K. M. Weiland is our guest this week (yay!) and we’re just thrilled to have her. In addition to having an amazing writing website, HelpingWritersBecomeAuthors.com, K. M. is also a fabulous novelist. You can get the ebook of Dreamlander for free on all platforms, which is a great way to check out her novels if you haven’t yet done so.
Here’s a bit about Dreamlander:
What if it were possible to live two very different lives in two separate worlds? What if the dreams we awaken from are the fading memories of that second life? What if one day we woke up in the wrong world?
In this fantasy thriller, a woman on a black warhorse gallops through the mist in Chris Redston’s dreams every night. Every night, she begs him not to come to her. Every night,she aims her rifle at his head and fires. The last thing Chris expects–or wants–is for this nightmare to be real. But when he wakes up in the world of his dreams, he has to choose between the likelihood that he’s gone spectacularly bonkers or the possibility that he’s just been let in on the secret of the ages.
Only one person in a generation may cross the worlds. These chosen few are the Gifted, called from Earth into Lael to shape the epochs of history–and Chris is one of them. But before he figures that out, he accidentally endangers both worlds by resurrecting a vengeful prince intent on claiming the powers of the Gifted for himself. Together with a suspicious princess and a guilt-ridden Cherazii warrior, Chris must hurl himself into an action adventure battle to save a country from war, two worlds from annihilation, and himself from a dream come way too true.
Read K. M.’s thoughts on our panel question for today, and then go get your free copy!:
What is one thing you did or focused on when you were first published that you don’t do anymore? Why did you stop?
The reason I started doing this was because I grew tired of spending days plotting out a novel, only to veer off my outline basically as soon as I started writing. This was further validated when I read Stephen King’s On Writing and learned he’s a discovery writer and is rather disparaging of those who plot out ahead of time.
What I didn’t realize is that just as my actual writing skills needed to grow, so did my “planning a story ahead of time” skills. I really just didn’t understand what made stories work, so it was hard for me to plan effectively.
I discovery wrote the entire Skylar series, and those second two books were under contract and tight deadlines. (And I had a newborn. I was delightful to live with that year.) I grew so tired of rewrites and thought just a teensy-bit of planning ahead would have probably saved me a lot of headaches. So that sent me on a journey of understanding my personal perfect blend of planning ahead and discovery writing.
People will say they learn so much from their reviews, and maybe that’s true for them. But I know myself. And reading every review makes me crazy. The good ones make me feel good, but the bad ones read like someone came into my home, trashed my desk, and told me I need to get a job anywhere else. They make me feel worthless as a human being.
Now, in my head, I know that’s just not true, but it feels true. It hurts when people say cruel things in book reviews. A well-written and fair critical review is different. I’m talking about those scathing, cruel reviews that say mean things with absolutely no point.
When By Darkness Hid released, I read them all, and I never forgot the people who said cruel things. To this day when I see them in person or online, I flinch a little. Part of that stems from the lies in my past, and I have to remind myself why these kinds of critical moments are hard for me, but part of it is also me being human. Bullying happens in book reviews. I’m horrified at the hatred some reviewers will spew on their blogs. It’s like they’ve forgotten we’re all human beings with beating hearts and eternal souls. So, yeah. Book reviews are so necessary. Authors need them very badly in order for their books to succeed, but I don’t read them because I have to protect my heart.
