Lisa Lowell's Blog

I���ve struggled for months with getting my writing labeled properly in Amazon���s many sub-genre lists. Is it YA (young adult, full of coming of age and firsts like leaving home and surviving on your own)? No, my characters are adults and have adult problems. It certainly misses on several middle-grade reading levels because, for the most part, my characters aren���t going through teenage drama.��Yet it also doesn���t fit in adults. There���s no gratuitous sex or adult drama pieces. No one is in a

All Gailen wanted to do was help people. She had dedicated her life to learning healing, to��treating the sick and injured. But when a patient dies she is convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to hang by the neck until dead. What looked to be the end of her life wound up to be a new beginning. Her savior imbues her with a gift she was destined to carry but was forced to flee before he could explain her calling. Now the eyes of a dark sorcerer have fallen upon her, seeking to take advantage of her

The Wall is older than the book where it's featured. Back in the 1990s, when I started the first of the Wise One books, I already had a map.�� It seemed pretty mundane at first. ��Mountains, plains, forest and rivers were all well and good, but I wanted something that helped this map reflect a fantasy world.�� I added the diamonds, thinking each would become a great magical city.�� Then, as I began to formulate the idea of the Wise One homes, each of those diamonds became a castle.�� And a castle

The Rune Stones, set at Zema in the Land, are a curiosity.�� I drew them on the map way back when I was doodling and before I saw any of this becoming a book.�� They have writing on them, but it is written in a language that predates human life in the Land.�� Since dragons do not read or write - why bother when they live forever and can communicate across vast distances, it stands to reason that the messages on the stones are for humans or some other magical beings not in the Land at the time of

Talismans, at least in the world of the Wise Ones, are magical items they are tasked with Seeking. ��These items may seem fairly typical in a pre-industrial world; a bowl, a ring, a candle, but they are anything but ordinary. ��Each item is formed from bit of nature that has absorbed wild magic and is beginning to transform into��a demon. ��Owailion, one of the main characters in Talismans, senses this happening and uses his powers to force that wild magic into a different, less evil form. ��The

I began the Wise One series with a map in mind and drew it out almost before I had a character imagined, and long before there was a story. ��The map helped me conceptualize the journey the protagonist��made. ��Keep in mind that this was what is now the ninth book in the series. ��I had pretty little diamonds all over it. ��I had seen a drawing of an exquisite castle in a book by Andre' Norton and imagined them all over my map. ��I live in Oregon, so the sea, mountains and forest became a necessary

The Wise One series (and it is a series) has been over twenty years in the making. ��The book Talismans, that is officially the first in the group was written in 2016. ��However, the first concepts for the Wise Ones began as early as 1996. ��It started life as a fairy tale about a mousy little girl from terrible circumstances who was given a gift to escape that life. ��After a tidal wave of trials she transforms herself slowly into a queen. ��All of my��beta readers enjoyed it,��but began begging for

When you're writing your next post, consider this: 80% of people will read your blog headline, but only 20% will stay for the rest. ��So, if headlines are 400% more important than what comes after them (where there���s already ever-increasing competition to attract eyes), you need to be more concise than ever to get attention.The Importance of Title LengthA guide on the right length for your��post titlesIf you want to keep your followers��� attention while conveying your brilliant wordplay, keep

Sure, blogs need a fair amount of work, but they boost Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and pay dividends in the long run. And if you���re not sure what to write, check out Elance or Freelancer.com for affordable alternatives.A well maintained blog is a very useful��toolHow can a blog help your website become more visible?Why? The short answer: blogs strengthen your website���s visibility.Blogs are business opportunities that help you:Command attention from your customers. Use Hootsuite or

The word "blog" is short for Web Log. It is basically a series of posts in reverse chronological order posted by a website owner. A Blog can be treated like a diary, a news feed, a place for ���how-to��� articles or simple thoughts and discussions.Getting to know the Blog featureTake the first steps towards writing your own professional blogIt���s likely you will use it to communicate with your website visitors about your website topic. You may wish to tell visitors about your day-to-day life or