I know I spent a week doing nothing because of lost mojo and other things. I’ll put the funny story at the end, which won’t be too long a wait. Anyway, the kid is home for a week and a half. So, no big projects for me even if I regain the urge. I might take some time to jot down ideas for other series when he’s playing alone or eating lunch. More than likely, those periods will be used to handle email, tweets, and blogging. In other words, I might be heavily delayed in responding to stuff or simply disappear for most of a day.
Quick questions: I’m going to be scheduling posts for August in a week because I don’t want to jump into a project and stop for it. Should I start hyping the next Windemere book around August 22nd or wait until September when I hope to release it? I’m also looking at a problem with teasers. Too much can get revealed. Is it possible to hype a book without doing teasers? Maybe I’m just not looking hard enough.
Anyway, here’s the story:
A week ago, my glasses broke and I had to go two prescriptions back while the frames got fixed. Well, I got them back on Thursday and picked them up in the morning because the kid had a half day. Got home with some lunch and handled some computer stuff, which is normal. Went downstairs and looked outside to see my parents talking to one of the neighbors, my dad having been out there to mow the lawn. Something looked off, but I couldn’t figure it out for a few seconds.
“Hey, dad! What happened to my car window?”
The front passenger side window was shattered. My first thought was that a rock had shot out of the lawnmower and hit it in just the right spot. My dad’s first thought was to check the glove compartment to make sure I wasn’t robbed. Keep in mind, he was by the car the entire time it had been parked. I still checked, found nothing missing, and then went to call insurance. My choices were taken the car in during the afternoon or wait two days for someone to come over. Did I mention it was supposed to rain that night? Also, I doubt a garbage bag over the missing window would stop bugs, stray cats, and any curious kleptos.
The repair guy had a laugh when I said the only way it could be vandalism is if I pissed off a ninja since my dad was there. Thankfully, much like my glasses, the repairs were covered entirely by insurance. A plus side is I found whiskey-infused cherries at the 7-11 near the repair place. Still trying to figure out a non-alcoholic drink to put them into.
So, that was my adventure. Unless you count another doctor visit for blood tests and discovering that I will not be going on medication for the liver and cholesterol.
My name is Ritu Bhathal, a 40 (soon to be 40-something!) year old woman, living in the heart of Kent, UK.
By day, I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, daughter-in-law, and a teacher.
By night, I am exhausted!
No, seriously, I am a blogger, and writer.
After I have sorted all the general household kerfuffle out, kids fed and watered, washed and packed into bed, hubby and myself also fed, laundry done, lunches made for the next day, and any outstanding schoolwork done, then I manage to sit down with my iPad/Surface or on my computer, to either write a blog post, or peruse my followed blogs, or generally write.
Yes, that means I seem to burn the candle at both ends, as I rarely sleep before midnight, and in term time, I am up at 6 then have to be alert…
I’ve talked about this before, but I’m going to bring it up again because things have probably changed. First, the question:
What is my goal with Windemere?
Now, I don’t mean Legends of Windemere, but the overall world. This where I start to lose people. With the exception of Crossing Bedlam and the Dawn Addison stuff, all of my stories connect to Windemere. I’m trying to craft an enormous world where there are multiple, unique stories that can cross various genres while still having even a hint of fantasy. So, how did I come to this point?
Super Earth, Realm of the Night, & Windemere
At one point, I had these three words that divided into superheroes, vampires, and fantasy. I gave each one a unique structure and tried to keep them separate, which eventually failed. Some of my fantasy characters were turning out like superheroes and I ended up having day-walking vampires in all three worlds. Friends began asking what would happen if Luke Callindor squared off with Clyde or the superheroes invaded Windemere. What if Fizzle appeared in Project Phoenix after a tear? Well, there was already a hole between Windemere and Earth thanks to an older Gabriel story. Not to mention there were several smaller worlds like the Angel of Tears who was taking people from different times and places. It was frustrating to keep it all together and separate because there were so many similarities between them.
One summer, I decided I’d had enough and used what little free time I had to merge everything together. Some things were cast aside or combined with others, the possibility of the series returning in the future. The vampires were the easiest since they were practically there, including a fake Clyde. Also, I’d merged Realm of the Night with Super Earth the year before. This actually filled in gaps with the Dawn Fang mythos and made them a much more interesting society. It also cleared away some of the stuff I didn’t like about the other series, which was that I used Dracula and had werewolves running around. It also meant I didn’t have to do the ‘unknown to humans’ thing that shows up a lot. At least that was a smooth transition.
So, Windemere swallowed everyone. What happened to Super Earth?
Crisis on Infinite Earths by DC Comics
Homeless Superheroes
There were big changes here because I had more species to work with for superheroes. I had to go through the roster and see what worked and what failed. The government conspiracy that was part of Project Phoenix was gone, but that was always the biggest headache that I had with the original idea. It also meant the idea of a large team would be tough, especially since I wasn’t sure where they were going. Not until I wrote an outline for another story and created a city of bizarre ghosts that was abandoned after the gods sealed the denizens.
The superheroes became the Mylrixians, who were born from the plane of magic smashing into the physical plane. Very powerful beings that were protecting the world before the Great Cataclysm. That is until one went mad and attacked the gods, creating a loophole in the Law of Influence. Now, if a ‘chosen’ or being that is too powerful for mortals threatens the gods, they can seal that being. Well, there was an overreaction and all of the Mylrixians were erased. Sort of. They’ve been continually reborn into destinies where they’ll never be awoken. Take a guess what happens when this story kicks off.
I still have a lot of trouble here. Mostly due to format because a massive team makes it hard to give characters a good growth. I’m thinking of a ‘series’ where every book is contained. First one is the revival and then all of the others will involve one or two heroes getting into an adventure. Then things will go to hell in the finale. Some may get separate series or not even be Mylrixians. Savior and Gearhead Princess (The robots thing) are tech-based with good solo adventures since they have a more contained thing. At one point, I thought of having Savior being the focal hero and one of his adventures results in the awakening. That became a problem because it meant a lot of heroes get only background. Then there’s the finale that might work out better than on Earth because I get to flush out the least used of my continents.
The Alien
Not everything has gone smoothly. The witch story has been an issue, but I might have solved that by merging it with the ghost hunters. Yet, the one that has been the biggest head scratcher is the alien bounty hunter. She’s actually been around since high school and used to be part of a team that merged my original series. Then I moved her completely away from Earth and had no humans in the stories. This put her in limbo when I was merging everything together because I couldn’t find a way to have her transition.
You might be saying, “Then let her stay solitary!” That was going to be the plan and then I tried writing some test scenes. I suck at designing space ships and have such a casual relationship with reality that the science was always flawed. Seeing how people shred sci-fi that is more fiction than science, I figured it might be smarter to go back to the merging idea.
This has required that I throw out a lot of what I had designed around her like the alien species and other things. Still, I’m slowly designing new stuff. Having her crash land with a small force of villains that escape from her ship is a way to go and rather classic. Making that each alien species has a different reaction to magic is fun. I’m leaning toward a reveal that Windemere is actually a forbidden planet due to the unpredictability of magic and the dangerous beings living there. Maybe a cult that finds lost aliens and does stuff to them too? This is where things get iffy until I really hunker down.
Closer
I may have jumped away from my original point to hit specifics. This is all about what I’m doing here. It isn’t just writing any story for me, but creating a web of adventures. I want to leave a vast playground of a world behind, which is why I’m trying to piece so much into Windemere and make it work. For example, I have been working on robots and how to get them into the world. At least in some form because without computers and programming of such things, it wouldn’t be an exact robot. Golem technology would probably be the way to go. Still, every topic I bring up has been considered for Windemere itself. Unless it’s Bedlam related, but that’s another story.
Hi, I’m Claire. I like to color inside the lines. Writing my first young adult fantasy novel has one proverbial scribble across the page of life…and you know what? It feels pretty good!
I grew up in (and still live) the Pacific Northwest, which I analogize to a dysfunctional relationship. Nine months out of the year, you wonder why the heck you stick with this person when they treat you like crap, but once summer arrives, and the sun hits the snow-capped peaks of the Olympics and glints off the blue water of Puget Sound, you know you could never, ever leave. Most of my hobbies revolve around being outside and enjoying my lovely home state of Washington.
So, what should you know about me? I’m a disciplined, Type-A, achieving type. Ergo, I went to law school. I hate the sight of blood, so a law degree was the obvious choice. Currently…
So you’re the one who called in asking if we could make a robot. I told you over the phone that I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Golems are magical in nature, but you say this is something more. Can you tell me what makes this robot any different than a golem? I see. Sounds like you want an advanced metal or knight golem. Just follow me through the rock aisle and flesh buckets since those aren’t what you need. What you want might be in the back?
Now it seems a big difference is what powers these things. A golem is kept going by a magical spell while you want an energy core. Those aren’t very stable, but it really depends on the element. I suggest either fire or a churning water core. A robot needs to be powered by electricity or plasma? You’ll get the first choice because the second requires a lot of licenses that I don’t have. The chance of you getting zapped by your creation is pretty high with lightning too. Maybe putting some enchanted mirrors on the hands and feet will help contain the energy. Don’t shrug at me, kid. I’m making this up as I go along and need you to put some effort in.
You mentioned circuit boards and other things that go on the inside, but I’m still in the dark there. Feel free to go through our junk piles and see if anything works. Now, my best guess is that you want to stuff one of these suits of armor with stuff and lock the core in the center. We have different styles and the bigger ones can handle the power. You said stuff will be in there, but the electricity can bounce around the inside. Less chance of things getting stuck or leaks or whatever can go wrong. I like this one that stands at twelve feet tall and has an axe for a hand. Sure, we can give it usable hands of metal, but that’s extra and a week to deliver.
Consciousness is essential to golems, but they don’t really get free will. Robots don’t always get that either? Then I still don’t understand the difference. You mention programming, but not by magic. Typing it into a mechanical brain that was never made of flesh? Not even sure where to start with what’s wrong with that. I don’t care if I’m ruining this author’s theme. You can’t just make one of these robot things exactly as you describe if the world doesn’t accommodate it. Work within the rules or find ways around it. That area isn’t my business since I’m only a businessman.
Look, I don’t know what kind of world you think you live in here. The type of creature you want is not possible unless you take to a gnome. Even then I don’t think you’ll get more than an explosion that takes off your eyebrows. Sorry, kid, but I believe our business is done here. Come back if you ever want something serious. Go ahead and tell the author on me. Sounds like he should know better.
Joy is one of the most supportive members of the Rave Reviews Book Club. Nobody deserves this spot more than she does. She’s the one who’s always sharing our efforts on Twitter and other social media. Welcome Joy to Entertaining Stories.
THIS IS ALL ABOUT BOOKS
DAY FIVE
MIRROR OF OUR LIVES
Voices of Four Igbo Women
An Excerpt:
Nwanyi Di Mma (The Beautiful Woman)
Twenty years later, Ify is back in Port Harcourt, a professional woman. She first visits Diobu market, her childhood training ground. She remembers the old Diobu market as an open camp where sellers of all types of merchandise sold their goods. They made their shades from corrugated iron sheet or large umbrellas. There were no toilets. The waterside next to the market was used as the public toilet. Now the market has been completely rebuilt with concrete and permanent stalls, clean public toilets with attendants…
Maggie Flynn was twelve years old the night she died. She was a victim of one of the worst engineering disasters in American History.
This is Lisa Burton Radio, and I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl. “Welcome to the show, Maggie.”
Squeeeeeerrrrrooooooo
“Oh no. Don’t go away, Maggie. I need to put another quart of psychode into this ectomometer and turn the gain up to ten.
“There, are you still with us Maggie?”
“Um…I think so. Can you hear me? I’m still getting used to communicating between worlds.”
“You’re coming through loud and clear. I’m so honored to have you on the show. The story of the Silver Bridge disaster is well documented, but maybe you can fill our listeners in on it.”
“Well, I don’t really like thinking about it, but Caden—he’s my older brother—and I went shopping that night. He had to drive across the bridge to…
Hi, I’m Claire. I like to color inside the lines. Writing my first young adult fantasy novel has one proverbial scribble across the page of life…and you know what? It feels pretty good! 
