No I'm referring to the craziness of the month of March. Though hectic I enjoyed every minute, expect for the cold and sore throat two weeks ago--NOT cool.
The month kicked off with Kristina McMorris book signing event at Barnes and Noble. Which was super awesome! I love this girl and her books.
Shortly thereafter my favorite author came to Powell's and of course I had to go see her, because she is one of the coolest people I've ever had the privilege of meeting. Anytime I've emailed Kim Harrison (aka Dawn Cook) a question about writing or whatever, she's always been so gracious and replied. Not only is she a fabulous person, she writes a killer series. If you haven't checked out The Hollows Series, you are so missing out.
Then came lots of studying and juicing. (Have to feed the brain!)
I passed the final with an A! To celebrate I went to the midnight showing of the movie I've been anticipating for since November, when I picked up the first book.
11:15 sleepy, but so excited to watch this wonderful adaptation to the best YA novel I've read since Twilight. Have you guys seen it yet? What did you think?
Even though I've had a full month, it's not over yet. Next weekend I'm going to the Spring Intensive which a writer conference here in Vancouver, Washington. I'm sure I'll have lots of industry info to share with you all next week.
What can I say about this fantastic novel? The plot blew my
mind to the far reaches of the universe. The setting took my breath away. The characters stole my heart. And the love
story warmed my soul like delicious cup of hot coco on a rainy cold night. Aubrie Dionne has crafted the perfect Sci-fi novel. You
won’t find any corny cheesy moments. It is so visually enticing you’ll forget
you’re on planet Earth.
The moment I picked up the novel, my inner sci-fi
fiend swelled with inexplicable happiness. Though categorized as a romance, the
book is written so well that even hardcore sci-fi-loving men would thoroughly enjoy
the adventure.
Paradise 21 contains all the elements that make an excellent
space adventure. There’s a desert planet with reptilian alien creatures and
sand worms. (Dude, you can’t have a dessert planet without sand worms! Just
sayin.) There’s space pirates and alien
ships. You’ve got a totalitarian human society on a ship traveling towards a
new planet to populate after Earth has been completely destroyed by humans.Then there’s a girl desperate to seek freedom
from this controlled environment and a man searching for a way off the desert rock. When she crashes on his planet things explode.
And I’m going to stop there, because I think you need to go
out and buy it TODAY. Even if you’re not a sci-fi nerd like me, I still think
you’ll enjoy the story. So what are you waiting for? Click here to order your
own copy.
The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.
The distinctive nature of something.
I remember the day clear as if it were this morning. I was
riding the MAX home listening to Depeche Mode"s It's No Good.
I closed my eyes and was taken to a moonlight meadow in the Fagarasi Mountains
were a gypsy witch and a vampire stood together. He loved her so much because
she was his beloved incarnate. She felt attracted to him as well, but held
back. From there stemmed my first novel, Six Roses. I went home and wrote the first draft
in about 3 months. Then I rewrote it changing her age from 16 to 18. But that
draft didn't feel right either so I rewrote the entire novel, now making her an
adult. With each evolution, the story became better. Yet there was something missing and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
So I rewrote the story taking a new spin on things. What if the girl who wrote Six Roses, discovered this world was real when the characters she created came into her life, and caused all sorts of mischief? Thus became my second novel The Vampire Novelist. I received lots of interest for this one, but because my writing wasn't quite up to par it was rejected each time. I loved this story and the character I created, but something lacked.
Last November, I participated in NaNoWriMo and I rewrote the original story AGAIN. 4th time now. This round I changed the plot completely, but kept the main & supporting characters. I did add a new character, a handsome young Orthodox priest. That's when the worst possible thing happened.
My gypsy witch fell in love with him.
I was so shocked I almost stopped writing the damn story. This couldn't be happening. She's supposed to be with vampire. They are soul mates! I screamed. I cried. I drank lots of whiskey. I couldn't sleep. And finally I accepted the inevitable. She was going to be with priest and there was nothing I could do about it.
That was in November. In early February as I was completing Editpalooza, it hit me harder than a speed train. My characters had taken a life of their own. They had become three dimensional beings. (All in my head, of course.) Here I was trying to force two people together who weren't meant to be lovers in this incarnation of her soul and it took five rewrites (if you count the spin off novel) for me to figure this out.
Dude, writing is HARD! FRUSTRATING! DEMANDING! Can drive a person to alcoholism. But it's also so rewarding. Best part: you're never alone. I have my characters living with me 24/7 telling me what they think or making snide remarks about my choice in fashion some days. It gets noisy at times, but we're just one big happy family. When I try to abandon or ignore them, they sing this song:
For the past two weeks I've been feverishly working on three different projects. #1 writing a merman high heat level romance novella, #2 editing a mermaid novella, #3 revising The Vampire Novelist. (I know! Those vamps keep sucking me back in.)
Trying to keep three different stories straight hasn't been easy. Thank heavens for:
I've made lots of changes to TVN. I will talk more about that next week. But one of them is when the hero and heroine meet. The heroine is at a goth club in Seattle celebrating her 21st birthday when he saunters in and crashes her party.
I wetted my lips as my mind searched for something to say. Silly me, he’s
just another human playing a vampire. A tall dark handsome man with pale skin
and long black hair tied in a ponytail isn’t really that original among the
wannabe undead.
“Hi.” I said.
He didn’t respond or acknowledge my presence. No, he just
stared with those eerie red eyes. Except they weren’t red anymore. Black pools
of darkness had replaced the crimson pupils.
He held his hand out and with the same blank expression he asked, “May I have this dance?”
May I have this dance?
Who the hell talks like that? I gave him a beaming smile and placed my hand
in his. “Sure.”
That’s when I knew the alcohol was talking, because I never
dance with strangers, especially when I’m supposed to be on a date who happened to be very late. What was I
supposed to do?
The stranger led me towards the center of the dance
floor. For a moment I almost expected him to put his hand on my waist and start
a waltzing me around. He didn’t. Instead he pulled me to him in a tight embrace,
lowered his head to my shoulder, and bit me.
