CHRISTINA FARLEY GUEST POST AND GILDED SERIES GIVEAWAY

Happy Monday Everyone! Hope you had a fantastic week. I had a great time in Texas helping my mother-in-law celebrate her 80th birthday. 

Today I'm excited to have Christina Farley here to help celebrate the release of BRAZEN, her final book in her YA multicultural fantasy series. This is a fantastic post that I hope you'll enjoy.

Here's a blurb of BRAZEN from Goodreads:

Sworn to an ancient god of darkness, Jae Hwa fights to gain her freedom and restore the balance of Korea… but first she must gain back the trust of her loved ones.

Jae Hwa Lee spent her sixteenth year in Seoul, trying to destroy the evil immortals who had been torturing her family for centuries. The last thing she expected was to be forced to become their assassin. Trapped in the darkest part of the Spirit World as a servant to the Korean god Kud, fighting to keep her humanity, and unable to contact her loved ones, Jae Hwa is slowly losing hope. Kud, god of darkness, will do anything to keep her as a pawn in his quest for power over all of Korea, her entire family thinks she’s dead, and Jae’s true love, Marc, believes she is lost to him forever.

When Kud sends Jae to find and steal the powerful Black Turtle orb, Jae sees an opportunity to break free and defeat Kud once and for all…but first she needs to regain Marc’s trust and work with him to vanquish the darkness that threatens to overwhelm Korea. There’s much to lose as Jae struggles to save the land she’s come to call home.

Now here's Christina!

Tips for Writing the World of Your Imagination

1.      Bridge your readers from the real world to a fantasy world:

With the Gilded series, I wrote about Korean mythology and set my story in South Korea, North Korea, and China. I knew that most of my readers would be teens living in North America.

So my challenge was:

How do I make my North American readers who have grown up with European myths and fairy tales be able to identify with myths and creatures that they have never heard before?

·         Used Familiar Settings: I decided to set the story at an international school where 50% of the population was American and the other 50% was from students around the world. International schools are run very much like American schools so I knew my readers would find that familiar and would ground them. Plus I was teaching at this one so I knew this setting inside and out!

·         Used Familiar Emotions: The protagonist in my story is Jae Hwa Lee. I honed in on her emotions of wanting to fit in and searching for her identity to connect my readers to her. Many teens today deal with these issues and can relate to Jae’s emotions and frustrations.

·         Used Familiar Traits: When developing the mythological creatures in my story, I gave each one human traits. One example is the Haechi who is perhaps my favorite character. In the legends, he’s the protector of Seoul, resembling a lion with dragon-like scales and horns. But I didn’t want him to be just a random protector. I wanted my readers to fall in love with this creature. So not only did I make him wise and strong like the legends, but I also sprinkled a little dry sense of humor and impatience, which are human traits.

2.      Craft a Unique Setting

The setting of your story should be unique, and yet, some of the most beautifully crafted YA fantasies

have been built using known civilizations.

Examples of these are:

·         Silver Phoenix and Serpentine by Cindy Pon (China)

·         Prophesy by Ellen Oh (Korea)

·         The Young Elites by Marie Lu (Renaisaance Italy)

·         Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (Russia)

·         The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski (Roman)

For the Gilded series, I used the ancient Korean culture from the Silla Dynasty to craft its fantasy elements. The architecture, dress, food, weaponry, landscape, everything in my fantasy world was historically accurate and pulled from that time period. I spent countless hours visiting museums, ancient palaces, and temples for my research. Lucky for me, I lived in Korea for eight years and was able to hit the subway to reach my destination whenever I needed it.

3.      Determine Your Rules and Stick to Them

I strongly recommend for all writers, especially fantasy writers, to keep a bible that denotes your world’s rules and all the details for these rules. This way, once you have made a rule, you’re able to keep track of what you’ve created since it’s critical you stick to that rule. Nothing will lose an author’s credibility faster than if they don’t follow their own rules.

Key Points to Remember:

·         Be consistent

·         Believable

·         Establish rules without info dump

·         Every rule has it’s antithesis

·         Without balance, you will have no mystery

·         Give your rules limitations

For more tips on writing fantasy, I’ve teamed up with some other authors who share their tips on writing fantasy. You can watch the video here.

Remember that only YOU can write YOUR world so remember to pour all that is unique and special about you into your story. Wishing you all the best as you write your fantasy novel!

For more tips on writing, visit my website here.

To learn more about this series, visit the Gilded Series website.

Book Trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7nfOeQdp4s

About the Author:

CHRISTINA FARLEY is the author of the Gilded series, a YA contemporary fantasy series set in Korea, and the upcoming MG, PRINCESS & THE PAGE, a contemporary fantasy set in France. GILDED was nominated for Korea’s 2014 Morning Calm, Ohio’s 2015 Buckeye award, and Tomes It List. As a child, she loved to explore, which later inspired her to jump on a plane and travel the world. Christina's adventures sparked her to write stories, infusing the real world with fantasy. Currently she writes from home in Clermont, FL with her husband and two sons—that is until the travel itch whisks her off to a new unknown.

Find Christina here:

Website: ChristinaFarley.com

Twitter: @ChristinaFarley

YouTube: www.youtube.com/chocolateinspired

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChristinaFarleyAuthor

Tumblr: http://christinafarley.tumblr.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6588802

Instagram: http://instagram.com/christinalfarley

Christina has generously offered a copy of the entire Gilded series to one winner. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment through November 7th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter either contest.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. This is for U.S.

Here's what's coming up:

On Monday I have an interview with Laura Resau and a giveaway of her MG multicultural THE LIGHTENING QUEEN.

The Monday after that I'll have a guest post by debut author Ryan Dalton and a giveaway of his YA science fiction mystery THE YEAR OF LIGHTENING.

Hope to see you on Monday!