What's in a name? pt. 2

In my quest to delay actually starting on the final draft of my most recent novel, I give you a blog post. Last year I received many questions about my last name, Spendlove, so I went into that (it happens to be my maiden name) along with why people choose pen names in this post. Now I'm going to talk a bit about novel names, or more specifically why I just changed the name of my second novel in the War of the Seasons series from The Hunter to The Half-blood. I had been debating swapping book titles between book two and book three for a while once it became clear that book two was not as focused on The Hunter as I'd previously thought it would be. *Caution* Mild spoilers for books two and three from here on out. When I originally came up with names for the books, I decided on "The Hunter" for book two, because it was supposed to be about saving the Hunter. I decided on The Half-Blood for book three because it was supposed to be about saving the Half-bood. I chose The Human for book one because it started with an H and sounded nice with the other two book titles. I do like alliteration, just in case you hadn't figured that out yet. ;) After writing The Hunter I realized swapping titles might be appropriate. The Human is in reference not just to Story but to what the story needs - a human/someone from another world. Essentially everyone is after the human, and the human, or rather, "other-worlder" is the focal point of the story. In book 2, the half-bood, NOT the hunter, is actually the focal point of the story. The same could be said about book three, the focal point is actually the hunter, NOT the half-blood. My only hesitation in swapping the titles was that for the past 9 months I've been talking about Book 2: The Hunter. But really, that's a small thing, and the tit [...]

Thanks for reading! Please leave any comments on the site: http://www.waroftheseasons.com/

Fiver's Flamingos - a worthy cause!

How does one start something like this? I guess you go back to the beginning, which in this case would be Mel, AKA Fiver, and we are her Flamingos. Back in 2007, our friend Mel ( , AKA Fiver) was diagnosed with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Essentially, it causes all the motor neurons to shut down, gradually making the muscles unable to function. It's very rare (1 in 1 Million) for someone who was only 34 years old to come down with this, as it mainly affects people between 50 and 70. Life expectancy is 3-5 years from diagnosis. The disease progressively takes away movement and coordination. In September 2007, she marched with fellow LotR fans in the annual DragonCon parade. Six months later, she was wheelchair bound, now has a permanent feeding tube, and can no longer talk or move outside of blinking her eyes. To say that we all (Mel's friends) felt more then a bit helpless would be an understatement. How do you fix something that can't be fixed? The answer is, you can't. But what you can do is take a page out of Mel's book, slap a smile on your face, and always look on the funny side of life. So 4 of us did something spur of the moment in 2009, when we got together to run the inaugural Disney Princess Half Marathon (13.1 miles) at Disney World. We made team jerseys with iron on letters, and dubbed ourselves "Fiver's Flamingos" in honor of Mel, [...]

Thanks for reading! Please leave any comments on the site: http://www.waroftheseasons.com/

ShevaCon 2012 wrap-up

New blog post: ShevaCon 2012 wrap-up http://bit.ly/wlVs49

I give you my fangirl moment of the weekend: Timothy Zahn (author of Heir to the Empire and several other Star Wars novels), me, and Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy).


This past weekend was mine and Ron's 11th anniversary and it also happened that I was scheduled to be a writer guest at ShevaCon, in Roanoke, VA. So for us, it ended up being a fun weekend away where we got to celebrate 11 wonderful years together and make many new friends in the process.



This was the first time either of us had ever attended ShevaCon, but we're very glad we did. The staff bent over backwards to ensure the comfort and needs of each guest and attendee were met. I know the convention had designated "guests of honor," but to be honest, it felt like we were ALL guests of honor. :)

The beautiful Hotel Roanoke where the convention was held.


My books for sale (and yes that is my handsome husband in the background). The CW5 sponsored the con & gave us all fantastic lanyards for our badges too.


Yes, Ron's badge says "Alexander McFrumplepuff" (of the Boston, McFrumpluepuffs). How I love this man!


During the opening ceremonies Jeremy Bulloch was arrested by the Mando Mercs... Eek! But he took it in good humor, and I heard they took him out for dinner.


Our lovely mistress of ceremonies.


I was on SEVERAL panels this weekend (I think my final tally was 10 - it would have been 11, but we were chased away by snow). A few were on costuming, but most were on various writing subjects, and one was a writer's workshop that Allen Wold invited me to assist him with. My fellow panelists (and in many cases, friends) throughout the convention were: David Bartell, Jim Bernheimer, Elaine Corvidae, Betty Cross, Tera Fulbright, Katherine Kurtz, Gail Z. Martin, Mike McPhail, Robin Sullivan, and Steve White. They're all VERY talented I highly recommend you check out their work.


During one panel I was graced with Tim & Anna Zahn attending in the audience. *NO PRESSURE* ;)


But I was ready for anything...


For me, one of the most squeeworthy moments of the con was the Anti-hero panel, which I was the Moderator for, and who would sit beside me, but Jeremy Bulloch. I couldn't help but point at him and stage whisper to the audience "You guys... YOU GUYS! Boba Fett is sitting next to me! Someone quick take a picture." I don't think anyone took a picture, but the panel went very well, and afterwards, as Ron & I were packing up and saying our goodbyes, Jeremy's lovely wife approached me and said that Jeremy wanted a picture with me, and would I mind? Would I mind??? Let me think about THAT one for a second! Um, NO! I did not mind in the least, and I got my picture Jeremy, and as you saw at the start of the post, Tim jumped in the photo and I got to be the happiest Star Wars fangirl EVER!


One great discovery Ron & I made this weekend was the art of Stephen Burks & the rest of Iconograph Studios. Seriously, these guys are awesome - check them out!


We brought home some great "recruitment posters" by Stephen. You can see the Green Lantern one he did next to the Wonder Woman print on our wall by Mark dos Santos.



Stephen's art was so fantastic that Tim Zahn commissioned a Mara Jade original from him!


My other neighbor was another artist, Travis Surber who does a very entertaining geek/southern culture web comic. He graciously gifted me a copy of his book.


Of course one of my favorite parts of every con is seeing all the wonderful geeky shirts and costumes on display by the fans:

Doctor?


It's bigger on the inside.


A lovely Mando.


My favorite Mando, Todd B. Lacey, one of my oldest and dearest friends.


Even Mandalorians read The Human. :D


I swear I'm not a Zombie!


Tera Fulbright giving a panel on Steam Punk costuming with a lovely attendee graciously acting as a model.


Gotta love that hat!


Winners of the Costume Contest.


Little Thor!


Little Vader already choking people...


The Zahns, the Spendloves, and the Bullochs.


Then the snow chased us away and our convention was cut short. BOO! :(


That said, I can't wait for next year! Thanks to all the staff, guests, and attendees for making my first ShevaCon an absolute blast!

ShevaCon 2012 wrap-up

I give you my fangirl moment of the weekend: Timothy Zahn (author of Heir to the Empire and several other Star Wars novels), me, and Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy). This past weekend was mine and Ron's 11th anniversary and it also happened that I was scheduled to be a writer guest at ShevaCon, in Roanoke, VA. So for us, it ended up being a fun weekend away where we got to celebrate 11 wonderful years together and make many new friends in the process. This was the first time either of us had ever attended ShevaCon, but we're very glad we did. The staff bent over backwards to ensure the comfort and needs of each guest and attendee were met. I know the convention had designated "guests of honor," but to be honest, it felt like we were ALL guests of honor. :) The beautiful Hotel Roanoke where the convention was held. My books for sale (and yes that is my handsome husband in the background). The CW5 sponsored the con & gave us all fantastic lanyards for our badges too. Yes, Ron's badge says "Alexander McFrumplepuff" (of the Boston, McFrumpluepuffs). How I love this man! During the opening ceremonies Jeremy Bulloch was arrested by the Mando Mercs... Eek! But he took it in good humor, and I heard they took him out for dinner. Our lovely mistress of ceremonies. [...]

Thanks for reading! Please leave any comments on the site: http://www.waroftheseasons.com/

We're having some minor technical issues

But I'm working on it. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for reading! Please leave any comments on the site: http://www.ailionora.com/

You got that from...

When I attended GMXv3 last October something horrible happened. No, the convention was not horrible - it was amazing. Something that happened there was horrible: when I was in the dealer's room I saw a t-shirt with the slogan "Winter is coming" emblazoned across the front. I was both excited & confused, then quite worried, because it's a big theme/tagline in my War of Seasons novels. I knew my books weren't anywhere close enough to warrant seeing random shirts popping up at vendor's booths yet, so I had a very sinking feeling that this same line was big in another series... Well, come to find out, it's a huge theme/tag line in the George R.R. Martin, Game of Throne books. In fact, I've been seeing t-shirts all over the place with it now. I've never read the Game of Throne series (or watched the show, which came well after I'd written my first WotS novel), so I obviously didn't copy the line. In fact, I thought I was being a bit clever when I wrote it, "Winter is coming," and that it was a good foreboding line in my books (key to the overall plot of the 3 books). Unfortunately for me, several years ago George R. R. Martin thought the same thing (granted Winter is both a different type of "thing" in our books and poses a different "threat"). So my question was this: Do I remove the line from my forthcoming books (it's already in The Human, released June 2011) and instead use something that sounds not nearly as good (like "winter approaches")? Or do I leave it in, and if people want to think I copied Game of Thrones they can? I've found that people already tell me after reading my books "Oh, you got that part from Lord of the rings" or "You got that part from Harry Potter," which if it seems that way, I can say it was never done purposely. I scour my books for "lifts" or anything that sounds too much like something else (i.e., I really wanted a faerie character of mine to sparkle, but due to a certain popular series with another sparkly main characte [...]

Thanks for reading! Please leave any comments on the site: http://www.ailionora.com/

Reviews are love...

Even bad ones, because that means people are reading my book. Though, the worst review I've seen thus far was 3 our of 5 stars for The Human, and their chief complaint was that Story acted like a 25 year old, not a 17 year old. Hey, I'll be the first to admit I wrote Story as more mature than a typical 17 year old, so it's a fair complaint. But that's not the point, the point is, eventually I'm going to encounter someone who hated my book (soon to be books) and that's okay! I know my writing's not for everyone. That said, I am just glowing over this review on BigShinyRobot. My favorite bit: The Human is a very fun read, very much in the vein of the Chronicles of Narnia or The Hunger Games. It has a very strong female lead, an incredibly well-developed world, a fiendish villain you just love to hate, and above all: a love story that doesn't actually make you want to gag. But you can go read the whole thing for yourself on the website. :) p.s. Yes, I'm still writing my little heart out! Though I don't think I'll make my NaNoWriMo Goal... oh well!

Thanks for reading! Please leave any comments on the site: http://www.ailionora.com/