Beautiful Bookmarks from L. Ryan Storms

One day a 5amwritersclub Twitter friend, L. Ryan Storms, posted her beautiful bookmarks on Twitter - and I couldn't help "Ooohing" and "Ahhing" a bit.

So Storms offered to send some to me.

They arrived on a chaotic day (too many days are chaotic of late), and I set them aside with a "for later" pile.

I finally had a free day Tuesday, and I tackled that pile. And there they were, even more beautiful "in person."

For those who read fantasy (I'm looking at you Colleen H. Robbins and Duanne Walton), you might want to check out Storms' books at lryanstorms.com.

And for those who love gorgeous art, check out entertheglow.com.

I don't read a lot of fantasy, so I'm not certain I'll read the books.

But these booksmarks that I've popped into my books in my reading pile will remind me of Ryan's books out there in the book universe, just waiting to be discovered.

And the odds are that, one day, I'll most likely be intrigued...and who knows?

Worldbuilding: The Beginning, Not the End, of Storytelling

It's no surprise by now that I like rich layered stories, and my favorite are supernatural, fantasy, historical, and science fiction. I love the unfolding of the seemingly impossible.

Worldbuilding, the creation of vivid settings and multidimensional characters with a factual foundation, is essential to the believeability of all stories, but especially writers who write in these genres. I know writers who take this part very seriously and do vast amounts of research and intense character development to meet this goal.

Your science must feel like real science, and your history timeline must be correct...unless your story has compelling reasons otherwise.

But such steps are only the beginnnig, not the end. The paint and canvas serve the picture, not the other way around. At the core of every story should be a compelling story.

You still need a protagonist your readers will cheer on, an antagonist they will boo, as well as challenges to overcome, dramatic tension to keep the pages turning, victories to cheer, and stakes to raise. If you don't have these, the rest won't matter.

One good question to ask yourself? What is the story I'm trying to tell?

Once you can answer that, the rest makes sense.