Hello everyone! As of last night, I have completed the second draft of my steampunk fantasy novel. In more book news:
-I have selected a title, as you can see. It is The Charismatics, and I'm not going to go with a series name. Twilight doesn't have one, The Hunger Games doesn't have one, so I don't need one. That also gives me room for how many books to write (maybe only two, maybe five), because it's not a "trilogy" or "series."
-I have selected a cover artist for The Charismatics, and his name isM.S. Corley. He is amazing, and incredibly pleasant to talk with. Funny story--I saw a cover that Hugh Howey had recently had designed for his short story, The Walk Up Nameless Ridge. I loved it. Come to find out M.S. Corley designed it, the man who's agreed to do my OWN cover. Fantastic.
-Anticipated release date for The Charismatics is ... drumroll please ...
DECEMBER 13th, 2014!
This is also my birthday, so hell, why not make my 26th birthday one to remember forever. The day I officially published my debut novel--has a nice ring to it. So mark your calendars folks, and PLEASE GIVE ME THE BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT EVER BY READING MY BOOK. (You don't even have to BUY it if you can't afford it--ask me for the PDF and I'll gladly email it to you. Just read it, review it, and SHARE IT! That's the best gift I could ever receive).
All right, so I was asked by the wonderful writer of Irradiance, David Bruns, to participate in the Character Blog Tour. It's perfect because now I've got a great sense for the characters and especially my protagonist, Ambrosia La Marck (nee Killaher).
So here it is, an inside look into my debut novel, The Charismatics:
-I have selected a title, as you can see. It is The Charismatics, and I'm not going to go with a series name. Twilight doesn't have one, The Hunger Games doesn't have one, so I don't need one. That also gives me room for how many books to write (maybe only two, maybe five), because it's not a "trilogy" or "series."
-I have selected a cover artist for The Charismatics, and his name isM.S. Corley. He is amazing, and incredibly pleasant to talk with. Funny story--I saw a cover that Hugh Howey had recently had designed for his short story, The Walk Up Nameless Ridge. I loved it. Come to find out M.S. Corley designed it, the man who's agreed to do my OWN cover. Fantastic.
-Anticipated release date for The Charismatics is ... drumroll please ...
DECEMBER 13th, 2014!
This is also my birthday, so hell, why not make my 26th birthday one to remember forever. The day I officially published my debut novel--has a nice ring to it. So mark your calendars folks, and PLEASE GIVE ME THE BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT EVER BY READING MY BOOK. (You don't even have to BUY it if you can't afford it--ask me for the PDF and I'll gladly email it to you. Just read it, review it, and SHARE IT! That's the best gift I could ever receive).
All right, so I was asked by the wonderful writer of Irradiance, David Bruns, to participate in the Character Blog Tour. It's perfect because now I've got a great sense for the characters and especially my protagonist, Ambrosia La Marck (nee Killaher).
So here it is, an inside look into my debut novel, The Charismatics:
1. My main character, Ambrosia (Ambrose for short) La Marck, is an eighteen-year-old who was forced to marry a stranger a year previously and move to the snowy city of Shinery (think Russia, except it snows ten months a year. So ... Russia). Her husband hates her for reasons unknown, and Ambrose is very isolated except for her shape-shifting animal companion, Roan, whom no one else can see. **This plays a huge part in WHAT Ambrose actually is, and what Roan actually is ... but you'll have to read it to find out! I actually came up with the idea for Ambrose after watching a Real Housewives episode (I shit you not), when one of the "wives" from the show had been continuously feeling unloved by her husband. Because of this, she started to act out and rebel. So this hatched an idea for me--how would a naïve teenage girl act if her government forced her to marry a man who despised her? How would that affect her self-esteem? What would she fill her days with? This continued on to making said government (Legalia) a very corrupt one, with secrets and poor treatment of its citizens, and other things that Ambrose becomes aware of throughout the book. OH and supernatural elements, of course.
2. The setting of this book is steampunk fantasy-based, so it is neither in the future nor in the past. The nobility live in floating cities called "citadels" over the poor civilians--called denizens--and they use aircrafts for all their transportation needs. Think Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass; there are unique technologies that don't actually exist, and the clothing is sometimes Victorian-based, but for the most part, this is an alternate universe that is similar to ours in many ways.
2. The things I want readers to know about Ambrose are these: she has grown up mostly isolated from other people, especially those her age. She is very sheltered--she has believed everything her government has told her without ever questioning it. This first book is her beginning to ask those questions--to gain confidence in herself and rebel against her husband's poor treatment of her, her government's poor treatment of the denizens, and to investigate the dark motives of Legalia.
Strengths: curiosity, perseverance, compassionate heart, tries to do the right thing (many times she fails).
Weaknesses: naïve, immature, awkward around other people at times, has a temper.
3. Ambrose's main dilemma in The Charismatics is this: she has never had much confidence in herself or her abilities. She preferred to live in the dark about things, not pushing to understand her government and the decisions they were making--she also shirked her power as the monarch of Shinery, not using it to help others. All of that begins to change at the beginning of my novel, when Ambrose realizes the civil climate Legalia has created, and how very corrupt it is. She must find the strength within herself to fight evil, in the many forms it takes. She also yearns for friendship and love from others, and is given many opportunities to nurture her relationships throughout the book.
**There are some great smaller characters in The Charismatics I enjoyed writing as well, and I tried to give them all distinctive personalities and pasts, many of them wounded by Legalia's rule. There's also a great romance, and I might've fallen for my love interest a little bit.
If you are so inclined, here is the first chapter of The Charismatics to whet your appetite. Now I'm going to hand off the Character Blog Tour to two of my writer friends:
1. S.C. Barrus-author of Discovering Abberation and The Gin Thief. I interviewed him for my self-published authors series; read that here.
2. Jessica Clarke-a wonderful writer I met through social media. Her novel is called The Praetorians, and she posts a lot of wonderful excerpts on her blog.
So there you go folks, an inside look into my debut novel! I will keep everyone updated on the progress, do a cover reveal in about two months, and talk about any opportunities for giveaways and how to get your hands on an EARLY COPY! Sign up for my newsletter for that, and as always...
Keep writing and keep dreaming! I know I am. :)
2. The setting of this book is steampunk fantasy-based, so it is neither in the future nor in the past. The nobility live in floating cities called "citadels" over the poor civilians--called denizens--and they use aircrafts for all their transportation needs. Think Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass; there are unique technologies that don't actually exist, and the clothing is sometimes Victorian-based, but for the most part, this is an alternate universe that is similar to ours in many ways.
2. The things I want readers to know about Ambrose are these: she has grown up mostly isolated from other people, especially those her age. She is very sheltered--she has believed everything her government has told her without ever questioning it. This first book is her beginning to ask those questions--to gain confidence in herself and rebel against her husband's poor treatment of her, her government's poor treatment of the denizens, and to investigate the dark motives of Legalia.
Strengths: curiosity, perseverance, compassionate heart, tries to do the right thing (many times she fails).
Weaknesses: naïve, immature, awkward around other people at times, has a temper.
3. Ambrose's main dilemma in The Charismatics is this: she has never had much confidence in herself or her abilities. She preferred to live in the dark about things, not pushing to understand her government and the decisions they were making--she also shirked her power as the monarch of Shinery, not using it to help others. All of that begins to change at the beginning of my novel, when Ambrose realizes the civil climate Legalia has created, and how very corrupt it is. She must find the strength within herself to fight evil, in the many forms it takes. She also yearns for friendship and love from others, and is given many opportunities to nurture her relationships throughout the book.
**There are some great smaller characters in The Charismatics I enjoyed writing as well, and I tried to give them all distinctive personalities and pasts, many of them wounded by Legalia's rule. There's also a great romance, and I might've fallen for my love interest a little bit.
If you are so inclined, here is the first chapter of The Charismatics to whet your appetite. Now I'm going to hand off the Character Blog Tour to two of my writer friends:
1. S.C. Barrus-author of Discovering Abberation and The Gin Thief. I interviewed him for my self-published authors series; read that here.
2. Jessica Clarke-a wonderful writer I met through social media. Her novel is called The Praetorians, and she posts a lot of wonderful excerpts on her blog.
So there you go folks, an inside look into my debut novel! I will keep everyone updated on the progress, do a cover reveal in about two months, and talk about any opportunities for giveaways and how to get your hands on an EARLY COPY! Sign up for my newsletter for that, and as always...
Keep writing and keep dreaming! I know I am. :)
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