Guest Post: Realms of Culture

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Fantasy Romance, Guest Post, Jeffe Kennedy, Writing Tips

Super excited to have award-winning author Jeffe Kennedy as a guest on the blog today! As a huge fan of her work (Read my review of her new release, The Shift of the Tide), I am always so impressed by the cultures in her novels. Seriously, I have found myself talking about some of the intricate and fascinating aspects only to realize the level of detail I went into made it sound like an actual culture that existed somewhere. So, I asked if Jeffe might tell us a bit about her writing approach regarding the different cultures in her Fantasy worlds and what she does to make them seem so real.

I often get asked about how I construct the cultures in my fantasy worlds. Well, more broadly, readers and other writers ask about my worldbuilding process. Anela here specifically asked about the cultures. She mentioned the Nahanaun culture from The Pages of the Mind (Anela says: This one just won a RITA award, woooo!!), in particular, and the Faerie society in my Covenant of Thorns trilogy. She also asked about the cultures as they’re experienced by my characters as outsiders to them.

That last question is actually quite pertinent. It’s a common trope in fantasy to have a character who is what we call “a fish out of water.” This acts on a couple of levels. The character who is plunged into an unfamiliar world with a new set of rules has to find new abilities in themselves, to learn to overcome the challenges of those circumstances. If a person remains in familiar surroundings, there’s no impetus for them to change. Taken out of their pond, they have to learn to breathe air in order to survive. Also, a fish out of water character serves as an avatar for the reader—they allow the reader to learn the world along with them.

As for the rest, I often reply that I learn the world as the characters do, by riding around in their heads as the story unfolds. That’s true, but it’s also an oversimplification. I might observe the world through their perceptions—which includes their own ideas and cultural preconceptions—but I try to base aspects of the world on real life principles.

1. Physical Laws.

It’s important to determine if the world follows the same physical laws as ours. Some aspects, like gravity and molecular cohesion are hard to get away from and still have a comprehensible story. In the world of The Twelve Kingdoms and The Uncharted Realms (the world of The Pages of the Mind), most of the standard physical laws apply, with the addition of magic. In the Faerie of Covenant of Thorns, I twisted up some of those laws. The presence of magic changes how the natural world works, particularly the rate of mutation and evolution.

2. Ecology

I’m a biologist by training, so I’ve studied a lot about how ecology—climate, temperature, geological features like oceans or mountains—influences the flora, fauna and human civilizations there. For example, in our world, animals tend to be larger the farther north they live. So Wyoming bobcats are much bigger than New Mexico bobcats. When I built the world of Nahanau, I knew the islands would be formed from volcanic activity and be in a tropical climate. The types of plant life and animals there would be informed by all of that. Because volcanic islands have barrier reefs (a consequence of how they’re formed), I knew there would be sea life associated with barrier reefs, and so forth.

3. People and politics

The humans who live in a particular environment are as much a product of it as the plants and animals. The Nahanauns live in a consistently warm environment, so their dress and building construction reflects that. On top of that, because of the openness of their society, I figured they’d have more flexible ideas about personal property. In Faerie, humans have no magic and thus no power. They’re lower class citizens and their towns reflect that. In that society, the types of fae who have the most magic—and are most willing to wield it—rise to the highest levels. But that kind of society leads to near-constant battling, as well.

4. Language

Deciding on a culture’s language can be a twisty proposition. Because a book is an exercise of language to begin with, the language the story is written in dictates a great deal. I usually make the “home” language of the main characters be pretty close to modern American English, for simplicity’s sake. Some readers don’t like this because they feel the language of epic and high fantasy should be like in Tolkien. But Tolkein wrote in the early 1900s—the language he used was different than modern American English. I don’t think it’s any more “accurate” to use British English of the early 1900s for fantasy that American English of the early 2000s.

When I go to create a language foreign to the main characters, I usually base it off another language in our world, so there’s a sense of familiarity that also evokes place. For Nahanau, I used Hawaiian words and put a slightly different spin on them. I did this for names, as well. For Faerie, I used Gaelic as a base.

Finally, because I wanted Nahanaun to be a perplexing language for the heroine, Dafne, I complicated their verb tenses. I added words to indicate past and future, like oriental languages such as Chinese do. I also had those tenses colored with good or bad fortune, partly to illustrate the culture, and to make things more interesting.

5. Mythology

Finally, I always try to be sure to include the spiritual outlook of the human culture. How people view the intangible world is as important as the effects of the tangible one.

Many thanks for being a guest on the blog, Jeffe!

Check out her newest release in The Uncharted Realms series, The Shift of the Tide

Free from the hand of a tyrant, the Twelve Kingdoms have thrown all that touch them into chaos. New allies appear–and enemies encroach–from all sides. To survive, they must adapt to this new reality without a moment of doubt…

Growing up in a country where magic was common as dust, Zynda never had to worry about her enchantments upsetting the balance of nature. But the land beyond the borders of the thirteenth kingdom calls to her. It may be foreign and ugly, but the strangeness is laced with an excitement she has never known. Outside her homeland, Zynda’s shapeshifting and sorcery are a potent advantage to nations grasping for dominance–and the thrill of power lures her even as she recognizes the threat she poses to these magic-buffeted realms.

A ruthless enemy stalks them, promising destruction if she does not fight with all her strength–but if she upsets the equilibrium of the land, all will pay, the common people most of all. And a man of this outside world fascinates her, a mossback with no scrap of magic in him. He knows nothing of the fears and temptations pulling at her. But in his steady embrace she learns she must choose well–for the consequences may reach farther than she ever imagined…

 About Jeffe Kennedy

Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award.

Her award-winning fantasy romance trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and was nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose received a Top Pick Gold and was nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014. The third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015. Two more books followed in this world, beginning the spin-off series The Uncharted Realms. Book one in that series, The Pages of the Mind, has also been nominated for the RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2016 and won RWA’s 2017 RITA® Award. The second book, The Edge of the Blade, released December 27, 2016, and is a PRISM finalist, along with The Pages of the Mind. The next in the series, The Shift of the Tide, will be out in August, 2017. A high fantasy trilogy taking place in The Twelve Kingdoms world is forthcoming from Rebel Base books in 2018.

She also introduced a new fantasy romance series, Sorcerous Moons, which includes Lonen’s War, Oria’s Gambit, The Tides of Bàra, and The Forests of Dru. She’s begun releasing a new contemporary erotic romance series, Missed Connections, which started with Last Dance and continues in With a Prince.

In 2019, St. Martins Press will release the first book, The Orchid Throne, in a new fantasy romance series, The Forgotten Empires.

Her other works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion; an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera; and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, which includes Going Under, Under His Touch and Under Contract.

She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.

Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

 

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A Matter of Perspective

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#amwriting, Craft, Fantasy, Indie Author, Self-Publishing

I love YA books.

There, I said it. I’m not a teen (or anywhere close to that age, ahem) but I love the genre and gorge on it regularly in all its forms (Mature YA, YA/NA). All books include an element of self-discovery and reflection, but it’s my opinion that these themes are especially poignant when centered around a protagonist living those years when you’re still unsure of who you are.

Something I’ve noticed about the YA/NA genre is it tends to be written in the first-person, present-tense point-of-view (POV). Seems logical since first-person POV can feel more intimate (the reader follows the protagonist’s direct voice) and present-tense lends a sense of immediacy–And young adults definitely (at least what I’ve witnessed from my teen nephews and cousins) live in the Right Now with some rough sketches of what the future might look like. It’s the charm and the madness that is them. And hey, those are tough years as they try to get a grasp on what the hell this life thing is about and how they should handle it…That’s what I remind myself of when one of them makes a creative move on the highway and narrowly avoids causing a massive collision that would’ve resulted in twisted metal, shattered glass, and calls to First Responders.

Currently I’m about halfway through a draft in the first book of a planned YA/NA Fantasy trilogy titled Sundered Kingdoms. Each book will be centered around one character’s perspective and thus I put things in the first-person, present-tense form. I’ve done first-person, past-tense before in my first novel and enjoyed the process. Switching into present-tense takes some attention but I do like the immediacy of it.

And then…

One of my (very) early betas came back saying that he found it difficult to engage with the first-person, present-tense format and felt it was throwing off the read for him. Granted, early drafts are ugly bastards by nature with rough sections of monologue-ing and info dumping which will be mopped up in subsequent drafts, but the commentary did give me pause. The plot is most definitely through the eyes of a single character and I want to keep it in her voice. I took that to mean it should be in first-person, but does it have to be?

There are a lot of opinions out there as far as when first person vs. third person POV is best. So, let me ask all you readers and writers out there:

If you are reading a story that is from a single character’s perspective, do you expect or prefer it to be in first-person? Or are you cool with a single third-person POV throughout a novel?

Silent Night

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#amwriting, Craft, Indie Writer, Inspiration

As is typical of Minnesota, it releases us from winter’s snow and ice only to plunge us into summer’s wrath, as if the place is irritated it has to warm up for any portion of the year and makes us suffer for it. Tuesday a huge storm cell rolled through the Twin Cities and, naturally, as I left work that day the thing was just making its debut. Timing is ALWAYS perfect for me when it comes to these things. There I am, driving home, obsessively looking in my rearview mirror, watching as this mass of roiling black clouds chases me down the highway.

The sky turned green. Streets flooded with torrential rain. Howling winds ripped trees from their roots. Thunder and lightning crashed hard enough to rattle the windows and make me wonder if Thor could be something more than mythological. Of course, if he looks like Chris Hemsworth I might be willing to convert.

Then BOOM! The nearby transformer explodes and everything goes dark. Thus began our two-day stint without power. This was made all the more awesome by the fact that my daycare is closed for the week (where they didn’t lose power), the air temperature the following days was 90 degrees without a breeze and two out of my three kids had a fever. I shuffled us over to my mother’s house but my mom has this aversion to using air conditioning, thus keeping her house at a balmy 84 degrees (still cooler than my house).

When the Xcel Energy truck showed up at last to repair our transformer, people came out of their houses in droves. We sat on the curb watching the guys work on it, our stares fixed on their movements, hopes and prayers thick in the air. Then someone yelled from a kitchen window that the lights came on and a cheer went up. A block party almost broke out except we all ran home to huddle around the cool air coming out of our vents.

Yes, I’m being dramatic here but it was a tough couple of days. And I did feel a little guilty about my internal (and external) complaining as I remembered other places that had storms in the past which knocked out power for weeks, sometimes months at a time. I can’t even imagine it.

But something interesting arose from all this chaos…the complete lack of it at night. When the kids were in bed, the coolers of food squared away, and the paper plates disposed of (don’t hate me for using them), I sat down at my table to write. By candlelight.

I may or may not admit to feeling a tad Jane Austin as I did this. I had taper candles too. There I was, scribbling along the page, adjusting the angle of the light as the wax burned down, the flame flickering when my breath swished past it. Writing in such an environment, surrounded by shadow beyond the candle’s corona, narrows one’s focus to what’s in right front of you: the page.

This is what it was like every day for writers of the past (except maybe for the full belly, ball point pen, and superior state of health). There’s a silence to the night when the world is that quiet, when the house is soundless but for the scratch of your pen and the thoughts in your head. I experienced an odd contradiction of emotion as the hours rolled by. I felt both more connected to my work and more isolated. Fulfilled and empty. Satisfied and yearning. I attribute this a bit to distraction withdrawal, but also I think it’s because the night has two faces when distilled to its primary essence of silence and darkness. It embraces and it smothers. Soothes and frightens. The intensity of the atmosphere takes creativity to amazing places. There are only the words and the page. It was “A lonely impulse of delight.” to quote Yeats. Beautiful and strange.

Have you ever written by candlelight? What was it like for you?

Dark Voices

Tags

#amwriting, Speculative Fiction, villains

If you’re like me then you love a well-written bad guy. Sometimes they’re even more interesting than the main character, regardless of how distinct the hero might be (Case in point: Hannibal Lecter). I’ve decided the biggest reason for this is because we enjoy exploring the darker side of humanity, that door into the basement, that shrouded place of both screams and silence.

In my reading I’ve noticed three different types of antagonists. Sometimes they overlap to varying degrees but in general they fall into these categories:

The Thug: Straightforward killer, brutal in their way, predictable and singleminded.

The Villain: More menacing in their motivations. Clever and complex, layered by circumstance, twisted by fate or ambition.

The Madman: The creature who not only lives with the darkness inside him but embraces it–the kind who abides by no agenda, the kind who inflicts pain for its own sake. Because they like it. Because it excites them. The kind that, if we caught a glimpse of what lay behind that darkness, we’d find only a deeper pit devoid of light and compassion.

As I’ve been finishing up Inquisitor, the third installment of my Sci-Fi series Insurrection, I thoroughly trekked into that darkness. Told from the point of view of an antagonist, the character falls under the last category with maybe an elbow in the second one. Writing him has been tricky. He evaded me for a while, not letting me into his head, laughing at my frustration, but I finally cornered the bastard and tuned into his voice. It concerns me a touch to find myself fascinated as I explore that viscious mind, those cunning and fearsome thoughts. In the end, I came to this conclusion: The scariest people don’t come on like a storm, raging and wild as they rush in from the horizon. No, for me, the most terrifying people are the ones whose malice oozes from them like a clot of oil from the ground, whose eyes track your every movement debating whether to let you pass by…or not. A cold shadow whose gaze is both empty and overwhelming, and completely inhuman.

In all my movie watching, I’ve come across only a few of these monsters who made my heart thunder from their mere presence on the screen, a softly spoken voice that shutters something truly heinous. From No Country for Old men, this is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen:

What are some of your favorite bad guys, either in movies or books? Do you prefer a raging antagonist of unthethered brutality or one who moves with unpredictable quiet?

Candlelight in the Cosmos

Tags

Genre Mash-up, Indie Writer, Romance, Science-Fiction

Recently I met with my critique group where, aside from going over manuscripts and raking over the finer points of craft, a discussion arose surrounding romance in Science-Fiction, specifically Sci-Fi Romance as a genre. I was amazed to find that our members fell into two very distinct camps on this issue:

Group A: ROMANCE HAS NO PLACE IN SCI-FI (No, I didn’t leave the caps lock on. That was the level of conviction on this side of the aisle)

Group B: Sci-Fi Romance is a legitimate genre that does not detract from the integrity of Sci-Fi in general.

Now, to clarify, we weren’t talking about your dystopian future situation or paranormal with aliens showing up on contemporary Earth. No, this was about whether romance should be in hardcore Sci-Fi, as in the kind with interstellar travel, spaceships, and faraway galaxies.

My opinion? In point of fact the Sci-Fi Romance genre has not crossed my Kindle so I wasn’t very aware of it. As an avid (obsessive?) fan of Sci-Fi, the reactionary side of me cringed at the idea of a Harlequin-ed version of Science-Fiction out there. On reflection though, I could envision it as something interesting. Why? Well, for any story to work it must still be built on a foundation of world building, high stakes, and three dimentional characters, even if the focus is on romance. In that context, why wouldn’t it be good?

As to the argument that romance should not exist AT ALL in Sci-Fi, to that I say you’d have to be some scruffy headed nerfherder living under a rock to believe that a driving force as powerful as love would disappear completely when a plot breaks orbit. Men and women, in all types of relationships, do not huddle in their respective corners on a spaceship like some weird version of a junior high dance floor. They live together and work together and, you know, intermingling abounds.

I will say that I’ve found romance in general to be hit or miss in stories I’ve read. As strong of a force as love is, it takes a lot of subtlety to integrate it well into the story. I’ve read books that force the relationship to the crisis point before taking the time to even build the bond between them. The same goes with the sex. Hey, if it’s a casual thing then sure, let ’em jump into the sack but don’t try to sell it to me as a world moving melding of souls when they just met last week. Or at least hang a lantern on it, as they say in Hollywood, and have the character comment on how crazy it is to feel this way when they’ve only just met. And then the sex itself…Sometimes I wonder what the author was thinking. One memorable book reached for rather colorful euphemisms for body parts. I don’t think I’ll ever scrub the words “nether lips” out of my head.

Back to my point though, I do enjoy a romantic element in my reading, something more than the “they’re together now” insert. I enjoy when it’s the main plot point of the story (when it’s done right) and often find these reads to be rather more character driven. Although I’ve mostly seen it in Paranormal and Fantasy genres, I’d be willing to take a look at its treatment in Sci-Fi. It’s one of those elements that is the catalyst for so many character choices. Your hero/ine can be going along with one thing in mind for the future and then BLAMO! they meet someone who changes everything. Or maybe it comes on subtly, growing in scope like an approaching meteor until the sky fills with its light.

I think that’s something many readers identify with and why it’s so fun to read about, regardless of if the stage is sword and sorcery or the galactic variety. It can twist a plot in so many ways and deliver a gut punch like no other. It certainly DOES have a place in Science-Fiction. In books. In movies. In games.

So say we all.

What do you think? Sci-Fi Romance: Is it a good mash-up or one that should be relegated to the celestial dustbin?

Also, if anyone knows of a good Sci-Fi Romance, please give me a heads up in the comments. I’d be interested in checking it out.

First Page Critique: REBORN

Tags

Craft, Fantasy, first page critique

Check out this awesome first page critique that a seasoned author provided to a Fantasy writer on the Killzone Author Blog. This blog always has fantastic craft and marketing articles, and their first page critiques are no exception. Have a look!

First Page Critique: REBORN

Striking Notes

Tags

#amwriting, Dystopian, Inspiration, Science-Fiction, Writing Tips

It’s probably not news to anyone that music is inspirational. It stirs memory and emotion in a way nothing else can. As an author I find it immerses me into the scenes of a story line and energizes my creative thinking. Music is another one of those things that I’m in awe of, particularly since I haven’t any talent in it myself. Yeah, I can play a little “Heart and Soul” on the piano and I can sing on key (Don’t look for me to appear on “The Voice” or “American Idol”. I have a firm grip on the extent of my singing abilities), but that’s about it.

The odd thing about me though, and I don’t know if others share this, is that the music needs to have decent lyrics for me to really enjoy it (if it has vocals). Musical lyrics, like poetry, are the most abbreviated version of a story out there in my opinion. They have little space to communicate emotional impact so every word counts. You’ve heard a song with tons of filler or one that tells a story in a way you’ve heard a thousand times. It lessens the piece. It seems writing, in any form, is hard.

Hearing a song with music and lyrics that feel like a soundtrack to a story I’m writing is like getting hit by a lightning bolt. It doesn’t even have to be a new song. It can be one I’ve heard before that suddenly takes on a new meaning. I’ll easily surpass two thousand words in a day when this happens. I know, I know, a lot of authors out there write double or triple that (Lindsay Buroker is renowned for her writing speed), but I don’t usually go that fast. Three kids and a full time job will do that.

As I’ve been writing the installments of my short story series Insurrection I came across a few songs that zapped me in the inspiration department. Since it’s in the Sci-Fi/Dystopian genre, it has themes centered around rebellion and redemption.

Muse’s song “Uprising” is a track I’ve replayed quite a few times while writing. Their videos are pretty radical. Raging teddy bears, etc.:

Then there’s the new version of “The Sound of Silence” by Disturbed. I found a fan video that paired it to images from Mass Effect (love that game!) and it’s pretty awesome. Since part of my story line involves a past where humanity was almost destroyed by an alien force, it felt like watching a piece of my own story. Of course the details are completely different, but the music and the visual accompaniment of a world on the brink of annihilation is exactly what I’d envisioned.

How has music inspired you creatively? Are you like me in that the song has to have good lyrics in order to really capture your attention, even if there’s a good beat?

Guest Post: Self-Published Fiction and the Quest for Quality – Part Two

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Indie Writer, Self Published Book, Self-Published Fantasy Blog-off, Speculative Fiction

Book bloggers are lucky in that talented authors often send us a copy of their book to read and review. It’s a mutually beneficial scenario wherein the blogger gets a good story while the author gets their work trumpeted to the blogger’s audience. But what about readers who are just looking for a good read in their favorite genre and aren’t sure where to go looking? How do they find something that will satisfy their desire for a well-told tale?

Author Aderyn Wood tackles this subject of quality from a reader’s perspective in follow up to a guest post she did here back in December (Click here to read Part One)

They’re all yours Aderyn! *Passes mic*

The self-publishing revolution has destabilized the deeply entrenched gatekeepers of the traditional publishing world, and now there is a growing mountain of books for readers to choose from. This change in the publishing landscape has its pros and cons, and just in case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know them, here they are:

The Pros? According to Best Fantasy Books, the benefits of reading Indie books are threefold.

• Firstly, there’s the “thrill of the hunt” – the chance to find a potential bestseller before anyone else. This is particularly tempting for book bloggers and reviewers. Imagine if you were the first to review The Martian!
• Secondly, you can find “a wide variety of eclectic fiction that you’d never ever see published the traditional way” – Western Sci Fi anyone?
• And thirdly, Indie books are generally much cheaper than their traditionally published counterparts.

The second point resonates most strongly with many readers. Traditional publishing houses are notorious for delivering more of the same. So many rejection letters cite, “It doesn’t fit our list” or “This type of book doesn’t sell”. What they mean is, “you haven’t written another X, Y,  or Z, so we don’t want to take the risk.” Good thing is Indie authors CAN and DO take the risk, so picking up an Indie book can be very rewarding indeed. You can find something different.

The Cons? By now, the cons are as clear as that mountain I mentioned. There are books that frankly should never have been published. Books with more than the odd typo, a plethora of grammatical issues, tense inconsistencies, Mary Sues and plot holes readers can fall through.  But, it’s not as scary as some commentators would have us believe. Such books are readily identifiable, and if a reader wants to spend money and time on them, well, that’s their choice. There’s a self-published fantasy author I know of (and who shall remain nameless) who sells books like crazy. Books with a fair dose of grammatical issues, as well as a heavy sprinkling of clichés, stereotypical tropes and other writing sins. And readers can’t get enough.

But. Let’s be discerning here. We’re after quality fantasy Indie fiction after all. How can you find the gems among the turnips? Here’s some methods I’ve been exploring:

1) Find book blogs that review Indie fantasy books. Make a list of your favourites, the ones whose reading taste align most with your own, and check them on a regular basis to glean ideas about what to read next. ‘Hmmm.’ I hear you mumble. ‘Where can I find a book blog that reviews Indie fantasy fiction?’ Well, THIS blog of course! Stop reading my post and check out Anela’s reviews  here on Amid the Imaginary. They’re detailed, thoughtful, respectful and honest. She puts a lot of effort into her reviews and she has a high standard, so you’re assured of a good fantasy read. Another resource for finding Indie books is The Indie View. It collates the ‘latest Indie reviews from around the web’. Scroll through until you find some fantasy reviews.

2) Keep an eye on the Self Published Fantasy Blogoff (SPFBO 2016) organised by Mark Lawrence.  The Blogoff is a competition of sorts. 300 self-published fantasy titles are divided among ten well established fantasy book blogs, whose reviewers set to work on choosing just one book from a group of 30 to go through to the final round. This leaves us with the finalists – ten quality Indie fantasy books. Last year was the first year of the blogoff and those ten books are now on my tbr list.

3) As well as following book blogs, you might join a forum or two in which Indie books are promoted. Kboards is a big one and has a Book Bazaar where you can find the latest published works as posted by the authors, but you’ll have to search for the fantasy books, and just because they’re posted, doesn’t mean they’re going to be your idea of quality, but it’s a place to find the Indies nonetheless.

4) If you’re in the mood for doing a little window shopping from the couch, a great way to spend an hour on a Friday night, is to grab a glass of wine and just start browsing through that mountain of books on Amazon (or your site of choice).  Indie books are becoming increasingly harder to identify, as their covers are fantastic. Look for books with no ‘publisher’ listed, or ones with the author’s name as the publisher. Although, some Indies are now including their business name or imprint as the publisher as a way to further their professional look.  Most of the books in Kindle Unlimited are Indie books, so this can be another way to search for them. I’ve made my own checklist for finding those hidden gems, and I usually discover 1-3 books to add to my ‘to read’ list over at Goodreads. So, here’s my elimination checklist:

• Title
• Cover
• Blurb
• Reviews – a handful of positive and negative reviews
• Sample – first page, just like in a bookshop!

If a book passes all of these checks, it’s added to the list. It’s amazing how many books don’t pass the ‘title’ test and this makes the author in me realise just how important the title is!

But of course, the age-old way to find a good book is word of mouth. So spill, anyone got a great Indie fantasy book to share? Or, a way to find ’em?

Thanks so much for another great post, Aderyn!

Aderyn’s latest book, The Earl’s Daughter, is the second installment in her paranormal mystery trilogy. The first book, The Viscount’s Son, is available for FREE until May 20th — Only two more days so pick up your copy today!. To find out more on Aderyn’s blog.

A Dark Paranormal Mystery Series

Michael D’Angelo doesn’t normally investigate murder, but since they never found Emma’s body, she’s technically just a missing person. But he doesn’t investigate those either.

After the Earl of Wolston reads the translation of a sinister and ancient text published on his daughter’s blog, in the days leading up to her disappearance, he reaches out to Mr D’Angelo, convinced that evil forces are at work: something beyond the ordinary, something not of this world, something unholy.

Fortunately for Michael, Paranormal Investigations are his specialty. But as Michael unravels Emma’s last days, and the secrets inscribed on her blog, he begins to question whether such knowledge is too dangerous to pursue.

About the Author

From high fantasy to paranormal, Aderyn’s stories cover the broad spectrum of Fantasy. Inspired from childhood by the wonder and mystique of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising and the adventures in Tolkien’s The Hobbit, her love of the Fantasy genre has been life long. As a writer, she brings characters and places to life in stories filled with magic, mystery, and a good dollop of mayhem.

Aderyn studied Literature, History and Creative Writing at university, travelled the world, and taught English before becoming a full-time writer. She is also a part-time farmer passionate about self-sufficiency and poultry. She lives in a cosy cottage on a small farm in Victoria, Australia with partner Peter, their dog, cat, and a little duck called Snow.

Explore her work at http://aderynwood.blogspot.com

Anatomy of a Book Cover

Tags

Book Covers, Fantasy Art, Self Published Book

In my family there are a lot of artists. My mother can draw, sculpt, paint, sew (She can make her own chair covers and curtains. And they’re beautiful. — Who does that??). My sister is amazing at crafts, scrapbooking, wood working, and landscaping. And of course, all the women in my immediate family are great at decorating. Me? I stink at anything that requires color coordination or working with your hands. When we bought our house I looked around at the blank walls, scratched my head, then called my mom and sister to tell me what to do. I was the kid in Girl Scouts who had trouble making the Popsicle stick puppets. Yeah I can knit, but nothing with complicated patterns. If you need a scarf I can make that happen but don’t come at me with sweater requests.

Thankfully I have one saving grace: Words. My favorite toys. If it’s got an alphabet, I’m your girl. I gobble them up in books and blogs in different places and different languages. I obsessively arrange them and rearrange them like pieces in a puzzle until they make the picture I see in my head. Thus, you can imagine my despair when I completed my first book and realized I’d have to come up with an idea for a book cover. While I have a great appreciation for art and those who make it, I find myself floundering when it comes to a succinct image that encapsulates a story.

My husband — sweet supporter that he is — came up with an idea for it (saved again, woo hoo!). His skill at drawing, while still superior to mine, is yet a bit rough so I still fretted. “You don’t need it to look good,” he told me. “You just need to give your cover artist something to work with. She’ll figure out how to make it pretty.” The hubs provides me with endearing practicality when I need it most.

Here was the first sketch we sent over to my cover artist Janette Ramos. Feel free to laugh at it. We did.

In case you need some interpretation of the stick figures above, it’s of my main character, Maleia, standing on a rocky ledge watching Syris, one of the immortal guardians of the world of Aeden, hold back a storm conjured by the Blight. What, you didn’t see that in there?;)

Janette was in fact very happy with this. Her initial sketch in reply was this:

How she managed to pull out this image from the original speaks to her artistic talent. We went back and forth on details and colors. Her next revision with preliminary placement of the title and author name was this:

More back and forth to tweak a few things, add a little more this, a little less that, and the final product resulted in this:

Janette actually flipped it around on her own, deciding it looked better at that angle. She emphasized colors, pumped up the visual of the title, defined the clothing and hair. So, from the (very) rough pencil drawing she turned it into an awesome book cover.

Need to see that comparison again?

From this:

To this:

A deadly blight. A crownless queen. A journey to the edge of the world.

Janette was amazing to work with, incredibly patient, and just an all around professional. I found her on Deviantart. For a look at more of her work and other book covers she’s done, check out her site here.

Once again I’m in awe and amazement of those talented individuals who can create art. They say this self-publishing thing is all about the team you assemble to finish the product. No truer words, folks, no truer words.

Author Interview: Intisar Khanani

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Author Interview, Fantasy, Intisar Khanani, Self Published Book

I had the pleasure of interviewing Intisar Khanani, author of several amazing fantasy novels, including a wondrous short story I’ve reviewed called The Bone Knife (Read the review here. Also, it’s FREE so go download it off Amazon  |  B&N  |  Kobo  |  Apple!)

Below are my questions in italics and Intisar’s complete answers beneath them.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Pretty much. I’ve been writing stories since I was four years old, stapling my books together. However, I didn’t take it seriously until I decided to step back from my career in public health (I was working on issues of infant mortality and supporting some general community health endeavors in Cincinnati). My family was growing, and I wanted to give my children extra time while they were still small, so I figured it was the perfect time to kick off a serious writing career. (I may have been a bit optimistic on what being a stay at home mom entails.) I have loved being a mom, and we are embarking on a homeschool adventure in the next year, which means my writing career starts when my kids go to bed. I love it, but I do wish I’d gotten serious like this, oh, back when I was a teenager. 😉

Do you write in any other genres outside of Fantasy?

I have written some steampunk with fantasy elements, as well as dystopian sci-fi, but neither have been published yet. I do think I’ll dabble about a bit as I continue writing, but I expect fantasy will always be a staple for me.

As a mother of small children, what do you do to fit in the time to write, especially when a solution or an idea strikes you when can’t sit at your computer?

I do 90% of my writing at night. Now that my kids are old enough to take a few classes away from home, I race to the nearest library branch to write. That daytime writing time is precious–it’s amazing how much more I can get done when I’m fresh! It’s rare that an idea strikes me that I can’t hold onto until I get to a computer–but if I just had an awesome thought, I do the old pen-and-scrap-of-paper approach. Even a few scribbled words are usually enough to get me going again after the kids are in bed.

The protagonists in your stories face many challenges. Can you speak to what themes you include in their internal struggles? Are these themes defined throughout the writing process, or ones that you have in mind at the beginning?

Ha! Yes, there are a lot of themes in my writing, but my writing does best when I allow them to develop organically. For example, Sunbolt has themes of loyalty, betrayal, and abandonment, and it also delves into issues of race and colonization. I had no idea what I was writing when I started. When I handed the first draft to my writing circle, I literally asked them, “What do you think this story is actually about?” I was over the moon when one of them responded, “Colonization of the mind.” It was there, I just didn’t see it. I did see some of the rest, but I wasn’t writing those themes, I was writing the story. Revision is where I begin to cultivate the themes inherent in the story, developing them so that they’re there for the reader who wants them.

I loved the way you integrated magic in your story The Bone Knife. It came through as a talent that the character almost unconsciously wove into her daily activities. Tell us a bit about your perception and treatment of magic as an element in fantasy books.

Magic is an interesting element to work with because there are so many ways to deal with it. I’ve found that I most enjoy books where magic has a cost. Not to say that I didn’t love Harry Potter, but the magic didn’t really seem to take anything out of the characters–which made you wonder what was holding back 200 other Voldemorts from rising up. Magic also needs to follow its own laws, rather like physics. It has to make sense within its own contexts–even “wild” magic books usually have something you can depend on about how that works. And it can’t be able to do everything for the character. I dislike books where the magic is the answer instead of the characters themselves–it should be the tool, not the solution itself.

So I clearly have some set ideas about what I like (and these are all opinions! I mean no disrespect to anyone who feels or writes differently.). But I also like to play with how magic works, make up new rules, try out different ways to use magic. In The Bone Knife, the magic-working character can’t do major spells because she’s hiding her talent…so she does a continuous outpouring of minor spells to use up the magic within her until she’s created a home where you can eat, sleep, and breath magic. This need to maintain balance, and the danger of creating such a home, is what blows her cover in the story–and makes for a fun magic system.

What prompted you to be an indie author rather than going the traditional publishing route?

I spent two years looking for an agent for my debut, a fairy-tale retelling titled, “Thorn.” Then my husband e-mailed me an article about indie publishing and the success of Amanda Hocking, and I went, hmm. I just want to share my story, and this seems a lot more likely than finding an agent. I have loved being an indie author, and haven’t looked back since!

If you could go back to when you first started publishing, what advice would you give yourself?

There are a few bits of advice I’d give myself, but then I consider that I was eight months pregnant and it really was ideal to publish before the baby was born, and all I can say is, well, you do what you can. If I’d had a longer timeline to work with, I would have made sure I didn’t settle for a cover I didn’t like, I would have done a better job developing my website and domain name, I would have tried to find and connect to supportive author communities online to help me make my release a bigger success. But sometimes you can’t do all that, and that’s okay. Sometimes, you take things one step at a time, and it’s much better than no steps at all.

Who are some of your favorite authors? Any indies?

Recently, I’ve been enjoying the works of W.R. Gingell, Andrea K. Host, and Rabia Gale. There are so many awesome authors out there, but these three are definitely high on my list of indie authors.

Tell us about your project Bookwyrms on Pinterest.

It’s just getting started! Gale, Gingell and I banded together to start sharing our favorite fantasy reads along with mini-reviews on Pinterest. It’s been cool, as I also got to introduce my two fellow authors to each other, and now I get to find out about the books that are making their day. If you’re interested, you can check out the board here: https://www.pinterest.com/rabiagale/bookwyrms/

What are you working on now? (Please say the follow up novel to The Bone Knife!)

I don’t know! I actually just finished final edits for “Memories of Ash,” the sequel to “Sunbolt.” I get my files back from the proofreader early next week, and by the end of April I should hopefully be all squared away with it. I have some scenes floating around in my head from the next book, but Rae (from “The Bone Knife”) has also been talking to me. So… I suspect I’ll jot down the scenes I’m thinking of and then pick up Rae’s story. I do best when I can flip between stories I’m working on whenever I finish a draft, to give myself space from the story, so I expect the next year will see both of these stories get written / edited. But I can’t say which will be ready first. 🙂

Thanks so much for the interview, Anela!

Thank you for taking the time to be interviewed on Amid the Imaginary!

Want to know more about this author and her work? Explore her website here

Her upcoming release, Memories of Ash (The Sunbolt Chronicles, Book Two), is coming May 30th! You can pre-order it right on Amazon for $0.99. Get it now before the price goes up at release!

 

Haven’t read the first book, Sunbolt? You’re in luck! It’s ON SALE for $0.99 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Apple! This could also change when book two comes out, so go get it! I’ll be reviewing it here on the blog very soon (Spoiler: Read it in a single day. Could NOT put it down. Huge book hangover)

Synopsis:

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.

About the author:

Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. Born in Wisconsin, she has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah on the coast of the Red Sea. She first remembers seeing snow on a wintry street in Zurich, Switzerland, and vaguely recollects having breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo when she was five. She currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and two young daughters.

Until recently, Intisar wrote grants and developed projects to address community health with the Cincinnati Health Department, which was as close as she could get to saving the world. Now she focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fantasy.  Intisar’s current projects include a companion trilogy to her debut, a fairytale retelling titled Thorn. The trilogy follows the heroine introduced in her free short story The Bone Knife. She is also working to complete The Sunbolt Chronicles, an epic series following a street thief with a propensity to play hero when people need saving, and her nemesis, a dark mage intent on taking over the Eleven Kingdoms.

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/intisar_Khanani

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/booksbyintisar

Twitter: http://twitter.com/BooksByIntisar

Author website: BooksByIntisar.com