rings is still a classic that everyone loves, so, how is it that we all feel so attached to the entire fellowship?
Well, that’s what I love about this book series.
Throughout the entire series, we know every single one of the 8-9 primary characters, and very many of the 10-12 secondary ones. We know them, we see through their eyes, and we understand them. That’s not something you see in writing these days.
I aspire to write something like that, with so many primary characters that it should be hard to keep them all straight, and yet somehow all of you know every single one of those characters as though they were your friends.
But there are so many more things we can be inspired by, when it comes to Tolkien’s writing. He has an epic grasp on foreshadowing, a beautiful way with words, and an amazing story line in every single thing that he writes. He’s also great about writing with only a bunch of male characters (hey ladies, why don’t we do that with girls?!), which I think we could all stand to learn from. Not every story needs to be even-stevens on male and female characters. I promise.
Basically, I love this series to the point that I have a beautiful tattoo of the shards of Narsil, and it’s one of my favorite tattoos. I’ll never stopped being inspired by The Lord of the Rings, and I love it even more every time I read it.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Geralt of Rivia

Hey guys! As promised, I have news! This Saturday, July 14, I’ll be at the ArtsCrawl in Gallup, NM! I’ll be downtown in the evening, somewhere near Gallery 123, and I’ll have copies of anything and everything currently available from RAD Writing. Woo! Come and see me, and get your copies of the best clean fiction the market has to offer. :)
But for today, I want to talk about a book series which has both inspired me and utterly annoyed me, to the point that I still haven’t finished reading it.
The WitcherAndrzej Sapkowski
I’m hoping I spelled that right. I keep checking and double checking, but it never looks right even when it is.
Anyway, again, if you’ve been following me on Goodreads, you know I’ve been making my way through this series. Of the books that are currently available in English, in fact, I only have one left. And I’m sitting on it. I want to read it and I don’t want to read it, at the same time.
Why?
Because it inspired me, in a way that I hate.
Sapkowski isn’t afraid to do things to his characters. He’s not afraid to get a little down and dirty, to make people suffer and hurt and feel things they shouldn’t have to feel. He’s not even afraid to make them try to commit suicide on the page. It’s gutting. And it’s incredibly inspiring.
But again… why?
Well, the thing is, I hate reading that sort of thing. It brings out this feeling of dread inside me, which I absolutely hate. But at the same time, it makes me want to write something like it. Because things like that, actions like that, they’re real. Characters, people, actually go through things like that. And more than likely, some of my readers would like to see that in my characters as well (you might notice the inspiration within the Earth-Space saga, in fact).
The Witcher novels aren’t originally written in English, so they’re also a good study in what other countries like to read. Not everyone reads like an American. I’d say I don’t really read like a normal American, either. And that’s also an inspiration to me. It’s a reminder that I can write with whatever pace is most suitable to the story, and though there will be some readers out there who hate it, there will also be many who love it.
Because there’s no perfect book for everyone. And people (like me) will read a series even if there are one or two points in it that they don’t like. Enter Sapkowski and the Witcher. I love this series. I hate this series. I’ll finish it before the year is through. Promise.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Circular

Hey guys! First off, thank you to everyone who came out to the Gallup library last Saturday and hung out for the author panel—it was great fun, and I really enjoyed meeting all of you. I’m planning on being in town for the next ArtsCrawl, so don’t worry if you missed me! I’ll be back soon! (more info on Thursday, I promise)
All July long, we’re talking about things that have inspired me in my writing career. For the most part, that’s going to be books, television, and the occasional movie by extension, because these are the main things I’ve found that have inspired me over the years of writing. I hope that you’ll all glean something from this series, and that maybe you’ll find something that inspires you, too.
The CircleTed Dekker
I’m fairly certain I’ve talked about The Circle before. If you’ve been watching me on Goodreads, then you know I recently had the opportunity and honor to advance read the latest in Ted Dekker’s Circle saga—and I do highly recommend it, even if you haven’t read any of the Circle before.
But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about.
I started reading the Circle back in high school, on recommendation from my mother. She’d borrowed it from my uncle, who loved Ted Dekker’s books. And I loved every minute of reading these books, even when I thought they couldn't be more annoying.
Let me first say that from the very start, I couldn’t put them down. It’s a series set in two worlds, with the same set of characters between them. And at first glance, it makes no sense whatsoever.
Honestly, I think that’s what’s most inspiring about it.
The Circle takes things like dreams and turns them on their head. It takes concepts like reality and makes them into something you never even dreamt about—and might be afraid to so much as consider. Oh, yeah, and it did the whole thing by making a literal circle between the four main books of the saga.
Yeah. Black, Red, White, and Green make a circle. Green is both the ending and the beginning of the story.
How in the world did Dekker even do that?!
I still don’t know, and I still haven’t stopped being inspired by this series. Dekker has a way of melding his faith into his writing without anyone noticing, and it makes for an extremely beautiful piece of fiction with morals that cannot be questioned. I aspire to write as well as Dekker, and I hope someday that he’ll pick up one of my books and enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed his.
After all, he’s one of the biggest reasons why I started writing in the first place.
[love]
{Rani D.}

Deep in Space

Hey-O! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count!
It’s July, a new month, a new series, and we’re talking all about the things that have inspired me over the years. Television and books have both played a huge role in my inspirations to write, and so those will be the main things we’ll talk about. Who knows, you might even find yourself with some new shows you need to watch, or some new books to add to your to-read list. ;-)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
I’ll admit, I never watched any Star Trek until about halfway through college, and I still haven't watched more than two episodes of the original series. I hadn’t honestly had any interest in it, and until one of my friends convinced me (by having me watch one of the Next Generation movies), I was certain I would never have any interest in it.
I started with The Next Generation (the series, this time), at a friend’s request, and finished it relatively quickly. Never liked Voyager, no matter how many times I tried watching it. I blame Janeway's hair. And then one of my good friends, one of my best friends, told me how much he loved Deep Space Nine. Well, I’ll pretty much watch anything this friend recommends, so, I started watching it.
And I fell in love almost immediately.
See, Deep Space Nine is probably the best of the Star Trek series’ primarily because its nature is so completely different from the rest. Not everything is hunky-dory, not everything is happy-happy we’re in the Federation. It’s real. There’s real life going on. And that makes it seriously interesting, and seriously good—and also an extremely good inspiration for writing a series set entirely in space. 
Deep Space Nine found a way to have a lot of characters with very unique stories of their own, stories that would carry on from episode to episode, while the show still maintained its episodic nature. The primary stories didn’t generally have any interconnectivity except in that it all took place during the day-to-day of the station, and yet there was always something going on in the background, something that kept viewers interested in the characters, and some small running plotlines keeping everything interconnected and moving forward (especially in relation to Bajor and the Cardassians).
I learned a lot from that.
I learned how to make good characters, unique characters, compelling characters, characters my readers will want more of, even after the book is done. Because that’s how it was with Deep Space Nine. The show has one of the best television endings I’ve ever seen in my life, and although it tied things up in the best possible way, it left me still wanting more from these characters I’d loved for so many seasons.
That right there, is excellent writing—and an amazing piece of inspiration, which helped me spawn a five-books-and-counting space opera series. 
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Gateway

Hey guys! It’s July! My birthday is less than a week away! Let’s not mention the fact that I keep forgetting about it. That might be a sign of getting older… or maybe just a sign that I shouldn’t schedule events for the day before my birthday (if you’re in Gallup, come see me at the library on Saturday!).
In any case, July means it’s time for a new series, and I’m super excited about the one I’m bringing you this month. It’s taken me far longer than usual to come up with it, but you should’ve seen my happy dance once I figured it out. Seriously. My dog looked at me like I was a crazy person.
All July long, we’re talking about inspiration—specifically, where I’ve gotten my inspiration from, and where I take inspiration from today. We’ll be looking at television shows and books, primarily, because those are the primary things I’ve gotten inspiration from (logic!), and this week I thought we’d focus on two that are near and dear to my heart.
First up: Stargate
I’m reluctant to even say which Stargate, if I’m being honest. I didn’t see the original movie until well after I’d watched the majority of SG-1, and I absolutely loved Atlantis (and pretend Universe doesn’t exist at all), so I’d say I’m your regular Stargate fan. Stargate was also one of the first ways I got into science fiction, and has been a huge inspiration to me over the years.
Exhibit A: The Coetir, from Coetir: People of the Woods, are styled after the Nox, aliens from a few episodes of Stargate SG-1.
Exhibit B: I stylized my first novel series, the Advanced Saga, off the episodic nature of the Stargate franchise.
But it’s not just that. Stargate was a great way for me to learn about writing in general, about creating an interesting story that hooks readers in right from the beginning—the way it did for me. See, from the very first episode I ever watched of this show, I knew this was something I would love. (if you’re wondering, I started on season one, episode two, by sheer happenstance)
Stargate also has some incredibly interesting aliens within their franchise (including the Nox). Now, I’m not saying they were anywhere as creative as the Star Trek franchise, but you know, they did a really good job with the Goa’uld. They created an alien symbiote that would take over the mind and body of a human and enslave others. They created another alien which would carry these symbiotes to maturity within their bodies (in the place of an actual immune system), until the symbiotes were ready to blend with a human or other creature.
That’s a brilliant idea! And the way they did it, the terror of not knowing who’d been taken over by a Goa’uld, was one of the best things I’d ever seen on TV at the time (I’ll admit that I’ve seen better now).
Lastly, Stargate was where I learned to write dialogue. The script for these shows was (and still is, in my opinion) one of the best of its time. Watching these shows and listening to the cast became an easy way for me to master written dialogue, and it’s still something I go back to if I ever need a refresher.
Stargate, I’d say, was my first step into the world of sci-fi—and it’s a step that I’ve never looked back on. It’s also a show I’ll never stop watching, simply because it holds such a special place in my heart.
[love]
{Rani D.}

Dead on the line

Hey-O!
Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count. I hope you’re having a great week, as I am. My birthday is edging ever nearer, I have a new chapbook working its way toward the horizon, and the Mavguard Magazine submissions window is just about to close—which means things are about to get crazy, in a super fun kind of way.
I know, I know, I talked about Mavguard on Tuesday, but you know what? I’m going to talk about it again.
Why? Because it’s not just the place where I work, it’s the place where I get to publish things by amazing creatives, many of whom have no idea just how creative they really are.
I get to work with creatives all the time, with authors and artists who are still on the indie side of things, still struggling to get some publications under their belts and figure out what to do with this creativity they’ve fostered for so many years—and Mavguard is one of the best ways I get to help them out.
How? Through publication.
When you’re trying to get a novel published, or a picture book, or even a poetry book, it helps if publishers see you have a few publications under your belt. It helps if they know you really have what it takes, that you’ve put in the time and sent your work to be published outside of their submissions form. They want to know you’re serious about this.
And I know you are. I know how much this means to you.
I know, because it meant that much to me, too.
I hunted for years, for the best places to submit my work. I lived in dread of rejection letters. I know what that’s like. But now I’m on the other side, and I’m doing everything I can to help you, to get you published.
Whether you write short stories, novels, rhyming poetry, free verse, or prose, whether you’re a painter, sculptor, graphic designer, calligrapher, or sketch artist—your work needs to be seen by someone. There’s someone out there who needs to see it, to be inspired by it.
I just want to help you get it there.
I just want to help you get published.
And as of today, there’s not much time left to do it.
The Mavguard Magazine submissions window closes at the end of the month. If you don’t send your work in by then, I can’t look at it. I can’t help you. I can’t get you published.
But if you know me at all, you know how deeply I desire to see you succeed. You know I want the best for you and your amazing talent. And you know how much I want you to get published.
So please, don’t wait. Don’t put it off and forget about it again. Head over to www.MavguardMagazine.com now and send in your work. Do it. Please. I promise you won’t regret it.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Near and Dear

All this month, we’ve talked about my reading, my writing, and my editing. So, today, let’s talk about something that’s also very near and dear to my heart.
My work with Mavguard Magazine.
See, last year I was brought on by RAD Writing as an associate editor and as the primary editor of Mavguard Magazine. It’s an amazing opportunity, and I love getting to be a part of it—I hope you’ll each at least check it out, see if it’s something you’d be interested in.
But! For some of you, Mavguard is something more than just an interest. It’s a vehicle.
I know what it is to want to get your first publication under your belt. I know how much it matters, what pride is held in knowing that you’ve gotten your first publication. I know what a big deal that is, I know how much it means to each of us.
Who do I mean?
The creatives, of course! Authors, poets, writers, artists, those of us who create as a way of life. It’s what we do, it’s who we are—or at least a very great part of who we are—and we wouldn’t give up on it for the world.
We’re the ones who gain the most from something like Mavguard Magazine, because we’re the ones who want to be published, who want to have our work in print and know that we did it, that we’re good enough to get published.
Unfortunately, we’re also the ones who so often don’t submit our work, because just as much as we’d like to get published, we also tend toward terror of receiving the dreaded rejection letter. It doesn’t matter if other people have thought our work was amazing, if we’ve been told over and over by countless reviewers that our work is worth it and that we should at least try, we’re still so often gripped by terror over the thought of even sending it in.
I wish that wasn’t the case. I wish I could remove that fear from your minds.
But all I can do is guarantee you that we’re nicer than you think. I can’t speak for every publisher out there, but I can speak for RAD Writing and for Mavguard Magazine. I can tell you right now that we’re honestly pulling for you, that we want you to succeed, and that we’ll do everything in our power to help you get there.
So please, I urge you, take a chance on us.
Submit something.Try it.
You never know—you might just get everything you’ve ever wanted.
www.MavguardMagazine.com
[love]
{Rani Divine}

 p.s. Mavguard is having some issues with their art form today, so if you have trouble submitting anything, feel free to contact me or send them a message at their Facebook page. <3

People of Sand

Hey there! I hope you’re all having a fabulous week.
Personally, I think it’s finally hitting me that we’re already over halfway through the month of June (that means my birthday is right around the corner!). I don’t quite know what to do with myself.
This week, we’ve been talking about editing. That being the case, I thought I’d let you in on what it’s like to edit one of my novels.
Anialych: People of Sand
This is the next to be released from the Druid Novels. We haven’t set the release date yet, but I’m guessing it’ll be sometime in March of 2019. Less than a year, then. And I’m only about halfway done with all the edits—but remember, it really takes about six months to get all the editing done, on one of my books.
I started editing Anialych back in February, and finished the first run-through in April. What did I do in that run-through? Well, I edited. ;-)
The first round of edits is basically a thorough cleanup job. I went through the text line by line, checking to make sure everything was in order, fixing any plot holes, making any changes that I thought would make the story flow more smoothly and better fit into the world of the druids, and removing any typographical errors I came across on the way. But this round of edits had absolutely nothing to do with making sure everything was grammatically correct. In fact, that won’t happen for a while.
Round two, which will start up in another month or so, will be all about perfecting the changes I made last time. I’ll be going through the text and expanding on the tweaks I made, ensuring that the bigger changes I made are actually working the way I want them to, and, of course, fixing any of those typos I find along the way.
In the meantime, a friend of mine is reading the manuscript. Actually, a couple friends are reading it. They’re checking my work, for story only. Essentially, they’re beta-reading, fact checking and story marking to make sure I did an okay job on the first round. I’ll use their notes when I make changes in round two—and if I didn’t have these people, there would’ve been holes I missed in both Cedwig and Dwr.
Round three is the one I like to call “let’s go fix all the typos,” and I usually do it at the same time that we begin laying out the manuscript for print. In this phase, I’ll have another editor (Kristina or Tammy) checking my work, making changes, while proofers go in behind them and make sure we didn’t miss anything grammatically, and I come in behind them, making sure everything remains the way I like it. That’s where we’ll do the finalization, the checks that clean up the manuscript and make it completely readable. It's also a bit chaotic, because it can be too many cooks in the kitchen, by that point.
And after that? Well, the proofers and I will go over it a final time, I’ll make any changes I want and approve the proof, and it’ll go to print.
Thankfully, I don’t have to mess with any of that for a little while yet.
*whew*
And that, my friends, is the life of a manuscript on its way to print. 
[love]
{Rani Divine}

The editor speaks

Hi everybody!
First of all, thank you so much for all your interest in my new story! I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, and I really can’t wait to see where it goes. This’ll be a fun one, when it hits shelves.
The past two weeks, we’ve talked about both my reading and my writing—so this week we’re taking the logical progression and talking about editing. Because, you know, I’m an editor. It’s what I do all the time. But I also have to edit my own books, and at least get them to the first draft stage before anyone else at RAD gets a look at them.
Rani Edits
But how much time does it really take to edit a book? How long does it take to get an edition of Mavguard put together? How do I edit my own work and someone else’s, at the same time?
All very good questions, and questions I’ve gotten from several of you, over the years.
As for the first, it honestly depends on the book, as to how long it’ll take to edit it. If it’s a short book, it usually doesn’t take as long. Under 50,000 words can be edited in less than a month, especially if the writer knows what they’re doing and is willing to make necessary changes. But if it’s a rough first draft, that same 50,000 words can take three or four months, especially if the author is hesitant to make any actual changes to the story.
My books, on the other hand, usually take at least three months for the first edit, two months for the second edit, and a full month for the proofread/final edit. That’s six months of intensive editing, all because my books are really long. But I write fairly cleanly (I’m not saying that to brag; I genuinely write cleanly, and have since high school), so it’s not as difficult as some I've worked on.
Editing can be a tricky thing though, because you have to remember everything that’s been going on in the book and make sure that it all relates to each other, exactly as it should. You have to watch for plot holes and ensure the story is flowing properly—which is extra difficult when you’re working on something by someone else and something by yourself at the same time. Honestly, that’s where it starts to take me a little longer. I have no trouble working on two client pieces at the same time, but throw one of mine in the mix and it gets messy.
It’s just as hard as it sounds, to edit two books and write a third all at the same time. It’s even worse if I have an edition of Mavguard to work on too. I end up intensely staring at the computer screen, for which I’ve finally purchased myself some blue light blocking glasses (Woo! They really help!), for countless hours at a time. 
And of course, Mavguard also varies. Usually, it takes about a month to read everything, choose what’s going to go in the edition, edit it, and get it all laid out for print. I can’t really go into a lot of detail on what goes into it in such a short number of words, but suffice it to say, it’s a whole lot of chaotic fun that involves a lot of little edits which (thankfully) don’t take much time.
Editing is fun, for me. I enjoy it. That’s why I’m an editor. But it’s also a challenge, and one that I have no intention of ever giving up.
Have questions? Send them my way! Want more specifics? Ask away! 
I'd be happy to answer. :)
[love]
{Rani D.}