Sarah Johnson interviews me at Through the Tollbooth today about writing a trilogy, including discussion of writing exploratory drafts, crafting a character arc over multiple books, and researching the Bones of Faerie trilogy (including some of the pictures I took of Liza’s forest, pre-faerie-apocalypse).

And speaking of trilogies, look! It’s a complete set!

Faerie After comes out just one week from today!

Mirrored from Janni Lee Simner / Desert Dispatches.

One way to deconstruct the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (see also Wikipedia): the Manic Pixie Prostitute (more-or-less SFW). Or maybe I mean "satirize." Either way.

Via Metafilter, where there's also good discussion in the comments. (Yes, this sometimes happens on the Internets.)

---L.

As promised earlier this month, today, I’m spotlighting Karina Fabian’s latest DragonEye story, the novella Greater Treasures.

Being a private detective in the border town of the Faerie and Mundane worlds isn’t easy, even for a dragon like Vern. Still, finding the wayward brother of a teary damsel in distress shouldn’t have gotten so dangerous. When his partner, Sister Grace, gets poisoned by a dart meant for him, Vern offers to find an artifact in exchange for a cure. However, this is no ordinary trinket—with a little magic power, it could control all of mankind. Can Vern find the artifact, and will he sacrifice the fate of two worlds for the life of his best friend?

To begin with, this novella is more serious than the earlier DragonEye novels. Yes, Vern still has his wry humor (I was particularly amused by the filet minion line), but he doesn’t find nearly as much funny when his partner’s lying in the hospital, dying. So the tone’s slightly different.

However, if you are a fan of classic movies — specifically, if you love The Maltese Falcon, which this novella is based on, you will love it. The homage to the Falcon is even remarked upon in the novella itself, with (for example) a mention of how Cambridge Ramada is reminiscent of Sydney Greenstreet playing Casper Gutman.

The novella highlights some of the tension between Faerie and Mundane, as well as showing that bigotry and prejudice don’t have a magic cure. Some of the characters are old and familiar; some, this is the first time they’re seen. All fit well in the world Karina Fabian has created, wher St. George really did defeat a dragon, on the other side of the Interdimensional Gap.

It’s a quick read and an enjoyable one, and it’s definitely going on my short list for Hugo nominations next year.

If you haven’t already become acquainted with Vern and his human partner, Sister Grace, you can find Greater Treasures in Kindle and print formats.

Information on the novels in the series can be found at the following links:
Live and Let Fly, which is discussed here on my blog.
Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, which is also reviewed here on my blog.

If you’d like to see more of Vern and Karina’s posts, as well as enter drawings for e-books, check out the rest of the book tour.

Originally published at Erin M. Hartshorn. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at Jaime Lee Moyer. You can comment here or there.

I promise a real blog post soon. But life, she is so busy.

As promised earlier this month, today, I’m spotlighting Karina Fabian’s latest DragonEye story, the novella Greater Treasures.

Being a private detective in the border town of the Faerie and Mundane worlds isn’t easy, even for a dragon like Vern. Still, finding the wayward brother of a teary damsel in distress shouldn’t have gotten so dangerous. When his partner, Sister Grace, gets poisoned by a dart meant for him, Vern offers to find an artifact in exchange for a cure. However, this is no ordinary trinket—with a little magic power, it could control all of mankind. Can Vern find the artifact, and will he sacrifice the fate of two worlds for the life of his best friend?

And now for a few words from the dragon himself:

Vern’s Warehouse Dogs
By Karina Fabian

I have dogs. I know that sounds weird for a dragon. I never had dogs before I came to the Mundane world. Even among humans, dogs don’t have the status in Faerie that they do here. But I’ve found them to be useful creatures.

While my warehouse is a reasonably comfortable lair, it’s not what I’m used to. Too many entrance points, too exposed. Too many humans–even worse, too many Mundane humans who don’t know how to respect the dragon. Sneaking in for a photo, hoping to swipe a scale, or thinking I’m going to leave my treasure nice and exposed–seriously? (Not that it’s not a good idea, but since my run-in with St. George, I’m not allowed to trick and eat treasure-hunters.) Nice thing about a mountain cave is I can find a quiet spot where I can let my guard down. Not so with the warehouse, but with a dog to keep watch, I can relax knowing that they’ll sound the alarm should any Mundane try to sneak around.

Hot Dog came with the warehouse. He was a nasty piece of work, made meaner by the months of neglect that followed the death of his master–the only human able to control him. The owner’s wife gave the warehouse and all its items to the Church in part because she didn’t want to deal with the mongrel, but couldn’t bear to have it “put down.” Guess she hoped for a miracle. She got me. A few minutes with his neck between my jaws and we came to an understanding. After that, he picked up fast that any human I respected, he’d better respect, too. We had a good year together before I ate him. (It was early in my career and cases were few and far between. Like I said, Hot Dog and I had an understanding.)

Now I have a couple of Labradorish mutts, Riff and Raff. They have a big bark, but friendly temperaments. Back when I didn’t have reliable heat, we kept each other warm on winter nights. More prosperous times and the fact that Grace loves them mean they’ve stayed off my menu for the past ten years. They’re getting gray around the muzzle. I may have to eat them someday, but when I do, it’ll be an honor and not just a luncheon.

If you haven’t already become acquainted with Vern and his human partner, Sister Grace, you can find Greater Treasures in Kindle and print formats.

Information on the novels in the series can be found at the following links:
Live and Let Fly, which is discussed here on my blog.
Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, which is also reviewed here on my blog.

Stay tuned later today for my review of Greater Treasures!

If you’d like to see more of Vern and Karina’s posts, as well as enter drawings for e-books, check out the rest of the book tour.

Originally published at Erin M. Hartshorn. You can comment here or there.

The Elizabethan World Picture:  A study of the idea of order in the age of Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton by E. M. W. Tillyard
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Originally published at Jonathan Moeller, Pulp Writer. You can comment here or there.

I am making good progress on SOUL OF SWORDS. So let’s have another excerpt!

“I will enter Cythraul Urdvul,” said Skalatan, “claim the power of the Demonsouled for myself, and become the new Sepharivaim.”

“Will you?” said Lucan. “Malavost tried to use the Door of Souls atop Mount Tynagis to claim the power of Sepharivaim, and look what happened to him.”

“Malavost was misinformed,” said Skalatan. “Sepharivaim is dead.”

“I see why the other San-keth consider you a heretic,” said Lucan.

“They lack vision and are enslaved to their narrow dogmas,” said Skalatan. “Sepharivaim has been dead for millennia, and my people worship the memory of a slain god. A useless folly. Instead I will become the new god and set this world to order.”

Lucan scoffed. “And you shall make yourself a tyrant as black as any of the Demonsouled.”

“Hardly,” said Skalatan. “The minds of humans are…conflicted, warring between their reason and their emotions. The mind of a San-keth is cold. Orderly. Rational. This world is a place of chaos and madness. With the power of the Demonsouled, I shall remake this world as a place of rationality and order. To the benefit of the San-keth, yes. But also to the benefit of the humans and the Elderborn and the other sapient races that live upon this world.”

“And why are you telling me this?” said Lucan. “You all but admitted that you are going to march the Aegonar south to claim Knightcastle. I assume you have a reason for explaining your entire plan to me?”

“Correct,” said Skalatan. “I wish for you to aid me.”

For a moment Lucan was not sure he had heard the San-keth correctly.

-JM

Over at Snowdrop Dreams of Books, where I also talk about writing the final book of a trilogy and admit to who my favorite character is.

“Liza is still as strong of a character as ever, fighting for what is right, pushing the limits and always looking out for those around her … The entire world building in this last book is amazing … You are always wondering if things will be okay, if Liza and her crew will figure out how to make things right and if they do – will anything be like was once before?”

If you head over in the next few hours, you can enter to win your own copy of Faerie After, too!

Mirrored from Janni Lee Simner / Desert Dispatches.

Cynthia Leitich Smith was one of the first writers I mentioned the idea of a Writing for the Long Haul series to, and when I did, she commented that those who keep writing are “writing survivors.”

I’m thrilled to kick the series off with a post from Cynthia on what writing survival means to her.

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I owe much of my publishing success to my lack of financial security.

When I hear others talk of the pain of rejection or the unfairness of market whims or the challenge of staying motivated, I think of my mortgage, the payment due on my health insurance, and the cost of my guilty pleasure—Whole Foods hummus.

Of course that’s not the whole equation. While many of my children’s-YA books have sold well (and a few not-so-well), I don’t initially conceive or craft them from a commercial perspective.

Instead, I’m a creature of two brains.

One: the literary artist with a commitment to diverse (defined broadly) protagonists and an experimental bent with regard to age markets, techniques and forms. I’ve published funny picture books, quiet multicultural books, quasi-memoir essays, and YA adventure-fantasies with a feminist and intercultural bent. I’ve won awards and made bestseller lists and seen books go out of print.

Two: the fierce, savvy business person who takes all that—coupled with speaking and teaching fees—and cobbles together a base salary. In the latter years I’ve earned more, in the early years less, but having a baseline goal keeps me pounding the keyboard, hitting the road, and stretching in new directions.

I have a respectful patience for the inner artist but always hold her accountable.

You’re in love with that niche project? Fine. How are you going to market it? Not the publisher—you. Whatever the house does, that’s icing. You encourage it. You work it. But it’s your name on the byline.

Your sales figures can and will be held against you. Glancing around the conference floor, you notice how many of your once-popular colleagues are no longer in the game. Doesn’t anyone else miss them?

How do you carry on? What are you going to do?

What you’ve always done. Choose yourself, your book, whatever you’re trying to say in the whole. Do it in such a way that lifts up everyone, that doesn’t apologize for mattering, that shows a sense of purpose. Recognize but don’t dwell on the uncontrollable. Where there is potential for forward momentum, give it grease with as much good humor and dignity as you can spare.

You’ve stumbled before. You’ve fallen before and started over from scratch. You’ve made a fool out of yourself. You’ve also helped build readers and community and changed lives for the better.

There’s wisdom to be gained from all that and stories that can help lift up someone else. All of your fellow survivors have successfully reinvented themselves at least once and so can you.

Do for yourself what you do for your stories.

When all else fails, begin again.

If only because hummus is expensive.

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Cynthia Leitich Smith is the New York Times and Publishers Weekly best-selling author of the Tantalize series and Feral series. Her award-winning books for younger children include Jingle Dancer, Indian Shoes, and Rain is Not My Indian Name. She first published Jingle Dancer in 2000.

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More about the Writing for the Long Haul series.

Mirrored from Janni Lee Simner / Desert Dispatches.

I’ve been thinking for a while now about what it means to write for the long haul.

I’ve been writing professionally for more than two decades now, rebooting and restarting and rethinking my career–as well as the reasons I’m writing in the first place–many times. I’ve watched other writers do the same, and I’ve wondered at all the varied shapes our careers have taken.

I’ve also watched writers stop writing, and I’ve wondered at that too, because there doesn’t seem to be any one formula for when writers continue writing and when they move on to other things. It’s not as simple as the most successful writers lasting the longest, or the rest of us stopping after we hit some set number of challenges or bumps in the road. Whatever it takes to keep writing, it’s something more complicated than that.

What does it take to keep writing for the long haul? Much of the discussion of writing online is about how break in, or else about how to manage a career for the first few books or the first few years. Those perspectives are valuable, but I’m also interested in seeing an ongoing discussion of how writers survive beyond that–not just from a business point of view, but also from an emotional and life balance point of view.

So I started asking novelists who’ve been in this field for at least a decade (often far longer) why they’re still here and how they keep writing.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll post their responses as part of a new weekly blog series. I’m already enjoying the range of takes that I’m reading, and I’m looking forward to sharing them.

I’m hopeful that, wherever we are in our individual careers, we all can learn from each other.

Mirrored from Desert Dispatches: Wordpress Edition.