It's amazing how fast time can go by. I had thought I would post updates after Radcon, and any number of other times since then. But somehow I always feel self conscious about what to say. Even when I have awesome stuff to report :)

Radcon went amazingly well. Not having ever sold in person before I took my box of books and figured it was way more than I needed. But I got the shock of my life when I nearly sold out that box over the weekend. I want to thank all the wonderful readers who were interested enough in my book to take it home with them. I can't wait to go next year. And by then I should have 4 titles in hand.

So, in an effort to try and actually stay on top of the blog I've decided to work at making sure I make a blog post every Sunday. Even if I have no idea what to say, lol.

This week is easy, so much time has passed that there's lots to talk about. First on the list is Flight, the second book in the Genesis Chronicles. I have gotten it back from all the Beta readers and just today started the revision. I'm 35 pages in and hope to have it off to the editor by the end of the week.  After that I'll be able to hopefully lock down Flight's release date, but I'm hoping for the beginning of August :D

While Flight is out visiting I'm going to finish up the second draft on Sundered, the first of the Cambion novels. A paranormal romance about the Kelusis, the race of Incubus/succubus which are symbiotic with humans. I can't wait to dig deeper into this story.

On a super exciting note I got a wonderful piece of fan art from J. Voss.  At the moment in my writing if I had to pick one favorite character it would be Kieran, so I can't say how happy this made me.

And in so many ways it means 'I've made it' to me. My ultimate goal with my stories is to make someone feel. And to influence someone to dream about it to the point that they want to make something, fan art or fic, is a dream come true.

And I wanted to share it with you. :)

Wow, its hard for me to believe that its been a full year since I've posted.  Life has certainly been hectic.  I've spent the year rushing from one task to the next.  It's been a satisfying year in many ways though.  My 7 year old son and I did our first year of k12 virtual online school.  The curriculum is amazing.  And getting to participate in an online at home public school has been the greatest experience.  I love the time spent with him and the flexibility to do what we need to when we need to.  We're already excited for school to start this year.

That project however has impacted my writing schedule.  So it took a while but I finally finished revising and beta rounds on Valkyries Emergence.  And am now working on getting the cover aspect dealt with.  Each step is closer to my dream.  I can't wait.  Meanwhile I've already started the first revision on Flight.  This one I expect will go a whole lot faster.

The farm is still over grown but we have been slowly clearing the jungle.  On a sad note my beautiful furbaby Shadow, the Siberian on the home page, passed away this last fall.  He lived a nice long loving life and fell asleep in the grass in the sun.  But we still miss him.  The hope is that we'll move home this fall or winter and then get a new puppy!  The kids are very excited.

So here I am, starting out with the hope of keeping this updated much more consistently this year.  Midyear newyears resolution maybe :D

Hello from the far reaches of the Olympic Peninsula.  The rain forest is actually a few hours drive from us, but you couldn't tell that from the mud this summer.  It has been a very cold, wet year. 
This is a picture of a six week old cashmere goat.  He and his twin sister are the first babies born to my 6 year old son's goat Dorcus.  She has been an amazing mother.  Raising her twins effortlessly.
The great reclamation project has begun.  The job situation has us living and working three hours away from the farm, and that has taken a toll.  But we are getting back home and starting to get it ready for us to spend more time there again.
I wish I had thought to take before and after pictures of the garden.  One year of neglect (two growing seasons) has caused mother nature to over take us.  A huge blackberry grew up at the corner of our house.  The bush was ten feet tall by twenty feet in diameter.  One year unchecked.  That was all it took.  I expected to find sleeping beauty when we got through it.
It will take a few more trips to bushwack our way through the jungle of the garden to have unimpeaded access to the house.
We did manage to reclaim the lillys and an old rose.  And much to my three year old daughters delight we planted a couple of flowers.  She has been very distressed at not being allowed to pick flowers in the city.  So I got her some black eyed susans.  She won't be able to pick them right away, but the prospect is there and she was very excited.  I'll try and remember to get a couple of pictures of the plantings. 

So, it looks like the height of summer has impacted my writing life.  And the near future looks the same.  Sorry for the unexpected hiatus on The Equilibrium Saga.  Poor Ashton and Silren are going to just have to continue bleeding to death in his mother's garden for a couple more weeks.  I will endeavor to get a few episodes ahead in between the summer activities. 
We have nice weather here in Seattle and I'm taking advantage of it as often as possible.  Since I won't be able to put up story episodes I'll make an effort to post more regular blog posts with pictures of our activities.  We have family from out of state visiting this coming week so there will most definitely be beach pictures.
And if you want something different from Equilibrium to read, I posted the prologue to a book I'm working on in the Hub forums.  Let me know what you think if you feel like it.

Thanks for stopping by,
Siana.

Characterization is about painting a picture, about making every word count in our fiction.

Instead of just having a room and a desk, the room and the desk can help illustrate our main character.
 
He sat down at his desk piled high with assignments. His leg hit the keyboard tray which had just lost another screw. He ripped it off, cracking the plastic.
 
As opposed to.
 
He caressed the hand-turned legs of the 19th century mahogany desk, then pulled out the polish and rag from the bottom drawer, wiping over every crevice with care. Checking to make sure the blotter was properly placed, he set his stationary and pen on top. Dear Alice, he began to write.
 
In each instance, the reader learns a lot about the character and what type of person he is, what his habits are, etc... The same can be done with objects and worlds and clothing. They shouldn’t just sit there doing nothing when they could be doing a whole lot of something.   

And I may see a tree that looks like a drooping old man.  But is that what my character would see? How would my character describe it?
 
I took a workshop a few years ago with Elizabeth Lyon and she suggested creating a lexicon for every character to help us create descriptions and sentences filtered through our characters’ sensibilities instead of our own. It’s something I had done most of the time anyway, but it really helped me take characterization to the next level. Our jobs and hobbies give us all a unique vocabulary by which we view the world. By creating a lexicon, we can more clearly paint that view through our character’s thoughts by using words they would use.
 
What’s your favorite way of creating richer, character-driven prose?

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