Druid Magic and the Orb of No-Where, No-When - Anne Riley

Anne Riley

Less than two weeks before her baby girl's due date, the fabulous, lovely, and talented Anne Riley gives us an interview for the New Year's Revision Conference. We are honored. And we hope right now she is somewhere with her feet up, relaxing.

Katrina: What were you doing when the idea for Shadows of the Hidden first came to you?

Anne Riley: Basically I was playing house. Rob and I had just gotten married a couple months earlier and we were still child-free, so I was cleaning house, cooking a lot, and waiting for the school year to start at the high school where I teach. The idea came to me slowly over that summer of 2008, and by August 1 I was ready to start writing it down!

Katrina: What was the research process like, and how did you come to include Druid magic in your tale?

Anne Riley: Erm...it was a lot of Googling! The great thing about Druids is that they didn't keep a lot of written records, which means there is only a very skeletal history of who they actually were. This gave me a lot of freedom to create and elaborate where needed! I included Druid magic because I've always been fascinated with their mysterious rituals and the myths surrounding them. I couldn't resist building on their legend!

Katrina: What was the hardest part to write?

Anne Riley: The kissing scenes! Teaching adolescents makes me feel super awkward about writing romantic scenes that involve adolescents. I have to work really hard not to feel like a creeper.

Katrina: What was the most fun?

Anne Riley: The scene at the end where several characters end up in this place called the Orb. It's nowhere, no-when, and it's sort of become its own little mini-society. I loved that part because it is so unlike anything else I've read or written.

Katrina: How long did revisions take, and what's the biggest thing you had to change?

Anne Riley: Revisions took about 600 years.

Oh okay, more like 6 months total. But it FELT like 600 years! The biggest change I made was the ending--at one point I cut the last 20,000 words and rewrote them. *stabs self in eye* It was painstaking, but totally worth it!

About Anne:

Anne Riley is an author of young adult fiction from Birmingham, Alabama. Her first novel, Shadows of the Hidden (previously self-published as The Clearing), will be published by Compass Press in December 2012. 

Anne is a high school Spanish teacher by day, a writer by afternoon, and a mom and wife all the time. Her writing career began in August 2008 when she began working on her first novel, The Clearing. By December, she had a completed manuscript, and by January 2009 she had signed with literary agent Alanna Ramirez of Trident Media Group. 

When Alanna left Trident in September 2011, Anne began the search for a new agent, ultimately landing with Emma Patterson of The Wendy Weil Agency.

Books by Anne:

Amazon

Amazon

Believable Monsters - E.J. Patten

Cthulhu Ate My Mother, Or the Rise and Fall of Human-Flavored Nougat.

Warning: This post has nothing to do with eating, Cthulhu, mothers, nougat, or things rising and falling.

Second Warning: No Hobbits were harmed in the writing of this post...but, no worries, I will get around to it soon.

Final Warning: Now that I think about it, Cthulhu is mentioned once in passing, or four times in passing if you count the number of mentions in this title. But honestly, if you have enough time to sit around and count Cthulhu references (that's five), you should really just move on to the post or, even better, find something good to read. I hear Justin Bieber has a new book out. Over four and a half stars on Amazon. That's not bad.

by E.J. "Eric" Patten

People sometimes ask me, “Hey, Eric, how do you come up with such fantastic monsters?” I respond by saying, “Get off my porch, Creep.”

But getting off my porch is only the first step to creating fantastic monsters. I can’t remember the other steps, but I’m sure they’re not as important. Something about vampires, maybe?

The fact is, monsters can come from anywhere, and they frequently do. They hide in the backs of our cars and tease our necks with their salacious protuberances. They steal our souls, our blood, our children, our volition, and our minds.

They whisper from the shadows and drop from the stars. Our nightmares gave them flesh; our terror, the breath of life. They slithered from the primordial soup and screamed at the heavens when the earth was young.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

The key to a great monster is not what it can do, but what it can’t. Monsters are defined by their insatiable needs, their incurable limitations, and their frightening “otherness” that might be us.

A dependence on blood. A fear of holiness. Uncontrollable change. Ugliness and love.

Names without vowels.

Monsters crave the forbidden and suffer in their denial or success. Our fear comes in knowing they might transcend their limits and satiate their desires. We are not enough to stop them. Or we are, and we shouldn’t because in their transcendence, they prove themselves more human than us.

The days of the faceless, fathomless monster are over. We’ve conquered the earth and made it our footstool. Darkness flees from us at three hundred meters per second. Learning has made us confident in our ignorance. We no longer fear the hungry creature rising from the swamp, or the mindless thing gibbering in the corner. We identify it, we name it, and we dismiss it as a known quantity. Crocodile. Dinosaur. Electricity.

Australopithecus Afarensis.

The ancients called it Leviathan, but we know it was just a giant squid.

But even in our naming and dismissal, there is still terror. There is still fear.

The nameless, unknowable things that fill our universe create dread not because they’re unknowable, but because in the end, we realize that we will know them.

Terror comes in understanding. What if the monster’s worse than us? What if it’s better? Scariest of all, what if it’s exactly the same?

Every monster is a Rorschach test. We don’t fear the monster; we fear what the monster reveals about ourselves. Are we afraid of pain? Death? Change? Loss of control? Liking our loss of control? Do we fear what the monster might tell us about the nature and existence of God or about our own natures? Do we fear what we are and what we might become?

Do we fear ourselves?

In The Hunter Chronicles, I created dozens of creatures based on very specific fears. I gave them recognizable desires—good and bad—and cruel limitations. I created fear by giving them strengths that could allow them to overcome their limitations. I created tension by giving them reasons not to, or no reason at all.

Some of the monsters become characters. Others I use as mirrors for my characters.

One of my favorite monsters in The Hunter Chronicles is the Jack—a giant pumpkin patch that stretches out for miles and is made of massive gourds, some of which are the size of houses. The Jack isn’t a character, but a mirror that reveals a character.

The small figure you see in the picture is Phineas T. Pimiscule, a Hunter of Legend who has protected my main character, 12-year-old Sky Weathers, his entire life. That’s exactly what he’s doing here. But what is Phineas afraid of? What does the Jack reveal about Phineas’s character? Here’s an excerpt of the battle between Phineas and the Jack from The Hunter Chronicles: Return to Exile (Book 1):

Gourds smashed at Phineas, batting him in the head, in the back. He fell to one knee, and then struggled back to his feet. One step. Another. More and more vines appeared, wrapping around him like tentacles, until it looked like he was dragging the entire patch, and the whole world with it.

More vines and more, pulling him backward, dragging him down. Tens. Hundreds. Thousands. Wrapping around him. His torso. His neck. His steps slowed . . . stopped. He stood, motionless, pressing against the weight and horror. Gourds pummeled him like fists, over and over, hitting him so hard they shattered from the impact. And still he stood, blood pouring from his side.

Phineas is facing the impossible—a hopeless struggle against a vast and uncaring force of nature—in order to buy Sky time to escape. Phineas isn’t afraid of death: he’s afraid of failing Sky. The Jack reveals that in the face of hopelessness, Phineas creates hope, no matter the cost.

So, to sum up, how do you create a fantastic monster?

First, get off my porch.

Second, do other stuff, maybe something with vampires.

Third, do whatever else I said. Honestly, if you’ve already forgotten, I can’t help you.

Oh, and buy lots of copies of my book The Hunter Chronicles: Return to Exile (Book 1). The Legend Thief (Book 2) comes out in March. It’s monstertastic. That’s a word. Look it up (in my book that you’ve bought).

Books by "Eric":

Goodreads

Goodreads

Guest Post and Giveaway: Laura Pauling on her MG fantasy/adventure

My MG book, Deadwood, officially launched yesterday (obligatory plug: buy it for paperback or Kindle). But after talking about Deadwood on Operation Awesome for the past year, I thought the best way to celebrate would be to invite my Pugalicious Press sister, Laura Pauling, to talk about her new MG adventure, How to Survive Ancient Spells and Crazy Kings. And guess what? She's giving away a prize pack that includes both her book, other Pugalicious titles, including Deadwood, and Gangsterland, a great new MG title from Ansha Kotyk! So read on. -- Kell Andrews

Laura Pauling on her journey through the jungles of self-publishing, trade publishing, and her new MG adventure

Thanks to the gals at Operation Awesome for letting me take over their blog! I'm here to talk about my journey.

Everyone will agree that a lot has changed the past couple years. Two years ago, I was knee deep researching agents, sending out queries, and forging ahead the best I could. Like everyone else, I heard the rumors spreading along the Internet grapevine. I read the blog posts. I saw the potential. I did a lot of research. A spark lit inside of me. I could be in charge of my own career. I didn’t have to wait until I wrote the kind of story that agents were looking for at that particular moment. I realized that if I continued on the traditional route, it would take at the minimum three years. A year to find an agent and revise and then at least a couple years before it would hit the shelf. If the book sold. And that’s a big if these days.

Last spring I self published my YA, A Spy Like Me and just this past month I released the sequel, Heart of an Assassin. Is self-publishing hard work? Yes. (Any publishing is hard work.) Is it totally worth it? Yes. Is it for everyone? Probably not. Each writer has to evaluate his or her goals. Even though I’d ventured into self-publishing waters with my young adult, I had this middle grade sitting on my hard drive. A story that I loved. I wasn’t quite ready to self publish it, and I knew the editors of Pugalicous Press, a new small press dedicated to quality young adult and middle grade.

How to Survive Ancient Spells and Crazy Kings released last week. Pugalicious did a fantastic job, and I’m extremely happy with the results. This book would make a fantastic gift for boys or girls who enjoy adventure stories with lots of excitement!

You can purchase it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. You can read the first chapter here. Thankfully, my journey is just beginning and I’m excited to see where it leads. Click here for the list of blog tour stops! Enter to win these prize packages!

Prize Package One (signed paperbacks)

Prize Package Two (signed paperbacks)

Prize Package Three

 

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