October 2023 – Q & A

As we approach the end of the year, I wanted to do something fun (I’ll get to this after a brief update).

My day job will continue to take up lot of my mental capacity until December, so I am only writing on weekends. I hope to release the sequel for Far Removed in the early part of 2025. If you have been waiting for a promotion before taking a chance on this title, the ebook is currently at half price ($2.99) until 31 October. It will likely be discounted during the Black Friday week too.

I’m grateful for the sales and reviews I have had this past month. If you like to support libraries and small businesses, you can also request this title through Overdrive or Libro FM (for the audiobook).

Goodreads

Looking for some indie reads? You can browse my reviews on Goodreads (I am C. B. Lansdell there).

Ask me Anything: on Worldbuilding

I post responses to daily writing prompts on social media and recently invited other participants to ask me anything. Timothy Wolff, the author of The Legacy of Boulom series, asked if I was a plotter or pantser (he rightly guessed plotter). There are certainly more hardcore plotters than me, but I do fall on that side of the spectrum. I like to know where I am headed.

A. J. Calvin, author of the Relics of War series and the Caein Legacy, asked a question on one of my favourite subjects.

“Was there a real-world inspiration behind the knyads’ biology? (biologist me would like to know)”.

Here is my (edited) response:

I find it fascinating that land-based life is distantly connected to single-celled organisms at sea. For my take on naiads, I wanted to make that link a little more direct. I don’t have a scientist’s training and could easily talk about things that are way over my head. So I tried to include some details without getting into specifics. I was inspired by things I have learned from nature documentaries on marine life: 

• Species of fish that change gender halfway through their lives. 
• Cephalopods and mimicry. 
• The variety of colours and textures in soft corals. 

I referenced all these things to some extent when describing the lifecycle and appearances of my characters. Granted knyads don’t reproduce, but they take on masculine or feminine characteristics (usually in the early part of their lives).

They couldn’t have long strands of hair that would get tangled underwater, so I came up with tendrils, which are shorter and stiffer (still, no nerves in the tendril shaft itself). Because they don’t breathe underwater, I based the way their muscles use oxygen on marine mammals like seals. Their skin comes in the colours and patterns you might find in marine species. And though they look very human, there are some who have been altered in frightening ways.

Ask me Anything: on Character Moments

Finally, Joel Flanagan Grannemann, author of the Servants of the Moon and Sun series, asked:

“What’s an off the wall bit of inspiration? Either for a character moment, scene, or plot.”

This one was difficult to answer, mostly because I am not very off-the-wall creative. I decided to go with a character moment as I don’t talk enough about my side characters. Rosh is very dubious about new experiences and is quick to form impressions of people. He’s a 19 going on 60 year-old. But the lovely thing about him is that you can only go up in his estimation from there. It’s quite easy to earn his trust and if you do, he will soon be talking to you like you’ve been friends for ages. This is a trait I see in my brother and someone from college who I didn’t initially like but proved to be a really decent person.

That’s all from me for now. All the authors mentioned here have recent releases or books that are coming out soon: