Creating Places by Randy Ellefson - Blurb Biltz and Giveaway

Creating Places

by Randy Ellefson

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GENRE:   Non-fiction

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BLURB:

Creating a unique, immersive setting one place at a time.

CREATING PLACES (THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, #2) is a detailed how-to guide on inventing the heart of every imaginary world - places. It includes chapters on inventing planets, moons, continents, mountains, forests, deserts, bodies of water, sovereign powers, settlements, and interesting locales. Extensive, culled research on each is provided to inform your world building decisions and understand the impact on craft, story, and audience. You’ll also learn how and when to create history and maps. Experts and beginners alike will benefit from the free templates that make building worlds easier, quicker, and more fun.

Learn the difference between types of monarchies, democracies, dictatorships and more for realistic variety and believable conflict. Understand how latitude, prevailing winds, and mountains affect climate, rainfall, and what types of forests and deserts will exist in each location. Consistently calculate how long it takes to travel by horse, wagon, sailing vessels, or even dragon over different terrain types and conditions.

CREATING PLACES is the second volume in THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, the only multi-volume series of its kind. Three times the length, depth, and breadth of other guides, the series can help fantasy and science fiction creators determine how much to build and why, how to use world building in your work, and whether the effort to create places will reap rewards for you and your audience.

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EXCERPT

Our invented planet is unlikely to be the only one orbiting its sun. This section discusses others within a solar system.

In SF, interstellar travel is virtually a given, whether that’s within a solar system or between systems and galaxies. In fantasy, other planets are seldom mentioned unless there’s an event of some significance like a conjunction of moons, stars, the sun, and planets. This might be an oversight, for magic or other supernatural means could allow characters to move between worlds (and moons). If a magic portal can get people from one place to another, the difference between traversing two sides of a planet and between two planets with magic might be negligible for all we know. It could take tremendous power from a wizard or we can decide the ability has become commonplace. Perhaps magical doorways have been created, the magic imbued within them so that ordinary people can use them, just like a technology. We could similarly have magic-powered spacecraft.

When inventing other planets in a system, we should have rocky planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars closer to the sun, and gas giants farther away; temperatures are too high for gas planets to form close to the sun. Saturn isn’t the only planet in our system that has rings; they are just more pronounced, so don’t be afraid to do this.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Randy Ellefson has written fantasy fiction since his teens and is an avid world builder, having spent three decades creating Llurien, which has its own website. He has a Bachelor’s of Music in classical guitar but has always been more of a rocker, having released several albums and earned endorsements from music companies. He’s a professional software developer and runs a consulting firm in the Washington D.C. suburbs. He loves spending time with his son and daughter when not writing, making music, or playing golf.

Creating Places universal buy link: http://www.books2read.com/creatingplaces 

The Art of World Building Podcast http://www.artofworldbuilding.com/podcast (launching a week before the tour)

The Art of World Building Website: http://www.ArtofWorldBuilding.com

Author Website: http://www.RandyEllefson.com

FREE eBook: http://fiction.randyellefson.com/freebook/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/randyellefson

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/RandyEllefsonAuthor

Google+: https://www.google.com/+RandyEllefson

NOTE: The book series has a new podcast where even more details are discussed. This podcast is free to listen! Follow along here: http://www.artofworldbuilding.com/podcast

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

Randy Ellefson will be awarding an ultimate world builder's package to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Enter for a chance to win an ultimate world builder's giveaway






Be sure to visit the other blogs on the tour:

November 13: The Reading Addict
November 14: This and That Book Blog
November 15: Edgar's Books
November 15: Rogue's Angels 
November 16: The Avid Reader
November 17: Author C.A.Milson
November 20: T's Stuff
November 20: Lily Iona MacKenzie's Blog for Writers and Readers
November 21: Fabulous and Brunette
November 22: Mixed Book Bag
November 22: Welcome to My World of Dreams
November 24: Locks, Hooks and Books
November 27: Independent Authors
November 28: Readeropolis
November 29: Kit 'N Kabookle
November 29: Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
November 30: Mello and June, It's a Book Thang!
December 1: It's Raining Books

The Leviathan Chronicles by James Mascia Virtual Tour and Giveaway

James Mascia is awarding 5 copies of the ebook in either mobi or epub formats to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.  Visit all the participating blogs for additional chances to win.

The Leviathan Chronicles: The Last Stand at Aeprion

by James Mascia

Welcome to the Virtual Tour for The Leviathan Chronicles by James Mascia.  I asked James to comment on how he does his world building.  I hope you will enjoy his post as much a I have.  Now here is James.

How I Did My World Building

The Leviathan Chronicles is like a classic pulp science fiction story. So, in order to build the world for it, I essentially started from the bottom floor and build level after level on top of it. Through the fifteen years since I started the project and finally published one of the stories, it has actually had a number of versions.

When I started on The Leviathan Chronicles, it was originally intended as a Star Wars fan fiction. It was set in the Star Wars universe, yet included none of the traditional characters from the movies or books. This idea quickly fell away, to be replaced with a story, set in our galaxy, but in which Earth is a distant memory and humans are a minority. Then, it changed yet again, to include Earth, but an Earth unlike the one we know today, where thousands of years ago colony ships were sent out thousands of years ago in the hopes of averting the extinction of the human race, and then forgotten and humanity miraculously survived back on Earth. It is in this last version of my world that the current stories are set.

So, the question remains, how did I build my world? The answer to that is easy. I didn’t.

I know it sounds strange, but hear me out. I start with several ideas. 

In The Last Stand at Aeprion, I started with the idea of a man searching for a fabled living planet. Even when I wrote this story fifteen years ago, that was all I started with, this simple idea. I thought it would be fun to have a character that was like Indiana Jones in space. So, I started the story (even as I rewrote it recently for publishing) with essentially a blank canvas. That canvas quickly got filled in. My character, Joel, was from Earth, which is still thriving, but overcrowded, so he wanted to leave. He travels with his wife, who convinces him to search for this godlike living planet, and in the process they come across an alien hunter, who then becomes obsessed with having them as trophies on his wall.

So, yes, I suppose I did build my world, but I did so as I was writing the story, filling it in with the essentials as I went. This is definitely not the traditional way of doing things (or so I’m told), especially for science fiction. Many authors have things plotted out piece by piece. Some authors have whole maps with details of planets and peoples on different worlds before they even put pen to paper. Now, I do have things like that, however, I add them to my journal as I come up with them.

I do it this way because I want things to be spontaneous. I can change the direction of my story in any way I want (and I usually do). So for me, having my world fixed until it is written on the paper doesn’t work with me. But once it’s written, it’s set in stone. For instance, when I revisit Aeprion in future stories (which I will), I will be using what I wrote for this story to build that world further.

Where will it take me, I don’t even know yet. But for me, that’s part of the fun of writing the story.  

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BLURB:

Still reeling from his wife's murder, Joel tries to escape the alien hunter and fulfill a promise he made to her. Years of searching for the fabled planet, Aeprion, has left the space freighter captain torn between giving up the search or giving himself up to Kraxem, an alien hunter.

When Kraxem and his minions attack Joel's ship again, he is forced into the nebula, where he'll have to do repairs. Once there, his thoughts revert back to the final day of Kate's life and the promises that were made. Learning to come to terms with her loss and release the guilt that he feels will be a hard battle to fight, but giving up will prove to be even more difficult and, perhaps, deadly.

Steeling his resolve to forge on, Joel vows to find the fabled living planet before guilt devours his soul and all is lost.

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My Thoughts On Leviathan Chronicles

I enjoyed the Leviathan Chronicles.  Often I do not like books with multiple flash backs but in Leviathan Chronicles it works really well.  This is action, adventure and loss than many of us can identify with.  It is not a long book.  The plot is real Space Opera with a touch of more. 

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EXCERPT

Joel ran from the cargo bay to make a beeline for the cockpit. “We’ll talk about this later.” Then he addressed the computer. “Wanderer, raise shields and start the engines.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Kate was two steps behind him. “What are you going to do?”

“Clean up your mess, as usual.” He jumped into the pilot’s seat and grabbed the controls. “Hold on!”

Through the viewport, Joel found himself staring down the barrel of a particularly nasty-looking plasma cannon. Behind that cannon stood a group of aliens with yellow, wrinkled skin over a wide-stretched head and bulbous eyes sticking out at each side.

One of these aliens, who appeared to be in command by the way he was barking orders at the others, wore a cape that flapped in the gusts being created by the revving engines. This particular alien glared at him with a piercing stare that seemed to bore into his skull.

“Would that be the other interested party?” He toggled some switches, helping the engines cycle up faster.

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“I think he really wants that rock.”

The ship shuddered again and the viewport filled with a blinding light as the cannon fire struck the shields. Alarms beeped rapidly on the console until Joel slammed his fist down on it.

“I take it back. He wants to kill us, and then he wants the rock.”

“Shields down to 60 percent,” Kate warned.

Another shot hit the shields, setting off another round of blaring alarms.

“35 percent.”

Joel stared at the alien. Having never encountered this particular species before, he wasn’t an expert at reading their facial expressions. But if he had to describe what he was looking at, he would have said it was unchained rage.

“Open the loading ramp and drop that stupid rock out.”

Kate glared at him in disbelief. “What? No!”

Joel spun in his chair to face her. “I’m assuming you’ve already scanned the hieroglyphs on it, right?”

Kate nodded, her bottom lip quivering, knowing what he was about to tell her.

“Then we don’t need it anymore. This guy obviously wants it, and is willing to do anything to get it. And since I don’t want to die today, let’s let him have it.”

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

He fights evil across the known universe and crushes them between his fingers (at least, he does this with his words). 

James Mascia is an accomplished writer with a bestselling series, High School Heroes, as well as a bestselling graphic novel, The Poe Murders. He has always been a fan of sci-fi, and is glad to be delving back into the galaxy once again.

James teaches in Maryland, where he also writes. He has a lovely wife and a tiny terror (a two-year-old) driving him mad, but making him laugh.

Check out some of his other work below:

https://www.islandofdren.com

https://www.twitter.com/masciajames

https://jmascia.deviantart.com

http://www.amazon.com/James-Mascia/e/B005I3HX3Q#  

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April 13: Long and Short Reviews
April 14: Lilac Reviews - review
April 15: Independent Authors
April 16: Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
April 17: Archaeolibrarian - I dig good books! - review
April 20: Straight from the Library
April 21: Unabridged Andra's
April 22: Mixed Book Bag - review
April 23: CBY Book Club
April 24: Kit 'N Kabookle
 

Guest Post by Sharon Lynn Fisher - Author of Ghost Planet and The Ophelia Prophecy

World Building for Ghost Planet and The Ophelia Prophecy

I love both Ghost Planet and The Ophelia Prophecy (click on titles to see my reviews).  One of the things that really caught me was the unique and complex world building in both.  When I asked Sharon to share how she goes about creating these wonderful worlds she agreed to do a guest post on the subject.  I want to thank Sharon and I hope you enjoy the post as much as I do.  But first just a little bit about Sharon.

A Romance Writers of America RITA Award finalist and a three-time RWA Golden Heart Award finalist, SHARON LYNN FISHER lives in the Pacific Northwest. She writes books for the geeky at heart—sci-fi flavored stories full of adventure and romance—and battles writerly angst with baked goods, Irish tea, and champagne. Her works include Ghost Planet (2012), The Ophelia Prophecy (2014), and Echo 8 (2014). You can visit her online at SharonLynnFisher.com.

Building Sci-Fi Romance Worlds by Sharon Lynn Fisher

I used to hate world building. It’s a ridiculous thing for a speculative fiction author to say. But when I first started writing, I found it intimidating. Generating a whole new reality out of your gray matter. Making it believable and vivid for the reader. And really, wasn’t it just the “in between” part? The part that happened when there was no actual story going on — no action or dialogue or romance?

It’s hard to say when my attitude shifted, because I didn’t actually realize it until I started getting reviews that mentioned world building. I remember thinking, “How is it I’m good at this when I don’t even like it?” It landed on my head like a cargo hold full of tribbles. I do like it! In fact I love it. Creating setting and atmosphere and tone … it’s often a catalyst for the rest of the plot. It adds another layer to character development. It’s key to motivation. 

But yeah, it’s the hard part. For my stories, there are multiple branches of world building — the physical setting itself, the culture and political situation, and the science behind the speculative element.

For settings I often draw on geographical areas I know. My debut novel, GHOST PLANET, is set on an Earth-like planet in areas that closely resemble different parts of the Pacific Northwest, where I live. In my new book, THE OPHELIA PROPHECY, the last human city is located near Moab, Utah, where I’ve hiked and mountain-biked. The rock formations have a captivating, otherworldly quality. The main action of the story takes place in Connemara, in the west of Ireland, and in the Moorish city of Granada, Spain, both of which I’ve visited. The Gaudi-inspired architecture in OPHELIA comes from time I spent in Barcelona.

The science, culture, and politics are all pretty knotted up together, and make up what I think of as my special sauce (and really they’re the special sauce of any sci-fi novel). I tend to write speculative elements inspired by science. In GHOST PLANET, the heroine is actually an alien reincarnation of a human woman, joined in a symbiotic relationship with her psychologist supervisor. I researched Gaia theory and symbiogenesis for that story. For THE OPHELIA PROPHECY I researched recombinant DNA to create a species of human/praying mantis transgenic organisms. I also did research on biomimicry and biohacking. The book I have coming out next year, ECHO 8, required research into parallel universes, quantum physics, and parapsychology.

How all of the research and personal experiences blend together and churn out a whole world with its own unique history and personality is something of a mystery. It’s sort of like dumping a bunch of ingredients into a crockpot and opening it up to find lamb stew the next day. Because I’m mostly a pantser and don’t plot out stories in advance, my characters and story often spring from this world development rather than the other way around. 

Counterintuitive though it may seem, reading science books can really get the creative juices flowing. I think it’s because I try not to read with a specific goal in mind, but for the sheer joy of learning about something new.

World building takes time, and it takes faith. During the research phase it can feel like procrastination. Like I’m accomplishing nothing. But I’ve learned that as soon as those ingredients begin to coalesce — as soon as I feel that world coming into focus — the rest of my story is not far behind.