Tag Archives: books

Who will come back in Book 5?

2 Aug

TWSH-coverHave you ever finished a book or a series, then thought, “Hey, what about so-and-so? I wonder what ever happened to him?”

You know what? That happens to authors too.

We write a character, and they play their part in the narrative … and then they’re gone. And like our readers, we kind of miss them. Sometimes we wrapped up their story in our backstories, the narratives that don’t make the cut. Other times, we don’t know either.

But the big difference is, as an author, I get to decide who comes back into the narrative. I get to decide whose stories get wrapped up in the final book of the series The Day Magic Died.

But all that power is going to my head, so I need to share it with you.

Here’s the deal. Book 5, The White-Silver House, is drafted. The ending is almost set in stone at this point. So are a lot of the plot points that Karia needs to pass through to get from where she is, to that ending.

But a lot can happen in between. There’s room for some characters from previous books to come back. And you can help me decide who.

There are five characters who could reappear in Book 5. Let me tell you a little about them, to jog your memories. And then you can tell me who you want to see in The White-Silver House.

Failean: Mom to our heroine, Karia. She played a big role in the first and second books, The House in the Old Wood and Karia’s Path, but virtually disappears after that.

Visili: Sorcerer, illusionist and deceiver, who considers himself the most honest person around. (Maybe he’s fooling himself.) He came to the fore in Karia’s Path, but has also mostly disappeared from the narrative.

Nana: Grandmotherly figure to Karia. Prone to cut right to the heart of the matter with witticisms such as “Don’t go pouring dumb on top of stupid.” One reader told me Nana was her favorite character, but Nana hasn’t appeared since the second book.

Sikarra: The red-headed, freckle-faced farm girl who thinks Karia must be her cousin because she doesn’t know anyone else with red hair and freckles. Like any six-year-old, prone to take in everything around her, only to have it come spilling out of her mouth at the most inopportune times. She sort of has a cameo appearance in The Dwarf’s Legacy, but otherwise only showed up in The House in the Old Wood.

Timbal: Ah, Timbal. Not much I can say without it being a spoiler. He played a big role in Karia’s Path, but hasn’t been heard from since. But astute readers of The Dwarf’s Legacy likely expect to see him in the final book.

Which of these characters do you most want to see make a reappearance in the pages of The White-Silver House? I’ll likely include more than one of them.

Never say never

1 Aug

TWSH-coverA couple of weeks ago, I said I never used outlines in writing my books.

Another author and I were talking about our methods, and we both agreed that outlines just don’t work for us.

This is not a new phenomenon for me. In school, when the assignment was to write an outline, then write an essay based on that, I would always write the essay, then put together the outline from what I had already written.

I just can’t chart out what I’m going to write. I have to let it happen.

So I said.

Well, I’ve been having trouble keeping everything moving properly in Book 5, The White-Silver House. I have a lot of loose ends to tie up, a lot of story to tell, characters to develop …. In short, I was feeling like I was in danger of losing track of things.

So I made a list of all the settings in which things take place. I shared many of those with you earlier this week.

I made a list of all the plot points – all the things that have to happen to bring the book to a good, satisfying conclusion. That includes wrapping up some of the sub-plots.

And I listed out the characters and described what happens to each of them in the course of the book.

I’ve let that set a while, so I’m about ready to come back to it in order to make sure I’ve got everything I need written down. And after that I’ll write each of them on an index card, and fill in more detail on each plot point. Then I’ll sort of mix and match until they fit. (That also gives me liberty to move things around if something doesn’t seem to fit as I’m working through the rewrite.)

And it dawned on me: Isn’t that an outline?

The settings are the main points, and the plot points are the secondary points, with the details being sub-points. (The character sketches sit outside that, but you get the point.)

Well, I guess I do use outlines after all.

Oh, the places you’ll go!

29 Jul

TWSH-coverOne of the most fun things in this series has been creating new places to take readers to, and Book 5, The White-Silver House, continues that trend.

From the discovery of the house in the Old Wood, it’s been a wild ride.

We went through the marsh – something I had no clue about before spending years in Florida. If you look closely at the marsh, you’ll see some resemblance to the swamps in the state I call home.

We spent time in the castle, then the Hall of the Prophetess. The market scene in that book came directly from my experience in the chaotic, crowded Sunday Night Market in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Winter was easy to write about after spending time in the Chicago area, but the mountains are based those in Southern California, which I used to call home, because there’s a distinct shortage of mountains in Chicago.

And speaking of Southern California, the deserts of Anarka were built on my memories of living and working California’s high desert for a couple of years, as well as a particularly memorable family vacation in the low desert when I was a teenager.

It’s in the desert that The White-Silver House picks up.

We go directly from the sands to the Forest of Bones within the desert of Anarka. I don’t want to tell you too much about that – you’ll have to read the book – but the Forest of Bones contains a surprise.

From there, we head north again, and you finally get to see the rugged home of the wild Teneka Dhu. Their home is based on an area of North Carolina where I’ve gone backpacking, the Wilson Creek area. It’s a rocky, hill place where, a century ago, a strong, free people farmed and harvested timber and scraped out a living for themselves.

Then … well, it’s off to someplace I can’t reveal without giving away part of the story.

And after that, you’ll get to discover Jurakhahazhi’ina, Jura’s Harbor, the home of one our key characters, a city that you could say was built on white silver. It’s an ancient capital, the capital of a kingdom that predated the sundering. This is where I come back to Chiang Mai, the ancient capital of kingdom that once ruled what is now northern Thailand.

Shortly after that, our entire story wraps up.

I think you’ll enjoy the journey.

The Kindle Unlimited no one knows

23 Jul

Poor misunderstood Kindle Unlimited. No one seems to know what it is.

Are you paying for an overpriced library card … or for the key to a treasure chest?

Is it a place that lacks your favorite authors … or is it a mine of uncut gems?

Even Amazon isn’t helping. They call Kindle Unlimited “unlimited access to over 600,000 titles” … but is it actually an open door to thousands and thousands of undiscovered worlds?

Think about this: What if I told you that for $9.99 a month I could take you to amazing places you might never dream of going yourself?

That’s the promise of Kindle Unlimited.

The heart and soul of the offerings on Kindle Unlimited are the works of independent authors who take part in Amazon’s Kindle Select program. (Full disclosure: Like me.) They are, for the most part, authors you have never heard of. Authors whose books you may be reluctant to spend money on. I understand; I’ve been there. I’ve questioned whether I want to spend $4.99 on a book by someone I don’t know.

But now, $9.99 a month gives you and me the opportunity to discover authors we really enjoy, who we might otherwise never even know existed.

It’s like paying $10 to walk down a very long street where there’s a band in every garage. Some you’ll find competent, maybe even good, but not your style. Some you just plain won’t like. One or two might be just plain bad. But somewhere on that very long street you are bound to find one that just fits. One you can watch and follow and recommend, and know that you played a part in their success.

That’s the promise of Kindle Unlimited. Without the headache.

You might download a few books that you end up not liking. So? You’re not limited. You can keep looking. And that’s not really the point. The real point is, with all those Kindle Select titles, chances are very high that you’ll find some books and authors you really like. You will discover hidden gems that might otherwise have lain buried deep in Amazon’s listings. You will.

Then you can follow them and watch them. (I’m speaking metaphorically here, not encouraging stalking.) You can recommend them to your friends, spread the word on blogs and Facebook and Twitter — and know that you helped them succeed. You can probably even contact them and get a personal response. Ask questions, and get answers. Get to know them, if you want.

So look at authors you don’t know. Check out genres you’ve said you don’t like. Take a chance on something different.

Isn’t that why you read? For discovery?

Come on, then! There are worlds waiting for you to discover them.

Kindle Unlimited 30-day free trial

The House in the Old WoodKaria's Path

Speaking of sharing: Kindle Unlimited

22 Jul

Amazon has rolled out a new ebook subscription service called Kindle Unlimited that allows people to borrow “unlimited” books for $9.99 a month.

Amid everyone and their brother expressing opinions about it, one thing is clear:

Nothing is clear yet.

Well, OK, there are a lot of individual facts that are clear. But how they all add up – or how they might change – is not.

I’m going to take a hopefully optimistic tone:

1) All my books are available there, and since the 600,000 books on Kindle Unlimited is a limited slice of the pie that is Amazon’s listing of some 4 million books, I have a slightly better chance of people finding my books now.

2) What Amazon has been paying for such “borrows”—about $2 – is not bad for each book. I am hoping that stays the same. (Although I don’t actually get paid for Kindle Unlimited borrows, but for every time a reader gets past 10 percent of a book.)

3) That could add up to more income from my books. So far, I have discovered that being a novelist is just about the only thing that pays worse than being a missionary. J

So, in the spirit of sharing my books and getting the word out there, I would be delighted if Kindle Unlimited subscribers took a gander at any of my books.

Please let me know if you do; I’d be interested in what the experience is like for readers. Oh, and you can get a one-month free trial of Kindle Unlimited.

The House in the Old WoodKaria's Path