IWSG: December 2023

Welcome to the IWSG blog hop. Thanks to all the admins of IWSG and our founder, Alex J. Cavanaugh for keeping this group so dynamic and amazing. It just gets better and better. Check out all the participants on this list. Share your insecurities and let us lift each other up.

This month's optional question:

Book reviews are for the readers. When you leave a book reviews do you review for the Reader or the Author? Is it about what you liked and enjoyed about your reading experience, or do you critique the author?

For me, it's always about what I liked about the book and the writing. I admit to never leaving negative reviews though I might mention something that I didn't like. If I couldn't finish a book or hated something about it, I just don't review it. As a writer, I know how discouraging negative reviews can be and they do help one grow as a writer, but I just can't do it to a fellow author.

I've been hard at work getting the second book in The Morbunda Trilogy, War Dragon, ready to be released. I'm pleased to say it is as of a few days ago. I'm spending this month doing the same with the third and final book in the series. Doing some painful final edits right now.

I'm going into the holiday season being extremely thankful for all I have. A nice house, a steady income, a wonderful, mostly healthy family, and many friends. I have time to do the things I enjoy and am blessed to find joy in many things so I'm never bored. My grown-up Christmas wish is that everyone, or at least more people, could have what I have.

"We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives." John F. Kennedy

I've been working out on my elliptical watching some oldies but goodies like Grimm, Fringe, and the first season of Halo. Most of my entertainment hours are spend reading and doing my most recent jigsaw puzzle.

In the meantime, here's some information about War Dragon.

Battles have been fought. But now it’s war as only a dragon can fight one.

 The invading army rises from winter’s lull and pushes south. Little stands in the way of the fanatics.

 Lady Lyla Logan journeys south to seek help from the great cities beyond the desert even as she grapples with the powerful magic roiling inside her.

 Kerik and Lord Donal Logan lead their few allies and attack the fringes of the Bellamite horde with ambushes and sabotage.

 All the embattled allies face their own fragilities and fears as war rolls over the land and anyone in its path. The freedom of mankind rest on them as they gather the last of their strengths and hopes.

Available through Amazon Kindle and Amazon Paperback.

Do you do many book reviews? Are you looking forward to the holiday season? Do you notice I got through an entire post without complaining about the cold?

A Dark, Dark Night On a Dark, Dark Street

When my boys were little they asked my husband to read and reread this little book. I wish I still had it. It was about a father and son skeleton going out on the town. I can only remember the start, "It was a dark, dark night on a dark, dark street in a dark, dark town..." You get the idea. My husband would read it to them in his dark, dark voice.

I always think of that book for some reason when people talk about the dark moment in their novel. Movies and TV shows have dark moment too. You know that point in the story when despair and desperation sets in. Everything that could go wrong does and maybe a little bit more. There's no way out for the good guys. The best dark  moments have physical and emotional dangers ready to pull the protagonists into the abyss of failure. The dark moment can only be conquered only by the hero or heroine making a decision or taking a chance that requires sacrifice of some sort.

I'm in the middle of writing the dark moment in my current WIP, War Dragon, the sequel to First Dragon. In a series with an ongoing saga like my current works, there's a dark moment in each book. But each book also builds toward the greater dark moment of the series. The good guys are losing ground in each book. Which brings me to the next point.

The main characters have to be tortured, hurt, trapped torn apart or something equally terrible to create a compelling dark moment. I'm cringing as I type in the horrors visiting my characters in the next 15K of manuscript. They won't all survive.  Now that's dark.

Do you have fun writing the dark moment or does it hurt you to hurt your characters? Have you ever watched a TV show and guessed at what time the dark moment will occur? Usually about 45-50 minutes in, I think. Have you read books where the dark moment was too easily solved?