Wednesday, January 26, 2022
A Year Ahead with Jeffe
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
FIRE OF THE FROST Fantasy Holiday Romance Yumminess
And if you don't celebrate Christmas, there's lots of midwinter, romantic holiday goodness for you, too! Only Amanda's story is literally Christmas. Everyone else's is a fantasy midwinter holiday. Mine includes a magical sleigh race and elemental festive lights. It's a story that takes place in the Bonds of Magic world, roughly after DARK WIZARD and semi-concurrent with BRIGHT FAMILIAR. It takes place at Convocation Academy and you just miiiiigght see some of the characters in GREY MAGIC.
The delay means you have just that much longer to preorder the anthology for the special preorder price, before it goes up on release day.
Here's the official (still in progress) blurb:
A midwinter holiday fantasy romance anthology…
From
Darynda Jones, a standalone novella set in a world where vampyres are hunted
for sport. The only thing standing between them and total annihilation is
Winter, a warrior bred to save them from extinction. Forbidden to fall in love,
Winter cares only about her oaths… until she meets the devilish prince of the
underworld.
Of Fate and Fire by
Amanda Bouchet
The Kingmaker Chronicles meets modern-day New York City! Piers, an
exiled warrior from Thalyria, finds himself in the Big Apple just before the
holidays. The world and everything in it might be utterly foreign to him, but
that won't stop Piers from helping to complete a vital mission for Athena and
protect Sophie, a French teacher from Connecticut who's suddenly knee-deep in
inexplicable phenomena, danger, and henchmen after an Olympian treasure that
should never have ended up in her hands—or remained on Earth after the Greek
gods abandoned it.
The King of Hel by Grace Draven
A
novella-length expansion of a stand-alone short story in which a cursed
mage-king from a frozen kingdom is obligated to marry a woman of high-ranking
nobility but meets his soulmate in a lowly scribe.
Familiar Winter Magic by
Jeffe Kennedy
It’s holiday time at Convocation Academy, but best friends Han and
Iliana are finding it hard to celebrate. As a familiar, Iliana is facing her
assignment to a life of servitude to a wizard, very soon. And Han… despite
being tested by the oracle daily, he is still uncategorized. As Iliana and Han
face being separated forever, they at last find the courage—or desperation—to
break the rules and acknowledge their deeper feelings for each other. But it
will take more than true love to save them from the laws of the Convocation…
Once the races
finished, Iliana let Han talk her into more dancing. With the excellent whiskey
warming her blood, not to mention the heady glow of Han’s undivided attention,
she could hardly resist. She loved him so much and he was right: this was their
last Founding Festival together. Rather than try to hold him at arm’s length,
in anticipation of their imminent parting, she decided to enjoy his company
while she could.
Han at his most
charming was impossible to refuse. Which would be a major problem when he
manifested as a wizard, but she wouldn’t think about that tonight. Since it was
a holiday, the thought-seekers gave everyone a break—and were celebrating
themselves. The festival was a rare excuse for everyone to loosen up.
A little bit
tipsy, the lights and dancing making her feel giddy, she danced with Han until
she was so warm she had to shed her cloak. Among his many skills, Han was also
an excellent dancer—far better than she, but he was so skilled that he made his
partner look good—and they found themselves more than once in a circle of cheering
spectators as he whirled her through the vigorous dances.
Then the music
slowed, and she fanned herself, blowing out a breath, and headed off the dance
floor. Han caught her hand. “Hey, where are you going?” Expertly he twirled her
under his arm, then snugged her close, a hand on the small of her back as he
led her through the dreamy rhythm.
Iliana braced one
hand on Han’s chest, his heart thumping rapidly beneath her fingertips, his
blue eyes lambent in the starry light. “We never dance the slow dances,” she
breathed.
“A grievous lapse
of judgment on my part,” he murmured, gaze traveling over her face. “You feel
perfect in my arms, lovely Iliana. I want you here forever.”
She tore her gaze
from his heartbreakingly beautiful face, focusing on his throat instead. That
wasn’t much help, as his skin begged to be kissed and nibbled. “I don’t
understand what’s changed between us, why you’re being so…”
“Seductive?” he
suggested in a warm purr. “Devastatingly handsome and charming?”
Snorting, she made
a face at him. “Aggressive. And annoyingly persistent.”
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
Black FaRoFriday Fantasy Romance Readathon!
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
A Glimpse of Dark Wizard
See, I never think of myself as writing all that scary. James is the horror writer. KAK delves into the twisted psyche. Usually I see my books as being occasionally dark, but not all that creepy. Readers may disagree. But in general I'm kind of a fragile flower. I don't like being scared. I don't watch or read horror. I'm the one who leaves the room during the scary scenes in a movie, or - far worse! - the gory ones. You guys know me - I'll write all the sex scenes and I advocate for closed-door violence.
Why can't that be a thing?
But this New Thing I've written, the Sekrit Project, is pretty scary. It's tense and twisted and... I already told you I can't share it yet!
Yeah, I hate violence, but I love a tease.
So, though it's not all that scary, and because I couldn't resist using this creepy image with DARK WIZARD, I'll share an unsettling scene from that book. Enjoy!
***
Having to deal
with the inn, the askance stares at his appearance, the averted gazes when they
took in his wizard-black eyes, the shocked ones at his white hair—all of it
broke him out of his circular thoughts. He tipped the stable girl well to walk
Vale cool, rub the gelding down thoroughly, and give him an extra portion of
feed. And he tipped the boy in the pub well to bring himself an extra portion
of feed, also. Gabriel sat alone in a shadowy corner, using a simple moon
spell to reflect curiosity away from himself.
He was more tired
than he’d realized, feeling sleepier by the moment as warm food settled into
his stomach. He wasn’t used to winter’s bite. And he’d pushed hard to reach
House Elal, thinking he’d have days of rest after the wedding. Sopping up the
last of the rich mushroom gravy with the excellent fresh bread, Gabriel settled
back to savor the rest of his wine—an excellent, robust Elal red, though not as
good as Veronica’s special reserve—and watch the room.
Thus, he was in
the perfect position to see the hunters arrive.
He knew them for
inhuman even before they fully entered the busy tavern. The air seemed to bend
before their passage, adjusting to the presence of that which should not exist
in this world. There were six of them, slinking into the room like an amalgam
of a jackal and a weasel in vaguely human shape, arching like hounds to sniff
the surfaces they passed. Nobody else seemed aware of them, so Gabriel made
sure to look past the hunters also, focusing on the minstrel blithely singing a
song nearby, exhorting the crowd for coins.
He needn’t have
bothered, for one of the hunters lifted its snout in the air as if scenting
something interesting and fastened one eye on Gabriel. It slunk in his
direction, pausing to steal a handful of coin from the oblivious minstrel’s tip
basket. It tossed one on the table before Gabriel, an insolent sneer on its
distorted face.
“Wissard,” it
hissed, revealing inhumanly sharp teeth—several rows of them.
“Hunter,” Gabriel
returned. He readied himself, though his water and moon magic seemed unequal to
dealing with a creature like this. The books in the House Phel library, at
least the legible ones, were short on spells for martial application. Under the
table, he loosened his sword in its scabbard, a far more reliable defense.
“You know what I
am. Good. I ssseek a familiar, on behalf of the Convocation. Have you ssscented
one?” It pushed the coin toward him with a sharp, curving claw.
“This place reeks
of sweat and ale,” Gabriel replied. “I’m sure any good familiar would turn tail
and hide in their room.”
The hunter sniffed
the air all the while Gabriel spoke, barely listening. “You have no familiar.”
“Unfortunately,
no. I am but a minor wizard.” Gabriel drew more moon reflections around
himself, just in case any of his power leaked through. On the advantage side of
being a moon-based water wizard, it was a quiet magic, and often overlooked.
The hunter fixed
one ochre eye on him—the length of its snout making looking forward with both
eyes at once impossible—and made an unpleasant choking sound. Laughter? “Why
are you here, wissard?”
Gabriel gestured
at his cleaned plate. “Best mushroom gravy in all of Elal.”
The hunter eyed
him for another excruciatingly long few moments. Without another word, it slunk
out again, its cohorts streaming to join it, pouring out the door again like
smoke. Gabriel blew out a breath, quaffed his wine, and went to his room for
the night—dropping the coin, plus a few more, back in the minstrel’s basket.
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
FIRE OF THE FROST Cover Reveal!
From Darynda Jones, a standalone novella set in a world where vampyres are hunted for sport. The only thing standing between them and total annihilation is Winter, a warrior bred to save them from extinction. Forbidden to fall in love, Winter cares only about her oaths… until she meets the devilish prince of the underworld.Amanda Bouchet transports The Kingmaker Chronicles to modern-day New York City. An exiled warrior finds himself in the Big Apple just before the holidays. On a vital mission for Athena, he meets an imperiled French teacher from Connecticut, and soon they’re knee-deep in inexplicable phenomena.Grace Draven brings a novella-length expansion of a stand-alone short story in which a cursed mage-king from a frozen kingdom is obligated to marry a woman of high-ranking nobility but meets his soulmate in a lowly scribe.
From Jeffe Kennedy comes a standalone novella in the Dark Wizard world, where an ancient holiday is resurrected and clandestine lovers find the courage to pursue forbidden joy.
This week at the SFF Seven our topic is: Before Chapter One. We're asking each other, "What do you have in place before you start drafting? Inspiration board? Top-level plot bullets? Full outline? Flushed out Character Profiles? Etc."
This is kind of funny for me to answer today because I'm starting Chapter One on the novella for this anthology. And yes, it will be Chapter One, because I'm a linear writer. What do I know about the story at this point? I know this:
It's set in my Dark Wizard world (Bonds of Magic), where an ancient holiday is resurrected and clandestine lovers find the courage to pursue forbidden joy.
Heh. I had to figure out that much so I had something to say for the reveal.
At least I know the world? That's because I've already written and published the first two books in the Bonds of Magic series, DARK WIZARD and BRIGHT FAMILIAR. My as-yet-untitled story in FIRE OF THE FROST occurs away from the protagonists of the main arc, but I don't know yet who the characters will be. This is a departure for me as I start with character 99% of the time. So, this will be interesting!
But my short answer to the question is: nothing. Pretty much all I have before I start drafting is a twinkle in my eye, as it were.
Let it shine, baby. Let it shine!
Sunday, October 3, 2021
Synopses - the Pain Never Ends
Our
topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Queries & Synopses: Bane,
Benefit, or Both?"
Besides
all of us immediately screeching BANE – because all sane human beings hate
writing synopses – I’m here to tell you to learn to, if not love, then at least
bear with them. Being able to write a decent synopsis is a critical skill for a
writer, even indies. Same with queries.
Also,
the need for them never goes away. If you want to be a career author, you’ll be
pitching/querying your books and writing synopses for the rest of your life.
Did
I scare you? It IS October, after all!
I
totally sympathize, by the way. When I was a newbie writer, I was fond of
saying that if I could synopsize my novel, either in an elevator pitch or a
couple of pages, then I wouldn’t have had to write the whole book. Which is
true in a way, but also precious.
People
rightfully rolled their eyes at me.
I
sucked it up and took a class on writing synopses.
The
main thing I learned from the class was not necessarily how to write a
synopsis, though I kind of did, but that condensing a story concept to 10
pages, 5 pages, 2 pages, 1 paragraph, 288 or 144 characters, or 1 line helped
crystallize the essentials of the tale. And I had to face the very
uncomfortable truth that, despite my newbie arrogance about having written this
entire novel to tell the story, the main reason I couldn’t write a synopsis or
come up with an effective short pitch was that I didn’t have a clear focus on
that story. I didn’t KNOW what the essentials were.
That’s
why I say that even indies – who may never need to write a synopsis, but will
certainly need to write a blurb – will benefit from developing this skill, too.
And
if you’re going for trad at all… Well, let’s just say that a synopsis is hovering
in my near future. I’m not looking forward to the painful process of writing
it, but I know that, in the end, I’ll understand much more about the
story.
Which
is always a positive.
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Using the MICE Tool to Find Where the Story Begins
This week at the SFF Seven, we're asking each other which MICE quotient we usually start with in a story. I can see that the calendar queen, KAK, is anticipating my bitching about not knowing what these things are, because she helpfully provided a definition and some useful links.
It turns out that the MICE quotient is a tool originated by Orson Scott Card (brilliant storyteller, awful human being) for categorizing story elements. MICE stands for Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event. The Writing Excuses Podcast explores the MICE technique frequently, so I was able to listen to a couple of episodes to learn about it. Here's a list of the episodes where they mention it. This episode is particularly useful, from back in 2011, as Mary Robinette Kowal explains how MICE works. The podcasters also amusingly mull that "milieu" is really setting, but that SICE isn't nearly as good of an acronym. This episode is also useful for the discussion of the MICE approach to conflict.
To summarize this approach to writing - part of my job as the one who kicks off the topic for the week - I'm borrowing heavily from the Writing Excuses episodes I cited.
Basically these four elements can be emphasized or de-emphasized in telling a story. Short stories tend to focus on one of these elements, while longer works use several. Novels typically have all four, often in a nested approach. The tool essentially dictates how a story begins and ends.
So, for Milieu, a story begins with the protagonists exiting or entering a space, and ends with them returning to the space. For example, The Hobbit begins with leaving The Shire and ends with returning to it.
For Idea, or Inquiry, the story begins with a question, like in a murder murder mystery, where the question is posed of why a person is dead and who killed them. It ends with the answer.
With Character, the story begins with a protagonist who is unhappy or unfulfilled, and ends with them fulfilled--or resigned to being unfulfilled. Romance and Lit Fiction are two genres that use this tool a lot.
Finally, a story that uses Event begins with something happening that changes the status quo, and ends with either re-establishing the old normal or establishing a new normal. These kinds of stories focus on action and often disaster.
As I mentioned earlier, a novel will also use these tools in a nested fashion, which I find very interesting. Mary Robinette used the example of html code (also applicable to algebraic formulas), where you essentially close brackets in the same order that you open them.
Html coding looks like this:
<p><b><i> “Dark Wizard is one of my top reads ever.” </i> ~ NY Times Bestselling Author Darynda Jones</b> </p>
The p opens the paragraph and /p ends it. Same with b for bolding, and i for italics, giving you this formatted result:
“Dark Wizard is
one of my top reads ever.” ~ NY Times Bestselling Author Darynda Jones
So, in a novel, where you use all four elements, you'd back out the same way you entered. It might look like this:
<Character><Milieu><Inquiry><Event></Event></Inquiry></Milieu></Character>
To finally answer the question of what I start with? I'm an intuitive writer, so I don't plan these things, but it's interesting to note that I pretty much always start with character, followed closely by Milieu. The above pattern is how my book DARK WIZARD goes. The pattern also repeats within smaller sections and scenes throughout the book, but this is true of the overall pattern. Basically Character frames the overall arc, as does Milieu - then there's a lot of moving from Inquiries and Events - sometimes with smaller Milieu changes.
So, the story opens as such:
Gabriel Phel crested the last ridge of the notorious Knifeblade Mountains that guarded Elal lands on nearly three sides, and faced the final barrier. The path through the mountains had been narrow, crooked, with blind endings and unexpected pitfalls.
Not unlike his life, Gabriel thought with grimly sardonic humor.
My wizard opens the story, moving into a new Milieu - physically and metaphorically. It's also worth noting here that Milieu also refers to the larger setting of being in an alternate fantasy world, which was something I wanted to be sure to telegraph from the beginning. Gabriel has a plan to change his life, but he soon encounters many questions when he meets the heroine, Nic. It's amusing to me how I introduce her in Chapter 2.
Skirts swirling about her ankles, Lady Veronica Elal paced restlessly to the heavy velvet curtains that covered the barred windows of her round tower room, and slipped behind them. Shivering in the chill trapped there, she hooked her fingers into the slats of the shutters anyway, ignoring the cold bite of the metal. It was a ridiculous habit she’d developed over the last months of seclusion, as if she could make the spaces between the rigid slats wider, so she could glimpse just a bit more of the outside world.
Character, then Milieu. Funny, huh?
I enjoyed learning about this tool and will give it thought for future books. I can see how it would be useful for deciding where to begin a story - and for structuring a satisfying ending.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Worldbuilding and Political Landscapes
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Writing the Intuitive Way
Of the 7 types of hooks, which one do you use most? The “Why” Hook. The “Character” Hook. The “Catastrophe” Hook. The “Setting” Hook. The “Contradicting Emotions” Hook. The “Inherent Problem” Hook. The “Goal” Hook.
O_o
You guys... Sometimes I look at these topics and I just bust out laughing.
I haven't HEARD of these seven hooks, much less do I have any idea which I use most, if at all.
That's the thing about being an intuitive writer like I am. I just don't have much experience with an analytical approach to writing like this. I also came to writing sideways, as all my education is in sciences. (With the exception of a major in Comparative Religious Studies alongside the BS in Biology, but I'm not sure that counts.) While I've taken classes with writers, I've never been to a fancy workshop like Clarion or Taos Toolbox. I have an MS in Zoology & Physiology, not an MFA.
While I like reading and hearing about how other authors work, I hate reading craft books.
In my heart of hearts, I suspect that overanalyzing story elements is a surefire way to kill the book dead. Or at least numb it out of existence. But I totally get that this is an intuitive writer's perspective. All you analytical types, go knock yourself out!
So, anyway... I have nothing to contribute, so I'll just crow about how DARK WIZARD is a bestseller! It cracked the Kindle Top 100 - a career first for me ~ and is on sale for 0.99c through Monday. The sequel, BRIGHT FAMILIAR, comes out July 9, so this is a great time to snap up book one.
Check out those pretty pretty bestseller ribbons!
Sunday, April 25, 2021
When Your Antagonist Is the Whole World
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Choose Your Own Religion
Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "That Old Tyme RELIGION: Does Religion Change the Course of a Story?"
My answer? It depends!
I'm a big of a mixed bag, religion-wise. I grew up in an Irish Catholic family who were pretty much all lapsed, to the point that my stepdad was a former Catholic priest and my mother flunked theology in (her all-girls, Catholic) college because she stormed out of class after arguing with the nun. Extended family included an ex-Carmelite nun and a lifelong Catholic priest. On the other side we have Missouri Synod Lutherans, which my father left behind to convert to Catholicism, a wedding surprise for my mother, who had hoped to escape by marrying a non-Catholic. There's some kind of inverted Gifts of the Magi shiz going on there.
So, while I grew up well versed in liturgical debates, I mostly considered myself Catholic in the same way I'm Irish - by weight of ancestry. In (my co-ed, liberal arts) college, I majored in Comparative Religious Studies, along with my primary major of Biology. My honors thesis compared Meister Eckhardt's (an excommunicated Catholic priest and scholar) sermon On Detachment with Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching.
For a long time I described myself as spiritual, but not religious - which didn't seem to explain anything to anyone. Now I just say I'm a practicing Taoist. Since almost no one knows exactly what that means (including, arguably, other Taoists), that at least gives me space.
All of this is by way of saying that, in my books, religion crops up a surprising amount. Or maybe it's not surprising. I find spirituality and the religions that grow from spiritual study fascinating. One of the terrific aspects of creating alternate fantasy worlds is that I can make up my own pantheon of deities - and I can use the worship of those gods and goddesses to explore and comment on religions of our world. The religions I've created have ranged from distant gods (Forgotten Empires) to a trio of goddesses who interfere with fate to the point of taking avatars (The Twelve Kingdoms and the Uncharted Realms).
In only one series so far have I included absolutely no hint of religion or deities: Bonds of Magic. Those of you who've read DARK WIZARD should feel free to write an essay on why that is. I can promise you that it's a deliberate choice.
In fact, I'd argue that religion always affects the course of a story. Even in its absence, there is a consequence on the world and how the characters live in it.