The Summer We Were Sixteen: Part IV - Ozz

In Australia, summer is Dec-Feb, so my 16th birthday was right before the end of the school year. I remember it clearly because as a 10th grade Elective PE student I had the opportunity to be part of the 7th grade swimming lessons program which lasted a week. Being one of the top swimmers I was assigned with the advanced class which had my sister in it. Bad idea, we get along WAY too well. All week we goofed off during the lessons.
The last day of the lessons was a pool party and my birthday. One of my best friends at the time gave me a stuffed toy sheep with a bib which read: Best Friends. It was possibly the coolest gift ever because I have a weird sheep fetish.
The whole day was a blast, and I ended up sun burnt. So my sixteenth birthday party that night I was as red as a lobster. But a few weeks later I had a nice bronze tan and my hair was sun-bleached.
Like most summers, I spent it at the pool or beach, but that year we had really bad fires around and after Christmas. We lived in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and that area is a tinderbox. When fire season kicks in, the smell of smoke lingers for weeks. But that year was really bad. Before Christmas almost an entire neighborhood was lost, leaving them stranded for Christmas.
By mid-January, a 30km front was heading straight for the line of towns in which we lived. So a burn off was set into place in the bush which our home fronted. I remember we had to take the dogs inside and lock them up because they freaked out, and wildlife slithered and scampered up into the streets as we watch the firefighters set our bush on fire.
It did the trick though. The fire had nothing to burn, so when it met with the burn off, it went out or changed course away from all the homes. I remember at night going to a lookout and seeing the orange glow crawling down the mountainside like a slow lava flow. It felt so eerie.
A few days later, Dad decided he wanted to go take a look at "our" bush. So we hiked down to a small creek with the dogs. On the way back, I slipped on some ash, and underneath embers still smoldered. It stung like crazy, and I obviously cried and the dogs rushed over to lick my face in their dog-sympathy kind of way.
We rushed home to hose my leg off and found a nice burn from my knee down my shin. To this day I still have a small amount of ash trapped under my skin on my knee.
So, that was my summer when I was sixteen.

~Ozz

Kiya Release Blog Hop

Hey guys!

Check out the book Trailer before you go anywhere! It's so epic.

To celebrate the release of my book I'm holding a blog hop! So jump in and win some great prizes. Details can be found on my blog.

So something about Egypt. Everything is backward! I mean this in the nicest way. When talking about travel on the Nile, traveling down means Northward, so traveling up means South! Then, Upper Egypt is cities like Luxor/Thebes in the southern region, while Alexandria and Memphis on the Delta are considered Lower Egypt. Confused me in High School!

So There you go! Keep looking and learning from the other blogs.

Historical Figures Blog Hop

So, because I'm probably a little too busy I forgot to post this earlier! So We'll just start now. Sorry everyone!

To celebrate the upcoming release of my novel Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh I am holding this blog hop here with the Typelings gang! So here's what you need to do:

Post about a historical figure you would like to meet and why.

There are so many interesting people throughout history, Kiya being just one of them. Kiya really was one of the wives of Akhenaten, the only wife, other than Neferiti and his three oldest daughters with Nefertiti, ever mentioned.

So, the Typelings gang will buzz around to the blogs and vote on their favorite, then, the one with the most votes I will give a free e-book copy once the book is released (30th April.) Just post the link in the comments below. Entries will close on the 30th.

Thanks for your patience!

~*Ozz




Find more about Kiya at my blog and join in the blog hop for the release there.

Cover Reveal Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh by Ozz!

Today I am so excited to share my cover with you! This is my debut so I'm getting a multitude of feels about this. Anyway, I just love this cover, and hope you like it too. So, here it is!

To save her younger sisters from being taken to the cruel life of the palace, Naomi intervenes and gives herself to be a wife of the erratic Pharaoh Akhenaten.  

In the palace, Naomi finds herself thrust into the intrigues of the royal family, and has her name changed to Kiya. She becomes beloved by the Pharaoh, who declares that she will bear him his heir. But the Great Queen Nefertiti, furious with jealousy, schemes to destroy Naomi and even brings her fidelity into question, which could cost Naomi her very life. 

Naomi must play the deadly game carefully. She is in a silent battle of wills, and a struggle for who will one day inherit the crown. And if she does bear an heir, she will have to fight to protect him as well as herself from Nefertiti who is out for blood.

Find more about Kiya at my blog and join in the blog hop for the release there.

To celebrate the upcoming release of my novel Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh I am holding this blog hop here with the Typelings gang! Yay! So what do you need to do? Well it's simple:

On the 23rd, post about a historical figure you would like to meet and why.

There are so many interesting people throughout history, Kiya being just one of them. Kiya really was one of the wives of Akhenaten, the only wife, other than Neferiti and his three oldest daughters with Nefertiti, ever mentioned.

So, the Typelings gang will buzz around to the blogs and vote on their favorite, then, the one with the most votes I will give a free e-book copy once the book is released (30th April.) Easy right? Just post the link in the comments on the post for the hop that will go up on the 23rd. Entries will close on the 30th.

~*Ozz

Ozz's writing process

Since being offered a contract to have my book published, I've found people asking me how I go about writing my books. I know the normal ways are using spread sheets to map out ideas, outlining the plot first and so forth, but to be honest, I just don't do that.

For me, the first thing I have in my head is the main character and something that has happened to them to change the course of their life. This usually becomes my opening scene. With Kiya, for example, Naomi popped into my head while I studied Ancient Egypt and said; "Let me tell you Kiya's story my way." So, I saw her with several younger sisters who were about to be taken but she stepped up in their place despite her highly ranked father's wishes.

The next thing I have in my head is how I want the story to end. With that in mind, I can figure out how to get there. I keep the finale as main points but don't write it down, because I find I change small details along the way. It gives me the freedom to have the characters develop as they will while heading to the conclusion.

The characters are the most important thing to me. I often have several scenes in my head once I have the beginning and end, but I won't write them down until I feel like I can express it the way my characters would tell it. While I'm developing my WIP I spend most of my time thinking about my characters, spending time with them while doing chores, going to the store, at work and mostly while I take my kid out for a walk to the park. Knowing the characters is the most important thing to me because it's what they do and how they react that creates the story.

When I write historicals, that means I also need to do research. Kiya had a TON of research involved for each of the characters, the chronology of events, culture of Egyptians and Hebrews, and daily life. Usually I read all of this during the character process, but sometimes I have to do it while I'm writing. Using Kiya again as an example, there's one scene where she has to clean the restrooms. So I paused and went and found out how Egyptians went to the toilet. It was a small detail, but it was important for accuracy's sake.

Once I have my beginning and end and know my characters, I fill in the middle. I usually write from beginning to end, occasionally writing a scene for later on a separate document, but generally I just let it flow. Then once I've written it, I'll go back and touch up details that I neglected to link up the first time around.

It makes things surprisingly fast. My last WIP I wrote 96,000 in a month and the whole Kiya series took me 2 1/2 months to write with about a month's research before hand. I think I can do it so fast because I spend so much time with my characters so I just chug through the scenes and rarely get stuck.

It's not very profound or ground breaking, I know... but this is what works for me. I really believe that a writer should do whatever works for them and not what other people say they "should" do. So, if you are stuck, try something different until you find what makes you tick. Creating a story shouldn't be hard, and it shouldn't be stressful. I believe being a writer is a labor of love, so do it the way that makes you happy! :-D

Ozz.