Guest: Lori L. MacLaughlin and mini-celebrations

Please welcome guest Lori L. MacLaughlin, author of Lady Thy Name Is Trouble

What Bilbo Baggins and I Have In Common

One of my favorite scenes in the beginning of Tolkien's The Hobbit, is when Gandalf spreads out on Bilbo's table the map of the Lonely Mountain, given to him by Thorin's father, Thrain. Gandalf speaks of the secret passage into the mountain, and Bilbo's curiosity gets the better of him. Though he wants no part of an adventure involving dragons, he loves maps and can't resist having a look.

I, too, love maps — particularly those drawn from imagination. They speak to me of paths unknown, adventures that await if only I'd take that first step. When I draw maps to go with my stories, I can create vast forests or soaring mountains, walled cities with mighty castles or frightening places in the deepest dark. New worlds flow from pencil to paper, ready to be populated by the denizens of my mind.

The story fragments swirling in my head give birth to landforms and waterways that expand into worlds that, in turn, help me visualize the emerging plot. I find that having a map solidifies my story and makes it more real to me, though both map and story are fluid until the final word is written.

In a previous post on my blog, I shared the map I drew for Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble. Now, I'd like to share the map that goes with it for Book 2, Trouble By Any Other Name. I actually drew this map first, but realized the story started way before my characters reached this part of the world.

My kids and I watched an animated movie a while back, where the characters found a topographical map that covered the floor of a room in a lost pyramid they'd discovered. They stepped on the map and fell through into the mysterious world the map represented. I always wished I could do something like that. Imagine the adventures one could have...

Does anyone else out there draw maps to go with the stories you write?

Lady, THY NAME IS TROUBLE

Trouble is Tara Triannon’s middle name. As swords for hire, Tara and her sister Laraina thrive on the danger. But a surprise invasion throws them into chaos... and trouble on a whole new level. Pursued by the Butcher, a terrifying assassin more wolf than man, Tara and Laraina must get a prince marked for death and a young, inept sorceress to safety. There’s only one problem – eluding the Butcher has never been done. Aided by a secretive soldier of fortune, they flee the relentless hunter.

Gifted with magic and cursed by nightmares that are all too real, Tara must stop an army led by a madman and fend off an evil Being caught in a centuries-old trap who seeks to control her magic and escape through her dreams – all while keeping one step ahead of the Butcher.

Available at:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

LoriL. MacLaughlin traces her love of fantasy adventure to Tolkien and Terry Brooks, finding The Lord of the Rings and The Sword of Shannara particularly inspirational. She's been writing stories in her head since she was old enough to run wild through the forests on the farm on which she grew up.

She has been many things over the years – tree climber, dairy farmer, clothing salesperson, kids' shoe fitter, retail manager, medical transcriptionist, journalist, private pilot, traveler, wife and mother, Red Sox and New York Giants fan, muscle car enthusiast and NASCAR fan, and a lover of all things Scottish and Irish.

When she's not writing (or working), she can be found curled up somewhere dreaming up more story ideas, taking long walks in the countryside, or spending time with her kids. She lives with her family in northern Vermont.

Mini-Celebrations for Celebrate the Small Things:

1. It's Friday.

2. My daughter's dance performance last weekend was fun!

3. Both of my daughters are racing this weekend - flat-water sprint canoe (oldest) and kayak (youngest). 

4. Guests: Shelley Sly and Lori L. MacLaughlin
5. Maps. :)

Muffin Commando Squad, Celebrations, and Adamant Release!

It's a mega-post today, enjoy the highlights!

I'm super excited to be a part of C. Lee Mckenzie's Muffin Commando Team for A to Z!!!

Q: What kind of muffin are you?
Well, I'm a huge fan of banana nut . . . but can I be the same kind of muffin as Carrie Butler?
If not banana nut, then I'm cinnamon-apple-nut muffin. :)

Q: What's your latest book, short story, publication?
A Jumble of 500+ Writing Prompts, A Pocket-Sized Jumble of 500+ Writing Prompts (paperback), and Jumble Journals 1 and 2. Like they sound, these are books chock full of writing prompts.

Q: What was your theme last year? And, why did you choose it? Character Names from The Champion Trilogy and World-Building Ideas. I was hip deep in revisions for Champion in Flight, and the joint topics were simmering on my brain.

Hint: This year, my theme will be a little less about me, and a little more about (to be revealed on the 23rd).

If you haven't already, please go meet the rest of the Muffin Commandos: C. Lee Mckenzie (leader extraordinaire), Carrie Butler, Yvonne Ventresca, Donna McDine, Patricia Lynne, Tara Tyler, and Tammy Theriault.


Celebrate the Small Things is led by Lexa Cain, and co-hosted by LG Keltner and the Cyborg Mom.

Celebrations:

1. Two of my hint fictions stories were published at Espresso Stories. Check them out for free:
"Ocean's Promise"
"Tone Deaf"

2. Elizabeth Seckman's guest post on Wednesday!

3. My youngest daughter's knee ultrasound looked awesome! Her PT is going good, and she can move from going easy to pushing a a bit harder at racing practice for flat-water sprint kayaking. (They use their legs for "leg drive" - and use their whole bodies to put power into their paddle strokes.)

4. My oldest daughter is dancing this Sunday evening at a benefit for the Tacoma City Ballet's financial aid program. It's called 10 Tiny Dances, and it's at Jazzbones in Tacoma, WA. If you're local, you could come check it out! :) She'll be in the "scary doll" tap dance. Yep, it's definitely not Singin' in the Rain, but it's fun. And I've added a little preview video - an interview video with her teacher.

5. Had a bit of a rough week with some virus-ick in the house and just plain insecurity over writing projects, so I found some solace in these things:

I read Shelley Sly's MG One Hundred Thirty Stars and loved it - beautiful, poignant writing. I felt like I was with Birdie while she struggles to get to know and understand her estranged father at a game convention, and in her thoughts and heart throughout the whole book. Highly recommended!

I finished watching Not Another Happy Ending. It's a romantic comedy about a debut author and her small press publisher/editor that I've been watching in short installments via Netflix - if you're a writer, there's some extra comedy in there on the "sure, that happens to all authors, yeah right" scale, but all in all, it was just wonderfully quirky, and it just hit the spot. Highly recommended, especially if you're on an editing/writing/marketing downturn (as in it feels like it all sucks and in need of a laugh and some inspiration).


And now, presenting . . . ADAMANT!

On an alternative 21st-century Earth in which our world is one of many in the Multiverse, the Inter-World Alliance exists to keep the peace between the worlds, and keep the monsters out.

Ada Fletcher is twenty-one, keeps a collection of knives in her room, and is more interested in fighting than her day job as a cashier. She also risks her life on a daily basis, helping refugees from a devastating magical war on her homeworld hide on the low-magic Earth. But when she’s taken into custody by the Alliance, her unusual magic makes her a prime suspect for a supervisor’s suspicious death.

For Kay Walker, whose family founded the organization, there has never been any doubt that his future is with the Alliance – even if it means dealing with sarcastic centaurs and dangerous monsters in the dark Passages between worlds. But when his supervisor is murdered, Kay discovers that a research project might have been the reason, and faces the choice of whether to ignore his instincts or risk becoming the next target, not to mention digging into the Alliance’s history and memories he’d rather keep buried. And there’s something not quite right about the strange, fierce girl he arrested as a suspect.

The last thing Ada wants is to help the infuriating Alliance guard who arrested her, but it soon becomes clear that the Alliance knows too much about Ada’s offworld origins. More, in fact, than she knows herself. Now she has to choose between loyalty to her family, and helping the Alliance save the Earth – and the Multiverse – from a deadly enemy.

Buy the book:

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Apple

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Read the first chapter

Emma spent her childhood creating imaginary worlds to compensate for a disappointingly average reality, so it was probably inevitable that she ended up writing speculative fiction. She was born in Birmingham, UK, which she fled at the first opportunity to study English Literature at Lancaster University. In her three years at Lancaster, she hiked up mountains, skydived in Australia, and endured a traumatic episode involving a swarm of bees in the Costa Rican jungle. She also entertained her creative writing group and baffled her tutors by submitting strange fantasy tales featuring dragons and supernatural monsters to workshops. These included her first publication, a rather bleak dystopian piece, and a disturbing story about a homicidal duck (which she hopes will never see the ight of day).

Now a reluctant graduate, Emma refuses to settle down and be normal. When not embarking on wild excursions and writing fantasy novels, she edits and proofreads novels for various publishing houses and reads an improbable number of books. Emma is currently working on the Alliance series, a multiple-universe adult fantasy featuring magic, monsters, cool gadgets and sarcasm. Her upper-YA urban fantasy Darkworld series is published by Curiosity Quills Press.

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Celebrations!

This week, I'm celebrating:

1. Good books from the library that are inspiring me to write. :)

2. Family cuddle time.

3. Wonderful IWSG!

4. IWSG's new, free book!!!

At: Nook   Smashwords   Amazon    Kobo

5, #fridayfreebie = "Seedling" 

Dunnie has a secret: a power inside him that's gone wrong in the past. When it's time to introduce himself to a new teacher, what will he say? And, will his classmates ever accept the truth? 

What are you celebrating this week?

Thankful Thursday, Early Celebration for Friday

Today, I'm giving thanks for:

1. An amazing book signing at Harbor Christian Homeschool Co-op (where I teach and my kids take a few classes one day a week)! - HCHC represents my largest, most encouraging, off-line group of readers and supporters.

2. The organizational skills of my youngest daughter. I paid her for some of her "personal office assistant" help she gave me this week - organizing boxes of books to go to signings, helping me learn how to use square (too late for the first signing, but on time of the second), and helping me with my bookmark creation.

3. The sage advice of my Commercial Fiction writing teacher, Pamela Goodfellow, from back in 2001 - Just Smile and Nod. This came in handy at my second book signing of the week. I might, just might, write a post of what I mean by that phrase.

4. The time I was able to spend encouraging a young teen writer and a busy-mom-of-toddlers-writer on Wednesday. Time spent with fellow writers is always time well spent. :)

5. I won a critique from Sharon Mayhew through a contest held at Diane K. Salerni's blog. Woohoo! I sent her the first 500 pages of my current version of Captain Wrath.

6. I had great comments on my last post about the "business" of self-publishing - thank you all!

Early #fridayfreebie news:

This Friday, "The Bridge Snap" will be free again. Enjoy! The sale starts sometime in the a.m. on Friday. Next week, I'll have 2-3 titles for free for Black Friday.


And, finally, many thanks to the Celebrate the Small Things group!!! You rock!

Celebrate the Small Things

I love celebrations - big or small. They are wonderful!

However, I am changing my blog schedule to: totally random.
Not really a schedule, I know.

I'm going to be hiding out in my writing cave a bit more. I still plan on hosting some 1 Word Interviews, meeting with IWSG each month, and checking in with Write1Sub1. I'll still be here some Fridays to Celebrate!

But I won't be here every Friday, partly because ski season is finally here. Unlike most of the US, the Pacific Northwest is just beginning to get snow . . . in the mountains. So, for the next two months, most of my Fridays will be on skis - or ski boards/snow skates (short) for me, long skis for my girls, and a snowboard for my hubs.

So, this week, I'm celebrating:
1. Vik from Viklit for being awesome!!!
2. Vik from Viklit for creating Celebrate the Small Things!
3. All the Celebrate the Small Things participants!
and
4. Getting two awesome e-mails this week with acceptances for two poems!
5. Writing every day!
6. Keeping my resolutions - so far, so good!
7. Tap dancing - because that's what my kids are doing as I write this post late Thursday night, and what I plan to do in just a minute.

What are you celebrating this week? And have you ever gone random on your blog?

Indie Life - Celebrating an Upcoming Release!

DRAGONFOLD AND OTHER ADVENTURES will be out July 3rd! I received the proof copy just last Friday, and I'm working through the last kinks . . . and I'm totally excited to see this story and poem collection in print.

The Blurb:

Azami has a gift with origami. Will she master it in time to save herself from bondage? Find out in "Dragonfold."

Joanne lost more than her honor in the war, she lost her will to live. When bandits attack her homestead, will she stand or fall in "Enough to Do?"

And just who is Captain Wrath under that itchy, false wig? Find out more in “The Identity of Captain Wrath.”

DRAGONFOLD AND OTHER ADVENTURES includes imaginative stories and poems, written between 2008 and 2013, by Tyrean Martinson. Some of these adventures have been previously published, and others are waiting to be discovered for the first time.

Previously published titles include: “Dragonfold”; “Enough to Do”; “The Identity of Captain Wrath”; and “Embers.” This book also contains a sample of Martinson’s novel, Champion in the Darkness.

I'm not going to have an official blog tour, or anything like that, but any opening day or opening week celebrations or shout-outs would be highly appreciated. Thanks! 

Anyone else have celebrations to share?