Just for a bit of Absolutely Wild! fun, find out by visiting Images.Google.com and searching for: [your name] + the “magical creature” [Note the use of quotation marks to search for the full phrase, not individual words.]
For me, that would look like: Ann the “magical creature”
Above, see a favorite from my search—a gorgeous illustration by Anne Stokes.
Please share by posting your favorite found image (below in the comments).
Magical New Zealand forms the backdrop for my Delfaerune Rhapsody series. The land of the Maori. Are you thinking, “Maori? Wha—?” They are the native people of those majestic and diverse islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean.
One way the Maori have become better known in our current culture is through the All Blacks’s “Ka Mate,” which they perform as a group before each rugby match. This “haka“—traditional Maori war cry, war dance, or challenge—incorporates bulging eyes, long tongues, threatening stances, and shouts. Intimidating, right?
That’s why I pull elements from the haka to liven up my battle scenes, especially by my burned-out-rock-star-esque Dark Fae.
Rotorua, New Zealand “Hangi” village 3/2008 ©ANVidean
Also, many of the words I use in the stories come from the native people’s language. To represent “bad magic,” I use the Maori term “mākutu.” Another is “karakia.” It doesn’t translate exactly to “good magic,” but you can see how my use of it captures the spirit when you visit the official online Maori Dictionary.
Yes, that is a thing, and, if you click on the links I provide, you can read the Maori definitions and hear the pronunciations, too.
If you want a real trip, look at all the words that come up under “spell.” Don’t be surprised if you find a few more of these terms in my future writings.
What other words/translations do you know for “spell or “magic?” Please share!
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Write on!
Ann Narcisian Videan
ann@annvidean.com
Author, Song of the Ocarina
Author/illustrator, Enchanted Faerie Portals Coloring & Creative Writing Pages
Co-founder, Absolutely Wild! Enchanted Faerie Portals & Other Whimsy
Write. Edit. Publish. Word-of-mouth strategy.
Check out my Book Shepherding consultations.
One of our original faerie portals, Spektralized.
Yeah, I know, it’s an absolutely wild idea: sell a book by creating a whole business around it. Still, when the idea is cool and whimsical, teaches you new things, and also supports something you adore… why not!
My long-time friend Cherie Scott read book 1 in my Delfaerune Rhapsody series, Song of the Ocarina, and the Fae characters inspired her to sculpt a faerie portal for me. As a thank you, I wrote a short story about the faerie who lived within it. (You can see both, below.) That gave us the idea to craft custom portals and tales for others who like the idea of having a faerie friend around.
One of our custom faerie portals and Faerie’s Tale: Auntie’s Visitors
The creativity of it all moved us right into developing Absolutely Wild! Enchanted Faerie Portals & Other Whimsy.
Our faerie products include a special Delfaerune Rhapsody line of portals and tales. We also published a faerie portals coloring book with writing prompts, packs of coloring note cards, and themed Faeries’ Tales.
The best part is that your gift of imagination and whimsy—whether for yourself or a special someone—helps us support our passion: emerging young writers and creatives.
So, as of this week, we are open for business! [Yes, that’s me bouncing from foot to foot so I don’t squeal and pierce your eardrums.] Wanna help us realize our dream and our dream for young writers? Check it out.
Our original faerie portal sculpted by
Cherie Scott.
Excerpt from
Fidget’s Visitor: A Faerie’s Tale
The fluffy cinnamon-spotted dog sniffed at the wee wooden door. His yips made the spindly mushrooms lining the front walk vibrate in time with the faerie’s gossamer wings.
The tiny creature inside the door risked a peep through a thin crack in the wood, and trembled when a giant brown eye moved closer. It blinked, and she whipped back against the stone wall of her kitchen, throwing her hands over her eyes.
What could he want? Did he smell the ChocoLavender cookies baking in her wood stove?
She found her courage and turned to peer through the crevice again. The dog cocked his head and one ear flopped into the crackling leaves blown against the door from her garden. He gently nipped a small Aspen-illustrated card from a basket hanging around his neck, and nudged it under her door with his nose.
The fairy jumped. Her arms flailed and, on tippity-toes, beat a quick retreat.
Mustn’t come in contact with the paper! It could be laced with poison! Or, at the very least, contain a highly threatening message.
Careful not to move too close, she used a sprinkle of faerie dust to open the card, and gingerly leaned forward to read the large scribbles.
P.S. Yes, there really is such a thing as ChocoLavendar cookies!
As you may have heard, my dear friend Cherie and I recently embarked on a journey to create Absolutely Wild! faerie doors. The New Zealand Fae characters in my Delfaerune Rhapsody fantasy novel series inspired the idea, and we plan to do a line of Delfaerune Fae doors tied into the books. We also plan to write custom faerie tales to accompany the wee whimsical doors we craft for art
and gifts. A coloring book is also in the works.
But… we’re finding that more than whimsy can come into play with this idea.
Check out the faerie doors gracing the city in this video. Public art and imagination bloom with the possibilities…
Also, to further experience the power of a faerie door, read and watch the touching short film, The Gnomist. Make sure you have tissues nearby.
Where else have you seen the impact of faerie doors?
Fidget’s Visitor
The tiny creature inside the door risked a peep through a thin crack in the wood, and trembled when a giant brown eye moved closer. It blinked, and she whipped back against the stone wall of her kitchen, throwing her hands over her eyes.
What could he want? Did he smell the ChocoLavendar cookies baking in her wood stove?
She found her courage and turned to peer through the crevice again. The dog cocked his head and one ear flopped into the crackling leaves blown against the door from her garden. He gently nipped a small Aspen-illustrated card from a basket hanging around his neck, and nudged it under her door with his nose.
The fairy jumped. Her arms flailed and, on tippity-toes, beat a quick retreat.
Mustn’t come in contact with the paper! It could be laced with poison! Or, at the very least, contain a highly threatening message.
Careful not to move too close, she used a sprinkle of fairy dust to open the card, and gingerly leaned forward to read the large scribbles…
A word-of-mouth marketing example from the lens of Ann Narcisian Videan
to inspire your book “village.”
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A vintage Rocky Mountain Post article about my mom, who entertained at parties as Mary Poppins. Do you have a unique trait you can leverage to market yourself or your book?
I’m counting on this post to inspire you to find your own special talents, traits, experiences, or even your looks—like my mother did—to entice your audience to talk about you. Find something unique that also pertains to your book and, víola!, instant word-of-mouth book book marketing.
I hear you thinking, “What?!”
Think for a second. Say you looked like Mary Poppins, and wrote a book about professional organizing. You could relate the movie theme to your book marketing. “Spit, spot!” Organizing made easy! Everyone who wants a magically clean room/home can relate to the scene of the Banks’ children putting away their toys while their nanny sings, right? A unique, fun, emotional mental image. Exactly the techniques to compel readers into talking about you.
Or, maybe you’re a musician. How can you use that to tie into your books? I wrote a “soundtrack” to complement my first book, Rhythms & Muse. That became a Wow! moment for my readers. My next chat-worthy project will use my art skills. I’m creating customized faerie doors and short stories, as well as a faerie door coloring book, to complement my book Song of the Ocarina. (It’s book 1 in my Delfaerune Rhapsody series about New Zealand Fae who use Earth energy and music to make magic.)
Think now, what about you or your book would inspire someone to say, “Wow, that’s cool!” or to write a newspaper article about you? I encourage you to put some thought into this and come up with something outrageous to drive word-of-mouth marketing.
What do you do, or what’s in your book, that would entice readers to talk about you?
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Write on!
Ann Narcisian Videan
Write • Edit • Self-publish • Word-of-mouth
Check out my Book Shepherding sessions.
avidean@videanunlimited.com
This image of Queenstown, NZ, captures the feeling of my characters’ magical world in my “Song of the Ocarina” novel. I’ll talk about a starting point like this when creating a powerful fictional world, at our Nov. 13 established-writers’ lunch meeting – ALWAYS.
@2008 ANVidean
TOPIC: World-building in fiction.
How do you go about creating the world in which your characters move around in a novel? By request, your host Ann Videan will present ideas on this topic, having just finished creating a whole new realm for her Delfaerune Rhapsody series.
Next gathering:
Thursday Nov. 13, 2014
11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.
(ALWAYS meets on the second Thursday of the month.)
Where:
Romeo’s Euro Café
(downtown GIlbert, AZ)
207 N. Gilbert Rd. #105
Gilbert, Arizona 85234
(480) 962-4224
Back-up location:
Joe’s BBQ
301 N. Gilbert Rd.
Gilbert, AZ 85234
(480) 503-3805
Cost:
A writing tip, and your own lunch.
RSVP:
PLEASE show the consideration of reserving your spot at the table by:
• RSVPing through the “Join” link on our Facebook Event page
or
• Contacting Ann Videan, avidean@videanunlimited.com
If you’ve RSVP’d, please SHOW UP. If you run into a conflict, please let me know BEFORE the event so I can make the necessary adjustments for the group meeting. Cheers!
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ABOUT ALWAYS
• Need contacts to help your writing?
• Want advice about your writing?
• Like to hang with other cool writers?
If so, our tribe – the Alliance for Literary Writers, Authors & Yabbering Scribes (ALWAYS) – is the place for you. We’re an informal group of established writers looking for camaraderie, ideas, enlightenment and connection with writers, especially in the Phoenix metro area, to talk about our craft and businesses.
Any established writer can connect with us online through our ALWAYS Facebook page, get listed in our directory of writers on our ALWAYS LinkedIn page, or you can meet with us in person at a lunch meeting. We’d love to have any experienced writer join us at our next meeting … anyone who spends a significant part of his/her week writing, and wants to rub elbows with other writers.
Today, the post brought to my door a large box filled with copies of my new novel—Song of the Ocarina, book 1 of the Delfaerune Rhapsody series. I experienced an absolute, glorious, Back to the Future George McFly moment! (You remember the character receiving his box of books in the 1985 film?)
That moment… opening the box and lifting out your creation… well, it’s an indescribable. Definitely worth a movie score subtext… if only!
You can currently find my music-filled, fantastical, new-adult novel on Amazon—in both paperback and Kindle format, but…
You may want to consider purchasing it in-person between noon and 4 p.m., Nov. 1, 2014, at the Author Palooza Book Signing Release Celebration at Dog-Eared Pages in Phoenix. [She grins, hoping to see you there. C.L. Gillmore, a wonderful author friend, will also participate with her book A Friend Request, which I edited.]
I’m also staging a one-day “Amazon Rank-Up” sales event, probably on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Watch my Facebook page and this blog for more details.
Another amazing image of secondary characters Axyl Thorne and B’rook Turehu as envisioned by Stacy Lefevre.
So, what’s it all about, you wonder?
My Song of the Ocarina manuscript won a Top Five Finish award, in the “Realizing The Dream Contest” at the RWA Desert Dreams Writer’s Conference in April 2014.
A great start for something I began writing during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in 2010, even before I self-published my first novel Rhythms & Muse.
Four years later, here I sit with a new book and great gratitude for input from:
In a companion post, I list the names of all these contributors… Many more lovely people helped make this book possible. A humble thank you.
About the Novel
Desperate to understand her place in the world, teenage musical prodigy Lark Tūrehu unwittingly follows her handsome music teacher Noel Stone into the parallel realm of Delfaerune. With her extreme height and long, silver-white hair, she already considers herself a freak in her Queenstown, New Zealand university, so how can she possibly deal with the added burden of her role as the Noble Fae’s leading musical spell caster? Not only must she retrieve and master the Kura Ocarina to earn the title of the realm’s “Maestra,” but the faefolk expect her to use the ancient wind instrument to save the human race from extinction at the hands of the Dark Fae.
♫♫♫♫♫
In Delfaerune, you’ll discover a lush world where music joins with Earth energy to conjure balance among all creatures, extinct and mythical creatures talk and live peacefully, and the Dark Fae pattern themselves after burned-out human rock stars.
Explore the Playlists
Song of the Ocarina is filled with music. Listen to and/or watch videos of all the songs mentioned in the novel on my YouTube or Spotify playlists.
Praise for Song of the Ocarina
“Ann N. Videan’s writing, descriptive and engaging, pulled me into the imaginative story she created with all my senses. Lovable characters, vivid descriptions, a truly magical, musical world. I eagerly await the next installment!”
—Jennifer Hartz, author of The Future Savior Series
“Teens and adults alike will find Videan’s story and characters appealing. I enjoyed the Fae musicians’ original lyrics, the animal personas—kiwi, moa, even the dragon—and the New Zealand flora and fauna enhanced the narrative.”—Sara Rebennack, bookseller
About the Author
Ann at Carmel’s Cafe in Phoenix, AZ
I live in Mesa, Arizona, with my awe-inspiring husband and two college-age children. As a Literary Architect, I book-shepherd authors through the writing, editing, self-publishing and word-of-mouth marketing of fiction and non-fiction titles
My women’s fiction novel Rhythms & Muse, along with its complementary soundtrack of five original songs inspired by the story, debuted in 2011. I now create fantastical adventures for new adults in my Delfaerune Rhapsody Series.
A professional writer since 1981, I opened my own award-winning home-based marketing firm, vIDEAn Unlimited, LLC, in 1996. I have served as an editor for corporations, visionary entrepreneurs, and national publishers.
My most joyful moments involve filling pages with words, exploring music, documenting memories in photos, gathering people around me with a cup of green tea in my hand, and rolling smoothly down new pathways on my in-line skates.
Explore blog posts about writing, my books and music CD, and my writing community here on this site. You can always contact me at avidean@videanunlimited.com.
So, could you possibly want to know anything else? I doubt it but, just in case, feel free to ask away!
__________________________
Write on!
Ann Narcisian Videan
Write • Edit • Self-publish • Word-of-mouth
Here she is! B’rook Tūrehu, as envisioned by Stacy Lefevre.
Delfaerune Rhapsody series’
bratty wild child
B’rook Tūrehu,
full character profile.
Age: 17
Stature: 6’2” tall
Race:
Noble Fae, a tall, wingless, magical people sometimes called the “Goodies” by their unscrupulous Dark Fae “cousins.”
Residence:
B’rook lives on a plane parallel to Queenstown, New Zealand, in the Fae land of Delfaerune. There, in Queens’tyn, the animals talk, extinct and mythical creatures thrive, and sentient foliage lends magical glamour to the Noble Fae.
Family:
Daughter of the Magister of Karakia (good magic) Knyt Tūrehu and Magistra of Music Fern Tūrehu, and sister to Lark Tūrehu (the heroine).
Job:
She’s been a captive of the Dark Fae for three years but, in better times, she spent her time as a student.
Strengths: Harassing her older sister, and tempting famous rocker Axyl Thorne.
Flaw: Her infatuation with Axyl, and the Dark Fae.
Quirk: Her penchant for human rock music and fashion. Also, she and Lark are the only two Noble Fae with silver-white hair.
Animal familiar(s): At some point, probably in book two, she’ll acquire a gremlin named “Vexi.”
Love interest: Axyl Thorne, Delfaerune’s famous rock star.
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Learn more about B’rook in the Delfaerune Rhapsody series—my new-adult, fantasy-adventure trilogy-in-progress. Her story begins in Song of the Ocarina, the first book in the series, due out soon.
Watch in the coming days for more character information about the trilogy. Also, watch Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Back to Reveal #1 Back to Reveal #2 To Mikk Stone Final Reveal
To Noel Stone Final Reveal To Lark Tūrehu Final Reveal
Ann Narcisian Videan: Book Shepherd/Editor/Author 