A.J. Maguire

Category: Uncategorized

  • NaNoWriMo 2020

    Here we are, nearing the end of the craziness that is 2020, and I honestly didn’t think I would commit to writing for National Novel Writing Month. For one, I have kid doing remote learning, which is 120% more challenging than I imagined it would be. I cannot count the number of times I have to draw up an assignment and keep the kid on task. Left to his own devices, he would daydream (he’s like his mother that way) or play with the dog.

    For another, the whole year has been a wash, so why not NaNoWriMo too? (Though that might be a semblance of depression talking.)

    But the leaves have changed. There’s that smell in the air again. And I have decided that I’m too stubborn to surrender my favorite event of the year to COVID.

    We’re standing a few days away from November 1st and I am torn between three projects. I don’t think I have the energy this year to start something from scratch, so I’m looking at the works in various stages of incomplete sitting on my desktop.

    So it’s going to be a surprise this year.

    On November 1st, I will make my decision. The only thing I know for certain is that I will be participating. And I encourage any and all writers out there, if not to participate in full, then to take a deep breath, reset their minds on whatever works they have in front of them, and have fun in the month of November.

  • Casting the Book

    Recently I began reading a new book from one of my favorite authors. I had been looking forward to this book because it was revisiting 1800’s London and the author had done a beautiful job describing that time period. I also love the fantastical elements of the world she created. Urban fantasy is fascinating to me and I am attempting to write within that subgenre (unsuccessfully at present) so anything I can learn from novels like this is welcome.

    But…

    I began reading this novel several months ago and have yet to finish. Normally I consume these books in a day or two, so I had to sit back and as myself what was going on.

    After careful inspection, I have to say that the novel is too full.

    Too many personalities on the page.

    Or rather, too may point of view (POV) characters to follow. The original books were full of personalities, but the selection of POV characters was more narrow, and thus less overwhelming. It’s not that I’m lazy as a reader and want the selection smaller because I can’t keep them straight, it’s because I grow frustrated when the POV only skims the surface of a character’s problems and then moves off to the next scene.

    I have seen the question “How many characters is too many” within writer groups a lot, and I have to admit that I never paid it much mind. The world is full of people, after all, and it seems silly to limit the number of personalities in a book. However, I would submit that you should always, always cast your point of view characters with care.

    I think it was Dan Wells of the Writing Excuses podcast (and a brilliant novelist in his own right) who said that you choose your point of view character for any scene as the character who is in the most pain. But there’s a pretext to this – the character has to already be established as a POV within the novel.

    Meaning that if we’ve never been in Susie’s POV before, but suddenly we are because she had her leg broken, then that is generally not acceptable. Instead, you go to the next best POV character who has already been established in the narrative. Example – Susie’s mother was established early on as a POV character, and seeing her daughter in pain would be an acceptable alternative to leaping into a character whose voice hasn’t been heard in the novel before.

    I know that there are novels out there with numerous point of view characters. And without getting into the difference of third person limited versus third person omniscient, I would like to point out that my issue with the current novel I am reading is more geared toward a feeling of being rushed.

    The scenes do not delve deep.

    They do not allow me to settle into the skin of the point of view character long enough to enjoy them.

    And part of me can’t help feeling that the reason behind this shallow characterization is because the author was stretched thin between their cast.

  • Exploring New England – Martha’s Vineyard

    A while back, my husband and I took a trip to Martha’s Vineyard and stayed at the Dockside Inn. With COVID restrictions slowly being lifted, we were anxious to get out of the house and stretch our legs, and what better way to do that than to go somewhere we’d never been before?

    I should give a small disclaimer that as a relatively new resident to New England, it isn’t hard to find a place I’ve never been. And with family stretched across the United States, I have decided to share my discoveries on this platform both because it delights me to do so, and because it might help members of my family when they opt to make a trip this direction.

    For you dear readers who visit my site for conversations on writing, I do promise to give a small writer’s insight to each place I go as well. Because I am a writer and my viewpoint is tinted through the lens of fiction 100% of the time.

    First off, the trip to Martha’s Vineyard was amazingly fun. My husband does the freeway/highway driving in our partnership at the moment. I imagine one day he’ll grow tired of it and ask me to take a leg of the journey, but I’m content to let him keep that task for as long as he wants it. And really, the freeway/highway drive wasn’t the fun part.

    The ferry was the fun part.

    We opted to park our car on the mainland rather than cross in the belly of the ferry, seated in our car. COVID restrictions required you to remain in your car for the duration of the ferry ride, and that didn’t appeal to us.

    I’ll admit to a small amount of claustrophobia dictating that decision. (Writerly Brain Moment #1 for the trip – I couldn’t help imagining catastrophe and the last place I wanted to be stuck if the ship went down was in its belly, squashed in my car, while seawater and sharks gushed in.)

    We started the trip on deck, but ended in one of the cozy booths inside. We did have to wear masks (COVID and all) but we dealt with it just fine. There were relatively few people when we went because the restrictions had only just lifted and we were braving the new COVID world of travel, so there wasn’t a crowd to deal with.

    There also weren’t refreshments unless you brought it on board with you.

    Once on the island, we hailed an Uber – Yes! They have Uber people – and went straight to the Dockside Inn located in Oak Bluffs. Upon arrival, the owner of the establishment met us at the door and, after delivering our key and explaining where our room was, proceeded to take us on a tour of the Inn.

    I cannot express how friendly this gentleman was. The little Inn had several rooms, a shed with complimentary beach supplies (umbrella’s and such) and a breakfast nook where you could snag some of the usual snacks. It also had a complimentary gumball machine thing, but it was full of malt-balls instead, which was fantastic.

    Our host suggested several spots to go that were in walking distance and we did follow his guidance. Being fairly reserved people ourselves, it was refreshing to be greeted with such casual friendliness, and I recommend letting your host direct you to the best eats nearby.

    The room was comfortable, our view on the second floor overlooked the harbor, and we were in walking distance of the beach. Which, I will add, the beach was not nearly as crowded as I anticipated, but again this was shortly after restrictions had been lifted so that might not be the experience now.

    We rented a vehicle so that we could circle the whole island, but you wouldn’t have to do that if you brought your own car via the ferry. (AKA – risk a shark infested ferry belly.) We missed the Mytoi Japanese Garden in Edgartown but intend on going back to visit again. Instead, we made our way to Aquinnah, which houses a beautiful lighthouse and bluffs.

    I am a sucker for lighthouses.

    Fight me on it if you want, but if I see one, you’re going to see a picture of it.

    Aquinnah is, according to some research, considered the center of culture, tradition, and pride for the Wampanoag tribe. Writerly Brain Moment #2 – I love history, so my writer’s brain is often hungry for knowing what happened in a place, who it happened to, and the stories the people who live there tell. Naturally, this means I had to research them.

    Sadly, this often means I am cringing during that research as well. Suffice, the Wampanoag were the various tribes who first encountered pilgrims/colonists when they sailed to America. I would like to note that they were here for a good 10,000 years prior to those first settlers.

    SO!

    Back to Martha’s Vineyard and the trip. We had a lot of fun. We didn’t bring the kid, but we plan to next time so we can highlight some of the family friendly things to be done, and so we can visit the Japanese Garden there. But if you want a quiet, relaxing time as a couple, I highly recommend the Dockside Inn at Oak Bluffs and wandering the island for history and beautiful scenery.

  • Chagrin – Tempering the Writer

    A while back I finished my 3rd and I’d hoped final revision of Song of Bones/Melody of Bones/that dragon story I always wanted to write but kept putting off. My stubborn brain insisted it was complete, that I had told the story the best way I knew how, and that it was time to set it free. Since I’d written the synopsis in the middle of the process, I waited a scant two weeks before I started submitting to agents and editors.

    Without, you know, re-reading more than the first pages required for the submission process.

    I can hear the rest of you writers out there cringing.

    And you’re right.

    After thirteen unsuccessful submissions I fell into that funk we all get at rejection. Because, you know, rejection is painful. I know editors and agents hate to do it, too. I think most of what makes the whole process bearable is knowing that they are in that socially awkward position where they must say; “No, thank you.”

    Unless, you know, you get that editor/agent who enjoys tossing rejections like snarky confetti, but those are few and far between.

    Mercifully, I stopped submitting after thirteen. And I know some of you are going to point to James Patterson’s 42 rejections before he sold that first novel, but I promise you this was the right move. Because six months after I sent that first submission I opened up the manuscript again and realized how much I’d gotten wrong.

    My dragon culture was not fully fleshed out. The first chapter was trying to cram too much information without enough characterization. And I was struck with the fact that I needed to keep the novel centralized in one setting rather than trying to fly between continents.

    My Muse seemed to be snickering at me from the corners of my writing space.

    I had broken that cardinal rule of writing – Thou shalt wait at least three months before picking up the work in progress.

    If I’d given myself the time and space, I could have saved myself and the agents/editors who I submitted to a lot of awkwardness. I could have saved myself from a little of that funk of rejection.

    I say a little because I know in its completed form that Melody of Bones/Song of Bones will still be rejected by those agents/editors who do not feel it is a good fit for them.

    I am so grateful that I gave myself the time I needed with Enemy Souls. (That novel hit shelves on September 8th and is doing quite well! I am supremely pleased by the reception it has had and should be working on the third installment of the Tapped series during National Novel Writing Month this year.)

    Dear writers, learn from my mistake. Put that manuscript away. Give it fermentation time. And, of course, read the thing before you start submitting it.

    Trust me, you’ll thank yourself later.

  • Embracing the Super-Soldier Cliche

    From Achilles to Captain America, Perseus to Luke Skywalker, our stories have been saturated with soldier heroes. We play them in our video games, we read them in science fiction; super soldiers who have the strength to fight when others fall behind.

    AVAILABLE September 8, 2020

    We love them because they fill us with hope.

    And because they can do really cool things on the screen or on the page.

    When I set out to write the Tapped universe, I was researching pressure points and Chinese legends about chi. For those unfamiliar with the term, chi is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as:  vital energy that is held to animate the body internally and is of central importance in some Eastern systems of medical treatment (such as acupuncture) and of exercise or self-defense (such as tai chi).

    But that dictionary doesn’t bring out the cool stuff.

    The cool stuff, are legends of people having such mastery over their chi that they could perform kata’s (martial movements meant to practice control of the body) while balancing on top of, and not breaking, delicate teacups.

    Think Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

    Now we hit the pressure points – these are specific spots on the body that, when manipulated in a specific manner, can bring about significant pain or other effects. Like the Vulcan neck pinch, only with practical applications like acupuncture.

    Enter Fiction Author Brain, which asks; “Hey, what would happen if we developed that more? What would happen if we decided to try shoving those acupuncture needles in specific pressure points on a permanent basis? Would we be able to permanently access our chi?”

    Thus was born the Tapped soldier, whose surgery to unlock their chi managed to unlock an entire universe of energy.

    As an author, I knew I couldn’t go giving that power out willy-nilly. I also couldn’t have them invincible. That’s just boring. So, while my Tapped soldiers can access the energy around them, they can only do so within the limitations of their own bodies.

    I know, I know.

    We have a lot of super heroes.

    As a fan girl who squeals with delight any time a new Star Wars anything comes out, I know that we have sooooo many super soldiers out there for entertainment purposes that it can be overwhelming.

    We’ve even started debates meshing worlds together to see who can beat who. Hulk vs. Superman, that sort of thing.

    So why write a story about super soldiers when we already have too many to choose from?

    Long answer?

    Because the compelling parts of a super soldier’s story are never the feats they perform. Sure, it’s cool to see Captain America race through a battlefield and take out a dozen enemy combatants, but it isn’t what keeps us watching him.

    It’s the choices he makes with those powers that keep us watching. We want to see why he fights, not just how he does it.

    Short answer?

    Because I wanted to.

    So here’s me, embracing the cliche, and I welcome you to join me! Maybe we can all learn a little something about the power of human choice in the middle of it.

  • Daphnis Up Close – For Science Fiction

    Daphnis was discovered back in 2005 by the Cassini mission team. Before that, scientists had suggested that there was a moon there based on the ripples they could see in the Keeler Gap, but hadn’t any solid proof it was there since… you know… the planet is so far away from us.

    What the mission discovered is that Daphnis has a mean radius of 2.4 miles and completes one orbit around Saturn in 14 hours. It’s about 5 miles in diameter and what’s causing that ripple effect in the rings would be none other than Daphnis’ gravity brushing up against the ice particles lingering there. These ice particles move slower than Saturn, but faster than Daphnis, making that pretty wavy pattern we see.

    In the grand scheme of things, that’s not much information, but as a novelist that was plenty for me. Especially since I was working on the idea that a station was placed inside the moon instead of on its surface. We do have one scene where a character is outside on the surface of the moon, trying to fix the hull of their broken ship, and I took a moment to imagine what sort of view they might have.

    I mean… I had to.

    That’s half the fun of science fiction, isn’t it?

    Anyway, the relatively small space required that I keep this abandoned space station on the small side. I could only have the station so many level’s deep, after all, before you wound up on the other side of the moon.

    And here’s where we suspend disbelief.

    Because, you know, science fiction.

    I put an oxygen farm in the center of the station. Which meant a literal farm of trees and plants in a greenhouse situation. Because it makes sense to me that if we ever do voyage out into space, we’ll want to bring plants with us both as scientists and for the practical use they provide.

    There’s also a big fight that happens here.

    Because I am nothing if not an action fan, and that shows itself a lot in my writing.

    Which brings us to my topic for next week… Super Soldiers – Embrace the Cliché.

  • Researching the Galaxy

    https://www.iau.org/public/themes/pluto/

    When I first started the Tapped series, I made the conscious decision that I didn’t want to set my science fiction in “a galaxy far, far away” with planets we only just now are discovering. While doing that may have afforded me a little more freedom in writing those planets, imagining what they might be like and what challenges we might face trying to reach them, I wanted to concentrate on what is already right next door to us.

    Because what we already know about our neighboring planets is fascinating and if we are serious about space travel, then Mars and Jupiter and the planets orbiting our sun with us must necessarily be stepping stones.

    That’s why Devon and Seach go spelunking on Pluto in the early chapters of Tapped.

    Well, that and I was trying to put myself in the mindset of a teenage boy constantly confined to a space ship. I imagined it would be natural for him to want to get out and stretch his legs, as it were.

    The research that went into this sequence was extensive, which I neither regret nor bemoan. I enjoyed learning about Pluto and trying to imagine ways around the obstacles we would naturally face trying to live there.

    For those who might not know about it, NASA has a website. You should really check it out, if you haven’t already. It’s like a space museum you can visit on your computer.

    Well, not really, but with COVID and all, I think we’ve all learned to try and escape quarantine via internet.

    Anyway, the link you’ll find up there will take you to Pluto In Depth! Which is where I got a lot of my information, like the strange orbit it takes around our sun (about 248 of our earth years for one loop) and the craters littering its surface. I really hooked into the idea that there might be an underground ocean.

    As an author, I could only use so much of this information without bogging down the narrative. So I tried to stick with only what directly affected the characters on the page, that way I didn’t digress into; “Look at this cool thing about Pluto!” too much.

    I mean, I wanted to, but that would have derailed the whole novel.

    For Enemy Souls, the sequel to Tapped that is due for release September 9th, the novel takes us to Saturn. Or, well, to Daphnis, really.

    Daphnis is the “wave maker” moon located in the Keeler Gap of Saturn’s rings, but I’ll touch more on why I picked her and what I did with her next week. Right now, I’m just excited to announce that Enemy Souls will be available for purchase September 9th!

  • A Brave New COVID World

    You would think with COVID sending people into quarantine all over the world that it would be a writer’s dream come true.

    No commute to eat up writing time?

    Maybe I can carve out writing time in between all the going’s on for “working at home” and whatnot?

    Look at all that TIME!

    Sadly, this has not been my experience with COVID.

    For those of you writers who have managed to knock out a novel or two in the last months, I salute you. I also envy you.

    I am not among those who found themselves quarantined at home. My day job rescuing animals and finding them new homes with a local no-kill shelter is considered essential. Remarkably, our shelter has managed to keep trucking along with new policies that limit the number of adopters allowed in the building, which means that I have been employed this entire time.

    I might have been able to eek a few extra words in here or there when we were short on adoptable pets, but I’m afraid there has been one other time-eater on my plate; my son.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love my kid.

    Love him to the moon and back again.

    But I am not a teacher.

    In fact, if COVID has taught me anything, it’s that I made the right decision when I shied away from an education major in college. I get impatient with the poor boy when he doesn’t understand what’s on the page, and then impatient with myself when I can’t figure out a clearer way to explain it to him.

    Teachers, you are lovely and wonderful people. I don’t know how you do it. It must be a kind of passion to keep working at such an under-appreciated job. For all of you who have worked tirelessly to adapt with COVID, creating lesson plans that can be done online and maintaining remote learning meetings, you’re heroes.

    Thank you for what you do.

    Now that school is officially out, where does that leave me writing-wise? Many of my deadlines for the year drifted by in the COVID haze, and my unfinished works seem to mock me every time I glance at my laptop.

    Still, I suppose it is the habit of every writer to brush off such mocking, roll up their sleeves, and get back to work.

    So here’s me, rolling up my sleeves.

    Stay safe out there.

  • That Listless Place

    A great many changes have occurred over the last couple of years and it seems that they are catching up to me now. The momentum that carried me through several novels has faltered and I find myself scrambling to get words on the page.

    This has, in fact, happened to me before and the only way I was able to drag myself out of it was to do something radical.

    So.

    I have decided to revisit the serial novel.

    For those of you who have been around, you know that Persona – my WWII romance – was done as a serial novel for its first draft. I did this knowing that I would only be allowed to self-publish the novel once it was completed and I have never regretted it. The feedback I got from those who tuned in every week for a chapter was invaluable and the completed/polished novel is better for it.

    Many professionals out there might shake their heads at me, because giving the work out for free limits where it can go in the future, and because writing a novel is such hard work that authors deserve to be paid for it.

    But, I have always said that I write because I love to tell stories. Whether or not they get published isn’t always up to me. What is up to me, and what I constantly strive for, is the improvement of my craft.

    With that in mind, I am happy to announce that The Castle of Three Kings will be available every Tuesday afternoon at Wattpad and a designated blog. I will post links every week, and once I’ve fully edited the manuscript it will be made available in its full form.

    I had a lot of fun with this the last time I did a serial novel, and given the feedback I received in the middle of it all, I think a lot of readers did as well. So! Why not?

    It’s a brave new world, after all.

    (FYI – Chapter One is published and available for your reading pleasure!)

  • Welcome to 2020!

    Happy New Year!

    Normally I write this post prior to the holiday, but a bout with the flu bug held me back and I refuse to feel bad about it. Just seems counterproductive to start the year out with regrets, especially when you can’t anticipate getting sick over Christmas.

    So! It’s time for my regularly scheduled road-map review and prep.

    I had a lot of ambitious ideas for 2019 but in the spirit of letting things go and moving forward, I’m just going to pat myself on the back for getting the following things done:

    Completed Melody of Bones. Also known as The Thirteenth Month.

    The second draft of this novel stands at over 110,000 words and while that isn’t terrible for a fantasy novel, I’m going to be shaving that number down. I hope. I will also be drastically altering the story, tightening the plot, and combining characters to make for a less sprawling narrative.

    BEGAN “A WEREWOLF WEDDING” NOVEL

    This is a guilty pleasure. Nora Grayson, marital counselor to the supernatural, is a great deal of fun. Her novel isn’t completed yet, but if I continue with my current pace it should be finished by the end of April.

    WON NANOWRIMO WITH “EVERY PRAYER BUT ONE“

    This novel kicked me in the teeth in September and has consumed much of my attention. It is nearing completion, but work has slowed down some due to complex emotional stuff in the novel that needs to be appropriately handled.

    SUBMITTED, SUBMITTED, SUBMITTED

    I was also terribly brave this year in that I submitted my completed works to a number of places. One of which is still considering a novel that I promised to have out by the end of 2019, but since it is in limbo that obviously didn’t happen. You can expect more announcements about publication dates and whatnot in the coming months.

    So… What’s penciled in for 2020?

    Things on the writing front have slowed down a good deal due to the day job’s demands, but I have found a comfortable regime and will continue to toss novels out into the wild as they are completed and/or picked up by publishing places.

    My new regime calls for working on multiple projects at the same time. Basically, one novel in edit phase and one in drafting phase to exercise two parts of my brain. I’ve done this before and it was working well. I can’t remember why I changed it.

    I’m not sure why anyone other than myself would find this interesting, but if you’re an author and you’re looking for a way to organize your writing time, then maybe this can help you. Please keep in mind that life has a way of altering plans, much like a novel has a way of breaking the author’s carefully created outline, so all of this is a loose projection at best.

    January – March

    DRAFT – Every Prayer But One

    EDIT – Melody of Bones

    April – June

    DRAFT – Werewolf Wedding

    EDIT – Castle of Three Kings

    July – September

    DRAFT – Inmate

    EDIT – Every Prayer But One

    October – December

    DRAFT – City of Cemeteries

    EDIT – Werewolf Wedding

    That’s it. That’s what I want to accomplish on the writing front.

    Now, on the personal front… I have challenged myself to 365 acts of kindness through 2020. Big or small, for whoever I see needs it, I am going to consciously and actively seek out ways to help the people around me. I’ll be recording this on Twitter, so if you want to follow along, you’re welcome to at my handle @AJMaguire