Val Neil

Dark Fantasy Author

fantasy

Val’s Audiobook Recommendations

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Most of these will be fantasy, though I do read in other genres. All links are affiliate (I earn a smidgen from any sales, at no extra cost to you).

The Greenbone Saga by Fonda Lee – Japanese-inspired Dark Urban Fantasy Gang War

  • memorable characters who make bad decisions based on their personalities
  • martial arts/magic mash up
  • political intrigue
  • realistic, well-written villain
  • Asian, disabled, bi, and gay rep
  • open door sex scenes, which I dislike, but can be skipped
  • BIPOC author, excellent narration

Between Earth and Sky by Rebecca Roanhorse – Indigenous-inspired Epic Dark Fantasy Religious Conflict

  • main characters are on opposite sides of the same conflict
  • a blind warrior god-avatar, a bisexual siren ship captain, a naïve priest who just wants everyone to get along 
  • religion grants magic
  • political intrigue
  • crows
  • BIPOC, disabled, and LGBTQ rep
  • multiple narrators

Orconomics by J. Zachary Pike – D&D-inspired Satirical Look at the True Costs of Adventuring

  • dysfunctional D&D group with a goblin mascot
  • healing potion addicts
  • lots of humor but serious stakes
  • I told my D&D group about this. Three of them immediately read it and loved it.
  • SPFBO Winner
  • great narration

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne – Norse-inspired Epic Dark Fantasy

  • down on his luck guy bent on revenge, retired badass who just wants to be left alone, princess who gave up her life to go raiding
  • more people on opposite sides of same conflict
  • lots of violence and monsters
  • god-descended people are feared and rounded up to be made slaves
  • zealots trying to bring back a dead god

Catch Me if You Can by Frank W. Abagnale – Teenage Conartist Scams His Way Across the Globe

  • definitely worth a listen even if you’ve seen the movie as they’re pretty different
  • Abagnale rationalizing his worst decisions and making himself out to be awesome, but it’s highly entertaining
  • just fucking FUN
  • narrator uses old-timey voice that’s perfect
  • Abagnale’s claims have been disputed so don’t take this at face value

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – Guy Sent into Space to Save the World has Amnesia

  • hard sci-fi
  • two timelines (current and flashbacks)
  • it’s really hard to talk about this one without giving away major spoilers
  • science!
  • touching relationship

The Rebel Diaries is Here!

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What happens when the villain wins?

Sick of dashing debonairs? Fed up of being blinded by shining armor?

Sometimes, all a girl wants is a villain for a hero. The Rebel Diaries anthology centers characters who aren’t afraid of getting what they want, causing a bit of chaos, dabbling in mischief and mayhem, and slathering on the sarcasm. These sassy tales are littered with questionable morals and happy endings—for the villains anyway.

Thirteen stories take you on a rollercoaster of grumpy witches, literary thieves, terrifying orphans, ghosts, pirates, snarky demons, skull drinking book worms, sociopaths, superheroes and ex-celebrities. Each story is utterly unique in its voice, tone and shape and yet, they’re all united by one glorious gift: rebellion.

Get it now.

Classic Movies: Willow

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It’s been difficult to  write lately, even though I’m stuck at home with lots of free time. Lately I’ve been refilling my creative well by watching or reading old favorites.

willow-photo-warwick-davis-1021582-e1556880337847

The movie follows Willow, a farmer who performs magic tricks and dreams of being a real sorcerer. While his village lives in peace, the rest of the country is torn by war, as people fight against the evil queen Bavmorda. A prophesy tells of a child bringing down the queen, and when Willow’s family finds the baby floating in the river, he is tasked with protecting her. It’s a typical good vs. evil flick, with magic, monsters, chase scenes, and humorous interactions between characters.

willow4

Stuff I Love About this Movie

  • Madmartigan screaming at a troll
  • A brownie putting the moves on a cat
  • “I will not be ignored!”
  • Two old women having a knock-down fist fight
  • Madmartigan going all Home Alone on an army
  • “You NEVER go that fast with an infant on board!”
  • Willow threatening Madmartigan with an acorn
  • The two-headed dragon monster
  • Karma for Burglekutt
  • Apple boobies
  • the sled scene
  • the creepy-ass wails you hear throughout the movie
  • Sorsha insulted when Madmartigan stops liking her
  • Willow’s failed attempts to use magic
  • The horsedrawn cart chase scene
  • Opposing parenting strategies
  • The fucking pig scene scarred me as a kid

sorcha

Also, can I just say how nice it is to have a movie with several female leads on both sides? And different ages (again, old lady fight!).

Willow’s village is also awesome. Instead of going all LOTR and shrinking down standard-sized actors, they employ a bunch of little people* to play the Nelwyn. Roles for little people usually make them the butt of jokes or relegate them to nonhuman characters with enough make up and prosthetics to make the actors unrecognizable. Warwick Davis, the actor who plays Willow, began his career playing the Ewok Wicket. The Nelwyn characters are varied, from political bully to sage sorcerer to warrior to loyal BFF to loving family. Willow may face prejudice and slander away from his home, but it’s a nice change to see a community of little people normalized.

If you love fantasy/adventure and haven’t already seen Willow, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s got action, adventure, comedy, trickery, magic–all the cool stuff. And if you’re a writer, this is an excellent example of the Hero’s Journey.

* someone please correct me if that term is incorrect, going off googled preferences here

Images belong to Lucasarts or whoever currently has the rights to Willow. Copyright © 2020 Val Neil. All rights reserved.

The End of NaNoWriMo

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NaNo is coming to a close soon. I normally have a pretty regular schedule for my writing. This month is been go go go the whole time. On the one hand, I’m up to chapter 26, but I’ve been neglecting this blog and my critique partners. I can’t wait to take a bit of a break.

I recently bought Dragon Naturally Speaking and that has helped me get words out faster. That said, I’m now working with chapters that were originally written for book 1, so most of what I’m doing is editing/rewriting to fit the new timeline. Dictation isn’t quite as good for that. It’s much better for just a rough draft getting the story out. I’m using it to write this right now, allowing me to look away from my screen and focus on my fidget. It’s pretty cool, and I’ll have to make a blog post about it when I have more time.

I just wanted to get something up right now. So I thought I’d give you a sneak peek of my chapter titles for book 2. Some of these are placeholders and some of them might change.

working chapter titles

If you’re still working on NaNo and you’re not close to hitting the 50K, remember that it’s about building daily writing habits. Whatever you’ve written this month, that’s more than you had when you started. Keep plugging away. I hope to have my first draft of book 2 finished by the end of December. That means I will have written book 2 in two and half months. Book one, because I had no idea what the fuck I was doing, took seven months.

Copyright © 2019 Val Neil. All rights reserved.

 

Almost Done!

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I’m up to chapter 35 of ~37. I’m in the home stretch with my edits! And that is scary as hell. This last pass has been super hard. I did a developmental edit on myself, cut multiple subplots, added in a new POV (along with her subplots)–progressall while trying to stay a few chapters ahead of my critique partners (that didn’t work).

When this draft is done, I need to do a few more sweeps:

  • Knock off To Do list of minor fixes
  • Go through my crutch words and replace
  • Run chapters 10+ through Natural Reader

Once all that is done, I can get my manuscript out to more beta readers while I look for an editor. I need to find one that knows fantasy.

With any luck, I’ll be able to start writing book two for NaNoWriMo, though I hope to start even earlier. In October, I want to fuck off for a week to my mom’s house (6+ hours away) and just WRITE. I did a lot of writing last Thanksgiving and Christmas, because I was sick and able to “rest” upstairs (writing is resting, right?) while other people tended the kids. I need that kind of uninterrupted focus again, where I can churn out 2-3k words a day.

With all the subplots I cut, I already have 30-40k of words going into book two. The next two books are going to interlock pretty heavily and I’m not sure where to cut off certain plot points, so I may have to do the dreaded outlining thing.

Copyright © 2019 Val Neil. All rights reserved.