This week at A’mara Books
Regular writing took a back seat to writing for a contest for #thewritersblock. The contest was to write a Chapter One for something… The prizes are lucrative and could even lead to being talked to by their publishing company. @lovenfreedom drew my attention to this contest, which was really nice of her – especially as I should have been paying attention in Discord anyway…
Attempt 1 - The Courtship of Princess Shana
My first thought was to write the intro chapter to another A’mara Book that I know has to be written. The Courtship of Princess Shana is this one. I finished that and had it proofread and read it aloud a couple of times myself (the best way to self-proofread, in my experience.) But there were a couple of things which were niggling at me – mainly that the memo on the contest specifies that they don’t want too much back story and I just felt that I couldn’t avoid it on this one – since it has to point at some of the things that happened in Courage to Trust when she nearly died. It also has to point at an unfinished story that will go in the 851 TCE book… So, I didn’t feel it was the best option for this contest. So, almost 3000 words invested into this future story. Not too bad.
Attempt 2 – Chimera
This is a simple plot bunny that I wrote a few years ago, thinking about what would happen if someone died before their Earthly task was done – one that seemed urgent. So, that’s where this story started. I pulled it out and polished it a bit and posted it on Friday. Chimera chapter 1
For this story, I used details about the “life between lives” that I read about in Robert Schwartz’s book “Courageous Souls about how we plan our life’s main challenges before we are even born – which was life-changing for me. In this book, he talked with people and mediums about their pre-incarnate experiences.
This week’s life challenge… TMJ/TMD
Technically, TMJ is the temporomandibular joint – the one that hinges your jaw just in front of your ear. TMD is the dysfunction that causes severe pain.
I’ve had sensitivity in that area for years, but this week, I had a couple of very emotionally-stressing situations, one of which involved a “friend” betraying us and virtually attacking my little family. Apparently, all this stress went right into my jaw muscles and have been causing varying amounts of agony for about half the week now. (We did have a friend look at me – who is a periodontist – and confirmed my self-diagnosis… brownie points here – if only they made it feel better!) So, I’ve been concentrating on relaxing my jaw muscles, especially at night. I don’t seem to be grinding, but I am clamping down hard enough to cause severe pain.
With that challenge, I’m almost amazed I got anything done on books this week!
despite TMJ/TMD, nearly 4000 new words
Okay, not wonderful – and entirely focused on the contest mentioned above – nearly 3000 words on The Courtship of Princess Shana and over 800 new words on Chimera.
End materials
Birth of the Neví was the focus here.
- maps! - I finished up my maps – of the continent and country of Kri’enden, Joton (capital of Kri’enden) and Towani City (capital of Towani.) I did realize that I have a major/minor error in most of these more recent cities… something I’ll have to work out – how country governments work on Terrenden since the advent of Irola as the Global capital. I don’t know what happened to the former capitol buildings in – let’s see… - Joton, Towani City, Jerven and Loxos… They must have had them at some point. Hopefully, I can work this one out in a way that doesn’t require redoing their maps! (In Joton, it might have been destroyed somehow and replaced by the airport – note the “old docks” there… so maybe.)
character guide and glossary – this was a bit of a pain. I started that part last week, simply reading through it to make sure I had all the named characters and “foreign” words listed, then made sure that my definitions and pronunciations matched what I’ve done previously. Both lists ended up a bit lengthy. Birth of the Neví hops from location to location enough to require a larger number of characters than what would normally be called for in such a short book.
introductory posts. This took some time to write up and queue via Esteem. Because of the number of maps and the number of characters, I decided to split this post into two parts – partly for courtesy in people having to load so many large images. So, the ones with characters and glossary was posted yesterday and the one with maps and prologue will come out tomorrow morning (mountain daylight time.)
Warning: adult content. It was unavoidable, really – this book does include some adult subject matter. One abusive scene may even be triggering for some. I will place a warning on the post for you. It doesn’t reach NSFW level (I do try to stay out of that realm for my actual publishing,) but it very well may be uncomfortable – but it was necessary for the development of that particular thread.
Correcting laziness
- Surnames! Lol. (And I am.) I got lazy on creating surnames for my characters – to begin with, they weren’t super necessary, then it became necessary for some characters… but I’ve now decided to fix this area and update everything with surnames. (Aliases often do not have them, of course.) Four of my five original novellas have now been updated, and will get uploaded this week in the new-and-improved form. That just leaves Friendship on Fire to correct – including a couple of point-of-view errors (strange, given that it’s first person!) The Birth of the Neví character guide will get corrected today/tomorrow so that you have the most accurate version at your fingertips.
Dbooks update
I learned this week that they have given up on the original website and are planning a brand spanking new one in the immediate future. They’ve assured me that it will still work with Steemit, so it will be interesting to find out. I do like the whole concept and hope it works out better this time.
You can read the update yourself at The DBooks Project is Switching to EOS
Coming this week
Birth of the Neví finally begins with the prologue, maps and the first five chapters!
Writing – Hopefully, my jaw will be feeling well enough for me to really do some writing. I want to get Zara’s story finished, the other threads of Taurian’s story done and put some length onto Janys’ story. I won’t say ‘no’ to working on Rise of the Neví or even Chimera either, but I’ve really got to do some serious work on getting the 851 TCE collection nearer to completion.
epublishing – I still haven’t reuploaded the finished/shared novellas. I will get that done this week along with the edits to Friendship on Fire – I will also finally push the group together and upload it as a single volume (maybe this week, maybe not) – which is how it needs to look for print someday, anyway.
I have decided that from now on, I will wait on epublishing until after I’ve shared it with you – because no matter how many times the book is proofread, read aloud, read to my husband, etc, there are always a glaringly obvious correction to make as I read the post on Steemit!
Anyway, that’s what’s been going on here at A’mara Books this week! I hope you manage to take a few minutes to immerse yourself in my world of Terrenden – which I’m so delighted to share with you!
Please catch up!
Rebound of Power –
Meet Iyva, a homeless teenager in Irola with a strong connection with the leya. Totally untrained, her power rebounds catastrophically, leaving her close to death. A Nameless hero saves her life, but hides. Anyone would be proud to teach her, but will she choose the safe, trustworthy A’mara or the shady ones who teach her what she wants to learn? Can she trust her hero… the Nameless One?
This story actually wraps around four other stories: Friendship on Fire,Courage to Trust, Elect to Change and Ocean of Empathy. Currently, they're only available separately, but I do plan to republish the collection as a whole - I just haven't got there yet.
Don’t forget!
I’m still offering 1 Steem Basic Income share for any minnow who asks me a question which prompts an “Ask the Author” post! I’m thinking about putting these into a Dbooks ebook all its own, actually.
Image Credits:
Cover art based on image from Pexels – creative commons, no attribution required.
Shaze based on a katana from Pixabay – creative commons, no attribution required.
Shaze chapter ender from Wikipedia Commons – used within terms of license – sword adapted for use as a shaze.
Grass texture for maps from Pixabay
All maps/editing by myself on GIMP and Photoscape, both free programs.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious. Although the penalty of knowing me in real life is that you will influence the creation of my characters; any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Writing and artwork copyright myself 2005-2018 – all rights reserved.
If you are interested in helping me publish these works, please contact me on Facebook or Discord, viking-ventures#2883.
Lori Svensen – A'mara Books & Viking Visual
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Haha, this reminded me of The Courtship of Princess Leia, a tragically hilarious entry into the world of Star Wars expanded universe novels. I am sure yours is much better. There aren't dragons, are there?
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! I am convinced there is a script that runs when you click the "Post" button which inserts a few random typos into your writing.
I'll bite! When you have the idea for a novel, at what point (if ever) do you outline the overall story, and how do you do it? Do you prefer a bullet list? A dramatis personae? A rough outline? A few sentences summarizing each chapter? Or do you just jump in with a start and end point loosely defined in your head and just let the pen figure out how to get there as you go?
Thank you for the very amusing comment! (It does not help my TMJ/D to be laughing so much - thankfully, it doesn't hurt as much as it did the other day.)
"The Courtship of Princess Shana" might still end up with a different name. We will have to wait and see - after all, she was only 12 in her 850 TCE book and I'm currently working on the 851 TCE collection, where she will feature again (albeit briefly.)
I never read The Courtship of Princess Leia, though I did intend to. Now that the Star Wars Universe is mostly ruined by the JJ Abrahms lot, they may become less relevant, sadly. But yes, that universe is a major inspiration for me. My favorite book of the series remains I, Jedi - possibly the only first-person Star Wars book. My favorite scene is where Corran Horn is found with his light saber and he more-or-less turns it into the gearshift of a speeder, or something... Darn, I need to read it again!
I do have dragons - or maybe... most of them disappeared between the leya - perhaps when the invaders took over Velantia and renamed it Vendaria - about the time the A'mara were forced off the island... The gods had dragons though - as you'll find out when I serialize Brighid's Blood - and I expect they're still around. Maybe they'll come back in the time of the Troubles...
As for the random typos - I'm amazed that there's a script that simultaneously puts those random typos into my LibreOffice documents!!! Then, there's the stupid mistakes that I make - such as putting surnames on my characters only to find (in my written notes) that some of them already had surnames that I'd forgotten about... Then, to decide which name I like better - or will be an easier fix...
I like your question... I will get to work on it. :-)
(And I needed an excuse to sponsor an SBI share anyway...)
Woohoo! I used to stack silver but now I am addicted to stacking SBI :D
I love Corran Horn! I wanted an X-Wing with that green CorSec livery so bad! He was probably in my top 5 favorite characters from that universe, and the X-Wing series by Michael Stackpole and continued by that other guy were my absolute favorites in the bunch (though Zahn does give them a run for their money with his Thrawn trilogy, which adds another 2 names to my top 5 list: Talon Karrde and Thrawn himself). I think I only read I, Jedi once, but yes as you said, maybe it's time for a re-read!
Hope you get to feeling better soon!
I just looked - I'm up to 22 shares now. I started off in the 5th pool, I think it was - or maybe it was the 6th - now, I'm in the 2nd. :)
Have you joined the Discord group for steembasicincome? Good group of people.
Corran Horn and his whole concept inspired me a lot - some of those stories will turn up during/after the Troubles, but I haven't even started writing in that era yet - about two generations beyond what I've been doing recently.
Have you ever read Darth Plagueis I think that was James Luceno (love his writing!) That was just amazing - showing Palpatine from a protagonist point of view... making him into a sympathetic character. It was very good, very inspiring - and should be very warning too...
Better go and write your post so I can send you an SBI share. :-)
Don't worry, I am relaxing - the best medicine for TMJ, it seems - but writing is often very relaxing for me.