Story Boarding

So I'm trying something new. I'm outlining and story boarding my novels. For the first time. I have so many projects going on that I don't think there is any other way to keep it all straight.

Here's the breakdown of my current projects

TEGG editing.
The Unveiled- solo project
The Body Horror Book- collaborative project
Untitled Collaborative novel
The Children- short story for a contest
The Auction- short story for a contest
The Laird's Ken- TEGG Novel for The Great Galactic Game
World Building for the Great Galactic Game

and I'm sure I'm forgetting a thing or two. The point is, it's a lot. And I'm loving every minute
So, to keep it all straight, I'm story boarding my projects.
Which means:
Outlining
Scene creating
An ACTUAL cardboard trifold that I can pin scenes too and move then around.

It's really strange. But, fun. I think it's going to work.

Updates!

You guys! I'm doing cool stuff! Seriously, cool stuff. Here's an update. If you've followed me for awhile then you know I got accepted as a creative to The Ed Greenwood Group. (yes, THAT Ed Greenwood) what I failed to come and tell you guys is that not only am I a creative author, BUT I am also a Lore Guardian (squee!) what does that mean? That means that Ed has entrusted me to helm one of his shared world settings. This is an INCREDIBLE Honor and I am thrilled beyond words to be doing this. It's crazy and amazing and you guys are going to be able to follow along with my setting pretty soon. For now I'll tell you a little bit about it:

The Great Galactic Game is a space opera rife with danger, hilarity and opulence. You'll meet a vast array of characters and encounter all the wonders of space that we can create for you. And as soon as I can release more information I will.
I can give you this sneak peak at our logo!

Designed by the incomparable Dan Barrett who is my partner in this endeavor as the Art Director for our setting. Working with Dan is a blast and I am excited to be a part of this crazy Onder Librum thing. Keep up by clicking the link and sign up for an account, be sure to check out the currently released setting Hellmaw!


I'm also writing a chapter for this incredible anthology:
The Body Horror Book: An Analytical Look at Horror and Politics
Writing for this non-fiction book is beyond fun. It's also for a good cause. Proceeds from this book are going to support Epilepsy Action Australia. Take a look at the kickstarter for more information!

Lists

This week, I thought I would do something a little different and kind of fun. One of my favorite things to know about the authors I read, is what do they read? What books are their favorites? Have I read any of them?

So. I created a list challenge of my favorites. Some are single books, some are series. How many of my favorites have you read?

Leave a comment with your answer!

http://www.listchallenges.com/ce-robertsons-reading-challenge

The Trilogy Curse

Ok. Let's be frank. Let's just say it. YA TRILOGIES ARE HORRIBLE.

I feel better now.

The Hunger Games: Compelling. Interesting. FINALLY a heroine that's more interested in actual world issues than her super hot (all the girls love Gale) "bestie". She wasn't even aware of the boy from the class up that was in love with her. So refreshing. She was in mortal danger, all the time, and it was believable. The ending was satisfying, and yeah, just like you, I wanted to know what was coming next.
Catching Fire: Well hello there Bridge book. So glad to have read you. With your new array of colorful characters for me to love and watch die. And ooohhh, a twisty surprise! Wait. Nope, I called that. Oh but what about this reveal! Nope. Called that too. Ok. I get it. We had to walk the road to get to the destination in book three.
Mockingjay: Katniss has mental breakdowns now? Understandable. Oh, so that's all she is now. Really? Seriously? Hold on. Did you just set Gale up to fail spectacularly? Yeah. You did. Peta, our sweet artist is trying to kill everyone? UUUUGGGHHHH. Stop it. Why is this battle so boring? WHY ARE YOU KILLING FINNICK. Oh, I know. Shock value. Because your book is boring. Your ending is predictable and also completely against the character of Katniss. WTF author. What the actual fuck. Were you tired of writing this story? Was this even your idea? Who do you think you are to completely change EVERYTHING about your lead character?

---I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.--- And can we all just agree that Divergent should have switched endings with Hunger Games? Please. I mean, really, can we all just accept that. Because it's true.
And it's not just The Hunger Games and Divergent that fall into this travesty of the trilogy issue. the Chemical Garden trilogy. The Maze Runner. The Immortal Instruments. The  Selection.  Really, the list goes on and on. (and why is this so much more common with female protags?)

So what gives? Why are we continually being subjected to this? Hello? Publishing industry, I know you're concerned about sales, but can we please stop churning out endless disappointments? If you must insist on trilogy based contracts, how about trilogies that don't have the same crappy ending that everyone knows is coming? Please? If you do that I'll buy extra copies for my friends.

This trend concerns me as an author, because I care about the quality and integrity of my stories, my characters and my craft. And you know what? I bet all the authors whose work I have just insulted care about theirs too. When a story ends, it should be able to end. When a character doesn't give a rats ass about the men fighting for her attention she shouldn't be forced into a marriage with one just because the audience wants to see that happen. Now, I'm not yet on the receiving end of a YA series contract. But I do have a series contract, and I consider myself lucky that I have so much control over what is going to happen in my books. But I know that no everyone has that. And for some reason, the crap that these contract restrictions are forcing out, they just fly off the shelves. Because we, the readers hope against experience that this one will different. We even occasionally get one that is :The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo for example.

And with so many amazing series out there showing how it can be done, why are we restricting our YA books this way? Harry Potter was 7 volumes and easily could have extended. Wheel of Time is 14. Chronicles of Narnia is 7. The Lord of the Rings is 3 plus two prequels and countless extended volumes. The Giver Quartet. The Circle of Magic series is currently 11 books long. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles is 5. Eragon is a quartet. Percy Jackon-9. So it's obviously not that readers of YA can't be held at attention. It's not that they don't recognize quality work when they see it. It's not that they can't be immearsed in deeper and more complex story lines. So what is it? What gives? Why have we created this black hole to suck all the potential out of a great story? Who wants to wait a year to be disappointed? I don't. And I'm tired of it. Step it up publishers. Loosen the reigns a bit. Give a sequel option in your contracts, so that you can continually give if the story goes for it. Something. Anything, Just please. Stop forcing your needless, arbitrary trilogy worship on the readers.

Read and Rated: May 2016

Inserting Horror and Sci-Fi Into a Fantasy World with Guest Author Val Griswold-Ford

It is my great pleasure to have Val Griswold-Ford on Welcome to My Worlds this week to share about her new book release: Winter's Secrets! I have had the pleasure of knowing Val for a little over a year and have been moved, inspired and completely entertained by her work. I am sure you all will be as well :)

Hi, C.E., and thank you for inviting me over to talk about my new book, Winter's Secrets, a cozy fantasy that nonetheless has quite a bit of sci-fi (and a little bit of horror, although not as much as some of the later stories in the series) in it. In particular, the thing that makes Carter's Cove unique is that it is a CrossRoads Town, with not one, but two Gates that allow people to move from Realm to Realm.

While I originally went very much towards the fantasy side of things, I realized that I didn't want to just hand wave and say "Oh, it's magic," in terms of the Gates and the Roads that connect them. Instead, I wanted to have them be both magic and technology, since I fully agree with Arthur C. Clarke that "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." So the Roads are magical, but the Gates that connect them are both magic and technology.

I do admit that it was a little easier to do since I've set Carter's Cove in the present, so there's a lot of technology around. Drew has a tablet he uses to find a rogue Road in one chapter, and there are phones and cars and snowmobiles. I think one of the challenges in doing a story like this is to make the technology and the magic seem seamless, because that's the wonder of it – how can these two seemingly opposite processes work together?

The Gates were a lot of fun to figure out, because I envisioned it as a kind of magical subway system. I knew I needed some personnel – a Station Manager, who runs the place; two Gate engineers, who you really don't meet in this book, but will play a bigger role in later stories; and three Gate technicians, who do the actual work of running the Gate and fixing things. (Funny sidebit: I originally was going to call the Gate Stations Transfer Stations, until it was pointed out to me that at least in New England, a Transfer Station is the dump. So yeah, the name changed.) It's the techs you see most of in this book, but in later books, you'll see more of the Station itself, and more of the personnel.

For the Gates, I realized that I needed to understand how the technology worked with the magic of the Roads. Here's where I got a little metaphysical, and went looking at quantum physics and string theory. For those who may not know, string theory postulates that everything in the universe is tied together with strings of energy. I took that (thank you, Mr. Young, for the Physicist as Humanist class you taught that got me interested in this!) and posited a series of interconnected realms, some more magical, some more technical, that are connected by strings that are currently called Roads. The Roads exist in a subspace dimension that runs throughout the entire multiverse, and sentient creatures have created Gates to bring those Roads into the Realm they live in. In the beginning, the Gates were magical arches that forced the Road into that particular Realm. Then the humans started working with technology, and created the Gates that are used by most of the Realms now. These Gates work by converting the magical strings into computer algorithms that the technicians and engineers can manipulate. Sometimes, though, the computers break down, and they have to do it the old-fashioned way: magic. Every Gate technician is sensitive to the Roads, which allows them to find the Roads if they have wandered (which happens). Gate engineers can actually create Gates – they have additional training in building the arches that house the energies needed to force the Roads into the physical realm.

There's not a lot of this in the first book, as it doesn't deal as much with the Roads as some of the other ones do. But in the next book (which doesn't have a name yet, but will be out next year), you'll see a lot more of this, as there is a lot of Road traveling. You'll also see the Sea Roads for the first time – because Roads don't just go along the ground, but they can be sailed upon as well.

Winter's Secrets is out TODAY! It's available on Amazon in trade paperback, and will be out in ebook soon. You can check out the next stories on my blog at vg-ford.com, and follow me at Patreon for other stories that blend technology and magic.

The Evolution of the Writer

Today's post is coming late in the day and it's going to be fairly short.
I shared in the final Terror Tuesday post that I was taking a break from my home genre of horror. Some of you may like to know that  I am choosing to focus on my science fiction pursuits, along with a few new editing opportunities and trying my hand at epic fantasy. Something mixing Tolkien and Rand. I gotta say, I am loving writing this new book. As I explore a more academic side to my writing, I will be upping my output of articles and poetry as well. So stay tuned for what I hope will be exciting updates!