Author Archives: CrissyMoss

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About CrissyMoss

I've been writing as long as I can remember.

Day 4- Full time author

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You’ll have to forgive me. It’s 1:30, and I’m a bit tired at the moment. My words might be a little mixed up.

Every day I learn something new about myself. I think it’s because I’m actually paying attention to what I’m doing, and how I’m doing it rather then just letting it happen. In the book 2k to 10k Rachel Aaron describes a similar thing. She suggests charting when you write, and the conditions of the writing so that you can find the best moments for you to get the most writing done.

I good plan, one that I have always wanted to try, but one that I have always put off because I never had a steady writing time. I was at the mercy of my job, my children, and everything else going on around me. Now…Not so much. Maybe right now is the best time for me to figure this thing out.

Today I wrote for an hour after my podcast with Maya. I streamed it via twitch, which gave me the feeling of accountability and in that one hour session I managed to crank out a little over 1000 words. Whats more, after that hour session I felt like I could keep going. I was enjoying the story, and the words were flowing. It was wonderful. I think the mid afternoon, just after breakfast, is a great time for me to write.

But, alas, I had other things to take care of. Grabbing the car, going to dinner with Gregg’s family, a bit of shopping. It was a relaxing afternoon, and Gregg gave me a great idea for a new shot story. It’s called “Laying Down Roots” and I’m already 500 words into it. An awesome story about a forest guardians last stand. It will compliment the new set of armor he is making for Radcon next year. With that, and a few other small writing moments, I did get a lot done.

In all, I’m learning that I write best when I’m well rested, and fed. And I don’t think I like quitting in the middle of a good run because I don’t always get a chance to come back to it. On the other hand sometimes you have to do what  you have to do. The best part is that even with writing for less than two hours today I did manage to crank out 1700 words total. It doesn’t take a lot of time to get some words down. It just takes a writer deciding that that is what’s important and using those spare moments to do that.

Good night everyone. I’ll see you for Day 5 tomorrow.

Day 3 – Full time Author

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wordsToday has been incredibly productive.

It’s almost midnight and I’m about to go to bed, but I wanted to do my update post for the night.

I finished “Minotaur” today. I’ll be talking about that on tomorrow Bradbury Challenge Podcast. We’ll be recording at 10am on Blab (I think). Check my twitter for updates in the morning.

Overall, I’m really happy with the feel of Minotaur, but I almost want to keep going with it, add another scene or four afterward. But then it wouldn’t be a short story anymore. It’s just over 2k words at the moment, and I almost feel like it could be a novella.

I also worked on my “Dragon Project” today. I just can’t decide on a name yet, so “Dragon project” it is.

The first couple of days were difficult. I felt guilty that I wouldn’t be bringing in a steady paycheck for several weeks. (This isn’t a financial problem, Gregg and I both have nest eggs built for this exact reason, but it still felt bad.) Today the guilt, while still there, wasn’t that bad. I wrote, and I felt good doing it. I almost wanted to keep writing tonight, but I’m starting to fall asleep.

What I am seeing is that I can’t just write non stop. This morning I wrote a large portion of the short story, and some more on the Dragon Project, and then my mind started to wander. I started playing games, and tried going back to writing but just couldn’t. After going for a walk, and playing some D&D with friends, I came back refreshed and able to write some more.

I have always said I write better at night. I don’t know why this is, but the words just seem to flow better in the evening. Training, maybe, but that means I just have to start training myself to write in the morning as well. I’m working on it.

However, I do know for sure that I can’t just keep writing. After a while I need to step away from the computer, go for a walk, talk to someone, or just clean the house. Then, after I’ve had that time away from the computer, I can come back and write some more. I know that going for a short walk today was incredibly helpful to get those creative juices flowing again. I think I’ll be doing that again tomorrow.

Day 2- Full Time Author

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2016-06-08 20.04.42I have a list of things I want to accomplish in the next three weeks.

The re-edits for Witch’s Sacrifice aren’t that bad. I’m mostly finished with them anyway, so I will probably try to get those done over the next couple of days, and re-uploaded so that everything is great.

The print version of Witch’s Curse and Witch’s Stand both need to be finished by end of the month. I also want to put up the trilogy as an omnibus for those who would rather have a boxed set. It will, of course, have the bonus short story of Witch’s Sight included.

Yesterday I wrote a large part of Magi, a short story, and did some of the editing for Witch’s Sacrifice. Today I’ve already gotten through half of Minotaur, another short story. I’d like to get these two short stories finished for the Bradbury Challenge (since I haven’t been doing that well for it lately) and I think I’m on track. Both are all plotted out and I just have to finish putting the words down on the page.

It’s strange learning to work from a plot. It does make the writing easier because I know what’s going on, but sometimes I’m still confused as to HOW to say it. Making the words pretty is different then just putting words on a page. You want them to make sense, but they also need to engage the reader, draw images in their mind, and make them want to continue.

For Minotaur I have a Minotaur walking through a dilapidated village in the middle of the night with rain pouring down on him, and he’s carrying a sack with something in it dragging along the ground. There, I just set the scene for you, but I just wrote that would you read it? Of course not, that isn’t a story, that’s just a setting.

Rain pelted down on Rojar’s back, dripping down across scared flesh. He walking along the cobbled courtyard, uncaring of the storm above him. His hooves clattering against the stone. Shaking his massive head from side to side, the water flew off his horns, splattering in thick droplets beneath him. He welcomed the rain, licking it off his rubbery lips, tasting the sweetness of freedom and pain. The rain, and the heavy weight of the war ax on his back; that was freedom.
He pulled a rough sack along behind him, the contents clunking against the stones. Clunk, drag. Clunk, drag. Down the cobblestone path to the center of town.
He could feel eyes on him, peeking out through slats in boarded windows, and peep holes in doors. Hear their hooves tapping out across caked dirt floors just on the other side of the wall. His people, his family. The same people that sold him into slavery.

Now that’s more like a story.

Alright, now I need to get back to work and finish what I’ve started. I want to complete one short story and get to formatting the print books tonight. I’ll update you tomorrow.

Day 1- Full time Author

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I’ve got three weeks till I start the new job. That means three weeks to be a full time author.

I’m going to document this journey. Hopefully with a post every night, or a video on youtube. I haven’t decided yet.

It’s currently 12:30 and I’ve written 150 words so far. I’ve also vacuumed the floors, washed the counters, put away some things, and generally cleaned the house. Also spent about 3 hours this morning watching youtube and playing games. Productive…  ya…

I talked about a mind shift yesterday. Well now is where I put that to the test. Mind shift incoming. Writing is more important than games and youtube.

 

Onto the writing!

 

 

PS… yesterday was my birthday. Gregg took me out and we had sushi and craft beer. It was a nice day.

Switching Mindsets

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I just found out today that I won’t be starting my new job for another three weeks. There was a little complication because I moved here from a small county that is very slow to process things, so the new job is waiting for the background check to come back from said county and say “no, she was never arrested here.” Well, I’ve never been arrested so I’m not worried about that, it’s just going to take a little longer.

So I have three weeks home…waiting. And Gregg, the helpful person that he is, said “No, you have three weeks to write. Prove to yourself you can do this full time.”

You know how some things look good on paper, but then  you actually attempt them and things don’t quite look the same as you thought they would? That’s what I went through today. But the thing that looks different isn’t something I had considered before.

First of all, Gregg is absolutely right. I have three weeks to write my heart out and prove to myself that I can do the writing part of being an author. Finishing things, and getting the ready to edit. In three weeks with nothing but writing to do I should be able to double my words. Right? And I know, it doesn’t actually work like that, but if I never try I’ll never improve.

Second, I have the story. I have the plot. I have the characters. That’s not a problem, and I’ve written more on this story than I have on previous ones, so there is president here.

Third, my phone is broken. With no job, and no phone to distract me I should have more time… SHOULD.

And oddly it isn’t the idea of writing, finishing story lines, or producing books that has me worried. I know I can do that, and I’m fairly confident I can do it faster if I just put my nose to the grindstone and do it.

No, what worries me is the pay. Since my divorce I’ve been the person who paid the bills. Rent, electric, water, etc. All the bills are in my name, and I am responsible for them. In the last couple of years Gregg moved in, and he’s helped considerably by paying for groceries, getting gas, tires, and giving me money for rent. But I pay the majority of the bills in the house. We both also set aside savings toward our eventual house, but the bills are mine.

I have preferred it this way. A large hardship in my marriage was related to finances, I had no control over it then. He made the money while I was a stay home mom, so I had no say over anything. Part of my worries that if I let myself get into a situation where a man is paying my bills again I will lose control and end up broke… again. Never mind that this is false logic since Gregg is incredibly smart with money, and we both have nest eggs in case something ever happened. Logic has nothing to do with it. My brain has been programmed to worry about giving up control like that, and yet here I am.

I’m sure I’ll eventually make money from the books I write. I already make a little. I just don’t know how long it will be before I make enough to sustain a household, so the idea of giving up a steady job with good pay and benefits just doesn’t make me comfortable.

It’s a mindset shift. If I ever want to make it as an author and stop working for someone else then I have to buy into the idea that it’s possible. That I don’t need a corporation to pay my bills. Which is crazy since I’ve been saying for years that people who can’t find a job should make a job. Saying it and jumping off into the deep end to do it is two different things though.

I’ll be going back to my regularly scheduled pay checks. I’m not ready to give them up yet. But maybe Gregg is right, and this is my opportunity to give it a go, even if it’s just for three weeks.

Influences of the past

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witch triloI finished The Witch’s Trilogy not so long ago, and I’m rather happy with how it came out. (Yes, there are four books because there is a prequel.)

Now I’m on to the next series, but I thought I’d share a little bit about the influence on the last series.

When I was a child my parents use to take us to the coast every summer. We’d camp out next to the ocean in an old tent, and I’d play on the sandy dunes, and hunt for sea shells in the rocks. I woke up each morning listening to the waves pounding against the shore, and went to sleep with the ocean breeze rocking the tent back and forth.

As a little girl trapped in long car rides with my sisters, and then stuck in the middle of no where with no TV or game console (I was a gamer even then) I didn’t appreciate those opportunities as much as I do now. Today I look forward to these long trips, and just take a kindle to keep me occupied.

While writing the Witch’s Trilogy I was able to draw on those memories. The smell of the ocean, the wind in my hair, the taste of the salt water and kelp. Since the Witch’s Trilogy is set in a group of islands that look a lot like the beaches I went to as a child.

I hope that the same experiences and influences can seep into my new series. She’s a fire sorceress, and there are fire breathing dragons, so I’ll be dreaming of camp fires, and burning logs. I’ll be remembering living in California during the major forest fires, and the inability to breath when the smoke got so thick. Not all memories we pull from need to be happy ones, after all.

Speaking of the past, I’m going to California to see my mom this weekend. I haven’t seen her since I left Cali. I miss her, and it’s going to be good to see her again.

timber1

 

What are you reading?

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I’ve been on a reading kick lately. readingMost of the books in the picture I read in the last couple weeks. I found a series I loved, started reading, and couldn’t stop.

The “Little Flame” series is an urban fantasy set on a rock star tour bus. It gets a little sexy at times, and there are a lot of great kick ass scenes. I’m half way through the series and each book gets better and better.

A few of the others are short stories from Annie Bellet. I love short stories. When they are really good they give you a glimpse of a world that makes you want to come back for more. All of Annie Bellet’s books do that for me. I love the fact that each one of her short stories is set in a different time and place giving you that window into new worlfs and ways of life. All but one of them had elements of fantasy though.

I just picked up her Once Upon a Curse, a short story dark fairytale collection. Can’t wait to read that.

What are you reading?

Dragon’s Flame

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WORKING COVER DRAGONThe working title and cover for my new book… at least the first book in the series.

This isn’t the final cover. While it wouldn’t be too terrible, the font isn’t great and it doesn’t say “fantasy” enough for me. I will be playing around with it a lot before the first book comes out. I still like the idea of a girl surrounded by flames, since she is a fire sorceress after all.

A few updates:

I am reworking a few chapters in “Witch’s Sacrifice”. There were a few people who read it who said one scene in the book made no sense, and made one of the characters just appear to be an idiot. I couldn’t disagree with them so I’ve been trying to figure out how to fix it since then. I finally did a few weeks ago (that’s right, it took me a year to figure out how to fix one plot point.) I’ve been rewriting it and will probably republish that book before the end of the month.

Dragon’s Flame… which I’m still not convinced on that name because it’s kind of generic… is coming along nicely. I’m 17 k into it, and I have a feeling it’s going to be about 50 when I’m done. Still not sure about that since I keep adding things to make it more interesting. (Why am I writing this? It seems so boring? I know, set something on fire!)

The original title was “Awaken the Dragon”. I might go back to it, but I’m not sure. It depends on some things. I have a feeling that there will be lots of tweaks and changes before I ever get to the publishing. I just needed a working cover to have something to visualize the book…for now.

What else?

I got a new job, and quit my old job. I have another week before moving on to the new job, and a four day vacation between the two. Lots of writing to be done there. The awesome part was that during the interview they asked me what I had done in the past that required a lot of dedication, without supervision, and no reward till the end of the project. WRITING! We chatted about my books for a few minutes in the interview. It was awesome!

I’ll give you guys another update in a few days.

Strong Female Characters

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I saw another post asking which stories could use strong female characters, and my answer probably wasn’t what they were looking for: None of them.

Now, before you get up in arms please hear me out, because I do have a reason behind it.

There are already a lot of wonderful books out there with strong female characters as the lead character. A short list:
Aurian by Maggie Furey
Rhapsody: Child of Blood by Elizabeth Haydon
The Hallows Series by Kim Harrison
Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
The Twenty Sided Sorceress by Annie Bellet
The Little Flame Series by Melissa Lummis
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
Magnificent Devices by Shelley Adina
White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
Several books in the Xanth Series by Piers Anthony
Anything by Anne McCaffery
Elvenbane by Andre Norton
Several books in the Wool Series by Hugh Howey
The Shambling Guides by Mur Lafferty
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Hit Girls by Garrett Robinson
Anything from the Buffy the Vampire universe.
Harper Collelly series by Charaine Harris.

And these are just the books that I know of because I’ve personally read them (or watched the movie in the case of Hunger Games). There are over 6,000 books in this list with strong female lead characters, many of which have been on best seller lists, or made into movies. And this isn’t even counting all the strong, wonderful women that play secondary roles in books like Kitiara from Dragonlance Chronicles, Catti-brie from the Dritzzt series, or Hermione from Harry Potter. That’s not even getting into comic books. And I’m sure there are thousands more that aren’t even in that list.

All of the stories in my list are sci-fi and fantasy. That’s because I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. But I also know a lot of strong female characters from paranormal romance. I also know of characters from other books, games, and films in many other genres that are strong female characters.

Am I saying we don’t need any more? Of course not, that would be like saying we don’t need more books. I really enjoy reading about strong women doing extraordinary things, and even wrote my own series of books with that in mind so I hope my favorite authors continue writing theirs. I also enjoy reading about mages that slowly go mad, or women who are hell cats and need to be tamed. There are all kinds of books out there, with all kinds of characters, because people come with different attitudes, desires, ideas, and personalities. But I would also encourage more authors to include strong female characters…IF they are a benefit to the story.

Not every story has a woman in it. What if you wrote a story about a man in a men’s shower room? Or a group of men going on a camping trip together? Or a father and son sharing a moment? Or a group of dwarves out to save their mountain? Not every story is going to have a strong female character in it. Not every story is going to have a woman in it. In fact when they added a strong female into The Hobbit some of the fans were less than thrilled with the addition.

A story isn’t always about sex, gender, political correctness, or whatever. Sometimes it’s just a story about a leaf blowing in the wind, or the history of salt, or vampire bunnies. And if a story doesn’t have a female character that doesn’t automatically make it anti-women. Hell, there could be a character in the story that is utterly sexist and the story still might not be about women.

My thought for those looking for strong female characters: Expand your reading list, because there are THOUSANDS of books out there with strong female characters, you just have to be open to finding them. And just so you know, MEN need strong male character role models, too. And both sexes need the ridiculously heroic characters, or the weak ones, or the the psychopathic murderous kings/queens to show them what not to be. It does not take away from your enjoyment of books/films/games/etc because the other sex also has what you are looking for.

And if you think any gender, or genderless, or gender fluid individual needs more characters like them out there: GO WRITE IT! That’s the beauty of the indy world. Anyone can make anything that they think should exist.

Dragons? Where?

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I’ve been really busy the last few weeks plotting and writing the first few chapters of my new series: “The Half-Blood Sorceress.”

I am so excited about this series! I first got the idea back at NorWesCon in the art gallery. I found an artist that had absolutely magnificent work. I mean he does paintings for several of the big publishers, he was that good. And at the bottom of his display was one loan painting. I overheard him talking to someone else about how he just had to paint that one night, even if it hadn’t found a home yet, be he was sure that the right author would come along to give it a story.

“You could write that, you know,” Gregg said.

“No, that covers too awesome for me,” I said, and kept walking.

Three feet down the hall and I looked up at him and said “You suck!”

“See,” he said, “told you that you had a story for that picture.”

Not a story, as it turns out. A whole SERIES! All based on this one painting, or rather the girl depicted there.

Of course, I asked the artist how much it would cost for me to use that as the cover… As it turns out, WAY more than I can afford at the moment. However, this painting is the one I need for book six, so there is still a chance I could do it. I just have to get writing, and see how things work out.

So what is this story about? A half-blood sorceress? What does that even mean?

Well that’s coming, but today I’m going to tell you a little bit about the world. First: a map. I’ve been working on it on and off for a while, but the world has no name yet. I would absolutely love my readers to name this world for me. And no, I won’t be naming it Mappy McMapface, sorry.

Dragon MapWhat should you know about this world? Here there be dragons! Four of them, in fact.

Nyasama – Earth dragon
Anulaer – Air dragon
Ningirsu – Water dragon
Alshadu – Fire dragon

Together, the four dragons created the world, then slept in various places around the new planet. Every now and then the dragons wake and travel about the planet they created in human form, interacting, causing mischief, or doing something extraordinary.

This book isn’t about the dragons, though they do have an influence on the world at large. No, the first book is about Sybel. She finds herself in an awful place in time, watching the mother she loved waste away, and then learning a horrible secret that thrusts her out into a world filled with magic and darkness that she did not know existed.

I am currently seeing how the first book goes. I’m already 14k into the initial writing, and loving the way it’s going. I want to write one book a month, with a month for editing, formatting, etc. I just have to see how I can handle it since I’ve never pushed myself to do something this massive before. I’m only looking at 50k words per book, but I haven’t even gotten a third of the way into this one so I have no idea if that estimate will fly right out the window.

All I know is, I love this world. I love the characters. And I love the story. I’m more passionate about this story than I have been about anything in a couple of years. I want to see it live, and I want others to love it too.

So look for more snippets about the world, and maybe some snippets from the actual novel soon.