What If: Contextual Resolutions with Meg Lindsey and Cindy L. Sell

A new year has begun, and we have not one, but two very special guests on this episode! Meg Lindsey returns to grace us with her presence, and Cindy L. Sell joins us for the very first time!

With our motley crew of authors assembled, we talk about media - books and movies - from 2023 that taught us something about writing.

Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go - Les Edgerton

How the King of Elfhame came to Hate Stories - Holly Black

Waybound - Will Wight

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere) - Lisa Cron


Derrick is a working photographer and author of the Crimson Prophecy series, consisting of The Trials of Tiarsus, Berylis, Qetran Odyssey, and Qetran Revival. He can be found at his website www.DerrickHallAuthor.com.

Christina "Xtina" Lefebvre is an assemblage artist and author currently writing her first novel 'Cogs & Claws' and can be found at www.UniquelyXtina.com.     

Transcript

Xtina: Hello. Happy New Year 2024 and welcome to episode 32 of the What South is Up podcast where we talk about the ups and downs of creating worlds from scratch and all the misadventures we experience along the way. In a nutshell, how to wing it like an author? My name is Christina, Xtina Lefebvre And and I'm in the middle of building my first world, a magical parallel earth Where colonization never happened in the Americas and reworking my first novel with a working title of COGS and Claws and with me being ever The Gremlin is my friend, my ride and Die podcast accomplice Derek Hall.

Derrick Hall: I am not a gremlin. Everybody. I'm Derrick Hall. Happy New Year. And welcome back to What If South is up for 2024? I am the creator of the Crimson Prophecy and Horizon Game Lit series, both of which are available just about anywhere you would want to buy a book.

C. X. Lefebvre: So today we actually have a pretty special treat for everyone. For all our listeners out there. We not only have one guest,

Derrick Hall: Okay.

C. X. Lefebvre: but we have 2/1.

Derrick Hall: Well.

C. X. Lefebvre: Woo hoo! I'm so excited. It's like a whole thing anyways. We have a repeat author, Meg Lindsay

Meg Lindsey: Hi, everyone.

C. X. Lefebvre: and our newest podcast guest to the show, Cindy. Sell

Cindy L. Sell: I get to be new. Great.

C. X. Lefebvre: Say hello to.

Cindy L. Sell: I guess

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah. Okay.

Derrick Hall: Fresh meat. Fresh meat.

Cindy L. Sell: it's.

C. X. Lefebvre: So Meg, we'll start with you real quick. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, your books, your current work in progress, and the work that The Whip you'll be using on today's episode.

Meg Lindsey: Sure thing. So I'm Meg. Sometimes M.J. Lindsey. I'm the author of the Tapestry series, which is available through memorial fiction. And currently I'm actually working on a rewrite of the first two books. It'll be released as a duology sometime in the fall of 2024, which is really this tomorrow is next year. That's pretty exciting. And I am also the author of The Unfortunate Legacy of Mr. Hyde and Six of Cups, which are a couple of novellas online.

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh, awesome sauce. And what about our other most excellent guest, Cindy? How about you?

Cindy L. Sell: I'm Cindy. Sell I'm a writer of epic fantasy and dark fantasy romance. My debut novel is It Finally has a release date, September 3rd, 2024.

C. X. Lefebvre: Who

Cindy L. Sell: And

C. X. Lefebvre: has inside.

Cindy L. Sell: it's

C. X. Lefebvre: That's

Cindy L. Sell: called

C. X. Lefebvre: so exciting.

Cindy L. Sell: Yes. It's called The Remnants of a Scarlet Flame. And it is the first in the last Drageon saga.

Derrick Hall: Awesome. So thank you both for coming on with us. I know it was last minute when I called you guys and said, Hey, let's do a thing. But. Not only is it New Year's Eve today, as we're recording, but we have changed up the format a little bit from our usual system. But before we get to all that, what is everybody drinking, Tina?

C. X. Lefebvre: Well we normally record at night and I have a derrick and I try to out a dult beverage each other most of the time. But since it's I see daylight out, I've got myself a brunch kind of drink. I have myself a dirty Bloody Mary.

Derrick Hall: It's appropriate for New Year's Eve.

C. X. Lefebvre: It's doing good. What about. What

Derrick Hall: You.

C. X. Lefebvre: about you, Cindy?

Cindy L. Sell: I actually just finished my drink. It's a very un inventive diet, Dr. Pepper. But now I've done caffeine, and it's going to be great.

C. X. Lefebvre: It.

Derrick Hall: There is no shame in caffeine.

Cindy L. Sell: It's like.

Derrick Hall: What about Meg? What do you got?

Meg Lindsey: I am desperately avoiding a third cup of coffee, so I jumped into some elderberry tea. Kind of a staple around here, and I'll probably get to the heart of drinking this evening. Libations in celebration. What about you, Derek?

Derrick Hall: I'm coming out of the depths of hell and trying to fight off the plague for a few weeks now. So no liquor for me, but I have spicy camomile tea.

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh, you know what's great about that is I get to be the lush of the of the episode.

Derrick Hall: Yeah yeah, you hedonist.

Meg Lindsey: Someone has to be.

Cindy L. Sell: It's true.

Meg Lindsey: You done a good thing.

C. X. Lefebvre: I'll

Derrick Hall: I'm

C. X. Lefebvre: take. I'll take

Derrick Hall: dying.

C. X. Lefebvre: the bullet. All right. So every week, we'd like to share one sentence from our curtain works in progress. A single sentence, no context. And as everyone got their darling.

Cindy L. Sell: Yes.

C. X. Lefebvre: Or they're dead,

Meg Lindsey: This

C. X. Lefebvre: darling.

Meg Lindsey: is a this is a dead darling, right or no? Dead or alive?

C. X. Lefebvre: It could be dead or alive. But I like to do dead darlings. But. Well, will it. Will it Derek start?

Derrick Hall: All right. Well, I don't know if this is dead or alive or even going in the actual book because it came out of my random thoughts file. But here we go. There's always room for error in any calculation, but even more so when dealing with flawed and changeable people.

C. X. Lefebvre: There you go.

Meg Lindsey: You

C. X. Lefebvre: There's

Meg Lindsey: like

C. X. Lefebvre: always

Meg Lindsey: that?

C. X. Lefebvre: room for error. There's always room for error when dealing with people there. That is not a lie.

Derrick Hall: Hmm.

C. X. Lefebvre: And we're all flawed.

Derrick Hall: Cindy, what do you have for us?

Cindy L. Sell: So this is a living, darling. It's from my debut book. The last thing I want to do is get involved with a war between God's.

Derrick Hall: That

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh,

Derrick Hall: seems

C. X. Lefebvre: me

Derrick Hall: like

C. X. Lefebvre: too.

Derrick Hall: good advice.

C. X. Lefebvre: That's

Meg Lindsey: It's

C. X. Lefebvre: legitimate.

Meg Lindsey: really.

Derrick Hall: Never get involved in a land war in Asia.

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh. Oh, that's awesome. That's fantastic. That gives us so much insight into the book. I'm real. That's awesome. What about. What about you, Meg? What you got?

Meg Lindsey: This is dead from a distortion of fate. It says he could not deny the darkness nestled within the walls of Tirana. More a feeling of tangible thing. But it existed all the same. Harbored like a dormant sickness.

C. X. Lefebvre: And I always love how you describe things. That's great. That's.

Meg Lindsey: Hey,

C. X. Lefebvre: That's.

Derrick Hall: Great.

Meg Lindsey: I'm trying to avoid some of the melodrama. It's an act in progress.

C. X. Lefebvre: Melodrama.

Derrick Hall: Meg, just as that that skill for making

C. X. Lefebvre: Description.

Derrick Hall: mundane things interesting to read about.

C. X. Lefebvre: Using. Yeah, yeah. It's great. Yeah.

Derrick Hall: You

C. X. Lefebvre: Yes.

Meg Lindsey: Well,

Derrick Hall: know.

Meg Lindsey: anyone

C. X. Lefebvre: Anyways.

Meg Lindsey: going to have that line? I guess it's no longer.

C. X. Lefebvre: Okay. So if mine is dead,

Derrick Hall: I.

C. X. Lefebvre: this is actually. Yeah, I'm not supposed to give context, but I'll tell you, it's it's like the first time I wrote my first chapter ever. This is one of the lines. The man watching from the trees silently nodded. His head turned around and began the long trek back to his sovereign.

Meg Lindsey: Mm.

C. X. Lefebvre: But that's totally dead. Ain't coming back either. Okay.

Derrick Hall: Parallel.

Meg Lindsey: Taking a drink in honor of it.

C. X. Lefebvre: Thank you. Yes.

Meg Lindsey: A

C. X. Lefebvre: Say good

Meg Lindsey: mother

C. X. Lefebvre: bye.

Meg Lindsey: married

C. X. Lefebvre: Nice.

Meg Lindsey: to.

Derrick Hall: Press f to pay respect.

C. X. Lefebvre: You know, I'm reading this sentence now, and I think there's so many things wrong with that sentence. I can't even I can't believe that I can look at this now and see the things that I didn't recognize before. It's it's amazing.

Meg Lindsey: That

Derrick Hall: It's

Meg Lindsey: growth

Derrick Hall: not

Meg Lindsey: is

Derrick Hall: bad,

Meg Lindsey: amazing,

Derrick Hall: but it's not

Meg Lindsey: though.

Derrick Hall: correct either.

C. X. Lefebvre: What's that? What's that?

Meg Lindsey: Oh, just.

C. X. Lefebvre: BECK.

Meg Lindsey: It means you've grown. It's. It's

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah.

Meg Lindsey: the best feeling

Derrick Hall: Yeah.

Meg Lindsey: in the world to hate something that you've written before. Because then, you know you're a better author than you were X-Y-Z from You, whether it's a

C. X. Lefebvre: Yep.

Meg Lindsey: month ago or six years ago.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah. It

Derrick Hall: Yeah.

C. X. Lefebvre: is amazing how much we grow. So just by writing, just keep writing and you keep growing.

Cindy L. Sell: No. Absolutely.

Derrick Hall: For sure.

C. X. Lefebvre: Okay. Well, we normally ask each other what we are currently reading or watching, but since it's the last day of 2024, I think we should switch it up a bit

Derrick Hall: You

C. X. Lefebvre: Let's

Derrick Hall: skipped

C. X. Lefebvre: have.

Derrick Hall: a whole year.

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh, I did. I do that all the time, don't I? Since it's the last day of 2023. Me? Get my facts straight. Why don't we switch it up? Let's have everyone share one book they've read this year and what they learned from it. And one thing they watched one thing they watched and how it affected either their story or how they tell stories. So we'll let how about Derek, you go first.

Derrick Hall: Well, as everyone knows, I've been reading the

Meg Lindsey: And.

Derrick Hall: Cradle series for most of the year and I can say that I finally finished. It took long enough, but it was worth it way

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah.

Derrick Hall: back last.

C. X. Lefebvre: Wait, wait. What's to stop? Four claps here. He finished it. Everyone. Yeah. Okay.

Derrick Hall: I'm slow. Okay, don't rub it in.

Cindy L. Sell: Solidarity.

Derrick Hall: To be fair. 12 Book Series. And they are not short,

C. X. Lefebvre: Yep.

Derrick Hall: but way bound The last volume of that that I just finished literally last night taught me a lot about writing and how to wrap up a complicated story in a satisfying way.

C. X. Lefebvre: Hmm.

Derrick Hall: So I'm hoping, fingers crossed, that it will help me with book three.

C. X. Lefebvre: That would be

Derrick Hall: And

C. X. Lefebvre: awesome.

Derrick Hall: as for watching

Cindy L. Sell: It's.

Derrick Hall: Oppenheimer, a fantastic film, but for such a massive big budget movie, they were really telling a simple story and they did it in a simple way. There was no CG in the film at all, even the big explosions and things like that. So it kind of set me to thinking about how to tell a story in a simple way, but make it feel epic

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah.

Derrick Hall: scale.

C. X. Lefebvre: That's, that's a lot of skill right there. That's that's

Derrick Hall: Yeah.

C. X. Lefebvre: that's the dream. That's the dream.

Derrick Hall: Well, hats off to Christopher Nolan. Good job, dude. Rock on. Meg, what about you?

Meg Lindsey: So as far as reading I pulled up and there's a lot of read this year but story genius by Lisa KRON stands out to me as probably the best thing I've read from a writer's standpoint. A lot of self-help writing books that have gone through this brain in the past 12 months, and that's my favorite because it really helps me break down what I wish I'd known from the beginning. Being the plotter that I am, instead of just kind of writing about a bunch of things happened. It helped me really concisely decide what are the most important common themes and how to make the whole story all the way around, absorb them and in a really satisfying way. That is my favorite on writing books that I've ever read and

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh.

Meg Lindsey: over six years it's so good. So I totally recommend that. And then for TV, I rewatched Arcane, I want to say back in March, because when I was trying to come up with comps, back when I was thinking about, you know, seeking an agent, that was really the only thing that came to mind for my Tapestry series. So I rewatched Arcane. I rewatched it with a notebook and took a

C. X. Lefebvre: I

Meg Lindsey: lot

C. X. Lefebvre: love

Meg Lindsey: of it.

C. X. Lefebvre: Arcane.

Meg Lindsey: Oh, it's

C. X. Lefebvre: I

Meg Lindsey: so

C. X. Lefebvre: love

Meg Lindsey: good.

C. X. Lefebvre: Arcane.

Derrick Hall: So good.

Meg Lindsey: So really

C. X. Lefebvre: It's a.

Meg Lindsey: what got me was the sibling relationship and how much I realized that I'd strayed from that, even though it was in my original drafts. Because you start you start with a series and you get run away with one thing, even if it wasn't what you started with. So from that, I kind of wanted to pool a lot more of a relationship that was sibling based instead of just pure romance that was just as passionate and, you know, got you going. That was not romantic. That was sibling based. And that's that's my take away.

C. X. Lefebvre: So I think that's hard is to, you know, really pull out those threads of relationships that are not romance based. It's romance based ones are pretty easy. You know, it's a common language. We understand it. I'm trying to make my story about not only about my protagonist's arc, but also how you form a bond with a best friend at, you know, when

Meg Lindsey: Mm

C. X. Lefebvre: you're a teenager

Meg Lindsey: hmm.

C. X. Lefebvre: or late teens and being able to make sure that I give them those moments that shows that, you know, they've developed as friends and they're developing further as friends. It's yeah, it's not easy. And it I think it also adds a lot of what do I want to say? Emotional texture to a story. I think that's I think that's brilliant.

Meg Lindsey: I totally agree. That's awesome.

Derrick Hall: Yeah, for sure.

C. X. Lefebvre: And as far as story genius goes, I'm 50% through on my audible, so maybe I need to pick it up again.

Meg Lindsey: Oh. Let me know what you think.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah, absolutely. What about you, Cindy?

Cindy L. Sell: So Meg is way more methodical about her reading choices than I am

Meg Lindsey: It's a problem

Cindy L. Sell: able to say, I

Meg Lindsey: so

Cindy L. Sell: assume.

Meg Lindsey: narrow that.

Cindy L. Sell: Yeah. So I, I did way more writing and editing this year than I did reading. But when I did finally find some time, I think the one story that stuck with me this year is how the King of Hell Thing Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black. It's a novella set in her the bulk of the world, I guess. And I loved that it was sort of a fictional characters account of how stories change over time and how they can mean different things to different people, how we can personally derive different meaning based on our own mental states. And it really informed, you know, coming up on my my debut, having my very first project out in the world for people to read and critique and in hate, because I know that's coming to no matter how hard I try to tell the story the way I want it interpreted, people or people are going to take what they will from it. And I think that that's really important for me as a as a debut author to Don to understand,

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh,

Cindy L. Sell: because

C. X. Lefebvre: man,

Cindy L. Sell: I

C. X. Lefebvre: you

Cindy L. Sell: know

C. X. Lefebvre: just

Cindy L. Sell: there

C. X. Lefebvre: gave

Cindy L. Sell: are going

C. X. Lefebvre: me

Cindy L. Sell: to

C. X. Lefebvre: chills.

Cindy L. Sell: be people

Meg Lindsey: Yeah.

Cindy L. Sell: yeah, there's going to be people

C. X. Lefebvre: Is

Cindy L. Sell: who love

C. X. Lefebvre: it?

Cindy L. Sell: it and there's going to be people who hate it. And I told my story, and that's all I can do with it at this point. So.

C. X. Lefebvre: So that the title of that book again and what was in its fictional.

Cindy L. Sell: Yes, it's fictional. It's how the King of Spain learned to hate stories by Holly Black.

C. X. Lefebvre: Wow. That's awesome. I'm going to ask my producer if we put links to things in our notes. And if we do, we're going to put a link there.

Cindy L. Sell: Sweet.

C. X. Lefebvre: Well, for everything we suggest. But anyways. And what about watching and how has that affected your writing?

Cindy L. Sell: So I think I don't also I don't watch much TV, but I did rewatch Spartacus as a series on Starz and it gave me so many

Derrick Hall: Then.

Cindy L. Sell: ideas for this former pit fighter character that I've been writing. Just the and the way that the political intrigue is woven throughout. It's it's incredible. Like I cannot say enough good things about that series.

C. X. Lefebvre: Well, it's a beautiful series and it's it's almost comic

Cindy L. Sell: But.

C. X. Lefebvre: book ish, not book esque, I should say. Not bookish book esque, you know, with the with the how they what I'm saying, the, the, the, the, the visuals and everything else like that and how they play each scene. Yeah, it was a beautiful series.

Cindy L. Sell: Absolutely.

C. X. Lefebvre: Nobody else has anything to say about it.

Derrick Hall: I haven't seen it in so long. I can't really speak to it, but I do remember enjoying it.

C. X. Lefebvre: All right. So for me, as for reading a book that taught me cool stuff, when I remember reading it for, you know, when I read it, I was so excited about what it was teaching me. It's hooked. Write fiction that grabs readers at page one and never lets never lets them go. It's by less. EDGERTON It was some really great explanations of taking, you know, just the first part of your book and dissecting it and what do you need to make sure happens? Not so much. And in it they gave you a particular order, but, you know, it just really dissected it for me. And as I'm sitting here telling you about what I liked about it, I'm realizing I need to. Definitely positively. I have to go back and reread it. And as I start to once again rewrite my book, um, it was, it, it really made things clear for me when people talk about strong, strong starts. As for what I've watched, I, everyone knows that I mostly consume my stories by willison or excuse me, by watching shows. And that's because of my narcolepsy. But I got to tell you, the book Thief, that movie, it was amazing because the story was riveting and there was so much tension and there was no racing cars, there was no blood, there was no people screaming at each other. But there was so much tension that the drama was both subtle and intense. And I think it's kind of like what Derek was talking about when he was talking about Oppenheimer, you know?

Derrick Hall: Mm hmm.

C. X. Lefebvre: It's. There was just so much I don't know how to say it. There was so much depth. But it was also subtle. I mean, I was riveted. There was I was just I just couldn't take my eyes off of it. And it told me that in order to tell my story, I do not have to worry about big bangs or big moments or, you know, lots of things having to, I don't know, blow up or whatever to move the story forward. I can move the story forward with interiority. I can move the

Derrick Hall: Are.

C. X. Lefebvre: story forward with expressing how people are feeling and showing how people are just trying to get through life. And I think that was that that's what that taught me.

Derrick Hall: Yeah. It doesn't take much to push a story forward, but what it does take is skill to figure out what it does take.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yep.

Derrick Hall: My words aren't working right, but I think you get the gist of what I'm trying to say.

C. X. Lefebvre: Well, I.

Meg Lindsey: Emotion is so hard. So,

C. X. Lefebvre: Mm

Meg Lindsey: so difficult.

C. X. Lefebvre: hmm.

Derrick Hall: Hmm.

C. X. Lefebvre: Mm hmm.

Meg Lindsey: Especially

Derrick Hall: Yup.

Meg Lindsey: in a long novel, keeping it throughout because it's like every line needs to just be crafted in a way that isn't just written. And it's exhausting. It's exhausting.

Derrick Hall: Yep.

Cindy L. Sell: It can

C. X. Lefebvre: It's exhausting.

Cindy L. Sell: be for sure,

C. X. Lefebvre: Yep.

Cindy L. Sell: especially when those scenes

Derrick Hall: Oh. So

Cindy L. Sell: like,

Derrick Hall: you must

Cindy L. Sell: you

Derrick Hall: type really fast.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah.

Cindy L. Sell: know,

C. X. Lefebvre: That's their thing.

Cindy L. Sell: the scene has

C. X. Lefebvre: You're

Cindy L. Sell: to

C. X. Lefebvre: a

Cindy L. Sell: serve

C. X. Lefebvre: writer.

Cindy L. Sell: a purpose and

C. X. Lefebvre: Purpose? Yes.

Cindy L. Sell: you can never agent.

Derrick Hall: Mm hmm. All right. So normally, this is where we would play our little dice game, but for today, we're going to switch it up a little bit. We're going to do a bit of role play sort of today. We're asking everyone to answer a question as your emcee, your main character, and as your big, bad, evil guy. If you're ready for the question, here goes. If your character's by some fluke of nature, we're living here in our world, what would their 2024 New Year's resolutions be? So how about you introduce your emcee first to our monstrously small audience. Tell us what you think their resolution would be, and we'll get to the bad guys next. Cyndi, you're ready.

Cindy L. Sell: Sure. Okay. So my protagonist for RIM Into the Scarlet Flame is dynamic. Then she is a sorceress in the Sorcerers Guild. Her New Year's resolution would probably be to eat more oranges and burn fewer things down.

Derrick Hall: Admirable.

Meg Lindsey: It's.

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh,

Derrick Hall: Arson is generally frowned upon. Vitamin

C. X. Lefebvre: that

Derrick Hall: C

C. X. Lefebvre: is.

Derrick Hall: is generally encouraged. So yeah, admirable.

C. X. Lefebvre: I love it. Oh. Oh.

Derrick Hall: It's great.

Cindy L. Sell: Oh.

C. X. Lefebvre: If.

Cindy L. Sell: I'm just writing. I'm loving

Derrick Hall: What about

Cindy L. Sell: it.

Derrick Hall: Matt? That's great. Meg, what have you got?

Meg Lindsey: So my main character, his name is Calvert's Curtain. He he's got he's got some baggage. He has like a I guess I've never quite decided what to call the survivor. He's got a mind, Damon. He's possessed. So he's always kind of going to have the same resolution, which is to try not to kill anybody.

C. X. Lefebvre: Good.

Meg Lindsey: That's that's what he's dealing with. So whether he's here or there, he's just going to try not to. To kill anyone.

Derrick Hall: Yeah. That's my resolution to.

C. X. Lefebvre: What's

Cindy L. Sell: Was

C. X. Lefebvre: what's,

Cindy L. Sell: an excellent

C. X. Lefebvre: what's,

Cindy L. Sell: goal.

C. X. Lefebvre: what's, what's it's an excellent goal. And what's intriguing about that is we all know that only like 80% or 20% of New Year's resolutions are fulfilled. So.

Meg Lindsey: That's where if I.

Cindy L. Sell: Well, no, that's right. Where?

Meg Lindsey: Yeah. Here's one, too.

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh,

Derrick Hall: Suddenly

Meg Lindsey: This

Derrick Hall: Dracula

Meg Lindsey: happens,

Derrick Hall: starts playing

Meg Lindsey: you know?

Derrick Hall: in the back of my head.

Cindy L. Sell: Well.

C. X. Lefebvre: that's amazing. I love that. Oh, so if you've been listening to our podcast, you know that in Excel, my main character is 17 years old. She grew up in a very rural village and her resolution and would be totally different depending upon whether I'm telling you about what a resolution would be, you know, in chapter one, what her resolution will be at the end.

Derrick Hall: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm hmm.

C. X. Lefebvre: So in the beginning, her resolution would be something I don't know. I resolve to be the best apprentice ever. That would be something she would say by the end of the book after she's done the things. It would be something more akin to. By the end of 2024, I will push back the tide of the way to get the bad guys from destroying the planet's ecological balance. And that's what it would kind of be.

Meg Lindsey: Well worthy

C. X. Lefebvre: So.

Meg Lindsey: resolve.

C. X. Lefebvre: We're the resolve

Derrick Hall: A very

C. X. Lefebvre: at the end.

Derrick Hall: noble.

C. X. Lefebvre: And it's very noble. It is but it shows

Cindy L. Sell: Absolutely.

C. X. Lefebvre: that, you know, she's a totally different I hopefully it shows she's a totally different person

Cindy L. Sell: Well, that's really what you want. You

C. X. Lefebvre: so.

Cindy L. Sell: want that character development, for sure.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yes. And they don't always have to develop up or forward or better. They just need to be different.

Cindy L. Sell: Exactly.

C. X. Lefebvre: Well, but what you got, Derek? What you got?

Derrick Hall: I have a throat full of crud.

C. X. Lefebvre: See,

Meg Lindsey: Mm.

C. X. Lefebvre: he's a gremlin, folks.

Derrick Hall: No. Oh, no. Oh. I can get wet.

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh, God, it's tough,

Meg Lindsey: And talking about

C. X. Lefebvre: but.

Meg Lindsey: it.

Derrick Hall: All the best jokes do so much. Like Christine said, if you've been listening, you're familiar at least somewhat with my main character, Inara. She is. She's late teens. Average girl flower seller turns. Legendary hero turned queen and has a lot of a lot of heavy stuff going on for somebody her age. If she somehow found herself in our world, I think it would be. This isn't good. I need to get home. I got stuff to do, but. More generally speaking, as a character, I think her resolution should be something more along the lines of. I need to fix all the problems that I helped create. Or at least make progress on them in the next year because every action has an equal and opposite reaction and the court of public opinion is not kind. So it's a lot of doing the right thing and then having to fix the fallout from doing the right thing.

C. X. Lefebvre: Well, interesting. Huh? Well, my goodness, that was very insightful to each of our books. But let's talk a little bit. No, it was

Cindy L. Sell: Oh.

C. X. Lefebvre: I mean, I knew you're not wrong. About an hour. I see that I'm very now interested in. The, you know, both the other main characters. Well, and of course, mine. But yes, I was I was fascinating. But let's talk about it. Bad guys are BBC eggs are bad, big, bad, evil guys. What would be their resolutions if they were suddenly pulled? Or they were suddenly appeared in our in our space time continuum. What would they do? Let's talk ask Derek first.

Derrick Hall: Well, I had several different big bad evals to pick from. I'm going to go with one from the first the first two books of Crimson Prophecy in L.A.. She is a very interesting character with. A very arrogant personality, an outlook and an ego to match. Who thinks that she can do no wrong. So given the opportunity to be in a world with social media and things like that, I don't think there would be much hesitation to take advantage of that and try to build a following. To what end? I don't know, but I think it would be basically gain as much traction and build as much of a following and quote unquote, army as possible. Meg, what about you?

Meg Lindsey: So I'm also in the place of having multiple baby eggs to pick from. So I think I'm going to instead of avoiding, well, I'm going to avoid the obvious world domination one and go for actually Asia. She's kind of like a morally gray we'll call her, but she's kind of evil. And I think she would just want to, in a new world, be able to settle into her own space where no one would bother her. She'd love to be in a new world where no one bothered her. No one wants anything from her and she can just kind of be by herself. This is a character that if I had to, like, put a condition to her, maybe kind of has Asperger's and she just wants to build things and create things without anyone asking anything of her and not having to answer to anyone. So in a new world, she'd have the opportunity to do that because all of the people that are heckling her and imprisoning her wouldn't wouldn't be there.

Derrick Hall: You.

C. X. Lefebvre: So she her resolution would be to build a house in the middle of acreage somewhere in the Royalist Wallis, part of Maine.

Meg Lindsey: Where she didn't have to talk to anybody ever again.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yes. Yes.

Meg Lindsey: I.

Derrick Hall: I can

C. X. Lefebvre: Has.

Derrick Hall: relate to that.

Cindy L. Sell: I can

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh,

Cindy L. Sell: absolutely

C. X. Lefebvre: that's

Cindy L. Sell: relate

C. X. Lefebvre: awesome.

Cindy L. Sell: them

Meg Lindsey: She's very relatable.

Derrick Hall: Right.

Cindy L. Sell: is.

Derrick Hall: My dream is to be able to walk out on my porch and just, like, not see anyone or anything in any direction.

C. X. Lefebvre: Not

Derrick Hall: That would

C. X. Lefebvre: my

Derrick Hall: be awesome.

C. X. Lefebvre: goal, man. Like I like stated before, I have to live somewhere that when I that I can grow old in so that when I am 99 years old and I don't go check my mail for three days, the next door neighbors know to call somebody because they haven't seen me. So that my cats don't eat me. That's my goal.

Cindy L. Sell: That's important. That's an important goal. Absolutely.

Derrick Hall: We'll see. You can go with my plan and just skip the cats.

C. X. Lefebvre: No, you don't understand. I don't want

Derrick Hall: Judge.

C. X. Lefebvre: to. Never mind. Okay.

Derrick Hall: She.

C. X. Lefebvre: All right. Me? Great. Cindy did hers, right? No. Cindy. Now go get.

Cindy L. Sell: Okay. All right. So I do have a few big variables, too, but I'll stick with the one that's most prevalent in book one. Guild Councilor Lucious Gregory is Dias mentor, and he would definitely resolve not to let imbeciles make important decisions.

Meg Lindsey: You

Cindy L. Sell: That's

Meg Lindsey: know.

Derrick Hall: Also valid.

Cindy L. Sell: not so. Yeah.

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh, that's

Derrick Hall: Which

C. X. Lefebvre: hilarious.

Derrick Hall: in our world would translate to what? Overthrowing every government.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah. Who you hearing?

Cindy L. Sell: I mean, that's kind of

C. X. Lefebvre: Whatever.

Cindy L. Sell: his motivation later on. You know, it's it's a real problem for him.

Meg Lindsey: That is a scary motivation,

Derrick Hall: Tired of listening

Meg Lindsey: honestly.

Derrick Hall: to these idiots.

C. X. Lefebvre: It is scary

Meg Lindsey: Because

C. X. Lefebvre: because.

Meg Lindsey: it's so subjective.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah. I mean, I could be seemed like an imbecile to many different people, so that's scary to me.

Derrick Hall: You know.

Cindy L. Sell: He's sort of a

C. X. Lefebvre: All

Cindy L. Sell: fantasy

C. X. Lefebvre: right,

Cindy L. Sell: Hitler

C. X. Lefebvre: so

Cindy L. Sell: so

C. X. Lefebvre: my bad guy is

Cindy L. Sell: he's

C. X. Lefebvre: from

Cindy L. Sell: got

C. X. Lefebvre: the 1950s

Cindy L. Sell: a lot going for him

C. X. Lefebvre: Earth.

Cindy L. Sell: is just isn't good

C. X. Lefebvre: Fantasy. Hitler. That's scary.

Cindy L. Sell: anyway. Yeah.

C. X. Lefebvre: Anyway. My bad guy is from 1950s Earth. He were. If he was magically restored to today's Earth, I'd imagine that his top resolution, his top priority would be something along the lines of, I'm going to find me a trad wife.

Cindy L. Sell: Goals.

Meg Lindsey: What's that?

C. X. Lefebvre: Trad wife is a traditional wife and it's a woman that stays home, takes care of him, takes care of the kids, pushes out the kids, takes care of the kids, does the laundry, does the cooking. Does everything.

Derrick Hall: Shh,

C. X. Lefebvre: The trad

Derrick Hall: shh,

C. X. Lefebvre: wife.

Derrick Hall: shh,

Meg Lindsey: You can do all that at once.

Derrick Hall: shh.

C. X. Lefebvre: No, you can't. But

Cindy L. Sell: Recently.

C. X. Lefebvre: he'd want that. Yep, yep,

Cindy L. Sell: Now.

C. X. Lefebvre: yep. Yeah,

Derrick Hall: Oof!

C. X. Lefebvre: he. Yeah, he would expect her to adore him and take care of him. You know,

Derrick Hall: So

C. X. Lefebvre: all

Derrick Hall: he's

C. X. Lefebvre: the

Derrick Hall: just

C. X. Lefebvre: kids

Derrick Hall: sleazy,

C. X. Lefebvre: are.

Derrick Hall: regardless of where he is.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yes. He's sleazy. Well, yes, of course, but yes, he is. Yeah, he's. He's he's Mad Men. Badly

Derrick Hall: Mad

C. X. Lefebvre: worse

Derrick Hall: Men

C. X. Lefebvre: than the

Derrick Hall: meets

C. X. Lefebvre: show.

Derrick Hall: Leave It to Beaver. All right.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah. But with a with a with a hint of.

Derrick Hall: It's.

Cindy L. Sell: It.

C. X. Lefebvre: Oh, gosh. What can I think of a show of the guy that. Looks for serial killers. But he's a serial killer.

Meg Lindsey: Dexter.

Derrick Hall: Dexter.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yes.

Derrick Hall: Yeah.

C. X. Lefebvre: Okay. Mad Men meets. Leave It to Beaver with a with with with a sprinkle of Dexter

Cindy L. Sell: Oh.

C. X. Lefebvre: in there. Yeah.

Derrick Hall: That's terrifying.

C. X. Lefebvre: All right. Well, you know what's most fascinating about this and I want everyone listening to understand this. It's it's not only fascinating to put our characters into other situations, it's almost important that you understand to do so so you can understand your character and understand their depth and their levels. I mean, everyone here, how much how much thought process or how much you have to think for, just for a little bit more a moment, a moment more to put your characters in these positions. And was it insightful to your own story?

Meg Lindsey: Yeah, sure. It helps hone down the point.

C. X. Lefebvre: What I find fascinating is how well we know our characters without realizing how well we know them.

Derrick Hall: Yeah. That's what this whole podcast has taught me is just like, Oh, okay, these people might as well be real for how well I know them.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah. Yeah.

Cindy L. Sell: Wait. They're not

C. X. Lefebvre: I mean,

Cindy L. Sell: real.

C. X. Lefebvre: I could definitely tell you right now,

Derrick Hall: No,

C. X. Lefebvre: it's

Derrick Hall: Cindy,

C. X. Lefebvre: easy.

Derrick Hall: they're not real.

Cindy L. Sell: Oh.

C. X. Lefebvre: And.

Cindy L. Sell: I've been doing this all wrong and.

C. X. Lefebvre: It's easier sometimes. Also, I think. What do you guys think? To tell you what my character won't do. As opposed to tell you what my character would do.

Derrick Hall: Yeah. Yeah.

Meg Lindsey: Yeah,

Derrick Hall: That

Meg Lindsey: I understand

Derrick Hall: feels about right.

Meg Lindsey: that.

C. X. Lefebvre: They're still unpredictable to us, but we still know them well.

Derrick Hall: Yeah, for sure.

C. X. Lefebvre: All right. I have one last one last

Cindy L. Sell: He.

C. X. Lefebvre: question for you. One last thing to ask of our guests and my fellow co-host.

Derrick Hall: Bonus

C. X. Lefebvre: And

Derrick Hall: round.

C. X. Lefebvre: a bonus. I love that. Say it again.

Derrick Hall: Bonus

C. X. Lefebvre: Bonus.

Derrick Hall: round.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah. As a writer, author, creator. What are each of your 2024 resolutions? Derek, you get to go first.

Derrick Hall: I don't believe in setting myself up for failure.

C. X. Lefebvre: Who? You know what? Everybody in the show understands this. They. Yep.

Derrick Hall: But I do want to try to finish book three this year.

C. X. Lefebvre: Good job, Cindy.

Cindy L. Sell: I got this.

Meg Lindsey: Oh,

Cindy L. Sell: All Okay.

Derrick Hall: what is your resolution?

Cindy L. Sell: Yes. Okay. My resolution is something I've been battling with for pretty much my whole life. But we're going to just throw this out there, and I want to create more and about getting it right the first time.

Meg Lindsey: I am still deciding what my resolution is because I go on the 8020 rule. Just do the best you can. You know, I really want to launch my book before the end of this year. I'm starting a Kickstarter for it probably to go out in March. And that's the dream is to finally release this novel I've been working on since 2017, and it's better formatting.

C. X. Lefebvre: Uh. So

Derrick Hall: Formatting

C. X. Lefebvre: my

Derrick Hall: is

C. X. Lefebvre: forecast.

Derrick Hall: hard and important.

C. X. Lefebvre: Is it hard? I haven't done it yet.

Derrick Hall: It is. It's very hard

Meg Lindsey: What's hard?

Derrick Hall: formatting.

Meg Lindsey: Formatting. Oh, I just got Atticus very excited to play

Derrick Hall: Oh.

Meg Lindsey: around with that.

Derrick Hall: Oh. Okay. I see how you're.

Cindy L. Sell: We can learn together. Make.

C. X. Lefebvre: Well, my resolution

Meg Lindsey: I'm

C. X. Lefebvre: is probably

Meg Lindsey: pleased.

C. X. Lefebvre: no surprise, but. My resolution

Cindy L. Sell: That's my

C. X. Lefebvre: is probably

Cindy L. Sell: next

C. X. Lefebvre: no surprise

Cindy L. Sell: big

C. X. Lefebvre: to

Cindy L. Sell: author

C. X. Lefebvre: anyone,

Cindy L. Sell: purchase

C. X. Lefebvre: especially

Cindy L. Sell: is

C. X. Lefebvre: the

Cindy L. Sell: Atticus.

C. X. Lefebvre: people in this podcast as well as the people listening, is just to get my narcolepsy under control and start whittling down my TBR. Pretty simple.

Derrick Hall: Yeah.

Meg Lindsey: Big goals. TBR That's that

Derrick Hall: And

Meg Lindsey: is a insurmountable challenge.

C. X. Lefebvre: I

Derrick Hall: it never

C. X. Lefebvre: said,

Derrick Hall: gets

C. X. Lefebvre: whittled

Derrick Hall: smaller.

C. X. Lefebvre: down. Yeah, I just had whittled down. I didn't say.

Derrick Hall: No, you're not going to whittle it down. It never gets smaller. You take one thing off and add another thing on.

C. X. Lefebvre: Okay.

Cindy L. Sell: Or

C. X. Lefebvre: How

Cindy L. Sell: add

C. X. Lefebvre: about

Cindy L. Sell: three

C. X. Lefebvre: if I resolution

Cindy L. Sell: more things

C. X. Lefebvre: is I don't make

Cindy L. Sell: like

C. X. Lefebvre: it

Cindy L. Sell: exponential,

C. X. Lefebvre: longer.

Cindy L. Sell: you know.

C. X. Lefebvre: Because I'm reading, not because I'm not adding. Just to be clear.

Derrick Hall: Bob. Uh. Fair enough. Fair

C. X. Lefebvre: There's

Derrick Hall: enough.

C. X. Lefebvre: always things to add.

Derrick Hall: Oh, well, that was fun.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yeah.

Derrick Hall: If you're a world builder, newbie or not, and would like to be on our show, we would love to have you. That includes dandy tabletop RPG game masters, writers, authors, anyone who creates worlds. You can let us know by going to our website. What if South is up tor.com and leaving us a message? Or you can reach us through our Facebook page

C. X. Lefebvre: also we're always interested in what question to add to our list. If your world has something interesting about it and you'd like to pose it to us and see how it plays out in our world, we'd love to hear from you. Meg which I could tell how. Tell everyone how they can find you on the interwebs.

Meg Lindsey: Absolutely. You can find me at three bugs publishing dot com and then of course I'm on all the usual socials Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, you name it. Let's be friends.

C. X. Lefebvre: Is Cindy here? And can she tell us how to find her son

Cindy L. Sell: On

C. X. Lefebvre: on the interwebs?

Cindy L. Sell: I was ready for this. Okay. I am Cindy L. Sell on Facebook. I am Cindy. L. Sell underscore author on Instagram. And then I have my own website, which is still in its infancy stages, but I am building my newsletter list, so sign at the last dragon. That's Dorothy G. I. O n. Dot com.

Derrick Hall: All right. Perfect. Xtina Where can we find you online?

C. X. Lefebvre: My Web site is uniquely extinct, but I can be found on just about all the other socials as uniquely Zena.

Derrick Hall: And I am Derrick Coleman. Website is Derrick Hall, author tor.com. But you can find me as D Hall author just about anywhere on the socials. So thanks, everybody, for joining us. We hope you have a wonderful start to your new year and maybe you'll be part of the 20% that makes it.

C. X. Lefebvre: Yay. 20 percenters.

Meg Lindsey: Cleland accepted.

Cindy L. Sell: Things cross.

C. X. Lefebvre: The.

Derrick Hall: All right. Thanks, everybody.

C. X. Lefebvre: Thank

Cindy L. Sell: Thank

C. X. Lefebvre: you.

Cindy L. Sell: you, Derek. Thank you, Christina.

C. X. Lefebvre: Happy New Year to you. Happy New Year to you.