Shannon, here, to announce our last guest blogger. That’s right. Our last. I will be back on May 29, but today is a wonderful day, because Ryan Attard – author of The Legacy Series – is sharing his thoughts on genre hopping, something we both feel very passionately about. Ryan has blogged on here before, so you might be familiar with him, but if you’re not, check out his website and podcast by clicking the links.
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This is one of those subjects that gets a bad rep just for daring to go against the dogma, as established by . . . who knows who, and who knows where. Personally, I dislike rules and constraints of any sort – the reason I am an artist is because I wish to express myself in a free manner, and trying to limit art in any way shape or form…
To celebrate my birthday and my Novel’s launch and to protest what Quebec politicians say I can’t do, I will be offering “The Scrolls of Sion: Rise of the Dark Queen” for 40% off the cover price for the first week. That’s right instead of the $4.99 list price; you can get “Scrolls” for $2.99 with the use of the code provided in the brackets. (MU39L) Offer valid May 25th 2014- June 1st 2014.
Feel free to share this post. Get the word out. There’s a deal to be had.
This is being done in advance again because I’ll be at a petting zoo with the toddler by the time this goes live. Same thing with all the tweets this weekend. It’s been quite a few weekends where I’m busy and don’t touch WordPress beyond my own blog. By the time I get home from these excursions, I’m so burnt or simply sleepy.
The Defensive Driving course didn’t happen, so the cover art for ‘The Hopeteller’ is done and ready for opinions. I posted it yesterday, but I’m putting the revised version at the bottom of this post because these seem to get more attention. The plan is to do a little more editing and release the novella next Sunday. I’m not going to do a blog tour this time and I don’t think I’ll have the time for a Cover Reveal. Mostly because the cover has already been revealed and I need to get all my ducks in a row for it. Going for a $1.25 pricing to see how that goes since my beta readers gave big thumbs up. It’s going to be weird considering the following:
Normal Charles Writing– 3rd Person POV, Present Tense, Action/Dialogue Heavy, Fantasy
The Hopeteller– 1st Person POV (Journal sections), 3rd Person POV (Fairy Tales), Past Tense, Narrative Heavy, Post-Apocalyptic World, Fairy Tales
Needless to say, I’m nervous about it even though it’s a small project that I came up with on a whim. More of a deviation from my norm than ‘Catalysts’ because that was nothing more than a genre swap.
Beyond all that, it was a week of . . . I have no idea. Things happened like a haircut and a few meetings. It’s a strange haze for some reason. I think I went food shopping at one point. All I know is that I finished 3 chapters of Book 8 of Legends of Windemere and I’m about 2.5 weeks away from finishing it. Then it’s an editing run through Books 5-8. More to reacquaint myself with what I’ve done. Books 1-3 had the benefit of being edited for years, so I know those well. Book 4 got a similar treatment over half a year. The others haven’t been touched since completion.
A REMINDER: The posts for this week are the debuts of the heroes in Legends of Windemere. The first scenes of Luke Callindor, Nyx, Sari, Fizzle, Timoran Wrath, and the 5th Champion. That means that after next Saturday, I’ll be using the 5th Champions name in posts. I won’t be doing an origin of the character until August when I’ll do a week of them since I’ll have 6 revealed characters to work with by then.
So here are the week’s goals in no specific order:
Finish 2-3 chapters of Book 8. Monday is a holiday, so I probably won’t get any of it done then.
Edit and prepare ‘The Hopeteller’ for debut.
Buy a box of paper reams for the ‘Back to Back to Back to Back’ read through run I’ll do after I finish the current book. I’m going to go through all of them on paper and then do it all again when I type in any changes. Though I might stop to do the changes to ‘The Compass Key’ after my editor gets back to me. Still aiming for a late July/early August release.
Write up posts for month of June. Already have Week 1 and Week 3 done. This way I don’t have to worry. Any topics that people want me to field at some point?
Design characters for other series when time permits and is too short for book writing.
Continue watching ‘Once Upon a Time’ Season 1.
Biking, eating, and showering.
Enjoy petting zoo with toddler on Sunday (today).
Here’s the cover for opinions. Still need to trim and fix it. The export seems to make a mess for some reason:
So, the Defensive Driving course was cancelled. That means we got to finish the cover for ‘The Hopeteller’. Here it is below. Let us know what you think:
If anyone was paying attention yesterday, they might have noticed I came up with an idea in mid-skit. I was as surprised as the characters on that one. I’ve had Solar the All God in mind and notes for years, but he lost his original place. This was going to be the grand finale of ‘The Elysium Saga’ where he awakens and the heroes have to put him back to sleep. Well, I stopped that because there’s no way the heroes would win.
Now I have the idea that there’s a legend among the gods that Solar will awaken to restart the world some day. This means all of the gods’ work will be wiped out. They might even be erased, which wouldn’t sit well with the group. This is a big deal. Of course, I have to play it out and see if it can be avoided. Well, it probably will, but there’s going to be a sacrifice. The problem is that this idea has a few obstacles.
Do I create a hero, group of heroes, or use the gods as the heroes? A solitary hero would be interesting since I don’t do those very often. Having the sacrifice known from the beginning makes this guy a lamb to the slaughter, which is a mentality that I love playing with in characters. How do you live your life when you’re on a suicidal quest? Same would go for the group of heroes. As for the gods, they wouldn’t be stuck under their ‘Law of Influence’ because that only pertains to getting involved in mortal affairs. Yet, would it be interesting to have all-powerful beings as the heroes? Unless a handful of them take mortal form to stop this and sacrifice a bunch of gods for this story. It’s eerily close to a big series of the Forgotten Realms with gods walking the Earth.
There are other options too:
Have Sin do it since he always manages to get into messes like this. Though I already have 9 stories for him and it’s been a strain on the sin theme for that much. Then again, one story isn’t really sticking in my mind too much. I should probably jot all of his stuff down soon.
Toss it into Project Phoenix and act like it’s no big deal.
Make this one of the history stories like the ones about Gabriel’s origin, the Race War, and crashing of the plane of magic. I can combine it with another story that explains the origin of the Law of Influence and a few of the gods. Basically, a mortal learns of this legend and seeks to wake Solar because she despises that the gods manipulate and rule the world. Once the world is saved, the gods create their one law to avoid pissing off the mortals again.
It’s definitely a fresh work in progress. Be interesting to see where it goes.
Edit: After jotting Sin’s stuff down, he’s in the running for getting this legend. Primarily because one of his books is missing a story. Not sure how else to explain that.
I’ll be a rarity over the weekend with defensive driving on Saturday, outing to a petting zoo with toddler on Sunday, and Memorial Day on Monday. I’ll probably only be active in early morning and the evening, so Hootsuite will be my Twitter friend.
I’m going to try to set up June Week 2’s posts too. The topic will be Social Media Marketing and I’m trying to figure out an order. Thinking Overview/Personal Stories, Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Smaller Sites (Pinterest, Google +, Tumblr, etc.) and post any tips people post in comments on that Saturday. This is going by my personal experience, so there are probably some sites that others use more than me. Feel free to ask any questions you want me to tackle or any sites you want me to mention in the comments below.
Now to regale people with orchestral versions of video game music. Some of them are pretty long and the Mega Man one has a lot of audience cheering in it. Even if you don’t like the games, you have to admit some of these songs are great:
Zaria (Goddess of Purity)- It’s music from Earth. I like it.
Uli (Goddess of Elven Warriors & Forests)- I prefer their older works. This is too loud and fast for my tastes. Are we supposed to be talking about music?
Cessia (Goddess of Luck)- I believe we are supposed to discuss what we do in Windemere. Specifically, our thoughts on followers, the afterlife, and such.
Gabriel- People die. It’s the nature of living that it ends for most creatures. Why bother dwelling on mortal life?
Zaria- Because we’d be nothing without mortals. Yes, we would still exist, but we would serve no purpose.
Eporwil (Goddess of Drinking)- Then we party!
Ram (God of War)- I for one enjoy the struggles of mortal kind. Not that I like to see them suffer, but they are amazing creatures. So weak and fragile, but they continue fighting for their short existence.
Gabriel- Which never amounts to much.
Cessia- For a god who was once mortal, you sure don’t like them. Do you despise your roots, Hell Lord?
Gabriel- I strove for power and took it. I do not despise my origin, but I will not stand here and call it enjoyable.
Gar (God of Knowledge)- It is your past that made you, so I would not be so quick to judge it. Many mortals do that until their deathbed. I’ve never understood why they gather so many regrets and cry about them at the end. Then again, I probably would have done the same before my ascension.
Zaria- Maybe having an afterlife is what gives them focus and purpose. After all, what happens when a god dies?
Cessia- That’s easy. We . . . I actually don’t know. It isn’t like I would have a deity’s palace to go to if I died. Going to my own seems repetitive.
Uli- The palaces of those that have passed have vanished with all followers inside. Ceased to exist if I had to guess.
Ram- Only the first god would know for sure and Solar has been asleep since the beginning. One would hope we return to him and rest until he rises to reshape the world again.
Gabriel- Not that old legend. Is it old? I never heard of it until now. Where did that come from?
Zaria- I don’t know. I didn’t know of that legend until Ram mentioned it. Now it feels like it’s always been with me.
Ram- It just came out. I had never heard it before, but in some way I have. It’s confusing.
