Tag: urban fantasy

In real life, Western culture lumps a lot of things together as ‘magic’. Enchantments, spoken incantations, various kinds of spells, curses, hexes, witchcraft, divination of the future, necromancy, consulting ancestral spirits, and astrology all fall under some definitions of magic. Those are useful ideas for the real world, but what is magic in fiction, especially fantasy?

In my debut novel Fantastic America, and the rest of the Magic Unleashed series, magic is a force of nature. It ebbs and flows in the physical universe, but that makes it even more difficult to work out a science based definition. Ultimately, magic is a force that responds to thought and will to cause changes to the world that would otherwise be impossible. That’s a good working definition for the stories I write in the worlds of Fantastic America. Other stories may follow different rules.

Of course, in my stories there is a lot more to magic than that simple definition. There are many ‘flavors’ of magic, different schools or kinds of magical traditions. Within the novels and short stories of the Magic Unleashed series, I explore each of those traditions. Some, like necromancy are unpleasant for anyone outside that tradition.

Faith based miracles, that can save people with little or no magic at all, are a function of belief. The largely instinctive magic of arcanists, fueled by ambient magical energies all around them, operate on a intuitive or subconscious level. The wildly powerful spells and rituals of wizards can warp the very fabric of reality. That is the purest expression of magic in the modern world.

For me, sorting the ideas I want to share is often more difficult than not having an idea to write about at all. There is always some idea or another floating around in my head. Deciding which ideas fit together takes up more of my time than writing.

Some of the best ideas I have come as I’m drifting off to sleep. A lot of creatives I’ve talked to have the same experience. The bridge to our subconscious connects at just the right time, and BAM there is a flood of ideas to keep me awake! I have to write them down as fast as I can or they fade away.

The problem, if you can call it that, is that I have so many ideas that kind of fit together, grouping together like ideas isn’t enough. I also have to build some kind of framework that helps these ideas form a bigger concept or at least a coherent narrative. That effort keeps me up late too.

I’m certainly not complaining about having a wild imagination. Plenty of writers struggle to come up with an idea they feel is original enough to write about. My problem is narrowing the field to just the ideas that can carry a story. Working those concepts into characters, setting, dialogue, and description feels easier by comparison.

Humans take some things for granted. We rely on what we’ve experienced to guide us. When something we rely on fails to match our experiences the change is jarring, to say the least. I spent the past month dealing with a series of jarring episodes.

Most recently, I had a kidney stone removed and a stent put in. I won’t bore you with the messy details, but I haven’t felt ‘good’ in over a week. Yesterday I had the stent removed. Today I feel so much better, it’s hard to believe I felt ‘bad’ at all!

So I’m up early (I slept a lot the past week). I’m working through the list of things I’ve put off doing the past week. I don’t expect this burst of activity to last, but I’ll take advantage of the energy while I can. My posts the past few days are a reflection of how drained I felt.

All that adds up to this, your state of health, mood, energy, and attitude all affect what and how you write. Just as it’s hard to write happy thoughts when you’re sad, writing anything is difficult when you’re not well. I can’t always control illness, but I can control what I eat, exercise, and how much rest I get (ok this last one is always big challenge for me). So that when I sit down to write the words flow naturally.

Magic is a force of nature. Supernatural perhaps, but still not beholden to concepts like good and evil or right and wrong. Like any tool, magic in the wrong hands can be deadly. Anyone can use magic for ill or good, with one exception. Necromancy is a corruption of life, death, and magic itself. As such, other magic users universally hunt down and destroy necromancers.

Among arcanists who weather the bleak times of no magic, most avoid the temptation to employ dark rituals. Those who do are human in name only. Power in the bleak times comes from the only consistent source of magic, human sacrifice. Foul atrocities like murder and torture gave a handful of arcanists ill-gotten power over the past six thousand years.

Modern magic users in the world of Fantastic America have little or no idea how magic works. Yet even modern arcanists who drew power from murder lost all understanding from the last magical age. Only a few desperate and deranged would-be magicians sought out the lone source of magical knowledge still accessible.

As necromancy is a great corruptor, the secretive Mistress of Shadows is the greatest corruptor of all. She alone has dared to break the ancient covenants that bar other immortals from interfering in mortal affairs. The few who have won her favor have perpetrated the worst kinds of torture, bloody rituals, and depravity. Their mistress’s rewards made them powerful, defied aging, and staved off death itself, for a time.

Magic users of the modern world have no idea of the forces unleashed by the return of magic. Monsters not seen in thousands of years roam the Earth. Unsettling eruptions of magic change familiar locations into places of power. Meanwhile, intelligences older than our oldest ancestors wait for their moment to break the last bonds that restrain them.

Bill was a Union Army sharpshooter who died at the Battle of Gettysburg. You will meet Cpl. Hyatt’s ghost in Fantastic America. His death, while tragic, is only one aspect of how he impacts the story. Bill has inhabited a specific part of the Gettysburg battlefield, called the Devil’s Den, for almost one hundred and fifty years.

Even after most spirits in the world disappeared on the night of the Winter Solstice in 2012, Bill remained behind. You will learn more about his life, death, and afterlife in my debut novel. His part in the story may seem inconsequential at first. Rest assured, he plays an important role as the keeper of a secret. Even he doesn’t realize how vital this information will become.

You don’t have to be a Civil War buff to appreciate his contribution to the novel. He’s more than capable of relaying his truth. I trust my readers to be able to figure out as much by what he doesn’t say as what he does say. Bill’s part of the story is a tragedy on may levels, and the company he falls in with is entirely to blame.

It feels like I’ve had trouble sleeping my whole life. Even as a child I struggled to get a good night’s sleep. I worked odd hours in the navy, and preferred the night shift when I had a choice. As a civilian I also worked nights and partied into the wee hours.

Since I’ve been writing as more than a hobby I’ve used my lack of sleep to help me get words on the page. The house is quiet at night, and the most that might disturb me is walking the dogs once an hour or so. I’ve adapted to all of that, and generally don’t even think much about it.

That is, until my poor sleep schedule intersects with the ‘normal’ routine of day walkers. My plight tonight hinges on that intersection. I have appointments I can’t miss during the day and over an hour of travel time each way. My loving wife has taken time off for the worst of these, but tomorrow comes in about five hours.

I’m hardly complaining, I’ve waited for one of these appointments for over a year. The timing isn’t bad, it’s my uncooperative sleep schedule that does this to me most of the time. I loaded up on melatonin, but doubt it will help me drift off. I wrote all of this to say, don’t be surprised if I am slow to post again tomorrow!

Not only do they rock, they are spread out enough that any bumbling idiot, like me, can find them. More than once when I was discouraged about where my writing was, I considered giving up. Each time I pushed a little longer and searched a little harder.

First I found KBoards, that was my first glimpse of my writing tribe. I was writing short stories to self-publish on Kindle Unlimited. I read an article by Hugh Howie about how he’d struggled with exactly what I was going through. He pushed on, and I did too. KBoards had so much information that I couldn’t process it all at once. I still go back there once in a while.

That experience led me to FB writers groups, where I made my way into an online critique group. My writing craft went from terrible to passable in less than a year. I also almost quit over the critiques I got, but my critique partners didn’t give up on me, and I didn’t give up on my dream.

I took courses online, and in the middle of the pandemic, I took a writing course with Ashley Mansour, a personal coach and best selling author. My craft improved again, but I also learned more about structure, time management, and literary devices that I thought I already knew. It took me just over 30 days to finish Fantastic America with that course. I highly recommend Ashley’s course if you’re struggling to complete your first book, fiction or non-fiction.

I found more groups online that were there to help me edit my manuscript, query agents, and land the traditional book deal I’ve been chasing. Every time I need to learn about something writing related, I’ve found a group online (FB, Twitter, or on a site by themselves). The #writingcommunity group on Twitter is especially friendly and helpful. Pitmad and Pitdark prove that to me over and over again.

I haven’t thought about giving up in over a year. A lot of that is due to the social aspect of writing. I’ve found so many online groups whose members have overcome the same solitary struggles I dealt with, and helped me avoid lots of self-sabotage. If you’re struggling, find your tribe. They are out there and willing to help you help yourself.

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time you might already know how much I adore Pinterest. I have over 4000 curated images for different story ideas. Most are fantasy concepts, but there are also sci-fi and historical pins in the mix.

I spend hours at a time scrolling through pins for inspiration. The rabbit holes I’ve searched are many and deep. Still, I don’t feel as though its a waste of time (it can be but not always). Some of the pins I’ve come across have opened up whole new vistas for my imagination.

The pins I’m most inspired by are seldom considered grand art. What I look for runs from gritty realism to outright absurdity. All of them capture an essence of what I have in my minds eye. Sadly I have no artistic talent for drawing or sculpting. I only know what I like when I see it.

Pinterest fills that visual gap for me daily. I know I’ll find a map of the African Humid Period, or the Pontic Steppe at the end of the last ice age. (Yes I’ve looked both of those up!) Or I can find examples of people I can imagine lived in those places in those times. All useful imagery to spark my imagination.

Having a ‘finished’ manuscript is all well and good. Having time to tinker with that story can lead to revisions you didn’t plan. That isn’t always a bad thing, but it can lead you down a rabbit hole. I knew this already, and waded in anyway.

I’ve had a lot of time on my hands recently, and once I felt up to sitting at my desk again, I decided to try some ideas for Fantastic America. These were more than a few edits. There were supporting characters I was unhappy with, scenes I knew could be better, and a sense that some aspects of the story needed more kick.

So here I am, with a few chapters in momentary disarray. I’m hunting for name mentions as I gender swapped a couple of characters. I found a way to pump up the volume here and there. And tied it all together with a character reappearing near the end of the story.

I like where I’m at, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Some of these changes should have occurred to me sooner. None of them are absolutely imperative, but they make me feel better about the story. Also, I needed to do something besides pitch on Twitter! (Which I also really enjoy.)

I’ve put a lot of work into Fantastic America since October. Wish me luck, I haven’t been 100% yet. The pitchfests I participate in are an emotional roller coaster. They are also a good way to see how well others receive my message, or appreciate the premise of my story.
The real test for the event is whether I grab an agent’s attention. I’ll definitely post here if I get some interest. Whether I do or not, it’s a great exercise to get ready for queries I’ll have to write. Anyway, that’s my plan for the day.

When new authors query an agent for representation, it can feel like you’re Oliver Twist asking for a morsel of food. The agents are busy people, caught up (so it seems) in a whirlwind of literary activity. The authors agents depend on for their livelihood could pop up at anytime, but they are hiding among hundreds of other would be clients.

At the querying stage, the agent is the gatekeeper to the traditional publishing world. Authors want in, and agents hold the keys. That is, until they open the gate. Agents play important roles in an author’s career, and the gatekeeper function is only the first hurdle a debut author has to overcome. But once an agent offers to represent an author, the power dynamic of their relationship shifts.

The author becomes a business partner with the agent. They have to work together to land a book deal for the author’s work. In a perfect world, that is an ongoing process for every book the author writes. Agent’s don’t get paid until authors get paid. So it behooves agents to make sure their clients are able and willing to build a career, not just a one book wonder.

So while struggling to escape an agent’s (now digital) slush pile, keep in mind that the struggle is only the first battle to be won. Landing your dream agent is a major win, but it isn’t the destination. You still have work to do to reach a publishing deal, earn out any advance you get, and build your audience ahead of any other books you write in the future. Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? (But completely worth it in my humble opinion.)

Between grocery shopping (twice), getting a Covid test, and taking three of my four dogs to the vet, I didn’t have a chance to write a post until this quick note. The rest of the weekend looks busy too. My Birthday is tomorrow, I have a trip to take tomorrow, and Monday I’ll finally get rid of this accursed kidney stone!

I may post erratically or not at all. Once I’m out of recovery on Monday, I expect to have a lot more time to write again. Things usually calm down around our house between my Birthday and Memorial Day, at least. Hopefully, summer is no different this year.

Different genres have different criteria that readers expect. Seeing those expectations fulfilled can be eye opening. I don’t necessarily pick up a romance or cozy mystery for fun. Digging into why another author writes something I recognize from my writing, or something alien to how I write only strengthens my grasp of my craft. There is a lot for me to learn from working or reading in genres outside sci-fi and fantasy.

I’ve written before about why I’d seek out critique groups that have a mixture of genre authors. This is a more detailed look at that advice. Two unrelated genres may seem like comparing apples to oranges, but they both use language to fulfill their purpose.

A self help book for example, might have nothing to do with a swashbuckling hero fighting a dark lord. Beyond the surface of either narrative, there is still conflict and a story to be told in each. Analyzing those similarities and differences exposes the mechanics of those shared aspects and disparities.

Storytelling (or showing), is universal. There are constants between genres. A story still has a beginning middle and end, there are protagonists (of a sort), antagonists, and supporting characters. In non-fiction, those last three roles may take on the form of concepts rather than characters. But there is also some form of conflict and resolution in every purely non-technical book I’ve read.

When you work with or just read outside your genre, it’s like visiting other countries. They all live their life differently than you may be used to, but ultimately they are still humans. They are born, grow old, and die, just like people back home. The important part of exploring for me, is to compare and contrast how they live from how I grew up. Not that one is better than the other, but that I can learn more about myself by learning the differences.

America is a country of great contrasts. We started from lofty ideals, but struggled to share them equally. Even though equality was a fundamental concept, America still struggles with that concept today.

We have great sprawling metropolises, and stunning natural beauty. In some places, the two overlap. Soaring bridges span wide valleys, and dams hold back man made lakes to sustain a growing population. America loves to build and grow, often without considering the cost.

The rich and poor live in the same communities, although the wealthiest can afford some extra distance. There is contrast aplenty here, from opulence to squalor. We have a whole spectrum of social and economic differences.

America produces great science, engineering, and works of art. But we also struggle to educate, feed and clothe our poorest citizens. Citizenship has even become a point of contention, as some Americans try to keep out ‘undesirables’ from other lands.

We have darkness and light blended into the fabric of our society. We built the nation with slavery and forced the natives of our land to resettle far from their homes. Americans called it progress, even when it held men, women, and children in bondage.

We patted ourselves on the back in the last century because we’d overcome all that darkness. The civil rights movement, desegregation, and reservation casinos proved our moral fiber. We went to war against drugs, communism, and terror. Our failures haven’t taught us much.

America is the home of the brave, and the land of the free. But the pandemic and a year of protests has shown there are still many of us who don’t embrace the ideals America was founded on. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness aren’t words to take lightly. Too often lately, the actions of Americans have mocked those ideals.

Yet, America is my home. I was fortunate enough to travel to a lot of other countries. Those travels showed me how many different ways humans live on this planet. The American Way isn’t the only way. In fact, it’s often the worst way. Still, having visited so many other places, I’d never want to live anywhere else.

This love and loathing I have for my home country is a big part of Fantastic America. I wrote scenes that allow readers to see the contrasts, without passing judgement on how they came to be. The best and the worst are on full display, without commentary, or without any more than I could manage. The series is meant to delve deeper, to highlight more of those contrasts. I hope you’ll enjoy the journey, as much as the story about miracles, magic, and monsters.

I’m never satisfied with what I write. At least, not in the long term. For example, I’m taking an online writing course for opening chapters right now. I have a lovely first chapter for Fantastic America, but didn’t feel it started quite the way I intended it. I’ve finessed the words enough times to know it needed another set of eyes.

I’ve had beta readers and crit partners go over the scene. While it worked, and I liked it, there was still something missing. So I sent it to another editor, and BAM! She put her finger right on all the troubles I’d noticed but been unable to overcome. Some I didn’t even know needed adjustment. At last!

The point of that is to say, we never outgrow learning. It isn’t just craft either. When talking about genre, writing process, marketing, and the business of writing there is always something else to learn. It is sometimes painful, but isn’t there a saying about art and pain?

Learning is a lifelong pursuit for me. The fact that there is more to learn, other options to explore makes me happy. It means I have another topic to devour, more lessons to make my writing journey and my writing richer for readers. As long as I keep digging, my material has to get better, right?

Imagine a ghost show, where a team of investigators search for evidence of hauntings. When magic returns to the world in Fantastic America, Chaz Buhrman is ghost hunting. In the short story that introduces him, “Midnight at the Sultan’s Palace” he ends up at ground zero for a ghostly display right out of a horror movie. It changes his ideas about paranormal activity in an instant.

That isn’t the end of his story though. Chaz is famous for his ghost hunting cable TV show, Spirit Searchers. He also runs a museum in Las Vegas, dedicated to weird and paranormal items from around the world. His Halloween specials from the museum are fan favorites every year.

But the solstice changed everything for him. As a consummate professional, Chaz is forced to reinvent his show. Without missing a beat, he transitions from paranormal investigator to ghost interviewer. He tries to sound a warning about wraiths, but has little success at first.

Chaz has been all over the world hunting ghosts before the solstice events herald the return of magic. The ghosts he meets after the Sultan move him to pity their condition. He seeks out other paranormal investigators who feel the same way to build a network of advocates for ghosts.

His advocacy goes largely unnoticed, but his results on TV keep him in the public eye. When we see Chaz in Fantastic America, he’s been sounding his warning for months. Only with Ashley Monahan’s help does he make any real progress. Ashley recognizes a kindred spirit and stays in touch with Chaz. They cover different aspects of the same phenomenon, maybe they can help each other out.

You’ll see more of Chaz in Midwestern Magicians, the second book in the Magic Unleashed series!

Sometimes I get stuck. Whether its foreshadowing what’s to come, describing a detail just right, or addressing a plot point without giving too much away. Whatever the problem is, the way through or around it doesn’t always present itself right away.

When this happens, I try not to stress out about it. If possible, I write on knowing I’ll have to come back to the problem later. Sometimes that later takes a really long time.

I like to think I’m a creative person (what writer doesn’t). Plot twists, character surprises, and subverting tropes are among my personal favorites. Sometimes, those elements get me off my path or into trouble. Getting back on track requires significant effort.

Sometimes, that effort isn’t enough. I have to let it go completely. I have a secret weapon against this kind of issue that I’m going to share with you. When all else fails, I take a nap.

The way my mind works, I won’t forget about the problem. Part of how I unwind before falling asleep is to think about the issues I have to deal with while I’m awake. The secret is, subconsciously I’m still attacking the problem . The solutions I come up with are far from 100%, and sometimes all I do is get in that nap.

But I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve jumped out of bed with a workable solution. Maybe its a gift of my muse. Or maybe my subconscious aligned all the pieces of the puzzle just right. Either way I can move forward with writing.

I’ve heard other writers talk about similar processes. Some call it meditation or something along those lines. Whatever it is, for some of us, not staring at the words on the page helps. So if you get stuck, give it a try. At worst, you’ll get a nap that may refresh you to keep trying!

I struggle with insomnia (among other things), but I’ve tried to use my erratic sleep habits to my advantage. This blog is a part of my coping mechanism. If I can’t sleep, I write. If I can’t write, I game. When even that fails, I blog.

Yesterday, I didn’t have those options. thirty hours later, I finally got seven hours of sleep. That meant no writing, gaming, or blogging. But I’m alive and mostly well (for me). The work was right here waiting for me, as is the chance to say hello. Hello!

I wish I had a fantastic story to tell, or writing advice to share. Even an update on how my journey is going would be nice to post. I have none of that. I spent the day at the VA hospital. Turns out that troublesome kidney stone that sidelined me in March found a home in a corner of a kidney. I have to get it out with lithotripsy and preparing for that, and travelling took most of my already sleepless day.

I’ll recover from both ordeals though. I’m nothing if not stubborn. There is plenty of unfinished business for me (or my ghost) to continue. 🙂 No one wants me haunting them over how to build tension in their narrative or whatever. So I’ll be here, pecking away at the stories I still have to tell!

Animals tug at people’s heartstrings in real life every day (guilty). Storytellers have used this emotional connection since stories were first told around communal fires. Even Homer used Odysseus’s dog Argos to show loyalty and the connection between people and their pets.

I have no idea how many death scenes I saw in comic books, movies, or on television. But I remember in great detail when Artax gave in to despair and drowned in the Swamp of Sadness. Humans care for animals, domesticated or wild, sometimes more than we do people.

Different people and cultures prize different animals. Americans overwhelmingly choose dogs and cats as pets, but love exotic pets and livestock, too. Charlotte’s Web resonates with children is because of the emotional connection we feel to animals of all kinds (even Templeton).

The death of an animal is often central to character development, but other outcomes are just as valid throughout fiction. Black Beauty running free is a powerful bit of symbolism. Equally moving, is Mowgli outgrowing his pack before they turned on him. Simba reclaiming Pride Rock defined the entire Lion King movie. (Disney loves animal stories.)

Animals serve other functions in literature. Aesop and the Brothers Grimm used them in fables and fairytales to show lots of human characteristics. The industrious ant, the lazy grasshopper, the scary wolf, and the cunning fox all had lessons to teach. Learning wasn’t their only function either, the Bremen Town Musicians wanted a whole new life.

In my writing, animals have provided the same kinds of emotional connections. In my debut novel, Fantastic America, animals from other worlds reveal the changing nature of reality. An animal encounter also helps convince Ashley Monahan that not all magic is inherently evil.

I’ve used a few animal motifs more than live animals. My short story, “The Quest for the Lioness” revolves around pieces of a relic from the last magical age topped by a sculpture of a roaring lioness. In that case, the ideals associated with lions were more central to the story than the actual animal itself. That’s a recurring theme around relics from the last magical age.

Animals can inform the reader of tone, character traits, or serve as emotional proxies. Dogs show loyalty, cats are aloof, rats represent filth, caterpillars show metamorphosis, lions represent courage, and snakes show treachery. Those are all real animals, fantasy is chock full of make believe animals. Dragons, unicorns, and gryphons represent human traits as well. Keep an eye out for animals in the next story you read, but beware of the feels!

I’ve said before that finding an agent is difficult. Not only do I need to find someone who represents the fantasy genre I write, we have to be a good fit for each other. This agent will make sure my manuscript is ready for market, send out the book to acquisitions editors, help me land a publishing deal with them, and handle my royalties once the deal is done.

There’s more to it than that, but the right agent will be my business partner. Finding the right partner is often the difference between a quick book deal and a steady career. The wrong agent can cause more trouble than most debut authors can recover from. The right agent, will be a champion of my story and the rest of the stories I write, for as long as we’re together.

If you’ve started on this part of your journey, or are about to, you have my sympathy. There are great stories of debut authors who sent out a query and were picked up by a terrific agent in no time at all. For every one of those stories, there are hundreds more of struggling authors who took months or years to find an agent. The entire publishing industry is based on subjective attributes.

How do you define a good book? A well written manuscript is no measure of the book’s potential. Maybe sales potential? It’s hard to judge that without publishing experience, and even then, what sells in one market may not do well in another. Genre is also not a perfect guide.

All of the criteria used to choose books to publish are based on the potential an agent and an editorial team see in any given manuscript. If a book like yours has done well recently, it may be an easy decision. The market may be saturated by books like yours. The editorial group may believe another work in that vein won’t sell at all. Subjective.

The best thing you can do as an author, is to write the best version of your story you can. That means sending your manuscript out to beta readers, a critique group, or partner (preferably all three). It will mean lots of self-editing, perhaps a professional developmental or line edit. Then more self-editing until you’ve polished your rough draft into a sparkling gem of a story.

Only then, gem in hand, should you consider looking for an agent. But that is only half the battle. You’ll need a query letter. A query letter is basically a resume to get an agent to read your book. They may have other submission requirements, like a synopsis, your first few pages, the fist chapter, or several chapters. The goal is to get agents to request the full manuscript.

If the agent of your dreams likes what they see, you will get ‘the call’. The agent and you will discuss an offer of representation. You’ll each have questions for each other, and want to feel comfortable doing business with each other. One of you may find the fit isn’t good, so it’s back to querying. In a perfect scenario, you mesh well, have similar goals, and a similar vision for your book. Mission accomplished, a contract is on the way!

Once you have an agent, the work is far from over. The agent may have specific changes for you to incorporate into your book. They know what editors are looking for after all. That’s another reason authors need agents. Once any revisions are done, the agent sends your manuscript out on submission. It’s much like querying between agents and editors. If you land on the right editors desk, they’ll offer a deal.

This is one of the most important aspects of your agent’s representation. Negotiating the contract. I’ll leave more details on this for another post, but there is good reason why many agents are also attorneys. Once the terms are settled, the publishing process truly begins. It may sound byzantine, but this is just the surface level of the process.

I’m still refining my query letter and sending it out to agents who may be a good fit from my perspective. I’ve done my research on these agents. I know they’ve represented books like mine before. They are also open to more books of the same kind. My query letter, personalized for that agent, demonstrates that I didn’t just pick their name from a list. As I said, querying is ongoing…