Category: Writing (Page 47 of 73)

Writing Middle Grade with Anna Staniszewski

October 11, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Anna Staniszewski, author of the hilarious My Very UnFairy Tale Life series, the most recent of which, called My Sort of Fairy Tale Ending, releases next month, discusses writing middle grade fiction. A topic she is well-versed in. Welcome, Anna!

How to Write Middle Grade Fiction in Two Simple Steps

What’s the hardest thing about writing middle grade fiction? Being an adult. Really. Your adult self likes to get in the way when you’re writing for 8-12 year olds. Your adult self is judgmental and bossy. It thinks it knows best. Sometimes it won’t shut up.

Here’s my advice when you’re writing middle grade fiction: Try to quiet the adult part of your brain as much as you can and consider these two questions.

1. How can I be the child protagonist?

2. How can I let the child protagonist be him/herself?

Let’s tackle the first question. How can I be the child protagonist? You can’t, right? Because you’re an adult. Well, I’m not sure that’s true. For one, I think many of us have inner children that we can tap into. (And some of us never quite mature beyond the age of thirteen, anyway.)

I’ve found that middle grade books that don’t quite work feel like they were written by an adult instead of told by a child character. To avoid this trap, try to tap into those feelings of what it was like to be the age you’re writing about. Do some journaling as your younger self, if that helps.

Also, do your research. Try to find a (non-creepy) way to spend time with kids and listen to what they talk about, care about, etc. Trust me. This will help. And remember that you’re not writing about all children; you’re writing about one particular character who happens to be in elementary school or—even worse—middle school.

And now on to the second question. How can you let the child protagonist be herself? For one, you need to spend a lot of time working out this specific character, what she wants, what she needs, etc. But also, try to quiet that adult voice that might be tempted to judge your character’s actions or to medicate her or to call her mother.

Because here’s the thing: Your young character might be smart and resourceful, but chances are she has less world experience than you do. She’s going to make mistakes. Maybe big mistakes. Let her. And don’t worry about what kind of example she’s going to set for other kids. If you try to make an example of her, she’ll feel fake. Let her mess up and learn and BE HUMAN. Then she’ll feel real.

So that’s it. How to write middle grade fiction in two simple steps. Easy, right? Not exactly. But when it all comes together, it really is worth it. Trust me. I’m an adult.

My Sort of Fairy Tale Ending blurb:

Happily ever after? Yeah, right. Jenny’s search for her parents leads her to Fairy Land, a rundown amusement park filled with creepily happy fairies and disgruntled leprechauns. Despite the fairies’ kindness, she knows they are keeping her parents from her. If only they would stop being so happy all the time-it’s starting to weird her out! With the help of a fairy-boy and some rebellious leprechauns, Jenny finds a way to rescue her parents, but at the expense of putting all magical worlds in danger. Now Jenny must decide how far she is willing to go to put her family back together.

About the Author:

Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna Staniszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. She was named the 2006-2007 Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the 2009 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. Currently, Anna lives outside of Boston with her husband and their black Labrador, Emma.

When she’s not writing, Anna spends her time teaching, reading, and challenging unicorns to games of hopscotch. She is the author of My Very UnFairy Tale Life and its sequels, My Epic Fairy Tale Fail and My Sort Of Fairy Tale Ending, all published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. Look for the first book in Anna’s next tween series, The Dirt Diary, in January 2014, and visit her at www.annastan.com.

Scott R. Caseley Author of Isosceles on Females in YA

October 7, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

A special treat today as another male author weighs in on the Females in YA series on the blog. Returning guest poster Scott R. Caseley, author of the YA mystery Isosceles, discusses the voices in his head (c’mon, writers, you all know we have ’em!). Welcome back, Scott!

“Following A Female Voice”

Written by Scott R. Caseley

When going on a road trip, a GPS device sits on my windshield directing me how to get to the destination. I imagine that this faceless individual is a person that’s been there before and knows how to lead the way. This has a direct correlation to all the great stories that have been or have yet to be written. Choosing the right voice to tell the story is key. The difference between GPS technology and literature is, you have a set number of voices to choose from on the former.

Thankfully, when writing a book, you can select from a limitless amount of voices to guide your story along. In my own experience, I don’t know right off the bat whether it will be told from a male or female point of view, I just end up going with whichever character not gender will serve the plot best. No matter which person ends up being the voice telling the story, including as narrator in some cases, I always aspire to make them complex, flawed, and as human as possible.

For my novel, Isosceles, there were three main characters to choose from; Sean, Madeline, and Trey. I thought of Trey and Madeline as being strong-willed individuals who had judgments on everything who wanted to tell me this story about him dying and what affect it had on her and their mutual best friend Sean’s life. However, as quickly as I thought of using them, I discarded the idea. With her opinionated personality I decided she would be too much in everyone’s way including her own to tell the story the way I felt would be best. Additionally, I decided I didn’t want to end the story with his death, as would certainly be the course of action I would take if Trey were narrating. I ultimately chose to tell it from Sean’s point of view, because I felt that the story needed to have a more observational bent to it to make it most objective.

However, Madeline’s voice lingered on my mind during the whole writing process as determined women have always been a joy to create, as I have known many of them in my life and stories featuring them like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Bridge To Terabithia are favorites of mine. Though, I also know a number of shy women who like to hide out in the background and rather enjoy some famous shy female characters too. Still, when I create my female characters, I’m not basing any of them exclusively on the real and fictitious women on my mind who have either trait. If I based something on someone entirely, it would not serve the story, unless the story was just about that particular person. I find creating hybrids between real and imagined much more fascinating for the stories I have already done.

Moreover, no character in any of my stories has been based on people solely of their gender. I find traits most interesting when they can be found in both sexes. Taking a character off the stereotypical path of being a guy, or being a gal, is a bit like choosing an alternate route on your GPS. You’ll still get where you want to at the end, but what you’ll experience or see along the way may be much more interesting then just sticking to the main roads, or the most common routes you feel everyone has gone down before.

Madeline, my aforementioned character in Isosceles is in love with Trey, and friends with Sean, but she’s got a lot more to her than that. She doesn’t aspire to be popular in school, and prefers to do her own thing. She’d much rather be a ‘floater’ in all the cliques and help those in need, counsel them, etc. She also lives life on her own terms, and doesn’t wait around for a guy to lead her on her way, she just goes forward and takes the chances. She excels in school and even graduates valedictorian. With all these strengths, she does have her share of weaknesses. I’ll let you read the book to decide for yourself what you think they are.

For all my efforts, I had critics who lauded and others who loathed her. This inspired me to want to tell a future story at least in part from a female point of view. I feel confidence in the ‘voice’ I gave Madeline, and will give my readers more female options to choose from on the next journeys my pen takes them on. Who knows maybe someone with her traits may be the narrator sometime. All I ask of you, my readers is to not be alarmed when the route takes you off the main road, just sit back and enjoy the ride, because if I do my job right, my female characters will always bring you to the proper destination.

Isosceles blurb:

When he finds his best friend Trey Goodsby dead and almost completely submerged in a bathtub filled with bloody water, Sean McIntyre is determined to find out if it was an accident or suicide. If it was suicide, why did he do it? And, did his death accidental or intentional have anything to do with Madeline Edwards, the woman who came between them constantly through their thirteen-year friendship? Isosceles, a coming-of-age mystery romance begins with the death of Trey Goodsby, and explores his relationships with family, friends, his romances, and which of the circumstances he found himself in that led to the tragic event, and the repercussions for those he left behind.

Isosceles can be purchased at the MuseItUp bookstore, Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Bookstrand, Coffee Time Romance, and other ebook retailers.

About the Author:

Scott R. Caseley was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. He gained an interest in writing in elementary school in nearby Hudson. Growing up, he carried a small notebook or pen on family trips making observations and frequently turned them into poems or short stories. While attending Franklin Pierce University, he co-wrote and co-directed a student film. After graduating, he wrote and directed a dramatic feature, co-wrote and directed a documentary and conducted interviews for an online magazine. He’s also passionate about acting, and he’s enjoyed performing on stage, in bit parts on film, and is also a trained voice actor. In addition to his creative pursuits, he is passionate about healthy living. He follows a fitness regimen consisting of several activities such as; weight training, walking, swimming, yoga, and Zumba. He complements this by cooking several nutritious examples of international and American cuisine. Last, but certainly not least he also enjoys just spending time with family and friends until the early morning hours with plenty of laughter and coffee. You can find more about Scott on Facebook, Twitter (@scottrcaseley), Amazon, and his website.

Team Editing with Erin Callahan and Troy H. Gardner Authors of Tunnelville

October 4, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Today I have returning guest posters Erin Callahan and Troy H. Gardner authors of Tunnelville, the second book in the Mad World Series. They are talking team editing. Welcome, Erin and Troy!

Team Editing

by Erin Callahan & Troy H. Gardner

Q. So you wrote a book, now what do you do with it?
A. Edit, edit, and then when you’re done, you edit it two more times.

Writing a book is only the first act of the long process of having an idea grow into a final novel. Once the manuscript has a beginning, middle, and end (hopefully), then it’s time to go back and revise.

With the split narration technique employed in the Mad Word series, our editing process starts when we combine all of the chapters into one file. At this point, either Erin or Troy has the file and works on it before passing it off to the other. We now use the Track Changes feature of Word, which allows you to track changes (well named, isn’t it?) in the document. This tool is invaluable when editing with a partner, as it allows you to quickly see what changes and comments your partner has added to the draft. It also reminds you which of those changes you made, which can occasionally get confusing. We also save each version of the manuscript with a new date. This makes it easy to tell which version is the most recent and preserves all the old versions, in case we decide to revert back to an earlier draft of a particular scene.

In the initial pass through of the manuscript, we mostly look for global issues (although we’re always on the lookout for typos). We look for inconsistencies in the timeline and the flow of each chapter and scene break. It’s not unusual for a first draft to have one narrator’s story progressing over two weeks in the course of three chapters, and the other narrator only two days. Once we notice a timeline issue we decide which version flows best (or brainstorm a third route), and how to rework one of the narrations to fit. The final version usually includes tweaks to both narrators’ chapters.

Similarly, one chapter will often flow directly into the next with a continued scene, and we must make the change in narration consistent. For instance, in Perfection, a character passes out at the end of one of Max’s chapters and Troy wrote a few more paragraphs of Max being concerned. Meanwhile, Erin had written Astrid’s following chapter picking up immediately as the character passes out. This made the transition somewhat jarring, so we cut the last few paragraphs of the Max chapter.

During this stage, we sometimes combine extremely minor characters who only have one or two lines. This beefs up the presence of more important characters and makes the story less confusing for readers to keep track of.

We use Track Changes to leave copious amount of notes for each other about things we love or aren’t fond of. Once these kinks are mostly worked out, we pass the manuscript back and forth for another round of deeper edits to tackle those notes. Sometimes these notes are as simple as one of us asking about a character’s motivations, but they can also be rewrite suggestions or ~~telling Troy that his writing sucks~~ (just teasing you, Erin) pointing out inconsistencies.

Once we’re past the global editing stage, we move on to more minute details, such as tweaking dialogue, changing passive verbs to active ones, and deleting repetitive language. Though it can be tedious, we find the best way to tackle this level of editing is to examine each sentence and consider how it could be made stronger. We think about whether it could be made sharper, cleaner, and clearer, or whether it could benefit from a more dynamic verb or more descriptive adjectives. Fancy prose can be fun, but if you consistently use very “purple” verbiage, you risk pulling your reader out of the story. We use the sentence-by-sentence editing stage to try to strike a balance with the language we choose.

Writing with a partner can be particularly helpful during the editing process, but we also sometimes use beta readers. A fresh pair of eyes can often clue you into issues you didn’t even know existed in your manuscript. And though we welcome general feedback from beta readers, we also provide them with a few focus questions to keep in mind while reading. Specific feedback from beta readers is essential when we’re concerned about whether a particular world-building concept is presented clearly or whether a character comes off as three-dimensional.

On a final note, although editing is a crucial part of the writing process, it can be incredibly stressful. We’re hard on ourselves (and each other), but we also know when to set the manuscript aside and take a break. Just as with a first draft, a little distance from a frustrating project can rejuvenate you and give your brain time to refocus.

Tunnelville blurb:

Following their panicked escape from Wakefield, Astrid Chalke, Max Fisher, and their friends find themselves adrift and on the run in western Massachusetts. After picking up a young thief with a complex philosophy, and dealing with the pains of prescription drug withdrawal, they make their way to Boston.

Drained by a long trek to the city, the damaged teens settle in an underground tunnel community—a city below the city that appears to lie on the fringes of both the world above and the world of magic. Among the eccentric tunnel folk, they encounter the fabulous Angie DeVille, a self-made hipster and socialite who takes them under her neon wing and envelops them in her breathless and fast paced life.

Funded by a seemingly ruthless organization, the relentless Dr. Lycen is tasked with hunting down the Wakefield escapees. But as Astrid and Max eke out a meager existence in their new home and do their best to stay off Dr. Lycen’s radar, they learn that new and even more harrowing threats might be lurking just over the horizon.

Read more about Tunnelville on Goodreads or on the Mad World Series website, and purchase it at the MuseItUp bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other ebook retailers.

About the Authors:

Erin Callahan lives with her husband in the bustling metropolis of Hooksett, New Hampshire, and works for the federal government. She enjoys reading and writing young adult fiction, playing recreational volleyball, and mining the depths of popular culture for new and interesting ideas. A year after graduating from law school, she found herself unemployed and took a job as a case manager at a residential facility similar to the one featured in Wakefield. Though she worked there for just over a year, the strange and amazing kids she met will forever serve as a well of inspiration.

Troy H. Gardner grew up in New Hampshire and graduated with a B.A. in English/Communications with a dual concentration in film and writing from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He spent ten years working in the banking industry dreaming up numerous stories to write. When not writing, which is seldom, Troy busies himself jet-setting from Sunapee, NH to Moultonborough, NH. For more, check out TroyHGardner.com.

PODs by Michelle Pickett Playlist

September 26, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Michelle Pickett, author of the YA dystopian PODs, and I are doing a blog swap today and talking our writing playlists. Check out my Elixir Bound playlist over on her blog. Welcome, Michelle!

First, thank you for hosting me today and allowing me to share a little about my creative process through music. I have a fairly long playlist for PODs. I’ve listed the songs for you, but I’ve picked a few of my favorite songs/scenes and included some explanation of how the song fit in the scene or the character’s feelings at that time in the story. I hope if you’ve read the book it gives you a little better insight into the workings of the mind of the character, and if you haven’t read the book it’ll make you curious enough to want to. 🙂

PODs Playlist

Theme Song: If Today Was You Last Day, Nickelback

David and Eva’s Song: End of The World, Blake Lewis

Burn it Down, Linkin Park
Can’t Let You Go, Adam Lambert (David: Chapters 18 & 19)
Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You, Muse
Catalyst, Linkin Park (Chapter 25)
Crawl Through the Fire, Adam Lambert (Chapter 26)
Daylight, Maroon5 (Chapters 3 and 14)
Dream a Little Dream of Me, Mama Cass (Chapters 17 and 18)
First Light, Adam Lambert
Get Here, Justin Guarini
Here with Me, Dido
If I Ain’t Got You, Alicia Keys
I Miss You (slipped away), Avril Lavigne (Chapter 4)
I’m Only Me When I’m with You, Taylor Swift
Kick In The Teeth, Papa Roach (Eva: Chapter 23)
Kiss Me, Sixpence None The Richer
No Matter What, Papa Roach (David: Chapter 24)
Savin’ Me, Nickleback (Eva: Chapter 22)
Tangled Up in You, Staind (Chapter 13)
The Kids From Yesterday, My Chemical Romance (Chapter 5)
The Only Hope for Me is You, My Chemical Romance (Chapter 19)
The Truth, David Cook (Chapter 19)
This Means War, Nickelback (Eva: Chapter 26)
To Make You Feel My Love, Kris Allen (Eva: Chapter 9)
Twilight Time, The Platters (Chapters 17 and 18)
Until I Find You Again, Richard Marx
Want, Adam Lambert
When You’re Gone, Avril Lavigne

Music inspires many people. I find that sometimes a certain song has lyrics that describe a scene, or maybe the song evokes a certain feeling that I find moves me as I write. Some songs in the PODs playlist have chapters listed next to them and some don’t. Some fit so well with a scene that every time I hear the song I immediately think of that scene in the book (even now when I hear the song I still think of the book!). Some songs just give me a general feeling of the book or chapter as a whole, or the relationship between David and Eva.

I think the theme song of the book and David and Eva’s song are pretty self-explanatory. So I’ll skip them and share a few of my favorite songs and the scenes they coincide with.

(If you haven’t read the book the following contains mild spoilers).

The first song that really resonates with me is Avril Lavigne’s “Slipped Away” or “I Miss You” (I’ve seen it referred to by both names). I listened to it over and over while I wrote the scenes, especially the flashback scene, when Eva is saying goodbye to her parents. There is also a scene in quarantine when she is lying in bed thinking of them and parts of her life with them—I listened to the song while writing that, too. I have to admit, I cried writing those scenes. I’ve had some readers write to me and say they cried while reading it, which makes me feel like I’ve done my job.

One of my favorite scenes in the book between David and Eva is the picnic scene. I won’t go into too much detail about what happens in case there are people reading this who haven’t read the book yet, but it was a scene I included to show what a sweet, good guy David is and how much he genuinely loved spending time with Eva. The song that goes along with that song is Staind’s “Tangled Up in You.” The song could easily have been their theme song.

A song that I thought conveyed how the fights between the survivors and the Infected might feel is Adam Lambert’s “Crawl Through the Fire.” I listed it as a song for chapter 26, but, actually, it could be applied to any fight scene. The same goes for “Catalyst” by Linkin Park.

Okay, there’s one thing that I keep hearing from readers: “David became so sexist after the PODs.” Okay, well, I can see how one might think so, but the song you need to listen to in order to understand a little about what was going through his head is Papa Roach’s “No Matter What.” Eva had just left the safety of the village to be with him. He felt responsible for putting her in danger, and, therefore, became a little (a lot) obsessive about keeping her safe. “No matter what, I got your back; I’ll take a bullet for you if it comes to that; I swear to God that in the bitter end; we’re gonna be the last ones standing”(Papa Roach, No Matter What). David felt those lyrics and would have died to keep Eva safe—without question.

The Second thing I hear from readers is that they are glad Eva didn’t put up with David’s sexist crap. Score one for Eva. And “This Means War” by Nickelback is her song and it shows in Chapter 26 when she screams to the other woman to fight with her and stop cowering behind the men. She started to feel empowered and realized she could take some control of her life back. And even though it freaked David out (because it scared him, not because he’s sexist), she started to bulldoze her way through the Infected.

Lastly, a song that really speaks to how a character was feeling during a time in the book is “Can’t Let You Go” by Adam Lambert. This song belongs to David during chapters 18 and 19. I’ve caught a lot of flak from readers about his “dumping” Eva and then watching her every night when she’d go to the meadow looking for him. What they’ve seemed to miss was WHY he went to the meadow. And WHY he dumped her. Does someone just break-up with someone and then for kicks tread through zombie filled forests to go sit and watch the person he broke up with? Not unless he has a good reason. And what was David’s reason? Well, listen to the song. I think it explains his pain. He wanted Eva to move on…have a normal life. And he knew he couldn’t give that to her. But, he couldn’t quite let go.

If you’ve read the book you know what happened after the break-up in the meadow…what stunt Eva pulled in chapter 22 (Savin’ Me by Nickelback goes with this scene). Which was exactly what David was afraid she’d do, and that brings everything back to David’s sexist, over protective behavior mentioned above.

Thank you so much for having me today. I appreciate you opening your blog to me. I’ve really enjoyed sharing how music helped shape the characters and story of PODs.

~Michelle

Buy Links for PODs:

Amazon ׀ Barnes&Noble ׀ Books-A-Million The Book Depository ׀

Buy Links for Milayna:

Amazon ׀ Barnes&Noble ׀ The Book Depository

Buy Links for The Concilium Series

Amazon ׀ Barnes&Noble ׀ MuseItUp

My work includes:

Young adult books in paperback and ebook format:

The Amazon Bestselling young adult novel “PODs”

Milayna, March 2014

Milayna’s Angel (Milayna #2), September 2014

The Infected, a PODs novel, November 2014

The Innocent (Milayna #3), April 2015.

Adult Urban Fantasy in ebook format

Concilium, available now

Concilium: The Departure, available now

I always love to hear from readers, bloggers and other authors!

Find me here:

Website: www.Michelle-Pickett.com

Email: Michelle@Michelle-Pickett.com

Blog: www.Michelle-Pickett.com/blog

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/michellepickettauthor

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/michelle_kp

Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/michelle-pickett

About the Author:

I’m a wife, mother, reader and writer, although not always in that order. Between helping my twin eight year-old daughters with their second grade homework and my twelve year-old son with his sixth grade homework (which I’ve recently learned I am NOT smarter than a fifth (or sixth) grader, thank you very much Jeff Foxworthy), and being a football mom (GO BULLDOGS!) I write young adult urban fantasies, science/fiction and paranormal romances and have recently started dabbling in young adult and new adult contemporary romance.

I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. I’m now live in a sleepy suburb of Houston, Texas with my extremely supportive, not to mention gorgeous husband, three school-aged kids, a 125 pound labradoodle that thinks he’s a lap dog, and a very persnickety cat.

Elixir Saved Sneak Peek

September 20, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

First off a bit of news: I have received my print galley of Elixir Bound from the publisher and it’s up on my publisher’s website as available to order! Still no firm date on when I’ll be able to hold it in my hot little hands, but the galley and order option means we’re getting close. Yay!

So as the Elixir Bound in paperback blog tour continues (full schedule here), I’ve got a sneak peek at the companion novel (still a work-in-progress…and it’s kind of terrifying to be putting this out there at the this stage, but figured I’d be brave) Elixir Saved. In this next book, Kylene, Zelenka (both of whom you might know from Elixir Bound), and Devon (new character here!) have all been saved the by the Elixir. Now they must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice with their second chances at life.

As you can see from the description, Elixir Saved will feature many of the characters from Bound, but will also introduce some new characters. With three POV characters and new quests, Saved is even more epic than the first book.

I’ve mentioned before how I originally wrote Bound as a fantasy adventure after my sister Kylene passed away at the age of 16. I tried writing the story from her POV, but it was too hard at the time. I’m happy to say one of the POV characters of Saved is the character Kylene. This sneak peek is the first few pages from her POV (keep in mind this is an unedited version :)). Enjoy!

Kylene Kase waited in the wings for her big moment on stage when lightning struck. It hit a giant oak behind the outdoor stage, which split down the middle with a loud crack and caught on fire. The upper half of the tree toppled over and smashed through the backdrop, shooting sparks out toward the crowd.

The whole production—written by, directed by, and starring Kylene—flashed to a halt. A message, brought by the higher beings, filled her head. The implications of the six terrible words paralyzed her.

Kylene regained her senses and jumped off the nonstage side of the wings, tumbling to the hard ground covered in browning grass. The wood used to construct the stage served as kindling and the whole thing billowed with smoke and flames in a matter of minutes. She ran from the stage to escape the ashes, but acrid smoke curled toward her and burned her throat.

From a safe distance, she watched props of faux golden pillars melt and distort into shapes reminiscent of grotesque faces. As the stage collapsed in on itself, she sank to her hands and knees and sobbed. A strong hand pulled her to her feet. Her younger, but much taller brother, Bhar, grasped her hands. His blue eyes turned hazel as they reflected the orange flames.

He grasped her shoulders. “You okay?”

Kylene nodded; she was fine physically, if not mentally. She searched the frenzied crowd for the rest of her family, face stricken as she suddenly realized one of them might be hurt.

The list of her closet family members tumbled from her dry lips. “Ma, Pop, Katora, Lili, Ariana and the kids?”

“They’re all fine!” Bhar yelled over his shoulder as he ran to the perimeter of the disaster. “Pop says go home. I’ll see you there.”

He peered into the flames, presumably searching for anyone trapped in the ruins of the stage. A crowd of spectators, actors, and crew—some screaming—ran past. An old man fell in the chaos. Bhar lifted him up, offered him a shoulder to lean on, and escorted him to the road, disappearing into the throng.

Kylene stood, frozen in place, while her dreams of a successful production burned to the ground with the stage. The last support beam creaked and groaned, giving itself to the inferno. She fled for home, the early autumn leaves crunching underfoot in rhythm with her hiccupping sobs. Her white-blond hair flew wildly behind her and tears flowed from her bright blue eyes, obscuring her sight. Not that seeing mattered; her feet automatically knew the way down the dirt road to home.

It wasn’t the failure in front of her whole family and the entire town of Tussar that made her cry as much as the six words resonating in her head. In the Great Peninsula, higher beings—sometimes even Mother Nature herself—communicated with humans through the weather. The messages were often cryptic, hard to interpret. However, the message brought by the lightning came through clearer than the transparent bottles that held the essence—a renowned beverage in the Great Peninsula—brewed by her family.

Kylene sprinted straight through the front door of her family’s old, wooden farmhouse, up the rickety stairs, and into the room she shared with her sister Katora. She flung herself onto her bed and sucked in heaving breaths. Even with her face buried deep in her freshly laundered pillow slip, all she smelled was fire.

Before long, a warm hand caressed her back accompanied by Katora’s soothing voice. “Shhh. It’s okay. Don’t cry, Ky.”

Easy enough for Katora to say. She never cries.

She knew her whole family thought she cried too much, but surely the shocking message justified her distress. Eventually the sobs abated and Kylene’s body quieted. She sat and smiled at Katora, one of her three older sisters, the one closest in age to Kylene.

Katora’s blue-green eyes sparkled in her flushed faced. “You heard the message too. Sounds like another quest.”

Kylene rubbed her eyes and frowned. She shared neither her sister’s interpretation of the message nor her enthusiasm for quests. The last and only quest she had been on had nearly killed her. It had been Katora’s job to pick the flowers that contained the nectar for their family’s secret healing Elixir and take over as the Elixir’s guardian. Kylene, merely there to accompany her sister, received a deadly wound from a poisoned spear as a souvenir. If not for the Elixir, she likely would not have recovered.

Lately, nightmares of her loved ones, cold and blue-lipped, haunted her sleep. Would that be her fate if she went on another quest? She pushed away the thought as tears prickled the corners of her eyes.

“The message for the last quest to pick the flowers for the Elixir…” Kylene paused, not sure how to phrase what she wanted to know. “Did you hear it?”

“No.” Katora’s brow furrowed as she gazed at her. “I only saw the snow. The message was for Pop—he was still the guardian of the Elixir then.”

“Did Pop tell you what he heard?” Kylene asked.

Katora stared past Kylene to the wall, but she didn’t really appear to be looking at anything in particular. “I don’t know if he heard a specific message last time. What was it he said? Something about how the greater beings aren’t always clear on what they mean. He told me the snowstorm came as the Elixir’s supply was low, so he took that as a message we needed to retrieve more of the nectar.”

Kylene frowned. The message she heard as the lightning struck held no such ambiguity.

“But you heard a specific message this time?” she asked.

Katora smiled. “Oh, yes. It was like someone speaking right inside my head. No guessing games this time.”

The experience sounded the same as Kylene’s. Tears squeaked from her eyes again, blurring Katora’s face so much it reminded Kylene of the ugly shapes of the melting columns. Perhaps she misinterpreted the message and someone else would be made to fulfill it. She shivered. She didn’t want the message to be true for her or anyone else.