Over the three days of November 17 -19, Amazon.com have decided to promote the 2013 Winner of the Eric Hoffer Book Award for YA – At The Walls Of Galbrieth. The novel will be offered FREE in ebook form.
This is a wonderful opportunity for me and I request that, to support my sales rank and me, you download the book and invites your friends to do the same. Feel free to gift it on (Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, anyone?).
To celebrate this and also the milestone of 100 blog posts on elfwriter.com, I wish to offer 10 of my favorite posts over the next three days. I hope you enjoy and, please, take a moment to download for FREE At The Walls Of Galbrieth and spread the word.
Thank you,
Alon
=======================================
It happened earlier this week in the Financial District of San Francisco. It was a rainy workday and I was sitting in a café editing Wycaan Master, my fantasy novel, when these two beautiful women entered. I’m a guy: I peeked, taking in their tightly, swept back hair, high cheek bones and narrow eyes, all accentuated by carefully applied makeup. They were both tall and thin.
Then I realized. I had been disappointed as my gaze moved to their ears. Their ears were not pointed!
I was shocked. I had really expected pointed ears? It’s this elf thing…it’s taking over. When I am writing a story I am absorbed…totally. Even when editing, I am completely caught up in the story. I can read an emotional scene a dozen times and still be moved to tears (Confession: I once cried during a Simpson’s episode, but that’s for another time).
However more recently I am taken when I see someone who might fit into my fantasy world. A walking stick becomes a staff, and I expect a short, bearded man to have an axe at his side, not an iPhone.
It is taking over.
I’m not the first to stumble down this route. In his excellent book about writing fantasy, Terry Brooks admits to disappearing into the world of Shannara. Often it happens when he is at the dinner table or with family or friends. His eyes (so he is told) gaze into the distance and everyone understands.
Now Terry Brooks can get away with it for three reasons:
1) He is older and entitled to a senior moment.
2) He is a best-selling author and there is nothing like success to romanticize a little eccentricity.
3) He is such a mensch.
While I will one day be older, if the gods allow, the success isn’t assured. I am going to have to learn to curb my imagination, to stay in this world until sleep or time in front of a computer allows. A few glasses of single malt can also help.
But I don’t want to block it. My characters are part of my life, their challenges are my problems, and their triumphs are my successes. If I block them out just once, will they come back when I beckon them?
It’s tough living in two separate worlds, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Finally, it is St. Patrick’s Day. Did you know the Irish for whiskey is ‘Uisce beatha’, which literally means ‘water of life’?
Live Green My Friends.
=====================================================
Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls of Galbrieth, offered by Amazon.com for FREE on November 17-19. The sequel, The First Decree, and Ashbar – Wycaan Master Book 3 are all released by Tourmaline Books. More at http://www.alonshalev.com and on Twitter (@elfwriter). Hang out with Alon on Google+
Filed under: General Fantasy Tagged: Alon Shalev, Amazon.com, Ashbar, axe, ‘water of life’, best-selling author, coffee shop, eccentricity, elf, elfwriter, Eric Hoffer Book Award, fantasy world, Financial District, FREE, free ebook, gods, Google+, Hanukkah, iPhone, Irish, KDP, pointed ears, sales rank, San Francisco, senior moment, Shannara, single malt, St. Patrick's Day, Terry Brooks, Thanksgiving, The First Decree, The Simpson, Tourmaline Books, Twitter, Uisce beatha, whiskey, Wycaan Master, YA
