APRIL: Of DRYAD snippets and a BEAST blog tour

How long has it been since I last wrote a post? Three months? Jesus. That I had literally nothing to report for those months is quite sad. I'm disappointed my monthly post schedule has fallen behind, but at least I have something to show for it now. By the end of this week, I will have finished the first draft of The DRYAD of Callaire, which means things can finally start happening. I can edit it and fix everything and write the draft of the next book! Covers for DRYAD and the redesigned BEAST cover will be revealed! The Legend Mirror will make a scary debut on Netgalley. Lots of things.

This month I'm taking part in Camp Nanowrimo, and so far I've written 24,293 words which is pretty awesome. April is also the month of The BEAST of Callaire blog tour with Diverse Book Tours! Here are some posts you may have missed:

My interview over at Twinja Book Reviews

Why do you find diversity important in your writing?

I write diversely because I can walk into any bookshop in any city and see myself, a cis white person, reflected in every single book. Because there are so many people out there who can’t do the same, and because I wish there were books for them in every bookshop, too.

I wrote 30 Random Things about The Beast of Callaire and The Legend Mirror. You can find 10 on Howling For Books, 10 on Donnie Darko Girl, and 10 over at Constance Burris's blog! There are some hints about future TLM books in there, too, so you don't wanna miss 'em.

3 – One of the characters isn't who they claim to be.

BEAST was featured by THHernandez and Authors To Watch where you can also read an excerpt.

Talons unfurl from my fingers. My vision sharpens all at once and I know I look beastly, that my eyes are the most golden they’ve ever been.

On top of this (so many things happening!) Angie at Pinkindle and Tamara Philip reviewed The Beast of Callaire. Here's what they're saying:

"I also really liked how this wasn’t a story about coming out or accepting ones sexual identity. Yasmin just happens to be gay and that’s that. She has bigger things to worry about than who she’s attracted to."

"This book is a definite must read especially for someone looking for something DIFFERENT and diverse in the YA genre."

Now for the snippets I promised in the title. To make up for the lack of posts these past few months, below are two unedited snippets of DRYAD, one from Fray, one from Yasmin. The Dryad of Callaire is out this August and will be able to pre-order from July! Add it to your Goodreads.

“I’m all human, actually,” I say. I keep my voice even, as though I’m not scared, as though I’m not even moved by his presence. I know enough from experience that it’s more frightening when your opponent is deadly calm than when they’re blazing fury. “But I have a lot of Majick. More than I had this morning, actually. Enough to knock out an Incar, and more than enough to deal with you.” 

---

I hear the others climb out of the van and stand behind us but I’m too transfixed on the boy in front of us to look at them, because I recognise him. The last time I saw him he was still, sat in a basement cellar, staring at nothing. There were more of them, though. At least a handful more. I scan the road and scrubby trees around the gates, expecting more than one boy, but I can’t see another stranger. I reach out with my Majick but all I sense is us, and him. He’s wrong, inhuman—not even Legendary, not even Numen—he’s made entirely of Majick but that’s not what feels wrong. The Majick is tarnished, dark.

“He’s dead,” Mavers says.

I hope you enjoyed these glimpses at DRYAD and followed the Beast of Callaire blog tour!
For more regular content, you might want to follow me on The Lux Guardians and The Legend Mirror facebook pages, where I post weekly :)

Hope you're all having a great April!

~Saruuh

Liebster Tag!

I hmmed and ahhed about whether to answer this on my reading or my author blog, since I try to keep my author blog clean of memes, but since this blog is for writing and books, eventually I decided to write this here! About fifteen years later than I was actually tagged in it ... oops. I am the worst at remembering.

Faith tagged me in this post and I am happy to indulge my love of answering questions about myself. Here's the thing:

Since I am a rulebreaker (read: lazy) and don't actually have many author friends, I won't be tagging anyone, or writing any questions. 

What was the first story you ever wrote?

The first story I ever wrote was actually a book called FATE. It was terrible and rife with plot holes, info dumps, and a screaming lack of character development, but I loved the characters and still do. One day I plan to rewrite it and make it awesome. But who knows. Maybe first novels are meant to stay hidden.

What was your favorite book as a child?

The ones I remember are Jaqueline Wilson novels and Terry Pratchett's Truckers, Diggers, and Wings. They lived in a department store!! I LOVED that trilogy like no other. (Except possibly The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. I worshipped that stupid cat.)

You get to have dinner with your favorite fictional family. Who’s at the table?

The Ryves brothers from Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon trilogy. My favourite fictional brothers. I wouldn't decline sharing a dinner table with Mae and Sin and Jamie, however.

What’s your favorite season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? (If you’ve never seen it, I’m giving you the look.)

Three or four. I think four.

Do you prefer drafting or revising? Why?

Drafting because revising is tedious for me, although I've only recently got a properly organised revision method (with index cards and a colour code!) so I'll get back to you when I attempt it in May! Eek.

Do you have a process for naming your characters?

I have a bunch of different ways I name characters. Either selecting at random, or based on meaning, or by origin of the name. I also collect names I like in a document for later. I waffle a bit more about naming characters here.

How do you handle telling people you’re a writer? Do you tell them what you write?

I very rarely tell people I'm a writer. I actually very rarely tell people anything (I'm kind of a shut-in) but if I talk to someone on the internets, usually it would involve caps and exclamations. Most things I say involve caps and exclamations, though, to be fair. 

What do you listen to while you write?

Depends on what I wake up feeling like. Sometimes Lorde, sometimes Marina, sometimes The Audition, sometimes Bayside. It changes depending on the day, hour, minute, and I've been known to go from Haim to Bring Me The Horizon in an hour. Those are the weird drafting days.

Do you prefer to write in the morning, or at night?

I write more in the evening, going into night. Sometimes when the writing hooks me, I write until 3AM. Those are tiring nights. Most days, though, I'll start writing around 7PM once I've got everything else done.

Do you pick favorites with your own characters?

Psssh, me? Nah. Yosiah is my son, my child, my perfect ray of damaged sunshine.

What would your dream writing office look like?

Small enough to keep the heat in, big enough to hold a bunch of bookcases and a desk with a comfy chair. Also a sofa.

11 random facts about me

1 - I am having a terrible time drafting right now. No words are coming. None.

2 - I'm participating in Camp Nano next month and praying it'll drag me out of this writing rut.

3 - My writing beverage changes with the seasons. In summer I drink iced coffee. In winter I drink a lot of water.

4 - All my books have POC and queer characters in them (Yep, even The Forgotten -  Honour, Horatia, and Yosiah are all POC main characters, Miya is intentionally racially ambiguous. there are a bunch of POC minor characters. Yosiah and Timofei are both canonically bisexual, and in later books it's made obvious that Honour and Branwell are also queer, even if they don't quite know how to define their sexuality, and there is a f/f couple of secondary characters) 

5 - I design all the things for my books. Covers, book interiors, book formatting, marketing stuffs. It should be stressful, having so much to do, but it's weirdly fun. I love designing stuff. I actually run a design service, where you can get a free promotion banner and custom book covers:)

6 - My current WIP is The DRYAD of Callaire. My next draft, which I'll be launching right into once this is finished is the third Legend Mirror book.

7 - I just wrote out all these facts and missed number 7. This is a cheating fact because I'm too lazy to think of another one :|

8 - I'm hoping to release two Legend Mirror books this year, along with a couple short stories set in other worlds.

9 - In a semi-related fact, the BEAST of Callaire cover will be getting redesigned to be shiny and new so it matches the new releases. You can keep an eye out for those cover reveals in June/July.

10 - My YA sci-fi series The Lux Guardians is free to download and get in print. (Although the first book is currently out of print, since the waiting list was closed) Visit the page for download links or find them on the sidebar.

11 - I keep trying to read the same genre as I'm writing, but I'm far too impulsive a reader to stick to that for the full time of drafting. I'm currently writing YA fantasy and reading adult PNR.