Legends of Windemere Fantasy Bundle #1
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Galdo’s Gift: A Groundbreaking Children’s Storybook
Very interesting project.
The Book Machine recently featured a post by Ken Jones, explaining his inspired use of e-book technology to create an animated, interactive children’s storybook. Ken, who’s also running the Understanding eBooks event in London on April 25, worked with UK design and animation studio Tapocketa to develop their magnificent hand-crafted eBook, Galdo’s Gift.
An eBook, Not An App
Image: Tapocketa
What’s unusual about Galdo’s Gift is that it’s NOT an app, even though it is available on Apple Store. This is because of their belief that an app would entail higher production costs, while books as apps really need to be offered for free to succeed–and even then are lost in a world of games.
Instead, they used the fixed-layout EPUB3 standard, which builds on the modern open standards of the web (HTML5, CSS3 and JS). The word ebook conjures up a dated image of a gray page full of…
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A Useful Tool for Monster Creation: Nature Videos
David Attenborough and a Bear
Being a fantasy author, one of the cornerstones of my world building is the unique fauna that I put within Windemere. Not only the dragons and griffins that have been in the genre for years, but creatures that I’ve made on my own. This isn’t easy to do since so much has come before me. Many times, I find it simpler to go through mythology for creatures or nothing more than inspiration. Yet, there is another tool that I highly recommend to authors who are looking to create monsters from the ether:
NATURE VIDEOS
- The most obvious help is in giving you physical attributes that can be added to your homemade monster. Not only how they look, but how they’re used by the original animal. For example, simply putting crab claws on the body of a gibbon can be really cool in a visual sense. Yet, they won’t be able to swing because of how the claws are supposed to work. Another thing to consider is that some crabs have a big claw and a little claw. Watching a video on these animals can help an author understand the positive and negative changes.
- You can learn about the food chains and environments of our world. Take this information to design your own habitats with the new animals taking on the roles of real life counterparts. Some authors gloss over this, but I believe that you need to design real ecosystems for your creatures. This gives them another dimension instead of being threats to the heroes. Consider that they are as natural to your world as bears and squirrels are to our world. That means they need a role in the habitat.
- Going a little back to #1, there are more ‘pieces’ you can take from animals besides their physical forms. Many creatures have special abilities like venom, immunity to some natural toxins, regeneration, etc. By learning about these and how they function in the real world, you can add them to your monsters. They won’t seem out of place this way because you know more of the details. For example, you can learn about different types of venom before choosing the kind. Spider, scorpion, and snake don’t always do the same thing.
- Behavior is another subject that these videos can teach you about, especially if you have a knowledgeable narrator. Personally, I’ve used this to understand the different types of animal groups. Lion prides operate one way while wolf packs are another. Herds of herbivores end up being something else entirely. Prey tends to be more alert and can be scared away easier than predators. Some videos will show you what certain types of animals will do in the face of disasters like floods and fires. This can be used when a big event is about to happen in your story. Retreating wildlife is always a big sign that trouble is coming.
- One interesting part of some videos is when they go into the interactions between humans and animals. It’s a little tougher with monsters since they tend to have less fear towards us than mundane beasts. We write them as inherently aggressive and destructive to the point where they don’t even feel like part of the ecosystem. It can come off as them being unnatural, which can harm the world building unless you explain where they came from. Aside from monsters, you can learn about the history of taming animals and design new livestock. Considering these animals are int he story because they’re going to interact with the characters, it doesn’t hurt to learn about how such interactions work in the real world.
There’s always more depending on what you’re going for. The list can include breeding, eating habits, migration, hibernation, and whatever else you might need. A key point is to treat your monsters like they are part of the environment. Give them reasons to exist beyond threatening adventurers and getting killed. Books are different than video games here where random encounters don’t really do much for either party. Besides, it’s a lot of fun to learn about animals and use that knowledge for fiction.
Posted in Thoughts
Tagged animals, epic fantasy, fantasy, fiction, high fantasy, Legends of Windemere, magic, monsters, nature videos, sword & sorcery, Windemere, world building
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How Many Accounts is Too Many? #SocialMedia #MondayBlogs
Great post on social media for authors. What’s your opinion?
Happy Monday, SEers! It’s a new week and a new subject. Lately, friends, family, and I have been discussing social media. Even co-workers. I’ve come to realize many people have a love/hate relationship with social media, or at least some of the platforms, and the bulk of activity that takes place there.
I’m not here to debate the merits of social media, rather to offer some suggestions on how to best use it as an author. As writers, we need to have a social media presence. The world exists online, therefore it’s a necessity we’re there too. Obviously, there are tons of social media outlets available, but when does your message become diluted?
In the world of advertising—regardless the nature of your product or service—the goal is to achieve Top of Mind Awareness. TOMA is the golden standard everyone hopes to attain.
If I say “dandruff shampoo” you’ll probably think…
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Music Videos Brought to You By the Munchkin
My son wanted to do a blog post, so I gave him Sunday. He’s been listening to a lot of music on the radio, so he wanted to share his favorite songs. I’d let him type, but he’s already come very close to various deletion and log out buttons.
A Week of Re . . . Ha! Not With the Kid Around
Gandalf
I write this the night before while I listen to my wife realizing that I wasn’t lying about the munchkin being hyped up all day. That’s been the theme of the week. If he wasn’t playing with Legos throughout the living room then he was playing the Lego Batman game. If he wasn’t doing those then he was asking me about songs on the radio, trying to type on my blog, pouncing, or finally succumbing to his cold for a few minutes. Seriously, he would rush himself around until he was wheezing and then be off again once he could breathe. I got him to lie down twice on Tuesday and that was it.
As far as activities go, it was fun and fairly simple. We saw ‘Peter Rabbit’ on Sunday and then made a Lego set with Lex Luthor, Firestorm, Cheetah, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Monday was a full day at the zoo. Tuesday he went with my parents to a stage showing of ‘The Lion King’ for kids. Wednesday was relaxing with game and toys. Thursday was martial arts camp. Friday was relaxing with game and toys again. All of this made me realize that there really isn’t much to do on the February break when the weather is messy and the kid gets a cold. Best to stay warm and regain energy for what ends up being a busy 5 weeks before the Spring Break.
Speaking of that next break, the space gives me just enough time to write the first draft for War of Nytefall: Lost. People might be wondering why I’m diving into the next book before the first one is published. All I can do with War of Nytefall: Loyalty is wait for a final editing run by the wife. Instead of twiddling my thumbs, I’ll dive into the next one. This is good for me because I won’t be getting much done over the summer beyond editing and maybe the Dawn Addison finale. The reason is because my son won’t be in school like previous years, so July and August will see him home. He might be in camp for a bit, but that can’t be depended on. Judging from this break, I need to get myself ahead in my projects. This is where my years of outlining and planning really save my kiester. As far as War of Nytefall: Lost goes, I should be able to write it in 4 weeks and I’ve been studying my outline. More so than any other time because this is going to be a really wild ride.
Thankfully, I was able to get some work done this week. When my son played with his Legos, I set myself up in the dining room to schedule blog posts for April and May. This will cover the promos and hype for War of Nytefall: Loyalty. Means I have very little idea what I’m going to do in June, especially since I’m hoping to release Quest of the Broken-Hearted in July after the 4th. That one still needs editing, beta reading, and cover art. It was tough one to write because it was very action-based due to the story, so I won’t hand it off until I edit it in April. That’s going make things pretty tight as far as beta reading though. Another challenge for 2018. This is what life may end up being with the kid not have summer school.
In other news, I will be having the house to myself for a few days coming later in the week. At least during the day, which will be both good and bad. I can work anywhere in the house without interruption, but I have to do all the cooking and errands. Since my wife and I will be able to use the Internet-capable TV, we’ll be watching some things at night, so that will cut into the writing time. Think we have Castlevania, live action Full Metal Alchemist, and a few other things saved on Netflix. There’s one anime called Gurren Laggen that I want to check out, but we might not have time since it’s only going to be for a few days. Not to mention, all of our other shows come back and it’s a mighty weight that you don’t want to fall behind on.
I realized something with Facebook recently. I happened to be on my mom’s account and didn’t realize it until I saw my last post turn up at the top of her news feed. It was there and then it disappeared before I could click on it. This made me wonder if people are seeing me at all. A lot of pages that I follow do this on my feed like The Daily Show and Humans of New York. I have to go directly to their page to see anything, but they do work on my phone. Is this what Facebook considers an improvement? I’m having a lot of trouble rationalizing staying on there since it feels like only 4-5 people ever see what I’m doing.
So, what are the goals of the week?
- Start writing War of Nytefall: Lost.
- Cook Penn with Vodka Sauce on Friday. This is always fun.
- Get back into biking.
- Drive kid to school.
- Do a few May blog posts if unable to write books.
- Watch some Netflix if possible.
- Mourn another long delay of pizza reward since I refuse to do it during a project.
Posted in Goal Posts
Tagged blogging, goals, Legos, parenting, War of Nytefall, Winter Break, writing
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Reviews 2018 – Victorian Murderesses: A True History of Thirteen Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes
3.5 stars
This is not a bad book, but it’s not particularly good either.
The cases included in this text are:
– Marie Lafarge and Euphemie Lacoste;
– Madeleine Smith and Angelina Lemoine;
– Celestine Doudet and Constance Kent;
– Florence Bravo and Henriette Francy;
– Gabrielle Fenayrou and Adelaide Bartlett;
– Florence Maybrick and Claire Reymond.
Good points:
- The French cases were largely unknown to me and that aspect was interesting. The comparisons between French and English middle-class society and the position of women were fairly well discussed.
- There was a mix of cases, although all were ‘respectable’ women from the time. What was expected of middle-class women, and her own expectations – marriage, children and running the household – were discussed at length. Many had arranged marriages – often to men much…
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“Whill of Agora: Epic Fantasy Bundle (Books 1-4)” by Michael James Ploof
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