I think I made good progress, considering what’s gone on this month with buying a house, with birthdays (mine was yesterday), going to the OWFI conference, etc.

Life is life – it throws curve balls and amazing gifts, all at the same time.

We’re closing on the house today.  I actually feel confident enough to say that now.  We were supposed to close last Friday. (Okay, I’ve been working on this blog post for the past 4 hours in-between work.  Just got the official – WE ARE CLOSING TODAY! I have the final numbers!!!! And we’re $1000 under what I thought we were going to be!!!)

And Camp NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow!

I’m attempting to use Undoing for my Camp NaNo novel.  I doubt that I’m going to be as detailed tracking it as I was with NaNoWriMo last year, though.

Because we’re also moving.

So, here are my June goals:

1. Move without going insane.

2. Complete 50,000 words of Undoing through Camp NaNoWriMo.

3. Keep working on edits/revisions/etc for Blood of Trees (formerly Weeping Willow).

4. Work on devotional book.

5. Finish and debut the SUPER TOP SECRET PROJECT! (all shall be revealed in time, bwahahahahaha!!!)

1. Finish read-through, write query letter, seriously think about changing the title, and start serious edits for Weeping Willow.

The edits are in progress! Also, Weeping Willow will now be referred to as “Blood of Trees”.

2. Write 500 words per day on Undoing for the rest of the month.  Undoing is now going to be my JuneCamp NaNoWriMo project.

Totally not happening – but Undoing will still be my Camp NaNo project.

3. Write all devotionals through the month of August.

I’ve written . . . one. Not even for August. It’s next week’s devotional.  So I’ll make some progress on this, but not as much as I hoped.

For those of you not in the United States, today is Memorial Day.

I’m always very aware of Memorial Day, for a few reasons.

My birthday is May 30th, so half of the time it actually falls on Memorial Day. Talk about a difficult birthday arrangement – I usually don’t do parties because everyone is already out of town with their own families!

But I also have family members and friends who serve in the military.

I have friends who have lost people because they were protecting our freedom.

So this is for my grandpa, Harold McClees – a World War 2 veteran.

For my best friend’s brother – a Marine who finally got to come home for a visit back in March, for the first time in two years.

For my husband’s grandfather, Leslie Loper – also a World War 2 veteran, murdered about fifteen years ago.

We remember.  We will never forget.

Thank you for keeping us free.

Memorial Day (Photo credit: davidyuweb)

Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,
Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.
But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.
And he [Isaiah] said, Hear ye now, O house of David;
is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign;
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
~ Isaiah 7:10-14 KJV

As a fantasy writer, I like to consider the “what-if’s?” of a situation.  Kathy Tyers, a long-time favorite author of mine recently did a guest post on the Speculative Faith blog.  In it, she describes some of the “what-if” behind her ideas for her Firebird series.

For her, it all hinged on what if Mary said no when Gabriel asked her to carry the Christ Child?

But let’s go back a bit further – back to when the promise was made.  That one little phrase - ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God.

How many times does God ask us to make our own destiny? How many times does He ask us what we desire, and we say “But God . . . surely You wouldn’t do that!”

Then, so there is no room for doubt, He says, “Just watch what I can do.”

The winner of this contest will receive a full request from Curiosity Quills press.

Yeah.

Like I said, too good to resist!

Without further ado, here is my query and first 500 words of Blood of Trees (my regular readers will know this as Weeping Willow, but a title change was definitely in order . . .)

Query Letter

Dear Ms. Wade,

The barren northern wastes are the only home Ysabel has ever known, but she doesn’t know that staying there will kill her.  Finding the trees that haunt her dreams is her only hope.

To save her life, Ysabel’s father arranges for her to marry Matthew, a duke.  Leaving behind everything to travel south to Matthew, Ysabel discovers her own powers with the dryads her mother once ruled.

This is exactly what Matthew’s mother, the Duchess, hoped for, but her plans are turned awry when her son actually falls in love with his betrothed.  The Duchess knows Ysabel’s true birthright and won’t hesitate to destroy anyone who stands in the way of her controlling the power the half-dryad girl possesses.

But Ysabel didn’t know that her link with the dryads would feed a growing taste for blood and revenge.  She is still half-human, though, and her soul won’t last long on the dark path she begins to embrace.

BLOOD OF TREES is a stand-alone New Adult fantasy novel, complete at 82,000 words.  It will appeal to readers who enjoy the feel of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO.

Thank you for your consideration,

Rebekah Loper

Blood of Trees (first 500 words)

Prologue

The Northern Knight, called Richard by those he loved, had woven the containment spells around Ysabel’s suite hours earlier when the nurse took her to retire.  His daughter was so young, barely even three. She was a miracle.

Tonight, he would be working a very delicate balance of magic.  Ysabel must stay asleep, and the first small spell he cast ensured that she and her nursemaid would not be disturbed by anything, be it magical or physical.  But as he whispered the words to end the chant, blood-scent filled his nostrils.

He had to work faster.

Spells were fragile, and he worked as quickly as he dared to extinguish the candles around the room.  He began a new chant, his voice strong and forceful.  Spells for sleep required a delicate touch, but spells to interfere with blood magic and death required strength.

At first, it seemed nothing was happening. He kept chanting.

The night crept in, barely noticeable, first clinging to the shadows and corners of the room.  Gradually everything around him faded, hiding even the blazing fire on the hearth.  The light ceased to exist.  It was more than just darkness.  It was a void, absorbing every particle of illumination around him.

In the moment when light was almost extinguished, Richard made the connection with his brother’s blood, focusing on where to find it.  There were a hundred leagues to travel.  This would require more strength than he thought.  Drawing on the power with the dark, he began to whisper.

“Light of moon, be my path.”

Richard was certain his eyes were open, but nothing broke the darkness.  The moon was full.  Even if he couldn’t see it, the light was still there.

“Take me now to where I ask.”

With a sudden, quiet stillness, he was gone.  The void went with him.

# # #

Darkness surrounded him like a shroud, and only the fact that he still drew breath allayed his fear.  The shroud loosened as he found his bearings, but it lingered in the forest.  He was too late.

Moonlight filtered through the branches, and his eyes quickly adjusted to that small amount of light after a journey through the void.  Any glimmer of light is a beacon when surrounded by shadows.

The scent of blood hung heavily in the air, cloying and sweet. His stomach churned.  Alderic’s blood had called him here, but he had never been able to sense his wife’s.  Where were they?

With a cry, he realized the heap beneath the shadows of the trees was their sleigh, overturned at the side of the trail.  The reindeer lay slaughtered on the ground, their fur soaked with blood that seeped into the snow beneath them.  Their entrails were strung across the forest floor.  Wind blew softly through the trees, and he sensed the magic curling along its path.

This had been planned.

A noise interrupted his shock.  It was faint, but very close.

“ . . . ard . . .”

It was his brother’s voice.

 
 
To find a list of the other writers participating in this contest and to read their entries, please visit this post at Sharon Bayliss’ blog.

Because I was furiously studying, I did not get my three posts up for the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy blog tour this week, but oh well.  There’s always next month.

I have made some progress on goals this week, though . . . and all I can say is thank God there’s a holiday weekend coming up, and hubby and I are both off work for Memorial day! I plan to WRITE this weekend.

Revised goals are now:

1. Finish read-through, write query letter, seriously think about changing the title, and start serious edits for Weeping Willow.  This is now priority #1 because of THIS.

So I finally finished my read-through – I’m going to cut out a lot and change a major plot point, but the good news is that I know exactly what I want to do with it now. I may have very cramped hands by the end of the weekend, though.

Also, one final title poll!

2. Write 500 words per day on Undoing for the rest of the month.  Undoing is now going to be my June Camp NaNoWriMo project.

This totally has not happened yet.  This weekend, hopefully.

3. Write all devotionals through the month of August.

Once again, this weekend.

I hope everyone else is accomplishing much more than I am!

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• #writemotivation update & revisions (blackanddarknight.wordpress.com)
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If you’re stopping by for #WriteMotivation, I’ll have that update posted on Thursday this week (CSFF will be from today-Wednesday).  Also, would everyone visiting do me a HUGE favor, and go look at my poll for some possible book titles?  I just want opinions .  The more, the merrier!

This month’s book is Beckon by Tom Pawlik.

The back of the book:

Some things weren’t meant to be discovered.  But once they’re unleashed, there’s no turning back.
Beneath the town of Beckon, a terror hides, lurking in the darkness.  Waiting.

Three people are drawn to the small Wyoming town for very different reasons.  Anthropologist Jack Kendrick comes looking for clues to his father’s disappearance.  Police officer Elina Gutierrez arrives in the near-deserted town on the trail of her missing cousin.  And George Wilcox is lured by the promise of a cure for his wife’s illness.

All are looking for answers.  But as they draw closer to discovering the town’s chilling secret, the real question becomes. . .

Will their quest uncover a miracle, or release an unspeakable evil?

It may just be me, but Beckon reminded me of the anime/manga Fullmetal Alchemist (I haven’t actually read the manga, just watched both anime series, and I like Brotherhood better).

There were a few parallels.

Lost fathers . . . eternal life . . . bad guys who supposedly couldn’t be killed . . .

Yeah.

What really made me think of Fullmetal Alchemist was the way eternal life is gained in Beckon.

If you’ve watched or read FMA, you’re familiar with something known as the philosopher’s stone (which is a historical term as well, back when people actually tried to turn lead into gold).  In FMA, the premise is that this stone allows an alchemist to do alchemy without having to account for equivalent exchange (what is being ‘transmuted’ must be equal to the original object).  Human transmutation is forbidden because you can’t measure the worth of a human soul.

A philosopher’s stone is only made through human transmutation, though – it is a stone that holds human souls in it, thus giving the wielder limitless power and/or “eternal” life, depending on how they utilize it.

In Beckon, eternal life is also gained through the souls of other people, but it has to be ‘taken’ daily.  People are drawn into the cult by being promised cures for incurable diseases.  In this book, Miriam and her husband are offered a cure for Alzheimer’s without being told of the other ‘side effect’.

What if you were promised a cure for an incurable disease, but not told that it would also increase your lifespan as long as you took it, and reverse the aging process?

I think that I would be horrified.  To find out suddenly that I may be completely healthy, but I’m going to not age anymore (and potentially look younger – this would be a big problem for me.  I turn 27 next week, and last summer someone asked me what grade I was in *headdesk*), and I’m going to watch everyone I love die? What a mind trip.

But that also begs the question – what would make eternal life worth it? I know what my answer is, but I want to hear yours!

To buy the book on Amazon, just click on the picture of the book above.
To find out more about Tom Pawlik, please visit his: Website   Blog   Facebook page   Twitter

And, since CSFF is a blog tour, please visit the other participants!

Noah Arsenault
Julie Bihn
Thomas Clayton Booher
Thomas Fletcher Booher
Beckie Burnham
Brenda Castro
Theresa Dunlap
Nikole Hahn
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Janeen Ippolito
Becky Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Leighton
Rebekah Loper
Katie McCurdy
Shannon McDermott
Karen McSpadden
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Joan Nienhuis
Faye Oygard
Crista Richey
Kathleen Smith
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Shane Werlinger

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in cooperation with the CSFF Blog Tour.

I had no idea how much it would grow and evolve!  I remember thinking, If I have a thousand views in six months, I’ll be so happy!

Well, I’ve definitely surpassed that.  I have averaged a little over 1000 views per month throughout the year – some have been vastly higher, and some much lower.

I was thrilled when I got my first subscribers that weren’t my real-life friends.  Momfog was one of the first, and I’m glad that she still pops by every now and then.  She always makes me smile.

I’ve met many other wonderful people, like Tameri Etherton, Christy Farmer, Jessica Therrien, and KT Hanna.  This is just a small sampling!

I have almost 160 subscribers right now (ignore the number in the sidebar – WordPress counts all my Twitter followers too *rolls eyes*).  I’m in awe that all of you think I have something worthwhile to say every now and then!

I joined Twitter. THAT has been an adventure.

I ran a story contest – which I have vowed never to do again.  Or at least not until I’m much better at time management.

I documented an entire NaNoWriMo with day-to-day updates, even when those didn’t actually happen daily.

It’s been amazing year.

Here’s to another!

. . . I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
Then said I, Here am I; send me.
~ Isaiah 6:8 KJV

Everyone has a story to tell, a purpose to fulfill, that is placed there by God.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you . . .”
~ Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary has several appropriate meanings for the word “sanctify” (if you haven’t been raised in a church or religious organization, you may not have ever heard this word).

It means:

To set apart for a holy or sacred use.

To prepare for divine service.

To cleanse from corruption.

But what does this have to do with writing?

If you’re a Christian, then nothing you do is just for the sake of “doing it”.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus . . . and whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of inheritance . . .
~ Colossians 3:17a, 23-24a

Essentially, if you call yourself a Christian, everything you do, say, or write is under scrutiny – both by the world, and by God.  There is no reward from the world, but God offers everlasting rewards to those who answer His call.

The written lasts for generations, after all. Are you writing what you want to reflect on your name and on God’s name?

And are you living up to the potential He placed within you before you were even born?

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RL: Hi Michelle, thank you for being here today!  Congratulations on your first book – I’m sure this a thrill you’ve been anticipating for a while.  Will you tell us a little about your inspiration for this story?

RL: Vampires are obviously the ‘it’ of fiction right now, though much of the time they’re being portrayed as the good guys.  In The Last Keeper, they play the role of the bad guy.  What factors played into your decision to have the vampires and the Keepers in conflict with each other?

RL: How did you develop the race of the Keepers? Which came first for you, the Keepers or the vampires?

RL: True love and soul mates play a major part into the plot – when a Keeper finds their mate, they call them a weakness.  Would you tell us some about that idea and how you came up with it?  What will it mean for Serenity?

Every race and character has to have a weakness. None of them can be perfect. And what more profound weakness can you get than the one person you fall in love with? Love makes everyone do stupid things. We kill for it, fight for it, protect it. It makes us jealous and angry, sad and scared. Having their partners as their weakness takes everything that love is/does and wraps it up into one ticking time bomb. It gives the Keepers everything they’ve ever wanted, and can take it away just as easily. For me, it embodied some of my greatest fears, and I think some of everyone’s fears when they’ve been in love. But at the same time, it is, I think, everyone’s greatest desire to not know a day without the person they love.

For Serenity, she gets her happiness, but none of the comfort. Because as the last Keeper, she knows that once Ray loses his life, the world loses theirs, too.

The settings were actually picked around the timeline of events in the book. I knew what I wanted to happen, and when I wanted it to happen in terms of the book, so when it came to looking at settings, I had a good idea of where to start. Also, being from the UK, I wanted it to be set here but at the same time be set in a time that was universally recognised. And when I started looking into various options, World War II was the one option that stood out the most for me. There was such a wealth of culture and events that happened during that time, which fit brilliantly into the book and the storyline.

RL: Thank you so much for stopping by, Michelle, and good luck! I enjoyed reading The Last Keeper, and I hope many others will as well!

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