Rayne Hall's Newsletter for May

Nature, Writing Tip, Life in Bulgaria, Caution Facebook Users, New Storm Dancer Cover

A New Cover for Storm Dancer

I’ve decided to republish my Dark Epic Fantasy novel Storm Dancer in a revised edition with a new cover. I think Storm Dancer is the best book I’ve ever written, the work I most want to be remembered for.

But it isn’t selling well. That’s probably because successive versions of the cover suggested the wrong genre. So I’m getting the cover reworked. Here is the almost-final version:

Do you think this cover works? What’s your reaction to it? Does this suggest a Dark Epic Fantasy? Does the character come acrosss as dark and dangerous, but also honerable and likeable?

Email me or leave a comment. I’d love to hear your feedback.

What I’m Working On

I’m revising Storm Dancer. Originally, about 15 years ago, it was 350,000 words long. A publisher experessed an interest in buying it, provided I got it to under 100,000 words. I tried. I trimmed words, condensed the timeline, combined characters, deleted subplots… But when I had it down to 140,000 words, I realised I could not cut further without ruining the story of my vision. So I told the publisher no, and published it myself.

To be honest, the shortened version was much better than the long one: more exciting, more focused, faster paced. But some of the cuts were not right, rushing the ending, leaving the readers to work out what happened instead of letting them savour the experience. So I decided to put some of the flesh back on the bones, telling the story the way it deserves to be told. It’s now 155,000 words, and I plan to republish it next month.

Would you like a review copy when the book is published? Reviews are an author’s lifeline, so this would really help me. But be warned: Storm Dancer has some very dark elements (think A Game of Thrones) and contains some violence.

Here’s the blurb: “Warrior Dahoud has a conscience heavier than a bricklayer's tray and more curses on his head than a mangy camel has fleas. A demon forces him to commit deeds he abhors.  Hiding his identity and his dark past, he tries to build a new life. Now he fights to protect his people from war’s violence - but how can he shield them from the evil inside him?

The only woman who could help Dahoud defeat the demon is the courageous magician Merida – and she hates Dahoud for what he has done to her.

Enter a world of magicians and rebels, bellydancers, warriors, diplomats and demons. Journey into a besieged fortress, a palace harem, a nomad camp, a flaming inferno. Immerse yourself in duels, battles and daring escapes.”

If you want to review the book, let me know, and I’ll arrange an ebook ARC for you.

For everyone else, I’ll do what I always do with new books: I’ll offer it for a short time a very low price (99c) and will tell you about it, so you can order it before the price goes up.

Beautiful Wildflowers in my Orchard Meadow

Here in rural Bulgaria, Nature is at her most beautiful now. Everything is lush and green, dotted with flowers in a myriad of colours.

I use neither weedkillers nor pesticides, so wildflowers abound, and bees and butterflies enjoy a poison-free paradise. I wish you could see the many wildflowers - so many varieties! - and the bees and butterflies visiting them.

Here are some wildflowers for you, some of them with bees:

Every morning take a cup of coffee into the garden and do a light workout, surrounded by flowering beauty and birdssong. A stork thrones it high up in her nest, rattling her beak, while her mate walks on bouncy legsin the meadow near me.

I pick mulberries directly from my trees for breakfast. Then I’ll go indoors to teach German converation lessons online, a kind of work I enjoy. After a quick lunch (made partly with fresh organic asparagus, peas and parsley from my garden) I work outside, planting, weeding, watering, mowing.

Then I take my dogs Ginger and Jane for a walk in the countryside. Sometimes my cats walk with us as well. In the photos: Dog Jane and young cat Chekhov, both rescues.

In the evenings, I write my books which is of course my dreamjob, my livelihood and my vocation. The schedules varies with the seasons and the weather.

I feel blessed to be able to live my near-ideal life. Now all I need is more book sales (sales have dropped this year) and a face-to-face writing community near me, and my life would be perfect.

Writing Tip: Text-to-Speech Apps

Use a text-to-speech app to listen to your near-final drafts. You’ll hear flaws you didn’t see while reading e.g. awkward rhythms, missing or duplicated words. Listening to a newly-added scene in Storm Dancer, I discovered that the characters were constantly biting, gnawing and licking their lips!

For manuscript revisions, you don’t need the bells-and-whistles pro versions, just the free basic version.

Caution Facebook Users

Facebook is making all content (our content!) accessible to AI. Facebook sent me an innocuous little notification saying ‘We’re making changes'.’ When I clicked (and thankfully, I did), I saw this:

Basically, Facebook’s new rules means anything you post on your pages - your novel excerpts, elevator pitches, synopses, blurbs, book covers - can be used by AI, and plagiarised legally. If you promote your novel on Facebook with a plot summary and the cover picture, AI can churn out a hundreds of near-identical novels which the ‘authors’ then can sell on Amazon. AI can take your cover, change the a few details, the title and author name and give the modified version to other writers. Anything you post becomes fodder for AI.

You can opt out. But - and that’s outrageous - you have to opt out and jump through hoops. By not doing anything, you give your consent, and then you have no legal regress.

As soon as you get this harmless-seeming notification ‘we’re making some changes’ in your Facebook inbox, click, read it, and act. You need to click through to the ‘right to object’. Provide your reasons why you object.

I objected and - that’s the only good part about it - my objection was accepted the same day. You may want to use the same keywords in your objection as I did. I wrote approximately, “I’m a writer and artist. My stories, articles, books, poems, images, photos and designs are original works of my creativity. My livelihood depends on protecting them. I own the copyright to them, and they are my legal intellectual property…’ I believe Facebook uses AI to evaluate the objections, and if you use the right keywords, your objection gets approved.

Frankly, I’m horrified that Facebook decides who may and may not object. That’s like deciding that some people may keep burglars out of their homes why others must allow burglars in.

Watch out for similar ‘by the way, we’re allowing AI to plunder your creative works’ notifications from other social media networks.

Best Wishes from Bulgaria

Rayne Hall