Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

Standing Stone

Thought I’d Take a Stab at Self-interviewing, a Question at a Time

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When is the next Standing Stone book coming out and what is it about?

Book 2 in the Standing Stone series is in redraft right now and will be ready for the editing process very soon. I expect to have it uploaded to Amazon and my wide distributor Smashwords by the first of June.

Jahl Pratter, and siblings Donya and Rouen Marson will be off on another adventure when they travel to Carolan Faire, the city north of Chussen Faire on the main trade road that runs through town.

Now nineteen years old, Jahl has established his wielder school for boys and is recognized as the High Master Wielder of Chussen. With only three native wielders practicing, he views the title a bit sardonically. A new crop of wielders are in training, but it will be some time before they fill the ranks of practicing wielders. The honored position comes with certain demands. Master Tommlar, owner of the local chain of standing stone suppliers, informs Jahl that he must go to Carolan Faire to deal with some issues that have come up since the death of the northern city’s high master.

It seems an easy task to head to Carolan and take custody of the deceased master’s orphaned apprentice and close out his wielder home until the child is old enough to return. If only Tommlar hadn’t left out some important details.

Inspiration for my new fantasy novel came to me sideways fashion

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I think it has been at least two years since my writer friend Marcy Peska offered to let me guest post on her blog. She gave me a set of possible topics which I perused but didn’t feel any rise to write anything. But a few days later, I decided that writing about rules and how they give a sense of environment and expectations as well as challenges can help a writer create a story.

All very logical. Since magic was the topic, I began with explaining how having rules for magic created conflict: what if you needed it to work this way, but according to the rules it doesn’t? Or what if the rules worked for able-bodied individuals but created a terrific burden for those missing a specific ability.

All very logical. I decided I needed to give an example. It makes it much easier to understand something if the one talking about the thing has something to point at. See, this is one. Turn it upside down, look for the make and model information on the bottom. Push a button, etc.

So I said what if every wielder of magic had to carry the source that contained the power used to perform magic. (And no not a wand.)

Jahl is a sixteen year old who has reached the age of wielding magic. He is young and carrying around a foot-square stone an inch thick and heavy with magic is not such a difficult thing to do, right? Except that Jahl has a twisted right leg that makes walking even a half a block an ordeal. But he wants to earn a living as a wielder. He’s determined and uses the cheapest and simplest way to accomplish his goal. He goes to the store where he can rent a standing stone. Once he carries it to the customer, he must stand on it to have access to the magic. Fortunately, the store provides a site just to the left of the entrance where wielders can stand and hawk their magic talents.

Very reasonable way to build a client base. But what happens when the client wants Jahl to meet him somewhere? And there is the conflict.

So I had this nifty blog post about how rules can create story. And then I got very possessive. I didn’t want to give away all the details of a great story, but without the “See, this is one,” the post was worthless. I copied it and shoved it into an idea file on my computer and went back to working on my current #wip.

Marcy never go that guest post. What was I thinking? I should have just written another post.

But that story idea kept swinging back into my attention. And I kept pushing it aside. I had my book series (SciFi time travel) to work on. There was not time to work on a fantasy. Then why not send Marcy the post? Well, no, that was not going to happen.

Then last April, my contemporary novel about three women coming of older age was making me miserable. I could not write more than a couple of hundred words a day. I had the time. I had the desire, but nothing was coming that seemed to offer the book any real growth and development.

Then Jahl started walking through my creative mind. I thought, I just need to get away from Joanie & Friends for a while. Why not fiddle with this magic story (a short story I could finish in a week, two max).

So it’s May now and the story that was to take me away from Joanie so I could freshen my muse a bit is 68,000 words in length. I write about 7,000 words a week. I think about it every opportunity. Jahl just keeps on fighting the good fight, so I haven’t wanted to leave him.

Actually, I don’t think I can. The boy needs to get this done. He must prove he can be a master wielder. He must find out who is responsible for the Wielder Wain that killed off nearly every wielder in Chussen Faire and left him crippled and every surviving wielder of the five Wielder Clans either too afraid to work magic or too afraid to return to Chussen Faire.

I just wanted to explain why I haven’t been blogging lately. It’s not that I have been lazing about doing nothing. I’ve been busy getting to know Jahl and watching him work through his challenges to become a master wielder. I figure a few more weeks and the draft will be done.

Marcy will get it as she is one of my best beta readers, and she’ll forgive me for not sending that guest blog post two years ago, which by the way she has never mentioned as she is a forgiving soul, or forgetful. Either way, I think she won’t mind this substitution. And she can claim inspirational initiating action to the story in a sort of sideways fashion. Just like I can claim I’m the reason my sister-in-law is happily married because she asked if there was anybody I knew who was the exact opposite of her ex and just wanted to go dancing. They’re married, more than twenty years now, and I had a hand it that. Sideways fashion.

If you found this post interesting, feel free to comment or share it.

My new fantasy will be out I think by October and available at Smashwords and Amazon and other fine ebook retailers. Keep an eye out for the pre-order listing on Smashwords and other ebook retailers, though probably not Amazon as my account with them is not set up for pre-orders. No problem, Smashwords purchases can be downloaded in whatever reader format you have.

#writing
#fantasy
#inspiration

When the story won’t speak, pick up another tale

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Stand on stone words

Just a few weeks ago, I decided I needed to shift to another writing project. My contemporary novel, Joanie and Friends, had hit a wall. I was writing, but it was failing to feel original and authentic, like I was just dragging the words out of my characters.

So I remembered an outlined set of rules for a story about magic. It had been bubbling up in my mind frequently, and I would run through my ideas but not put a word down and remind myself I already had Joanie’s story to tell.

But I remembered that I often write on several pieces in different stages: rough draft, cleanup draft, final draft, and final edit, bouncing back and forth feeling very invigorated by the multi-action writing.

My box set of time travel books 1 -3 of the Students of Jump was published along with the fourth in the series late last year. I had run through all my work and had thought delightedly that Joanie would more than fill my time and would benefit with being the only work on my mind. With three narrative voices, it seemed very practical. But I hit that wall at 18K words. I cringed every time I sat down to write. Who would I pick on this time to continue the story?

But back to multi-writing. I reread my notes on that fantasy short story and felt compelled to write. Some 40K words and 5 weeks later, and I have the first half of a novel drafted (not a short story anymore) and a good sense of conflicts and characters figured out. I haven’t felt any impetus to return to my previous WIP and can only suppose that it just wasn’t ready. Standing Stone, the working title of my current roll, seems to have a steady stream of words each night. My average weekly rate is 7K.

When Joanie or Mathilda or Colleen speak up, I’ll stop and listen and write if they have something strong to say, but for now this bit of writing magic is flowing nicely. Maybe knowing there is something else I can turn to is part of what is making this roll so well; the demand that there be words to type isn’t strangling me. Rather each morning more of the story comes to mind, and by the time I am home from work, the next scene is ready for drafting.

So my choice to shift from my contemporary novel and answer the call of a seemingly simple short story about magic was a good one. I’m looking forward to writing every night.

So have you had to pull back from what you thought was a ready-to-go novel and found yourself immersed in an unexpected backup? 

When at first you don’t succeed, try, try and then try something else, then try again

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Standing Stone

I’ve been working on a novel, Joanie and Friends, that is based on three retired women who have their lives pretty much set the way they wanted them. They’ve worked hard and married good men. Life is running along well. And then it doesn’t. All three women share in the telling of how they proceed when living life is not the easy road it had been.

I have the conflicts, the characters and the movement of the plot all blocked out in my mind.  I have my notes and the first 13,000 words. But these last three months, hearing their voices has not been easy. I’ve used a number of strategies to get my characters talking, but the results though not bad, have just been a constant wheedling, wrenching and forced expression.

Lately, some notes I have on a fantasy story have been rising up in my mind. Of course, I have been pushing it away because I already have this big project with the ladies that is nowhere near where it should be in word count.

Yesterday, I thought I would just look at my notes on “Standing Stone.” By the end of yesterday, I had more than 3,000 words written but not for Joanie and Friends. So I am stepping away from the contemporary novel and taking up the fantasy story.

With my other books, I was always work on two to three books, poems, stories or a combination of the three at the same time, so why I suddenly decided to focus entirely on one work is a mystery. I think I’ll let the ladies rest for a bit while I work on this fantasy. They’re awfully pushy women when they want to be, and when they’re ready to share more of their story, I am sure I won’t be able to ignore them.

So the lesson I learned is to pay attention to my process. I move from work to work, getting each done in its own time. So “Standing Stone” it is, until it’s Joanie and Friends or something else. Perhaps I’ll work on my poetry collection Fine China Family next. It’s been whispering and clinking in the background off and on, too.

Leave a comment. What’s your process?  What happens when you don’t follow it?

#writing
#process