Monday, December 10, 2012

Piracy and Editing

 

The freedom of the open sea. The wind at your back. Pirates and treasure just over the horizon.

These are but a few of the impressions lingering in my mind lately. After completing another round of drafts on my pirate novel Caesar’s Revenge, I’ve submitted it to a professional editor who is currently working on my manuscript. Her edits, in combination with the great feedback I’ve received from critique partners so far, has kept me both busy and inspired.

So what big projects are you working on this holiday season? What editorial process helps you along once you’ve completed your first few drafts? Interested in reading an excerpt of my current obsession/passion?  

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Chaotic Good vs. Lawful Evil


If you’ve played DnD before you’re probably snickering. I’m of course referring to the DnD alignment that characters have within a game or universe, which you can explore further here. These personality attributes are great when trying to craft characters for your own books, regardless of genre.

For instance, my favorite combination is when you face two characters against one another where one is Chaotic Good and the other Lawful Evil. Essentially, a Chaotic Good character is a person that follows their own sense or right and wrong, but is often opposed to society’s law, wheres a Lawful Evil character is the exact opposite, respecting authority to a T, but failing to have an internal sense of morals. One of my favorite examples of this combination comes from the Star wars universe, namely Han Solo and Boba Fett.  

So what personality type are you? A goodie two-shoes Lawful Good or perhaps a Chaotic Neutral free spirit? What types of characters do you like to see in books?