Blog Archives

Website Refresh is live!

Hey Everyone!

Have you noticed things look just a little different here? Yep that’s right, the long rumored (and finally delivered) refresh to the site is here! I still like the current theme, but I’ve updated the linked pages at the top, The newsletter is actually going to be a thing (yeah… that one is my bad), and we have a new banner and a “professional email”. So if you want to ask questions, send suggestions, or just say hello. you can email me directly at contact.me@christopherjhillger.com (this beats giving out mailing addresses like the author’s of old did)

All of the newsletters will come from that address too, so you can either email me and ask me to be added to the newsletter, or there is a page linked on the side bar with an updated form to send the requests there. The first newsletter will be in May 2025, and I plan to send monthly ones after that. if you aren’t included on that newsletter, please send me a note at the address above, I’ll get that fixed as well. I can’t guarantee this transition and startup is going to go super smoothly haha.

Next update I plan to push out is a project and planing update later this month, so please stay tuned!

as always, my God bless you and keep you.

It’s been 10 years…

Ten years ago my first child was born, and I started to learn what it meant to be a father. Ten years ago I published my first Novel, and gained another title of Author. I went on to have another son, and write two more books to finish out the first trilogy.

Strange to think that a decade has passed, in some ways it feels longer, in others it went by too quick. My boys are growing, and learning so much. They are far more important to me than anything else that I’ve done. Their mother is still my favorite, and I make sure she knows that. The oldest plays football (American) the youngest wants to try soccer in the fall. They both get good grades, and try to learn much more (which is more important than the letter of their grade). We share interests, in video games, and hikes in the woods. If I’m outside doing something they want to be there too.

I’ve got more stories I’m wanting to finish, both at home and on the page. I prioritize the ones at home, which keeps my new books delayed. One day my tale will end, yet theirs has just begun. Ten years have passed, and the next is on the way. I hope they will love their families and that our stories together will stay.

Some ways to broaden your stories

Hey, everyone!

Happy to be writing again, I thought it’d be a fun thing to share some of my thoughts and methods (some new to me, some I already knew). Here are 3 of those thoughts and suggestions.

Suggestions on broadening the setting of your:

1. Landscapes matter.

Don’t be afraid to add some paragraphs here and there to describe how the environment changes as your characters move through the space. This helps paint the picture in your readers minds, but also makes the setting feel more real and grounded (even in a fantasy setting!)

2. Use and reuse extra characters

You likely have a cast of characters that the story is being told about. Heroes, villains, side characters, and more. Maybe keep some interesting extras to throw around to keep the world changing but still feel familiar. Maybe you had a rude grumpy person who knocked your hero off their feet. It can be a fun nod to bring them back in an unexpected way, or even in the same way but after so much in the heroes journey has changed them they still have normal rude people in their lives…

3. Don’t be afraid to make new characters that are for the setting more than the plot

I’m a big proponent of making everything in a story relevant to the plot. Yet you know, the setting, the place the story takes place in, is relevant to the plot so if it helps breathe life into the world, go for it. I’m hoping to be better at this one for sure, so look for it in the next series πŸ˜‰

That’s all for now, as always, may God bless you and keep you.

The 2021 update!

Hey everyone,

Yeah, it’s march and I’m just now getting to releasing an update about what I’m up to. Well better late than never πŸ˜‰ so let’s begin!

First, The Crystal Seal turns 6 years old this month! That book is truly the groundwork for the entire trilogy, and is worth a read if you’ve never have picked it up. As a fun aside: Children are about 4 years into their education at this point in Hytrae. Those kids will likely start spending time with the trade of work their family is involved in, and learning that trade themselves.

Next on the train of news, I am officially ready to announce the next writing project which will begin releasing later this year! Now I have made a bad habit of promising new titles in the springtime, and failing to actually finish anything that year in the past. I would love to provide you all with proof that this time will be different, but I am not blessed (or cursed) with such visions of the future. I can, however, tell you the book title, series title (yes series!), and when I am hoping to get this next title out to you all.

The next series will be set in the familiar place of Hytrae (familiar if you’ve read The Sage of Hytrae trilogy, if not you really should πŸ˜‰ anyway). The first book of this series is titled (tentively) The Vaults of Belin. Yes that’s right, we are cracking into the borders of the elusive, and restrictive region in Hytrae’s south eastern kingdom. We will be exploring it and more in this new series which is titled Hytrae: Visions of Darkness. At least those are the names I’m going with for now. I don’t like to put out names too far ahead of release, so you can expect the first title as early as September 2021!

Ok, you’ve read the juicy bit now, so feel free to skip me rambling here at the end haha. Just weighing in to current events, which I’m sure won’t make me more friends unless God wills it. But anyway, here we go:

I hope every one of you have had a tolerable year. It’s been about one year since the pandemic started effecting us here in the states. A crazy and scary ride for the whole world to be sure. Mostly what I see now is hope that the collective nightmare may soon be over. With this crisis waning I remember the one that predated it. One that still exists and plagues our news and every day lives. I am of course referring to the accusations and continuous pandering of race and gender equality.

Now before I ignite more unnecessary flames. I agree and disagree with everyone on the topics equally. I’m of the mindset that every view and mindset is wrong from someone else’s opinion out there. My opinion (which I’m sure some disagree with) is God created us all, he sent his son to die for us on a tree. He did so to save us all from ourselves, and our self destructiveness and rebellion (Sin). He is, was, and has always been against discrimination, God loves us all equally no exceptions.

Which I can say is why I have left races out of my books entirely. Yep, it’s a fantasy world, on another planet, with an entirely different species, so race is not a topic of my books at all. I leave most of such imagining to the reader’s mind to fill in the blanks. In fact, one promenant character in the first trilogy I gave so little physical discription of, I doubt I could release a drawing or image of said person without someone thinking it was completely wrong. Bonus points if you know which character I’m talking about.

Oh I do describe regions, religion, social status, occupation, nationality, and culture. All important things for world building. Anyway, I’m sure what I say can and will be used out of context at some point to fuel a fire of hatred. Just please know it is not my hatred, nor is it of God.

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.

Summer update for 2020

Hey everyone!

Exciting news, I am once again doing a “summer of reading” where in july you will be able to pick up one or more of The Sage of Hytrae books for a discount! I am going to be promoting this heavier than any promition to date, so hopefully we will see many new people ready to read these exciting tales. I will have more exact details on pricing and dates in the next week or two.

More writing is underway, and I am still hopeful at getting a new book out this fall. This writing does include a new Hytrae based trilogy, which is my current “active” effort. I will have more to announce for that in the next couple of months.


I know this year has been crazy, and I hope all of you are healthy and safe. As always,

may God bless you and keep you.

More writing underway

Hey everyone!

With all this crazyness going around, many of us are finding more spare time on our hands. I hope everyone is doing what they can to be safe and healthy.

In the spirit of isolation, few things help pass such time as reading. A well told story that you can sink into can make everything feel like it disappears. Ebooks are fairly cheap, and even I have a few out so I hope you consider reading during this time.

Personally, I find myself writing again. World building, character arcs, motivations and plots, I can loose myself in crafting such literaturations.

New tales with familiar faces in Hytrae, untold hijinks among the stars, and more have all seen some work lately. I’m still planning on getting something out there later this year, although I am less sure what it will be haha.

Until next time, May God bless you and keep you.

February Update

Hey Everyone!

Happy new year… oh little late for that haha. Yes the silence has passed, 2020 is planned to be a great year! This year The Crystal Seal is five years old this year! Crazy to think back to that time, my first book, the one that started the trilogy. Really, it was the first personal project I ever finished of any kind.

To celebrate I’m going to be throwing up a sale and price reduction on the kindle versions of all three books! Its not yet, but soon. I have some minor things I need to do first before I can throw up the sale (mostly make it more obvious that there are three books in the series haha). So I will have another post in the near future letting everyone know when the sale and price reductions are live.

Why tell everyone now then? I don’t even have a date to announce after all (I’m thinking early march ish). Well accountability is the first reason. If I tell people I’m more likely to actually get it done. Secondly, nothing is more frustrating to buy something just for it to have a price reduction, or a sale shortly after. So don’t buy kindle right now! *laughter* no one has bought it in months, but hey I can dream. Reminder, if you buy the paperback, you can get the corresponding ebook for free when you buy on amazon.

Anywho, what else? Surely that’s not all right? Well no, not all, but I have even less details about the next one. I am planning on releasing a new book this year! its not finished yet, I might have previously announced working on it, but maybe not. I know its not much to go on, well I guess nextΒ  to nothing to go on. But hey, look for something new to read towards the end of the year from me all the same. I will have more updates on this and any other projects later on.

Well happy Valentine’s everyone! Until next time, May God Bless you and Keep you.

 

 

Update for December…

Hey Everyone,

 

Sorry that I have been absent the past two months. Lots of reasons, mostly battling some mental blocks. Not writers block, but motivation issues, I could use taking some of my own advice there for sure. Mental health is so difficult to manage at times.

 

Anyway, I’m hoping to get the newsletter up and going soon, but something has caused me to not do it yet. The Original forums has been attacked by bots, I know due to repeat entries, added messages, not using anything close to a name in the name field, and such. I’ve added a drop down menu that you have to change, so I’m resetting the list so if you have signed up before please do so again. Of course, If you gave me your email in person via an event, then I still have your email and you do not have to resubmit.

 

Writing has slowed down, I’ve been doing some creative writing but nothing that could be published (more fun fan-fiction type stuff, nothing adult though, sheesh). I hope to pick up again soon with a few different ideas, mostly the title I’ve announced I’m working on already, and some Hytrae related stories and structure. I hopefully can get some more info out soon to everyone.

 

I do have plans of making my way to a con of some kind early next year. No decisions have been made on which one, and I am still looking around. If anyone has some suggestions please leave a comment down below. Doesn’t have to be a place to setup a booth or something at, just something related to the scifi/fantasy genre in some way. comic/game/anime doesn’t much matter to me, I haven’t been to a proper convention in several years and really need to get back into them.

 

I’m afraid that’s all the updates I have today, hopefully I can get my tail in gear and start the weekly blogs back up in some capacity.

 

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.

What to do about writers block

So here we are again. Back at the old writing of helpful insights…

So what do I write now? I had an idea eariler but it was for a different topic or story. Should I go develop that? I am getting no where here on this project…

Hey everyone,

If those starting sentences sounded familiar you might have some experience with “writer’s block”. That old foe that plagues even the most successful of authors. Can we slay him? Maybe not, but we can seal him away again.

So first things first, what is writers block?

Well as the name implies it is a mental block that seems to have wedged itself between your mind, creativity, and your physical action of writing. This subconscious mental state can be as frustrating as it is perverse. The mental block can even affect and effect other parts of your day to day life.

In short, you desire to push your creativity and capabilities in one direction, and you receive unexpected resistance.

So what do you do to get rid of it?

Thank you for asking!

Well to get rid of it, stop pushing against it…

Not super helpful huh?

Okay, let me help by explaining more.

Your mind, my mind, and The mind, all tend to wonder.

Your mind is drifting from thinking about your project, to the conversation earlier with that one person, to the sale at the store, to how you needed more sleep, the conversation you overheard, that person that annoys you, why is there so much of that color of paint these days, how you need more sleep, what your going to eat next meal…

You see my point? You can’t focus on all that at once, so the mind is fluid and drifts around.

Step one. Take a deep breath. Let’s begin.

So first try to identify why you can’t focus. This is almost always internal (no matter how much that person clicking the pen 10 feet from you grates on your nerves). What is worrying you? Little tasks that need done? Make a short plan to deal with it, and stick to that plan.

Feel better? No? Yeah me either, so lets continue.

Next if you’re fixated on another idea, write a quick overview of it. Maybe it really is your next great idea that will change your life… Probably not, but an overview should spark the idea back up if it really is a good idea to start with.

After that doesn’t work, change your environment. A short walk, and think about the things you see or encounter (not about the project, or deadline). 10 min later, go back to the project. But instead, reread some of it, or the reread the assignment, or both.

Next, remember that thing that inspired this story? Try to. Was it a conversation, situation, or something else? If the details are fuzzy, try and reexperince it (as best you can).

Now write something. Build something in the story. Set a scene, describe a landmark, or introduce a character. Like Chris, the unhelpful troll who doesn’t understand your problems. What’s he look like? What does he sound like?

HEY! What are you doing? Is that writing you’re doing? How’d that happen?

No more writers block if you follow steps like those. All of them, and don’t skip, it’s a process. It really does work, hasn’t failed me yet.

Was this helpful? Yes or No, and let me know if you have your own process down in the comments.

Until next time. May God bless you and keep you.

OTD starts tomorrow!

Hey everyone,

I will be setting up at Old Timers day festival in Peebles, Ohio tomorrow. The festival officially kicks off late afternoon the same day. Be sure to stop by if you are in the area!

Meant to get this posted Saturday when they came in, but the new bookmarks are here!

If you find me at any of the festivals (including OTD this year) I will have these on hand to pass out!

As you can see it has the trilogy artwork and book titles on the front. On the back is my picture (from the back of the books, I really should get an updated picture for the next book release), a brief bio, list of published books and my website at the bottom.

I should have some bumper stickers to bundle with book sales, or sold separately for $1. They are still in the mail, but should be delivered by tomorrow. I will upload pictures of those once they arrive as well.

I am excited to get to meet anyone and everyone at the festival 😁

Until then, May God bless you, and please don’t feed the Jacobs