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The Curse Giver’s Status Report

Saturday, March 9th, 2013

The Curse Giver Status Report

It’s been a few busy months since The Curse Giver was accepted for publication. Since then, much has happened. So here’s the quick recap version:

The last few months have been a blur. My publisher, Twilight Times Books, assigned me an incredible editor, Barb Caffrey, a veteran of the genre with eighteen years of editorial experience. I love the editing process. I think that it always provides awesome learning opportunities. Barb impressed me with her knowledge of the genre, her sense of storytelling, and her attention to detail. Her comments were helpful, insightful and full of wisdom. Her suggestions were spot on. It was truly a joy to work with Barb.

At the same time, I’ve been working with Lida Quillen, the publisher at Twilight Times Books, formulating ideas for the book cover and addressing the myriad of details associated with the novel’s publication. It’s always a pleasure to work with publishers who elicit and appreciate an author’s input. I hear a lot of horror stories from my fellow writers when it comes to their publishers, big and small. But I must say that so far my experience with TTB has been first class. Professionalism and efficiency come through in every contact. I feel very blessed to be working with such a quality-oriented publisher.

Just last week I received The Curse Giver‘s advance review copy (ARC). I always get a little giddy when I first see the ARC. It’s always exciting to see a manuscript firmly on the way to its final form. As the name suggests, the ARC is the barebones version of the novel that goes out to reviewers three to four months prior to publication. I always like to take a good look at the ARC to make sure that everything looks right.

So after months of polishing, editing and reviewing, we’re getting close, folks. The next few months promise to be hectic as the pub date draws near. Needless to say, I can’t wait!

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The Next Big Thing – A Blog Hop

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

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Have you ever heard about a Blog Hop? It’s an interview of several authors at the same time. I just participated in one, so below are the answers regarding my new upcoming book, The Curse Giver. But what’s so unique about a Blog Hop is that below my interview you can find links to the interviews of several other great authors whose books you might enjoy reading. Go ahead, check them out and have fun!

1) What is the working title of your next book?

The title of my next book is The Curse Giver, which will be out in June 2013. I’m so excited. I just can’t wait!

2) Where did the idea come from for The Curse Giver?

I was researching my third book, Stonewiser: The Lament of the Stone, when I came across the notion of a curse. I got sidetracked there for a while, fascinated by the universal appeal of curses in human history, mythology and religion and its connection to our concepts of medicine, healing and power.

No doubt, influenced by my reading, I did something that I do a lot, even if it sounds cliché: I dreamed about a warrior, plagued by a powerful, malicious curse, fated to do terrible things to stay alive, and about the healer he must kill, the only woman with the power to heal more than his body, his heart.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Fantasy, epic fantasy, dark fantasy, romance, paranormal romance.

4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in the movie?

Is this a trick question? I think that every reader sees the character with his/her eyes. I would never take that awesome pleasure away from my favorite people in the world. I absolutely love it when readers email me and tell me that they think so-and-so should play the lead role in this book or that one. Guess what? My readers get to choose who plays the characters in their mind’s movie.

5) What is the one sentence synopsis for your book?

An innocent woman condemned to die for a crime she didn’t commit must ally with the cursed lord pledged to kill her in order to defeat the curse giver who has already conjured their ends.

Or, if you really want to get the scoop, here it is in a few more words, which tell so much more about the story:

An innocent remedy mixer condemned to die for a crime she didn’t commit is rescued from the pyre by an embittered lord doomed by a mysterious curse. He’s not her savior. On the contrary, her murder is his only salvation. Stalked by intrigue and confounded by forbidden passion, predator and prey must band together to defeat not only the vile curse obliterating their lives, but also the curse giver who has already conjured their ends.

6) Who will represent your book?

I’m so lucky! The Curse Giver is going to be published by Twilight Times Books, a wonderful independent publisher who specializes in critically acclaimed novels. http://twilighttimesbooks.com/TTBooks.html

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I wrote the first half of the book in a month while I was on a skiing holiday in Colorado. I was working on The Lament of the Stone when The Curse Giver‘s story smashed into my head and wouldn’t let go. So I put down what I had, went back and finished The Lament of the Stone, and then came back to The Curse Giver a few months later. All and all, it probably took me about three or four months to run through the first draft.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I think that if you like Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Jacqueline Carey, Sharon Shinn, N.K Jemisin, and of course, the Stonewiser series, you’ll enjoy reading The Curse Giver.

9) What inspired you to write this book?

My husband, who upon hearing about the concept told me that I had to hurry up and write the book, because he just had to meet the cursed Lord of Laonia.

10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

There’s a great deal of mythology in The Curse Giver, giving this world a unique and intriguing flavor.

There’s also a lot of realism to the healing practices that are used by the main character, not just in terms of the ingredients she uses for her remedies, but also in terms of her practices, many of which are based on authentic medieval sources.

And finally, this is a fast-paced, plot twisting adventure that will keep you guessing all the way to the end, featuring complex characters that will warm your heart and leave you thinking about the tenuous, often tricky boundaries between love and hate, good and evil.

In the next few weeks I’ll be blogging about the process of getting the book ready for publishing and unveiling the cover art. So please, do come back and stay in touch. And as always, thank you for allowing me the privilege of writing for you.

Dora Machado
Award winning Fantasy Author of the Stonewiser Series
Original fantasy for the extraordinary reader
[email protected]
www.doramachado.com
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A Room of my Own

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

In the last few months I’ve been getting a lot of questions about where and how I write. Readers want a setting. Fellow writers are interested on discussing details and sharing tips. One of my good friends prefers to write in public places, coffee shops, airports, libraries, etc. Another talented young writer friend wrote saying that she likes to spread out on her bed. In my case, I concentrate best in a private space and the bed is out of bounds. My stuff wouldn’t fit on it and since I prefer to write at night, I’d have to put up with my husband’s defense of his regular eight hours. For his sake and mine, I’ve always deferred to Virginia Woolf.

My writing studio has some basic features that I really like, such as a door that can be closed and locked if said door fails to stand up to distraction. It’s a cozy room with little esthetic value but lots of practical virtues, such as reliable internet connection, my reference library, a large L shaped desk with an impressive capacity to hold heavy piles, and a window that overlooks the terrace, the garden and the river beyond.

In this room, I’m surrounded by the memories of the people I love, the places I’ve visited, and the themes I’m exploring. I have everything I need at my fingertips and quite a few of my favorite things, like my good old ergonomic chair, an ancient scan design special that allows me to recline while I write, supporting my back and neck through many consecutive hours at the keyboard.  Above all, my writing studio is practical, flexible to handle all my projects, and comfortable. Best of all, it’s mine and mine alone, providing fitting accommodations for me and all my characters—heroes and villains included.

Do you have a space of your own?

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A New Book Contract: How and Why

Monday, August 13th, 2012

In my world, when your iPhone flashes an email greeting that includes an offer for a new publishing contract, you know that the humid Florida summer has just gotten a tad cooler and life has treated you to a sweet cup of café con leche on the terrace.

I hadn’t been on the hunt for a new publisher for too long. In fact, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to look at all. My very small publisher had done an amazing job with the Stonewiser trilogy. Together we had achieved much and won a bunch of national prizes. I loved working with those folks, but I was writing faster than they could publish me, and even they understood that opportunity and continuity are key for a newbie on a roll.

My publisher at Mermaid suggested I query some of his peers, small-to-medium independent publishers with an established record. I dragged my feet. Maybe I could just wait until 2014. I whined and complained. Querying is time consuming, exacting work. I’m choosy. They’re choosy. I want to be writing. They’re busy. My MBA background came to the rescue. Assess the situation. Evaluate the options. Establish the goals. Get on with it, girl. After putting all the excuses behind me, I got to work, quickly whittling down the list to—well—one.

I forced myself to query three independent publishers. To my shock and surprise, within days, they all requested The Curse Giver’s manuscript. I settled to wait. Waiting is not my forté. I know authors who have waited upwards of nine months to hear if a manuscript has been accepted for publication. Me, I’ve got too many stories clamoring to be told. I wanted to be in print in nine months. I also knew who I wanted to publish The Curse Giver.

Enter Lida Quillen of Twilight Times Books. She authored the irresistible hook heading the email I mentioned earlier. Two days after the initial query, she requested the manuscript. Two days after I emailed her the manuscript, she offered me a contract. I said yes. I had known since the moment I completed my research that I wanted TTB.

Why?

Experience is one reason. Quillen is an independent press pioneer, known for being a steady rudder in the industry’s choppy waters. Performance is another reason, measured in business growth, an impressive author list and numerous award-winning titles. Fit is the final reason. TTB cares about excellence. I care about excellence. That’s why I chose to go with TTB.

So the contract is signed and the adventure begins. If you’ve ever wanted to know the ins and outs of publishing a novel, you’ll get a good tour here. Come along if you like. It’s a new contract, a new book and a new journey.

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Four Reasons Why Reading Is My Best Summer Escape

Monday, July 23rd, 2012

1) Reading is stress free: There are no traffic hassles, rigid schedules, cars packed to the rim, siblings breathing each other’s air in the back seat, kids asking are we there yet, long lines, crowded attractions, heat waves, summer storms, lost tourists, packed hotels, stagnant pools and stale all-you-can eat buffets. You also get to avoid the long check-in lines at the congested airports, the intrusive security screens, the late planes, the sullen flight attendants and the psycho pilots. It’s just you and your book.

2) Reading is safe: You don’t need helmets, kneepads, safety glasses, spare paddles, lifejackets, lifelines, first-aid kits, mole skin, tetanus shots, oxygen tanks, water purification tablets, safety harnesses, emergency beacons, medivac insurance, shark repellent or bear spray. Yes, I’ve owned, wore or used all of these at some point, so trust me, reading is the smart choice. I don’t need the GPS to locate my favorite reading corner; my cats double as wild life without the need for a high end Swarovski scope; and I’m a lot less likely to activate my SPOT (personal satellite emergency tracker) while parked on the couch.

3) Reading is exciting: Experience adrenaline’s thrilling rush without suffering the consequences for your actions. It’s like distance trekking in Spain without the blisters; or Colorado mountain biking minus the Rockies’ steep hills. Expeditions, explorations, adventure, intrigue, mystery, indiscretions, hardship, elation, failure, redemption, love affairs, high-stake gambles, you get to live through it all without losing your camera, sunglasses, wallet or ATM card. Yep, I’ve lost of all those. To top it all, you get to dangle at the cliffhanger without breaking any bones or dramatically increasing your chances for developing some serious osteoarthritis.

4) Best of all, reading is the greatest bargain: A used soft cover can cost less than $1.99. A bunch of great books are free on Kindle and Nook. Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone is on sale for $.99 this summer. Libraries offer great variety at no cost. Digital or print, a book is the season’s most fashionable accessory. Compared with over-priced airline fares, luggage fees, unpredictable gas prices, seedy hotel rooms and unexpected hospitality taxes, reading is the best deal out there and by far my favorite summer escape.

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Fire, Fear, and Hope

Saturday, July 7th, 2012

Here’s a treat from my favorite nature blogger, Mariana Marshall, who is an interpretive ranger at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. In this blog, she shares her experiences and observations of working and living on the mesa as this season’s fierce fires rage nearby.

Fire, Fear, and Hope
JULY 6, 2012

Fire. It both frightens and fascinates. And these days I seem to be surrounded by it.

Since my first visit to Mesa Verde I have known of the history of flames in this place. Over two thirds of the park has been burnt in large-scale wildfires, and the scars they’ve left behind are unavoidable. Some visitors find them unforgivable as well. They complain we should be doing more to down the dead trees, to hurry the process of healing. But I’ve always found the skeletal forests here to be surreal in their beauty.

Until this summer that was the only effect the idea of fire had on me. I thought of dancing flames and the dramatic landscapes they left behind. I thought of a special type of beauty, one unique to the ecosystem of our park. But I didn’t think much more of it than that. It has been almost 10 years since the last major fire burnt at Mesa Verde. It was so long ago now that many of the trees once charred black have since lost their outer layers to erosion, leaving them smooth and white, a graveyard of marble sculptures. This lack of obvious evidence leads directly to the most commonly asked question in the park: ‘Why are all the trees dead?’

My constant conversations with visitors about the topic brought me to the decision to do my evening campground program this summer on fire. At first I surrounded myself with books on the topic. It was only a few weeks later that I was surrounded by the fire itself.

If you’ve been following the news at all lately you’re probably aware that the entire southwestern United States, Colorado in particular, has been battling blazes all summer long. About two weeks ago the Weber fire started outside of Mancos, CO, and got as close as 7 miles to park boundaries. We had completed our fire evacuation training just the day before, and immediately we were all put on full alert. We were told to park all vehicles facing out in case we needed to exit quickly, and it was recommended that we keep a bag packed and move valuables to storage in Cortez. The fire cut off the road between here and Durango, our closest major city, which meant lots of stranded visitors and a canceled trip with a close friend. Fear and anticipation mingled with the ash in the air, and at least three helicopters were called to the park in a three-day time span to evacuate visitors whose respiratory illnesses had been aggravated by the combination of smoke, heat, and exertion.

The Weber fire is under control and, for the moment, it appears we are safe and in the clear. But constant notes and emails from our fire crew remind us that this is just the beginning. Monsoon season is almost here, and once the lightning starts, there will almost certainly be more fire with it.

This region has always been conducive to wildfire. With a dry climate and a high concentration of lightning strikes (we have the second highest incidence of lightning in the U.S., behind only Florida), how could it not be? But a hundred years of fire suppression has created a lot of fuel, and coming out of one of the mildest winters on record, this summer is set up to be especially dangerous. Repeatedly I’ve heard locals say they haven’t seen conditions so bad since 2002 – the year of the last major fire within park boundaries. A notice was dispatched to all park residents to take the Weber fire, which sparked up to nearly 10,000 acres in just a few days, as a good example of what may happen later in the season should lightning strike within park boundaries. I’ve been having dreams about evacuations, a supervisor recommended we never turn our radios off – not as we give our tours, not even as we sleep.

Austin had been called for four fire details before July even started. Today is our two year anniversary, and we spend it apart as he battles a blaze outside of Price, Utah.

The fires are terrifying in their destruction. My heart sped up and skipped several beats as I watched the Weber fire burn through the night from a distance just a few days into it all. From three miles away the front looked like a line of burning candles – individual flames growing and shrinking and growing again. But I knew that my ability to see those flames so clearly from this distance meant that they were at least six, ten, twenty feet high. Behind the front the burnt area shimmered like a small city from the air, each flickering light an ignited tree or shrub fighting for its last heated breath. It took hours for me to sleep after I finally tore my eyes from the ethereal, deadly scene.

But there is hope entwined in all this fear. Watching the fire that evening I kept thinking back to an area within the park called Wetherill Mesa. It had been burned in one of the large fires of 2000. Just days earlier I had been riding the tram with my tour group through the burn area when the driver pointed out to me four baby juniper trees, about three feet tall each. A long-time employee of the park, he had been watching them grow since the Pony fire killed their parents, and almost twelve years later they had finally reached a recognizable, if not sweet, little height. He had spent the last twelve years tying ribbon around the saplings, so that the vegetation crew wouldn’t run them over with their weed-eaters. And now they stood, perfect miniatures amongst the crowd of skeletons, making me smile every time.

“The earth itself must periodically die to insure rebirth.” – The Hopi, descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans of Mesa Verde, in reference to Soyal, their winter solstice ceremony.

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Top Ten Reasons Why I Love My Writing Gig

Monday, July 2nd, 2012

10. My daily commute entails a twenty second shuffle from bed to desk.
9. It’s nine PM to Five AM, and I like it that way.
8. My supervisor is a cat.
7. Business casual = yoga pants. Casual Fridays might involve some flannel pajamas.
6. I can spend hours surfing the internet and nobody will give me grief about it.
5. The water cooler is out in the backyard. If I really need cooling, I swim in it.
4. I get to daydream and that’s okay. My third grade teacher was so wrong about daydreaming.
3. I have to read a lot in order to write a lot. Well, if someone must make the tough sacrifices…
2. During working hours, I live in my own world—literally.
1. I get to share my work, my life and my passion with amazing readers like you.

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Do you use an outline when you write your books?

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

Kind of. I love outlines. I had a Jesuit education, and that meant lots of outlines. We outlined our essays, our chapters, our presentations, our flash cards… You get it. A good outline is a time saver and point maker, compass and map. It’s like closet organizer for your mind. Yep. I love my outlines, but I love breaking away from my outlines even more.

When I start thinking about a story, I’ll pick out an old notebook. I like our forests, so my notebooks come from a crumpled stash I’ve collected over time, my children’s rejects, leftovers from their school years. I’ll tear out the used pages, but I love the kids’ doodles, so I leave those where I find them. I’ll jolt down the key ideas, knowing that my outline will change a lot as I write, leaving lots of room and flexibility to chase after ideas, characters or scenes. My outlines might look something like this: An overdeveloped beginning that might include a few sample paragraphs, lots of notes in between, a few big blank spaces, and an ending.

The overdeveloped beginning is easy to explain. As I start to write, the focus is on those opening scenes. They are usually pretty fleshed out in my mind. I’ve learned through experience to identify the pivotal moment when the story begins, and to rev up the pace right from the start.

The middle of my outline is messy and makes no sense to anyone other than me. It’s a tangle of bulleted sentences, paragraphs, dialogue bits and lots of margin notes. Some of the bulleted sentences will blossom into chapters, but not always. Occasionally, an idea will grow beyond the scope of a chapter, challenging my early word count. Yikes. The tug of war begins.

The outline’s ending is my destination, the bull’s eye of my story’s arc. I usually have a pretty clear idea how my books will end. The outline might show the simple idea or the actual line I’ll use to close the story. Sometimes, I write the entire closing paragraph upfront.

The blank spaces in the outline belong to the scenes that are not yet clear in my mind. I never worry about those. I know that in time they will be filled with lots of ideas, because a writer’s mind has a peculiar cadence and sometimes the story comes only as it does.

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How the heck did you come up with that?

Friday, March 16th, 2012

I get this question all the time, in various ways and regarding different parts and scenes in my books. I suspect that stretching concepts and ideas is innate to the fantasy writer. It feels very comfortable to me. My imagination never quits. My mind is always generating ideas. Awake or asleep, whatever mysterious spot in my brain is accountable for the creative function is constantly firing shots. Call it a blessing. Call it a curse. It’s just the way my brain works.

Coming up with distinct concepts or original adaptations has to do with asking questions. What if I changed this? What if this happened? What if this other thing happened? I think an author has to be ruthless about asking questions, even when those questions test our comfort zones and make us feel uncomfortable.

Yielding to the imagination means exploring the darkness, embracing the odd and probing the strange. Unleashing the creative process entails rejecting the easy answers and accepting not only your characters’ contradictions but also your world and your experiences. There’s got to be fearlessness to the creative process, a courage requirement; because only when we challenge ourselves to ask beyond the obvious can we begin to glimpse the rest.

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#stonewisdom Bad odds are sometimes worth the gamble if the reward is the truth

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

The rebel warrior Kael, teaching our heroine, Sariah, the meaning of risk. From Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone, Chapter 10, page 72.

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