Icarus Child Update: Week Two

December 8, 2015 Becca Lusher

Week 2 Total Word Count: 46,000

Woo! This book is flying!

Well, sort of. Writing-wise I’m down to three days a week when I have enough free time to make it worth my while to sit down and get stuff done, but when I do I’m making it count. Which is lovely. If I get a chance to focus and have the right music on I can scribble out a chapter in an hour and a half, so I’m trying to get three chapters done a day – depending on how long they are, of course. If they’re short I might manage four.

There’s a reason why I don’t do NaNoWriMo, because once I establish a set routine and give myself a goal of getting the book done by This Day it all tends to snowball and I get very competitive with myself. Last time I did NaNo I started off aiming for two to three thousand words a day, then I realised I wouldn’t be able to write at all for the last week of November and it all went a bit crazy. By the end I think I was writing between ten and fifteen thousand words a day – and the little book that was supposed to be about 75K was heading for 90K and wasn’t anywhere near finished.

And it still isn’t, three years later, because if I try and touch the book my competitive instincts rise up and order to me to finish it now, now, now! Who cares about the pirates? Add in a ghost and some astral projection and everything will be fine! And kill that snooty kid while you’re at, no one will even notice. Then put in a race over the beach – that’ll be so cool. You can literally have rocks falling so everyone dies!

Except that this is a multi-book series and I need some of those characters to survive. And I like them too much to kill them all.

Rocks fall. Everyone dies. Really cool!

But –

Rocks. Fall. Everyone. Dies. Dead.

Yeah, ‘kay, no… I’ll just put this one away for now then.

So. I don’t do that anymore. (Which is a shame, because there are some parts of that book I adore. I must head back to that world sometime. It’s the one where Tobi and Faron come from. I love that world.)

Anyway, yes, back to this book. Even though I’m only writing three days a week, my competitive instincts are rising (I’m only ever competitive with myself or as part of a team, which is why I was so relieved to break my arm when I was nine so I could quit gymnastics before they made me compete anymore). However, instead of a daily word count race – because I rarely have a completely free day to write in – I seem to be pushing for a weekly thing. The first week I hit 20K, the second I managed 25K. I’m now in week three and my first writing day went over 10K, so looks like it’s all on schedule to make my brain explode. Also, I should get the book finished before Christmas as I must be over halfway now. Seriously, I must, it’s over 50K words now.

Also all the major players seem to have finally arrived. Yay! There’s also a new lesson to be learned from this series – other than Keep Away from Talking Islands, They Will Possess You! The new one is Never Trust a Foundling, or other sundry washed up bodies that appears anywhere near you. Nothing good ever happens. Rocks might not fall (though I’m not ruling that out because there are cliffs everywhere) but someone will die. Or that might just be the island. Maybe I’ll stick with the first one and add They Will Kill You! after the bit about possessing people. I may need to put up signs. Those will totally work.

Ah well, another normal week in Ima-land. Have a completely non-spoilery snippet conversation between two children on a beach, and I’ll get back to wrestling this story into (ha!) submission.

Continue reading “Icarus Child Update: Week Two” →

Aekhartain, Updates, Writing

Icarus Child Update: Week One

December 1, 2015 Becca Lusher

Despite numerous attempts by real life to sabotage my writing time in recent days, so far things are going reasonably well with The Icarus Child. The book has started much earlier than I expected (by about seven years), and seems to be enjoying itself meandering along while I tap my fingers and wait for the plot to show up.

Which is business as usual with the Aekhartain tales.

If you enjoyed Unbound and Free, the beginning of this one is very much in a similar vein. Except my boy Icastar has even more troubles than Demairo had, but they both live on the island, look after some sheep and only have seals for friends, while ghostly voices make demands of them. Poor boys. It’s no fun being born on the island.

But that was last week. This week I’ve moved forward four years (Ica’s gone from 7 to 11) and things may be about to happen in a vaguely sinister way. I’ll have to wait and see just what and when if I manage to write any more tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Nevertheless, Week 1 word count: 20.5K.

And now for a snippet. Spoilers are so mild as to be nonexistent. Just a cute and casual game of something (no idea what, don’t ask me) between a boy and a selkie. (See, he has some fun sometimes.)

Continue reading “Icarus Child Update: Week One” →

Updates

Freebies, Discounts and Updates

November 22, 2015 Becca Lusher

The Freebie:

Sisters of Icarus is now free!*

Smashwords || B&N || iBooks || Kobo

*Everywhere except Amazon. I don’t when or if they’ll drop the price (and even if they do, whether it’ll happen across all the stores). Unfortunately there’s not a lot I can do to make them. If you want a free mobi file, though, Smashwords has them.

The Discount:

The Crying Child is out and available everywhere it should be. It’s also available at a low introductory price – but only until December 15th. After that it will go up to match the other books.

Speaking of those other books, keep an eye out over the festive period, because I’ll be dropping a few of those around mid-December to mid-January too.

The Update:

As of tomorrow I’ll be working flat out on The Icarus Child. I’m a little bit worried about it because the last book didn’t end where I expected it to, so I have a lot more story to tell – and I’m not even sure yet how to begin. Which should prove fun.

I’ve also only given myself two months to get it done, which should add to the challenge. I know I managed with The Crying Child, but I already had half of that written when I released Sisters. This time I got nuthin’, so here’s hoping that the momentum will carry me through. I really hope it does, because my head is currently filling up with ideas for the next few books I want to tackle (Issie and Alamé, and Drae’s poking at poetry for attention too). But I don’t dare start working on any of them until this one is done, else I might not go back to it.

Wish me luck, and if you happen to see any magpies in passing, please ask them to come and give me a hand. I’m going to need it!

Aekhartain, Books, Writing

The Crying Child

November 21, 2015November 22, 2015 Becca Lusher

The Crying Child

~ Icarus Child #2 ~

Once there was an island, and on that island there lived three cousins…

Britain 142 BC

Cover_2 Crying Child The Sisters of Icarus may all be gone, but the next generation remains. Bitter, half-selkie and broken, the three women are different in many ways, yet one thing connects them: the island and its quest for a new Icarus.

Ghosts and family, selkies and betrayal, love and loss, these cousins are on a journey that will change all of their lives. And when the stars fall nothing will ever be the same again.

For there will be a new Icarus – the island will accept nothing less.

No matter what the cost.

Available Now!
Amazon: US || UK || AUS || CAN || DE
Smashwords || B&N || iBooks || Kobo

The Crying Child in Brief
What’s in it?: A 78,000 word novel (around 246 pages)
When is it set?: 142-141 BC
Where is it set?: Iron Age Britain, pre-Roman.
What kind of story is it?: A family drama between three cousins, involving jealousy, love, friendship, betrayal, selkies, lots of chores, ghostly goings on and general island creepiness.
What’s the genre?: Historical Fantasy.
Any age restrictions?: Not really. Although it is more geared towards adult themes, such as childbirth, romance, jealousy, etc.

Behind the Story
This used to be the middle section of the original Icarus Child story, and was the part where not a lot happened, except for the island being creepy and characters being miserable. So this time around I wanted to do things differently – starting with Callirye and her little romantic interlude. In the original that was all dealt with in barely a paragraph, but this time around I wanted to know more about her. Especially as in this version she’s Cana and Fox’s daughter.
While I was expanding her story, the island was going behind my back and changing other things. So, if you’re one of the unfortunate people who read the original version on Elfwood around ten years ago, this version is quite a bit different. It’s also made my life very difficult for the last part of the trilogy, but that’s the island for you.

Extras
The original dedication for this book was a bit long, so I cut it down rather drastically. However, since I wrote the long version for a reason I thought I’d include the full thing here.

To Family

Whether big or small, near or far, close or distant, family is the one thing that is always there.
By blood or friendship, bound by shared memories and experiences, real family will never let you down
– or if they do then they are the ones worth forgiving.
They know your worst secrets, drive you to tears and infuriate you as nothing else can, but they also make you laugh, sing all your favourite songs and share in those awful movies that no one else will watch with you.
Family is the hearth that warms the soul.

May your family be strong and your friends be family.

Always.

Read on for the opening chapter from The Crying Child, and be aware that it may contain spoilers for Sisters of Icarus.

Continue reading “The Crying Child” →

Books, Updates, Writing

The Crying Child is Coming!

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015 Becca Lusher

Though I have been quiet, I have been working hard (promise) and The Crying Child is on its way.

Cover_2 Crying Child

Once there was an island, and on that island there lived three cousins…

Britain 142 BC

The Sisters of Icarus may all be gone, but the next generation remains. Bitter, half-selkie and broken, the three women are different in many ways, yet one thing connects them: the island and its quest for a new Icarus.

Ghosts and family, selkies and betrayal, love and loss, these cousins are on a journey that will change all of their lives. And when the stars fall nothing will ever be the same again.

For there will be a new Icarus – the island will accept nothing less.

No matter what the cost.

At this precise moment in time it’s working its way through the mysterious KDP and Smashwords distribution/checking systems so as yet it’s only available from Smashwords, but hopefully within the next day or two all the links will be up and I can post them all.

Also within the next few days I’ll be making Sisters of Icarus FREE! More details on that when I’ve sorted out a few Smashwords related issues.

In the meantime, The Crying Child is coming!

Books, Updates, Writing

Sisters is Out!

September 24, 2015September 24, 2015 Becca Lusher

The first in the Icarus Child Trilogy is available now!

Amazon: US || UK || AUS || CAN || DE
Smashwords || B&N || iBooks || Kobo ||

Actually it’s been out for over a week, but in my rush to get it ready on time I overloaded my brain and have been useless for anything else since. Oops. Still, better late than never, right?

In the meantime I’m back at work on the next one – The Crying Child – and I hope to offer both excerpts from Sisters and a few chapter previews from The Crying Child over the next few weeks until it’s ready to be released, which will probably be November now. But as this year seems determined to teach me, the even the best laid plans are prone to going astray…

I’ll try my best to keep on track. Until then – don’t let the island eat you!

Aekhartain, Books, Writing

Sisters of Icarus

September 15, 2015September 24, 2015 Becca Lusher

Sisters of Icarus

~ Icarus Child #1 ~

Once there was an island, and on that island there lived a boy, but before that boy there was another child. And before that child there were three sisters.
Those sisters had a brother.

His name was Icarus.

Britain 163 BC

On a small island just off the south coast, three sisters are determined to survive against nature’s unmerciful odds, but their brother is mad, everyone thinks they are strange and old voices cry on the wind.

Battling against love, grief, selkies and ghosts, middle sister Raccanta will face many tests of her strength if she intends to keep her sisters safe – and her promises intact. For on the mainland there lives a man who walks the woods and shows Raccanta a world that could tempt her far away.

Except the island keeps what it takes and it has no intentions of letting any of its sisters go.

Available Now!
Amazon: US || UK || AUS || CAN || DE
Smashwords || B&N || iBooks || Kobo ||

Sisters of Icarus in Brief
What’s in it?: A 101,000 word novel
When is it set?: 163-158 BC
Where is it set?: Iron Age Britain, pre-Roman.
What kind of story is it?: A family drama with a bit of romance, a lot of domesticity, broken hearts, selkies, jealous spirits and general island creepiness.
What’s the genre?: Historical Fantasy.
Any age restrictions?: Not really. Although it is more geared towards adult themes, such as childbirth, allusions to an abusive relationship and general ghostly gore.

Behind the Story
The original Icarus Child was one novel split into three sections, detailing the life of Shaiel, the first Aekhartain (which is actually Demero, since Shaiel is… different. As I discovered when I wrote this book eleven years ago). The first part – Sisters of Icarus – was supposed to be a chapter or two introducing Icarus and the women who became Shaiel’s ancestors. I’ve always been drawn to the story of Icarus and there’s something about the word that I really, really like, so I couldn’t resist borrowing a bit of the legend for my book. Which fits in quite neatly with my winged Aekhartain.
Of course the original story ran away with me, mostly thanks to the middle sister, Raccanta/Cana, and the way her life twists and turns. What was supposed to be around five thousand words of backstory turned into a fifty thousand word romance and definitely took on a life of its own.
Because, as I often do, I grew rather attached to my throwaway characters (Cana and Fox this time around) I desperately wanted to find a way to bring them back into the Aekhartain story. In the past I simply made it work because *magic!*, but this time around I needed to find an honest way for how that would happen. Which also meant I needed to work out why a man would have a very Greek name in Iron Age Britain. The latter I solved by marooning a Greek traveller on the isolated island, after his exploratory trip went wrong, but the former involved changing a few things.
None of which I can go into here for spoiler reasons ;)
In the end I tweaked the plot here and there, coloured in the details and tried to make it fit into a true time period for the first time, but in essence much of the original is still here. It just grew even bigger this time around – and I actually knew what was supposed to happen. I just wish the other two were going to be as straight forward.

Read on for the opening chapter of Sisters of Icarus!

Continue reading “Sisters of Icarus” →

Aekhartain, Updates

September Tidings

September 1, 2015September 1, 2015 Becca Lusher

Sisters of Icarus is coming!

Well, sort of. I’ve finished another edit of it and will soon start my final run through. Then, hopefully, I will be able to throw it out into the world on September 15th!

<— This is the cover as it currently stands. I may change it, I haven’t decided yet. At the moment I like it, but my views are always likely to change after a day or two.

Any feedback, opinions or views on it are always welcome.

I’m also about a third of the way through my first draft of The Crying Child.

My original plan was to release this a month after Sisters, but real-life keeps poking holes in all my plans so I’ll have to see if I can pull if off.

If nothing unexpected pops up to ruin my month, I’m fairly sure I can do it, but the unexpected has rather taken over this year so I guess I can only try my best and hope that will be enough.

Whenever that does make its way into the world, I will then turn my attention to the last of the trilogy – The Icarus Child – which currently has a wishful release date of November 15th. However, see above for excuses why that might not happen.

Whatever befalls my writing and editing schedules, I just wanted to let people know that they are being written and edited and thought about a lot right now, and will be coming. Hopefully before the end of the year.

Look, they already have covers and everything! This is almost as good as a release from me – not that I usually leave my covers to the last minute or anything. Nope. Not me. (And yes, I know, they’re kind of blue, but that works with the story. All photos are mine as well, just in case anyone wondered. Apologies once again to Portland Bill for turning you into the island.)

So, those are my exciting plans for this month. Anyone out there got anything good going on?

Updates, Writing

Progress Report: The Woe of Words

August 19, 2015August 19, 2015 Becca Lusher

Why did I ever think making up my own language was cool? I’ve never been good at languages. I’m barely passable with English most days, especially when it comes to correct grammatical terms.

Which might be why I made up my own language, now I think on it.

It was an okay language as far as it went – because it had no rules and I botched it together as and when I needed it. But then I had to try and tidy it up and put in proper rules for verbs and such things.

Which already gives me a headache just thinking about. And that was before a character turned up only speaking in auxiliary verbs! (Okay, he doesn’t only speak in aux verbs, but it felt like it when I was trying to translate it.)

I never even thought to plan for auxiliary verbs! I never thought I’d need to! I’ve been avoiding writing practically anything in Aekh-speak ever since I decided to tidy it up and realised as a purely spoken language that I needed to be able to pronounce it! And then along he came, with his verb baggage trundling behind him.

So now I have a new rule, which is basically don’t bother conjugating the second verb unless it looks prettier that way (I’m kidding. Mostly. About the last six words, anyway). I’m sure this will trip me up spectacularly at some point. Right now, however, I don’t care.

*kicks the Man Who Fell To Earth*

As you can probably tell, I’m really enjoying writing The Crying Child. Although I’m still not sure whether I’d prefer for Icaria to be more or less creepy. Less would probably be better for my health.

Oh well. I hope your summer is treating you well in your part of the world. Unless you are upside down, in which case I hope your winter is passing swiftly.

My summer is now wet, but then I am in England, so I should expect nothing else. I did, however, see a hummingbird hawk-moth in my garden the other day! And a white stag!(!) In the wild. An actual white stag!(!!) (No wardrobes were spotted in the sighting of this stag. Nor any lions (religiously metaphoric or otherwise) or witches either. Alas.) He’s a fallow deer and he had ladies and a baby in tow, but they were mostly hidden in the bushes while he stood out in front like a forgotten Christmas lawn ornament.

I also saw a rainbow at dawn this morning. In the west. I’ve never seen one that early in the day before, but it was very pretty in its half-shining state.

Fun times.

Updates, Writing

Done! (For now…)

July 21, 2015August 19, 2015 Becca Lusher

My rewrite edit of Sisters of Icarus is done! At 100,000 words it’s grown by 20K, but right now I don’t care. It is done, and hopefully most of the bits my betas didn’t like have now been removed.

I’ve also found out that a bunch of my family are coming to visit this weekend (and next week), so I guess work on The Crying Child will have to wait. While the schedule-keeping bit of me is disappointed, the rest of me is doing a happy dance. I get to play with my nieces and nephews and also avoid writing the less-than-happy book! (Though I’m working on getting more happy into it.) It’s also carnival week next week in my little town, which mostly means face painting, crab fishing, cake stalls and sunshine – yay!

Summer is on! I hope you’re getting a chance to enjoy it in your part of the world. And if you’re in an upside down spot, then I hope your winter is passing kindly. (If it’s not, sorry to hear that, but I’m not giving the sun back yet ;)

In the meantime, I have books to read and review, plot ideas to form and butterflies to count – if only they will actually appear in the garden! (Seriously, where have all the butterflies gone this year? Last year I couldn’t move for them. Guess my contribution to the Big Butterfly Count is going to be pretty pathetic.) Happy, sunny days!