Must Watch TV This Season

Alright, I'm not a big TV watcher anymore. Any free time I have now gets devoted to writing or reading. But, I will make an exception for two new shows: Once Upon a Time and Grimm.

I love the idea of twisting familiar stories around and both shows do that with fairy tales. I especially like that since my stories do the same thing. My first book is a twist on Sleeping Beauty where it's the prince that needs to be awakened and the girl is the hero.

The main herrione in OUAT is great. I like her sass and tough nature. It  seems like the show is going to shuffle back and forth from modern day to the forbidden forest to unveil the history of the characters. I look forward to seeing what they do to the stories.

Grimm looks fascinating too. I wish I would have thought of having a family that can see through these magical creature's disguises. The special effects are cool. According to the producers, each episode is going to be a different Grimm fairy tale. I just wished the first episode was two hours. One hour just wasn't long enough to get the ground rules for the world settled and solve the crime. It seemed a bit rushed. When the Grimm's partner mentioned that the bad guy was humming the song from the iPod in the beginning of the episode, I was stunned. I didn't even notice the guy was humming at all. They should've made it more obvious.

But, it looks great and the lead actor's hot, so I'll continue to watch.

Fanfiction Spotlight Author - MaxieMoose

I love Fanfiction! That's how I started writing. I have 4 stories on fanfiction.net under ruthless527, if you're interested. I love how just because the author may be finished writing books in their world, doesn't mean the stories have to end. Harry Potter and the rest of the characters will live on forever through fanfiction. The best part is that characters you love can be completely different; fall in love with someone better, make different decisions, not die, read someone else's point of view, whatever.

For instance, I absolutely love Severus Snape and Hermione Granger as a romantic couple. And I'm not the only one. There are websites dedicated to that ship, such as http://ashwinder.sycophanthex.com/.

I actually started out reading Vampire Academy fanfiction. Richelle Mead is the wonderful author that created this fascinating world and I was very anxious to read more but her next book wasn't due for months. Thank goodness I found these wonderful stories to tide me over. Then I thought, 'Hey, I can do that.' So I did.

But today, I want to highlight one of my favorite fanfiction author, MaxieMoose. Her first fanfiction, Why Me? , had me checking my email everyday, hoping for another update. Her story pairs a non-cannon couple together, Rose and Christian. I never thought of them as a good pair until reading her story. She make them sizzle. Check out her author page here: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2204623/MaxieMoose

I asked her some questions about how she got started on fanfiction and her responses were almost identicle to mine. She also loves to read human Twilight stories. See, anything can happen in fanfiction. MaxieMoose is currently finishing up a couple Vampire Academy fanfics as well as writing an original young adult series. I'll let you know where to find the books as soon as they're available.

What's your favorite fanfiction story or author?

Are Vampires Dead?

And I don't mean no longer living, but no longer the big thing? I hope not. I have a few vampires swooping their way into my urban fantasy series for YA. But I've been told that some agents won't even look at a manuscript about vampires.

Has our fascination about these creatures waned? Are zombies the new thing now? How tragic that would be. I still love vampires because of their dark, taboo appeal. We all love a bad boy. You know you shouldn't want them because to them, you're lunch. But we do anyway.

I just read a great book with an extremely hot vampire, Lucas, that makes me think vampires will be in the forefront for a very long time. The book - Love is Darkness by Caroline Hanson.

Of course, Stefanie Meyers Twilight series is still going strong. I also enjoyed the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. Her world had two different types of vampires; Moroi - living vamps and Strigoi - evil dead vamps.

About the only thing each different type of vampire has in common is the requirement to drink blood. But we all know we'd give up a few pints for just the right vampire. Eric Northman can bite me anytime.

so frustrating

All right. so I stayed up until 2am writing this pivotal scene, only to realize about half way through that my characters would so not act this way. I had this sweet romantic scene in my head but it didn't fit. I guess I just needed to get it out of my system and on the computer screen.

Now, tonight I'll write the scene the way it would happen if my characters were real. I had it way too mushy  and they aren't mushy people. I am, but they're not. I'm a little disappointed, but I know the end result will be much better for the story. More consistent.

Hopefully my two protagonists will be satisfied with how I write the scene tonight. There's nothing more annoying than the hero stopping in the middle of a sentence to look at me and say, "I totally would never say that."

Still plugging along

No, I haven't finished my first draft, but I'm getting close. I'm currently working on the pivotal moment between my two love interest characters. It's exciting, yet daunting. I need to make sure the emotions are natural and compelling without being too mushy. He's not a mushy guy. Neither is she for that matter. These two characters have been rivals for quite some time and I've been building the sexual tension between them throughout the previous chapters, so I hope this chapter works with bringing all that to an exciting climax. And I don't mean sexually. It is, after all, a young adult novel.

But, I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's almost easier now since I've already wrote all the build up. Now I have to just let go and let the story unfold how it may. I know where I want to end up, I just hope my characters agree.

RT Photos

Yay! My friend Rene, who went to the RT Booklovers Convention with me, sent me the pictures I took that week. The highlight of the trip was meeting RichelleMead, author of theVampire Academy series. She was very sweet. The guy next to her in the photo is the illustrator of the Dark Swan graphic novel.

I also met author Cassandra Clare of The Mortal Instruments series. It was kinda crazy. The line to meet her was very long and I decided to wait for it to shorten before getting in. After seeing some other authors, I went to find the line and wait. It was so confusing with so many author's lines crossing. Someone told me that I had to get a wristband to see Clare. After going to three different places to find these elusive bands, I finally found the person giving them out by where the author was sitting. They put the band on my wrist and called the next group to get in line, 200-250. My numberwas somewhere in the 400's.

Some lady grabbed my wrist and said, "You have a wristband. Here." and proceeded to push me right infront of Cassandra Clare. While talking to her and getting her autograph, the wristband was cut off by someone else. I had the band on for maybe a minute. Talk about great timing.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Judi McCoy, who won an award for Humorous Mystery for her Dogwalker Mysteries series. She ran the class I took and taught me a lot. She tells it like it is. After critiquing the first five pages of my novel, she told me my paragraph instincts are all wrong. No sugarcoating with her.

I also met Mia Marlowe, Maureen O. Betita, Holly Black, and many more.

RT Booklovers Convention

Because I am serious about becoming an author, I went to the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention 2011 and took the Aspiring Author pre-convention course. I learned so much from all the authors that gave of their time to pass on what they've learned through the years. One of the most useful is FINISH THE BOOK!! This is Judi McCoy's motto. She's the one that ran the beginning class.

Another is that I AM A WRITER! If you're going to make a career out of writing, you need to think of yourself as one from the very beginning. I'm not a stay at home mom, I'm a writer. It's not always easy, writing with a three year old climbing into your lap, demanding your attention. But it can be done. You just have to be determined and patient.

Mary Wine said that an author must have three things; discipline, confidence, and indomitable spirit.

For discipline, I am writing every day! Even if it's only for an hour, set a schedule and write. The book is never going to get finished if you don't write. It's not going to write itself. Get yourself some bumglue and go.

I know that not only will I finish the book, but it's going to sell and people will buy it and love it.

Everyday I nurture my indomitable spirit by visualizing sitting at a table, surrounded by my books and signing my name inside for my fans that have formed a line just to meet me. I visualize going to Target and seeing my books on the shelves in the Young Adult section, right next to the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. (I met her at the convention. She was so nice and encouraging.)

I'll post more lessons I learned at RT this week. So what are we going to do now, fellow writers?

WRITE!

It's all about the reader

I've been reading a wonderful series of articles by John D. Brown about creating suspense in your story and giving the reader what they're looking for, an emotional investment in your characters. He explains that the reader needs to hope and fear for the outcome of the main character(s). They want to feel the tension of the possible outcomes and end in a cathartic release at the end.

We want our readers to invest their time to read our book and they won't do that if they could care less about what happens to our hero. The reader must feel the hero is deserving of their sympathy and the bad guy our dislike.

I especially liked the latest installment about adding conflict to the plot. Conflict with self is the one that hit home while thinking about my character Sophie. If she wants two different things that are mutually exclusive, the inner conflict makes her decision that more interesting. It also helps me with my GMC chart for her.

Go here to read all of his articles. It's definitely worth the time. Cheers!

GMC Chart

Someone in my online writers group asked if everyone has their GMC chart done. I stared at the screen wondering what in the heck that was. Thankfully, she went on to explain that GMC stands for Goal, Motivation & Conflict. It's a way to map out what a character wants (goal), why she wants it (motivation) and what's keeping her from getting it (conflict). Debra Dixon wrote a book all about this. I ordered it today here.

I was amazed I hadn't heard of this before, at least that I remember. Thinking about the story I'm currently working on, I'm not real clear on what my main character is trying to get. That's probably why I've been having so much trouble writing.

So now I've been thinking about what Sophie, my main character, wants to achieve by the last page of her story. The first thing that popped in my head was that she just wants to clean up the mess she made. Why? Because the monster she unleashed is causing mayhem and hurting people she loves. What's stopping her? The monster is stronger and with his friends, she is outnumbered. It's an uphill battle, but an interesting one.

I love this, but I think it will make a better novel than trilogy. Which is fine since I'm just starting out. Then I thought about other messes Sophie could get herself and everyone else into. This could possibly be a series.

So, I think I'm going to make Sophie younger and set the series at a summer camp where each year until she turns 18, she and her campmates will have to help Sophie overcome whatever mischief she gets into. Of course, the story I started with will be the last book of the series since it should be handled by an older Sophie as opposed to a 12 year old one.

I'm really excited about this. It'll be the next Harry Potter. Now I'm off to create my world. Wish me luck and thanks for reading.

Just write, damn it!

Today I received some great advice from some published authors, turn off your inner editor and just complete that first draft. So many never even get that far because they keep rehashing the first few chapters to make them perfect. (That sounds familiar) Worry about that later. Just get all your thoughts down even if it's not perfect. "Just spew the words out and don't worry about it." - Stacie.

I've been writing a few chapters, then second guessing myself and starting over. I'm going to just write and not look back until I finish. I don't know why I find it so difficult, really. When I wrote my fanfic stories, I would write a chapter in an evening and then post it live for all to read. I had a vague idea of where I wanted the story to go, but once I posted it, I couldn't change it, so I just went on from there. The stories aren't too bad, either. A lot of fanfic authors write that way so that they can incorporate suggestions from the people who leave reviews and comments.

So do what those that are already published have obviously done, just get it all out, no matter how ugly it is the first time around. Nothing is permanent. That's what your word processing program is for.

Off I go to purge the story from my brain. Wish me luck!

So the journey begins

My daughter got me hooked on all the vampire books out on the market. You know, Twilight, Vampire Academy, House of Night, etc. My favorite part of all the books is the love story. The vampires or werewolves or whatever just made it more interesting. My daughter and I always wait on the edge of our seats for the next book in the series to come out. Waiting is not my favorite thing.

That's when I found fanfiction. I loved it. A way to read about all my favorite characters and fantasy world without having to wait for the next book. There are so many talented writers out there and reading their stories is free. Even better. You do have to weed through the juvenile posts to find the more meaty stories, but the effort is well worth it. Another aspect is that the stories are posted a chapter at a time, so if you don't want to wait for the author to complete the story, only look at completed fics. Sometimes if you find a story where the author updates the story on a regular basis, it's fun waiting for the next chapter.

After reading some great stories, I decided to try to write a story of my own using Richelle Meads Vampire Academy world. I had so much fun writing and received many wonderful comments that I wrote a total of three stories. You can find them at http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2171095/ruthless527.

Now, I'm beginning my own original story about a teenage girl and what happens to her when she awakens Sleeping Beauty, Prince Sebastian. If all goes well, it will be full of action, humor, suspense and love.

As I've learned more about this business of writing, I've noticed how much more than actually writing there is to it. So if you are trying to write a story and get it published, follow my journey as I plow through the jungle to the other side to emerge a published author. It's the journey more than the destination that's important, right?