Hey all!

It’s been awhile… but I have something super special for you today. Recently, I read a fun sci-fi novel called Paradise 21, written by no stranger to the bloggy univese, Aubrie Dionne. If you’re a frequent reader of epub fantasy, sci-fi, or magical realism, you’ve probably come across her name more than once. At the end of this post, I’ll tell you a little more about her newest release with Entangled Publishing, and where you can go to get a copy!

She was generous enough to grant me a little interview on her blog tour, so without further ado, let’s get to it!

Thanks for stopping by today, Aubrie! Your previous books & short stories have been primarily fantasy-based tales (Nebula’s Music aside…). What made you decide to venture into the realm of novel-length science-fiction? 

This is a great question!

I love science fiction as well! I grew up watching Star Wars and Star Trek, and that’s also a big part of my childhood. To ignore it would be like ignoring an essential part of myself! Fantasy was the easier path for me at first, but as my writing grew, I tried my hand at sci fi romance!

I’m glad you did! We need more female authors representing in the genre, which is a bit of a peculiarity since science-fiction is well-known for its portrayal of strong, capable female characters–particularly when compared to women in fantasy books and films. Did you have this in mind when creating your main character Aries, or was she a natural development of the storytelling?

I always have strong female characters in my writing! I have no idea why. They just jump off the page at me. Being a girly girl who liked My Little Ponies, pink dresses, and Rainbow Brite, I’m not good at writing tough as nails men characters. I always have to work on beefing up my men characters in every manuscript. Maybe that’s why?

Ahh, My Little Ponies… I think I still have a few of those around somewhere. *Ahem* Somewhere. Er, moving on… give us a little insight into the inspiration for your desert planet! And by extension, would you rather be stranded on Sahara 354 or an ice planet like Hoth from Star Wars?

Well, funny you should say that, because the second book in the series is an ice planet like Hoth! Living in NH, I feel like I already live on Hoth, so a desert planet would be much nicer for me.

My desert planet was definitely inspired by Tatooine in Star Wars. I watched Episodes IV, V, and VI so many times that I think I absorbed Star Wars into my DNA! Since Star Wars, there have been many more cool sci fi desert planets: Pitch Black, Stargate, and Mad Max (but I think that’s just as old as Star Wars, right?).

Okay, if Aries has to crawl inside a Tauntaun-like creature for warmth… I’m going to have a serious nerdgirl freakout. In a good way!

As for the publishing side of things… inquiring minds want to know what it’s been like working with Entangled Publishing!

Entangled is fantastic. The editing has really pushed me to a higher level. Never have I edited so much at such a deeper level. And I love having a publicist. I feel as though I’m not alone. I need to thank my agent, Dawn Dowdle for introducing me to Entangled in the first place. Thank you, Dawn!

That’s definitely great to hear, and very encouraging. But let’s get to the serious question: Writing beverage of choice?

Coffee! Lots of it!

And finally, what are you reading right now?

I just finished a sci fi book called The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen. Very good!

Thanks for having me here today, Faith!

So, now that you know a little more about Aubrie… here’s some more about her book!

Paradise 21: Book 1 of A New Dawn
by Aubrie Dionne
Sci-Fi Romance
Release Date: August 2011

Watch the Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8vCni_TZUA

Synopsis:

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew—a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage.

But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates—humans who escaped Earth before its demise—are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.

My Thoughts:

I’ll make this quick, since this is a fairly long post to begin with… but if you’re looking for some exciting, action-packed sci-fi, combined with sweet romance and intriguing characters… this is your book! I’ll admit, it took me about 30 pages to get into the story, but once I kept reading, I realized I really wanted to know what happened to these characters, and why Aries was willing to go to such lengths to avoid this arranged marriage.

To that end, I read it in one sitting. I’m also very interested to see where the next book takes us… whether it’s with these characters or others, I know it’ll be on my reading list.

About the Author

Aubrie is an author and flutist in New England. Her stories have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, A Fly in Amber, and several print anthologies including Skulls and Crossbones by Minddancer Press, Rise of the Necromancers, by Pill Hill Press, Nightbird Singing in the Dead of Night by Nightbird Publishing, Dragontales and Mertales by Wyvern Publications, A Yuletide Wish by Nightwolf Publications, and Aurora Rising by Aurora Wolf Publications. Her epic fantasy is published with Wyvern Publications, and several of her ebooks are published with Lyrical Press and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. When she’s not writing, she plays in orchestras and teaches flute at Plymouth State University and a community music school.

http://www.authoraubrie.com
http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com

Anyone else happen to catch this post by J.A. Konrath last week?

Are You Writing?

…ouch.

I’m not telling you to stop blogging, or Tweeting, or reading posts from other people… but he makes an excellent point. When our social media time & learning efforts outweigh our actual writing time, what are we actually gaining?

Time spent on those things is time not spent writing.

We won’t get anywhere if we’re not gluing our hands to the keyboard and writing.

We are all going to fail if we continue to not write.

I don’t know about you, but that post was a pretty darn effective guilt trip… and I’ve been on a blog break! I’m going have to actively make sure I don’t allow blogging and social media to fill up all my time now that I’m back “on the scene”. (LOL)

How much online time is too much for you? Are you writing?

Last weekend, El Husbando and I attended a sci-fi convention in Toronto. We’re not huge fans of the convention itself, but one of the guests of honor was author Brandon Sanderson—no way we were going to miss that! Sanderson is best known for finishing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, but we’ve been huge fans since Elantris, so… uh, yeah. A little fangirl/fanboy *squeeing* from both of us.

The convention offered a number of panels on writing speculative fiction, which Sanderson helped to lead. One of the things he said on a panel about writing endings is that the end of your book should be “surprising, yet inevitable.”

I think this particular phrase can also be found on his Writing Excuses podcast, so I don’t know if he necessarily coined the phrase, but it stuck with me… it really, really makes sense!

When you’re writing the ending of your story, the last thing you want is a predictable ending. You don’t want your reader to come to the CLIMAX OF EVERYTHING and then say “oh, I saw that coming a hundred pages ago.”

Instead, you want the reader to realize what’s happening just as the characters realize what’s happening, turn that last page and then think: “Wow, I didn’t expect that… but of COURSE it had to happen that way!”

The ending then informs the rest of what came before it, and the reader realizes that it really couldn’t have happened any other way.

The best example I can think of for this is from one of Sanderson’s own works, the Mistborn series. The end of that trilogy is shocking, unexpected, and yet… all things considered… absolutely, 100% the ONLY way it could have ended.

Now, how you craft those endings is another matter entirely… but the more you write, the more natural this kind of ending will be.

How about you… do you write endings that are “surprising, yet inevitable?”

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Canada Day/4th of July/other kind of weekend fun if you don’t live in North America.

I’m still here, plugging away at the rewrites, naturally not as far along as I’d like but further than I’ve managed to get in years.

I’ve rewritten about 25% of the novel… which means I have 75% to go. Hmm… it sounds a lot more impressive if I just focus on that first number. Heh.

I’m coming close to the areas of the book where I’d skipped writing scenes the first time around, and I’ll have to find my notes to figure out what I intended to put there. Does anyone else do this? Skip scenes, write notes in random places, then get intimidated by filling them in during the rewrite? o_O

Anywho, if you’re here reading this, leave me a quick note to tell me what you’re working on!!! I feel a little disconnected being on this bloggy break, but I promise to give you a visit in return.

Hope you’re enjoying the sunshine! Grab a book, head outside, get some of that good ol’ Vitamin D in your system.

So… I’m still alive… the May blogging break just somehow morphed into June, and now we’re almost halfway through the month without any new posts from me. Sorry!

Not intentional. Rather, I started heavily rewriting my YA Paranormal novel from NaNoWriMo 2009, with the goal of having it completely rewritten and off to betas by the end of August. I’d like to be querying sometime in September.

I don’t know how realistic that is, but it feels good to be making solid progress again. I’m finding that I actually believe in this story again, and I can see the way around some of the roadblocks I hit back in 2009 while writing it.

This comes with a shift in focus and a real, solid attempt to get me on a regular schedule. I have a new laptop on the way, some new tools to make it easier to write around the house, and the realistic threat of finding a “real” job if I don’t start accomplishing more than what I have been.

I love writing short stories, but being a short story writer ISN’T my goal. I love writing novels, and I want to be a novelist… so as sad as I am that I have to put short story writing to the side for awhile, I’m glad to be making headway with what’s most important to me.

Hopefully I’ll get a few more posts up this month explaining some fun things like the business side of writing (which I recently took a webinar on), marketing yourself as a freelancer, and editing through a world of distractions.

So I’m still here… just working on other things. I’ve noticed a lot of people in the writing/blog sphere are taking things easy or taking time off from blogging this summer, so I guess I’m in good company.

See you around.

…and we’ve come to the end of the challenge!!! One full month of blog posts, six days a week. (And if you’ve been paying attention, I’m still missing the post for ‘D’… ah well, one of these days I’ll finish it and it’ll show up in your RSS reader and you’ll be really confused.)

So what are we all doing to celebrate?

In the Arabic world, celebrations are loud, noisy, and joyful—and commonly full of women creating a particular sound called a zaghareet (also known as a ululation).

To create this noise, you start by saying “la la la”. (Try it!)

…good! And a little boring, right?.

So now, do the same thing, but make the sound a little bit higher pitched and a little bit louder, like you’re a kid trying to ignore her parents. I’ll wait. Promise!

…all right… better…

But now make it even louder, and as high pitched as possible, but cover your mouth first… you don’t want to spit on anyone!!!

…did you do it? And did you realize it sounded a little bit like Xena’s battle cry? The producers of the show took the zaghareet of celebration and used it for something completely different, but it’s basically the same sound.

If you’re still not sure what it’s supposed to sound like, here’s a quick little video of a dance class attempting it (they’ve almost got it! just a little higher pitched and they’ll have it!):

So, did you make it through the challenge? Or have anything else to celebrate?

Shock and surprise your friends and family, and join in women around the world in making this (unique and LOUD) sound of celebration!!!

Be honest… did you try it?

Writing isn’t a very good profession to get into if you’re looking for affirmation of any kind.

Honestly.

You can’t do this so that you’ll feel valued, or to get revenge on the people who told you that you’d never succeed, or to show up old bullies, or to get acceptance from your parents/teachers/friends, or to find fame and fortune.

But that’s okay.

Writers simply need to find value elsewhere.

• …in the creative comments of others.
• …in the appreciation of your critique partner(s), who values your writing enough to spend time on it and help you improve.
• …in the personal satisfaction gained from a job well done.

We might not get valued the way others do in their professions, but that’s not a bad thing! I think it forces us to seek outside the traditional indicators of ‘success’, and encourages us to place a higher value on the things that really matter in the long run:

• friendship/relationships
• personal growth
• self-esteem
• hard work & improved work ethic

Where do you find value in your writing life?  Do you want to feel valued by others, or are you learning to be content with knowing you’re doing your best?

Writing isn’t always fun. None of us will say that. But the difference between those who succeed and those who are left behind is that the people who succeed are the ones who never give up.

Whether it’s:

• physical injury
• mental illness
• family issues
• personal tragedy
• world events
• discouraging voices
• mountains of rejections

…the writers who make it through to become authors are the ones who don’t let these things slow them down.

But it’s not easy, and it’s never that simple. One thing that I think makes an enormous difference in whether someone gives up on their dream or not? Having a large support network.

Much like writing bloggers. Doing challenges. Commenting and encouraging each other, even through (especially through) the rough patches.

When was the last time you left an encouraging word for someone ?

You never know when they might need it most.

Do you have nightmares?

Ever tried to mine one for a story?

I have them nightly, and I often remember them for several hours after I wake up, though some stay with me for days (or months, or years).

The majority of my nightmares center around death or some kind of escape. It’s typical to have nightmares centered around my parrot—either him dying, or escaping, or getting lost, or some other horrible thing.

Last week, I had a nightmare that seemed inspired by the most recent Prince of Persia game (which I haven’t played since last year), but went even beyond that, and not in a good way.

The first half of the dream is lost, I don’t remember it… but at some point in the dream, I did something to help someone—opened a box or something—and accidently unleashed an enormous, fire-covered demon.

Yeah, I’m not kidding.

In my dream/nightmare, the demon’s voice rumbled, threatening me with death and eternal torture, and I ran through corridors and hallways covered in pillars trying to escape. I could feel him getting closer and closer, but I didn’t want to look behind me. 

At one point, I came to a covered balcony (with more pillars around), and looked down. Two stories (or more) down below was a pool with water lilies, and my dream-self had this logic: If I dive into the pool and drown myself, I’ll be able to escape the fire demon and I’ll be free! But I won’t be dead, because surely the people in the pool will see that I’ve drowned and they’ll be able to revive me in time.”

Yep, my dream self was about to commit suicide with the intention of being revived by strangers. And I dove into that pool, lay face down in the water, and… heard the terrifying voice of the fire demon:

“You’ll never escape that way. I know what you’re doing, and go ahead! I’ll torture you forever in HELL.”

Soooo… I got out of the pool, and the rest of the dream/nightmare did that flash-forward quickly thing, where everything changes so fast that it’s hard to remember what happened once you wake up. I remember running as fast as I could, wherever I could, all around the world to try to escape.

I’d stop in doorways to try and catch my breath, but just when I thought I’d have a moment of rest, the growling and thudding of the demon would be right behind, and I’d have to run again.

Somewhere amidst the running, I woke up.

I’ll be honest—I was surprised after waking up  that I didn’t actually die in the dream, as it’s not unusual for that to happen. But the visual imagery of this one was so powerful that it stuck with me a week later.

Now I’m wondering whether I can harness that sense of primal fear and terror that I had in the dream, and use it in a story.

Have you ever done this? What was your most recent, terrifying nightmare?