Day 5: Who Roams Here?

It's the last day of the 2015 Realms Faire, hosted by M. Pax. This year there are twelve games going on, and there is still time to have fun and win prizes. Be sure to check out all of these great games! 

Riddle Me This ~ Dueling Bards ~ Phasers ~ Unicorn Hunt ~ Beware the Vortex ~ VelociRaffle ~ The Hero’s Dilemma ~Stockade Brigade ~ Hall of Doors ~ The Joust ~ Drench-a-Wench/Soak-a-Bloke

Here at the House of The Spirits, I am welcoming a different ghost each day to take over the blog. I will leave clues throughout the day and the first person to guess the ghost's identity in the comments wins a prize. You don't need a google or blogger profile to participate - anonymous users are welcome to guess but please just make sure I can contact you in case you are a winner.

In addition, everyone who leaves a comment before midnight on Saturday, November 14th will be entered in the Grand Prize drawing at the end of the Faire. The Grand Prize will be a $30 Amazon gift card, an ebook bundle of my books Polar Night, The Turnagain Arm, & The Ghosts of Aquinnah, and the Once Upon a Nightmare Collection ebook set by Cherie Reich.

Want to know about today's prize? Today my ghostly guest and I are giving away a $5 Amazon gift card, an ebook copy of Of Blood and Sorrow by Christine Rains, and an ebook copy of my story Polar Night.

Thanks to Christine for the donation!

And now for our last guest of the week. You're up, ghost!

**ETA: Today's ghost has already been correctly identified. He is Jacob Marley, guessed first by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Congrats, Alex!! If you would still like to be entered into the Grand Prize giveaway just leave a comment before midnight tonight. I will post the winner on Monday, 11/16. Thanks to everyone who has come by and played my game this week! 

I'll add the rest of Marley's clues and his picture so he doesn't feel left out of the ghost party. 

Who am I? 

1.       When I was alive I was a partner in a London financial institution

2. I was quite greedy

3. I died on Christmas Eve

4. Now I spend eternity carrying a heavy chain made of padlocks, steel purses, ledgers, and cash boxes

5. My partner was Ebenezer Scrooge

My picture:

Day 4: Who Roams Here?

Welcome to day 4 of the 2015 Realms Faire, hosted by M. Pax. This year there are twelve games going on, so there are lots of chances to have fun and win prizes. Be sure to check out all of these great games! 

Riddle Me This ~ Dueling Bards ~ Phasers ~ Unicorn Hunt ~ Beware the Vortex ~ VelociRaffle ~ The Hero’s Dilemma ~Stockade Brigade ~ Hall of Doors ~ The Joust ~ Drench-a-Wench/Soak-a-Bloke

Here at the House of The Spirits, I am welcoming a different ghost each day to take over the blog. I will leave clues throughout the day and the first person to guess the ghost's identity in the comments wins a prize. You don't need a google or blogger profile to participate - anonymous users are welcome to guess but please just make sure I can contact you in case you are a winner.

In addition, everyone who leaves a comment before midnight on Saturday, 11/14 will be entered in the Grand Prize drawing at the end of the Faire. The Grand Prize will be a $30 Amazon gift card, an ebook bundle of my books Polar Night, The Turnagain Arm, & The Ghosts of Aquinnah, and the Once Upon a Nightmare Collection ebook set by Cherie Reich.

Want to know about today's prize? Today my ghostly guest and I are giving away a $5 Amazon gift card, an audio book of The Backworlds by M. Pax, and an ebook of my story The Ghosts of Aquinnah.

Thanks to Mary for the donation!

Today's ghost is already irritated about not being invited until day 4 of this event, so I will turn things over quickly. Take it away, ghost!

*ETA: Cathrina Constantine correctly identified today's ghost after just one clue. He is the Headless Horseman. Congratulations, Cathrina! I will add the remaining clues and his picture so he doesn't feel short-changed. Feel free to still leave a comment if you would like to be entered into the Grand Prize giveaway. Otherwise, my last ghost and I will be back tomorrow for the last day of the Faire. 

Who Am I? 

1.       I was killed in 1776 during the American Revolution

2. I was decapitated by a cannonball

3. I'm sometimes called The Galloping Hessian

4. I enjoy roaming Sleepy Hollow on my horse

My picture: 

Day 3: Who Roams Here?

Welcome to day 3 of the 2015 Realms Faire, hosted by M. Pax. This year there are twelve games going on, so there are lots of chances to have fun and win prizes. Be sure to check out all of these great games! 

Riddle Me This ~ Dueling Bards ~ Phasers ~ Unicorn Hunt ~ Beware the Vortex ~ VelociRaffle ~ The Hero’s Dilemma ~Stockade Brigade ~ Hall of Doors ~ The Joust ~ Drench-a-Wench/Soak-a-Bloke

Here at the House of The Spirits, I am welcoming a different ghost each day to take over the blog. I will leave clues throughout the day and the first person to guess the ghost's identity in the comments wins a prize. You don't need a google or blogger profile to participate - anonymous users are welcome to guess but please just make sure I can contact you in case you are a winner.

In addition, everyone who leaves a comment before midnight on Saturday 11/14 will be entered in the Grand Prize drawing at the end of the Faire. The Grand Prize will be a $30 Amazon gift card, an ebook bundle of my books Polar Night, The Turnagain Arm, & The Ghosts of Aquinnah, and the Once Upon a Nightmare Collection ebook set by Cherie Reich.

Want to know about today's prize? Today my ghostly guest and I are giving away a $5 Amazon gift card, an ebook of Guardians of Telesma by River Fairchild, and an ebook of my story Polar Night.

Thanks to River for the prize donation!

*ETA: Cherie Reich guessed the ghost - Grady from The Shining. Congratulations, Cherie! And thanks to all for your comments and guesses. I have to say, of all the ghosts who are visiting me this week, Grady is the one who scares me the most. The Shining absolutely terrified me when I saw it! I will add the remaining clue and Grady's picture. 

Now, please welcome today's ghost. It's safe to say this ghost isn't a friendly one.

Who am I? 

1.       When I was alive I was an alcoholic

2.      I went mad and hacked my wife and daughters to death

3. After I killed my wife and daughters I shot myself in the head

4. I've always been at The Overlook

5. I encouraged Jack Torrance to correct his wife and son, like I corrected my family

My picture:

Day 2: Who Roams Here?

Welcome to day 2 of the 2015 Realms Faire, hosted by M. Pax. This year there are twelve games going on, so there are lots of chances to have fun and win prizes. Be sure to check out all of these great games! 

Riddle Me This ~ Dueling Bards ~ Phasers ~ Unicorn Hunt ~ Beware the Vortex ~ VelociRaffle ~ The Hero’s Dilemma ~Stockade Brigade ~ Hall of Doors ~ The Joust ~ Drench-a-Wench/Soak-a-Bloke

Here at the House of The Spirits, I am welcoming a different ghost each day to take over the blog. I will leave clues throughout the day and the first person to guess the ghost's identity in the comments wins a prize. You don't need a google or blogger profile to participate - anonymous users are welcome to make a guess but please just make sure I can contact you in case you are a winner.

In addition, everyone who leaves a comment before midnight on Saturday, 11/14 will be entered in the Grand Prize drawing at the end of the Faire. The Grand Prize will be a $30 Amazon gift card, an ebook bundle of my books Polar Night, The Turnagain Arm, & The Ghosts of Aquinnah, and the Once Upon a Nightmare Collection ebook set by Cherie Reich.

Want to know about today's prize? Today my ghostly guest and I are giving away a $5 Amazon gift card, an audio book of The Mystery Prince by Mary Waibel, and an ebook of my story The Ghosts of Aquinnah.

Thanks to Mary for the donation!

And now I'll turn things over to today's ghost!

*ETA: Misha Gerricke won today's game right out of the gate! Nearly Headless Nick from Harry Potter was today's ghost. Congratulations, Misha! I will add the rest of Nick's clues so he doesn't feel short-changed LOL. Thanks to everyone who commented and please feel free to still leave a comment if you would like to be entered in the Grand Prize giveaway.

Who Am I? 

   1.       I was sentenced to death by beheading but the executioner wasn't very efficient

2. Before my unfortunate death I was a wizard of the Royal Court

3. I tried to fix crooked teeth and gave a woman a tusk instead

4. I am the House Ghost of Gryffindor

5. John Cleese played me in the movies

My picture:

Taking the Towel Back Out & More Realms Faire Games

Source

Last week I wrote that I was throwing in the towel on my WIP after months of frustration with it. Apparently the WIP didn't like that idea, as right after I wrote that post I got inspired to go take the towel back out and work on the story. And to my amazement, I actually finished the first draft over the weekend! Once I started writing again I couldn't stop.

So I think that story still wanted to be told and I am more than happy to oblige it. I have tons of work to do as the first draft is garbage, but I am excited now about tackling it.

This story is a follow-up to Polar Night and Polar Day but is set in Chicago instead of in Alaska. The antagonist is a ghost this time, or a sort of ghost, who has connections to the Civil War. I came upon this photo on Twitter from the Chattanooga National Military Park this week out of the blue and it seemed like another sign that this story is meant to be finished. Isn't this a haunting shot? I love it.

Source

I'm looking forward to being able to share more about the story in the coming weeks.

Thanks again to everyone who left comments on my post last week. I really appreciated all of the encouragement and advice!

The Realms Faire is getting closer and I am excited to spotlight a few more games today from my fellow participants.

House Bookworm - Riddle Me This
I am a book so popular they made a movie of me. Within the what if realms I lie. Horror? Fantasy? Or am I Sci-Fi? A riddle every day during the Realms Faire for you to take your best guess and have a chance to win a prize most splendid.
For your guessing pleasure, visit Cherie Reich's blog every day November 9-13 to make a guess and be entered for a daily prize.

House of the Hero's Dilemma - hosted by Tyrean Martinson
Hero's beware! Here at the House of Hero's Dilemma, a new cliff-hanging adventure will dangle new heroes above the depths of destiny or despair. In 100 words or less, a hero will face a danger in story form.
Each day, the people of Realsmdom will decide the fate of these heroes in three sentences or less. If fateful endings are giving answer in poetic form, an extra entry for prizes will be awarded.
Daily e-book prizes will be awarded via random name-pulling from the entries. Everyone is invited to participate.
People of Realmsdom, you have the power of storytelling might to decide the fate of the would-be heroes. Will they die in glory or shame, live in victory or defeat? It is up to you.

House Waibel - The Stockade Brigade
Warrants of arrest have been issued for select authors accusing them of witchery and wizardry. The pillory has been erected and the trial dates set.
Good people of Realmsdom, I call upon you to bear witness to these trials and offer your testimony for or against the author's crimes.
Points will be awarded for wordsmithing a comment in your best Olde English afore 8 of the clock in the Eastern time on the following scale:
5-Ye speak as one from the days of Queen Bess.4-Ye could pass muster as a Ren Faire cast member3-Ye could pass as a Ren Faire attendee2-Ye wouldn't be foolin' yer mother1-Ye stand out like the sun in a cloudless sky
An e-book will be given every day to the witness who scores the most points. Fear not, your daily score will be accumulated and the person with the highest score shall receive a special prize at the end of the week. So, brush off your Olde English and prepare to testify.

For all of the info on the Realms Faire, including a full list of this year's games, visit M. Pax here. 

World Building with Cherie Reich

I'm hosting Cherie Reich today as part of her blog tour for her debut novel Reborn. Cherie is here to talk about world building, something that I admit intimidates me as an author. I really admire those who take it on and as I know Cherie is excellent at it I'm excited to share her advice.

Also, as part of her tour, Cherie and the rest of the Untethered Realms authors (including me) are giving away more than $50 worth of books to one giveaway winner. Be sure to enter to win through the Rafflecopter below!

Take it away, Cherie!

Five Ways to Improve Your World-Building

1. Take notes. Remembering the world you created is half the battle.

2. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is your story’s world. You don’t have to know your world up front. First drafts should focus more on the characters and plot. As you delve into rewrites and edits, this is where the world-building should start to shine.

3. You may be God, but you also must make sense. We writers are like gods. We create worlds filled with interesting people and animals, but unlike real life, our worlds must make sense. If you go against the rules in your world, then you must have a very good reason—and rationality—to do so.

4. Be an anthropologist. Anthropology is divided into subsets: sociocultural, biological, archaeological, and linguistic. It is up to the writer to be the expert in all those anthropological fields when it comes to your world-building. Think about what we have in our own world and see how you can use it and change it to fit the world you are creating.

5. Be a geographer. Learning a little bit about the land your characters live on will help you. Look at maps. Learn about climate. Knowing a little will help you enrich your world.

Do you have any world-building tips?

 To save a kingdom, a prophetess must challenge Fate.

On the day of Yssa’s death and rebirth, the god Apenth chose her as the Phoenix Prophetess.

Sea serpents and gods endanger the young prophetess’s journey and sour the omens. Yssa is cursed instead of blessed, and her duties at the Temple of Apenth prove it. She spends her days reading dusty scrolls, which does nothing to help her forget Tym, the boy back home. But the annoying yet gorgeous ferryman’s son Liam proves to be a distraction she can’t predict, even though he rarely leaves her alone for two sand grains.

Her boring temple life screeches to a halt when visions of her parents’ murders consume her. Yssa races across an ocean to stop the future. If she can’t change Fate, she’ll refuse to be the Phoenix Prophetess any longer. Fate, however, has other plans for her and the kingdom.

Yssa must either accept her destiny or fight to change Fate.

Available in Ebook and Print!

To purchase: Amazon | Createspace | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo | Nook | OmniLit | Smashwords | Other Retailers

Click here to add on Goodreads.

The authors of Untethered Realms and I are giving away over $50 worth of books to one lucky winner. The giveaway is open internationally.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A self-proclaimed bookworm, Cherie Reich is a speculative fiction writer and library assistant living in Virginia. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and her books include the horror collection Nightmare, a space fantasy novella collection titled Gravity, and the fantasy series The Foxwick Chronicles and The Fate Challenges. Reborn is her debut novel. She is Vice President of Valley Writers and a member of the Virginia Writers Club and Untethered Realms. For more information, please visit her website.

Cover Reveal for Reborn by Cherie Reich

Cherie Reich is releasing her novel Reborn in May and I'm super-excited to be taking part in her cover reveal this week. Congratulations, Cherie!

To save a kingdom, a prophetess must challenge Fate.

On the day of Yssa’s death and rebirth, the god Apenth chose her as the Phoenix Prophetess.

Sea serpents and gods endanger the young prophetess’s journey and sour the omens. Yssa is cursed instead of blessed, and her duties at the Temple of Apenth prove it. She spends her days reading dusty scrolls, which does nothing to help her forget Tym, the boy back home. But the annoying yet gorgeous ferryman’s son Liam proves to be a distraction she can’t predict, even though he rarely leaves her alone for two sand grains.

Her boring temple life screeches to a halt when visions of her parents’ murders consume her. Yssa races across an ocean to stop the future. If she can’t change Fate, she’ll refuse to be the Phoenix Prophetess any longer. Fate, however, has other plans for her and the kingdom.

Yssa must either accept her destiny or fight to change Fate.

Here’s an excerpt from the prologue of Reborn:

He couldn’t forget the council’s words or how they’d cursed his fifth Phoenix Prophetess. But visions of the Kingdom of Amora in flames flashed through his mind. He could taste the ashes, like burnt charcoal, and hear her people’s screams. The prophecy of the kingdom’s destruction leaked sour bile into his mouth. The other gods, including Kisa, the Queen of the Gods, might be willing to turn their backs on their loyal people for Fate, but he wasn’t.

There was also this infant in front of him. She reminded him of his daughter. His mortal family resided in the Underworld, but he couldn’t let this child.

“I have to save her.”

“Think of the consequences, my son.”

He had. They both knew the gods would find a way to curse him and this innocent child, but the price was worth saving the kingdom.

Ignoring his mother’s shrieks, Apenth leaned over the lifeless baby again. His lips pressed against her ashen forehead, so cold to the touch. Postera clawed at his arms, but he shoved away her hands. Nothing would stop him from completing Amora’s prophecy, protecting the city named after his love.

“You are mine, little one.” His hand pressed over her heart. Electric heat flowed from his glowing fingertips. They tingled, nearly burning his flesh, but his hand remained steady. Luminosity brightened around the child and him, further blocking out Postera’s pleas. The room filled with the blinding white light.

“Live.” He commanded, pleaded.

“No!” Postera screamed as the child’s life-thread ripped from his mother’s hand and joined the pulsing jewel on her belt. The piece sizzled, reattaching to the gemstone, and transformed to blood red.

The light imploded into the child. Her flesh glowed for a moment before the room’s shadows returned. A tiny strawberry-colored birthmark in the shape of a phoenix blossomed upon the flesh over her heart. The baby’s lungs filled with air, and a cry broke from her lips.

The Phoenix Prophetess was reborn.

Author Bio: A self-proclaimed bookworm, Cherie Reich is a speculative fiction writer, freelance editor, book blogger, and library assistant living in Virginia. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and her ebooks include the horror series Nightmare, a space fantasy trilogy titled Gravity, and a fantasy series The Foxwick Chronicles. She is Vice President of Valley Writers and a member of the Virginia Writers Club and Untethered Realms.

Her debut YA Epic Fantasy novel Reborn, book one in The Fate Challenges, will be released on May 23, 2014. Add Reborn on Goodreads here.

Website Link: http://cheriereich.webs.com

Blog Link: http://cheriereich.blogspot.com

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