Killing Prince Charming

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.

I'd lay money down this topic is one of Jim's. The man loves to kill off characters, I tell you.

For me... I don't like to so much. But sometimes it's necessary. A lot of times I fight it, but death in fiction, as in life, is inevitable.

I'm going to talk about my book THE MARK OF THE TALA, the first of The Twelve Kingdoms books. If you haven't read it and don't want a huge spoiler, better stop now.

Okay? All the spoiler-nervous folks fled?

(Not like they couldn't guess from the title, though.)

So, THE MARK OF THE TALA ends with Hugh, the handsome and noble prince who marries Princess Amelia just before the start of the story, dying unexpectedly and brutally. As one guy who read the book said to me, "I can't believe you killed Prince Charming!"

I've quoted him a lot on that, because it does perfectly sum up what happens - and how I also felt about it. As I wrote that book, I fought the dread all along that Hugh would die. There's a recurring premonition where Princess Andi - the heroine of the story - sees Rayfe, the hero, dead in the snow. At the end, fate twists - because Andi changes it - and Hugh dies instead.

It really sucked and I cried over it.

But... Prince Charming had to die. While these books do end with Happily Ever Afters, as in life, those are only for some people. Others are passing through stages of grief and loss. This series, and the continuing saga in The Uncharted Realms are all in a way about loss of innocence. Or, at least, the loss of comforting illusions. Each heroine discovers the world isn't what she thought it was. The truth she discovers is often better in ways - certainly better for her - but each much shed the old beliefs of childhood to move forward.

For all of us, that means putting Prince Charming in the grave.

Because the idea of Prince Charming is one of the most profound illusions we're told. As an archetype he borders on ridiculous - forever riding about on his white charger, hair gleaming gold in the sun and noble visage in handsome profile. He is without flaw and utterly... dull. In THE MARK OF THE TALA, Hugh's essential flaw emerges in that his nobility blinds him. He can't see past it. And, in his zeal to be Prince Charming, he is ultimately the agent of his own demise.

Love this bit from Into the Woods. "He has charm for a prince, I guess - I don't meet a wide range."

When It Comes to Creating Memes

I got crickets.....and my free stockphoto site gave me grasshoppers, locusts and lots and LOTS of emblems/logos/etc having to do with the game of cricket. No actual crickets. Which probably sums up my feeling about doing memes nicely.

It's like me and telling jokes. I can laugh at a joke. Can I ever successfully retell it? No. Not even if I had Abbott and Costello standing right next to me, coaching me through every bit of their famous "Who's on First?" routine.

I used to love the "LOL Can I Haz Cheeseburger" cat memes but I guess they ran their course.

I enjoy the Boromir "One does not simply..." memes...

I knew the whole doge meme thing was going to die. Too complicated....

Not a visual, 'one picture with punchline story teller' here, folks. Would love to be but we all have our limits. It's like Sam getting handed a rope, versus the cool daggers, golden strands of hair and the eternal starlight and whatever else the other Hobbits received from Galadriel that morning. I'm Sam today, with my lowly rope, no glittery, fabulous item to share.

With the help of my cat Jake I DID manage to create a sort of clever ad for PETS IN SPACE, a Library Journal Pick for Best Books of 2016! Which is on sale for $.99 for one week only, January 17th through the 23rd (if you don't - gasp - have your copy yet)....

iBooks    Amazon    Nook      GooglePlay     Kobo

Writing Memed

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13th! You'd think I'd come up with some kind of meme to honor the day.

There you go. Some days you're the victim, some days, you're the one wielding the bloody knife. I believe that at the moment, I am the one wearing the mask and repeatedly stabbing hapless victims. Because next meme:

 

Relax. Talking about the bad guy in the latest WIP. You know. The book that was supposed to be draft complete on 10/31 of last year? The same day Dad had that first heart attack? Yeah. This leads us to the second meme in this morning's 'Writing Experience as Meme'.

ON TO EDITS! And submissions. And . . .

A Meme of My Muses

So, this week the theme is to make a meme about your writing experiences.  And since, for me, it's just going on at a breakneck pace, with my mind being almost overrun by different ideas and the different stories I want to tell.

And then I found an old picture of me that seemed perfect for what I was thinking...

This feels like an accurate portrayal of what my relationship with my muses is.

Memes

This one is not mine, but it always makes me laugh, and it sets the right tone...

These two I made, so....

Not ALL of them. SimpLY not!

 Annnnnnd....

Because I spent years honing my craft to act on my own ideas,

and not to be insulted by someone's thoughtless notion that:

a.) I don't have my own creativity

b.) the idea is the 'hard part' of writing 

and it is worth half

c.) if their great idea isn't worth 

their own time effort, why should 

they presume it is worth mine?

That said, I always encourage folks who approach me about this
(usually at signings) to write it themselves because
what they will learn about writing
and about themselves
in the process
is worth their time and effort.

Best and Worst Author Moment: Reviews

Man, I loves me some reviewers...even when the reviews aren't great.

I love it when a plan comes together

I have never generated a meme before now, but i knew what I wanted to say. This meme brought to you by Jeffe's hard work. I just followed her suggestions.

And here are a few that have been created based on my sterling personality and sunny disposition.

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.

For those who don't know, a "meme" is defined by Merriam-Webster (who has one of the best Twitter feeds going right now), as "an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture." I was interested to learn that the term was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his groundbreaking book, The Selfish Gene, to discuss genetic inheritance. Had no idea that the "meme" I knew in genetics is the same. In these days of social media, a meme is likely to be some image paired with a caption or tags, to convey a feeling or experience. That's the Jeffe Definition (TM). M-W adds a second definition of "an amusing or interesting picture, video, etc., that is spread widely through the Internet," which I think comes pretty damn close to mine.

Of course, this meant I had to learn how to make a decent meme. Stretching boundaries and all, eh, Veronica Scott? (For the rest of you, I had the best success with https://memegenerator.net/)

I don't often do "least-favorite" or pet-peeve kinds of things, but this one captures my feels this morning.