From the Backlist: Never Give Up! Never surrender!

It's time again to explore the awesome backlist at the Supernatural Underground! 

Today we are sharing a post made on January 25, 2011 by the spectacular writer Kerrelyn Sparks. It's relevant to us now as she asks how we are all going with our New Year resolutions. Good Question?

Kerrelyn also shares how she didn't give up, back in the day, an attitude that shot her to the New York Times Best Sellers list.

It's inspirational!

... I believe in second chances. I'm on my second marriage (going strong after 22 years, yay!) And I'm on my second writing career. The first time around, I was a historical romance writer. I'd only been writing two years when I was offered my first contract, so I thought everything was buzzing along swimmingly. But then, my editor quit.

 

She was the only romance editor in this multi-genre publishing house, and I was the only historical romance author. With my editor gone, none of the other editors (all guys) wanted to touch a manuscript titled Insatiable and Saucy. They didn't want any more books from me. My agent broke off with me. After two years, the contracted book limped into bookstores with a new title For Love or Country. A bittersweet debut, for I was thrilled to see my book on the shelves, but devastated that my career was already over.

For two more years, I tried to acquire a new agent and sell another historical romance. I racked up more rejections as a published author than I had as an unpublished one. I found a wonderful agent who really believes in me, but even she couldn't sell an American-set historical when the publishers want them set in the British Isles. And that is when I realized I had to reinvent myself. A new beginning. A new subgenre. I wrote the first three chapters of How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire, sent it to my agent, and within a week, we had three offers...

To read the full post and the comments, click here. 

To find out more of what Kerrelyn is up to now and her latest releases, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter or Facebook where she hosts monthly giveaways.

Romance in Fantasy Fiction

Epic Quests Manga Wallpaper @wallpapers

We all know there are certain tropes, certain themes in genre fiction. It's basically how we categorize them as well as what we come to expect as readers. One fairly new expectation is that of strong romance themes in Fantasy Fiction. After all, the gold standard for a long time has been Tolkien and he never overplayed the intimacy side, no matter how the films were portrayed.

For a fantastic recap on this topic, see Helen Lowe's posts in 2019 - her Year of Romance in Fantasy Fiction.

Since I was raised on Tolkien's books, the romance in my early series, even Urban Fantasy which is notoriously sexy, the romantic themes stay in the background of the adventures. But that habit all came to a crashing halt when I started writing Young Adult Fiction, novels for the 12 - 18+ year olds. 

I was told straight up by my editors to go deeper into the romantic side.

And they didn't mean just more stolen looks and kisses. The romance had to bring more meaning to the plot, more relevance to character growth arcs and more fulfilment, or devastation, in the end. Basically, more emotions. And, these characters are not love-sick fools, at least, not for long... 

Young Adult fantasy romance books often feature strong female protagonists like Victoria Aveyard's Mare Barrow from the Red Queen series. Or, Sarah J. Maas's huntress Feyre in A Court of Thorns and Roses.

I've explored why reading Fantasy Romance is actually good for you - enhancing emotional engagement, empathy, excitement, fulfilment, and increasing the happy brain messengers... I've found, over the years, that writing it is good for authors for the same reasons. 

It's a road to discovering more about character development, goals and motivations, and ultimately more about ourselves. Right now, I am in the thick of this reminder as I await notes from my editor on Book #3 in the Amassia Series. There are some romantic you might not expect and I hope they bring true delight.

What are some of your favorite Fantasy Romance novels? I'd love to see if I have read them too.

Let me know in the comments.

xxKim (aka AK Wilder)

***

About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, currently writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024.

Kim can be found on  AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

 

From The Backlist: "Stealing From the Ancients: Weaving Mythology into Your Fiction"

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Here on Supernatural Underground blog we have an awesome backlist, so one of our 2024 resolutions is to share more of it with you.

 In this very week, way back in 2011 (oh my!) the fabulous Tera Lynn Childs posted on Stealing from the Ancients: Weaving Mythology into Your Fiction.

We think it's just as relevant today as it was then, so for those who missed it the first time, here's an excerpt of the goodness again (with a link to click through and read it all.)

The Pleiades (by Elihu Vedder)

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From The Backlist: "Stealing From the Ancients: Weaving Mythology into Your Fiction" by Tera Lynn Childs

"I was at a loss for what to write about today, so I put out a call on Facebook for what people wanted to know more about. Heather Long responded with the fabulous topic of how to weave mythology into fiction. And since I have done this very thing in all five of my completed, accepted, and published/about-to-be-published books, then I feel like I can speak about this with some authority. At least in the method I use to weave myth into my books.

Of course mine aren't the only books out there dealing with mythology, and there are at least three different ways to approach it.

• use actual, literal gods, goddesses, and other bits of myth in your story (ex/ Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan)
• write a historical novel from the point of view of a mythological character (ex/ Nobody's Princess and Nobody's Prize by Esther Friesner)
• create a contemporary fantasy world in which characters are related to/descended from mythological characters (ex/ my books)

Though there are advantages and disadvantages to each, I think the reason I prefer the third method is that it gives me the most creative freedom. The closer you are to the actual myth, the more you have to stay true to it. In my worlds, the myths of ancient Greece date back more than two thousand years. The written myths end... but the mythological word continues. Between then and now I can create whatever history I want.

In the Oh. My. Gods. books, I didn't stray too far. I gave descendants to the virgin goddesses, gave illegitimate children to the goddess of marriage, and made Plato's real life Academy a school for descendants of the gods. The mermaids in the Forgive My Fins books are descended from an ancient ancestor who was granted mer powers by Capheira, one of Poseidon's sea nymphs. But in Medusa girls trilogy, I take my mythology tweaking to the next level. I basically rewrote the truth about Medusa.

The trick to playing around with mythology, with the canon of myths that we as a culture have known and learned for millennia, is to go one step beyond, to blur the line between what was written and what wasn't. I can't say that Hera had half-human children in ancient times, but who knows what's happened in the centuries since then? There is no mythological proof that mermaids owe their powers to Capheira, but there is no proof that they don't either. And with Medusa, while I couldn't just erase her legacy as a hideous, murderous monster, I could create a believable backstory that explains why we only think that is true.

That's the wonderful thing about mythology: it never tells the complete story..."

 

To read the full post and the comments, click here. 

 

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To find out more about Tera Lynn Childs and her writing, visit her on Myths, Mermaids, and Magic

 

Enjoy!

Happy New Year: Ushering In 2024

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And here we are -- 1 January 2024, with a whole year of possibility stretching before us.
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Southern hemisphere daybreak

If best wishes can make it so, then you have all of mine for hoping that 2024 will bring positives in abundance.

In terms of what I've planned for the first of every month, over the past few years I've covered:

• Romance (2019)
• Worldbuilding (2020)
  
• Magic Systems (2021)
  
• Heroes (2022)
• The Band of Brothers (2023) 

So-o, I'm thinking 2024 just might have to be the Year of the Villain -- in Fantasy fiction, of course, that being the unifying strand for each of the (above) themes.

Sauron: The Lord of the Rings

.Not anti-heroes or lovable rogues, straight-out villains is where I'm heading. 

Voldemort: Harry Potter

 Every protagonist needs an antagonist, after all, and Fantasy has plenty on offer, from Sauron to Voldemort, Littlefinger to Mrs Coulter. 

Littlefinger: Game of Thrones

 .I'm looking forward to checking at least twelve of them out in more detail. :-)

Mrs Coulter: The Golden Compass

 .In the meantime, Happy New Year!

~*~

About the Author

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four books published to date, she is currently completing the final installment in The Wall Of Night series.

Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.

Go for the Unrealistic - Tips for the New Year!

 

Jinx isn't afraid of the 'impossible' - WallPapers.com

I want to wind up 2023 with a meaningful idea, and the topic that comes to mind is What's Next? It reminds me of a piece I wrote a few decades ago after hearing Will Smith talk about doing the impossible. I've tweaked it to fit the NOW. Hope you enjoy, and have a wonderful holiday season, and New Year 2024.

Will Smith said in an interview once that it’s unrealistic to bend a piece of metal and fly people over the ocean in it but fortunately, the Wright brothers didn’t think so. 

It all begins with this premise. 

Michael Parkes

A lot of advice for emerging writers, students, biz owners, teachers, apprentices, and entrepreneurs centres on ‘being realistic'. For example, you have to start at the bottom, take baby steps, like... forget about landing an agent if you haven’t published, and definitely forget about a major publisher without an agent. What you want to achieve is very hard work, $$$ will be tight, and rejection du jour so keep your day job...  It's enough to sink your dreams into the sludge.

But is the advice realistic? Probably. 

Do you let that guide you? No!

I highly recommend these five unrealistic tips to set yourself up to do the 'impossible' in 2024. 

Tip #1 Forget about being realistic. Stop thinking about the practical advice and the ‘cold hard facts’ and develop your craft/heart/goals. If you have a dream, something you are enthusiastic about, develop the skills to deliver it. All the talent in the world won’t fly if you don’t have the skills to communicate your vision. Develop them!

Tip #2 Think in terms of component parts. In publishing, you don’t set out to write a 500,000-word, multi-book series. You don’t even set out to write a single novel. You get up in the morning and you write five hundred words. You do that for a time and get some confidence and maybe, after a while, you find yourself writing a thousand words a day. Then two thousand. Same with a new business plan, thesis, art show, album, you name it. Component parts, day by day.

Tip #3 Say you can do it. He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both correct. Confucius. Think about that for a while.

Tip #4 Know your motivations. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ motivation for your artistry. It might be that you want to prove something to the world. You might want to feel of value. You might be obsessed with telling a story that will touch people’s hearts. Whatever your motivation is, know it. Know thyself. The awareness of what drives you is your touchstone.

YaoYao Ma Van As

Tip #5 Decide, devote, deliver. But first, just decide that you will do it, that you will achieve your dream. Devote your whole heart to it, and allow for compassion for others and the planet to be part of that devotion. Deliver what you promise to yourself and to others—one step at a time.

Bonus tip. Remind yourself to go for the unrealistic. I mean, what if we’d listened to any of this ‘realistic’ advice?

Everything that can be invented has been invented.  Charles H. Duell, an official at the US Patent Office, 1899

The singer (Mick Jagger) will have to go; the BBC won’t like him. -First Rolling Stones manager Eric Easton to his partner after watching them perform.

I’m sorry, Mr Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language. –The San Francisco Examiner, rejecting a submission by Rudyard Kipling in 1889

You better get secretarial work or get married. -Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modelling Modelling Agency, advising would-be model Marilyn Monroe in 1944.

With over fifteen types of foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big share of the market for itself. Business Week, August 2, 1968.

There will never be a bigger plane built. – A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin-engine plane that held ten people.

If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women. David Riesman, conservative American social scientist, 1967. (Of boy!)

I hope these ideas offer you inspiration for the New Year 2024!

Blessings to all,

xxKim

***

About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, currently writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024.

Kim can be found on  AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

Bromance & The Band -of-Brothers in "Daughter of Blood" by Helen Lowe

A classic theme for '23

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Phew, made it to December 1 and the final post in m'2023 blog series -- and with three weeks in hand until the full festive-palooza kicks in! Awesome: high fives all round!!

For the past few years I've been blogging to a theme and this year's has been the "band of brothers" trope in fantasy fiction, right alongside it's joined-at-the-hip sibling, the bromance. (The full list of posts, with direct-link-goodness included, is at the end of this post.)

Currently, I'm rounding up the theme with a closer look at both bands-of-brothers and bromance in m'own The Wall Of Night fantasy series. Today, for the final post, the spotlight's on Book #3, Daughter of Blood.

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Bromance & the Band-of-Brothers in Daughter of Blood

Last month, I asserted that Book #2, The Gathering of the Lost was "band-of-brothers central", an assertion I reiterate in respect of #3 Daughter of Blood. Only in this case, bromance is definitely part of the mix as well.

Kalan in the Red Keep

The central character in this respect is Kalan, one of the series' two main characters. (The other is Malian, the Heir of Night, but she is far more of a loner.) In the first part of the story, he competes in a grand tourney to select an honor guard for Myr, the Daughter of Blood of the title. 

The tournament not only comprises feats of arms, it's also rife with plots, politicking, and skulduggery. As an unaligned stranger in this mix, Kalan must find warriors of like mind to guard his back -- thus his first 'band', which as well as three adult warriors (Bajan, Taly, and Dab) comprises two pages (Faro and Liy) and the castle's pack of wyr (magical) hounds. 

(Using 'brothers' in a very loose and all-encompassing sense, needless to say -- as has been the case throughout. :-) )

Garan and His 'Merry Eight'

The story's second band, operating independently of Kalan, Malian, and their adventures, is more of a "happy few." A Night soldier called Garan, with his eight-unit (the foundational military unit in the world's armies) shift from what they call "nursemaid duty", escorting non-combatants, to a hunt for a missing person. 

Readers have met Garan and his eight before, but they come more fully into the picture in Daughter of Blood, where their experience and camaraderie is the glue that holds their part of the story together.

Kalan and the Bridal Caravan Assault

Following the Red Keep tourney, Kalan and eight exiled House of Blood warriors, together with thirteen of the Red Keep wyr hounds, must defend a bridal caravan--and the bride--from an unexpected attack. The odds are against them, but they team up with a Sea envoy's marine* escort, to form the nucleus of the caravan's defense. 

Again, it's all about brotherhood and shield-walls, this time in dire circumstances -- a brotherhood that's unexpectedly expanded when a prince of the House of Stars, together with his honor guard, join the defense: 

"The two commanders grasped each other’s forearms in the traditional greeting between warriors and equals, before the Stars leader bowed, demonstrating that he possessed his House's traditional grace as well as its glamor. Both drawl and smile were back in place as he regarded Kalan. “We are yours to command, my brother.”

The sharp-eyed among you may spot bromance. And you would be right! The alignment between Kalan and the Star prince is crucial in the events that follow -- just as the band-of-brothers is integral to the weft and warp of the Daughter of Blood story.

Conclusion

And that's it for 2023, my friends. Enjoy the holiday season -- and see you on the other side, in 2024! 

* Note: "marine" in its original sense of "solders-that-fight-on-ships", as opposed to various specific marine corps that currently exist -- a distinction discussed here: Sea House Marines in The Wall Of Night series.

Previous Posts:

February: Honing in on 2021—Celebrating the "Band of Brothers"
March: Celebrating the "Band of Brothers" in Fantasy #2
April: Celebrating the "Scooby Gang" #3
May: Celebrating the "Band of Sisters"
June: From Band of Brothers To Bromance!
July: Sister Acts: from the "Band of Sisters" to True Sisterhood
August: When Brotherhoods -- and Bros -- Go Bad!
September: "The Band of Brothers" -- A Few More Fantasy Favorites
October: The Band-of-Brothers in The Heir Of Night
November: The Band-of-Brothers in The Gathering of the Lost

~*~

About the Author

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four books published to date, she is currently completing the final installment in The Wall Of Night series.

Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.

Three Fabulous Reasons To Love Kim Falconer's Books

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Kim Falconer

Kim is currently recovering from a hospital visit -- and although she will be back very soon, I'm standing in for her today. And can think of no better topic than 3 fabulous reasons I love her books.

Reason 1: Worldbuilding

Whether you know Kim as Kim Falconer or AK Wilder, I think there can be no question: from her Quantum Enchantment and Quantum Encryption series, through The Blood In The Beginning, to her current trilogy, the addictive Amassia series, Kim is a maestra of speculative worldbuilding.

 

In the Quantum Enchantment books (#1 is The Spell Of Rosette), Kim splices technology with magic, and romance with adventure. The story spans Earth and a parallel planet, Gaela, contrasting climate change and environmental degradation with the beauty and abundance of Gaela where the inhabitants have made different choices. 

The Blood In The Beginning also contrasts worlds, but this time the nitty-gritty of mixed marshal arts and (near-future) LA nightclubs are juxtaposed with a deep ocean realm, where readers meet Kim's supernatural Mar for the first time.

In the far-future, fantasy world of Amassia,  Kim (writing as AK Wilder) has produced another tour-de-force with a world that is steeped in magic, and where the ecology and landscape are colorful and traverse the tropical to colder climes. The societies, too, are culturally and ethnically diverse -- and once again, readers encounter the time-and-distance traversing realm of the Mar.

Amassia

Reason 2: Heroines

If you love stories with strong engaging heroines, then it's hard to go past Ava, the MMA-trained bouncer of The Blood in the Beginning, or Ash, the insightful scribe who holds her magic-wielding friends together through edge-of-the-precipice adventure in the Amassia books. 

With "best-supporting" characters like the enigmatic Kreshkali in The Spell of Rosette and Salila, the capricious and sometimes bloodthirsty Mar of the Amassia books, Kim's storytelling is made for readers who like their fantasy heroine-centric.

Salila

Reason 3: Action and Adventure

I was tossing up between adventure and romantic elements for my third reason. But although Ash's relationship with the handsome, mysterious, and kickass Kaylin is key to the Amassia series, and a tall man dressed in Armani, smelling of cologne and faintly of blood, kicks off the action in The Blood in the Beginning, fast-paced action and adventure are a hallmark of Kim's books.

Ash & Kaylin

In The Blood in the Beginning, when Ava's bouncer job turns dark she must run and fight for her life in a desperate contest with supernatural forces. 

Crown of Bones (Amassia #1) also delivers rapid-fire adventure when Ash and her friends' routine journey to a school for magic users (savants) becomes a breakneck flight across wild country, in which they must dodge armies and elude magical traps -- action that is far from over when reach their destination.

And the adventure continues in Curse of Shadows (Amassia #2) with pirate attacks and sea pursuits, savants and phantoms, magical traps and battles amid snowy wastes that make the story hard to put down.

Conclusion

 So there it is, dear Supernatural Undergrounders -- three fabulous reasons to love Kim Falconer's books. If you feel I've missed the best reason, feel free to let me -- and Kim! -- know with a comment. 

And if you want to discover more and support Kim at the same time, consider buying the book, requesting it at your library, and/or posting a review online -- or all three! :-)

~ Helen Lowe

~*~

About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, currently writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024.

Kim can be found on  AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

~*~

About Helen Lowe:

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet, and lover of story. With four books published to date, she is currently completing the final instalment in The Wall Of Night series.

Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.