M.E. Walker's Blog, page 2

February TBR

So, I'm taking a leap here and actually posting a TBR for February.  I already know there is absolutely no way I will keep up with all of these.  I find that when I choose books in advance, I start out strong, but then a few weeks go by and my book needs have changed.  Let' see how this goes...maybe putting the plan in print will keep me on track...


To begin with, I'll list the book I am currently reading:

This series is sensational and I am trying so hard to stretch this one out.  If not for getting my own book published, Gathering Darkness would have been read a week ago.  But since I'll technically be finishing this one in February, it'll count toward this TBR.








While this one is not actually official yet, the poll is over today and it's in the lead.  This is to be the Indie Book Club book for February.  Author Mark Shaw is also the head of the #IndieBooksBeSeen movement and a true treasure to those of us who have published independently.  I'm excited to read this and give back a little for all of the support he's shared.







I add this simply because I hope to finish this soon.  I've been reading, A Dance with Dragons for nearly six months now.  I'll pick it up, read a few chapters and then set it down for a few weeks.

Someday...







I bought this one sometime last summer and I keep saying I'll start it, and then find something else that draws me away.  Not this month. Not. This. Month.










Another one I've been meaning to read for a while now.











I might be a bit ambitious by adding this last one, but have faith, I probably won't finish A Dance with Dragons











I'm Looking Forward...to completing at least half of my intended TBR

Map of Ziagonmia

I was playing around with Paint...all right, all right...I spent days trying to make the perfect map of the fantastic world of Ziagonmia and came up with this:




Ziagonmia I am actually pretty proud of my cut-and-paste abilities.  It was nice to see a physical copy of the journey Lily/Theola takes through the country (and a few other villages she has yet to know).

Christmas Book Haul

I realize I may be a bit late with this haul, but I've been sick and just plain lazy.  The following books were technically presents received from my husband, though I picked them out, wrapped them and placed them under our sad tree this year.

It still counts and I am so, so excited about each and every one!

The first six I picked up from Half Price Books...an AMAZING bookstore that lets no book feel unwanted.

In no particular order:

I thought I already had this one, but it turns out...nope.











These two just look SO amazing.  I love any kind of mythology, and these caught my eye with a fishhook.










I enjoyed Moore's Lamb so much, I just had to pick up another of his works.  I'm not even interested in what it's about, this author is so clever and way too funny.









And again.


The sequel to The False Prince.  The first was an excellent read and I highly recommend it.










The rest of these were purchased from Barnes & Noble


The Giver left off with such a crazy cliffhanger, I can't believe I waited this long before picking up this sucker.  I'm not much of a dystopian-world fan, but this one was exceptional.









Such a wonderful trilogy (I think there will be only three).











Elemental magic, defend the realm, kick-ass female protagonist...sign me up this instant.










I don't even need to read the first to know imma love it!











The synopsis for this reminded me a bit of Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci Chronicles (or, at least, The Lives of Christopher Chant) and I loves me some Diana Wynne Jones









...And the second











And then there was this series! This series...This series.  Why did I wait so long to read the first, and why am I not starting the others this very second? I have no answer for the first, but as to the second (of my own questions) I can only say I don't want this story to come to an end.

You must start reading this immediately if you haven't already.

Go! Now! What are you waiting for?




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So, there you have it, my Christmas Book Haul. Let me know what you're reading, what your picked up recently.

The Faesyorin

A little (or maybe not so little) explanation about Faesyorins.  (There may be bitty spoilers below)

The word, while containing the more common Fae (Fay) is actually pronounced Fie (like Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum).



The -syorin part is a slur. S-your-in.  Accent on the -yor- 

Fae-sYOR-in

If I could figure out how to record me saying this, I would.  Any computer savvy readers, feel free to explain.

Originally, the creature was called a Telemorph, but every time I read that word, I wanted to rip out the pages, so I came up with a better alternative.

Now, a Faesyorin at the most basic level is a person with telekinetic abilities and is also capable of transforming into one specific animal.  But the Faesyorin is much more complicated than just that description.

When we look at the fictional characters we already know who have telekinesis, we think of Stephen King' Carrie, or Matilda, and especially Jean Grey. 

For the most part, these...I just realized I only mentioned women. I'll see if I can find a list of those with telekinesis and put it at the bottom.*

Anyway, for the most part, the telekinetic ability means you can manipulate objects with your mind. Carrie and Matilda did little with their telekinesis, but Jean...well, Jean is just fantastic, isn't she? She not only manipulates objects, but she can create force fields, fly and even make explosions. And then, when she tapped into her Phoenix side, she was even able to break matter apart!! How freakin' cool?

The Faesyorins are sort of a step forward from the Phoenix, which is why they must go through the trials to gain their magic. We know what happened to Jean Grey when so much magic was thrown on her at once, so Faesyorins must learn to balance there powers little-by-little. Who's to say Jean couldn't have handled the Phoenix if that side of her hadn't been suppressed?** Faesyorins are a step in the direction of what could happen with someone with telekinesis who had the proper training. 

Every Faesyorin, when born into existence, is accompanied by the gem that is linked to his or her magic.  But this magic cannot be accessed until the child reaches maturity (15 years-old for a Faesyorin).  The power lies dormant inside each Faesyorin, moving closer to the surface every year.  All the Faesyorin would technically need to do in order to bring the magic forth would be to touch the stone, but it is up to the parents to keep this gem safe until the Faesyorin child is old enough to complete the tasks and prove him/herself strong enough for the magic.  Too many deaths occurred when young Faesyorins gained their magic too soon.

Their abilities are also closely linked to their emotions. Anger creates fire. Happiness inspires light. Fear promotes cold. And so on and so forth.  By honing in on certain feelings, a Faesyorin can accomplish much more than the standard object manipulation.  They can even go as far as projecting images.  They don't create false images in the mind, they actually make a sort of hologram.  This picture cannot harm, and in truth it has no real benefit, except perhaps to confuse or misdirect an opponent.

But while they can influence any kind of matter, their control over certain materials is weaker than some creatures.  For example, take a Torian (I'll go into more detail in a future post...but basically they control the elements).  The Torian is specifically designed to affect the elements.  They don't just move the earth, they change the molecules, they become part of the earth.  For this reason, a Faesyorin would be considered weaker, but they simply have more tools in their arsenal and would be the victor 9 times out of 10.

We haven't seen any Faesyorins fly yet, mainly because I feel that ability would raise too many questions regarding why they wouldn't just fly everywhere in the story.  Perhaps the ability to fly requires too much of the mind and can only be accomplished by several Faesyorins...that might work.  I think I'll add that right now.




Just talk amongst yourselves while I insert this brilliant idea into my novel.







And we're back.

Now, on to the animal transformation part of being a Faesyorin.  Not much of this aspect is touched upon in The Finding, since technically this ability shouldn't surface until the middle of the tasks, but Lily/Theola is a unique case with the Faesyorins.  She hasn't obtained any of her Ruby pieces and the magic still tries escaping to act as a defense.

The animal counterpart of a Faesyorin is a bit like being The Hulk.  

When the change happens unexpectedly, the beast within takes control, allowing the human-side to remain useless in the background.  But if the transformation is done with purpose, there remains a level of focus.  Either way, the animal instincts are prevalent.  And because a Faesyorin has such a connection to an animal, it gives them better senses while in their human-forms 

So there you have it...the Faesyorin.  I hope I've explained them well enough, but if you still have questions, feel free to comment.

*Turns out the only list I could find is on Wikepedia and I don't exactly trust that...oh well.
**I refer to the X-Men movies since, sadly, I haven't read the comic books.

Why I Love Being Indie

So, the wonderful people with #indiebooksbeseen directed me to this amazing post by Christina Rozelle called, 10 Things that SUCK (and ROCK!) about Being an Indie Author (Part 1).  What she has to say about Indie publishing is so spot on and expresses so many of the sentiments I've felt myself.

If you are an Indie author, or know one, or plan to be one, I would definitely check her out...she has so much to bring to the Indie table.

That being said, it is getting to be involved with people such as Christina that make being an Indie author all worth the challenges.  Coming together with her and all of the spectacular people with #indiebooksbeseen and those amazing bloggers who take the time from their busy lives to support the Indie life, make you feel part of a family.

I won't lie; self-publishing is like sitting on a bed of hot coals.  You keep thinking to yourself that if you just get off now, the burning flesh might be a bit salvageable, but then your skin heals over and you think you can hold out for a bit longer.  Every day offers another punch in the gut when you see you haven't sold a book or someone left a nasty review (or you don't have any reviews at all).  You wonder why you ever bothered getting into the business and maybe all of the traditional publishing people were right when they turned down your work.

These are the darkest of days.

And then you wake up one morning and find that you love the smell of your hot coal-burning-flesh.  That you can't wait to spend six hours on twitter bragging about how tremendous your book is or how everyone must read it or how everyone who is anyone already has.  You light up thinking of all the bloggers in the world who are bound to review your book any day now.

And do you know why?

Because you get to wake up every morning knowing that nothing stood in your way to publishing the masterpiece you worked so hard to perfect.  You didn't let the dozens (or hundreds) of NOs get you down.  You wouldn't listen when everyone told you to give up.  You had all the courage and faith you needed from the beginning, and to hell with the doubters.

You get to call yourself an author.  And it doesn't matter if you've sold 1 copy to your mom or a thousand copies to strangers; you are finally sending those characters out from under you bed and into the world.

For this reason, I love being INDIE.  Without this world, I wouldn't have had the strength to trust my novels.  I would have forever listened to those who turned me down, telling me I wasn't good enough.

Self-publishing opens up so much more for authors.  We GET to choose what stays or what goes; we GET to pick out our covers and fonts and word choices; we GET to be free.

Because we are INDIE-pendent, and we are INDIE-vidual and we are INDIE-structable.

Don't lose hope.  We are in this together!

Check out Christina's amazing post Here

Should I just...?

There comes a time--at least for me--when the question arises of whether a project should just be tossed out.  Is what I have been working on for years simply been a waste of time?  Do I even have any talent?  No agents are responding positively to my queries, not even to request partials.  So what am I doing wrong?

But it can't possibly be me!  I know what I'm doing.  I did so well in college and my professors knew I would take my writing somewhere wonderful.  Clearly, those in the publishing industry don't know what they're doing.

WAKE UP!!

We can curse the publishing business until we're blue in the face, but honestly, the hard-working literary agents actually DO know what they are doing.

I'm not saying that a few books can't slip through the cracks and turn out to be the next "big thing," but these men and women are fairly intuitive when it comes to what will sell and what won't.  And always remember: even if one agent doesn't like your work, it does not necessarily mean the story or the writing is poor, just that the agents didn't feel strongly about the project.

But eventually--after several dozen NOs--you'll start to wonder if you aren't so good.

Even if your first novel--or second or third--didn't become the success you had hoped, the project was certainly not a waste of time.  Every time a writer picks up a pen (or more than likely, turns on the computer) and takes another stab at writing, that person becomes just a little bit better.  Each failure teaches us something new.  I'm going to quote Meet the Robinsons here when I say, "From failing, you learn. From Success, not so much." 

It is so true that when we succeed immediately, we can't have a true understanding of why we had such an achievement.  From failure, those who are truly dedicated to their craft will work harder than ever, determined to get better, to show that they won't be kept down by negativity. Writers need thick skin and it is all the people standing in the way from creating your masterpiece to getting it out into the world who will prepare you for the judgement that will surely come from the public.

Sometimes we must scrap a first attempt.  The chances of a first novel attempt (or poem or short story or whatever) becoming the project that is recognized are very unlikely.  An artist knows when to put something aside.  Maybe you can go back to the novel in a few years' time, but for now, start something new.  Take yourself into another world for a few months.

And if you are really stubborn *Ahem* (certainly not me), you look into self-publishing as someone I know *Cough Cough* did with her novel, The Finding.

The Query

Do you want to spend several thousand hours writing 250 words to sum up your novel you will inevitably change 250 thousand times? How about spending every free moment for writing on coming up with that perfect first sentence to entice anyone to read you manuscript? Maybe you're still editing and you'd like a nice break. Then you might be ready to start the query letter.


To transform your manuscript into the next great novel, you will need a crackerjack literary agent. And to find one of those elusive devils, they must be lured in with a query letter they cannot put down; a query letter that makes the agent beg for the manuscript.


The first step you must take toward writing what will hopefully be the perfect query, will be to research how to write a query letter.  There are many excellent sources from which to choose, though I highly recommend QueryShark. There is no one better to help an aspiring writer with their best possible query letter than a literary agent and she doesn't mess around with morons.  Read what she has to say about past letters, absorb all that you can from the hundreds of queries she tears apart, and then maybe you will begin to understand what is expected of you.


If you aren't willing to do the work (if you say 'yes' to this, you might want to look into another profession) then the best piece of advice I can give you when writing the query letter is to keep it simple, focus on what your protagonist wants, and don't for any reason start the letter with a rhetorical question.


Next: Should I just start a new novel?

Editing can be the end

So, you've finished your first novel.  The characters are developed, there is an entertaining plot and maybe even a little twist meant to keep your readers excited until the very end.  Now you think to yourself, 'Self, I must start getting this book into the world so I can become a successful author.'

WRONG!

That large stack of paper is nowhere close to being ready for potential agents.  First, you must edit.  Go back to the very beginning of your manuscript and start reading.  But you can't read it as if trying to enjoying the story, you must look at the book as though already expecting it to be a dog pile.  Not just any pile, your pile.  So you must work hard to take that stinking mound and transform it into the closest image of a masterpiece you can manage.

Doing this will take more than one read-through, so be prepared to go over your work again, and again, and again, and again...until you feel you have as few mistakes as possible.  Don't expect your manuscript to be perfect, because it never will.  You can always find something to change every time you re-read your book.

Knowing when your book is ready to be sent off to hopeful agents can be one of the most important (and most difficult) decisions on the road to becoming an author.  No one can tell you when your manuscript is ready; sometimes you just have to jump in and hope for the best.

Once you are ready to send off your manuscript, there is one (maybe two) more step you must take...writing the query letter.

Next Post: The query letter