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If you are just joining this challenge, you should check out the previous days!: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN and ELEVEN.
Today's Challenge: How would your writing habits change if the internet no longer existed? Haha! I would write a LOT more. Being a writer is 3% talent and 97% being distracted by the internet. True story. Without the internet as the distraction, I'd probably spend a lot more time writing. However…. without the internet, I likely would not be a published author. I published my book through CreateSpace. It was free for me to upload my book to, it assigned me a ISBN number, and it published my book in ebook and paperback - for FREE. The paperback books are printed as people order them (print on demand) so I don’t have to deal with inventory and I don't have to pay anything outright, thus the free publishing. Oh... I also get 70% of the royalties, as opposed to most big time publishing houses where the author only *maybe* gets 35%. Anyway. Elephant trail.... I don’t know that Createspace would be here without the internet, and I know for sure that my blog would not exist without internet. So, maybe I would actually write less if I didn’t have the internet to push me to keep writing. Who knows?
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Today's challenge is going to be a little bit exciting for all the Tales of the Wovlen fans out there, but before we get into it, if you are just joining this challenge, you should check out the previous days challenges!: day ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, and TEN.
Today's challenge is: The last complete sentence you wrote on your WIP This is currently the last sentence of the first chapter in book #3 of the Tales of the Wovlen series, which is titled "The Dragon's Foe": Walneff paused and looked at Keegan, his diamond blue eyes lighting up with a mysterious twinkle, “We must summon the Giants from their sleep. But first, we must call on the prophet Raefindal.” Oh yes. Big things are fixing to go DOWN in book 3! Giants aren't even the half of it. Honestly, I'm a little scared myself of everything that is cropping up in book 3 (and I haven't even gotten book 2 published yet... uhg!).
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So, I feel like I am going to fail at today's challenge... BUT, I have made up for it with the previous challenges up till now, haven't I? If you haven't been keeping up with my challenges, catch up on them here: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT & NINE.
Today's Challenge: The first sentence of the first chapter of your WIP (work in progress). Let me tell you something: this challenge made me seriously reconsider all my opening sentences. They are TERRIBLE! Well, that's my opinion. They don't seem that catchy to me. Anyway, I have three WIP that I'll share the first sentence from... I actually have more than that, but I only wanted to share three with you, because the rest of my WIP don't have opening sentences (I start in the middle of a story and work my way out). Enjoy! "Keegan looked up and smiled as the door finally opened, and Alia and Brainna stepped out, faces beaming." Tales of the Wovlen Book #3 "Kyra stood frozen on the cold metal table, head tilted, and listening intently to voices coming through the ceiling above her." Plasma Chrysalis - SciFi book "The azure sky was bright high above the tall, green trees of Deepwood Forest." An unnamed fantasy story
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Don't forget to check out the previous challenges: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, & EIGHT.
Today's challenge is: Your favorite character from a book not written by you. What? REALLY? Are you kidding me? I have way too many favorite books with awesome characters in them to be able to pick out just one favorite character. Perhaps I should just make a list? Lord of the Rings – Olórin, Mithrandir, Incánus, Tharkûn, Greyhame, Old Greybeard, the Grey Pilgrim, Stormcrow, the White Rider, Láthspell, Servant of the Secret Fire, Wielder of the Flame of Anor, Ring-bearer, and Elf-friend - Gandalf the Grey. He is my all time favorite. The Chronicles of Narnia – Oh gee…. wow…. so many characters, so little time… since Aslan probably doesn't count, because he is everybody's favorite, I’ll go with Reepacheep the mouse and Bree the horse from The Horse and His Boy. The Hunger Games – Haymitch. Sure, he's always drunk, but he's got more brains than the rest of them put together in those sorry books. Okay, so, the Hunger Games aren't actually some of my favorite books. They seriously needed more dragons. Dracula by Bram Stoker - Van Helsing. Van Helsing. Van Helsing. He's awesome, he's funny, he's Christian, he has difficulty with the English language, and he's the master at hunting vampires. Van Helsing is my total favorite. Heroes of Ravenford – Glolindir the Elf, Seth the Halfling, and Aksel the Gnome. Those three rotate between being my favorites. If I feel ornery and just want to stab someone with a knife and a sarcastic comment (and have somebody laugh with me about it), Seth is my favorite buddy. If I feel like I'm surrounded by immature idiots and just need someone who understands how I feel, Aksel is my man. The rest of the time, Glo is my favorite. He's an elf who has a tendency to blow things up and start fires. Of course he's my favorite. The Arrival by Dakota Kemp – Jaxom… always Jaxom. He's witty, he's funny, he's smart... I would seriously date Jax in a heartbeat. (For those of you who don’t know me, I don’t have any interest in a relationship and I don’t waste my time dating, so for me to say “I would date him” is a BIG thing. Fortunately for me, he’s fictional. Unfortunately for my poor mother, he’s fictional.) Patrick F. McManus books – Rancid Crabtree. Dragon Riders of Pern – Piemur from The Harper Hall Trilogy. He's the bomb!
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Don't forget to check out the Other Challenges up to this point!
Today's Challenge: Your least favorite character out of all the characters you’ve ever written. Oh gee. This one is hard. Honestly! I like all my characters in My Book, even the nasty ones. This would seriously be a toss-up between Demetrius - the bad guy who killed my main character’s father - and Keegan, the main character. Yes. My main character is one of my least favorite characters. He can be such an idiot! And talk about being a whiney baby ALL. THE. TIME…. gag. But, despite that, I still love him. Now that I really think about it, I think Demetrius is really my least favorite. He’s just downright, flat out nasty and revolting. He’s a coward, he’s a thief, he snarls, he fights dirty, he’s arrogant, and on top of it all, he’s not very pretty to look at. So, yes, Demetrius is my least favorite character. In fact, he makes Keegan look mighty good!
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If you haven't already, be sure to check out DAY ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE & SIX of this challenge!
Today's challenge is: Your favorite character out of all the characters you’ve ever written. This is really hard. It would either be Pharrgon the regal dragon, Walneff Feldost the riddling prophet, Gillion the Jester, or Vliron Nightstalker the rogue assassin. If you’ve read my first book, then don’t worry - you haven’t met Gillion or Vliron yet. They are introduced in book #2, which is coming out really soon (No, really! It really is! I swear!). Trust me when I say that Gillion and Vliron are AWESOME. Because, they really are awesome. And you don’t have to take my word for it. You can ask any of the testers who have pre-read the 2nd book (or parts of it). I have heard that they think Gillion and Vliron are awesome, though, they are starting to split into teams on who they think is more awesome - Team Gillion and Team Vliron.... my awesome characters may end up starting a fan war.... Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes – favorite character. If I judge by which character is fun to write, I think Gillion would be my favorite. He is such a cut up! If I want something funny said or done, Gillion is my man. If I want something crazy or spastic done, Gillion is also my man. If I want someone to make some awesome ninja moves and kill monsters Legolas style, all while smiling and cracking jokes, Gillion is definitely my man. However, on the other end of the spectrum, I've had a lot of fun with Vliron. He is just the opposite of Gillion. If I want somebody to do or say something mean and cold, Vliron is my man. If I want somebody other than Pharrgon to scare the monsters, Vliron is my man. If I want someone to be a suspicious, sneaky, and befuddling character that the reader likes one minute and hates the next, Vliron is also my man. If I want someone to take a really bad beating..... then Keegan is my man. Though, Vliron has taken some really nasty ones as well. Picking a favorite character is impossible. I like them all for different reasons. I like writing them and learning their styles. I like torturing them and seeing how they respond. I like killing them too. Yes. I know. I have issues. I plan to capitalize on that though! Would any of you be interested in buying one of these T-shirts should I start an online shop?:
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Hey! This is going to be a really fun challenge today, but don't forget to check out DAY ONE, TWO, THREE, and FOUR if you haven't been keeping up with this challenge so far.
Today's challenge is: Your protagonist is somehow transported to this world, meets you, and learns that you are responsible for creating his/her world. What is the first thing he/she would say or do after learning this fact? Well..... I'm doomed. Keegan is technically my protagonist in Tales of the Wovlen (he's such an idiot, but we won't get into that). If he found out that I was the person who caused the red dragon to kick his people out of their kingdom, turning them into nomads (the life he was born into), and that I wrote the prophecy about the Dragon's Son, picked him for the job, and then sent the army that massacred his friends and family....... Yeah, he'd try to chop off my head. And yes, I'd scream and run like a little girl. He may be an idiot, but he gets ugly when he's angry, and I have a highly developed sense of survival. If Pharrgon (the dragon) was with Keegan, though, he would be more understanding. He'd see that I created the safe forest for him to hide in, all the wonderful creatures for him to enjoy, put Keegan in his life, and made him the formidable beauty that he is. He would try to help Keegan see the positive side to all of that, and he would certainly keep Keegan from chopping my head off. There is also one other delicate little thing that Pharrgon would be thankful to me for, but I can't mention her right now because...
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Hello everyone! Don't forget to check out DAY ONE, DAY TWO, and DAY THREE of this challenge.
So, today's challenge is: a book you can't live without. Oh man. That's easy: The Bible. Seriously. I would not be alive today without that Book of books, and my imagination would be really flat without it as well. BUT, just to be a little less of a "Bible-Hugging-Christian" about this answer (which I am not being that way at all, but I know how the "oh she's so christian, meh, meh, meh" people act - they're all brats - so I'll just humor them), I'll give you an alternate answer: The Hobbit. I just love The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is so much fun to read. Plus, there's a dragon in it... admittedly, he's a bad dragon and he dies in the end, but he's still a cool dragon to read about! I read the Hobbit at least once a year. Probably more. I want to get into that habit with the Lord of the Rings, but those books are a little thicker and a little harder to read. I also want to start that habit with the Silmarilion, but that one IS HARD. It is the most beautiful book to read EVER, but it is a very hard one. Shakespeare is easier to read than the Silmarilion. No, I am NOT kidding.
Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Make sure to wear green, or you'll get pinched (that's what happens in my house)!
By the way, don't forget to check out DAY ONE and DAY TWO of this challenge, if you missed them. So, today's challenge is: a trope in your genre that gets on your nerves. I'll be honest; I had to look up what "trope" meant. Trope - a: a word or expression used in a figurative sense : figure of speech ![]()
Ooookay. A cliche! I got it now. Why didn't you just say so?
So, what is a cliche in my genre (fantasy) that gets on my nerves? I have no idea. Cliches very, very rarely get on my nerves. There is something about the predictable that makes it familiar, like an old friend, and I like that. Thinking about it now, there is one cliche in fantasy that, only recently, I have come to find a little annoying. It is the super strong, tough, battle hardened, young female characters. In most of the fantasy books I have read, the female characters are either warriors, assassins, mages, barbarians, or some other type of Xena Warrior Princess or Red Sonja "bad-A". Plus, they are always young and hot. Now, I'm not saying that tough, young, hot chicks are bad or unrealistic. I'm a tough, young, hottie if I say so myself, but not all women are young, hot warriors. Some are gentle and delicate - the healer, and the priestess. Some are quiet, regal, and proud - the queen, the duchess, and the farmer's wife. Some are fun-loving and flirty - the bar maid, the gypsy girl, and the merchant's daughter. And don't forget about the sassy boss - the cook, the store keeper's wife, and the governess. Not all women are Xena warrior princess, or Lessa the dragon rider, or Arya the elfin princess. Also, battle hardened warriors are definitely NOT young and hot. They are beautiful in their own way, but they have many scars and they are tired and worn thin, because they have seen many, many gruesome battles. The only reason this cliche has started to bug me is because of the reviews a friend was getting on his first book (The Heroes of Ravenford by F.P. Spirit). I LOVED his book. I adore one of the female characters introduced in it. But many of the reviewers who read it were upset because of the "lack of strong female characters". Excuse me? What in the cube kingdom of gelatinous are you talking about? What happened to the "stop using cliches" sermon? Everyone wants "fresh content", but as soon as one of their favorite cliches are avoided, they throw a fit. I guess what actually gets on my nerves in the fantasy genre is the readers. Authors are always getting preached at to create original stories free of cliches. But then they get bashed if they publish a book without cliches. Shut up, you picky readers! Either read the book and enjoy it, or go write your own. Then let's see how well you handle criticism from other readers like yourself who love/hate/love/hate/love/hate cliches. OH! And one other thing that annoys me about the fantasy genre: NOT ENOUGH DRAGONS. When I read a fantasy book, and there aren't any dragons, I feel just like this chick from Game of Thrones:
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Don't forget to check out The Writing Challenge - Day One.
Today's challenge: a one sentence summary of your current WIP (work in progress). Oh boy. Let me see. How do I put this? The witch did not really die at the hands of the hero and has possessed an important character, causing the dragons and the giants to emerge from hiding and help the Dragon's Son stop her before she summons an ancient demon and starts a world war. Can you guess which book it is that I am working on? That's right: book #3 in Tales of the Wovlen. Now, I will leave you to fret about your favorite characters because, yes, they are in peril and, yes, some of them are going to die! Be afraid. Be very afraid. |
Kathryn FoglemanAuthor of the fantasy series, Tales of the Wovlen, Kathryn spends a great deal of time in the world of her imagination, having tea with fire breathing dragons, writing books on flying space ships, and practicing her mad scientist laugh with gusto. However, on occasion,she returns to this world just to play with her dog and blog about her fun. My BookGrab a Button!![]() Archives
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