Tag Archives: author

Apr3

Getting to Know Morfindel

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(Note: This is a repost after the first page got deleted. Apologies)
Character Wednesday!

I had a request for one on Morfindel Cunlias this week and I’m happy to oblige.

Here’s Morf!

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Morf comes from both the Linus Saga books and its parallel dimension CRIT! He’s a young Elf, only 20 when we meet him, who still has a lot of growing to do. He tries to do his very best at all times, but usually ends up stymieing himself with his own naivete and impulsive nature.

He started off as a nuisance newbie hanging on Linus but over the series he’s starting to become Linus’ best friend… a bond that’s put to the test a lot when he falls for Linus’ oldest daughter.

SO! Some fun facts.

* To answer most people’s question, his surname, Cunlias, is pronounced “Koon-lees.”

*His mannerisms and personality are based on one of my best friends.

*Morfindel thinks of Linus as a father figure, even if Linus would rather think of him as a younger brother. He tends to gravitate to fatherly figures after being raised in a male mission since he was three. It also explains his avid attraction to women yet his complete inability to comprehend them.

*He has yellow eyes (those exist, I’ve seen them!) which hint at his true roots. More on that in future books.

*I cut Morfindel’s hair off out of spite because I hated drawing it in the comic. Much sooner in the book, and those tresses’ days are numbered in the comic too. I HATE long hair.

*Morf hates raisins. The monastery used raisins to sweeten a lot of dishes for the children and Morf  got thoroughly sick of them early on.

 

That’s all for this week! Let me know who you want for next week.

Mar28

The Idea Well

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It’s up there on most authors’ “worst questions to be asked,” right up there with, “so do you have a real job?”

“Where do you get your ideas?”

When it comes to simply, “where does our mind fly off to to fetch ideas about worlds that don’t exist and people who aren’t real?”  A person might as well ask, “what magical leprechaun visited you in your sleep and poured whimsical brain dust into your head holes to give you your ideas?”

How do I answer that? There’s no magic rite, no ceremonial dance, no burnt offerings. It’s just there, unbidden, and NEVER on call when I need it. No one really knows where it comes from. I sure don’t. Frankly, I’m not sure I want to because imagination is a terrifying and amazing place.

Usually, though, people are expecting a concrete idea. Like “when I work out,” or “when I was in Mexico for a year,” or “while the doctor was shaving me for my hernia operation,” and that leads to more embarrassing situations for me.

That’s the other thing authors won’t tell you about writing.

Most of us get about 70% our ideas while we’re in the room with the sink.

That’s my Victorian version of “we’re on the can.”

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The porcelain throne, usually around 3 am,  devoid of phones and shampoo bottles to read, barely awake and still half dreaming, I seem to get most of my ideas. Sometimes I luck out and I get ideas in the shower, but it would appear that my muse is a stoned college student who hangs out in bathrooms in weird hours and says, “hey…. hey… hey…hey… I got an idea…. hey… this is great…. dude… dude… You should TOTALLY do a bit in your book… where Linus has no pants.” It then dissolves into giggles and goes to the kitchen for grape soda and cold macaroni salad.

Yup. That’s how the magic happens folks. Oh what glamorous lives we lead.

Mar27

Fighting Chair-butt

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One pitfall if being a writer and artist is the fact that all of those things are done sitting down for hours at a time.
In may case I don’t even have a desk. I have a laptop stand by a couch. So I complete all my tasks like a lounging Roman hedonist, in various states of boneless reclining. So one of the things on my HabitRPG checklist is to get up an exercise.

So today I’m going to try out some of the workouts I found on Neila Rey’s site Like this one here.

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Neila Rey has unlocked the key to getting me off my tuckus, which is appealing to my romantic sense of Fantasy and Heroism. And the best part is that it’s all free! Neila is only accepting gifts from enthusiasts so please consider donating.

Flatter butt? Longer lifespan? Reduce likelihood of developing cancer and heart disease? NAH. I couldn’t be bothered.

Save Middle Earth? Fight with the Free Peoples? Hold the line while Frodo destroys the One Ring? OH HELLS YES.
Granted some of the moves a little hard-core for my marshmallowy body and old-lady knees so I’m going with my limits currently and doing softer versions of some of the ones listed here. Once I stop wheezing after step one I hope to do the full on version one day.

And if destroying the newly risen disciple of Morgoth is not your thing (and why the hell isn’t it? Why do you hate freedom and sunshine?) Neila Rey has you covered with other nerd-themed workouts!
You could fight crime in Gotham, Fight demons to classic 70’s rock hits, channel The Force, or meet far off aliens and engage in lots and lots of running.

 

Happy sweating and stay hydrated! 😀
 

Mar26

Character Wednesday- Vilori Reagan

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I decided that Wed. posts will focus on the characters of my novels and maybe illuminating them a little more for everyone. So to kick off our first CHARACTER WEDNESDAY here is:

VILORI REAGAN

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We first meet Vilori in Runs In Good Condition. He’s a 200-year-old curmudgeonly Elf on Linus’s campaign staff. He doesn’t like Linus much at first and will continue to call him a “thundering moron.” He was a Ranger back in his younger days and one of the first members of the original Rangers Union. He’s married and has two grownup children that we’ve never met. 

Some things we don’t know:

*Vilori had a very sheltered youth and wasn’t even allowed off the family estate until he was fifty years old.

*He created the first “desk job” for Rangers solely so he could spend his days indoors and so he had an excuse to leave home every day.

*Vilori did most of his early work with a Human man named Harcourt, his best friend. When Harcourt grew old and passed away a lot of Vilori’s love for the job died too.

Vilori’s story will become further entangled in Linus’ as it progresses. Keep reading for more info and I hope you like this new feature.

If you have any further questions about Vilori, please post them in the comments!

Feb21

Liebster Award

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This week I was awarded the Liebster Award by the wonderful talented writer, Sabrina “Stabby” Zbasnik for my writing career.  With it is the condition that I have to nominate 3 other writers and ask them a series of 10 questions. Those three are:

Emma Newman, author of the awesome Split Worlds series.

Angela Capozello author of the awesome Nox and Grimm series.

Fellow Hunt Press author, Barrie J. Rosen . You should buy her books. And mine. Buy mine too.

Your 10 questions, ladies,  are as follows, and I’m going to pretend really hard that I’m not secretly asking for tips:

  1. Are you a planner or a pantser (as in seat-of-the-pants)?
  2. What’s your favorite stage of writing?
  3. What kind of tunes do you listen to while writing; do you have a favorite song?
  4. Do your characters ever “get away” from you and if so, how do you cope?
  5. How do you deal with writer’s block?
  6. Who’s your favorite character to write for and who’s your least?
  7. Who was your favorite character growing up?
  8. What’s the craziest real-life experience that wound up making it into your fiction?
  9. Why do you write?
  10. If you could spend a day at a theme park with your any of your characters, who would it be, what ride would you go on, what would you eat for lunch, and how would it end?

And now for my questions as asked by Stabby.  I’m thrilled to answer these.

  1. What’s your favorite character?
    My favorite character is definitely Linus Weedwhacker, who first appears in Must Love Dragons. There was some magic symbiosis between him and me. It was giving a name and a face to the cynical, sarcastic voice whispering into my ear, telling me to look at the monsters in life and laugh when I saw the strings. At the same time, there’s a lot of heart to Linus and a lot of strength to him. I find myself drawing from that strength and becoming inspired by it when I feel small and helpless.
    Or to phrase it in my brother’s words: deep down inside me is a chainsmoking, hardened, 52-year-old man.
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  1. Is there a character that you were going to kill/write off but something changed your mind?
    Vilori Reagan was never meant to be more than a cardboard background antagonist to Linus. He was just a rich snob and a financial facilitator to Linus in Runs in Good Condition and then somehow he started to have this unexpected depth, weaseling himself into more of the book than I had intended. He even upstaged Avery who was supposed to have a bigger role. Now he’s another favorite character to write for and I find myself wanting to learn more about this cold weird bastard. He’ll probably be showing up in more books of The Linus Saga.
  2. Are you more of a plot/character/idea/throw words against the wall like spaghetti author?
    Yes. I remember sending a query to a good friend that said, “Guys show up, stuff happens, good guys save the day.”
    I’m a conversationist writer. My usual method is to put several people in a room together and just have them talk and see what happenes. Some of my best scenes have come about by simply letting the personalities clash, but then sometimes it’s like herding cats to get these guys to stop talking and actually, ya know, DO something.  I call it “couch syndrome,” because it’s like trying to get your kids off the couch to go play outside. Lynald Winguard and Ev Kelly are the worst for that.
  3. What’s the stupidest idea you’ve ever had?
    I don’t think anything tops having a Regency-esque protagonist with the last name Weedwhacker. But that was just his name. There was nothing I could do about it. I’ve gotten used to it and it will occasionally take me by surprise when I suddenly re-realize, “That’s a really STUPID surname. I can’t believe I did that.”
  4. What’s the best idea you’ve ever had writingwise?
    I think my best idea was to ditch the epic adventure ideas of grandeur that I had earlier in my life. I wanted to be the next Tolkien and that’s just not who I am.  I’d rather write about life. Life isn’t always about going out and slaying a beastie or saving the world. Sometimes life is simply about living through it. It’s about the people you share a home with, work with, fight with and love.
  5. Out of all your settings, which would you most like to live in?
    I think it would be pretty cool to live in Burrowsborough, the Halfling village featured in the upcoming 3rd book of the Linus Saga, No Shoes, No Service (working title). Intimate, comfortable, and by the sea-shore, even if it does seem to rain every other day. And with lots of good food and beer. I wouldn’t go barefoot, though. I need to have my boot collection.
  6. What’s your biggest writing win? 
    The Linus Saga has been my bread and butter. I’m glad that people genuinely connect with it and keep asking me to do more. I couldn’t be more thrilled. I really have to credit my friends at Tangent Artists for getting me thinking about writing again. I never would have done it if it hadn’t been for them.
  7. Do you have a specific genre or do you like to bounce around freely?
    I tend to bounce between Fantasy genre and Urban Fantasy in my various works. I like anything with a lot of myth and legend to it no matter when or where it’s supposed to be set. I suppose that’s why I’ve never managed SciFi yet. My lens is firmly trained on the past; I’m a really history nut. I like looking back at what we believed, the drama and pathos of past struggles, and comparing how far we’ve come. And I like vampires. They’re like evil sexy Elves.
  1. Favorite spot to write?
    My favorite spot is in my living room around 8 am, when the kids have just got on the bus to school. I look at the sun shining on the kitchen and my wide picture window looking over pine trees. I usually think about going back to bed, but the laptop calls me and I forgo that extra hour of sleep, still holding that first cup of hot coffee. I get an adreneline rush and a warm fuzzy feeling as I switch on some Alan Parsons Project or Penguin Cafe Orchestra and just write.
  2. Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?
    Yes. It looked a bit like this:
    (copyright, Jim Henson Productions. I do not own this video clip.)~Ciao! :3
Jan2

Annnnnd Go!

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Alright! New Year! New stuff! New things I plan to do!

After 10 days straight of grandparents, car rides, and binge eating, I feel a bit like I’ve been hit on the head and shoved in a car trunk. I’ve been away from the computer so long that I’m having trouble getting my groove back. This morning, I just stared at the computer screen  for 2 hours trying to make words.

Ah, writer's block!

Ah, writer’s block!

I managed about 300 words. It kinda went downhill from there. Strictly speaking, if I don’t keep at it day after day, I lose my groove a bit.

Well, I got a much-needed carrot this afternoon. First edits from Hunt Press of Linus Book 3 came back today. I’m both excited and squeamish at the prospect of working on this two-years-and-counting project—squeamish because there’s always that little doubt in my stomach of, “what if I read it and it’s not as good as I thought it was?” It’s a bit like getting your kids’ report card back from school.

Well, enough of my nonsense. Time to put on my editing pants and get ‘er done.
As Linus would say, “F— me.”

 

 

Dec6

Building Tereand

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Building Tereand

This is the first map I ever drew of Nor Vredon back in 2008, The Northwest province of Tereand, which I refer to in my novels (even Madame Bluestocking!) As you can see it’s pretty rudimentary looking and I suck and things like forests and mountains. I made it to keep things straight in me head. That’s something they don’t tell you about world-building when you jump in. You have to take lots of notes.
I later modified this to look more “mappish” and less “school geography project.” I’ll post that later.
In fact I eventually put in notes by 10-year-old Carson and his Form 6 teacher.

Dec5

How to Juggle 28 Balls at Once…

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After completing the first draft of Linus Book 3 (working title: No Shoes No Service), I realised that it was time to get my head in the author game. That meant opening up accounts on stuff. LOTS of accounts.

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That’s something I’ve always dreaded for a few reasons:

1) I can’t remember most of my passwords (I have a plethora of them)

2) It’s time consuming and takes up time in which I could otherwise be writing or drawing or pretending to do both.

3) Does anyone really need multiple venues to check on me and see how I’m doing?

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Well, I finally took a deep breath and leaped off that cliff for one reason which was more important than the others:

My business life can not be the same as my personal life. The fact that I have a business life is a new and foreign idea to me, and one that happened gradually, but there we go. There’s a very fuzzy line right now between friends and colleagues, and I like that for the most part, but what about the future? I have kids, I have obligations to their privacy and protection. I’m also starting to miss out on business opportunities because I don’t look professional enough. For some reason there’s this funny idea that you can’t talk about family and work in the same place. 

Is it hard? Yes.

Is it time consuming? Hell yes. I had to look up all these Forrest Gump photos!

Does it need to be done? VERY yes.

So there we go. I’ll do my very best not to fall off the posting and update wagon, though I suspect my fervor will peter out. Whether anyone reads these will be the ultimate deciding factor. But I’m nervous/excited/nervouscited about this new step into professionalism.

God have mercy on my soul.

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(Imagaes are property of Paramount Pictures. I do not own the rights to them.)