The Dragon Question featured on eBookDaily!
What I’m (th)Inkingabout
Where an idea begins ~ mine took me here
I am about to embark on writing the fifth book of the Standing Stones series. My daughter reminds me regularly this is the series that writes itself. It is an apt reminder.
It started with a friend wanting me to write a guest post for her blog. She gave me a set of possible topics, one of which was fantasy. I hadn’t written a fantasy before, but I’ve read thousands.
It was the only topic I thought I could write fairly well on. I had an idea, nothing particularly new, but I hadn’t seen it written about in the manner I was thinking, so why not?
My brainstorm idea: the rules that govern the world of a story create pathways that as the story proceeds limit the choices available to both the writer and the character. Those limited choices funnel the writer and the character to its ultimate conclusion. Nothing new, right.
But I’m a teacher, and examples are paramount in putting across expectations. So I immediately began thinking about a set of rules for a fantasy world: wielders of magic must carry with them a heavy flat stone which they must stand on in order to wield the essence that is the base of their magic and is embedded in the stone. What if there was a wielder that couldn’t carry his stone or found it extremely difficult? How would that act as a governor of his experience.
From there, I considered a series of questions.
- Why can’t he carry it?
- Are there alternatives?
- What caused this situation?
- What can he or she do about this if anything?
- What other rules apply?
- and the list goes on…
I got to the bottom of the parameters of this fantasy world and how it would guide the story and was so invested, I could not send her the post. I set it aside while I finished up a book I was writing.
I thought I might write a short story with this created character: Jahl Pratter and his struggle with fitting into the demands of being a wielder.
I began writing another book in my then current series and continued to let Jahl wait for when I had time to write that short story.
I got stuck, not just stuck: I lost faith in the book I was writing. I had to step away.
I started another book that had been running around in my head. Over the course of a couple of months, the conflicts of this new book became all to real to me, and I could not face it. Both my father-in-law and my mother were showing serious signs of dementia, a key component of that novel.
Both have since passed away, and 20k of words are waiting for me to come back. I can’t just yet.
I returned to the previous series’ book and struggled along before again setting it aside. Jahl beckoned.
I thought writing a short story might lubricate the wheels. And it was all laid out in my head. It wouldn’t take much time to write it.
At about 20K of words and no where near the middle, never mind the end, I realized I was writing a book, and it just kept writing itself. I was along for the ride.
Book 2 grabbed hold, and I said, “Okay, let’s roll.”
Before I had time to take a breath, Book 3 was in the works.
I stepped back to the fifth book in that earlier series I kept setting aside and finished it, quite satisfied with the result. I had hated it the majority of the time I spent writing it. It just never felt good enough. By the time I finished it, I quite liked it. One unpublished blog post produced four books.
I started a new fantasy series of standalone novels, Solstice Dragon World. After writing three of them, I returned to the Standing Stone series and wrote its fourth book as easily as I had written the first three. I love that series and have been thrilled to learn from my readers that I am not alone.
Standing Stone Book 5 is next on my agenda. I’ve been holding it off while I have finished my current series: Kavin Cut Chronicles, just weeks away from publishing the third in the trilogy.
I suspect Standing Stone’s Book 5 will be the end of the series. Of course, given its beginnings, I can’t be certain.
If you would like to check out any of my fantasy series, click the tab at the top of the web page labeled All Books. You’ll find links to all the main retailers where they are sold. Just click on the series title of each and work your way through the books.
The power went out, silently, without preamble
Just as I sat down to write this post, the power for our entire town went out. Usually, we hear the rollicking pop of a transformer or have a few preliminary brown outs.
Not this time.
A gentle outage, like a mouse tiptoed in and sat down. Lights out all over town.
That was also new. Usually, it’s just our block. The lights are normally, tantalizingly, on across the street and everywhere else.
My laptop’s battery has a very short life these days.
I immediately thought, “Guess I’ll just read.” But my conscience said, “Pull out the iPad and keyboard and get to writing.
So there I was, tapping away in the dark. The Christmas tree is a tall cone-shaped shadow across the room, a bit of silhouette in front of the dimly lit window behind it.
My husband sauntered in and took a seat.
Politely, and only with the slightest sigh, I set aside my iPad.
We talked of butcher-block counter tops and the new sink we purchased and won’t install until Christmas break.
Then there was our new plan for kitchen cabinets.
After all, we did just purchase a lovely new refrigerator. Now those vintage (kindly word for really old, crazy old, did I clearly put across that our cabinets are old, say 100 years old?) cabinets could use some replacing.
Funds are limited, and we’re only expecting to live here another two to three years. We’d located some new vintage looking cabinets which will fit the Adams style of our (100-year-old) two-story frame house. So, we re-discussed this choice.
Talk wandered. The boat needs cabinets, too. My husband is using the pieces from the old ones as templates for cutting out new ones. Another project for Christmas break.
We decided on what to get our daughter for Christmas. But I’m not mentioning what we decided on here. My daughter reads my posts. (HaHa, sweet girl.)
We recalculated retirement plans.
There were a few minutes of contemplative silence. I typed a bit more on this post because I’d nothing to contemplate other than my To-do list which is frustratingly long.
Then my office in the new house was played. Lighting, of course. How would I like it lit?
I hadn’t given this any thought. Ho hum. Let me see. A desk lamp, some task lighting for my planning board. No, I don’t want an overhead fan.
Why is it my don’t-like-small-talk husband loves to talk to me?
I know, I shouldn’t complain. So I won’t.
We covered politics, Covid, education in general, teaching in specific, whether or not Cagney will stay free of fungus.
That last is an ongoing discussion. Cagney’s longest run this year has been four weeks. I’m hopeful. I have added “update my post on our fungus battle” to the To-do list.
Lights on.
My husband nods at me and wanders out of the room. Now he can get some work done.
What’s at the top of my To-do list now? Hmm. There’s a three-way tie for first position. I better get busy.
Eating the Elephant One Bite at a Time
I never have enough time, and I am coming to terms with that. When I was much younger (yes, at 60 I still consider myself young), I would ask myself, “Five years from now, are you going to wish you had/hadn’t done this?”
The answer would guide my decision. It is that question which made me decide more than ten years ago to redraft three books I had stuffed in a digital closet and publish them.
But, did I mention I’m 60 now?
The question has far more permutations than it used to. Time is a commodity I am realizing is more limited than it once was. I can’t say I have 50 years ahead of me. OK, I might, but I’d probably be pushing that senility bubble a bit hard, and it would be pushing back.
Now, every second counts. But there is this elephant on my plate. Though I have reduced its size by cutting out the time suckers it used to include for padding, it’s still bigger than my plate, bigger than the table the plate sits on, and occasionally bigger than the room housing the table.
I still have to eat it one bite at a time.
That’s what I do.
Sometimes the elephant gets bigger instead of smaller, but I can only chew so fast and spoon in only so big a bite.
Still time is waving hands at me. It’s a limited commodity. I’m chewing as fast as I can.
I cut out Twitter, Goodreads and settled on Facebook and this website for my time. I started a newsletter.
Click the Signup! button on the menu bar to join it.
The rest is reserved for three major parts of the elephant.
- Writing (that’s the head of the elephant)
- Marketing (way down by the tail)
- Teaching-related stuff (my day job — the body)
- Extra: Health (somewhere down at the feet, maybe underfoot)
Until I retire, the majority of my effort goes to my day job, which, unfortunately, grabs a huge slice each day of my off time. Grading is a bear, quickly followed by planning, training, parent contacts and email.
It’s very hard to eat a bear when you are still working on an elephant. All that hair gets caught in the throat.
Don’t ask me about dessert. All I’ll say is my husband is a sweetheart; our daughter, sheer perfection; and my Labrador, loyal and true.
My point.
I have to have a point to this?
I’m eating one bite at a time. That’s what I tell myself, and it helps. My only issue is the cook keeps bringing in new elephants as soon as I finish one. But one bite at a time still works.
Have I got a story for you?
I was busy writing Book 3 of the Kavin Cut Chronicles, and these two characters joined the cast. They were so intriguing.
One had been a minor character, a brief walk-on, but he left such a strong impression, I wondered if he would be back.
Lord Laurents was a charming, elderly fellow with a perpetual smile on his face, impossible not to like. Kambry certainly appreciated his quick grin and teasing words.
But when his wife, the stiff-lipped Lady Laurents showed up and other characters started to talk about her, I was sold on the idea that these two were not going to melt into the woodwork as easily in the third book as they had in book 1 and 2.
Chapter one of Book 3 had the Lady Laurents front and center. I was even more curious about how sweet Lord Laurents ended up with such a sour-puss for a wife.
They needed a short story focused on the two of them.
I stopped everything and spent a Saturday finding out what drew charming, sweet-natured Laurents to this “caustic” woman.
“A Sultry Buzz” was the result. I made it available to my newsletter subscribers, giggling the whole time.
Now that I know the Laurents’ secret, I grin every time I think about those two.
Here’s the first paragraphs:
Standing at the entrance of the room, Bernum Laurents folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes. “I’ve been staying close to home, avoiding trouble and sitting in on the council meetings, and now you say I need to settle down?” He pressed the back of his head to the floral-papered wall and exhaled noisily.
Mother slid her embroidery needle neatly though the pale, stretched linen. She sat with her back straight though the chair back was canted, a floral blanket covering her lap down to what he knew were thin, weak ankles. Her legs seemed to strain against the straps that crossed over them and held them in place. “Don’t be dramatic. You’re ready now,” she said, not looking up as she tugged the needle, one thumbnail holding the twist of thread in place for the rosette.
“I wouldn’t say I’m ready at all for marriage,” he said. He trod across the drawing room until he was only a few feet from his mother. A low hassock was the nearest seat to her, and he folded his lean frame up like a trestle table after giving the squat seat a glare. Why with all the chairs in the room had she chosen this one to keep close? He gazed at her strapped-in legs and instantly grew contrite. He’d loved to sit near her when he was a boy and had routinely chosen the lowest seats so she could feel tall once and awhile. She probably kept the hassock here just for him.
“You’re twenty-seven years old. It’s time you chose a life partner.”
“Okay, let’s follow that argument. ‘Time I chose.’ So why have you invited the caustic Joulette Dwantry to dinner? Why did you insist I attend? And why when I asked if you knew Miss Dwantry did you say it didn’t matter if you knew her, only that I got to know her?”
“I’m not allowed to make suggestions, Bernum?”
“Then the demand that I appear promptly at six in court clothes for a family dinner was a suggestion?”
“Of course, not. I want you to impress the girl.” She tugged the thread through again.
And the rest is their story. If you’re interested in reading more about these two, you have a few choices. You can join my monthly newsletter.
- Click the tab titled Sign Up at the top of my webpage and signup for my newsletter. The short story links are always in the newsletter about mid-way down.
- You can read Book 1 in the Kavin Cut Chronicles trilogy and click the newsletter link at the end of the book. And you’ll find the short story links about mid-way down the newsletter.
- You can read both books in the series and at the end of Book 2 click the link to sign up and get the short story in a few clicks and not have to wait for the newsletter to come out that month, as signing up from Book 2 includes an offer to receive “A Sultry Buzz.”
Writing this short story was such fun that I’m hoping to write one each month. October just started, so I’ll be waiting for that itching short-story-writing sensation.
I can’t make promises that there will be more, the situation with teaching and writing is not conducive to adding to my load, but I squeezed this one it. How hard can it be?
Don’t answer that. Let’s keep up the charade that I can eek out the time if I try really hard. And I’m going to try really hard. There’s a map I thinking about making, too. But we’ll see how that goes. That requires more time to eek out.
My Current Reading Rotation
I read quite a bit, often following several series at once.
I’ve been keeping up with four separate series whose writers have been kind enough to be on quite fast release schedules.
I can’t write at that speed for a variety of reasons, but I believe all four of these writers are writing full time.
Who are they and which series?
- K. M. Shea: Hall of Blood and Mercy series
- Lindsay Buroker: Star Kingdom series
- Jessica Lynch: Touched by the Fae series
- Elizabeth Hunter: Glimmer Lake series
I just keep rotating through.
What I find particularly interesting is that the moment I read the first few sentences, I’m suddenly comfortable. “Oh, its Killian and Hazel.” I snuggle down in my seat and put off grading for a few hours.
That is what books should do. They steal us a few hours away from what we should do, what we don’t want to do, what needs to be done and will be, later.
I remember when my parents would be arguing, I’d grab a book, pick a chair somewhere in the house and leave via someone’s well-written words.
I didn’t want to return. It took someone jiggling my foot and saying, “Dinner! Didn’t you hear?” to get me to return to the world of the teenager and family squabbles.
So along with getting my now online-job work done, keeping my family from going stir crazy, enjoying a particularly affectionate Labrador who is no longer in quarantine in the back hall, I’ve been reading at every opportunity.
I hope you’ll consider checking out these series. They are each nearing their completions, I think. You never know for sure though.
Stories sometimes do more of the dictating than the writer of when the story ends.
For myself, I have often thought I was writing a standalone novel only to find the story is not complete. Such is the case with my newest series. I published book 1 and have book to in pre-order. It’s a trilogy, I think. I’ll know for certain when I get to the end of book three.
I suspect it may have an offshoot series, but I’ll have to wait and see when I get there.
In the meantime, I’ll follow these series to their ends. Join me if you like snark, magic/space adventure, strong female protagonists and well-wrought worlds you can step into until someone jiggles your foot and you have to eat dinner, which I have found makes it possible to read more later.