Deby Fredericks's Blog, page 13

Con and Cover

The event last weekend was very nice. It was a small crowd, but I knew everyone there, so that made it homey. Two of my panels went well and one was a bust. My reading was great, though, and I sold a number of books. So I call that a win!

As a matter of fact, I sold all but one of my copies of Aunt Ursula’s Atlas. That clears my way to update the book with a new cover. Last spring I released Aunt Anne’s Archive, and I want this new cover to match it more closely. I’d like to have books to sell at Fall Folk Festival, which is in November. I expect I’ll have artwork to show off before too long.

I’m also working on the final revision of Cleodora, Book 1: Acorn Canyon. That is also scheduled in November, so I’d better work fast!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Just-A-Con Schedule

This is what I’m doing for the weekend:

Friday, 5 pm – Writers Talk About Writing. I’ll be on this one if I manage to get checked in and everything.

Saturday 10 am – Animal Crossing Treasure Hunt, which I’ll be hosting in the Intergalactic Trading Post.

Saturday, 2 pm – Reading. I plan to bring a couple of books and let the audience request what I read.

Sunday, 10 am – Bioware Games Panel, where we speculate and salivate over the forthcoming Dragon Age 4!

Sunday, noon – They have me scheduled for a second reading. Guess they think I’ll be popular? Anyway, we’ll see how my voice holds up for that.

I hope you all have fun things planned for this weekend, too!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Two Down

Just now I finished a fun short story, “To Save a Superhero.” It’s set in a super-society, but the focus is on the support staff in an organization similar to the Legion of Superheroes or Avengers. Superhero fans should enjoy this story.

What makes it extra special for me is that I decided to re-use a bunch of superhero names from my old Champions and Arduin Grimoire games. Most of them are my own characters, but I worked in some of my friends’ characters, too.

This brings me closer to one of my New Year’s resolutions, which was to write three short stories. I’ve now written two, so I need to keep my mind open for one more short story idea. As soon as I finish this post, I’ll get busy submitting “To Save a Superhero” to the anthology I wrote it for.

Cheers!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Preparation

I did finish a second draft of the anthology story, the one with the superheroes. That clears me to start working on the final text of Acorn Canyon, which I’m excited to do. But first, I have a convention!

Just-A-Con is a relaxacon coming up September 20-22nd. A relaxacon means instead of intensive programming over the full weekend that keeps everyone super busy, there will be just one programming room and a gaming room for people to dip in and play or talk about whatever they like.

I don’t have a firm schedule yet, but there are things I’m committed to be part of. The major one is a “galactic emporium” where people can swap their books, games, puzzles, etc for other ones. There’s a panel on Saturday morning for speculating about the forthcoming Dragon Age game, Veilguard. Of course I plan to do a reading, which will be Saturday afternoon. On Saturday night, there is the possibility of a memorial for a couple of local authors, M. J. Engh and Bruce Taylor.

I also offered to host an Animal Crossing treasure hunt on my island, for Sunday morning. I might make it a costume challenge! Those are always very fun.

So this weekend, I need to start preparing for Just-A-Con. There are swap items to pack, signs to print, and my reading to choose. But I’ll still peek in on Acorn Canyon when I get the chance!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Coming Soon

This October I’m once again participating in Bad Moon Rising, Teri Polen’s blog event featuring Indy horror, thrillers, and in my case dark fantasies. My date is October 4th, and my featured book is The Tale of the Drakanox. So tonight’s writing task is to answer her fun questions and get those back to Teri.

Then if time allows, I’ll keep moving on the second draft of my latest short story. It’s a sweet and mildly suspenseful superhero story for an anthology. Basically, don’t fall in love with Superman, because he’ll always leave you to fly off and save somebody else’s day.

Hope you’re all well and getting a bit of writing in.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Pacing

Over the summer, in addition to revising Cleodora Books 1 & 2, I read back through a couple of older novels from the 1990s. Mostly ones by Barbara Hambly, who was one of my must-by authors in those days. I also read a couple of Martha Wells’ early novels. I’m struck by how different the pacing is from books written in the 2010s and ’20s.

Mostly, it’s that the plots extended farther than we write them now. I get to the 3/4 mark or so and think the story will start to wrap up. But then another complication is introduced and I find myself thinking, “this is taking too long.” It’s not that I think the authors were padding the stories to be paid per word. More like, readers had to get more story for our dollar?

Another thing we do differently now, at least in some cases, is the approach to love scenes. In these novels from the ’90s, the curtain is drawn between the reader and the lovers. We come back to them afterward. The effect, at least to me, is that their emotions are blunted. The lovers’ passion is more of a plot point than a dynamic part of the story.

This might sound like a complaint, and it isn’t, really. At the time these books came out, this was how a proper fantasy novel was written. And I think it connects to the intermittent grievance in SFF circles about “too much romance” in genre fiction. If you expect the romance to be just a plot point, then emphasizing it might be jarring.

But at the same time, I can see why so many readers went for urban fantasy toward the end of the ’90s. The sexy nature and the faster pacing would definitely attract (LoL) fans who wanted a more emotional reading experience.

Just an odd thought for your Saturday morning.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Woman at Work, September 2024

What’s Happening? We are just in the first week of school here. I’m in the thick of helping open the Resource Room, putting things on the walls, organizing files, and all of that.

What I’m Working On. I have an idea for a short story I’d like to write and just need to have the mental space (see above) to get started. In addition, I am working through the cover creation process for my next book. Cleodora, Book 1: Acorn Canyon should be coming out in November.

What’s Next? I need to start the final revision on Acorn Canyon (see above).

Where I’ll be. Just-A-Con, September 20-22, in Spokane WA. It’s a relaxacon — a free flowing SF convention with only a modest schedule so people can socialize more. My part is mostly to monitor a table for swapping books and games.

Fun and Games. In addition to Animal Crossing, I’m playing Landsnama, a strategy game based on historic Iceland. Not supper high energy, but definitely challenging.

I hope you had a relaxing Labor Day!

Prisoners of the Wailing Tower

Here we are with another flashback to my Minstrels of Skaythe series. I’m partly doing this because school has started up and I’m trying to focus a bit on that rather than writing new blog posts. It also comes about because my WIP shelf was getting full. I had to take the novellas out of their binders and put them in boxes. Which of course led to me reading through the choice bits.

Prisoners of the Wailing Tower is the fifth novella. Previous novellas had mentioned the dire fate of rebel mages, but here we get to see it first hand. Although this novella focused on Alemin and Lorrah, I began to weave in characters from the previous e-books, namely Badger Squad.

Prisoners of the Wailing Tower

Alemin only wanted to help an innocent. Instead, he was caught by the dreaded hunter-guards. Now he finds himself flung into the Larder, where the very walls are steeped in nightmares and his fellow inmates are vicious killers. Worse, Warden Ar-Lizelle seems intent on tracking down his friends, the Minstrels, who have devoted their lives to undermining Skaythe’s tyrannical regime.

On the outside, the renegade mage Lorrah receives a premonition of Alemin’s plight. She’s desperate to save a man she cares for, but the Larder is commanded by someone she has hated for years and can’t bear to face: her cruel sister, Ar-Lizelle. Luckily, Lorrah is not alone. She has help from the fierce women warriors of Badger Squad. Yet even their combined forces might not be enough to get Alemin free from Dar-Gothull’s Larder!

What are you waiting for? The e-book is just 4.99 from Amazon or Books2Read.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

The Renegade of Opshar

You know what? It’s been too long since I featured the middle books in my Minstrels of Skaythe series, where honorable mages attempt to survive in a world where sorcery runs amok. So let’s take another look at The Renegade of Opshar!

This is the fourth of the series, originally released in 2021. It introduces Berisan, Yamaya, and their obscure village of Opshar, which is the setting for some crucial events in The Tale of the Drakanox. Though somewhat shorter than the other novellas, it contains some of the most vivid action scenes.

So if you got part way through the series, this is a great place to pick it back up again!

All Berisan wants is a place to hide. The insignificant village of Opshar seems like a perfect haven. Disguised as a beggar, he can lie low and evade the brutal hunter-guards. But Berisan isn‛t the only one with secrets.

Widowed and pregnant, Yamaya struggles to hold the farm she and her husband built, but she can‛t escape her sordid past. In desperation, she hires the one person who hasn‛t taken a side in Opshar‛s murky politics — the beggar, Sand.

Common sense tells Berisan to walk away, but his code as a minstrel compels him to help Yamaya if he can. Soon he faces a decision that challenges every principle he holds. Will he give up the safety of his secrets, or allow another to suffer in his place?

Pre-Order it now from Amazon or Books2Read!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

The Ice Witch

I am traveling this weekend, so here is a promo for The Ice Witch of Fang Marsh. This is the is third in my Minstrels of Skaythe series, the high fantasy novellas about pacifist mages resisting a tyrant without resorting to violence.

Meven is one of my favorite characters in the series. She is very reserved, but can’t help opening her heart to a kid in need.

Meven is a renegade, hunted by the cruel regime of wizard-king Dar-Gothull. Her desperate desire is to lose herself in the treacherous Fang Marsh. Only there can she live the life she wants, in freedom and safety. To reach the marsh, Meven must sneak through the town of Eshur, where her old enemy, the wicked Countess Ar-Torix, commands dozens of spies and guards. It should be no problem!

What Meven doesn’t know is that she’s already being tracked. Ozlin was thrown out because of his emerging magic. Now he’s starving on the streets of Eshur. Caught stealing, he’s about to be imprisoned in the brutal temple school.

Until Meven recognizes his power and intervenes. Suddenly she has a new, desperate desire — to save this mageling boy, and maybe save herself as well.

Available from Amazon or in alternate formats through Books2Read!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.