I’d like to say that I had an easier time with the songs for Legends of Windemere: Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue, but I’d be lying. There were a lot of aspects that I had to choose from here. This introduced Dariana, had a big evolution for Luke Callindor and Kira Grasdon, and gave a boost to Nyx. Speaking of Nyx, I just realized that she’s on the cover and this thing was published in April of 2015. Anyway, I ended up finding songs that worked better for other books than this one until I finally figured out 3 that really stood up. It’s one for each of the key points too.
I was going to use ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash (a cover of Nine Inch Nails), but I put that somewhere else. This one deals with the painful evolution of Kira Grasdon, Luke Callindor, and Sari. It’s heart-wrenching in some aspects and still has this one spark of hope that I get from the tone. The more I listened to this song, the more I felt that it worked in both words and tone.
Genuinely surprised that I forgot about this one, but I guess that comes from having finished Legends of Windemere a few years ago. This was a song that I played a lot whenever Nyx was the focus. We’re back to the fire theme for her, but that was really her thing. At one point, this was being used as her battle theme and I played it on loop whenever she fought Queen Trinity. Fits well for this story.
Now, the previous two took a while to get. This is the one that snapped right into my head to represent Dariana. We’re talking about a powerful psionic waking from a magical slumber. In fact, she’s been awakened and put back to sleep for centuries. The idea that she’s got these weird, strange dreams makes sense. It isn’t digital or dealing with a computer program, but there’s also a storyline that somebody is threatening to put her away again. Dariana is a character who fights for control at times even though it’s more subtle than her companions.
A few disclaimers here because we’re heading into delicate territory again. Eh, I’m just copying and pasting here. I am not an expert on mental health by any means. I read up on it and have my own experiences to work off, which is what fuels these posts. Also, I always try to add some humor into my posts, especially the 7 Tip Lists. I find that humor can relieve tension and allow for serious stuff to be listened to and swallowed more easily. So, let’s get to this one . . . Okay . . . Yup . . . Staring it now . . . I’m really twitchy about this one because I’m not striking close to home. I’m hitting the roof dead center.
Like depression and sadness, be careful using anxiety as a synonym for nervous or mixing the two up. This can be done and I do it a lot too. A person can be momentarily anxious and that’s fine. When it comes to the mental illness, it’s much heavier and long-lasting. A character with anxiety will see a small problem and have a reaction that one could say is ‘too big’ for it. For example, maybe they are texting back and forth with a friend, but there is a sudden stop. An anxious person will fixate on it for hours and imagine that they offended the friend, something bad happened, or any number of horrible ideas. The possibility of the friend being busy, showering, bathroom, phone losing power, or anything innocent doesn’t click very often.
Anxiety can make for awkward social situations, which may be tempting to play up for laughs. It’s easier to do it for this than depression because people may focus on the physical side to the anxiety issue. They may flail while babbling or comically rush out of the room in some fashion. If this is the tone of the story then it can work since the character isn’t the only one being the source of humor. If they’re the only ones that it happens to then you may want to rethink things.
Panic attacks are a thing and they aren’t pretty. Stereotypically, it’s shown as hyperventilating and nearly passing out. There can be more to it and the severity isn’t always the same. Chest pains, rabid heartbeat, chills hot flashes, and trembling show how some are visible and some are internal. If the attack reaches the point where the character has limb spasms because of the shaking or even locking up entirely then it shows the severity. Another symptom is itching, which I’ve noticed getting used in a few recent shows and animes. The more anxious the character gets, the more vicious the scratching.
Unlike depression, a character with anxiety can voice a source even if it’s something that isn’t a big problem. The point is that they are worrying about whatever it is that has set them off. It could be a clear issue like fighting with a loved one or needing to pay bills. Yet, it can just as easily be that they have a small pain in their arm and start thinking they’re about to have a heart attack. Could also be the wrong arm for that or it’s clear to everyone else that it stemmed from earlier physical exertion. Again, a person with anxiety has a high chance of overreacting.
Anxiety hampers the decision-making process. Once you go past the level of thinking clearly, you can’t immediately reel it in. So, these characters may have trouble acting under pressure. They can lock up or focus on a small part of the problem instead of the overall issue. Yes, the red button to save the world is in the locked safe and it’s good that you know this, but there’s also a fire-breathing dragon, lasers, and a very angry leprechaun that we have to handle first. Anyway, these characters may be snapped back to attention in some fashion, but it isn’t easy and you need to have them work up to this.
These characters don’t always have to be hyper and constantly talking when they’re really anxious. In fact, there’s a higher chance of them turning inward because their thoughts are racing. They are stuck in the avalanche of paranoid thoughts that they no longer realize what is going on around them. This is not something that should be played up constantly, but it is a possibility. Don’t use the anxiety to routinely sideline the character for the majority of scenes.
You will probably be tempted to have other characters attempt to calm the anxiety one down. Go for it, but decide on which tactics will work. Slapping and being aggressive probably won’t help. If anything, it will make the panic attack worse because now they’re upset that they made their friends mad. Positivity without any meat such as inspirational sayings or mindless cheerleading will fall on deaf ears or irritate. At least, I think they would, so feel free to ignore that one. Personally, I think having a character softly and gently coax the anxious one out of the attack is the best thing to do if you want interaction. Physical contact isn’t necessary, but an acknowledgement of emotions and slowly talking them out of the spiral can help even if it takes a lot of time.
Figure I’ll use that again. Especially since I’m going to be quick and to the point. Just here to give a heads up since I’m sure everyone is still celebrating the first weekend of 2021
As per the tradition set by me at some point in the past, I’m going to be doing a countdown of the Top 5 2020 posts. They will be on Mondays, except for #1, which is going to be on a Sunday since I had an idea for the first week of February. Anyway, these posts meet the following criteria:
First posted in 2020. Older posts don’t count here.
No reblogs.
No promo posts.
That’s really it. Hope everyone enjoys. I have to admit that I didn’t actually see these coming. 3 of them are all in the same category. In fact, I think they were all from the same week too. Definitely fitting for 2020 as well. See you here tomorrow for #5!
I don’t really know where to go with this one. Maybe it being the first goal post of 2021 has me thinking it should be big. After all, I had most of the week with my son and there were many adventures to be had. I’m actually not getting to any writing until today, so I have no news on that front. Guess I should do the day-by-day for organization. There’s going to be a fun slideshow after everything too.
Sunday
This was the first day of the full week of break for me and my son. We didn’t sleep in though because it was the Bronx Zoo Virtual Meet & Greet in the morning. This was a lot of fun. Only 30 minutes, but my son got to ask questions in the chat as he saw the animals. There were three. First was an Emu, which was amazing to watch walk around the room. The second was a broad-tailed porcupine, which was chowing down and being adorable. This animal looked more like a rat than a porcupine, but it’s considered an old-world species. The main event was the binturong, which was big, cute, and really curious about the camera. My son was giggling and excited the whole time, so it was money well spent. The rest of the day were errands and . . .
We watched ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ that afternoon. I’m not going to get into the movie because I’ve witnessed so many vicious Internet fights over it. My son enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Was it perfect? No. Most movies aren’t. There were some flaws, but I had fun watching it. That’s the whole point for me.
Monday
Okay. I might have exaggerated the adventures every day. We did a lot of hanging around with video games and Yugioh cards since it was cold and miserable. Thankfully, this day was different. We got to go for a long walk in the park since the weather was nice and my son spent several minutes watching a pair of ducks. They were sitting maybe 4 feet away from him, so he wasn’t moving until they did. I think this was the cooking and baking day for him and my mom too. Cinnamon buns in the morning and then chili with rice at night, which leads us to the big Monday event.
We went to something called ‘The Magic of Lights’, which is a 2.5 mile route at a nearby beach that is covered in holiday light displays. You stay in your car with your lights off because you don’t need them. Drive slow and enjoy the show. There’s a stopping point halfway through where they had this color and pattern changing pillars that resembles Christmas trees. I think. I’ll have a small slideshow at the end with some of the pictures, which are going to be shaky. A lot of fun had by all of us and my son was still talking about it today before I brought him to his mom’s.
Tuesday
I genuinely don’t remember what we did this day. We were tired from the late night beforehand and it was crummy weather. This was the big video game and Yugioh day if I had to guess. Since I bought Sephiroth for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, my son kept wanting to play it. He’s gotten pretty good with the character. We did some manga reading time too. After all of that, my son helped make pigs in a blanket with my mom. It was with croissant roll dough, which I thought was the norm. Either way, he thinks he came up with the idea to wrap full-sized hotdogs in croissant dough.
Wednesday
Just me and my son for the day, but it started with appointments and errands. We made a pizza for lunch, which was easy. It didn’t last long as we watched a few episodes of ‘Last Kids on Earth’. Afternoon was when we settled in for a movie that has been a long time coming. I finally showed him ‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith’. He likes Star Wars, but his memory of the other movies is shaky. Still, his seen the originals and the prequels. We never got around to Mandalorian Season 2, but I think he was out of patience for anything that had a lot of talking about this point.
Thursday
New Years Eve! Of course, an errand had to show up at this point. By the time my son and I got back to the house, we had some guests. We finally got to meet my niece (his cousin) outside of a Facetime call. My son hovered and wouldn’t stray very far from the baby who was staring at him most of the time. Some awkwardness when he sat down to hold her a bit, but he was gentle. There was a point when he offered to help change a diaper, which I had to talk him out of. Been 11 years since I held a baby that small too, so I was a little off. Eventually, I took my son to his mom’s for the evening and I spent the rest of the night watching ‘Harley Quinn’ on HBO Max while drinking a little sake.
Friday
I got my son for the day, but it was low key. We went to Barnes & Noble, but didn’t get any books. I got a 1,000 piece Boris Vallejo puzzle though. It’s next on my list once I can figure out this current one. There were some issues with today that I can’t get into, so we only did chores and played Lego Harry Potter. It’s pretty much the end of the holiday break here. Just going to rest and write this weekend before going back to work on Monday.
So . . . goals of the week?
Write this weekend and try for a few nights. Focus is Do I Have to Use a Dragon?
Back to work schedule.
Outlining when I have time.
Finish ‘Harley Quinn’ Season 2 and start ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 3. 2nd and 3rd Kenshin movies will be watched if I finish those too before the weekend.
Lots of laundry.
Try to get some biking in, but it’s so cold in the morning.
Work on puzzle a bit.
Remember to use the oil diffuser to help me sleep.
Like I said yesterday, I’m writing this in early September. Shows how much faith I have in the rest of . . . the year that shall not be named. Seriously though, I post about my weekly goals every Saturday. This is just a yearly one and I’m going with a simple list. No reason to go into details because last year was an absolute crushing of that kind of wishful thinking.
Spending as much time with my son as possible.
Continue working hard at the day job and enjoying it.
Write Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips)
Finish outlining and start writing Tales of the Slumberlord.
Tinker with other ideas as usual.
Become more consistent with biking.
Try to lose some weight.
Try to become more positive . . . I’m not holding my breath on this one.
Revive the social life to some extent.
These are simple things. As usual, the real focus is on parenting, working, and writing. Good luck to everyone this year. Hope to continue traveling along with you.
Well, here we are at the end of 2020. Hopefully. I think. Look, I’m writing this in early September just in case there’s a reason I can’t at this point. You know what I mean . . . Unless we somehow reached a point where there are multiple reasons that could explain why I can’t make a post closer to the date. Seriously, this year has been bad at nearly every level of life. It’s hard for me to remember all of the stuff that happened as if my mind is blocking a bunch. Whatever it takes to keep the psyche semi-intact. Keep slapping tape on the thing, mental defenses!
I can’t say I learned any lessons in 2020. Spent most of it in a state of anxiety and ‘what else could go wrong’ even before the ‘you know’. On the plus side, I managed to write the rest of War of Nytefall. Got a bunch of outlining done too. I’ll touch on the plan for next year tomorrow when most people are trying to sleep in or sober up. This is all about 2020 . . . May you be the epitome of societal horror and everyone coming up is a slide towards peace and stability.
Almost done with 2020, so let’s think of the future. We have one, right? I’m always iffy on make detailed plans outside of my stories. Still, you need to consider what you hope will happen, especially after this year. Let’s get right to it.
What do you hope will happen in 2021?
What do you hope remains in 2020?
Is there any event you’re looking forward to in 2021?
My answers:
Anything good and positive.
The divisiveness, but I’m sure that’s here to stay for a long time.
I’d like to go back to a movie theater, especially for ‘Venom 2’. The reason for that one is because I started collecting comics with the ‘Maximum Carnage’ story in Spider-Man, so Carnage has always had a special place in my heart. To see my favorite villain of all time on the big screen will be great.
Today we have the three songs that I connect Legends of Windemere: Curse of the Dark Wind. Without any spoilers, there is a curse that involves a dark wind. I know, totally shocking. I found these a little easier to do that the previous two because it went back to Luke Callindor, who I noticed has a more direct evolution when it comes to books that focus on him. Enjoy.
This is from the anime called ‘Rising of the Shield Hero’, which I wanted this year and really liked. The song has this sense of determination and becoming the hero that one is meant to be, which fits with Luke Callindor. He is pushed to his limits and has to make a choice as to what kind of hero he will be. Perfect choice in my opinion.
Couldn’t get this one out of my head when I was thinking of songs. The dark wind curse is very much something in the air and has a forebodingness to it. There are also events that connect with the ancient prophecy, so the song touches on both of these factors.
I know this isn’t the original, but I really like this version. While it came out after I published this book, there was something that made me think of the story when I listened. It wasn’t the words, but the mood. I think a lot Curse of the Dark Wind involves the overall mood. There is a sense of despair along with hope and friendship because it is a very difficult challenge that the heroes face. I can easily imagine them facing the dark wind curse while this is playing.
Here we are for the last ‘Crossing Genres’ post unless somebody requests pairing another one off with ‘Fantasy’. I’m open to any that I can slip into January. Not sure any will be as difficult as this one. One genre is completely fictional to the point where you have to build an entire world from scratch. The other is fictional with a solid base in reality, so people can connect to it. Still, there are overlaps that I can think of. Not much, but the advice for one can still work for the other.
FANTASY & HISTORICAL FICTION
World Building
This might throw you off a bit because many don’t connect world building with Historical Fiction. We know it’s a big part of Fantasy, especially if your story takes place somewhere that isn’t Earth. You need to design cities, magic systems, histories, cultures, landmasses, oceans, religions, flora, fauna, and the list keeps going on. Even if you use Earth, you need to design pieces that don’t exist in reality because you need a Fantasy element. It could be magic or monsters, but there has to be something different that doesn’t fall into science or diverted timelines. Now, some authors make it up as they go along while others flush out the world before they dive into the adventure. Either way, you need to create a consistent world for your stories to take place in. Compared to all that, Historical Fiction should be easy, right?
Not really. Yes, you have actual events to use as a foundation for what you’re about to do and you don’t have to add Fantasy elements. The story could be about a person who didn’t exist surviving a specific battle in history. No reason to add dragons or spells to that since it would be strange. After all, most of your readers are going to have some knowledge of those events. If not when they read then they may become curious enough to see what inspired you. Here is where world building tips from Fantasy can help. You CANNOT depend solely on the historical record to get the setting and story across. Much like drawing someone into a non-Earth or magical Earth world, you have to hit on multiple senses to create the scene. Don’t just tell people what they see and hear in a boring manner because ‘they already know’ or you focused too much on the historical part of things. Go as deep as you can to really set the stage and make the characters feel like they’re part of an organic world instead of a casual retelling.
Connecting to the Characters
In Fantasy, you need to create characters that the readers can travel along with in some fashion. It could be as a fly on the wall or an invisible ghost standing among them, but there needs to be a connection. Through this bond, the reader can get a better understanding of events. It isn’t a person seeing events that don’t have anything to do with them, which means they might not care about what happens. You want them to care about the characters and world, so you need to forge these bonds. In Fantasy, you can do this through heroic plights, tense action scenes, failures, and anything that reveals the personality of the characters. Now, this could be said for all genres, but I’ve met many who don’t think this pertains to the other half of our discussion.
Some think that Historical Fiction characters are nothing more than place settings to carry a person through events. This is very true when an author shows a fictional version of a real historical figure. We expect them to act a certain way and can become hyper-critical if they deviate from the established mode. They can become annoyed if they go too far into the more legendary aspect of a figure such as Vlad the Impaler in ‘Da Vinci’s Demons’ being ridiculously macabre. It seemed too much for some. So, this preexisting persona for both known and fictional characters can become an obstacle as much as a bridge. The way to make it more like the latter is to do what we did with Fantasy. Make these people human instead of ghosts from the past that are locked in a mold. Show their emotions, thoughts, dreams, failures, and victories to make the reader start to wonder how they would live in the era that the story takes place. Don’t expect a reader to do this automatically because you’re working with history. It would be like a Fantasy author expecting people to accept everything simply on the premise that fictional worlds have no rules. There are rules and one of them is that you need connections.
That’s really all I have for these two. Might be more generic that previously, but that might prove my overall point. Advice for one genre can be used to help with another, so don’t just ignore authors who don’t write in your circle. You never know what you can learn from them.
Legends of Windemere 