THROUGH A RAIN OF FIRE Completed!

A very exciting update on writing on the "Wings of Fire Series"!  For Christmas, Nina Hansen finished THROUGH A RAIN OF FIRE for me!  I'm absolutely thrilled that she did it and I'm very, very happy to have it done!

Previous to this it was very close.  It had a few tweaks to be made.  Little edits.  She went through and did a full edit on it, fixing the whole thing from start to stop and working the whole thing together so that it all runs smoothly!  No more cobbling together copies to try and read.  No more annoyances when there's a line missing or something does not flow smoothly.

It's done, and worth of being shown to an agent right now!  I cannot believe that we've actually made it this far.

Thank you, God.  This is a dream come true!

A FIRE IS WOKEN Desktops

These desktops are free for personal use, but are under laws of copyright and cannot be used for profit of illegal purposes.

THROUGH A RAIN OF FIRE Desktops

Promo time!  I have been working over the weekend on graphics for the first two novels of the WINGS OF FIRE SERIES, and I came up with some pretty cool desktops.

These are free for personal use, but are under law of copyright and cannot be used for profit by anyone but me.

That legality out of the way...

Characters You Care About

Nina and I talked it over and asked a good deal of questions and we've decided to not let Red n' Ritten have “Through A Rain of Fire”.  It was a pretty tough decision, because I was really hoping the deal would go through.

Red n' Ritten demanded more rights than we were willing to give which was what drew the line.  In one way I'm kind of glad that something came up that stopped it.  I'm not saying that I don't think that Red n' Ritten would have done a good job with the book or anything.

But Nina and I have had a dream of going big with this novel right from the start.  I can't say why, but it's like that's what we ultimately want from the novel.  Something large.

I think it's also that these books are our babies.  We love them.

I'm realizing that as I'm finishing NaNo.  I've loved writing in November, but I'm having a tough time getting through “Gumpaw”, my third novel this month.  It's light and funny—a detective story about a dog. But as I'm writing the humor and the laughs I'm realizing just how much I love the books that I write with Nina.

I realized just how much I loved “Strike in the Dark”--another NaNo novel I did.

I love the depth of those books.  These books...  Peter has this deep and marred personality, and I love it.  It gives me the shivers and I love it.  The depth of the emotion—that raw passion.

Nina and I were talking about personalities the other day and she brought up the fact that Peter seems to be pretty emotional for a Thinker.  (he's an ESTP)  I thought about it and I realized that yes, he does feel a lot.  But it's very ST feeling...deep.  And no only deep, but when STs feel emotion it's...  I can think of no word to better describe it than 'raw'.  There's no softness on the top.  Just raw emotion.

I love that.

I also love the power of the novels.  Talking to my sister last night I realized how much I missed writing the vivid imagery of “A Fire is Woken”.  It was a huge challenge writing that book, because I saw the whole thing in my mind like a movie.  And then trying to write it was hard because to try and get that imagery down on paper...

But I miss it.

I can't wait to get back to working on them.  I also like being able to take my time and write my heart into every word.

I don't know what I'll do when we finish the series.  I think I'll miss them a lot.

A Much-Needed Update

I haven't posted in much too long, which I regret, but sadly there has been no time.  I've been busy writing other novels and also we've been editing “Through A Rain Of Fire” more.  “A Fire is Woken” has also acquired several more chapters, which is pretty cool.

Most important news, though, is that currently we have a publisher interested in buying “Through A Rain of Fire”!  I can't quite believe it—because I hadn't expected something this soon.  Thanks, God...

The publisher is Red n' Ritten, an English publisher from Sussex England.  It's posing all sorts of interesting dilemmas, because I had never looked into foreign contracts and international rights and the such.  Also, marketing is different because it's an entirely different country!

Ms Joan Stanley, the head of Red n' Ritten has a grandson who is a friend of one of my friends...  It's a tricky thing, the whole process, and the sort of thing that I never dreamed of having.  Shows the strength of contacts, I suppose.  Something to that.

Ms Stanley is interested in having the whole manuscript...which is bit of a -gasp- situation because we're not fully done editing it.  I think it's pretty much good to go, except for Chapter Four which is really rough.  On our third draft we re-did the entire beginning, pretty much, and added and subtracted a lot of stuff.  We got through the third chapter and then NaNo began and since then we've been writing madly on other things, and the result is that we haven't gotten anything more done editing.

It's starting to look like we'll have to switch priorities here!

We've got a couple of questions regarding rights and such which we want answered before we surrender our precious novel to Red n' Ritten for evaluation, but hopefully they'll be cleared up soon.

I've got to say that I'm incredibly excited about this.  It's something that I'd never dreamed would have happened to me.  I lay in bed at night and think about 'what would happen if our book got published'--but then when someone says that they're interested in seeing the whole manuscript I start tearing my hair out not sure what to say!

Even if we decide not to go with Red n' Ritten, however, I think one good thing has come out of this.  We know we've got something good.  It's not hopeless and we haven't got a terrible book.  We've got something with potential.  It's just a matter of finding a good home for it.

I personally pray that Red n' Ritten will be that home!  It's so close...one of those things that you can almost touch, but not quite.  If this goes through I'll be the happiest girl alive.

There is another issue going with Red n' Ritten, though.  Primarily that, although they do marketing of their own, a lot of the marketing falls on the author.  So that means that how well the book sells will rely a lot upon how well I can get the word out there about the novel.  So I'm still trying to brainstorm ideas of how to get the word out there.

Ms Stanley said that a You-Tube channel often helps—an idea that I've actually tossed around!  So I think that I might have to give that a try.  I really need to look into how they work—does anyone have any idea?  I could use any help I could get.

A website might help too.  Any ideas on whether a blog is going to be enough, or should I look into launching a full-fledged website?  Mayhaps I should have payed more attention during Web Design class...  ;)

I'm open for any ideas you might have!  And as stated before...if you want to show support for the series, follow the blog!

Until next time...TTFN!

EXCERPT: "Through a Rain of Fire": Prologue

English countryside
September, 1934

The echoes of the train whistle faded into the distance as the engine reached a steady pace and the train snaked out of London.  Behind, the silver and mahogany-sable of the magnificent King's Cross station glinted in the bright morning sunlight.

Birds winged in speckled flocks from hedgerows as the train wound into the countryside.  Sheep lifted placid heads, interested in little but the green abundance of grass thick around them.

Inside the fourth car from the engine, two girls pushed their palms against the panes of the train window.  “It's beautiful,” said the younger.  “I loved London, but I miss the country.”

The older smiled at the mention of London.  “I suppose.  It is beautiful, but so was London.  In a different way.  All those wonderful buildings, Westminster Palace, the Houses of Commons!”

Shaking her two auburn pigtails over her shoulder, the younger girl settled back against her seat.  “I know.  We had so much fun, didn't we?”

The older girl sat back as well, her movements a odd mix of grace and awkward adolescence.  Her thin figure hinted at beauty on the way, but not arrived quite yet.  She lifted a self-conscious hand to her modishly bobbed red hair.  “I still can't believe Mum let me get my hair done.”

The younger girl snorted.  “She thought anything would be better than the poodle mop you had before.”

“You could have had your's done too, Julie!”

The girl called Julie shrugged, flipped her pigtails over her shoulders again.  “I like long hair.”  Then her face softened.  “But your cut does look nice, Liz.”

Her sister smiled at her.  “Thanks.”  She glanced out the window, then over at the aisle seats where their parents leaned against each other, mouths slightly open, heads drooped with sleep.

With mischievous cautiousness, she leaned forward.  “London was very educational, don't you think?  St. Paul's was especially interesting.”

The younger girl burst into stifled giggles.  “Do you think they guessed?”

“I hope to goodness not!  If they find I sneaked out of the hotel and then got both of us lost at night in London, I'll be grounded for years.”

“I sneaked out too,” her sister said complacently. “But it was a good thing you thought of meeting at St. Paul's beforehand.”

“You're telling me.”  The older girl clutched her short curls melodramatically.  Her sister snickered.

“Say, you know, we can use that for a...” she cast a cautious glance at their parents and lowered her voice, “a sort of code.”

“Code?”  The older girl cocked her head on the side.  “Oh, I know!  If we need to meet somewhere, just the two of us, we can say we're meeting at St. Paul's and no one will know what we mean!”

“Exactly!”  The younger girl clapped her hands.

Their father gave a started snoring gasp and her eyes widened.  The older girl's cheeks bulged with the held-in laughter.  She winked at her sister.

“I think...”

The bellow of the whistle cut off the words.  The engine slowed abruptly, sending the cars jolting together.  Suitcases, hatboxes, parcels flew across compartments, spraying their contents like innards.

Hysterical shrieks punctured the air, but in the fourth compartment, neither girl made a sound, just looked at each other, breath coming quickly.

The younger girl reached for her sister's hand.  “What was that—”

And then the world exploded around them as the engine derailed.  Torrents of steel and iron writhed like a tortured snake.  Terrified screams of agony pierced between explosions and the sizzle of molten coal as the train avalanched down the steep hill.

At the bottom of the embankment the train collapsed, cars toppled grotesquely across the smooth green banks.  Bodies lay flung around and inside.  Through the smoke and the flames the few survivors fought to escape.

And from the wreckage near car four, a tall thin girl stumbled out, blood streaking her red curls as she dug through the rubble, screaming over and over and over for her sister.

Welcome to Wings of Fire!

I'm starting this blog as a way to not only gain more readership as to the series that a friend and I are writing, but also as a way to better get ideas and theories out there for the series. We're in the writing process, and have not yet been able to get an agent for the first book. BY FOLLOWING AND COMMENTING ON THIS BLOG YOU ARE HELPING US GET IT PUBLISHED BY SHOWING THAT WE HAVE AN AUDIENCE! I am hoping to get a hundred people following this blog. Please help me out on this one by having other people you know read it! If they like it...tell them to follow it! Thanks much!

I'm Ruth Rockafield and my co-author is Nina Hansen. All credit goes to her for starting the series and I can't thank her enough for letting me write with her. I try hard to hold up my end of the bargain.

I want to make this blog as much fun as it can possibly be while still remaining on topic. ;) I might be able to get my younger sister to write up an interview and interview Nina and I and then I could post the interviews here... Also, Nina is making book trailers for the books that I'll be able to put on here. She has the cover for the first book, which I really want her to send me.

WHAT IS “WINGS OF FIRE”?

“Wings of Fire” is going to be a three-book period series set in World War II Europe. The theme of the series is courage. Courage to face today, tomorrow, and yesterday.

Book One is “Through a Rain of Fire”, and centers around a nurse (Liz Knight) in London during the London Blitz of 1940-1941.

Book Two is “A Fire is Woken” and is about a young RAF pilot (Peter Standish) who was seriously burned in the first book and his battle to get back to flying. Also, a young woman (Julie Knight, Liz's sister) who joins the SOE (British secret intelligence), trying to do her part for the War. The book climaxes at D-Day. (And yes...between said pilot and said girl there is a romantic story line). The book is set 1941-1945.

Book Three is still in the drafting process, and is called “The Fire Dwindles”. It is about trying to find the captured SOE agents in Germany as the Iron Curtain falls. 1945-1946 or so. It's still just very rough ideas, not even outlined yet.

Right now, we've finished “Through a Rain of Fire” and are almost done with editing. We just went back and did a major re-write of the entire beginning, which was far from satisfactory. I like it now and feel that it better represents the novel. We've been querying agents for almost a year, but have had nothing but rejections. This is actually our second major editing of the novel. We thought it was all done, but went back and looked it over and decided it would never do. So we're doing a complete revamp again!

We're writing the second book, and it is coming out in bits and pieces—not all of them in chronological order! We're only four chapters in, but we have large parts of the end completed. I personally think that it is way, way better than the first book. But the first book has Peter as a secondary character, and in the second book he's one of the two main characters... Peter is my character, and I love him. ;)

I also love Julie. They're both fun characters and it's been very enjoyable to write the book so far. We'll see how it turns out once we're further in. Sometimes the charm of writing gets lost the more time you spend on it. But we've been at it almost six months and the newness and excitements of the story is still definitely there. We didn't write all summer due to working and crazy schedules, and are just now starting to really get back into writing.

I'm going to try and keep you guys updated by not only what we're doing but I'll also post excerpts here. I can't post the whole thing...otherwise we'll loose first rights in publishing. Which would really not be good at all. Otherwise I would probably post the whole thing. But I'll try and post the best parts. Or the new parts. Or just the parts that I like. Like I said, I'll talk to my sister about the interview. That would be fun. I might also be able to have some friends who have read the book write up reviews on it and those could go here too. There are all sorts of pretty awesome stuff I can do. And remember...the more YOU contribute the more I can do!

I'll probably post the first excerpt in a few days. I'll post the prologue for the first book. So we can all be looking forward to that.

So until next time... TTFN!