This won’t be a long post, more of a list of what is in the works.

• The fourth book in the Solstice Dragon World, To Harbor a Dragon, is now up as a pre-order set to upload at the end of April. A paperback version will follow shortly after the eBook goes live.
• The third book in the Solstice Dragon World, Dira’s Dragon, is in the works to be available in paperback, tentative deadline is set for mid-March.
• My new series Kavin Cut Chronicles is moving along nicely. Covers are in the works next week with Ryn Katryn Digital Art. (Loraine has done all my covers. I love her work!) I expect the first to publish about May with the pre-order coming out in March.
• The two Kavin Cut Chronicles that will complete the trilogy should be out before summer ends and in eBook and paperback.
• A fifth book for the Standing Stone series will be hitting the drafting board sometime in August, I expect, and will be out before the end of the year.
• The Standing Stone series should be out in paperback by summer 2020.
• If all goes according to plan, this will be the year I publish four perhaps even five books in twelve months, a new record: One Solstice Dragon World, three Kavin Cut Chronicles and one Standing Stone. All will be in paperback shortly after the eBook publication.

So that is the plan, subject to change, of course. The fifth Standing Stone is the one that has the greatest wiggle room. It may have to wait until January 2021 for publication, though the pre-order will definitely go up between October and December 2020.

This year is off to a wonderful start. I hope yours is as well. May you find plenty of lovely books to read, lots of adventure in your world and contentment where it counts the most.

My plans for 2021 are very fluid, so if you have a particular series you wish me to focus on next year, post it in the comments. My fans definitely have pull with me.

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Picture credit: Okamatsu Fujikawa from on Unsplash

Since drafting my newest fantasy novel, I’ve found the need to increase my areas of research. Castles. I need to know more about castles, especially, older castles versus new versions, defensibility determined by terrain, and terminology and personnel.

Research is a double-edged sword. It needs to be done, but if you’re like me, it is easy to get sidetracked by interesting sites, such as the following site which actually BUILDS castles. BUILDS them! CastleMagic Castle Building. At first I thought it was a spoof that would turn out to be about building paper castles. The drawings were pencil sketches, and the video showing an example of the building process reminded me of Minecraft. But then I looked at their other pictures and videos. They BUILD castles. So you see I did get a bit sidetracked and for good reason. Too bad I don’t have the money to have them build me a castle. They do a really good job and can include secret passages. Hmm, secret passages.

This is a site I found for terminology called appropriately Castle Terminology.  Every term I could possibly need, their definitions and alternatives seem to be on this site. Though I don’t intend to be dropping castle terms all over my draft, I know I should refer to specific parts of castles correctly.

I toured two castles about ten years ago, both in Sweden which is helpful as the location of the castle in my novel is in mountainious terrain and very cold.

Laying out my castle is my biggest issue. I need to configue it to fit the story but stay within the standards of castles. Thus the following site is useful. It supplied a variety of layouts of castles and the reasoning behind them. Medieval Castle Layout. It’s proving useful as I plan out my version. I’ll probably have to plan out two more as well. Hmm, a castle building author is never done.

You know, I have to make room for a dragon in my castle. But enough about my research.

What research are you doing lately, and what about it sidetracks you?

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 Would you consider writing a prequel for either of your series?

Actually, I do have a prequel in mind for the Standing Stone series. It would focus on the backstory of the Wielder Wain which is an important event that occurred 16 years prior to the first book in the series. The focus characters would be Mahre Pratter (Donnel) and Tran Pratter. My daughter has suggested that I should also write about the sinister sisters and the An Faire migration mythology which is 300 years earlier than the first book. They both intrigue me. I’ll let the ideas putter about awhile and see what comes to mind.

I don’t think I’ll be writing either anytime soon as I am currently drafting book 3 of the Standing Stone series, have murky beginnings for a book 4 in the series, have book 5 of the Students of Jump series waiting behind the door, along with a contemporary novel, an anthology of poems and another series sitting on the back burner.

So a quick answer to the question: Maybe, but breath holding is not advised.

Since this turned out to be a short post, I’ll mention my current activities. I have, as I said, started writing book 3. As added incentive to new readers, I reduced the price to 99 cents for The Sharded Boy, book 1 in the series (available at all major eBook retailers).

I am also considering setting up a mailing list which would probably be a monthly newsletter combining updates for both my series and anything newsy I want to include. I’m a newby in the process, so I need to do my homework before I make it available for signup. When and if I do, I’ll post the signup link here, on my Facebook page, at the end of each of my books, and perhaps on my Google and GoodReads accounts.

The post A Stab at a Self-interview: Question 7 ~ prequel to a series? first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

The Mabra – cryptic old woman

When I starting thinking about my answer to this question, I knew immediately who I would name and had a pretty good idea why I was choosing him. But the more I thought about it, I realized there was a secondary character that was a strong favorite of mine, so I have chosen The Mabra.

The post A Stab at a Self-interview: Question 6 ~ Standing Stone favorite character first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

If your next book was not science fiction or fantasy what genre would it be in?

I’m a bit split on which it would be. I write quite a bit of poetry. I have the beginnings of a series of selections all based on pieces of heirloom china I have received from various family over the years. I also have about 18,000 words done on a contemporary women’s fiction about three best friends enjoying their retirement years. One of the ladies is fashioned after my mother, a very vibrant, dramatic woman who could walk into a room full of people and make them turn at once to see who brought the exuberance into the place. She passed away this past September and I really miss her.

I’m expecting that after I finish with the Standing Stone series and the fifth book in Students of Jump that I will probably get back working on the contemporary piece Joanie and Friends. It’s a standalone work. I would then move on to working on the collaboration series my husband and I are planning.

I am pretty much booked up on ideas for writing. Don’t have to worry about writer’s block for at least the next three years, assuming I am going to keep up my new pace of three books a year.

General plan (subject to change because life is not predictable)
Book 2 in Standing Stone (out June 2017)
Book 3 in Standing Stone (predicted out in September 2017)
Book 5 in Students of Jump (predicted out in Jan. 2018)
Book .5 in Standing Stone
Joanie and Friends
Maybe that china poetry collection would fit here
Book 1 in the Mantle Series

Of course, this ignores the fact that I have four books outlined for the Students of Jump series and another book or two wandering around the back of my mind for the Standing Stone series. Sometimes ideas leapfrog. For instance, The Sharded Boy was supposed to be a short story, but it blossomed into a book and then a series.

#genre
#writing
#series

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Book 2 in the Standing Stone series is in redraft right now and will be ready for the editing process very soon. I expect to have it uploaded to Amazon and my wide distributor Smashwords by the first of June.

Jahl Pratter, and siblings Donya and Rouen Marson will be off on another adventure when they travel to Carolan Faire, the city north of Chussen Faire on the main trade road that runs through town.

Now nineteen years old, Jahl has established his wielder school for boys and is recognized as the High Master Wielder of Chussen. With only three native wielders practicing, he views the title a bit sardonically. A new crop of wielders are in training, but it will be some time before they fill the ranks of practicing wielders. The honored position comes with certain demands. Master Tommlar, owner of the local chain of standing stone suppliers, informs Jahl that he must go to Carolan Faire to deal with some issues that have come up since the death of the northern city’s high master.

It seems an easy task to head to Carolan and take custody of the deceased master’s orphaned apprentice and close out his wielder home until the child is old enough to return. If only Tommlar hadn’t left out some important details.

The post Thought I’d Take a Stab at Self-interviewing, a Question at a Time first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

However, you can also learn to help yourself and learn you are capable of improving. Let yourself fail; let others fail. Then give yourself and others the opportunity to learn from that failure.

I read this great article about how people learn to be helpless through experience and environment. The piece was tweeted by Cash Nickerson (@cashnickerson). The article “Don’t Give Learned Helplessness a Chance” was written by Patrick Willer who first explains how the process occurs in animals and then relates it to human behavior.

Why did I connect so quickly to this article? I have been battling this phenomenon in my students for nearly 20 years now. I hear “I don’t know (IDK)” and the ever popular condition of “I’m bad at that.” They have become convinced that they are helpless. Willer’s article though brief offers great insight into how this behavioral response can become embedded rather quickly.

Willard brings up a common example that I have found students to feel: ” A classic example is that of a child failing a test at school. The child
may think he or she is dumb, which is not necessarily the case.” A true assessment or not, the belief can set the child into a pattern of failure through actions that prove the belief correct.

Freedom to fail and learn from the experience without recrimination is important. Freedom to ask questions and be given answers that validate the concern or confusion open up opportunity for change and the belief that things can be changed. Knowing that others are finding this to be true is just as important, so interpersonal engagement must be encouraged.

Willard was applying “learned helplessness” to the business world, but it certainly fit the start of each year in my classroom and the push to giving my students the opportunity to change their negative perceptions of themselves both individually and as a group through their own actions and how I received them.

But it’s more useful knowledge than that, though increasing confidence in employees and students is worthy enough. It applies just as well to writers working on character development. I have two characters who have been effected by the feeling of not being able to change what has been a major part of their lives. The opportunity to challenge the belief helped them both change over time and take control over their lives and their perceptions of self. Choices that destroyed their friendship held two characters back from rebuilding it until both had the motivation to break out of their past and the belief that it was possible.

excerpt from The Sharded Boy

   Often those who most seem to be out to help us, intentionally or accidentally encourage these negative beliefs.

excerpt from The Sharded Boy

The post Yup, you can learn to be helpless first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

Questions and answers.

I’ve already written about the decision to stop working on my contemporary novel to work on what I thought was just a fantasy short story. I think a followup is due as just this week I finished the 99K draft of the fantasy novel. It took less than two months to write, with an average of 7,000 words per week that included teaching, lesson planning, grading and professional development.

This was a completely different process for me. I wrote nearly every day for at least two hours; on weekends closer to six per day. In the past my books have taken a year to write, with a great deal of redrafting. I just finished the book, so I don’t feel I can say that this one won’t take similar grueling redraft work, but the first draft process has certainly been a different run.

In the last few days I’ve been doing cleanup on the draft and expanding a bit here and there. Nothing monumental. I want to get the draft out to my beta readers as soon as possible. This also forces me to step back from the work and let it grow cold. Then when I look at it again with the input of my beta readers, I’ll be able to be less attached and really consider their suggestions. The book has felt like it wrote itself, so I really need the away time and their input to ensure the story arc is well fashioned.

With the first draft so fresh on my mind, I want to list the things I found particularly exciting about this new writing process.

• My characters were constantly chattering in my head. I’d ask a question and the answers would come. What ifs?, why thats?, and who do it?,  inspired scenes playing out along each explanatory line. This Socratic approach to developing character and plot invariably lead to me looking forward to my evening writing session. 
• Because I was writing as the ideas were coming, I often was learning about my characters in the same manner my readers will. Tendencies, reactions, objects that seemed innocent in one scene become important in later scenes. Or limitations or challenges a character had to overcome would teach a skill that was needed later. But very little of it was pre-planned. I don’t usually outline my novels, but I often have much of the plot and the characters developed. Not in this case. I knew the main character and had one scene (the last one) largely imagined.
• Because I had little plotting set down and few characters in mind, there were always surprises that added to the texture and conflicts of the story. One particular scene had two characters upstairs talking. A sound of objects hitting the floor below interrupted them. When one character turned to the other wanting to know an explanation for the sound, I learned about a new character and a on-going conflict my main character was going to have to deal with.
• The daily flow of writing also kept the story line fresh in my mind 
• I keep a OneNote (Microsoft Office program) folder for each book I write, and I turn to my notes whenever I am concerned about continuity. As I wrote this book, potential issues would come to mind, and I would open up my OneNote and add the information immediately. I have several sections: Wielder Lore, Characters and setting, Commerce, Society, Conflicts, and Research. Each was a resource useful for maintaining consistency. Having the story so immediate and the notes entered as the story unfolded kept me involved with the story arc.
• I felt close to the characters and more in tune with their motivations because I was writing almost daily. I was behind by two scenes almost every day, so I never felt that I didn’t know what to write.
• It wanted to be written. There were days when I wished I could just sit back and watch a movie. The book wouldn’t let me or at least not for long. Too much of me needed to keep writing because the characters never stopped being present and active.
• Because I knew the story was always ready to be written, if a thousand words I had just typed looked to be leading in a direction that left my characters milling around uncertain, I would just hit the enter key a few times at the point where everything had felt authentic and ask, “So what are you really doing?” And off the story would run. Sometimes the words already written and set aside would get re-fabricated into the story; other times, I felt confident deleting them.
• The story involves (among other things) a young man learning how to wield magic. Sometimes the magic would just take hold of him and he would wonder what was actually bringing about the results he thought he had initiated. Writing this book, often felt that same way. I, Elldee, would sit down to write and then two hours later, and 2000 words further, I would lean back and wonder what time it was, when I had last eaten and what the heck had I been writing.
• I often would get immersed in my writing with my other books, but that usually occurred a third of the way in; whereas, this book started from the first word as though it had been sitting in me just waiting for me to agree it was time.

All and all, this writing experience has been productive. I wonder if my next writing project will run as quickly and fluidly.

Let me know about your writing process. Do you usually outline and develop in advance or are you a panster? This was my first seat-of-the-pants approach, and I rather liked it.

#shardedboy
#writing

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