For those who have read or looked into my Legends of Windemere series, you probably recognize the little guy in the pictures. You also know that there was no other character who could be the mascot for this project. For those who don’t know, let me introduce you to:
FIZZLE
Fizzle is a species from Windemere called a drite. They are a small type of dragon with dragonfly-like wings. Their body is about 2 feet long and their tail is longer than that as well as being prehensile. They tend to be guardians of nature and stay invisible when people are around. Fizzle wasn’t the best at this because he was always curious about the warrior academy that was built in his territory. He didn’t cause any trouble being the headmistress talked to him first and supplies him with apples. Fizzle LOVES apples, which is an understatement. Like the rest of his kind, he possesses powerful magic and a hallucinogenic gas breath.
One thing that made Fizzle get so many fans was the way he talked. Tradespeak (English) wasn’t his original language. He learned it from a child who routinely visited the area in the past. This means the 200+ year old drite spoke like a human child, but with a slightly better vocabulary. There were times he used magic to communicate with his true voice, which was deep and guttural. Yet, most of his page time was spent speaking in adorable sentences and getting a little confused. It didn’t help that he hadn’t left his forest until the adventure began, so he wasn’t really worldly either.
All of that combined to turn Fizzle into my mascot. I could never find a way to make plushies or any type of worthwhile Fizzle merchandise, but he was the character people loved to see. Even if he wasn’t a favorite, most people had a soft spot for him. It probably helped that he was more than his cuteness and was a helpful ally. So, you knew he could hold his own in a fight and look adorable doing it.
Needless to say, I didn’t have to think very hard on what to do in regards to the interior art for Do I Need to Use a Dragon?since Fizzle exists. Once I saw that I was going to be doing sections and needed interesting breaks, I considered ways to use him. This was a daunting task too. I’m really happy with what Alison created here and it’s better than I ever imagined. Fizzle’s personality really comes through in all of the pictures that she made. It makes me even more happy to have him as a mascot.
So, feel free to check out Beginning of a Hero if you want to see Fizzle in action. If you already have and want to know more about the process that birthed him, grab a copy of Do I Need to Use a Dragon?as a 99 cent eBook or a $20 paperback.
Have you ever wanted to write a fantasy story? Not sure about the rules? Well, look no further!
Hidden within these pages are opinions and observations that MIGHT help you with your literary adventure. Boiling fantasy and writing in general to their most basic principles, I have devised a litany of short essays . . .
Do you get intimidated by colorful jargon and language in ‘how to write’ books? I mean, if you’re just starting out, your head is probably already spinning with all of the advice you’ve received. That’s why I tried to use simplicity and humor to help authors along. I’ve been that nervous, easily confused fledgling author and remember how all of the flowery language and cliché adages didn’t really help. So, I wrote this book in my own voice as if the entries were posts on my blog.
Is this only about writing fantasy? Mostly, but you can transfer a lot of the advice to other genres. I touch on being an author, designing characters, world-building, and various plot devices, which can be universal. Sure, I talk about magic and monsters, but I also discuss creating a believable world and various character types that you see throughout fiction. That means much of what I talk about is transferable if you simply replace the fantasy specific words with those of your chosen genre.
Will everything in this book work for you as an author? Maybe, but you never know what will click and what will fall flat. As I state several times in this book, what works for one author might fail for another. So give this guide a shot and see what works for you. At the very least, you might get a laugh at my expense.
It will also be available in a 564 page Paperback for $20.00!
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About the Author:
Charles Yallowitz was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but he has spent most of his life wandering his own imagination in a blissful haze. Occasionally, he would return from this world for the necessities such as food, showers, and Saturday morning cartoons. One day he returned from his imagination and decided he would share his stories with the world. After his wife decided that she was tired of hearing the same stories repeatedly, she convinced him that it would make more sense to follow his dream of being a fantasy author. So, locked within the house under orders to shut up and get to work, Charles brings you Legends of Windemere. He looks forward to sharing all of his stories with you, and his wife is happy he finally has someone else to play with.
To be honest, it really goes live tomorrow, but I’m not doing a big announcement until July 3rd. I’ve found that people don’t really pay attention to blogs on Sundays, so I’m hoping Monday’s sticky note post gets the job done. The eBook will be 99 cents for an entire month, so grab your copy now if you want. July and August are going to be all about ‘how to’ books and advice as well. A summer of craft chat and hopefully a decent amount of book sales for my first publication in 2 years.
Soooo . . . I guess I’ll give a health update. That way we get the ‘ugh’ out of the way before the exciting stuff. To put it simply, I got put on another blood pressure medication that I’m starting tonight. It’s called Lisinopril and is an ACE inhibitor. Why are all of these meds a type of inhibitor or blocker? Aren’t they blocking things that do more than affect blood pressure? I would assume the side effects are going to be nasty, but here we are with another attempt. Probably doesn’t help that I’ve been stressed out for the two days leading up to the appointment.
I am trying to do an herbal supplement too. Read that beetroot helps with blood pressure, so I’m taking 2,000 mg of that every day. Only been two days, so I haven’t noticed any major changes. I do feel a bit more energized without the side effect of my anxiety getting riled up. Kind of bummed that I couldn’t try the beetroot alone for2 weeks to see if I need the meds. This would be along with improving my diet and getting back into exercising after a vacation.
That’s a nice segue to where I was from last Saturday through Wednesday. The day after school ended, my parents, my son, and I drove up to Cape Cod, Massachusetts for some relaxation. We rented a house with a pool and it was in a nice quieter area. Not far away from the town of Hyannis, so it was easy to do some grocery shopping. We didn’t have much of a plan besides resting. Checked out a few beaches when the weather wasn’t raining. This appealed to my son who now has Pokemon Go on his phone after getting Honor Roll 8 quarters in a row. Let’s just say we did a lot of walking. In fact, he had me walking around the large park near our house for about 3.5 hours on Thursday before he went to his mom’s for her half of the break.
Cape Cod was a lot of fun and we found some good eating places. I tried to eat healthy, but it wasn’t really possible when we were out. I had a good breakfast and, at times, a good lunch, but dinner was an indulgence. Guess it’s fine since we were on vacation and I’m back to behaving and biking now.
Oh yeah . . . There was the one planned event:
Really hope that video works. I have a post with another video and more pictures going up a week from Sunday too. Basically, my son got to go whale watching for the first time. It was my third time and the most successful one yet. Actually saw whales instead of thinking I did. We took a boat out to a marine sanctuary where humpbacks lived near this underwater mountain. Had to be at least 8 of them that kept coming around and they got pretty close. There was a smaller ship out there trying to help a calf that supposedly had fishing line wrapped around its fin too. Not sure if they got the job done, but we were told that they’d come back the next day if they had to.
This coming week is going to be an odd one. The same day that I announce Do I Need to Use a Dragon?is when I got back to work. I’m working the summer Life Skills program, which is 9-2 every weekday until mid-August. A nice change from when I was struggling to recover from Covid last summer. Not to mention, I miss spending time with our students and we have a new one this summer. All levels of excitement, especially with our Thursday field trips. Definitely looking forward to the fun and being able to wear casual clothes at work.
Only other big thing going on is that I’m hoping to start writing Darwin & the Beast Collector today. If I can do 3 chapter sections a day, it would take me 21 days to get it done. I don’t have that many free days during the summer, but I will be able to write a bit after getting home from work every now and again. Still, I’m going to assume that this book won’t be finished until late September. The reaction to the new meds will also be a factor. As far as the story goes, it’s fairly contained and runs differently than Darwin’s previous adventures. I had to rewrite the outline a few times to make sure the major points are arranged and work together since I changed the overall ending. I also need to remember how a character from a previous series operates since he’s teaming up with them. Doesn’t help that the story has massive ‘Jurassic Park’ vibes since it involves the Beast Collector’s island zoo that he plans to use to make money. Had to revamp that character too. Fingers crossed that this can work, but Darwin has made all previous books go off the rails so I expect chaos.
Oh, the music video is a catchy opening song from the anime I’m watching called ‘Mob Psycho 100’. It’s about a psychic boy who restrains his emotions, but losing control if he ever reaches 100%. Kind a strange series, but I’m warming up to it. The opening rocks so much harder than I think it has a right to given the goofiness of the series.
(This is part of the section of Do I Need to Use a Dragon? that delves into using magic as a ‘cure all’. There’s a common joke that ‘a wizard did it’ and a common argument that ‘a wizard could do it’. People look at magic as the solution to everything once it’s introduced to a world. As a fantasy author, I’ve had to tackle this question and mold my world to explain why it doesn’t work that way. So, I had a lot of fun with this topic.)
what I have to get out of my system.
In Legends of Windemere, I have the character, Nyx, who is a powerful caster. I lost count of the number of times people asked me why she didn’t just blow up *insert obstacle*. This gets frustrating because the question ignores that some challenges are clearly for other characters, so Nyx wouldn’t get involved to that extent. It ignores her personality and the basics of group dynamics. She’s aware her friends will be angry if she blasts away their rivals and obstacles. Not to mention it means she’d reach the final battle against a superior enemy alongside a band of weak allies.
This question also treats magic like a cure-all for every situation, which isn’t how it should be, even in worlds where it’s plentiful. Readers may miss the nuances of this, so this question will exist for as long as people write fantasy stories. As authors, we should be more aware of this and have an explanation as to why the caster doesn’t do it by themselves.
Do I blame readers for asking this question? Not really because it’s a legitimate point in several cases. The audience might not realize the reasons behind magic not being used to solve everything because the author doesn’t make it clear. That isn’t to say it’s the author’s fault. Many factors fall into the use of magic in stories, as long as it isn’t being thrown around without consequence. If that’s the case then there’s fewer reasons for casters to solve every problem with a spell, which brings us to a truth about writing.
We depend a lot on readers catching the nuances of characters, worlds, and situations in order to avoid spelling everything out for them. Doing so can make a story boring and offend people who think they’re being looked at as simple-minded. So, an author has to work off established rules and themes without bringing blunt attention to their existence. A rampaging monster not being stopped by the powerful caster can be seen by a reader as a mistake while the author is hoping for them to see the limitations of the world’s magic. Just another reason why some people go for low and limited magic since the more of it that’s around, the louder the question.
The real question that should be asked at this point is:
Why CAN’T a caster fix it?
While it’s up to the author to give a clear reason for this, there are traditional explanations that can be modified for the story. These relate to world-building and characters, but they can have some of the most profound effects on quest progression:
Buy a copy of Do I Need to Use a Dragon? on July 3rd and find the answers!
(This one feels like it’s rather self-explanatory. Came from a time when I saw friends posting about doing all of these fun things. I couldn’t go or do the same because money and time were limited. So, I started to feel like I had fallen behind in terms of enjoying life and questioned a few decisions.)
I feel a sense of falling
While others run ahead
Leaving me with choices
That I made to pave my path
Driving me from inner child
I hear the tales of revelry
Of games I’ll never play
As I struggle to mend holes
Punctures upon my time
That suck away my air
I scramble to find time
Recapture dreams I had
Or simply grey my mind
Letting thoughts wander
Away from worlds of pain
I hope one day to run again
Leaving stress behind
To live a life outside of pain
Waking to a warming sun
Instead of blinding light
Legends of Windemere 