Mirror, Mirror Submission: The Reality Hackers for a Fairy Tale Short Story Competition Completed

How would you write your own fairy tale? 

That is what one anthology asked writers to write about and DL Mullan obliged. A 5000 word limit and an imaginative narrative to create. As of September 20th, the author of Undawnted submitted her version of a fairy tale called: The Reality Hackers. 

Mirror, Mirror on the wall who is the most cunning of them all? 

We won't know until acceptance/rejection letters go out in the November/December time frame. 

Hopefully, this time traveling, scifi, fantasy, romance will gain a place in this unique anthology. We will let you know.

What is your version of reality? And, what would you be willing to do to keep it? 

Have a great and wonderful day.

 

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The Reality Hackers Novelette is now available! 

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Want to bring more reality into your life? 

Visit Undawnted's Zazzle store!

Storytelling: What is Love? Can We Read Our Way to Fulfillment or Should We Demand a Refund?

As a writer, I am faced with making life choices for my characters and how love affects their lives. 

Do they have Eros, or erotic love? A fancy, an admiration? Or is their love quest something deeper? Perhaps even unrequited? 

How a writer views love in their own reality often reflects how characters in their imagination view the concept. Have you been thwarted by love? Been love sick? Maybe even a hopeless romantic? 

Eroticism can be written and sold like an old hooker in the night. No one sees. No one cares. The reader just needs a fix like an addict. Sex, please. Served in fifty shades of something.

RomComs are always fun to watch on the screen. For some reason, we [the audience] do not get tired of the retelling of Shakescpeare's Taming of the Shrew. 

Then there is the unrequited variety. We see someone from across the room we would like to hold and cherish but never do. We sit in our own delusion while life passes us by. That can be so dissatisfying to the audience. 

The next category is my favorite one besides the Taming of the Shrew, and that is the hopeless romantic. I agree with Jane Austen's assessment that every girl should marry up. I qualify that statement with a handsome, generous soul with means and connections. If a girl is going up in the world, she might as well go all the way. Shouldn't we say? 

No matter the love genre, a writer needs to write the characters as people and not as literary devices just for a boring sex scene. We want the meat and potatoes! The audience expects a well rounded couple for a good old fashioned romp! Ups and downs, heartache and pain, finally the reward for the faith and fidelity of their hearts. 

Unless of course you just want to stare at him or her from across the room for the rest of your life?

If you want to experience the beginning of a budding romance, then check out my first book in the vampire series, Nocturnal Redemption: In the Eye of the Beholder. 

Ryan Blackburn is a mythology professor. She has studied and built her life around her family legend: the protectors of humanity from the creatures that walk the night. One slight catch: she actually meets a pack of werewolves and a lone vampire on his nightly rounds. Her legends weren't so mythical after all.

In the coming days and weeks, Ryan is lured into the vampire's world called: The Lair. A slow but strong bond is formed between the vampire captain, Jeremy, and Ryan. Just as the politics that brought them together could easily tear them apart. 

Will Jeremy and Ryan choose each other? Or, will they go their separate ways? 

So when you write about love in your stories... what color of love are you? Black and white? Gray? 

We have to remember when we write about the heart, that we must write that the love story is the heart of the matter. And what matters is how the readers see us reflected in our respect for the affairs of the heart. I want to mirror the hopeless romantic in all of us. Love is a gift. When two people find love then we should nurture their inquisitiveness. No one is ever satisfied with a love that is unrequited. 

We as writers have to be the love Santa for a love starved populace. We have to write that great love story to keep our love Santa from getting stuck in the chimney of life. What did you expect? Cupid wasn't helping this along anyway...

Speaking of which, Valentine's Day is only 46 more days away!

Have a great and wonderful day.

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Saint's Arrival in July

As a part of Undawnted's Summer Time reading program, Saint will be available on July 27, 2018.

This novelette combines adventure and supernatural elements for a unique story you will find nowhere else.

So buy your copy as soon as the book comes out!

To read more, visit Saint's dedicated book page here on Undawnted.

Have a great and wonderful day! 

 

 

*****

Update: The Saint trilogy is available online as an eBook from many fine retailers: Saint. 

 

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A writer at heart, Undawnted's own creative spark, DL Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, Ms. Mullan has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. Ms. Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. As an independent publisher, she produces her own book cover designs as well as maintains her own websites. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet.

Currently, she has embarked on writing her multi-book Legacy Universe, Supernatural Superhero Series.

With her education and experience in writing, DL Mullan shares her knowledge via her newsletters. If you too want to become an Undawntable, then subscribe to one of her newsletters on Substack.

Imagination, unleashed. 

Nocturnal Redemption Moves Into the Final Edits Phase

The final push until the January 31st release has begun!

Nocturnal Redemption:

When Ryan is attacked by werewolves, she is rescued by the hidden Regent of the Vampire Nation, Jeremy Hampton. This event sets a domino effect in motion that Chloe could not foresee. The future of the vampires lies on a knife’s edge: matters of the heart.

Could the love that betrayed the gypsy witches into cursing the vampires three hundred years ago be the one thing to end their immortal suffering and bring peace between these two ancient factions?

Love is always In the Eye of the Beholder.

Visit the Nocturnal Redemption page for more great information! 

Updated Synopsis for Nocturnal Redemption

I have been creating promotional pieces for my various publications. Since I want to release Nocturnal Redemption as soon as the novel is ready, I revised the old synopsis in lieu of a more accurate teaser. 

If you would like to read about this paranormal adventure/romance, then please visit the dedicated page for Nocturnal Redemption. 

The promos will be added to the page once the novel has been published. 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

Delilah is a Winner!

The book cover art I did for the novel. Delilah by Kaye Lynne Booth did not make it into the Final Round of the Summer Loving Book Cover Event, however...

...that does not mean, the book cover art I created was a bust. Delilah still walked away with the most votes in the Western category. 

What a feat! 

I am very proud of this cover. It's art. It encompasses the theme of the novel. The cover art does not rely on cheap marketing tricks to be a winner. 

THANK YOU to the person who nominated my cover for this event, the author Kaye Lynne Booth for the support, and ALL the Voters! 

You made the book cover art a success!

If you would like to peruse my other digital creations, please stop by the Art, Cover, & Prints page on Sonoran Dawn Studios for examples. 

Thank you! I cannot wait for more opportunities like this one in the future.

Have a great and wonderful summer!

Love is in the Air

When I first began writing Nocturnal Redemption, I knew a love story was being built. 

All the elements were there. Still, I wanted a story that was more than a romance novel. I wanted the story to be about something concrete. 

So I added into the story a subplot about politics. It's interesting that I began writing this novel way before a woman had ever run for President of the United States. 

Nocturnal Redemption will be out soon...  I hope you enjoy the first book of the series as much as I am enjoying writing the complexities of political life.

Just Leaving It Hanging

A fellow writer had brought up the subject of using cliffhangers for novel endings. 

My response was to use cliffhangers if you are going to answer the question in the next book of a series, but if you only write one book, then make sure to resolve everything by the end. 

My stories are not long as a full length novel. I write shorter novels, but not less complex ones. 

I make sure there are subplots and character developments. In the end the stories are completed and the reader feels they have taken a journey with my protagonists. Yet, to spur on interest for the next book, I give a little taste of what is to come... with a cliffhanger in some, but not all cases. 

Someone reacted indignant to this use of cliffhangers as disrespect to readers and to yourself as a writer. I do not agree. If you have everything pretty much sewn up and there is a last minute act or realization, then the reader can decide if the next book will be for them or not. 

I am upfront that I am writing a book series, not a stand along book. So the reader has to expect something to cross over into the next story line. Or why would it be a book series? 

So In the Name of Blood had the main character, Riley Austen, have an epiphany at the end of the book... to be carried on in Book II. Will this series go to Book III? I am letting the characters decide. Many times the characters also decide the end of the novel. Riley sure did. That ending even surprised me!

With Nocturnal Redemption, I can go either way: a clear cut ending or a cliffhanger... 

As writers, should we not tease our readers a bit? 

Have a great and wonderful day! 

Love is in the Eye of the Beholder

When you have written a novel, editing the story into manageable parts can be a challenge. 

I am working on two different novels but I will only publish one this coming February. I haven't decided on which one yet... but I bet you have already guessed it these are loves stories. My stories have plenty of action and drama but Nocturnal Redemption and Gibbous are driven by the relationship of these people instead of a crisis like in book one of In the Name of Blood. 

One is pretty much done for a first book release and to finish the rest of the story episodically in a series instead of all at once. Trouble is the story is under 40K words. I like my novels around 45K words. 

Gibbous is done at 60K words but I want to expand the story so the adventure is smoother and the characters are perfected. 

After worrying all this time about releasing a novella instead of a novel, I remembered: I am the publisher! I can do whatever I want. Then all the stress and worry dissolved. 

I feel much better now.

...but you will have to wait to see which one I publish in February 2017. Is it the vampire, supernatural romance of Nocturnal Redemption? Or the werewolf saga of Gibbous?

Who wants to guess?

Have a great and wonderful day!  

Paranormal Romance for the Election Hangover

This national election cycle left me dreadfully dreary. Votes are still being counted. In order to cure my election hangover of too much television news, brightly lit electoral college maps, and a host of very unhappy commentators on CBS and PBS, I began to edit and write. 

I have been working on getting two different types of paranormal romance novels ready for publication. Romance is a bit of a stretch since I am not a romance type writer. I write for plot and character, not to be provocative. 

We will go by the Merriam Webster definition of romance:

a medieval tale based on legend, chivalric love and adventure, or the supernatural (2) :  a prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious (3) :  a love story especially in the form of a novel

That better suits the way I write: for love. I will leave the reader to fill in all the blanks!

How about you?

Have a great and wonderful day!