I'm signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo for April. The organizers of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) decided that doing it only once a year in November just wasn't enough, so they added Camps throughout the year.
My goal for April is to get at least 50,000 words written for The Winterqueen's War, the sequel to Dark Dancer. So lots more magical steampunk with elves, pixies, automatons, airships, gnomes, and a host of other magical creatures. There will be betrayals, anger, misunderstandings, evil plots, magic crystals, and lots of action.
I even made the cover already. It still needs some tweaking and polishing but I like it.
It's live! Dark Dancer is available! To celebrate, I've got a whole lot of great friends who are hosting me on their blogs over the next couple of weeks and I'm giving away a signed copy of Dark Dancer and a crocheted Kindle/ereader sleeve to one lucky person. Just enter with the Rafflecopter form on one of the blog posts.
If you don't want to wait or you aren't feeling lucky, I'm giving out a coupon code to get the ebook for just 99 cents! Use code EP92Z at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/465920.
Are you ready for something completely different? My space opera series, The Fall of the Altairan Empire, is finished and published. So I'm switching gears. I started this story a couple of years ago as a Nanowrimo project and was inspired by a book trilogy by my friend Frances Pauli (check it out here). I had no idea what I was writing or where it was going to end up. I'm happy with how it turned out. But then, who wouldn't be happy with elves in fairyland who use magic to power steampunk airships and giant robot men?
Here's a teaser for it. I'm shooting for a late August publication date. It is a stand-alone book, but the world was so much fun to play in, I might just expand it.
The Seligh crushed, The captives found, The barrier broken, The balmorae freed.
A strange prophecy haunts the Seligh lords, rulers of the Fey and controllers of all magic in the Summerlands, a prophecy that foretells their fall.
A banished Seligh lord rules the Winterlands with an iron fist and his pets, the balmorae, patrol the borders against all intruders, guarding the secrets hidden beneath his icy lair.
A young woman rediscovers her heritage, a gift of magic and dancing that opens portals between worlds. She holds the fate of magic in her hands. All who live within the lands of the Fey must choose where they stand—beside the Dancer or opposed to her.
My friend, Marva Dasef, tagged me for this blog hop. It sounded fun so I'm playing along. Check out her post here. I'm supposed to answer these four questions and tag other authors to play along. So without further ado, here are my answers and taggees:
What am I working on/writing?
I'm finishing up publication on my Fall of the Altairan Empire series, a fun space opera adventure series. It's been years in the making. It's a bittersweet thing. I'm glad it's finally out there, but I'm sad that it's over. But that means it's time for new things. I've got a steampunk/fairyland/elf fantasy (Dark Dancer is due out hopefully this fall depending on how much editing it needs) in the works along with a middle-grade fantasy adventure series and more space opera novels. It's always something.
How does my writing/work differ from others in its genre?
I've been told my writing is reminiscent of pulp sci-fi adventure stories from the 50s. People have compared my books to Andre Norton or Elizabeth Moon, which made me extremely happy. I love both of those authors and adore their books. It's flattering.
I write books that I want to read, which means lots of action and explosions and characters you can admire as well as villains you can hate. I love long series, too, so I wrote an 11 book, million+ word saga. That should keep readers happy for a few days.
Why do I write what I do?
I love adventures and fun characters. I also love playing, "What if?" Aliens, spaceships, other worlds, space in general - I love them all and can't get enough of them. But I also enjoy magic and fantasy settings. Mostly, I just want to tell stories. I love telling stories.
How does my writing process work?
I futz around for a while, answer the phone three times, find my water bottle, find chocolate and snacks, tell the kids I'm writing and they better not disturb me, go to the bathroom, check on the kids, watch a few episodes of my favorite tv shows, take the dogs outside, answer the phone a few more times, realize the day is almost over and I haven't written anything yet, complain to whoever will listen, then maybe knock out a few words and vow to do better tomorrow.
That's true some days, but not always or else I'd never get anything done. On a good day, I hide in the bedroom out of reach of the phone, turn up my music, and WRITE. Once I'm in the zone, the words just pour out. I don't care if they're good or not, not until I get into editing mode which comes much, much later after the book is finished.
And the music? Depends on what I'm writing. I've got movie soundtracks, pop songs, classical, heavy metal, anime, and a whole lot of other music genres in my library. I find something that fits the mood I need and let it carry me away into the story. The latest I repeated ad nauseum for about ten hours were the soundtracks for Medal of Honor and Wing Commander. I've never seen either movie, but I adore the soundtracks. Dr. Who is also good. As is this one:
And sometimes, my playlist even includes MLP:FIM songs. I live in a house of bronies. I can't help myself.
Make sure you visit these authors next week to check out their answers:
Soozcat blogs the most interesting things.
"Since I first started posting to Confessions of a Laundry Faerie in September 2006, I’ve tried several times to nail down what my blog should be about: Journal entries? Personal essays? Short stories? Flights of fancy? Finally I just gave up and ticked “All of the above,” and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since."
Dene Low has written several books, with the latest being COOKIES TO DIE FOR that came out in May. Her writing spans the genres of Young Adult fantasy to mainstream mystery and some scholarly publications on the side, including poetry. Her books have won won numerous awards, including being a finalist for the Mystery Writers of American Edgar Award and a selection of the Junior Library Guild. She is a university professor who teaches writing. She and her husband love to see their many grandchildren and travel. She especially likes riding her motorcycle.
Kathryn Olsen is a Bostonian essayist whose interests range from Chaucer to Challion. She has contributed to iEmily, Voices, What Culture and Authors Publish Magazine and will be featured in an upcoming anthology of Mormon writers. She came to Utah to study English at Brigham Young University and has not yet gotten around to leaving. In her spare time, she travels as much as possible, works full time and talks to her four goldfish.
