I’m in the midst of rereading The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce. It’s the first proper fantasy novel I remember falling in love with–right around age 8. (I always read far above my grade level.) Although I read this book countless times growing up, it’s been many years since the last time I picked it up; it’s out of print, so you really have to hunt to find a copy. Nowadays, The Darkangel would probably be considered Young Adult, and it is written somewhat like a fairy tale with both sci-fi and fantasy elements.
There are two things that have struck me most in reading it again now. The first is surprise that I read this book at such a young age. It is by no means extraordinarily sophisticated, but even for the way I devoured books as a kid, I’m amazed I latched onto it as much as I did. Some of the themes, and most certainly some of the vocabulary, had to have gone way over my head.
But the second (and more interesting) thing that has struck me is just how influential this book turned out to be in retrospect. In it, I see elements of the types of novels I grew to love as I got older, as well as themes and story elements that have informed my own stories. I did not remember the book that way; I’m only seeing it now when something like a quarter of a century has passed since the last time I read it. There are allusions to old mythology and folklore; there are elements of sci-fi in a predominantly fantasy setting; there is a young heroine who takes matters into her own hands and tries to help those worse off than herself. Is it any wonder that I love Divergent or The Hunger Games? There are vampires who are more human than monster; there are terrifying creatures of night who feel and suffer as we all do; is it any wonder I love Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles or anything by Stephen King?
This whole affair has made me want to dig out other books from my youth and see what other stories informed the reader and writer I’ve become–apart from the most obvious ones, of course. I’d been wanting to reread The Darkangel for a long, long time, but I never expected the journey to be this fascinating.
I now have a profile on BingeBooks.com, and you can follow me there. I really like BingeBooks, both as an author and a reader. Other similar sites have always felt like work to me. BingeBooks is fun! 📚
I’m so excited to announce that Treasures and Trinkets: A Dragon’s Brood Tale is now available as an audiobook, narrated once again by the fabulous Reay Kaplan! It’s available now from Audible, and will be rolling out to other retailers.
Before she was a prisoner in Marianne’s crystal mines or just another face among the multitudes in the city of Seven Skies, Maddy had a different name and everything she could want—governesses, gowns, and gold to fill her pockets. And though she wasn’t the son her father had wanted, it was inevitable that one day she would inherit his title.
But Maddy’s predictable world is turned upside down when an extraordinary servant girl challenges everything she’s ever known; there’s a wider world beyond the comfortable confines of her castle, full of wonder and magic, and Maddy finds that the one thing she doesn’t have is the only thing she really needs.
I’m so excited to announce that Treasures and Trinkets: A Dragon’s Brood Tale is coming to audiobook this summer! I can’t wait to hear the marvelous Reay Kaplan bring one of my stories to life once again! 📚
I had fun doing this interview with RebellionLit.com, where we discussed my work and experiences as a blind author of fantasy fiction. Check it out, along with the other author interviews they’ve done! ✍️📚
I’m now participating in the Ask the Author program on GoodReads. You can check out the questions I’ve answered already and ask your own at this link. 📚
Every writer puts their heart and soul into every story; they chip away at the idea, plot, or characters, polishing each in turn until the end result is as good as they can make it, but it rarely ever shines as brightly on the page as it did in their imagination. Every writer longs for those rare occasions when, against all odds, they capture lightning in a bottle–when the story and its characters carries them off so completely that they forget they’re telling a story at all.
I’ve rarely loved anything I’ve written as much as I love this story, and I hope you’ll read it, whether or not you’re familiar with my other work.
Before she was a prisoner in Marianne’s crystal mines or just another face among the multitudes in the city of Seven Skies, Maddy had a different name and everything she could want—governesses, gowns, and gold to fill her pockets. And though she wasn’t the son her father had wanted, it was inevitable that one day she would inherit his title.
But Maddy’s predictable world is turned upside down when an extraordinary servant girl challenges everything she’s ever known; there’s a wider world beyond the comfortable confines of her castle, full of wonder and magic, and Maddy finds that the one thing she doesn’t have is the only thing she really needs.
I’m excited to be one of the fantasy authors contributing to this ridiculous project. Our Outrageous Fantasy is a chaotic, comedic web serial, in which each chapter is written by a different author, and only the previous chapter is guaranteed to be canon. It’s a bit like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, except with more talking cows.
The project is being organized by the folks over at The Fantasy Inn. I hope you’ll check it out! The first three chapters have been released, and they’re a hoot.
A common service that authors (especially indies) will provide to their fans is an email newsletter they can subscribe to in order to get notified of new releases, works in progress, and so on. For the last couple of years, I’ve been struggling to find one that was accessible enough for my purposes. (I’m blind and use a screen reader to operate tech.) I tried a few services that were well-known and reputable, but they were all severely lacking in accessibility. Just how inaccessible was shocking in some cases.
I came away from the endeavor figuring that I’d either need to use sighted assistance or roll my own solution–a prospect I didn’t particularly relish. So the whole project was put on the backburner for a little while.
Recently, a service that I’d not previously heard of began advertising on several RelayFM podcasts. DirectMailMac.com is different from the other services I’d tried in several ways, but the most key was that they use an application (macOS) rather than a web interface, to build and manage your mailing list.
With no expectations of success, I decided I’d at least check the service out and see if it was usable at all. I downloaded the application and began to explore.
At first, I was pleasantly surprised. All controls were labeled properly and accessible. In 2020, this should be the minimum apps are shipped with, but sadly, many developers won’t even put in that relatively trivial amount of effort. All the basics worked though, and I was becoming cautiously optimistic.
The real surprise came when I tried to build an email. This is generally done in these kinds of mailing list services by drag-and-dropping chunks of content around to create your formatted newsletter. That’s fine when you can see what you’re doing, but not ideal when you can’t—particularly if you want the result to be visually attractive in the end.
DirectMail’s macOS app detects if you are running VoiceOver (the Mac’s built-in screen reader) and, when you add new content blocks to your email, offers a UI that walks you through the process of properly placing it in relation to other blocks already there.
“Do you want this block of social media links above the footer text or below the spacer?” “Do you want this new text block to appear in the first or second column?” It’s all quite intuitive. You can even add descriptions to images embeded in your newsletter for visually impaired subscribers.
I have no idea what prompted this company to put this level of work into making sure their app was not just accessible but a great and fully usable experience for VoiceOver users, but I love them for it! I wish more companies would put that kind of time and effort into making sure all their users had a superb experience.
As a result, I’m preparing to relaunch my own author newsletter–and the best part is, I can design and write it fully independently! If this is a service you have a need for, I cannot recommend DirectMailMac.com highly enough.
Entering the final phase before release of a new story is both the best and the worst. The excitement and anticipation is awesome; ironing out all the technical bits and pieces is tedious. The upcoming release is one of my favorite things I’ve written. Can’t wait to share! ✍🏼📚
One of the most difficult things to deal with as a blind author is book cover design. Entrusting the “face” of your work to someone and never entirely knowing whether the final product fits within the theme inside your head is frustrating and stressful. ✍🏼📚
I’ve just finished the second draft of a Dragon’s Brood short story that I’m probably prouder of than anything I’ve ever written. That’s kind of a scary place to be, though. ✍🏼😱📚
Today, NaNoWriMo starts in earnest for me. Good luck to everyone participating this year. I have several pieces in the works and coming soon. Thanks to all my readers for their continued support. 💜📚✍🏼
I created a music playlist available on Apple Music or Spottify. Check out today’s stop. on The Dragon’s Brood Cycle audiobook tour for commentary on each selection. 📚🎵
