City of Hope and Ruin
Hi everyone! Today, I have not one guest but two: please, give a warm welcome to authors Kit Campbell and Siri Paulson with their Fantasy Fiction book, City of Hope and Ruin, which also offers some LGBTQ Romance.Β The authors will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. For more tour stops and more chances to win, please click on the banner above π
City of Hope and Ruin:
Every night the monsters hunt.
A city that is the whole world: Theosophy and her companions in the City militia do their best to protect the civilians from the monsters, but they keep crawling from the Rift and thereβs nowhere to run. Theosophy knows sheβll die fighting. Itβs the best kind of death sheβs seen, and at least she can save lives in the meantime.
They say the Scarred carve you up while youβre still alive.
A village in the shadow of a forest: Refugees from the border whisper about the oncoming Scarred, but Briony canβt convince her brother to relocate his children to safety. Briony will do anything to protect them. She owes them that much, even if it means turning to forbidden magic.
When Theosophy and Briony accidentally make contact across the boundaries of their worlds, they realize that solutions might finally be within reach. A world beyond the City would give Theosophyβs people an escape, and the Cityβs warriors could help Briony protect her family from the Scarred. Each woman sees in the other a strength she lacksβand maybe something more.
All they need to do is find a way across the dimensions to each other before their enemies close in.
Excerpt:
The spirit was beautiful, a tall, statuesque woman who had a hard glint in her eyes. Her hair was short, indigo blue through the glow and tightly curled, her skin a lighter shade over wiry muscles. One hand clenched a smallish item made of metal, the other a long tube with some kind of blade on the end. Briony had never seen anyone like her. Though she glanced around and held her body like someone expecting danger, her bearing was proud and strong, and every inch of her spoke of power and competency. A warrior. Briony had heard stories of them, left over from the Great War, but had never seen one herself.
Was that when this woman was from? The War?
βThe trioβthe monstersβwhere am I?β
Briony realized she hadnβt responded, and that perhaps this spirit had been looking for someone to talk to for a very long time, and maybe she would assume Briony couldnβt see or hear her either. βDonβt be afraid,β she said.
The spirit’s eyebrows rose. “That’s a…never mind. What is this place?”
βWell,β Briony started, taking a step forward. But her ankle buckled and she stumbled, managing to catch herself before she fell.
βYouβre injured,β said the spirit. βWere you attacked?β
βYesβyou see, there was a Fracture back there, andββ Confusion crossed the spiritβs face. Maybe she was even older; maybe she didnβt know about the War.
From the authors: How to Deal With Writerβs Block
First of all, Iβd like to thank Harmony for hosting our tour stop today! Siri and I are very pleased to be here! Iβve been asked to talk about dealing with writerβs block, oh, the dreaded writerβs block.
Picture this: itβs writing time. You sit down at your computer, go about getting everything ready to go, open your story (or a new document), andβ¦nothing. Nothing feels right. Or worseβnothing comes at all.
Whatβs a writer to do?
Well, first letβs look at writerβs block as a whole. The thing is, thereβs not a single cause of writerβs block. Oh, sure, youβll find people that say there is. Some people claim that writerβs block stems from fear. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of disappearing into the void without making a ripple. And sure, there probably is some writerβs block that comes from that. Personally, I feel that most writerβs block comes from a lack of planning, from not knowing how to get your characters from where they are to where you want them to be, or from not being able to figure out how to do something in a way that makes sense and/or is interesting. But I brought up that theory with my local writing group, and we ended up coming up with a whole list of potential writerβs block reasons.
So, unfortunately, writerβs block is a personal sort of thing. People get it for different reasons, and the same person may have it for different reasons at different points in time.
Therefore, I postulate that the first step of dealing with writerβs block is: figure out what the source is.
Do you need to write a story to match a theme (say, for an anthology) and canβt figure out anything that interests you?
Have you written yourself into a corner that you canβt see a way out of?
Does the character that was supposed to be the love interest hate your main character?
Have you spread yourself too thin and are too tired to make any progress?
Are you afraid that youβll put a story out there and get cricketsβor nothing but negativity?
Once you identify the problem, then you can work toward solutions. If you canβt get going, it wonβt hurt to check your normal inspiration. If youβve made lists of potential story ideas, maybe you can go through that and find something to mix in. You can brainstorm what you like in a story and figure out how to add those elements in. If youβve written yourself into a plot hole, stepping back and looking at your overall plot and story might reveal a way outβor a way to do it better. If your characters arenβt working, throw them out and try other ones, or introduce someone else.
The nice thing about writerβs block is that itβs not some huge, unmovable thing that you canβt get past. It shows up for a reason, and normally that reason can be worked through. And the good news is that, generally, once youβve worked through it, you come out the other side with something better than you had before.
About the Authors:
It is a little known fact that Kit was raised in the wild by a marauding gang of octopuses. It wasn’t until she was 25 that she was discovered by a traveling National Geographic scientist and brought back to civilization. This is sometimes apparent in the way that she attempts to escape through tubes when startled.
Her transition to normalcy has been slow, but scientists predict that she will have mastered basics such as fork use sometime in the next year. More complex skills, such as proper grocery store etiquette, may be forever outside her reach.
Kit can be found cavorting about the web at her blog (http://landsquidattack.wordpress.com) or website (http://kitcampbellbooks.com), on Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/campbell1091/), and even occasionally on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/KitCampbell).
Siri Paulson writes all over the fantasy and science fiction spectrum, including (so far) secondary-world fantasy, urban fantasy, steampunk, Gothic, historical paranormal, and YA with spaceships. She is also the chief editor at Turtleduck Press (http://turtleduckpress.com/). Siri grew up in Alberta, Canada, but now lives in an old house in Toronto. By day, she edits non-fiction for the government. Her other current passion is contra dance, a social/folk dance done to live Celtic and roots music. Her favourite places in the world are the Canadian Rocky Mountains and a little valley in Norway.
Siri’s short fiction and the anthologies she has edited can be found on Turtleduck Press, at http://turtleduckpress.com/wordpress/2010/11/30/who-is-siri-paulson/ . She blogs atΒ https://siripaulson.wordpress.com/Β and tweets atΒ http://twitter.com/Siri_Paulson.
Multi-region buy link for ebook: http://authl.it/B01DYSR7QE
I just love the book cover, itβs amazing!
Thank you, Dario! We’re pretty pleased with it too — our designers did a beautiful job.
Thanks for the help, Nikolina! Much appreciated.
Shared on Facebook to help spread the word! π
Shared on G+, have a great day!
Sounds like a great read, hope I’ll have a chance to read it soon!
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR NEW BOOK AND THANKS FOR THE GIVEAWAY!
Thanks and welcome! π
Thank you for the excerpt.
Great excerpt, thanks for sharing π
Yes, as Siri says, thanks for hosting us! And thanks for giving me an interesting topic to talk about! π
Congrats on the blog tour and thanks for the chance to win π
Best of luck, Lisa, and thanks for stopping by π
Thanks for having us! Kit and I will be hanging out in the comments in case anyone has any questions. Personally, I’ve experienced several of the kinds of writer’s block Kit mentions. Not fun!
Hi Siri! Hope you and Kit have a great tour. Yep, that writer’s block can be a real bear. I love your post, and it’s a pleasure to host you today. Very best wishes to you both π
Great post! I like to know different authors’ perspective on writer’s block and how to push through it. I wish you continued luck on the tour! And many thanks to you Harmony for hosting! π
Thanks for your lovely comment, Clojo! It’s always great to see you stop by π
Thanks for hosting!
My pleasure! π
I really enjoyed reading the entire post, thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it all,Nikolina! Thanks for stopping by π