Glimpses of Time and Magic: A Historical Fantasy Anthology

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Finally, we’ve come to the point with this anthology that we have both the pre-order link and the cover to share! Our reveal party for the cover happened yesterday and went very well. Now, myself and the other authors in the anthology are sharing the cover, blurb, and information on our sites so you all can find it easily!

So, to begin with, what is this anthology? It’s a collection of nine stories from nine authors, and the theme Joanna White and I gave everyone was history with a fantastical twist. We definitely got that! With stories ranging from Victorian England to Ancient Rome and Arthur, we’ve got stories with a fantastical twist to share with you all now! The best part? We wrote and organized this anthology as a way to raise money to donate to Feed My Starving Children, a charitable organization that uses donations and the time of their volunteers to pack and ship meals around the world to feed starving children for a year. Isn’t that great?

If you want to know more about the organization, you can check them out here. I’ve been to the location near me twice to help pack the food. It’s a great activity, especially if you want to take the whole family to do something. Be prepared to work hard, but it was a lot of fun and a great team building exercise for the groups I went with while also allowing us to be involved in helping feed these kids who would otherwise go hungry.

And now, the cover! This cover was created by illustrator_aesthetics (Anne Zedwick). You can see her blog and her Fiverr here if you’re interested in having her do cover art for you as well! She also does things like logo design, product branding, and more.

Blurb:

We know the stories from history we’ve heard since childhood, but what if, behind the tales, there were magical secrets desperate to be revealed?

Pompeii was a tragedy the world will never forget, but what really caused the volcanic eruption that ended it all? Why was the great sword Excalibur really destroyed? The rolling hills of Victorian England seem peaceful enough, but what secrets really lurk there?

And would it surprise you that there are darker secrets in Ancient Rome than people ever dreamed? If the Great Fog of London isn’t what it seems? You think you know Harry Houdini, but do you know the man behind all the tricks?

And what if the mystery of Roanoke runs deeper than you could ever imagine? Could Ireland’s potato famine really be caused by a mage gone mad? What if a ghost ship off the coast of England was more than a phantom?

If you like fantasy and history, then you’ll love this collection of nine fantastical stories. Buy Glimpses of Time and Magic now to find out what secrets really lurk behind the stories we’ve all been told.

Besides Buying a Copy, How Can You Help?

We need reviewers who will follow through on their word and review the book between July 14th and July 28th. If you’re a fan of historical fantasy and can promise a review, we’d like to have you in our ARC group! We’re not requiring much. Just your email so we can keep in touch closer to the review date. The author you sign up through (me, if you’re signing up on my blog) will get in touch with a friendly reminder about submitting reviews just before the first day when we’ll have the paperback live for reviews to be submitted. They will also follow up with you a few days after the 28th (to give reviews posted last minute time to process on Amazon) to check in if your review isn’t posted.

If you do sign up, please note that we’re not questioning your integrity if a review isn’t posted by July 28th. I’ve had issues with customers posting reviews on Amazon’s Australian website, say, and I’m not able to see them because I use Amazon.com for the US. Stupid? Yes, yes, it is. But with the issues I’ve had, let’s just put it this way… If I can’t see the review, I’m not assuming you didn’t post it. I’m just looking to see what happened in case there was an issue with posting that I need to hound Amazon about. (I still haven’t sorted out the issues with other books’ reviews not showing on all sites, but it doesn’t hurt to try.) Point is, if you don’t provide us with a link to the review after it’s posted and we’re not seeing it by end of July, we’re going to ask just to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

As such, if you’re interested in helping out with this, please get in touch! I can direct you to the form to fill out to join, give you more info if you like, and verify that I’m sending the book to the most convenient email address. You can contact me at arielpaiement@gmail.com. I’m friendly, and I love talking to new people, so don’t be shy! Get in touch if you want a review copy of Glimpses of Time and Magic. We’ll talk over it and get you signed up! 🙂

Thursday Technicalities: Marketing #2

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Introduction

On to the next topic in this set of marketing discussions. Social media. Most of us have it, though I know there are some who really can’t stand it and would rather avoid it. But, if you’re a business, you can’t afford to ignore social media since that’s where most of your potential customers and clients congregate. However, figuring out how to appropriately utilize social media for your business as an author can get confusing. We see how all the bloggers with other types of businesses utilize it for marketing their business, and we think: I can’t do that because it doesn’t fit my business.

And, you’d probably be right. As an author and a freelance editor, I’ve used multiple social media platforms and gone to a lot of different master classes via webinars or in person to learn more about marketing and social media. Problem is, a lot of the action steps given are hard to apply to authors. So, I’m going to share with you my perspective on it and what I’ve found seems to work for me.

What Types of Social Media Work Best?

If you’re like me, you’d rather not worry about every social media platform on the planet. Instead, you’d prefer to figure out what works and scrap whatever doesn’t. After all, unless you’re paying someone to do it for you, how much time do you realistically have to manage this? If you don’t do anything besides writing for your day job and you don’t have kids, maybe you have the time to learn and figure it out on your own while managing five different social media accounts. It takes time away from writing, but if you have time to spare, fine.

But most of us don’t have that kind of time. I work a 8-5 job, and while I may have lapses where I have nothing to do and can, therefore, check my social media or work on handwriting my next blog post, I don’t have a bunch of free time during the day. So, I come home, already tired, and I only have so much time to write and manage my social media pages before I need to make sure I go to bed so I’m not too tired to do it all over again the next day. Sound familiar? Throw in needing some time to go read a book for a review or just get away from work, and I don’t have the time to manage things that don’t work.

So, what does work? For me, I’ve found that I have the most success with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I rarely touch Instagram, though other authors have told me it works well, and I’ve not gone anywhere near SnapChat because I don’t have time for more platforms.

What Kind of Marketing Works Best with Each?

I find that Twitter works best for letting friends, fans, and prospective readers know what I’m up to throughout the day or for posting content I think will be helpful. I’ve had more success, on the whole, with finding ARC readers on Twitter and getting people to engage with me than I have on Facebook. People generally seem more engaged on Facebook, and I don’t have to go to random groups that will allow me to post my book link in order to hopefully gain some new readers. Lots of Twitter users will actually post things like #ShamelessSelfPromotionSaturday or #SupportIndieAuthors to ask for book links and new reads.

While you might not get any new readers from it, if you share it with your following and others are doing the same, there’s a better chance of your work being seen by someone than there is posting it in a group on Facebook where it’s going to be buried under thirty other similar posts within the next twenty-four hours (more if you’re unlucky).

What Facebook has on Twitter is the room to have a group to engage with your fans through playing games, doing author takeovers where other authors and yourself have scheduled time slots to post about your books and yourself as an author, sharing what you’re up to, and taking questions for Q&A type stuff. They make it far easier to do events where authors team up to bring readers new books, content, and even giveaways. Twitter isn’t set up for that because they impose a strict character limit on the tweets sent out and don’t have any way to easily organize everyone.

The Odd One In The Bunch

As for Pinterest? Well, Pinterest is the unique one out of the bunch. It isn’t technically social media, though you can use it similarly. Instead, Pinterest is a search engine. I like it most out of the three I use because it requires the least amount of activity. I can Pin one or two blog posts or writing prompts of my own and drive traffic to my blog, generate interest in my services, or guide people toward my books or others’ books that they might enjoy reading. But I don’t have to constantly post, try to run ads, or bother people asking them to share the content around.

It’s also nice that once you start to gain traction, Pinterest works with you. If your Pin is doing well in the related categories for search results, then they’ll put it higher up in the search so more people will see it. They don’t bury it, and those following the board or you will be notified of the newest Pin you created. Unlike Facebook, they’re not going to pick and choose whether or not to show it to the people who already said they were interested, and that alone makes it better.

If you’re looking for an easy platform to help drive traffic to your blog and to your products by extension, Pinterest is the way to go. Facebook and Twitter are far more time-costly than Pinterest to manage, and I’ve seen way less traffic to my blog from either as opposed to Pinterest. It’s worth learning the new platform. If you haven’t used it before, I’ve got some tips and will walk you through it in this post.

What Kinds of Marketing Content Work?

Obviously, this will be a little different for everyone depending on what sort of book you have and who you’re trying to reach. The starting point for everyone, however, is to know your audience. There are few directions you can go with social media to really build your brand: informative/expert in industry, humorous/light-hearted, a combination.

For Example… My Approach:

I’m not generally a very funny or light-hearted person. Unless sarcasm counts as funny… But most people would argue that poking fun at others isn’t the best way to build your brand unless satire is your brand. It’s not mine, so I went with informative/expert in industry. You can tell I have pretty easily because my blog and a lot of what I post on social media that isn’t related to my own books has to do with writing and editing. The content is geared toward educating and establishing the fact that I do know a thing or two about editing, writing, and publishing.

This was a choice I made before I even began the blog because I knew I wanted to appeal to both writers and readers of speculative fiction and, specifically, fantasy. As a freelance editor and an author, it can be hard to find an approach that will gain me new clients as well as new readers. This was my approach. It lets people know up front that if they come to me for editing or for advice of any sort on writing, I’m going to have an answer or I’ll find one that’s based on research and fact. Having this approach also has the added bonus of gaining me opportunities to guest post for things unrelated to my published books specifically. My article on Burning Embers Publications regarding editing and the other one regarding Pinterest are two good examples of that.

What Difference Does That Make?

To put it succinctly, a huge difference. My choice of approach affects the kind of marketing content I use. Granted, if I’m marketing my books, I’m probably going to market them about the same way anyone does (or wants to): with strong copy and information on how to get the book. But if I’m trying to market myself as an author, which is really what you’re doing whether you’re actively trying to sell a book or not, then my choice of direction changes what I’ll post about.

Sure, I post stuff that I just find amusing or interesting. But usually, those are shares or retweets of other people’s stuff, not my own marketing content. I strive to make my content reflect my goal: providing expertise on the industry and helping others to learn from what I know. Your content should do the same.

But Really… What Types of Marketing Content do I post?

For authors, it’s all about readers liking your writing and, ideally, liking you. It’s not just about them buying the book. It’s about whether or not they want to support the message you’re sharing. If they don’t buy into the message you’re trying to share, they’re not going to be very eager to share the work with others. But if they really like the book or series and your style and message, they’re going to be much more happy to tell all of their friends about you.

We all want to support businesses and brands that align with what we care about and the values we feel are important. If the content we’re reading, whether it’s on social media or in the book itself, doesn’t align with what we believe in and the core values we hold to, we’re not going to pass it along to others. Why would we? As a business, it’s our job to know what our message is and how the audience we’re targeting will perceive it. Then, we have to take that information and find a way to package it so that it’s interesting, palatable, and engaging for our target audience.

It’s like I said at the beginning. I can’t tell you exactly what kind of content will work for you because every individual brand and author will be different. But I can tell you that if you know your goals and the approach you want to take, you’ll be able to discern what content will fit that and post only what does. It’s not easy, but it is pretty simple.

Final Notes

Navigating social media is difficult. It poses all kinds of nuances, potential trip ups, and points of stress. Some people find it easier than others, but at the end of the day, none of us can avoid it if we want to utilize all the marketing tools available to us. If you know the angle you want to take and have goals to accomplish, it’ll make your journey easier.

In the end, my best advice regarding social media and marketing is this: be professional. That’s the number one thing you can do for your brand, no matter what direction you take. No matter what you’re posting, be professional. Act in a manner that is courteous, treat people with respect even if they’re not giving you that same courtesy, and make it about your reader and your audience, not you. It’s fine to talk about yourself and let them know you need help, but make sure that more of your content is focused on what they’re wanting and needing than it is on what you want and need from them.

This will go further than just about anything else in any area of your life. Treating others in a manner that’s kind and professional puts out a lot of fires. I’ve watched what happens when someone’s upset and the business or individual treated them with disrespect, condescension, and lack of compassion. It’s not pretty, and it doesn’t achieve anything except giving your business a bad reputation. It isn’t worth it. If you need to, scream about it away from the computer, phone, or person. But don’t let your frustration or anger out on them. Be polite and kind to a fault even if they’re not.

Conclusion

Professionalism and courtesy should be obvious parts of your marketing and branding strategy, but I’ve seen so, so many people screw this up, and it can make the difference between failure and success. Don’t let it be the reason you fail in your marketing and business goals! Use the tips I gave for platforms and content, and then add professionalism to it. You’re going to get much better responses from people that way, I guarantee. Best of luck to you in your marketing endeavors! Next week, we’ll talk some about your blurb, Amazon sales pages, and attracting readers.

Voices: Religion As A Writing Tool

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Introduction

Voices by Ursula K Le Guin was the last book on my March reading list, and I actually finished on time, but I’m a little behind on posting the review. At any rate, I’m done reading it, so let’s take a look.

Reader’s Review: Voices

This is the first YA fantasy novel I’ve reviewed on my own without a request for a review here on the blog. Le Guin didn’t disappoint either. The piece is well-written and perfectly suited to this blog. I have read Le Guin before, as I read her Earthsea series when I was fourteen or fifteen. I loved those books, so I had high hopes for this book. And, as I said, Le Guin didn’t disappoint. She masterfully wove a story that captivated me with a rich story, a vibrant world, and dynamic characters.

The only real complaint I have is that it was in present tense at the beginning. I really don’t like that in books, but because it was first person and was almost written as an address from the MC to the reader, it was easier to move past. It did eventually switch to past tense as the full narrative got underway, and it was much easier to enjoy then.

The book is suitable for older children and teens. I’d say it’s fine content wise for anyone who’s at least twelve. The book does mention rape and abuse of women by the soldiers in the city where the book takes place, but nothing is actually shown or discussed in much detail. Similarly, there are one or two conversations the MC ends up roped into where one of the soldiers’ sons was talking about sex and trying to figure out if any women the MC knew would be available, but the MC shot the conversation down quickly and not much detail was actually given. The author keeps it PG-13. The language, to my recollection, was clean. Overall, I would recommend parental guidance for kids under twelve, but it is a YA book and stays appropriate for teens.

Writer’s Review of Voices

As the title hinted, our discussion today will center on Le Guin’s masterful use of religion in her work to bring the story and its civilizations to life.

I know some fellow authors who, as Christian authors, strongly object to religions besides Christianity being in their work. They won’t include any deities in their writing, made up or otherwise, that are not the Christian God or a representation of Him. I respect that, and if you’re in that camp, you’ll probably find this particular writer’s review rather useless to you. But if you do want to include deities and religions in your world for authenticity or other reasons, as many writers do, Le Guin has a lot to teach.

Her work Voices mainly represents two religions: that of the Alds and that of the people native to the city the Alds conquered before the book began. The two are in conflict to start because the Alds believe in and worship only one god, believe writing is evil, and see the gods the natives worship as demons that must be purged from the earth to make way for their god’s return.

To start with, they only conquered the city in an attempt to find the origin point of all evil, which their legends say is located in the city or the land around it. They march in and destroy all libraries, writings, and statues of the gods they find along with anything that they believe to be a temple.

The natives are then forbidden to worship any god besides the Alds’ god, and anyone found with books is killed. Naturally, this doesn’t sit too well with the natives who were used to their worship and to governing themselves. It creates a great amount of hatred, tension, fear, and suspicion.

Le Guin uses religion to add to the conflict as well as to bring the world to life. If you dislike stories where religion, even made up religion, takes a strong roll, Voices probably isn’t for you. But because religion is an indispensable part of the world, the conflict, and the story, Le Guin’s work is an excellent place to start learning how to use fantasy religions, or even real ones, to bring your story world to life and to add fuel to your fire of conflict.

I could go on and on about the ways Le Guin uses religion to add to her story, but I’m a firm believer in the idea that observation of how it’s done well is one of the best ways to learn when it comes to writing. So go read Voices. See how Le Guin uses religion and then apply the principles you see to your own work. You’d be surprised what this kind of practice and learning method can do for your writing. Good luck!

Some Monsters Never Die: Bringing Fantasy To Life

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Introduction

I recently finished reading Some Monsters Never Die by E.A. Comiskey, and let me say, I was impressed. More on that in a few. To start with, E.A. Comiskey is an author that I already know fairly well from working with her in our critique group. She’s awesome to work with, and when I put out the word that I was looking for fantasy books to review for The Fantasy Nook, she asked if I’d be interested in her book, Some Monsters Never Die. Boy, am I ever glad I chose to take her up on the offer.

Some Monsters Never Die: Reader’s Review

E.A. Comiskey really brought fantasy to life with this book. First off, it’s set in the real world in real (or fairly realistic) places, and that alone makes this piece seem more real than some. I loved the humor, magic, and larger than life events that moved the story along. The characters themselves were masterfully written. They’re also the most unlikely heroes and heroines. I mean, the female lead maybe works, aside from being a bookworm. But two old guys from a retirement home hunting demons and the unnatural?

Let’s just say it makes for quite the ride, and more importantly, it opens up all kinds of opportunities to grow on the parts of all the main characters. They set off on a quest all together and end it all together but as better, stronger people than they started out. Definitely worth the read!

Writer’s Review

Some books I’ve reviewed, like the Vine Witch, have done an excellent job of weaving magic into the world. Others have done a phenomenal job of world-building. But in this book, E.A Comiskey has managed to bring fantasy to life. Granted, most of the fantasy stuff she brought to life is the horrifying, monster side. The kind you never want to meet, right?

But, if it’s any consolation, her main characters are two old men and one bookworm woman. Not exactly the kinds of people you’d think would be able to handle things that belong in fantasy books as the antagonists coming to life, but hey. They manage.

And that’s part of what makes this book such a great piece. Comiskey took characters that seem so unlikely to succeed or even cope, with the exception maybe of the old guy who’s a hunter, and she threw them into a world where the horrors of a fantasy tale are all real. Skinwalkers? Check. Giant worm-like things that burrow in the ground and try to eat people? Also check. Dragons? Well… Stanley killed the last one a while ago, but beside the point.

Comiskey uses humor, unexpected heroes, and larger than life threats to really bring fantasy to life in this book. I’d label it as paranormal or maybe urban fantasy, but it’s by far one of the most unique takes on both genres that I’ve read in quite some time.

The Takeaway?

There’s lots to learn from and glean from reading this book, but for today’s focus, I have just one takeaway. Focus on how she weaves the monsters and their magic into every day life and then apply those techniques and principles to your own work. You may not be writing something that’s meant to be even a little bit funny. You may not intend to focus mostly on supernatural monsters and magic spells to kill them.

But if you’re writing fantasy, then there’s going to be some fantastical element you need to make real to your audience. And if you want to bring fantasy to life, especially if you want to do it in our world, Comiskey’s book will show you one way how, and it will do it well.

Don’t waste the opportunity!

Thursday Technicalities – Weaving WorldBuilding Into the Story – Final Thoughts

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In the end, no post or set of posts can possibly cover every detail of world-building and weaving it into your story. Your story will have some elements and not others, and your style will utilize some techniques but not others. This means that, if you really want to grow in this area, you’re going to have to read. Read authors who do this work really well. Find out which authors in your area of speculative fiction (or any fiction) are the best at bringing their world to life, then read those authors. Pay attention to how they do it. Mark up your copy of the book (yeah, I know… Write on a book? Are you insane? Maybe, but taking notes in pencil or underlining the sentences that really bring out some aspect of writing you’re trying to learn will help you recognize what works and what doesn’t. If you can’t bring yourself to write on a book, which I rarely can, then jot notes in a notebook and make sure to keep them labeled.). Whatever you do, don’t spend thousands of dollars on courses on how to do it. You don’t need to! You’ll learn best by example and by seeing it done.

To that end, who do I recommend for this endeavor? First, I do recommend reading through Holly Lisle’s ebook course on world-building. It’s the only course I’m going to recommend, but I highly recommend this just because she’ll teach you so much. You’ll go through tons of exercises, and it’s a great way to learn how to do the world-building quickly while also weaving it into your work. Besides Lisle’s course, I recommend reading Tolkien, Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Cinda Williams Chima, Ursula K Le Guin, and Terry Brooks. These authors in varying ways and to differing degrees are phenomenal world builders. Tolkien, Sanderson, and Brooks are my top three authors for this area in fantasy. I’ve learned most from Sanderson’s work, but I learned my share of things from Tolkien and Brooks too. I really can’t recommend these guys highly enough.

All of them know how to bring their worlds to life using many or all of the techniques I’ve mentioned plus some. You’re going to learn what really good world-building within a story looks like if you take the time to really dig into and pull apart these authors’ works. Most of them have paperbacks available for a lot of their books in addition to ebooks, so this is a much more affordable way to learn than taking who knows how many courses. Plus, if you’re like me, you have a tendency to start a course and then forget you were doing it in the busyness of life. Sure, you plan to go back to it, but you somehow never do, and so that’s money somewhat wasted. A book though? I might be slow in reading it, but I usually finish the books I start. It’s not too common that I don’t. So I’ll learn more in a less expensive way if I just try to learn from what great authors did well.

Author’s Interview with James Quinlan Meservy

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Today, I have James Quinlan Meservy with me on the blog to answer some questions about himself, his writing, and his inspirations! For those who don’t know, Meservy is the author of the Rai Saga, the first of which is the book The United. I reviewed that on the blog recently, so you can find that here. Let’s see what he has to say.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Mornin!

I am James Quinlan Meservy, Fantasy Author Extraordinaire, Creator of Creatures, Embellisher of Events, and Firebrand “Stories That Kindle Imagination.”

I am originally from Logan, Ut, USA. Shortly after I graduated from High School I lived two years in the Far East region of the Russian Federation, serving a mission for my church. My time in Russia and my knowledge of the Russian language greatly influence my writings, especially when I am creating names for characters, events, locations, etc. For instance, Rai is Paradise in Russian

What kind of fantasy do you write, and what got you into it?

I write epic fantasy and YA fantasy with my Rai Saga, children’s fantasy with my Sykar Series, and urban fantasy with my self-published short story, Jackalopes: The Real Story.

I have always enjoyed the fantasy genre, and when the original idea for The United came to me as a young child, it happened to story about a talking wolf who gained immortality by devouring souls. Now, that was a long time ago, and the story has adapted into its current novelized form, but once I started writing the story, I fell in love with the genre.

As for the Sykar Series, I wrote that so I could share one of my published stories with my children. And it is a favorite of theirs.

What genres do you read, and do you write the same ones?

I will read any author once. If I like what I read, I may read another title, or I may not. But most of my reads tend to be Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Classic Literature (yes, in my world Charles Dickens and Mark Twain both constitute their own genres) Fantasy, and since I have two or three science fiction WIPs in mind, I am starting to read more sci-fi.

What are some of the things you like to do to relax?

To relax? Well, if you ask my wife and kids, I don’t relax. I am always reading, writing, exercising, eating (brownies and Cherry Pepsi will eventually be the death of me), or spending time with my family. So, for relaxation, I guess I mostly play silly match 3 games on my phone and watch movies.

Can you tell us about your current work-in-progress?

Which one? At present I have 4 WIPs. Perfectly Evil, the Realm of the Light Book 3, Shades of Mortality, the Realm of the Light Book 4, UNTITLED, the Realm of the Light Book 5, and a science fiction project I am co-authoring with a friend.

Let’s start with Perfectly Evil. That is a great story, beginning with Vulktyramous waking up in the Coliseum in Rome after losing the Second Great Denizen War to his brother, Arctyrus Hunter. I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, but Perfectly Evil is really about how Vulktyramous went from a pawn in everyone else’s game to becoming a force to be reckoned with on his own.

Shades of Mortality is probably the most anticipated WIP on my docket, for it is the immediate sequel to The United, and chronicles the life of HeatherAnn Parkinson. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I will say this book shows HeatherAnn coming to terms with herself, accepting herself for who she is, and trying to find her place in the world.

If you’ve published (self-published or traditionally published), can you tell us a little about the experience?

I am hybrid published. The Realm of the Light Series is published by Cosby Media Productions, and I have a number of self published short stories.

About the experience? Editing manuscripts is always fun for me, because I get to see ideas become novels, and then enjoy learning how to improve my stories and preparing them for publication, and I am constantly learning how to write better.

What were your inspirations for writing?

In 5^th grade, I was given a Halloween themed creative writing assignment. I thought about what I wanted to write about, then I had a dream about a wolf who obtained immortality through stealing souls. And to be honest, my dreams have been my inspiration for stories ever since.

Who got you into writing when you first started?

That would be my 5^th grade teacher, Mrs. Card. Then as I grew up, I went through a prolonged I will write, I will never write again stage that lasted about 20 years, before I finally gave in to the dreams and ideas and thoughts that would not leave me alone. So as a kid, it was my teacher, as an adult, it was inspirations and myself.

Was there anyone who came alongside you at any point when you were struggling in your writing journey and made a real difference? If so, who and why?

When I first self-published The United, it was poorly edited, had a bad cover, and not all that great. And I knew it. But, I received a message from Cris Pasqueralle, asking if I was interested in doing a review swap. I agreed. Since then, he has been my mentor and good friend.

When I landed a publisher with Tate Publishing, Cris helped me promote my book. Then when Tate went out of business, he referred to Cosby Media Productions. Cris has always been ready with words of encouragement, advice, and support whenever I needed it.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors and writers just starting on the writing journey?

Read. Read everything, and anything. Do not just read your genre, by everything I mean everything. Read some how to write books, read some fantasy, read some scifi, read some classic literature, some thrillers, anything you can get your hands on. And as you read, pay attention to how the author writes. Learn from their successes and failings, and adapt writing methods and styles you like to your own work.

Second to that is write. Ideas are great, but I cannot read the ideas in your mind on my Kindle.

What is one thing you wish someone had told you before you started writing?

To read. I was not a reader as a child. I did not really enjoy reading until I read A Christmas Carol in a high school class as a senior. So the first thing I did when I decided to take my story and turn it into a novel was write it out. It was horrible and dragging, and boring, and predictable, and I had no idea how to write a fantasy novel. So I read a lot of fantasy, some how to write books, some classics, and some books of different genres just so I could see how different authors write narrative prose.

What’s your favorite book, and who’s your favorite literary character? Why?

My favorite author is Charles Dickens, and my favorite book is A Christmas Carol. As I mentioned above, it was the title, and he was the author, that really got me into reading. Now that I think about it, I think that part of the reason for my love of A Christmas Carol is because it was the first book I ever read that inspired me to change to become a better person.

As far as favorite literary character, I have more than just 1.

Eponine from Les Miserables. I love her so much. She is one of my greatest literary crushes, and I love her story. No matter how bad her life became after her father lost his inn, she never lost hope, and she did not allow her experiences to harden her heart.

The Bishop from Les Miserables. Words cannot express how much his example of Christ-like love means to me. The way he gave away everything he owned to those who were in greater need is nothing short of inspiring.

Renee, aka Captain Espan Rose aka Captain Varda from the Sovereign of the Seas series by KR Martin. I love Renee. She is my third literary crush. I love her determination, her devotion to both her cause and her family, and her drive to never give up.

The United by James Quinlan Meservy – A Large Cast

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Introduction

Hey, everyone! I’m here with a new book review for you all! Today’s is for The United by James Quinlan Meservy. He graciously provided me with a review copy when I mentioned I would be interested in having more reviews of different authors’ books on my blog. After he got in touch, we agreed that I would review his, and he was kind enough to provide a review copy so I didn’t have to purchase my own copy. I’m really excited to share this book with you guys, so let’s take a look! As always, the reader’s review is first followed by my review for writers. Don’t read that second review if you don’t want any spoilers provided for you.

rEADER’S rEVIEW

So, just being honest here… The beginning half was a bit hard for me. I don’t know for sure why because I did like the characters and the overall idea of the story–as I understood it–but I just struggled to wrap my head around what was going on. My main issue, I think, was the jumps that happened between the Realm of Light (Earth) and the Realm of Rai (which seems to represent Heaven or something of that nature). It was just difficult for me to make the jump between the characters in one place and the characters in another, and the fact that the Creatures of Rai could be in both realms was initially something that had me really confused.

However, once I got into it, I found that I did enjoy the book. The characters were written very well, and the way Meservy approached things was realistic and sensitive (when the issues being discussed called for it). The story itself was also a riveting plot line. I was intrigued by the legends and lore that was woven throughout the novel, and I think that was done pretty well. The incorporation didn’t feel heavy-handed or odd to me at all.

Sometimes, the fight scenes were a tiny bit difficult to follow though. Mainly because mind-control is a factor in a few (or I suppose mind-control in the form of causing someone to hallucinate and do things they wouldn’t ever do, like killing friends and family). Sorry for the slight spoiler there, guys! But basically, when characters end up under that mind-control, they no longer keep their own names or think of themselves with that name. They get this superhero pseudonym thing, so it’s a little hard sometimes to figure out who’s who in the hallucinations while they’re under the influence of the mind-controller. I didn’t like that too much because it just left me so mixed up and mentally fogged until the scene went back to normal. Still, it’s a relatively minor thing in the scheme of the entire story, especially considering the fact that the plot line was neat and the different mechanisms used in combat and in preparation for it were quite unique.

In the end, I would recommend it. It’s got a lot of clear references to Christianity and, I feel, presents things from a strongly Christian point-of-view without glossing over the fact that people make mistakes and lead lives that can have choices and events they end up regretting after coming to Christ (or even things they regret doing as a Christian). Because the book doesn’t shy away from openness about the fact that even Christian couples make mistakes and sin in the area of premarital sex, I wouldn’t say the book is one ultra-conservative Christians would label clean. Personally, I think that removing it would leave the book unrealistic and lacking, given the story James weaves. But, if you don’t want even the mention of sex included in your novels or in what your child reads, don’t pick this up. There aren’t any actual sex scenes or anything, but the characters are clear that they’ve had premarital sex and regretted it. So, yeah… If you’re not okay with that being brought up, The United might not be for you. Otherwise, it’s a good read.

Writer’s Review

Okay, now for the fun stuff! Picking apart The United to go over what was done well and what wasn’t. First, as the title hints, we’re going to talk about the large cast of characters that Meservy had, why it worked, and what he did well with it. The second thing we’re going to talk about is handling books where you have things going on in two different realms or worlds parallel to one another. This can get confusing for readers, and it did in Meservy’s book, so we’ll go over why it was so confusing and what you can do in order to alleviate some confusion for readers.

First, let’s go with the good things Meservy did with his large cast! To begin with, lots and lots of people died in The United. Straight up, lots of people end up getting killed when facing off with Lord Yrimwaque, and without his large posse of characters to continue on the story after two or three died, Meservy wouldn’t have had much of a story left. The villain would have won, and that would have been that.

However, because he had a group of friends plus several Creatures of Rai to play major roles in the story, you never ran out of characters. Granted, this could become overwhelming for the reader easily, but in Meservy’s case, it didn’t because so many of them died. In the first battle, they lost one out of the three who were involved (and the rest barely escaped). In the second battle, they lost another two, if I counted right. By the third battle, they lost two more, leaving Blaze, one of the main characters, as the only one really left who played a major role in trying to kill the villain. The Creatures of Rai all survived since all of them were dead to begin with and just passed from the Realm of Rai (Heaven) to the Realm of Light (Earth) either through evil means or by order of their Master (God/Christ).

Interestingly enough, Meservy never actually got rid of the characters he killed off. Instead, they become permanent residents of the Realm of Rai as Creatures of Rai, and they helped to offer guidance and protection to their friends who were still fighting back on the Realm of Light. This was achieved through dreams, which those of the Realm of Light wouldn’t fully remember but still found would guide them later on as premonitions of sorts, or through direct interactions between the Creatures of Rai and the inhabitants of the Realm of Light. In a way, it seems as if those who died became like guardian angels.

This, obviously, is a bit of a departure from Biblical narratives on what happens to mortals when they die, but given the fact that there’s a lot in the story that’s meant to be allegorical or is just creative license, I wouldn’t fault Meservy on it. It was an integral part to the story and not something I found to be particularly objectionable. You may not want to keep your cast of characters the same size using this method, but note that it is an option if you want to keep people around even though they’ve died. Ghosts are a common theme in a lot of paranormal fantasy, so it’s a viable option for you, though obviously your spin on it won’t be the same as Meservy’s has been.

Now, about what I felt wasn’t done well. I mentioned in my reader’s review that I found the start to be difficult to follow. It was confusing and jarring to jump from one world to the other with everything going on at the same time or at different times but with no clear markers on which was which.

This is something I’m fairly sure Meservy addresses later on in his writing since his short story for the anthology I’m organizing is in this same world and has clear headers to let us know as readers which realm we’re on and who it is that’s the viewpoint character. I found this to be a much more effective method of switching between realms because without those markers, it becomes very jumbled. This is, of course, one way of handling a similar situation in your own novels to avoid confusing readers or jarring them out of the story.

Beyond that, Meservy had a third realm, of sorts, and that was the realm of the mind. In this realm, the character only enters it when under the control of Lord Yrimwaque and the Threat, at least in The United. Once they’re in this realm, the characters cease to view themselves as themselves. They take on names like the Avenger, Traveler, Friend, and more. While in this state, they’re approached by someone from the Threat who masquerades as someone they want to follow, and, under mind control in the hallucination/mental realm, they do follow instructions. This leads to actions in the real world that frequently end with friends killing each other or one friend attacking and killing other friends. They can be snapped out of this realm when sprayed with water (for whatever reason this is the only method that works), but it’s usually too late to save anyone.

This mental realm was also confusing because the lack of names made it hard to follow who was who. So, while, eventually, I was able to figure out what was going on, I was never certain which character was the one being controlled until the mind control was removed and we were left with a fresh body count. This was pretty frustrating. If you have something similar, I recommend that you show them initially fighting it or slowly succumbing to it as their mind fades into the scene and they begin to think of themselves as this other character. That way, even if we don’t know for sure who they attack or what they do to those around them, we do know for certain which character we’re following. This just helps to ground the reader as they read through what might otherwise end up seeming confusing or disjointed/divorced from the reality built up in the rest of the book.

Conclusion

Despite the confusion at points in the book, I did find the storyline to be one I could follow and enjoy. I would recommend the book even if it wasn’t always the easiest to understand at times. The confusion wasn’t bad enough to make the book a no-go for me. It was more a minor frustration and distraction when it showed up and not even a problem the rest of the time. I loved the characters, and it made me sad any time someone died because even though I knew they weren’t gone forever, I saw the impact on those left behind, and it hurt for that reason. That means Meservy did quite a few things right, so I’d definitely say this book is one I can recommend without too much reserve.

You can buy the book through Amazon, and you can get in touch with James Quinlan Meservy through his website or his newsletter signup. I will be doing an author’s interview with Meservy to go along with this post, so once he has finished the questions, I’ll put that up!

Be on the look out for that and for my review of TN Traynor’s historical romance set in Scotland, which will be posted on March 7th. I know it isn’t the genre I usually review on the blog, but she and I are doing spotlights as part of my blog tour for On Twilight’s Wings, and because I know her work, I said I’d spotlight the book even though I normally wouldn’t do that for non-fantasy on the blog. I’ve already started reading the copy she sent me, and I’m really enjoying it so far! It’s better polished than Idi & the Oracle’s Quest was too, so I’ve been having an easier time reading it. There won’t be a writer’s review because it isn’t what I normally talk about on the blog, but I’ll have a review from my perspective as a reader along with a blurb, book links, and the cover. So for all of you who read romance too, you can look forward to that special feature come March 7th!

Flash Fiction Fridays: Someone Else’s Scars

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This week’s flash fiction is based on a prompt I saw on Pinterest. The prompt is pretty simple: her skin is carved with scars that someone else earned. It seemed interesting, so here we go.

~~~

Anorah gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. The knife dug deeper into her arm, avoiding any arteries but inflicting more than enough pain. That would scar. Tears slipped down her cheeks, but she didn’t open her eyes. It would only be one more scar out of dozens.

Dozens of scars that she hadn’t earned but bore for love. These days, she wasn’t even sure why she suffered this anymore. Was he really worth her long-suffering and her silence in the face of pain he himself allowed to be inflicted?

“Give up on him. He isn’t worth this, Anorah.” Her tormentor’s breath was hot on her cheek. “He’s letting us do this. He’s too apathetic to do anything. You’re just taking the punches for him. For a man who doesn’t even care.”

She swallowed hard and opened her teary eyes. “I’m not going to give up on him. You want me to give him up? To let him fall into your hands? To let you drag his soul into the darkness?”

“You know what we want. We’ve told you. Why do you keep fighting? He’s going to end up under our sway eventually whether you die or live.”

She shook her head, a cry sticking in her throat. “I won’t give up on him. You can do whatever you want to me. You can even tear me to pieces or rip my heart out of my chest. But you can’t make me step out of the way or tell you how to get to him.”

“So you’ll die to protect him?” The man’s dark features twisted into a snarl. “What calls on you to do such a thing, hmm? He. Is. Not. Worth. It.”

“He is.”

He dug the knife deeper. “He’s not.”

She choked on her sob and shook her head. “You’ll never understand because you only know how to take. You don’t know how to love.”

“Love? Don’t think that nonsense means anything. He doesn’t love you, so why suffer for him?”

She smiled past the pain, the ache in her heart worse than even the pain in her arm. This man just didn’t understand. “He has hurt me more than you ever could. He destroyed my heart. You’re just destroying my body. But I forgave him anyway. I forgave him because I love him. I don’t love him because he’s good or perfect. I love him because I chose to, and I won’t change that choice. Ever.”

He growled and drove the knife through the fleshy part of her arm. “What could possible inspire you to love him? He’s a monster!”

Her voice strangled as the pain overwhelmed her, but she got the words out anyway. “I love him despite what he’s done because I have been loved unconditionally despite what I’ve done.”

Her tormentor twisted the knife, and white hot pain seared through her. Her mind blanked, and blackness fringed her vision. In the distance, she could hear herself screaming, but the pain no longer touched her. Then the blackness swallowed her.

~~~

That’s it for this week’s Flash Fiction Friday. Hope you all enjoyed. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Work-In-Progress Wednesdays #38

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This week’s WIP Wednesday is the last one that will feature Pathway of the Moon since I’m on the last chapter and finishing it up. Enjoy!

~~~

WHEN LEO WALKED through the door of the cottage, Amadeira flung herself at him. He caught her and staggered back before he caught his balance and held her to him. They stood there in silence, and she looked over his shoulder to see Nadar lingering on the doorstep. She caught his gaze and looked at him, praying he’d have the answers she and Leo needed.

He dropped his gaze to the ground, regret twisting his features. Her heart sank. No answers then. She squeezed Leo closer and buried her face in his shoulder, the hot tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. Well, it had been too much to hope that the old world god would know when this kind of thing wasn’t documented anywhere. None of the books documented anything like it, and Bane’s diary said nothing on the matter. She’d checked it three times while waiting for Leo to return, but nothing had turned up.

Leo rubbed her back and pulled away with a sigh. “He didn’t have the answers, Deira.”

She bit her lip and lowered her head.

He cupped her face in both hands. “Hey, look at me.”

Her heart lurched at the raw emotion and affection in his words and his touch. She did as told and found hope warring with sadness on his face. Heart aching, she reached out to run her fingertips over the crease in his brow. “Tell me it’ll be okay?”

He leaned closer and rested his forehead against hers. “It’ll be okay, sweetheart. We’ll figure it all out, but we can’t find any of the answers here. We need to go.”

She sighed. “Are we going on the king’s orders or on our own?”

“On the king’s orders. His men are waiting for us at the Path. They gave us time to say goodbye to this place and grab whatever we needed to take with us.” His fingers tangled in her hair, holding her to him. “Did you pack?”

“Yes.”

“Good girl.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and pulled away.

She blushed and stepped to the side. “Nadar, why don’t you come in and make yourself at home? Leo and I will grab the bags and be right back out.”

He glanced toward the small bedroom and kitchen barely visible from the doorway. Shrugging, he stepped inside and strolled to one of the couches, sprawling out there. His expression neutral, he scanned over the place dispassionately. She gave him a weak smile and hurried after Leo, who was already rummaging through things in the bedroom.

~~~

That’s it for this week! What are you guys up to? If any of you write on Wattpad, are you doing the Open Novella Contest this year? I’m doing it, and I’m really excited about it. I’ve already met the first 2,000 word-count milestone for it. If you guys are doing it too, I’d love to hear what you’re writing about! Feel free to share in the comments.

Idi & The Oracle’s Quest: Characterization and Voice

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Introduction

This was the newest book on my list of books read. So far, it’s the only one I’ve finished this year. I’m off to such a great start on that sixty-books-read-this-year goal, aren’t I? Yeah, not really… Anyway, I finished this sometime mid-January but am only just getting to the review for the blog now. As usual, my reader’s review is the same as the one I post to the usual reviewing sites like Amazon, Goodreads, and Bookbub. If you are interested in learning more about the craft in the book, skip the reader’s review and go straight to the writer’s review. Or feel free to read both. I don’t really mind.

Reader’s Review

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It could have gone through another edit. There were a lot of little errors and problems that a strong editor could have ironed out of the book, and as an editor, those issues were abundantly clear to me. However, I found the story itself to be entertaining enough, and I don’t feel those problems would keep a reader looking for a quick read from enjoying. Unless you’re the type to be a grammar Nazi, a writer who’s picky about stuff being just right in every way, or a freelance editor like myself, you’re probably not going to notice the issues most of the time.

The characterization was pretty strong with several characters having particularly unique voices, which I appreciated. The variety in character, personality, and voice was refreshing, and I liked the struggles they all went through between choosing right or wrong in the entirety of the story.

That’s another thing. Right and wrong were clearly defined in the book with consequences for doing either clearly outlined too. It’s hard to find books that keep that line from becoming blurred, particularly in fantasy, so I liked that Traynor did this well. If you’re looking for that in your fantasy books, then this book has that going for it, for sure!

I would recommend this story. It’s a good choice for younger kids (pre-teens and up), I would say. There wasn’t anything terribly inappropriate, in my opinion, and the book doesn’t use any foul language. Kids who like adventure books with magic and wizards mixed in will enjoy this, and it’s easily accessible for even reluctant readers.

Writer’s Review

Now the fun part, right? We’re going to pick apart the craft for this book and talk about what could be better as well as what was well done. To begin with, let’s talk about the good things that we can all learn from. I’m going to focus mainly on voice and characterization since I noticed these two elements stood out as being nicely done in this book.

Voice

To begin with, voice was excellent here. When I say voice, I’m specifically referring to the different voices and flavors of speech that characters had. Some authors do very well with this while others don’t. Traynor did well with it. You could tell the difference between characters by the dialogue alone in most cases. The way they phrased things, what they said, and the word choices they used were unique with each character. Some were, of course, more similar than others, but they were all, in my opinion, different enough to allow readers to tell the difference. This can be pretty tough to do, so if you choose to read Idi & The Oracle’s Quest, pay special attention to the different ways Traynor differentiates between characters in dialogue. I think you’ll be surprised at how many ways it can happen with everything from sentence structure to the individual words themselves. It’s often more subtle than you’d think, though in some characters, such as the dwarves that one of the main characters stays with, have more unique voices than others.

Characterization

In many ways, voice is simply a subset of characterization. After all, the way a character speaks says a lot about who they are. However, voice wasn’t the only part of characterization Traynor executed well. Her characters in general feel as if they could be real people thanks to their little quirks, oddities, and practices. No two are alike, however similar they may be at times. Their uniqueness sets them apart from one another and goes a long way toward making the story believable. For me, the characterization was one of the main reasons I kept reading the book. I started it after picking it up in a Facebook review exchange group I’d joined, and we were only obligated to review if we felt we could give the book a good rating (anything above three stars). At first, I wasn’t positive if I could or not because of what the book didn’t do well, but the characterization combined with an overall interesting story-line saved this book from receiving no review or a shelving on the not-finished shelf on Goodreads from me. This just goes to show that many times, even if a reader isn’t fond of your plot or something else in the book, they’ll keep reading anyway if you can invest them in the characters.

A lot of what brought the characters to life was the humanity in them all. Idi started out with a petulant, rude streak but grew into a decent, kind human being. He went through struggles we can all understand (to one degree or another, at least), and I wanted to root for him. I wanted to know what happened to him. His mentor Marcus was also well-rounded. He was a kind old man who sometimes lacked patience but generally was very loving in spite of his insecurities and frustrations surrounding his apprentice. These are only two examples out of many in the book, but they’re good places to start if the area of characterization is something you struggle with.

What the Book Didn’t Do Well

Okay, so this is more a cautionary tale than anything. I know editing is expensive, or at least seems so when you’re a broke author struggling to make it in the highly competitive market, but it’s important. Now, I could tell some effort had been applied to this book, but it fell far short of professional in many places because of missing or misplaced commas, poor sentence structure, or lagging flow in the story. These are all things that, by themselves, wouldn’t necessarily cause a reader to stop reading for pleasure, but they’re certainly going to stand out to one degree or another.

We don’t notice what isn’t there. Unless it should be there, that is. Likewise, we often don’t notice what is there until it isn’t when it needed to be. This book is a good example of that. Mostly, its issues weren’t ones that an average reader would catch every time. They might notice a confusing sentence, a slow paragraph, or even a missing comma here and there. But for avid readers, it’s going to be a stumbling block. And here’s the thing. The avid readers are, many times, the ones who will share your books with all their friends and read them a million times if they really liked them. If they can’t point to a book and tell you it was a good piece of writing, they’re not going to recommend it. The average reader is going to read it, might mention it to one or two people (if they think of it or someone asks), and move on. Maybe they read the next book. Maybe not. If they’re not big readers but really found your book appealing, you may get a bit more exposure from word-of-mouth. Avid readers though are much more likely to become enthusiastic fans. I can say that honestly as an avid reader myself. I’d recommend my favorite authors in a heartbeat, and chances are that I’ll review them, share them, and talk about them too. At the least, I’ll be talking about them, even if I wasn’t directly asked. (Maybe a little too much sometimes).

All that to say that editing matters. It pays off. I know it feels expensive and it’s easier to do it yourself, but unless you’ve got some background in editing or have done a lot of research on it to learn how, it’s only easier because you don’t see all the problems with your manuscript. No one likes to admit it, but that’s the way things are. Even for me, as someone who edits for clients, I find that I don’t catch everything in my work without multiple edits (probably four or five as opposed to the thorough, once-through or twice-through edit I can do for a client), and not even then sometimes. Why? Pretty simple. I wrote it. I know what I was thinking. No one else does unless I communicated it well, and if I didn’t, well, I’m not going to catch on to that little problem unless it’s so obvious that even I don’t understand what I was trying to say. (Then I know there’s really a problem. Probably something along the lines of “I wrote this when I was three-fourths of the way asleep, and I need to rewrite this whole section” kind of problem.) That’s going to be at least equally true of anyone with little to no experience editing.

There’s no shame in that.

But you do need to address it if you want your book to stand out from every other self-published title on Amazon that some beginning writer threw together in hopes of making a quick buck on it. We all know a good cover sells books, but you’re not going to sell more than a few copies if everyone drawn in by the cover wants to leave five pages in because your work is so full of problems it’s impossible to get through.

To be clear, Idi & The Oracle’s Quest was not that bad. It wasn’t bad enough that I couldn’t understand it or wanted to bang my head against a brick wall. It was just bad enough to frustrate me a lot at the beginning and to continue to needle me here and there once I was invested in the characters. But, since we’re trying to learn from what went right and what went wrong with these book reviews, I didn’t want to overlook this important point. Get an editor if you don’t know how to edit. Even if you have to ask a friend who’s good at it to do it in exchange for something else (like a free copy of the book or a really nice dinner out), get an editor. If you can edit proficiently, then find beta-readers. Get input from your intended audience members so that you know what you missed! You will not catch it all because you are hardwired to understand what you are trying to communicate. No one else in the world is. Make sure you know what areas you need to clarify before you go publishing things.

Conclusion

I hope this has been helpful to you all! If you want a copy of Idi & The Oracle’s Quest, you can pick it up in ebook or paperback formats on Amazon. In closing, I would like to point out that this book did have an excellent message. It’s clear that the book has Christian influences to it, so if you’re looking for a good juvenile or YA Christian fantasy, this would be a good choice. It isn’t as clearly Christian or allegorical as Joanna White’s or Allen Steadham’s stuff, but it’s still good. I’d say it’s more like what I tend to write in that it has clear Christian influences, but it isn’t necessarily meant to be expressly Christian through clear salvation themes or Bible verses woven into the text. The influences are there if you’re a Christian or know anything about Christian beliefs, but you won’t be hit over the head with it everywhere you turn either if you’re more in the mood to read a book without serious philosophical undertones.