Researching weapons for a fantasy novel

As a lot of us writer types realize, no matter what you write you will need to do research. As a modern woman I don’t know as much as I need about medieval and other bladed weapons. Yes I have written many a sword battle, knife fight, even a few gun battles.

With my newest Loralil novel I am in the need of something a bit more exotic. While doing battles in the other two novels I mostly stuck with bows and swords as she was fighting either humans or orcs. Now that I have herfighting with one of the cousin elven tribes I am told I need something a bit more exotic.

A fight between two elves will be more fluid, more powerful and faster, so of course their weapons should be a bit different. My hero will be sticking with her sword, because she is a swordswoman after all, but the villain she is fighting now he is something else.

But back to researching. In the old days you would need to go to a museum to see the weapon, maybe find a weapon’s master to show you how it is used or watch a lot of movies. Now we have the advantage of the internet. With things like google images for a picture, wiki for details and if you are lucky, on youtube to watch a video of the weapon being used.

Something like this nine section iron whip would be perfect for my villain

http://www.swordsofmight.com/nine-section-iron-whip-chain.aspx?page_context=category&faceted_search=0

So do what you can to research weapons. Writing fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction, PA or other weapon filled styles you need to have an idea what there is out there. But make sure you research how they are used. Something like the weapon I linked to above would not work with a slow moving characters, I chain whip would be pretty ridiculous with say a troll/ogre type or the huge man mountains that you find in some PA novels.

If you are writing a character who wears heavy plate armor, don’t give them a light weapon like a rapier or katana. If you are writing a character who is on the small side, like a hobbit, don’t give them a broad sword or claymore. It just doesn’t work.

Loralil, who is on the short side for an elf, uses a long sword. This site has a great list of the various sizes of swords which I find helpful

http://www.thearma.org/SwordForms.html#.VXgkvlLW0wA

There are so many varied sites that are either selling weapons or are intellectual studies of weapons craft.  You can find a lot of information, if you just look for it.

finally a little peace and quiet

Yesterday I finally got some writing done again.  Hate to say it took having the hubby home sick and making the kid go out to play but it did.  Since he was down and needed rest I made sure the place was quiet.  Quiet from the kid and her friends of course.  And thanks to that I could sit at the computer and work on Bloodsong.  Thankfully!

It might not seem like I did a lot with only typing up about 1500 words but the story was a bit stuck and I worked past that.  Now I need a little revision and then onto the big cat fight!  This should be fun.  While I am not doing the typical romance style stories here they should still fit that category.  After all I have a pair of lovers, a woman who wants to get between them, danger and all that.  Twisting the usual paranormal, making the villain a type of vampire/demon and having the hero sweet.  It is developing nicely and that is all I can ask for right?

Still doing research for ghost stories and letting the four I have in the works perk.  Death Comes Softly is being tricky.  Having basically an angel come along and thinking she can take over the life direction of a character was not what I had planned.  Neither of the lovers in this sad tale are of the Christian mythos so this angel of life is way off base.  I am not sure if I should cut her or not.  See originally that character was just supposed to be a guardian of life.  A being making sure that Death did not take someone too soon.  Not that the Death I am writing would do that.  He is way too busy with trying to help ghosts move forward.  This time he is intrigued by the couple, one dead and one barely living.  I have dabbled with some of the other beliefs about death that I have come across in this tale.  I think I may have to rewrite just a bit before moving on with it.

In the second Death tale No More the Smiles I am dealing with a ghost that will not accept she is one and wants to cling to her lover.  Haven’t decided if she will cause her lover pain, disorientation or death…should be interesting.  Should I give it a happier ending or not?  Sometimes a touch of horror in these tales can be fun.

The third one If the Shadows Could Speak started out life as an urban fantasy.  A headstrong mage casting a spell working beyond his ability and creating something that is him and isn’t him, losing his body in the process.  But I realized as I was working on it that his feathered companion is just another face of Death…where to go with this I am not sure but I think that the two lovers might just not be living anymore.  I haven’t decided…fun fun fun

I know should be working on stuff like the third Loralil book or the second Chaos Wars or even Battle of the Star Beast or The Price of Freedom but they aren’t calling to me yet.  Never mind I need to finish Traveler and Whether to Save Face or Family.  So much work, so little time.  Here is hoping the next six months can be very productive and I can clear out some of my incomplete work before my next birthday.

 

Just one more please!

Okay I know but really I set myself a goal of 100 sales of all of my titles combined by the end of my first year as a published for sale author.  As far as I can see from my numbers I need just one more sale and I will make my goal!  That is cool.  I was not expecting my newest release to get two sales in the first two hours of being up and ready.  This is wonderful and putting me in a much happier mood.

I do have a lot of work to do today while I can.  I need to make a bunch of covers, book trailers and of course WRITE.  Traveler has moved on quickly over the past week and I am happy at the flow.  If I keep up with it I should have it written for my next personal goal of the end of this month.

A lot happened in my dive into writing yesterday.  A lot of stuff came out of Ronald and we will be finding that he is not the light rakehell that everyone though he was.  He has a long history and things that his sons did not know came out yesterday.  I have a bit more to finish on that chapter before I can move on to the next chapter which will have a lot more to do with the mysterious dwarven metal shaper.  I will be dealing with her back story a bit and how she was blinded.  I hope this novel finds an audience when it is done.  I have a cover all ready which is a good thing.

This morning I posted up my first book trailer on a new site.  Vimeo is supposed to have more people viewing than youtube but I am pretty sure that isn’t true.  I decided to start with Endings since it had such a good response on facebook.  I should get the rest of the trailers and poem videos up there by the end of the week, I hope.

In other news I am now going to post up free short shorts on Wattpad, hopefully I will find an audience there and I have posted up Sins of the Father over on Goodreads.  Another free read for anyone interested.

Back to work or where did that blind dwarf come from!

I have seriously padded my thumb so I can type and not feel like I am being jabbed each time I hit the space bar.  Managed to do a chapter on Traveler last night and another so far today.  Yes the chapters are short, only a few pages but I do this when I change viewpoint from heroes to villain.  Only makes sense to me.

A new character (or two) decided to pop their head into the story.  Since I am one of those weird writers who don’t use outlines and cue cards and all that stuff to do my stories it is expected.  You need your muse to toss in these voices to move the story in the direction it is supposed to go.

The villain is turning into one hell of a nasty little creature.  Any creature who wants to commit genocide is going to be of course but you don’t expect someone who was once a beautiful Elf woman to turn into one do you?  I am having fun writing the arrogance of the two who are battling over our main character.  Parents…sometimes you just don’t need them right?

Looks like this will be lighter in tone than my last few.  I don’t want to become known for just dark fantasy right?  I am hoping I can get through this whole book with something that would be good for a younger audience.  Say that big youth market?  Would be nice.  The love story is soft and tentative so far.  I won’t take it too adult, after all I have a few others in the wings for adult fantasy romance type things.

Edana is strong willed for sure.  But a woman who grew up not knowing who she is and even what she is, who is the best in a field generally male dominated, she is going to be strong willed.  Now i just need to come up with the Elder Gods.  Yes I said Elder gods.  Creatures who took a hand in events that they never do…or rarely do.  Should be fun.

Still crossing everything I have that the review of Fall Into Nightmares will be a good one from PRG.  They have liked books I have read and reviewed, some more than I have and others less.  Sometimes I am surprised at the things they give 5 stars to.  I don’t expect something that good but I would gladly take it.

Endings is getting a small handful of reviews, which is good since Revenge is out now.  And now I am going to hold off on working on the third book in that trilogy till I see some good sales on both books.  Endings is neck and neck with Ice right now.  While neither is a best seller by any stretch of the imagination they are doing good for me.

Speaking of Ice.  I am thinking that soon I should put together those collections.  March should hold a number of releases of my work.  While I may just be taking up virtual space someone will find me someday and rad everything.  That is my hope after all.

 

Revenge..or a dish best self served

Yup I have finished the rewrite/re edit of book two.  The cover is done adn it is now working its way through the posting process on Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords.  I set the price at $3.99 which is pretty good for a novel.  It totals out to 53K words…which is small compared to some authors but a long book for me.

Dark, filled with a lot of things that will probably brother readers who are more into light fantasy, I think this is a great effort on my part.  I go into more of how Loralil thinks in her and why she is doing this quest.  Yes it is dark, especially near the end but I am not a Gene Wolfe.  The story has light moments, moments of beauty and of course moments of pain.  This is the middle book in this trilogy.  Now Yes I plan on more than three books for Loralil but as the middle book of her early years We do a lot.  The third book will set her up for….oh wait I can’t tell you that now can I?

Those of you who were waiting to get the first book Endings, you better get it soon.  The free offer is almost over.  Same with the first of the Chaos Wars books, Fall Into Nightmares.  Both of them are dark fantasy novels but they come from different places.

Yes i am taking today off of writing.  I spent all day yesterday..and I mean all day working on Revenge.  From 6am till 9pm so I deserve a little time off.  I do plan to dive back into Traveler and see where I can take those characters.  That story is definitely lighter than the last few I have done.  No torture, not deaths (so far) just good old fashioned fantasy with a twist.  I hope to finish that by Easter.  And I will if Harry doesn’t raise his head and demand a new story or my friend at the space station wanting to tell a few more tales…something about matre gras in space…

Cover is nearly done and I am still editing!

Here I thought I would have Revenge done editing before my hubby made the cover.  Well I guess not.  I have only edited five chapters so far.  Now that might not seem like much but in this book the chapters are longer than they were in Endings.  The edit is making the story longer.  Yes I know most editing is removing but as i tend to be short I actually am writing in things.  Filling out the fragments that I have a bad tendency to write.

As I go through this I realize that while Endings had some intense drama with some character lose Revenge is darker.  This book goes more into Loralil’s mind and her journey through the darkness in there.  As one seeks revenge it is expected.  She needs to work out this stuff so she can go on to become what her parents wanted for her.

The advantage and disadvantage of being an elf is the years they live.  As they live so much longer than the mayfly humans it takes them longer to work through things but it gives them a chance to work through what would stop a human.  I have ten other tales that I could write for her.  Now some of them will probably never see the light of day and others will be combined but it shows how deep a character she is.

And yes I plan on each book getting longer.  No I probably won’t charge more for each.  After all this is a series.  Pricing is something I struggle with.  There is a lot of discussion on the boards that this or that amount is the kiss of death on a book.  Most of my stories are 99 cents but that is because they are just that.  Short stories should not cost the reader too much IMO.  Yes once I combine the collections together into one book that book will cost probably $5.99 each.  When it will be a minimum of six stories and more likely eight each it is a good price.  And of course they will be paperback.

Now why did I decide that you ask?  (okay probably not) Well I have yet to sell a paperback and this might not be a good idea but I want to see them in that format.  So I will yes put them out that way first.  And then maybe go the ebook collection route.  Okay yes I will and I will decide the price then.  So many stories!

Poetry can be harder than short fiction

Yes I know poetry is hard for many.  Heck some writers take a year to write one decent poem but well that isn’t how mine come out.  Generally when I am in an emotional overload I will sit down with pen and paper and let it flow out of me.  That was how Love, Loss and Loneliness came about.  A lot of emotional bursts in free verse style.

But the people doing the Apocalypse anthology wanted to have some poetry to go with the short stories.  Now I had submitted a short story and offered to do one for them.  Took me a week to write it!  No really a week for me is a long time in poetry.  I’m not sure of it of course.  I am never sure of my poetry but I sent it over.  Hopefully it makes it into the anthology which submissions for is closing on Thursday.

The Fae poetry contest ended and I was not in the top three.  Course again my poetry is short and to the point.  The ones that one were more epic in style.  Nothing wrong with that and people did like my little ode to the Fae.

Other contests I have entered seemed to have folded up.  Which is too bad really.  This is why I tend to put out my work on my own.  While getting into a collection is supposed to help with your over all noticeability it seems that these stories get lost in the shuffle.  I like being parts of writing groups since it helps with the creative process and you all know dear readers that I adore a good anthology.  but if they never get put out who will read these children of my mind?

The past few days I have been doing a major edit/rewrite to Revenge.  While it is much better than Endings was it needs the work.  some of the sentences just do not flow the way I feel they should.  I am hoping to get it done this coming week.  With my hubby’s hours being shifted I will be doing a lot of writing in the evening.  Now that doesn’t always work for me.  I tend to write in the morning while he is working and the kid is at school.  We will see what happens.

The free offer on Smashwords for both Endings and Fall Into Nightmares is still going.  Nightmares freebie will expire on Valentines day.  Endings goes on till the 25th.  I haven’t decided if I will do a one day free offer on Love, Loss and loneliness on Valentine’s day yet.  I have made a single sale on that poetry collection and I hope to see a few more.  While it may not be all sweetness and light it is definitely a look into a heart and good for that day.

In other works I have a good idea how to finish up If Shadows Could Speak.  That tale is I would say three quarters finished.  That will be either number six or seven in the Death Walks Through series.  I have gotten a bit stuck on Death Comes Softly, which is the piece I had planned as the sixth story.  The either will be No More the Smiles.  After that I will probably take them all and put them together in a paperback.  Not sure how many pages it will be but if it isn’t enough I will have to dig around for new ideas.

The other series are on hold for a little bit.  I have ideas waiting to be sprung out of my folder of starts but I really need to work on the longer stories.  The sequel to Nightmares, Destiny’s tale and Traveler all need to be worked on and hopefully completed by the end of this year.  If I keep up a steady pace of writing I should get them all done.  Too bad I have a number of books to read and review. They are so very distracting..and worth it!

Whoops I thought I edited this!

Yeah opened up Revenge to see if it was ready and oh my….NOPE.  Needs work.  so I have gotten through the reformatting, the spell check, the grammar check and now it is the re read….and yes the rewrite.  Okay I admit that I wrote most of Revenge about 8 years ago, so yes it needs work.  And yes I am working on it.  I have gotta a whole five pages done right as I type this.  The story will stay the same but I needed to fill in better on things like inner dialog.  Loralil is a very flawed young elf right now.  There  is a lot she need to process as she works toward her revenge.  The end will be the same but the trip will be a bit different.  Which is a good thing.

When i went back to look at the stuff that will come after this book I realized that a bit more lyrical style was needed.  A better understanding of why she goes a wee bit over the edge in this book and the journey she would need to find a balance…a peace to take her to the next stage of her life.  When writing a character that you know will go on to do much more it is actually hard work to do the dark parts that made them who you know they will be.

And on a side note one of my dear writer friends is going over Endings for me.  I knew that book needed work.  I have reviews that are quiet good in that they are four stars but the book needs work.  As long as the wonderful editor doesn’t try to convince me that killing off characters was wrong I will take most of what I am given and fix it.  But those deaths, while harsh, are important.  This is a dark fantasy world, a harsh place where even the best of characters can die suddenly and  in cruel ways.  It helped set the tone for the rest of the stories that will come in this world.  Revenge has less loss of good guys but it will have tragedy because it is out of tragedy that Loralil will become a great bard someday.  That is the goal.

Now I am doing a quick little promotion for Fall Into Nightmares on Smashwords.  Anyone who contacts me in the next week can get a free copy of the novel if they will promise to review it, good or bad.  I like real reviews, ones that tell me what is right and what is wrong in my work.  That novel is another dark fantasy but of course it is…after all we are talking the end of the world.  While I have read many books lately where things have ended but the stories are light I feel that we need some darker fiction too.  Not dark zombie OMG we all die but dark in that the world is no longer the easy place we thought it was.  Hopefully I get a few bites and a few reviews.  Nightmares is a good story and I have the sequel half written.  I need some one to read that book!

Happy Birthday me…or how about a new book?

Yeah I know but I thought why not release a new story on my birthday?  Like i really need an excuse to release stuff but I like to come up with some. I put up one of my older stories, Reality Is A Dream for 99 cents.  This is the fourth of the Beyond Realities stories.  Lots of romance, tension, suspense and a wee bit of science fiction to my fantasy.  Not my usual but hey I like to do lots of stuff right?

Some very nice person bought my poetry book today!  I was glad to see a sale.  Things had ground to a halt so that made my day.  almost as much as my sweet heart making me a dragon birthday card and my littlest giving me two funky little dragons.  I now have one that glows in the dark and a white dragon.

These little guys are part of the army protecting my computer from the forces of the transformers across the room .  Yes readers my house is a bit odd.  My hubby collects Transformers and lately has gotten into the Kreo line.  Now I like this line because of the little mini figures.  I am seriously contemplating a kid type story with the mini dragons and the little lego men battling out to protect their worlds.  Could be cute but not sure I could ever sell that.  Would have to just put it up for free on my website.  What do you think?  Would it be a fun little tale?

Today the temps are ridiculously warm for Canada in January.  We are talking 8 to 10C…now for my American readers think of that as in the 50s!  Way too warm for my birthday!  Not that I am complaining.   No not at all.  Instead of a blizzard like normal it rained this morning.  I had to put up my hood since my umbrella gave up a brave fight in the fall but died trying to keep me dry (another story idea!).  I was a bit wet when I got back from dropping the kid off but it was nice.

Tomorrow of course will make up for the warmth today.  They are talking 15cm of snow..or about 5 inches with the temps taking a drastic reversal back to last weeks cold.  Whiplash weather they are calling it.  Goodness Mother Nature is definitely trying to tell us something this year.  I am sure all the end of the world nuts are rubbing their hands together and saying I told you so!

Really it is just weather and the world is just lining up cycles.  Nothing that hasn’t been seen before, just not in the current generations.

On to work.  Yes today I am not really being a good doobie.  I have sorta read most of Linell Jeppsen’s War of Odds.  A good if a little light YA fantasy.  Yeah a lot of people are loving this story and I can see why.  Her stories are very accessible to most readers.  Compared to my stuff it is air and sunshine.  Okay we know I write darker stuff.  Not as dark as some but darker than these fun little tales of hers i keep reading.

Still hoping for a good review or six (yeah I am greedy) on my stories and books.  Now that I have so much up online it would be nice to see reviews on them all.  Yes i would adore having four and five star reviews but I will of course accept any review I get.  After all it means it was READ.  Okay it doesn’t always but I hope to not get a troll review.  I don’t mind honest reviews that point out something I can fix but a troll..they just hate you for being you.

My rankings have been going up and down more than a kid on a bouncy ball.  I have no clue just where I am in the ranking on Amazon.  It is so much easier to follow the book rank on places like Kobo or B&N.  Not Smashwords but I am not going to complain about them anymore.  I should get my tail in gear and get the rest of my work up over there.  I have done a lot of work over the past ten months and at times I do feel tired.  Who knows where I will be this time next year.  I could still be the unloved new author or I could be a top 1000 selling author, who knows?  I would to see my stories in the hands of happy readers.  I have so much more to tell the world in all my random worlds of wonder.  Next month I have two more shorts and hopefully Revenge to put out and then I will buckle down and start writing much much more.  I will finally get through the backlog of tales and put up things never before seen!  Enjoy!

Snow is gone

Okay I was doing okay writing a Christmasy story while there was snow on the ground.  I could put on the carols and sing along as I wrote happily my odd little tale but it rained all day today.  Yes I got some writing done. but the rain has put a damper on it.  I should settle down and scribble more notes, really I should.  Not sure if it is the wetness or the ache that it brings that is making it hard to write.  I have ideas and heck a new character added to Harry’s world.  Yeah I know I am slowly filling in this world which makes it a bit more interesting I hope to my readers.  When I get this and hopefully a sixth story done they will have a full world to read in a paperback form.  Yes I said paperback!  I figure if you want them as ebooks you can keep getting them as they come out but as a complete collection paperback will be the way to go.  Interconnected shorts are probably the best way to read my work.  After all I am a short story writing.  I don’t see any reason I should be ashamed of my worlds and how they connect.

I have had some movement on Endings since it went up as the BOTM.  Not huge but heck four copies in about three days is good movement for a book that had no notice over on Amazon before.  With the 9 copies sold on Kobo, it is quickly catching up to Ice as my best selling story.  What surprised me is people have started actually noticing Naughty interludes!  I have no idea how many but it has a nice relatively low number.  Now the lower the number the better it is doing.  Right as I type this is it listed as 234,291 on paid kindle and Endings is 295,785.  Not too bad for me really.  Gates is at 511,594.  Now yes i know not the highest numbers but we are talking at out of I believe 7 million books on amazon.  That isn’t too bad for a totally unknown author right?  Heck even Distance is holding at 763,488.  I hope someday to have better rankings but right now I just want to see sales and reviews.

I did get asked to be part of a blog thingie.  Basically I join their group and give them access to review copies and they will read, review and discuss.  Now that is something to think about.  After all a few copies of my ebook out there and maybe they can get others to read and pay for it.  Not sure at the moment but today I am not sure about a lot of things.  So I will think about it over night.