What Five WIPs Looks Like

Last Monday on Insta, I mentioned I was working on 5 WIPs at once...

Because I hate myself, apparently. 😂😂😂

But the awesome news is that 5 WIPs means there are 5 books in the works that you will eventually get to read! So there's that!

Most of my focus (I have a firm >2k a day rule in effect) goes toward Dragon Slayer: 

“Shall I fetch you a tray from the kitchens?”

Val sagged back and let the bed hold his weight. What about his studies? His lessons with the other boys? His training and exercise and endless archery lessons?

Deep down, he knew the answers to these questions. Lessons and training were for hostages who would be sent home. Wards turned carefully to allies who could return to their kingdoms and principalities to rule as puppets of the empire.

Meals in bed and slave-drawn baths were the indulgences of mistresses.

Of a ruler’s favored pet. 

He closed his eyes. His stomach growled. “A tray, please,” he whispered.

But there's also this:

After an indeterminate number of minutes, garage noise echoing around them like the world’s worst soundtrack, Michael said, “Situation.” It wasn’t a question – he didn’t care enough for it to be one.

And this:

“We need to get on the road,” Fox said. “We can’t linger. I won’t ask you to come with us…but I wish you would.”

“Ah. You don’t have to be worried about an old man. No one wants anything to do with me.”

Fox straightened. “Fine. Suit yourself.” He heard the hard edge in his voice but couldn’t get it under control. Frustration built like heartburn in his chest. Why was this old bastard so stubborn? Just like Dad. Were they all like this? Maybe the world would be a better place without them.

And this:

If Nikita clenched his jaw any tighter, he thought it might crack. Dima had always called him a martyr. He’d said it fondly, usually followed it up with a light smack to the back of his head. And Nikita knew that he was.

Lanny wasn’t wrong, but Nikita wanted to punch him in the face anyway. Maybe because he was right.

And this:

Her skin prickled, goosebumps rippling down her arms. “You’ve said that.”

“I’m saying it again. It’s dangerous.” His eyes: big, dark…scared.

Softer: “Tommy, I know. I’m getting involved willingly.”

One corner hitched up in an attempted smile. “I wouldn’t have asked you to risk yourself and get involved if it wasn’t really important.”

“I know that, too.”

“At…at some point. Okay, this is important.” He fidgeted. “So listen, okay?” He waited for her to nod. “At some point, I’m gonna tell you to let go.”

She waited for him to explain.

He said, “And when I tell you that, I need you to let go. No questions, just do it.”

“Let go of what?”

“You’ll know. Trust me.” He set the cup down and slid gracefully to his feet, grabbed his jacket off the back of the booth.

He was leaving. This was really happening, and he was leaving, and she was about to go back her things, and go to a safehouse, and –

“Tommy?”

He flipped his collar straight and tossed a handful of bills down on the table. The nervous vulnerability he’d shown was concealed now, his mask firmly back in place.

“When will I see you next?”

He grinned, his sharp bad boy grin. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll find you.” Then he turned and ducked out the back.

Jodi took a long moment staring at their dirty dishes, just breathing.

“Well,” she finally said to herself. “Guess it’s time to get started.”

(To clarify, this is NOT the Tommy from Dartmoor. It's another book/universe entirely) 

Truth told, I actually like having multiple projects going. When I start to feel stuck with one, I can jump to another. In any event, there's lots to look forward to!

Just Some Author Things

Hello, good morning! By the time I finally finish writing this, it will probably be afternoon, but we'll cross that timetable bridge when we get to it! 

This is a post I've been wanting to write for a while - in fact, it's one I think I might need to write - but hadn't worked it into my schedule yet. I had a comment exchange on my FB page this weekend, and it underlined my urge to write this. Please, if the commenter is reading this, please know that I am not at all upset or offended, nor do I want to call you out; our exchange gives me a chance to examine my own thoughts and feelings, and hopefully address many questions/requests/concerns all at once. I tend to get asked similar questions frequently, across all my social media platforms, and I thought a blog post might be a great way to not only get everyone on the same page, but also to shed some light on the book publishing industry in general, and my approach to authorship specifically. I think authors across the board like to peel back the curtain and shed light on their processes and reasoning, but I still think there are some misconceptions about what authors can reasonably do, and what we should be expected to do. 

Some things I hear all the time:

"Will you write a book for X character getting his HEA?"

"I wish you'd made this longer."

"I hate/refuse to read stories in installments."

"Can you put this in audio?"

Author Update - 7/31/18

So...I haven't blogged in over a month. Yikes. In case there's anyone who does all their following of me here, and avoids other social media (I don't blame you), I thought I would update everyone on all things happening in my fictional life. 

(If you DO like social media, you can find me most often on Instagram: @hppress. That's where I do book recs, writing progress reports, and sometimes force people to look at my face in between horse and flower photos)

My next scheduled release is 10/31: Dragon Slayer, Sons of Rome Book Three, which I'll talk about in detail a little later, under the "read more" cut.

That means you've got three months to get all caught up with White Wolf and Red Rooster.  The Sons of Rome series is my main writing focus right now; it's a mashup of all my favorite elements of fiction: paranormal creatures, world history, and an epic fantasy-style timeline. 

The release date for Part Three of Prodigal Son is a bit up in the air at the moment. DS is research- and time-intensive, and working on PS is, by contrast, a frustrating, unrewarding effort. I'm still picking away at it, but I'm not going to let it derail or push back progress on Slayer. 

I've also got a few (tiny) fledgling projects floating around on my computer that I refer to as the "Penname Projects." Stories I hope to eventually finish and release under a pen name in the hopes of giving them a fair chance to stand on their own merit. 

As for Dragon Slayer...

#MusicMonday 6/18

Currently listening to:

This killer Imagine Dragons mashup.

 - Found via this killer Marvel fanvid.

"Good to You" - Colum Scott   - currently being used in an AmEx commercial, and really love it.  

"The Wolf" - Siames 

"God's Gonna Cut You Down Remix" - totally a Sons of Rome song pick

"The Man" - Ed Sheeran 

"Judas" - Lady Gaga - another SoR pick 

First Look: #DragonSlayer

A first look at Sons of Rome book three, Dragon Slayer, due out this fall. (2,555 words). 

Dragon Slayer

Copyright © 2018 by Lauren Gilley

All Rights Reserved

Val couldn’t suppress a yawn as Mother tugged his nightshirt down over his head.

She chuckled. “My sleepy little prince tonight, hm? Too much fun today?” She smoothed his shoulder-length hair down with several long, gentle passes of her hand.

“Mama, it was amazing,” he declared, going limp and flopping backward on the bed. “They were so beautiful. And the way they moved.” He lifted a hand and swept it through the air in demonstration. “Can I be an acrobat?”

“Well.” She lifted his legs and tucked them beneath the covers, pulled the blankets up to his chin. “You’re already a prince, and I think that’s pretty special, don’t you?”

He made a face.

The Questionable Morality

The Questionable Morality

I think it's no secret by this point that I like to poke fun at what I call the "morality police" critics of my writing; the ones who think that my characters ought to typify what they personally deem as "good" and "correct" behavior and ideologies. Those critics are SOL. But I did receive a comment on my Maggie post - "thank goodness morality has no place in your writing" - that left me wanting to clarify some points about fiction in general, and my writing in particular. 

Firstly, I'm glad said reader wholeheartedly agrees with my approach! But I would like to say that I don't believe morality "has no place." Rather, I strive not to put my morality off onto fictional characters who are nothing like me, and who are not fictional representations of the way I interact with the world. Because my books are about the characters in them - they are not about me, they are not about my readers, and they are not about pushing a particular moral viewpoint off onto others. I would argue that all of my characters, even the truly dark ones, have their own morality codes. It's cliché, but "a man's got to have a code," you know? But those characters' codes don't necessarily align with my own, or those of my readers. 

I've talked at length before about my belief that fiction should serve as a window rather than a mirror, so I won't go into it again here. Suffice to say I don't feel like it's my place to present a character to the audience, and then use my narrative voice to try to convince anyone that this character is "right," and therefore morally superior to anyone else in the book. Or superior to anyone sitting at home who just wanted to read an exciting book and escape for a little while. 

I've been reading Mary Renault, and I love the way her historical fiction presents us with the reality of the age without judging it by modern-day standards. Anne Rice did the same thing with her Vampire Chronicles: here is the age, here are the people living  in it, here are their flaws, their faults, and the internal reasoning for their actions. Both authors ask you to love and enjoy the stories of their characters, but - and this is important - they never ask you the reader to excuse, justify, or approve of anything they've done. 

Enjoying a book about a problematic character does not mean you approve of the problematic behavior. 

It does not mean you forgive whatever vile things he or she has done. 

A perfect example of this is the love fans (including me) have for Loki in the MCU. I've had it said to me that, "I can't like him. Why do you like him? He's a bad guy! He did bad things!" I think, in general, Loki fans are not apologists who try to rationalize his morality, trivialize the horrible things he's done, or make excuses. We know he's killed people. We know he's let emotion get the best of him. (We want he and Thor to just have a brotherly hug that doesn't involve stabbing!) Rather, he is a character for which we have empathy, who is fascinating, who is, despite some tough odds, endearing and sympathetic. And we know that loving his character doesn't mean that we approve of his (sometimes) villainous behavior. 

Because...

Enjoying a problematic character does not mean you approve of the problematic behavior. 

I also believe that the redemption journey of a problematic character can be one of the most inspiring to read and watch; that seeing a character's shifting moral foundations is truly epic to behold. I personally enjoy writing the backstories for those characters; peeling back the layers and explaining the whys of them to the audience. It's an exercise in psychology, one that I think, ultimately, can help us better understand the world around us, and the people around us. 

Long story short: authors like to play in fictional toy chests. For me, the challenge of making a problematic character loveable (and boy do I have my hands full with Vlad in Dragon Slayer) is one of the most rewarding and thrilling. I'll probably never stop getting those pesky one-star reviews from people who think that my books are some kind of expression of the fact that I personally endorse murder, abuse, or think that people like Mercy have the moral high ground. Those critics may not like or agree with my characters, but that doesn't make them any less realistic. And if you're like me, and you enjoy your problematic characters, don't let others shame you and ruin the enjoyment for you. They're seriously not worth your time. 

Deep Character Development: Show Don’t Tell

Deep Character Development: Show Don’t Tell

We’ve all heard that little pearl of wisdom, haven’t we? And in theory, we understand that it’s the author’s job to reveal a character’s thoughts and feelings through dialogue and action as opposed to exposition…but rarely do I find a more practical explanation of how to do that. So in the interest of deep character development, I’m going to tell you about my experiences with one character in particular in the hopes that it will shed some light on the tired old “show don’t tell” conversation.

Nikita Baskin

Nikita is a character from my Sons of Rome series, first introduced in White Wolf, and a character of whom I’m immensely proud. He’s the product of years of writing, and six years, specifically, of published writing.

He started, as all my characters do, with a baseline identity that I then added to and built into something three dimensional. To start, I knew that Nikita was three things: Russian, a member of the secret police, and also, secretly, a White (one of those Russians loyal to the deposed and then murdered tsar). These three main identifiers were the foundation of my research; I needed to understand what it meant to be Russian, what it meant to be a Chekist, and what it meant to be a White, and then fuse this information into a character profile. Because he was a White, I knew that he hated his Communist masters, and the government in general. And because it was 1942, and he was gainfully employed as a Chekist, he was going to have to play the long game, and do a lot of things that turned his stomach in order to get by. He was Russian, after all, and a survivor. An ace at playing the long game. When we first meet Nikita, he’s a man living a double life, and struggling beneath the weight of that mantle. He’s someone who feels deeply, and pretends not to, who burdens himself with guilt after guilt after guilt.

Once I know a character, then it’s time to decide how to reveal them piece by piece to the audience so that they can come to know them too. For me, the goal is to be explicit with details, but subtle with the meaning delivered by them. So with Nikita:

·         His failure to eat isn’t forgetfulness. Between anxiety, low blood sugar, and the weight of a guilty conscience, he tends to skip meals intentionally. He beats himself up, figuratively, and one of the ways he does this is to deny himself the things he wants or even needs. (And oh boy is that going to be an ongoing conversation that comes to a head in book four, featuring a certain wolf)

·         His coldness is a way to distance himself from others. He’s lost people, and he hates it, so he resolves not to get emotionally attached…an effort which always fails spectacularly.

·         Being a White isn’t, for him at least, so much a political leaning as it is a way for him to justify the things he’s done. Does he truly support the Romanov family? Yes. But more than that, his secret identity provides an excuse for the terrible things he’s done in the name of the Kremlin. He can justify the evil if he thinks that he’s waiting to make his move and turn the tide. And he can tell himself that when he does make that move, it will be to topple a government that will be made better by a return of a tsar. This is part of the reason it hurts him so badly to meet Alexei and find out he’s kind of…a little shit.

All of these things are revealed through the course of the book, one event, and one revelation at a time. Showing the audience his heart and mind in this way creates a portrait of a man that is more human being than archetype, and that for me is always the ultimate goal.