Getting better at drawing

 Yes, I probably should write on my blog more often. I feel like writing here is akin to screaming into a void where nobody is going to read it.

Older posts I have meandered about some inner aspects of my worldbuilding. If I am in the mood sometime, I might get back to writing more ramblings. At least if I die abruptly and my books become surprise cult hits, there is canonical material out there.

I always drew as a kid and have tons of scanned scribblings I rescued from school notebooks that I had to throw away to make space.

Some aspects of my drawing never change, such as how I always draw jawlines and eyes first. Or how I draw ridiculously slender arms. It's more of a drawing style and what feels most comfortable for me.

Even though social media ensures algorithmns murder art related posts, some reader friends always commend they enjoy it when I share art.

I don't share everything, lots of drawings I end up deleting without finishing.

Procreate is an amazing program. I really love it. I no longer use Photoshop because my old laptop motherboard was fried during an electric storm. I own Clip Art but I never understood how to use the program and there aren’t Spanish language tutorials.

Yes. I am a native English speaker and understand the language perfectly fine. But I have computer programs in Spanish to avoid OS instability issues where menus are organized differently. So, the variety of good tutorials is slim.

I draw with trial and error and some people have told me my art is evolving. I can't quite see the changes myself, except I am more careful fixing proportion errors due to my astigmatism earlier in drawing stages.

Seeing art by other artists might have also helped me. I am terrible following long video tutorials, but I like experimenting with different brushes and color shading. And I think that explains part of my improvements.

Anyhow, I recently finished this Tioja drawing. It isn't perfect, but I am much better drawing hands. Lips continue to be a struggle for me, but I am expending increased efforts at drawing backgrounds and proportionate wings.

I am slowly drawing the 12 gold saint houses in Caballeros del Zodiaco pixel style. This project might take a while because the houses are difficult to stay 100% proportionate. Cleaning up takes ages. But I will certainly like to share an animation I plan to do with an overlay of the epic music. Procreate dreams makes this possible and very user friendly.

I would also like to draw backgrounds from my own books and have characters do stuff like summon phantom beasts.

A curse of optical haptics, an upcoming Sci-Fi story

 I went ahead and commed the cover of a Science Fiction story I have been starting to work on, and the artist known as TheStreetDog23 went far beyond my vision and produced the most gorgeous cover ever. I still need to get a full-fledged typography for the cover. That is going to be tricky, which is why I don't have an official goodreads profile for the book yet.

I am still tinkering with the blurb, so that isn't ready either. Someone online commented ACOOH might be a bit similar in a few aspects to a book called Murderbot Diaries. I have not read this series, so I have no idea. Usually my books can't be comped with other work. Half of the time, readers have no idea what to comp them with and mention they are a teeny tiny little bit like The hobbit or LOTR because there are fantasy elements. Which is true, but so vague that I always return to square 1 and have no idea how to market my stories.

As for A curse of optical haptics, I was taking a course on computer science and that word popped out. And I instantly knew I NEED A BOOK WITH THAT WORD IN THE TITLE. So everything surrounds the concept of tactical technology that is vague Sci-Fi material, but the story is so wild since I am going pretty unhinged with it that I am unsure what genre it really fits into. The only thing certain is that Leenx takes no bullshit from anyone.

I have written around 18,000 words of the story. More elements of the worldbuilding are cooking in my mind. There will be weird alien races in them and other random stuff. I think one of the few normal scenes is seeing a net appear from a ceiling and taking someone away.

Quite frankly, I would be shocked readers will not find the book to be absolutely weird, wild and scratch their heads after reading it. I already know how it ends (no, I will not spoil it), it's now the voyage where I need to get. I tend to be an overwriter, but I will hope this book stays at 80,000 words tops. I will go nuts if it suddenly balloons into 100,000 word territory. Oh please don't be so long, pleaaaase!

Anyways, even though I probably spoiled things a bit because I didn't do a fancy book cover reveal (I am working on a shoestring budget and feel too shy asking for blogs for those fancy showcases). But here is a cut-up low resolution version of the cover. I might print it and paste it on the wall to inspire me to cook up those chapters quicker and finish writing it. With some luck, it will be available in 2024.

Savior on the zenith, the sequel book is FINALLY finished

 Bit of a late announcement, but at approximately 94,000 words (including a long ass glossary and brief story recap), I finished writing the sequel and finale of the Fragmented Fates duology a few days ago. It is being read right now by a trusted beta reader.

Now, why did I end up dividing this book into two halves?

1) I didn't want to release a 160,000 word book. I am an overwriter and new information about characters pops up as I chaotically write the story. 160,000 word books are a very hard sell, but 80,000 word stories are easy bite-sized treats. The final chapter of Talgel's monologue was written after I sliced the books in half to make it feel like an actual ending of act 1, which is why it is so short.

After finishing the sequel that without other filler is around the same length, it would have been a titanic feat to have churned the entire story in 120,000 words. I would have had to skip too many scenes. Both books expanded as they are barely offer time for downtime at all. The extra 40,000 words gave the sequel plenty of extra time to expand some connecting scenes that makes the time skips far less jarring.

2) I just wanted to get A book published in 2023 and was not writing sufficiently fast enough to get the job done.

Savior on the zenith follows a much darker path from its more cheerful 1st half (a titanic feat given readers all agree it is a very dark story). Tioja starts living among harlequins in an underground city and interacts with his rambuctious younger half brother Gulraj.

Book 1 spends an inordinate amount of time having Talgel move the chess pieces in position and now she gives the reins of the story to Tioja. As part of my plan for the cover, it will be a mirror of book 1 in a way with a darker pallette to exemplify the more serious tone of the story.

Will there be more action?

Yes, certainly. Readers hurting to experience harlequin society firsthand will get their chance here. And yes, we get fights, quite a few of them, in fact. Tioja will grow a lot in this story.

Now that I have finished the book, I feel a sense that every protagonist has made their trip and returned home. There is still plenty of potential canonical story left between the finale of the duology and the begining of the Ominous Book series, but chances are I will never write it because I want to focus on other projects. It was still a fun story to write, challenging at times because I had to envision a totally different and youthful Tioja.

Until next time!

The equivalency exchange principle of demonic phantom beasts

 Chances are most people that have stumbled into my blog have not read any of my books. Those few people that have read Fragmented Fates might have noticed Talgel's body is posessed by a evil spirit so to say that taunts her and lets her see visions of inane future events that only waste her time.

The demon does this on purpose out of spite and also because it is only using Talgel for its own agenda. An interesting concept I mention in the end of the book is how the demon explains to Talgel that harlequin elf phantom beasts are the manifestation of the secret innermost desire of the summoner.

Talgel wanted to obtain the power of Absolute Truth to know if she would have a Happily Ever After with her love interest Jarahad (readers can easily guess this will be a no given she rejects his hand in marriage the whole novel for no apparent reason).

And one of the characters that ends up summoning an uncontrollable phantom beast later in the story secretly wanted the power of Absolute Destruction. Which I dare say is quite a nifty ability given how versatile it is. The character later on discovers as the years pass that the ability is not just destructive. It can read all sorts of seemingly invisible traits of whatever object is within the area of view of the ability. The summoner can see the true blood ancestry of anyone standing within their beast's line of sight, magic tuning element and if they posess other sources of obscure magic that can't be seen by regular means. A person disguising as a human won't be able to hide their harlequin or elf ancestry. This magic skill will prove pivotal in the Fragmented Fates sequel that I am close to finishing.

Jarahad later in the book also obtains his own phantom beast which manifests as a semi-transparent green armor. His innermost desire is the power of Absolute Protection, which makes sense given all of the hardships he endures ever since he was born. The armor can be moved with his mind, rearranged into various positions. He can use it as a means of transportation, and can even fly short distances with it.

Given most demonic beasts are invisible psychic abilities, Jarahad's armor beast is of the more unusual kind that can be easily visible.

Are there other characters that will summon their own demonic beasts in the sequel?

The answer is a huge YES!

Fragmented Fates hints a character that isn't born yet named Gulraj will have his own beast. It will prove to be pivotal in the sequel, even though he seldom uses it.

Some of the halflings will have beasts. Nurran can summon a gooey phleghm that changes the property of metal. This will become useful in the future as he spends his time constructing semi magical weapons that don't have all of the pitfalls of true harlequin steel. Sadly for my readers, this beast won't be shown in action in the book sequel.

Another character will obtain a beast that gives him telepathy, which suits him very well. The downside is that the ability of Absolute Communication will inevitably drive him towards his self-destruction sometime in the future. I hint about the character's death in future books but never reveal their name. In case anyone is wondering, this is the character that dies using their beast at inopportune times.

Well, I am getting sleepy, so I will finish this rant that will be left for posterity so that obsessive fans 20 years from now have semi-officialñ confirmation of ther theories surrounding some of the Easter Eaggs I spread around in my books.

Happy searching!

Fragmented Fates is now available on preorder!

Welcome everyone, I am proud to announce the long awaited book Fragmented Fates by Nancy Foster is finally available on preorder on Amazon. This prequel has been a pet project of mine for the past 3 years, and I hope to finish the second half of this exciting duology in the next few months.

So, if you enjoy this book, please give this book a chance, feel free to write a review and if you enjoyed it, please spread word of mouth.

So, without further ado, please click on the cover of the book below and visit the website on Amazon and preorder today!

 

My book is competing in the #SPFBO9 competition. There are zero guarantees my book will reach semifinalist status because the competition is insanely fierce, but there are already several people that are interested in giving my book a chance. The ebook isn't even out yet and I already have my first 5 star rating on goodreads! Yahoo!

Oh, this is the goodreads link. Click HERE.

Thanks!

Fragmented Fates, an upcoming fantasy prequel!

 I know it has been a very long time since I have last written a blog entry. Some readers are well aware I sometimes work up to 3 jobs with fluctuating schedules, so I am not always able to write books.

So, what is Fragmented Fates?

When I wrote the 4th book Diaspora, snippets of the story of the exiled Grey Clan are offered but never expanded. We then get to learn a bit more about it in the 5th, 6th and 7th books. I believe the story of the founding of Almjarhad is awash in good writing potential because of the intertwining of so many stories meshed together along with complex characters.

And so, I gave it a try because there is just so much story to tell. One problem I began to face 3 months ago was that I wanted to reach from point A to point B. While the first half of the book had a lot of chapter revisions to make it entertaining without going either too fast or slow, the chapters of the last third of the story felt very rushed because I was desperate to keep the story beneath 120,000 words.

I do not feel satisfied with the last chapters I wrote due to word count constraints. Editing costs of a 150,000 word book is untenable for me. It isn't easy for me to reunite over 1000 dollars and I also want to get a customized cover which will easily cost 400 dollars. Therefore, I decided to cut the WIP into a duology and felt surprised by how filling the first 30 chapters feel. We cover the most pressing initial plot points, the endless drama caused by Talgel's manipulation, and the satisfying conclusion to this section of the story.

Even if a person never, ever reads any other book, Fragmented Fates covers enough story to feel interesting without being overwhelming. And, contary to An Ominous Book that rightfully annoyed plenty of readers due to the cliffhanger, this book wraps a lot of the pressing plot points and yet leaves insane amounts of story potential in the open.

I need to save money for a sensitivity reader for Talgel's scenes, so it may take a while longer to get the WIP ready for beta readers. I am close to finishing the few corrections for Jamarnid's scenes. The sensitivity reader that I hired enjoyed the WIP very much, which made me feel very happy.

Getting some feedback from beta readers would be great. Since I risk causing major plot holes with my main series, there are plot changes I cannot do. But I would feel appreciative if readers checked it out and told me if they liked it.

In the meantime, I am sharing a piece of comissioned art for one of the 4 main characters named Talgel. Enjoy!

"Strong female character test" Lord Yu (An Ominous Book)

 On the next entry to this fun self-assessment writing activity, I have to begin veering towards supporting characters because there isn't a lot of female main characters in the series.

Why is this?

Well, because I love centering a huge portion of the plot around the Äimite Guard which due to its stringent training requirements, has a horrible gender imbalance where only 8% of the guards being female at the most.

So chances are I will start to see plenty of less important characters failing this test.

Lord Yu espouses the kind of nobleelf Lord Spaulding detests because she is living proof the Red Clan's unique Clan Leader selection criteria based on hair color is a terrible idea.

And yet despite garnering little respect in the mainland, her people love and respect her and she seems far smarter than what you'd think.

Click on the image to get An Ominous Book on Amazon!

1. Does the character shape her own destiny? Does she actively try to change her situation and if not, why not?

Lord Yu knows she is the next in line to inherit leadership of her clan. Her mother Tesra is dying of heart disease and she has pretty much already taken over duties as the clan's official figurehead.

Far less abrasive than Tesra, Yu uses her mother's terminal illness as the perfect excuse not to visit the mainland during the nation's most important ceremony in Book 3. This is with the purpose of training Richard and Vincent without unwanted prying eyes.

In book 1, Lord Spaulding warned her not to open the magical chest and showed the scar tissue on his arms as proof of its inherent danger. Against all common sense, Yu decided to veer inside.

At first sight, one would argue Yu's decisions are done under her free will without coercion. Sadly a spoiler from Book 3 proves this is not entirely true. And so she loses half a point.

Points: 0.5/1

2. Does she have her own goals, beliefs and hobbies? Did she come up with them on her own?

She wants to assist Lord Spaulding and Richard. She helps Spaulding free of charge because she is fond of him (mostly because they are the only clan leaders we meet early in the story that are mortal), whereas she finds Richard to be cute looking and believes he deserves to recover his rightful place as the king of Ayrtain.

Her beliefs are quite straightforward, but as I mention in question 1, her free will is not entirely preserved. There is no way to know if she agreed to any of the things she does in the story outside of taking the magical chest to the Elf King's palace.

We also never discover what she does in her free time.

So...

Points: 0/1

3. Is her character consistent? Do her personality or skills change as the plot demands?

Yu is a master in deceit and takes advantage of being viewed as an obnoxious clown so that King Salman never sees her as a real threat. A lot of this behavior seems to be an act.

Being raised by Tesra likely had an influence. She knows perfectly well she can barter the Elf King's cooperation under the constant threat of letting human armies enter the kingdom's territorial waters and wreak havoc. I doubt Yu would go so far because she doesn't seem to detest Lord Froylan like her mother does, but it's a good way to keep the kingdom from meddling into her personal affairs which helps move the plot forward.

Points: 1/1

4. Can you describe her in one short sentence without mentioning her love life, her physical appearance, or the words ‘strong female character’?

The incessantly loud and boisterous heiress to the obtuse Red Clan that likes to set her own rules.

Points: 1/1

5. Does she make decisions that aren’t influenced by her love life?

Despite the seemingly innapropriate flirting on Spaulding (which was more of a prank than anything serious), she agreed to take the magical chest to the capital as a personal favor to her friend... and to satiate her curiosity because she wanted to confirm whether the artifact was as dangerous as Spaulding claims.

I still have a hunch a lot of the things she did for Richard was because she was attracted to him.

Points: 0.5/1

6. Does she develop over the course of the story?

In this respect, sadly not enough. She proves a veil of increased distrust of the government when she hopelessly watches Spaulding's brutal flogging. Even though she skipped further visits to the capital to protest Spaulding's suffering, by this time in the story, her actions are not fully governed by her willpower, and so I sadly can't give her any points. 😢

Points: 0/1

7. Does she have a weakness?

I would suppose laughing so loud that makes icicles in the ceiling fall to the ground could be counted as that. Add a dabble of being crass and sprinkles of overconfidence when it comes to underestimating dangerous magical artifacts and she is definitely no Mary Sue.

Points: 1/1

8. Does she influence the plot without getting captured or killed?

Yu moves the story forward in book 3. First she trains Richard and his servant Vincent even though she knows she could get arrested if the guard finds out Richard is in the country. She gives both humans money and a map to the place where they will encounter Lord Spaulding. She later on asks her mother to send her phantom beast to the mainland to invite Richard to her city for an important message that drives the plot forward.

And sadly... well. Despite all of her contributions to the plot, she has to get a half point due to a... well, that is a spoiler.

Points: 0.5/1

9. How does she relate to stereotypes about gender?

Yu learned from her mom to make her own rules. She can flirt with anyone she wants (even an underage human! Yikes!), doesn't care what the mainlanders think about her, and still she has a good fashion sense that frequently makes men stutter.

She knows she has curves and is not ashamed to flaunt them. Might go overboard a bit.

Points: 0.5/1

10. How does she relate to other female characters?

Yu seldom visits the mainland due to geographical constraints outside of her duty to the Elf King to be present during the New Year Festival and so she doesn't have a lot of chances to interact with the main cast.

She doesn't spend much time interacting with Nelida and is instead flirting with her brother Richard. Yu found the girl to be cute but most of the scant conversation was surrounded on her frequent taunts directed at poor Spaulding.

Yu has a nice relationship with her mother Tesra albeit due to Tesra's illness, we don't have a lot of chances to see this in action.

Even though Yu knows Seiran pretty well, Seiran has a far stronger relationship with Tesra and thus they are just amicable acquaintances at best.

Points: 0.5/1

**********

The score is in! Yu gets a... 6.5. 😨

Sooo... I guess she barely squirmed into a ⭐⭐⭐ score. It isn't like... terrible given she only appears briefly in the story, but the test sure is enlightening.

Better luck next time, Yu!