fantasy writing – Cindy Young-Turner

Thief of Hope holiday sale and book 2 teaser

It’s hard to believe the holidays are almost upon us! Like many, I’m ready to be done with 2016 and move on to 2017. It has been a year.

Are you looking for a last-minute gift idea? Books make great gifts! All this week Thief of Hope is on sale for Kindle on Amazon. The prequel, Journey to Hope, will be free 12/20-12/24. If you don’t have your copy yet, now is the time! Here are the links:

Thief of Hope for Kindle

Journey to Hope for Kindle

And just an update that I’m still hard at work on book 2 in the series. I’m looking forward to getting in some writing time during my upcoming days off over the holidays. Here’s a brief excerpt and stay tuned for more updates on progress!

Excerpt from Thief of Destiny:

“Now I’m going to play an ancient tune,” Tam announced to the crowd. He turned in Sydney’s direction and gave her a wink, seeming to ignore Llyr. “I doubt you’ll hear the like of it again in this world.”

This time he sang in words Sydney couldn’t understand. Even though she didn’t know their meaning, she felt the longing and the sadness evoked by the lyrical words. In an instant, her mind was transported to the field of red and purple flowers in the realm of the Tuatha, and she could almost see the blue sky above and feel the sun on her face.

“How dare he,” Llyr hissed. He grabbed her hand so tightly it hurt, breaking the spell Tam had cast with his song. “He has no right to such knowledge!”

The song ended. For a moment the audience was silent, and then a thunderous applause filled the tavern. Tam gave a little bow, directed toward Llyr.

“Don’t,” Sydney whispered, pulling on Llyr’s arm to keep him in his seat. It was clear that the song was from the Tuatha and she wondered if a song could have magic. “We’ll talk to him afterward, all right?”

Llyr took a deep breath and gave her a nod.

After that Tam shifted the tone and played a few raucous, bawdy songs, apparently favorites of the crowd. His last set shifted again to a series of tunes that, to Sydney, sounded like veiled threats against an unnamed king and the nobility.

Surely these tunes weren’t about Willem, but when she heard the words “Bastard King” she had a sinking feeling that they were.

Murder your darlings

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”

-Stephen King, On Writing

Writers love to write. Well, most of the time that is. Actually, for me quite often it’s as painful as opening a vein. But even harder is cutting out something that you’ve written and loved. Maybe in the light of day it’s not as brilliant as you thought it was in the wee hours of the morning. Or maybe it just doesn’t fit in the story any more.

I now have a folder on my computer with a bunch of chapters that have been completely cut from the current draft of Thief of Destiny. It’s sad because there are some great scenes and characters in those chapters, but the truth is they no longer fit with my new plot line. And since the plot is working out much better than before, all I can do is send them to the “old chapters” folder and hope that maybe they’ll see the light of day in a future book or a novella. Somewhere I have a file called “darlings” with deleted paragraphs and scenes from book 1. It’s tempting to post some deleted scenes or make a “director’s cut” version, but on the other hand, things are generally cut for a good reason. Chopping down my beloved prologue from Thief of Hope was so hard at the time; now I can barely remember the original version because the changes worked so much better.

So the writing proceeds. Chapters are cut and new words are added. The book is coming along. I keep thinking of the words of a wise fish as inspiration: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

Snowzilla and a progress update

Well, here in Maryland we have survived Snowzilla, the blizzard of 2016, with close to 32 inches in my backyard. I’m from Massachusetts and I love snow, but even this is a bit much all at once! It’s hard to say when we will be completely dug out–and more importantly, when the kids will be back in school! I hope I’ll be able to enjoy the snow once I rest up from all of the shoveling.

I’m also excited to share a bit of a writing update. In my last post I mentioned that I have finally broken the writer’s block that plagued me for much of last year. And I can proudly say that progress is continuing! I’m still in rewriting mode, which is rewriting with quite a few additions. I just finished working on a chapter that I had wanted to revise for ages and it never seemed to turn out right. This time I feel like it worked. Next up is a key chapter featuring the new character I’ve added. It feels really good to be writing again. Maybe soon I’ll share some excerpts.

Stay warm and dry out there!

Happy New Year’s Eve!

It’s almost time to say good-bye to 2015. There were good things and bad things this year. In terms of writing, it was a bit of a struggle. The year started off positive on the heels of my self-publishing debut and I had fully intended to finish Thief of Destiny and get it out there for the public. But sometimes things happen for a reason, and after months of spinning my wheels and spiraling into the despair of not writing, I think I see the light. I finally put out a call for help to my wonderful critique group and decided to sit down and write an actual outline. Well, more of a summary because yes, I’m still twitchy about outlines. My writer friends encouraged me to think outside the box and that’s what I did. And I came up with a new approach that was an idea I had a while back but didn’t think it should be in this book. Surprise! I believe it’s going to work and I’m easing back into retooling what I’ve written so I can get to the end. I’m making a promise to myself that I WILL finish the book in 2016, hopefully sooner rather than later. With any luck it will be worth the wait!

More importantly, the events of this year have taught us that we are a global community and more than ever we need to find compassion and understanding. Hug your loved ones. Call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Learn about someone whose culture you don’t understand. We’re all in this together.

Oh, and go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was like an early Christmas present for this Star Wars fan.

Here’s to 2016. Follow your dreams!

Still here, with some book updates and a new cover

Hello blog, it’s been a while. I wish I could say I’ve been quiet because I’ve been writing up a storm, but that’s not the case. I’ve been working up a storm through the day job and finally seeing a light at the end of a tunnel (fingers crossed). And I’ve been working hard to republish Thief of Hope. Yes, you read that right: republish. For various reasons, I have the rights back and am on my way to becoming an indie author. It’s a little scary but also very exciting. I’ve spent way too many hours looking at fonts and layouts and I’m enjoying this part of the process. I’m almost ready to get my first official proof and my goal is to have the book available by November 21. Stay tuned for updates!

One of the exciting things about republishing is that I have a new cover, created by the fabulous Taria Reed. I love it and I’ve been sitting on it for over a month. Time for the unveiling!

I hope you like the cover as much as I do! For everyone who has read the original Thief of Hope, thank you for your support! Please share the new version of the book with those who haven’t discovered it yet. And for those who have been patiently waiting for book 2, I am hoping to have it out in spring 2015 and will probably post a few teasers in the coming months.