 Have you ever asked yourself what superhero you would be and why?
Sure you have. I have. I always wanted to be Wonderwoman in those dead sexy hotpants, or Storm from X-Men and able to control the weather.
Why is it part of human nature to wish for things that are beyond our scope of abilities? Who first thought so out of the box that they were most likely branded a heretic or lunatic? Why did that outside of the box thinking sometimes stir civilizations, create rulers of Gods, and sweep the globe with religions?
All these questions are rhetorical, unanswerable, but help give a tiny bit of insight. To our ancestors, Superheros were people like Moses and Buddha, Ra and Horus, Cleopatra and Marc Antony. Did they do anything spectacular, sure, were they loved and hated, revered and disdained...yep. Now bring back our modern concept of the Superhero, and think hard.
I'm betting 9 out of 10 the Superheros are from a world far from ours. Okay, cool. That means the Superhero thought coming to Earth and saving it was worth the trouble. By that reasoning, are we humans trying to convince ourselves that we are worthy of such attention? Sure. Sounds reasonable...but if we have to try to convince ourselves then does that mean that there is a tiny squiggle of doubt in our psyches?
I love a good Superhero story or movie as well as anyone, and I did go see The Avengers. Twice. The second time around we had our kids with us too and to be honest, they were bored until the final battle scene. They didn't get that much of the movie wasn't about battling outside forces of evil, but inner demons that threatened to rip The Avengers apart due to ego and self importance. They got over themselves and gave humanity a great battle to show that yes, we simple humans are worth it. Of course, halfway through a scene near the end that was particularly quiet, my six year old jumped up from his seat and growled at the top of his lungs "HULK SMASH!". We laughed so hard that tears blurred the ending scenes...all because my six year old had declared spectacularly who his favorite Superhero was.
Superheros and humanity go hand in hand, ask any child, or heck any adult. In years of trial and suffering people need to escape from grim reality and believe in something. Superheros will always be around, in books, in film, in world leaders, in the everyday human being.
Now if I could fit into those hotpants....
Hi all! I am finally in the home stretch of my wip/redo! I'm up to about 67k words now, and just starting the final chapter or two. I'm taking this last bit slowly, taking the time to make the words come out how I want them. I am excited, giggly, and since I'm taking the night off of writing...I'm going to game.
Yep, I am a gamer too. Admitting that is hard, but it's the one non writing stress reliever I have from kids, work, writing, etc. Now, I don't game much. I am a seriously casual player and hop onto SwTor or Rift only once or twice a week.
For those who've followed me over the months, you know that I also write fanfic for Rift (yes, I've been trying to schmoozle my way into getting a writing job at Trion...nothing yet, dangit) once a week that is very popular. I also use the fanfic writing as stress relief and warm up for the big stuff. And no, I won't ever try to push my fanfic as anything but and it will always be free on my site...it is just for fun and always will be.
Now that you know my dirty secret...what's yours? What do you do on the side that you'd have a hard time admitting to the public (so don't want TMI stuff about the bedroom please xD) and why do you do it? Do you run marathons or obsessively dye your hair? Knit?
If so you aren't the only one and you should enjoy every second of your hobbies!  RSS Feed
In the last few days I've been reading more than writing (pinched nerve and carpal tunnel syndrome, ugh.) and I've taken to window shopping at Amazon or Goodreads to find books that I would like. I've got my own taste when it comes to YA...paranormal and fantasy...but after looking at so many similar themes over dozens of books I've begun to wonder if readers are tired of it yet.
I loved a certain vampire/werewolf series that will go unnamed, but within the last week or so, every time I see something to do with vampires or werewolves, I want to barf (no offense to any of those authors, to each their own, and I am a fan of a few select books). Am I the only one tired of that set of themes?
I have however found a few that have a great, fresh take on paranormal and fantasy and I actually read 2 books in a series, completely read, in one night because it was something I hadn't seen before splashed all over the place. It was interesting, unique, it caught my attention and was good. I'll be adding them to my Recommended page this weekend for sure.
Speaking of which, if you look at my Recommended page, you can probably see a theme I tend to follow, the certain type of paranormal/fantasy that I like. There are other books not of that theme, of course!
What is your reading theme? What keeps you turning the page and why? Are you bored of reading something just because it got popular?
Hi all! Okay, my blogging skills have gone downhill this month. I blame it on...well, nothing. I just haven't been in a bloggy mood for several weeks, so I thought I'd give updates on what is happening in my world.
First of all, I have my redo/WIP up to about 64k, which is waaay up from my original end word count of 50k. The redo (switching POV for the entire novel) has gone brilliantly so far and I am in love with my novel. Of course I hope others love it too when it does get published, but I still have a good 10k more to write to meet my updated wordcount goal.
Now, on top of this I have switched day jobs. I'm still in a rather mundane office job, as a temp, but this one is less boring than the other, though it gives no time for Post-It Plotting. What was cool was that I had the exact time between jobs as my kids had on Spring Break. Booyah!
I have also been reading. TONS. I think I've finished about a book every other day and am just loving the current YA fantasy/paranormal genre's offerings. I've tried to keep my Recommended tab updated but I'm still a half dozen books behind! That and I'm so not sure how to fit that many book titles and their pics on the page...I already moved and squeezed it about...but more will have to fit soon!
On that note, can anyone recommend any good YA Fantasy/paranormal books for me to add to my collection? I love picking up books by word of mouth!
Hi All! Sorry I haven't blogged in...forever...but these last few weeks have been tough. My grandmother passed away in early March as I wrote earlier, but a few other things have gone down to make me want to take a breather from ...everything.
Most of it is drama, and drama I can do without, but to make a long rant short the first issue is my sons little league team. The coach told my husband, in front of our son, that he'd benched my son because "he wanted the good players out there"...which of course pissed us off. Not a few minutes earlier the coach's son had said that same sentiment to my son, so it was clear who he was hearing that concept from. Needless to say we are pissed and may remove our son from the team. Not sure yet.
Second, I had been at a temp. job for nearly 2 years and told it was temp to hire, so I waited patiently. Hiring finally happened, without me, as six positions were opened, and six filled, but I was the "magical" seventh person. It didn't seem to matter that I had been there many months longer than all but 1 person and I had never had a performance or personal problem with anyone. Needless to say I quit and requested a new temp job because apparently no one but me valued my skills.
So, yes these two issues are a matter of self worth and in this economy was removing myself from the job a good idea...probably not, but for my sanity and dignity, it was all I could do. As for my son, there is so much tension between us and the coach that we are still undecided. We certainly value his skills as a player more than the coach does, and he knows he is a good player. But we will let him choose to stay or go.
Hi all! Sorry this has been a blog post long in coming...I've had a rough few weeks with the death of my Grandmother and to be honest...I haven't felt like blogging about it, or anything much at all.
I spent a lot of those days blurring through work and the nights hanging out with my kids and husband. After the kids went to bed I read a lot. And wrote. My thoughts hovered often on my Grandmother of course and the whole circle of life thing.
Thinking about her made me realize how much I missed her and wished I could've been able to talk to her more. For the last ten years she'd been in a Home suffering from Alzheimers and mostly sleeping her days away. My mother was her primary caretaker...she'd go see her every other day and on the weekends I would see her alternately with my aunts. Ten years of watching her fade a little more each day was hard.
But then I'd think about the good days, from when my brother and I were children, when my Grandmother was younger and my Grandfather was still alive. The memories are vivid, short bursts...driving through the nearby cemetary to study the old headstones and watch the huge squirrels scamper. Going fishing with my Grandfather and watching my Grandmother roll her eyes at him at his excited bellowing. Watching my Grandmother cover her eyes in terror each time Grandpa drove on the freeway (she never learned how to drive at all, scared her to death). And finally she and I sneaking "trashy romance" novels from her secret stash to read together in the recliner while Grandpa and my brother were out doing boy stuff.
She always told me to hide them from my mom, that my mom wouldn't approve. I'd giggle and we'd stuff them under cushions when mom would showed up after work on the weekends. I don't think she ever knew about those novels until I was in my late teens. It was a secret my Grandmother and I shared.
I still have that very fist novel she showed me. It's sitting on my bookcase in a place of honor. I read it at least once a year. For her.
Hi all! I had an epiphany today. It was weird because I was at work, doing mundane things that let my brain do important things like plot edits for my WIP, when I thought back to the last few books I'd read and why I adored them. (Now, most of these books have yet to join my "Recommended" page, but they will this weekend)
I puzzled over the idea of why I personally preferred YA books to "adult" or "grownup" books and the answer that came to mind floored me.
I love YA because the characters are honest. Now, this isn't necessarily the kind of honesty that prevents characters from shoplifting, or cheating on boyfriends, or whatnot, but the utter, totally soul bare honesty of being a teenager in a big world and trying to make heads or tails of a confusing, sometimes mean world.
This applies for paranormal/fantasy/contemporary...heck any YA genre...because at the heart of the characters, any of them, they are doing what they believe they can to exist, to flourish, to survive, to love, to fit in, and overcome.
Think to any YA novel you've read and study the main characters. What do they do to show their honesty, the proof that they are young, unsure, fallible? Being that unsure, fallible...is honesty that few grownup books have the luxury of showing. The grownups have their responsibilities...their jobs, their lovers, their parties, their crimes to commit, their wives to cheat on, their money, their cars...their lack of innocence and honesty.
What YA books show this?
I could name hundreds of those I've personally read, but for example Seeds of Discovery by Breeana Puttroff, shows us a main character who admits to herself that she is practically stalking a boy who seems to have a secret. Her reason for doing so is valid in her mind because she nearly hit him with her car and wondered about his oddly clandestine activities.
I won't go into more detail, you will just have to read that amazing book and it's sequel. Now, do you see what I see? The main character is honest about her actions, her thoughts, uncertainties, and feelings, and I as a reader get it, sympathize with it, and agree with her reasoning and actions...not because they are creepy and weird, but because she is honest about it!
What YA books do you see this in? Is this honesty missing from any books you can think of? If so, why?
I've been noticing that many people who consider themselves Gamers also consider themselves Writers in one fashion or another. So this got me thinking, what about gaming lures people to writing? Or is it vice versa? I don't even think it matters what kind of games, or what kind of writing, even if it's only blogging or writing Fan Fic.
I consider myself a Writer first, Gamer second, since I only game to A) hang out with my hubby and 2 other amazing RL friends(the four of us star in The Youngest Ascended), B) use it to inspire me to write (an amazing way to help with visualizing your characters btw!), and C) to find a hobby away from writing so that I can destress and find my inner muse again. That said, I honestly don't game much, maybe a few hours a week, but I do fall into the previously mentioned categories that puzzled me.
Why do you think Gamers write and Writers game?Of course, not all Gamers write and Writers game, so why do you NOT do both if you fall in this category?
Over the last few days I've been slowly, but steadily, revamping my WIP The Unknown Sun by converting it from third person POV to first. It took me a long time to figure out why third person wasn't clicking for me, and then one day it did.
It was the characters' personalities themselves. Now, I love all three of my main characters, and I've written down their personality traits, loves, hates, wishes, etc. I thought this would be enough impetus, depth, to give me enough of a comfort level to be able to hop into their heads and take on their personalities.
It was easy at first while rushing through Nanowrimo and not worrying about being 100% perfect, after all the point of Nano wasn't to have a perfect draft, but to have one, period. I did that and I loved the story that flowed from my fingers and onto the page (but not, if anyone remembers, the title or synopsis...they just didn't do the depth of the plot justice).
I even began editing/revising and fixing those cringe worthy typos and grammar mistakes. In doing so I began to realize just how unfocused the story's "voice" was and it took me another few weeks to realize that three voices, three characters to head hop in, were too many. So I redid the entire first chapter in one character's voice, in first person POV, and it just...worked. So why would this huge switch make such a big deal, what about their personalities, their motivations, the plot, make such a huge difference?
It was the characters themselves. They all but told me, humbly, that I needed to focus on the one character because her voice was the smallest and would have the greatest impact on the entire story overall.
What about her though and why? First of all she is the exact opposite of me. She is a challenge to write and that is the kind of challenge I rise up to. Her story is not a pretty one, not the fun and flowers, Daddy's Princess childhood, while mine was almost that and I got to do things, albeit my own way (Never was a fan of overly girly things...I used to catch snakes out in the fields and stuff them into canning jars to show my parents proudly, rode motorcycles, and pretty much flunked out of Ballet.) So by being my polar opposite I felt I knew her even better.
I kept her character sheet the same, but with the first person angle I began to get to know her, almost as if she was writing the words, just using my fingers to translate them down onto the page. Did she have moments that startled me, quirks? Heck yeah. I'd even sit after writing a section and wonder just how she managed to possess my fingers and delve deeper into who she was without me consciously planning to write it that way.
Now, what about the other main characters? Would they be shoved into lesser importance by focusing on her? Or would her POV give them the needed impetus to be better characters, to show not just the reader who will eventually read the book, but me the writer, parts of their personalities, their stories? Would being filtered through her make them more lovable, more frustrating, more brave, more sad, more honest (I say honest with a hitch, not that they'd be dishonest characters, but honest with themselves and their feelings, their beliefs)?
I have come to love these characters and while their personalities haven't changed, the ability to express, to show them, to push me to write them better, has.
...but should I tell you, the reader?
Or should it be kept a secret?
I have been debating this for a while now with the advent of my WIP revisions, which in the end, included more information in the summary on its page here on my site, than I had originally included.
First of all, writers and authors, I will say this now...NEVER hold back the plot details/secrets/twisties from your agents and editors. They won't thank you for it and it won't help you sell the concept to them.
But what about selling the concept to the audience, the reader? Do they need to know everything before they open the book? Or should they stumble onto the twisty, secretive plothole (I made that up...might add it to the Urban Dictionary!) where something completely unexpected happens or is revealed?
This is partially why I've decided to completely rewrite my current WIP and rename it, for clarity and openness. I hadn't wanted give up the deep, dark secrets in my summary on the site, but no matter how I tried to work out the words, the summary was just not doing the story justice and was seriously pissing me off. So I totally trashed the summary and redid it, reflecting the story's new title and POV, and including the juicy secrets.
Will I include these on the back cover when it is published one day? I don't know. Do I want my readers intrigued and wanting to keep reading to find out what is going on? Yes, so in a sense I am still torn on just how much of the secrets to lay out to the public out of fear that if they read it on the back cover they'll just put it down. After all, the reader has to journey with the characters to reach the conclusion, and how much fun is it if you as a reader already know what is going to happen?
What do you think? What is your stance on secretive plots or openness? I'd love to hear your opinions!
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