New Year, New Promises

 I keep telling myself I will get this stuff done.  That I will sit and write and finish all these wonderful ideas floating around in my head.  This coming year I'm hoping to do this. 

I'm done editing book 3 and am waiting on my very busy cover artist.  She's a senior in college, working on a biology major and hoping to become a vet, so her time is limited.  But she is also cheap. (Round of laughs here).  So, my hopes for the coming year are this:

1) Finish editing book 4, the final book in this series.

2) Publish book 3 and 4 this coming year.

3)Edit and print (not publish) at least 2 other stories I have hanging out so my kids aren't like me and cursing me for not finishing my stories.  (Yeah, looking at you dad somewhere in the afterlife.)

I hope to accomplish all this in the coming year, but life happens, so we shall see.  My suggestions for you are to make a list of goals, try to stick to them and if you don't completely finish, don't berate yourself.  Just try to get more butt in seat time and keep working at your goals.

A late Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy Writing!

Book Two Has Hit The Shelves!

 Finally, after some family issues and health issues I have book 2 of my High King's Sword series, Memories of Stone, up on Amazon.

If you search for Memories of Stone by Heather Woodhurst on Amazon it should come up, but if not, the link is below:

Memories of Stone: Book 2 Of the High King's Sword: Woodhurst, Heather: 9798325112829: Amazon.com: Books

I'm excited to finally have the second book done and published and I am moving on to the third.  It's my bucket list to get all four books published before I go.  I may not be a big hit or anything, but the idea of having my name on a book and people actually looking at it is awesome!

Remember, keep writing and follow your dreams!

Happy Writing!

My Projects and Your Lists

 Happy New Year!

Like many of you, I had made resolutions to write more and give myself more time to work on the hobby I love, but I have failed, miserably. So lets start the year off now!

I have made quite the list of projects I want to do this year, the most important is actually get the 3 books in my series published.  Just have to coordinate with my cover artist.  Maybe if I help her pay the rent while she goes to school... But I thought I would share my proposed projects and maybe it will inspire you to make a project list of your own.

1) Publish my 3 books.  As I stated, the reason I haven't is my cover artist.  But do you really want to interrupt a Pre-Vet student when you know down the road you get a free Veterinarian?  But if your story is done and ready to go at the very least self-publish on Amazon.  Or if you are feeling ambitious hawk your novel to a publishing house.  At worst, they will just say no, but at least you tried.

2) Outline all my existing and future story ideas.  I have several "stories" that I started while in college and when the kiddos were first born but never really took them any where.  I figured if I outlined them, one, I would see if they were viable, but, two, get my thinking on them again.  You might have those odd story ideas hanging out why not go through them to see what you can do with them.

3) Take one of my outlines and finish one book this year.  This is a big, lofty goal.  With all that is going on with life I may not get finished, but I'd like to make a good start.  Look at it this way, if you want the same goal: Some progress is better then no progress.  And it will get you doing what you obviously like to do, write!

Happy Writing!

The Importance of Character Description

 Description of a character may or may not be important to the reader, but they should be important to the writer.  I don't mean just the color of the eyes or the cut of their clothes, but personality as well.  Here are some examples of what I mean.

1) Yes, typical description.  The reader needs to have a general idea of how the character looks.  I want to know if they are 5 foot tall or NBA star tall.  Are they thin and lithe or burly?  Is their skin dark or pale? (And this is not racist, it's just a detail like the color of hair.)  Are they wearing fancy clothes or rags?  All of these details gives your reader an idea of what the character looks like.

2) Mannerisms.  This is also an important detail because it gives an idea of how the person responds to situations and how they are feeling.  When Krom is feeling nervous or angry his ears go back, like dogs and horses tend to do.  When he is listening they go forward, like a cat's would. It gives a feel of how the character is feeling or what is about to happen.

3) Speaking habits.  Guthlaf has a bit of Cockney in his speech, (though not even completely close).  Elly speaks of Kenna as her "little dragon" because of Kenna's habit of looking for knowledge.  Duncan calls all those with him as "young".  These little things will give your characters more personality and make it easier to figure out who is talking.

Happy writing!

Notes of Importance

 If you are like me, whether for a novel or a roleplaying campaign, you have word files, notebooks and scraps of paper sitting around with ideas and additions to your universe.  Here are some ideas to not lose your important ideas.

1) I'd like to say I'm good at this, but keep a word/document file with just a list of ideas.  When you have an idea, jot it down on the list so you can come back to it later.  Even just things you want to look for when you are editing! I also recommend you print it once a month or every month, depending on how often you get to your list.

2) Keep a notebook at hand.  This could include the notepad on your phone, but have something you can jot down that idea that just jumps into your  head.  I find myself thinking on story ideas and fixes as I'm driving to get my mother-in-law or kids to take to what ever.  A couple hours in a car gives me plenty of time to think.  So when I reach my destination I'm reaching for my note book to get my thoughts down quick.

3) Review your random thoughts on occasion. Sometimes that is just enough to get the creative juices flowing.  You might find yourself saying, "hey, I forgot about that aspect".  My recent example as I'm editing my 3rd novel is the fact I never have Kenna and her mom physically reunited in the story line, even though I literally have half a chapter in there about Kenna's mom bullying Captain Reed to let her come along to find Kenna.  That was a big drop on my part.  So now I have a note posted on my desk to remember to get that in the next book.

Happy Writing!

Character Spotlight: Kredoc Bloodhelm

 Kredoc Bloodhelm, father of Tarkil, was supposed to be a background character who just popped in every once in a while to make Tarkil's life complicated, but I found myself giving him a background, (even if not really in the stories), and beginning to like this clearly Lawful Neutral character (if you like to put it in roleplaying terms).

Kredoc is the head of House Bloodhelm's spies and assassins, making sure the House is informed and can take out any issues that may be incurred by the House. He is the second son of House Bloodhelm, Ikaris Bloodhelm being his older brother and the Leader of House Bloodhelm.  He never wanted to be the Knight in shining armor, he wanted to be the man behind the scenes, but he was pleased his two elder sons did want to become Knights.  He was also secretly pleased when Tarkil wanted to be a spy.

In his younger years Kredoc was a rogue. He and his butler, Jarvis, adventured across the country side, getting themselves in all sorts of trouble, making friends and enemies as they went.  When it became time to settle down and become the House spy, he became the serious gentleman he is today, though he and Jarvis always share secret smiles over remembered times. It is hard to see Kredoc smiling about anything with his incarnation in the stories.

He is hard on all his children, wanting the House to have the best protectors possible, but he sees too much of himself in Tarkil and worries his youngest will chaff against the path House Bloodhelm is going down.

Kredoc is a follower of Sircarius, though he keeps his worship more to himself then out in the open, since House members are supposed to follow the Gods of the Light or Neutrality. He doesn't love his wife, per say, but he does not wish her ill will, since a prearranged marriage was neither of their choices.  But as a House scion, it was expected.  They work well together and have raised three fine sons together, so Kredoc feels it was a good arrangement.

In the future, I hope that he becomes a more prominent part in short stories or even further plots for other novels.

Origin of Stories

 Everything has a beginning, from the birth of child to the birth of a story.  My story is no different.

My story started from a few of us getting together for some much needed D&D and me wanting to showcase the world I had so loving labored on for almost a decade and a half.  Here was this world flushed out with enough information to make a roleplaying supplement, (or several), and a bunch of us who needed an outlet since we were all stuck all over the country and kinda on our own.

We used the internet, before Discord or like applications where we could have done our roleplaying in real time, so I had to cobble together emails to make one coherent game "session".  It was difficult, to say the least, but as the months progressed I had reams of notes for a story idea.  I had to change some things, because you can't make 4 people follow a coherent story line to the "T", and add my own twists and turns that could not be used in a roleplaying session.  (If you have ever been a DM you know it's hard enough to get your players to go even close to what you want them to do!)

The more I worked on a story idea, the more I wanted to write the story, (which ended up being 4 novels).  Luckily my  husband, (my inspiration for Krom and Duncan), was all for such an endeavor.  We both knew it wasn't going to happen over night, since we had two kiddos and I was very involved in their activities, but he made sure I got the time to write, which I am eternally grateful for.

So how did your story start?  Was it a long hike? A drive in an unfamiliar place?  Something that happened in your life or in the city you live in/near?  Write that down, too!  Later, if you do get your story published and you have a following, your readers will want to know!

Happy Writing!