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Writing Martial Arts, Part 2: Philosophies

Mar 12, 2014
4 min

Writing Martial Arts, Part 2: Philosophies

One of the things that I have learned about being pregnant is that nothing happens quite as you expect. For instance, this post, which was supposed to come out two weeks ago, got delayed due to some scary moments with the baby, a car accident, and plain old preggie-brain. So, at last we come to Part 2: Martial Arts Philosophies! If you haven’t yet read Part 1, check it out here. When it comes to the philosophies of martial arts, the first thing that you need to understand is

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Feb 25, 2014
4 min

Writing Martial Arts, Part 1: MA Basics

One of the topics that we have thoroughly enjoyed speaking on, at LTUE and elsewhere, is how to create and write martial arts in fiction. Being that we are both martial artists ourselves, we have a great deal of personal experience to draw upon for inspiration. This series of posts is designed for both experienced martial artists and those with no exposure at all, but who all desire to write about martial arts in their fiction. Part 1: Martial Arts Basics First, you have to a

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Nov 18, 2013
1 min

Goodreads Giveaway

Two copies of The Tale of Telsharu are up for grabs in a Goodreads Giveaway! The giveaway lasts until December 18th, and is a random draw made by Goodreads. If you would like to try your luck, click here! PS: Goodreads members, have you posted a review of Telsharu? If not, now is the time! #bookreview #Fantasy #giveaway #Fiction #News

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Aug 19, 2012
2 min

Cool moments + Cover Art concepts

A couple of cool moments from this weekend— First, while signing books at the mall yesterday, I had the chance to talk with a family who all read fantasy together. Dad reads the books out loud to all the kids, Mom has to stop herself from reading ahead in secret, and the kids all have a certain degree of enthusiasm for the practice. First of all, it made me decide on the spot that I’m going to read fantasy novels aloud to my children. But the really cool thing was when the fa

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Aug 16, 2012
1 min

Superhero Shakedown

Sam and I sat down for a brainstorming session today–I’m actually really excited to be returning this evening to resume the brainstorm…two in one day!–and as is pretty typical for us, we got distracted by a few tangents. One of them had us laughing out loud: we started arguing about which superheroes would be Radiance users, and which would use Void. (If you haven’t yet read Telsharu, the following will be meaningless to you.) Superman was easy, clearly a Radiance user. Batma

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Aug 5, 2012
2 min

Draft: Complete

A few minutes ago, I completed the final draft of Buk Tu (ie “Book Two” or the sequel to The Tale of Telsharu). Sam and I will submit the manuscript to our publisher tomorrow. After this, we move into final revisions, editing, and…publication! This draft has taken a surprising and incredible amount of work. Last night I tried to describe to a friend what it’s been like, and had difficulty explaining. First of all, no chapter of the book was untouched in this revision. In ever

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Jul 26, 2012
1 min

This is why I write

Yesterday evening I received a text message from a dear friend of mine. She and her husband have been apart for some time, and it’s going to be awhile before they will be reunited. It’s been a real struggle for her, continuing on alone while he is away. In her text message last night, she told me that she is reading Telsharu, in the part where Daryun and Aisina (a married couple) are reunited after being apart for a time. After quoting some pieces from the text, she said, “Th

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Jul 21, 2012
2 min

The challenge of revisions

My roommate came in the other day and looked around. Currently I have a craft table set up. My laptop sits in the middle, surrounded by manuscript pages that have been marked up by beta readers. I was sitting, working on revisions of Buk Tu. She looked at me and said, “That looks hard.” Revisions can be incredibly challenging. It’s a lot different than composition. To revise, you have to carefully trim out the pieces that didn’t work, replace them with new material, while sti

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Jul 19, 2012
1 min

Book Signing this weekend!

Sam and I will be signing copies of The Tale of Telsharu at the University Mall in Orem, Utah Friday from 10am-2pm and Saturday from 2-pm-6pm. We will have both hardcover and trade paperback copies there for sale. We also have free bookmarks for anyone who stops by! =) If you are in the neighborhood, we would love to see you! #Publishing #Coauthor #Events #Appearances #BookSigning #Fiction #Writing #GettingPublished #News

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Valerie Mechling Holley

May 25, 2012
5 min

Writing & Revising: A Step by Step Process

There are a number of stages that we go through as writers to prepare a manuscript for publication. This differs slightly from writer to writer, though I imagine many of the pieces are similar. The process that Sam and I go through is as follows. Step 1: Brainstorming Step 2: Composition Step 3: Self Revision Step 4: Editor read-thru Step 5: Revision Step 6: Beta readers Step 7: Revision Step 8: Editing Step 9: Revision Step 10: Copy editing & Proof reading For those of you w

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Valerie Mechling Holley

May 6, 2012
2 min

The Avengers & Hanu Zan the Hero

I went to the midnight showing of The Avengers. I will admit to you, dear reader, that I am a total nerd for superhero movies. I love them. I devour them. Of course, I oftentimes scorn them (and all too many of them deserve their share of scorn) but deep down I am still fascinated by them. Naturally, I had high hopes for The Avengers. I was enthralled by both Iron Man and Captain America, though less thrilled with Iron Man 2, Thor, and either incarnation of The Hulk in recent

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Apr 20, 2012
2 min

Gemmel Award, Reading Aloud, and the Tournament

A blog post of many topics! First, I learned from the blog of Patrick Rothfuss that voting is open on the David Gemmel Legend award for best fantasy novel. I make it a point to participate in such voting, and encourage readers of fantasy to do the same. However, I would echo the sentiment that Pat Rothfuss expressed, to not vote blindly. Read his blog, and know that I agree with the sentiments expressed and implied. When you are sufficiently educated, go vote. This week I’ve

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Apr 16, 2012
3 min

Research for your novel

A number of years ago I was taking a creative writing course and we had a section on research. I dragged my feet through the entire unit. “I don’t need this,” I thought at the time. “I write fantasy. I don’t need to research things, I’m going to create everything I need!” It’s a laughable notion, now that I look back. Just in the last two weeks, I’ve researched: Styles of poetry. Arabian horses (physical features, mannerisms, care, breeding). Elephants, and elephant cavalry t

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Apr 11, 2012
2 min

All night revisions

Today is the day. We are presenting the manuscript of Buk Tu to our editor for his first review. This is both a major event, and a minor event. It’s major, because it means the book is in a complete form, worthy of being read by someone besides ourselves. This is a major step in the life of a book. However, it’s also minor, because this is only our editor’s first look, and there will be many revisions to come–from our editor’s suggestions, and then through beta readers, and o

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Apr 7, 2012
3 min

Epigraphs, poetry, and rhyming in fictional languages

I have a great love of epigraphs. With my own work, I am particularly fond of fictional quotations or works from in-world sources. For example, The Tale of Telsharu opens with a poem, which purports itself to be a selection from the epic poem “Hanu Zan” by Fao Duman, who is, in fact, a fictional character, writing about one of the heroes of the Seventh Empire. I first fell in love with the concept of in-world epigraphs as a teenager reading Dune by Frank Herbert. Each chapter

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Apr 4, 2012
2 min

I #amrevising and I may be #goingcrazy

Revisions have been a roller coaster ride this week. Six days ago, Sam and I discussed a new scene that we felt needed to be added to ShianMai’s storyline. It was a scene that required some research. For two days, I diddled around and did nothing. Then on Saturday I finally went to the library and got what I needed. But didn’t look at the materials until late Sunday, and then I was too tired to do anything. Monday night I left work and gave myself an ultimatum. I literally sp

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Mar 27, 2012
3 min

Writing fight scenes

I recently had dinner with a family whose children I teach. Several of them have read Telsharu and were eagerly asking for an update on Buk Tu. In discussing the pieces that still remain to be written, many of them being fight scenes, I mentioned that I have some difficulty writing fight scenes. One of the children seemed surprised at this, me being a martial artist. You’d think I’d have no trouble coming up with that kind of thing, since I live it every day. Ah, but that’s t

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Mar 21, 2012
3 min

Rambling thoughts on revisions

If you’re following my Twitter feed at all, you’ll know that I’ve been working voraciously on revisions of “Buk Tu” the sequel to The Tale of Telsharu. A few minutes ago I finished revisions on Chapter 35, meaning I’ve progressed through more than half the book in four days. This blog post is a brief, necessary break to clear my head, and then I will be jumping right back in. It’s a relief to be back at it–truth be told, I haven’t done much with “Buk Tu” since finishing the f

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Mar 13, 2012
2 min

A strange sort of vanity?

I love reading The Tale of Telsharu. Is this weird? I’ve heard of fellow authors who cannot look at their works, once they are published. More often, I’ve heard of actors who won’t watch their own movies, and musicians who won’t listen to their own music. But the principle seems to be the same. Perhaps it’s vain to admit, but I love reading my work. Not all of them. Many of my old stories are utterly pathetic, absurdly trite, and nearly intolerable. But some are worth at leas

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Valerie Mechling Holley

Feb 24, 2012
1 min

#1 writing advice

If I had one piece of advice to give to writers–aspiring or established–it is this. Write every day. Let nothing interfere with this critical habit. There is nothing–I repeat, nothing–more important to a writing career than the consistency of writing every single day. Don’t worry about quality, don’t worry about quantity. You can set standards for yourself if you need to, whatever works for you. But for us all, the most important part is simply the act of consistently writing

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