Friday Freeday: 400!

I can't believe this is my 400th post!

Thank you to my 100 readers, also. You make me want to keep writing SOMETHING. lol

That said, I think I know where I'm going next in blogging, and I'm kind of excited about it.

I'd mentioned flash fiction posts, and while I was kind of leery about it, I wondered how I could tie them into my WIP The Crystal Bearer. A tidbit about my story, my main character loves to read. So, why not do flash fictions based on tales that would be written in the world my story? I'm already writing a story based on one of the series she's reading, so why not take it a step further, you know? I think it would help keep my mind fresh.

They'll most likely be on Tuesdays, so I can call it Tuesday Tales. I'm obsessed with alliteration, I know. That said, I'd also like to sometimes do a Final Fantasy Friday (and bring back Wednesday Words). That's why I call myself the Write Mage, and the games are a big influence in my life as well as in The Crystal Bearer, after all. While I'm more knowledgeable about the mid-to-later games in the franchise, they are something I'd love to share with you all, too.

So, I believe that is where I'll be headed in November.  Heads up: these 400 posts may be under a new blog link and title then, so I can shift the focus.

Thank you again for being here to read the craziness that comes out of my head. :)

Mmmeh Blogging and Names

I preface this by saying I have to remember that Fall is my favorite season because of the beauty of the trees changing, the cool walking weather, and the smell of burning firewood, and that it's not about the utter destruction it causes to my health. I've been coughing for about 24 hours, and I want to lie down until I stop.

So, I remembered today is Tuesday, and I thought, "I really don't want to blog a thing...like ever again." This is, first off, typical of me. I start something with gusto and eventually get tired of it. It's most likely my topics. I realize I almost don't even talk about writing, so maybe I should work on that, because, you know, WRITE Mage. Maybe I need to shift my blog focus. Is it LG Keltner who does flash fiction posts? Maybe I can start that, get my head back in the game. So if I disappear in November/December (except on 1st Wednesdays), that is most likely what I'm doing. Also, be prepared if my posts become sporadic for the rest of the month.

This next piece is sponsored by the latest controversy of verbal diarrhea from Raven-Symoné and "ghetto names." While even as a black girl born in the mid 80s, I cringe at some of the names I hear around me and have often called them made up. Someone on Youtube once said to me, "All names are made up," and I didn't have a valid argument for that, so I didn't respond. My and many parents born in the 50s/60s (and were given "normal" names) also groan when they see the names parents born in the 70s/80s have named their children. And while some names are just plain unforgivable (did you ever hear of the mom complaining that the teachers couldn't pronounce her daughter's name La-a, pronounced LaDASHa? *scowl*), I understand that some people are trying to either be unique or reach back to an Africa they never had the chance to experience. For instance, my classmate Nyeisha, who has always hated her name, learned that Nye is Swedish for "truly golden" (and one of her middle names actually IS Golden), and Isha is Hebrew for "woman" and Indian for "protector/lord". Even if her mom didn't mean to do that, I think that's pretty powerful.

Nyeisha also shared this poem by a young woman whose name I imagine is spelled Shakandria (shu KAHN dree uh). If you have a Facebook, search Cassandra Whitlock McClary, who posted the poem. It even made me think twice about cringing at some names. Also, there's a writing project in the back of my head featuring warrior sisters, and maybe, just maybe, to help empower little girls out there whose names don't sound like my Hebrew first name, French middle name, British last name, that they can be great with something as simple as having MCs with names like theirs.

7 More Lines and Fast Five Friday

Thank you guys for your encouragement Wednesday as well as your interest Monday! It really made me feel better. I was asked to post more from my WIP, so I thought, "I shall!" I decided to show secondary character Andyrsn breaking up an argument between Cyan and Ghuli, who was disobediently not present in Monday's 7x7x7x7 snippet.

“You’re both stressed. Just calm down.” Cyan paced the floor as Ghuli folded her arms. “Ghuli, I’m sorry, but I have to side with Cyan here.” The look she gave him conveyed a slight betrayal, but he stood firm. “We’re watchmen. I know you want to find this scroll thing, but your safety is more important.”

Ghuli’s scowl melted away, but she drew her knees up and hugged them. “What if finding the Great Scroll is the key to my safety?”

“Have we not been enough so far?” Cyan asked, the strength in his voice making Andyrsn jump, but Ghuli yelled right back.

“You’re not invincible, Cyan. I could lose you, too!” Cyan’s jaw hardened, and a pained look came across his reddening face before he stormed toward the door. “I’m not having this fight with you anymore.”

This week, the Cover Girls would like us to list the 5 books that had us bawling or near tears. These I can put in order from hardest sobs to mistiness. lol

Stephen King's The Green Mile (bawling uncontrollably!)

S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders (bawling)

N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms (crying)

Terri Bruce's Thereafter (near tears/inconsolable)

Robert Olen Butler's The Deep Green Sea (near tears)

Any books have you dying of the feels?

7x7x7x7

Hello!

Another Monday post? What?

This is the other of the two things that I mentioned in my last post that is happening today. I was tagged for the 7x7x7x7 blog post by Adriana Arrington. The basics are that you post 7 lines from your manuscript beginning with the 7th line from your 7th page. Here are more details on her page.

My 7th line starts in the middle of a sentence, soooo...but there's another sentence there, too...bah.

Their rustling was all that carried on the air. Cyan clenched his teeth and sighed.

“I don’t hear her anymore.”

Laris joined him and listened. “She may have wandered off.”

“She was supposed to stay on the road.”

“You know the Princess, my brother.”

“All too well.”

Cyan walked into the forest, leaving the road for the western trees.  

So there you go! :)  See you Wednesday for IWSG.

Express Yourself, Pitch Wars, and a New Ending

Happy Tuesday!

I'm still reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, so pray for me. I've less than 100 pages left, and I might not pick up another Gaiman for a while. Anansi Boys was the best for me so far. I could've dealt without the rest. To supplement my Random-reading share, I'm bring you all last week's Express Yourself question!

This bloghop was created by the Cover Girls, Dani @ Entertaining Interests and Jackie at Bouquet of Books. Not unlike Fast Five but more in depth, the ladies ask us a question each week so we can all get to know each other better. And speaking of mentors, last week, the ladies asked us to:

Name 3 people you want to learn something from.

Stevie Wonder - a musical prodigy! I would love to be able to play more instruments.

Stephen King - I need to know why so dark? lol

Joss Whedon - Because Browncoat.

Pitch Wars is now less than a week away, and I culled the mentor list last week, whittled my list down to those who wanted YA-Fantasy, then those who I felt gelled well, and then basically nit-picked until I had 5 mentors I'm ready to introduce to my baby.

Speaking of Writing, an amazing thing happened after I added this new scene that became a whole new chapter for my manuscript...A new ending! I'll admit, I had a lackluster "And they all lived happily ever after" going and didn't like it but wasn't sure what to do with it. But when I added the new opener, it was like a chain reaction happened, and I knew exactly how to end my story! Totally crazy thing to do when I'm talking about submitting to a contest in a week, but the beginning and the end tie in and compliment each other perfectly. They're like bookends in their parallelism, and I'm more than glad they're there now.

What 3 people would you like to learn something from? Are you entering Pitch Wars? Let me know!

IWSG: Changes

Happy...whoa, *ctrl+B* Happy August! lol Welcome back to the Insecure Writer's Support Group, created by the blogfather himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

I went through a few changes for my blog and myself while on my 2-month blogosphere hiatus, and I think it will help refresh my writing energy and query trials.

Blog Schedule. While I was on my hiatus, I returned to express my desire to change my schedule, so I did. After 1st Wednesdays, I'll only be blogging twice a week. This will help me free up some more time for writing and revisions.

Pen Name. You may have noticed (maybe not lol) that my real name is sitting up in that little space by my face now, because I wanted to change my pen name. Partially because I feel like Debra McKellan no longer fits me, despite the awesome reason I chose it in the first place. Partially because I picked it for reasons of neutrality (just like when women writers choose initials because it comes off less female), but in the world of We Need Diverse Books (and all its various social media) and Write Inclusively, I decided I need to be me sans any inclination that I'm someone I'm not.

There's not much about my birth name I'm cool with, to be honest, but nothing else really fits. On Twitter, I expressed that I may just go with my first and middle name (Debra Renée) and went on a spiel from there. Even wrote out my signature to see if I like it (I love it). So, I believe that will be it. Of course, now when I list publications, I'll have to say "Origin" was published under Debra McKellan, but well, I believe other people have done that before. Blah. Still stoked that it was published.

An Opening that Hooks an Agent. I expressed just yesterday that I planned on adding a new scene to my opening. I basically added a whole new chapter from bits I mention later in the story and a short prequel that may or may not ever see daylight. I'm hoping this new opening will wow more than my previous opening so I can stop getting depressed when I check my inbox. Two agents I was pretty nervous about querying and finally did passed. That hurts.

It is now midnight, and I said I would be going to bed 2 hours ago. Fail. Have a happy IWSG Day!

I'm Brainstorming Some Things

I know I said I'd be taking a break in July, too, but this is the only place where I can get my thoughts out in more than 150 words, so I thought I'd drop by to think.

My Blog:
I want to revamp my blog topics. My current schedule is:
Tuesdays (blog hop)
Wednesdays (what I'm reading/IWSG)
Fridays (blog hop/potpurri).

I might condense it to:
Tuesdays (what I'm reading/something writing related)
First Wednesdays (IWSG)
Fridays (blog hops/something writing related)

So then I'd only be writing twice a week and thrice on that first week, and having more content on less days might keep my mind open to my writing.

My Pen Name:
So, I have this issue where after a certain amount of time, I want a new e-mail address. I never thought that I would be looking at my pen name and thinking, "Do I still like this name?" Especially after all the brainstorming I went through just to get to this name!

Maybe, I'll use different pen names for different genres. Speculative, this name. Contemporary, maybe my own name. I hate my name, though. It's so boring. I'd use my mom's maiden name if she hadn't "not" named me after my aunt. I'd rather not add to the confusion. For poetry, I almost committed myself to S.B. Hawkins (a lady at church calls me Songbird, and I love that), but something in my head said, "Isn't there a Sophie B. Hawkins?" There is, and why do I know that? (Googling, Googling...Oh, right. "As I Lay Me Down").

My Unofficial Sequel & My one Beta:
My little sister has been my one steady beta reader since like 1994. I couldn't get her to read my Fantasy, but she made a deal to read my unofficial sequel to Octavia Butler's Fledgling, which I named Birthright. Honestly, I thought she had forgotten to read it, and I was losing faith, but out of the blue this weekend while we were sitting on the couch at 1 a.m, she said, "So, I have questions about Ruby [the original name for it]." I was bursting with glee that she had actually begun reading it. She's halfway through (it's a novella, only 100 pages), but she noted some good things that I need to fix, one of which being (and as someone who reads sequels sometimes before I read the first book, it's very important) that I have to consider the fact that the reader may not have read Fledgling, so things I left out that I knew because they were explained in Fledgling, I have to explain in Birthright.

I'm just glad she started reading it. Now, I'll have to go through and flesh it out more so I can start the process of finding out from whom to get permission to actually publish it.


So that's it. See you later!

Express Yourself: Eating While Writing?

Happy Tuesday!

Today is the day I answer the questions given to us by the ladies who created Express Yourself: Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests. This week, they would like us to:

Name a few things we like to eat while writing.

Well, to be honest, I don't have any writing snacks. Is it just me? If I get hungry, I usually just eat whatever is available. I don't have a particular food I crave in my time of writing.

Well, that was anti-climactic. See you tomorrow!

Friday Freeday Rant

So, I need to get motivated to DO. That's it. Just do.

There was a time when I would be constantly reading, constantly writing. A part of me is wondering am I supposed to be doing something else? Or am I subconsciously depressed or losing hope? I've been at writing for over 20 years now, and I know I had goals for myself and that sometimes those aren't what meant to be, but yeesh.

And am I scared of rejection on my fantasy novel which I'm 99.999% sure is finally polished enough to throw out there? I mean, I've already put it out there to two of my choices. I'm definitely kind of scared to do contests again. Even though I didn't realize how unfinished my story was when I entered before, I'm not sure I want to enter it again. It's too much on my psyche, and I'm not one who will ever grow that fabled thick skin I keep hearing about.

No one at home asks about my writing anymore. They were really excited about my short story publication, but other than that, nothing. They've all got their own things happening, and I feel like I'm getting left behind. My older sister keeps getting jobs she wants. My little sister was promoted like 8 times in the span of a year. I'm just here floating, bored to death in a part-time job that barely pays the bills, looking for less boring jobs that will pay my bills twice over, but hoping this won't always be my life.

Okay, so maybe I'm consciously depressed and losing hope, which is whack because last year, I was toting and chanting that 2015 was going to be my year. It's not even the middle of the year yet, and I've lost that zeal. I thought this was supposed to happen during the winter seasons. Blah.

Where's Tony Little to scream, "You can do it?!" in my ear?

Insecure Writers Support Group

Good morning, all!

This is the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where like a thousand of us get together and talk about our insecurities or just what's on our mind on the first Wednesday of the month. There would be no IWSG without the great Ninja Alex J. Cavanaugh and his team of super samurai (I know those don't go together, but why not), who can be found commenting on our blogs today. You can also visit the blog for the group by clicking THIS.

While I have a short story being published this month (eeee!) by Cactus Heart Press, I still have to build up the strength to work on a synopsis for my major project The Crystal Bearer. I have one or two companies in mind that I want to submit to this time around, and I want to make sure everything is in order. I haven't really worked on a synopsis in years, and whatever paper I started writing it on this year, I think I've lost. It was in one of my coat pockets. Maybe it's still there.

This project means everything to me, so I really want to get it out there. I don't want to downplay my early declarations, because I've already said 2015 is going to be my year. I just need to force myself to make it that way as well.

Friday Freeday: When Writing What You Don't Know

Good morning!

As I'm moving into my next writing project, a contemporary YA fiction, I've come to a point in my knowledge bank where I can work a little more of the things I've learned the past few years into my story.

A quick history of this project:

As I mentioned a post or two ago, I am revamping a set of short stories I began writing in high school. The first short story focused on the narrator's sorta-boyfriend, Jonny, and his mother. They both had a non-descript mental illness that made them closed off, impulsive and also manic-depressive (MDD). I always played with the idea of them having Schizo-Affective Disorder, but it's a fairly complicated illness, and being a teenager when I began writing that story, all I had to go on was the internet. I'm still not sure if they were true to the typical symptoms of that disorder.

Fast forward to today, or two or three days ago rather, I started writing the beginnings of this revamp (no plotting like I said might happen lol I'm a pantser, can't help it) with a new idea. First, as I'd actually focused on Jonny's parents in an early draft, I started with them again. This time, however, I got to use some more information. I was a secretary-type person at the Division of Developmental Disabilities services for 2-3 years before I got my current job. One of the duties they assigned me was taking notes, minutes, and copying off reports for a committee who documented the disabled clients that had behavioral disorders. So I spent months typing up and reading these reports, hearing about instances from their case managers and analysts where their behaviors spiked, and understanding the differences between the common developmental disabilities, like Downs Syndrome and Autism. I also learned of behavioral disorders like Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), Impulse Control Disorder (ICD); I even got to study documentation of a few clients with Schizo-Affective Disorder. (I probably should've gone into psychology, but I didn't realize how deep my passion was for knowing about these disorders until I was on that committee, and I don't particularly want to go back to college.)

So, I was given a foundation. I also knew by the time I put pencil to paper this week that the issue my Jonny and his mother would be dealing with was Asperger's with ICD, Anxiety, and Depression axes (did not know the plural for axis a minute ago) for Jonny's mother. I'm still on the fence about using IED, probably won't, but certainly either Asperger's with an ADHD or MDD axis for Jonny.

And something awesomely cool about the advancement of the internet: I found a blog by a mother with Asperger's (she didn't know she had it until her child was an adult). So, I can get experiences straight from a source to understand what a parent with Asperger's goes through. Just reading the first two posts in her series, I can see how frustrating and scary it must've been to know you're different but not why. We know so much more about Asperger's now than before (I only heard about it through Grey's Anatomy some years ago, and Asperger discovered it in the 40s).

I am on this diatribe to say that it's okay to write what you don't know if you take the time to research it, speak to people who've experienced it, and/or find blogs by people who've experienced it. Work to make it as real and plausible as possible. If this story sees the light of day, I hope someone will be able to relate to it, see themselves in it, and say that I did a good job portraying it.

Is there something you've wanted to write or something that has interested you that you yourself haven't experienced?

IWSG: Next Project

Seriously? It's February already? Time is FLYING.

Oh well, it's the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means: IWSG! If you are a writer, the chances you have some doubts is very high, and that's why Alex J. Cavanaugh created this hop, so we can all support one another. The thing is so big now, it even has its own website and Facebook page! There is also a critique group now on Facebook, so if someone can comment that so peeps can see it. :) (Update: posted, hyperlinked. Thanks, Alex!)


This week, I opened up three short stories I began writing in high school. It focuses on these 4 best friends and the ups and downs they go through. I've wanted to expand their stories for quite some time and had even started a short story in the future that focuses on some of their children, but I didn't finish it.

I really want to do this story; the characters are dear to me. I just want it also to be relevant and realistic (the stories were so melodramatic and WORDY lol), so I might have to *gasp* plot.

Wish me luck!

Express Yourself: Writerly Tips

Happy Express Yourself Day!

This meme is brought to us by Dani @ Entertaining Interests and Jackie @ Bouquet of Books.
This week they ask: What are some writerly tips you've found helpful?

The best one I've seen is to walk away from your writing when you're done, then come back some time later so you have a fresh eye.

I don't have the best luck with getting beta readers or CP's, and I have a love for editing/proofreading, so I'm often my own fresh eyes. lol I don't look at my projects for weeks (sometimes months) once I'm done, and then I see all manner of mistakes when I come back. Geez, I saw the BIGGEST continuity errors in my last revision.

On that same note, some other good advice was to find objective strangers to look at your work. Family sometimes gets tired of looking at it.

Look for Me in Cactus Heart Press! (w/gifs)

I was trying to hold this news in until Friday for Freeday, but forget it!

My short story "Origin" will be published in the Speculative Fiction issue of Cactus Heart Press this March!

So, how it happened. As you may have seen, I did a live write-up of "Origin" here 2-1/2 years ago (really? It was that long ago?!) based on the song "Origin of Love" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch (which I finally sat down and watched last week and LOVED).

Late December, Kate Sheeran Swed e-mailed me. She will be the guest editor for Cactus Heart's Speculative Fiction issue, and she had read "Origin" and invited me to submit to the publication. I immediately turned into

then asked if I could submit "Origin." She spoke with the main Cactus Heart team, and as long as I removed the story from here, I could submit. No problem there! So last week, I received the confirmation that they accepted my little short story.

(I can't even pretend like these aren't my actual victory dances.)

This is big for me, as it would be for any writer, so I'm extremely excited, and having bought Cactus Heart Press's last issue and seeing what they are about, I know it's a perfect fit. I'm playing it cool, but:

About Cactus Heart Press:

"Cactus Heart is, of course, a metaphor for how we believe literature and art should be. It should shock and wound and delight us; it should fill us with delight and terror and mystery. It should survive.

We are devoted to spiny writing & art—sharp, relentless, coursing with energy and able to thrive in the harshest of places, all while maintaining a vulnerable, succulent interior."

About Kate Sheeran Swed:

Kate Sheeran Swed loves hot chocolate, plastic dinosaurs, and airplane tickets. She has trekked along the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu, hiked on the Mýrdalsjökull glacier in Iceland, and climbed the ruins of Masada to watch the sunrise over the Dead Sea. Following an idyllic childhood in New Hampshire, she completed degrees in music at the University of Maine and Ithaca College, then moved to New York City. Her stories have appeared in Writing Tomorrow,Verdad, HOOT Review, and Words and Images. She recently completed an MFA in Creative Writing at Pacific University.

You can find her on:
Twitter @katesheeranswed
Facebook.com/KateSheeranSwedPinterest.com/KateSheeranSwed

IWSG: This Is My Year

Happy New Year!

Every first Wednesday of the month, hundreds of writers get together and post their insecurities for the world to see! It's a non-judgement zone and a great way to vent, celebrate, and support! It was dubbed the Insecure Writers Support Group and birthed by the great sensei Alex J. Cavanaugh! It also has 2 (?) Facebook pages (right? One is a crit page?) and its own Website! You may join if you haven't done so already. Someone will always stop by to support you. :)

As for me, I think this is The Year. I don't know when, and I don't know from where, but I feel like this is going to be the year things start falling into place for me as a writer. It's been a pretty hard, emotional few years since I first put that figurative pen down, with a lot of frustration and tons of doubt and self-disapproval, and so much internal blood, sweat, and tears that sometimes I didn't even get on my laptop at all. But even if it's not until December, I feel like this will be the year, my year!

I had a whole other post planned out, but my mind said, "No, talk about this." lol So there you have it. :)

Express Yourself: New Years Resolutions!

Feliz año nuevo! It's snowing! :D

hehe Welcome to the first Express Yourself post of the new year! This bloghop is brought to us by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests, without whom I'd have had nothing to talk to y'all about for about 2 years now!

This week, they ask if we have any resolutions.

I really just have wishes this time around. I started heavily on my weight loss goals in December, first upping my exercise, and now incorporating better foods into my diet, so that's good. I definitely have to focus more on my duties at church, but I don't want to resolve to do that, I just want to do it.

I also didn't want to resolve to be published, because unless I was planning on self-publishing, the odds are 50/50. But I do hope this year I nab an agent. I think I've done an even bigger overhaul of my WIP than I ever have. I resolved sometime last year to give Ghuli more personality, and I really feel like I made her a believable person this time around. I really want to poke a company I submitted to a couple of years ago who really took the time to mull over my work and then let me know why they ultimately couldn't say yes. I feel like it might be time now to try again. :)

Insecure Writer's Support Group!

Happy December!

Now Charlie Brown's Christmastime is playing in my head. -_-

I'm on Revision 2000 on my WIP and did a MAJOR overhaul on a lot of things, but I think it's helping flesh out my story into something that will finally be queryable (I hereby patent the word queryable).

I also just cut another huge side-quest in my story. Why? Well, books don't need side-quests. lol When I develop the video game for my book that I haven't even published yet, then I can add the optional side-quests like FFIX did. Heck when the DVD/BluRay/LaserMindmeld comes out for the movie of the book I haven't even published yet, I can add the things I cut out of the book into the extras. I'll probably still remember them.

Enough about me. How did everyone do on NaNoWriMo? I hope you got close to 50k. If not, don't worry! You can always keep (or start) writing or try again next year! But mostly, keep writing. ;)

Fake Disclaimer But Real People: The Insecure Writer's Support Group was created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the guru of all things writer's support. His co-hosts this month are Heather Gardner, Tonja Drecker from Kidbits, Eva E. Solar at Lilicasplace, and Patsy Collins.

See you all in 2015!

Friday Freeday: Revision update

Good morning!

So, I'm on revision 1,049.2 (lol), and this time around, I'm focusing on giving Ghuli a little more personality (she fell a little flat according to my last beta partner, and she was right) and making her a little more active in her own destiny before she actually needs to. Doing the latter actually helped the former because one of the issues that comes up later but that has always been there, according to supporting charry Cyan, is that Ghuli hardly listens to him. So, there are more moments of them bumping heads, and actually just more of them interacting altogether.

Even adding these moments, I've lost about 1,500 words, so I'd like to see if I can lose a few more. It's pretty nice. :)

That is where I am. I hope you all have a good weekend! I'll see you just before Turkey Day. ;)

Friday Freeday: Being Black in Writerville

I alluded to this in my Wednesday post and am actually writing this on Wednesday because I won't be at my office.

But first, Happy Friday, and HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEENNN, ooooooo!!!!

Teehee. Now...

So, I'm black. haha (DUH, right?!). I don't call myself African American. I've often called myself an American of African Descent. That's more accurate. Africa's not even a country, so...anyhow.

Writing is already a profession/hobby/passion for which people give you strange looks when you tell them you do it. When I temped at Del State, an HBCU with a predominantly black staff, I used to work on my WIP at my computer. One of the ladies asked me what kind of stuff I write, and when I said fantasy, she was extremely confused (she kept asking me, "Like Star Wars?" which, duh, is science fiction). Black writers who do more than poetry and erotica? What?

Like, seriously, I had to Google black writers just now because the only one I could think of that wasn't Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, or the other classic writers was Zane. I know there are more because my cousin suffers through the WORST Netflix movies, some of which were based on books she'd read. I could be jaded, but in my opinion, black people tend to only read books that show them the "black experience": the streets, non-suburban, racial struggles, sex, hip-hop. I know that's partially untrue because my mother loves Shakespeare and Jane Austen, so I know there are more black people who do.

*raises hand* I didn't have the typical black experience, and I can't fit comfortably or truthfully into that kind of box, so I won't try.

There are 318.9 million people in the U.S. About 13% of them are black. About 190 of THEM (even though, some are probably nearly dead, and they counted Oprah, and I can't stand Oprah) are writers in some capacity. ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY! How many of THEM are speculative fiction writers?

There are 6 essential ones, according to Troy L. Wiggins. So that's 3% of black writers...What's the math on 6 out of 318.9 million? I feel like there will be an e next to the number (THERE IS! 1.880924913477454e-8).

So, prologue aside, when it comes to writing what I love, fantasy, I feel like I have a double-edged sword to battle: how can I be accepted by black readers who may not even read speculative fiction (though I know they're out there because I'm one), and how can I be accepted by non-black speculative fiction readers of a world dominated by non-black writers, agents, and publishers?

Because:

Just read an old review that said moving epic fantasy away from medieval Europe makes it hard to relate to the characters. Harder for whom?

— Debra McKellan (@DebraMcKellan) October 17, 2014

That was in response to a review I read about Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which I think has been taken down since I tweeted...I tried not to respond in a way that seemed attacking, but it was a serious question I had.

My WIP isn't set in a medieval European world, and when I had tried to do it even a little bit (Ghuli spoke straight out of King James's world), it sounded horribly forced. So there are elf-like people and giant-like people, but the world is an American Progressive Era world. The ones who lived in what would probably be considered medieval European were wiped out before the story began. You see mules and steam-powered vehicles more than horses and only one actual castle. The characters speak differently depending on their nationality, but there are no forthwith's or Your Grace's (though I do use howbeit and my lady). Will readers who love Euro-centric fantasy be okay with that? My main character is a young interracial (by our definition, but not by their world) woman whose main issue is borderline (or just completely) existential, but not because she is a person of color. Will black readers be able to understand her inner plight without needing her to be worried about her color?

Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory created a WONDERFUL non-medieval European world in their Enduring Flame Trilogy (it had dragons, but there were ZOMBIES, too!). I related so well to the characters and loved that trilogy so much that I penned myself after their legendary hero, Kellen the Poor Orphan Boy.

I want people to read my book and not be put off that they don't see what they're used to seeing. There are no knights and dragons and fair maidens that some relate to fantasy. The black and blackish people aren't oppressed or living in neighborhoods to which others relate. But I want PEOPLE, not just black and not just white, to be able to relate to the big picture. I want them, like we all do, to like my MC just for being her, and I want them to appreciate this new world I'm presenting to them without feeling isolated because of what I didn't do in the story.

I also want to be an inspiration to upcoming writers who, like me, want to be a voice that can break through the tropes and trends and do it successfully. SO, here's to hoping!

Thanks for staying so long, if you did. I hate long posts.

Spooktoberfest 2014 Genesis's "Home By The Sea"

Hello! Happy Saturday!

I decided to do the Cover Girls' Spooktoberfest this year! We have to create a 300-word flash fiction and use the five words below. If I did it right, you will also see the LinkyTool for the other participants, and for you to join if you want! There is still time! The winner will be revealed on Halloween (insert creepy ghost noise).
chill
cocoon
commotion
curse
virus

A lone tree hung over the beach house, one big cocoon of spider webs instead of leaves. I hesitated, but winter was unofficially here, and I could bear the chill no longer.

The front door had no knob and swung open when I knocked. I stepped inside and called out. No one answered. The rising sun ate away at the darkness like a heavenly virus, and I only realized I was nervous once my muscles relaxed. The house was coated and stale with dust. I walked further inside, entered a parlor with mildewed furniture: a sofa, two chairs, a coffee table. On one wall, a bar with six stools, a piano on the other. I imagined high society drinking here and chatting about the stocks, and at the thought, such a commotion arose that I whipped around.

Tens of people stood behind me and in the corridor, talking and drinking. The sun’s rays revealed decayed flesh and tattered garments I only saw when I wasn’t directly looking at them. That alone should have paralyzed me, but their shadows on the wall, clawing and crying for a way out while their oblivious bodies laughed and carried on did the trick best. They turned to look at me with pale, dead eyes, and I knew there was a curse on this place.

“Welcome to the home by the sea.”

I turned again. Three ladies on the sofa, men in the chairs and on the stools looked back at me. A woman at the piano played a tune I’d never heard but would hear again. It was the bartender who had spoken to me. In the mirror, his shadow screamed at me to run away.

They all said to me in one dreadful moan, “Sit down. Listen to our stories.”