Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Inspired by #comicbooks part 1 by Toi Thomas #OurAuthorGang

Being a female, multi-genre, independent, author who sometimes writes about religious themes, there are 5 questions I frequently get asked?

1) What made you decide to be an independent author?
2) Is it difficult to be a female author of speculative fiction?
3) Why don’t you just write Christian Fiction?
4) Is it difficult to break out as an author of color?
5) Why don’t you write books exclusively about black characters?

My answer to all these questions is the same. Whatever else I am, I’m also a geek and I express that in my writing. Yes, I’m a Christian. Yes, I’m black, Yes, I’m a woman. And yes, I’m self-published, making me an independent author. But, I’m also a geek, and as a geek, I can be all of these things and more. As a geek, I have many interests beyond what I am and beyond things that only affect me.

Aside from my childhood dream of running off to Neverland to become a lost boy, it has been the adventures, political statements, and diversity of comic books that have constantly inspired me to be a better writer and more openminded person.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love books and probably read more of them in a year than I do comic books (except for this year when I did a graphic novel read-a-thon in the month of February), but it’s still the world of comic books and graphic novels that make a lasting impression on my desire to create characters and worlds in the face of turmoil, stress, adversity, and so much more.

In this series, I’ll be writing about how comic books and comic book characters have helped shape me as a writer and have helped to inspire me when creating new characters and worlds.
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Find out more about me, my work, and my inspiration at the following links:

Amazon | Goodreads The ToiBox of Words | YouTube | See a list of my other posts here.

#geekculture, #specfic, #blackwriter, #Pinterest 
COMMENTS

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Ruth de Jauregui via Google+

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Toi Thomas shared her love of comics and graphic novels, and how they shaped her writing career in the first of her new series of posts.
 
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Ruth de Jauregui

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Oh yes, comic books! And then came graphic novels. For a while, I collected comics, but then there was this broken pipe in my house and I lost about 2/3 of my collection. It kinda took the heart out of me. But I still love them! Thank you for sharing!
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I would be quite sad if I lost 2/3 of my collection.

Susan Gourley

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I'm so thrilled with all the superhero movies that are out. I hope they inspire readers and writers everywhere.
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Me too.

Joe Bonadonna via Google+

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Today on A Small Gang of Authors, Toinette Thomas talks about being an indie author, and about comic books as one of her creative inspirations.
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Toi Thomas via Google+

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Today I start a new series all about how comic book and comic book characters help shape me as a writer.
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Joe Bonadonna

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Well done and well said, Toi! Bravo!
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Thank you.
 
+Toi Thomas -- you're very welcome!

Erika M Szabo via Google+

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Erika M Szabo

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I grew up on European comic books :)
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I only recently began to dive into indie and foreign comics; so far, I find they all much the same in that they are really cool.

Mary Anne Yarde

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Wonderful post!
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Thank you.

Grace Au

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Comic book inspiration! I love it!!! I'm a Superman and Wonder Woman girl...always have been! Thanks for the walk down memory lane....
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I'm only getting started. Glad you're along for the ride.

Chris Weigand via Google+

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Read Toi's post and find out how comic books can inspire.
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Chris Weigand

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I didn't have the privilege of reading comic books as a kid, but my children are big fans of comic books and even though I am a little late to the game and I still don't read a lot of comic books they do inspire me. And I can safely say that thanks to my children I can qualify as a geek.
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Yay! It's never to late to go geek.

Rich Feitelberg

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
I grew up reading comic books. It is probably why I write fantasy novels now.
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So cool. Isn't great how much inspiration comes from comic books?

Rebecca Tran

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
See what great things happen when you're inspired by comic books like author Toi Thomas on Our Author Gang.
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Thanks for sharing.

Nikki McDonagh

10 months ago  -  Shared publicly
 
If you are a Geek, Toi, more people should be too. Great post and I love that you get inspiration from comic book characters.
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Thank you. I was a geek before it became chic and I agree, more people should go geek.

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Inspiration Part Three – Weather #OurAuthorGang

The weather has always fascinated me. Living in the UK, we seldom get weather fronts that do more than annoy us for a few days, so when we do have extreme conditions, it becomes a big deal. We love to talk about the weather.

As I write this we are experiencing the chilliest temperatures the UK has seen in many years. This unusual cold snap is causing havoc around the country. With Ireland having snow as thick as three foot and temperatures plummeting to -11ºC, my mind goes into overdrive with endless questions. How would we cope if this became the norm? What if this is the start of the new Ice Age? What would happen if the snow never melted?

What great prompts for exploring themes of survival, courage, fear, anger and philosophical debates on mankind’s ability to cope in the event of a catastrophic natural disaster.


Or, maybe inspiration for something less dreadful?

Now, I love snow, my chickens don’t. Poor things have been sitting with one leg tucked under their feathers, making high-pitched whining sounds. We moved them to the summer house for protection against the raging winds and driving snow, but they hate to be kept indoors during daylight hours and wandered off to seek cover amongst the conifers, shivering. Maybe there is a haiku or a piece of flash fiction in there?

Snow Hens

With fluffed up feathers
The shivering hens flap wings
To shake off-white chill




One-legged chickens
Stand stiff against arctic wind
Ice stares unblinking



Using weather symbolically in fiction is a great device to set mood, atmosphere, emotion and even character development. Charles Dickens description of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol uses weather to great effect in helping the reader to understand how mean and nasty he is:

“External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often ‘came down’ handsomely, and Scrooge never did.”

Of course, we don’t want to start our book with ‘It was a dark and stormy night,’ but using meteorological conditions can give extra depth and colour to your narrative evoking an emotional response from your reader. For example, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury is a wonderful example of how to use weather to indicate trouble is on the way. The extreme weather conditions he describes in the start of his novel convey the threat of disruption and chaos that is to follow:

Rocket Summer

"One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.

And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open. The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped, shattering, to melt. The doors flew open. The windows flew up. The children worked off their wool clothes. The housewives shed their bear disguises. The snow dissolved and showed last summer‘s ancient green lawns.

Rocket summer. The words passed among the people in the open, airing houses. Rocket summer.
The warm desert air changing the frost patterns on the windows, erasing the art work. The skis and sleds suddenly useless. The snow, falling from the cold sky upon the town, turned to a hot rain before it touched the ground.

Rocket summer. People leaned from their dripping porches and watched the reddening sky.

The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and oven heat. The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts."

In The Chronicles of Mayer, the prequel to my dystopian series The Song of Forgetfulness, I use extreme weather conditions throughout the novel. It is the main theme. An environmental catastrophe causes floods to engulf most of Europe, killing millions. How do the survivors cope with the brutality not only of Mother Nature but their fellow man?

"Huddled inside the great doorway of what was once a department store, I watched as the rain poured down like the tears of Krishna.

The water did not drain away, instead, it bubbled up from the overloaded sewers spewing forth great globs of waste matter. Oh, the stench was vile. A sweet, sickly, rotten egg smell that caused my empty gut to contract. I spat out bile.

A small, pink object flowed by. I quickly turned my head. Too late. My eyes could not help but see the mutilated corpse of a baby. Another familiar lump floated past. An arm.

Next, half a human skull. Long black hair trailing from it got stuck between two metal parking meters. I gagged as the half-head swished back and forth between the poles."


So writers, don’t be afraid to use weather in your narratives, it can add to the complexity and richness of your prose. Have a nice day!


All photographs copyright of the author Nicola McDonagh





Monday, March 5, 2018

The Grande Dames of Classic Science Fiction – Part Two

By Ruth de Jauregui

Octavia Butler on October 25, 2005
Released under the Createive Commons "Attribution Share-Alike" 2.5 License
by Nikolas Coukouma.
The science fiction world suffered a huge loss at the passing of Octavia Butler in 2006. Also known as the Grande Dame of science fiction, her books explored issues of our real life world swirled into a fantastic and dystopian universe. From her Patternist series to her last book, Fledgling, she combined her own life experiences as an African American woman living in a diverse Pasadena, an anomaly in the then-segregated world, with the imaginative world of science fiction.

While she convinced her mother to buy a Remington typewriter at age 10, she began seriously writing after she saw the B-movie Devil Girl from Mars at age 12. At that young age, she knew she could write a better story. It was years of hard work at her craft while working at a variety of less than inspiring jobs that led to her eventual success in publishing.


Butler's 1979 novel Kindred was inspired after overhearing young Black people who didn't understand that slaves were heroes for surviving the horrendous institution. Her mother's work as a domestic servant was also an inspiration. "I didn't like seeing her go through back doors," The New York Times quoted Butler. "If my mother hadn't put up with all those humiliations, I wouldn't have eaten very well or lived very comfortably. So I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure."

Her work led to a 1984 Hugo Award for Short Story for "Speech Sounds" and in 1985 she received a Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award for Best Novelette for Bloodchild.

She told Jelani Cobb in a 1994 interview, ""Who am I? I am a forty-seven-year-old writer who can remember being a ten-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an eighty-year-old writer. I am also comfortably asocial—a hermit.... A pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive."


Sadly Butler didn't make it to her 80th birthday, but her work continues to fascinate and inspire science fiction fans and writers. While she was once one of a handful of African American writers, she left a legacy for the many African American and women writers who are now writing their own speculative fiction and building new diverse and Afrocentric worlds for eager young (and old) readers. 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Octavia-E.-Butler/e/B000AQ1SQE

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/octavia+butler?_requestid=1145652

#OctaviaEButler  #Diversity #ASmallGangOfAuthors #OurAuthorGang

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Our Guest Today is Jennifer Theriot #OurAuthorGang

Welcome to author, Jennifer Theriot. We're glad you could be with us today.


USA Today Best-selling author, Jennifer Theriot, (pronounced Terrio) hails from the Great State of Texas.  She is a career woman, working as CFO of a Texas based real estate investment firm by day and does her writing at nights and on weekends. 

In her spare time, Jennifer enjoys being outdoors (preferably somewhere on a beach curled up with a good book), spending time with family and friends, listening to music, watching a baseball game and enjoying a good bottle of wine. She's mom to three grown children and "MIMI" to five grandchildren, all of whom she adores!
 
Jennifer took a chance that there could be an interest in romance with couples over the age of forty who find themselves at a crossroads. Her debut novel...OUT OF THE BOX AWAKENING...centers on the hope of finding happiness and passion through unexpected heartache.  "Grown-up romance from the other side of 30" is how she characterizes her books.

RELATIONSHIP RESUSCITATION, her title in the highly anticipated JUNIPER COURT SERIES, was released in February 2018. It's a steamy romantic comedy.  

She enjoys hearing from her readers and may be reached at any of the following:



JENNIFER'S BOOKS ARE FOR MATURE READERS OVER 18 YEARS OF AGE.


Meet Phillip & Jayne Miller, original homeowners on Juniper Court. He's a successful attorney, she's a flourishing blogger. Head over heels in love and approaching 50, their relationship needs a little jump start. With the Millers' twin girls married and moved away from Sunview, Phillip and Jayne decide it's time to focus on their relationship, complete with spicing up their neglected sex life. When competition between the two sets in, it becomes a full-out game to see who can one-up the other. Ah, yes, Life on Juniper Court gets interesting...and sometimes embarrassing. Be careful what you wish for and where you stick your nose. Sometimes keeping up with the Joneses--or in this case, the Sullivans--can have consequences.




Friday, March 2, 2018

A Golden Age #ourauthorgang




By Rich Feitelberg

I populated my fantasy world with nine races of various types, which I described in my last post. They had little contact with each other to start because were separated geographically.

Eventually, however, other races began to change this and caused havoc. Orcs burned and cleared the forest, causing the elves to go to war with them. And goblins moved into the hills near the dwarves stronghold, raiding their hunting parties, and in some cases, their mines as well. The dwarves had no tolerance for this and went to war with the goblins.

Lizard men lived in desert and other inhabitable environments keep to themselves, but were hunted by dragons as abominations of the saurians blood line. Many dragons believed at this race is the result of magic spells going horribly wrong.
Ogres and giants occupied mountain locations and fight among themselves.

Against this background humans emerged, establishing the city of Davenar. Soon they made friends with the elves, who teach humans magic. The humans helped control the orcs and goblins, bringing some measure of peace to the land.

Humans and elves collaborated more and more and a golden age began where the threats in the world were minimized and the joys were maximized.

Then in an act of hubris, the wizards of Davenar attempted to put an end to war with a spell of peace and prosperity for all. The spell went horribly wrong, and the city was destroyed unleashing demons upon the land. Some humans survived to father other groups in later years.

But the damage was done. The Golden Age was over and the elves rose to the challenge, doing battle with the demons.

What happens in this series of conflicts is the subject of my next post and forms a key piece of the background for my fantasy novels, the Aglaril Cycle. Hope you’ll join me to learn more about one of the major events that shapes the world forever.

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