Rant: Don’t expect me to follow you back if you don’t have a “Follow me by Email” option on your blog. I read my email several times a day. I never go into my Reader. I love engaging with my audience. Make it easy for me. Rant Over. (Notice the new message in the side bar.)
Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…I have news:
Naked Alliances is going on sale for $0.99 on January 15th. This is coinciding with an ENT promo which will start the same day.
I’ve never promoted a book in this genre. The historic fiction did well with ENT. I understand that FaceBook, where ENT gets most of its traffic from, has a high population of females 35-55 years of age. I’m curious to see how Naked Alliances does there.
Don’t despair if you miss that sale. I tried to get the…
While people do pick favorite heroes in Legends of Windemere, there really isn’t a central hero once it reaches Prodigy of Rainbow Tower. Luke Callindor is the first one we meet and Nyx has been raised as a champion, but that doesn’t put one ahead of the other. Adding Sari, Delvin, Timoran, and Dariana into the mixes makes things more of a balancing act than a deeper supporting class. Every hero gets at least one story that focuses on them and they serve an important role in each book. This is why the prophecy says there is a team of heroes instead of one. So, what are some things to consider when writing an ensemble series?
Introducing heroes one at a time can help define them to the audience. You don’t have to juggle the origin, description, and other first appearance necessities between multiple characters. You and the reader can focus on the one. For example, Luke and Nyx are locked into their roles and personalities by the time Sari shows up in Allure of the Gypsies. It becomes more about fitting the new character into an established group instead of getting all of the heroes into line. Think of it as serving a full course meal instead of a buffet.
Try to give every character either something to do in a scene or a good reason for not being involved. The bigger the group, the harder this is to do. You really only have to sit down and think if they’re needed for the particular mission, conversation, or whatever it is. Sometimes one of the heroes might not even care enough to be involved in whatever is going on. There are a lot more options than people realize. Exhaustion and getting lost are two of my favorites.
Not everyone has to get along perfectly, but too much friction can be a distraction from the main plot. It does make things easier for the heroes to be close friends or at least respect each other. Yet, it is also realistic that people who are forced to work together might not mesh well. This depends a lot on how the group is formed. By choice or necessity can make things smoother, but not always. Again, you do need to have there be some unity even among rivals or the group falls apart. Think Wolverine and Cyclops here. They don’t always get along, but there’s respect between them.
Consider the roles of a group to avoid characters stepping on each others toes. You usually can’t have all leaders or all rebels without things getting messy. This can help with developing their personalities too. One who is impulsive, but loyal can be the source of trouble. A hero who is cautious can counter that and become the strategist. You have the muscle, the speed, the stealth, the heavy artillery, and other roles that can be put together. A lot of variation can be done here, but you will be called out on have a group of clones.
As important as it is to evolve the group, you also need the the heroes to develop. Both of these work together and in unison. A character’s mental health and decisions can affect the others. You have to balance this when it comes to attention. Some characters may be more stable than others, which helps because they become rocks for the more fluid personalities. For example, Timoran changes very little in comparison to Sari due to their opposite temperament. He is very calm and thoughtful while she gets emotional rather quickly. When together, he can help her stay grounded and she can loosen him up.
Never be afraid to split groups up to get stories moving quicker. This can help flush out relationships that need more attention. Not to mention it helps give every hero something to do over the course of the story. You don’t want a character to be left behind or be about as important as a potted plant.
Just because a story focuses on one hero, it doesn’t mean the others should be forgotten. I make it a point to give every hero at least one moment to shine in a book. It might not give them a lot of growth, but it retains their importance to the overall story. Obviously, this deals more with series or short story collections.
I’d like to thank Steve Boseley for being the featured author in this week’s installment of ‘A Perfect 10’.
If you are an author and would like to participate, just drop me an email at don@donmassenzio.com and I will send you the information.
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
That’s a tough one to answer for me. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis fifteen years ago, and find that I spend a lot of my time exhausted! Some days I can write for hours, but on others, I struggle to get as far as the keyboard! I completed NaNoWriMo, which surprised me, so, on the whole, I’d have to say that writing energizes me.
Do you ever write under a pseudonym? If not have you considered it? Why or why not?
I do not write under a pseudonym at the moment. Initially, I could see no need to do so, but…
One of the benefits of membership in the Rave Reviews Book Club is the ability to host other authors. Today it’s my turn to bring you Marlena Smith, one of the hardest working members in the club. Please give her a warm welcome in the comments and with the sharing buttons.
***
Hi, there!
Welcome to Day 1 of my RRBC “SPOTLIGHT” Author Blog Tour! I am so excited to have you join me! A huge THANKS to RRBC and to my awesome host!!
To kick this tour off, I thought some Q&A would be fun, your chance to get to know the author!
1. You have been writing for a long time now, since you were a child. What were some of your first story ideas?
Yes, my earliest memory of writing comes from 2nd grade. I wrote a story about my mother and received the honor of…
Hi I’m Sarah and when I was at school I was the “thick, lazy, gobby kid” teachers despaired of and sent out of the room. Constantly the new girl, I knew within two years I wouldn’t be at the school anymore. So: I just couldn’t be bovvered to fit in, or make friends.
If Sarah was a noun phrase it would mean: couldn’t organise her way out of a wet paper bag. The amount of HW I didn’t do would fill the Albert Hall. I couldn’t spell to save my life. I didn’t know what a comma or a full stop did, which drove my English teacher mad because I was reading Dumas, Machiavelli, Christie, and Bronte. I could devour a book in hours and yet I couldn’t understand the basics of punctuation.
To make things worse, I constantly lost things. Couldn’t remember what lessons I had, or what…
The hardest thing about ending a vacation is that you quickly feel like you need another by the end of the first week. It’s even stranger when you work at home because your guard is down about such things. Yet the telemarketers are back to their phones and you’re back to waking up early to get the kid ready for school. So I’m back to the early grind with a 7-year-old that isn’t too happy with getting woken up. I swear, he is part hamster because he just squeezes under either his animals or pillows if I remove the blanket to get at him. The wife isn’t much better and is still trying to work on vacation hours. Seriously, don’t complain about being tired when your significant other looks like they spent the day wrestling with a barber and three very rowdy polar bears. Enough about the song of my life that never ends.
I started the week prepared to edit Legends of Windemere: Ritual of the Lost Lamb for the 3rd time. I quickly found two problems, but they weren’t in the words. I just didn’t have it in me. Took me an hour to get through one page and I was making changes for the sake of making changes. My heart wasn’t in it even though I kept fearing that something was wrong. I know why that is. This is a dark book since a hero is being tortured and the others are battered pretty badly. Imagine your rival breaking your leg right before the finish line, but you have to keep going or someone will die. That’s what this book is about with the champions. So it’s hard for me to go back to the darkness very often and I keep fearing that I went too far or messed something up. I checked the spots that were weighing on me and made them a little softer or better explained. Still, I think my confidence is dwindling on the last 3 books because I’ve never had to end a series before. I fear that I don’t have it in me and this is the begin of it. I do feel more comfortable with books 14 and 15 since I haven’t edited them yet, so maybe it’s the darkness.
The plus side of not being able to do the editing is that . . . I . . . Uh . . . What did I do this week? Oh yeah, I got the February blog posts ready and went over plans to do the Chasing Bedlam cover and make a new one for Crossing Bedlam. We’re going to simplify and hope it works. I still like the original, but too many people mistook it for a children’s book. That does make me think I waste too much time on blurbs unless this is like a multiple gateway thing Might be doing the first volunteer request tomorrow, but we’ll see what happens. The NY Giants have to face the Green Bay Packers, which will determine a few things. That and I want to get a little extra sleep. If it isn’t the volunteer request then I might test out the blurbs.
The big project was War of Nightfall, which will be the series after Legends of Windemere. Barring any disasters that range from nuclear war to being forced to quit writing and get a ‘real job’. You know, one of those soul-sucking ones that helps keep the behavior pill business going strong. Did I write that out loud? Must be because I’m turning more from Luke Callindor to Clyde. I played these two at the same time in my role-playing game days. Luke was the noble hero in Dungeons & Dragons while Clyde was the brutal master of destruction in Vampire: The Masquerade. On days where I had both games, the two would trip over each other. Luke would have more of an attitude and be a little battle hungry. Clyde would be a more nicer and more docile, which is unnerving for a guy that killed someone with an ear of corn and used to car napalm grenades, guns, swords, and an enchanted chainsaw around for ‘protection’. I have mellowed Clyde out for his books since he’s really strong from the get go. The biggest challenge for him is not turning into a full monster and my plan is to have his humanity get chipped away throughout the series. It’s not easy working with a guy whose enemies are still alive because he likes playing with his prey or doesn’t think they’re worth the effort. That’s typically reserved for villains. One interesting aspect is that he’s a violent thief that has been thrust into a leadership position, so his instincts don’t suit his new role. We’ll see what happens when I write the first book later this year.
As of the writing of this post, I’ve finished 2 of the 8 outlines. The stories aren’t probably going to be the same length as the Bedlam books and each one will be somewhat self-contained. Just another big event of the war and it’s only the character relationships that truly evolve over time. Sounds like that’s what it’s supposed to be. Thank you to everyone who helped me with the titles too. That was the first big hurdle. Now I’m left sorting through 15 years of notes that were written by a Charles that kept thinking he’d get right back to them. No wonder these are taking a while. Especially when you realize that Clyde started in Earth, went to Windemere at the end of his original series, went back to Earth without the jump, and then got brought back to Windemere when I started creating the Dawn Fangs. Honestly, a big part of the first jump was because I wanted to eventually set up a Luke vs Clyde scene. I’m over that . . . or am I?
Goals for the week:
Test blurbs and get volunteers for Chasing Bedlam.
Work on War of Nightfall outlines.
Bike, cook, and eat.
If outlines are finished then start posts for March to clear more space for Ichabod Brooks work. After all, I lose a week in February.
Decide on if I will write Quest of the Broken-Hearted or War of Nightfall first. The former is a Legends of Windemere tie-in that would hold spoilers for the last book, so I won’t release it until summer of 2018 or later. Wondering if writing that will act like a good emotional bridge between the series.
Watch more Supernatural.
Continue parenting.
Watch football.
Stop this post because I’m just being silly now.
Add On– Seems my car is threatening to stall, especially when I turn left. So, I’m without a car for a day or three. Just in time for a snowstorm. We’ll see how I do with staying online and getting a post up for tomorrow. Blurbs require some prep since I have to delete the post after 24 hours.
At the urging of loved ones, including the dying orchid in the corner, you decide to open the window. Taking a big sniff of fresh air, you promptly pass out. Apparently, you’ve been inside for so long that your body mistook the clean air for poison. On the plus side, your trip to the hospital counts as getting out and meeting new people, so your family will leave you alone for a week.
You answer the door for Halloween and kids run screaming from your terrifying ghost costume. You consider it a step in the right direction since last year they thought you were a zombie. Still, you might want to do something about being paler than an albino.
The slightest ray of natural sunlight causes you to do your best Gizmo from Gremlins imitation. Complete with high-pitched screaming about the bright light and the smell of burning flesh. Though that second one might be caused more by you using matches for small light sources.
You have no recollection of what your town looks like. Google Earth helps you fake it when your online friends ask about where you live. But you just said you enjoy going to a restaurant that burned down a year ago. Maybe you should start taking some walks before people start thinking you’re a computer program instead of a real human.
The last time you saw your house key, it was in your jacket pocket. Now you have no idea where either one is. Though the pile of moth-eaten fabric with a sprinkling of rust looks familiar. Come to think of it, where did those moths go to?
You cannot confidently answers the question ‘Are you animal, vegetable, or mineral?’ because you might be all three.
There is a car waiting outside your house and you have no idea where it came from. It just sits there and nobody ever comes to claim it. The police have driven by and say that they don’t see this mystery car. You think you are losing your mind because the car is right there. Now that you think about it, you vaguely remember owning a Corolla as well. That same color too, but not as rusty and faded. Whatever happened to that thing? OH!
I write books in the least popular genre in my region—fantasy.
African fiction is synonymous with literary and mainstream fiction in poetry and short story form, short story collections, and novels. Success has been limited to authors like Chinua Achebe, Tsitsi Dangarembwa, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Wole Soyinka, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o to name but a few. Markets are also limited to the writer’s local country except where the writer is signed on by an international publisher and becomes an instant celebrity. Over the last decade, African writers like Nnedi Okorafor have expanded into genre fiction, including fantasy.
Writing in most African countries is not perceived as a viable career due to rigid career guidance, lack of opportunities for the aspiring author, and the impossibilities of ever getting a traditional publishing contract. But I learned about Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing in 2013, marveled, experimented, and never looked…
First, I’m pretty sure this guy runs the show in my head most of the time. Occasionally, Sadness knocks him out of the way and you can tell what movie my son watches about once a week. Obviously, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’.
Anyway, there are times I write a powerful scene and it draws out emotions that I have trouble turning off. For example, I’ve learned that I shouldn’t drive anywhere right after I write a car chase scene in Crossing Bedlam. Going into public after a scene that involves crying characters and heartbreak isn’t helpful either. All part of the job, I guess.
Is there one emotion that you find yourself gravitating toward more than others?
What tactic do you use to ‘reset’ your emotions after finishing a scene?
Is there an emotion that you have trouble putting into your work?
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
Hi I’m Sarah and when I was at school I was the “thick, lazy, gobby kid” teachers despaired of and sent out of the room. Constantly the new girl, I knew within two years I wouldn’t be at the school anymore. So: I just couldn’t be 
