The Lord of Dreams is now available! (Paperbacks coming soon!) When a fairy king grants a human wish, there’s more at stake than dreams. Claire Delaney has a good life, despite her adolescent angst. But she wants more. In a moment of frustration, she wishes to be “the hero.” What she actually wants is to be the center of attention, but what she gets is a terrifying Fae king demanding that she rescue an imprisoned fairy, facing fantastical dangers and hardships she could not have imagined. Yet the dreams–and the rescue–are only the beginning of her journey. She is at the […]
writing
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This post was originally written for D. H. Aire’s blog for the 2013 Blogger Book Fair and is slightly expanded here. Note: The information below is geared toward relatively realistic hand-to-hand fights with real-world physics. Magic changes things! If your characters are wizards or mages or shapeshifters or something, that will obviously affect the fight a great deal. Fight scenes are one of the areas where even experienced writers can run into difficulty. Although I wouldn’t call myself an expert, I’ve gotten some nice reviews and comments on the fight scenes in my books, particularly The King’s Sword, so I thought I’d […]
This is a very belated post, but pretend I posted this a month ago for the calendar year 2015. Books Published: 8 (4 in 2015 – The Dragon’s Tongue (novel), A Fairy King and A Fairy Promise (novellas), and Heroes and Other Stories (a print edition of Heroes, Street Fox, and Color, which were all previously published))Books in Progress: 2 (Book 3 in A Long-Forgotten Song (tentatively titled The Beginning of Wisdom), and Book 4, as yet untitled) Books Backburnered: 2 (Erdemen Honor 4, as yet untitled, plus a new standalone) Short Stories Published: 4 (none in 2015) Short Stories in Progress: 2 Blog […]
I was recently asked to describe my writing process for novels and series. Hm. That’s a hard one. Every book has been different. Every series is different. This isn’t a post about how you should write your books and your series. This is about what I’ve done so far and how it has worked, as well as what I’m going to try to do next. The Short Version: Erdemen Honor evolved as a standalone, then a sequel, then a third book in the series. Each is a complete, self-contained story that builds on the previous books. A Long-Forgotten Song was a series from […]
I occasionally post on Quora.com, a question and answer site. Recently someone asked why Labyrinth is so great. You might already know that I love Labyrinth. But let me tell you more, because this movie is dismissed far more quickly than it deserves. Someone else had already given a short answer that mentioned the fantastic story and David Bowie, but I will go deeper. I don’t like the sequel manga and I think it derailed some of the fantastic symbolism, so my answer below is going to pretend it doesn’t exist. In my mind and in my answer, I’m treating the movie completely as a […]
For #saturdayscenes (an event on G+) this week, I shared a snippet from the sequel to A Fairy King. I’m considering reworking a bit of the end, so some of this may change. Also, I’m pretty proud of myself for finding a piece that only has spoilers for A Fairy King and not the sequel itself. Go me! SPOILERS AHEAD! BEWARE! “Close your eyes.” Cadeyrn’s gloved fingers wrapped around hers, and she felt the world fall away and reassemble itself. The transition was nearly as smooth as it had been that first time, and she smiled to think that Cadeyrn was nearly recovered. The familiar […]
Bear with me. This is a post about me being dense and finally realizing what to do about it. It’s also a post about money and about stress and about “finding balance” (whatever that means) and about blessing others. And letting myself be blessed. And not feeling like I have to constantly prove something to the world. Confession: I am always stressed. I have a wonderful life. I am a stay-at-home mom to two brilliant, adorable, sweet, well-behaved children. I have a husband who is the love of my life, selfless and brilliant and a total hottie. I have wonderful friends […]
A sweet friend on Google+ recently wrote this blog post: Why I’m Scared to be a Mom and an Entrepreneur. If you are a working mom, or a self-employed mom, or a creative mom, or probably any mom at all, parts of that will resonate with you. I wrote my first two books (The King’s Sword and A Cold Wind) before CutiePants was born, but I published them after she was born. I didn’t think of myself as an “AUTHOR” yet, with capital letters and everything. I was just someone who wrote a book or two. That’s actually still how […]
Let’s get a few things clear up front: No one is obligated to write a book review. Not book bloggers, not authors, not regular readers. Reviews are something readers do out of the goodness of their hearts, as a hobby, as a favor, as a way of improving their own writing… it doesn’t matter. Reviews are for other readers… they are not for stroking the author’s ego, tender though it may be. Reviews can be as simple as “I loved this book!” or “I hated this book!” That is absolutely fine. Book reviews can be primarily for yourself, as a kind […]
This is a very belated post, but pretend I posted this in 2014. I’d originally planned to publish it on Nov 2, the second anniversary of publishing my first book, The King’s Sword. However, it proved to be immensely annoying to try to track my production and writing from some random date. Instead, I’m going by calendar year 2014. This skips a bit of the end of 2013, but oh well. Books Published: 4 (2 in 2014 – Honor’s Heir and Things Unseen) Books in Progress: 2 (The Dragon’s Tongue, Book 2 in A Long-Forgotten Song, and Book 3, as yet untitled) Books Backburnered: […]