Tag Archives: writing

5 reasons to read more novels

4 Aug

It’s better to be entertained than amused: Although most people think of entertain and amuse as synonyms – and they’re even presented that way in many dictionaries and thesauruses – they’re actually different concepts. Amuse comes Greek words that literally mean, “without thinking.” That’s an apt description for what happens when you watch TV or movies. Your brain just sort of turns off and takes it all in. There’s not a lot of thinking involved. That’s not a good thing. But when you’re reading a book, you’re entertained – it holds your attention and gets you thinking. Thinking is good. Novels are good for your brain.

Novels are cost-effective: If you go to the movies, you pay $10 each for a couple of hours of amusement. If you want something to eat or drink, that’s even more unless you sneak it in. A $10 novel gives you eight to twelve hours – or more – of reading enjoyment. And that $10 covers you and anyone else you want to share the book with. (You can share my ebooks – which are well under $10 – the same way.) Oh, and the bonus of reading a book wherever you want to – like in a comfy chair at home – is that you never have to sneak food in. Unless you’re on a diet. How’s that for cost-effective?

Novels can be re-enjoyed: I’ve bought a few movies on DVD. But I almost never watch them. I find that I really don’t enjoy most movies the second time around. On the other hand, most books contain such a wealth of clues, cues and foreshadowing that reading them a second time is a whole new experience. The third time through, when you are reading with the depth you gained the first and second times, is thoroughly enjoyable. And any book you read three times is like an old friend you want to come back to and enjoy again and again.

Novels inspire us: I read the other day that some foundation is going to spend millions trying to figure out how to make their documentaries more effective at prompting people to take action. I’ve worked on documentaries, promotional booklets, short stories, articles, novels – I think that just about everything you can write, I’ve written. (Though it pains me to admit it, the first piece I ever sold was a poem.) And I can tell you two things: First, a story is more effective than the facts. And second, people react very differently to movies and video than to books and other written stories. Movies and videos primarily impact people emotionally, but they seldom make people think. (See the first point.) Books and other written stories make people think. And if the story is powerful enough and written well, it hits people emotionally too. That combination of emotional impact and thinking is what spurs us to action. Novels inspire us.

Novels remind us of real life, and that’s good: Television is lived out in half-hour and hour segments, usually with a happy ending, or at least a conclusion to the story. The main characters can’t die, unless it’s the end of the season and their contract isn’t renewed. It’s a series, after all. These days, a lot of movies want to leave things open for a sequel, or a continuing series, so you have a pretty good idea going in what is going to happen. Not so novels. A lot of novels are also written as a series these days, but characters can still come and go. (It’s easier for an author – you have no contracts with your characters.) But more importantly, the timespan is greater and more flexible. The author has eight to twelve hours of your time, or perhaps even twenty hours (if the book is compelling) to take you through the story. OK, but how is it good that novels remind us of real life? They remind us to persevere; to pay attention to the details; and to enjoy the journey.

So crack open a good book and enjoy the journey! I wouldn’t mind in the least if you try one of mine …

The House in the Old WoodKaria's Path

Oh, and remember to vote so I know which characters to include in Book 5, The White-Silver House.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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You can do that?

21 Jul

The House in the Old Wood coverOne thing people love about physical books is the ability to share them.

Turns out, people like that in ebooks too.

A recent study by Author Earnings shows that ebooks you can share outsell “protected” ebooks two-to-one.

Didn’t know you can share ebooks? You can. At least with Kindle books, with other Kindle users, you can.

You can share all my ebooks. (With one exception which I will fix soon.) And I encourage you to do so. Let your friends read them. You could do that if it was a physical book, right? You paid for it, right?

Oh, hey, some people got the ebook version of The House in the Old Wood free, didn’t they?

No matter. Feel free to share it. It’s yours. I gave it to you.

(At this time, new purchases of The House in the Old Wood are protected. I am having trouble toggling that to “off.” I will do so soon, but this may result in the book being unavailable for a couple of days.)

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