The Witchling
By Ari Harper
Series: Curse of Kin #1
Released: November 29th 2012
Publisher: Lycaon/Breathless Press
Purchase: AmazonNera is a normal teenage girl living in Ireland-or so she thought. Her world is forever changed when she discovers that she is descended from a long line of witches. To her horror she finds she is the one that is supposed to stop the curse that has taken the life of every girl before her. As if that isn’t enough, she must learn to use magic and her trainer is a man named Bones. He is the son of Mari, Queen of the Witches, and a god. It is Bones that has been entrusted to teach her the skills she needs to stay alive, which wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t have an uncanny knack for pushing her buttons. Can Nera learn what she needs while staying immune to the charms of the man that gets under her skin at every opportunity?
Truth is I don’t. I’m what is commonly called a ‘pantser’. Basically I write by the seat of my pants.
My mind is rarely my own. Thoughts and plots constantly race around driving me crazy at the best of times. Often I ignore the jumble, other times I write down a few paragraphs and let it churn away to see if anything comes of it. Some of those ideas make it to a book.
When I started Witchling, the same short paragraph had been running around in my mind for months and I was at my wits end. I never had any intention of being a writer, I was more than happy to read other peoples stories.
Finally I decided that if I wanted to be able to sleep at night I would have to do something about it. So I sat at my computer and let it all pour out. My characters take over and I do what they want. It’s their story after all and they have the most to contribute.
I envy writers that plot every chapter and know exactly where they are going. I have tried repeatedly to do this and it just doesn’t work for me. I struggle to get past chapter one this way so I stick to what works best for me.
In Book Three, Treason, I tried to make my characters do what I wanted. Bad idea, they slapped me into shape very quickly and I no longer even bother to try.
If you want to write, do what works best for you. And write what you know, always. I’ve had a passion of all things paranormal for ever so it made sense for me to pursue this genre.
And my best piece of advice, ‘never ever give up.’
It took me five years to get Witchling good enough for a publisher to contract it. Keep an eye out for Book Two, Changling out later this year and ‘Treason’ Book Three early next year.
Also here is the Hint for the Scavenger Hunt: Question
#8 Who comes to visit Nera on the roof
of Jasper’s home?
About the AuthorAri Harper never wanted to grow up.
To offset the limitations of aging ungracefully, she created her own set of unique worlds where she can be and do whatever she wants.Gods, witches and demons surround Ari while she spins her magic, doing mainly what they tell her to do. Given a chance, she prefers to work amongst chaos, which is good because she is constantly surrounded by children, all clamoring for attention. Some of them end up in her stories, some of them even get to die grisly deaths or be cast away to another realm.
**Giveaway**
Signed copy of The Witchling and other goodies.
I am so not a pantser but it is always great to see how other authors put their stories together. π
Great post! It's always very interesting to read about different authors' processes!
Awesome guest post. Thanks for participating π
I don't write, but I imagine if I did, I'd have to plan it all out. I'm too much of a control freak. π It's great to get Ari's thoughts though. It's always interesting to hear about an author's approach to writing. Great guest post!