Elisa A. Bonnin's Blog

Alright, so…suffice it to say that this blog hasn’t been updated in a long time. A very long time. A time that, while not significant on the geologic time scale, certainly amounts to a very significant fraction of the life of the 23-year old authoress who started this blog in the first place. And the reason behind that is…well, there’s no nice way to say it. Arbiter crashed and burned. It burned not because it was a bad book (although looking back, there’s several things about it that I wish I could change). It burned because I had, like the naive young authoress that I was, allowed myself to be taken in by a scam, a scam that put my eBook up without editing it, hence the embarrassing amount of grammatical problems that I really thought I caught in my revision, and then didn’t give me any of my royalties, despite the book garnering a handful of four and five star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads (the horror!). To make matters worse, they removed the book from stock, which is why for years you couldn’t find it anywhere on the web.

Until now that is. I’ve uploaded Arbiter onto Kindle Direct Publishing, finally realizing that that doesn’t actually cost any money. It’s still not professionally edited and not to the standard that I’m now holding myself to for fiction, but I wanted to put it out there for people who want to read it, so that it doesn’t languish on my Goodreads page like a testament to my own private shame. I’d like to emphasize that it’s not a bad book, and I encourage you to read it if you want (link here), but I can do better. I have been doing better, and trying my best to get those efforts to bear fruit (stay tuned!). Because of this, I’m not asking for much for Arbiter. I want to emphasize something here about this book, and about all my books: I don’t want your money. I just want to write. Arbiter is on sale for $2.99, and again, read it if you want. Don’t read it if you don’t. I’d like to warn you now that I’m not sure I plan on continuing this series, but I am working on other things.

One of those things is the game Forest Heart, which is currently in development. I’m on the narrative team for this project, and I can tell you right now, it’s going to be awesome! If you’d like to follow Forest Heart, which I highly recommend, you can find its Facebook page here and its Twitter account here. Forest Heart is going to be a story-driven game, and I hope it will meet your expectations.

Another thing I’m working on is a novel called The Forge, originally written to be young adult fantasy, although it doesn’t have to be. The Forge is set in a steampunk-inspired world and is the first book in a planned seven-part series that will follow the main characters through their teenage years into adulthood. I’m already working on The Forge’s sequel, Marked, which is about 30% done. I could describe the book in so many different ways, but let me just say that this is the book I’ve had the most fun writing so far, and hopefully that comes across as being a book that’s fun to read. You can find the canned synopsis, and a link to some sample chapters, below:

Courage. Wisdom. Strength.

When Kane gets chosen for the Forge, his first thought is that he’s about to become one of the Garrison Cities’ heroes, but his first encounter with the Darksteel teaches him that heroism is not all it’s made out to be. As a member of the Order of Iron, the Blades’ recruit Order, Kane was supposed to have at least eight years ahead of him before facing conflict of any sort, and he would have, if the centuries-old war against the Darksteel wasn’t about to change.

Kane and his friends quickly find themselves thrust into the center of a seven-hundred year old war. Between fending off coordinated attacks from a rapidly evolving enemy, his classmate’s odd connection to the Darksteel and saving his best friend from her own family, Kane’s life is about to get a lot more complicated than he’s ever bargained for.

Sample: http://bit.ly/1lkZNFX

Does this sound good to you? Would you like to read it? Fantastic, because I’m working on a Kickstarter for it right now! The link for that will be up soon, and I’m going to make a separate page for it. I’m trying to not make the same mistake I made with Arbiter this time. If I can manage it, The Forge will be professionally edited before it ever graces the digital (and physical) bookshelves of readers (and if I have money leftover, I’d love for some illustrations to match!)

But what about The Color of Fire you might ask, yea reader who has followed my obscure blog posts into eternity? I’m still working on it! The Color of Fire has evolved from its original novella format and has become the huge, sprawling The Edge of Dreams, a book that encompasses both Lena’s story from the original novella, and Lena and Sathi’s story onward into the future (because the magic system I came up with was too much fun for me to not explore)! Stay tuned for that, because the book is now finished and I’m giving it a few pre-edits before trying to do anything with it (because I haven’t quite given up on traditional publishing, but a 200,000 word long manuscript is going to be a nightmare to pitch).

Oh yeah and I’m doing science, so for the 0.001% of you who follows my blog for the science related stuff (going to try and set up a separate blog for that), I should have my first first-author paper out sometime this year. So stay tuned for that too!

 

Elizabeth Moon’s Oath of Fealty was the first entry into her Deed of Paksennarion universe in over two decades, and let me just point out for the purposes of this review that I have never actually read the Deed of Paksennarion. Oath of Fealty was, in fact, my first encounter with Moon. I’d heard the name before, of course, but up until this book, she was one of those authors I knew about, but had never actually read.

And let me just say, I loved this book.

It wasn’t what I expected when I first started reading it. I think, as fantasy readers, we’ve all been conditioned to expect that our books will take on the same sort of structure and formula. We meet the main character, the hero of the story. At some point, we are introduced to the villain. The story then goes on to some sort of linear progression where the hero gets stronger, gains the skills he needs, assembles his companions, and goes on to defeat the villain.

This book doesn’t do that. It starts out introducing someone that may be the villain, Duke Haron Verrakai, and proceeds to kill him off within the first few chapters. The book then goes on to show how each of the characters deal with his actions and with all the other events occurring across the world. It moves from Kieri Phelan, who has become king of the neighboring country of Lyonya and is now trying to deal with the country’s problems and its tensions with their neighbor Pargun, Jandelir Arcolin, who is now in charge of Kieri’s former Company and has to come to terms with his new authority, and Dorrin Verrakai, who has been appointed Duke after her uncle’s death and must now face her past and the things she left behind, and Mikeli, the crown prince of Tsaia, who is just trying to make the best decisions he can as he waits for his coronation. The book also reminds us towards the end that it is the first book of a series, and offers some tantalizing hints that make me wonder if Prince Camwyn or Matthis Stammel will take on bigger roles in later books. The book also contains several things that by now set off red flags for seasoned fantasy readers–elves, a half-elven main character, a pantheon of gods including an evil one, a paladin, and a secret heir to the throne.

And it does it well. Each character is unique and brings their own perspective to the story. The main characters are engaging, and easy to sympathize with. I found myself cheering for Dorrin and Arcolin and Kieri, and actually getting a little upset when the book changed POVs on me suddenly, because I wanted to know what happened next. Within the first chapter of Kieri’s story, I stopped caring that there were elves in the book, and actually remembered that, yes, I like elves. And the conflicts and alliances between the various gods were handled well, as well as the various conflicts within the cast.

The book is a bit of a slow starter if you haven’t read The Deed of Paksennarion before, because it assumes that you know who these characters are or are at least familiar with them. But once I kept reading and started learning more about each character, it stopped bothering me. I’d give this book a 4/5, and recommend it to all fantasy fans, especially those who like a little old-school fantasy. I will definitely be moving on to the next book in the series, Kings of the North once my copy arrives in the mail next week.

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Elisa Bonnin is the author of Arbiter, a fantasy novel about a young girl named Rae Miller who gets drawn into another realm and discovers that she has the power to mediate between the High Court and Dark Court of the Ivali, a race of powerful creatures. The book was published by Vittoriosa Books on December 27, 2012, and is available on Amazon for Kindle. It can be found here.

As some of you might know, I’ve been on pins and needles for the past few weeks waiting for a response from one of the graduate programs I’ve attended. It’s a feeling I’d like to point out is worse than waiting for a response from a publisher or a literary agent, because then you know that you have next to no chance. Most of the programs I’m applying to (oceanography or earth science depending on the school) don’t tend to respond until February, but that hasn’t stopped me from keeping my phone on vibrate and in my pocket at all times and an email tab open on my computer when I’m working on just about anything else. The idea that where I end up living and working for the next five to six years is completely dependent on the responses I get within the next few weeks is a little daunting, so it’s no wonder I’m slightly freaked out.

To add to that, I’ve also been heavily concerned with the state of my senior thesis, the last requirement left before I can graduate with honors from the South Carolina Honors College. You’d think, since I’ve already shown myself capable of turning out a rough draft worth 80,000 words in one month, I could write a 25-40 page thesis without much worry, but writing for science is very different from writing for pleasure. I keep thinking of the fact that I’ll be judged by the research I manage to turn in two month’s time, and that if I end up with a grad school interview, they’ll expect me to know my stuff. I can’t answer the “what’s your thesis on?” question with the usual “oh, you know, iron.” Incidentally, this is where trying to promote my book has been helping me. Since I’ve had to come up with so many “elevator pitches” for Arbiter, it’s been easier for me to distill the topic of my thesis down into a few words, in this case, the amount of biovailable iron coming from iceberg meltwater in the Antarctic.

On top of that, I’m the president of a student organization (Golden Key Honour Society) on my campus, which means I’m responsible for putting together the New Member Recognition Event, a headache in and of itself, as well as making sure the chapter runs smoothly from now until April, and I’m the treasurer of the Seidokan Aikido Club, a club that requires me to be present for at least two out of the three 2 hour class sessions per week so I can make regular belt progression. (I attend all three, generally, because I’m insane like that). So with all that, plus the promotion of Arbiter, plus a new novel in the works, it’s amazing that I have time for apathy.

You’d be surprised.

Like all seniors, the hardest part for me this semester with regards to classes has been forcing myself to care. I need to actually focus on the physical oceanography and physical chemistry classes I’m taking now. I need to care about the grades I’ll be receiving. I need to try for those As, because it’s going to show a horrible work ethic to future employers/graduate school advisors, if I screw up my 3.94 GPA in the last semester because I just didn’t care. And that’s the thing. I do care. I care a lot. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be stressed. But the temptation to coast to the finish line is there, especially considering most graduate schools won’t even see my final grades.

So that’s the thing. Motivation. I need to constantly remind myself that I can’t drop the ball here. I need to continue, and keep pushing. To give that extra effort, that 110%, one more time this semester, so that I can look back on my undergraduate years and say “Wow, I did a lot,” instead of saying “Wow, I did a lot, but I really messed up that last semester”.

Arbiter was published on December 27, 2012. As some of you know, at the ending of Arbiter, a new character was introduced. This character was meant to be part of a sequel hook for the next book, because if you read the novel, you’ll understand why her name (specifically her surname) is significant. That character is named Kieri Firithan. On December 29, 2012, I walked into a Books-A-Million and came out with a copy of Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon. And some of you already know where I’m going with this.

That’s right. Kieri Phelan. Now, since I live under a rock and had not read any Elizabeth Moon before, I had no idea that her main character and my sequel hook character shared surprisingly similar names. In fact, it was seeing the name Kieri on the back of the book that prompted me to read Oath in the first place, because hey, what were the odds? After reading Oath of Fealty and loving it (It’s an awesome book and fantasy fans should all go read it), I reconciled myself to the fact that Kieri and Kieri were just going to have to have the same names. I mean, it happens. There’s only so many syllables you can string together to make fantasy-sounding names, and the two characters are as different as can be. Moon’s Kieri is a tough male half-elven mercenary leader-turned-Duke-turned-King and my Kieri is a small,  female, completely human assassin. Besides, by this point, Arbiter was already out and I couldn’t change the name. So, I braced myself for potential incoming Kieri vs. Kieri comments (especially considering it’s fairly obvious from my Goodreads page that I am now reading Oath of Fealty) and moved on.

Coincidences like this happen, strangely enough, and it’s not like lightning strikes in the same place twice, after all. It’s not like I was going to find anything similar with my new work, The Color of Fire, right? I mean, they’re fantasy names. There’s got to be some combination out there that’s unique. It’s not like the same thing is going to happen with my main character from The Color of Fire, Lenalia Sabriel, right?

Oh, wait.

Garth Nix- Sabriel

Yes, that is a book titled Sabriel. From another well-known fantasy author. In which the main character’s name is Sabriel. And which I’m probably going to go read for the same reason that I read Oath of Fealty. It showed up in my Goodreads recommendations because the internet is run by a troll.

This is the part where the creative process grinds to a screeching halt and the author goes “Oh crap!” inside their head.

Why, Lena?! Why couldn’t you have a more unique name?!?

So now I’m sitting here wrestling with the dilemma of whether or not to change Lena’s surname so I don’t get known as “that author who steals names from more popular authors”. Thank you, Lena. Thanks a lot. At least Sathiri Kiran is safe, besides those both being totally real names according to Google.

* * *

 Arbiter by Elisa A. Bonnin is available on Amazon for Kindle. It can be found here . Pay no attention to the YA rating, adults. It was written for all audiences to enjoy.

 

It’s occurred to me that I might need to stop referring to The Color of Fire as a “light” fantasy/romance. What makes it “light” is the fact that as a fantasy, we’re not really saving a world, or saving much of anything, and the magic is contained to one person, and aside from one scene where he uses it to fight, for the rest of the book it’s just a part of his character. As a romance, the romance is there and the feelings are there, but it’s rarely pointed out and only ends with a kiss. As far as tone goes, though, it’s turning out to be pretty heavy.

The problem is Lena. When discussing writing styles with a good friend of mine, I pointed out that my writing tended to lean towards the dreamy and whimsical, when it leaned to much at all, but not to think that that meant all my stories were light and happy. With a nod, she told me “There are nightmares in there too.” There are, and Lena has full access to those nightmares. Whereas Rae in Arbiter was straightforward and to the point, and tended to break down the magical events around her into more mundane terms, Lena turns the mundane into the magical and occasionally the sinister. She looks at the world from an artist’s perspective, and what she sees isn’t always what’s in plain sight.

Oh, there’s whimsical sweet imagery in there too, like when she looks at fishing boats out on the ocean at night and compared them to jewels on a sheet of black, but all in all, Lena is an interesting viewpoint to write from. Now that she’s happier, I wonder if the dark images will start fading, or if she’ll keep tossing them into the narrative, to remind us that she’s not quite all there, although she sees more than people give her credit for.

There’s a reason for Lena to be depressed for the opening chapters, but I won’t go into that now because that contains plot spoilers. But when you have the main character allude to suicide in Chapter 4, no matter how slightly or how subtly it might be, you are not writing anything “light”.

It’s occurred to me that I might need to stop referring to The Color of Fire as a “light” fantasy/romance. What makes it “light” is the fact that as a fantasy, we’re not really saving a world, or saving much of anything, and the magic is contained to one person, and aside from one scene where he uses it to fight, for the rest of the book it’s just a part of his character. As a romance, the romance is there and the feelings are there, but it’s rarely pointed out and only ends with a kiss. As far as tone goes, though, it’s turning out to be pretty heavy.

The problem is Lena. When discussing writing styles with a good friend of mine, I pointed out that my writing tended to lean towards the dreamy and whimsical, when it leaned to much at all, but not to think that that meant all my stories were light and happy. With a nod, she told me “There are nightmares in there too.” There are, and Lena has full access to those nightmares. Whereas Rae in Arbiter was straightforward and to the point, and tended to break down the magical events around her into more mundane terms, Lena turns the mundane into the magical and occasionally the sinister. She looks at the world from an artist’s perspective, and what she sees isn’t always what’s in plain sight.

Oh, there’s whimsical sweet imagery in there too, like when she looks at fishing boats out on the ocean at night and compared them to jewels on a sheet of black, but all in all, Lena is an interesting viewpoint to write from. Now that she’s happier, I wonder if the dark images will start fading, or if she’ll keep tossing them into the narrative, to remind us that she’s not quite all there, although she sees more than people give her credit for.

There’s a reason for Lena to be depressed for the opening chapters, but I won’t go into that now because that contains plot spoilers. But when you have the main character allude to suicide in Chapter 4, no matter how slightly or how subtly it might be, you are not writing anything “light”.

 

TA-DA!

The Color of Fire, a light fantasy/romance I’m working on that is unfortunately not the sequel to Arbiter, just broke 20,000 words today. This marked a major milestone for the story in terms of word count, and also a major milestone in terms of Lena, the main character’s, character growth. The last scene I wrote kind of stuck with me, so I decided to run the whole thing through http://wordle.net, a generator that takes the most common words in a piece and generates one of those images. I like how it turned out, especially Lena and Sathi’s names being front and center, considering up to this point, the whole story has been revolving around them. 

I really feel good about this work. I’m hoping that there’s enough story in here to make it something a bigger publisher might want to pick up, but the word count of the piece is starting to worry me. I’m actually thinking it might be too short, just over 70,000 words instead of the usual 80K that fantasy publishers seem to want. But I’m not going to let that worry me at this point. The Color of Fire is Lena’s story, and padding it to extend the length is just going to cheapen it in the long run. I think I’ll let Lena tell her story, and see how far we get.

My first novel, Arbiter, can now be found on Amazon as an ebook, published by Vittoriosa Books. The book can be found here, and can be downloaded to Kindle or PC for just $2.99 (Free to Amazon Prime Members). Writing this book was a lot of fun, and I hope that you guys have as much fun reading it as I had writing it (and without all the frustration I had revising it).

One of the things I’d like to note is that something went wrong in the formatting, and all of my scene breaks have been removed. I’ve emailed the publisher about it, so hopefully it will be corrected soon. In the meantime, sorry for the inconvenience!

Feel free to discuss the novel in the comments below, and I’d love to answer questions if you have them. (Just don’t ask me questions like “How does the series end?”)