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Dragons, Found Family & Writing Fantasy: L Darby Gibbs Author Interview | Mythic Mirror Ep 32
16 Plays8 days ago
Join us for a magical chat with L Darby Gibbs, Fantasy author with 30 books written and so much more to come! If you love stories about dragons you're in the right place! If you want a free fantasy short story about Family bonds, sacrifice and hidden magic, check out Mary's story Rueful But Unruled. If you want a new epic fantasy about a society that thinks water will make you go mad and a young woman who cant ignore its call, check out Mary's Kickstarter for her debut novel Breaking Inlands!
Want to dive into L Darby Gibbs fantastic books? Go to https://ldgibbs.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to Elle Darby Gibbs and Her Fantasy World
00:00:00
Speaker
Today we have a very special episode for you. We interviewed Elle Darby Gibbs and it was a complete delight. We hope you enjoy it. We really, really loved getting to chat with her. We talk about dragons and fantasy and story and writing and it's just delightful.
00:00:30
Speaker
Welcome to Mythic Mirror, the podcast for lovers of myth and fantasy who want to live magical and fulfilling lives. I'm your host, Mary C. Kehoe. And I'm your co-host, Carolina
Elle's Writing Journey and Inspiration from Dragons
00:00:40
Speaker
Carter. Welcome, LD, to the Mythic Mirror. I'm going to start out with your bio for everyone, then we'll get into our interview.
00:00:50
Speaker
L. Darby Gibbs juggles a passion for storytelling with diverse hobbies like tandem bike riding, music, and home remodel. Married for 44 years, Gibbs... Transitioned from sci-fi to fantasy to and romantic genres, where dragons often take a center stage. Her latest venture, the series Fifth Flight, promises more magical adventures.
00:01:14
Speaker
I am reading right Dragon I Dream, and I really love, yeah, I love the world you've created there with, um I mean, dragons connected to ancient sentient trees. um I'm in.
00:01:27
Speaker
Whatever else happens. um So is that was that your first series that you wrote, or which what what came first?
00:01:38
Speaker
My first series was the time travel, but we're going to just set that aside for while. And then um I guess Dragonite Dream, The Annals of the Dragon Dreamer, that was actually my third fantasy series or fourth.
00:01:51
Speaker
Might have been my fourth, but it's definitely one of my favorites.
The Craft of Writing: Dialogue, Dynamics, and Discovery
00:01:56
Speaker
So why dragons? So this is actually a little story I'll try to keep it really short.
00:02:02
Speaker
My husband and I got on this binge dragon movies. And we just watched our last one. And I said, you know, i would love to write dragons, a story with dragons. I said, but I don't have any ideas. And he said, well, let's brainstorm.
00:02:18
Speaker
So we brainstormed three dragon stories right there on the couch. And I've written all three of them. And I just loved it. It was just like, yeah, this this is great. They had such a additional flavor.
00:02:32
Speaker
And because they're, you know, they're not humans. They're this other type of creature. And is I just love it. So i loved i love writing about dragons.
00:02:43
Speaker
Well, we love reading about him. So yeah that does touch on one of my questions, which was when you begin to write, is it the dragon that comes to you first? Is it more the story?
00:02:54
Speaker
um Does a character kind of and it's probably different each time. But is there any sort of way that it starts to come to you? It's a dialogue. I just hear a character speaking. Sometimes, yes, it's the dragon.
00:03:08
Speaker
Most of the time it is the human character, but it's often right when they meet the dragon. and so But I'd say dialogue. Dialogue is the thing that starts me off.
00:03:20
Speaker
That's very cool. I love that some people it's the meet cute, you know, the moment between the two main characters in a romance. And I love that for you. it's It's the meeting between the dragon and the human. That's the important. Absolutely.
00:03:34
Speaker
s It's such a ah great dichotomy to have those these characters. know, individuals meet, and they're meeting with different perceptions.
00:03:45
Speaker
You know, it's if I'm talking to another human being, our perceptions are pretty much the same, even if we disagree on something. But a dragon's going to have a more predatory, perhaps, perception on things.
00:03:57
Speaker
Or a lot of my dragons are very intellectual, so they're looking at it from another angle. um And I like that. I like that.
00:04:08
Speaker
I don't know, friction that has created, what you know, not a negative friction necessarily, but it's it's a friction. And how how has that changed from, correct me if I'm wrong, have you, you've published over 30 books now? Is that correct? That's correct. That's incredible. Has that, has your writing process changed over the course of, from when you wrote that first one to the most recent one?
00:04:31
Speaker
My first fantasy that I wrote was generated by a blog post. A friend of mine said, could you write a blog post about one of these five topics? And one of them was fantasy. And I said, well, you know, I was thinking, oh, yeah, I've been writing time travel, but sure, i'm going to write an article about fantasy.
00:04:50
Speaker
Makes perfect sense. So I decided that in order to explain myself, I should have actually have a a little bit of a magical set of rules and a little world started. So I was explaining how it's important about those rules help guide the process of the writing. You can't break the rules. They're they're kind of like your borders.
00:05:14
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So I wrote this whole blog post and then I realized i couldn't send it to her because I now wanted to write the story that I had just designed to explain this whole point I was trying to make.
00:05:27
Speaker
Um, but it was just a short story. So I just set it aside because I was working on a book at the time. And, When it finally came, a moment where I was sort of stuck in one of my books, I thought i need to get away. How can I get away? oh yeah, I've got that short story I could write.
00:05:46
Speaker
So I pulled that up, and 30,000 words later, I realized, okay, not a short story. I'm not even close to the end. And i was having such a wonderful time. It was so easy to write it, to just flow with it. And, yeah, was...
00:06:03
Speaker
I was in fantasy at that point on. So it was just more of a I had these set of rules, this idea, and I just wrote from that. Wow. Mary has talked to me about her similar struggle with writing short stories and how she can't do it. And every short story just turns into a longer story.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, every time I try, people say, that's a great first chapter. Dang it. I can write short stories. It's just that that wasn't designed to be one, though I thought you know at the time, yeah, I know exactly how this is going end.
00:06:39
Speaker
And then other characters kept moving in and saying stuff, and it just took off on its own. So that was my first fantasy series.
00:06:51
Speaker
Do stories often have a mind of their own that change from how you what you originally planned? I'm not a planner. I'm a discovery writer. So um I usually have islands. And sometimes, yeah, the islands never show up.
00:07:08
Speaker
I diverge. I go around them. There's a another cluster I'd much rather go to. But yeah, it it changes. it moves along. And sometimes what I have in mind, i i really trust my subconscious.
00:07:24
Speaker
And if it's, you know, if it has a character walk in and they say, there's a fire, I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Sure, let's roll with it.
00:07:35
Speaker
So yeah, I'm, I, my plans are loose, extremely loose. And has that trust with your subconscious built with every book with that, you know, with the first one, were you a little more trepidatious and now you, you've created sort of a flow and a rapport with your subconscious?
00:07:54
Speaker
I wouldn't say I trust it more. i I certainly rely on it, but I think every book has its own difficulties, its own muddy middles, all those things that are just normal.
00:08:08
Speaker
And I guess I just rely on it. You're going to get me out of this mess, right? you know And I just keep going forward. um But I wouldn't say it's made anything easier. It's just that...
00:08:22
Speaker
I'm probably less likely to run into, you know, ah a wall because I just go, it's okay. Something in there is working on it. We'll get there. Wow. I love that.
00:08:34
Speaker
And I love the term discovery writer more than pantser. um I'm very similar and I like the way you described it as having islands that you may or may not reach.
00:08:45
Speaker
ah I think am that is a very good description of how I write as well. and I've tried doing outlining and I just get so bored and frustrated. And then when I'm like, okay, I'm just going to write and like, oh, now it's fun again. Why would I, and then if I try to write something, I've plotted out too much. Well, then I'm like, well, now I'm just following, you know, it's like paint by numbers and I no longer am having fun.
00:09:11
Speaker
Exactly. In fact, was watching a podcast of an author who i had great respect for and I loved her work. And she was saying, oh, once i went I switched over to planning everything and outlining everything, I got so much faster and it was so much easier. i thought, okay, going to it.
00:09:29
Speaker
I'm going to give this a run. And I wrote, I don't know, three or four books, tightly planned, and I hated every moment of it. And i think on the fourth one, I just went, enough, enough. I'm halfway through and I'm driving driving myself crazy and I just let it flow to its end and get there on its own.
00:09:47
Speaker
And I said, okay, that's that's a year of an exploration that I'm not going to do again. i prefer to just have my loose...
00:09:59
Speaker
strings and I'll get them tied together at the end. Yeah, outside of having like a, you know, allowing yourself the discovery while writing, I'm curious if you have a strict writing schedule that you have to stick to every day or is that also sort of like when the moment sparks inside of you?
00:10:17
Speaker
It's pretty strict. Is it? Yeah, I would love to know your routine. i start my start my day at the computer. I'm going to get a thousand words minimum written every day.
00:10:29
Speaker
hello And sometimes that takes an hour. Sometimes it takes six. And it all depends on how many times my husband walks into my office and says, are you writing? it's Can I ask you a question? um So, but but, you know, each, it's like, let's see.
00:10:51
Speaker
Do I have it? No, I tossed it over there. I always
Support System: Husband, Community, and Self-Publishing
00:10:54
Speaker
have a sticky note with a list of things that need to get done and and other ones it'd be great if you could hit these sometime by the end of the week and uh and i just that's sticky notes just sitting there every day and i'm just like so overjoyed when i can put a check mark next to something yeah so yeah i'm i'm set i'm organized my husband knows it we sometimes have to plan trips and he's like okay so i figured out that um
00:11:22
Speaker
If we encase your computer in one of our big shopping freezer bags and put a couple of ice packs in there, it will be able to sit in the car while we're at the race and it won't get too hot. Oh, wow. He knows.
00:11:39
Speaker
Oh, that's very sweet. nice Yeah. Were you a writer when you met him or was this something like has he gotten to know you as a writer as you've been married? I was a writer in the sense that I was always writing.
00:11:53
Speaker
Sure. um But no, he didn't think of me as a writer when we married and probably it took him the first 10 years of our marriage to figure out that maybe he should respect that side of me just a little bit more.
00:12:10
Speaker
So, you know, for for a lot of people, when you say you write, they kind of view it as like a hobby or a, they don't like to write, so you probably just like to doodle or something.
00:12:26
Speaker
um And so he didn't kind of put that kind of value on it initially. and um But he figured out excuse me that when I was most happy was when I was writing.
00:12:40
Speaker
So he's like, okay, I want my wife happy. I need to make it possible for her to write. So this is so long ago, like 30 years ago. He bought me a dedicated word processor because there was no such thing as computers.
00:12:55
Speaker
Hard to believe, but they weren't there. So he bought me this dedicated word processor. Didn't tell me he bought it. it was a big surprise, except I handled the bills.
00:13:05
Speaker
And so I'm like, did he buy from Philips? What is that? And look at the price. I had to go ask him, what'd you buy from Philips? And he just looked at me went,
00:13:22
Speaker
You're word processor. oh oh That's so sweet. So from then, how long was it before you were publishing? let's see.
00:13:33
Speaker
I published, my first year publishing was 2011. So I married the man in 81. So take it from there.
00:13:46
Speaker
That's pretty incredible. Too much math. Yeah. Well, that's lovely. I love it to hear about those partnerships that are just so supportive and aware of each other and aware of, you know, what sparks each person with joy and, you know, their life's purpose.
00:14:06
Speaker
Yeah. And that's what led to him sitting down and saying, let's brainstorm you some dragon stories. So now he's part of the process. You know, yeah he'll come to my office before I begin writing and he'll say, i have an idea.
00:14:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:23
Speaker
We talk about his idea and I've written probably five or six books where he has contributed part of the idea and one of them that he practically plotted the whole novel.
00:14:36
Speaker
And I just went, ah, I'm writing that. And i i wrote the book, but it was based off of his, his storyline. Wow. That is so cool. Yeah, that's the first time I've heard a lot of stories of authors with their spouse being business partners and working together. But I think this is the first time I've heard an author say that they've been a creative partner too with that side of it. That's really, really cool.
00:15:03
Speaker
He doesn't know any of the business side of it. he None of it. But yeah, that part he he thinks he can contribute to and he does. And it's... it's it's
00:15:17
Speaker
You know, doing it alone within a partnership, that wasn't bad. That wasn't a problem because i I had the time and everything. But um having him be part of it, too. is is extra. It's icing and it's lovely.
00:15:30
Speaker
You are self-taught. You taught yourself the entire business. Is that right? Yeah. what has that been like? um I know that's probably too broad a question, but um I guess what I want to know, is there ever a moment where you almost quit or has it just ah been an enjoyment of the process?
00:15:50
Speaker
um So I had written two books and I had sent them to publishers and they'd been rejected. And that was long before, you know, Amazon and Kobo and Barnes & Noble and Smashwords and Delta Digital got into the game as far as for indie writers.
00:16:09
Speaker
And then I just sort of went, okay, and I just set them aside. And then I don't remember who it was, if it was Kobo, well, wasn't Kobo at the time, Sony, and or Barnes & Noble brought up.
00:16:26
Speaker
that they were now going to allow independent writers to publish. And I just sat there and went, oh yes, yes, this is this is it because I was a teacher and you you you run the show in your classroom. You run every aspect of it. And I was in a very small school. I taught several grades. And I had to create my own curriculum. I mean, I was used to having control over every aspect of the process.
00:16:57
Speaker
And now someone was saying I could have control over every aspect of the process. Yes, I'll take it. i had no idea what I was walking into because it's more than just writing the book and you know publishing it.
00:17:14
Speaker
It's... I was an English teacher so I could rely on my skills, but you know, you know, when you write something, you don't catch all your errors. It's just not possible.
00:17:31
Speaker
um So I was writing, which means you need to get an editor. but she and I'm, I was the advisor to the newspaper and I helped my husband with yearbooks. I was very good with Photoshop, but wasn't a cover artist.
00:17:50
Speaker
So there's just all these these different levers, advertising, marketing, branding, websites, all, you know, things I knew nothing about.
00:18:02
Speaker
So, yeah, I've had to learn every process. And you can't learn it at once. You have to take it in stages. So I wrote and I published. And... Then I saved enough money where I could go, okay, now I can get an editor and a cover artist.
00:18:20
Speaker
And I went back and I sort of began revamping. I got new covers first. And then um I started thinking, okay, editor time. So I've got an editor. So you can't do it all at once. It's just not practical financially. It's not practical emotionally, intellectually, the whole deal.
00:18:40
Speaker
so It's been a long process to get where I am right now. We're now about 70% proficient in those things. I mean, ah cannot claim that I'm a great marketer or that I've learned enough. I haven't.
00:18:58
Speaker
But I know a heck of lot more than I did on that first day I pressed that button and published. Yeah. Wow, that's really inspiring. Yeah. Was there any part of the process that, I mean, we know, at least those of us, me who's trying, who is doing it right now, and then Carolina, who's getting to hear all about my, what I'm learning, of you know, the struggles of it and the, you know, it's hard learning all of these different points of the industry and in what you have to do and how to connect with people and Is there a part of that whole process other than the writing that you were surprised that you enjoyed? The other part is the the community. It's definitely the community of writers.
00:19:48
Speaker
The best moment I had was about four years ago i was in a community of writers online and I had just been on was probably my first or second week in this community and another writer came on and she mentioned you know she's just gonna she's just about to start a fantasy series she hasn't written fantasy before but she wants to start And so we got to talking and probably another couple of weeks went by and I messaged her and I said, would you consider being a beta reader for each other?
00:20:27
Speaker
And she said, I wanted to ask you too. And I was afraid. And so we've been, we've grown into like a sisterhood now. We've,
00:20:41
Speaker
we We turn to each other for everything, for brainstorming, for you know if we get stuck. We're each other's alpha readers instead of beta readers. we We see the work fresh off their brain, her brain and mine.
00:20:55
Speaker
And we have some other writers that have joined our little community, and there's five of us that meet monthly. And I just love that connection. And also, each of us has our different strengths.
00:21:06
Speaker
And I can say to them, I've never been on BookFunnel. Tell me, someone. What do I do? And they'll come right I've been in there for years. Let me, and they'll walk us through it. And we all learn from the process. So that's writing and that community, that newfound friends who think like I do and want to achieve what I want to achieve. And they're we're all there for each other. i love that.
00:21:33
Speaker
That's very cool. I love that, especially since one of the tropes or themes that you write about a lot is found family.
Themes in Writing: Wholesome Romance and Personal Influence
00:21:42
Speaker
So it's lovely to hear that you have it in your own life, too.
00:21:46
Speaker
Yes, I think it's essential to us. And I don't think there's really any story that doesn't have a level of found family in it.
00:21:58
Speaker
I'm just more conscious of the fact that I like that trope and it's it's part of my writing. it's It's important. Yeah, another thing, um i read your website. Another thing, I saw the found family. um i also saw that there was a leaning more towards this wholesome romanticism and this wholesome fantasy. And I guess I wanted to ask if that's only become more important to you as the world of fantasy has moved into somewhat darker, spicier realms.
00:22:31
Speaker
I think it was it was the approach that I took from the start And I don't know that it's become more important, but it's become more important for me to make it known to others that that is what my writing is.
00:22:46
Speaker
I'd say prior to our convention meeting where I met Mary, andham my Clean and Wholesome was not on my website.
00:22:59
Speaker
Oh, interesting. And so I realized, oh, I need to make that understood. That's what I'm doing. um And it kind of clicked inside because I'd gotten a few ah reviews, not in very many, but enough that I knew it was happening where someone said, there's no romance.
00:23:21
Speaker
And I thought, no. Their idea of romance is this hot and spicy. And i wasn't I didn't have that, but I was still calling it romance because it is.
00:23:32
Speaker
um But I needed to make that more clear. So on my website, five slotted it in everywhere I could. So no one's walking in expecting something other than that.
00:23:45
Speaker
So in that sense, yes, it's important. But as far as keeping that in my writing, that's just how I write. Sure, that makes sense. Mary and I have talked about it a lot. Just in the books that we cover and the, you know, that the people who would be also interested in reading Mary's book, um since romanticcy has taken such a turn, we've, you know, tried to be very clear that there may be romance in the fantasy, but this is, if you are in it for the romanticcy, you will not find what you seek here. But there there definitely is romance, just not.
00:24:22
Speaker
Spicy romance. Yes, exactly. And I think that's an important clarification that it is, that there is romance. It's just, you're just not going to get that spicier.
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah. I've told Mary, I said, I want a 10-book series with nothing but yearning. and That's all I want. The slowest burn you can get. The slowest burn. that it Because i genuinely, it's it's gotten to a point with me where, and I don't mean to... um speak poorly about any of it if people enjoy it that's wonderful but just for me if people recommend a book and if if it if it if that yearning is met in the first chapter i'm like i don't even know i'm reading this book i'm done with it i don't want them to get together yet i don't want them to get together ever
00:25:12
Speaker
Not really. by I'm not too good with the Faded Mate or the Insta Love. Both of those. I just go, it's so not real. And I want my readers to feel like, yes, this is probable This is reality. this This is the slow process of of getting to know each other and not just being attracted.
00:25:38
Speaker
that Attraction does not equal love. Attraction is the start. It's where you start moving forward. and And it may get somewhere and it may not get anywhere. but um it can't be instant. You're right. My therapist agrees with you also.
00:26:01
Speaker
Time for a Discworld Light. Everybody cast equal rights. Every last one of them. I was wondering, I feel like you showed a little corner of the book. I think they would have got it anyway, but I do feel like you showed a corner of the book when you were reading.
00:26:16
Speaker
I mean, the corner of the book is just blue. It's a very specific movie. You saw like that much. Also, we need to put The Unadulterated Cat on our reading list.
00:26:30
Speaker
Oh, all right. By the Sir Terry Pratchett. Some people went further. Tilly Mint says, equal rights when Esk and Granny are on their way to Onk Mork Pork.
00:26:41
Speaker
Eskarina Smith is who, says Clockwork Liar, is who she's talking to. yeah are're good. He felt his way to the edge of the slab, lowered his heavy legs to the ground, and, after a pause, out of habit to wheeze a bit, took the first tottering lurch of the newly undead.
00:27:01
Speaker
That's probably an easy one, but who cares? I liked the quote.
00:27:06
Speaker
As you write these characters, as you're discovering them and you're on this journey, has a a character ever come to you that's been, and I think this is interesting in the realm of fantasy, but a character that's just been very real and very raw to you and almost is like feels very vulnerable to write?
00:27:25
Speaker
Yes, it hasn't happened in my fantasy writing, but I was in a novel that I was struggling with and I i wanted to get away from it. Different story. And I had this idea.
00:27:39
Speaker
and so it was a contemporary idea. it was three women, just a contemporary idea. And I started writing it and I realized there were things going on in my life at the same time.
00:27:50
Speaker
And as I was writing it, I realized that one of the women in this story was suffering the early stages of Alzheimer's.
00:28:03
Speaker
And it just was like a kick in the heart because my father-in-law was suffering from Alzheimer's and my mother was showing signs of um disorientation, anxiety,
00:28:22
Speaker
And so i was I wrote a little bit more, and and they they both just all of a sudden started faltering super fast. And I thought, I can't write this book. I'm so close to what's going on with these two. i can't face this story. So it's about 18,000 words, and it's just been sitting now for i about...
00:28:47
Speaker
ah Close to 10 years since both my father-in-law and my mother have died since. i'm I read it now and then and I love it. And I think one of these days I'm going to come back and I'm going write this story when it's all percolated more and settled in.
00:29:04
Speaker
ah But yeah, that was a case where the the character showed up. um Not with, I didn't realize until one day she was skipping down a road for the three friends singing. Let's see, what is it?
00:29:20
Speaker
The thing about the buttons running down her back. It's a child. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I went, oh, my goodness, that's a 63-year-old woman skipping down the road. There's a problem here. And more symptoms came up, and that's when I realized, oh, no, no, no. Got step away.
00:29:43
Speaker
Yeah, I just was listening to a podcast with ah a woman who wrote, which I really want to read this book. It's the a Wish I Known Then podcast, but she wrote a book about her her sister dying.
00:29:58
Speaker
And it was one that she didn't write, you know, she she was like, there's no way I'd write that story. And and I think it took, I think, a ah year or so before she even wrote, or it might have been, I think it might have been actually more than that, but before she wrote anything at all, you know, and then this story started to come. But it is, it's, yeah, when a story touches on something that is such a deep story,
00:30:26
Speaker
process and a deep pain or sorrow or, you know, it' it's transformative process, but it's it's very hard. And yeah, I could see that ah writing about it while going through something like that is would be a little too intense.
00:30:42
Speaker
Too much. You know, and they say authors shouldn't turn away from the ah pain, right into the pain. And I'm like, no, I'm not ready to write into that pain. Let me work on a different thing.
00:30:55
Speaker
But we do, you know, we do mine our experiences. and And we mine other people's experiences too. I mean, we listen to what they have to say and I think writers are looking for all the nuances underneath whatever the person's saying because we we're like, you know, oh, that little piece right there.
00:31:15
Speaker
could use that little piece. Or maybe you don't even think and it just shows up later. yeah but But we are gathering it in whether it's our own experience or someone else's.
00:31:27
Speaker
And
00:31:30
Speaker
We can deal with pain, but I don't know. and Some of them need a lot more time to ferment and take distribute throughout your whole system instead of just your...
00:31:43
Speaker
Yeah, gates if it's a little too raw. That's me a lot. Yeah, I actually had, um while I was working on this book that I'm publishing, we one of my uncles passed away and I didn't i wasn't able to go to the funeral.
00:32:01
Speaker
And after that experience, um when I was rereading and and doing ah you know an edit on the book, this whole scene came of you know ah people had died and i in in it enriched the whole book because of Now I have the process of, okay, so what do you do? you know And when we go through the ceremony and the ritual of how these people, how this society deals with death, and I think that was partially because I i had missed it in real life, so I knew the lack of it, and and so then I could see the lack of it in the book.
00:32:38
Speaker
So that would be, you know, one of those moments where you, where yeah life adds, it adds another layer of depth to book writing. Oh, definitely. And we become better writers the more life we have in us.
00:32:52
Speaker
It's just that much more back stock of our brain that we can pull from.
Current Projects and Reflections on Writing Growth
00:33:00
Speaker
Have you found your writing, like, ah let's see, have you found it easier to add that richness and depth now that you you have 30 books in that amount of life experience?
00:33:12
Speaker
I think so. Yeah, it is.
00:33:17
Speaker
and don't i don't know if I, it's it's there when you reach for it. I guess it's the best way to put it. Because it's not that it's easier because you you don't know what was missing.
00:33:30
Speaker
But now it's there and you can reach for it. It comes to you and you you can you add that that depth. So I definitely feel my books have improved enormously. In fact, those time travel books have been removed from publication and and put aside because they were my first and I learned the ropes on them. But my fantasy got...
00:33:53
Speaker
um a better trained writer. And with each series, with each book, I become a a better trained writer continuously. Um, and that alpha reader of mine, April, she was at the convention as well.
00:34:09
Speaker
Conference. She, um, she She digs. like When she looks goes at my stuff, she just tears into it. And I tear into hers, too. And we both are like, ah okay, I'm going to take a day, and then I will come back and look at it again.
00:34:26
Speaker
but But we we make our each other better. in our writing better and we hear each other's voices when we're writing april will snag on that i know she will i need to work on it some more i'd rather me do it than have her comment on the side telling me something's wrong here girl oh that's great what are you working on right now My current series is Fifth Flight, and I'm working on the the last book of the series, the fifth one.
00:34:59
Speaker
And it's about five women, so found family. They end up in this group. They're supposed to be put before these dragons and hope that they will bond. It's the fifth group they've put in front of the dragons, which is why it's called Fifth Flight.
00:35:14
Speaker
And this time the dragons bond with each of the five women. So I'm on the fifth book, the fifth woman. She's the most ornery of the five. And I've been dying to write this fifth book because I knew she and her very rough character would be a delight to write from.
00:35:36
Speaker
So I'm about 70% through, and I'm hoping to have it done by the end of August, published by September. That's the plan. so Exciting. That brings me to one of my questions. If there was a reader who hadn't read any of your work yet, is that the series you would have them start with, or do you have a different series that you would that you would recommend they enter into your world?
00:36:00
Speaker
Oh, you know, it's kind of dependent. um My Solstice Dragon series is a very soft, gentle tools series. might I have a...
00:36:13
Speaker
reader who is in regular contact with me and she says it's a it's more fairy tale-ish there's not really any fairy tale quality to it but that sense where you know nothing really bad's gonna happen it's just it's good um and so a reader who doesn't want the trauma who doesn't want the the really rough stuff the challenges that come with, I don't know, evil in the world, then I'd say, oh, you want to be in Solstice Dragon.
00:36:44
Speaker
There's 10 books. There's an 11th film pre-order. You'll be happy for a while. But if they if they want more more grit, more struggle, well, then I would head them towards Annals of the Dragon Dreamer.
00:36:59
Speaker
And if they want it even grittier, okay, fifth flight. They're fighting ogres. People are dying. Go there. Mm-hmm. So it depends on what what's where it's their level of impact that they want the story to have on them.
00:37:18
Speaker
Yeah. And if they're a man, I'm going to direct them in another direction. And it's funny, the men, almost all my male readers came through on one particular series, but then they go to the others.
00:37:31
Speaker
Oh, fun. And because of the dragons, apparently. yeah Yeah, dragons, that's that's everybody's gateway into fantasy, I feel. We all love dragons. Yeah.
00:37:47
Speaker
So one of the things we love to talk about on this podcast is bringing wonder and magic and joy into our everyday lives, especially things that we love from fantasy.
00:37:59
Speaker
Is there anything you have that either from your own books or just a feeling that you get from writing or from fantasy as a genre that you kind of anchor in your life some way?
00:38:13
Speaker
I think it's viewpoint. there's there's no There's those little moments, you know, when you're know you step outside and of the corner of your eye, you see something leap off of a little grass And you're your mind almost goes, very, but it's a grasshopper or whatever it is.
00:38:36
Speaker
But there's still this certain joy in in that moment. And I even tell myself, yeah, it just looks like a grasshopper. Mm-hmm.
00:38:47
Speaker
But I think it's it is perspective because different things can happen in your life and you can you can view them as magical and you know amazing. i have a cuckoo clock. I turned it off because I've had other people say, that ticking in the background is just, not and of course when it goes off, it cuckoo is pretty loud. um But it was given to me by my dad. It was my grandfather, so it's sort of an old cuckoo clock.
00:39:14
Speaker
And I've had it repaired more than once. And it stopped working about, oh gosh, 10 years ago. And I was saving up my money to go get it repaired again and see what the problem was.
00:39:25
Speaker
But it was still hanging on my wall. And then we moved to this new house and we decided where it was going to hang in my office. You know, I said, I know it's not going to be ticking, but I still want it hanging in my office. And so we put it in the car.
00:39:40
Speaker
and as we're you know we're We drove for two hours to get to our new house. And the last two miles to our house is kind of a, well, you you feel like you're in the boonies.
00:39:53
Speaker
You're really not, but it feels like it. And the road is just, you're bumping, your car's going like this. The whole time, my little clue-cloth in the back behind us is going ting, ting, ting, ting the whole way. And I'm like cringing with and with this poor thing is going through. It's already not working properly.
00:40:09
Speaker
And now it's it's tinging and banging because of the insides or there's a spring and all sorts of things. We get to the house, put it safely on the wall, and it's hanging there for a week. And I'm like, what if it worked?
00:40:29
Speaker
What if it worked? It's not going hurt it if I try. So I wound it and I hit the pendulum. And it's been ticking ever since.
00:40:40
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. And I'm like, magic. All it took was a drive down two miles of rickety roads. And whatever was wrong with it got banged right out of it.
00:40:53
Speaker
That's amazing. Country roads are magical. Yeah, they are. Absolutely. Well, I live on a dirt road, so that i like I'll think about that now every time I'm having to go slow around yet another new pothole that could swallow you whole.
00:41:09
Speaker
This is the road of potholes. You know, getting around them. You just go as slow as you can. My dresser, the drawers kept popping out. had to keep reaching back and pushing them in. Oh my gosh.
00:41:23
Speaker
Well, we like to end our episodes with a spark of the week. So this is something that has just sparked joy in your life this week. So Carolina, do you have a spark of the week? I'm going to be very honest. This is it for me this week. LD, it was so lovely to get to meet you. you.
00:41:43
Speaker
Mary's told me so much about you and it's so gracious of you to come on our podcast and talk with us and you've just been in an absolute delight to speak with and I've started one of your books and I'm just I love finding an author that already has 30 books published because and just um I have so much joy ahead of me and I'm very excited so thank you.
00:42:07
Speaker
I just appreciate that you you asked. and its It's a ah lovely experience, and you two are so gracious, so sweet. um Definitely, you know meeting Mary was so fortunate. I was at the wrong table, and they moved me.
00:42:25
Speaker
And so I met Mary on the second day, and she was sitting next to me. was just nice to have someone. To welcome me and and to talk to you. So to to again, join you and and talk to you again. That's why it's been great.
00:42:39
Speaker
I don't know my spark.
00:42:43
Speaker
My spark was probably today. I dug out our old mic and focus right system. And my husband was help me set it up because he's always been the sound man.
00:42:56
Speaker
And i he was gone this morning. So i I did it all myself. I got it working and I tested it and it worked. And i was like, oh, my gosh, I did it all by myself. I didn't need the sound man. That's great. That my spark. That is such a good feeling.
00:43:12
Speaker
Yeah, especially with technology. There's so many things that just one little thing, you know, you have it all working and then one thing's off. So that is just a ah great sense, especially when it's like, yeah, I didn't need anyone.
00:43:29
Speaker
Otherwise, we were going to be using these. yeah Yeah. It have been fine. It would have all been fine. But still a great victory. Let's see. My spark is definitely right now getting to talk with you. This has been really fun. And then also...
00:43:45
Speaker
And just yesterday, i reconnected with someone I went to college with, and she is making jewelry. And she is I'm going to be having two of her bracelets as prizes for my book launch party.
00:44:01
Speaker
And it's just i love those moments like we were talking about with Found Family, where it's just getting to reconnect with someone and then see that they're doing something amazing and being able to join forces to kind of promote each other is is a really fun feeling.
00:44:18
Speaker
round family It's everywhere. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much. And as always, we are grateful to be spiraling through the universe with all of you. It's not always easy, but no good story ever is.