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

The new Halloween short story is up, and you can find it here.

Last year's story was about my hunter brothers, Jonas and Jesse, one of whom is a marshal who hunts down paranormal criminals and wanted beings.

The Butcher of Hillbrook Forest is about two young teens who...well, I'll let you read it for yourself. Let's just say that they get into a bit of trouble they really would have preferred to avoid, and they may not sleep without the lights on for a week or two. ;)

I plan to make this a yearly thing. I'd like to start doing a harvest type story, too...or Thanksgiving. And Christmas. But we'll see. November's kind of tricky because of Nanowrimo, but I don't see why I couldn't do it. Just have to come up with an idea, right?

Also, don't forget that you can pick up "War of the Gods," a Tales of the Red Falcon short story on Amazon. It's only $1.99, and I think you'll enjoy it. Check it out here.

Cheers!

Lois

In less than a month, thousands of writers will attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I've done this several times. In fact, this will be my 13th attempt at National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo (if you don't count the few times I've tried Camp NaNoWriMo), and as always, I can't wait!

This year, I'm returning to a novel I started during CampN back in April of 2015. My goal was 40,000 words, and I won with 2,000+ on top of that. But as I wrote, I realized some things would need to change to make the story better. And in the years since I wrote those 42,000+ words, a lot has changed with the world of Illdirin and the characters involved in this story.

So I went back to the drawing board. I kept a lot of the material, but I've also changed a lot of things. I'll be starting fresh, and my privateers will not only have one other ship to contend with in the race to find the sunken treasure ship, Venture, but two. The first is a pirate ship, and the second is a naval ship from the country their nation is currently at war with -- and just so happens to be captained by Sahmi Zamada's former captain, Tobias Hancock, whom he and others mutinied against.

I'm having to go back and do a lot more research on ships and piracy, medieval life on land and sea, magical systems, geography, etc. Good thing I started getting ready last month!

Aside from my preparations for this year's NaNoWriMo, I'm also working on another Halloween short story to post to this website (I'll announce it when I publish it). If you need something to tide you over in the meantime, check out last year's Halloween story, The Cellar Dwellars: A Hawkins Short Story. (<-- warning for mild language.) Hopefully, you won't regret it. ;)

While last year's story involved paranormal hunters on my fantasy world, Illdirin, this year's story centers around two young teens here on earth. The town they live in exists, but I've changed other place names. It was fun to write, but anything more than that I won't say. I don't want to give away any important details, after all!

As you've probably noticed, I went on hiatus after my last blog entry. It was unintentional, and I'm not really sure what happened. I'd meant to post short stories every week until I finished posting the Of Blood & Magic series, but then I never did. If you've been waiting with bated breath, you can relax, take a deep breath, and go to the following two links to read the last short stories in Of Blood & Magic: Hunted (book I): SS11: The Rescue and SS12: Unlikely Allies.

I'll likely post one short story every week until this series is all posted. If you have any suggestions on how to make the stories better, feel free to comment in response to this blog entry, but please be polite. Otherwise, I'll just delete it. ;)

So, here's what you have to look forward to in the coming weeks:
​

• A new Halloween story for 2018 (coming around the 15th-17th of this month)
• Of Blood & Magic: Contagion (Book II) short stories, one per week until done
• More freewriting, snippets, etc.

Until then, enjoy the stories linked to above and any other writing I've posted here.

Cheers!

Lois

I've been busy over the past three days. I edited and formatted two stories from the Of Blood & Magic series ("Retaking the Sentinel" and "Escape") and posted them. *Note: these two have some strong language in them. Then I finished the Relic Hunters short story, "The Falcon's Treasure," edited, formatted, and posted it (in 4 parts, and at the end are links to the other three parts so you can click through them as you read).

You can find all the short stories and freewrites so far on the My Writing page.

I'm going to be adding an Illdirin glossary soon so you can look up words you're unsure of. I'll try to link to the first instance of any word in these short stories and freewrites, as well.

Over the coming month and a half, give or take, I'll be planning new short stories. Some will star my fallen Seraph, Samandriel. Others will start characters from Relic Hunters, Hawkins, and Tales of the Red Falcon. Who knows? There may be other series in the works, as well.

I'll also be planning the overall story arch for another series of short stories and/or novels that take place closer to home, or at least involve characters here on earth. They'll involve Antarctica, the volcanoes (including the supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park), the Black Knight satellite, etc.), and other things I come across. I've got my work cut out for me. There will be a ton of research needing to be done, and I'll be taking lots of notes.

Again, here's what's new on this site:

• "Retaking the Sentinel"
• "Escape"
• "The Falcon's Treasure"

And you can find them all on the My Writing page.

Enjoy! And be sure to let me know what you think in the comments below! :)

Cheers!

Lois

I've been hard at work on this website. There's still a lot of work for me to do, but you can now find some freewriting and short stories here.

My personal favorites are the short stories, "The Cellar Dwellers (A Hawkins Short Story)" and "The Gallant Ones (An Of Blood & Magic Short Story, Part I" and "The Gallant Ones (An Of Blood & Magic Short Story, Part II)". However, if you read the Of Blood & Magic short stories, you really should start at the beginning. They tell a larger overall story, and the first two stories, which are the longest, actually give some background that sets the stage for what is to come. "The Gallant Ones" is the most "fantasy-like" story of the bunch, but it does fit in with the rest.

"The Cellar Dwellers" was inspired by Halloween. I'd planned to have it posted this past Halloween, but I was too late getting it up. It's actually my top favorite at the moment.

To give you some background on this story, and the Hawkins storyverse, in general, Jonas Hawkins is a young deputy marshal from Arcona (on my fantasy world, Illdirin). He's hunted more paranormal beings than most on his world have ever dreaded encountering. He comes from a family of hunters, but he never wanted to get into it full-time. His brother, Jesse, on the other hand, will hunt anything with even the slightest paranormal gift because it's what he loves to do, and he'll break the rules to do it, which irritates Jonas to no end. The closest Jonas has come to hunting paranormal beings is hunting paranormal fugitives as a deputy marshal in the Arconian Marshal Service's Paranormal Division. He has a team of people he trusts backing him up, and they obey the law, as he does. Unfortunately, in "The Cellar Dwellers," Jonas finds himself at a haunted house out in the middle of nowhere with the one person he'd rather not encounter: his brother. But his brother isn't the only one giving Jonas a hard time in this old house. ;)

As for the Of Blood & Magic stories, I'll explain what the lead character and his trusty sidekick are. Lukas Walker and Vaughn Gallant are sentinels, people born with an immortality gene that becomes activated when they die a violent death. The original purpose of sentinels was to record history, but somewhere along the line it become more about protecting mortals from the forces of darkness, though they still maintain their original purpose, as well.

This series is kind of a The Walking Dead meets Highlander mashup, although the flesh eating beasties come later, as does my own version of a Six Million Dollar Man type character.

Adam, the main hunter in the first twelve stories, has always been taught -- usually by having it beat into him by his hunter dad -- that people with magic or paranormal abilities are evil, that they need to be eradicated. He's never questioned it, at least not until he meets Lukas and Vaughn. Meeting them changes everything, but to know how, you'll have to read the stories!

The current plan is to post two stories per week for the next three weeks. After that, it will be one per week. This is just for the Of Blood & Magic series. I have another modern treasure hunting fantasy short story I'm working on, and when it's finished, I'll post that, as well. And I'll always post a blog entry to let y'all know when something new is up, so keep watching your Facebook feeds, because that's most likely where I'll be posting them.

I'm also working on another possible series of short stories involving a fallen angel (Samandriel, mentioned in the previous blog entry) and an immortal. I'm looking forward to planning out their short stories, as well.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. If you read any of the short stories, let me know below how you liked (or didn't like) them. I'm eager to know what you think!

And for curiosity's sake, what do you think of the concept of paranormals/psychics/celestials being hunted by mortals? What do you like or dislike about it? What intrigues you about the idea? I'm curious to know!

Until later,

Lois