Monthly Archives: September 2015

Two Days Until Release

27 Sunday Sep 2015

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The release date for Rider’s Revenge is only two days away.  Wow.  That’s…scary.

I love this book.  I do.  Just look at this gorgeous cover:

Riders Revenge Proof Copy RR Proof2

But the thought of having my book baby out there in the world scares me to death.

Oh well.  This is part of the process, right?  I write something that appeals to me and then I send it out into the big bad world with the hope that it will appeal to others.  After that it’s out of my hands.  (Other than making some effort to get people to give it a shot, that is.)

Well, if nothing else, I know my mom liked it.  (And she’s not the type to hold back if she didn’t.)

Write What You Know

22 Tuesday Sep 2015

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This is always an interesting one for fantasy or sci-fi writers, because, by the very nature of our subject matter, we’re not writing about THIS world.  SFF includes magic or science so completely beyond our experience that it might as well be magic.  How is that what any of us know?

But at their core, I think all stories are written from what we know.  If not at the literal level, then at the emotional level.

I won’t be giving anything away if I mention here that in Rider’s Revenge K’lrsa’s dad dies.  (I put it in the back cover copy because it’s the event that pushes her out of her comfortable little world even though it doesn’t happen for about forty pages.)

Well, my father died, too, when I was close to K’lrsa’s age and the type of relationship she has with her father is the type I had with mine.

Is the scene in Rider’s Revenge an exact recreation of what happened with my father?  No.  Not at all.  My father died of a terminal illness in a hospital room.  But those emotions?  That wrenching feeling of loss?  That horrible decision?  That realization that the person who loved and supported you in a way no one else in your life did is now gone?  That was what I did know and that’s what I included in the story.

Do I think that scene will get to readers in the same way writing it affected me?  Mm.  No.  Because I think the experience of reading a book is a melding of a reader’s experience with a writer’s story and unless you’ve been through something like that yourself you never quite go as deep into the experience as you could if you’d been there yourself.  But I do hope readers will pick up on the echoes of those feelings if nothing else.

And I think that’s what the “write what you know” thing is all about.  Looking inside, finding real, valid experiences you’ve had and putting the emotion behind them on the page.  Even if it happens to be in a scene involving a ten-foot-tall purple cow.  (Rider’s Revenge doesn’t include one of those.  Sorry.)

You May Actually Like Fantasy Novels

16 Wednesday Sep 2015

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Growing up I primarily read fantasy novels.  There was some science fiction thrown in there like Asimov and lots of Russian authors like Tolstoy and that time I snuck the whole Clan of the Cave Bear series behind my mom’s back.  But, really, fantasy was what I loved and read.

My mom, on the other hand, was always a romance reader.  Her shelves were full of novels about women who fall in love with fierce but tender long-haired Native Americans.  (Or maybe it just seemed that way to me?)

She still primarily reads romance novels to this day.  But what’s interesting is that she read Twilight because I told her she might like it.  And then she read the Hunger Games.  And then Divergent.  And then, believe it or not, Game of Thrones!

She never used to be open to reading science fiction or fantasy, but now I can hand her one of my fantasy novels and she’ll actually give it a try.  Many times she’ll even like it.

Which is not to say that I’ve converted her into a fantasy reader.  She bounces right off of Juliet Marillier, for example, because the Celtic world-building is too much for her. But Mercedes Lackey’s elements books?  Loves ’em.  Robin Hobb?  She ended up giving me the last eight books by Hobb instead of the other way around.

So, if you are someone who likes to read a lot, but you find yourself locked into one genre or another (especially romance, mystery, or thriller), try expanding your repertoire a bit.  I’ve seen romance, mystery, and thriller all incorporated into a fantasy or sci-fi setting and done well enough that the book should’ve appealed to readers of both genres.

And if you do bounce off of one book, don’t write them all of.  Give another one a try.  You just might be surprised what you find.  Because, I don’t know about you, but I’m always open to finding another reader who writes so well I devour their book in a matter of days, and there really aren’t enough of them out there.

(And since this is my blog and I guess I should plug my book a bit, I will say that Rider’s Revenge does have a fairly strong romantic sub-plot in there although the focus of the book is on the main character’s “hero’s journey.”)

I Know It’s A Weird Name, But…

14 Monday Sep 2015

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At some point soon people will hopefully be reading my novel.  (Release date is set for September 29th.  Yikes!)  And, when they do, I’m sure one of the first things they’ll ask themselves is “what’s up with that name?”

My main character is named K’lrsa.  (Pronounced Killrissa.)  It looks a lot like consonants shoved together and I get that, but, well, that’s her name.  Now, I’m not above changing a character name here or there.  I’ve done it before and I may do it again. (I certainly did make an effort to have character names that started with different letter.)

But this character has always been K’lrsa and none of the reasons I heard to change it moved me enough to do so.

There was actually an editor I was going to hire to proof this book who I didn’t hire because of this, believe it or not.  The editor had on their website that they would not review any books where the character names had apostrophes in them because they thought it was cliched. (That comment has since been deleted.)

I don’t know. Didn’t strike me as cliched.

Maybe I don’t read the novels that editor was referring to.  I have seen names like the ones I use for the tribes in Rider’s Revenge in the Anne McCaffrey Pern novels, but that’s the only place I can think of off the top of my head.

And I never had a problem with the names in the Pern novels, so I trust in my readers to handle it in my book, too.

Also, because the setting for the book isn’t a stereotypical European setting but a milder, imaginary version of northern Africa, I figured I’d give a nod to the fact that some languages have glottal stops and other unique sounds that Americans like me don’t normally encounter.  (Not that I’m going to tell anyone they need to learn glottal stops to pronounce her name or any of the other tribal names…)

Of course, I will say that I myself have actually decided not to read a book because of the character names, so I can’t really blame anyone who decides to give my book a pass for that reason.

The first time I ran into the Robin Hobb Farseer series I put it back because I thought the name Fitzchivalry was so ridiculous that it probably meant the book was, too.  I thought maybe the book was a first effort and she’d moved on from there and become more original.  (I’d already read the Live Ships series by then and didn’t realize they were connected.)

My mom finally convinced me to give the books a shot and boy am I glad I did.  They were great!  (It is HARD these days to find someone who can write 600 pages of engaging fantasy.)  Think what I would’ve missed all because of a character name…

(Which should probably prompt me to go change those names, but no.  That’s how the tribes work and I’ll just have to take the hit if someone decides that’s too much of a turn off for them.)

Taking That Leap

11 Friday Sep 2015

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I put Rider’s Revenge up for pre-order on Amazon and all the other retailers today.  LOVE my cover, by the way.  Kirk did such an amazing job with it and I’m so glad I reached out to him to see if he’d take me on.

I have to say, this was one of the scariest things I’ve done in a long time.

It’s not the first title I’ve self-published.  I’ve put up about eighty titles give or take across a variety of pen names and in various genres.  Mostly shorter works.  And I’m proud of every one of them and wouldn’t have written them and put them out there if I didn’t think they were worth reading.

But this one.

This is the one that matters to me.  I’ve spent hundreds of hours on this novel.  And it’s the type of thing I love to read.  An adventure featuring a strong but not perfect main character.  Some crazy twists and turns that I didn’t see coming until they happened.  Focused on the individual experience of the characters but with larger issues at play.

And if I can’t write what I love to read, what good am I?  Right.

So I sit here, now that it’s too late to take it back, and worry.

What if people hate it?  What if no one even reads it?  What if I put it all out there and…crickets.

Well.  There’s only one way to know and that’s to just go ahead and do it.

So here goes.  Time to leap off that cliff and hope it turns out well.

September 29th.  That’s the day of reckoning.  Wish me luck.  Let’s hope I can actually fly after all.