Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Not Human cover
I am such a work in progress. Working on new stuff, working on older stuff, writing, creating... love learning all about being a writer and author. I had posted a link to Not Human in a writer's group I belong to and it was pointed out to me that the cover needed some TLC. The picture in the link was so blurry, it was quite embarrassing. It looked fine in my pictures, or so I thought until I redid it. So with some advise and opinions, I was able to clean it up. Having a better graphics program (with tons of tutorials) makes all the difference in the world. So very happy right now!
Friday, October 17, 2014
One of the best things about fantasy!
One of my favorite parts about writing is seeing different worlds. Sometimes it's just the environment and sometimes its the people who share a planet but belong to different "worlds". With The Shadow Dragon the world has an Earthy feel to it, but you know by the end of Chapter One that it is not. There are creatures and realms that my mind invented, and as I continued the story I created more - I'm blown away by what I come up with. And it's totally awesome how vividly I see everything. I think that's one of the most challenging pieces for me - to see it so vividly and forget the reader isn't there with me. Although that is why I have three people read the stories before I publish it.
Now I know I don't go into great detail, but that's only because as a reader I don't appreciate a lot of detail. I love reading stories that give me information without making me feel as though I don't have an imagination of my own. Unfortunately sometimes I think I err too much on the assumption that everyone has a wild imagination. (I'm a work in progress and I know it.)
With Taken, I move between two worlds one that is mine and one that we all know - Earth. In Not Human I stay on Earth. A friend asked me if I ever wrote stories on Earth and so I thought sure I can do that, but of course the scenery in that story isn't crucial to the story. It's not that I don't write with Earth as the backdrop because I don't like our planet. I very much love this planet we live on, nature never ceases to amaze me. However, I love the ability to see things differently and so I write new worlds to allow my imagination run wild. I loved writing the planet the Langiro (from Taken) lived on. It was the first time doing that since I was in 7th grade. And writing Solace was great because although the story starts on Earth, it was just the beginning. The Middle of Nowhere, as Karissa called it, created itself as I wrote it. I had no vision of it beforehand. It simply evolved as I created events for Karissa and Creature/Jack to survive. It would have been simple for either of them to survive, but to do it together I knew I had to get creative or the reader would get bored. And then creating the Zarran world in the second book created itself from Karissa's capabilities. It was spawned from the first couple of chapters in book one where she sees the military men on the cliffs and knows that the cliffs of the Stronghold wouldn't slow her down because of her agility and that her body was built for that terrain. In Heart of the Emperor, the story starts on a world that is beautiful, but I didn't want it to be just a place that everyone would want to live. It needed to be both beautiful and dangerous. And here is the world the Heart of the Emperor begins:
"X5401 had a beautiful landscape. There were tall mountains that were forested in the tall, thick plant-life which amazingly enough was able to grow in the rock-hard soil. Gentle, rolling hills led to the edges of steep valleys, giving the planet a tranquil ambiance between the mountains. From space the planet appeared a soft lavender because of the soil. However on the planet, everything varied in color from pastels to deep vibrant colors. The patches of green grass were the exact opposite of the soil and covered the ground sporadically over the planet, except on the mountains.
The air stung your nose and lungs, but it didn’t kill you, well not right away. A person’s body would adapt within ten minutes. With that being said, a person could be out in the open air for a day or two, three at the most. It was common within the first day to suffer from nose bleeds, headaches, and/or severe dry skin. By day two, most would lose their sense of direction, some became sterile, others lost their inhibitions, and a few have gone crazy. If a person was found by the end of day three, they were dead. Everyone who lived here has pushed their limits with the air at one point or another. I had suffered the nose bleeds, headaches, and lost my wits and inhibitions. Luckily though, that was only temporary - for some people it has been permanent."
From there Matix is taken to a world that, to all outsiders, is just as horrid to look at as the environment is. As stated in the description for the book it is a world where the sun never shines. I loved writing this world of rock and lava and how beauty really is all perspective.
Now I know I don't go into great detail, but that's only because as a reader I don't appreciate a lot of detail. I love reading stories that give me information without making me feel as though I don't have an imagination of my own. Unfortunately sometimes I think I err too much on the assumption that everyone has a wild imagination. (I'm a work in progress and I know it.)
With Taken, I move between two worlds one that is mine and one that we all know - Earth. In Not Human I stay on Earth. A friend asked me if I ever wrote stories on Earth and so I thought sure I can do that, but of course the scenery in that story isn't crucial to the story. It's not that I don't write with Earth as the backdrop because I don't like our planet. I very much love this planet we live on, nature never ceases to amaze me. However, I love the ability to see things differently and so I write new worlds to allow my imagination run wild. I loved writing the planet the Langiro (from Taken) lived on. It was the first time doing that since I was in 7th grade. And writing Solace was great because although the story starts on Earth, it was just the beginning. The Middle of Nowhere, as Karissa called it, created itself as I wrote it. I had no vision of it beforehand. It simply evolved as I created events for Karissa and Creature/Jack to survive. It would have been simple for either of them to survive, but to do it together I knew I had to get creative or the reader would get bored. And then creating the Zarran world in the second book created itself from Karissa's capabilities. It was spawned from the first couple of chapters in book one where she sees the military men on the cliffs and knows that the cliffs of the Stronghold wouldn't slow her down because of her agility and that her body was built for that terrain. In Heart of the Emperor, the story starts on a world that is beautiful, but I didn't want it to be just a place that everyone would want to live. It needed to be both beautiful and dangerous. And here is the world the Heart of the Emperor begins:
"X5401 had a beautiful landscape. There were tall mountains that were forested in the tall, thick plant-life which amazingly enough was able to grow in the rock-hard soil. Gentle, rolling hills led to the edges of steep valleys, giving the planet a tranquil ambiance between the mountains. From space the planet appeared a soft lavender because of the soil. However on the planet, everything varied in color from pastels to deep vibrant colors. The patches of green grass were the exact opposite of the soil and covered the ground sporadically over the planet, except on the mountains.
The air stung your nose and lungs, but it didn’t kill you, well not right away. A person’s body would adapt within ten minutes. With that being said, a person could be out in the open air for a day or two, three at the most. It was common within the first day to suffer from nose bleeds, headaches, and/or severe dry skin. By day two, most would lose their sense of direction, some became sterile, others lost their inhibitions, and a few have gone crazy. If a person was found by the end of day three, they were dead. Everyone who lived here has pushed their limits with the air at one point or another. I had suffered the nose bleeds, headaches, and lost my wits and inhibitions. Luckily though, that was only temporary - for some people it has been permanent."
From there Matix is taken to a world that, to all outsiders, is just as horrid to look at as the environment is. As stated in the description for the book it is a world where the sun never shines. I loved writing this world of rock and lava and how beauty really is all perspective.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Candy Corn
Okay so those of you who follow on Facebook have already read this. However for those of you who don't, I wanted to share this with you. I was taking a break from what I was working on, yes while eating Candy Corn, and decided to jump on Facebook and just simply post "I love when Candy Corn is in season". Well my brain didn't stop there, it continued with this:
I love when Candy Corn is in season! The ground is a colorful array of different shades of orange, red, and yellow - sometimes the leaves still holding a piece of summer's green. The crisp cool air in the morning that hasn't been captured by winter's freeze, allowing droplets of water to sparkle in the rising of the sun. There is something uniquely beautiful in the bare branches that reach for the sky. Cloudy or not, their darkness that marks summer's end contrasting the brightness of the sky holds me in awe of the nature that surrounds.
~ Amanda Schmidt
I do love this time of year, and the candy corn always taste the best - I often wonder if the bags I find at other times of the year are leftovers. I will sit down with a bag of candy corn and eat until my stomach aches. But does that deter me? Not a chance. As soon as one bag is gone, the next time I'm at the store I buy another - it's a vicious cycle really. I am a Michigan girl. I love each and every season and as one draws to a close, I anticipate the weather of the next with a smile.
I hope you also are enjoying the season... and the candy corn! Hee Hee
I love when Candy Corn is in season! The ground is a colorful array of different shades of orange, red, and yellow - sometimes the leaves still holding a piece of summer's green. The crisp cool air in the morning that hasn't been captured by winter's freeze, allowing droplets of water to sparkle in the rising of the sun. There is something uniquely beautiful in the bare branches that reach for the sky. Cloudy or not, their darkness that marks summer's end contrasting the brightness of the sky holds me in awe of the nature that surrounds.
~ Amanda Schmidt
I do love this time of year, and the candy corn always taste the best - I often wonder if the bags I find at other times of the year are leftovers. I will sit down with a bag of candy corn and eat until my stomach aches. But does that deter me? Not a chance. As soon as one bag is gone, the next time I'm at the store I buy another - it's a vicious cycle really. I am a Michigan girl. I love each and every season and as one draws to a close, I anticipate the weather of the next with a smile.
I hope you also are enjoying the season... and the candy corn! Hee Hee
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Still writing! (As though stopping is an option.)
Okay so a large amount of time has passed yet again. I am proud to say that it's because I have been lost in my writer's world. I am aiming to have The Shadow Dragon book 3 published next summer and book 4 with in the next month or so. Lots of work to be done there but not too much. Plus, (like I've previously said) I already have the titles and cover ideas! What am I doing now with the books? I am currently reading the printed manuscript for book three. I've already re-read books 1 and 2 to make sure I am keeping everything straight - I even took notes. There was only a page front and back and a half. Pretty happy about that.
Story 13 is pretty much done, except it was brought to my attention (as though I forgot) that I can't publish it without the next book being close to done. So I've started that. The story really does need more. The story doesn't leave you hanging, not really, but at the end you know there is definitely more to come. So I am working on that. I can't tell whether it will be a book 2 or I'll just add it to what I have. Only time will tell. Plus, I can't publish it because I do not have a title or cover idea, ugh. (I know big surprise, right.)
I have also been working on Story 14, and that was going really well until I realized that I wrote a section wrong. Gotta love when characters decide that the story you've written needs to be changed. So, I printed off a manuscript to restructure it. (This is when I want my "Ironman" computer. You know where the elements are up in front of me, tangibly, and I can grab and move things around and throw the other stuff away).
With all that going on I ended up having to work on story 12 too because it kept waking me up in the middle of the night. I am happy with the way that story is moving along too. Turned out that I had tried to put an event to close to the beginning, so once I moved that the story has been moving smoothly.
It is so amazing to me how each world I create keeps itself straight in my mind. I only have to read one sentence and everything becomes clear and my mind starts up right where I left off as though I had just been working on it. I feel truly blessed!
Story 13 is pretty much done, except it was brought to my attention (as though I forgot) that I can't publish it without the next book being close to done. So I've started that. The story really does need more. The story doesn't leave you hanging, not really, but at the end you know there is definitely more to come. So I am working on that. I can't tell whether it will be a book 2 or I'll just add it to what I have. Only time will tell. Plus, I can't publish it because I do not have a title or cover idea, ugh. (I know big surprise, right.)
I have also been working on Story 14, and that was going really well until I realized that I wrote a section wrong. Gotta love when characters decide that the story you've written needs to be changed. So, I printed off a manuscript to restructure it. (This is when I want my "Ironman" computer. You know where the elements are up in front of me, tangibly, and I can grab and move things around and throw the other stuff away).
With all that going on I ended up having to work on story 12 too because it kept waking me up in the middle of the night. I am happy with the way that story is moving along too. Turned out that I had tried to put an event to close to the beginning, so once I moved that the story has been moving smoothly.
It is so amazing to me how each world I create keeps itself straight in my mind. I only have to read one sentence and everything becomes clear and my mind starts up right where I left off as though I had just been working on it. I feel truly blessed!
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