Cavelost

I've started writing a fantasy epistolary story in blog format, Cavelost. The strange presentation is a way of holding myself accountable to short, frequent writing sessions. I've been fighting through my own dark caverns for a while now, so this story is a way to help me find daylight. If you're interested in reading along as I write this adventure, visit Cavelost and start with the oldest entry first.

First Draft Complete!

My goal was to finish the rough draft of Huron by the end of November, and I typed the last words in the wee hours of November 25th. Another draft completed! Of course, Huron won't be finished (or more accurately, kicked out of the house) until it has undergone a couple rounds of edits and rewrites, beta reading, proofreading, formatting, copyediting, and a lot of frustrated tears.

This is by far my shortest novel, but that's okay since it's YA. The skeleton draft is about 62.5k words, and I'll be fleshing it out and giving it another row of teeth during rewrites. After spending twelve years writing the Malora Octet, finishing a stand-alone novel in a different genre is refreshing.

Huron begins on August 1, 1998 in East Tawas, Michigan. A trio of seventeen-year-olds venture into Huron-Manistee National Forest for a live action role-playing adventure. Before long, all three teenagers realize that something is watching them from the forest, something that no mythology or cryptozoology they know of can explain. Thus begins a twisting, turning, terrifying chase into an old-growth forest inhabited by nightmares.

National Novel Writing Month 2015

This is why I've been aloof lately. I've been working on a new book in a new genre, and I was so into it that I hit the 50k word count NaNoWriMo goal on November 18th instead of the 31st. Here is my participant page if you want to check out my stats.

I'm not finished yet. 50k is awfully short for a novel, so I've got a little ways to go before I'm done with the first draft. I tend to write skeletal first drafts and then add a couple thousand words with each round of rewrites. This will be a shorter book than my previous ones, but that's perfectly fine for the genre and plot.

So, what am I writing? I'm not entirely sure how to categorize Huron yet, so for now I'm calling it YA Horror. It's a funny, scary, old-fashioned horror chase set in 1998 in Iosco County, Michigan. My narrator is Casey Tallis, a snarky and nerdy seventeen year old who heads out into Huron-Manistee National Forest with two friends for a little live action role-playing. Before long, all three teenagers realize that they are being watched by something inhuman.

The picture below isn't my final cover, just a placeholder I made on Canva to put on my NaNo profile. I may still use this concept for the final version, switching up some of the colors and graphics. It suits the tone of the book fairly well. I wasn't expecting Huron to be so funny, but after writing 8 3/4 books, I've learned that sometimes you just have to run with whatever your characters decide to reveal to you. Narrators especially take on lives of their own, and this narrator happens to be hilarious. Hopefully the story still makes sense when I return to it for edits and rewrites in January, because I want to set it loose upon the world sometime in 2016.

Whose Story is This, Anyway?

My Maloran imaginary friends are still bouncing around my mind, especially when I sleep. My narrators aren't typically my favorite characters in the books, but they certainly are the loudest. Four of the books are told in first person, one is mixed first and third because Isen is relating Bethel's side of the story in addition to her own, and the six perspectives in the Echoes of Oblivion trilogy are third person.

Mayfly Requiem 

Lani - Mayfly is Lani's journal, a confession of over 2,500 years of his history. He is a fallen Aulor, a biologically immortal Time Child who both observed and participated in the rises and falls of the continent of Malora over his lifetime. He is the twin brother of the Aulor Dia and the son of Aucra and Eryagloris, Time and Stars. Lani is a romantic poet at heart and his narrative style reflects that.

Echoes of Oblivion trilogy

The Abyssal Night, Shards of Chaos, The Shattered Veil

Sevilen Achara - Sevilen is the younger brother of Rastaban Eryaucra, the tyrannical King of Ganebra. He begins the trilogy as a bookish eighteen year old and soon finds himself in a position of apparent power he can't escape from. He is gifted in both linguistics and swordsmanship, is fiercely protective of the people he loves, and is still trying to figure out how to deal with his narcolepsy.

Rhodren Briarwind - Rhodren is also eighteen at the beginning of the trilogy. He grew up in the green city of Heren, Maritor, and is the only child of a baker named Sharo Briarwind. He is finicky and often self-centered, but he occasionally also manages to be charismatic and compassionate. He has auditory-tactile synesthesia, a sensory quirk that is strange to everyone else even though it is his normal.

Ember - Ember is a Geophorian fire priest from the temple city of Reedwater, Anor. She begins the trilogy at age twenty-three. Like most fire priests, she is impulsive and destructive, but her inferno soul is cooled and balanced by her wind priest husband, Moth. She was found abandoned in the swamp as a newborn so has no knowledge of her parentage.

Lirit Narsimor - Lirit is the ten year old daughter of Lucienus Narsimor, a member of the King's Council. Her family belongs to Ganebra's privileged ruling class. She is an aspiring stage actress who, like all members of her social class, was taught to blindly revere and obey the King.

Tikaari Starsinger - Tikaari is a Tenjeri, the race of fox-like people who mostly live in the northern regions of the world. She is the mate of Seya and the mother of Miya, Theta, and Saruza. The Tenjeri were inspired by the Japanese kitsune.

Aridani Eryaucra - I won't give much away about Aridani since his perspective doesn't begin until Shards of Chaos. He's a scatterbrained dreamer with an interesting magical ability, and his point of view offers a new perspective on Rastaban.

Shadows of Absolution

Isen Layel - Isen is a ranger of the Baku, a post-cataclysmic community of mountain dwellers founded by the earth priests Thora Achara and Onyx. She is the daughter of ranger Lusa Layel and earthworker Zoli Achara. At the onset of her story, Isen is drowning in a fathomless ocean of depression after losing the man she loved. She is a strong, intelligent young woman whose talent for wilderness survival piques the interest of the Aulor, Bethel.

Bethel Masiona - As far as Aulors go, Bethel is a young one, just over 100 years old. He survived the cataclysm sixty years prior and is now watching his children and his friends grow old and die while he remains physically around thirty. He has spent the years since the fall on a quest to find any remaining Tenjeri survivors and is now collecting a small group of people to take across the ocean and into the wilderness of a new continent in pursuit of the legendary Tenjeri city of Trieskel. Bethel's lingering regrets are busy trying to drag his sanity into the Abyss.

Sand into Glass

Arden Masiona - We meet Arden about 7,800 years after the Fall of Ganebra, when the humans of Malora (now called Melor) have split into multiple races due to Aulor/Elemental interference and isolation. The youngest child of the Aulor Bethel Masiona is a gifted materials scientist with an explosive rage that has now landed him in a Drey prison awaiting trial for a murder he isn't certain he committed. Arden's mother is an Efi, a member of the race of long-lived forest guardians who live mostly in the western wilderness of the continent, and Arden's Aulor blood gives him additional longevity, so he is 407 years old when his story begins.

The Crystal Lattice 

Tesji Brier (Thula) - Tesji is a young half-Efi elementalist mage who was raised by his eccentric, reclusive grandfather Janakei Brier in the Efilon Wilderness village of Tiponia. He is both charismatic and socially awkward, a combination that renders him an outcast as a child and eventually leads to a career as a bard as he travels across Melor in pursuit of the locations that haunt his dreams and nightmares. Tesji is the eldest of my novel-dwelling imaginary friends since I wrote his story first, so he's quite special to me despite his excessive alliteration and tendency to exaggerate.

Arrow of Entropy

Zella Thula - Shy, serious, analytical light mage Zella is a contrast to her often-flamboyant father, Tesji, and her outgoing siblings, Sora and Ellis. After Bethel refuses to take her on as an Emergent student, she ends up under the guidance of Rassa, an Aulor whose ancient curse was broken forty-two years earlier. Zella loves physics, reading, and music, and she's much stronger than she believes she is.

My short story narrators can be found here.

...and, now here's a little teaser narrator from what will be my next book, which is set in Northeastern Michigan in the late 1990s. I don't have a title for this book yet, but it will come to me eventually. I'll let this narrator do their own introduction.

Casey Tallis - "I'm not one of the cool kids. I'm not a goth or a jock or one of the pretty ones. I'll never be popular. I'm the dork who plays trombone in the marching band and is two years ahead of everyone else in math. I have Science Olympiad medals on my bedroom wall, hanging off a hook I made in the blacksmithing shop at a Renaissance Festival. I watch The X-Files and Star Trek: Voyager instead of Friends and I still miss SeaQuest. I don't like pop music and I spend my weekends either reading or playing Dungeons & Dragons with the other dorks. I once fell out of a pine tree and sprained my ankle while pretending to be a halfling rogue. I don't want to be one of the cool kids. I want to be me. I won't apologize for being me."

Arrow of Entropy

It's over. It's finally over. The Malora Octet is complete.

12 years of work, 8 books, approximately 2570 printed 6"x9" pages, 10,500 years of history, 14 meddling and fallible gods, 4 reluctant demigods, 11 point of view characters, few survivors.

Arrow of Entropy published this morning for both eBook and paperback. 

I unleashed this final volume with a mixture of relief, elation, and sadness. I feel like I'm moving away from a familiar place, away from my friends and comfortable surroundings, and traveling into the unknown. I can always go back to visit, but I no longer live there. Home is somewhere else now. I think you'll see why when you read this story. There was a broad arc to this series, and Arrow reaches the end point of that arc. I'm playing short stories told by minor characters from the series, but those are just little treats for my loyal readers to give them some additional historical depth and some interesting twists in the canon that didn't fit into the main narrative.

Onward, and I'm waiting for the moving truck to arrive so I can unpack the elements of my new storytelling home. I already have a new imaginary best friend, and this one is straight out of my adolescence. I'm switching genres for a while and working on a concept for a horror novel set in Northeastern Michigan in the mid-to-late 1990s. I've already experiemented with this and had great results... my short story "They" is being published in a Halloween anthology soon.

I'll keep you updated on the anthology as I know more about the release date and title. I'm excited about it, since it's the first time I've submitted my work for consideration and the publisher snapped it up.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Arrow of Entropy. A lot of love went into this book, and although it ended up being a totally different animal from the previous books, I believe it is a fitting conclusion to the Malora Octet.

Short Stories from Malora

Arrow of Entropy is in the hands of beta readers, so I'm waiting for them to dissect and shred my weird little upside down story. (Update: I published this baby in August, 2015.) I guess my brain isn't ready to completely move on yet. I'm backtracking because I have all these little characters and bits of history that didn't make it into my books because there wasn't an appropriate place for them. They are now becoming short stories, which I will eventually amass into a collection titled Rain Falls on Malora. I have some concrete ideas for these stories, and I expect others to pop out of nowhere and demand to be written, like the one I wrote about Aunfrey.

I'd love to hear reader ideas. Who or what would you like to read more about? I'll list what I already have completed, conceptualized, and requested below, broken down by era (though some of them are between books instead of during). I'll edit the list as I think of or write more.

List updated 9/3/17

Mayfly Reqiuem
Nova - reader suggestion
Mirren Kelta - early High Commander of the Ganebran Army immediately following the Mage Wars.  (story completed)
Delora Faradel Narsimor - Lucienus's mother, just before they met Lani. (story completed)
Ariana Achara - this little vignette is directed toward three-year-old Rassa. (story completed)

The Abyssal Night
Aunfrey Tasarian Aloret - Sevilen's wet nurse and primary caregiver during his first couple years of life. (story completed)
Summer Aulani -Tempo's wife in Cascades. She never made a physical appearance in the books but she was mentioned in Shadows of Absolution (story completed and yikes, this one is devastating)
Rain - The Geophorian weather priest meets with Dawn in a Ganebran border city. (story completed)
Sharo Briarwind - Sharo and young Rhodren are visited by two other members of the Briarwind family (story completed)
Rastaban Eryaucra - three journal entries from when he was 17-19, attempts at getting his thoughts out of his head so he could dispose of them. (story completed)
Mirazen Keltau - Moth was 15 when his father came to see him in Reedwater, Anor. (story completed)

Shards of Chaos
Aurelien Dirus - age 14, hiding from Geophorian hunters in Rimara. (story complete)

The Shattered Veil
Solace Achara - about a year after The Shattered Veil. (story completed)

pre-Shadows of Absolution
Maple Briarwind - Rabbit's wife, one of the founders of Efilon (in progress)
Holly Thula - reader suggestion
Zoli Achara - Zoli and his mother, Thora, search for hope in a wasteland. (Story Completed)

Interlude
Ulali Masiona - halfway between Shadows of Absolution and Sand into Glass, Ulali travels into the wastelands, to Corvus Rift far beyond the northern peaks of Gainai, in search of her father, Bethel. (story completed)
Laira Masiona - Bethel's half-Toli daughter ends up in places she didn't expect while learning to control her magical ability (story completed)

Sand into Glass
Sonara Masiona - this one was a reader request. Out of Arden's three half-Mero siblings, Sonara is the one I revealed the least about even though she ended up having a vital role in his story.
Azfadel Thula - I'm thinking either around the time when he leaves Tiponia to go to Vanora or his early friendship with Arden.

The Crystal Lattice
Bralt Achay
Lorena & Valosa Masiona - Theron's wife and youngest daughter
Exi Achay's emergence - Exi has a connection to Bralt and Terali, but I'll let you guys learn about it in Arrow. Her emergence would have taken place during the Lattice era, so that's why I stuck it here instead of under Arrow. (story completed)

Arrow of Entropy
I won't detail these since not many people have read Arrow yet...
Senna and Varadi
Eliani Gira  -  Vutan's exile from Stixa (story completed)
The Liefen coup
Saskia and Cantha - this one would be post-series and would go into Inga culture in a little more detail.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any ideas for me.

I also recently wrote a totally-unrelated short story that I submitted for consideration in a Halloween anthology. My beta readers loved it so if it doesn't get picked, I'll post it here on my blog. (Update: "They" was chosen for the anthology, Trick or Treat: A Collection of Spooky Stories, which can be found on Amazon in both e-book and paperback editions)

The End

I've done it. I've reached the end of the first draft of the final book in the Malora Octet. Arrow of Entropy is out of my head and translated into words on a screen.

Even though I've had this story in my head for several years, it still managed to surprise me. It goes beyond epic fantasy and reaches into other speculative fiction genres, but ultimately, it is about the characters. I've lost some imaginary friends who have been with me for twelve years, but I've also given two of them the redemptions I always thought they deserved.

Now I put this draft away for a couple weeks and let my mind reset before I head into rewrites. I have a stack of to-read books and a new idea bubbling in my mind. I'm going to slip away from epic fantasy for a while and explore a new genre or two.

Holding Sand in my Palm

Closer, closer, drawing ever closer.

I have in my hands a proof copy of Sand into Glass. It's a mess because my PDF conversion decided to take a block of about 50 pages and change the formatting so the first character of each paragraph was a different font. I've fixed that error and now I'm reading through to make sure all other errors are corrected. Once that is done, I'll try again with the PDF upload and hopefully I can do that one little thing I've been waiting three years to do -- hit the "publish" button.

I am going to die here. The rage in my soul has finally defeated my mind and now I'm on trial for a crime I'm not certain I committed. Atalor is a festering pit of a city and it has declared me its most reprehensible victim.

My name is Arden Masiona. Yes, those Masionas, the perpetually magical family headed by the immortal Time Child, Bethel Masiona. I am mundane, however. I'm the only non-mage in a family of extraordinary people and they've never let me forget it. No... I can't acknowledge my heritage anymore. I am no longer part of my own family. Rage has rendered me an exile.

Time wants to claim me, but I am not hers to claim. I am an apprentice of the Desert, a child of eternity, a prisoner of my own soul. I am the Glassmaker, and Atalor is where my story ends.

The Blue Rose

Faraban carefully unwrapped the silk to expose a vibrant blue rose nestled within the folds. He held it up and twirled the thornless stem. “An impossible flower for an impossible beauty. The blue rose, a symbol of my house since ancient times."

- from Mayfly Requiem by Courtney M. Privett

The blue rose does not occur in nature. White roses can be dyed blue and a blue color can be obtained through genetic modification, but there are no natural blue roses. Still, there is cultural significance associated with this impossible flower. Some cultures utilize the blue rose as a symbol for royalty, or for fantasy and impossibility. It signifies unattainable love in Chinese folklore.

In the Malora Octet, the blue rose is part of the heraldry of the corrupt Eryaucra dynasty. The flower was selectively bred over centuries and was only grown in the gardens of the Lunamar palace. In Mayfly Requiem, Faraban uses an Eryaucra Blue to propose to his intended bride. The symbol is seen on both his clothing and his banners. It is not as prominent in the Echoes of Oblivion trilogy because Faraban's son, Rastaban, is not fond of tradition and chooses to disregard many of the old symbols. The rose is still present in the kingdom of Ganebra, but it no longer has the significance it did to Faraban.

The blue rose has decided to make a reappearance in Arrow of Entropy, which is why I'm revisiting it now. The metalsmith Catta Metavanya forges a suit of armor for the narrator, Zella Thula. The armor is decorated with scrollwork and blue roses. This causes some distress to the book's deuteragonist, who is quite familiar with the ancient symbolism even though it has been long-forgotten by everyone else. Zella later comes into possession of a blue rose necklace, the design of which was inspired by her armor.

Below is Zella's necklace, which I made this afternoon. Each component of it ends up being significant to her story -- the blue rose, the pair of bees, and the eight larger beads that separate the smaller ones. I'm 20,000 words into writing this book now, so you'll have to wait a little longer to find out just how the blue rose and this necklace play into her life.

Visual reference I made for Zella Thula's necklace (Arrow of Entropy).

The Crystal Lattice

After twelve years, countless editing rounds, two complete rewrites, and a file corruption that ate half of one of my rewrites, The Crystal Lattice has finally flown the nest!

You can find the ebook on Amazon and the paperback on Amazon or Createspace. The paperback will be available through other vendors soon, but I'm going to leave the ebook exclusively on Amazon for a couple months while I swear at the ugly formatting.

This book scares me a little. I was a lot younger when I wrote it so the tone is quite different from my later books. It has its dark moments, but over all it's lighter. The Crystal Lattice is a fantasy adventure and a coming-of-age story about a young man with an elemental soul and the heart of a bard.

So, now I can return to something heavier. I'm casually editing the dark and somewhat-claustrophobic Sand into Glass while writing the first draft of Arrow of Entropy. These two encompass the events on either side of the history of The Crystal Lattice. Sand takes place before Lattice and it's Arden Masiona's rather troublesome backstory. Arrow of Entropy takes place after Lattice, and so far in my head it's a both story of the redemption of at least one previous antagonist and also a love story for the end of the universe. If you ever were curious about Oblivion, you're finally going to meet the Element the rest of the Web fears. All I need to do is write it.

Drifting and Drafting

I'm drifting on the wave of post-book bliss. I finished the first draft of Sand into Glass this afternoon. It took me two years longer to complete it than I expected, but it turned out I needed to trudge through my own personal abyss to figure out how to drag Arden through his.

This book is unusual and I'm not sure how to categorize it. It's a courtroom drama from the defendant's point of view, but it's also an epic fantasy and a dive into the underground caves of mental illness. I went into this book prepared to dig into my own psyche and toss it out naked for the world to see, and I think that is exactly what I am doing.

Now I wait and let the bats settle for a short time while my mind clears. I need to do some rewrites and flesh out the bonier parts, but the story is there and it is finally out of my head. In the meantime, I have some other projects to attend to.

I'm currently waiting to receive my proof copy of The Crystal Lattice. I decided to switch things up and make Lattice first in the Emergence trilogy even though it is chronologically second. I wanted to start out the trilogy with the lighter book and then dig into the dark. I have some additional copyedits to fix on the proof and I need to make sure the formatting is correct, then hopefully I can hit those little "Publish" buttons and release my oldest and most reclusive baby into the world sometime this month.

I'm also starting to take notes for the final book of the trilogy, which is also the final book in the Malora series. This story has been in my head for a couple years but I needed to write everything else first. I'm going to have fun with this one, and I hope you eventually will, too. You'll finally get to meet the elusive Oblivion. Also, several characters who have been fixtures throughout the series finally get what they deserve, especially Rassa. At least, they get what I think they deserve. Arrow of Entropy is going to be a wild ride and it will mark a very definitive ending for my stories of this world.

Emergence is a loose trilogy and not a continuous storyline. Each of the books is told by a different narrator in three different generations of an interconnected family. Tesji is a fiery bard with a knack for embellishment, a love of alliteration, and a hunger for adventure. Arden is the troubled son of an immortal who finally finds himself in a situation he can't escape from. Zella is a light mage with such severe social anxiety that she prefers to remain in the shadows and observe the world from a distance... which directly leads her to a kindred spirit in the form of an ancient Emergent with a lot to atone for.

I hope you enjoy reading this series as much as I've enjoyed writing it. It won't be long now. The Emergents are nearly ready to come out and play.

Author's Note - The Crystal Lattice

I never thought this book would meet the eyes of readers, but it turned out my eldest baby has a mind of his own and is determined to use it. The first draft of The Crystal Lattice was written when I was a twenty-one year old college student with too much time on her hands during summer break. It was written on scraps of paper while solo camping in the Ozarks, on napkins during midnight Steak n Shake runs, and eventually on my bulky old desktop PC. It was a disaster. My narrator aimlessly wandered about the wilderness for something like 150 pages before figuring out what he should be doing, and then I couldn't figure out the ending so I gave up and filed it away.

A few years after college I was working a temp job in Kansas and was struck by an epiphany about how to finish the book, which I hadn't thought about in years. I pitched my thoughts to a coworker, who was almost as excited as I was. He ended up being my first reader and the person I tossed ideas at to help solidify them in my head. A few weeks later, the second draft was complete. It was horrible, but we both saw potential in it. I filed it away for a while since I was inspired to write Echoes of Oblivion, then Mayfly Requiem, then Shadows of Absolution.

Twelve years after walking away from the abomination of a first draft, here I am completing it again. It has been completely rewritten twice, edited, reedited, filed away and found again, names have been changed, characters have been dropped, and the heart of the story has been discovered and embraced. A lot has happened in those twelve years - college graduation, jobs, several out-of-state moves, a marriage and three children, diagnoses and illnesses and injuries - but I wanted to preserve Tesji's young voice, a challenge as my thirty-something voice often tried to take over and delete some of immaturity essential to the character.

Those who have already read my other books may be interested to find that The Crystal Lattice is where the Aulors and Web lore originated. The first five Malora books were written well-after this one. Someone told me that my little fable about the fall of Ganebra would make a good story on its own, and that one, simple, possibly drunken comment sparked five books. I still blame this all on you, Jason. To everyone else, thank you for joining me on this millennia-long journey. There are still two books after this one (one on each side chronologically), so I hope I can keep you entertained for just a little bit longer before I bounce on to another world.

Courtney

The Cliff

Sometimes my mind gets lost. I step to the edge of the cliff and look down. I have no intention of stepping off, I just want to see what is there. Swirling mist and hanging rain? Endless fields of moss roses? Oceans, endless oceans of churning waves and writhing kelp? Nothing, everything, the universe, despair joy? My thoughts wander and I need to remind myself to breathe. I do not lack inspiration, but every effort is rewarded by my body screaming "No!" I retreat and try to force myself to wake.

I spin upon my aching heels and watch the twisted trees sway in a salt breeze. There are words on the wind, clear as glass, sharp and grating. I can dance with them and hold them in my hands, but they refuse to become tangible. The fatigue carries them into a silver box that I am forced to carry with me but not open. The only key is remission, but relief is rare and fleeting, and bracketed by an inability to accomplish anything beyond caring for basic needs. My body refuses to let me heed the call of the twisted trees and the screaming words. I can walk toward the trees but they never get closer, and the words spit scathing insults which burrow under my skin and leave me dazed and breathless.

I turn back toward the cliff to escape the words and nearly fall off the ledge. I can see what is beyond now. Water churns against barnacled rocks. My foot slips. I catch myself but an avalanche of pebbles drop into the water. They plink upon the rocks and are immediately thrashed into oblivion by the waves. If I fell, the violent water would do the same to me. I know I am caught in dreamtime, but this dream is too vivid to be harmless. It is my mind on the precipice of giving up and drifting into a nonchalant cycle varying between asleep and not-quite-awake.

I step back and look down the other side of the cliff. My inspiration sits on a lower ledge -- ragged, filthy, hooded, and surrounded by hungry birds. He is forgotten by society, invisible, a shadow of the brilliant light he once was. I know his story, but he is afraid of me because I know. He is afraid I will reveal his brokenness to the world and drive him from outcast to reviled. I have told the first two-thirds of his story, but he knows it is the last third which will break him. He doesn't realize it will also redeem him. All he sees is the churning water below the cliff, while I see a bigger picture. I see his frailty, his kindness, his longing to be something other than a waif trying to decide if he is ready to lean a little forward and plunge off the bluff. "Wait here," I tell him as he tosses his last piece of bread to the birds. "I will return for you as soon as I wake. I will reveal your life as worthwhile."

I walk away from the cliff. The trees stay distant and the words still wail. I turn around to see where I came from. I no longer see the churning water and the ragged cliff. Instead, I see the light glistening off the tranquil water. I see a piece of my own whole. There is as much beauty in the distant water as there was in the moss roses, in the violent waves, in my fragile muse contemplating his past and future. The fatigue remains, but its sting is lessened. The pain in my hands flares, but it is tolerable for now. I'm afraid to push it toward intolerable, but I must. I promised my inspiration I would return for him, and he will haunt me forever if I don't. He is too beautiful to be forgotten, even as he refuses to reveal his face to anyone but me.

The sun sets, but now I know it will rise again on the other side of the darkness. The fatigue is temporary, part of an endless cycle of day and night. My days and nights are different from most and not restricted by a clock. As the sun falls below the waves, I notice my inspiration upon the shore. He is no longer on the cliff, but instead standing in the sand, his feet licked by the rising tide. I stand with him and reach for his hand. The water is icy. He squeezes my aching fingers and says, "I am no longer afraid of you."

"Neither am I," I reply.


Note: I took these photographs while on a family vacation last week. While looking through them, I realized they had a story to tell just as much as I do.

Home

(This essential oil recipe was originally posted on my vegan recipe blog.)

While I was waiting for some rice to cook I had the urge to mix an essential oil blend that approximates the smell of the Michigan forest I spent most of my childhood in. Some of the scents I added aren't actually found in those woods, but they balanced the scents that were found there to create something invoking memories of of my little world of forts and wandering. It has inspired a little creativity for me, so I think I'll be using it in a diffuser while I work on Sand into Glass. It summons a bit of my childhood, but it also is how I imagine Bethel's Yolane Forest smelling. This is a sensory piece of both Arden's youth and Bethel's exile.

I often use physical props as inspiration while working on my books. I created a runestone set to help me through Shadows of Absolution. Sand into Glass got a set of divination cards that are used by Counselor Corundum and now I have a second sense to add to the visual. I'll have to create a blend that's a little more fiery for Arrow of Entropy.

"Home" Essential Oil Blend

40 drops lavender
25 drops cedarwood
15 drops clary sage
10 drops fir needle
10 drops frankincense
2 drops pine

Mix all essential oils in a 5ml glass vial. Use with a carrier oil in a diffuser when you want to be transported to a northern forest.

Snippet Sunday: Mayfly Requiem

Do you still remember that spring we found the nest of baby birds blown down by the wind? They died in our hands, naked, vulnerable, infinitely fragile. I cried for days. Such precious life, created and snuffed out in hardly an instant. When we were children, time ran by too fast, but now we are ancient and every day is a slow crawl toward an indeterminate finish line. Our neighbors, our friends, our lovers have become those baby birds. Their lives are fleeting, but that does not make them any less precious. They are meaningful and beautiful. We used to be, but now I am the living damned and you are a breathing, clouded myth. We have nearly faded from all memory, but here we are, alive and forgotten. I like it better that way. It is quiet, tranquil except for my remorse and the ticking, the constant reminder I have of my servitude. The quiescence gives us the opportunity to be... well, be a little bit human. I wouldn't exchange it for anything at all. Except, of course, the opportunity to undo my final mistake as a Time Child. What have I done? What horrors have I brought upon myself and the world? Dia, I'm just as terrified and bleak as those dying baby birds, and as fleetingly fragile.

-from Mayfly Requiem

Six-Sentence Sunday

Bethel was universally respected even as his sons were reduced to nightmares suffered by wayward children. It was the same for us everywhere and I never became acclimated to the automatic assumption that I was to be feared. I certainly was a fearful creature, but when you tell your children to stay away from the spindly little boy from the forest, you are working a little too hard at inciting the rage within that spindly little boy. I was just a kid, after all, no more mature or developed than a Drey or a human ten-year-old. I learned early I was something to be feared and those early whispers and rumors have clung to me through the years. People create their own monsters, and it's hard not to become what everyone wants you to be when they push your inner nature to overtake your mind.

- from Sand into Glass, Book 1 of the Emergence Trilogy (Book 6 of the Malora Series)

Order and Chaos

I am often asked the intended reading order for my series. Some people choose to read Mayfly Requiem first, but frankly, it can be a little difficult if they haven't read the trilogy first. Lani is a narrator with a lot on his mind and a sometimes-archaic vocabulary. When you've read the trilogy first, it is easier to see how the history and characters fit together in the overall scope of the world. The series is still enjoyable when read out of order (except the trilogy, which wouldn't make sense out of order), but your perception of them may be altered.

None of my books fit neatly into the epic fantasy genre. There are no dragons, vampires, elves, or werewolves, no absolute good or evil. I merge elements of philosophy, dystopia, and superhero fantasy with memoirs, adventures, and hostile takeovers by ambitious leaders. I create my own creatures such as the winged scavenger rychan, the forest guardian ketrow, the jungle-dwelling aerfen, and the civilized and fox-like Tenjeri.

The recommended order of reading is as follows:

1. The Abyssal Night (Echoes of Oblivion #1)

2. Shards of Chaos (Echoes of Oblivion #2)

3. The Shattered Veil (Echoes of Oblivion #3)

4. Mayfly Requiem

5. Shadows of Absolution

The Echoes of Oblivion trilogy is the story of two brothers, one whose ambition may destroy the world and the other who has always been caught in a shadow but still searches for a light. Meanwhile, the Geophorians, a culture of priests with superhero-like powers, is being systematically exterminated because of a culture of fear created by the older brother and his ancestors.

Mayfly Requiem is the prequel to the trilogy and reveals several intersecting characters and historical events (the creation of Ganebra, the Mage Wars, and meetings with younger versions of Lucienus, Tordian, and Faraban). It is the confession of a fallen immortal named Lani, a Time Child sent to Malora along with his twin to act as a sentinel for the Elements. Since this book covers 2,500 years of Lani's history, it can be a bit unwieldy, but it is much more manageable when viewed as a series of short stories, each depicting a different era in Lani's life.

Shadows of Absolution takes place about sixty years after The Shattered Veil. It is the story of a young woman who thinks she has nothing left to live for and how the Time Child Bethel helps her find a purpose. I describe it as a post-apocalyptic epic fantasy adventure and occasional coming-of-age love story. The love story aspect is quite unconventional, but I'll let you discover why on your own.

I have three more books in various stages of writing and planning to follow the first five. They make up a loose trilogy spanning 4,500-5,100 years after the original five books and the first should be out in 2013. Each book is told by a different character in three consecutive generations of post-human Malora, now called Melor. The first is told by the glassmaker Arden, the troubled youngest son of Bethel. The second is told by Tesji, an awkward elemental mage on an adventure while his dreams call for destruction. The third is told by the reclusive light mage Zella as Oblivion begins to wake.

The work-in-progress Emergence trilogy is:

1. Sand into Glass

2. The Crystal Lattice

3. Arrow of Entropy

I'll leave you with that for now. My laptop is in need of repair for a loose power jack so I'm about to be briefly sidelined again.

Melor, According to Arden

I'm going to reveal a little of the world-building for the Emergence trilogy, but I'll turn this post over to Arden Masiona, narrator of Sand into Glass, because he is more familiar with the subject than I am. I'm just his transcriptionist.

So, first of all, I've heard you're all a bit stuck in the past. That's okay, I'm used to that from my father. He's been around for something like 7,600 years now, so the world has changed significantly. I'm not sure just how old he is, and neither is he anymore, but I don't think it really matters since so much time has passed.

The advantage of having an Aulor as a father is I learned a view of history that no one else in Melor knows. Melor was once called Malora. It became Melor after a series of events which reshaped the land and left most of the population devastated. Life was rough for a while, but like the Thulan, we rose from our charred remains and learned to thrive.

I was born in the Yolane Forest and spent most of my childhood there. We traveled a bit, so I visited the Masia land of Matalore, the western city of Stixa, and most of the cities and villages in between. The Efilon Wilderness is quite desolate, and most of the population of Melor lives east of the Athuals. 

I was educated in Dunewind when I was an adolescent. Where is Dunewind? Well, that is complicated. It's in the Marita Desert, but the city moves on Aumua's whim. It is the home of the Vin, and I was the first non-Vin there in milleniums, since the fall of Ganebra according to Aumua. I'm not really supposed to talk about Dunewind much, but I will say that is where I became a glassmaker.

The races of Melor are diverse, but most of them are descended from humans. Isolation, Elemental influence, and Aulor blood fractured humanity in only a few generations. I suppose I'll list some of the different races for you, starting with the two in my own blood.

Aulor - Okay, I guess this isn't a race at all. Aulors are elementals, Time Children. There are supposedly always two in existence, but I only know of one, my father. The other is a mystery, a rumor spread by a couple of Efi obsessed with learning ancient lore. I asked my father about the second, and he confirmed he has a counterpart, but he refuses to tell me who it is. Aulors are biologically immortal. They can be killed, but they don't age or catch illness. Mages only have a single focused skill, but Aulors can have several. My father has a chameleonic complexion, can transcend distance, and his words have power. I don't know what the other Aulor can do because I know nothing about him. Or her, who knows...

Efi - This is my mother's race, but I wasn't raised among them, so I don't act like a proper Efi. Efi are notoriously flaky. They are the self-described forest guardians of the Efilon Wilderness, which makes up the entirety of central western Melor. They are calm and pleasant enough, but you cut down a forest or slaughter animals around them, you are in for trouble. They've been known to berserk on occasion if the crime against nature is great enough. Most of the time, they're perfectly peaceful, though. They mature slowly and generally take everything at a leisurely pace.

The Efi are descendants of two different Aulors, and this has drastically altered their lifespan and maturity rate. An Efi is considered an adult at 60 and they can live 500-600 years, so they age three times slower than humans until they are adults, and then their aging slows to a rate at least six times slower than a human. Most of them never reach their maximum lifespan because they are prone to accidents and animal attacks. Physically, Efi are imposing, though not as much as the Toli. They are taller than humans and lithe of build. Most have black or blond hair and light eyes, but there are exceptions. Dark eyes run in my mother's line (mine are hazel), and brown eyes and hair run in the Watulya Efi, though they are rumored to be mixed blood.

Mero - Mero are the second race descended from Aulors. They are water-dwelling people who live in the ocean of Ara. Not much is known about their culture, but they are rumored to be the most technologically advanced race in the world... and also rumored to not actually live in the water. Mero have a cultural problem they readily acknowledge. There are far more women than men, so the men take multiple wives. The women are offered a chance to go on shore for a period of time once they reach adulthood. Most never leave the water, but some come on land, marry outside their race, and bear children before the addiction to the water overtakes them and they abandon their families to return to the sea. Mero always have red hair and water-colored eyes (blue, gray, or green). They are human-sized in stature, but their lifespans are comparable to Efi.

Baku - Baku are the mountain guardians of Gainai, a nightmare parents give their children to get them to behave (I've heard I hold that same honor). They are slight, rock-complected people who are rumored to be cannibalistic. No one is bold enough to venture into Gainai for fear of being killed and eaten. I was astonished when my father told me they were his descendants through one of his daughters. I'm assuming the Aulor blood gives them lengthy lifespans, but there is no way I'm going to track one down and ask to confirm it.

Toli - Toli are the largest of the human descendants, and they make their home in the rainforests of Tolaran. They are about a hand taller than the average Efi, and bulkier. Their hair and skin come in a variety of blues and greens. They are physically intimidating, but their manners are generally jovial and they are quite peaceful. They pride themselves on their practical jokes. A few deviate from their culture and become competitive fighters. They have lifespans of about 400 years, but they are not Aulor descendants with the exception of a few who descended from the two children my father had with a Toli woman a couple of centuries ago.

Drey - I have to think for a moment to figure out what to say about Drey that will not negatively impact your opinion of them. They certainly aren't all bad, but I've had some bad experiences with them. Drey are about half the height of Efi. Their coloring is as jewel-toned as the rocks they mine and their eyes always match their hair in color. They often claim mining-related surnames. They live along the Athuals on both sides of the divide. They are possibly the most violent race of Melorans, though they have calmed down over the past few centuries in an effort to maintain trade relations with the Efi. They are obsessed with gems and justice. There are many Drey mages, but it is extremely rare for a Drey to become an Emergent, though they often harass my father to attempt coaxing them into transcendence. Their maturity rate is comparable to humans, and they live only slightly longer, maybe 100-110 years. I think their stature and lifespans make them resentful of the taller, longer-lived races.

Human - I am a little reverent for humans because they were the origin of the rest of us, but I still feel sorry for them. Modern humans are the people who were left unchanged after the fall of Ganebra. They are strong, hardy, resilient people, but they only live 80-90 years and have short childhoods. Most humans live east of the Athuals, but there are large communities of them in the west, too, especially in Brandeis and Etresca. They are quite friendly with Toli, Drey, and Efi, but the races rarely mix and half-bloods are outcasts in most places except Vanora.

Non-human races

Masai - The Masai are a race of pointy-eared, pointy-toothed, long-tailed creatures recently relocated from the continent of Rikulon. Their faces and bodies are fairly human, but their attitudes certainly are not. They pride themselves on being efficient hunters and competent athletes, and are guided by the Elements Affaji (the Tundra) and Taiga (Boreal Forest). They live 200 years and mate for life. My father has made no secret of the Masai being his favorite people, and several of their mages have become his Emergent students.

Inga - Some call this race dryads. They are western tree people, once called myth, but proved real when they ventured from the forests after the fall. The village of Stixa is home to a small community of Inga-Efi half-bloods. Both the Inga and their half-blood children are shy, and I know little about them despite my brief time in Stixa.

Vin - The children of the Desert and the Wind are known by so few in Melor that most would think I'm making them up if I spoke about them. They are the winged residents of Dunewind, and a little bat-like.  They prefer their privacy so haven't made their presence known to the rest of Melor. They were created by Aumua.

Elements - The Elements fashion themselves as deities, and most revere them as such and refer to them collectively as The Web. I know better. They are nothing but powerful beings who spend most of their time residing on another plane. Sure, they are the creators of almost everything we know, but they are also arrogant things that take pride in playing games with mortals. They occasionally procreate with mortals, stick Elemental soul like Aulors or Thulan into the children of mortals, or toss new races into the world. Some Elements are perfectly pleasant and tolerable, others are awful. You probably shouldn't tell anyone I said this about them. It's best to let people keep their fantasies about deities for now.

Gourdlings - Avoid, avoid, avoid! These fat little forest creatures work in pairs or small groups to mesmerize people and lure them into their caves, trees, and hovels. Once there, they make their victims sing, dance, tell stories, or otherwise entertain them. When they finally release the victim, the victim finds years have passed and they have aged along with their lost time.

Kiraksgard - My father assures me the great bear people of the far north are not a myth, but I don't believe him. Maybe they were real once, but if they were, they've been lost to time.

There are many other races and creatures in Melor, but I don't know enough about them yet to describe them to you. Satyrs, watersingers, tromkas, chiva, rychan, gigantic mushrooms that will eat you if you get too close. Melor is a strange place, and my father told me it is far stranger than it used to be.

I suppose I'll go back to telling my story to my transcriptionist now. She's quite patient with my outbursts and I appreciate it. I have a story to finish, then I'll turn her over to Tesji and Zella so they can tell their stories and complete the trilogy. I look forward to sharing my world with all of you.

But, I need to warn you first...

You're not going to like me.

Emergence

There is so much going on right now! I have a giveaway contest going on Goodreads, I just today approved the paperback of Shadows of Absolution (it was already available in e-book), and my muse is running wild through the first book of the Emergence trilogy! I've been playing around on Pinterest lately, so if you're interested in seeing some of my characters as I see them, check out my Malora board.

So, while you're busy reading Shadows of Absolution, would you like to know what comes next?

I thought this was appropriate, given the title and subject matter of my new trilogy. I made this for my daughter.

The Emergence trilogy takes place approximately 4,500 years after the Echoes of Oblivion trilogy, when Malora has become Melor. The descendants of Aulors have become something other than human. The primary races are humans, Efi (tall forest guardians with lifespans of 500-600 years), Mero (red-haired water dwellers, also long lifespans), Baku (argent-skinned mountain guardians), Toli (tallest race, muscular, coloring is shades of blue and green, live in the southern rainforests), Masai (similar to Tenjeri, live in the boreal forests), and Drey (slight, jewel-toned mountain inhabitants). Magic is rarer than it was in the time of Ganebra, and most mages are very weakly skilled. However, some of the stronger ones have the capability of transcending to become purer forms of their talents. They are known as Emergents, and every Emergent mage was once a student of Bethel Masiona.

Book One is Sand into Glass, the story of Arden Masiona's struggle to overcome his own primal nature. He is the sole non-magical member of the Masiona family and the son of the Aulor Bethel and the Efi Emergent Andra Brier. At the onset of the story, Arden has been arrested by the Drey and is awaiting trial on on murder charge. You'll have to read it to find out how he got to that point. Arden is partially deaf, has mild cerebral palsy, and sustained brain damage as an infant which rendered him unable to fully control his emotions and behavior. I am currently over 20,000 words into this book and have had long conversations with Arden, so there is a huge amount of story ahead.

Book Two is The Crystal Lattice. It is already written, though it will need some tweaks now that it is the center of the trilogy instead of the stand-alone book I originally drafted 9 years ago. Tesji is a young elemental mage, an outcast among the Efi. He was left with his grandfather as a very young child and has little knowledge of his parentage. He finds himself alone when he comes of age, and leaves his home to head the call of the far-off mountains and the sea of Ara. He becomes a student of Bethel Masiona, and later a revolutionary.

Book Three has the working title of Arrow of Entropy, and is currently little but a collection of notes and ideas. Zella Thula is the daughter of Tesji and the narrator of the story. Arrow of Entropy follows Zella's relationship with the Aulor Rassa as the tension initiated by Tesji in The Crystal Lattice culminates in a second transcendence for a major character in the series and a shifting in the cosmic balance when the Web discovers just how vulnerable it really is.

20 Ways to Support Indie Authors

I love my readers. They took a chance on a total unknown who was busy flicking ashes at the perimeter of her genre, and then came back for more. Indie readers are enthusiastic and supportive, but sometimes indie authors need just a little bit more help to succeed. There are many ways to support indie authors, and most of them are free and only require a click or two. Here are twenty of them, in no particular order.

1. Tag our books on Amazon. This helps us climb in rankings when someone searches for one of tagged words.

2. Participate in our contests. Sometimes we have free books to offer, and it usually only takes a click or a comment to win. Free!

3. Listen (or at least be polite and pretend to) when we ramble about our books, characters, or ideas. We are an easily excitable lot and we love what we do.

4. Like our Facebook pages.

5. Occasionally or frequently comment on our Facebook or blog posts. Don't be afraid to converse with us. Writers are people, too, and it gets lonely when people feel too intimidated to interact.

6. Follow us on Goodreads.

7. Follow us on Twitter.

8. Follow and read our blogs.

9. Read our books and leave ratings for them on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, or wherever else we have our books listed or for sale. It's easy, just write one review and copy and paste it everywhere else if you don't want to write new ones.

10. If you like our books, recommend them to others and click that little "Like" button next to the stars on Amazon.

11. Give our books as gifts. You can even do this with e-books now.

12. Bring us food. Or even well-written recipes. Writers need to eat, too, but sometimes we are too lost in the intricacies of Medieval dining etiquette to remember to make our own dinners. Remind us to feed our cats when you bring us food because we occasionally mistake feline hunger for scathing critique.

13. Recognize that we are not being rude by staring off into space during conversations and social gatherings. We are observing, brainstorming, and most likely mentally writing a bit of dialogue or a scene. We are not ignoring you, we are multitasking.

14. Provide constructive criticism and feedback if we trust you enough to ask you to beta read something. It's scary to entrust others with the contents of our psyches. If you don't like something, tell us why. If you love something, also tell us why so we can try to duplicate the effect in future projects. We want both the good and the bad so we aren't blindsided by some horrible and unexpected plot hole when our babies are booted out of the basement and into the world.

15. Be patient with us. It can take years to write a single book, especially since most of us can't devote as much time as we would like to writing. Some writers can put out multiple books per year, but many of us are slow and meticulous. We don't want to keep you waiting, but we also want to publish the best books we can and leave our readers both satiated and wanting more. Keep us on task and hold us accountable to our words, but don't rush us too much or you will be disappointed with the final book.

16. Mention us on Facebook, Twitter, or by word-of-mouth. It really makes our days when we come across a recommendation someone gives for one of our books. If you're the shy sort, send us a Facebook message or email. We love to hear from our readers. Sometimes it is the motivation we need to slog through a particularly vexing chapter.

17. Recommend your favorite indie books to us so we can help support other writers. Writers are also readers and we love a good book as much as you do.

18. Keep reading. Readers are much of the reason we strive to elevate our work from a hobby to an art.

19. Snag our books if we're running a free or cheap promo, and tell your friends. We run promos for exposure, but we need help generating interest.

20. Buy our books. Many e-books cost less than a cup of coffee, and offer far more hours of satisfaction. You can't re-drink a coffee, but you can reread a book as many times as you like. You don't even need a Kindle or Nook to read an e-book, since there are free apps for most devices out there. If you prefer paper, many of us have created paperbacks or even hardbacks, which can pretty up your shelves. After your read them, of course. 

Thank you, readers! You are awesome!