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Top Ten Tuesday: Questions I Would Ask My Favorite Authors

Terry Pratchett

Time for another Top Ten Tuesday, because it’s… Tuesday.

I know I have been quiet for the past couple of weeks, but for once I have a good excuse, since I have been busy working. I promise you’ll soon get your weekly dose of owl photos again, but today you’ll have to make do with the weekly book blog prompt hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the topic is Questions I Would Ask My Favorite Authors. I tried coming up with something different to the usual tired writing interview questions, so there won’t be any “Where do you get your inspiration from?” or “Do you ever get writer’s block?” chatter here.

Here we go!

Terry PratchettTerry Pratchett


“What’s the weirdest thing that ever happened to you?”

“Which Discworld character do you most identify with?”

“Are any of your characters based on real people? And if so, were those people pissed when they found out?”

“What do you think of the adaption of Good Omens?”

George R R MartinGeorge R. R. Martin


“Have you ever regretted killing a character?”

“Have you ever regretted NOT killing a character?”

“Do you ever wish you could transport ungrateful fans to Westeros and let them fend for themselves?”

Agatha ChristieAgatha Christie


“If you were going to commit murder yourself… How would you do it?”

“And where would you hide the body?”

J K RowlingJ. K. Rowling


“What the hell is wrong with you…?”

 

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Broken Melody Releases on 10th September

Broken Melody Book Cover Graphic

Yep, Broken Melody will be out on 10th September as both ebook and paperback.

Hopefully some of you out there are looking forward to reading the fifth book in the Angel’s Voice series… because someone has to pay for all the caffeine that’s gone into writing it. Really, I was basically vibrating through the last few chapters.

Dangerous caffeine levels aside, I’m really excited to get this book out there. I’m on a roll and already halfway through the first draft of the aixth book in the series, and spoilers, I somehow managed to sneak a dragon into the plot.

I really love dragons, guys.

Anyway! 10th September, mark your calendars. Dragons, people.

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Colors in the Titles

Color Book Covers

Due to a couple of crazily busy weeks, I have skipped a few Top Ten Tuesdays, but now I’m back!

This week’s prompt by That Artsy Reader Girl is Books with Colors in the Titles. I decided to only choose books I have either read already or that are on my TBR list, and let me tell you: The task turned out harder than I had expected! Which is why I stretched the definition a little by including things like metals and gems as colors.

I guess my taste in books is just not that colorful…


The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Okay, it might not have the name of a color in the title, but it does have a color! Of course it’s Octarine, the eight color of the rainbow and the color of magic, but just because it’s a fictional color does not mean it doesn’t count.

(No, I’m not trying to justify borderline cheating with this list. What are you talking about?)

A Darker Shade of Magic V. E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab

Look, if The Colour of Magic counts, so does this…

I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

The Midnight in this title refers to a shade of black that the protagonist Tiffany Aching intends to wear when she gets old.

City of Brass S. A. Chakraborty

Kingdom of Copper S. A. Chakraborty

Kingdom of Copper S. A. Chakraborty

The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty

Metals are often used to refer to certain colors, so the books in the Daevabad Trilogy totally count.

The Black Prism Brent Weeks

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

This might just be the only book on this list that irrefutably belongs on it!

Jade City Fonda Lee

Jade City by Fonda Lee

Jade is green. End of story.

Blackwing Ed McDonald

Blackwing by Ed McDonald

Blackwing has got ‘Black’ in it, right?

Red Country Joe Abercrombie

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

I had to scour Amazon for a last book to add to this list, so I guess I have to read this now…


So, tell me: Did you guys also have to cheat ever so slightly to fit ten books on this list?
Please tell me I’m not the only one!

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July’s Book Haul

July Book Haul Fantasy

Okay… I know I already bought a ridiculous amount of books in June, and shouldn’t be buying more any time soon, but it’s not my fault! What else am I going to do when my mom says she has free shipping and a 15% discount code and asks if I want some books added to her order?

But mind you, there’s only 7 books on July’s list.

(Luckily, the 9 I bought on August 1st doesn’t count yet.)

July Book Haul Fantasy

The books I got were:

  • The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty
  • The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty
  • The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant
  • Truckers by Terry Pratchett
  • Diggers by Terry Pratchett
  • Wings by Terry Pratchett
  • War of the Spark: Forsaken by Greg Weisman

As usual, there’s some Terry Pratchett in the haul, as well with some sequels to books I read in June. Oh, and one new author!

Daevabad Trilogy

I enjoyed S. A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass, so of course I had to get the last two books in the Daevabad Trilogy, The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold. And they’re beautiful, but it’s going to drive me absolutely crazy that The Empire of Gold isn’t the same height as the first two books…

The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold

The Court of Miracles

I believe Kester Grant is a debut author, and I look forward to reading her first book, The Court of Miracles. It promises criminal guild wars and personal drama in a Paris where the French Revolution failed, and I’m so in for that.

The Court of Miracles Kester Grant

The Bromeliad

July’s Terry Pratchett purchase was the Bromeliad books, one of his YA series. And for once I got a matching set!

It won’t be long before I own all of Pratchett’s books, but the next time I buy any, I will have to clear another shelf for this author…

(He already got two full shelves.)

The Bromeliad Terry Pratchett

War of the Forsaken

I continue my quest to learn about Magic: The Gathering lore with War of the Spark: Forsaken by Greg Weisman, the sequel to War of the Spark: Ravnica. This one is focused on hunting down the narcisstic necromancer Leliana Vess, and I have always had a certain weakness for necromancers…

War of the Spark: Forsaken Greg Weisman

That’s it, guys! Stay tuned for August’s book haul post, which will include half the contents of the discount boxes in Boghallen in Copenhagen…

Now, I’m off to rearrange my bookshelves!

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Editing at the Louring House

Editing Owl

As you might be aware, I’m currently hard at work, either editing Broken Melody or procrastinating from editing Broken Melody.

My editing process usually involves three rounds of going through the book myself before handing it over to beta readers.

Each time I read the draft I change the font and font size of the book. If the text looks different every time, you tend to catch different mistakes on each read-through. This time around I even went as far as to betray everything I stand for as a web and graphic designer and did one round of editing in Comic Sans.

Shudder

No one can say I haven’t suffered for this book.

But I also change the way I edit every time.

The first round is basically just a read-through where I replace all the placeholders and go through my editing notes on what to fix. It’s the round that takes the draft from a complete trainwreck that only I understand, to something actually resembling a book.

The second round (where I’m currently at) is where I read the entire book out loud to catch weird phrasing. This would be very simple, if I didn’t live with a tiny, judgmental owl that insists on giving his input. My reading today has sounded like this:

“Orrell tackled her to the gound as the explosion went off — shut up — shielding her with his body as the ceiling — shut up — above the door blew to pieces and — jesus christ, Artemis, mind your own business!”

My window is open, so I’m fairly certain my neighbors think I’m insane.

Editing Owl

The third and last round before throwing the damn book at the beta readers is simply running it through grammar software like Grammarly and ProWritingAid, and have a computer tell me how crappy my writing is. But unlike with Artemis, these judgmental bastards at least give me suggestions on how to fix it.

That’s a general overview of my editing process.

And, of course, it’s important to remember to procrastinate by stopping in the middle of editing to write a blog post about editing!