Three Ways to Add an Important Character: the Environment

When I first nursed the fragile and unlikely idea of becoming a writer, I took a class called "Essays on Self and Place." It was taught by a visiting writer at the university where I was a grad student in Neurophysiology. In other words, I felt both brave and... I'm trying to think of the right description. Not afraid so much as kind of a fraud. I didn't have any good reason to think I could make a career as a writer instead of as a scientist, as I'd planned and invested in. And I felt like every-other person I mentioned the idea to replied that, oh yes, they wanted to be a writer, too!

It's a difficult transition to make, so to all of you out there contemplating taking that step, I get it.

At any rate, I took that class with that writer mostly because of timing. I wanted to get going on seeing if I could be a writer, the evening class fit my schedule, was open to people outside the department and degree program - and sounded interesting. So much serendipity smiled on that choice.

I think I've always been strongly connected to my environment. My interest in science grew out of a love for the natural world. Where I live is vitally important to me - so much so that it took me a long time to get that not everyone felt the same way. This course, where we focused on writing about our connections to place and how they shaped us, crystallized that for me. My first published works - essays, naturally - came out of that class. Amazingly fast, too, which came as incredibly important validation for that step.

Though I've moved into writing fiction now, place still plays a vital role in my work. Sometimes deliberately - the City of New Orleans is pretty much another character in Ruby, something many readers love about that story - but place also plays a role in the world-building in my fantasy books too. At a booksigning, a reader asked me about my academic background and when I explained my crooked path from biology to fiction-writing, he nodded and said that explained so much about why my Twelve Kingdoms environment feels so intricate and real.

Which is terribly cool!

So, how to make the environment be a character? Here are three ways to start:

Pick a Place

This might seem like a no-brainer, but the place in which a story occurs is a vitally important decision. It should be more than whether this is a city or the country. If a city, how old is it? What kind of people live there? Is it coastal or land-locked? Think about how the humidity rises and falls, what kinds of storms the area experiences (see below). Even in city environments, there is wildlife, if only rats and pigeons. In rural areas, other kinds of animals might come in, particularly if looking for food because of other forces of nature like drought or a bad winter. The more detail of this sort (which doesn't all have to be on the page, see this post), the more vivid the place will be.

Know the Weather

The weather should be more than the cliché dark and stormy night. Place is profoundly impacted by how variable or steady the weather is. Is it usually cloudy and rainy like the Pacific Northwest? Is it a sunny desert? How does the changing weather - or lack of change - affect the moods of the people living there? In The Mark of the Tala and The Tears of the Rose, some of the action takes place at Windroven, a castle built on a dormant volcano on the coast. The storms and tides of that place play a role in what happens - for example, in a siege situation.

Be Aware of the Sun(s) and Moon(s)

The length of the day and night can affect what the characters can and can't do. Beyond what season it is, be aware of how early or late the sun rises and sets. What is the moon cycle? If not on earth, how do perhaps multiple moonrises affect the amount of light? A night with a full moon is very different than one with at the dark of the moon. Are the sunsets spectacular or always behind wall of fog? These things can be backdrops for scenes that help set the mood and influence the characters decisions.

Obviously this is a big topic, but there's some places to start. What details about place do you like to see in books? What's an example of a book you love where the environment feels like another character?

Release Day: @JeffeKennedy's TEARS OF THE ROSE

We're kicking the celebration up a notch this holiday week! Today, our Sunday Word-Whore (and a dear friend for whom I am thankful) @JeffeKennedy releases her second book in The Twelve Kingdoms fantasy series.

TEARS OF THE ROSE
Three sisters. Motherless daughters of the high king. The eldest is the warrior-woman heir; the middle child is shy and full of witchy intuition; and the youngest, Princess Amelia, she is as beautiful as the sun and just as generous.

Ami met her Prince Charming and went away to his castle on the stormy sea-cliffs and that should have been her happily ever after. Instead, her husband lies dead and a war rages. Her middle sister has been taken into a demon land, turned into a stranger. The priests and her father are revealing secrets and telling lies. And a power is rising in Ami, too, a power she hardly recognizes, to wield her beauty as a weapon, and her charm as a tool to deceive.

Amelia has never had to be anything but good and sweet and kind and lovely. But the chess game for the Twelve Kingdoms has swept her up in it, and she must make a gambit of her own. Can the prettiest princess become a pawn or a queen?

BUY IT NOW

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Haven't read Book 1 in the series? It's never too late for MARK OF THE TALA:

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Ready for Book 3 in the series? Pre-order TALON OF THE HAWK coming in May 2015:

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Giving It a Go at Thanking Everyone

This week I'm looking forward to the release of the second book in my TWELVE KINGDOMS series, THE TEARS OF THE ROSE. (In fact, today you can read an excerpt over at That's What I'm Talking About.) So it's mete that this week's topic is giving thanks to all those who've helped us in our writing careers.

The problem is, I'm like that stereotypical starlet stumbling up to the podium clutching her mile-long list and struck with the certain terror that she'll forget to name someone. Probably the most important someone.

I hit this same anxiety every time I go to write my acknowledgements page, though I've gotten so that, as I write a book, I keep a running draft of everyone who helps me. Seeing as how half the time I have to tell those people to look at that page, I probably stress about it more than I should. But I hope that, over time, I catch everyone eventually.

For this post, I thought it might be nice to publicly post here the acknowledgments page from THE TEARS OF THE ROSE.

Many thanks to everyone at Kensington who have been so amazing to me about celebrating this book and the trilogy, especially Peter Senftleben, curmudgeonly editor extraordinaire; Vida Engstrand, delightful diva of communications; Jane Nutter, a paragon of a publicist; and Rebecca Cremonese, for being such a dedicated, enthusiastic caretaker of the pages and the story. If anyone gets to dinner & movie Ash, it will be you.

Everlasting gratitude to my critique partners: Marcella Burnard and Carolyn Crane, for the insightful, under-pressure reads and tireless support.

Thanks to my longtime friend, Marin Untiedt, who taught me to value knitting, gave me what I needed to know, and would probably be very much like this.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the incredible reviewers and readers who loved The Mark of the Tala and immediately demanded this book. I hope you all like Amelia’s story, too.

Finally, thanks to my family, for being the love and balance in my life.

And always, to David, for all the little things, every day.

I should add, also, that I seed little nods of love and gratitude throughout these books. Names of characters and places on the map of the Twelve Kingdoms often reference friends, loved ones and their pets. Little Easter eggs for them - and always a kick when they discover it. Like when Veronica Scott read the book and said she wanted to believe Lady Veronica Lianore was named for her. Which she was.

A final thank you goes out to Word Whore K.A. Krantz, for all she does in maintaining this blog and being our Tuesday pimp. You rock, baby!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Getting Rid of Debt - the Karmic Kind

New Cover!!

Yesterday we did a cover reveal for book 2 in my Twelve Kingdoms trilogy, The Tears of the Rose. It's cool because the castle in the background looks exactly as I imagine Windroven to be. Kind of amazing to SEE it.

This book, however, is a ways off and comes out in December. Book 1, The Mark of the Tala, is my next release and will hit shelves May 27. Whee!!! I have paper ARCs (advance reader's copies) if you'd like to read and review. Just ping me. 

The Mark of the Tala

The tales tell of three sisters, daughters of the high king. The eldest, a valiant warrior-woman, heir to the kingdom. The youngest, the sweet beauty with her Prince Charming. No one says much about the middle princess, Andromeda. Andi, the other one.

Andi doesn’t mind being invisible. She enjoys the company of her horse more than court, and she has a way of blending into the shadows. Until the day she meets a strange man riding, who keeps company with wolves and ravens, who rules a land of shapeshifters and demons. A country she’d thought was no more than legend–until he claims her as its queen.

In a moment everything changes: Her father, the wise king, becomes a warlord, suspicious and strategic. Whispers call her dead mother a traitor and a witch. Andi doesn’t know if her own instincts can be trusted, as visions appear to her and her body begins to rebel.

For Andi, the time to learn her true nature has come. . .

You can preorder at Amazon and Book Depository, should you be so inclined.

I almost said I would be in your debt, but that's not quite right, is it?

Yes, the word of the week is "debt" - a concept we throw around quite lightly in 2014 US culture. We talk about "debt load" like it's a standard measure of economy. We pretty much assume that everyone else has some debt. The question really is how much. Where in Jane Austen's society they might confidently convey that such and so has 10,000 pounds or is worth 20,000 a year, we talk to each other of younger relatives graduating with $200,000 of debt or whisper aghast of an acquaintance who's said to have $50K in credit card debt alone.

It's one of the funny things - someone who's living better than we are might very well be doing it on credit. Their secret to keep.

Unless is it all comes crashing down.

For that's the reality, isn't it? Debt undermines everything. Instead of a life built on a solid foundation, debt is the gaping hole we straddle, hoping to keep above and afloat. At any moment, we could lose our balance and fall in.

Not all cultures and eras have been like this, however. The Old Testament of the Bible (Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Exodus, among others) expressly forbids usury, which is making interest off a loan. Can you imagine if the folks who want to forbid homosexuality based on the Bible were to follow this law as well? The worldwide economy would crash.

In Chinese culture, the advent of the new year is a time to clear out all debts. It's the traditional goal to clean both the house and debts from the old year and start the new one fresh.

So - hey - we've got 294 days left to get that handled!

Okay, not many of us could pull that off. But what we can do is try to eliminate the other kind of debt. The Karmic kind.

You know what I mean. Those favors we owe. The things we promised to do and never quite delivered on. The people we hurt - inadvertently or not - and need to make up to. While I'm not a Buddhist or Hindi, I do believe in the concept of Karma. What goes around, comes around. As ye sow, so also shall ye reap.

The best part is, building up that Karmic bank account doesn't take much. Just a little sincere effort to give without expecting return.

If only all debt could be discharged so easily.