Hyba Is Writing

 My Three Tips for Writing Suspense My all-time favourite thing to do with my writing is to build suspense for readers. I love writing suspense because it makes the story exciting - not just for the readers who will be reading it, but for me as the author.  Over my many years of writing, I've found that there are a bunch of methods to create suspense that are effective and easy to use. Here are just 3 of the ways that I personally enjoy building suspense in my stories, and I hope they work for you, too. 1. Deliberate Description One thing I've found over my years of writing suspense is that having a middle-ground when it comes to description is key. You don't want to go on a long ramble about what a house looks like to the minutest of details for paragraphs and pages in a row! That gets boring very quick, and a lot of readers will probably just end up skimming it or skipping it completely - not something you want readers to be doing.  At the same time, you don't want to

ANNOUNCEMENT: Every now and then, I host a sale, or give my books away for FREE ! Until July 15, 2021, you can grab free copy of Apartment by filling out this survey on enhanced ebooks to help me out with some academic research. Enjoy the newest addition to your 2021 summer reading list! ---  Why Am I Self-Publishing Apartment ? It's no big secret that Apartment is self-published. I've talked a lot in the past on various social media platforms about how I will be self-publishing my books - and at least for now, that's the plan. But I understand that deciding to self-publish is a pretty significant thing, and one might even say a very risky decision. Before we get into my personal reasons, though, let's take a look at what self-publishing has going for it, and what it has going against it.  Widely-Accepted Reasons to Self-Publish If you do a quick search of why you should self-publish, you'll find a lot of people saying a lot of the same things. Here are just a fe

Today I want to share with you an excerpt from my upcoming novella, Apartment , which is set for release in January 5, 2021. This week we had James as the featured character, and here is a little excerpt aimed at giving the reader a little bit more of an insight into who he is.   Excerpt: "James's studio was a mess of papers, jars of murky water, newspaper spreads, paint tubes, and canvases both clean and painted upon. He had lost count of how many times he had dipped his paintbrush into a newly made cup of coffee, or a warm mug of tea." This post is part of my 49 Days of Apartment campaign spanning the time leading up to the launch of my book, and the week after. If you would like to participate and write a guest post on the subject of suspense and magical realism or an equally relevant topic, please contact me here . If you think Apartment is a book you might enjoy and would like to review the book prior to the release date, please contact me here . If you would lik

 Free Short Story: The Legend of the Five-Thousand Shells Have you checked out this short story yet?  A cover graphic I made for the short story.   It tells the story of King Ustura and his battle against the kahlaqrabs - of the extinction of a majestic creature that once called the Black Desert its home and the fight against the evil scourge that is the kahlaqrab - and of the mysterious fall of King Ustura's kingdom, and the subsequent disappearance of a legendary trove of around 5,000 kahlaqrab shells.

 Character Feature: James James is one of the three main characters of my forthcoming novella Apartment . At the surface level, he is a painter who works from his little studio apartment and has essentially isolated himself, turning into something of a recluse. As the story progresses, he becomes obsessed with his neighbours and finds himself turning into something he didn't know he could become - or worse, something he always feared he was, deep down in the recesses of his mind. As with all of the characters in Apartment , the more the story progresses, the more one learns about James. He is innocent enough, until he isn't. All of my characters are like this, and the reason for this was that I wanted to explore the darker sides of human nature without having to counter it with good. I wanted to make it so that the reader was confronted with the evils alone. James has a lot of evil stored up, and his sanity, or perhaps his long-held composure, begins to fracture as events unfol

 Utsaval Hisad - A Sissan Festival to Give Thanks A graphic I made for this fantasy festival! Utsaval Hisad is a festival celebrating the harvest seasons that takes place in Sissa twice a year, and it is one of the most popular festivals in Sissa. Because Sissa is geographically located in such a hot, arid region, alongside the Black Desert, the yearly harvests mean a great deal to the people. They mean that there will be enough food, and they will have enough to last from one harvest to the next. Those harvests are also extremely important because there isn’t much land that can actually be made fertile enough to grow crops in, so that small bit of land that can work has to produce enough to feed the entire empire. It isn’t uncommon for schools to take their students to the nearest farm to help out during the harvests and learn more about how things work. Many families also like to visit local farms to offer their help and celebrate. It is a time when the community really comes togethe

 Book Review: A Case of Blackmail in Belgravia by Clara Benson Cover from Goodreads A while back, I read A Case of Blackmail in Belgravia by Clara Benson , who has also written many more mysteries, some of her most popular being the Angela Marchmont series (and whose website, by the way, is gorgeous). Directly after reading it, this was my review on Goodreads (no worries, it's completely spoiler-free!): A thoroughly pleasant read, with a great cast of characters and a vibe that made me imagine the whole thing as if it were a black-and-white murder mystery film with a lighthearted, somewhat comedic tone. I'm especially a big fan of the dialogue - the way it was written really feels spot-on, and the characters have that old-fashioned wit about them that is so difficult to replicate today. The main character, Freddy, is a likeable and charming young man who finds himself roped into this messy murder and ends up doing the right thing for all involved. While I did find certain cha

📣AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Apartment has been released! You can purchase the ebook or learn more about the book by checking out its label on this blog.  If you're interested in grabbing a review copy, request one here .    🎬 Original Post Below 🎬  FORTHCOMING RELEASE: Apartment Earlier on this week, a release date for my eerie suspense novella Apartment was decided upon, and today it is my great pleasure to announce that the book which I have worked on and spoken about for such a long time is currently slated for digital release on January 5, 2021 ! Here's the blurb: James is a self-exiled artist and recluse who rarely leaves his apartment building. Angela is a lonely, bored accountant who feels her life has stagnated. Alex is on the run from a past that won't let go, eager for freedom and a normal, peaceful existence. Three people living in the same apartment building become increasingly suspicious of one another. Things escalate quickly when their building comes under

Hi! You're listening to Hyba is Writing, and I am your host, Hyba. Recently, I wrote a blog post about how I've continued work on Apartment , and how I'm aiming to launch it in 2021. Now, it's been a while since I put the project on hold. In fact, I shelved it before I started this podcast, so listeners who have been following along with the podcast probably won't know it, and even some of my followers from social media might have forgotten about it by now! That's why I want to re-introduce it today. Apartment is an eerie suspense novella that follows three people who live in the same apartment building. It's a story rife with suspense and tension, and all of the characters are, in one way or another, very, very suspicious. When I first started it, I had this weird idea about the setting, about what kind of people would live in that setting, and what kind of people would be attracted to that setting. I played with their mindsets a lot, leaning towards some v

 Hi! You're listening to Hyba is Writing, and I am your host, Hyba. These days, concerns over unemployment are pretty front and center, especially among people of my own generation who are entering the workforce, and those of younger generations that are still in high school but can see that getting a job is going to be especially tough. Today, I wanted to discuss how unemployment - and employment - works in different parts of Qarra. In particular, I want to go ahead and talk about how it works in Belvatria, Sissa, and Vakkar - in that order. So let's start with Belvatria. BELVATRIA The Belvatrian employment system works quite simply and efficiently. Usually, and at its most basic, one inherits a trade from one of their parents. In the case of both parents having different trades, they can choose which to pursue. Now, if they don't want to pursue either of those trades, or if one perhaps fails at pursuing those trades, they can opt to seek another trade. They can do this by

Hi, you're listening to Hyba Is Writing, and I'm your host, Hyba! It is the 19th episode and it is November 19th, 2020, and I do not think this is a coincidence to take lightly because today is also International Men's Day! In honor of this lovely day, I'm baking something special for the wonderful men in my life as a small thank you for everything they have done for me, and I'm recording this episode featuring one of the men in my fantasy series, Qays! For those of you who don't know yet, Qays is one of the main characters in my book, The Fall of the Black Masks . He is Mila's father - Mila is another protagonist - and the man responsible for saving Ragnar - who is the third and final protagonist of that book. Some of you might not know this - I certainly didn't until today when I looked up what this day specifically celebrates - but International Men's Day is a time when we focus on the contributions of men in six areas of life: nation, society, co

 Hi! You're listening to Hyba is Writing, and I am your host, Hyba. Today I've got a special treat for you, in honor of my recovery - and thank you very much to all the lovely people on social media that wished me well! Today's episode is going to be the second episode in the Journey Through Qarra segment, where I walk you through yet another setting in my fantasy world. The setting you're going to be exploring in a moment is called Ramadi, and what makes this location so important is that this is the province that used to house the Qorsan before they were run out of the Empire of Sissa - and, if you remember, the conflict between the Sissans and the Qorsan is the main focus of my book, The Pirates of Sissa. Before I get into this episode, I want to give a shoutout to my friend and fellow writer, Summayah , who also has her own amazing podcast called Beyond What You See where she discusses books that she enjoys from her own perspective as a Muslim, a writer, and a huma

 Hi! You're listening to Hyba is Writing, and I am your host, Hyba. A while back, I picked up reading again, a bit obsessively, because I was reading several history books concurrently in order to get some research done for my fantasy novels. I'll admit that I've always been a huge fan of history. I love learning about history - it's always such a fascinating subject - and I especially love learning about interesting little details. I've been planning ahead for my series - not outlining, because I can't follow an outline for the life of me - but just thinking vaguely about how the overall plot is going to proceed in general, especially since a lot of changes have happened in book two of my series, The Pirates of Sissa, that will have a big influence on the rest of the plot, and that includes, as of right now, a new book, making the total number of books in this series six. One of the major plot points that it coming up is a war, and I realized while I was consid

 Hi! You're listening to HIW and I'm your host, Hyba. Today, I want to talk about the importance of breathing, by which I mean the importance of taking time off from your work, whatever that may be, even if you love it. As you know, I'm coming off of a hiatus myself, and I've learned over this time that you really just can't go full-steam-ahead every single hour of every single day, as much as you would like to! My hiatus took maybe a week or two, but in reality, my creative well and motivation have been dried up for several weeks now, if not months, and I think this was primarily due to burnout. I have a lot of passion projects, and I love working on each and every one of them, but I tend to get a little too invested in projects and try to churn out as much work as possible in as short a time as possible. In other words, I become a total workaholic! This, as you can probably guess, is not healthy. So, while it's all well and good to give it your all and work ha

 I want to share this nifty little table I used to use back in high school for my AP World History course. Whenever we analyzed a civilization, we would use a SPRITE table. SPRITE stands for Social, Political, Religious, Intellectual/Ideological, Technological, and Economic. I’ve changed this so that it’s a SPLITE table (so it’s now Social, Political, Locational, Intellectual, Technological, and Economic). The reason that I replaced the Religious with the Locational is because I felt it made more sense from a worldbuilding point of view to put more emphasis on geography and location. I wanted to present a really basic, essential look at creating fantasy worlds, and location really plays a big role in what it takes to build a world. A fantasy world can be built without religious considerations, but it cannot be built without locational considerations. A story has to take place somewhere , after all, and usually that somewhere has huge bearings on the story itself. Now, the poster itself

 Hi! You're listening to HIW and I'm your host, Hyba. Today, I'll be reading aloud a short story that I shared a while back called The Legend of the Sleeping Massacre. This is a popular legend told throughout the world of my fantasy series, and is incredibly important to the plot of one of the books in the series, which I have yet to introduce. Still, I thought it would be a fun story to share with you, and I hope you enjoy it! So, let's go ahead and get started! You can read along if you'd like - you will find the story on my website linked in the description of this episode, and it is available in PDF, ePUB, and MOBI formats. Alright, here we go! [read along here] That wraps up the story, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing and reading it!

 Hi! You're listening to HIW and I'm your host, Hyba. Today, I am going to guide you on a journey through the Black Desert and to the very gates of Ramadi, a province perched upon the border of the great Empire of Sissa. You will see many things on this walk, including fantastical creatures, environments, people, and architecture. So, kick back and relax, and let yourself dive deep into this mini-tour. Are you ready? We begin our journey in the midst of the Black Desert. You are standing on a sea of sand, stretching out into the horizons and beyond. The sand itself is black, giving the region its title. The sky is a bright, clear blue, without a cloud in sight, and the sun beats down against you, its heat attracted to the dark ground you stand upon. There is a wind that whips through every now and again, a rush of hot air that carries with it fine grains of dark sand. It is peaceful, quiet, and vast. You feel you are but a speck in the middle of an infinite universe, and so you

 Hi! You're listening to HIW and I'm your host, Hyba. It has been a while, friends, and I'm glad to be back with this update episode! Lately, I've taken a sort of semi-hiatus from social media - and a full hiatus from Twitter - because I needed some time to allow my thoughts to regroup. I entered a bit of a creative slump about halfway through September, which turned out to be more than just a creative slump, and I've been dealing with that ever since. Lately, I've been feeling motivated thanks to my amazing friends who have been supporting me - so if you're listening to this, you know who you are, and I want to send you a special thank you for all of your support and for your friendship during this time! I've also been motivated as a result of trying something completely new for me creatively speaking! You might know if you follow me on Tumblr that I have started working on a new passion project. It's a romance story, and if I'm being perfectly