I had the pleasure in recent times to take a trip to Queensland, Australia, where I met a writer whom I've been friends with for some time but only ever had contact with over the internet. On the last night my husband and I spent with Russell Proctor in Brisbane, we had a rather fun discussion about villains in storybooks and fantasy books, and how some villains simply monologue too much and move as tools of the plot. During this time, we absolutely flogged Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series, as he is a perfect example of this.

It's important when you're writing a high stakes story to have a convincing villain. Therefore, the villain should behave as any logically minded but terribly evil person would. If he has the main character in his power, he should either attempt to kill the main character immediately or have a good reason for not doing so. In my opinion, there is typically only one reason that is good enough: the villain should be afraid of the main character's growing strength. This is the only reason that will prove satisfying to a reader. In other words, the villain might hold back because he is afraid of getting hurt. And then he should have his minions severely weaken the main character so that he, the ultimate villain, has a better chance of finishing him off on the first attempt. 

In my opinion, villains shouldn't monologue. But unfortunately, authors do need to have an interesting way of doing their exposition. Sometimes having the villain chat for a couple of paragraphs is a good way to reveal his plans and raise the stakes. But this should never happen in the presence of the hero, unless the hero has fooled the villain into thinking he has sided with him. If it does happen in the presence of the captured hero, it only slows down the tension. The best villainous monologues will happen in third person narration, when the hero is in a different location from the villain, and the villain is coming up with some nefarious plan elsewhere. Then, once he's finished talking about it - which shouldn't take long - he simply needs to get up and do it. There shouldn't be any delays. 
Again, there are exceptions to this rule. If you want a lesser villain to look incompetent, you may want him to delay his plans. But the Top Dog Villain must command complete respect in the story. If he is not powerful enough and smart enough, it will lessen the glory that we accord to the main character, who must defeat him. And if it lessens the glory accorded the main character, it lessens overall reader satisfaction.

While Russell and I were chatting about this, he mentioned a website called "If I were an Evil Overlord", which is a great summary of the main tropes authors can fall into when depicting villains. Full credit for the discovery of this website goes to Russell Proctor in this blog post.

Here are some of my personal favourites on the long list of tropes to avoid:

One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness.

When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.

I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" (After that, death is usually instantaneous.)

Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.

If it becomes necessary to escape, I will never stop to pose dramatically and toss off a one-liner.

If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridge over a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)

And here's the link to the website, so you can peruse it yourself.

Lastly, here is Russell Proctor's Amazon page, in case you want to find out more about him as an author. 

Happy writing!

This week, my illustrator and I have nearly finalized the cover for part two of book five in The Fledgling Account series.
I don't want to give away too much about this book, but I'm happy to now reveal the title.

Book five will be called Consort to the Shadows.

I'm quite happy with this title, because it is something that people will be able to pronounce. I've heard all sorts of variations of my book titles before: RAY-fen instead of RAH-fen, The Sea Onion Wolf instead of The Sianian Wolf (that mistake nearly made it into the New Zealand Herald!), and The Fourth Runny instead of The Fourth Roo-NIGH. So hopefully no one is going to have any trouble with pronouncing Consort. I'm pleased to say that all my other titles from this point on are going to be in plain English as well, which is great. I've learnt my lesson the hard way.

Consort is an interesting book, not least of all because it will now be told in two parts. Some of you might remember that Rafen suffered a rather dreadful hand injury (with compliments from the Lashki) at the end of book four. Well, you might want to remember that, because that hand injury is very critical to what direction Consort goes in. 

The word "consort" is an old one, often referring to the spouse of a monarch. However, it can be used as a verb as well. Consorting with villains and scoundrels is never the best occupation, but Rafen is obliged to do some of this in the second part of book five, which is why the book has this name. However, there are other people who consort with the wrong folk as well in both parts of this book. Richard meets an unlikely ally, which pretty much makes him a consort to the shadows, and a few people that you hoped might know better make some rather poor decisions regarding how they treat their sister, spouse, country, and world's future, etc. This book also focuses a lot on the desire to know one's future - and whether or not inklings or visions about what might happen to us are actually helpful. 

Lastly, this book contains a dragon with a lot of attitude. 

I'm not ready to reveal full covers yet, but let me just reveal to you the lettering of part one. The font is called Captain of the Pirates, and it's a good one!

This week, I had a nice surprise in the post - books three and four have arrived! And here's some photos. 

I have to say that I love these second editions. The books feel nice and solid in the hand; the matte finish is way more pleasant to touch than the gloss finish; and the covers are such a success. Looking at the second edition next to the first edition books, you can see that the first time around I gave the cover designer much more complicated concepts to work with. With the second editions, the cover designer and I went as simple and striking as we could: one central image, which is repeated throughout each book at the chapter heading. I've also come to realise the background colour is very important as well and really lends something to the feel of each book. The cover designer and I carefully worked on each background colour, making sure it complimented the central image and the book's content.

It's a great feeling to hold my four paperbacks again, and it's so thrilling to see them looking great. I'm looking forward to my next book release, which actually won't be that far off. I have met the editing deadline for book five, and it is now with the publisher for typesetting, formatting, and so on. The cover is already designed and will look great alongside the other books in the series.

Book five was originally a huge 176,000 words. However, the publisher has asked me to split it. Hence, my seven book series is actually going to become an eight book series - although both parts of book five will be labelled as part one and two of the same volume. Hopefully this spreads out the fun, rather than diminishes it. 

For those of you who might want a second edition copy of Rafen, I have several signed copies up for sale. Contact me through this website or through Facebook to secure yours. Alternately, you can buy it through Book Depository or Amazon. Happy reading!

In March of last year, I parted ways with Permuted Press and began a new chapter with Burnett Young Books. And at last, we have all four paperbacks available again through Burnett Young. Here are the links!

Rafen

The Sianian Wolf

Servant of the King

The Fourth Runi

Yes, even book four is available now apparently. Additionally, book one and book three are available on Book Depository in their second editions, for those of you who live in the Pacific. And I'm working on getting BD to list The Sianian Wolf and The Fourth Runi. 

The other good news is that I'm going to be seeing an edited excerpt of book five (Consort to the Shadows) soon as well. Consort has made slow progress because it is such a tome - 170,000 words. In fact, my publisher is even considered splitting it into two volumes. I did try to shorten the book, but unfortunately, there's so much action in it. And I couldn't just take some of the action out, because then there would a hole in the plot. For example, in this book you will meet

A dragon

A new people group

A community of mutinous pirates

Some rebellious slaves

The Lashki's closest henchmen

The Lashki's... diary??

And much more. You'll also get a peek into Richard Patrick's miserable soul. And some more people will die. I honestly couldn't cut out any of this material. My best hope is that you will enjoy it.

Lastly, I've just seen a cover for a short story that will be published alongside The Fledgling Account series. I look forward to revealing this cover when the story releases! There will be four of these short stories. These are their names:

Phoenix Child

The General's Flight

The Prince's Lie

The Taming of Sherwin

These stories include a little new information and tell stories of some The Fledgling Account's secondary characters. Reading them will be a chance to get to know character like Richard Patrick, Elizabeth Ridding, Jacob Aneurin, and Sherwin a little better. They are about five thousand words in length, and you'll be able to read them in one sitting.

So that's the update for The Fledgling Account! Stay tuned for new releases and more information on these new short stories that will be coming with the series.

Publishing contracts are great. And it's fabulous to get one. The feeling of signing your first publishing  contract is, hands down, amazing.

However, the feeling of being stuck in a publishing contract can be one of the worst for an author. In recent times, I've seen a few authors in this situation, struggling to get out of a contract they no longer want to be in.

So in the light of that, I thought I would write a quick blog article about what to look out for in a publishing contract.

1. Territory.

Your publisher will outline the territory in which they wish to hold the rights to publishing your books. Typically, since the advent of ebooks, this means they'll have the right to publish you over the whole world. Sounds good, right? 
Sort of. It also means that if your publisher is taking a long time to promote you or is only interested in promoting you in one country (or in their home town), you don't have the option of taking the reins yourself and printing and selling your work somewhere else too. It essentially means your publisher holds the monopoly on where you're going to be selling books.
I got caught out with this in my first publishing contract, but in my second publishing contract I asked for print rights to be reserved for me in my area of the world - the Pacific. My publishers have both been in America, and this normally means that my likelihood of ever printing the books in my home country and seeing them in bookstores there would be nil. However, if I reserve the rights to print them here in the Pacific, I have options left if they're not selling well in the USA.
Rule of thumb: try to avoid letting your publisher have publishing rights for you the world over. Unless they're amazing and are going to promote you absolutely everywhere.

2. Subsidiary rights.

Subsidiary rights are all those side products your book might generate in an ideal world. Lego models, Braille editions, large print editions, and so on. A publisher will usually try to do a grab bag of all of these things, including film rights. My advice is: don't let them. Try to negotiate with them so that you retain some of these subsidiary rights. If that doesn't work, get them to raise your royalties on them. Why? Sale of subsidiary rights can have big earning potential for an author. J. K. Rowling became rich when she sold the rights to an American edition of her book to Scholastic. And she became richer when she sold the film rights. I'm not saying that you're J. K. Rowling. If you're anything like me, you're not anywhere close to that. Which means you need all the financial help you can get, like most authors.

3. Time frame.

I've lucked out on this a couple of times, unfortunately - but I would advise that you nail down the publisher's time frame and release dates in the contract if possible. Otherwise, who knows when your books might be published? And in the meantime, your rights are tied up, and you're probably not even allowed to submit work to another publisher. So nail down your time frame.

4. Option.

You might be worried about job security, so you're happy to include an "option" for the publisher to obtain your next sequel. They'll be the first to have dibs on it. But what if you discover down the line that your partnership isn't working too well? Make your publisher work for the books that you've spent half your lifetime on. Don't let them have the option.

5. Copyright.

Be careful of this. You don't want your publisher to wind up possessing your copyright for the next seventy years. Make sure it's put in your name. Additionally, you might want to think about:

6. Out of print termination.

This is a standard clause in a publishing contract, referring to a time when rights will automatically revert back to the author should the books go out of print. The trouble with today's modern age is that the books will never go out of print, because there will always be digital copies. Make sure you get this clause changed. Ensure that it says something about sales falling below a particular threshold guaranteeing a return of your rights. Otherwise you could be stuck with a publisher that's not working to promote you at all. You might be selling one ebook every two years... but you're still stuck.

7. No obligation to publish.

No obligation to publish? What the heck is that? It means precisely what it looks like: if the publisher decides they don't want to publish your book, then they're not publishing it - even after you've gone to all the work of getting a contract. The one that I've had the privilege of seeing personally even said I would have to return my advance to my publisher if they decided not to publish me. My advice: work on getting this clause heavily edited or removed. If they won't remove it, make sure some rigid conditions are put on it so that it's more likely it will never be used.

And there you have it. Just a few of the pitfalls you can come across in a standard publishing contract. If you've received one, congratulations! It's a huge achievement. Now make sure that you get the rewards your work deserves. This is a business partnership. You don't have to be enslaved in any way by your contract. So get some legal advice or an experienced author to read it through with you and don't be afraid to make some changes. A long negotiation period is probably a good thing.
It might mean a happier business partnership. 

Obviously, the term has hit me, because I haven't written for a while. Additionally, we had all our single-glazed windows replaced with warmer ones, which was nice, but a noisy process. Painting still needs to be done, and the house doesn't look quite as tidy as it normally does. I'm trying to ignore that at the moment.

In the meantime, the EU has changed their GDPR policy. This means that I have had to include a Privacy Policy on this website - which I hope makes sense. I used a template to help formulate it, so I assume I've done it right. But even the template seemed faintly mystifying to me. And I have to ask you all whether you like Cookies. Which seems like a stupid question, because everyone likes Cookies. Yet in the internet world, Cookies are seldom what they seem. And they do things on websites that Cookies don't normally do. Cookies, in the internet world, are still a great mystery to me.

I have become very tired of all the messages in my inbox about all the websites I have subscribed to updating their privacy policies. I suppose it is a good thing. But right now it's very tiring.

I have a rather large pool of creative writing students at the moment, so that is interesting. But it seems to be going well. The things they write about are always intriguing. Last year, I had a student write something of a modern Romeo and Juliet set in a high school. It even ended with the main characters getting married later on, in their twenties. Very romantic. I'm glad they didn't weirdly kill themselves at the end, because that would be a strange story for a primary school student to write. Although, one of my students did write a story about a neurotic slime man that nearly gave me nightmares.

Anyhow, it must be time for a Cookie, by now, surely. I hope the presence of all the new buttons on my website doesn't put visitors off!

Going back to work this week has been rather a challenge, I have to admit. However, it is fun to be teaching again, and my creative writers seem to be rearing to go. Some of them have already written miniature chapter books before meeting me and are trying to share them with me. It is difficult to explain to them that I don't have time to read everything - and my time is probably going to be limited to what they produce for class.

That's one of the interesting things as an author - lots of people try to get you to read their stuff. I had someone who interviewed me for a newspaper email me for a whole year afterwards, trying to get me to read his book and help him find a literary agent. And while it's sort of flattering, one has to get good at saying no, because one simply can't read everything. I always want to be able to help people, because I remember being in the unpublished situation when nobody wanted to read what I wrote. It is rather awful. But I'm beginning to understand I can't help everyone, especially if I want to make the help that I do give to the group I've selected be the best quality it can be. 

Perhaps the most exciting thing that happened this past week was the arrival of our new board game, which I had the privilege of playing with some good friends in Hamilton some time ago (they also owned other amazing games, like Merchants and Marauders). I've wanted this particular game, however, for a long time but have only just gotten around to buying it, because it was $100. Very expensive. 
Nevertheless, I succumbed to temptation and purchased it over the internet a little while ago.

Now, my husband and I did a similar thing with the board game Ticket to Ride. Unfortunately, we ordered it through a third party on Mighty Ape, which meant that when the courier delivered the package to the wrong door, and it never showed up, we never, ever got a refund. Goodbye $70. Then we went and bought the game at Whitcoulls. Goodbye $100. $170 spent on Ticket to Ride so far. Ugh.

So when the courier lost Small World in the post, I was hopping mad. I phoned Courier Post NZ immediately and said quite clearly that I wanted to see the package that very day - or the money. One of the two. I'm not wasting money like this anymore.
My insistence and promptness meant that we got results this time, and a very apologetic courier showed up two hours later with the package which he had just, you know, dropped off at number 33 by mistake, you know? Not sure why that happened, heh heh. 
I let him live and I took the package. 

Small World is similar to Risk except that you fight your opponent with a fantasy race. The game has a seemingly endless supply of attributes and races that you can combine many different ways.
For instance, depending on how you turn over the attribute badges and the racial banners, you could wind up with pillaging halflings, flying skeletons, beserker giants, wealthy ratmen, and so on. Also, the board has many beautiful colours. I dunno how, but this somehow makes it worth a hundred dollars.
See for yourself.

Lastly, the board comes with a turn marker, which means that you never play for longer than ten rounds before figuring out who has won. That certainly makes it look much more attractive than a three hour game of Risk, after which the loser goes away and reexamines their life for the next week.
This game is nearly impossible to buy in New Zealand. No stores that I know of stock it. You can get it online, but you know... some courier might deliver it to number 33 for no reason.

But if you get hold of it, it is worth it. Enjoy the pictures!

Australia was certainly an inspiration. The weather was stunning and the landscape and wildlife even more so! My husband and I "airbnbed" it, and we truly fell on our feet with all the places we stayed at. They were decked out beautifully, close to great walks and things to see. We were also delighted at how many parks in Victoria were free to visit. For instance, Serendip Sanctuary (a little way from Lara) was an amazing place to go to. Kangaroos and wallabies and parrots all over the place. And it was free, which was awesome. It was amusing watching a rather bold emu strutting around the picnic tables, hunting for left-over crisps. 

I had some not so great experiences with wildlife as well while I was there, which is rather normal. A huntsman found its way into one of the places we stayed at, and it positioned itself over my husband's side of the bed, furry, relaxed, and not at all attractive to look at. Michael wasn't available to catch it at the time, so I had to dispose of it.

Breathe, Yvette. It's just a spider.

So I climbed on the bed with a bowl and plate in hand, standing directly behind the spider (never stand under, because it can be all kinds of unpleasant if it falls down your shirt). Heaving a big breath, I slammed the bowl on top of the huntsman and scraped it back and forth along the ceiling a few times, to make sure I had peeled the thing off. With great reluctance, I ripped the bowl off the ceiling and slammed the plate over it as a lid. So far, so good.

I found Michael shortly after, and he asked if he could look at it. I told him I wasn't really in a show-and-tell mood and took the bowl and plate over to the door, which I opened with some difficulty.

Fling it out, I told myself. Just do it. 

Wrenching the plate off, I swung the bowl violently, hoping to dislodge the spider. Then I waited. Okay. It seemed all clear. 

I looked in the bowl, and the spider looked back at me.

"AAARGH!" 

I hurled the bowl outside and slammed the door. "We are never using that bowl again," I said loudly.

Experience number one. No problems. I somewhat bravely dealt with a huntsman. Experience two: my husband and I were walking on the farm adjoining our cabin at Yuulong, and I was wearing ankle socks. Mistake number one. We had a great walk, heard kangaroos, but didn't see them. Then we went back to the cabin. As we were heating up dinner, I felt a light itching in my sock.

Don't be paranoid, Yvette. Just enjoy your time here, I told myself.

Halfway through eating the meal, I felt the itching again. Darn it. I was going to check this time.

"I think I've been bitten by something," I muttered to Michael, putting my finger into my sock. It came away bloody.

At the same time, we both noticed this weird black worm thing moving in a mesmerizing dance across the floor. I pulled off my shoe to discover my sock was soaked with blood. Ripping off my sock, I stared in horror as another weird worm thing fell out.

"LEECHES! KILL THEM, KILL THEM!" I screeched.

A bit of an overreaction, but Michael did kindly kill them.

Next time, I will wear longer socks, as it appears they go for the ankles first. It took a disturbing amount of time to stop the bleeding after too. But no harm done. You don't even get itchy bumps for a week afterwards like you do with mosquitoes. It's just messy and creepy. 

So now we're back in less adventurous New Zealand, and I've been working on a new writing project. Among other things, I finished Dombey and Son. Dombey wound up loving his daughter at long last, and she got married to the nice sailor boy, and the horrible white-toothed Carker died under a train. I think the nine hundred pages were worth it, although the exposition at the beginning could have been a bit faster. I also finished listening to my audiobook, The Invisible Man. The invisible man actually ended up being crushed to death by a mob, and then he became visible again as he died. The general reaction to this by the crowd in the book and by myself was: "Ewww." 
Now I'll have to find something else to read!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pictures of Australia. Perhaps they'll inspire you to get over your fear of leeches and huntsmen and go there. It truly is an amazing place. 

I have finished editing The Interloper this week, and was surprised to find it wasn't as bad as I expected. Some areas, I suppose, were arguably worse than I expected, but the overall product wasn't too bad. I managed to write most of it in a term too. I now have four completely new works sitting on my computer from the last fourteen months - and they will likely chill there a while, because the publishing business takes a long time. But they're there just in case. Because after all, who knows what I will try to get published after The Fledgling Account is finished?

In the meantime, it's just about the end of term. That in itself is rather exciting. I'm looking forward to the break. We're also heading over to Australia, which will be - I am quite certain - amazing. Australia has always been connected in my mind with some idyllic passage of childhood. I absolutely adored it over there. It does help that the temperature is whole lot more livable there as well. I'm not a fan of living this close to Antarctica. 

It could be worse, I suppose. Stewart Island must be pretty freezing.

I'm tossing up in my mind what to work on next - whether I should edit an old project or write something completely new again. Writing something completely new that isn't part of a series is actually quite enjoyable. A series is incredibly hard work. I look back and can't remember how I had the patience to write seven books in the same series. But then, I only feel that way because I entirely depleted my patience doing it. 

​Anyway, in the next week I shall decide what to do. 

My other exciting bit of news on the book front is that I've nearly finished reading Dombey and Son. It's a nine hundred page tome, and I'm at about page 790. It's getting very interesting now, which is good - because in all honesty, it did take about one hundred and fifty pages to become interesting at the start. It's all about a rich business man who has his heart set on gaining a son to take over his wealth when he is gone. His only son dies young, and he treats his daughter like the scum of the earth. In fact, it takes nine hundred pages, I believe, for him to learn to love his daughter for who she is. 

Some say Dickens is melodramatic. But I think he actually has a pretty good understanding of human nature. It can take us the equivalent of nine hundred pages to see past the ends of our own noses as well.

Until next time!

Just finished bathing the dog, which was (as always) an interesting and rather wet experience. She is now running about the lounge like a maniac, shaking repeatedly and trying to get the process of evaporation to move at a faster rate. I've left her to it and decided to write about the package I got this week. Sadly, it did not contain the other two books I was waiting for - apparently they have been delayed for last minute corrections. Oh well. I suppose they will be great when they arrive then.

But I did get The Sianian Wolf in the post. The courier man was so scared of our scary dog sign that he threw the package over the fence instead of coming in and putting it somewhere logical. I like how our scary dog sign keeps the sales people out. But it is kind of annoying how The Sianian Wolf got thrown over a fence because our Beware of the Dog sign, which really is only advising protection against a three kilo hairball (otherwise known as a Yorkshire Terrier). 

Anyhow, I have taken pictures, and I'm pretty excited about it. The new cover seems more striking than the old one - although I liked the old one very much (it was my favourite out of the first edition books). And the matte finish is actually very sophisticated - more so than gloss, which has the potential to look somewhat hackneyed. It also feels like a rather solid book - a bit fatter than the other one, because it was printed in munken creme paper, which seems to have a higher GSM. Anyway, I'm using all these random printing terms, so I'll just write a rather unofficial set of definitions.

Glossary

Matte - the covers that aren't shiny
Gloss - the covers that are shiny
Munken creme - an off-white type of paper that feels nice and looks good
GSM - the thickness or weight of paper

Sadly, the paperback isn't available for purchase yet (unless you want to buy a first edition copy for an outrageous price), but it should be in the process of clearing. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the above photos and the below humorous contrast.