Vatican Cameos

Hello again. It's been a momentous few days.

I have had thoughts in those days, and nearly come to the end of another gothic romance. It is all written except for the epilogue, where the story is wound up, love declared, satisfaction guaranteed. I am feeling all sorts of feelings. I will try to rein them in enough to make a semi-meaningful blog post.

The fabulous Lara Pulver (Irene Adler on Sherlock) linked to this fabulous thing, either written or answered by John C. Reilly at The Guardian. In it, he says this:

Every person is the star of their life story. No one goes through the world thinking: "Well, I'm just a cameo." So even if a character has just one scene, I have to do it right. I've got to come up with their whole world view.

I know that Stephen King has said something very similar about characters in stories, but I've never been able to find the exact words. But it is something that he is amazing at, and something I appreciated even as a kid, before I knew I would want to be a writer, before I even knew what it was to be a discriminating reader. He introduces you to someone and you are there. Even when he breaks away from the people you've come to know and love (I'm thinking The Stand or Needful Things -which are filled with vignettes of random people living their lives, being affected by the plot, but not part of the larger story) and he grounds it in reality. You go down the paths he clears for you without question.

Because he treats them all like the stars of the story.

I think the same goes for villains, and it's something I struggled with in my writing when I began. My villains didn't have meat on their bones. They were just the bad guys. But that doesn't work. They have to be people. They can't think of themselves as the bad guys. They have to think their goal is either the right one, or the more righteous. 

These are just the things I've been thinking about. That, and the end of the book. It's been too long. I will be glad to be done with it and then I have to figure out which book I go on to edit. I have two really good things, one questionable, and one viable, but not agent or big house worthy. It's a genre problem. 

Onward my friends. Hate to drop science on you and run, but I have a full docket today. And an epilogue to contemplate. Happy writing and reading.

Post Valentine's Report

For those of you just emerging from their chocolate-induced comas, I welcome you back to the slick horror of reality! And to my Four-Day-Write-A-Thon. Or something like it. I'm hoping to finish this damn thing in less than four days, actually, but regardless, I do have four days off from work and need to spend them wisely.

The book I thought would take about 90k to complete is now at 114k and in need of a few more scenes. The main character and her cousin are currently partially incapacitated by drugs, in a flaming dining room, with a cracked beam immediately over their heads. In other words, not quite done, but we are at the ... flaming dining room scene I always knew would be there, so we are very, very, tantalizingly near the end. The smokey, charry, charyou tree*, end.

*link

It can't come too soon.

Even though I hate coming to the end. I'm not tired of the book, I don't hate it or the characters. That's why I don't want to write. Why I write maybe a day a week and then go days and days without writing. Gah. It's terrible. Does anyone else do this? I don't want to write The End. I don't want to say goodbye to my friends.

This has already taken three months longer to write than it should have. And that makes me mad and sad. I wish I was better at sticking to my goals. Oh well. Onward and upward. I will be writing and/or editing every day this weekend. I will keep you posted.

I got 2k today, one blog post, three music videos listened to on Youtube, and now for some food! Stay motivated, Fearless Readers.

I need a do over

This week has been shit.

And I have no one to blame but myself. This whole week I’ve been a zombie. Stumbling to work after 4 hours of sleep. Stumbling home, intending to do good works…and falling prey to the siren song of my lush and purple bed. 

I’m talking about naps, my friends.

Long, luxurious ones where you wake up and don’t know where you are or what time of day it is. Is it time to get up and shower, or get up and eat dinner? The kind where you slipped under the covers because you were tired and cold, and you wake a little too warm, with only one sock and slightly damp. Those kinds of naps.

After searching for my missing sock amidst the bedclothes, and sometimes more tired and stiff than I went to sleep, I don’t have the wherewithal to write.  I am too muzzy headed, and/or I get sucked into the Netflix stream and never come out, not going to bed until 1:30 or 2:00 am, because thanks to my ill-timed slumber, I am not tired. And getting into bed doesn’t mean I’m going to stay there. Last night, after getting in bed at 1:30 am, I woke an hour later to the hurking,  lurging of one of Cricket’s more splash-worthy upchuckings. Being aware there is drying cat barf somewhere in your apartment is not conducive to sweet dreams. 

 I’ve kept up (mostly) with my daily poetry challenge and blog posts are written well in advance. But the novel has been at a standstill.

This is totally unacceptable.

I can’t write like this. I’m completely miserable. I have to change that this weekend.

My boss asked me about my writing today. I was assuring her I was still actively writing, and talked a little about my book blog and my online writer’s board (Absolute Write). She was saying how it’s good to have a passion. I wanted to say something about how I’d probably do a kamikaze off the roof if I didn’t have my writing to keep me somewhat sane. But you don’t say those kinds of things in polite company. 

So instead, I'll say it on the internet. And thank you people while I'm at it. You know who you are. You encourage me. You may, or may not, understand me, but you act like you do. And you don't judge me. Or at least not to my face. Thank you all. Now, let's go have a better week.

Things I need to know at 2 AM

I read somewhere that you never have to edit what you write at 2 a.m. 

I’ve gotten out of bed a few times in my life to write something down. I have no idea where it’s going or what’s going to happen, I just hear a voice talking in my head. It’s my job to get up and write down what it says. It’s like channeling. I’ve only completed one story from one of these, as Tolkien put it, bolts of lightening out of a clear blue sky. I assume the rest of the story will show up one day, or the other stories wanting to be written will step aside, and that bolt of lightning's time will have come.

I currently have a world that wants to be written about, but rather than emerging, fully armored, from the top of my head like Athena burst forth from Zeus’s, it's coming in tiny bursts of static instead of a bolt of lightening. Sometimes, I hear conversations, sometimes I just get bits of information, for instance, the vampires in this world are not the sexy heroes I like. They’re old school vamps and their physical appearance changes depending on how much they’ve fed. The hungrier they are, the scarier. These are the things I need to know at 2 am. At least according to the muse.

I keep a notebook next to my bed. It’s not for writing down ideas, it’s to catch my dreams in a net of words. I have crazy, Technicolor dreamscapes rather than regular human dreams. I’m convinced they are of importance, and keep them in a journal for when Cthulhu calls on me to testify. The problem is, I might remember a dream in the morning, but by the time I get around to writing it down, it’s a pale version of itself or I’ve forgotten it altogether. But, with just a few words scribbled upon waking, I can remember most of the dream. I assume the tactile act of writing helps me remember, it carves something on my synapses so I don’t forget. But there are times when I’ve looked at the list and remembered something that had completely slipped my mind. It’s usually something incredibly important, like the coat color of the dog chasing me. This is not true of those bolts of lightning.

If I don’t get up and write down what I hear, the rhythm of the words, the phrasing, the magic, is lost, even with a net of words scribbled in the notebook. I look at what I’ve written, and there is no synaptic sparkle. I wonder... What was special about a shock of hair over an eyebrow? Why did that belong on the first page of a story? That’s like 2nd chapter stuff. What are you doing? What did you drink before you went to bed?

This morning as I lay awake, enjoying the fact it is Saturday and I can get up whenever I damn well please, I heard the heroine of the world trying to be born start to speak in my head. It was the first few sentences in a short story, and the first that I’ve heard narrated from her point of view. It was not the great big googeldygoo I imagine wants to be born, the grand sweeping epic. Maybe that was why I neglected to write it down. I scribbled a few useless words to try and remember the gist of what it was, but not in the exact words as I heard them. And now, they are gone forever.

I hereby swear, by the muse, that if she should every speak in my lazy, traitorous head again, I will get up from my bed, not just rise, but BOUND like a gazelle, to my desk and write down every preposition, every exhalation of breath that she sends in my direction. I don't care what time it is, or what day it is, or how late I went to bed. I don't care how grand the story is, if there is coffee or not, if I feel like it or how cold it is. I will not take the words of the muse for granted. If I do, may she turn me into a lollipop and put me in a tobacco chewer's mouth.

So help me, Odin.

Jesus, Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, too.

New Book Review Blog

I am sure this will delight Blogger no end....

I have started a book review blog on Wordpress. Uh. Again.

I tried this before, and made it such a pain in the ass that I stuck to it all of a month and a half. This time, I am just going to make it free and easy. It's reviews of books I've read, celebrations of author's birthdays, discussion of books I can't wait to come out, that sort of thing. It will be all over the place. For instance, here is a sample of my Goodreads shelves.

Apocalypse
Classic
Classic - Mystery
Contemporary - Literature
Epic-fantasy
Erotica
Fantasy
Fantasy-romance
Gothic
Gothic-Historical
Gothic - Modern
Historical - fantasy
Historical - romance (the vast majority of this is actually Regency Romance)
Horror
Horror - classic
Paranormal - romance
Science fiction
Science fiction - romance
Steampunk
Urban Fantasy

Right now, the next few reviews will be Tiffany Allee's Lycan Unleashed, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and most likely, the first three books of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles... I don't know if I am going to do one post for all three books, or individual ones. I got the bundle as a library book, can't renew it, and have until February 8th to read all three of them. I better go read.

This blog ain't goin' nowhere. I am still writing away. I'm over 100k on Nocturnelle (my gothic romance) and still going. Clearly, it's going to be more than 90k. I really floundered, and whole chunks of this badboy have to be re-written. But I continue. I will finish it. I will edit Vampire Baron and Dreadlight over February and March. I will soldier on. I will be seeking agents. Agents of the world: gird your loins.

Writers: Write on.

Readers: Come on my magical journey with me. 
Books with BettieLee... All manner of bookery

The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013

I've decided to move this challenge to my new book review blog, Books With BettieLee, on Wordpress. I've changed the dates I'll be posting as well. Click here to read the updated post.

I previously mentioned that I am doing a few challenges this year. One of them is the brainchild of the Austenprose blog. Here is the post with the official-ly rules and such. The impetus is the 200th Anniversary of Pride and Prejudice. The idea is to read and review Pride and Prejudice itself, or the prequels, sequels, re-tellings, variations, books, movies, miniseries, etc. and then review them on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, you can leave your review in the comments in the review posts at Austenprose. If you wish to participate, please read the original post and follow the instructions. There are prizes and everything!

The first thing to do is to pick the level of participation you want to commit to:  Neophyte: 1 – 4 selections, Disciple: 5 – 8 selections, Aficionada: 9 – 12 selections. I'm going full on Aficionada. :) Below are my selections, linking to descriptions on Goodreads or IMDB, and the date the deliciousness will hit the bloggery. I'm going mainly with books, except for the one movie choice in February. I can't talk enough about Matthew MacFadyen as Mr. Darcy

There is nothing sexier than a tall, surly, dark-haired Englishman. Heathcliff. Mr. Rochester. Mr. Thornton... oh Mr. Thornton. But Mr. Darcy is the archetype... I blame PBS for this unnatural predilection.

January 31 – Pride and Prejudice, the original! Jane Austen

Feb 28 – Pride and Prejudice – The Movie starring Keira Knightly 2005

March 31 – Georgiana Darcy’s Diary – Anna Elliott

April 30 – The Phantom of Pemberley: A Pride and Prejudice Murder Mystery – Regina Jeffers

May 31 – Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues – Linda Berdoll

June 30 – Mr. Darcy’s Diary – Amanda Grange

July 31 – Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One – Sharon Lathan

August 31 – The Darcy’s of Pemberley: The Continuing Story of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice – Shannon Winslow

September 31 – Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Sethe Grahame-Smith

October 31 – Death Comes to Pemberley – P.D. James

November 30 – Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen – Sybil G. Brenton

December 31 – To Be Determined…..

Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite books. Can you believe it was the only Jane Austen book I read for years and years? I was afraid the others wouldn't hold up. I tend to cling to the familiar. At some point I kicked myself in the metaphorical keister and read all of them. I promptly regretted my foolishness. I've probably gone on to love Northanger Abbey as much as P&P. I just recently read my first Austen-sequel, and it was a continuation of Catherine and Henry Tilney's adventures. A proper gothic romance. I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to a year of the Darcy's... I tried to pick "fan favorites" or those that tend to the dark and mysterious.... mwah ha ha! I'm ending the year (at least so far as I have mapped out) where it began - the first Austen sequel written in 1919. I am even going to read that damn zombie book.... Don't judge me.

363 Poem Challenge

So, some crazy lady on the internet (I'm looking at you, Pauline Campos! ) who has a child, twitters quite a lot and, besides the blog for Aspiring Mama I linked to above, also has a blog called GirlBodyPride that's all about women not hating themselves and their bodies (imagine that...) posted a link to  Schmutzie . com  - wherein was mentioned a 365 day poetry challenge.

My little ears pricked up.

I write poetry. And like Schmutzie, my poetry output over the last few years has been teeny tiny. I used to write poetry several times a week - not producing daily poems, but working on them was part of my life. I kept journals solely for my creations. I sat down, consistently, with the intention of developing a poem. I fear that my poetry output has been WAY less than 8 a year.* I only sit down and write one now when they come screaming up out of the abyss at me, and the abyss doesn't scream that much. As a matter of fact, the most recent journal entitled "Poetry" by yours truly was begun in 2005. It has 16 poems in it.

I am not going to do that math.

I decided, though it was January 3rd, that I would begin this challenge. Not a 365 day challenge, but a "Write a Poem Every Single Day in 2013" challenge. So I'll be doing a 363 day poem challenge. :) And I won't be boring you with it online. *cheers from the peanut gallery* It's a personal thing, you see. I've done well - I only missed one day. I have to admit, I'm not all that crazy about many of the poems, but I'm trying not to beat myself up over it. I'm also struggling with my prose, so I'm trying not to stress out over the poems.

Ok. Ok. I will hit you up with a taste. I am reading Lord of the Rings, and I saw The Hobbit, and this little gem was written on Jan 10th. It is untitled.

Untitled

Hey ho, hobbit roll.
Dwarf bellow.
Elf stroll.
Wind and rain
and mud and sloe.
Forest, hillside, meadow, hole.
Goblin. Orc. Troll.

*Edited to make sense: Schmutzie said she had counted her poetic output and found it came to approx. 8 a year. I guess I should have made that clear.