Week Before the Break: Could Have Been Worse

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Not really sure what to talk about as far as this past week.  I’m looking at my list of goals and I don’t think I did very well.  Biking wasn’t as consistent as I wanted.  Still need to read over the War of Nytefall: Lost outline instead of a skim.  Didn’t even touch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.  Pizza never happened because I tried to put it off for a day with a light dinner and that didn’t happen.  No April posts scheduled and no extra sleep gained.  The only things that were accomplished was Longbow of Ichabod Brooks outlines getting done and my wife’s car coming back.  The latter wasn’t until later in the week because of a small issue and I have to bring it in for an oil change today anyway.  So, it isn’t like I get a reprieve from being the only driver.

Speaking of cars, mine isn’t doing too hot.  It still gets me from one point to another, but we have a problem with the locks.  Specifically, putting in the new door handle resulted in a part of the lock breaking.  If we can’t fix it then it means only one door can be opened from the outside.  Not to mention the inside of the doors are crumbling due to the car’s early life in Florida.  Moisture is always building up in it too.  Trade-in is pointless since it’s a 2000 or 2002.  Going to have to get a new car somehow.  Honestly, I’ve had this one since 2007 and it was used back then.  The fact that it doesn’t give me any engine problems and hasn’t needed much work is a miracle.  Oh yeah, there’s no way I can afford a new car.  Ugh.

Can’t really think of anything else this week because it was all errands, resting, and trying to do the outlines.  Doesn’t say much about me, especially since the previous weeks have all been chaos and disaster.  Next week, my son has off, so I won’t be doing much in terms of writing.  We’re starting with a big zoo trip and then most of the days have been claimed for various outings.  Maybe I’ll take whatever free time I get to work on April posts, which will give me a leeway when I start writing the second War of Nytefall book after this coming week.  I know I haven’t even published the first, but I need to churn out the first drafts to cover losing the summer.  During that time, I can do some editing at night or work on the finale for Dawn Addison.  This way, I won’t have to scramble once the fall hits.  Besides, it’s fun getting into the new characters and stories.

Actually paused writing this to go over that outline because I wanted to talk about it to some extent.  Not to mention I had to go to the bathroom and it’s easier to carry stapled papers than a laptop.  One thing I’ve noticed about War of Nytefall: Lost is that it has a lot less Clyde than I expected.  In fact, the action really follows this new character who is basically a beacon of chaos.  This might be an interesting twist to the series since it demonstrates an unexpected aspect of the Dawn Fangs.  Massive amounts of world-building here, so maybe it’s good that Clyde become more of a ‘passenger’ than an ‘influencer’ of events.  While he is the main character, part of his story is how he struggles for control and learning to be more of a gang leader.  This whole thing definitely throws him into the deep end of civilization leadership.

As far as the first book goes, I’m still on the fence about another editing run.  Done two on my own, my wife has done two, and another person read it over.  I have about a month or so before release time as long as things go smoothly.  Another read through isn’t striking my fancy for some reason.  Many would say this is now excuse, but I sense that I’m at a point where an editing run would result in changes for the sake of changes.  That always causes messes.  Well, I have a week to think about it.

Goals of the week?

  1. April posts when possible.
  2. Zoo trip
  3. Movie day.  Thinking ‘Peter Rabbit’
  4. Lego Batman the Video Game time
  5. Build a Lego set
  6. Go over War of Nytefall: Lost outline
  7. Read more Rurouni Kenshin
  8. Try to get some extra sleep

(Anybody get their reblog button back?  Mine is still gone.)

Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 33 Comments

Drama in the Genres

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Toy Story

Young Adult– Drama with acne and hormones

Historical–  Drama trying to teach you about the past

Fantasy–  Drama caused by a dragon or wizard

Science Fiction–  Drama . . . in . . . SPACE!

Thriller–  Drama with suspense

Horror–  Drama with blood and guts

Mystery–  Drama with shaky alibis

Cop Story–  Drama behind the badges

Memoir–  Drama that happened to me

Dystopia–  Drama in a depressing wasteland

Utopia–  Drama in an optimistic wasteland

Zombie–  Drama with optional brains

Vampires–  Drama that’s a pain in the neck . . . Yes, I went with a pun

Comedy–  Drama with laughter and flying pies

Tragedy–  Drama that never ends well

Western–  Drama on horseback

Paranormal–  Drama that goes bump in the night

Children– Drama for the wee ones

Speculative Fiction–  Drama under a wide umbrella

Non-Fiction–  Drama most of us can unfortunately relate to

Action Adventure–  Drama with adrenaline and explosions

Romance–  Drama with kissing and goo-goo eyes

Erotica–  Drama with . . . can humans really bend that way?

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Gregorio Roman: The Half-Blind Hermit

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Nosferatu

Gregorio Roman gets that picture because he’s the oldest of the characters and kind of shows his age.  He’s a gnome who has stayed in his lair doing experiments to the point where his eyes have trouble with candlelight.  There are tinted goggles that he uses, but even those give him a problem.  As you can guess, he isn’t one of the action characters since he isn’t strong, appears frail, and has no interest in getting his hands dirty.  In fact, he’s only one of two characters from the main cast who were never a tabletop RPG character.  So, where did he come from?

All of my close friends at the time of the initial creation ended up having a character that they either played or was based on them.  Well, everyone except one friend.  He did have a character for one or two games, but it was a combat, muscle character that didn’t have anything else.  I already had a few of those and this is a guy who, whether he realizes it or not, can be a rather versatile template.  That still didn’t make it easy since I kept changing the character around until the following incidents combined:

  1. I was designing the gnomes in more detail and this friend kept making jokes about them destroying things.  He began sending me messages about summoning his gnome army to rule the world.  This first led to me making him the inspiration for Voran the Gnome God, which made him ‘worse’.  A few weeks later, I came back to War of Nytefall and made Gregorio Roman a gnomish inventor.
  2. We were both into DBZ for a while and one of the jokes was that one of us would grow up to be Master Roshi.  He’s an old man that is fairly strong, teaches Goku and Krillin when they’re kids, and is rather lecherous.  It’s a common thing in anime/manga, but Master Roshi was the first one of these characters we ran into.  He also introduced us to the nosebleed reaction when a character is aroused.  Gregorio isn’t nearly as bad as Roshi, but he does ask the female characters for a lot of hugs.  It’s as far as I wanted to go with the ‘dirty old man’ template.

    Master Roshi

  3. Our interest in discussing philosophy and life in general had created a lot of email chains.  I liked the idea of this ancient vampire being wise without the arrogance that you normally see.  Gregorio developed this sense of having seen the world and becoming a little bored with it.  History hasn’t surprised him for so long that he left everything behind.  This led to an occasional lack of social graces too.
  4. This one is hard to explain because it either came from Futurama or Jewish grandparents.  My friend and I love the show, but he’s not Jewish, so it’s probably the first one.  Gregorio does this weird guilt trip and sarcasm thing at times even in the test scenes.  It’s fairly amusing, especially when he does it to Clyde or Mab because neither of them take it well.  Then again, he doesn’t really do it with any of the others yet.  He’s polite with the noble characters and the others have this fear about going to his lair because of the stories.  Most of those were spread by Clyde in order to give the old gnome his privacy.

Unlike the previous entries, I have no funny story with Gregorio because he was never in a game.  The only tidbit I left out is what he means to the other characters.  I’m going to let people have fun and guess, but I’ll put the answer in a future profile since he has a connection to another character.

Posted in Character Origins, War of Nytefall | Tagged , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

7 Tips to Being Dramatic . . . In Fiction

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Yahoo Image Search

Adding drama into your writing can be tough and many are leery about adding this due it skewing toward the negative.  Yet, it’s fairly unavoidable if you sit down and consider what can be born from it.  We may even add it without realizing what we’re doing.  There are days I think we all have different views and definitions of drama.  Some people consider it a genre while others call it a literary tool.  So, are there any tips that can cross every genre and be seen as universal?

  1. Drama tends to be seen as highly emotional, which means it can be the cornerstone of conflict.  When a person or character goes through change, they have emotions that guide them just as much as thoughts.  This is part of their growth, so we have to consider this in our writing.  Without this type of drama, the characters become stagnant and never change.  There might not even be a story at all because every event has at least a touch of drama.
  2. It doesn’t always have to be negative.  A definition of drama is ‘an exciting and emotional series of events’.  That doesn’t mean it’s always bad.  Sure, there can be some downturns, but the characters can remain optimistic or happy.  We tend to relate drama to characters being put through some type of trauma or being pushed to the brink of sanity.  Yet, it really doesn’t have to be that way if you stick to the mentioned definition.
  3. You can still have humor when working with drama.  There is a type of person who will crack jokes in the face of stress and despair.  Others will do it when they’re happy.  My point is that you can still have at least a basic level of comedy when drama is taking the spotlight.  It’s risky though.  You’ll have readers that don’t like this, but everybody has their own take on when the right time for humor is.
  4. Male characters are allowed to cry too.  Doesn’t matter if people see it as a sign of weakness.  Crying is a natural response to physical and mental pain.  The character’s equipment doesn’t change this, especially if he’s struck in the equipment.  That could be either a dramatic or comedic event.
  5. Drama doesn’t have to be the main plot point of a story.  Sometimes, it works best as a subplot to give a specific character a stronger foundation.  This is especially true for genres like fantasy, science fiction, and horror.  Their focus can be more on the adventures in that world, which isn’t always drama.  So, while the characters proceed along their path, these smaller, personal stories can help them evolve.  It doesn’t even have to be for the main story, but to pose them as multi-dimensional characters.  After all, those of us in the real world deal with our main job and personal dramas all the time.
  6. There should be a payoff for drama since it can be very taxing on the author, characters, and readers.  Going through an unexpected and emotional event with no closure can feel like a waste of time.  You don’t have to have a clear idea of the finale of the drama when you start, but it needs to be there.  This also has to make sense within the context of the story.  Twists are fun and can earn praise, but they can backfire if there’s no foundation to make them plausible.
  7. Never be ashamed of including drama within your story.  These things happen in real life, so why should fiction be any different?
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Promoting a New Series in the Same World

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

World of Ranger’s Apprentice

Back in 2013, I began blogging to promote Legends of Windemere and the ideas for blog posts came flowing.  The monsters, characters, magic system, kingdoms, lore, and everything had yet to see the light of day.  I introduced people to Windemere before they stepped into the books.  Not only that, but I revealed the inspirations and behind-the-scenes for the whole thing.  Talking about world-building is an easy topic to use for blogging because it’s so difficult and immense that there are so many nuances.  After 5 years, I touched on a lot.

And that’s part of the problem.

War of Nytefall takes place in Windemere.  It’s a couple hundreds years before Luke Callindor set out to become a hero, but the magic, monsters, and lore are pretty much the same.  Since the story has a big focus on the evolution of Dawn Fang society, I can’t post much about that.  There are only so many vampire topics you can do too.  This leaves me struggling to find a way to bring attention to this series and get people talking.  The world is old, but the series is new. That’s a conflict that I’m having trouble getting over.  It resulted in my first topic list being more comedy than serious posts.  This might get easier after the book is out and I have less to hide.  Still, I’m finding myself struggling.

So, I’m going to open the floor to see what people think.  How do you promote a new series in a world that has already had its core discussed at length for previous promotions?  Is there anything people want to know about War of Nytefall?  This is probably going to get harder and harder as I progress to series that take place after Legends of Windemere.

Posted in Legends of Windemere, War of Nytefall | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 38 Comments

Drama, Drama, Everywhere!

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Yahoo Image Search

Maybe it’s because drama has a slightly different meaning these days, but I find it a difficult subject to discuss.  Randomly ask a friend what they think of drama with no context and they’ll talk about the real life stuff.  You know, the stress and headaches of being a living being that interacts with other living beings.  There are days I wonder if the majority of people have no recollection that drama can also be a genre or at least part of a story.  It’s a fairly broad category too since it could be considered more tool than stand alone genre.  We tend to have it be second such as historical drama, cop drama, romantic drama, science fiction drama, comedic drama, etc.  Makes it pretty hard to talk about since it’s so widespread.

Personally, I think drama is one of the best ways to evolve a character.  These are your conflicts that range from personal to global because there are things at stake.  People aren’t involved in drama when they are living a quiet life and that goes for the literary tool as well.  So,  you need it to push a story forward and get your characters to change.  Most times this relates to relationships, which is that different from real life.  The people we interact with cause us to change either through getting along or opposition forcing us to reevaluate our own views.  This should be the same for our characters if we want them to be more relatable.  I’ll go more into this on Wednesday with a 7 Tips post.

So, what do people think of drama in fiction?  Is it possible to avoid it or is this the crux of conflict?

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Off the Beaten Path & How to Get There

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Great post about ‘off the beaten path’ marketing.

P. H. Solomon's avatarStory Empire

“Off the beaten path” is an interesting turn of phrase. It implies traveling in ways that are uncommon or discovery of little-known places of interest. Being off the main path can offer a variety of benefits. I love going to a local state park where I can take the less used trail with the dogs, especially on cooler days when there’s definitely fewer people at the park. It’s like being off the beaten path.

Out there, you may find both wonders and the least expected. Where will your journey take you? Can you make it both enjoyable and informative – for yourself and others?

When it comes to marketing there are some broadly traveled paths. Facebook and Twitter are constantly used and should be. Likewise, many authors use email marketing and blogging as their main reader outreach. Others use giveaways and free books. All of these are frequently used and…

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When Free Time Appears

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Fantasy Magneto

The work is done
And the project is filed
Editing is too soon
No time to start another
As an event begins to loom
What can a person do?

It’s been too long
And life still calls
You lose a day in thought
Guilt and shame
Will come to call
Nurtured by those who judge

Chores and errands
Will be your fate
If people see you idle
No sleeping in
Or watching shows
Without running yourself ragged

You end the week more tired
Stress higher than before
Free time became a curse
Because you were denied
By self and others
To truly enjoy your time

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One Step Forward, One Shove Back, Two Stumbles to the Side

Posted on February 10, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Okay, I’m a little worn down here because my son’s martial arts class needed a third adult for the sword-fighting fun.  It was only 5 minutes, but I wasn’t ready.  Those kids are fast and relentless.  Not to mention short.  For a guy who did fencing as the little guy, my instincts are more aiming high.  Low was an experience.  Lots of unexpected fun, but I wanna lie down now . . . I can’t because laundry, some blogging, and then haircuts need to get done.

Good news is that I finished writing Quest of the Broken-Hearted, which is the summer release.  When in the summer?  Not sure because it depends on other events that are up in the air.  I’ll need to look for a cover artist for this since I tend to use someone other than the main series for my one-shots.  I don’t know.  I’ll ask Alison if she’d be interested.  This is going to be an interesting book in general for a variety of reasons.  It gives closure to a character from Legends of Windemere, which means there are series spoilers in there.  That’s unavoidable and I might put a warning the book blurb.  I haven’t figured out how to handle that one.

Also, this is a very action-oriented story where the hero has to defeat a monster in every chapter, except the first.  The trick was to keep the action high while still allowing character growth and development.  This led to some unexpected twists and on-the-spot rewrites near the end, which was exhausting.  I should have known it would happen when an earlier chapter resulted in an addition to the cast.  This might be why the final paragraph of the entire book took an hour to write.  I had altered so much that the final piece of foreshadowing/closure needed to be reconsidered.

That was the step forward, so I’ll get to the shove back.  My wife still doesn’t have a car and we’re hoping that changes this week.  It means I’m still doing all the driving and errands, which includes getting her to work and then getting the kid to school.  I haven’t been able to do my biking in weeks because I need to shower to wake myself up enough to handle the traffic.  Getting my son to school is typically us leaving at 8:30 for a 15-2o minute trip, but we’ve had to leave at 8 for a 40-50 minute trip now.  I’ve come dragging my carcass home to clear social media/email stuff and dive right into writing.  Weekends haven’t allowed me to hand responsibilities over to my wife because she can’t go anywhere unless I drive.  Even if I drop her off, I can’t get too far into things in case I need to get her.  With my son, you never know when you might have to do an immediate exit.

Because of this and my son having his Winter Break the following week, I’m not sure what to do this week.  I was considering another editing run of War of Nytefall: Loyalty, but I found that I’m comfortable with the story and my wife is doing a second read through to check continuity for the reader.  Jumping into it and changing things around might undo what she’s doing.  I considered editing Derailing Bedlam, but that’s a 2019 release if I can even make it that far.  People might suggest lounging around because I’ve been working so hard.  I considered that, but then remembered that I’m made to suffer if I appear idle.  This week might be Ichabod Brooks outlines and preparing more future posts to clear the way for writing War of Nytefall: Lost.  Since I won’t have the summer to do big writing projects, I need to bust my butt.  I will go over the outline for that book and I’m already seeing a problem with the Prologue.   At least, I think it is.  The issue is more that it doesn’t have any of the main characters, so it feels like it will be brief.  Just sets up the new threat that Clyde will face.

Speaking of blog posts, I’m trying to come up with topics for April and May.  March is Hype for War of Nytefall and that will carry over into April.  Possibly even May, but I’ve run into an issue.  I’ll go more into detail on Tuesday, but it’s become very difficult to think of topics.  Part of the issue is that vampires have been done and I’m working with my own species, so some topics won’t work.  Hold a cross in front of Clyde and he’ll think you’re offering it to him as a gift.  Coffins aren’t a thing and the list goes on.  So, I’m trying to focus on flushing out the Dawn Fang’s world.  Yet, it could result in spoilers and they’re still in Windemere.  The overall world was explored and blogged about during the Legends of Windemere years.  This means I’m not sure what to do here and I might be looking for topic ideas on Tuesday after thinking more about this.  Feel free to pose any questions that could be turned into posts here if you have anything.  Follower feedback is always important.

So, what are the week’s goals?

  1. Get my wife’s car back.
  2. Return to biking 15 minutes every morning.
  3. Pizza reward finally.
  4. Ignore criticism for indulging in pizza reward.
  5. Watch Fullmetal Alcheimst: Brotherhood.
  6. The Longbow of Ichabod Brooks outlines.
  7. Revamp outline for War of Nytefall: Lost
  8. April posts if nothing else to do.
  9. Try to get a little extra sleep.
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Let’s Talk About Romance – Guest Post by, Jaq D Hawkins…

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Charles Yallowitz

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

It’s February and with Valentine’s Day giving the month a romantic flavour, it’s a good time to talk about romance in fiction.

I’m not a Romance reader, but shhh! That wasn’t always so. As a teenager, I used to enjoy a good Romance story and if I’m honest with myself, I still do. Far be it from me to insult a genre or a reader who enjoys it!

The thing is, for me to call a Romance story a good Romance story, it has to satisfy the criteria for a good story. I don’t make allowances for genre. And quite honestly, Romance stories that focus exclusively on the romance aspects of the story don’t often qualify for the standards I set for any genre.

We’ve all heard of the imprints that churn out simplistic stories to feed a hungry readership for a quick emotional romantic fix. Let’s call them H…

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