So, what do you want? We work with curses, so being friendly isn’t something we’re used to. You’re not a Paladin, are you? Okay, guess finding this place helps too. Yes, I know this is a kiosk in the middle of a mall. Normally, we look like a place that sells expensive sunglasses. What if somebody wants to buy a pair? You know, that’s never come up and we’ve been here for a decade. So, what are you looking for?
One curse is easy to cook up in a few minutes. We do have a buy six, get a Seven Sin Jamboree for free. Fine, but that’s the only deal we have. By the way, once this starts, you can’t back out unless you take a cookie. Trust me when I tell you that your blood sugar level will be the least of your worries if it comes to that. What if you run? That’s when I send Nell after you and she hasn’t eaten in days.
Since we’re ready to start, I’ll give you the delivery options. We have verbal castings that you simply have to read in the vicinity of your victim. There are potions you can slip them either by drink or having them put it on their exposed skin. My personal favorite are the mouthwash versions because you know there’s a 30 count exposure time. There’s always using food, which includes liquids and powders. Besides all of that, we have patches, pills, darts, and dust.
Next up is what the curse will do. Don’t worry about telling me who the target is because that’s not my business. Best not to know the details beyond gender and age. We have physical alteration curses such as losing hair, skin deformities, growing a tail, or whatever else you can dream up. All of those have the same base, so it’s only a matter of including the proper trace amounts. Mental curses typically involve hallucinations that affect at least one sense. Very simple and literally been done to death. Elemental curses force transformations or give uncontrollable powers that will get them killed by the populace, but those aren’t popular these days. More than likely, the target will be seen as a superhero and become a hero. Yes, I know I said uncontrollable, but the thing still has an on and off switch.
Bestial curses? Haven’t done one of those in a while, so I hope I have the supplies. You need fresh parts of the proper animals, so the more exotic transformations will require a few days. Nothing too complicated, but you can’t find skin flakes and urine of every animal in this mall. Unless you want to do a dog, cat, pigeon, or rat. Yeah, a hyena will be tough and not really a good idea. Turning an enemy into a predator can backfire horribly unless you take the proper precautions. I don’t care if this person has an annoying laugh and it would fit. No, I’ll still do this, but I simply don’t care and the warning means you can’t say I didn’t warn you.
That settles everything and I should have things ready by . . . you already have the hyena ingredients. Rather suspicious. Are you a Paladin? Disgruntled zookeeper? Didn’t see that coming.
Today we sit down with author and blogger Eden Baylee. She is going to share a bit about her work, inspiration and a little about herself.
I hope you enjoy this installment of 20 Questions.
Q1) When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I was a teenager. I have always loved to read and found words fascinating, so writing was a natural progression. When an English teacher in high school encouraged my writing by giving me good feedback, it boosted my ego and made me think I could write for a living.
I ended up in finance instead. A combination of a life-threatening illness and dissatisfaction with my job made me leave banking after twenty years.
I now write full-time.
It’s taken me sometime to get here, but I’m finally here.
Q2) How long does it typically take you to write a book?
This is an earlier part of the story where the heroes reach the first part of Delvin and Sari’s journey in the jungle. Charms of the Feykin has them following the path that was shown in Tribe of the Snow Tiger. Not in detail, but the major points so the heroes know what happened to their friends. Anyway, this shows what kind of mindset Nyx is in for this adventure. Those poor, poor villains: (As before there are possible spoilers below that I couldn’t remove to keep the excerpt clear.)
So it was decided that since Delvin got to do a list, I’m going to do one too. The others are being told that they might have to wait until November because of this Halloween thing next month. Look, I don’t really want to be here and talk about . . . true love? Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Considering how often I have to rescue everyone, I’m going to talk about that.
Always give your friends a chance to get out of trouble. If you’re always coming in to save them at the slightest sign of trouble then they’ll depend too much on you. This can also help them get stronger or at least learn a lesson about jumping into a situation without thinking.
Try not to constantly remind them about the rescue. We’re basically family, so there’s no reason to go beyond the usual teasing that siblings do. At least that’s what I think they do. The closest person I had to a sibling was Sari when we were eight, so that might be a strike against me.
To avoid dragging the injured and exhausted captive into a fight, try to use subtle attacks and tricks. Take the form of a guard or simply steal a uniform. Be patient and wait for an opportunity to strike when the enemy isn’t paying attention. The least amount of trouble the better the rescue mission.
There is a chance that #3 is impossible due to getting seen, time restraints, boredom, anger management issues, or any number of totally reasonable excuses. In this case, go in with as much noise and power as you can. I find that blowing the roof completely off with a single fire blast can make a great first impression.
Never be afraid to ask for help on a rescue mission. Even the strongest can use a friend or two who specializes in skills that they lack. For example, I would use Sari to sneak while I act as a distraction.
Maybe this should have come up earlier, but it helps to have some kind of plan before going in. Nothing too complicated because you have to be flexible. I like to get an idea of which side I’m attacking from and where my friends will be. Actually, those are essential to a battle caster, especially one that could wipe out small armies. In my defense, I’ve yet to . . . wait . . . Uh, never mind.
This is the most important tip and it can surpass all the others. PREVENT THE CAPTURE IN THE FIRST PLACE! I know I said let your friends get themselves out of trouble, which is true. This tip is about preventing the trouble from happening in the first place. If you still want to make a point, add a wind spell to knock your friend off their feet and show no sympathy when they complain about the bruise. Just politely tell them to pull up their pants and go back to your dinner.
Craig here again. Today I want to talk about taking your book out on a blog tour. This is a great way to expose your product to new readers.
Blog tours come in many formats, and I’ve done several kinds. These include a cover and excerpt, cover and blurb, and we might as well include email blasts in this list too. Today, I’m going to focus on the “friends and family” plan. I promoted a book priced at 99¢. With a 35¢ royalty, how many copies would I have to move to pay for a $75 blog tour? Friends welcome you to their blog without having to pay. Be willing to host them when the time comes.
I recently finished a tour involving my friends hosting me at their blogs. It was simple enough to set up. I posted a request for hosts to help me out. I wound up…
Don Massenzio Today we sit down with author Wendy Janes. Wendy shares with us her motivation, inspiration and a bit of her work. Please enjoy this installment of 20 Questions: Q1) When did you first realize you wanted to be … Continue reading →
(Morning After Disclaimer: I did start drinking Strongbow Apple Ciders halfway through this post.)
*sits down at computer and stares at screen*
*keeps staring*
*looks from side to side*
*keeps staring*
Not Dumbledore
Yeah, I don’ t know what happened to my brain here. Things have been flying this week with parent/teacher conference, driving people to the airport, fixing my car door handle due one of the people I drove to the airport, the usual routine, a decent amount of writing, and Charms of the Feykin (CLICK THE LINK!) hitting the Top 100 lists. Next week starts out a little chaotic, but should settle by Tuesday afternoon. I’ll get to that in a bit.
First, I do want to mention something about those Top 100 lists. Holy Mother of Godzilla! As amazing as it was to suddenly be on the list, a book plummets from those ranks like an elephant skydiving with normal sized parachute. I mean, what do I have to do sale-wise to even stay in the same spot? 10 books per hour? I know I live and work out of a house, but it isn’t named Random. Really makes one wonder how an indie can keep going some days, but I think the trick is to cherish the small victories. Also to make Voodoo dolls of the people who try to taint these victories. Honestly, it’s like I’m not allowed to be happy or optimistic for more than an hour.
(Embarrassing story of the day #1: Got McDonald’s with wife and son. She couldn’t find anything, but I saw a hot chocolate on the list. It’s gotten cold, so I got her a small one without her knowing. We were talking about it as we walked out. Get to the car and I ask her to hold my soda . . . upside down . . . because I never put a drink into the cup. Back inside I go, which involved walking along the drive-thru line and they knew exactly what happened.)
So, why is early next week busy? I live 2.2 miles from Hofstra University, which is housing the first Presidential Debate. Road closures have been announcement and it also means my wife, who is tempting there, will be home because security is too much a pain to get a temp worker through it. Makes sense and allows us to do a few things that day. Have an appointment in the morning, a friend coming over, kid is at school, and then an eye doctor appointment on top of that. Yeah, I wasn’t really thinking all of that through, but this is the only week I get the house to myself for most of the day. Only other thing is the final dentist visit on Tuesday morning, but that shouldn’t take long. I’ll possibly be home around the time I normally start writing.
(Embarrassing story of the day #2: Dropped people off at airport and headed home, but didn’t see the correct out road until too late. Go around airport to try again because going toward New Jersey isn’t on my to-do list. Miss it again because of a taxi that refused to leave my blind spot. Go around again, but there’s a police jeep with the lights going coming up on my right. I stay in my lane and wait for him to pass, but he’s going a lot slower than me. I switch to the right lane to make the turn on time and he switches to my lane at the same time. Was he after me? Why isn’t he going around me? It’s been 2 minutes! Crap, he’s getting behind me and I’m coming up on the turn. I’ll just slow to a crawl and ease into that place to stop and . . . Now, he blows by me!? I’m practically blocking the turn. Dammit!”
Writing has been a slight headache lately for a few reasons. A one scene character in the current project has suddenly become a main cast member who is helping to reveal a previously unexplored aspect of a certain species. This one is giving Kira a run for her money in terms of demanding an upgrade. I think I’ve got a handle on it, but another character has fallen by the wayside. Sort of since this one was hard to get involved due to being rather anti-social. That’s only one project too. My mind keeps going to the final battle of Legends of Windemere and I’m thinking up ways it can work, but a lot has to happen. Horrible level of spoilers on this one too, so I’m on my own. The section I’m thinking of might end up being really long since it requires 4 big events to happen. Possibly 6 if I simply make it the final part of the overall battle. I’m going to have to work really hard on that outline.
In possibly non-Windemere writing news . . . OH CRAP! Almost forgot!
Raven’s Game Starts Next Saturday!
I’ll try to do a post Friday night about this, but there will be a thriller story going up at section by section throughout October. This is the sequel to Raven’s Hold, which was posted section by section last October. I’m still not very confident in this genre and money is too tight to get a cover for this. Not to mention all the other stuff going on. If people like it then I might do a third next year and see where it goes from there. These posts will be the dailies with only a Monday post and the weekend goal post turning up, so there won’t be any clogging. What was that non-Windemere thing again? Probably wasn’t important.
Coming to the end of this long one, which is weird since I didn’t have a plan going into this. So, here are the goals . . . for the rest of the year:
Finish writing Path of the Traitors by October 4th.
Fix outline for The Forgotten Baron, do blurbs for the Spirit Well, and prep November blog posts by Yom Kippur. Believe that’s a week.
Starting writing The Forgotten Baron after Yom Kippur.
Prep December posts that will revolve around next book release.
Release Spirit Well in early December.
Edit Chasing Bedlam when plate isn’t full.
Consider what to do next since I’ve been routinely reminded that I might not be an author in 2017 any more. Yeah, that conversation is getting heated and more common around here.
If #7 is settled in my favor (I swear, I’m 36.) then I think I’m going to head into Windemere vampire territory. Going from the heroic Luke Callindor and the champions to the brutal and survival-focused Clyde and the Dawn Fangs will be interesting. I might not make it as gory as I originally wanted. At least not in detail since Clyde does have a habit of beating enemies with their own limbs and fighting with a victim still clenched in his mouth. You know, I really miss putting on the mental Clyde suit. Been years since I indulged in him and I feel like I’ve ignored the poor maniac for too long. Wonder if I should use next October as a month to introduce all the vampire characters, but that might be spoiler heavy. There is an old post that explains Clyde though. He’s one of THE FOUR.
That’s a really long post. I’m going to end with this since #7 and #8 put me in a mood:
Q1) When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Legends of Windemere 