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Mark of Bletsian

I’m #writingabook: Mark of Bletsian No.2

Greetings Dear Reader,

Life is hard. Things happen and all your plans go out the window. This year has been rough for me and my family and I’ve had to shift my focus so much away from my writing. Long story short, I’m still processing grief and change but I’m also moving forward with life.

I’m happy to report I’ve made the slightest bit of progress with this project, so this won’t be a long post. I previously mentioned in another post that I lost a lot of the research I used for the original series and some that I’d done for this rewrite. I’m happy to announce that, I think, I’ve finally recreated all that research. While these aren’t words towards a novel word count, it’s the stuff I need to be able to move forward.

At this point, I’m tightening up my outlines and filling in the gaps of changes from the old series to the new, plus I’m developing subplots and characters that weren’t really in the original series, though the ideas were there. I hoped I would be further along than I am, but at least I’m no longer at a standstill. Maybe I’ll be ready to start adding to a novel word count by December.

Before I go, I want to talk about the one thing I’ve already mentioned that will be different in this rewrite. The mark of blessing. The main character has many names but the one his mother gave him is Bletsian, which is Greek for blessing. In the original series, I never explored the meaning or origins of the word blessing any further than to say that’s where the MC’s name came from. In the new series; however, I will highlight characters throughout time who have been given a special mark to indicate they have a significant blessing over their lives; which of course, my MC will be one of those people.

That’s all I have for now. I hope life doesn’t shift again for me anytime soon. I’d like to be settled for a while and simply write.

BTW- I now have Public/Free content over at Patreon every month, so please check it out. This is what I do instead of a traditional newsletter.

Thank you for making it this far down the virtual page. Kudos to you! I’d love to know what you thought of this post in the comments below. Stay safe and be blessed.

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Mark of Bletsian

I’m #writingabook: Mark of Bletsian No.1

Greetings Dear Reader,

Welcome to my journey of personal growth, self-expression, and a complete and total rewrite of my Eternal Curse Series. So, before I dive further into this, I want to clear out any haters lurking about. This rewrite, like the original, is based on a Judeo-Christian worldview but is not Christian fiction.

I want to be clear when I state that I have no problems with Christian fiction, it just so happens that what I’m writing isn’t that. I have actually drawn knowledge and inspiration from many tales and histories stemming from all three major monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, as well as other various cultures, polytheistic religions, and some lesser-known mythologies. My aim, here, is to tell a great story but to also be true to myself. I know what I like in a good story and am not afraid to blend my many influences to achieve the results I want. I am creating a world of fiction, inspired by a dream, based on a Biblical foundation and a bunch of other stuff.

While most people who read paranormal fiction are used to reading about angels, demons, and other related content without any reference to religion or spirituality, but I will be including those elements in my story. I will not be trying to hide a message of faith in my story, I’ll just be telling a story that happens to include characters dealing with spiritual struggles. While I think it makes for a great story, this will clearly not appeal to some, and that is okay. I’m just stating here and now, that if my characters talk about and or actually engage in prayer, it’s because that’s just their reality.

Outside of my monthly IWSG posts, I plan to provide weekly updates on how this process is going. Today, I’m starting with 5,787 (1,000 just added) words of clarified terms, characters names, locations, biblical research, and more as I start this process. I had started updating my Patreon community on this project a while back but abandoned it when I hit a wall. Moving forward, this is where I’ll be tracking my progress, even if it’s just a handful of words or ideas. I will reserve any special excerpts I want to share with the Patreon community, but otherwise, this blog will be focusing on the development of this series. So, to round things out today, this first day of a new journey, I thought I’d explain why the series is being rewritten and why the series name is changing, and what it means.

First, I absolutely love my original Eternal Curse Series and all its flaws. I have reread the books (the two published ones and the third unfinished one) and still really enjoy the overall story and the individual characters. The main reason this series is getting a rewrite is that I grew so much as a writer between the first and third books that I was struggling to maintain the same voice I’d started the series with. My voice had changed. Plus, there were so many aspects of the story that I wanted to change for clarity and to fill in the gaps.

The original series’ name was a reflection of the struggle many of the characters lived. I’d written about characters that were clearly cursed and yet, they had chosen to do good or be good despite their curses. The story is ultimately inspirational, but it’s also very dark- not afraid to touch on a few hard topics. For the rewrite, I wanted to focus on the many character’s, especially the main character’s, choice to be a blessing despite their circumstances. I even go so far as to introduce a mark of blessing to the overall theme, but I’ll explain more about that later.

BTW- I’ve posted my public/FREE monthly update over at Patreon so please check it out. It has a really cool video that I’m not posting anywhere else… And, I posted a channel update on YouTube. Check it out.

Thank you for making it this far down the virtual page. Kudos to you! I’d love to know what you thought of this post in the comments below. Stay safe and be blessed.

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Excerpts Virtual Book Tours

The Conduit by @Rourkewrites Tour by @Storytime4Ever #Review #thetoiboxofwords

The Conduit Tour BannerTitle: The Conduit
Author: Stacey Rourke
Pages: 212 on Amazon Kindle
Price: Perma Free
Genre: YA / Paranormal

Available Now

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BLURB: Gryphon Series Book 1

All 18-year-old Celeste Garrett wants is The Conduit Coverto head off to college and make those fun, yet ill-advised, choices college kids are known for. And maybe to spend some time with the hot cameraman she just met. Instead, because of a pact her ancestors made in the 17th century with a mythical creature, she has to save the world.

While normal kids are slamming energy drinks and cramming for exams, Celeste will get her adrenaline rush fighting a fire breathing dragon. She wants to meet friends in the quad to exchange lecture notes, but first she must exchange blows with a shapeshifting demon on the rooftop. Life isn’t always fair for a superhero, but at least she doesn’t have to do it alone. With her brother and sister as sidekicks, they alternate between saving lives and getting on each others’ nerves. Together the trio encounters unspeakable odds, mystical forces and comes face-to-face with an image that will haunt them forever—their grandmother in a leopard print bikini.

“Okay, little side note here. If a psychopathic killer asks if you want to see a trick, say no. That’s the smart thing to do. I, on the other hand, responded, ‘Bring it’.”

EXCERPT

The gas station door chimed and Gabe came out. His arms overflowed with chips, beef jerky, and a two liter of pop.
I gaped at him in slack-jawed astonishment. “What are you doing?”
“What?” he asked. “It’s a long drive, so I got snacks.”
“We’re not going on a road trip to an amusement park! We’re facing the forces of darkness, remember?”
“Yeah, so? I’m hungry,” he shrugged. “It’s like before my games, there’s no point in getting my game face on until I get there. In the meantime—road trip!”
“I bet Robin never made Batman stop for chips,” I muttered under my breath as I returned the nozzle to its resting place on the pump. I turned back toward the truck and saw a spiky blonde head bop around the side of the building. “Kendall! You’re supposed to be halfway to Memphis by now!”
She threw her hands up. “I’m going; I’m going! I just had to stop to pee. It’s a long flight.”
I squeezed the bridge of my nose between my fingers and shook my head. We had to be the lousiest warriors ever.
Gabe rolled down my driver’s side window and leaned out. “What are you waiting on? We goin’ or what?”
Batman had it easy. He was an only child.

My rating:5 of 5 stars

The Conduit (Gryphon, #1)As dysfunctional families go, the Garrets are actually doing pretty well considering the Garret kids, now teenagers and young adults, have been displaced from their home and are now living with their retro grandmother, as their mother stays behind to pick up the pieces after the death of her husband and their father. Even with that consideration, Celeste is a pretty good big sister, Kendal is almost the perfect little sister who just happens to be beautiful, and Gabe could be a lot worse, seeing as he’s the middle child and the only boy. But then one day the evil Barnabus decides to exact a century’s old revenge and the Garret kids receive an inheritance they’d rather leave to the dogs. With superpowers, shape shifting, and young adult hormonal disillusionment, The Conduit is a fascinating, thrilling, and at times, hilarious read.

I really didn’t know what to expect when I started this book, but I’d heard good things about it. I knew it was a YA fantasy series, but that was about it. I also knew I loved the artwork of the Gryphon on the cover of the book, but sadly, that cover has been discontinued…at least I like the new cover and the series’ covers match now.

From beginning to end, The Conduit was an exciting read. Even when the author had to slow down to explain something, the characters are so neurotic that the explanations come off as action packed. The only time the action slowed down was when the sarcastic humor of the author spilled out through her characters offering abundant laughter. There were a few touching moments in the story, but they were so perfectly paced that the flow of the story was a constant wave moving forward towards the end. Not that this book was terribly long, but it also wasn’t that short. I enjoyed reading this book so much, I finished it much quicker that I had expected.

When I purchased the Conduit, I thought I was just testing out this new author and had no intention of reading further, but halfway through this one, I bought the sequel and can’t wait the get the next one after that. I’m not an avid reader of YA fantasy and tend to toe the line when it comes to liking it, but this book is great.

Younger children may not get some of the references, but if this were a movie I’d give it a PG-13 rating; it’s good for the whole family, dad may not be interested…at first.

View all my reviews

AUTHOR BIO

Stacey Rourke Author PhotoRONE Award Winner for Best YA Paranormal Work of 2012 for Embrace, a Gryphon Series Novel Young Adult and Teen Reader voted Author of the Year 2012 Turning Pages Magazine Winner for Best YA book of 2013 & Best Teen Book of 2013 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal Winner for Crane 2015

Stacey Rourke is the author of the award winning YA Gryphon Series, the chillingly suspenseful Legends Saga, and the romantic comedy Adapted for Film. She lives in Michigan with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and two giant dogs. She loves to travel, has an unhealthy shoe addiction, and considers herself blessed to make a career out of talking to the imaginary people that live in her head.

Find Stacey: Website Fan Club Facebook 

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Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords