SHADOWBORN Blog Tour: The Path of a Story by Jocelyn Adams

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Jocelyn Adams visits the Fighter Writer as part of her blog tour for her latest novel, Shadowborn, sequel to The Glass Man and the second book in her Lila Gray urban fantasy series. Today, Joce is going to share with us how she wrote her story:

The Path of a Story
by Jocelyn Adams

Thanks for letting me take over your blog today, J.C.I’ve had many people ask me lately how I’m able to write novels.It isn’t a simple thing, yet … it is.Sort of.Sometimes.

I’ve been thinking for a while about how I can explain how my mind works.Here it goes.

Lots of writers plot for months, sometimes longer, before they sit down at the keyboard.They have a title, characters, names, and details.Some have everything worked out for each chapter and plot point until THE END.

Yeah, I’m not one of those.When I wrote The Glass Man, I had a random thought that it would be cool to write a trilogy without an idea of where I intended to take the series.Probably not my brightest idea ever, but hey, I was a total rookie, so what did I know?

So, I polished and submitted The Glass Man to a publisher, hoping, but not really expecting, to have it accepted.

They liked it.Seriously?Yes!

After the excitement wore off, I realized I wasn’t done yet.Far from it, since I left book one open at the end to set up for book two.Yikes!

Okay, now what?

I still had no idea where I was going in book two or three.I had to know the end of the series if I was going to write the middle, right?But I just couldn’t think that far ahead.

I set my mind free to wander the endless possibilities.Because I write stuff that can be quite dark, I knew I needed a good bad guy.While walking my daughter to school one morning, I watched my shadow sliding along the ground in front of me.

Eureka!I had my perfect, creepy villain.He wouldn’t just live in shadow, he would BE the shadow.I had my title, Shadowborn, and a couple of scenes in my head by the end of that day.That was all I needed to start.I simply opened up a word document the following morning, typed Chapter 1, and zoned out.

No, I didn’t lose consciousness.*snort* Though, I did look up at the clock later and wonder how four hours had passed by.I’d written two chapters that day.I’m not sure where my mind goes or how it works, it just does.

I continued like that in bits and spurts over the next six months or so, often racing off in a direction I never anticipated.The story just … comes.It follows its own path.I just step onto the literary road and wait for that feeling, that drive to go this way or that.Characters tell me who they are, how they speak, their loves and hates, their greatest fears.I simply write it down as it plays out like movies in my imagination.

Voila!A novel is born.

Clear as mud?

About the Author

Jocelyn Adams

Jocelyn Adams grew up on a cattle farm in Lakefield and has remained a resident of Southern Ontario her entire life, most recently in Muskoka. She has worked as a computer geek, a stable hand, a secretary, and spent most of her childhood buried up to the waist in an old car or tractor engine with her mechanically inclined dad. But mostly, she’s a dreamer with a vivid imagination and a love for fantasy (and a closet romantic — shhh!). When she isn’t shooting her compound bow in competition or writing, she hangs out with her husband and young daughter at their little house in the woods.

Contact: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Shadowborn

Shadowborn

Why me?

That’s the question Lila Gray asks every time yet another bad guy tries to destroy the earth, and she learns she’s the only one who can stop it. Once again, something’s on the prowl, leaving hundreds of comatose, soulless victims in its wake.

Couldn’t the deadliest assassins of the Otherworld go after someone else instead of the brand new Queen of the Seelie? One who still hasn’t adapted to her new role.

Lila would ask Liam Kane, King of the Unseelie, for advice, but something’s off with him, too. He’s holding back. In some way. About some thing. In fact, he refuses to tell her what’s going on.

The truth holds Lila back from the greatness of her role — the people she was born to lead — the man who she desperately loves — and the solution to the latest war raging around her.

To find the answers, she’ll need to fight through her own darkness and embark on a journey through her psyche.

If she doesn’t succeed, the Shadowborn will claim not only her world, but her soul.

Purchase Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

Source: J.C. Martin, Fighter Writer