Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘life’

Sugar Cookies Deadly? You Bet Ya

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 16, 2011| 2 Comments »


I love sugar cookies, by far they are my favorite. Other cookies lean on chocolate, nuts, candies and heaven forbid raisins. Raisins? Are you kidding me? If I wanted healthy, I’d eat bran cereal. Sugar cookies are plain goodness, leaning on nothing but pure butter and sugar. So how can the sugary food of the gods or goddess, if you’re Madison, turn deadly?

My next two chapters are sugar cookies, pure easy goodness. So you’d think good, right? WRONG! These chapters are too easy, too boring. There are no candy daggers flying around, no cursed chocolate to choke on, and no pecans to make your skin crawl. 

This book was finished. I had only minor polishing left. It’s supposed to be editor ready! Instead, I find myself searching for every possible disaster that could occur.

I’m afraid it’s time to throw the dreaded raisin and oatmeal into the mix. Could there be anything worse?

Read Full Post »

What Makes Richelle Mead Rock?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »


How does Richelle hook us? I pulled a few of her books from my shelf and began reading.  I confess I got so caught up in the story, I forgot to analysis anything. So all I can report on is great first lines. She captures some unusual idea or activity.

Here’s some examples from her novels.

I didn’t think my day could get any worse until my best friend told me she might be going crazy. Again. – Frostbite

I wish the guy on top of me would hurry up because I was getting bored. – Succubus Dreams

I’d seen weirder things than a haunted shoe, but not many. – Storm Born

I decided to take a stab doing the same. You should definitely try this at home.

I knew insanity was pervasive here, I just didn’t realize it was contagious.

Moments like this are why I don’t keep chocolate in my purse.

If I ever truly thought I could escape my destiny, then the knive in my back just proved me wrong.

 Send me your great first lines.

 Check out the Blood Guardian tab to see some first lines that didn’t make the cut.

Read Full Post »

Hero’s

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 12, 2011| Leave a Comment »


In fiction writing, you need a hero, heroine, or preferably both. In my mind the more the merrier. In standard fiction you have a man, a woman, a boy, a girl or even an animal. In fantasy, paranormal, sci-fi and other subgenres you usually have a character or two who isn’t quite human. And that’s where your creativity can really start to play.  Why have a plain old human when you can have something extraordinary? Take a look at the Blood Guardian tab for a different take on an old favorite…

Read Full Post »

New Pages

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 12, 2011| 2 Comments »


Prairie Jones is a high school student who also happens to be a dreamwalker. She’s uses her power to get what she wants, but now she’s in trouble. Check out PJ’s new page – Dreamwalker …

Madison Girot is a descendant of the Goddess Innana. Unfortunately she’s failed to receive her powers. Now she’s being tormented by a blood guardian and is defenseless. Check out Madison’s new page Blood Guardian …

If anyone knows how to add a side bar on pages that is independent from the home page, let me know. I seem to be blog challenged. Thanks.

Read Full Post »

Sisters

Posted in Personal, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 17, 2011| 3 Comments »


My sister has had bronchitus for about 6 weeks now. Last night she took a cough medicine and started itching. At 4am she went to the pharmacy and got benadryl. She took the benedryl and started vomiting. She vomited for about an hour and then had a heart attack. She had a heart attack for about an hour until they were able to get stints in. She’s in the hospital and is stable.
She needs to have a bypass to fix the rest of the problem. I spent the day at the hospital. When you’re young you see your family at weddings and births when you get old you see them at the hospital and funerals. That’s all.

Read Full Post »

Recommended Reading

Posted in Recommendations, Writing Help, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »


Someone asked a question about creating perfect characters, so here’s my two cents worth.
If you have a super perfect character, then the story is usually told from someone else’s pov such as Watson for Sherlock Holmes or if you have super bad characters with no redeeming characteristics, then the story is usually told from a better character’s pov, such as the “The Beans of Egypt, Maine” by Carolyn Chute. The POV character is Earline, the girl across the street.
I also like the idea of giving super dark characters a goodness quality, like Artemis from “Artemis Fowl” by Eoin Colfer
An author who is really good at creating many believable sympathetic characters in one novel is Cecily von Zeigesar. Yes, I know she writes “Gossip Girls” and I am rolling my eyes, but she’s great with character sketches.
I always advocate buying other authors’ books, but I know that’s not practical for everyone, including me. So you can read excepts from Chute and Zeigesar’s books on Google Books and Amazon and Colfer’s book on Amazon. I recommend the first in Colfer’s series Artemis Fowl. This has made me think I might need to put together a book list of authors who do things well.
Write on.
D

Read Full Post »

Week 2 Plotting Lesson

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing Help, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2011| 3 Comments »


I’m not a fan of the hero’s journey or the 3 act structure. The third act or middle just remains this huge mass of undefined territory.
I like the idea of 4 acts or parts instead of 3 to break things down further.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
The four acts:
1. Setup
2. Response
3. Attack
4. Resolution
1. Setup – composed of hook, hero, stakes, foreshadowing, current world. Main character is an orphan without a purpose.
2. Response – composed of running, hiding, analyzing, calculating, observing, recruiting. Main character is a wanderer/responder with a purpose, but no good direction. S/he is fearful, hesitant
3. Attack – composed of overcoming, obtaining, leading, gets new information/skills. Main character is a warrior.
4. Resolution – composed of changing, overcoming, winning or sacrificing. No new information, skills or people can be introduced. Main character is a winner/martyer.
I’m currently editing the end of Act 1 Setup and am going to start working on the Response act soon.
Hope this is helpful to someone else.
Write On.

Read Full Post »

A Novelist I Will Be

Posted in Recommendations, Writing Help, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2011| 2 Comments »


I went to a local writer’s meeting yesterday. Where I confessed to not being able to plot, which is a HUGE handicap if you want to be a writer. A woman, whose name I don’t know told me to do the following:

1. Go to storyfix.com, download and read Story Structure Demystified

2. Go to Michael Hauge’s blog, study his plotting chart and read his past blogs on plotting

3. Go to Randy Ingermanson’s blog and get his book Writing for Dummies.

I’ve started #1 and must say Story Structure Demystified is really good. I’m beginning to get the big picture.

I’ve learned so far novels are composed of 4 stages. The first being Setup and ending with the first plot point. My current work doesn’t do a good job of setup and misses the first plot point altogether. So you know how I’ll be spending my week. Editing section 1 of my current work, Feral.

For now, Write On

D

Read Full Post »

Day 3

Posted in My Writing Updates, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 27, 2010| 1 Comment »


Bad News

I lost a chapter I wrote yesterday. Apparently I had a little computer problem. I’m hoping I have it on paper somewhere. So I haven’t given up yet. However, if I tried to write it electronically instead of hardcopy first, then it is gone forever.

Good News

I managed to fix my plotting issue and am back to writing. I finished two more chapters and believe I’m in the home stretch to finishing my rough draft. Only two days remain.

And I must fit in another murder before the climatic event. I still haven’t decided who to murder first old childhood friend or father’s old friend who was like an uncle to the heroine. Can’t decide which one will have the most impact.

I’m going to get one more chapter in before going to sleep.

Read Full Post »

Count Down

Posted in My Writing Updates, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »


Day 4 also referred to as Thanksgiving Thursday

I’ve escaped the big meal without eating big, so I’m still feeling ready to write. An unfortunate incident caused a stall in yesterday’s plan.

I realized this section of my manuscript becomes episodic, meaning a series of unrelated events. Each scene should lead to the next and this isn’t happening in this part of my plot.

I’ve been able to get about half of the next set of scenes to lead logically from one to the other, but then it just breaks down.

I know my strengths are character and voice with my current weakness being plotting. My plan for this evening – to write until I hit the episodic part and hope ideas come. I’ll let you know how this works out tomorrow.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »