Excerpt for Gritty Fantasy Romance "Disciple"

Today's Blog Tour stop is the first book in L. Blankenship's Disciple series. This book is described as a gritty fantasy romance and is soon to be followed up by Disciple Part II on April 1, 2013. I'll be hosting another stop for Disciple Part I on the 25th, so check back here for an interview with the dashing prince of this tale! Until then, be sure to check out Disciple Part I on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo among other places!

The saints favor her, else-wise a peasant girl like Kate Carpenter would never be apprenticed to the kingdom’s master healer. But her patron saint also marks her ready for the duty of tending to a mission that must cross the ice-bound mountains. Their little kingdom faces invasion by a vast empire and desperately needs allies; across the snow-filled pass, through the deathly thin air, is a country that’s held off the empire and may be willing to lend an army.

Kate knows about frostbite and the everyday injuries of wilderness travel. She can heal those.

She’s not ready for the attentions of a ne’er-do-well knight and the kingdom’s only prince, though.

And she isn’t ready for the monsters that harry them night and day, picking off their archers first, wearing the party to exhaustion, pushing Kate beyond the limits her healing abilities.

She must keep them alive, or her blood will be on the snow too.

Excerpt:

Snow still fell when Ilya shook me awake in the middle of the night. The patter of flakes on the overhead tarp blended with anxious whispers and sharp coughs. A pony puffed nearby and hooves shifted.

“Ulf says stay close,” Ilya whispered in my ear. “Get the bedroll off and flat so nobody trips. Careful of Acorn, he’s right here.”

I blinked and rubbed at my eyes and a whiskery horse nose nudged my cheek. Acorn shifted away as I struggled out of my bedroll and to my feet. I put my arm over his neck for balance as I kicked the heavy blanket off and tried to spread it flat. Puck snorted, close by too.

The fire, half sheltered by our tarp lean-to, had lowered to glowing coals. Ulf and Sir Kiefan stood on the far side with their backs to it, one with bow and nocked arrow, the other with sword in hand. Kiefan asked something of the woodsman and he muttered a reply. Beyond them, the black forest waited, crusted by a layer of snow that glowed blue when moonlight fought through thin patches of the clouds. Tumbling flakes kept up a quiet patter as we all fell silent, even the ponies.

Fear drove off the lethargy of waking so late, but there was nothing to see in the clusters of squat pine trees and thickets. Ulf and Kiefan moved a few steps apart, tense and alert. I wanted to ask what was wrong.

Lantern eyes lit up beyond the fire, paced by, and vanished. A shape moved across a snow-laden pine branch. That coughing sound came again, from the moving shadow, and it was answered from behind me.

Ilya, holding Acorn’s bridle beside me, whispered, “Mother Love, we’re surrounded.”

I sidled closer to the middle of the tarp, though it meant letting go of the solid mass of the pony. Ther Boristan stood holding Puck. A few steps out from that side of the lean-to, Bjorn faced the forest with bow and arrow ready. Beyond him, another pair of eyes caught the light.

“I could stoke up the fire,” Ilya raised his voice to a murmur.

Ulf answered, as he was closest. “They’re not afraid of fire. Whatever you do, stay together. Stand and fight.”

I looked over Puck’s rump, and Sir Anders stood watch on that last side with his sword in hand. A snow-covered bush there offered a clear backdrop for the form that stalked across it. The lamia were perhaps the size of a hunting hound, if bulkier in the shoulders. Their tails ran long and hairless, and lashed like a cat’s.

I felt around in the dark mass of bedrolls and found my medicine bag. With it on, I was a little more useful. I’d taken my dagger off for the night, but I’d be little help with it.

A bit of wind drove the snowflakes in my face for a moment, then they fell back. The lamia stalked their circle around our smaller circle and coughed to each other in little patterns. Snow slowed its pace, and the moonlight strengthened. I watched along with Ulf and Ilya and Acorn, all of us shifting on our feet.

The lamia went still and silent. Ulf’s bow rose as he drew his arrow halfway.

Interview with Author James Wymore (Theocracide)

It's Author Interview time again in my corner of the blogosphere and I am more than thrilled to announce that today's victim willing participant is none other than my amazing mentor for the Haunted Writing Clinic and Contest, James Wymore.

Yes, I am pausing for applause. Why? Because he deserves it! I'm clapping, dangit. And you will be too by the end of this interview. This is actually the first stop on my blog for the Curiosity Quills Sci-Fi Tour, so if sci-fi is your thing, make sure you check back here for more on James as well as his cohorts in this tour, Thea Gregory and Anthony Mathenia. And some giveaways, of course. ;) For more information on Theocracide (and most importantly, where you can purchase it), you can find the blurb following the interview.

Question: Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the questions, let's start with your book Theocracide. What can you tell us about your main character, Jason, and the trouble he is about to be in?

James Wymore: Jason has grown up with a secret.  Everybody considers his father crazy and he spent his youth listening to conspiracy theories and heresy.  The up-side to it all came when Jason went to college and found the doomsday training he hated as a child made him strong and skilled so he excelled at sports enough to get a scholarship and lead a championship team.  The down-side is that police are constantly harassing him and he has to try and keep all of it a secret from his new girlfriend.

Q: What was your inspiration for Theocracide?

JW: The inspiration for this book came spread out over decades.  I thought of the rail cars in high school.  I came up with the idea for an Undying Emperorin the middle of teaching a science class one day.  The idea for computer glasses hit me when I was waiting for somebody at the dentist.  I started drawing and writing in the end pages of a paperback I brought to read.  Eventually all the ideas kind of fused in my mind and I knew I had to write this book.

Q: Your biography mentions that you were a teacher before you decided to start writing on a more serious level (like when you wrote The Forbidden Novels in high school). More often than not, we find that authors have to balance writing with the lives they lead and the jobs they already have. What can you tell us about what your process was when you first ventured back into novel-writing territory? How did you balance your life with your dreams?

JW: Life always came first.  I had time to write in high school, of course.  During college and starting a family I only wrote a few short stories here and there.  Then as I settled into a career and my kids grew, I gradually found more time to write again.  I spent a disproportionate amount of time on brainstorming and world building at first.  It took a long time to work through a novel.  Eventually I started taking it more seriously.  I found I had to cut back on other pursuits (games, video games, television) in order to free up more time for writing.  I still envy authors who don't need a day job.  I know my work would improve much faster if I could dedicate myself to it full time.  I'm hoping to get to there in time.

Q: Writing science fiction can seem like a daunting task for some authors because of the science aspect of the genre. What kind of research did you do for Theocracide?

JW: This book doesn't have as much science in it as most sci-fi.  It's set in the future.  However, the technological advances are really all in the computer glasses.  Everybody wears a pair of wrap around, clear glasses which use a camera to scan the world and then project images right over what they see.  So people literally see whatever they want to.  This over-stimulated, media based culture has led to a decline in many technologies because most people spend their time in the virtual world.  It mentions space travel and time travel, but only in passing.

Q: Are you more of a pantser or a plotter when writing a novel?

JW: I am more of a pantser.  I've written both ways, but as this book progressed I found the characters and situations often surprised me.  In fact when the ending came, it crashed down all at once, leaving me in shock.  It's a real rush.  I recommend it to anybody.

Q: Theocracide has been published with Curiosity Quills Press. What has your experience been like with them?

JW: I have loved working with CQ from the beginning.  Everybody I worked with there has been awesome.  When I submitted my work, I didn't realize what a great business model they have.  It's different from any other publisher I've looked at.  As the publishing industry changes around new communication and distribution systems made possible by the Internet (Amazon, print on demand books, etc) everybody in the business has been looking for the best way utilize the new technology.  Of all the places I've looked at, CQ has the best, most forward thinking structure.  I really believe this company will grow exponentially.

Q: Did you always set out to publish with Curiosity Quills, or did you try querying agents with Theocracide first?

JW: I tried other agents and publishers before CQ without any success.  However, some of the early drafts I sent out needed work.  I'm sure CQ wouldn't have wanted it before I did the later drafts.  Now I am glad it worked out the way it did.  There are a lot of advantages to publishing through them, which will play out better in the long run.

Q: As someone who has served as an amazing mentor for authors looking to get published (no bias here, of course), what sort of advice can you give writers working on their query letters?

JW: (Thanks!)  What I recommend for query letters is planning to write several drafts.  Start by writing a general query you can later tailor to each publisher or agent.  I've found every time I change something to be more clear or include more details, it becomes clinical and loses the most important ingredient-- voice.  The way I found to fix it is to work on one letter until it has all the right details in it.  Then, toss it out and write a new one completely from scratch.  The new one will have the right information, but in a fresh voice.  It took me several tries to finally get the right combination of information and voice in my query letters.

Q: You have your writing soundtrack for Theocracide linked on your website. How do you choose the songs for your soundtrack? Do they have a particular draw or beat or is it more about the inspiration for particular scenes that pulls you to them?

JW: Music has always been important to me.  When I write I often play music to match the mood of what I'm writing.  So when I saw some writers putting soundtracks out for their books, I knew I wanted to.  I have a pretty big collection of music and as I build a book I collect songs matching the themes or ideas into a playlist.  By the end I pare it down into a soundtrack.  I did all the editing rewrites for Theocracide to this soundtrack exclusively.

Q: What is ahead for your writerly future?

JW: I already have a second book under contract with another publisher.  Exacting Essence will be out soon from Wolf on Water Publishing.  I also have a book entered in the Curiosity Quills Press Na-No Virtuosos contest.  It's called Salvation and anybody who sees this, I'd appreciate you going to the website to vote for me!  I have two short stories coming out in themed anthologies inspired by Kurt Vonnegut and H. G. Wells, as well.  Of course the long term goal is to get to where I can be writing full time.

*insert applause here*

News headlines in the future repeat endlessly. Aliens bent on conquering the world close in on a weakened America. Epidemic alien-flu leaves people afraid to go outside their homes. America, led by the Undying Emperor, is drafting people of all ages despite the plummeting world population. Nobody really cares. They live in a fantasy facilitated by computer glasses, which project images right over the parts of the world they don’t like.

With a sports scholarship and an amazing girlfriend, Jason had it all. As captain, he led his college team from one victory to another. His new love, Di, created digital artist in a world where life didn’t exist outside of the virtual. As long as they ignored the constant barrage of terrible news, their lives would turn out to be perfect. Perfect, except for Jason’s secret.

Jason liked to imagine his family was just dysfunctional in the usual ways. He easily concealed his father’s rampant paranoia because the man lived alone in the wilderness like a hermit. In a world where everybody saw whatever they wanted, nobody noticed Jason’s father. But when Jason goes to visit, his father drops a bomb on him. Jason’s very existence is a heresy against the Undying Emperor. People would burn him at the stake if anybody found out. Also, his father secretly dedicated his life to finding and assassinating the theocrat.

Why did his father wait so long to tell him this? Because he didn’t want to worry Jason until the government found out. Why was he telling the secret now? The government just found out. They are coming to get them both.

Theocracide is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Want more of Theocracide? Check back here on January 15th for an interview with Jason before watching his journey unfold and also on February 1st for an excerpt from the book and a chance to win your very own copy! 

Interview with Author Vanna Smythe (Anniversary of the Veil series)

I feel like it has been forever since I posted any personal updates on here, but I have so many exciting authors lined up for blog tours that they are all I want to talk about! Today's author is Vanna Smythe, who penned Protector and the recently released sequel Decision Maker in the Anniversary of the Veil series. Stay tuned after the interview for the blurbs on both books and the chance to win Protector!

Question: Decision Maker is the second book of the Anniversary of the Veil series but you mention on Goodreads that the book can be a standalone. What can you tell people about the series that are just hearing about it for the first time?

Vanna Smythe: Anniversary of the Veil is a planned 3 book series and tells the story of a young soldier, Protector Kae, and Princess Issa who get caught up in a huge, world-altering and life-changing event.  Each of them has a separate role to play in this event (the so-called Anniversary of the Veil) and both have tough choices to make. Decision Maker concludes the story started in Protector, but I thought that, as a story in itself, Decision Maker can be read as a stand-alone novel.  Though it is greatly enhanced by the first book ;)

Q: I love how your biography on your website reads like a story itself. You've lived in European cities for most of your life and seem to be inspired by them. Do you have a favorite spot in any of these cities where you feel more inspired?

VS: I like Paris for its whimsical, historical feel, but I feel most at home in Italy, Venice and Rome mostly. Something about the easy way of life there just pulls me right in.

Q: What can you tell us about your process? Are you more of a pantser or a plotter?

VS: By natural inclination I’m more of a pantster. I can sit down and complete a novel in 3 weeks from start to finish. But I am very bad at revising, which is why I’m now learning how to plot better before I start writing.

Q: You have a pretty quick turnaround between the publishing of the first and second books (which makes us readers cheer!). What can you tell us of your process for writing the series? Did you already have the second book mapped out before the first was published?

VS: This kind of ties in to the last questions. I did a scene-by-scene, plot outline for Decision Maker, which greatly shortened my writing and revising time.  It basically took me 6 months to write and revise the second book. I want to short this time to 4 or 5 months for the next one ;)

As for planning a series, I have a document where I write all the major world-building points and the different characters’ traits. I also have a general idea of where I want the story to go and how I want it to end, but I generally let the story itself dictate the ending, if that makes sense ;)

Q: Could you see your series turned into a movie or television series? If so, who would be your ideal cast choices for Kae and Issa?

VS: I am so woefully out of touch with who’s who in Hollywood right now. But I see my series being more of a TV or HBO show, with maybe a bunch of new, non-famous but excellent actors ;)

Q: Do you have a soundtrack that you write to or are you more of a quiet writer?

VS: When writing Decision Maker I listened to those sounds of nature mp3s. Sometimes it was the only way that I could get into a writing mood. I can’t listen to anything with lyrics when I write, but I might try some classical music in the future. 

Q: What was the inspiration for Anniversary of the Veil series?

VS: I did some research into the phenomenon of Twin Souls and soul mates once, and thought it would make an excellent fantasy plot line.  Twin Souls are basically two halves of the same soul, existing in separate bodies.  In my story, Issa has a Twin and she feels a very strong pull to join again with.  This is a central point of the story, but I build a very complex world around it ;) I don’t want to give too much away, though.

Q: Some self-published authors set out to do so from the start whereas others try to go the route of traditional publishing first until they decide to strike out on their own. What made you decide to self-publish?

VS: I didn’t even try the traditional publishing route first.  I’d spent over a year and a half revising Protector, and I really didn’t feel like waiting another year or two before it was published. This, and the success indies are enjoying right now was why I decided to self-publish. So far, I don’t regret it.

Q: Publishing too soon with too few edits is one of the biggest complaints people tend to have about self-published authors. Your blog announced when you had sent the manuscript of Decision Maker off to the editor. What is your editing process with self-publishing? When do you finally say "This is ready" without the fear of publishing too soon?

VS: Well, to be completely honest, I wasn’t 100% sure that Decision Maker was ready when I published it.  But I also didn’t know how I could make it better still ;)  I had three good beta readers and my editor go over it, and all agreed it was good. One reviewer even said it was better than Protector, so I guess I was right about it being complete ;)

For Protector, on the other hand, I had about 10 beta readers and my editor go over it, so I was fairly certain it was the best thing I could produce. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and can’t let other people read what I write unless I am absolutely certain it is the best work I can produce. I’ve worked in journalism and copywriting for over ten years now, which helps in seeing when something is good enough to be published. But I would definitely advise any indie author to not get lazy on the editing part. 

Q: What is ahead for your writerly future?

VS: I’m starting Book Three next week ;) I hope to release it in spring. Then I also have an idea for a new series I want to start. 

Q: Your covers look absolutely amazing. What can you tell us of the process of choosing cover art?

VS: I designed the cover for Protector myself. I put more then 40 hours into finding the artwork, figuring out the concept, etc. mainly because I had to learn Photoshop to do it. For the second book, I had the concept but not the time, so I hired an excellent cover designer. I’ve also, since then, found many awesome images on sites like shutterstock.com and bigstock.com, which I might use for future books. If I have more time, I might actually do the last cover myself ;)

Duty versus love is the one battle warrior Kae doesn't know how to fight.

Kae has trained his entire life to become an elite Protector of the Realm. But when he earns that honor he finds himself protecting something far greater: the Veil separating two worlds. On one side of the Veil lie untold stores of magic. On the Realm's side, magic is all but obliterated, and Kae is one of the few who can use it. The priests who secretly rule the Realm will do everything they can to control his growing magical abilities. He's willing to pay the price, even though it comes between him and Issa, the princess he loves.

But the Veil has weakened over a thousand years and powers on both sides will stop at nothing to keep it intact. Strangers from the other side have kidnapped Issa to take her across the Veil and sacrifice her to strengthen it. Kae is the only one who can find her. If he goes after Issa, he loses everything he's worked so hard for. But if he chooses duty over love, Issa will die.

Decision Maker is the second volume in the Anniversary of the Veil fantasy series. It concludes the story started in Protector, but can also be considered a standalone book that you can read at any time. Though it is enhanced by both Book One and the upcoming Book Three.

Kae, a warrior Protector, has followed Princess Issa across the Veil separating two worlds. They were told Issa will be a key player at the Anniversary of the Veil, but have been mislead! Kae will have to make a terrible choice when the Anniversary finally comes. He is the Decision Maker and will have to play a part in a ceremony that will join Issa's Life Force with her Other Half - but in so doing, it could leave her senseless or worse, dead.

As the King fights to find his daughter, as the Priesthood is falling apart; Kae has to decide if he will kidnap the Princess to stop her Joining and force her into a life of unhappiness, or if he will allow her to Join and thereby leave her a mere shell of herself. Meanwhile friends and foes alike are showing only half-truths to both Kae and Issa. They must make the most important decision of a lifetime without enough knowledge. How can they know it will be the right one?

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Writerly Lessons: What I Learned This Week

As I mentioned in my other blog post, I attended WriteOnCon for the first time this past week. I have also had a really eventful non-writerly week as life is taking off in full force the week before classes begin again. So I will be brief so that I can get some time in to actually write today. Stay tuned for the end for a special little announcement!

Lessons I Learned This Week:

Word Count: The New Bane of My Writerly Existence!

A few weeks ago the bane of my writerly existence was synopses, shortly followed by query letters. Now? Well, now it is just word count. You would think that words of any sort--counted or not--would be a writer's best friend. Right? Wrong. At least, not when you are writing something that falls into the Young Adult category and have a word count that is over 70k.

Like, way over 70k. Twice that to be precise.

Writerly Query Experiment

Instead of writing anymore on book three (even though progress is lacking), I have decided to take some time to work on my query letter since I had a stroke of inspiration for it. And since it has been a whole five minutes since I blogged, I thought I would leave it to my wonderful readership to help me decide which to use. Or if I should scrap the entire thing and start fresh. All (polite!) comments are welcome. Except for spam about male enhancements. Or spam in general.

On to the query letters!

The first also happens to be the one that I so boldly (and possibly stupidly) sent out almost two weeks ago to twenty four literary agents. I might owe them apology letters. You guys tell me. I sat down and wrote this, hoping to capture some of my writerly essence in the voice, and then didn't bother to revise much at all.

Writerly Dilemma

For those of you who follow this blog and happen to be beta readers (*coughfamilycough*) of my series and don't want spoilers, stop reading now. For those of you who follow this blog and do not actually share DNA with me and intend on reading my series when I eventually publish it...Well, first of all: ohmygoshiloveyou and second of all, stop reading if you don't want spoilers.

That being said, here's my dilemma: I hate book three. Those of you who know me in real life have heard me bitch about book one in much the same way but it's different, I swear. I am just plain tired of book one because I have rewritten it countless times and edited it even more (and I'm still not done with it). I love book two. Book two is full of awesome. It's exciting, it's sad, and then it's exciting all over again. Book three...well, the plot elements are necessary, but they are also something I am deeply struggling with.

Writerly...Insanity??

Call it insanity, if you will. I call it daring. Okay, maybe daring isn't the right word for what I just did, but I'm not convinced insane is either. Not yet.

Now, friendly readers, you might be asking yourself the obvious question: What the hell did you do already?? I'm not trying to build up dramatic suspense here. It's just a little hard to say out loud (which I tend to do as I type--again with the question of insanity.). So what did I do?

...I queried.

Self Publishing Too Soon

I get it. I completely understand how this happens. It has been one of my biggest complaints in reading self publishing works as well as one of the biggest cons I have seen in articles about self publishing. You can always tell when an author published their work before it was truly ready for public consumption. You can see it in the typos, the formatting, the cover art, and sometimes in how the story is presented as a whole. Editing and cover art are the two issues I am going to touch on because they are the ones I am struggling with right now.

From what I understand of the traditional publishing world (which is admittedly very little as I am still peering over the cliff that is publishing before making that leap), a manuscript is usually not only given a copy editor but a content editor as well. And from what I understand, typically you have more than one copy editor. They are given (or create, little confused there) a style sheet that is basically a cheat sheet to you and your work and then they get to editing. 

Writerly Cheats

Let me preface this post by saying that calling the tools I use to (hopefully) make me a better writer "cheats" is a bit tongue in cheek. I've never actually come across writers who think using a thesaurus is a short cut, but I've read quite a few that I wish would use one. That being said, I've decided to blog about the tools I use in the hopes of not being one of those writers.

I tweeted about this earlier (@MaraValderran for those who want to follow), but I'll elaborate here. In scouring the B&N store on my Nook, I came across this wifty book called The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi (available on the Nook and Kindle as well as hardcopy). I have to say that this book has been my saving grace for some really sticky points in my books. I'm a very conversational and dialogue driven writer, so when you get down to descriptors I am usually banging my head against the keyboard with a lot of choice expletives, but not exactly the kind of words I'm searching for. This book has really helped me to expand on the way I describe the emotions of my characters so that I am not depending on the dialogue so heavily and I am not resorting to just telling the reader how my characters are feeling ("He was sad. He cried."=lame).  Instead, I can look up "sadness" from the list of emotions they give you in the contents, and find the physical signs of sadness, the internal sensations, the mental responses, cues of acute or long term sadness, cues of suppressed sadness, and even what sadness might escalate to.

Meet Mara

As this is a new blog, I feel that the best way to kick-start it is by telling you who the heck I am. As you might have guessed by the title, I am Mara Valderran. I am a soon to be self published author currently right smack dab in the middle of writing my very first series, which is titled Heirs of War. I'll be posting excerpts from the books, character profiles, and other fun stuff as well as posting about my writerly exploits in general. And since I am also an avid reader, I will most likely be posting reviews and recommendations on here as well. I look forward to blogging more as it is sure to lessen the amount of time I spend talking to myself about these things!