Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is reading! Do you set aside time for it each day? How do you decide what to read next? Come on over for my story.
Making Time to Read
//Tag: SFF7
//Meet the Pets!
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Check out the awesome cover for the fourth Sorcerous Moons book!! It releases Tuesday, January 24, but you can preorder at a few retailers. The blurb:
An Enemy Land
Once Princess Oria spun wicked daydreams from the legends of sorceresses kidnapped by the barbarian Destrye. Now, though she’s come willingly, she finds herself in a mirror of the old tales: the king’s foreign trophy of war, starved of magic, surrounded by snowy forest and hostile strangers. But this place has secrets, too—and Oria must learn them quickly if she is to survive.
A Treacherous Court
Instead of the refuge he sought, King Lonen finds his homeland desperate and angry, simmering with distrust of his wife. With open challenge to his rule, he knows he and Oria—the warrior wounded and weak, the sorceress wrung dry of power—must somehow make a display of might. And despite the desire that threatens to undo them both, he still cannot so much as brush her skin.
A Fight for the Future
With war looming and nowhere left to run, Lonen and Oria must use every intrigue and instinct they can devise: to plumb Dru’s mysteries, to protect their people—and to hold fast to each other. Because they know better than any what terrifying trial awaits…
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This week on the blog, we’re featuring the pets of the SFF Seven. Come on over to see my pretties.
Killing Prince Charming
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Okay, so… the cover for THE FORESTS OF DRU isn’t *quite* ready, but here’s a teaser. You guys, it’s so pretty!! The good news is that the book is up for preorder now!! Just at Amazon so far, but the rest will be coming. Release date is January 24 for sure!
Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is: Burning Bridges: Killing Off Characters in Your Fiction As a Plot Point. Come on over to hear my story about this.
Baby’s First Meme
//It’s Make a Meme week at the SFF Seven!
That’s right. The topic is to make a meme of your favorite or least favorite thing about being an author.
Danu stacks the challenges deep, indeed.
I don’t often do “least-favorite” or pet-peeve kinds of things, but this one captures my feels this morning. Come on over to the SFF Seven to see my brilliant creation!
Franchise Books and Why I Don’t Read Them
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I lied a little in the comments this morning.
That’s what the comments section is for, right? Right??
Okay, no – I exaggerate. But one of my SFF Seven group-blogmates posted this morning about how much he loves the Star Trek franchise books, especially a particular set. We’re talking this week about books that people might be surprised we love. He certainly surprised me – and I commented that I’ve never gotten into reading any of the franchise books, meaning the books spun off movies and TV shows like Star Wars and Star Trek.
Which is largely true, but not precisely so.
See, I did try to read one, a long, long time ago, in a mall chain bookstore far, far away. It was not long after Star Wars Episode IV came out, which my parents took me to see on the big screen, dragging me along to their choice of movie as they always did, which then absolutely lit up my world. In the ensuing years – there were three years in real time between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back – I became addicted to Star Trek reruns on TV after school, discovered Anne McCaffrey wasn’t the only fantasy writer, and spent a lot of time and allowance money at that mall chain bookstore. Maybe it was a B. Dalton?
At any rate, I was dying to know What Happened Next in Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back was YEARS away, and I spotted a Star Wars BOOK.
I tell you, angels wept.
I bought the slim paperback – I bet it wasn’t more than 200 pages – and eagerly began to read. What had happened to Leia, Luke and Han?? Well. The opening scene (or one of them) took place in some kind of pawn shop and culminated in a light saber (?) being thrust into a guy’s eye and bloody pulp flying everywhere. Then… I can’t even remember, but people were doing Wrong and Weird things. The characters weren’t like they were in the movie. It might have been that Leia, Luke and Han weren’t even IN it.
Angels were not amused.
This was long before I understood that a canon could be riffed upon. The book might have been written “in the world,” or – who knows? – might not even have been authorized. I have no idea now who wrote it or much more about it than the eye pulp flying everywhere.
Plus, that the story didn’t deliver anything like the movie had, and I was already well-aware that books are always better than the movie.
So, I never read another. That one book filled me with such loathing that I wrote off all franchise books as anathema. Now I’m wondering what I’ve missed…
What about all of you – do you read franchise books like this? Are there any you LOVE that I should check out???
Does It Surprise You that I love TWILIGHT?
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Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to 2017! May the year bring us opportunities to make ourselves and the world a better place.
Our topic to kick off the new year is The Book People Might Be Surprised To Learn You Love & Why. Come on over to find out why I picked Twilight.
The Secret of My Success
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I’m over at the SFF7, giving the Secret to My Success as an author. I would say you’ll never guess, but you probably can.
Wait! Don’t Burn that Bridge!
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You’ll hear this advice a lot in the publishing world: Don’t Burn Bridges. In case the metaphor escapes you, it means to avoid ending professional relationships in a way leaves a chasm between you that can never be breached. For my advice on cutting the cords on professional relationships, come on over to the SFF Seven.
My Favorite Minor Character
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In case you missed my very fun interview with Ilana Teitelbaum at the Huffington Post, here’s the cover reveal for the next book in The Uncharted Realms, THE EDGE OF THE BLADE! I have such mad love for this cover. Of all my heroines so far, Jepp is the one whose cover comes closest to showing her as she looks in my head. She’s also terribly badass, prowling along with her knives.
Love love love.
It’s timely, too, because this week’s topic at the SFF Seven is “My Favorite Minor Character.” Tune in to find out who mine is!
Five Traits of an Ideal Developmental Editor
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A good developmental editor is key for taking a book from good to great. Or from meh to great. Or even great wad of suckage to great.
I firmly believe every novelist needs a good developmental editor. And I’m over at the SFF7, giving what I think are the five traits of an ideal developmental editor.