I'm participating in my first-ever actual Event on Facebook! The Fantastical Reads Event starts Feb. 1, continues through Feb. 8 and features giveaways and the opportunity to meet up with a great group of writers. I feel like I'm in stellar company with the likes of M.E. Lord, Elise Stokes, David C. Cassidy ... eight writers in all with an awesome lineup of books.

I'll be giving away free copies of all four of the books in my Portals urban fantasy/detective/light romance series: two copies of Shadow Path, featured on the poster. One copy each of Stormcaller and Deathtalker, books 2 and 3 in the series. And two copies of Sister Hoods, book 4 in the series, released just last fall. In addition, Sister Hoods - which is currently priced at $5.99 - will be available for $4.99 next week.

My hope is that, during the coming week, I'll be able to host some of my fellow-
Fantastical Reads authors here on my blog, and post excerpts from their featured books. If you'd like to see what the event's all about, here's a link: https://www.facebook.com/events/205889079615386/208999475971013/ (At least I hope it will work; as my friends already know, I'm notoriously low-tech and inept about this stuff ...)

But I am hugely jazzed about this event, and it's exciting for me just to be among these folks! So I hope you'll stop by (or find us, if that link doesn't work). Just remember
Feb. 1-8, and check us out!

Before the book, before I even knew what the book would be about, there was …

 Tevis.

He stood framed in the doorway of my thoughts, a quiet, solemn elf who looked a lot like Illya Kuryakin … slender, blond, with
eyes the blue of glacial lakes.

Then I noticed the woman beside him –
auburn-haired, dark-eyed, just a little shorter than Tevis' five-feet-eight. “I'm Kat Morales,” she said. She flicked a smile. “We're police detectives.”

 Ah. Okay, so this would be a story about
police. But not just any police, not when one of them was an elf …

The backstory came to me fairly quickly – over the course of a few hours at most. With Tevis and Kat prodding me, filling in details, I realized that our good old familiar Earth has a … Well, call it a “counterpart,” maybe in another universe, maybe another dimension. Even after all this time, not all the details are known to me.

But anyway, this other world – the Realms of Magic – is home to elves, wizards, pixies, dragons, ogres … all the creatures of our mythologies and folklore, all the beings that we now think of as “make-believe.” It's always been there, separated from our own world by gateways – the Portals that give my series its name. From the beginning of time,
the Portals were open, and in the ancient days, the days of our human ancestors, beings from the Realms could move freely from their world to ours.

Then maybe a thousand or so years ago, wizards – who began to fear continued intermingling of humans and beings of magic – closed the gateways. So humans of later centuries forgot that myths and legends were based on real creatures.

“But in a future not too distant from your present,” Tevis told me, “the Portals have opened again. No one knows why, or how. But the inhabitants of the Realms now have access to your world again. Some of them are returning, bringing their magic with them, and humans are poorly equipped to deal with magic, especially when it is used to commit crimes. Kathryn and I,” a nod to the woman standing beside him, “are called in to investigate crimes that happen when magic is … misused.”

Then they gave me an image … the body of an ogre, recently murdered, and Kat – Tevis is one of the few people who call her “Kathryn” – watching, occasionally taking pictures while her partner examines the corpse.

That's how Shadow Path, the first book in the series, was born. Kat and Tevis have been in charge every step of the way. Initially, for example, I thought the book was going to be kind of forensics-oriented – like the CSI shows on TV, for example.

But Tevis immediately demonstrated the ability of elves – they call themselves Aalfar – to See how someone's died just by touching the corpse.

Well, it's been a useful talent.

 It's been an interesting journey so far with Tevis and Kat. Through them, I've met a host of other interesting characters – Harley, their boss with the Corpus Christi, Texas, police department; Arvandus, the wizard who has become Tevis' mentor; the banshee, Maeve, one of The Morrigan's many daughters; Gairth, Arvandus' half-lovetalker nephew …

And that's all just in the first book!

Five books in – three published, two in the works – and Tevis and Kat still have adventures that they're sharing with me.  The Portals series could go for a while yet …

 And it all started with an elf in a doorway.


How about you, if you're a writer? Do your books start with the characters, or with a story that you want to tell? Please come share.

About the photo: These are new images of Kat and Tevis, recently acquired by Studio See Publishing LLC, publisher of the Portals books.

At it's simplest, point of view – aka POV – for
a writer simply means … How are you going to tell your story?
  Broadly speaking, POV falls into four
  categories:
Omniscient. This is the writer-as-god approach. You, the author, are the unseen narrator who knows everything, who shares with the reader what every character is thinking and doing – and reveal information to your reader that none of your characters know about. Omniscient
is plot-driven, rather than character-driven – which, to me, demands that your plot be strong.

First Person. Your main character is the narrator – “I” am telling the tale. At its best, first person can give the reader a sense of immediacy. At its worst, first person POV leads to a story that's more “tell” than “show.” “I was afraid.” “I was happy.” However, in the hands of a skilled writer, first person can be extremely effective.

  The plus – and negative – of first person is that your POV is limited. The reader knows only what the first person narrator knows. If you suddenly want your reader to know information that's hidden from the narrator, you may have a problem.

  On the other hand, it can lead to some very effective foreshadowing. “If I'd known what was on the other side of that door, I would have run like hell in the other direction.” You also can really get into the mind of your narrator, and it's effective for either plot-driven (think all those hardboiled detective novels) or character-driven work.

Second Person. Other than the “choose your adventure” books popular a few years ago, I haven't seen many novels written in this POV. Second person is “you.” In effect, you're making the reader the protagonist of your book – or inviting him/her along as the protagonist's sidekick. Again, the perspective is limited. Your reader, as the “you” of your story, knows only what he/she can see happening, or can discover.

Third Person Limited. This is similar to First Person in that the author
disappears, and all the action unfolds through the eyes of a single character.
It also has the same advantage of bringing your reader into the mind of your
protagonist.

  My first two Portals novels, Shadow Path and Stormcaller, were written from the third-person POV of a single character, my human protagonist Kat Morales. But, like omniscient POV, third person lends itself to writing in multiple points of view as well.

  What separates third-person multiple POV from omniscient is how it's written. In third-person multiple, you devote an entire scene to one character. For example, I've written one scene from Kat's POV, then in the next scene, looked at events entirely through the eyes of her elf partner, Tevis, picking up his thoughts, his feelings, his observations.

  You also have the freedom, with this POV, to show your reader events that you want to conceal from your protagonist. Several scenes in Deathtalker, book 3 in Portals, were written from the villain's POV – information that Kat and Tevis (and their allies) were not privy to.

  What's the best point-of-view to write from? You'll find a variety of opinions both on the Internet and in any “how-to” book (or class) for writers that you care to check out. You'll find comments about what readers like (or don't like).

  Just about any “rule” you care to formulate about POV has been, or will be, broken at some time – and broken successfully. For me, the best POV is the one that helps the writer tell his or her story effectively.

  What/where is your comfort level? That's the POV you want to use.

(A little note on the photo: That's me with my beloved, now departed, Shilo. The photo was taken by a friend at a writer's conference in Casper, Wyo., a few years ago.)

  One of the Amazon discussion groups raises an interesting question: What constitutes a strong female character, and … Have you, as an author, created one?

Well, okay … That's two questions. But still …

I think – I hope – I've created a strong female character in Kat Morales, the human protagonist in my Portals series. She's a cop, equally capable of facing down gun-wielding human criminals and magic-wielding wizards.

But in my mind, that isn't the core of what makes her strong. True strength, to me, comes not from what you do but who you are – whether as a character in a book or a living, breathing human being.

Strong characters, like strong people in the real world, possess an inner sense of right and wrong, an awareness of themselves. Strong characters are capable of being weak; that's part of being human. They just don't let weakness get in the way of what they perceive as “doing the right thing.”

For me, not only as a writer but an observer of human nature, “strong” doesn't equate with fearlessness. If you don't know fear, if your stomach doesn't churn at the thought of, say, facing down a fire-breathing dragon, then charging into a cave to kill the beast isn't an act of strength or courage.

It may well be the most stupid idea you've ever come up with …

Strength, and courage, is being scared all the way down to your toenails – where your stomach has crawled into hiding – and still seeking a way to slay the beast because … well … somebody has to, and the responsibility has fallen onto your shoulders.

Strength isn't always about saving the day with a gun or sword, either. Strength is the single mom on a limited income, working to support her children while helping them grow into responsible – and, yes, strong – adults themselves.

Strength is the ordinary person we see on TV after he (or she) has rushed in to pull someone away from a fiery car crash – not because he's fearless, but because someone needed help and he (or she) was there.

All of which is to say that strength in a character, male or female, is more than physical. Sure, you can create a kick-ass female protagonist who can chew nails, and fears nothing. But without weaknesses to play her strength against, without that touch of what makes us all human, she's a cardboard cutout – and she probably won't engage your readers.

Okay, that's my opinion. What about yours? What kind of protagonist – male or female – do you write? Or enjoy reading about? I'd love for you to share your thoughts.

  As the frog said to his friends, Time's sure fun when you're having flies.

Well, time has definitely gotten away from me the past couple of weeks, and I'm not sure yet whether I've got a good handle on the situation.

But there's good stuff happening!

I'm wearing a new hat these days – not instead of but in addition to my book-writing. I'm back doing reporter-type stuff for a new online publication …

The Sheridan Scene (http://www.thesheridanscene.com), currently Internet-only, focuses on the city of Sheridan, Wyoming – where I've lived for more than 25 years. It's a mini-newspaper/news blog (with some opinion pieces as well) aimed at providing comprehensive news coverage online (and, so far, free) for residents of Sheridan County, Wyoming – including the city of Sheridan, towns of Dayton, Ranchester and Clearmont, and points in between.

In the meantime, Studio See Publishing LLC – publisher of my Portals urban fantasy/suspense series – has commissioned new photos for my book covers. Over time (but hopefully soon), all of the books will have new covers that tie the series together. (Boy am I awaiting those!!!!)

As soon as my publisher gives permission, I will start revealing some of the new cover images.

I'm also plugging away at rewriting Sister Hoods, book 4 in the series, for ebook release. The rewrite is a significant revamp of the print version, so if you've already read the print version – be prepared for some major changes.

The first three books in the series – Shadow Path, Stormcaller and Deathtalker – have all been well-received (got some pretty decent reviews), so I'm happy about that.

And … just for the fun of it … today I've posted a photo of my “jackrabbit terror” – one of the trio of furry K-9 kids that I share my life with.