If you haven't heard of it, check out the A to Z blog and join in the fun.
Here
at Untethered Realms, we're taking on the Challenge as a group. Each
day, one of us will be sharing with you a fantastical creature that may
be from one of our books, a favorite movie, or something we just came up
with as entertainment.
Today we have...
D is for Dreean
A central character in my Jewels of Chandra series is from a humanoid species known as the
Dreean. His name is Rhone and he's introduced in the first book, Diamonds and Dust. Rhone is 5'5",
an average height for a Dreean male and quite stout. He has a barrel chest and
large biceps. His distinguishing characteristic is a nose like a pig's snout,
which causes my human hero, David, to unfairly judge him as unintelligent when
they first meet. In point of fact, the Dreean are highly intelligent and very
loyal, often employed as bodyguards. Rhone appoints himself as David's
protector, feeling the man without magic needs some extra help. The Dreean
manifest their magic in their aim; any weapon they throw will hit its mark.
*There should be a photo right here but Dreeans are notorious for not wanting their picture taken...not to mention they don't live on Earth. Sorry but you'll have to use your imagination. Think of a hairy caveman with a pig's snout and an impressive double row of sharp teeth.*
Would you be able to carry on a sensible conversation if you had to watch someone's snout bouncing around and wiggling while you talked?
Here at Untethered Realms, we're taking on the Challenge as a group. Each day, one of us will be sharing with you a fantastical creature that may be from one of our books, a favorite movie, or something we just came up with as entertainment.
Today is...
C is for Cat Sith
I love cats so when I learned about the Cat Sith I couldn't resist sharing it here in our A to Z of magical creatures. My cat Nate insisted!
The Cat Sith comes from Celtic mythology and is a black cat with a white spot on its chest. It is said to be as big as a dog and is usually found with its tail erect and its back arched, apparently the favorite threatening posture of cats both domestic and mythological.
According to legend, the Cat Sith haunts the Scottish Highlands and is a witch that can transform into a cat eight times. If the witch transforms into the cat form for a ninth time, she remains a cat for the rest of her life. This is thought to be the origin of the idea that cats have nine lives.
The Scots believed that the Cat Sith could steal the soul from a corpse before the soul could be claimed by the gods. Mourners held 24 hour watches called "late wakes" to keep the Cat Sith away from a corpse before it was buried.
Now that I've learned about the Cat Sith I feel compelled to use it in a future book. Nate will be happy. :D
The A to Z Blogging Challenge is underway! Woot!
If you haven't heard of it, check out the A to Z blog and join in the fun.
Here at Untethered Realms, we're taking on the Challenge as a group. Each day, one of us will be sharing with you a fantastical creature that may be from one of our books, a favorite movie, or something we just came up with as entertainment.
Today is...
B IS FOR BANSHEE
Wait. That isn't what you expected a banshee to look like?
Typically, a banshee is seen as an ugly old hag with long white hair and a white or gray cloak. She might either be one of the Sidhe (a fairy) or the spirit of a woman who died in a violent manner. She's an omen of death and wails nearby when someone is about to die.
There are also tales of banshees seen as animals and young women. In my book, THE ORACLE & THE VAMPIRE (Vol. 5 of The 13th Floor series), I put a twist on the old legend. A kind witch named Harriet has been cursed by a fairy. While she can live her life as a lovely young woman by day, at night, she transforms into a hideous hag and experiences visions of death. She's compelled to go to where the person's house is and scream with grief. Poor Harriet is in love with one of her neighbors and experiences a powerful vision of his death. She wants to save him, but no one believes a raving crone. Can she find a way to change her vision and save him from the horrible death fate has in store?
Here
at Untethered Realms, we're taking on the Challenge as a group. Each
day, one of us will be sharing with you a fantastical creature that may
be from one of our books, a favorite movie, or something we just came up
with as entertainment.
Today we have...
And you know what A stands for? That's right, Aliens!! I mean who hasn't seen the movie Alien or E.T. or heck even Star Wars? All classics, but what does alien mean to you? Is it a little green martian? Something horrible and terrifying like the beastly one in Alien? I honestly believe in aliens. Intelligent life forms are out there. They have to be. This universe is way too big to have just us humans as its only intelligent life forms. Have you ever watched the show Ancient Aliens? If you haven't check it out. Some of the stuff they come up with is a little far fetched, but other stuff seems right on.
We've been visited and I think we'll be visited again. What do you think? Do you believe?
Marvin the Martian was my first, and I confess to being scared of him. Granted, I also believed mailboxes came alive after sundown and ate small children.
I grew up during the astronaut age, so the idea of aliens didn't seem very foreign to me. They seemed inevitable.
These days I make up my own. Coming up with something unique can be a tough task. I often use artto come up with ideas. Pinterest has been a huge help with that.
I invented Ims recently, which live in close to absolute zero temps. I did a really bad drawing of one. I think I'd run if I encountered this. lol
They control the ice, which allows the people on that planet to survive. I had that idea from watching ice creep along in this video:
That was really weird looking and alien. I like weird.
What attributes do you like in your alien?
By the way, Worlds on Edge, Book 5 in the Backworlds series is now out, and it has the ice aliens in it.
Here's an excerpt from Captain Talos's encounter with them:
Chapter 18
◙ Talos
As if an engine
hit him in the head, Talos teetered. The pain drove in so instant, building to
his unquestionable annihilation. Today he would die. Speckles danced in his
eyes like sunspots. They flared and dimmed until they consumed him.
He forgot about
cold and death, forgot about Quasser and Pardeep Station. The Ims had brought
him into their world, the air ripe with energy. It popped in his blood vessels,
tingling. He dared to take a breath.
The flares of
light coalesced into colors, coordinating, bellowing in a low hymn. Together
the brilliant confetti and song formed thoughts that hit like bolts against his
temples.
Touch. Touch. Met.
Time went
backwards. Talos and Lepsi ran to the spaceport on Elstwhere, laughing. The
hideous ship was theirs. It resembled two beetles back to back with six worms
squiggling out from the center. Talos had never seen anything more beautiful. Soon
the Backworlds and all the things he dreamed about would be navigated on his whim.
Too far. Come forward.
Quasser loomed
above Talos, roaring, raining fire on Ronu, on Pardeep Station, and worlds
Talos had never seen. A gal very much like Rainly and Prezsha sat on top of the
cloud-like vessel holding a finger to her lips.
Secrets.
What did she
know? Who was she? Talos reached for her hand and tumbled into a lake of ice.
The cold fell heavily into his lungs. He clawed at the depths, unable to gain
hold. He sank farther.
The Ims stood
beside beings resembling sticks. They stood beside proud folks with squid limbs
and fish eyes and some with tentacles for hair. Farther in the icy depths an
alien with three necks wailed to the heavens, clutching onto a being made from
spheres and squares that bunched together and spread apart in a steady rhythm.
Whispers surrounded them and fire. They disappeared into the Ims.
We join.
One Im merged into Talos, blazing his veins into a
brilliant blue. Talos shivered.
Worlds on Edge
War is coming. A horde of merciless aliens poise just beyond the Edge. In a matter of weeks they will devour the worlds.
Racing ahead of the apocalypse, Craze
returns to the Backworlds to warn them and plan a defense. Only he can’t
go home. Banned from Pardeep Station, he must wage a more urgent
battle. His moon is under siege, and his friends are dying.
Bad things come in threes, and the
galaxy is no exception. An old enemy returns, attacking moons and
defenseless globes, leaving a wake of destruction. Worse than that, they
threaten to join forces with the alien horde.
Defeat seems inevitable. Craze may not be able to stop it. Yet home is worth the fight.
Today is the day for The Great & Powerful A to Z Theme Reveal blogfest, brought to life by the wonderful women who make up Team Damyanti in this year's A to Z Challenge. That means it's time to share our theme for this April and then hop around and find out what the other participants will be blogging furiously about next month. To see all of today's participants, visit the Linky List here.
Here at Untetethered Realms we love "worlds, wings, and spec fic things," so in the spirit of our tagline we will be presenting an A to Z of fantastical creatures throughout April. Whether mythological, legendary, or just plain normal run of the mill creatures, we will have them here next month.
Some of our creatures will be favorites from our own books while others may be creatures we hope to write about in the future.
Please come visit us for a daily display of demons and beasts and monsters of all kinds. See you then!
Sometimes, balancing writing and life is like a tightrope. And I had a really bad wobble for the past two or three weeks.
See... life can suppress my ability to write. Stress, worries, focusing on something that has to be done means that I can't concentrate on writing, editing etc.
On the other hand, having a really big productive streak can mean that I have troubles with getting anything else done. To me, it's so difficult to have to do something else when I really just want to get another few thousand words written.
At the moment, the wobble took the form of life. Things like getting the farm me and my family moved to into a solvent position. Or dealing with my publishing house. And being sick. None of those seem too overly big, but if they all happen together, they sufficiently drain my energy and concentration that I end up unable to actually get some writing done.
Why am I telling you this? Well, it's what's on my mind at the moment. Trying to get writing done while living a good life. I'm trying to remember that these wobbles are only wobbles. That as long as I keep walking that line, I'll get where I want to be.
But man, when I'm wobbling and everything feels like I'm about to hit the ground, being a writer becomes a lot less fun.
Anyone else feel like that sometimes? It doesn't have to be writing related.
