Writing: The Challenges

This is my post for Day 13 of the Author Blog Challenge.




What has been the most challenging part of your book process: writing, building the book, printing, distributing, marketing, etc.? What do you wish you’d known before you began?

My books are not at the printing and distributing stages yet, so I cannot accurately discuss how difficult or easy those stages might be. However, I can discuss other aspects of the book process.


Writing the book is not the most difficult part. I can say this even though I have not finished any of my books yet, because I love the writing part of the process. I enjoy creating something from nothing. I enjoy letting my imagination run free and creating people, creatures and entire worlds that have never before existed yet come to life as I write them.


"Building the book" is a process I associate more with non-fiction books. With my nonfiction book, I feel more like I am buiulding it and putting it together than imagining it into being. And I am finding it very difficult. But maybe, in the context of the question for the writing prompt above, building the book has more to do with having it bound and creating the Kindle and epub versions of it. I admit that I have not yet created a Kindle file and don't know anything about the process yet.


This post is a bit rambling, but I am not finding any of the processes mentioned in the question difficult, not really. I think the hardest thing about writing a book is believing in yourself enough to know that you can do it.


P.S. Yes, I already know that the above picture has nothing to do with this post topic, but it's cute, isn't it?

 
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Writing: Book Covers

This is my post for Day 12 of the Author Blog Challenge.

Describe your process for choosing and designing your book cover. Who created your cover? How did you find him/her? What do you love about your cover? What might you do differently next time?

This doesn't really apply to me as I don't have a cover for any of my books yet. Just for fun though, I took a photo from one of my husband's Fairy Magic photo manipulations and gave it the title of one of my short stories. (No, I do not intend to create my own book covers, but my books aren't finished yet, so it doesn't hurt for me to play.)

I do not know yet who I will have creating my book cover and, to be honest, I haven't even started looking for someone yet. My main goal right now is to get my books finished, edited and ready. Organizing a book cover for each of them will come later.

(P.S. The fairy above is one of my daughters, Angelica.)


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Lise & Nat: The Sun & the Night - a flash fiction story for the Forbidden Love Blog Hop

This is written for the Forbidden Love Blog Hop. This flash fiction challenge is stated as:

The phrase 'star-crossed lovers' was coined in the prologue of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life"

We're leaving the term open to interpretation.

You can put your own spin on a classic story

Create a modern retelling

Craft your very own modern star-crossed lovers.

Plus, you can close your story with any ending you like. Give your lovers a set of matching tombstones or a running chance at Happily Ever After. Their fate is in your hands!

It has to be 300 words or less.

Lyse & Nat:
A Story of a Forbidden Love Between a Fairy of the Sun & a Creature of the Night

300 words

Lise was a child of the Sun.  Its warmth and radiance favored her species of fairy, and she reveled in its light. One day, she was so engrossed in dancing and playing that the night fell upon her before she even realized it was getting late. Startled by the darkness creeping up and weakened from the lack of the Sun’s rays, she turned for home but found her way blocked.

A tall figure stood before her. His skin was pale and his eyes were dark. He wore all black, shrouding himself in a cloak of shadows. He smiled at her and she stared at the fangs peeking out from his smile.

She knew about vampires. Just as her fae kind could enchant and ensnare humans, these blood-drinking dark counterparts could also capture human minds through enchantment. Lise tried to move past the vampire, but tripped on a stone and stumbled.

His strong arms caught her, keeping her from falling. She lifted her gaze to his. Instantly, they were both ensnared in each other’s enchanted gazes. They kissed and sat speaking for hours. Lise learned that the vampire’s name was Nat. Nat learned that Lise loved to dance. They soon fell in love.

Before long, the Sun began to rise and Lise realized that her  beloved Nat was suffering. He could not live in her sun-filled world and she, a creature of the Sun, could not live in his eternal night. She cried out to her beloved Sun to help her but the Sun refused.

The spirit of the Forest heard her pleas and took pity on her. The Forest transformed Lise and Nat into oak trees, with their roots and branches forever entwined.  They would be together forever as trees, nourished by the sunlight yet never harmed by the night.

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A Siren's Tears - a flash fiction story for the Forbidden Love blog hop

This is written for the Forbidden Love Blog Hop. This flash fiction challenge is stated as:

The phrase 'star-crossed lovers' was coined in the prologue of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life"

We're leaving the term open to interpretation.

You can put your own spin on a classic story

Create a modern retelling

Craft your very own modern star-crossed lovers.

Plus, you can close your story with any ending you like. Give your lovers a set of matching tombstones or a running chance at Happily Ever After. Their fate is in your hands!

It has to be 300 words or less.

The Siren’s Tears

295 words

Princess Lenora often ventured near the ocean’s surface, rescuing sea creatures from fishing nets. One day fate intervened by placing him in her path. She had been tearing a fishing net apart, freeing the fish that were caught, when the net started rising to the surface.

She followed, completing her rescue just as she crested the surface of the ocean and that’s when she saw him.  He was one of the fishermen. His skin was bronzed from the sun and he had dark hair that fell loosely across his face, framing his warm brown eyes.

He didn’t move or call to the others, though, by the way he was staring, it was clear he could see her. She felt a strange warmth enter her heart and felt almost as if her heart would burst with the sudden feelings that filled it for this man before her.

She knew they were meant to be together, and, before she could even think about what she was doing, she began to sing. It was one of the old songs, one that had never been taught to her but had come to her now instinctually.

Unable to resist her charmed singing, her beautiful man climbed overboard, leaping from his tiny fishing vessel and into the water. She took him in her arms and, grabbing his hand, she led him below the surface. After a short while, she felt his grip in her hand go slack. She stopped swimming and turned to him.

His eyes stared unseeing into the distance. His breath had stopped moments ago and his heart had stopped beating along with it. Princess Lenora wept in sorrow at the loss of her love, and as her heart broke into pieces, she joined him in his watery death.

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