Skeletal Writings

Quick Post About Olive Garden

2011-04-25T02:28:45Z

Here's the thing: Sometimes I want my five cheese baked ziti and I want it from Olive Garden. If you know me, you'll know I HATE spaghetti sauce. As in, it makes me want to puke on the nearest spot on the floor. Of course, that might have something to do with the way my family makes it. They like loading their sauce with carrots and onions and that completely ruins the flavor of an otherwise decent sauce. Back to Olive Garden, because I actually like their five cheese baked ziti.

I mention this because of this link: http://gawker.com/#!5793849/olive-gardens-culinary-institute-is-a-sham. This article is from April 20th, but I think it's worth linking to. In short, Olive Garden's claims that they have a cooking school in Tuscany has been proven to be a lie (or semi lie, depending on whether you consider renting a hotel room and teaching stuff there a school). On one hand, I feel super ripped off. You know what? If Olive Garden never mentioned that stupid not-a-school ever again, I'd be a happy woman. I don't like being lied to and well, I'm not happy right now.

Here's the other thing: I am sick, sick, SICK of all the privilege in the comments. A lot of folks who are otherwise good people (not really, but I tend to like their comments otherwise) say "Well I have loads of money and can afford to go to real Italian restaurants and Olive Garden sucks and anyone who likes them is a terrible person." You know what? You and your loads of money can shove it! God forbid there are people in this world who honestly do not have the option to go somewhere "better"! And what if, like me, you happen to like one of their dishes? That makes me/us bad people? Yeah, I don't think so!

The bigger problem is that all these privileged people call everyone out for, you guessed it, being privileged. White privilege, male privilege, rich privilege, you name it. But it's okay for them to be privileged because they're talking about Olive Garden. Give me a break!

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Quick Thoughts on an Article About E-Books

2011-04-21T16:15:49Z

A writer on my Twitter feed had a link to this article (http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2011/04/e-publishing-outlook-for-average.html), which is called "The E-Publishing Outlook for Average Authors: My E-Book Sales" This author, Jody Hedlund, talks about her books (she writes inspirational historical romance for anyone interested) and the comparison between her paperback book sales and e-book sales.

Although she writes in a genre I would never touch, I think she has some valid points for all authors looking to self-publish to consider. She tells writers to:
1.Consider the primary audience and if said audience uses/would use Kindles/Nooks/other e-reading devices.
2. Think about how big the author's following is before jumping into e-books (assuming that they are established).
3. Ask themselves how much time they can devote to marketing their e-books (because self-publishing does mean authors are on their own in terms of promotion).

I like how she says what she says. Some self-pubbers are preachy and "Your publishing company sucks! Tell them to shove it by self publishing!" While they may have a good idea behind promoting self-publishing, they come across holier-than-thou and apparently forgot that they already had a loyal following from being traditionally published. Instead of taking that route, Hedlund tells writers what they need to know using personal examples and at the end, she comes to her own conclusions but asks the question: Writers, what are your thoughts on self-publishing?

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Chapter Outline: Prison or a Promise

2011-04-18T18:19:11Z

I'm in a semi-snarky mood right now, although I am dead serious about this concept. Just advanced warning.

Okay, so something interesting happened one night when I was asleep. Yes, it's a dream, and I know it was a dream because in this dream I was a singer (ha!) and I had a band (ha!) and we were successful (ha!) and I ended up richer than rich (the lols are killing me, seriously).  Anyway, in this dream me and the band were kicking over the last song for our CD and we decided on this one song, untitled at the moment. So then I said, "It's about me and this guy. I hate him, like so much I quite literally puke every time I see him. Well, he didn't get the memo because he asked me to marry him." Then one of the girls in the band said, "So maybe you should call it something like I Hate You So Much I Puke." Then I said, "Yeah, no." Finally we reworked the song and called it Prison or a Promise, because that related way too perfectly to the wedding aspect. Dream over after that point (although later I have continuing segments, so...interesting, definitely).

So, Jess, what's that have to do with writing? Well, I love the title Prison or a Promise  but it's obviously not going to be a song (I am painfully bad at singing, so there's that little issue). Then I thought, hey, what if I used it as a chapter title? And then I thought a lot more about it and thought, I know exactly how it fits in. And now for the outline so I don't forget.

This is the third novel in my Slayer trilogy, so Callix Ruelo is a grown woman (anywhere from twenty five to thirty) and the only ranked female slayer (but she's dedicated to helping teenage girls develop their slaying so she's not so alone in that world). The important thing that happens in this third novel is two men (of sorts, and I'll mention why later...for now, keep in mind that they are men in age only) propose to Callix (who is of course a slayer and would slay them if she could). The thing is, one man (Toriaun, who is the man in age only; he's immature, can't make decisions for himself worth anything, relies on his mother to defend him, and so on) she absolutely, one million percent loathes.  At one point she thought maybe they'd have a future if he stopped keeping demons for torture purposes (having been tortured by her father from age 0 to 10, she knows it's not fun) and he's her age (okay, two years older, but close enough) and there are so many reasons she could use him (he's rich, he has influence, he's powerful, and so on). However, being around him even in the name of business (she slays his problem demons, essentially) makes her want to puke (see a pattern here?). Therefore, his marriage proposal (the promise), while solid, could trap her in something she doesn't want (the prison). See how awkwardly I tied that in? Well, the plan is to make it flow more smoothly when I write it.

By the way, the other man is Marius So-and-So (that is not actually his last name, I just don't have one for him right now) and he's a special problem of his own. He's a serial killer, he makes sacrifices that hurt everyone around him including himself and he never realizes it, and basically he's like Callix's father. On the count of three, let's all say "Ewwwww!"

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Thoughts About a Publishing Company's Opened Submissions

2011-04-07T16:52:30Z

This link http://www.sfx.co.uk/2011/04/07/blog-what-are-the-chances-for-an-unsolicited-manuscript/ will take you to an article about publisher Angry Robot's March opened submissions, where non-agented authors could submit their work. Basically, they received over 700 submissions, reviewed 350 so far, and passed two along. They estimate that when they finish reading, another two will be passed on and four total unagented manuscripts will be considered. Interesting, for sure. They also said in this blog that there were other manuscripts that looked good, but "didn't feel like Angry Robot titles." The conclusion they reached was that first, unagented work is not economical/practical and second, they're not if they'll do this again but it's always a possibility.

First, I'd like to say that it's awesome they took a chance on unagented work. Kind of goes along with their mission statement about pushing conventions (not going to say anything about their usual system because I'm sure you can figure that one out).

Second, I'm not a fan of the "didn't feel like Angry Robot titles" statement. Obviously this is their stance based on their criteria, so it's not wrong. It's just...personal thing, but I've only found one series I absolutely love/is on autobuy, and that is because it doesn't feel like an Angry Robot title. It's a darkly humorous urban/supernatural fantasy that could just as easily be published by Tor, Ace, HarperVoyager (I think that's their fantasy imprint), and so on. Other than this series, I have never been able to get into their work. It's either too pretentious or too drawn out or just not what was advertised. My average reading experience has been:
1. Pick up an Angry Robot title in a bookstore.
2. I assume there's a story because it's a book published by a legitimate publishing company.
3. The synopsis tells me there's a story.
4. I would absolutely read the story that said synopsis belongs to but there's so much unimportant background information and I need a dictionary sitting besides me and it's just too much work.
5. Book gets thrown in my giveaway pile, maybe half read.

In short, the opened submission was a fantabulous idea, they should do it more often, and I prefer books that don't feel like Angry Robot titles.

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Boycotting Leisure/Dorchester

2011-03-24T19:53:01Z

I apologize for any potential typos...I am so ragey about this right now (and I'm not even an author!).

If anyone happens to be a horror/mystery/romance reader, you might be interested to know about this really bad company. So, last year (2010) Leisure/Dorchester stopped paying authors for their books because they were sort-of-but-not-really going bankrupt. Around this time, the Leisure website had a post about "Hey everyone, we're going to stop publishing Mass Market Paperback and focus exclusively on ebooks! Because we are innovative!" Yeah, sure, not because you were late in the ebook game and now you've screwed yourself! So anyway, writers stopped getting paid and there was a time when Leisure wasn't releasing any books. So a bunch of writers did one of two things: find another publishing company and start fresh or find another publishing company and get all rights to their backstock (um, not sure if that's the right word). Sounds like that's the end, right?

WRONG!

In 2011 (actually, new reports are saying as early as late 2010) Leisure/Dorchester began putting unauthorized copies of their big-name authors in ebook form on places like Amazon. I always thought if an author said "Okay, publishing company, you screwed me over and I want my books back so I can do whatever with them" then the author gets to do whatever they want with their work and their relationship with the publishing company is done. Which would mean the publishing company has lost all rights to the work. Except Leisure/Dorchester is all "Oh no! How did this happen! Oh, wait, it's Amazon's fault. We'll look into it" and "Oh no! Why are all these readers so upset? We are innocent!" Also, they've been making it difficult for people to comment on their Facebook page.

You know what? This is absolutely the sign of a bad publishing company. It's bad enough that they didn't pay their authors the first time around. It's worse that they agreed to revert all rights back to their authors and then go back on that. It's even worse they're acting like they have no idea what's going on and everyone (authors, readers) is making a big deal about nothing. This is most definitely something.

Anyone who wants to get the word out can go to Twitter and use hashtag #BoycottDorchester. It's interesting to read the tweets already there.

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Completely New Direction For Novel (Outline)

2011-02-28T17:55:10Z

Well, I have come to the conclusion that my Callix trilogy is never going to work in any form it's currently in. She (Callix) really wants her story to be told and yeah, I want to do that, but it's just never happened. So then today I thought, "Maybe it's not working because it's not her story." I've been trying to force all the things I want to happen in all my previous drafts and such and it seems like just when I'm on a roll, I get trapped and don't know where to go. Well, that's because it's not coming naturally to me. All this senseless babbling leads me to a very important point, and that is the new outline for the trilogy. As of right now, it is unnamed other than Callix Trilogy and none of the novels have titles. This should come to me eventually, if this is really the direction I need to take. And now, the outline for the three books.

Book Number One
Callix and her parents (not sure who they are) are going on yet another demon hunting trip. Callix ( a preteen/young teenager) is all "Oh my god, my parents are such losers!" because nobody else's parents go demon hunting. They happen to go ghost hunting, which is a lot less dangerous and kind of awesome. And that logic is totally backwards, but that's the way things work. So Callix is sitting in the car while her parents are all "Yay demon hunting!" at an abandoned house that looks exactly like the type of place you'd find a demon. Boring stuff happens, so we flashfoward to maybe the third chapter. Callix finished exploring around the house and thinks something demonic is happening right that moment, but there are no signs of anything alive. The demon hunting trip is deemed an absolutely failure and Callix's parents are ready to leave. As they're pulling out the driveway, Callix sees an unusual looking girl walk out of the house and sit on the porch. This is Jillian (a demon of sorts who becomes important in some way in another novel). End of introduction. The rest of the novel is one evening Callix is attacked by a demonic shadow and a winged humanesque demon named Eriko (anyone who has followed my journal knows a little about him) rescues her. He explains that she should not have been exploring near that house and that really kicked off things to come. He also tells her you don't come to demons, they come to you, and very few people are lucky/unlucky in that way. Because there is a barrage of demons waiting for Callix (some she sees, some she knows are around but that's it) Eriko suggests she visit the Simballa marketplace/business district (yes, the worlds are the exact same) on a certain date. No other information follows. Skip to why it's significant. A man named Tatius Salzana (has been mentioned in context of anolder draft outline) is recruiting boys for a demon hunting/slaying/exorcism school and he happens to be in the marketplace that day. Long story short, Callix follows him back to the school and becomes a student. The rest of the book involves her training and creatures previously mentioned (Snip Snips and kadiups) reveal themselves and the end of the book has something to do with Callix and Jillian (of course, the very lousy author has no idea what it is).

Book Number Two
This book opens with Callix (eighteen, same body) in Toriaun Salzana's vacation house. Other things happen at the same time concerning buddies she made, but that is glossed over in favor of more details on her and what she's looking at. A lot of this stuff is what happened in an older draft. Toriaun has a bunch of demons who are basically prisoners/there for him to torture. Callix and her amazing picking-up-on-vibes ability know something is wrong (even though they are demons and that is the one thing she's againts, she doesn't like what she feels when she's around them). Finally Toriaun comes clean and Callix leaves him. Years pass (because the author said so) and Callix is now a twenty-five year old only ranked female slayer. She is also a go-between for the demon realm and the human realm (and you can blame the kadiup who is still in her mind for that) which is contradictory with her slaying. On one of her visits to the demon realm, she is randomly attacked by a demon who forgot/doesn't know she's protected. She tells her demon boss she quits, which puts him in a rage and bad things happen to a bunch of people. The end of the novel is dealing with the results of whatever he did.

Book Number Three
After all the mental rebuilding is completed, certain worlds are ready to fight the demons for what happened. Bare in mind, whatever Astrixto (Callix's former boss/demon king) did affected every human world and they're justified. But not entirely intelligent. You can't expect to fight the demons and win. It just doesn't work out. That leads to conflict within worlds and between worlds, because if you're going to go to war you need a leader. Most worlds scrapped monarchies and such in the last twenty years. Now it's a matter of who's going to lead, even if just temporary. Lots of boringness ensues. Long story short, Callix is selected as a leader and preparations begin. In the first and second books, there is a slight romantic subplot (I promise it is significant) between Callix and Toriaun Salzana (okay, it's one-sided where Toriaun wants Callix and Callix can't reciprocate). In this book, the romantic subplot concludes with Callix telling Toriaun to shove it. Although he is a fantabulous demon torturer and they are both so abusive to each other they balance each other out (which means it's an equally negative relationship and that seems to work for them) and Toriaun isn't bad to look at, he is just like the demon king she's training to fight against. More on this story later when I feel less distracted.

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My State is a Wreck!

2011-02-16T17:40:31Z

Normally I don't share personal information, but I thought it was important in this case. So, here's the thing: I live in West Virginia. Never mind the jokes about how we're all stupid and backwards (although some folks kind of live up to it, so...yeah). We have some of the WORST stuff going on at the moment.

-Right now, people in the West Virginia state legislature are debating about returning the death penalty to West Virginia. The people that support it are all emotional and "They killed my *Insert name of person who is somehow related to them* and they deserve to die, die, DIE!" Okay, you know what? There are ways you could make a good case for the death penalty.  If West Virginia has a ridiculously high rate of violent inmates, you might be able to say "Well, if they're such dangerous people, why are we keeping them alive?" That at least could lead to good discussion.  I don't think emotional testimonies (or whatever they're called) make a good case. I do not want to live in a state that might seriously considering reinstating the death penalty because of people who come in and cry and rage.

-So, the city of Morgantown is looking for a new police chief (I think that's it; I haven't followed the story that closely). There were at least five people who applied for the job, and three were out-of-state and two were in-state (possibly Morgantown residents). The two in-state folks weren't even considered.  Of the three remaining applicants, the first guy was a little handcuff-happy, the second guy caused all sorts of drama in his home state, and the third guy wants to enforce a strict curfew of 11:00 in a college town (and while I hate the bar scene and hate the party-school reputation, this is flat-out ridiculous).  I want someone who understands Morgantown (that it is a college town and that like it or not, we have students, that it is also has residential areas, and so on) and seems reasonable.

-Let's talk about a certain county's superintendent.  For some semblance of internet safety I won't mention the county. I was never a fan of him (he made some dangerous decisions about sending kids to school in horrible weather), but he seemed like a decent guy.  Well, he's getting a 15.2 percent raise while the teachers are getting no raises and are actually at risk for being cut. I agree with one of the teachers when he says a superintendent is only as good as the teachers below him.  Also, there were some counties in the state that had positions available for teachers that were willing to take them, until the teachers found out the pay was less-than-impressive. I understand why teachers are going out-of-state after getting their degrees and certifications.

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I Caved Everyone!

2011-02-16T04:40:53Z

This is just a short post to show I'm alive (and because it would be hard to Tweet this without having to essentially spam all my followers' lists). Okay, so for a while I absolutely loathed ebooks. Last week, I caved and ordered myself an ebook reader. It's a Velocity Cruz, which I know is an off-brand and there are some legitimate problems with it (a lot of folks say the screen is horrible from all the glare and it's advertised to work like an iPad but won't follow through) but I'm still super duper excited! I even found myself some books I wanted to add to it once I get it (if I ever get it; there's a "storm delay" so...yeah). Just thought I'd write a quick post about that.

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Quick Post: New Novel Titles

2011-02-09T15:02:26Z

Well, I've been all over the board with my novel (anywhere from DELETE IT ALL! to okay, there's one paragraph that just isn't working, I need to change it to ugh, I don't even want to see this thing to wow, this is awesome! and everything in between). The new inspiration came from a dream, where I saw the first book's final title as well as the completed first chapter. It was also a mass market book in bookstores, which was super duper awesome, but one of the least important details. I'm going to write this novel based on my outline as well as what I saw in the dream, and the first step is to list the three novel titles.

First book: Slayer's Playground (where Callix has first exposure to the world of slaying and nothing is too serious)

Second book: Slayer's Paradise (where Callix has a new life and slays, slays, slays)

Third book: Slayer's Battlefield (where Callix becomes a villain, makes some tough decisions, and faces death during the Ultimate Battle Between Good and Evil)

This way, I can free up titles like "Victim Hero" and "Downward Spiral" for related chapter titles.

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Rant on Genre Loyalty

2011-02-07T17:02:43Z

First of all, I will get it out of the way: I am/was a genre loyalist (of sorts) myself. Not that I haven't read much in the way of horror novels since the big publishing company went in a very, very, VERY bad direction (ebooks and trade paperback), but when I DID, I was. As in, loved, loved, LOVED my horror. Had to have two or three horror novels in my To Be Read pile. Would not enjoy novels that didn't have some sort of horror element (although, at this point, urban fantasy was getting extremely formulaic; if it had been awesome and every author's work had been their own, I would've also loved, loved, LOVED my urban fantasy for different reasons).  Here's the biggie:  I did not want to hear people say "Oh, the horror genre sucks!" I also had problems with this idea that some book reviewers and commenters on their articles said "Only scary people read horror." Uh, absolutely not. I think, in the case of this comment, I was justified in being insulted. But I had genre loyalty and it was BAD.

This brings me to my point.  Right now, there are a bunch of romance readers and writers up in arms over a woman saying "Romance as a whole is rapey and there is nothing feminist about reading romance."

I semi agree on point number one and completely agree on point number two, and I promise this is important to my overall point. I tend to stick with paranormal romance because I like supernatural elements in anything I read, and oh boy is it bad relationships all over the place. I wouldn't say they're "rapey" as much as "guy calls all the shots." Even books that are "progressive" where the man and the woman agree to work as an equal unit end up with the guy making most of the decisions and getting all possessive and so on. Never mind that a lot of these relationships are based on claiming, and sometimes it doesn't even make sense. I could get the claiming if the man is, say, a part-time creature. I don't understand it when the man is a god or demon.  As for the second point, I think most women read romance for the fantasy of it. A few even admit to inserting themselves in place of the female lead at all times. It just seems like, with all the garbage in the genre (not that all of it is garbage, by the way), you'd want to read it as an escape but say "I'm glad that's NOT me." Unfortunately, I've never heard THAT from anyone. Oh well, I have high expectations, so...take from that what you will.

Really, the only reason I read romance is because I can't write relationships. I've never been in a relationship and it doesn't seem like something that'll happen anytime soon (for various reasons). There is so much more to this paragraph, but I'll wait a few paragraphs down to make it.

The larger point I wanted to make is this: Romance readers/writers, there are going to be people who hate your genre. I know, it sucks. Try thinking you're a well adjusted person, only to be told you can't possibly be a functioning, decent member of the community because you read horror novels. It's a part of life. But more importantly, it's okay that people hate your genre. Not everyone is going to love it just because you do. In fact, I'd take it a step further and say most people hate the genre, not YOU. So please, please, PLEASE for the love of everything cute and fluffy stop getting insulted over people saying stuff that may even possibly be true about your genre. Now, it's different if someone actually does hate you for what you read. You might be able to make a better case for yourself then. But from what I've been seeing, it's you folks not being able to handle negative comments because you're such genre loyalists.

And here's some food for thought. Okay, let's take me. The two paragraphs above, I say I only read romance so I can write relationships in my own work.  There's more to it. See, a lot of women read romance for the steaminess and such (which is part of the escape, I guess). I can't physically/mentally get turned on by that. I don't know why, I just can't. I'd also like to add that there are a few book blog websites that have this feature where they post an image of this hot guy. A lot of people get a lot out of this. I look at those images and think "Hmmmmm, interesting scenery." or "Odd, I've never seen anyone off the street look like that." or even "Meh." I do, however, love when these book blog websites post images of locations inspired by the books they read. Here's another thing: When I read romance, I base my opinion on the book on how the female lead is written.  I like a good female lead (which kind of contradicts my love of horror novels but perfectly explains why I like some urban fantasy). A book could get a "Oh hey, that was actually really good" because the female lead was engaging, intelligent, someone worth reading about, sarcastic without going over the top, or other related stuff. The men may be interesting as well, but I do not give books high ratings because of them. The men just do not do it for me in any sense. Of course, I read romance novels for different reasons than most (it really is research, and I have learned a lot). Still, the genre just doesn't appeal to me the way it does to others.

I'd like these genre loyalists to consider that. Maybe their favorite genre is just not doing it for others. It doesn't necessarily mean we hate you (and if someone comes across that way, whether it's me or Mr. Random, feel free to ignore/walk away), it just means we don't like the genre.

On a very related note, I am not, by any means, a scary person. I have a part-time job that I am reasonably capable at. I want a much more substantial part-time job, and I know I can do the work. I will be going to college either this summer or this fall (whichever semester I can get into) on a partial scholarship (that I intend to keep all four years by working my butt off). I may not look like the traditional girl, but I use good hygiene (please excuse the possible misspelling) and take care of myself. I live at home at the moment, but I help around the house and take care of the pets (a tortoiseshell cat and tuxedo cat; they are fantabulous, usually). I am a writer (unpublished as of right now) and although I'd love to write in my favorite genre (which is still horror in spite of not being able to keep up with it at the moment) I can't write my novel the right way for it. I do not have the right edge, which is actually a good point.

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Addition to My Young Adult Post

2011-02-02T15:16:58Z

Okay, so apparently the trend in Young Adult books is post apocalyptic/dystopy. I'd sort of kind of fit in. Yay? But here's the thing: Whether I was writing for adults, teens, kids, whoever, I'd want to write my own thing the way I wanted to write it. I don't believe in following trends just because that's what sells. See, that's what sold two years ago and is coming out two years later. By the time all these post apocalyptic/dystopy stuff is out, it's a new trend. My god, I shudder to think what people would write when the trend is happy fluffy bunnies that go around hugging people and making the world happy. In any case, I'm writing this novel the way I want to write it and right now, it's not going easy (or at all) but at least it's working the way I want it to work. So there is that.

One other thing I read today. There were some people saying "We hate fantasy (specifically YA Fantasy)! We want real because it's real!" If I didn't think it would pop my teeth out, I'd beat my head against the nearest wall all day. You know, when I was a kid I read a lot of slice-of-life fiction, and I hated it to no end. Because in being real, it felt too real. I wanted something I couldn't see every day. Not necessarily true fantasy (I got into that as well as horror when I was about eighteen), but stuff that was clearly fictitious. These people also said "You can only learn about the world through realistic fiction." Sorry, but wrong. I learned more about real-life issues through speculative fiction novels. I'd even say I've learned more from paranormal romance than my tenth grade health class (and that is super embarrassing to admit on more than a few levels). So no, not true.

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Semi-Related Thoughts on Young Adult Novels

2011-01-31T16:14:36Z

The thing that spawns all this is that apparently I am writing a Young Adult novel. I hate to admit it, but I actually loathe the genre. Like, will not touch a Young Adult book EVEN if it was written by an author I love and EVEN if it sounded awesome. I'm not a teen anymore, which might be part of the problem, but I didn't even read much in the way of Young Adult when I WAS a teen. Here's the thing that gets me: The most popular books tend to be teen paranormal romance, but they push the most dangerous ideas. For example, this disgusting idea that the guy in the relationship is allowed to be abusive and overly controlling and flat-out creepy and it's okay because he's HOT! Usually intelligent readers are like "Awwwwww!" and "Best book ever!" and "I want a *Name of guy*!" A couple friends of mine, in fact, bought into it, and they were two of the smartest people I knew. Uh, I think I'll pass. The few books that seem positive in that respect/progressive are real-world based. Not necessarily that they're literary fiction geared towards teens, but everything feels like it could happen right in front of you. With that out of the way, I'm writing a Young Adult novel. Young Adult Supernatural Fantasy, if you'd ask me for a specific genre. It's only Young Adult because the female lead tends to be in the teen range when stuff happens to her (although the first book is more when she's a preteen), but I'll accept it. I would absolutely love to contribute GOOD Young Adult fantasy to the genre, so yeah, I'm fine with it.

Here's the rest of the thoughts, which are only related because they deal with the Young Adult Genre.

Today, I read this post where a mom (I think it was a mom, could've been an aunt or cousin) had this daughter who was getting into the Young Adult genre and she had no idea where to turn. There were a lot of suggestions, most that had me rolling my eyes. Okay, I was surprised my eyes didn't drop from my head and bounce across the floor. Never mind that half these books were the teen paranormal romance I griped about above, some of the authors themselves are unpleasant folks. I don't know about anyone else, but I would not want to support authors who can't accept up-and-coming writers, who chase after people who DARE to say "Your book sucks, here's a comprehensive review to back it up", who have no idea that there are genuinely people who dislike their books, who write horribly abusive relationships and say in interviews, "I've been getting criticism, but these relationships are hot and the guy is hot and I wanted to write a bad boy, so...". One reason I prefer reading from the adult speculative fiction (umbrella term) sections is the writers tend to be less moon-batty (my term for disconnected, wonky) and the fans seem to have a better grasp that "Okay, this is fiction. This is not real." Anyway, this post made me sad. Also, I wanted to come up with my own suggestions (which would turn out to be adult novels that are "clean" or whatever) but off the top of my head, I couldn't think of any.

There's this interesting trend in cover art, which I think is both Young Adult and Adult. It's where there's a woman on the cover, and she has this long hair that billows out. I would not mind having a cover like that on my own book, as long as it was a bit different and distinctive. Yeah, I know authors don't have much say in their book covers, but I'd kind of like to stand out as much as possible.

I find it weird that a lot of writers in the adult Urban Fantasy genre also write in the Young Adult genre. Is it like a requirement? I think I'd find it hard to say "On this day, I'm writing my adult novel. On this next day, I'm writing my young adult novel."

I know there's a lot more I have to say on this topic, so I'll keep you all posted as it comes to me.

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A Rant on Character's Physical Attractiveness

2011-01-27T14:24:57Z

First of all, I was Tweeting about this earlier today, but I realized I had so much to say I wanted to do a longer version here. So if by chance anyone on here follows me on Twitter, this might seem familiar.  Now that that is out of the way...

This is the link that spawned said rant: http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/physical-erotic-perfection/. Short version is this woman writes in, says she tries reading recommended erotica, but gets pulled out of the story because the men are ridiculously perfect. She adds that if that's what women want, she's a bit upset nobody talked to her. Her relationships have been all over the board size wise and none of her partners have been "perfect" but she was more than okay with it. So essentially she's wondering what women REALLY want, and the comments are interesting. From what I saw, it seems that some women share her view (overly perfect men are a problem and they'd rather read about people they can picture meeting in their everyday life) and some women disagree (because it's fantasy, and they want perfect in their books).

As an important disclaimer, I do not write erotica. I think the world will breathe a sigh of relief for that. See, I don't have a romantic bone in my body. I even have problems writing relationships where there's absolutely no physical contact. I just...don't get it. I'd butcher it so badly if I tried, it's probably better I don't. However, I do write in a genre where the term "fantasy" is used (well, it is the fantasy genre, so...).

The Novel That Never Ends is interesting to write. Besides that it's never perfect and there's always something new I feel like Oh my god I have to add, it's just all the characters I'm writing about. So, this is a fantasy novel. Part of it is very solidly fantasy, like genre wise. The other part is only fantasy in the respect that I only wish I could do things my characters do (which is a very different type of fantasy).  This leads me to the point, which is because I'm writing a fantasy, anything (within reason) can happen. So, for example, if I wanted to write every single character as being sizzling hot, I could in theory get away with it. Which brings me to the rant.

Because here's the thing: I hate this idea that if you're writing fantasy, you should make your characters everything that turns you on (which for a sizable number of readers, would be super duper muscular men who are possessive over Their Woman). For starters, this isn't really a huge turn-on for ME.  To be honest, if I met someone like that in real life (and by met, I just mean see them walking the street), I'd look at them and say "Meh."  Unless they happen to love writing and have no problems hearing me chatter about the latest idea that popped into my mind, and then MAYBE it's a bit of a turn-on.  I thought I'd get that out of the way first, because it's relevent to my rant.

Okay, so we have this idea that if it's fantasy, you should be writing what turns you on, and that means HOT men and HOT women and HOT creatures. Well, I don't buy into it at all.  In this ridiculously hard to write novel, I write my "good" guys as being varied in their appearance (some of them are sizzling hot, some of them are average, one of them is super cute and looks like she's five years old, which is a problem because she's semi immortal and already has a good couple hundred years on her) and my "bad" guys as being varied but more often than not HOT and my creatures as being goofy. Yes, goofy. They're scary, they'll kill you, they'll kill you in the most painful ways possible, but they're hilarious to look at. It's hopefully a little different than the fantasy genre conventions, and as soon as I get stuff more developed, it should be a lot of fun as well. And this brings me to a point about my HOT villains.

I'm not very good at writing villains, I hate to admit. It's a bit of a challenge to come up with their motivation for being so evil. There's the standard take over the world aspect, which I am using. I also want a deeper, slightly more personal reason. One thing I'm doing well (at least, I think) is that it's not fifty villains teaming up. There are levels of villainy and different villains want different things. That may be a different rant for a different time. In any case, I'm still working on them.

But one thing for sure: My villains tend to be HOT. And they tend to be disgusting. A couple of main villains do this thing where they lure people to their bedroom, and they skin them, and they feed the flesh to their doglike creatures (known as Snip Snips) and make said creatures even more bloodthirsty, and they keep the skeletons for...okay, that's where I left off. I was thinking in a future novel, they keep the skeletons to maically reanimate them and use them in their army. Or something.  That's just the first example I could think of. The whole thing is that I'm trying to go against this idea that HOT means good because it has been driving me up the wall. It's why there are some genres/subgenres I frequently try, but get frustrated with after a few books.

Okay, here's another thing I just thought of. I'm not sure if I'm writing in the Young Adult genre or not, but one reason why I wouldn't mind if I got shelfed there: I might give them a slightly healthier perspective on relationships. Well, not exactly healthier as much as taking the "Abusive relationships are okay if the guy's hot" concept and saying "Uh, no." I'm writing an abusive relationship and I KNOW it's an absuive. It's just...You know how I said my villains tend to be HOT? Well, there's this one, and his name is Toriaun. He falls in lust/love with Callix (female lead) and at one point they have something like a relationship (besides my problems writing such a think, it's a bit one-sided; he loves her, she could do without him). He nearly kills her one evening and has no idea why, when she's finally healthy enough to pack up and leave, she doesn't accept his "Don't go! I NEED you!" Because he tried to kill her and she understands that's not a good relationship. Never mind that she's abusive as well (more mentally than physically) and yet doesn't see it. I apologize if this was a little disjointed. This is the first time I've been this opened on my thoughts of this particular genre and how I'd maybe change it.

I know there's a lot more to say. I haven't even gotten around to discussing my goofy creatures yet! I think the important stuff has gotten out, however, so I'll leave you all with what's currently here.



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Outline For Second Novel

2011-01-26T16:49:37Z

Title: Downward Spiral

Main Characters: Callix Ruelo (new life, so she's now a princess and is partially owned by demon king Astrixto because of a sacrifice her mother made) and Feryn Ruelo/*He has another name as well, but this isn't developed yet so I'm not sure what it is (isn't anyone in particular, lived with a group of ultra-poor desert folks before being called to the castle, is considered The Chosen One and chooses to go through training for it, ends up dead)

Beginning: Callix (Callixta) Ruelo wakes up one morning, remembering it's the first day she's meeting brothers Christien and Bricio (There they are!) and Feryn. Lots of details of the first day and how it doesn't work well for anyone. Feryn nearly kills Callix in the garden, and only failed because Callix fought him off. In a month when everyone settles into a routine, Feryn becomes a major player as well as The Chosen One (both are related). Callix's father forces all her brothers to join his military and tells Callix "ABSOLUTELY NOT! YOU ARE A GIRL!" in all caps just as written. Long story short, traumatic things happen to Callix and her father ships everyone to a government defender/slayer/leasher/weapons boarding school.

Middle: No mention of Toriaun until this point. Right now, he's a "grown man" and is off doing some stuff with his mother, Marria.  None of that is important, however. It is important to mention that Tatius (Toriaun's father) was so successful with his previous slayer/leasher school venture, he opens a bunch more in Escalli, Simballa, and Desean (desert world). The school Callix and her brothers are going to is his, and Callix meets him again. She doesn't recognize him, he doesn't recognize her, and the only thing familiar to him is her name. This is semi important because he throws a bunch of difficult tasks at her, and Callix (of course) succeeds. Callix and Feryn (who were thought to be related, but turns out there was a baby mix-up at the one Simballa hospital that is very behind on technology and does that all the time) shack up. Keep in mind that these are two of the toughest people on Simballa and it's an abusive relationship, which makes it more and less creepy at the same time.

End: Throughout the novel, there are mentions of three demons: Eriko, Raiden, and Vasilic.  Eriko and Raiden are upper-level demons that their boss, Astrixto, trusts almost unconditionally (except that they must always perform well or he'd kill them). Vasilic is incompetent and unthreatening and the only way he gets anywhere with Astrixto is by sucking up. One day, Vasilic makes a deal with a rabbit demon. He was searching for a Snip Snip, but he was so incompetent/bad with directions that didn't pan out. She'll get rid of Callix (who is Super Duper Amazing) in exchange for first choice of Callix's body. Vasilic agrees and then backs out when he realizes rabbit demons can't be trusted and once they taste blood, they'll go on a killing spree.  The rabbit demon goes on a killing spree anyway and half the school's population is wiped out.  The school is on guard now, but is not prepared for shadow people who saw what the rabbit demons did and thought "Hey, we should do it too." The shadow people destroy another half of the school population, including Feryn. Callix realizes something important: These creatures aren't going crazy just because they can; someone is putting them up to it. Vasilic, of course, set off the rabbit demons.  At the end of the novel, she discovers Toriaun and Tarquel (two men from the previous novel) have nothing to do with the shadow people EXCEPT the man who does gives them a few bucks for every kill (which leads to some problems in the third novel). Also, her discovery leads her into dangerous territory, where she tangles with *possibly that man, possibly someone else, it isn't clear because the person's face is well covered* and dies.

Problem with the ending: The biggest concern I have with this novel is the ending. I'd really love the shadow people to wipe everyone out. The initial version involved demons wiping everyone out and nearly killing Simballa, turning it into a demon world above ground. There was a section where Callix learned the last purge resulted in certain people building an underground world, or so the story went. Turns out, that is true and is important to the third novel. Or, it was. See, I'm not sure how to end this novel. I don't want to do anything that might seem like "Oh my god, she's following everyone else's lead!" I want things to be a bit more my own.  There were other problems with the initial version, as well. Callix is tough, can handle herself well, isn't afraid to ask for help but prefers to do things by herself at first.  The thing that sets the demons off would suggest her toughness is just an act, and I absolutely do not want that.

How I'll Fix That: Okay, I'm not sure this is absolutely the ending, but here it goes anyway.  Callix finds out about Toriaun and Tarquel profiting from kills and researches that.  When the man who pays them finds out about Callix, he summons either Eriko or Raiden (it doesn't matter which one). The demon begins stalking Callix to make sure she's not plotting against the man in any way. When they find out she is but she isn't (well, there's no "plotting" involved) they alert the man as well as other demons.  One demon (maybe Vasilic, since he's the one who hates Callix most of all) takes that as the go ahead to kill Callix.  Eriko, formerly Callix's guardian as well as instructor, saves Callix from an unpleasant death. In exchange, he gets to claim her.  Which is essentially possessing her. When Callix rejects that idea after he rescued her, he decides someone needs to get rid of her after all. There is a mass purge on Simballa and Callix dies.

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Outline for New/Old Novel

2011-01-25T19:37:13Z

Title: Victim Hero (which is the original title and has been changed from that to Borrowed Life and back again.)

Main Character: Callix Ruelo (changed from Caprice Ruelo, although Caprice Ruelo is used as a psuedonyme...and I apologize for butchering the spelling of that word)

Beginning: Callix Ruelo has an unusual life, and there's detail on what that means. Death, demons, and a serial killer father, for those folks interested in specifics. We learn that Callix looks like a horror movie dead girl and her appearance is so scary she frightens the demons who drop by to see her. We learn that she is abused and should've died, except said demons are keeping her alive (as well as turning her into a sometimes cannibal). We meet Eriko (demon who is an instructor at a demon slayer school, and yes the irony is intentional, and who commits to guarding Callix even though it is a bad idea/illegal) and Simmons (spirit guide who created Callix's body and cares about her, although he has his own agenda).  There is details of Callix getting cleaned up for the first time ever, and how it's a dramatic difference. There is talk of the slayer school, and Eriko suggests maybe she goes to that. Throughout the beginning, Marcell Ruelo (Callix's father) talks about buying his own circus and building an ultimate death machine and becoming the greatest serial killer in the world.

Middle: More talk of ultimate death machines and circuses. Callix is torn between Eriko and Simmons and what they both want from her (in short, the two disagree with each other and take it out on her). Callix has a run-in with a demonic shadow and Eriko swoops in, saves her, and begins teaching Callix about demon slaying. Astrixto (demon king and Eriko's ultimate boss) visits Callix and makes her an offer to join him in the demon realm, which she rejects because "It's scary!" Note that in this novel, Callix is never what you'd consider tough, although she survives ridiculous amounts of pain and towards the end, stands up for herself.

End: Callix, a slayer-in-training, returns to Marcell Ruelo's house because she feels like she needs to finish something.  Marcell Ruelo introduces her to creepy new wife Melissa (a clown) and his ultimate death machine (a funnel slide that has three blades at the end, which raise from a flap and chosp you up unless he decides against it). Callix notices ultimate death machine is bad quality and will break the first time anyone uses it. Callix uses it, dies, and Simmons takes her back to the spirit realm to work on her reincarnation.

Things to Keep in Mind:

Callix is no older than sixteen by the end of the novel.

Callix is friends with these people: Garret, Jin, Zoello for boys and Karielle, Delivia, Debora, Ellia for girls.

Callix is in competition with these people: Tarquel, Anquil (although it's relatively friendly), possibly Christien and Bricio if they still exist

There is mention of a girl named Henrie, but Henrie is more of a possibility rather than someone that exists. Henrie does exist in books two and three, which are set one thousand plsu years later when Callix reincarnates, some of these other characters are dead or have their own children who are her age, and Callix's relationships with everyone from book one change. So, there is that major thing to keep in mind.

There is a Briella and a Toriaun, and there is relationship drama because Callix wants Toriaun for herself.  In this version of the novel, Callix is a bit more interested in guys, but not much. At the end of the day, the only thing she can be is Toriaun's buddy. This leads to books two and three, when Toriaun is much, much older (keep in mind, he is a semi immortal and much, much older still puts him at about age thirty in human years) and falls for Callix in a different body. Things get weird because he has an adoptive parent relationship with Callix, who was spirited away from her human mother the day she was born, before any other type of relationship. That, however, is a more appropriate outline for books two and three. In short, there is a love triangle of sorts and is it convoluted!

Karielle is a human/robot hybrid and it makes perfect sense in context. Later, Tarquel becomes a hybrid as well.

Zoello is the first cambion Callix meets, and looks very much the way she looks in books two and three. This is more a note to self because I have no idea what that is right now.

The creature villains of this novel are most definitely Snip Snips, but I'm torn between demonic rabbits, which was in the original draft. This is something I'll have to work in.

The primary world for this novel is Escalli (water/forest world) but Simballa (desert world) is mentioned frequently, as are Baltian and Antareas (water worlds).



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Final Final Try on Stupid Novel

2011-01-25T15:38:16Z

I am getting so tired of all my noveling coming to absolutely nothing. To put another way, if I printed every version of this novel out, at this point I'd burn all the pages of each version in a ridiculously large bonfire. I am just that sick of things not working!

Well, today I realized what's been going wrong. I'm not writing the story that wants to be told. I'm trying to force an old version and a new version into a merged version where okay, I like bits and pieces of what I'm writing BUT they just don't blend. I think I need to do a total rewrite using ideas (but no copying and pasting from work I already have) from the novel Victim Hero as well as the novel Borrowed Life.

I'm not sure whether to set this novel in a fantasy human realm or a fantasy death realm, and there is a major difference as to how those stories would work. On a fantasy human realm, the concept of death is perfectly believable (the female lead, no matter which variation, is a slayer) but death after death is a weird concept and human characters have little interaction with death creatures. On a fantasy death world, death after death is a weird concept but exists on a daily basis and death creatures interact with other death creatures. The problem is, slaying would work much differently.  How, for example, would an already-dead creature/person die? Right now, the idea is that yes they can die and yes there is blood, but it's a much cleaner death and blood is more solid than liquid.  I'm thinking regeneration happens frequently, but that would make it seem like Caprice (female lead) accomplishes absolutely nothing if the thing she kills pops back up. I do think it would be more fun writing how a death world works, however. Then again, this completely destroys a lot of needed concepts. For example, Caprice becomes a cambion (thanks to human Dakada and demon Zenaro) sometime in a life. In order for that to happen, someone must be able to give birth to her. If everyone is dead, I'd think their reproductive systems wouldn't function period or normally. Maybe I could mesh my two ideas (for example, the majority of my characters are human living on a human realm, but death creatures cross over).

I'm also debating about the time period I set my novel in. I want to start out in 1990 (the year I was born, interestingly enough) and end with the novel being super duper futuristic, but there are some problems with that. The biggest is that in the second novel, royalty plays a huge role. That would mean in this novel, royalty is more than figureheads.  Okay, fair enough, but in the true 1990 I'm pretty sure most royalty wasn't all that important in the roles they were involved with.  That's what fiction's for, I guess, but it'll mean a lot of research and/or writing everything the way I want and then in ten years when this is published, hearing from readers "But that's not how it works!"  I'll have to work out my time period issues later, I think, because while it's important to the novel, it'd going to slow me down if I don't just write.

There's a million other things bothering me about this idea, but I need something to keep me busy until the day I a) go to school or b)get a REAL job .  Today, my goal is to get the first chapter mostly written. I think a good goal would be to start it out at ten pages, which I think I could do.

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Thoughts on Book Covers

2011-01-20T14:29:06Z

I am beginning to think people in the writing community (right now, authors as well as cover designers) would not be thrilled to find out I'm interested in publication, just because...okay, here's the thing. I'm critical. If I read a book, for example, I will absolutely find something that I hated or found out of place/unnecessary, whether I liked the book or not. That's why, while I have so many book review blogs I follow, none of them have completely sung to me. The reviewers seem to like everything they buy/receive, unless it was horribly written, where it becomes a Did Not Finish (DNF). This doesn't mean they give everything five stars or an A+ letter grade, but they always say something super positive about the book (whereas, if I were reviewing the book, I would say "It just sucked" and of course give my review based on why).

Today, my issue is about book covers.

I read a guest post on a blog I like and check every day that dealt with a) the author's new book and b) readers that hate the covers of her books/books in general. Here it is: http://wickedlilpixie.com/2011/01/19/making-the-best-with-emma-petersen/.  Basically, this woman has received emails from readers saying "Your cover is horrendous!" and judging the book by the cover, and she is trying to tell us don't do that. She evens it out by saying it's also not a good idea as the author to write a blog post defending your super duper beautiful world-shatteringly amazing cover (totally not her words, by the way,but I've seen other authors think of theirs covers in such a way), so props to her.

However, one thing she says in her list of ways to not react to complaints of a bad cover, and I will direct quote it, is this: 2. Insult your cover artist and/or publisher and blame them for your cover.

Okay, here's the thing that's been bothering me for a while, even before she made her post.  There are two ways you could have a horrible cover. The first way is, the cover looks awesome and beautiful, but the images on the front have zero to do with your writing. In that case, I'd follow this lady's advice because the cover art isn't going to hurt book sales any. The second way is, a professionally created cover looks like something an author could do on a basic photoshop program. Here's the thing: If I, who has never used a photoshop program in my life, could do as good or better than my cover artist, maybe they're doing something wrong.  And maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least tell them "Hey, look, I appreciate it, but this cover isn't going to appeal to people."  I don't know much about the business of being a cover artist, but I'd think they'd get a cut from every book you sold. If part of the problem is the cover, well, they're not making the money they thought they'd make and that might be a good angle to come from. Sometimes it is okay to say something isn't working.


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Thoughts and Rants on Jobs

2011-01-13T19:13:48Z

Well, since the college application is up in the air right now, I'm thinking I should look for a new job. Where I currently work, the busy season is October and you can be working a good 30 or so hours, even as a part-time employee. Otherwise, they are struggling with money. Now, I do think they cut everyone's hours when that happens, so I'm not alone, but...well, the most I've worked in the past month is 16 hours (two eight hour days).  It would be great working somewhere where 16 hours is the least amount of time I work.

Okay, there's this mainstream store I applied at once, and I'm debating applying there again. I filled out my application online as well as took a required potential employee questionnaire, where I had to answer multiple-choice questions about how would I handle tough situations. After finishing the survey, I got an email saying "We're looking for someone with more experience." Ugh, confidence killer. Well, okay, I may have butchered the questionnaire royally, I'll give them that. The thing that bothered me was on multiple occasions after I applied, I bought some clothes at this store. The salespeople sucked like no one else has ever sucked. I swear I wanted to say to them, "Well, I'm sorry I interrupted your conversation about your super fun weekend to buy some clothes at the store you work at."  Yeah, they passed me over but hired people like this! I'm not bitter at all! So anyway, on to the next place.

Today I filled out an online application to Target. I like Target (in spite of some of the things their CEO supports). The Target stores I've been in have been relatively clean and laid out very similarly to each other, and I've always been able to find something.  There's a Target within thirty minutes of where I live (actually fifteen or less, but if I take the bus it's much longer) so anyway, here's hoping.

I'd really love to work at a bookstore. In the area, there is a Barnes and Noble and a Books a Million. I love Books a Million atmoshpere wise, but I've given up on them as far as applications are concerned; it's an online application and you don't even know if the local manager received yours unless you get a phone call. I have not in the past two years received a phone call, so I'm not sure what my status is. Barnes and Noble is still the one I'm thinking of. It's closer to me and I've been going to that store as a customer longer (because it's closer; I do not discriminate against book stores). So there's that.

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Thinking on Novel Endings

2011-01-11T20:05:40Z

Couple of things spawned this post.

First, I finished my first draft of Borrowed Life and realized it was still not working. Part of the problem was just, it did not read like a real book. That's something I think I'll be struggling with for quite some time.  The bigger problem was this: The ending was rushed.  Don't get me wrong, that is the ending I want. It just felt like while the rest of the book details this character's life, the ending was one paragraph that said "So this is this and that is that. The end!" Ugh! I mean, again, it's the ending I want as far as what happens. It's just that I as the author felt ripped off. Imagine what future readers would say.

Second was this post right here: http://thebookpushers.com/2011/01/11/hea-hea-why-art-thou-happy/.  It deals specifically with the romance genre, and this thing called HEA (Happily Ever After), and this reviewer's opinion is that all romance must have an HEA and she hates any book that does not. Also, she believes that people who do not like HEAs look down on the romance genre (which I disagree with but can see where she's coming from at the same time).  Everyone who has commented agrees with this reviewer. To be honest, I'm a bit scared to share my opinion because it is VERY dissenting. But I will share it here because it's relevant to what I'm writing about book endings.

Here's the thing: I want a believable ending. If you have all this buildup throughout a series and the ending fizzles out, for example, I will most likely take that book and chunk it against the nearest wall.  Can we talk plot twists here, as well? Because I'm all for a good plot twist, but not at the very end when there was no evidence throughout the book/series to support it. And as you might've guessed, if this happens I will take that book and chunk it through the nearest wall. Now let's get specific-ish, because there have been some fantabulous books that have been ruined by one little topic. Okay, although I'm not really interested in reading about characters having kids, sometimes it happens. Fair enough. However, the ending I think I hate most is the one where after you have a character who okay, wants a family and is okay with their pregnancy and so on, ends up with three or more kids and...that's their happy ending. No no no, not even that. I mean, I hate the idea that it can't be the things the character has accomplished/overcome that is the happy ending, it's that they have kids, I hate it very much. It's that characters you think would not want kid after kid after kid (or heck, kids in general)...does that and that's their happy ending. But that is just my personal gripe. In short, the ending must be believable.

This reviewer says she feels that a downer ending is a way to mess with the readers. Hmmmmm, I find that interesting she says this, because I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum. I feel like a happy ending (particularly when it is not justified) does the same thing. Now, I will give her some props (or, uh, not really sure of the word) and say that I don't like a downer ending like "Rocks fall and everyone dies."  Like, that exact phrase.   Um, okay, so WHY were we reading this series if that's the ending we get?

I could be completely biased on this topic because I'm more of a horror (well, used to be, before it became hard to find books in the genre)/urban fantasy fan than a romance fan. See, I like reading a book where I don't know the ending. I could guess, but that doesn't mean I'd be right. If I know that the two lead characters are going to end up together and everything will be sappy-happy, then why am I reading the book?  Here I'll add that there's one good thing about the paranromal romance subgenre (and there's other stuff too, but this is the one that jumps out most), and that is this:  There must be a strong emphasis on the paranormal as well as the romance. I love reading about supernatural stuff. Therefore, I'll probably enjoy the paranormal aspects. So, there is that. Still, my main thing is that I want to be kept guessing, and have to follow the story to know how it ends.

Okay, so those are the two things.

Now I'm wondering, how would you react to an ending where the main character, who you expect to die (whether it's because of a prophecy or because they have a high-risk job or...fill in the blank) and who had come close to it before, does die?

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Outline for Downward Spiral Novel

2011-01-03T20:33:22Z

Well, I have some fantabulous non-novel related news! I pulled it together and applied for college! I have no idea if I'll get accepted, but they seem to take everyone so...let's just say if I'm rejected, I'll be super duper sad. So, there's that.

Now on with the outlining. Downward Spiral (please ignore the bad html work; my laptop froze on me right here) is the second novel in my currently-unpublished Caprice Ruelo trilogy and I honestly believe I can write it. These are some names and notes I've written specifically for this novel, and I'd love to throw away the napkin I wrote them on, so here we go.

Names and Significance
Dakada: Caprice Ruelo/Caprice Dakaetri's biological mother. Succubus and founder of an unnamed race of people. Former buddy of Marria Salzana, evil queen of Escalli and two other planets (currently not sure which ones they are, but probably one is Baltian). Formerly married to Zenaro (demon), currently living with Kaetrini (Caprice's "aunt", big, long, boring background history). In and out of sanity for this entire novel.

Kaetrini: Caprice Ruelo's "aunt"/stepmother if the rules of Escalli weren't so traditional. Demon. Slayer.  Quick to anger, even if you're Caprice/other family, so watch out. Hates Marria, has an evening job that involves unraveling her rule. Is always armed with some sort of weapon (will come up with what her favorite is).

Note: Caprice Ruelo is Caprice Ruelo from Zenaro Ruelo (in that lifetime, as well as Caprice Ruelo from Marcell Ruelo in a previous lifetime) and Caprice Dakaetri from a blended name of her biological and step mothers. This is important later on.

Sansone: Caprice's human father. Note that Caprice, as a cambion, has four parents. Not particularly signifcant, other than a brief conversation with Caprice at a birthday/costume ball.

Nikolina: Caprice's human mother. Snobby, had to be paid off to give birth to Caprice. Gets eaten by a Snip Snip, and the world is so much better for it.

Eriko: Demon. Met Caprice Ruelo in her borrowed life. Is the entity that almost tempts Caprice to the side of evil just because he can. Black hair with blonde streaks. Torn black wings. Dresses in tight clothes. Nearly kills Caprice at a school she went to for a few years (haven't come up with how, but it was a close call).

Raiden:  Demon. Somehow tied to Caprice.

Vasilic: Demon. Somehow tied to Caprice. Is incompetent, which will eventually be a plot point.

Janique: Beautiful human Caprice meets at a school. Wears a lot of ice blue. Janique is one of the few white/blonde characters, which makes perfect sense in context (based on where she lives) and is one way I think this novel will be different from a lot of novels in the genre I'm writing in. I'm split on this next part. Janique is either sugar and spice, mostly sugar, and internally hates Caprice but acts all nice to her...or Janique tries to kill Caprice and acts all nice to everyone else so they don't believe she's so horrible. Either way will come to the same conclusion.

Avianca: Interesting story behind this character. Avianca used to be Caprice's slayer name, but in light of Caprice not acting or sounding like an Avianca, the name was freed up.  The new Avianca is the old Valetta.  Okay, so the confusing parts are out of the way. Now then. *Takes a deep breath* Avianca is super duper beautiful. Like, model beautiful but everything is completely natural. She knows she's super duper beautiful and is a big snob because of it. She's also rich, so even more big snobbery going on. A lot of people dislike/loathe/want to kill her for being horrible without any pay off, so there's that. There's a lot more concerning her, but, well, it's convoluted and not well planned out yet, but because these are notes to myself as well as everyone else, I'll eventually get around to talking about it.

Overview of Downward Spiral
This novel follows Caprice from birth to age sixteen, when she leaves an absolutely wrecky school situation. Last scene is of Caprice sitting on a hilly...hill, being moody and reflective and panicking over where she's going to end up. being strong and independent can only take you so far. Before any of that garbage, Caprice is shuffled from Nikolina's mansion to Toriaun's vacation home to a run-down house owned by the worst women in the world to the wrecky school/good school (they happen at the same time, especially towards the end of the novel). In the process of all these dramatics, Caprice is thrust into the position of slayer/leasher by an improbably entity (either Excellon, the demon king in the dream world or Charillo, a merman (basically) that took residence in her head a thousand good years ago and wants in again).  She's no more than twelve when this happens, but she's no younger than when she started in the first novel. Because she's already slayed and leashed, it comes more natural to her. So, instead of origin scenes, we see Caprice slaying and leashing and all that good stuff. Meanwhile, the evil queen Marria is power hungry and does a bunch of nasty things in the name of getting more power, which is problematic because she already rules a bunch of things and everyone's already terrified of her. So there are scenes of her and what she does. In order to develop her character, as well as a big bombshell for the third novel, Marria is obsessed with a woman named Dakada (Caprice's mother).  Other than the name Dakada mentioned often (and that I already spoiled Dakada being friends with Marria a long long long long long time ago...oops) there's no good indication of what the relationship is. Also, we re-meet Toriaun, who is a much older character now and is obsessed over the Caprice Ruelo from the first novel. He meets new Caprice Ruelo and things go downhill from there. Hence the name Downward Spiral. A lot of other things happen (maybe) and I'll be working that out as I go.

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Short Thoughts on Novel Chapter

2010-12-23T17:22:45Z

Well, I have been making progress on this chapter in Borrowed Life.

So, I'm writing this particular chapter, called "Caprice Gets Wet" which I swear is nothing dirty. Female lead Caprice, a slayer-in-training, encounters all sorts of demonic sea creatures, hence the "wet" aspect. I'm specifically at the part where Caprice has just met a giant octopus (who insists that everyone call him Valero, his name) and her slayer instructor freaks out. Because apparently, giant octopi can't be slayed. They can, however, be leashed. So he says "Hey Caprice, we're changing out format from slaying to leashing. Isn't that exciting?" Caprice rages because this is not what she signed up for. Things happen (sorry, it's a boring part). Then we see how a friend of Caprice reacts to the news. Hint: he burns the school down.

Now for the thoughts, because these are new.

1. I want to add a bit more detail to Caprice's experience with the giant octopus. He wouldn't be a problem unless her slaying instructor knows their past history (one million or so years previous to this, a younger Valero tortured skeleton entity Caprice). Right now I have the bare bones (which I'm happy with) but I want to tell an actual story. So, here's what I'm thinking: The instructor, who threatened everyone with leashing instead of slaying, isn't entirely sure it's the right decision. So he gets a segment devoted to investigation of Valero, and learning from the source (Valero) that a version of Caprice was once his prisoner. There will be some detail of what Caprice went through, as well as the instructor making a threat to Valero (like "Leave my student alone or I'll slay you myself!" even while he knows you can't slay a giant octopus).

2. Caprice has a dream sequence about the school being burned down. Instead of the demonic creature in her dream being a random character I threw together just for that, I should change him to a demonic version of the guy burning the school.

3. I need to name these three armed pointy starfish things that come in later (besides my "three armed pointy starfish things" name I currently have). It's great for word count (this was initially a NaNo novel) but now I'm writing it for eventual publication. So, a name is needed.

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New Ending for Novel!

2010-12-17T12:07:17Z

Mostly this is a note to self post, but I'm more than willing to share. And hey, if anyone's writing a novel and want to take some ideas from the old version, help yourself.

So, the old version is this: Caprice (female lead) has discovered lust/love at eighteen. Turns out, her spirit guide has been manipulating her body which also manipulates her mind, and she's not really feeling those things. Whether it's real or not, she acts on that by moving in with a guy she "loathes". All the while she's suspicious of him (this guy, Toriaun, has a whole family of essentially serial killers), but who's she to question him and find out for sure? Things don't pan out and she once again becomes a free woman. At age twenty-one, she reunites with him over her job (which is specifically demon-slaying, where he is a demon owner). Once again, she moves in with him. Because her thoughts and body isn't entirely her own, more lust/love ensues.

The new version will explain things better as well as hopefully tell a good piece of the story. Caprice used to be a skeleton spirit (basically, a "living" "breathing" self functioning entity) on the spirit realm, but she wanted a human body and being sent down to the human realm. In order for that to happen, her self-appointed spirit guide had to devote all his time to controlling her human body. Because the life she's living is very temporary, as Caprice is beat over the head with. All that is explained in earlier pieces of the novel. The new information is that up to age eighteen, Caprice's body switched genders every five hours or so. She never got used to it and wanted a set gender. Her spirit guide was able to make that happen, but in doing so, it changed her personality in major ways. The old version of discovering lust/love comes into play here.  We go back to the new version, where Caprice has much better control of herself.  She can lust and love, but when she's suspicious of Toriaun, she's more than willing to investigate.  Yep, she was right to be suspicious. While they're an ideal couple in Toriaun's head and Caprice sometimes wonders what would've happened if Toriaun wasn't a crazy serial killer like the rest of his family, their real-life relationship goes nowhere.  Then the meeting him again at age twenty-one does happen and it ends with him thinking she's too tied to her job (demon slaying/leashing) and her thinking he's a total waste of flesh.  Demon-based issues come up (to be honest, I haven't thought out the new version for what they are), and the chapter ends with Caprice moving into the demon realm.

Basically, I'm getting the story back to its original concept. There is eventually a relationship of sorts between Caprice and Toriaun (it's creepy) and other characters have genuine romantic relationships, but this trilogy is not supposed to be a romance.  It's also not going to be horror fantasy (assuming that's a real thing) and that's unfortunate, but you have to make sacrifices and go with it.  Genre woes aside, when I initially came up with the idea, it deeply involved supernatural creatures and all that slaying/leashing was kind of essential (as opposed to, it sounds cool, it makes Caprice appear tough when she isn't, the usual stuff you'd find in some fantasy subgenres). If I use this particular journal as a guide, I think I can make this a decently usable first draft.


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Plans for my NaNo Novel

2010-12-12T17:21:25Z

Well, earlier in this blog I outlined stuff I was writing for the third book in a trilogy and then a little later how I was going to merge that trilogy into a new trilogy (since the female leads were the exact same character and I liked both of them). Well, during the month of November, I went to work on the merged novel. You know how NaNoWriMo is supposed to be about reaching word count and the first draft doesn't have to be anywhere near perfect? I did things a bit differently. My first draft had to be usable. A lot of pieces of said novel will be edited, but the ideas are solid. So that's where I left off in my novel bloggings.

Here's the new news. After reading some different urban fantasy/paranormal romance book blogs and got a feel for what was out there (although I do read urban fantasy, I am very particular about what I buy) I determined something about the creatures I write about. First of all, I've been going about it the "wrong" way, if you believe some of the blog commenters. According to them, if you are writing about creatures that have ties to religion (angels, demons, other similar things) then your book must absolutely beat readers over the head with religion.

See, I don't believe in doing that. For many reasons, starting with this one: I don't like being beat over the head with an idea. I don't mind reading something once or twice so I hear it and then it's confirmed, but I do not want every five pages to be about "Oh, readers, in case you forgot what I told you in the last five pages...*Infodump, infodump, infodump*" Writers I like have done this, and eventually I just skip over it. Surprise surprise, I got it the first time.

And also, since I'm not particularly religious myself, I don't think I should be telling my readers "Hey readers, you need to believe in this because it's good and I'm writing about these creatures that have ties to it..." No, no, no.  Being beat over the head about anything is bad enough, but I particularly hate being beat over the head with preachiness.  I have no issues reading about religious stuff, but I don't want to find out after finishing that the whole point of the book is that it's trying to convert me. No, can't do it.

So, all this rage leads me up to the way I'm handling my own creatures. So, I write about demons. And I write about those demons as part of a religion. And yes, they tend to be evil (except the really ineffectual ones, and I want to focus more on one in particular in the second novel). And yes, they have their own leader who exists to cause problems for humans. But *TWIST* it is a fantasy-world religion, and there is no message I'm trying to push.  The same goes for the spirit guides and god.  In fact, I'd like to note that my spirit guides aren't necessarily good entities. They're basically humans (appearance wise, do have emotions and sometimes consciences, that good stuff) who just so happen to have a bit more power and live in the spirit realm. And being basically human means sometimes you do what you want. So, sometimes there are evil or deeply misguided spirit guides. It's part of my novel, not me trying to convert anyone.  So now I expect anyone reading this to run away screaming because god forbid a writer uses religion-based creatures in a fantasy world doing fantasy-world things.

And as a quick related-ish aside, I'm not entirely sure how to handle my stupid female lead.  I hate her. I hate her with everything in me. She's supposed to be flawed, but I mean I HATE her. She's just a bad character.  Well, that's where I stand on her right now.

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Reviewing VS Attacking: People, Learn the Difference!

2010-12-06T17:35:39Z

I read an article today that made me, well, not really mad, but kind of unhappy. The article began quite well: When a reviewer reviews a book, they need to be honest. It continued in a decent vein (while I disagreed with the statement made, it was valid and backed up): Writers should be more than allowed to respond to reviews about their own books. The conclusion of the piece bothered me: Writers should never ever be personally attacked. In fact, there are some writers that are so immature and nasty to everyone that doesn't think their writing is absolute gold that maybe a (accurate) personal attack is appropriate. But the thing that bothered me most about the conclusion was the comments it spawned.

One commenter said, not necessarily word for word, that it is never okay to attack and author OR her writing. Excuse me? If a book is horribly written , then I see no need to say "Well, I didn't like it, but it wasn't for me." That writer would do well hearing "Well, I did enjoy this piece (because as the conventional reviewing wisdow states, you should always start with a compliment) but these ten (or whatever number) things kept me from enjoying this book. Granted, this method is in no ways an attack. I most definitely would not start a review with "You suck!" even if that was how I felt (I hate to admit it, but there are those few books and authors I am not at all impressed with) and do not recommend anyone doing it.

The thing that bothers me most about this person's comment is that they don't seem to understand that being honest and blunt is not an attack.  Because as long as you can back up your statements and you're not diving into personal insults that have no tie to what you read (accurate personal "insults" are a different case) I see no problems with the review.

Now, I have to go back to what the article said about writers should be allowed/welcomed, even to respond to reviews of their books.

Some of the authors I like actually do this, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. If they're saying "Thank you reviewer!" it almost sounds like "Thank you for the ego-stroking!" If they're saying "Well, yeah, if you knew anything about my books you'd know why your review is so wrong" then it makes the author look immature/not that great.  I do appreciate author responses where they clear things up for reviewers, because that's kind of like the "If you knew anything about my books..." but instead of telling the reviewer how horrible they are for "misjuging" the writing, they give them useful information for future reference.  In fact, one reason why I (used to) avoid my favorite authors' websites was, I didn't want to find out they were jerky when responding to questions/comments/interviewer questions. Turns out, most of the authors I like are reasonable people who handle praise and criticism well, so that was a pleasant discovery.

In short, there was this article and its comments that didn't quite do it for me.

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On Bullying and Being Unique

2010-11-29T19:44:04Z

While I was reading my Twitter feed, I came across a link to an article, written by an author I like (most of the time, but it totally depends on what book of hers I'm reading). So she was talking about being bullied as a child and how it affected her. Powerful stuff. Here's the link in case anyone wants to read for themselves: http://www.deadlinedames.com/?p=5192#comments. I highly recommend it. In reading the comments (don't worry there's nothing nasty there) I was reminded of something I recently talked to my dad about.

First of all, I want to share something completely related to this. When I was youngish (thirteen or fourteen) I absolutely loved having my hair cut short and wearing boys clothing (baggy cargo pants in awesome colors like dark olive green, baggy shirts with super-cool, somewhat edgy designs). The only thing I hated was that sometimes when I'd be in a more traditional-roles state, people would say "Sir? Sir? Can I take your order?" and I'd say "Oh, uh, I'm not a sir." Give or take that last sentence; sometimes I'd just ignore them until a family member would say "Jess? They're talking to you." Oops. So there was that. Other than people genuinely mistaking my gender, I loved it.  Because nobody else was doing it (my school was kind of traditional-roles, too, as well as everyone being about the name brands and being hot and...well, you get the idea).

Here's the thing I learned. Being yourself is so not worth it when you're a teenager.  Because if you didn't follow what was "in" and if you didn't look like everyone else (even in a school that claimed/still claims to be multiculture and such, I stood out a little...and unfortunately/fortuantely-depending on where I am and how I feel about myself in general-I can't easily change skin color) and if you did your own thing and if you just weren't normal...problems, problems. People do not readily accept you.  In all fairness, these were people I knew for a good eight or so years in other grades and some of them just didn't like me anyway. So there is that. But still, it is hard being a teenager.

Long story short, a lot of people just thought I was weird and ignored me. A few people went out of their way to say "Ewwwww! She is like so ugly!" and I direct quote that. Even friends thought I was a bit wonky, but the majority of them do not count because they kind of had a point.  It was not a great three years.

And then on the high school level, slowly but surely I grew out of my wanting to be different. I became a little more like everyone around me.  The people I preferred hanging out with were out of the usual folks (drama kids, artists, writers...basically, my definition of cool people) but that happened because being a little weird/a little different is part of my personality. While I didn't do a total 180, I made some major changes (some in the name of wanting to be accepted again).

This brings me back to what I was telling my dad.

Me: So as you can see, it isn't easy being different when you're a teen. You have to be hot and cool and you can't be anything different because that's bad.
Dad: Some teens don't think that.
Me (completely in my own head): Yeah? Then how come I was so stupid miserable in middle school (the year I dressed like a guy)?

In this author's article, she says that being bullied is not your fault and you should speak out. Because, you may be thinking it's acceptable behavior and you're supposed to take it with a smile, but in truth it is not at all appropriate.

I'd like to add to that (I can't, obviously, it's her piece and it's a fantabulous piece as it is, but if I could...) that being bullied causes issues even after you're long out of middle school/high school. I, for one, am terrified of being around people and trying to make friends, because I worry that I'll hear a variation of "Ewwwww! She is like so ugly!" As my dad says "You're a grown woman! You are not in middle school anymore!" Yeah, but I was at one point, and it was not pleasant.  And it really does leave an impression on you, whether you're still in middle school (or high school or college or wherever) or two-plus years out.

Want to know something interesting, though?  Today if I was to do the same thing I did in middle school (wear boys clothes, cut my hair real short) I would be much more accepted.  Because it seems that being older (I'm 20 and working, but I'm also that age when I could've been almost through college) makes you less likely to care what people think (because you like what you're wearing and maybe, depending on the day, how you look) and people care a lot less about how you look anyway.

Except maybe your boss, and that is a completely different story.

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