September Language of Worlds Linkup

Hello everyone! Happy official fall! 

It was downright chilly this morning, and I love it. Around here we’ve started chopping silage, so I’ve been spending most of my days at the outdoor kitchen making obscene amounts of casseroles for the guys, and hauling my laptop back and forth with me. 

It’s once again time for The Language of Worlds, hosted by Liv K. Fisher. Today I’m going to focus on Calgary from Blood and Dust. She’s my favorite. 

1.Your character is in crisis! Who is the first person they turn to?

Blake or Gil. Blake is a fellow saloon girl and downright sassy. I love her so much. She’s not afraid to tell anyone exactly what she thinks. Gil is the gang’s official messenger boy—except she’s actually a girl in disguise. Calgary falls back on both girls a lot when she needs help. Later in the book Cole also becomes a key support, but by at first. 

2. Who has their unconditional loyalty?

Gil. Calgary guards her secret with a passion. 

3. What cause do they believe in? Why?

She believes in Cole’s cause, to take down Dermott. It’s because she thinks it will help her find her missing friend, as well as gain her freedom to a life with more than killing. 

4. Are they easy to get along with?

Calgary is one of those people that would take the Facebook test to see how belligerent they are, thinking it was going to rate 100% and it would actually be more like 40. She’s a spitfire to be sure, and she makes life difficult for Cole, but in context of dealing with the Guns and Mr. Dermott, she’s pretty quiet and obedient. 

5. Are they a night owl or morning dove? (Or “weird daytime pigeon”?)

She’s both. Helping in the saloons she has to stay up late almost all the time. But she also gets up relatively early to start the next days meals and tend to her own work. 

6. What do they consider most vital to their health? Are they right?

Staying on Mr. Dermott’s good side, and washing her hands. She’s right on both accounts. Dermott is the “god” where she lives. Make him mad and you’re likely to disappear. And it’s a post apocalyptic setting with diseases running rampant. Cleanliness is next to godliness. 

7. What was their childhood fear?

That she would make a mistake and Dermott would notice her. That she wouldn’t be able to learn all the medical things her mom was trying to teach her and she’d be forced into being just another saloon girl. 

8. What do they have nightmares about?

Her mom. Being taken away. Her friends being taken away. 

9. What sights/sounds/smells remind them of home?

Gunpowder. Dirt. Homemade candles. 

10. What do they love most about themself?

That she overcomes. She’s always trying to be better. To learn more. To stay ahead of the game and be useful enough to keep herself safe. So far she’s been successful. 

Check out Liv’s blog for the questions, and to see what other people are answering! 

I’m off to bake a casserole.

The Language of Worlds~ August

Hi guys! 

Forgive me for missing last week. I helped work cattle all morning, then had a doctor appointment that afternoon. 

Today I’m joining in Liv K. Fisher’s linkup The Language of Worlds. 

1. How long have you been writing this story? 

The first draft of Blood and Dust was written during NaNoWriMo of 2017. I’m pretty sure that’s the first year I ever won. It was called Young Guns back then buy ended up being changed to The Guns for awhile. 

2. Who’s your favorite character? Why?

Oof. That’s so hard. I love so many of them. Cole, Calgary, Blake. Jason is rapidly climbing the ranks as a favorite. I think Calgary is my favorite though. She’s sassy, and strong, but also broken, vulnerable, and scared. She’s a lot of fun to write. 

3. Which character do you consider the “goodest of the good”?

Definitely Cole. He’s almost always a gentleman and tries to do the right thing. Although that is getting toned down just a tiny bit in this latest version. I’d still consider him the “goodest” though. 

4. Which character is the “baddest of the bad”?

Well the main villain, James Dermott, is definitely the worst of them, technically. I mean, he’s the one responsible for all of the troubles to begin with. But my personal burning hatred is reserved for Ridge—a gun hand who is terrible to Calgary. He’s terrible. 

5. If you were to have tea (or coffee!) with one character, which one would you pick? Why?

First of all, it’s coffee. Totally coffee. Coffee is sacred in this book. Anyway, I think I would pick Jason. Because he’s my small, injured baby. There’s a lot of layers to his character. He’s strong in some ways, and completely helpless in others. Things bother him so bad, and yet he doesn’t let on to any of it. He’s starved for personal relationships, but manages to butcher every one he has. Sounds like a perfect coffee companion. 

6. Describe your storyworld.

My story world takes place in the near future, after World War 3 ended. America went through an invasion and suffered heavy destruction, losing most of their electricity and ability to connect with each other coast to coast. Cole lives in Tennessee where the majority of the eastern countryside has rebuilt and is fully functional with a government and technology. They are actively working to reconstruct the other states. Artificial intelligence is a big part of life, but the world is still very recognizable as earth I think. 

Cody, Wyoming is where most of the book takes place. It’s in the Bomb Zone where reconstruction hasn’t started yet and the people there are even more isolated than most others in the Bomb Zone are. They live a very old style life—cooking over wood stoves, living off wild game and whatever foods they’re able to grow from seed year after year. They use the natural sulfur in the area to make their gunpowder, and anything that can make bullets is guarded and recycled vigilantly. Gangs are constantly at war in Cody. There are three of them holding different territories, with The Guns being the most powerful. People die constantly, everything is a fight for survival, and the whole place is generally wild, lawless, and terrified. 

7. You’ve fallen into your book! Which place would you be happiest at?

Noooo!! I don’t want to go!!! I guess I would pick Tennessee. Where things are safe and stable. Though I’d totally miss out on all the action. I might also hide out in Yellowstone Park. It’s beautiful, and generally undisturbed, and all I’d have to look out for is wild animals. 

8. Which place would you like to avoid at all costs? (Or, explore to know its secrets a little bit better?)

Cody. I’m pretty sure I’d get killed pretty fast. Then again, that’s where all the action is, so that’s totally where the best exploring would happen. 

9. Share an aesthetic!

10. Share a snippet!

“Where do you think they went?” Gil flipped the limp rag over her shoulder and got to work slicing chunks of venison into thin strips. 

“The cooks?” Calgary quartered a lumpy potato and threw it in the big stew pot.

“Yes.” Gil wrinkled her nose. “I don’t care where the Guns go.”

Calgary bit her lip and shrugged. “Wherever they all go, I guess.” 

“You think they just disappeared?” 

Calgary rolled her eyes. “No one just disappears. You know what I mean. There haven’t been any raids—and why would they take cooks anyway? It had to have been the other thing.” It sounded ridiculous coming out of her mouth, but what else was she supposed to call it? Random disappearances of women, with most of them resurfacing in a few months with no clues to where they’d been? That was another thing. 

Character Answers

Hi everyone!

As promised, today I’m here with answers to the Jason questions. I used the ones you sent me, along with a handful pulled from various online questionnaires.

As of this morning, I’m about halfway through Chapter 9 of Blood and Dust. Jason has made an appearance and gotten himself into a bunch of trouble.

Now, on to his answers. (By the way, I haven’t found a proper look-alike for him. I promise I did not write another character that looks just like Damon Salvatore. So any gifs used are more for the expression than his actual looks. All gifs are from Google.)

Q. Would you leave the Guns if you could?

…Well…Yeah, I mean. If I could. But there’s not really any way to. Not with my dad working alongside Dermott. The Tetons are decent, but they don’t have much. It’d just be trading one disaster for another.

Q. What’s a memory from your teenage years?

Heh, well the first one that comes to mind would be a few months ago when I found out my old man has another family outside of Cody and the boy was coming to help him with something. That was real nice. Apparently his other son is a better help to him than I am.

Q. More daredevil, or cautious?

Cautious gets you killed in Cody. If you hesitate, you die. It’s best to just dive in before anything else can happen.

Q. What is something you would fight for?

We fight for everything, I mean…What I would fight for? I guess, Mercedes. And Adam. Whatever was in my best interests.

Q. opinion on sex/relationships?

*ahem* relationships are kind of a tricky thing. I feel like you mean in the official sense, which…just doesn’t happen. But they’re nice while they last, I suppose. If you get lucky enough to have somebody of your own then you better enjoy it and try to take care of her, or else someone else will.

Q. Selfish or selfless?

Selfish.

(No, he’s selfless)

Yeah, no.

Q. What do you think of Cole?

I try not to. He’s annoying and in the way. Exactly what I would expect from someone who got to live somewhere else—away from the old man. He’s the lucky one. I don’t know why he’s all bent out of shape about be ‘left behind’. He didn’t miss anything.

Q. What seemingly insignificant memory has stuck with you?

Well…I don’t even know if it’s a memory. But, when I was a kid my mom was sick. It was the night she died, but I remember hearing her and my dad talking. I was half asleep, so I didn’t really hear the words, but I know they said my name. I could have swore they left the house together, but everyone said she died in the night. It makes a guy wonder though. I mean, girls disappear for months all the time for no reason…Except, she never came back.

Q. How is your relationship with your dad?

He comes in handy sometimes. I mean, he runs things. He can pull strings. The rest of the time we just kind of co-exist. He’s got this thing where he thinks I’m still nine and he can tell me what to do. Jokes on him—I never listened when I was nine either.

Q, Who is your best friend?

A guy named Adam. He was a Gun, but he defected over to the Tetons. Dermott wants his hide for that. But he’s a good guy, Adam. I don’t blame him for leaving.  He was just never mean enough for the Guns.

Q. What is your role in the Guns?

I get bounced around from place to place. The old man likes to keep me close by…for some reason. Dermott can’t seem to be rid of me fast enough. I don’t know what I did to either of them. Doesn’t take too long at a job before guys start complaining I’m somehow getting it easier than them because Dale Comstock is my dad. Most recently though I’ve been doing the water runs. It’s not a bad job, and for the most part I can do it alone.

Q. What do you love about this girl?

Mercedes? Well…I don’t know. I mean…she’s just nice, I guess. Those other girls are sassy. They’re fun and flirty, and Mercedes can do that too, but really she’s just sweet. I guess it’s partly because she actually likes me. She’s pretty too. Which, doesn’t hurt, obviously. She doesn’t try to mom or boss me. She lets me blaze if I want, or be down in the dumps, or just plain silly. She doesn’t care. She rolls with it all.

There ya have it! Thanks for the questions. I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little more about Jason and his story.

Help a Gal Out?

Hello everyone! 

Today, I’d like to ask your help.

I’m slowly making my way through some rewrites of Blood and Dust. (Excruciatingly slow, okay? Like, a paragraph per day) 

This is the blurb for it, if you’re not familiar. 

Cole Burns has a gun and a grudge, and that's all you need in post apocalyptic Cody, Wyoming to get yourself killed. Feisty saloon gal, Calgary Williams, told him so too, but Cole is too thick headed to listen. Trying to weave through a web of gang wars, gun men, and old lies can get real slippery when you're trying not to fall in love.

With the rewrites I have planned, that blurb will be changed a bit, but the essentials are still there. Cole travels to Wyoming where things have mysteriously never recovered from World War 3, and has reverted to a deadly version of the Old West.

He starts out just trying to reunite with his dad, but realizes pretty quickly that something is horribly wrong and starts trying to help Calgary and others escape. 

What I need you for is to help me flesh out a new character I’m adding. 

(Both pictures are from Pinterest. They’re not mine. And the outfits and such aren’t in context, the face just looks like him) 

Jason Comstock is sixteen/seventeen years old—roughly a year younger than Cole. 

The two are actually half brothers, but only Jason knows that at the beginning. 

He grew up in Wyoming and has thoroughly adopted the wild, lawless behavior that’s glorified there. 

He’s got a chip on his shoulder against their dad, but unlike Cole, it’s because he had to be raised by him, rather than feeling abandoned by him. 

He is a member of the Gun gang, but has a friend in a rival gang, so his commitment gets questioned a lot, and he can get himself into trouble over it pretty quickly. 

Where Cole is a bit more careful at thinking things through, Jason is hotheaded and loud. 

He’s got a girl (as yet unnamed) that he really does like, but he’s also very awful at expressing himself—especially in a nice way, so you’re not always sure he truly cares about her. 

And that’s all I’ve got. 

I could technically start filling out character questionnaires for him, and I probably will at some point, but some of the questions are kind of pointless, so I thought maybe you guys might have some questions about him that popped to mind as you read his description. 

It’s been just short of a century since I’ve done a character interview like this, but sometimes they work out really well, so I’m gonna give it a try. 

If you have any questions or suggestions for Jason, drop them in the comments, and I’ll answer them in one of the upcoming posts. 

Thanks guys! 

Language of Worlds—May/June

Hi guys! 

I’m rolling in a little late today. Henry and I went for a ride with Jarod this morning, and I had no ideas for a blog post. 

Luckily, Liv K. Fisher saved the day when she posted her Language of Worlds linkup for May/June. 

I’ve been working on a Viking story for the Go Teen Writers 100 for 100 challenge...which is hilarious because I haven’t written anything for three days. *distant sobbing*

The main character is a girl named Ailith. I’m still trying to figure her out, but these questions looked really good, so here we go. 

1. Your character goes on a leisurely stroll. Where to?

The currently unnamed world Ailith lives in is heavily inspired by the Scottish Highlands. It’s very lush, pretty countryside. So anywhere Ailith walks to is going to be fairly amazing. Mountains, streams, waterfalls. She’s particularly fond of the pools where the minerals make the water look impossibly blue. 

2. What's their favorite food? Why? What does it taste like?

I’m really not sure what all her people eat yet. Lots of wild game, and crops/vegetables they grow, plus whatever wild things they forage. But as far as favorites, there is a type of honey cake they make that Ailith really likes. 

3. Describe their typical day.

Wake up early and train with her shield bearer, Kaede, then get started with the days work. It could be fishing, working the fields, hunting, or tending things around the home. A midday meal with her family, and then finish up any work, and then spend the evening playing games or attending activities in the village. 

4. When are they most productive? Morning, evening, or sometime in-between?

She’s a morning person, definitely. 

5. Who are they closest to?

Her mom, and I think she’s going to have a sibling or two, but I’m still deciding. Probably Kaede though. They’ve been friends for years, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to end up my favorite. 

6. Have they ever lost someone close to them?

She lost her dad in a raid several years ago. Her clan isn’t necessarily a warring one, but there are frequent raids and revenge fights, so she’s lost lots of friends and relatives along the way. 

7. Describe their education.

She can read and write in her language, and—along with all the other young people—grew up learning the stories of their history, and all about how to live and work off the land. 

8. What is their talent?

I know she’s an excellent fighter, but haven’t figured anything out beyond that yet. 

9. When do they doubt themself? What makes them do so?

I don’t know yet, I’m still working on that part. But I think it has something to do with her fighting skills failing her. That her sword isn’t enough and she doesn’t know what else to turn to. 

10. When do they feel most comfortable/cozy?

Sitting around the fire in the evening with her family and Kaede, enjoying each other’s company. 

There you go! 

You can scurry over to 

https://livkfisher.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-language-of-worlds-character-linkup.html?m=1

To see the other linkups.