After many months of mistakes and banging my head against the wall, I came up with a few principles related to creating fictional worlds. I’ve never written them down before and they’re 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.
𝐷𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑐𝑘 opens with a woman being kidnapped during the night. “Thunder sounded, but there wasn’t a storm, and no rain fell on the tin roof. The old woman squinted into the dark room and heard shuffling—like mice—across the pine floor.”
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 of𝘉𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭, 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘦 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘓𝘰𝘸, I said, “Until I’m able to read the sequel to this unputdownable book, I will keep wondering what is going to happen when the story continues.” I was so excited when I finally held 𝘉𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭: 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 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. 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 Jake’s death. If Matt is unable to sever this connection, it will drag him straight to hell to join his brother.
Libraries are important to any town, city, or village. One sleepy English village demonstrates just how important the library is to them. It’s no wonder that village drama erupts when their library is threatened with closure.
What crazy things has your cat done?
