I missed the Friday 5 last week because I couldn't think of anything. This week, as I've been working on edits on To the Gap (Daughter of the Wildings book 4), I noticed five (possibly) interesting things readers will learn about in the book: 1. What happens if you don't mind your manners in Lainie's kitchen. 2. How Silas gets the nickname "Shark". 3. How to make a mage ring. 4. Silas's "first time". 5. Cows can swim. Still working hard to get the book ready for release. We had a pre-wedding event to go to last week out of town, and the wedding is late next week, if all goes according to plan. But I'm finding that with plenty of rest and carefully limiting any other demands on my energy, I'm not falling too far behind. Stay tuned for details as the release date draws near; to make sure you don't miss the announcement, sign up for my email alerts. (Don't worry; I won't spam you or share your info with anyone else.)
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My vision of fantasy-western (or, if you prefer, western fantasy) and how and why I got the idea to mash up the two genres. (This is based on two different but similar posts I wrote for Derek Alan Siddoway's blog and the Speculative Fiction Showcase. Since other people's blogs can come and go, I decided it's best to have something this important on my own blog as well. Also be sure to check out the other versions on those sites!) Out of the dusty desert hills he rides into town, the nameless stranger astride a horse as toughened with hard experience as he is. The wide brim of his hat conceals his eyes and unshaven face in shade; his long brown coat, much patched and mended, blows open just enough to reveal the six-shooter holstered at his hip. He seems to be just another wandering gunfighter, but that gun can do things no regular gun can do, and, on a silver chain hidden beneath his shirt, a ring set with a blue stone glows with the strength of his magical power. This is no ordinary gunslinger. Meet Silas Vendine, the hero of my fantasy-western series Daughter of the Wildings. The fantasy half comes from high fantasy, which I define (and I know everyone has their own definition) as fantasy set in another world, with a heroic storyline, where magic is an essential element of the story. The western part of fantasy-western comes from the traditions of the classic pulp westerns: the wide-open, lawless frontier, confrontations between good and evil, self-reliance, individual freedom and responsibility, the struggle to survive, and characters who are trying to make a new start in life or find justice, revenge, redemption, or just a ton of riches. To me, fantasy and western were made to go together. There are so many places where the traditional elements of the two genres can come together to enrich and expand each other. Desolate and mystical landscapes; the struggle between good and evil; characters who don’t fit into ordinary society, epic journeys where simply surviving is a victory – you’ll find all of these elements and more in both fantasy and westerns. Silas Vendine, the gunslinger who is also a mage, fits into a long tradition of both fantasy and western heroes: the mysterious man with extraordinary skills and strengths, a loner, who has his own mission in life and his own moral code that doesn’t necessarily fit with the accepted conventions. And it isn’t just the similarites between the two genres that inspired me to combine them. The contrast between the down and dirty struggle for survival that was life in the Old West and the otherworldly wonder of magic, and between the rough technology of the late 1800s and the traditions of magic and fantasy, are ripe with storytelling possibilities. In Daughter of the Wildings, I wanted to put the familiar western elements into a world that isn’t ours, where magic is pervasive and well-known. Gamblers play cards in the saloons – but the cards have names like Moon Mage and Star Dragon. The A’ayimat, the indigenous people of the Wildings, have blue-toned skin and golden eyes, and can understand any language that is spoken to them. Clocks with numbered hours, eyeglasses, and guns are the products of foreign science and are forbidden in the civilized, mage-dominated land of Granadaia. Cowboys herd cattle out on the open range while man-eating groviks – think furry alligators with rabbit-ears – roam the mountains. And on the night of the dark of the moon, when the eight gods hide their faces from the world, that mournful howling you hear could just as easily be a coyote, a demon, or lost and lonely spirit. The landscapes of the West are another inspiration. I was born and raised in the West, and still live there. I love to set my favorite genre, fantasy, in the wide-open landscapes I grew up with, the snow-covered peaks, evergreen forests, grassy rangelands, and rugged desert hills and dry riverbeds. Mountains and deserts especially play an important role in my writing. Mountains are places where the earth and the heavens meet in a mystical joining, while in the desert, things are hidden, buried, waiting to be revealed by an angle of the light, a rainstorm, or fortuitous digging in the right place. Both mountains and deserts hold deep secrets and power and history, and demand the utmost in skill and courage of those who journey or live there. Come join Silas Vendine and Lainie Banfrey on an exciting western adventure set in a world of fantasy and magic – or an epic fantasy adventure in a world of cowboys and gunslingers. For availability and more information about the books, go to the Daughter of the Wildings series page. Check the Books page for all sales outlets. Alliterative weekday themes seem to be the thing now, so in the constant quest for blog post ideas, I came up with the idea of the Friday Five. Five what? Well, anything. Today, here are five snippets from To the Gap, book 4 of Daughter of the Wildings, currently under revision and slated for release in, oh, I'm gonna say July. (Note: this is not the final polished, edited, proofread version.) 1. Silas is signing himself and Lainie up to work on the cattle drive, and the boss, Landstrom, recognizes Lainie's name: "Well, well, well. I'd heard tell she'd been carried off by some gods-damned wizard and forced to become a wizard herself. Glad to see that's not true and that she landed herself a fine strapping husband instead." 2. Silas and Lainie getting their supplies as the drive is getting ready to leave: Silas thanked Landstrom, and they headed off to the temporary booths that sellers of the various supplies had set up to cater to the gathering drive hands and other workers. 3. Lainie, who is working as an assistant cook, has an awkward conversation with her boss, Mrs. Bington, while seasoning the beans for that day's supper: "I still say you're ruining it," Mrs. Bington grumbled. 4. A special moment: "Silas?" she murmured. 5. Lainie tries to tell Silas she's concerned that his fear for her safety is beginning to cloud his judgment: "I want you safe too. If something happened to you, I don't know what I would do. I'll do anything to protect you -- except ask you to be less than the man you are. So don't you make yourself into less than the man you are for my sake." With three books out in the Daughter of the Wildings series, I figure it's time for a couple interview with Silas and Lainie. This is about book 3-ish, and virtually spoiler-free (except that they're together, which I don't consider a spoiler because the books are partly romance and because if you know any of my work, you know the hero and heroine always end up together): 1. How did you meet? Silas: I had just arrived in Bitterbush Springs and found myself in the middle of a shootout. During the shootout I sensed a burst of magic close by. At the time, I was on the hunt for the source of some magical power I'd been sensing, so when the gunfight was over I went looking for the person the magic had come from. Lainie: When the shooting started, I got scared and hid behind a barrel, and put up a magical shield. My brother Blake got killed in a shootout just a few months before, so it really scares me when the bullets start flying. When the shootout was over, Silas came over to where I was and asked me if I was okay, and escorted me on my errands in town in case there was any more trouble. 2. What was the first thing you noticed about the other person? S: The first thing I noticed about Lainie, of course, was her power. Bright and strong and clean, with a feel or flavor to it that was different from the Granadaian power I was familiar with. When I first saw her, hunkered down behind that barrel, I took her for a boy, because of her slim build and the men's clothes she was wearing. As soon as I got a closer look at her pretty face and her figure, though, it was clear she was all woman. L: He was tall, and so handsome, and looked just a little bit dangerous, but he was so kind and polite to me. 3. Did you know when you met that you would end up together? S: No idea at all. I was just passing through on the hunt for a renegade mage. Since she was an untrained mage, my legal duty was to either send her back to Granadaia for training or Strip her of her power. I knew that neither of those options would endear me to her. And anyhow, marriages between mages have to be approved by the Mage Council, and I knew that a Wildings-born mage from a mostly Plain family would not be considered an appropriate match for me. L: I had no idea, either. I was smitten with him almost right away, but he was just passing through town on business of his own; there was no reason for him to hang around and no reason why he should be especially interested in me. 4. What do you like best about the other person? S: Well, she's smart, strong, brave, pretty, an amazing cook, an even more amazing lover -- L: (blushing) Silas! S: But more than any of that, she's just.. her. She's Lainie. That's what I like best about her. L: (still blushing) Silas is all those things - except handsome, not pretty, and not that much of a cook except for critter on a stick, as he calls it. But he's so kind to me, and so patient while he teaches me to use my power, and he sacrificed a lot to keep me safe. And also, I'm not sure how to say this, but he lives, you know what I mean? I mean, he'll think about things before he acts -- usually -- and see what the lay of the land is, but when he's ready he jumps right in and does it. He doesn't spend his life hemming and hawing off to the side. But yeah, mostly, he's him. And that's what I like about him. 5. What is something you enjoy doing together? (Besides the obvious!) S: What else is there? L: (blushing even harder) Silas, really! S: We like doing pretty much everything together. Training in magic, traveling, hunting - we've taken a few jobs to track down missing family members and the like, shooting practice, bathing -- L: Oh gods, I'm so embarrassed. S: Sorry, darlin'. *smooch* L: But you get the idea. We're a team. We're partners. I can't think of anything we don't like to do together. Even lately, when money's been tight and we have to be on the lookout for other mages who might know about us and the laws we've broken and such, we'd rather be in it together than out of trouble and not together. You know what I mean? 6. How has the other person changed you? S: Before I met Lainie, I was already committed to protecting the Plain settlers of the Wildings. But since I met her, it's become much more personal. Lainie isn't Plain, of course, but her Pa is, and the people she grew up among, and she's definitely of the Wildings, not of Granadaia. On the other hand, since the people in her own hometown tried to hang her for being a mage, I'm a little less patient with the Plain settlers' hatred of mages. I don't know if that's affected my commitment to protecting them, but I see them less as the victims in the struggle between mages and Plains than I used to. Mages have done a lot of wicked things, but Plains aren't entirely innocent, either. The other way she's changed me is that I used to not be afraid of much of anything. But now the thought of her being hurt or killed or captured scares me to death. I wouldn't want to live in a world without her. L: Silas showed me that not all mages are inhuman monsters with no heart and no soul, which is what I'd always been taught, and he helped me to accept my own power and be proud of who and what I am. He's teaching me to use my power to help people, not hurt them. My life has changed a lot, living on the run with him, on the wrong side of the mages' law, instead of still being at home, working on the ranch and marrying the man my Pa meant for me to marry. But I don't regret any of it. 7. What are the biggest differences between you? How important are these differences? L: Well, he's from an elite family of Island mages, and I was born to Plain parents who don't have a lot -- I mean, for folks in the Wildings, my Pa does all right with his ranch, but he worked his way up from nothing and compared to a rich mage family in Granadaia, I guess we're still pretty poor. And Silas is thirteen years older than me and knows way more than me about a lot of things. S: None of that seems very important, though. The biggest difference that matters is that she always wins at Dragon's Threes and I never do. She had to ban me from playing for money. Oh, and she can control powers found in the Wildings that I can't. That doesn't bother me; I think it's mighty impressive, and it's come in handy a time or two. 8. What do the two of you have in common? S: Magic. A love for the Wildings, for the beautiful country out here and the freedom. A commitment to protecting Plain folks from mages who want to take away their rights and freedoms. A hope that one day, mages and Plain folk can live peacefully side-by-side in the Wildings. And our love for each other. L: That pretty much covers it. Well, and we both like horses, and think the same things are funny. 9. What are the greatest challenges you have faced in your relationship? S: Well, besides the fact that our marriage is illegal under Granadaian mage law, and I also broke the law by not making her go to school in Granadaia or Stripping her, and she can do a few things with magic that are supposed to be impossible and just in case they aren't they're also illegal, and we've got renegade mages and Plain folks trying to kill us and mage hunters hunting us, and we've spent a good amount of time homeless and broke... nothing, really. L: I've almost lost him a few times, and I've almost died a time or two. It's scary, knowing how much danger we're in, but it also makes us appreciate each other more. No matter how bad things are, we're just glad to be together. And there was a time when I was afraid he didn't really want to be with me, he just got himself stuck with me because my Pa made him marry me. But he's showed me pretty well that isn't true and he does want to be with me. 10. What does your family think of your partner, and what do you think of your partner's family? S: My family has not met Lainie, and likely never will, since I've pretty much cut myself off from all relations with them. I doubt they would approve of her, a Wildings girl born of Plain parents; her power came from her grandmother, the illegitimate daughter of a married mage and a Plain servant. As for her family, her Pa is a good man. I have a lot of respect for him, and I mean to keep the promise I made him to take good care of his daughter. Her mother and brother are both dead, but I'm sure I would have liked them as well. L: My Pa didn't like Silas at first, because he's a mage. But after he rescued me from Carden and saved my life and put himself on the wrong side of the mages' law to do what was best for me, I think Pa started to respect him. If they had time to get to know each other better, I think they'd get on pretty well. Silas's family... I know he don't think much of them, and from what he's told me, they sound like the kind of mages I was taught to hate and be afraid of. But if they raised a son like him, I have to think they can't be all bad. 11. What role does magic play in your relationship? L: Magic's what brought us together. Mages is what we are. S: I would love her even if she wasn't a mage -- L: And I would love him if he wasn't a mage, too. S: But working together so closely, and both of us knowing what it's like to have power and use it, I think that brings us closer together than we would be, otherwise. 12. What are your plans for the future? S: Keep our freedom and stay alive. L: Well, that, and it would be nice if we could find a place to settle down and live in peace, get some land of our own, raise some cattle. And if we could get the fertility block removed from Silas -- the Mage Council puts it on all mage children, and it can't be removed until the Mage Council approves their marriage -- if we could find a way to get the block removed and have some kids together, I'd really like that. I've always wanted to have children. But even if we can't, maybe we can find an orphan to adopt -- there aren't many, folks in the Wildings take care of their own, and if a child loses their parents, their other kin or friends and neighbors will step in and care for them. But if we could find one, we could have a family that way. S: I'd like that, too, but first we have to stay out of the Mage Council's hands and not get ourselves hanged by any Plain folks. 13. "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts." How is this true for the two of you? L: Working together, we've helped some people, and stopped some powerful and dangerous renegade mages. We've done some good. S: Working together, teaching each other, loving each other, we make each other stronger. Like Lainie said, we're a team. We're partners. And together, we can do great things. Have other questions? Feel free to ask them in the comments! The Rancher's Daughter, book 3 of Daughter of the Wildings, is now available at a multitude of fine ebook retailers, and the paperback edition will be coming in a few weeks. This marks the halfway point of the Daughter of the Wildings series, which feels amazing because there was a time early last year/late in 2013 when I was genuinely afraid I might not be around long enough to start releasing the series. But prayers were answered and it turned out to not be anything serious, and so far, so good. Rancher's Daughter, like all the books in the series, was lots of fun to write. It gets more involved with the A'ayimat, the indigenous people of the Wildings, who, yes, have blue-toned skin. It also introduces one of my favorite supporting characters in the series, the wealthy rancher Brin Coltor. He has an influence later on in the series, and even appears again. I've been kind of nervous about this release; Beneath the Canyons has been very well received, and Bad Hunting even more so, so I feel like I have a lot to live up to, and hope I don't let down the readers who've enjoyed the first two books. I put my very best into every book I release, and hope my readers will have as much fun reading my books as I did writing them. And so, on to book 4, To the Gap. It involves a cattle drive, and required a lot more research than most of my books do, and was also a lot of fun to write. I don't think it needs as much work as the last book did, but then I think I say that about every book. I'm aiming for a release in mid-summer; we'll see how it goes. The Rancher's Daughter is available at the following ebook retailers, and through Sunday, April 26, it's only 99 cents! (The regular price will be $3.99.) And to celebrate the release, Beneath the Canyons is also 99 cents, through Tuesday, April 28. Amazon | iTunes | Kobo | Google Play | OmniLit | Smashwords | DriveThruFiction | Scribd | Barnes & Noble Here's an interview with Orl Fazar, the drifter and renegade mage from Bad Hunting (Daughter of the Wildings Book 2): 1. What is your full name? Is there anything significant about your name? I'm known as Orl Fazar. Maybe it bears a resemblance to my real name, maybe it doesn't. 2. How old are you? I'm 33 years old. 3. Tell us about your family. What do you like and not like about them? They're mages. More powerful than some, maybe not as powerful as others. You might have heard of them. Or maybe not. My parents had ambitions for me, which I like to think I'm carrying out in my own way. 4. Who was your first kiss, and what did you think of it? It's been so long, and there's been so many women since then, I don't remember. It was probably a girl at school, but I was taken out of school when I was twelve or so, so I was pretty young. 5. What is your occupation? I'm just a simple, peace-loving mage, looking to make a better life for myself out in the Wildings away from the Mage Council. They call me a rogue mage, but just because I don't care for authority doesn't make me a renegade. 6. What are your best and worst qualities? Like I said, I'm just a simple mage, minding my own business, don't mean harm to no one. I'm pretty smart; you've got to be, living by your wits out here in the Wildings. I've beat some of the best gamblers in the Wildings at Dragon's Threes, using some, let's say, little tricks of my own. And no filthy blueskin's been able to get the better of me yet. My worst qualities? Well, I reckon I've got my weaknesses like any man, but I don't think they do any harm. 7. What quality do you value most in a romantic partner? I'm on the lookout for a nice Wildings gal with mage power. Keep the gift in the family, so to speak. I do like a woman who's feisty. The harder they fight, the better I like it. 8. What is your favorite thing to do? Well, heh heh, see my answer to your last question. Other than that, I just enjoy being a peaceful fellow, not bothering anyone and not having anyone bother me. 9. What is your greatest fear? I don't really think I've got anything to be afraid of, except getting hauled before the Mage Council. I'll give up everything else before I let some damned hunter take me in. 10. What is your most treasured possession? My freedom and my power. Material possessions just don't mean much to a fellow like me, so long as I have those other things. Have other questions? Feel free to ask them in the comments! Now this is really cool: the awesome Camille Laguire reads an excerpt from Beneath the Canyons on her fiction podcast, Reading in the Attic. I've known for a while she was going to do this and I've been so excited to hear it, and it turned out AMAZING! She has a fantastic voice, and did a great job with the accents - perfect for the characters. Go check it out, at iTunes or the Reading in the Attic blog. *Phew* Was buried all week last week in the last large-scale revision of The Rancher's Daughter, cleaning up the last messy plot points, fixing descriptions and dialogue, and making sure everything flows well. The big battle scene took a while; in that scene, Lainie has three different enemies and one unreliable ally (not Silas; he's temporarily indisposed), and the battle is happening on both the physical and the metaphysical planes. I could only do a few paragraphs at a time, then I had to go rest my poor tired brain. *sigh* Lainie keeps getting herself into these situations, and then I have to figure out how to get her out of them. Anyway, it's on to the final edits and proofreading. If everything continues to go as it has been, The Rancher's Daughter will be out by the end of April. In the meantime, here's a snippet from the book: A rustling in the forest undergrowth several measures away drew her attention. From the shadows, a narrow pair of glowing, dark orange eyes stared at her. Below them, Lainie could make out a long, furry snout with sharp fangs poking up and down out of the sides of the mouth. Behind the head stretched a body the length of a man, covered in gray fur and set close to the ground on short, thick legs. Even in the dim light, Lainie could see the curving claws, longer than her fingers, that tipped each enormous paw. Two long ears stood straight up atop the head and twitched towards her as a thick tail, the length of the creature's body, swished back and forth through the litter on the forest floor. Time for another character interview! Here's Arbrey Carden, the man of mystery from Beneath the Canyons, Book 1 of Daughter of the Wildings. I don't have a picture of Carden to display, so here's his first appearance in the book, as a bit of introduction: All at once the shooting stopped. “What’s all this, boys?” a deep, resonant voice called out from nearby. And now here's Carden to tell us a little about himself:
1. What is your full name? Is there anything significant about your name? My name is Arbrey Carden. It's a highly respected name among those who are privy to such knowledge. 2. How old are you? I am 34, in the very prime of my life. I enjoy both the wisdom, experience, and sophistication of years, and the good looks and vigor of youth. 3. Tell us about your family. What do you like and not like about them? They're quite prominent, of course, and quite respected among certain exclusive circles. I'm sure you probably wouldn't have heard of them. 4. Who was your first kiss, and what did you think of it? I believe it was Lorinda... Something. Her family had a townhouse and a seaside estate next to ours while I was growing up. She's long been married to someone else, but she did give me quite the taste for feminine companionship. 5. What is your occupation? At present I am involved in overseeing the acquisition of a certain ore of unusual and interesting properties. I'm sure you'll understand if I say that my employers require the greatest discretion and I am not presently at liberty to reveal their identities. 6. What are your best and worst qualities? Among other talents, I am a bold and savvy businessman, skilled in the management of money and labor. The fruits of my labors are of great benefit to whatever locale I'm presently working in. I'm also quite good at persuading people to do things that are in their best interests though they may not realize it at the time. My worst qualities, well *fake self-deprecating laughter* I'm afraid I'm an adamantly confirmed bachelor. Although I suppose it's arguable as to whether that's bad or good. 7. What quality do you value most in a romantic partner? I like a woman who is elegant in appearance and manners and can pass as well-bred (though she might not be in reality), but who is also free of silly, over-nice inhibitions in matters of pleasure. 8. What is your favorite thing to do? Well, aside from keeping company with the sort of women I described above, I enjoy making money, whether it's through an exciting new business venture or a well-played game of Dragon's Threes. 9. What is your greatest fear? What could someone in my position, with my abilities and resources, possibly have to be afraid of? 10. What is your most treasured possession? I value having the money, freedom, and position to make my way in the world independently, as well as belonging to that elevated circle of people who have the means and intelligence to enjoy the more refined and sophisticated pleasures of life. Have other questions? Feel free to ask them in the comments! Beneath the Canyons is available in ebook and paperback at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo | OmniLit | Smashwords | CreateSpace | DriveThruFiction Read the first chapter here. I'm pleased to announce that Bad Hunting, Daughter of the Wildings Book 2, is now available at the following ebook retailers: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | OmniLit | Smashwords | DriveThruFiction. It'll also be on iTunes, which for some reason is being really slow. The regular price is $3.99, but through Feb. 24, 2015, you can get it for the special introductory price of $0.99! (or the international equivalent) If you haven't read Book 1, Beneath the Canyons yet, now's your chance; it's also on special for only 99 cents through Feb. 24! The paperback edition of Bad Hunting will be coming in a few weeks. And now, on to book 3, The Rancher's Daughter! I can't say yet when the release date will be; I would love to publish it in April, but May might be more realistic. I'll keep you posted on the progress! And in the meantime, watch for Lainie to be featured on the Speculative Fiction Showcase Meet My Character blog tour this weekend, right here. Update: Bad Hunting is now available on iTunes! The delay was because there was something in the book description Apple didn't like (they're picky about some things) and I thought I had fixed it but I hadn't :P. All fixed now. |
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