A Writer's Life is Making the Most Out of the Universe

I am having so much fun!

I knew world building for a novel was great, but universe building is even better. You may have noticed the additions to the Legacy Universe. I love mythology, so I am creating my own for this extended universe of different stories, characters, and supernatural elements. 

It is fun. 

I am also outlining some counterintelligence novels. Often in a universe we see only the effects of the antagonist, I want to get to know them. Should we feel empathy for the bad guys? Or, pity? 

My characters have already been showing me and talking to me in a creative sense, not a "need medication" sense. I believe there are some good scenes in the works. I am brainstorming plot lines and other scenarios as I go along.

Likewise, I have to refocus my efforts. I have been doing chores to get ready for winter. Energy efficient curtains for the back door, shopping for the house, and just regular stuff that needs to be done. That means I have to budget time for writing. I do need to sit down and make some time to write more.

And, do you like the book cover designs? Some will be revised and polished down the line, but you get the idea. 

I love being artfully creative. You should see my Tshirts! 

Anyway, I am planning out my strategy. Now, if I could get help with my chores! 

A writer's life. I wouldn't change it for the world. 

Have a great and wonderful day.

On the Road... Again, Maybe...

I used to travel. ComicCon this time of year, I would jaunt over to San Diego. I would go here and I would go there. Every place was a new adventure. 

Now disabled with a collapsed immune system, everyday has become the adventure.

It is days like this one I wish the adventure would stop and I could get off the ride for a breather. If I need a day off every once and awhile, then my characters might feel thus inclined as well. Characters are supposed to be people too.

Our imaginary friends, the characters in our stories, must be treated as though their lives were real in order to maintain continuity within the scope of our world building scheme. If we have a personal life, then our characters have a personal life. If we go to work, then our characters should have some sort of career. If we go on vacation, well, shouldn't our characters too get a day off? 

I may be sick in bed with food poisoning from an onion I ate, but I can still use this situation as a character driven application. Because if we are using the schema that characters are people too, then someone is going to be reading about food poisoning in the near future in a story that I will write. 

But for today, I am going to rest. I am not well enough for the tilt-a-whirl.  Maybe tomorrow I will feel like riding around again.

Have a great and wonderful day.

Total Eclipse of the Sun

Is it safe to come back out again? The sun surely did. 

For tens of thousands of years, humankind has been awe inspired by the natural clockwork of our sun, satellite, solar system, and constellations. So when time and tide collide, humans gather to experience the unimaginable. 

Humans get to suspend their belief in order to believe. A strange dichotomy of two opposing forces of anticipation creates the push and pull of fulfillment and anxiety. The fruition of a dream and a nightmare are made reality. 

As humans retire to bed with the eclipse imagery dancing in their heads, we must ask what dreams were inspired by the experience? Did the eclipse inspire a genius? A writer? An actor? Scientist? 

When writers imagine their plot lines and characters, then take a moment to recall that place inside you that experienced the eclipse. A writer has to write on the knife's edge of suspended belief and the belief of belief as well as between fulfillment and anxiety. 

So as writers stay awake a few more minutes to savor the day, remember also to savor the feeling. For writers write with an understanding that their stories are unimaginable suspended belief of a story that becomes real to the reader experiencing it in the moment. 

Have a great and wonderful day.

Storytelling: Character Development

When I am in writer's forums and groups, I see concerns about how to write believable characters. 

One of the exercises I like to employ is writing in fanfiction. Every once and awhile, another person's universe intrigues me. I have written for Babylon 5, which is online. It needs a good polishing but I can still live with it. 

In that universe, I can play with characters. I can use the already made universe to stretch my writing muscles without having to do all the heavy lifting. I can see how close I can come to recreating the characters of someone else. 

I make note of my thought processes. What do I need? What am I missing? How close can I get? 

I then take what I learned trying to mimic and apply those lessons to my own creative world building. 

I implement the same brainstorming ideas to develop original characters in a universe I created from scratch.

Writers can use any character out of literature or film they wish to try their hand in character development. 

That is one exercise, but character development is a more involved process than one exercise. To make three-dimensional characters, a writer has to take the time. Write a description. Give your character some real life quirks. Don't make your characters perfect. 

And, have fun with your characters. Show their sense of humor, pet peeves, phobias. A character should reflect the time and place s/he is being written for. So take different aspects of people and a little of yourself, a character needs to be built for the task at hand... make your character worth the read.

Character development does not have to be a dirty job. Create exercises that appeal to you and brainstorm a new character. When a writer takes the time, characters can virtually write the novel themselves. 

I actually prefer a feisty and spirited protagonist... it makes writing less complicated. 

Have a great and wonderful day!

Received Pudding, but Got No Milk

Spit in one hand and wish in the other was a common phrase when I was growing up. 

We did not have money growing on trees. I lived on the clearance side of life and still am. Money was to be budgeted and savored, if you wanted something special. KMart layaway during the holidays was a ritual event. 

Those memories were brought to the forefront when I realized that I finally had my pudding mix, but I had no milk in the refrigerator with which to make it into pudding! 

That is okay. Thanksgiving isn't for another week. I think I can manage getting some organic whole milk between now and then. 

It's just comical how life hands you pudding mix and forgets the main ingredient!

Writing a story is much the same thing. You think you have it all figured out and then your character says to you: hey, what about this? Shit! You drop your pencil and walk away. 

You have to devise plan B. Or, C... maybe even G. 

Isn't writing like life? 

Have a great and wonderful day!

It is All in the Pudding

Funny thing when online shopping sometimes what you want is out of stock.

My favorite organic pudding mix was one of those items that went missing. I finally found it somewhere else and ordered a slew! Twenty dollars was the line for free shipping and I crossed it. 

So after nine months of no type of pudding for desert, I finally will have some at the ready. 

The End. 

Don't you wish all stories were that easy to write and the characters so easy to appease? I know I will be pondering that as I write and edit my next releases. In between eating bites of my chocolate pudding! Recipe later! 

Have a great and wonderful day!  

On the Horizon of a Black Moon

Black Moons are the equivalent to a Blue Moon for New Moons. 

Confused? Don't be. Blue Moons are two Full Moons in a month or four in a seasonal cycle. Black Moons are two New Moons in the same vein. 

So how can we use these natural cycles in our stories? For supernatural or paranormal subplots? Since I will be working on a werewolf novel next, the mythology surrounding the moon has become late night reading. 

I have read about the phases, names, and astrologies of the moon from Celtic to Chinese. The moon as the Earth's only satellite has captured the human imagination for thousands of years. The only avenue left is to create a new mythos for a story that is not complacent, derivative, or juvenile. 

When my characters come alive in my head, I bet they will have a lot to say, but for now it's research time. Pass the gmo free bean chips! 

Have a great and wonderful day!

In the Name of Blood Mockup Complete

It feels good when a plan comes together. 

I loved the A-Team when I was growing up. I did not like missing an episode. So when it comes to writing my own adventures, I like doing it with the same energy and enthusiasm: daring escapes, gun fire, and C4 apparently. 

In the Name of Blood: Vampires are Relative is done for all intents and purposes at just under 42K words. By definition a manuscript over 40K words is a novel. I have one and possibly two more acts of the story to be written, edited, and published in the coming years.  

For now, I am at the aesthetic as well as spelling and grammar part of the timeline toward release. 

October 16th will be here soon enough. 

Then I will regroup with the characters to see what else they have to say for themselves. A vampire/cop mystery horror drama should have a lot to say. I will be sure to ask the characters what it is they have left for the world. 

Their take has to be entertaining at least. 

If you would like more information about In the Name of Blood, be sure to visit the novel's dedicated page.

Let's Go Back to the Future

Who would have thought an 80's movie could have such an impact?

I love the Back to the Future movies. What fun. What a treat. I thought once that I would become a movie critic because I had seen so many movies in my youth.

We had a movie theater that had current movies for $3 and popcorn and a drink also cost $3. That fit on my tiny teenage budget. Movies were my getaway. My holidays. My weekends. 

I knew movies were not real and just enjoyed them as entertainment, and escape. Today as a writer, I look back at my movie days and understand that a story is a combination of character and plot. Movies were a great way to learn what works and does not work when building your own fantasy world.

I am very grateful to live the day Marty McFly came to in the future. Chronic and disabling illnesses make everyday feel like you have no future, but today marks a significant change in history. Now we can see how far we have come and yet to go. 

And, where is my flying car anyway?

Have a great and wonderful future day!

Autumn Chores

With the cooler temperatures, comes the need to clean the garage out. 

The neighborhood bulk trash event is also a great time to weed out what is not wanted anymore. I did a lot last week and now I am paying the price. I fell flat on my face. 

If there was a sleep marathon, I would win it hands down.

Between my last post until now, I have been trying to get my house organized. I do this reorganization once a year so I can pile all my unwanted items into a box and send it to the thrift organizations. My motto is if I have not wanted, needed, or looked for it in a year, then it is gone. 

I am a recovering pack rat so I try to make sure my home is clutter free once a year. 

You would be amazed what you can collect and not even realize it. I write characters with these types of quarks. From being neat freaks to skirting OCD, characters are people too.

Now back to my organizing.... you wanna help? 

Have a great and wonderful day.

Would You Like Some Whine with Your Dinner?

Funny how people will whine about doing something instead of actually doing it.

"But I don't want to... Can you do... Why should I have to..." We have all heard the excuses of someone who does not want to pull their weight. It is like if they whine, carry on, or waste time, a fairy god mother will swoop down and do whatever it is that is causing the two year old tantrum for them. 

I do not get it. If you did not whine and bellow like a dog on his last legs, the chore or item you did not want any part of would already be done. 

People do it all the time. Procrastination, they say. Unmotivated, others say. But who's to say?

Sound like anyone you know? Just like in real life situations, characters in our stories have the same faults and behaviors. When creating characters make sure to give them an attribute of someone you know.

Have a great and wonderful day!

Lost Cat Equals Lost Mind

My little black, orange, and white calico went missing for a whole day.

I thought she escaped outside. Nope. I looked high and low inside. Still no cat. WTF? Was she interdimensional? 

So after calling her all day and evening and not remembering seeing her anytime in the morning, I was a little more than concerned. I even fed everyone their soft food without her showing up. I was flabbergasted. 

So I watched my usual television shows. One had a very sad ending, but I ended up crying because I could not find my defenseless indoor cat. She was born and raised in my house. She has no other reference. She could easily be hit by a car.  Or worse, she could be eaten by a coyote. 

The desert is fraught with danger. 

Well, crying seems to be the kitty calling card. She came out of her hiding place like nothing happened. I am sure she found some spot to nestle into where my human eyes could not see. 

Anything to make my lose my mind seems to be fair game in my house. 

In writing, our characters can come into similar situations. It is good to note feelings and anxiety in your own life and to be able to transfer them to your characters. So I need a character with a cat that plays hide and go seek like a method actor.

And, I wonder where she learned it from?

Have a great and wonderful day.

Mean People Make the Best Stories

I have a difficult life.

Disabled because of a terrible illness, that is pretty difficult, but every where I turn someone wants to take advantage of it. The world is sad. People are mean. 

That is how society has turned these last several decades. I take mean people and I see character potential. I can mesh several of these meanies together and create a truly horrible bad guy. Of course, you need a hero or heroine to block their evil intentions. That is how storytelling can be.

You can take the good and the bad of life and create something wonderful. 

It is not easy being green, I mean: me! Ha, ha, ha. Even though I face challenges every which way but loose, I can keep my sense of humor. In the end, the mean people will never have a good life. 

And, I intend to have a fantastic one!

Have a great and wonderful day!!!

Alibis and Other Misnomers

I didn't do it!

Who knows for sure? Do you have an alibi? I sure don't unless you count sleeping a room full of cats. I bet the judge would not allow their testimony in court, now would s/he?

I was thinking of a scene for one of my novels and how I would react to a certain situation. Would I be hurt? Defensive? Offensive? How many four letter words would I use in that moment?

Okay, lots... but what would my character do?

When writing from a character's point of view sometimes it is difficult to cut yourself loose from that moment with them. You have created your own little alibi. I was with my character at the time. 

But isn't that the fun of writing?

Have a great and wonderful day!