I love new takes on Greek gods and myths. The second book in Voss' King Jester trilogy just came out and he's started on tour. Here is a list of the schedule.


Wednesday, August 13th: Voss Foster: Demon Hunting and Tenth Dimensional Physics (Http://Vossfoster.blogspot.com)

Thursday, August 14th: Siana Wineland: Siana's Place (http://www.sianawineland.com)

Friday, August 15th: S.Evan Townsend: Writer's Thoughts (http://blog.sevantownsend.com

Saturday, August 16th: Iyana Jenna: Iyana Jenna (http://iyanajenna.com)

Sunday, August 17th: TR Goodman: trgoodman.net (http://www.trgoodman.net)

Monday, August 18th: T. Strange: T. Strange (http://tqstrange.blogspot.com)

Tuesday, August 19th: Frances Pauli: Speculative Friction (http://francespauli.blogspot.com

Wednesday, August 20th: Jennifer Willis: Jennifer Willis (http://jennifer-willis.com)

Thursday, August 21st: Cathy Hird: Open One More (http://openonemore.com)

Friday, August 22nd: J.J. DiBenedetto: Writing Dreams (http://writingdreams.net)



Pop on by at any of the stops and see what's going on. Now read on for a looksee both past and present.



In such a small space, he caught up in twenty seconds. Lou stood in front of the refrigerated section, about two yards from a woman. She wore a long, white dress, a striking contrast to the black curls flowing halfway down her back. Her skin gleamed, dark olive. She wore open-toed, leather sandals.  

"Well, come on, Lou." The woman looked over her shoulder, flashing blue-gray eyes and bright red lipstick. "Did you think I hadn't noticed you?"  

"Arachne." Lou stayed right where he was. "What are you doing here?"  

"Passing through." She turned all the way around. A metal spindle hung from a beaded cord around her neck. She spoke with hard H's, rasping in the back of her throat, and long vowels. English almost sounded hesitant to come off her tongue. "But I stopped when I felt some familiar energy in the area. I would have left eventually, if no one came."

-The Jester Prince

 
The story of Arachne is a story that, unlike most Greek myths, does not set up deities to be infallible and perfect. Arachne is a very skilled weaver, but she refuses to admit that any of her talent came from Athena, or any other deity, for that matter. When confronted, she challenges Athena to a contest of weaving prowess.  

And she bests that goddess. Not only is her tapestry better, but it depicts scenes of gods and goddesses abusing and lying to mortals. In a rage, Athena destroys Arachne's tapestry, turns her into a spider, and a curses her and her descendants to weave forever.  

What a bitch.  

It got me thinking, though. What would Arachne, punished by the gods, be like if she was to join their ranks? I tried to keep her playful attitude, but I also wanted to make her more aloof. After what happened to her with Athena, I wouldn't think she would be one to flaunt her own superiority.  

Get to know Arachne, as well as the other immortals, in The Jester Prince, Book Two of the King Jester Trilogy.


With the destruction of Zirkua Fantastic, King Jester, the spirit of discord, has been unleashed once more upon the Earth. Only Toby, a fresh, untrained immortal, and the other former members of Zirkua Fantastic dare to stand against his chaos. But their hold is tenuous, and they are only truly safe from his power within the bounds of their camp. King Jester grows more powerful and more dangerous with each passing day. But he's made one mistake. That mistake could be his undoing. He's stolen Toby's soul mate, Marley. When he discovers Marley's location, Toby knows what he has to do. He will rescue Marley, even if it means he has to face King Jester alone.  

But the others don't let him go at it alone. Marley has information about the resistance. They can't afford to let him stay in King Jester's control. In desperation, the immortals raise an army to storm the compound. But will it be enough to challenge the embodiment of chaos himself? All they can do is hope. Hope and put their faith in love.  

Available from Prizm Books.


EXCERPT:

Arachne sighed. "I can see why you'd be afraid to be around me. It's not the most friendly climate right now." She held the door open and gestured him out. "If you're anything like your parents, you should be fine."  

Don't tell her I'm untrained. "I just hope it won't come to that." The doors to the supermarket slid open when they stepped into the sensor's range. Toby went to the back, started loading bags with fresh produce. "We need as much citrus as we can get. And carrots, turnips. Anything that'll keep for a while."  

She grabbed bag after bag, loading them so full the bottoms stretched down under the weight. "Nuts. If you're not getting nuts, you really should." She pointed to the bulk bins. "They're good, high calorie food."  

"You talk like you've done this before."  

"Quite a while ago, but yes. Had to hide out and I definitely had to eat."  

Toby stopped. "You were human?"  

"At one point, yes. Before Sascha awakened me." She pulled ahead of him, started loading another bag with mixed nuts. "Of course, back then, we had a lot more direct interaction with the immortals. Not like today." She scribbled the bulk number on the twist tie, wrapped up the opening to the bag, and stuck it under her arm. "What else do we need?"  

"Well, Madame Zerga wants some scotch, and a few of the humans drink coffee."  

"All right. You get the coffee, I'll get the scotch." She smiled, eyes bright. "And maybe I can find some ouzo."


You can find more about Voss at,

http://vossfoster.blogspot.com 

And here's a buy link for the book,

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=83&products_id=4250

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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