Tag: writing

More comic book heroes, less reality housewives on television please!

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I have been, for lack of s better term, “geeking” out the past few weeks. Between the new trailer for Season 9 of Doctor Who, Stars Wars Episode VII concept art and behind the scenes video and the announcement Matt Ryan (aka John Constantine) is coming to this season of Arrow has been exciting.

We live in an age when sci-fi/fantasy is more and more prevalent on TV and movies. Some are saying its too much but I say it’s about time.

kampfstern-galactica-poster_articleBack in the 70s/80s, when I was growing up, there wasn’t a huge following for the genre. Sure, we had classic shows like the original Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, the Six Million Dollar Man and Kolchak: The Night Stalker (my personal favorite as that series influenced me to a writer); but along with that we had flops like Manimal, Automan, Spider-man and the incredibly awful Justice League and Captain America TV movies.

CGI and improved make-up and special effects have brought the sci-fi/fantasy genre new life. In this era of reality shows upon reality shows, I love the new line up coming to TV. There are too many shows about rich housewives from New York and LA, rich wives of doctors and basketball players and every Kardashian alive today.

Shows like Arrow, The Flash, Gotham and Grimm have made an impact on television with great characters and equally masterful writing by people who are true geeks. It’s really bring geeks and non-geeks together to support these great shows.

That’s been the trouble with shows in the past. They never stuck to the heart of the story. They just slapped the characters on TV with a few cheesy special effects and called it a day.

Writing is just as important in fantasy/sci-fi shows and movies. Ant-Man and Fantastic Four are two great examples where story matters. Though it took them six years to bring Ant-Man to the silver screen, it was a great combination of humor, action and drama. On the other hand, How someone can royally screw up the “first family of superheroes” THREE times is beyond me.

maxresdefaultThis year, they’re adding Supergirl, DC Legends of Tomorrow and Heroes Reborn into the mix. These are just a few of what’s to come for comic book television, with the Teen Titans coming to TNT down the road and Fox working on an X-Men TV series. Let’s face it, it’s exciting to be a geek right now.

Texting has ruined the English language for this and future generations

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People on phones with social media icon chalkboardIf you think about it, acronyms were the precursor for the shortened words we use in text messages today. These are, as I like to think of them, the death of the English language.

I doubt millennials could write a complete sentence without shortening a few words in it. You can’t talk about your BFF who’s SOL 2MORO without OMG ROFLMAO, LOL? But if you think about it, acronyms were just the beginning of these often used words and phrases.

The military is very bad at using acronyms for everything and, though military journalists are taught not to use them, they find their way into anything and everything. Speaking as a “DINFOS Trained Killer” I can honestly say acronyms are overused more often than not.

To give you an example:  When I was on active duty, I worked for the PAO at SACLANT, the NATO HQ in NORVA at NSA Hampton Roads, next to FFSC, SUBFOR, MARFORCOM and JFCOM. (If you can decipher every acronym in that sentence, post in the comments below. First correct answer gets a free ebook of my novel, The Dark Tides.)

Of course, writers are taught to spell it out and not use acronyms, but that still hasn’t changed the new acronyms in texting. Now that texting terms have been added to the dictionary, it makes it even worse.

Can you imagine Shakespeare using texting terminology to write his great plays? “2b? Nt2b? ???” “Romeo, Romeo _ wher4 Rt thou Romeo?”

Though many may dismiss texting terminology as cheat notes for an attention-deficit generation, John Sutherland, a University College London English professor, said “they could act as a useful memory aid.”

I understand the methodology behind that, but to me, texting is dumbing down a generation. English is slowly becoming a language where soliloquies and poems are a thing of the past. Short quips, sarcasm and verbal trolling are the new norm.

Mark Zusak, author of The Book Thief, wrote “The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn’t be any of this.” That speaks volumes about the importance of words in our lives, our culture, our very existence.

I remember as a boy, growing up in the 70s/80s, my parents and teachers telling me that slang was the beginning of the end of the English language. Those words were very prophetic as I look at the slang of today in text messages.

We are becoming a culture of 140 characters or less, losing the history of today’s generation to a megabit of data.

Combat is sometimes easier to visualize than write – An excerpt from “The Dark Tides”

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itpickD_01.17624.widea.0Catapults, arrows, swords, axes and magic spells … I have found medieval combat to be one of the most difficult aspects of fantasy writing. Today’s modern warfare is nothing compared to the various sword-wielding maneuvers and medieval combat positions possible during a battle with Knights, wizards and other mythical creatures.

You not only have to study and understand how a sword, axe or other medieval weaponry is used, but you also have to make it exciting and believable for the reader. Here is a sample of such combat from my novel, The Dark Tides, as the Gil-Gamesh and his forces take on an army of Goblins at the Battle of Arkengarth Vale.

***

“Well done Captain,” Bryan said as he drew Twilight and Dusk . He turned to his assembled men.

“Remember, don’t hesitate for an instant! Your enemy will show you no quarter so give none in return! Cut them down until we are walking on their bodies instead of the muddy ground!”
A battle cry rose up from the men as they dug in, ready to fight. The goblins moved faster along the wall toward them.

“Remember my friends, there’s only farmers and small towns from here to New Camelot! They will be slaughtered by this goblin horde unless we stop them here and now! So let’s show them what it means to be a Knight of Avalon!”

Another cry of grit and determination bellowed from the assembled warriors as the crawling swarm of goblins moved closer toward them. Sarafina bowed her head, evoking a warrior’s prayer she learned at the convent.

“Blessed be the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. My fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield; and the One in whom I take refuge. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit … Amen.”

“Amen!” they all said in unison as the goblins attacked. The first wave hit the defenses hard, their shrieks and howls cried out as untamed beasts slicing and cutting through the defenders of Avalon.

The Knights and Shield Maidens pushed back, working in tandem to cut through the goblins. Shield Maidens protected their knights with shields in front and either spear or sword to push back while the knights cut a swath through the creatures. The black blood of the goblins stained the muddy the ground as more are brought down, one after the other.

Sarafina protected the Gil-Gamesh while he dispatched the goblins by either slicing through them with Twilight or dispatching their souls with Dusk . As more goblins rushed in, Sir Thomas and the Knights of the Round Table charged in to help the Dragon Guard push back, trying to flank the attacking goblins and cut them off from the rest.

Thomas took position next to Bryan, fighting side-by-side as they have done religiously with Sarafina poised between them. Nevan fought next to his father with Sir Thomas’ Shield Maiden, Isolde, between them. Isolde was one of the oldest Shield Maidens in the service, nearly the same age as Thomas. Her black hair was peppered with a streak of gray under her helm. She could have retired to the Glennish Hills convent years ago, but her lust for battle kept her in the field.

“I hope you’re saving some for me Gil-Gamesh,” Thomas said as he hacked at the goblins with his broad sword.

“I think there’s plenty to go around Thomas,” Bryan joked.

“Less talking, more fighting!” Sarafina yelled at the two men, something she normally wouldn’t do, but in the heat of battle, courtesy went out the window. She pushed back a charging goblin with her shield before stabbing it between the eyes with her long sword; but as many as they killed, more just keep on coming.

As the battle progressed, it almost seemed as if this small force of knights was turning the tide against them. That changed as the howls of wolves cried out from the Vale.

Thomas knew immediately what it was. “Dire Wolves!” he said, sending a chill down the spines of Sarafina and Nevan, for these were the nightmares told to children on Avalon.

Dire Wolves were giant gray wolves that stood nearly five feet tall at the shoulder. Amongst the creatures of Avalon, they were on top of the food chain, predators to all manner of man or beast. It took a special breed of monster to tame Dire Wolves and that honor belonged to Hobgoblins.
Smarter and more cunning than their goblin cousins, Hobgoblins lived in the darkest parts of the forests, finding refuge in dead trees. They learned how to tame the Dire Wolves to help them hunt for food and harass humans. Their evil was only outdone by their savagery on the backs of Dire Wolves.

The Hobgoblins rode the Dire Wolves through the thick brush along the opposite side of the Vale. The Gil-Gamesh thought that was impassable because of the thick, thorny overgrowth that grew there, but the Dire Wolves were quick on their feet, jumping over the thorny bushes toward the frontline defenses.

More than thirty riders charged, cutting down both Knights and Shield Maidens with fang and claw. Over half of the Knights of the Round Table were killed instantly, causing part of the defensive flank to collapse. Bryan raised Twilight into the air.

“Lumina Incandesco! ” he chanted, causing his sword to burst with brilliant light. That signaled Captain Godfrey and the Elves to move in to protect their flank. The Elves fired arrows into the Dire Wolves, but it took more than a dozen arrows to bring one down.

One of the Hobgoblins charged straight toward Sir Thomas and Nevan. Isolde stepped up to block the charging beast, shield in one hand and a glaive in the other. She crouched down low as the beast charged then came up under its chin with the point of the glaive, slicing into it from its throat to its snout.

The Dire Wolf fell on its side, trapping the Hobgoblin’s leg under the weight of the creature. Nevan rushed forward and cut down the Hobgoblin with his sword. Isolde pulled her pole arm out of the wolf’s head.

“That’s how you kill a Dire Wolf, Sir Nevan,” she told him. “Those beasties can’t see you if you’re low to the ground and come up from underneath …” Isolde didn’t finish her sentence as she’s run through by a goblin spear, piercing her through the neck. She fell to her knees, clutching her throat before dying.

“Isolde!” Thomas yelled as he lunged at her attacker, slicing him wide open. But that momentary distraction was enough as another Dire Wolf charged in and snapped down on Thomas’ arm, biting it clean off.
Bryan leaped and thrusts Dusk into the beast, taking whatever dark soul that the monster might have had. The Hobgoblin fell off, allowing Sarafina to kill it with one blow.

Nevan rushed to his father’s side, trying to stem the flow of blood with his father’s cloak. “Father please, stay with me!” Nevan pleaded as Thomas clung on to him, but Thomas could barely speak as he hovered in and out of consciousness.

“It’s alright lad, it’s alright … I’ve lived a good life,” Thomas mumbled. “I’ve gotten to see my son grow into a man. That’s more than any father could ask.” Nevan broke down into tears as Bryan and Sarafina tried to protect them from the goblins.

“Sarafina, you and Nevan take Thomas back to the rear …” Bryan ordered. The two lifted Thomas up and carried him off while the Gil-Gamesh pressed on with the battle.

“Come on ladies! What’re you waiting for?” he yelled as they continued to fight. A sudden rush of goblins knocked the Gil-Gamesh down, swarming over him like ants on an anthill. Bryan fought back, swinging aimlessly at the onslaught of monsters, resolute and defiant. He already lost one friend to these monsters; he would not lose another.

As his mind wandered from the battle, the unthinkable happened. A goblin jumped on his back and reached around, stabbing the Gil-Gamesh in the chest right above the clavicle, missing his armor altogether. Bryan was immediately brought down by the goblin horde as they pounced on him.

Captain Godfrey and Eonis could only watch as the Gil-Gamesh fell. They pushed forward to come to his aid but by the time they got there, the goblins started to fall back down the vale, taking the Gil-Gamesh with them. All that was left behind were his swords, Twilight and Dusk , lying over the bodies of hundreds of dead goblins.

“They took him,” Captain Godfrey exclaimed. “This was never about enemies marching on New Camelot. This was about the Gil-Gamesh. They wanted to capture him when he was the most vulnerable.”

“We’ve got to go after them,” Eonis said as he took off down the hill. “We’ve got to save him!”

Captain Godfrey grabbed him before he took a single step. “You’ll be slaughtered down there,” Godfrey said. “They still outnumber us and now, we’re without the Gil-Gamesh.”

Eonis thought for a moment then realized that Captain Godfrey was right. At that moment, Sarafina returned to the front while Nevan tended to Sir Thomas. She ran up and looked around for the Gil-Gamesh but he was nowhere to be seen.

“What happened? Where’s the Gil-Gamesh?” she shouted.

Eonis walked over and placed his hand on her shoulder. “He’s gone Sarafina. The enemy has him.”

***

 The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

It’s like watching a movie being written, directed and produced in my brain

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51130757_Psionic_BowmanI find writing to be very visual, from my point of view. As I’m writing the story, I see it play out like a made-for-TV movie. It helps me work through dialogue and setting the scene as if I was directing a stage play as the performance played out in my head.

I even place some of my favorite actors and actresses in these roles as the story progresses. It’s like having my own private movie theater inside my head, just no popcorn.

That being said, being a visual writer has its good sides and bad. While it helps me see the story, it also hinders me when I get stuck with writer’s block. The scene plays itself out over-and-over again. It reminds me of a scene from the movie Chaplin, where Charlie Chaplin is directing his first wife through a restaurant scene where she has to eat beans again and again through numerous takes. That’s what it feels like when I get writer’s block and it makes it hard to move on.

As writers, we have to set the scene, but in reality, we’re creating an entire world. When you write fiction, whether it’s fantasy, science fiction or another genre, you creating a world different from the one we live in. Sure, there are elements and places similar to the world we live in, but there are some unique aspects to the world created by the writer.

I think a great example of this is when you look at Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Marvel relies on the world we live in today as settings (New York in particular) with a few additional new countries like Latveria and Genosha. DC has created cities that don’t even exist, like Metropolis, Central City and Gotham City, and countries like Khandaq and Bialya.

World building is an essential part of writing. When I started writing Forever Avalon and The Dark Tides, I had to stop myself and actually draw a map of the magical island to ensure my bearings were correct when I was writing about the many different locations all around the island. I never knew that being an author also required navigation skills.

It’s quite daunting creating an entire island from scratch. You have to look at topography, placement of mountains, rivers and forests; and it all has to make sense. Add into that roads, cities, bridges and other assorted plots and you have your own little world.

I feel that I could make a religious anecdote about playing God but I don’t consider it godlike to do something like this. World building in a story is really using one’s imagination for putting together a puzzle. If the pieces don’t fit right, the puzzle is incomplete and makes no sense.

Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

Is writing a skill that is learned or a talent hidden deep inside?

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Hand holding a pen over paper.

I read a lot of varying advice on the internet about writing, self-publishing and being an author. To be honest, I’ve been amazed and overwhelmed by the number of independent authors out there. There is an unbelievable amount of incredible writers  just waiting to be discovered.

Writing is a very diverse talent. Some people study all aspects of the English language, sentence structure, verbiage and tense and have trouble putting together a coherent thought. Others, though, never took a single creative writing class and can weave together a story that would astound Shakespeare.

Ernest Hemingway said, “Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.” Though it’s hard to argue with one of the greatest writers of our time but, to me, it’s not about the sentence structure and proper grammar but the story. Oh, don’t get me wrong, bad English will take away from any good story. You need to proofread, spell check and edit anything you write. It’s about the storyteller and what they have to say.

It’s incredible to read about J.K. Rowling and how she struggled through writing the Harry Potter series until the book finally took off. Now, she’s one of the richest and, more importantly, most influential authors of our time. That is something to aspire too.

C. J. Cherryh said, “It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.” That is one of the problems with being a self-published author. You don’t always have the resources to edit your work before its published. I remember after Forever Avalon was published, I sent copies of my book to my family. After reading my book, my mother sent me two pages of grammar and spelling errors. It was quite a humbling experience and it made me work harder as a writer.

I love to write. I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I remember back to my childhood when I was fascinated with comic books and superheroes. I drew cartoons all the time, sometimes creating my own characters. I was so focused on the art, I never realized the creative side of writing and storytelling that I was delving into.

I was an okay artist but I was narrow-minded, ignoring the creative side that was trying to burst out of me. I realize now that there was more of a writer in there and I just needed to cultivate and groom those talents.

That’s one of the reason I always give credit where credit is due. Dungeons and Dragons fueled my imagination, but it was the U.S. Navy that molded my creative writing through journalism. The education I received from my Navy training at the Defense Information School was top-notch. It gave me the tools I needed to become a self-published, independent author.

In no way am I comparing myself to J.K. Rowling. We all take different journeys to reach our destination. My novels may not become multi-million best sellers, even though that is my ultimate goal; but I am very happy with the work I’m doing. I see the improvement in my writing as I progress from one book to the next.

Somerset Maugham said, “If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write?” That’s true to all of us. We all have to find that inner writer, our own creativity, and pursue it as part of our dream of becoming a successful author.

Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

Three elements every fantasy story needs are fear, adventure and magic

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vmt98p0p4iacoqs7h42sldt8o74fdeabd4e1bbcDiving into the depths of the fantasy genre is like free diving … The deeper you go, the more out of breath you get. I got that feeling when I read Elric of Melnibone for the first time. After reading it, I was left breathless.

Fantasy taps into everything a human being experiences through life. What scares us? What piques our curiosity? What sparks our imagination? In fantasy, anything and everything is possible, and as writers, we grab onto that and lay it out for readers to dive into.

Fantasy has three critical elements: fear, adventure and magic. I know the last one is a bit broad, so let me start with that.

Magic covers everything from the fantastic to the supernatural. It is the mystery that brings out the curiosity in all of us. What we can’t explain or understand, we associate with magic. That’s what makes it an essential part of any fantasy story.

But magic is more than spells, Wizards, faeries and unicorns. Magic is the lifeblood of all these things and more. Magic has been a part of stories ranging from Paul Bunyan to Santa Claus.

The second element is adventure. Adventure is more than swashbuckling, chandelier swinging, high seas sailing adventures. The first part of the adventure is–as in real estate–location, location, location! What would Harry Potter be without Hogwarts, or Lord of the Rings without Middle Earth. Location establishes the adventure, from the urban jungle to a floating island.

Another part of adventure is, of course, the action; hence the term action/adventure. Whether its sword fights or bare knuckle brawling, you need to bring the excitement into your fantasy; but make sure your keep it real and accurate. I watch a lot of Errol Flynn/Bruce Lee movies and professional wrestling to guide me through scripting my fights.

The final element is fear. It is the basic element at the core of every human being. Our fear makes us human, gives us that innate curiosity to explore that which we do t know. Without fear, we wouldn’t gather or strength and courage to fight back, that basic survival instinct.

Fear can be visualized in scary monsters, spooky places and death-defying adventure. You see my point? Fear is what brings all three elements together into one story of fantasy.

Like a painter, you start with broad strokes and work your way down to the fine details. In the end, you should have a memorable story you can call all your own. Mine’s called Forever Avalon, what’s yours?

Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

Navigating the maze of a writer’s mind

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mazeistock_000018139778smallJ.K. Rowling said, “I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book!” I think that’s why I enjoy writing so much.

Writing is a very difficult profession to get into. Many famous writers talk about the difficulties they’ve experienced in their career, but they always end that with how much it was worth it.

That part I have to agree with. Writing has its ups and downs. There are times I find myself trapped in a writer’s block that, to me, resembles the hedge maze in The Shining. Then there are times when an idea hits me and, as soon as I get it written down, I am flooded with an overwhelming sensation of joy. The hard part, it seems, is navigating your way through your ideas and putting it down on paper.

I spent my formative years dreaming about being a comic book artist, the next Jack Kirby. I was okay but there were many others better than me. Even after one year of art school, I never improved so I left. I switched from artist to writer when I joined the Navy and became a Navy Journalist. That’s when I really got the writing bug.

I’ve written constantly for more than 30 years, in one form or another. I get excited about what I’m writing, whether it’s a press release on an event on base or another chapter in my next book. What makes it so exciting, on the very of pure exhilaration, is to see your words in print. I will never forget the day I opened a box from my publisher and held my book in my own two hands. It was, as J.K. Rowling said … magical.

Like in other areas of the arts, like music, art and acting, writing is a gift. Some have the ability to take ideas from deep inside and turn them into words, weaving stories that resonate to anyone who reads it.

The ebb and flow of writing can galvanize a writer; it makes us want more. I think the same feelings of elation and disappointment can be found in many professions. One year, Halle Berry earned an Academy Award nomination for her role in the 2001 movie Monster’s Ball; then, a few years later, she wins the Razzie award for worst actress in the 2004 movie Catwoman. Through it all, it didn’t change her as an actress or the roles she received.

Now, I’m no Pulitzer Prize author, by no means, but that doesn’t stop me from working on my craft daily. I may be 51-year- old, but I’m still learning and developing my writing style. I can see the changes within my writing from when I first started all the way to today.

If you are a writer or want to be a writer, you have to work on it every day; and no, texting doesn’t count. To me, texting has ruined the English language, but I’ll save that for another blog.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you believe in yourself and what you’re writing about, then don’t let anything get in your way. Find your niche, that genre that works best for you, and stick to it. Remember, if what you write brings magic into someone’s life, it’ll be worth it in the end.

Dungeons and Dragons is a great tool for creating fantasy characters

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STK463898Characters are the driving force behind every story. If you don’t have great characters–strong, inviting, mysterious and like able–people are not going to read your stories. That’s the one thing I really have to attribute to my early days of playing Dungeons and Dragons. It helped me design characters and weave their stories together to make them almost real in the game.

Character creation is an essential part of the D&D. From the very start, you take basic characteristics–strength, dexterity, wisdom, intelligence and charisma–and use them as building blocks. These traits determine what type of person you are. Are you smart or wise, fast or strong, like-able or trustworthy? Add in that an alignment, from Lawful Good to Neutral to Chaotic Evil, and you have a fantasy character of your very own.

The protagonist in the Forever Avalon series is Lord Bryan MoonDrake, the Gil-Gamesh of Avalon. He has two identities within the story, that of a Sailor and as a Warrior/Wizard. The later aspects of his personality came from one of the best characters I ever created in D&D.

His name is Luna Moonstone, a Half-Elf Fighter/Thief/Magic-User. He was a bad ass, one of the best characters I ever rolled, and everything about him inspired the Gil-Gamesh. A lot of the magic items and weapons he used in-game, I brought over to Forever Avalon, including Whirling Death, the Cloak of Thieves and the Gauntlets of Stone Giant.

Sorry, I digressed … I get nerdy when I start talking D&D. In any case, it was these games that helped me develop such wonderful characters for Forever Avalon and The Dark Tides. In a look ahead to my next book in the Forever Avalon series, The Outlander War, I am pulling out my old character sheets and bringing another of my old D&D characters to life in my trilogy.

One of the most powerful characters I ever created in D&D was a half-Orc fighter. He is special to me because I rolled a perfect 18/00 for his strength and, anyone who’s played D&D knows how hard that is.

He is a sword master, proficient in the use of every type of sword. He collects the swords of his enemies, hanging them in a special vault in his keep, just so he can constantly laud over his many victories. This creature is evil, mean and rotten to the core. In his mind, he has no peers and he lives by one ethos; only the strong survive and he is the strongest there is.

He has a scar across his face, from his right temple to his left cheek. It was given to him by his mother, who tried to kill him at birth. She was stopped by her grandfather. He noticed that the baby didn’t cry out, even after being wounded. The old man took the child to raise into a great warrior.

He is a General amongst men, leading through fear an intimidation. His name is Ben-Farst; now, that being said, there will be some changes made.

First and foremost, I am not using Orcs in my series. Orcs were a creation of J.R.R. Tolkien and not a part of any cultural mythology. I don’t want to bring something into Avalon just to use a popular race from RPGs and other fantasy novels. So for The Outlander War, he will be a half-demon instead.

Next, his name. I honestly don’t remember how I came up with he name Ben-Farst, but I got grilled and taunted for it on a regular basis. I know “Ben” was the name of the grandfather that raised him and “Farst” was a knockoff of farce, because he was rejected by both man and Orc. I want to keep something from him but make it match his new persona as a half-demon. So, I am going with the name Abdel Ben Faust.

Abdel is Arabic for Servant and Faust is associated with Hell so I think “Servant of Hell” fits perfectly for a ruthless half-demon military commander; but I’m also keeping Ben to illustrate that there is a human side to him.

So how does General Abdel Ben Faust fit into the world of Avalon? You’ll have to wait until next year and The Outlander War to find out! In the meantime, catch up on what’s happening on the island of Avalon in my latest book, The Dark Tides!

The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

The life of a self-published independent author isn’t easy, it’s hard work

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12175_604543342905256_717300288_n“One cannot self-edit. It is impossible.  Self-publishing is a slippery slope.” This was a comment by Jennifer Jilks in a recent review of The Dark Tides. The reviewer liked so parts of my book, but not as a whole. I appreciate all feedback, even bad reviews. Without it, how can I grow as an independent author.

That got me thinking about this blog post. It is VERY hard to be a self-published, independent author. You’re putting more money out, at times, than what you have coming in from royalties. You try to edit your work as best as you can, but you do miss things from time-to-time. You spend more time typing on a keyboard than you do snuggling with your significant other.

So the question is why be an independent author? Why write at all? For some of us, it’s not just an addiction; rather it’s written in our DNA. I can’t stop writing. I have all these stories in my head, bursting to get out. The only way I know how to do that is to write.

I wish I had perfect grammer along with perfect editing skills to catch every mistep and mistake. In reality, I don’t. I have to trod along like everyone else, rely on spell check to catch some mistakes, and rely on others to help you with your book.

When I published my first book, Forever Avalon, I was extatic. I sent the first copies of my book out to family and friends. You know what I got in return? A two page email from my mother listing all the grammer and spelling errors I missed. I immediately got with my publisher to make those corrections, but I’m sure there are probably still some in the book.

I wish I had the money and the time to devote to perfectly editing my books before their released, but for the independent author, that’s not always possible.I know it sounds like I’m making excuses, but I’m not. I’m just trying to show the reality of the situation.

Spell check has, in part, made all of us a little lazy when it comes to writing and editing. Whenever I talk to students, I warn them … “Spell check is not the be all and end all!” Many of us rely on auto-correct to make writing easy for us, and truthfully, it does. We have to be better than that, but unfortunately, time doesn’t allow it.

I went almost five years between publishing my first book and my second book. It took me twice as long to write and edit The Dark Tides. I had a lot of help from the great people at iUniverse in editing part of my novel, but I still did most of it on my own. We really stick to that word INDEPENDENT when you look at the daily routine of an independent author.

You take the good reviews with the bad reviews, but in my eye, it’s still a review. It means someone is reading my book and, whatever criticism they have, will help me grow as an independent author. I can see the improvements in my writing skills from my first book to my second.

Here’s hoping my third book will be a blockbuster!

The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

Magic is at the heart of any good fantasy story

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244277Magic is defined as “the art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature.” Magic is at the heart of any fantasy story.

For the Forever Avalon series, I had to come up with the “how’s and how too” of magic in the world of Avalon. That was the easy part. In Forever Avalon, all magic exists only on this enchanted island. When Merlin cast the spell to bring all magic from the outside world to Avalon, it infused the island with magical energy. Magic exists in every rock and tree, plant and animal, man, Elf, Dwarf and creature alike.

So now the question is asked, how do you access that magic? To me, the innate ability to tap into magical energy requires thought, belief and the right word. Anything is possible if you believe in it. Faith, courage and the human spirit has shown us that throughout history. If you add magic into the mix, the impossible becomes possible.

The Gil-Gamesh explained it best in in a conversation with his son-in-law Andrew in this excerpt from The Dark Tides.

***

“Here, the impossible is possible. The laws of nature are reversed. This is a world based on magic, not science.”

“But basic science rules apply, don’t they? I mean, practices like physics and chemistry, they still exist or else you couldn’t get your ship to fly or fire to burn.”

“True, but it’s how we get that science to work. We take that one step, beyond the reason of science and make it happen through magic,” Bryan explained. “For example, science tells us that folding space to travel from one place to another instantly takes tremendous power and an equation as long as a football field. But on Avalon, all it takes is a good wizard with the right spell.

“Eo Ire Itum! ” Bryan chanted as he waved his hand and in an instant, vanished right before Andrew’s eyes.

“You see?” said a voice from behind. There stood the Gil- Gamesh, appearing out of thin air.

“I really can’t explain it and even I had my doubts when I first arrived here,” he continued as he sat back down. “But, the longer you’re here, the more magic touches you, it will make you feel younger, vibrant and more alive and it will make you believe that anything is possible. I think that’s why magic left the outside world. It wasn’t just Merlin’s spell, it was also because of man.”

“I don’t understand?” Andrew queried.

SKU-000941753“Well think about it; at the end of the ‘Dark Ages’ man had already began to fundamentally change the way we thought about the universe. Science had answered the age old questions … Gravity, stars, planets, the Earth itself. People like Galileo, Copernicus, da Vinci and others changed the way we thought about life. Science was now our magic.

“Merlin’s spell brought all things magical to the realm of Avalon. In the outside world, there is only science. Here, magic and science co- exist with magic leading the way. That’s what makes the impossible possible on Avalon,” he concluded.

***

So now that we know how magic works, the next question was spells. I didn’t want to create a whole new language for spells, I decided to use one of the oldest languages as the basis for magical incantations … Latin!

First and foremost, I want to thank the University of Notre Dame (Go Irish!) for one of the best English to Latin translators online. All I had to do was type in a word or phrase and it would give me various usage options for those words. That helped tremendously in the creation of magical spells.

The last element was components. This is something I can harken back to my days of playing Dungeons & Dragons. I remembered that a simple darkness spell required bat fur and charcoal to complete the incantation. I wanted to incorporate this into my spell casting but not for every type of spell.

Since Avalon was infused with magic, simply lighting a candle shouldn’t require a pinch of sulfur. So, the more complicated the spell, the more components are required to cast the spell. Even harder spells require a magical item as a “well” to draw upon the magic of Avalon to power the spell (hint, if you want to see this in action, read The Dark Tides to see how Morgana Le Fay wields her magic through the Orb of Veles).

Magic is at the heart of a good fantasy story and as writers, we have to be the sorcerer and create the spells, components and magic items to bring the magic to life.

The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.