Writing the Novella By Karina Fabian

Today join us for an article about writing the novella by Karina Fabian.  Enjoy!

And, here’s your chance to win a free electronic copy of Greater Treasures. Leave a comment or question for Karina, Vern, or Sister Grace to enter the give away your chance to win a free electronic copy of Greater Treasures.

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My latest book is Greater Treasures: a DragonEye Novella.  It’s 14,000 words, so by some standards, it also counts as a novelette, but the upshot is, it’s too long for a short story, way too short for a novel.  Some folks may wonder why I bother to write novellas and novelettes; they are harder to place, and indeed, I’ve decided to use this one for my first self-publishing adventure.

I don’t set out to write a story of a certain length.  I usually write the story and let it determine its own length. In fact, when it comes to stories in the DragonEye world, I’ve written everything from flash (1,000 words or less) to novels of 100,000 words.

The nice thing about a novella is that you can take your time to weave a more complex plot, build the character more deeply, introduce background, or sometimes, have some fun.  My main character, Vern, loves to wisecrack, and in this case, I’d have had to cut a lot of wonderful snarky lines that make his stories a great read.

On the other hand, it’s not as big a time investment for the writer or the reader.  There’s no pressure to increase the length with subplots, long descriptions, or extraneous background.  I realize that might seem like a contradiction to my first assertion, but sometimes, a story calls for a middle ground of complexity, while still being lean and packing a punch.

As a writer, it’s a great way to explore a world you already write in. Novellas are great for tangents. In the case of the DragonEye universe, Vern and Sister Grace handle many cases. I could not write them all if I made each a novel—and some don’t have enough “meat” for a novel, anyway.  Novellas make a great alternative. Still enjoyable and full and there are plenty of them.  Kind of like potato chips. As a reader, it’s a nice way to get into a new world or a new writer—or to learn more about your favorite character. In fact, I’m hoping Greater Treasures will create more fans for Vern, and to that end, I’ve listed Vern’s website on the last page so folks can find more of his stories.

Novellas still follow the same rules as a short story or a novel: they need to be complete, self-contained, have rises and falls in excitement, and come to a conclusion. However, they can provide a more relaxing story telling experience for writer and reader because their length gives you room to tell a larger-than-short story without the word investment of a full novel.

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Editor’s Note: Thanks for your advice, Karina! I’ve recently written my first novella and loved the experience. More to come!

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Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem), Karina Fabian has imagination that takes quirky twists that keep her–and her fans–amused. Nuns working in space, a down-and-out Faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, zombie exterminators—there’s always a surprise in Fabian’s worlds. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars, but mostly is concerned with supporting her husband, Rob Fabian as he makes the exciting leap from military officer to civilian executive, getting her kids through high school and college, and surviving daily circuit torture…er, circuit training.  Read about her adventures at http://fabianspace.com.

 

 

Greater Treasures by Karina Fabian

Part of the DragonEye series of novels and stories

Book information:

Blurb:  Being a private detective in the border town of the Faerie and Mundane worlds isn’t easy, even for a dragon like Vern.   Still, finding the wayward brother of a teary damsel in distress shouldn’t have gotten so dangerous.  When his partner, Sister Grace, gets poisoned by a dart meant for him, Vern offers to find an artifact in exchange for a cure.  However, this is no ordinary trinket—with a little magic power, it could control all of mankind.  Can Vern find the artifact, and will he sacrifice the fate of two worlds for the life of his best friend?

 

Trailers:

Video Trailer Link:  http://youtu.be/tnv4Tp3JUcw

Excerpt:

Given the day I was having, it came as no surprise that when I got home, I found the dogs sprawled in a drugged sleep and the sounds of things being overturned from within the warehouse. I decided not to bother with subtlety, but I did resist the urge to burst in with flames going full-blast. I had questions first.

Naturally, I walked straight in to find an automatic weapon—yep, a bona fide black-market AK-47—and I thought only Faerie lived their clichés—and six other weapons of various types pointed at me. I didn’t stop, just closed the door with my tail while I strolled in slow and placid-like. My visitors had shaved heads, faces painted white with clown paint, and black t-shirts with swastikas in white circles.

“If you’re the housekeeping service, you’re fired.”

“You stay right there, or we gonna fire you!” said one guy from the sidelines as he held his nunchucks at the ready.

What’d he think he would do—whack me on the nose? I turned to the one holding the assault rifle. “Scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one, weren’t you?”

“He’s right. You just stay still while we search the place.”

“The place” was a ten-thousand square foot warehouse with offices on the upper floor. Boxes I still hadn’t opened line the walls and made a maze in the second warehouse room. I settled myself on the floor and rested my head on my crossed arms. “Go ahead. I get half of anything you find.”

They stared at me, unbelieving. I smiled back. Mr. Cooperation, that’s me. Finally, Big Gun snarled for the others to get to work. As he turned his back on me, Nunchucks muttered, “I got your half. Don’t think I don’t.” Guess he learned such witty repartee in Hitler Youth Summer Camp.

I watched and listened and waited. With eight teenage skinheads trashing my place, it was only a matter of time.

“I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,” I suggested as Nunchucks made a grab for the doorknob to Grace’s workshop.

“You gonna stop me?” He turned the knob.

“Nope,” I said as I closed my ears and my eyes. Even so, I saw the otherworldly light and heard the harmonious roar of Divine Vengeance followed by Mundane screams.

“The Heavenly Host on the other hand…”

I waited until the screams died down to whimpers before opening my eyes and rising.

Four of the skinheads were unconscious. Three may as well have been; they were curled up in the fetal position, whimpering. Nunchucks was actually crying for his mommy. Big Guns had collapsed to the floor as well, the gun thrown away from him. He was sitting and rocking and making high-pitched keening through the roof of his mouth.

I’d tell Grace to tone down her wards some, except that the effect is directly proportional to the evilness of the intent. Suddenly, I was feeling a little shaky about my earlier entrance.

Knights out of the armor now. I went around, collecting weapons in the office trash can and poking through pockets. I found the usual stuff—driver’s licenses, credit cards, petty cash… One kid had a condom; wishful thinking on his part, I knew. Another had a report card. MLK High. Wonder if he was the one beating up Faerie kids? Honor roll grades, too. Of all the years I’ve battled evil, there were still some things I didn’t understand.

As I was returning Big Guns’ (aka Rick Matherston’s) wallet back into his jacket pocket, he blinked and focused on me.

“What was that?”

“Angels, kid.” Actually a kind of magical shadow of the real thing, but close enough.
“But I thought angels were—”

“There’s a reason why their first words are usually ‘Fear not!’ whenever they meet a human.”

His eyes returned to their unfocused stare. I almost felt sorry for him. Then I noticed the letters FARISLAR tattooed on his knuckles. Faerie slayer.

About Greater Treasures:  Most people associate the DragonEye stories with high humor ranging from puns to slapstick, and in fact, the first stories and the novels have certainly been crazy fun.  But the life of a cynical dragon PI isn’t all laughs, and Vern has had a few chilling stories to tell me.  Some of these, I’ve sold to anthologies, but some are too long for that.  Thus, I’ve decided to start publishing them on my own.

Find Karina at:

Website: http://fabianspace.com, http://dragoneyepi.net

Blog:  http://fabianspace.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian

Google +:  https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212

Book tour link with all the stops: http://dragoneyepi.blogspot.com/2013/04/greater-treasures-book-tour.html