Cover Reveal - Shard & Shield

I have mentioned Laura VanArendonk Baugh more than once on my site here. Part of that is her stellar personality. I've met her more than once at the WWC convention here in Calgary, and I've friended her on FB. The other reason I tend to mention her is that I love her writing. The first time I met her, I was looking through books at WWC and got stupidly excited upon seeing the cover for her novel, Kitsune-Tsuki. I felt so embarressed when she asked where I'd seen them to be so excited and I had to tell her that it was Goodreads. If I remember correctly, I ended up picking up Kitsune-Tsuki and Kitsune-Mochi that night despite saying that I wasn't going to buy any books until the next day. I loved both and when I've sat in on panels of hers, I am always astounded by how knowledgable and personal she is. So when she asked in her newsletter if anyone would be willing to help with her cover reveal, I jumped at the chance! 

Shard & Sheild is the first in a new epic fantasy trilogy by Laura VanArendonk Baugh and will be out on July 2nd!

He can save her life—if he sacrifices himself and those he swore to protect.

I've been reading excerpts from this novel on Laura's feed for a while and I can't wait to pick up a copy! Also, if I may say, the cover is gorgeous and I'd be tempted to pick it up even if I didn't know that Laura is one of those tried and true authors whose work I love reading. The picture brings to mind a world on the edge of ruin with people thrown in a situation that they weren't really prepared for and having to fight just to survive and the orange hues pull me in. The winged one in the background is the clincher for me. I've already got it in my "Want to Read" file on Goodreads. 

Check out Laura's site for more details. Also, if you like the sort of "extra" items I put up on Facebook, think about giving her a follow. She puts up some of the best random/relevant news posts out there and her blogs are really great as well. 

The religion of Sian Ku

Most of the religions of my world tend to treat with each other like cats in a cage; while the fur does occasionally fly, for the most part, they live in peace. Some are more popular, some are less but none have any belief that non-believers are doomed or must be converted, which has cut down on most religious wars. In general, only those who remain outside the systems and choose to follow no religion are the only ones treated as social pariahs. It is almost universally believed that these people, atheists and agnostics alike, don't have a place to go when they die, that no gods will judge their souls and no one will weep for them at their graves.

Kuzunoha skates this edge and is part of the reason why she is treated with contempt and wariness in Hidan, despite her striking looks and family connections. Most of the priests in Hidan treat her with veiled contempt as well. However, since she has always been free with her money, all but the head priestess of the Sian religion in Hidan ignore her heathenish tendencies. That head priestess hates Kuzunoha, but since it's well known that she didn't like Kuzunoha before she took the position, she has simply taken to ignoring her completely, believing her lost and due any punishment she will receive upon her death. The only priest who seems to be straight out friendly is priest Bendigo, the jovial priest that Kuzunoha asks for a blessing in Hunter's Gambit. Though he hasn't told her this, he believes that she is not irreligious, but that she has been called to service by a deity that she hasn't found yet.

The Sian Ku have a vibrant religion, a tiered polytheistic system. On the lowest level are the multitude of  "little gods". Little gods are created by simple interaction. Every tree, rock, or animal has its own god or spirit and even man-made objects, such as favourite umbrellas or favourite plates can develop their own little god. Thus, the Sian Ku tend to hold nearly everything with a small amount of reverence, since you never know when you may be angering one of the little gods.

On the next tier are the ancestors. Although, they aren't gods, they are honoured and remembered through ritual. It is believed that after death, ancestors will continue to watch over their descendants, influencing their lives and the direction the family takes. Rebirth is allowed for ancestors who wish to return to earth to aid their families in a more physical way, though a few unpopular sects say that there is no rebirth, only a pit of flame in the center of the world for those ancestors who try to avoid their duty to their descendants.

Every Sian ku family has a deity that they are specifically devoted to. The reason why is explained in their creation story. At the beginning of the universe, the world was grey and lonely. Finally, the light rose above the dark, shedding light upon the world for the first time. With light, seeds, long sleeping in the soil, began to flourish. The gods created of this separation (the major deities) were pleased but saddened that there was no movement to the rest of the world. So each chose their favourite plants and plucked them from the earth, turning them into humans, so that they could explore the world created and lay their roots into every land. Every family honours the deity that they believe plucked their ancestors, oh so long ago.

All of the deities can be male, female, both or neither as they choose, though most have a preference that they adhere to. For ease, I've labelled them as their preferences below.

On the same tier as the ancestors, honoured, but usually not worshipped widely are the minor deities. These gods include the goddesses of battle and sacrifice, the deities of service (twelve in all) and Nandemo, Isashi's patron, the god of twilight and between places.

Above them are the major gods, which until recently were led by the goddess of law, Amiterri, Himiko's family's patron. Nearly a century ago, Tomi took over the position as leader of the gods, bringing chaos with him, but also untold wealth for a few. The other major deities are the god of love, the eightfold gods of misery (six male and two female), the thief (the only deity whose preferences are both or neither rather than a specific gender) and the Innkeeper gods, Kisenya, Yusenya and Tonoma, known as the gods of hospitality and guesting rules.

Next week, I'll discuss how the Sian Ku worship, their holy days and their guiding principles.

A reminder that I'll be at the Sunridge Chapters bookstore for a signing on June 9th, from 12-3pm. Please stop by to say hi or get your book signed if you haven't already.

Lastly, one of my favourite authors, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, has a new book coming out soon! All of the details, as well as a chance for you to check out her incredible cover will be going up on Tuesday. Come back to check it out!

That All-Important Detail...

As I work through editing my next book, tentatively titled Lord's Curse, I have found myself returning to my world building. Not to change it, but just to immerse myself in the stupidly large amount of information I have about this world that you guys will only see in tiny bits and pieces. One of those items is the religions of my world. 

Photo by JuniperPhoton on Unsplash. Picture of an Inari Shrine. 

I currently have four fully fleshed out religions for the world, one mostly worshiped by the Dreven like Deckard, one mostly worshipped by the Sian Ku characters like Himiko and Isashi, one worshiped by the Corvidae like Tieni and one worshipped in the land Richard came from. Richard's religion is actually unique in my world, at least so far, in that it is no longer worshipped just by the core people who created it. Due to the metropolis nature of Jiza, most religions are known and worshipped there, but the most popular by a landslide with all people who live in the country is that of the Courtesan. 

I have an excel document, four or five pages long, where I list important information, like the deities in each religion, the avatars, saints and holy people, how each thinks the world was created, whether there is a prophesied end, holy colours, how the church is treated, marriage and other life changes handled, clergy organization and even a few rituals and holy days as well as how general worship is done. 

I didn't need to go this far into the religions, but I have always been interested by real world religions, and its a place where I find that so many books fall short. So many authors have one religion world-wide and you can usually tell reasonably easily exactly which religion they chose to emulate. That always seemed limited to me, and so when I chose to write my novels, I naturally put my work into making that area fully fleshed out. While I don't discuss it too much in my first book, it tends to come up a bit in book two and I go much deeper into it in the third book. 

I'm sure that the authors who don't focus on religion probably focus on the things they enjoy reading about in their books. Things like how the military is run, how governments are run, magic systems, the biology of their world... heck, even the technology in their worlds. My thing is just religions and the mythology of the world.

What do you find the most interesting details that your favourite authors insert into their books? Also, would you like me to talk in detail about all four of the current religions of my world, specifically on my blog? If its something that you would find interesting, let me know! 

Also, just a reminder, if you're in Calgary, I am going to be signing books at the Sunridge Chapters Indigo on June 9th from noon to 3pm. If you're available, come by and see me, pick up a book, and/or get yours signed! I'll hope to see you there!

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

I remember the first story I ever wrote. It was for a class in grade three when I was all of seven or eight years old. Our class was told to write a story and it had to be at least one page long, both sides. I remember this story, not because I did particularly good on it or because I wrote fifteen times the amount. In fact, I can't remember what I got as a mark on it at all, although I think it did come in at a very respectable 3-5 pages, both sides. What I remember most is that I'd recently found out about tropes and decided to subvert one. I titled it, "It was a dark and stormy night" and my first line was, "It was a bright and sunny day".

I thought I was brilliant. Seriously.

The rest of the story was about a girl and her friend going bike riding into a park, not so subtlely filling in for the one near my house. It occupies around 43 hectares of land (about 106 acres for you folks from the States), bordering a river. Unsurprisingly, I hadn't gotten to explore it all yet, though I'd been there a few times already on school field trips and such.  In the story, the girl and her friend fell asleep after riding their bikes to exhaustion, only waking up after it was dark with a storm forming overhead. They ran for their bikes but my main character saw a house that she'd never seen before and they decided to take shelter in it. A witch lived inside, and she had cast a spell so that her house only showed up during dark and stormy nights and she tried to kill my protagonists. I think they escaped, but don't quote me on that. It was a bit of a horror and I remember that my teacher had a long talk with me after that class, asking how my home life was, why I'd written it and where I'd gotten my inspiration from, confusing me greatly since I was so proud of myself, despite my father shaking his head at me when I told him of my "brilliance".

Fast forward to grade 11 when my teacher told us to write a poem about rubber boots. I followed inspiration where it took me and ended up writing a poem about suicide using the idea of losing your boots as stumbles along that path before giving up and only realizing too late that they'd made the wrong choice. Again, I thought I was brilliant, making something amazing out of such a useless little prompt. Again, my teacher did the same thing, except when I was obviously pleased about my brilliance, she talked to one of our counsellors and refused to return my poem back to me, despite giving every other student in class the option to get theirs  back. I even asked after it specifically because I wanted a copy and hadn't kept one. I assume it went into my permanent file, just in case my happy demeanour was just a mask I used.

Not to say that I've never had mental health issues; I have and I still suffer from some of them. This post isn't about that. It's about the fact that I realized much later on, after writing multiple novels and short fiction, that my short fiction is either very dark or its erotica, which is overall a very oddly opposing set of points. Strangely, my novels are straight epic fantasy, with only touches of the dark and poignant to them. 

For that matter, I tried writing an erotic urban fantasy novel last year, but I couldn't make it work either. I thought it was mostly a problem with me not having enough of the story or world figured out. Honestly, while that was certainly true, I'm also wondering if I'm writing it too long. Perhaps what I really want is a short story or novella about these characters, rather than the novel-length story I thought I had. On the other side, I have a Dieselpunk novella that clearly wants to be the precursor to a string of novel/novella-sized stories set in my own version of World War II with dimensional aliens(because why not?).

What I'm getting at here is that I'm still learning things about my writing style and that's all to the good. I'm sure that as I get even more comfortable with my writing I'll start working faster, clearer and be able to get more done.

What about you? What's your favourite type of book to read, and do you know if you prefer a different genre in shorter fiction? What would you think about getting a Dieselpunk story of mine? 

In the meantime, if you're in the mood for something a bit darker than normal, perhaps I can recommend my short story, Fated to you. If lighter fantasy is more your mood, check out my novel, Hunter's Gambit. Either way, enjoy what you're reading. Life is too short to read books that clearly aren't your thing!

On Editing, and a Correction from Last Week

April has been a wonderful month for me so far, even if I am so far behind on my editing goal for Camp Nanowrimo that it's embarrassing. Not to say that I haven't been working on it. In the last three days, I edited three chapters and two of them had major rewrites needed. Which is actually something I'm not surprised by. 

When I was writing this book, I remember that the end was pretty well set in stone and I was writing to it. In the end, that made the book come out with a wishy-washy beginning and around the middle I finally seemed to hit my stride. There are still definite changes and fixes to make, but I have a lot of chapters that are going to essentially be a click and drag for editing, with a few minor lines edits thrown in. So, while the rough draft was getting a story down, this edit is all about making all of the parts awesome. 

If I end up doing the same thing I did last time, the next edit will be the story again, along with adding in detail, this time with an editors hand giving advice. After that, it goes back to the editor for a final all-around edit. When it comes back to me, I go through it with a full list of final minor changes and double check for any grammar issues that my editor may have missed. 

That said, this edit is going quickly. I'm already done about a quarter of the book. I'm hoping to have this edit done this month or next. Unfortunately, I do have some bad news there. My editor who did the work for Hunter's Gambit is no longer taking on editing clients anymore, which means that I'm going to have to do a lot of work, looking for a new editor. I wish her all the luck on her future endeavours, but I will miss the help she gave me with my novel. 

I'll keep you guys updated, but its my hope to get the next book, tentatively titled Lord's Curse, out to you guys this year, most likely just before Christmas. 

I would like to make one correction to last week's post. I mentioned the exciting news that I was going to be having a signing at one of the local Chapters bookstores later on in April. Unfortunately, that date has changed. The signing is still happening but will be on June 9th instead. On that note, I have been buying items for the signing date and I can't wait to show you everything as soon as I have some of the pieces in place. I will definitely make sure that I have pictures to post afterward!

Summer Camp as a Kid was Never this Fun

I may or may not have accidentally lost track of what day it was today... I thought I had an extra day to have this up. So, I apologize for being late and having this been a little bit short. I promise I'll try to have something better and less thrown together for next week. 

For this week though, I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart; Writing! 

April is the first of Nanowrimo's official events this year. Camp Nano, as it was officially dubbed, gives writers a chance to write or edit and unlike Nanowrimo itself, you can set your own goals. Think 50k is too much to finish? You can set your goal for 25k. Want to edit instead? Choose how many minutes or hours you'd like to edit (3000 is usually what is suggested if you're going for something similar to a 50k event). 

As with every year, I am taking part, though I expect that I won't make my goal. Give me November and I can get 50k done without too much trouble. Give me any other month and I'll struggle. I'm currently trying to work past my own limitations and get used to working on a creative endeavour so much. 

So, I can hear you asking, what is my goal for this month? 3000 minutes of editing, which comes out to 50 hours. I'm currently behind on that goal a little bit. I should be at 1200 min and I'm only at 825 minutes. I really need to buckle down, but I'm not horribly surprised. I celebrated my 11th anniversary with my husband on April 1st. My husband had taken some time off for it and we ended up fitting in leaving the city for a few days, so I knew that I would have to work to get caught up. 

The other thing you may be wondering is what I'm working on. I have made it no secret that I have written ahead in this. Book 2 and 3 are written in rough draft and I have started book 4, though it needs a lot of changes to make it match what I've written so far. This month specifically I'm working on editing book 2. I've finished my first round of editing last year and sent to beta readers. With their review, I've gone through the novel and have written down a full set of changes to make. 

Quite a few chapters will need very minor edits, but a few parts of the story essentially will need a full rewrite. I'm hoping to have this round finished by the end of April so I can start sending it to my editor for a professional run sooner rather than later. My current goal is to have book 2 out for you guys later this year, probably in November or December, but that's still very far off so don't quote me on that quite yet. 

On a separate note, I have some great news for everyone! I will be doing a public signing at a local Chapters! On April 28th, I will be at the Chapters near Sunridge (2555 32nd St NE, Calgary, Alberta, T1Y 7J6) from noon to 3 pm for a signing! Please stop by to see me and pick up your copy of my book! While you can currently pick up my book from Chapters, this signing is an important first step in actually getting my novel into stores to sell, so if you're in Calgary, please stop by! 

EDIT: Unfortunately, the date of the signing has changed. Due to circumstances, the signing will actually be held on June 9th. Sorry for the confusion!

A New Era Begins

Earlier this week, news broke that newest period of Japanese history would be known as the Reiwa 令和 period. In addition to being monumental in its own right, this was also the first time that many had heard that the current emperor, Akihito, had intentions to abdicate the throne at all, which is why I felt the need to talk about the new ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne. Please forgive me, as this article is less a personal discussion on changes, but an article I felt compelled to make to help present the information about the abdication in a concise and easy-to-digest manner. 

It was back in 2010 when the emperor first told his advisory council that one day he would like to retire. Six years later he made a formal request to do so. Since then the last two years have been spent speaking with everyone who could be considered as having a right to the throne and asking them to officially abdicate in favour of the preferred heir, Crown Prince Naruhito, and to prepare for the abdication process, which began officially on January 8th of this year.

Since then, both the current emperor and the crown prince have been preparing for the change in rulership, a process which picked up on March 12 when they began taking part in the private abdication ceremonies. Official celebrations will begin in late April-early May to coincide with not only the 30th anniversary jubilee arranged for the passing of the current emperor's reign but Golden Week, a week of holidays in Japan that feature no less than two emperors birthdays and Midori no Hi, also known as Greenery Day(April 29th), a holiday celebrated by showing one's love for plants and the natural world and to be thankful for their many blessings. On May 1st the new era will truly begin. On that day, the crown prince will become emperor, receiving two of the three imperial regalia as well as the Privy and State seals. His official enthronement ceremony will be held on October 22nd. 

As I said above, the new era will be known as  Reiwa 令和, a term that means Beautiful Harmony.  In reaction to some erroneous overseas reports, the Japanese Government felt the need to assure the world at large that they have no expansionistic designs or plans to try and force their beliefs upon the world at large, a fear that was brought up due to an alternate translation, part of which can also be used to mean "command" or "order" as well.

Personally speaking, while I am very excited about the prospect of seeing a new emperor enthroned and watching the changes that will come about from it, I remain filled with a sense of disappointment that Akihito's daughter, Sayako, will not be the next Empress of Japan. While the laws don't say that a woman can't be chosen as heir, the Japanese have had a preference for emperors, rather than empresses. In 2010 the point was made moot when Sayako married a long-time friend of the imperial family, Yoshiki Kuroda. At that time, according to the laws of Japan, she gave up her royal title of Nori-no-Miya (Princess Nori) and officially joined the Kuroda family. Even if she will never be empress, Sayako has done very well for herself, not only in completing her bachelor's degree in Language and Letters before becoming a research associate in 1998 but more recently as well, when she took over the position of the supreme priestess of Ise Shrine in 2012.