Beth Alvarez - Author of Epic Fantasy

  • What does AI know about my books?

    AI has changed a lot about the digital world this year, but whether you love or hate AI, it’s not going anywhere. I have my own thoughts and opinions on the matter, but I’m also sick to death of hearing about it, and I’m sure you are too! Instead, I thought it might be fun to do something a little different: I asked AI to tell me about my books.

    The idea came from an Instagram story game I saw people doing, and while I found its answer about me completely unremarkable, I had a great deal of fun asking it to explain my books. I saved the images and made a video about it.

    You can watch it below, but honestly? It became clear pretty early on that it didn’t know much.

    And if you aren’t interested in watching, here’s a summary:

    Snakesblood Saga
    The AI knew I was the author, and it had the general plot summary down. But it thought it was a 4-book series instead of a 6-book series, and it didn’t seem too sure on who the publisher was… At least it got all the names of the books right?

    Westkings Heist
    Not even close. It knew who Tahl was and that it was a 3-book series, but it only got one book title right and the understanding of the plot was a good jump left of what you really find in the stories.

    Spectrum Legacy
    Who the heck is Adeena?! Clearly, the AI has no idea what these books are about. It knows I wrote them, but it only listed 3 of the 6 books, and it got the titles of two of them right. I’m pretty sure it just took the elemental theme and ran with it, because it named elements that don’t show up in the series.
    And thinks the book series is about a girl named Adeena, apparently.

    Suffice to say, if you’re looking for a simple book synopsis, trust Google before the AI chat bots.

    Happy reading!

  • How I make my book covers

    How I make my book covers

    Everyone always says authors should not make their own book covers, so I get a lot of raised eyebrows when I tell people I make all of mine. I get a lot of questions, too. So when it came time to make the cover for one of my upcoming titles, I thought it might be fun to record the process and share a peek at what it’s like.

    I posted the video on my author YouTube channel, which I started not that long ago. You can view it here:

    The Artificer’s Wife will be the third and last book in my no-spice fantasy romance series, Artisan Magic. I hope to release it this fall, but there’s no set release date just yet.

    I guess this also kind of serves as a cover reveal for this upcoming title, but I’ll share a better look at it soon!

  • Time to dig in

    Last month, I set a goal to write 500 words a day. On the whole, I’ve been doing it – I just didn’t expect so much of that writing would be devoted to refining outlines instead of hammering out prose to fill the pages of my next book.

    On the plus side, that means the outline for the last Artisan Magic book is pretty solid now, and it’s ready for me to dig in and start really making progress. That’s been hard to do lately, but this week, I think things are settling enough that it’s time to dig in and really make some headway.

    This week, I’ve got several hours set aside each day from Monday to Thursday, and I’m hoping that will let me knock out at least 10,000 words of this draft. That would be almost 15 percent of my target word count and would put me close to the halfway mark on this book, which would be a fantastic feat to help get me back on the rails for writing.

    Since I hope to keep up that momentum through the end of the month, I’m going to give myself until July before I check in with the final word counts from this week, because by the time I’m done with this month, I should have a rough idea of when this book will be heading to my editor… and when it will be finished and ready to read after that.

    As much as I’d wanted to get 3 more books written this year, I don’t think I’ll make it beyond 2. I’ll accept that as okay, especially since it means I should have those two out this year, as well. I’ll just be one book behind. The Artisan Magic trilogy will be finished this year and the Spectrum Legacy series will still finish next year, as originally planned, so even though things are a bit behind, it’s not as bad as it could be.

    Once Artisan Magic is complete, Spectrum Legacy should go a bit faster, and I won’t be starting the next series until that one is done, so that readers won’t have to wait longer than necessary.

    Getting back to writing after a drought has been interesting, but this is only day two, so I won’t let myself be intimidated by how hard it’s been to get back into the groove. By the end of the week, it should be easier, right?

  • Three minutes

    Last week, I had the opportunity to speak before a group of writers and share what I knew about something I do here pretty often–blending writing with other hobbies to help connect with people who share similar interests.

    One thing I was tasked with was coming up with a writing exercise for the group to do. What I ultimately came up with was the suggestion that a piece could be written to overtly connect writing with a hobby, either by having characters participate in such a hobby in a piece of flash fiction, or by discussing how a specific hobby helped in a specific field of non-fiction.

    The group’s leaders set a timer for three minutes, and in those three minutes, we had to compose our very short story.

    I greatly enjoyed hearing the diverse stories others put together, but I wasn’t exempt from the exercise, but I added a bit of a twist to mine. Instead of writing about one of my own hobbies–which I do often enough!–I decided to write a flash fiction piece about one of my husband’s hobbies, instead. Silly me had put my laptop away after I was finished with the presentation, so I tapped away on my phone instead. Not the best place to write flash fiction, but it worked.

    Here’s what I wrote:

    The chisel skipped across the spindle, landing with a crack at a base that was meant to be square. The apprentice grimaced at the size of the chunk that had come away. He’d been at the lathe for days, yet the pile of spindles his master requested had grown no larger.

    He’d pressed too hard, maybe, or perhaps he hadn’t pressed hard enough to keep his chisel where it was meant to be.

    “Again?” The master’s gruff voice was more sandpaper than soothing.

    The apprentice bowed his head, but instead of a reprimand, what he got was a hand on his shoulder.

    “Bad wood,” the master said as he pointed out a knot too hard for a chisel to cut. “No amount of practice can fix that.”

    I don’t think I’ve written any bits of fiction that short before. It was a fun experiment. There are a few things I’d change if I were to go back and actually edit, but that’s always the way, isn’t it?

    What kind of story do you think you could create with three minutes to write?

  • Word count check in, because why not

    I haven’t been posting much lately – aside from having too much going on, I haven’t had a lot of new writing stuff happening, and I haven’t had any ideas for articles or general chatter. But when I sent an email newsletter earlier this month, I mentioned that I was doing my best to commit to writing 500 words a day. Unfortunately, this means just week days – I have never, ever had sufficient time to write on weekends and I don’t expect it to suddenly change now.

    I sometimes try to keep word count tallies on social media, but I haven’t had time to take photos or come up with things to post there, either. So I guess for now I can default back to here. That’s sort of the point of having my own site with a blog, after all–a catch-all for everything “me” to go when I don’t know where else to put it. So until I think of something more interesting to write about, I can share weekly updates on how writing is going.

    The short answer is it’s kind of not, but I know that’s not satisfactory, and it’s also not true. I am getting words in… just at an absolutely glacial pace.

    Across February/March/April, I was doing my best to make progress with Paragon of Light, but it ended up proving too much of a task right now. I don’t have the energy or brain power to write a deeply involved epic fantasy story at the moment, so until my mental and physical energy make a comeback, I decided to switch to writing something shorter that doesn’t take as much effort to ensure things stay on track and accurate. So while I got a bit done, it’s less than I’d hoped for:

    Paragon of Light word count so far: 14,522

    That’s less than 5,000 words a month, which is pretty crushing when that’s what I used to average across two days. It’ll probably also need pretty heavy editing to ensure everything is accurate and the same quality throughout.

    For the time being, I’ll be working on finishing the Artisan Magic trilogy instead, since it’s another interconnected standalone and not a huge series. I’m estimating it’ll be around 70,000 words, although both The Assassin’s Bride and The Spymaster’s Prize ran a little longer than that. Either way, it’s still less than two thirds the length of one of the Spectrum Legacy books, and there’s way less prophecy and world building and multi-book continuity to worry about.

    I started writing The Artificer’s Wife at the beginning of May, when I said I’d do my best to make sure I got 500 words of writing in, Monday through Friday. That got me this far.

    The Artificer’s Wife word count so far: 6,828

    Which puts me a tiny bit ahead, but also means the book would take about 30 weeks to finish at this pace. On the plus (or negative?) side, summer break starts after the end of this week, so I will hopefully be able to write more. I had desperately wanted to take summer off, but it’s just not going to happen if I want to get another book out this year.

    So that’s it for now. I’ll check in after another week, and we’ll see how things go.

  • Slow, but done

    Slow, but done

    A story of how steady persistence still sees things to completion, I suppose. That’s sort of the theme of my life right now; everything has to happen so slowly, it feels like nothing is moving at all. But at least I know that’s not true – I just finished a hobby project I started in 2021. It’s a doll thing, and not a book thing, but I think the lesson is the same. Last week, I attended an author meeting, and something said to me has been hanging in my thoughts ever since: “It’s not hard. You just have to do it.”

    So I did, and now we’re here.

    Around this time two years ago, as I started leaning into digital sculpting for doll making, I decided to make Link. The Zelda games have always been dear to my heart, and they’ve been a huge inspiration for my writing, too–something that’s been pretty evident, with several readers referring to Spectrum Legacy as “if Zelda games were books.” It’s high praise and a great honor. But things have gone so haywire this year that I don’t know when the next Spectrum book will be going out at all, and that sense of uncertainty has given me a lot of anxiety about my work.

    But it’s not hard. You just have to do it.

    That’s part of what makes my Link project a great reminder, I think. Almost every bit of him was handmade; I didn’t make the boots, because I already had a pair that worked well enough for his outfit. But I made the doll itself, every layer of clothing, his hair, his gear. Even the face painting and eyes. It’s all me, and even though it took a long time, it’s done, because that’s what you do. You just have to do it.

    Right now, I’m trying to approach my writing the same way as I approached making Link. Five minutes here, ten minutes there. Maybe, if I get lucky, an hour somewhere I can just sit down and really focus. It’ll get things done just as well as writing for an uninterrupted 8 hour shift, which is something I can only dream of right now.

    It’s like that popular saying: How do you eat an elephant?
    One bite at a time.

    Link’s elephant is eaten now, and he gets to be a fun reminder that even when progress doesn’t feel tangible, it’s there, and it’ll eventually come together in a beautiful whole, where all that work suddenly becomes clear and obvious.

    The book elephant, though? I guess this week is the first bite.

  • And suddenly, dog

    And suddenly, dog

    For the first month of the year, everything was moving right on schedule. My last book, The Spymaster’s Prize, was finished right on time. It got published, I made plans for the next book, I made good headway on some of my doll hobby projects, was getting good news back from the doctor about my long-running health issues, and was looking forward to attending the ceremony for a literary award, where my book Spectrum Blade ultimately placed as a finalist. Whew… that’s quite a list.

    I am not sure why or how, but somehow, my family reached the conclusion that this moment where everything was finally working well was the perfect time to introduce a new four-legged friend to our family.

    This, I fear, has proven disastrous.

    My husband likes dogs. My daughter likes dogs. I… am a cat person, but I know having a dog is important to the rest of my family, and I don’t mind having one around. We found a husky and decided she’d b e a good fit, because we have been husky people and missed our old girl, who passed last summer. The problem is there are huskies like Xochitl, and then there is this one.

    To say Tozi has been difficult may be an understatement. This dog has single-handedly—er, pawedly?—upended our entire schedule so effectively that nothing is happening but dog, and it’s put a damper on everyone’s creativity. I’ve gotten essentially no writing done since she made her arrival, and haven’t made progress on any of my hobby projects, either.

    What has happened?

    Dog.

    And so, this is getting posted on a Wednesday instead of my usual Tuesday, because for the past several weeks, I haven’t had time to eat lunch, never mind writing blog posts. Or anything else, for that matter.

    I’m reworking my schedule to deal with new setbacks, so a revised schedule will be coming soon. Things will go back to normal eventually (I hope) but for now, the next few books may be delayed…

  • The general state of things

    The general state of things

    Back in the old days of the internet, we had blogs instead of social media. Most of our general life updates went on our own blogs. Some of the old blog platforms are still around and in use, but most people have migrated to social media for general updates because it’s faster. Sometimes I wonder why that is. There are no rules to how blogs have to be used. I’ve seen some people use it just like they might use Facebook, sharing a two- to three-sentence general comment on things each day. Sometimes that sounds nice. Sometimes, though, it sounds more like an overload.

    But it’s also nice to blog general updates of things, and I haven’t done a lot of that this year, so I figured it would be good to do one now since I’m beginning work on my next big project.

    Paragon of Light is being written now; I started at the beginning of the month. I’d originally wanted to start in February, but I had so much work left over from January that I wasn’t able to. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get Paragon of Light out in May like I wanted, but perhaps in June. There’s still a chance I can get 4 books out this year (like I planned) but 3 won’t be a letdown! My cover artist and I are working on developing the cover and I absolutely love the direction it’s going thus far. I’ll share the first peek with my newsletter as soon as it’s ready, though I’m not quite sure when that will be! I guess it doesn’t matter too much, since I’m not done writing the book.

    I’d planned to do two Spectrum Legacy releases this year and two Artisan Magic releases, but I am not sure if that will still be the case. Ideally, I’d want the third Artisan Magic title out in the fall–but I still anticipate not being able to get any writing done over the summer, which makes that seem a little out of reach. My focus may be on trying to wrap up the Spectrum Legacy books, because there are two more left after Paragon of Light and I think it may be possible for me to write the ending of the series before the end of the year. Doing so would push the third Artisan Magic book back to early 2024, but I admit that series feels a little less urgent since both books currently in the series tell a story on their own and make a perfectly reasonable stopping point. Even if The Spymaster’s Prize includes a small teaser at the end. 😉

    A few other things have kept me busy lately, too. While I’m still working slowly and at a reduced capacity due to my health, I’ve finally moved on to the process of casting the doll I sculpted for Tahl, which I shared all the way back in the summer of 2021. I have my own home casting studio to produce pro quality dolls now, which means he’ll be going up for preorder soon. My first doll in production! I’ll probably blog a bit about the process once I get things underway, because there are a lot of moving parts to it.

    I haven’t done as good a job of making videos as I’d like. I film vlogs but have trouble finding time to edit them, and haven’t been able to do as much work on doll things for the aforementioned health reasons. So my projects have been a little slower in coming together and there’s not much to share. I’d love to get to a point where I can stream or something, because I miss the social aspect of video sharing online, but not until a few things settle, I guess. I’ve got several doctor appointments across the next week, more tests to try and figure out what’s going on with me and how I can improve my health, and maybe I’ll have more answers after that.

    In the meantime, the biggest thing that eats up my free time and makes it hard to work is the addition of a new furry family member, who I shared a photo of in my newsletter last month. After our sweet white husky reached the end of her days last summer, I knew my husband would miss having a dog, and our daughter did, too. It was right around Christmas that he said he wanted another dog. I’m not much of a dog person, mostly due to bad experiences, but I told him if we could find a husky so I’d know what we were getting into, I was okay with bringing one home. Now we have Tozi, and she is a handful.

    Don’t let the sweet sleepy photo fool you; she’s a ceaseless fountain of energy with needle-sharp teeth.

    I’m not sure how I’ll work out filming and streaming with a very vocal puppy around, but I know she’ll settle as she ages, and it’s fun to watch her play in the remnants of the fall’s leaves out back. It’s a nice excuse to do my writing outside in the sunshine and pleasant early spring weather, too, whenever it’s not raining. She can’t be trusted out there on her own. Huskies love to dig, you know…

  • Tea Review: Raspberry sun tea from Oliver Pluff & Co.

    Tea Review: Raspberry sun tea from Oliver Pluff & Co.

    Early this month, a very sweet friend sent me some books to read for our new book club. Along with the books (Which are delightfully annotated, by the way!) there was a birthday treat: An adorable teacup for my collection, and a can of tea in a variety I’ve never tried before.

    Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure why  I’ve never made sun tea. And let me tell you, the bags for a whole pitcher of tea at once are huge. This one is raspberry sun tea from Oliver Pluff & Co. From the can alone, I had a feeling I’d like it.

    Oliver Pluff’s thing seems to be recreating historical teas. I don’t know a lot about the history of sun tea, admittedly, beyond the fact that it’s not always safe. Tea sitting out at room temperature for long periods of time can grow unpleasant things you don’t want to drink. The modern way to make sun tea apparently doesn’t involve the sun at all: Instead, you put it in the fridge.

    Five hours later, I added sugar (which might have gone better if I’d mixed it into warm water and poured that in, instead of trying to stir sugar into cold water…) as directed and gave it a taste. The end result?

    Way too sweet.

    The instructions on the can said to use two thirds of a cup of sugar to the full gallon of tea, but that result was something like the super-sweet, rot your teeth kind of Deep South sweet tea. Fine for some people, and I guess it makes sense, but the tea has so much powerful natural sweetness from the raspberry that it’s really not necessary to use that much.

    The flavor was very smooth and lacked any hint of bitterness, since there was no heat to draw out the tannins from the black tea, so it very well would have worked as an unsweetened iced tea – as horrible as that may sound to some. Honestly, it might be the only time unsweetened iced tea is acceptable.

    The berry flavor is vibrant, but blends well with the strength of the black tea and doesn’t overpower it. Nicely balanced, well-formulated, and delightful. I kept the pitcher in the fridge so it would stay cold, but pouring it over a glass full of ice made it super refreshing, and perfect for the particularly warm early spring days we’ve had the past few weeks.

    As far as fine quality teas go, it’s reasonably priced for the massive quantity that goes into each tea bag, and this is going to be a wonderful treat for the hot summer days ahead – I’ll be saving the rest of it until late May, when we start to have super-hot temperatures, but this is a great addition to an under-served portion of my tea collection: Teas meant to be served cold.

  • The power of tea in fantasy fiction

    There’s probably little surprise that as a writer, a lot of my life works its way into my writing. My tastes, my hobbies, things I love or find important. One thing that often works its way into my fantasy stories is tea.

    It’s strange to think of something that’s a pleasant, everyday part of modern life being so integral to things around the world and throughout history, but tea has been a staple here on Earth for as long as civilization has been around. Vikings are said to have used it as currency, and multiple wars started with tea. With that in mind, is it any wonder tea can be used as a powerful cultural asset in stories?

    Tea was a known drink in China as far back as the third century AD, but its use may have found its roots thousands of years before that. In addition to its place as a daily staple, its use is also steeped (ha!) in tradition. in China, tea is a symbol of friendliness and grace, while in Japan, tea ceremonies represent respect, harmony, and serenity. In India, tea represents hospitality. Even in the United States, a cup of tea is often taken for a quiet moment, representative of comfort and peace. In some ways, this gives it a sort of meditative quality, which allows us to connect it to the mind and spirit as well as simply being a comforting drink.

    This opens a lot of doors to its use in fantasy fiction. Obviously, we can build fictional cultures that use tea the same way, either as merely a popular drink, or something that represents respect or tradition, but we also have the option of using it as a representation of a spiritual connection to the greater forces present in a fantasy world that help make it… well, fantasy. Not only can it be used in ritualistic ways that help characters connect with a spiritual realm, but it opens the door for interesting ways a character might connect with some sort of power. Even in the real world, there are those who use tea leaves for a form of divination.

    But the simple drink also helps ground us in stories, connecting us to things that make our world real. A character offered tea as a symbol of hospitality has the option of making us feel as if we might belong in that setting… or it could be an opportunity for a social faux pas, where cultural misunderstandings could rise from how the drink is served or whether or not a character chooses to partake. How they react could, too, be a small way to show how a character expresses their personal beliefs or traditions, and through repetition of tea time throughout a story, it gives an opportunity to share growth.

    In that respect, tea may be under-utilized. If not tea, then maybe something like it. Whether used as simple symbols of culture, a taste of realism in a story, or a way to connect to something deeper, it’s something to keep in mind for building believable fantasy worlds.

    How would you expect it to be used?