A.J. Maguire

Tag: Authors

  • Release Shenanigans – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

    I try to alternate weeks between writing posts and book review posts buuuuuut….

    But this week the paperback edition of Nora and the Duke of Autumn was released and so I am going to steal today for shouting my excitement from the rooftops.

    Mood Board – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

    For those just joining us, Nora’s story sparked with a X (then Twitter) conversation about how I loved the concept of Lucifer having a therapist in the show of the same name. Another writer and I were chitchatting about how the characters in our novels all deserved some therapy after what we put them through, and I made the offhand comment about how a lot of the romance couples needed this too.

    Bam.

    Nora’s story was born.

    An empathic wizard living in Boston who provides counseling to the supernatural living amongst us? The possibilities were endless.

    Mood Board – Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

    In the first book, I had a lot of fun introducing the world(s) where Fairy and Earthside coexist and teasing at the deeper lore hidden behind Nora’s ignorance.

    I knew a couple of things walking in. First, I knew I wanted relationships to be highlighted. In Nora and the Werewolf Wedding, we saw several relationships throughout. We saw a bride and her mother, a bride and her groom, a son and his mother, and a grandson and his grandfather, all of which played significant roles in the story.

    In Nora and the Duke of Autumn, we see Nora struggling with her personal relationships, and we see a young son rebelling against his parents, as well as a broken mother and daughter relationship. I don’t want to spoil anything here, so I’m going to be purposefully vague. There are brothers and lovers and friendships throughout the book that Nora is able to influence in some way.

    The second thing I knew walking into this series was that I wanted magic to be hidden in plain sight of humanity. Don’t ask me why, but this story can only exist with the parallel between Earth and Fairy. In Nora and the Werewolf Wedding, we stuck real close to Earthside, but in Duke of Autumn we take that major plunge into the Fairy. Sixty percent of the novel is traipsing through my steampunk version of Fairy, and I had a blast writing it.

    Everything else about the books has grown over time and will likely continue to grow as I delve deeper into the series.

    Mood Board – Nora and the Siren Song

    SPEAKING OF WHICH…

    I am excited to announce that by the end of April, I will have a completed draft of Nora and the Siren Song. (Yes, that’s only a couple of days away. Yes, I am THAT close. Currently I am sitting on the final chapter and the epilogue.)

    So here is me, throwing confetti for the paperback release of Nora and the Duke of Autumn AND finishing the draft of Nora and the Siren Song.

    Come on, 2024, let’s see what else we can get done.

    PURCHASE LINK – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

    PURCHASE LINK – Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

  • Ventures Into Fairy – Nora Grayson Edition

    When I set out to write Nora’s story I did not know what I was getting into. I had a vague premise – marital counselor for supernatural creatures – and a sort of Clue setting for Werewolf Wedding. I quite like the game Clue, and massive old houses with loads of history, and since my other books were feeling a bit too heavy, I wanted to have some fun with this one.

    It did not take long for me to realize I had a lot more here than Clue meets Fairy Creatures, but I fought the desire to dig further because I didn’t want to write a series. I wanted a standalone novel and I struggled mightily to force this narrative into submission.

    (Insert manic laughter here.)

    The fact is, I had too much fun with Nora and her world. I’m still having boat loads of fun, in fact, and I sincerely hope I continue in this vein.

    For those who haven’t read Nora and the Werewolf Wedding, the basic summary is that Fairy was created so that Bright folk (aka Fae creatures) could hide from humanity, who were hunting them for their magic. Bright creatures can access the way to Fairy through any body of water, and make frequent crossings between Fairy and Earthside.

    With Nora and the Duke of Autumn being released in paperback next month, it seemed prudent to mention that we dive heavily into Fairy in this book.

    Nora has not been to Fairy, for reasons you’ll have to explore in the books, and her brief forays into Fairy in Werewolf Wedding leave a whole wide world out there unexplored. Happily, this gets remedied with Duke of Autumn. Nora not only gets to see more of Fairy, she gets to meet — you guessed it — Fae nobility.

    Why did I choose Autumn for the setting?

    Uh… because it’s my favorite.

    I also revisited one of my favorite steampunk settings with a dirigible. However, fans of Witch-Born will notice this dirigible is a bit different, particularly with the amount of fairy creatures and the heavier focus on steam powered items on board.

    Among the more challenging aspects of writing Fairy has been the need to show a kind of mish-mash of cultures. Having Fairy lean on steampunk has been a fun physical means of differentiating between it and Earthside, however, and I look forward to continuing in this vein. It shows that humans have still left their fingerprints on Fairy, and while they have many traditions they call The Fairy Way, there are still some bits of technology that have been fused with magic to make their way of life a little easier.

    I could go into a deep dive in the books, but I have chosen not to. The books already edge toward the super high end of the word count spectrum and while it’s fun for me to know Nicola Tesla was a wizard in my world setting, it might bog down the pacing.

    But hey, the series has at least one more book for me to write. Maybe it’ll come to light in the narrative naturally.

  • The Nitty-Gritty – Writing a Series

    I will preface this blog entry with the reminder that what works for me might not work for others. Writing is an ever-evolving craft wherein I learn something new with every single book. What follows are simply the steps that I’ve found work for me.

    Maybe this will change in a year. Maybe my writing process will remain the beautiful chaos it is now until the day I pass on from this life. I honestly don’t know.

    Let me also say that I never set out to write a SERIES.

    I simply set out to tell a story. Sometimes that story winds up being far bigger than original anticipated, is all.

    The Nora Grayson Series is by far my largest undertaking, and the possibilities for offshoots keep cropping up. Which is either super exciting or daunting, I can’t decide which. Regardless, the fact that it has grown so very large in my head means that I have had to take some serious steps to keep things in line.

    I’ve mentioned the Story Bible before, which for me is a singular notebook that has the outlines, draft notes, and character notes of every book in the series in it. When I say it’s chaos, I mean that it is absolute chaos. There are different shades of ink, there are scribbled notes in the margins, there are highlighted bits and then question marks beside those highlighted bits and timelines and character questions everywhere.

    I pity the man who picks it up and tries to make sense of it.

    For me, however, it is my happy place.

    It’s my Muse at her most free, dallying here and there with tantalizing possibilities. I have no rules for the Story Bible other than I’m concentrating on this one series and no other books. There are, however, what I call KEY pages.

    For instance, I have one KEY page titled: SET IN STONE.

    This seems self-explanatory, but these are the key elements of the story that have already been published. Details go in here that I often need to reference such as Nora’s home address. It is sectioned out between books, so for Werewolf Wedding I have a running list of names for those she met in that book and how they correspond to her and then any unresolved matters that did not get addressed in that particular novel.

    With each new book, the SET IN STONE page grows. For obvious reasons.

    Readers are smart, and I don’t want to upset one by assuming they aren’t going to notice that Delilah’s eyes changed from green to blue between Books One and Three. Or if they do change color, it better make sense in the story.

    Which brings me to the most important part of writing a series…

    Reading.

    Or rather, re-reading. I’m working on these concurrently, so I have an audio version of Werewolf Wedding being narrated to me, am doing final pass edits on Duke of Autumn, am drafting Siren Song, and outlining Winter King. There’s a lot of moving parts. There are a lot of details I don’t want to miss.

    If it looks overwhelming, don’t worry. The fact is, I’m having a blast. I love Nora and these stories and I cannot wait to share them with you. Truthfully, if I am ever not having fun, it normally means I’ve lost sight of the story and need to go back to the Story Bible and flip through it.

    There are a ton more KEY pages in my Story Bible, such as the Compost Dump that I’ve mentioned before. (I still recommend Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass on Writing. You won’t regret it.) But I want to highlight one more before I run off for the day. This KEY page is titled: The Lies They Believe.

    It’s a very evocative title, I know.

    We’ll take Nora for example. MILD SPOILERS INBOUND.

    Werewolf Wedding – The Lies Nora Believes – is that she is a low level empath whose only use is as a counselor. Further, she’s a burden to her Nana Bess and Uncle Martin – especially Uncle Martin. She believes Fairy is a place where criminals and reprobates thrive, that decent people never go there, because this is what Bess and Martin have told her. This lie is reinforced by the fact that her own parents abandoned Fairy before she was born, though they never told her precisely why.

    Why is this page KEY?

    Because by the end of Werewolf Wedding, Nora has to see through these lies, if not confront them.

    Happy Writing!

    Purchase Link – Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

    Pre-Order Link – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

  • About Character Growth – Part 2

    My first post about Character Growth dealt with Nora Grayson in particular. She is the main protagonist in the Nora Grayson Adventures and my focus was on how she has grown over the past several books. Currently I’m drafting Book 3 and outlining Book 4, so I have a pretty good idea what she looks like at the end of the series compared to book 1.

    Today I’m looking at other characters in the books, which might have some mild spoilers but I’ll try to lean on the HINTING side instead of the outright telling you side of things. Because we all know I’m not big on spoiling books.

    First, I’ll say that some of the comments from Werewolf Wedding have been about the team in the CEB. That’s Lieutenant Eucilla Norwind, Derrick King, Elliot Cade, Gretchen, and Sam Witters.

    Basically, people want to know more about them.

    And I get it.

    Because I do too.

    I should preface this with saying I am a kind of hybrid author. I do a basic worldbuilding bit to start, and then the story surprises me with the details as I move forward. Which means I take a LOT of notes as I write. And I have a Story Bible that is constantly being referenced to make sure I haven’t broken canon already set in stone.

    Fun note: the Story Bible is the messiest thing you’ll ever see. It’s my creative brain at its finest, handwritten in multiple shades of ink with circles and highlights and extra punctuation. The outlines are done in here. And the read-through notes when I prep for editing.

    Why is this important?

    Because it means I only had a hint of who these people were when I started. They grew with the story and told me who they were mid-draft.

    Now, this won’t work for every author out there. Some need to know everything from which kind of peanut butter their character prefers to how many times a day they think about their mother. And that’s fine. That works for them.

    It does not work for me.

    Drafting is a conversation between me and the characters. It’s where they show me who they are and tell me their story. If I knew everything going in, I’d get bored and stop writing.

    Now, writing in a series means I have to keep a tighter grip on things. Each of them have to grow, have to show a little more of who they are, without breaking what’s already established. So… I do a weird thing, and maybe it’ll work for someone else but… here it goes.

    I have Scrivener. And Scrivener has this amazing tool where you make character sheets. Before I start each book, I go through that messy Story Bible and type up what has already been established for each character. It’s my Filtered Download of the character, if you will. And then I go through my outline and put what I call CBP — Character Beat Points — at each chapter.

    CBP’s are comments and/or questions aimed at each character. Things like; How does Gretchen feel about the pawn shop? or Don’t forget Sam is still new to Earthside and doesn’t get a lot of the customs.

    And then, you know… I draft the first version.

    The CBP’s are mostly there to instigate questions that can be explored as the narrative unfolds. Oftentimes they lead to more interesting questions that get fleshed out between draft one and draft four.

    Anyway, that’s what I do. Maybe it’ll help someone else.

    Happy Writing!

  • About Character Growth – Part One

    As we’re gearing up for the release of Nora and the Duke of Autumn, I can’t help but see the differences in Nora Grayson’s character from book one. She’s still got a clear sense of right and wrong, her values haven’t changed even if everything about her life has been shattered, and she still has the compassion and empathy that I wanted to highlight in the first book.

    For those just joining us, Nora was inspired by the character of Deanna Troi from Star Trek the Next Generation. In particular, the empathy that Deanna portrayed on the bridge of the Star Ship Enterprise is something I snagged and enhanced for the character of Nora Grayson. Only instead of making her an alien she is, obviously, a half human magic wielder.

    Because it wouldn’t be a Fantasy novel otherwise.

    The idea was to let a character with Deanna Troi’s talents stand front and center of her own work, because emotions are important and we should allow ourselves to process them rather than… You know, bury them away and pretend they don’t exist.

    SO!

    How has Nora changed from Book One to Book Two?

    SPOILERS AHEAD! Turn back now if you don’t want to know.

    …

    Still here?

    Alright, for starters, in book one Nora was confronted with the fact that her two caretakers – Nana Bess and Uncle Martin – are criminals. This eye-opener has wrought a lot of strife in her. She feels stupid, and every new part of Fairy that she learns about is feeding her rage at having been duped.

    Book Two has her struggling to find a sense of self again. There’s some self-pity in there because, well, who wouldn’t be ashamed? But this second book is all about overcoming that shame and finding the strength to make something new. By the end of Book Two, she has more control over her own life and is ready to start building again.

    Which is why Book Three is so very, very romantic.

    Ahem.

    Gird your loins, people. The romance that has already begun is about to take center stage.

    And that’s the only spoiler I’m going to give you.

    Nora and the Werewolf Wedding is available on Amazon in Paperback, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited.

    Nora and the Duke of Autumn is available for pre-order on Amazon Kindle.

  • The World of Nora Grayson – Setting

    With the second book of the Nora Grayson adventures set to release later this year, a couple of questions have reached me regarding the setting of the novels. This is not your typical Paranormal Romance, nor your typical Urban Fantasy. And I should know, I’ve read plenty of both.

    Nora and the Werewolf Wedding walked the line of Urban Fantasy pretty close. We only left Earthside — That’s the here and now for anyone who hasn’t read the book — and went to a safehouse in Fairy, without actually stepping foot in Fairy itself. Instead we were treated to Boston, Massachusetts and Allegany, New York — albeit it with magical creatures walking about in the daylight.

    Why?

    To be frank, because that’s what my Muse wanted me to do.

    There was an argument early on with my Muse about having this as Urban Fantasy, and in truth it does not really fit the framework of your typical urban fantasy novel. On the one hand, yes, you see magical creatures walking in and amongst humanity in a present world, urban setting. On the other hand, humans have been left wholly alone.

    We don’t have a human — or a character who grew up thinking they were human only to discover they were a fantastical creature in hiding — stumble into the fantasy elements of the book. Nora knows she’s a Bright creature, has known it all her life, and has a basic understanding of what that means.

    In point of fact, Bright creatures have been in hiding from humanity for centuries, and the lore of the novels is such that Fairy was created as a safe haven for Bright creatures to run to if they were in trouble. Also, the urban part of the novel doesn’t last long. By chapter six we’re in the woods, sequestered away from human society so that my werewolf socialites can do… what werewolf socialites like to do best.

    In Nora and the Duke of Autumn, we make a shift toward Fairy. 80% of the novel takes place in Fairy as Nora travels to what is known as the Autumnal Estates, where she and the trusty team from the CEB are investigating the murder of a high born sidhe.

    Does this mean it’s not really an Urban Fantasy anymore?

    Heck if I know.

    I’m just writing the books, you guys can categorize as you see fit.

    I will say that my steampunk loving self had a great deal of fun describing and creating Fairy for this book. The village of Delporte is my favorite, if anyone wants to know.

    Since I am midway through drafting the third book and have a clear image of how the fourth book is meant to go, I can state with confidence that we still bounce between earthside and Fairy at a pretty decent clip. I mean, if you could jump into a body of water and come out the other side in a whole different world, wouldn’t you go for it?

    Purchase Link! Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

    Pre-Order Link! Nora and the Duke of Autumn

  • What Sort of Author Am I?

    When my first novel was published, it was labeled as fantasy romance, so I always imagined that must be what sort of author I was.

    A fantasy romance author.

    For those who have read Sedition, I think many of you will note that while there is a romance between Nelek and Trenna and it does have an impact on what those characters end up doing, the book as a whole is not what many would call “Romantasy” these days.

    Maybe there’s a difference between “Romantasy” and “Fantasy Romance” but the popular moniker seems to encompass them both these days, which is why I’m sitting here today, pondering my writing style and preference.

    If you need a reference, Sarah J Maas’s books are all labeled Romantasy. And yes, I can see why. You have the relationship of two main characters as a centerpiece that works in conjunction with the larger fantasy plot. The world building on the Crescent City novels alone is beautifully done and I quite adore this author and her works, and will continue to read them as they are released.

    A quick bit of research suggests that fantasy romance is fantasy with a significant romantic element, whereas romantasy seems to be a romance set in a fantasy backdrop. Which… well…

    Alright. I think the main difference is going to be focused on exactly how significant an element that romance is in a fantasy novel to let properly categorize it. If you’re comparing the books of Sedition and A Court of Thorns and Roses, the two are super-duper similar. Focus is on the world and the characters in it, with a romance blossoming that the characters end up having to fight for.

    But once we move on from those first books in the two series, things start to look very different. A Court of Mist and Fury reveals a much larger romance, one that begins to shape that series into something very identifiable ad Romantasy. You’re showing up to see how these two come together and stay together through a great deal of strife.

    Saboteur sticks to the same romance introduced in Sedition and while there are some questions on how they are going to survive together, the main thrust of the book is centered on the world itself. So I can see a major split between what I write and what is popularly called Romantasy.

    I am not shy in admitting that there are romances in all of my novels. I am a romantic at heart. I love when two characters really know one another, accept all of the good and the bad, and choose to make a go of things. You are always going to see a romantic element in my books but I admit that these romantic elements are normally treated as just that, elements of the story and not the story itself.

    Except for Nora’s books.

    The second novel in Nora’s series really opens up the romantic element. And the third is just unabashedly about these two characters recognizing what they have is special.

    So what kind of author does this make me?

    I suppose… just an author.

    Sure, the romantic elements are there through most of them… Tapped wouldn’t be nearly so much fun if Jorry and Seach weren’t constantly duking it out over who gets the final say on board the ship… And when I turn my attention back to Nelek and Trenna I suspect we’re going to see a lot more of that romantic element come into play.

    But at the end of the day, it’s all words on a page. It’s all craft.

    So here’s me, nodding to the romances in my books and getting back to work.

  • Mostly Mid-Year Check Up

    I finished Last Child of Winter last week! Confetti is still flying around the house and I continue to nurse my celebratory bottle of wine in the evenings.

    Now I get to take a peek at what I meant to have done this year and… have a mild panic attack about how little has been completed. Last Child of Winter was supposed to be completed back at the end of March? Sweet Bananas on Toast, how did we stretch it to July??

    Well, that’s easy to explain.

    And I suppose it’s time to fess up.

    Those who have been following along will remember that I said “Life Happened” some time ago that derailed several things. Now that we have come to the other side of it, I will admit that I had a bit of a cancer scare. Long story short, my schedule was interrupted by a biopsy and then a surgery and my mind was just not in the right space to get more than 100-500 words done daily.

    Which is significantly less than my 1k-3k normal workday.

    So, my panic attack is short lived today because, quite frankly, I’m still alive to work and that’s good enough for me.

    But how shall I spend the rest of this year?

    So glad you asked!

    This week I am building a book (ie: outlining / character sheets / charts) for the next project that I will begin next week. But I am ALSO going to take 2-3 days this week to write a short story for Nora.

    It’s been stuck in my head so I want to do it while it’s there.

    Nora and the Minotaur’s Husband will, hopefully , star in a Fantasy Anthology that I want to release in December. I have several fantasy short stories that have not found homes and, as you will recall, Torven is no longer available in paperback form because it is too short. So I will have it in the anthology so that people who don’t like digital versions can still read it.

    These projects should last me until the beginning of October (new book / Fantasy Anthology) and then I will pick up Nora’s second book (tentatively titled Nora and the Autumn Duke) for editing straight through National Novel Writing Month in November. If this goes the way it normally does when I put an editing project in NaNo instead of a fresh novel, I will probably be picking up Last Child of Winter and doing its third round of edits straight through December.

    Everything else I put on my plate for this year can simmer in the background until next year.

    Because, hey, I’m alive. And barring any freak accidents, I should be alive next year too.

    All that said, take time today to breathe and enjoy something. Life really is short and the minutes/hours/days that pass by will never come back.

    P.S. Nora and the Werewolf Wedding comes out August 9th! Advanced reviews have been spectacular and I cannot wait for everyone to get to read this one!

  • July Round Robin – Character Arcs

    The good people at Round Robin Blog Hop are having a conversation about Character Arcs this month and I am happy to join in. The question is how important character arcs are in our works and how/if we plan these things out.

    I am going to admit that until recently I have not paid much attention to character arcs in my story. I’ve mostly been along for the ride with my stories and delving into arcs and structures is still relatively new. Some of my characters have made the journey naturally, and I’m mildly proud about having stumbled into success there.

    Trenna, for instance, begins in Sedition as a wild-hearted swordswoman who can’t commit to a relationship or responsibility and ends with a fiancé and the burden of leadership.

    Johanna Rorry from the Tapped series begins as emotionally unavailable and ends in a committed relationship. (Yes, I enjoy love stories. I will probably always write them.)

    But both of these examples happened on accident as the story progressed.

    The novel I am working on right now is different. I have CHARTS for this one. Which is weird for me, but I have found it extremely useful. My two protagonists – Jack and Ryssa Rose – come from very different backgrounds and their voices need to be just as different. Their emotional journeys collide at times, but for the most part it’s felt like I’ve been telling two stories as one.

    It’s… interesting.

    But their arcs are so very important.

    I don’t do spoilers, but Jack starts the story as someone who is ready to leave the world behind. He has stepped away from his father and the woman he loves because he believes it is the only way to keep them safe. By the end of the story he has to come to a place where he understands that love will always have risk, and it is better to have taken that risk than to run away from it.

    Ryssa Rose starts the story as deeply focused on winning. There’s no room for failure for her. But by the end of the story she has to come to a place where she understands that failure is, in and of itself, a kind of winning. Because you learn who you are when you’ve fallen flat on your face. There’s more, of course, but I don’t want to spoil anything when I haven’t even gotten a chance to shop this book around.

    For the nitty-gritty of the character arcs, I will admit that I started using what David Farland put in his book Million Dollar Outlines. I don’t fill ALL of it out because I need the joy of discovery while I’m drafting, but by the time I go through the 3rd draft I should have it all noted down.

    Check out what my fellow authors have to say about Character Arcs!

    Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

    Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

    Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/

    Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog

    Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/

    Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com

    A.J. Maguire https://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/ ( YOU ARE HERE)

    Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

  • When Social Media Goes Right

    I am not awesome with social media.

    But other platforms are used for my professional self – Twitter, Instagram, etc. – and unless the weekend trip included a eureka moment for a work in progress then, quite frankly, I doubt anyone truly cares. Everyone has struggles. Everyone has opinions. NOT everyone wants to hear about my struggles and my opinions.

    Side note: Opinions change as new information is absorbed and thus I find it rather silly to blast what I think at any given moment. Often I am wrong. Often that opinion changes drastically. I would prefer to give myself the grace of being able to change in private rather than get strangled by society.

    All of that said… I have one moment when social media went right for me.

    We were having a weird chat about mashups that we would love to see. I believe the conversation derived from the Lucifer television show and how amusing it was that the devil had a therapist. And then, somehow, we wound up with supernatural creatures needing a marital counselor. And Nora Grayson was born in my head. She just showed up.

    Gentle. Quirky. A little lost. Chocolate loving. Sassy. And an empath.

    Because I love Deanna Troi from Star Trek and I did, in fact, wish to see her in a story of her own. So I snagged the empath ability and shoved it into Nora’s already mildly neurotic mess and wham!

    I had a story.

    Now, I will admit that the original intent was straight murder-mystery with supernatural creatures. In my head it was Clue meets Fairy creatures, but what ended up on paper was a little bigger. Because… c’mon. If Fairy creatures are living next door, wouldn’t you want to investigate a little more than one book would permit?

    So now I’m sitting with two books written and a third getting outlined and I owe it all to that original conversation on social media. I have to put a major shout to the writing community on the Twitter platform. Whatever your opinions are about the swap of ownership, the writing community got me to Nora and for that I am grateful.

    Pre-Orders Available for Kindle, or you can snag the book in Hardback or Paperback from Amazon!