The Eleventh Day of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas,

This author offered me

Eleven Questions Answered,

Ten Sassy Moments,

Nine Tips for Writers,

Eight Printed Printings,

Seven Resolutions,

Six quotes from Rescue,

Five Giveaways!

Four Christmas wishes,

Three Rescues,

Two Free Zoom Visits, and

A title for book five series…

Before we begin, here are the eight winners of the “Printed Printings.”

*** Kylie *** Kay *** Hannah *** Aishwarya *** Amy F *** Mahitha *** Anna *** Monica ***

Okay, I couldn’t answer all of your awesome questions, but I tried to choose ones either that I see a lot, or that I think will have the broadest appeal to the most readers. They are in no particular order.

1.      Will there be more books in the Ascendance series?

Yes. Book 5 is titled THE SHATTERED CASTLE and it should be released in fall 2021. If you have read THE CAPTIVE KINGDOM (Book 4), then you know there are likely to be consequences for what happens at the end of that book. 

Will there be a book 6? Maybe. We’re discussing that now.

2.      What can you tell us about Black Ink?

Black Ink is a modern day story of a boy with no memory – he doesn’t even know his own name. He is in hiding, though he doesn’t entirely know the reasons for that either, only that the people looking for him are not his friends.

The one hope this boy does have is a Sharpie. Because when he writes on his forearm, if what he writes is true about himself, the ink stays on the surface of his skin. If it is not true, the ink soaks in. 

On weekends, he volunteers at the old folks’ home, because if he plays games with the old folks, they feed him. One day, he is playing Boggle and when he shakes up the Boggle set, this is what lands.

Black Ink should be released in 2022. And I know it’s a long time to wait, BUT this one has been in development for a very long time so on its overall journey, I’m so thrilled to get to begin talking about it.

3.      How do I handle writer’s block?

Writer’s block usually means your character doesn’t have enough problems right in the moment. Although there is an overarching story problem, in the immediate moment, your character is just standing there looking at you, asking what you want him or her to do. So the rule is: We are nice people, but we are cruel authors. When you get stuck, ask yourself, what is the worst thing that you can do to your character right then? Give your character an immediate new problem. That should usually break the writer’s block.

4.         Do I ever “dress up and act” as part of the writing process?

I don’t get into costume or anything, but I do come at writing from my background in theater. So the stories I write are generally in my head as a performance. I have to see and hear everything before I can put the words on paper.

So yes, for me, part of the process is internalizing the characters as I write them, almost so that if I had to get up and portray them on stage, I could. And I love doing that because imagining them that way requires me to ask certain questions that other writers might never address, such as:

• Where is the physical center of their body? (This speaks to the core of their energy. Is it their heart – their emotions? Their back – strength? Their head – their thoughts?)
• Where would they stand on stage? (Center stage – look at me! Upstage left – don’t look at me. Downstage – look at me before you look at anyone else.)
• What is their physical reaction to the entrance or exit of any other character in the story?

5.      What was the inspiration for RESISTANCE?

On a trip to Krakow Poland, I went into a Jewish cemetery where I was particularly struck by one specific grave marker. Two things about it bothered me. The first has to do with Rafal Goldberg’s death date and why it was different from the rest of his family. In other words, why did he survive when none of the rest of his family did?

The second was about the name Eugeniusz Kaczmarczyk. That is a Polish Christian name, and I wondered what a Christian name was doing on a Jewish grave marker. 

Those two questions bothered me enough that I had to go and look them up and when I did, I discovered the roots of the story that would become RESISTANCE.

6.  Is Chaya, in RESISTANCE, based off of any of my traits?

Chaya is based off the actual Jewish couriers who risked their lives for their people, all the while knowing they would eventually lose to the Nazis. I respect and admire those couriers to the extent that I would never compare any trait of mine to theirs, because I have never had to face what they did. If you want to learn more about the couriers, you can click HERE.

7. Do I have a favorite line from all of my novels?

This is hard, because there are so many to choose from. But I think the one that speaks deepest to me personally is:

“We proved that there was value in faith. There was value in loyalty. And that a righteous resistance was victory in itself, no matter the outcome. 

We got our three lines of history.”

This is part of why I believe that writing is such important work, and not just for me, but for everyone who has a story to tell. Because thoughts will eventually drift away. Words on paper live forever. They become part of our collective history.

8.  What is the best book I read recently?

This is also super difficult. I’m reading this right now, from Jennifer Jenkins, and so far it’s awesome!

9.  What is the age difference between Amarinda, Imogen, and Sage (and the other characters)?

In order, it goes like this…

Amarinda: June 26, in the nineteenth year of the reign of King Eckbert.

Imogen: Dec 9, in the nineteenth year of the reign of the King.

Roden: Jan 8, in the twentieth year of the reign of King Eckbert.

Tobias: March 14, in the twentieth year of the reign of the King.

Sage: May 7, in the twentieth year of the reign of the King.

10. What is the biggest challenge I’ve faced in writing?

This.

This is my stack of rejection letters as I tried to get published. Not all of them – that’s just since I started saving them. When I decided that I wanted to write, I literally was starting at square one. I had the instincts and the ideas in my head, but almost no experience or training, so the way I learned was to write. Submit my work, get rejected, then figure out how I could make it better.

There is an easier route, of course. Learn as much as you can now. Get your work critiqued now by people whose advice you can trust. Write and write and write.

Do you know that great line from Hamilton?  “I’ll write my way out….”

Well that’s what I did.

11.  How to do beginnings and endings?

Think about the beginning of your story as a promise to your reader. In those first few pages, you say, “This is a taste of what this story will be if you follow it with me to the end.” And the end of the story is you keeping your promise.

In that way, the beginning and ending should have some connection, like you’ve taken both ends of the ribbon and tied it all into a neat little bow.

I love starting my stories with the character in some sort of danger, or at least, the character in motion. The reason I do is because this immediately draws the reader into the story and begins from the first sentence to reveal character.

For example, when you first meet Sage, he has just stolen a roast and a butcher is chasing him. You automatically know a few things about him: First, that he is a risk taker. Second, that he doesn’t always think his plans through to the end. Third, that he has probably stolen before because he knows he’s going to get away. Fourth, that risk and adventure are fun for him. And so on.

This also immediately puts the reader on his side, because he is talking about stealing the roast to feed a lot of hungry orphans, because the butcher is clearly not a nice man, and because Sage is working hard for his win, so readers want him to succeed.

But an opening like that also closes with Sage taking the biggest risk of his life. He is fighting against someone who is not a nice man, and he has worked very hard to earn his win, so you want that kind of an ending for him. That is the tying of the bow.

Tomorrow, for Day 12, the final giveaway!