It's a party, darling!

It's my party and I'll give ebooks away if I want to! Maybe a little corny, but hey it is my birthday.
And to celebrate the auspicious occasion I am giving all subscribers to my mailing list two discount coupons. They are valid for two days only, so get your name on that list and collect some reading matter for the festive season.

Subscribe today and use the chance to get three full length novels for the ridiculous price of $1.98.

Gerá's Gift is FREE on 1 and 2 December 2015
(for subscribers only)

Keeper of the Dragon Sword is $0.99 on 1 and 2 December 2015
(for subscribers only)

Michael's Mystery is still on tour this week and $0.99 until 3 December 2015.








I send out my newsletter twice a year, so there is no chance of spamming your inbox. And I respect your right to privacy, no sharing of that email address, ever!

Thank you Bloggers!

Thank you to all the bloggers and our host B00kr3vi3ws, for not only your support of my book tour, but for your support throughout the year for all indie authors!

Blog Tour: MICHAEL'S MYSTERY by Linzé Brandon

For the duration of the tour, Michael's Mystery has been discounted to $0.99

Linzé

Cover Reveal: MICHAEL'S MYSTERY by Linzé Brandon

This is a SPECIAL AUTOGRAPHED EDITION - only the first 100 books bought will have the autograph inside. Enjoy the third book of the Nations of Peace!

Buy link @ Smashwords

35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 26: Keeping track of detail in series writing

Style sheet: Keeper of the Dragon Sword

There is a handy little tool used by editors and copy editors that I found to be useful for series writing: it is called a style sheet. While editors will use it to keep track of unique words, facts they have to check, spelling of characters' names (especially the weird ones I sometimes use) and so on. The editor does not know your story the way you do, so by making notes they keep track of things they have to check to make the editing of your story the best it can be.

As a fantasy and science fiction author, I sometimes have to invent words. I often come up with unusual names for my characters, for instance Alu''Adr'Erinia is the Guardian of the Future, whom you will meet in Michael's Mystery. Not only do I need to keep track of multiple characters as the series evolves, I have to keep track of the spelling of their names too. Those apostrophes - what was I thinking?

It is not only the names that I need to keep track off, but also the setting. The stories of the Nations of Peace take place on several planets, but my characters also travel from one to another. The means of travel depends on the reason for their journey. In Géra's Gift, T'ara, Ta'an and Géra were on space ships involved in a war with the planet Simi.

In book 4, Waiting for Adrian (coming in 2016) there is another war, so keeping track of the technology of the war machine is important.

Also important is knowing (and keeping it straight) which characters have what abilities. Who can space jump for instance. And who can dimension jump. There is a difference between the two modes of travel, and remembering who can do what can become a nightmare without using some kind of tool to help out.

Whether your series is simpler or more complicated as this one of mine, keeping a record of things and people featuring in multiple stories, is essential.

I found using style sheets to be an easy and quick way to do it, but whatever means you choose, keeping your facts straight across several books can be challenge if you are not prepared for it from the start.

Pop around tomorrow for a special post about blogging and author promotions on the Broomstick.

If you want to see what the other participants are blogging about, you can find their blogs here. Why not pop on over and leave a comment?

How long does it take to choose a book title?

How long does it take to choose a book title?

You might rightly wonder why I asked this question. As I had mentioned in a previous post, I had already written book 4 in the Nations of Peace Series, when I got the idea to write Michael's Mystery.

This story's title has been the only one of all that I have written published or not, that baffled me. In fact, I was planning on asking beta readers to help me figure out a title, because for some reason I couldn't get it right.

It went from Exquisite Pleasure to the Future Master, to Adrian's story (dull, huh?) to being Untitled.

Then it struck me this morning at work, while I was thinking about my tasks for the day. An Aha! moment indeed.

When I wrote it down (otherwise I would surely have forgotten) it just made perfect sense. It encompasses the fundamental issue in the whole story.

No, it is not a new 50 Shades (shudders) of anything. It will simply be titled: Waiting for Adrian, the first book of the sub-series The Future Masters.

And the most baffling thing of all - it took me three years to get to this point. Funny how the mind works, but it is the only option so far that not only makes sense, but feels right for the story.

Now I am so excited that I can barely wait to finish Michael's Mystery, so that I can dig into Adrian's story.

I sincerely hope that you have not encountered this problem, but if you had, please me tell how you overcame it so that it doesn't take me another 3 years if it happens again.

Feeling disconnected from my story: Is this normal?

Being a writer can sometimes be an odd experience. Case in point: my third novel, Michael's Mystery.

It wasn't planned to be the third novel, in fact I had already written the third novel (untitled thus far) when I came up with the idea for Michael's Mystery.

Aside from publishing STORM, and a few other short stories, I have not done with Michael's Mystery that I had done on the first two, or even the now new number four, five and six. Yes, they are already drafted, and only await the heavy hand of editing before publication.

I didn't sit down and write the story of Michael and Andesine beginning to end, I stopped and did other projects in between. And now it is coming back to bite me.

As a pantser, I don't plan my stories in detail, my "planning" attention goes into my characters and their environment.

Keeping that in mind, I had to go back and reread what I have already written to pick up the trail of my story. Now that is normal practice for me, except that this time I ran into a wall. The internal editor wall.

The more I read, the more I wanted to sit down and fix the plot gaps, the grammatical errors and streamlining it with book 2 and book 4. Being consistent is after all very important in a series.

I have no idea if this ever happened to anyone else, but this is a first for me.

Is the story done and ready for editing? No.

I estimate that it needs about 15k words more. The word count is not that important, but it definitely needs the battle scene that has been threatening for a chapter or two and of course the ending needs to be done too. And knowing my characters, they won't be able to keep their hands off each other either, so a scene with an intimate encounter might also happen somewhere.

What do I do now? Write? Procrastinate? Edit?

For the short term, ie. Camp NaNoWriMo, I am working on another project to keep going on my target.

I have not decided yet on the course of action come August, but the deadline for publication of Michael's Mystery (a novel of the Grandmasters) is coming closer at a rapid rate.

And so I keep plotting ...

AtoZ Blog Challenge: K is for KRYANE

Image from Pinterest

Also taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo during April, I am working on finishing the first draft of my third novel in the Nations of Peace Series, Michael's Mystery. It is also the second Grandmaster story of the series.

Michael is sent to investigate a series of serial murders that took place in KEEPER OFTHE DRAGON SWORD. His bosses, the Lords of the High Council, sent him to Kryane to find out what motivated these horrifying murders and to help bring the responsible person to justice.

Unlike Xa'an - the planet where GERA'S GIFT and KEEPER OF THE DRAGON SWORD took place, Kryane is mostly a desert.

The planet is divided into four continents: Kyrja (the largest), Ananla, Prochi and Lirtyni (the smallest). The four continents are surrounded by two oceans, both of them very cold and only supporting a limited number of species of sea creatures. The ice caps are frozen solid and the prevailing winds make them uninhabitable to mammalian life forms.

During his investigation Michael finds himself trapped with Andesine in a sandstorm and he learns that life in a desert environment is more challenging than he realised. The inhabitants of the village of Amer guard their water supply jealously. The villagers also grow their own food, but to enable them to do that they have to work in greenhouses that can also be hazardous to them because of the heat.

But these are people adapted to living in a desert. The fabrics and styles of their clothing suit their environment. They are prepared for sandstorms, but are not lax when it comes to cleaning up afterwards. The villagers living in Amer appreciate and support each other as their lives invariably depend on it.

Now only if Andesine was so easy to figure out. What are the secrets hiding behind those red eyes and how much does she really know about the murders?

Follow Me @ Mabula Private Game Reserve

For the past few days I had been to Mabula, just a couple of hours north of Pretoria, with the absolute intention of writing and finishing my current work-in-progress, Michael's Mystery (excerpt here).
What I did do was take a few photographs of birds and animals that visited me at the  bungalow where I was staying.
While my word count was a pathetic 2600 words in four days (head hanging in shame), I have come to the realisation how hypocritical humans have become.
 
The photographs you see here are of animals that approached me!
What?
Exactly.
They should have been running or flying their little legs off to get away from the highest predator in the food chain!
Instead they approached me, because people who come to the reserve (that focuses on conservation I have to stress here) feed the animals because they are cute.
I beg to differ.

While a small antelope might not be a predator, it is still dangerous. I had a run in with a male impala when I was younger and almost got run through by it horns.
The birds and animals are fed things that could potentially be poisonous to them. Or their babies. But no, we feed them because they are cute!

Tell that to the next woman whose child is bitten by a baboon, or gored by a sharp horn. And it is always the animals that get put down because people never think about the consequences of their actions.

The warnings are there for a reason, don't ignore them.

Camp NaNoWriMo - Day 9 - Excerpt of Michael's Mystery

As promised I said I would post an excerpt of my next book: Michael's Mystery - The Grandmasters. It is not the beginning since that would be giving a little away of the ending of Keeper of the Dragon Sword (sorry!)If you would like to see how I see the world where Michael's Mystery takes place - visit my Pinterest Board Michael's Mystery (WIP) for a visual glance into this story.


So here is the excerpt - enjoy!

She had gotten used to people staring at her over time. She barely noticed it any more, but Michael wasn't staring at her bloodred hair, nor was he frowning at her odd eyes trying to decide if she was a demon or not. The way he was looking at her had nothing to do with her features.
This time she had kept his gaze as penetrating as it was.
Did he see as deep as it felt? Could he devise her confusion when she was unable to? A thought flitted around the edges of that confusion. Did he know how to fix it?
"Do you want me to?"
She blinked at his quiet tone. "Can you sense my thoughts?"
He held out his hand and without thinking she laid hers in his palm. He pulled her to stand between his legs. "Anoré shared with me the ability to sense if someone was lying or not. It helps with my work, but I cannot sense thoughts just because I want to." He pressed her hand to his lips.
But for some reason when I look into your eyes long enough, your thoughts float into my mind.
Oh dear, I hope not everything.
He grinned and her mortification turned into a shy smile.
"That's better. I don't like to see you so unsure of yourself."
He put his free hand on the small of her back and pulled her right up against him.
It was not what she had expected to happen and didn't protest. Even when he just looked at her, letting her adjust to the heat and scent of him so close up, did she for a moment thought to push him away.
It was quite odd, she thought. "You didn't ask, and for some reason I don't want to refuse you," she mused out loud.
His immediate response was the movement of the thumbs against her back and hand. It made a different kind of heat flow into her veins.
"Do you want to kiss me?" Her voice was barely there. It felt wrong to repeat the question so she didn't.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"You're beautiful and I like you."
"Oh. Umm. Do you always kiss the people you like?"
His naughty grin appeared. "Only the women. I am not much into kissing men."
She couldn't help the giggle that escaped her. It felt so nice with his hands making those little pleasurable circles and the joy of his teasing, put together.
She put a tentative hand on his chest. Like her he had removed the outer layer of clothes when they came inside, and she felt his heart beating through the thin fabric of his shirt. This time heat infused her palm.
"Have you kissed many women?"
"Yes," he began, but held her in place when she wanted to pull away. "But only special ones get special kisses," he whispered before leaning closer and claiming her lips.
Andesine knew that he was an experienced lover, but his kiss told her so much more than his words. Kissing did not always mean love or lead to sharing pleasure, but she knew that sometimes it did.
Was it going to happen now?
Andesine had been kissed before. Teenage curiousity more than an actual desire to experience the sensation. At the time she had written it off as not worth the shivers her friends had pretended it caused. When she couldn’t get excited about it, with a boy she had liked, she decided to let it go.
Michael was not a boy.
And his kiss was not making her shiver either. It was causing her insides to quake and she feared her legs were not going to last much longer in keeping her upright.
She must have made some little sound to show her distress because he softened the kiss even more and lifted his mouth away. It was a relief that he still held her though. It would have been most embarassing if she fell to the floor at this point.
Feeling that she had to say something, she opened her mouth. “Um…”
He touched her lips to silence her.
Her confusion changed direction. He didn’t think her a tease or worse, did he?
“Did I take advantage?”
His voice was tender and she could feel his concern.
Instead of answering, she laid her head against his chest and closed her eyes. It took her a moment to realise that his heart was racing too and the hard heat against her stomach was still there.
Standing quite still she absorbed the feel of his body. He had wrapped both arms around her and she smiled when his nose shifted to her hair. Dragons had sensitive olfactory receptors and even as a female child of a dragon-human mating, hers were heightened.
Just like that the need for words was gone.
As a healer she came into contact with all kinds of people, and sometimes they were naked when a healing was required.
Michael, fully dressed, was an experience beyond which she had no reference. It was hot but his heat was calming instead of frustrating.
There was an unexpected safety to be held like this. On some level it reminded her of her parents, but it wasn’t the same. It felt more elemental, like the crystal she was named after. Something so basic and primitive that it could only be described in its elemental state of molecules and crystalline connections.
And overlaid was his scent to weave the moment together in her memories.
She had learned about pheromones and scent to attract mates in shifters, but she couldn’t smell the mustiness normally associated with that. Instead he smelled of the herbs they were working with this morning and fresh rain and some wood that invited her closer.