Elijah David

 About a month ago, Paper and Thorns  made its debut into the world. After some delays getting the Kindle edition up and running, I'm glad to say that this series is firmly established. Yes, you read right. Series . But more on that later. If you have missed my previous glimpses into Paper and Thorns , here's a little backstory. I have always loved the story of "Beauty and the Beast" (see also my recent post about the story over at SpeculativeFaith ). Back when Disney's live action remake of the animated film came out, my artist friend Mirriam sketched what she thought the Beast should  have looked like (I'll give you a hint: there were lots of horns and menace going on). The design sparked an idea and I started chipping away at the story of that Beast and what his happy ending might (or might not) look like. After a couple of false starts, Paper and Thorns  really took off. It's a short book (less than 100 pages), and that is purposeful. I tend to str...

This year has been a dry one as far as blog posts go. Despite being home a lot more than usual, I haven't been drawn to post as much here as I have in years past. I haven't been entirely idle. I finished the first draft of the third Albion book. I published  Paper and Thorns.  I have pulled out some old works to edit and started new ones (including a sequel/companion novella to  Paper and Thorns ). I crocheted. A lot. Since last fall, I've made 3 baby blankets, an afghan, a scarf, a throw blanket, and two stuffed Nifflers. Most of that happened after quarantine hit. And yet, this has been a season of doubt, of anxiety, of unease. I have found myself growing more and more restless and dissatisfied with my day-to-day, and even with the media I consume. Sometimes, I will pull out a familiar story just to find some half-remembered peace in its pages. I started digging into my thesis collection the other day. These stories held a special place in my heart because they represen...

Fairy Tale Central is doing some daily challenges on Instagram featuring OTPs (One True Pairings) as part of their celebration of all things fairy tale this month. For those of us who wind up doing these things in blog form, Arielle had kindly shared the full listing on her own blog here . Fairy Tale OTP Challenge: 1. The first fairy tale OTP you shipped      Probably Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin and Jasmine. These are the earliest fairy tales I can remember getting deeply involved in. 2. The cliché fairy tale OTP that everyone ships but you still love      I think I'll probably go with Snow and Charming from Once Upon a Time. Do I sometimes feel like they get too much of the spotlight in later seasons? Yes, but their relationship is wonderful in the first few seasons as we see them fight for each other. 3. Your favorite hate-to-love fairy tale OTP      I'm assuming this is an enemies to lovers trope rather than an ex...

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...

It's really hard to believe it's been a year since I last made major goals for my creative life. And what a year it's been. I've switched jobs (so has my wife, but through less stressful circumstances), and God has seen us through financial hardships small and large. Lorehaven  magazine launched.  My life has been a lot busier and less restful of late due to work being so full the last couple of months. Add on doing Inktober and NaNoWriMo, and holiday travels . . . I'm bushed. But I'm going to try to get back into the habit of blogging and being creative in other ways. But before I set myself some goals for this year, let's take a look at last year's goals. Writing: Edit Albion Apparent and get it to the publisher.   During the first half of last year, I spent a large portion of my writing time on this. However, I stalled out for several reasons I can't go into. When there's news on this front, I will share it. Finish writing "Pap...

And yes, that is a Tow'rs reference. Go listen . I just finished rereading The Queen of Attolia (only a year after I reread The Thief in hopes of reading the whole series again before getting to Thick as Thieves ). As I plotted out how to do this month's ThrowBook Thursday post (delayed from last week due to a sick Samwise, who's now on the mend), I realized that I'd already used QoA for last year's TBT in May . I'm pretty sure I blinked. Then I laughed. Then I said, "What the heck, let's review it again anyway." Everything I said last year remains true (minus me thinking QoA has multiple myths; it just has the one). But I want to add a few things that I appreciated even more on this, my third time through the book: Eugenides and his sass. "I'll stop shouting, but I won't sit down. I might need to throw more ink bottles." Attolia and everything we learn about her history Ruby earrings (if you've read the books,...

The title seems like a lot, but I'll try to keep it tidy. First off, I finished reading a book for the first time in almost a month. Second, I completely missed a (couple of) review(s) at the end of March. Bad me. Anyway, here's to catching up. Reviews Hellboy Vol. 6 This collects two shorter stories following Hellboy's departure from the BPRD in volume 5. The first follows Hellboy's encounter with a trip of mermaids, who strike deals with a sea witch to gain their revenge on our hero. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for them. There's some really great heart in this story as there usually is in Mignola's stories. The other story follows in the aftermath of the first and features the return of Hecate, queen of witches. She tries to convince Hellboy to embrace his destiny. Again. As usual, he'll have none of it, though the epilogue makes it clear that he's going to have to face that destiny one way or another. (I also read t...

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...

It's a new year, and while waiting for a new week/month/year isn't the best way to set a goal in place, I'm doing the new year's resolution thing again this year because that's how things have come together around here. But first, a little self-examination about last year's resolutions. How did I do last year? I laid out my personal reading resolution  here  on the blog. And . . . I did okay. I kept myself to the read a book to buy a book resolution, mostly. Christmas money kind of did that in. I didn't do so well with the read a book on the shelf before adding one, though I did switch books out more often than outright adding more. And I only read 12 out of the 62 books on my shelf that were there at the start of the year. That's less than 20% if you're keeping track (and given that my Goodreads total for the year is over 90, I really should have tried to squeeze in more of the original shelf). But I read more than 20 books beyond my ori...

This month, I spent a good portion of my writing time fixing up a short story from a few years back that involved Santa Claus (or Father Christmas) as a wandering spirit. It was inspired by a friend's defense of the Santa Claus/Father Christmas tradition, and I'm very pleased with the final version. Here's a small excerpt from the beginning of "Winter Warrior": Snow fell unseen in the moonless night air, each flake making its journey without notice or proclamation. Nick liked the snow on nights like this. It went about its business anonymously, as he did on the best of nights. Nick was neither angel nor demon, but he wasn’t, strictly speaking, human. To be human, one must possess both body and soul, and Nick was a bit short in the corporeal department. Had been for centuries now. He wasn’t the only spirit wandering the Earth, but he hadn’t met another like him in a month of Christmases. If you would like to read the rest of the story, head over to Ink &...

Recently, Mirriam had a post up about "pantsing" or writing without an outline. Generally, writers are sorted into two camps: plotters (who outline) and pantsers (who don't), but over the years I've come to see myself as something in the middle. A "plantser" if you will. When I mentioned this in relation to Mirriam's advice, another commenter asked if I had anything more to say about this middle ground, so here is some advice for those of you who find yourself needing to plot things out, but not to the extremes that you've seen many plotters advise. Plan Some, Not All The largest contrast between plotting and plantsing is the amount of planning you do beforehand. Bare minimum, you should have your characters, the basic setting (don't worry if all the details are missing, but know if you're in city/country, magic/technology, etc.), and a beginning and/or ending in mind before you sit down. This doesn't mean you have to know every char...

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...

I have two more tips for keeping your creative bucket full that I did not cover last week. Keeping in Sync with Your Creative Drive Many of us have patterns and rhythms to our creative drive. I've mentioned before that autumn tends to spur me on to be more creative. It's not that I don't feel creative during other times of the year. It's more that when the first crisp days of autumn hit, I have to make something. I haven't always been aware of this trend, but ever since I first noticed it, it's something that I've come to expect, take advantage of, and even rely on (see last year's difficulties when I didn't  experience this creative surge). When I mentioned this in writing group two weeks ago, one of my friends said that she has  a way of telling when she's ready to work on a new project. Much like pregnant women tend to nest and get their houses ready for a new child, she starts cleaning and organizing her writing space. It's not a co...

It's almost NaNoWriMo time, which means that Cait and Sky are hosting a Beautiful Books link-up in place of their usual Beautiful People link-up. I've decided to join in with a post about Paper and (T)horns . Two things to get out of the way before I dive into the questions: first, I am NOT doing NaNoWriMo, although I will be working on this story for the foreseeable future; second, this is not intended to be a novel (I am aiming for a novella, no more than 30,000-40,000 words). What inspired the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea? My friend Mirriam redrew the Beast from the live-action Beauty and the Beast film to make him more frightening, and I enjoyed her take on the character. In fact, I realized that I kind of shipped him with Maleficent, and thus the idea for Paper and (T)horns took seed. This was back in April of this year. Describe what your novel is about! A young man meets the girl of his dreams, only...

Yes, I have reached the end of Albion Apparent , and it is in the hands of beta readers even now. (If you would like to be one of those beta readers, just drop your email in a comment and I'll send it to you!) Here are your final glimpses into the second book of the Albion Quartet. Tune in next month for some snippets from other things I'm working on. “What have Oberon’s hopes to do with you, grey sister?” Grandmother’s voice did not overpower Darity’s in the way a bombastic politician will drown out an opponent. Instead, it slipped around the chamber like a strand from a web, throwing out more threads of itself until the entire room was subjected to its will. “You are not his vassal, that his hopes and fears should rule your own. Nor are you his ally, except in times of war, and let us pray that war is far from us.” Darity’s hands stilled. “Do you mean that the Merlin we have foreseen will not be responsible for—” “He will be what he will be, child. Do you suppose our desti...

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 said last Wednesday that I didn't think I'd post my painting of the four sisters of the seasons because I'd ruined it. Then I wondered whether this was just me defending my wounded pride. As I looked over the painting later that day, I decided that yes, I was defending my wounded pride, but I was also cutting myself off from fully admitting that I had made the mistake in the first place and needed to learn something  from it. Sometimes with art, no matter the medium, you will screw something up. But whether you do that or not, every piece -- every painting, every poem, story, novel, drawing, film, or song -- is going to teach you something about how to make your art. Maybe it will be something not to do next time (like add pen to your painting) or maybe it will be something you need to push further or play with more (like blending the colors in the autumn queen's dress). Whatever your art form, don't close yourself off to the lessons your art is trying to...

Where has August gone? It seems like I was just getting ready for it to begin. Ah well. This month's been a bit more productive than July. Here are some snippets for you to enjoy. I think all this time he’s harbored a certain animosity towards magic and anyone connected to our world. It’s possible he blames people like us for his wife leaving him. Or he could just be a royal jerk , she said. I chuckled despite myself. Or that. *** “Well, that was about as effective as I expected,” Stavros said. “Better than I expected.” The wooden voice had called from inside Reese’s office. I stepped past the door, which hung aslant in the frame. “Belchor?” The place was a mess. Papers and books had been torn from the shelves and Belchor groaned from its prone position in the floor. Scorch marks traced smudgy shapes across its back. “Is there someone under the bookshelf?” Samantha asked, trying to tilt Belchor upright. “Belchor is the bookshelf,” I replied, helping her l...