Winners! The Treasures of Carmelidrium

Wow! My blog book tour for The Treasures of Carmelidrium is over. I had many wonderful comments and a few questions left by all of you. But before I answer the questions below; we have 3 winners. Many of you entered more than once. Two of you entered at every post. There were 82 entries.

So here are the winners of my e-book, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.

Tony Benson at Fireside Park

Linda Leszczuk at Linda Leszczuk

Melissa Bradley at Melissa’s Imaginarium

I hope you all will enjoy my book, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.

My grandson drew the names that I had assigned a letter of the alphabet. 25 names in all. He is 3 and he did a great job and wanted to continue, but I had to end it somewhere. Right now, every name, multiplied by your entries, on every slip of paper, is decorating my office floor where he left them.

A few of you had questions for me during my blog book tour. While I gave short answers in the comments, I wanted to do a little more today.

Dominic de Mattos at Writes of Passage, asked.

I was interested in your comments about your critique group, and have picked up from other writers just how valuable a resource crit partners are.
How did you go about finding crit partners?
How important is it to be able to physically meet your crit partners?
How do you sift through the comments to sort the wheat from the chaff?
How much reading of their work is required?

Nancy: In my case, I am a long time member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. They offer critique groups. In the beginning I attended a writer’s support group at the local Barnes & Nobles Store. One member of that support group began to share the difference between a support group and a critique group. If you are serious about being published, then you need other writers to review your work. I started to attend a four person critique group. I felt uncomfortable at first because of my lack of experience. But with their gentle words, firm lessons and encouragement, I was transformed from a person who enjoyed writing, to a person who had a marketable manuscript. Now, I am the moderator of that same critique group. All the current members are new.

I am glad I had a face to face group in the beginning. But it isn’t always possible. There are online critique groups available too. Here’s a link to Critique Circle. I have no personal experience with this group so I can’t say if they are good.

Shorting through critique comments is a skill that you learn with trial and error. There are some people who won’t get your writing just as there are some who will give you a poor review, while others love your work. I recommend that all critique partners point out what is good about the story, and then what didn’t work for them, or needs improvement. I have become quite good at this because of the years of practice. After all, my youngest was in 3rd grade when I started and now she is 23.

Each critique group is different. But most want 10 pages, double spaced, courier new, 12 pt. I recommend that the group takes one entire chapter. That way you don’t have comments that you didn’t “hook” the reader at the end.

If you need a faster read, then I recommend you partner with someone who appreciates your writing. You should set up a mutually agreeable arrangement. I personally will be looking into doing this since I have advanced beyond the normal functions of a critique group.


Enid Wilson at Hot and Steamy! asked.

Time travel and medieval? Love it. Bring it on. Why doesn't Missie want to come back to modern day? Is there some romance in the book too? Congratulations, Nancy.

Nancy: Yes, there is romance, but there is also the power that her music has in Gil-Lael which it lacks in America. It’s a tough choice for Missie, one she struggles with right up until the end.

Jamie Gibbs at Mithril Wisdom, asked.
Excellent advice! Do you worry about anatomical details in your created monsters i.e. ways of walking, positioning of vital organs etc.? Also with pack monsters, do you work out the potential social interactions between the animals when they are free from human intervention?

Nancy: My monsters, the symberveen, are loosely based on Big Foot. Loosely is the operative word there. Big Foot is said to live in family groups. They don’t socialize with each other and they are shy of humans. Now how anyone knows this is beyond me, but that is the legend.

I didn’t worry about the symberveen internal organs. I would assume they would be like any other bear-like, or big foot creature. What I needed was a creature formidable in size and lethal in both physical and psychological action. Thus, the symberveen attack first with nightmares, and secondly with poisonous claws.

Jeffrey Beesler at Jeffrey Beesler’s World of the Scribe, asked.

Love the creative names of your creatures, Nancy! As fantasy writers it can be more work to come up with brand new critters, but oh so much rewarding in the same token, too.

Do the female symberveen do any hunting, too?

Nancy: I suspect they would though I had no need to show the female symberveen in my story.

Joanne at Whole Latte Life, asked.

I like the idea of interviewing the actual character. It really gives us a feel for the "voice" of the book. Is Voice something you consciously consider as you create the characters in your story?

Nancy: Yes, I was careful to create unique characters with their own voice. But for my author’s voice, I simply told the story and trusted my instincts.

Rachel Morgan at Rachel Morgan Writes, asked.

Yup, we readers definitely want both character and plot! I have kind of a random question, Nancy (if it's been answered somewhere obvious, like your website, then I'm really sorry for missing it!). Is this a stand alone novel or part of a series?

Nancy: I’m glad you asked that Rachel. Yes, The Treasures of Carmelidrium, is the first in a series of at least 3 high fantasy novels and possibly 5. I also plan to do 2 or more novellas in that same world. I’m working on a prequel novella right now.

The next full length epic will be titled, The Rise of Lord Sinon. I hope to release that at the end of this year or the first of next.

In addition, I’ll be working on a series of novellas featuring a phoenix heroine. This series will be written in first person.

Congratulations to the winners!

Thank you everyone for following my blog book tour and making it a success.

Nancy