Kim Falconer

Hi Everyone! Feb 2: Book Trailer! And, February Tip 0 the Month is up! Also, What Obstacles? I'm bloging about Mother Earth, place as person in storytelling, Isis and the Via Combusta and Saturn-Neptune's cycle of chop wood carry water! Join in the chats! (how fast did January go????)

Jan 31: I'm bloging about Mother Earth, place as person in storytelling, Isis and the Via Combusta and Saturn-Neptune's chop wood carry water cycle! Join in the chats!

Jan 20: Chinese New Year of the Dragon, Astro-LOA is live!

January 17: If you liked my book covers you can vote for my illustrator in the David Gemmell Awards! I just did - Road to the Soul :)

Jan 6: Full moon scopes are up on the blog and on the site. (always a little extra rave on the blog!)

I've also put up some more reviews (including Daughter of Smoke and Bone) and a chat about the Draconic Sun and individuation. Comments always welcome!

The IS FOUNDATION aims to empower, educate and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures. . . .The global problems and challenges we are facing are infinitely interconnected and co-dependent, therefore our solutions and actions must be enacted in an interconnected manner. Join the IS Foundation to support and honour Mother Earth

Relax with Mars retrograde. Mars has ‘stopped’ in the sky and is turning retrograde on the fixed star Epsilon Carina, once part of the great ship of Argos. This is so apt! Think of it as a settling time in your journey, a chance to fit your sails, adjust the heading and make ready for perfect progress through smooth seas. Allow for success!

Hard Heroes Part I & Part II Recently Tarran Jones asked how do I manage to make my characters harder without being too hard? I immediately thought of three things—truth, goals and flaws. In this two part post I discuss writing characters with edge, inner or outer. Joining me in the discussion are Jennifer Fallon, Traci harding, K J Taylor, Duncan Lay, Mary Victoria, Tracey O'Hara, Stacia Kane, Niclole Murphy, and Satima Favell. In Part II the necessity of the flaw is considered from different angles.

Chinese New Year of the Dragon 2012 The year of the Water Dragon brings strength, power and a link to the divine for all in 2012. It's an electric energy that is looking to expand with optimism and a pioneering spirit. But a Dragon, you say? Don't they amass gold and kidnap virgins? Not these dragons! We have to remember that the Chinese Dragon is not the kind Tolkien wrote about in The Hobbit, not our Western mythic creature that knights had to slay to rescue captured princesses. Dragons in the East are revered. More here . . .

Bringing Characters to Life or Why zombies make rotten lovers … by Kim Falconer
It takes more than a description and a few lines of dialogue to bring characters to life. They must be fleshed out in believable ways—grow, change, exhibit emotions (or repress them), have likes and dislikes, flaws and attributes. Basically, they have to be ‘real’ people. Read how authors develop their characters.

Workshop Notes and Links for Emerging Writers by Kim Falconer
For those who missed my various workshops, all notes and slide presentations are up on KimFalconer.com. Learn about writing dark heroes, making your readers fall into the story and find out about opportunities for emerging writers. There are also links to articles for creative writers from promoting yourself via social media to creating new characters from scratch! Feel free to browse. More going up all the time!

Defining Strong Female Characters  Back in the day, strong women, (where strong equals powerful/autonomous) were evil. Insert social subtext: It’s bad for women to be powerful, or worse perhaps, only bad women can be powerful). Snow White’s step mother was very strong but not many girls wanted to be like her. Macbeth’s three ‘hags’ had it all going on, brewing their ‘Charm of powerful trouble,’ but they were feared at best, despised at worst. Certainly they were not venerated. This social subtext might read – a woman’s intuition is a source of power but she has to get down, dirty and ugly to use it. Read full article . . .

Creating New Souls by Kim Falconer The inspiration for Road to the Soul came like a match strike, lit by my publisher Stephanie Smith in the spring of 2008. I wasn’t looking for ideas at the time or even thinking about new characters. Far from it! Stephanie and I were going over the ‘proof reader queries’ for The Spell of Rosette, a gruelling process of discussing the copyedit questions. Read more of Kim's blog posts on the HarperCollins Voyager Blog. . . . The big question Road to the Soul asks is where in the darkness is love? That’s what I’m looking for, and I had to turn out a lot of lights to find it. Read full article . . .

Kim Falconer, a real conqueror... (exclusive interview by My Horoscope) In our quest to cast light to gifted consultants and talented astrologers and authors, I’d like to introduce for the first time to the Greek astrology lovers, Kim Falconer, one of the most eminent astrologers, and promising writers who has earned aknowledgment and respect, throughout the world. Being naturally talented, smart and voluminous, Kim wrote her first story about a Halloween cat, at the age of five. She 's been daydreaming ever since and as herself describes it "I now daydream for a living". Read more . . .

Frodo or Froda: Switching Gender in Speculative Fiction How is speculative fiction representing gender? Are we writing brave new worlds of equality or reinforcing more traditional roles? A quick way to assess gender bias is to give the protagonist a sex change and see if the plot still holds. I tried this on my first love, LOTR. (I am a huge Tolkien fan. I actually leaned Elvish when I was a teen so I could write in my diary without fear of discovery!) However, when Frodo becomes female, the story just doesn’t work. Tolkien wrote in a masculinist hegemony, and it shows. Read more . . .

To ‘e’ or Not to ‘e’ Those hoping for insights into recreational drug use, sorry to disappoint. The ‘e’ in the title is for ‘electronic,’ specifically the electronic delivery of books. It’s a hot topic, all across the board—publishers, authors, editors, agents, booksellers and readers are in this boat together and how it’s going to rock is anybody’s guess. Read more . . .

Astrology & LOA Transits: On April 20, 2010 we enter a new era. Chiron, the maverick ‘planetoid’ orbiting between Saturn and Uranus will enter the sign of Pisces for the first time in over fifty years. This heralds a shift, both inner and outer. To understand it, we need to examine what Chiron is and what he represents. Not all astrologers agree when it comes to synchronicity with this body . . . Read more . . .

Strange Attractors is out February 1, 2010!
Corsanon's warriors are a vanished race, defeated in the temple wars long ago, or so Rosette thought. She changes her mind when the portal drops her in the middle of an armed legion. Before she and Drayco can escape, Teg is injured and the Sword Master imprisoned. The glamour she spins to rescue her father sets in motion a series of events .. . . . More

Arrows of Time by Kim Falconer Book Two in the Quantum Enchantment series.
When Rosette and Jarrod spin off in different directions she is caught in a loop of repeating events.Time is their only hope, and it′s playing tricks ... More

The Spell of Rosette by Kim Falconer. Book One in the Quantum Enchantment series.

Rosette is a child of two worlds: Gaela, steeped in magic, and Earth choked with failing technology. The key to their survival is literally in her blood . . . More

Hara: Author Kim Falconer on Iaido and The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior — The Art of the Samurai. It's not every day that you get to meet a fantasy fiction author skilled in the ancient art of the Samurai sword, who takes the energy of hara and transposes it beautifully into her writing as the force of “magic” that ebbs through her literary creations.

Marcus talks to Kim Falconer, Iaido practitioner and author of The Spell of Rosette to dig deep into this titillating fusion of Japanese swordsmanship, speculative fiction, and the energetic system that lies at the very heart of Reiki and all traditional Japanese art forms. Story by Marcus / Lake Forest, California / March 27 2009 Read the full interview . . .

The Sacred Tattoo For all its recent popularity, a tattoo is more than an adornment or a fashion statement. The entire process—the idea, designing, placement and receiving—is like an initiation. Something is evoked. When approached with clear intention and reverence, one can’t help but be transformed. Voyager Online Guest Blog

Sentience by Kim Falconer Blogging for Voyager Online. What is sentience? Is it sapience, intelligence, consciousness? The definition can blur between self-awareness, compassion, identity, sense of joy/suffering and also to adapt, judge and change. Sentient entities are generally considered deserving of moral rights, respect, and freedom. Do these qualities belong to humans only? If not, where do we create distinctions? Read more . . .

Specusphere An interview with Kim falconer by Astrid Cooper. The Spell of Rosette describes Rosette as being a child of two worlds: ‘Gaela’, steeped in magic and an Earth choked with failing technology and that the key to their survival is in a spell Rosette carries in her blood. Do you think that people have become disenchanted with science/technology, that the answer may lie in the best of both worlds—technology and ‘magic’ Read more . . .

A Vampire Goes on a Journey: Kim Falconer blogs: One of the most riveting Flycon panels, hosted by A Writer Goes on a Journey with Ross Hamilton moderating, was The Evolution of the Vampire. Stephanie Gildart, Pati Nagle and Jeri Smith-Ready discussed the hypnotic quality of vampires and how they have changed over time. From Bram Stoker to Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyers, vampires in literature were compared and contrasted. Read more . . .

Vertex Astrology by Kim Falconer The vertex is a theoretical point in the heavens where the ecliptic--the apparent orbit of the Sun around the earth-- crosses the prime vertical-the plane that runs at right angles to the meridian and divides the celestial sphere from front to back. Already, it sounds fishy. A theoretical point? But what does it mean? The word vertex comes from the Latin root word vertere, meaning to change, to turn, turn frequently or spin. Read more . . .