It occurred to me that the comments from the amazing contributors at AutoCrit are technically a book review. Huh! Not sure why I didn’t think of it that way until now.
This happy moment starts at 24.43. But all the writers who made the anthology deserve a listen.
AutoCrit is a great editing platform and I wouldn’t have grown as a writer without it and the community.
Priss Starwillow & the Wolf is available at your favorite sellers.
Retire I said. Write full time, I said. Get up when I want. Eat when I want. Listen to books when I want. Go out with friends when I want. Eerrk! Wait, back up. Write full time? That’s work, right?
Did I really think my pod people (aka book characters seeded in my brain by aliens) would let me retire? Get up when I wanted, go out with friends when I wanted. eat when I wanted? Okay, so that stuff is actually happening, but yikes! I am really writing full time!
Like get up, stay in my jammies, bring a cup of coffee to my office, and start writing, until I want to stop kind of full time writing. Oh Yeah!
It was a great month to retire from the old day job because it’s Camp NanoWrimo! I passed my goal yesterday and I’m closing in on a finish to a story I have been dying to write since Book Two in my series, The Starlight Chronicles (slipping in an announcement here – my series relaunch is happening in May!!), because there’s a vampire, one of those secondary pod people you fall in love with from his very first introduction. And he only gets better all the way through to his cliffhanger ending (coming in Book Three!!).
So what better Camp project is there than giving Mortas his own short story. And events unfold that include another great secondary pod person, Ember, the witch. But pod people beget more pod people when writing fiction. And that’s what’s happening in this story. New compelling pod people!
I’m trying to keep it short, which means its 15,000 if I want to submit it to an Indie Press anthology. But it’s pushing the boundaries really tight. So, we’ll see.
Let me know what you think of the story description that follows my beautiful teaser. I would love any help with using it for my submission.
Mortas
Description:
No one remembers how Mortas came into existence, least of all him. Due to his vast age, he can command magic, and his vampire urges. His other inexplicable ability? He can exist in daylight. These skills mean Lord Aramis, the ruler of the North American Vampires, often assigns his favorite emissary to missions involving humans.
But Mortas has not always been at the pinnacle of vampire perfection. He’s done a lot of things in his thousands of years he would rather forget.
When he meets a witch in San Francisco in 1969, he wonders for the first time if it’s possible to live life without being plagued by dreams of regret. But Ember has another calling and leaves their bed one afternoon, never to return.
When you’re immortal, you move on.
An assignment leads Mortas to Selena Aires. He’s captivated by the beautiful, marked maiden with a prophetic destiny. Turns out she needs his help. But Mortas’s help is never free. When she pays the price without question and joins him on a dangerous mission, his fascination turns into purpose. A purpose that sends him into the worst predicament of his life.
~~~
Ember grew up in Fisherman’s Wharf, part of a coven who told fortunes for sailors as cover to more lucrative work, like picking their pockets. When two of her marks got the better of her at fourteen, she got rescued by a bear. To this day, she would do anything for that bear shifter because Andras Johns is one of the best men she knows. When he calls on her to help a vampire in trouble, she doesn’t hesitate to answer.
I’m so glad my writing buddy talked me into Camp NaNoWriMo. (Thanks Dustin – You’ll get to meet him this Sunday on my Creator Spotlight.) Because my Pod People are coming out to play! They like going to camp, and now I know this is the place to be for spinoff stories that I’ve got stacked up from my series, The Starlight Chronicles.
So many people are doing writing sprints and I keep wanting to jump on, but I never catch them in time. Still, just knowing so many of my writing peeps are getting those words in this month is phenomenal and ever so motivating.
Are you doing Camp? Let me know your thoughts about it in the comments. And buddy up with me there. My project is so cool because the MC is my coolest side character ever! So glad he’s getting his own story.
This month, I will be chatting with two phenomenal writing buddies I met through separate community platforms who happen to both love Sci Fi, one along the lines of fantasy, the other space opera. It was fun inviting the two of them for April and establishing this theme because not only will the format of our conversations be a bit different where the conversations happened first then the questions followed to tie them together, but through the process of producing my two blog interviews, they became writing buddies as well. I love it when that happens!
Graphic Artwork by D. L. LewellynGraphic Artwork by D. L. Lewellyn
Dustin is working on what he refers to as one MASSIVE manuscript he’s structuring into three parts. We’ve been motivating each other this month at Camp NaNo and he’s made phenomenal progress. He’s still deciding on whether to go the traditional publishing route, or self. I have to say, what he’s shared with me about the world building so far has me chomping at the bit!
Nicolas is working on his first novel, Seven Drifts, an epic space opera story featuring a drifting city spaceship, a wannabe sleuth and murders, a brewing rebellion and an antique wooden treasure chest. We are helping each other stay on track on our respective publication goals and after reading his sneak peek short story, Cradle, I can’t wait for his novel to release! You can learn more about it and get your copy here.
By D. L. Lewellyn 