Going from Nobody to Somebody

Game Review: Batman-Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)

2012-02-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this game before now. I guess I got caught up in Assassin's Creed land, and before long, I'd moved on to Dragon Age: Origins (and Alistair...sigh). Well, that changes now. Batman review is ON like Donkey Kong, y'all. As always, my game reviews are spoiler-free.

Here's the story:

Batman has caught Joker for the umpteenth time and is transporting him to Arkham Asylum. Everything's going great until *surprise* Joker busts free during transport. Now the Asylum is on lock down, and, as the Caped Crusader, you MUST catch Joker.

Seems simple, right?

Well, ladies and gentleman, I want you to feast your eyes on the first Batman game to actually do the comic book justice. This isn't 60s Batman. This isn't even Batman: The Animated Series Batman. This, folks, this glorious work of pixelation, is gritty, brutal, and absolutely one of the best Batman games ever created (the other one being its sequel, Batman: Arkham City, which I will try not to go all fangirl squee over next week).

Here's why this game rocks.

For the first time, you get to employ all of Batman's tricks: stealth, supreme (and incredibly fluid) fighting techniques, super awesome gadgets. This isn't just a platform jumper (I still have pretty fond memories of that impossible game on NES), and it isn't a poorly-written adaptation. This is Batman in all his glory.

GAME PLAY

The game play is absolutely some of the most solid I've experienced. It's rarely glitchy, and it tends to respond quite well to commands. Timing is a little tricky when you're going for a counter move, but other than that, it works out great.

As far as gadgets go, you have some fun ones in your arsenal. Obviously, you have the grappling gun (accessible with the RB button) and an endless supply of Batarangs. But there's oh-so-very-much more to help you take down the baddies. There's the sonic Batarang, explosive gel, a remote control Batarang (which saved my butt way more times than I care to count), a line-launcher thing, and a whole lot more, all of which is accessed by the D-pad. There's also the ability to use your Batarang in combat, but that was a little tricky for me as well since in the eat of battle I tend to forget to "lightly tap" the R-trigger. This got me killed pretty often.

There's also a nifty little thing called "detective mode" which Batman uses to track and trace different kinds of evidence. Detective mode will also tell you how many enemies are in a certain area and how many of them are armed. It's an incredibly handy combat tool. This helped me avoid getting killed pretty often.

SOUNDTRACK

There's not much of one, really. This game goes the way of Assassin's Creed in that it seldom uses music. Unless you're in a battle or something, you're more apt to hear conversations between thugs or, if you're in the medical center, really, really creepy voice overs.

Actually, the voice acting is superb. Kevin Conroy has been voicing Batman since 1993. Mark Hamil has been voicing Joker since 1993. Obviously these two actors have a long history together, and it shows quite well in the banter. Their timing with each other is so so good. Really makes you feel like these two have antagonized each other for years.

GRAPHICS

Holy s***. I was blown away by how good this game looks. There's a lot of texture, a lot of grime and grit. It's a dark game, both in content and lighting, which certainly fits the feel of the game. I tended to spend a lot of time in detective mode so I didn't die. Honestly, it was kinda weird to see the actual surroundings rather than the blue of detective mode...but that's just me. I'm not a proficient gamer, regardless of my experience. Having detective mode helped.

Other

Riddler's Riddles--This is a fun/obnoxious way to pass the time if you don't want to go in for the final showdown (or heck, you can do it afterward, too, I think). Our favorite riddle-obsessed criminal Edward Nigma has planted a ridiculous amount of trophies and riddles throughout Arkham Island to attempt to baffle Batman (puh-leeze). They're worth getting, especially if you're an obsessive type who can't help but get EVERYTHING in a game *looking at you, Lisa*. Riddler has managed to hack into Batman's Comm-link with Oracle, and every-so-often he taunts you. Honestly, it's worth getting all those stupid trophies just to shut him up.

OVERALL

Overall, this game is AH-MAZING. I was in awe of it my first playthrough, but the subsequent ones (plural, yes) have proven over and over that this is an incredible game that will stand the test of time. If you're any kind of Batman fan--hardcore, comic junkie, or casual lover of the movies and animated series (like me), you ought--nay, NEED!--to get this game!

A Touch AWESOME Blogfest WEEK TWO

2012-01-28T00:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Week Two of the A Touch AWESOME blogfest, the five weeks of fun I'm hosting alongside the fabulous Katelyn Torrey!

Don't forget to check Leah Clifford's blog for information regarding awesome swag, especially for pre-orders of Mortal's sequel, A Touch Morbid.

This week's theme is: 5 Favorite Swoon-worthy Moments.

Now, for me, the term "swoon-worthy" doesn't just mean romantic. I'm also a huge fan of self-sacrifice, and there seems to be a lot of that in this book.

So let's get started, shall we? I tried to keep these spoiler-free. Really I did. But...I kinda couldn't...so...yeah......I'll warn you at least.

When Az shows Eden his wings. I absolutely adore this scene. I love Eden's trepidation. I love Az's fear. To me it all feels so potent, so real. There's a lot of emotion in this entire book, but this scene is the beginning of it.

Excerpt: Her brow wrinkled. You've had them the whole time, right?" He nodded, his heart in his throat as she seemed to consider. "Anything else you wanna get off your chest?"

Az dropped his hands to hers. So much, he thought. "How are you okay with this?" he asked. It didn't feel real. her still being there.

She pulled her hands away slowly. "I don't know." Her voice grew even quieter. "If I freak out and leave, I lose you. I don't want that." Her fingers found his again, entwining with them as their eyes met. "I want you. And if this is you, well..."
The first scene between Gabe and Kristen. Oh. My. God. This is when I started loving Gabe. The tenderness he shows Kristen in this scene made me puddle. After that, I was sold.

Excerpt: "I came as soon as I could."

Kristen swiveled the chair toward him finally, her face indifferent. The quiver in her lip was so slight, he almost missed it.

"Oh, Kristen," he said quietly. He didn't have to read her mind to guess her thoughts. "I should have called. Did you think I wasn't coming?" She seemed to give in suddenly, forgetting the pedicure and hurrying across the floor to throw herself into his arms. He hugged her tight.
Adam and Eden. I like Adam. I also like Az, though. Really, above all, I like Gabe, but Eden's not his type *ahem*. But I thought Adam was good for her. At least in the beginning...

Excerpt: "I watched [Az] sleep once. The last night, before I..." She cut off, forced herself to go on. "I was so tired but I wouldn't let my eyes close because I was afraid he wouldn't be there when I woke up, that I just dreamed him."
.....
[Adam] stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. His breath hit her cheek as she kissed his neck once.

"Don't," he whispered, tucking her head back against his shoulder gently. "I don't want that."

Eden felt her face flush. "I thought..."

"I want you to close your eyes. I want you to fall asleep first."

"Why?" she asked, suddenly afraid he would slip out of the room as soon as she did.

"Because I'll be here in the morning."
This one scene with Gabe... Ok, it's kinda hard for me to explain this one because it's more the idea than the actual moment. But there's a scene when Gabe...falls. He does it for Az and for Eden, so they can be together. Happy. *sigh* Gabe's amazing. To keep it spoiler-free, there's no excerpt for this one.
Gabe trying to play matchmaker. He's adorable no matter what he does. Really. I absolutely love him.

Excerpt: "You have to call Az," he said. "You know how he feels about you. He'll protect you better than anyone else could. And if something happens to me, he'll need you to get him through without a Fall."

Her head started a slow shake, building until she finally met his eyes. "No. He's not my responsibility. I'm over him."

"You've always been a terrible liar." He pulled her into a tight hug. "Don't be so stubborn! This is your excuse to call him. Use those feminine wiles to get back what you need"--he cast a quick glance at the door and stepped away from her-- "instead of luring in boys who will never measure up. I trust you, and I trust you're smart enough to swallow your pride and do what's best. They'll protect you for now, but soon I'm afraid it won't be enough."

I (heart) Dogs blogfest UPDATE

2012-01-26T00:00:00.003-05:00

Hey guys, rescue group Pawsibilities is hosting a blog tour highlighting rescue dogs and the owners who love them. I'm planning on participating (and this does run concurrent with the A Touch AWESOME blogfest for about a month, so you guys will have lots to read!), and I hope you guys will too.

If anyone doesn't know, shelter dogs are incredibly close to my heart, and I'm a HUGE fan of adopting vs. buying from a pet store for a variety of reasons. So I'm certainly looking forward to this.

For more information, click here.

***UPDATE*** I'm going to enter every person who leaves a comment on this post AND participates in the blogfest into a drawing for a $25 amazon gift card. I'll check with Landra and have the drawing on Feb 20th, the day the blogfest starts.***

MANic Monday

2012-01-23T00:00:00.002-05:00

I feel like it's been FOREVER since I've done one of these. But I'm all the time finding new, wonderful characters to highlight, so the hiatus hasn't been a waste.

Today's wonderous mancandy is Brystion, from Allison Pang's A Brush of Darkness. I loved this book, and I really loved Brystion. We're back to broody, but he's broody with a dry wit and sarcastic sense of humor. What's better than that?

Oh, btw, he's a musician. I'll wait for you to un-puddle.

Oh, and also? He's an incubus.

In Allison's awesome world of crazy-ridiculous mythological creatures (one or two of which I had to Google), Brystion is one of the wonderful constants. An incubus. Seems straight-forward, safe, awesome, right?

Well, apart from the awesome part, you'd be wrong. Brys has to operate within the confines of the world Allison created. He has to contend with crazy fae, crazy humans, and of course, Phin, the underwear-obsessed unicorn. Add to this Abby, and you have a crazy concoction that Brys navigates with as much grace as one possibly can.

As an incubus, Brys has his human form, which allows him to operate among normal people, but there's also his real form. He resembles a satyr, as you can see. He's still strangely intoxicating though. It's not just his physical appearance or the whole incubus thing. Beneath all that is this amazingly sweet guy who starts out trying to save his sister from an uncertain fate and ends up falling in love with our fantabulous heroine.

I adored Brys. Quite a bit. As I read, I fell more and more in love with his character, in both human and incubus forms. He's pretty amazing and well worth reading this book for, though the book in itself is awesome.

I'm looking forward to much more Brys in the next installment.

Six Sentence Sunday 1/22

2012-01-22T00:00:00.006-05:00

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeelcome back!

This has been a busy week, and I'm anxious to read my fellow Sixers' snippets. You should be too. You can check them out here.

This week, I'm skipping ahead and going to Dima's first experience with lab-mandated baths to prepare for her first public display in San Francisco.

They want to make sure I can't move. Without struggling, I followed.

The woman holding the plastic collar replaced mine with it while the woman with the tazer held it so close, tiny shocks rose the fur on my arms and stomach. None of them looked threatening by any means; they were all slender with long limbs, doe-like eyes, and blank expressions. Probably easy to take down, but not much of a meal.

Oh wow, I need help.

Thanks for spending some time with Dima and me today. Don't forget to visit my fellow Sixers!

A Touch AWESOME Blogfest WEEK ONE

2012-01-21T01:40:00.001-05:00

OMG YOU GUYS! It's FINALLY HERE!

The A Touch AWESOME blogfest has officially begun!!!!

Katelyn and I are so excited to be hosting this. Don't forget to check out her blog for her answers and Leah's blog for important info regarding A Touch Mortal's sequel, A Touch Morbid.

Just a reminder of what we're doing:

Week 1 (1/21-1/27): Anytime during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite quotes from A Touch Mortal.

Week 2 (1/28-2/3): Anytime during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite swoon-worthy moments from A Touch Mortal.

Week 3 (2/4-2/10): Anytime during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite characters from A Touch Mortal

Week 4 (2/11-2/17): Anytime during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite ANYTHING. This is a free week to post your top 5 favorite randoms from A Touch Mortal.

Week 5 (2/18-2/24): Anytime during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite moments from A Touch Mortal.

So let's get on to this week's fun!

For people who haven't read A Touch Mortal: 1) Shame on you! Getting ready for this blogfest has reawakened my absolute love for this book. And I'm excited to be able to gush about it for FIVE WEEKS. 2) I've tried to keep my choices spoiler-free. But I'm not making promises.

Onward to this week's topic. My five favorite quotes from A Touch Morbid.

"The water's not even blue, jackass." ~Eden. Admittedly, when I first read this line, I snorted. But the best thing is that it's available on a T-SHIRT (and other assorted apparel).
"You're going to regret me." ~Az. Sure but without him, we wouldn't have much of a book.
"You're nothing but a rumor now." ~Kristen. I know it's on the book jacket, but when I read it in the text I got chills.
"Az trying to cook breakfast." Gabe smiled. "The bane of chickens everywhere." ~Gabe *sigh, Gabe*. I lol'd at that too.
"Your boyfriend's heartstrings make such a lovely melody when they snap."~Luke. Oh, Luke is so deliciously eeeeeeeeevil.

Peeps, keep in mind that with every pre-order of A Touch Morbid, Leah is giving away a super-awesome gift: a signed and numbered 8x10 of Morbid's cover, which is awesome. It looks like this:

*Gorgeous, right????*

Friday Feature 1/20 + Update

2012-01-20T12:36:00.001-05:00

I haven't done one of these in a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time, and I've missed it.

But first, a little update.

As most of you know, I've started a review site with Landra Graf which focuses on independently published and self-published books. We've reviewed 2 books this month, and I couldn't be happier with the feedback we've received. We review 2 books every month. Landra and I post separate reviews, which go up on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we also have an author interview at the end of the week. It's been fun, and Landra and I have gotten access to some pretty great books.

However, because I've go so many irons in the fire, I've largely ignored this blog. I'm hoping to change that, because I do enjoy blogging. I love being able to connect with you guys, who are so kind as to follow my inane ramblings. I hope to have more content up in the future, once I get this whole scheduling thing figured out. Time management has never been one of my strong suits.

That being typed, I would love for you guys to check out the site, after you listen to this week's feature, of course ;)

This week's feature is a song I'm completely obsessed with and, amazingly, heard for the first time at WORK. God bless my coworker for figuring out how to change the music... Anyway, for your listening pleasure, here's Snow Patrol's "Called out in the Dark"

Six Sentence Sunday 1/15

2012-01-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey y'all! I'm glad you're spending part of your Sunday with meeeeeeeeee. Hopefully it's worth your while.

To visit my fellow Sixers (who are DEFINITELY worth your while) visit the official site.

For hours afterward I tried to figure it out. What did she mean? The wheel of frustration kept turning as I stared into the pond, facing myself head-on for the first time since I awoke. My eyes, large blue cat eyes, swam with the emotions that swam in the eyes of a human. They cried human tears, expressed human grief, betrayed human fears. I forced myself to stare into my face because I wanted to remember what it meant to be human.

A Touch AWESOME Blogfest!!!!!

2012-01-12T00:00:00.011-05:00

Hello fellow book bloggers! As many of you may know, Leah Clifford’s A Touch Trilogy is continuing on with the release of the second book, A Touch Morbid on February 28^th. I along with the AMAZING Katelyn Torrey, are planning to host a five-week blog tour that will lead right up to the date of the book’s release. In order to make this event extra fun we are keeping the entry/participation expectations pretty low and we are also inviting anyone and everyone to join in! Here is what we plan to do:

Every week there will be a new topic to post on. You have six days to publish your post; it can be any day during that 6 day period. Please keep in mind it is not required to participate in every week but it would be greatly appreciated! Cate and I will be posting ours on the first day of every week that way links are ready and available for all others to join in. Since it is a blog tour of sorts, linking up your posts is required and we would love it if you stopped by at least a few participating blogs each week.

Since the blog tour is pretty flexible, please feel free to come up with other fun posts to link up throughout the month. Some ideas of what to do could be cover talk, links to some of your favorite reviews, vlogs about the book, etc. If you do any fun posts throughout the month, these can be linked each week along with the themed posts.

A special note: If you plan to host A Touch Mortal themed giveaway at all during the month, please try and hold the final entry date off until the very last week of the tour. We will be hosting a giveaway the last week with an option for other bloggers to link up their giveaways too. Not only does this get more people to enter your giveaway, but it also makes it easier for people stopping by to enter multiple giveaways at once.

The schedule for the blog tour is as followed:

Week 1 (1/21-1/27): Any time during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite quotes from A Touch Mortal.

Week 2 (1/28-2/3): Any time during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite swoon-worthy moments from A Touch Mortal.

Week 3 (2/4-2/10): Any time during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite characters from A Touch Mortal.

Week 4 (2/11-2/17): Any time during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite ANYTHING. This is a free week to post your top 5 favorite randoms from A Touch Mortal.

Week 5 (2/18-2/24): Any time during the week make a post about your top 5 favorite moments from A Touch Mortal.

We hope to gain a lot of interest with this fun, easy blog tour so sharing links through twitter or your blogs would be greatly appreciated! Katelyn and I will love you all for forever if you did a special blog post telling people what is going on and where they can sign up to be a part of it too!

If you are interested, please enter the required information in the form below and of course, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me (c.peace@live.com) or Katelyn (katelynsblog@aol.com)! We will be available for any questions or concerns you may have.

Also, feel free to steal the above blogfest button (via Katelyn, doesn't she rock?!) and add to your blogs. We want to get A TON of support for Leah and her awesome series!

Thanks in advance for your participation!!!

***If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it out online: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDJKdUxFeThIcTJWUXMyUnBVUndWdGc6MQ***

If you are interested in signing up to be a part of the blog tour, please fill out the following information!

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An Open Letter to Sean Bean

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

Inspired by both Death Star PR's open letter to NPH (which is legen--wait for it--dary) and my meanderings around Wal-Mart *time one, not time two*, I started thinking about how much I love Sean Bean.

This actually started Thursday. Talking to my beloved Jan about how Duality has no swoon-worthy men *that I know of*, I mentioned I could make one of the male characters younger. There's a problem, though. In my head, Kiefer has always been Sean Bean, and I find Sean Bean quite appealing.

In fact, if I win the writer lottery and get a movie deal, I want Sean Bean as Kiefer. (I know most of you have zero idea who Kiefer is. Someday, I hope all of you will.)

I'm ready to beg.

Dear Sean Bean,

I know you get this a lot, but I love you. Unlike most 20-something women, I was first introduced to your awesome via Goldeneye. Yes, I have a severe love of James Bond movies, campy though they are, but you... You, dear Mr. Bean, were able to steal my eyes away from Pierce Brosnan *even in a tux!* and keep them on you until you, inevitably, died.

In fact, you frequently portray characters who die. This is unfortunate.

And when your character dies, more often than not, he isn't the villain. This must change.

You see, Mr. Bean, you need to maintain a character who not only lives but also succeeds. One of your better runs was as Boromir. Three movies! Three! That's amazing!

But then you were given the tragic role of Ned Stark. I cried. I did. I love you that much. Also, Ned's an awesome character.

I have a proposition for you. Since the day I wrote in Kiefer, I saw you in that role. I heard the timbre of your voice in his dialog, saw your face in his. I knew you would be perfect to bring him to life. One caveat. You HAVE to be able to fake a French accent. This is imperative. As long as you can do that...

I would be honored to have you play Kiefer if ever Duality becomes a movie. Privileged. Overwhelmed, even. I have no idea about any other casting, but you, dear Mr. Bean, you would be perfect as my beloved Kiefer.

Would you? Please? I know the other books aren't written yet, but...but I want you to be Kiefer. You made National Treasure bearable (and you were also damn foxy). You are full of awesome. Please be my Kiefer.

Six Sentence Sunday 1/8 Sylvia's answer

2012-01-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Sunday! So glad to be with you again. I missed SSS last week. I've been quite busy this month starting the new site, Indie Books R Us, with the awesome Landra Graf. If you guys get a chance, I'd love it if you stopped by.

As always, don't forget to check out the official Six Sunday list here. These authors will rock your socks off.

When we last left Dima, she'd made a horrifying discovery. Today, things aren't looking up. She asks her keeper, Sylvia, why being her keeper is so important. Sylvia's answer...

Instead of leaving, though, she stared at me, but not with the expected icy, jagged gaze. An unwilling softness and melancholy tainted her otherwise stony face. I preferred her impassiveness.

Finally, she said, in a voice broken by her own burdens, “I think it’s because out of everyone here and everyone to come, your story is the worst.” Then she left.

The door thundered shut.

Phew!

2011-12-30T08:29:00.000-05:00

It's taken me this long to recover from Christmas. I wish I was kidding, but I am not.

Landra at Rise of the Slush and I have been busting our butts to ready our new review site. And it's almost complete! *Insert maniacal mad scientist laugh*

Also, I got Batman Arkham City and Assassin's Creed Revelations for Christmas, so y'all might not see me again for a while *j/k, though not really*

How was your Christmas?

2011-12-25T00:00:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!! <3 <3 <3

Vote for Alex!!!!

2011-12-23T01:00:00.000-05:00

Just in case you didn't know, or don't follow YA lovers/authors/obsessed people on Twitter, Alex Andros, the Heroine from Jennifer Armentrout's Half-Blood. If you have a really awesome memory, you'll remember her from a previous post.

Here's the deal, peeps. There's a tournament highlighting our favorite YA heroines going on at the YA Sisterhood blog. It's not surprising that Alex is in this tournament. She's been a scrappy underdog since page 1, and she showed just how awesome she and her fans are when she beat Nora from Hush, Hush (also of note: Aiden is awesomer than Patch).

Well, she has another battle today. Against Rose from the Vampire Academy series. This one will be even tougher than her battle against Nora (and that one was a nail biter, lemme tell ya).

In case you haven't read Half-Blood (and are staunchly against blind voting [in which case, good for you!]), here's why you should vote for Alex.

Alex is a fighter. Deep in her heart, she wants to do the right thing. She's constantly at a war with herself between what she believes is right (i.e. what the "rules" tell her to do) and what she knows in her heart is right. She's an embodiment of everything that is so difficult and rewarding about being a teenager. Also, she'll do anything to protect the people she loves, even if it means going against everything she thought she knew.

Alex is a dreamer. Alex's world is separated into 3 camps: the Pures--descendants of the Greek gods, the Half-Bloods--children of human/Pure descent, and mortals who *usually* know nothing about the previous 2 camps. Alex's dad was a Pure, her mom a mortal, and Alex is the best and worst of them both. She's not a perfect character, so she gets herself into trouble. In this world where Pures and Halfs are hardly supposed to look at each other, let alone fall in love, Alex only has eyes for one man--Pure-blooded Aiden (fans self). Alex knows she can't or shouldn't be with him, and for the most part, she does really really well with avoiding any romantic situations with him. But there's that nagging part of her that wonders what could be, what could happen if they were to be together, and if it would be that bad. Honestly, she does a better job resisting than I ever could.

Alex is a real teenager. She's so well-written. Seriously. I think that's one of the biggest draws for this series. Alex has such emotional and visceral reactions to her situations that it's hard to forget she's not an actual person. She's not cardboard, nor is she melodramatic. She's tough-as-nails. She's no-nonsense. She's also scared and vulnerable. For all her strength, for all her snark and sarcasm, she has real fears. Fears of the daimons who killed her mom. Fears of having/losing Aiden. Fears of losing her friends to these horrible creatures. Fears of being made tranquil (Dragon Age reference, sorry, but appropriate) and becoming a servant in some Pure's household, scrubbing toilets for the rest of her life. Alex has a LOT on her plate, and she doesn't always react with grace. That's why I love her the most--she's imperfect. She's bullheaded, tactless, feisty, and awesome. She's also strong, loyal, and hilarious.

Trust me, you'll love her.

So please, vote for her!!!

Also, there are goodies available as well. Alex's advocate, Momo at Books Over Boys, will be giving away a copy of Half-Blood, a copy of Daimon (the prequel), and a pre-order of Pure (Covenant #2). If Alex wins against Rose, Jennifer will post Chapter 16 from Aiden's POV. Don't know why this is important? Read the book. I have a copy. I'll loan it to you :)

The Long-Awaited Dragon Age: Origins Review

2011-12-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

Anyone who follows me on Twitter will know how much I freaking love this game. I just do. It's AMAZING, and one of Bioware's crown jewels. Is it perfect? No. It has its flaws. But it's so close to perfect it's not even funny.

Dragon Age stole me away from the Elder Scrolls games for...pretty much an eternity.

I'll attempt not to bore you with what promises to be a rambling love-fest. In fact, I'll try to remain *mostly* impartial, but considering I wrote a MANic Monday post about Alistair, I can't make promises. Also, since I've written about how it helps write deep setting and minor characters...yeah........

Where to start with this game? (I'm reviewing the Xbox 360 version.)

Here's the story: There are these critters called Darkspawn that just will not go away. Most of the time, they lurk below ground in an area called the Deep Roads. Sometimes, however, they come up.

You play as The Warden, a member of the respected (and sometimes reviled) Grey Wardens who fight to keep the darkspawn underground. But every hero has an origin, right? Well, in DAO, you get options that affect your standing in the world and how other characters view you.

As a human, you choose between being a noble or a mage. If you're a noble, you start out at your estate in Highever and deal with the betrayal of a family friend. If you're a mage, you start in the Circle of Magi--a means for mages to be collared.

As an elf, you can be a Dalish elf (an elf that lives outside society), a mage, or a city elf. The Dalish keep to nature and are incredibly history-oriented. The Keeper is the one who maintains knowledge of elvhen culture before they were relegated to living outside society. The mage story is the same as above. As a city elf, you start in the Alienage, which is a section of major city (in this case, Denerim, the capital city).

As a dwarf, you have two choices: noble and castless. As a noble, you have high standing in the city and come from a well-known and respected family, but you have to deal with the ruthless politics of noble life. As a castless, you have to deal with being invisible and living in Dust Town, the basement section of the dwarven thaig Orzammar,

Regardless of your origin choice, Terrible Inciting Event happens, and Duncan, the leader of the Ferelden Grey Wardens comes to save the day by evoking the Right of Conscription the Wardens enjoy and hauling your ass to Ostagar, where you meet Alistair *sigh*.

Combat is pretty easy. You attack things with X and the other buttons allow you to access assigned talents/spells, etc (think Zelda64). DAO's system uses an in-game menu, accessed by the right bumper, to house your other spells/talents, poisons, traps, etc. This is also how you switch between primary *typically melee, like sword, club, or mace* weapons and secondary weapons *usually ranged, like crossbow or longbow*. I'm not a huge fan of it because it interrupts combat, but honestly, I'm not sure there's another way to go about it, since all your other buttons are in use as well.

Also, the weapons/armor are a bit confusing because there's SO MUCH. A lot of options and a lot of materials. Keep in mind that I'm playing on a boxy 19 in tv, so I can't see very much unless I'm sitting directly in front of the screen. Each item has a description, but that doesn't make it any less taxing.

There are a few points when the dialogue cuts out or the frame rate drops (specifically when awesome-slaying an ogre since it goes into slo-mo). It's not really that much of a big deal. You can enable subtitles (which I ALWAYS do), and the whole ogre-slaying is only problematic if your person gets stuck in repetitive stabby mode, in which case you just need to switch to another character.

One of the game's best features is customization. Not just your character's appearance but specializations within your chosen class. You can unlock extra specializations through character interactions.

The plot is interesting and complex, and the characters...omg, the characters are FANTASTIC. Apart from Alistair, who owns my heart forevermore, there's Morrigan, an apostate mage and your second companion; Oghren, a dwarf from Orzammar; Dog, a mabari war hound who imprints on you at the beginning of the Ostagar campaign; Sten, a Qunari warrior you have the option of freeing; Leliana, an Orlesian immigrant who takes up in one of the Chantries; Zevran, an Antivan assassin (who would totally own my heart if Alistair didn't exist); Shale, a golem (available through DLC); and Wynne, a mage of the Circle of Magi.

These aren't just cardboard characters. Each one has his/her own backstory, They have in-game dialogues while you're walking around, and some of them are absolutely hilarious. Anything concerning Oghren or conversations between Alistair and Morrigan are completely worth the price of admission on this one.

Four of your characters are available romance options. Leliana and Zev can be romanced by either gender. Alistair's is the best *ahem, biased, ahem* but I had a lot of fun pursuing Morrigan, too. However, everyone but Mr. Free Love Zevran get pretty possessive. If you try to romance two people at once, one of them will demand you break it off, and that's pretty much the end of it. Also, I accidentally broke up with Alistair once because I made fun of him. My bad, Al. My bad.

DAO is one of those games where every choice matters. Choices can affect how your companions view you and can also affect the world you're shaping. That's my second-favorite part of the game. Knowing that whom you support, whom you kill, what you say to people matters. It makes for an interesting and realistic gaming experience.

I would give this game all the stars in existence.

In lieu of a real post...

2011-12-20T14:58:00.000-05:00

I was cleaning today. Anyone who knows me knows I hate to clean. What they may not know is that I'm also a minor hoarder. I kept a majority of my college papers, and in looking through them, I found a paper my professor gave out in my novel writing class from an editorial intern at an unnamed agency, and I wanted to share it with you guys.

Dear Aspiring Authors,

If you decide that your work is ready to be sent to a publisher, for possible publication, please pay attention to the following things. Aside from it being courteous, when you don't piss people off, they have a tendency to be more open to liking your work.

First of all, SASE (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope.) I don't think I need to mention that you should include one -- if you are at all interested in writing and being published, you already know this .But here's a nifty trick -- before you include your SASE, put your manuscript inside it, to make sure it fits. If you send us thirty pages of your query letter and a SASE the size of a regular envelope, it is impossible for us to mail your MS back to you. It is hard and annoying and pisses us off to have to try to squeeze all that paper into an envelope that won't fit it.

Also, while we're on the subject of SASEs... This isn't absolutely necessary, but if YOU write a return address on the envelope, I don't have to. This isn't a major deal, but it does get annoying after mailing out thirty SASEs without return envelopes.

And, BTW? You probably already know this, but if you send more than one query letter and MS, send a SASE with each one, or you'll only get a response for one.

Which brings me to your writing resume. I don't want to see it. The editors don't want to see it. Nobody wants to see it. If you'd like us to know that you've been published in several magazines and your first novel was published by a small press and you're a long-standing member of SFWA, tell me in your query letter One page. One paragraph about you, really. I (or the editors) am not going to be more kindly disposed to your work if you include a two page writing resume detailing your accomplishments and previous jobs involving writing, being editor-in-chief at your local newspaper and teaching/taking a creative writing class at your local college. We barely look at it -- but we will read it in your query letter, if the letter is concise and to the point.

Oh, and in your query letter? I don't need an essay on why you think we should publish your work. A paragraph about your novel, and maybe a line on why you think it's good and for what age, is more than enough. If your work is good, we'll know from your writing. Including a nine page Q&A about your idea will just annoy us. And please, please, please, please, please don't misspell words in your query letter. It kind of undermines the effect you're trying for, you know?

Oh, and make sure you're sending your MS to the right place. I cannot tell you how often we get picture books. We don't not publish picture books. Please stop sending them to us! We will not pass them on to the right place. We will just reject them. The end. Do your research,

Oh, and do not try to sell us on your idea. If the writing is good, that's what counts -- if the writing is crap, I don't care how good your idea is. And please, don't name your main character after the editor you're sending it to and expect that to win points. (You think I am kidding. I am not kidding.)

I think that's all for now.

Yours truly,

[Redacted]
Editorial Intern, upon reading the slush pile

Six Sentence Sunday 12/18

2011-12-18T00:00:00.001-05:00

Hello, friends! Welcome back to Six Sunday! Please go visit my fellow Sixers. They're full of awesome.

Skipping a lot of yammering to a point when Dima makes a very unsettling discovery concerning one of the human components to the Humani experiments:

Then he yelled James’ name. The rest of his words were garbled, but I knew I heard it. He must be connected to James somehow.

Oh my God, how is this even happening?

Where are their families?

Is this what happened to…me?

Tis the Season!

2011-12-15T00:00:00.001-05:00

First of all, hope everyone's having a fantastic holiday season! I know this is the high-stress time of year, when everyone's frantically scurrying around, trying to find that perfect gift for friends, family, and/or that someone special. For your sanity, and for that of your family, friends, and someone special, please take the time out to enjoy the season, because believe me, those same people you're with now may not be around this time next year. Love them while you can.

Second of all, I want to go ahead and let y'all know about some changes coming up. My dear friend Landra at Rise of the Slush and I are starting a review blog at the beginning of the year for books published through a small press or self-published. We're covering EVERYTHING (including YA) as long as it's through a small press or self-pubbed, so keep your eyes open. It's called Indie Books R Us for right now because I suck hardcore at titles, but I'd love it if you guys checked in every-so-often. Landra's already a highly-experienced reviewer and I just like excuses to read. However, this means I'll be blogging even less frequently here (like the 2-3 times a week I manage are really that tough), but I hope to see some familiar names over there :)

Third of all, I'd like to share with you a website that I found via The Bloggess. It's called Wish Upon a Hero and it's an effortless way to change someone's life in time for Christmas. There are a lot of families who won't be able to provide for their families during the holiday season due to unemployment, cutbacks at work, illness, or a variety of other seasons, and this website allows you to chip in to whomever you want. It's. Freaking. Awesome.

I think that's everything. Anyone got some good news to share????

Book Review: The Girl in the Steel Corset

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one except the "thing" inside her.

When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch...

Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits. Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.

Griffin's investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help-and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.

But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she's on, even if it seems no one believes her.

Let it be known that this was my first real foray into the world of steampunk, and it helped CONSIDERABLY with the epic fantasy/steampunk dealie I worked on for NaNo. I kinda get it now (though I couldn't explain steampunk other than "um...you seen Wild Wild West? It's like that. Only not lame").

I really enjoyed this little twist on the Jekyll and Hyde story, but I didn't fall in love with it. Finley is a girl with a mad case of puberty *ok, maybe not* who has bounced from place to place because of her "affliction." She's pretty badass, but she's also afraid of herself and afraid of what she could do to others in her alternate state. When Griff and Sam find her, she's just beaten the holy bejeezus out of the jerkhole she worked for because he was getting a bit too fresh. If only we all had that power...

I actually enjoyed the subplot with Sam a little more, even though some parts were kinda obvious (like his relationship with a stranger he meets).

At any rate, Kady Cross does a great job with bringing the steampunk elements into the story. From Emily's workshop to Sam's bionic body parts to the velocycles the group uses to zip through London's crowded streets, Cross brings to life this imaginative world where technology is just as important as character and plot, and it sometimes pushes the plot.

But for me, even with this hugely rich world and these intriguing characters (Sam's self-loathing is particularly...well, sad), I had some trouble connecting with the story. Maybe it's because this is the first steampunk I've read and I was getting a feel for the world, but something...just kept me from really engaging with the characters, even Jasper, who is certainly crush-worthy. I think it's because I didn't have much of a stake with them. Griff's tale is difficult to grasp at certain points. There's this whole thing with the ether and whatnot that was sometimes more confusing than cool (even though it was still cool, don't get me wrong).

I would still recommend this book, especially if you've already had experience with steampunk. The story's good, the characters are better, and the tech is just plain cool.

Exciting news, everyone!

2011-12-13T00:00:00.009-05:00

Just in case you've been hiding under a rock or not really active on Twitter, I need to fill you in on a couple of things. Number 1, guys in kilts are hot. Number 2, Cyndi Tefft's Between is a great read. Number 3, we've got an announcement for you.

Who are we?

Well, you can read the awesome. And you can thank Lindsay Cox at http://www.violethourbr.com for creating this wonderful logo!

You see, there's a site full of above awesome going live today. If you've ever wanted to have the delicious Aiden MacRae, Between's bekilted Grim Reaper, to be your very own, you're in luck. Why?

Because there's A STORE.

SQUEE!

Now you can show off your status as one of Aiden's Angels. Coffee mugs, shirts, shot glasses...Perfect for the Grim Reaper lover in your life, just in time for Christmas!

And of course, if you haven't read Between, you need to. It's great.

It just figures that the love of Lindsey Water's life isn't alive at all, but the grim reaper, complete with a dimpled smile and Scottish accent.

After transporting souls to heaven for the last 300 years, Aiden MacRae has all but given up on finding the one whose love will redeem him and allow him entry through the pearly gates.

Torn between her growing attraction to Aiden and heaven's siren song, Lindsey must learn the hard way whether love really can transcend all boundaries.

And when you need another Aiden fix, check out Book 2, Hell Transporter:

Aiden MacRae has been given a new life after being stuck transporting souls to heaven for the last three hundred years. He doesn't know the culture, the times or the slang, but there is one thing he does know: he didn't come forward alone.

The master of hell has other plans for the Scottish Highlander and has a transporter of his own to get the deed done. Will Lindsey be able to save him or get caught in the crossfire?

Cyndi Tefft lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest where the weather is overcast and rainy, much like the Highlands of Scotland. So she was right at home when she got the chance to visit Eilean Donan Castle.

A self-proclaimed Scot freak, she loved every bit about the trip to Scotland: the people, the kilts, the accents, the fish & chips, the haggis...well okay, not the haggis.

You can hang out with Cyndi on Twitter and follow her adventures at her blog.

MANic Monday + COVER REVEAL!!!!

2011-12-12T00:00:00.006-05:00

First thing's first: I have a bright shiny new cover to show youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

The cover for Jennifer Armentrout's book Deity (the third in her Covenant series) has been released, and it. Is. GORGEOUS.

SEE????

I freaking love it. I didn't know if Pure's cover could be topped, but seriously, this is gorgeous.

And today, if you've been keeping up with the YA-sisterhood tournament of heroines, you'll know that Alex, the Covenant series' sassy heroine, goes up against Nora from Hush, Hush. If'n you want to help a sister out, you can vote for Alex here. Please. Alex is an awesome character, and I personally believe she can win.

Also, if you don't vote for her, Seth will come to your house and put his feet up on all your furniture. With his boots still on *ew*.

And now, down to business.

I'm just gonna keep going on Criminal Minds this week because I love Aaron Hotchner (played by Thomas Gibson). That's right, I said it. I. Love. Him.

It's not the same kind of love I have for Spencer (really, that love is reserved for Spencer and Alistair alone), but it's there. I wouldn't kick Hotch out of bed. At all.

Hotch is the team leader, but not necessarily an alpha male (because that's most definitely Derek). He's...well, he's pretty much amazing. He's by far the most stoic and level-headed of the group, but there are times when Hotch lets that mask fall and we get some real, genuine emotion from him.

*Melts*

Maybe it's self-preservation. He adopts this stone-faced persona to help him deal with his job so he doesn't try to deal at home. He's said before that he tries to leave work stuff at work so he doesn't bring it home to his family.

That's probably one of the things I love most about Hotch--how he tries so, so hard for his family. But Hotch is also a reminder that we're not all-powerful. Sometimes work life bleeds into home life, and there's nothing we can do to prevent it, no matter how hard we try.

Hotch is the only married member of the team. He married his high school sweetheart and started life as a prosecutor before joining the FBI. After *spoilery event*, he spends way too much time at work, pouring through case files and taking on more responsibilities. One thing about Hotch, he's always there no matter what. It remains to be seen just how that'll affect Hotch and his family.

Six Sentence Sunday 12/11

2011-12-11T00:00:00.001-05:00

Good Sunday, my peeps! Hope everyone's having a nice weekend. I actually have the day off, so I'll be able to hang out and read all the awesome snippets in the comfort of my own home ^_^

If you'd like to read along with me, check out the official Six Sunday site here.

I'm staying in Duality for a while (maybe until I untangle and finish Spark). This scene takes place immediately after last week's.

The bang! sounded like a bomb blast. Sylvia clamped her hand over my mouth, but I couldn’t make a sound. I clutched Sylvia’s arm, tears streaming.

Maggie’s rage died, like a candle’s flame snuffed without a care. She crumpled on top of him, a jumble of spider legs and dark, stringy hair. When he pushed her off, he stared at her, wild-eyed, blood streaming from his nose, chest heaving.

MANic Monday

2011-12-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

Can't have one without the other. The last time, I made a MANic post, I featured my beloved Spencer Reid and discovered that there are actually other men on the show, namely the delicious Derek Morgan, played by the equally delicious Shemar Moore. So for all you team Derek fans, here ya go.

Derek is the yummy former police officer/bomb squad tech turned FBI agent on Criminal Minds. He's yummy.

Derek was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He was just a kid when his police officer father was shot in front of him, which led to a lot of acting out and trouble-making (he had a juvie record). However, he was able to turn his life around thanks to the local youth center (ok, we won't go there for now, this is a happy post), and a football scholarship to Northwestern University, where he ended up injuring his knee.

At the BAU, Derek develops close relationships with his team, most notably Penelope Garcia and Emily Prentiss. He also takes on a big brother role to Spencer, who tends to depend on Derek a little more after Gideon leaves.

As with, well, everyone on this show, there's a lot to love and adore about Derek. He's most definitely an alpha male, possibly even more than team leader Aaron Hotchner, and tends to act on impulse more frequently than he should. Whether this is his making up for his father's death--where he was basically powerless--or pure testosterone, one can't be sure, as Derek tends to keep people at arm's length. Penelope gets to him more than any other team member, but in the truth of things, that's not much. We get to see his bravado crack when Ellie Spicer enters his life after Derek helped save her from a freaking insane serial killer, played by the amazing and creepy Tim Curry. The bond he forges with the little girl is beautiful and a little sad. Ellie makes him vulnerable, and a vulnerable Morgan is an incredibly sexy Morgan.

And now, a gratuitous Shemar Moore photo:

Oh yeah. You love me.

Six Sentence Sunday 12/4

2011-12-04T00:00:00.001-05:00

I HAVE MISSED YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!!!!

NaNo ate me, but I came back. I've missed reading snippets and commenting and laughing to myself when something's funny or being sad for a character I've really started to like. And I've missed interacting, and being among the living. Holy cow, NaNo's a time suck.

And as always, don't forget to check out my fellow Sixers here.

By now, we've had our first taste of real winter in Cincinnati. Snow on Tuesday. Not much, but enough. Oh winter, ye are a harsh mistress...

Anyway, on to the good part. When I saw you guys a month ago, Dima had just witnessed a conversation between Dr. James and Maggie. At this point, Maggie has attacked and knocked James to the ground.

James frantically reached for something and pulled out a small gun. Oh no. No no no no no. “Oh God,” I whispered. The muscles in my stomach tightened. Bile rose into my throat.

I'm alive!!!

2011-11-29T17:23:00.000-05:00

I SURVIVED NANO!

Phew. I have to admit, I didn't think I could do it, since I suck so hard at concentration. But I crossed the finish line a day early.

Is it good? Actually, parts are, yeah. Of course, 50K has shown me that I'll either have to cut my hero's POV down significantly or remove it altogether. There will be other parts to be cut and rewritten and cut again, unless someone wants to read a 200K fantasy novel (or I find suitable places to end for a duet/trilogy). But it was worth it to get the idea bug out of my brain.

So now, I get to finish my Duality edits, finish the first draft of Spark, and while editing Spark, finish this one. I love the idea, love the characters (really love my hero), and can't wait for it all to come together.

Would I recommend NaNo? Well, yes and no. I'm a pantser by heart, but I had some groundwork done for Blade (it really needs a title, y'all) already, so I was prepared. I had mythology, background info, etc, and without it I would have crawled into a hole and rocked back and forth until the nice men in white coats came to take me away. So, if by next November (or any time, since NaNo lives in our hearts always), you have an idea you've tinkered with, laid some groundwork for, wanted to get out of your head, then what better way to see if it is workable than to try NaNo?

I had a lot of fun, a lot of frustration, and a lot of chocolate. But I loved it.

Can't wait for next year!

Oh, so very very mad

2011-11-22T02:47:00.000-05:00

OK. This may not be a well-written post. It may not make a lot of sense, being that it's 2AM, I'm exhausted, and I just want to curl into a ball and sleep.

But you see, my loves, I'm angry. I really need to just stop reading things on the internet, but for some reason I keep going. And as a result, found this article: http://ideas.time.com/2011/11/21/the-harsh-bigotry-of-twilight-haters/?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true

Yes, you can see it in the title of the article. This isn't a diatribe about how much I dislike Twilight. I think most of you are well aware of that by now. One of the issues I have with the article isn't even in the article itself; it's in the comments.

In defense of the writing (which I've bitched about almost as much as I've bitched about Bella), someone had the ovaries to suggest that it's okay for the writing to be awful because it's "for teens."

I will wait for you to stop throwing things. Don't throw your computer. I have more to say.

I've read a LOT of YA in the last year or so. Some of my close friends write YA. Brilliant YA. Fun YA. Romantic YA.

And they write it well. Incredibly well. There are twists and turns that keep readers guessing. There are love triangles that are fabulously well done (Aiden/Alexandra/Seth from Half-Blood is one of my faves, the other being Zenn/Vi/Jag from Possession). One of my favorite recent romances is Alexi and Percy from The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. There's fabulous writing. There's wit. There's lots of fantabulous goodness that rivals any adult book on the shelves.

So no. It's not okay to think Twlight's poorly-written prose is passable because it's written for teens. That's not okay at all. YA books should TRY HARDER because of their target audience. Teens are learning not only about themselves but about writing. Granted, I read adult-targeted books when I was a teenager. I actually wasn't aware of the YA section of the bookstore until a while back. I read the classics, and I read Anne Rice. That's actually part of where I learned to write and how I chose what I wanted my voice to be like. In the same vein, teens reading YA now (and there are a LOT of them) who look to start writing or enjoy writing are still developing their voices. They will read and absorb the authors' voices and prose and styles. Reading is how people learn to write. I personally think Tolkien was not a good writer. LOTR drags. But the characters and story are compelling enough to keep going. I hated Stoker's Dracula. To me, it was horrendously boring and a perfectly good waste of an ending.

But Divergent? Half-Blood? Percy? Oh yes. Give me those books. They're thought-out, clever, romantic (no stalking involved), and involve female MCs who actually push the action. Not every heroine has to be a clever, witty, kick-ass heroine. Percy Parker is not any of those things. She's shy and she's quiet and I love her. I identify with her. I don't require a sassy heroine. However, I do require a main character--male or female--who tries to change things. Who pushes the action. Who doesn't just sit around and mope when something goes wrong. Who is tofu. I promise I'll post on tofu characters soon.

Regardless of your genre, regardless of your target audience, regardless of your intent, there is NO reason for your book to be poorly written. None. You are not allowed to cop out.

MANic Monday

2011-11-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I've denied you mancandy. Granted, #mancandymonday on Twitter is a fantabulous hour (9pm EST) where the lovely ladies give us linkage to delicious men, but I like to focus on specific characters from movies, books, tv, and video games. And today's specific character comes from my new obsession, Criminal Minds.

Ah, the delicious Dr. Reid.

There are a bazillion reasons to love Spencer. He's a certified genius with an IQ of 187, has an eidetic memory that allows him to remember ANYTHING he's ever read, and is so socially awkward he's just damn adorable.

Spencer's an incredibly complex character. He holds PhDs in math, chemistry and engineering with BAs in Psychology and sociology. His mother is a paranoid schizophrenic who lives at an asylum in his hometown of Las Vegas. His father abandoned him and his mom when he was 10.

What the series seems to point out is that Spencer makes attachments very quickly and is extremely loyal to those people. He's the youngest member of the BAU, which leads him to be treated almost like a kid brother you just feel really bad for. His almost surrogate father is Jason Gideon (played by the amazing Mandy Patinkin), who watches out for him. The two frequently play chess together and seem to know what the other is thinking. When Gideon leaves, it's Spencer who figures out what's going on, and though he tries to hide it, he's crushed. After that, we get a more hardened Spencer, though he still attaches himself to new agents, Emily Prentiss in particular.

As per genius (if Big Bang Theory is any indication) Spencer lacks most social skills. He seems to have a crush on Agent Jennifer Jareau, but she becomes a sort of sister to him. He feels safe when he's spouting statistics--that's when he really feels like he knows what he's talking about, although his eidetic memory allows him more linguistic skills than 800 writers on crack. Need an answer for crossword puzzles? Spence is your man. Want an epic Words with Friends partner? Call Spence. But when it comes to the ladies, so far Spencer has been without a prominent love interest, though he's had a couple of close calls (including a pretty hot pool makeout scene with the ever-irritating Amber Heard). It's actually endearing to watch him trip over himself when he's around women. Kinda like you wanna just cuddle him until he hyperventilates.

Speaking of cuddling, here he is with a puppy:

*Dies of Squee*

And a couple more gratuitous Spencer photos.

Oh I do so very much love the long hair....

Checking in.

2011-11-10T15:38:00.001-05:00

Just a friendly check in. First, I'd like to say hi to my new followers *waves maniacally*. Thank you for being willing to join me on this crazy journey. It's kinda strange to think that 101 of you actually read the randomness that is this blog, but I certainly appreciate you.

Second, Nano is going well. At my current pace, I'm scheduled to finish on the 26th, but I'm gonna try to hit 50K before then so I can spend the rest of the month recovering. But this has seriously been a fun experience. I'll definitely participate next year if I'm able.

Third, I wanted to point your attention to the new Denburylicious badge on the right-hand side of your screen. This provocative gentleman is the hero of Leanna Renee Hieber's new YA book Darker Still. I encourage you to check this book out. It's the beginning of a new series for her, and she's an incredibly talented writer. So show her some love on Twitter, like her on Facebook here, here, and here. And if you still need more Leanna, check out her official website here. I thank you in advance.

All right. I'm off to write more words. Be good, and I'll check in with you soon.

Facing the Blank Page

2011-11-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

Today starts NaNoWriMo, so thousands of writers are looking at blank pages and blank documents. Some may be excited--new pages, new characters, new opportunities. Others may be anxious and a little scared; after all, the same things to be excited about are also unknowns, and we all know how often characters decide to go against what we've chosen for them (and if that happens, just go with it and adjust because nothing's worse than forcing a character to do something he doesn't want to do).

And if you're like me, you're kinda scared. Starting over is difficult. That first blank page can be intimidating. However, keep in mind your story and your goal, and NaNoWriMo will be a cinch.

My blogging may be a bit sporadic through the month. I'll update when/if I can, but this month it isn't going to be a priority. I know I'm not the only one. So, if nothing else, I'll catch up with you guys in December.

Happy NaNoing!

MANic Monday

2011-10-31T15:17:00.002-04:00

Sorry, no Jon Snow today. Although I'm going to start stalking him forthwith. Is it possible to stalk a fictional character? No? Hmm. Then I'll have to put off stalking this guy, too.

Ladies *and maybe gents?* I know I have issues. But I get attached to characters easily, especially knowing how much time and effort goes into crafting them. So, today's offering is quite possibly one of the manliest Final Fantasy characters I've seen. *Vincent is also a good candidate*

Today, we have Auron. I. LOVE. AURON. He's one of the best characters from ANY series I've played and I have a total thing for him. Why?

Because Auron is the shit.

Oh. You need better reasons? Well fine.

Auron is one of those men who is blunt when he has to be and silent when he should be. He's somewhat of a father-ish figure to the protagonist Tidus, and he's by far one of the most useful characters you'll have. I can't remember a major battle where I didn't have Auron on the front line. He's a heavy-hitter, dependable, and can kick serious butt.

But...I...yeeeeah...

Also, he's not irritating. Granted, I loved FFX. I loved the story (even the super-confusing ending which angered me so much I bought FFX-2 just to figure out what the hell happened). I loved the different species, the set-up, the locales. But above it all, I loved Auron. His no-nonsense attitude was refreshing after the countless games where dialogue was frilly and poorly thought-out, and I appreciated how blunt he could be. He isn't necessarily the most charming or humorous character, but he's tough-as-nails. And let's face it. A guy who can use a two-handed sword with one hand is kinda sexy.

Six Sentence Sunday 10/30

2011-10-30T00:00:00.003-04:00

Happy day before Halloween! Glad to be back with Six Sunday this week. I missed you guys last week.

If you want to see the super-amazing authors who make Six Sunday so much fun, click here.

Today's snippet follows last week's, just a little farther in the chapter. This begins a showdown between the crazy spider woman (Maggie) and Dr. James (the asshat). "Caleb" is the name Maggie's been saying over and over through the scene.

“Caleb’s dead,” James snapped.

At that, Maggie froze; the rage swelling inside her drifted out of every pore. Her chest heaved. Her hands balled into fists. After a few breaths, little trickles of blood snaked between her fingers and dropped into little puddles on the perfect white tile.

James remained unfazed and started to walk away, but Maggie made one swift movement toward him and grabbed his lab coat, smudging it with red.

Kick-ass Chicks Thursday

2011-10-27T00:00:00.001-04:00

AKA How to Write Strong Female Characters or whatever I was calling it.

Today we get to talk about Alexandra Andros from Jennifer Armentrout's Half-Blood.

Why is Alex a kick-ass chick? Well, there are a variety of reasons:

She's not perfect.
She has major issues with authority (including her dad, but really, what girl doesn't?)
She's reckless.
She knows what she wants--damn the consequences.

So, these probably look like flaws to you, and you'd be right. Alex is a little selfish, can be harsh, brash, and definitely has temper issues. What makes her strong is the fact that she rises above all that to do what she feels is the right thing--which, for her, is incredibly difficult and, in the end, selfless. Alex is a great example of a woman finding strength in her weaknesses.

And the best news? Half-Blood is available for purchase *FINALLY* so you get to follow Alex's adventures and find out for yourselves why I love her so much.

Half-Blood at Amazon

Half-Blood at Barnes & Noble

Worldbuilding - Your Characters and Your World

2011-10-25T00:00:00.017-04:00

So much WANT.

Am I reusing a picture of Jon Snow? Why yes. Yes I am. Can you blame me, though?

Also, can you tell I'm in severe Game of Thrones withdrawal? Cuz I am.

Anyway, I keep picking GoT because a) it's awesome, b) it allows me to use gratuitous Jon Snow photos, and c) I just finished it last night and OH MY GAWD.

And it's a fantastic example of worldbuilding and how the world you create impacts your characters, something I covered briefly in the last post but wanted to expound upon because it's kiiiiiind of important.

And I'm going to use Jon as an example ^_^

In Westeros, a bastard's surname is typically called by region. In the northlands, where Ned takes Jon, that surname is "Snow." In the river region, the name is "Rivers." You can see how that works, I'm sure.

When Ned brings Jon to Winterfell, no one can understand why, including Jon. Step-mom Catelyn despises him and little half-sister Sansa (who kinda sucks at life anyway) never accepts him into the family. He's called "bastard" as often as "Jon." So...how does all this fit into the worldbuilding?

Because of the cultural and societal implications of Jon's standing, he's seen as little more than a parasite. Alienated and alone, no matter how hard Arya, Robb, Bran, and Ned try to make him feel included, he's not. Never seated with his family at banquets, never allowed to take the name "Stark," Jon has no true family, though he'd die for Ned or his half-siblings without a second thought. So, where do men with no hope of establishing a house go?

TO THE WALL.

BRRRRRRRR.

The Wall is where bastards, some nobles (like poor Sam Tarly who is a horrible disappointment to his father) , rapists, murderers, thieves and other low-born ilk have a chance to make something of themselves defending the northernmost part of the Kingdom from...well, lots of things. Jon's uncle Benjen "took the black" himself, and it's through him Jon learns of the opportunity and decides to go himself.

Like most fraternities (not Phi Kappa Gamma, beer-guzzling fraternities, but actual brotherhoods) a committal vow is required of all new initiates. It's this vow, and its importance within the world, that compels Jon to stay when he doesn't want to. Deserters from the Wall are as good as dead. In fact, in the beginning of Game of Thrones (book or movie), the first scene with the Starks is Ned beheading a deserter from the Wall. Makes Jon think twice a little bit, and thusly affects his decisions and thought-process.

So, how do you apply this to your world?

What George RR Martin did with Jon (and really, I could go on for weeks just on Game of Thrones alone) is he took the time to figure out how the world affects his character. What's true in both fiction and life is that our upbringing and the society in which we're brought up affects us as we get older. The key is deciding how your world dictates your character and whether your character chooses to rise above it.

Case in point: Katniss Everdeen. Yes, I KNOOOOW but I loved the Hunger Games. So anyway, here's what society dictates for Kat: Be poor, participate in Hunger Games, die.

What did she do? *SPOILER*

She takes down the freaking President. Not herself, mind you. She misses the important action *GRRR*. But rather than take everything lying down, Kat becomes a symbol of hope for an oppressed people. She rises above the expectations set for her.

That's all well and good for the protagonist/main character/whatever, but since it's hard to pinpoint a main character in Martin's multi-POV epic, I kinda consider Jon to be more of a secondary character. He's important enough to warrant his own POV, sure, but in the end, the book finds its focus around the Lannisters vs. the Starks, and Jon's got bigger (and undeader) fish to fry.

This leads into using your world to round out your secondary characters too. We'll discuss that at a later date ;)

MANic Monday

2011-10-24T16:03:00.000-04:00

Guess who totally balked on setting up MANic Monday? MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Sorry. Just kinda spaced over the weekend. This whole lack of a laptop thing is really cramping my style, yo.

Onward to today's offering: Castiel from CW's Supernatural.

Now, I don't watch the show, but I know oodles of people who do. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND, yeah. Castiel's usually the talk (although Dean and Sam are yummy too). Of course, while compiling this post, I definitely understand why.

Castiel is an angel. Not a Touched by an Angel kind of angel, though. Not a helpful guardian angel or a benevolent angel who wants to help mankind. Castiel says his allegiance is to Heaven and that's about it. He helps Sam and Dean because "God has work for them." However, he does start to feel an attachment to Dean, and that's where Castiel's trouble comes through a sort of "demotion."

Unsurprisingly, Castiel has a few powers which come in handy, most notably his insta-death touch, lethal to demons. And since Dean and Sam are always doing something stupid (like getting stuck in Hell; really, Dean?), no doubt those various abilities will come in handy.

But I must say, if ever I need angelic interference, I hope he looks like this guy....

And now, for picture spammage ;)

***Dude, I really need to start watching this show...*

I haz an award, again!

2011-10-20T12:57:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Beckah-Rah I haz a new award ^_^ Also, today I'm a zombie. I *think* I got about 2 hours of sleep last night *thanks Jasper*.

Anyway, on to awards!

"The purpose of this award is to ask bloggers to identify their own blog posts in certain categories." Simple enough, I guess.

Hrm. Maybe not...

1. Most Beautiful Post: Puppies!!!! Because...well...puppies! What more do you need? Or any of my MANic Monday posts, Jon Snow in particular (Kit Harrington is effing gorgeous)

2. Most Popular Post: Thinking Outside the Box - Or: Other publishing options besides agent + editor + waiting forever. I think it's solely because I talk about Jennifer Armentrout.

3. Most Controversial Post: ...I don't really have one. Apparently I just don't stir the pot enough or something...

4. Most Helpful post: Well, since I'm here.... Granted, it's more gratuitous talking about Julian Sands, but it's also a helpful reminder about the importance of perseverance on our writing journeys.

5. Most Surprisingly Successful post: Thinking Outside the Box. Seriously. I still can't believe it's that popular...

6. Post that Didn't get the Attention it Deserved: Um...all...of..theeem? Oh? I have to be specific? Hmm... I'd have to go with my interview with Phoenix Sullivan or Xakara's guest post.

7. Post I am Most Proud of: At this point, any of them that make sense. OK, there's one that I'm really happy with, which is Worldbuilding: Fantasy & Society because I get to talk about 3 of my favorite things: creating new worlds, Dragon Age: Origins, and Game of Thrones (Jon Snow *sigh*)

And now I get to tag 3 more blogs! W00t!

Six Sentence Sunday 10/16

2011-10-16T00:00:00.001-04:00

It's the first REAL Sunday of Fall... At least for me. The weather's a little cooler, leaves are covering the ground, and that fabulous cool-scent is tainting the air. *Le sigh* I love me some early Fall....

Glad you guys keep coming back every week. Makes me all warm and fuzzy that you guys want to spend part of your Sunday with me and my weird story. Your comments give me a lot of motivation each and every week...

Don't forget to check out my fellow Sixers at the official site (where you can also sign up for next week!).

Today's six follows last week's, just a bit farther in the scene. Dima's recovering from her fight with the sixteen and asking Sylvia the all-important question:

“Did Lorenzo call me by my real name?”

Hesitantly, [Sylvia] answered, “Dima, I don’t know.” Her words were clumsy. She darted out of the room.

“He did,” I whispered. “He knows me.”

Book Review: Wildefire by Karsten Knight

2011-10-12T08:30:00.001-04:00

I'm a big girl. I can admit that I HAD to have Karsten Knight's Wildefire when I first saw the cover on a website displaying upcoming YA book covers. However, when I read the blurb, I REALLY had to have the book. Polynesian volcano goddess? So. There.

I'm sure that everyone and their brother/sister/bff/third cousin twice removed has heard about this book, and if you haven't, then...I dunno. BUT if you haven't and you're reading this, you're hearing/reading about it now.

There's a reason why I have yet to find a less-than-stellar review on this book. It's just that good. Actually, it's not good. It's AWE-wait for it-SOME.

Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

Every flame begins with a spark.

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

I love a good sister vs. sister story from time-to-time. Loved The Other Boleyn Girl. Loved My Sister's Keeper (the book, didn't see the movie), even though it's not so much sister vs. sister as it is "little sister wants freedom from being her big sister's organ donor."

What Wildefire has in common with the above stories is liberation. Mary lived within Anne's shadow her entire life. Anna was born specifically to help Kate through blood/marrow/organ transplants. Ashe has had to grow up with a psychotic sister storm goddess. Trust me, this book has drama. Not melodrama, as in "oh why must my sister vex me so with her presence when I simply want to be freeeeeeeeee?" but drama drama, as in "holy crap, my sister just electrocuted the b*tch who's been giving me a hard time. Oh, look. Eve's now throwing her off the roof. FML."

That is both the pivotal point and driving force beneath Karsten's sister vs. sister rollercoaster ride. After above girl-electrocuting-flinging-off-roof fiasco, Ashe moves to above-mentioned school in California where she actually succeeds in having a social life. However, the normalcy doesn't last. Eve finds Ash, and Ash's past catches up with her.

The cast of characters Karsten puts together is what makes the book so fantastic. It draws from mythology of all kinds: Polynesian, Greek, Norse, Japanese, Creole. And what amazed me as I read was that these characters seamlessly blend together to form the fabric of his story. No one seems out of place, regardless of the mythological background. They're almost like the X-men of gods and goddesses. Yeah. They're that cool. They all have their own fabulous personalities. The surfer dude in particular was my pick.

Something else I really enjoyed was the unconventional romance. Ash is pursued by a somewhat goofy park ranger named Colt with secrets of his own. Regardless of what random horrible things happen while they're together, like Ash's hand burns him (putting a new spin on "hot and heavy"), Colt sticks around for his own reasons. It's not an easy romance by any means, but hey, if a guy's willing to walk through fire *snicker* to be with you, he's a keeper.

Wildefire is fabulously paced. I was hooked from the very first sentence and didn't want to stop reading (but had to since I was on vacation and had to be all social and stuff). There were times when I'd gasp, or my breath would simply catch. Karsten's definitely one to watch, and I'm so anxious for Embers & Echoes. I need more Ash in my life.

Or just more Colt.

World-building - Fantasy & Society

2011-10-11T09:14:00.002-04:00

This goes for SF too, but I'm in the mood to talk about fantasy today for some reason. I guess between reading Game of Thrones and playing Dragon Age: Origins, I've got fantasy on the brain. Also, I really wish I'd developed this a little better, but hey, I'm not a teacher, so I can get some slack, right? :D

Anyway, one of the most important aspects of building your world, be it SF or fantasy, is the society in which your characters live. This is something Dragon Age does fantastically. In the game, you can choose from three races: Human, Elf, Dwarf. Within those races are classes. For Human, you can choose Mage or noble. For Elf, you can choose Dalish (elves who live in the forest), Mage, or commoner (in which case you live in the alienage, which is an impoverished, sectioned-off portion of a city ). For Dwarf, you can choose noble or commoner. Whatever you choose decides how other characters in the game see you.

If you're a Human noble, for example, everyone treats you with optimum respect, referring to you as "my lady" or "my lord" depending on your gender. If you choose Mage, people are afraid of you because they don't like/understand magic. If you choose Elf, people are more likely to talk down to you because most elves are servants. Regardless of your standing as Gray Warden, people will still refer to you by your previous social status. Most of the time, you have to tell them you're a Gray Warden to get a little respect.

So, what do you need to think about in order to construct your society? Well, a lot, actually. Now don't be alarmed. There are a lot of wonderful tools to help you along your way.

Some important ones:

Economic/class model - This one is probably THE most important one because this will shape how your characters view the world and themselves. Is it a commerce-based society? Are merchants the at the top or close to the bottom? Is there a gap between haves and have nots? Are you shooting for more of a communist-based society where there's no wealth?

Ex. Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy uses the world's economic model as the catalyst for the Hunger Games. Basically, it's all for rich people's amusement.
Technology - Are you writing steam/cyber/other punk? Basing your society around the Middle Ages when people still rode on horses? Is it an era of invention?

Ex. Steampunk is all the rage these days. Kady Cross' The Girl in the Steel Corset utilizes the steampunk automatons and advanced technology. The plot centers around automatons being used for dastardly deeds.
Religion/Spirituality - This is probably tied with Economic model in terms of importance because it will help shape your characters, whether they're believers, non-believers, or just don't care either way.

Ex. In Dragon Age (I know, I know, but really, it's a good example), the central religion (Chantry) is built around a prophetess and a higher power referred to as the Maker. Chantry belief dictates everything from the lore surrounding the evil critters you have to kill (Darkspawn) to how Mages are treated to curses and praises. There are people within the Chantry called Chanters who can only speak the religious text the religion is based around.
Geography/Setting - The actual world part of your world-building. If you are setting your story anywhere besides present-day Earth, you're going to have to figure out the geography. Draw *really crappy, if you're like me* maps. Figure out important places. Mountain ranges. Deserts. Flat lands. All these things (and more) will determine how your character travels and the potential hazards therein.

Ex. Star Wars. Dune. Game of Thrones. Pitch Black. Each of these uses setting to show something about character, whether it concerns how the character grew up--Luke was raised on a desert planet with 2 suns--, a character's attitude--Ned Stark is often referred to as cold because of his "northern blood" while characters from around Kings Landing are "those southron folks"--or a character's adaptation to his environment--Riddick's night-vision.

As you can see, when you build a world, you literally build a world. You design it. You make its history, its culture, its classes and all of that. Everything, be it where a character's from to what he believes in, will shape your characters and their reactions to the world around them.

MANic Monday - Double Trouble

2011-10-10T00:00:00.002-04:00

There are TWO (yes, two) Alucards in the world who hold me captivated. Today, I'm doing a double-shot. Daylight and dark (ironic since they're both vampires), yin and yang... One is the son of Dracula, while the other IS Dracula (also, Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards).

Ahem.

It is only when you refuse to give in with all your heart that you begin to transcend your humanity.

OK. So y'all know how I like my men all broody and morose? Well, there's another kind of man who, for some unknown reason, gets my blood boiling. That would be the complete psychopath. The crazier they are, the better. And for my money, there's no one better at making total psychopath hot than Hellsing's Alucard. Oh. Sweet. God. This man is a pile of out-of-his-mind lunacy.

Also, he's Dracula. Vlad Tepes. Turned vampire (somehow) and now *ironically* a servant of the Van Hellsing family. He's sired a fledgling he cares for greatly, and now he uses his awesome vampire gifts to help the Van Hellsings hunt vampires.

Nothing I shoot gets back up again.

Also, he's a fabulous dresser. Obviously, he got the "Red is awesome" memo, because he simply rocks it. I don't know of many men, vampire or not, who can do what he does while wearing a long red duster and wide-brimmed floppy red hat. Sounds odd, yes, but with an attitude like his (the You Do NOT **** with ME), you'll still be begging for mercy no matter what.

What I love about Alucard is his complete bad-assery. Though he sometimes regrets his decision to become a vampire, he doesn't dwell on it, really. He doesn't turn all emo and lament his life and blah blah blah. No. Not this guy. He. Kills. Everything. EVERYTHING.

And no, he doesn't sparkle. In fact, sunlight has no effect on him at all. AT ALL.

Now, to the other side of the coin: Alucard of Castlevania fame. Admittedly, I have only played Symphony of the Night (because I need to get a freaking Wii and DS and play the others), but considering SOTN is one of the BEST EVER 2-D side-scrolling games in existence, I think I'm okay.

This incarnation of my beloved Alucard (AKA Adrian) is the son of Lord Dracula, menace to all farmland communities in Europe and incredibly over-dramatic lord of the most insane castle ever. In SOTN he wakes from a centuries-long slumber to take down Dracula one. More. Time. Dracula's like Cher, you just can't get rid of him, and he'll somehow live through nuclear winter just to feast on the survivors.

Alucard couldn't be more different if he tried. He's only half-vampire, and his attitude belies the humanity he clings to. He is the ultimate Momma's Boy, but considering he basically hands Death the ass-kicking of an eternity, he's allowed.

This Alucard is also a snappy dresser. One of my favorite parts of the game is messing with the color of his cape. Yes, I'm a dork like that. However, destroying everything in a hot pink cape is AWESOME. And it looks great with Alucard's coloring ;)

This guy goes through not one castle, but TWO to put an end to his father's reign of terror (and the second one? UPSIDE DOWN). His abilities are similar to the above Alucard's. He can transform into a wolf, bat, or mist, and can use familiars like bat, fairy, and imp (I love the imp; he's funny).

Alucard spends most of his time detached. Focused. He always has a plan (something we share) and is willing to do whatever he must to see his plans to fruition, no matter the danger it puts him in. He sees his vampirism as a curse as well, saying his blood is tainted, but he uses the abilities it grants him to bring an end to what he sees as the ultimate evil. Also, he kills an evil priest named Shaft. How hilariously awesome is that? *Shaft!*

Whichever your preference, deliciously evil Alucard or almost saintly Alucard (sans that whole blood-sucking thing), they both rock pretty hardcore. For me, it's difficult to choose. So, I say, both! :D

Six Sentence Sunday 10/09

2011-10-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

Hello, hello! It's that majestic time of year when the world erupts into a plethora of colors, pumpkin pie is on every menu, and football season is in full swing. I. LOVE. FALL. At least the beginning of it. The part that bows down to winter, meh, not so much. ;)

Welcome to this week's edition of Six Sentence Sunday! I'm glad I get to spend it with y'all, and glad that y'all chose to spend some of your time with me. Your comments make me smile.

Don't forget to check out my fellow Sixers here.

My nose told me Sylvia was nearby; Lorenzo, however, wasn’t, and instead of the expected sense of relief, disappointment crawled through me like a turtle, covering every part of me. He’d saved me, like Jasper had wanted to, and I wanted to thank him. Most of all, he confirmed that somewhere locked inside me was a woman named Janelle, a woman who deserved to understand her fate.

I closed my eyes again, wishing they’d leave Sylvia and me alone. I needed to know if Lorenzo had said my real name, Janelle. The familiarity of his voice whispering the name gave me hope.

MANic Monday

2011-10-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

Oh, I've been chomping at the bit for this week's MANic Monday. If you've talked to me AT ALL, you'll know about my love of Jon Snow from HBO's Game of Thrones. I'm so glad he's older than in the books, because otherwise I'd feel like a perv.

So, onward to the eye candy.

Those doey brown eyes are going to be the death of me...

BWAHAHAHA, hipster Jon!

Jon is the bastard son of *presumably* Eddard "Ned" Stark (played by the ever-wonderful and kill-offable Sean Bean), patriarch of the Starks in Winterfell. Ned takes Jon to raise as a son alongside his other children, thus giving Jon the foundation of a loosely-connected family. Jon gets along best with his half-brother Robb and his half-sister Arya (one of my all-time favorite characters), for whom he bought a small sword she calls "Needle." Sansa, Ned's eldest daughter, barely tolerates him, but she takes seriously her role as one of the Ladies of the Stark house. He and Bran get along. Bran always misses Jon when Jon's away.

Ned's wife Catelyn despises him, feeling that he shames both the household and her. He's the symbol of a love Catelyn can't hope to share with her husband Ned. She bears no love for Jon whatsoever, and is part of the catalyst that leads Jon down the pathway he's chosen.

Jon joins the Night's Watch, a group of men--thieves, murderers, pickpockets, bastards, high-born, low-born, etc--who have sworn to protect the continent from things called White Walkers, which are basically zombies, and other assorted things that live beyond the Wall. Ned's brother Benjen is a member as well. He's the one who convinces Jon to make the long journey north to the Wall.

There are a million and one reasons to love Jon. Aside from the obvious physical reasons (Those eyes! That hair! Those lips!), Jon is probably the most honorable of the Stark house, even though he's not truly a Stark. He actually behaves above his station as an outcast among a family. Jon is always there for a kind word or reassurance, and the Stark family misses that when he leaves for the Night's Watch.

Jon with direwolf cub Ghost

One of the main reasons I fell in love with Jon was because beneath the calm, almost docile exterior lies a man who wants nothing more than to belong. Ever since Ned brought him to Winterfell, he's felt like an outcast. The direwolf he finds in the woods is the same. Ghost is an albino direwolf with snow-white fur and red eyes, whom Jon found a few yards away from the rest of the cubs and their dead mother. Like Jon, he's fiercely devoted to those he loves.

I'm anxious to watch Jon's progression through both the TV and book series. He's definitely one to keep an eye on...

You look good on that throne, oh yes you do!

Six Sentence Sunday 10/02

2011-10-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

This is me on muscle relaxers

Welcome to another (a)rousing rendition of Six Sentence Sunday! I'm pleased as punch to be back with you guys this week after last week. Oy. The good news is that I'm feeling a lot better, so it won't take me half the week to catch up on posts *yay*! So, onward to this week's post! As always, please spend some time with my fellow Sixers. These are some talented peeps who blow my mind every week!

This week, I'm skipping to the end of Dima's fight with the sixteen because this is the opening to bigger and more important things in Dima's existence as a Humani. She's just been thrashed by the sixteen and is getting some unexpected help.

I felt like a doll tossed around by a rabid dog.

My spine tingled. Arms wrapped around me, perfectly imitating the snake’s body without the pressure. I opened my eyes enough to see Lorenzo by my side. “My God,” he whispered, “I’m sorry, Janelle. I’m so sorry.”

*Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnn*

COVER REVEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Touch by Jus Accardo

2011-09-28T00:00:00.002-04:00

FOLKS! I'm so happy that I'm still among y'all to blog. Holy smokes, the last couple of days have been exhausting and hectic. Most of you on Twitter know about my accident. I'm fine, the dogs are fine. The car is not. BUT! This is a happy place! Today, I have for you a super-awesome cover reveal (see, the title isn't lying to you!):

Jus Accardo's TOUCH

I'd bring him home, too!

Here's the blurb:

When a strange boy tumbles down a river embankment and lands at her feet, seventeen-year-old adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross snatches the opportunity to piss off her father by bringing the mysterious hottie with ice blue eyes home.

Except there’s something off with Kale. He wears her shoes in the shower, is overly fascinated with things like DVDs and vases, and acts like she’ll turn to dust if he touches her. It’s not until Dez’s father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there’s more to this boy—and her father’s “law firm”—than she realized.

Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation—an organization devoted to collecting “special” kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons—his entire life. And, oh yeah, his touch? It kills. The two team up with a group of rogue Sixes hellbent on taking down Denazen before they’re caught and her father discovers the biggest secret of all. A secret Dez has spent her life keeping safe.

A secret Kale will kill to protect.

This. Sounds. AWESOME.

TOUCH releases November 1st. I know I'll be getting a copy!

MANic Monday

2011-09-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I managed to review Leanna Renee Hieber's The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker without going all fan-girl SQUEE over Alexi--yes, that was actually restraint, believe it or not--because I knew I'd have the chance on MANic Monday. (I'm tricksy like that.)

So, this week, I get to talk a little bit about my newest-ish love, Alexi Rychman, professor of mathematics (AKA hot guy who could do my taxes).

When I asked Leanna if she had any pictorial references for Alexi so I could make this post, she informed me that the ever-incredible *and yummy* Richard Armitage was her inspiration for him (I kept thinking Chris Cornell in an ascot, but I think EVERY brooding guy should be Chris Cornell). So, kind lady she is, she sent me some pics.

And the more I look at them, the more I likey.

As though I needed the help.

Alexi is stern and harsh, but he behaves this way for a reason. He's constructed a tough outer shell to preserve himself for his beautiful Goddess, the one woman to whom he will willingly give himself. She promised her return, and he will be damned if he gives up on her. To do so would be to turn his back on the Prophecy, on his friends, and ultimately on himself. It's a form of self-preservation and the only way Alexi knows to preserve his faith on his Goddess' promise.

So sweet... Oh, Alexi...

Alexi believes with his entire being--mind, body, soul--in Fate and True Love. Beneath the veneer of self-absorption and melancholy is a romantic heart that beats only for his goddess. He's also ridiculously persistent, and I adore that in him. Hopeless romantic that I am *beneath the rock 'n roll exterior* I found a kinship with Alexi that I haven't felt since Jane Eyre. I think every hopeless romantic believes in Fate and Destiny, a sort of cosmic event that unites two people for eternity, and Alexi exemplifies this with all the grace and hope and rage and faith of a man who believes in it with every fiber of his existence. What woman wouldn't go insane for a man like him?

Six Sentence Sunday 9/25

2011-09-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Sundog everyone! This week, I'm spending mine on an impromptu visit to my parents', so I'm going to be covered in sundogs of my own. ^_^ I'm honored and humbled by the fact that you're spending part of your day with me. It really means a lot.

So please go spend some time with my fellow Sunday Sixers. You'll be hard-pressed to find a more talented group of people, I assure you.

This week's six is the description of the sixteen, the python/black widow hybrid that's Dima's last hurdle to getting out of that stupid endurance challenge unscathed. It's not going to be easy, though.

Its neck had to be at least seven feet in length, maybe more, and led up to a snake head with eight beady eyes, two of them slit; the others were pitch black and clustered in the center of its head. Two spider-pinchers rested in the corners of its jaws, which it unhinged to let me see the extent of its bite. It’d be able to swallow me whole. Hooooly shit.

Its body was a spider’s thorax, with eight leathery legs attached to a body covered in dark greenish-gray scales. The crimson hourglass marking its back was so vibrant it almost glowed.

Guest post: Buried Treasure by Xakara

2011-09-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

I am INCREDIBLY excited to have Xakara on my blog today! We met through the awesomely fun Six Sentence Sunday and have been enjoying each other's virtual company ever since. Take it away, Xakara!!!

Greetings, Kittens!

Lex and I were kicking back a few weeks ago and starting talking about the writing process. I know, I know, what is possibly left to say about it? Definitively? Nothing. Utterly subjective? Everything and more.

I have yet to follow any particular path or rule when it comes to writing, so the ones that others ignore, break or reinvent always intrigue. When writers meet each other, the inevitable question is, panster or plotter, and if you’re really getting into it, quilter becomes an option. For those not familiar with the writer’s lexicon, do you write by the seat of your pants, plot and outline everything to come, or work on scenes as they come to you and patch them together like squares of quilt? I don’t do any one of these, but I do some combination of all them at different points.

I don’t plot, won’t plot, likely can’t plot and never shall plot—amen! On paper anyway. Scenes work themselves out in my head as I go along and often there’s a particular point/scene/moment that I’m working towards, but I never outline or commit myself to elements of a story before I get to them. I tried that once and the story nearly self-destructed. Never again my friends, never again. That said, I never go into a scene without a clue, either. Sometimes it’s a nebulous clue, a snatch of dialogue or a visual calling my name, but it’s always something that pulls me there. I work out the rest as I go.

I don’t always get everything for a story in order. I deeply loathe those times, but I’ve had my fair share of piecing things together. Of course that doesn’t mean that I knew exactly where those scenes were going when I wrote them, any more than I knew what happened between them. I simply recognized that they happened eventually and that I might as well get them down and figure out the rest later. To cover the spread, I came up with the term patchwork panster, but there’s a little more to it in my mindset.

While talking with Lex, I revealed that feel like an archeologist when I write. I dig down, layer by layer, and find the precious bits beneath the surface. This is sometimes called the nugget approach, but when you pan for gold, you throw away a great deal as garbage. When you work at a dig site, even the dirt is valuable and tells you more about the treasures you’ve discovered. It’s a very different perspective.

I have documents filled with excerpts. Excerpts from what exactly, I couldn’t tell you, but they came to mind while working on projects where they didn’t quite fit. With the archeology approach, each sample is labeled, catalogued and stored for future use. When the time comes they are cleaned and teased into revealing their larger shape, until in the end, an entire manuscript is left behind, all shiny and new.

Every new story is a new site that reveals a new era of creative evolution. I’m excited to find what comes next because I honestly never know what’s beneath the living, breathing soil, waiting to be discovered. There’s this magical moment when I get to be both a reader and an author, watching it all unfold with each new page, knowing where I want it to go, but never quite sure it’ll get there.

It must sound odd to non-writers, but most of us have no clue where a story will end once we begin it. Or the ending is often all we have and we’re left strolling along, trying to figure out how our, (hopefully), beloved characters ended up where they did. We write for the same reason others read, because we want to know what happens next. We want to see where it’s all headed. And just like readers, when the story is good, we want others to come with us, so we publish. Our styles differ, but our ultimate goal of sharing our worlds is the same, no matter if we plot, pants, quilt or dig. We’re all trying to bring you buried treasures.

Thanks for having me, Lex. And thanks for joining us, Kittens.

This Ramble is done!

~Xakara

Thanks again, Xakara! Awesome post!!!

If you'd like more Xakara, check out her Facebook author page, her livejournal, or tweet her!

Her books are available on Amazon:

Shifting Passions

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Dawn's Early Light

Feature Friday...sort of.

2011-09-23T20:02:00.001-04:00

So... you may have noticed there's no Friday Feature post today. Unfortunately Youtube is blocked on my work computer, so I can't post any videos. I can, however, post some lyrics I heard last night that really hit home. These are from B.O.B's Airplanes pt 2, featuring Eminem and Hayley Williams from Paramore. There are expletives (oh no! *eyeroll*), but the lyrics in bold are the ones that hit me hardest, and I think it's something writers can relate to.

All right-- let's pretend Marshall Mathers never picked up a pen
Let's pretend things would have been no different
Pretend he procrastinated had no motivation
Pretend he just made excuses that were so paper thin they could blow away with the wind
Marshall you’re never gonna make it makes no sense to play the game there ain’t no way that you’ll win
Pretend he just stayed outside all day and played with his friends
Pretend he even had a friend to say was his friend
And it wasn’t time to move and schools were changing again
He wasn’t socially awkward and just strange as a kid
He had a father and his mother wasn’t crazy as sh-t
And he never dreamed he could rip stadiums and just lazy as sh*t
F*ck a talent show in a gymnasium b*tch you won’t amount to sh* quit daydreaming kid
You need to get your cranium checked you thinking like an alien it just ain’t realisticNow pretend they ain’t just make him angry with this sh*t and there was no one he could even aim when he’s pissed it
And his alarm went off to wake him off but he didn’t make it to the rap Olympics slept through his plane and he missed it
He’s gon’ have a hard time explaining to Hailey and Laney these food stamps and this WIC sh*t
Cuz he never risked sh*t he hopes and he wished it but it didn’t fall in his lap so he ain’t even here
He pretends that…
Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now...

I think we've all been there, all felt similarly. Writing is too hard. It's almost impossible to get published, etc etc etc. We make excuses, and yet at the end of the day, it's our belief in ourselves that keeps us on this road (and also the people in our heads who will NOT shut up). We face failure after failure, but no one can do this for us. We have to believe in ourselves so we don't spend our time with our regrets and wishing on airplanes.

Book Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer Armentrout

2011-09-21T00:00:00.016-04:00

I first met Jennifer through the Querytracker.net Forum. She's fabulous, and the more we talked about her book, the more interested I got. I actually got to beta HB for her (for all the good I'm sure it did lol), and got introduced to Miss Alex a liiiiittle bit earlier than a lot of other people. Yet, because I suck at life, I'm only now reviewing it.

In case you've been living under a rock for the last several months, here's the blurb for Half-Blood from Good Reads:

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

When I read HB, I was blown away. I loved Alex's sarcasm and snark, but what I appreciated more was her inner strength. She's pretty much on her own. Daimons killed her mom, and she's just out of her element. She wears her armor of sarcasm seemingly with the hope that she won't have to get close to anyone else. What good is loving someone when you could lose them at any second?

Jennifer's characters are diverse and well-rounded. You all know about my love for Aiden. He kind of made the book for me, to be honest. Kick ass heroines are a dime a dozen these days (no offense, because we love them and they're fun as hell to write), but Aidens are a little less common. The guy could probably kill someone without batting an eye, but his time with Alex makes him more vulnerable and the shell around him starts to crack.

I also LOVED Caleb, Alex's BFF and someone just full of pure awesome. Out of everyone, Caleb is actually my favorite, even above Aiden. He's always quick with a shoulder to cry on and a kind word for Alex, and out of everyone, he's the most excited to see her when she comes back. Alex can relax around him and take of her armor from time to time, and her interactions with him are some of the best in the book, at least in my opinion.I have a huge soft spot for him.

And of course, I have to mention Seth, or he will storm my blog and demand attention. Seth is bossy, he's forceful, and he will not rest until he gets what he wants. I admire that quality in him, though it's one I could never replicate in myself. I guess the difference between him and me made his scenes a lot of fun to read.

Seth is exactly the opposite of Aiden. Seth is a hurricane; Aiden is a thunderstorm. With Seth, you know exactly what you're getting. With Aiden, you can get a gentle rain with a spectacular light show or a torrential flood. The dynamic between the two has explosive potential, especially when it comes to Alex.

Weaving all these characters and their dynamics together makes for a fantabulous read. Jen's incredibly talented, and if you pass on Half-Blood, I might have to come to your house and verbally assault you. Not really, but I'll have to wonder if you're okay in the head.

Half-Blood will be available October 18th from Spencer Hill Press.

World-building - Science Fiction

2011-09-20T00:00:00.035-04:00

I'm gonna try to cover this. It's a large topic and can become incredibly intricate. So, that being typed, I'm going to share with you my experiences world-building my science fiction and fantasy ideas and *in theory* how to bring your worlds to life. Today, I'm going to cover science fiction. Next time, I'll cover fantasy.

When I started writing Duality, I had in mind this almost dystopic setting where there were 5 major cities--the locations of the 5 laboratories--and everything else had just gone to crap. For my world's purposes, science had replaced religion as the opiate of the masses, and the government invested more in the labs than in its citizens. Because the action takes place mostly in the labs, I had to include this information in spurts, but avoid "As you know, Bobs," which was especially tricky given my MC's amnesia. So a couple of things Dima asks about, and I have a few opinionated secondary characters. I try not to info-dump.

For example, there's a scene where Dima's watching the lab workers unload cargo for the next round of experiments. As the workers unload the human components, she spots a stringy-haired kid in ratty clothes, covered in dirt:
"He was a gutter-rag, a kid who lived on the outskirts, not in one of the major cities. He represented the most impoverished section of America, and now he was being led like a lamb to slaughter."

She doesn't go into a diatribe concerning which cities were the major ones (because she might not remember), but she gives you enough insight into how the people who live outside those major hubs are treated (like they don't even matter). Here's a second example:
The PTSD. The missing leg. His desert-scented fear… The Oil War. The government had thrown him into a useless battle with the Saudi nation for garbage oil that couldn’t even be refined effectively enough to pad the country’s thinning supply. Even though it had ended years ago, he looked like he was still in it.

She doesn't discuss how the War started or ended, only that it occurred and had affected the person she's thinking about.

In other parts of the story, Dima might be testing her memory, thinking about what she might or might not remember. It's possible to weave in bits of history creatively without it being overbearing. What I try to do is focus on my world as my MC knows it rather than as an outside observer. That helps to avoid info-dumps and "As you know, Bobs."

But how do you know what to explain to your audience and what not to? That primarily depends on your main character. Is your MC an alien in the world you've created? If so, then he's not going to know much about what's going on, and in informing the MC, you inform your audience. One of the best examples of this is the Syfy series Eureka, which follows Sheriff Jack Carter as he tries to maintain peace in a town of super geniuses building stuff for the government. Here's one of the more entertaining quotes showing what I mean:

Allison: Now that we are involved I had to file an IA248 with the DOD
Jack: IA??
Allison: It's the form required for our intimate alliance.
Jack: There can't be a form for that!

See what I mean? Jack doesn't know what an IA is, and Allison tells him without giving too much info, like why the form is required or when the forms first came into use. Just enough info to answer Jack's question.

The thing to remember about world-building is that, even though we as the writers need to know EVERYTHING about the world we're constructing, the readers DON'T. The information they need should be given in context with the characters and situation.

If you guys have questions, leave them in the comments, and I'll try to answer them in the next post.

MANic Monday

2011-09-19T02:00:00.003-04:00

MANic Monday is my excuse to post the guys in movies, TV, books, and *ahem* video games I think YOU need to know about. Also, it's a way for me to get these people out of my head. If you have anyone you want to feature, tweet me, Facebook me, or email me!

Taking a break from the A's for a special request from Jan at This Week's Hobby.

We both have a love for AMC's Breaking Bad (if you're not watching it, it's seriously the best-written show on TV [suck it, Mad Men], or at least one of them). If you're unfamiliar with the story, here's a brief synopsis:

Breaking Bad follows protagonist Walter White, a chemistry teacher who's been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer and given 2 years to live. To ensure his family's financial security, he decides to use his chemistry knowledge to manufacture and sell meth. Yeah. Meth. And to assist in the selling/distribution process, he gets former student and small-time drug dealer Jesse Pinkman.

"What good is being an outlaw when you have responsibilities?"

There's a lot to like about Jesse. Regardless of his shadier activities, deep down, he's a good guy. In a different world, Jesse would be the super-popular, handsome, sweet guy everyone wants to hang with. But Jesse covers that guy over with street-wise thug attitude and ill-fitting clothes. If you've seen him on HBO's Big Love, take that character, and make him the EXACT opposite, and you have Jesse.

Jesse becomes Walt's right hand man in the drug trade. He learns to cook alongside Walt and manages the dealing. Some of the best scenes and dialogue in the show comes from Jesse's interactions with his henchmen, Badger and Skinny Pete, who are total idiots. Jesse can be stern. Jesse can be ruthless. He has a HORRIBLE relationship with his parents. They basically see him as a worthless loser, and Jesse tries often to live up to the expectations his parents DID have of him before they thought him worthless.

But Jesse has some swoon-worthy moments as well. His romance with Jane, his artistic next door neighbor, uncovers a side of Jesse we haven't gotten to see. Yes, he's a meth addict, but he's also gentle, sensitive, and tender. Meeting her gives him an opportunity to imagine what his life really CAN be, essentially, the life his parents want him to have. They talk about moving to New Zealand where she can paint the local castles and he can be "a bush pilot."

Through his love and loss, Jesse becomes hardened. He has multiple low points, but he becomes the one the audience cheers for, even though he's not the show's main character.

"I accept who I am. I'm the bad guy."

The thing about Jesse, and actor Aaron Paul's portrayal of him, is that he has a way of breaking your heart that you just don't expect.

Six Sentence Sunday 9/18

2011-09-18T00:00:00.000-04:00

Hello again! Thank you for spending part of your Sunday with me. I appreciate the support and comments. Sunday is my favorite day of the week just because I know I get to spend it with some super-talented writers!!!

Still in Duality this week, and probably will be for a while. Today picks up after last week's, with Dima's anticipation for her opponent.

The sixteen, the python/black widow hybrid was my last opponent.

Scratching and hissing at the door sent waves of fear down my spine to my tail. I bristled so hard it hurt. My claws dug into the floor; my heart pounded in my ears; every drop of blood rushed through my trembling body.

The door slid open. I vomited, shaking and coughing so much I nearly collapsed.

Friday Feature 9/16

2011-09-16T00:00:00.001-04:00

What is up, mofos? Time again for the Friday Feature. I have fun doing this and hopefully you guys get some good music out of the deal. If there's a song you wanna share, feel free to @ me on twitter with the hashtag #FridayFeature and lemme know. I'll happily post it next Friday for everyone to enjoy!

This week's Friday Feature is from the band Pop Evil. I freaking LOVE this band. They're awesome. Their new song, though, is so unbelievably beautiful (and apropos of a certain science fiction manuscript) that I couldn't help falling in love with it. It's just SO GOOD.

Without further ado, I give you Monster You Made by Pop Evil. Enjoy.

Writing Strong Female Characters: Daenerys Targaryen

2011-09-15T02:00:00.001-04:00

Feels like it's been forever since I've written about this. The last time I did, I wrote about how Bella Swan is not a strong female character and listed my reasons why I felt that way. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would argue me and that's fine. Fiction automatically sets up for debate; that's one if its beauties.

Today, I wanted to highlight a character I've been thinking about a lot lately--Daenerys Targaryen from George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. As much as it pains me, I haven't yet read the books, though I did buy the first book yesterday (with Sean Bean on the cover--YUM), so I'm basing this entirely on the TV adaptation, which may or may not stray from the book.

The first scene with Daenerys just weirded me out. It seems the brother-sister relationships are just effed up. We see Daenerys' brother Viserys basically sizing her up, ensuring she'll be just perfect for the Dothraki leader Khal Drogo (AKA Mr. Crazy McSexypants). Daenerys' value is based solely on her beauty and whether Khal Drogo will want her, and really, Viserys is putting a lot of pressure on his little sister. At first, I wondered if Daenerys was going to be one of those pitiful, whiny girls whose life is determined by those around her. Oh man, was I pleasantly surprised.

Daenerys quickly became one of my favorite characters. She's AWESOME. First, yes, she's shy and nervous and scared, and who wouldn't be? Drogo is INTIMIDATING AS HELL. Plus, she doesn't really speak the language. The Dothraki are a barbaric, violent tribe, and they prefer doggy-style. Daenerys doesn't just lay down and take it, though. She learns how to please her husband the way she wants to (girl on top FTW), and thereby earns Drogo's respect.

Through the rest of the season, Daenerys and Drogo perform this delicate dance of cultivating respect and affection, eventually falling in love with each other. Apart from Ned and Catelyn Stark, they have the most stable loving relationship.

So. Cute. OMG.

I found myself looking forward to their scenes because I was so intrigued by how Daenerys had grown as a character since wedding Drogo. She adopts a lot of the Dothraki's characteristics. While her brother is busy whining and complaining and being a total douche canoe, Daenerys accepts her role as Khalissi with a grace and power I didn't expect from her. She loses her quiet doormat self and becomes a strong leader among a tribe that does not accept her because she wasn't born Dothraki. And though Drogo is willing to protect her and stand up for her (including ripping a dude's throat out for insulting her [hot]), Daenerys is also willing to stand up for herself, even if every person in that tribe could rip her limb from limb in a second. I LOVE that about her. Her inner strength is amazing. She even finds the strength to stand up to her brother.

Daenerys' progression is only beginning. I'm so anxious for Game of Thrones to start again (and to dive into the book) because I want to know what she's going to do next. Seriously, if you haven't checked out the show or the books, you should. Daenerys makes it worthwhile.

(Also, Jon Snow. He'll be featured on MANic Monday soon.)

Book Review: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker

2011-09-14T02:00:00.001-04:00

okThe title alone is a mouthful, and I still have to Google the title sometimes (like just now). But OH MY GOD.

This one requires a preface, too. You see, I was born in the wrong era. My life, my love, my heart belongs to Gothic fiction. Poe, Mary Shelley, et al give me such a happy that sometimes I can't help myself. I have books on Jack the Ripper at home--I swear I can crack it!--and an obsession with all things dark and mysterious.

And that's where TSBTMPP fits in (an acronym isn't much shorter than the title!).

Percy Parker is a Gothic romance through and through with some terrifically paranormal aspects drawing from Greek mythology. And there's also Alexi. Sweet God, I love Alexi. But I'll get to that momentarily.

Here's a brief summary, a la me:

Percy Parker sees dead people, and sadly, she has a better relationship with them than with the living. The dead don't notice her strange appearance. She feels safer in their company. However, Percy wants an education, and Athens Academy in London is the last resort.

While there, Percy makes a discovery about her melancholy professor, Alexi, and his companions that alters her life forever. They're all a part of a prophecy given to Alexi and his friends as children, and she is the missing piece to completing the vexing puzzle.

If only they knew it...

*Spoiler-free review*

What gripped me first about this book was its heroine. I know we've been seeing in YA (and this "new adult" category) a lot of snarky, ass-kicking heroines with attitude. Ball-busters more or less. The heroine in Leah Clifford's A Touch Mortal is a great example. Percy is none of that. She's quiet, withdrawn, and doesn't look to have a speck of tough in her. Part of it's her appearance--she's albino. Yes. White hair, light eyes, light skin (think Powder). She's an outcast. The school she's attending now is her one chance at a life beyond convent walls, if only she can make the transition.

She's immediately drawn to one of her professors, Alexi Rychman (for good reason), and he to her, though he's a bit older than she. She's 18. He's almost 40. Unconventional with a capital U. Alexi is a tortured hero. Sexy, mysterious, hurting. He's gripping, too. And. I. Love. It. I'm such a sucker for a tortured soul, and he absolutely is. The prophecy given to him and his friends when they were children came from a figure known simply as the Goddess who imbued them with different gifts. She also promised her return, and Alexi has been looking for her ever since. Now, the group is a sort of paranormal Ghost Busters, dealing with angry spirits and whatnot, and also a malevolent force targeting women in Whitechapel, among other places (ahem, Jack the Ripper, ahem). Percy throws a whole 'nother layer of complexity on an already-complex situation, and the ensuing chaos is just too good to miss.

The book's style is a little unconventional as well. Written in 3rd person omniscient, we get to know what EVERYBODY'S thinking. Even the bad guys. So rather than an element of surprise, there's an element of dread following readers. Yes, we know something bad is going to happen, and we're chewing our nails off trying to figure out how the group will handle it. The head-hopping (a dreaded no-no, right?) really isn't that distracting. It's more like each character passes off the story stick to the next. You drift from character to character, which makes a much easier transition.

Also, it's written just beautifully. I felt like I was reading Mary Shelley all over again. Glorious, I tell you! Simply glorious!

As I said, this is a romance. And I've said I've become far more lenient with romance than I have been. I'm totally down with a happily ever after, because we all want one and deserve one. However, for me, this is one of the aspects where the book is a little overwritten. Not Twilight overwritten, but just...a little much for me. My tastes are sensitive, and at points it goes over the top. Especially the end. I love you, Leanna, but the whole scene made me want to skip. So, be forewarned, readers. It was much for me, but it might be perfect for you.

I give Percy 4.5/5 stars. The book is gripping, beautifully written, and throws together some of my all-time favorite aspects: the paranormal, Victorian London, Jack the Ripper, and a brooding man. That's all I need to have a happy.

Not so gentlemanly callers.

2011-09-13T02:00:00.000-04:00

Y'all know how much I enjoy telling my hotel stories. I have two fabulous ones for you today. A couple of...interesting...phone calls.

So Friday night, my coworker answered the phone. On the other end was the completely hammered father of an 18-year-old girl. My coworker will be "A" and the caller will be "C."

C: A! Do you know my wife [first name]???

A: No, sir, I don't.

C: Are you sure?????

A: Yeah, I'm sure.

C: Really? The name [First name, Last name] doesn't ring a bell?

A: No sir, it doesn't.

C: Well that's okay. I just need someone to talk to me. I'm really drunk right now.

A: Um, well, I'm at work, so I can't really chat...

C: [irritated] Well fine! I'll just call my mom then! You're an asshole!"

A: [hangs up]

Yeah, dude. Go call your mom. Every parent wants to talk to her drunk child. Awesome.

But that's not all! Oh no. I have to share what happened with MY BOSS. Oh, this one's great. Boss will be "B" and caller will be "H" because HE was HORNY. Oh, it never fails to amuse....

B: Thank you for calling [hotel] this is, B. How may I assist you?

H: Hey, B! How are you today?

B: I'm doing well, sir, thank you. How are you?

H: Well, B, I actually have a BIG favor to ask you.

B: Okay....

H: You see, I'm horny. Think you can help me out with that?

B: Um, no thanks. Have a great day! [click]

So yes, next time you have unwanted advances from a horny person, just say, "No thanks! Have a great day." Politeness will confuse them and kill their buzz.

MANic Monday

2011-09-12T02:00:00.006-04:00

We're not out of the A's yet. It might be a while.

MANic Monday is my excuse to pay homage to the men in books, movies, shows, and even video games who make our hearts beat just a little bit faster. I've already introduced you to Aiden St. Delphi from Jennifer Armentrout's Half-Blood (due out sooooon) and my beloved Altair from Assassin's Creed. They have that brooding thing in common. Both are cool, calm and collected, and they make you wonder what it'd take to push them over the edge. (You'll find out with Aiden; Altair, not so much *grrr*.) Today, I'd like to lighten the mood with the pixelated sweetheart Lisa Fox and I might come to fisticuffs over one day.

Oh, where to start with our dear Alistair?

"Your desire is my command."

I have a confession to make. Alistair was the reason I bought Dragon Age Origins. Yes, I know it won Game of the Year and all that, but I've been burned by highly-praised games before, so I was hesitant. It wasn't until I hooked up with Lisa, and later Eliza, that I heard about the awesomeness of the game in general, and about Alistair's awesomeness in particular. So, I bought it.

And I fell in love.

Voiced by the ever-wonderful Steve Valentine (Crossing Jordan) Alistair isn't broody. He's not melancholy or morose. He's shy, he prefers to follow rather than to lead, and he can kick MAJOR ass on his own (because Templars are awesome that way in Dragon Age [not so much in the Assassin's Creed games]). He's incredibly witty as well. Some fabulous one-liners:

(If you initially refuse to allow Leliana to join your group when you meet her in the Dane and instead she stops you leaving Lothering)

Warden: "Alistair, she's one Archdemon short of a blight."
Alistair: "Yes, but she seems more... "Ooh, pretty colors!" than "Muahaha! I am Princess Stabbity! Stab, kill, kill!" <---made me laugh until I cried

"What? Lead? Me? No, no, no. No leading. Bad things happen when I lead. We get lost, people die, and the next thing you know I'm stranded somewhere without any pants."

Also, he's a virgin. Yes. That's right. A virgin. In the game's society, Templars make vows of chastity, so ol' Al's never had women luvins. AND AND AND AND AND he woos your female player. I don't just mean Sims wooing or even Fable 2 wooing. I mean, romantic sentiments, a rose, and some very tasteful pixelated lovin'...

Also, whenever he says, "What do you need, my dear?" my heart just kinda goes, "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ZOMG." And he also tells your player he loves her. It's so sweet and kinda gushy and...*sigh*. I'm making a machine to make video game characters real. When I perfect it, I'm making myself and Lisa an Alistair apiece.

I'm gonna have to go home and play Dragon Age tonight.

And I'm gonna have to review this game *headdesk*.

Six Sentence Sunday 9/11

2011-09-11T00:00:00.002-04:00

Good Sunday to you all, and thank you for joining me. I know we all know what today is, and I hope we'll each take some time out to think of the men and women who lost their lives today and those who risked everything to help whomever they could however they could.

And as always, thanks for joining me every Sunday. It brings a lot of joy to my heart to know you guys come back week after week and gives me a little more hope for this crazy journey to publication. Don't forget to visit my fellow Sunday Sixers.

This week, Dima's heading into the last part of her endurance challenge, but something just isn't right...

James' tone had lost all sense of jubilation, but the undertone of enjoyment was still there. “Your last opponent is the most dreaded species this—.”

My eyes shot to the window. The virtual reality hadn’t been activated yet; I watched James and the other man argue heatedly. The veins in the man’s neck popped against his skin. I ignored my Pavlovian response—the budding desire to rip out his throat—eyes locked on his lips.

That's it for me this week. Thanks for stopping by!

The Dorkiest Post Ever; or How Querying is Like the Mario Bros.

2011-09-09T00:09:00.001-04:00

This is my 200th post! *waits for confetti* Ah, there it is. It's been up there a while. Hopefully the dog will be nice enough to clean that up for me later.

So, you read the title right. I was on Facebook the other day and my dear friend Beckah-Rah's new avitar made me laugh. It was one of those Very Demotivational posters that said "SLUSHPILE: Somewhere in there is the perfect manuscript. For another agent."

And that reminded me of something else:

Mother****. SERIOUSLY?! A rejection?

Replace Mario with Manuscript, Princess with Agent/Publisher, and Castle with Agency/Publishing house, and you have querying.

For those who have never played Mario, first of all, shame on you. It's awesome. Second of all, the basic story is this:

Mario's gotta save the princess from a giant fire-breathing turtle, but it takes multiple castles. Aaaaaaaand scene.

Mario goes through different levels, each more difficult than the last. He has to face trials and tribulations (sometimes under water, even), eeeeeeevil enemies and sometimes man-eating plants just to get to the castle.

So do we.

See, there's a point to my inane ramblings sometimes.

The way I see it in my strange way of seeing things (and the fact that I played Mario religiously as a child), we writers send our manuscripts out into a perilous world frought with dangers. But we're the ones who ultimately feel the wounds of rejection. We have to squash goomba heads and koopa troopers, stay out of the way of Bullet Bills and those weird fireball shooting plants. It's a perilous world for a writer because it's all IN OUR HEADS. Our fears, our doubts, the thoughts of "this agent has my book and hasn't said anything because she's trying to find the nicest way of saying my book sucks." OK, maybe not so much the last one, but still. We send query after query only to get the same message: Not for me, but thanks anyway. Your agent is in another agency.

So...do we give up? I mean, Mario had to go through like, what, 12 castles to get to the princess or something? In NES video game time that is a LOT of levels, especially when you can't save your game and pick up in the same spot. Mario keeps trudging on, pounding blocks, crushing goombas, and he eventually, with enough persistence from the player, reaches his goal. We can do the same. We have the power to crush goomba heads and pound blocks. We just have to be willing to put in the time and effort it takes to reach our end goal.

But Lex, you might say, what about self-publishing? WELL. There's a whole different Mario metaphor in that one. On the outside, self-pub might seem like an easy way to getting your book out there, and in the beginning it is. However, where before we were looking at agent/publisher, we're now looking at consumers, websites, bloggers, book reviews, and promotion promotion promotion. Authors pubbed through "traditional" means have some backing from their publishers, but in the grand scheme of things, unless you're the next JK Rowling or Stephenie Meyer, they don't get that much. The other day, Elana Johnson had a great post about marketing and promoting books. Yes, authors must do some of their own promoting. Self-published authors do all of their own promoting. Twitter bombs, Facebook pages, contests, billboards, Firestone blimps (ok, so maybe not the last two), you name it, a self-pubbed author tries it. Like Phoenix said the other day, though, it's hard to find the balance between good self-promotion and obnoxious self-promotion (paraphrased). These balances are hard to come by and come with their own goombas and Koopa troopers like low sales and faltering promotional campaigns. If you're not a natural salesperson, then going the self-publishing route might be something you want to hold off on until you've developed a reasonable business acumen. Because at the end of the day, this is a business.

So, peeps, here's what I would like to know. What makes you more likely to buy a book? Snazzy trailers, an awesome cover, blurbs from established authors? How about from a marketing standpoint. Do you like trading cards, bookmarks, magnets, etc? Or is there something else you'd rather see?

Please share your ideas in the comments! Thanks!

Review: Spoil of War

2011-09-08T10:02:00.002-04:00

OK. I realize I am REALLY behind in life, pretty much in general, but specifically with book reviews. I try to keep the blog balanced between writing-related stuff and reading-related stuff, but lately I've just not been feeling either of them, although I've read some fabulous books as of late. So, I'm going to try to play catch up a little bit here, starting with Phoenix Sullivan's Spoil of War.

And yes, this does tie into the interview from Tuesday. If you haven't read it, you should, ESPECIALLY if you're contemplating self-publishing. Phoenix has a lot of great insights into the process, marketing, etc. She's quite smart and a lot of fun to talk to.

Onward with the review!

I'll preface this by saying that I'm in love with all things Knights of the Round Table. I took a Middle Ages literature course, voluntarily, for Pete's sake. So when I found out Phoenix's book was a take on Arthurian legend, I was all over it. And thankfully, I was already informed of the culture because parts of this book tend to be brutal.

Here's the blurb from Amazon:

Elsbeth of Olmsbury desires nothing beyond helping her father run his dukedom - until the duke's forces are overwhelmed, his castle torched and Elsbeth seized for the invading king's personal spoil. Expecting the same abuse as the other surviving women of her house, Elsbeth instead finds the king, Leodegrance, treating her with a civility that belies his flagrant desire for her. A desire that will have her his consort in Cameliard once he can convince her rank and duty alone forced his hand against her father.

But Elsbeth is not so easily won. There is the matter of Leodegrance gifting his steward with an unwilling young handmaid from Elsbeth's household. Of his marriage of convenience to his Byzantine queen. And of his plans to subjugate more of Britain's citadels and unite the wild isle under Roman rule.

If Elsbeth can't find her tangled way to forgiveness with the king - or escape the dark designs and perverse desires of Uther Pendragon, enemy to them both - then a legend of Camelot may never be conceived, never be born, and never change history forever ...

Please note: This novel takes place in a harsh era when spoils were often treated as commodities. While the violence toward women and children is period-appropriate and for mature adults only, it is never gratuitous. The story focuses on adaptation, survival and, ultimately, love in the Dark Ages before Arthur was made king.

I'm trying not to make this review purely "I LOVED THIS BOOK" even though I did. I felt for Elsbeth, as she watches her entire life go up in flames. Her beauty proves to her downfall (which reminds me of Robin McKinley's Deerskin) when Leo chooses her to be his personal captive, if you know what I mean. Leo's treatment of Elsbeth begins as one would generally expect. She's property, pure and simple. It's the way of war, really, and even though Elsbeth had steeled herself for a day like this, she wasn't prepared for the total devastation surrounding her, and she basically goes numb, at least in my opinion. She spends a large part of the book this way as well, trying to rationalize the carnage and trying to keep hope alive that she may be to escape, or that Leo will just let her go.

As the book progresses, we start to see a change in Leo. Keep in mind, Leo is NOT--I repeat: NOT--a conventional romance hero. NOT. Nor is he meant to be. He is a king, Elsbeth is little better than cows at this point. However, Leo begins treating Elsbeth a little more humanely. She's already prized by Leo, thus earning her a place in the castle itself rather than the bailey where the rest of the captive women have been forced to live basically in squalor. And Elsbeth begins to feel the faintest hint of something like affection for her captor. He keeps her safe from his men, feeds her, ensures she's clothed. She doesn't have to worry so much, but she's become like a caged bird. She misses her freedom, and she has no qualms about letting Leo know exactly how badly she wants her freedom.

Elsbeth also develops a kinship with Leo's wife, who was barely more than spoil herself. She was given to Leo as part of an agreement with her father. Not uncommon, especially if you've seen Braveheart. So the ladies can sit and discuss the various ways their lives have changed since Leo entered their lives. Lynette is a true romantic at heart, a woman so in love with mythology that she hopes to someday find a love as strong as that in the stories she treasures. She hasn't found it with Leo, though. Leo isn't a monster, but he is a hard man, battle-hardened and full of the arrogance that comes with being a new ruler. His expectations of Lynette, most notably bearing him a son, turn her cold to him, but she feels some relief with Elsbeth's presence. Now Leo has someone else to cast his attentions on, and Lynette can be left alone.

And since everything seems to be hunky-dory, we have to throw in a wrench in the form of a hunky errant knight named Patrise, while Leo is away campaigning against the Pendragon (yes, THAT Pendragon). Oh Patrise. He's like Iago in a way. Sly, calculating, and bending people to his will. He tries to bed Elsbeth (against her will, poor thing), and when they get caught red-handed by the Queen, he tells Lynette that Elsbeth forced herself on him. Of course, a knight of such valor and blah blah blah that Lynette TOTALLY has a thing for would NEVER lie. So Lynette has no choice but to believe him over Elsbeth. Enraged? I was. Had it not been my computer at stake, I would have thrown the book. Not because this didn't feel natural but because sisterly kinship is almost always broken because of a man. But I also pitied Lynette because, as the reader, we KNOW she's going to get screwed over somehow. Patrise is just too slimy.

It doesn't take long for Patrise to ruin EVERYTHING.

Oh, readers, this is when it gets JUICY. I don't want to spoil *LOL* the rest of the book for you. Really, this is one you need to pick up for yourselves because it gets gloriously crazy toward the end.

However, I will address one of the issues I know is floating around the interwebs. As I was writing this I took a gander at Amazon to get the blurb and read a few of the reviews there. They seem to fall at either 4-5 stars or 1 star with NONE in between. This book has been described as "polarizing" and I guess it is. There are accounts of brutal rape. There is an 11-year-old who becomes the spoil of one of Leo's knights and closest friends, and she does get treated AS spoil. It's not easy. It's not easy for Elsbeth to bear, either. Regardless of the implications that rape is treated as "romance," it is not. There is nothing romantic about rape, and rape is not treated as a romantic device. This was the reality for captive women . Hell, where war's involved, it still IS the reality for captive women, and that's one of the things you as a reader need to be aware of when reading this novel. It's a historical fantasy with romantic elements, and it does give us a HEA, but it is NOT romance.

Spoil of War is more a story of survival and overcoming brutality. There is affection and what constituted love in the time period, but Elsbeth is adapting to her new life as best she can. And sometimes, that means making your bed with those you consider your enemies.

Overall, I give "Spoil" a five out of five. This book's just too damn good. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

If you're interested in purchasing the book (and you should be, darnit!), then click here!

Interview: Phoenix Sullivan

2011-09-05T21:00:00.000-04:00

Some of you may remember Phoenix from when I was writing my query (read: whining incessantly about having to write one). She helped me a great deal with formulating the one I'm using now for Duality. Also I've been vocal about how much she's helped me and I know I've recommended her blog on more than one occasion.

Believe it or not, Phoenix is also an incredibly talented writer. In celebration of her newest release, a near-future medical mystery/ecothriller, Sector C, I've asked Phoenix to join me for a little Q&A.

Here we go, Phoenix! I'm excited about having you on the blog :)

Thanks for inviting me over. I looove what you've done with the place.

1. So far you have two books--Spoil of War, an Arthurian saga, and SECTOR C, a near-future medical mystery/ecothriller--available on Amazon, as well as the Extinct anthology you edited. First of all, congrats on the release of SECTOR C ! Why don't you tell us a little bit about your experiences writing it?

Well, SECTOR C was a bit of departure for me since I don't generally write contemporary anything. Although maybe I get a bit of a pass on that because it's actually near-future -- set a dozen years out. The following is a bit spoilery, but I can't talk about the process without somewhat spoiling the mystery half of the book.

The idea for SECTOR C was implanted a few years ago during a conversation with my brother and sister-in-law about whether using in vitro fertilization and surrogate mothers to repopulate endangered animals was a good idea or not. Was there a way to make money with the technology without exploiting the animals? After that marinated for awhile and designer animals such as lygers and tigrons starting popping up more frequently, I began wondering about theories for rewilding extinct animals. The mammoth genome has been mapped, genetic material taken from mice frozen for 12 years has been successfully cloned, and Japanese researchers now say an embryo cloned from frozen mammoth DNA is no more than five years away. Exciting stuff! But cool ideas need a plot wrapped around them.

Thinking about why mammoths and other Ice Age beasties became extinct in the first place, I latched onto the idea of disease, which hasn't been ruled out as a possible cause. But most diseases are either caused by external factors, like viruses and bacteria, or are host-specific, like cancer and diabetes - things that aren't transmissible. I needed something that's not only a genetic disease, but one which is transmissible across species and capable of causing a pandemic. Luckily (well, luckily for the story anyway!), I found a candidate.

Then I needed a way for a private enterprise to make money off the animals it produced. I figured that out too.

There were a few things I swore early on I wasn't going to do. I really wanted to create as accurate and believable a scenario as I could. But you know what? Stuffed-shirt science is pretty yawn-inducing when it comes to storytelling. I said no romance. Before I knew it the main characters - Mike, a CDC analyst, and Donna, a veterinarian - were falling for each other. Not in the "hot dude/hotter gal, gotta get into his/her pants NOW" kind of way, but in a "two ordinary people get thrown together into extraordinary circumstances and have only themselves to rely on" kind of way.

I also assured myself the beasties safe in their compound certainly weren't going to escape. A lot of money goes into building enclosures meant to, you know, contain animals. But really, where's the fun in that?

One thing I didn't back down from and that was to take a very balanced look at some tough ethical questions around animals as property and science as the fallguy. I have some pretty strong opinions around hunting (anti), exploitation (anti) and science (pro), but I worked hard to present the opposing view in a positive light too. So hard that I think I almost convinced myself to rethink my own positions around some of the questions ;o).

2. How did you research the different topics? Are you a Googler or do you use books and articles to inform your books?

Count me a Googler and a Google Mapster. I relied heavily on satellite images of the area in North Dakota where most of the action takes place as well as pictures of ranchland for sale in the area. I researched the native flora and fauna. I have a short scene where one of my MCs doesn't want to hike through some tall grass because of chiggers. One of my beta readers asked if North Dakota even has chiggers and I was proud that I could immediately point to the research that shows it does. I confess I have never actually been to North Dakota but I pored over maps and images and data to be sure I got it as right as possible.

While documenting all the bits and pieces about size of dairy herds in the Great Plains, methods the CDC uses to collect patient data, and all the other pesky topics that I didn't know off the top of my head was time-intensive, researching the mechanics of the disease was the most brain-intensive. After all, I was positing something that doesn't exist today but that could plausibly have existed 10,000 years ago, be cloned in a collateral damage kind of way, and be transmitted across almost any species. I was determined to get the science right. And getting the science right also meant no easy answers and no vaccine-in-the-nick-of-time ending.

Luckily, I have a head for biology and physiology so making the connections and understanding the lingo wasn't as difficult as it could have been. Some of that research winds up on the page because, well, the first half of the book is a medical mystery. There are enough details, I hope, to satisfy the geeks and not so many that non-geek eyes glaze over. It's always a delicate balance -- one that even the likes of Michael Crichton, Robin Cook and Daniel Calla struggle with to varying degrees of success.

3. You decided to take the "non-traditional" route of self-publishing. What factors influenced your decision to do that? As an author, do you foresee a greater amount of writing self-pubbing in the future now that there's not such a stigma?

The decision wasn't entirely in my hands. Both Spoil of War and SECTOR C made the agent and (some) publisher rounds to a lot of positive feedback. Both garnered over a dozen requests for the full as well as revision letters. Spoil made it to the acquisition table twice. I had agents apologize (and not in that fake, form-letter "it's a subjective business and some other agent may feel differently" way but in that gut-wrenchingly personal way that makes you want to rip your heart out) for not taking SECTOR C on as they were sure it would get picked up. That reinforced the idea that I had good books. I'm lucky enough that ebooks had started taking off and the process to publish was pretty easy and streamlined. The real decision I was faced with was to put these books in the closet or up on Amazon. Had I not received as much positive feedback from industry professionals, I would likely have closeted them.

There are still a lot of quality issues that need to shake out in the self-publishing arena. I do believe there are too many people wholly unready either from a skill level or a business sense to be out competing just yet. We'll see more poor-quality books before we see a strong rise in quality ones, I think. The ease of self-publishing and the lack of consequences for doing it poorly promises that. What some folk don't get, though, is that the distributors enabling the self-publishers -- Amazon, BN, Apple, Kobo, etc -- are still tweaking their models. They aren't done yet. And when they are, the landscape and rules will likely be much different than they are today and will certainly favor the needs of the reader far more than the needs of the author.

Which isn't at all meant to imply that there isn't plenty of quality out there right now. As venues for traditionally published books keep downsizing, more new authors who would have been picked up in the past will be turned away. More midlist authors will be getting their rights reverted and putting up their backlists. And more established authors who perform only marginally well by industry standards -- though not by their own personal standards! -- will be let go. These are the folk we're already seeing good things from on the self-pubbing front.

Like with the decentralized music industry, it'll be harder for the artists to get noticed but the consumers will benefit by having plenty of quality books to choose from.

4. How do you approach marketing and promoting your books?

Mainly with a lot of trepidation. I actually have a marketing and advertising background (*insert ironic laugh here*). I'm still trying to get the hang of social media in a way I'm comfortable with using it. Haven't quite found that way yet. I still wind up falling back on the old broadcasting approaches -- here's my book; come buy it! -- and I feel like slime when I do it.

Specifically for SECTOR C, I'm starting its promo run by tying it in to the "Contagion" movie releasing this week. They both are standard pandemic stories at their core. Where I think SECTOR C is unique is in the transmission route and in involving animals in the outbreak. Not only do you have a lot of people dying in the story but a lot of pets and other animals too. And since one of the MCs is a veterinarian, I'm tapping into the audience who likes animals (oh, I so cried when I had to kill two animals in particular). Next out, I'll be approaching mystery/thriller/science fiction review sites open to reviewing ebooks. And hey, bloggers, I'm available ;o)

I pitch Spoil of War as being in the tradition of Mists of Avalon. In fact, Marion Zimmer Bradley, who wrote Mists, was my first editor many (ahem,many) years ago. Since Spoil is a bit gritty and has some unpleasant violent bits as well as political manipulation, I advertised it for awhile as being the withdrawal cure for HBO's Game of Thrones and Starz' Camelot.

5. What topics are you looking forward to tackling in the future?

This question actually relates somewhat to the previous one. I have several WIPs in various stages of completion, but the project I'm most excited about now is a planned series of ebooks that fondly -- and sometimes not so fondly! -- recall the years I spent as a veterinary technician. Rather than try to imitate the fabulous James Herriot and his series that started with All Creatures Great and Small (because NO ONE can come close to matching those books and I'll take on anyone who says they can!), mine will be a series of bite-sized essay-stories (Tales), each less than 2000 words long. These tales will ultimately tie together to tell not just a series of funny and heartwarming anecdotes about the various animals I worked with but about the vets and my coworkers, and will reveal some of the hard truths and tough decisions that sometimes surface even when you think you're in your dream job.

I'm actually posting the Vet Tech Tales series to my newish blog, Confessions of an Animal Junkie, with a new Tale out each Friday. Since I also have stories and pictures about my farm on Mondays and invite others to share their own stories on Wednesdays, it gives me a chance to connect with other animal lovers now before I have anything to actually peddle.

Speaking of, I can ALWAYS use guest posts! If you'd like to spotlight your best friend in story and pictures, email me at phoenixsullivan @ yahoo.com.

6. What have you learned from writing SECTOR C ?

That I'm at heart a plotter. I've pantster'd a few stories in the past, but SECTOR C has several small side stories and a lot of cutting between characters and scenes to keep it pace-y. I really had to keep very detailed notes about who was where and doing what at any given time. The great thing about that was that I felt I was always in control of the story even when I had to figure out how to weave a romance into it or figure out a plausible way for the beasties to do their escaping. In fact, I think having the story thoroughly laid out help drive me to the best decisions for my plot and characters.

Thanks for having me by, Cate! Everyone's welcome to stop by my Animal Junkie blog or my main blog where I talk about writing and publishing and where there's an archive of line-edited queries and synopses you can pore through. I'd love it if you'd "like" my new SECTOR C Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sector-C-Medical-Mystery/150265391728555?sk=wall#!. And I'm @PhoenixSullivan on Twitter. (Forgive me in advance for sucking at social media.)

Thanks again for stopping by, Phoenix!!! Peeps, check out A Spoil of War here and SECTOR C here. And please stop over at Phoenix's blogs! The Animal Junkie blog just makes me happy and is full of beautiful, wonderful stories about the little four legged things that make our worlds go 'round. And like I've said NUMEROUS times, Phoenix's writing blog has helped me tremendously. Stop in and peruse her awesomeness.

MANic Monday

2011-09-04T21:00:00.000-04:00

MANic Monday is a reason for me to post pics of dudes. They're not always real dudes, either, but I think we bibliophiles (and game...um...philes) can understand the allure regardless. If not, then I just have issues.

This week, I wanted to feature one of my all-time favorite video game heroes. And believe me, I have a lot of them. We're going to spend weeks in the A's alone.

Allow me to introduce you to Altair of Assassin's Creed fame.

I am sexy. Oh yes I am.

Upon playing the first game, I FELL IN LOVE with Altair, thus resulting in immediate play-throughs. Five of them, to be exact. In a row. *It helps not to have a social life.* It wasn't just the innovative game play or the graphics either, although they both are phenomenal. Altair kept drawing me back over and over again. What I loved was his constant searching for the truth behind the Assassin's Order, behind the mystery of the Piece of Eden, and his grasping for meaning behind the truths he found. To me, Altair was one of the most real and unique protagonists of anything, video game, book, or whatever. Assassin's Creed still remains one of my top all-time favorite video games because of him.

And I SOOOOOOOOOOO cannot wait for him to come back in Assassin's Creed Revelations!

Six Sentence Sunday 9/4

2011-09-03T21:00:00.000-04:00

Glad to have you guys back for another Six Sentence Sunday! Thanks, as always, for stopping by and sharing part of your Sunday with me. I appreciate (read: live for) your comments! And don't forget to share the love with my fellow SSS participants. There are some seriously talented people who participate and never fail to knock my socks off!

This week, I'm finishing up Dima's fight with the Thirteen. We're starting to get to the juicy parts!

I jumped back before heavy paws crushed me, part of herskin still in my mouth.

She gurgled and collapsed, eyes glazed; her head crashed tothe ground. With her dying breath, she hissed, blood spraying from her mouthand through the open wound.

A low growl rumbled in my throat, every muscletense. Wishing James would come in so I could rip him apart, too. Seemed only fair.

My first interview!

2011-08-30T12:47:00.000-04:00

Hey y'all! I'm over at my twitter-pal Claire Smith's blog today talking about what I like to see in books as a reader. Go check it out and leave Claire some nice comments. She's a super-awesome Steampunk enthusiast, and her blog's fab. You'll love it ;)

MANic Monday

2011-08-29T00:00:00.001-04:00

Yes, I know. There's Mancandy Monday and M-whatever else Monday, but I get bored easily and have a few things I need to get out of my system. SO that being typed, I've decided to feature some of my favorite heroes (from books, movies, and video games) because *I* think it will be fun! *super-goofball-girly grin*

Who's first up? you may wonder. Well, that's a great question. So far, the name of nearly every crush I have starts with the letter "A," which, as many of you know, is the first letter of the alphabet. I know, right? Any better beginning and I'd have to actually put work into this! *snicker*

SO.

Who's first?

Well, I don't have a standing list of my crushes. I haven't done that since high school when my best friend and I made our list of the top 100 hot guys. Took. Us. DAYS. But we made it. And IT WAS AWESOME.

In the interest of alphabetization, I'm choosing as my first MANic Monday stud *drum roll, please*:

AIDEN ST. DELPHI from Half-Blood by Jennifer L Armentrout.

I WANT IT!!!!!

It's no surprise if you're up and about on Twitter. My love for Aiden has been made known for quite a while. Ever since I got my grubby hands on the manuscript. He's. Perfect. Motorcycles, rock music, guitar, and hawt as HAYELL. Also loyal, reserved, almost a wallflower. And anyone who knows me knows I have this fondness (read: obsession) with quiet, reserved men whom one may refer to as 'brooding.' Always have. And Aiden most DEFINITELY fits that list. Plus he can kick major ass. And that. Is. SEXY.

Also, his brother, Deacon, would be totes awesome to hang with.

Half-Blood drops on October 18th, and you can follow Jen on twitter or check her blog.

Six Sentence Sunday 8/28

2011-08-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelcome back to SSS! I love seeing everyone's comments every week. Sunday is my favorite day!!! Be sure to make someone else's day by checking out the other Six Sentence Sunday participants.

Today's snippet comes from Dima's battle with the tiger/wolf hybrid. We join this fight already in progress.

I pushed her off. Moved to the edge of the woods as she darted into the trees. Her whimpering echoed, but suddenly, the whimpering stopped, replaced by an irate growl. When she emerged again, she seethed. Teeth gleamed in moonlight. Blood dripped from just below her eye.

Well, I wanted to write, soooo

2011-08-26T23:56:00.000-04:00

So...I'm a research hog. I LOVE researching for my stories. Adore it. I want everything, down to the smallest details, to be spot-on. Personally, I feel like an eye for detail is important.

But I'm not overly detailed. For instance, I wrote a sort of flashback scene for Spark (it's neat, seriously) that occurs on a Tuscan villa. I've never seen one, especially not in Renaissance Italy since my time machine only goes back to the 1800s, so I googled. And I studied pictures. I got the terminology down. Then I wrote the scene.

And I didn't use half of what I researched. But I wanted to feel like I knew what I was talking about. It still enriched the scene.

Similar scenario for the fights I wrote for Duality. I researched the hunting habits of the animals I used--imagining them put to use in hybrids took some brainpower--and their typical appearances. I willing researched spiders and snakes to make scenes as believable as possible, and I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE spiders. Snakes I'm okay with. Spiders, I am not. But I looked at wolf spiders (which are kind of adorable in the scariest way possible), got the idea of their coloring, those horrendous fangy things that make them scary, and the way they hunt. The whole shebang. I didn't sleep that night, but I got the details. And the small changes I made to a character (I'm demented, I'll tell you that now) made her absolutely terrifying. At least in my brain. It's amazing what a little research can add to your scenes.

Six Sentence Sunday 8/21

2011-08-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Sunday, y'all! And thank you for stopping in on another Six Sentence Sunday. Your comments mean the world to me, and I'm always open to suggestions and critiques. Even if it's six sentences, I'm sure there's something I could be doing better ;)

Today's six is from that same scene in Duality. This time, I'm gonna show you what Dima's up against.

Be sure to check out the amazing and talented authors of Six Sentence Sunday here. They are teh awesome.

My God, she was incredible. Stout like a tiger, and yet sleek like a wolf with a wolf’s head and slender muzzle, which was black. Her delicate, rounded ears peeked through a wild coat of long fur, which was a mingling of orange and gray from her face to her tail; her chest and paws were white, and a bold striped pattern covered her back and tail. Her eyes were large, unmistakably feline, and stared straight through me. Her paws were at least twice the size of a normal tiger’s. This thing was a killing machine, cunning and savage, and I already felt like dead meat.

Thanks for stopping by! See ya next Sunday!

Friday Feature 8/19

2011-08-19T11:41:00.000-04:00

Time for another Friday Feature, AKA chance for me to gratuitously post videos of songs I'm in love with. Huzzah!

This week's video is from uber-awesome Canadian band My Darkest Days. I freaking love this song. It's great to dance around to ;) Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Six Sunday 8/14

2011-08-14T00:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to another thrilling installment of SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY! And thank you for coming back week after week (and harassing me on twitter when I don't post lol). Your comments mean the world to me, and to Dima :-D

This week's six is a continuation of last week. It was kind of hard to choose, especially since I haven't gotten this far in my revisions yet. (I'm two chapters away!) Dima is up against a wolf/tiger hybrid. Gonna test that name already. Hope you enjoy!

And, as always, please check out the insanely talented SSS authors here.

She roared, her voice a low rumbling of thunder that failed to hide her power.

I loathed the scent of my fear.

She circled me, sizing me up, and licked her chops. Her growls and snarls didn’t register, so I assumed that she was more wolf than tiger. With lightning speed, she leapt back into the underbrush, howl-roared, and then reappeared in the clearing.

I sank to all fours.

Friday Feature 8/12

2011-08-12T01:29:00.001-04:00

Hey all! I know I'm sucking at this whole blogging thing and especially posting the Friday Feature. BUT I'm continuing on. I really need to do all this on like, Sunday or something...

Anyway, today's Friday Feature is TV on the Radio's "Will Do" from their recently released "9 Types of Light." I freaking LOVE this song. So in love with it in fact I listened to it for about 20 minutes while writing a romantic (read: sex) scene for Spark. So, I wanted to share it with y'all. Hopefully you'll love it as much as I do :)

Firsts

2011-08-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

Meredith (@MMMReader on twitter [go say hi!]) helped me choose today's blog post on firsts. And there are a lot of them I could talk about, but the most important one is hands-down the first story I ever wrote. That's what started this whole crazy thing in the first place.

When I was in 4th grade, we had to do a writing portfolio (AKA the bane of every student's existence). I'd always been a good writer, but this was the first time I remember tackling fiction, in the form of a short story. And oooooooooh man, did I have fun. I wrote mine about slaves escaping from a plantation, and the thing I remember loving the most was pretending to be someone else and then WRITING IT DOWN. See, I was one of those kids who made up stories in her head 24/7. So, getting it out of my head and making room for more stories was completely full of awesome.

What about your firsts? Doesn't have to be writing related, either. Just something that impacted you. Let me know in the comments!

I haz an award!

2011-08-09T00:00:00.001-04:00

Because of my lovely Beckah-Rah, I gots an award. It's a fun award and I like it. Thank you, Bekah!!! Please go say hi to her. She's teh awesome.

However, it's not a retrieval award, although I bet I'd rock at that. Just kidding. I suck at finding things. I'm proud of myself when I remember where I put my keys.

This award is for up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers, like yours truly. But I love all 86 of you and would give you big, squishy hugs if I could! You guys are more awesome than you may realize.

The goal of the Liebster is to showcase up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. The rules:

Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who bestowed the award on you
Reveal your top three picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
Copy and paste the award on your blog
Have faith that your followers will spread the love
Have bloggity-blog fun!

So, to do what the award says, I'm passing it to:

Diamond--Lucid Dreamer (OK, so since she's on Wordpress, I don't know how many followers she actually has, but I love her blog, so there ya go).

Deb Salisbury, Writer

Eight Days to Amish

Please go spread the love! These are some great, entertaining, and informative bloggers.

Six Sentence Sunday 8/7

2011-08-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

Hey all! Back from my hiatus (and still not caught up on the last 2 weeks of entries). Vacation was awesome, but now my nose is back to the grindstone. Remember to check out the other Six Sunday participants!

Here's this week's offering from Duality. The next fight. Like with the other two fights, Dima's in a virtual reality room.

A haunting howl escaped the forest; I thought I detected a tinge of a roar. “What the hell?” To my right, leaves crunched and twigs snapped. She wanted me to know she was nearby. My heart raced as I heard sounds from one direction and then another. Where is it?

Six Sentence Sunday 07/24

2011-07-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome back, y'all! Thanks, as always for stopping by and leaving your thoughts. Makes me incredibly happy!

This week, I'm on vacay, but I PROMISE I'll hit as many entries as I can. For the always enticing and wonderful entries, click here.

In this week's six from Duality, MC GETS A NAME! Huzzah!

"So do you have a name for me?”

She was quiet for a breath before she answered. “Dima,” she said finally. “It means ‘warrior.’”

In spite of myself, I grinned. “I like that.”

Unconventional Love

2011-07-23T11:07:00.000-04:00

Love is a many splendid thing. All we need is love.

Well, that's what the songs say anyhow. Love is a lucrative business as well. I mean, look at Valentine's Day (and Sweetest Day for us midwesterners). Valentine's Day is the most important day for love of the entire year--a whole day set aside for spoiling the ones you love with flowers and candy and mushy cards, dinners and nights out.

People fall in and out of love every day in a rhythm seemingly dictated by the tides. That realism is important for writers, because we can't ignore the fact we live in a country with a 50% divorce rate. There's a reason why we have so many romance books where the hero or heroine are divorced and finding love again, or why the heroine is finally ready to find love after a horrible relationship finally fizzled out. The psychology behind love is also interesting. One theory I remember is that "love" is a chemical reaction, basically a huge helping of dopamine (the feel-good hormone), and people get addicted to that fix, thereby "falling in love" or becoming addicted to it.

In Duality, I'm playing with love, too. It's not a romance, but it is a love story. My theory posits that while a person's memories of her loved one are forgotten, the feeling--or dopamine reaction--isn't, meaning it's impossible to erase love (romantic, right?).The juxtaposition, for anyone unfamiliar with Duality, is that my main character's DNA has been combined with a panther's, so she's not entirely human. Her loved one, however, is the only one who still sees her that way. There's a lot behind that (spoilery stuff), but that's kind of what I'm working with. Not even I see her as human anymore, yet this man does and sees her as a gift.

(However, because of the DNA issue, there can't be any lovey stuff without it getting weird. So love story, but not romance.)

One of my favorite unconventional love stories is one I read recently by Leanna Renee Heiber-- The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. The heroine, Percy, is albino, which in Victorian London means she may as well have had panther DNA. Percy is meek, withdrawn, and unsure of herself because everyone has always treated her as a freak of nature. Yet the strong, vibrant yet melancholy Alexi *le swoon* falls completely, madly in love with her, seeing her as more than she even sees herself. It's a transcendent love. A beautiful love. A love I can totally support.

What are your favorite love stories, conventional or unconventional?

Thinking outside the box

2011-07-19T00:00:00.001-04:00

We've all been there. As writers, we're trying to find the "new" thing. The innovative thing. The super-awesome-spectacular-ZOMG IT'S THE BEST THING EVAR!!!!! We write, rewrite, write some more, add, take away, polish polish polish until the manuscript shines like the Maseratti of a man in a mid-life crisis. We slave over query and synopsis. Practice our pitches. Polish polish polish until WE shine.

And no one wants it.

But how can that be? we think. I've thought so far outside the box I can't even remember where the box is!

<-------Well, my friends, here's the painful truth.

The book world wants something fresh and new and awesome. Readers want something fresh and new and awesome. But the problem is that the Big Six aren't always ready to jump at the opportunity, and neither are agents. And no, this isn't because I've gotten rejections. And honestly, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Publishing is evolving now like the music industry did a few years ago. Smaller music houses and indie rock groups started flooding mainstream because listeners were tired of hearing the same crap all the time and actively sought out bands that weren't overexposed. They traded the Britneys of the world for bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Muse, Sick Puppies, and Radiohead, all of whom had been flying under radar for years. All of a sudden, they're EVERYWHERE, and not just being played on HBO promos. Muse songs have been used in promos for ABC and just recently the movie Crazy, Stupid Love which comes out sometime soon. In the same way, indie presses are taking over the world.

For instance, Jennifer L. Armentrout's Half-Blood is already selling like crazy, and it doesn't even release until October. But there's already foreign rights being discussed and a lot of people buzzing on the blogsophere. And the last time I checked, Jen doesn't even have an agent yet. Jennifer is one of the Radioheads of the world. She'll build up a super-awesome, super-loyal following, and then rock everybody's socks off with her debut. And her follow-up. And the third book...and...yeah. It just keeps going. She went through Spencer Hill Press, which is a smaller publication house with a STELLAR staff who have all worked their butts off. If you want to check out more about Jennifer and Half-Blood and the awesomeness going on with her, you can check out her blog here.

And no, this isn't my way of namedropping. Jen's story is a great example of how we sometimes need to think outside the box not just with our stories, but with our approach to publication. Indie pubs are growing in force and popularity, which is great. Gives the Big Six some much-needed competition (no offense Big Six, I love you). Even self-pubbing is growing in popularity (and gaining more respectability) as pubbing through Nook, Kindle and other assorted formats becomes more accessible. A lot of people fear self-pubbing, and there's a lot of books that don't make the grade, yes. But for me, there are a lot of books published by a Big Six publisher that don't make my cut (Twilight, for one). The subjectivity of this business is far-reaching, so don't let that discourage you.

All it takes is one yes.

Six Sentence Sunday 07/17

2011-07-17T00:00:00.002-04:00

Welcome back to SSS! Thank you for stopping by. It means a LOT to me that y'all check in every week. I must be doing something right. At least in six sentence increments ;) To visit my fellow Sixers, or to join in the fun yourself, check out the official Six Sunday website.

Today's snippet is from Duality! I've missed it, and this will inspire me to work on edits. I tried to find a picture that looked enough like my protag for you, but the elusive panther-furry-that's-close-enough is still elusive. You'll just have to use your imagination. She's quite

weird-looking.

To catch up:

Protag is a genetic experiment whose DNA has been crossed with a panther's. She has no memory, but she has totally awesome claws. Also, she looks mostly pantherish. She's lost one keeper already, and her new one, Sylvia, is the woman who had stayed by her side in the infirmary when she'd first woken up. I think that gets us up to speed.

“You haven’t been named yet, have you?” Sylvia asked.

“Jasper hadn’t gotten to that yet. Why?”

“I see. It’s just that Dr. Lorenzo likes for the Humani to have names rather than numbers.”

At his name, a pang shot through me and my heart stuttered.

Paperback Writers -- Guest post by Lucienne Diver

2011-07-14T00:00:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the first-ever guest post on my blog, by none other than author, agent, and all-around awesome person, Lucienne Diver!!! Thanks, Lucienne, for being here.

Without further ado...

For some reason, I’ve got The Beatles’ song Paperback Writer stuck in my head. The line that always cracks me up is, “And I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer.” Yeah, because it works just like that.

As all writers know, it’s not just a job, it’s a commitment—or we should be committed…or something like that. It’s true.

I joke that I started writing so that I could give the characters in my head other people to talk to so they’d leave me alone. Sadly, it doesn’t really work like that either. I get a character like the teen fashionista Gina from my Vampedseries (trying to beautify, not belittle, the world one person at a time), and a short story absolutely doesn’t satisfy her. She wants a novel, then two. Before I know it, she’s insisted on at least four…and her own blog. Oh, and an interim short story between the release of books two and three so that she’s not gone from the fans’ minds and hearts for too terribly long. (Can you say diva?)

Or take my newest heroine, Tori Karacis, former circus brat, current P.I. from Bad Blood. It’s not enough to have Tori in my head. That I could live with. She’s smart and snarky, and the two of us could definitely hang. But her family! OMG. Her grandmother (living) and grandfather (deceased) both had steaming piles…er, pearls…of wisdom to impart during Tori’s formative years (which explains a lot). For some reason, they felt the need to share with the class. Of course, I decided that if Tori and I had to be warped by their wisdom, so did my readers. Thus, some of their wit appears as chapter openers sprinkled throughout the book. If I had all the time in the world, I’d even consider setting up the website that Yiayia (Tori’s grandmother) runs, called Goddities. It’s essentially a scandal sheet on the Greek gods who—oh yes, my friends—are still running around in modern times, though their diminished worship and power has led to the need for actual (gasp) day jobs. Talk about a crazy cast of characters!

Add in murder, plots, mayhem and destruction and…well, my head is a very scary place to be.

The fun thing as an author is that you get to welcome other people into the insanity that is your world.

So come, walk a mile in my shoes. And, uh, sorry about the squelching. Poseidon isn’t terribly thrilled with me at the moment.

_____________________________________________

For Murder and Mayhem:

Bad Blood, first novel of the Latter-Day Olympians

Available digitally June 2011, print in May 2012

For Fangs and Fun:

Vamped

Revamped

Fangtastic (forthcoming January 2012)

www.luciennediver.com

Facebook fan page

Twitter

Guess what????

2011-07-12T12:26:00.001-04:00

I have some exciting news, peeps!!! Sometime in the next few weeks, the awesome Lucienne Diver will *hopefully* be guest posting here! Isn't that awesome???????

I haz a happeh!

Anyway, not much to report on the writing front yet. Yesterday at work we had a power outage that lasted an hour and a half. Being at a hotel during a power outage sucks. Being the one working the desk during a power outage sucks worse... BUT my resume has now been professionally done by my awesome sister, so hopefully I will get a new job, which means:

I won't be poor.
I'll have contests again.
I'll be able to mail out those things I promised 8 million years ago.
I'll have BETTER contests.
I'll be able to read more.
And I'll be able to afford printing out things. Things you'll like.

SO! Keep your fingers crossed. Cuz a better job for me means awesome stuff for you ;)

UPDATE

Lucienne emailed me her guest post, so that will be going up on Thursday! Come read about Lucienne's latest exploits in the authoring world as she discusses her newest series and the strange--but entertaining--people who live in her head. Cuz we all know how that feels ;)

Six Sunday 7/10

2011-07-10T00:01:00.002-04:00

Yay! It's Six Sunday time again! I'm so excited to read today's entries cuz I KNOW they'll be awesome. Be sure to check out all the talented Six Sunday participants!

Pulling from Spark one more time before I go back to Duality (edits are...well...they're edits). This is just a little more from Duke's conversation with her wisp, Adrielle Baxter. Last week was Step Three: Gain Confidence, in which Duke told Adrielle that Duke's husband and dog are bound, just like she is.

“Oh yeah? And where are they now?”

“Hopefully, Greg took our dog to the park. Kanzys really liked the park.” I had to try not to break down. Losing Greg had been hard, but watching Kanzys starve himself to death in mourning…that was way worse.

You can't please everybody

2011-07-09T09:03:00.000-04:00

Working at a hotel has offered me a plethora of great insights, but the most notable, and probably writing-applicable, is this: you simply cannot please everybody.

I know this is a tried and true statement of the writing world. For instance, a lot of you reeeeeeeeeeeeally like Duality and I've gotten a lot of "I don't usually read science fiction but this sounds interesting" comments, but so far I'm up to 17 rejections out of 22 queries. That being typed, it occurred to me this morning that someone will say yes, if all the planets are in alignment and I wish upon enough stars.

No one's book is for everybody, just like no hotel is for everybody. It shouldn't be (except mine, on both accounts ;).) If you write to please everyone else, then you're not pleasing yourself. If you write to please yourself, then you'll alienate some people, but there will be others who enjoy/fall in love with/obsess over/create fanfiction for your book. And there will be those who disparage it for one reason or another, don't like it, etc. And those are the people we ignore :-D

But seriously. You can pick pretty much every book in existence from the Bible to Twilight to whatever, and I guarantee you'll find at least one person who does not like that book, even though it might be a bestseller or the greatest book ever written EVER. Like hotels, everyone's experience with a book is different. I'm not a huge fan of present tense, but I have found books that I enjoy in present tense. I'm not a huge fan of contemporary, but I cried like a baby when I read My Sister's Keeper. Experiences color our perceptions. Maybe an agent you're querying had a bad experience with a book similar to yours and didn't want to chance it. Maybe something about your writing style just didn't appeal to them. There are some people who refuse to stay in anything but Hiltons. There are people who refuse to stay in Hiltons. It's all a matter of preference.

So don't get terribly discouraged if you get a rejection. (I really need to take my own advice.) Don't give up. There may come a time when you need to trunk your novel, and you'll know it. But don't do it until you've exhausted every avenue. Trends fluctuate, minds change, attitudes matter--theirs and yours.

Friday Feature 7/8

2011-07-08T12:32:00.000-04:00

Ok. So I haven't done this in like 3 months. It doesn't seem to be all that popular, but I have fun with it. Sooooo yeah.

Today I wanted to share my favorite song of all time. Yes. ALL. TIME. Which will probably explain a lot for y'all.

Fuel has been my favorite band since I was in high school. I adore them. They make me happy. Well, happy-ish. They were one of those bands I could identify with, and whenever I was hurt or upset, I listened to them, and it was like therapy set to great guitar. Also, they're a GREAT band to write to. Seriously. I think half the songs I used for Duality are theirs.

Without further ado, I present to you Shimmer by Fuel

Six Sentence Sunday 7/3

2011-07-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

It's that time again! Welcome back! I love getting comments throughout the day, and really appreciate them. Makes Sundays a whole lot more enjoyable for me, even if True Blood's back on (YAY!).

This week's six is the continuation from last week. Adrielle Baxter has just figured out that she's dead, and Duke's trying to talk her down. Not easy. At all.

Welcome to Step three.

She was so angry, just like Greg had been.

Step Three: Gain confidence. “A lot, trust me. My husband…he’s still bound. So is my dog. I see them all the time.”

Every word is AWESOME.

2011-06-30T16:14:00.001-04:00

OK. So...I'll admit it. I'm addicted to How I Met Your Mother (AKA HIMYM). I LOVE this show. It's one of 3 I religiously DVR. I've seen almost every episode, I can tie just about anything to an episode of it, and I've decided to attempt to mold my boyfriend into a perfect Marshall/Ted combination. I haz a plan.

For those unfamiliar with the joys of HIMYM, Neil Patrick Harris plays a character named Barney Stinson--a womanizing, ridiculously hilarious, roguish character in the vein of a few 18th century fictional rakes I can think of. He's hilarious. Awesome. And Legen--wait for it--DARY.

He also blogs.

"But, Cate," you say. "How can some random fictional character help me with writing?"

Do you have to suit up? No. Although that could be awesome, too.

Here's how. See the picture? Did you read the caption? THAT'S HOW.

What I've noticed in myself, and I know occurs with countless other writers, is that we have days where we do. Not. Want. To. Write. Some days, I never want to write again. The idea of thinking about words makes me want to curl into a ball. But what I've started doing--because of the show--is deciding consciously to be awesome. To write awesome-ly. And when I decide to be awesome instead of sad or unproductive or stubborn, I get stuff done.

How about you? Anyone (real or fictional) who helps you get out of your non-writing ruts?

Six Sentence Sunday 6/26

2011-06-26T00:00:00.007-04:00

Welcome back to Six Sentence Sunday, and thank you for stopping in every week. Your comments make my entire week!!!

Be sure to stop by and visit my fellow SSS participants. There's some killer writing out there!

This week's SSS is from Spark again. I keep thinking I'll go back to Duality once construction is almost finished. It's turning into something pretty cool, if I say so myself *toot toot*.

We get to move on to Step two: Comfort. Although the next exchange isn't particularly comforting.

*Warning. There is an F-bomb ahead. Just sayin.*

“Adrielle,” I barked, trying to snap her attention back to me. “I want you to listen to me, okay? You’re all right.”

“I’m dead!” she screamed. “I’m fucking dead and you want to tell me I’m all right? You’re sick.”

Going from Nobody to Somebody

Game Review: Batman-Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)

A Touch AWESOME Blogfest WEEK TWO

I (heart) Dogs blogfest ***UPDATE***

MANic Monday

Six Sentence Sunday 1/22

A Touch AWESOME Blogfest WEEK ONE

Friday Feature 1/20 + Update

Six Sentence Sunday 1/15

A Touch AWESOME Blogfest!!!!!

An Open Letter to Sean Bean

Six Sentence Sunday 1/8 Sylvia's answer

Phew!

Vote for Alex!!!!

The Long-Awaited Dragon Age: Origins Review

In lieu of a real post...

Six Sentence Sunday 12/18

Tis the Season!

Book Review: The Girl in the Steel Corset

Exciting news, everyone!

MANic Monday + COVER REVEAL!!!!

Six Sentence Sunday 12/11

MANic Monday

Six Sentence Sunday 12/4

I'm alive!!!

Oh, so very very mad

MANic Monday

Checking in.

Facing the Blank Page

MANic Monday

Six Sentence Sunday 10/30

Kick-ass Chicks Thursday

Worldbuilding - Your Characters and Your World

MANic Monday

I haz an award, again!

Six Sentence Sunday 10/16

Book Review: Wildefire by Karsten Knight

World-building - Fantasy & Society

MANic Monday - Double Trouble

Six Sentence Sunday 10/09

MANic Monday

Six Sentence Sunday 10/02

COVER REVEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Touch by Jus Accardo

MANic Monday

Six Sentence Sunday 9/25

Guest post: Buried Treasure by Xakara

Feature Friday...sort of.

Book Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer Armentrout

World-building - Science Fiction

MANic Monday

Six Sentence Sunday 9/18

Friday Feature 9/16

Writing Strong Female Characters: Daenerys Targaryen

Book Review: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker

Not so gentlemanly callers.

MANic Monday

Six Sentence Sunday 9/11

The Dorkiest Post Ever; or How Querying is Like the Mario Bros.

Review: Spoil of War

Interview: Phoenix Sullivan

MANic Monday

Six Sentence Sunday 9/4

My first interview!

MANic Monday

Six Sentence Sunday 8/28

Well, I wanted to write, soooo

Six Sentence Sunday 8/21

Friday Feature 8/19

Six Sunday 8/14

Friday Feature 8/12

Firsts

I haz an award!

Six Sentence Sunday 8/7

Six Sentence Sunday 07/24

Unconventional Love

Thinking outside the box

Six Sentence Sunday 07/17

Paperback Writers -- Guest post by Lucienne Diver

Guess what????

Six Sunday 7/10

I (heart) Dogs blogfest UPDATE