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The Case for Reading Fairy Tales
I’m a few weeks shy of twenty years old, and this is the first Valentine’s Day of my life that I haven’t been single. Most of those Valentine’s Days, I was perfectly content exchanging homemade valentines with my friends, but I won’t lie—those last several Valentine’s...
What to Expect from My Developmental Editing
What I will do:• Read through one draft of your manuscript 2+ times.• Watch for continuity issues with plot, theme, characters, setting, and writing style (voice), analyzing each from the perspective of your target audience.• Leave comments on your document.• Provide...
How to Create a Kickstarter Account
1. Go to www.kickstarter.com, where you’ll see the form below. Enter your name, email, and password (you’ll be asked to enter your email and password twice), click to verify you’re not a robot, and click to create an account.2. Once you’ve clicked to create an...
Frodo Failed (But That’s Okay)
A few weeks ago, I was reflecting on the ending of The Lord of the Rings—not the movie ending, but the original ending of the book, in which Frodo returns home to the Shire only to find that it’s been destroyed by Saruman despite all his efforts to protect it. As a...
O Lord, Behold My Wretched State: Eivend’s Song (The Lily and the Lyre)
I wrote this song for a character in The Lily and the Lyre, the sequel to The Star and the Sword. It appears in that manuscript (although that's still undergoing heavy editing, and Eivend is at risk of getting kicked out of the story... so we'll see what happens in...
When in the Night: Illuvian Children’s Prayer
This song is the traditional children's bedtime prayer in my fictional country Illuvia, which is the setting for my novel-in-progress The Star and the Sword. The poem shows up several times throughout the book, and I composed a melody for it so you can hear as well as...