Category: fantasy

• May 14, 2024

  May 30: Book two’s release, Joan of Arc, and Kora!

  I originally wanted to release The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope on May 30 of last year. This was because, first of all, it’s the anniversary of my conversion experience (which took place utterly unexpectedly in 2014). May 30 also happens to be feast of St. Joan of Arc. She is the patron of…
• May 13, 2024

  Eucatastrophe: the literary device I picked up from Tolkien

  Tolkien is the GOAT of fantasy. His works are complex, deep, powerful in ways I can only dream of imitating. He was a genius in multiple areas, I’d say. Now that it’s clear that I don’t mean to compare myself to Tolkien here (lol), I’m super grateful for Tolkien, not only for how his works…
• May 9, 2024

  Thankful Thursday: Thankful to be so close to book launch! Here is all the info you’ll need for it

  We’re in the “Magic Council” month of May, and I couldn’t be more excited. Book launches are a torrent of emotional ups and downs, jubilation and anxiety. But they are such milestones and achievements. I cannot wait to share this book, and Vane and August’s story, with the world. A couple of things to note,…
• May 5, 2024

  My characters are like old friends at this point.

  One could argue I should not have waited 12 years to get an editor, buckle down, and put out second, definitive editions of my Herezoth trilogy. But (including some time away from my fiction to focus on more important things) I have spent twelve years in Herezoth, with the Crimson League, and their families, and…
• April 29, 2024

  Character Spotlight: August Hincken

  August is one my favorite characters that I’ve written about. She comes so far and she grows and learns so much over the course of The Magic Council: The Fight for Home. I love August on her own, for her own sake. And I love her with Vane. She doubts herself a lot. She tends…
• April 28, 2024

  I’m glad I watched the “Lord the Rings” movies before I read the books

  I started college in 2003–right before Peter Jackson’s “The Return of the King” came out in theaters. That year, my college friends introduced me to Middle Earth via the first two films before the last one came out. I don’t know how I had never given Tolkien any attention in high school. I should have.…
• April 27, 2024

  How I craft my characters

  I admit that the title of this post is a bit like clickbait, because the answer is: I don’t feel like I “craft” my characters at all. For the most part, they just come to me as who they are–what they look like, their backgrounds, their way of talking, their temperaments and personalities. All of…
• April 25, 2024

  Thankful Thursday: Author Life Goal MET! Y’all, I want to cry right now (as I write this days in advance of publication)!

  

  Let me set the scene . . . I was out of high school, waiting to start my freshman year of college, reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” for the first time. There’s a scene where a bunch of characters come to take Harry away from the Dursley’s. (Spoiler ahead if you…
• April 20, 2024

  Character Spotlight: Queen Gracia

  Gracia Phinnean has become one of my favorite, and I think one of the most complex, characters in my trilogy. To the extent that I added content to books two and three for the upcoming second editions, the content I added pertains to her subplots. Drafting a prequel while working on the second editions really…
• April 18, 2024

  Thankful Thursday: Thankful for my audiobook narrator

  Today, I am so excited to say that an audiobook version of “The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope” is currently in production. I had some eleven narrators audition to do the book, and I am so excited to have landed on the narrator I selected. She is wonderful. She’s so nice to deal with…