Summer Solstice-What does it mean to you?

The summer solstice marks the middle of the year. Midsummer or ‘Lithia’ is the longest day on our calendar, and to many, not only heralds the start of true summer but also a period of renewal.

The long sunny days (for some!) help us recharge. I think the idea of taking time to re-energise ourselves after a tough year is an important one. Longer days not only make us feel lighter and more engaged with everyone and everything around us, it gives us a chance to reconnect with whatever is important to you.

Personally, I like the idea of spending the symmer solstice with your loved ones. A day to celebrate each other and the life we lead. We may not be dancing around a bonfire to herald in the new summer, but there is no reason we can’t celebrate each other anyway. And for those of us who may be alone this summer solstice, lighting a candle and appreciating the light can be your own personal celebration.

Musing about the Summer Solstice made me think about some of the celebrations I created for the world of Remaragen, most of which revolve around the Goddess Leyandrii. The key celebration is the Confirmation of a Lord of the Watch.

Under the gaze of the Lady, the new Lord swears his life to the protection of his people, the Land and the Lady. By becoming a guardian, the Lady imbues them with enough magic to connect them to their Watch, joining the guardian with Her and the Land, each sworn to protect the other.

Guardians protect the people, the people nurture the Land, the Land provides for all and the Lady watches.

There are many guardians from different walks of life, guardians of lore and history, of the Lady’s sacred places, to the Watch guardians, and those that revere the tall sentinal trees found in the Lady’s groves. Then of course there are the Sentinals themselves; the men and women who swore thier lives to the Lady Leyandrii to help protect the world of Remargaren.

Who are the Sentinals and what happened to them? How did they end up encased in the tall sentinal trees for over three thousand years? As Jerrol travels though Remargaren trying to understand what the Lady expects of him, he wakes some of the Sentinals. Through his interaction with the Sentinals we get a glimpse into their previous lives, and a sense of continuation through the Watches and their adherence to the Lady’s Lore.

Passing down the guardianship though their familes, celebrating life through bornings (birth), joinings (marriage) and leavings (funerals) follows the cycle of life and the progression of the year from Janu through to Decu and the turning of the year, a year end celebration. The waxing and waning of the moon guides the Lady’s attention and has a much stronger presence in Remargaren than the sun.

The Sentinals Series will have at least five books and two novellas, as I wrote book four I needed to understand the details about how the Sentinals ended up in the trees, and so was born the prequel.

Protection and protecting those who can’t protect themseves is a key theme of my epic fantasy series. Building a world, complete with beliefs and a history, adds more depth and context for the adventures that occur. I hope you have joined the journey.

Novella o.5: Sentinals Stirring (Free if you sign up to my newsletter.)

Book One: Sentinals Awaken

Book Two: Sentinals Rising

Book Three: Sentinals Justice (Preorder-Available September 7th)

The Joys of World Building

If you’ve read my novels, you’ll know I created the world of Remargaren. A diverse environment comprised of four kingdoms: Vespiri, Terolia, Elothia and Birtoli. Each has its own political structure, landscape, setting and culture, which drives the behaviour of its inhabitants.

The fun part of world building is that you get to create everything! A lot of the time you are creating backstory, so the story you are writing has depth and makes sense, but it doesn’t mean it is all included in the book. Even though some characters are only mentioned as a legend or ancient history, once upon a time they lived the events that made that history. I have so much backstory that one day there will be a prequel so I can use it all!

My starting point was the deities who created the world of Remargaren in the first place. The sisters Leyandrii and Marguerite. Goddesses who did everything they could to protect the people of Remargaren and its people, and I had my religious structure, and the source of the ancient magic.

As I started to write the first book, the environment began develop and the idea of basing it on the diverse countries found on the European continent was born.

Vespiri is predominantly forested; a land of trees and rich timber, lush green growth, plentiful water and arable fields. The sentinal trees are scattered across a system of Watches which divide the kingdom into manageable areas. Vespers, Greenswatch, Deepwater, Stoneford, East Watch and Marchwood.

Each Watch has a lord responsible for defending the land, who looks to the king, and each Watch has a council to help with day-to-day management.

Terolia is a hot and arid desert territory ruled by the nomadic Families. Water is scarce as are towns and cities, and sentinals. The Familes are led by a Medera and Sodera, the mother and father, and the family structure is core to their way of life.

There are six Families comprised of three main Familes: the Atolea, the Solari and the Kirshan, and three affiliated lesser Families: Kiker, Gusar and Miner.

Elothia is an icy territory to the north. Flat plains of icy tundra stretch all the way to ridges of snow-capped mountains. Most of the year, snow covers the land; only the southern reaches are ice free and arable. Food can be scarce when the winters are harsh, and the land remains frozen shortening the growing season and causing strife in the villages.

The Grand Duke rules Elothia, supported by his ministers and the generals that command his army.

Birtoli is an archipelago of islands extending to the south. White sands and turquoise seas, although beautiful, mean that without a boat, the islanders are constrained to the island they born on, and tend to coalesce in tight knit clans. The Birtolian Empire is ruled by an Emperor.

Diverse settings provide the opportunity to create different cultures, political structures and of course the vivid landscapes my characters live in, which also contribute to setting the mood an ambiance of a scene.

You can create a world as complex and diverse as you choose, or as simple as needed. It becomes the canvas on which your characters live their lives. They react to and manoeuvre through the different territories, and the setting provides the opportunity to create more obstacles and conflict and we enjoy their adventures as the characters deal with them. The reading experience becomes immersive because you can imagine the world, and you can picture yourself in that environment, and you can compare your reactions to those of the characters.

World building is a core component of high fantasy as we need to explain the world our characters live in. High fantasy means that the book is not set in the real world. It is not set on Earth; it is not real. An integral part of this is a map. A map helps a reader visualise where the characters are, and as they traverse the world, you can follow their journey as well. The majority of the time, a high fantasy novel will have a map.

The author uses a map to keep track of distance and locations. One of the hardest parts is consistency when writing a novel. It is so easy to be inconsistent, and a map helps you to see that actually Old Vespers is in the west of Vespiri, not the east for example, or that Stoneford Watch is in the east and borders Elothia to the north and Terolia to the east, and that is where it will always be!

I hope you enjoy the world building in the Sentinal Series and fall in love with the wonderful world of Remargaren and its diverse peoples and cultures.

Book One: Sentinals Awaken is set in Vespiri.

Book Two: Sentinals Rising starts in Vespiri and ends up in Terolia.

Book Three: Sentinals Justice, due to release in the fall travels to Elothia.

Why do we doubt ourselves?

I wonder why Imposter syndrome¹ is more prevalent in women and minorities than in others? And I think more prevalent in writers as we put our heart on our sleeve and expose our creations to the world and all we expect is criticism.

What is it about us that drives us to think we are not good enough, that we shouldn’t try to achieve such high goals, that someone else is always better than us, prettier than us, more qualified than us. The list could go on and on.

I’m no expert on mental health, as my daughter will be the first to tell you, and here you go, I am going to say it! There are far more qualified folks out there who can advise better than me. But I was thinking about the fact that by the end of this year, I will have published five books in my Sentinal series. FIVE!!!

If that isn’t something to celebrate then what is? Yes the reviews are slow to come in. The sales are not exactly stellar, my Amazon rating is six digits and counting! but I loved every minute of writing them, of editing them, of polishing them as beta readers gave me wonderful feedback along with areas to improve. The covers are beautiful and just resonate with the epic fantasy genre. And I AM PROUD of them. I deserve to call myself an author. A published author at that.

So why do I feel awkward when I call myself an author? as if I am a fraud. I have the proof. The physical books to show I wrote them. How should you measure success? Do you have to hit a certain revenue number, number of books sold, amazon rating, to be a success? Why can’t we accept that writing a book, finishing it, and then publishing it, is a success? Because it really is.

I am about to send the third book of my Sentinal series, Sentinals Justice off to the copy editor and then start biting my nails as I wait for feedback. The cover designer will begin the cover art in a couple of weeks and I am on course to publish in September. I’ve even got some character art for my main characters, Jerrol and Birlerion. I wonder if they are even close to what my readers imagined? Jerrol is above. Isn’t it cool?

So yes, my books have a long way to go before I break even. Profit? Is that a word associated with self-publishing? I have hope. One day. In the meantime, I’m going to keep writing. Why? Because I enjoy it. Because I am an author and I’m good at it.

As Megan Dalla Carmina says in her blog post for PsychologyToday.com, “At the end of the day, remember this: You are here for a reason. In this job, your business, your life, you are worthy. You are better than you think you are. You are smarter than you think you are. You know more than you give yourself credit for. Remember that. And remind yourself as often as you need to.”

Notes:

‘The Reality of Imposter syndrome.’ Megan Dalla Camina, 2018. PsychologyToday.com https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/real-women/201809/the-reality-imposter-syndrome

Do you talk to yourself?

There is one thing I’ve noticed as the lockdown progresses, is that I talk to myself a lot. I am worried I’ll forget once I am back out socializing, and I’ll still find myself saying things meant for inside my head, out loud in public. Can you imagine it? People will be staring at me as if I am crazy!

Well, hopefully not, as I am sure I am not the only one.

It isn’t just because I live alone, and have no one except my cat to talk too. It’s because I talk to my characters as I am writing them. I immerse myself in my world of Remargaren and see it through their eyes. Hopefully, so that I capture it for my readers to experience as well.

But that does mean that I get caught up in conversations, some of which make it into the book and some of which don’t. My characters have been invented by me; I created their backstory, their likes and dislikes, their foibles, and habits, their thoughts and beliefs. Some I know better than others, and others force their way to the front demanding to be fleshed out more, to play a part, to have a voice.

Characters are an important element of a great story. A reader wants to be invested in their story, to be drawn in to their world, to understand why they react the way they do. It is the authors job to give the reader enough information to draw conclusions, infer emotion, too anticipate. A well rounded character resonates; it’s part of what give us that book hang over when we finish. That sense of losing a friend, of misplacing something, because you won’t be able pick up where you left off.

Fortunately, you can always revisit when you want you, that is the joy of re-reading a book and returning to visit old acquaintances, and often learning something new as you glean something you missed the first time you read it.

Then a new characters raises their hand! And says “What about me?” And I take a closer look, and realize that they don’t fit in the world of Remargaren. They have their own world waiting to be described; to be created, for me to put pen to paper and bring it to life.

A smile rises in me at the thought of meeting someone new; to explore who they are, what they have to say. To discover what they have suffered, or are yet to suffer, and who they will become.

I was listening to an Olly Murs album as I edited my third Sentinal novel, and the lyrics from one of his songs just resonated with me. A young woman raised her hand, stared me in the eye, and she said “I have a story for you to tell.” And she does. I have two new protagonists and a whole new world to think about. A whole new conversation to enjoy.

So If you hear me chattering away to myself, don’t dismiss me. I am in the throes of composition, meeting new characters and making new friends.

I hope you come and visit, enjoy the company and return often.

Time to talk about books!

I’m so excited that I just had to share! I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Anna J Walner on her YouTube channel ‘The Author Library’. Anna’s channel provides Indie Authors a platform to talk about their books and their love of writing and the processes that go into writing and publishing their own books.

If you want to find out more about my books, and the world building that went into creating them, then check out my interview here or click the image.

Make sure you check out some of the other Indie Author interviews, each offers their own insights into the world of writing and self-publishing.

I enjoyed chatting with Anna, another win to celebrate! Roll on launch day! Sentinals Rising will be available soon, make sure you add it to your Goodreads to be read list along with the first book Sentinals Awaken.

Or if you are Bookbub you can find them here:
Sentinals Awaken
Sentinals Rising

Or better yet order them now via Amazon.

Procrastination? We’re all good at that!

I’m sitting here drinking a glass of prosecco wondering what to write about. I should be editing my next book in the Sentinals series but I have spent the weekend procrastinating. Isn’t it funny how the mind works? How many things you can find to do instead of what you intended.

I have hoovered the house, done the washing – it was a gloriously sunny day here in the UK – eaten a box of biscuits that won’t be any good for my waistline and spent the afternoon scrolling through twitter and Instagram. Been pinned to the sofa whilst Alfie had a kip so I joined him for a snooze as I couldn’t get to the keyboard! And now I’m writing a blog post.

Now I’m feeling guilty that I haven’t made progress with my edits, (and about the box of biscuits!). I’m also quietly excited about the fact that my second novel will release on March 17^th.

With release day approaching, I should be feeling a sense of accomplishment, but I feel pressured to get book three complete. That is pressure I’m putting on myself for some reason, and then I remember that you have to celebrate the small wins as well as the big wins. If you only celebrate the huge wins, then the expectation you place on yourself is to constantly achieve at that level and you miss the opportunity to appreciate and enjoy your journey.

Just completing a novel is an achievement. Lots of people have ideas, but to write them down, edit and polish it into a finished product, not so many achieve that. Time to Celebrate!
Learning how to self-publish, complete the interior formatting, cover design, launch plan. Lots of accomplishments to celebrate.
Sending the book out to some of your peers for review. (eek!) Celebrate being brave!

Each step is a win to be enjoyed. Each is an achievement taking me closer to the launch day. And so, I’m drinking a glass of prosecco. I may not have done much editing this weekend, but I let go of my second novel. It’s in the hands of my peers who also write, the hardest audience of all to appease.

Next week I have an interview to record. Another small win; well, it feels like a big win! and then we will be approaching launch day.

Make sure you celebrate the small wins; you’ll enjoy the huge accomplishments even more!

Are you in control?

As we enter the new year, and many of us think about what we want to achieve over the next twelve months, I am reminded of a blog I wrote about six or seven years ago to support International Women’s Day.

At the time I was tussling with many personal problems and trying to figure out what I wanted. What did I want out of life, instead of allowing others to push me around to fit what they wanted. It took a while and many glasses of wine and finally I created a mood board. I expect most people know what mood boards are nowadays, but in a nutshell its a board where you pin all your thoughts, ideas and dreams about a topic. You cut out pictures from magazines that encapsulate what you want to achieve, (and drink a bit more wine). For me, it was what do I want to do with my life?

By physically writing down, or pinning pictures of what you want to achieve makes your goal a reality, something tangible that you want to achieve, and you begin to take conscious steps to move you towards achieving it. You now have a target, and you can start planning how to reach it.

I decided life was too short to waste on things that I didn’t enjoy. I wanted to enjoy my job, and I wanted to write. I wanted to move house to the country, or maybe near the sea, preferably with my mum.

So I started looking for houses with my mum, travelling around the south of England and visiting many villages and seaside towns. I began capturing ideas for a novel, and investigated what job opportunities there were within my company. I didn’t necessarily want to leave, but I didn’t like the direction I was going in. Everything came to a grinding halt when my mum fell ill with breast cancer, underwent a mastectomy and finally passed away. The moving house impetus died with her, and although I still think of moving, I don’t know where to move to! So I haven’t.

I actually put pen to paper and started writing to fill in the extra time I suddenly had and I suppose as an escape, and found that I really enjoyed it. I started researching into how to edit and the authors journey and began to plan how to self publish my first novel. I never really considered going the traditional publishing route as I wasn’t prepared to let go of my story.

I suppose I am not the greatest example of a successful mood board! But plans change, and I think sometimes its as much about resetting goals as circumstances change around you and staying true to what makes you happy.

I am happiest when I am lost in my magical worlds writing about my wonderful characters and putting them though hell. It doesn’t really matter where I live, as I work from home. Which makes it all the more difficult to decide where in the UK to move to. I think it may be time to start searching for that writer’s nest with space for a study and a library! I need to create a mood board for my idyllic home, identify those must haves and who knows, I may even find it.

Detached
Cottage
Quiet (no trains, planes, automobiles)
Not too hilly (My knees…)
Study
Library
Internet (Fast!)
Cat friendly
Near the sea
Lovely view
…

It’s a start! Who knows 2021 may be the year of the move.

Is Writing a Catharsis?

I think maybe it is. Many people write memoirs, blogs, poems, paint or create music as a way of dealing with life, problems, complications. I started writing after my mother passed away after a short battle with cancer. We had been planning to move to the country, and she was going to move in with me. We had lots of plans that never had a chance to happen.

I thought I started writing because I had time on my hands and an empty house. But I’ve come to realise that I was grieving and releasing that grief through writing, expressing myself through words, and maybe escaping reality for a moment and entering a world I knew she would love. I had lost my best friend and I was trying to find a replacement for that gaping hole. I wrote seven books. A bit like Forrest Gump running across America, twice!

That new companion became the world of Remargaren and Jerrol and the Sentinals. A world of myth and legend. Of friendship and betrayal. Of ancient forests and magical trees.

I always credit my mum with instilling in me a love of books and reading. I remember my love for the The Wishing Chair and The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton; my first foray in the world of fantasy. To escape into a world where down can be up and the sky can be green, and your imagination rules.

I am happiest when I write, when I visit the world of Remargaren and I am surrounded in possibilities, and a lot of challenges for my characters of course.

I thank my mum for sharing her love of reading. I know she’s looking over my shoulder, making suggestions, loving the stories. I hope you are loving them too.

In these crazy times, it’s strange being a debut author. It wasn’t because of Covid that I started writing, I just happened to have been ready to publish. So I’m a 2020 author, forever connected to the year of Covid, with virtual book launches and no book signings! and yet there is still good to have come out of this year; Sentinals Awaken for one. Even in times of great difficulty there are good deeds and amazing people. People who put themselves before others, whether it be a nurse in the NHS, the dustman collecting the bins, the man stacking the shelves in the supermarket, parents home-schooling or a King’s Ranger trying to solve a mystery and save his country.

As we enter lockdown again here in the UK, I hope Sentinals Awaken provides some relief and entertainment as well as some hope, away from the continuing restrictions imposed on us all. If you want to chat, you can find me on twitter, Instagram or Facebook or here on my website. If you are following the #tweetbookclub on Twitter, you’ll know I’m always happy to chat about my books. Trying not to give away spoilers is the challenge, because I just want to share! And to discuss Jerrol and Birlerion and all the rest.

Thank you for making it to the end of this blog. Hopefully you are enjoying the results of my catharsis!! Book Two will be along soon…as the self-publishing journey continues. Hope you stay for the ride!

Keep safe and well. Speak soon.

The Home Straight

An author experiences a variety of emotions in the long journey to publishing. Having actually written the book in the first place you then have the long slog of revising and editing, trying to polish your novel until the shine is blinding and you can finally let it go takes a lot longer than you would think. My first blog on this topic was back in May and here we are October!

And then its copy editing, interior design and layout, and proof reading, and then the vicious circle of wanting to put a review link in the ebook to make it easier for readers to leave a review, but you have to upload your book to get the link. And to get the link you have to commit to a publishing date – which Amazon then chase you (which is good and bad) and threaten to ban you from using their services for a whole year if you miss it. If that doesn’t stress you out, then nothing will!

If I have learnt anything on this journey, it is that everything takes a darned site longer than you would like. And the amount of days you spend chewing your nails waiting for a file to come back so you can review again is excruciating.

There is much to learn, and I may begin to post some podcasts (If I can find the time as I need to be editing book two!) about the different elements of the journey, because as a first-time author, it truly is eye-opening. And if my learnings can help someone else navigate this road more easily then that is all too the good.

But, as the title of this blog says, this is the home straight. I am now on the final leg rushing towards that winning line. The book is uploaded to Amazon and filtering through all the affiliate sites. It may even be live in paperback in some locations already – as you are advised to upload a week before publishing to let the sites sync, but you can’t set the publishing date, Amazon set that when the book goes live—so do you wait or do you upload?

You upload! So you can get the proof copies and author copies, and oh! The first time you hold your book in your hands. A-maz-ing! I feel so proud and so happy. Such an achievement.

BUY SENTINALS AWAKEN NOW!

My launch date is October 11^th, and I am going to do a virtual book launch via Zoom, because, when it comes down to it, you only ever get to do your first ever book launch once. And I think that is something that should be celebrated. Even if it is just me talking into a screen, I will still raise a glass as Sentinals Awaken sets sail on her ocean voyage around the world.

So I have set up a Zoom call, created my rafflecopter giveaway, sent out the invites and now it’s a case of waiting to see if anyone accepts. This is more nerve wracking than publishing the book.

Come hell or highwater, I will be launching my book on Sunday. If you’d like a chance to win a signed copy, then join me at 7pm UK time to raise a toast.

DM me for the link to the launch at helen.garraway@hotmail.com

To Sentinals Awaken. My first ever novel. Published.

Long may she entertain.