Slay Your Fears with Alicia Kat Vancil

Our last guest blogger is Alicia Kat Vancil, who comes to us talking about her trypanophobia. What the hell is that? Check it out after the jump.

Slay Your Fears with Annika Sharma

We've got another newbie on the blog today, the lovely Annika Sharma. She is the author of the upcoming novel, The Rearranged Life, now available for preorder, and coming in just two weeks!

She's talking about what scares her after the jump!

Slay Your Fears with E.L. Wicker

So glad to welcome a brand new face to my guest blogs, E.L. Wicker! She's the author of Fractured Immortal, and an all-around Twitter queen! I hope this is the first of many guest posts for her on the ol' ramblin' blog. Check it out after the jump!

Slay Your Fears with Nancy Chase

Today's Slay Your Fears guest blog post comes from Nancy Chase! She's written a really fantastic post about fear and being a writer, which I know a lot of us can relate to.

Check out the full post after the jump!

Friday Book Spotlight with Nora Fleischer

Today we've got a special guest on the blog - Nora Fleischer! She's showing off a new cover for her book, Zombies in Love. (They need it too, amirite?) Check out all the action after the jump.

Slay Your Fears with Mary Waibel

This week, I invited my friend Mary Waibel to come back and talk with me about some of the things that scare her. She wrote a lovely blog about a fear that authors share - fear of disappointing readers.

Slay Your Fears with Meradeth Houston

We're building up to the release of Empath, and I've asked some of my fellow authors to take the reins and talk about the things that scare them. It's illuminating to see that we're all afraid of (basically) the same thing, and yet inspiring to see how others overcome that fear.

Without further ado...

Guest Blog Post with T.C. McKee!

Welcome to our final author of the Alliances Blog Swap - T.C. McKee! She is the author of a really fantastic book called The Bone Treaty (Seal of Solomon Series Book 1), of which I am totally waiting for Book 2. (Hurry up will ya!)

Today, she's joining me to talk about friendship and trust. Check out her post after the jump!

Guest Blog Post with Christina McMullen

Guest Blogger Christina McMullen, author of Past Life Strife (Rise of the Discordant Book 1) among other books, is hanging with me today. She's here talking about how the people in your still love you, even if they don't gush about your book all the time.

Even your mom.

Guest Blog Post with Suzanna Linton

Susanna J. Linton, author of Willows of Fate, is here chatting about betraying the trust of those we love, and the unintended consequences of it (which aren't always bad).

Guest Blog Post with Nina J. Lux

Today's Nina J. Lux, author of Bell Eleven: Book One of The Landskapë Saga, is talking about trust and friendship. Check out her post after the jump!

Guest Blog with Georgeann Swiger

Welcome to this week's guest blogger, Georgeann Swiger! She's the author of the Trinity of Souls series, of which I will be reading this weekend (hooray for binging!)

Today, she's tackling the theme I've been waxing poetic about all week - the idea of trusting others. Check it out!

Guest Blog with EJ Frost

Welcome to the next guest blogger, EJ Frost! She's the fabulous author of Snowburn, an awesome sci-fi romance and Black Magic Friday, the book she's talking about today. I love how she equates shopping to the urge to hunt and gather--something I'd never considered before.

But what am I yammering on about...check out her post after the jump!

Guest Post with Liz Meldon

Welcome to the next guest blogger, Liz Meldon! She's the fabulous author of Maenad of Manhattan and she's here a-takin-over my blog.

Check out her post after the jump!

Guest Blog with Mary Waibel!

Welcome to our first gust blogger of 2015, Mary Waibel! She's the fabulous author of Faery Marked, which happens to be the book I'm reading this Friday. So excited to have her as part of my Alliances blog swap!

Check out Mary's guest post below the jump!

Guest Blog Wednesday with Meradeth Houston

Check out Meradeth's guest blog post below: /S.

I thought I'd talk today about something that is one of my favorite parts about writing: opening lines!

Guest Blog Wednesday with Teshelle Combs

Hey Hey Hey! I’m Teshelle Combs, author of some really cool stuff, like the Core Series and the System Series. Today, I’m popping in to tell you about CORE. But first, a huge, gigantic, warm, gooey hug to my buddy S. Usher Evans for being sweet and inviting me here!

Now, I bet you’re wondering…CORE? What is that…an abs workout dvd? Seriously, I’ve had people ask me if my books are about exercising. And I’m like…”have you seen my abs? No. You haven’t. Because they aren’t there! I’m just as squishy as everyone else. I promise I’m not an expert!”

Guest Blog Wednesday with Emissa Ghaight

Check out today's guest post from Emissa! 

Ladies, if your husband turned into a woman overnight, would your marriage survive?

That's one of the questions at the heart of The Loyalty Factor, a brand new sci-fi novel by Emissa Ghaight.  And it's a good question, too, in this day and age where loyalty isn't always present in marriage, where divorce is more and more common, and at the same time, so-called moral purists are decrying same-sex marriages when heterosexual marriages are falling apart.

In the story, Colin and Kim Singleton find themselves in just such a situation, where all of the sudden, their traditional, heteronormative marriage is turned upside down when they are abducted and Colin is turned into a woman against his will.  Now if you were in Kim's position, you could abandon the marriage since, after all, you married a man, not a woman.  You could even say that homosexual sex is wrong.  Or that transgenderism is wrong.  Then again, so is kidnapping and assault, no?

So you choose.  Kim and Moira (neé Colin) have made their choice.  What will yours be?

Guest Blog Wednesday with J. Leigh Bralick

In Which I Discuss Fantasy Worlds And Other Awesomeness

So, I was trying to think of fun stuff to write about for this blog post, and I decided that it might be fun to talk about one of my absolute favorite things about writing fantasy: world building. You know. That awesome godlike power of being able to imagine any possible world and build it up with history and mythology and geography and politics and incredible, brilliant characters, all of which come together in a dazzling moment of awesomeness to create The Story.

When I first started writing seriously, I considered the epic medieval-esque fantasy to be my bread and butter. Because, you know, Tolkien. And stuff. My first attempt at a novel (which you'll learn more about tomorrow!) was exactly that type of book. When I envisioned my future as a bestselling author with movies and rabid screaming fans, I always imagined my shelf at the bookstore as one long line-up of glorious swords-n-sorcery titles of epic battles and dragons and things.

Fantasy has always been my greatest passion as a writer...but recently I've had a revelation, thanks in part to some awesome novels like Mistborn and Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

Fantasy worlds don't have to be your standard castles and princes and swords in a standard western European style culture. You don't need impossible names with lots of unnecessary apostrophes and umlauts to be epic, and honestly, a bad boy in a leather trencher with a revolver can be just as sexy as a boy in a tunic with a sword.

My revelation kind of started with the Lost Road Chronicles, a contemporary YA fantasy trilogy. When I first conceived that story, the world that the main character Merelin finds herself swept into was very, very alien, but somehow it also managed to be very stock medieval. It was bland and uninteresting. Well, I put that concept away for many many years, and when I came back to it, I realized that one of my problems wiht writing it was that I'd visualized the world all wrong. It didn't suit the characters at all.

It wasn't medieval at all. It was supposed to be ancient. It was...Middle to Near Eastern ancient. It was exotic and harsh and beautiful, with sun-soaked stones and dust and brightly colored silks and incense.

And I loved it.


I loved how different it was. I loved how it felt essential to the characters, instead of trying to force-fit the characters into some pre-conceived setting just because.

Fast forward a few years, and I got the idea for The Madness Project. Actually, I got the idea for Tarik, the rogue prince who gets asked to do the unthinkable to save his family. When I started brainstorming his world, my first instinct was my default medieval knights and castles and swords bit.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that could never be Tarik's world. Each piece I turned over revealed more and more of an early-20th century society like some kind of cross between mobster Chicago and aristocratic London with a bit of magic and a bit of mad science. With leather trench coats and motorcars and steam planes and submachine guns. With a high society of glamor and glitz and pretension and the street kids with their slang and starry-eyed visions of a better future. (Check out my Madness Project Pinterest board to see some cool inspirational pics!)

It'd always been that kind of joint, anyway. No rules like up northside where you had to have the right look to get a seat. The place felt perpetually dusty, like the inside of a mill, with faded floors and faded walls covered from corner to corner with the kind of rebel slogans that the coppers would never stand to see. I'd never figured Chancy for a rebel himself, but I knew a lot of the older lads played at being revolutionaries here in the shadows, meeting over stale beer and stolen cigos, imagining the handful of them could actually change the world.

It's been one of the most exciting worlds I've ever written. I can smell it, feel it, taste it. It's dreary but dazzling, all wrapped up in a breathless wonder at scientific invention and the fascination of magic in a world where it doesn't belong. It's a bit fantasy and a bit steampunk, which is a concept I only really discovered as I was writing this book.

The story is also the hardest story I've ever written. I knew when I started that it was going to be a bit psychological -- the whole point, after all, was to explore what a life of lies would do to a person. How would it affect a person to pretend to be someone he's not so he can slip into a world where he doesn't belong, knowing all along that the only reason he's making friends with the people there is so that he can ultimately betray them? And what if he actually started caring about those people? How far can loyalty be pushed?

"We're spies, Tarik," he said. His voice sounded strangely heavy. "Once that's in your blood, that's all you live for. You live for the game. Be one step ahead. Dodge one more discovery. Pull the blindness over one more friend, and get away with it. There is no loyalty. There is no friendship. There is only the game." He shook his head. "It's what they make us. It's what they make us do. They teach us to run wild and then expect us to stay on a leash of our own making."





Tarik goes through hell in this book, and when I finished it, I felt like I'd been dragged through it right along with him. I couldn't write anything for months afterwards. I'm still struggling with writing the sequel, Scion. I was emotionally drained, more so than with any book I've ever written.

But luckily I'm getting back into the swing of things, and I'm actually super stoked about Scion. One of my favorite things about this book? It takes Tarik to a place that is very much inspired by my favoritest place in the whole wide world -- Iceland.

I've also gotten some inspiration for a new fantasy novel that turns some common tropes on their heads (which at first I imagined would make for a tongue-in-cheek light-hearted novel, but it's actually quite dark). It's actually proving easier for me to write than Scion (go figure!). Unlike all of my books so far, this one will be written in 3rd person POV, because I've got three characters so far whose heads I want to get into. Three very different people from three very different worlds.

Does this one take place in your basic medieval setting?

Nope.

Here's a hint...Picture this and you're on the right track:




I still love the medieval fantasy setting. Maybe someday I'll return to it. But for now, there are so, so many worlds out there to explore, and you know what? It's going to be brilliant.

Guest Blog Wednesday with Melissa Petreshock

It's getting kind of hot on the ol' Ramblin' Blog. I need my smellin' salts. /S.

A WORLD ON FIRE: EXPANDING BEYOND FOSAD

"When the stars are the only things we share, Will you be there? I've got a plan. I've got an atlas in my hands." - "Atlas Hands" by Benjamin Francis Leftwich 

FIRE OF STARS AND DRAGONS is the first book in the Stars and Souls Trilogy. Now, I'm probably telling you something you already know. A quick glance on Amazon, my website, or most any of my social media will tell you that. The news has been out for a while that BLOOD OF STARS AND GODS (Book #2) is coming, and the publication date has finally been set for May 2015. (Title and publication date on book #3 are TBA.)