#FeyTouchedTrilogy

[author-a-holmes]

The cover for Changeling, book one of the Fey Touched Trilgoy, was created by the fantastic people at Getcovers, and I couldn't be happier with it.

I honestly went into the design phase with only an incredibly vague idea of what I might want included, and they knocked it out of the park.

And now, I'm one step closer to having a publication date set in stone...

[fey-touched-trilogy]

The cover for Changeling, book one of the Fey Touched Trilgoy, was created by the fantastic people at Getcovers, and I couldn't be happier with it.

I honestly went into the design phase with only an incredibly vague idea of what I might want included, and they knocked it out of the park.

And now, I'm one step closer to having a publication date set in stone...

(Taglists under cut)

General & Fey Touched Taglists: @faelanvance @noirepersonal @queen-kass-the-writer @athenswrites @thelaughingstag @minamoroz @bardic-tales @cedar-west @ettawritesnstudies @jezifster

[author-a-holmes]

Fey Touched Trilogy; Fey Aesthetics

[author-a-holmes]

Fey Touched Trilogy Vampire Aesthetics

[author-a-holmes]

Happy STS! How many different genres do you write/have ideas for? Which one is your favorite?

Hello! Happy STS, thank you for the ask ^_^

I guess it depends on how niched down you want to take it. Generally speaking I only write Fantasy or Science Fiction.

But if we niche is down further then I write, or have idea's for;

Portal Fantasy (Changeling/Darkling/FeyTouched)

Contemporary Fantasy (FeyTouchedTrilogy & Faith of the Grim)

Urban Fantasy (Faith of the Grim)

Fairytale Retelling (Robin Hood Retelling)

Epic Fantasy (Stolen & Chronicles of Verald)

Romantic Fantasy (Stolen & Chronicles of Verald)

Space Western (Scifi) (Unnamed project; Voodoo Priestess meets Firefly/Serenity)

Soft Science Fiction (Intergalactic Bounty Hunters)

Animal Fantasy (Childrens Books) (Tale of the Shadowfox, and other stories.)

Then it's about nine (9) genre's off the top of my head Lol.

My favourite/s are Epic Fantasy/Romantic Fantasy. There's something about the combination of epic worldbuilding underpinning a love story for the ages that just gets me :D

Stella and Reilly in Stolen are my darlings forever, and as soon as I can outline Chronicles of Verald, and think Mallory and Nik are gonna get way up there on my list too.

Bribing myself with permission to answer asks, my fourth sprint of the day today netted me 761 words.

[author-a-holmes]

Give me a sentence from your novel...

Changeling, Book One of the Fey Touched trilogy

In the nocturnal peace of Lizzy’s bedroom, that was lit only by the dim shards of light from a newly risen crescent moon, the thud of her jewellery box hitting the hard wooden floor and snapping open seemed amplified.

A bonus line from a book that's currently cooking in a draw while I finish Fey Touched...

Stolen, Book One of the Stolen Stories

"Stella, I'm sorry... I didn't... fuck..." his hands landed against her upper arms, and despite the thick fabric of her tunic Reilly could feel that she was chilled through, morphing his apologetic grimace into a deep frown of concern, "Darling, you're like ice... how long have you been out here?"

[author-a-holmes]

What is the biggest lesson you've learned about writing?

WRITE. FOR. YOURSELF. FIRST.

In my opinion, there is really no other lesson that comes close. Write for yourself. Write what you want to read. Write what you enjoy reading about.

Not only because if you love it, then it's nearly impossible that you're the only person on the planet who will like that thing, but also because if you love it, it will show in the writing.

Readers will be able to sense the passion behind the words, and if you're unsure of your skill in writing, sensing the passion in a work can carry a reader through a rougher story. I've read books that weren't particularly well executed, but had passion behind every word and loved them.

If you love it, your readers will love it. If you are bored, frustrated, or hating what you're producing, that will come through too.

[author-a-holmes]

Happy National 'I love to write' day

Do you binge write, or get consistent word counts?

I'm actually a binge writer.

I'll go several months slamming out several thousand words a day, and then nothing for several months.

I wish I could write consistently, but I struggle with depression and anxiety.

Some days it takes all my energy to function on a basic level, and I have nothing left for writing. It's something I have to be patient with, and ride out.

Even on my worst days though, I still create scenes for my stories in my head. Even if I don't have the energy to write them down or type them up, they exist, and are ready for the next time I can put fingers to keyboard.

[author-a-holmes]

How do you Draft?

I draft my novels chronologically, which can be very frustrating. Unfortunately, if I try writing out of order, I get very lost in my plot, and it becomes a mess.

The first step for me is figuring out how my story ends. Since storytelling is a series of events based on cause and effect, I have to know where I want to end up before I can figure out how to start.

Then I work backwards. I plot the story from the end to the beginning, usually following the 3 Act Story Structure from Abbie Emmons on Youtube.

Once I have something between a sentence and a paragraph for each plot point, I start writing from the hook, to the inciting incident, through to the end of the book... chronologically.

That's my first draft.

[author-a-holmes]

Favourite Scene

What's your favourite scene in your book?

My favourite scene is near the beginning of Chapter 11.

It's a small scene between Lizzy and Booker, but it really shows how close they are, and how well they know one another.

It wasn't until Booker slung an arm around her shoulder and placed a mug of coffee in front of her as he slid into the seat beside her that Lizzy started to come awake and realise that she'd quietly followed her new room mate into what looked like a large dining room.

"Drink," Booker insisted beside her, and the amusement in his voice had her jabbing his side with an elbow instinctively, even as her hands curled around the mug, dragging it across the long wooden table she was sitting at to gulp down the warm drink in half a dozen mouthfuls.

"If you're planning on dragging her to breakfast without giving her at least an hour to wake up, you're going to need to provide coffee," she could hear Booker saying, "milk with two teaspoons of honey... or some other kind of sweetener."

"Why are you such an insufferable morning person?" Lizzy grumbled and Booker laughed.

"It's not morning, Lizzy, it's late afternoon at best."

"We just woke up, that makes it morning."

"Why does the school run at night?" he asked, and Lizzy glanced up to find his attention focussed on Cara, the young woman sitting opposite them and watching them both with a blush on her cheeks and an expression of surprise on her soft features.

"Cara," she blurted out, "I'm Cara."

"Booker."

Lizzy watched her friend introduce himself, and when his features curled into a slow smile she rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the ribs again.

"Is there any more coffee?" she interrupted, and he calmly pushed over a second mug from it's position in front of him.

[author-a-holmes]

Introduce Your World

Introduce the world your story is set in...

Changeling, and the Fey Touched Trilogy, is predominantly set in our world, but in a shadowy, secret, and hidden side of our world.

The vampires have their own society, but the line between the vampires and humans is a blurred line as they live amongst us in clans, spread out through cities and more rural villages.

There are three levels of governance in Vampire society, and then vampires simply trying to live their daily lives within clans.

Each clan has an elected clan leader.

Within each country, one clan leader is elected to sit on that continents Vampire Council. The council that will be seen in the books is the European Vampire Council

Between the council and the clan leader sits the third level of government; The Kavian Hunters.

They are the fighters and protectors of the vampires, and act as a kind of military service.

While they work directly for the Councils, they can be lent out to clans under external threat.

The other aspect of Fey Touched is the fey realm of Arbaon.

Arbaon is a magically constructed realm, formed through the magic of the first fey queen when they were being hunted to near extinction by rabid kavians.

Arbaon is ruled by six powerful fey.

They bribe, manipulate, lie, blackmail, and assassinate their way to claiming seats within the High Court, and between them rule all corners of Arbaon.

The Fey Queen will only step in and cast a deciding vote when the High Court is in a tie.

The Fey Queen is always female and is always a descendant of the fey who created the realm of Arbaon.

[author-a-holmes]

A quirky character detail...

What is considered 'quirky'?

I could tell you that Lizzy is not a morning person and requires copious amounts of coffee to wake up. She enjoys running in her free time.

I could mention that Booker has surprisingly strong skills in telepathy for a fey of his age, and that he likes to sing while cleaning his house.

The Headmaster of Speculo School enjoys playing chess against himself, and the movement of pieces on a board is why he went into vampire politics for so many years.

And after her parents abandoned her, Cara Evelyn didn't believe she'd ever trust someone enough to fall in love with them, until she does...

I don't know if any of these can be considered 'quirky'. To me, they're all just aspects of my characters personalities.

[author-a-holmes]

How do you reward yourself?

Honestly? My reward is the words on the page.

The only exception to this is during Nano when I sometimes need a bit of a motivation boost.

During nano my rewards can be anything from a bar of chocolate after each completed chapter, or a new notebook if I see one I really love.

Overall though I just love seeing my book come to life, and being able to read the story that's only been in my head until now is it's own kind of reward.

[author-a-holmes]

It's National Espresso Day!

What is your writing snack/s of choice?

For drink it's Coffee, of course. Although in the summer I can sometimes be found sipping from a mix of apple juice and lemonade.

For snacks, I don't have a set snack but I do have a habit of self bribery. Usually something that's fulfilling in small quantities, like rich chocolates.

See my Instagram post on Nov 16th for a picture of my Guylian Chocolate Seashells that I was letting myself have one of per 20 minute sprint!

[author-a-holmes]

Post an Aesthetic from your book...

I've been doing 3 images a day, so I'll share two aesthetics to keep with the pattern. One for the vampires, and one for the fey...

[author-a-holmes]

Three emotions you want your readers to feel...

This is so tough because, it kind of depends on the scene? I'd love the readers emotions to be reflective of that plot point at that time.

But for the purposes of answering the prompt question correctly, I think the main emotions I'd like to invoke with Fey Touched are...

Eager to get to the next chapter... and then, hopefully, the next book.

Interested in the characters and plot and the journey I'm taking them on.

Warm in response to the friends, family, and connections I'm building between the characters.

Overall, despite many of my stories being epic adventures, with high stakes, I like my books to be read as feel good books. I doubt I'll ever be invested enough to write a tragic ending.