Would you feel at home in a town where every resident is described by how they feel about books or how they are involved with books? What about a town where the most important buildings are the library and the bookstores? Welcome to Biblioville.
I recently released my first fantasy novel, ๐๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด, and I would love to share how this book came to be.ย It has been a long journey for this first novel in the Awakening series, but so many aspects of my culture, my personal life, and my journey as a writer have come into play so that ๐๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด really feels like an appendage of myself.
The captain and crew of the ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, caught in a storm on the raging Northern Sea, fight for their survival. The storm quiets all at once, and they find themselves shipwrecked on an island full of jagged, broken slopes of shining crystal. And somewhere out beyond all the crystal, a beast howls.
After many months of mistakes and banging my head against the wall, I came up with a few principles related to creating fictional worlds. Iโve never written them down before and theyโre by no means perfect, but they may help you craft your own world or at least generate some thoughts on how you would approach it.
๐ท๐๐’๐ก ๐ถ๐๐๐ ๐ต๐๐๐ opens with a woman being kidnapped during the night. โThunder sounded, but there wasnโt a storm, and no rain fell on the tin roof. The old woman squinted into the dark room and heard shufflingโlike miceโacross the pine floor.โ
In the brutal bone-freezing cold of the Arctic Circle on a remote island off Greenland, a young girl has thawed from the ice, and she is alive. A miracle? Yes, but no one can understand what she is trying to say, and she acts scared of everyone. Val, a trained linguist, is one of the few who understand the dead Nordic languages. So she is contacted by the researchers already there to come and work with this girl.
In my review of๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ญ, ๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ฆ ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ธ, I said, โUntil Iโm able to read the sequel to this unputdownable book, I will keep wondering what is going to happen when the story continues.โ I was so excited when I finally held ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ญ: ๐๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ in my hands. It was read over the next couple of days. The wondering was finally over; this thrilling story proved to be an extremely satisfying sequel.
Writing fantasy is very different than writing science fiction. After a lot of pondering, I managed to come up with some simple rules that make a lot of sense and help one to avoid the overuse (or underuse) of capitalization.
Jamie Quinn, the family attorney that always runs into mysteries, is no longer going to be practicing law. She has landed her dream job at an art foundation, but this dream job will require up to six months of learning and a new wardrobe of evening gowns.ย But her new art career is in danger of being over just as it begins when she is arrested for stealing valuable artwork that she didn’t take. Little does she know that the stolen artwork will have her involved with the FBI, the Russians, and art thieves. Jamie just can’t stay out of trouble.
In this paranormal thriller, the connection between twins Matt and Jake is so strong that it continues even after Jakeโs death. If Matt is unable to sever this connection, it will drag him straight to hell to join his brother.
