News


* Reminder: This year's Halloween short story, "The Hellhound," is up, and you can read it for free here.


If you've been following my blog and caught my last update, you'll know that I'm gearing up for this year's NaNoWriMo. I'll be writing the first draft of Fallen: Vendetta, the first book in the Fallen series. The outline is ready to go, so come November 1, I'll be ready to write it.


In the meantime, I'm revising the outline for book 5, Vendetta. I plan to have it ready before NaNoWriMo begins on the first so I can focus on the book I'll be writing.


It's finally cooling off here, and I'm starting to think of ways to add hygge to my home and daily routine. I found a really great article on the concept, and you can read it here (http://hyggehouse.com/hygge). I started getting ready for the season by ordering some Yogi tea and Oregon chai tea concentrate from Walmart, and I plan to pick up some more tealight candles, as well. And some chocolate covered coffee beans, if possible, though that's my reward during NaNoWriMo and really has little to do with hygge beyond old memories they bring. If I get my words in for the day, I have some. If not, I don't. I also have my white fluffy throw ready to go, and my yeti pjs, which I've yet to wear. Of course, I do intermittent fasting most weekdays (four-hour feeding window, 20 hours of fasting), so I'm not sure when I'd work in the chocobeans and chai. I'll figure it out, though.


I've finally finished reading Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott . When I read this book years ago, I thought it was an awesome book. Now that I know a bit more about writing, I see all the purple prose, and it makes me cringe! It's still an awesome story. Just wish it didn't have all the flowery descriptions, explanations of every little thing, and so on. Now that I'm done with that, I've moved on to Black In the Box, by Russell Blake. It's a much faster read, and much more exciting!


Writing Goal Progress:


My only real goal since my last update was to revise the outline for Fallen: Nemesis (Book 5), and I've been working on that. It was a long outline, and the beginning seemed really drawn out, so I took out one of the storylines and will turn that into a short story later on. I plan to write the first drafts for these five books this year and next, starting with Fallen: Vendetta (Book 1) during this coming month's NaNoWriMo, but I don't plan to start publishing them until sometime in 2021.


Recipe:


As I get ready to participate in NaNoWriMo (their main event) for the 14th time, I realize it's time for me to get my snacks and rewards together. One of my favorite things to sip on during my writing sessions is Chai tea. I generally use Indian Spice tea from Harney & Sons, but the recipe I've found online is from Stash. It's nearly as good!


Chai Tea Latte


Music I'm Currently Listening To:


I made a playlist of music for when I'm working on my planning/writing/revision of the Fallen series, and Decyfer Down is one of my favorite bands on it. I won't put too many links here, though I would love to link you to every album I can find on YouTube, but here's my favorite of their albums:


Decyfer Down Scarecrow


Video I love:

I've been on a DMC: Devil May Cry kick lately. I'm relatively new to gaming, and I only play single player. I started with Assassin's Creed II and have worked up to Assassin's Creed: Rogue, but I wanted to try something new, as well. And since I use this Dante as my character model (appearance wise) for Zachariel in my Fallen series, I thought I would try the game. Before I ever got the game, I watched a video of all the cutscenes, and they made me want to play the game even more. Warning: there's some bad language in here, including the f-bomb.


DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition All Cutscenes (Game Movie)


Signing off:

What have you been drawn to lately? Music, films, movies, books, they can all be great ways to pass the time during the changing seasons. List your favorites in the comments below so others can enjoy them too! :)

Cheers,

Lois

The News:

I've written a brand new short story for Halloween this year. You can find it here. It's called "The Hellhound," and it's from the Fallen series I've been planning (which I talk more about below). Zachariel and Archan make a bet that Archan can scare Zach. Zach says he's not afraid of anything. He says, "I've seen it all. Done it all. Had it all done to me. I'm still here, ain't I? Nothin' scares me anymore." Archan swears he can come up with something, and boy, does he ever! But is it enough to scare an angel who's spent nearly 13K years "down under?" You'll have to read it to find out! ;)

I wasn't really going for scary with this one. I just wanted to give you an entertaining read that fits the Halloween theme. Hopefully, I've done my job. If you read it and enjoy it, would let me know in the comments below? I love getting constructive feedback, and even a simple "I liked it" would help. And feel free to share the page's link with other people you think might enjoy it. It would help me a lot!

A New Series:

I've been planning a new series, but with characters I've played with before: Samandriel and Zachariel, the fallen angel brothers. I'll be writing the first novel during NaNoWriMo next month (November), and I can't wait!

Here's the gist of the idea:

Zachariel was sent to Sheforat (Illdirin's version of Hell) almost 13,000 years ago. Thanks to a black witch, who created a portal to free a demon, Zachariel escaped -- along with thousands of others. The Gods have Archan, the head celestial hunter, enlist Samandriel to stop his older brother from carrying out his plan of vengeance against the Gods for killing his fallen lover. Archan is Sam's ally in this task, but Archan doesn't believe Sam can do it. In fact, he's hoping that Sam will fail. The deal is: stop Zachariel from carrying out his plan of vengeance or go to Sheforat. Why would Sam go to Sheforat? Because he killed four mortal men who murdered a close friend and mentor of his. Killing a mortal is a serious offense, one of the most serious, punishable by eternity in Sheforat.

So far, there are five books planned for this series, but I'll be planning at least one more after November. The idea above is only for the first book. The series mainly focuses on Zachariel and his quest to earn his redemption once the events play out in this first novel. The working title for the first book is Fallen: Vendetta.

A word about the angels of the Agaean/Illdirin:

First of all, the Agaean Plane is Illdirin's equivalent of our Heaven. It's the highest plane of existence, and it's where the Creator Gods and the holiest of angels reside, as well as those who die who are good and have faith in the Gods. And just so you know, I'm not staying true to our God or our angels. This is a whole different world. The Gods are the gods of a specific region of the universe, and some of their angels (called Travelers) choose to live among the mortals of Illdirin. Some even intermarry with mortals (humans, elves, etc.).

An angel falls when they:

• forsake the gods
  
• kill a mortal
• consort/mate with evil beings
  

There are other grave sins, but these are three of the worst. When Zachariel fell in love with and impregnated a fallen angel many millennia ago, he became fallen.

In contrast, his brother, Samandriel, became fallen for a lesser crime, which I won't go into here. But I will say that he had a falling out with his best friend, another angelic warrior (of the chayalim, a class of which both Sam and Zach were counted). Sam and this other chayal went to war on opposite sides. The friend came after Sam on the battlefield, and the two fought each other, which is another one of those pesky sins I mentioned above. Sam merely defended himself, and though he's considered fallen, he never spent time in Sheforat. His former friend was considered the aggressor, and he was sent to Sheforat. He escaped when Zach did, and he'll feature prominently in the second book of the series.

What else have I been up to?

Over the past few months, I've played with some series ideas. I actually started writing two books during Camp NaNoWriMo, one in April and one in July. I've set those on a back burner for now in order to plan and write this new series.

I'm also still working on getting Relic Hunters: Kingsfall and Relic Hunters: The Fingali Key revised and ready for publication. I've been working on them alone, and it's taken longer than I would have liked.

I'm looking for readers:

I'm currently looking for alpha and beta readers to give me input on the plot and characters, as well as other aspects of my stories, so if you're interested, feel free to contact me at loiseighmy at gmail dot com, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Some last words:

So, have you read "The Hellhound?" Have you read any of the other short stories on my site? If you have, how did you like them? Or didn't you like them? Why or why not? What do you look for in a short story? What makes you want to pick up a story and read it? The characters? The setting? The description or genre? Let me know in the comments!

Cheers!

Lois