Everyone meet Molly, the main character in The Negligent Magick Trilogy, whose artwork was done by Julija Gumbryte. In the series, Molly remains the main point of view, although within the three books, the other points of view change. For example, in Lockdrest, the two main points of view are Molly and Namu, but in the second publication of the series, it’s Molly and someone else.
I made Molly when I was taking a writing course and I wanted to make a fun scene that let my imagination explore. Molly was created because I needed someone who was young and trying to figure out her life. She is someone who has been traumatized her entire life because of ghosts trying to take over her body. She is also stuck in this weird time period when society is trying to figure itself out since it was just realized by the nation as a whole that magick is real and exists.
Molly has a special place in my heart because she and Namu started The Lockdrest Universe. She allowed me to explore the fun side of myself while also allowing my typical dark side to leak in.
If you want to know more about Molly, like the color of her spirit and the key to her room in Lockdrest, click below.
Tonight, I listened in on an event with Meet Cute Bookshop, which featured Natalie Naudus, the author of Gay the Pray Away and an audiobook narrator. The conversation between Natalie Naudus and Travis Baldree was very natural and flowing because they were both on the same page regarding what they found important in writing and reading.
One thing the conversation led to was talking about why Natalie wrote Gay the Pray Away. She said that when she became a parent, she had to dig in deep about stuff left over from her childhood that she didn’t realize was an issue or was there. So, the tipping point of her story being put on the page was her needing to get an issue she had out of herself and process it. When she was writing, she told herself she didn’t have to publish it, but after writing it, she realized that it might help other people, so she decided to put it out there.
When she published this story, she received what she called validation. She received so many messages from others saying they now felt seen, which made her feel not alone and like she had done the right thing.
Natalie explained that to write the book, she had to write around her work and kids’ schedules. She started the book as a raggy memoir but then wrote it as fiction, which gave her the freedom to write her feelings and made writing what she needed to write easier.
She said that she may not write another book soon because narrating pays more, and she has kids in hockey, so she has to make money. But she may jump into it when her kids are older. She does know, for sure, that she wants to write a poly relationship because she has a lot to say on how love should grow and not be limited and finite.
A few other things that were discussed were how writing creates empathy and connection to someone’s life. Also, how found family now-a-days is becoming so big for so many people because people are realizing that finding the people who love you the way you always wanted to be loved is such a fulfilling experience in life.
From this event, I learned that Natalie is such an inspiring writer and person. She said how she knows she won’t be able to write as beautiful of prose that she reads from some authors, but all she can do is put out something that is her. She also mentioned that as she is getting older, she is becoming more attracted to the truth because she reads such a large volume. So, for her, she needs something real to consume or something that hits hard because then it feels true and sticks.
Thank you so much Meet Cute. I feel so lucky that I was able to listen into this conversation.
In the story Unredeemed, there are more than a few items mentioned that either help the main character reach her enlightenment or, sadly enough, torture her. I bet you can not guess which items do which of the two things!
But anyway, I had three of the top items made by the Solocs using pieces of their gods. I did this so that empathy, power, and the sadness of the gods could be tangible, even though Airya and those gods were years apart from each other. The last item I created in order to also create a link that needed to be made for various plot reasons.
All of these items were painted by Colin Moore Alvarado and more in-depth information can be found with the links below. Also, if you want to buy the book Unredeemed to see how they fit all together, click on the title in this sentence or here!
This scene is a scene from the book Unredeemed, and honestly, I am blown away by how well Colin Moore Alvarado was able to capture it. This is one of the prints I would love to get printed on a metal slate to hang on a wall one day.
This scene takes place in The Conzeal Stran. To read more about the depth of The Conzeal Stran, click below, but I came up with this place to create a mishap with Airya’s powers and to up the emotional tension that would later weave into the relationship arc between two of the characters.
Because we love the art so much, we created a bookmark for it and a mug! You can click on the pictures to see the full item.
I am serious that this wonderful piece by Colin will be hanging on my wall one day, and I can’t wait.
Fountain Bookstore hosted a historical fiction panel that I was able to listen to with Chanel Cleeton, author of House on Biscayne Bay; Denny S Bryce, author of The Trial of Mrs. Rhinelander; and Eliza Knight, author of Starring Adele Astaire.
This was such a cool panel to listen to, especially when it came to the authors discussing their research. Denny S Bryce said that history guides historical fiction writers into their stories and went onto explain how sometimes they find characters in history that people didn’t even know existed, like a brother or a sister of a famous person. They all also expressed exciting forms of research that one may not think about when it comes to researching the past, like diving into the songs and movies of the historical characters they are working to voice in their books. Bryce talked about how she really enjoyed listening to one of her character’s albums, especially the live versions, to learn the character’s personality by how they interacted with their audience. She also talked about how she and Knight were out one day and came across a few stories about Marilyn Monroe and then found a picture of Monroe with a friend, which made them both want to work together to write a story about the picture they had seen. That story is called Can’t We Be Friends.
On the topic of Marilyn Monroe, Knight watched all of Monroe’s movies for research. She said through doing that, she could see when Monroe’s acting began to change once she got more training and then again when she started getting into drugs. She was also able to see and understand how one of the films she did for her husband hurt her because she had to relive hurtful past events while being a method actress.
Cleeton talked about her upcoming book House on the Biscayne Bay, a dual-timeline book in which the past and present intersect in a gothic house, and how she had to do research for both of the time periods it is set in. She also explained how hard it is for a historical fiction author not to use modern phrases because the brain sometimes automatically inputs them.
A cute and exciting thing that Knight said she learned through research, which she tied into one of her books, was that Queen Elizabeth had a Keeper of the Queen’s Corgis. Because Knight is obsessed with dogs, she dove into writing a story about the queen, the Keeper of the Corgis, and the Corgi herself from the Corgi’s point of view. That book is called The Queen’s Faithful Companion and will be out this year.
It was also very cool to hear how Denny S Bryce had worked toward being a full-time writer, which is her fourth career, and that she loves it. She said that even though it has its bad days sometimes, it is a life she has always wanted. She used to be a professional dancer and through her other careers she wrote fan fiction to relax, now writing her own stories is what she spends most of her time doing.
Thank you, Fountain Books, for organizing this cute and insightful event.
I just realized I never introduced the main character of our standalone Unredeemed. Everyone meet Airya! Colin Moore Alvarado made Airya’s art, which we love. We decided for this picture to put her in the attire she acquired from the King and Queen of Nokia. She is a Yellow Eye and is the only one left of her kind. From Ausrine she obtains powers that let her travel to other worlds. Traveling to those other worlds with her owl companion, she learns about colonization and opens her eyes to what happened in her own kingdom.
I have received great comments from readers about how much they enjoyed Airya and her character growth in Unredeemed. If you want to read more about her background and everything attached to her history, please click the link below. It will take you to a page full of information about her!
This year was the first time my husband attended a writing conference with me! He arrived the day after it started and definitely left an impression, at least on my heart.
This is the third conference I have attended and it was vastly different than any of the others. This conference was not just for writers but also for readers, which made it so much more intimate and cute. It was also the smallest conference I have been to so far!
Some of the amazing activities that they provided was a Murder Mystery Event! You can see above that my husband came dressed for the party just like he had for the pajama party. Along with those two events, where the authors participated greatly to entertain readers, they had a bestie night, author lunches, alone time, and a signing event where my husband and I bought so many books. The authors’ participation really had our appreciation and love for them growing.
This conference was also right on the ocean, so I had my first experience with the tide, which was terrifying!! I didn’t really understand or know how the ocean could be so close to the hotel in the morning and then crawl so far out at night. It definitely made me more terrified of the ocean.
But anyway, this conference was such an eye-opener. We learned so many things about relations and just how feeing writing can be in general. Honestly, I came away from this realizing that I can be more of who I am than I already am. I can fully explore myself and the real me without being afraid. I can finally welcome my true self to the world.
With that, expect our writing and business to not take a turn but to branch off. The branches later will be called Kasverse in the Dark and Lockdrest in the Dark. Those stories will still take place in our universes but the stories will be more adult themed. There will also be another branch later that we will be calling Kasverse After Dark and Lockrest After Dark, where I will be putting stories you cannot find elsewhere that are a little too mature for the eyes.
After this conference, I signed up for two more conferences I will be attending this year on top of the two I have already signed up for. One will be to train me to write our ‘In the Dark’ and ‘After Dark’ pieces of our universes correctly.
I have many more pictures and a video posted on my social media accounts if you want to check out more that this amazing conference had to offer. I am very thankful for all the authors, writers, readers, and staff who put this amazing event on for us. It gave us many memories, friends, and helped us make life-changing decisions in order to grow.
Let’s start this off by saying that this beautiful piece of art is by Colin Moore Alvarado. Creating this piece of art was a challenge for both of us, but Colin never gave up, and this is what became of many weeks of hard work. The biggest challenge had been trying to capture this magnificent viewpoint.
This is Nokia. A kingdom where a brother and a sister rule as the Brillia King and Queen. If you want more information on the kingdom, the link is below to take you to a page all about it.
I would love to say that Nokia came from a particular idea, but it came from many random ideas I had that I put together. Then, while in the kingdom, I let my mind roam. It was fun creating this. What brought about this kingdom, in general, was needing a place linked to a particular item that the main character needed to find that also brought her to a place that was a little different from her world and challenged her heart along with her beliefs.
If you want to dive into the fantasy aspects of this kingdom where a brother and sister rule as the Brillia King and Queen, click about Nokia below. If you want to be taken to the book where this place is adventured, we attached the link to Unredeemed. Also, there is a link for a mug we made of Nokia with Colin’s signature and also a tumbler with the same concept. 🙂
What a delightful book event with Oxford Exchange Bookstore about Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young.
It was interesting how such a simple book could bring about so many different layers of conversations. One of the layers we went into was the authenticity of a towns and how the author captured that in many areas. Some of the areas she captured that were when it came to tourists, the orchard, relationships, meetings, and the want for things to stay the same.
One of the ways that things in the real world may stay the same when it comes to small towns, like it did in this book, is when someone is around the people they grew up with and then fall back into that mindset. Which may be a younger aged mindset. Then comes the question of if you grow up with those people all around you, do you still fall into that mindset sometimes, do you ever really grow up, or do you need space in order for nostalgia to grasp you and turn you young again?
Everyone agreed that this book was a dark cozy mystery, like a campfire story. And everyone loved the vibes. Many expected more magic and kept trying to find it within the pages, while others enjoyed the light magic and undercurrent of it, saying that it felt more real that way.
I feel like the most interesting conversation that was had was about how to differentiate YA versus Adult fiction. Many agreed that this book felt like a YA read, but it was a YA author’s first Adult novel. Was the YA-like-feel in the way the book was plotted out and in how the author held the hands of the readers through the mystery? Or was it because it was in the minds of characters who were reliving the past, a period when they were teens? Or was it because of the pacing, the themes or lack thereof, the topics, or the relationships? What makes an adult read an adult read, besides the main character in the present timeline’s age?
All very interesting questions worth hours long of conversation.
Rediscovered Books hosted Marissa Meyer’s virtual launch event for her newest book Cursed which is the last book in her duology after Gilded, a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. It was cool to hear that Rediscovered Books hosted one of Marissa Meyer’s first books she ever launched.
Many attended this virtual event where Meyer came with golden tinsels in her hair to represent the book! She started by sharing her inspirational photos that she used to develop the story. Apparently, she creates boards on Pinterest for all her books. This duology’s board was filled with pictures of creepy atmospheric settings, images, monsters, and creatures. Anyone can check out her boards on her Pinterest!
How Meyer came up with her retelling was something she brought up. Her thought process was that the main story was pretty lame when it came to happily-ever-after. She also found it obvious that the king was the villain of the story. So, she made the king the villain of her story, to do the original story justice, and decided, because she is her, that it needed a romance. That is when she came up with the brilliant idea of Rumpelstiltskin being the romantic interest. Also, funny fact, she wanted people to swoon for the king and then feel shame for swooning for him in this second book, so hopefully that worked haha.
She had her audio book narrator come in, which many people said that her books wouldn’t feel like Marissa Meyer books unless they are read by her, Rebecca Soler. This narrator said when doing a series, she has to go back and listen to herself and take notes on who is who, who wants to kill each other, and how she did the voices before. She also jots down adjectives to describe a character to be able to form a voice around them.
After the audio read, Meyer gave fun polls, where we learned that The Runaway Pancake is actually a classification of folktales. Also, that Rumpelstiltskin’s classification falls under Name the Helper. Another fun fact, scholars believe his name might have originally meant Little Rattle Ghost.
If she could change anything in her books, she said what haunts her the most is that she didn’t give Prince Kai a last name. Also, that she didn’t have more LGBTQIA+ characters in The Lunar Chronicles.
Her favorite world to build was the world for Gilded and Cursed because she loves fairytales, lore, and researching. She said she could research and do nothing else, but at some point, knows she has to write the book.
The easiest world she built was for Instant Karma because it is her only contemporary and there wasn’t as much world-building involved. Now, she is working with Locksmith Animation, which is an animation company in the UK, who are looking to adapt The Lunar Chronicles into a tv series. She is very enthusiastic and optimistic because during her meetings with them, she said that she could tell they knew what she was trying to accomplish with the series and why readers liked it.
Excitingly, Meyer said that she held onto lots of things for book two that she didn’t put in book one of this duology. I can’t wait to dive in and read all the reveals and twists that she had set up in book one but didn’t present. And more excitingly still, she revealed the title of her next book, which will be With a Little Luck. It is a companion book to Instant Karma and a ‘careful what you wish for’ kind of story. On top of that fact, she has many things in the works, including, more fairy tale retellings, graphic novels, swag, and more.
Thank you so much Rediscovered Books for the amazing event and letting many people from all around the world to get to attend.
Regaining Lost Aspects: Mind and Soul 