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Word of the week: netherworld /ˈneT͟Hərˌwərld/ - noun – (hear it!) - the underworld of the dead; hell.

Influences

Every so often a reader will ask me: “Where do your ideas come from?”

Usually I tell them ideas just pop into my head. Which they do. Often. That’s the easy part. The “Why?” and “How?” are normally the harder questions—ones people don’t think to ask—and are really the reasons behind what we writers write most of the time.

Influences.

All around, every day, writers are constantly influenced by everything around them, whether consciously or subconsciously, and every set of influences (plus the reactions to those influences) is different for every writer.

A couple kissing on a park bench, for example, may evoke feelings of love, devotion, and possibly yearning in one writer, whereas it might provoke the deep desire to retch in another. And while the second writer might view a lion’s bloody takedown of a limping gazelle as strong, powerful, and nature’s efficient way of weeding out the weak, the first writer may shudder and whine at the injustice of a helpless animal’s death.

What we writers do with what we’re shown and handed over the years usually filters through and into our stories—big time!—and it often shapes what we write and how our characters react to certain things.

Caendoria, my own fantasy world, has been influenced by a couple of things both *kind of* well known and not well known at all.

What the hell do I mean by that?? Here, I’ll show you.

Pop quiz!

How many of you recognize this . . .

Baron of Hell

. . . and this?

Cyberdemon

If you’ve lived through the nineties and played a game called Doom by id Software, then you’re probably familiar with the Barons of Hell, and the powerful Cyberdemon (respectively), who kind of seemed like the Barons’ overseer.

Maybe. I don’t know.

Anyway, I always thought they looked pretty cool. And massive. And just plain ol’ downright awesome. Thus, the creation of my netherworld demons were influenced by the structure of these demonic characters. With my own twists to them, of course. (All authors add in their own twists to stuff we’re influenced by!) In the end, my own rendition of these demons have become the dystopian element in the otherwise perfect world of Caendoria.

Now, how about this? . . .

Again, if you’ve lived through the nineties, you’ve probably heard of a game called Myst by Cyan Worlds, created by Rand and Robyn Miller. Way before I ever started seriously writing (and waayy before I had children), my husband and I would sit together for hours upon hours, solving the puzzles inside the storyline, progressively unlocking each secret as we proceeded through the game.

Awesome enough, to be sure!

But the elements! Ah, the elements . . . they were purely fascinating—nearly utopian, beautifully rendered, and [mostly] pleasing to all of the senses (well, if one goes further into one’s imagination; ghost smells and all that, you know . . . ).

Little did I know these bits and pieces would captivate my then-dormant writer’s mind and lodge securely to later be altered and rendered; picked apart, stretched out, and twisted up like twisty ties to create the world I now know as Caendoria: lavender sky and grasses; thick, drinkable liquid—iridescent by day, blue luminescent by night; silver- and gold-topped trees; intricate mechanisms hidden throughout the world. All sorts of fun and unusual stuffs!

Yes . . . so now you know a little of the “Why?” and “How?” behind what I write. Behind what all writers write, really.

Influences. All around, every day. Things take root in our minds, our hearts, our feelings, then we mix and match in unique ways, and write it all down for everyone to share.

And if you really want to know: I am that second writer in my “limping gazelle/lion take down” paragraph. Well, minus the kissing. Kissing’s nice. Unless you see a lion kissing a gazelle. Now that would be weird.

Thus, my wonderful blog readers, I leave you with a fly-through across the Ages . . . literally. Tribute to the Myst Ages. (Note: You may need to lighten your monitor. The trailer's a bit on the dark side.)

Word of the week: atychiphobia – noun – defined as “a persistent, abnormal, and unwarranted worry of failure.” - Phobia Source

Indie Author of the Month: Please Come Meet . . . Ryan Day

When Writer’s Beat member Ryan Day asked in a Writing Help & Issues thread, “Why isn’t my [indie published] novel selling?” . . . well, I simply had to take a look.

And discovered something rather interesting, indeed!

(Paraphrased from my review on Amazon)

Ryan Day’s Heart-Shaped Holes is structurally well written with an intriguing premise that grabs the reader straight from the get-go. It’s also laced with some dark and gritty humor that made me chuckle.

Initially, I’d previewed the first chapter, and was completely hooked from the moment the main character had envisioned some bizarre metaphorical happening that ties into the later going-on. There are some gruesome parts, though nothing written for the sake of being gruesome and not truly described in detail, and the main character’s revelation and development at the end is absolutely perfect.

Usually, indie author books prod awake my “inner editor,” and thus I end up putting them down. Heart-Shaped Holes, though . . . was definitely not one of these. It’d managed to keep my “inner editor” quiet throughout its entire length, which actually made for a wonderful reading experience.

But, I digress.

Allow me to introduce, here at the Ether of my Imagination . . . Ryan Day!

* * *

I started writing Heart-Shaped Holes a few days after my nineteenth birthday (this is where I point out I hate admitting my age in case it damages people’s perceptions of my work). I was kicked out of school at sixteen, but it never bothered me because I always knew that I was going to make a living telling stories, yet three years down the line everyone around me was moving on with their lives while I was moving in circles. That birthday was a wake-up call telling me I had to start working hard on my writing if I was ever going to live up to my own expectations. The three months that followed is still a blur to me. The next time I remember taking a breath was when I put down the final word of the first draft.

I always thought I would be a horror writer, and I suppose that’s how people would define Heart-Shaped Holes. But it’s not the horror of monsters and nightmares, rather the horror of looking in the mirror and realising you’re not the person you always thought you would be. It’s something everybody has felt at some point in their life, and that is what makes it scary. Because you don’t have to use your imagination.

I’m somewhat reluctant to admit that the easiest part of writing this story was getting into the head of the protagonist, simply because he’s me. He’s me if I was ten years older and wanted to be an actor. He’s me in ten years if this writing gig doesn’t work out. So I suppose that’s the reason I chose to write this story, it was an opportunity to confront my atychiphobia and self-destructive narcissism while also seeing if I had what it took to write something longer than twenty pages.

So that’s the story of my first book, which sat in my computer gathering virtual dust for two years until a close friend suggested I try self-publishing online. Since then I’ve self-released another e-book, a short story titled Impossibly Happy. I have no idea what will come next - I have another novel gathering virtual dust and several other projects on the go - but my guess is although this is the first time you’ve heard of me it certainly won’t be the last.

*  *  *

Heart-Shaped Holes is available at Amazon and Amazon UK.

Please support indie authors!