When I first read the description of INFECtIOUS, I knew I had to read it. Did the author manage to write an unputdownable Christian zombie book? The answer to that question is a definite yes.
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, 𝘌𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘴, and I would love to share how this book came to be. 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 𝘌𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘴 really feels like an appendage of myself.
The captain and crew of the 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑏𝑖𝑟𝑑, 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. 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.
