09 September 2025, Writing - part xxxx166 Enchantment Series, Rose
Announcement: I
still need a new publisher. However, I’ve taken the step to republish my
previously published novels. I’m starting with Centurion, and
we’ll see from there. Since previously published novels have little
chance of publication in the market (unless they are huge best sellers), I
might as well get those older novels back out. I’m going through Amazon
Publishing, and I’ll pass the information on to you.
Introduction: I wrote the
novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel
and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that
included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other
general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the
metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the
way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire
novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.
I’m using this novel as
an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel
published. I’ll keep you informed along the way.
Today’s Blog: To see the steps in
the publication process, visit my writing websites http://www.sisteroflight.com/.
The four plus two basic
rules I employ when writing:
1. Don’t confuse your readers.
2. Entertain your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don’t show (or tell) everything.
4a. Show what can be
seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage of the novel.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.
6. The initial scene is the most important scene.
These are the steps I use to write a novel
including the five discrete parts of a novel:
1. Design the initial scene
2. Develop a theme statement
(initial setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, action
statement)
a. Research as required
b. Develop the initial
setting
c. Develop the characters
d. Identify the telic flaw
(internal and external)
3. Write the initial scene
(identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action
movement)
4. Write the next scene(s)
to the climax (rising action)
5. Write the climax scene
6. Write the falling action
scene(s)
7. Write the dénouement
scene
I finished writing my 31st novel,
working title, Cassandra, potential title Cassandra:
Enchantment and the Warriors. The theme statement is: Deirdre and
Sorcha are redirected to French finishing school where they discover difficult
mysteries, people, and events.
I finished writing my 34th novel
(actually my 32nd completed novel), Seoirse,
potential title Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment. The
theme statement is: Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at
Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately,
Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.
Here is the cover
proposal for the third edition of Centurion:
|
Cover Proposal |
The most important scene
in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the
rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30th novel,
working title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th novel,
working title Detective. I finished writing number 31,
working title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warrior. I just
finished my 32nd novel and 33rd novel: Rose:
Enchantment and the Flower, and Seoirse: Enchantment and the
Assignment.
How to begin a novel. Number one thought,
we need an entertaining idea. I usually encapsulate such an idea with a
theme statement. Since I’m writing a new novel, we need a new theme
statement. Here is an initial cut.
For novel 30: Red Sonja, a Soviet spy,
infiltrates the X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s
administrative clerk, learns about freedom, and is redeemed.
For Novel 32: Shiggy Tash finds a lost girl
in the isolated Scottish safe house her organization gives her for her latest
assignment: Rose Craigie has nothing, is alone, and needs someone or something
to rescue and acknowledge her as a human being.
For novel 33, Book girl:
Siobhàn Shaw is Morven McLean’s savior—they are both attending Kilgraston
School in Scotland when Morven loses everything, her wealth, position, and
friends, and Siobhàn Shaw is the only one left to befriend and help her
discover the one thing that might save Morven’s family and existence.
For novel 34: Seoirse is assigned to
be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses
and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.
For novel 35: Eoghan, a Scottish National
Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and
The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally
releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires
a new life and perhaps love.
Here
is the scene development outline:
1.
Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)
2.
Write the scene setting (place, time, stuff, and characters)
3.
Imagine the output, creative elements, plot, telic flaw resolution (climax) and
develop the tension and release.
4.
Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.
5.
Write the release
6.
Write the kicker
Today: Let me tell you a little about writing. Writing
isn’t so much a hobby, a career, or a pastime. Writing is a habit and an
obsession. We who love to write love to write.
If
you love to write, the problem is gaining the skills to write well. We
want to write well enough to have others enjoy our writing. This is
important. No one writes just for themselves the idea is absolutely
irrational and silly. I can prove why.
In
the first place, the purpose of writing is communication—that’s the only
purpose. Writing is the abstract communication of the mind through
symbols. As time goes by, we as writers gain more and better tools and
our readers gain more and better appreciation for those tools and skills—even
if they have no idea what they are.
We
are in the modern era. In this time, the action and dialog style along
with the push of technology forced novels into the form of third person, past
tense, action and dialog style, implying the future. This is the modern
style of the novel. I also showed how the end of literature created the
reflected worldview. We have three possible worldviews for a novel: the
real, the reflected, and the created. I choose to work in the reflected
worldview.
Why
don’t we go back to the basics and just writing a novel? I can tell you
what I do, and show you how I go about putting a novel together. We can
start with developing an idea then move into the details of the writing.
Ideas. We need ideas. Ideas allow us
to figure out the protagonist and the telic flaw. Ideas don’t come fully
armed from the mind of Zeus. We need to cultivate ideas.
1. Read novels.
2. Fill your mind with good
stuff—basically the stuff you want to write about.
3. Figure out what will
build ideas in your mind and what will kill ideas in your mind.
4. Study.
5. Teach.
6. Make the catharsis.
7. Write.
The development of ideas is based on study and
research, but it is also based on creativity. Creativity is the
extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new
form. It is a reflection of something new created with ties to the
history, science, and logic (the intellect). Creativity requires
consuming, thinking, and producing.
If we have filled our mind with all kinds of
information and ideas, we are ready to become creative. Creativity means
the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a
new form. Literally, we are seeing the world in a new way, or actually,
we are seeing some part of the world in a new way.
The beginning of creativity is study and
effort. We can use this to extrapolate to creativity. In addition,
we need to look at recording ideas and working with ideas.
With that said, where should we go? Should
I delve into ideas and creativity again, or should we just move into the novel
again? Should I develop a new protagonist, which, we know, will result in
a new novel. I’ve got an idea, but it went stale. Let’s look at the
outline for a novel again:
1. The initial scene
2. The rising action scenes
3. The climax scene
4. The falling action
scene(s)
5. The dénouement scene(s)
I’d like to get Ancient Light republished and
the other novels in this series published.
I’m afraid I’ll have to do it independently, but I don’t think I can
trust Amazon to do it.
Now, to another series. I didn’t get tired of Ancient Light, but I
finished it. Before Ancient Light was
finished, I wanted another series that fit in the world of Ancient Light, but
that focused on new characters and places.
The first novel was Hestia.
Actually, Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth. In Hestia, I developed a novel based
on another goddess. This time one of the
Greek Titans. In fact, the only Greek
Titan who remained in the Greek pantheon.
I’ll explain more, next.
Rose: Enchantment and the Flower is another Enchantment novel. I developed the protagonist as an example in
this blog. The point was to create and
document a nearly perfect protagonist, and then I used her to write a
novel. What was so unique about Rose?
Rose is a nearly perfect Romantic
protagonist. She was an isolated child
who lived in abject poverty because her mother left her, her father died on
her, and her grandparents died before that.
I should also relate that her father mortgaged the house and used all
the proceeds. So Rose, an unwanted child
was left in a house in Rousay of the Orkney Islands with no money, no
supervision, no help, and no one knew she even existed—that is until Shiggy Tash
came to use the house during an assignment.
Shiggy Tash is a member of Stela—she even
has her own novel (Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse). Shiggy’s purpose is to work to defend the United
Kingdom from the supernatural. She is
well versed in this work. Her job is
also to protect the British and UK supernatural from adverse events. When Shiggy comes to use Rose’s house, it
shouldn’t be unusual that Shiggy can detect her.
I should mention that Rose is half Fae. Her mother was Fae and her father was from
Rousay. She can hide in plain sight,
except from those who are trained or who have the second sight. Shiggy is both trained and has some natural inclination,
also trained, in the second sight. She
spots Rose right away.
Before I continue with the plot, I should
mention some other characteristics of Rose that makes her an ideal Romantic
protagonist. The first is her bearing. Although she was raised in isolation, her
grandmother taught her to act like a completely civilized person. She has a bearing that is remarkable for so
isolated a person. Second, the house
attic is filled with books, and Rose loves books. Rose has spent her entire young life reading
the books on the upper floor. She has
read English, French, Latin, and Greek books.
You might ask how that might be.
She does have Fae powers and can understand Gaelic and the Fae
languages. She is a linguistic genius. Third, Rose knows how to use Fae glamour and
is unaccountably good at it. She has a
special type of glamour that allows the manipulation of minds and bodies of
humans and the Fae. This type of power
is very dangerous, but Rose is a very controlled person. That’s her nature and training. Then Shiggy comes. I’ll relate that, next.
Rose meets Shiggy while Shiggy is checking
out her safe house. Things might have
gone very differently if anyone else had come to Viera Lodge on Rousay Island. Rose had no reason to hide herself, but
everyone else who came to the house had made plenty of noise—Shiggy is a kind
of spy. Her job is in intelligence, and the
last thing she needs is a liability.
Shiggy is also the best kind of person to discover Rose, because Rose is
half Fae and Shiggy knows how to work with the Fae. This is the best for Rose, but Rose has no
idea at all. Plus, how do you approach a
young woman who has hidden from the world for her entire lifetime.
The first step is capture. Rose is a very slippery type of being, all
the Fae are. They are hard to catch,
hard to see, harder to keep under control.
Shiggy knows this. She also has a
lot of tools at her fingertips. It’s a
little difficult to express the entire scene without giving you the scene. I think this is one of the most entertaining scenes
and situations I’ve written in my novels.
The meeting between the protagonist (Rose) and the protagonist’s helper Shiggy,
should be exciting and fun. Perhaps I’ll
give it to you. I’ll do that, next.
I dumped the breadcrumbs. I hated to do it because it was partially my
observations on Europe, but here we are.
I’ll give you the first scene and chapter from Rose. This way you can see the development of an
initial scene and a protagonist. Here’s
the first part—I’ll pass it to you in sections:
January 2028, Rousay, Orkney Islands,
Scotland
The
once Shiggaion Tash, now Shiggy Tash, stepped out of her small and ancient
Triumph touring car. She clutched her gold Gucci bag closer to the heavy black Givenchy coat that
covered her short blue Zuhair Murad skirt.
It was freezing and the short skirt didn’t help much, but that was a
necessary inconvenience when she needed constant access to her special, um,
gear. She gazed up at the whitewashed
brick side of Viera Lodge and shrugged.
It was the best The Organization could do on short notice, and in this
area.
Actually,
the house was remarkably nice for the Scottish Orkney Islands, and especially
for tiny Rousay Island in particular.
She’d memorized everything about it.
It should be very pleasant if all the information she received was
correct. The house was newly refurbished
around 2024. There was a garage, but she
didn’t trust them during operations.
Perhaps if she had a second vehicle.
She glanced back at the tactically parked Triumph, and mouthed, “Old Scorch,
you’ll have to make do with the cold.”
The
house was two storied and pretty ancient.
She knew it was originally built around 1836. It possessed a section at this side that held
the kitchen with a large new bath above.
Every external wall of the house was freshly painted white, she had
guessed whitewash. In the setting winter
sun, it certainly looked like whitewash, at least under the brilliant orange
reflection of the sun.
The
rest of the house rose up beyond the kitchen and into its upper story. The place was supposed to be haunted, but
Shiggy didn’t believe in ghosts. She
took a very careful visual scan around the grounds and buildings. She had been scanning the place since it came
within sight from the road, the B9064.
She had seen nothing with her infrared scanners or visually to alarm
her. She had seen no other cars since
she drove out of the Rousay Orkney ferry terminal.
Shiggy locked her car with the clicker, it was
silenced, and held the car keys between her fingers while digging into her
purse for the house keys. She unbuttoned
her coat as she stepped cautiously toward the outside door to the kitchen. Shiggy stopped at the left side of the door
and flattened herself against the wall.
She shivered and made a face, then she moved her head forward, but not
within the plane of the door and listened closely. Nothing.
With one hand she unlocked the kitchen door and pushed it open.
She
waited a goodly interval listening before she slipped silently through the door
and into the kitchen. She noted, the
stone walls of the house were very thick.
The door jams indicated they were at least two feet thick. The house was cold, but not freezing, not like
the outside. She shivered again. That stupid real estate bink had told her
they checked everything and turned on all the utilities. This was a pisser.
The
interior remained lighted well enough from the setting sun through the windows for
her to see very well. The kitchen was
nicely done up in modern white and black.
A rectangular table sat in the center surrounded by simple red
upholstered chairs. The place smelled
musty, and she made another face. It was
supposed to be immediately usable.
That’s what they had told The Organization and her boss, Sorcha. Shiggy didn’t turn on the lights—no reason to
alert any unexpected inhabitants.
Her
lip curled up as she ran a finger along the countertop—dust. Everywhere dust. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. Well, this room was clear. Not as shipshape as she hoped but clear of
any threats.
Shiggy
pulled off her heavy black Givenchy coat and laid it quietly over one of the
kitchen chairs. She needed access to her
weapons and no impediments to her activities.
With
movements that were unusually quiet for a woman wearing Christian Louboutin
metal shanked stiletto heels, Shiggy made her way to the open interior kitchen
door. She intentionally left the
exterior door unlocked and unlatched for the moment. The motion sensors in her car would tell her
if anyone approached this side of the house from the exterior. She had pointed one of the sensors directly
toward the house.
The
interior kitchen door opened to a dining room with a large dark oak table,
chairs, and a sideboard. On the opposite
side of the room to the right, a couple of doors, she knew, led to closets and
a water closet. On the left, lay a
vestibule. The vestibule contained a
door to the outside and the garden as well as the stairs to the upper
floor. Further to her right lay another
door. It was also open, and she knew,
from the house plans, led to the front parlor—what the plans called the sitting
room.
Shiggy
slipped to this door and glanced through it.
She had to move further into the sitting room than she liked because of
the thickness of the stone walls, but she noticed nothing that warned her, at
first. She stepped slowly and silently
into the room. It was also partially lit
by the 50setting sun. The slanting
bright light shown through the two front and two windows on the left side. Twin modern leather swivel chairs stood before
the two main windows, with the front door between the windows. The front of the house faced south toward the
coast and the Eynhallow Sound. There
wasn’t much of a front entrance—only a single wooden door. Across from the swivel chairs sat a white
leather couch, and between them a glass topped coffee table. “So, 1980s,” Shiggy mouthed. On the right side of the room and nearly
directly in front of her stood a large wooden desk. More than once, she had to stop herself from
rolling her eyes. It was okay for a
safehouse, but pretty backwoods, from her experience—even Sherwood House was
more modern.
On
either end of the room lay a fireplace.
The one on her left looked like a gas hearth and the one on the right
like a wood and coal fireplace. She
caught a whiff but noted no wood or ashes on the right hearth like she expected
from the scent. She took a deeper breath
and smelled damp ash that was unusually fresh.
Shiggy moved silently closer to the wood fireplace and sniffed. She definitely smelled wood ashes and a whiff
of smoke. Perhaps wood and paper smoke. Someone had recently made a fire in one of
the hearths in the building. That was a
problem with these old places when the fireplaces remained operational. Even when the damper was closed, the smell of
ash and smoke would reenter from the chimney pots. That likely meant the fireplace in the
bedroom above the dining room had recently been used. From her diagrams and pictures, the master
bedroom’s fireplace on this side had been removed to add the new bath, and the
other side upper rooms had their own chimneys.
Interesting, this might mean nothing or something.
Shiggy
didn’t turn on any lights. She checked
the lock and latch on the front door, then moved back into the dining room. She checked the closets and the water closet,
then stepped to the vestibule. The back
door to the gardens and garage was also locked and latched, that left the
stairs and the upper floor to check. Her
heels were a couple of weapons she didn’t want to lose, but she needed to move
quickly up and down stairs, so she slipped them off. She left her Christian
Louboutin stilettos at the side of the stairs where she could reclaim them
when she returned.
Now,
Shiggy became completely noiseless. She crept
at the left edge of the stairs against the wall where she knew the risers would
not creak. She made her way to the top
of the stairs and lay down at the last one where no one should be able to
easily spot her.
On
the landing, directly ahead of her, lay double doors, now closed, she knew
these entered the master bedroom. At her
left the closed door should be the second bedroom above the lower level water
closet and cloakroom. On the right, the
door to the bedroom above the dining lay open.
From inside came the thin scent of wood and paper smoke as well as the
flicker of a moving shadow like someone or something stirring in front of a
small flame.
Shiggy’s
lip turned up in a feral smile, and she moved very quickly from the top of the
stairs to the right side of the door.
She reached under her short skirt and pulled out a graphite pistol, labeled
Etan Arms AR-2 on the frame and Móralltach on the slide. It was loaded with 9mm kurtz graphite rounds. She didn’t take the time to change out the
magazine for one loaded with brass and hollow points.
Shiggy
held her pistol and opened her golden clutch.
She pulled out a small camera on a transparent flexible extending stick
and let it out a few feet. Her company
phone also came out of her clutch and she pulled up an already open app and
nodded. The camera showed exactly what
she wanted.
Shiggy
started at the floor level and gave the stick a twist, it extended and turned
around the frame of the door until she could see exactly what was going on in
the room. Her brow rose.
Through
her phone, she saw a tall and slender person.
It looked like a woman, but it was hard to tell. The woman wore a child’s dress. It was a dingy looking brown, but the camera
acuity couldn’t tell if that was due to dirt or just its color. The dress was short and tight. The woman’s skin was pale. Perhaps it was the palest skin Shiggy had
seen on a human being, and she had seen some beings with pretty pale skin. The woman looked like someone who had never
seen the sunlight. She squatted in front
of the fireplace. Her hands reached out
before a small fire. That was
interesting, but even more interesting was her hair. It was long and fine with tiny curls and as
red as any red hair Shiggy had ever seen.
It was so red and the woman so pale, Shiggy almost convinced herself
this being had to be something other than human.
Well,
she needed to check for sure before she pushed her phone’s panic button. Shiggy pulled another device out of her
clutch. It looked like a piece of wood
with a clear stone imbedded in it and a hole worn through the stone. Across the hole, at the very edge of
perception, Shiggy blew a couple of odd and ancient sounding Celtic words. Then she held the hole to her eye and looked
through her phone at the woman again.
Shiggy
let out a silent sigh—the woman was at least mostly human, and she didn’t need
special backup. The regular protections
should be sufficient. She touched her
crucifix and the small cross of iron under her blouse just to make sure they were
still there. Shiggy pulled back her
camera and put everything away in her clutch.
The woman appeared too interested in her small fire to perceive anything
else. Shiggy still needed to check out
the rest of the house. She wanted to get
this confrontation over as quickly as possible.
Shiggy
replaced the pistol in her thigh holster.
The woman didn’t appear to be armed and she was obviously unaware. Shiggy pulled a handful of long zip ties from
her clutch and slung the clutch behind her back. The zip ties went neatly into the leather
belt on her skirt.
Shiggy
took a deep breath and moved to the side of the door. She peered quickly around the thick jam and
moved silently into the room. The woman
didn’t hear her at all. Shiggy simply
grabbed the back of her neck with one hand and pressed on her windpipe with the
other. The woman gave a cut off screech
that came out like a soft hiss. It was
so quiet it couldn’t have been heard beyond the room.
At
the same time, Shiggy put her knee against the woman’s back and pressed. The woman flailed, trying to take a breath. Shiggy let go, and the woman fell forward
against the stone mantel. Her head hit
the stones with a soft crack, and she went limp.
“Whoops,”
Shiggy mouthed. That had to hurt. Shiggy
shrugged and pulled the woman’s arms behind her. She zip tied her wrists together and then
pulled her long legs together and zipped her ankles together. Shiggy turned her over and saw it was a
girl. Likely not more than fifteen
perhaps not less than fourteen.
As
Shiggy had noted before, the girl had flaming red hair. Perhaps the reddest hair she had seen on any
human being. The girl looked as slender
as a willow or perhaps a garden flower.
Thin and tall with the appearance of a wildflower. Her very dirty face was a pleasure to
behold. A thin but noble nose and cheeks
touched with rose and dirt. Lips fine
and red as if they had been recently pinched all set perfectly and delicately
in a heart-shaped face. The girl looked
like fine porcelain—the face of a doll in a human frame. Achingly beautiful, wonderfully made, but
dirty as humanly possible.
Shiggy
rolled her eyes, and gave a noiseless snort, the girl’s beauty was almost
wasted because of all the dirt and her childish fashion. She searched the girl. Her clothing was not only unfashionable but
filthy. The dress wasn’t brown. It was a grey dress that had been worn so
long and under such dire conditions that the bland color was soiled almost
beyond recognition. The girl had nothing
on her except a small pocketknife.
Shiggy took it. She didn’t even wear
any underwear. “Gross,” Shiggy mouthed.
After
the girl was trussed and searched, Shiggy took a look at the fire. The girl had been holding a stick with a
plucked and eviscerated pigeon on it.
That had fallen into the small fire.
She moved the pigeon out of the flame and to the side. No need to cause more of a blaze or other
incendiary problems.
There was
nothing else to do here. Shiggy checked
the girl again. She was still breathing
and bleeding, just slightly from her lips and the scrape on her head. Shiggy pulled up one of the girl’s
eyelids. Her pupils looked normal. Shiggy stepped around the girl and headed to
the closed door across from this bedroom.
I’ll give you the next section tomorrow.
There’s more.
I want to write another book based on Rose
and Seoirse, and the topic will be the raising of Ceridwen—at least that’s my
plan. Before I get to that, I want to write another novel about
dependency as a theme. We shall see.
More
tomorrow.
For
more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel
websites:
http://www.ancientlight.com/
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline, character development,
scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing, information, study,
marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic
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