Eolyn's Amazing Audio Book Tour and Giveaway

Welcome to our month-long celebration of the release of the audio edition of Eolyn!

We have a lot of exciting activities planned over the next four weeks, including author interviews, posts about magic, and previews of Darla Middlebrook's wonderful interpretation of this epic tale.

Best of all, as part of the tour you have the opportunity to win a FREE copy of the audio book! Just sign up for the Rafflecopter Giveaway below, or at any of the stops on the tour. Five copies are being raffled. There are lots of opportunities for entries. The winners will be announced at the end of the tour on August 11. 

Many thanks to The Magic Appreciation Tour for helping me put together this awesome list of blog stops. Join us for a virtual adventure through the Kingdom of Mosiehén. All are welcome. Enjoy!

July 14-Aug 11 Eolyn's Amazing Audio Book Tour and Giveaway  

Scroll down to enter for your chance to win one of five FREE copies 

of the audible edition of Eolyn. Winners will be announced on August 11th. 

July 14  The Places that Inspired Eolyn's World: Talamanca. Eolyn's source of magical power can be found in the South Woods, a dense wilderness inspired by the highlands of Costa Rica. Learn about these forests and why I love them so at DelSheree Gladden's The Edible Bookshelf.

July 16 Author Interview at The Story Teller's Inn. Join me and fellow author Susan Stuckey for a virtual cup of coffee and a chat about all things magical. 

July 18  Magic in Eolyn's World.  A full overview of the history and structure of magic in the Kingdom of Moisehén. Join us for a discussion of this and other systems of magic at Daniel Marvello's The Vaetra Files. 

July 21 Dragon. Author Lori Fitzgerald's recent release The Dragon's Message provides a perfect opportunity to talk about the role of Dragon in Eolyn's world. Stop by and share your favorite dragon stories, too!

July 23 The Origins of Magic.  Every young mage and maga learns this story. Now, thanks to a special request by author Matthew Reuter, you will learn it, too!

July 25 Author Interview with Heidi Lynne Burke.  My second author interview on the tour.  Questions about what inspired Eolyn, why an audiobook, and what to expect next from Eolyn's world.

July 28 Aen-lasati: The Magic of Love and Desire.  One of my favorite posts about one of the most intriguing yet controversial aspects of Eolyn's world. Check it out at author Tracy Falbe's blog, Her Ladyship's Quest.

July 30 The Romantic Leads of Eolyn.  A visit to Marsha Moore's blog Illusions of Intimacy inspires the romantic in me. Learn about the men who compete for Eolyn's heart -- and the readers' hearts, as well!

August 1 Born of Fire: the Ancient Forests of East Selen.  The forests of the Pacific Northwest reflect the wild beauty of the home of the Clan of East Selen, an ancient and powerful line of mages and magas. Explore these forests with me on Linda Ulleseit's blog Books Books Books.

Aug 4 Chat at the Independent Bookworm.  Author Will Hahn and I kick back for a friendly chat about the ups, downs, ins, and outs of producing an audio book. Bring your questions, and help yourself to the virtual brownies at the back of the room.

Aug 8 Author Interview with Eliabeth Hawthorne.  My last stop on the tour is a visit with the co-authors of the YA fantasy series Blind Sight.  If you've got any lingering questions about Eolyn and it's audio edition, here is your chance to ask them!

On August 11, Winners of Amazing Audio Book Tour Giveaway will be announced on this site! Good luck to all our participants. 

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Eolyn's Coven

My original plan for today's post was to write about two of Eolyn's students, Ghemena and Mariel, but I've decided instead to talk more generally about Eolyn's coven and its place in the history of Moisehén.

Prior to the beginning of High Maga, Eolyn founds her coven in the Moehn, a remote mountain-bound province considered something of  a backwater by the rest of the kingdom. Even Moehn's nobility are rather humble people, impoverished compared to the wealthier families of Selkynsen and the other provinces, yet happy with the life they lead and relatively unambitious in the political realm.  

Born in one of the small villages of this province, Eolyn grew up in the South Woods after fleeing the wrath of the Mage King. She identifies strongly with the province of Moehn and considers it a safe haven against the stormier conflicts of the outside world. This is why she chooses to begin rebuilding the tradition of the magas here.

Recruitment to Eolyn's coven is a slow and difficult process. The War of the Magas and the purges that followed have had a lasting impact on the structure and temperament of the society of Moisehén.  Even with the backing of the Mage King, Eolyn can find few families willing to entrust their daughters to the enterprise of women's magic.  

As a result, Eolyn's first generation of students come from impoverished and troubled backgrounds. They were brought to the Aekelahr by families hoping to rid themselves of unwanted daughters. This includes Ghemena, Eolyn's first student and the youngest member of the coven, Mariel and Sirena, who are almost ready to petition for a staff of High Magic, and Tasha and Catarina, the newest arrivals. Adiana and Renate, whom you met last week, came to the coven as adults at Eolyn's invitation. They assist her in teaching and caring for the girls. 

The Aekelahr, which is the name given to the physical location in which a coven lives, has a long history in Moisehén, though its precise origins remain obscure. Throughout the centuries, mages and magas interacted on a regular basis through intellectual pursuits, festivals, and the like. However, when it came to living in a community with other practitioners, the sexes generally kept themselves apart. 

Some would say this is how the tensions that eventually threw the kingdom into chaos got started, but Eolyn was steeped in the appropriateness of this practice by her own tutor, and she wishes to establish a coven according to the oldest traditions of her people. 

~*~

Come back next week for a scene with two of our young coven members, Ghemena and Tasha. 

Guest Author: Christopher Kellen

It is my pleasure today to welcome author Christopher Kellen, whom I met through the Magic Appreciation Tour. 

Christopher Kellen began his career as an independent author with the publication of ELEGY: Book One of the Arbiter Codex in July of 2011, which was shortly followed by the releases of the free short stories Dutiful Daughter and The Corpse King. In late 2011, the release of Sorcerer’s Code marked his first book that would go on to become an Amazon.com best-seller, and he has been writing furiously ever since.

2012 saw the releases of two new novels and a novelette, following up on the series that began in 2011. In December 2012, he began a new military science-fiction/space opera series with SINS OF THE FATHER. A proud member of the Genre Underground, his heroes of literature are those who are fearless in telling stories that truly mean something to their readers. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and monstrous black dog.

Today, Christopher tells us about building the world of Eisengoth for his ELEMENTS OF SORCERY series.  At the end of the post, check out the Rafflecopter giveaway and enter to win a FREE copy of the ELEMENTS OF SORCERY series!

Eisengoth: Building a World

THE ELEMENTS OF SORCERY focuses on the tale of how Edar Moncrief, a maker of love potions and wart remover (and competent sorcerer in his own right) gets tangled up with an Arbiter, and how his life gets irrevocably screwed up from that point forward. It's swords-and-sorcery written with an urban fantasy sensibility—like if Jim Butcher (author of The Dresden Files) wrote stories based on Robert E. Howard's Conan and Solomon Kane. There will be five installments when it's finished; each is novelette to novella-length, ranging between 14,000 and 19,000 words so far, and they've been getting steadily longer.

About four and a half years ago now (give or take), I embarked on my 2008 NaNo project. I'd been reading Robert E. Howard (the author of Conan) and a few of his contemporaries and successors, and I really wanted to write something in the swords and sorcery vein. At the end of November, 2008, I had a 50,000 word manuscript entitled ELEGY.

It was originally intended to be a stand-alone.

Fast forward a couple of years to 2010. ELEGY was very nearly published in an e-zine as a serial piece, but unfortunately the e-zine went under even before it launched. I did a lot of revision to prepare for that publication, but after the organization behind it crumbled, ELEGY went back to sitting on my hard drive.

So, when I came around to 2011 and was struck by the idea to go indie with my work, ELEGY was the first thing that came to mind. It was polished (or so I thought at the time) and ready to go. However, as I mentioned, it was originally supposed to be a one-shot. I hadn't even really begun to develop the world around it, which is odd for me, because I'm always world-building (even in my sleep, I think). All I knew about it was contained within those 50,000 words, but I knew that it could be something more.

From the moment I decided to publish ELEGY, I began building the world of Eisengoth around the city of Calessa, the primary setting of that first book. It didn't take me long to put in the first few details; a free league of cities, far removed from the older parts of civilization. The Free Cities was the first thing I really nailed down, and after that the next block came in easily: why were the Free Cities free? Well, because they'd broken away from the tyrannical authority of the Old Kingdoms.

I really wanted a sort of decaying, decadent feeling in this world. It's not a very nice place, honestly. Something really bad happened about five thousand years in its past, and ever since then it's been kind of a wreck. The world itself tries to kill the people who live there, and the monsters aren't much help either. The Free Cities, I decided, were a sort of frontier land, whereas the Old Kingdoms had existed for centuries, or even millennia. Within the text of ELEGY I had mentioned a city called Aldur, north of Calessa, so that was easy.

The next major part of the worldbuilding really came in when I made my first attempt at writing a sequel to ELEGY. (It didn't go well.) I laid down some landmarks as I began to write a travel story (I'm no good at writing travel stories, so I don't know why I thought that was a good idea) and set up the outlying areas.

When the draft failed, a lot of the details got scrubbed, but the core remained. That was what allowed me to build the tiny border kingdom that D'Arden visits in THE CORPSE KING, and what eventually led me to exploring the Old Kingdoms when I wrote SORCERER'S CODE, the first entry in The Elements of Sorcery.

As I wrote SORCERER'S CODE, pieces of the world kept falling together. This was my first attempt at getting across that sort of desperate, decaying feeling that infuses works like Jack Vance's Dying Earth, and the city of Elenia was the perfect place to do it: a city where the monarch changes every few months, and every time it does, the whole place gets incredibly drunk and attempts to kill each other in merriment.

Like I said, it's not a very nice place.

With each installment of The Elements of Sorcery, I've tried to explore different and contrasting locations while driving the story forward with my snarky and clever protagonist, Edar Moncrief. So far he's visited three separate locations, each stranger than the last, and there's two more installments to come! Seeing the dangerous and unpleasant world of the Old Kingdoms through Moncrief's eyes lets me paint a picture of a terrible place that a reader actually wants to continue reading, because his voice draws the reader in and shows them the world from the perspective of someone like them: a guy who's just trying to get along without getting killed, or skinned alive, or worse.

For all the places I've explored in Eisengoth, there are many more which have names and general concepts, but have not yet been detailed, and others which exist but only in sketchy visions inside my own head. One of the things that I love to do is to find places and learn about them within this world as I write along. If I already knew every detail about the world before I set to writing the next installment, there wouldn't be anything left to discover!


 

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A Bewitching Time for All!

This week, I'm taking a break from our regular programing to celebrate the Halloween season with a Bewitching Book Tour.  From October 22 thru November 5, I will visit ten blogs to talk about Magic in Eolyn's World through guest posts and interviews. 

As part of the tour, we will give away two free signed copies of Eolyn.  Also, as a special Halloween treat, Hadley Rille Books has kindly agreed to host a sale of the Kindle edition and the Nook edition of the novel.  For the duration of the tour, you can download Eolyn to your Kindle or Nook for just $0.99!

So treat yourself to some magic, sit back, and enjoy!  If you haven't read Eolyn, this is your chance to learn more about the novel and its soon-to-be-released companion, High Maga. 

If you have read Eolyn, now you can explore in-depth the traditions of the Magas of Moisehén, including many historical details and beliefs that are not revealed in the novel.  I also welcome questions from all of you about any aspect of Eolyn's story, the world of Moisehén, or my life as a writer.

The tour schedule is listed below, with links to the blogs that are hosting me.  Thank you very much to Roxanne Rhoads at Bewitching Tours for coordinating this event.  I look forward to having all of you along!

October 22:  Why Eolyn?  Learn what inspired me to write the novel on Lisa's World of Books.

October 23:  Author Interview on Roxanne's Realm

October 24:  Dragon  Read about the extraordinary legends of this Messenger, the guardian of all Magas and Mages in Moisehén. This stop also includes a new review of Eolyn!  Queen of All She Reads.


October 25:  The Real South Woods  Eolyn's childhood home was inspired by the magical forests of the High Talamanca in Costa Rica.  Find out why at The Solitary Bookworm.

October 26:  I have two stops on October 26th.
Shape Shifting in Eolyn.  A special post for Fang-tastic Books that reveals, among other things, why Akmael and Eolyn like to shape shift into wolves.
High Magic.  Many magas and mages petition for a staff, but only a select few are granted one.  The wonderful Claire Ashgrove, also a Kansas City area author, will host me on her blog From the Muse. 

October 27:  Author Interview with The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom

November 1:  Warrior Magic was first given to the mage Caedmon during the war against the Thunder People.  Read his story and more on For the Love of Film and Novels.

November 3:  Promotional Post for Eolyn on Wormyhole

November 4:  Author Interview with Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts & Reviews

November 5:  For my last stop, I will talk about the sequel to Eolyn, High Maga.  What challenges lay ahead for our favorite maga?  Who will be the new heroes and villains of her story?  Stop by and feel free to ask questions on Always a Booklover.

Special Guest Author: DelSheree Gladden

I'm very happy this week to welcome DelSheree Gladden as a guest author.  I met DelSheree through an on-line writing workshop, TheNextBigWriter.com.  From the beginning, I have enjoyed DelSheree's work in fantasy fiction, which blends elements of Southwestern folklore in contemporary settings, and features protagonists with powerful -- and often dark -- gifts.  Today, DelSheree will tell us about the system of magic in The Destroyer Trilogy.  The first book of this trilogy, Inquest, is set to be released by BrionaGlen Publishing in 2012.  Inquest follows sixteen-year-old Libby Sparks as she tries to escape her destiny to destroy the world. But Libby soon realizes dodging fate might not be worth the price. 

Please keep reading at the end of DelSheree's post, as she has also provided a special sneak preview of the novel. 

Magic in the Destroyer Trilogy

Thank you, Karin, for having me on your blog today. I am excited to have the opportunity to talk about the system of magic used in my new series, “The Destroyer Trilogy.” The first book in this series is “Inquest,” which will be released this month by Briona Glen Publishing. “Inquest” follows sixteen-year-old Libby Sparks as she tries to avoid her destiny to destroy the world.

The magic system used in “Inquest” is based on talents. There are seven possible talents: Speed, Strength, Naturalism, Spiritualism, Perception, Concealment, and Vision. The more talents the better…except in Libby’s case. Seven talents mark Libby as the prophesied Destroyer, a legend destined to destroy the world. Talents are meant for good, but Libby soon realizes they can be twisted to evil.

Speed and Strength: These are two of the most familiar of the talents. As their names indicate, Speed makes a person able to move incredibly fast, but without Strength, pushing your body to such extremes would damage your muscles and joints. These two talents are always paired, and they are the basic requirement for becoming a Guardian—the military force whose sole purpose is the kill the Destroyer.

Naturalism: This talent allows the bearer to connect with the natural world to nurture plant and animal life, manipulate natural elements like paints, rock, or fabrics produces amazing pieces of art, and even heal the human body. Twisted for darker purposes, Naturalism can also end life.

Spiritualism: This talent has a dual purpose. It can send the talent bearer’s spirit into the spirit world to commune with the spirits who reside there, or help soothe, calm, or guide a person. But, it can also be used to manipulate someone into doing what you want.

Perception: An extremely useful, yet often annoying talent, allows the bearer to sense another’s emotions. This allows the bearer to interpret emotions and discover when a person is telling the truth or lying. Perception is also the base talent needed to perform an Inquest—an ability that it highly prized.

Concealment: A talent with many uses, Concealment can seek out truth, as well as physical items or people. It can also conceal the bearer’s presence from others. Unfortunately it can also be used to hide and deceive.

Vision: This is by far the most unreliable of all the talents. However, knowing the future before it happens also makes it the most valuable of all the talents. This talent is especially sought after by the Guardians, making them extremely powerful.

These are the basics of what each talent can do, but hardly the limits of what a truly powerful person can achieve. As Libby faces both her destiny and the Guardians, she is forced to push the limits of each talent in her arsenal. Libby will shock not only herself, but the world with what she can do.

Thank you again to Karin for allowing me to stop by and share a little bit about my book.  Happy reading, everyone!

Excerpt from Chapter Five of Inquest

“I do hope you are patient with me, Libby,” Mr. Walters says, interrupting my thoughts. “It’s not an easy task to consolidate a lifetime of research into a curriculum overnight. I do hope that by the end of the year you’ll have a better understanding of what you will be expected to do as the only member of the Destroyer class.”

“Uh, really?”

You would think the majority of the world would be much happier if I had no idea what I was supposed to do as the Destroyer. I’m not even sure I want to know what I’m supposed to do. Every time I’ve tried to find out it never led anywhere good, so now I’d like to avoid finding out in the hopes that if I don’t know I’ll never actually do anything bad.

“Of course, dear. You have to know your purpose in life if you expect to ever accomplish it, don’t you?”

There is something wrong with this man. “But I don’t want to fulfill my purpose. I don’t want to hurt or destroy anything. You don’t want me to do that either. Nobody does!”

“Well, of course no one wants to see you harm anyone, but that’s hardly the point,” Mr. Walters says.

“How is that not the point?”

“Because the point of this class is to teach you to be the best Destroyer you can possibly be. What you do with that knowledge is completely up to you, but I refuse to have a student leave one of my classes not fully trained to do their duty.”

He’s serious. As if my killing people a few years from now has no bearing on his teaching me to do it, he opens his notebook and instructs me to do the same. What choice do I have but to follow him?

“Now,” he says, “I have been researching the Destroyer class most of my life. It has always fascinated me that there is only one member, one single person meant to destroy our entire society. When we have millions of Guardians to fight against the Destroyer, Visionaries who might see her coming, Concealers to find her, etc., I have always been curious about how this one person is actually meant to succeed.”

I cough and interrupt his rambling. “If the Destroyer, me, has all the talents of the ones meant to stop me, then all I have to do is use the talents I have against them, right? That’s hardly a mystery.”

“Precisely,” he says, “but the problem is that while a Guardian only needs to focus on honing Speed and Strength, you must master all seven talents if you have any hope of surviving past your eighteenth birthday. Mastering one or two talents takes years, decades even, but you only have two years. That, my dear, is the real question that has plagued me for so long. How can one person reach perfection before the whole world turns on her?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that would be something of a problem, if I was planning on actually surviving longer than two years,” I say.

Mr. Walters simply blinks at me. “You mean you don’t plan on surviving?”

“Uh, not really.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s impossible, for one, and surviving would mean hurting people, ruining lives. I don’t want to be a part of that. I’d rather let one of those psychotic Guardians slice me into little pieces than watch myself do the same thing to someone else.”

No matter what anyone says, I will not hurt anyone. Not again.

Walking over to my desk at a slow, thoughtful pace, Mr. Walters surprises me by touching his index finger to the spot of dried blood on my neck. “If you don’t want your gifts then why didn’t you let Lance or the Guardian kill you last night? Why don’t you kill yourself right now?”

He pushes back his blazer sleeve and snatches the Guardian blade out of its sheath so quickly I barely see more than a flash of light on steel before it is pressing against my throat. A Guardian. My heart is pounding against my chest, my mind screaming at me to run. I am alone in a room with a Guardian who is apparently obsessed with the Destroyer. With me. And he has a knife balanced exactly against my carotid artery. Black spots fleck my vision and I realize I’m hyperventilating. It requires all my quickly vanishing willpower to tap my Naturalism and slow my breathing enough to see clearly again.

“If you ask me to kill you, I will do that for you, Libby, though I would not take any pleasure in it,” Mr. Walters says. “Or if you prefer to end your life by your own hand, I will not stop you. Either way, if death is what you truly want, I will allow you to have it. Right here. Right now. This is the only time I will make this offer, Libby. It is your choice.”

The pressure of the blade on my skin increases slightly, and I cry out. “No! No don’t!”

Instantly the knife is withdrawn, back in its sheath like it never left. “Why?” he asks.

“Because I don’t want to die,” I say. Tears bleed down my cheeks and I wipe them away furiously, angrily.

“You will die eventually. There is no doubting that.”

“But I don’t want to die yet, not today. Not for as long as I can manage it.” Maybe it’s wrong to want to live. With everything I’ve done, and am, I probably deserve to die. But I don’t want to. Not yet.

Placing his hands on my desk, Mr. Walters leans forward.  His wizened features grow eerily strong and firm as he peers down at me.  "If you don't want to die, then you have to embrace who and what you are Libby.  Becoming the Destroyer is the only thing that is going to keep you alive."

~*~

DelSheree Gladden lives in New Mexico with her husband and two children. The Southwest has a big influence on her writing because of its culture, beauty and mythology. Local folk lore is strongly rooted in her writing, particularly ideas of prophecy, destiny, and talents born from natural abilities. When she is not writing, DelSheree is usually teaching yoga, coaching gymnastics, reading, painting, sewing or studying about teeth as a Dental Hygiene student.  In addition to The Destroyer Trilogy, her works include Escaping Fate and the Twin Souls Saga.  Visit DelSheree at her blog The Edible Bookshelf.   

Lynx

At the edge of the meadow, a subtle movement indicated the arrival of Lynx, come to bid farewell with the simple gesture of her presence.  -- EOLYN, Chapter 15

This has been a great summer for seeing mammals in and around Las Cruces. 

At La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, I had an encounter with P.O.U.S. (Peccaries of Unusual Size), so large I thought at first they were a small group of tapirs, concealed by the late afternoon shadows in forest.  Then they started grunting and clacking their tusks, all in all making it very clear I was not welcome.  White-lipped peccaries have garnered some fame for running hapless tourists up trees, and these being of unusual size, I found myself glancing at nearby trunks and gauging which tree would afford me the easiest climb.  Fortunately, the P.O.U.S. decided I constituted an insignificant threat and having made their point, continued on their way.


I've also seen a number of white-faced cappuchin monkeys, koatamundis (raccoon-like creatures that are charming until tourists start feeding them, and they figure out how to get into backpacks), agoutis (true Rodents of Unusual Size) and abundant squirrels.  As an extra-special treat, the tayra, a giant cat-like weasel, has crossed our path more than once. 

But what I feel like I've had the most luck with this summer are the cats.  I haven't actually seen any cats -- well, I did see one, I think -- but we've come across their tracks numerous times.  Large puma tracks graced the path on our first day out; and we've seen smaller cat tracks as well, perhaps left by the jaguarundi or the ocelot. 

Seeing a cat in the forest is, in many ways, like seeing ghost.  Afterwards, you're never quite sure whether you really saw a cat, or if it was just your imagination.  Wishful thinking.  A momentary hallucination brought on by mild dehydration.  Or perhaps that mushroom I took a photo of had Spores of Unusual Potency. 

Such was my most recent cat encounter:  I was walking alone, descending a gentle slope, when the animal crossed the trail some thirty meters in front of me.  Sauntering, as a cat does, without hurry or concern.  I saw the animal shoulder-to-tail, clear as day, and then it vanished without leaving a trace, without making a sound.  Not even a pawprint in the dirt to confirm my suspicion.  And I hadn't seen the head, so now I still wonder.  Was it a small puma?  A jaguarundi?  Or some other animal with which I am unfamiliar?

Or had I just been wandering alone in the woods for too long?
 

Eolyn's cat is the Lynx, which does not inhabit Central America, but is found in the forests of the northern hemisphere.  Like all cats, the Lynx of the South Woods is ever-present, though it seldom lets itself be seen. 

When Eolyn first loses her way in the South Woods as a little girl, Lynx tracks her, thinking the starved and disoriented girl easy prey.  Just as the cat is about to pounce, Dragon appears in the form of Serpent and tells Lynx about the girl's destiny.  From that moment forward, Lynx becomes Eolyn's protector.  Eolyn never learns of this event. Nor does the reader, because this story is never told in the novel. 

Lynx, according to some mythologies, is a keeper of secrets and protector of ancient magic.  When she appears to Eolyn, it is in key moments and with very specific messages.  During her rite of initiation, Eolyn climbs a rocky ridge to Lynx's lair, where she petitions Dragon for her staff of High Magic.  When the young maga decides to return to Moisehen, Lynx is the animal who bids Eolyn farewell. 

Lynx acts on Eolyn's behalf in many other ways, but for the most part the feline's actions remain secret and in the background.  Though it appears infrequently, Lynx is one of my favorite animals in the novel, because of the rich subtext of mystery it represents.

So when you are reading the novel, look for Lynx in all those forest scenes, behind tree trunks and on rocky ridges.  Look for her resting up in a tree, keeping an eye the action below.  Who knows?  You just might see something in the South Woods that I, even as I was writing, did not...

A Reckless Form of Magic

In Chapter 10 of Eolyn, the young maga tells her tutor Ghemena of a dream she had in which Akmael was slain on the battlefield.  Eolyn, frightened by the dream and concerned for her friend's future, wonders whether it might have been a vision, but the older witch scoffs at her, insisting it was only a dream.

"Divination is a reckless form of magic," Ghemena reminds her ward, and though the words do little to quiet Eolyn's fears, she accepts the older woman's teaching for the time being. 

Ghemena's truism reflects more than personal conviction.  The tradition of the Magas and Mages of Moisehén rejects outright any form of prophecy or divination.  Even though certain cultures, such as the Syrnte, practice divination with some dexterity, for a maga like Ghemena this sort of magic is at best an idle curiosity and at worst a tool that destroys hope and opportunity by undercutting faith in our own choices and the power of self-determination.

In addition to honoring the teachings of her predecessors, Ghemena may have some very personal reasons for her vehement rejection of divination.  Although these reasons are never fully revealed in the novel, they are hinted at in various places, including the scene we get to listen to today, an audio recording of Chapter 44 that has been kindly donated by friend and fellow author David Hunter.

This scene features the wizard Tzeremond, top advisor to Akmael's father Kedehen, and the man who oversaw the brutal purging of the Magas and the establishment of an exclusively male-centered tradition of magic.  Depending on your interpretation of the history behind the War of the Magas, Tzeremond -- and Kedehen along with him -- can be seen as extraordinarily cruel and calculating, or simply pragmatic albeit rather misguided.  I will have to let you read the novel (if you haven't already) to decide for yourself. 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this wonderful reading.  And many thanks to David for providing it.

While you're out visiting blogs this week, may I suggest you also stop by Heroines of Fantasy, where we have a wonderful guest post by Jodie Meadows, author of Incarnate, on the Vilification of Wool.

Also, lately Amazon has been offering a great price on the beautiful hardcover edition of Eolyn. I encourage you to take advantage of the sale while it lasts.  The glossy book jacket features original cover art by Jesse Smolover, and the acid-free pages carry an epic adventure that will live in your memory and grace your bookshelf for a lifetime.  Already have your copy?  Then it's time to start thinking about gifts. 

And what better gift to give than magic? 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great week!

Old Growth Forest

In my first fantasy fiction publication, the short story ‘Turning Point’ ( Zahir, Issue 17), two women struggle to understand the highland forests of Costa Rica, one from a scientific perspective, the other as an artist in the making. Their passionate focus on distinct modes of inquiry generates tension – each comes to resent the other, and neither is capable of seeing the forest through her companion’s eyes. The story ends in separation; one woman abandons her present life to disappear inside a fairy ring; the other remains faithful to her career as a scientist, yet loses herself in the endless task of cataloguing the forest’s smallest creatures.


While this denouement may seem kind of depressing, in truth both women are satisfied with their choices; both will come to know the forest in a way few others have had the privilege to experience. The real tragedy, I suppose, is that no one else will ever learn of the wonderful secrets they discover.

As we hiked through the primary forest of the Cascade Range, I was reminded of this story, and I realized that whether I enter the forest as a biologist or as an author, the challenge remains the same: How can I hope to capture this world and communicate its magnificence and complexity to others?

This is the first time I’ve been asked – formally – to study the forest from a writer's perspective, and I’ve found that my approach in the first moments of the encounter is the same:

I stop.

And then I ‘listen’. With all my senses.

From the sequel to EOLYN (currently in progress):  She pressed her hands against the rough bark, closed her eyes and heard the pulse of the tree, solid and slow, a steady current that stretched toward the sky and descended into the deepest places of the earth, a quiet murmur of indomitable strength.


It is not an easy task to listen, and it is especially difficult to listen to creatures who speak in ways completely foreign to our experience. In the world of Eolyn, Mages and Magas must learn to understand the plants, animals and rocks before they can hope to master any other form of magic. Nor do I – as the author -- make their task made simple by introducing animals that speak English; rather, the maga must come to understand each animal (or plant, or mineral) on its own terms, through its own language and behavioral patterns. This is, in essence, the same task of any modern-day biologist. What we are really trying to do, with all those instruments, data points and statistics, is translate the language of ecosystems into something that can be communicated in meaningful ways to other members of our own species.

Jewels of the forest:  rain water caught by a Trilium plant.

When I ‘listen’ to the forest, the first things I tend to ‘hear’ are the familiar – a plant that belongs to a family I recognize, for example. The way the moss hangs from the branches or covers the logs. The chill of the air. The shape of the fungi. The quiet – which, as I should point out, is not the same as silence. In a forest, sound is ever-present, yet understated. The flow of the river, the hushed sway of the canopy in response to a breeze. The rhythmic chirp of a small bird, like the intermittent squeak of a tiny gate, interrupted by the sudden chatter of another. The distant monotone trill of the varied thrush. The scratch of my pen on paper, the plasticky crunkle of my rain coat.

Now there’s a phrase: ‘plasticky crunkle’. Neither word can be found in the dictionary, but then again, much of what I would like to describe about the experience of old growth forest cannot be found in a dictionary. Imagine if we had a word for every mood, texture, sound, sensation that one experiences in the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. What a rich language ours would be.

Walking the trails through Andrews Forest sometimes leaves me at a loss for words – a terrible feeling for a writer – and my immediate response is an intense desire to create new words, new ways of saying things, so that I might capture and communicate the experience.  I will, for example, study the bark of the Douglas-fir for several minutes at a time trying to decide how best to describe it.  This inner tension between a loss for words and the need for words left me wondering today to what extent wilderness has given us our language.

How many times in our long history, has someone walked into a new territory and been compelled to invent novel words or phrases because nothing he or she had handy was sufficient to describe the plants, the animals, the personality of that particular place which had been woven by nature in all its complexity?

And if we destroy old growth forest, leaving behind only the barren earth, or monotonous stands of young plantations, do we not also obliterate the potential for new ways of communication that verdant maze might have inspired?

I don’t have answers to these questions at the moment, but I believe they are worth thinking about. 

This is the second installment of a week-long series of reflections on my writer's residency at Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon.

Many thanks to Rafael Aguilar Chaves for the photos. 

Born of Fire

We arrived yesterday evening at Andrews Forest Headquarters, tired but invigorated by the scenic drive from Portland to the Cascade Mountain Range.  I didn't expect to have all that much to write yet, as we only had time for a brief tour of the station and its surroundings before darkness fell and the cold set in.  But the forest has a way of speaking to you in your dreams, and by the time the sun illuminated the misty woods with a gray morning light, my head was turning with ideas and images.

During the coming days, I'm going to try to capture the mood of this forest in words; no small task as I will be with it only a short while, and already I can see that Andrews is varied and complex.  Tim Fox, former writer-in-residence and long-time member of the Andrews Forest community, showed us around the 'reflection plots' yesterday.  These are designated areas that writers must visit during their time here and investigate from a literary or creative perspective.  The program began in 2003 and will run until 2203, for a total of two hundred years of collaborative investigations of the forest by writers from different genres.  This effort runs in parallel with ongoing scientific research at the site, which is one of the most well-studied forests in the world.

The tracts of forest that we visited yesterday were dominated by Douglas fir and hemlock; each tree stretching in a single stunning pillar to the sky, trunks solid and wide at the base, the bark dark and deeply furrowed, a living image of the ancient. In the plot of primary forest that we visited, Tim told us the trees are four to five centuries old. 

This is the forest of East Selen.

Or at least, that's what I was thinking yesterday, as we drove up the Blue River Reservoir and then walked the trails around the station.  Those of you familiar with Eolyn lore will know that East Selen was the home of Akmael's mother Briana.  One of the most powerful Magas of her time, Briana witnessed the massacre of her Clan by the Mage King Kedehen after the War of the Magas.  She was then captured by the Mage King -- or surrendered willingly, depending on whose story you decide to believe -- and became Queen of Moisehen. 

The forests of Briana's childhood are different from the South Woods in which Eolyn grew up.  Eolyn's home is a mix of deciduous hardwoods dominated by oak, with a few conifers scattered throughout.  East Selen, situated further to the north, is a forest of ancient conifers dominated by fir. 

In my October 9, 2010, post entitled Tree Magick, I talk a little bit about the tree lore of the Magas and Mages of Moisehén.  Firs play a prominent role in this tradition of magic, forming a bridge between the Underwold and the world of the living, and holding the power of flight in their branches. 

Last night I was reading about the Douglas Fir in Ancient Forests of the Pacific Northwest by Elliot A. Norse (a reference that is probably a little out of date by now, but it's what I have on hand, so we'll just go with it), and I learned something new.  The Douglas Fir is a somewhat exceptional fir, not only for its height, but because it does not begin its life in the shadows of an understory covered by thick canopy.  In Norse's words, the Douglas Fir is 'conceived by fire'.  Seeds germinate and grow following periodic fires (periodic, in this sense, being once every few centuries), and the saplings thrive best in open areas with lots of sun.

This was a wonderful detail to come across because it fits so perfectly within the legends and lore of Moisehén.  So I decided, between last night and this morning, that the fir used by Magas and Mages to invoke powers of flight will also be 'born of fire', more specifically 'born of the breath of Dragon', the legendary creature who gave High Magic to Aithne and Caradoc. 

This is one of the stories I hope to develop this week:  The myth of why firs hold the power of flight, and the role of Dragon in creating this magic.

The character of Briana has also been speaking to me, and before the week is out I am certain I'll be sketching out some story or scene from her life, probably in the time before the War of the Magas.

Not bad for less than twenty-four hours.  I think I'll go get some breakfast, and then take another hike.


Photos by Rafael Aguilar-Chaves.

Middle Magic

Well, today I was scheduled to meet with Hadley Rille editor Eric T. Reynolds and artist Melissa J. Lytton to talk about cover designs for EOLYN, but Mother Nature had a different plan, having whipped up a fine blizzard over the states of Kansas and Missouri.  So I'm keeping warm and cozy at home, watching the snow fall, and fall, and then fall some more. 


We're getting close to putting out the advanced reading copies (called 'ARCs') for EOLYN.  These are basically preview books that go to reviewers and other authors prior to the release date. I will also receive a copy, to comb through it once more in case there's anything left that I would like to change or fix before we go to press in May. Just thinking about it brings to mind a couple things I need to ask Eric about, but before I sign off to do that, let's talk a little more about magic.


Last week I wrote about Simple Magic, one of the three classes of Advanced Magic recognized by the Old Orders of Moisehén.  Students who become adept at Simple Magic eventually advance to Middle Magic.  The distinction between the two can be fuzzy sometimes, and was often a subject of intense debate among the different schools of the Old Orders.  Yet it is generally agreed that the focus of Middle Magic is communication, in a very broad sense of the word.  In Chapter 4, Akmael tells Eolyn:


"Middle Magic is the language of the world, of the animals and the stones and the plants. It’s about integrating the elements. Middle Magic is everything you have to know before you can practice High Magic."


Magas and Mages believe that understanding the natural world is a fundamental prerequisite to being able to manipulate it.  So students of Middle Magic focus on learning how to speak with and listen to the animals, plants and even the stones. 


Now, as I've mentioned in previous posts, plants and animals in EOLYN do not 'speak English' in the sense that you might find in a children's book.  So you will never see Eolyn carry on a conversation with a wolf in the same manner she does with Ghemena or Akmael.  But Eolyn does learn how to interpret the signals of wolves in their own right, to understand what is being 'said' by them, and to interact with them directly.


It bears mentioning that writing is considered a form of Middle Magic in the tradition of Moisehén, primarily because of its ability to preserve human thought and knowledge through time.  For this reason, all students of Middle Magic learn to read and write. 


Other skills learned by students of Middle Magic depend to some extent on the preferences of the tutors with whom they work.  As it turns out, Tzeremond and Ghemena have very similar approaches to instructing their wards, so both Akmael and Eolyn learn, for example, how to 'visualize'; that is, how to create the illusion of a particular object. As a matter of fact, one of their first acts of friendship, described in Chapter 4, is to craft a gift for each other by using this power.  


In addition, while shape shifting is a power associated with High Magic, both Tzeremond and Ghemena turn their wards into animals (or even plants) to supplement their education in Middle Magic.  (And yes, this particular practice is my small tribute to Merlin and Wart, as portrayed in T.H. White's classic The Once and Future King.) 


Okay, that covers my brief introduction to Middle Magic.  Up for next week:  High Magic.  Hope to see you then!

The "Rules" of Magic

The big news this week:  Kim Vandervort's THE NORTHERN QUEEN is being launched this weekend.  Hooray!  I can't wait to read it. This is the sequel to the wonderful novel THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS, released by Hadley Rille Books in 2009.  I'm a big fan of Vandervort, and if you haven't had a chance to read her work yet, now is the time to put her on your holiday reading list.  Congratulations, Kim!

Both of the links I put for Vandervort's novels go to the Hadley Rille website, but you can also order these books through Amazon, or ask for them at your local bookstore.  Just as a reminder, though -- Hadley Rille is still celebrating its fifth birthday with the giveaway of a free Kindle 3G. In addition to being able to register for the drawing for free when you visit Hadley Rille's website, every time you order a book from the site you get another entry in the drawing.  For more information, click HERE. 

Okay, on to today's topic:  The 'Rules' of Magic

I'm not sure who first coined the term 'the rules of magic'.  I'd like to credit Orson Scott Card with having used the phrase in his brief but very helpful book "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy", but in truth I'm not sure he did.  The first time I heard "magic" and "rules" used in the same breath was at a meeting with my local writers group, the Dead Horse Society.  The heart of the idea did not really become clear to me, though, until many months later when a member of DHS, having read an early draft of EOLYN, came back to me with several questions about magic in Moisehen.  The one that has stuck with me to this day is this:

"If magas draw their power from the earth, how is it that they can shapeshift into owls?"

In the moment, I thought this  a ridiculous question.  Why would drawing power from the earth negate the ability to shapeshift into an owl?   As it turned out, this person's confusion arose from a preconceived notion that flying creatures are associated with the power of air.  Yet in the world of Moisehen, that's not how things work.  All living creatures are associated intimately with the power of the earth, and practitioners connected to the earth can, therefore, shapeshift.  Practitioners who draw their power from the air, on the other hand, cannot shapeshift  -- even into flying creatures -- although they do have access to other distinctive gifts.

In any case, this question was a turning point in my journey as a fantasy writer.  For the first time, I realized there would be readers out there with preconceived notions of how magic is supposed to work, and that if I wanted to avoid upsetting them with 'magic that made no sense', I needed to be more explicit throughout the novel about the underlying logic of magic in Eolyn's world. That day I went home and told my husband I needed to outline the "rules of magic" for Moisehen.  To which he laughed and said, "I thought the whole point of magic is that it breaks the rules." 

At the 2010 World Fantasy Convention, I attended a panel discussion entitled "The Fairy Tale as a Specific Form".  There were five members of the panel, Leah Bobet, Terri-Lynne DeFino, James Dorr, Gabe Dybing, and Delia Sherman.  Early in the discussion, the topic of magic came up, and one of the panelists mentioned that for JRR Tolkien, magic by its very nature could not be explained -- as so many readers expect it to be now -- it simply 'felt' right, though its inner workings would always be a mystery. 

Now, I am no scholar of Tolkien, and all I have from this panel is that one brief note, but I do think it's interesting -- assuming the panelist's assesment is accurate -- the implication that we have moved from a period in which magic was accepted as an intuitive, essentially inexplicable endeavor, to a time when it's a fundamental task of every fantasy writer to elaborate, in an almost scientific fashion, on the 'rules of magic' for his or her world. 

Does that mean the genre has advanced somehow, become better, more thorough in its approach to world building? 

I'm not so sure. I have heard, for example, colleagues ruminating about the problem of 'conservation of mass' during shapeshifting.  Yet as I see things, if you can turn a duck into a goose with a wave of a wand, the laws of physics are already irrelevant.  What, exactly, do we gain by mixing science with magic?  By distilling the infinite universe of imagination into testable hypotheses? By trying to fit square pegs into round holes? 

Just one year ago, I was comfortable with this idea of 'rules' in magic, but -- as is probably clear from this post -- I'm starting to drift away from that.  I no longer believe 'rules' is the correct word to use in association with magic. I do believe magic (like, say, religion or art or even literature) must have an underlying logic, a way of working that is tied intimately to the culture, history and worldview of the people who practice it. (Another way of saying, I suppose, that it has to 'feel' right.) In that sense, magic will always have limitations -- but limitations defined, I think, more by the vision of its practitioners than by any inherent 'rules' that govern what magic can and cannot do. 


What do you think?  Does magic need rules?  Or is magic meant to break them?
 
 
 

Tree Magick

Good news this week! My short story "Creatures of Light" will appear in the fall issue of Adventures for the Average Woman. This is a tale of passion and brutality, an eclectic mix of romance, fantasy and horror set in an imaginary Age of Exploration. It's a very different world from EOLYN, and was a lot of fun to write.


The short came together thanks to both my writers' groups: TNBW and DHS. It was through TNBW that I met David Hunter, whose work in progress A Road of Blood and Slaughter contains the marvelous bestiary that inspired the character of Selenia. (And no, Selenia's not a beast -- well, okay, maybe she is -- but mostly she's a woman scientist very interested in strange and deadly beasties). Then, about a year ago, I had the opportunity to put Selenia in a story thanks to Tepring Cocker of DHS, who organized a secret pal activity for the holidays. My secret pal was Maddie McFadden, who asked for a 'high fantasy, maybe with a dragon'. "Creatures of Light" is not exactly high fantasy, and I kind of cheated -- just a little -- on the dragon. But Maddie liked the story anyway, and so did I, and fortunately so did Laurie Notch, managing editor of Adventures. I'll let you know when the magazine is available, but if you would like a preview visit the Works in Progress page on this blog.

As serendipity would have it, next Saturday I'll be hosting one of the DHS workshops at the Longview Literary Festival, together with Andrew Rambo. We'll be talking about -- you guessed it -- 'Creatures of Light and Darkness'. How to create believable and fantastical beasties for your work of fiction. The workshop is FREE and the fun starts at 2pm. Hope to see you there!

Those are my announcements. On to this week's topic, Tree Magick.

I've been working since last summer on a sequel to EOLYN, which has been a lot of fun, and a little distracting given that I still have some minor cleanup work to do on the first novel before we go to press. At any rate, moving into book 2 I've realized I need to put together a herbarium for Eolyn's world, to write down the different plants and their uses so I can keep things consistent going forward. So, I've gone through the original manuscript and marked all the places where the magas and mages use herbs or other plants for certain tasks. Now I need to sit down and catalogue everything in a separate document.

While I'm a little behind on putting all this information into one place for herbaceous plants, I do have a fairly decent catalogue of the sacred trees of Eolyn's world, their meaning and what they are used for in terms of magical purpose. I thought I'd share some of that with you today.

Alder -- Modern ecologists call alder a "pioneer species" because it is very well adapted to colonizing deforested areas. Hence, its meaning for the magas of Moisehen: Alder provides protection during transition. It is often associated with Raven or Crow. Alder is commonly used in funeral pyres, and also for making the sacred fire used to forge a maga's staff.

Ash -- Ash is a hardwood, strong but elastic, and historically it has been used for making bows, tool handles and (more recently) baseball bats. For the people of Moisehen, Ash is the symbol of strength and wisdom during times of sacrifice. Ghemena’s staff is made of Ash.

Fir -- There are many species of fir, and the one sacred to the tradition of Moisehen is very similar to the European silver fir, the first tree to be used as a Christmas tree. These trees can become giants, the largest on record having reached a trunk diameter of 3.8m and a height of 68m. Mages and magas consider Fir the 'staff of the forest'. Its roots can extend to the depths of the Underworld, making it a living bridge that unites the living and the dead, as well as the elements of earth, air and water. This very sacred tree can also be used to achieve powers of flight.

Linden – The heart-shaped leaves of this beautiful tree may be the source of its mythological role as the protector of Children’s Magic. Ghemena adds Linden to the traditional mix of woods for the sacred fire meant to forge Eolyn’s staff.

Oak – No magical herbarium would be complete without Oak, which is considered one of the most sacred trees in the tradition of Moisehen, conferring strength and endurance upon those it favors. Oaks are dominant trees in the primary forests of Moisehen, and their slow growth produces a very dense wood that is highly resistant to disease and decay. Eolyn’s staff is made from Black Oak, and Akmael’s from White Oak.

Rowan – Also called “mountain ash”, Rowan also produces a dense wood. In our own mythology, Rowan is a favored wood for magician’s staves, and the same is true in Moisehen. Rowan confers control, discrimination and discernment. Tzeremond’s staff is forged from Rowan.

Walnut – A hardwood that can be polished to a rich purplish brown, Walnut confers power for transitions and hidden wisdom. It is used to build the sacred fire for forging staves, and also for funeral pyres. Walnut is an important wood for Mage Corey, and IF he had a staff (which he might, or he might not…) it would be made from Walnut.

Willow – I still remember climbing and swinging on the vine-like branches of the willow that grew in my cousin’s backyard while we were growing up. So of course, Eolyn and Akmael had to have willows to climb as part of their childhood adventures in the South Woods. This tree embodies flexibility, strong inner vision, and a gift for making connections.

That's not the complete list, but it covers some of the most important trees of Eolyn's world.  I'll come back to the herbs later on down the line.


Today's photo is from the forests of Cuerici in the Talamanca Mountain Range of Costa Rica.   Although this is a tropical forest, its high altitude results in a cool wet climate that favors many plant species we tend to associate with temperate forests, such as oak, alder and blueberries.  These are the forests that inspired images of Eolyn's childhood home, the South Woods.