One Touch, One Glance anthology

Hi everyone!  I have news!

One Touch, One Glance – the anthology that has Matthew and Rhianna’s beautiful little story – is now in print! It has a new (much nicer) cover, too.

I’ll admit it…it’s very neat to hold a copy of a book that I wrote (part of) in my hands.

Here’s are some links…if anyone’s read it and loved it and likes writing Amazon reviews, have at it!

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Powells

I’m not taking down the blog, though. I’m simply returning it to it’s old news outlet status and abandoning all pretense of regular blogging. It just looks bad to have a “blog” and not keep up with it. But it’s perfectly okay to only post news when you have it, right?

I still might post thoughts on writing from time to time, and who knows…it might someday take off and turn back into a blog.

For now, however, I do have a few pieces of news.

First, the anthology that “When Time Stood Still” is in is going to print! The new cover is much better than the old one, so I’ll be updating that on the site sometime soon.

Second, I have picked up Allison and Gabe’s story and am working on finishing it. It will be about 35k words (or 140 pages) which is novella length, and my plan is to offer it up on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. as a very inexpensive ebook. Ebook sales have taken off, which is, I suppose, only expected considering the millions of Kindles and Nooks sold over Christmas. (One of which was sold to my husband and wound up under my tree Christmas morning. Wheee!!!!)  So we’ll see what comes of it when that happens. I will most definitely announce the news when it is available, right here on the news feed.

And I might want a beta reader or two…so if you are a naturally picky reader who can identify exactly what does/doesn’t work in the stories you’re reading, and you might be interested, go ahead and add a comment here (fill out the email field) and I’ll hold onto it just in case I do wind up needing another beta reader or two.

And that, I think, is all the news I have for now!

My favorite hero is Miach, from Lynn Kurland’s first Nine Kingdoms trilogy, which includes Star of the Morning, The Mage’s Daughter, and Princess of the Sword. When I asked myself why he’s such a perfect hero, I came to the conclusion that it’s not his power (which was extreme), his non-magical skills (which were many and formidable), or his looks (which really weren’t described all that well or that often). Rather it was for his never-ending patience with Morgan, his ever-present desire to understand her (even when it seemed impossible), and his humility. In fact, I think his humility was really what got me. He is the most un-arrogant character I’ve ever read, even though he had every reason in the world to be arrogant if he so chose.

Another favorite fictional hero of mine is Jeffery Lyman, from the old Grace Livingston Hill novel Crimson Roses. Lyman is a rich man’s son, yet he lacks the snobbery that keeps many rich men’s sons from being interested in a poor girl. He was able to see past Marian’s shabby gloves into the hands that were not ashamed to work, yet were still refined and cultured enough to sacrifice precious coins for symphony tickets. He proved himself still further by not only getting to know her, but exhibiting the patience necessary to take the romance at her pace, instead of his.

I see a common theme here. Patience and humility.

.~*~.

What about heroines? As a woman, liking a heroine means finding a character I’d like to be like…which is different than how/why I like heroes.

I just finished reading Courtney Milan’s Proof by Seduction (which has much less seduction than you’d think, given the title and cover art). This story actually had a lot of heart to it, and I liked that, even though I did skip over the few bedroom scenes. But I really liked the heroine of this story. Jenny was far from perfect, but she was compassionate and kind. Even better, she was able to see the good in people and bring it out. She made a difference in the lives around her.

Another heroine that many have loved throughout the last century is Anne from Anne of Green Gables. I’m talking about the Anne from the books, not the movies, for I don’t think the movies succeeded in portraying the parts of Anne’s character that I loved. The Anne in the books actually had a lot of the same character traits that Jenny had. She brought out the best in people. She was kind, forgiving, and she never gave up on people. On top of that, she brought joy to those around her.

.~*~.

As an aspiring author, though, how do I go about using this knowledge to make my own readers fall in love with my characters? Especially since different people probably fall in love with characters for different reasons?  Why do other people fall in love with their favorite characters?

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So I got this new story idea yesterday morning, also set in the fantasy world of Jarentho. Who knows…maybe this’ll be book #2 some day!

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Sixteen-year-old Solen longs for adventure. He wants to save the city, escape from danger, and rescue a beautiful girl. But there’s a problem. None of the girls–beautiful or not–need saving. And even if a raider did manage to kidnap one of them, they certainly wouldn’t want him for their rescuer.  They’d want someone handsome, someone tall, someone amazing. Someone else.

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Nelca watched Solen from her place in the shadows. On the surface, he appeared to be the most unremarkable of this very-ordinary-looking group of guys. Yet, thanks to the gift Malkior had bestowed upon her, she saw something more. Something that beckoned in his future. Something woven from the threads of destiny and power. Something that made him not so ordinary after all.

So…if anyone who attended the workshop (or anyone who didn’t but is interested anyway) would like me to email a copy of this note-filled handout, just let me know!

But the bulk of it is finally done, and I can’t wait to actually see it somewhere else other than my home computers!  So take a look!

http://www.KathleenMacIver.com

I know you all are waiting on a new update in Allison & Gabe’s story, but a totally-new, totally-different, not-even-a-Scottish-time-travel story hijacked my imagination, and it’s all I can do to keep up with it, let alone get back to Allison & Gabe’s story!

So…to hopefully compensate you all for your everlasting patience, I’ll offer you a snippet from this new story. I’m not going to post it on the blog, because I’ll probably want to pull it back down in a couple weeks…but in the meantime, you’ll find it here:

http://kathleenmaciver.com/blog/index.php/untitled-new-genre-new-world-new-story/

Feel free to comment either there or here!

I just wanted to assure you all that I have NOT abandoned this blog. I’ve been extremely busy with a sudden surge in website design work, and I haven’t had time to write. So please hang in there, enjoy the photos that I’m posting now and again, and I promise that new story installments will still come along! I have several in rough draft stage…I just need to polish them!

This is a short video that is absolutely amazing. The guy who created it called it “A strange man re-creates a world for the woman he loves.” Those of us in the author world, however, see this as sort of a visual of what goes on inside our heads in the world-building portion of story-writing. The plot crafting is very similar, too…just more linear, because it’s actions, thoughts, and feelings that are being arranged and figured out in detail, rather than the world that our characters live in.

But that’s enough explanation. Enjoy!

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.