Sci Fi Romance, Write Now! by Cathryn Cade

The market for sci fi romance is wide open, and here’s why you should join me in writing it.

Let me just start out by saying that I don’t think of myself as a sci fi fan. I was force-fed Heinlein and Bradbury in high school and while they are truly outstanding writers, I was creeped out by the subject matter they chose. Which of course, was the point--using their craft to take a critical look at human nature and society. But I didn’t want that hard edge of technology used for the subjugation of human joy and freedom. If I read sci/fantasy by choice, it was Madeline L’Engle or Watership Down.

Then years later I picked up Sweet Starfire by Jayne Castle/Jayne Ann Krentz. I’d read every one of her Amanda Quick historicals, and I was ready to follow her to new galaxies just to get more of her stellar writing. The book opened up a whole new universe! Still sweeping romance, with all the action, adventure and humor that JAK is known for. But being set on another world in the future, it also contained some fun aliens and creatures, gadgets and even paranormal features. It was romance, it was space opera as opposed to hard sci fi, and it was fun. So were the rest of her sci fi romances.

My writer’s brain began to percolate. Thus, a few years later when Samhain Publishing put out a call for shifter novellas, I was ready. If I set my shifter tale on another planet, where capture romance was not only acceptable but expected, I could shrug off pesky modern Earth mores and bust out a sexy fantasy.

That first book Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bryght was followed by the rest of the Orion Series. Hard sci fi readers hated it, complaining that the stories were ‘just romance and sex’ set on a spaceship. These reviews did not hurt sales, lol, because romance readers loved the idea of romance and sex on a spaceship. Like me, many women were ready to head for new frontiers, as long as there was some great romance between the protagonists along the way.

I went on to write in other genres, fun I would not have missed for the world. But readers continued to ask when I was going to write more Orion stories. They were not happy I had genre-jumped, and many did not follow. Reviews were stellar, sales were not.

This spring I debuted The LodeStar Series and a free paraquel novella, Heart of Stone. Set on Earth II and the planet of Frontiera, many of the Orion characters are along for the space flight. Readers have downloaded over 50K copies of the free read, and sales of the LodeStar books are brisk. Brisk enough that I’m smiling pretty much all day long, and it ain’t just because Christmas is a comin’. There is just nothing like the thrill of writing stories readers want to read.

If you are here, it’s because you’re interested in writing fantasy, paranormal, and possibly sci fi romance. Do it! The sci fi rom market is wide open. Yes, it is a small niche in the romance market, but readers are loyal and they are voracious as genetically enhanced piranhas! Hmm, sounds like something from the Cade-iverse.

And have you noticed all the help we’re getting from Hollywood? The success of the new Star Trek, Firefly, and all the Marvel superheroes show that consumers want heroes who are larger than life, who have gadgets and know how to use them! TV is following, with Almost Human and other prime time shows.

Many of the digital first pubs like Samhain, Carina Press and Entangled are actively seeking new sci fi romance. A great way to get noticed if you’re just starting out or breaking into the genre.

If you already have a fan base, why not self-publish? 70% royalties and complete control over every aspect of your book. A related free read or making the first book of a series free will capture lots of new-to-you readers.

And your sci fi rom needn’t be hard-core sci fi. Readers enjoy a wide variety, just as they do all the other sub-genre of romance. Join me and the other many romance authors heading out to space and beyond.

Just remember … it’s hot in space, red hot!

Best,
Cathryn Cade

Best-selling author of sci fi romance,

RT 4.5 Stars and Night Owl Reviews TOP PICK

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Cathryn’s latest release is Creed of Pleasure; the Space Miner’s Concubine, The LodeStar Series, Bk 2

Her mother's people are renowned for courage & sensuality, but can her human side go along when she must seduce a man to survive? 

    Half-Serpentian or not, in the crime-ridden streets of New Seattle, Earth II, Taara Ravel can't defend her quirky cousin and herself against an enemy they can't even see. Then a wealthy man agrees to whisk them away to safety on the new planet of Frontiera—but only for a high price.

  One the lovely blonde will have to pay with her body.

  Logan Stark wants her to seduce his younger brother Creed Forth, and bring the lonely space miner fully into life. Orphaned in New Seattle, Earth II, with only his adoptive brothers between him and the human and alien predators prowling the rough docks, Creed grew into a man with one burning desire--never to cede control of his body or emotions to any living being. Joining a sect of fighting monks, he lived a life of physical control and chastity, until the wild planet of Frontiera called to him to come and mine her treasures.

  Now Creed is trapped by old vows of celibacy & and by even older nightmares, in a life of loneliness. That is, until his eldest brother, space magnate Logan Stark sends him a living gift. She’s a concubine, skilled in the art of seduction and giving a man pleasure beyond his wildest dreams ... or is she?

   And will throwing the two together create a heat neither can resist, or will the explosion when Creed learns the truth destroy them both?

He’d Never Say That!!! The Importance of Effective Dialogue

by Connie L. Smith

 

“It’s not what you said. It’s how you said it." I’ve been hearing a variation of this my whole life, and as it turns out – it’s true. A person can say the sweetest words in the world to you, but give them a sarcastic tone and they’re derogatory. Or maybe he agrees to do a kind thing, but with a bored expression, letting you know that his preferences are to do something completely different. In life, we have to consider the words, the actions, the tone, the expression… There are so many factors that sway our perception of what we’re hearing.

When reading, some of those aspects go out the window. We can pick up on the nonverbal bits of communication through description – a character places a hand on her hips, or rolls her eyes – but we don’t literally *hear* what the person is saying. There can be clues that let us infer – maybe an exclamation point – but that’s kind of the point. We’re inferring, and interpreting, and it isn’t as concrete as actually watching people go through a conversation.

Dialogue is a huge part of writing, and even without the above thoughts, it should be taken seriously. Readers can learn a good amount about characters through dialogue, and it can be a useful tool in moving the plot along. When you add in the differences between a real-life conversation and a written one, the details become all the more important.

Each author is free to choose his own method of delivery, but to me, dialogue is most effective when it mirrors conversations. This seems a little obvious, but sometimes the mark is missed by a mile. You should know your characters well enough to understand how they speak, and strive to stay as honest to that approach as possible.

There isn’t a specific formula for this. If you’re writing historical fiction, you might use language that is much more eloquent than someone who is writing a contemporary piece, and a fantasy author might have more imagery than a YA work. I’m not criticizing any of the genres. My kindle account has at least one of each that I adore. But you should get a firm grip on the era and the style you mean to represent, and hold to that as you go through your story.

A good rule of thumb, to me, is to make your characters sound like people. If you can’t imagine a person actually saying something, you probably shouldn’t force your character to. These are the pieces of your story that we identify with, and if they’re constantly throwing us for a loop with their dialogue, it takes away from the story. It’s like removing you from the plot, going “THIS ISN’T REAL,” and sending you back. Any part of your story that’s out of place can do this, and dialogue is not an exception.

As an example, let’s say that you have a couple of modern-day teenagers, discussing what movie they want to see. Now, you could make one of them say,

“Nay, lads, I’d prefer to venture forth to the telling of the story of that cowboy fellow.”

But unless he’s joking, it doesn’t work. This would be a fine line if you had a character from another time or place trying to merge with society, but not so much with the modern-day teenagers you meant to represent.

Okay, that quote was a bit of a stretch. Most authors wouldn’t put that in their work. Still, even if you are a lengthy distance from that particular boundary, you could still choose unsuited dialogue.

“I worry that the movie will continue past my curfew, and mom will be angry.”

Not one word of this statement is out of context for the time, but the order and design make it sound foreign to what a teenager would really be saying. If the teen is worried about curfew, he’d more than likely say something closer to,

“That one lasts too long. Mom’ll kill me if I’m out that late.”

It flows more easily, and it keeps you in the story, because it reads like a real life scenario. If the dialogue feels forced or abnormal, it can momentarily bring a reader out of your fictional world, which is the exact opposite of what you should be looking to do. You should want them invested in your book, and take precautions to keep them there. Dialogue can be a deciding issue on that, even if just momentarily. You probably don’t want your reader to pause to say, “Nobody talks that way!” and then have to submerge into the novel all over again. Keep them there, and use thought-out vocabulary to do so.

If you’d like to critique my work – see if I abide by my own rules – check out Essenced, scheduled to be free on December 5^th. Links are on my website.

Book Blurb:

Essenced (The Division Chronicles #1)

by Connie L. Smith (Goodreads Author)

Years ago, demons were forced out of the earth’s realm by a band of supernatural fighters, banished from the place and its people in the aftermath of a horrific war. It should’ve ended there – would’ve – if not for the final demon’s claw snagging on the open portal. What felt like victory became only a reprieve, the winning warriors understanding that the tear would spread, and the demons eventually would escape exile. It was only a matter of time, and a need for future defense – a question of genetics and essences, magic and power.

Now, centuries later, a new army must bind together – one of teenagers with inhuman potentials and abilities…

AJ went to bed Sunday night an average teenage girl, clumsy and athletically lacking. So when she wakes up Monday morning with super-strength, she does what any rational person would do: She goes into denial. When a smoking hot guy in a suit shows up, rambling about the end of the war and demons spilling through some kind of rift, she refuses to listen, telling herself he’s insane. Except weird things just won’t quit happening, and the guy keeps popping up in her life, trying to explain the changes suddenly happening within her. Is she crazy, or is this guy… not so crazy after all?

Author Bio:

Connie L. Smith spends far too much time with her mind wandering in fictional places. She reads too much, likes to bake, and will be forever sad that she doesn’t have fairy wings. And that she can’t swing dance. When she isn’t reading or writing, there’s a good chance she’s goofing off with her amazing, wonderful, incredible, fabulous nieces and nephew, or listening to music that is severely outdated. She has her BA from Northern KentuckyUniversity in Speech Communication and History (she doesn’t totally get the connection either) and likes to snap photos. Oh, and she likes apples a whole big bunch.Found out more about Connie L. Smith, A GOODREADS Author at:

 

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Enrich Your World With Re-imagined Holidays

 by Tameri Etherton



iStockphoto

Ah, Halloween. That time of year when little ghosts and goblins roam the streets looking for candy. Have you ever wondered what prompted kids to dress up in costumes for treats? I have. And why do we decorate eggs on Easter? What’s up with a Yule log, anyway?

There’s only one way to find out: Research. Dig into the customs and cultures of another time and you’ll discover a wealth of opportunity to expand your imagined world.

Take Halloween, for instance. The roots of our modern holiday can be traced back two thousand years to an October 31st Gaelic festival called Samhain (pronounced Sah-win). The festival was a celebration of summer’s end and the harvest. It was also one heck of a party. Bonfires were lit to mimic the sun, in hopes it would hold back the decay and darkness of winter. Or, perhaps something a little more sinister.

On Samhain night, the dark god Herne the Hunter would ride across the Autumn sky with his red-eyed hell hounds on a supernatural hunt.

I don’t know about you, but that gives me chills. Just think of how you could include something like that in your novel. Take a bit of history and tweak it to fit your own story. You’ll at once draw readers in because of the familiar elements, but also enrich your character’s lives and world with unique touches.

You could even take a tradition like Scotland’s Hogmany, otherwise known as New Year’s Eve and give it a paranormal twist. Whereas Christmas is peaceful and a time for quiet reflection, Hogmany is a raucous, joyous affair. Once midnight strikes, the partying quiets until the first visitor arrives. The tradition of First-Footing says that the person who crosses the home’s threshold first will be the predictor of good fortune in the year ahead.

What if that first person was a vampire? Or a serial killer? Or a faerie?

Don’t be afraid to mix and match holiday traditions!

Legend has it that on both Samhain and Beltane, the door between our world and that of the faerie’s is thinner, making it easier for spirits and faeries to enter our world. What if dark fae were to pass through unnoticed while humans were frolicking around their bonfires?

Speaking of Beltane and frolicking... if your novel needs a bit of spicing up, this is an excellent holiday to play off of. Sex, fertility, gods and goddess, a battle between light and dark, it’s a world building dream. It’s a night where fevered passions and virgins are sacrificed to the lord of the hunt. Imagine the conflict that might arise from a mis-matched pairing.

Want something even spicier? Believe it or not, in the Czech Republic women are whipped or spanked on Easter Monday. Why? Because they believe the spankings will keep them healthy and beautiful for the whole next year.

Hey, whatever works! But I think I’ll stick to beauty creams, thankyouverymuch.

Also at Easter, but a little less erotic, in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark children decorate eggs for Easter and then dress up as witches, going door to door collecting candy.

Sound familiar? Perhaps that’s where the Halloween tradition came from.

You don’t have to limit your world building to traditional holidays. Sporting events can enhance your plot. I’m a huge fan of the Olympics, especially the winter games. In my fantasy novel I knew I wanted to have an Olympic-like event, but didn’t want the games to feel too modern. My research led me to the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Back in the day the Thames would freeze over and they played a sort of hockey game and also nine-pins, which is similar to modern day bowling. All of the games, including these two, were competitions with winners receiving prizes from the Queen.

With this information, I made up several sports that would fit into an epic fantasy, but that modern readers would understand.

The more we can relate our worlds to what the reader knows, the better we’ll draw them into the story, making it a place they want to venture in forever.

Have you played off of holidays in your novels? Is there a particular holiday or tradition that’s your favorite? Think you’ll find a way to incorporate a little corporeal punishment into your next Easter celebration?

Bio for Tameri Etherton ~

Tameri Etherton writes stories about kick ass heroines and the rogues who steal their hearts. While not writing, or researching for her latest book, she can be found in tea shops laughing with friends, reading books, or at home curled up on the couch watching movies with her family. She lives in a quaint little seaside village, and enjoys strolling on the beach with her own prince charming.

You can find her on:

 

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Stop on by and chat sometime!

 

"You Are Better Than You Know" by Rory Miller

Author Rory Miller

You’re a good writer.  You are better than you can know.  Let’s crunch some numbers.

You’ve been writing since you were six years old.  Even with no college, that is twelve years of formal training.  Is there any other thing in your life where you have twelve years of formal, expert teaching?  Anything?

And writing isn’t like martial arts, where twelve years of training may be combined with an absolute absence of experience.  You have written for real.  A lot.  Maybe not every day… but I will bet that you read every day.  Maybe you don’t have time to read as many books as you like, but I know you.  You’re a reader.  Cereal boxes.  Labels.  Advertisements. You read. Every. Damn. Day.  And reading and writing are the yin and yang of each other.

Is there any other aspect of your life where you have this combination of skill and experience?  You are good.

But here’s the problem.  You have been writing since you were six years old and almost every single thing you ever wrote was judged.  An outside authority figure who didn’t know and care how your friends belly-laughed would say it wasn’t ‘literary’ or ‘concise’ or ‘choose-your-word’.  And you would get a ‘C’.  Or a ‘B’.  Or an ‘A’ or an ‘F’ but it really didn’t matter.  What mattered is that we were taught, as children, that writing was hard, and judged by secret criteria we could never grasp.  No matter how good we are, all of us were taught we sucked, and it is simply safer not to risk.

If you look at your unfinished manuscript right now, you will hear the voices in your head telling you to give up, that it is not good enough.  Shoot those voices.

Let me tell you a story:

A couple of years ago, a special friend got into some medical bills.  Our circle of friends did what we could, but I suggested we put together a book so that there would be a constant trickle of income.  Problem with making a suggestion like that is that it becomes your baby.  I was named editor.

I call these special friends not because of some weird sexual relationship or because we all rode the short bus together.  This particular circle of friends shared some common history that most people really can’t grasp—former cops and former criminal, operators, EMT’s and patients, we hang out together so that we can tell our stories around the campfire with people who won’t have nightmares (or vomit.)  It’s a tight bond, and an exclusive club.  And a great source for stories.

The first thing I noticed was the insecurity.  Messages would come in that were the e-mail equivalent of, “Mr. Editor, sir,” Head bowed and wringing a hat in his hands, “I have an idea and you probably won’t like it…”

Get this—these were people who had survived mental hospitals, escaped cults and abusive relationships, and hospitalized your worst nightmare.  Bad-asses of the nth degree.  And they were so insecure about their writing that they requested permission to give me a gift with all the subservience of a slave in “Gone With The Wind.”

So I’d say, “Hell, yeah, let me see it.”  And a couple couldn’t even do that.  They sent no manuscript and no more e-mails.

But others did, and every last one was good.  They didn’t use prose like Nelson Algren (who does?  That’s why he’s Nelson Algren and not John Keats or Kristine Kathryn Rusch.)  Some were linear and some were scatter shot.  One was simply a list, a list of things you must do to escape an abuser and that list is possibly the most chilling thing in the book.

So I would send back an email that said something like, “That’s fantastic, thank you!”

And every single one sent back a message saying, “Oh, no.  That wasn’t the real manuscript.  That’s just a rough draft.  Here’s the real manuscript.”

These bad-asses, people who had been a gaijin in a Japanese prison or practiced martial arts in Antarctica or trained counter-terrorism had sent me a draft so that if I rejected it, I wasn’t rejecting them.  “It was just a draft, just a rough outline, really…”  Insecurity.

Here’s the part you need to hear: In every single case (including the case where the author had his retired news-editor wife help with the re-write) the second draft they sent me was weaker.  The first draft they were passionate people communicating about something they loved or feared.  It had passion and clarity.

In the second draft, they were trying to be writers.  Whatever that means.  I suspect that each and every one was trying to make a dimly remembered third grade teacher happy.

Go get four glasses of wine and bring them back to the computer.  Go ahead, you’re writers.  One of the job perks is to be able to sit in your underwear while drinking wine and still generate income.  Got the wine?  Good.  Not hard, right?  I mean, four glasses is tough, but it’s just about moving wine.

Now get four glasses of wine and do it like a circus performer.  Go on.  Come on back and finish this article when something breaks.  It’ll only be a few seconds.

Delivering wine is easy.  Delivering wine like a performance artist is hard.  Writing is easy.  It is just communication, just telling a story—and you are good at it.  Writing like it is some kind of performance art, trying to be a writer instead of just telling a story—that’s not only hard, it has a tendency to ruin the story.

Write.  Just write.  If you really, really care your passion will come through and it will be good.  If you don’t care at all, you will be lazy and efficient and your writing will be clear.  And that’s good too.  But if you try to ‘be a writer’ and either put clarity into your passions or passion into your clarity, or if you try to please your long-dead third grade teacher (and what the hell did she ever write, anyway?) you will ruin it.

You’re good at this.  Put your butt in your chair and fill some pages.  Have fun.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rory Miller is a veteran Corrections Officer who has worked as a mental health specialist; Tactical team member and leader; sergeant and instructor as well as spending over a year as a contractor in Iraq. He is the author of the award-winning "Force Decisions" as well as "Meditations on Violence" 

"Facing Violence" and "Violence: A Writer's Guide." Though he is reluctantly on FaceBook (For now) he does not tweet.  Or text. There is a blog, though, and a website, since he travels all over teaching people about bad guys.

 

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I hope you will join my class titled

INTRODUCTION TO VIOLENCE

Hosted by

Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers

This Four Week class starts November 4th

For more information click HERE

10 RED FLAG WORDS by Catherine E. McLean

Likely you've heard that a writer's goal is to place the correct words onto the page so the reader sees a story unfold like a movie in their mind. In that quest, one trick-of-the-trade is to do a global search for "red flag" words like WAS, WERE, AS, AND, BUT, IT, HAD, JUST, ONLY, and SO. Let's look at why those little words merit the red-flag label.

At the top of every writer's revision cheat sheet should be the dynamite-dangerous WAS and WERE. These two seem to be everywhere in a manuscript. They can pepper a page by themselves, be found in clusters (called "crops of"), and when they are used together, one following the other, they become powder kegs that diminish clarity.

Yes, overuse is a big problem for both, but what constitutes overuse?  From research and from feedback by participants in my workshops, I have gathered WAS statistics. The all-time record holder for the overuse of WAS is one every fifteen words (which equals one every sentence—and, to be honest, that writer's longer sentences had two or three WASes in them).

Now, do the math: 1 in 15 means 6,667 WASes in a 100,000 word manuscript. On a subconscious level, a reader hears all those WASes. At what point do those WASes accumulate and buzz like a hive of angry bees? Which means, subliminal irritation develops and that potential of a five-star story ends up with a one-star. That is, if the reader makes it to the end of the story.

So how many WASes should be used? Some, including me, would adamantly shout the fewer the better. But I'll add that much depends on the narrative. If a character is the sole narrator, then that's dialogue both internal and spoken, so the "rules" of grammar and punctuation don't necessarily apply. After all, a character must be true to their voice and syntax.

But there's more. WAS and WERE are passive verbs. If WAS or WERE are coupled with an "ing" or "ly" ending word, or both, that's a red flag for a passive sentence. Passivity is the chronic weakness of omniscient narratives and "telling" because passivity robs a reader of emotional highs, lows, and instantaneous vividness. For example: The Doberman was quickly chewing through the rope.

Some might say to change "was quickly chewing" to the active-voiced "chewed." But a better choice might be gnawed or chomped. In other words, is there a better verb, a one-word verb, that instantly creates the correct image in the reader's mind for how the dog "was quickly chewing?"

So, it's best to do a search-and-find and check every WAS and WERE, making certain each is the only word that will do at that particular spot.

Next on the list, and second in importance and overuse is the word AS.

AS is trouble with a capital T. My dictionary lists nine definitions. That's nine chances to make an error. Of those nine, the following are giant red flags.

Number one is that AS means "at the same time" (simultaneously). Trouble is, nothing happens simultaneously in a story. That's because a person is reading, and in order to keep the images developing vividly and clearly—which means the action flows like a movie in the reader's mind—every word has to be the correct one in the correct sequence.

The second culprit is an AS-clause that either leads a sentence or is found near the end of a sentence. Here's an example of a lead-in: As John walked into the bar, he spotted Sam. This shouts simultaneousness but since nothing is simultaneous for the reader who is reading, that AS should be changed to show the actions in their sequence: After John walked into the bar, he looked around, and spotted Sam.

Now comes the most AS-clause abuse: an AS-clause near the end of a sentence. Nine times out of ten, finding one means the cause-effect has been reversed. For example: The feeling of foreboding grew stronger as he drove through the countryside. Better is: As he drove through the countryside, the feeling of foreboding grew stronger.

The next two red-flag words are AND and BUT. I think the hardest habit for a writer to break is to stop using AND and BUT at the beginning of a sentence. Another serious overuse problem is using AND and BUT to join sentences, series, and clauses. The result is awkward, long-winded, and run-on sentences.

Next on the red-flag hit-list is IT. Especially when IT is used as a pronoun. Remember that a pronoun refers to the last used noun. So, for clarity's sake, repeat the noun rather than have it become amusing text. Here's an example: The wind numbed his face and ruffled his hair as it blew off the chilly ocean. Did his hair blow off the ocean? Did you spot the AS-clause? Did you realize this is also a revered cause-effect sequence? Amazing, isn't it, how two little red-flag words can muck up the visual for the reader and jar them out of the story.

Another red-flag use of IT is as a contraction or possessive. IT'S means only one thing—"it is." Keep in mind that IT'S is never a possessive. If writing the possessive form, use "its." So, it's a wise writer who does a self-edit for it, its, and it's.

Next on the list is HAD. Think of this ditty every time you type the word: "HAD is a handicap." HAD handicaps by its overuse. Yes, it's a very good choice for getting from the story present into the story past and then out of the flashback scene and into the story now. Trouble is, between entering and exiting the flashback, that scene should be written as if it were actually  happening.

The next three, JUST, ONLY, and SO are overused "weasel words" (words taking up space without adding anything to the passage). Such words could easily be deleted. However, there are exceptions. First, if JUST, ONLY, and SO are part of the narrative character's usual dialogue, diction, and syntax, they can remain—provided they don't pepper a page. The second exception is if the words serves as a transition. It might help if you recite a litany of "weasel words weaken prose."

Now that you are aware of the dangers of these ten red-flag words, it's time you did a safety-inspection of your own writing. Take ten pages or a chapter or a scene and make a note of the word count. Now, chose one of the red-flag words—WAS, WERE, AS, AND, BUT, IT, HAD, JUST, ONLY, and SO—and do a search for that word. How many did you find? What is the ratio of the chosen red-flag word to the total word count? (And, yes, I'd love to hear what your statistics are!)

I know self-editing is hard, but eliminating such red-flag words helps net a manuscript that a reader can visual like a movie in their mind—and you'll become a better wordsmith and writer.

More About the Author 

Catherine E. McLean welcomes questions on the devices and techniques of fiction. She's an author, workshop speaker, and writing instructor. Her next online workshop is "Revision Boot Camp," January 13-31, 2014 (details are at www.WritersCheatSheets.com ). Catherine's been published in both short story and novel length. She's coined the term "Women's Starscape Fiction" for her writing because she likes a story where characters are real people facing real dilemmas, and where their journey (their adventure-quest, with or without a romance) is among the stars and solar systems, and where there's always a satisfying ending. Her home website is www.CatherineEmclean.com.

 

How I Used Divination Tools (and cats!) to Reinforce my Theme

by Jill Archer

The second book in my Noon Onyx series, Fiery Edge of Steel, has a knowledge theme: things you should know, things you don’t know, things you know but wished you didn’t, etc. Both the plot and sub-plot involve the element of knowledge, or lack thereof, but I also wanted to support this theme in other ways.

The first was that I used cats as a repeating motif in the story. Why cats? Well, besides the obvious "All Writers Must Love Cats" Rule – ;-) – I’ve always associated cats with knowledge. They may not be as wise as owls, but they are curious. Everyone’s heard the phrase, "Curiosity killed the cat." So I took that idea and incorporated it into my novel. For example:

* Fara, one of the biggest secondary characters, has a pet tiger.

* Delgato, the captain of the sailboat named Cnawlece ("Knowledge"), which Noon and her investigative team take to the Shallows, is a manticore – a sphinxlike creature who is part lion. I drew inspiration for the character from the children’s song "Don Gato" (the song about the cat who falls off his roof and dies but then comes back to life when he smells fish from the market).

* And, because I pepper my stories with little bits and pieces of backstory, there are some references to two fictional demons, the doomed lovers Curiositus (a monster-sized goldfish) and Cattus (a feline demoness).

Another way that I supported my knowledge theme was to create a handful of divination tools, which also served two other purposes. They were useful at various plot points (see below) and they helped to more fully flesh out the world and its magic.

BLACK ONION

THE VEGETABLE VERSION OF A MAGIC 8 BALL

 

This divination tool was introduced at the start of the novel. After the opening chapter, Noon has lunch off campus at a place called "The Black Onion." It’s a small, riverside café with only four things on the menu: the soup of the day, the bread of the day, the catch of the day… and black onions, which are the Haljan version of a Magic 8 Ball.

How many of you played with a Magic 8 Ball when you were a kid? I did. In fact, I had so many fond memories of using one, that I bought my kids one. Here’s a picture of it. If you look closely, you can even see my reflection. (Ha! ;-)) My Haljan black onions work similarly, but with some differences. A Haljan black onion can answer a question – any question – so long as the person asking it has sailed the river Lethe (which, by the way, happens to means "oblivion" or lack of knowledge). Once a sailor has asked their question, they peel the onion and the answer is written inside the onion on a piece of paper as thin as… well, onion skin, of course!

Noon is given a black onion at the start of the story and it reappears throughout. In a small way, the black onion reinforced my knowledge theme and was one more reason for readers to keep turning the page. Would Noon ask the black onion a question? If so, what question would she ask? And what would the answer be?

FORTUNA’S FAVORITE

IN VINO VERITAS ("IN WINE THERE IS TRUTH")

 

In my stories, Angels are spellcasters. They have all sorts of roles: guardian, interpreter, and scribe. But some of the more creatively inclined make art or wine and cast spells over them. One batch of wine in Fiery Edge of Steel is called "Fortuna’s Favorite." (Fortuna was the Roman goddess of fortune and I used that mythology to create a similar Haljan deity).

Fortuna’s Favorite is "pink and fizzy and flecked with gold" with a bitter, chalky taste. After Noon is given her assignment, she is offered a sip. The wine is like a fortune cookie. She drinks from the cup and wipes her mouth on a napkin. Her fortune appears in a stain of words on the napkin:

 

"When traveling into the unknown,

sometimes the biggest danger is the one you bring with you…"

Noon’s fortune in this scene reinforced my knowledge theme, served as foreshadowing, and became the tagline of the book. (I tried to have it put on the cover, but my editor told me that the art department would kill me – it’s way too long! :-D) But the thing I love most about it is, by the end of the book, Noon’s fortune can be interpreted several different ways.

WAERWATER

THE TRIAL BY ORDEAL

 

Because my books feature a character who’s training to be a Maegester (a "modern day" knight who’s studying demon law), I try to work a few legal concepts into each story. The trial by ordeal seemed tailor made for Fiery Edge of Steel because it’s a method of determining guilt or innocence by divine intervention. Historically, it involved questionable "justice" practices like dunking, boiling, or forcing someone to walk over hot coals. The idea that an accused might escape from these tortures unharmed or even alive – and that such would automatically prove their innocence – is horrifying.

So I created a divination tool that would administer a trial by ordeal to an accused and then worked it into my story. That tool is "waerwater," the poisonous sap from a big, old, magical tree. (My description is slightly more detailed in the book. ;-)) In the story, an accused has the right to demand a trial by waerwater. They drink it. If they live, they are deemed innocent by divine intervention. There is no need for a trial – no need for the truth. Knowledge of actual guilt or any other evidence is irrelevant. Like the first two divination tools, I referred to waerwater repeatedly throughout the novel and then used it in my climatic scene.

So, what about you? What tools do you use to reinforce your theme? Do you have any questions about theme and how to support it? How about cats? Do you own one? Do you want one? Do you think every writer should have one? :-D Thanks so much to Nancy and everyone here at FF&P for inviting me here to guest blog today!

More about Fiery Edge of Steel

Lucifer and his army triumphed at Armageddon, leaving humans and demons living in uncertain peace based on sacrifice and strict laws. It is up to those with mixed demon and human blood, the Host, to prevent society from falling into anarchy.

Noon Onyx is the first female Host in memory to wield the destructive waning magic that is used to maintain order among the demons. Her unique abilities, paired with a lack of control and reluctance to kill, have branded her as an outsider from her peers. Only her powerful lover, Ari Carmine, and a roguish and　mysterious Angel, Rafe Sinclair, support her unconventional ways.

When Noon is shipped off to a remote outpost to investigate several　unusual disappearances, a task which will most likely involve trying and killing the patron demon of that area, it seems Luck is not on her side. But when the outpost settlers claim that an ancient and evil foe has stepped out of legend to commit the crimes, Noon realizes that she could be facing something much worse than she ever imagined…

More about Jill

 

Jill Archer is the author of the Noon Onyx series, genre-bending fantasy novels from Penguin/Ace. DARK LIGHT OF DAY and FIERY EDGE OF STEEL are available now. WHITE HEART OF JUSTICE will be available 5/27/14.

 

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