Yeah I’m still alive…just.

Hey Everyone

I’m trying to finish off a bunch of work at the moment so I’m not around on social media or the blog much. I have about 100 pages left of my final edit of Rise of the Firebird (book three of The Firebird Fairytales). It’s epic – like 150k words epic- so it’s taking me a lot longer to get the way I want it. It’s the final book where everything needs to tie up and make sense (oh the spoilers I could tell you) so the editing process has been a lot more timely and intense.

I’m also studying two units of Uni this semester instead of one so I’m on the hop to get assignments completed and in.

Oh yeah and I’ve had an epiphany half way though writing the current WIP BLAISE so I’m having to go through and structurally rearrange things.

In summary, I’m busy but I’m still thinking of you.

Here is stag to make you feel better.

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Ohh what a magnificent beast.

And a beautiful fairytale picture to let you know where my head is at right now.

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Love Amy the Great

akuivalainen

Free Story PDFs -My New Thing

You might have seen back in my New Years post that this year I wanted to start putting Free Stories onto the blog for you to read, share, pirate whatever.

Today I have uploaded the first free story! Hurray! Because I’m SO excited about my release of Ashes of the Firebird this coming weekend I’ve uploaded the complete first novel of The Firebird Fairytales, Cry of the Firebird for your reading pleasure. You can find it here under the Books Tab of my Menu. 

My mind is bursting with stuff to write, load and advertise before the weekend (including a proper blog for Ashes) so bear with me folks and I’ll see you on the otherside 🙂  

 

akuivalainen

Sibelius, I Love You

  
I love Sibelius, in fact I probably listen to more of his incredibly visual music when I write than any other classical composer. I spent yesterday afternoon streaming a wonderful piece by ABC Classic FM about the great man in celebration of his 150th Anniversary of his birth and his later years at his house Ainola. If you aren’t familiar with his work he drew much of his inspiration from the Kalevala epic and the forests and lakes of Finland.

Apart from anecdotes like Churchill sending him cigars for his birthday and Hitler sending him a medal and personal note there was also other things that really resonated with me like the fact he worked on his 8th Symphony for thirty years and then tossed it into the fireplace because he felt it would diminish his earlier works, he just didn’t think it was good enough. That is…rough. As an artist I get it. I don’t think I know one writer who hasn’t wanted to burn it all at some point.

Sibelius’ music has a way of twisting into your heart and pulling roughly on the emotional strings. If you’re eyes don’t well once while you really sit there and listen then I would be very surprised (King Christian II Incidental Op.27 I. Nocturne gets me EVERY time). He’s a composer, yes, but he’s also a story teller. He paints images and stories in your mind with notes, so it didn’t surprise me to learn he used to associate different musical notes with colors. I’m sure if he had wanted to he could’ve written a song based on the colours used on any painting of his good friend, the great Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela. They both loved the Kalevala and drew heavily from it, they understood the power of story telling. 

   
When I was in Helsinki last I went to his beautiful monument (it actually features in Rise of the Firebird aswell) and could really SEE his music as I travelled through the country. To my mind he captured the heart and beauty and something inherently Finnish in his music. He never compromised his art, never wrote in a style because he thought it would be popular and make him money, was unflinching focused on the music his heart wanted to create. There’s a lesson for everyone there.

If you like classical, take the time. You won’t be disappointed.

akuivalainen

2015 What the hell happened?

Looking back on 2015 has kind of made me feel like this…

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The really strange thing is that many people I’ve talked to, writers blogs I’ve read etc have all been saying the same thing. 2015 we are all glad to see you go and hope that 2016 will be kinder.

My 2015 in review;

*I wrote two and half novels (only one I am happy with) totalling about 210k  words. Add blogs and and assignments its probably about 250K.

* I edited over 500,000 words…lets not speak of it *sobs*

* I published two novels and all the additional work around them that you can’t fully appreciate until you are forced to do it.

* I continued to work on my degree that I still don’t know how long is going to take me to finish.

Plus a day job and a 3,000km move to a new city.

SO what’s happening in 2016 on the publishing front?

* Ashes of the Firebird (Book 2 of The Firebird Fairytales) will be out in February! Hurray! Covers and interiors will be completed in January so expect sneak peaks and a locked in release date shortly.

*Rise of the Firebird (Final book of The Firebird Fairytales) will also have a 2016 release but I will keep you posted closer to the dates.

I have been pretty tired during the last week or so of holidays just trying to catch up with my own mind and plan 2016 which will hopefully be a lot smoother thanks to the lessons learnt in 2015.

I don’t make resolutions as a rule but I do have a hope for 2016; that I won’t lose a year and have no other memories but work, that I will read some great books that will move me, that I will write some great books that will make me and that people will learn to be kinder and more tolerant than the past year of horror.

2015 I am glad you’re gone. I will not miss you.

akuivalainen

What I’m Up To…

I would be the first to admit that I have not been focussed on blog writing in the last few months  so I thought I would write a quick catch up to let you all know what I have been up to:

  •  I have finished writing the first book, called WYLT, in a new trilogy. It has strong gothic romance flavours tied in with faerie and other supernatural elements.
  • Duke and I have finally moved to Melbourne to pursue writing and romance shaped endeavours. I have planned two books based here in Melbourne so taking advantage of the State Library Archives is high on my priority list.
  • My fabulous US copy editor has finished with book two of my Firebird Fairytales trilogy, it’s called Ashes of the Firebird and I am hoping to get it out early in the new year.
  • I am going to start publishing short stories here on the blog for anyone interested. I will be editing these and posting them here and there.
  • I am job hunting which always makes me a little crazy so I have also started writing the second book in new series called BLAISE to keep me level.
  • I am going to create a mailing list in the next few months so I can let you fine people know about promotions, offers and advanced reader copies and not to spam you.

OKAY so that is a much abbreviated version of things going down in Amy-Land.

Don’t forget that both my books are going on a Free Books Promotion over Thanksgiving so please take advantage and tell your friends and family to as well. I am putting together a longer blog about Books of Magic so keep an eye out for that in the coming week.

Amy and Duke Out! 

  

akuivalainen

Free Books Promotions

*Promotion Announcement*

‘Cry of the Firebird’ will be be on a Free Books Promo in all countries on 26th-28th of November.

‘The Eagle Key’ will be on a Free Books Promo in all countries on 26th of November.

akuivalainen

Kalevala Dreaming

“I am driven by my longing,

And my understanding urges

That I should commence my singing;

And begin my recitation.

I will sing the people’s legends,

And the ballads of the nation.”

Excerpt From: “Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) / The Land of the Heroes.”

So begins “The Kalevala”, the heroic epic of Finland. In the 1830’s Elias Lönnrot was a doctor and like the Brothers Grimm he began to collect and record the folk stories and songs he encountered in his time travelling through remote Finland and Russian-Karelia. In 1849 he published “The Kalevala”, the culminating result of all of his research. Like Beowulf, the Illiad and The Edda’s it is rich in folklore, mythology, epic battles and powerful magic.

My third book in the ‘Firebird Fairytales’ series is the most Finnish of the three but you definitely get a taste in the others. When Anya is working word magic I tried to keep the rhythm and stanza’s a similar shape as those used in “The Kalevala”, for all magic is wrought by the power of words. I fear some of it is lost in translation with the English version, the version I use, from the original Finnish but one day like Tolkien I will have to teach myself Finn in order to understand the epic stories better. Recently on a trip to Finland I strolled through the streets of Helsinki and I freaked out with excitement every time I saw something Kalevala related, such as this statue of Väinämöinen outside the old Helsinki University house. When I saw the roof of the National Gallery I almost burst into tears. IMG_1611

These stories resonate on a primal level with readers and lovers of  myth. These are old stories and they are unique to the landscape and people that they are based on. After Finland regained its independence from Russia in 1917 there was a massive cultural revolution, a focus on what it meant to be Finnish. “The Kalevala” was an intrinsic component in Finland regaining its cultural heritage. Sibelius wrote operas and symphonies inspired by it, Akseli Gallen-Kallela painted works of incredible beauty just to name a few artists that had it as a focus of their works. Gallen_Kallela_Lemminkainens_Mother

The inspiration flows on today with writers drawing on it and not just Finnish writers either. I discovered Väinämöinen written in “Hammered” by Kevin Hearne and after doing a few fan girl squeals I messaged him on Facebook about it…and then squealed a bit more when he replied back. I thought long and hard about writing Väinämöinen in as a character but he decided he wanted to appear in another story of mine separate from the “Firebird Fairytales.” Other characters will appear however, Tuoni for example is the Lord of Tuonela, the Finnish Underworld and is the one that gives Anya the firebird egg. He stays around, with plans of his own, and others will start to come out of the wood works. It is my aim, in my small way, to contribute to this heritage of story telling and hopefully open it up to readers that never knew it existed.

akuivalainen