Elijah David

I've seen this tag show up in a few places, but Kate over at Seek Him First was the first I saw put an authorial twist on it and answer based on her own stories. I liked the idea so much I had to try it myself. ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS, MY TRUE LOVE SENT TO ME: A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE. The partridge stood alone in the pear tree. What is your favorite standalone novel? Definitely There's No Place Like Home? because I think it's probably the strongest of the few standalone books I've written. I can't wait to dive into editing it later next year. ON THE SECOND DAY OF CHRISTMAS, MY TRUE LOVE SENT TO ME: TWO TURTLE DOVES. Love is in the air! Who is your one true pairing? So, this is a tricky question because the Albion series has its fair share of pairings, but with only the first book released, none of them are exactly "canonical" yet. But the one pairing that's fairly set up (or at least implied to be in the early stages) in Albion Acade...

Beautiful People is a blog link-up hosted by Paper Fury and Further Up and Further In . This is the last edition (for now), and it's all about favorites! 1. Favorite genre to write in? Fantasy for sure. I occasionally write something sci-fi-ish or horror, but fantasy is where I belong. 2. What book (a real actual published book!) do you think your character would benefit from reading? Mortimer should probably read Uprooted . Merlin would benefit from Narnia. Bryn should probably read The Book Thief . 3. Favorite piece of dialogue you’ve written? You mean I have to choose? Robin's conversation with Vivienne from Albion Academy is probably at the top of the list. It's one of the earliest snippets from that book and really helped me define their characters. 4. What did your character want to be when they grew up, and what did they actually become? Merlin wanted to be anything but a wizard. I don't think that's working out for him so far. Br...

October is almost over, so it's time for more snippets. These come from There's No Place Like Home?  (my NaNo novel from 2015, newly finished) and from "Paper and (T)horns" (my modern Beauty and the Beast retelling). From  There's No Place Like Home?   The kalidahs who had been sent to the front gate had expected an angry mob. Not quite torches and pitchforks angry. More like billy clubs and Molotov cocktails. At the very least, they had been anticipating an unruly assortment of people led by a towering, charismatic man, perhaps wearing a mask, who would shout meaningless mantras over a megaphone. Instead, the leader appeared to be a small girl with a fire in her eyes most of the kalidahs had long since forgotten. Hope. Righteous anger. Determination. Love. While the crowd behind her—and the kalidahs in front of her—grew ever more restless as they waited for something to happen, the girl simply stared into the heart of the Westford mansion with that fiery-eyed...

Last week, I went to my local writing group and, since the person who introduced me to Inktober was there, I shared my first few Inktober drawings with the group. One of the other writers asked how doing a challenge like Inktober affected our creativity. For me, having a creative outlet that differs from what I might think of as my "main" art form (i.e. writing novels) actually fuels my creativity as a whole. It's why I picked up watercolors this year -- to give myself a place for art to spill over when I didn't have the time/drive/energy to sit down at a keyboard. This was the short version of the answer I gave in group. But as I thought about it, I realized that the deeper topic was actually not how does pursuing one art form affect another, but how do I keep from draining my creative well/bucket dry? So here are some of the ways I do that. Consume Other Art This is one of the most common pieces of advice for artists struggling with keep...

As of last night, the first draft of Albion Apparent is complete! The last month has been a rush of finishing chapters and interludes with a speed I haven't had most of the year. It's immensely satisfying to reach this stage with a book. So what's next? For me, I'm taking the next month or so to work on things other than Albion. The book is set to go to beta readers, after which I'll take their comments and use them to draft a better version of  Albion Apparent . My hope is to spend October finally hammering out the last chapters of There's No Place Like Home?  and maybe even finishing "Paper and (T)horns". I'm also planning to try Inktober, a month-long drawing challenge similar to NaNo but for drawing instead of writing. This also means that this Saturday's snippets post will be the last for  Albion Apparent . (I will still post snippets of what I'm working on in the interim.) For you, my friends and readers, this means that ...

I mentioned on Wednesday that I had a couple of worlds populated with characters who might or might not have made it into the sketchbook. Since I've mentioned a couple of these projects before, and since most of them have Pinterest boards, I thought I'd lay out what the larger universe (or multiverse) looks like, beyond Albion Academy . Note that most of what's on this list exists either in rough draft or (more commonly) as ideas and outlines. So far only Albion Academy  and some of the John Valley stories are published. Our World Or at least, a fictional version of it. Home to wizards, cyborgs, vampires, and a great deal of things that fall into the cracks in between. There are 4 main sub-series set here. The Albion Quartet - 4 books dealing with Merlin Pendragon, magic, Albion Academy, and the Faerie Court; there are also some short stories set in this timeline, along with a novella about Robin Goodfellow; Book 1 ( Albion Academy ) is published; Book 2 ( Albion Ap...