Antonio de Pereda - The Knight's Dream (Found on Wikipedia)

That was years ago, and the journey between then and now has taken me through a continual adventure of learning to interpret supernatural dreams…and following where they may point. Sometimes I’ve missed the interpretation and learned from my mistakes. I’m still learning. But I’ve also managed to have some good results. Because of dreams, I have ended up: going back to school, traveling to various countries and not to others, telling friends information about their situations there was no other way I could know, pursuing certain friendships, and even not dating certain men. Yup. Dreams are an important part of my life. And that’s one of the reasons I used dreams so extensively in The Realm: The Awakening Begins.

I don’t believe all dreams are supernatural or even that all supernatural dreams are from a good source. But there are ones that are pure and good, and those are the ones I look for and give weight to.

Have you ever had a supernatural dream you listened to? What happened?

My other favorite place to write is in bed. I think I’ve written the majority of both my novels sitting in a bed. Why? I’ve found that I write best when I’m completely relaxed. I want somewhere to lean my head, and I want my feet up (thus currently on the reclining sofa). Maybe I’m weird or unusual. I mean, it is hard for me to write with my feet on the ground. Is that weird? Yeah, I’m sure it is. But I’m okay with that.

I’ve had people say they think they’d fall asleep if they wrote or worked in bed. Is that bad? In my case, I just assume that if I fall asleep, I must really need the rest. I find that my best work is done when I’m rested…and relaxed. The ideas flow, it’s easier to keep track of all the plot lines and developments, I’m not stressed. THAT is when I write my best.

When and where do you work best? Give us your tips, thoughts and ideas.

In comes my talented friend and his wife who make up the band called The Majestic High (Andi Roselund & Cindi Kim). They’re AMAZING. Together, they took lyrics I wrote as kind of a theme song for The Realm Series (the first few verses are in book 1 of the series), then composed and recorded a hauntingly beautiful piece.

And guess what!? It’s finally available this week! You can find it on iTunes or probably just about any other digital music site, as well as on my website, here. The name of the song is “Love Forever Wins” and will come up in iTunes if you type in the title and “Andi Roselund.”

I hope you will give it a listen, download it and get carried away into the beauty of The Realm. Andi also did the amazing soundtrack for the audio book of The Realm: The Awakening Begins. I can’t rave about his music enough.

We’re currently working on some songs mentioned in 2108: Eyes Open as well as a full album of music inspired by The Realm. It’s such fun to cross over the boundaries of various artforms, blend them and create more beauty. Who says you can’t have music that goes with a book?!

* Push the boundaries, pursue what you love, do what you’re gifted to do…even if it’s not the normal. Bring the beauty to earth you were born to bring *

]]> http://klglanville.com/2012/05/who-says-you-cant-have-a-theme-song-for-a-book/feed/ 0 http://klglanville.com/2012/04/gift-from-my-book-spy-book-review-un-lun-dun/ http://klglanville.com/2012/04/gift-from-my-book-spy-book-review-un-lun-dun/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:11:02 +0000 klglanville http://klglanville.com/?p=561 Read More...]]> My rating of this book: ☆☆☆ out of 5 stars

I think I originally found this book among the towers and stacks of books in my Book Spy’s living room during a visit. But alas, my visit was short, and I didn’t get to finish it. So she thoughtfully bought me my own copy for Christmas, because, well, that’s what great Book Spies do for their friends! Right?

Un Lun Dun is a VERY creative book, and the author, China Mieville, obviously had a lot of fun coming up with all sorts of wacky things. But before I tell more of my thoughts on it, let me tell you a bit about the story.

Un Lun Dun is Un-London–a kind of alternate reality version of the city of London that is bizarre and uniquely interconnected with, as well as interdependent on, the city of London. Things are similar, yet oddly different in Un Lun Dun. One thing they share, however, is a common enemy. In step two school girls from London. Their hero status seems foretold in the prophesies of Un Lun Dun. Yet things do not unravel quite according to plan. For the Londoners, surprises, adventures and dangers await around every odd corner.

I will admit, I am particularly biased toward books where the character development is deep, rich and thorough. I like to know my characters inside and out. And that was probably my one disappointment with this book. I didn’t feel like I really got to know the main character as much as I would have liked. I wanted to know more of what made her tick!

Besides that, the creativity of Mieville is quite extraordinary. The book is probably even a much richer treat for those who have lived in or spent a good amount of time in London. But you don’t have to have visited London to appreciate fun and funky buildings, people, creatures and predicaments. If you like to be immersed in the zany and wacky, you’ll probably love visiting Un Lun Dun.

My favorite part however, was getting to read out loud from part of 2108: Eyes Open. Starting on page 41. That’s where the excitement REALLY begins. I got caught up in the adventure and drama of the story. Some of my former students were there and one said it reminded him of our read alound times after lunch…years ago. Reading out loud is wonderful.

If you’re a writer, it’s one way to tell if your writing really flows and works. An editor once told me I should read my whole book out loud, at least once, while editing. It’s amazing how many things you can find to change when you read your words aloud. And you’ll find even more to add or change if you read it aloud to someone else. They’ll ask questions or look confused…and then you can change things accordingly. Thankfully, no one looked confused Sunday as I read. And the only question was, “You’re going to stop there?” I wanted to keep reading, but hey, I also wanted them to buy the book!

So, when I discovered I would be on the East Coast the day of the book launch, it seemed totally appropriate to have a little launch/book signing party in the upstairs tree-house-ish loft area of a cafe that seems completely sculpted out of wood.

The book is launched!

Make sure and check out last weeks blog post for links to all my fun blog tour stops happening this week!

What is a blog tour? I’m glad you asked. Up until recently, I actually didn’t know either. Simply put, it’s a virtual tour for my book. From April 9-16, different bloggers will feature my book on their blog site in some way or other. It might be a book review, a giveaway, a guest post by me, an interview with me or one of my characters, or any combination of these. It’s been fun corresponding various bloggers around the country and world, answering questions, and setting up the tour. Below, check out the listings and links of all the blogs I’ll be “visiting” this next week. I hope you’ll scope out their sites and enjoy going on tour with me!

Monday, April 9:  Mother Daughter Book Club (guest post & giveaway)

Wednesday, April 11: Chapter by Chapter (book review & giveaway)

Thursday, April 12: Beautiful Blank Pages (author interview & giveaway), Adriana Ryan’s Blog (author interview & giveaway), Book Journey (book review)

Friday, April 13: My Guilty Obsession (book review & character interview with Jewel)

Saturday, April 14: The Children’s and Teen’s Book Connection (author interview)

Sunday, April 15: Stiletto Story Time (book review & giveaway)

Date Change: *Tuesday, April 17: Young Adult Books–What We’re Reading (book review)

The editing process is one of my least favorite parts of writing. At times, it can be tedious and painful. Sometimes I have to scrap entire scenes I thoroughly enjoyed fleshing out, scenes that felt like they had to be a part of the story. One thing I’ve learned, however, is that handing a manuscript to someone for proofreading is best thought of as asking the person to, “Please help me make my book better!”

With 2108: Eyes Open, there was something that came up a couple times from a few different readers. Some of them wanted to get into the action sooner. Whereas I was content to explore Jewel’s world for four chapters before adding some major drama, others wanted the drama earlier. I had wanted to create a sense of Jewel living in a bubble, and just when the reader was lulled into a place of pleasant contentment, “Pop!” goes the bubble. I made a compromise. At the last moment, I took out the fourth chapter, spread the important contents of it throughout the book, and decided to “pop the bubble” in chapter four instead of five.

For those who are curious, chapter four used to be about Jewel discovering she had accidently left her widge in Hope and Loyal’s Aerokopa. Jewel was not too excited about having to meet up with Hope again so quickly to get her widge back. What made it worse was that Hope came over to Jewel’s house to return the widge. This wouldn’t seem like a problem, except that to be polite, Jewel then had to give Hope a tour of their house and especially her room. This was to be the scene where Hope found out Jewel liked making miniatures and invited her to dinner. The chapter didn’t really move the plot along much at all. It just kind of meandered. So I cut it. Two important things I wanted to salvage from that chapter were Jewel and Hope’s discovery of their common interest in miniatures and the description of Jewel’s room. So I had to find other ways to include them. I think it worked out all right . . . and made the story better.

Pictures also came into the editing process. Because I took out the original chapter four, I had an extra picture. That is why chapter four now has two pictures. Why should I be stingy and only give you one of them? If you continue checking on the pictures in each chapter, however, you’ll notice there is no picture in chapter six. What happened? I wasn’t being stingy. I actually wanted to show you what a punga tree fern looks like. They’re so beautiful and quite prolific in New Zealand. I dutifully drew a somewhat decent rendering of one. But apparently I drew it too big or detailed . . . or something to be scaled correctly for the novel. In the first few proof copies I ordered, it looked like the printer had run out of ink. And that seemed tacky. SO it got axed. But I’ve pasted it below in case you’re curious. I’d encourage you to Google punga tree ferns. The real things are absolutely gorgeous . . .

My friend spies on the British for me. It’s nice to have my own personal spy. I never thought I’d have one, but now I do. Okay, she might not be just spying for me, and she may not be your average, everyday, espionage kind of spy, but she’s a spy nonetheless. She finds all sorts of fascinating books and novels by British authors . . . and then tells me all about them. Come to think of it, she’s a pretty good spy on the American front too. If I’m ever at a loss for what to read, I only have to give her a ring, visit her living room, or look up her goodreads.com page. She is a veritable storehouse of recommendations.

Now I can’t keep all the benefits of having a personal spy to myself, can I? So I thought I’d share with you (hopefully, I’ll convince her to do some guest posts on here soon too).

My favorite book by a British author that she’s told me about so far is Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher.

It’s about a prison, but don’t let that scare you away. Incarceron is a prison where supposedly no one enters or leaves. A place where people were given everything they needed to create a utopia . . . and yet it has become just the opposite. There is a boy locked away in Incarceron who doesn’t know his history, yet believes he may have come from outside. And there’s a girl, on the outside who might just be on the trail of finding a way in. The world she lives in has been forced into a veneer of perfection.

It’s a mind-bending, surprising and refreshing story. The world Fisher creates is extremely unique and fascinating, yet not too strange that your mind is constantly fighting to keep up. She’s written a clever combination about curious technology, human weaknesses and persistence in seeking the truth. The follies and beauty of humanity are seen against the backdrop of striving for reality and perfection. I highly recommend it! And so does my spy.

If you want to see a few more of my favorite books, you can check out some here on this page of my website (Some of K.L. Glanville’s Favorite Reads), or here on my goodreads account. I’m currently reading another book by a British author that my spy told me about. I’ll fill you in on that one when I’m done!

I researched future technology predictions, current cutting edge technology, genetic alteration, GMO’s, futuristic architecture, what people think about aliens, and whatever other fascinating trails I came across. Fascinating stuff! From all of that, I “created” the world that I wanted . . . well, parts of it I don’t really want, but wanted to write about!

Somewhere in there, I stumbled upon transhumanism. I’m not sure how. Probably in the Google results of something like “futuristic technology.” A short explanation of transhumanism might go something like, “the pursuit of enhancing people through genetics and technology.” The Wikipedia description (linked to above) is a good intro, though fairly tame. Some of the things I read on other sites can make your skin crawl . . . actually the Wikipedia one can too. There are people seriously wanting to alter human genetics so that people have enhanced attributes. One way would be by giving people attributes belonging to animals. Like say, eyes that can see in the dark like cats. That was the inspiration for Rove, one of the minor characters in 2108: Eyes Open.

Or they want to figure out a way to integrate technology with the human body—whether through bionic enhancements or computer integration in the brain, etc. Some of these things, I found interesting and helpful when thinking about medical issues. But other ones . . . wow. Where are the boundaries?! There are actually a number of debates around the world right now trying to decide, “how far can we ethically go?” Some people want to push the limits as far as they can go. Others want to remain true and faithful to the original design. That is one of the global struggles I tried to flesh out in 2108: Eyes Open.

So . . . I guess I learned that writing about the future can require lots of research too. I’m not sorry I had to research for this book. It was fascinating, mind stretching . . . sometimes scary . . . but definitely worth doing.