The appeal of fiction

Some might say, “What good are tales?”

Tales, after all, are nothing more than words — and words, like the waters of the mighty Q’taha, disappear into the beyond.

 But listen, my child: this is no wild story spun by mothers to lull their children to bed at night.

No.

This is a tale of a world that once was — of the world that came before this one, when the stars slept and Mother Sun was yet young. It is a tale of when men talked with beasts, when spirits walked the earth, and when Inte’kunda was just a girl.

Come, little one, and listen to a tale of when the world was young.

So that’s the opening line from the other book I’m working on — tentatively titled The Air Dancer (I might go the Zuckerberg route and drop the “the”) — and one that I’m so happy and excited to be working on. I’ve mentioned it at least once before in a blog, but I haven’t really talked about it since then. I figured today would be a great time to update you all on where things are in terms of all things DLJ-related.

A second story fall

So the first piece of news, if you totally skimmed over the opening paragraph, is that I’m working on another story! This one I pitch as “Jungle Book meets Game of Thrones” (although it’s nowhere near that ambitious just yet. I’m just having a blast writing it). It’s still in its infancy, but I can already tell this is shaping up to be a really fun story. The protagonist is a young woman, and it takes place in a sort of Amazon-like environment. Both of those things excite me because they’re so different from what I normally write, and (I feel) different from most YA Fantasy these days which is mostly European-centric, male protagonist-dominated stories. I wanted to do something different, and Air Dancer is my attempt at that.

Second things first

Now for my second piece of news…

Gift of the Shaper is now available on Kindle! I had a crazy day the other day when my publisher told me that it had dropped, but I was more than happy to let everyone else know.

Good things come in threes

Now for the third and final (I promise) piece of news.

Like I mentioned in a recent blog, I’ve been diligently working on the sequel to Gift of the Shaper, which I’m calling Awaken the Three. As you can see, I’m closing in on 100,000 words (GOTS was 125k, for reference) and I’m really happy with how things are turning out. I have the bulk of the story written, and I really just have to close off some of the story lines — but for the most part, this thing is WRITTEN!

So there you go! It’s been a busy week (or two) but I’ve gotten a lot done in terms of progress and I’m really happy about that.

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to sign up for the newsletter for major announcements (like when the audiobook finally drops) and more!

-D.L.