Making New Friends as You Write

One of the aspects of writing I enjoy the most is the discovery of new characters, ones I hadn't planned on or ones that decide to play a much larger part in a story than I had anticipated. I write stories "into the dark." (That's not my term. It belongs to Dean Wesley Smith.) I start with a situation and characters and some vague idea where the tale might end. My best ideas come while I'm putting pen to paper. The vague endpoint becomes a moving target. The story meanders in unexpected directions and usually becomes much longer than anticipated.

In The Great Contagion, my most recent novel, I thought it would be fun to have a pooka who took the form of a stoat. I didn't know what I would do with Slynid, but once he appeared he demanded a starring role. He became a critical player in several chapters. Merliss would not have survived without him. The story would have suffered without him. I can't imagine any new Merliss tales without him. I would detail his feats but I don't want to fill this post with spoilers.

Other characters emerge out of necessity to play a bit part but then they won't leave. Liesael came about because I needed some members of a family with a sick patient that Merliss and the cunning men were visiting. Liesael revealed a love interest in Fendrel, the cunning man's apprentice, and slipped a love charm into his satchel. She later came to stay with Fendrel and nurse the cunning man when he became ill. Liesael doesn't play the prominent role that Slynid does--more of burr in Merliss's fur--but she grew from a mere decoration to a significant player.

Late in the novel, Merliss escapes through the woods, traveling from one scene to another. I thought to add some interest with a chance encounter with another cat. Tawk is the name of a very timid feline who barely escaped his own death. Tawk gave me a chance to depict events in other villages. Merliss finds him annoying and an object of pity. I thought Tawk's first scene would be his last but like Liesael, he refuses to leave the story and tags along to the very end.

Slynid, Liesael, and Tawk will certainly appear in future Merliss tales. I don't know where they came from but I'm very glad they appeared. I know I couldn't have planned them or their exploits ahead of time. Writing is a lot about trusting that the characters you need will appear when you need them. And you have to let them do what they will, even if it throws a wrench in your original plans. The fun part is getting to know your new characters.

Hi, have you met my friend burnout?

It's been a while since I posted on Untethered Realms last. In fact, I think it might have been well over a year. Eek. Sorry guys. 

I would have liked to say my absence was due to my sold-out international book tour, or that signing the books during that tour sprained my typing hand... But no. 

Unfortunately, the reasons for my absence is an old, familiar friend to writers everywhere... burnout. 

It's probably funny to see burnout referred to as a friend, but I did conclude that, while burnout is a thorny fellow, he actually is kinda good to have around. Why? He has a way of making us step back and reassess. 

On my side, I'm pretty much consistently go go go, even in the worst of circumstances (of which last year was basically one crap situation extended over about 200 days), but being this way comes at a high cost to my physical and mental health. 

By the end of those 200 or so days, my buddy burnout came over, seemingly to stay. I pushed on regardless because I had to, straight through Christmas. And by the third week of January, I was physically ill. 

At which point burnout grabbed me by the neck, made me look it square in the eyes, and told me, "You can't go on like this, Misha. Seriously come on." 

So to a large extent, being sickly plus burned out was the impetus I needed to take a harsh look at myself and... well... get a grip on some really bad habits I have. 

At the same time, I'm also having to look at every aspect of my life and how I'm spending my time, because I simply can't keep going on the way I did and expect for my exhaustion to go away. So at least for now, I've cut way back on everything I possibly can, in the hopes that I can open up my days and start fitting things in, somehow in a way that makes better sense. 

And none of these things would have happened if I hadn't burned out, even if it was seriously damaging to my health. 

So yeah. Not necessarily a bad guy, burnout. 

Do you burn out sometimes? Have you burned out recently? Did burning out make you reconsider your habits and lifestyle? 

Thinking Ahead to Summer - writing & bookish plans?

I teach college lit and creative writing part time in the fall and spring so I always look forward to summer in order to get lots of writing done. Also, I attend a weeklong writing retreat in Cape Cod then. We write all day (after an hour gabbing over coffee). Often I start a novel at the retreat.

One of my Cape retreat "writing stations"

I'm already mulling over what I should concentrate on. This spring I finally completed a draft of a romantic suspense novel and Maizy of Bellagio, a story for the forthcoming UR Spirits in the Air anthology. So it's not as if I slack off between the days of teaching. LOL.

I am trying to decide between starting a new witch book, which would be a companion novel to Witch of the Cards, or another one in the new suspense series. Which should I pick? How do you decide when you have more than one book in mind?  Do you choose the one you think will sell the best? Or the one you have plotted out most? Or the one that is closest to your heart? Help!

For my summer reading, I'll be delving into the Blue Fairy Book, Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass to name a few, because in the spring of 2018 I will be teaching a brand new college lit course simply called Fantasy. Woo hoo!

On another note, I finally redesigned my website, which has an entire shiny new page devoted to the UR Elements anthologies. Check out my main page, and then click into Anthologies Page to see what you think about the front page and the Elements page!

What are your summer writing and reading plans?

Who You Gonna Call? Not Ghostbusters!

Ghosts of Fire

An elements of Untethered Realms anthology

Coming in October

A writer’s mind is an interesting thing. It starts with the question, What If? And goes from there.

For the upcoming Untethered Realms short story anthology, Ghosts of Fire, my story was born in much this way…

Who’s in charge of monitoring threats to your country? In the United States we have homeland security and in the United Kingdom MI5 is in charge of domestic security. Both countries are well versed in threats to their respective countries, who’s behind them, and how to protect against them.

But what if there were threats most people didn’t know about or even believe in?

As in the supernatural kind?

Who you gonna call?

Not Ghostbusters, that’s for sure! Not for serious threats to your country.

The general public doesn’t know about these threats and it’s best to keep it that way. No reason to cause mass panic. Chaos would reign. Just take care of the problem.

That’s where Secret Branch comes in. Its existence is known only to the Prime Minister and a few of his cabinet members. And what of the special agents who work for Special Branch? They have special gifts, of course; the ability to see supernatural beings and the skills to rid England of any threats coming from them.

In Mind the Gap, one such special agent wants to gain favor with a particularly attractive detective he knows, so he sets out to find the art thief she’s after using good old fashioned investigative skills.

But when you’re a “special” agent, the supernatural are always going to have other ideas.

And this is how my story was born...

Who would you call?