Inspiration is a fickle b*tch

I wish I could turn inspiration on and wedge something in there so that it stays on.  My brain would probably end up overloading and explode, but it’d be nice for a while.  Actually, it’s not so much the inspiration I need as the ability to get inspiration to let me get something out onto paper with a bit more speed.

    I wrote THE BATTLE SYLPH in a month.  Mind you, I was deployed for the first half of that and on course for the second, which meant I had nothing else to do in the evening other than go to the bar.  I wrote THE SHATTERED SYLPH in a month and a half.  THE QUEEN OF THE SYLPHS took three months.  I wrote WAR OF THE SYLPHS in seven months and HUNTER OF THE SYLPHS topped them all at ten months.  

    I’d probably take less time if I spent less time being distracted.  Until such time as I have a few books on the bestsellers’ list, I work full time and my job is demanding enough that I’m usually too tired to do more than play computer games in the evening.  I also get distracted by the knitting of sweaters and socks and the reading of books.  Good thing I don’t have cable or I’d be staring at that for hours on end too.  

    Right now, I’m not writing a Sylph book.  I’m working on another trilogy in a different fantasy universe.  The first book is called THE CUCKOO and took five months to get the initial draft out.  The second is titled THE HOMUNCULUS and is currently half done and mocking me as I speak.  Book three, THE REVENANT, is a distant torment on the horizon.  The vast majority of these books have been written in the forty-five minutes or so I have between when I get to work and when I actually start my shift.  Never thought I’d be grateful to car pooling.    

    These have been some of the hardest books for me to write.  My first drafts in a new universe are usually… confused.  I’m making up the world as I go alone, refining and enriching it, and as I add bits, I end up contradicting things I said earlier.  I usually catch them all before the book even goes to the editor and if I don’t, someone else catches them before they go to print.  If someone tried to read THE CUCKOO right now, they’d probably throw it away in confusion and wonder what I was smoking.  

    My grand plan this weekend, like it is every weekend, is to ‘get some serious writing done’.  I’m up to 596 words for the day and I’m writing a blog entry instead.  A vaguely whiny blog entry….  I know where I want to go with this book, or rather, I know the highlights and the ending.  It’s the getting there that’s being a problem.

    I assume if someone’s bothering to read this, they read THE BATTLE SYLPH and possibly THE SHATTERED SYLPH.  I don’t plot my books. Not in the traditional sense.  Outlines kill inspiration for me dead, so it’s all in my head, usually in the form of flashes of specific scenes I want to see.  When I started THE BATTLE SYLPH, I had three images in my head.  One was of a man leaping off a sheer cliff and everyone screaming as he changed shape.  Another was of a cottage exploding and a bird of prey streaking past a living cloud whose teeth closed right behind his tail.  I also saw a slim bald man standing behind a throne with a king cringing in it, and the slim man was laughing without making a sound.  The whole plot of the first book was to get to those points in time.  

    I had the same sorts of things in my head for THE SHATTERED SYLPH.  Leon leaning back against a door, Ril standing almost against him and drinking his energy.  Ril high above the ground, upside down and rotating in midair above something horrible.  Lizzy dancing in a translucent dress.  Leon riding Ril in the form of a horse.  It’s like I’ve seen the trailer to a movie, which is a bit hard to deal with when you’re the one writing the movie.

    I have these flicks in time for THE CUCKOO, THE HOMUNCULUS, and THE REVENANT too.  I even have them for two more Sylph books that I’ll be writing once I have this trilogy done.  It’s just coming out so slowly.  I don’t think a reader can tell the difference between a scene it took me twenty minutes to write and one that took two weeks, but I want it to come out now.  I want to see my lead male Goose running along the top of that train I know he will be on, knowing he has to get off of it before it’s too late.  I can see the gates to Alkara and the army marching on it.  I want to get there.  

I can see what’s going to happen in the next two Sylph books too.  That little earth sylph standing in the laboratory is just waiting for me to find her.  Just as I can see a woman riding a blue-furred monster across the Shale Plains, the wind streaming her hair back.  She’s grinning at me.  That’s not going to last, given what I know will happen to her when she gets to where she’s going.

    I can’t wait to get to the scene with Thrall and the horse.

    I’ve started meeting other authors, thanks to the Ottawa Chapter of the Romance Writer’s Association.  I need to ask them how they get this stuff out of their heads when its there, and they can see it, and it just doesn’t want to come out as quickly as they need it to.  

    Maybe I need to lock myself away in a secret room somewhere with no computer games or knitting or reading or eating or internet or work to distract me.  

    Nah...  If I did that I’d probably just write more blog entries.

PS: Before anyone gets too excited, I haven’t sold any of these books yet, other than the first three Sylph books.  I’d like to, but I’d write them regardless.  Don’t ask me when they’ll be available. Until a publisher buys them and tells me, I don’t know.  You’d be better off asking them. :)

The Battle Sylph is now available in Canada!

For reasons I’m not entirely sure of, it took three weeks for my book to come out in Canada.  But it’s out now!  THE BATTLE SYLPH is now available for sale at Chapters and hopefully other fine bookstores everywhere.

As as aside, hey, Torin.  Yes, I was who I said I was.  :)

A Dude Reads PNR: Harry reads the Battle Sylph by L.J. McDonald

I found this review from The Book Smugglers website and it really made my day.  They’ve given me permission to reprint it here.

By Ana on February 25, 2010

Filed under: 8 Rated Books, A Dude Reads PNR, Book Reviews

Tags: Fantasy, Harry Markov, Paranormal Romance, Romance

This is our brand new segment in which our delightful buddy Harry, from Temple Library Reviews will be joining us once a month to review paranormal romance from a guy’s perspective. But we will let him introduce himself, please let’s give a warm welcome to Harry!

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Harry: I’m the newest honorary addition to the Book Smugglers team [honest to God, I smuggle books home and then lie straight to my family's face about it]. I get the chance to play here at their blog once a month and my small spot will be called ‘A Dude Reads PNR’. The idea came to be in December, when I posted my Sherilyn Kenyon review and people were interested to see the male POV about Paranormal Romance. The public demands, the attention whore (that’s me) begs, and the smugglers comply.

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Title: The Battle Sylph
Author: L.J. McDonald
Genre: Romantic Fantasy / PNR

Publisher: Dorchester Publishing
Publishing Date: 23.02.2010
MMP: 323 pages [in the ARC]

Stand Alone or series: First book in a new series

He is one of many: a creature of magic, unrelentingly male. He is lured through the portal by pure female beauty, a virgin sacrifice. When she is killed, he is silenced and enslaved.

Such a dark ritual is necessary, you see. Unlike their elemental cousins-those gentler sylphs of wind and fire-Battlers find no joy in everyday labor. Their magic can destroy an army or demolish a castle, and each has but one goal: find a Queen, then protect and pleasure her at all costs. What would a woman do if she were given such a servant, and what would befall any kingdom foolish enough to allow a Battler to escape?

Young Solie and the people of Eferem are about to find out.

Why did I read the book: The premise sounded intriguing. Ana sounded ecstatic and when her reader-sense is tingling, it means something good will happen. The cover is also mucho impressive with those glowing eyes and the woman sprawled below the title. Certainly a looker that one.

How did I get the book: Ana [book-pimp extraordinaire] tied it to a balloon and asked a flock of geese to deliver it to me. That is a lie, but it would have taken less than with snail mail post.

Review:

My christening review for this mighty feature has not been the funny and good-feel bang I hoped for. To be quite honest ‘Circle of Fire’ shoved me outside in a blizzard. I needed a book to turn the heat up, burn down the house and fire me up. Thankfully ‘The Battle Sylph’ is just the right novel to help you lower your heating bills and is way better than the hot-water bottle you bring to bed. Every page is soaked with either adrenaline or naughty kerosene for the nether regions… of your imagination [naturally, what did you guys think I was going to say?]

Did I hook you? I hope so. Because, there’s much to enjoy in ‘The Battle Sylph’. As the genre suggests this is romantic fantasy, so no leather boots, guns, mean SUVs and vampires or any other standard magical race. Instead, we have swords, sturdy warriors, a queen and a race of spirits, who can become corporal and incorporeal, whenever they please. While it is true that fantasy hosts a romantic subplot almost always, the way the sex scene is mandatory for every single major Hollywood, the relationship usually remains in the background and is not central for the conflict. And it is not steamy, either.

‘The Battle Sylph’ offers the best from the medieval traditional fantasy with its quests, parties of brave heroes with a noble cause and a dastardly nemesis figure, while merging it with quite the liberated sexual attitude and a central relationship, which triggered the events in the book. The balance is solid and achieved by integrating sex into the worldbuilding, which evades the hazard of this becoming a book, where sex randomly flies around and is neither relevant, nor of any use to the plot. As the reader [you, because you have to have this book] discovers, the sylphs are spirits from a different plain, which live together in hives and divide into several subspecies, according to their status and function in the hive. There are elemental sylphs. Fire, water, earth, air. There are healing sylphs and there are also battle sylphs otherwise called the battlers. Every subspecies, excluding the battle sylphs, are female. The battlers are the soldiers in the hive and exist for war and sex, since they are the only males. The sole female to receive their affections is the queen of the hive, which makes them highly competitive and aggressive towards each other. The mythos in ‘The Battle Sylph’ helps the reader identify the mutual traits and the justification behind the behavior of all the battlers in the novel such as Heyou, the youngest battler and main protagonist, Ril and Mace. The dynamics and the hierarchy are fascinating to rediscover, because sylphs in general have no known mythological and popular role attached to them and this rendition steals the show, so to say.

Because sylphs in general require a connection with a human master in order to exist in the human world, the novel is rich in diverse relationship dynamics and scenarios. Beyond the usual human-human interaction with all the classic elements and tropes, such as friendship, betrayal, loyalty, subordination and defilement, readers are also treated to mandatory master-sylph episodes, which are as diverse as the individual characters. McDonald features cold hearted masters with a sadistic streak towards their sylphs, benign masters with a liberal mind, who break some rules and grant some freedoms to their sylphs and masters, who stray away from established models and allow their sylphs to act as they wish, relying on cooperation rather than servitude.

Although Solie and Heyou are the central couple, a queen with her battle sylph, their roles and the story attached to them would ring a bell. Solie is the first woman to break a monopolized by men tradition, by being bound to a battle sylph. Heyou is the young inexperienced battler, who must stand against many a challenge. That aside, the chemistry between these two feels very much real and volatile. However, the real emotional intensity lies in the human-sylph interactions between Leon, the king’s head of security and a dirty trick man, and his battler Ril and Jasar, member of the spoiled elite with many connections and an insufferable ego, and his battler Mace. Leon and Ril walk on the path of guilt, redemption and forgiveness, after it becomes clear that the female sacrifice used in the summoning ritual was actually the reason the battlers crossed plains and her death results in madness for the sylph and hatred towards the master, who remains clueless. Leon’s devastation upon learning the truth is raw and heartfelt, while Ril’s hatred and painful denial is also powerful to read. Mace is less fortunate with his master Jasar, whom you would love to hate and kill, if you were a character in the story. Mace has to endure his master’s depravations, toxic and demanding personality and amoral orders in silence; a bond from which he cannot escape and threatens to add a horrific twist in the resolution.

As you see, ‘The Battle Sylph’ is the Horn of Plenty. From page one you are assaulted with so many flavors, excitement and adventures that you may need some time to adjust. This is my issue with the book. It is taking a non-stop staccato story and playing it double time. There are almost no natural pauses for the reader to rest and by the end of the journey, I was as exhausted as the characters and mind you, I never even had to raise a sword or survive almost certain annihilation. This unnatural speed to dash to the finish line coupled with the lightning quick POV changes might result in some confusion, but overall these two issues do not steal from the quality of the storytelling, prose or creative prowess.

Verdict: I wanted to be sassy, humorous and witty, but quite frankly writing this review sapped completely. There are at least a few thousand words more I wanted to say, but this is a review and not a thesis. In a few words though, ‘The Battle Sylph’ is a winner for sure. A power exercise for your brain’s endurance, but the benefits outweigh the minor inconveniences along the way.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Roving Readers is featuring me

I was contacted last week by the very nice people who run the RAVING READERS blogspot, which is apparently the place to go to get reviews of romance and paranormal novels and find recommendations.  They also have contests where people can win free books, which always strikes me as a good thing to be getting.

They’ve just started a new feature where they focus on a single author for a week, and they asked me if I wanted to join in.  I’m not a complete idiot, so for this entire week, you can go to their site and read reviews, see an interview with me,  get sneak previews of the prologues of my first three books and even a hint of other books beyond them.  Best of all, you get a chance to win one of six copies of THE BATTLE SYLPH up for grabs. 

The page that’s focused on me is located here.  The rest of the site is worth visiting though, so I certainly don’t mind plugging them one bit.  Not that they asked.  I just like them.  :)

Review

This is a review of THE BATTLE SYLPH from Amazon.com. I have permission from the author to post it. Thanks, Kellie.


Briefly, this is the first time I've written a review for a product sold by Amazon. I am not in the book industry (I still keep up a weekly romance newsletter I started while at the bookstore) though I spent a little over 21 years working for a major national bookstore chain, and during that time I was a District Romance Expert. I have been fortunate to see the Romance book genre evolve and take on new branches like Erotic Romance and Paranormal Romance (the latter sprouting the Urban Fantasy sub-genre). I've seen authors come and go and stay. All my experience in the bookselling world tells me L. J. McDonald is here to stay, so keep an eye on her, for she is an author that will not only stay but will soar.

I loved reading her debut book THE BATTLE SYLPH. The setting of the story is on an Earth-like planet inhabited by humans. There is another dimension parallel to this where the Sylphs, elemental creatures, live. There is a doorway between the two dimensions called gates. The humans have found a way to open the gates and entice a Sylph through, who then becomes a slave to the human. When a Sylph crosses the gate, it is bonded with a man--only men are allowed to bond with a Sylph, for those in power feel a woman is too weak to handle a Sylph. There are several types of Sylphs: Battle Sylphs or "warriors", Fire Sylphs, Water Sylphs, Air Sylphs and Earth Sylphs. As their name describes, they are used to fight, warm and produce light, manipulate water, air and earth. Battle Sylphs are all male. In their elemental world they are the protectors of communities called "hives" and a mate for the queens of each hive. They are naturally predisposed to hate all other males of any species, and this hatred and their supernatural strength and abilities are what are attractive to the humans.


Every Battle Sylph desires a queen and a hive of their own. The humans take advantage of this by enticing a Battle Sylph through the gate with a virgin sacrifice tied to an alter table where the gate opens. All the Battle Sylph sees is his "queen" and he cannot resist crossing the gate to her. As soon as the Battle Sylph comes through the gate, it is closed and the man who wants to bond with the Battle Sylph kills the woman and the gate closes. The Battle Sylph becomes a slave to the man who kills the girl. The man "names" the Battle Sylph and from then on the Battle Sylph has to obey him. The Battle Sylphs are told what shape to assume, a hawk, a suite of armor, a lion, etc, and they are forbidden to change or speak to anyone, including their masters and other Sylphs. Their hatred for their bonded human, the killer of their queens, is palpable, and is strong enough to physically affect anyone near them.


The king holds a ceremony to entice a Battle Sylph across the gate to bond with his son, but something goes wrong and the virgin sacrifice, a girl named Solie, doesn't get killed. Rather, it's the prince that is killed by the Battle Sylph, and Solie unwittingly names the Battle Sylph when she tries to get his attention by calling to him, "Hey, you". He is now Heyou. Solie and her Battle Sylph are on the run with the King's men and their Battle Sylphs in pursuit. Solie and Heyou find a refuge with a budding community, and life as everyone knows it is on the brink of change.


Paranormal Romance has evolved in the past few years, looking for new branches on the Paranormal tree. First there were vampires and werewolves, then other shifters, then mixtures of different creatures, then Dragons and now demons (rightly so, these guys are hot; just check out Kate Douglas' DEMONFIRE Demonfire: The Demonslayers). McDonald's innovative world in this debut book, the first in a series, is so simple yet it achieves what many authors try to reach--a back story and characters you do not see in other books--and one wonders why no one has thought of it before. Yes, elements of her Sylph world may be seen in other books and even movies, but the way McDonald treats these elements is refreshing. Her prose is fast and though not all of her characters are likable (bad guys are not meant to be liked), each one is completely fleshed out, and the ones that are the "good guys" and even some on the fence are so interesting I wish I could meet them.


Dorchester Publishing categorizes THE BATTLE SYLPH as Fantasy/Romance and RT Book Reviews has its review under Fantasy (website only). There are a few sex scenes but these are more descriptive than literal. Certainly, compared to the heat level that current romances of the day are reaching in General Romance, this book is a light weight. Personally, I'd like to see more romantic interaction between the hero and the heroine, and the sex scenes described a bit more, but that is my personal preference, and McDonald has treated the sex scenes in the book very tastefully and each one is meaningful to the story and the make up of the characters involved.


McDonald has written a solid debut book. As with any debut book there is always room for improvement, but McDonald is way ahead of the norm. Her characters and the worlds in which they live are obviously well thought out. The tantalizing glimpses of future romances and intrigues whet the reader's appetite. With this book she has made me laugh and cry. If you love Paranormal Romance and you are looking for a new branch of the sub-genre to explore, pick up THE BATTLE SYLPH. This is the type of book you dread finishing because you like the characters and their world so much you wish to live in it forever (like Avatar). McDonald with THE BATTLE SYLPH has my highest stamp of approval. I can't wait to read the next story, THE SHATTERED SYLPH (Apr. 2010)The Shattered Sylph, about Lizzie and Ril.

Review

Friday, February 19, 2010

News and Reviews

Well, it’s almost the release date for my first book. I had meant to have more blog entries in the past while, but I was having issues with my computer. It didn’t want me to save anything for this site without crashing, but the problem is fixed now.


I’ve been receiving a lot of good press about the book. Apparently, Dorchester sent out a 125 early copies to reviews and websites, and everyone seems to like it. At least everyone I’ve heard about. It’s a tremendously affirming feeling to have my work be genuinely liked. Romantic Times has given it four and a half stars, as has the Blogpushers Blog. It’s going to be talked about in a German magazine and featured at the RT Clubhouse’s Debut Corner.


The reviews themselves I’ll put on my Reviews page. I’m starting to get really excited!