Entries Tagged as 'Faith Hunter'

BIC — the Magical Words

I am often asked by unpublished writers (referred to by some as wannabees, unpubs, prepubs, etc.) “What is the one thing that takes a writer from the stage of wanting to be published, to the stage of *being* published?  What is that magic one thing?”  And I think I’ve been seeing a trend here on magicalwords.net that leads me to an answer.  Besides and including, BIC, of course.  Butt in Chair is the most important part of crossing the “what makes a writer” void.  But in addition, there is this one other thing.

Catie has been lamenting it, here and on other blogs.  David and Misty and I have commiserated with her on it.  We’ve all been there.  We’ve all gone through it, and know full well that we will go through it again, on the next book.  That one single thing is tenacity.  That bulldog, got-my-teeth-in-it-and-won’t-let-go, stubborn, immoveable, obdurate determination to push on through to the end.  It is the same mind-set that long distance runners have, the one that forces to them push through the *wall* when they hit it, when every muscle, bone, breath and heartbeat is an agony.  Why do they push on?  Because they know they can.  They *know* it with every painful breath.  And they run.  And they reach the finish line.  It’s the same resolve that mountain climbers have to reach the summit, despite the snow, the howling winds, the frostbite, the pain, the shattered teeth.  They climb the mountain because it is there and because they can.

Please understand that I’m not saying such pig-headed tenacity is necessarily healthy or smart.  According to my hubby it’s stupidity.  Because of it, I went through 10 years of adrenal insufficiency, am trying to rebuild my decreased upper body strength, have reflux, an unhappy GI tract, and writer’s butt.  (Not that any wannabee wouldn’t happily share in all that to be published.  I’m just sayin’…)

That determination is what takes a writer from unpublished to published.  That determination and fortitude.  If you don’t find, develop, have, possess or create inside your own heart and spirit that tenacity to push on through the hard parts of a novel, you will never be a writer.  You will skitter on to the next project, then the one after that and never actually finish a novel.

So.  BIC.  It all comes back to BIC.  A stubborn, ferocious, vital BIC.

Faith.  Currently BIC. 

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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Friday Fun: Joshua Palmatier!

Happy Friday, everyone! Please join me in welcoming Joshua Palmatier to the blog today! *wild applause*

Hey, everyone! I first want to thank everyone here at Magical Words for the guest blogging invite. Hopefully I’ll have something important to say. Or at least something of interest.

First, an introduction: My name is Joshua Palmatier and I’m a fantasy author, with three books currently out from DAW Books. All three are part of the Throne of Amenkor series. The first is called The Skewed Throne and introduces my main character, Varis, an orphan who’s barely surviving in the slums of Amenkor, but who gets trained by one of the city’s Seekers to become an assassin. She comes to despise her talents and then is given the ultimate mark: the Mistress, ruler of the city, who sits on the Skewed Throne. Her only obstacle is the Skewed Throne itself. It knows Varis is coming . . . and it’s insane.

Bwahahahahahahahaha!

I couldn’t resist the evil laugh. *grin* John Scalzi said I write about disturbed furniture . . . and he’s right. *sigh* But there are plenty of other things going on as well—an invading sea force! blue people! an inexplicable White Fire! and of course, death and destruction! Pretty much everyone who had to sum up my novels in one word used “gritty”. The cover for the third novel:

The Vacant Throne

gives you a pretty good vibe of what the series is all about. If you’d like to see more about the Throne of Amenkor series, including the two sequels The Cracked Throne and The Vacant Throne, check out my website at www.joshuapalmatier.com.

But enough about me and my books! I want to talk about something nearly every magical world needs, something completely non-controversial and guaranteed to create no waves: religion! Specifically, I’d like to talk about inventing a religion for you world. [Read more →]

Tags: C E Murphy, David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, Special Guest Stars by Misty Massey
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A Writer’s Tools

A question was asked on magicalwords.net recently about why writing sometimes sounds amateurish. I spouted off with the answer as I saw it:

*(paraphrasing) my work looks amateurish.
The main and usual reason is that you are telling not showing. The second reason is loss of character voice.

 

Telling Ex: Chris was sweating, the day was muggy. The fan didn’t help. (note: no voice, little setting, no emotional content)

 

Showing Ex: Sweat trickled down Chris’s back, sticking his shirt to his skin like salty glue. The fan was welcome, but more as a distraction than anything else. Nothing was going to combat the muggy August heat. He turned his face to artificial breeze and tried to think of snow. Or maybe a working air conditioner. (note voice, setting, emotional content)

 

 

Back to today’s blog… But then I got to thinking about why some writers have such polish with their work on the first draft, and some of us have to work at it. And why sometimes I’m in one group and sometimes I’m in the other. It’s partly the *tools of the trade*.

Writers have tools in our tool boxes just like any other worker—say a builder. A builder starts with a drawing; I start with an outline. Builder puts in a foundation; I do a first chapter. For me, the first chapter is the foundation that I build upon throughout the rest of the book. If something changes in a later chapter, about a character or a plot point, I have to tear out portions of the foundation (and the walls and roof, sometimes) and make it fit.

But it gets more subtle than that as I delve into a book, putting it together, building it. BTW, *building a book* is a term I’ve often used. Walls are the world I build for a reader to begin to set aside his believability issues. If the world isn’t right, why would a reader believe in magic? If the world I build doesn’t need magic, then why would I set a world there?

Windows are the setting, the things the characters feel and do that provide continuity for the reader. In a house, when a window opens onto the brick façade of the next building, it *ruins the view*. Same with setting. It is the view the reader has of the particular moment in time in the overall world. I have to set the place and time and keep it fresh through a scene as well as through the book.

Emotional transitions are like a builder’s decorating choice, color for the rooms. One room in my book has to flow naturally into the next. No jarring transitions, say a purple room and then a buttercup yellow room. Unless I *want* a reader to feel the emotional jar. When an important character dies, it better be a jar to the reader. If not, I haven’t done my job.

The roof holds a building together, provides the strength when winds press against one wall, then another. The roof of my novel is the plot outline, with its arcs and crests and troughs. No, I don’t build an outline the way a lot of writers teach it, in a graph of rising and falling action moving the character to the final conflict. But something has to happen every 10 pages, building and releasing the stresses of the story line.

Power words are like a builder’s finishing touches, words with emotional content must be just right. Scurried instead of slunk. Ripped off instead of stole. Or vice versa. Just like the right light fixture or bathroom fixture can give a room emotional tone, the right word gives a reader emotional tone. Varying sentence structure helps with this too, of course, giving a pulse and breath to writing.

These are just some of the tools in a writer’s tool box. There’s bait, the five or six main methods of character description, the wave formula, and dozens of other devices a writer can use. Do I think of them when I write? No. But I occasionally study them between books, reminding myself not to get stale in the way I build a world or present a character.

Lack of staleness is the gift of a very few, very great writers: Leonard Elmore comes to mind. Every single one of his books is written with a different voice  If a book didn’t have his name on the cover I’d never know he was the author when I start to read. But they all have this sharp, barbed, stabbing intensity, that you *feel* as you read. It’s his gift. Natural tools in his tool box.

And I guess that is where I come back to the beginning. Writing is something that resides deep in our souls, like a seed that needs nourishment to bust open and reach for the sun. But to make it reach and flourish I have to have tools in my tool box and be willing to use them. Which bring us to my number one role of writing:Butt in chair.Faith      

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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We have a winner!

It was a tricky contest, and there were a lot of close guesses, but at the last minute, someone read the hints and pulled it out. So put your hands together, people, for our winner…. Beatriz! 

She correctly guessed that it was Faith, David, Catie and Misty.  Beatriz, I’ll get in touch offlist to arrange for your fabulous prize (well, maybe not fabulous, but it’s a prize!)

Thanks for playing, everyone! We’ll be having another quiz soon, so keep watching this spot for more Friday Fun. And please drop by this Friday, April 4, to spend some time with our marvelous guest blogger, Joshua Palmatier! He’s the author of the Throne of Amenkor series, and he’ll be discussing how to create a religion for your fantasy world. Don’t miss it!

Tags: C E Murphy, David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, Misty Massey by Misty Massey
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Friday Fun Time!

It’s Friday! Woo hoo! In honor of getting to the weekend relatively unscathed, we at Magical Words are challenging you, our readers.

The four hosts of Magical Words were asked the following question:

“You’ve gone to the local coffee shop to indulge yourself for an hour. What do you order?”

Their answers are:

A. A large chai tea latte, non fat, with a couple shots of raspberry. A low fat coffee cake, either blueberry or cinnamon. Or a cinnamon Danish if I’ve been virtuous all week. Man…That is just sooo girlie. I shoulda said a black coffee, and added that I topped it off with a shot of brandy from a flask in my tote. I’ve done that before too, in my wilder younger days.

B. Coffee makes me jittery, hyper. My hands shake under the best of conditions; give me coffee and I’m a total wreck. I’d get a Chai Latte. And sugar. Must have sugar. A big soft oatmeal raisin cookie maybe. Or chocolate chip (also big; also soft). And because work has no place in this fantasy, I’d bring my laptop and spend the entire time cruising around Ebay.

C. I’ll order the darkest hot chocolate on the menu and spend the next two hours copyediting manuscripts. Hrm. That doesn’t sound much like indulging myself, does it?

D. A medium latte, no sugar and no flavoring, and a toffee bar, if they happen to be in stock. I swear, every baked goodie I fall in love with goes out of stock. I used to love pistachio muffins, but the coffee shop that sold them went out of business. Maybe I should publicly announce my love of bran-carrot-banana cake, just to watch it vanish, too.

So here’s the challenge - whose order is whose? Post in comments with your answer. The first person who guesses all four answers correctly (we’ll announce on Monday morning) will receive huge accolades and the pride of being our first winner. And maybe even a toy surprise if we can arrange it!

So start guessing, and have a great weekend!

Tags: C E Murphy, David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, Misty Massey by Misty Massey
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The Importance of a NAME

I was talking with one of my agents (the *not-so-warm-and-fuzzy* one) about writer names. To this point, I’ve been lucky to use names of my own, not that Hunter was mine from birth, but I was lucky enough to marry into it. And not that my family name is awful, but it is odd. There are 50,000 people with my family name in the US and only half of us pronounce it correctly. Prater, with a long A. Not a short A, all nasally. I was definitely not going to write with a potentially-nasally name. *Shudders.*

I wanted to start my career with Faith Hunter, but it sounded soooo made up. A mystery / thriller / blood-guts-and-gore writer named Faith Hunter? (Sounds of *not-so-warm-and-fuzzy* agent blowing a raspberry.)

Even more difficult, however, was the choice of a name for my fantasy writing. I mean, come on, a fantasy writer with the name of Faith Hunter? One who writes about a world with winged, *holy* beings of immeasurable power? Like in the Bible? Faith? Hunter? How hokey is that? But I liked it. It was mine, by a twist of fate and romance. I had to push the idea, but I got my wish on that one.

Others in this group have great writer names. Catie went with C.E., David went with … David. Misty Massey’s name sounds made up but it’s really hers, also with the benefit of fate and romance. (Waves at Philip McAvery, Rogue About Town and mind-blowing poet.) Just curious, but – any reason why each of you chose to write with the name you did? Did you consider another? Are you happy with your choice? I have writer friends with several names, for privacy’s sake.

Now, however, it is time to change my mystery writing career around a bit, take it in a new direction, and give it a kick in the butt. I am liking the idea, let me tell you. A new name with pizzazz, a different slant on the writing, maybe a sports, outdoors series, or a belly-dancing sleuth. Or something. And that means a new name. One that carries the feeling of the writing in it. Like, if I was doing a series set on the high seas, I’d be Davie Yada Yada Jones. Or writing about a belly dancing sleuth, I’d be Valletta or Sapphire or Yasmine, with a character named something equally exotic.

So, any ideas guys? I’m leaning for the outdoors stuff. Multiple third person POV, with both the male and female lead characters having their POV used. I’d start with a kayaking story, natch, and then move to hiking or horseback trail-riding into the wilderness. What kinda a name? I’m open to ideas…

Faith

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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Fantasy Language

I was asked recently, by an unpublished writer, the seemingly innocent and easy question, “How do I go about creating a fantasy language?” That got me to thinking, which my hubby would say is a very dangerous thing. 

When a writer starts from scratch for a language, they have to know a bit about the world they are creating.  Okay, they have to have to have the world down pat.  Language has to come near or at the end of the world creation.  Here’s why.

In English, we have only a few words for frozen precipitation, and a lot of them contain the same words: Sleet, freezing rain, snow, ice, hail, snowflakes, and uh…frozen precipitation, which is where I got started on this.  The Inuit’s have many more. Why? Because their survival depends on an exact wording for the different kinds of frozen precipitation. So in creating a language, I have to know about the survival requirements of my world.

If I am creating a desert world, there will different names for the different winds, the rare seasonal rains, the names of clothing for sun protection, wind protection, traveling.  The names for predators and the weapons that kill them.  There will names for things that grow there, on this alien world, that may not grow here. Foods that can last in the desert heat, grow on little water.

I remember the first time I heard of breadfruit, a fruit that tastes like bread, I suppose, and I wondered why call it breadfruit?  The people there have no grains…but the Europeans who “discovered” the land had grain, so they named the fruit what they chose, not what the native peoples called it. Bread was a survival food.

For language, I have to know about the sexual interaction between the sexes.  If this is an alien world, then there may be three or four sexes.  There may be a totally different manner of procreation.

I have to know the conflict of the plot line too, of course. So for me, the language would come last.  And frankly, to keep readers from getting lost, I’d use English in different ways, with different syntax, rather than create a language.  Remember the Jedi warrior, the little green guy? “Lost to you, Luke Skywalker, is hope.” English with different organization of phrases and words is more effective offtimes, than starting from scratch.

But then, in my fantasy worlds, I always just used an alternate reality earth, which makes it so much easier. Lazy? Probably.  How about you guys? Have you tried the new language thing? How did it work? Faith Hunter   

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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Clutter!

It’s Monday!!! I have to blog. Blog blog blog….gotta blog. What am I gonna blog about….???? Got lots of things to chat about but little that relates to being a writer except as it all applies to research and writing what you know and how to survive life as a writer. Thinking and keying fast here. Keep up, okay? Diving in to the clutter of my mind now:

Trip time. Hubby and I are heading to the mountains either tonight or in the morning to see about running some rivers. We have this friend, Ralph Altman, I’ve known since 10th grade, and I had totally forgotten he is a paddler from way back. He told us about this roll class at UNC Asheville, in a heated pool, thank God. Gonna learn to roll. Whoowhoo! Need to get it right so I can write *what I know*. First rule of writing, but then I write fantasy too … Hmmm. That rule so doesn’t work for fantasy writers. Anyway, we hope to meet up with some people in the pool who want to run rivers on Thursday, and maybe Ralph will join us. Isn’t that a great name? Ralph Altman. Needs to be a character. I bought a full length wetsuit on Friday, and I have lots of cold weather river and hiking clothes, so I am ready. See what I said about my mind being full of clutter? Wait – there’s more!

I am having panic attacks about deadlines. I have a short story (not started) due June 1st, two books due on June 1st, and two magazine articles due by March 30th, (not started). As of today, I have the rough draft of one book done (about whitewater paddling, by my AKA, Gwen Hunter) about 200 pages of a skinwalker book done (by me, Faith Hunter) and the backstory of the characters in the short story put together, and the world built.  But I have 3 months (less than 90 short days) to get it all done. I have this faint (it’s the size of a rodeo bull and it has claws and fangs) sense of panic crawling up my spine. Now, I know Catie has been on the deadline from hell – much worse than my deadline – but for once, knowing that someone else has it just as bad (okay, worse) is not helping. I am BIC to the point of gaining back all the Christmas weight I lost, and so the diet is sooo back on. No comfort foods to chase away the rodeo-bull-sized panic attacks.

So why am I *taking off* and going to the mountains? Research for the whitewater book. I can revise it on the way up and down the mountains. But to do all that I have to stock the RV with food, clean it and put sheets on the bed, and get all the cold weather clothes moved to it. Hubby has to get it ready to travel, a much more involved job.

I also need to brush the dogs and clip their nails. Vacuum the house. And decide on the subject matter for the articles. I need to exercise, (yoga and weight machine), and I have yet to break in the new hiking shoes I’ll need if I decide to hike a river. Can you say blisters on top of blisters? Need a manicure. Note to self (take cell phone charger to RV.)

You know… I became a writer for lots of reasons. So I could see justice on paper, let the crazy people living inside my head out, get all the stories I was narrating in my head out, so I could look for peace (in a way). And I got all that. I really did. Being a writer is the best life in the world for me. I live with a head full of clutter (see above) and writing frees me from it. Being able to focus on a story is like having a bulldozer in my brain. But I also got deadlines. Not just pesky deadlines, but rodeo-bull-sized deadlines. And more clutter in my brain than I can focus on.

Next time, I’ll try to talk about world building. Stuff other writers might enjoy. For now, I’ll drink another cuppa tea, and start packing. Maybe yoga after lunch. Then finish and rewrite the scene of back-story I wrote Friday for Jane Yellowrock, Skinwalker.

Oh – Catie? I finished House of Cards. OMG! You are a goddess! I am so lucky to be on this blog you and David and Misty. Oh! One more clutter bit: Misty’s signings are good??? I hope? Mom started in on MadKestrel and she is enthralled!

Deeeeeep breath. Blow it out. Yeah. I can do this.

The writer’s life for me!Faith Hunter  

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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The Worlds of Fantasy

A reviewer questioned why I chose to put the Rogue Mage universe, the alterniverse of the Enclaves, in an ice-age instead of in a hot-house of global warming. To me it was so obvious that I thought it was a trick. I mean, why would I put a story about angels and demons in a place that is exactly like our world today? But then I realized that there were lots of answers to the reviewer’s question hovering around in my brain, so I thought I’d toss a few ideas out, things relating to the question of the ice-age in the Enclave world, and things about why a writer chooses the world he/she does.

First, I was trying to get as far away from the *reality* of our world as I could get. Cold and ice, glaciers, mountainous hellholes full of demons seemed to work. As the world grew on paper, so did my feelings abut the characters, the hardships they faced, etc. The setting became almost a character itself, evolving and affecting the storyline and adding conflict as much as the actions of a character did.

Second it was winter when I started this conceptual journey. We were not too far distant from a 22 inch snowfall, the deepest ever recorded in our area. Reality can drive a writer’s thoughts. Duh.

Third, there are great sites online about ice-ages. This one is pretty cool. (Pardon the pun.) http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ice_ages/why_4_cool_periods.html

As to why a writer chooses the climate, cityscape, time period, urban, sea, or forest settings we do? Well, a lot of it is the simple thing I thought about when the reviewer asked the question in her critique. I think it has a lot to do with what we want out of the book we are writing, the logical part of the answer to the question. It’s hard to do a highly sexually charged book set in a cold place, but easy to do it on a hot seashore. Hard to write an epic about magic set in modern times. Impossible to set pirate book in a desert. (Sorry Misty. I couldn’t resist.)

But a lot of the reasons are deeper, more from the subconscious. I am now writing a book about a shape changer—a skinshifter or skinwalker—and set it in New Orleans, in a world similar to ours but with witches and vampires and other things that do magic and go bump in the night. And that city, of course, is where the concept of modern urban fantasy originated, at least in my opinion. Anne Rice and her Interview With a Vampire. OMG! I was a kid when it came out, I guess. And even then I *very* seldom would reread a book. But I guess I read that novel three or four times. It hit me on a level that brought my must to life as much as lightning did Frankenstein. It was part of what drove me to write.

I wasn’t thinking about that when I chose the city, not logically, anyway. But New Orleans has always called to me, the scents, tastes (food,) sounds, textures of that place. I love it. And when I set Jane Yellowrock in that city, in the French Quarter, the rest just seemed to fall into place.

 So. Maybe our other writers (David, Misty, Catie, and all you other guys and gals out there) will share how your alterniverse(s) affect you and your writing.Faith Hunter      

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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Fantasy: Fluff or Social Commentary.

Lots of stuff to say this week. I’m starting a day early offline because of that. Wordy, ain’t I?

My Alter Ego, hereafter referred to as AE, went to a book conference this past weekend. In the new RV which I lovelovelovelove. (Nice queen bed instead of the narrow twins in the old RV, closet space for both of me, Faith and AE, bigger bath with a new, sparkly clean shower, it was wonderful!!! But that is an AE blog, not a magicalwords.net blog.) Slaps hand over mouth.

So, back to the conference. Or, Book Festival, I should say. AE’s fans (a couple hundred showed up and it was standing room only in one panel, which was fun) are very different from Faith’s fans. One question that kept coming up was, “Why use two pen names?” I had to get involved with demographics, selling niches, slotted manuscripts, lists and lines, and all that. I tried to keep it simple, but I could tell that a lot of them didn’t understand. Most think that writers just write stuff and it gets published. The idea of having to change your persona and name to get a book published was foreign to them. But they did understand about not wanting to read across genres.

Most mystery/thriller/women’s fiction fans look down their noses at the fantasy genre. You know, all that *magic stuff* (spoken with a derogatory sneer). Which is fine. I don’t read biographies or biker magazines. Nothing wrong with either, but I have no interest in the genres. Personal taste and all that. But sadly, some readers seem blind to the social commentary, humor, character development and amazing storytelling that takes place on every page of a good fantasy novel, a comment that has been made by my co-bloggers on this list.

I think fantasy writers—and forgive me here, but this is not to include romantic fantasy writers who are all about the romance, natch. Rather, urban and epic fantasy writers—have a keen eye on the changes in society historically, on current affairs, and on personal relationships. I think we/they see things quite clearly, perhaps as much like the sifi writers of old. Asimov. Heinlein. Hubbard (when he wrote fantasy, not created a religion). And Herbert to name just a very few. More recently, we have Benford, Weber, and Bujold, all of whom I read. All were/are deeply involved in and wrote/write about the deeper human truths, amid a world that does not exist, science yet to be invented, planets yet to be discovered. Fantasy writers do the same thing, but with a science of energy that is shaped and powered by the mind of magic users.

When a fantasy character kills some not-human-person, defends territory, suffers because he/she/it is different, that is a commentary on society today. The warrior who lives with survivor’s guilt and the deeper guilt of knowing that he pushed a button and killed thousands of noncombatants, is as real on the page as it is in the heart of the old warrior. The long term effect of kidnap, rape, child abuse on a developing character is likewise painful on the page. The ability and desire to fight and survive, grow and evolve is all social commentary.

I just finished reading Patricia Briggs’ Iron Kissed. It was wonderful. So intense that the last 70 pages or so I read several times, over 4 hours, *very* slowly. I laughed and I cried. Deep, dark, urban fantasy. The character development and dialogue were lovely and the social commentary was silently interwoven through the storyline and character development. Not gonna give spoilers here, but OMG. Grand!

Here we go to part two, change of subject, because it is now (for me) the next day, Wednesday. Miz Kim’s debut signing of The Outlaw Demon Wails? Was fab!!!! Whoowhoowhoo! Kim was lovely, elegant, engaging and fun, answering all the questions with aplomb, spending an hour just chatting.

I did not get a book, because the bookstore owner had ordered too few books, and when I left halfway through the signing part, there were only about 9 books left and still maybe 50 people in line. And more coming in. It would have been cruel to take a book and possibly deprive a reader who drove from Pennsylvania to the signing. I read the ARC so I can wait to get the actual hardback, along with Catie’s new book, which I just ordered from my local bookstore. Pooh. I have never been good dealing with delayed gratification. I’m more one of those, *I want it and I want it now,* kinda gal.

Faith Hunter

Tags: Faith Hunter by faithhunter
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