Category Archives: Delfaerune Rhapsody

Ann’s work-in-progress, a young-adult fantasy adventure series about a young New Zealander discovers she’s the “Maestra” in the fae realm of Delfaerune, destined to retrieve and master three ancient Maori instruments, and use her strong Earth connection and unique musical prowess to save her worlds.
Book 1: The Song of the Ocarina (due in late 2013)
Book 2: The Beat of the Påkiri
Book 3: The Thrum of the Autangi

What’s your faerie name?

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Yeah, this happened within a few months of posting the blog entry below. Thank you, Joanne. @2013 ANVidean

Yeah, this happened within a few months of posting the blog entry below. Thank you, Joanne!  ©2013 ANVidean

The certificate says:

“It has been proclaimed by the fairy power vested in Twig the Fairy
by the state of discombobulation and fitting out, that your official fairy name
is hereby declared
Rula Ghillie Gardenia Mossyroot.”

………………………………………

Today, I was thinking about character naming. Honestly, I’m not that good at names. So, in dealing with this challenge of mine, I discovered a fascinating and fun site. It’s a name-generating Web page substituting your name for a fairy’s.

Here’s mine … “Gossamer Moonglow. She is a messenger of the moon goddess. She lives in spiderwebbed wonderlands and insect grottoes. She is only seen in the light of a full moon. She wears dresses made of cobwebs and gossamer and has bright blue butterfly wings.”

Ah-h-h, I like that.

Most people envision fairies like this: tiny, cute and winged. [As expertly illustrated by Mark Pate. (www.markpate.com)]

That name did serve as a source of inspiration, but doesn’t necessarily fit the mood for my books. You see, the fae in my Delfaerune Rhapsody young-adult-fiction, trilogy in-progress do not fit the mold of your typical fairy. Mine, in the Celtic fae tradition, look more like elves: they grow extremely tall; embrace glamour (magic), not wings, to fly; and,  therefore, require unusual names.

So, in the first book of my series, “The Song of the Ocarina,” I’ve given my Dark Fae monikers which emulate bad-boy rockers like Mikk, Axyl and Janys. My Noble Fae have natural names like Fern, Glenn and Whillo. Key characters also use Maori surnames, as my setting is Queenstown, New Zealand.

I’m looking for more inspiration. So, might you visit the fairy name site and come back here to share your name and description? Pretty please?

Breaking Benjamin, Linkin Park, Ten Years and Brahms inspire novel-in-progress

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Music and word lovers, join me in the journey where music enhances fiction! If you have a favorite artist/song and would like to see it potentially worked into my novel-in-progress, comment here with the artist name, song title and a bit about its style/genre/lyrics.

I’m mentioning inspiring artist’s songs in The Song of the Ocarina. It’s one of the elements readers liked most about my first novel Rhythms & Muse. (“Look Inside”–even just its first and second pages–on Amazon and you’ll see how songs play into and enhance the plot.)

Allow me to share a few songs mentioned in Ocarina, the first book in my Delfaerune Rhapsody young-adult series. (It’s a trilogy about 7′-tall, wingless, Celtic Fae saving the world in New Zealand.)

• Linkin Park’s “Papercut” relates to a moment when Lark, the heroine, feels a loss of identity.

• Lark, also the faerie realm’s musical prodigy, plays Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” on the piano in her bedroom after returning to the faerie realm from the human world.

• When Noel, the hero, sides with his estranged Dark Fae family, Breaking Benjamin’s “Crawl” will inspire the mood.

• Uncle D’s “True Kiwi Way”is a little New Zealand ditty mentioned when Lark meets her kiwi “familiar.”

• Lark’s Noble Fae sister sings 10 Years’s “Through The Iris”  with her Dark Fae boyfriend.

• Brahms’s “Lullaby” is the first song Lark plays on the ancient magical zither when she holds it again for the first time in three years.

Call for delicious vegetarian dishes for young-adult fiction book

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Community garden

A community garden in Highlands Ranch, CO. In its beautiful surroundings with the Rocky Mountains in the distance, I could see this garden tended by faeries. ©2012 ANVidean

In a banquet scene in The Song of The Ocarina (first book of my Delfaerune Rhapsody series),  I want to describe a number of succulently mouthwatering vegetarian dishes.

But, being of Armenian heritage where meat is a serious staple, I am at a loss. Can you share a vegetarian recipe worthy of a serving to the political leaders of Delfaerune (my realm of both Noble and Dark Fae)? Suggest a luscious dish that would fit into this paragraph:

“The chefs honored her homecoming by outdoing themselves in the kitchen. First, the servers delivered a leafy salad bursting with a variety of bright, colorful, tasty garden vegetables mixed with the chef’s especially creamy, tangy Ceasar. How wonderful to experience fresh-from-the-garden vegetables again. Their flavors exploded across her taste buds. Second, arrived the main entrée: a perfectly presented stuffed winter squash nestled in its own shell within a field of bright arugula and dressed with a cheesy asagio Alfredo sauce. Artfully placed golden squash blossoms piped with pesto hummus topped the dish. The orangey, coconutty ambrosia delivered third … well, talk about food for the gods. Pure heaven melting in her mouth.”

In your comment, please make sure to provide:

  • Full recipe
  • Description or even a few adjectives about the recipe, describing why it will work in this scene
  • Your name, or how you’d like to be identified in the blog or book
  • Your geographic location

(Just so you know, I may use your contact info provided via the comment to communicate with you about the book, but will not publicize it, or use it for any other reason.)

– Ann

Write on!
Ann Narcisian Videan
Write • Edit • Self-publish • Word-of-mouth

How to enter the Fae realm

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Excerpted from Song of the Ocarina
© 2014 Ann Narcisian Videan

The Fae in “Song of the Ocarina” are nothing like this typical rendition (so beautifully crafted by Mark Pate). Instead, they follow the original mythology with very tall, magical beings without wings.

“Lean back against this tree and repeat the tune I play.” Noel hummed a short haunting melody.

Lark listened carefully, and memorized the melody as he played it the first time through.

“Now, this time, listen carefully to the musical tones and how they tie into the environment.” She didn’t really know what he meant, but concentrated on the way the notes sounded as they interacted with the various natural surfaces around them. As he hummed and she listened, the sounds stopped resisting against the surface of the grass and tree trunks and started seeping through the foliage, becoming at one with it. How odd.

“Now you try. Play it.” He nodded at the flute. She played the melody through once, perfectly. A proud expression bloomed across his face. “OK, now lean against the tree and repeat it several times while focusing again on the tones fitting in around us.”

As she played, she noticed the trees, grass, and flowers around her shimmering with what looked like heat waves. A tiny grey kiwi and a very black opossum snuck out from under cover and listened, noses quivering in the shady space. The music melded with the surrounding foliage and a magical, harmonious drone started as if from nowhere. As it emanated from the plants around her, rising and falling with the phrasing in her tune, everything began to glow with a faint luminescence.

Noel studied her as she played, one hand leaning against the tree. Pinions of iridescent light spread outward from his shoulders, spreading up and out behind him. At the sight, she let the flute’s last note fade. She studied the energetic aura growing denser behind his back as it flowed together. The force took the shape of wings, but did not create actual appendages.

Distracted by light moving all around her, she scanned the area slowly. Everything remained in its place, but the park somehow transformed into something new. Colors enriched, enhanced by a shimmer of energy. A quiet, melodic white noise hummed underneath the sound of the lake water slapping on the shore and the birdsong high in the trees.

Noel stood motionless, his head tilted back, and took several deep breaths. His energy-field wings moved in sync with his breaths. After a long moment, he grinned down at Lark. “Home.”

“Home?” She glanced around at the familiar, but strangely new, surroundings. With her flute still in one hand, she moved a few steps away to finger a velvety leaf on a fern. When she moved, the startled kiwi and furry opossum scurried to hide under a bush across the way. She glanced back at Noel and caught an energy field hugging her back just like his. She spun quickly to see what was behind her, but the aura moved with her. She reached back to try to touch the “wings,” but her hand met nothing. An unknown weight dropped in her stomach. “Noel… what’s happening?”

“Don’t worry, Alouette,” he whispered. “This is where we’re going to find your family.”

“It’s still Queenstown, but it’s not.” She peeked around, otherwise motionless.

“That’s right. It’s Queens’tyn, your home.”

“And my home would be…”

“Delfaerune.”

She furrowed her brow. “As opposed to Earth?”

He laughed. “No, we haven’t left Earth. The ‘Plana Via’ spell you just cast simply brought you to a different plane of consciousness.”

Lark’s eyes widened. “Spell… Plane of…” Like in fantasy books?

Noel simply nodded.

Lark’s head spun. She placed two fingers on her temple. What was happening? Was she dreaming?

“But how did we get here exactly?”

“You used karakia to move us.”

“Karakia?”

“What humans call good magic, but not exactly like wizards’ and sorcerers’. We use the energy of all life to manipulate our surroundings.”

Several points of light suddenly appeared under the bush occupied by the kiwi and opossum, and she took a sharp intake of breath. Two of the twinkling glow-points advanced toward Noel. Her eyes widened as they transformed from small dots of light into very tall, luminous beings; humanesque, but other-worldly.

One evolved into a strikingly beautiful woman with a thick braid of jet-black hair. Leather armor, laced with green tooled leaves, graced her lithe form. She clicked a quarterstaff into a mechanical holder at her waist as she rapidly glided, rather than walked, toward Noel.

“You’re back!” she cried.

Your ideas can influence my faerie novel: Lark’s Tale

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What are your initial reactions to these ideas for the first book in my young-adult faerie trilogy? Your comments will help shape Lark’s Tale! (working title)

Image by Mark Pate (www.markpate.com).

Story highlights:

  • A tale about Lark, a lanky, white-haired, 17-year-old musical prodigy in Queenstown, New Zealand who finds out she’s actually a faerie.
  • Her unlikely mentor Noel (pronounced “knoll”) is a 6’7″!, blue-eyed, 18-year-old, dark-faerie-turned-noble sheep shearer.
  • My faeries are of the ancient Celtic tradition: extremely tall and willowy, no wings, shape shifters using glamour (faerie magic).
  • Music links the human and faerie (Delfaerune) realms, which exist simultaneously on different planar levels.
  • Lark – daughter of the Minister of Glamour, who has been captured by the dark faeries as part of their plot to take over the human world – must use her musical prowess to save the human world and free her family.

27 Steps from Book Idea to Published

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Ready to save years of research on what exact steps to take to get a book from idea to publication, inexpensively? I’ve saved you the trouble by outlining every action I took to write and self-publish my Rhythms & Muse novel and music CD, spending about $1,500 total. A real deal in the book publishing realm!

I recently related this information in my presentation Taking a Book from Idea to Publishing on a Budget at the Write Stuff conference at the Chandler Public Library.

The following 7 Book-Creation Phases, and 27 Action Steps, are those I identified (and got approved by a publishing coach) as necessary to self-publish a book.

7 Book-Creation Phases

  1. Research/writing
  2. Editing
  3. Positioning
  4. Production
  5. Publishing
  6. Distribution
  7. Marketing

27 Action Steps

Phase 1: Research/writing

1. Develop  your idea.

2. Create the best content possible through research and intuition.

3. Network!

  • Meet with a critique partner.

4. Clarify legal issues with a copyright lawyer: music lyrics, quotes, celebrity and trademarked names, recognized commercial verbiage, etc.

5. Read!

  • My fav’ for character development: Goal Motivation Conflict, Debra Dixon
  • My fav’ for plot development: The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler

6. Make time to write, consistently.

Phase 2: Editing

7. Ask for feedback from other writers/prolific readers in your target market, on scenes as you write them and on your final manuscript.

8. Hire a professional editor. I found mine through the FictionThatSells listserv on Yahoo!

Phase 3: Positioning

9. Determine if you need an agent. Some publishers will not consider your manuscript without an agent.

  • Find out everything you need to know about the writing marketplace in the Writer’s Market publication available online, at libraries and book stores.
  • Check into agents, their histories, success rates and more at Agent Query.

10. Decide if you want to publish traditionally or self-publish. Pros and cons:

  • Traditional:
    • You have a team so you don’t have to do it all yourself
    • Offers some financial support
    • Less ROI Less control
    • You still do most of the marketing
  • Self:
    • You do it all yourself
    • Self-funded
    • More ROI
    • More control
    • You do all the marketing

Phase 4: Production

11. Decide if you want support from a virtual author’s assistant to accomplish steps 12–27.)

12. Obtain an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) from Bowker. A unique ISBN is required for each book format you use (hardback, softcover, e-book, audio book, etc.) You must buy blocks of 10 numbers. They cost about $125.

13. Obtain a bar code, also from Bowker. Required. This small image encrypts the cost, ISBN, and other information about each individual book.

14. Obtain a Library of Congress card number. Required only if you want your book to be available in libraries.

[Note: Steps 12–14 are available for free when publishing through CreateSpace, an Amazon company enabling do-it-yourself or with-help production and print-on-demand for media such as books, CDs, DVDs, MP3 files, video, and more), plus a broad distribution system.]

15. Obtain legal permissions, and licenses (for which you’ll pay royalties). This means you must check to see if the individual’s creation you’re using is available in the public domain, or whether you must pay for its use.

16. Decide if you want to officially copyright your work through the U.S. Copyright Office. This is optional, as anything you create is already technically your copyrighted material.

17. Decide whether to hire a designer or if you have the professional talent to create the “look” of your book by yourself.

18. Create images to use in the book creation. You MUST get a designer who understands the psychology of book purchasing, especially if you want your book on a main bookstore shelf. Options include:

19. Create the front and back covers, including the images developed in step 18. This can be accomplished using a graphic designer, a contest design site like Mycroburst, or CreateSpace templates.

20. Create the interior page layout. Consider the size of the book itself, margins, fonts, page numbers, graphic images, and more. A graphic designer can do this, or you can do it yourself using software programs like Word, Publisher or Pagemaker.)

Phase 5: Publishing

21. Determine how you want to get the book printed.

  • Traditional publishing house.
  • Independent publisher.  My finalist was Lightning Source, because other indie publishers outsource to them, and they are affiliated with Ingram, a leading distribution house.
  • Print-on-demand.  I decided to use CreateSpace for reasons including cost and easy tools to create the book and CD myself.

22. Identify what other formats you want to create:

  • E-book.  Smashwords takes your upload and formats it to fit all the available e-book formats including Kindle, Nook, iPad, and many more.
  • Audio book.  You can record your book relatively easily in the GarageBand software podcast function.

Phase 6: Distribution

23. Determine how your book will be distributed.

  • Traditional publisher
  • Fulfillment house, such as Lightning Source with its Ingram distribution arm
  • You and the post office
  • Amazon, through an account set up by you
  • A print-on-demand provider like CreateSpace, that sets up your Amazon page, a CreateSpace eStore page and, for $39, puts you into its expanded distribution into the computer systems of Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other national book sellers.

24. Consider the ease of your payment options and set up avenues for receiving:

  • Cash/check
  • Credit cards
  • PayPal (allows both EFT bank transfers or credit card payments)

25. Obtain sales tax forms from every city and state in which you sell your book.

26. Obtain inventory recording forms to report to the state.

Phase 7: Marketing
(This section could be another entire blog post, so I’ll just give you some pointers.)

27. Figure out how you plan to accomplish your marketing.

  • All you.
  • Traditional publisher.
  • A publicist. I lead a group of independent PR pros – the AZ Independent Communicators & Creatives Tribe – who are available to help you. Plus, I am willing to help any time. Just contact me to ask a question, bounce an idea, or ask for more help.

I also offer online resources, many of which are free or low cost on my vIDEAn Unlimited Web site, BizTribe blog, and ANVidean blog. If you are an established writer, you also might want to consider participating in my ALWAYS writers’ tribe.

Or, if you’d benefit from an in-depth Catch Your Dream strategic workshop to help you move forward in creating your book, give me a shout and I’ll provide you with a free one-hour consultation.

………………………………………..

I would love to have your feedback and additions to this conversation as, obviously, this is just one person’s journey through the book creation process, and we can all stand to benefit from each others’ knowledge and experience. Cheers!