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Author Interview: Elaine Bassier, YA Fantasy

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Hey all! Recently I was lucky enough to do an interview with my cousin Elaine Bassier, who happens to be a crazy-talented YA Fantasy author. We talked about everything from resources for self-published authors to unicorn mating habits! For loads of writing tips, helpful websites, answers to burning fan questions, and some very tantalizing hints about the two remaining books in her trilogy, please keep reading!

 

ATHF: Hi, Elaine! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview! Before we get started, please tell everyone a little bit about yourself and your books!

Elaine Bassier: I’m the youngest of five siblings. I was born and raised in Elko, Nevada, and I’m going to go ahead and answer the two most frequent follow-up questions I get when people hear that. 1) No, it’s not near Las Vegas (Elko is in the northeastern part of the state) and 2) Yes, it does snow there. I now live in Spokane, Washington. 1) No, it’s not near Seattle (it’s in the eastern part of the state) and 2) No, it’s not always rainy here.

I’m left-handed (and, fun fact, so is Arianna!). I’m an introvert. I love animals. I have a Golden Retriever named Ruby. I’ve never owned a horse, but I took riding lessons on and off growing up and it’s a dream of mine to one day have a few.

I like to write Young Adult fantasy. My debut novel, Knight’s Duty, is the first book in the Unicorn Knight trilogy. It tells the story of a young woman named Arianna, who longs to be a Unicorn Knight. When she comes across a unicorn who lost her knight and learns she has strange magical powers, Arianna and the unicorn agree to partner together. Under the tutelage of her knight-master Flynn, Arianna’s training as a warrior and magic user begin.

ATHF: I read on Goodreads that you started writing The Unicorn Knight trilogy when you were just 12 years old! That’s so amazing, that the story has been with you since childhood. Are there any details that have remained the same from first concept all the way through to the finished product?

EB: This is a great question! I sadly lost the very first draft of the story when our family computer crashed, so I don’t remember a lot of details about it. I so wish I could look at it again! It’s changed quite a bit since I first started.

The one thing that has remained more or less constant since the beginning, though, is the characters. Arianna has always been the protagonist and she’s always looked the same. She’s always been partnered with a unicorn (though initially it was a male unicorn that became Ronan in later drafts instead of the female Serissa). Most of the other characters have kept their names and personalities, too.

ATHF: Is there anything that totally changed from the way you originally imagined it?

EB: The biggest change I remember from the first draft to the published edition is that Arianna was originally a princess trying to reclaim her throne. Obviously, the plot has changed a ton since that initial idea.

The magic system changed pretty drastically from draft to draft as well. It started with humans having the “traditional” fantasy magic. Then it slowly evolved into the concept of the Magickers, where only magical creatures and a few humans have special powers.

ATHF: I really love how you handled the world-building in Knight’s Duty. You wove the details of setting and culture seamlessly throughout the story, rather than telling it all in a big info dump. Do you have any world-building advice for aspiring fantasy authors?

EB: Thank you so much! That’s so kind of you to say. World-building can be a challenge, especially in fantasy books, because most of the time you are literally creating the entire universe your characters inhabit.

I’m lucky because I love learning about mythology and studying other religions, especially ones with a pantheon of gods. One thing I’d recommend to other writers is to really think about the organization of the world. What form of government does the country have? What is the most popular religion?

My world and the country of Failyn really came together once I developed the idea of the Magickers. Each country has more of one [type of] Magicker than the rest, which then influences a lot of the culture of the area.

Figuring out all of this stuff means you’ll know a lot of details that may or may not end up in your books, but that’s okay. The more you know about your world, the more realistic it becomes in your own mind. That familiarity will come across in your writing, even if you’re not sharing specific details.

ATHF: That is great advice! Do you have any tips for writers in general, regardless of what genre they’re working in?

EB: There’s the obvious one (and one I need to follow myself at the moment!): Write! Whatever you’re writing, just keep going!

I also really like the advice from an author I’ll paraphrase here: Write what YOU want to write. For a very long time, you’re going to be the only one reading your work, so make sure you love it. And don’t think your story is too niche – someone out there, probably several someones, is waiting to discover a book just like yours.

ATHF: In the acknowledgements of Knight’s Duty, you mentioned your friends on Wattpad. For those who don’t know, can you tell us about Wattpad? What exactly is it, and how did it impact your journey to publication?

EB: Wattpad is a website where people can post any kind of writing for other people to view for free. Fanfiction is very popular there, but there is also original fiction and even non-fiction and poetry. The quality of the writing and the grammar can vary wildly, but everyone can find something they like.

With that being said, Wattpad is very popular among teens, which is why I chose to first post Knight’s Duty on it. I wanted to build an audience with people in my target demographic.

One particularly awesome feature on Wattpad is the ability to interact with your readers. People can comment on a single line from the text and you can reply. I loved reading people’s reactions to exciting moments in the book and having discussions with them about where they think the story is going.

I will admit that I think Wattpad works better for people who write fanfiction, or post earlier drafts and even things they don’t ever plan on publishing. However, I’ve made a few good friends there who were the first fans of my work outside of my family and that means a lot to me.

ATHF: I think your book cover is beautiful! The silver and blue tones make me think of the unicorns’ coats. Please tell us a little bit about your cover. Who is the artist and how did you find her/him? Did you already have an image in mind for your cover before approaching the artist? What did it feel like, seeing your finished cover for the first time?

EB: Thank you so much! I love all three of the covers I have for the Unicorn Knight trilogy, but the first is my favorite. My cover artist is R.L. Sather, and I found her on an awesome website called SelfPubBookCovers.com. It has hundreds of covers, each one is unique, and once you buy one, the website won’t sell it to anyone else. It also lets you customize the font and title.

I wasn’t really sure what I wanted the cover to look like when I first started trying to find one. I looked at similar book covers to get an idea of what’s popular in the genre. I highly recommend other authors do the same, by the way: we might say not to judge a book by its cover, but the biggest deciding factor in whether someone will consider reading your book or not is the cover. You want to make sure you’re attracting the right readers.

Looking through the options on SelfPubBookCovers.com, I found what would eventually become the covers for Book 2 and Book 3. However, I couldn’t find a third cover that fit with the other two. I wanted all three to have a similar look so people would know they were part of the same series. So, I contacted the artist who did the other two covers and commissioned a custom piece, which ended up becoming Book 1’s cover. The entire process was a whole lot of fun, and it ended up being the push I needed to actually start the publishing process.

Seeing my cover at every stage – when I first bought it and looked at the finished product, when it was posted online on various websites, and especially seeing the paperback version – was incredible. It made the whole process feel real to me and it was so cool to see something that I had created that looked like an actual book.

ATHF: Sounds like an amazing ending to an incredible journey! Going back to the beginning of that journey, do you have a favorite author, and/or someone who really influenced your writing?

EB: One of my favorite authors is Tamora Pierce. I think anyone who has read her earlier work and my own book will see how she has influenced me. She’s also a Young Adult fantasy author and she’s known for creating strong female characters. If you haven’t read any of her books, I recommend starting with Alanna: The First Adventure.

ATHF: Are there any books, websites, or other resources you’d recommend for authors thinking of self-publishing?

EB: Other than SelfPubBookCovers.com, which I mentioned above, I also encourage aspiring self-publishers to check out Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, or KDP. You’re most likely going to publish on Amazon (and maybe other places) once you do publish, and that website has a bunch of resources, including a community where you can talk with other authors.

ATHF: Now that you’ve survived the process of publishing your first book, what is the most important thing you learned from the experience? Is there anything you’ll do differently the second time around?

EB: I wish I had decided to publish sooner! Seriously, I held off on putting my work out in the world for a long time because I was so afraid of what people might think of it and of me. It was a huge hurdle to get over, but once I did, I was astounded by the support I received from everyone, including people I hadn’t had contact with in years. It’s been a dream come true!

ATHF: I’m so glad to hear that :)! Getting back to Knight’s Duty, I will admit to being a hopeless romantic, so of course I noticed a spark of something brewing between Arianna and Flynn. I’m not asking for a definite answer to “will they or won’t they?”, but is there at least a chance of romance between these two in the next installment? Or maybe Book 3?

EB: I’ll keep this one brief because I don’t want to give anything away, but I think readers will be pleased with what happens between Arianna and Flynn in the future. 😉

ATHF: Any possibility for *unicorn* romance on the horizon? Are they romantic creatures, or are they more practical about that sort of thing?

EB: This is a really interesting question and I’m not sure anyone has ever asked me about it before. I don’t want to go into detail for fear of having written myself into a corner later on, but I will say that unicorns don’t magically appear fully formed. They are mammals and have young in the same way normal mammals would. I don’t have any plans to include a romance between unicorns in the trilogy, but I could definitely see myself writing a short story or something in the future about it to explain everything now that you’ve brought it up!

ATHF: LOL! Speaking of creatures, the alphyns were my favorite ones in Knight’s Duty. Were these an original creation of yours, or did they come from somewhere in mythology? Will they appear in Book 2?

EB: Thanks so much! I loved coming up with the magical creatures and what kind of powers they have. It was one of my favorite parts of writing this story.

The alphyns are not an original creation, although my interpretation of them adds some uniqueness. For example, the alphyns in lore are not associated with concealing or tracking magic like the ones in my book are.

I knew early on that I wanted a wolf-like magical creature because I love wolves/dogs. I stumbled across the alphyn while looking up mythical creatures online (I can’t seem to find the website where I first read about them now), and decided I liked the name. It’s actually a Germanic word that means “wolf.”

I think there are fewer mentions of alphyns in book two than there were in the first book, unfortunately, but you will get more of them in the third one!

ATHF: Awesome! When can we expect Book 2, btw? Is there a release date scheduled?

EB: Yes! I’m planning on publishing Knight’s Honor on May 1, 2019! I’m hoping to do something a little different this time and have both the ebook and the paperback available on the same day. (With Knight’s Duty, I published the ebook first and then the paperback about a month later.)

For those of you who just can’t wait or who might like a preview, the first several (unpolished) chapters are on Wattpad. There will be some changes to the Wattpad version compared to the one that’s actually published, but the overall plot will remain the same.

ATHF: Any tantalizing Book 2 tidbits you can tease us with (don’t give TOO much away!)?

EB: Knight’s Honor has always been my favorite book in the trilogy for several reasons. The action amps up and the characters and their relationships deepen. Plus, you finally get to meet the main villain of the trilogy, and he is both frightening and fascinating. I can’t wait to hear what readers will think of the second book!

ATHF: It sounds amazing. I can’t wait to read it! But since I can’t get the book just yet, and since we’re still doing an interview, is there a question I didn’t ask that you wish I had? If so, what is it and how would you answer?

EB: This might fit in the question about websites you asked above, but I’d like to talk about naming characters, since it’s a fun thing to work on especially with fantasy writing. Many authors say they use baby name books to come up with names for their characters, and I’m no exception. I actually use a website called babynames.com to find names. It even has a handy “tips for writers” section that has my personal favorite advice when it comes to naming fantasy characters.

You probably want something that sounds unique and otherworldly for character names (not many fantasy stories have protagonists named Bob, after all), but I also encourage you to make sure your names are easy to pronounce. If a reader is stumbling over how to say a character’s name every time they come across it, it can create a frustrating experience.

ATHF: ROFL! That’s fantastic advice. (Also, I now have the urge to write an epic fantasy about someone named Bob Smith! ;)) On a slightly more serious note, I just want to say thank you again, Elaine, for taking the time to do this interview, and for sharing your writing gift with the world! We will all be looking forward to reading Knight’s Honor in just a few short days!

EB: Thank you so much!

Two Free Writing Contests

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Hey all 🙂

I came across these nifty “Your Story” writing contests on WritersDigest.com and thought some of my fellow authors might be interested! The competitions are free to enter and seem to pop up every couple of months.

The ones linked here both have photo prompts, and the images are VERY interesting (to say the least, LOL!). The picture for #97 is especially striking and inspired me to start writing immediately.

One of the things I love about contests with prompts is seeing the amazing variety of ideas people come up with. A hundred authors can look at the exact same picture and each person will imagine a completely different story. Also, prompts are pretty awesome for anyone who’s currently in a writing slump. So, if you haven’t written for a while and need something to get the juices flowing, or even just need a break from your current project, these contests may be the thing to help.

Anyhow, go check them out! Who knows? Maybe you’ll get inspired like I did :).

Your Story #97

Directions: Write a short story of 650 words or fewer based on the photo prompt.

Deadline: April 8

Your Story #98

Directions: Write the opening line to a story based on the photo prompt.

Deadline: May 27

Best of luck, and have fun! 🙂

~Gretchen

 

My First Lucific – Plus Some Recs!

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So, by now anyone who reads this blog probably knows that my heart currently belongs to the TV show Lucifer. And when my heart belongs to a show, I get inspired. And when I get REALLY inspired…dun, dun, dun…I write fanfic! 🙂

I am super-excited to be in the process of posting my very first Lucifer fanfic (Chapter Five went up on Wednesday). I’d forgotten just how daunting it is to put my words out there in the open for anyone and everyone to judge. I’d also forgotten how wonderful it is to interact with readers as the chapters unfold! It’s like we get to go on a journey together, and so far – thanks to the support and encouragement of some fantastic reviewers – the ride has been a complete joy. I am incredibly grateful to all of the people who’ve taken the time to read and review my work – you guys make it worth the effort of staying up extra late to post a new chapter.

I wrote this story as a “Thank You” to all of the fans who fought to save the show (#luciferonnetflix, baby!), and as a way to hopefully give back to the authors and artists whose works have brought me so much joy over the past year (see the recs below for some examples).

Here’s the summary of my first-ever Lucific, entitled The Innocence Project:

Trapped in a warehouse and cut off from celestial help, Chloe must care for a seriously ill Lucifer while the two of them fight to exonerate a death row inmate before the inmate’s time – and Lucifer’s – runs out. Post Season Three. Established Deckerstar.

If you love Lucifer fanfic, please go check it out:

FFN:  https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13183278/1/The-Innocence-Project

AO3:  https://archiveofourown.org/works/17478380/chapters/41163341

While you’re at it, don’t forget to read these incredible stories, too:

Summary: “That star just died.” When Lucifer tells her this, Chloe feels like they’re talking about something way more important than a mere astronomical event. Everything is the same except for the way that Lucifer looks at Trixie, just like he looked the night he talked about stars. Things happen, Lucifer visits Linda, nothing changes, but then again, everything’s different now.

Cass says: Utterly gorgeous and 100% gut-wrenching.

Summary: Once upon a time, there was a fallen angel who hated his wings and loved a human detective. After that, things got complicated. Fairy tales never get it right. (For the “Who the hell is Cupid?” Valentine’s Fic Exchange)

Cass says: One of the most wonderfully-written, romantic, and creative Lucifer fics I’ve ever read!

Summary: Recently resurrected, Lucifer stumbles back to Chloe’s hospital room with the antidote formula. Amenadiel stands his ground. Trixie somehow sees matters more clearly than the grown-ups-even the celestial ones. A missing moment from the winter finale, “A Good Day to Die.”

Cass says: Best tag/missing scene for this episode I have read to date!

Summary: Maybe Lucifer had always planned to tell her, but she doubted it was like this. Part of the “They’re Back; Aren’t They” fic exchange. I still manage to beat up Lucifer. Post 3×24.

Cass says: Awesome follow-up to the finale by one of my favorite authors. 🙂

  • And watch this excellent video, “Unsteady” by knightvision1228:

Summary: An emotional music video featuring some of the most powerful moments in the series with heavy emphasis on the people most important in Lucifer’s life.

Cass says: The Lucifer fanvid I’ve watched more than any other (read: a LOT). Great match-up between the music and the images, and it really tugs on the heartstrings, too!

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave some comments for the creators if you enjoy their work! Can’t wait for Season Four! 🙂

~Cass

Perfectionism, Writing, and You

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It’s almost New Year’s Eve, but you’re not waiting for the ball to drop. You’ve already made your resolution: 2019 is the year you’re finally going to write that novel. Yay!

Of course, in all honesty, you’ve made this resolution before, haven’t you? (Come on, just admit it already.) But this time, it’s going to be different, right? No more excuses. No doubt about it. That bad boy is getting written!

Well, good for you! That’s a great goal and I wish you much success in your endeavor. However, before you go prancing into 2019 with big plans and high hopes, perhaps you should take a minute to consider why you haven’t written that future bestseller yet.

Maybe your idea for your novel is so blindingly spectacular that you’re afraid whatever you actually put down on the page will never measure up. Maybe you did start writing, but after three migraine-inducing hours of staring at a blank screen, you only managed to produce two sentences. And they both sucked. Maybe you even sweated and cried and bled your way through an entire chapter…only to chuck the whole thing out later because it wasn’t “good enough.”

If this sounds like you, then you may be a perfectionist…and it just might be crippling your writing.

First things first: if this is you, don’t despair! You can overcome the obstacles perfectionism presents and even learn to use it to your advantage.

The hardest – and most important – thing any perfectionist must do when writing the first draft is to let go. Your first draft will not be perfect. It can’t be. It shouldn’t be. Rage at the heavens, sob uncontrollably, binge-eat chocolate-covered pretzels – do whatever you have to do to help you come to terms with this painful truth.

Give yourself permission to be messy, to color outside the lines, to melt six different crayons together and make a new color. Letting go is terrifying, but it can also be incredibly freeing. Just ask the blond lady on this water bottle:

In case you can’t see it in the picture, the water inside this bottle actually IS frozen. Cute, huh? 🙂

The first draft is the time to lock perfectionism in a cage. I mean, definitely give him some food, a bowl of water, a chew toy, a blankie, etc. – you don’t want to kill him. You just want him to take a nap for a while. He’ll probably whine a bit, but don’t worry – he’ll settle down eventually.

Here are a few practical tips for combating perfectionism in the first draft:

1.) Throw it all out there.

In the photo at the top, the author is having difficulty deciding which verb to use. She’s trying to choose the “perfect” word for the way Miguel moved down the hallway, and she’s stuck on that sentence because she can’t make up her mind.

Wanna know something cool? She doesn’t have to make up her mind! The author can simply write out several options, leave them all in the sentence, and move on to the next one. Then, during a later phase (usually the first round of editing), she can choose which word feels the best…or maybe come up with something else even better!

I do this all the time when I write. Indecision is a progress-killer, so if I can’t decide, I just throw it all out there. You can do it with single words, or with whole sentences and paragraphs. It looks like this:

Miguel walked/strolled/moseyed down the hall, unconcerned about the envious stares following him.

When I go back through to edit, the perfect word will usually jump out from the pack.

2.) Just skip it.

Remember back in high school, when you were taking a math test and didn’t know the answer to problem number five? What did you do? You didn’t spend your entire hour agonizing over that pesky fifth question, leaving the other thirty-five unanswered (at least, I hope you didn’t). No, because if you did that, you’d fail the test. So, you just skipped it, moved on to number six, and then came back to five later, if you had time.

That same strategy can work for writing. If you’ve been working on the same passage for days or even weeks, and just can’t get happy with it, my best advice would be to skip that passage and move on, knowing you can come back and fill it in later (thankfully, writing a book is not a timed test).

I did this with one scene in Scars – the part where Jack tells Lily about the werewolf attack. I just could not get through that scene. Everything I wrote seemed like crap. It was holding up the whole rest of the story. Finally, I just skipped over it and came back at the end. And guess what? It was totally fine. 🙂

The skipped scene DID get written and the story got published in this lovely book. It all worked out! 🙂

Of course, in order to do this, you must have a general idea of what’s going to happen in the scene, because it impacts the rest of the story. E.g. if you’re skipping the chapter where Rosario tells Kevin she has heat vision, then don’t write him as completely shocked/flabbergasted in the next chapter when she melts the tires on the bad guys’ getaway car.

3.) Free Writing

Think about this like a mini NaNoWriMo. Set a timer for five, ten, twenty minutes – whatever fits your schedule – and just write the whole time. Don’t go back and make corrections. Don’t stare at the page thinking about the perfect phrase. Your keyboard should be clacking the entire time. Or, if you’re old school, your pen should be scratching the page continuously. If it’s totally quiet in the room, then you’re not writing.

It may not be pretty, but for extreme cases of perfectionism, this will at least get words on the page. Words that can be rearranged and molded into something beautiful later. If the blank page is your worst enemy, this exercise can help.

Once that brutal first draft is done, you can finally let perfectionism out of his cage for a little while. Let him run amok all over your book, gobbling up those nasty typos, poor word choices, pointless paragraphs that don’t move the story forward, etc. He’ll be thrilled! Just don’t leave him out too long. If he can keep you from writing your book in the first place, he can just as surely keep you from ever submitting or publishing it.

Learn to know the difference between editing something and editing it to death. (If you’re re-reading for the fiftieth time and obsessing over the tiniest phrases which sounded good ten readings ago, you’re probably in “death editing” mode.) Remember how hard it was, in the beginning, to accept that the first draft wouldn’t be flawless?

This part is even harder, because now you have to face the fact that your novel will never, no matter how many times you and your editors go over it, be 100% perfect. Because you’re not perfect. And those tiny little imperfections you’ll never completely erase? They might just be what your readers relate to and fall in love with.

So, when the book is finally the best you (and your crit partners and betas) can make it, it’s time to do that scary-wonderful thing again: let it go.

The year 2019 is coming. You’ve already made the resolution. Now, you have to decide: Do you want to be the person who had a fantastic idea for a novel in 2019? Or do you want to be the person who actually wrote one?

Best wishes in the New Year!

~Gretchen

 

 

Book Review: Knight’s Duty by Elaine Bassier

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As promised, here’s a review of my cousin’s book, Knight’s Duty! Hopefully, this will be the first of many book reviews here on ATHF:

Knight’s Duty is a fast-paced adventure about a young woman named Arianna whose greatest dream is to become a Unicorn Knight. The Knights are an order of elite soldiers pledged to defend and serve the realm of Failyn. On her way to the capital city to test her mettle as a Knight, Arianna discovers that she seems to have magical powers – something no human is supposed to possess – and meets a lone unicorn who has just survived the death of her Knight – something no unicorn should be able to do.

As the pair teams up to unravel these mysteries, they begin to understand that something much bigger – and darker – is at play. A threat that endangers the lives of everyone in their realm.

This book has lots of action, highly polished writing, cool magic, some twists I definitely didn’t see coming (one small one near the beginning and one HUGE one near the end), and characters I could relate to and respect (it’s not every day you read about teenagers aspiring to serve their country as both humanitarians and warriors). The author also does a nice job of exploring emotional topics such as guilt, forbidden crushes, jealousy, and grief.

I knew this book had me hooked when I started reading in the early afternoon and before I even realized it, the house was pitch black aside from the glow of my Kindle screen. At that point I got up to turn some lights on…then went right back to reading! 😀

Knight’s Duty is a complete story but it also sets the reader up perfectly for the next installment. I am SO looking forward to Book 2. Good thing there’s a little teaser – and a really cool cover reveal – on the author’s Facebook page to help make the wait more bearable. Go check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorElaineB/ . And don’t forget to check out the book, too! The Kindle version only costs $0.99 and it’s also available in print form (for those who haven’t yet been bitten by the eBook bug).

I’m so proud of my cousin for writing this book, and so very happy she decided to share it with the world. The world is lucky to have it. 🙂

So go forth, enjoy, and support an indie author in the process!

Oh, and don’t forget to review! 🙂

~Gretchen

P.S. The unicorns in this book are intelligent, fiercely loyal, incredible fighters, and have personalities as unique and memorable as any human character. Unicorns rock!

 

A Storytelling Adventure

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Blog - Raven Sign

Apologies for the loooong absence! I’ve been busy dealing with life’s little curve balls (see picture below) but I am alive and well and gearing up for my favorite time of year: FALL! (New TV shows, chilly weather perfect for sipping hot soup, pretty neon leaves on the trees, HALLOWEEN, NaNoWriMo–what’s not to love? 🙂 )

Diana!
This lovely little princess is Diana, an extremely shy feral kitten who showed up on our property several weeks ago. Taming her has basically taken over my life, but it is paying off–she will now let me pet her and even pick her up…sometimes!

Now that I’m finally back, I wanted to say a HUGE, economy-sized THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the storytelling event at The Raven on August 1st. Thank you for listening to our words, supporting us, and being a wonderful audience!

Blog - Me Reading
Me, reading a short story (and trying not to faint from stage fright). Many thanks to R. Churchill for snapping this photo!

I am especially grateful to my folks (who ALWAYS have my back), my AMAZING writing partner (and her awesome family!), my buddy Churchill (who drove an hour to get there!), S.K. Mabry (who first suggested the idea and shared the opportunity with our writing group), Jody (who organized this great event to showcase local authors and their work), Katrina (who did a lot of the publicity) and the rest of The Raven’s super-cool staff–they treated us like royalty and wouldn’t even accept payment for our drinks.

And of course, thank you to my fellow authors for sharing your incredible stories with us!

Blog - Lust
I didn’t realize until the end of the night that I was sitting directly underneath this creepy fellow! In case you can’t read the script, it says “LUST.” The rest of the seven deadly sins were scattered about the establishment. The Raven = coolest venue EVER.

I do believe it was my first time reading one of my stories out loud for an audience. Outside of my writing group, at least. Totally nerve-wracking (my heart was RACING) but also SOOO much fun.

There may actually be a video of it somewhere around here:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/RavenCafe/videos/?ref=page_internal

Also, a little birdie told me (actually it was Jody) that The Raven plans to host this event again, maybe around twice a year, so if you missed it the first time, keep checking The Raven Cafe’s blog for updates about when the next one might be taking place:

https://ravencafeph.com/

If you’re a local writer, think about participating next time! If you’re not local, consider approaching a business in your area to see if they’d be interested in hosting something like this.

Even if you’re not a writer, it is SO great to sit in an awesome venue like this and just let someone’s voice and words flow around you. I have attended numerous poetry readings over the years, and there is always something magical about being in an environment where you’re surrounded by people who love words and want to celebrate that love with others.

So go forth! Find a poetry reading or book signing in your area! Team up with other authors and local businesses to create an event like this. Share your words, and rediscover why you love writing and reading so much!

Thanks for listening!

~Gretchen

Two New Books, One New Interview, and We All Lived Happily Ever After

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Okay, lots of exciting news to share:

 

New Books!

First off, I have just learned, like less than TWO days ago, that my cousin Elaine Bassier has a novel available on Amazon! How freakin’ cool is that? I think it just came out last month. Knight’s Duty is a YA fantasy and it’s the first book of the Unicorn Knight Trilogy. I’m only a few chapters in, and I can already tell you three things:

1.) My cousin is super talented.

2.) Female knight riding a unicorn = AWESOME

3.) I can’t wait to read what happens next!

I’ll be back with a full report after I finish, but you don’t have to wait for me (seriously, I’m a painfully slow reader – ask anyone in my writing group). Go check the book out for yourself right now:

Man, is it cool to see my last name on the cover of a novel! Okay, yeah, it’s not MY novel, but still. It’s cool.

Next bit of news: Transformed is officially available! The book of shapeshifter romance stories came out this past Friday. I already have my contributor copies, and they are all kinds of gorgeous.

If you haven’t already, please go check out the book:

 

New Interview!

In celebration of Transformed‘s release, I got to do an author interview to help promote the book! Topics include writing advice and habits, favorite authors and stories, and some fun facts about me, my new story, and the book. Please note: while my interview is family friendly, the rest of the site contains adult content, so be wary of exploring if that type of thing offends you. Happy reading, and a big thanks to Erotica For All for letting me invade their website!

http://eroticaforall.co.uk/interviews/an-interview-with-gretchen-bassier-astheheroflies/

 

A Book Signing!

I am super excited to be participating in a multi-author book signing at the Raven Café in Port Huron next month. The event will take place Wednesday, August 1st, from 7-9pm. If you’re in the area, I’d love to see you and I’m sure the other authors would too!

Books I Will DEFINITELY Have On Hand:

Transformed
Alternate Hilarities 3: Hysterical Realms
Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cat Did What?
Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Dog Did What?
Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cat Really Did That?
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks to My Mom
Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Kind (of) America

Magazines I HOPE to Have On Hand (assuming they arrive in time!):

Trysts of Fate (August 2014)
Bloodbond (May 2017)

More info about The Raven (aka possibly the COOLEST venue EVER):

https://ravencafeph.com/

 

And finally…

A Happily Ever After Ending!

Okay, so, if you read the story description after my interview, you might be thinking that my new story, “Scars,” sounds an awful lot like an older piece called “Burn.” So, what gives?

To quote Dr. Henry Morgan, “It’s a long story!” 🙂

I originally submitted “Burn” to Transformed as a reprint. However, during the editing process, the editor and publisher asked me to change the original (read: tragic and gruesome) ending to a HEA (happily ever after) that would be better suited for their target audience.

I must admit, I was initially a bit traumatized at having to make such a drastic change to my story. As is the case with most of my short pieces, the original ending of “Burn” was the whole reason I wrote the story. It was all leading up to that moment. I wondered if the story could even work without it.

The editor, Charlie Watson, told me she’d already written a version of the ending where things work out better for the characters, but I didn’t look at that version right away. Instead, I spent a few fretful days brainstorming hard about how these two characters, who are in a terrible place at the end of “Burn,” could actually wind up living happily ever after.

After coming up with something halfway decent, I looked at Charlie’s version. It was fantastic. Just chock full of emotional gems, and truly in keeping with the characters I’d written. In addition to being a first-rate editor, she’s also a crazy talented author. My first thought was, “Well, dang, maybe we should just leave it like this!”

But the new version did leave a few plot threads hanging, so I decided to go for broke and write the version I’d come up with, incorporating as many of the elements from Charlie’s ending as I possibly could (because they were awesome). After writing 4,000 words in two days and then revising like a madwoman, I sent the new text to Charlie and spent the whole night biting my nails down to stubs, wondering if she would like it or hate it.

In the morning, I checked my email and got my own Happily Ever After moment: the alternate ending I’d slaved over was approved for the book. Yay!

Although it was a HUGE challenge at the time, I couldn’t be happier with the results. “Burn” was more horror story than romance, and while I still love the original ending, I love the new version even more. “Scars” is a story of pain and loss, but also of love and healing. Several of the people who read “Burn” enjoyed it…right up until they got to the last few sentences. Then they said, “Oh, no! That’s not how I wanted it to end!”

I promise you, “Scars” will fix that feeling. 🙂

Many thanks to my awesome editor, Charlie Watson, and everyone at Pen and Kink Publishing, for giving me the freedom and inspiration I needed to deliver my very first alternate ending – and, in the process, create a whole new, even better story!

 

Before I Go…

In celebration of alternate endings, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite fanfics that also had two different endings for audiences to enjoy:

 

Lois and Clark

“The Enemy Within” by Tank Wilson and Wendy Richards

(One happy ending vs. one very grim ending – I like the happy one!)

 

Lucifer

“There’s No Music in Hell” by Solo’s Falcon

(Both happy endings and both awesome! Hard to choose a favorite! If you’re reading it for the first time, one of the chapters – the Lucifer/Chloe love scene – is posted as a separate fic entitled “No Music in Hell: A Slice of Heaven” and it’s not to be missed!)

 

That’s it for tonight, folks! Now I’m off to read more of Knight’s Duty!

Keep Writing (and Reading)!

~Gretchen

 

 

 

Werelions and Weretigers and Werebears, Oh My!

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Cover design by Amanda C. Davis

 

Those of you who know me know that I’m into werewolves. Like REALLY into werewolves. Like, when someone comes over to visit, my standard greeting is, “Do you want to watch a movie? I have The Wolfman!” (In case you were wondering, yes I get weird looks in response to this.)

I’m not exactly sure how I turned out this way (it might have something to do with how many times I watched The Shaggy Dog and Ladyhawke when I was a kid), but at some point in my life I blossomed into a full-fledged lover of all things shapeshifter and never looked back.

Which is why I could not be more excited to have one of my stories included in Pen and Kink’s upcoming anthology, Transformed. This book, which is the third in their Triskaidekaphilia series, features romantic relationships involving (you guessed it) shapeshifters. (The first two books focused on romances related to urban legends and vampires. The next one, called Haunted, will feature female ghosts – go check out the submission guidelines here: http://www.penandkinkpub.com/home/books/triskaidekaphilia/4-haunted-female-ghosts/ )

For me, the most exciting thing about being included in a collection like this is getting to read everyone else’s stories. (I mean, I already read mine – that’s old news.) So, as soon as I got my advance review copy (and did a quick check to make sure I hadn’t done anything cringe-worthy, like spell my own name wrong in the byline (don’t laugh, it’s possible)), I joyfully dove into my fellow authors’ works.

And I just have to say: Holy crap! These writers are so talented! I am so not worthy to be in their midst! I loved every single story in the book. Like seriously, I keep trying to pick a favorite, and I just CAN’T. I think what impressed me the most, aside from just the quality of the writing, was the variety. This book features many different cultures, different interpretations of what it means to be a shapeshifter (whether it’s a blessing or a curse, whether it’s something to be carefully controlled or something that should be encouraged to run rampant), and different types of romantic relationships.

And that’s not even mentioning all the different kinds of creatures! I mean, there are werewolves, yes – but they’re actually in the minority here. Beneath the beautiful cover designed by Amanda C. Davis, I discovered weresnakes, werefoxes, werehawks, werecats, werejackals, wereseals (yes, seals!). Heck, there’s even a weredragon in there!

In addition to the menagerie of shapeshifters, there are characters of all colors and backgrounds. There are straight characters, gay characters, bisexual characters. There is sex, and sometimes it’s described in great detail – however, it’s never the sole point of the story, but rather just one element that only adds to the richness of the overall plot.

Speaking of plots, there are some really complex ones involving spy games, intrigue, stolen goods and kidnapping, as well as simple plots focusing on a single moment of significance in a character’s life. There are cursed lovers. There are characters who meet for the first time, and characters who’ve known each other across the ages.

All I can say is, hats off to my fellow authors for their skills and creativity, as well as to the editor, Charlie Watson, for putting together such a diverse book.

As one reviewer already mentioned, there really is something for everyone in Transformed. (You can find more early reviews here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38262542-transformed ) If this sounds like something you’d be into, the books comes out on July 13th. (Yes, that’s Friday the 13th – it ties in with Triskaidekaphilia, which means love of the number thirteen). Check out the pre-order link here:

https://www.amazon.com/Transformed-Triskaidekaphilia-Book-Nancy-Canu-ebook/dp/B07C67DTGV

Oh, and if you’re a reviewer who’d like an ARC of the book, I believe they are still giving a few copies away on LibraryThing. You just have to scroll down until you see the pretty cover with the lady and the tiger and the title Transformed by Charlie Watson:

https://www.librarything.com/er/giveaway/list

I hope you love the book! I did! 🙂

Keep writing and submitting, everybody!

Best wishes,

Gretchen

Happy Birthday, LEGO Man!

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Several years ago, I wrote a poem as a gift for my LEGO-loving friend. In response, he delighted me by creating a picture that captured every detail of the poem. I am posting both today in honor of my friend’s birthday.

Photo by R. Churchill

 

LEGO Man

Bright plastic pieces
A rainbow on the table
Spilled, formless jumble

He looks them over
Eyes sharp and mind-wheels turning
Possibilities

Hands move, click and snap
Creation in the making
No instructions, here

Walls climb, towers grow
Grey on black on green on brown
A castle is born

King, queen, knights and court
All happy yellow faces
No race, just people

The builder smiles down
At his masterpiece, his world
LEGO man, at heart

 

Happy birthday, LEGO Man! It may not seem like it now, but I truly believe this will be the year that everything is awesome!

Love you!

~Gretchen

#AMMConnect Bio for Spring 2018

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Hey, all! In my previous post I mentioned Author Mentor Match, a mentorship program for aspiring YA and MG authors. Writers hoping to apply for the program are encouraged to create blog posts about themselves and their books, so here’s mine!

I’m so excited to read everyone else’s posts (I’ve already read some, and everybody’s books sound awesome!). Also, a HUGE thank you to all of the Round Three mentees who volunteered their time to give away query critiques to this round’s hopefuls. I was lucky enough to win one from Lucy Hallowell, who gave me lots of wonderful feedback and encouragement. Thank you so much, Lucy!

 

ABOUT ME

ME! (I am the one with slightly fewer gray hairs.)

I am thirty-seven years old, I have Asperger’s, and I work as a home health aide. I’ve been doing that for over fifteen years and I love it. I’m also passionate about feral cats and I spend a lot of time caring for the strays in my neighborhood. Some of my best friends walk on four legs! (Okay, now my human friends are giving me the skunk eye. I said “some,” not “all”!).

This is Jericho, one of the feral cats I take care of. When he first arrived, he had almost no fur on his body whatsoever–a severe allergy had caused him to pull it all out. Now, thanks to periodic allergy shots, his fur has grown back and he is no longer itchy!

I’ve been writing for about fifteen years, give or take. I write pretty much everything–horror, humor, romance, fantasy, scifi, novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, scripts, flash fic, fanfic, nonfic, poetry, kidlit. You name it, I’ve probably at least dabbled. I think I write so many different things because I like to read so many different things. To me, a good story is a good story, no matter what the format/setting/genre/age category.

In addition to writing, I also help run my local critique group. The writers I’ve met through this group are a-maz-ing and super-talented! I am so lucky to have them in my life. I smile every time I think about how much we’ve all gained from the honest opinions of our fellow authors. (Yes, even when it hurts. Especially then.)

 

ABOUT MY BOOK

Working Title: EVEN HEROES

I would best describe it as a real-world superhero story. You know how Batman and Green Arrow and Hawkeye don’t have any superpowers but they go out and do awesome stuff anyway? It’s like that!

When the book starts, my main character, Vincent, is in a pretty dark place. He’s thirteen years old, has acute asthma, and he’s dealing with a severe bullying problem at school. The same kids have been targeting him for years, and he’s too ashamed-and afraid of retaliation-to tell anyone what’s going on.

He definitely can’t tell his mom–she’s already a nervous wreck. She’s so afraid of him having an asthma attack that basically the only physical activity he’s allowed to do at school is walk to class…slowly.

So, Vincent escapes reality the only way he knows how: by diving into his favorite comic books. He loves everything about them–the artwork, the stories, and most of all the way the heroes stand up for people being victimized…people like him.

In the back of his mind, Vincent has always known that if he could do absolutely anything, if he had no restrictions, physical or otherwise, he’d want to be a superhero. Of course, this is the real world, and there aren’t really superheroes flying around. But a person can fantasize, right? No harm in that.

Except lately, Vincent’s fantasies aren’t so harmless. Lately, he’s been having dark, bloody thoughts of taking revenge on the classmates who’ve been hurting him. Lately he’s been feeling like the walls are slowly closing in all around him, inch by inch, and it’s getting harder and harder to escape into the bright-colored superhero adventures of his comic books.

Vincent finally reaches his breaking point after a disastrous visit to the school guidance counselor (note: it’s a bad idea to write on a career survey that you want to be a superhero), followed by the most vicious prank the bullies have ever pulled.

Vincent doesn’t know what to do, but he has to do something or else he’s going to go full-on crazy. So, he decides to reclaim his life by doing the one thing he’s always dreamed of: becoming a superhero. No matter how insane/stupid/impossible it sounds, no matter how dangerous it is, no matter how much strain it puts on his already weak lungs, he is going to do this thing. (Or die trying.)

Basically, this is a story about a kid who’s been caged for thirteen years finally setting himself free, testing his wings, and finding out what he’s really capable of.

 

RANDOM BITS OF INSPIRATION

-Finding a complete deer skeleton at the bottom of a lake when my brothers and I were kids

-Talking to one of my brothers about how much comic books meant to him growing up

-The very real tunnel system under a school I visited

-A person I once met who thought about doing something very bad–but decided not to

-A psychology class where we learned how to determine whether a child’s asthma was primarily stress-induced or allergy-induced

-My own crazy fangirl obsession with superheroes

-My own experiences being bullied in junior high

 

WHAT’S COOL ABOUT MY BOOK

-Superhero Fun! Awesome costumes, wardrobe malfunctions, secret identities (and trying to keep them secret), fame and publicity, watching the character juggle his regular, everyday problems with his superhero problems. The most fun parts are of course when those two sides of his life collide unexpectedly. 🙂

-Superhero Drama! Aside from the fun, adventure-y parts of the story, you also get to see the character wrestle with the more heartbreaking aspects of heroism–that he can’t save everyone, that when he screws up people can die, and that some people are past the point of even wanting to be saved. (And in a different life, he might’ve been one of those.)

-He’s NOT the chosen one. Don’t get me wrong–I love, love, love “chosen one” stories. I am totally into Harry Potter, Sword of Truth/Legend of the Seeker, Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, etc, etc. I love destiny and prophecy and special powers and people born half-angel or half-demon or with psychic mermaid blood which makes them the only one who can ignite the sacred torch of immortality. But for this story, I just thought it was cool that there really wasn’t anything special about this kid. Nobody showed up to rescue him from his crappy life and whisked him off to some amazing, magical world. He just had a dream to do something awesome and he did it. No help. No powers. No destiny. Just him.

-Platonic Boy/Girl Friendship That Doesn’t Turn Into Romance (Because Not Everything Has To Go That Way). Think Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, or Severide and Shay on Chicago Fire, or even Mulder and Scully before it got romance-y. Opposite-gender friends who can hold hands without it being awkward. Friends who can tell each other when there’s something on the other person’s face. Friends who would fight in a war zone side by side, ready to lie down and die for each other, but they’re not going to start making out in a moment of passion. Just real, true best friends in every sense of the word.

-The Magic Age of Thirteen. One of the things I love about my character is that he’s right on the borderline between being a little kid who still believes in dreams and an angry teenager who’s about to become destructive. And even though he chooses to embrace the joy of childish dreams, that angry teen is still inside of him, ready to bare its fangs throughout the book.

 

WHAT KIND OF MENTEE WOULD I BE?

Terrified. Excited. Receptive. Grateful.

All of my first drafts tend to be reeeeally long, so I’m pretty merciless about making cuts and changes to my babies. I have graveyards full of dead darlings…

RIP, Darlings!

…And sometimes, I have nightmares about them coming back to life and eating my brains…

Braaaaaaaainzzzzz!

I think of cutting words like power-spraying all the mud off a vehicle that’s just been off-roading. It’s a ton of work, but by the end you have this gorgeous, gleaming, cherry red Jeep Wrangler sitting in your driveway. 🙂

As a mentee I would be good at making large-scale changes even with a very small amount of feedback. I’m like a bloodhound–just put me on the scent of what needs to be done, and pretty soon I’ll be baying and charging through the woods in pursuit of making my story better.

So far, I’ve had three people help me with this particular manuscript–a trusted beta reader I’ve had for years, a wonderful CP I only found about a year ago, and the CP’s then ten-and-a-half-year-old son, who read the book along with his mom.

 

With their help, I’ve been able to:

-cut over 205K words from the manuscript (nope, that’s not a typo–see graveyard pic above)

-improve pacing

-strengthen character arcs

-make the MS accessible to a slightly younger audience

 

With a mentor’s help, I hope to be able to:

-identify any remaining spots where the pacing is too slow

-identify any remaining elements that aren’t working

-reduce the word count a little more, if possible (right now it’s just under 93K)

-make sure my submission package accurately and effectively represents my book

-correctly identify where my book fits into the market (Due to the length and some darker themes present in the book, I am submitting this one as a YA. However, the YA books I read as potential comps felt just a smidge too old, and the MGs I read were all just a shade too young and simplistic. I feel like mine might fall into a middle category, such as UMG.)

 

Over the years, I’ve given feedback and encouragement to many of my fellow authors. It’s always a special moment for me when one of those people achieves success, because even just knowing that I was some tiny part of that journey is pure magic. So, if someone reading this sees a spark of something in me or my story that makes them want to be part of my journey, I will consider myself so lucky.

I can’t wait to see where we go together!