Inspiration: Scifi in normal spaces

Quotes of the Week

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.
—Zelda Fitzgerald

There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
—Flannery O’Connor

A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.
—E.B. White

It doesn't have to be the truth, just your vision of it, written down.
—Virginia Woolf

No one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.
—Charles de Lint

Tuesday Tips: What do I Write

Some people think they can analyze the market and then author a book in the popular genre of the day.

I believe those people are wrong. Don't do that. Don't write a 50 Shades book because that thing is making bank. Please. Don't.

I recommend that you write the kind of novel that you love to read. I write Science Fiction and Fantasy. I read 100 of those stories a year.

Writing the kind of stories I like to read allows me to be original and lets my delight shine through.

I recommend you write the book just for yourself. Make yourself laugh, cry, make yourself afraid or hopeful or fall in love. If you don't feel it, the audience won't either.

Writing the kind of stories you love will increase the odds that you actually finish it.

--Finish things...

Reading: The Black Witch

This week I read The Black Witch by Laurie Forest.

Here is the description from Amazon:

A new Black Witch will rise…her powers vast beyond imagining.

Elloren Gardner is the granddaughter of the last prophesied Black Witch, Carnissa Gardner, who drove back the enemy forces and saved the Gardnerian people during the Realm War. But while she is the absolute spitting image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.

When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University to embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother's legacy. But she soon realizes that the university, which admits all manner of people—including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians—is a treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.

As evil looms on the horizon and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, everything Elloren thought she knew will be challenged and torn away. Her best hope of survival may be among the most unlikely band of misfits…if only she can find the courage to trust those she's been taught to hate and fear.

Check out my Fast Friday Interview with the Author, Laurie Forest. 

--I really enjoyed this one! Great world building. Excellent character development. Plus the plot didn't go where I expected. Recommended!

Big cat, big head.

Music: From the scifi film, The Spirit Within

The Fast Friday Interviews: Laurie Forest

Laurie Forest

Tell me about yourself, Laurie?

I am Laurie Forest. Mother of dragons. Drinker of strong tea. Part dryad. Writing in the back woods of Vermont in front of a guttering woodstove.

Official photo (heavily photo-shopped - I told the photographer to "make me look spooky and give me a whole new head.")

Actual photo - The Black Witch cocktail pictured (this is a real thing, predating my book) - this is a more accurate representation of my vibe at the moment - and perhaps resembles me more closely than my heavily photo-shopped author photo.

Tell me about your current Book: The Black Witch

When powerless Elloren Gardner, granddaughter of her people's greatest battlemage, leaves her sheltered home in Gardneria, Elloren must find a way to navigate being thrown into an environment where most of the people are hostile towards the granddaughter of their greatest enemy - The Black Witch.

Wandfasted (e-book prequel to The Black Witch)

When all mayhem breaks loose from colliding dragon armies, Tessla Harrow must find a forbidden wand and use her unique magery, or she won't survive to meet the smoking hot Vale Gardner - who is like Mr. Darcy melded with Loki (you're welcome ;) )

The Black Witch:
All the most delicious things about all the fantasy books thrown into one, giant, dragon-filled extravaganza of awesomeness.

Wandfasted:
The hottest prequel on the entire earth. And there are battling dragon armies. And dragons set on fire pinwheeling down to crash onto scattering soldiers. And did I mention that it's the hottest thing ever written?

What are you working on now?

Book Three of The Black Witch Chronicles (oh it's fun - because it's dark with lots of action and monsters). Also, revising e-book side-novel number two of The Black Witch Chronicles (Sage Gaffney's story - the young woman who gives Elloren the White Wand and has an Icaral-demon baby in the beginning of The Black Witch).

Where is your favorite place to be when you write?

Vermont. In my home in the back woods. In a lantern-lit room. During a thunder storm that blackens the skies, lightning flashing. Or during November in Vermont. On a deeply overcast day. The trees twisty and bare, the woods shadowed and vaguely sinister.

But better would be a Scottish castle by a turbulent ocean, cast in deeply moody, bleak weather. Haven't been able to secure that yet.

Best might be a lighthouse off the coast of Maine. On an island. No one there but me. Writing by candlelight in the dead of night. With a crow on my shoulder.

What is your favorite lesson you have learned about the business of writing?

Four lessons (I cannot confine this answer to one lesson).

1. "The muse can't resist a working writer." - Ray Bradbury
2. "Don't wait for inspiration. Go after it with a club." - Jack London
3. "Write to please yourself and shut out the rest of the world. Preferably in a Scottish castle. Then, when finished, share your work boldly." - Laurie Forest
4. "Put a dragon in every book you write. No exceptions." - Laurie Forest (feel free to widely quote me on this) 

What is your favorite Website?

Any site with pretentious, overpriced black teas for sale that taste like chocolate cake or tiramisu. Which is basically my version of porn. (Along with Wandfasted, which is the hottest thing ever written).

Links: 

Email: blackwitchnovel@gmail.com

Amazon:

• THE BLACK WITCH (Book One, The Black Witch Chronicles - out now) 
• WANDFASTED (E-Book Prequel, The Black Witch Chronicles - out now) 
• THE IRON FLOWER (Book Two, The Black Witch Chronicles - available for pre-order) 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009503414837
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Website: http://laurieannforest.com/
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