GIVEAWAY: Signed Copies of In the Arms of the Restless Sea

 

NEW RELEASE: In the Arms of the Restless Sea

It's here! In the Arms of the Restless Sea is now available on Kindle e-book and in paperback. Click the cover photo above to go to Amazon. 

 

The e-book will stay exclusive to Kindle for a while, but the paperback should be available at Barnes & Noble online and other online stores.

NEWS: Upcoming Heartfriends Novella

I have news! After working starting this project a long time ago, taking a break, and finally picking it up again last fall, I've made a ton of progress on In the Arms of the Sea, a novella set in The Heartfriends universe and revolving around Aurelia's old friend Nessa. 

I've been working hard to put this out in the world soon, so you can expect it in the next month or so. I'll be releasing more information as I have it.

For now, check out below for a glimpse of what the cover will look like!

Epic Fantasy for Winter Viewing

I like winter for many reasons: snow (when I don't have to drive in it), time off to spend with family, those pine cones that smell like cinnamon, cozy blankets and sweaters, tea and cookies, beautiful decorations. I could go on and on. But one thing I especially love about winter is that I associate it with fantasy stories, whether epic or simply high or other-world fantasy. I'm not really sure why. I think it's because fantasy is my favorite genre and therefore it feels cozy to me, and winter is the season for coziness.

In that vein, here are some suggestions for epic fantasy movies and TV shows to watch this winter.

The Letter for the King
This TV show is from 2020 and is on Netflix. My friend Meredith recommended it to me ages ago, but I only just got to it and finished it. I'm glad I did! The series follows Tiuri, a teenage squire who's trying to follow in his adoptive father's footsteps. On the night he and his fellow squires are going through the trial to become knights, he breaks the silence by answering a knock at the chapel door. Answering the door leads him to a dying knight, who gives him a letter for the king across the mountains. By accepting the letter, he begins a journey that will have change both his world and himself.

Amir Wilson, who plays Tiuri, is absolutely endearing, and I loved watching his character grow. Thaddea Graham, Islam Bouakkaz, Jonah Lees, Jack Barton, and Nathanael Saleh play his fellow squires. All of them are interesting and have satisfying character arcs (although I disagreed with how one of their stories ended). Ruby Ashbourne Serkis has a standout role as Lavinia, a brash and hotheaded girl who joins Tiuri's quest mostly to run away. Their different personalities play off each other really well. 

There's lots to love here! The story feels very Arthurian inspired, and it's set in a world where chivalry matters. In epic fantasy fashion, there are multiple kingdoms, a war going on, and political aspects at play, which is why delivering the letter to the king is so vital. Each episode introduces new things about the world, which ultimately feels familiar in a comforting way.

I will say that I didn't find myself fully invested until the third episode, and it's only six episodes total. Once I was invested, though, I was really invested and finished the show in a couple days. Unfortunately, it's been two years since Netflix released this, and since Netflix likes to cancel things or let them languish instead of investing in them, it seems like this won't get a second season. However! It's based on a book series by Tonke Dragt, and I absolutely plan to check it out.

BOOK REVIEW: In Blood and Duty Bound

Erin Bales and I attended the same grad program, although we weren’t in the same cohort. However, Erin was in my very first workshop, where I got to read ten early pages of this manuscript. I don’t even remember what the pages were about, but I know I liked them a lot. What I do remember is telling her that I trusted her as a writer, and that still holds true. Throughout the read, I wasn’t always sure where plotlines were going, but I was happy to be along for the ride.

In Blood and Duty Bound features multiple points of view and storylines. Renn, one of the main characters, is the youngest princess in the Morovide royal family and the fourth in line for the throne of Ombratos behind her mother and her three older sisters. She’s overlooked by her mother, the queen, and in love with Dallan, who’s engaged to her oldest sister, Solena. We spend a bit of time seeing Renn’s typical life before the plot kicks in and she’s tested as a princess and as an individual.

Parneo, her twin, is gifted in alchemy, which is the world’s main magic system and based on blood. The Morovides are literally bound to the Ombratos throne via their blood. Healing charms and the like are activated with a drop of blood accompanied by an incantation. Like all the other male twins in his family line, Parneo, because of his talent with alchemy, is prone to the madness that tends to accompany it. This plays a minor part in the story with some major implications.

Getha, my favorite main character, is a royal guard training for the varo, the elite force who protect the members of the royal family. She’s a very straightforward person with tunnel vision toward her goal. It’s always interesting to me when characters like this are forced to pivot when something unexpected demands their attention. Since this is the first book in a series, I’m very much looking forward to how she develops as a character.

Helenia provides the third main point of view and easily the most morally questionable and interesting. While Renn and Getha are youngish and idealistic, Helenia has more experience with life, specifically its disappointments. Dallan’s aunt, she’s from the island nation of Tithen, which has a revolutionary history. Especially intriguing is her relationship with Mayve, her sister-in-law and former wife of the ruler of Tithen.

Which brings me to two of the things I find most effective and refreshing about In Blood and Duty Bound—its female characters and their relationships with each other and with other people. Until we get to a point in the fantasy genre where having a majority female cast is as normal as having a majority male cast, I think it’s worth drawing attention to that. Renn, Getha, and Helenia are all complex people with clear motives, strengths, and flaws, and their relationships shape who they are and affect their actions. The book is at its strongest when Getha and Renn are together. In the interest of not spoiling anything, all I’ll say is that I look forward to seeing where the story takes them.

Like many epic fantasies (including my own!), there’s some pretty intense world-building in the first hundred or so pages. Consequently, I found the book a little slow to start, but I find a lot of books slow to start, so take from that what you will! That said, the world-building pays off, and the intertwining of all the storylines near the end is satisfying.

Ultimately, this has a ton of what I like to see in the genre and some surprises to boot. I’d recommend this for any reader who likes fantasy, especially epic fantasy, and for readers who enjoy books with female main characters. This was one of my favorite reads of the year so far, and I’m very much looking forward to the second book in The Final Queen of Ombratos series.

A Walk in the Woods + A Brief Writing Update

It's March, and Spring is finally showing its face once more. I enjoy winter, but usually by this time of the year, I'm also happy to see warmer weather and the sun for more hours of the day. Yesterday, I was able to get out for a 2.3-mile hike, and it was a really good decision! It was great to get out into the fresh air and get some exercise and sunshine even if it was only about 45 degrees. 

The stream was cold! But there's something about sticking my hand in running water that grounds me and calms me. And in this case, the shock of the cold woke me up a bit as well.

This hike was also the first time I tried out bird-watching. I got myself some binoculars and was able to see a handful of birds. A few were definitely robins. I know that much at least. Some were, I think, red-bellied woodpeckers. And there were at least two other types that I can't yet identify, but I hope to gain more bird knowledge and be able to identify more on the fly during my future walks.

My binoculars came with an attachment I can use to set my phone up and take pictures through the binoculars. I haven't quite figured that one out yet! But maybe soon I will. In the meantime, the picture on the right (from Wikipedia) is of a red-bellied woodpecker of the sort I saw.

credit: wikipedia

As for a writing update, I'm hard at work on two projects concurrently. One is the first draft of a mystery novel.You can keep up with my progress on the right side of the page under the Word Counts widget. So far, I have about 35,000 words out of an anticipated 85,000. Mystery is definitely a different beast than fantasy, but I enjoy reading mysteries and I'm enjoying writing this one. 

The other project is, of course, Book 3 of The Heartfriends trilogy. I'm revising the first draft into something with more detail and bones and cohesion. As usual, I have no idea how long that process will take! So far, each book of the trilogy has been a completely different experience. But I'm aiming for it to look more like an actual book than just words on pages by the summer, so we'll see how much trouble it gives me!

The Heartfriends 5th-Anniversary Giveaway

 

REREAD: The Dying of the Golden Day, Chapter 6-10

Writing life got busy, but I'm finally back with annotations for chapters 6-10 of The Dying of the Golden Day!

REREAD: The Dying of the Golden Day, Chapters 1-5

If you read my post about finishing the first draft of The Heartfriends Book 3, then you know I'm embarking on a reread of Books 1 and 2! Which I was a little bit intimidated by, to be honest. I started writing The Dying of the Golden Day in 2013 and published it in 2016, so it's been a minute since I looked closely at it.

Now that I've started to reread it, I thought it would be fun to do a short blog series with annotations on the story, like what inspired certain choices, how I drew from my experience in Kazakhstan, and notes about my writing process. I'll do about five chapters at a time, so let's begin!

The Road to Book Three--Part 1

 

It's the first update on the Heartfriends Book 3! I started writing this book over a weekend way back in October 2019 at the Broadkill Writers Resort (thanks, Jen and John of RDSP!). Then the pandemic hit early in 2020, and it took me a long time to find my footing in terms of balancing work, job searching, and writing. But a year and a half after I first began this manuscript, I'm here to say that I have a first draft! 

That said, it's the messiest draft I've ever written, and it has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. However, in the words of a friend, I now have "a whole skeleton of a thing," and that's the important thing! It's much easier to fix a story when you've got words on paper. Terry Pratchett said, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” I've definitely accomplished this because there were a lot of elements I needed to figure out. Now I get to flesh those elements out.

The next step is to set the manuscript aside for a few months. I have two short stories I'm working on for anthologies, and those are due by the end of May and the end of June. I also want to dive back into a couple longer projects, including a mystery novel, and play around with those over the summer. Then I'm going to reread Books 1 and 2 and take notes so I can make sure I'm wrapping up all the loose threads into a (hopefully) satisfying ending. Stay tuned for more updates!

The Road to Book Two--Part 3

It's certainly been a while since I've talked at length about Book Two! That's partly because I've had other projects to work on, and I want to give the Sky Forest Press projects proper attention. But it's also because I get embarrassed to talk about my slow writing pace. Though it sounds so silly when I write it down, it seems like other people churn out multiple books a year while it takes me at least two years to write one epic fantasy. That sometimes makes me feel like I'm less of a writer, which I know I'm not! As Baymax said, "I am not fast." That's all there is to it.

Now for the news: Book Two is almost done! Getting close to the end means it's easier to see the end result, and I'm happy to report that I'm proud of this book. I hope readers will enjoy reading it!

Check under the cut for a look at the cover, designed by me and my friend Erica Hogan. She also created a map of the world, which is incredible and something I've been asked about often. I'm excited for you guys to see it. If you're interested in connecting with her for her map-making skillz, you can find her on Twitter.

Writing Update, NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is one of my favorite times of the year. That's partly because it's fall, and I love the excuse to wear soft sweatshirts and drink steaming cups of tea while I write. And partly because it's a challenge. In a small way (a very small way!), I miss the deadlines of grad school, and NaNo is kind of a supersized deadline.

As much as I love it, this year, I won't be participating--at least not in the traditional sense. Instead of 50,000 words, my personal goal is to finish the current draft of book two of my epic fantasy trilogy. To get into the spirit of NaNo, though, I made myself a revision calendar. This is the rough draft. It's very messy.

I'll probably still be logging a few words on the NaNo website, so if you want to friend me, feel free. I could always use more writing buddies! My name there is pancakes16.

If, like me, you enjoy instrumental music while you write and are looking for something new, I made a writing playlist on Spotify.

Happy NaNoing!

FANTASY FRIDAY: The Pathfinder Universe

I've realized Friday isn't the best day for me to do these because I'm always busy all day, but I love alliteration more than I love being logical, I guess! I'll continue these installments even if I write them a bit irregularly.

On this week's Fantasy Friday, I'm discussing the Pathfinder universe. It's a fantasy role-playing game, much like Dungeons and Dragons, but I don't actually play it! I'd love to rectify that in the future. Right now, though, I don't have much free time to delve into it. And because I didn't play it, I always stayed away from that part of the sci-fi/fantasy section in the bookstore.

I was missing out! Before one of my besties moved to England, she and I would spend lots of time browsing the local B&N. The last time we went together, I stumped one of the booksellers. My friend wanted sci-fi about AI, and his first suggestion was successful. Then I asked for epic or high fantasy with prominent female characters, and he had to try four different suggestions and leave and come back in order to get me to Pathfinder. Out of the series shelf, he pulled out a few titles and explained what they were about. I walked out with three Pathfinder books that day.

The first I read was Gears of Faith by Gabrielle Harbowy. It followa Keren, a knight of Iomedae, and her girlfriend, Zae, a gnome cleric of the clockwork god. When they move to the city of Absalom, they both face challenges in adapting to their new lives while searching for a stolen bloodstone. Even though I'd never read anything in the Pathfinder universe, I never felt lost. Harbowy explained enough to keep me knowledgeable but not so much that I lost interest.

I read it in a few days because it turned out to be exactly what I wanted to read. I loved that there were two female protagonists who were very different but relied on each other for strength and comfort. It was great to see fantasy with LGBT+ representation--and in more than one way. Most of all, in this age of gritty, grimdark sprawling series, I enjoyed the chance to read a standalone fantasy that had nice, moral characters at its heart. I'm so, so tired of fantasy books that focus on characters betraying each other in the name of ambition.

So, yeah, the recommendation of Gears of Faith was a resounding success. I've started reading another book in the series, Hellknight by Liane Merciel. This one is taking me longer not because I don't like it but because I'm a slow reader who reads too many books at once. It's about Jheraal, a Hellknight, one of a brutal organization of warriors dedicated to maintaining law and order at any cost. She teams up with a knight named Ederras to stop a serial killer who targets children. Although I'm only 1/4 of the way in, I'm looking forward to reading more this weekend and, once I've finished, diving into other Pathfinder adventures.

Writing Update, April

I've been feeling a little burned-out recently, which is part of the reason I didn't reach my goal of 20,000 words for April's Camp Nano and instead wrote only 10,000. That's okay, though, and it takes the sci-fi manuscript up to 8,500. Plus, this time, I'm happy with those words. I think it's best to work on it without a timeline in mind for getting it finished.

The other 1,500 words belong to a short story that is currently not going anywhere. Maybe I'll pick it up again in the near future.

Better news is I'm currently revising Book II in my epic fantasy series. I'm over halfway through the manuscript as I make notes on what needs to be changed or fixed. Then I'll tackle writing the actual revisions. I'm planning on finishing that up by the end of May. After that, it goes to another beta reader, which means it'll be one step closer to publication.

So, still plodding away. The going may be slow, but it's forward going. Can't be upset with that.

BOOK REVIEW: Soul of the World, David Mealing

I'm writing this review because I loved this book and great books deserved to be talked about! It's no secret I love epic fantasy. I enjoy a ton of genres, but there's no shaking epic fantasy from the #1 spot. However, it's a very frustrating genre because it's been so focused on straight white male protagonists. To me, and to many other readers, that's tired and boring by now. I don't need the genre to be reinvented. I just need it to be more inclusive, and I'm very happy with this one.

I picked up Soul of the World on a whim. I knew I wanted a big, thick fantasy, but honestly, I often shy away from male authors. That's the majority of the genre, though, so I grabbed this one in B&N one day and decided to buy it because I was excited by the prospect of two of the three main characters being women (and the other being a man of color, but I didn't realize that just from reading the back cover).

Basically, the story takes place in a new world across an ocean from the old, so very much inspired by Europeans coming to North America. In this new world, there are indigenous tribes, colonies of Sarresant and Gand, and a wall that divides the two. The plot isn't easy to distill into a sentence or two because there's just so much going on. There's very cool magic and revolution and a shifting of gender roles and giant animals and gods with mysterious motivations.

BOOK REVIEW: Daughters of the Storm, Kim Wilkins

Daughters of the Storm is the first book in Kim Wilkins's Blood and Gold series. I have a lot of thoughts about this book, and they're not necessarily organized, so bear with me. The book is about five sisters who are the daughter of a king. Bluebell is the oldest and a warrior who is rumored to be unkillable. Rose is married to the king of the neighboring nation as part of a peace treaty, and her heart belongs to another. Ash struggles with her burgeoning magic. Ivy lives to be admired by men, and her twin, Willow, is devoted to the gods.

The story starts when their father, the king, takes ill. Bluebell believes it to be the work of magic, so she drags her father and her sisters off to save him. The synopsis also mentions a "treacherous stepbrother" intent on seizing the throne. This isn't untrue, but the sisters aren't really aware of it, which makes for an anticlimactic climax. But more on that later! I'm going to try to split this up into categories in order to keep it more organized than it is in my head.

The Road to Book Two--Part 2

I'm back with an update on Book Two, tentatively titled The Shadow of the Endless Night! If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen that I posted a picture of the complete first draft. Here it is in all its glory, which isn't very much, to be honest! Right now, it stands at about 96,000 words, which is on par with what the first draft of Book One looked like. For reference, the final version of Book One is around 129,000 words.

The Road to Book Two--Part 1

I've gotten a number of questions, especially in the past week, about the release date for The Heartfriends Book Two, so I'm starting a multi-part blog series to talk about updates! This will be semi-regular and discuss how close to finishing a draft I am, what goes into finishing drafts, and my writing process in general.

New Platforms

My epic fantasy debut, The Dying of the Golden Day, is now available on more platforms! Find it at:

B&N for Nook

iBooks

Google Play

and Kobo!

REVIEW: Whispers at the Altar, Allan C.R. Cornelius

Obviously, I'm a lover of fantasy fiction. I've particularly loved epic fantasy, but the more I read of it, the less excited I was about it. Although I still love the atmosphere of the genre, all the stories were beginning to feel the same. So, I was pleasantly surprised with Whispers at the Altar. In this first book of The Altar Trilogy, Allan C. R. Cornelius combines the best aspects of the genre with fascinating characters in order to tell a fresh, exciting tale.

Christa is half-elf and half-human in a world where the elves and humans live in separate spheres. Through her story, Cornelius explores the ramifications of such a separation on individuals and on society as a whole. When Christa is accepted at a school for magically gifted elves, she has to fight for respect from both professors and classmates. It's at this school that the story is at its most compelling--not only for Christa's internal journey, but because of the supporting cast. Too often, friendships among girls are depicted as trivial or unnecessarily catty, but here, Christa's relationships with Sinna, Westrel, and even Vaniel are formative and given the opportunity to change and grow.

In a book world that gets hung up on the "likeability" of female characters, Cornelius is unafraid in his portrayal of his young heroine. A far cry from the perfect heroes of the genre, she's headstrong and eager to prove herself and in doing so, makes mistakes. It's that exploration of Christa's character--who she is, what she wants, and what she's willing to do to get what she wants--that is the book's core strength.

While Christa is the book's main focus, Steven provides a perspective of what's going on in the world outside the school and broadens the novel's scope. His relationship with Brogan grounds that story line and lets Cornelius explore the theme of family set against the backdrop of a shifting world. The imagery of Steven's chapters is a particular strength, and the two story lines meet up in a satisfactory way during the climax.

Cornelius's first installment in The Altar Trilogy is a must-read for fantasy fans, especially those who are looking for a fresh take on the genre.

Whispers at the Altar is available for pre-order and will be released in July! Check Allan out on Twitter and on his website.