EOLYN

On Feminism and Fantasy

2012-01-24T08:09:00.002-06:00

Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.
– J.R.R. Tolkien, in reference to criticisms of The Lord of the Rings

Over at Heroines of Fantasy this week, our guest is Athena Andreadis, prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction, and author of the blog Starship Reckless.

I will be honest: Andreadis’ guest post is difficult to understand, but thought-provoking in its own way. Before you read it (or after), I would suggest visiting the blogs of Leo Grin and Joe Abercrombie. This because what Andreadis writes is essentially a criticism of the argument between Grin and Abercrombie, so to get a more-or-less full picture of the conflict, you may need to read all three posts.

Andreadis’ thought-provoking post on Heroines of Fantasy has had me. . .well, provoked in my thought.

Her primary criticism of Grin and Abercrombie focuses on the utter lack of women authors mentioned in their debate. A fair enough point, though I can’t help but think, with all due respect to Grin and Abercrombie, that in the end they are just a couple of guys (in the same way that I am just one gal), and that perhaps these two blog posts are not entirely representative of the full spectrum of dialogue on contemporary fantasy fiction.

But what really does not sit right with me is how Andreadis uses her displeasure with Grin and Abercrombie as a point of departure to discredit male writers of fantasy across the board. In her guest post, Andreadis portrays male fantasy authors as universally misogynistic, and argues that men offer little of interest to the genre as a whole. Her list of authors producing “bland [sexist] gruel” includes well-known and much admired names like J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin, both of whom have produced novels that in my humble opinion deserve a somewhat more complimentary qualifier than “bland [sexist] gruel”.

So I don’t think I can follow Andreadis down this particular road, though her commentary does have me thinking about women writers, women protagonists and feminism in the context of fantasy in general.

Having worked as a scientist for more than twenty years, and taught a few of my own courses on women and science, I am not new to feminist discourse. The different schools of feminist thought provide some very powerful tools to help decipher the social constructs that characterize our culture and history. Unfortunately, a feminist analysis of any discipline is an immense topic that cannot be squeezed into a single blog post, and feminism in fantasy is no exception.

Still, as I’ve ventured into the professional world of fantastic literature, I’ve noticed on the one hand, that certain barriers that exist for women in science are also faced by women in fantasy. That if you ask a reader to mention his or her favorite authors, women will almost invariably be in the minority. That stories featuring female protagonists are often perceived as “girl stories”, while stories featuring male protagonists are acceptable reading for everyone.

So it would seem, from this and other less anecdotal evidence, that sexism is alive and well in the field, and that those of us who boast feminist sensibilities have our work cut out for us.

On the other hand, I have had the pleasure of reading a rich variety of fantasy stories about women, written by both women and men. I have met and interacted with a long string of fantasy authors and editors, men and women, who are invariably excited about female protagonists and the crafting of ever more complex roles for the women in our stories. I've noticed that on the blog Heroines of Fantasy, which often has an overtly feminist tone, our most consistent and enthusiastic commentators have been men.

And when I explore the topic of feminism in fantasy literature, I come across compelling quotes like this one from scholar Elyce Rae Helford:

Science fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly as bridges between theory and practice. No other genres so actively invite representations of the ultimate goals of feminism: worlds free of sexism, worlds in which women's contributions (to science) are recognized and valued, worlds in which the diversity of women's desire and sexuality is honored, and worlds that move beyond gender.

So which is it?

Fantasy as a traditionally misogynistic endeavor where only the boys can play, or

Fantasy as the genre that actively promotes the goals of feminism like no other?

At this point in my journey with fantasy, I would say, six of one, half a dozen of the other.

I often claim to write in the tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin. That’s probably a little egotistical on my part, but these are two authors among many (including many women) whose work I greatly admire and try to emulate, albeit through a strong manifestation of my own voice and vision.

I know, just like every other woman who has read Tolkien, that his reknowned epic is characterized by a glaring absence of prominent female characters. And while Martin’s world has more to offer in terms of women players, I – like many other readers – have had my complaints about the way he writes his women.

But does that mean I must then denigrate these and other male authors who have committed similar “crimes” as writers of hopelessly bland sexist gruel?

Or can I respect and learn from their legacy, even as I forge a new future for the women of my own stories?

I have, of course, already answered these questions for myself.

Now I invite you to answer them as well.

You may also wish to see my previous post on Women, Epic Fantasy and George R.R. Martin.

Sir Drostan and the Tiger

2012-01-16T16:52:00.006-06:00

It's been a very long time since I've posted a new audio recording from Eolyn, so I thought I'd give everyone a treat this week -- including myself, because I really enjoy doing audio recordings!

This scene is from the Battle of Aerunden, which takes place toward the end of the novel. I'm very proud of the battle sequence, described in Publishers Weekly as 'vigorously told'. This particular excerpt focuses on a minor character, Sir Drostan, a mage warrior and loyal knight of the King. So you won't see much of Eolyn or Akmael in this scene, but I think you will enjoy it nonetheless.

In other news, author Kim Vandervort is up this week on Heroines of Fantasy, where she invites us to talk about how our tastes in fantasy have changed with the seasons of our lives. Please stop by to visit and join the discussion.

Now on to our feature presentation:

Hugo Award Nominations

2012-01-10T12:40:00.000-06:00

We've entered the season of nominations for this year's Hugo and Nebula Awards. In order to nominate, you must be registered as a supporting or attending member of WorldCon by no later than January 31, 2012. The deadline for award nominations is March 11, 2012. Please visit the WorldCon webpage for more information about registration and the nomination process.

Several Hadley Rille Books titles and artists, including EOLYN, are eligible this year for nominations. If you are a member of WorldCon and would like to consider Hadley Rille titles for nomination, you can contact editor Eric T. Reynolds for a free pdf copy of the title(s) that interest you. More information, including a complete list of eligible titles and artists, can be found at Eric T. Reynolds livejournal blog.

In other news, author DelSheree Gladden has finished reading EOLYN and posted her review this past weekend. "Eolyn was a beautiful story," she writes, "one I highly recommend." To read the full review, please visit Gladden's blog The Edible Bookshelf.

Last but not least, anyone up for a fun discussion should visit Heroines of Fantasy this week, where we are talking about the rules of magic, the foundations of magic, and magic as the "essential face of fantasy". Please stop by to read everyone's thoughts and share your own. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Have a great week!

Happy New Year

2012-01-03T22:42:00.005-06:00

Those of you who follow this blog will know that I took a little break between Christmas and now. I had an enjoyable holiday with family and friends; I hope all of you did as well.

I have some very exciting things going on elsewhere on the internet this week, so rather than keep you here, I'd like to direct you to a couple other places.

Author Delsheree Gladden has posted an interview with me on her blog The Edible Bookshelf. Delsheree asked a lot of thought-provoking questions about Eolyn, and I had a fun time answering them. Please stop by to read, comment and ask questions of your own. Here's the link:

Interview with Karin Rita Gastreich on The Edible Bookshelf

Also, my blog Heroines of Fantasy, with authors Terri Lynne-DeFino and Kim Vandervort, is off to a very active start for 2012 with a discussion about gods and religion in fantasy fiction. Please join us; it's been great fun, and we'd love to hear your thoughts and insights. Here's the link for that:

Of Gods and Prophecy

Today, the blog for Eolyn topped 10,000 hits. A very nice way to start the New Year. Thank you, all my regular and occasional visitors, and all the new people who have discovered this page in recent weeks, for your interest in Eolyn's journey, and in following my journey with her.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year!

A Little Story Telling Magic

2011-12-23T22:23:00.000-06:00

Time, once again, for my Christmas Eve fireside reading. I was a little indecisive as to which scene I wanted to read this year, so I've asked readers of EOLYN what they want to hear, and the winning excerpt is the 'Gingerbread House' scene from Chapter 2. This is one of my favorites as well, so it's been a delight to come back to it. After listening to the excerpt, if you'd like to read the entire chapter, it's available on this site -- just click the CHAPTER TWO tab above.

No announcements this week. Well, I suppose I could come up with something, but I'm not going to because it's Christmas; time to take a break and enjoy our weekend with friends and family, and to indulge in a little story telling besides. . .

Wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas and New Year's season, and many magical adventures to come.

EOLYN on Adopt-an-Indie

2011-12-21T00:46:00.002-06:00

I'm a little delinquent on my post this week. The end of the semester has been particularly hectic at Avila this fall, but I'm done now and ready to enjoy the holidays.

Sometime in the next few days, I'll be posting my annual Christmas reading. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to use yet, so if there's anything special that you'd like to hear me read from EOLYN, please just post your request in the comments.

I also noticed recently that I don't have an audio recording from the battle sequence up on this blog yet, which came as a surprise to me. I thought I'd already posted one, but oh well. All this means is that you will be treated to a battle scene at some point in the near future, perhaps in early January.

This week, I'd like to point you toward something special: the audio recording of Adopt-an-Indie's blogtalk radio show. The show was hosted by Donna Brown just this past Monday, December 19, and included about ten authors. I encourage you to listen to the whole show; I found it very interesting and came across some promising new reads to boot. But if you're pressed for time and want mostly to listen in on my 10 minutes, look for them about half way through the show (about 55 minutes into it). Here's the link:

Christmas Special: BBCN Hosts Adopt-an-Indie Month

In other news, Donna Brown's blog Bookbags and Catnaps is hosting a contest among indie novels. Please stop by and show your support for EOLYN by 'liking' the novel. There are many other great titles as well, and you can vote for more than one, so feel free to 'like' away. (I certainly have!) Voters have the chance to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate. More details at this link:

Adopt-an-Indie: Indie Book Love

That's all I have for you this week. Thanks so much for stopping by, and please check back in a few days for the Christmas reading from EOLYN.

Christmas Treats

2011-12-12T15:39:00.003-06:00

Looking for a break from the holiday madness? Join us this week on Heroines of Fantasy, where author Kim Vandervort invites everyone to Pause, breathe and read.

Speaking of holiday madness. . .

Just when I thought EOLYN updates might be slowing down as we approach Christmas, I actually have a lot of exciting news to share this week.

New customer reviews have gone up on Amazon, including this assessment from SavoirNoir:

Eolyn...is quite a change in pace in the epic fantasy. For one thing, it's quite iconoclastic in its treatment of sexuality, especially women's. For another, it has a well-thought-out and different magical system that though reminiscent of Raymond E. Feist, but has made it all her own. The journey of the eponymous heroine is at times harrowing, amusing, sensual but always human. Add to that a spash of Spanish realism that at times feels like Marquez and you have a quite different first novel that satisfies, in its own way, the many various tropes of an epic fantasy; Babe in the woods (literally!), revenge, sweeping war, and coming of age, even as it plucks with a more modern tone at the concepts of love and sex.

To read more customer reviews, please visit Eolyn's page on Amazon. And remember, Kindle and Nook editions of Eolyn are available for just $2.99 through the holidays!

One week from today, on December 19, I'll be participating in Adopt-an-Indie's blogtalk radio show, starting at 8:00pm EST. There is a great line-up of authors for this event, including our recent guests on Heroines of Fantasy, Carlyle Clark and Suki Michelle. Clark's and Michelle's spot will be at 8:20 EST; my slot (really, EOLYN's slot) will be at 9:00pm EST. Please mark your calendars with the date and time, and share the news with friends.

Now for the really great news: I was delighted to learn this past weekend that a pitch I wrote for the sequel to EOLYN, entitled HIGH MAGA, won first place in the Best Pitch Contest at thenextbigwriter.com In drafting the pitch, I had a lot of great feedback from authors and reviewers at tNBW, so a big thank you to everyone for all your help and support.

To celebrate, I'm posting the winning pitch for HIGH MAGA this week. I'd thought to put this off a little longer, but what the hey -- It's Christmas. This marks the first official preview of the sequel to appear on this blog. (Drumroll, please!)

HIGH MAGA follows the story of Eolyn, a courageous and fiercely independent woman whose struggle to restore magic is set against a complex background of political intrigue, impossible love and pending war.

Eolyn, the last of the High Magas, founds a new coven in the isolated province of Moehn. The young girls she trains will, she hopes, revive a millennial tradition of women's magic.

Akmael, the new Mage King of Moisehén, must defend his land against invasion by the Syrnte, whose witch-queen has summoned long-banished creatures of the netherworld to aid her conquest.

When the Syrnte army descends upon Moehn, Eolyn's school is burned and her students killed, captured or scattered. Aided by Borten, a loyal knight of the king to whom she is increasingly drawn, and the devious and untrustworthy Mage Corey, Eolyn must escape the occupied province and deliver to Akmael the weapon that might secure his victory.

Their collective journey will test the limits of love and endurance, until Eolyn comes to understand -- perhaps too late -- that she also carries the shadow that could unleash Akmael’s doom.

. . .If you are among the growing number of readers anxiously awaiting the sequel to EOLYN, you'll be pleased to know that HIGH MAGA topped 90,000 words last week, and is scheduled for release in 2013.

Thank you very much for stopping by. I hope everyone has a great week.

EOLYN Past, Present and Future

2011-12-05T16:12:00.001-06:00

This week on Heroines of Fantasy, I revisit one of my favorite holiday topics, ETA Hoffman's The Nutcracker Prince and the Mouse King. Please stop by to read the post, and join authors Kim Vandervort, Terri-Lynne DeFino and I as we celebrate Stories of Christmas Past.

Also, Hadley Rille Books is offering the Kindle edition and Nook edition of EOLYN for just $2.99 through the holidays. Magical reading at a fantastic price. Take advantage of this great offer while it lasts.

December has only just begun, and already I am reflecting on 2011 and thinking forward to 2012.

2011 has been a great year for EOLYN. Since we celebrated her birthday with Hadley Rille Books on May 7, the novel has sold to an international audience in hardcover, paperback, Kindle and Nook format, including readers from North America, Europe, Central America, Australia and Asia. (And if there are other regions of the world where she is being read that I haven't mentioned, please by all means, let me know!)

Some particularly memorable highlights from EOLYN's debut:

In April of this year, Publisher's Weekly gave the novel the following review: Though Eolyn becomes the hope of a rebellion, she never has to carry the whole weight of the story; Akmael, the "witch" Ghemena, and other characters develop many intriguing facets. Gastreich allows her heroes to have flaws--including moments of cowardice--and some victories bring new sorrows. Vigorously told deceptions and and battle scenes will satisfy fans of traditional epic fantasy with a romantic thread.

At the end of that same month, students at Avila University received a special preview of the novel at our Pre-Launch Party. The Launch Party on May 7 was held at the Writers Place in Kansas City, Missouri, and attended by an enthusiastic crowd, including guests from Chicago, Washington DC, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Since then, EOLYN has made appearances at several booksignings and conferences, including Powell's Books in Portland OR, Prospero's Books in Kansas City, Who Else! Books in Denver CO, the KU Bookstore in Lawrence KS, ConQuest, Bubonicon, the Campbell Conference, and the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego CA. The novel has also been favorably reviewed by book bloggers and authors such as Eliabeth Hawthorne, Carlyle Clark and Dane Grannon, as well as by customers on Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Goodreads. (By the way, if you have read EOLYN but have not yet posted a customer review, please take a moment to do so. Help other readers decide if this is magical medieval fantasy is the right story for them.)

EOLYN has also been added to the collections of public libraries across the United States. (If it's not yet available in your library, please take a moment to request it. Help make this epic fantasy, with its strong female protagonist, available for everyone's enjoyment.)

So, what do we have planned for 2012?

Well, I'm just beginning to answer that question. I would like to visit some new cons next year, and have put LunaCon, ConQuest, WorldCon and MileHiCon on my calendar for the moment. In the next few days, I intend to meet with my editor regarding book signing venues, and will keep you posted about that. Also, watch for more editorial reviews of EOLYN in coming months. And there will be some special events and surprises. . .that I have to keep under wraps for the moment.

2012 is also the year in which I plan to finish the sequel to EOLYN, scheduled for release in Fall of 2013. Interested in a sneak preview of book two? Keep your eyes on this site. . .

The Magic of Flight

2011-11-16T08:13:00.001-06:00

In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Serafina Pakkala, like the other witches in her world, achieves the power of flight with branches of Cloud Pine. I really liked this idea when I read the trilogy, and so adapted it for Eolyn's world.

Flying is not nearly as easy for the Magas as it is for Serafina Pakkala. (Nor, for that matter, is it as easy for them as it is for Harry Potter and his friends.) It requires integrating the power of the staff of High Magic with the magic of flight found in a particular kind of fir tree. The fir's capacity for flight, in turn, is released by brewing together special herbs and a mushroom that appears only in spring, called white magenta. The process is described in detail in Chapter 15 of Eolyn, when the young maga prepares to return to the land of her birth, after many years of growing up in exile and isolation.

I'd love to be able to simply snatch a branch off a tree and lift up into the air, but me, I need a jet plane to fly. Which isn't a bad way to do it, really. This weekend I'll be getting on a jet plane and travelling to Europe to visit friends and family, and to pay my last respects to my maternal grandmother and all the wonderful memories she gave me during her long and fruitful life. I'm not sure how consistent my internet access will be during my travels, so you may not see a post here for a couple weeks; say, between now and December 1.

However, there will be a lot of exciting things happening over Thanksgiving -- some, in fact, happening right now -- that I want you to be aware of.

This week on Heroines of Fantasy, Terri-Lynne DeFino has us writing a collective story about Maia and the magic/horror of light. Come join the fun; read the crazy twisting tale we've crafted so far, and add your own five lines as the muse inspires.

Speaking of Terri-Lynne DeFino, the Kindle edition of her wonderful novel FINDER is being offered for a special price of $2.99. This is a limited time offer, so take advantage of it while it lasts. The sequel to this book, A TIME NEVER LIVED, will be available next summer, which makes now a great time to read the first book, if you haven't already.

During the week leading up to November 29, Hadley Rille Books will be celebrating its birthday with special offers on all its titles, and even giveaways -- yes, you understood correctly, FREE books -- for selected novels. For regular updates on this great event, you can friend Eolyn on Facebook, or check in on the Hadley Rille Books website. You may want to start browsing some of Hadley Rille's titles now.

Next Monday on Heroines of Fantasy, author Kim Vandervort will be up with her regular monthly post. Then, on Monday November 28, we have some very special guests: Carlyle Clark and Suki Michelle, co-authors of the awesome sci fi and fantasy adventure, THE APOCALYPSE GENE.

That should be enough to keep you all busy and entertained while I'm out of town. I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving week next week, and I look forward to seeing you back on this blog in December.

A Season of Loss

2011-11-08T15:19:00.002-06:00

Anni Kircher with her daughters Uschi and Helga

Well, it’s been a rather difficult semester this fall. About a month ago, my childhood home burned down. Last week, my maternal grandmother passed away. The first event was quite unexpected; the second, while expected, brought on a much deeper sadness.

When we went to visit the remains of my childhood home, it was eerie in many ways, seeing what had once been the ‘safe place’ of my youth charred and gutted by flames. I couldn’t help but remember Chapter One of EOLYN, where my protagonist's village and home are consumed by fire. I thought that a curious coincidence.

Now, the death of my grandmother has me thinking about Eolyn on deeper levels. Last week on my livejournal blog I wrote a brief reflection about Oma Anni’s life, the courage and determination that helped her survive two great wars, and the stories from that time that have most resonated with me over the years. The trials faced by my grandmother in World War II – as a mother of two young girls, alone amid chaos – had a strong influence on me growing up, and colored my view of war and warfare in ways that I think are irrevocable.

I’d like to write a longer post on this at some point, but for the moment I’m too emotionally tired to think through it all coherently. Suffice it to say that I suspect Ghemena’s intense loathing of war, an attitude inherited by her ward Eolyn, somehow has its roots in these stories told by my family.

There’s another element here: Growing up among a family that knew the reality of war -- not so much as soldiers, but as civilians, as women and children – can have a tremendous impact on one’s world view. This was a situation that set me apart, I think, from many of the children I grew up with in the United States; and having had that experience, I now believe, helped me understand Eolyn in ways I might not have otherwise when the time came to write her story.

Well, that almost suffices for a full post right there. Unfinished thoughts, I suppose, are better than no thoughts at all.

Just a few announcements for this week:

On Heroines of Fantasy, we are discussing Villainesses and Anti-Heroines. Also, I have a special treat there: an audio-recording of scenes from my short story ‘Creatures of Light’. Please stop by to have a listen and join in our discussion.

Author Eliabeth Hawthorne has posted a new review of EOLYN for Adopt-an-Indie Month. You can read and comment on her review of EOLYN either on her blog Ermilia, or at the Adopt-an-Indie website. Also on the Adopt-an-Indie website, Eliabeth has posted an author interview with me, in which I talk about the challenges and rewards of writing EOLYN, and the advantages of publishing with a small press.

Signed copies of EOLYN, both hardcover and paperback, are now available at the Avila University Bookstore, 11901 Wornall Road, Kansas City, MO.
If you're curious to learn more about my grandmother’s life, you can read my dedication to her at my livejournal blog.

Wishing everyone a good week.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T08:01:00.002-05:00

I had a special Halloween treat this week, with two more customer reviews appearing on Amazon.

From W. Anderreg: "The world was intricate, believable, both sinister and wonderful, and with a rich history."

And from Johnny F: "Personally i would read the next 10 books from KRG, on the chance that i enjoyed just one of them as much as i enjoyed this."

To read the full reviews from both these Amazon customers, as well as other reviews that have been posted, please visit the Amazon Customer Review Page for EOLYN.

We just got back from a great weekend at the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego, CA. I met many talented authors, participated in a panel on Exploration in Fantasy, listened to interesting discussions, and brought home a new stack of novels for my book shelf. Also, we spent quality time with some good friends from college, explored tide pools along the sunny coast, and visited the San Diego Zoo. All in all, it was a wonderful trip.

November is Adopt-an-Indie Month, and EOLYN will be featured along with other titles from independent presses and authors. New reviews will be made available every day, along with blog posts from authors and publishers about the "indie" experience. I will let you know when the review for EOLYN is up, but keep an eye on the web site, as it is bound to be a source of a lot of interesting information during the month of November.

This week we have a new guest on Heroines of Fantasy. Terra Whiteman, author of The Antithesis, is sharing her thoughts on duality in fantasy. Please stop by to read Terra's post, and share your comments and insights on the topic.

Those are the updates for today. Again, Happy Halloween to everyone and have a great week!

World Fantasy Convention is this week!

2011-10-24T11:22:00.000-05:00

Lots of exciting activities with the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego this week.

I will be at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore this Wednesday, October 26, for an informal Meet and Greet the Authors of World Fantasy event. It should be a very fun evening; lots of great titles will be available for purchase and signing, including EOLYN. If you are in the neighborhood, please stop by for a visit. The fun starts at 6:30pm.

Another event open to the public is the mass autograph session at the World Fantasy Convention (Town and Country Resort and Convention Center, 500 Hotel Circle North). The evening will feature all the authors at World Fantasy; so bring your favorite books to sign, and be prepared to take more great titles home with you. I will be participating, of course, along with several other Hadley Rille Books authors.

For those of you attending World Fantasy, please join us on Friday at 10am for the panel discussion "Bring Me That Horizon: The Exploration of Untrod Lands as a Fantasy Theme". I will be a panelist along with authors Grania Davis, Michael Stackpole and Sean Llewellyn Williams. Joshua Palmatier will be moderating.

In other news, Heroines of Fantasy this week is featuring M.C. Chambers, author of SHAPERS' VEIL. Please stop by to read M.C. Chambers' post on matriarchs, and participate in the discussion.

Have a magical week!

October Cons and Festivals

2011-10-17T11:59:00.003-05:00

This has been a busy month for EOLYN.

Last weekend, we were at the Longview Literary Festival in Lee's Summit, Missouri. It was a great afternoon. Talked with old friends, met new ones, learned about some of the other writers groups in Kansas City, read and listened to stories, participated in a panel discussion, and all in all had a lot of fun. Many thanks to the organizer Susan Satterfield for making it all happen.

On Oct 21-23, signed copies of EOLYN will be available at Mile High Con in Denver, CO. Look for Who Else! Books among the vendors.

Next week -- yes, next week already! -- is World Fantasy in San Diego. I am so looking forward to this conference! Events will kick off the evening of Wednesday, October 26, with a Meet and Greet the Authors Event at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego. I'm also doing a panel or reading or something like that at the con itself, but the program hasn't been posted yet, so I can't give you the details. I guess I'll just show up and take it as it comes. When in doubt, look for me at the bar. I will also be at the book signing party, along with several other Hadley Rille Books authors.

Speaking of Hadley Rille Books authors, this week on Heroines of Fantasy, Terri-Lynne DeFino has put up a fun post about the use of horses in fantasy fiction. Stop by Heroines of Fantasy to read Terri's post and join in on the discussion.

That's the news for the moment. I'm toying with the idea of doing a holiday raffle for EOLYN; stay tuned for more news about that. And congratulations, once again, to Jared Lemons for winning a free signed copy of EOLYN as part of the Heroines of Fantasy Grand Opening Raffle.

Wishing everyone a great week. Thanks so much for stopping by!

New Reviews and Good News

2011-10-10T15:32:00.000-05:00

EOLYN has two new customer reviews on Amazon.

From JElizabeth: "Young readers will love the brave heroine and the thread of adventure that runs through the novel; adults will appreciate the social, political, and romance elements."

From kenaparsons: "Gastreich's careful crafting of the friendship of Achim and Eolyn makes their bonds of devotion a power not eclipsed by political ambition, cruel sadism and thirsts for revenge. This is artisan storytelling at its finest - evokes yet transcends a tradition and confronts themes relevant to the reader within an alternate universe."

To read more from these as well as other customer reviews, please visit EOLYN's web page on Amazon.

In other news, this weekend I'll be at the Longview Literary Festival. This two-day event will feature panel discussions, book signings, workshops and more. I'll be participating in the following activities on Saturday, October 15: Meet and Greet the Authors, Hadley Rille Reading, and the Panel Discussion "Self-Promotion 101". Believe it or not, exact times are still up in the air, but the day will run from 10am to 6pm, and I'll be hanging out doing stuff the whole time. Also, Hadley Rille Books will have a table, so please stop by to talk to Hadley Rille editors and authors, and to browse a great collection of Hadley Rille titles. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Last but certainly not least, discussion is fast and furious once again this week on Heroines of Fantasy. Please stop by to read Kim Vandervort's post How Much Reality is Too Much in Epic Fantasy, and share your thoughts with us while you are at it.

Love and Sex in a Heroine's World

2011-10-03T12:01:00.000-05:00

What are our expectations when it comes to the love lives of our heroines? Read my take on this question as it relates to Eolyn, and share your thoughts with us and other visitors this week on Heroines of Fantasy.

Here's a preview:

Women with multiple lovers are often called “fickle”, “inconstant” and “weak”, or any number of much more uncomplimentary words, but does calling them all these things make it so?

Is a female protagonist with multiple lovers by definition weak?

When I began crafting the world of Eolyn, I had it very clear in my head how sex, and especially women’s sexuality, would be seen by the subculture of the Magas (the particular tradition of witchcraft that Eolyn inherits). . . READ MORE

Interview with 1889 Labs and Other News

2011-09-26T08:08:00.000-05:00

1889 Labs interviewed me last week. If you'd like to learn a little about what inspired Eolyn, the challenges of writing a novel, and other fun facts about my life as a writer, please visit the 1889 Labs Blog.

This week is your last chance to register to win a FREE signed copy of Eolyn from Heroines of Fantasy. Visit their Grand Opening Raffle Web Page to find out more, or just send your name and email address to women.writing.fantasy(at)gmail.com. The drawing is on October 1.

Also this week on Heroines of Fantasy, Hadley Rille Books editor Eric T. Reynolds writes a guest post about how HRB began publishing fantasy. Visit Heroines of Fantasy to read more, and while you're at it, feel free to ask Eric questions about small press, editing and publishing in general.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great week!

Fantasy: A Love Story

2011-09-19T09:51:00.000-05:00

Stop by Heroines of Fantasy to read Terri-Lynne DeFino's great post on keeping the magic alive, and tell us how your love story with fantasy began.

While you're there, don't forget to register to win your free, signed copy of the novel EOLYN. Visit our Grand Opening Raffle page for more information, or just send your name and email address to women.writing.fantasy(at)gmail.com, and we will put you in the basket. The drawing is on October 1, 2011.

This weekend, I will be at Wordstock Poetry Festival, along with M.C. Chambers, author of SHAPERS' VEIL. We will be sharing a table and will have copies of our novels and anthologies available for signing and purchase. In the evening, there will be a bonfire and poetry for all. This is shaping up to be a really fun event, so I hope to see some of you there!

We now have an anticipated release date for the sequel to EOLYN: October 2013. I'll be posting more news about that on this site in the coming weeks, so please stay tuned...

Heroines in Epic Fantasy

2011-09-12T07:45:00.000-05:00

Kim Vandervort, author of THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS and THE NORTHERN QUEEN, has posted a wonderful essay on defining the heroine in epic fantasy on our new blog Heroines of Fantasy.

Here's a sneak preview:

"The problem with 'traditional' female characters in epic fantasy, as I see it, is that they fall into one of only a few roles: the goodly matron, the healer, the love interest, the witch, the prostitute, and the victim. Sometimes they fulfill more than one of these roles at a time. She’s a witch AND a goodly matron! She’s the prostitute AND the victim AND the love interest! 5x bonus for a character who manages to meet all of the stereotypes at the same time! Unfortunately, she doesn’t play much of a role beyond that prescribed for her by the genre. Our “heroine,” even when she wields a sword like a badass, still swoons over our hero and falls apart like bad toilet paper whenever the going gets tough.

Heads-up, people: these are not real women. In order to write a proper heroine, the author has to respect the characteristics that make women strong and use those to advantage instead of trying to force the heroine to occupy a stale stereotype or squish into the role traditionally occupied by the hero..."

To read more and share your own comments and insights, stop by Heroines of Fantasy.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Heroines of Fantasy launches this week

2011-09-05T12:52:00.000-05:00

Our first post for the new blog Heroines of Fantasy is up. Here's a preview, written in response to this month's theme "Why Fantasy?":

"...For colleagues who know me through my day job as a biology professor, the revelation that I am also a fantasy author seems all the more puzzling. Why would a scientist write fantasy? I think the perception that this is somehow contradictory stems from our cultural tendency to assume it is the career that defines the person, and not the person who defines her career.

But also, I think we tend to forget that fantasy and science, although very different endeavors, nonetheless respond to very similar needs..."

To read and comment on the full post, visit Heroines of Fantasy.

Also on Heroines of Fantasy, register this month to win a free signed copy of Eolyn with our Grand Opening Raffle. The raffle will be held on October 1, 2011.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope to see you at the new site!

Tomorrow We Ride South Together

2011-08-28T18:49:00.004-05:00

The title for today's post is taken form a quote out of a soon-to-be-famous book by a largely unknown author. I chose it because it marks the end of one journey and the beginning of another; a new adventure that will not be undertaken alone, but in the company of good friends who share a common vision.

It seems an appropriate quote for this particular moment in my internet life. Next week, I will get on my virtual horse and trot over to another corner of the e-universe to begin a new project with fellow authors and esteemed Magas Terri-Lynne DeFino (FINDER) and Kim Vandervort (THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS, THE NORTHERN QUEEN).  Our project, entitled Heroines of Fantasy, is a new blog dedicated to the discussion of fantasy fiction in general, and women in fantasy in particular. I wrote about this last week as well; if you'd like a preview of the new blog, please click HERE.

It's been about a year and a half since I started this blog for EOLYN, and while I'm very excited about the new project, it's a bittersweet moment to be letting go of my weekly posts on this site. I've really enjoyed sharing the backstory of EOLYN: the history of Moisehén, the structure of its magic, the landscape in which its people live. It's also been fun relating the journey of publishing this novel with Hadley Rille Books. In a very real way, this blog has documented one of the most exciting periods of my life, and to be able to share it with all of you -- to feel your support and enthusiasm while bringing my first novel to press -- has made it a truly unforgettable experience.

To give you an idea of how far Eolyn has journeyed since I started posting, here are a few fun figures:

Since its inception in May of 2009, the blog for EOLYN has received nearly 8000 hits.

The countries most represented in terms of visitation have been the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Costa Rica (pura vida, mis amigos Ticos!), Australia, Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Slovenia and France.

The top five most popular posts to date have been:

Middle Magic

Women, Epic Fantasy, and George RR Martin

The Nutcracker Prince and the Mouse King

Epic Love

Strong Female Protagonists

To learn what people are saying about EOLYN, check out the reviews on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Goodreads.  You can also read the full text of the Publishers Weekly review of EOLYN on this site. I have been very pleased with how people are responding to the novel; there's nothing more fulfilling for a story teller than to know you are telling a good story.

In so many ways, Eolyn's journey has only just begun, so while I will no longer be posting regularly on this blog, the story does not end here. You can still come to this site for announcements and updates about events and signings, or friend Eolyn on Facebook to learn what con, bookstore or library I will visit next.

In the coming weeks, I will probably reorganize this site to make the existing information more accessible to new visitors, so that http://eolynchronicles.blogspot.com/ will remain the best place to go for inside information about the novel and the world in which Eolyn lives.

And, if you would like to embark on a larger journey through magic and fantasy -- one that will include discussion not only about the world of Eolyn, but about many other worlds and their heroines besides -- please get on your virtual horse (or whatever your prefered method of fantasy transport is: dragon, damselfly, magic carpet...) and 'ride south' with Kim, Terri and me to our new blog Heroines of Fantasy. I know you will not be disappointed.

I want to thank everybody who has followed this blog over the last year and a half. Your comments, support and readership have meant the world to me.  Thanks to you, the novel EOLYN is off to a grand start. I look forward to seeing you next week at our new location, http://heroinesoffantasy.blogspot.com/, where we will begin brewing up some special magic just for you.

Something Good This Way Comes

2011-08-20T14:22:00.003-05:00

I have some very exciting news. In the next couple of weeks -- on September 5, to be exact -- I will be launching a new blog with fellow fantasy authors Kim Vandervort and Terri-Lynne DeFino. Entitled Heroines of Fantasy, this will be a new forum dedicated to lively discussion of all aspects of fantasy fiction, and especially women in fantasy fiction.

Kim, Terri and I will take turns posting, and we will bring in guest bloggers once or twice a month -- editors, authors, and artists in the field -- so be prepared for a wide variety of perspectives on and experiences with this wonderful and varied genre that we call fantasy. We also hope that you, the reader, will take time to participate in those discussions and share your thoughts, insights and inspirations.

As Heroines of Fantasy gathers steam, I will be moving away from regular posts on my blog for EOLYN. This website will remain, so that readers can access it as a repository of information about the history and magic of Moisehen, as well as the writing and publishing of the novel itself. I will also keep the list of events up-to-date, and will likely post special news bulletins once in a while.

But if you want to continue reading the kinds of posts you have seen on my blog for EOLYN on a weekly basis -- now expanded in terms of breadth of topics and diversity of perspectives -- I encourage you to visit and follow Heroines of Fantasy. I know you will not be disappointed with everything Terri, Kim and I have planned for the new site.

A couple other news briefs for this week:

Signed copies of EOLYN will be available next weekend at Bubicon in Albequerque, NM, Aug 26-28. Look for Who Else! Books among the vendors.

The date and time has been set for the Dead Horse Society's Annual Reading, this year entitled Emergence. Ten authors from this Kansas City Area speculative fiction writers group, including me, will be presenting short works on Saturday, September 10, at the Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Missouri. I will be reading from a story entitled 'Born of Fire', written as part of my Spring 2011 Andrews Writers Residency. Those of you familiar with Eolyn lore will be interested to know that 'Born of Fire' features a scene from the life of Briana, when she was a young maga as as yet untried by love and war. There will also be copies of EOLYN available for purchase and signing. This is the third year we have done this event, and it is always a great evening with lots of wonderful story telling, so I hope you will stop by if you are in the area.

I'm starting the gear up for World Fantasy in San Diego at the end of October. More details to come on that...

Have a great week!

Landscape and Characters in the World of FINDER

2011-08-14T10:48:00.000-05:00

This week I'm very happy to host guest blogger Terri-Lynne DeFino, author of FINDER and the soon-to-be-released A TIME NEVER LIVED. The world of FINDER is similar to our Mediterranean in climate and geography. Here, Terri-Lynne talks about how she constructed her world, and the impact of her landscapes on the characters that inhabit them.

***

Getting the map right is one of the things many budding fantasy writers don't take into account when worldbuilding. I know I didn't. An Arctic tundra two weeks walk from balmy swampland? No problem! Except there is.

When creating a world, some things are generally taken for granted. There is one sun, usually one moon (the tidal kerfuffle two or more cause alone is not worth the coolness factor.) Both are similar distances from our worlds. The size of the world, the land to water ratio, the atmosphere and size of land masses will be largely similar to our own. There are those writers who go the extra lengths to create wholly unique worlds with strange but workable weather patterns and such, and then there are those who keep their worlds to one small, magical, Europe-like forest; but most of us fall in that middle ground of keeping things largely the same, just tweaked a bit.

I'm not going to pretend to be some sort of geological expert. I'm not even close. When it came time to create my world for Finder, I modeled it loosely after the Mediterranean. My characters travel Southern/Eastern Europe and Northern Africa-like terrains. The mountains to the east are there because continental shifts put them there. The same shift cut off part of the once-vast ocean, creating the Bloodbane Sea. Only narrow straits allow water in or out, cutting off larger sailing ships from entering the Bloodbane from the west, and making the basin extremely defensible from the east. Therk's Iabba Desert is what's left of the ocean floor after the waters receded.

Like our own world, the south toward the equator is generally warmer than the north, so while the mountains in Greater Argoa are often quite cold, those to the south only get snow in the higher elevations. The Bihn Iabba River flows--unlike the Nile--north to south. There are more pine forests farther north in Greater Argoa, and scrubby cedars along the western coast of Therk, in Tinnangar, while the southern mountains mainly contain deciduous hardwoods. Once again, these are things I borrowed from our world, because I know they work, even if I don't know why.

Another aspect of geography that most budding fantasy writers don't take into account is how it affects language. Idioms, curse words, colloquialisms, even religion, often stem from environment. "That's a fine kettle of fish!" isn't an idiom that's going to come from the middle of the desert, and neither is "three sheets to the wind." The local gods of agricultural regions will be gods of planting, harvest, weather, the hunt; those along the coastline will be watery ones. In my desert, the gods are "ornery desert gods" because, let's face it, a harsh climate is going to birth harsh gods. By the same token, the gods in mild Bosbana are more inclined to art and revels. There are always exceptions, of course--but these will have stories to go with them. For example, in my recently completed novel, A Time Never Lived, the migration of mountainfolk brought their vastly different gods to the desert. Their stories changed over time to reflect assimilation, but some core elements that simply do not make sense environment-wise--like redheaded gods in a land that does not produce redheads--remain.

Obviously, the clothes your characters wear will reflect environment, not just in weight and material but in color. Desert people will wear a lot of white to reflect the sun. Most colors would be expensive; the cost of importing the plant extracts or mineral compounds to create them would be prohibitive. Even if there were succulents, grasses and such available, they would not be abundant enough to make color cost-effective. The wealthy could afford color, the poor could not; however in a heavily wooded or farming community, color is abundant. In the world I created, the wealthy Merchants along the Strip adorn their businesses with colorful pavilions, a way to show their prosperity.

We are where we come from, there's no doubt about that. City or country, coastal or desert, the way we think, speak, eat is determined largely by our environment. Geography is part of every story ever written, whether the writers and readers know or not; it comes out in details we often take for granted. This is why the geography needs to work, and why we have to know what our worlds look like north, south, east and west. If we don't, our worlds won't be believable, and it will show.

Terri-Lynne DeFino's FINDER is available in hardcover, softcover, Kindle and Nook formats. Look for it on-line through Amazon or Barnes and Noble. You can also visit Terri at her livejournal blog, http://bogwitch64.livejournal.com/

The Ecological Context of Eolyn's World

2011-08-07T20:52:00.013-05:00

I need to start this post by correcting an error from last week. In my July 30 post, I referred to the Wall in Westeros as having a location near a "polar latitude". One of the blog's readers brought to my attention that this was a rather careless statement; though unfortunately blogger didn't let him post the comment. (By the way, I've had a few complaints lately about not being able to post comments on blogger. If you have also had problems with this, please let me know at eolyn.of.the.south.woods(at)gmail.com.)

My use of 'polar' in this context stemmed from my habit of thinking of the planet as divided into six latitudinal regions defined by atmospheric circulation (blame it on my training as an ecologist). North of the equator, we have three of these regions: a belt of northeast trade winds (from 0N to about 30N), a belt of temperate westerlies (from about 30N to 60N), and the belt of polar easterlies (from about 60N to the north pole).

I've lapsed into the habit of calling this third region of polar easterlies 'polar', which is not an entirely accurate, and can lend to additional confusion when one takes into account that the Arctic Circle itself (what most people would probably call 'polar') is defined not by wind patterns but by the southern extremity of the 24-hour polar day. The southern limit of the Arctic Circle is at about 66N.

So, all this to say, what I should have written last week is that the Wall, as I see it, is probably located somewhere around the earth equivalent of 60N. This seems to be more or less in agreement with what other folks who are better informed than I regarding Martin lore have concluded. My apologies for any confusion my last post might have generated.

Now, back to the map of Moisehén...

This is a really good time for me to be thinking about maps. I have been working for about a year now on the sequel to EOLYN, and just as our own world becomes bigger as we move through life, so Eolyn's world has grown in the second book to include kingdoms outside of Moisehén. Of course, I have always had a pretty solid idea as to where Moisehén fits in the context of the surrounding regions of Roenfyn, Galia, Antaria, the Paramen Mountains and the High Plains of the Syrnte, but reaffirming the details of climate and topography has been a very useful exercise for me.

Moisehén, as I've mentioned elsewhere, is a land-locked country that receives humid westerly winds, with water vapor coming not only from an ocean to the west, but also from a large inland sea known as the Sea of Rabeln. The region also receives the influence of the equivalent of a 'Gulf Stream'. (As a small aside, that means somewhere waaaay to the south west of the continent, there must be a structure similar to the isthmus of Central America, which upon its formation some 5-6 million years ago, generated the Gulf Stream, with significant impacts on the climate of Europe.)

a map of the Gulf Stream

The interior mountains of the continent, including the Paramen Mountains and the Eastern Surmaeg, are high, non-volcanic ranges. But to the west and southwest of Moisehén, on the other side of Roenfyn, we have the Kingdom of Galia, a place of lordly wizards who for generations have intermarried with the Magas of Moisehen. Galia is a coastal country with a volcanic mountain range. In the novel EOLYN, we never visit Galia, but Eolyn learns about it through unusual means:

"On the western shores of Galia, fire springs from the earth and flows in burning rivers to the sea. It is from this union of earth, fire and water that the Galian wizards draw their power."

Galian volcanos are important to Moisehén because the same winds that bring moisture to this inland country also pick up volcanic debris from Galia, which over geological time has settled on the landscape, particularly in the high valley of Moehn (Eolyn's home), resulting in very rich soils that, together with relatively heavy rainfall, have supported dense forests and -- where the forests have been cleared for farming -- very productive agriculture.

The South Woods of Moehn and the great forest of East Selen are actually remnants of vast expanses of woodland that once covered most of the Kingdom of Moisehen. The western portion of the country is somewhat drier than the eastern portion, and has also traditionally supported patches of grassland intermixed with woods.

When drawing the map of Moisehén (embedded above), artist Ginger Prewitt was careful to indicate the transition from oak dominated deciduous forest in the south (which lose their leaves every winter) to coniferous evergreen forest in the north, Selen being on the whole a cooler region than Moehn, and therefore supporting a somewhat different ecosystem.

Prewitt was also kind enough to put a wolf in the South Woods for me. I think that's my favorite part of the whole map.

The map that was drawn up for the first novel does not include any of the surrounding kingdoms, but I mention them here to emphasize that Moisehén is an integral part of a greater whole. As the author, it was important for me to have some vision of that greater whole in order to better understand the specifics of the landscape in which my characters lived -- which in turn allowed me a greater understanding the characters themselves.

For more thoughts on the relationship between characters, culture and landscape, stay tuned for a special guest post from Terri-Lynne DeFino, author of FINDER. Coming soon!

Biogeography in Fantasy

2011-07-30T13:08:00.001-05:00

My summer reading list has included the fourth book of George R.R. Martin's Ice and Fire series, entitled A Feast for Crows. Certain events in the story had me mulling over the map of Westeros the other day, trying to understand why Dorne has a desert environment.

The mountain range on the west side of the kingdom of Dorne, combined with the fact that Martin mentions the winds come from the west, gave me part of the answer, as the 'rain shadow effect' (see below) would make those winds dry. Still, Dorne has quite a bit of coast off the southwest, and it seemed to me the air masses coming from that ocean would have a lot of moisture.

Then it occured to me -- and here was the key to the puzzle -- that Westeros is actually much larger than I've imagined it to be, extending from a polar latitude near the Wall to what is most likely to about 30N near the region of Dorne. Roughly equivalent to the north-south expanse of Europe, from the nordic countries to Spain, with a little extra land tacked on in the south. Some time on "A Wiki of Ice and Fire" corroborated my suspicion, and laid to rest my doubts about the capacity of Dorne to be a dry landscape.

(My next thought was, "No wonder the royal houses of Westeros have such a hard time keeping it all under one kingdom." I mean, really. Why do they even try?)

One of the most challenging and interesting tasks of writing fantasy is "world building". I was first introduced to this term by DHS, my local writers group that specializes in fantasy, horror and science fiction. There are many, many aspects to world building, but from my point of view one must always start with the foundation: the landscapes and biomes in which our characters live.

It is the landscape that determines the resources available to the human (or non-human) characters in our stories. The distribution and abundance of those resources, as well as the relative isolation of different regions, can in turn impact the structure and development of the human societies that depend upon them.

The author decides just how meticulous he or she wants (or needs) to be with the biogeographic details of a fantasy world. But having a landscape that makes 'biogeographical sense' is one of many factors that contributes to the authenticity of a story, and whether or not your readers have conscientious knowledge of the basics of geography and climate, at some level they will sense whether the world 'feels' real or not.

When thinking about the geography and climate of your world, here are some basics to keep in mind:

1. It's generally easier to start by assuming your world is 'earth-like' in the basics of size, rotation, relative amounts of land surface vs. water surface, distance from the sun, and so forth. (Of course, if you are a science fiction writer, you'll probably want to throw this point out the window, as the whole premise of your story may involve a world entirely different from earth. A wonderful example of this is Geoffrey A. Landis' award-winning short story 'The Sultan of the Clouds', set in a level of Venus' atmosphere that has more or less the equivalent of a tropical environment on earth.)

2. Be aware of the Coriolis effect, which determines large-scale wind patterns on the earth's surface. Because of the Coriolis effect, prevailing winds will come from different directions depending on where you are on the planet. In the polar and tropical latitudes, prevailing winds will come from the east (northeast or southeast, depending on which side of the equator you're on). In temperate latitudes, prevailing winds will come from the west (again, northwest or southwest, depending on which side of the equator). The interaction of landmasses, waterbodies, and wind is an important determinant of local weather patterns, so knowing where the wind is coming from (and whether it has passed over a large water body in the process of getting there) will help determine where the forests, grasslands and deserts can be found on the map of your world.

3. The interaction between the sun's energy and the earth's atmosphere leads to large-scale patterns in the distribution of forests, grasslands, deserts and polar environments, which we refer to collectively as biomes. For example, at 30N and 30S, one can find a belt of deserts that circle the earth. (This is the same belt that I now believe Dorne is a part of in Martin's world.) Boreal forests, on the other hand, dominate from about 50N to 70N. (And if you've ever wondered why there's more Boreal forest north of the equator than south of it, have a look at a map. You'll notice our planet has a lot more land between 50N and 70N than it does between 50S and 70S. This consideration adds another level of complexity to world building. Where are your continents and seas? The distribution of landmasses can have a huge impact on global and local climate, and therefore the distribution of biomes.)

4. Local mountain ranges are associated with 'rain shadows', a phenomenon which causes the windward side of the range to be relatively wet, while the other side of the range tends to be dry. In the rain shadow effect, as air masses hit mountain ranges, they rise and become cooler. The evaporated water they carry condenses and falls as precipitation. By the time the air mass crosses the mountain range, it has lost a lot of its moisture, resulting in dry climates on the other side. Variation in the topography of your mountain range can add a lot of complexity to this effect. Low passes, for example, can allow channels of moister air to reach the far side of the range. Very high mountains can result in local air circulation patterns that lead to unusually wet slopes. And within a mountain range, of course, there can be an interesting mix of relatively wet and dry slopes and valleys.

That's probably enough for one post. There are many excellent on-line resources that can tell you more about how latitutude, wind patterns, land masses and water bodies interact to determine the distribution of biomes on our planet, so you can put these principles into practice when developing your fantasy world.

Next week, we'll have a look at the map of Moisehen, and talk about how these and other phenomena affect the climate and ecosystems of Eolyn's world.

Rocky Mountain High

2011-07-25T12:25:00.001-05:00

I'm in Colorado this week visiting friends and family, and technically on vacation (again), so today's post will be short. I have a special treat for you, nonetheless. Friend and fellow author Jeanne M. Bannon hosted me for an interview on her blog BeyondWords this past week. If you'd like to read the interview, which includes questions about what inspired EOLYN, as well as the process of querying and publishing, please click HERE.

In other news, Who Else! Books at the Broadway Book Mall in Denver, CO, hosted a signing for EOLYN on Saturday. We had a small but very enthusiastic audience, with a lively discussion about the novel and the craft of writing fantasy in general. A limited number of signed copies of EOLYN are still available at Who Else! Books, so if you are in the Denver area stop by the store soon if you'd like to purchase one.

I don't think I've announced this on the blog yet, but even if I have it's worth a reminder: I've started posting audio-recordings of excerpts from the novel on a new YouTube Channel for EOLYN. Chapters 1 and 2, as well as the Origin of Magic and a scene from the battle sequence are now available for your listening. I'll be posting more in coming weeks. Enjoy!

EOLYN is now available in Kindle format and should be coming out in Nook format any day now. Amazon also offers the hardcover print edition, while Barnes & Noble offer both hardcover and paperback editions. The novel may also be at your local library; check EOLYN in libraries on this blog to find out, or run your own search on http://worldcat.org.

That wraps up the updates for this week. Thank you for stopping by, and I promise to be back to my usual posts, with some interesting discussions of the craft of writing fantasy, next weekend. Enjoy your summer!

Many thanks to Jennifer Weise for providing this week's photo from the booksigning at Who Else! Books in Denver.

What People Are Saying About EOLYN

2011-07-16T18:34:00.004-05:00

Hadley Rille Books editor Eric T. Reynolds once said to me, "Authors like to know they're being read."

It's true. When I first started writing EOLYN, my core motivation was simply the need to write; but as I began to share the manuscript with an ever-wider circle of readers and critics, the need to be read became increasingly important. Now, with EOLYN in print, every time I hear it is being read -- and enjoyed -- it adds a spark of brightness to my day.

Since its release this past May, EOLYN has garnered several reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, all of which have been positive. That's not to say readers haven't had an occasional minor complaint, but for the most part people are enjoying the adventure. Some feedback from Amazon readers:

"...a book to first savor at great length, and then revisit over and over again. Ms. Gastreich's characters become as real to the reader as the next-door neighbor, and much more beloved."

"...a great story that will take you on an emotional journey with romance and thrilling action."

"When it's summer within the story, you'll feel the heat....When it's winter, you'll feel the chill down to your bones. Ms. Gastreich's uncanny talent for truly creating a world her readers can become part of is a rare gift, and one she shares abundantly in Eolyn."

"Gastreich's Eolyn focuses on the emotional, political, and physical conflicts between powerful and three-dimensional characters."

"The ending is superb, both the climactic battle and its aftermath leaving no easy answers or trite successes: it's a real-world ending..."

"I cannot wait for her next book."

In addition to the Amazon reviews (which you can view in their entirety on Amazon's page for EOLYN), it seems not a day has passed without someone somewhere mentioning a reader's enjoyment of this novel. Word has come to me about friends of friends, nieces, nephews, cousins, grandchildren, adults and young alike, some connected to me, others not, but all finding a moment of escape and adventure in the pages of EOLYN. Here are some comments you won't find on Amazon, as they have arrived through other channels:

"One of my birthday gifts to myself was to stay up until 1AM the night before so I could finish EOLYN."

"At first I didn't think I would be interested in the subject matter, however, the vivid descriptions made her characters come alive and the countryside so real, one could almost smell the forest."

"It was really surprising in the directions it took. I enjoyed it a lot! At first I thought it was a young adult novel, but it quickly changed into a much more politically charged book. And I liked the ending a great deal..."

"I just finished your magical book Eolyn and now am ready for the second one. Hurry!"

All this to say, if you haven't yet indulged in the adventure of reading EOLYN, now is the time to do it.

The novel can be ordered online from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, and is available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle editions (with the release of the Nook edition soon to come). If you're feeling tight on your book budget (and don't have a Kindle or a Nook), look for EOLYN in libraries. As of this writing, twenty-eight public library systems in eighteen states carry the novel. For all you expats in my adopted country of Costa Rica, EOLYN is also available at the Mark Twain Library at the Centro Cultural Norteamericano Costarricenses.

Check it out -- literally or figuratively. You will not regret it.

FRIENDS AND FANS OF EOLYN IN DENVER: I'm going to visit you next weekend! Stop by Who Else! Books, 200S Broadway, Denver, Colorado, 80209, on Saturday, July 23, to talk about the novel in particular, and fantasy in general. Books will be available for purchase and signing. The fun starts at 3pm. Hope to see you there!

Artists and Revolutionaries

2011-07-11T11:25:00.001-05:00

It was with great sadness that I learned of the tragic and violent death of Facundo Cabral this weekend. A visionary and a man of peace, the musician was gunned down by professional assassins on his way to the airport in Guatemala.

Why? No one is quite sure. Some believe the target of the assassination was not Cabral but the publicist who managed his visit to Guatemala. But there are others who suspect he was killed for the ideals expressed in his songs, folk music that has inspired generations of Latin Americans to demand justice and peace from often oppressive governments. Whatever the motivation behind his death -- indeed, if there was a clear motivation at all -- this is a sobering moment for all of us. Men and women of peace continue to die in this world, and they continue to die violent and senseless deaths.

Word came to me of Cabral's death on Saturday night, while I was attending the Campbell Conference, hosted by the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. The loss of Facundo Cabral reminded me of the recent deaths of musician Mercedes Sosa and poet Mario Benedetti -- both perished of natural causes, but their loss was nonetheless deeply felt.

It is my perception, after residing for ten years in Costa Rica, that artists and poets occupy a somewhat different place in Latin American society than they do in the United States. In the U.S., we look to our artists for entertainment and escape. In Latin America, artists are often the revolutionaries, the voice of protest, the leaders in the demand for change. Instead of trying to distract their public from social reality, they make social reality -- and particularly social justice -- the focus of their work. (As an interesting and perhaps extreme example, the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia was assassinated in the 1950s by the Nicaraguan poet Rigoberto Lopez Perez.)

All of this was running through my head Sunday morning, when I sat down with authors and teachers of science fiction for the last round table discussion of the Campbell Conference. It was an informal discussion that began with comments by Sturgeon Award winner Geoffrey Landis and Campbell Award winner Ian McDonald sharing some of what inspired their award-winning stories. (Landis received the Sturgeon this year for his short story 'The Sultan of the Clouds', published in the September 2010 issue of Asimov, and McDonald received the Campbell for his novel The Dervish House from Prometheus Books.)

I suppose one could talk endlessly about what inspires a story, particularly a novel, where the influences can be numerous, diverse and complex. Every so often on this blog, I've come back to the topic of what inspired Eolyn, and while listening to Landis and McDonald, I remembered one of the important books that influenced my own novel: the non-fiction work by Giocanda Belli, The Country Beneath My Skin.

This might come as a surprise to a lot of people. After all, how could Belli's memoir of her experiences as a Nicaraguan revolutionary in the 1970s and 80s have anything to do with the story of a young maga living in a medieval society? But there are certain aspects of the human experience that are timeless, and Belli's story gave me many ideas to work with.

For example, it was through her testimony that I realized the central importance of poets and artists to the revolution in Nicaragua. As a result, in Eolyn's world the revolutionaries are also musicians and artists. I also learned a lot from Belli's memoir about the logistics of organizing major social change in an environment where any voice of protest is quickly silenced by imprisonment, torture and death. Perhaps most importantly, I found food for thought in Belli's experiences as a woman seeking equality while engaged in a military movement that -- for all its revolutionary nature -- was still immersed in a patriarchal society and mindset.

I wish I could say revolutions can have happy endings, and that people who advocate for peace often die peaceful deaths. But history keeps testing my optimism, among the latest examples being the fate of the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua, and this past weekend the terrible murder of Facundo Cabral. I suppose this awareness also influenced the writing of Eolyn, which -- while it does not have an unhappy ending -- certainly has an ending where many of the gains are counterbalanced by important losses.

I'll have to stop there, so as not to spoil the story.

Thank you, Facundo Cabral, Mercedes Sosa, Mario Benedetti, Giocanda Belli, artists and revolutionaries of Latin America, for inspiring by your example. May your work and your message live on in our hearts and imaginations.

EOLYN Abroad

2011-07-05T16:33:00.001-05:00

Technically, I'm on vacation right now, so this will be a short post. But I wanted to mention EOLYN has made her first official foray into Latin America. Fans of EOLYN living in Costa Rica may now check out the novel at the Biblioteca Mark Twain, the largest collection of English language books in the country. The library is located at the Centro Cultural Norteamericano Costarricenses. I've donated many books to this library over the years, but this is the first time I've donated a novel of my own making. That was a lot of fun. I hope it finds many happy readers here.

I also brought down several copies, hardcover and paperback, that had been requested by friends and family, plus a few extras just in case -- which have come in handy after all. Though the story is set firmly in a temperate environment, many of the scenes in the early chapters were inspired by the forests of Costa Rica, most especially the highlands of Talamanca, which in this part of the tropics support forests dominated by oak. Costa Rica is one of the top sources of visits to this blog, running neck-and-neck for third place with Canada (behind the United States and the United Kingdom). So I think EOLYN will find a good home here, and with any luck will be picked up by some of the local bookstores that cater to English language speakers and expats.

Of course, someday I hope EOLYN will also be translated to Spanish. There's been talk about that in the virtual halls of Hadley Rille Books, so it's not outside of the realm of possibilities.

In other news, I'll be at the Campbell Conference this weekend, hosted by the University of Kansas in Lawrence. I've heard a lot of wonderful things about this conference, dedicated to science fiction but welcoming of the genres of fantasy and horror. Many well-known authors will be there, and I am very much looking forward to having the opportunity to interact with them. If you are in the area, there will be a group booksigning event at the Jayhawk Ink Bookstore in the Kansas Union, on Saturday from 12:45pm to 1:45pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Okay. Back to vacationing. I'll check in early next week with news about the Campbell Conference and more on upcoming events. Until then, Pura Vida!

The Landscape of My Imagination

2011-06-24T21:03:00.003-05:00

I read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when I was in high school, as part of my English class. To this day (and it’s been a long time since then), the cover art of my high school edition of Frankenstein remains vivid in my mind: A man in 19th century dress, his back to the viewer, his figure small but distinctive in a vast landscape of ragged mountains and hidden valleys.

It was wonderful surprise – while I was refreshing my memory of Shelley, Frankenstein, and Romanticism – to come across this same image on Wikipedia. It didn’t take much; just one click on “Romantic” from Wikipedia’s Frankenstein page. The artwork, entitled Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, is by Casper David Friedrich, a painter of the Romantic period.

I also remember our classroom discussion of Frankenstein, where our teacher talked about the importance of wilderness for the Romantic movement. Shelley is a prime example of this. In her timeless novel, she devotes ample attention to the untamed landscape in which her characters live. Were she alive and writing today, I suspect Shelley would find herself embroiled in some vigorous debates with fellow authors, who now live in a world where generous attention to landscape is often seen as an impediment to a story rather than an integral part of it.

My own writing is heavy on description and landscape. I believe a reader cannot fully understand the characters of a story unless he or she also experiences the setting in which they live -- this because the landscape with which we interact shapes who we are. I would have been a happy camper (literally and figuratively) had I written during the Romantic period. As it is, I am constantly challenged by my readers and fellow authors to strike a balance between my own convictions regarding the importance of landscape and more contemporary lines of thought, which often insist setting is not only unimportant, but actually in the way of the 'real story'.

Why shun landscape in our stories?

This question has come back to me often during these last few years, as I’ve engaged with different perspectives regarding what makes good writing. It has resurfaced again these past few weeks, as I reflect on my experience as writer-in-residence at Andrews Experimental Forest and the short story inspired by it – a story that in its current draft is, perhaps even by my own standards, ‘too heavy’ on description.

But what is ‘too heavy’? What determines the point where we stop looking out the window, because we just don’t want to see anymore? Why is that cutoff in a different place now than it was some 200 years ago, when Shelley wrote her immortal tale?

The biologist and philosopher inside me can’t help but wonder whether rejection of landscape is simply about ‘good technique’ in writing. Perhaps it's more than that. Perhaps it is also a reflection of the context in which so many of us now live: a world where wilderness has been fragmented and pushed to distant corners of the earth; where we have no point of reference for the organic nature of our surroundings, living as we do in climate controlled spaces, attached to our ipods and cell phones, purchasing pre-packaged boneless meats, avoiding fresh fruits and vegetables because they must be peeled, treating our next door neighbors as somehow less ‘real’ than the person we just met on Facebook.

Not that the modern lifestyle is bad perse; just that we lose something, I think, if we let ourselves become too absorbed by it. There’s a larger world out there; larger even than the internet. Filled with sensory experience -- sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures. A world that would speak to us, if we let it; just as the forests of Moisehén speak to the Magas and Mages of Eolyn's world.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Romantics like Shelley, I have read contemporary fiction that takes place entirely inside the mind of the main character. While I appreciate the artistry behind this approach to storytelling, it has little appeal to me as a reader. A disembodied mind in an organic world seems not so much a reflection of real life as a precursor to madness. I cannot engage with someone who is so removed from their surroundings; indeed from their own flesh and blood.

I suppose for me as a writer, the landscape and its components – forests, plains, valleys, rivers, cultivated fields, mountains, plants, animals, rocks, weather patterns, and so forth – will always be characters in their own right, and deserve to be treated as such. My protagonists interact in intimate ways with the environment in which they live; so, then, should my readers.

And even though I tend to cull descriptive passages as I move toward the final draft, I'm rarely fully convinced that by doing so I'm creating a better story. Indeed, it often seems like I'm deforesting the landscape of my imagination, just as we have deforested the landscapes of our planet.

This post is part of a series of reflections inspired by my week as a Writer-in-Residence at Andrews Experimental Forest. To learn more about my week at Andrews, visit the links in the box entitled "Spring 2011 Residency at Andrews Forest" on the right hand bar.

Animating the Forest

2011-06-19T10:25:00.001-05:00

An "Ent" as depicted in the Lord of the Rings film series.

There are a couple of lingering topics from my week at Andrews Forest, and I want to return to one of them today.

During a follow up conversation with Frederick J. Swanson, one of the coordinators of the Long Term Ecological Reflections project at Andrews, he expressed interest in knowing more about ‘what I had to let go of’ when trying to consider the forest from a writer’s perspective, having been trained for so long to approach the forest as a scientist.

I’d say the most difficult impulse for me to follow – to put my faith in, so to speak -- was the desire to anthropomorphize the creatures around me, to animate them with human qualities.

It is very common for story tellers (and humans in general) to anthropomorphize animals and other non-human creatures. Walt Disney’s The Lion King, for example, imposes a human social structure and human behavior on lions and their cohorts in the grasslands of Africa, so that what appears to be a story about lions is, in fact, a story about humans dressed up as lions.

Disney, of course, does this with a lot of films; but I chose The Lion King is an example because the first animal social structure I learned about when I began my study of behavioral biology was in fact the lions.

Lions live in matriarchal prides, where territory is shared among sisters and passed from mothers to daughters. Males leave the pride when they reach reproductive age and live alone or in small groups (usually pairs of brothers) until they are able to challenge and replace the reproductive male of another pride. Upon ‘taking over’ a pride, a new male kills all the cubs in that pride, causing the females to enter their reproductive cycle earlier than they would have otherwise. The new male then has about two or three years to sire as many cubs as he can (and see them safely to maturity) before he, in turn, is booted out by a younger, healthier rival, who will then proceed to kill all the cubs that his predecessor sired.

Not the stuff of Disney movies, I suppose. But it was through the lions that I first realized most animals interact with each other in ways that are difficult to understand if measured by a human world view. We must use other tools – in this case, evolutionary theory – to make sense of their behavior.

The danger, for a scientist, of anthropomorphizing is that the moment we dress up another species with human qualities, we handicap our capacity to understand them on their own terms. So as a biologist, I have for years coached myself – and all my students – away from the habit of anthropomorphizing. (I might add that this is also the approach that the Magas and Mages of Eolyn’s world take; they do not impose human qualities on the plants and animals with which they interact; nor do I as the author.)

While I was in Andrews, whenever I found myself wanting to give voice and personality to the trees and other creatures, my first instinct was to back away. But this instinct ran contrary to the number one rule of any creative writer, which is not to censor yourself. In order to honor me-the-writer, I occasionally had to let go of me-the-scientist.

Anthropomorphizing may be treacherous ground for an ecologist, but it can be a powerful tool for the story teller. If used well in the attempt to relate something as complex as the experience of walking through a forest, the occasional anthropomorphic creature allows the reader a familiar thread that can help carry him or her through otherwise unknown territory. How many children, for example, came to love lions because of The Lion King? And would they have been so quick in their affection for this imposing predator, if the first thing they had learned about it was the customary massacre of all those sweet and playful cubs every time a new male takes over a pride?

While I appreciate the benefits of anthropomorphizing, something inside me cringes every time I see a movie – or read a story – where animals think, talk and act like humans. In my own work as a writer I try to avoid this, seeking a balance between making the creatures of Eolyn’s world accessible while respecting their fundamental non-human qualities.

An "Ent" of Andrews Forest

One of my favorite examples of a skillful anthropomorphism in fantasy is J.R.R. Tolkien’s Ents, the tree shepherds, which are essentially anthropomorphized trees. Tolkien allows Ents to wander through the forest, speak with hobbits, and even go to war. He hints at a loose social structure and the one-time existence of Ent-Wives. Ent-Wives are very cool; they are credited with having taught the people of Middle Earth much about agriculture. Nonetheless, a 'wife' is a kind of pointless concept for real trees, most of which have both male and female reproductive parts, and because the offspring take care of themselves, there’s no need for the pair bonding we tend to see in animals.

Despite all these human-like qualities, Ents never lose their essential tree-ness. I think that’s part of what gives Ents their immortality in our imagination, and why every time I enter a forest, I half expect to see one – whether I’m thinking like a scientist or not.

This is part of a series of reflections based on my experiences as a writer-in-residence at Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon. If you'd like to read more about my week-long stay at Andrews, check out the links under "Spring 2011 Residency at Andrew Forest" on the right-hand bar.

Interview with Adventures in Science Fiction Publishing

2011-06-13T15:32:00.000-05:00

Good friend Verna McMullin and I at Prosperos Parkside

Adventures in Science Fiction Publishing has released a podcast interview of me and Mary C. Chambers (author of SHAPERS VEIL). From the web site:

"We present a triple header of small press publishing goodness. First, Brent chats with M.C. Chambers, author of SHAPER’S VEIL, and Karin Gastreich, author of EOLYN, in a joint interview live from Brent’s basement. Brent is braver than Shaun or Moses, who learned long ago to never take authors home with you! . . . . That’s a joke, folks, in case that’s not obvious. Chambers and Gastreich discuss science based magic systems, why they chose to write fantasy when both their works rely on scientific principle, and their experiences in small press publishing."

You can download a copy of the podcast here:

Gastreich and Chambers Interview on AISFP

The interview itself lasts about half an hour, so I'm not going to take up your time with a whole lot of other news for this week. Just a few announcements.

We had a great afternoon at the signing yesterday in Prosperos Parkside Books, Blue Springs, Missouri. Many thanks to Eve Brackenbury for hosting the event and for providing those great cookies.

The next booksigning for EOLYN will be at the Campbell Conference at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. I'm even on the list of special guests for 2011! This is going to be a great weekend get together of authors and editors in the field of science fiction and fantasy. On Saturday, July 9, from 12:45pm to 1:45pm, we will all be at the autograph session in the Jayhawk Ink Bookstore.

On Saturday, July 23 at 3pm, Who Else! Books in Denver, Colorado, will host a reading and signing for EOLYN.

Eric T. Reynolds and I may also make a visit to Wichita in early August; I'll keep you posted as our plans firm up.

For more on upcoming events, please visit the Events Page of this blog, or visit my Author Page on Amazon.

I hope you enjoy the podcast interview on AISFP. Have a great week!

EOLYN is One Month Old!

2011-06-06T21:29:00.001-05:00

HRB writers and companions at the Flint Hills retreat

It’s hard to believe a month has passed since the launch of EOLYN. It’s been a great four weeks, with lots of exciting events, including my time as a writer-in-residence at Andrews Experimental Forest, ConQuesT during Memorial Day weekend in Kansas City, and last but not least, the Hadley Rille Books writers retreat this past weekend in the Flint Hills.

Several writers joined the retreat, including Hadley Rille editor Eric T. Reynolds, M.C. Chambers (author of SHAPER’S VEIL), Cybelle Greenlaw, Dora Furlong, Laura Reynolds and Sarah Reynolds. We stayed in an old farm house just outside of historic Cottonwood Falls, and hiked the National Prairie Reserve in search of the elusive bison. Most of our writing was condensed into an intensive Saturday afternoon session, some of us reworking previously written stories, others creating brand new material. A very diverse set of shorts came out of the weekend, including tales of science fiction, horror and fantasy.

Bison at the National Tallgrass Prairie Reserve

I focused on the story I started in Andrews Forest, a short that features Briana, Akmael’s mother and heiress to East Selen. Briana never appears in person in the novel EOLYN, having perished before we meet her son Akmael. Yet she retains a powerful presence in the memories of the people who knew her, and continues to play a role in the fates of Eolyn and Akmael long after her death. It’s been a lot of fun building a story around a living, breathing Briana, and I hope that – when the time comes – you will enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Here’s some news about EOLYN:

As of this entry, EOLYN is now available in eleven libraries in just as many states, spanning the USA from New York to California and from Florida to Washington. (That number is changing very quickly, so by the time you read this, it may have gone up again.)

I’ve hosted two signings since the launch party, one at Powell’s Books in Oregon, and a second at ConQuesT in Kansas City. The next reading and book signing event will be on June 12 at 2pm, in Prospero’s Parkside Books, 208B Northwest Highway 7, Blue Springs, Missouri. I have a special treat prepared for those of you who purchase a book, or have one signed. Hope to see you there!

On July 9, from 12:45pm to 1:45pm, I’ll be with other authors from the Campbell Conference at the University of Kansas Bookstore, Jayhawk Ink, in Lawrence.

For those of you who have not yet had the opportunity to read the first chapters of EOLYN, in addition to viewing them on this site, for your convenience you can now download a free pdf copy – including Ginger Prewitt’s map of Moisehén. Just take your cursor to the right hand bar on this blog and click on the box that says “Download a free pdf copy of the first three chapters of EOLYN”. (Or, as you might have noticed, you can just click on the phrase right here...)

EOLYN now has four customer reviews on Amazon. To read them -- or to write your own, if you've finished the novel -- click HERE.

The blog for EOLYN topped 6,000 views last month. Thank you to everyone who has visited and followed this site for your enthusiastic interest and support of this novel -- and all the magic that comes with it!

ConQuesT in Kansas City

2011-05-30T17:34:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was ConQuesT, Kansas City's own sci fi and fantasy convention. Those of you who have been following my blog long enough may remember this was the place where I had my brush with greatness one year ago -- ten full minutes in one-on-one conversation with George RR Martin. That had me smiling for a long time. Still makes me smile now.

George wasn't around this year for the festivities, but I had plenty of other things going on to keep me happy. I participated in several panels with authors and publishers, including Lynette Burrows, Tessa Gratton, Tamora Pierce, Selena Rosen, Susan Satterfield, Allison Stein and H.G. Stratmann. On Saturday, several authors from Hadley Rille Books got together for a panel of readings, including Hadley Rille editor Eric T. Reynolds, M.C. Chambers (author of SHAPER'S VEIL, just released this weekend), Chris McKitterick (author of TRANSCENDENCE) and Nathaniel Williams (author and contributor to the anthology FOOTPRINTS).

Thanks to this panel of readings, I have an audio recording to share with you this week. This excerpt is a scene from the battle sequence of EOLYN, which -- if I may humbly remind everyone -- was described as "vigorously written" in a recent review by PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. It's a short excerpt with a brief description of the novel up front. I hope you enjoy the listen.

In other news, EOLYN now has several customer reviews on Amazon. To read them, click HERE.

The next event for EOLYN will be a reading and signing at Prospero's Parkside Books, 208B NW Highway 7, Blue Springs, Missouri, on Sunday, June 12 at 2pm. I'm working on a special gift for anyone who joins us and purchases the novel. Hope to see you there!

The World I Want to Live In

2011-05-22T23:28:00.003-05:00

I lost an opportunity yesterday because of fear. Let that be a lesson to us all. (I suppose I should add here, that one of the underlying themes of EOLYN is the debilitating power of fear; how so often it is the fear of danger -- rather than danger itself -- that proves the greatest obstacle to attaining our dreams.)

It was my idea to hike up to the meadow overlooking the fourth reflection plot, a relatively recent clear cut (‘recent’ being, in my estimation, about 10 years old). The plot is a mess to walk through. Splintered stumps of dead trees litter the area. The tallest saplings are now up to four meters high, densely packed, with a thorny net of dry ferns, broken twigs and sprawling raspberry bushes underfoot, the latter just beginning to show their happy white flowers. It was almost impossible to navigate the area without getting cut, scraped, tripped up or otherwise waylaid as we tried to reach that meadow.

The brambles didn’t bother me, though. What bothered me was how steep the slope became as we approached the summit.

There were simple treats to distract me from the increasingly difficult climb for a while, like a small flat area where the weight of large animals had beaten down the grass into neat oval shapes. A resting place for deer, we concluded, judging from the tracks and the scat.

Also, the flowers were stunning:

...and there was a beautiful burgundy moss that grew in cushiony patches over the (nearly vertical and rather slippery) charcoal-colored rocks.

With a little help from my intrepid husband, halfway up I found a place where I could squat against the hillside and observe the landscape: a rugged chain of mountains covered in verdant stands of trees interrupted by patches of impossibly steep slopes, where the earth has been robbed of all greenery due to clear cutting.

I have to admit, it surprised me to see so much clear cutting on such a large scale in my home country, given the wealth, expertise and technology to which we presumably have access. I am no expert on forestry, but I learned a lot about management plans and different approaches to logging – particularly in mountainous areas with valuable forest -- during my years in Costa Rica. It now seems to me that this tiny Central American nation has a much better handle on how to make efficient use of its resources, and how to mitigate the impacts of logging, than we do.

This was about all I had time to think about before looking down made me dizzy, and I began to fret about how I was ever going to descend that slope, having made it this far up. As for Rafael’s enthusiastic suggestion that we ascend at least a little more – no way was I going to do that. At my insistence, we moved horizontally along the hill to a nearby plantation, and there found another path back down to the road.

Of course, once we returned to the car, I looked up at the meadow and wanted to be there again, and kicked myself for not being able to stay in the first place, or climb even higher, as it would have been a wonderful spot to write a full reflection -- my last reflection as a writer-in-residence at Andrews Forest. But what was done was done. The opportunity to stand upon that particular meadow had come and gone. At least I could say I’d given it a try.

So I sought comfort in a little hot chocolate, and then ventured back a short way into that bramble-carpeted stand of young firs to finish my thoughts on the impacts and aftermath of clearcutting.

When Tim Fox first showed us this site, he mentioned the Long Term Ecological Reflections program was thinking about locating a more recent clear cut for use by the writers-in-residence. I see the importance of having a barren landscape evaluated by the writers-in-residence, but I also think it would be useful – as long as LTER is going to be at this for another 200 years – to have authors continually visit the same harvested patch, to follow its growth and recovery after clearcutting, which probably constitutes the largest single impact humans can have on a stretch of forest.

As I mentioned earlier, the trees here have reached about 4 or 5 meters in height. They are uniform in their Christmas-tree shape, and crowded tight in their intense, albeit slow-motion, struggle to see who gets to be the next 400-year-old giant. (Though whether they will be allowed that much time is a mystery to me; whoever manages this piece of land may have other plans.) The tips of their branches are studded with the buds of new leaves, fresh and pale green, soft as feathers to the touch.

Interspersed among the young conifers is the occasional dogwood, its highest branches adorned with bold ivory flowers. Small flocks of birds are common, but they never held still long enough for us to identify what they were. And as for the tiniest critters…Well, there are ticks here. The moment I realized that, it suddenly became rather difficult to focus on writing.

Recent clear cuts are a grim site, but a young patch of forest like this – having rebounded within a few years following mass destruction – is a place of hope. The saplings look young and vigorous, ready for anything, though they do lack the rich character and individuality of their older counterparts. If I could translate the feel of their presence into human-speak, it would go something like this:

Hah! Here we are, ready to go again. You can’t beat us back, little human. All we need is earth, sun, water and time, and we will be old once again, in ways that you can only imagine.

Their determined growth is an act of defiance, really. A mockery of my anthropocentric view of the world. It is as if these young trees somehow know they have a gift I do not. After all, they can endure the passage of time through centuries. Some of them may have four hundred years of life and experience ahead. I have – at this point -- maybe forty.

So who loses out, really, when we raze old growth forest? Granted, there are some notable species we may drive to extinction in our hunger for destruction; the northern spotted owl being a prime example. But the trees, left to their own devices for a few hundred years, given some peace and distance from us bothersome humans, will weave their magic once again. They will rebuild their forest, slowly and inexhorably, filling it with beauty, mystery and complexity. By the time they have finished, we will no longer be around to see their work of art. Indeed, our legacies as individuals -- and perhaps even as a people -- will have been long forgotten.

We often think of conservation as something we engage in for the good of future generations; and in a very deep and important way, it is. Yet there are many aspects of conservation that are not just about the future, and Old Growth Forest is one of them. Once these ancient forests are gone, they will not return. Not in our lifetime, not for our children, nor for our children’s children. Not for many human generations to come.

So the question I have in mind, when I contemplate these treasures of thought and imagination, is not only “What kind of world do I want to leave behind for those to come?” The question I also ask is, “What kind of world do I want to live in right now?”

This is the sixth installment in my weeklong series as a Writer-in-Residence for the Andrews Forest Long Term Ecological Reflections Program.

Many thanks to Rafael Aguilar Chaves for the photos.

Legends in the Making (or Why Every Fantasy Writer Needs a Good Forest)

2011-05-21T21:21:00.002-05:00

Today I visited the fourth and final reflection plot, and area that was clear cut some years ago. I'm going to let my thoughts on that experience simmer for a little while, and will come back to write about this final reflection plot tomorrow.

Instead, I want to take a brief break from my essays and share with you some more of the great images my husband has caught with his ever-reliable digital camera -- just a few examples of the infinite opportunities a mature forest offers for the playful imagination. Most of these photos come from hikes along the old growth trails of Andrews Forest.

Fans of Tolkien will be familiar with the Ents of Middle Earth. As you might be glad to know, Ents are still alive and well in the oak forests of Talamanca in Costa Rica -- I have a few photos of them from my time there (although to the untrained eye they are almost indistinguishable from mature oaks). I've been very pleased these past few days to find signs of remnant populations in the mountains of Oregon as well. We did not come across any breeding adults (they may be hard to distinguish from the older firs), but we did spot this fledgling wrapped in warm moss just to my husband's left:

And this adolescent a little further down the same trail. Perhaps they are siblings?

Old growth forests are, of course, full of wonderful ingredients for magic spells and potions, like this rust-colored morel, which is almost certainly essential for some dark and powerful spell as yet unknown to me:

Note the abundant lichens littering the forest floor around the mushroom, which are likely collected and used for similar purposes. And of course, what witch's brew is complete without a plump little newt:

Though of course, I could NEVER toss this little guy into a boiling pot of water. He's way too cute to suffer such a terrible fate.

Here's a rather strange formation from an exposed root of a tree. I'll let you decide what it could be, what it might mean, and how you'd like to use it in your next story. (And if you'd like to share your ideas, please post in the comments below!)

Finally, when we weren't comuning with young and spritely Ents, we were talking to gnomes, which like the Douglas-firs grow to be quite large and old in this forest. Here's one we managed to catch on film, standing just to the right of the trail:

That's it for today. My stay at Andrews Forest is almost finished now. One more full day tomorrow, and then we'll head to the coast for a night before returning to Portland and then to Kansas City. I'd say tomorrow will be my last installment related to my residency here, but I'm not quite sure about that -- I have a feeling I'll be reflecting on my stay at Andrews for some time to come.

I moved forward a bit more on my short story for Briana today. I think it's going to be a nice one, and may post some excerpts here in the coming week or so.

Next weekend is ConQuest in Kansas City! I'll be participating in several panels as well as a Hadley Rille Authors Panel and a Book Signing Party on Saturday. For details about my schedule at ConQuest, as well as other upcoming events, please visit my author's page on Amazon.

Lookout Creek

2011-05-20T23:36:00.002-05:00

AKMAEL SPENT HOURS wading with the girl Eolyn along the river bank, both of them taking care not to wander too deep into the swift current. The elusive rainbow snail never appeared but many other creatures danced in the water for their entertainment. Large silver fish jumped over the deeper rapids, their strong bodies flashing in the bright spring sun. Darting guppies scattered at their feet and nipped at their toes if they stood still long enough. They found tiny water dragons clinging to the underside of heavy rocks and whirligigs and water beetles filling the still edge of the river with frenetic activity. Bright blue shrimp scuttled along the rocky bottom, and Eolyn caught several to take back home because, as she enthusiastically informed Akmael, they made for an excellent stew. –EOLYN, Chapter 4

Last summer, I wrote a brief post entitled Rivers of Destiny in which I talked about the forest rivers of Costa Rica, and how they inspired the scene in Chapter 4 of my novel where Eolyn and Akmael meet for the first time. I was reminded of that scene, once again, while visiting the third site for the Long-Term Ecological Reflections Program at Andrews Forest.

Lookout Creek runs just behind Andrews Forest Station. It’s a broad (about 10m wide) expanse of crystalline water that in Costa Rica would qualify as a river. In returning to this site, I wasn’t entirely sure whether Tim Fox – who had shown us the reflection plots on our first day here – meant for the reflection to be completed right on the banks of the creek, or just off the banks underneath the forest canopy. In the end, I decided not to worry about this detail. Very unscientific of me, but really one cannot be near a stream without descending to the stream. So no matter where I started the reflection, I would have ended it in the same place: on a dry rock under the warm midday sun, watching the water flow like liquid quartz over rocks bearing earthen shades of brick, jade, rust and clay; marveling at how the water captured the sun’s light in effervescent streams of liquid fire.

The breeze was cool and unobtrusive, flowing downstream like the water. Tim Fox has told me there are studies now of “air sheds”, the movement of air masses along these ravines throughout Andrews Forest. Air, unlike water, will change the direction of its flow, moving downstream during certain periods of the diurnal cycle (usually at night, when air masses cool and grow heavier) and upstream during other periods (usually during the day, when the sun warms the air and draws it back up hill).

Flying insects were out in abundance, bright points of white against the azure sky. At the very tops of the tallest firs, we could see long strands of silk being released by spiders taking advantage of the wind currents to float toward new (and hopefully productive) hunting grounds.

The community of plants that thrive on the rocky silt banks closest to the water are very different from the towering conifers perched on the higher banks. Young stands of alder dominate, their bark smooth and thin, colored dark gray and mottled with ivory patches of lichen. In some cases, the bark was actually a deep jade green, an almost sure sign that the trunk retains some photosynthetic capacity. Which I thought was way cool.

Horse tail plants (Equitaceae) – another one of my favorite families -- were also very common. These are living fossils that once dominated the forests of the late Paleozoic. (That’s over 250 million years ago for those of you who, like me, can never keep those darned geological eras straight.) They are relatives of the ancient trees that gave us coal. Horse tails grow in segments that are easily pulled apart and then snapped back together, much to the delight of the destructive child in me. I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never bothered to find out whether they can survive the trauma of dismemberment, though I would not be surprised if they can. Some plants are very hardy that way. The tropical family Piperaceae (which gives us black pepper) regularly drops pieces of itself onto the forest floor, where they take root and grow into a whole new plant.

Now wouldn’t that be a need talent to have?

I suppose it’s no accident that Eolyn and Akmael’s first encounter with each other was along the banks of the Tarba River in the South Woods. Forest streams will always be a meeting place for me – a place where the sun breaks through the dense cover of trees and mingles freely with earth and water along a thin corridor of open air. With the forest canopy held at bay, very little can hide here (though the cleverest creatures always find a way to make themselves invisible). Plants and animals that wouldn’t stand a chance in the forest understory often find a foothold, becoming an integral part of the larger landscape. It is a unique habitat where creatures from different worlds can coexist.

This is the fourth installment of a week long series based on my experiences as a writer-in-residence at Andrews Forest in Oregon.

Many thanks to Rafael Aguilar Chaves for the photos.

Shades of Black

2011-05-19T21:04:00.000-05:00

As part of the Andrews Writers Residency, we are required to visit and reflect upon three sites in the experimental forest; a fourth site is optional. Two of these four sites have undergone some sort of intervention; in other words, wood has been extracted from them. Andrews is an experimental forest, after all, and one of the ongoing goals of research here is to evaluate the impact of different forms of harvest on the forest ecosystem.

Yesterday I wrote about the old growth forest, but that was only half of the story I had to tell. On the day we visited old growth, we also stopped by the fourth ‘optional’ site, as it is situated more or less along the same road, albeit much further up along the ridge. This site is an experimental plot where, from what I understand, wood was harvested in a selective fashion, and then the remaining forest burned in order to simulate the effect of natural fires on forest regeneration.

The feel of the site is -- as you might imagine -- completely different from old growth. The primary forest is characterized by countless shades of green, which when the sun shines are further diffracted into even subtler tones along a broad spectrum from very bright to very dark. But on the burned landscape of this fourth reflection plot, colors are not subtle and the vast shades of green have been distilled into a few dominant tones that tend toward sage.

The dense stands of trees of various ages and sizes have been replaced by a handful of giants with blackened trunks – though black is not quite a dark enough word to capture the color of the charred bark. ‘Ebony’ is too beautiful; ‘stygian’ too malevolent; ‘charcoal’ too tame. ‘Raven’, perhaps, would capture the color. But does anyone ever say ‘a raven-scorched tree’ or ‘a tree scorched to raven’?

Anyway. These giants with raven-scorched trunks are still alive, which I find remarkable. Somehow their thick shaggy bark bore the brunt of those deadly flames, protecting the living tissue in the cortex and allowing the trees to maintain admirable crowns of verdant needles. (Do trees have a way of feeling pain, I wonder? Can they, in the absence of a nervous system, still sense their bark melting, bubbling, steaming, smoking, crackling under the lick of fire? The Magas, I think, would say 'Yes'. )

Despite the persistence of these old trees, the canopy as a whole is wide open, and that makes for a very different kind of understory, in which there is nothing ‘soft’ or ‘subtle’ as we might find in the old growth forest. The mosses and ferns have vanished, replaced by stiff prickly bushes and young firs just beginning their multi-centennial climb toward the sky. Underfoot crunch countless bare branches bleached white by fire and sun, like the scavenger-cleaned bones of some old and forgotten battlefield.

Beneath the bleached branches of dead trees, new life emerges.

I was pleased to find, in this field of destruction, plants belonging to one of my favorite families the Ericaceae (this is the same family that gives us the blueberry), growing in abundance under the mountain sun, their clusters of white bell-like flowers bringing a spot of cheer to an otherwise bleak landscape.

It was nice to run into my old friend, Ericaceae.

More than indignation, what I felt when comparing this razed patch of forest to the old growth was disappointment, a frustrated desire to find something more. If I were to return in a hundred years (or two or three), after the forest has been allowed to regenerate, that ‘something more’ would probably there, thriving in the quiet hum of a dense forest understory.

I have to admit, a single blog post is not enough to capture a day in the Andrews Forest. I’m trying to give simple snapshots here, and even so I’m two days behind on all the wonderful experiences that could be shared. Yesterday we hiked a watershed trail up through yet another tract of stunning forest, saw a multitude of fascinating creatures and then nearly got ourselves lost; well not entirely lost, but certainly headed in a direction we hadn’t quite planned. All I can say is: Thank goodness for Forest Service radios. Then today, I visited the third reflection site on Lookout Creek, which was just marvelous. That will be the focus of an upcoming post, either tomorrow or the day after.

This morning, I started on a fantasy fiction short for Briana, a scene from her youth set in the forests of East Selen. I’d give you a preview of that, except I’m not quite sure where it’s going to lead yet. Still, it’s a great feeling to take some of what I’ve experienced here and begin to channel it into a story. Writing about the magic of the forest allows me to experience it all over again.

This is the third installment in a week-long series on my experiences as a writer-in-residence at Andrews Forest in the Cascade Range of Oregon.

Many thanks to Rafael Aguilar Chaves for the photos.

Old Growth Forest

2011-05-18T21:42:00.001-05:00

In my first fantasy fiction publication, the short story ‘Turning Point’ ( Zahir, Issue 17), two women struggle to understand the highland forests of Costa Rica, one from a scientific perspective, the other as an artist in the making. Their passionate focus on distinct modes of inquiry generates tension – each comes to resent the other, and neither is capable of seeing the forest through her companion’s eyes. The story ends in separation; one woman abandons her present life to disappear inside a fairy ring; the other remains faithful to her career as a scientist, yet loses herself in the endless task of cataloguing the forest’s smallest creatures.

While this denouement may seem kind of depressing, in truth both women are satisfied with their choices; both will come to know the forest in a way few others have had the privilege to experience. The real tragedy, I suppose, is that no one else will ever learn of the wonderful secrets they discover.

As we hiked through the primary forest of the Cascade Range, I was reminded of this story, and I realized that whether I enter the forest as a biologist or as an author, the challenge remains the same: How can I hope to capture this world and communicate its magnificence and complexity to others?

This is the first time I’ve been asked – formally – to study the forest from a writer's perspective, and I’ve found that my approach in the first moments of the encounter is the same:

I stop.

And then I ‘listen’. With all my senses.

From the sequel to EOLYN (currently in progress): She pressed her hands against the rough bark, closed her eyes and heard the pulse of the tree, solid and slow, a steady current that stretched toward the sky and descended into the deepest places of the earth, a quiet murmur of indomitable strength.

It is not an easy task to listen, and it is especially difficult to listen to creatures who speak in ways completely foreign to our experience. In the world of Eolyn, Mages and Magas must learn to understand the plants, animals and rocks before they can hope to master any other form of magic. Nor do I – as the author -- make their task made simple by introducing animals that speak English; rather, the maga must come to understand each animal (or plant, or mineral) on its own terms, through its own language and behavioral patterns. This is, in essence, the same task of any modern-day biologist. What we are really trying to do, with all those instruments, data points and statistics, is translate the language of ecosystems into something that can be communicated in meaningful ways to other members of our own species.

Jewels of the forest: rain water caught by a Trilium plant.

When I ‘listen’ to the forest, the first things I tend to ‘hear’ are the familiar – a plant that belongs to a family I recognize, for example. The way the moss hangs from the branches or covers the logs. The chill of the air. The shape of the fungi. The quiet – which, as I should point out, is not the same as silence. In a forest, sound is ever-present, yet understated. The flow of the river, the hushed sway of the canopy in response to a breeze. The rhythmic chirp of a small bird, like the intermittent squeak of a tiny gate, interrupted by the sudden chatter of another. The distant monotone trill of the varied thrush. The scratch of my pen on paper, the plasticky crunkle of my rain coat.

Now there’s a phrase: ‘plasticky crunkle’. Neither word can be found in the dictionary, but then again, much of what I would like to describe about the experience of old growth forest cannot be found in a dictionary. Imagine if we had a word for every mood, texture, sound, sensation that one experiences in the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. What a rich language ours would be.

Walking the trails through Andrews Forest sometimes leaves me at a loss for words – a terrible feeling for a writer – and my immediate response is an intense desire to create new words, new ways of saying things, so that I might capture and communicate the experience. I will, for example, study the bark of the Douglas-fir for several minutes at a time trying to decide how best to describe it. This inner tension between a loss for words and the need for words left me wondering today to what extent wilderness has given us our language.

How many times in our long history, has someone walked into a new territory and been compelled to invent novel words or phrases because nothing he or she had handy was sufficient to describe the plants, the animals, the personality of that particular place which had been woven by nature in all its complexity?

And if we destroy old growth forest, leaving behind only the barren earth, or monotonous stands of young plantations, do we not also obliterate the potential for new ways of communication that verdant maze might have inspired?

I don’t have answers to these questions at the moment, but I believe they are worth thinking about.

This is the second installment of a week-long series of reflections on my writer's residency at Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon.

Many thanks to Rafael Aguilar Chaves for the photos.

Born of Fire

2011-05-17T10:41:00.002-05:00

We arrived yesterday evening at Andrews Forest Headquarters, tired but invigorated by the scenic drive from Portland to the Cascade Mountain Range. I didn't expect to have all that much to write yet, as we only had time for a brief tour of the station and its surroundings before darkness fell and the cold set in. But the forest has a way of speaking to you in your dreams, and by the time the sun illuminated the misty woods with a gray morning light, my head was turning with ideas and images.

During the coming days, I'm going to try to capture the mood of this forest in words; no small task as I will be with it only a short while, and already I can see that Andrews is varied and complex. Tim Fox, former writer-in-residence and long-time member of the Andrews Forest community, showed us around the 'reflection plots' yesterday. These are designated areas that writers must visit during their time here and investigate from a literary or creative perspective. The program began in 2003 and will run until 2203, for a total of two hundred years of collaborative investigations of the forest by writers from different genres. This effort runs in parallel with ongoing scientific research at the site, which is one of the most well-studied forests in the world.

The tracts of forest that we visited yesterday were dominated by Douglas fir and hemlock; each tree stretching in a single stunning pillar to the sky, trunks solid and wide at the base, the bark dark and deeply furrowed, a living image of the ancient. In the plot of primary forest that we visited, Tim told us the trees are four to five centuries old.

This is the forest of East Selen.

Or at least, that's what I was thinking yesterday, as we drove up the Blue River Reservoir and then walked the trails around the station.  Those of you familiar with Eolyn lore will know that East Selen was the home of Akmael's mother Briana. One of the most powerful Magas of her time, Briana witnessed the massacre of her Clan by the Mage King Kedehen after the War of the Magas. She was then captured by the Mage King -- or surrendered willingly, depending on whose story you decide to believe -- and became Queen of Moisehen.

The forests of Briana's childhood are different from the South Woods in which Eolyn grew up. Eolyn's home is a mix of deciduous hardwoods dominated by oak, with a few conifers scattered throughout. East Selen, situated further to the north, is a forest of ancient conifers dominated by fir.

In my October 9, 2010, post entitled Tree Magick, I talk a little bit about the tree lore of the Magas and Mages of Moisehén. Firs play a prominent role in this tradition of magic, forming a bridge between the Underwold and the world of the living, and holding the power of flight in their branches.

Last night I was reading about the Douglas Fir in Ancient Forests of the Pacific Northwest by Elliot A. Norse (a reference that is probably a little out of date by now, but it's what I have on hand, so we'll just go with it), and I learned something new. The Douglas Fir is a somewhat exceptional fir, not only for its height, but because it does not begin its life in the shadows of an understory covered by thick canopy. In Norse's words, the Douglas Fir is 'conceived by fire'.  Seeds germinate and grow following periodic fires (periodic, in this sense, being once every few centuries), and the saplings thrive best in open areas with lots of sun.

This was a wonderful detail to come across because it fits so perfectly within the legends and lore of Moisehén.  So I decided, between last night and this morning, that the fir used by Magas and Mages to invoke powers of flight will also be 'born of fire', more specifically 'born of the breath of Dragon', the legendary creature who gave High Magic to Aithne and Caradoc.

This is one of the stories I hope to develop this week: The myth of why firs hold the power of flight, and the role of Dragon in creating this magic.

The character of Briana has also been speaking to me, and before the week is out I am certain I'll be sketching out some story or scene from her life, probably in the time before the War of the Magas.

Not bad for less than twenty-four hours. I think I'll go get some breakfast, and then take another hike.

Photos by Rafael Aguilar-Chaves.

A Week at Andrews Experimental Forest

2011-05-14T08:37:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a short post today; more than anything I want to set the stage for the coming week, which will be devoted by my residency at the HW Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon. Andrews is located inside Willamette National Forest. This will be my first time visiting the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest, and I am very excited. It's the perfect follow-up to the launch of EOLYN; to immerse myself in the type of ecosystem that so inspired this novel, and to reflect once again on the influence of the forest to on that very special magic we call imagination.

Tomorrow, we fly to Portland, where I will do a book signing for EOLYN in the afternoon, starting at 5pm at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing. On Monday, we'll drive up through Eugene to Andrews. Once we're settled at the experimental station, I will post daily reflections based on our experience there, cross-posting to my livejournal blog as well. I'm not really sure what will come of this week -- we'll see where the muse takes me -- but I'm expecting to gain some insights not only into the forest, but into my own process as a writer, and hopefully produce a few new stories as well.

Please join me for the adventure in Andrews Forest by visiting the blog whenever you have a chance. It's going to be a great week!

Launch Party for EOLYN

2011-05-09T12:29:00.001-05:00

We had a great day on May 7 at the Writers Place, with around ninety guests eager to learn about Eolyn and her world. I was overwhelmed not only by the number of people who showed up, but by the very special guests that we had -- all the friends, family and colleagues who joined us for the celebration. People that I've known since I was a little girl were sitting alongside the many new friends I have made since returning to my home town just a few years back. Some had even crossed rivers, mountains and oceans to be here. It was an unforgettable reunion, filled with a lot of excitement and positive energy.

Those of you who have been keeping close track of EOLYN's journey probably remember that May 6 was the official release date. Amazon began offering the hardcover edition over a week before, with Amazon Canada and Amazon UK putting up the title for pre-order. But by May 6, EOLYN had gone truly global. In addition to Amazon Canada and Amazon UK, it is now available for order through Barnes&Noble, Amazon Germany, Amazon France and even Amazon Japan!

On Sunday, May 15th, I will be at Powells Books, 3415 Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, Oregon starting at 5pm. Copies of EOLYN will be available for purchase and signing. If you live in the Portland area, please stop by!

Here's a brief video from the Launch Party that shows me in action during the presentation of the novel:

And you can listen to my readings of chapters 2 and 4 here:

Afterwards, I did a question and answer session with Hadley Rille Books editor Eric T. Reynolds, which you can listen to here:

You can also download the full audiorecording of my presentation of the novel and both readings at this link:

Download Audio Recording of the Launch Party for EOLYN

And -- last but not least -- I've posted photos on my Facebook Page for EOLYN.

That's the news for this week. EOLYN is on her way!

Pre-Launch Party at Avila University

2011-04-30T15:55:00.001-05:00

EOLYN made its debut last night, one week before the official release date, in the Hooley-Bundschu Library at Avila University. We had a great turnout; everyone was very excited about the novel and we sold all the trade paperbacks we had available for the event. Many thanks to Kathleen Finnegan, Becky Nichols and Shawna Westphal for making this a successful and fun event.

Thanks to the pre-launch festivities, I have a lot of treats for you this week. Photos from the event are posted on my Facebook page for EOLYN. This link should take you to the album: Pre-Launch Party for EOLYN.

I'm also posting two audio recordings from last night. The evening started with my reading of Chapter One:

After the reading, Hadley Rille editor Eric T. Reynolds and I received questions from the audience about all aspects of writing and publishing:

I'm trying a new experiment -- in addition to listening to these recordings online, you should be able to download them from the following links:

EOLYN Pre-Launch Party -- Chapter One

EOLYN Pre-Launch Party -- Q&A Session with Eric T. Reynolds

Let me know how that works. The files are kind of big, and I couldn't figure out how to condense them, so it might take a while to download. (Note that these files are simply audio and do not include the pictures.)

My biggest surprise last night: A phone call from Kimberly Vandervort, author of THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS, the novel that inspired me to submit to to Hadley Rille. Thanks so much, Kim, for remembering EOLYN's big night!

In other good news, the hardcover edition of EOLYN is now available for purchase through the following links:

EOLYN on Amazon

EOLYN on Amazon.uk

EOLYN on Amazon.canada

The novel will be available soon in paperback and electronic format for Kindle and Nook, but if you're looking for a new volume to grace your bookshelf, consider purchasing EOLYN in hardcover. It's beautiful. To give you an idea, here's what it looks like on my bookshelf:

My New Beginning

2011-04-20T21:18:00.000-05:00

There's a Minneapolis group called Semisonic (formerly Trip Shakespeare) which for various reasons has long been close to my heart. I've got one of their songs, 'Closing Time' running repeatedly through my head lately, and my mind always returns to the same verse:

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Today I had a beginning that was also an end. I held in my hands, for the very first time, a trade paperback entitled EOLYN, published by Hadley Rille Books. ISBN13-978-0-9829467-9-4. Written by Karin Rita Gastreich. Edited by Eric T. Reynolds. Cover art by Jesse Smolover. Cover design by Melissa J. Lytton. With a map of the Kingdom of Moisehén by Ginger Prewitt.

It is the end of my journey of writing EOLYN, and the beginning of my journey of sharing her with the world. I am thoroughly excited, moved to tears. Happy and sad -- and hopeful -- at the same time. Hopeful that she will bring as much joy to you, the reader, as she has brought to me during the last four-and-a-half years.

One week from Friday, on April 29th, Avila University will host a pre-launch party for the novel at the Hooley-Bundschu Library, starting at 7pm. I am so happy that I will have the opportunity, seven days before the official release date, to share this magic with the Avila community, where I have taught biology and related topics to many wonderful students for nearly eight semesters. Avila student Shawna Westphal has designed two great posters for the event. This one, which I think captures very nicely Avila's family style:

And this one, which invokes a more dramatic mood:

It's been really great working with Shawna and all the folks at the Avila library. I know we're going to have a great evening, and if you're in the Kansas City area, I hope you'll come and join us. For those of you who can't make it -- stay tuned to this blog, as I'll be telling you all about it, and plan to post audiorecordings of the readings for your enjoyment.

I keep thinking, as I turn the book over in my hands, "Isn't there something else left for me to do on this?" But there isn't. Not with this manuscript, at any rate. That beginning has now ended; a new beginning is on the horizon. It's time for us to celebrate, enjoy the fruits of this labor, and step forward into the next adventure. . .

Women, Epic Fantasy and George RR Martin

2011-04-16T13:37:00.006-05:00

Who'd've thought -- just days after my celebration over the positive review for EOLYN from Publishers Weekly, I find my hackles raised over a rather scathing commentary on the life's work of one of my heroes, George RR Martin.

The New York Times published its review of HBO’s new miniseries A Game of Thrones this week. The HBO production is based on the first book of George RR Martin’s classic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire.

The review, written by Ginia Bellafante, is more than a little acerbic. She criticizes not only the HBO series, but Martin’s work and epic fantasy in general, lumping all of it into a single category of “boy fiction” that would never appeal to any self-respecting, well-read woman. From her review:

'While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first.'

Now, I haven’t seen the TV series yet (HBO will premier its rendition of A Game of Thrones tomorrow evening), so I can’t speak to whether the HBO’s interpretation of Martin’s work will leave me similarly indignant. But I am one of those “women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s”, and I must take issue with the statement that his work, and especially Tolkien’s work, is anything less than marvelous – and certainly, The Hobbit is well worth reading before picking up the latest from Lorrie Moore. (Who may be an excellent author, but frankly I had to google Moore’s name after reading Bellafante's review because I’d never heard of her…)

That’s not to say I am insensitive the relative absence of female characters in Tokien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. In fact, back when I first read Tolkien’s work, it was the perception that women didn’t have much of a place in the sagas of Middle Earth that planted one of the first seeds for my own novel Eolyn. (I talked about this a few months back in my post “Why Eolyn?” ) But that does not make Tolkien’s work any less engaging, or his prose any less powerful.

I have been reminded lately of the immortal quality of Tolkien’s words by listening to the audio book Children of Hurin, part of his unfinished tales. The appeal of Tolkien's stories isn’t just about orcs and elves and dwarves (though I find all of those elements very appealing). It’s the eloquence of his prose that captures this reader’s attention; the vivid imagery, the heartbreaking and very human conflicts, the ability to paint complex characters (male and female) with a few master strokes. As good as Moore or any other author of contemporary fiction may be, when predicting whose name will be more widely recognized fifty or a hundred years down the road, I am still putting my money on Tolkien.

Martin in A Song of Ice and Fire, unlike Tolkien in Lord of the Rings, does have female characters that play formidable roles throughout the first three books of the series. (I haven’t gotten to book four yet; and book five is slated for release sometime this summer.) To be fair, the women in Martin's world are still outnumbered by the men. But they are very important and very vivid. The eight-year-old daughter of Eddard Stark, Arya, is quite possibly one of the best female characters I’ve read in any genre.

Many of Martin’s female characters have qualities I don’t like; but then again, so do many of the male characters. They are all complex and flawed, all deeply steeped in the social structure of their world, driven by events and motivations often they themselves don’t understand.

The society Martin developed to write his tale of the Seven Kingdoms is among the most elaborate and well-crafted I have come across in all my years of reading. His work is not, as Bellafante claims, “boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half”. It is story telling at its very best.

To read more about how George RR Martin inspired me during the writing of EOLYN, please visit the May 30, 2010 post "My Brush with Greatness".

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Reviews EOLYN

2011-04-12T07:31:00.002-05:00

Great news! PUBLISHERS WEEKLY reviewed EOLYN this week. This is my first professional review ever. You can see the review, along with reviews of other novels, at this link: PW Reviews April 11 Or, you can just read the text which I've copied and pasted below:

Eolyn

Karin Rita Gastreich. Hadley Rille (Ingram, dist.), $28 (328p) ISBN 978-0-9829467-4-9; $16 trade paper ISBN 978-0-9829467-9-4

A child is hidden before her village is destroyed by the tyrant king's soldiers, after which she finds shelter in the forest with an old woman rumored to be a witch. Readers who persist beyond this familiar setup will find that the story deepens as young Eolyn, possibly the last of an ancient order of female magic users, matures while befriending Akmael, the prince whose father killed her family. Though Eolyn becomes the hope of a rebellion, she never has to carry the whole weight of the story; Akmael, the "witch" Ghemena, and other characters develop many intriguing facets. Gastreich allows her heroes to have flaws--including moments of cowardice--and some victories bring new sorrows. Vigorously told deceptions and battle scenes will satisfy fans of traditional epic fantasy with a romantic thread. (June)

Reviewed on: 04/11/2011
Permalink: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-9829467-4-9; $16 trade paper ISBN 978-0-9829467-9-4 (978-0-9829467-4-9; $16 trade paper ISBN 978-0-9829467-9-4)

I am very pleased with this review, especially the part about 'vigorously told battle scenes', as the battle sequence was hands down the hardest part of the novel for me to write. Hooray! Time to celebrate. I am so glad (and relieved!) this review turned out well.

In other news, I have a guest post this week on Write Like Authors Do, a blog for young aspiring authors, run by friend and fellow author Linda Ulleseit. My post talks a little about what to do when things don't go as planned in our stories. If you'd like to read it, and see the other great posts on Linda's blog as well, click HERE.

That's the news for now. More to come later this week.

The Kingdom of Moisehén

2011-04-07T20:10:00.000-05:00

Here it is: The final version of Ginger Prewitt's map of Moisehén. Eolyn's and Akmael's world, laid out on paper. Ginger is an incredibly talented artist who also did the maps for Kim Vandervort's THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS and Terri-Lynne DeFino's FINDER. And I am so very happy with this work that she has now done for EOLYN.

I've actually had this map for a couple months now, and have posted it on the Facebook Page for EOLYN. But the version I had did not include the nice Celtic-style border with the little Dragon insignias, and I really did not want to post it on the blog until I had the final version with the border.

If you click on the map, you'll get to see a larger version. Moisehén is a landlocked kingdom bordered by mountains, forests and rivers. On the far side of the eastern forests, we find the lands of the Syrnte, not pictured in this map. To the south, you'll see the foothills of the Paramen Mountains, the home of Eolyn's ally Khelia and her Mountain Warriors. To the west, the Furma River and the Black River mark the border between Moisehén and the neighboring kingdom of Roenfyn. The impassable Wastes of Faernvorn and the rugged Eastern Surmaeg mark the borders of a northern wilderness that is little explored and virtually unknown to the people of Moisehén.

Moisehén consists of four provinces. The ruling province bears the same name as the kingdom. This is the seat of the line of Vortingen, the dynasty of kings of which Akmael is a part. Much of the Province of Moisehén has long since been cleared for cultivation and grazing. The northern border of the province -- the foothills of the Eastern Surmaeg -- contain vast reserves of iron ore.

South of Moisehén lies the Province of Selkynsen, a wealthy territory of merchants and craftsmen, who have over generations assumed control of the trade routes that run south along the Furma River to the Sea of Rabeln. Eolyn's friend Adiana, a talented musician, was born in the Province of Selkynsen.

Moisehén and Selkynsen are separated from the Province of Selen by the Maeskon Hills. Prior to the War of the Magas and the purges that followed, Selen was the seat of magical power of the kingdom. The dense forests along the eastern border were once the home of the Clan of East Selen, a centuries-old line of Mages and Magas. Akmael's mother, Queen Briana, was a daughter of the Clan of East Selen.

The most isolated province of the kingdom is Moehn. This is the home of Eolyn, who grows up as a refugee in the South Woods following the destruction of her village by the King's Riders. Moehn is a land of farmers, often looked down upon by the more sophisticated citizens of the wealthier provinces, but its fertile soils are very productive and are said to feed the kingdom.

And that is the Kingdom of Moisehén in a nutshell. Now that you know the geogarphy, if you'd like to learn a little bit about its history, visit the page on this site entitled A Brief History of Moisehén.

One more month to go before the release of EOLYN. In addition to the launch party on May 7 at the Writers Place in Kansas City, Avila University will host a Pre-Launch Party on April 29 at the Hooley-Bundshu Library. Books will be available for purchase and signing at both events. For more information, visit the Events Page on this blog. I hope to see you there -- if not at one party, then at the other!

A New Look for Spring

2011-04-03T17:59:00.000-05:00

I took some time this week to make a new banner for the blog, incorporating Jesse Smolover's cover art for EOLYN. I hope you like it. It's wonderful to have an image unique to this novel now, and Jesse did such a fantastic job of capturing the mood we were after. I've also put the cover art on my desktop, so every time I open up the computer, there she is: Eolyn, looking out from the forest, ready to meet her destiny.

We have 33 days to go until the launch of the novel! The cover design by Melissa J. Lytton is looking marvelous, though it's not quite ready to unveil yet. I'll be sure to post as soon as it is.

I anticipate that from now until the launch, I will be posting on the blog as news comes up (as opposed to regularly once a week, as has been my habit). So, when the cover design is ready for EOLYN, I will put it on the blog. When a professional review is published (and those are due to start coming down the pipelines any day now), I will share it. I will also keep you posted on events, as there will be many in the coming weeks. Here are a few to keep in mind:

On April 29 at 7pm (date and time to be confirmed shortly), Avila University will host a pre-launch event for EOLYN at the Hooley-Bundshu Library. I'll do some readings from the novel, and copies will be available in paperback for purchase and signing. This event is open to the public, so feel free to invite friends and family. It's a good alternative if you can't make the official launch party on May 7 (although you are, of course, more than welcome to attend both parties!), and it will give you the chance to preview the novel before it's officially released.

On May 7 at 2pm, Hadley Rille Books will host the official Launch Party at the Writers Place in Kansas City, Missouri. This is going to be a great event -- the guest list is starting to come together, and I am so excited about the amazing and talented people who will be in attendance. Please join us for a wonderful afternoon of story telling and book signing, and bring friends and family -- the event is open to the public. EOLYN will be available in hardback and paperback for purchase and signing.

On May 15 at 5pm, Powells Books will host a signing at the Cedar Hills Crossing store, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, Oregon. Those of you who live in the Portland area, this is your chance to obtain a signed copy of the novel!

May 27-29, I will be at Kansas City's own ConQuest, a great weekend celebrating the traditions of sci-fi and fantasy. I'll be participating in readings and signings and will post the details as soon as they are available.

Make sure you visit the Events and Announcements Page for the most updated information on signings and other activities for EOLYN.

Dragon

2011-03-27T18:10:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned Dragon many times in my various posts on Magic in Moisehén, but I haven't yet dedicated a post to this mythological beast, who plays a role of great importance in the history and traditions of Eolyn's world.

For the Mages and Magas of Moisehén, Dragon is not a biological and physical creature, but rather a spiritual entity. It has appeared in its true form -- as a winged serpent -- only a handful of times in the history of Eolyn's people.

Sent by the Gods, Dragon first appeared to the legendary figures Aithne and Caradoc, and taught them the ways of High Magic. (To learn more about the story of Dragon's appearance to Aithne and Caradoc, listen to the audio recording The Origin of Magic.) Many generations after appearing to Aithne and Caradoc, Dragon returend to teach the first mage warrior Caedmon how to use magic in warfare, and in that same era the winged serpent granted the warrior chief Vortingen the crown of Moisehén, following his victory against the People of Thunder.

Although Dragon has appeared in its true form only a few times, it can take on the shape of any living creature that inhabits the earth. As such, it has walked the earth on countless occasions, and appeared to every Initiate of High Magic since the time of Aithne and Caradoc. In Chapter 12 of the novel, when Eolyn makes her pilgrimage into the forest to petition for a staff of High Magic, her tutor Ghemena advises her to be prepared for all possibilities when waiting for Dragon:

The Initiate must open her mind to the greatness of all beings, lest she fail to hear Messenger’s voice in the sinuous movement of a millipede’s legs or in the fearsome roar of an angry bear.

It is Dragon who reveals to the Initiate what elements are to be incorporated in his or her staff. Under the traditions of the Old Orders, it was widely taught that Dragon appeared as a male to Mage Initiates and as a female to Maga Initiates, although there were of course exceptions to this rule. If Dragon does not appear during the pilgrimage of the Initiate, it is understood that the petition has been denied, that the Gods for whatever reason have judged the petitioner unworthy or unready to practice High Magic.

Dragon is often referred to in Moisehén as the Silver Serpent. The very few who have seen it in its true form know its scales are, in fact, iridescent and highly reflective, and can take on a variety of colors. Nonetheless, artwork in Moisehén portrays Dragon only in silver. The sigil of the House of Vortingen, for example, is a silver dragon against a purple night. Mage Corey wears a clasp on his cloak in the form of a silver Dragon. In Chapter 11, Akmael gives Eolyn a silver bracelet with images of the many forms in which Dragon has been known to appear:

On the etched surface of winding silver she recognized multiple forms of Dragon: winged serpent, snake, lion, butterfly, river otter, fish and many others. Each figure blended into the next, creating a single creature as fantastic as imagination itself.

Dragon, then, is the guardian of the people of Moisehén and the patron of all its Mages and Magas. Its spirit can be present in any living creature, but it has appeared in its true form during important moments in the history of Moisehén.

Will Dragon appear in its true form in EOLYN? You'll just have to read the book to find out. . .

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

2011-03-19T11:10:00.002-05:00

...and since I've got a lovely picture for you this week, I won't be writing that much. Here's the cover art by Jesse Smolover, for EOLYN:

Bravo, Jesse!

Jesse Smolover, Eric T. Reynolds and I have been in conversation for many weeks over this image, working step-by-step from sketches to the final product; backtracking on more than one occasion. I am very happy with the result of all this effort, and mostly with Jesse's incredible gift for capturing the image and the mood we were after.

As some of you may know, Jesse also did the cover art for Terri-Lynne DeFino's fantasy novel FINDER. If you click onto the title, you can see Terri's cover for comparison. I find it interesting because Jesse had to capture two very different environments for each of these novels, given that FINDER is set in a desert and mediterranean environment, whereas EOLYN is embedded in a humid landscape of deep forest. In Terri's words, "Eolyn's cover is so lush and green that I can smell that wind blowing back her hair, and Finder's is so dry and dusty I can feel the heat. Crazy cool." (Hope you don't mind me quoting you, Terri!)

Of course, cover art and cover design are two different things. Melissa J. Lytton will now take this image and integrate it into the cover for EOLYN, including front cover and back cover text. So, not too long from now, I'll be able to post the completed cover for my new novel. Hooray!

Just 49 days to go until EOLYN's release. Remember, the Launch Party will be at the Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, Kansas City Missouri, on May 7. The event is open to the public and will run from 2pm to 5pm.

Also, fans of EOLYN who live in and around the Portland area, I will be doing a signing for EOLYN at Powell's Books on May 15, in Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, Oregon starting at 5pm.

And I will be attending Kansas City's own ConQuest May 27-29, in the Hyatt Regency at Crown Center. I'll post more details on that event as the dates get closer.

Once again: Thank you, Jesse! This is a beautiful work of art, and I can't wait to see it on the cover of EOLYN.

Castles on My Mind

2011-03-14T14:18:00.003-05:00

Mid-March, and it's still snowing in Kansas City. A light, easy snow that's not leaving any ice on the streets, but snow nonetheless. Sometimes it seems that winter (like me) doesn't like to say good-bye.

Something very strange happened this week. I woke up one day and realized I didn't have anything to do for EOLYN. I'd turned in my final edits for the ARC. We'd made our final decisions on the cover art (due to be unveiled later this week). And although there will be a few details to attend to here and there during the coming weeks, the creative journey that was EOLYN is fast drawing to a close. Soon she will be available in bookstores and via internet, and while I will still be doing a lot to make sure she gets into the hands of as many readers as possible, my life as a writer will move away from EOLYN and on to new projects. It's really odd for me to think about. Having lived with this obsession now for more than four years, it's hard to imagine devoting my time to something else. Not that I don't have other projects on my desk -- not the least of which is a sequel to this novel -- but still. It's going to be strange not working anymore on EOLYN.

Today's image is another sketch done by Jesse Smolover, from the early days when we were playing around with different ideas for the cover art. There was a lot of discussion about the option of putting a castle on the cover, where and how it should be positioned, style and color and so forth. I am not, of course, going to tell you what we decided in the end -- you'll find out soon enough! -- but I will say the image of a castle was really important for me, even though Eolyn's home is in the forest and as a character, she is not particularly fond of castles.

The first time I saw a castle in person was when I was eight years old. Okay, let me correct that. I may have seen castles when I was two, as that was the first time my parents took me to meet our family in Germany. But I don't remember anything from that trip, and if I did, I have a sneaking suspicion the most memorable moments for my two-year-old mind were probably the ones spent with my maternal grandfather's chickens. By the age of eight, however, when I returned to Germany for the second time, I had been thoroughly primed for castles, having seen my fair share of Disney films and read a long list of Grimm's Fairy Tales. I'd also been duly educated in the lore of the paternal side of my family, which included -- to my great delight -- a 14th century castle where the first Gastreich lived.

It was my paternal grandfather, Karl Gastreich, who took me to see that castle. I admit, it wasn't what I expected it to be. I was hoping for a palatial building, something like what the Disney princesses lived in. But this fortress (which did not actually belong to the Gastreichs; it's just that the first Gastreich lived there in service of the count) was all narrow spaces, tiny windows and thick walls. Much of it, actually, we weren't allowed to see. A boy's school, or something of that sort, had been installed there and visitors apparently were not welcome. Even visitors with blood ties to that particular place in history.

Still. It was 'my' castle. After all, none of my friends at school could point to that little town on the other side of the Atlantic and say, "That's the castle where my great-great-great-hundredth great-grandfather lived!"

Sometimes I'd like to be able to recapture the fantasies of my childhood, to know what kind of stories my eight-year-old mind invented about the first Gastreich and the life he led in that medieval fortress. I wonder if any of those fantasies survived to wiggle their way into my novel EOLYN, or other stories I've written, or will write? I wonder if any part of that eight-year-old girl spoke through young Eolyn as she grew up with Ghemena and built her friendship with Akmael?

It'd be impossible to trace now, with all these years gone by. But I like to imagine that was one of the places where it all started, my journey to becoming a story teller: in the Saarland of Germany, with my grandfather holding my eight-year-old hand and walking the steep path up to those castle gates, making it clear this was not simply a relic from a forgotten time, but a part of our family. A part of me.

Just 54 days until EOLYN's release. Hadley Rille Books will host the Launch Party on May 7 at the The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Missouri. The event is open to the public, and the fun starts at 2:00 pm. I really hope to see you there!

Devilish Details

2011-03-07T18:16:00.002-06:00

I had really hoped to be able to share the final cover art for EOLYN with you this week, but we just aren't quite there yet. As they say, the devil is in the details, and the details right now are being particularly devilish. Well, maybe next week. In the mean time, I'm posting this little image of Ghemena's cottage in the South Woods, where Eolyn and Akmael first met. This is from one of Jesse's early sketches back in December. We had thought perhaps to use something like this for the back cover, but eventually abandoned the idea in favor of. . . Well, you'll just have to stay tuned to find out.

Speaking of devilish details, I've finished proofing the ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of EOLYN and today I've been reviewing my proposed edits (that is, proofing my proofs) before sending them off to Hadley Rille editor Eric Reynolds. I found about a hundred edits, most of them very nitpicky -- a word here, a phrase there. (What can I say? A manuscript is never truly 'done' for any author!) But overall the novel is in great shape. I am so looking forward to having the final print version in my own hands!

This past week, the blog for EOLYN topped 4000 page views. Hooray! I've seen countries all over the world show up on the audience list -- basically, every continent except Antarctica has been represented, and several island nations have appeared as well. The top three visitors, country-wise, are the United States, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica. I'm really happy to see my adopted country right up there at the top. Way to go, Ticos! Pura vida.

For those of you who are curious, the top three posts in terms of number of visits are

The Nutcracker Prince and the Mouse King, which talks about how this classic by E.T.A. Hoffman has influenced me as a story teller.

Epic Love -- one of my favorites, too! The title is self-explanatory; if you haven't read it yet please do.

Full Circle with DHS, which is a reflective piece about my interaction with one of my writers groups, the Dead Horse Society, during the crafting of this novel.

In looking at other people's favorites, I've been thinking about my favorite posts as well. Nutcracker Prince and Epic Love are definitely near the top, along with pretty much anything I've written about Magic. But I think my personal favorite is The Boy by the River, an audio recording I posted of the first time Eolyn and Akmael met in the South Woods.

Speaking of magic, I have a new page for you this week: Magic in Moisehen, which provides a directory of all the posts that I've written about magic so far.

Well, as you can judge by my meandering, I don't really have a specific topic this week. (Guess I was counting a little too much on the cover art idea. . .) But while we're talking about favorites, I'm curious to ask: Those of you who have followed this blog more-or-less regularly, which posts have been your favorites? And why?

Please leave your comments below. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Celebrating the Journey

2011-02-26T19:16:00.000-06:00

March is my birthday month. As part of my celebration, I'll be using the Facebook Page for EOLYN to post a thank you to all the people and places that helped me somewhere along the way in the writing of this novel. I'll post one 'thank you' per day -- and that may very well carry me to the end of the month or beyond.

By then, we will be at most a month away from the release date for EOLYN. So at last, all of you who have been waiting faithfully, reading my blog and accompanying me on this journey to publication, will be able to read the novel about which I have spoken so much. Hadley Rille Books will release EOLYN in hardback, paperback, and electronic format, including for the Kindle and the Nook. There is also the possibility of an audio version, but that will be a little further down the road.

(Just this past week, by the way, Hadley Rille released nook versions of several of its existing titles, for just $5 a piece. There is something for everyone on this list -- science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction, including some of my personal favorites, like THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS by Kimberly Vandervort, THE PRIESTESS AND THE SLAVE by Jenny Blackford, FINDER by Terri-Lynne DeFino, and TRANSCENDENCE by Chris McKitterick. To see what all is available, visit editor Eric T. Reynold's blog by clicking HERE.)

I have been proofing the ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of EOLYN this last week, and while I've found a fair number of small edits I would like to make before we go to print, I must say that I believe this will be a wonderful story for you to read. Eolyn's journey is a tale that touches the heart, engaging from beginning to end. That is, of course, my biased opinion, but I'm confident that you will agree when the time comes for you to get to know this admirable protagonist and all the characters that populate her world. This story is for you, and I truly hope that you enjoy it.

It's hard to believe we are really approaching the final stretch here. Lately I've been reflecting on the experience of writing in general, and of writing EOLYN in particular, and the old saying it's not the destination that matters, but the journey keeps returning to my thoughts. I am delighted with the destination I'm seeing on the horizon, but in looking back I realize what gives that destination meaning is the journey that has brought me here. The emergence of the need to write this story, the discovery of my own creative power, the revelation of every aspect of Eolyn and her world, the exploration of the craft of writing and especially fantasy writing. Most of all, the many colleagues and friends that I would not have met if this novel had not brought us together in one way or another.

So, I'm finishing February in a nostalgic mood, and looking forward to a month of thanksgiving in March. And soon, oh so soon, after that we will have the biggest celebration of the year (if I may say so myself), with EOLYN's release on May 6, followed by the launch party on May 7. If you're in Kansas City around that time, please come to join us. We'll be at the Writers Place. The fun starts at 2:00pm.

Warrior Magic

2011-02-20T14:18:00.000-06:00

I usually start these posts with some sort of digression before getting to the topic at hand, but this week I put my pre-topic digression in my livejournal blog. It's entitled "Why I love my small press". If you'd like to have a look at that, click HERE.

Now, on to this week's topic: Warrior Magic

In Chapter 9, the girl Eolyn says to her friend Akmael: "I don't understand how magic can be applied to warfare. Magic should be used to create not to destroy. And in war one always has to destroy. How is it possible for a mage to become a warrior?"

Young Akmael, a warrior at heart, responds with great enthusiasm, demonstrating ways in which magic might be incorporated in a fight. Mage warriors can perform maneuvers that seem to defy the rules of gravity, he points out. They can also alter the path of flying objects. "A skilled warrior mage detects the fears of his enemy and turns them to his advantage. . . A warrior mage trained in High Magic can use his staff to invoke a death charge. . . "

In the end, despite Akmael's best efforts, Eolyn is unconvinced.  Her challenge to Akmael in Chapter 9 is an expression of an essential part of her nature. For her, magic and death will always be at odds; one should not be used to invoke the other. She will remain firm in this conviction for years to come, even though she will be compelled by circumstance to participate in war and use her magic to kill time and time again.

Despite Eolyn's personal misgivings, the use of magic in war has long been a tradition in Moisehén. According to legends that are never fully articulated in the novel EOLYN, the first mage to become a warrior (or depending on whose story you listen to, the first warrior to become a mage) was Caedmon. Some traditions claim Caedmon was a descendent of Aithne and Caradoc; others give him a separate heritage. But all legends agree he was a contemporary of Vortingen, the warrior chief who established the line of kings from which Akmael descended.

As you may remember from last week's post on High Magic, the discovery of magic by Aithne and Caradoc led to a division among the gods, between those who supported the use of magic by humans and those who did not. This division would, generations later, manifest itself in a bitter and long war between the People of Thunder, who saw the use of magic by humans as evil, and the People of Dragon, considered the early predecessors of the modern kingdoms of Moisehén, Galia, the Mountain People (also known as the Paramenites) and the Syrnte.

It was in the darkest time of this epic war, when the People of Dragon had all but lost their struggle to avoid annihilation by the People of Thunder, that Dragon appeared to Caedmon in its true form and showed him how magic could be used on the battlefield.  The revelation turned the tide of the war. Caedmon and his mage warriors united with the warrior chief Vortingen, and together they defeated the People of Thunder, securing extensive territories in which magic would be practiced for generations to come.

Ever since that time, Moisehén has sustained a class of Mage and Maga Warriors, who protected the territories of the kingdom without fail until Akmael's father Kedehen assumed the crown and the Magas rose up against him. As a result of that civil war and its aftermath, the tradition of warrior magic in Moisehén imploded, leaving no maga warriors and only a handful of mage warriors in its wake. Akmael and his tutor Sir Drostan are among the very few left who conserve this tradition.

Eolyn's own mother, by the way, was a maga warrior who fought against Kedehen. Her name was Kaie, and she appears in Chapter 1 of EOLYN.  If I ever write the prequel to EOLYN, Kaie will figure prominently in the story.

That's all for this week's post. I hope you enjoyed it, and that you'll be back next week for more.

High Magic

2011-02-14T19:35:00.001-06:00

Here's the Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) for EOLYN! Hadley Rille editor Eric T. Reynolds handed it to me on Friday. I've been a little giddy every since. This week, more copies will be going out to reviewers and fellow authors.

We are just under three months to the release of EOLYN in May. There's still some work to be done between now and then. Artists Jesse Smolover and Ginger Prewitt will be finalizing the cover art and map of Moisehén, respectively. Melissa J. Lytton will be doing our cover design. And of course, I have to read this book -- my book! -- to see if there are any final details I'd like to change before we go to press. The Events Page on this blog will start filling up over the coming weeks and months, so you may want to keep an eye on that. In addition to a pre-launch party and a launch party, I'll be doing some book signings and attending a few fantasy conferences. All the details will be posted here.  You can also 'friend' EOLYN on Facebook for regular updates.

On to this week's topic, High Magic.

This is the third post in my short series about Advanced Magic. The first post, about three weeks ago, covered 'Simple Magic', and the second talked a little about 'Middle Magic'. Just to recap, what I'm relating here is the worldview of the magas and mages of Moisehén with respect to of magic. There are other cultures in Eolyn's world, such as the Galians and the Syrnte, who conceive of magic in somewhat different ways from what I describe here. But we'll discuss all those other witches and wizards when the time comes...

According to the legends of Moisehén, High Magic is a form of knowledge and power that was gifted by the gods to Aithne and Caradoc, the first people to discover magic. Aithne and Caradoc had together learned the techniques of Simple and Middle Magic by 'listening' to the world around them; to the plants, animals, rivers and stones. Their achievements caused dissention among the gods, a great conflict arose between those who admired the practice of magic by humans and those who felt threatened by it. The gods who supported Aithne and Caradoc sent Dragon to grant them the staves with which they would eventually master High Magic. (You can hear the complete story of Aithne and Caradoc in the May 2010 post entitled The Origin of Magic.)

Practitioners who have become adept at Simple and Middle Magic must petition the gods for their staff. The initiate generally spends time alone in the forest, and at the end of his or her retreat Dragon appears in the form of an animal with instructions as to what elements are to be incorporated into the staff.  (Note that Dragon has only appeared in its true form, the winged serpent, a handful of times in the history of Moisehén: to Aithne and Caradoc, to the warrior chief Vortingen -- who was not a practitioner of magic -- and to the first Mage Warrior Caradoc. Every other petitioner of magic has encountered Dragon in some other form, whether that be a wolf, an owl, an ant, a snake, or another creature of the forest.) If Dragon does not appear, it means the gods have denied the initiate's petition to learn High Magic.

The three or four elements that go into each individual staff are unique. For example, one maga's staff may be made of cherry wood, with a crystal of amethyst and the feather of a thrush. Another may be made of oak with a crystal of smoky quartz and the wings of a dragonfly. Each staff is thus tailored to its user, and it is difficult --though not impossible -- for one practitioner to use the staff of another.

Staves in Moisehen are said to be 'forged' because the integration of the elements that make them is achieved in a sacred fire prepared by the tutor of the initiate. With a staff, the mage or maga can draw on very deep powers of the earth to accomplish many feats of magic and illusion, such as flight, shapeshifting, the invocation of sound wards and vision wards, and the deflection of flying objects such as arrows (which comes in pretty handy).  They can also invoke a variety of flames for ceremonial purposes, for self-defense, or in the case of Mage Warriors, for use on the battle field.

Magic in Moisehén is an evolving craft, the High Mages and Magas try to push magic beyond the traditional limits of their predecessors. Eolyn and Akmael, for example, have certain powers that develop during the course of the novel. One of their ongoing challenges, as individuals and companions, is to recognize these abilities and make proper use of them.

Related to this idea, it is also true that sometimes High Magic acts in unexpected ways. So, while certain rules and limitations apply to the practice of magic, magic can also occasionally slip outside of its boundaries in a manner that surprises even practitioners.

Well, that's my post for this week. Next week, if everything goes as planned (and in life as in magic, sometimes it doesn't), I'll talk a little about that special class of practitioners who succeeded in bringing magic to the battle field: the Mage and Maga Warriors.

Hope to see you then!

ARCs for EOLYN

2011-02-07T21:45:00.000-06:00

The final word came in from Hadley Rille editor Eric T. Reynolds tonight: EOLYN has been sent to the printer for the ARCs, or 'Advanced Reading Copies'. These are previews, as it were, of the novel to be released in May. They look essentially as the final book will appear, with all the text properly formatted, although certain details may not yet be finished, such as the cover art and the cover design.

We have had a very busy week leading up to this deadline. Eric has been hard at work formatting the pdf copy of the manuscript, incorporating comments of proofreader Dora Furlong (which, of course, had to be double-checked by me). Jesse Smolover sent us a preliminary sketch of the cover art over the weekend, and Eric made use of this landscape to give the ARCs some color to their cover. We don't have a final cover design for the novel just yet, nor do we need one for the ARCs, but we did meet with Melissa J. Lytton last week to discuss cover design and layout. Another element that will be part of the final novel, but will not appear in the ARC, is the map of Moisehén, which is being finalized by artist Ginger Prewitt.

I got a few more details for the ARC to Eric just under the wire Sunday night -- the acknowledgements, an author bio, and a photo of myself. (The most recent version of the acknowledgements is now available on this blog; if you'd like to read them, click HERE.)

The most difficult task of all this past week was picking out a photo of myself; all of the sudden, not a single photo that had ever been taken of me was quite up to the task of appearing at the back of my novel. In the end, I let my mother make that decision.

So now, what happens to the ARCs? Well, from what I understand, these previews will go out to reviewers and fellow authors. I will also receive a copy, so I can read the manuscript one more time in book format, just in case there are any other details that need changing before we officially go to print in May.

And here's the plan for May: The release date is May 6; we'll host a launch party on May 7. We are also considering a pre-launch event at Avila University. I will certainly keep you posted on all the details of time and place as the dates get closer.

Here's a small favor I would like to ask you: Please send lots of positive thoughts EOLYN's way as she makes her first journey to the desks of professional reviewers and other authors. These are people who can contribute in important ways to the novel's success once we hit the markets in May. Here's hoping they truly enjoy what they read.

Wishing all of you a wonderful week. I will be back soon to follow up on my previous discussions of magic in Moisehén, with a post about High Magic.

Middle Magic

2011-02-01T11:59:00.001-06:00

Well, today I was scheduled to meet with Hadley Rille editor Eric T. Reynolds and artist Melissa J. Lytton to talk about cover designs for EOLYN, but Mother Nature had a different plan, having whipped up a fine blizzard over the states of Kansas and Missouri. So I'm keeping warm and cozy at home, watching the snow fall, and fall, and then fall some more.

We're getting close to putting out the advanced reading copies (called 'ARCs') for EOLYN. These are basically preview books that go to reviewers and other authors prior to the release date. I will also receive a copy, to comb through it once more in case there's anything left that I would like to change or fix before we go to press in May. Just thinking about it brings to mind a couple things I need to ask Eric about, but before I sign off to do that, let's talk a little more about magic.

Last week I wrote about Simple Magic, one of the three classes of Advanced Magic recognized by the Old Orders of Moisehén. Students who become adept at Simple Magic eventually advance to Middle Magic. The distinction between the two can be fuzzy sometimes, and was often a subject of intense debate among the different schools of the Old Orders. Yet it is generally agreed that the focus of Middle Magic is communication, in a very broad sense of the word. In Chapter 4, Akmael tells Eolyn:

"Middle Magic is the language of the world, of the animals and the stones and the plants. It’s about integrating the elements. Middle Magic is everything you have to know before you can practice High Magic."

Magas and Mages believe that understanding the natural world is a fundamental prerequisite to being able to manipulate it. So students of Middle Magic focus on learning how to speak with and listen to the animals, plants and even the stones.

Now, as I've mentioned in previous posts, plants and animals in EOLYN do not 'speak English' in the sense that you might find in a children's book. So you will never see Eolyn carry on a conversation with a wolf in the same manner she does with Ghemena or Akmael. But Eolyn does learn how to interpret the signals of wolves in their own right, to understand what is being 'said' by them, and to interact with them directly.

It bears mentioning that writing is considered a form of Middle Magic in the tradition of Moisehén, primarily because of its ability to preserve human thought and knowledge through time. For this reason, all students of Middle Magic learn to read and write.

Other skills learned by students of Middle Magic depend to some extent on the preferences of the tutors with whom they work. As it turns out, Tzeremond and Ghemena have very similar approaches to instructing their wards, so both Akmael and Eolyn learn, for example, how to 'visualize'; that is, how to create the illusion of a particular object. As a matter of fact, one of their first acts of friendship, described in Chapter 4, is to craft a gift for each other by using this power.

In addition, while shape shifting is a power associated with High Magic, both Tzeremond and Ghemena turn their wards into animals (or even plants) to supplement their education in Middle Magic. (And yes, this particular practice is my small tribute to Merlin and Wart, as portrayed in T.H. White's classic The Once and Future King.)

Okay, that covers my brief introduction to Middle Magic. Up for next week: High Magic. Hope to see you then!

Simple Magic

2011-01-24T17:15:00.000-06:00

I took inventory today and found that since last May, I've written eight posts that deal specifically with magic in Eolyn's world. I've talked about the Origin of Magic in Moisehén. I've covered the two forms of innate magic known as Primitive Magic and Children's Magic. I've discussed some of the difference between Mages and Magas, and gone into a few specifics such as Shape Shifting, Tree Magick and the High Holidays of Moisehén. I've also done a bit of philosophizing on the Rules of Magic, thinking about what (if any) limits should be placed on magic, and why and how.

It's a good list, but I still have a lot of ground to cover. (In fact, it's kind of surprising how very little I've posted on the topic, given that my novel is mostly about magic!) So today, I'd like to talk a little about Simple Magic, which in the tradition of Moisehén is considered one of three subcategories of Advanced Magic.

Advanced Magic is distinguished from Primitive and Children's Magic because it is not innate; it must be learned.* The three subcategories of Advanced Magic -- Simple Magic, Middle Magic and High Magic -- correspond to the journey of Aithne and Caradoc, the first practitioners of Moisehén, who learned Simple Magic and Middle Magic by observing the natural world, and then were granted the power to learn High Magic by Dragon, a messenger of the Gods.

Simple Magic exists in our world today. Its definition is pretty straightforward: it is the knowledge of the uses of plants, animals and fungi for food and medicinal purposes. Of course, the title is a something of a misnomer -- because Simple Magic is far from a simple thing to learn! In Moisehén, students of magic begin studying the creatures of the forest and their uses from a very young age, and it can take years before they gain sufficient mastery of the topic to continue on to Middle Magic. Eolyn began learning Simple Magic from her mother Kaie at about the age of five, and continued her apprenticeship under Ghemena until she was formally initiated into the study of Middle Magic at the age of twelve. (For examples of some of the things Eolyn learned from her mother, have a look at Chapter 1 on this web site.)

In Moisehén, Simple Magic is the only form of Advanced Magic that women are allowed to practice under the law. This is due in part to the perception that Simple Magic does not pose the same threat that Middle Magic or High Magic can, if used in the 'wrong' way. But there was also a practical side to this decision, when Kedehen and his advisor Tzeremond laid down the rules regarding the types of magic to which women could have access. Simple Magic is a relatively widespread form of magic; the use of chamomile, mint and other herbs, as well as food plants, is part of day-to-day existence for most every citizen of Moisehén. And while the average peasant household does not command the knowledge of medicinal plants that, say, a young mage might, it is still fair to state that Simple Magic is an integrated part of the life and society of Moisehén. To truly outlaw it would have required burning pretty much every peasant woman in the kingdom -- and even the wizard Tzeremond was not up to that!

Nonetheless, from Tzeremond's point of view, the decision to allow the widespread practice of Simple Magic, while practical, carried substantial risks. Simple Magic is the doorway to other forms of magic; the first step down a path that can lead to powers that, in the wizard's mind, comprised a major threat to the peace and security of the kingdom when wielded by women. As a result, women with extensive knowledge of medicinal plants are watched closely in Moisehén, and often burned on charges of witchcraft, even if the evidence for practicing other forms of Advanced Magic are minimal.

Well, that's my post for the week. Hope you enjoyed it. Have questions and comments about Simple Magic? Please post them below!

We'll come back to Middle Magic and Advanced Magic later on down the road.

*Note that while Primitive Magic is considered innate, there are aspects of Primitive Magic that must also be learned, or practiced in order to perfect, such as dance and music. In this and other ways, Primitive Magic defies clear definition, something I discussed in my previous post on this topic. Another thing to keep in mind is that these broad categories -- Primitive Magic, Children's Magic and Advanced Magic -- are not entirely linear, in the sense that one does not necessarily 'precede' the other, but all can act in concert, or even cycle from one to the next and then back again..

Today's image is of mint leaves. I obtained it from Wikicommons; the author is Kham Tran.

Strong Female Protagonists

2011-01-17T13:03:00.001-06:00

It's been about a year and a half now since I started shopping around for an agent and/or editor for EOLYN. The submission process is, in a word, harrowing for any author, no matter how much confidence he or she has in her product. You have to be able to live with uncertainty and hope -- and a lot of patience -- and there has to be a sense of determination combined with an underlying humility; a readiness to confront the difficult truth that this might not be the time or the place to publish a novel like the one you've written.

I've found, in talking to different authors who have been through the submissions process, that we all have slightly different approaches. Some folks shotgun it, taking Writer's Market or whatever their favored reference is in hand and simply going down the list to send their manuscript to any address labeled 'Literary Agency' or 'Press'. I tended to be much more selective, and tried very hard to identify agents and presses that had represented or published novels in some way similar to my own.

One of the key phrases I used during that period of searching was an interest in 'strong female protagonists'. Agents or presses that expressed a clear preference for strong female protagonists received a longer look from me, and often a query as well, because EOLYN features a woman who, in my mind, clearly fits this criteria.

Yet it was interesting, in looking at the titles represented by certain agents or published by different presses, to see how broad and varied the definition of 'strong female protagonist' can be. More often than not, a 'strong female protagonist' tended to be rather gritty in nature, always wielding a weapon, and ever-ready to engage in violence. Now, I don't have any overt problem with this definition of 'strong female protagonist', but I was disappointed to see just how often this was the only definition of interest to the agent or press that I was researching.

What is it that makes a female protagonist 'strong'?

For me it is -- more than the ability to do a back flip, sword in hand, while slicing up three opponents at once -- complexity and depth of character. A strong protagonist, male or female, has many qualities that we admire and at least few that we do not. She must have the capacity to overcome great difficulties, whether through physical strength, or emotional fortitude, or both. We should be able to recognize something in her that we would like to be; and to think of her as the kind of friend we would like to have, especially when the going gets rough.

This is the kind of protagonist I've tried to craft for the novel EOLYN; and I hope that in reading the novel you will agree that I've succeeded.

Just for fun, I thought I'd put together a list of some of my favorite female protagonists over the years. Here are a few:

The Miller's Daughter -- A nameless young woman in the Grimm's Fairy Tale The Robber Bride Groom, she manages to escape from an unwanted marriage by proving her future husband a thief, a murderer and a cannibal. One of my favorites growing up, this story and its protagonist always ran neck-and-neck with that other Grimm's classic, Snow White.

Princess Leia -- Technically, she doesn't quite count since her brother was really center stage, but she has to be mentioned here because Leia was the first fantasy adventure woman to capture my imagination. Bold, witty and strong-willed. Thanks to Leia, I finally had a role to play when I ran around with the rest of the boys in our neighborhood games of cops and robbers (which of course were instantly changed in those years to rebels and stormtroopers...)

Trinity -- And of course, there has to be at least one person on the list who can do a back flip while slicing up three opponents at once. Again, techinically Trinity doesn't quite count as a protagonist because Neo took center stage, but she had a tender heart encased in that core of steel, and that always makes for an interesting story.

Arya -- From George RR Martin's classic series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. Arya isn't even a teenager yet, but oh my goodness she's amazing. Arya takes war by the bullhorns, so to speak, and does not let its horror or violence defeat her in any moment. One of the best journeys I've ever read in a fictional character.

Mendoza -- From Kage Baker's wonderful blend of science fiction and historical fiction, THE GARDEN OF IDEN. Mendoza does not wield a sword or a laser gun, but she's a sensitive, passionate cyborg with super-human strength, and a top-notch botanist to boot. Who needs jijitsu when you know your plants?

Ki'Leah -- The protagonist of Kim Vandervort's THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS. Ki'Leah fits everything I like to see in my female protagonists. In this first book of Vandervort's series, she is young and somewhat immature, but experience and harsh reality shape her into an admirable leader. And she can even wield a sword by the end of the story! I'm looking forward to spending time with her again in Vandervort's sequel THE NORTHERN QUEEN.

Olivya -- In the soon-to-be-released APOCALYPSE GENE by my good friends Suki Michelle and Carlyle Clark, Olivya is a sharp-witted and daring young woman with paranormal powers, who lives in a futuristic Chicago beleaguered by a plague of cancer. Definitely the kind of gal you want on your side when the bad guys come knocking on your door.

Well, I could go on, but I think that's enough rambling for one day. So help me out here -- Who would you add to the list of your favorite female protagonists? And what is it, for you, that makes a female protagonist "strong"?

How It All Began

2011-01-10T00:28:00.000-06:00

Welcome back, everyone. I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to a great year in 2011.

Less than five months left before the release of EOLYN; I can hardly believe we are almost there. Although I stayed away from blogging over Christmas and New Year's, we have been doing a lot of work with the book. Hadley Rille editor Eric T. Reynolds has been busy formatting the pdf version of the manuscript. Artists Jesse Smolover and Ginger Prewitt have been sketching ideas for the cover art and the map, respectively. Later this week, I'll be meeting with Erin Bolton to talk about the marketing plan.

Some news from recent days:

Eric T. Reynolds has posted a list of libraries worldwide that carry Hadley Rille Books. Visit the link to view this impressive list of libraries that endorse HRB publications.

My short story When Sally Met Ben is now available on 69 Flavors of Paranoia. Stop by for a free read of this flash fiction horror piece.

The anthology A Visitor to Sandahl, edited by C Lee Brown, is now available through Amazon. I contributed a short story to this anthology, entitled Chirro's Escape. The volume also includes several great stories by talented authors, all of whom came together through the on line writers workshop tNBW.

Last but not least, I've been selected for a Writers Residency as a part of the Long Term Ecological Reflections Program at Andrews Forest in Oregon. I'm very excited about this opportunity, which not only brings together my love of ecology and my love of writing, but will give me the chance to visit the magnificent forests of the Pacific Northwest.

That's the news.

So, why the title for today's post, "How it all began"?

Well, I just wanted to share a little something with you, though I'm going to keep today's reflection brief. I was going through some boxes that we have in storage today, and came across the journal entry where I started writing EOLYN for the first time, just over four years ago. Here's an excerpt from those first few sentences:

I'm reluctant to write it down, because these ideas seem so much sillier when they pass from my imagination to paper. But here it goes...

...The South Woods of Moehn was where the girl grew up. After her mother disappeared, and her father and brother were killed in one of the King's raids, she was found -- or found -- a maga of the old school, who lived alone...in a place so well hidden only the Duendes knew how to find it...a cinamon-colored cottage surrounded by wildflowers and a thick garden of herbs and fresh vegetables...

The entry is dated 26 Nov 2006. Of course, none of this text survived subsequent edits to get into the final version of the novel, but what struck me was how very clear I was about the premise of the novel, from the moment I started to write about it.

It also made me smile to remember how worried I was that what I had to say would sound 'silly'. I seem to have gotten over that initial hesitation fairly quickly though, because what follows is seven straight days of journal entries devoted to Eolyn and her story. (Followed, of course, by four straight years of working and reworking the delivery of that original idea...)

On December 2, 2006, I wrote for the first time about Akmael, the boy who would become Eolyn's closest friend and her greatest rival. I ended that entry with this:

For the first time since he began his studies, [Akmael] had a piece of magic over which [Tzeremond] could lay no claim.

...a sentence which faired remarkably well during subsequent edits, and still exists more or less in its original form, at the end of Chapter 3.

So, that's how it all began.

This year, we'll celebrate another beginning: the publication of the novel EOLYN in May, by Hadley Rille Books. Join me as we begin the count down!

Midwinter's Eve

2010-12-18T12:59:00.000-06:00

Time for my first annual Christmas reading. (haha -- I've always wondered how a 'first' can also be an 'annual', but let's just hope I'm right and this becomes a yearly event.)

This excerpt is taken from Chapter 23 of EOLYN, which recounts a celebration of Winter Solstice.

Winter Solstice, by the way, is coming up this week, and will be accompanied by a full lunar eclipse the night of Monday, December 20, around midnight. I'll be staying up for that one -- let's hope the skies over Kansas City are clear!

I want to let you know I'm going take a break from this blog over the holidays. I will, of course, respond to any comments you leave, but no new posts until after Christmas and New Years. When I come back in January, we will be heading into some very exciting times -- The final countdown for the release of EOLYN, scheduled for May 6.

Well, on to the audio recording. This is a long one...about eleven minutes. But, like I said, it's the last you'll be hearing from me for a little while, so you can always break it up if you like -- four minutes now, four minutes next Sunday, three minutes the following week, and by then we'll be good to go with brand new material for 2011.

I want to thank all of you for sharing in the journey of EOLYN these past few months. May the holidays bring you much rest and companionship, and many opportunities for celebration. And may at least one of your dreams come true in the New Year.

I found the image for this video online. It is entitled "Yule Witch", and the best I could do for tracking down a credit was to find a person called "EcoWitch" who apparently posted it on photobucket.com So, I'm really not sure who the original artist is. If you happen to know, please drop me a line so I can give proper credit.

Similarly, I don't have a proper credit for the 'merrie dancers' image I used for this post; I obtained it online at barleyhall.org.uk

The Nutcracker Prince and the Mouse King

2010-12-13T23:15:00.006-06:00

Many posts ago, I talked a little about why I wrote EOLYN, highlighting some of the early influences that, in my view, inspired the story. I haven't returned to this topic -- at least, not explicitly -- since then. But tonight I was watching the San Francisco Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker Suite, and I remembered what this fairy tale meant to me as a child. I realized this classic ballet, based on the much more intriguing story by E.T.A. Hoffman, was one of the fantasies that fed my young imagination and planted the earliest seeds of my own stories.

There was a period -- oh about ten years ago -- when I considered myself an authority on the Nutcracker. After all, I'd seen the ballet countless times. I'd even performed in it as a child, interpreting the role of a young boy in the Christmas party hosted by the Staulbaums. I'd read Hoffman's tale -- or had it read to me -- repeatedly by the time I was ten years old. And I knew all kinds of quirky little facts about the story's history, like for instance, how the Tchaikovsky hated the score for the ballet. It was the least favorite of all his works (thought it became his most famous), because when Russian choreographer Petipa commissioned the music he had already choreographed the dances. So Tchaikovsky's creative impulse was thoroughly constrained by having to respect predetermined rhythms and phrases.

As a self-designated Nutcracker Expert, I had a full layout in my mind of the differences and similarities between the ballet and Hoffman's story; I knew what the original version was really about, and I could tell anyone all the fine and important details in which the ballet departed from the purity of Hoffman's vision.

You can imagine my surprise when, a few years back, I sat down with Hoffman's story once more for nostalgia's sake and discovered it was very different from what I remembered. It turned out I wasn't an expert on the Nutcracker at all. The story I'd been telling all those years -- the original, true version in which Klara was the brave young protagonist of a magical and somewhat dark adventure -- had not been written by Hoffman at all, nor choreographed by Petipa. In fact, it didn't really exist anywhere outside my own imagination.

To this day I'm wondering what led to the strange amalgamation of real story and personal myth that became my unique version of the Nutcracker. The essential elements remain; my 'Nutcracker' is still a Christmas story, though curiously devoid of all Christian imagery. (Has anyone ever noticed the creche is altogether absent during that great battle against the Seven Headed Mouse King? I mean, where were Joseph and Mary -- and Baby Jesus, for that matter -- when the Nutcracker really needed them?) My 'Nutcracker' has a female protagonist who makes the transition to womanhood by falling in love with an ugly prince, following him into war, and saving his life. And my 'Nutcracker' is the story of a girl coming into her own by learning the ways of magic, inheriting a rich tradition of special powers from her mysterious and beloved uncle, the toy maker known as Drosselmeyer. Most importantly, my 'Nutcracker' is not a dream (and nor was Hoffman's -- it was Petipa, it would seem, who got that lame 'it-was-all-just-a-dream' ending started, and generations of ballet companies since who have insisted on keeping it).

Of course, my version does not have a Sugar Plum Fairy, but who needs her anyway? (The Snow Fairy, on the other hand, was a definite keeper...)

Somehow this is all connected to EOLYN. That's why I got started on the topic; that's what I found myself thinking as I watched the San Francisco Ballet on TV tonight. Eolyn's childhood, and her journey in magic are, in some deep and perhaps untraceable way, an elaborate permutation of my version of Tchaikovsky's version of Petipa's interpretation of Hoffman's The Nutcracker Prince and the Mouse King. (And who knows where Hoffman first got his ideas?)

Eolyn, like Klara, inherits a rich tradition of magic from an eccentric and mysterious old practitioner. Eolyn also falls in love with an ugly prince -- though he's not exactly ugly, and for a good part of the story there's some doubt as to whether he's really a 'Nutcracker Prince' or whether he is, in fact, a 'Seven Headed Mouse King'.

The resemblance probably ends here, but in any case there you have it: Another seed -- however obscure --that helped me build a novel.

What are the fairy tales that have inspired you, in your life and in your imagination? Do you have your own version of some classic legend? If so, tell me about it -- I'm always up for a good story.

In honor of Christmas, E.T.A. Hoffman, and Tchaikovsky, I've posted a scene I wrote once based on this classic tale on my Other Works page. Click HERE if you'd like to read it!

The "Rules" of Magic

2010-12-04T13:36:00.000-06:00

The big news this week: Kim Vandervort's THE NORTHERN QUEEN is being launched this weekend. Hooray! I can't wait to read it. This is the sequel to the wonderful novel THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS, released by Hadley Rille Books in 2009. I'm a big fan of Vandervort, and if you haven't had a chance to read her work yet, now is the time to put her on your holiday reading list. Congratulations, Kim!

Both of the links I put for Vandervort's novels go to the Hadley Rille website, but you can also order these books through Amazon, or ask for them at your local bookstore. Just as a reminder, though -- Hadley Rille is still celebrating its fifth birthday with the giveaway of a free Kindle 3G. In addition to being able to register for the drawing for free when you visit Hadley Rille's website, every time you order a book from the site you get another entry in the drawing. For more information, click HERE.

Okay, on to today's topic: The 'Rules' of Magic

I'm not sure who first coined the term 'the rules of magic'. I'd like to credit Orson Scott Card with having used the phrase in his brief but very helpful book "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy", but in truth I'm not sure he did. The first time I heard "magic" and "rules" used in the same breath was at a meeting with my local writers group, the Dead Horse Society. The heart of the idea did not really become clear to me, though, until many months later when a member of DHS, having read an early draft of EOLYN, came back to me with several questions about magic in Moisehen. The one that has stuck with me to this day is this:

"If magas draw their power from the earth, how is it that they can shapeshift into owls?"

In the moment, I thought this a ridiculous question. Why would drawing power from the earth negate the ability to shapeshift into an owl? As it turned out, this person's confusion arose from a preconceived notion that flying creatures are associated with the power of air. Yet in the world of Moisehen, that's not how things work. All living creatures are associated intimately with the power of the earth, and practitioners connected to the earth can, therefore, shapeshift. Practitioners who draw their power from the air, on the other hand, cannot shapeshift -- even into flying creatures -- although they do have access to other distinctive gifts.

In any case, this question was a turning point in my journey as a fantasy writer. For the first time, I realized there would be readers out there with preconceived notions of how magic is supposed to work, and that if I wanted to avoid upsetting them with 'magic that made no sense', I needed to be more explicit throughout the novel about the underlying logic of magic in Eolyn's world. That day I went home and told my husband I needed to outline the "rules of magic" for Moisehen. To which he laughed and said, "I thought the whole point of magic is that it breaks the rules."

At the 2010 World Fantasy Convention, I attended a panel discussion entitled "The Fairy Tale as a Specific Form". There were five members of the panel, Leah Bobet, Terri-Lynne DeFino, James Dorr, Gabe Dybing, and Delia Sherman. Early in the discussion, the topic of magic came up, and one of the panelists mentioned that for JRR Tolkien, magic by its very nature could not be explained -- as so many readers expect it to be now -- it simply 'felt' right, though its inner workings would always be a mystery.

Now, I am no scholar of Tolkien, and all I have from this panel is that one brief note, but I do think it's interesting -- assuming the panelist's assesment is accurate -- the implication that we have moved from a period in which magic was accepted as an intuitive, essentially inexplicable endeavor, to a time when it's a fundamental task of every fantasy writer to elaborate, in an almost scientific fashion, on the 'rules of magic' for his or her world.

Does that mean the genre has advanced somehow, become better, more thorough in its approach to world building?

I'm not so sure. I have heard, for example, colleagues ruminating about the problem of 'conservation of mass' during shapeshifting. Yet as I see things, if you can turn a duck into a goose with a wave of a wand, the laws of physics are already irrelevant. What, exactly, do we gain by mixing science with magic? By distilling the infinite universe of imagination into testable hypotheses? By trying to fit square pegs into round holes?

Just one year ago, I was comfortable with this idea of 'rules' in magic, but -- as is probably clear from this post -- I'm starting to drift away from that. I no longer believe 'rules' is the correct word to use in association with magic. I do believe magic (like, say, religion or art or even literature) must have an underlying logic, a way of working that is tied intimately to the culture, history and worldview of the people who practice it. (Another way of saying, I suppose, that it has to 'feel' right.) In that sense, magic will always have limitations -- but limitations defined, I think, more by the vision of its practitioners than by any inherent 'rules' that govern what magic can and cannot do.

What do you think? Does magic need rules? Or is magic meant to break them?

Simple Magic

2010-11-26T14:47:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Things are starting to come together now for EOLYN's debut as a Hadley Rille Books publication. The release date has been set for early May. Ginger Prewitt is drawing up a map; and Jesse Smolover has agreed to work with us on the cover art. Both artists have collaborated with Hadley Rille before; Prewitt has done maps for Kim Vandervort and Terri-Lynne DeFino, and Smolover did the cover art for DeFino's FINDER. I met with HR editor Eric T. Reynolds on Wednesday to talk about cover design. We came up with some very cool ideas, and I am excited to see what the artist does with them.
In other good news, my flash fiction short "When Sally Met Ben" has been accepted for publication in the December/January issue of 69 Flavors of Paranoia. This is a great little story that grew out of a writing exercise with my local writers' group, the Dead Horse Society.

In honor of the holiday weekend, I'm giving myself a break from writing a full blog post, but not without giving you a little treat. This is an audio recording of the opening pages of Chapter 1 -- part of the reading I did for World Fantasy at the end of October. The acoustics aren't the best, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. If you haven't read all of Chapter 1 yet, you can find the text by clicking HERE.

The image used for today's video is from Biogradska Gora National Park in Montenegro, one of the few remaining patches of old growth forest in Europe. This scene is a bit more summery, maybe, than what is appropriate for the reading, but I liked the photo so I decided to use it anyway.

Choice, Change and Loss in EOLYN

2010-11-20T20:59:00.001-06:00

Some news and announcements before I get to today's topic.

First, the good news: My flash fiction short "When Sally Met Ben" will be published in the December/January issue of 69 Flavors of Paranoia. (This may be the last of my short fiction pubs for a little while; I don't have anything else out at the moment -- better get hopping on that...)

Also, I've put up a Directory of Audio Recordings for the blog. You can go to this page now for direct access to any post to date that includes an audio recording from EOLYN. I am also working on setting up access to audio clips for you to download. I haven't quite figured out the best way to do that yet, but I will keep you posted as options develop.

Now, the bad news: Friend and author Christopher McKitterick, who recently published his first novel TRANSCENDENCE, discovered this past week that the electronic version of his novel was pirated and is now available for free on the internet. After going through the five stages of grief, Chris has decided to fight back by giving away electronic versions of his novel for free -- which brings us back to the good news. If you'd like to download a free copy of this great sci fi book, visit Christopher McKitterick's website.

Those are my announcements. Now, for the topic of the day...

"Eolyn’s gaze wavered and disconnected from Akmael. An unmistakable energy flickered about her, the signature of some terrible memory. Before Akmael could determine the source, she buried her thoughts with a quick shake of her head."
-- Chapter 4

A friend from one of my writer's groups once said that EOLYN is essentially a story about loss; that this is an underlying theme that ties the entire book together, from beginning to end. The statement took me by surprise, because in writing this novel, there was no conscientious effort on my part to create such a thread. Yet when I thought about it, I realized he was right. This is one of the wonderful things about having fellow authors willing to read your novel as it takes shape; they often see aspects of your work that are intriguing, and important, but to which you yourself are blind.

I think my initial inability to see the prevalence of loss in EOLYN stemmed from my approach to change in my own life. I am, in many ways, the eternal optimist. I embrace change because I instinctively focus on all the good that can come with it: new opportunities, new friendships, new adventures, clean slates. Coupled with this, I am not very inclined to think much at all about what I am leaving behind.

In writing this novel, I gave some of this attitude to Eolyn. She is, from the very first page, dealing with the first great loss of her life, the disappearance of her mother, Kaie. Her strategy is to push back that emptiness by imagining Kaie still present in the whispers of the forest. When Eolyn's village is destroyed, she does not return to dwell on the aftermath of that massacre, but instead seeks a new future in the South Woods. At the age of fifteen, she must say good-bye to Akmael in order to study High Magic. Intent on the joy and excitement she feels for the completion of her training, she does not consider how painful it will be to let her only friend go until the moment in which she is forced to do it. And so it continues: Choice and change, gain and loss, over and over, and through it all Eolyn looking instinctively forward, convincing herself that the good she will find in this next transformation must outweigh the pain of what is being left behind.

Is this a useful strategy to have in life? Sometimes I think, definitely yes. At other times, I'm not so sure. But for better or for worse, I gifted this instinct to Eolyn.

I suppose it's no coincidence that EOLYN came together as a novel during a period of my life characterized by dramatic transformation. This is not to say that the novel is somehow an allegory for the last four years of my life, but rather I think the transitions I was going through made it easier for me, as an author, to understand how a character like Eolyn might confront and respond to change. I also think that in some ways, Eolyn became a kind of imaginary companion for me, a good friend who always seemed to be facing challenges much greater than my own.

This month is Eolyn's birthday. Four years ago in November, I sat down with a journal and penned (quite literally) the first chapter of the book. At the time, I was living in Costa Rica, working for Duke University and the Organization for Tropical studies. I had no clue that a year later I would be living in the United States, back in my home town, close to my family for the first time in twenty years, starting a new job at Avila University, building entirely new circles of friends and colleagues, and looking for the path that could lead me to becoming a published author. So much change in so little time; and something tells me it's only just begun...

So, Happy Birthday, Eolyn!  I hope we have many more years of choice and change ahead of us.

Epic Love

2010-11-13T13:35:00.001-06:00

The first time I read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, I was around the age of 12 or 13 -- the same age, as our ninth grade English teacher told us, that Juliet was when this immortal tale of fatal love began. (As an aside, at the time it didn't seem all that remarkable to me that Juliet was only 13 when she met her Romeo; it wasn't until years later that '12 or 13' became unbelievably young to fall in love with that kind of intensity.) I would be hard pressed to count how many times I have seen the play -- or some interpretation of it -- since then. But whenever I've sat down in the theater, or in front of the TV, or in the movies, to watch these lovers once again, I do so hoping against hope that this time, it will end differently.

This time...Romeo will not kill Juliet's cousin.
This time...the priest's messenger will reach the exiled lover before he hears of her "death".
This time...Juliet will wake up before Romeo commits suicide.
This time...It'll all work out, one way or another.

Thus the hopeless romantic in me refuses to be silenced. But let's face it: If the story ended in any other way, we would no longer have an immortal Shakespearean play. And I would not go back to see it again.

What is it about doomed love, and -- more generally -- about love that manifests itself against impossible odds, that so captures our imagination? An easy love is also, so often, a boring love. An easy love can't be real love; not like the Great Loves, the Timeless Romances that persist in our mythology and literature, almost all of which are either forbidden or at the very least, born of (and doomed by) impossible circumstances. Love, by definition, must violate the rules; challenge the entire structure of our existence and society. It must strive to break down unbreakable barriers, and to bridge impassible chasms. Otherwise, it's not quite love at all. Not epic love, at any rate. Not the sort of love that will keep us coming back for more, wanting to hear the same story again and again.

When Akmael and Eolyn first meet in the South Woods, they are children unaware the Gods have chosen them for an epic love. Akmael knows Eolyn is learning a tradition of magic forbidden to women by his father, the Mage King Kedehen. He tries to talk her out of this path, understanding it will lead if not to death on the pyre, then most certainly to direct confrontation with him and the realm he will inherit. Eolyn, intent upon her dream of learning the ways of the magas, does not listen to her friend. Nor does she know the full truth of Akmael's identity. Years later, when they are on opposite sides of an armed conflict, the memory of their friendship and love will become their one hope for redemption.

Will it be enough?

Something never mentioned explicitly in the novel, but that forms an important subtext of the plot, is the meaning of love in the context of the line of Vortingen, the dynasty of kings to which Akmael is born. At one point in the book, Mage Corey tells Eolyn,

"No King of this land has ever or will ever love a woman. The capacity for love was bred out of Vortingen’s line long ago. The royals fear love and the treachery they believe it can bring to their games of power."

A couple generations ago, Corey's statement might have been true. But the decision of Akmael's father Kedehen to learn the ways of magic (thereby breaking an age-old prohibition that kept royals from becoming mages) has changed all that. By inviting magic into his life, Kedehen unwittingly allowed love to return to the house of Vortingen, for one cannot have magic without assuming the blessings and the burdens of love.

Kedehen was never able to manage the force of his passion for Queen Briana, and as the novel progress we learn bits and pieces of the terrible conflicts that marred their relationship, which ended with the imprisonment of the Queen. A generation later, Kedehen's son Akmael will also be tempted to overpower his love for Eolyn by overpowering her. Will he exhibit the same failings as his father? And even if he does not, will that be enough to guarantee him the love he so desires?

If you understand the dynamics of epic love, you can probably guess the answers to some of these questions. But what you will really want to do is read the novel to find out...

Today's image is a painting by John William Waterhouse of another famous pair of doomed lovers, Tristan and Isolde.

The High Holidays of Moisehén

2010-11-08T20:42:00.003-06:00

November, and the holiday season is upon us. I haven't tired of the holidays -- which, in Kansas City, consist of a continuous run of celebratory moments from Halloween to New Year's Eve. Of course I don't live the holidays the same way I did as a child. But I still love the feel of this time of year, the transformation of the colorful autumn landscape into the chill of winter, the donning of sweaters and coats and the occasional scarf, the constant sense that something special is about to happen, like the first fall of snow, or an unexpected call from an old friend, or even just the chance to sleep an extra hour over winter break.

Holidays are an important part of Eolyn's world. Similar to the pagan or Wiccan traditions of our world, Moisehén has eight important days of observance that commemorate the yearly cycle from Winter Solstice to Winter Solstice. Central to this sacred calendar is the journey of the Sun, which, according to the beliefs of Moisehén, travels between the World of the Living, giving us 'day', and the World of the Dead, giving us 'night'.  I will not list all of the High Holidays today, but I would like to share a few that are of special importance to the novel.

Winter Solstice.  The longest night of the year, Winter Solstice is a moment of celebration and risk. For six months, the Sun has lingered ever longer in the World of the Dead, becoming colder with each night, more distant, more reluctant to return to the World of the Living.  At Summer Solstices, mages and magas shoulder the immense responsibility of calling the Sun back from the seduction of the Underworld. Through celebration, song, dance and sensuous delights, they remind the Sun of the pleasures of the living world, causing the days to lengthen once again, and the warmth of the earth to be renewed.

Eostar. Spring equinox. Eolyn's name is derived, in part, from this sacred holiday, which celebrates the renewal of life after the long winter, and the start of the growing season. It has long been a tradition, under the Kings of Vortingen, to host a tournament for the knights of Moisehén during the week of Eostar.

Bel-Aethne.   Perhaps the most favored holiday of the people of Moisehén, Bel-Aethne celebrates the mythological lovers Aithne and Caradoc, who together discovered magic. In the novel EOLYN, Ghemena relates that Aithne and Caradoc "consecrated their love under a full spring moon, and the heat of their hearts sparked a fire in the center of their village. The villagers gathered in awe to observe the blaze. With branches of pine they divided the flame so that each family took a piece back to their own home."  Thus, fire was brought to the people of Moisehén.

Summer Solstice. The shortest night of the year, Summer Solstice is when the sun must be turned back toward its journey into the Underworld. Here we have the opposite dilemma of Winter Solstice, in that the Sun has become very attached to the World of the Living, and is reluctant to linger in the World of the Dead. While magas and mages hold vigil on this night through song and dance, they refrain from practicing magic. Instead, it is the responsibility of the Guendes, ephemeral creatures of the forest, to invoke the lengthening of nights that will lead the year back toward Winter Solstice. Offerings are made to the Guendes, in the form of food and drink, in thanksgiving for the use of their magic.

Samhaen. This holiday corresponds to our "Halloween" and is a time to commemorate those who have passed into the Afterlife. This is usually celebrated as a quiet night of rememberance. It is believed that the dead return to the World of the Living on this night, to visit family and friends. Food and drink are left on porches and doorsteps to welcome returning loved ones.

Today's image is a painting by Edward Robert Hughs.

World Fantasy 2010

2010-10-30T22:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween, Everyone.

October's unofficial theme continues; I have yet another audio recording for you, this time from my reading at the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, OH. It's been a busy weekend, and it's late (for me, anyway) as I sit down to write this post on a Saturday evening. I have attended some very interesting debates regarding the nature of fairy tales, the future of epic fantasy, and the 'evolution' of sword and sorcery. I've even run into a new subgenre -- "literary adventure fantasy". I'm still trying to figure out just what that phrase means. I suppose if I were to pick a favorite panel from this year's WFC, I would say it was the discussion of Jorge Luis Borges and his influence on contemporary fantasy.

This morning, I gave my reading from EOLYN, and I'd like to share the audio recording with you. This excerpt is from Chapter 30, which describes the celebration of Bel-Aethne. Bel-Aethne is one of the most important High Holidays of Moisehen, and commemorates the discovery of magic by the mythological figures of Aithne and Caradoc. The recording includes some additional background and context for the scene. I hope you enjoy it.

The Hunt for Eolyn

2010-10-23T15:11:00.001-05:00

Well, it looks like October is becoming "audio excerpts from Eolyn" month. This recording from Ignition, the annual reading of the Dead Horse Society, was provided by author and good friend Brent Bowman. (Thank you, Brent!)

A couple announcements before going on to the reading.

First, my short story "Creatures of Light" is now available in the October issue of Adventures for the Modern Woman. Stop by the Adventures Website to order your copy of the magazine, which includes lots of fun and scary stories for the Halloween season.

Second, next weekend is it! The World Fantasy Convention starts on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio. This will by my first pro fantasy con, and I am very excited. Hadley Rille Books will be well represented. My editor, Eric T. Reynolds, will be there, along with Terri-Lynne DeFino (author of FINDER) and other Hadley Rille authors. I will present EOLYN on Saturday, October 30, at 10am. The presentation will include a brief description of the book, a reading, and a question-and-answer session. I hope to see you there.

Okay. Here's the audio recording. I give a pretty thorough introduction to the scene in the recording itself, so I won't bother writing anymore about it here, except to say: This is an excerpt from Chapter 38, and I hope you enjoy it.

The Boy by the River

2010-10-17T09:46:00.000-05:00

I have a special treat for you today: A preview of Chapter 4, where Akmael and Eolyn meet for the first time. Their encounter is made possible by an amulet left to Akmael by his deceased mother, Queen Briana. (You can read more about Briana's death and the gift she left to her son in Chapter 3.) The amulet transports Akmael to the distant South Woods, where he finds Eolyn playing on the banks of the Tarba River. (To learn about the river that inspired this scene, read my June 25 post, Rivers of Destiny.) This audio recording is from the reading I did yesterday for the Longview Literary Festival, and includes one scene from Chapter 4. I hope you enjoy it!

Tree Magick

2010-10-09T12:32:00.000-05:00

Good news this week! My short story "Creatures of Light" will appear in the fall issue of Adventures for the Average Woman. This is a tale of passion and brutality, an eclectic mix of romance, fantasy and horror set in an imaginary Age of Exploration. It's a very different world from EOLYN, and was a lot of fun to write.

The short came together thanks to both my writers' groups: TNBW and DHS. It was through TNBW that I met David Hunter, whose work in progress A Road of Blood and Slaughter contains the marvelous bestiary that inspired the character of Selenia. (And no, Selenia's not a beast -- well, okay, maybe she is -- but mostly she's a woman scientist very interested in strange and deadly beasties). Then, about a year ago, I had the opportunity to put Selenia in a story thanks to Tepring Cocker of DHS, who organized a secret pal activity for the holidays. My secret pal was Maddie McFadden, who asked for a 'high fantasy, maybe with a dragon'. "Creatures of Light" is not exactly high fantasy, and I kind of cheated -- just a little -- on the dragon. But Maddie liked the story anyway, and so did I, and fortunately so did Laurie Notch, managing editor of Adventures. I'll let you know when the magazine is available, but if you would like a preview visit the Works in Progress page on this blog.

As serendipity would have it, next Saturday I'll be hosting one of the DHS workshops at the Longview Literary Festival, together with Andrew Rambo. We'll be talking about -- you guessed it -- 'Creatures of Light and Darkness'. How to create believable and fantastical beasties for your work of fiction. The workshop is FREE and the fun starts at 2pm. Hope to see you there!

Those are my announcements. On to this week's topic, Tree Magick.

I've been working since last summer on a sequel to EOLYN, which has been a lot of fun, and a little distracting given that I still have some minor cleanup work to do on the first novel before we go to press. At any rate, moving into book 2 I've realized I need to put together a herbarium for Eolyn's world, to write down the different plants and their uses so I can keep things consistent going forward. So, I've gone through the original manuscript and marked all the places where the magas and mages use herbs or other plants for certain tasks. Now I need to sit down and catalogue everything in a separate document.

While I'm a little behind on putting all this information into one place for herbaceous plants, I do have a fairly decent catalogue of the sacred trees of Eolyn's world, their meaning and what they are used for in terms of magical purpose. I thought I'd share some of that with you today.

Alder -- Modern ecologists call alder a "pioneer species" because it is very well adapted to colonizing deforested areas. Hence, its meaning for the magas of Moisehen: Alder provides protection during transition. It is often associated with Raven or Crow. Alder is commonly used in funeral pyres, and also for making the sacred fire used to forge a maga's staff.

Ash -- Ash is a hardwood, strong but elastic, and historically it has been used for making bows, tool handles and (more recently) baseball bats. For the people of Moisehen, Ash is the symbol of strength and wisdom during times of sacrifice. Ghemena’s staff is made of Ash.

Fir -- There are many species of fir, and the one sacred to the tradition of Moisehen is very similar to the European silver fir, the first tree to be used as a Christmas tree. These trees can become giants, the largest on record having reached a trunk diameter of 3.8m and a height of 68m. Mages and magas consider Fir the 'staff of the forest'. Its roots can extend to the depths of the Underworld, making it a living bridge that unites the living and the dead, as well as the elements of earth, air and water. This very sacred tree can also be used to achieve powers of flight.

Linden – The heart-shaped leaves of this beautiful tree may be the source of its mythological role as the protector of Children’s Magic. Ghemena adds Linden to the traditional mix of woods for the sacred fire meant to forge Eolyn’s staff.

Oak – No magical herbarium would be complete without Oak, which is considered one of the most sacred trees in the tradition of Moisehen, conferring strength and endurance upon those it favors. Oaks are dominant trees in the primary forests of Moisehen, and their slow growth produces a very dense wood that is highly resistant to disease and decay. Eolyn’s staff is made from Black Oak, and Akmael’s from White Oak.

Rowan – Also called “mountain ash”, Rowan also produces a dense wood. In our own mythology, Rowan is a favored wood for magician’s staves, and the same is true in Moisehen. Rowan confers control, discrimination and discernment. Tzeremond’s staff is forged from Rowan.

Walnut – A hardwood that can be polished to a rich purplish brown, Walnut confers power for transitions and hidden wisdom. It is used to build the sacred fire for forging staves, and also for funeral pyres. Walnut is an important wood for Mage Corey, and IF he had a staff (which he might, or he might not…) it would be made from Walnut.

Willow – I still remember climbing and swinging on the vine-like branches of the willow that grew in my cousin’s backyard while we were growing up. So of course, Eolyn and Akmael had to have willows to climb as part of their childhood adventures in the South Woods. This tree embodies flexibility, strong inner vision, and a gift for making connections.

That's not the complete list, but it covers some of the most important trees of Eolyn's world. I'll come back to the herbs later on down the line.

Today's photo is from the forests of Cuerici in the Talamanca Mountain Range of Costa Rica. Although this is a tropical forest, its high altitude results in a cool wet climate that favors many plant species we tend to associate with temperate forests, such as oak, alder and blueberries. These are the forests that inspired images of Eolyn's childhood home, the South Woods.