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Happy Halloween, everyone! To celebrate the season of witches, I’d like to share with you a passage I’ve been working on for the last few days. I’m still debating whether I like the new scene or not. For a bit of context, Penelope, Mag, and Artie are in Elton Castle, talking with Hugo, the troll scholar who is also the caretaker of the castle. Hugo is explaining how to repair books with magic. Enjoy!

We stepped into the library. Hugo had done a lot of work already to fix it up, but it was still a mess. Most of the bookcases had toppled over and torn and battered books littered the floor, but right in the center of the library were a couple of upright bookcases, a table, and a few chairs. Books filled the shelves and, judging from their pristine covers, were well cared for.

“I love what you’ve done with the library, Hugo. Did you restore these yourself?”

“I’ve always had a unique affinity with books. It used to drive the other trolls mad.”

“What do you mean?”

“Here, I’ll show you.” Hugo picked up a small, blue book. It was faded, the binding was peeling, and the pages were water damaged. Cradling the book in his strong arms, he waved his hand down the length of the spine. “Beredan.” It glowed purple for a moment, before the binding snapped into place.

With one hand, Hugo opened the book. I could see the drooping, water logged pages, but I couldn’t make out the writing before he waved his hand again. “Tokelen.” I watched, amazed, as water began to seep up out of the paper. It was like something was drawing the water out, leaving the pages dry once more. Hugo tipped the book forward and the water pooled at his feet.

He wasn’t done yet. Closing the book, he waved his hand over the cover. “Ernafen.” Purple light radiated out. I averted my eyes before it dazzled me. When it had faded and I was able to look again, I saw that the book had been restored. It looked as flawless as the day it was printed.

“That was amazing, Hugo,” I said, awed. “Is this why the golden dragon is after you?”

Hugo slipped the book onto a shelf and nodded. “I believe so. I can do this with almost any ruined book. The golden dragon did his best to stamp out all knowledge during his first reign of terror. We can’t let him do it again.”

“As fascinating as this is, could we please get back to the silver crescent?” Mag said. “You said you had a book that explained it.”

“Forgive me, Mag, you’re right.” Hugo made his way to the table in the center of the library. “Step carefully now. The book we want is right this way.”

“What kind of books have you restored?” Artie asked. “I’m guessing all historic tomes and illuminated manuscripts, right?”

“A few, yes, but I’ve also uncovered quite a few fiction novels. Did you know that Queen Winona had a fondness for romance books?”

“Really? Aren’t those your favorite as well?” I asked, as I browsed through the titles.

“They are, but who doesn’t love a good romance? Ah, here it is!” Hugo pulled a thick green book off the shelf.

“A Dragon’s War: Tales of the Past,” I read. “By C.M. Aude. Cessala and Maude again.”

“Yes,” Hugo said as he flipped through the pages. Perched on his nose were his reading glasses. “After defeating the golden dragon, Maude and Cissy had quite the illustrious career as writers. Didn’t they tell you?”

“No.”

“You might want to ask sometime. They’ve written at least a dozen biographies, all centered on the golden dragon war.” Hugo continued to search through the book. “Here it is.” He turned the book around to face us. The right-hand page contained text, while the left showed a portrait of the silver crescent necklace.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, running my hand down the page.

“Princess Marian drew it as a young woman,” Hugo said.

Dragons are cool. I’ve always thought so, ever since I first started writing. Some people ask me why I love dragons so much. It’s because of my brother, who also loves dragons. I would try to tell him about my story ideas, but he was never interested. So, I started to look at what he liked and I found that I liked dragons as well. What’s not to like? They’re big and impressive and magical. They can fly and breathe fire. They’re the ultimate fantastical magical creature. Maybe that’s why I made one of my main characters a dragon. In my opinion, Mag is the epitome of everything I love. Magic.

I read a lot of young adult books that all seem to have love triangles. I understand why authors throw them in. It’s a way to add tension and mystery to the story. Who will the main character wind up with? It’s such a compelling subplot, except that it’s not. In most cases, I’ve found that the author has written themselves into a corner with the dreaded love triangle. In every instance, someone is going to be disappointed.

Every reader is going to have a preference between the love interests. If Mary is trying to choose between Steve and Bob, some people will like Steve and others Bob. The problem is when the writer choses who Mary is going to be with. Unless one choice is completely unsuitable, either Steve or Bob fans with be angry. You can’t satisfy everyone.

That’s why I don’t have a love triangle in Silver Rose or Silver Crescent. It’s just not worth it. I know exactly who Penelope is going to wind up with, so it’s a waste of time for the readers to try and pretend otherwise.

I know everyone is eagerly anticipating the release of my new book, Silver Crescent. Thank you all for your patience. I can now confidently say that I’m finally approaching the end. I finished my latest draft in early July. It’s been a long journey, but I’m happy with the final results. In my opinion, the story has turned out beautifully.

I asked my parents, one of my brothers, and my two aunts to read it and give me their honest opinions. So far, only my dad has gotten back to me. He gave me his highest praise. “It’s okay.” That’s how he describes anything he likes. Once I hear back from my other beta readers, I’ll take a look at their feedback and then decide how to precede. Now, I just have to decide: traditional or self-publishing.

Thank you to all my readers who have stuck by me while I write.

It’s not that easy to write twins. It sounds like an interesting element to add to a story: two characters who look alike can produce a lot of conflict. It would be easy to mix them up and misunderstandings would ensue. The problem comes when there are no differences between the twins.

When I was first writing, I was a young, naive sixteen-year-old. I thought all my writing was perfect. When I was eighteen, I found a writing group, who kindly explained my writer shortcomings. In those two years, I wrote a story called The Dragon Tamer. I had twin main characters named Suzie and Emily. The story and the two lead characters were boring. It was a generic fantasy adventure, with no differences between the twins. When I wrote dialogue, it didn’t matter which character I assigned it to, because they were interchangeable.

Eventually, I abandoned the story and started work on Silver Rose, with Penelope as my main character. She’s Suzie and Emily combined into one character, with the added bonus of an actual personality. I learned the hard way that I can’t just add twins for the sake of having twins. They need to have a purpose.

I’m nearing the end of Silver Crescent. There are twin characters in this book, but I know I’ve handled them much better than my disastrous first attempt. Fiona and Rowena have distinct, separate personalities. Rowena is a constant presence throughout the story, while Fiona serves her purpose in a couple of chapters, before she disappears again. I keep them apart, so they can shine on their own. They may be sisters, but they don’t need each other to be their own character.

Every time I tell people I’m an author, I always get the same reaction. “You’re an author? What is your book about?” they say in surprise, almost disbelief. I patiently explain that yes, I am a writer and that my book is a fantasy adventure. Then, a lot of people say, “Oh, well. I’ve always wanted to write a book, too. Maybe I could write something and show it to you?”

The phenomenon of writing is an interesting one. From what I’ve seen, everyone I talk to wants to be a writer, but only a small fraction actually do it. Why is that? Well, first off, I think I catch people off guard when I mention my book. I’ve always looked young for my age, so people can’t believe someone as young as me wrote a book. Second, they’re trying to make conversation. They want to relate to me, so they tell me they want to write as well.

Third, and most importantly, many people are afraid of creative writing. You have to have a thick skin when you write. I’ve had countless people tell me that they don’t like my stories and that’s okay. I can’t please everyone. If someone doesn’t like fantasy, there’s not much I can do about it. I have to write what I like and appeal to a like-minded audience. Not everyone can handle that, though. They want validation and for everyone to say how great they are, but they’re too afraid to try. You could have the best story idea ever, but if you don’t implement it properly, then the results could be lackluster. They don’t want to take the risk that the perfect story in their heads turns out to be less than perfect on the page. The fact that I’m willing to take that risk everyday impresses them and they ask me to read their work, thinking that I’ll be gentle on them. Nobody has ever shown me their work, by the way.

So, what can people do if they want to write, but are too afraid? Simple. Admit that there is no sure thing as perfect writing. There are things I don’t like even in my favorite books. I just skip those scenes and move on. In other books, I like one scene, but dislike everything else about it. You can’t please everyone. The only person you can please is yourself. My advice to anyone who wants to be an author is to just write. My early drafts were all awful. I look back sometimes and cringe at how bad they are. But I kept going. I honed my craft. The only way to become a better writer is to write.

Maybe the phenomenon of writing isn’t as strange as I thought. We all have ideas bubbling inside of us. For some, the easier way to express those ideas is by writing. We just have to be brave enough to take the plunge and start. Who knows what books are waiting to be written, if only you’ll give yourself the chance.