This is going to be a very quick post. I just wanted to share with everyone eight books that are currently on sale for kindle for absolutely free and no Kindle Unlimited subscription required! Readers just need an amazon account and the free kindle app for their e-readers devices or phone. Yay! I’m not sure […]
Do you insert references to your favorite music through the lives of your characters? (I fondly refer to them as my pod people. After all, they’re extensions of my alien-seed-planted mind, so why wouldn’t they love my music?)
I love doing this. It plunges me into the atmosphere of my scene, and I hope it does the same for the reader. I have extremely eclectic tastes in music, so it’s a lot of fun peppering my writing with just the right note to insert at the right moment. Check out book one, Ursus Borealis, for a great scene with Andras and Selena, while she’s wearing a t-shirt with SRV’s beat up Stratocaster stretched across her… chest.
My husband and I were going down memory lane over breakfast and discussing the concert-going highlights of our youth. He has vivid flashbacks of “Terrible Ted” at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium in ’79. Yes, decades later, he is still grateful for witnessing in person Ted Nugent leaping 15 feet off stacked amplifiers as they swayed precariously under him, landing in clouds of backlit smoke, while tearing out “the riff of all time.”
As we talked and he described it just today, I found this newspaper clipping and it reports it just like he remembers. Made his day. Who said music doesn’t leave a life-long impression? Of course, our parents did not in any way think this was music. “You’re going to see Terrible Who?” (Actually, I think that moniker comes later in his career. His personal life was as shocking as his music. If it still is… I wouldn’t know. But he’s still killing that riff.)
Granted, our combined excursions weren’t extensive, which makes the handful we managed to partake in more special. I think my highlight was David Bowie at the Oakland Coliseum in ‘83 for his Serious Moonlight Tour. We were smack in the middle of the huge field, and Mr. Bowie was a speck, but his penchant for drama came through… Bowie performing MacBeth… and singing? Oh yeah!
Or is it that they are tortured souls? No matter how dark the pod person is that was seeded in my brain by alien’s with questionable intent, I can’t seem to allow them to be pure evil. Is that a flaw in me, the creator, or just the way my pod people want to grow? Are the aliens in the universe trying to tell me something?
No matter the reason, my vampires, faeries, shifters, or megalomaniac aliens are a hell of a lot of fun to write.
Is there a rule that they must always be the monsters humans are driven to slay? Or can they simply be tortured souls forced into circumstances requiring evil deeds, always searching for a way out? An inspiration to the human struggle? I don’t think I’m alone in the desire to make my pod people redeemable. So many fabulous characters in fiction follow that path. So, I won’t feel guilty if my fingers push out a story over my keyboard with a light at the end of the tunnel… but the story isn’t finished yet…
Click here for a wonderful poem encapsulating the human experience by Dr. Marie Dezelic that I just happened to find in a Google search. A snippet follows:
In that lonely place where no other human can actually accompany him. He is never fully understood to the capacity he wants or imagines he can be.
dr. Marie dezelic
I am excited to share that I submitted my first attempt at pure horror in tiny bits for a 100-word horror short story submission to Shacklebound Books, a small press that publishes anthologies and collections in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Check them out. I have no idea if my three stories about vampire brothers will be accepted, possibly not dark enough, but I’ll keep you posted and share them when I’m able.
It was a totally fun exercise, never-the-less. Fingers crossed!
For my published stories populated with redeemable… maybe… monster pod people, click here. I’d love to know if you think they should have a light at the end of their tunnels.
If you were a pod person (aka burgeoning character) just beginning your adventures in an amazing world of fantasy, would you want to leave it for the harsh reality that belongs to your creator? I surely wouldn’t. That’s exactly why I dive in there with them every damn day and come out only when I’m forced to pay the bills or feed myself.
I mean really. I haven’t met a single person who says, “get me the hell out of Hobbiton!” or ” I can’t take another day in Rivendell…” Oh wait… forgive me. Those are real, historic places…
Still, to fan the flames of creativity and keep the hearth fires lit in their lovely little fantasy homes, a different light needs to be shed on their lives. This means the creator needs to publish their stories.
The creator has tried hard to do that, publishing a short story filled with wonderful characters in a world that begs further exploration. It even won a writing challenge. Feel free to venture across the portal to the Tsuga Kingdom and meet Priss, Sam, Fern and Ebun, and even the notorious ancient crow, Old Murdock, in my free story available here. More of their adventures are in the works… if only they will come into the alternate light.
If anyone has tips on how to invite fantasy lovers to download a 20-minute free short story and give it a quick review, I would love to collect them here… and happy to pass them on.
In The Starlight Chronicles, my protagonist has a destiny, like all marked maidens before her. But in this 300-year cycle, things are different. The moon goddesses of Anurash are using their influence to bring about a change that has been a long time coming. Selena Aires is their vehicle. But because free will plays a part in destiny, they must allow her choices. Will she answer their hope or follow her own path?
One of those intriguing paths is aligning with the destiny of a conflicted alien prince, Aviel Enair, the most powerful of three alien princes banished to Earth thousands of years ago. Everything with Selena happens in threes, good, bad, or somewhere in between.
You will meet Aviel, a prince you’re never quite sure you’re supposed to hate, in Books One and Two. He’s one of my many characters I affectionately refer to as pod people in my blogs about character development.
Meanwhile, enjoy this teaser from Book Three, Tigris Vetus, coming soon. And thanks for letting me experiment with sharing my TikTok videos.
Artwork by E. B. Hunter. Contact him for more about the alliance.
I recently got swept up with an amazing group of indie authors from around the globe, all at different stages of their writing careers, in the genres of fantasy and sci fi.
Granted, I’m on the fringe of the group with my writing that focuses more on the romance and relationships forged with amazing beings in a fantasy world created within the human world we know…. or think we know. But I’m having a blast learning from and sharing support with so many fellow shepherds of pod people (aka developing characters). The worlds they build are staggering.
And the help we offer each other is phenomenal.
We’re doing a writers lift today on Twitter. You can join us, support us, and find some great books by checking out #fsfwritersalliance on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. More about the alliance can be found on my Writer’s Alliance Page.
I will be interviewing members and other indie authors I’m privileged to meet every few weeks. I’m starting this exciting feature in August with fellow member and Swords and Sorcery fantasy author from New South Wales, Australia, Douglas. T. Smith. I will keep you all posted on the details!
Thanks for checking out my books before you leave, and happy reading… happy writing, and have a happy day.
How can I keep Mondays from being the imagination killer? It’s an awful feeling when that first alarm clock of the week goes off, and my pod people (otherwise known as my developing characters as illustrated in my previous blogs), who have been living full lives and acting out full scenes in my mind all weekend, run screaming into the shadows at that annoying claxon, cringing from the harsh light of the “day job.”
My ten-hour shift seems endless until I can return home and try to coax them out again. But they’re usually too traumatized from the violent interruption to their existence.
Every Sunday afternoon, dread for the Monday alarm builds like a weight on my shoulders. My pod people start milling around, searching for their best scenes, which means Sunday afternoons are my best writing day, all of us striving to get the most on the page before the Monday death knell.
Sigh… Enough of that. I’m going to finish my allotted 16 ounces of coffee, engage with the real world for ten hours, work hard, maybe go for a walk before it’s blazing hot, and be grateful for my three-day weekends.
For more Writer’s Life musings, check out my blogs. You can find my thrilling, fun fantasy romance adventures on My Books page. Have a great Monday!
By D. L. Lewellyn 