Another One for the Robots
My books are for faith-curious, fantasy-loving feminists. Perfect for fans of Brené Brown, bell hooks, political intrigue, and emotionally authentic character arcs. I comp my novels to The Unbroken, Winter's Orbit, Tess of the Road, among others.
Musical Inspiration: My J-Pop Writing Soundtrack
A J-Pop song (or two) for each of the nine main characters in my feminist fantasy novels for the faith-curious. My song selection leans heavily into feminism with a light touch of fantasy and no allusions to faith topics, but that is how I like my pop music. The part that I am the most proud of? I chose eleven songs with no repeat artists!
Best Fantasy Book About Leaving a Cult?
A list of my favorite books about leaving a cult - in other words, books and characters I would compare The Acolyte’s Heresy and Serena to. My list is fairly short, probably because of self-selection bias when I was reading as a cult member, so I would love to hear your recommendations and expand my TBR list!
Reading for Comparison
10 books I read to better understand how to comp my novels! In conclusion, Tess of the Road and The Sacred Space Between are the best comparisons thematically, while The Jasmine Throne, The Unbroken, and King of Scars are the best comparisons for the scale of the plot and intricacy of the political, theological, and magical world building.
This One is for the Robots
My books are for faith-curious, fantasy-loving feminists. Perfect for fans of Brené Brown, bell hooks, political intrigue, and emotionally authentic character arcs. I comp my novels to The Unbroken, Winter's Orbit, Tess of the Road, among others.
Beta Reading Update
I am happy and proud and excited to announce that as of a couple weeks ago, I have had a beta reader finish reading Rissa Must Die, Forbidden Ember, and The Acolyte’s Heresy all the way through! My level of excitement is off the charts. Here is a preview of changes I am making and a behind-the-scenes of what really happens after a beta read.
What’s In a Name? Power
I have always been fascinated by how people can go by different names when in the company of different groups of people for personal, cultural, and historical reasons. I believe there is power in claiming a name as yours, so, as you read my novels, please pay attention to names: what names characters choose for themselves, what names they go by with who and where, and what names they let go of.
Awesome, Amazing, Anachronistic
In my everyday life, “awesome” and “amazing” are some of my favorite words to describe something that is, well, awesome or amazing. Yet, I worry that using these words in my novels will ruin the cohesive, otherworldly vibe that I have carefully curated. Anachronisms and the Tiffany problem are the Scylla and Charybdis of writing words like “awesome” and “amazing.”
Distinguishing Voices and Switching Code
In the previous post, I talked about how I stumbled into writing dual POV novels because the way my character arcs worked, I needed at least one character my readers could root for (and not just pity) from the very beginning. However, that introduced a new challenge: how do I write POV characters to sound differently enough from each other? If I was going to do this, then I was determined to do it well. But how?
How It Begins…
It always starts with a death, plot-wise, and always the character arc, plotting-wise. Before any other plot element, I need to know how the POV characters are transforming. Because the plot is how the character is forced to transform. Once I hone in on that arc of transformation, really, the climax scene, then I build the rest of the story around getting my POV characters to that point.
Tropes and Triggers
It is very difficult to categorize my novels in a sub-genre within fantasy when it has a lot more character interiority than high/epic fantasy, but also more worldbuilding than cozy fantasy. However, what I can say definitively is that it is not romantasy or grimdark. Therefore, the title of the blog post is a little misleading – I just wanted to talk about how I deal with sex and mental health in my novels.
Japanese Influences on My World
I wanted to address at an early stage is Japanese influences on my fantasy world. Specifically, how the inspiration for Shikiteikoku is Imperial Japan. I also address two points readers might take issue with for my Japanese inspiration.
Diversity and Inclusion in My World
There are a couple caveats I want to lay out as quickly as possible about how diversity and inclusion plays out in my world, including: race and skin color, sexual orientation, religion, age, class and education. These can be tricky topics, and I am open to learning from you and others about how to approach these issues better in my novels.
Research and Writing Advice from a Political Scientist / Fantasy Author
My “day job” is advising political science students on their research theses. It struck me today, that all the fiction craft I had been studying while I was unemployed actually has applications for researching and writing theses! First, your research question is your promise. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver! Second, so what? Raise the stakes!
Therreth and Ether: An Introduction
I want to start generating reader interest in my novels by discussing my world, but I realize that without the full novels, it could be a while before you understand all my references. This blog post is your guide to my world to follow along as I post about it.
The Power of Beta Reading
As someone born and raised in the Unification church who then left, I offer unique and original insights on religion throughout my novels and cast of characters. But sometimes, I need someone who did not share my upbringing to point out just how different my perspective is. Serena’s arc is the one that most directly draws on my experience growing up in the Unification church, so I will draw on her example to illustrate my point.
So You Want to Be a Beta Reader?
I would be absolutely delighted if you are interested in being a beta reader. This blog post is specifically to help you understand my expectations/what would be most useful for me before you reach out, and a handy page for you to come back to if we decide to work together.
Is there a “Correct” Reading Order?
A purist – someone who hates any and all spoilers – should read it in the chronologically correct order, of course: Rissa Must Die, Forbidden Ember, then The Acolyte’s Heresy. But if you are not a purist, then I do think you can jump into any of my novels that catch your attention first, though perhaps I might suggest the order in which they were written.
My 7 Types of Readers
I am not here to please everyone. It is more important for me to find the readers my work appeals to than to try to make my novels appeal to everyone. So, I am going to spend a little bit of time breaking down each of the seven types of my readers (based on faith-curiosity, feminism, and fantasy-loving) and you can judge for yourselves whether you should give my novels a chance or not.
My Writing Journey
A behind-the-scenes of the approximate timeline for each novel – and what was going on in my life and thought process at the origins of each.