[New post] Guest post: Misbehaving Women by Gail Z. Martin

janinekspendlove posted: "I first met Gail a couple years back at ShevaCon. We were on a "How to kill your characters" panel together (among several others) and I was immediately struck by the fact that this was a woman absolutely NOT afraid to do whatever she needed to do to her " New post on Ailionora Guest post: Misbehaving Women by Gail Z. Martin by janinekspendlove I first met Gail a couple years back at ShevaCon. We were on a "How to kill your characters" panel together (among several others) and I was immediately struck by the fact that this was a woman absolutely NOT afraid to do whatever she needed to do to her characters: kill, maim, hurt, etc, if that was what the story needed. I was also struck by how AWESOME she was! Since that panel we've worked together at several cons and it's been my pleasure to get to know her & her fantastic work! I'm now delighted to be working on a project with her, but more on that later. FIRST, her post! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Misbehaving Women By Gail Z. Martin I love the quote, "Well-behaved women rarely make history." That's true in the real world, but it's always true in fantasy. In my Chronicles of the Necromancer series, all of my female characters "aim to misbehave." Kiara Sharsequin may be the heir to the Isencroft throne, but when she needs to find a way to heal her father the king, and avoid an arranged marriage to a tyrannical monarch, she takes off on her own and breaks all the rules to find a solution. Carina Jesthrata is a healer whose been making her own way since she and her twin brother, Cam, were cast out of their home because their neighbors feared that twins were bad magic. Between Carina's healer's talent and Cam's brawny size, they find work with a mercenary troop, and later with a traveling caravan. It's not the genteel life of a healer to a noble house, but it puts Carina in position to affect the future of the Winter Kingdoms. Aidane is a serroquette, a 'ghost whore,' a medium who can permit a ghost to inhabit her body for an intimate reunion with a living lover. She makes her way despite the Nargi priests who hunt down and kill the serroquettes. When she is caught, beaten and left for dead, her unlikely rescuers sweep Aidane up into intrigue in a war-torn kingdom, setting a chain of events into motion that put the fate of the new queen in Aidane's hands. In my Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, Kestel Falke is a spy, a courtesan and an assassin. (It was the assassin part that earned her a one-way ticket to the Velant prison colony.) Her fighting skills keep her alive and protect her within the brutal Velant prison, and her adaptability helps her survive was a colonist in the harsh Edgeland climate. When magic fails, Kestel finds herself being the bodyguard and lover of the one man who might be able to put things right. And in my Deadly Curiosities series, Cassidy Kincaide is the owner of Trifles & Folly, an antiques and collectibles store in Charleston, SC that is much more than in appears to be. Cassidy is a psychometric, able to read the history of objects with a touch. That comes in handy, because Trifles & Folly is the front for an organization dedicated to removing dangerous magical objects from circulation. Cassidy's work involves a fair amount of breaking and entering, and a certain level of subterfuge to keep the store's real purpose under wraps. (You'll see more of Cassidy in my story, 'Retribution,' in the Athena's Daughters anthology, and in the new Deadly Curiosities series from Solaris books in 2014.) If any of my heroines had been "well-behaved," they would never have gotten into the situations that let them save the monarch, save the kingdom, or chart their own destiny. By defying the norms of their culture, social class and circumstances, they break the constraints that would have kept them from coming into their full abilities and making a huge difference in the world. Let's hear it for women who misbehave! Come check out all the free excerpts, book giveaways and other goodies that are part of my Days of the Dead blog tour! Trick-or-Treat you way through more than 30 partner sites where you'll find brand new interviews, freebies and more--details at http://www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Ice Forged will be a Kindle Daily Deal with a special one-day price of just $1.99 only on October 31! Get it here: http://amzn.com/B008AS86QY Reign of Ash, book two in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga launches in April, 2014 from Orbit Books. My new urban fantasy, Deadly Curiosities, comes out in July, 2014 from Solaris Books. I bring out two series of ebook short stories with a new story every month for just .99 on Kindle, Kobo and Nook—check out the Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures or the Deadly Curiosities Adventures. About the author: Gail Z. Martin is the author of Ice Forged in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga and the upcoming Reign of Ash (Orbit Books, 2014), plus The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven & Dark Lady's Chosen ) from Solaris Books and The Fallen Kings Cycle (The Sworn and The Dread) from Orbit Books. In 2014, Gail launches a new urban fantasy novel, Deadly Curiosities, from Solaris Books. She is also the author of two series of ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Adventures. Find her at http://www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com, on Twitter @GailZMartin, on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms, at DisquietingVisions.com blog and GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Now onto the AWESOME project I'm delighted to announce that Gail is a part of - an all female anthology Maggie Allen and I are putting together called Athena's Daughters. Athena's Daughters is a collection of short fiction from some of the best female science fiction and fantasy authors in the business (Jean Rabe is editing, Sherwood Smith, Mary Robinette Kowal, Cleolinda Jones, & others have stories in it). This anthology features stories written by women about women. We wanted, in this project, to provide a platform by which our female authors, artists, graphic designers, and editors could showcase their incredible talents. To that end, Athena's Daughters is a project conceived, developed, and driven by women. All of the authors in this anthology are women, as are the artists, the graphic designer, and the editor. The Kickstarter for this project will launch in December and we hope you will join us! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Speaking of Kickstarters, don't forget I've got two going right now! The first is for the 3rd novel in the War of the Seasons trilogy, The Hunter. It's already funded, so if you back the project you KNOW you're going to get some cool stuff. Right now $5 gets you 2 novels & 4 (possibly up to 8) short stories! $15 gets you 4 novels and 4 (possibly up to 8) short stories! The kickstarter ends on November 5th, so don't delay! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/103879051/war-of-the-seasons-a-fantasy-trilogy-by-janine-k-s The second Kickstarter I'm a part of is called War Stories and it's an anthology of Military Sci-Fi stories. My story, "Coming Home," is about a space Marine pilot named Pia, and the struggles she and her aircrew face in the battle for New Austin. But more than that is the struggle Pia faces when she returns home and has to deal with the difficulties of adjusting back to a "normal life." In other words, it's about her struggle with PTSD. There are a LOT of great authors in the anthology, so please consider backing the project! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewliptak/war-stories-modern-military-science-fiction?ref=live janinekspendlove | October 26, 2013 at 1:16 pm | URL: http://wp.me/p3LiH2-lu Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Ailionora. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.ailionora.com/2013/10/26/guest-post-misbehaving-women-gail-z-martin/

[New post] Kickstarter/Pre-order for War of the Seasons, a fantasy trilogy with a strong female protagonist and minimal sparkling!

janinekspendlove posted: "For me, it all started with a boy named Will. I first met William Snell in the spring of 2003, and Katie Johnson the following year. In 2005, seven year old Katie passed away after her battle with cancer. In 2008, eighteen year old Will died in a sin" New post on Ailionora Kickstarter/Pre-order for War of the Seasons, a fantasy trilogy with a strong female protagonist and minimal sparkling! by janinekspendlove For me, it all started with a boy named Will. I first met William Snell in the spring of 2003, and Katie Johnson the following year. In 2005, seven year old Katie passed away after her battle with cancer. In 2008, eighteen year old Will died in a single car accident. Will and Katie had a very special relationship, and both of them left a lasting imprint on the lives of everyone they touched. Katie's father Albin Johnson said this about Will a few hours after his passing: "William was an incredible young soul - at the age of 15 he volunteered to visit Katie while she was bed-ridden and they quickly hit it off as friends. Will earned a place in Katie's heart when she dared him to take some of her yucky medicine - and he did. He stayed by her side and read to her, watched t.v. with her, and was there only days before she passed to present her with her Honorary Membership in the Legion. I cannot over emphasize the depth of this young man's soul, who we will miss terribly in the Carolina Garrison. He was our best and youngest and tragically cut down before he even got his TK number. " Don't worry – Al made sure Will got his TK number posthumously. ☺ So, as I think you've probably picked up on Will and Katie were very important to me, and their loss (along with others, like my dear uncle Milton) motivated me to write War of the Seasons, Book 1: The Human. It was the only way I could find to express everything that I was feeling and have a place where my loved ones could live forever. In June 2011, after several heavy revisions and workshop treatments, The Human was published by Silence in the Library Publishing. If you're here, you've probably read the first two War of the Seasons novels, but just in case: The protagonist of "The Human," Story, starts out as an angry teenager battered by the loss of loved ones. As is usually the case with this type of loss, in her anger she strikes out unreasonably against those who love her and want to help her. Through the course of an epic adventure in which Story finds herself thrust into a magical world she does not understand and wants to escape, and called upon to be the savior of that world, the reader gets to see her development from an angry, confused, lonely teenager to a human being who learns and grows from the loss she has experienced. Book two, The Half-blood, is much darker, and Story has to deal with the consequences of her choices/actions in The Human. And now what this whole post has been leading up to, the last book in the War of the Seasons trilogy, The Hunter and its Kickstarter. In "The Hunter," Story faces an evil greater than any she's encountered before. As darkness looms over Ailionora, Story, her companions, and all of the races of Ailionora band together to fight for their very survival. The initial print run for War of the Seasons, book 3: The Hunter is going to be funded through a Kickstarter, which means this is essentially how you can pre-order the book. That said Silence in the Library Publishing has some pretty exciting offers over at the Kickstarter page, one of which I'm going to mention now. Ron and Al worked together to create an exclusive Will and Katie patch that you will only be able to get at select reward levels as part of this Kickstarter. The patch features Will posing in Stormtrooper armor and Katie in Rebel uniform. I'd like to personally thank talented artist Juan Jose Matamoros for creating and donating the patch design. Of note, I'm not allowed to say on the Kickstarter website, but I can say it here, all proceeds from any sales of Will & Katie patches or Will's prints (you can find out about that at the Kickstarter website) will go to the Make a Wish Foundation and the Craven Arts Council as both these organizations were significant in Katie & Will's lives. As you can see below, the patch is pretty awesome, and captures the spirit of both Will and Katie: Another thing I want to bring up here are some of the stretch goals this Kickstarter has: Ron managed to convince (and I don't know how, but I'm not questioning it) some pretty amazing authors to write short stories in the War of the Seasons universe. Authors you know and love, like Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston, and authors you know from other venues, like Cleolinda Jones, Albin Johnson, Maggie Allen, and Bryan Young. Additionally, my amazing cover artist Betsy Waddell is standing by to create illustrations for each of those stories. If we hit those stretch goals, everyone at the $5 and above level will receive electronic copies of all of the short stories at no additional cost. After the Kickstarter is over, Silence in the Library Publishing will bundle the stories together with some of my other War of the Seasons short stories and publish them as a print anthology (everyone always asks why there are only 3 books if there are 4 seasons… there were always going to be 4 books ☺). And you guys, there's SO MUCH MORE. So be sure to check out the Kickstarter for War of the Seasons: The Hunter and please consider contributing and help fund the initial print run for The Hunter, the pivotal final book in the War of the Seasons trilogy. If you can't contribute monetarily, please, if you wouldn't mind, spread the word to all your friends and family, and keep spreading the word. By doing so you'll not only help see War of the Seasons through to its thrilling conclusion, but help keep Will and Katie's memories alive. Thank you. If you want to spread the word and would like something easy to cut and paste, here you go: Suggested Facebook\Google+ Language Check out the new Kickstarter for Janine K. Spendlove's War of the Seasons Trilogy. A trio of great fantasy novels, and stretch goal short stories by authors like Michael A. Stackpole, Aaron Allston, Bryan Young, Maggie Allen, Albin Johnson, and Cleolinda Jones. With a lot of really cool extras and add-ons, there's sure to be something for everyone. http://tinyurl.com/pquscr4 Twitter: Kickstarter Launch for Janine Spendlove's War of the Seasons fantasy trilogy. Check it out! Please support/RT http://tinyurl.com/pquscr4 Tumblr: You can reblog my post here: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In case you missed my last blog post about "How I do it all? (answer: I DON'T)," you can find it here. janinekspendlove | October 8, 2013 at 3:47 am | URL: http://wp.me/p3LiH2-le Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Ailionora. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://www.ailionora.com/2013/10/08/kickstarterpre-order-war-seasons-fantasy-trilogy-strong-female-protagonist-minimal-sparkling/