Beth Alvarez - Author of Epic Fantasy

  • Everyone should self-publish… at least once

    Okay, maybe not everybody. Let’s face it, not everyone has a book in them. But all those naysayers out there that will tell you anyone can self-publish a book? Yeah. I’m looking at them.

    See, here’s the thing: Despite the fact that a whopping 81 percent of Americans think they could write a book, chances are anyone who claims that anyone can self-publish probably hasn’t published anything themselves, traditional publishing or otherwise. Heck, they may not have ever written anything!

    Until you sit down to write something, you have no idea how hard it actually is. Likewise, until you sit down and try to actually self-publish, you have no idea how much work actually goes into it. Sure, there’s the option of forking money over to professional proofreaders, editors, formatting experts and cover artists. That might sound like it makes self-publishing a walk in the park, but when the average self-published author earns less than $500 off their work, why start by digging yourself a hole?

    Self-publishing is a long and difficult process, especially if you plan to do it on your own. So what does self-publishing actually entail? I’m not done making that journey, myself, but I’d be happy to lay out a map of where I’ve been and what the process is really like. There’s much too much information to cover in only one post, so I’ll be breaking it up into several. Editing, formatting and cover design are just a few parts of the whole, but next week, we’ll start at the top.

    And remember, if there’s anything specific you’d like to ask about or see me cover, please don’t hesitate to ask!

  • Friday Photo Break, vol. 48

    I wish I had more wintery pictures to post this time of year, but there’s just not a lot to photograph here during winter months. Instead, here’s a picture of the flowers that decorated my crepe myrtle bushes this past summer.

  • What the runes say

    It’s probably no surprise that my love affair with the runic alphabet started because of The Hobbit. I can read and write in Norse runes (Which are basically just Dwarven runes that humans have stolen, obviously) though I’ve not written in them since college. Fellow classmates would, from time to time, look at my notes. I wouldn’t have minded sharing if they’d asked, but since they didn’t, I occasionally jotted everything down in runes just so I could see the confounded looks on their faces when they tried to sneak a peek.

    Runes are something that worked their way into my own writing in a variety of ways. My favorite character to write is even named for them. As I’m currently starting the second of the books he’s in, the runes have been on my mind, partly because one undercurrent in the story is his exploration of what his namesake scar is supposed to mean, and why it was given to him to begin with.

    While I work on developing the story outline, it’s been fun to revisit the runes and the meanings they’ve been assigned. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t put much stock in divination, but having each symbol stand for something is still interesting to me, and I like to think of it as something like the meanings behind different flowers when they are given as a gift.

    The rune I’ve always associated with myself is berkana.
    ᛒ
    Probably not surprising, given that my name starts with a B. As a word it represents “birch,” but its meaning is decidedly feminine. Representing fertility, health and new life, it’s also used to symbolize growth, plenty, and new beginnings. The new beginnings and growth aren’t exclusive to the idea of life, though – Berkana was also used to symbolize the development and conception of ideas, which I think is a pretty neat meaning for a writer like myself!

    And of course, I couldn’t post this without mentioning Rune’s rune, for which he is named. His rune is mannaz,
    ᛗ
    and as a word, it represents “man.”
    So why mannaz?
    Well, you’ll have to read the books to find out.

  • Friday Photo Break, vol. 47

    Like winter, autumn here is almost nonexistent. In mid-November on a 75 degree day, you couldn’t have asked for a better time to be outside taking pictures. The sky was vibrant and the tips of the trees were just beginning to be touched with fall color. The moon was riding high in the sky when I was snapping shots of the foliage, but the camera never portrays the moon as beautifully as it appears to the naked eye. It’s barely visible, here, a pale dot in the upper corner of that vibrant blue sky.

  • Meet My Dolls: Part Four

    Out of the four dolls in my collection, Lillibelle is the only one who has nothing to do with my writing.

    Lilli was a surprise, a special gift from my Dad as another model for me to practice sewing for.
    She’s absolutely tiny, a Fairyland Pukipuki Ante with the default face-up.

    Really, Lillibelle represents a project I’ve been working on for a few months, though it has a few more months ahead of it before anything will come to fruition. Needless to say, though, it’s a lot of work, and a lot to balance with other things like writing and art.

     I can’t help but picture her as a little fairy, so small she fits in the palm of my hand. For that matter, she fits in the palm of Rune’s hand!

    While not related to my writing, she’s still a delight to have around, small enough to fit into my purse and easy to take with me when I travel. I don’t know if she’ll develop into a character that might appear in later books or not, but there’s always the possibility. If not, then no big deal. The author Mercedes Lackey collects ball-jointed dolls as well, and I’m certain that not all of her large collection is related to her work!

    Well, that’s it – All four of my dolls. Though I must confess, there’s a fifth one on the way, one meant to complete my collection. Perhaps I’ll speak of her when she arrives, but for now, that’s all there is to say about my doll hobby.

  • Friday Photo Break, vol. 46

    The winters here are typically very mild. When the weather reported we were to expect an ice storm, I pictured something like what an ice storm would be up in Illinois, where I grew up. Apparently, a Memphis ice storm is just a few icicles on trees… and not very big ones, at that. Still, the icy trees were beautiful to see, and it was the first glimpse of winter I got.

  • Meet My Dolls: Part Three

    The third doll to join my collection was Vahn, a doll embodiment of a young soldier who befriends Firal and uses the opportunity to flirt mercilessly with her friends.

    While he wasn’t a part of my collection plans at all, I knew the doll was perfect for the character at first glance and had to add him to the group. Vahn is an Iplehouse SID Claude from the Elemental Guardians limited edition release.

    Being that Vahn is an elf in the books, though, he required some slight modification. A point was added to his ears with epoxy clay, though it’s rarely visible in pictures, normally hidden by his hair. Really and truly, for the elves in the world I’ve created, the ears of the doll I have for Firal are much too big. Vahn’s are more accurate, not really noticeable unless you’re looking for the point.

    To be quite honest, I feel like Vahn is the nicest doll in my collection. He poses better than the rest and is easier to sew for, but since he wasn’t part of the original plan, the poor fellow is reduced to the rank of “least favorite” of the 3 big dolls.

    Still, his sassy smirk reminds me so much of the fun I have writing him in the trilogy I’m working on, and I just can’t bring myself to part with him. The SID size is probably my favorite out of the large dolls I have. It works particularly well for the scale of the characters, too, as Rune is supposed to be head and shoulders taller than Firal, with Vahn’s height close to halfway between them. This size doll does that perfectly, and because of how magnificently he poses, I may add another SID doll to my collection in the distant future… if I find a face that’s just right.

  • Friday Photo Break, vol. 45

    Some more spring green and pretty blooms to warm up your Friday afternoon. With Christmas so close, maybe I should be posting something more festive, instead?

  • Blog hop questionnaire!

    I’ve never done a blog hop before, so this is exciting for me. My dear friend Megan tagged me to participate in her blog hop entry, which can be read on her blog here.
    I was given four questions to answer, and here they are:

    1. What are you writing?
    Right now I’m working on the direct sequel to the fantasy book I completed at the end of the summer. It’s called Serpent’s Wake and I estimate it will be around 150,000 words long when finished, give or take a little bit.

    2. How does it differ from your last work?
    It’s the first time I’ve ever written a sequel to anything, so that certainly makes it interesting! It’s great to revisit the characters, but it presents a challenge in a lot of ways. Since it’s the middle book of a trilogy, I get to deal with trying to keep it from hitting the “mid-series slump” I see so often in fantasy fiction. That also means striking a balance between progress and recap without things getting stale, and resolving enough hanging issues left from the previous book to make it satisfying, while still leaving threads to tie up in the last book. It’s the first time I’ve worked on a large-scale project, so it’s intimidating and exciting at the same time.

    3. Why do you write?
    As much as I’d like to give some deep and introspective answer, I’m at a loss. Why do I write? Well, I don’t really know. I’ve always written, it comes as naturally to me as breathing. If I didn’t write, I don’t know what I would do. Then again, I think I might go mad if I tried to keep all the stories in my head trapped there, didn’t let any of them escape onto paper. I write because I have to. I write because it’s a vital part of my life and who I am.

    4. What is your process?

    I’ve spoken a bit about my writing process before, but it’s always worth revisiting.
    My process changes a little every time I write something. I’ve gone from winging it to using an outline every time, but how I outline things changes for each project, too! For my first book, I used chapter-by-chapter summaries. For the first book in the series I’m writing now, I only used bullet points. For my current project, I wrote plot points out on index cards and shuffled them around til I was happy, then wrote an outline that was broken down into six parts. It’s one part for each quarter, and one part for the more detailed midpoint and ending of the book.
    Now I’m on to the actual writing. I try to write 500 words a day, and I find I’m much more productive if I have a snack on hand to nibble while I write. It seems to be working well.

    And that’s that for this time!
    Now, of course, I’m supposed to pass the questions on to others who write. You can look forward to reading interesting answers from Erik, whose creativity always impresses me, from the very talented author Shéa Macleod, and from Rachel, the biggest sweetie I’ve met in years.
    Happy reading!

  • Friday Photo Break, vol. 44

    As cold weather settles in, I find myself really missing springtime. Fortunately for me, I took a ton of pictures in the spring to warm me up when I look at them now.