Month: March 2018

Yesterday started the one-month countdown to the release of Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure. I’m excited about this and I hope you are too. I’m planning to attend several events this summer, including Books in Bloom (in Eureka Springs, Arkansas), the Arkansas Writer’s Conference (in North Little Rock) and the Mississippi Book Festival (in Jackson). Smaller events are also being planned. I’m also taking Bill’s to the northeast when I go on vacation to Connecticut to see Mark Twain’s house, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s house, Noah Webster’s house, and Irving Washington’s house in New York. The touring of the author homes will not be official meet and greets. However, I hope to get inspiration from these wonderful authors. Maybe even convince the gift shop to sell my book. Looking forward to meeting you at each of my official appearances.

My second book, which is not a sequel, continues to move along to its climax. My critique group is wonderful. Their ideas to expand certain scenes will be in the second draft. I also have new things my characters need to do to round them out a little more. Telling their story is great fun. I hope you have a glorious time writing your character’s story as I do mine.

Finally, a couple of Louisiana anniversaries to note. History doesn’t write itself, but here is what man recorded happening on these dates.

• March 20, 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• March 21, 1861, Louisiana joins the Confederate States of America
• March 24, 1840, Calcasieu Parish is formed. At the time it was the largest in the state, it was also the least populated
• March 31, 1807, St. John the Baptist parish created. It is one of the original 19 Louisiana parishes.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I’m reading book three of the Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series, Monk’s Hood. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

There will probably be more blog posts about fantasy religions as I continue to explore my new world of Veayedror (pronounced Vay-a-drawer), but I want to wrap up this blog trilogy with some research. Creating a religion, and its backstory doesn’t happen overnight, at least not for this author. Luckily, many authors have created fantasy religions and there are numerous articles on the Internet to help. If you have any other sources I should use, please let me know.

Inkwell Ideas (website) has a plethora of tools and apps to help you build your fantasy world. They have map generators, coat of arms designers, religion building, how to build timelines, and much more. The more I think about how my fantasy religion began, I have to answer a key question about the ruins of one city first. The ruins of this large city are in my manuscript, but I don’t say how the city fell. Once I answer that question, I believe it’ll provide the beginning of my fantasy religion. Your fantasy world has to interact with itself. A war in one kingdom will affect the other monarchy’s in some way or another.

Another website with information on how to build a fantasy religion is Fantasy Faction (website). This site is article driven and they cover nearly everything about writing, not just fantasy religions and worlds. Book and movie reviews are just a click away. It compares cults to religions and tells you why they are different.

The third website I’m using is Tiana Warner’s blog (website). Her book series is the Mermaids of Eriana Kwai. In her blog, she offers a checklist of creating cultures and religions.

The last website I plan on using to create my fantasy religion is Mythcreants (website). In the blog, you’ll find world building topics like “Creating Religions & Belief Systems,” “When to Narrate a Villain’s Point of View,” Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules of Writing, and more. History doesn’t come from just one source, and neither should ideas and tools to build your fantasy world and religion.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I’m finished reading the second book in Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series, One Corpse Too Many. My review is on Goodreads.com. I’ll start book three, Monk’s Hood, this week. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

 

This week’s blog is a continuing dialogue on fantasy religions from last month. In the Catholic Church, the time from Ash Wednesday to the evening of Holy Thursday is called Lent. It is a time for penance and denying ourselves the things we love for forty days. The third, fourth, and fifth Sunday’s of Lent are scrutiny’s for the Elect, those who will be joining the Faith on the Easter Vigil. Other religions have their own process of welcoming new faithful’s. But how does a fantasy religion welcome new members?

What protocols must you develop so that one of your characters can join the fantasy faith of your world? Or is everyone born into the church? If that is true, then it limits the evangelization mission of the faith, yes no? Does your fantasy faith have high holy days? Does it believe in saints? Did it have a schism? Or maybe it is going through one right now. Did it ever sanction a crusade? What does it do to heretics?

The above questions are based on the history of Christianity. But there are hundreds, if not thousands, of religions across the globe. Does your fantasy religion say you cannot eat certain types of food? Do you have to pray in a kneeling position?  If you live a good life, do you get rewarded in the next? Does it even believe in an afterlife?

When my fantasy religions are complete, I may only use one percent of them in my current work in progress. But I plan on staying in this world for quite some time.  It behooves me to build the world properly the first time around instead of contradicting myself in future sequels. History doesn’t write itself and in your fantasy world, you truly need to know it’s history.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book I have my nose in. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I’m currently reading the second book in Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series, One Corpse Too Many. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.