Showing posts with label Rhodes End. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhodes End. Show all posts

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Keeping writing on goal? By Barbara Edwards

I’m Barbara Edwards and writing is a major part of my life. Like most authors, I can’t imagine not writing my stories. I have the next two paranormals in my Rhodes End Series partially done, but real life has been biting hours from my writing time.
     
That’s not unusual, but it is frustrating.
Both have over fifteen thousand words already and I planned on sixty for each. I know the middle and the end. Now I must get the words written.

Do you like werewolves? I found I do, too. My Rhodes End Wolves have been part of my Series since the beginning. I’ve been keeping track of the Pack Law in a separate memo and found it to be useful when I add another scene.

How about Sorcerers? I’ve keep mine in the background, waiting for his own book. He’s nipping at my heels, too. 

Witch? Of course. She’s a main character in the book I’m working on. And the star of her own story.

Everyone has written about their goals and plans for their year. I tried not to make plans. I’m a punster in every aspect of my life besides writing. 

Here’s a Small excerpt from Ancient Awakening if you haven’t already read it.

The terrified servant fumbled her armload of logs as she eased the laboratory’s paneled door open. The pounding of her pulse shredded his concentration. Hunger stabbed through his gut. His fingers flattened the quill’s nib against the parchment and ink smeared the last entry like blood. Saliva pooled in his mouth while she built up the fire, then scuttled to safety. 
His low growl muffled the soft snick of the latch. Once again, he had resisted the impulse to rend, to carelessly feed. A frustrated sigh heaved his chest. The only way to keep good servants was to reward them richly and let them live. The lesson had been difficult to learn. 
He held the parchment to the fading light streaking through a slit in the thick stone. The pale glow outlined his fleshless fingers before a freshly-penned phrase caught his attention. He threw the broken quill into the fire and selected another. The correction had to be made and he bent over his desk to take care of it. 
Satisfied with the change, he straightened and stared into the dancing red and orange flames until his stiff muscles eased. He had to eat, but he resented interruptions. His latest research into a cure had been so promising; the details so fascinating, only the relentless blood hunger forced him to stop. 
Although he had searched the world, he had never found a remedy for the curse he had inflicted on himself. He eased erect and rubbed at his blurred eyes, before slowly stacking the parchment sheets, aligning the unused quills and corking the ink well with shaky hands. He was weak, but the priests would have his nourishment ready. They always did. 
A snapping log showered glowing embers onto the slate hearth. He pondered the coals for a moment before he swept them aside with his bare hand. His changed flesh didn’t burn. Along with his soul, his body had surrendered its ability to feel pain, to age, or scar. 
Legend gave him many names, but the wide halls of his mountain retreat no longer echoed with countless worshipers. He could have ruled the world had his ambition not died with the passage of time. The endless whispers were from the cold winds and the few praying priests. He didn’t care that he couldn’t remember his real name or birthplace.
For an eon he’d regretted the loss of softer emotions. Love had been the first feeling to die, along with the woman who had insisted he would never harm her. He couldn’t recall her features, just the merry tinkle of her laughter and the bright smile she had greeted him with every morning. He licked his lips. She’d tasted sweet. 


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Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Writing a paranormal series by Barbara Edwards

Writing a series like my Rhodes End series has its own set of problems. The biggest is remembering from book to book all the little details especially since I’m working on book four and five.

If I mention the heroine’s mother, I save it to her bio sheet, but what if I mention the road she drives to work? I need more than a note. I need a map. And I need to reference the surrounding area. 

I realized I had to keep records while writing Ancient Awakening. I locked the cemetery and the garbage dump, then the Town Hall and the village green. My town of Rhodes End was growing by leas and bounds. 

In the middle of th series I got the writing tool called Scrivener which made it both easier and more difficult since I had to go back into my old records and move clips to the new records. 

Here’s what my creation looks like.

Welcome to Rhodes End.
On the surface, nothing distinguishes Rhodes End from a thousand other small towns. More than half the population works at regular jobs, have normal families and lives. Farmers, shopkeepers, teachers and other townspeople are unaware of the ‘different’ ones. The dark undercurrents never touch them.

An ordinary tourist tooling up the scenic road may tell friends of the charming village, but only the harmless or the expected find it easily. The basic rules of space and time seem the same, but magic can occur along with paranormal activity. In fact, those with paranormal senses find them stronger, more reliable.

Rhodes End is located on a confluence of magnetic ley lines that draws magic and paranormal activity. Rhodes End dog-legs the Northeastern corner of Connecticut, the hip pressing against Massachusetts while the paw scratches into Rhode Island. 

Rhodes End rarely appears on maps due to boundary and settlement disputes. Less than an hour from Hartford, Boston or Providence, major highways cut through the hills less than a mile away. 

The ley lines are the same lines that pass under Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid, Machu Pichu and Anasazi ruins in Arizona. Their mystical power is recognized by ancient religions. The power existed before the Caucasian influx chased away the small tribes who used the site to call their spirits. Nothing is noted of the even older pictographs in the deep caves.

 Near the corners of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, it fails to appear on many maps due to various boundary and settlement disputes. This isn’t far from Hartford. Major highways to both Boston and New York City cut through the hills less than a mile away. 

Ancient Awakening, Ancient Blood and Ancient Curse are available from The Wild Rose Press.


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