We'd like to welcome author Laura Bickle to the
Dark Nest today.
Laura is the author of the Anya Kalinczyk series.
Roots of a Story
by Laura Bickle
Growing a story is a lot like
nurturing flowers. It takes a lot of care and patience. For a long while, it
seems like nothing is happening. It's a lot of frustration with no immediate
reward. Watching, waiting.
And then, one day...something
blooms.
For me, a book begins with a
kernel of an idea, like a tiny, withered bulb. It doesn't look like much of anything
at the idea stage. I scribble the shriveled idea down in a journal, giving it
plenty of white space to grow. I check up on it every so often, revisiting it
to water with additional thoughts. A
story is very much a "What if ?" question at this point. "What
if a fire elemental belonged to an arson investigator?" "What if the
descendents of the Oracle of Delphi survived into the modern day?"
"What if a criminal profiler secretly used Tarot cards to solve
crimes?"
At this stage, the project
could grow or go into hibernation. I'm not sure. It's very much like the bulbs
I buy every so often from the hardware store. Sometimes, they sprout. Other
times, they're musty or moldy. And there is no hope for a moldy idea.
As the bulb reaches roots
into the soil and reaches up into the sky, I wonder about what kind of flower
it will be. This is the equivalent of browsing pictures of perfect irises or
seed catalogs. I wonder what color the flower will be or what species it is.
Have I got a tiger lily or an iris? What genre is it? Is it fantasy? Urban fantasy?
Will it be contemporary or historical? Dystopian? Or something else entirely?
As I'm outlining, I try to nail down the genre, guess at what to expect. I'm
not always successful, and there are always surprises. For example, I wrote a
book with the intent that it was to be a contemporary fantasy...but it came out
as a young adult story.
And there are some things
that I can't anticipate until the story blooms. I won't know which way the stem
will lean, how many leaves will sprout. I have the structure, the stem
straining toward the light. But each blossom and leaf unfurls into something
new.
At this stage, I can't
neglect the work. It needs light and water on a daily basis. We all know what
happens to houseplants that we forget. They wilt. Sometimes, they can be
revived with water. But sometimes, they die as a result of neglect. When the
plant is growing, I'm watching it like a hawk, weeding out bad ideas, and
adding a bit more to it every day. I'm worming around in the roots, feeling the
nourishment of the earth on the idea.
And that's where daily
writing comes in. Plant growth, like daily writing, is often imperceptible. But
looking at how much a plant grows from week to week, month to month...only over
longer periods of time can one see the growth.
And one day...there's a book.
It's unexpectedly blooming on my desk in all it's happy glory. It still needs
care: editing of brown leaves, some pruning, a bit of plant food to plump up
the anemic parts. But it's come forth into the world, almost of its own
volition. It has a life of its own.
It's not a dramatic process
for me. It's slow. It can take a season or more to coax a plant to bloom. It's
not always successful. Some die before they reach the light.
EMBERS
Anya Kalinczyk #1
Unemployment, despair,
anger--visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit's unease.
A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that
further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city.
Anya Kalinczyk spends
her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights
pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric ghost hunters. Anya--who is
the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern--suspects a supernatural arsonist
is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in
cinders. By Devil's Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya--with the
help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team --can
stop it.
Anya's accustomed to
danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she's
risking everything: her city, her soul, and a man who sees and accepts her for
everything she is. Keeping all three safe will be the biggest challenge she's
ever faced.
EMBERS is available now from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.
Read an excerpt HERE
SPARKS
Anya Kalinczyk #2
Anya Kalinczyk is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern,
who holds down a day job as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire
Department—while working 24/7 to exterminate malicious spirits haunting a city
plagued by unemployment and despair. Along with her inseparable salamander
familiar, Sparky, Anya has seen, and even survived, all manner of fiery
hell—but her newest case sparks suspicions of a bizarre phenomenon that no one
but her eccentric team of ghost hunters might believe: spontaneous human
combustion.
After fire consumes the
home of elderly Jasper Bernard, Anya is stunned to discover his remains—or,
more precisely, a lack of them; even the fiercest fires leave some trace of
their victims—and she is sure this was no naturally occurring blaze. Soon she’s
unearthed a connection to a celebrity psychic who preys on Detroit’s poor,
promising miracles for money. But Hope Solomon wants more—she’s collecting
spirits, and in a frantic race against time, Anya will face down an evil
adversary who threatens her fragile relationship with her lover, her beloved
Sparky’s freshly hatched newts, and the wandering souls of the entire city.
SPARKS is available for pre-order from Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Read an excerpt HEREAbout the author:
Laura
Bickle has
an MA in sociology-criminology (research interests: fear of crime and
victimology) and a BA in criminology. She has worked in and around criminal
justice since 1997. Although she does read Tarot cards, she's never used them
in criminal profiling or to locate lost scientists. She recently took up
astronomy, but for the most part her primary role in studying constellations
and dark matter is to follow her amateur astronomer-husband around central Ohio
toting the telescope tripod and various lenses.
Writing
as Laura Bickle, she's the author of EMBERS and SPARKS for Pocket - Juno Books.
Writing as Alayna Williams, she's the author of DARK ORACLE and ROGUE ORACLE.
More
info on her urban fantasy and general nerdiness is here: http://www.salamanderstales.com/
Laura/
Alayna’s blogshttp://www.salamanderstales.blogspot.com
and http://delphisdaughters.blogspot.com
She’s
also at Facebook
Thanks so much for hosting me today! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining us, Laura! Feel free to stop by anytime.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Andrea! :-)
ReplyDelete