Creatures I Want to Write About in the Future

Hi all!

This week I’m going to focus on what creatures I would like to write about in the future. These can be animals, aliens or mythological. If you’ve read my other blog posts you’ll know that I love writing about animals and monsters more than anything else.

Dinosaurs.

As a kid I loved reading and watching films about dinosaurs. I especially loved watching the ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’ miniseries. If I have to choose one dinosaur to write about, it would be the Velociraptor. They were always my favourite growing up so they would be my go-to when I write about dinosaurs. I haven’t got any ideas for them yet, but I’m sure I will in the future!

Arthropleura.

I would love to write a story about a gigantic millipede that causes carnage in the modern world. I have a series idea that I could put them in, though the idea is very bare at the moment. Ever since I saw a TV series that had an episode with them in, I've known that I wanted to write about them.

Shapeshifters.

Although I never would have considered writing about shapeshifters a few years ago, I'm now more open to the idea. I've got a book idea that revolves around shapeshifters, though they don't shift into conventional animals. They are a mix of two or three animals. In fact, one of my notes is just 'Buff Sabretooth Tiger vs Frog-Dog'. I'm not sure when I will get around to writing this one though.

Teumessian Fox.

This is a fox from Greek mythology that is destined to never be caught. I would love to write about this fox at some point, though I'm not sure whether it would be in a novel or short story. I love Greek mythology and having a fox that can never be hunted down is such a fascinating concept to me, especially since they are usually hunted so much.

Kitsune.

I have written a short story on a Kitsune before, but I don't like it so much. I want to add them into another story where they have a bigger role instead of just being the protagonist's wife.

Phoenix.

This is another one I really want to write about but can't find the story for. I adore the concept of it dying and then being reborn from it's own ashes, but each death darkens the colour of their feathers. There is also the potential for it to be as creative as I want, it doesn't just have to be an orange bird. It can have multicoloured feathers or talons.

Fenrir.

I’ve never written about canines before and would love to include them in a story. Fenrir is the one that fascinates me most, as he has such a good reason to be angry and vengeful against the Gods. He is also destined to break from his chains and wreak havoc, which I think would be a cool thing to write about.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed! See you next week!

PS, love free books? Check out these ones about monsters!

Dragon, Creature and Monster Giveaway

My First Radio Interview

Hi all!

If you haven't seen my social media posts, I went on the radio! John Eden at Soundart Radio was kind enough to invite me onto his show, Feast of Eden. If you want to check out Soundart Radio and all the other shows it has to offer, click here.

My interview didn't start until 12:30pm, but I met up with John at 11:30am for a quick chat before the show started. We met at a cafe and sat outside, surrounded by pouring rain and wasps, but had a good time chatting about books and our lives. We then went to the studio when it got too wet, where I met some of the Soundart team and continued chatting before the show. John was even kind enough to give me a few presents before we went on. (If you're reading this, John, Mishka has her eye on the bag, I think she wants it for herself.)

You can just about see Mishka eyeing up the presents in the background

Before I went on air I was nervous, but John made me feel comfortable as we chatted. All of my music played fine, I picked a few songs from my writing playlist, which you can read about in a previous blog post.

I thought it went well, I was told by my colleagues and boyfriend who listened live that I spoke well and sounded confident in what I was saying. Even though I thought I stumbled on a few parts, no-one else seemed to notice. The only part that I thought I did the worst on was reading a passage from Venom and Earth. I tried to slow down as I've been told before I read too fast, and it seemed to go okay.

We then talked about various themes in my books, mostly the dragons, elemental powers and the politics. John also referenced a few my blog posts and asked me to talk more about them, especially the one on creating alien planets. Of course, he also asked me about my cats; Rocky and Mishka! I couldn't forget about my little writing buddies!

Overall I think I did quite well despite my nervousness in the beginning. My anxiety kept me up most of the night before worrying about it, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Afterwards my boyfriend drove us home in the torrential rain, where we had lunch and played with Mishka for a bit. John has also invited me on his show again, to talk more about Glass and Ice. I can't wait for the next one, and I'll be a bit less jittery next time as I know what to expect!

John’s show, Feast of Eden, is on Thursdays at 12:30pm BST if you want to check out his other interviews! Next week he’s interviewing another author, John Simes, who actually recommended the show to me.

I've also done two other interviews with authors on their blogs, which you can check out here:

Sudesna Ghosh

Rockebah Stewart

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next Sunday!

PS; want some free books to download this weekend? Check out this book bundle organised by me!

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Glass and Ice Preorder Live

Hi all!

If you haven’t seen my social media posts, then I just wanted to let you know that Glass and Ice is now available for preorder on Amazon!

I can confirm that it will be out in ebook and paperback October 13th 2020.

You can preorder here:

Amazon

In the meantime if you want something new to read from the Elemental Dragons universe, you can sign up to my mailing list! When you sign up, you’ll get a FREE enovella containing four short stories from the Elemental Dragons universe:

Sign up here!

If you want to hear me discuss my books and learn more about me, then you can listen to me on the radio! John Eden at SoundartRadio has invited me for an interview 27th August at 12.30pm BST. I’ll be discussing everything Elemental Dragons and my writing process! You can listen here on Thursday: Soundart Radio.

That’s it for this week, see you next week where I will be discussing the outcome of the radio interview and how I felt during.

New Website Feature Announcement

Hi all,

This week I'm going to talk about a new feature that I will be adding to my website - character profiles!

For each book I write I will create a character profile for each of the main characters, antagonists and any popular side characters. Of course as the only books I have out at the moment are in the Elemental Dragons series, they're the first profiles that will go up!

I ran a Twitter and Facebook poll to see what interest there was for character profiles and was surprised to see that so many of you were interested. So, on the 22nd August I will send an email to my newsletter subscribers with a poll for them to pick who the first character profile will be. I think it's only fair that as they have signed up for my mailing list they get to be the ones to decide which ones shall be added first. 

So, what exactly will be in each character profile? I've listed it below:

Eye colour

Hair colour

Skin colour

Physical appearance

Age

Nationality

Mannerisms

Parents (if known)

Siblings (if known)

Animal companion

Accessories

Best friend

Love interest/Partner

Favourite foods

Favourite drink

Hobbies

Favourite colour

Element/Magical Power/Magical Features

Anything extra that I feel needs to be added

As you can see from the above these profiles will be very detailed, so I won't be able to do one for every character at once. I'm hoping to start doing a few in September, with polls every so often so people can decide who they want a profile on next! I am planning on doing profiles for the human and dragon characters, so the dragon ones will be tweaked slightly as some of the above doesn't apply to them.

At the moment I am not planning on having any of the characters illustrated with their profile, but that might change in the future.

Another announcement to make is that Glass and Ice will be going up for pre-order in the very near future, so keep an eye out for it.

Are you excited to see the character profiles? Let me know in the comments!

That's it for this week, see you next Sunday!

Last chance to check out these books!

Dragon, Creature and Monster KU

Creating Alien Planets

Hi all,

This week I'm going to be talking about alien planets. I recently created one for a short story but I now intend to use it for a short story collection! The collection will be about the Gods, Goddesses and Deities of this planet. The collection will probably take a while to complete, as this is a side project of sorts. I intend to get individual stories published elsewhere and then combine them all into one book.

Here's a quick profile of the planet:

Planet name: Vusuunah-RM89.

Colonised by: Humans. 

Type: Earth-like.

Technology: Minimal.

Trade Routes: None.

Alien Species: Many, most undocumented.

Alien Fauna: Many, most undocumented.

Human Settlements: 216.

Because of this, I wanted to make a post about how to create a believable alien planet. So, let's get started:

How far is it from other planets?

You need to keep this in mind if you are planning on having multiple planets and worlds. If your planet is out of the way, it's unlikely that it's going to have good access to trade and newer technology. This also means that your characters may not be able to visit it as often as other planets.

What is the climate of your planet?

Is it similar to Earth, with different areas? Or is it all the same no matter where you go? You can have areas that are extremely hot and areas that are terribly cold, you are not bound by rules stating it has to be a certain temperature. You can also make it a warm tundra, or a freezing desert. It's up to you.

Is it colonised by humans?

Not all planets have to be colonised by humans - you can have alien settlements as well. Depending on who has colonised it you need to think of the following factors: clean water, climate and oxygen. If your species doesn't rely on these three things as much as humans then you don't have anything to worry about. However, humans are extremely unlikely to attempt to live on a planet that has rare access to clean water and oxygen. Your planet has to be hospitable.

Have any species been wiped out?

If your story focuses on humans, have they purposely or accidentally wiped out alien species? Across history humans have been known to hunt animals to the point of extinction, or destroy their habitat so much they die off. If humans colonise new planets, this behaviour is unlikely to stop. For example; an alien species relies on a certain habitat to survive. Humans think this is the perfect habitat to settle in, and start destroying it to make room for farmland and cities. With nowhere else to go, that species will die off.

Is anything toxic to humans?

Of course with alien planets almost anything you like can be toxic to humans. If that's the case, settlers are unlikely to live there.

Are there any enemies?

Is there a rival species that yours constantly battles with? Is their way of life different? You need a good reason for these species to constantly fight. It could be as simple as one burned down another's house. It doesn't have to be a deep rivalry that has spanned generations.

Are there different cultures?

When you think of earth, your mind doesn't go to one specific culture. On a different planet with separate settlements they'll each have their own cultures. Try to include a few in your writing, or at least allude to more if your focus is only on one.

Is anything worshipped?

My short stories focus on the origins of certain Gods, Goddesses and Deities. If humans move to a new planet, they are bound to find new things to worship. If your species has a religion, or multiple, think about how this effects their day-to-day life.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week.

PS; love fantasy books? Check these books out!

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Short Story Collection - Excerpt

Hi all!

I finished Camp NaNoWriMo this week and manged to write 64K through July for my horror novel, Mute. Needless to say, I’m very drained right now. So, I thought I’d share an excerpt from the Elemental Dragons Short Story Collection! I have a few new readers who may not be aware of this eNovella, filled with four short stories from the Elemental Dragons universe (with illustrations!).

Free to those who subscribe to my mailing list: Download free here

This is an excerpt from the first story, Circles, which includes a familiar face!

---

Circles always fill her dreams.

A black dragon stands on top of a lone, jagged cliff overlooking a sea of pine trees. The crisp breeze makes the leaves whistle as it shakes the trunks, blowing many away into the night. The sky is dark, but comforting with twinkling stars scattered like blobs of paint on a canvas. A small gasp escapes the dragon’s lips at the sight of the moon, the biggest she’s ever seen it. The silver orb hangs just above the skyline, large enough to see individual craters on the rocky surface. The dragon silently wonders if it’s close enough to touch, but quickly shakes that thought from her mind.

She cries out in joy as a group of fireflies dance towards her, their orange glow causing her black scales to shimmer. The tiny creatures move in tight circles, weaving around her limbs and gently bouncing off her scales with their delicate wings. With a wide smile, the dragon purses her lips and blows a circle into the air, the cold air reacting with her hot breath. The fireflies zoom through it before heading towards the trees, taking their dance elsewhere.

The black dragon takes a step towards the cliff edge, in awe of the long drop that leads towards the swaying trees. Glancing behind her, she grins at the sight of her long, bat-like wings; strong enough to carry her through even the worst wind currents, she knew they’d have no problem with the steep drop.

A loud roar catches her off guard and she instinctively jumps back, baring her sharp teeth. A familiar red dragon with blue feet drops in front of her, an amused twinkle in his blue eyes. Relaxing at the sight of her friend, the black dragon scolds him for scaring her with a growl, but he just rolls his eyes in return. Before she can say anything more, her friend cracks his wings and steps backwards off the cliff; the strong flap of his wings keeping him suspended in the air. Motioning for her to follow with his long tail, he does a quick flip in front of her, his tail tip briefly touching his snout before soaring towards the trees. His red and blue scales stick out like a sore thumb against the blue and purple hues of the sky, so the dragon was confident that she wouldn’t lose sight of him.

Wriggling her rump in anticipation, the black dragon dives off the cliff, free-falling for a few seconds before a wind current catches her wings and steadies her in the air. A happy roar escapes her lungs, ringing out into the silent night. She drops down to the trees, skimming her feet against the leaves and making them fly in all directions. Briefly she glances back at the trail, watching as the torn leaves disappear into the night.

A loud roar from above tears her out of her thoughts, and her friend motions for her to come up higher. With a careful flap of her wings she zooms towards him, too fast. The two of them collide in mid-air, their scales clinking at the impact, but neither dragon loses any of their shining scales as they are thrown back a few feet from each other. Both of them recover quickly though, and approach each other more carefully this time. With an apologetic grunt, she leaps over him and takes the lead as they explore the unfamiliar area.

As they fly further from the cliff, the stars slowly start to go out in the night sky; the tall, dark trees start to look a lot more menacing without the twinkling lights in the background. The breeze picks up as well, turning into a strong wind which the two dragons have to drop lower to avoid. Eventually they come across a large bare area with some sort of fence in the middle. Her friend drops down to have a closer look, intrigued by the foreign structure. Though her gut tells her to go back, she follows her friend. On closer inspection it’s some sort of small paddock, with a large barbed wire fence flanking it on all sides. The middle of the paddock is filled with chains, shining ominously in the moonlight.

Uncomfortable, she growls her disapproval to her friend next to her, but he’s vanished. Panicked, she looks around wildly, trying to pinpoint where the colourful dragon could have gone. An ear-splitting groan from beneath her makes her jump, barely giving her enough time to register what is happening before one of the chains flies past her head. With a terrified screech, she launches further up into the sky, horrified as the chain follows her up. Desperately, she tries to flies away from the evil chain, but is unable to. Her wings feel like they’ve turned into jelly, leaving the black dragon suspended in the sky, completely immobile. The chain snakes its way towards her, coiling around her legs and making its way up to her neck. With an angry snarl she breathes a funnel of ice at it, but it just bounces off harmlessly.

As the chain snakes towards her face, locking around her muzzle, the dragon squeezes her eyes shut, hoping that when she opens them again she’ll be back on the cliff, and she and her friend will never have to come here.

---

That’s it for this week! If you want to read the rest and the other stories in the eNovella, you can download using this link: Free Book!

PS, looking for more books to read over Summer? Check these out!

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My Writing Playlist

Hi all!

This week I'm going to share my writing playlist with you all! The songs on this playlist are ones that have inspired current or future stories. They're a lot different than my regular music taste, but I love listening to them to get my writing going!

Pools - Glass Animals

Wolf - First Aid Kit

Pigeon - Cavetown

Bellyache - Billie Eilish

Let Me Down Slowly - Alec Benjamin

Heartless - The Fray

Viva La Vida - Coldplay

Give Us A Little Love - Fallulah

Crazy - Glass Animals

The Good In Me - Jon Bellion

Hollow - Cloudeater

El Tange De Roxanne - Moulin Rouge

Tourner Dans Le Vide - Indila

My Way - Chase Holfelder

Free - Mother Mother

That's it so far, but I'm sure this list will grow as I keep writing! I may revisit this list if I discover anything else I love.

With a lot of these songs I usually imagine battle scenes or confrontations, which is why they usually start off slow with a big finish. I'm hoping to do a write a few Sci-Fi stories inspired by these songs once Camp NaNoWriMo is over.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed! What songs are on your playlist? Tell me in the comments!

See you next week!

PS; check out these awesome books!

Mid July Fantasy Giveaway Promotion

Summer and Sunshine Sci-Fi Fantasy KU

Winning a Book Award

Hi all, 

If you haven't already guessed from the title, I've won a book award! 

I entered Blood and Water a few months ago into the award on a whim, and managed to make it through all three rounds!

Although it's only a small award, I'm still so grateful to win it. You don't need a prestigious book award to be a good author. 

I struggled to find awards to enter due to be self published. A lot of the larger and more well known awards won't even look at you unless you're traditionally published, so I had to look elsewhere for Indie awards. 

The problem is, a lot of these awards are scams. 

A lot of them charge extortionate fees or don't give out the winning prizes. You really need to research which awards you want to enter before submitting. I managed to find a few that charged a fair entry fee but also, with a bit of research, were legit. 

Even if you don't win, some offer reduced rates on editing your manuscript or getting added to the longlist. Some will even still advertise your book anyway.

If you're going to enter an indie award, please just research before you do anything. It will save you money and pain in the future. 

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed! See you next week.

PS: check out these book giveaways!

Summer and Sunshine Fantasy Sci-Fi KU

Mid July Fantasy Giveaway Promotion

Pros and Cons of Pen Names

Hi all! 

This week I'm going to talk about pen names. For those that don't know, a pen name is an alias an author, or a group of authors, write under instead of their legal name. An example of this is Erin Hunter, who is actually multiple authors writing under one name. Quite a few authors actually use pen names, so I thought I'd make a post explaining the good and bad parts of using one. 

Pros. 

It hides your identity. 

If you don't want to use your real name, you can use a different one. It doesn't have to incorporate anything from your name either. 

You can have multiple. 

For authors that write in different genres, this is a plus. I want to write Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror, but for different genres I need to consider different pen names. 

It can be anything you want. 

It's your pen name, so you can choose whatever name you want. No-one can tell you what you can and can't use. 

It avoids confusion with fans. 

Writing under one name for multiple genres can confuse your fans. If they follow you for your thriller series, most of them aren't going to be interested in your historical fantasy. With pen names, you can have multiple aliases that allow you to write in both without confusing fans. 

Cons. 

It won't protect you legally. 

If you steal someone's work or write something that's copyrighted, a pen name will not protect you. Although it is what readers will see, any legal action will require your real name. When signing up for Amazon you have the choice of using a pen name, but the setup process will require your real name. Having a different name does not make you untouchable. 

Having too many.

You need to decide what genres require different pen names. Although it's easy to create as many as you want, you then have to manage all these names and the income from them. This can make paying tax tricky and updating readers on new releases. 

Creating social media accounts for each one. 

Although you might just decide to lump everything into one profile, if you write drastically different genres you will need separate ones. This means you have to update more than one social media profile every so often to keep readers engaged. 

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week. 

PS, have Kindle Unlimited? Check out these books!

Summer and Sunshine Sci-Fi Fantasy KU

Glass and Ice Chapter One Preview

Hi all!

With Glass and Ice out in October I thought I’d share a little preview of the first chapter, I hope you enjoy! If you don’t want spoilers, I recommend skipping this blog post.

Wyverns.

I never thought I’d see a Wyvern.

Their bodies writhe around in their cage, their thin tongues licking the glass desperately. Their torsos are made up of thin colourful scales and they have thick, stubby tails. Their eyes are like Aqueous’, but with larger pupils, shaped like a deer’s. Two long, elegant wings replace their front feet.

“Marine.”

The voice makes me jump, but I’m not surprised to turn around and come face to face with my older doppelgänger. She looks relieved this time, with a hint of a smile appearing on her face. She is no longer covered in Wyrms like last time; her face is clear and glowing a light blue. She’s appeared to me before, but this time is different. She looks ready to say more than she usually does.

“Save us, Marine.”

“Save who?” I reply, making Marco jump next to me. He gives me a strange look, staring at Marine. I guess my boyfriend still can’t see her.

“Us.”

My heart drops as I realise what she’s been trying to say all this time.

She wasn’t a vision from Draca. The large dragon lied, again. So many times he’s claimed to help us but more often than not he’s just been a hinderance. He doesn’t know anything more than we do.

This means the Wyrms had no part to play in the visions either.

She’s the desperate form of a group of trapped Wyverns.

“Oh my God.” I stumble back as Marine stares at the caged Wyverns, warmth in her usually lifeless eyes.

“Haze? What’s wrong?” Marco gently tugs my hand towards him.

“I…had no idea…” Braith mumbles next to us, her eyes filling with tears. “We’ve been ignoring them this whole time!”

My friend Braith left Aria soon after I did. She has the same markings, but hers are that of an ice elemental whereas mine are water.

“Calm down, it’s not our fault.” I wrap my free arm around her shoulders as she trembles, her large eyes locked on the trapped Wyverns.

“Am I missing something?” Marco asks.

“You know how Marine kept saying ‘save us’?” I swallow back the lump in my throat as I speak.

“Yeah…?”

“Turns out she meant the Wyverns.”

He furrows his brow. “But we can’t let them out.”

“Why not?” I explode, attempting to rip my hand away, but he hangs on tighter.

“Because these dragons are extinct to the world.” He looks at the cage sadly. “If we let them out, God knows what people will do. They will be hunted and caged as trophies, killed for medicine-”

“I get it,” I cut him off.

More Wyverns seem to appear in the darkness, clambering towards the glass to look at us. Their eyes are glowing, happy.

Filled with hope.

Aqueous, my dragon companion, looks at me with his turquoise eyes. He whines, touching the glass with his nose. A large mossy green Wyvern approaches the glass before tentatively pressing its nose against it. Aqueous turns to me, his nose twitching.

“Please. Save us,” Marine begs, her face distorting in desperation.

“How are you doing this?” I ask the apparition. “How can you talk to me?”

Marine lowers her gaze. “Disgrace…Big disgrace.”

“What do you mean ‘disgrace’?”

“Had to save us.” She takes a few steps forward so she’s in my face, her older frame towering over me slightly. “Save us.”

So, the Wyverns have done something that allows them to communicate with us. But what? And how?

A loud bang makes everyone jump. Drea, Marco’s dragon, rushes to the door, pressing her bulky frame against it. Bluey, a dragon we previously picked up, quickly joins her as the door begins to rattle.

“Shit!” I exclaim.

They’re breaking in.

“We need to get out of here.” Marco sprints to a set of buttons on the wall, looking for any switches that may lead us out of here.

Braith stares at me, her face stained with tears. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know.”

“We can’t leave them.”

“I know. But Marco’s right; they might not make it out there.”

“We have to give them a chance.”

“Braith-”

“We have to! Draca lied to me, and I want to know why! Maybe letting them out will get us some answers.” She storms over to the glass, icicles forming in her balled hands. She strikes the glass with one fist, not making a dent in the thick material. Again and again she punches, while I’m left speechless.

What is the right thing to do?

I don’t want to be responsible for leaving these beautiful creatures to rot. Dr Gard looked after them; now that he’s gone, they have no-one.

***

That’s it for this week, see you next Sunday!

PS: there’s some book deals to check out below!

Summer and Sunshine Sci-Fi Fantasy KU