Write Your Own Ending

Why I Write

2011-05-26T08:51:00.004-04:00

I watched the final episode of Oprah yesterday. No fanfare. No celebrities. No guests. No giveaways.

Just lessons learned.

She spoke to the audience about what she learned through the years, and one thing, in particular, resonated with me.

Do what you are passionate about. Follow that voice inside telling you what to do, nudging you on the right path in life. Your destiny doesn't have to be on the level of Oprah, affecting millions of people. It can be touching the lives of your family, those in your circle of influence. If you love what you do, your passion will grow to touch other people in a positive way.

And that is why I write.

I get excited whenever I write—an energy that pumps me up more than several cups of coffee. I look forward to it. I get angry when I can't do it. I feel driven to do it like invisible hands are inside of me, tapping me on the shoulder, nudging me to finish the story, pushing me forward. So much so, that if I didn't do it, I'd feel plugged up, held back, stagnant. I'd feel as if I wasn't living up to my true potential. In fact, I'd get depressed.

I don't know if anyone other than my critique partners, friends, and family will ever read my stories. I'm not doing it for the money, otherwise I would have given up long ago. I do it because of the satisfaction I get in creating worlds and bringing characters to life that make my critique partners ask for more. I do it because of the satisfaction of my husband telling me he can't wait for the next chapter.

I do it because I have to, I want to.

I love it.

Continuing On

2011-01-11T20:43:00.002-05:00

Was totally grounded by a virus that has—somehow—changed my taste buds so now ketchup, mustard, mayo, salad dressing, salsa (anything vinegar based) all taste rancid. Kind of strange and is causing a dry spell in my sandwich eating. Oh, well, at least I can eat chocolate. Bright side ...

Speaking of bright sides, I was finally able to finish revising a scene in A Surefire Way that had been bugging me. It is a scene where my hero and heroine break out (no, that is not a typo) of the Natural History Museum. I wrote the scene then rewrote it and nothing was working. I even went downtown to the museum and scoped out the interior where my heroine would find herself transported. I took photos outside the building to see where they could exit onto the street. It helped give me some perspective and add realism to the flight. Finally, I took a break and watched the movie Knight and Day and inspiration hit. Who says nothing can be learned from a movie?

Now on to finish these revisions by the end of the month!

Doing the Happy Dance

2010-12-18T08:37:00.002-05:00

I am a finalist in the FF&P contest!!!

Whoo hoo!

For the first round, judged by my peers, I was tied for third place. For the final round, judged by an agent, I received an Honorable Mention. This is the second contest in which I had entered A Surefire Way, my latest manuscript. The first contest was the Marlene and I received a respectable score but didn't final. I later learned that it was tough competition and if you didn't receive a 99 or above then you didn't final. (My score was a 97.) I used the critiques from the Marlene and then submitted to FF&P's On the Far Side contest, another contest that had strong competitors. So with my finalist ranking, I'm moving up in the writing world! I feel as if I'm on the right track. If my peers are enjoying my story—if my target audience likes it—then I'm doing something right. Entering the contests is a way to test market my story and it is also pushing me to finish the rest of my revisions.

Nothing motivates me more than positive feedback. Sure, I need to know what I'm doing wrong and can improve but knowing that I made people laugh with my story or want to read more that is what keeps me moving forward.

Congrats to all the finalists in the contest. And thank you to the judges and contest coordinators at FF&P. They did a fantastic job!

Check Out This Contest

2010-09-25T20:11:00.002-04:00

The website Guide to Literary Agents is running a contest for paranormal authors. Mention their contest twice through social media or mention their contest once and place a link on your website to their site, and you can submit the first 150-200 words of your manuscript to their contest. The winner will have their submission critiqued by Marisa A. Corvisiero of the L. Perkins Agency.

Check it out and good luck!

Comic Con (aka Not Doing Stuffs I Should Be Doing)

2010-07-17T17:37:00.002-04:00

So Sybir got on my case (she's my butt kicker when I get behind) for not blogging. I haven't in awhile. Just been ... you know ... not writing.

Well, scratch that. I have been writing, but then I got caught up in—you guessed it—work again and my days and nights were gone. Yes, I know that I just need to carve out time for the writing. Easier said than done when you're running your own business and you are the only one who can put out the fires before they take down the wilderness.

At least that is how it feels sometimes.

I got a rejection letter from the WRW conference from HQN from an editor I had given an impromptu pitch at breakfast. She was very gracious. In fact, her rejection letter was one of the nicest I ever received and it gave me hope. She liked the story, characters, writing, and dialogue of A Surefire Way, but it wasn't edgy enough for the lines they are buy for.

This was the first rejection letter I actually got excited about. I felt like it was proof that I had improved and I am moving forward. Though I'm not moving forward fast enough. I'm working in rewrites to A Surefire Way and am only on Chapter 4. I have much, much more to do. If I had a full month to just dedicate to this story, I could probably get it done. As it is, I am looking forward to several hours of "me" time on the plane to write while we're heading to Comic Con.

Yes, you heard me: Comic Con.

A place for inspiration, stargazing, and waiting in tons of lines to go to movie and comic book panels. I can't wait. Though I'm a little concerned about the crowds and panicking because of the crowds.

One program that I am waiting in line for, though I may be in it for several hours (okay, so I won't be drinking any water to stave off the peeing issues):

3:30-4:30 Entertainment Weekly: The Visionaries— A discussion with geek gods J. J. Abrams (Star Trek) and Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) on the future of pop culture. EW presents an in-depth conversation with these two creative geniuses about how technology, gaming, and global culture are reshaping how we tell and consume stories on television, film and the web. Plus: Is the superhero movie waning, or is it on the cusp of reinvention? And what do they think the pop culture universe will look like a decade from now? Moderated by Jeff "Doc" Jensen. Hall H

There are tons of other panels (including a True Blood one which I'm sure will be INSANE) and I hope to bump into a few writers there at the panels. I'll post my experiences when I'm home.

And, no, I won't be wearing any costumes. At least ... not this year. Maybe if Sybir goes with me next time. :P

The Super Dooper Looper Writing Coaster

2010-03-15T22:18:00.003-04:00

Last week was a crazy emotional ride. In fact, I was buzzing so much from the ride that a "psychic" told me that my energy was pulsating way too much. She really wanted me to start meditating and just calm down. I was too hyper. Apparently, I was pulsating so much that she couldn't give me a proper reading. I just needed to get help. She had to give me a hug.

A month ago, I had entered a writing contest through my local WRW chapter. This contest required you to submit 30 pages of your manuscript along with a synopsis, so I sent my current WIP—A Surefire Way.

I was nervous. The last time I had entered a writing contest—ten years ago—the judges tore up my work. In fact, I don't think I wrote again for months.

I didn't final in the contest, but I didn't really enter to final. I entered as a market test. How would my story be received by my target audience? I'd been working on this concept for about two years. I had been working on the story for a year. Was it something others may want to read? So I waited for the scores. The manuscript was judged by my fellow peers, struggling writers in the same boat as me, trying to get published, and writers who were avid readers of my genre. I was thrilled when I got my scores. One score was perfect and the others weren't far behind. Most gave me great feedback on how I could improve. All said they thought I was publishable and they'd be interested in purchasing and reading my story.

I felt like crying with joy. I had finally made it. I was on the right track. I was spinning with excitement.

Then I got two rejections in one week for Dark Earth. The coaster dipped and I hadn't seen the hill coming.

But there was an upside. I was asked to submit A Surefire Way for consideration. She had some issues with Dark Earth, but liked my writing style and wanted to check out my other story. So I spent last week going through contest, writing coach, and critique partner edits to the first 30 pages for her to review. Not sure what is going to happen. The coaster now just hit the tunnel and I'm along for the ride.

It's Been Awhile

2010-02-26T20:47:00.004-05:00

Yes, I have been a negligent blogger. Then I was reminded by Sybir, who is incredible at keeping up her posts, that I should be blogging ... it's good for the writing soul.

But I've been out of the game for awhile. I've been working on growing my side business with my husband, which is a good reason. Though it is not the only reason.

I was depressed, frustrated, and angry with the publishing business and writing in general.

I wanted to see progress in my writing career, and I was getting nowhere. Many of the writers I had met when I first became serious about making this a career are well on their way to success with multiple books published.

What happened to me? Where did I go wrong? Am I not good enough? Did I not try hard enough?

I attended workshops. I read books on writing. I wrote and rewrote and revised some more until I got a blister on my pinkie and my eyesight worsen. But I got rejection, after rejection, after rejection.

I felt like an abject failure. I didn't deserve to be in the company of writers—or to call myself a writer.

But progress doesn't have to be measured in publishing contracts. It can be measured in improvement in writing. It can be measured in growth of character from dealing with each rejection. It can be measured in the bonds formed on the battlefield with others who are going through—or have gone through—the same ordeals.

I made up my mind that I want to succeed in this business. And if that's the case, I need to treat this like a job. I need to focus my energies on crafting the best story I can. And, most importantly, I need to believe in myself.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-30T22:30:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite times of years. When on nearly every channel is something scary, spooky, or wickedly creepy. Ahhh ... can't every day be like this? Really, it's so much fun!

I've had conversations with many of my friends—some who are horror fans and others ... not so much—on why I love scary stories. Can't say this is why others are attracted to them, but these are my reasons. Feel free to add your own:

Good vs. Evil
In many horror movies, there is strong, well-defined line between good and evil. And, in most cases, good triumphs (unless there's a sequel). In real life, there is so much gray with the "bad" not getting what's coming to it. It's nice to see it played out on the screen with the "bad" getting an ax through it's hideous head. Makes me feel vindicated.
Adrenaline Rush
Well-played horror movies will make you squirm in your seat, will make you cover your eyes, will make you scream aloud to stop the person about to cross Jason's path. Meanwhile, our adrenaline is pumping, sending a rush of excitement through our veins akin to riding a roller coaster or bungee jumping, but we're comfortably—and safely—sitting in our own sofa with the ability to turn off the TV, if we get too scared. But, really, doesn't it feel good to get that scared?
Fight and Flight
I remember reading that we don't encounter too many "fight or flight" situations like our ancient ancestors. These movies tap into these primitive feelings, tap into our ancient fear of the dark and everything that dwells there, which is actually healthy.
Philosophy
I was talking to a friend who was lamenting that we don't have any modern-day philosophers. But I countered that we did, they are writers. Movies can reflect the ideologies of the time, what that generation fears. Look at each generation's horror movies and I bet it would say a lot about that era.
Strong Women
What do Halloween, Friday the 13th, Alien, Hellraiser, Nightmare on Elm Street, and countless others have in common? Women kick ass! Sure you have some requisite boob shots. But it is the female protagonist who uses her intelligence, instead of her sexuality, to win over evil. I would contend that the horror genre was the first genre to feature a strong female protagonist, who kills the baddie no matter how huge, magical or maniacal it is.

Hmmmm

2009-09-20T18:33:00.002-04:00

On my iPhone, I have a "cool facts" application. It's a great app for making conversation because some interesting things pop up like

In its ancient form, the carrot was purple, not orange.
A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.
The higher the income, the more likely an American man will cheat on his wife. (Hmmm ... I've actually had this validated recently by a woman I met.)
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that's the weight of about 6 elephants. (kind of gross)
The testicles of the octopus is located in its head. (I believe that is true for human males as well, but mostly their brain.)
Snails breathe through their feet.
In an average lifetime a person will walk the equivalent of three times around the world.
The oldest pig lived to 68.
Baskin Robbins once made ketchup ice cream. (Did you put that over a hot dog?)

But the one that really caught my eye (and I still need to verify this but I think it's true):

Women who read romances make love 75% more often to their spouses.

There you have it! Even more reason to buy romances and why all men should be running to the stores now. :)

Funnies

2009-08-18T16:17:00.002-04:00

I love writing funny scenes, reading funny scenes, seeing funny movies, hanging with funny people ... whatever ... I just love to laugh.

"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone." —Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I keep a collection of joke e-mails and funnies sent to me that particularly get me rolling on the floor. I enjoy comedians and writers who can find a joke in a tense situation (Joss Whedon comes to mind.). I try to weave humor into my stories because I enjoy breaking up particularly tough moments with lighthearted ones—part of the whole roller coaster experience the reader will go through in my stories. Plus, it helps me relate to my characters more. Sharing a laugh with someone—either a real or imaginary someone—is a great way to create a bond, just like sharing a cry, except you feel way better after.

Do you have to be a funny person to write funny fiction?

I debate this question often. People's humor run the gamut from Jerry Seinfeld to Jerry Lewis. Some prefer slapstick. Others like the dark comedies of the Coen brothers. I believe that you need to have a sense of humor to write humor. I also believe that you can't take yourself too seriously and write humorous scenes. To write humor, you need to be able to laugh at yourself, find humor in your own foibles. Otherwise, how can you write comedic scenes if you haven't experience similar moments yourself? A large part of writing is about conveying emotion. Humor is another emotion you can use to touch the reader and bring them into your story.

Dave Barry, syndicated humor columnist and best selling author, wrote an fun piece about writing humor: http://www.learner.org/catalog/extras/interviews/dbarry/db02.html.

A few more resources for humor writing ideas:
http://www.jimforeman.com/Books/WriteHumor/humor_menu.htm
http://humorblogging.com/blog/secret-to-writing-humor/
http://www.humorwriters.org/
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/may02/hornung.htm

Remember, humor is another tool in your arsenal to hook readers. Plus, isn't it a great feeling to know that you made someone smile?

And to make you smile today, here are some one liners from the old school version of Hollywood Squares sent to me via e-mail from Ma (this one was a keeper):

These great questions and answers are from the days when the "Hollywood Squares" game show responses were spontaneous, not scripted, as they are now. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions ...

Q. Paul, what is a good reason for pounding meat?
A. Paul Lynde (About fifteen seconds later): Loneliness!

Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.
A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.

Q. According to Cosmopolitan, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?
A. Rose Marie: No wait until morning.

Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?
A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. In Hawaiian, does it take more than three words to say 'I Love You'?
A. Vincent Price: No, you can say it with a pineapple and a twenty.

Q. What are 'Do It,' 'I Can Help,' and 'I Can't Get Enough'?
A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment.

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?
A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.

Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?
A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?
A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?
A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.

Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps. One is politics, what is the other?
A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.

Q. During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?
A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I'm always safe in the bedroom.

Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?
A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.

Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?

Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.

Q. According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.

Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?
A. Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected.

Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish on his head, what was he trying to do?
A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.

Q. Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?
A. Paul Lynde: Who told you about my elephant?

Q. When a couple have a baby, who is responsible for its sex?
A. Charley Weaver: I'll lend him the car, the rest is up to him

Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?
A. Charley Weaver: His feet.

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and laugh

The World Through a Blurry Lens

2009-08-12T14:58:00.002-04:00

I haven't been posting lately because I just got PRK done and can't see too well. Apparently, they were not so forthcoming with the recovery time. So far it's been almost a week and I can't see well enough to drive and can only limit myself to a few minutes at a time on the computer before things start to blur together. Honestly, if I had a few drinks it wouldn't be so bad ...

So it's given me time to ponder and reflect and—Sybir would be happy—meditate. As per my initial goals when I returned from the conference, I have sent out 4 queries (3 agents, 1 editor). I received 1 rejection back, so I'm well on my way to winning my contest with Sybir for 10 rejections. Though it is definitely a contest I don't mind losing.

Okay, words are blurry together and I'm going to take a quick break. More to come soon. :)

RWA Conference

2009-07-23T18:06:00.007-04:00

Just started to recoup from RWA conference which seemed a lot larger this year. Between workshops (Donald Maas gave an excellent one on fire in your writing) and keynotes where Janet Evanovich talked about burning a bin full of rejections and socializing with fellow writers and friends, I feel like it was a total whirlwind of activity. Couple of highlights:

Meeting and rooming with Kate Johnson (aka Cat Marsters), who is a fantastic, witty woman and who put up with my hyperness very well. (And she has great taste in men, shoes, clothes, pop culture, and fictional hotties. Really, why is she so far away?) I'm looking forward to reading her books that her two personalities write: Kate Johnson writes chick-lit mysteries of Sophie Green and Cat Marters writes sexy (and smart) paranormal romance for Changeling Press and Ellora's Cave. We had a wonderful time hanging out at the conference, even if she attempted to steal my dog at the end of it. :P
Rooming with Sybir and getting to see her do an excellent presentation on relaxation techniques for writers. I was so proud of her and how far she's come in her public speaking. She's doing a writing challenge: write 500 words a day and collect 10 rejections per month. I LOVE the idea of collecting rejections. I needed something to steer my mind away from receiving the DREADED rejection. If I make a game out of it, then I won't get stuck on the negative and it will force me to send out to more agents and editors. One of my major issues.
Finally getting my wonderful friend E. Tate Johnson, who has been working on a fabulous story for the past few years, to attend a conference. It was so much fun seeing her meet other writers and get inspired and AWAY from the stresses of life for awhile. Yay!
Hanging out with Marcia Collette, whose career is really taking off (not to mention a very special event happening in a few months). She writes Urban Fantasy and has books with Parker Publishing and Samhain. Can't wait to check them out. She is absolutely a force to be reckon with and an amazing person and woman. Her enthusiasm is infectious! I never stop laughing with I'm with her.
Seeing Karmela and trying to convince her to join us again. She has a fantastic writing style and is really denying the writing world a talent by not submitting right now.
Hanging out with Karen and dragging her around DC–poor thing. Though I cannot thank her enough for her encouragement. I get by with a little help from my friends. :)
Seeing Ann, who is sooooo close to selling, and telling her not to give up. She is such an easygoing, positive person. She's the best.
Having dinner and a coffee with Maya Rodale, one of my critique partners, who has some big things planned and I'll keep you posted on her next books coming out soon. She's got a great idea. Can't wait to read it. She's a wonderful writer and friend and she is doing amazing things besides writing. Her and Ann have established the Share the Love organization. If you have any gently used romance novels, ship them to the address on their site and they will distribute them to women's shelters and other places where women are in need of a pick me up. Romances are shown to make people happier who read them, why not share the romance, share the love?
Having dinner and dessert with Alix Rickloff. She is such a fun, down-to-earth person and I'm so happy for her success. I'm reading her book Lost in You now, and it is a wonderful, unique story (and the hero is very sexy). I picked up her second book in the series that deal with Fey set in the Georgian period. She'll have more stories set in this world out next year. She's a rising star. Yay!
Alix suggesting that I go through an agent list and just keep submitting down the list as I get rejections. All the while, I should continue working on my revisions to my latest story. When I get to the bottom of the list, start again at the top of the list with the next story (and begin another book). She said it will at least get my name on agents' desk and they'll start remembering it. I LOVED this idea. This is why I enjoy hanging with writers and it's so important to join organization—for the support and fantastic ideas.
Seeing Laurel, Victoria, and all my other friends from WRW and being excited for the wonderful successes they had.
Learning from Donald Maas that I should think about my story from the villain's persective. How this will help keep the villian three dimensional.
Learning from another workshop about using props and locations and even what people are wearing to build in characterization. How a charater sets up their home or dresses can say volumes without being too overt. Very cool.

I'm sure there's lots more, but now I need to get back to writing. I need to beat Sybir at the rejection game: one way or another.

It's Been Awhile

2009-06-19T23:17:00.003-04:00

I haven't felt like writing in awhile. I have a long "to do" list and I was getting very discouraged. Plus, I felt stuck, paralyzed, afraid to move ahead. Instead, I was focusing on work and places in my life where I felt I was more successful and could see instantly my goals being met. Ugh! But now that RWA Conference is coming up and after having spoken to a fellow writer, who was very encouraging today, I'm getting back in the swing of things again. I'm getting my mojo back. Whoo Hoo!

And to celebrate my mojo being reawaken, I'm copying some quotes from one of my favorite silver screen actresses. More to come later on the writing front...

From Mae West, the queen of the double entendré:

A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.

Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I'm tired.

A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars, that's subtraction.

A woman in love can't be reasonable - or she probably wouldn't be in love.

Any time you've got nothing to do and lots of time to do it come on up.

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.

Cultivate your curves - they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.

It is better to be looked over than overlooked.

Don't keep a man guessing too long - he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.

She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

Don't marry a man to reform him - that's what reform schools are for.

Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from.

Say what you want about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins.

Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.

Save a boyfriend for a rainy day - and another, in case it doesn't rain.

Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.

He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.

His mother should have thrown him out and kept the stork.

One and one is two, and two and two is four, and five will get you ten if you know how to work it.

Love thy neighbor - and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.

I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.

I like restraint, if it doesn't go too far.

I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.

I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported.

When I'm good I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.

I've been things and seen places.

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.

When women go wrong, men go right after them.

Inspiration

2009-04-13T22:27:00.004-04:00

I've haven't been feeling very inspired lately to write. Usually, I get inspired by reading books or critiquing others' stories. I've been feeling blah and can't seem to shake it. Hence, the not blogging for whole month thing. Geesh ... has it really been over a month? Time is going by way too quickly.

One of things I've been doing with my spare time to get inspiration is to read Discover magazines and watch the Science Channel. They tend to dumb-down the discoveries and breakthroughs so even I can understand the concepts. :) Writing about people with special powers and adventures in the unknown, I've found a lot of inspiration from watching and reading about developments in science. Here are a few tidbits that may get you started:

Some people are chimeras. They have two different sets of DNA in different parts of their bodies. For example, a person's blood may test with different DNA than strands of their hair. This discovery could potentially shake up the world of DNA paternity testing and testing criminals for guilt. It's a small percentage of the population, but wouldn't it be interesting to have a villain who gets away with the crime because he is a chimera?
There are people who truly have "special abilities." Many people can see and taste sound. Different sounds, whether it be a person speaking or a piano playing, form bands of color variations which they can see. Likewise, these sounds can produce a sour, sweet, or even bitter taste in their mouths. There is a man who can survive extreme cold by actually heightening his body temperature to withstand the cold.
Currently, scientists in other countries are working on chimeras—cross-breeding species. They hope to enhance the abilities that certain animals possess and breed those genes into humans to help them overcome diseases. Can we say also see potential military use here?
Scientists are playing around with the theory of programmable matter.
They have now implanted a microchip into a mouse's head, which allows someone to control the mouse's movements via a remote control. They hope to use this technology when a building collapses to find anyone trapped, since mice can maneuver in tight spaces. Hmmm ... I wonder if this can be used on a human?

I've been clipping a ton of articles and assembling a binder of ideas. You never know what you might learn.

25 Random Things About Surefire

2009-03-01T10:08:00.009-05:00

So my CP Karmela challenged me to write 25 random things (from the insanity that is Facebook) about my character Surefire in the story I'm currently revising. So here goes ... I'm channeling Surefire as I type. :)

My mom is a former Olympic gymnist and my father is a retired general.
At 16, I broke my nose and leg and dislocated my right knee when I missed on the balance beam during the Olympic trails.
I have a twin sister Heather.
I have two different colored eyes: one green, the other blue.
I don't like cats, especially my sister's.
I graduated from University of Maryland College Park with a degree in Criminology.
For the first time when I was 18, I played a shooting game at a carnival and didn't miss a shot. I then tried out the dart game and the watergun balloon game and won everytime. It was then that I started to realize I had a special talent.
My talent is that I can hit an object with a gun or any weapon. I never miss my mark.
After college, I was recruited by Ultra Security (U-Sec)—a private security company specializing in preternatural crimes.
I hate health food, expecially grapefruit, yogurt, and spinach salads. When I was in gymnastics, I wan't allowed to eat any sweets or fast food to stay thin and in shape. Now I splurge on fast food and Mexican food in particular.
I love chips and queso dip.
If I could date any Hollywood celebrity it would be Gerard Butler. I've seen 300 about 15 times.
I'm 5'2" and people underestimate me because of my height, which I use to my advantage.
I love action and mob films.
Secretly, I want to be a Bond girl.
CSI is my favorite show.
I love challenging men that I meet to play against me in shooting games at the arcade or on the Playstation. I love watching their faces when I beat them.
I was brought up on classical music and opera, which is what my parents prefered. After my accident, I started listening to grunge, rock, and some alternative music.
I love to dance, but mostly I do it in my room by myself. I hate going out to clubs and haven't had the time since I started working.
My favorite book is The Outsiders.
My favorite movie character is Trinity from The Matrix.
Right now, I'm focused on my career and don't have time for a relationship, so Heather please stop trying to set me up with your "friends."
I want a Great Dane someday.
I punched the creator of Girls Gone Wild when he asked me to show my breasts at a bar during college.
I was in jail overnight for stealing a CD at a mall when I was in high school. My father made them hold me overnight. I never stole anything again. It was the worse night of my life.

Vote, if you please ... Part 2

2009-02-24T21:46:00.002-05:00

Hey, Jessica Darago, local girl makes good, made it to the next round of RT's American Title contest. If you can, pop on over to their website and check out The Serpent's Tooth. She does an excellent job with dialogue and builds up heat just by a seemingly "innocent" touch. So hot! A little really can go a long way. :P

Okay, so I've been on Facebook way too much lately which has taken my time away from this blog. I really need to get back on track. I'm working on revisions to my latest story and working with a writing coach, which has been interesting. I feel like I'm back in school again. I spent about 8 hours on Saturday (missed a WRW workshop) to go through and figure out my character bios, story and character arcs, and themes. Of course, I spoke with her today and I still have much to hammer out, but the good news is that I believe everything is there. I just need to flush it all out. I'll write more about it in later posts. Hopefully, what I learn can help you as well. It's nice to get a different perspective and view your story in a different light.

A friend tagged me in Facebook with 10 songs I couldn't live without. It's really hard to narrow it down to 10, but many of these songs have also inspired me when I'm writing different scenes. A good friend will actually create soundtracks for his stories. I can't listen to music while I'm writing, but in the background I'm always wondering what music my characters would listen to. What would be their favorite songs? I'm a bit of a split personality when it comes to the music I love. But here's my list of songs I would be loathe to live without, in no particular order... maybe I might add this item to my character sketches.

1. Hazy Shade of Winter (The Bangles)

2. You Spin Me Right Round (Dead or Alive)

3. One (Metallica)

4. With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles)

5. The Ballad of John and Yoko (The Beatles)

6. Come Undone (Duran Duran)

7. Why Can't I Be You? (The Cure)

8. Heart Shaped Box (Nirvana)

9. Never Let Me Down Again (Depeche Mode)

10. Die, Die My Darling (The Misfits)

Gosh ... I'm such an 80s child!

What about you? What are you favorite songs? What kind of music would your characters listen to and what does that say about their personalities?

Vote, if you please ...

2009-01-25T09:23:00.002-05:00

Had a very energetic and fun time at WRW's workshop on Saturday. Kathy Seidel, an excellent speaker and teacher and a writer as well. We discussed Pride and Prejudice and picked apart the different characters and relationships and what they meant in the book. It's interesting how perspectives can change, even after I've read the book a few times and seen the movies (particularly A&E) many, many times. Ahhh...

What's so great about these local workshops is catching up with fellow writers/friends and talking about our writing and where we're heading in our careers. It's so wonderful to chat with people, who understand what you're going through and to whom you can talk unabashedly about your writing without the obigatory, "So, are you published, yet?" or "That idea sucks. Maybe you should write something like Twilight." Or whatever someone who has not written a book and suffered the heartache and frustration of finding a publisher or agent would say.

It's always exciting to hear of fellow writers who have news of successes. Jessica Darago is one of those authors. Her book, The Serpant's Tooth, has reached the third round of American Title V, the Romantic Times unpublished author's contest. Readers vote on the best summary posted on RT's page: http://www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php.

She's an fun and amazing person, and her story is unique and compelling. If you get a chance, pop on over and vote for a local girl and show your support for a new author. Help make an author's dream come true!!!!

A Horse is a PITA of Course

2009-01-09T20:38:00.004-05:00

Well, I can cross off another thing on my "to do before I die" list. I went snowboarding with my hubby this week and actually did pretty good and even learned the technique of stopping myself with my butt. It's one the pros won't even attempt (bunch of wusses). Especially on ice and slush. I have the war wounds to prove it and I'm finally able to sit without a cushion. :)

I've been putting off my revisions. I'm just stuck. Stuck on revising the first chapter. Stuck on how much work it's going to take.

I was listening to these self-help CDs (Self-Discipline and Emotional Control) with my husband. For something that was supposed to teach you how to be calm, the author was somewhat spastic in his teaching methods. However, what I did get out of it was how everyone has a horse (a stubborn part) which is adverse to change and in avoiding change will make you feel uncomfortable about anything new and even lie to you to make you stay on the well-worn path he's used to. We're supposed to take the reigns of the horse and force it off the beaten path and into submission. We're supposed to take control of our emotions and not let them lead us down the wrong trail.

But it's not as easy as it sounds.

The one and only time I went horseback riding, my horse walked over to the corner of the fenced area and stood staring at a barrel of water at the other side. No matter how hard I tugged on the reins or tapped my heels into her side, she wouldn't take her eyes off of the water which was just out of reach on the other side of the fence.

I can feel that with all my stories. Every time I get a rejection and every time I am criticized, I hear the horse telling me that I'm a failure, that I am not good enough and that I will never be good enough, and that I will never live my dream of becoming a writer. I can physically feel myself being held back and unable to move.

And that is where I am now—immobile and hoping someone will move the barrel of water closer to me.

Slacker

2008-12-29T22:25:00.003-05:00

Yes, I'm a total slacker lately with this blog. Christmas and all its festive activities came like a snowstorm in Las Vegas—sudden and catching me completely off guard in the midst of downing my third vodka tonic next to the pull while playing video poker.

So to all my friends out there I wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

To have a good send off to the old year, I wanted to point out how I'm hoping Evil Dead the Musical will come to my neck of the woods because that would really make 2009 for me. Yes, I'm a total sucker for musicals and horror movies, so this one really slays me both ways.

Also, my friend and fellow writer Karen turned me on to this site called The Editing Room. Essentially, people write and contribute scripts to movies—some are for horrible movies, some are just hated by the watcher—and they condense the movie down into a shorten version that gives you a true (and somewhat cynical) perspective of what the movie really is about. Think of it as a movie synopsis on crack. There are a few that I think pretty much nail the gist of the story, which is sad and funny at the same time. It doesn't say much about Hollywood's (or America's) taste in movies. I'll let you formulate your own opinions which ones those are ...

Enjoy!

The Rogue and the Rival

2008-11-28T23:53:00.002-05:00

The wonderful, extraordinary, and all-around cool chick, Maya Rodale has released her latest book, which follows the Phillip, the villain of The Heir and the Spare, as he licks his wounds and redeems himself after his awful behavior. Don't you just love it when bad boys are tamed by a good woman? Well ... relatively good, she has a few secrets of her own, and there are occasions when you don't want a man to be too tamed. :P

Check it out:

The ROGUE and the RIVAL

Six long years have passed since Angela Sullivan set eyes on a man. Six years since the man she loved ruined her-and her parents banished her to Stanbrook Abbey, where she's now preparing for her vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity. But when the abbey takes in a
handsome-if impudent-injured rogue, it will take divine intervention for Angela to quell her sinful thoughts...

If Lord Phillip were not in such pain from his riding accident, he would consider himself lucky to be staying in a building full of women. But his rakish reputation has preceded him. True, Phillip may not be his angelic twin brother, but as days become weeks, his thoughts of Angela grow nobler-as Angela's thoughts of him become less than holy...

You go, Maya! You worked hard and I'm so glad to see your efforts pay off. And I can't wait to see how it ends. Maya has a tendency to have me critique the first half of the book and leave me hanging. She's a bit of a tease. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T20:29:00.006-05:00

Hope everyone has a very enjoyable and yummy Thanksgiving. Things I'm grateful for this year:

My husband and best friend
My family
My dog
And all of my friends and fellow writers who have encouraged me all these years in pursuit of my dream. THANK YOU! I'm so blessed to have all of you in my life.

I'm also thankful for great movies. I'm especially excited about The Watchman. You mention graphic novels or comics and some people will sneer and say how they're for children. Or others will make fun for you not letting go of childhood. But those critics are missing out on amazing, complex stories. I just read The Watchman and was blown away. The detail is absolutely amazing. Nothing is wasted in this story. Everything has a meaning, even the news airing in the background on TV and comics being read within this comic. Not to mention that the issues with which the characters are dealing reflect what's going on in politics and society today.

It's on my keeper shelf.

Finished ... well, the first draft

2008-11-23T22:42:00.003-05:00

So I finished the first draft today. I hadn't allowed myself to blog until I was finished. WhooHoo!

Hmmm... now, how long has it taken me? I don't even want to think about it. No looking back. Though technically, I will be looking back because now it is time for

REVISIONS

(said in a deep, booming voice with lots of re-verb)

I have a lot of holes to fill in, namely historical facts and names and the details. But it felt so good to finally write "The End" and actually know how it ends. I love being a pantser because every time I sit down to write, I have no idea where the story will end up. And most of time, it works out. Yay!

Thanks to everyone who pushed me and prodded me to get this through. I definitely get by with a little help from my friends.

So Close

2008-10-27T22:30:00.002-04:00

I am so, so close to the end of my story. Right on the precipice of the black moment when all hell breaks loose. And then reality hit and I've been busting my butt since with my hero stuck with the knife in his hand, literally.

UGH!

Of course, I've been running around with mom visiting and then visiting friends in PA. Yeah, I know. Excuses. Excuses.

I'm getting there.

58K

Let's go for 60K by this weekend. I can do it!

FInally, a Post

2008-10-15T00:06:00.002-04:00

So I hit the ground running when I got back from my WOW with Karmela and haven't had time to blog. We had an awesome time. She hit her goal of over 60K and I hit mine of 50K. I did 11,000 words in two days!!! Actually, we got down to the cabin a little late (ahem), so we started writing after dinner. BTW: Cabin was fabulous. It was total log cabin down to the pine smell, and the owners must have raided the local crafty stores for all the decorations. It felt so homey, like grandmom's. Plus they had so many nooks with comfy chairs on which to write (with sockets available) and two big porches with rocking chairs and a swing bench. Whenever we got antsy, we just picked up and moved somewhere else.

The first night we wrote for about 3 hours or so and then we were both exhausted. The next day around 8 am, we ate breakfast and started immediately. We stopped around 12:30 for lunch and then around 6:30 for dinner. Then we frantically continued until nearly 11 pm. It really helped to have someone else at the cabin. I could hear her typing away and it just inspired me to keep going. Mostly, because I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't reach my goal. :P

On Sunday, we had to leave by 11 am and we were both exhausted, but so excited. It really showed us how just banging through scenes and not allowing ourselves to get distracted can so make a difference. Just doing 11K at my home would've taken me at least a month, if not more, depending on what comes up with work or family, both of which have been putting on the demands lately. Plus, NO INTERNET makes all the difference. And we didn't put the TV on until we were ready to leave ... just to make sure the world was still there.

Are we doing this again? Hell, yeah! I just wish it was next weekend so I can get this damn story finished and work on the revisions, which I will need at least 2 weeks of cabin serenity to make a dent.

Oh, and we were good, despite some dire predictions. We kept our traps closed except during meals.

Ha!

You Say It's Your Birthday

2008-10-09T22:45:00.002-04:00

Yep, today I turned the BIG 35.

Where have the years gone? I remember listening to the song, "Glory Days" and not understanding how the days of school would fly by because they seemed so slow back when I was 12. Now time is pushing forward with a crushing force that would tear down the mightiest person who dared to defy it.

Another year and what have I done?

How did I get here?

I guess I've been bumming particularly on this birthday. It's the middle of my 30s. When I fill out forms, I can no longer check 18-34. Now it's 35-100. I'm still on the fence about kids. Maybe I was hoping to make more of dent in my writing career before I committed to a kid.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just a wuss about the whole mommy thing.

Today was also a little bummy for me because it was the first time I spent my birthday alone, without my husband. He's away on a biz trip, so I worked all day and didn't finish my job until now. Though I am very grateful for my many friends who stopped by and called and e-mailed to offer me birthday wishes. My friends are one of my accomplishments I'm most proud of. I really do get by with a little help from my friends. And I've been really blessed.

So, how am I going to end this day? Take a bath. Drink some Navan. And get read for my

WOW trip

Weekend of Writing with Karmela!!! We leave tomorrow afternoon. I am sooooo excited. This story is begging to be let out and I have NO excuses. Plus, Karm will kick my ass, if I screw around. Oh ... and then I can't forget the alcohol and coffee. :P

Fun Stuff

2008-09-28T22:27:00.002-04:00

Had a great time this weekend even though I had to work one day. I did get some more writing done, which I was excited about (37,674 is the count so far). Even though I'm in the vomit stage, I had to do some research on this scene to figure out the setup. We'll see how it works ...

Went to the Baltimore ComicCon on Saturday. Insane!!! There was a line about an hour long to buy tickets. So my husband walks up to a guy near the front and offers him $10 to buy our tickets so we don't have to wait. He's pretty smart. :P Unfortunately, that was money I had earmarked for food, so I ended up just eating a $2 pretzel for lunch. Oh, well. At least we didn't have to wait. : )

It was cool to see all the independent artists and comic books. Lots of really talented people trying to break into the biz. I picked up a copy of a trade paperback of the Watchman, which is a must-read comic. People have been praising Alan Moore's story for years. It came out in the mid-80s and stood out at the time against the traditional comics because of its realistic spin on the superhero story. It shows the grittier side of being a superhero—cheating spouses, alcoholism, drug addiction, murder, insanity—amidst a mystery surrounding the death of one of the retired superheroes. I'm only a quarter through it and had to force myself to put it down. Moore was ahead of his time.

Loved the costumes at the convention. Wish I had a camera. There was a guy dressed perfectly as Blade. And another as a lizard alien from V. He had the full uniform, his face peeling off revealing a lizard skin underneath, contacts of lizard eyes, and a fake mouse that he pretended to eat. Unbelievable!

Also, just found a new channel in my cable lineup. The Chiller Channel!!! All horror movies and TV shows, all the time.

Ahhh .. escape.

Ahhh Heroes

2008-09-23T22:13:00.005-04:00

So yesterday Heroes FINALLY returned. I was not going to miss it even for the end of the world. Everything was put on hold for a few hours. I was so excited and it didn't disappoint me. Of course, it did raise lots more questions. Spoiler alert if you haven't seen Heroes, yet ...

Nathan and Peter are brothers to Sylar!! I actually toyed with this idea last season, but they did such a good job with his weird, neurotic relationship with who you thought was his mother that it made sense. Now I want to know, who is the father?
Future Peter goes back in time to shoot Nathan (his brother) to stop him from spilling the beans about people with abilities. Because this ultimately leads to a horrible future where people with powers are hunted down and experimented on. What's interesting is Future Peter's new power to transport a person into another body, which he does to his present-day self. Confusing, I know, but it works.
Suresh finds a serum to give him powers. However, didn't Suresh have the ability to heal others with his blood? I'm trying to figure this out. But at the end of the episode, didn't he remind you of Brundle Fly (aka, Jeff Goldblum as The Fly) when he is sticking to the walls and then his flesh is flaking off revealing something un-human beneath. Is this going to be the first hero with a mutated appearance?
What's up with Nicky/Jessica/ ... Tracy? Does each of Nicky's personalities have different abilities? Tracy can freeze people? And how did she get to be an advisor to the governor? And did anyone notice the actor playing the reporter to whom she gave the icy touch??? He played a great American hero in a TV show many years ago.
Who is the speed chick working for? How does Ando get his powers and why does he turn evil?
What is the formula? Is it the formula Suresh figured out?
Why is Nathan seeing Linderman's ghost?
Did you notice how Noah told Claire about the powers of each of the baddies in Section 5, but he glossed over the body Present Peter was put in by saying that his power was the worse of all??? Love it!
Claire can't die. She has special blood. Maybe the pure blood which could help save the world if the formula gets out, since Hiro's dad said that only the pure blood can help?

I can't wait until next week so I can get even more confused. :P

Just the Facts, Ma'am

2008-09-14T22:31:00.004-04:00

Okay, so I usually try to stay out of political crap when I blog, but I'm really starting to drown in all the bullshit being shoveled out into the populous concerning this election. I'm getting e-mails and false information piled on me right and left. No one seems willing to question anything they hear, unless it goes against what they want to believe. If you want to make an informed choice, check out this site:

http://www.factcheck.org/

Do me a favor. Don't believe everything you read in your e-mail or hear from a friend (no matter how good hearted the intention), and even what you see on TV. If a claim seems too good to be true, it probably is. If an accusation seems too absurd to be true, it probably is.

Elections can be won and loss on false information. Don't be mislead. Be informed. Seek the truth.

700 Rejections

2008-09-10T22:01:00.004-04:00

Todd McFarlane received 700 rejections before he hit it big. Marvel said that he would never work for them. Others said that he could never be a comic book artist because he wasn't good enough.

700 times he heard this.

Don't know who Todd McFarlane is?

Just one of the most influential and wealthiest comic book artists of the modern age.

His comic Spawn ushered in a new era of comics. I should know. I waited in line for nearly 4 hours at the Philadelphia Comic Con when Spawn first hit. McFarlane also led the surge in comic book toys aimed at adults and made millions on his toys, movies, cartoons, and all those spinoff collectibles.

Moral of the story.

Don't give up.

And even people in the industry can be wrong.

700 times or so

WTF Moment

2008-09-09T22:14:00.003-04:00

Had a WTF moment tonight.

There's a new game show called Hole in the Wall or something like that where people have to stand on stage as a wall comes at them with holes cut out in various shapes. Behind the people is a pool. They have to form the shape of the cutout to pass through the wall or they get knocked in the pool.

It was so insane that I had to watch about 20 minutes of it to make sure I fully understood the idiocy of it.

Apparently, it is based on a Japanese game show.

Need I say more????

Mistakes and Writer's Weekend

2008-09-05T22:32:00.004-04:00

Ugh

I hate making mistakes. But that's the part of life. That's how you learn. Nothing major. Just a slip up at work and it's sooo frustrating. Sometimes I think about creating a BIG BOOK of MISTAKES. So whenever I screw up, I can read it and see that others have screwed up, too, and know I'm not alone. (And feel better that others have made mistakes far worse than mine.) :P

So I'm doing a writer's weekend with Karmela Johnson. We talked about it during dinner last week and, by gosh, we actually got off our butts and arranged it. We're renting a one-bedroom cabin in the boonies of VA—away from everything. The goal is not to talk except during meals. Alcohol will be brought, though I haven't figured out food, yet. (Priorities, you know.) But I'm hoping to bang out the rest of my latest story. I am excited because I figured out the beginning of my story, since I was slammed for not really explaining enough at the beginning. I tend just to jump right into action. Action first, explain later. Unfortunately, readers can get lost. I know what's going on, but my readers are starting from scratch.

Oh, and I did see Tropic Thunder.

I don't read the script ... the script reads me.

Hilarious!!!!

Here We Go Again

2008-08-29T12:33:00.002-04:00

I had dinner with Karmela, a fantastic author and critique partner who really kicks ass (especially mine when she's reading my stuff ... ack!). We're hoping to do a writer's weekend where we rent a cabin in the boondocks and just write, only coming out of our rooms or up from our computers to eat and drink (yes, alchohol will be served). Maybe after every page I complete, I do a shot. Hmmmm ... I wonder how that will work out. Good motiviation, but it might get harder or easier or write after awhile. We'll just have to see. :P

Since it's hard for me to blog everyday with all the crap piling up, I'm going to take a cue from Marcia and just blog once a week. Okay ... weight off my shoulders now.

But, seriously, Al Swearengen said it best on the Deadwood series (which, if any of you haven't seen, was brilliant) and it sort of fit my mood these past few months:

"In life you have to do a lot of things you don't fucking want to do. Many times, that's what the fuck life is... one vile fucking task after another."

Also, I've been watching a lot of movies lately and one that stood out (horror-wise) was Teeth, about a girl who learns (at least the hard way ... well, hard way for her boyfiend) that she has vagina dentata. It perfectly combines teen angst, the trials and pitfalls of puberty, and how hell hath no fury like a vagina with teeth. If you want to make your men squirm, put this movie in!

So on a light and sweet note, a friend, who is an amazing baker, sent me this funny blog link for cake disasters.

Have a fun Labor Day weekend!!!

I'm Back!!!

2008-08-18T21:58:00.003-04:00

As my first blog back from my funk-o-rama, I want to give a MAJOR plug to two incredible chicks who have books out this month:

Marcia Colette, who is totally crazy (in a good way), has a so hot it's cool paranormal published by Parker Publishing:

Unstable Environment

Selfless pilot Sinclair Duval gave up two promotions, a beautiful condo, and a lover to protect her three-year-old niece from the lifestyle that destroyed the child's scheming mother, Sinclair's sister. Blaming himself for the loss of his fiancée in the last were-cheetah skirmish, brooding healer Rio Velasquez wants nothing to do with the upcoming battle, but struggles with turning his back on another innocent victim. When an act of sabotage nearly causes the toddler's death, Rio delivers a bite that saves her life--and changes her into a shape-shifter. A deadly clan war, an overzealous Social Service worker, an out-of-control shifting child, and falling in love add up to an Unstable Environment.

Just one thing to say to Marcia ... SAVE THE PUSSIES. Where are those t-shirts, hon? :P To learn more about Marcia and her books check out http://www.marciacolette.com/books.php.

Alix Rickloff, a fellow member of WRW and a sweet, cool chick who always makes the WRW Retreat so much fun, has a debut book out. She finaled in the Golden Heart last year and is now a published author. Yay!

Lost in You

Cornwall, 1815. Beyond the country balls and genteel society of Regency England lies another realm—where passion and peril collide, and two lovers face an impossible choice…

Conor Bligh is one of the Other—half human, half Fey, part of a brotherhood sworn to protect the divide between the Faery and mortal worlds. Conor is gifted with powers unseen in ten generations, but to destroy the malevolent demon, Asher, he needs much more than strength—he needs Ellery Reskeen.

Brave, quick-witted, and beautiful, Ellery has no idea of the magic that lies dormant with her, or of the danger that surrounds the handsome, rain-soaked stranger who collapses on her doorstep. As she and Conor flee from Asher and his followers, their attraction turns to a searing desire with unimaginable consequences. Only Conor stands between Asher and the destruction he plans for mortal and Fey alike. And the only way to end the threat forever is for Conor to sacrifice the woman he has grown to love more than life itself…

To learn more about Alix check out http://www.alixrickloff.com/books.html.

I wish both of you the best and many, many more books lining the shelves. I look forward to reading both of these books. Congratulations on your success!!! I'm so excited for you both.

Hard work and dedication really pay off. You can't give up.

Now I just need to follow that rule ...

What I've Learned

2008-05-16T23:01:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since I last blog. I've been a little busy between conferences, work, and an amazing vacation. But here are a few things I've learned these last few weeks:

Nothing beats hanging out with fellow writers, those who can commiserate with you.
I need to rework the opening chapter of my most recent story.
Fans make the strangest requests to Nora Roberts because as fans they feel like she owes them something: attend my wedding, print out a copy of your book in advance for me (they'd even supply the paper), edit my manuscript, loan me money, and let me buy you for the day to hang out with my wife.
I can never go back to flying coach again. EVER.
I enjoy ouzo over ice.
Never try to keep up with someone who is buying multi-rounds of shots.
Never dance on a bar after aforementioned round of shots in your high-heeled shoes.
Greeks know how to cook seafood, especially steamed mussels.
Never eat at a restaurant that isn't thoroughly truthful about their menu even if their views are great.
Donkeys can move a lot faster than they look.
I look American no matter how hard I try otherwise to blend in Europe. :P
Dodgy, savory, and fresh will be added to my vocabulary after hearing them spoken with such coolness by Australians. "The wind was fresh so I pulled my jacket close and continued down the dodgy alley to the hole in the wall which served some savory gyros."
I still don't know the whole deal with No Country for Old Men even after reading the book and it depressed me all over again to boot.
I love sunsets, especially Santorini's sunset which actually brought tears to my eyes.
About 2500 years ago on the island of Delos were the first money changers. Visitors could exchange currency on this island to purchase goods. After the inhabitants and buildings were destroyed, it wasn't until the 15th Century that money changers were used again.
On Delos, they had running water, clean drinking water, and toilets. Greeks, Assyrians, Egyptians, and other immigrants lived and worked together on this small island.
Also, on Delos they had a large theater outside of which stood statues of the wealthy families who sponsored the performances that year. People would bribe to get the best seats. I guess things haven't changed that much.
If the columns of the Parthenon met about several thousand feet in the air (the columns are all angled slightly in), then it would form a pyramid shape.
I feel the greatest sense of peace when I'm around a body of water.

Still Working

2008-04-15T22:30:00.002-04:00

And still stressy. So much stuff to do: work, write, prep for agent/editor meets, work some more, fulfill BDG orders, visit friends, work even more, go to Greece, and then work to pay for that trip. There's always so much to do before vacation and then all this work is hitting the week before. Aaaahhhh!!!

But it's all good stuff. Really. I'm just feeling crabby because I'm tired. And I always spazz before a trip. It's a given.

I went to a silent auction this weekend. And my very supportive husband was talking to a man at the event about how I write paranormal romance. The man got very excited and told us how he loves paranormal romance and reads them on the Metro going to work. Of course, he hides up the covers because he doesn't want people to judge him (a fact that sort of frustrated me), but at least he admitted it to strangers and with such animation. We talked for awhile about these books and then he asked me something I found interesting:

"Why do all the heroines feel guilty about being with the men in the paranormal romances?"

I'm sure there's usually more to it than feeling guilty about being with the men. Issues that happened in their past. Or circumstances that keep them apart. But usually by the end of the story, they overcome their problems and give into the relationship. I don't know, but I thought it was interesting and while I read my next paranormal I'll be considering his question and see if it holds true.

What do you think? Is it just paranormals or a lot of other genres as well?

Work and More Work

2008-03-24T20:37:00.002-04:00

I've been working a lot and been el' sicko lately, hence the lack of blogging. Not sure where my days have been going, except passing me by in some kind of blinding speed of light, much like a tornado picking me up from my bed in the morning spinning me around and then tossing me somewhere in the vicinity of my bed by the evening, usually on my head or my butt. Though nowadays I can't much tell the difference between either.

I am however attending the WRW Retreat. Another reason for all the working so I can pay for that and my vacation, which was already booked last year before all my financial craziness ensued. Ack!

(Lizzy, please forgive for not calling about this. It was a last minute decision—literally 2 days prior—and I totally forgot to tell you until it was too late [too much going in my brain and not enough going out]. I'm such a dweeb. Forgive me :( ])

So I'm thrilled about that. Now I just need to get my latest and greatest in shape to pitch and between working on site and the working on Billion Dollar Graphics, my writing has gotten pitched to Oz along with Dorothy and Toto.

But I'm blogging, and that's a step. I was making progress before my week o' hell and getting up early to write before the tornado sweeps me away, but I'm not as far along as I'd like to be. I'm hoping to settle more into a routine once I kick this lingering cold, which won't go away. Ugh!

Anyway, Karen suggested writing about superpowers ... because ... that's what my latest book is about—a league of superheroes. I had the idea over a year or so ago and I've developed the synopsis and a lot of points on it, so I've very excited. Which has led me to thinking, geek that I am, what my superpower would be.

Hmmmm ....

I though it might be cool to do everything, like Peter from Heroes, who can assume others' powers after having been in contact with them. Now he has a vast collection of powers. But I think that might require too much multi-tasking for me.

I had a dream years ago where I could phase through things, like Kitty Pride from X-Men. It was a lot of fun in my dream. So maybe something along the lines of alternating my molecules to allow myself to phase through walls and objects and maybe even turn invisible.

I just think I could have a lot of fun with that one. :P

What about you? What would be your superpower?

What Dreams May Come

2008-03-04T22:08:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I know that dreams only sound interesting to the dreamer. But I had a scary dream last night and it was so cool.

Yes ... I know ... excited about scary dreams? What's up with that?

Well, I get some of the best ideas from dreams and mostly nightmares. Lately, for whatever reason, I haven't been dreaming or remembering my dreams, which has put a crimp in my creativity.

Last night I dreamt I went to a haunted house. It had the normal scary ghost children playing with old-fashioned toys, who threatened to kill me as their eyes glowed read; however, what was really creepy was the master bedroom. It was a rainy day in my dream and the curtains were open and what little light made the room seem grey. I flicked on the light, and the room went totally black. Instead of the light illuminating the room, all of the light was sucked out. I slowly backed out of room, knowing that something was lying in wait inside the darkness, and ran like hell out of the house.

Then I woke up.

Totally need to use that in one of my stories.

Plugging Away

2008-02-28T11:45:00.002-05:00

I'm plugging away on the writing front. I'm working on a rough (emphasis on rough) draft of a synopsis for my latest story. I've gotten more feedback on it and wrote out my goal list to have the first three chapters polished and a synopsis finished by WRW's Retreat (even though I'm still now sure if I can afford it—ugh!). But it's nice to have goals. Now it's just the sticking to them that is hard, which is why I'm telling all of you. I'm accountable not only to myself but to all those who are reading my blog. You have a right to taunt me if I don't do it. :)

Has anyone seen No Country for Old Men? It's one of those movies, at least for me, which I need to discuss with someone else who loves to pick apart movies and books. When I attended the Michael Hauge workshop on story structure, we talked about character growth in regards to identity and essence and two of five things you need to do to make your audience in tune with your main character. It did follow the structure of showing current situation and having something happen which creates a new situation, then a point of no return, climax, etc. But I'm wondering if the main character whose growth is chronicled is actually Sheriff Bell and not Llewelyn (Josh Brolin), whom I originally thought. Also, just before I fell asleep that night, I wondered if the theme of the movie was "the only thing certain in life is death." Because a few characters talked about certainty in regards to what occurs in life.

And can I say that there's nothing worse than a psychotic hitman with his own principles? Javier Bardem was SCARY.

Good Stuff

2008-02-20T22:05:00.002-05:00

I really love this little book I mentioned in my comment to the previous blog: It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be by Paul Arden, a former Creative Director who now runs a film production company. There was one chapter in particular that stood out to me.

The Person Who Doesn't Make Mistakes Is Unlikely to Make Anything

It goes on to have a few quotes on making mistakes from those who know best and who learned best:

"I haven't failed, I've had 10,000 ideas that didn't work." —Benjamin Franklin

"Of the 200 light bulbs that didn't work, every failure told me something that I was able to incorporate into the next attempt." —Thomas Edison

"There is nothing that is a more certain sign of insanity than to do the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different."—Albert Einstein

Reading and learning about successful people who have made mistakes and still kept following the path to their goal is one way I cope with rejections and my own failures. As the Arden says in the opening pages of the book:

Your vision of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset you have. Without having a goal, it's difficult to score.

Fear Factor

2008-02-19T16:47:00.003-05:00

This past weekend I attended a workshop through WRW. It was a fun and very helpful workshop by Denise McInery about using improve to spark your creativity and get to know your characters. But what really resounded with me is something Denise told us about a brainstorming session with a critique group. She said that during the session, many people kept saying, "yes, but ..." to her ideas. It was giving her affirmation and then taking it away at the same time. She didn't write for nearly two months, afraid that her ideas weren't good enough. She'd rewrite a paragraph over and over again because she was afraid that it still wasn't there yet. She said the best anyone can do for other writers is say "yes, and ..." which was part of an exercise we performed. Two simple words can help encourage someone and still add your valuable ideas to the pot. I have been struggling lately with rejections. I've gotten a lot of "yes, but ..." and now I realize why I've been avoiding putting the pen to the paper.

I'm scared.

I'm afraid that I don't have what it takes. I'm afraid that I'm going to fail again. This fear is paralyzing and annoying. But now that I recognize it, I can work to overcome it and change my perspective.

"Fail. Fail again. Fail better."—Samuel Beckett

Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T22:37:00.005-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

A little late, I know. I had this whole dinner thing planned for my husband when he came home from work. And it took FOREVER for me to buy the food, prepare it, and then have everything served up (including me) in perfect timing for when he walked through the door. Honestly, I wouldn't get anything done if I had to cook huge meals every night. Luckily, I'm very adept at pushing microwave buttons. :P

In honor of Cupid's big day, I wanted to share some cool quotes that have to do with love or ... close enough:

"Death cannot stop true love; it can only delay it for a little while." —The Princess Bride

"The odds may be good, but the goods are odd." —(can't remember but love this one)

"A man in the house is worth two on the street." —Mae West (she was the original cool chick)

"Love is a battlefield." —Pat Benetar

"I'd rather spend a lifetime with you then to live all the ages of this world alone."—Lord of the Rings

"You have bewitched me, body and soul."—Pride and Prejudice

"A man falls in love through his eyes, a woman through her ears."—Woodrow Wyatt

"I feel like a million, but I'll take one at a time." —Mae West

"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals. "—Benjamin Franklin

"There's nothing you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can sing that can't be sung .... All you need is love."—The Beatles

"Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses."—Dorothy Parker

"Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained."—William Blake

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth."—Benjamin Disraeli

"Anyone who marries for money earns every cent of it."—Anonymous

"Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be."—Robert Browning

"However far away, I will always love you."—The Cure

"I love that you get cold when it is 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."—When Harry Met Sally

Vacation Time ...

2008-02-12T21:37:00.001-05:00

Just got back from an amazing trip to the Turks and Caicos, which comprises 40 islands and cays in the Caribbean located just south of the Bahamas and east of Cuba and Haiti. Only eight of these are inhabited. We stayed on Providenciales (Provo) which is home to the "Best Beach" as rated by Conde Nast magazine. The water is torquois and calm with an extensive reef surrounding the islands which you need to use a boat to get to. It's so hard to believe that just a few days ago I was baking in the sun and now there's ice on the ground surrounding my house. Ugh! We drove around the island and found beautiful coves and secluded beaches right out of Thornbirds or From Here to Eternity. We even got to meet the locals outside the resort when our rented Jeep broke down several times. They were the most considerate, pleasant people I've ever met. Several times, various islanders went out of their way to help us get our Jeep started and never asked for anything in return. We chartered a boat to take us to a private island for the day. My husband and I, along with another couple, explored the island where we found iguanas sunning themselves, hummingbirds flittering around, and small lizards scattering with each step we took like a scene from Jurassic Park. Though I received a scare in this paradise when we decided to cut across a lagoon, which looked only a couple feet deep. Midway across, we found it getting deeper and deeper until the water was up to my chest. The water was as clear as a swimming pool and the sand like baby powder below our feet, but there was a few large patches of seaweed directly in front of us where something was taking a siesta. As my friend turned around from near the shore, she exclaimed, "Something is moving towards you." I then replied, feeling my stomach rising to my throat, "Ah, are you serious? Because if you're joking, it's not funny." To which she said, "It's getting closer." I ran. Well, as fast as I could in chest-high water. My friend's husband stood still several feet behind me, deciding to air on the side of machoism. The "thing" (which by this time, according to my imagination, was one of those pod things from that Invasion show which was making its way to me to take over my body) swam past him. He said it was just a nurse shark, which has no teeth and therefore couldn't hurt me (or take over my body). For the moment, I was somewhat calm until the next day when he told me that he had told a small fib to keep me from totally freaking out--it was a tiger shark.

Though he did tell me that sharks don't bite people. No, they just give them sharp, pointy kisses.

It's Been Awhile

2008-01-24T09:29:00.001-05:00

It's been awhile since I last posted. Just one of those things of letting time get away from me. "I'll do it today" somehow becomes "I'll do it tomorrow" and then "sometime next week." I've been in a funk. Feeling the crunch of the cash wheel will do it to you (btw: I'll probably won't go to the RWA conference this year). But, no worries, it'll pass, and at least I have my health. Right? :P

Though I have to say that it's pretty strange about my money worries, since I just found this "electronic horoscope" I'd gotten from a gypsy machine (think of the movie Big) in Ocean City when I was 16:

You should be confident in money matters. As long as you do not attempt something that is beyond your reach at the present. You can slowly build yourself into a solid position. Your future goals are attainable and there are indications of an unexpected windfall which could help you solve a problem. It will be possible for you to do considerable traveling in the future.

So most of it is kind of a "duh" thing. But it's always interesting to me when I'm struggling with my life then come across a random tidbit that seems to say "it'll be okay." It's like the universe is trying to tell me something (cue Twilight Zone music).

Another thing I found in the same box as my horoscope was my diary from middle school. Oh, it had so many interesting tidbits, which I had forgotten about my old friends and classmates. Though it was mostly about how much they were annoying me at the time. I was somewhat sensitive back then apparently. :) However, I did write over and over again about the two things that I wanted to do in life when I grew up: travel and write.

Bittersweet Rejection

2008-01-07T18:13:00.000-05:00

So I got another rejection today on Dark Earth. It was on the full I'd sent out back in May. The bad part, of course, is the rejection. Though the good part is that she sent back the whole thing with notes on how to improve it and a recommendation of an editor in another line to whom I should send it after I revise it. I haven't read over her notes, yet. Just the letter which details major rewrites. Of course, doing the rewrites doesn't guarantee that the other editor will even like it. But it is very encouraging that she bothered to take the time to make notes and send the entire thing back to me when she could have just sent back a rejection letter. I definitely appreciate her doing that for me, and I should view it as she saw some potential in my writing to give me a critique. She is a top editor at a major house, so her comments carry a lot of weight.

Now I have to mention a weird coincidence.

At lunch today (before I received my manuscript back), I read an article from Romance Writers Report about receiving revisions from editors, even those who have rejected you, and how authors tout again and again to not be married to your manuscript and how receiving revision notes from editors have helped their stories, even if it was painful to rewrite. And most had huge rewrites to do like me.

Kind of coincidental, don't you think?

What to do ... what to do. I've started outlining my next story and written the beginning of it. However, do I want to spin wheels with this old one in the hope that one of the tires will finally grip and send me flying fast forward into publishing stardom? Or move on and put this bad boy aside until I'm finished with my next one?

In the words of the fly-man about to be eaten by the spider, "Help me."

Hot Villains

2007-12-18T21:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, so my buddy Karen mentioned in another post that instead of writing about kicking villain's butts, why don't we write about villains who have kick-ass butts? Hmm ... so it got me thinking about hot baddies in movies (and TV). And it was a little hard. I mean there are TONS of femme fatales, who are fatalistically gorgeous. But most bad guys aren't that attractive. So with some help from my husband and friends, I came up with a list in no particular order. Please feel free to add as you see fit:

Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), American Psycho: He had like no body fat in this movie. Not to mention the scene where he's naked and wielding a chainsaw. Honestly, if that was the last thing I saw before I died, it really would be just fine.
Mr. Blonde (Michael Masden), Reservoir Dogs: What can I say? I absolutely love the James Dean, coolness that a young Masden played in this role.
Sawyer (Josh Halloway), Lost: Maybe he's not a major villain. But he did flip back and forth from being a bad guy. Plus, I'm a sucker for blonde men, especially the cocky ones who spew pop culture sarcasm.
Spike (James Marsters), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Blonde. Cocky. Brooding. British. What more can I say?
Wah Sing Ku (Jet Li), Lethal Weapon 4: He had an intensity about his character that really scared me and I like men who frighten me a bit (but in a good way). Plus, he had some killer moves.
Bullet Tooth Tony (Vinnie Jones), Snatch: British accent. Cocky. Frightens me. Ahhh.
Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy), Red Eye: (He also played the Scarecrow in the Batman movie.) He's got the most intense blue eyes and a boyish charm that hides a psycho underneath. Niiice.
Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), Fantastic 4: Extremely confident, which can be majorly sexy when he's not trying to kill everyone around him.
Bullseye (Colin Farrell), Daredevil: Accent and a total bad boy in real life and in character.
Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), The Mummy: Exotic. Confident. Great pecs. Searching for the love of his life. Who cares if he just sucked out everyone's soul?
Harry Osborn/Goblin (James Franco), Spiderman 3: Chiseled cheek rich boy with lots of toys and smart enough to almost beat Spiderman.
The Collector (Billy Zane), Demon Knight: Polished, charismatic, and with a pearly-white smile that brightens his handsome face, it would be really hard to keep your soul after a night with this character.
Zao (Rick Yune), Die Another Day: High cheekbones, full lips, no body fat, and some kick-ass moves. It wouldn't be too bad to lose a fight to this guy.
Early Grayce (Brad Pitt), Kalifornia: Totally insane, scruffy, long hair, and killed a woman then brought back her nice red shoes for his girl. Now that is thoughtful.
Dracula (Gerard Butler), Dracula 2000: Okay, so this move totally sucked (pun intended) but being bitten by a vamp that looks like Mr. Butler ... well ... that wouldn't suck that much.

Okay, now I know that I've missed somebody. Any suggestions???

Too Much ...

2007-12-14T09:12:00.000-05:00

Either I'm too distracted with all the merriment in which I've been partaking or just numb (though I'd like to believe it's the first), but I got another rejection for Dark Earth and wasn't upset. No bitterness. No anger. No sorrow. Just a kind of blasé feeling of "oh, well."

Hmmm.

Maybe because their excuse was that they found the premise interesting but they thought I had too much going on: vampires, werewolves, aliens, multiple dimensions, oh my! I was always a little concerned that I had too much going on within the story. But that's the way it came out when I wrote it. The story which inspired me. Also, I hadn't heard that criticism from CPs and some hadn't read this genre before and seemed fine with it. In fact, a few wanted more descriptions and details.

Oh, well.

It's not like I did it just to be different or just to see how much I could pack into one story. The vamps and werewolves were formed from an alien virus. They both reside in alternate realities of Earth and are now wanting to take over our dimension. I was trying to explain their origins from a different view. I guess it could be complicated but I believed that it came together pretty well, especially since I tried not to get to much into the scientific aspects of it. *shrugs* To each, his own. At least she's not saying that my writing style needs improvement or she couldn't get into my characters. It wasn't a horrible rejection, but just a rejection.

What to do but move on to the next and keep on keeping on.

Oh, and drink lots of eggnog.

One of Those Thangs

2007-12-04T09:10:00.000-05:00

It's been one of those couple of months where even though positive things have been happening, the negative seems to trump all of that. I'm in a funk. In a bottom-of-the-barrel, no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel funk. Mostly, it's people bullshit, which I really need to learn to deal with better. Just a few snide comments others have made or words people have spewed that is total ... well ... crap. And they know it's a lie but, of course, won't admit to it. And NOTHING gets me angrier than when someone tells a bold-faced lie to my face about something I did or didn't do.

It all boils down to perception. How they see it and their state of mind. Sometimes it's easier to put others down to make yourself feel better than admit the truth.

Doesn't make it right, but at least it helps to see it from their perspective however painful and untrue. Ugh!

I'll get through it. I always do. But my negative state of mind is not helping matters when it comes to writing. I'm stuck again. I had some comments on my first chapter of my latest story and it needs a lot of work, so I'm just wondering whether I should clean up that chapter, which will take a bit, or continue on writing the story. But right now I have no idea of the middle, though I do know the ending. Ugh! My husband suggested plotting the story and writing to it. But I'm so not a plotter. I'm a pantser and the idea of writing to an outline makes me feel like my creativity's encased in a straight jacket—too confining.

Again, I'll get through it with a little help from my friends. :)

On a positive note (which I really should be focusing more on), the cover I designed for Parker Publishing is on their website! (In case you didn't know, in my alternate life I'm a graphic designer.) Vegas Bites Back is an anthology about a pack of werewolves that runs a French Quarter-themed casino in Las Vegas. Top-notch authors have contributed to the anthology so it will definitely be a great read. I'm excited to be a part of Parker Publishing, which is blazing trails in African American and interracial romance and literary fiction. The wonderful Marcia Colette's new book will be out with Parker Publishing next year. I can't wait!

Why ... oh ... why?

2007-11-20T09:08:00.000-05:00

Do I find something every time I read over my FINISHED story? Well, "finished" is finished for me. I still have some comments from others which I'd like to work in, but I need to let it go for a little while longer. However, a few months ago I thought it sounded great. I got a lot of positive feedback from friends and CPs.

Then I was prepping it for a contest and ... I kept finding things. Maybe I'm just being hypercritical. I don't know. But I kept thinking that this didn't make sense. I didn't explain this part enough. People might get lost here because I didn't expand on this soon enough.

Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!

So I spent most of this weekend reading and re-reading my story, especially the first few chapters, which are judged in the preliminary round, in hope that I covered all my bases. I pretty much drove myself, and my husband, insane. But it's out of here now. I mailed it yesterday if just to get it out of my obsessive little hands. I MUST move on. No more.

Did anyone see Heroes last night? I'm so amazed at how well they've meshed the story together. How everything is coming around full circle. I still want to know what Mrs. Petrelli's power is. Anyone have an idea? I love how the heroes are realizing their potential and how they cross the line sometimes in using their powers, though justify using it for the greater good. I'm really worried about Matt's character. Though he's a good guy at heart, having the power to control other's actions can easily corrupt the best of us. I'm still wondering if there's another monster this season. I read an interview with the writers and they said that even Sylar will be running from he/she. Matt's father is now essentially comatose, and he was the "Nightmare Man" in the beginning of the season but out of commission now. Adam is manipulative but other than regeneration, he doesn't seem that powerful. It could be Maya ... hmmm ... but she doesn't seem destined to be evil. It'll be interesting how all this plays out.

But what is the deal that network keeps saying that these are the last couple of shows? Are they just going on hiatus for the holidays? This better not be a season finale. I'm already ticked that some of these shows are pulling odd schedules like Lost starting in Feb. What's up with that?

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Also, check out Karmela's post about a writer's journey to being published. It's funny because it's true ... :P

And So It Goes

2007-11-13T15:33:00.000-05:00

First and foremost, I want to give a shout out to two of my fellow friends and writers who have been picked up by publishers. Marcia Colette was contracted by Parker Publishing for her paranormal romance Unstable Environment, which is due out next April. You go, girl! And Alix Rickloff just cut a 2-book deal with Kensington publishing for her paranormal Regency romances. Whoo hoo!!!! I'm so excited for both of them. They've worked so hard and really deserve this amazing opportunity. Honestly, it couldn't have happened to two better people. Break a pen (or would that be keyboard?), ladies! I'll have more about their releases when the dates draw near.

I'm prepping Dark Earth this week to submit to the Golden Heart contest. Last year, I spoke with someone who had forgotten one minor detail in the document set up and was disqualified and lost her contest fee. Ugh! So I'm being really picky. I have a few minor things that a friend noted. I have some major things another friend noted, though I don't think I'll be able to fit all in before the deadline which is in two weeks.

On my latest, Project Albuquerque, it's slow but sure. I've been researching Aztec and Mayan histories and myths and trying to gather a clearer picture of where I'm taking it. But I'm making some progress (which is better than none). Now that the latest version of Billion Dollar Graphics is at the printer, I can finally get back to my own writing schedule. Yeah!

I saw Michael Hauge speak this past weekend with Karmela at an event sponsored by the WRW. Absolutely amazing! He spoke for nearly 8 hours and never a dull moment. He disseminated the story structure and broke out what makes a story successful. Major point: You need to establish an emotional tie between your audience and your protagonist IMMEDIATELY (within the first 10% of your story before you show any negative traits)! You need to apply at least 2 of these 5 techniques to do that:

Put your character in jeopardy such as a threat of loss (job, life, love, money)
Create sympathy by making hero part of horrible/depressing situation (we see them destitute or running for their lives)
Make the character likable, good-hearted, kind by showing other characters enjoying their company or them saving a life
Make the character funny
Make the character powerful/strong such as a person with superpowers or a small-town lawyer defeating an evil corporation.

If you watch nearly any successful movie, study the first 10 minutes and you will discover these techniques being used. I totally recommend his workshop and his books and DVDs. What I learned at his workshop was invaluable! Now to apply everything to my writing ...

Scary Movies

2007-10-25T22:30:00.000-04:00

I love Halloween. Love the fact that nearly every channel between now and then will be running scary movies all hours of the day. I LOVE horror movies. I tried to explain it to a few of my I-hate-horror-movie-and-you're-a-freak-if-you-do friends why it's my favorite genre. So here's my reasons for enjoying these nighmare-inducing flicks:

Total rush. A good horror movie will get your heart racing, your adrenaline pumping, and send a rush of endorphins to your brain. Instead of doing drugs, watch a scary movie!
Tough chicks. Maybe back in the old days, you had female leads fainting every time a shadow moved across the room and screaming a high-pitch, banshee-like squeal anytime a bug touched them. But horror was one of the first movie genres that gave us Ripley (one of the toughest, kick-ass female movie characters, who survived the aliens many times) and then there's Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, The Ring, Scream—all had strong female leads who survived and, most importantly, defeated (well, for that chapter) the monster/psycho. Rock on!!!!
Good vs. evil. It's the primal battle. It's boiled down to the basic battle of white hat wearing guy to black hat wearing creature. In a reality that blurs the line so many times, where many things seem neither right nor wrong but in some gray area, horror movies give it to you in black and white. Ripley is good and aliens are evil. Teenagers are good and Freddy is evil. Though a truly good horror movie will have a believable motivation for the villain (and may even have you feeling a bit of sympathy for what they've become).
Return of order. Continuing from above, generally good will win out in most horror movies. In real life, not all criminals are jailed or victims vindicated. But in horror movies, you most likely will get the satisfaction of seeing the blood-thirsty psychopath die a horrible death and possibly at the hands of one of their intended victims. Somehow it just feels right when order is restored and proper punishment is delivered. I don't know, maybe I'm a little twisted in that way. :P

So, why do you enjoy horror movies?

Bottles and Throttles Benefit

2007-10-18T11:55:00.000-04:00

If you're in the Northern VA area on October 20th, join my friends at CatKlaw, Inc., along with Lou-Evil Psycles motorcycle club, as they host the 2nd Annual Bottles and Throttles (formerly Caring for Kids) Benefit at Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA. Their goal is to raise $3,000 for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

There will be a motorcycle staging at Motorcycle Factory, Inc., in Woodbridge, VA and from there the motorcyclists will follow a scenic route through Prince William and Fairfax counties.

Then from 12-4 pm, there will be presenters, photographers, vendors, a raffle, and entertainment by Just Wanna Play—a fun, talented, very entertaining local band that plays the gambit from current rock and pop hits to 70s and 80s rock. Every time I see them play, I end up on the dance floor! It's sure to be a fun-filled day. Bring the kids and stop by for a listen and buy a raffle ticket. Throughout the event, cash and check donations will be accepted with all proceeds benefiting the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Hope to see you at Jammin' Javas on October 20th from 12-4pm! Have a blast and support an amazing cause.

Sad Stories They Say So Much

2007-10-15T19:58:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm getting overly emotional in my old age. I just got finished reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go for my book club. It was a very well-written, thought-provoking book in which the author did a great job revealing information in snippets throughout until in the end you finally see the full picture and have an understanding of what is really going on with the characters. And it's not pretty. No sir, not one bit.

Hence, this is where the crying came to play.

Now I'm not one to cry. I'm usually the stiff upper lip, German gal who just sucks it up and deals. At least in public I do. I hate crying in front of others. I don't like getting overly emotional and letting down my guard. Mostly, I don't want to upset others. (Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.) And, mostly, I don't want to share what's going on deep inside, because, eventually, someone will ask what's wrong. And sometimes I'm not sure how to answer. Sometimes something sad will just hit me and I don't know how to explain what's wrong.

Which is what happened at first when I read the final scene. Then after crying for about an hour, I got it.

SPOILER ALERT: If you plan to read this book, stop here. It sort of discusses the ending.

In the final scene, the heroine (the story is story is told through her eyes in first person) says goodbye to the hero. Normally, this would just be another lost love, come Against All Odds or Thornbirds kind of moment. But in this story, they knew the hopelessness of their situation and they didn't try to fight it. They didn't try to fight to live and be together. They accepted their fate. They accepted that they were created for one purpose and that they could never live a normal life. In fact, their lives were not destined to be that long so there wasn't much time to live together anyway. And, finally, when I considered my reaction some more, I realized that it was also the fact that they were saying goodbye and it was final. It was to be their last day together ... forever. They would never see each other again. He was going to die within the next few weeks and she was going to die probably within the year. So when she rides off (because he doesn't want her to see him die) and watches him wave to her in the rear view mirror, I lost it. Mostly, because I've been there. I've had two relatives, one who was elderly and another who was battling cancer, with whom I had lived that scene. In each instance, I drove away in the car and watched them waving at me from their front door. And each time, in the front of my mind, I kept thinking "I'll see you again." But in my subconscious, I knew that was the last time I'd ever see them. I never cried then when I drove off—knowing and not knowing that we'd meet again. But I did when I read that scene in Never Let Me Go.

It's funny how powerful a story can be.

You say it's your birthday! It's my birthday, too, yeah!

2007-10-09T09:22:00.000-04:00

Yep, it's B-day for me. Time to gorge myself on cake and good food and celebrate that I was born and ... most importantly ... that I'm not dead, yet.

I'm looking at my goal list which I had written a year ago with such vigor, such high hope, such excitement for what would be a jammed pack year full of organization, accomplishment, elevation from distracted procrastinator to a woman with a road map of success—in her career (writing and otherwise) and her personal life.

But, alas, I've fallen short.

Rooms have been left unpainted. Molding has not been put up. (Pretty much only one item out of the, oh, 15 items has been accomplished for the house.) The 5 lbs I had kept off has crept back on. I have begun my next novel, but have not finished it. No trips with my mom.

Now to accomplish at least another item on the list: Focus on the positive and believe in myself.

There are some who are opposed to making goal lists. Mostly, because they can lead to feelings of worthlessness because all your goals were not accomplished. But sometimes goals change midway through the year. And I did help to accomplish some important ones. We sold out of my husband's books in a year (actually less than) and made people more aware of BDG's products and services. Our web traffic has increased nearly 10 fold. We've made back our initial investment and then some. Right now, I've put my stuff aside to finish editing his book. He's been working so much with both companies that all my spare time has been devoted to daily house stuff, BDG, making extra money freelancing, taking care of investments, and arranging any leftover time to see friends and family since that's the only time my husband will stop for a moment to take a breath. If I actually force him. For the beginning of last year, Mike supported me while I took time to write. This past year has been about me supporting him as he started this new company, and it's been a lot harder and a lot more time consuming than I previously anticipated when I made my goals list. I've still been writing and I've been meeting my goal (at least the majority of the time) of writing at least an hour a day. I still have my manuscript out there with several editors. I've seen my writing improve tremendously. I've made lots of new writing friends, who are absolutely amazing writers and supporters and have expanded my writing network.

So it's been a good year. Maybe not exactly what I'd planned but that's life, sometimes.

Save the Ta Tas

2007-10-06T11:15:00.000-04:00

I was walking my dog the other day and I saw this slogan on a bumper sticker for breast cancer awareness: "Save the Ta Tas." I just about fell over with laughter. Love it!

Da Funk

2007-10-01T22:56:00.000-04:00

Been in a funk ever since I got back from vacation. I'm totally drawing a blank on what to blog about. I went to Newport, Rhode Island; Cape Cod, Massachusetts; and Hartford, Connecticut. And I have to say that I love New England. Beautiful scenery with the leaves starting to change around the small towns scattered throughout the countryside. Very picturesque. We did the Cliff Walk in Newport which was amazing. The royalty of America built their homes at the turn of the century on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Some of these homes would dwarf Darcy's Pemberly. Can't even imagine living there. Went on a whale watch and saw several Humpback Whales. They were so close, I could almost reach out and pet them. Went to Martha's Vineyard and had the best clam strips ever at this dockside stand (which I've been hungry for ever since ... ugh!). Everything was so laid back at all the towns we visited that returning home was a shock to the system. Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard are home to lots of artists and writers. I can see why writers in particular would flock there. You're so removed from everything. The towns are sleepy so there's not much distraction. My husband asked if I could leave there. Yes, I definitely could. At least for the time when I'm writing. And what I need right now is NO distractions. This past week flew by without any writing getting done on my part. I've been slacking, I know. The mind is willing, but the flesh is coping out. Maybe I'll run away. Now that will give me some inspiration.

Mind Control

2007-09-15T09:51:00.000-04:00

When I was younger, you could find me nearly every week in the Occult section at the library. I loved reading about Astrology, palm readings, past life experiences, ghosts and hauntings, psychic phenomena, you name it. Now with a husband who's a skeptic and a father-in-law who's a very good amateur magician, I'm finding it harder and harder to take at face value what I read and what I see on TV when it comes to otherworldly events. Years ago when he first came on the scene, I wanted to believe John Edwards was real (not a douche as South Park claimed on their show). But when my father-in-law demonstrated to me a cold reading and the process behind it, well, I could actually say that South Park was right about something, yet again (it's actually a brilliant show if you get past the poop and fart jokes). So now I'm constantly looking at the different angles and trying to find the simplest explanation for the supposedly psychic or paranormal events first before believing everything I see or read.

But I want to. Oh, I so want ghosts to be real and for some humans to really have the power to tell the future, read minds, and find missing persons. Which is why I continue to write about the paranormal and explore and read about it.

However, recently, I've been watching Mind Control on SciFi with Derren Brown. He's a mentalist and seems as if he can actually read people's minds and control their actions. What's great about this show is that he demonstrates some tricks that magicians use in their acts and tricks that psychics claim are real. And what I find fascinating (and somewhat scary) is how the mind works. I've always loved psychology and Derren shows how he can use some principles of that science along with stage magic, suggestion, and misdirection to aid him in seemingly reading a person's mind, changing their perspective, and predicting their actions or even lifestyles. After some of the bits, he'll briefly demonstrate the techniques behind it, for example:

Recently, there was a stream of robberies in Russia of people on the street losing their wallets and other personal items. Were they robbed at gunpoint and pick pocketed? No. They willingly gave these items over to the robbers, not even realizing it until it was over. Derren demonstrated this technique on the streets of London and New York (where you think most people are savvy to every trick in the book). He was able to use polite conversation to misdirect the victim and through the power of suggestion get them to hand over their bottled water, keys, and even watches and then they walked away before realizing what happened.
He went into a jewelry story in New York city and by misdirection paid for his purchase using blank sheets of paper and the clerk didn't realize it until after Derren left the store.
He chose a random person on the street and changed their watch to a time which Derren guessed they would say. Through subliminal signals, he was able to get them to say the time he had predicted.
He had a school teacher read aloud a poem several times and picture an image in her head while reading it. He then gave her young students paint and a large canvas and asked them all to paint on it using their hands. At the end, he asked the teacher what image she had in her mind and she said, "teddy bear." What did image look like which the students had painted together? A teddy bear. If you studied the poem, you'd see words that resembled teddy bear and even different letters up and down the lines spelling out the word. Really cool how her mind and the children's minds picked up on that even though the word teddy bear was not said in the poem.

Of course, his tricks don't work on everyone. And he'll show those botched tricks as well just to prove that certain people are more susceptible to persuasion than others. For some of his bigger tricks, he'll have people fill out questionnaires so he can make sure his subjects will work the best for his ticks. Really cool! And kind of scary because some of these principles could totally be used to manipulate and hurt others. In fact, throughout history they have, which is what I find so fascinating and something that I'm tying into my latest story.

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

2007-09-07T08:46:00.001-04:00

When Christina Dodd spoke at RWA last year she said that there will be times in your writing career when others just cruise by you on skates as you're walking along the publishing road. Or maybe even come from nowhere on a hairpin turn and leave you in the dust like Racer X would leave Speed Racer (okay, so that last one was from me but definitely fits more).

Yesterday I was speaking with mystep-mother-in-law who was raving about a new book she just read. She told me all about the 3-part YA paranormal series because she knows how much I love vampire stories. As we were talking, I looked up the author online and the stories looked really interesting and I thought it was cool that the author was my age. I hadn't heard of her books, but I enjoyed reading the excerpts.

Then I read a blurb about writing her first book. And I just about fell out of my chair. Well ... actually I did fall out of the chair and began to bang my head unceremoniously on the floor.

It took her SIX MONTHS.

I will repeat this for those not fully grasping this concept because it is so unbelievable.

Not six months to write her book. SIX FREAKING MONTHS from writing her book to being published. Her first book that she ever wrote! She wrote the book in a month and with the help of family edited and started sending it off to agents. She didn't know anything about the publishing biz so looked everything up online and read writers' blogs and figured out what to do. Sure, she got about 7 rejections from the 8 she sent out. But one agent took her within a few months. Then that agent worked with her for 2 weeks to tweak her story and then sent it out to an editor, who promptly offered a sweet deal on the story. In fact, her agent rejected the first deal (even though it was a lot) from the editor until she got a better offer. Now, 3 YEARS LATER she has a movie deal on her first book.

Of course, for every one of these quick success stories are many, many others who are now extremely successful but who took years to become published. I remember Meg Cabot's speech atRWA about all the rejections and the years it took her to get published. But still ...

6 FREAKING MONTHS

It's been almost 6 months since I sent out my manuscript to two editors.

As of now, I have a knot on my head the size of a grapefruit. I shall be doing tequila shots tonight because I heard that can make the swelling go down ... or is it the pain go away?

Chipping Away

2007-09-06T11:02:00.000-04:00

Little by little, I'm getting there with my latest project dubbed Project Albuquerque (or Project A for short). I called it Albuquerque because Karm had used George for her new project in a reference to the Abominable Snowman from Looney Tunes who always would snatch up Daffy Duck or whatever cute critter and say "I'll hug him and squeeze him and call him George." Albuquerque is what Bugs would always say when someone asked for directions, "you go down here then make a left at Albuquerque." I'm not sure if it's because Albuquerque is a funny name or if Tex Avery or Mel Blanc was actually given that vague direction at one time and just put it in his cartoon. Not sure, but it always makes me laugh. And considering that I'm not sure where this story is heading right now; a left at Albuquerque is probably not too far off.

But I digress ...

I finally decided on the hero's codename. After struggling for some time and researching numerous names, I got it down to Raven. Yeah, I know. Kind of simple. But I think it works. For now. Next I'm working on the name for my heroine's organization. I came up with one acronym but it kept reminding me of the Nazis in the way the double "ss" came together. So my hubby has helped me come up with some alternatives. I'm researching a few phrases now and should have that before the end of the week. I've gotten the first three chapters written and now I'm just going through and doing clean up and figuring out direction before I continue. But I was so excited at how much I got written by just sitting down and letting it flow. Sure, it's not the best writing right off the bat but I was so surprised at how the characters just came into their own. Almost like I was channeling them onto the screen. Such a cool thing!

And speaking of cool things, one of my CPs Maya was interviewed on Romance Novel TV and you can watch her on this website. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble loading it on my Mac. Ugh! So I don't know how it looks, but I'm sure she's fabulous. She's working on the next book in her Negligent Chaperone series and I was fortunate enough to read it recently. So hot! And a really fun romantic story. It will be out next year. Diana Cosby is the Romance Novel TV as well, so be sure to check her out. She's a very sweet woman and her book His Captive is coming out in November. I can't wait!

I have lots more to blog about, especially regarding a new TV show I've been watching. I'll talk about that tomorrow. :)

Addiction

2007-08-26T09:22:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I admit it. I have a problem. It is the only thing that I am truly addicted to and when the feeling overcomes me, I thank God that it is related to this and not something totally mind rotting.

I love to read.

When a story grips me—and I can usually tell by the first page—then I can't put it down. I must finish the read. I must get to the end. The world be damn until I find out how this it going to end. (In fact, I didn't even read the ending of this one, which is a first.) I shirk all my responsibilities. Stay up way later than reasonable. And, worse, I put aside my writing, which I had planned to do this weekend. I had a whole weekend free and what did I do??? Spend most of it reading Julia Quinn's On the Way to the Wedding.

Damn her for writing so well!! Argh!

For a Regency, it was fast paced, witty, and moved at a break neck speed that whipped my emotions around and around. I love stories where the hero and heroine don't realize that they love each other until mid-way through the book. Of course, the reader uncovers their attraction to one another first through a series of small awakenings in a character. They notice the pleasant way the other one laughs. The cute freckles on their nose. The color of their eyes. Their speech pattern and familiar way of walking. Slowly their friendship builds and slowly their love grows until they both can't deny their feelings any longer. Of course, it doesn't end there, somehow the hero has to stop the heroine from making a terrible mistake and marrying the wrong man.

Ah, love. I so love it!

Now if I can only get my work done today ...

GoodSearch

2007-08-19T20:50:00.000-04:00

My friend's daughter and son-in-law are volunteering with a local charity: Let Us Consider Adopting Strays (LUCAS). LUCAS is trying to build a no-kill animal shelter in Prince William County, VA. LUCAS is registered on www.goodsearch.com, which is a search engine that will donate one penny for every search you do to the charity you choose. What a great concept! And it can really add up, especially when I think of the amount of searches I do in a day. GoodSearch has a lot of charities which they sponsor and for which you can donate your search. However, if maybe a few times a week you could consider donating a search to LUCAS that will help exponentially in them raising money to build this shelter.

"Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms." (George Eliot)

Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

2007-08-14T22:38:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid, my Aunt Marney used to read all those tabloid magazines and True Romances and sometimes she'd leave them at my house. The tabloids were those of the more extra-special sort like Elvis spotted using a Port O'Pot in Pittsburg, mutant pigman treated in NY hospital, or dog digs up bones of prehistoric catwoman. Now you know the seeds of my crazy ideas! It really made an impression on a 10-year-old, especially when I didn't realize that those newspapers were totally fake. Well, the World Wide News is stopping its presses for good and I was reading the article about their farewell and their interesting stories. Though none is stranger than a percentage of their readers who actually believed what the WWN published, as evident by one reader who responded to a picture of Hillary Clinton holding an alien baby. The headline said that Hillary has adopted an alien baby. The reader wrote in and complained that the photograph had to be doctored—Hillary was too cold hearted to adopt an alien baby, so they must've superimposed her head on someone's body.

I kid you not. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Got some more writing done this morning. I'm introducing the other characters and considering how I spent a year in one character's head in Dark Earth, it's been really fun to jump from different characters' POVs. Let's hope this continues ... fingers crossed, knock on wood, and a good luck kiss from the mutant pigman.

What's That Horrible Smell?

2007-08-13T21:55:00.000-04:00

A friend and fellow writer lamented to me how she doesn't like reading historical romances because she couldn't get pass the fact that everyone was probably stinky back then—no regular bathing, no teeth brushing, no deodorant, etc.—so she couldn't accept the heroine making it with the hero considering how dirty he (and probably she as well) was. I thought this was pretty funny, especially since I've never considered what anyone smelled like when I read historical romances or even watched historical movies. Everyone always seemed so formal, so delicate and wearing haute couture with the high-brow attitude to match that I couldn't imagine their poop even stinking. Then I read in my recent Discover Magazine (Lentini, Liza and Mouzon, David, September 2007, page 80) the following:

"King Henry IV required his knights to bathe at least once in their lives—during their ritual knighthood ceremonies." (Yes, the same knight riding on the white horse to save the damsel. The horse was probably cleaner.)
The Chinese invented the first real toothbrush in 1498. However, it wasn't until WWII when the U.S. enforced teeth brushing on their soldiers that the act became routine. (Ummm ... that wasn't that long ago. It took over 400 years for it to catch on! Did no one smile back then or even kiss?)
Urea in urine can kill fungi and bacteria, so ancient Egyptians and Aztecs used urine to treat cuts and burns by rubbing it onto their skin. (Can you say Eau de PeePee? It definitely gives Eau de Toilette a new definition.)

Oh, I'll still read historicals because I love history and the fantasy that the past affords. I'm sure there were a lot of people, and different cultures, through the ages that were into hygiene but it's so funny that it's taken us so long to come this far with the general idea of hygiene and especially how it relates to health. Keeping your mouth healthy can help you live longer. Many people died in the last century in the U.S. because of bad gums. Crazy!

Enough of the history lessons. My characters now are in the present and smell very pleasant, thank you very much. Though if I ever write a historical I'll have to make the hero a compulsive bather or something. :P

Brick Wall

2007-08-11T11:04:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm hitting a brick wall with my writing. Well, it's actually the size the Berlin wall used to be. I'm blanking on where my characters are heading next. I need to do some serious world building and I'm not sure whether I should just write and develop the characters first or figure out my world. What I've been doing ... and what I've noticed some of my writing friends doing as well ... is leaving blank spots with "TK" where I may need to research historical information or gather more information on what the setting or background will be. This has been helping and I was able to write about 1K more words because of this. I think my goal is going to be small. Get the first three chapters written and polished. (I've gotten great feedback from Karm on the first chapter.) And then continue on with the rest. That way when I get to the mid-point I can start sending out the first chapters. Yes, I know you're supposed to send it out when it is all finished. But dammit, it takes so long to get feedback from editors that I can finish the whole kit and caboodle before they respond in the 3-month span. I need to resign myself as well that not all my finished stories may get published. I just read Karmela's blog and she references Stephanie Feagan's blog and how this multi-published author had written two manuscripts last year that she couldn't sell and had to set aside. (Check out a year in the life of a writer.) It was very eye opening and reminded me how the journey doesn't end with publishing your first book or second or third. You have to deal with disappointment's and rejections at all levels of your writing career. A friend of mine recently got a not-so-nice review of her book on Amazon, though a very positive one on B&N. (Which goes to show how subjective everything is) You really need a passion for the craft and a tough skin to make it in this industry. How bad do you want it? My husband always asks. What are you willing to sacrifice to make it? Because everything that is worthwhile requires a certain sacrifice whether it be time, money, emotional freak outs, pride, work ... whatever. I know that I'm not sacrificing enough and I need to up the ante if I'm going to make my dream come true.

Identity versus Essence

2007-08-05T20:14:00.000-04:00

At the RWA National convention, I attended a Michael Hauge workshop and it really opened my eyes to the intricacies of character arc in a story. Hauge, author of many books such as Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds and The Hero's 2 Journeys, dissected major movies and showed the main character's journey to self discovery. In the beginning of the story, your character is living in what Hauge refers to as their "Identity." This is how the outside world perceives them and the face they put on for the outside world. It is who they believe they have to be in order to survive in their world. Hague calls their inner dreams, who they really desire to be, their "Essence." In a story which ends happily, the hero is able to step out of their Identity, the mask they're wearing to survive in the world, and live fully in their Essence, who they truly want to be. It is the basic, universal character arc. In situations involving love triangles, one competing lover represents the hero's Essence while the other the hero's Identity. I thought this was brilliant and I've been dissecting movies this past week to see how this concept holds up. Here are some movies I've found to hold true. The first is Titanic which is the example Hauge gave during his workshop:

Titanic
Rose is a high-class woman who is supposed to marry the rich, society man (identity). She falls in love with Jack who is fun-loving, adventure-seeking, and lives by the seat of his pants (essence) but is poor. In the end, she gives up her identity of the wealthy heiress to live a life full of adventure and fun like Jack lived his life.

Chasing Amy
Alyssa is a lesbian (identity) who falls in love with a man. She gives up her identity (lesbian) when she admits that she has fallen in love with a man (essence—her reason for being a lesbian was that she didn't want to limit to field to just men to find her true love, so her dream was finding one person to love). Unfortunately, Holden, the man she has fallen in love with, can't let his identity (not that sexually experienced) go and live in his essence (loving someone despite their past).

Kill Bill
The Bride is a contract killer (identity) and when she becomes pregnant she decides to live a "normal" life and become a mom, providing a safe environment to raise her child (essence). Unfortunately, before she can fully live in her essence (giving up her life as a killer), she must use her identity to seek revenge and eventually get back her daughter in order to live in her essence.

Hairspray
Tracy Turnblad does not look like the other girls who dance on the Corny Collins Show—she's pleasantly plump, slightly nerdy, and from a lower class white neighborhood with a pair of odd parents (identity). However, that doesn't stop her from making others overcome their prejudices (against her weight and against her black dance partners and friends) and to become a favorite dancer on the show and pave the way for integration in 1960s Baltimore (essence).

Now I'm applying it to my recent story and since I'm in the beginning of my WIP, it has been really helpful to plan out my characters' development. See if it works for your story!

Unreality of Reality TV

2007-08-03T22:40:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I got the scoop on what it's like being on a gameshow from my friends and what can I say? Call me totally naive but EVERYTHING is staged. Down to the friendly banter between contestant and host. Even the reaction of the spouse sitting in the audience is directed by the show. They say "we need more jumping, more excitement in the way you shout your joy" or "we need you to tell your significant other that you're disappointed in his performance." I kid you not! They were feeding my friend lines during the show. Also, when asked (before the show began) what they'd do if they won the big bucks, they replied that they would donate a portion to their church and charities. The producers told them that they couldn't say that because it was not good TV. Didn't they want to do something more fun, like take the family on a yearlong vacation? WTF???? I can understand keeping some things scripted because you don't want the host to have too many surprises and ruin the take. But come on people??? It's a freakin' gameshow. Why can't someone say what they really want to do with the money? And why can't it be something positive? I know as sure as I'm sitting here typing this that if my friend said she was getting a boob job, it would've been kept in. Hell, it would've been in all the TV trailers. I can't even imagine how much is staged on the "so-called" reality TV show. Ugh!!!

Inspiration

2007-07-25T22:39:00.000-04:00

So, I'm probably one of the only people left in the country ... no, scratch that ... the world, who has never read any of the Harry Potter books. I've seen all the movies, which I totally love, but just haven't gotten around to reading the series just yet. But I will. Oh, that I promise. With all my friends telling me how amazing the series is and their popularity across all countries and ages, I want to read the books. I want to learn how she did it. How she captured the imagination of the world. As one reviewer said, we'll never see a phenomena like this in our lifetime again. To me, the Harry Potter books are the Star Wars of this generation. And to think, a woman who has become a billionaire from a story about a boy wizard almost didn't get published. Twelve different publishers rejected her. It took a year for her story to finally get picked up by a small press for, according to once source, a 15oo pound advance and told to keep her day job because she would never make a lot of money in children's books. And the only reason the publisher even bought it was because the owner's daughter liked the story. The initial print run was only 1,000. And if any of you have the original British copies, many of which were distributed to libraries, then about $20–30K is resting on your bookshelf. Pretty cool for an idea that started during a train delay and ended with an amazing book 5 years later.

Truly inspirational. So don't throw away any of those ideas you feel passionate about. You never know what may happen.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

2007-07-18T15:02:00.000-04:00

Work, work, and more work. Been running ragged since I got back from the conference on Sunday. Total whirlwind. This afternoon I've been catching up on work related stuff some more and realizing how totally behind I am in so many things. Ugh! I need my Calgon moment.

Cool things are happening though. The editor who requested a partial wanted me to give a brief description of the others books planned for the series I pitched. I was a little nervous at first, but fortunately I found some notes about possible storylines for the other characters which I had written months ago. Phew! Big sigh of relief. So that will be heading out tomorrow morning. A good friend's husband is in CA filming a gameshow. And considering that he was the National Spelling Bee champ when he was like 14 and is one of the smartest guys I know (he's an engineer, need I say more?) then I'm hoping that they come home with the big bucks. I couldn't think of a family who deserves it more. Wonderful people. So I'll keep you posted when that'll be on.

I saw Harry Potter on Monday night and loved it! People make fun of me because I never read any of the books. But my plan is to watch all the movies then go back and read them. Because, trust me, if you saw my office especially after the conference, I need to get through what I have here first. Ack! The movie was much darker and it's so crazy to see how mature-looking the boys in particular have become. But the cool thing is that I saw a trailer for a Get Smart movie staring Steve Carell. I LOVED Get Smart when I was kid. I watched it everyday at 5 pm in reruns. Those kind of shows are what inspire me to write outrageous villians and outlandish set-ups and gadgets. I totally hope they don't screw it up. When I was kid I thought Agent 99 was the coolest and always wanted my hair cut like hers. But, alas, I have curly hair which just wouldn't work. Bah!

I forgot to mention that I spoke to Kresley Cole at the literary signing during RWA. She writes historicals as well as my some of my favorite paranormals Hunger Like No Other (amazing) and No Rest for the Wicked (what I'm reading now which is also amazing). Being a movie buff and TV junkie, I kept reading phrases and saying in her books and thinking that I heard them somewhere. Particularly a few lines sounded like they were from South Park. And sure enough, I was right. She said that she loves quoting Cartman and has also put lines in there from the Alien Trilogy movies, which I know way too well since one of my good friends always quotes those movies. I was so excited that she was a total TV geek like me. Now it's even more fun to read her books and try to guess where some of the quotes come from!

RWA Conference—Giddyup!

2007-07-16T17:52:00.000-04:00

Just got back from the RWA conference in Dallas and it was so much fun. I keep thinking back to three years ago when I first went to the conference in Reno where I didn't know anyone. Nada. Not a soul. I met two people (Karmela and Maya) in particular that first year (and Sydney the second year) who have been wonderful in helping me further my writing and expand my network of writing friends. I am so happy to be a part of this organization which has really pushed me further in my writing career and offers much support for struggling to be published writers. Here's some highlights to steal the setup from fabulous Karmela's blog:

Maya Rodale, my room mate and wonderful critique partner, had the first signing for her debut book The Heir and the Spare at the conference. I was so proud of her. She is an excellent writer, so check out her book!!! She was out of books within 30 minutes. It was absolutely amazing. I was her "assistant" during the book signing and got there early to help her set up and I took pictures during the signing. Also, I got to see Nora Roberts and get a book signed by her before they let everyone into the room (Maya and Nora are both published by Berkley who was sponsoring the free book signing). When I told Nora that I was helping out a friend, who was signing her first book, Nora asked for a copy because she wanted something to read on the plane. So Maya's first book was signed to Nora Roberts. How cool is that????
Got to hang out with the absolutely fabulous (and totally crazy—but in a good way) author and CP Karmela Johnson, who was kind enough to introduce me to some wonderful women like Michelle Rowen (really love her fun vampire romances and I was able to snag her latest Fanged and Fabulous), Elisabeth Naughton (who was up for the Golden Heart for Romantic Suspense and is so hilarious and good at coming up with t-shirt slogans), and Marcia Colette (who should be a stand-up comic and has two very cool, unique ideas for paranormal/urban fantasy stories that I know we'll see in print very soon).
I was able to catch up with another CP and wonderful author Sydney Sterling (who got many request for her manuscripts from editors at the conference—yeah!) and have a delicious dinner overlooking Dallas at the tower restaurant, which rotated. How cool is that! (though I was a little motion sick at first) We met up with a cool chick named Dawn Garza who was at her first conference.
Met and hung out and had great time with the very sweet Ann Bleakley who is a friend of Maya's and has a very cool idea for a historical romance series. I know an editor is going to totally snag it up.
Met Rayna Vause who is on the chair of the New Jersey chapter who writes alternative erotica and has a book out which is called Only in Her Dreams. She told me all about the huge conference New Jersey puts on every year which is second in size to the national conference. Should definitely check it out next year!
Had an interesting conversation with Maureen Peyron, who is a movie producer and has worked on such films as A Beautiful Mind and has worked with Ron Howard for the past 12 years. (Yes, I'm such a dweeb. I admit that I was a little blinded by the celebrity aspect of it and was wondering ... hmmm ... do you need any extras for any films coming out soon??) She was at the conference to meet with authors about her project called Lasting Romance which she has been developing for the past 2 years. She wants to make movies from romance novels. She plans to have it go straight to DVD because in her research she has found that most women who read romance are married with children, which unfortunately doesn't leave them much time to go to the movies since most have to pay for babysitters and it can get expensive. If Maureen will have a good budget to make these films and try to really capture the essence of the story, then I think this could be interesting.
I met and had breakfast with two very classy and sweet ladies: Diana Cosby and Jeanmarie Hamilton. Jeanmarie was a finalist in the RT Magazine American Title contest. She just sold her first book Seduction which will be out in the first Quarter of 2008. Yeah! Diana has her book coming out in November called His Captive which looks really hot. Of course, I had a few FIMs (foot in mouth moments) when I called her job as a meteorologist "odd" and referred to her spilling coffee on her pants as having a "wardrobe malfunction." But at least she was cool enough to laugh about it!
Sherrilyn Kenyon gave a powerful speech at the PRO Retreat which inspired all of us. Truthfully, I would've been a total wreck if I had half the things happen to her as she struggled to become published. But she is one of the nicest people I've ever met. She took my hands during the book signing and looked into my eyes and told me never to give up. She is just so sweet. And Gena Showalter is another great person. I've been picking up her books every year at the conference and she has always been so sweet to speak with. She asked how my writing was coming along and offered very supportive and encouraging words about believing in myself. Thanks Sherrilyn and Gena!
Got a request for a partial from an editor for the Dark Earth story. Yeah! Still waiting to hear back from 2 other editors, so we'll see what happens. (fingers crossed)
Didn't go to as many workshops this year. Was so caught up in meeting new people (and catching up with old friends) and getting tons of free books. I did attend the Hauge workshops on writing which were phenomenal. I got a great idea for my latest story for which I've been totally blocked. I also attended a good workshop on Alpha males and heroines and realized that my husband fits the profile of an alpha. Funny!

Well, that's all folks. It was a fun and engaging experience.

For some reason I can't upload photos to my blog. Maybe it's because I'm on a Mac. Ugh! If I can figure it out, maybe I'll just post them to my site.

Tour de Force

2007-07-02T15:01:00.000-04:00

Had a pretty jam-packed week between work and visiting friends and taking tours of cool places.

First, we took a tour of the Smithsonian Support Center. That's where they keep all the displays from the Smithsonian museums from wet/dry animals to various anthropological artifacts. We got to see how they store rows and rows and more rows of fish specimens in these high metal bookshelves. And we saw the giant squid which used to be on display at the National History Museum in DC. One of the coolest parts was seeing up close and personal (though no touching!) the various artifacts from around the world: Eskimo parkas made from animal intestines, Samurai suits, ivory carved spheres and chess pieces from Japan, ceremonial masks from various South American tribes, just to name a few ... We even got to see the frozen animal carcasses which they use to study (many animals weren't killed for study but were found washed ashore or already dead). There was a creepy room replete with giant hooks hanging from the ceiling above a metal table with a hole at the end for washing the guts and blood away to the drain on the floor. Lots of ideas for a horror story. And we got to see the demisted beetles in action, as they ate away the dead flesh from various rodents and a Pygmy hippo. Kinda gross, but cool. Best of all, we got a tour of the whale bones and stood next to the jaw of a Blue Whale. It's amazing the size of the animals. The artifacts and animal remains are used for study as well as museum displays. Students, researchers, and scientists from all over the world will come to the support center to take samples of bones or tissues for different studies (such as determining what might be killing off a certain species of while) or study the stitching on a dress from Peru.

Next we had a tour of the White House. Our friend works for the National Security Council and just had a meeting with George Bush last week. I know ... friends in high places. :P (And here I thought I was cool when my friends used to work at McDonalds and sneak me free food.) We got to the see the Oval Office which was brilliant, literally, it looked brilliant with all the gold and yellow adorning it. Each president redecorates the Oval Office and Bush used lots of yellow and gold coloring. I have to admit that it looked snazzy and I expected a multitude of angelic voices to be hitting a high "ahhhhhh" when we saw it. We were able to view the Roosevelt room where most meetings take place and the Cabinet room with gold tags on the back of the chairs to indicate where the members sit. We only got to see the West Wing and the executive offices. And I have to admit that the West Wing looked so small, especially with the cramped hallways, for a place where so many important decisions are made. The residence is no longer open for tours but we were able to take a photo outside.

Definitely a great weekend. And I'll have lots of information to pull from for my next stories.

Hellish Good Time and Other Not So Cool Things

2007-06-15T20:02:00.000-04:00

So I finished another book the other day and it was fantastic! Go out now and buy Hell's Belles by Jackie Kessler. I read it so fast, that it didn't even seem like I was reading. Sounds kind of weird ... but no joke. I'd be like, "I'm just going to read a few pages" then BAM, I read like 50. Insane! The voice flows so well, so quick, your eyes flit over the pages without any roadblocks or potholes to tear you out of the story. And what a unique story. Jezebel is a succubus who has a bit of a disagreement with the way things are going to hell in hell (or would that be going to heaven?), so she leaves hell for earth and disguises herself as a mortal and tricks a witch into giving her a talisman that masks her true identity from the demons trying to track her down and take her back to hell. In the course of one day she meets a hot guy, travels to New York, and finds a job at—what else—a strip bar. But this is only the beginning of her journey. She still has a ton of demons wanting to drag her back, a best friend who's a Fury, Queen Lilith with a major hair up her ass, a hot incubus who keeps wanting to play naughty with her, and well ... trying to figure out her new mortal body and all that comes along with being human. Not to mention that this book is damn sexy. But, of course, with a succubus as the heroine, what do you expect? What was so great was Kessler's world building. All the little nuances concerning the different levels of hell, different types of demons, the roles demons play in seducing mortals, and why they do it. I never thought I'd actually root for a demon in a book or feel bad for Lucifer but Kessler pulled it off without any questions. According to her site, the next book in the series Road to Hell is out in November and I believe the third book is Hotter Than Hell. I can't wait!

On my writing front, I got two more rejections from agents. I had high hopes for this one and was kind of bummed to get these responses. Got a little bit of feedback which was good and bad. Ugh! I'm so frustrated. I still got it out there with two other people, but I'm not getting my hopes as high this time. A CP finished the story and has a bunch of suggestions for taking it in a new direction, so I'll see how I can improve. I'm always up for improvement, especially if it means breaking in the biz and learning new ways to evolve my story and my writing. But I have to admit that the improvement process is painful. Kind of like plastic surgery. Not that I know, but I've watched Doctor 90210 enough to see how uncomfortable everyone is right after having a ton o' fat removed or getting implants. But after a few weeks, they're better and most look hotter, too. So I guess that's what will happen to my story. It'll get better looking ... hopefully.

Reviews

2007-06-01T08:22:00.000-04:00

As my escape these last few weeks, I've been catching up on my reading.

Bitten and Smitten by Michelle Rowan
A very fun and entertaining vampire chick-lit romance. Michelle has a great voice and style that just captures you and hold your attention from the start. When a blind date goes wrong, Sarah Dearly (fun-loving, hilarious, and witty) is turned into a vampire and her sire is immediately turned into dust by psychotic vampire hunters. While running for her newly undead life from these hunters, she bumps into Theirry de Bennicoeur, a six-hundred-year-old vampire about to end his life because ... well ... he's just sick of living and has lost the spark. And energetic, crazy Sarah is just the person to ignite it again. Of course, Michelle adds a love triangle to the mix with Quinn, a reluctant vampire hunter who has fallen in love with Sarah, whom he tried to kill—not really a good start to a healthy relationship. Michelle is a bit of a tease because the few moments where Theirry and Sarah and even Quinn and Sarah come close to taking their relationship to the next level is hot but nothing more happens. I wanted to see more!!! At least she has a sequel coming out this summer, Fanged and Fabulous, so I can see their relationship develop. Maybe I'm just a total perv when it comes to the hot scenes which brings me to my next book ...

The Nymph King by Gena Showalter
I'd read her Alien Huntress book, which is action-packed and has hot scenes but nothing could prepare me for the sensuality of this one. Gena has created a new twist to the underground world of Atlantis where Nymphs, Vampires, Dragons, and all types of mythical and god-like creatures dwell. She has set the stage well for a myriad of tales to be spun from this new world. In her book, Nymphs are highly sexual creatures that no one can resist. The Nymph males exude sex appeal that attracts females by the herds until they are frothing at the mouth (and probably other places) just to be with the Nymphs, who thrive on sex to heal and increase their strength for battle. You want a book full of Alpha males???? Then this one is totally for you. In fact, I'm not sure how the Nymph males can even be in one room with all the masculinity and Alpha-dog attitude they ooze. Enter Shaye Holling, a woman who has shut herself away from any kind of loving relationship because of her parents' penchant for going from one failed relationship to the next. To protect herself from getting close to anyone new in her family (because they would just leave during the next round of divorces) and any man for fear of losing herself like her mother, Shaye has become an ice princess, whose resolve is able to resist the advances of the Valerian, the king of the Nymphs, even when he claims that she's his mate. Gena does a great job of building and building and then building some more the sexual tension between the two main characters until, when you're about to burst from all this pent up sexuality, it finally happens. Though I became frustrated with Shaye for keeping up her icy resolve for most of the story, Gena did a good job of making me understand Shaye's history and why she'd resist for so long. I wanted to see a little more with the battle sequence at the end and some more with Poseiden, who makes a few, too-brief appearances. But this is the definition of a romance where the relationship comes first and the other parts of the story are secondary characters. I look forward to her other books set in Atlantis and I'm really hoping that the Dragons make an encore appearance ...

Busy

2007-05-28T08:22:00.000-04:00

Yep, I've been busy. No excuse really to not keeping up at least 3 times a week with this blog, but I've been distracted. Good and bad distracted. Though I'm great at multi-tasking when it comes down to it, I can't keep it up for long—weeks on end to be precise—jumping from way too many jobs and having personal, emotional crisis to boot. Yeah, I'm about to lose it. Especially since I haven't done any writing this month, but the good thing is that my new characters for my latest story are really starting to form. In the midst of chaos, I've found solace in those few downtime moments and started really thinking about my next story and where I want to take it. I've come up with a few cool character traits and ideas for a series. I'm getting excited again about writing. Of course, that might also be because I've gotten great feedback lately and I feel like the gears are turning a little faster and I've learned a lot through this process:

I learned from a published paranormal author that my story should be billed as Urban Fantasy when I send it out to editors/agents. I have a lot of sci-fi elements in it which take it somewhat away from the paranormal, but this is a good thing because it will help set it apart from what else is out there. Yeah!
I finally won over my harshest critic. She asked to read my story again after nearly a year of revising it. And she was like, "This isn't even the same writing. What happened?" She thought the pacing, voice, dialogue, world building were dead on. I was so happy and relieved, since she's a very honest person and knows her writing stuffs. Though she still had a lot of questions about the story (unfortunately, I might've cut too much back story from my first pages), it makes me feel good that the last year of rewriting, researching, and reading books on how to improve my writing has finally paid off.
Listen to your CPs and your inner voice. I had two CPs tell me to delete the first two chapters. I was devastated. I had spent so much time revising and writing those chapters and I felt they were integral to the whole story set up. But that was just it. It was just set-up. No action. No moving forward. And these chapters were in the beginning of the book, no less!!!! No wonder an agent turned that draft down because she couldn't get into my characters. I kept the two chapters but rewrote them so the characters were in action the whole time and we learned back story from outer and inner dialogue dispersed so it wouldn't interfere with the story but move it forward. That's the big deal: EVERYTHING SHOULD MOVE YOUR STORY FORWARD. And my first two chapters didn't, and now they do. *sighs in relief*
Don't fall in love with your writing. One of the hardest things I had to was delete over 30,000 words. I was doing a series of flashbacks where every other chapter was a flashback to what had happened years prior. I had taken a cue from Lost when they highlight a character in the episode and intersperse a storyline from their background (before the Island) to help us understand where they came from. For my story, which I wanted action-packed, it didn't work. Plus, I wasn't pulling it off properly. Seeing my word count go down from 85K to 53K made me want to cry. But it had to be sacrificed so the rest of the story could live. (Yeah, that last sentence was kind of lame, but so true.)

Right now it's making the rounds at a couple editors and one agent. This week I'm going to focus on sending out to agents, since the advice I've been given is that they'll know how to market it better. Then it's off to the next story, though hopefully I've learned enough from this year-and-a-half-in-the-making story that my next one won't take as long.

Yeah right...

I'm It

2007-05-15T08:46:00.000-04:00

So Sybir has tagged me for 8 random facts/habits about me. So here goes ...

I hate bugs. They gross and freak me out. In fact, I feel nauseated just writing about them. I scream like a little girl when a large one comes near me and go into a panic mode. I can't kill the big bugs because I get too grossed out feeling and seeing them crushed. I usually trap them in a cup and throw them outside, which sucks because sometimes they hit their hard little bodies against the cup, which ... well, you guessed it ... makes me sick.
I hate change. I'm a creature of habit. Unlike the proverb that you need to bend like the reed, I'm an oak that's needs to get totally uprooted and replanted to accept change, though many times I have broken in half because I wouldn't bend, but that's for another list.
Chips and dip are my weakness. I love going to Tex-Mex joints where they serve fresh chips and salsa and queso dip. Even if I'm not hungry, I can eat the whole basket and then some.
I've been writing stories since I was in elementary school. My first stories were plays that my friends and I performed using puppets and usually involved a murder mystery.
I'm a big Seinfeld fan. I love that show. I quote the show regularly and know when I find kindred spirits in a crowd of strangers when people recognize the quote. Favorite Seinfeld quote: "I don't know how you guys walk around with those things."
I also quote lots of movies and cartoons—thanks in part to my husband and his friends who used to quote certain sci-fi movies and The Simpsons. It's become a part of my vocabulary. Again, a great way to break the ice when I meet new people. Especially those who are pop culture geeks like me. Favorite random quotes: "Taste like burning." "We thought you was a toad." "They turned me into a nute. A nute? Well, I got better." "You're a daisy if you do." "He was a bit high-strung." "I'm not dead, yet." "Screw you guys. I'm going home." "Game over, man." (I've actually put worked of these quotes in my stories.)
I miss Angel and Buffy so much. I started reading the Buffy comic book so I can get my fix.
I never, ever tag other people. So the buck stops here on the random facts about me. I never do chain letters or e-mails, so don't send me e-mails that say "you're going to die or have horrible luck if you don't send this to a million friends in the next minute." Sorry don't respond well to chain letter threats. Now if a large bug was sending it to me ... then another story altogether.

Hug Your Spouse

2007-05-07T11:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I received horrible news. One of my best friends since 4th grade just lost her husband. He was only 41 years old. He was playing golf with his friends on Sunday and had a sudden heart attack and died. They have a 4-year-old daughter and she's pregnant with their second and is due next month. I've been in shock ever since being told. I couldn't stop crying at first because he was her hero, her soulmate. I was there when they first started dating and we all used to double date. I just saw him a couple months ago and he looked great. He wasn't overweight but was athletic. If all of you could just take the time to kiss your spouse. Tell them that you love them. I can't even imagine what she's going through. He was a wonderful person, a great dad, and had such an awesome sense of humor. I can't imagine her life without him.

Appreciate the love you have. Live everyday to the fullest. And hug close your spouse. Everyday you have with them is blessed.

WRW Retreat

2007-05-03T09:27:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh ... so I'm just winding down from a very fun and roller coaster weekend at the WRW Retreat. Overview of weekend:

Transported Kate Duffy of Kensington Publishing up to retreat with absolutely fabulous Karmela Johnson (who has the best style in clothes and makes me look like a geeky middle schooler) as my co-pilot. Decided that I'm a total idiot because as I replay my attempt at conversations with Ms. Duffy, realized I probably didn't us proper English or said some lame-brain things—and had a few FIMS (foot in mouth) moments. Yes, I am truly a dweeb. But at least she was cool about it and Karm was there to liven things up.
Had a meeting with an agent and editor who both wanted to see partials. The agent grilled me so hard about my plot, I felt a bit crisp after the interview. But it was fine because she was very nice about it and was just overall a cool person. Who said pitching would be easy?
Had a great time going over my story points with Karm, who also grilled me about my plot points and made me really think about motivation within my story. She also discussed her latest and greatest WIP, which is a totally awesome, kick-butt story! (She's the master at the KBH.) She's done a great job researching her subject matter. It'll be very interesting to see how her story plays out in the end. I enjoy her voice and her writing is strong, so I know this story will totally rock.
Karm bravely slayed two roaches in our room as I ran screaming on top of my bed. My hero!
I met some other wonderful writers like Dawn Oliveri, who writes erotic romance, and Alix, who is a finalist in the Golden Heart contest for Regency romance. Go Alix! Thanks to Jackie for getting an earfull the first night about my latest story and for being very supportive. A shout out goes to Karen who writes historicals and is a KBH in her own right for how strong she is in going to bat for her children day after day and continuing with her dream of publishing. She's truly inspiring.
Played WRW Jeopardy and totally sucked. Our team only got one answer right because, fortunately, Dawn knew her stuff. Though Karm knew the words to Copacabana, so she got points for being cool like that. Me ... not so much. (See "dweeb" note in #1)
Entered the first 200 words of my manusript in the American Idol-like contest with three editors as judges (Kate Duffy, Jen Enderlin and Tracy Farrell). Fortunately, they liked it!!!! Which is good because I had rewritten it like a million times and would've been forced to jump into the Potomac had they not. They suggested one rewrite but the rest of it they thought was good and they would want to read more. I was so freaking relieved. After a year and a half of working on this, it's nice to hear.
Had way too many Hilltop Sunsets and felt comfortably numb on Friday night. Enjoyed a great evening with the girls (and Tim) on Saturday night talking about fun stuffs like detachable penis and Justin Timberlake–don't ask.
Enjoyed some really good speakers at the luncheons/dinners: Julia Quinn, Madeline Hunter, and Lisa Gardner. It actually made me feel good to hear that Lisa, who has about 25 novels out, says that she still laments that each novel sucks as she's writing it. So I'm not the only one who is hard on herself.
Had a beautiful ride home. Karm and I enjoyed talking with Julie Quinn about writing and life stuff. She's very easy going and smart—she won $79K on Weakest Link—and I was so impressed with the amount of books she has out for being so young. She was first published at 25 and has 16 books out. Totally amazing! She's been called the Jane Austen of our generation. And it was great hearing her stories about writing and her good attitude over people criticizing her work.

Overall, it was a great retreat and I look forward to going back next year. It's always nice to be able to hang with other writers and people who are struggling like you to make it in the biz. Everyone—no matter what their level—was very supportive and so nice. Thanks to all who made this event so great!

Insanity Abounds

2007-04-26T17:25:00.000-04:00

Been absolutely insane this past week between three jobs and various appointments and trying to get last ditch edits done to story. My husband keeps finding things to tweak the ending. So, finally got ending rewritten for like the millionth time. Now it is ready to send out to Harlequin next week. But first ... I'm off to WRW Retreat this weekend. Yeah! Should be a lot of fun. I'm rooming with the fabulous Karmela Johnson. Yippee! Hopefully, I won't get into too much trouble apparently there is a bar in the hotel and well ... I don't have to drive anywhere. Though Sybir isn't with me, so I won't get into as much trouble as I could. Though I think I was a bad influence on her. She shouldn't trust me to pour her drinks! :P

However, it was a weird week to start out. My mom lives in a rowhome in Baltimore next to one of my oldest friends. My friend has a huge garage that takes up most of her yard because her husband works on cars and motorcycles. Early Monday morning at around 2 am, the garage caught on fire. The flames kicked up about 10 feet above the houses, the vinyl windows melted on my mom's and friend's home, windows were blown out, a neighbor's wooden fence and deck destroyed, and powerlines knocked down. My mom's vinyl shed melted and her lawn is totally charred. The scary thing is that my friend had no idea her garage was on fire because they were asleep in the basement and her two kids were in the upstairs bedroom. Her one child's room faced the fire and one of the windows had been blown out. Thankfully, neighbors had knocked on their door and woke them up and they got the kids out in time. The scary thing is that they believe it was arson. They had a beef with a guy across the street who always complained when they parked in front of his house. Last week her husband's car was keyed while it sat in front of this neighbor's house. Last year, my friend found nails in the gutter near his tires. Recently, the neighbor started soaking the grass near the car and making it muddy so mud would get up on my friend's car. It's a rowhouse neighborhood. It's always difficult to park in front of your house. If you want private parking, then have your backyard converted into a driveway. But don't set someone's garage on fire. Thank God that the homes are brick. Otherwise, my friend and her family and my mother could've been hurt or worse! That's what really frightens me. Over something so stupid. Of course, it's all circumstancial now. But the fire department is investigating so ... fingers crossed ... they'll catch the guy.

Senseless

2007-04-18T09:52:00.000-04:00

My heart and prayers are with the families of those who had lost loved ones earlier this week in the senseless shooting at Virginia Tech. As I watch the details being revealed and the details about the victims being told, it becomes more and more real and more painful and heartwrenching to understand. The numbers rattled off on the news of how many killed morph into the young, eager faces of people with so much potential, who had so much to offer this world and would never be given another chance. In the days, weeks, and years ahead we'll try to make sense out of this, because it is our nature. Because we cannot accept that this is random, that these people died in vain. How can any God allow this to occur? How could society let this happen? Some answers will be found in the life of the shooter, but with his own life taken as well, who will we hold accountable? His parents? The officials who ignored the teacher's pleas that he was disturbed? His associates who might've seen the signs of something wrong? The campus police for not shutting down the school after the first two shootings? I don't know. It is probably a combination of events, which alone would be innocuous, but together form a potent mixture. However, I do believe that the best way to honor the lives lost is to make sure that this never happens again.

God bless and keep strong.

All Work and No Play Make Jen a Dull Girl

2007-04-10T18:06:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm going a little stir crazy with work. Hence the lack of blogging. I'm juggling a couple clients now and I'm looking around and seeing that the house is in total disarray. This is what happens when you have a husband who's a total workaholic when your work is picking up as well.

But I wanted to post and announce that my very wonderful (and helpful) critique partner Maya Rodale has just launched her website. Her first book The Heir and the Spare is coming out in the beginning of August. I'm such a sucker for Regency romances and Maya has gotten the time period down pat. I got to read part of it before she finally sold it. Her writing is topnotch. She's only in her twenties and makes me think about how much I wasted my twenties not concentrating on my own writing. She even got a glowing quote from the great Eloise James, a well-known, best selling author of historicals. What an awesome start to what I know will be a long career!

Cue Indiana Jones Music ...

2007-03-27T07:54:00.000-04:00

This weekend a friend headed up a silent auction for the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, which is a daycare/school where children of government employees and others who work downtown can send their young children to learn about art history and natural history when they're as young as infants. Talk about stimulating the brain! My friend's child is 2 and is learning about Georgia O'Keeffe and Jackson Pollock. I never learned about them until college. Unbelievable!

Well, I bid on and won what I really wanted. A behind-the-scenes tour of the National Museum of Natural History's collections. Whoo-hoo! (Yes, I am a geek.) I'm so excited!!! I'm hoping that I get to touch something cool. I love touching artifacts in museums, except the stinky stuff or the bugs. Maybe I can find out where they've stored the Ark of the Covenant ... oh, wait ... that was just a movie. Riiiight!!! :P

I read the Nanny Diaries last week. Great book! I highly recommend it. I love books that give a glimpse into totally different lives than my own. This book depicts how shallow and self-centered some people can be when they have everything we think would make someone happy, but it doesn't. They live in a world all their own—removed from reality so they're making their own moral rules/excuses—and unfortunately it's the kids who suffer most, since they become just another one of their parents' accessories to be brought out then tossed aside as the mood strikes like a pair of Gucci flats. The book was a little bit of a downer at the end. I'll quote one reviewer who said that it shows how being skinny and having a lot of money doesn't make you happy.

And here I thought that was the American dream. :)

Albums

2007-03-20T17:22:00.000-04:00

Music has totally been on my mind lately. In fact, Keep On Keeping On keeps replaying in my mind.

Don't ask.

When I was listening to some tunes this week during work, I thought about some albums (yeah, definitely dating myself with this word) that have stood the test of time for me. So I made a list of my top ten favorite albums ... I mean ... CDs that I can still listen to all the way through and enjoy all the songs even today. I limited myself to stuff I listened to in high school and college so here goes in no particular order (drum roll please):

In Utero and Nevermind—Nirvana
Jagged Little Pill—Alanis Morissette
Pretty Hate Machine—Nine Inch Nails
Substance and Technique—New Order
Standing on the Beach (The Singles)—The Cure
Violent Femmes—Violent Femmes
License to Ill (sort of cheesy but fun) and Paul's Boutique—Beastie Boys (though I pretty much love all their music)
The Best of the Doors—The Doors (okay, so it's a compliation, but it got me hooked on their music)
Sergeant Peppers—The Beatles
Core—Stone Temple Pilots

Runners up included Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, Stand By Me soundtrack, Houses of the Holy, Superunknown (Soundgarden), Danzig II: Lucifuge, Mother's Milk (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Sublime, and Tragic Kingdom (No Doubt)—though, to be fair, I think the last two came out after I left college.

Any album ... I mean ... CDs are your all-time favs?

Weekend Blur

2007-03-19T17:27:00.000-04:00

Total blur of a weekend. Was going ever since Friday, but with lots of fun stuffs. Watched Casino Royale again over a friend's house. Love, love the movie. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a mega-Bond fan. And Daniel Craig did an excellent job. In fact, I bought the movie so I can watch again and again ...

Saw 300 on Sunday night. Definitely a movie to see on the big screen. Thought it was very well done. Loved the look and feel of it. Funny that so many people panned it and called it violent. Hello ... it's a war movie. It's not happy-fun-Bunny-hops-through-forest kind of story. If you want that, rent Disney. But, honestly, maybe I'm getting a little jaded when it comes to violence. Scary. Anyway, I kept joking with my friend because in a review I'd read, it had mentioned how lots of women were giving the movie great feedback. The writer attributed it to the strong Queen Gorgo, Leonidas's wife, who was a really wonderful, kick-butt female lead. Ummm ... hmmm ... I guess it couldn't have been because of the great legs, chiseled abs, and fine displays of masculinity that took up the screen about 95% of the time. I asked my friend, "there were women in the film? Huh, I didn't really notice ..". :P

If you aren't familiar with the story, it's of the Spartan army of 300 which were able to hold back thousands of Persians from entering farther into Greece. It's based on a true story of the Battle of Thermopylae and is amazing how this small group, through ingenius war tactics and just great stamina and strength, could defeat so many soldiers. Definitely an inspiring tale of those who would give up their lives to save their country and freedom from conquerors. King Leonidas knew he was going to certain death to fight this battle so he only took 300 soldiers who had sons left at home to care and provide for their wives. According to Herodotus, Leonidas' wife Gorgo asked him what she should do when he was gone. He responded "marry a good man, bear good children, and live a good life."

Kind of sad ... isn't it?

Life Soundtrack

2007-03-16T09:43:00.000-04:00

Every story that I write has a soundtrack or at least one song that plays in my head costantly as I write or while I'm thinking of scenes. I can't listen to anything, let alone music, while I'm writing. I'm sort of like Jack from The Shining, when you hear me clicking on the keyboard leave me the hell alone.

Most of the time, the song that sticks with me while I'm writing embodies the overall theme. Such as for Dark Earth, I kept listening to (and replaying in my mind) the Rolling Stones You Can't Always Get What You Want.In fact, one of my characters references it in the story. My last story had Nine Inch Nails and some Danzig tones. My superheroes one hasn't hit me, yet. However, my alternative time travel story—the one that keeps needling me despite my best efforts to suppress it—has Alanis's You Oughta Know and Psychedelic Furs Pretty in Pink. How these tunes work into a timetravel romance set in the Middle Ages, well, you just have to read it to find out. Hopefully, within the next year I'll have that one done. Ack!

Soundtracks are important to set the scene and mood for stories, especially movies. Tarentino soundtracks are some of the best out there. I have several of them. A friend of mine who writes scripts, creates his own soundtracks for his stories. Sometimes he even composes his own music to set the mood. Whenever I read over his scripts he burns a CD of the music and tells me to listen to it as I read.

This got me thinking about what would be the soundtrack for my life? What songs inspired me or touched me throughout my life somehow? What music resounded with that time in my life so when I listen to it I'm transported to what it felt like to be that age again?

So here's mine:

Elementary School: My mom and grandmother contstantly had the oldies station on, so I grew up listening to sounds from the 40s-60s, especially Motown. Also, lots of Broadway tunes. My early years would play out something like this:

Respect, Aretha Franklin
Hit the Road Jack, Ray Charles
Bernies Tune (I have no idea who sang this but it was old)
Rockin Robin
Grease soundtrack (my friend Christina had blonde hair so she always got to be Sandy and I had to be everyone else ... no comment)
Physical, Oliva Newton-John (she was the coolest!)
Tide is High, Blondie

Middle School: Okay, so I didn't have the greatest tastes in Middle School but I was feeling my way around music to see what I liked.

Thriller, Michael Jackson (I listened to this album over and over and over again.)
Another One Bites the Dust, Queen
Micky, Toni Basil
California Girls and Just a Giggolo, David Lee Roth (My friends and I entered a talent show in 7th grade where we sang California Boys. I changed the lyrics to read "I dig those OP shorts, I'm wide-eyed for ... " Yes, I was a dork.)
Here We Go Again, White Snake
Manic Monday and Walk Like an Egyptian, The Bangles
Goodbye to Romance, Ozzy Osbourne (I was cynical at a young age.)
Stand By Me sountrack (because you never have the same kind of friendships as you did in the 8th grade)
Cum on Feel the Noize, Quiet Riot

High School: I started breaking out of the mold in high school and listening to some different tunes and hanging with a different crowd. I found I liked boys who were more alternative (skaters, sufers, club guys) than the "grits" (metal heads) as my neighborhood friends dated, so I was a bit of an outcast. But I really came into my love of classic rock during this period.

Strangelove, Depeche Mode
Bizarre Love Triangle, New Order
Dreaming, OMD
People are Strange, The Doors (and Echo and the Bunnymen cover)
With a Little Help from My Friends, The Beatles
Brass Monkey, The Beastie Boys
Dancing with Myself, Billy Idol
Standing on the Beach, The Cure
Blister in the Sun, Violent Femmes
Joy and Pain, Rob Base and DJ Easy Rock
Paid in Full, Eric B. and Rakim
Down in It, Nine Inch Nails
Rock and Roll, Led Zeppelin
Epic, Faith No More

College was pretty much a mix of the Grunge scene for me which started when I was in my last year of high school. Well ... it hit my area around that time, but I know it started way before that. Those years embodied a lot of the above plus Nirvana, STP, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden as well as lots and lots of club music and acid rock like Lords of Acid. That's when I started going to Raves and hitting the club scene. Ahhh ... to be young again.

Did you ever give a thought to what your life's soundtrack would be like?

Arrrgghhhh!

2007-03-09T10:55:00.000-05:00

I have time to write. I'm in between jobs with a tsunami of work threating me on the horizon. Next week will probably be busy if everything hits like it's threatening. I have all day today and had part of the day yesterday to write and begin my new story. So why am I staring at a blank screen? Whay am I reading over old stories for inspiration? Why did I last night read the first couple chapters of Pride and Prejudice so I could get to the part where Darcy realizes he's fallen in love with Elizabeth? I'm avoiding like a plague writing. I'm angry, frustrated, about to tear out my hair. I'm considering two stories to write. I want to do my superheroes story. I know this will be fairly fast because not too much research is involved. But I really want to work on my timetravel but I'll have to devote mega-time to researching England in the Middle Ages. Arrggghh!!!!

Good news on Dark Earth. I heard from two critque partners who are enjoying the new story. One of them had read it in one sitting when she had planned to read it over the course of a few weeks. The best compliment someone can give on your writing. I guess I'm also dreading all the edits to Dark Earth that will have to be done before I can send it off. I'm so close and can see the finish line, but there's a lot of boulders still in my way and I'm not looking forward to climbing them and skinning my knees and bruising my body anymore. But that's the sacrifices we all make to write. The internal knocks and scrapes and cuts from traversing the rough terrain on the way to a completed story and, fingers crossed, publication.

Maybe that's why I'm avoiding the new story. I've been down this path before and already I'm encountering pitfalls and alligators. My husband liked the first person narrative rather than the third person I'm doing for the superheroes tale. I guess that's the other issue. I need to decide what I think will work best before I start. And I'm a Libra. Indecision is our biggest hurdle to overcome and mine is blocking the whole path and I can't see the top of it to figure out how to climb it.

I'm hopeless. Completely hopeless.

What If

2007-03-08T08:43:00.000-05:00

I have some non-writer friends who always ask how I get my ideas. Mostly, my friends see me as a friendly, unassuming person and don't understand why I write such dark stories. I know most writers cringe when they get asked this question or just say the ideas come to them. For me, story ideas occur to me in two ways: dreams and "what if" scenarios. I have really vivid, sometimes scary and sometimes weird dreams. I've kept a dream journal and some dreams have morphed into stories. The second "what if" scenario comes out of boredom or just strikes me at any given time. I could be in the bowling alley and wonder: What if a head rolled up from the return ball shute? What if a body was set up at the end of the lane instead of pins? What if the world disappeared outside leaving behind those in the bowling alley? How would they react? What kind of characters would I have?

What if you were channelling actual people when you were writing? And somehow you controlled their lives with every click of the keyboard? That's the premise behind Stranger Than Fiction starring Will Farrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, and Queen Latifah. Harold keeps hearing a female voice describing his actions and thoughts, then dictating what is going to happen next with an ominous prediction of his "imminent" death. Hoffman tries to help Farrell by deciphering whether he's in a comedy or a tragedy because that will determine whether he will, in fact, die. It is a unique premise and one that is pulled off with no need for explaining why this had happened to Harold and having the other characters come to accept it without much convincing. In one scene, Karen (Thompson), who is notorious for killing all her heroes and heroines in the end, bemoans "how many real people have I killed?" One of my favorite scenes, as a writer, is Karen sitting with her frustrated assistant Penny (Latifah) near a bridge in the pouring rain. Penny asked why Karen is not inside writing, but Karen replies that is working on her story. She's visualizing her next scene wondering how to kill her hero and if the bridge would work. So she sits there and stares at the bridge, playing out scenarios in her mind and wondering what if ...

Go rent Stranger than Fiction. Maybe it'll start your mind wondering "what if."

So there you have it. Where my ideas come from. The only problem is that usually I come up with the scene first then work the characters in later. That's what happened with my latest superheroes story. My husband trashed the first few pages as being irrelevant and not sucking him in. So back to the drawing board to flush out my characters before I rewrite the scene. I need to get back to basics.

Movies

2007-03-06T09:05:00.000-05:00

I'm a big movie fan. I love to watch movies. I love the escape and picking apart scenes. Right now I'm mid-way through Story and it references several well-known movies which I've never seen. With my husband out of town again, I rented 4 movies, two of which were talked about in Story: Chinatown and Platoon. When I was reading the sample scene from Chinatown in Story, the third draft was dated literally on my birthday, October 9, 1973. Cool! While I was being born, a great story was coming to fruition. So, of course, I had to rent this. I'm midway through it right now. I began watching it after Heroes last night and have found that I can't stay up like a used to. Ugh! So I'll have to report what I've learned from this and the other movies that I rented during my bachlorette week. However, I did see two awesome movies this weekend: The Departed and Stranger Than Fiction. I'll talk about The Departed in this blog.

The Departed: Gangster movies always fascinate me. Maybe it's the tough personas. The gritty action scenes. The psychology behind what it would take for someone to choose that way of life. To not give a damn about killing someone if it means securing your business and lifestyle. This movie chronicles two cops Billy Costigan (DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Damon) as they work to take down Irish mob boss Frank Costello (played with fiendish delight by Nicholson). The conflict is set up at the very beginning when we are shown that clean-cut Sullivan is the double-agent groomed by Costello to be a cop, who has risen through the ranks to work on the state police's force trying to build a case against Costello. Costigan is a kid from a family of low-level thugs and thieves, who's trying to do the right thing by joing the police force. Because of his family's criminal background and links to Costello, Costigan is asked to infiltrate Costello's gang by becoming a member and reporting back to the police on his actions. Sullivan knows the police have rats planted inside Costello's gang but only the captain and his partner know their identities and are refusing to share them because they know there is a mole planted on their police force. The beauty of this movie is the psychological impact of each character's choices and their job. Costigan is driven to almost over the edge by trying to do the right thing as a cop, yet go along with Costello's crimes to stay close and keep up his thug appearance, all the while knowing that it's a matter of time before they realize he's a rat. Sullivan is under pressure from Costello to find out the names of the rats and is fighting to keep his boy scout persona, but this duplexity is causing him to unravel emotionally and physically (he can't perform for his girlfriend). Add to it that Costello knows there are rats in his group, so he becomes paranoid, not knowing whom he can trust. This is the set up for the movie in the very beginning. With f-bombs dropping and disturbing violence mixed into this tense bizarre crime triangle, Scorsese delivers a movie that keeps you on the edge until the very last bullet is shot.

Side of Pulp Please

2007-03-03T16:28:00.000-05:00

I love Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Love their movies. Love the soundtracks, a great mixture of old and odd tracks which really set the feel of his movies (I have Kill Bill Vol. 1 in my car). Just love the mixture of camp with a modern twist, though sometimes I think that I'm a little twisted for really enjoying their movies which tend to be ... oh ... a smidge violent. My husband doesn't like the dialogue in Tarantino movies but I love that the best. It's fun. It's different. It's on the edge. Yeah, sometimes it's stuff that no one would say. But most of it is normal conversation boiled down to the bare minimum and put in a scene which is anything but normal (take the foot massage conversation in Pulp Fiction or Mr. Pink's monologue on how he doesn't tip). The latest movie is Grindhouse coming out on April 6. Its actually two movies in one: Planet Terror (Rodriguez) and Death Proof (Tarantino). Totally gritty look and feel. And the best part ... Rose McGowan is an amputee missing a leg which she replaces with a machinegun and proceeds to blow everyone away. How cool is that!?!

Yes, I'm a total dork.

If I could be in any movie, I'd love to be in a Tarantino film or be a James Bond girl. Ah, to have a pipe dream. Anyone have a favorite director? Anyone wish they could be in certain movies?

Kill Bill favorite quotes:

O-Ren Ishii: You didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did you?
The Bride: You know, for a second there, yeah, I kinda did.
O-Ren Ishii: Silly rabbit. Trix are for kids.

_____

The Bride: As I said before, I've allowed you to keep your wicked life for two reasons. And the second reason is so you can tell him in person everything that happened here tonight. I want him to witness the extent of my mercy by witnessing your deformed body. I want you to tell him all the information you just told me. I want him to know what I know. I want him to know I want him to know. And I want them all to know they'll all soon be as dead as O-Ren.

What Now?

2007-02-26T10:04:00.000-05:00

This week and the previous, I've been in between writing projects. I finished up Dark Earth and sent it out to be reviewed by my critique partners. Now I'm like ... hmmm .. what now? I've started the superhero romance story and I'm excited by the first chapter. But I'm taking this time to do some research and I'm finishing up Story by Robert McKee, which I highly recommend any writer read no matter what your level. Definitely puts things in perspective and if you're stuck in writing your story, it'll help you find out what's wrong and needs to be improved. I have an idea of what happens to my two main characters but I still need to flush it out by doing research. My hero is an archeologist (think Indiana Jones my first real crush ... ahhh), so I want to do some research into ancient civilizations and myths and legends.

I'm going to upload an excerpt from Dark Earth in this coming week and edit one of my short stories to put up as well. Miss Snark talked about how she likes to see excerpts on the site of writers in whom she's interested, so I thought it was a good idea.

I only saw two of the movies up for Oscar but I definitely want to see The Queen and The Departed. I love Martin Scorsese!!!! I'm so happy he finally got an Oscar. And kudos to Jennifer Hudson and landing an Oscar for her debut role. She deserved it. Here's a link to the Oscar winners.

Weird Baltimoreans

2007-02-19T11:19:00.000-05:00

Another proof that no idea is totally original. You just got to get it out there first—or do it in a unique way. I was reading in the Romantic Times Book Reviews about a heroine who can kill using her mind. Ugh! That's my main heroine's ability. Did I think I was being unique? No. It's been done before: X-Men, Scanners, Carrie. But gosh darn it, I never saw it in a Romance book. At least not to my knowledge. Though the story was different from mine, so I believe that mine's unique enough to stand on its own. It can be so disconcerting to see all those books out there and wonder how the hell I can break into the biz with so much competition. But people do it all the time. It just takes awhile. There's a market for everyting. And with talent and determination, anyone can make it.

So I keep telling myself.

Anyway, Sybir got me hooked on this cyber "me" site (www.meez.com). I spent about 30 minutes doing this less-than-productive thing this morning. Why am I avoiding work? I played all weekend, so now it's time to get down to business but I just can't concentrate. Anyway, here's cyberspace me:

Also, I read a great article about my fellow Baltimoreans in a magazine called The Urbanite. The author talked about the strange people living on her city bock. Particularly, one older woman who would throw water into open car windows as people sped down her street. Ahhh ... leave it to a Baltimoreans to wait on their stoop all day for just that chance to soak a speeder. In the last paragraph, the author quoted John Waters, who lives and has set most of his movies in Baltimore. Someone asked why he had never moved to LA or New York but stayed in Baltimore. He said,

"New Yorkers are weird, and they know it. Baltimoreans are weird, and they have no idea."

I love it! When I think back to all the colorful characters who used to grace the doorway of the East Baltimore Guide (my first job) all I can say is "so true, so true." Especially when I remember the man who announced with great sincerity to all of us working that he had an awesome idea to sell used matresses. I kid you not. He was serious and he wanted to begin adverstising his matresses that day in our newspaper.

Now to get some work done ...

Moving Right Along

2007-02-18T17:28:00.000-05:00

Been a fun week despite the snow.

Saw Wicked . Awesome! Acting was superb. Singing was phenomenal. Only problem was that I had read the book and the play is sooooo different than the book. I had read the book over a year ago so I didn't remember what was in the book and what wasn't. The whole time I was like, "Did that happen in the book? Who is that character? Where is so and so?" I should've taken it as a totally separate story and not tried to compare. Would've enjoyed the story much better. However, Victoria Matlock (Elphaba) and Christina DeCicco (Glinda) totally rocked. They had wonderful voices and really gave life to the characters.
Saw Dreamgirls. Loved it! Jennifer Hudson is absolutely amazing. Stole the whole movie. And to think that she had no prior movie experience before this is just astonishing. Her voice, attitude, and look reminded me of a young Aretha Franklin. (I grew up listening to Motown as a child and love all those old singers. They had so much soul.) Music was awesome. I kept wanting to jump up and dance in the theater. I'm buying the soundtrack this week. Hudson deserves the Oscar nomination. This movie pulled me in from the beginning and really showed how great characters can drive a story. Go see it!!!!
Got the last of my first chapter edits done from my hubby. Yeah! Passed on the story to Sybir to begin reading in between the bazillion other projects she has going on. I am printing copies now to send to the Copyright office and my other critique partner in New York. Then I will send out a few other copies to some other critiquers who are interested in giving my story the old read through (and probably bloody it up a little in the process -- ugh!).
Met with Sybir and Melena, who is an event planner (corporate and private). We had a great discussion about how best to market our businesses. Learned so much. Awesome to be around such business-minded, kick-butt women! Very inspiring!
Going to begin work on new story. Have the first chapter down pat but not sure where it's heading. I'm going to read over my books on myths and folklore to plan what will happen.
Started using a small black book that Sybir had given me years ago for Christmas. I've been collecting thoughts, inspirations, and dreams in it to help cultivate writing ideas. I've been taking it everywhere I go. I can't tell you how many times I've been out and had a great idea but didn't write it down in time. Ugh!
Check out Claws in Creativity which Sybir has spearheaded. It is a site dedicated to all things creative: music, writing, art, and a slew of other articles to get your creative energies flowing. She's done a wonderful job pulling this site together and I'm happy to be a contributor. Yippee!!!

Now, back to writing!

Finding My Way

2007-02-13T08:46:00.000-05:00

This weekend I finished the rewrite on my first chapter. I don't feel a sense of imbalance when I read it anymore. Of course, I put it aside. I can't look at it again just yet. My hubby is reading over the first chapter for me before I send it out to critique partners. He's going away for ten days starting on Thursday for business and I'm so totally bummed. It wouldn't be bad if it was just a few days but we haven't been apart for more than five days in about six years. Ugh! Sure I'll get a lot done and make lots of headway on my latest story idea. Despite the fact that I'm an only child (used to playing alone) and I enjoy my time by myself, damn it, I'm going to miss him. When I think about all those military spouses separated for a year or more, it breaks my heart. I don't know how they do it.

He's taking my last five chapters with him to mark up on the plane. Next month when I receive other feedback from my critique partners, then I'll consolidate all my edits which will probably take me another month to do. IF, and this is a big IF, there's nothing majorly wrong with it. Fingers crossed. It is what it is.

For the past six months, I've been working for about two hours every morning on my writing before I began work. These past two days I've gotten up and wasn't sure what to do. Do I start on my superhero romance? I have one chapter written and I'd like to clean it up and send it off to a contest, just to get a feel for if it's right.

Okay, so that's what I'll do. Write through the superhero story and get a first draft done on that. Though I did have a really scary dream last night that woke me this morning and so disturbed me that I couldn't go back to sleep. I'll have to describe that in the next post. Very freaky...

Getting Things Done

2007-02-09T17:42:00.000-05:00

I've gone through all of my husband's edits. I was having lots of difficulty with the rewrite on the first chapter, but I made lots of progress on that this morning. Yeah! And the good news is that my weekend is totally free, so I will have the rewrite done by Monday. Yippee! I'm so excited.

On another note, I was reading an article in Self magazine at the gym when I just about dropped the magazine and swore allegiance to Rebecca Romijn. She said how frustrated she was at tabloids getting her weight wrong. Back in the early 1990s when she did the Sports Illustrator spread, she weighed 140 lbs! She said that a tabloid reported (in error, big surprise) that she had weighed about 120 lbs at the time. She's 5'11"! At 120 lbs, she would've been a stick. Just look at all those waifs on the runway now! She had gained weight during her hiatus from movies and television and the tabloids recently called her fat, but, as she said, "I looked like a normal woman." Unfortunately, in her business you need to stay lean, so she's back down to her normal Hollywood weight, which is not in the 120s. I wish more healthy actresses would come clean to what they really weigh. I get so frustrated with this whole weight issue and the media. I see so many women struggling with anorexia and young girls are constantly being fed the wrong information and believing that if they need to weigh around 110-120 or else they're fat. Ugh! It makes me so angry. I remember playing the Mortal Combat video game back in college. They had the stats for all the chacters (weight, height, ability) and the Sonya character was apparently 5'11" and 120 lbs. I was like WTF!!!! She can't kick ass or have anykind of muscles at that weight. Apparently, that's what the guys who designed it believe a lean woman should weigh. Argh!

Research

2007-02-06T13:40:00.000-05:00

One of the comments my husband, who loves science, made about my story is a quote where one character says that we only use a small portion of our brains.

Wrong!

He used a particularly large amount of ink to cross that statement out and drew a little frowny face by it. Okay, okay, so I got the point. But that's what I always remembered being told and hearing on TV and reading in the media. Of course, sometimes the media can be skewed. Especially when it comes to psychic abilities. The idea of only using a small portion of the brain definitely supports the probability that we could be way more advanced, psychically speaking, if we could tap into these unused sections.

I spent about two hours online this morning trying to figure out a plausible, scientific explanation of how my character got her abilities. Since my story is based more on science than the paranormal, I wanted to base it in some fact, considering that one of my characters is a scientist. I didn't need to go into major detail. But I needed to have a basic understanding so my character said the right things and noone would draw anymore frowny faces next to it. Hmph!

Snopes.com had a great article discrediting the 10% theory. Of course, this doesn't mean that psychic phenomena can't exist, but that there are different explanations for what could cause it. The Institute for Noetic Sciences is trying to use credible research to detect the potential powers of consciousness. They claim to have found people with the ability to heal from a distance, and people who acan pick up on stimuli placed outside a room in controlled quarters. It'll be interesting to read more about their findings. All this research just gives me more ideas for stories. I love it!

I found another website which greatly helped me called How Stuff Works. I was able to learn a lot about the brain and give me ideas about where my heroines psychic powers could stem. They have lots of information on the body as well as machines, heath care, computers, electronics, etc. I don't know what I'd do without the Internet.

Okay, back to trying to pull all this together.

Avoidance

2007-01-30T17:39:00.000-05:00

So maybe I've been avoiding blogging because I haven't gotten it right, yet. My rewrite on my first chapter. I got 5 pages written and keep wondering if that's where the scene is supposed to begin. Ugh! So I've resigned myself to making my husband's corrections to the latter part of the story until the first chapter comes back to me. Oh, I had it, but lost it somehow. Maybe it was the idea of rewriting—once again—that has my brain building up a wall of defense. So frustrating.

Well, I did go to the WRW workshop this past weekend on Voice. Kathleen Gilles Seidel gave the class and did an excellent job. She stressed writing about what fascinates us and we feel passionate about. We did a bunch of exercises based on questions like "what do you want to know more about" and "what places do you love and what matters most about them." Whenever someone answered, she tried to get the person to dig deeper. When we talked about things that had annoyed us this week, she asked that we reflect on why it made us angry. If someone cut us off in traffic, it's not just that they cut us off. There's a whole slew of issues like disrepect, taking our lives for granted, frightening us, etc., that are behind why we were upset by that action. They were great exercises and really helped people focus.

I ate lunch with some fellow writers and it felt good to talk shop with people who understand what I'm going through. I hope to see some of them again at the retreat. WRW is a wonderful group of writers!

Motivation

2007-01-23T10:57:00.000-05:00

And I'm not talking about my motivation to write and get this story finished. No, I'm more than motivated. In fact, I've had several sleepless nights because I'm obsessed with getting this right and I spent this past weekend working virtually the whole time on writing a more captivating beginning. Then Monday, I checked over what I wrote and ... bang ... I realized there's no flippin' way my characters would allow that to happen.

When I first wrote the beginning I had a vague idea of my characters. (I'm a pantser, so I don't plot it out beforehand, until I start getting deeper into the story.) It was like meeting someone at a party and having a 15 minute conversation. Based on the way they dress, speak, and carry themselves and on what kind of job they have, you start to formulate a personality for them. You start to assume what kind of person they are. Then the next time you meet them, they tell you something else about themselves that draws you into a deeper understand of who they really are. Maybe they aren't as superficial as you first thought. Maybe they aren't as together as you first believed. That's what happend with my characters. I got to know them better. And they were yelling at me loud and clear: "there's no way I'd do that."

After discussing it with Mike and waking up at 4 am with the new dialogue and scene running through my mind, I got it. I just have to write it. I guess this is why other authors have said, "don't get attached to your writing." Otherwise, you'd never scrap days of work when you know it just doesn't work. When I think about spending about 8 hours this weekend, working and reworking the beginning, it makes me totally depressed. But I needed to do it to get to this point. I needed to spend more time with my characters so they wouldn't be so ticked at me for making them do something they would never allow—something out of character. I was able to look at the scene anew and ask "What would motivate my characters to do that?"

I was a Golden Heart judge this year for RWA. Nearly every story I judged had the main flaw of character motivation. It can really put a damper on the story and turn good writing sour. Some of the stories had potential and the writing was decent. However, I couldn't believe that their characters would put themselves in those situations, and I couldn't buy the story. If a reader can't make the leap of faith that your characters will do X,Y,Z then they can't relate to them. And you lost your reader.

I know this will work. I have a nervous flittering my stomach—writer's intuition—that this is how it would really go down. I'm itching to write it. I can't wait to get my work out of the way so I can just concentrate on this scene and bang it out.

Wish me luck.

A Little Help From My Friends

2007-01-22T10:51:00.001-05:00

One of my goals this year is to once every two weeks touch base with one of my friends and check in. There are many with whom I talk on a weekly basis, but I have others in Baltimore (my hometown) and throughout the country whom I miss. It is tough when you live far from one another that you get so wrapped up in the here and now. Case in point, my friend Kristin.

She was a friend from college and we'd kept in touch for the past 10 years. Talking, e-mailing, sending letters at least once a year. We played phone tag at the end of last year. I kept getting caught up in life stuff and would forget to call back until weeks later and so on and so forth. Well, we finally got in touch last week, and she told me that she had cancer last year. I couldn't believe it. She was always so healthy. She even joked with me about how easy her pregnancies and deliveries were. (I asked if she'd carry my kids, whenever that happens, but I think her price is a little steep.) The cancer started in her tailbone and moved to her hip. By the time the doctors stopped giving her the runaround and claiming she was being neurotic because it was just arthritis or a slipped disk causing her pain, the cancer had spread to her right hip. She was fortunate that she only had to get part of it replaced. When they finally did x-rays (because they misdiagnosed her problem, they didn't believe she needed x-rays), they found spots on her lungs and on lymph nodes behind her intestines. She was out of work for months, endured chemo and physical therapy, and needed to walk with a cane. She's recovering now and her type of cancer responded well to chemo, so it's in remission.

Moral of the story: Make time for those you care about.

Yes, it's important for me to succeed in writing and my career. And I know time is an expensive commodity. But good friends and relationships are irreplaceable. I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for those who supported me and helped me believe in myself.

Fail and Fail Again Until You Succeed

2007-01-19T14:10:00.000-05:00

Last night Mike and I spent an amazing evening at the Baltimore School for the Arts. He is a member of YEO (young entrepreneurs organization), which is a tier down from the YPO (young professionals organization) who sponsored the "Be a Student" night. He was particularly excited because he had graduated from School for the Arts (for fine art) nearly 20 years ago. And I have to say that I have renewed respect for my husband after seeing the rigorous curriculum in which the students are challenged and thrive. The day is longer for these students than average high schoolers. It starts at 8:30 am and goes until 4:10 pm everyday. Plus, many of the students stay later to practice. These teenagers put me to shame with their dedication to their art. For those not familiar, BSFA is a public school that teaches fine art, dance, music (singing and instruments), and drama. (Think of the movie Fame.) Famous students that went to school with Mike are Jada Pinkett and Tupac Shakur (though he left midway through school).

Students performed for our group and I was blown away by their professionalism and talent. Two seniors performed an operatic piece that brought tears to my eyes. The dancers were so lean, yet muscular, and their moves were so fluid. It took my breath away. The dance class had started out with about 22 students. By the senior class, they were down to just 11 because of the intensity of the training. Mike had only 11 people in his entire graduating class. At the end of every year the students have to audition again either via portfolio (for art) or perform to be accepted again. Those who are not dedicated and have not advanced in their art are not allowed back. Plus, these students must retain good academic scores. Unbelievable!

Because Mike has done so well with his education, they want him to come back and speak to the students and even be part of their promotional film for the school. He was so excited to give back, since he attributes most of his success to that school.

When the dance instructor introduced her students, she explained how hard it was to make it at the school and she said,

"The students learn that they have to fail and fail and fail again before they can succeed."

If you want to learn more about the school check out this link. They really make a difference in so many people's lives. They are a state run school, so it is no tuition, enabling kids from all walks of life go there. But they rely on private donations for supplies and right now they are expanding the school.

Fun Time

2007-01-17T17:43:00.000-05:00

I've been making some headway on the first chapter rewrite. My husband is presenting his workshop on graphics tonight so I'll be home by myself and able to catch up on bunches of stuff.

I sent my retreat application for the WRW retreat in Harper's Ferry. I sent it overnight, so I should be good to go (fingers crossed), since slots fill up quickly. The very talented Karmela Johnson will be rooming with me. (I don't snore though I do take too long in the bathroom at times. It's hard to maintain my natural beauty. Ha!) It should be lots of fun and a great learning experience. My creative energy gets an extra zap whenever I'm around other people who share my love of writing. It is really inspiring. Plus, there will be editors and agents in attendance to which I hope to pitch Dark Earth. Yeah!

I wanted give a shout out to Sybir and also kick her butt (because I'm having trouble putting it down to do actual work) for recommending Kesley Cole's A Hunger Like No Other. Sexy from the very first chapter with an intensity in the hero that is hard to resist even if he's one of those controlling alpha males. The heroine at this point is not KB and is a self-admitted coward. But she's growing and coming into her own and by the end of the book (at least according to the summary) she's supposed to come into her own powers, so I can deal with her weakness. Plus, she's sarcastic at times, which I like. Cole has created a whole mythology of werewolves, vampires, demons, wraiths, ghouls, witches, even Valkyrie which is the first time I've ever seen them in a paranormal romance. They're maiden warriors who have cried out to the gods for courage with their dying breath and have been gifted with immortality by those gods for their courage. Really cool stuff. Totally wish I would've thought of that! But at least I get to enjoy reading it.

Okay, back to reading ... I mean ... back to work.

It Never Ends

2007-01-15T14:20:00.000-05:00

Even though I finally wrote the end to Dark Earth, does that mean I'm finished? As in put to bed, end of story, finis, yadda yadda?

Of course not.

Especially when your ending causes a backward ripple effect. So I'm reworking the beginning. Just the first chapter. I reread and, as others have suggested, it really needs to pull in the reader more. When I read my later chapters, there's much more urgency and flow to my story that's lost in the beginning. With that said, as I'm doing my husband's edits, I'm also doing a clean sweep and pruning extraneous descriptions. Hopefully, this will help as well.

Last night I was trying to read but my husband had on a comedian from Comedy Central. He was so hilarious that I couldn't tune him out. His name is Dimitri Martin. He is in the same vein as the late and great Mitch Hedberg. He does a lot of word play and quarky observational humor, which I absolutely love. The one that pulled me out of my book went something like this:

I was in a clothing store and this woman said to me, "My name is Jill, if you need anything." "Wow," I replied. "I never met someone with a conditional name before. What do I call you if I don't need anything?"

Now, back to work! No more TV tonight. Ugh!

Revisions, Revisions

2007-01-13T09:58:00.000-05:00

Well, my husband read over the last section of the book and found a few things. Nothing major like scrap the whole thing (thank God!), but just questions concerning charcter actions and, since he's a science buff, a few suggestions about how to deal with the more ... well ... scientific aspects of the story. Overall he really loved it. And it was a compliment to me that he read half the story in just two days, since he doesn't read fiction stories and is a slow reader. I tried to make the story fast paced and I suceeded in that regard. I'll take this next week to make his corrections then it's off to make the rounds to my other readers. I've learned a lot with writing this story and I'm certain my next one will be even better for it.

Also, I need to stop watching so much damn TV. Especially that reality crap! When I was PMS-ing this week and knocked down with cramps, I watched a show call High Maintenance 90210. If I ever have my portrait painted on the bottom of my pool (when I get a pool), my friends have permission to thoroughly slap me. Favorite reality clip quote:

"Don't you interrupt my prayers or else God may direct me to whoop your ass."

Ah, why am I writing fiction?

Writing Goals

2007-01-10T20:52:00.000-05:00

So the New Year has me starting a new goals' list. I accomplished most on my list last year, so I'm hoping for at least a grand slam on this year's.

1. Finish polishing Dark Earth and start making the rounds with agents and editors.
2. Finish my second WIP which is a superhero romance. Should be a lot of fun.
3. Catch up on my reading. Start with at least one book every two weeks. (I'm not a fast reader.)
4. Sell the rest of my husband's Billion Dollar Graphics books in inventory. We've sold about half already which is a phenomenal feat since we have a zero marketing budget.
5. Attend at least 4 workshops this year given by my local RWA chapter and attend at least one writer's conference.
6. Make time for Nano this year.
7. Don't give up on my dream of being a published writer.

I have a more thorough list but it contains boring stuffs like lose 10 more lbs by end of year. (Thanks to Sybir's inspiration I lost the 10 from last year and been able to keep it off. Yeah!)

Anyone else have a goal's list? Remember to keep it posted where you can see it constantly and know if you're on track. Last year was the first time I'd ever written down my goals. It was like having directions to a place I've never been before. I could keep my focus on the road and not worry about getting lost.