A.J. Maguire

Tag: Authors

  • Where I Pretend I Know What I’m Doing…

    I have a plan and it’s a good plan.

    Or at least I think it is a good plan.

    Ask me again when all this is over.

    So here’s the plan… Last Child of Winter is nearly complete. It turned out longer than I intended, which I think is probably good because it means I have more I can edit out come the revision pass. In any case, my beloved husband got me a Planner for Christmas and I have plotted out the first several months of 2023.

    Why am I telling this to you, gentle, kind, lovely Reader (or listener, if you prefer the podcast version)?

    Because those plans include a release date!

    On May 9th, 2023, Nora and the Werewolf Wedding will be out for sale. And, fingers crossed, I hope to have an audio version released at the same time. It’s a learning process with audio rights and things, but hopefully we will see them both available on the same date.

    Nora’s stories are my first real leap into Urban Fantasy, and for those who have been following along, I’m sure you recognize her name. She’s only been stirring around my creative brain for three years now, after a Twitter conversation gone awry. I started her story as alternate history fantasy, based in a steampunk version of our world but her voice was too sharp and by chapter four of the rough draft I had to change it.

    This was the right call because her story opened up as soon as I made the choice and it’s grown enough in my head to be an entity of its own. In fact, her second book was written in three months flat and her third is being outlined.

    And really, it makes sense since Nora’s character was inspired by Deanna Troi from Star Trek the Next Generation. (More on this in a later post.) Trying to shove Nora into 1820’s Boston stymied my creative Muse, as it were, and I came to a standstill. So, even if I think Nora doesn’t wear enough leather pants to truly qualify for Urban Fantasy, this is where we are.

    I suppose it does have werewolves, and that seems to be on the Urban Fantasy Checklist these days.

    This is vastly different from the recent release – Paw Prints on the Wall – which is still doing fabulous and I keep hearing from readers who enjoyed it. Thank you, forever and always, to everyone who has picked up a copy.

    Nora’s book is a popcorn novel. Which means it’s a lot of fantastic adventure and fun, something you can enjoy while munching on popcorn or nestled in for a rainy weekend. I poke fun at a couple of tropes, lean into some cliches because, I mean, werewolves, guys. All around, Nora’s stories are great fun to write and I am looking forward to digging into the book once more as we prepare for that May 9th release.

    P.S. Totally a placeholder cover. I have another cover in the works. A better cover. The best of all covers.

  • 2022’s Yearly Wrap-Up

    We are coming up on the holidays and I am about to take a step back from Blogging so that I can concentrate on family and reading and winding down, so this will be my last real post of the year. That means I get to talk about all the amazing things I managed to get done this year AND what I hope to accomplish next year.

    This is my happy post because I get to brag a little.

    And I do enjoy making goals for next year, even if I don’t manage to get them all done.

    DRAFTS

    We will start with the number of drafts I got finished in the year because honestly, this is what takes up the most time. I started the year with The World Beside Us, the second of the Nora Grayson novels. The first draft is completed and I managed to run it through the first revision pass, but it still needs another two or three passes before it is up to par and will be ready for publication.

    Then I picked up Melody of Bones again, which I know I promised was a “little darling” that had been slain but let’s face it, an entire book as a “little darling” is hard to accept. It was literal years of my life I was trying to kill off and that didn’t seem at all fair. So I found a serial novel place called Novel Cat where I was able to sign the book and it is presently available in completed form. There are some charges you will have to pay to read the whole thing, if you’re interested, but it is relatively cheap. You can find my dragon Pru and her story HERE if you are interested.

    Then we come to Paw Prints on the Wall, which went through several drafts before it became available for purchase in November. This story is near and dear to my heart and I am so pleased that people have been enjoying it. There are already a couple of reviews out there and I am hopeful that more people can find something that touches their hearts in the story. You can find it HERE if you are interested.

    And to wrap up the year I have written (am nearly finished with) Last Child of Winter, which is a tale about a fairy talent show that I am super excited to see out in the world. It’s got fae folk as refugees on Earth and is a kind of mystery/love story/horror story all bundled into one. I adore it.

    Or at least, I haven’t been working on it so long that I’ve hit the point where I hate it yet. Because that’s part of the writing process too. Don’t worry, by the time the editing process is done I’ll love it again.

    BEYOND WRITING

    Also this year I started podcasting this very blog. Which means you can read it OR you can have me read it to you. It has been interesting learning how to get all this done. I’m still a little wobbly when it comes to vocal editing and annunciating every word the way my high school drama teacher always taught me to do, but I will get there.

    For those curious, this is the first step toward audiobooks. I have had several requests for this, and I have some vocal talent lined up for Tapped and Enemy Souls, but it is a process. With any luck, the first audio version of Tapped will be ready about the same time that the third book in the series – tentatively titled Tango Five – is ready for publication next year.

    Which brings me to NEXT YEAR…

    The first three months of 2023 are going to be dedicated to the completing Last Child of Winter, which is turning out to be bigger than I thought it would be. After this I will turn my focus to producing the audio version of Nora and the Big Werewolf Wedding. I am hoping for this to take no more than 6 weeks out of the year, so by the middle of May I should have something decent to present for Beta-Listeners. And then there will be announcements for a release date of the audio and print versions of the book.

    For my second novel of the year I want to dive back into science fiction and get the next Tapped novel finished. Right now it is tentatively titled Tango Five, but that is likely to change mid-draft.

    Titles are hard, alright?

    I would also like to have edits for The World Beside Us completed, and to have a rough draft of the third novel in her series done.

    I’ve learned that three major projects a year is plenty for me. It is an achievable goal and I do so enjoy achieving goals. But here are some things I would also like to complete, and/or at least begin working on:

    The Little-Big Book of Testimonies – Christian Fiction

    Nora and the Minotaur’s Wife – Short story

    Fantasy Anthology – Possible Christmas 2023 release because I only need a couple more short stories to fill the pages. This is basically because you cannot get Torven in print anymore thanks to new guidelines/rules at Amazon. You can still get that book in digital format on Kindle.

    The Debrief – Prequel Novelette for the Tapped series. This one’s been waiting in the back of my head for several years now and just needs a clear conclusion.

    And that’s it. We will see what 2023 brings because I am old enough to know better than to think it will all go my way.

    Happy Holidays, everyone. I hope you stay warm and safe and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year.

  • Writing Software – A Personal Note from an Author

    The official NaNoWriMo is over, but for many of us the writing continues well into December. While it is amazing to write 50,000 words in 30 days, most novels are more than that, and my current project is no exception. However, Nation Novel Writing Month comes with some awesome winner’s goodies that always make me take a closer look at the software I use for writing.

    Honestly, I love looking at all the new fangled things that software designers have thrown into the market. I enjoy the Free Trials, and only ever play with them for a day or maybe a couple of hours. Maybe it’s because of my age – I am not a young’un anymore – but while these all look pretty, my creative brain always stalls when I try to use them.

    The first stories I ever wrote were done in little journals. And the ones I was particularly proud of got typed up on my mother’s electronic typewriter.

    Or, one, really. I wrote a small adventure story featuring myself and my cousins getting lost in the Alaskan wilderness and I typed that one up. We had just gone on vacation to visit said cousins up in Kenai and my mind was full of the chill, rough terrain and, well, I had to capture it somehow. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places in my life, but none really come close to Alaska.

    But I digress. We’re talking about writing software here, and my general lack of adventure when it comes to switching. I made the switch from Word Perfect to Microsoft Word decades ago and I simply cannot find a system that I like better. Because of space issues and a general desire to stop killing our forests so much, I have switched from a corkboard and 3×5 cards to Scrivener.

    Pest judging my writing

    Because yes, Scrivener has a corkboard function that makes my creative muse happy to look at. I also use Scrivener for character sheets and world building notes. But for the actual writing process, it is Microsoft Word all the way. I can’t write on the Scrivener software because, and I know this sounds silly, I just don’t like the way it looks. Now, I also have a physical notebook beside me while I write that has a rough (single page) outline and some general notes for when I inevitably get stuck and have to review the book.

    And yes, often if a scene is not coming to me, I pull out a pen and paper and handwrite the scene until I have a handle on it. I enjoy the scratch of pen on paper. Character voices are often clearer when I am handwriting too, so that is always nice.

    I did check out some of the new plotting software on the market this year, but alas, these have not lasted the 14-day free trial either. I’m sure they work wonders for other writers, but I am perhaps showing my age in that I know what works for me and I would rather not muck it up. So I will stick with my Microsoft Word program and Scrivener’s corkboard for now. Maybe next year I will find the one that sweeps me off my feet, but I doubt it.

  • Writing in Different Genres

    Since Paw Prints on the Wall has been released and continues to do well – thank you again to everyone who has purchased my novel – it is now my job to pick up the next project and continue working on it.

    Or, well, that’s been my job the whole time. I never really stopped working on it.

    It’s a never-ending juggle of time as an author. Either I’m marketing, writing, worldbuilding, or reading.

    And yes, reading is an integral part of being a writer. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

    But that’s a tangent for another day.

    Today I want to look at how very different (and still the same) the genres are between Pawprints on the Wall and my current work in progress. Because yes, there are different tools I lean on more when I am writing Fantasy as opposed to Contemporary fiction. And honestly, Last Child of Winter is a weird mix of contemporary and fantasy, so I’m getting to use both this time around.

    #1 – Graphic Texture

    For Fantasy, I find that my books are heavy in the visual aspect of Graphic Texture, which I use to describe anything from sights to sounds and smells. This is because I am literally trying to make a whole new setting come alive. Yes, you’ve seen a forest before. But you haven’t seen a forest with an Eldur fortress grown out of the trees themselves. For that, I need to rely on descriptions.

    And honestly, most people who pick up fantasy novels are in it for the world.

    Yeah, they want to see heroes do cool stuff, but they mostly want to be transported to an unfamiliar place.

    Bonus points for authors who can find the happy balance between pacing and description. I often find myself failing in that regard.

    For Contemporary fiction, I still need my setting described, but I loosen the reins a bit. You don’t need to know about the history of the building the characters are sitting in (unless it’s relevant to the plot) and I don’t have to make it believable that they have paper and/or technology because I’m using what’s already in the world. I can say “smartphone” and not “flat, rectangular handheld device with a cracked screen that lit up when she looked at it.”

    #2 – Characters

    One of the tools that remains the same, however, is characterization. We won’t go into the debate on what comes first, plot or character, because honestly, one can’t exist without the other. I’ve mentioned before that I like to think of the first draft of a novel like a character interview. I’m exploring who they are every bit as much as the reader will when they pick up the novel for the first time. The difference is, I get to argue with them.

    For any novel I write, getting to know the quirks of each character is both a struggle and a joy. I’m not sure how other authors do this, but characters come to me whole and I have to pry and nudge and watch them on the page to get to know them. I don’t build a character sheet and fashion the person I want to star in the book because every time I’ve tried, I end up not being able to write the book.

    What I do instead is name three things for each POV character, and then add information I learn along the journey to their notebook page. Because yes, I still write things in notebooks with pen and paper. This trusty story-bible sits beside me until the novel is published.

    What are the three things?

    Glad you asked!

    *What does (name) want most?

    *What does (name) fear most?

    *Who is the most important person to (Name)?

    #3 – Pacing

    This is the most significant difference between a fantasy novel and a contemporary novel. Fantasy novels are given a larger frame to work in. They can be anywhere up to 100,000-120,000 words in length and people will read them because they go into the novel expecting a quest. The worldbuilding alone takes up a great deal of space and the characters on the page are allowed to meander a bit.

    For a contemporary novel, readers expect the pace to be faster. Yes, things foul up the character’s plans and such, but the time to get from beginning to end of a novel is much less. They are between 75,000-85,000 in length, so the frame to write the story in is smaller. So you can’t drag on about every pet the character ever owned from youth to adulthood, you have to pick the relevant ones that both drive home the point of the story and keep the pace moving.

    The rest of the toolbox is still open, of course. I can’t sacrifice setting just because it’s contemporary, and just because I have more space in a fantasy novel to write in doesn’t mean I should use it all. Each story is different and there’s no one-size fits all for how to go about crafting it.

    Trust me.

    I’ve tried concentrating on the 3-Act Structure and all that. It’s important to know how that works, so don’t get me wrong, you should absolutely know these things about writing because it is a part of the writer’s toolbox. But, for me anyway, it is not helpful to look at that stuff until I’m writing the second draft. For the first draft, which is where I’m at with Last Child of Winter, I can only plot things out 2 or 3 chapters in advance, and oftentimes I get it wrong and have to fix it as I go.

    In the end, this is a craft. And it’s art. So I just take a deep breath and try to learn who my characters are and what they have to teach me.

  • Writing in the First Person POV

    There was a time I swore I would never write First Person POV outside of my own journal. To me, the lines between author and character blurred far too much, which is likely because my first attempts at writing were done in this vein. Back in the 6th Grade – yes, that’s when I first started scribbling stories down – it was easy to write that way because I was the hero.

    Peeping out the window during the storm.

    I was the warrior princess scaling the mountainside, intent on visiting the wizard.

    I was the dragon slayer.

    And the character had no true development because my still-developing brain was focused on the adventure and not the true story. Because at the heart of every story is a character who must grow in some way. If that growth does not happen, you have cool set pieces and neat action sequences, but no real story.

    That isn’t to say I haven’t tried first person POV since abandoning it as an endeavor of my youth. Persona’s first drafts were done in the first person. I’m not sure why I changed it, other than I thought a requirement of “real stories” that it be in the third person limited.

    Two decades later and I’m sitting before my computer, writing in first person POV with a character named Nora Grayson who is most assuredly her own person. While I have given her empathy as her superpower because I am a deeply empathetic person, that is really the only thing that I can point to and say for certain it came from me. And she is growing.

    Not only that, but I find her delightful.

    So delightful that I am far and away over my projected word count. I enjoy lingering with her late into the evening, when I should have closed up my laptop and called it a day. The entire world she is seeped into is a place I want to visit, which admittedly isn’t difficult because who doesn’t want to visit the land of Fairy?

    Point of View is just another tool in the writer’s toolbox, and I’m glad to have finally learned this lesson. I cannot imagine Nora’s books without her clear voice on the page, and while there are arguments to be made that adult novels steer away from the first person, what it ultimately comes down to is what story you’re telling. When taken as a whole, this series of books could not be told without Nora as the central “I” shown on the page.

    Happy Writing, everyone.

  • Regrets and Opportunities

    This past week the writing community lost a beloved mentor and author. David Wolverton Farland was introduced to me by my husband while we were dating. It was one of those dating things you do where you trade books to show different tastes and whatnot, and my husband offered up Runelords to me.

    Needless to say, I loved the book. It was creative and interesting and I loved the magic system he built.

    Flash forward several years and I came to a place as an author where I recognized I was missing something in my craft. My husband learned Mr. Farland had a writing class and encouraged me to check it out. I found My Story Doctor and the Apex Writer’s Group and took several of his classes and my writing most certainly improved. While I could never afford the larger packages, he had something affordable for even me.

    My regret is that I was never able to work with him directly.

    Sure, I got to learn from his recorded classes, but I didn’t get the one-one-one that I know several others have benefited from. Even without meeting him, though, he impacted how I approached my writing. And I will be forever grateful for that.

    From the moment I learned of his passing I have struggled with a way to honor him. His family were gracious through their heartbreak, sharing the memorial remotely to those lives Mr. Farland had touched far and wide. It has been humbling to watch just how many people have stepped forward with testimonies of his encouragement and instruction, and I daresay we will never have another teacher like him.

    In my meager attempt to honor him somehow, I picked up one of his books – Million Dollar Outlines.

    I hadn’t gotten to that one in his classes, mostly because I struggle to finish a book if I have completed a full outline up front. Imagine my entertainment when he addresses that very problem in the first pages of the book? And my pleasure that the mini-outline I have come to embrace, where I only outline a couple of chapters ahead while drafting, was one that he himself used.

    While I did not get to meet him personally, he affected my life and my writing and I will be forever grateful. His books are still out there, his instruction recorded, and I suspect he will be impacting lives and careers long into the future.

    Thank you, Mr. Farland.

  • Happy December!

    With NanoWriMo 2021 officially over, I can report that during the last 30 days I not only managed to edit one novel to its completion, but two. And then I started working on a third.

    Because why not?

    The two novels I edited took about a week and a half a piece, with dedicated writing times that ran past dinner and forced me to get creative with feeding the family. (One must never, ever besmirch their slow cooker.)

    This success has led me to prepping for the infamous #PitMad that will happen on December 2nd. I will admit that this is my first real attempt at the Twitter party. I want to say I tried once before with Melody of Bones, but didn’t fully understand the rules. I only pitched it once that day and apparently you’re allowed 3 pitches per book during the allotted timeframe.

    For those who are unaware of #PitMad, you can find all their information here.

    I only recently learned of this neat little Twitter party last year or so, but I’m sure there are more people out there who hermit themselves away as much, if not more, than I do. If you’re one of them, I promise to report my findings for this party and you can decide for yourselves if you want to join in the next one.

    To all who participated in NanoWrimo this year, I salute you. Win or lose, words got on the page. Maybe they’re bad words and you only keep 10% of what you wrote, but the page isn’t empty. Let’s work with that.

    Oh, and just for the fun of it, here are the “placeholder covers” I used during Nano. (Yes, I’m still in a love affair with Canva. Eventually the novelty will fade.)

  • Bring On The New

    As of October 28th, Darkside of Bright has a completed first draft. Calculating how long this took, it was about 4 months of work start to finish, which isn’t bad at all. There are things I am still debating changing but for now, it is going into a virtual corner to sit and simmer while I work on something else.

    And because National Novel Writing Month begins TOMORROW, I will be participating as a Nano-Rebel again. Because my brain needs a break from the act of Drafting.

    So I will be editing my Shelter novel. Which has a new title; For Every Pet, A Home.

    I’m not married to that title.

    For now it will do.

    It is, quite obviously, about an animal shelter. And yes, it draws off personal experience having worked in one, but no it is not a biography. It is also 100% different from anything I have ever written. It’s modern. It deals with right now. It doesn’t have ghosts or magic or any such thing in it.

    Unless you count the magic a dog possesses when they put their chin in your lap.

    It’s about faith and relationships and the lessons we learn by simply caring for a creature that needs our help. My time at the shelter was precious to me and I deeply admire all the people who can work in that field for the long term. It is, quite frankly, the most difficult job I have ever done – and I was in the Army.

    The emotional toll it takes to greet that animal who is being surrendered for the first time, who is scared and lost and doesn’t understand what is happening, still makes my chest squeeze tight sometimes. This is not a job for the faint of heart and I do pray that this book, once it is completed, is a proper salute to animal shelter workers across the globe.

    You’re all heroes to me.

  • Arguments with my Internal Editor

    (A brief peek into this odd-ball brain of mine since the beginning of the current work in progress.)

    Me: Alright! It’s an urban fantasy about a marital counselor to the supernatural. Werewolves, vampires, and all those magical creatures! It’ll be great.

    Internal Editor: You can’t be serious. Urban Fantasy is full of women in tight leather pants running around killing things.

    Me: Well, Nora is a counselor so she won’t wear tight leather pants unless she wants to.

    Internal Editor: You need more romance. Romance sells.

    Me: It’s all about romance! She’s a marital counselor so she’s helping people reconnect.

    Internal Editor: Readers want to see her happy too, not just the people she’s helping.

    Me: I’ve got that covered. Derrick King is the romantic interest for her.

    **Several weeks into the project**

    Me: I should change this to alternate history steampunk.

    Internal Editor: That doesn’t sell.

    Me: I don’t care. I like the premise, I like the 1890’s…

    Internal Editor: They didn’t have marital counseling in the 1890’s.

    Me:….

    Internal Editor: Research if you like. I’m not even sure women could vote back then. The clothes are weird too.

    Me: (after some research) Maybe she’s just an empath and a counselor and the rules for Fairy are vastly different than the mundane?

    Internal Editor: Still doesn’t sell. Even if you manage to make this believable.

    Me: If I cared about what sells better I’d be writing straight romance novels with all the steamy scenes that make standing in the same room as my mother difficult.

    **Makes the change from Urban Fantasy to Steampunk Alternate History**

    The Orange Beast

    Internal Editor: We’re nearly done!

    Me: Maybe I was wrong. I can’t feel this setting. Maybe I forced this steampunk business and broke the whole story.

    Internal Editor: The outline looks fantastic. You can worry about that on the next pass.

    Me: But if I stop and go back, alter it all to be urban fantasy again…

    Internal Editor: Tempting, but you’re so close to the end, you should finish first and then go back.

    Me: And every time I read the blurb it feels like Urban Fantasy.

    Internal Editor: Probably because you wrote the blurb when you still thought it was urban fantasy. Finish the book. Tell the story.

    Me: Steampunk alternate history doesn’t sell. If I want to sell this, I should make it young adult. And I can’t have a marital counselor as the main character in a young adult novel.

    Internal Editor: … Just tell the story you want to tell, the way you want to tell it.

    Me: How would this even be marketed? Did I just waste the last four months of my life on a novel that has nowhere to go?

    Internal Editor: It’s only a waste if you quit.

    Me: I should just tell the story.

    Internal Editor: The way you want to tell it.

    Me: Alright then, 1890’s Boston alternate history steampunk. Adult. Because even when I was a young adult, I absolutely did not understand young adults.

    Internal Editor: Back to work, lady!

    Me: Deep breaths. Just tell the story the way I want to tell it.

  • The Article of Doom


    She’d heard all these things before.
    She knew the chances of landing a traditional publishing deal were astronomical. All the statistics were the same. All the naysaying was the same. And that nagging voice telling her the minimum wage day job was all she would ever know?
    Yes, that too was the same.
    So why was this article different?
    Why did this one make the flickering candle of hope inside her gutter out?
    Certainly she was older now. She had experienced a plethora of rejections, and deep down she knew she was no Hemmingway reincarnated, but she had always accepted it as paying her dues. That some time very soon would be her time to shine.
    After all, there were books out there that made her cringe and she knew she was better.
    She put down her iPhone, desperate to forget the past ten minutes of reading. The irrational side of her considered unfriending the fellow author who had shared so horrible an article, but that would not give her back those last ten
    minutes. It would not light the candle of hope that had carried her through years of writing and re-writing manuscripts.
    And really, she knew it was not her friend’s fault. They were probably feeling the exact same about this dismal accounting of the publishing business.
    Her notes and carefully constructed outline sat on the desk, closed and waiting for her return, but she turned away from them. She ignored the laptop sitting in sleep mode even though the manuscript was in there, its characters begging for more life, more time, for the plot to reveal the entire point of their existence.
    She could not go back to them yet.
    Was there a point in going back to them at all?
    Her dog enjoyed a longer walk than usual, some extra belly rubs. Her cats took turns sitting on top of the closed laptop because that was how they preferred the desk to be. It meant she would stop and give ear rubs as she passed the desk like a good peasant.
    She made an unsavory snack of celery and carrots, because no fiction could melt away the calories she’d eaten at lunch.
    And then her son came home from school.
    “Why does walking down the road give me so many ideas to write?” he exclaimed, all excitement and joy.
    She smiled, heart aching because of statistics she could not dream of sharing with him. His candle still shone so bright!
    “Because you’re a creator,” she told him and kissed his forehead.
    They sat down together and with a sigh, she opened her laptop as together they began to write.