Mirklin Wood is now live on Amazon. Watch for special promotional prices.
Also, in honor of Mirklin Wood finally being available, The Willow Branch is on special promotional price of 99 cents.
You could pick up two books at great prices and find a fantasy series you really love.
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‘m busy and focused on getting this frustrating task done, so please enjoy the reblog of some previous blog posts and I’ll see you tomorrow for Writing Wednesday.
I ran across this Becky Akers article discussing the Radical Patriots, who are featured in her book Abducting Arnold, which is on my winter reading list.
Source: The Radicals’ Rancorous Rage | Becky Akers
Becky’s is a refreshing alternative take on Benedict Arnold that brings in some little known American history.
The book is in final edits. I just finished incorporating one beta reader’s suggestions and am waiting on another. If all goes well, the book will be on pre-order by March 1 and will publish mid-March.
I love this stage of the creative process because I can really see things coming together. The long slog to the finish line that is publishing a 130,000-word epic fantasy is gaining speed now because I can see the finish line.
Of course writers are never done, right? After I take a break to read someone else’s book for a week or so, I’ll resume work on the already-in-progress Objects in View (Book 2 of Transformation Project). I’m going to be talking about that later today.
In the meantime, here are some highlights of Mirklin Wood.
Dun Wmgleadd sat under a dinner plate full moon, the streets bright as noontide. A caravan had arrived earlier in the day, so the night sang with the great merriment accompanying hardworking men with coin in their purses after a long job is accomplished. Every inn of any reputation spilled over with light, laughter and frivolity, harlots plied their trade and ale flowed like water in a stream.
At the Blue Goose just off the market square, the gaiety was shattered by a scream and the dull thud of a body hitting a grassy yard.
Far from the celebrating throng, Padraig slept soundly, luxuriating in a morrow with no commitments.
He’d been on the move constantly since leaving Clarcom more than two moons hence and a single night without concern for the morrow was a rare luxury that he meant to savor until dawn. When the dream of the eastern mountains began, he though mayhap it was a melting of the blockage he’d labored with for more than a moon, for this had the flavor of vision more than of dream.
The majestic sunlit peaks soared behind Gly as he shouted at Padraig from a great distance. The elven master’s words shredded on an unfelt wind so that Padraig recognized only the word “sword”. Sword? What sword? Gly gestured, directing Padraig to look behind him. He flinched back as lightning rent a storm-black sky. An unnatural raven unfolded enormous wings to launch itself into the storm, somewhat clenched in its talons. Just as it threatened to disappear into the clouds, the raven dropped what it carried and Padraig stared as a sword flashed past his perch to fall broadside upon the grassy yard he suddenly stood upon.
A large fat goose with blue feathers honked at him and waddled off into the darkness. A falcon lifted its beak free of the shelter of its wing in a tree in Mulyn and launched itself into the sky, pushing southward. Ryanna picked up a walking stick of beautiful willow. A Kin woman he knew from the holt told her elfling husband she was with child. Lydia watched Danyl as he slept. A dark and forbidden forest stretched toward unknown mountains. Gly’s voice echoed through his head.
“The broken sword has value. Arise, sleeper, and protect it.”
The dream vision dissolved as loud whispering called his name.
“Padraig of Denygal? Where are you? Padraig?”
Men began to curse the voice that awakened them and Padraig crawled out of the tent in only his small clothes to keep Braeden from being killed … or more like having to kill someone to keep from being killed. Braeden’s reputation was no doubt deserved.
This Book Goodies interview ran a while ago and the notification got lost in my email.
http://bookgoodies.com/interview-with-author-lela-markham/
About Lela Markham:
Hi, my name is Lela Markham and I told stories from the time I could talk. I eventually started writing them down and publishing some of them.
I’ve been a journalist, worked construction and outside sales, been an administrator for a mental health center for more than a decade and now work in transportation.
In 2015, I fulfilled a lifelong dream to become a published novelist. Currently, I’m focusing on epic fantasy and dystopian thrillers, but I write other genres. Watch this space.
When I’m not writing, I pursue the adventure of a lifetime in Alaska with my risk-taker husband, two fearless offspring and a sentient husky who keeps a yellow Lab as a pet.
What inspires you to write?
Human narratives fascinate me. We strive to be better than what we are and yet we are so often far less than we were made to be. It is that struggle that inspires me to write my characters’ stories. I often describe my writing process as putting into words what my characters tell me about their lives.
Tell us about your writing process.
My writing always starts with a character who often starts talking to me while I’m doing something unrelated to writing — filing at my money job or driving to Anchorage from my home in Fairbanks (380 miles). If the character hangs around and tells a decent story, I eventually get around to seeing if he or she would fit into a setting I feel like writing about. If the scene comes together, then I will decide what the purpose (the end) of the book will be and loosely plot out how I mean to get there. So, I am both a seat-of-the-pants writer and an outliner. Usually, I just list the major plot points at the end of the Word document I’m writing. As I fill in sections, I move to the next plot point. Nothing is set in stone until the rough draft is complete and even then, I will expand some sections on rewrite. I see plot as a braided river. There are multiple ways to get where I want to go and sometimes the side journeys are far more scenic than the straightest route.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I listen to my characters. I have, as part of creative writing exercises, tries to talk to them, but that’s largely been unsuccessful. They tell me their stories and I write them down. If they stop telling me their story, they almost always die in the book. If they don’t like a way I’m trying to take their character, they will express their displease by not talking to me until I revise my direction. It is really a fairly one-way discussion.
What advice would you give other writers?
I’ve learned that people are fascinating and crappy to one another and that villains can have redeeming qualities while heroes definitely need faults. None of us is perfectly anything and the minute that I as a writer try to make a character perfect, I discover I’m writing boring garbage that I wouldn’t want to read.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I chose to self-publish. I basically just got tired of being told “It’s a great book, but you need to define your audience better and write to them.” I just didn’t feel that was right for me. With self-publishing, I don’t have to conform to a market share analysis.
Of course, self-publishing means I have to work that much harder to be a professional at publishing. Not only do I have to write a great book, I have to edit and proof read it. I have to decide whether beta-readers are giving me good advice and which advice to incorporate into the book. I have to choose cover art and write blurbs. And, hardest of all, I have to market my books myself. And I have to do this while also writing the next book.
I would advise new authors to realize that success takes time and commitment and the willingness to stick with something even when you don’t see immediate success. Be patient and write the book you want to read.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think publishing is going through a huge transition right now as traditional publishing has lost its death grip on the industry to the new self-publishing field. Some of this was the inevitable result of tradition publishers insisting that writers must write to certain genres with an eye to the “hot” markets, a system that restricted a lot of writers out of the market and, frankly, as a reader, left a lot of readers bored. Self-publishing somewhat broke that blockade, though it really has a long way to go, mainly owing to inattention to detail and lack of professionalism. I don’t think the resurgence of self-publishing means that traditional publishers are going away. I think the two groups are going to adapt to one another and it is entirely possible that many new independent publishing houses will arise that are smaller and more competitive, more willing to work with independent authors in a changing environment.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: I’ve published in epic fantasy and dystopian, but I also write mysteries, YA, and paranormal. Most of my books have some element of faith in them, but I do not consider myself a Christian-genre author.
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Lela Markham Home Page Link
Link To Lela Markham Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit, to allow you, the reader, to hear the author in their own voice.
I took the day off for a quiet day of writing at home. Brad is deforesting my brother’s backyard, Kris is at school, the daughter is doing whatever gypsies do, and I thought “Bliss!”
Beautiful weather, pretty warm, everybody in the neighborhood should be at work or out enjoying the return of fall.
But ….
During last week’s snow storm, a neighbor’s tree fell over and our neighborhood professional wood-burner volunteered to clean it up for him. Jim has chosen today to process said tree.
So, here I am, trying to write to the sounds of a roaring chainsaw.
Choices!
Go to the coffee shop and fight for bandwidth and electrical outlets with everyone else? Uh, NO!My solution?
Shooting muffs! Noise? What noise? BLISS!!!!
Gateways – a step into the novel realms of Breakwater Harbor authors
This is a collection of short stories by Breakwater Harbor Books authors in the speculative fiction genre. There are some great stories in here, including my first short in 25 years.
http://www.amazon.com/Gateways-Ivan-Amberlake-ebook/dp/B0160TUL6C/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
All stories are standalone shorts related to the larger universe of the author’s books. I chose to explore a pivotal event in the past of some of my main Daermad Cycle characters.
The Willow Branch is on sale through September 31. Get a great fantasy for $2 off.
I just wrote the climax scene for Mirklin Wood.
I have a couple of connection scenes to write and then I can start the rewrite!
Oh, what a lovely feeling!
The Willow Branch is now on Sale $1.99 through September 30.
Nada como tus ojos para sonreir
Leon Stevens is a poet, science fiction author, and composer. Writing updates, humorous blogs, music, and poetry.
Books: fiction and poetry
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