Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts

06 November 2013

Love songs, Sawyer Brown and Essenced with Connie Smith

Sometimes a song just sums things up perfectly. Most likely, you know the feeling. You’re listening to a new song (or a new one for you – if you’re like me, it could be years past the moment), and as one lyric bleeds into another, you find yourself going, “Yeah! That!” Of course, if you’re alone in your car, you should probably keep that kind of declaration inside your head, or people in surrounding cars might think you’re nuts, but still.

I went to a concert a couple months ago with my best friend, who happens to be the lady letting me be on her blog for this post (hi, bffffffffffffffffffff!!!!!!!!!). We went to see Sawyer Brown. If you haven’t heard of them, they’re a country band whose lead singer was my first soul mate. If you’re curious, my current soul mate is the bassist for Hinder. Things change. Anyway. Mark Miller (lead singer of Sawyer Brown/my first soul mate) gave a bit of an intro for a song they were about to play, how his wife of however many years had been wanting him to write a romantic song for her. So he caved, and we had the privilege of hearing it. It was a real tear-jerker called “Smokin’ Hot Wife.”

I bring this up because, on occasion, those moments when songs just seem to summarize what you’re feeling might not actually be the most elegant, sweet, or emotional. Sometimes they’re just honest. He was thankful for his smokin’ hot wife, and he wrote a song about it, one that probably had his wife smiling because it fit their relationship so well.

There’s a pair of people in Essenced that are… interesting. AJ and Julius. People seem to like these two. I even had one person threaten to stab me if those characters don’t survive the trilogy. I won’t name names on the last one, but you can read her name as the owner this blog. It’s a compliment when someone’s that invested in your characters, right?

Their connection isn’t standard puppy love, sappy letters, or love at first glance across a crowded room. I mean, it really, REALLY isn’t. But the connection is there, in all of its crazy turns and weird conversations.

How does this all come together, you might ask? Perfect songs, Sawyer Brown, Essenced… It comes together because, even though they’re fictional, AJ and Julius have a song that is so perfect for them, it’s like the songwriter wrote it about them. It isn’t overly romantic, and it certainly isn’t sappy. This probably won’t bring tears to your eyes or make you start planning your future wedding vows in your head. But it fits their relationship so wonderfully that, if they knew it existed, I think it would make them smile as they proclaimed it to be their song.

It sums them up, like, “Yeah! That!”

It’s honest and real, even if the reality is a bit funny, like Mark Miller’s tribute to his wife.

It just fits.

I’ve made the comment before, but how about we make it official for everyone reading this blog to witness? This is henceforth AJ and Julius’s song:



Blurb: 

Years ago, demons were forced out of the earth’s realm by a band of supernatural fighters, banished from the place and its people in the aftermath of a horrific war. It should’ve ended there – would’ve – if not for the final demon’s claw snagging on the open portal. What felt like victory became only a reprieve, the winning warriors understanding that the tear would spread, and the demons eventually would escape exile. It was only a matter of time, and a need for future defense – a question of genetics and essences, magic and power. 

Now, centuries later, a new army must bind together – one of teenagers with inhuman potentials and abilities… 

AJ went to bed Sunday night an average teenage girl, clumsy and athletically lacking. So when she wakes up Monday morning with super-strength, she does what any rational person would do: She goes into denial. When a smoking hot guy in a suit shows up, rambling about the end of the war and demons spilling through some kind of rift, she refuses to listen, telling herself he’s insane. Except weird things just won’t quit happening, and the guy keeps popping up in her life, trying to explain the changes suddenly happening within her. Is she crazy, or is this guy… not so crazy after all?

Essenced is available at:


Find Connie at:

Blogger

Website 


09 August 2011

I haz an award!




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:


  1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who bestowed the award on you
  2. Reveal your top three picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
  3. Copy and paste the award on your blog
  4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love
  5. 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.

23 July 2011

Unconventional Love

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?

08 March 2011

Finally remembered what I wanted to talk about...

Over the weekend, I received a*nother* form rejection from an agent I would have nuked Paris to work with (and dammit, I love me some Paris even though I've never been). I was sad for a while (two days). And then I started talking about my book with friends.

And I felt a LOT better about it. Because I realized how much I love it.

Here's the thing. I know rejections hurt. They suck. But this is a business. And rejections are business decisions. Much like not getting that awesome job you applied for. A candidate is better suited to their needs, but that doesn't mean you won't get a job somewhere else. A job where the staff is really excited you're there. A supportive place. A place you actually don't hate going every day.

Personal story: In Cincinnati, there are two main publishing houses. F+W publishing (which prints "Guide to Literary Agents") and the other one I can't remember the name of. Anyway, they're both non-fiction pubs, but I thought it'd be awesome to work there, get my foot in the door. Learn about the other side. I'm a grammar nazi. I know how to work with writers. I am a writer, so I understand the inner workings of the craft.

I didn't get hired at either one. And yes, I've applied again. And...yeah...nope.

Yes, I was devastated. What good is an English degree when you don't want to teach or write for newspapers? I wondered (oh yeah, totally just did that). So I had my little pity party. I applied at other places, but F+W just seemed like THE ONE.

After working a few temp jobs, I finally landed at my hotel. And yes, sometimes I dread the act of going to work. I wonder if the guests will be awesome or a-holes. But I can honestly tell you that this is the only job I've ever had where I feel at home. Where my mood improves when I come in. Where people are genuinely glad I'm here.

And I want that feeling with the agent or pubber who picks up my book. I want them to be genuinely happy and excited that they chose my book. And me.

Maybe it won't be Duality. That's a fact I have to face. SF isn't hot right now. It could potentially be Spark. Or TTA. But whichever one it is, I want the person who chooses it to love it as much as I do. Love it more, even. Cuz even though the agent who passed was a potential One, she just wasn't The One. And I'm okay with that.