Character Spotlight: Investigating Annie Hansen, Private Eye

This week, I'm delighted to welcome Author Kenna McKinnon to the stage! She's here to shine the Spotlight on the heroine from her latest novel, Blood Sister - Annie Hansen, Private Eye.

Set in the small Canadian island town of Serendipity, population 1,200, Blood Sister is a murder mystery, and much more, Dear Reader. Annie is no ordinary private eye. Scarred by her own past, she must find a way to come to terms with her mother's death and help catch a killer, all while battling her own demon - schizophrenia. Seems like a lot to deal with? Let's turn the stage over to Annie to find out what she has to say....

Summer Society Promotions

The minis and I are really trying not to melt here... Definitely a pool day! I hope it's not nearly as hot wherever you are. If it is, hopefully you have plenty of water nearby! One of my favorite ways to beat the heat is floating in the pool with a good book. With the minis I don't get to use the floaty-things much,though, and the books tend to get wet, so, I don't get to as often!

Speaking of pools and reading....

An excerpt from The Shadow Watcher - Chapter 7

Curious about The Society in the Shadow of Civilization? This week I'm sharing Chapter Seven from The Shadow Watcher ... which is where he finally starts to explain himself.

Sam's timeline is getting seriously twisted.

Society in the Shadow of Civilization
Book Two

Sam Marquet's journey continues with unexpected twists, as she struggles to find the balance between her new role in the world her grandfather created and her place in the real one.... 

More Midnight Rambling: Burning the Candle...

It's half past midnight, I'm sitting here, at my desk, taking a break from corrections on A Shadow in Doubt. I haven't been sleeping much the last couple of weeks. Some of that has to do with the heat. The rest, well, I'm doing that thing I do when there is a deadline approaching

New Year's Wishes, ASID Updates and Roari's Resolution(s)

With 2015 just over two hours away here in California, I'm not so much reflecting on this year past as I am looking forward to the one ahead.... For you, dear Reader, I hope for a year full of joy, and many pages of adventures.

My contribution to the amount of aforementioned pages available for your imagination to dwell within was not as plentiful as I'd hoped in 2014, but with A Shadow in Doubt nearly ready, and my untitled-as-of-yet NaNo novel waiting, 2015 looks more promising.

Originally, A Shadow in Doubt, Book Two of Society in the Shadow of Civilization, was to be released this fall - I almost did it, but something wasn't sitting right with me. Then, I had the ah-ha moment, and, well, made a lot of work for myself revising things. Basically, everything is the same, but rearranged, if that makes sense. It doesn't, I know. Sometimes I wish I could time-travel, it would make things easier.

So, when, pray tell, will it be released? That's complicated too....

Why? Because I've decided to try something different this time. If you know what Wattpad is, you're lightyears ahead of me - but I'm there now too. Since I pulled back on ASID, I decided I'm going to release it on Wattpad and Writing.com, chapter by chapter, as I revise, and then release the ebook in February. But, it's New Year's Eve, so I'll post more about that later this week....

Twelve Days - Jayden's account of her time alone with the Society - is also coming to Wattpad and Writing.com in January. (No, I didn't forget about it!)

Lastly, I have two writer resolutions this year. The first one is easy - no more release dates until the release date is absolutely final, promise. The second one kind of scares me - I signed up for Twitter months ago, but have yet to tweet, LOL! So I resolve to figure it out this year, and use it!

Thank you, dearest Reader, for chasing after my dreams with me ... I hope each day of your 2015 is beautiful!

Roari

The Wrong Characters Are In My Head!

All day, while procrastinating with blog and Facebook posts, I've been trying to work on "The Shadow Society" - but I can't get in Sam's head today.  The most progress I've made is deciding The Shadow Society won't be the title.  Those words may be involved, but not in that order.  I don't know....

Instead of editing, I've been thinking about "The Land of All But Forgotten Things,"  I wrote lyrics to an imaginary song in my head, and then there's another character - Kaylie/Tah - who woke up today for some reason.  She's been out for well over a year, and then all of a sudden, here she is babbling away about her past lives, and their relevance to the story.

Charlotte Fairgrey has been bugging me as well.  And then there's Aria, and the whole world there on Isisterra.  It's past time to go back there.

There's a lot on my plate, but the sequel to The Shadow Watcher is what's coming next!

I hope you're having a beautiful day!
Roari

"The Land of All But Forgotten Things" is not forgotten! And other ramblings....

With Mother's Day approaching, my Kindle book of poetry, "In My Mother's Garden" is available for free today and tomorrow.

It includes the first portion of "The Land of All But Forgotten Things," which is an epic poem, or it will be when it is finished.

To be honest, when I started writing TLOABFT, I was bored.  The first four lines wandered into my head, and were hanging out there for a day or two, and then, one night, after the kids were tucked in, I decided to write start writing an epic poem in rhyming couplets.  For fun.  (Go ahead, call me crazy - I take it as a compliment.)  How the unicorn happened, I don't know.  Maybe we were watching The Last Unicorn? I don't remember, it was a long time ago.

The problem is, I keep getting stuck.  But today, I was thinking about it again, and I think I've been going about it all wrong.  I'm trying to write each couplet consecutively, or is it chronologically?  I need to focus less on the line by line, and just write lines, then put the pieces of the puzzle back together.  That's how most of my poems come to me, in pieces I fit together, so why should this one be any different?  I feel like a weight has been lifted!

So there's a big note now taped on my desk.  EIGHT LINES A DAY.  That's not much at all.  EIGHT LINES A DAY.  Doesn't matter where they go in the story, so long as they rhyme.  They can even be four couplets in four different sections.  EIGHT LINES A DAY.  If I can hold to that Monday through Friday, forty lines a week, well that would be more progress in one week than I've had in two years on this one.  I will let you know how it goes!

As far as what it will be when it is finished ... I love the idea of having it illustrated as a children's book, but that is beyond my personal capabilities.  Then, last year at the kid's book fair, I found "Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanhha Lai.  Totally different subject matter, but it is told all in poetry.  It is a beautiful telling of a sometimes painful and difficult journey, but at the same time a celebration of life.  You should read it.

It also inspired me into thinking a chapter format is more suitable for TLOABFT.  If that's the case, I suppose the excerpt from "In My Mother's Garden" is chapter one, the fairies would be chapter two, the centaurs chapter three, and so on.  Each of the "All But Forgotten Things" represented by its own chapter.  I still don't know if I can finish this year, even at eight lines a day.

I have a bad habit of doing that in my writing, starting things I don't know if I'll ever be able to finish.  (Yes, in other areas of life too!)  That's why I had to move on from Isiterra for awhile, because I'd lived there (in my head) for so long, I was starting to speak in Siyen and Malorian tongues to actual people.  But I think once The Shadow Society is finished, that vacation will be over.  I've been waiting too long to share my Aria's story, part of which is over at Writing.com.  Actually, I think the whole book is still there, but it needs to be rewritten, and I was planning to add three new chapters in the beginning - I think I only finished one of those. If you check it out, don't get hung up on titles, I still haven't decided on that, but I will definitely be working on that again this year.

Oh, wandering through my trove of ideas that need to be written is an adventure.  I could spend days here, but I need to get back to The Shadow Society (sneak peeks at WDC too!).  I hope you're having a beautiful day!

Roari