Let there be light - part 1 #OurAuthorGang

Nature is amazing. We humans are, for the most part, in awe of it and have been ever since we crawled out of the primal ooze. Nothing stirs the soul quite so much as a beautiful sunset, a sunrise, a mass of twinkling stars, or the constant glow of the moon.

The sun gives us light and warmth, stars make us wonder about far off worlds, the moon illuminates our darkness with its wide-eyed face looking down on us like a distant mother watching her children. 

Not surprising that mankind worshipped these celestial orbs. From Ancient Egyptians and Aztec
sun gods to modern day Druids worshiping Alban Hefin the sun king during the Summer Solstice sunrise over Stonehenge, our need for light is deep routed in our psysche.

Many writers have used light to express happiness, love, hope, expectation. Just listen to some songs, the word 'light' comes up quite often. In my short story Glimmer, the protagonist, a young man resisting the drugs he is given to keep him 'sane', retreats into his own world and listens for the voices that come from the stars.

The world will not end because I close my eyes. The sun will still shine, so too the stars.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H89AN1M 

Many religions past and present have celebrated the joys of light. Festivals and special feast days such as Diwali, a Hindu tradition where families fill their homes and gardens with candles and lamps to celebrate the triumph of good over evil, to ignite wisdom in our hearts and bring hope to our darkest hours. The Jewish festival Hanukkah celebrating the victory of the Maccabees over the Hellenistic Syrians begins with the lighting of the shamash candle in the menorah. Christians light candles to honour the dead and pray for loved ones who need help. At Christmas, we decorate our houses with strings of cloloured lights

When there is no light, we miss it, don’t we? People in general, aren’t fond of the dark. Danger lurks in the shadows. What we can’t see we fear. Not so for cats or owls. They have a tapetum behind their retinas which acts like a mirror to reflect any source of limited light causing their pupils to expand and cover the entire front of their eyes. Enabling them to see in the almost dark.

Humans are adaptable though, and what we don’t possess naturally, we create. Our ancient ancestors recreated the sun by making fire. As we evolved so to did our methods of lighting our homes and streets. The ancient wood burning led to the use of wax candles, then gas lights, which were replaced by the magic of electricity, light bulbs. However, there is a cost to all of this. These wonderful illuminations have put a huge burden on our resources. Fossil fuels needed to generate our bright world are coming to an end. Even with wind turbines and solar panelling we are still in danger of not have enough power to generate all of the lights that are turned on across the planet each night. Will future generations be plunged into darkness?

Perhaps not, for there may be a simple solution to all of this.

Both fauna and flora have naturally occurring light sources. The Firefly, squid, jellyfish, insects, plankton and some strains of fungi, emit a bright glow that is generated from within. No outside source of energy is needed to produce their brightness.

Let me introduce you to Bioluminescence. Possibly the next step in our search for sustainable and renewable energy that will bring light to our darkness.

Check out these amazing creatures that glow in the dark: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21011428

Watch out for my next post – Foxfire - where new technical advances are using natures natural light to brighten our world.

All photographs are by the author.

GUESS  VOTE WIN

Guess if our blog will or will not reach 100,000 views by December 31st

If your guess will be correct, you might win an eBook package or signed print in this giveaway by our authors.

https://goo.gl/forms/N3u2eNWCvqiV1c2I3

Seat of the pants plotting – Part II

By Ruth de Jauregui

While writing by the seat of your pants can lead to pleasant surprises, a little plotting never hurt a story.

Being a pantser, I start off with little or no planning. A scene comes into the movie that runs in my head, I start writing, and away we go. But, once I get going on the story, I start making notes on plot points that I want to return to before the story ends.

It's a pet peeve, as a reader, to not have any conclusion to some of the plot points. Sure, if it's a series, not every question will be answered, but don't leave me hanging on major points! For example, not to cap on Anne Hillerman's continuation of her father's stories, but I actually went back through her second book to find the "bad guy" scenes. I felt that there simply wasn't enough about that character to lead the reader to the story's conclusion. A few plot notes to remember to mention him a couple more times, one or three more scenes so the reader had a better sense of his "at any cost" determination, would have dramatically improved the story. Having said that, I'm still eagerly awaiting her next venture into the world of Manuelito, Leaphorn and Chee.

Thus, following my own strong opinions, I do end up with a little plotting while letting the story line and characters lead me through the story. Writing is like weaving, the threads should work together to make a coherent whole. In a series, there should be elements that flow from one story to the next to tie them together.

In my own WIP, Bitter's severe mushroom allergy, which was introduced in the short story "Bitter Blood," is an important plot point. The shadows that surround her are also important elements of her stories, even though she makes it very clear that she doesn't believe in ghosts. "Bitter Nights" twists and turns through the events until the final scene.

A little plotting helps me stay on track, even when Bitter wrests the keyboard away and a whole new scene appears on the screen...

#RuthDJ  #Bitter #ASmallGangOfAuthors

Our Guest today is Author Kathleen DuHamel #OurAuthorGang

We're pleased to have with us today, Author Kathleen Duhamel

Kathleen Duhamel is a contemporary fiction writer and author of THE DEEP BLUE TRILOGY (Deep Blue, Deeper, and Deep End), as well as the novella AT HOME WITH ANDRE. She wrote and illustrated her first short story at the age of eight. Her love of the written word continued throughout her varied career as a newspaper journalist and editor, public relations executive, free-lance travel writer, and owner/operator of two small businesses. A native of Texas, she's spent most of her adult life in Colorado. She lives in the Denver area with her husband, a geriatric standard poodle, and a spoiled cat. Kathleen is a lifelong devotee of rock and soul music, contemporary art, and pop culture.

http://www.kathleenduhamel.com

http://www.facebook.com/kathleen.duhamel

http://www.twitter.com/KathleenDuhamel

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0777VCF6D?tag=geolinker-20

When her close-to-perfect world falls apart, can love still prevail?

After years of struggle and harsh criticism, happily married rock-star wife, Claire Martin, has finally achieved the career success of her dreams. As the featured artist in an international traveling exhibit, she looks forward to her best year ever, while her husband, singer Robert Silver of the legendary rock band Deep Blue, contemplates a return to touring.

Things are also looking up for Claire's best friend, Denise Hrivnak, who's planning her wedding to Robert's musical partner, Art Hoffman. However, what should have been the most joyful day of Denise's life, turns to tragedy when an unexpected event forces both women to contemplate the terrifying possibility of life without the men they love.

Besieged with the paparazzi and sick with worry, Claire waits for answers in a Las Vegas hotel room, thinking over her improbable relationship with Rob and praying that love alone is strong enough to bring her husband back from the brink.

GUESS > VOTE > WIN

Guess if our blog will or will not reach 100,000 by December 31st.  

If you guess correctly, you will be eligible to win a prize package including ebooks and/or a signed print copy. 

https://goo.gl/forms/N3u2eNWCvqiV1c2I3 

Guest Author Julia W. Rath at #OurAuthorGang

Our Guest Author today is Julia W. Rath

Julia was formally trained as a social scientist and public policy analyst.  She has a Ph.D. in sociology and a post-doctoral fellowship in the behavioral sciences.  As a project director for the State of New York's Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, she worked on a nationwide study of Medicaid Managed Care as it relates to health and treatment outcomes for people overcoming alcohol and substance abuse. Her previous book Conquering Your Own Sleep Apnea the All-Natural Way tells the story of how she overcame her sleeplessness and breathlessness by making simple, common-sense changes to her diet and environment.  She was also the executive producer of the documentary film “About Face,” the story of German- and Austrian-Jewish G.I.’s who returned to Europe and North Africa to fight the Nazis in World War II.  Eclectic in her interests, she now writes fiction, popular songs, and classical music. Split Self/Torn Mind is her first novel.

https://www.amazon.com/Split-Self-Torn-Mind-Julia/dp/1947532065

Split Self/Torn Mind tells the story of the kidnapping of Dr. Theresa Hightower, a popular professor at The University of Chicago, and the need to rescue her before she is “killed, compromised, or worse.”  In the interim, she has undergone a cruel genetic experiment where she is of two minds in one body.   The story reveals startling truths behind this top-secret research project and touches upon the rationale for building powerful biomedical weapons of war in order to save the world as we know it.   As kindness and cruelty combine in unique ways, the book prompts the question: “Where is the split among the secret places within each one of us?”

Excerpt:
"My consciousness is shifting," I said....  "I don't feel like myself," she said. And now I said, "My mind has two parts.  But I is she, and she is me. Who am I?  What am I? And what have you done to me?!!!"...
"Two consciousnesses in one body!" said the evil Vellum.  "Who would have thunk it?"

GUESS > VOTE > WIN

Guess if our blog will or will not reach 100,000 views by December 31st
If your guess will be correct, you might win an eBook package or signed print in this giveaway by our authors.
https://goo.gl/forms/N3u2eNWCvqiV1c2I3

Limiting Magic #OurAuthorGang

Rich Feitelberg

feitelberg.net

With my world-building posts behind me now, I'm going to start a new series of posts, focusing on another topic I'm interested in: magic.

I'm not talking sleight of hand or tricks by Houdini. I'm talking about magic in fantasy stories. Magic of this type comes in all shapes and sizes and is one of the elements that sets fantasy stories apart from other genres.

In this series of posts, I’ll explore a few of the different types you might want to consider.

To start, consider how prevalent magic is in your story or your world. If everyone can do magic then it is not very special and it becomes more like using a cell phone or browsing the internet with a computer.

So I recommend keeping magic limited. Perhaps only one group of people can cast spells. Or perhaps only those who are taught can. Or perhaps magic is restricted to one part of the world by law or physical limitations.

The Harry Potter approach is that the use of magic is limited because the existence of wizards is secret. In a heroic fantasy story that’s not likely, but the use of magic could be outlawed because people of scared of wizards who can wield so much power. To balance that, you might set limits on how much magic any one people can do. Perhaps some spells are more costly than others. Or perhaps the trick is to break the spell caster’s concentration so he or she can’t cast spells.

Another aspect to think about is where does the power for magic come from? It is in the air or are wizards using a piece of themselves when they can spells. If the power is in the air, it can be like heat or light, something that exists in the environment that the wizard can draw upon. The limiting factor here is that casting spells is like physical exertion so eventually the wizard needs to rest. If the power from within the wizard, then each time the individual calls upon the power, the spell caster is eating away at him or herself, like a cancer. The effect of that is the wizard ages, grows gaunt, loses their hair, as if dying from cancer.

Regardless of the limiting factors you select, there are likely to be rules among the wizards about how and when to use spells. Likewise there probably rules for casting spells. We’ll look at these in the next post.

GUESS > VOTE > WIN

Guess whether our blog will reach 100,000 views by December 31st

If you guess correctly, you might win an eBook package or signed print in this giveaway by our authors.

https://goo.gl/forms/N3u2eNWCvqiV1c2I3

Guess > Vote > Win at #OurAuthorGang

GUESS > VOTE > WIN

Guess if our blog will or will not reach 100,000 views by December 31st

If your guess will be correct, you might win an eBook package or signed print in this giveaway by our authors.

Click on this link for details, or scroll down to the form

https://goo.gl/forms/N3u2eNWCvqiV1c2I3

Christmas in Camelot ~ Part 1 #Christmas #Arthurian #Legends #OurAuthorGang

By Mary Anne Yarde

Like a sparrow flying through a Mead Hall…

"...O King...you sit a supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, with a good fire in the midst, while the storms of rain and snow rage outside..."

The Venerable Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English

Bede's Sparrow in the Hall 

Winter in the Dark Ages was a long, drawn-out affair. There was no magic light switch you could flick on to banish the dark. Days were short. Nights were long. The world was in hibernation. Food was scarce, and it was cold. Winter was hard, and death from illness or starvation was a very real threat. It was no wonder that the pagans wanted to celebrate Midwinter and New Years Day.

Interestingly, it wasn't until the 4th Century when Church leaders in Rome embraced this pagan holiday and made it their own. And over the centuries this pagan celebration has been 'added' to, until we have the Christmas that we know and love today.

What was Christmas like in Arthurian Britain?

I need to make one thing clear before I begin — many of the stories that we know of Arthur and his Knights are just that, stories. There is nothing substantial to them. So a Christmas at Camelot would have been highly unlikely. The 12th Century French Poets certainly gave Arthur a castle for himself and his Knights, but Camelot itself didn't come about until the 15th Century when Thomas Malory invented it in his great work, Le Morte d'Arthur.  Which kinds of puts a whole dampener on “Christmas in Camelot!”

Obviously, our Dark Age ancestors celebrated Midwinter and New Year, but when we are dealing with Arthur, we have to contend with a fictitious Christmas as well.

So today I am going to explore the kind of food you might have found at King Arthur's table at Christmas...

Pottage — which was the staple diet for most, but at a feast, it would have been the best pottage you ever tasted. The Rolls-Royse of Pottage!

Roasted Goose and Partridge may have been on the menu.

Salmon.

Dry cured hams.

A boars head.

Venison.

Cheese.

Eggs — preserved ones, because chickens tend to stop laying during the winter months. It is only how chickens are farmed nowadays that ensures we have fresh eggs throughout the year.

Pastries

The only fresh vegetables would have been seasonal, but back in the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages for that matter, it was not recommended to eat raw fruit and veg, for fear of dysentery – one of the biggest killers of the time.

Of course, they would also have had ale, mead, wine, and beer to wash it all down with! There may well have been one or two rosy faces by the end of the feast!

There would have been music, and entertainment and that is what I am going to explore in my next post because, forget charades, the Knights played something far more interesting...

War is coming to Saxon Briton…

Read the multi award-winning series for FREE with 

Kindle Unlimited

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA