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Shadow Over Avalon
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Shadow Over Avalon-Awesome Review
By Robert
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
REVIEW BY ROBERT K. SWISHER JR.
Growing up fantasy books to me were Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarks. Then for many years I did not read any fantasy or science fiction. On recommendation from a friend I purchased SHADOW OVER AVALON. That night I went to bed, normally reading for thirty minutes before I turn the lights off.At 4am I finished the book. It is a mesmerizing story, fast paced, with a plot that verges on being beyond imagination – people below the ocean, people on the surface, creatures from space, all woven into the fabric of the future so tightly you are there. For the lovers of fantasy works you SHOULD read this book.
Worldbuilding
I am currently working on the construction of a religion. It actually has to be believable to the characters or they won’t look plausible doing what they do in the name of this.
Needful is the manufacture of metaphysical state caused by imposing the juxtapositions of esoteric and unprovable statements that cause detrimental hardships in the day to day existence by instigating stringent and often contradictory clauses to behavior modes. I haven’t quite decided who the whipping boys are going to be, and there will have to be a people/race/set of alternative beliefs that will have to be persecuted at full intensity by my characters. They have to feel sanctimonious in order to appreciate the ritual deprivations on themselves designed to generate obedience, awe and fear. After all, one of the clauses will be ‘be good followers/worshipers or I will destroy the world like I did before’. There also has to be some sort of nebulous reward system, such as the imagined life after death, or why go through all the deprivations and grovelling? Now this will depend very much on the general character of the type of people involved in the entrapment as to what is important to them in how they perceive the next emanation.
It might also be amusing to have a reverse bigotry going on and stick women above men. Given most of the current religions in our world, and a goodly many of the past ones, held men in esteem and women as chattel something slightly beneath an ass or an ox, then it would be a change. Of course, all this might be subject to alteration as the story progresses. I can never stick to any sort of restriction, however loose the outline might be.
April 18th, Northern Hemisphere.
I was hoping to go rake the thatch out of the grass today. I was thinking about putting some of my outside plants, you know, actually outside on the deck. I was going to cut some pussy willow branches off one of my trees for an inside flower arrangement over Easter. But no. In the hours of darkness a shroud of white did fall upon the land. (AKA snow on all horizontal surfaces. About three inches of it.)
This is April in Alberta, a landlocked Province that merges into the Rocky Mountains to the west. We are at a high elevation, about 300ft above sea level, so yes, this is not unusual. What it is is flocking annoying when a person is antsy to get on their yard and has actually seen the brown stuff that will become grass with a bit of sunlight and encouragement.
Yes, I know full well that I will not be putting out any bedding plants until the last week in May. There are too many night frosts to risk anything before then. However, I was hoping to put out my sprouted roses in containers. House temperatures and heating are very dehydrating for them and I want them to have a good start in my new, (when I can get a fork in the ground, and don’t need a jack hammer), rose garden.
What I shall do, aside from a big spring clean of the house, is plant my begonias in containers. They should be sprouted nicely by the time I am able to plant them outside. I could also sew some seeds in containers on windowsills. Yes, that sounds like a plan. I can pretend it is spring.
MY WRITING PROCESS – BLOG HOP
MY WRITING PROCESS – BLOG HOP
I was tagged by author Gillian O’Rouke– http://gillianorourke.com/ – to partake in My Writing Process Blog Hop!
What am I working on?
I am up to the concluding chapters of the third book in my Shadow series. The first being Shadow Over Avalon, http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Over-Avalon-C-N-Lesley ebook/dp/B00GAN6HMG/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_d_1. The second book, Sword of Shadows is due out in September. I am also working on the sequel to Darkspire Reaches, http://www.amazon.com/Darkspire-Reaches- http://www.amazon.com/Darkspire-Reaches-C-N-Lesley-ebook/dp/B00DJE8RP4/ref=la_B00DJS9QP0_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397755020&sr=1-1 and that one will be called Serpent of the Shangrove. Aside from this, I am tweaking a fantasy novelette.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I think my stories are different as I can’t contain them in one genre alone. They are all cross genre in one way or another. Shadow Over Avalon is ccience fantasy with a touch of history, mystery and romance thrown in. Yes, the sci fi is researched, as is the historical aspect. With Darkspire Reaches, the story is a mix between fantasy, dark romance and has a touch of the paranormal. Upcoming stories are similar genre mixes.
Why do I write what I write?
The stories have all come to me in dreams and I just have to know what happens next. It is usually a few scenes like an opening gambit, or sometimes a character in the middle of some awful circumstance. I suppose my dreams are flavored by my favorite reading genres, so yes, they would be sci fi and fantasy.
How does your writing process work?
Having got the opening scenes, or an idea, I just let the story come to me and it usually does in linear order. Keeping track of the various sub-plots requires deep concentration, so I tend to keep working on books once I open the file. After the first draft I like to let a book sit for a few months. I need the distance to see what is working and what is not. Then comes the second edit and another waiting time. The last couple of passes are for mechanical glitches. Sometimes, the rare err jumps at me in the end process and I have gone through an entire manuscript to alter the name of one character before. Why? Because I was tired of people telling me the name belonged to another gender, despite the different spelling. I figured if my friends found it annoying, then so would my readers. Simple fix.
As to methods, yes, I am a pantzer. I have tried to outline and it just doesn’t work for me. I can have a wonderful outline with everything carefully detailed and then I start to write. For some unknown reason the story develops legs and runs away from me in a totally new direction. The careful plan is now toast and may represent two days of hard work down the toilet. I don’t bother anymore as I am never going to win this one.
And as a finale, I get to tag a few authors now to hop along this blog! Good luck!
Crash Frolich- https://www.facebook.com/crash.froelich?fref=ts
Joel Cornah- https://www.facebook.com/JoelCornah?fref=ufi
Martin Adil-Smith- https://www.facebook.com/martinadilsmith?fref=ufi
Rhonda Garcia- http://rsagarcia.com/
Dreams.
I fully admit I get my best book ideas from dreams, but not this latest one. This was a no no from the get go.
Imagine a very nasty resort in a very swampy region with very unclean water. Now add nasty ‘things’ just below the surface with bodies like giant slugs that are dangerous and will eat people. Add to that filthy, dirty cabins and no fun things to do for tiny kiddies. This would be us and our daughters and they would be five to months old at the time. For some strange reason, only logical in dreams, we had taken the baby’s wooden cot with us. Now add a black, mist like presence to haunt the cabin and us trying to get the aforesaid cot out of the cabin so we could pack the car to leave early from this nightmare vacation.
Nope, not one I will be using. It fails, not from the yuk factor, but because it has no ongoing plot or structure, aside from the factoid that I never write about real people.
On the flip side, as there always is one, my next dream, after I woke from the nightmare and drifted off again, gave me the plot for the fourth book in my Shadow series. I have the main character and all the whys and wherefors. I have these written down now.
Nope, I will not be working on this any time soon. I have the finishing touches to put to the third Shadow book and also I have Serpent of the Shangrove to finish as a sequel to Darkspire Reaches. Added to that, I am working on a very dark science fiction stand alone book I would like to finish before I start on any new projects. Shadow three, probably entitled ‘Chalice of the Shadows’, although that does depend on what my publisher thinks as to the title, and Serpent of the Shangrove, ditto, are high priority. I am working on the three at the same time as I can get more wordage out.
The good news is I am told Sword of Shadows is set for release in September of this year. Yay!!!!!
Shadow Over Avalon
Well that was a nice way to start my day. Thank you so much to wonderful people from the U.K.
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #67,995 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #22 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Arthurian
- #27 in Books > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Arthurian
Busy, busy, busy.
I will be looking in to social media sites first thing in the morning, when I answer my emails, and last thing at night, when I am on my laptop. I am fully committed in the next two months with things I have promised to do, my own work and marketing. I don’t have the physical time to take on anything new. Sorry about that. It is what it is.
My ongoing commitments include helping with the debut launch of an awesome Sci Fi book written by a BFF, Rhonda Garcia. Lex Talionis is one of those special books that occur once in a lifetime. I can’t reiterate how awesome this book is. There are plot layers, fantastic characters, incredible setting … I could wax lyrical until the sun rises and sets again. Please look out for this one.
Works in Progress
I have a few chapters of each book up on wattpad. Go here if you want a sneak peak. http://www.wattpad.com/user/ElizabethHull
cnlesley 