Angela VanWell

Author | Reader | Traveler | Tea and Coffee Drinker

urban fantasy

My Writing Journey: Pillar I The Mentor

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The Mentor is a trustworthy guide supporting the protagonist, Ally, on her journey. My intention is for Ally to have had Logan already in her life as long as she can remember. He is friends with her parents and an uncle figure to Ally growing up. As with many people who work part time where the work takes them, Logan is around sometimes and away others. He enjoys working on the boats with his friends, but is not a permanent fixture. He is more interested in his personal startup vineyard where he turns his grapes into a grape whisky, only drank by those not faint at heart.

Logan

Unlike Ally, Logan is fully aware their is magic around them. He is a part of the magical community, although he keeps himself outside of it. He is what humans would call a shifter, he is equally comfortable in both of his forms, as a man and as a lynx. Earth has waning magic, so it is not easy for him to shift between his forms. He disappears at times, no one is sure where he goes, but when he returns, he has more vitality, almost as though he has been replenished with magic.

Having been scarred by it in the past, he courageously fights for security of individuals and for a better society. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Logan is on the cusp between Esteem and Self-Actualization. He is a confident man, who has the respect of the boating community, especially Ally and Riley’s families. He is attempting to build a safe place for magical Beings on earth. He believes that everyone deserves to belong somewhere and is trying to make it a reality.

As a close friend of the family, Logan has taught both Ally and Riley skills in the forest that will help them in all environments. Tracking, surviving in the forest, and the beauty of having the tops of the trees and stars as a roof at night are some of the best memories Ally has of her childhood. It is from Logan that Ally found her love of sleeping outside in a hammock and having land beneath her feet instead of a boat on the water.

Logan has guided both youths to the secrets of the forest as a way to keep them safe while teaching them how to be safe. He is protective of them, as if they were his own family, and as so agrees with Ally’s parents that she does not need to be aware of all the truths of their home.

The Loyalist from the Enneagram Institute

While Logan is one of the people Ally depends on, he is not always available to be there for her. For he has his own goals, to create a safe place for Beings like him. Beings outside of their home, trying to create a new one while not being found odd, different, something scary found only in folklore.

Logan’s background begins with a loving family and ends with him alone. A snippet of him with his family can be found in the short story, Lynx in Exile. To read the story, signup for the blog mailing list and receive the free story.

My Writing Journey: Pillar I The Protagonist

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Pillar I in Plot Development Step by Step: Exercises for Planning Your Book by Jesper Schmidt and Autumn M. Birt begins with character. (I also have Plot Development, the main guide, but I am using the step by step guide to develop my novella I am writing during NaNoWriMo this November.)

The workbook takes the reader through the five main character types used in stories. The characters are the Protagonist, the Mentor, the Sidekick, the Antagonist, and the Love Interest. Today I will be exploring the Protagonist of my story. The workbook takes the reader through the usual questions; name, gender, ethnic background, age, height, weight, etc. I am choosing to share a picture instead of typing out the words. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words and I think this one is true to Ally. Not only her looks but her favourite escape, the water.

Protagonist Alessandra (Ally)

I decided on Ally as my protagonist, and my only Point of View (POV) character She is the main driver of the story, the one who has to face the conflict and find a way to reach the story goals while learning more about herself along the way.

Backstory:

Ally is an eighteen-year-old close to completing her high school requirements. In fact, she finished early, but she didn’t tell her parents so she could spend her free time following her dream. And, unbeknown to her parents, Ally’s dream is not to follow in their footsteps and learn to take over the cargo business that has belonged to her family for four generations. Instead, she is secretly applying to secondary institutions where is had a chance at a swimming scholarship. She doesn’t want to break her parents hearts, but she wants to follow her own dreams.

Living and growing up on a boat, an only child of two dedicated and loving parents was tough. She could not see the rest of her life entrapped in the metal jail where home was a transitory term. She wanted a home that stayed in place, where the neighbours were the same every night, her favourite cafe was around the corner, and she didn’t get motion sickness while she slept. A place where her ability to turn from ghost to ochre lobster in an hour would not be a big deal, because she would no longer live and work on the water. She would have trees to shade her home and to hold her hammock.

If it wasn’t for her best friend, Riley, she wouldn’t have lasted this long. Their sleepovers, at his parents house when his mother was at her healing practice instead of on the boat, were the best memories of Ally’s childhood. Those escapes showed Ally there was another way to live, and it wasn’t stuck on the water.

Morals, Needs, and Proactivity:

The book states, “Morals, or the character’s controlling belief, is how the character distinguishes between right and wrong.” To make the story interesting, Ally needs to have morals that push her goals out of her reach. For Ally, this would be her reliability and work ethic. While those are both great traits to have, they make her feel that following her dream, leaving the family business, is a betrayal to her family. Her parents count on her to be a part of the crew and to eventually take over the family business that has been passed down for four generations. How can she not follow her heart? Her family is precious to her as it is only the three of them.

Ally’s needs are for Love and Belonging when searching through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. She have safety, food, and the security of family and a career. But she needs the belonging of community. Of there being more than her parents and the friends they may see on and off the water. The ability to get a good nights sleep without nausea pills, staying with friends, or sleeping in her hammock in the woods would be amazing. Especially in the winter.

Proactivity is simply, Ally needs to be proactive. She needs to make the decision of how she intends to move forward, and follow that course. Before the novella begins, Ally applies for swimming scholarships at schools with business and marketing management programs. She chose a program with the most flexibility and would also be helpful to her parents cargo hauling business. It is a matter of waiting for the responses, and if she is accepted, sharing the news with her parents in way that doesn’t break their hearts.

Digging Deeper into Personality Type: Enneagram

The Peacemaker

Graphic belongs to The Enneagram Institute

Ally is an optimistic, supportive, and accepting person. She is willing to go along with the status quo to keep the peace. The cargo hauling business is important to her family, so it is important to her. Wanting to make her parents and herself happy, Ally is trying to find a way to leave the boating community without leaving her parents, to preserve the loving relationships they have.

Once I have developed the other main characters in the book, I will research how the different personality types interact with each other. I think it will be a great point of conflict and camaraderie, depending on the character! Most of us know how to push other people’s buttons, characters should do the same.

Dragon Con 2020 Goes Virtual: Urban Fantasy Track

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This year I had an opportunity to attend Dragon Con, a magical place I have never attended before. The amazingly tireless workers setup three tracks of content as well as engaging events on their social media platforms. There was a Classics Stream, providing hours of entertainment of cons days past. The Original Star Trek cast could be watched along with a lot of other nostalgic programming. The second track was the Main Channel with all new guests, performances, costume contests, and the parade. Between events there were witty little skits and commercials which were hours of entertainment in their own way. The third track is where I spent most of my time. There were over 35 tracks of focused programming, and I focused on Urban Fantasy Track.

Urban Fantasy itself is diverse. There were panels on everything from ghosts and vampires, to the fae. The flexibility of the genre could be seen in both the literature portion and the fan panels. I sat in on a few of the fan panels, such as Supernatural and Lucifer. There were also panels for The Order, Wynonna Earp, and the Warrior Nun. An intriguing one to me, which shows my age, was the By Blood or By Choice Panel: Family in Buffy and Angel. I have to admit I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the television series, from beginning to end. I did not get into Angel as much. As the panel members brought up the family dynamics of Buffy and her besties, I realized I needed to rewatch the series again. I will be starting with the musical number, Once More, With Feeling, then go back to the beginning. The building of their relationship and the challenges they face is still a huge part of Urban Fantasy. Buffy, or Paranormal Scooby Doo as one of the speakers called it, lead the way.

My favourite panel was the Favors, Bargains, and Glamours: The Fae in Urban Fantasy. The two main reasons I chose this panel were Patricia Briggs and Jim Butcher. That’s right, both authors were on the panel! Patricia Briggs shared her fae’s backstory. The post fae-apocalyptic state of the world. How their world was ruined through the introduction of Christianity, cold iron, and then the loss of Underhill. Finding a new place to call home while the fae reestablished themselves. Her use of fairytales and folklore from around the world is one of the main reasons I love her books. I never know where her stories are going as she creates a melting pot of fairytales and myths. How the one piece that holds true for all fae is the balance in bargains. Mercy Thompson, even in friendship, must consider the balance of all that occurs when interacting with the fae. When you know better than to ask for help from your friends because you might end up in more trouble, then you are friends with the fae. Or another chaotic neutral individual. Especially when on of your best friends was the Dark Smith of Drothheim who had a propensity to create stabby weapons that sometimes choose to stab their owners. Characters are more engaging when you never know how their friends with react. After all, most folklore was based on fear of what is Other.

Patrica Briggs also added to my reading list. She suggested anyone interested in the classification of fairy/fae, to look at an Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures by Katharine Briggs. I looked the book up and finding it will be as likely as finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Even on the big websites, the lowest cost I found was over $700. However, I haven’t stopped looking for the end of a rainbow, so I am willing to search for this book as well.

Double Rainbow seen this summer – no pot of gold found

Jim Butcher was just as engaging and had a fun surprise in store for Dragon Con. He spoke of his fae characters, of their focus on balance with the natural world, but how they find a way around it when the situation suits then. Such as when they want a human killed, that is what executions are for. His love of folktales and fairytales came through as much as Patty’s did. They both like exploring our worlds myths and legends and incorporate the ideas that inspire them.

As this is the 20 year anniversary of Storm Front, book 1 in the Dresden Files, Jim Butcher teamed up with filmmaker Priscilla Spencer to create a live action short movie/book trailer for Peace Talks, the July 14th instalment in the series: Peace Talks Trailer At Dragon Con the two showed a surprise trailer for Battle Ground, the next novel in the series with a September 29th release date. It can be watched here: Battle Ground Trailer

There was a panel including the filmmaker, Priscilla Spencer, the actors, costume design, Jim Butcher, and more members of the filming team who shared what the experience was like creating the two book trailers. There was nothing but love on the panel so I would think they would be happy to do it again.

So not only do I have a book on fairies to find, but I must catch up on my reading of the Dresden Files. I have included a link to Dragon Con through their logo above, but I will include it here as well. If you want to check out the panels, see the hilarious commercials, or enjoy the creativity in costume design, follow the link:

Dragon Con 2020 Goes Virtual

Let me know your favourite parts of Dragon Con!

Inspiring Author of the Week: Tina Gower

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I first found the Outlier Prophecies Series by Tina Gower through Book Bub. If you have never heard of Book Bub it is a magical place where you can explore new authors’ writing for a steep discount or free. I found the first book in the series, Romancing the Null, for free.

I instantly fell in love with the unique characters who each has a set of baggage and wounds caused by life as well as genetic predisposition. In a world that separates classes of individuals based on their genetic background, werewolf, witch, vampire, etc., to not have anything at all, to be plain human, sets the main character, Kate Hale, is unremarkable in the magic filled world. When an oracle’s death prediction lands on her desk, she immediately takes the case to Ian Becker, a wild card police officer, to help her save the oracle.

Ian Becker has his own issues and does not work well with others. The two of them must find a way to work together and solve the case or they could both lose their jobs and worse, the oracle will die.

The building relationships between the departments and characters has depth and engaged me in the story. Anyone who has worked in a large office will empathize with the bureaucracy Kate and Ian struggle with when trying to solve the case.

Tina Gower has a unique take to the urban fantasy genre and I love her inclusion of different magical cultures and how they impact the world. The compendium novella from Ian Becker’s point of view was just as good.

I have read the full series and suggestion you do as well. After Becker and Hale’s series, the Outlier Prophesies continue on with Kate’s cousin Ali who is a whole other set of fantastic magical energy.

My Writing Journey

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In November, 2017 I joined NaNoWriMo for the first time. What is NaNoWriMo? It is National Novel Writing Month, a non-profit on-line organization and community challenging individuals to pick up a pen and write. Write 50,000 words in November.

With the drive to write a book, I signed up and shouted to the world (of NaNoWriMo) that I was writing a middle grade book. I decided on middle grade because I wanted to write a book for my daughter. She was in middle grade (Year 6, Grade 5) at the time and there weren’t a lot of books she could connect with. My partner’s career has us moving a lot, (she had now moved countries eight times in her thirteen years), so I wanted to write for her.

For those who do not know my professional background, the predominant long form writing I have completed was standard operating procedures (SOP). That’s right, my careers and education engineered a concise, to the point, and not at all engaging writing style. This did not work. Worse, for me with a scientific background, I had no SOPs to follow, so I was at a loss at how to write. As I usually do when learning something new, I started by reading books on the subject and then decided to take a course. The course turned into a Creative Writing Certificate Program. And from that, I created my own Writing Road Map:

Behold, my writing road map.

What it shows me, is that I still have a long way to go. But that is why writing is a journey. There is always more to explore, to learn, to try. And I am still at the beginning of mine.

My first NaNoWriMo was a success. I completed the first draft of a manuscript. It was (and still is) messy with mixing of first person and third person narrative, and plot holes, but I wrote it. One day it will be edited and given to my daughter. Passion projects aren’t always for public consumption, at least mine isn’t.

I have now participated in nine NaNoWriMo events. Between them, I have written the first draft of five books; an urban fantasy trilogy, an urban fantasy adventure book, and the middle grade book, and so far, have edited two of them. The writing is coming easier to me but the editing is still a trip down a thorny path of misdirections and cliffs. Through the frustration I have learned to appreciate more the blood, sweat, and tears that go into the books I enjoy. And they remind me the path is hard, but I only need to take one step at a time to travel it. This blog is one of those steps. To share what is bringing excitement to my life, exploring life, exploring books.

This November I will complete a novella to prequel the urban fantasy trilogy I have written. The planning process needs to begin now, as I am a writer who needs a map, a means to see my what through the end of the story. This summer I was fortunate to be one of the readers who checked for typos in the Plot Development Step by Step book by Jesper Schmidt and Autumn M. Birt. I will be using it to develop and outline my story and sharing the results here.

Starting today, this is the book mapping out my writing journey

My characters already exist from the trilogy, but I will use this opportunity to round them out more and get to know them better. Character development is the first pillar in the book, so it will be the first part of story development I share next week. Hope to see you there!

How to edit when it’s perfect outside?

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Alberta is like a teenage girl who cannot decide how she is feeling. I know, because I was that girl. Sunny and excited to start the day and then, in an instant, thunderous anger, ready to attack, with lightening bolts flashing from my eyes.

The temperamental weather makes me want to run outside and absorb the sun before the clouds hide it from me. I am rereading the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs; instead of working through the notes my former self has left me to deal with. She forgets she and I are the same and will have to deal with them at some point in the future.

Today the sun won. Instead of typing away in my office, I picked a mug full of raspberries to snack on as my eyes devoured Iron Kissed, book three in the Mercy Thompson series.

It was the right decision. The clouds have moved in and threatened thundershowers with wind gusts and hail. Summers in Alberta are not long, to begin with, and sunny days even rarer. I read three chapters before I was chased inside. So now I edit. After the fresh air and sublime story, I am enjoying the process.  The storm harries me along. To think one day someone else will be enjoying my story pulls me through the process. What weather has you considering playing hooky from work?