Ashlee Willis's Blog

As many of you may be aware, author HSJ Williams’ fantasy novel, Moonscript, will be releasing on May 7, 2020. Do you know how close that is?!!? I don’t know about you, but I want this book IN my hands when it is still hot from the printing press.

In anticipation of this book’s release, I’m privileged to introduce you to one of the characters (artwork by the lovely authoress herself).

Meet Casara . . .

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That smile . . . it was a mother’s smile.

Wife of Leoren and lady of the royal house, Casara has always been a figure of grace and gentleness to the elves of Aselvia. She bears much grief and loss with poise, but deep inside she longs for new life and purpose.

*****

Please remember to mark Moonscript on your TBR list on Goodreads, visit the author’s website to learn more about the novel, and even preorder it on Amazon!

Deprivation. A gift. It is what sparks the fire of our inborn resources, uncovers the internal wealth of creativity and curiosity that each of us has within. Perhaps, as families, as towns, and even as an entire country, we have cause to know that much more sharply these days than we ever have before.

But I wonder . . . will what we have discovered during this time simply disappear the moment our hardships are over? What is it that makes humans overlook the things nearest to them? The books on our own shelves (when libraries are closed), the family member in the same room (when coworkers and friends are at a distance), the neighbor across the lawn (when Facebook friends are busy), the streets of our own town (when driving isn’t an option)?

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Maybe there is a hidden pandemic, something that has been spreading through our lives, a silent poison, one person to another, for much longer than any of us have realized. And now, we have been given the chance to heal ourselves from it. We have lacked a smallness which would allow us to forget the wider world and instead gaze within ourselves or within the people closest to us. We’ve lacked the blurred focus which would give us permission to cherish our hearts and minds and give our overworked bodies a break, find the deep joy of simply living once again.

Maybe this is the chance we have needed, perhaps even unknowingly longed for—to develop the talent for a slow, observant, in the moment existence. The type of existence every human craves, yet deprives herself of on a daily basis.

Slow down. Let the here and now sink into your soul. Look into someone’s eyes. Listen to the song of a bird. Let your heart unravel, half-dreaming, in the sunshine. Share a story or a secret. Laugh and argue and struggle and emerge and be . . . This is what we were made for, after all, when all else falls away.

And when what has fallen away returns, as it inevitably will . . . do not forget what your heart taught you in the quiet.

In honor of #FantasyMonth, I thought it would be fun and insightful to re-explore some of my absolute favorite books (who wouldn’t?!) and why their “worlds” felt so special or real to me. Why they felt like places that, oftentimes, I’d prefer to the world I actually live in.

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The Sevenwaters series. Author Juliet Marillier has a unique touch to her story-weaving ability that has often led me to wonder if she actually weaves magic straight into the pages of her tales. She has such talent for transporting readers to the worlds she creates. And as an author, I’ve of course asked myself why that is. Description is a strong point for her. While the world of Sevenwaters is a fantastical one, its forests and streams and houses bear many similarities to the ones in our world. Yet Marillier’s descriptions of these places come completely to life when she speaks of them. I can only imagine that the places she speaks of are, whether recreated from real life or whipped up in her imagination, places she deeply loves. She obviously has a deep respect and affection for nature (as do I!), and this shows very starkly and beautifully in her writing. Authenticity like that means her readers sit up and pay attention.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon. From the first words of this book, I knew it would be one I never forgot. And I was right. While Barnhill’s worldbuilding is magnificent, what I remember most about her story are the characters themselves. Which, in the end, only enhanced the world they live in. Each character has a unique way of seeing the world around them and interacting with it. And because of that, the story world itself, along with the strong feelings it evokes, becomes unforgettable.

The Chronicles of Narnia. Well, you knew I’d never leave these off the list. While many have lamented Lewis’ over-simplified worldbuilding (especially when compared to his friend Tolkien’s), I still consider Narnia as one of the most special places in my heart. Why is that, if the details of his world leave so much lacking? My opinion: Passion. When Lewis was writing about Narnia, he was writing about his own personal version of heaven. The rolling hills and fresh orchards and sparkling streams, the seaside castles and nymph-filled forests and moonlit dances in the glade. He had not only knowledge of the Bible (which was crucial to imbue the tales with deeper allegorical meaning), but was well-versed in mythology of many kinds. These details, and the rather unorthodox (at that time) mixture of them, added a uniqueness to Narnia that makes it irresistible and so very easy to fall in love with.

The Mirrorworld duology by Cornelia Funke. I read these years ago, yet every time I glimpse one of them on the shelf or hear someone talk about them, I immediately return to the world the author created. Details arise in my mind, images I’ve stored there (unknowingly) of particular things that struck me when I read these books so long ago. Many books I’ve read simply fade away, but for some reason these have not. Ironically, the title of one of the books is Fearless, which happens to be the exact reason I believe the world of these stories remains so clearly in my mind. The author herself fearlessly plucked ideas from well-known fairy tales and quite boldly and firmly placed them in her own wildly unique story. There’s something that makes your head swivel when you see an author so gracefully and expertly weaving a tale. I couldn’t help but remember her Mirrorworld and the light and shadow that play in my mind each time I think of it.

I’d love to hear about the story worlds that have touched you in a unique way. What caused them to remain in your mind or heart? What was it about them that reached out and grabbed your attention?

Don’t forget to visit author Jenelle Schmidt’s blog to read other intriguing posts for #FantasyMonth!

I have the privilege of being part of the cover reveal for Jenelle Schmidt’s new children’s book, which releases October 1st. It’s called ‘Twas An Evening in Bethlehem.  Beautiful illustrations and a charming, timeless story told by a truly talented author. It would make a perfect Christmas gift for any little ones in your life!

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‘Twas an evening in Bethlehem and all through the day

Many guests were arriving from far, far away…

The inn is full, but when a young, expectant couple arrives, the innkeeper cannot turn them away. Follow this beloved tale through the eyes of the innkeeper’s young daughter as she witnesses the glorious surprises of that very first Christmas and rediscover anew the gift of the manger that ultimately points us to the cross.

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I’ll be posting a review of the book itself around the time of it’s release, October 1st. Can’t wait to share my thoughts with you about this classic story.

Be sure to put it on your To-Read list on Goodreads! And visit the author’s website for more information by clicking here.

I know many of you are not only readers but writers as well. We all develop our own system for both writing and editing. And as I continue through the slogging process of editing my own latest novel, I thought it would be fun to take a break and give you a peek into how the editing process works for me. If you’re a writer, maybe you’ll even find a way to use some of these tips yourself.

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FIRST ROUND

My first round of edits usually includes changing big-picture things like story structure, deleting or adding whole scenes, and filling in plot holes. I usually have a decent knowledge of what I’ll need to do this round simply because I took a few extra minutes after each first-draft writing session to jot down what I knew would later need some attention. I use this list as my launchpad for my first round of edits.

SECOND ROUND

This is usually the tedious round. I do it in several sections, which can get time-consuming. I look for consistency. Consistency in each character (their speech, actions, physical appearance), consistency in details of the plot, consistency in my world-building (which may or may not include politics and magic), and consistency in setting (did the scene begin with characters standing in the forest and end with them somehow next to a lake?). Depending on how confident I feel about having nailed these things in my first draft, I may try to tackle them all in one or two read-throughs. However, if necessary, I may choose to do a read-through for each one of them separately (I did say it was time-consuming!!).

THIRD ROUND

Ok, so I said the second round was the tedious one, but I was wrong. It’s this one. In addition to checking things like spelling and grammar, there’s the part I REALLY dread, which is getting rid of unnecessary words. Here’s how I do that: I use the website WordCount.net to copy and paste my entire manuscript. Information then pops up telling me various things about my manuscript such as word, sentence and paragraph count, etc. What I like best, though, is the info it gives me on repetitive words, listed under “keyword density” on this site. There are some words I have a little too much fondness for and, until they pop up on this search, I really had no idea I used them quite so much. This site also shows me 2-word or 3-word phrases that I tend to repeat. For example, it alerted me to the fact that I use “shook his head” 6 times, which means I can then do a search for those phrases in my book and change or delete them as I wish. In addition to repetitive words, the site also tells me how long my book would take to read silently versus read aloud, and also gives me the estimated reading level of the novel! So cool.

FOURTH ROUND

This one’s pretty informal, but kinda sacred to me. I print off my entire manuscript, even hole punch it and put it in a binder to make it seem more like a “real” book. I choose a day I know I won’t be disturbed and have lots of time on my hands, and I do one last read-through. The trick with this round is not to pick apart the novel, but to simply read it, enjoy it, and ONLY listen to things my subconscious snags on (much the same as when I’m reading someone else’s book and I get to a point where something just doesn’t “feel” right). If this happens, I pencil in something at that place, and move on.

I’ve read several very good editing books/websites as well which are loaded with great advice, and I’ll link them below in case you’re interested.

Do you have any special tips or rituals that help your editing process? What are they?

Revision & Self-Editing by James Scott Bell

Super Structure by James Scott Bell

Ultimate Editing Checklist by Jerry Jenkins

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne

Enough “news” for ya?! Haha, thought so.

This is for ALL of you! My old newsletter is no longer active, so even if you subscribed to it years ago (or recently!), you’ll need to re-subscribe to my new one. Don’t worry, you’ll still only get ONE copy of it!

I recently finished editing my newest novel and I’ll be looking for one or two beta readers in the coming weeks to help give feedback before I submit it for publication. Traditionally I’ve chosen my beta readers only from newsletter subscribers. And when the time comes (far down the road . . . but I hope not TOO far!) that my book needs advance readers just before its release, those readers will be newsletter subscribers too.

Enough reasons to follow my NEW newsletter yet?! Click here to get started.

Here’s to a wonderful summer, everyone! Tell me what you’ve been up to!

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Music has always been magical for me. Whether it’s Kate Rusby’s fairytale-esque folk music, a brokenhearted Chopin Nocturne, the hard bite of Switchfoot sound and lyrics, or simply when I’m geeking out to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack . . .

I choose the music, and then, impossibly, the music seems to choose me. Reaches out and grips me, pulls me in until I’m no longer myself, but part of something greater. Ethereal and unworldly, I shiver out of my own skin and dive deep into unexplored parts of myself. The things I thought I knew float away, unheeded and unimportant. New landscapes open. Memories long buried begin to surface. Images unimagined begin to form. Inspirations cascade and collide and merge until nothing exists but the music and the way my soul hears it, drinks it, dances to it.

But only the best music can do that. Only the song that hits you, unexpected, just when you are vulnerable. Or the song that you reach toward in desperate need and longing. The song you are hearing for the first time, and will never hear the same way again. The song that, unbidden, turns your heart over like a stone to uncover the treasure hiding beneath.

There’s nothing like music. Nothing like the poetry of notes rising and falling, words riding upon them. Much like a well-told story, music has the ability to find the shortcut, the hidden passageway through the conscious mind and cut straight to the heart of you, right to the source of who you are.

God didn’t make a mistake when he planned it that way. Music is the call that allows us to see heaven, to see His face more clearly. The thing that can, if we let it, lead us home.

“Where words leave off, music begins.” (Heinrich Heine)

What does music do to you?

This is a guest post by author Jenelle Leanne Schmidt.

When I was asked to write a post about something that inspires my writing, my mind went instantly blank. I struggled with jotting down one idea, then another, but none of it felt right. You see, I’m not entirely certain I can point to a single thing that inspires me above all other things.

I draw inspiration from everywhere: song lyrics, the way I feel when I stare at the horizon, a particularly beautiful moment in time, a question that suddenly springs to mind, prayer, the books I read, the movies I watch, a piece of artwork that snags the corner of my soul and stops me in my tracks, the people in my life — from their support and encouragement to a unique personality quirk — everything I experience is fodder for the imagination.

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Imagination.

I’ve always had a vivid imagination. When I was little, my friends usually wanted to play with dolls. Later on, it was video games. I just wanted to play make-believe. I wanted to become someone else and improvise a story as we went along. Even when I was older, I was always making up stories and acting them out, even when I could no longer find anyone to play these games with me. Whether it was pretending my bike was a wild horse I had tamed, to imagining that I was a lost princess from a distant planet who had to flee a coup and my enemies had infiltrated Earth and were using tiny AI devices they had installed in every stoplight to search for me, to pretending to be an orphan running away from an evil orphan keeper to live in the woods… I was always imagining some grand plot for myself as a character.

Stories are a part of the fabric from which I am made. The books my parents read to me, the stories my dad would make up before bed-time, the movies we watched as a family, every one of them fueled my imagination. The Chronicles of Narnia, in particular, captured my heart, and from that moment on, set me on a course searching for Narnia every chance I got. To this day, I still find myself opening doors and peeking around them, just on the off-chance that Narnia lies behind it.

I firmly believe that imagination is a gift from God. Our imaginations were created in the image of His own, the imagination that led to the creation of everything we see. He is the greatest author of all time, after all, and though we perceive it to be non-fiction, perhaps it is merely fantasy after all. And why should this life not be fiction? The Bible seems to insist that the “real” world is the one that we cannot see, the one that is hidden from our view. “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

One day, perhaps, we will find the right door and gain a glimpse of what is to come, or perhaps that door can only be found at the very end of life when we step out of this world and into the next one. But until then, I shall continue opening doors and waiting to see what spark God sends me to ignite my imagination next!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

[image error]Jenelle is a rare and elusive creature known as an “author.” She enjoys wandering in the woods and opening doors in search of hidden passageways. She can sometimes be found in darkened corners of libraries or coffee shops sipping hot chocolate and carrying on animated conversations with those strange and invisible beings known as “characters.”

If you spot an author in the wild it is best to proceed cautiously, as, like many other authors, Jenelle is a bit shy and timid, though her friends would disagree with that statement. Her favorite genres to read and write are fantasy, sci-fi, and fairy tales.

VISIT HER ONLINE HERE

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This is a guest post by author Brent King.

“This is how I want to spend my life: corroborating with the forces of inspiration

that I can neither see, nor prove, nor command, nor understand.”

– Elizabeth Gilbert

Inspiration can be a flitting, fleeting thing.

My Vain Effort

I have often attempted to follow the butterfly of inspiration to its source. It flits here and it flits there and—before I can net it—it disappears into the wild and senseless landscape. Then, once again, I find myself sitting with my back to a tree, toying with words in a vain effort to recreate its fancy.

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Why does it elude me so, this butterfly of inspiration? Why does it leave me empty? I’ve thought about this a lot, and I’ve come to think that it’s because it’s a verb. I fail to catch it because I turn it into a noun and chase it.

The Divine Dance

Inspiration a verb? That’s kind of esoteric. What does that mean? I think the word that best portrays this verb of inspiration is “dance.” Every moment of life is a dance, a dance we all have been included in from birth. Writing a poem, singing a song, holding a loved one, mothering, fathering, feasting, writing, painting, sacrificing, hurting—every good and bad thing we experience—are all a part of the great circle dance of life.

Divinity is dancing, embodied and formed in our lives and relationships, participating in and through our senses and our souls. As Jürgen Moltmann so eloquently expresses, this dance fluctuates between integration and differentiation, between the love that binds into community and the freedom that allows unique singularity, between unity in diversity and diversity in unity. Nothing exists outside of this great divine dance in which we participate. It is the synapsis of creation, and the rhythm of the times of life. It inspires our every moment and brings awe and wonder to every step, to every word, to every stroke, to every embrace.

Savor the Flow!

So it’s this dance that should inspire my writing. You know, that singing, painting, feasting dance. Well, not exactly—because my writing is part of that dance. It’s a verb. It is the dance. So the butterfly of my inspiration only eludes me when I take it out of the dance and objectify it, when I turn it into a noun and chase it across the landscape. This is a sort of cerebral disconnection from what is. Books and books have been written on the remedy for this—on reconnection, contemplation, or savoring.

When I simply enjoy the flow of the dance, savoring every quickening moment, I needn’t worry about inspiration. I will have roosts of butterflies clustering about me with every samba step.

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[image error]Brent King is a freelance writer of Christian urban fantasy from Lake Oswego, Oregon. He also works as a massage therapist and health consultant. He has two sons, 23 and 26, who live in British Columbia, Canada.

Brent’s first book, The Grip of Grace: God’s Hand in The Lord of the Rings, was published in January, 2014. His debut novel, The Fiercest Fight, was published in November 2015.

Visit Brent Here:

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This is a guest post by author H.S.J. Williams.

When I was a little girl, there was a book on the shelf that fascinated me. It portrayed a young native girl sitting on a grassy hill, a wolf lying by her side. Her pensive expression, the wind in her hair…it all evoked my imagination. I couldn’t read, but I knew a story when I saw one. So I took the book and “told the story” to my long-suffering younger cousin. (This book was Island of the Blue Dolphins if you were wondering, though I found that out much later.)

I realize now my reason for writing is no different. I must bring the characters to life. [image error]They let me know of their existence in different ways…I might catch a glimpse of them in reflection of another story, in an art piece, or they just knock on the door of my mind and demand I pay attention. And from there, I have to know their story, what they want, who they know, what they will do.

When I was about ten years old, I was convinced blonde hair and blue eyes were the height of beauty so my own brown hair and green eyes frustrated me to no end. Nevertheless, I made up my mind that I would create a heroine (the most beautiful in the world, mind you) and she would also have brown hair and green eyes. Her name was Emerald, and I eagerly wrote her adventures (with much borrowing from my favorite stories, as kids are wont to do.) She lead battles as a twelve year old because I was fierce enough to believe it possible. She helped give me confidence in what I looked like and what I could do.

In my published novella, Fairest Son, my main characters took me a bit by surprise. I don’t even remember where Keeva and Idris came from, they were just suddenly there, personalities fully intact. I hardly had to encourage their romance, they just had chemistry. (Me: Children, are you actually mine?) On the other hand, it took me well over a year before I could figure out the plot.

I’ve been getting to know the people in my WIP series for many years now, and it has been a complete delight to bring them to life through writing words or scribbling sketches. Their changes, opinions, decisions never fail to surprise me.

This adoration perhaps makes me a bit of their biggest fangirl, but there’s no place I’d rather be as an author. Loving them gives me the desire to bring them the stories and the ending they need (which is often what the reader wants.)

Characters are what breathe life into a story. To me, they are constant companions and dear friends. And I can only hope that my readers will love them and find as much joy in their lives as I.

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GIVEAWAY!

Visit this Rafflecopter link to enter your name into a giveaway for Williams’ debut novella: Fairest Son.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

From the beginning, H. S. J. Williams has loved stories and all the forms they take. Whether with word, art, or costume, she has always been fascinated with the magic of imagination. She lives in a real fantastical kingdom, the beautiful Pacific Northwest, with her very own array of animal friends and royally loving family. Williams taught Fantasy Illustration at MSOA. She may also be a part-time elf.

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