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Stephanie Beavers

~ Always be yourself. Unless you can be a dragon. Then always be a dragon.

Tag Archives: writing

Noblebright Fantasy

23 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Writing

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adventure, amwriting, author, books, Calling On Fire, fandom, fandoms, fantasy, fantasy adventure, Fire Within, fun, grimdark, Harry Potter, heroic fantasy, lol, Lord of the Rings, lovebooks, magic, magical, meme, noblebright, noblebright fantasy, read, reader, reading, Stephanie Beavers, writer, writing

One of the first thing people ask me when I tell them I’m a writer is, “What do you write?”

I, of course, tell them that I write fantasy, but unfortunately, that doesn’t really narrow it down much. You see, there are many different kinds of fantasy. So after I say, “fantasy,” I get responses like these:

“Oh, like Lord of the Rings/Game of Thrones?”

Well, kind of, because there are races of magical creatures and it’s a medieval setting and whatnot, but I don’t write epic fantasy, with the massive cast of characters (many of whom die) and all that. Also, in my fantasy, I like to have more magic than those.
lord of the rings you shall not pass meme
Or, “Oh, like Harry Potter?”

Well, kind of, because I like to think I have a similar spirit of adventure and create a fun sense of awe for magic, but mine aren’t really intended to be children’s books, and the setting is not in modern times.
Harry Potter what house are you from
Or, “Oh, like [insert some author I’ve never heard of]”

Er…maybe?

And the thing is, I couldn’t think of a term to describe my kind of fantasy. “Heroic fantasy” is close, as is “fantasy-adventure,” but neither quite nailed it.
Then I heard about noblebright fantasy. It’s something of a new concept, and not a widely-known term (yet?), but I like it. A lot.

Noblebright fantasy centers around good characters who try to do good things for good reasons. Not everything is peachy and happy, but in the end, they’re able to make some kind of difference. There’s hope. There’s magic. It doesn’t have to be a children’s book; in fact, sometimes even a noblebright novel can be quite dark.

I feel like we need this label. If I know a story is noblebright, I know I don’t have to worry about reading yet another story where a good character can’t get ahead and just makes things worse until everything is awful and the characters are all so corrupt you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys.
noblebright sunlight hope
I like it better when fiction inspires us and brings hope. Life needs a little more noblebright.

If you’re curious to know more about noblebright, I set up a page about it here.

So what do you think, readers? Do you like the concept of noblebright? I know some people love the “gritty” and “grimdark” stories that are so popular today. Are you one of them? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Skittle Addiction

30 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Fun, Life

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author, candy, entertainment, fun, Skittles, Stephanie Beavers, Stephanie Stewart, sugar, sweets, writer, writing

I have a confession. I have a Skittle addiction.

Well, really it’s more of a sugar/munchies addiction, but let’s face it, “Skittle” is a fun word and “Skittle addiction” sounds better than “snackaholic.” Maybe. Actually, “snackaholic” sounds pretty awesome too. Ahem. Anyways.

I love candy, and everyone who knows me, knows that, including people at work. I have earned the nickname “Squirrel” for the snacks I stash away, and also “Hummingbird” for the sheer amount of sugar I consume (ironically, not usually in liquid form, as I don’t drink pop). They are all familiar with me nibbling away on chocolate, skittles, other candies, and Tostitos.

No Skittles for me, thank you. -Nobody

Which brought me to an amusing thought. What if, while typing, every time I ate a bite of something, I had to type the word skittle? When I send invoices to customers, it would probably read something like this:

“Dear Mr. skittle Smith,

Please find you invoice skittle attached.

Thank you for skittle your business.

Regards,
Stephanie skittle”

Or what about when I’m working on my manuscript?

“Vhi hovered behind skittle the thick trunk of a cottonwood, occasionally peeking around it at the village down the road. The village skittle looked to be a fairly humble one, with largely thatched roofs and accessed by a road that was more of a wide path of earth packed by feet and wooden wheels. Humble or no, each skittle glimpse of it drove her back into hiding behind the tree.”

Again, I may have a problem.

By the way, Orchard Skittles are the best variety of Skittles. Just sayin’.

Orchard Skittles are the best

So, dear readers, what’s your favorite kind of Skittles?

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Not Just For Writers

26 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Life, Thoughts

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author, books, children, childrens books, Giving Tree, kids, Kristen Lamb, life, literature, philosophy, Silverstein, Stephanie Beavers, Where The Sidewalk Ends, writer, writing

As a writer seeking to better myself, I follow Kristen Lamb’s blog. She’s given some incredible advice over the years, much of it entirely for free! But every so often, some of her posts reach far beyond just writing and author advice. Her latest post, Why I Hate “The Giving Tree”–But How This Story Makes Us Better Writers, is one of these.

Now, I had to google “The Giving Tree” and reread it again before I could remember what it was about, and it never actually had an impact when I read it. I guess because it didn’t have magic or animals in it (then, as now, I was very partial to a particular kind of books). Reading it now, I think it’s rather brilliant. Not that I necessarily like it, but I do admire it. But enough of my thoughts, it was Kristen’s that impressed me.

I’ve cherry-picked my favorite parts, but if you want to read the whole thing, definitely click the link above:

“Shel Silverstein didn’t write The Giving Tree with plans that it was a cautionary tale against toxic relationships. He didn’t write it to be some Christ-like example of selfless love. He wasn’t writing a tale of capitalism run amok or misogyny. According to him, he simply wrote a story about the complicated dynamics of human relationships. We, as the reader, assign whether this is a tale of warning or wonder, horror or hope.”

apples apple tree

“I honestly believe that stories we gravitate to as children says a lot about our fundamental nature, our strengths and weaknesses.

I always loved the parable of the Tortoise and the Hare, namely because one of my strongest traits is my persistence. I loved the parable of The Crow and the Pitcher because I was always good at finding clever ways to solve seemingly impossible problems. The stories I loved possibly reflected back personality qualities that even at a very young age, I possessed and was even proud of.

But then there was my dark side, a side I noticed even by the tender age of four when I was sounding out the words And the tree was happy. My tendency to people please (Old Man Whickutt’s Donkey) and my seeming inability to set a boundary with those who would take and take until I had nothing left to give (The Giving Tree) and me happily enabling my own self-destruction. The anger I felt toward the tree being a fledgling anger I felt for myself.

Why did the boy feel the need to take all the apples? All her branches? Why couldn’t he just take some? Why did the tree feel the need to offer all her apples and all her branches? Couldn’t he see he was killing her? Did he even care?

When it came to her trunk? Why didn’t she tell him to just go pound sand?

God, how many times have I done the same?”

teddy bear child's toy

“Our culture is guilty (my POV) of assuming that every child’s story is to serve as a role model. Don’t bully. Be a good friend. This is what happens when you learn to share. But literature serves a higher purpose.

Isn’t the point of being a parent to rear a fully developed person more than simply being an activities director? That we are charged with rearing a grownup with fully developed empathy and a sense of injustice? Doesn’t it say something when a child reads a story like this and is incensed at the injustice of it all?

The children’s movie Inside Out explored how dysfunctional we have become regarding human emotion. We aren’t permitted to be angry, sad, disappointed, jaded or hurt. We can be depressed (because there is a pill for that). Yet these “negative” emotions serve a purpose. It is okay to be angry and sometimes it is downright warranted. It is all right to be afraid.

Our culture has become obsessed with never being offended and yet being offended is vital. There are things that should offend us. That is when real change is possible.

Insulating entire generations from ever experiencing negative emotions is in a word? Psychotic.

dark psycho teddy

Silverstein didn’t believe in happy endings being a necessity. He felt that set children up for failure, that things didn’t always work out. That if every book had an HEA then children would wonder what was so wrong with them. They didn’t always get an HEA in their lives. What were they doing wrong?

Nothing, my Wee One. It is life. Fair is a weather condition.

Good stories also serve as catharsis. We need to watch comedy because we do need to laugh, but you know what? Sometimes what we need is a good cry, too. And maybe we aren’t yet “evolved” enough to cry over what is going wrong in our own lives, but we can cry for a beautiful tree that was rendered a stump.

And that makes us all just a little bit more human.”

Now I’m a real sucker for my happily-ever-after, but even I agree with Kristen.

What are your thoughts, readers? Did you remember this story? How do you interpret it? Do you agree with Kristen about the bad side of only giving children their happily-ever-afters?

By the way, if you’re a writer, definitely subscribe to Kristen’s blog!

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Claws of the Curse: Cover Reveal!

12 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in News, Writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

author, bookcover, books, independent publishing, indiepub, new book, reveal, self publishing, selfpub, Stephanie Beavers, writer, writing

Exciting news! Here’s the cover for my next book, Claws of the Curse!
Claws of the Curse fantasy novel book cover
Big thank you to the folks at Deranged Doctor Design – you did a fantastic job.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an ETA for the book yet; my life has undergone some pretty big changes in the last year, and there’s a lot of work left to be done. But nothing helps me write a novel more than being inspired by an amazing cover!

If you’re wondering, this next book will be another fantasy novel, but featuring new characters. No more Toman and Esset… For now, at least. I’m not ruling out more Fire and Stone stories in the future, but there are no immediate plans.

If you are curious about the new novel, here’s the description of it that I’m working on:

Vhi never wanted to hurt anyone. Unfortunately, wild magic runs rampant through her body, and she can’t stop it from lashing out and hurting others. She’s sure she’s cursed. For this, her brother hunts her and civilization casts her out.

Rajin is a magical big cat with golden fur and a misanthropic personality. He would rather that humans didn’t exist, although human extinction would sit amicably with him too. Unfortunately, humans are better at hunting him than he, them.

When Vhi and Rajin’s paths collide, the cat is intrigued by Vhi’s pure heart. Unfortunately, the cure to her curse may lie with his hunters. Can Vhi and Rajin escape their respective hunters long enough to lift her curse?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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NaNoWriMo 2015: It begins

02 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Life

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author, fantasy, life, NaNoWriMo, novel, SFF, Stephanie Beavers, words, writer, writing

Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year. This is probably unwise, given what a crazy month this November is shaping up to be, but here goes nothing. In all honestly, I’m not really expecting to hit 50,000 words (due to aforementioned craziness), but I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like lately, and this should be good motivation.

For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The objective is to write 50,000 words over the course of the month. That’s approximately 1,667 words per day. That’s many more words than most people will write if they don’t love writing. Writing that many words every day for 30 days… Well, you get the idea. If you want to take a go at writing a novel, I highly recommend NaNoWriMo. It’s great fun to have the support of so many people attempting the same thing at the same time.

My NaNoWriMo novel is a WIP: the working title (and maybe final title, I haven’t decided yet) is Claws of the Curse, and this is the first novel I’ve ever written where I’ve actually started with something of an outline. So we’ll see how it goes. Will it be better or worse? It remains to be seen. Regardless, it’s another medieval fantasy novel that I intend to have lots of fun with. :)

So is anyone else out there participating? What’s your project like?

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Everything Ever Said

05 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Thoughts

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author, epistemology, everything that has and will be said., library of babel, meaning, philosophy, Stephanie Beavers, thoughts, words, writer, writing

Have you ever heard of the Library of Babel? Check it out. It came to my attention through the VSauce video below (starting around 16:58, you can watch it or no, but it’s definitely interesting.)

The Library of Babel “currently authors everything that has been or could be written. Seriously.”

Don’t believe me? Go here. Type in any sentence that comes to mind, nonsensical or otherwise. Then hit search, and the library will show you where in its “pages” these words reside. I tried, “how do you spell that melon cantaloupe, cantalope kantaloop” and it found that no problem. I tried a line from my WIP novel: no problem. You’ll get the same result.

VSauce explains the logistics behind it (math), but it does raise some interesting questions. VSauce asks, “Did you really invent that thing if it already existed?” Does the fact that what you said came into existence when the library was created undermine your “invention,” or is it more important that it had meaning when you said it, rather than being a product of an algorithm?

VSauce frequently asks interesting questions, and I recommend checking out other videos of his too.

What do you think, readers? What sentence did you make up to test out the library?

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Language, Mysteries, and Math

17 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Fun, News

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author, etymology, fun, math, mystery, News, quizzaciously, Science, Stephanie Beavers, Vsauce, words, writer, writing, Zipf

As an author, I of course have a degree of fascination with words. Check out what VSauce has to say…

In other news, Fire Within is now available in print! Check it out on Amazon.com and CreateSpace.

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2 Years

10 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in News

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2 year anniversary, author, blog, blogging, entertainment, Stephanie Beavers, writer, writing

Yesterday, WordPress notified me of my 2 year anniversary on this blog! In truth, it was about a month and a half later before I began blogging consistently, but it’s still noteworthy. I have to admit, blogging twice a week can be very challenging, even when one of the two is typically just pictures or a video or some such.

But in the end, it’s worth it. This is how I connect with you, my audience. Here and on Twitter are my primary forms of communication with you. It’s how, I hope, I entertain you between books. But it’s more than that, too. This blog keeps me active when otherwise I wouldn’t be. It’s a lesson in self-discipline, to keep writing even when life gets crazy and tiring. It’s a reminder of what I’m working towards.

So I want to say thank you to those who do read my blog – every “like” and comment helps me keep going. I hope I’m offering things of value to you, even if it’s just a small smile, or a moment where you think, “I’d never thought of that before.”

thank you cat high five

So again, thank you. I hope these two years have been good for you too!

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Updates on life and everything

11 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Life

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author, cotton candy, doctor, editing, life, Patrick Stewart, self publishing, singing, Stephanie Beavers, update, voice, writer, writing

So, time for a non news/science/etc related post! As always, life gets crazy, and mine is no exception. But I’ve got good news!

The edits for my novel have been going VERY well! Huge improvements have been made to the story (in my opinion) and while I loved it before, I love it even more now. Soon I’ll be commissioning a book cover (and of course I’ll post a preview here once I get it!) just as soon as I get the back description polished (which is also coming along).

In other news, I may have discovered why my throat has been so wrecked! It’s been bothering me for a long time, but I hadn’t been having much success figuring it out with my GP. I used to sing all the time (and I was good!) but it has gotten so bad I can barely sing one song without my throat acting up and forcing me to stop (usually with coughing/choking). But I finally got in with a specialist, and we have a working theory! It was a little absurd (almost to the point of humor) when the doctor handed me a pamphlet with my EXACT symptoms outlined in it when my regular doctor and I had been trying so many other things so unsuccessfully for so long. But hope has returned, and I shall sing again!

In other news, last Saturday marked my one year anniversary on WordPress! That doesn’t mark when I started blogging regularly, but still, it’s quite the landmark for me. Blogging doesn’t come naturally to me, and I’m proud that I’ve at least been able to stick with it.

Despite the end of summer too swiftly approaching, there are some things I’m looking forward to… like Doctor Who! Maybe it’s silly to get worked up about a show like that, but I’m really looking forward to the new Doctor and a new season.

To amuse you, here’s Patrick Stewart with a cotton candy mustache:
picard cotton candy mustache patrick stewart

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Your Life In Six Words

17 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Stephanie Beavers in Fun, Writing

≈ 3 Comments

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author, creativity, fun, humor, inspiration, psychology, six words, Stephanie Beavers, writer, writing

Got a couple new articles for interested readers: The Psychology of Limitations: How and Why Constraints Can Make You More Creative and Six-Word Memoirs. I found the second article through the first, but it’s the second article I find the most fascinating.

Now, I have to admit, I’ve never been a big fan of short stories. I don’t like overly long and flowery things either, but I’ve simply never cared for short stories. With a few notable exceptions, they’re either boring or too short to properly flesh out a story. (This is my opinion. If you like short stories, more power to you. You probably like “deeper” literature than I.)

However, the notion of a six-word memoir struck a chord with me. This could be fun! To borrow their graphic:
six-word memoir
Go to the articles above for more.

Here’s mine: “I’d still rather be a dragon.”

What’s yours? You can come up with something real or fanciful or humorous – odds are, I won’t know the difference. ;)

P.S. Happy St Patrick’s Day!

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Calling - Ebook Calling On Fire by Stephanie Beavers!
Two brothers with magical abilities seek to stop an evil mage only to find the fate of an entire race in their hands.
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Philosophy, kittens, and candy.
Disclaimer: The "be a dragon" quote is not mine. If you know who originally said it, please let me know so I can give due credit!

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