Epic Fantasy | Urban Fantasy | Other Fiction | Nonfiction
I write mostly fiction, and mostly long fiction. My favorite genre to write in is epic fantasy, though I also enjoy reading and writing urban fantasy, or as I describe my stuff, “modern faerie stories”. I also do a lot of writing as part of my day job, and that writing is nonfiction, mostly about history.
Epic Fantasy Writing
My current epic fantasy series is the Storms in Amethir series. The series begins with Stormsinger, which is an awkward 8,500 words long, making it either a long short story or a novelette. It’s available for free if you sign up for my email newsletter, which I send out only when I have news about upcoming events or book releases.
The second in the series is Stormshadow, which is a 50,000-word novella. The third in the series is Stormseer, which is just over 140,000 words long in draft form. I am currently editing Stormseer and hope to publish it later in the summer of 2015.
The Loyalty Factor is my unpublished epic fantasy novel, currently in its sixth or seventh draft (at some point I quit keeping track), and with my critique partners as I prepare it for querying. My goal is to see it published before the novel is 30 years old…because right now I’ve been working on it since 1990!
When I post about my “epic epic-fantasy novel rewrite,” this is the novel I’m talking about. I occasionally post about the revision process.
Synopsis
Baronet Brandon Shrike is in serious trouble. King Justin Capet has been poisoned and is near death. Tasked with finding the perpetrator, Brandon, the king’s trusted bodyguard, has instead gotten himself exiled. He knows he’s been set up by ambitious General Kalt, but Justin is too ill to listen, and Brandon needs proof.
In the north, Lady Bria Perregal’s mother has been murdered, and if her suspicions are correct, it was her father who committed the crime. Earl Rostis Perregal seems poised to seize power if the king dies, but Bria has no proof, only fear and doubt. With her twin brother hundreds of miles away in the royal city, Bria realizes she must act alone in order to avoid becoming a pawn in their father’s power games.
Major Michael LeVay has been ordered to arrest Bria on sight–to his great consternation, as he has been secretly in love with her for five years. If he is loyal to the cavalry, he must obey his orders. If he is loyal to his heart, he must defy them. On top of that, he must make his choice while facing down his old mentor–and his old nemesis–General Kalt.
Pursued by both human soldiers and monsters that look like men but aren’t, Bria flees south. Brandon, risking capture and torture, defies exile to stop General Kalt from destroying both king and kingdom. Michael struggles to stay true to himself while serving the king. Renegade baronet, rebellious noblewoman, and conflicted soldier are on a collision course as they attempt to thwart not only Kalt’s plans, but those of someone even more sinister…
The Dark King.
Urban Fantasy Writing
I have completed three novels in an urban fantasy series set in Illinois, and a fourth is in progress. The series began with my first attempt at NaNoWriMo. The first in the series, Maze of Moments, was written in 2003 and has seen extensive revision since then. The others are largely unpolished from subsequent NaNoWriMo years.
I’ve also written the first draft of a related urban fantasy novel. Set in Indianapolis, it ties into the Illinois series, but can easily stand on its own.
Commision of two of my main urban fantasy characters.
Maze of Moments Synopsis
Potter and Illinois native Zeva Couran is really tired of the starving artist shtick. She still enjoys the art side of it; it’s the starving she has a problem with. So when she’s attacked in the street and finds herself swept off to her rescuer’s castle, it feels a lot like a fairytale.
Trouble is, fairy tales always have a villain.
The Far Dorocha is a nightmare creature who serves the Unseelie Queen. He has focused on Zeva as the answer to a problem the Fae have had since the French settled in Illinois: they want out of the pact they made with the family who owns the castle.
Apparently Zeva is a Shaper, someone who can touch fate and alter it according to her will. Emphasis on the apparently, because she has no idea how to use her powers.
As the castle residents attempt to protect her and teach her about the Fae, Zeva has to explore her powers and her confusing feelings for both the kind-hearted Boone and the mysterious Edmund.
And she’d better find a way to pay the bills while she’s at it.
Other Fiction Writing
Three years ago during NaNoWriMo I wrote a paranormal crime novel, and two years ago I made a return to the epic fantasy genre with a novel about dwarves. In 2012 I decided that, for now at least, I’ve learned all I can from NaNoWriMo, so I didn’t participate. In 2014 I changed my mind and write another urban fantasy novel for NaNoWriMo.
I have also written several short stories, but to be honest, I’ve never been very good at short stories. In college I was always the girl who made people in critique group groan when I handed out my 20-page stories. I have been working on this off and on for the past several years, but brevity is still a challenge for me. I’m hoping to spend 2015 working on some short fiction.
Nonfiction Writing
I do most of the writing for the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum blog. Lew Wallace was a Civil War Union general from Crawfordsville, Indiana. He was instrumental in the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson and the second day of the Battle of Shiloh. He saved Washington, D.C., from Confederate invasion at the Battle of Monocacy. After the war he served as Territorial Governor of New Mexico and published the best-selling novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, wrote other books, painted, and patented inventions.
