Beth Alvarez - Author of Epic Fantasy

  • Describing my husband as an author would

    Back in February, my husband showed me a meme. It said, simply, “Describe me as an author would.”

    Well, I guess that’s me. I’m kind of an author, so I should be an expert on things like this. I thought about it for a few minutes, then gave it a try, sending him back several paragraphs that I felt described him. He laughed and said it felt awkward. I laughed, too. Then I forgot about it until last week, when I found the notepad file where I’d jotted it down. I asked him if I should share it here, so here it is. To me, this is Joe.

    * * *

    Prestige. That was what he had.
    He carried himself with pride and authority, betraying the leadership qualities the military had instilled in him that he’d never managed to leave behind.
    The stern set of his mouth and brows painted a harsh picture; a man with little patience for fools, who wouldn’t spare anyone’s feelings if he thought the label fit. From the aggressive glint in his narrow eyes, one might get the impression the label fit everyone.

    He was tall, with a frame that suited his pride. Broad-shouldered and athletic, with caramel-kissed skin and coarse black hair that glinted with gold highlights in the sun. High cheekbones called back to proud ancestors, softened by his gentle, rounded jawline and typically Spanish nose. His face might have been considered gentle as a whole, if not for the effect being offset by his unshaven jaw and thick goatee, paired with the hard expression he always wore.

    No matter how angry he seemed, his face always softened when he looked at his daughter. His smile was broad and filled with perfect white teeth, and the deep crinkles at the corners of his eyes paired with the way he tossed his head back made that smile infectious.

    His voice was like everything else about him; rich and authoritative, a low baritone that ranged from typically gruff to tenderly soothing and smooth depending on his mood–and who he happened to be speaking to. But it shifted when he spoke his mother tongue; it grew warmer, happier, and crept toward the higher end of his natural speaking range. It was telling, since he only used that language with his family. It was a language of passion, loyalty and love.

  • Of Blood and Rain is now available!

    Of Blood and Rain is now available!

    After a long delay due to a minor car accident, Of Blood and Rain is finally available! You can click the link to the left from desktop browsers to find where to purchase your copy, or keep scrolling for the book’s description and links…

    Of Blood and Rain by Beth Alvarez - Cover art by Jose Alvarez

    Until the riddle is answered, the curse will grow.

    It’s been almost twenty years since a curse drove the kingdom of Strale into drought, leaving only a witch’s riddle to offer clues how to break it. Countless people have tried and failed, their bones littering the kingdom’s deserts.

    When one last, desperate plea goes out, the call is answered by the Knights of Sonus, an all-female band of mercenaries whose ancient order serves a water spirit. There is no one better suited to breaking the curse and, as a first-year Knight, Aryina craves victory more than most. But the desert can only support so many, so when the king turns away all but two Knights, the task of solving the witch’s riddle falls solely on Aryina’s inexperienced shoulders.

    If she can’t unravel the puzzle and break the curse before their water supply runs out, then all that’s left of Strale–and the reputation of the legendary Knights of Sonus–will crumble like the desert earth.

    Of Blood and Rain is a fantasy novella of 20,000 words, now available through most major eBook retailers.

  • Of Blood and Rain: Coming June 13

    Of Blood and Rain: Coming June 13

    Now that the cover is finally ready, I’m happy to announce that Of Blood and Rain, my recent fantasy novella, will be available in just 3 short weeks!

    I blogged my way through this project earlier this year but, for those curious about it, here’s a little more information.

    Of Blood and Rain is a novella approximately 20,000 words long. Although I wrote it over the course of about a month and a half earlier this year, it’s been floating around in my thoughts for several years. The rough concept was one that came to me in a dream, in which I accompanied a group of women in armor in a trek across what seemed an endless desert.

    Unlike many of my dream ideas, this one was less refined, meaning I had to do a lot of work to turn it into a usable story. But the feeling of being in that desert stuck with me, so I knew it was something I should take the time to write.

    The cover art was a collaboration between my husband and me; he did the line art based on my pitifully vague description and a few example photos of real-world places, and what he produced helped shape the story. I did the coloring, which I don’t feel does his work justice, but you can let me know what you think.

    To see more of Joe’s artwork and have a peek at the comic he’s been working on, you can visit his Facebook page here. Just be warned that the comic is intended for mature audiences due to violence, so if you’re not keen on that, wait until he has his official web page set up instead.

    Have a look at the cover here, then keep reading to learn what the story’s about.

    Of Blood and Rain by Beth Alvarez - Cover art by Jose Alvarez

    Until the riddle is answered, the curse will grow.

    It’s been almost twenty years since a curse drove the kingdom of Strale into drought, leaving only a witch’s riddle to offer clues how to break it. Countless people have tried and failed, their bones littering the kingdom’s deserts.

    When one last, desperate plea goes out, the call is answered by the Knights of Sonus, an all-female band of mercenaries whose ancient order serves a water spirit. There is no one better suited to breaking the curse and, as a first-year Knight, Aryina craves victory more than most. But the desert can only support so many, so when the king turns away all but two Knights, the task of solving the witch’s riddle falls solely on Aryina’s inexperienced shoulders.

    If she can’t unravel the puzzle and break the curse before their water supply runs out, then all that’s left of Strale–and the reputation of the legendary Knights of Sonus–will crumble like the desert earth.

    Of Blood and Rain will be released on all major eBook retailers June 13, 2017.

    If you haven’t yet, be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss the book’s release!

  • Character-driven vs. Plot-driven stories

    If you’ve ever looked into sending queries to agents—or even just spent time reading descriptions of books—you’ve probably seen the term “character-driven story.”

    But what does that mean? If you’re not sure how character-driven stories and plot-driven stories are different, you’re not alone. Since this topic first came up in my friend circles a few years ago, I’ve discovered most people don’t actually know the difference.

    You might be thinking, “But aren’t all stories character-driven?” and you’re not wrong. I mean, you can’t really have a story without characters, right? But in the world of fiction, “plot-driven” and “character-driven” are different things.

    Using a few popular stories to explain it, it’s easy to see the difference.

    For a plot-driven story, you can start with the father of fantasy as we know it. The Lord of the Rings is a strong plot-driven story, and we categorize it as that because Frodo has nothing to do with the plot at all. You might say, “Wait, he’s the main character!” And yes, he is! He played a vital role, but the story still would have happened without him. Frodo was just a normal hobbit. He didn’t find the ring, he didn’t go seeking adventure, he was just there. Frodo could have been replaced with anyone—an elf, a dwarf, a human, anything—and the story still would have taken place. He was just an average guy who got swept up in events that were bigger than him.

    If you’re looking for a character-driven story, a good example is Game of Thrones. The story in Game of Thrones happens because of complicated actions and interactions happening between characters. Every time someone makes a decision, it radically alters the story’s path. And if we removed these interactions, there wouldn’t be much of a plot left. Just some creepy ice zombie guys who go forgotten most of the time.

    It’s also possible for stories to be both. In The Hunger Games, the story could have started with any girl being pulled into the games and struggling to survive. But by the time we get to Mockingjay, she’s grown into a stronger and more determined person, whose actions start to influence the outcome. But because these are split into different books, it’s also safe to say that while Mockingjay is character-driven, The Hunger Games isn’t—it’s plot-driven, instead.

    And that’s the biggest difference. If the role of the main character could be played by any type of character without changing the plot, it’s a plot-driven story.  And if the plot only happens because of what your characters are doing, it’s a character-driven story. Neither type of story is better than the other, but it’s important to know how to classify your work, especially when you’re sending it to agents.

  • Project review: Of Blood and Rain

    I’ll be honest: I didn’t finish on time.
    There was one tiny little detail I forgot about when planning my project timeline, and it messed me up badly. I always try to put my project deadlines on a weekend so I can do a bunch of last-minute work if it’s necessary. It generally works well. But generally, I don’t accidentally forget a major holiday.

    So while I enjoyed the Easter festivities, I didn’t do much writing. I wrapped up the project today with the last 1,880 words the novella needed. Which means it ended up going way over my revised estimate, closer to the original 10k words I thought I’d need to finish the story. Go figure!

    Either way, it feels good to have the project completed. I’ll be sending it off to early readers this week; I expect to publish it sometime this summer, so editing will be quick to follow. The cover art is underway, and it’s a custom illustration, so I’m excited to share it after it’s complete.

    I’ll be doing a write-up about my experience using Pacemaker to track the project soon. In general, I have good things to say. It’s nice to see a visual representation of my plans, if only because it offers one more piece of evidence that I’m moving forward with a story.

    This one’s my first completed project of the year, so I’m hoping that momentum keeps me rolling forward as I start my next project–two days behind. The good news is the next project–codenamed KF–is shorter than this one, and I’ve given myself a whole month to try to write it.

    Final word count for Of Blood and Rain: 19,887.

  • Day Fourteen: Gearing up for the crunch

    Yesterday’s word count crept in at 519, which is pretty good for the 20 minutes I spent writing, but still a bit short of what I actually needed to squeeze in. Though I took a notebook, I wasn’t able to get any work done. Turns out my ability to work at the park isn’t so much dependent on my kid, and more dependent on other kids and how many times they make yours cry.

    Oh, to reach the point where you judge other parents by their kid’s behavior on the playground! No amount of me encouraging my girl to be assertive and independent is going to help if you won’t take two seconds to look up from your cell phone and tell your child to quit bullying the smaller children. Obviously, other parents telling them to stop isn’t working. But I digress.

    I’ll be starting the last chapter tonight. I haven’t kept a very steady pace, so I’ll be in crunch mode tonight and tomorrow after all, trying to get the story wrapped up. If tomorrow weren’t a Saturday, I wouldn’t be able to get this done on time.

    Hopefully, my next project will go a little smoother. Stuff in a modern Earth setting is always less demanding for me to write because I don’t have to create the world. It’s already there, I just have to fill in the blanks on what’s happening in it. I’ve enjoyed having a daily brain dump on what I’m tackling each day, but I don’t know if it’s worth blogging through the next project since I’m not sure I’ve provided anything actually useful during this blogging session.

    What do you think? Should I continue blogging through my next short project?

  • Day Thirteen: Cleanup

    Yesterday’s word count ended at a paltry 168. I wasn’t feeling up to writing, so I opted to spend my time going back and fixing problems earlier in the draft instead. I write best in a linear fashion, so if I have problems behind me, sometimes I benefit most from doubling back to fix them before I push onward. Megan reminded me of this yesterday, which I appreciated; I feel like the time I did spend working was much more productive than the small word count implies.

    I’m sure I actually wrote more than that; I was just rewriting things instead of writing things, so the manuscript length didn’t grow by much. However, I did iron out some particularly problematic areas, and I’m going to double back to fix a bit more today if the opportunity presents itself. I also want to keep pushing forward, though, so I hope I can do a bit of both. I’m planning an afternoon trip to the fenced playground at church for me and my little assistant. If we’re the only ones there, I might be able to do a bit of writing while she plays. They have a great setup, with picnic tables right up against the play equipment, so I can stay close and be present and involved with her playtime while making progress of my own. At least, that’s the idea.

    I have just a little more to add to the current chapter, then it’s on to the ending. The whole story is a little briefer than I expected it would be when I set out to write it, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means it meanders less than originally anticipated.

    It’s been interesting to watch my progress tracker yo-yo during the course of this project. It’s sort of fallen into a pattern. Fall behind, catch up in one big chunk, do okay for a day or two, then repeat. It’ll certainly be interesting to see what my next project looks like.

  • Day Twelve: The Side Effect of Regular Writing

    Yesterday was a pretty smooth and easy trek to 575 words. The only real catch was that I didn’t get started until right before bed. Despite my best efforts and best intentions, I still can’t manage to get writing sprints into my day.

    As I near the end of the project, it gets a little easier to write. The downhill roll of getting to the ending is always encouraging, so I usually find the last chapter a breeze to get through. I’m hoping that stays the case since I’m just 4 days from the deadline–3, if I don’t count today.

    I would have written more yesterday, but I also took a small slice of time before bed to write some things down in my notebook full of plans. The weird side effect of writing a story is that it always spawns ideas for other stories (or entire series of stories) that I’d much rather be writing. For a long time, I gave in to the siren call of these other, funner projects, jumping from my incomplete projects to the grand new idea. It usually went well for a couple chapters, then the shiny newness wore off and I ended up back in the same place. Something else calling for my attention, the previous project never getting done.

    Obviously, I eventually curbed it; part of it was just learning to write the ideas down and put them away until I had time for them. Or could make time for them, I suppose; it’s easier to fit things in now, though, with my epic fantasy series complete and put aside for the moment while I figure out what to do with it.

    I’ve had several shiny new ideas dangle themselves in front of me during this project, so I’m hoping I can make something of it later on. I just have to figure out where to fit them in, first.

  • Day Eleven: Building Momentum

    It’s always easier to write when you’re doing it regularly. Getting back into the swing of sitting down every night to write something is tough after a few months away, but it’s getting easier to do it now, even if my word count yields aren’t always high. Or remarkable. Or anywhere near where they need to be.

    Yesterday was a little more fruitful, yielding 1,008 words between two writing sessions. I didn’t track how long I wrote the first time; I was there for almost an hour, but the majority of that time was spent skimming over everything I’ve written and checking it against my outline. Then I made adjustments to the remaining parts of the outline, moving information that had been overlooked or forgotten to somewhere I can work it back into the story, then smoothing everything out for the last chapter and a half there is to write. The second writing session was about 20 minutes.

    If I can pull around 600 words a day, I’ll finish on time without any last-minute crunch this Saturday. That word count should be easy to achieve if I can just get myself in gear to do multiple sprints through the day; three 15-minute sprints scattered through the afternoon would knock it out.

    Working in sprints is one of the things I don’t like about Pacemaker. It’s nice for tracking, but it only allows one word count input per day, so I have to write everything down and tally it up elsewhere. I’m not sure if it’s a dealbreaker for me or not; I suggested that as a new feature, but I don’t know if it’ll be considered. It’s nice to have the below widget to share my continual progress with friends and readers, but I’m glad I decided to continue to log my word counts in my planner as well.

    Save

  • Day Ten: Shortcomings

    I had every intention of catching up on writing over the weekend. It was going to be the perfect time to do it. But then Saturday came and the weather was gorgeous, so we spent the day outside; I planned to do my writing in the evening instead. Then evening hit, and so did the awful cold symptoms. On Saturday, I logged a grand total of 144 words.

    The symptoms stayed bad through Sunday, which I had planned to allow myself to take easy, since the 9th is usually our monthly date night. I tried to get work done anyway, but Sunday offered 265 words. Guess I should have written more on Saturday.

    I have to accept that as one of my shortcomings, both as a writer and as a person. If something isn’t captivating me, I’m quick to look in other directions. Stuffy scene that I can’t quite figure out? Go enjoy the sunshine instead. It’s a form of procrastination. I just have to get better about curbing it whenever that impulse arises. If I can get into the habit of having my writing sprints during the day, this should get better.

    One of the benefits that was supposed to come with replacing my laptop was that I’d keep mobility; I’d be able to go outside with the little one, soak up the sunshine, and get some work done. But the thing is so shiny, new, and not fully paid for yet that I’m afraid of taking it outdoors, especially since it’s spring; we have so many sudden rainstorms. It would only take one to leave me owing a couple hundred bucks on a computer that doesn’t work. I guess I’ll work up the courage eventually–I never worried about taking the G4 outside–but right now the Air is so new I’m not comfortable taking that leap just yet. Maybe we’ll stick to notebooks for outside.

    Tonight I lost a good chunk of my work time to tearing out my beautiful rose garden. I planted all knockout roses because they were disease-resistant, hoping that would keep them beautiful. But my neighbor’s roses went first and mine followed soon after; disease-resistant doesn’t mean immune. They started showing signs of rosette disease in the new growth coming out last week. I’m pretty heartbroken about losing my wonderful roses, but my husband and I discussed them while he dug out the roots and if nothing else, at least we both got a little story inspiration from observing the way the disease twisted and shriveled the leaves. Maybe my roses will give life to a new story after this one is done.

    For now, I’ve revised the Pacemaker plan to reflect a goal of 8,000 words instead of 10,000. Tonight I’ll be revising my outline with most of my work time, then writing just a little bit. My deadline for completion is on Saturday, but at least it’s ending on a Saturday–I may end up crunching this weekend to finish up.