Memorial Day

From the amazing R.A. Salvatore, who said it better than I could. 

Today is the day we've set aside - rightly so - to pause and take a moment to remember those who have died in military service to this country.

Sometimes it's hard for people to separate the servicemen and servicewomen from the act of war or this or that particular war, and so (particularly in this age of anti-social media) continues the debate/fight.

I'm not interested in that fight in this context - in fact, I find it incredibly distasteful and self-serving IN THIS CONTEXT. So please refrain in this thread.

This is a day to take a moment and reflect for the individuals who had the gumption to go and risk all for their country, who tried to give back to their society, who were willing and brave. Included in the memories for me will be George Atwood Geer, Jr., my would-have-been father-in-law, who died in service in Germany in the early 60's, and my brother-in-law, Rob, who came home from Vietnam broken, and soon after became another soul lost to the tragedy of that conflict.

For all the chaos portrayed by sensationalist media, the number of people killed by war continues to diminish, decade by decade. That's the good news.

The bad news is that people are still being killed by war.

I might have other words for the imperialists, the corporatists, the megalomaniacs and such who propagate such misery for less than honorable and just reasons, but on another day.

Today, it is simple: For those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and for those willing to put themselves on the line, I simply pause and whisper, 'Thank you."

Character Spotlight

I've got a new character interview up in the character spotlight section. Go check out the interview with Verin, the torturer of my books, and see what he has to say.

Question Friday

For Fridays, I usually ask a question or play a game. Today's question is: What author - living or dead - would you want to sit down and have breakfast with. 


It's a hard question. If I only had to pick one, I'd go with Joe Abercrombie. He inspired me to write in the style I was most comfortable, the dark and gritty way that I love. His characters are real, flawed, gray, and generally very awesome.

How about you?

Excerpt Thursday

For my excerpt today, I'll be posting the beginning little bit from a new comedy fantasy I've started working on. I want this to be like the Monty Python of fantasy books. 


        Have dragon, will travel. The headline caught my eye right away. It was big, red, gaudy, and roared at me from the mouth of a poorly drawn dragon. I’m not kidding, a five year old could have drawn it. Not an art masterpiece five year old, a regular one. You know what I’m talking about.

        I scratched idly at my red scruff, picking particularly at the patchy places the hair refused to grow, and considered the scrawled writing under the dragon’s ill-shaped legs.

Hero seeking companion for daring adventures. Have my own dragon and will travel far and wide. Death and danger a guarantee. Must be good at conversation. No whistlers. No uglies.

        Can you believe this guy? I cocked a brow and leaned in, searching for the name of said hero. It was written along the bottom edge, almost unable to be seen: Meet Casandro at the The Hawk and The Highwaymen.

The Unreliable Narrator

I read a nice article today on the unreliable narrator. I know I enjoy stories where I have to discover what is happening along with the characters, which is a form of unreliable narration simply because if the main character doesn't know what's happening in the story, then we can't rely on anything being told to us. It will be biased. I like this sort of unreliable story telling. I don't necessarily enjoy the type of unreliable narration where the main character is intentionally lying to me or is mentally unbalanced (though I did enjoy Fight Club.)

In my novels, The Obsidian Embers Trilogy, I use a form of unreliable narration in which we switch between the antagonist point of view and the protagonist, thus never truly getting to know who is the real bad guy. When you look at the events of the story from the Order of Obsidian Embers, my rebel group looks like the bad guys, people willing to kill anyone even associated with the Order. When you look from the rebels, it seems that those deaths a necessary. I've always believed that the villain believes they are the hero of their own story, not in a always do right sort of way, but in a truly believing they are doing bad things to achieve a good goal way. I try to write in that way.

There's a scene in Kindling, first book of the trilogy, where a rebel and the head of the Order have a conversation. During that scene, the leader of the Order makes enough good points that my beta reader came back to me with "I'm so confused. She makes so much sense! Have I been rooting for the wrong side?" In another moment, I show a scene from a member of the Order, someone who has likely done unspeakable things, and she's killed by one of my main girls. A reader who'd read nothing but that scene told me it was obvious that Marietta, my main female good character, was the villain of the book.

I'd never felt more like I'd accomplished my goals than in those two moments. I love unreliable narration like this.

How do you, as readers, feel?

Welcome!

Welcome! This will be my permanent blog from now on, and I hope to build it up the way I've done with my Facebook author page. I'll be trying to follow the same schedule I have over there, which means today will be Magic Monday! 

Magic Monday!
Today we'll talk about telekinesis. This power is one so commonly used in movies and the like that when I spelled it wrong, the spell checker could fix it for me. Telekinesis is the power to manipulate objects with one's mind. Pivane has this in Kindling.

There are a lot of different ways telekinesis can manifest in a person, but Pivane has the power at its basest. He can move things with his mind. He's very good at it too. He's powerful too in that he can use his Flame to manipulate and move not just objects but people too.

I'm sure I don't have to detail how very useful this power can be, but Pivane is comfortable working in the palace and influencing the king, so he mainly uses his power to show off and scare the prisoners in the Maze and occasionally uses it to harm people who won't cooperate.