Akrad’s Children

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Writing Milestones

Hoping you have all had a wonderful holiday season. Apart from contemplating taking our Christmas Tree down – the last several weeks have been crammed with holidays, family, celebrations and some exciting writing milestones. I’ve been a bit slack keeping you up to date – so my apologies.

November

Writing Retreat

WritersRetreat2014x200In the last week of November, I joined eight other lovely writers for a Writing Retreat.  It was a hoot – with lots of laughter, talking, food, encouragement, inspiration – and even some writing done.  It was a great idea. A particular highlight was my writing friends cheering me on as I crossed the finishing line for NaNoWriMo (once I got over the writer’s block induced by having such an expectant audience 😀 ).

 

 

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWinner2014Logo2x200Which brings me to my second news – completing NaNoWriMo again this year. The aim of NaNo (or National Writing Month in November) is to complete 50,000 words on a novel. I started writing Jared’s Choice (the forth book in the series) and was happy to get a good chunk of this work completed. In the meantime, I’ve asked a professional editor to a good look at Akrad’s Children.

 

December

Tied in Pink Anthology

TiedinPinkx200December has been particularly exciting for me, as on the 14th December (the day before my birthday) Tied in Pink anthology was released. Tied in Pink is a romance anthology with 15 stories by 14 different authors, with all profits going to breast cancer research. My short story, ‘The Herbalist’s Daughter’ carries on Anna’s story. Anna, if you remember, is the protagonist of Fever.  The anthology has some beautiful, heartwarming, gripping and/or funny stories from both veteran and aspiring authors. Here’s my Good Reads review :). Both print and e-books are available from Amazon.

With the publication of Tied in Pink – I now have an author’s page on Good Reads and Amazon. I would love you to follow me there – and, if you haven’t already, on my author’s page on Facebook or on Twitter. I will shortly be starting an email subscription list to notify when I post blogs and other news.

January

Month of Poetry

I am currently participating in Month of Poetry once again. The aim is to write a poem a day in the month of January. So far I’m on track and have been posting my attempts on my Facebook page.

#instacollage #JeanetteOHagan

#instacollage

I was particularly thrilled to receive an email yesterday informing me that one of my poems that I wrote last year has been accepted for publication in an anthology. Only 25 poems are accepted each year. More news on this later.

So, as you can see, it’s been a busy and exciting time. I do plan to write a story on Haka, Rokkan, Martal or Naetok as requested by Nicky, the winner of the Scavenger Hunt and will post it on the website for you all to read.

Jeanette O’Hagan

11 January 2015

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Namu of the Waterfall

Namu of the Waterfall is an old Tamrin love song. It is first mentioned in Akrad’s Children though Rasel refers to the underlying legend in both Rasel’s Song and Mannok’s Betrayal.

Namuswaterfall6x450

Namu dances to the song

of the rainbow spray

silver voice mingling with

double moonlit ray.

Drifting through fine mist

bright child of sylvan folk

in water-gated cave she plays.

 

An echo haunting the waters’ spray

Her voice mingles in double moons’ bright ray.

Mingling in double moons’ bright ray.

 

 

Stark shouts disturb

the shining dark

booted feet, flailing arms,

brutal blows are struck

lucid water churnes

as lost prince is stripped by thieves

and left to die in heartless lark.

 

At last the villains are gone

Namu weeps to see the bloodied dawn

Swimming out to pool’s edge

she looks upon Solik’s prone form

crystal waters sullied

from his seeping wounds,

her heart is torn.

Read more….

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My Writing Process – Blog Tour #mywritingprocess

I was asked to join in with this blog tour on My Writing Process by Melissa Gijsbers Khalinsky. You can read her post here.

And here are my answers to the questions given.

1) What am I working on?

I’m working on a few of projects at the moment. My main passion is for my YA/NA fantasy fiction Akrad series. I’ve written three of the books (Book 1, 2 & 4) and am correctly close to finishing Book 3 Mannok’s Betrayal. Pulling all the threads together has been a challenge but one I enjoy. I have started sending out Book 1 Akrad’s Children to publishers and will be soon sending Book 2 Rasel’s Song to my faithful beta-readers.

I am also doing a Masters of Arts (Writing) – two units this term – which involve major writing tasks. Fortunately, I can use what I’m doing with Mannok’s Betrayal as part of my assessment for one of the units.

I participated in Month of Poetry (MoP) in January (the challenge of writing one poem a day) and have continued writing poems as the whim takes me. And I blog both for my own blogs and for a couple of group blogs.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My Akrad series is secondary world fantasy aimed at Young Adult to New Adult (ages 15-24) audiences. The books are set in an imaginary world of Nardva with complex societies, history, geography, literature, mythologies – but they are not high or epic fantasy (i.e. hero saves the universe from total destruction plot). Nevertheless, they are still full of suspense, danger, adventure, intrigue, romance and mystery. The stories are from the point of view of the younger characters (teens to early twenties) but they continue to interact with other generations. Each book can be read on its own but is also part of an overarching plot. There is also a slow reveal of magical elements with ongoing mystery throughout the series.

3) Why do I write what I do?

I love fantasy and I love writing. Fantasy was my favourite genre as a child (and still is). At about 9 I began daydreaming my own fantasy world with lots of characters and stories. This became the world of Nardva. The Five Lands (where the Akrad Series is set) is a part of this world. Writing my own books fires my imagination and keeps me entertained.

4) How does your writing process work?

Well, it starts with day dreaming. Sometimes I compose the whole story  in my head before beginning to write (often a few times with changes and usually with far more than I can use in the book). However, these days I do start the writing process earlier. I usually have a basic structure – the beginning, the climax and turning points and a good idea of the end as well as the main characters in mind before I start writing. Then I fill in the gaps – and I am often surprised at what comes out in the process. It’s definitely a lot of fun.

Here are two of my friends who will be posting the “My Writing Process” blog tour posts on Monday March 17th. Please check out their blogs next week.  

Lynne Stringer –  Lynne has been passionate about writing all her life. She was the editor of a small newspaper (later magazine) for seven years, and currently works as a professional editor and proof reader. Lynne wrote her YA sci-fi romance novel, The Heir, in 2010. The Heir is the first book in the Verindon trilogy. This book was followed by The Crown. The final book, The Reign, will be released in May 2014. You can find Lynne online at  www.lynnestringer.com

Alison Stegert – Ali Stegert is a daytime school counsellor, night time word wrangler. Her first novel, Summer of the Silk Dragon, is making the rounds of publishers, looking for the right home. Ali blogs about books and writing on Spilling Ink, her personal blog, and about cyber-parenting on e-Quipped. (www.e-quipped.com.au) The link to Ali’s personal blog is www.ali-stegert.com

Enjoy!

Jeanette O’Hagan

You can read a hyptertext teaser for Akrad’s Children – called My Sister – here.

Or join me on Facebook here.

 

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NaNoWriMo 2013

Today is the first of November. Apart from being All Saints Day and significant in countless other ways  (e.g. nuclear fusion happened for the first time on earth in 1952) it is the first day of NaNoWriMo.

The National Novel Writing Month (read International) – where writers, initially in the USA but now around the world,  accept the challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month – the month of November. No mean feat.

I found out about NaNo last year, joined up and completed the challenge. The result? More than the first half of Akrad’s Children written.

This year, I’ve signed in again though I might be starting from behind with a camp this weekend and the major assessment for the Online Writing unit of my Masters due on Monday – but I’m hopeful I can catch up.

My project this year? The third book in the Akrad Legacy‘s trilogy – Mannok’s Betrayal.

I will keep you posted on how I’m doing.