Melanie Nilles

Everyone loves dragon stories! (Well, maybe not, but for sake of conversation, I’m assuming everyone reading this has at least a passing interest.)

In Legend of the White Dragon, you have drakes of three types and you have drakin, which aren’t dragons at all. In fact, they’re little more than flying lizards with simple minds and the single magical ability to communicate their thoughts through mindspeech, since like all dragons, they don’t have the right vocal mechanics to actually speak as humans do. Trust me in saying that you don’t want one of these berry and insect eating, playful drakin as a pet–they talk too much! In fact, they love company so much that they will talk nonstop and interrupting them is the only way to shut them up. They will tell you stories of every detail of their lives and love to offer their help just to have a reason to tell more stories. Don’t depend on them too much, however, as they have a tendency towards distractions. Their innocent curiosity can be an annoyance to more intelligence creatures and a threat to them. Combined with their small size (adults stand only about 16-18 inches upright on their hind legs with a tail just as long that tapers) that curiosity can make them targets for predators. While they prefer to play away their days, a few have been known to faithfully serve the magi.

These are fictional creatures, which I’m sure you’ve figured out. They were a pleasure to create and more fun to write, especially letting the writing loose with run-on sentences. When they talk, it’s like a child telling a story–conjunctions joining every trail of thought to another. Like I said, they’re simple-minded.

As for true dragons, they are immortal and with age comes intelligence and wisdom. Because of this, they are more often than not amused by the ways of humans and other mortal creatures. The true dragons are also benevolent. They were created before humans to fight the Darklord, the servant of Chaos. They were once respected as the noblest creatures to ever live, until the Darklord made the Red Clan. They aren’t likely to impart their wisdom, however, in a straight manner. They speak in rhyme and riddles, which test the patience of those without it and challenge the intelligence of those willing to rise to their level.
The Red Clan, also known as wyverns (hind legs, wings with claws and no front legs, a vicious temper, and less intelligent) are related to the true dragons, but it is a distant relation. Their kind arose when the Darklord exposed stolen eggs to the forces of Chaos that spawned him/it (no gender but those kinds of leaders tend to be considered male). The hatchlings were all red, no matter whether their firedrake parents had been blue, gold, or green. That is how they came to be known as the Red Clan.

I have created a more detailed appendix, which will be included in the first book of the series, Dragon Prophecy. As the release date (January 2008) draws near, I will post the information on my website.

I love dragons as much as I do other fictional creatures and always saw them as terrible and noble at the same time. I think I have done that vision justice in my Legend of the White Dragon series.

For those interested, there are as many visions of what a dragon should be as there are admirers. For instance, in the Pern novels, they have a purpose that saves the planet and are bonded to a single human rider for all their lives and the lives of those riders. In Richard Knaak’s series with Shade and Darkhorse, the dragons were once a magical race known as the Vrad who, through unforseen magic, were transformed into dragons. In the Deathgate Cycle, dragons have good and bad personality traits. These are a few examples of the different visions of what dragons are. Each story uses them to fulfill a different purpose, just as I do.

From Dictionary.com:

cli·ché:

1. a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse…

2. (in art, literature, drama, etc.) a trite or hackneyed plot, character development, use of color, musical expression, etc.

3. anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.

—Synonyms: platitude, bromide, stereotype, commonplace.

Join any critique or writing group and eventually the term comes up in conversation. In any genre you will find cliché’s. In fantasy writing especially they are easy to spot (mostly because of an overabundance of Tolkien wannabes)–elves, dwarves, and the heroic journey to name a few. Read enough fantasy and eventually you’ll be able to spot the most common. Here’s a fun link to a quiz–The Fantasy Novelist’s Exam. I haven’t found anything like it for science fiction, but some of the questions can apply to that also.

How do you make your work original? That’s a good question for an agent like Miss Snark, Kristin Nelson, or Rachel Vater. (See my links to theright.) The short answer here is to read and avoid the common elements you find in other stories. The subject of originality can by found on every writing forum on the internet. It’s what writers strive for, although sometimes out of the ether of creativity come similar stories by completely different writers who have absolutely no contact. Let’s just call that the Twilight Zone How it happens, we can only speculate.

What’s original when nothing is anymore? Put a new twist on an old plot. According to the Internet Public Library, there are seven basic plots:

1. [wo]man vs. nature

2. [wo]man vs. [wo]man

3. [wo]man vs. the environment

4. [wo]man vs. machines/technology

5. [wo]man vs. the supernatural

6. [wo]man vs. self

7. [wo]man vs. god/religion

Every story has an element listed here, or perhaps multiple plots or subplots. It’s how we build on these basic plots that makes our stories original.

Take dragons, for instance, since so they are popular for fantasy (because so many people think they’re cool). I like dragons and so do many people I know. With books like Dragonology and the Pern novels, we are exposed to a couple different ideas of dragons. But a writer doesn’t have to conform to someone else’s ideas of what a dragon should be. I like the idea of intelligent dragons, so the dragons in my Legend of the White Dragon series are intelligent. I also like the idea that they never give a straight answer (because they are so intelligent) so my dragons speak in rhyme and riddles. That isn’t true of every writer’s dragons. I could go on in detail, but I’m just using this as an example.

Medieval fantasy? That’s a cliche, but still popular. However, a wide range of fantasy subgenres exists–contemporary fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, high fantasy, epic fantasy–pick one or create a new one! Science fiction is the same–cyberpunk, space opera, time travel, etc.

Don’t be afraid to stretch the envelope. Write what you would want to read. The market may not be ready for it, but it is always open to new ideas.

Here’s something worth a good chuckle found in an online forum (http://forums.classicbattletech.com/index.php/topic,17934.0.html):

1: I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position.
2: I’m not really out of the office. I’m just ignoring you.
3: You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
4: Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having my brain removed so that I may be promoted to management.
5: I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from vacation on 4/18. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
6: Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.
7: The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again.
(The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over).
8: Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queueing system.You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
9: Hi. I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.
10: Hi! I’m busy negotiating the salary for my new job. Don’t bother to leave me any messages.
11: I’ve run away to join a different circus.
12: I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘Loretta’ instead of ‘Steve’.

Anyone who’s worked in an office can appreciate these

Simple answer: That’s what I like. Write what you like and what you know, but don’t be afraid to expand your horizons.

If you don’t like what you write, why are you writing?

Ponder on.

I love reading as much as I do writing. But writing has taken away a lot of the fun of reading. Writers can be the most critical readers.

Give me a good science fiction or fantasy story, but for me no excessive violence and no sex (sexual tension and a little romance, yes, but I don’t like voyeurism). I love to be swept away by fascinating characters and settings. The problem lies in the fact that I am always trying to improve my own writing and have trained my mind to critique stories. Good for me as a writer. Bad for me as a reader. I catch myself critiquing other books, even the good ones.

Why is it when I find a book with a good story, the writing isn’t so great? Sometimes I can ignore it, like in the Harry Potter books–love ‘em. A story has to be exceptional for me to ignore the prose style, as that does, but JKR’s faults aren’t as obvious as they are for other authors. Other stories have great writing but the story itself lacks something, at least that something that piques MY interests.

The good part is that I see flaws that I may be committing in my writing. A good writer, like any professional in any field, knows they aren’t perfect and always looks for ways to improve. With age comes the realization that you don’t know as much as you thought you did. To put it in those immortal words, “The older I get, the more I realize that the less I know.” Whoever said it first was a genuis. He or she hit it perfectly.

The bad part is that it’s difficult to put aside the writer and simploy enjoy a book as a reader. Therefore, I have become extremely picky about what I read the more I learn about writing well. I always was a bit picky, but it’s worse now. Half the books I buy I end up never finishing.

But I’m looking forward to the last Harry Potter book. At least from reading 1-6, I know 7 will entertain me. Ask me after I read it whether I liked it or not. The point is not the end but the journey.

I’ve been changing the layout of my Myspace profile. I’ve found quite a few sites that help with that. Although it’s still not quite what I want, it’s closer. I will probably change it again when I have the time and the inclination, but for now, it’s good enough. If you want to be added as a friend, be aware that I check out the profiles. I consider myself on the conservative side but am willing to approve anyone whose profile isn’t perverse. The same goes for allowing comments.

Now, for a couple other changes to my profile that I just thought of…Told ya I’d change it again

…what I know now, I would have had an easier time with our first child. After 2 1/2 years of daycare and four infants after our own, I can tell you a lot about getting a good night’s rest.

After the third week postpartum, I was ready for more sleep. However, that comes with the infant developing neurologically enough to sleep for long periods. Well, we got lucky to start, and my experience has helped take it further. Part of the reason new parents don’t get enough sleep is the process of putting the child to sleep or back to sleep in the middle of the night.

I now know how to make that happen so parents can maximize their sleep time.

With our first, we rocked her to sleep ALL the time. We didn’t understand how to train her to sleep on her own and I wasn’t going to let her cry herself to sleep. That only hurts a child emotionally. However, with both, we started out with the girls in our bed. With the first, it was the first two months. With our newest, I moved her to her “bed” around the 2-3 week mark. I also breastfed the first and am doing the same with the second. It provides something that bottle-feeding never will–a stronger sense of security and bonding between mother and child.
What I did different with our newest is simple. Besides moving her into her own “bed” in our room (for easy and quick access), we figured out what she wants.

The big question is “What makes my child feel secure?” When they are secure in their environment, your child will sleep better. Our number two MUST be swaddled tight. That’s her rule when she’s tired. She’ll wiggle and squirm a few times while falling asleep, but those little hands must not come free at that stage or she wakes up. After she’s been asleep awhile, it’s not as big of a deal if she gets one or both hands free. She also gets plenty of cuddling time during the day from mom and dad, and the breastfeeding gives her time to be close to me also. She relaxes then and, even when she’s overtired and fussy, will doze off when nothing else soothes her.

The second part of getting a child to sleep is to make sure they 1) have a clean diaper and 2) have a full tummy. Some babies cannot stand a soiled diaper. Our first didn’t care, but number two does. As for the second part, could you sleep very well with an empty tummy?

The next part is more complex. Training an infant to put themselves to sleep takes time, but the earlier in their life that you start, the happier everyone will be and the easier it will be.  Develop good habits early rather than trying to break bad ones later.  Please be aware that every infant is different, but figuring out your baby is up to you.  Not every technique will work for every infant, and they do take time.

The first part is to figure out what your baby needs, as I’ve already mentioned.  The next is to use that wisely.  If your infant will take a pacifier, great.  It’s a wonderful self-soother for them.  Our number two takes it only if she’s a little hungry or is overly tired, but she spits it out when she’s ready to fall into a deep sleep.  Some babies wake up when they lose their pacifier.  That’s okay.  Now, here’s the real trick–when to answer a waking infant’s cries.  When they wake in the middle of the night, let them get into a serious cry, because they may just put themselves back to sleep without any intervention, especially after the first four to six weeks.  It’s part of the sleep-training process.  You’re there, but they don’t always need you to soothe them.  Give them a chance to soothe themselves.  Only tend to them when it’s obvious they aren’t going back to sleep on their own.  This applies to naps also.

Putting an infant to sleep is a process also.  You don’t have to let them cry themselves to sleep.  In fact, give them some security and it’ll go a long ways towards giving you a good night’s rest.  A little rocking is okay, and early on you may be rocking them to sleep.  In the arms of someone who loves them, they have all the confidence in the world that every need will be met.  That’s why so many infants have a hard time sleeping alone.  Lay them down in their crib–always on their back–and step away but STAY IN THE ROOM.  This is the important part.  If they wake up don’t pick them up right away but try to soothe them by offering the pacifier, using a quiet voice, stroking their head (with that soft baby hair , or whatever you know works for your infant.  If they won’t settle, pick them up and start over.  Eventually they’ll tire enough to just fall asleep, but that’s to your advantage.  If they aren’t tired enough to go to sleep, then maybe they shouldn’t be going down yet.  Eventually you’ll get them on a routine, but don’t count on it until they’re at least four months old, and then if you’re lucky.
Practice this every time, not just every night.  (Being able to lay an infant down without any special attention makes it easy on your daycare provider also, especially when they have other children demanding their attention, particularly other infants.)  Gradually, you’ll be putting your infant down to sleep more alert.  My suggestion here is to make sure they are tired.  You can’t force a young infant to sleep.  Besides, they need the alert times too, just not in the middle of the night.  Nighttime is for sleeping.  As they start sleeping for longer periods, they may want to stay awake in the early AM waking.  In those instances, don’t let them.  Also, if that’s the case, you need to keep them awake for longer periods during the day.  Let them lay on the floor under a gym toy, talk to them, and simply engage them in activity.

With all I’ve learned and what it has allowed me to do with our second girl, I wanted to pass this knowledge on.  More and more often–our baby being just over nine weeks and sleeping at least eight hours through the night–we have only to recognize the signs of her tiredness, make sure she’s clean and fed, swaddle her, and lay her down in her baby bed.  She puts herself to sleep and we get ours also.

A common question directed at authors by other writers is “How did you get published?” I always wondered if there was a magic formula, but the quick answer is “No!”

So, how does one get published? It takes perseverence, the drive to never give up. First, you need a good story. Second, you need to write it. Third, and ongoing, you need to edit, edit, edit. And finally, you query and submit. If you’re lucky, a publisher will buy it (and perhaps through an agent). There’s no easy route. It is hard work.

I’ve spent many years learning how to write well. Writing fiction and writing for business or school are two completely different realms. Writing fiction involves knowing how to plot, create believable and likable characters (not necessarily “good” characters), and style. A common saying is that a writer has to write a million words of garbage first. That’s not necessarily true for everyone, but those first million words teach us how to write well and hone the craft. You’ll find limitless articles online and in magazines and books about the different aspects of writing. Critique groups and workshops are great for refining one’s prose.

Write whatever you want, if just for practice. One day you’ll strike upon the right idea. When that story is done, edit. You’ll probably never be satisfied that it’s at its best, no matter how many people tell you it’s good. Most writers I know always find something that could be made better. I will always see errors in my own works and want to change them. I want perfection, even if there’s no such thing.

At some point, that story will have to go out, if you want others to read it. But where? Do your homework. Research in books like the Writer’s Digest series or online resources like Agentquery.com, Preditors & Editors, agency/publisher websites (for the most accurate and updated information), and any of the other reliable websites. Find out the who, what, why, and how of querying/submitting and follow those guidelines. Read blogs like Miss Snark that provide excellent first-hand views from successful agents or editors. Ten years ago you couldn’t find half the good resources that we now have. Take advantage of what’s out there and take the time to find out where your story fits and how to go about getting it into the hands of the publisher you want.

It takes time and work. I’ll be the first to say it. But it is worthwhile when you receive that contract.

I must have one of the best babies of anyone I know.  How many people can only blame themselves for not getting enough sleep when they have such a good sleeper?  At five weeks, our newborn was sleeping 5 1/2 hours a night.  Since turning seven weeks old, she’s starting to put in 7-8 hours a night regularly.  The first couple of times, I worried if she was still alive.  (SIDS is something no mother wants to hear in reference to her own child.)  By the third time, I’ve gotten used to it.

She’s a great baby, like her older sister was, and I know I got lucky.  Her personality is different, but how much of that can we credit to genetics and how much to parenting?  In either case, I suppose her mom and dad can brag a bit