Back when I was in grad school (VCFA), each new class had the assignment of choosing a class name. Usually these names had something to do with books or writing. My class chose the Secret Gardeners based on the book The Secret Garden.
With that being said, this is the second of two holiday season book giveaways (the first described in this post), this time featuring three more awesome Secret Gardener classmates: Laurie Morrison, Laura Sibson, and Nicole Valentine, all of whom stopped by for a brief chat today. Though they appeared on the blog here, here, and here to discuss their novels, and copies were given away before, another copy of each book will be given away this time. ’Tis the season!
Click here for the synopsis for Up for Air.
Click here for the synopsis for
I was a little confused when I stumbled onto the debate about the use of dialogue in fiction. At first, I thought it was the method or amount of use, which is probably how it started. By the time I showed up to listen, the people were divided into two camps. One claiming that dialogue is an essential tool of storytelling and the other saying that it was an archaic trope that is no longer necessary. Well . . . I’m only going to touch on what I think about dialogue because I’m sure this differs depending on the person.
As I’ve stated many times over the years, I write in third person present tense. This means you’re reading stuff as it unfolds and it’s through a spectator perspective instead of a first person narrator. Because of this, I can’t really use flashbacks to cover explanations of places and events. It’s clunky and disjointed if I’m leaping through time periods when I write in this style. I can jump forward, but the past becomes the present if I go there and that gets confusing. This means I have fewer exposition tools for world-building and the dreaded info dump can look rather appealing. I used this when I started and tried to use flourishing language, which is what made me wordy in my writing. Unfortunately, I can still slide too far into the past by talking about the event in detail in a way that makes it sound like it’s happening now. What can I do?
Dialogue to the rescue!
As long as I have a character who would know the information I wish to share and another who is curious, I can build the past into my world. In Beginning of a Hero, it was Fritz Warrenberg who did this as well as Fizzle. Throughout the rest of the series, I had nearly every character step into the role of tour guide/teacher. It was all done through dialogue and having someone ask a question that a reader would have either at the time or down the road. Think of it as a preemptive Q&A. If I couldn’t have the characters converse then I wouldn’t be able to explain a lot of stuff. Another benefit here is that many of them were not that verbose, so the explanations went right to the point. It’s a much better route to take than the info dump, which can result in a lot of extraneous details that will turn a reader off.
Outside of the world-building, I find dialogue is where you can show more of the characters. They demonstrate how they feel by using various tags or adding body language to the conversation. You can keep the second part even if you get rid of dialogue, but it can miss the mark at times. I have seen people state that tags need to go because they’re too restrictive. While I can see that argument, I wouldn’t try it and think there is enough variety and nuance to keep them alive. Sure, ‘he said, she said, repeat’ is dull, but you still have claims, says, exclaims, yells, mentions, explains, shouts, moans, groans, mutters, whispers, etc. I see that as being more helpful in demonstrating a character’s emotions and development.
So, what does everyone else think about dialogue? Anybody agree that it needs to be retired?
Bill Murray from Stripes (BTW- There is no meeting.)
Here’s my first call for anyone who wishes to help promote War of Nytefall: Eradication. This is the 4th book of my vampire series. To be clear, nearly every character is a vampire and it follows the events surrounding the appearance of a new breed called Dawn Fangs. The war has been fairly cold with other enemies stepping between the old-world vampires of Nyte and Clyde’s new kingdom of Nytefall. This time, it’s a cult that has broken away from the Sun God religion and possesses a weapon that may have the power to kill Clyde the Dawn Fang progenitor. He might actually have to fear this thing.
My goal is to release the book at the end of February and continue hyping on my blog in March. I’m going to be asking volunteers to choose a day in March and try to spread people out in that month. The choices of posts (sent in html or Word) are the following:
General ‘Book is Live’ post with blurb, teaser, author bio, cover, and sales info.
A specialized post that we can discuss a topic for in the comments or by email.
I’m really hoping to get at least a dozen volunteers, so please share this post or direct friends to it. If you know anywhere that I can go to ask for help then I’ll head over there too. It’s been a long time since I tried to set up a blog tour, so I’m kind of rusty and out of the loop. Any help would be appreciated.
I’m writing this Friday night before I pass out, but I can’t tell if the post or the collapse will win this race. A common statement among people I know is that this week felt like it went on forever. Not always in a bad way, but there weren’t many moments to breathe. Ended on Friday the 13th too, so maybe that’s what caused all the trouble. Had a really full and big moon for the last night or two as well. That would explain a lot of what I was getting thrown my way.
Now, I got 1.5 chapters done last weekend, which was a great start. It would have been more, but I had some errands that stopped me from finishing the half. My plan was to do that throughout the week, except I found that the universe was destined to make me routinely collapse on my bed by the end of everything. The big chapter I wrote was actually an all villain one because I had a few scenes that got pulled from the flanking chapters. She hadn’t made an appearance since the prologue, so I needed to give her more time before she became more hands on. I’m enjoying this character because she’s kind of a like Chastity Sullivan, but with less shame and morality. Basically, I’m writing a very lustful and conniving character who is smart enough to know that she has to avoid going up against Clyde without a secret weapon. Very different from the more arrogant villains who have littered War of Nytefall. I’m looking forward to writing her again next weekend even though she’s spawned from a rough source.
School was busy because we had field trips, a dance on Friday night, and I had to run around helping with a lot of other things. Only one week left before a two week break, so there’s a lot to be done. The field trip went off smoothly and the kids I was helping did great. I managed to snag two puzzles (Detective Pikachu 1,000 piece and Prince John from Disney’s Robin Hood 1,000 piece) as I followed one kid through the toy section. I mean, I literally had to do a quick scan and yoink as I power-walked by because this was a kid on a mission. As my dad said, it sounds like I got my steps in. My legs are kind of numb as I write this.
*eyes getting heavy*
Briefly, I’ll say that the Friday dance was a lot of fun. I brought my son who got to meet several of my coworkers and students. He was really nervous and had some crying fits before we left the house. Almost had one at the dance, but I was able to take him for a walk and show him the classroom I work in. He was amazed at the fridge, washer/dryer, and kitchen set up. Though not as amazed as he was about the small rocking chairs we had. The thing that had him nervous was that there were ‘so many teenagers’ and they were ‘so much bigger than him’. After pizza and sweets, he got the courage to hit the dance floor and got into. It was when there were fewer people out there that he began making friends and showing off. At one point, he told me he met a girl and pointed at someone with a big grin. Made it through the whole party and now he’s in bed. Tomorrow is a big day for him with his morning activities and then we need to start moving my stuff into the basement for the painting happening the week he’ll be with his mom . . . Well, that’s as good an opening as I can find.
Possibly the biggest drain on me is from a week long issue. As usual, I can’t go into details, but the ex-wife and I were butting heads for most of it. Culminated in a rough therapy session that gave me flashbacks to our marriage counseling days, which was a massive drain on my mind and body. We have a major difference of opinion on something with my son and there’s no middle ground that we can find right now. By the time this post goes live, I’ll have already met with her again on neutral territory and maybe things will have taken a better turn. I unleashed a lot of what I’ve kept pent up for the last year, but I don’t think it meant anything. All it really did was exhaust me by the end of the week and stop me from writing the last two sections of this chapter.
Oh, did have a parent/teacher conference for my son. We’re pinpointing his strengths and weaknesses since it’s the first one of the year. I’m seeing how his actions at home mirror what I see in the reports. Best thing is that he tries, participates, and everyone thinks he’s a joy to have around. I find these very important because it means he can socialize when he gets comfort. With how he gets nervous, I worry that he can grow into a person who avoids others and that can really hurt his future. More so than the toe-walking, head-banging, arm-flapping, and any other physical tic that people focus on. If you can make people happy that you’re around then you’ll have friends wherever you go, which is a good life to lead.
I have no real plans for the week. Getting things ready for painting and writing a bit whenever I can. I’ll be doing more with my blog preparation than the novel. Might take a night to work on a blurb for War of Nytefall: Eradication. We’ll see how tomorrow’s ‘Volunteers Needed’ post goes. I really hope to get people asking for specific topics, so I can get things ready and more unique. Talk more about that tomorrow though.
Goals of the week:
Get room ready for painting.
A little blog work for March.
Work on any volunteer requested posts.
Write a chapter or two of War of Nytefall: Ravenous
Read more ‘Overlord’.
Finish this circular puzzle before I have to pack away the table.
Remember gloves when cold in morning and umbrella when raining.
Cry to bed after scheduling this post, especially since it just took me 4 tries to write ‘scheduling’ (5th try!) without screwing up. I’m out . . . But only after writing and scheduling (YES! First attempt nailed it!) because I’ll be awake and active once this goes live. Later.
I was asked a few months back to write about the motivations of heroes and villains. This was the be done separately, but I found the topics overlapping. That and I thought it would work better as a comparison. After thinking and comparing various pairings, I find that the above picture is true and so is this:
Heroes are defined by their villains.
Yes, they have individual aspects, but a hero is only as good as his or her villain. If they are facing a bungling fool that is easily toppled then they can seem weak or overpowered. A hero can be the underdog, but not the villain. Otherwise, you wonder how the bad guy got so far in the first place. This is why the motivation of antagonists should probably be designed before those of the protagonist or at least connected in some fashion. It will be a strange story if the villain is out to steal a precious gem, but the hero is out to save the world. Those don’t really match up unless the gem is essential to destroying the world in the first place.
I’m just going to list some tips in regards to motivation because it will always vary depending on the story. A cattle rustler in a Western will differ to some extent from the undead dragon that has recently awaken from its crypt. So, I’m going to try to talk in generalities instead of specifics.
Even if it doesn’t start that way, the hero needs to develop a motivation that counteracts those of the villain. They can’t keep following a path that won’t lead to conflict. If the story ends with the hero succeeding in finding his true love while the villain has blown up the planet then you have a problem. In fact, you may have been telling two stories at the same time by accident.
Villains can possess a heroic motivation such as saving a loved one. It’s how they go about doing it that makes them the antagonist. A hero may travel the world to get the cure for his dying mother. A villain may harvest organs from unsuspecting college students or rob a bank. So, the motivation can be anything, but it’s evolved by the character’s actions.
Heroes and villains can possess the same motivation if they are chasing the same thing. It could be the throne of kingdom, a magical relic, the hand of a potential lover, or anything. While actions can define who is who, this is where the second half of a motivation can come into play. This would be what they plan on doing with the target of motivation after gaining it. For example: Character A and B want the McGuffin. Character A wants it to prevent his college from being shut down. Character B wants it to buy a nuclear weapon and take revenge on his high school football team. Both are motivated to get the same thing, but their motivations split when it comes to what their final goals are.
Motivations can change as situations change. In most cases, it’s the antagonist who causes this to happen or at least makes the jump faster. Seems protagonists are commonly a few steps behind here. A villain progressing faster can force a hero to alter their course, so this again shows how they are connected. You can really sense how they feed each other in terms of a driving force. Even if the hero gives less to the villain, their presence means things won’t run smoothly. Those pesky do-gooders tend to get in the way.
As you can see, motivations are interlinked to some extent. Personally, I believe villains guide this area of a story more than heroes. At the very least, they give the heroes something to aim at in terms of getting stronger. A secondary motivation to gain more powerful for either side will stem from their rivalry. That’s another point I should make before I finish:
Characters can have more than one motivation!
They’re just like goals in that way. We’re all driven by multiple influences in our life, so we can be motivated by more than one thing as well.
Today, he’s sharing with us some ideas on promoting books on Instagram. As Instagram is one of the social media I’m least familiar with, I was keen on finding out more about it. I hope you find the post as informative as I did!
How To Promote Your Book On Instagram
Writing a great book is difficult, but it is only a beginning. You also need to…
First, a big thank you to everyone who has followed this entire story. Hope you all enjoy the ending. Will Cassidy and Lloyd ever return? I don’t know. For now, they’re going to be relaxing and taking smaller jobs. I think they’ve earned a break.
As usual, here is your warning that this story has cursing, sex (not graphic), innuendo, and violence. It’s my Rated-R action adventure called Derailing Bedlam. This is the fourth outing (third official) for Cassidy and Lloyd, so feel free to click on one of the two covers to see how it started. Each one is 99 cents!
I was trying to decide if I wanted to do this as a thought piece or a poem. The former won because I didn’t think the latter would work too well. This is actually connected to when I did a week on the ‘Perverted Character’ and got some rather visceral reactions. A lot of strong opinions against it, references to real life crimes, refusal of redemption, and the list goes on. I found this odd since I’d written posts on assassins, serial killers, warriors, and many others who solve problems through violence. Not a single condemnation on any of those fictional types and people never brought it into reality.
Now, I already touched on the why and such during that week, so this could end up being a rehash. People would rather battle over sex than touch on the violence. In fact, we couldn’t stay on the topic of violence for very long. So, I’m actually not really sure where to go with this topic . . . Time for the seat of my pants.
Personally, I think it’s easier for all of us to create a mental and emotional distance when it comes to fictional violence. While we see a person dying on screen or in a book, we know that there isn’t a real person being hurt. A big reason for this is because we don’t always have that kind of experience to make it real. Some people do and might react differently to seeing violence, but the majority of humanity doesn’t have that in their history. Yet, most people have some connection to sex and attraction. This makes it more real and we can picture it better. We can also see ourselves being in a sexual situation with more ease than violence. This is just what I get from talking to people, so you might not be in this boat.
Another thing is that we are bombarded with violence to the point where we build up an immunity. It’s part of our entertainment. Even some children shows will demonstrate a punch or something get hurt. You would think this creates a sensation of it being more real like what happens with sex, but we get desensitized a lot more to violence. It could be because there’s no shame or apprehension about showing it. The villain needs to get punched. Death is part of life. You need to fight, sometimes physically, to protect what you hold dear. We rationalize violence to the point where it is seen as a viable action when faced with a problem.
The difficult thing is that violence in fiction does capture attention because it’s a form of action. We, as a species, love to be excited and action is one way to do it. My stories would be really dull if the champions defeated the Baron with the shaking of a finger. Maybe it’s because bullies and those who do harm tend to only listen to the same tools that they use, which is violence. You can’t see it done any other way in some situations, so to remove violence would severely limit the types of stories you can do. Even a chase scene will have some violent aspects such as crashing into things and breaking stuff. It may seem we’re trapped with this being an acceptable tool in our creative arsenal.
So, what does everyone else think of violence in fiction?
Where to even begin with Trinity? Over the course of Legends of Windemere, she has worn the mask of a villain, hero, savior, tormentor, victim, friend, rival, and a few others. I think she’s the most diverse one of the whole cast because I had to move her from one spot to another. It wasn’t really supposed to be this way either.
Trinity is the ruler of a species called ‘Chaos Elves’. These are a species of elf that maintain some of the demon taint that was thrown into the mix of the original model, which nearly destroyed Windemere. They live on the shadowy continent of Shayd and are known for being deadly assassins. Although, they used to be known as annoying pranksters before the Great Cataclysm happened. Very few people know that Baron Kernaghan’s prison cracked enough that he managed to enslave the chaos elves and turn them into his personal army. He’s gone through many puppet rulers to keep them under his thumb, but now he has Trinity. This might not be a positive for him.
Originally, Trinity was a deal-loving caster who debuted in Prodigy of Rainbow Tower to counter the power of Nyx. She was actually stronger at first because she had more experience. While Nyx trained for most of her life in Rainbow Tower, Trinity took the throne and became an agent of the Baron at a very young age. By the time she appears in the books, she’s had a lot of kills and misery under her belt. Plenty of suffering too because she’s done what no other ruler has done before. She accepts the punishments of her people, which has kept many of them alive because the Baron would never dare to kill her. This upbringing always made me think of Trinity as a mirror image of Nyx and that either one could have become the other under different circumstances. In fact, this is a plot point for one of the books when Trinity confronts Nyx . . . This is also where I began having problems.
I always expected Trinity and Nyx to be bitter rivals who would push each other to the highest levels of skill. Then, they’d settle their feud once and for all with all of the hatred coming out at once. Unfortunately, I could never maintain their hate because I would see how they’d respect each other. Nyx wouldn’t hate Trinity who does evil to protect her people. Trinity wouldn’t hate Nyx for following her destiny. This would result in them being forced to team-up at times, especially since both of them despised Stephen Kernaghan. I did manage to create a few scenarios where I could have them really throw down with each other, including their final encounter. Yet, it never had the emotions that I wanted. Instead, there was an odd amount of pain and anguish that they felt when doing battle. It came alongside a sense of pleasure and excitement since nobody else could challenge them in the same fashion. So, my bitter rivalry became a friendly one that made me change a lot of stuff later on in the books.
For those that made it far into the series, you probably know more about the Trinity/Stephen stuff. This is probably the darkest I got and it’s a big reason I hated the guy. I was never sure if I should be overt with the fact that he had raped her and probably threatened to kill her people if she said no. Before anyone freaks out, I’ve made it clear many times that Stephen is the irredeemable monster of the series and I had to take a shower whenever I wrote a scene where he wasn’t getting his ass kicked. I think Trinity helped to flush out the horror that he was and it strengthened her a bit because she got to fight back at times. There’s a big scene that touches on this and Nyx is involved too, but it’s kind of a spoiler. I didn’t let this part of Trinity’s history define her either. It was another scar for her to have among so many others, but this is the one I think about the most.
Come on in and put on a toga to join in the ambiance. It isn’t mandatory and you can put it over your clothes. Judging from the eye twitches, I’d say you’re an artist with either a deadline or more coffee than blood in your body. We’ll wait on visiting the cafe in case it’s the latter. Don’t mind our resident doctor checking you as we walk. Want to make sure we aren’t going to have an issue. Now, what kind of muse are you looking for?
Yes, it is strange that we can build muses here, especially since artists have always believed that they are chosen by these mystical beings. That’s how it went in the old days, but anyone can be an artist now thanks to social media. Now, our muses might not be as great as the natural ones, but can you really risk your future on such whimsical figures? Best not to tempt fate, which can be altered at my brother’s store. You don’t really want to know the prices on that unless you’re desperate. How about we sit down with the Zeus book and put things together?
Start by telling me what kind of artist you are. Architectural comedy . . . You might have to explain that one to me. Okay, I get it now. You design buildings that make people laugh and sell them to amusement parks. Not to parks? People pay you a lot of money to live in places that others will laugh at. The wealthy of this world sure have taken prank presents up a notch. Well, you’re going to need to see our Thalia package. We can’t give you an exact clone of her due to a possibility of smiting. Apparently, making pure doubles of magical beings is frowned upon and we no longer have the licenses to sacrifice goats on the property. We can come very close, so here’s the information.
Going male is a good idea and it’s up to you how much clothing he wears. There is no correlation between a muse’s amount of dress and the inspiration they cause. I assure you there will be no sexual attraction. Our products are designed to give off an anti-pheromone that will help you focus on your work and not your libido. That means you need to send them away if you want to spend time with your significant other. Now, I can have the muse be of any age. Middle-age is fine and we currently have a sale on blondes due to an overstock issue. Redhead it will be, but keep the price in mind for later. Please check off the other boxes. Scrawny, brown-eyed, tall, good teeth, hairless body, and perfect nose. I’ll send this to the lab right away while we do the final touches.
There needs to be some magic involved. How do you want them to communicate with you? We have whispers, dreams, shadows, stars, clouds, electronics, spirits of the dead, erotic cakes, foggy bathroom mirrors, an assistant named Helvin, and many other possibilities. The only thing they can’t do is interact directly like you would with another person. Takes the magic away from the whole thing and makes us wonder why you don’t get some friends to talk to about this. They want you to be an author instead . . . Can’t tell if they’re giving you good or bad advice. Now, what will you have? Oh, we don’t do blood on the walls any more because it attracts ants. The muse can mess with the paint if you’re willing to clean up the mess. It will be entirely by picture instead of words. Just put this symbol on any wall he can use and that will be that.
Thank you for coming and please take these blood pressure pills as you wait for the bill to come. It’s not that you should be afraid of the bill. Our doctor simply has some concerns about your health. Hey, don’t make eye contact with him. He has a glove on and his muse is always bugging him to use it.
Back when I was in grad school (VCFA), each new class had the assignment of choosing a class name. Usually these names had something to do with books or writing. My class chose the Secret Gardeners based on the book The Secret Garden.
Legends of Windemere 