Mother Issues by Anne Nicholas

We all have moms. Some are good, some not so much. Normally, I write about shifters or vampires who once used to human. Their mommy issues are relative to ours, but about other creatures not born to humankind? 

Monsters have mothers too. I can’t resist playing with some of the Nature vs Nuture aspects of say a dragon born in a magical world. His up-bringing could be similar to ours, but I somehow doubt play dates and pre-school would be available for them. LOL
Would a dragon mother caudle her child or rear it to fight for himself? I think that’s more of a personality trait then a thing of race. 

Koishi’s mother is a mercenary. She taught him the only she knew well, how to fight. Dragged from battle to battle as babe as soon as he could walk on his own she placed a sword in his hand. Child services would have field day with this. 

Grown into one of the world’s greatest warrior Koishi is recruited by a Gate to protect it for life. It’s the greatest honor a warrior can receive, but the centuries spent isolated on a small island on Earth surrounded by humans has made Koishi fond of them. So when he takes a human lover and his mom visits, she doesn’t understand why he’s playing with his food.

About the Author  
Annie Nicholas hibernates in the rural, green mountains of Vermont where she dreams of different worlds, heroes, and heroines. When spring arrives the stories pour from her, in hopes to share them with the masses one day.

Mother, daughter, wife are some of the hats she happily wears while trudging after her cubs through the hills and dales. The four seasons an inspiration and muse.

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The Story Behind Saving Grace by Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Once upon a time, an attorney from Texas moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands, bought a rainforest house, and learned to believe in everyday magic. She was me, and I fell in love, with the house, with the islands, and with the people I met there. If fiction is life without the boring parts, then it is no surprise that when I started writing novels, they set themselves in the never-boring USVI.

But it was more than just the house, islands, and people themselves that set the story of Katie & Annalise in motion in Saving Grace. It was a particular night at that particular house in the USVI, a night that proved my island-born husband right when he told little-ole-doubting me, “Pamela, you’ve got a jumbie in your house.” A jumbie as in a voodoo spirit? “Yeah, right.”

Or at least that’s what I thought until the night with the money. Our family was moving to Texas, and Eric was the last one of us left on-island. He had held an advertised liquidation sale that day. He ended the sale with $18,000 in his pocket, and a lot of the wrong kind of attention. Eric went to our house, Estate Annaly, to spend his last night there, all by himself except for the money. Cash is attractive anywhere, and especially in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities where there are few realistic consequences for law breaking, like St. Croix.

Now, Annaly was up in a remote part of the rainforest on St. Croix. There were no streetlights, the house had no phones, and the police were a half hour away, if you could get hold of them by cell phone, and if they chose to come at all when called. In addition, the house was only partially completed. In fact, we didn’t have locks on most of the ground floor windows, and a 10-year old child could break in. And had. More than once.

We’d always felt safe at Annaly, though, in part because of our six dogs, but also because of that force I couldn’t explain but that Eric called our jumbie. Plus, we had a flare gun, a machete, and an aluminum baseball bat. We were practically an army unto ourselves. Well, maybe not quite. But we were as ready as we could be for intruders on an island where I was early-on warned that, as a Continental, I should get an unmarked gun, and, if my home was invaded, shoot to kill and dump the body offshore. Horrifying, right? But in the eyes of local justice, a Continental was rarely justified in home- or self-defense. Seriously. I opted against the gun, but I never forgot the warning.

After his liquidation sale, Eric was awakened in the middle of the night by a car pulling up outside the house. No visitor is a good visitor at that hour, and Eric heard multiple male visitor’s voices. Eric sprinted to the top floor of the house with the money and his “weapons” and barricaded himself into a bedroom. Then he called me in the States on a really bad cell phone connection. He felt sure the men would not only get in, but that he was at their mercy. He wanted to hear my voice, just in case. The call dropped almost as soon as we’d said hello to each other, and I hung up with no idea of what was happening.

A wind whipped up and the house shook. Eric heard the dogs barking and growling at the visitors, but the men advanced anyway. They banged on the doors and shouted. They pounded on the small panes of the windows. They howled with rage and money lust, but they couldn’t get in the wailing house. Finally, they left. Despite all odds, Eric was safe. Shaken, but safe.

After that, it was hard for me to argue against the existence of Eric’s jumbie. I looked back on our time at Annaly through new eyes, wide open and grateful eyes. And I started writing.

That is the story of how Saving Grace was born, along with the rest of the books in the Katie & Annalise series. I hope you enjoy the books, the island, and especially the big rainforest jumbie house.

About the Author:

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes award-winning mysterious women’s fiction and relationship humor books, and holds nothing back.  She is known for “having it all” which really means she has a little too much of everything, but loves it: writer, mediocre endurance athlete (triathlon, marathons), wife, mom of an ADHD & Asperger’s son, five kids/step-kids, business owner, recovering employment attorney and human resources executive, investigator, consultant, and musician.  Pamela lives with her husband Eric and two high school-aged kids, plus 200 pounds of pets in Houston. Their hearts are still in St. Croix, USVI, along with those of their three oldest offspring.

Her latest book is the mystery/women’s fiction, Saving Grace.

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About the Book:

If you're at all inclined to be swept away to the islands to fall in love with a rainforest jumbie house and a Texas attorney who is as much a danger to herself as the island bad guys, then dive headfirst with Katie Connell into Saving Grace.

Katie escapes professional humiliation, a broken heart, and her Bloody Mary-habit when she runs to the island of St. Marcos to investigate the suspicious deaths of her parents. But she trades one set of problems for another when she is bewitched by the voodoo spirit Annalise in an abandoned rainforest house and, as worlds collide, finds herself reluctantly donning her lawyer clothes again to defend her new friend Ava, who is accused of stabbing her very married Senator-boyfriend.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

        

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The Art of Interpretation by Alecia Stone

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How someone interprets something is based on two things: how the information is relayed to you and how your mind translates it. I’ve been an avid reader for more than half of my life and one of the biggest issues I’ve had with literature is how information is presented to me. Often I am instructed how to interpret the elements of a book in order to get an understanding of its intention. That limits my imagination, and that frustrates me. The joy of reading is in experiencing something you have never experienced before. We read to escape.

Wording is the fundamental principal in the art of interpretation. Writing is comprised of one or two elements: intellect and intuition. Intellect is defined by conscious reasoning whereas intuition isn’t. Intellect yields different opinions because it is based on the belief system of the individual and intuition is based on reality.

“Of course, I thought he’d finally cracked, but then he mentioned Thomas. You see, Thomas had told him about a place called Arcadia …’ His voice trailed off, and he exhaled. ‘Arcadia is a world at the centre of the earth.” Taken from Talisman Of El, Chapter Five

The quote above is from the scene where Charlie (main protagonist), Alex and Richmond meet Derkein Odessa for the first time.

Below are two forms of interpretation in regards to the above quote.

First interpretation:

Most of us are fascinated by the concept of alternate realities, but how can we as humans, who barely understand our own existence, expect to rely on conscious reasoning to explain something we do not understand?

Second interpretation:

How can a world exist without a vacuum?

Intellect is infectious. We are not born with it. We adapt to it.

Intuition is ignited when the individual is ready.

We all know how to walk. Let’s all learn how to fly.

Author Alecia Stone



Alecia Stone is the author of Talisman Of El (Centrinian, 2012), the first book in the Talisman Of El trilogy. She graduated with a BA in Film & TV and has worked in television for a short period of time before branching out into storytelling. Alecia loves anything and everything paranormal. Her fascination with all things supernatural sparked her obsession with books, particularly young adult fantasy fiction, which she has never grown out of. She was inspired to become an author after reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen at the age of fourteen.

In 2008, Alecia started working on Talisman Of El, a contemporary young adult fantasy fiction inspired by people who disappeared mysteriously, including, but not limited to, Amelia Earhart and Percy Harrison Fawcett, who went on an expedition in search of an ancient lost city. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys going to the movies, listening to music, and travelling.

Talisman Of El is her first novel. At present, Alecia lives in England, United Kingdom with her family.

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Betch’yer Fanny by Anne Sweazy-Kulju

I was recently interviewed by the wonderfully delightful, super engaging Stone Payton, at BusinessRadioX. It was for his “Dust Jacket Interview” show. I thought the interview was going alright, if I could stop giggling like my IQ just dropped ten points, before I answered every question. Then, out of left field he asked me something that I almost--almost answered honestly, but I stopped myself just in time. I couldn’t do it, plain and simple. (Look, it’s hard enough to put such things on paper--or screen.) In so many words, Mr. Payton asked me if writing a novel is personal…and if so, how personal? Oh, I answered with something like, “your manuscript is something you gave life to, so in many ways it’s as personal to you as your children,” and blah, blah, blah. But, is that really as personal as it gets? First, allow me to answer my question with a question: Do you want to get published? Then the short answer is, God, no.

I don’t know about you, but when someone is toys-in-the-attic enough to inquire if I have children, I’m out with the photo sleeve fast enough to make an illusionist proud. It’s a pretty long sleeve of my one-and-only work of art, my stunningly beautiful and bright daughter (she’s a model; she just did a nine-page spread in a national magazine). Well, of course I’m bragging! Wouldn’t you? Okay, I won’t spend any more time here--but Lord knows I could!

Do you see what I mean?

Sure, my child is personal. But if I’m writing a sad scene, I want to make my readers tearful, not envious. I know I have to dig deeper than brags about my kid. I’m going to give you an example of how my work gets personal, because I believe published authors should share with our future competition (I mean that in the nicest way), real and valuable writing tips on how we do it. We are a writing community. So in that spirit, I am sharing a personal sadness which I channeled after forty years, in order to write a chapter in my current WIP (work-in-progress). My hero is a young man who suffers from depression; he is certain his father blames him for his mother’s death and can’t even stand the sight of him, which is true. That’s sad, right? If I want my readers to believe it, and I most certainly do, then I need to infuse this fictional character with genuine sadness--my own. Here goes: I took a lot of naps as a kid--in beds, sure, but also whenever and wherever the fancy struck me; in a gulley on my way home walking from school, or in the middle of a sidewalk hopscotch game…places like that. I would just lay myself down and go to sleep. Now let’s skip ahead to my twelfth birthday…

Old adage:

A dysfunctional childhood

is God’s greatest gift to the writer.

It was a gorgeous summer day in California, and my mother called me in from playing outdoors--we did that back then. She was (I’ll treat this mildly) three-sheets-to-the-wind. She’d asked me to sit, and I thought for certain I was going to hear some excuse for why they’d forgotten my birthday again (translation: I wasn’t going to be getting those roller skates I’d been shamelessly hinting about for weeks). But instead, to my surprise, she was celebrating because I was going to live, she’d told me. I can’t tell you what a relief that news was to me--I can’t tell you because I never knew I was dying, in the first place. Then mom explained that a heart condition was the reason she’d never allowed herself to love me; a child who was ear-marked for an early death. Fear not, though, because a doctor had just given me a clean Bill of Health for the insurance company. Now she could love me! (She slurred.) I was just so tickled pink with the news. I use sarcasm as a defense. And what about my bucket-list? Here I’d been slated for death, and I hadn’t done one thing on my list! I hadn’t even eaten a coconut! (Long story; my best friend was Tahitian). Anyhoo, the point I’m trying to make is that, some forty years later, when I needed to write something incredibly sad, I conjured up that summer afternoon when my mother, albeit unintentionally, told me to my face that she’d never loved me. Tears immediately filled my eyes, rocks filled my throat, and I started writing.

You betch’yer fanny the writing in my novels is personal--and genuine! When “Grog Wars,” is released, you can let me know if I made you cry…

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Familiars by Laura Bickle

No one ever successfully controls a familiar.

Historically, familiars were said to be magical helpers of witches. They had the ability to shift shape, often appearing as cats, bats, or other creatures in their service to the witch. It was assumed by inquisitors that familiars, as a type of imp or evil spirit, served the witch willingly. 

At other times, they were summoned by a magician, then trapped in a stone or piece of jewelry. The familiar spirit was trapped, coerced into service, like genies in bottles. 

In the world of EMBERS, Anya has a familiar, Sparky. He’s a five-foot long speckled hellbender with eyes like marbles--a fire salamander elemental, a creature that’s the embodiment of fire. The German magician, Paracelsus, called fire spirits “salamanders” in the sixteenth century.  Salamanders were long associated with fire, despite their amphibious nature, because they crawled out of forest logs cast on fires. The salamander was assumed to dwell in fire, and embodied the impetuosity, power, and destructive changeability of the flickering flame.

Anya’s had Sparky since she was a child. He’s tied to a necklace her mother gave her, which suggests that, like the familiars trapped in jewelry, he was coerced into service at some point in the past. But Sparky seems to serve Anya willingly, protecting her from malicious spirits (not to mention jealously guarding her against any potential lovers).

Life with a salamander isn’t easy. Sparky is only able to be seen by Anya and ghosts. When he’s not chasing ghosts, he’s busily getting into trouble. Aside from Anya and the ghosts, he’s only able to affect electrical fields. And electricity is delicious. He’s blown up every microwave that Anya’s ever owned. He chews cell phones and drains their batteries. He likes to lick electrical outlets, with disastrous results. In EMBERS, Anya takes him to a hospital, and he manages to wreak havoc with vital sign monitors. 

But Sparky has his lovable moments. His favorite toy is a Gloworm. When he pats it, its cherubic little face lights up, much to his delight. Late at night, he curls up with his toy at the foot of Anya’s bed like any other pet, purring and chortling happily in the amber light of the Gloworm tucked between his paws. 

At times like these, Anya rubs his speckled belly and imagines that he’s under control.

And Sparky opens one eye and snorts. 

He knows better.  

Guest Post by Jill Cooper

“Hollywood died, and took half the world with it.”

The first line in chapter three of Glistening Haven, was the first sentence I wrote for the novel. Little did I know how big the scope of the novel would grow from such a simple sentence.

 

 

Government conspiracies, segregation, racism, a policed state, paranoia, 1950s Happy Days Utopian society, murder, scapegoats, and in the middle of it all, two love sick teenagers with a dangerous secret.

 

But really the story boils down to one important question: Would you risk it all to reveal the truth? 

 

Our culture is obsessed with beauty and celebrity. From realty TV turning people into celebrities who shouldn’t be, to magazines, to internet gossip sites, it’s everywhere.

 

Even in day to day life we have creams, injections, pills, all promising to keep us young, and beautiful for as long as possible.

 

What if all this pursuit of beauty came with a price?

1950s Utopia

 What was left of the human population seized control and won over the ever changing glistenings. (Which never happens in a zombie apocalypse novel, but I guess I’m just an optimist)

But the Glistenings lust for anger was weaning and they were evolving. No longer just blood thirsty monsters, they wanted more.

And rather be wiped out they were segregated into dome communities using technology and magic to keep them separated from regular society.

It was discovered along the way by the newly formed New Haven Intuitive that the era of the 1950s kept the glistening calm, docile as a family pet.

Each New Haven community camp is what you might expect from Happy Days or Leave it to Beaver: Sock hops, poodle skirts, Tupperware parties, malt shops. Each New Haven is exactly the same (a spin on houses lining a suburban street in a housing community).

 

A Police State

It was pretty fun to create a 1950s community that really contains monsters where everything appears perfect, but isn’t. The glistenings appear to be living a charmed life, but underneath all, they are terrified.

Communications are recorded, phones are bugged, every room of their homes have security monitors. They wear bracelet communicators so they can never go off grid. And if one of them says something or does something they shouldn’t, the police arrives.

And then things are never the same.  The New Haven Police call it reconditioning, a nice word for torture, brain washing, and if none of that works, death.

But as long as the glistenings keep their heads down, don’t talk about their hidden feelings, pretend to be normal, everything will be fine…

 

Absolute Power

If a government agency had absolute power, would they ever be ready to give it up, even if they had proof they had been wrong all along?

That’s the main question facing The New Haven Initiative. For decades they have been practicing above the law in the United States, Canada, and Europe. They answer to no one. Not Congress and not the other government agencies such as FBI or CIA.

Inside the New Haven Initiative ,there are two factions. Those that believe in law, order and maintaining peace between humans and glistenings. And the other is loyal to Alistar Humphrey, head of the Initiative and do exactly what he asks.

Some say he is corrupt. Some say The New Haven Initiative has become a private task force to perform whatever wish he desires. And with no oversight, there’s no one to stop him. If someone were to stop him, it’d have to come from within.

 

 

About Jill Cooper:

Jill Cooper loves tea more than coffee and is obsessed over finding that perfect recipe. She lives in Danvers, MA with two cats, a toddler, a husband, and a 1964 yellow taxi. Her life is chaotic, but fun. She is currently working on a new Sci-fi thriller and the sequel to the Dream Slayer. She can be contacted at http://www.jillacooper.com

Guest Post by Laura DeLuca

       There are tons of books out there written about witches, but there is something that makes my books a little different than the other paranormal novels out there.  I have been studying witchcraft, in the form of Wicca, for almost ten years. I am, in fact, a witch myself. I practice with a group of women, much like Gabriella’s mother, and I use the knowledge born from experience to add a little realism into the fantasy of my stories. 

     Now, I’m not saying that everything that happens in Destiny is completely realistic. Far from it. The Destiny series is fiction, after all, and meant to be fun and entertaining.  But I do strive to add real elements of Wicca into the mix. The rituals performed often use symbolism that any pagan would recognize. The ritual tools, the way the sacred space is set up, and even the wording of the spells, are all very realistic.  Only some of the results are exaggerated. Unfortunately, I haven’t met any real witches that can touch the ground and make a flower grow out of the snow or make a cut vanish with just the touch of their hand.  But even the healing aspects of the story are based off of real energy healing. I have been practicing Reiki, which is a form of energy healing, for the last four years.  In this practice, we lay our hands on our patrons and allow the energy of the universe to run through us, into the patient.  Results aren’t as spectacular as those in Destiny, but it always leaves people feeling more energized and definitely eases pain. 

     So much of the Destiny books are drawn from my own spiritual experiences with witchcraft, which is indeed a timeless tradition.  One of my fellow pagans, radio personality Raven Moonshadow, summed it up best in her review of Destiny.  “This is her (Laura’s) first young adult novel and I was really impressed with how closely she kept within the actual concepts of the earth-based religions. I think having a book like this written by someone who follows the religion herself is a huge boost to the published work. The fact that she kept most elements as close to reality without delving into "Hollywood" stereotypes is a testament not only to her as a writer, but also to honoring her own religion, showing the respect that any religion would deserve.” 

     Raven’s review made me so happy, because this is exactly what I was trying to achieve. Destiny is a book inspired by Wicca, and written out of my respect and love for this most sacred of paths. But don’t worry. I managed to pull all this off without getting preachy, and I definitely maintain the fun elements that any fantasy novel needs to be a success.  In the Destiny series, you’ll find love, suspense, and shocking revelations you’ll never see coming. So, if you want to read a book about witches, read a book written BY a witch. Get yourself a copy of Destiny and/or Destiny Unveiled.    

About the Author:

Laura “Luna” DeLuca lives at the beautiful Jersey shore with her husband and four children. She loves writing in the young adult genre because it keeps her young at heart.  In addition to writing fiction, Laura is also the sole author of a popular review blog called New Age Mama. She is an active member of her local pagan community, and has been studying Wicca for close to eight years. Visit her on her websites at http://authorlauradeluca.blogspot.com or  http://newagemama.blogspot.com .

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Temptations by Laura Bickle

Temptation happens to all of us, in large and small ways. 

The heroine of THE HALLOWED ONES is Katie, a young woman who has grown up in a peaceful Amish settlement. She lives with her parents and sister in the house where she was born. Church services take place in members’ backyards. She knows every other person in the settlement and expects to marry the boy next door. Crime is unheard-of. Her home has been a safe nest, familiar and comforting.

Maybe just a bit too safe.

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers are free to experience non-Amish culture before officially joining the Amish church. Katie is looking forward to testing the rules – going to the city to see movies, perhaps wearing jeans, experimenting with makeup. 

Katie has every intention of being baptized in the Amish church and assuming her responsibilities as an adult Amish woman. She simply wants to see a bit of the world Outside before she makes her choice and commits to the Amish lifestyle forever. Someday, she’ll give up her small vices – like collecting comic books and paging through glossy magazines at the local convenience store  - but not yet.

Before she can explore in earnest, Katie’s safe world starts to disintegrate. It begins with a fiery helicopter crash in the cornfields near her house, followed by rumors of violence and the disappearance of large numbers of people Outside. Unsure why they haven’t been attacked and fearing contamination, the Amish Elders make a rule: No one goes outside their community, and no one is allowed in. 

When Katie finds a gravely injured young man lying just outside the boundary of Amish land, she refuses to leave him to die. She defies the Elders’ decree, secretly bringing the stranger in to her community and hiding him. 

The stranger, Alex, challenges Katie. He’s an anthropology student in the outside world. As he recovers, he both infuriates Katie and makes her consider ideas that she might not otherwise have encountered. His presence forces her to take risks, and she learns a great deal about herself and her own ethics in attempting to protect him.
As all teens do, Katie will come to terms with the cost of her rebellions. Her decisions will ripple out, risking her community and bringing the darkness Outside in…and she may find herself cast Outside with no safe place left to return to.

Read the first chapter here

Guest Post by Patrick W. Carr

Who are these guys? A brief guide to epic fantasy characters.

When I started writing “A Cast of Stones,” my first real effort at epic fantasy, I knew I would have to create memorable characters within the expected conventions of the genre. The challenge is how to tell the story that has familiar themes and yet do it with characters that still seem fresh. For those of you who are still new of relatively new to the genre, the types fall into some fairly consistent patterns. The example of the most clearly delineated character types may be “The Belgariad” written by David Eddings back in the 1980’s. It’s a fun read and I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to make a study of what makes epic fantasy good and fun.

Now, on to the types.

The Hero or Heroine:

The main character and without a doubt the most important character. If you can’t make this character sympathetic, you’ve lost your audience. Even in tales that use an anti-hero, you have to give the reader something with which to empathize. A great example of this is Stephen R. Donaldson’s “Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.” His main character rapes a sixteen-year-old girl. The challenge of keeping the reader engage with the main character must have been considerable. Donaldson manages to pull it off.

The hero in my book is Errol. He’s been orphaned in a unique way and he’s a drunk. This wasn’t lightly done, but I felt I needed a very visual struggle with my protagonist to highlight the themes of the story.

The Father Figure: Sometimes this is the real father, but is more likely someone who steps into that role. There may be more than one. In my book the role is filled by Martin, which is kind of cool because he’s a priest. He’s already a “father,” get it? I crack myself up sometimes.

The Mentor: This personality is easy to spot in any epic fantasy because this is the person who teaches the protagonist how to fight. Think Sirius Black in “Harry Potter” or Lan in “The Wheel of Time.” In my book the role is most prominently filled by the farmer, Rale. A secondary mentor is a surprise because I chose a woman, Rokha, who is just a bit older than Errol himself.

The Love Interest:

Some books, fantasy or otherwise, have characters with several love interests. Rand Al’Thor has three in “The Wheel of Time” and Dancy has three in “Atlas Shrugged.” I enjoyed both books, but chose to stick to a single love interest because I really wanted to develop that relationship.

My character’s love interest is Adora. She’s the niece of the king and of course she’s totally unapproachable. It wouldn’t be a good fantasy if our hero’s love interest wasn’t hopeless in some way.

The Comic Relief:

Somebody’s got to break up the tension. Think Ron Weasely in the Harry Potter series or Pippin and Meriadoc in “The Lord of the Rings.” This character may be the toughest to write because they have to be funny without being so over the top that they become unrealistic. I chose Cruk to fill this role early in “A Cast of Stones” but also use my main character as well. I really enjoyed writing Cruk because he comes across as this sour, crusty kind of drill instructor type who always says what’s on his mind. Seriously, he cracks me up.

The Villain:

The badder the better, but we need to know what drives him. He may or may not be a point-of-view character and how much space he’s given varies widely. For example, Lord Voldemort romps across the pages of the entire Harry Potter series. However, Shaitan, the ultimate villain in the massive “Wheel of Time” (14 books of at least 800 pages each), is given relatively little in the way of word count.

In “A Cast of Stones” my villain is…well, we’ll have to hold out on that one, but he’s bad. Really.

There are other roles to fill, but these are the main ones. The trick is to find a way to make your characters special to the reader. I approached “The Staff and the Sword” with the desire to make my characters complicated and realistic. I received a nice compliment early on when a reader told me “you write like a woman.” It took a bit for me to understand. She went on to explain that my characters were more complex and developed than she was used to seeing from male authors.

I hope you’ll feel the same way.

A Sense of Place by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

"A sense of place" is a term I use with my writing students. By this, I mean the establishing of a setting in the reader's mind. One of the most important tasks a writer will face--particularly a writer of fantasy, who must make it all up from scratch--is grounding a story and its characters in settings that are vibrant and believable. Coming up with a story or characters is the easy part. But where does this story take place? And how do the characters interact in their surrounding?

I had a tremendous time coming up with the various settings found within the pages of Starflower. Because this novel is primarily set in my Faerie world, I really had a task before me. You see, my Faerie world is made up of many thousands of separate demesnes, each ruled by a different Faerie lord or lady, and each governed by its own set of ordinances. This meant that each demesne I wrote about needed to be magical, mystical, otherworldly, and yet distinct from all the others.

That was a challenge!

The first setting I really delved into when writing Starflower was Rudiobus, realm of the Merry People. This was the easiest one because it is the most heavily influenced by previously established mythology. Rudiobus is based on Lepra, home of the Lepracaun, straight out of Gaelic mythology. Iubdan and Bebo are king and queen of Lepra and the Lepracaun, and I liked them so well when I read about them, I picked them right up and put them back down in my own world!

Rudiobus is a mountain, and the Merry People of Rudiobus live inside it, after the fashion of a classic Fairy Hill. They are small enough in this kingdom that a mountain is big enough to be a whole kingdom to them. King Iubdan holds court in Ruaine Hall, which is modeled after Mag Faithlienn in the original legend. Ruaine Hall--or the Hall of Red and Green--is a great cavern decorated with pine and holly boughs and lit with hundreds of torches to keep back the gloom. It is a magic but merry place, full of danger and laughter and, of course, the mad-cap little people. I thoroughly enjoyed expanding on this setting, which had featured in an earlier novel of mine.

But then it was time to move on to less hospitable demesnes.

In its day, Etalpalli was a beautiful demesne known as "the City of Clouds." Back then, it was full of tall, red-stone towers grown over with thick green ivy and flowers. The Faeries who dwelled there had magnificent feathered wings of many colors, and they sang with voices as sweet as birds.

When we come to Etalpalli in this novel, however, it is burned beyond recognition.

The green growth is long since gone from the blackened towers, and the city itself looks like so many raw, rotten teeth tearing at a reddened sky. It is an evil place, for it was destroyed by its own queen. The ruined streets are no longer stable; they uproot and shift around like a moving labyrinth, proving deadly to any who enter in. The city is hungry, ready to swallow up the living with a ravenous fury akin to that of its mistress, the Dragonwitch. She, like her kingdom, was once fair and lovely. But she has taken dragon-fire inside, and all the good has been burned away.

Etalpalli was a difficult location to write. I started out trying simply to write about it as it is now, burned and destroyed. But I soon realized that to create a convincing "sense of place," I needed to know what it was like before its destruction. So I backtracked and spent time writing about Etalpalli of old, and the people who lived there, and what life might have been like for them long ago. Most of this work did not end up in the final manuscript. But that doesn't matter! A great deal of my work is intended not to be read, but to support that which is read. The formation of every one of my novels includes several thousands of words that will never be seen by the reading public.

The third location I want to mention in this article is the only non-Faerie country we see. Most of Starflower is set in the Far World of Faerie, but my heroine, Starflower herself, is a mortal. And her nation was the most interesting of all to explore!

Starflower comes from a place she knows only as the Land. It is a tribal country, split up under many rulers known as elders. But her father is the Eldest, and he rules the Land, making Starflower a princess . . . of a sort.

I wanted Starflower's homeland to contrast starkly with the Faerie kingdoms we see in the rest of the novel. While those are otherworldly, hers needed to be dirt-bound and full of death and hard realities. But I also did not want anyone to confuse her world with the standard "Medieval-fantasy" settings found in much of current fantasy fiction. Starflower's culture is not at all Western, and it is also very primitive in many ways.

So for inspiration I turned to my husband, who was born in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a fascinating, ancient country full of histories and dramas and cultures unlike anything I knew. I barely scratched the surface as I researched for my novel, but what I read about thrilled me.

Thus the Land became a jungle kingdom, full of wild animals and rivers and mountains.  The people eat fruits and vegetables that we might consider "exotic" but which are as common as apples and carrots to them.

I find it a difficult balance, creating a sense of place in a story. I want to give only enough detail to make the setting feel vibrant and convincing . . . but never so much that the setting distracts from the story. They must work together. But I believe that Starflower's home, the Hidden Land Behind the Mountain, turned into the perfect blend of cultural details and receding backdrop for the drama.

A "sense of place" is one of the most important and most difficult achievements for which a successful writer works. But it is so worth the effort involved!

So tell me, fellow writers, what settings have you created that you think worked the best? That established a strong "sense of place" for you and your readers?

Author Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Anne Elisabeth Stengl makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Rohan, a passel of cats, and one long-suffering dog. When she's not writing, she enjoys Shakespeare, opera, and tea, and studies piano, painting, and pastry baking. She studied illustration at Grace College and English literature at Campbell University. She is the author of HEARTLESS, VEILED ROSE, MOONBLOOD, and STARFLOWER, with DRAGONWITCH due to release in 2013. HEARTLESS and VEILED ROSE have each been honored with a Christy Award.

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Werecreatures by Jeanette Battista

  

When I was originally plotting out the Moon series, I knew I wanted to do more than just the typical werewolf as hero story. I knew I wanted werecats, but after that I was pretty much open to anything after that. I did some research into the top level predators, but I still wanted something more. I decided to model the weres present in my world off of the natural order, which meant I needed some scavengers and “lesser” predators thrown in the mix.

I’ve always found jackals fascinating. I love how they form monogamous pairs and their connection with ancient Egypt and Anubis. Why not have an order of assassins based off of them? As animals, jackals are pretty small; even in my world with a little were-bulk, they aren’t going to be huge enough to take down a full grown wolf or leopard. So give them a gun, some crazy training and set them loose in human form to even the odds. I thought that it would provide some drama and drive home the idea that not everything is as it appears (obviously, but still).

But I had to have a villain with some heft of its own and again I looked to predators. Hyenas get a bad rap in a lot of things (hello Lion King), but they are pretty interesting beasties. And they have a matriarchal society. I liked that idea and I wanted a villain I could really sink my teeth into (pun sort of intended). So I went with hyenas, and to make it extra weird, I made them the prettiest of all my weres. I figured that they’d been hosed on the looks department while in animal form (because, I’m sorry, but even baby hyenas can’t be called cute and they are BABIES) so they needed something to compel reproduction. And thus my equation of Hyena Hotness (patent pending) = Human Form. I loved the contradiction there.

I wanted to do something fresh, something that would liven up the genre. I had seen a ton of werewolf books, a few wereleopard books, but I hadn’t seen any werejackal or werehyena novels. I threw in a werebear as a cameo just to add another possibility into the world to flesh it out. I hope I managed to surprise readers and keep them intrigued. The world, even a paranormal one, would be boring if we always knew what to expect.

www.jeanettebattista.com

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Author Bio:

Jeanette Battista graduated with an English degree with a concentration in medieval literature which explains her possibly unhealthy fixation on edged weapons and cathedral architecture. She spent a summer in England and Scotland studying the historical King Arthur, which did nothing to curb her obsession. To satisfy her adrenaline cravings—since sword fighting is not widely accepted in these modern times—she rode a motorcycle at ridiculously high speeds, got some tattoos, and took kickboxing and boxing classes. She gave up the bike when her daughter came along, although she still gets pummeled at the gym on a regular basis.

When she’s not writing or working, Jeanette spends time with family, hikes, reads, makes decadent brownies, buys killer boots, and plays Pocket Frogs. She wishes there were more hours in the day so she could actually do more of these things. She lives with her daughter and their two psychotic kittens in North Carolina.