"Gothic fiction for Today."
Fictionwise Bestselling Author.
Stories available in eBook format.
"Prophet's Choice":
Lyra is a girl caught in the middle. The demon warlord, the Scourge, has lain siege to the capital city of Zaanefra with his multitude of inhuman henchmen. The citizens of Zaanefra are outnumbered beyond imagination, but the King and his advisor, Loremaster Arken, are convinced they’ve got a weapon to turn the tide: her. Lyra has the legendary gift of Sight, a thing attributed only to the powerful Prophets of old, men and women who wielded the Silver Scepter of Truth to maintain and protect balance in the land. But Lyra’s gift weakens her with every use, and she’s already lost an awful lot to this war; her family, her friends, and her home were destroyed by the Scourge on his march of conquest. Is she about to lose herself too?
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"Heather, what is the one thing you want your readers to know about your book and/or writing?"
I do it because I love putting words together, learning about the characters who shake me out of whatever I'm doing, yelling "tell my story!" No other reason.
"What is your next project and when can we expect to read it?"
I just had a story appear in "StereoOpticon: Fairy Tales in Split Vision," and I've got a couple more coming out in "Things That Go Bump In the Night," both from Drollerie Press
Brought to you in part by:
WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty , Wendel Wordsworth, Cynthia's Attic
Brought to you in part by:
WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty , Wendel Wordsworth, Cynthia's Attic
Hi Heather! I'm not exactly sure how the Q&A works, but hopefully this finds its way to you . . . When you first get the inklings for a new story, is there a pattern to your planning? Do characters come to you first, or premises, a certain scene, snippets of dialogue, or is it something else? Or a mix? Or is it different with each new story?
ReplyDelete~Erin
This is just fine, Erin. :) I'll be checking in on and off throughout the next couple days.
ReplyDeleteIt really depends. :) Sometimes, it'll be dialogue, or setting, but usually what I get is a sense of a character and the situation they're in, sometimes a little more about where the story is going, but the rest is a mystery, if you will.
As for "planning," I don't really plan. And I don't really outline. :P I prefer to discover the story along with my characters -- it makes it more exciting for me as a writer.
Welcome, Heather!
ReplyDeleteI love the fact you don't outline...Not my favorite thing to do. And I guess I like to know I'm in good company.
What is one thing you would tell an aspiring author? Besides outline only if it feels right :>)
Diana
Thank you, Diana. :)
ReplyDeleteGiving aspiring authors advice is always so difficult because there's so many different things to tell! But, if I had to pick just ONE thing to tell them, it'd have to be 'tell the story as the story wants to be told.' We may be writers, but forcing our characters to do things against their will is the quickest way to difficulty and stagnation, or worse, a false-feeling plot. I think it's very important for beginning writers to become comfortable with letting their characters tell them how their story goes, to avoid forcing their authorial will into the tale.
Let the characters tell the story. I so agree with you, Heather! My characters do that all the time!
ReplyDeleteAnd, welcome to Bookland Heights. Happy to see you here!
Mary
That's an excellent point, Heather. Do you ever encounter characters that you wish would just go away?!?!
ReplyDeleteDiana
Diana: Definitely! The Scourge from "Prophet's Choice" was actually the first that really wigged me out, lol. It was unbelievably hard to not censor some of the ugly parts of his personality (and in the first drafts of PC, there was a LOT more with The Scourge), but I remember thinking to myself as I wrote that I had to do it right. If he was going to be true to the tale, I *had* to let him have his say, no matter how nauseous he made me feel.
ReplyDeleteStory first, lol.