Chapter 6 of The Brooch of Storisvaria is now live on Wattpad! You can read it here.

The story's heating up - enjoy! The dragon appears within the next couple of chapters. *evil laugh*

I apologize for the delay with Brooch's updates as I have been focusing most of my resources on preparing July's manuscript for publication. Bear with me!

Also, I'm not sure why, but apparently there wasn't an announcement on this blog when chapter 5 went live, so here's the link to that too.

​Summary:

The definitely epic fantasy adventure!

Sayest is an ordinary farm boy living with his two gay uncles in the rather unusual village of Knight’s Dame in the far off land of Rasara.

But his somewhat normal life is turned upside down when he receives something from a dying man he finds alone in the woods by his farm. That something is the mythical Brooch of Storisvaria, said to rest upon the breasts of kings and give its wearers indescribable powers. And it seems someone is willing to do just about anything to get it back.

Accompanied by his companions, the noble but not-so-bright Calin, the self-proclaimed warrior maiden Aleyl, and the bumbling law enforcement officer Wight, who recognizes the Brooch for what it is, Sayest must venture into the very heart of darkness to ensure the dark lord Zavesdar does not reclaim what was once his.


Check it out and if you like it be sure to leave a comment and stay tuned for the next installment!

Killing characters off seems to have become a thing recently, especially in modern fantasy fiction. In fact, if you don’t do it, others may criticize your story as being “unrealistic” or “immature.”

Since when did killing off characters become some kind of indicator of quality writing?

I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to kill off any character in order to write a good story. Yes, even an “adult” story. I feel a lot of authors have forgotten this.

Am I saying you should never kill your characters? Of course not! I kill characters all the time. There are plenty of instances where a character death makes the most sense to the story, the themes it is presenting, and/or an individual character’s development.

But it is a major decision that should not be made lightly, especially with main characters. Remember these things before deciding it’s time to off someone in your story:

• Once a character is dead, that’s it. You can no longer use them later in the narrative (well, in most cases) and their arc is at an end. Make sure there is nothing else your character can contribute to the story and nothing else you want their story to say.
• Do not kill a character just because you’ve run out of things for them to do. This isn’t good writing. Analyze the problem instead and try to discover why this character serves no further purpose to the story. Perhaps take them out of the story entirely, or consider other ways their presence can influence the narrative later. You may come up with some good ideas you would have squandered otherwise.
• Do not kill a character for shock value or because you don’t know where to go with the story. This is also not good writing and often comes across as cheap, like a jump scare. Look at the bigger picture of your plot and try to determine why you’re stuck so you can most effectively fix it.
• Try not to kill off female characters to further the development of male characters. Please. It’s called the Women in Refrigerators trope, it is cliché, is it demeaning to women. Please try and avoid this one. The same is true for the Bury Your Gays trope, especially if you only have one LGBTQ character/couple in your story.
• Consider other ways to show sacrifice. I understand that Christian beliefs are very prevalent in Western society, but it’s starting to feel like the “Jesus parallel” sacrificial deaths are overdone. You can show sacrifice in different and more creative ways, such as having a character suffer permanent injuries, giving up something dear to them, or forcing them to make a decision that forever changes them and how others see them.

Basically, I think it’s important to remember that you are the author and that everything that happens in your story is a deliberate choice. Weigh character death choices carefully so they will have the greatest impact.

Your turn! When do you think character deaths are and are not appropriate? Any tips I missed? Let me know in the comments!

​The fourth chapter of The Brooch of Storisvaria is ready to go on Wattpad!

​You can read it here.

Summary:

The definitely epic fantasy adventure!

Sayest is an ordinary farm boy living with his two gay uncles in the rather unusual village of Knight’s Dame in the far off land of Rasara.

But his somewhat normal life is turned upside down when he receives something from a dying man he finds alone in the woods by his farm. That something is the mythical Brooch of Storisvaria, said to rest upon the breasts of kings and give its wearers indescribable powers. And it seems someone is willing to do just about anything to get it back.

Accompanied by his companions, the noble but not-so-bright Calin, the self-proclaimed warrior maiden Aleyl, and the bumbling law enforcement officer Wight, who recognizes the Brooch for what it is, Sayest must venture into the very heart of darkness to ensure the dark lord Zavesdar does not reclaim what was once his.


Check it out and if you like it be sure to leave a comment and stay tuned for the next installment!

The third chapter of The Brooch of Storisvaria is now up on Wattpad!

​You can read it here.

Summary:

The definitely epic fantasy adventure!

Sayest is an ordinary farm boy living with his two gay uncles in the rather unusual village of Knight’s Dame in the far off land of Rasara.

But his somewhat normal life is turned upside down when he receives something from a dying man he finds alone in the woods by his farm. That something is the mythical Brooch of Storisvaria, said to rest upon the breasts of kings and give its wearers indescribable powers. And it seems someone is willing to do just about anything to get it back.

Accompanied by his companions, the noble but not-so-bright Calin, the self-proclaimed warrior maiden Aleyl, and the bumbling law enforcement officer Wight, who recognizes the Brooch for what it is, Sayest must venture into the very heart of darkness to ensure the dark lord Zavesdar does not reclaim what was once his.


Check it out and if you like it be sure to leave a comment and stay tuned for the next installment!

Loyalty Press is a speculative fiction publisher, but for the first time we've branched out into something a little less fictional.

My newest work is actually a short non-fiction book about how to write endings, which I was inspired to write because I've noticed the topic isn't covered much by most writing resources.

​You can buy it for Kindle here!

Here's the description:

The ending of a story should be just as carefully crafted as the beginning. So why is it that so many creative writing programs, seminars, and other resources don’t spend much time, if any at all, discussing this critical component of any story?

In this book, author Karen A. Granovsky shares her thoughts and advice on how your ending can have it all: objectively good, loved by fans, and true to your creative vision.

The second chapter of The Brooch of Storisvaria is now up on Wattpad!

​You can read it here.

Summary:

The definitely epic fantasy adventure!

Sayest is an ordinary farm boy living with his two gay uncles in the rather unusual village of Knight’s Dame in the far off land of Rasara.

But his somewhat normal life is turned upside down when he receives something from a dying man he finds alone in the woods by his farm. That something is the mythical Brooch of Storisvaria, said to rest upon the breasts of kings and give its wearers indescribable powers. And it seems someone is willing to do just about anything to get it back.

Accompanied by his companions, the noble but not-so-bright Calin, the self-proclaimed warrior maiden Aleyl, and the bumbling law enforcement officer Wight, who recognizes the Brooch for what it is, Sayest must venture into the very heart of darkness to ensure the dark lord Zavesdar does not reclaim what was once his.


Check it out and if you like it be sure to leave a comment and stay tuned for the next installment!

The first chapter of The Brooch Of Storisvaria, a humorous epic fantasy novel and affectionate parody of the greats, is now live on Wattpad.

You can read it here.

Summary:

The definitely epic fantasy adventure!

Sayest is an ordinary farm boy living with his two gay uncles in the rather unusual village of Knight’s Dame in the far off land of Rasara.

But his somewhat normal life is turned upside down when he receives something from a dying man he finds alone in the woods by his farm. That something is the mythical Brooch of Storisvaria, said to rest upon the breasts of kings and give its wearers indescribable powers. And it seems someone is willing to do just about anything to get it back.

Accompanied by his companions, the noble but not-so-bright Calin, the self-proclaimed warrior maiden Aleyl, and the bumbling law enforcement officer Wight, who recognizes the Brooch for what it is, Sayest must venture into the very heart of darkness to ensure the dark lord Zavesdar does not reclaim what was once his.


Check it out and if you like it be sure to leave a comment and stay tuned for the next installment!

This is a post by Karen A. Granovsky and represents solely her opinion.

As many of you probably already know, I'm not the biggest fan of the Hemingway App, a light browser-based application that analyzes your writing.

Here's why:

1. It Can’t Replace An Editor

First off, the Hemingway App only really looks at sentence length, active vs. passive voice, and the number of times you use certain types of words. It can’t evaluate the merits of a story, characters, narrative, etc. Nor does it point out errors in punctuation, wrong word usage, or whether that longer sentence is actually incorrect or awkward.

For example, here’s a passage I threw together with a bunch of intentional errors to see how the App graded it:

"Mark and Amy, ate some sandwiches by the see. “Gee, the weather really nice today” Mark said smiling. “Yes, it is,” Amy replied she leaned back and soaked in the sun."

Hemingway App graded this passage as a 2, which it considers “Good.” This passage contains nothing it dislikes, except for one adverb, which it considers acceptable. In spite of the fact that it’s riddled with errors.

So no, in no way is it a suitable substitute for a human editor.

2. Some Of The Greatest Works Of English Literature Fail The App

My favorite example of this is the absolutely astounding last line of “The Dead,” which is the final story in James Joyce’s masterpiece Dubliners.

"It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

​As some will agree, this is one of the most beautiful passages ever written in the English language. So how does the Hemingway App grade it?

It says no phrases have simpler alternatives and that there are no uses of passive voice, which it likes. However, it found four adverbs, which the Hemingway App isn’t fond of – it tells Joyce to aim for one or fewer. And of the three sentences here, one is considered hard to read and the other very hard to read. And yet, these hard to read sentences are so lyrical and beautiful (particularly the last one) that it’s really hard not to see the literary merit of them.

Overall, Hemingway App grades this passage a 10, or an “OK.” (It wishes Joyce had been a 9.) It wishes James Joyce had been a better writer. I suspect other authors who have been hailed as masters, namely Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, would fare even worse. (I've even heard that passages from Hemingway himself often don't fare so well.) Feel free to try out passages from some of your favorite books and see how they fare.

It's certainly fine if you like using the Hemingway App as a tool to fix certain aspects of your writing. But NEVER feel constrained by what it tells you to do. Remember, when it comes to writing and creative artistic expression, there are really no "rules."