Guest Post! The Forgetful Man And Second-In-Command

Guest Post!

The Forgetful Man And Second-In-Command Available Now

Hello all.

I’m delighted to announce my two sci-fi novellas, The Forgetful Man and Second-In-Command are available now, having launched in November and December respectively.

The stories are dark, with gruesome happenings throughout. They are from the sci-fi genre and in an urban setting, based in modern times in the fictional city of New Hampton. To give you an idea of the type of city you’re dealing with reviewers have referred to the city as reminding them of Gotham City or Sin City.

The mystery theme plays a big part in both novellas and in my overall series.

These novellas delve into the background of a few characters and add a little more information to the overall world itself.

Now, to the good stuff…

The Forgetful Man:

Do you ever feel like someone else? Like you could just focus and change into something new, something different.

New Hampton is full of mystery these days, and the man who is beginning to forget is the epitome of unusual within the cutthroat city. Will the urban jungle swallow him whole or will he remember the truth...

Second-In-Command:

You have got to be a fighter to rise through the ranks of New Hampton's criminal underworld.

You must be willing to do the necessary, especially when you have designs on a top spot within the most notorious gang in the city's chequered history. Guy Hagan was not aware of what was required. He will learn and carve out a legacy that others will never forget.

It was not always that way for Guy but nice guys finish last, and he is not planning on finishing last.

Summary:

These stories are all set before the events of my debut novel The Rain: The Government Rain Mysteries and as such are set in the same world.

Think of the series like a jigsaw, you can read in any order. The story could be read the main novel, The Rain, first and then the prequels in any order. Alternatively, you could read the prequels and then the main book. Whichever way you choose to read you will achieve the same result, but within reason, it will be a unique trail of breadcrumbs for each reader.

The Government Rain Mysteries Series:

Prequel Novellas & Short Stories (Read in any order):

The Last Doctor- myBook.to/BGSBlogTheLastDoctor

The Lost Boy- http://subscribe.lafrederick.com/subscribe
The Forgetful Man- myBook.to/BGSBlogTheForgetfulMan
Second-In-Command- myBook.to/BGSSecondInCommand

Novels:

Book One- The Rain- myBook.to/BGSBlogTheRain
Book Two- (Currently writing)

World-Building 101 by Simon Lindley

Guest Post!

World-Building 101 by Simon Lindley

The Realm, The Land, Middle Earth, Narnia – I presume you have spent some time visiting at least one of them. I know I have. And, if all goes well with the ‘travel brochures’, Drageverden will soon be another fantasy ‘tourist’ destination. However, I expect people will only visit if the place promises immersive adventure!

World-building in fantasy is as critical to a plot as character development. When done well, it can transport the reader so absolutely that they yearn for the place long after finishing the book.

I’ll share with you some of my challenges, and the process I go through in creating a land that I am confident is not only believable but tangible, tactile and immersive for my readers.

One of the difficulties I’ve struggled with at times is purple prose. As writers, we sometimes lean to the flowery – long, buttery descriptives – waxing poetic, sprinkled with a fine, magical dust, like morning dew settling on the vine and… oh, I beg your pardon!

I have learned to 1) be succinct, 2) alternate between long and short/slow and faster-paced sentences, and 3) avoid overuse of adverbs. Purple prose detracts a reader as much as a similar life scenario. We’ve all been in one of those awkward moments when someone has talked for well over twenty minutes about, say, fruit flies because, well, they’re a fruit-fly expert, and we nod, and nod, and nod and mm-hmm — until we nod off.

Another habit I picked up came from kindergarten: Show & Tell. I love to tell people things. He saw a dog. Maggie was angry. The bird was tired. The danger is that by doing so, a writer creates a barrier rather than an invitation. We must ‘walk’ as we write, immersed in the land and noting its effect upon our character/s. I must show, not tell.

Like all trips we take, we discover as we go. I make an effort to step from character interiority back into Drageverden regularly, to generate an interaction between the two. It is easy to blurt out all the details of a place, but that is not how we naturally absorb our surroundings, and it quickly becomes tedious. Our character must shake as she enters the darkness of the spider’s lair, snap her head back at the whisper over her shoulder, brace with teeth clenched as the dust cloud rises from the horde cresting the last knoll – and we must be there with them.

Tolkien carried his readers along – experiencing the ground under a hobbit’s foot, smelling the foul mead and men of the Prancing Pony, and anticipating the Brandywine narrowing near the ferry, still far too distant to escape the Nazgul. He rarely tells. What’s more important is that no matter who you talk to, Middle Earth is different for everyone. Why? Tolkien let the scenes play out as much by emotion as he did geography and although he painted a vivid picture of the land, he left our conviction of and immersion in Middle Earth to fill in the deeper details.

So I haven’t provided you much regarding DrageVerden. Oh, I could talk, believe me – ask anyone who knows me and you’ll soon discover I rarely shut up — but you must ‘walk’ alongside the giants crossing the Arvian Plains to understand the shock of it all, or spend a day with Ka the drakehawk to experience her love for the Swamps of Ierloquetze. Brochures never do a place justice. You have to book the holiday.

Okay, okay! I’ll give you a little foreshadowing prior to your trip: Drage is Danish for dragon. Verden means land.

Happy Trails!

Simon Lindley is an author, musician and intrepid explorer in the real world and along the rolling landscapes of his imagination. His book, Mannethorn's Key, the first in the Key of Life Trilogy, will be released in print and ebook formats January 5, 2018 at fine retailers everywhere. It is also available for pre-order now.

Silent Song coming to life by Jaci Wheeler

Guest Post!

Silent Song coming to life by Jaci Wheeler

       Many authors I know pull from events or people from their own lives for inspiration or storyline. I’ve never been that way personally. I’m an extremely private person by nature, so its very unusual for me to use any of myself in my books. That is actually my favorite thing about writing, I’m able to fully create worlds and people out of thin air. It allows you to become whoever you want for the moment. I usually create a main character who is nothing like me because it allows me to be and do all the things I’ve always wanted to.

            I’ve had a very eventful life. Those who know me well always ask why I’ve never drawn from my real life for a novel, since my life is pretty much a lifetime movie. The idea of writing anything close to home has always been completely horrifying for me. (Super private remember?)

            I have a pretty unique situation where I lost my hearing at eighteen years old. (You can read more about it in my letter to the reader in Silent Song.) Deafness is one of those subjects that most people think they understand…but actually don’t. There is so much more to deafness than not being able to hear. There are levels (decibels) of sound that is so intricate that it is much more than just you can hear or not.

            A few years ago I read a book that had a deaf main character. The book was amazing, but there were so many things that weren’t accurate. It wasn’t glaringly obvious unless you were deaf, but it really bothered me. I had brought up the issue to a good author friend of mine and I’ll never forget what she said to me.

            “The only way to fix this problem Jaci, is to set it straight. That means you are going to have to write the story of a deaf person from their perspective. Show people not only your world, but help them understand the deaf world. Who else will?”

            I instantly shut her down. Theres no way I’m writing anything close my life. A few months went by and then I had to explain a few things about deafness to people that they just never knew. Like just because you speak English doesn’t mean deaf people can write in English without struggle. Almost every hearing person I talked to didn’t know that American Sign Language is NOT english. It has its own structure and rules like any other language. ASL is my second language, but it’s the main one I use at home with my husband. It’s hard for my brain to switch back and forth between ASL and English. Because of this I tend to change tenses when I write, which is very frowned upon in writing. I’m pretty sure I’ve driven every editor I’ve ever had to drink over this little fact.

            After having to explain this to several people over a very short amount of time I finally came to terms with the fact that I was going to have to write a story with a deaf character.

                        I decided to go home and just see if I even had a story in me. I don’t outline, ever. I just start writing. I usually write the end first, then the beginning and fill in the middle. (Yeah I’m weird.) So I went home and just started writing to see if I even had a story in me…and I couldn’t stop. I wrote through he night, and all weekend long. By the time I took a break I had almost written half of the book. This is the only book I didn’t have to re-write or revise. It was trapped deep down and apparently ready to be freed. I cried more while writing this story than I have probably ever cried in my life. But it was also the most cathartic thing I‘ve ever done.

            This story isn’t my own, but the feelings are completely mine. The pain, fears and passion is all mine even though the story belongs to Barrett alone.

Silent Song by Jaci Wheeler is available on Amazon today.

Lies, Cash, Poison.

Dr Pritchard the Poisoning Adulterer by W.M. Rhodes.

This novel successfully incorporates a smorgasbord of opinions, perspectives and motivations, but be careful not to eat too much; The Poisoning Adulterer might leave you with a belly-ache. By presenting the impacts of extended family members and the pressures of society into the tale of a single criminal, Rhodes effectively illuminates the psychology behind mid-nineteenth century poisoners.

However, read this particular true story with care because not all of our ancestors who trialled this pathological liar were convinced of the verdict. On top of this suspicion, the world of 1825 thought that there might have been many more victims that could have been added to this calculating, conniving killer’s list.

Highlights!

Truth: Of course, any story of murder that’s been dragged from the history books, rather than the imagination, is at once tragic and enthralling.

Balance: By the closing argument of the well-structured literary court case, you’ll be thoroughly aware of every true character’s opinion of The Poisoning Adulterer. Consider the fact that these perspectives simply do not exist in 2017 (two hundred years later) and I’m sure you’ll agree that this is an intriguing facet of the text.

Insight: As this is a creative representation of facts, Rhodes has done a wonderful job of pumping the historic narrative full of inventive insights into out past.

Get it here: https://goo.gl/RegvBH