seeing, dreaming ... writing

STRING BRIDGE Chart Rush Today!

2011-11-11T13:05:00.000+09:00

Today is THE day to help Jessica Bell's debut, STRING BRIDGE, hit
the bestseller list on Amazon, and receive the all-original soundtrack, Melody Hill: On the Other Side, written and performed by the author herself, for free!

All you have to do is
purchase the book today (paperback, or eBook), November 11th, and
then email the receipt to:

jessica.carmen.bell(at)gmail(dot)com

She will then email you a link to download the album at no extra cost!

To purchase the paperback:

Amazon USA

Amazon UK

To purchase the eBook:

Amazon USA

Amazon UK

To listen to samples of the soundtrack, visit iTunes.

If you are
not familiar with String Bridge,
check out the book trailer:

Rave Reviews for String Bridge:

“Jessica Bell’s STRING BRIDGE strummed the fret of my veins, thrummed my blood into a mad rush, played me taut until the final page, yet with echoes still reverberating. A rhythmic debut with metrical tones of heavied dark, fleeting prisms of light, and finally, a burst of joy—just as with any good song, my hopeful heartbeat kept tempo with Bell’s narrative.” ~ Kathryn Magendie, author of Sweetie and Publishing Editor of Rose & Thorn Journal

“Poet and musician Jessica Bell's debut novel String Bridge is a rich exploration of desire, guilt, and the difficult balancing act of the modern woman. The writing is lyrical throughout, seamlessly integrating setting, character and plot in a musical structure that allows the reader to identify with Melody's growing insecurity as her world begins to unravel … String Bridge is a powerful debut from a promising writer, full of music, metaphor, and just a hint of magic.” ~ Magdalena Ball, author of Repulsion Thrust and Sleep Before Evening

“Jessica Bell is a brilliant writer of great skill and depth. She doesn't pull back from the difficult scenes, from conflict, pain, intensity. She puts it all out there, no holds barred, no holding back. She knows how to craft a scene, how to develop character, how to create suspense. This is an absolutely brilliant debut novel. I look forward to reading her next novel, and next and next.” ~ Karen Jones Gowen, author of Farm Girl, Uncut Diamonds and House of Diamonds

Connect with Jessica:

String Bridge: http://www.stringbridge.com/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/jessica_bell

Website: http://www.jessicacbell.com/

Blog: http://thealliterativeallomorph.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/author.jessica.bell

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MsBessieBell

Publisher: http://www.luckypress.com

Please TWEET and/or FACEBOOK this post using #StringBridge!

Happy Birthday To Me

2011-10-18T12:53:00.000+09:00

Taking a break today cause it's my birthday. Sadly, I'll be spending the day at work. But one of my students said he was buying me an ice cream cake ... so hopefully it'll be a good day.

Fucking Whores Is OK

2011-10-15T23:53:00.000+09:00

Today, I'm gonna share a bit of what working for an academy in Korea is like. So, I teach elementary, middle and sometimes high school students. One class that I teach is reading, in which they need to read a novel. When we first started doing the class, I was able to choose the books and I really liked doing it. Over the past year though, the principal has been getting more strict and has actually given me a list of approved books. To be fair, I only had to choose from the list for the highest level class; the other classes I could pick whatever (I had them read all three HUNGER GAMES books -- the kids LOVED them). So, the list: the books are all classics or nonfiction (like Malcolm Gladwell's OUTLIERS). Anyway, I tried them and hated them. These are the books that made me hate reading as kid. My students hated them too.

Anyway, I had to pick a new novel for four of my middle school classes today. It was hard at first finding a book that the supplier had, but I ended up choosing IF I STAY. Then I had to get approval. The principal changed his policy yet again and I was told I wasn't allowed to choose any YA books for any of the classes and now all of the classes had to read a book from the list. His reasons? Okay, I'm being completely serious here, his reasoning was that some YA books have hand holding and kissing in them and that's not what Korean parents want their children reading. Korean children don't read those kinds of books. Which is bullshit! I know for a fact that every kid at that academy has read TWILIGHT. And, when I started teaching THE HUNGER GAMES, every kid went out and had their parents buy them the other two books in the series cause they couldn't wait to read them.

But anyway, the principal said he wouldn't want his son reading that kind of stuff. His son is like 6 or something. Ummm, does his kid watch Disney movies? Pretty sure there's hand holding and kissing in those.

WTF? I don't get it. So hand holding and kissing is bad, yet he forced me to teach the kids 1984 last year and in that book there's actual sex. There's an actual three page scene detailing the main character's visit to a prostitute. So, hand holding and kissing are bad, but fucking whores is okay.

I don't want to get too much into Korean culture here because I don't want to offend anyone. But I've lived here for over four years and things like this are typical. Korea has a kind of listen to what I say and don't pay attention to what I actually do mindset.

Natalia Kills

2011-10-15T00:13:00.000+09:00

My friend recommended this song to me the other day and now I'm recommending it to all of you. She had downloaded it for free on Amazon a few weeks ago and had it stuck in her head and thought I might like it. So I went to Youtube to check it out and I now LOVE this song ... well, I LOVE this singer. Natalia Kills is amazing.

To give you an idea of what she sounds like ... she's kind of a darker Lady Gaga; although she has her own unique spin. You should definitely watch the above video and check out some of her other songs on Youtube. And for all of you YA paranormal fans, listen to her song "Zombie." I'll definitely be buying her CD.

Oh, just so you know, this is the uncensored, director's cut of the video. It's a little disturbing, but it's not that bad. Just thought you should know.

Surprise Visitor

2011-10-11T00:14:00.000+09:00

So, I'm gonna try something different ... today I want to post a short story that I wrote. This was in response to a writing prompt, requesting that I write about anonymous love (the characters could meet in a chat room or have a secret admirer, whatever). Anyway, I've never put a sample of my writing up on this blog before, so I think it's overdue.

Before you go on and read, you should know that there is some adult content. I normally write YA and I definitely came at this from that perspective. Just be warned that it's edgy YA. I think my friend described it best. She said it's like a beer commercial ... gratuitous, but not enough that they don't air it. This is also my first attempt at writing a female main character and writing in present tense. Hope you enjoy (it's only about 900 words, so it's not too long)!

Hands push my skirt up above my hips and fingertips brush against my skin as they hook in my thong. I lift from the bed to make it easier to slip off and then cool, soft hands are on the inside of my thighs, spreading them. The warm caress of a tongue follows and I stifle a moan. Who’s tongue, I can’t say – I haven’t opened my eyes since I awoke to my surprise visitor’s touches.

My surprise visitor. Who is it? I flirted with … too many people tonight. Jason? It is his house. Maybe he’d snuck in. Eric? I told him I was going upstairs. Maybe he’d gotten the hint. Soft hands. Jessica? We’ve been flirting for weeks. Maybe she was finally making a move. Sasha? We made out earlier. Maybe she had followed me upstairs. Too many options.

I wonder how long I’ve been asleep. The house is quiet. Is the party over? Did Austin and Kara leave without me?

A wave of pleasure washes over my body and I resist the urge to lift my hands. I don’t want to know who’s tongue is making me feel this good – all that matters is that it feels good. I won’t think about my asshole brother and his bitch girlfriend for leaving the party with me passed out upstairs. It doesn’t matter. I arch my back and my legs spread open further, seemingly on their own. The morning and how I’ll be getting home can wait. Right now, there’s only this.

I clench the sheets in my hands. I don’t want to reach for his head. Her head. Whoever’s. Who doesn’t matter. Why doesn’t matter. The tongue matters. The slight chill of my visitor’s hands on my thighs matters. The heat spreading through my body matters.

The heat that is spreading … and building. Building. Building. My lips part, I suck in a breath and hold. I ride the waves of pleasure surging through me. I let the sea crash over me.

After, I’m aware of my visitor’s weight lifting from the bed. The floor creaks as he – she – treads across the room. Last chance. I can open my eyes and see who it is. But that will ruin it so I keep them closed.

I feel the sun on my face when I wake. The memories of last night are foggy. I don’t remember much of the party. But my surprise visit in the middle of the night is etched into my brain and I remember every sweet caress. Finally, I allow myself to open my eyes. I take another minute to live in memory of last night and then I get up, retrieving my thong from the floor and slipping it back on.

There’s a bathroom at the end of the hall. I head there first. I notice the leg hanging over the bathtub and find Kara passed out. I guess they didn’t leave me. I decide to leave her to sleep it off and turn to the mirror. My makeup’s smeared, but it doesn’t look too bad. I slip a tie from my wrist and pull my hair back before walking back down the hall. I have to maneuver my way down the stairs, watching where I step to avoid knocking over one of the many half-empty cups. If Jason’s up, we’ll need to come wake Kara so Jason doesn’t recruit us to help clean up.

There are a few people passed out in the living room that I have to step over, but no one I recognize. Could one of them have …? I stop myself. Not knowing is better. Sure, I’m curious, but not knowing makes it somehow more … dirty. And exciting. I hear Jason’s voice from the kitchen and make my way there.

“Morning, lightweight,” Austin says, seeing me.

I flip him off. I’m not a lightweight. I get drunk easily, yeah, but I can hold my liquor. The same can’t be said for his girlfriend. One thing I do remember is her puking when I went upstairs to use the bathroom last night. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing her after that. Maybe that’s when she passed out.

I see Jason standing at the counter. “Coffee?” he asks.

I nod and take a seat at the table.

“So what happened to you?” Austin asks. “I don’t remember seeing you after maybe two in the morning.”

“I passed out upstairs in one of the bedrooms.”

“Did you check the other bedrooms before you came down? Is Kara still out?”

“There’s only one bedroom upstairs,” Jason says, before I can answer. He sits a cup in front of me and pulls out a chair. “Mine. My sister’s was upstairs, but Mom changed it into a sewing room when she moved out. Mom’s bedroom is down here.”

So maybe Jason was my surprise visitor since it was his room I passed out in. I raise my cup to take a sip, but notice Austin. His face has gone pale and his mouth is hanging open. “Austin?”

No response. I wave my hand in front of his face. “Austin?” I say, louder this time.

Slowly, he raises his eyes and looks right at me. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Suspension of Disbelief

2011-10-04T19:00:00.000+09:00

I wrote a post on suspension of disbelief last year. It was before I actually had a lot of followers and I'm not sure how many of you read it. If you wanna check it out, go here.

Basically, in that post I talked about Nicolas Cage's movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. In the world building, they set up the rules of the world and then by the time the movie was over, they contradicted everything they had set up.

That's not the kind of suspension of disbelief I want to talk about today.

The other day I downloaded a sample of FALLING UNDER to read. It sounded interesting and had gotten a bunch of good reviews. Also, it deals with demons and I wanted to see how the author tackled that since I'm writing about demons now.

The book opens with the MC reading in her room when a burning man falls from the sky. I loved it. I could accept and believe a burning man could fall from the sky. I accepted the paranormal/ fantasy element without question.

During all this, it's explained that the MC's dad is really strict and the MC has been pretty sheltered. Okay, I could accept that. What happens next, I couldn't. The MC wakes up and it's the anniversary of her mom's death. She starts thinking about how she has her mom's hair and her dad doesn't like it. Then she thinks about how she has her mom's rebellious spirit and her dad doesn't like that. Okay, no problems so far. But then she's getting ready for school and sprints down the stairs. She immediately chastises herself for being reckless and running down the stairs. I put the book down.

I know that not every character, or every teenager, is wild and out there or whatever. There are teens who have sheltered lives and are pretty innocent. But I can't believe that there are 17-year-old girls out there who would berate themselves for sprinting down the stairs. I don't care how strict their upbringing is, I don't think there's a single teenager out there that would do this. Making it worse, the author had her MC explicitly state that she had a rebellious spirit a paragraph before. Is a teenager who thinks she's rebellious going to chastise herself for sprinting down the stairs?

The thing is, the stairs thing could have worked if it was done differently. If the character had fallen down the stairs in the past and gotten injured, I would buy that she would be scared of the stairs (this actually happened to my sister when she was young). But there is no way a rebellious teenage girl, no matter how strict her upbringing, would immediately chastise herself for running down the stairs.

To be honest, the MC's voice didn't appeal to me anyway. I mean, she describes her nightgown as her "virginal shroud." What 17-year-old says that? She just sounded old. But I was willing to go with it ... until I got to the stairs thing.

I guess the point is, your characters have to be real. And not just in the world you set up. If you're going to have a character act in a way that's completely absurd for a normal person, there better be a legitimate and plausible reason for the behavior.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever read something a character did that pulled you out of a story and/ or caused you to stop reading?

Things I'm Sick Of

2011-09-29T19:13:00.001+09:00

I have decided to come back to blogging. I've done a lot of thinking about it and realized that I don't want to throw away the past year or so and I really do enjoy maintaining my blog. That said, I will be cutting back. I've decided that I will only be posting twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays (or more if there's something I really want to share ... like the other day). If the need arises, I'll cut back to once a week, but I don't see that happening.

I'm still unsure of what my blog will become. I want to talk about writing, but I know that I'll run out of topics. I'll figure that out when I get to that point though. Moving on ...

Anyway, last week, I looked at advice that writers are given and why they shouldn't listen ... or why they should at least think carefully before just making changes to their manuscripts. I want to continue that ... just not today (it'll be something I explore more in future posts when I come across something that warrants a post).

Today, I want to talk about things that we're all sick of seeing. Here's my list:

1. Snarky characters.

2. Characters who are standoffish about EVERYTHING ... for no reason. The past two books I've read have had characters like this. Seriously, in one book, the MC got an attitude and was a smart ass because his friend was SUPPORTING him. Not every situation or every conversation requires smart ass comments and a pissy attitude.

3. Girls named Violet or some variation of Ash. There are other choices.

4. Girl moves to new town and the hot guy at school is the only one who notices/ pays attention to her. It's overdone. And what is it with meeting in a science class? Can't the girl meet the guy while walking out on the street? Or at least she can meet him in math class or something.

5. Love triangles when it's obvious who will lose. I'm a little sick of the bad boy vs. childhood friend love triangle. The childhood friend will always lose.

6. Love after two seconds and ready to throw away everything you believe in. I'm all for love at first sight and I'd like to believe in it. But, I don't exactly think it's realistic to meet someone once and be ready to derail your entire life for them.

7. Characters who love reading. I like reading. You all like reading. We're writers. I get it. But something about a character describing how reading is their favorite thing and how they like to escape into books ... I don't know, but it seems a little self-indulgent. I feel like it's the author inserting him or herself into the story. I don't mind if reading is mentioned or a favorite book, but ... this just needs to be kept in check because it's very easy to overdo it.

Well, that's my list for now. What are you sick of seeing in the books you're reading?

Bullying

2011-09-27T14:21:00.000+09:00

I had another post scheduled for today, but decided to pull it (it'll be up on Thursday). Instead, I'd like to give you a link.

So, go and check out Lady Gaga's tribute to Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14 year-old boy who killed himself because of bullying.

There have been enough blog posts on bullying that I don't feel like I have anything to add. Just ... this needs to stop!

Gay Characters

2011-09-24T19:00:00.003+09:00

I've completed two novels and am currently working on a third (I'm about a third of the way through it - maybe I'll do a post later to tell you about it). Anyway, out of those books, one of my main characters is straight, one of my main characters is bisexual and one of my main characters is gay. And just to throw this out there ... I've really been wanting to write a book with a female MC. And I'm thinking now it might be cool to write with a lesbian MC. Of course I'd have to come up with a story and all that, but maybe this could be my next WIP.

What's this have to do with anything? I was over at Nathan Bransford's blog yesterday and came across this article about two authors who say an agent wanted them to make their gay character straight, or remove him entirely, before offering representation.

I'm not going to get into a big discussion of this right now (I may at a later point thought), but I was really happy to see a few agents and editors left comments, saying that they supported gay characters and wanted to see more of them. I'll admit, I made a list with those agents for when it's time to submit again.

The article also has a link to a blog post that lists YA SciFi/ Fantasy books with LGTBQ characters. And it's supposed to be updated as new books are released. I've read a few of the books on the list and definitely plan to read more.

Anyway, like I said, I may write more about the topic of gay characters later, but, for now, I just wanted to give you a link to something you may not have heard about and a link to some, hopefully, good books. As an aside, I think I used way too many commas in that last sentence.

I'm Gonna Be Pissed Off For No Reason

2011-09-23T17:22:00.001+09:00

Conflict. There are no shortage of posts from agents and writer alike, telling us to always have conflict, insert more conflict, etc.

Just like with snarky characters, this is fine until an author does it for no reason other than to include it.

The inspiration for this post is WILDEFIRE. I recently started reading it (I haven't been able to finish it, but that's beside the point). In case you haven't read it, it starts with the main character beating the shit out of a girl for making out with her boyfriend. I thought that was awesome. I love that the MC is this tough chick who doesn't take shit. But then the book fast forwards 8 months and the MC is making out with her new boyfriend and feeling disgusted. She then provokes him and starts an argument. The guy gets pissed and hurls some insults at her and she throws some things. The problem with this is that she then blames the guy for this. From my reading, the guy wasn't at fault. Yeah, he shouldn't have said some things, but the MC was the cause of the conflict in the scene and for no good reason. This was her boyfriend and she felt disgusted kissing him. Honestly, it felt like the author just made her pissed off in order to keep the conflict that he had in the first chapter going. And then, no reason is given for the conflict ... just that oh, this guy is the same as her old boyfriend and he's a douche bag. I'm sorry, but wanting to make out with your girlfriend (which it's implied they have done before - along with maybe going further) does not make you a douche bag. Conflict for the sake of conflict.

I agree with all the posts saying that writers should include conflict. There needs to be conflict. But how much is too much?

One thing I love about the Sookie Stackhouse books is that Charlaine Harris gives Sookie downtime. People get murdered, there are kidnapping attempts, people get crucified, there are witch wars, fairy wars, vampire politics, werewolf politics and whatever else, but between all that, Sookie goes to work, reads, works on her tan, hosts baby showers and does normal day-to-day things. Honestly, I think the believability of the books would suffer if it went from one action packed scene to the next. It'd be too much.

I'm gonna wrap this up. Not every scene needs to include conflict ... and certainly not if you're just injecting conflict for the sake of it. What are your thoughts?

Snarky ... Or Just Fucking Annoying

2011-09-18T02:16:00.003+09:00

So, I know I haven't posted in a while. Honestly, I don't know how much I'll post in the future either. I definitely like blogging, but it's just not something I can fit into my schedule. I still check out all of your posts, but the commenting every day was killing me; it took the fun out of it. I do want to come back to blogging, I just need to find a system that works for me. My other issue was that I was running out of things to say ... and, honestly, I think a lot of people are. There are only so many writing topics that can be covered. I can't say how many times I've read the exact same post just on different blogs and written by different bloggers.

Basically, what this all comes down to is that maybe I'll come back to blogging, but only when I figure out what I want this blog to be (I don't think overdone writing topics can suffice) and a system that works for me so that I actually have time to devote to writing and reading.

I do have a topic for today though ... and it's a writing topic ... one that I haven't seen done to death. So, today's topic is snarky characters. All right, so that has been done to death, but not from the perspective of HATING them.

I don't know how many times I've read on agent blogs (and writer blogs too) that they love snarky characters. And, at first, I agreed with them. But it's getting to be too much. It seems like with YA girls, there are only two default personality types: the withdrawn pretty girl who thinks she's ugly and then the tough, sarcastic, snarky girl who seems to be trying to prove that she's not the first type of girl.

Let's look at TWILIGHT. So many people trash that series because of Bella and the fact that she has no personality. Now, it seems like the snarky, sarcastic girl has crept up in YA as an answer to that. But the thing is, giving your character one character trait does not equal giving her an actual personality.

I like sarcastic. I like snarky. But no one is like that all the damn time. I swear, I think authors are taking it to far and these girls are just as problematic as people think Bella is. More troubling though, it's getting to the point where I can't even relate to these characters and they're becoming unlikeable because no reason is given for these girls being this way. They're abrasive and tough and sarcastic and snarky just for the sake of giving them a personality.

For me, it's getting to be too much. What are your thoughts?

*Note - I'll have at least one other post this week and it will kind of be similar in theme to this one. I want to explore the advice that there always needs to be conflict and how authors are taking that too far.

Maybe this can be a new series. You guys know how I like doing series with my posts. Maybe I can look at trends that are getting annoying. Or agent/writer advice that I wish more people ignored. We'll see.

Let's Talk About Sex ... Again!

2011-05-27T17:30:00.001+09:00

I was a good kid. I got good grades and never really did anything bad or got into trouble (expect that poem that got me suspended).

However, by the time I was eleven or twelve, I was cursing. Also by that age, I knew about sex and thought about sex.

I think we want children to be pure, but it's just not realistic. Teenagers think about that stuff ... and so, our writing should reflect that.

What are your opinions regarding cursing and sex in YA? There's a bit of a debate going on in the comments over at QueryTracker regarding me winning their May YA contest. Head over and check it out.

And to my followers, I believe that I will be returning to blogging soon. I really just needed a break from it for a while ... life was getting too hectic; plus, I broke my hand. I'm trying to come up with a schedule that will work for me as I just started a new WIP and want to have time to focus on writing. I'll be sure to let you know my new blogging schedule when I figure it out.

Edit: I'm actually thinking of coming back next week. I have a great idea for a series of posts courtesy of some of the comments on the QueryTracker contest. I'll also be changing the look of my blog over the weekend; so please bear with me as I transition.

Thanks

2011-02-19T00:20:00.000+09:00

I just want to thank everybody for all the get well wishes and support. It means a lot. Anyway, I took the rest of this week off (as you should already be aware) to give my hand a break (haha). I have been keeping up with all your posts; although not commenting. I'm thinking I'll be able to start blogging again next week, but we'll see. Anyway (I really overuse this word), thanks again. You guys (mostly women) are great!

Damn Stairs!

2011-02-15T17:26:00.000+09:00

The stairs in my apartment are dangerous. I found that out this morning when I slipped on a rag that was laying on the second or third step (I don't remember which). Anyway I fell. My desk is at the base of my stairs so I landed on that, throwing my arm out to brace myself.

Went to the doctor this morning and had xrays taken ... I have a huge ass fracture in my right hand ... and I'm right handed. The doctor put a splint on my hand and it has to stay on for six weeks. Plus, I need to go back every week for xrays to be sure the bone is still in the correct position and I don't need surgery. He told me to not use my right hand for anything as I might displace the bone, which would require surgery and pins to correct.

This is going to pose problems both for my job and my blog. As far as teaching goes, with the way the splint is positioned, it's difficult to even hold a pen or marker in my hand ... much less write with it. As for blogging, I don't want to stop because I just came back from a long break, but I'm typing this post using only my left hand (not really difficult, just annoying). I guess we'll see what happens. Right now, I'm going to try to keep blogging. Wish me luck.

Show Me The Love

2011-02-14T21:15:00.001+09:00

So, I saw some other people's posts go up for Stephanie Haefner's Show Me The Love blogfest and thought it looked fun. Anyway, I just had to answer five questions and get my answers up by 10 AM EST. So, read through my answers, click on the link and check out the other bloggers' answers and have a happy Valentine's Day!

1. What is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for you?

This morning, the teenage boy working at the convenience store gave me a lighter. See, I forgot mine at home and went into the store to buy one. I didn't see them, so I told the guy I wanted a lighter and he whipped his out of his pocket and gave it to me instead of making me buy one.
Okay, so maybe it's not that romantic, but really I got nothing. I'm the romantic one. I do romantic things all the time -- homemade cards, candle lit dinners, rose petals on the bed, etc. I've never really had anyone do anything romantic for me.

2. What is your favorite love song?
"I Turn to You" by Christina Aguilera. Maybe. Or "Innocence" by Avril Lavigne. Anything by Celine Dion or Faith Hill.
All right, the truth is, I listen to a lot of sad love songs, not happy love songs. I listen to songs about being alone or abandoned or screwing everything up. I just like those better ... they're more realistic.

3. Do you have a favorite romantic movie or book?
IF ONLY makes me cry every time I watch it.

4. Do you have any romantic plans for Valentine's Day this year?
We are both busy and have to work. Plus, we had to work over the weekend. So, nothing. Plus, I'm kinda the only one that cares about Valentine's Day.

5. What's your favorite romantic treat? (candy, chocolate, edible body paint, etc...)
Edible body paint sounds good ... I don't know why I haven't tried that yet. Seriously though, chocolate and wine.

If you're not participating in the blogfest, feel free to answer any of the questions in the comments. I'd love to hear your answers.

You Decide

2011-02-12T00:30:00.000+09:00

It's late and I have no ideas. So, there will be nothing new today, but I do want to start a new series next week. You all know how I write and how I tackle topics, so I'd like to know, what would you like my next series of posts to focus on?

Sorry, I don't have anything for you today. It's been a long day. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Woohoo

2011-02-10T23:49:00.001+09:00

You know you really wanna (HEY) wanna taste my (woohoo)
You know you wanna get a peak, wanna see my (woohoo)
You know you wanna put your lips where my hips are (woohoo)
Kiss on my (woohoo) All over my (woohoo)
All the boys think it's cake when they taste my (woohoo)
You dont even need a plate, just your face Ha! (woohoo)
Licky licky yum yum, what a great guy (woohoo)
Now kiss on my (woohoo) All over my (woohoo)
K Kiss on my (woohoo) All over my (woohoo) K K Kiss on my (woohoo) All over my (woohoo)

So those are the lyrics to the chorus of "Woohoo" by Christina Aguilera and Nicki Minaj. I was listening to that today on the subway and started to think about how much it takes to shock these days. So this chorus is rapped by Nicki Minaj and rap has always been hypersexual, but it's the chorus to a Christina Aguilera song. Now, I'm not one of those people who get all pissed when teen stars start drinking and acting sexual as they grow up -- this post isn't about that -- but this is pop music ,which is traditionally clean; yet here we are with Nicki Minaj and Christina Aguilera telling us that they taste like cake and we should go down on them (the rest of the song gives further instructions of what to do once down there).

I bought Rihanna's CD "LOUD" a few months ago; behind the CD is a picture of her crotch. Throughout the jacket are various nude photos of her. The same with Christina's CD "BIONIC". And Katy Perry's CD "TEENAGE DREAM."

And this is normal. I wasn't shocked at all by the photos or the lyrics of any of the songs (Rihanna's "S&M," Katy Perry's "Peacock," Christina's "Woohoo"). I just flipped through the photos while listening to the songs, unfazed.

Since I was a teenager, I've liked shocking people -- dying my hair, having weird hairstyles, piercings, tattoos. I mean, I did that stuff for myself, but part of me liked that it shocked people. None of it works anymore. All of that stuff is commonplace. The only time recently when I've actually shocked people is when I took all my piercings out, shaved and had my hair in a short, normal style. Being clean-cut was shocking.

I guess the point of this post is twofold. One, I wanna know how the hell we're supposed to shock people these days. But, more importantly, we, as writers, need to be aware of how society is changing. This is especially true for writers of young adult in order to make their teens believable. I've read too many books recently with these clean-cut, oblivious to everything main characters. I know there are still some innocent kids and teens out there, but not many. When I'm reading about a girl who's pristine, virginal, unaware of sex or drinking or boys or anything and obediently listens to her parents (or for that matter, a boy who's not after sex), I just don't believe the character. I don't know if that's a bad thing or not. Time's have changed and that kind of kid, for better or worse, is a dying breed. I guess, it is what it is.

What are your thoughts on this? What shocks you? Or doesn't?

Book Covers

2011-02-09T21:50:00.001+09:00

How many of you have sat around thinking about what your future book cover will look like?

I know that I have ... and I still don't have a clear idea of what I'd want.

Anyway, my friend is in art school and for one of his projects he had to make a book cover. I gave him the summary of my book SEEING and a list of words to describe it. Here's what he came up with.

This is the first draft.

This one's the second draft.

And this is the final version.

It's not exactly what I see for my book cover, but it's still cool to see another person's interpretation of my work. What do you think? Do you have an idea of what you hope your book cover looks like?

No Idea

2011-02-09T00:06:00.000+09:00

All right, so I'm going to be perfectly honest. It's now after midnight here and I have no idea what to write for a blog post today. I'll see you all tomorrow ... hopefully I'll have something by then.

In the meantime, I want to learn more about you. What are your day jobs? And ... do you dream of the day that you can give it up and just spend your time writing? I know I do. My job is killing me -- both physically and mentally (hence me not having any ideas for today's post).

I'm Back

2011-02-07T20:48:00.000+09:00

So, I'm back from my blogging vacation. I definitely missed blogging and all of you. I gotta admit though, I enjoyed the break.

Anyway, today I want to let you all know about Rachael Harrie's Second Writer's Platform-Building Crusade. Actually, with the number of people signing up, you've probably already heard about it. Basically, it's about meeting, connecting with and supporting other bloggers. Go check out the site and sign up ... it was a lot of fun last time and will be this time around.

So, that's pretty much all today. I do want to leave you with a picture though.

I dyed my hair and eyebrows blonde. Oh, and I shaved. If you knew me, you'd be more shocked by that than the blonde hair and eyebrows. I haven't been clean shaven in almost ten years.

Sorry it's a shirtless pic, but I like this pic the best out of the ones I've taken.

Taking a Break

2011-01-17T22:22:00.001+09:00

This post is to let you all know that I'm going to be taking a break from blogging for the rest of the month. I love posting here and I love all of you, but it's just not working.

My schedule is just ridiculous. I'm at work for 12 hours or longer a day and start early. By the time I actually get off, I have no energy and still have to take care of Milo and do all that fun household stuff. Rather than subject you all to half-assed posts, I'd rather just take a break until I can devote more time to blogging -- I'll be making my grand return on February 1st.

Anyway, I'll still be reading your blogs; although, I may not always comment -- it's easy to read blogs on my phone, but commenting can be a pain in the ass.

So, see you in February. I'll miss all of you.

How-To Writing Books

2011-01-14T23:59:00.000+09:00

My work week is finally over and now I can catch up on sleep, but I don't want to waste my weekend in bed; so, although it's Friday, I'm going to be going to bed early.

Instead of a post (cause my I've officially checked out for the day), I want to ask you all a question (I promise that next week I'll have some more interesting posts -- I'll be writing them this weekend). Which how-to writing books have you read? Which ones do you reccommend?

Honestly, I haven't really read any. I had one -- I can't remember which one -- but other than that, nothing. I downloaded a sample of Stephen King's ON WRITING and just didn't get it. It could be that the sample just didn't get far enough into the book, but I didn't understand why so many people rave about that book; the part I read didn't really have anything to do with writing.

So, what should I be reading? Do you think writers should be reading these craft books?

Fair Dinkum Award

2011-01-13T22:47:00.000+09:00

Today is another award post. I need to thank Jodi Henry for awarding me L'Aussie's Fair Dinkum Award ... Thanks Jodi! Her blog is definitely one you should all be following; so hop on over to Turning the Page: A Literary Ramble after you're done reading here.

So, I've seen this award around a lot and I know, originally, bloggers who got the award were supposed to say what they though "Fair Dinkum" meant. Well, enough people have got this that I've read a fair number of times what it actually means (plus, I looked it up just to be sure). So, "Fair Dinkum" means true or genuine. I like it. It's not something I strive to do, but being genuine in my posts is important to me. Blogging is about putting myself out there for you to get to know and being able to get to know you in return. I see no reason to be ingenuine. I try not to shy away from things and to be completely honest when I tell you things about myself, when I'm writing about controversial topics (age and sex) or discussing other difficult issues (supporting Amazon in selling the pedophile book).

Anyway, now I'm supposed to award L'Aussie's Fair Dinkum Award to six bloggers. So, the award goes to (in no particular order) ...

1. Summer Ross @ My Inner Fairy
2. Melissa @ Through the Looking Glass
3. Meredith @ Fairy Tales and Cappuccino
4. NiaRaie @ Life in Retrospect
5. Colene Murphy @ The Journey
6. Jessica Bell @ The Alliterative Allomorph

Make sure you check out the six bloggers I awarded; you won't be disappointed. And, just for fun, tell me something genuine (it can be about yourself or anything).

Stylish Blogger

2011-01-12T22:36:00.002+09:00

I've been given a blog award (two actually, but the second will be tomorrow).

The Stylish Blogger Award comes from J.C. Martin @ J.C. Martin, Fighter Writer (Thanks!). If you're not following her blog already, you should be.

To accept this award I have to:

1. Thank and link back to the person who nominated you for the award (already did this, but thanks again J.C.!).
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass the award on to ten recently discovered bloggers. Contact them and let them know they have been nominated.

I've been sharing a lot about myself this week, but here are seven more things:

1. I'm sick of having blue eyes. I used to like them, but after 26 years, I'm bored of them. I now wear contacts pretty much all the time that make my eyes a weird yellowish-green color, ringed with black.

2. I've had pretty much every type of pet you could have (including exotic animals and barnyard animals) with the exception of a cat. My mom was allergic so I could never have one.

3. I'm incredibly allergic to horses. I went horseback riding in the Phillipines. Halfway through, I started getting asthma; I kept going though cause it would have sucked walking back. After the ride was over, I rushed back to the hotel, unable to breath and itchy. Upon taking my clothes off (ever inch of me had been covered while I was on the horse), I discovered that my entire body was COVERED in hives.

4. I'm allergic to some dogs some of the time. It's ridiculous. Some dogs will bother me and then others, I'm completely fine around (even if the dogs are the same breed). Then sometimes I'll be allergic to the hair or dandure or whatever and other times I'll only have problems if the dog licks me. With Milo, I'm completely fine ... kinda; I have to wear long sleeve shirts all the time at home. If he so much as touches my wrists or inner arms, I'll get hives. I have no trouble breathing or anything else with him though, just my arms.

5. I still haven't finished reading RETURN OF THE KING. I've read all the other books, but I just can't get past maybe chapter 5 or 6 in ROTK; it's too damn boring.

6. Along those same lines, I can't read INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. I've tried maybe three or four times and the description just gets too boring and I have to stop. Despite this though, I've read the summaries of all the books in THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES on Wikipedia.

7. I have flat feet ... no arch, whatsoever. This makes buying/ wearing shoes difficult.

Now, to pass the award on to ten recently discovered bloggers; well, actually, I'm passing it along to fewer than that -- truth is, I haven't started following many blogs recently. The ones below are pretty great though and you should all be following them.

1. Paul Joseph @ Paul Joseph (new find, great posts)
2. Alex @ Breakfast Every Hour (new find, very honest, open posts)
3. Michael @ In Time ... (I've been following him for a little while, but I started following more recently than most of the other blogs I follow ... and he's pretty stylish)

I love seeing more guys blogging!

4. Kirthi @ Barefoot (not technically recent, but she has a new layout/ design)

So, that's it. I was gonna give away both awards that I've been given today, but I'm just too tired and need to be getting to bed. I can't wait for this month to be over and my schedule to go back to normal. Now you should go check out the above blogs.

Oh, any blogs that you've started following recently that you think I should be following too?

The Last Poem I Ever Wrote

2011-01-12T00:13:00.000+09:00

First, I want to appologize if I haven't made it to your blog. My schedule this month is just horrible and, for some reason, I'm not adjusting well. So, I just can't manage to get as much done as I did before. I am trying to get to all of your blogs though -- I love reading what all of you have to say.

Anyway, today's post is about why I stopped writing poetry and what poetry actually was for me. So, lets begin.

I was in the honors program at my university. This meant that I had to take an honors colloquim during my freshman year. Since I loved poetry, I signed up for the "Metaphors Be With You" colloquim. During the course, we had to write four sonnets. I had never written a sonnet before, but I thought it'd be nice to try something different.

Anyway, our sonnets had to focus on a metaphor. My first sonnet was about a woman being raped as a metaphor for the statue of liberty being blown up (this was the year after (9/11). Everyone loved it and I got a repuation for being dark. My next sonnet was about a couple having sex. During sex, the woman smothered the man with a pillow, killing him. She then kept going until she climaxed; only then did she realize what she had done. The metaphor here was a bit more complex, I used life as a metaphor for death (it only figured into the sonnet during the last part). Because I mastered the sonnet, my professor let me do whatever I wanted for the final two poems. My third poem was about the seven deadly sins. It sucked. I still got an A on it, but it just didn't have the same power that the others had. My final poem of the year, I went all out. I printed the poem on a black and white photo of a woman's face. Her hair swept down across her face and only one eye was visible -- I made this eye a piercing blue (the only color). The poem was free form about female genital mutilation. In the poem, a young woman sews herself shut as a result of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child. I was back. The poem made the other students cringe. I loved it; specifically, I loved that my words could evoke such a strong emotional response from others.

That was the last poem I ever wrote.

The thing is, after being forced to write in sonnet form, I wasn't able to put my thoughts into words anymore. I don't know how I was able to write that last poem since it was free form, but I was never able to do it again. I've sat down many times to try and write poetry. I've had ideas for poems. But, each and every time I've been unable to write. Learning to write sonnets killed my ability to write free form. And I think because of this, I gained a dislike for sonnets and never attempted to write one again.

I do blame sonnets for the death of my poetry career (haha), but at the same time, I think I couldn't write poetry anymore because I didn't need to. From high school, poetry was a way for me to express my emotions; a way for me to put them on paper and get them out. For me, poetry was a way for me to deal with my depression. But as I started to come out of that depression, I no longer needed poetry as an outlet. That's the real reason I think I can't write poetry anymore.

Novels are something different for me. Yes, I express emotion in my novels and I hope they too can evoke a deep emotional response from the reader, but writing novels isn't some kind of release for me. I think I'll tackle this topic a little more on Thursday (tomorrow's post will be an award post).

So, lets here from you. Does writing ever help you deal with your emotions and/or problems?

Another Interesting Tale

2011-01-10T22:58:00.000+09:00

More on my experiences with poetry today. I'll realized while writing this that it was getting too long; so I'm going to break it up and post half today and half tomorrow. Doing the second half tomorrow will actually work out better too because it'll allow me to connect it with something more novel-writing related. Now, on to the story.

After being dubbed "the poet" in my sophomore year, I kept writing poetry all throughout high school. Everyone was hooked on my poems and would anxiously wait for the next (I think saying "anxiously" seems a bit cocky, but I can't think of another way to phrase it). I wish I had my poems with me here in Korea to post some, but they are all in a drawer in my desk in the US. Anyway, this was when Eminem first came out and I think my style took after that. Most of the poems I wrote in high school were about sex (I did a series of poems based on Lil Kim's song "How Many Licks"*) and/or violence -- a select few were political and some were about popular issues at the time.

*I would have loved to include the actual video for "How Many Licks," but embedding is disabled on that video; so what we've got is just the song playing to a picture of Lil Kim's album cover. If you'd like to see the video, here's the link.

When I got to college, I broke away from rhyming poetry and wrote free form poetry. Also, I was depressed. I think a lot of that had to do with being fat and not having many real friends. Because of this, my poems got darker. One poem was about a person killing everyone in the world and then slashing his/her own wrists and baptising the world in his/her blood to start anew (an interesting note, I tried to write a novel with this exact premise when I was seventeen -- didn't work). I was a little twisted.

During my first semester, I had a horrible roommate. You would hate the guy if you ever met him. Anyway, he read most of my poems cause, well, I needed someone to read them. My English professor also read them, which lead to a weird friendship, but that's another story. Flash forward a few months and I get to talk to the police. See, my ex-roommate (he moved out after the first semester) called the police and told them I had written a poem in which I killed him and he took it as a threat. He also told them that I had given him the poem that morning.

I provided the police and the university with a copy of the poem. The poem in question was about me sitting at my desk and getting increasingly pissed off. The rage built and my vision clouded and I kind of left myself. The poem ended with me turning around and staring at a body with a pair of scissors in the back. Funny thing is, the poem actually wasn't about my roommate at all. I can understand how he took it that way, but it honestly wasn't about him; it was more about rage (and someone else entirely). Anyway, I explained to the university and the police that I had not given my ex-roommate the poem at all and that he had read it months earlier. My English professor was able to confirm this as she had read the poem when I wrote it. After talking to me, and reading the poem for themselves, the police dropped the investigation. They informed me that my ex-roommate could press charges (or pursue a civil suit or something, I don't quite remember) if he wanted, but that they wouldn't support it. In the end, nothing came of it except me getting an interesting story to tell.

And there you have another interesting tale of my poetry experiences. Tomorrow, I'll discuss how I came to write sonnets and what eventually caused me to stop writing poetry.

The Poem

2011-01-07T23:18:00.001+09:00

There was a lot of interest yesterday in the poem that got me suspended from high school. I can't post the entire poem because I don't have a copy with me here in Korea; it's at home in the US in my desk. Instead, I thought I'd tell you the story behind it (along with two lines I do remember from the poem).

I wrote the poem (which was never meant to be a poem) in my sophomore year of high school. It all happened one afternoon when I got on the bus to go home. There were maybe four of us on the bus that were friends. The one girl came on the bus singing two lines from a song (I still to this day have no idea what the song is):

You say it's just an itch, but it's crabs you nasty bitch.
You say it's just a rash, but it's riding up your ass.

Somehow, we all decided that we should turn the two lines into a full song. We continued the theme of those two lines, making sexually transmitted diseases into rhymes. The other three people came up with ideas, but I was the main writer. The girl who originally sang those two lines had a problem with another girl at school; so, that girl's name made it into the poem. Her name was Maria ... you can imagine which disease that rhymes with (here's a hint, it starts with a g).

Anyway, we finished our "song" and I printed out copies for the four of us.

It all happened the next day when I walked out of first period. Everyone walking down the hallway was carrying and reading a piece of paper ... our "song." It became this big thing the whole day. Teachers confiscated any poem they could get ahold of and everyone was trying to figure out who wrote it. Then I got called out of world history to the principal's office. The office was packed. All in all, about twenty people got suspended. I got five days for being the main writer. The other three people each got two days I think. Then, anyone who had made a copy and helped distribute the poem got one day. When I walked back into history, the teacher called me "the poet." It stuck.

So, I was known as "the poet" all throughout high school. While I never included anyone's name in a poem again (okay that's a lie, I did once -- well, I didn't include the name, but it was clear to everyone who it was about), I continued writing and everyone looked forward to reading my poetry.

Poetry was my first love. I wrote poetry until I was in college and still try to write it every so often. I'll go into that more on Monday because I don't want this post to get too long -- I have many more interesting experiences I could share (I had the cops called on me once because of a poem).

So, has your writing ever gotten you into trouble?

*Note: If I don't make it by your blog tonight, don't worry, I'll be there tomorrow. I'm just too tired right now and need to get some sleep.

Life is Good

2011-01-06T22:00:00.000+09:00

I was stumped for a topic today (my new schedule is still screwing with my mind) until I went over to Kristina Fugate's blog KayKay's Corner and saw that I had been given an award. So, not only do I need to thank Kristina for the award (Thanks!), but also for giving me something to blog about (Thanks!!!).

All right, so the requirements for the Life is Good Award:

1. First, thank and link back to the person that gave the award. (Thanks Kristina!)
2. Answer the 10 survey questions.
3. Pass the award along to other bloggers whom you think are fantastic.
4. Contact the bloggers you have chosen to let them know about the award.

10 Questions:

1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing this? If you are not anonymous, do you wish that you had started out anonymously, so that you could be anonymous now?

Given that Quinn isn't my real name, I am kinda blogging anonymously; although, not really. Quinn is the pen name that I will be using ... well, actually, it won't be a pen name because once I decide on the full name I'll be legally changing my name to it (I've never been a fan of my real name -- it's too common and I just don't think it fits me).

Back to the question though, I never had any desire to blog anonymously. I didn't see the point.

2. Describe an incident that shows your inner stubborn side.

I won't go too in-depth, but that answer to this is my past relationship. It was my first serious relationship and I held on way way way too long. I wanted it to work despite all the problems and everything. I just wouldn't let go.
3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?

Occassionally I'll see the person that everyone else probably sees when they look at me. Most of the time, I just see the stuff I think is wrong with me.

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?

Ummm ... I drink blue Powerade like 24/7, 365 days a year. Having said that, a margarita is actually pretty damn good in the summer.
5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

Usually nothing. I just sit. Oh, I love going to the spa and getting facials ... and manicures, those are good too.
6. Is there something that you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?

I'm not published yet ... so that. I want to visit all seven continents (I've only hit 3 so far).
7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching?

I was the overweight kid who was kinda shy. I was acquainted with everyone, but friends with really no one. Then I wrote that poem that got me suspended and became kinda infamous.
8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what would you see?

When I close my eyes, I daydream; the past is in the past. If I wanted to visualize something poignant ... I have no idea. Maybe when I finished writing my first book and my dad drank a beer with me. I don't know that anything particularly poignant has happened to me.

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?

I haven't shared everything about myself on this blog, but I don't have a problem sharing anything. Anything you wanna know, just ask.

10. If you had the choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?

I'd love to just be able to say I'd read a book cause I'm a writer and I think that's supposed to be my answer, but really, it depends who I'd be talking to on the phone (I love talking).

_____________________

Now, I need to pass this on to some bloggers that I think are fantastic. I think you're all fantastic, but it would be cheating to give it to everyone (or so I think); so, the award goes to (in no particular order):

1. Colene Murphy @ The Journey
2. PK Hrezo @ PK HREZO
3. Joanna St James @ romance by Joanna St James
4. Elena Solodow @ You're Write. Except when you're Rong.
5. Stina Lindenblatt @ Seeing Creative
6. Rachael Harrie @ Rach Writes ...
7. Laura Pauling @ Laura Pauling
8. Patricia A. Timms @ Simplicity in Volumes
9. Scott @ Slice of diction pie
10. Brent @ The Naughty Book Kitties

Psycho Puppy

2011-01-05T22:30:00.001+09:00

A while ago, I asked for questions and/ or things you wanted to know more about me so I'd have something to blog about during the holidays. Well, since I'm still not used to my schedule, I gonna tackle one of those things now. Some of you wanted to hear and see more about Milo, so here's a video for you -- everyone can enjoy it though, it's pretty funny.

As you can see, I have a psycho for a puppy. All that jumping and running around was unprovoked; seriously, he just started doing it for no reason. He's done it a few times. He'll just stop and stare somewhere then start growling and then go crazy. You'll also notice him humping a giant dog pillow while he attempts to rip it's head off (guess he likes it rough). You'll probably also see a very large hole in my sofa. I woke up the other day to discover that ... that was a fun morning.

And so you know, uploading this video was a bitch. I started uploading on Blogger, but it was taking forever. So then I went over to YouTube. In Korea though you can't upload videos because of some stupid name verification law. This was easily bypassed by switching my country to the UK. After I had uploaded to YouTube, my video went through on Blogger. So all the switching countries and law avoiding was pointless. However, when I clicked publish, I was signed out because I was using a different email account on YouTube. So I signed out of YouTube to sign back into Blogger ... forgeting to save the link to the video. Meaning, I had to upload to Blogger all over again. But then I realized the quality was better on YouTube, so I switched it. Hope you enjoyed all the work that went into bringing this to you. Haha.

Resolutions and Stuff

2011-01-04T22:55:00.001+09:00

Back to blogging. I've missed all of you and hope you had a great holiday!

I was going to start posting again yesterday, but I was too damn tired. Sorry. This month is the winter intensive at my academy, which means I'm working long hours and starting early -- I'm now waking up at 7 while I'm used to waking up after 11ish. Add to this that since yesterday was the first day of the intensive we had to be into work even earlier -- meaning I woke up at 6. I'll get used to it, but yesterday I was just beat, hence the no posting.

I was actually debating not posting today either; waking up early is completely frying my brain (by four I literally felt that my head was just going to explode). I do have some posts planned (not written), but I think it'd be better to wait on them until I can adjust to my new schedule and be sure my brain's working properly. So, for now, I'm going to be giving you my New Year's resolutions. I know it's not terribly original, but I've enjoyed reading all of your resolutions and it's pretty much all I can manage to think of right now. I will throw in some interesting tidbits about myself to make it more interesting for you.

1. I want to get a gym membership (that'll have to wait until I get paid next week) and use it. The problem with this is that I find the gym incredibly boring. I take music, I've tried taking books ... the gym just bores the hell out of me. But since I know this already -- and that there's no getting around it -- so I think I can deal with it.

*Interesting Tidbit #1: I used to be fat. When I was in high school, I weighed close to 300 pounds. To this day, I still have no idea how it happened, but during my first semester of college (when most people gain weight), I lost 80 pounds. I didn't exercise, my eating didn't change all that much, I didn't have an eating disorder (I did try anorexia and bulemia in subsequent years); that first 80 pounds just dropped away for reasons I can't explain.

After that point, I steadily lost more weight until I hit about 175 were I've more or less stayed for the past seven years. The funny thing is, while I was anorexic I didn't really lose any weight; when I was bulemic, I didn't really lose any weight. I lost almost half of my body weight by doing absolutely nothing at all.

Now, back to the resolution. I've pretty much gone as far as I can with my weight loss by putting in no effort. If I want to lose more, I need to do something about it.

2. Going along with resolution #1, I want to start eating healthier.

*Interesting Tidbit #2: I love to cook and I'm a pretty damn good cook (for New Year's I made a Korean dinner for my Korean friends -- they loved it). The problem is my schedule; I just don't feel like cooking when I come home at 11 so I end up eating ramen.

3. I want to figure out what I want from, and for, my life.

*Interesting Tidbit #3: I have what I thought I wanted. I'm in a serious relationship. I have a full-time job. I have my own apartment. I have a puppy. I'm pretty much settled and stable ... and I find it incredibly boring. I've been going crazy lately. My life's not cutting it for me.

I hate when I have problems and shit's going wrong, but I think I need drama in my life. Smooth sailing isn't working.

4. I want to get an agent this year. I know that this one's not entirely within my power as it's not up to me whether an agent likes my stuff and signs me or not. What is in my power is making sure I have a great query (which I'm working on now) and getting my query out there. So, I will be doing everything I possibly can to get an agent this year.

5. I will write another book this year. I want to write two new books this year.

*Interesting Tibit #4: I have three ideas that I'm working on right now. One is about a group of incubi/succubi at a high school. I've started writing some of this one, but I'm also still trying to figure it out. My second idea is about a shapeshifter. I think I have a really unique spin on the power and know the MC's arc for the story, but I don't have a story to go along with it yet. The third idea just came to me this weekend when I saw BLACK SWAN. I won't really go into that idea because it's still taking shape and I don't want to spoil the movie (which you should all go out and see right now) for anyone.

So those are my resolutions and some interesting tidbits about myself. Hope you enjoyed. Now, does anyone have any suggestions for making the gym more bearable? Any tips for adjusting to a new schedule? Have any of you just felt bored even though you have what you thought you wanted? Have any of you seen BLACK SWAN? Did you love it?

I Want Cranberries!

2010-12-21T21:59:00.000+09:00

A lot of you asked yesterday if I liked living in Korea. The answer ... is sometimes.

Living in Korea is just like living anywhere else; it has it's good and bad points.

The only thing I don't really like is that it's hard to get a good variety of fruits and vegetables. I miss cantaloupe and asparagus. And I want cranberries right now so I can make cranberry sauce. There is a lot of fruit here and there are vegetables ... you just don't get the same variety that you get in the US.

Oh, and I don't like that I work six days a week. That sucks. And I don't like that I work from two to ten or eleven (those are the hours you have to work if you're teaching middle school/ high school). My job's all right and my coworkers are nice; it's just I don't like being at my school so damn much. It feels like all I ever do is sleep and work.

The things that I do like could pretty much apply to any city anywhere in the world, so I'm not going to bother listing them.

In the end, Korea's not a place I see myself living long term. The past few years have been good and a little while longer might be okay, but I don't want to live here permanently.

What I want to do is what I think a lot of us want to do ... I want to be a full-time writer. If -- when -- that happens, I see myself returning to the US and settling down there or somewhere in Europe. I think I'd enjoy living in Europe more, but the US is where I think I'd need to be.

On another note, I've notice that there aren't many people still around -- everyone seems to be on break until the new year. I know I said I was going to keep blogging, but I've changed my mind. I probably will blog, but I just wanted to let anyone reading this know that I won't be sticking to a strict schedule until the new year starts.

An Easy Answer

2010-12-20T21:37:00.000+09:00

Lot's of you asked how I ended up in Korea and it's really an easy answer. I was bored in the US. At the same time, I shouldn't have ended up in Korea at all. The only reason I'm in Korea is because other opportunities fell through.

After I graduated from university, I was working at a coffee shop. I liked the atmosphere and the people, so I applied to be a manager and get my own store. They sent me down to the beach for the summer for "training." They told me that I was filling in for the assistant manager. They told the other employees that I was just a normal employee. No one really listened to me, nothing got done and I got blamed. I explained the situation to the corporate office and their response, "it doesn't matter if they knew, you knew you were the assistant manager, so things should have gotten done." I quit.

So then I decided I could teach English abroad and started searching jobs on eslcafe.com. I found a great one teaching kindergarten in Turkey. I applied and they called me the next day. I interviewed over the phone and got the job; they said they'd send me the contract. I never heard from them again.

After that, I just forgot about teaching English and got a job at Borders. I really liked working there and being around all the books, but, like I said above, I just got bored ... and I knew that working at Borders wasn't what I wanted for my life.

Anyway, I gave eslcafe.com another shot and posted my resume. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do and teaching English was a job that anyone with a Bachelor's degree could do. Plus, it would allow me to live in another country. Teaching English was an easy answer.

I think I got a call from a school in Korea about a day later. We talked for about an hour. The guy explained everything to me, we went over the details and then he asked if I could come in four days. He said he needed someone right away because one of his teachers was pregnant and would be leaving. I said I could and we ended the conversation. I was still skeptical (after what happened with Turkey), but then a plane ticket arrived in my inbox. So, I went downstairs and told my parents I'd be leaving for Korea in four days -- they didn't even know I was looking for teaching jobs abroad. It was a suprise to them, but at the same time, it wasn't. See, I've never really felt comfortable in the US. My parents will even tell you that they've always known I wouldn't settle down in the US ... this despite the fact that I didn't travel abroad until I was 18. So, they were surprised I would be leaving so soon, but understood my decision to go.

That was almost four years ago. I haven't been in Korea for that entire time though. I did try -- unsuccessfully -- to live in Canada for a 6 month period at around the year and a half mark. When that didn't work out, I came back. Part of it was the fact that I was in a relationship with a Korean. The bigger part of it was that I had no fucking clue what I'd do if I went back to the US.

So, that's how I found myself in Korea. I think tomorrow I'll tackle the tougher question of when I'll leave.

Getting to Know Me

2010-12-17T23:17:00.001+09:00

So, the holidays are coming up. Most people seem to be taking a break from blogging until the new year. I've decided that I will keep going; although, Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Years will be off days.

Also, as you all know, I just got a new puppy this past Sunday. When I'm not working, most of my time is being spent with him. I want to make sure he transitions well to living with me and I want to be sure he gets trained properly. I've had dogs before, but they were more of family dogs and I never put my full attention into training them. Milo is my first dog, that's been mine; so, I want to make sure to do it right. Because of this though, it's been pretty hard getting to my blog and thinking of posts.

This is where you all come in ... I need your help. I've seen some others doing this and thought it might be a good idea. I want to hear your questions -- anything you want to know about me. Those questions, and their answers, will then be my blog posts leading up to the holidays. If you don't have a question, then feel free to suggest a topic you'd like to hear my opinion on (I think this would be really fun).

Unless you feel that I should just take a damn break. In which case, it's okay to tell me so.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend and I'm looking forward to hearing your questions. Now, I'm off to walk Milo.

The Thing With Love Triangles

2010-12-16T23:44:00.000+09:00

Just about every young adult novel features romance. And just about every young adult novel that features romance also features a love triangle.

In TWILIGHT, Bella's with Edward. Then he leaves and she kinda starts something with Jacob. Okay, really she doesn't, he just falls in love with her. But, once Edwards back, Bella keeps stringing Jacob along and then she falls in love with him. Let's not forget that kiss AFTER she was engaged to Edward.

In THE HUNGER GAMES, Katniss is friends with Gale. She realizes there could be something more there. Then, during the games, she has to pretend to be with Peeta. In the next two books, Katniss develops feelings for both of them and they're both hurt by her actions.

In FIRELIGHT, Jacinda's not technically with anyone. I don't remember the book that well cause it's been a while, but she's sort of paired with Casian (I think that's his name). Then she meets and falls for David. Yet she still has feelings for Casian and goes off with him in the end.

In WINGS, there's Laurel, Tamani and David.

In PARANORMALCY, there's Evie, Lend and Reth.

In NIGHTSHADE, Calla is meant to be with Ren, but falls for Shay, but still kinda has something with Ren.

I could keep going on listing love triangles, but I think you guys pretty much know them all anyway.

So we all know why we have love triangles ... they promote conflict; we can't make things too easy for our characters. Plus, readers love them. Readers love trying to figure out who the main character will end up with, weighing each guy and choosing a side (Team Edward/ Team Jacob anyone?).

The thing with love triangles that no one ever seems to focus on is the fact that by being in a love triangle, most of these female main characters kinda come off as bitches. I mean, in almost ever case of a love triangle, the girl is somewhat involved with one guy when the other comes into the picture. As writers, that's because we need time to introduce each character properly and because the second guy usually has something to do with whatever changes within the story. I'm sorry, but this setup makes it so the girl is pretty unlikeable. She's not able to make up her mind, she's stringing one or both guys along and she's hurting the guy she's supposed to be with. The idea of having two people so interested in you that they fight over you is romantic, but, realistically, the first guy would probably dump the girl and move on; the second guy would get tired of being strung along and find someone else.

I don't know about you, but I hated Bella in ECLIPSE. She's supposed to be with Edward, but keeps sneaking off to be with Jacob; then she tells Jacob to kiss her. She was being a bitch in that book. And in the movie when she got on Jacob's motorcycle and left Edward in the parking lot (I know it's different in the book), I have never hated her so much. In NIGHTSHADE, I was kinda bothered because both of the guys were actually nice. In WINGS, Laurel is a total bitch because she's with David until she goes into the fairy world and then she can't get enough of Tamani. She literally has a relationship going with both of them (even though it seems she's made a choice).

Now, if the MC were to meet both of the guys at the same time and have a connection with both, keep them both as friends and then decided to be with one ... I think that'd be okay. But that's not usually the way it's done in books.

I get the romantic aspect, I really do. I'd love to have two people so in love with me that they'd accept me being with each of them until I finally made a choice. It just wouldn't happen. I'd be a player. It could possibly be viewed as cheating. A girl in that situation would probably be called a slut, a tease or any number of other names.

So, why do we tolerate this, find it romantic in books when in real life it wouldn't be tolerated? Why do we find MCs involved in love triangles likeable and endearing? What are your thoughts?

What We Wear

2010-12-15T16:08:00.000+09:00

I was thinking about clothes today.

In THE GATEWAY, I don't spend much time describing my MC's clothing. He wears t-shirts and jeans. I think I mention it maybe once. However, there are two characters that I go really in depth with what they are wearing. The first is my villain, Nnekara. My MC first encounters her in a dream and takes in every aspect of her appearance because she is so different than those sitting around her. Later, when he's lucid and really meets her, she's in a different form and he doesn't recognize her. When she shifts back, I describe every detail of what she's wearing as it clues him in. The second is a character my MC goes to for help toward the end of the book; her name is Aleera. That chapter actually starts with her walking out a hotel. The clothing she's wearing is designer stuff -- I searched runway shows to find the right outfit. This instance of description, along with her behavior in that scene, set it up that she's rich, stuck up and thinks others are beneath her.

In SEEING, I tried to tone down the clothing description cause I thought I might have gotten carried away with my first book, but more importantly because I didn't think my character would particularly notice anyone's fashion (it just wasn't important to him). Plus, one of my characters is naked throughout the book; so, their was no clothing to describe. However, I did have my MC notice certain items of clothing. His friend playing with the frayed edges of the rips in her jeans. His other friend pulling cigarettes out of his neon I forget what color coat. He also noticed the clothing in regards to one of the ghosts he saw. He only noticed it though because it was always the same. This then led to a discussion about why ghosts looked the way they looked and what they were capable of.

My point with this is that clothing can tell us a lot about a person or character. We each have our own styles; so, why should our characters be generic?

I did some posts on appearance two weeks ago and told all of you that I have very clear ideas of what my characters look like ... these ideas include what clothes they wear. For THE GATEWAY, I even have sketches of each character in every outfit they were throughout the book. Some of that made it into the book, some of it didn't. I like to think that what did make it into the book worked and aided the story and character development.

Is clothing something you think about? Do you give your character a style? Do you work descriptions of clothing into your writing? Or, do you think it's unnecessary?

Getting Pissed On

2010-12-15T00:58:00.000+09:00

I don't think it matters all that much because of the time difference, but sorry my post is up a little late today. Today was Milo's first day home alone. So, during my break -- instead of writing my blog post, like I normally do -- I came back home to check on him. I was suprised that he actually didn't make a mess or tear anything up or go to the bathroom where he wasn't supposed to -- that is, until I got home and he got excited and pissed on me. Then I had to explain why I went back to work in entirely different clothes.

I wish I actually had something to post today, but I don't. My mind has just been on Milo and getting him settled.

Housetraining is ... well, it's going. He'll pee on his puppy pad (that's what everyone uses here cause there are so many apartments), but he won't poop on it -- he does that in front of the door.

He's getting the hang of sit and stay after only two days. I can put a treat down right in front of him and tell him to stay and he won't touch it until I tell him to eat. Same goes with feeding. He won't touch his bowl until I tell him to eat. I have to admit, I've never been good at training dogs, but since this is the first dog I've had that's just been mine and not a family dog, I'm trying to put in more of an effort.

Sorry if any of you find this a little boring. I don't like doing these life posts and not relating it to something cause I know that can get boring and annoy some people. But since I don't do many, I think this one is okay. I hope you'll cut me some slack.

I'm really going to try to post tomorrow, but in addition to Milo, I also have parent meetings at my school. None of the parents ever want to speak with me (they're either afraid, or don't know how, to speak English), but I still have to be into work early. I'll be getting off a little earlier, but still working the same amount of time. The only good thing is that tomorrow night, I'll finally get to see HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS! It is now officially showing in Korea! I can't wait.

So, for today, I have a question. I know a lot of you said you had pets yesterday ... any tips for training?

Pets

2010-12-13T15:35:00.000+09:00

I'd just like to say sorry I didn't hit many of your blogs this weekend. I saw life without internet and I'm not sure I liked it. I have no idea what the problem was, but my internet wasn't working until last night. And even though I have 3G on my phone, the lack of wifi somehow threw off my phone and it was being shitty. I felt incredibly disconnected and ... lost. But, everything's fine now. So, sorry. I will be trying to catch up.

So other than that one small issue, I had a pretty good -- and busy -- weekend. On Saturday, my bookcases were delivered and needed to be put together. I'm happy that my books are no longer strewn all over the apartment. Later this week I'll post pictures -- I want to show you all my writing area (since I said I would a while back).

The rest of Saturday was spent cleaning and getting the apartment set up for ...

My new puppy. He's a six month old miniature bull terrier. His name's Milo. I got him Sunday morning and then spent the day with him.

Now, let's make this writing related.

In my book THE GATEWAY, my MC Jordan has a black lab (I think, I don't really remember the breed) named Ayla. Since he's trapped in the dream world, Ayla doesn't play a big role, but she does play a part. In SEEING, my MC Eden has to get a pet for a zoology project; he gets a hedgehog that he names Shadow. Shadow doesn't really play a role in the story, but I think it does show something about Eden that he didn't choose a typical, common pet. And, the name he chose also reveals something about him.

So, what pets do your characters have? And, more importantly, what does the pet show about your character?

Writers Revise

2010-12-10T21:02:00.000+09:00

Before we start today, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who commented yesterday. We had a great discussion going and I was really impressed with all the comments. Now, on to today's post.

I realize that since this post comes on the back of yesterday's it may seem like I'm over confident in my own abilities. It may seem like I'm cocky. I'd like to assure you that that's not the case. It just so happened that I decided to write about yesterday's topic and it segues nicely into today's, which is something that I have been wanting to write about. So, please don't get the impression that I'm a cocky ass who thinks he's better than everyone. Whew! Thanks!

Writers revise. I've even seen quotes that say, for a writer, the writing doesn't even start until revisions.

I'm not knocking anyone's process or anything -- I mean whatever works for you, works for you -- but I've seen posts (on blogs and in writing forums) about how some writers are on their nineteenth draft or have been revising for years or their books have been published, but they're still not happy with some aspect and could still tweak it.

I've already posted about my writing process a while ago (before I had any followers), so I'll keep this part brief. When I wrote my first book, I did it by hand. I would write a chapter entirely by hand and then type it -- editing, revising, adding and deleting as I went. I wrote five days a week for somewhere between 8 and 10 hours a day. I had a completed second draft in a little over a month. My second book, I worked on for about six months. I didn't have a month to just set aside since I was working. I also didn't write everyday because my schedule just sucked and getting sleep was a bit of a challenge. I wrote about a chapter a week for the first 4 months. Then I really kicked it in gear cause I wanted to finish by September. Anyway, I put a lot of time into each chapter. If something didn't feel right, I wouldn't move on until I got it right. Also, with both books, as I finished a chapter it would be sent off to readers.

After finishing each book, I set it aside for about a month and then went back to read it. My first read through was checking for flow and big issues. My second read through was line edits and smaller stuff.

Now, I know that I'm not perfect -- here's where that ass part is coming, so remember not to think I'm one -- but I just don't see how doing multiple upon multiple revisions is necessary.

I know writing is an art and subjective and all that, but isn't there a point when we should be happy with the finished product? Isn't there a point when we should be able to say "it's done"?

Elana Johnson did a post asking a similar question -- How do You Know? -- a few weeks back.

I mean, we want our books to be perfect. I get that. But the thing is, once that book gets into the hands of an agent, it's going to have to go through edits -- sometimes several. Then once that book is sold, it's going to have to go through more edits -- sometimes several. I mean, we do revisions because we're trying to make it as polished as possible so that we can get an agent. But doesn't nineteen revisions before querying sound a bit excessive?

*As an aside, I just noticed that I really overuse the phrase "I mean"*

I think that we can put out a polished finished product without all the revision. I'm not saying that revision isn't a crucial part of the process because it is. But at the same time, I don't think revision should be the defining aspect of the writing process either. I guess I believe the act of writing is in the writing, not in the revising.

Sometimes, I think we just need to put the red pen down and get out there. I have no idea where that quote comes from, but Patricia A. Timms provided it yesterday in her comment to my post, so I feel free to steal it.

EXCUSES ARE THE TOOLS WITH WHICH PERSONS WITH NO PURPOSE IN VIEW BUILD FOR THEMSELVES GREAT MOMENTS OF NOTHING.

I just think that some writers get too caught up in revisions and are afraid to actually be finished.

So, I hope you don't think that I'm an ass. This is just something that I wanted to discuss and get a discussion going about. I do believe that revision is an important part of the writing process. I don't suggest querying after a first draft and it's not something that I'd ever consider doing myself. Some of this, I think, may have to do with each writer's individual process -- I put a lot of effort into my first drafts and I know that some others write a bare skeleton-like outline for their first draft.

So, tell me about your process.

What are your thoughts on revision? How many rounds do you think is enough? When is the book done? Do you think writing is in the writing or that writing is in the revising?

I Don't Suck

2010-12-09T20:40:00.000+09:00

So, I'm going to preempt this post by saying that this is not in response to Colene Murphy's excellent post yesterday. I actually had the idea to write about this topic and then as I was going to bed, I saw Colene's blog and noticed she had discussed the very same idea I had planned to. It doesn't matter anyway though cause she took a different approach. I will bring up some of the points she made, not to attack her, but because she already discussed them. So, I guess you can think of this post as in response to Colene's. Picture it like a debate and I'm presenting the opposite view.

Today, I want to talk about negativity cause lately I've been seeing a lot of it. Well, it actually isn't a recent thing.

I used to visit the AbsoluteWrite forums. I don't remember where I saw it, but basically the writers there believed that if you were a great writer, you thought you were bad and if you were a bad writer, you thought you were good. Maybe it wasn't phrased exactly like that, but the idea was that if you were bragging about your writing and thought things were good, then you were probably missing something that needed work. The opposite was that if you could see the problems in your writing and could see how bad it was, then you were doing things the right way and were probably actually a good writer.

This is the most backward and completely fucked up thing I've ever heard.

Colene kinda addressed this and thought it was a positive. She said that writers having low self esteem better prepared them for rejection. It helps them to not lose it when they are rejected. She goes on to say that when a writer does succeed (or get told that they don't actually suck), the high will be that much better.

I can't really argue with that thinking, but I want you all to think of this same situation, but with a doctor instead of a writer. Do we really want our doctors and surgeons thinking they suck, so that when we die they don't feel bad about themselves? Do we really want saving a patient to just be a nice little treat for them?

The answer to those questions should be HELL NO! I want my doctor to be confident and know what he's doing. I want him to know the best treatment or procedure and be the best one to perform that treatment or procedure. If he's not, well then I want him to send me somewhere else. I don't want a doctor who thinks he sucks. I don't want a doctor who expects me to die and that'll just push him to try harder next time. I don't want a doctor who thinks he sucks, so that when I die, he'll feel better. Fuck how he feels; I want to live!

I visit a lot of your blogs and sometimes I just don't like what I see. I see bloggers who mention they're afraid of others seeing their work (now, I understand that some people do have legitimate reasons for keeping their writing from others ... I'm not talking about those people). I see bloggers who are ashamed to admit that they're writers. I see bloggers who drone on about what they do wrong and how much they suck. I see bloggers tear themselves apart and comment on each thing that they can't do. It's really hard to comment on these blogs. I'm not ashamed to be a writer or tell people that I am. I'm not afraid to let others read my work. Yes, there are things that aren't perfect with my writing. There are things I could do better. There are areas in which I could grow. But I don't suck. I'm a good writer. I can write. And commiserating with you and being asked to participate and self-deprecate myself ... it just makes me feel down and want to leave.

There's a difference between knowing your stengths and weaknesses and letting your weaknesses be all there is. Let's talk about me.

Strengths: dialogue, character development, chapter titles, knowing when and where to both begin and end chapters, knowing when and where to end a book

Weaknesses: setting, I overuse "as if", I overuse semicolons and em-dashes, sometimes I go too into what a character is wearing, most of you would probably see this as a weakness (I don't) -- I use adverbs and like doing it, pacing (sometimes), the ocassional typo

I just gave a few things; I could probably come up with more to add to both lists. I'm not a bad writer though. I've written two books. I've gone back and read the book I wrote last year. There are definitely areas that can be improved, but I think it's a damn good book. The book I just finished -- I can see that my writing's improved; I can also see some areas I still need to work on. But it's a damn good book too. I'd be ready right now to let anyone read them. I have. Sure there are some things I want to go back and tweak, but both of the books I've written are good.

I guess the point of this is the same as I don't want a doctor who thinks he sucks and isn't confident, I don't want to read a book by a writer who's not confident. Why should I waste my time reading your stuff if you think it's bad and needs to be revised until after you're dead and gone? *This is what I'll be discussing tomorrow ... why the hell writers feel the need for constant revisions.* I mean, if you don't think of yourself as a writer and you don't think your writing is good, then stop writing.

Anyway, I just don't see the need to be down on myself so that others classify me a good writer. I just don't get why writers do this; other professions don't. I think this is a dangerous mindset that artistic individuals feel they need to adopt to be taken seriously. It's stupid.

So, to conclude, I don't suck. Do you?

Breaking the Rules

2010-12-08T20:05:00.000+09:00

I said I'd post more pictures today, but I wanted my post to be writing related.

In this pic to the left you can see a sign that I came across as I was walking around (there was a trail that went through the woods and along the rocks near the ocean). I'm not entirely sure what the sign says cause my Korean's not that great, but you can clearly see the picture of the man on the rocks, fishing, with the no sign over it. So, I think it's fairly obvious that fishing is prohibited in this area.

Anyway, while I'm backing away to leave, a man walks right up to the sign and swings his leg over the railing. I back up a bit and notice this man has a huge ass fishing pole. I pulled out my phone right then to take a picture, but ... hesitated. Some stupid Korean law requires that phone cameras must make a noise -- this pretty much makes it impossible to take secret pictures of people without them knowing. Sucks. Anyway, I waited until he had made it over the railing and walked a little bit before taking this next picture.

Now, to relate this to writing. I was going to just ask how many of you broke rules while writing (you know, using adverbs, dialogue tags, opening with a dream, etc.). But I already did that. So, what I want to ask you instead, how many of your characters break rules? I don't wanna hear about your stories though; I'm curious about your writing process.

When you're writing, do your characters ever swing their leg up over the "no fishing" sign and walk off to fish anyway? Do they ignore what you've set out for them and go off on their own?

Mine definitely have. In my last book, SEEING, I intended for my MC's best friend, Alex, to stay by him and support him when he started seeing ghosts. That worked all right for a few chapters until I found myself having Alex pull away and shut down. Then my MC's other friend -- who I fully intended to keep as just a bit character -- forced her way into the story and stepped up as his support. These tiny little changes that my characters made completely reshaped the story ... and for the better.

So, let's hear about you. Do your characters ever go off on their own and forge their own path? Do they ever blatantly ignore -- like the fishing guy -- the rules and signs you've posted?

Be Back Tomorrow

2010-12-07T22:27:00.000+09:00

Sorry I missed my post yesterday. I have vacation this week and took a small trip to Busan, which is a city in the south of Korea and near the sea. It was nice to get away for a bit and to be somewhere warmer. Anyway, I thought I'd post a few pics and then I'll be back to normal posting tomorrow. But apparently, Blogger doesn't want to let me upload multiple pics. So, you'll have to make due with the one to the left. I'll post some other pictures tomorrow. I have a funny one that I think you'll all like. Miss you all.

Not Another ...

2010-12-03T22:38:00.000+09:00

I've lost two followers in the past two days. I wish there was a form you had to fill out when you unfollow someone. Like, "you're free to unfollow me and leave my blog at any time, but would you mind telling me why." I'm just curious. I expected to lose followers when I wrote that post supporting the pedophile book. It was controversial and I took an unpopular (minority) stance on the issue, but I didn't lose anyone. My past two posts haven't been controversial at all, so I'm wondering why two people decided to jump ship. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but, like I said, I'm just curious.

Anyway, yesterday I touched on stereotypes by looking at the characteristics we attribute to different hair colors. Today, I want to just look at stereotypes: the dumb jock, asian nerd, token black guy, flamboyant gay best friend, loud abrasive fat girl (who's being loud to mask insecurity), slutty cheerleader, the girl next door, the boy next door ... I could keep going, but just want any teen movie and you'll probably encounter just about every stereotype there is (CAN'T HARDLY WAIT is a good one for this or, if you don't want to have to think about it, NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE). Click on the pic below to zoom in and see a few stereotypes I may have missed.

So, what I want to ask you is, when you're writing/ coming up with characters, do you think of stereotypes?

I'm not asking if you try to write stereotypes because I don't think any of us do. But, as Laura Pauling mentioned in the comments yesterday, "unfortunately [she] think[s] there is some truth behind the stereotypes." So, do you unintentionally write stereotypes?

Or, like Kit Courtney discussed yesterday, would you go out of your way to "knock the stereotypes on the head"? I'm not a fan of writing stereotypes, but a lot of times, it sticks out when an author intentionally tries to avoid a stereotype.

What are your thoughts?

Blondes Have More Fun!

2010-12-02T21:30:00.001+09:00

So, female characters should have an average body, brown hair (the length and style was a three way tie) and blue eyes.

I have to say that I'm a little disappointed with the results of yesterday's polls ... not nearly as many people voted as two days ago when we did guys. I think since most of my followers are women, they might have found the polls a little harder. I did like Jodi's comment when she said "you can't say you've NEVER thought of this stuff about your characters." And I also like Patricia's comment that "us girls need to pull ourselves out of the mix and be able to think from the perspective of a man (after all we write male love interests) and pick what we like best in an ideal, beautiful woman."Anyway, I would like to thank those of you who did participate in the polls.

Now, let's move on to today's topic of discussion. I want to know how you view men and women who have certain physical characteristics. Let's look at some of the common views ...

Blondes are supposed to have more more. They're hot. They're also stupid.

Brunettes are intelligent and mysterious. Or their stupid, ugly, annoying and jealous. Sometimes, brunettes are just thought of as normal ... nothing special.

Black hair means your emo or goth.

Red heads are sultry, seductive and fiery. But then there's also the whole ginger thing which I really don't think I need to spell out.

Any color but the normal ones and you're only doing it for attention. You're a punk. You're a rebel.

A girl with short hair is probably a lesbian or just manly. Or old ... old women have short hair, not young pretty girls.

A guy with short hair is normal, clean cut, respectable. He may also be a dumb jock (especially if he's blond) or dumb soldier (brown hair).

A girl with long hair is feminine and sexy and beautiful and young.

A guy with long hair is gay. Or a dirty hippie.

______________________________

I was going to share my thoughts on different characteristics, but I've run out of time and need to step away. I will come back later though and leave my thoughts in the comments. I'd like to get a discussion going there.

So, what are your thoughts? How do you view different hair colors and/or lengths?

Looks, Part 2

2010-12-01T21:38:00.001+09:00

The results are in: women prefer lean guys with medium wavy/curly brown hair and green eyes.

And to answer a question from the comments, I won't be using these results to make up my next character.

This was my first time doing a poll here on my blog and I gotta say I enjoyed it. It was really interesting to see the results. It seems that women prefer lighter eyes, but not lighter hair colors ... and fit bodies.

Plus, a lot of you left some really great comments, elaborating on your preferred guy. In the end though, I think the consensus was that looks weren't everything and that personality is the main factor in being attracted to a guy. Hmmm ...

I will be doing another post later in the week (either tomorrow or Friday), looking at certain characteristics and how we perceive a person with them (for example, brown hair = mysterious, blonds have more fun ... stuff like that).

Before I get to today's polls, I wanted to mention THE HATING GAME by Talli Roland. You've probably seen all the posts around the blogosphere. I started following Talli's blog later than most, so I didn't get in on the web splash that she has going. But I still wanna do my part to help Talli take on Amazon. So, if you head over to Talli's post, you can find all the details. I'll definitely be getting my copy pretty soon -- it sounds like a great book.

Anyway, today I wanna do the same polls, but focusing on girls. Now, I know that the majority of my followers are women, so these polls aren't going to be focused so much on attraction as they are on what you like in a MC. I'm hoping to get the same level of response as yesterday. So, here are the questions ...

What Turns You On?

2010-11-30T20:45:00.002+09:00

So, today's post is going to be a little experiment. Over the past few posts some of the comments have brought up the issue everyone finds different things hot and/or beautiful; basically, the comments have been reaffirming that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So I want to know, what do you find hot?

Today we're just going to be focusing on guys cause I don't want you to have to spend too much time on this; tomorrow will be girls. Please vote in the polls below and then leave a comment to elaborate on your type (in your comments you can also include personality traits as I didn't see a feasible way to make a poll for all the different personalities a guy could have -- bad boy, nerd, jock, emo, masculine, sensitive, feminine, artistic ... there are just too many). Also feel free to let me know if you find my polls stupid in the comments -- I just wanted to try something different.

Looks

2010-11-29T20:37:00.000+09:00

Today I want to get back to talking about appearance. The focus today will be on why so many characters in YA are hot.

I don't know how many blog posts or articles I've read about how it's a problem that all of the love interests in YA are super hot guys or how it's a problem that the MC is beautiful.

Let me be clear, I do agree that it's kind of a cliche to have the MC be absolutely beautiful, but not realize it. I don't know how many books I've read where the girl was stunning (and frequently even described as "model-like"), but she thinks she's plain and is completely oblivious that every guy wants her. I think this is bad writing. Just make the damn girl beautiful and let her know it. Actually, I think that'd make an interesting story ... the MC is beautiful, knows it and knows how to use it. Anyway, moving on ...

I do not have a problem with the MC or the love interests being beautiful. Here's why:

1. Our culture is obsessed with beauty. It only makes sense that books would follow this.

2. It's up to the author to decide what their characters look like. It's their story and their right. An author shouldn't be forced to make their characters plain or ugly if they don't want to.

3. I'm not saying that all writers/ authors are living vicariously through their characters, but some do. Who do you fantasize about? Are they attractive or ugly?

4. Even if writers/ authors aren't living through their characters, I think writing is akin to daydreaming/ fantasizing. And this goes back to number three, do you daydream about hot celebrities or the ugly guy who lives down the street?

5. YA books are for teenagers. During the teenage years, that's when your hormones are going crazy and you really start thinking (obsessing) about the opposite sex (or the same sex) and about sex in general. If we're really writing for teens, shouldn't the books be marketed to that.

In my mind, it makes perfect sense that the majority of characters in YA are beautiful, good looking or handsome. What are your thoughts?

I Love the Way You Lie

2010-11-26T22:43:00.000+09:00

I really had no post planned for today -- I do have more appearance posts planned, but those are for next week. Anyway,I figured most of you would be otherwise occupied with Thanksgiving and Black Friday, so you wouldn't be stopping by. I still feel that I should post something though.

I'm gonna leave you with two videos. The first is "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem, featuring Rihanna. The video features Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan. I highly recommend you watch the video. The second is "Love the Way You Lie (part 2)" by Rihanna, featuring Eminem. This one is just the song with the lyrics; there is no video. Feel free to not watch, but I love these songs. Yes, they depict horrible situations and they even seem to support domestic violence, but these songs are so chilling and, well, just great. The reason I'm posting them for you today is because I was listening to them earlier today and they helped inspire me, giving me ideas for my current WIP (my sex demon project). So, enjoy!

Are You Well-Read?

2010-11-25T15:10:00.003+09:00

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

I've seen this list posted on a few different blogs and thought I'd put it up myself. And since today is a holiday, I thought it'd be the perfect time for a nice easy post (I want to save the rest of my Appearance posts until after Thanksgiving/ Black Friday).

Instructions:

• Copy this list.

• Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety. I've made these black on my list cause bolding doesn't show up.

• Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt. I've made these blue on my list cause italicizing doesn't really show up either.

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The King James Bible
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell

His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

Complete Works of Shakespeare

Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger (I want to read this one)
Middlemarch – George Eliot
Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

Emma - Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis

The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

Animal Farm – George Orwell

The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

Atonement – Ian McEwan
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Dune – Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
On The Road – Jack Kerouac

Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
Ulysses – James Joyce
The Inferno – Dante
Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
Germinal – Emile Zola
Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession – AS Byatt
Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Watership Down – Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet – William Shakespeare

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

So, I've read 15 books off this list. It's better than the BBC predicted, but ... still. Oh, and apparently there's one book missing from the list.

I'm not sure I agree that having read these books makes one well-read though. Some of the books on this list nearly killed my love of reading. I don't think calling a book a "classic" gives it any addition value over any other book published. For example, I read WAR AND PEACE and really liked it, but I don't think it's more worth reading than say PARANORMALCY or FIRELIGHT or SHIVER or TWILIGHT. And some of the books on this list don't have much value at all, in my opinion.

I'm also confused why complete works are listed and then certain titles from the complete works are singled out and also on the list. Whatever.

So, how many of these books have you read? Do you find worth in the "classics"?

And, I'd like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

I Don't See Color

2010-11-24T21:40:00.000+09:00

I'm wondering if I should take a break for the holidays. I won't be celebrating (I have no oven to cook a turkey), but I've been noticing that a lot of people haven't been as active as usual -- that might be because of Thanksgiving/ Black Friday or the end of NaNo. Anyway, I said I'd post today, so I'm going to keep posting ... I was just wondering.

So, on Monday I asked all of you if you knew what your characters looked like. And then yesterday I asked how you incorporated description in your novel. Today, I'll tell you why.

Character description is a topic I've been interested in discussing for a while. I often see blog posts or posts on forums about cliched ways to describe a character: giving the laundry list upfront, having them look into a mirror, etc. Then I've seen other posts about how it's not necessary to describe your characters at all; that readers should be able to form their own pictures. That's actually the reason Stephenie Meyer didn't really describe Bella in TWILIGHT -- she did post a summary on her website and included some description in BREAKING DAWN though.

It's this second point that I want to discuss, the idea that we shouldn't describe our characters. For some of you, I don't think this is really all that important or that big of a deal because you don't have clear ideas what your characters look like. It is a big issue for me both as a reader and a writer.

AS A READER: I want to read and experience the story as the author intended. That includes seeing the characters as they see them. I don't understand why I have to read through page upon page describing the wind in the trees, but can't be given one line about how the character actually looks.

AS A WRITER: I created these characters and this story. Obviously, I want others to enjoy it and I want them to try to picture it as they read. And obviously I'm not going to get mad if someone has a slightly different opinion of what my character looks like. But I want to be able to include descriptions of my characters. I want to convey exactly what's playing through my head to the reader.

I'm not sure all this really matters that much ... except when covers and movies are involved. I remember a while ago there was a discussion on covers going around and someone mentioned that they hated when covers featured a model, but the model looked nothing like any of the characters. There has been some controversy with this actually (Bloomsbury has printed books with black characters, but with a white model on the cover -- to their credit, Bloomsbury did promptly resolve the problem by issuing new covers). How would you guys feel if that was your book? Maybe you don't have a crystal clear image of your character and maybe you don't give a lot of description in the book, but would you object to having a cover with someone who didn't match the character in your head in any way, shape or form?

Or what about in movies when the character is supposed to be one way, but then the actor doesn't match that at all? For example, the movie 21 was based on a book (which was based on a true story) about a group of Asian students, but then in the movie, the characters were all white.

I know that a lot of this comes down to what sells. I also know that some issues are fairly small and not worth complaining about. But I still wanted to discuss this issue anyway. What are your thoughts?

Character Descriptions

2010-11-23T15:58:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I asked all of you if you knew what your characters looked like. I was surprised at how few of you actually had clear images of your characters. So, today I'll be giving you my answer to that question and pictures of me in the blue wig -- I look sad in most of the shots, I'm not, I just like looking sad; one pic is a kind of smiling shot cause Lola asked for one.

You see, I always know what my characters look like. I know every single detail down to the last blemish ... ok, I may be exaggerating a bit, but the point is I know my characters. In fact, I can't start writing until I know what my characters look like.

My first book, THE GATEWAY, opens with a dream sequence (it's important) and features the majority of the characters that come into play throughout the novel (the fact that they're all in the dream is important too). Before I started writing that chapter, I sat down and sketched every single one of them. I even drew them in the different outfits they wore throughout the book.

With SEEING, I had the idea for the story before I really knew who my main character was. I knew the other characters before I knew my MC. I really wanted to start writing the story. I sat down and put pen to paper. Nothing came. I sat at a computer and put my hands on the keys. Nothing came. I literally couldn't write until I figured out my MC. I drew sketch after sketch after sketch, trying to get him right. I knew his basic look, but until I could see him clearly in my head, I couldn't proceed.

With my current WIP (the incubi/succubi story), I've written a few pages -- including what I think to be a strong opening -- but I can't go any further because I'm still unsure of what my MC looks like. I know what every other character looks like and who they are, but not the MC.

Now, why did I ask you if you knew what your characters looked like? Well, I'll be answering that tomorrow, after I hear your answers to my next three questions ...

First, do you like me in the red wig or the blue wig better?

And, getting back on topic, how do you incorporate character descriptions into your novel? How much description do you give?

How do I look?

2010-11-22T18:33:00.000+09:00

Wig shopping is a lot of fun! I encourage all of you to try it. I tried on so many different wigs -- even ones I knew I had no intention of buying.

Anyway, I ended up buying two wigs (both the same style, but in different colors -- red and blue). There was another wig that I wanted to buy (a normal man's hairstyle), but I decided it was too normal and I just didn't have the money to buy three; well, I did have the money, I was just trying to be practical, responsible and all that stuff that adults are supposed to be.

I actually don't have to wear a hat with the wig -- it looks pretty natural already. But it was windy today. I'll post more pics tomorrow of the wig without the hat and of me in the blue wig.

Now, onto the topic for discussion this week. I want to devote a few posts to appearance. I'm gonna start off with a question and then we'll start the discussion tomorrow. So ...

Do you have a clear idea in your head of what your characters look like?

100th Post!

2010-11-19T22:59:00.001+09:00

Most of you are probably out seeing Harry Potter or you already have or you will; so, I'm going to keep this post brief today. I just want to say that I'm jealous of every single one of you. Normally, movies open in Korea on the same day as in the US and sometimes even earlier. But, for some reason, Harry Potter will not be released in Korea until the 16th of next month. I don't get it. It opened in Japan today. Why not Korea?????

Another reason my post is gonna be short today ... I'm doing an interview over at Perfecting the Craft with Michelle Merrill. Make sure you check it out.

On another note, this is my 100th post!!! So, despite being jealous and hating all of you who can see Harry Potter today, I want to thank you. Thank you for following my blog. Thanks for reading and commenting on my posts. I really hope you've enjoyed them.

On yet another note, I've gotten bored of my shaved head. I liked it for a while, but I'm just bored now. So, I will be buying a wig this weekend -- either my natural brown or red, I haven't decided. I will post pics of my new look on Monday to kick off a new discussion about characters' appearances.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

A Basic Writing Rule

2010-11-18T17:38:00.000+09:00

How many of you have read CORALINE by Neil Gaiman? Well, the majority of the book is Coraline exploring her world. Even when she finds her way into the Other Mother's world, most of her time is spent alone.

Now, how many of you have seen the movie version? For the movie a new character, Wybie, was added because they didn't think people would want to watch Coraline walking around and talking to herself for 2 hours.

We make our identity with others (see yesterday's post) and our characters are no different. You need to have your characters interacting with other characters. Sure, some alone time is necessary, but you have to be careful not to overdo it.

When your characters spend too much time alone, they're not going to feel real and any believability you've built up will be lost.

So today I'm supposed to connect what I've been talking about with identity to writing. This post isn't going to be long and drawn out because my point is pretty simple. In fact, it all goes back to one of the most basic writing rules: Show, Don't Tell.

You can't just tell me your character is something. You have to show me who your character is through their interactions with others.

How do you show who your characters are?

Joining the Circus

2010-11-17T21:32:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I took a little detour with my identity posts, but I wanted to get back on track today. So many of you posted great comments on both of my posts so far and a lot of your answers dovetail with the point I'm trying to make.

Our identities are not our own. They are something that we construct in conjunction with others.

For example ...

- I can't be a teacher without students.

- I can't be a brother without my sister.

- I can't be a son without my parents.

- I can't be a an employee without a boss.

I could keep going, but I won't. So that's the easy stuff ... let's move on to something a little more complex.

What if right at this very moment I decide I want to be a lion tamer in a circus (that's the only thing I could think of) ... could I?

The answer is no. I can't decide to be a lion tamer by myself. Who we are is a product of what others, along with ourselves, have decided. So, maybe I've decided I'm a lion tamer, but others won't. If I really want to be a lion tamer, I will need to find people who will accept me in that role.

Okay, a better example. I used to have long hair -- past my shoulders long. I kept getting told that I looked like Jesus. Then I decided to cut it off. My friends still tell me that when they think of me, they think of me that way, not the way I look now. The long hair became part of my identity and the simple act of me cutting it off was not enough to erase it.

Everything we are depends on someone else agreeing with us and supporting that view of ourselves -- even if it's only one other person.

Some of you said you were a good person in the comments to my first post. How do you know? If there's no good deed to perform, no one to help or no one to be kind to, how can you be a good person?

Look at SEX AND THE CITY. Samantha is an independent woman. She's opinionated, strong-willed and open about her sexuality. Then she gets dropped in Abu Dabi for the second movie and she becomes a criminal. Who we are is entirely dependent on the people around us. Those of you who think you're a good person could be labeled stupid and incompetent if you were dropped into THE HUNGER GAMES' world. Despite what you think of yourself -- that you're a good person -- that's not who you are in this new world.

I think that's enough for today. Tomorrow, I'll be relating all this back to writing and what it means for our characters. Right now, what I want to hear for you is ...

Would you accept me as a lion tamer?

Just kidding ... What are your thoughts on all this?

Naked

2010-11-16T23:36:00.000+09:00

I started reading THE HUNGER GAMES on Sunday. I finished THE HUNGER GAMES on Sunday. I downloaded and read CATCHING FIRE yesterday. And this morning I downloaded and started MOCKINGJAY (I'm not finished yet, so now spoilers in the comments). I gotta say I love these books and don't know why in the hell I waited so long to read them (although the waiting wasn't always by choice). And now I can see why some of you were suggesting Peeta when I asked about love interests who aren't jerks. Peeta is amazing!

Anyway, that's not the point of this post.

Last night, Android 2.2 (Froyo) was finally released for the Galaxy S in Korea. For some reason, my phone won't stay connected to my computer at home and keeps disconnecting during the upgrade, so I patiently waited until I got to work today to update my phone. The updating went without a hitch, but all my applications were erased. My photos came back after a little while. I was able to get my contacts back -- the only thing the stupid program prompts you to save before you update. But all my applications were gone. Now, my wifi is acting up. It shows that I have an excellent signal, but refuses to download anything. Seriously, having my phone back to factory-like settings made me feel lost.

How many of you have ever felt that way? I mean, I know a lot of you have ... You forget your phone at home and feel naked all day or as if you left a part of yourself at home.

This wasn't were I was intending to go with this post today -- I had a plan for how I wanted to go about this identity series -- but this came up and inspired me.

It seems to me that we often don't notice how technology or other inatimate objects have become a part of our identity until they're gone, but then we feel it. So, I ask you, how big a part of your identity is technology? How big a part of your identity is your phone? Your MP3 Player? Your computer?

Who Are You?

2010-11-15T18:37:00.001+09:00

I work six days a week. On weekdays, I start at 2 and finish at 10 or 11. When I get home, I have to make dinner and then I just want to relax. But I don't have the time because I have stuff that I need to get done so I can go to sleep. I normally get to bed sometime between 2 and 3. I'll wake up at 10:30, but it's usually hard to get out of bed and I don't really get up until 11. Then I have to shower, eat breakfast, get coffee and go to work. Sometimes there's some extra time in the morning for emailing or blogging. When I get off at 11, I start the whole thing again.

Sometimes I just feel like all I do is work -- I work, sleep and then go back to work.

So, yesterday I had the whole day to myself and had planned to work on editing my manuscript. I sat there, staring and thinking. Then I got up and decided to go to the bookstore instead; I couldn't sit there in my apartment alone. Why? Because I felt like I didn't exist.

This is something I first thought about in college in my communication classes, but I revisited it yesterday. Our identities are not our own; our identities depend on others.

And this idea will be the focus of my new series of posts. As always with these series, I will be relating the topic to writing throughout, but I find it easier to start with a discussion of the issue. Before I get into it though, I want to hear your thoughts.

How do you define yourself? Do you make your own identity? Or are others involved in the process? Do you only have one identity?

Theories

2010-11-12T19:49:00.001+09:00

Good news first, I went to the optometrist today and my eyes are almost completely healed! And ... I'm allowed to wear contacts again! I might give it an extra week or so just to be sure, but I'm excited.

I'm also excited because my copies of HOCUS POCUS and THE WITCHES just arrived (I had my mom send them since I can't get them in Korea). It kinda sucks that I couldn't watch them before Halloween, but they're still great movies and I plan on watching them this weekend (if not both tonight).

Also, I was glad to see some great thoughtful responses to yesterday's post. I know I took an unpopular stance, so I'm happy it didn't get too negative. I am disappointed that Amazon caved and removed the book from their website, but that's beyond my control.

Since it's Friday (and I'm still busy with progress reports), I want to have a nice easy post today.

I don't know if you've been checking out his blog, but this week Nathan Bransford has been posting Harry Potter stuff every day. It's definitely worth checking out. And since DEATHLY HALLOWS, part one is coming out soon, I thought I'd do my own Harry Potter themed post. I'm just going to ask a question though.

What was your favorite theory before you read the actual ending? All of you had them. Coming up with your own guesses and theories is one of the best parts of reading a series.

My favorite theory was that Bellatrix was pregnant with Voldemort's baby. I really liked Bellatrix and wanted to see the series left kinda open ended. Bellatrix could get away and then you have her and the baby/ kid as the main villains in a new series. I guess it would've been kinda stupid now that I really think about it. Plus, I really loved what actually happened to her. But that was my favorite theory while waiting for book 7.

What was yours?

The Right to Write

2010-11-11T14:36:00.004+09:00

My opinion may differ from the majority here, but I wanted to post this.

You've probably heard about Phillip R. Greaves' ebook THE PEDOPHILE'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND PLEASURE. All morning I've been seeing blogs, articles and tweets about this book and how Amazon should take it down and how everyone should boycott Amazon.

I think it's ridiculous. There, I said it.

Now, I want to look at this from a few different angles. Just remember that I'm not condoning or supporting pedophilia. Also, I haven't read the book -- but neither have any of you.

First, a number of blogs and articles are calling on Amazon to pull this book, saying that as the publisher, it's their duty. Amazon isn't the publisher people. Amazon provides the means and forum for writers to self publish and sell their books -- this does not make them a publisher.

Second, Amazon has apparently issued statements saying that they "believe it is censorship not to sell certain titles because we believe their message is objectionable." Also that "it supports the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions." I, for one, completely agree. I'm not saying I agree with this book or the topic it's written about, but this guy has the right to write it. He also has the right to self-publish it, which he's done.

Third, this book now has close to 2,500 negative (1 star) reviews despite the fact that only ONE copy has been sold (read the interview here). I thought we all had agreed that giving a book you haven't read a one star review just because you don't like the subject matter was a no-no (I'm not saying any of you were the reviewers on Amazon, I'm just trying to make a point).

Fourth, who do you actually think will buy this book? Honestly, I was tempted to download a sample just because of the controversy. But I didn't. You know why? I don't want to end up on the government and/ or police's watch list. Just read some of the comments posted on Amazon. These people are going ape-shit over this book. One reviewer apparently contacted several news agencies as well as the FBI. Do you really think they're not tracking who buys this book?

Fifth, I keep seeing "facts" about this book being misrepresented. I know the title sounds awful, but have you read the summary of the book? Granted, it's not good either, but the book description says it's the author's "attempt to make pedophile situations safer for the juveniles involved." It goes on to say that hopefully it can result in lighter sentencing should a person be caught. The description says that this book is a rule book for adults to follow. It does not say it's a guide for how to be a pedophile (that's only the ill-chosen title). It does not say it gives tips for how not to be caught. Seriously, the facts in this situation are bad enough, we don't have to make it worse by sensationalizing it.

Sixth, look at the other books this guy has self-published. He has a history of writing about controversial topics. Maybe that's all he's doing ... trying to push a button. Or maybe he's trying to tackle some heavy issues that the rest of us are too afraid to talk about.

Seventh, writers write about things that are illegal all the time. Who are we to say which illegal things are okay to write about and which aren't.

Eighth, NAMBLA still exists and publishes material. People don't like it, but they're protected under the constitution. What makes this book so different?

Ninth, why are writers -- and everyone else for that matter -- only allowed to tackle the socially accepted side of an argument? Remember, I'm not saying I condone or support pedophilia, but it wasn't always illegal; it used to be a normal part of society -- in some parts of the world, it still is.

Tenth, none of the people writing about or criticizing or demanding that this book be pulled have actually read the book.

*UPDATE: Amazon has now taken the book off of their site ... and I find it ridiculous and completely disgusting.

Also ...

Eleventh, I've been reading more tweets that talk about censorship. People are saying that censorship is a bad thing, but in some cases required. Do they even realize what a slippery slope that could become?

I'm sorry, but everyone has the right to write what they want and to read what they want.

What are you doing?

2010-11-10T21:09:00.007+09:00

You're not supposed to start a novel with a dream. You shouldn't include dream sequences in your book -- people don't like to read them. Dream sequences are just lazy writing. They don't contain anything relevant to the plot.

My first book, THE GATEWAY, starts with a dream and then the rest of the novel takes place in the dream world.

In SEEING, the main character suffers from nightmares. He begins to suffer from insomnia. This causes him lose touch with reality. This is all part of the villain's plan.

In my current WIP, my main character will be attacked in his dreams by incubi/ succubi (sex demons).

You're not supposed to have sex in your book. You need to keep it clean. Sex is dirty. Teenagers are pure and don't have or think about sex.

Sex is a motivating factor for my main character in SEEING and one of the tools my villain uses to manipulate the main character.

My current WIP begins like this: When I woke, the sheets were wet. And I was sticky. Use your imagination to figure out what's going on there (the MC is a guy).

In the outline for the sequel to THE GATEWAY, I have a sex scene planned between two characters. This scene will serve to bring the two characters together. It will also reveal important information about one of the characters.

No smoking. No drinking. No negative behavior. No prologues. No adverbs. Minimal dialogue tags.

There are a lot of things that we're told not to do as writers. My question is ...

What are you doing in your writing that you shouldn't be?

* NOTE: Some of these things I've seen listed as rules, but not all of them. Most of the things I've listed are reasons behind books getting banned and things that lots of people have problems with in YA.

Be Honest

2010-11-09T21:43:00.002+09:00

I've been really impressed with and have really enjoyed reading all the comments you guys have been leaving on my age posts. Sadly, I think that series has come to an end. I think it's an interesting topic and there's a lot to discuss (both in regards to fiction and real life), but I've covered most of it ... and I don't want to keep beating a dead horse. So, we need to move on.

Things are busy at work right now -- I have to do progress reports for my students -- so today's post is just going to be an easy one. Plus, most of you are doing NaNo, so I figured a lighter post would be good anyway.

I've been given an award (The Honest Scrap Award) by Niaraie at Life in Retrospect. This award requires that you share ten things about yourself and then pass it on. Since I just shared seven things about myself when I accepted an award last week, I'm just going to list three things today.

1. I've taken off my fake nails -- all except the my left thumb. The right hand came off first since I'm right handed (and since the thumb broke and having just the four looked weird). The nail on my left index finger broke last night, so I took the nails off the hand. I've kept the thumb though because 1.) it's still intact, and 2.) I like having something that makes me different. That's why I liked having piercings and tattoos as well -- they make me feel like something more than myself.

2. With the proper ingredients and a proper kitchen, I'm a pretty good cook. I'm actually disappointed this year; Thanksgiving's coming up, but I have no stove to cook a turkey. It sucks.

3. My favorite movie is PAN'S LABYRINTH. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should. INCEPTION comes in at a very close second. Despite the fact that these two movies are my favorites, I generally prefer romantic comedies.

And now, to pass it on. Honestly, I'm not sure what this award is for. Niarie wasn't either, so she passed it along to those bloggers she felt were honest in their postings. I guess I'll do the same (even though all of you are honest as far as I can tell). The award goes to ...

1. Jen Daiker @ unedited
2. The Weed @ The Weed
3. Colene Murphy @ The Journey
4. Talei @ MUSINGS OF AN ASPIRING SCRIBE
5. Summer Ross @ My Inner Fairy
6. L'Aussie @ L'Aussie Writing
7. Regina @ Middle Distance Runners

It was really hard choosing who to give the award to. I generally don't like just giving out awards to anyone who reads my posts, but I feel like all of you are pretty honest and enjoy all of your blogs. So ...

be honest and tell me one thing about yourself (one thing that I couldn't figure out from just visiting your blog) in the comments and you win The Honest Scrap Award, too!

Freaky Friday ... on Monday

2010-11-08T14:00:00.003+09:00

Age: Is it just a number?, Part Four

Sorry to saddle you with two Lindsay Lohan references, but how many of you have seen the movie FREAKY FRIDAY? Well, if you haven't, Lindsay plays a 15 year old girl who swaps bodies with her mom (played by Jamie Lee Curtis). So Lindsay's mind in Jamie's body and Jamie's mind in Lindsay's body. OK, so I want you all to forget that Jamie Lee Curtis is supposed to be Lindsay's mom cause that would add an aditonal layer to this that I just don't want to get into.

So, Lindsay is a minor. But when she's in a 40-somethings body, would it be ok for her to have sex? Technically, she's an adult.

Jamie is an adult. But when she's in a 15 year old's body, would it be ok for her to have sex? Technically, she's an adult, but she's in a minor's body.

This supports what I've been talking about in these posts -- and what you've all been saying in the comments -- it's emotional maturity, a person's mind, that should be used to determine whether they should or should not be involved in a relationship (romantic or sexual). And ok, situations like this don't happen in real life (that I know about anyway), but similar dilemas are featured in books.

Which brings me to TWILIGHT and HUSH HUSH (mostly TWILIGHT though) and immortals.

Immortality brings a lot of issues ... let's focus on TWILIGHT first. Edward is over 100 years old, but he's in a 17 year old's body; Bella's 16. So a 17 year old and a 16 year old together isn't really a problem -- and I don't think many people would have a problem with it. But Edward's not 17. He's an old man using a 17 year old's body to get with an underage girl. Seems a little creepier now, doesn't it?

What would we think of an old man dating a 16 year old girl? We'd probably label him a pedophile. So why is Edward excused? Why is he this romantic hero?

You see, Edward doesn't have a lot of options. Would he really want to be with a woman who's closer to his real age? Even if he did, that woman would be with an underage boy; she would be the pedophile. It's more normal for Edward to be with someone his own physical age. But ... Pk Hrezo commented on the first post of this series saying ...

I have a hard time believing an adult could have a mentally and emotionally gratifying relationship with someone who isn't on their level. Which makes me believe it's not about that at all... it's more about physical.

I'd agree with her; so would most people. An adult with a teen has to be in it just for the sex because they couldn't be getting fulfilled emotionally or mentally. So, Edward's body didn't mature, but he should have. How could he be emotionally and mentally satisfied with Bella?

Let's move on, when Bella's 19 (ok, two days shy of 19), she becomes an immortal. So, for all time, Bella is legally an adult, but with Edward, who is an underage boy.

Now, in HUSH HUSH, Nora is 16 years old and Patch is an immortal fallen angel, meaning, he's been around forever -- he's not 100 or even 200 or 300, he's as old as dirt itself. I have yet to read CRESCENDO (I'm still on the fence about whether I want to actually), but I've heard that it's suggested/implied/whatever that Nora and Patch are expressing their love in a physical way. I get that he looks like a hot teen boy, but she's a kid and he's older than her great great great (however many greats you want to add here still won't be enough) grandfather. Think of all that he's lived through. Shouldn't he be a bit more mature than a 16 year old girl who doesn't have the common sense to stay away from someone she thinks is trying to kill her or the common sense to let her best friend know that the guy she's with (the best friend that is) is definitely a killer.

And this is the problem with immortals. To be honest, I've never really thought much about it until this post, but now that I have, I'm just confused and unsure of how I feel about it.

What do you think? Should immortals be with someone who is their physical match? Their mental match? Or are there no real rules when it comes to immortals?

And, after reading my post, don't you feel just a little bit icky about Edward/ Bella and Nora/ Patch?

Thirty-Five, but a Baby

2010-11-05T17:18:00.000+09:00

__ Age: Is it just a number?, Part Three __

Many of you have mentioned in the comments for the past two posts that emotional maturity and/ or just maturity should be the deciding factor in determining if a relationship is okay. But how do we gauge maturity and emotional state?

This is where age comes in. Elana Johnson mentioned in the comments of the first post in this series that age is generally used as an indicator of maturity. In fact, I'd probably say it's the only real indicator that we have.

However, the problem with using age is that it's not always a good indicator. I've known teenagers who were more mature than a great deal of the adults I've known.

All you have to do is look at almost any celebrity to see that age isn't a good indicator of maturity or emotional stability: Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson and Oksanna, Charlie Sheen ... the list could go on.

In fact, here in Korea, a good portion of the "adults" (the foreigners teaching here and some Koreans) remind me more of children. I actually took myself out of the bar/club scene because I was sick of how immature these people were (not only when they were drunk, but when they were sober). I also don't go out of my way to make foreign friends here because a great deal of them have the emotional maturity of a two year old. Another example, one of my exes, who was Korean, was ten years older then me, but half the time I felt like I was a babysitter.

On the other hand, I've been friends with a lot of teenagers here. A few of them I met in bars (so they were lying about their age and I didn't find out their real ages until much later), but they were twice as mature as the adults they were pretending to be. Also, one of my best friends here was a fifteen year old student. We had intelligent conversations and he was actually the one who pushed me to write my last book.

Granted, I'm talking about friendships here and not romantic relationships, but the fact remains that these teens were more emotionally mature than the adults I've met here. I'd be willing to bet that any one of them would be mature enough to handle a relationship and handle it better than some adults. However, legally, they're all minors; so, going by age, they're not mature enough.

I personally don't know how we should proceed. I think that some teenagers are mature enough for a relationship and all that entails; I also think that some adults aren't. Age isn't a great indicator, but there really is no other option.

___________________

Monday's post, part four in my age series, will examine TWILIGHT and HUSH HUSH, exploring emotional maturity in greater depth (since both of those books have immortal love interests).

So how can we judge maturity if age isn't giving us an accurate portrayal? That's what I leave you with.

Older = Wiser, Badder, Cooler

2010-11-04T19:19:00.002+09:00

___ Age: Is it just a number?, Part Two ___

Today, I still want to keep things pretty basic as I'm still trying to figure out which direction I'm going to be taking these posts.

Generally, I haven't had a problem with age in YA books. I have noticed that there's usually an age gap between the main character and his/ her love interest (with the love interest being older). These age gaps normally don't bother me because it's usually never more than a couple of years. But why is there an age gap to begin with?

In SEEING (my book), my main character, Eden, is sixteen years old. As most of you should know, I put him in a love triangle with a girl and a guy. The girl, I never reveal her age, but I think it's clear that she's older. With the guy, the real love interest, I had some trouble deciding on his age, but I wanted him to be older -- and I had no idea why. I settled on making him eighteen. It wasn't really until I started writing this post that I thought about why I wanted him to be older than my MC ... and the answer's actually pretty simple.

I read a lot of YA Paranormal and usually the love interest is the paranormal creature that has to introduce the MC to their world. This means, they need to be wiser than the MC. And, age denotes wisdom. See, simple.

The other obvious answer is that everyone loves a bad boy. Making the love interest older doesn't necessarily make the love interest a bad boy, but it does give the relationship a dangerous feeling because it's a cultural taboo for an adult and a teen to be together.

Plus, an older guy liking a girl means that she must be cool -- instant way to make your MC appear cooler. Afterall, he's older and could be with older, more sophisticated women.

____________________

Sorry that today's post wasn't as weighty as part one, but I want to kind of break this topic up since it has the potential to be controversial. Anyway, make sure to stop by tomorrow to read part three, which will focus on age as a guideline.

Now I want to hear what you think. I think with YA Paranormal, I got it right, age=wisdom. But what about other genres? Why do you think there are age gaps in the genres you read? Are there age gaps?

Do you think an age gap adds an element of danger? Do you think it automatically makes the MC cooler?

Can I Smell You?

2010-11-03T17:41:00.001+09:00

I want to thank everyone who commented on yesterday's post -- the responses were fantastic. I had hoped to get a discussion going, but never imagined that I'd get such amazing responses -- some of you practically wrote your own posts! So, thanks! I really enjoyed reading all of them.

I'm not yet sure how long this series of posts will continue, but there are a lot of different facets to explore. And since this has the potential to be quite controversial and/ or tricky, I want to make sure I take the time to do it right. As such, my next post in my age series will be up tomorrow.

Today, I have a question for all of you. Well, actually I have two as they tie together. The first ...

Do you notice a guy's smell? And does his smell make you fall in love with him?

or

Guys, do you notice a girl's smell? And does her smell make you fall in love with her?

So I just started reading NEED by Carrie Jones. I'm liking it, but I swear, every time the love interest comes around, the MC comments on his smell -- how he smells like the woods, how his smell is comforting, how she misses his smell when he's not around, how other things remind her of his smell, how his car smells like him. I was just reading before I typed this and I think the love interest's smell was mentioned maybe three times in the span of ten minutes of reading. The same thing happened in SHIVER. Grace was constantly talking about Sam's smell -- both when he was a wolf and when he was human. I know in that book it kind of had a point -- to show that Grace had changed in some ways after being bitten -- but it's too much. Sam also constantly comments on Grace's smell, which makes sense since he's a wolf, but still. I've noticed it in other books too and I don't get it.

Sure, when I'm around someone, I'll notice their smell, but usually only if they smell bad or if they have on a nice cologne/ perfume. But then I forget about it. The person's smell isn't what draws me to them.

I know smell is one of our most powerful senses and I know that all the writing advice says to describe things in terms of every sense to make it more real, but MCs being so obsessed and infatuated with their love interests' smell is ridiculous.

I'm assuming that authors are using smell as foreshadowing -- Oh, this guy smells different ... that's a clue that he's not human; This guy smells like the woods ... that's a clue that he's a werewolf. And this leads into my second question ...

When does foreshadowing become too much? When does foreshadowing stop being foreshadowing and instead start to be the author beating me over the head?

I'm going to use NEED as an example again. I'm halfway through the book and despite the fact that there have been no werewolves or anything other than a mention of them as a possibility, I already know that the love interest is one. To be fair, I knew this anyway because of what I've read about the book. But the love interest, Nick, smells like the woods and smells musky. As if that weren't enough of a clue, Nick also shakes his head/ hair like a dog, he acts like an alpha when competing with another guy and the list goes on. Seriously, every action he does is described using a word that could be applied to wolves or dogs.

Anyway, check back in tomorrow for the next in my age series of posts. And please let me know in the comments what you think about foreshadowing and if a guy's smell is really that important.

Age: Is it just a Number?

2010-11-02T14:56:00.004+09:00

Yesterday's post and some of your comments got me thinking. I had said that most of my friends were way older or way younger than I am. A few people jokingly objected to be referred to as way older. I wanted to say sorry first. What I meant was that most of my friends are in their thirties or in their teens. Anyway, I started thinking about age.

I've seen some people blog about this topic before, usually in relation to TWILIGHT or HUSH HUSH. I'll be discussing both of them a little later in my new series of posts.

Just to be clear before we start, I'm just trying to get all this out there for discussion. This post is meant to be an introduction to the topic of age in relationships. I'm in no way condoning anything that I mention.

Let's get started ...

__ Age: Is it just a number?, Part One __

It's hard to say what age someone has to be to be in a relationship. It's hard to say how old someone has to be to have sex. And it gets even harder when the two people involved are different ages. And it gets harder still when that age gap makes one of the people involved legally an adult and the other a minor.

Is it okay for a 12 year old and a 30 year old to date?

What about a 14 year old and a 25 year old?

A 16 year old and a 22 year old?

A 17 year old and a 20 year old?

Is it okay for a 17 year old and an 18 year old to date?

In all of these cases, one of the people involved is an adult and one a minor, but is it so cut and dry? Would it make a difference if I told you the older person was male? Or what if the older person was female? What if both of the individuals were male? What if both were female? What if I told you we were in ancient Greece? What if we were in present day Saudi Arabia? Does that change how you feel about any of these pairings?

Also, notice that I said "date" and not "have sex." In all of these cases, if the individuals involved are not having sex, no law is being broken. Their relationship may not be socially acceptable, but it pretty much is legal. But we don't view it that way; people tend to always view a romantic relationship through a sex lens (sorry, I had nothing better to call it). So, for the purposes of this series of blog posts, I'll be looking at age of consent laws as that's usually the lens we view relationships through anyway -- even if sex is not involved.

Age of consent laws vary by country (click on the above picture to zoom in and see ages by country). The US is 18, Canada is 16, Russia is 16, Korea is 19 (although, until recently it was 13 and the laws still aren't very clear), Saudi Arabia has no age of consent as long as you're married (according to Wikipedia, in 2008, a Saudi court refused to annul the marriage between an 8 year old girl and a 58 year old man). Sometimes the law varies by gender (In Indonesia, males have to be 19, but females only have to be 16). Sometimes the age of consent is higher for homosexual acts. There are different laws in place for when one of the people is in a position of authority (such as a teacher/ student relationship). There are also "Romeo and Juliet" laws, where if the two people are close enough in age, it's okay (a 14/15 year old teen and someone who's less than 5 years older, for example).

Just from the above paragraph, you should be able to see how difficult a subject this is. Even within a single country, the law can't agree.

______________________________

Beginning tomorrow, I will be looking at ages in YA. But, as the title for this series of posts should suggest, I won't just be looking at numerical age, I'll also be looking at things like maturity and mental/ emotional age (as this becomes a real sticking point in Bella/ Edward's relationship and Nora/ Patch's relationship).

So, let's get the discussion started. What lens do you view a relationship through? Are there any relationships that you could just say "no, it's unacceptable"? The examples I listed above, did your opinions change when I altered the gender of the older/younger participants? Did it change when I altered the country we were in and the time period we were in?

Awards

2010-11-01T19:37:00.000+09:00

I have awards to give away. The first, The Versatile Blogger Award, was given to me by Colene Murphy. I can't really say why, but I've wanted this award for a while, so thanks Colene! Colene's blog, The Journey, is great and she always has something good up -- plus, she includes something Harry Potter related in just about every post. You should definitely check out her blog and follow her.

This award requires that I list seven things about myself and then pass it on. So ...

1. When I'm not drinking coffee, I drink blue Powerade almost exclusively. I'm addicted.

2. Starbucks gets most of my money. Which is funny because I always hated Starbucks in the US.

3. I collect Harley Quinn stuff. I even have a 13-inch doll and my sister just bought me the Harley Quinn Hallmark Christmas ornament which is apparently quite rare).

4. I test myself every so often to see if I've developed superpowers. Dorky? Deluded? Or smart?

5. I hate tequila. I'll drink it if someone offers it to me -- I don't turn down free anything -- but I don't like it. And why is tequila the go-to alcohol when you're buying someone a shot? Seriously, it sucks.

6. For a time, I was kind of part owner of a club in Seoul. OK, so it wasn't really mine, but I was engaged to the owner and acted as part owner. I was also the weekend manager of another club (this was the year before).

7. For some reason, with the exception of one or two people, I don't really have friends my own age; they're either way older or way younger (by way older, I mean that I have friends in their thirties and by way younger, well, I've had a friend who was fifteen).

Now, to pass it on. The Versatile Blogger Award goes to, in no particular order ...

1. Rachel Harrie @ Rach Writes ...
2. Rachel Morgan @ Rachel Morgan Writes
3. gideon 86 (Michael) @ In Time
4. Jen Chandler @ Culinary Vagabonding
5. The Golden Eagle @ The Eagle's Aerial Perspective
6. Solvang Sherrie (Sherrie Peterson) @ Write About Now
7. Marieke @ Marieke's Musings

The second award, The Beautiful Blog Award, was given to me by Margo Berendsen. Thanks Margo! Her blog, Writing at High Altitude, is also a must follow blog. So, if you're not following her already, I insist you pop over and do it now.

As far as I know, no requirements come attached to this award except to pass it on (I don't even know how many people to pass it on to). So, the award goes to ...

1. Melissa @ Through the Looking Glass
2. J.C. Martin @ J.C. Martin, Fighter Writer
3. Stina Lindenblatt @ Seeing Creative
4. Renae Mercado @ Renae Mercado
5. Patricia A. Timms @ Simplicity in Volumes
6. Lisa M. Potts @ Lisa M. Potts
7. Lola Sharp @ Sharp Pen/Dull Sword

So, once again, thanks Colene and Margo! And to all of you, make sure to visit all the blogs above ... they've got some great stuff!

Hope all you NaNo-ers are off to a great start. Good luck!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T23:39:00.000+09:00

I'm sorry to disappoint everyone, but I don't have full costume pictures to post today. I didn't go out last night. I wanted to, but things came up and you can't control everything.

Anyway, I don't want to leave you empty handed, so here are two pics from when I was doing a makeup test (when I was still planning on going out). The yellow on my lips wasn't working out exactly the way I wanted, but I think it still looks cool. There's always next year to get it right.

So, I hope you like the pics and I hope you all had and/or are having a Happy Halloween!

On a slightly different note, NaBloWriMo is now over and I have succeeded -- I have posted every day this month. That's 31 posts in a row; although I started posting every day way back in September. Congratulations to all the other participants who have been posting every day along with me!

Now that NaBloWriMo is over, I've decided to make a change. I will now only be posting on weekdays. That'll free up my weekends for writing -- I really want to get started on my incubi/ succubi project -- and for catching up on all of your blogs that I didn't managed to hit during the week.

And since November begins tomorrow, I'd just like to say good luck to all of you doing NaNo! I won't be as I've yet to get rid of my nails (they'll be gone in a day or so -- one has already broken) and I figured it'd be hard to bang out 50,000 words when I require the assitance of a pen to type. Maybe next year.

So ... Happy Halloween! Congratulations NaBloWriMo-ers! Good Luck NaNo-ers!

Halloween Preview!

2010-10-30T17:51:00.001+09:00

I shaved my head last night. Full costume pics may be up tomorrow (I may not actually be going out anymore). I'm thinking of dressing up even if I stay home though.

Happy Halloween!

What are you dressing up as?

A Skeleton in a Meat Dress

2010-10-29T15:52:00.000+09:00

You may not know this about me, but I had no idea what a kartoffelpuffer was until last week (they're German potato pancakes for those of you that are curious). You see, kartoffelpuffer is one of the completely random words I'm supposed to include in this post as this post is my entry in the Second Crusader Challenge. You should remember that Rachael Harrie started The Writers' Platform Building Crusade with the goal of writers helping other writers to build an online platform. It's pretty cool and you should check it out (along with the blogs of my fellow crusaders -- they're listed on my sidebar). And now that I've got that out of the way -- and gotten the hardest of the completely random words out of the way -- we can continue with this post.

I just got back from the optometrist and my eyes still aren't healed. I first went two weeks ago and was told my corneas were eroded. I was prescribed three different kinds of eye drops and told not to wear contacts for two weeks. I just had my check-up. The good news is that my eyes are healing (and the doctor thinks they can heal completely), but they're not completely healed yet. The doctor prescribed two new kinds of eye drops and told me not to wear contacts for another two weeks or my condition could become more serious. I'll definitely listen to him and not wear contacts, but I don't want to be a demon wearing glasses for Halloween. That's almost as bad as if I were to dress up as a rain-soaked kid, but carried an umbrella or if I were to dress up as a skeleton wearing a meat dress or if I were to dress up as a German and not know what a kartoffelpuffer was. It just makes no sense. If the kid is rain-soaked, he obviously didn't have an umbrella and the whole point of being a skeleton is that all your meat is gone and a German should know one of their country's traditional foods and ... well, demons just don't wear glasses -- I'm pretty sure it's a rule or something.

I hate when you have something planned and life steps in to shit all over it. Granted, this is something we're supposed to remember to do when writing -- give our characters obstacles, make them suffer on their road to growth (or on their road to rescue the prince/ princess/ whatever goal they have). I just wish life was a little less life-like sometimes and things could work out.

Thank you for listening (well, reading) to my little rant. Now, let's move on to something a little more positive.

Boo-Fest was an incredible success. I really enjoyed reading all of your true ghost stories and I know Patricia did too. It's great to know there are others out there who have had similar paranormal experiences. Thanks to all of you who participated. And, if you haven't checked out everyone's stories, you should definitely do that now (follow the links in yesterday's post). Some of them are incredibly creepy and are perfect for getting you in the Halloween mood.

Boo-Fest

2010-10-28T18:38:00.000+09:00

First, I wanna thank everyone who gave me their opinion on my logline yesterday. I really appreciate it. Now on to the show.

I've seen a lot of ghosts. I saw my grandfather walking around my house after he died. At my grandmother's viewing last year, some pretty weird stuff happened involving a chandelier. I also saw my grandmother standing near her coffin -- not as clear as my grandfather had been though; she was kinda hazy, but it was her. My aunts and uncles all sensed her presence as well. I've seen shadows. I saw a shadow man. I've seen misty apparitions. I've had other ... encounters. But it wasn't that difficult selecting which story to share today. Most of my experiences would only take a sentence or two to tell. I've already shared the story of seeing "The Man in the Hallway." The other stories have all become part of my book, SEEING. So, that only left a few to chose from; I picked the most noteworthy.

BOO - FEST presents "THE FACE"

When I was maybe thirteen or fourteen, I had a bunk bed -- don't ask me why; it seemed cool at the time. I didn't have a mattress on top though. My parents always said they'd buy one, but never did. So, I slept on the bottom bunk and the top was empty, meaning I got to look through metal bars at the ceiling. The above pic is the exact bed I had (just picture it with no top mattress) -- I think I may have even had a similar comforter .

Anyway, I went up to bed around 10. My parents were still awake downstairs, getting ready for bed. I wasn't tired, but at that point, I didn't have a TV or anything in my room, so I had no choice but to turn off the lights and get in bed.

You know how when your eyes are closed you can still detect light -- especially if you're in a pitch dark room? Well, I was laying there just thinking about nothing when I began to see a light near where the ceiling should be. It started off small and indistinct, but it grew larger until it was just slightly bigger than a normal human face, seeming to come closer to me. The face was darker were its eyes should have been and there was a dark grinning slit for a mouth. I didn't move or open my eyes. I just watched as it came closer and closer. I still I did nothing -- I was curious what would happen.

The face came closer and connected. My eyes shot open, but all I could see was white as electricity shot through my body. It felt like someone had tasered me -- I've never been tasered, I'm just imagining. I remember distinctly feeling the electricity in each part of my body. Then I heard footsteps running up the stairs and realized it was over ... and that I was screaming.

My dad came into the room and I was shaking. I told him what happened. He told me it had just been a nightmare; I had probably slipped off to sleep. My dad's never been a believer though, so I didn't really expect any different.

But that was the first time I'd witnessed something I'd always suspected, ghosts are capable of a lot more than just being seen.

___________________________________________

I hope you enjoyed my Boo-Fest entry. Now, you should go check out the other participants stories (click on their names below to be taken to their blogs). Plus, there's still time if you want to share one of your own (make sure you sign up using the linky tool below so we can all read your story).

Irresistible

2010-10-27T16:34:00.002+09:00

First thing, Lola Sharp has given me a blog award. Isn't it nice? I love it. Anyway, thanks Lola! You should all definitely check out her blog, Sharp Pen/Dull Sword, and follow her if you're not already ... it's pretty great!

And since this award is called the irresistible blog award, I figured I'd give it to some blogs I find irresistible. As far as I'm aware, there are no rules to this award. So, in no particular order, the award goes to:

Laura Pauling @ Laura Pauling
Colene Murphy @ The Journey
Kirthi @ Dreaming in the Rain
Patricia A. Timms @ Simplicity in Volumes
RaShelle Workman @ A No. 2 Pencil, Stat!
Niaraie @ Life in Retrospect
Pk Hrezo @ PK HREZO

OK, that's done. Now I'd like to ask for your help. I'm trying to write a logline for my book SEEING. This is what I came up with. All 4 start the same way, only the ending is different. Please let me know which ending you prefer ... or if they all suck.

Eden begins to lose touch with reality when he starts SEEING two very different ghosts:

then with one of these endings

1. a boy that he begins to fall in love with and a girl who wants more than just his love.

2. a boy that he begins to fall in love with and a girl who wants something far more sinister than his love.

3. Finn, who wants to be his boyfriend, and Alice, who is after something else entirely.

4. a boy, who he develops feelings for, and a girl, who may not be what she seems.

*edited to add option 5

5. Finn, who wants to be his boyfriend, and Alice, who wants to steal his sister's body.

It's in the Stars

2010-10-26T14:14:00.000+09:00

Scorpios are loyal, passionate, observant and dynamic, but also jealous, obsessive, suspicious, manipulative and unyielding. They are intense and full of contradictions.

My coworker's wife is about to have a baby; the baby will be a scorpio.

Today is my mom's birthday; she is a scorpio. Happy Birthday Mom!

I am a libra, meaning I am diplomatic, graceful, peaceful, idealistic and hospitable, but also superficial, vain, indecisive and unreliable. Libras are also intellient, charming, creative and lazy. They don't like hard work and are better suited for artistic careers.

I don't really believe in horoscopes. I read them frequently, but it just seems crazy to me that all the people born during a certain period will have the same day. On the other hand, I typically find the descriptions of the various zodiac to be spot on. Everything I've ever read about what libras are supposed to be like describes me perfectly -- both the positives and the negatives. It's actually kinda scary.

So, my question is, do you ever consider astrology when you create your characters? Do you put any thought into their birthdays? Or do you just assign a random day? Do you think someone's birthday can tell us something about them?

I'm not saying it all fits, but do you think it was pure coincidence that J.K. Rowling made Harry Potter a leo?

What sign are you? And do you think that sign is an accurate portrayal of you?

* I just wanted to say sorry if I haven't commented on your blog. I'm trying, but it's difficult with these nails. I am reading all of your blogs though.

It's Coming

2010-10-25T12:12:00.000+09:00

Typing with claws is incredibly challenging and will take much practice. I'm glad you all like them though. I love them.

So, to give me time to get used to typing like this, today's just going to be a reminder post. This Thursday, will be Boo-Fest! So far there are 11 participants and you should be next ...

Have you ever seen a ghost or know anyone who has?

Then join Patricia A. Timms and I for a Boo-Fest and share your story. All you have to do is sign up using the linky tool below and then post your story this Thursday. You can grab the button over there on the sidebar too.

I can't wait to read all of your real life hauntings.

My Nails

2010-10-24T20:05:00.000+09:00

Escape

2010-10-23T13:22:00.000+09:00

So I wanted to answer a few questions that were left in the comments yesterday. And since this is Saturday, I wanna just keep things simple.

Ah, I wasn't going to apply this to writing, but it's too perfect. When we write, we want readers to disappear into our world. We want them to almost live the story as it unfolds and not just see the words on the page. That's the same as me with Halloween.

The reason I want acrylic nails (and not just the cheap kind you can apply yourself) is that I want them to look real. I want my costume to actually disappear. I don't want people to see me in a costume, I want them to see me as what I'm being.

What am I being? Well, I'm going to be some kind of bird demon -- there's no actual name for what I'm being, just a demonic bird thing.

I'm going to shave my head bald (I think, I'm a little scared to). Around my head, I'm going to make a wire cage that will look like it's been ripped open around my mouth. I'll have a lot of black makeup around my eyes and then gold makeup on my lips to mimic a beak -- it'll actually cover more then just my lips; imagine the Joker but with gold scars instead of red.

As for my actual clothes, well I'm going shopping tonight. But, I'll be buying feathers to glue on my body, a black feather boa to sort of wrap around my neck and tuck into my clothes and I don't know what else. As you know, I'll have the fake nails/ talons on my fingers*.

*About the fake nails, I'll be posting a picture tomorrow after I get them done -- I did find a place. Also, my posts may need to be shorter for the next few days until I get the hang of typing with 2 inch claws. This may be the perfect time to try a vlog. We'll see.

I typically go all out on Halloween because it's my favorite holiday. I mean, I don't get to go trick or treating anymore, but dressing up and being someone/ something other than myself is great. It's the same reason I enjoy reading YA fantasy and paranormal ... I can experience and live something that I was never meant to. I can fly on a broomstick with Harry Potter. I can date a vampire and/ or a werewolf. I can work with Evie for a secret government agency tracking paranormals. I can be a genius kid plotting to kidnap a fairy. I can be a demigod fighting monsters. The possibilities are endless and, on Halloween, I get one night of making all that real.

Why do you love Halloween? Do you love it? Are you dressing up this year? If you are, I'd love to hear what you're going to be.

On a writing/ reading note, why do you read what you read?

Complications

2010-10-22T15:22:00.000+09:00

Life's not simple and it always throws complications our way. Even when we think we're at the finish line and have succeeded, then you get a phone call telling you the salon is canceling your nail appointment.

OK, so maybe that doesn't happen to most of you ... just me. Let me explain, I want to get acrylic nails for Halloween (maybe an inch and half long and filed into points). I want them to look kinda like the pic on the left, only painted black (and my hand won't be painted that creepy blue). And due to my work schedule, I need to get my nails done on Sunday -- it's the only day I actually have the time.

Anyway, I had it done about 4 years ago in the US and loved them, but here in Korea, it's impossible. I've ran around all morning to a bunch of nail shops. None of them do fake nails because "Korean women use their real nails" (imagine that said in a snotty, condescending tone).

Finally, I found a shop that would do it. I made an appointment. But then I called back cause I wanted to make sure we had understood each other ... I wanted real acrylic nails that wouldn't fall off (ones that I'd have to grow out or have professionally removed). In the US, these nails cost around $40. So, I called back and the woman informed me that the nails would fall off after 4 days (and cost $100). If I wanted nails that lasted 10 days, it would be double. I told her I'd call her back.

Keep in mind that I had left work during my break to do this and my time was limited. Plus, I still had to go to the pizza shop to order pizza for one of my classes.

So, I got on the internet researching nails. Then just as I was about to call the woman back to ask if they had acrylic nails (I hadn't known the name before), she called me informing me that she was canceling my appointment -- she was scared that I wouldn't be happy with the results, so they weren't going to even try. I wanted to toss my phone at the wall (but then realized that would only hurt me, not the woman at the nail salon).

I now have to find another salon that will do what I want. All the while dealing with a language barrier, the fact that I have to start teaching in an hour and the fact that I need to have my nails done on Sunday.

Have you ever had a day like this ... when everything just seems to go wrong and you have too many looming deadlines hanging over you? Have your characters?

See, I connected back to writing. I think the connection to writing is pretty clear here, so I'm not going to spend a long time spelling it out. We need to throw everything we can think of at our characters. They need to face problem on top of problem. Even when they think they've reached the end and succeeded, that's when we need to cut them down again.

Do you agree or disagree with the above statements? *Sorry, I'm getting into a TOEFL mindframe.

PARANORMAL NON-ACTIVITY

2010-10-21T14:39:00.000+09:00

A few years ago, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY came out. They were calling it the scariest movie ever made. They showed footage of people walking out of theaters because they were so scared.

This morning I was on yahoo and read an article about PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2. It made me really want to see it. I love ghosts and I love being scared.

The problem is, I never watched the first one -- at least not in it's entirety. I didn't stop because I was scared though, I stopped because I was so damn bored. For maybe the first 30 or 40 minutes, absolutely nothing happened. I shut it off.

Anyway, so this morning, I read through a summary of the first movie because I still really want to see the second one -- it just seems better. So, I'm reading the summary and find myself wishing I had watched the full movie -- the end just sounded fantastic. But then I wondered, should I really have to wait an hour for something good to happen?

So many people raved about PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, but for the first 40 minutes, the movie was literally just watching two people sleep.

Now, to relate this back to writing and books, I started reading SHIVER a few weeks ago -- a book that many people rave about. I didn't get into the story until maybe page 110. For the first third of the book, nothing happens. I was so close to just giving up on the book out of boredom.

With PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, the premise and marketing are supposed to be what keeps viewers in their seat until the real action starts. With SHIVER, The author starts out with a prologue of sorts -- Grace being attacked by wolves when she's young -- and that's supposed to be what keeps the reader hooked until the action starts.

I think these two are prime examples why we always hear that you need to start as close to the action as possible.The reader (or viewer) isn't always going to sit around and wait for you to get started. With SHIVER, I did and I loved the last two thirds of the book. With PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, I didn't and shut it off.

How long do you think we can keep readers waiting before they give up? Do you think books should start as close to the action as possible? Or, do you like the build up?

The Reviewing Writer's Code

2010-10-20T14:42:00.000+09:00

First up, Pk Hrezo gave me an award on her blog, PK HREZO. I just want to thank her. And if you're not already following her blog, you should be, so click the link and head on over.

Also, Michelle Merrill gave me an award on her blog, Perfecting the craft. Thanks Michelle! Make sure to check out her blog as well.

Now, I wasn't really sure what to write about today. I just finished my love and pain series of posts and I haven't decided what my next series will be (I love doing series and looking at a topic from every possible angle). Then, last night I was talking to Rachel Morgan (check out her blog Rachel Morgan Writes) and settled on a topic ... well actually it's more of a question I want to ask.

How should we, as writers, approach book reviews?

When I first set up my blog, I wanted to post reviews. There were a few books I'd read that I really wanted to write about. Then I signed up for netgalley and got some ebook ARCs. The problem came when I started reading the first book. I hated it. The author was so focused on getting into her character's voice that she forgot she was supposed to be telling a story. The MC was just so whiny and obnoxious and I was forced to read every random thought that came into her head. Plus, I had to suffer through endless pages of the MC being bitter about her parents' divorce that happened years ago, which, at her age, she should have been able to understand better. Add on to that, the author took diversity too far -- every character was mixed (black/white, indian/spanish, asian/mexican,). I'm all for diversity and appreciate characters that aren't just white, but for every character to be a mix of two races ... come on. I actually stopped reading the book because I couldn't take it anymore ... and that's weird for me; usually, I'll finish a book once I start it -- however bad it is.

I didn't know what to do. I've read on countless other blogs that as writers, we're supposed to support each other. Plus, posting a bad review of someone could come back to bite you in the ass should you need a blurb or something from them later. But, I feel that it's slightly dishonest to only post positive reviews. If I get a book to review and hate it, am I just supposed to not post anything?

Rachelle Gardner actually addressed this very issue in a way that made a lot of sense. I recommend you read her take on writing online book reviews. I guess agree with her.

But it goes further. By now, you should all know how I feel about HUSH HUSH by Becca Fitzpatrick. I feel fine talking about Patch and his role as the love interest, but I haven't posted anything on my blog about my other thoughts of the book. But, when I see other bloggers post reviews of it, I really want to discuss it with them -- I want to post comments, ask questions; I want to see why they thought what they did and share my thoughts. I feel like I can't though because of the whole "reviewing writer's code" I guess we can call it. I guess I'm fine not posting reviews on my blog because what Rachelle Gardner wrote made a lot of sense, but, it gets harder when I can't comment or discuss when my fellow bloggers put something up.

So, how do you feel about reviewing books? As writers, should we be posting honest reviews or should we be promoting and supporting other writers?

And what about when another blogger posts a review of a book that we had problems with? Should we just not comment on their blog that day? Or, is it OK to have an honest discussion of the book in question?

Stupid Girls

2010-10-19T15:09:00.000+09:00

Thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday! I really appreciate it. It was a great birthday (even though I spent the majority of it at work).

Now, on to today's post ... the last in my love and pain series.

Alright, so we've established that a lot of the love interests in YA are jerks, but that's not to suggest that they're not well developed characters. The love interest is who he is and there's nothing wrong with that; there are lots of different types of people/ characters out there. I realize in the past few posts, I've been blasting the love interests when really I should have been blasting the girls that fall in love with them.

I mean really, can we blame a jerk for being a jerk? Can we blame a homicidal angel for being homicidal? We can hate them as characters (or love them), dislike them as a love interest, but I don't think we can blame them. They are who they are.

We can blame the main characters though. I'm reminded of P!nk's song "Stupid Girls." For some reason, I couldn't find the actual video on youtube, so here's a live performance video instead ...

Bella's the one who falls in love with Edward. In all fairness, she didn't know about the creepy watching her sleep thing until later and he wasn't acting nearly as possessive and domineering in the first book. Her being "irrevocably in love" did come on too suddenly, but there wasn't really any jerkiness or creepiness on Edward's part going on at that point. But once she did find out about that stuff, it didn't bother her. If she did get mad, it was only for like half a page and then everything was forgotten.

Then Bella falls in love with Jacob. I'm gonna cut her some slack on this one too. Jacob was sweet in NEW MOON and, at that point, Edward had left her. When her and Edward get back together, Jacob exits the picture. Bella, selfishly, pulls him back in and then proceeds to give him hope that she could be his. I mean, I still think Jacob's an ass, but Bella brought out that side of him.

The biggest problem with Bella though is that when she does something wrong, she wants these guys to be jerks to her. Several times, she asks both of them to yell at her, call her names and get pissed off. I wouldn't have been surprised if one of them hit her and Bella rationalized it away as something she deserved.

I've been looking forward to reading NIGHTSHADE by Andrea Cremer (which comes out today), so I went on Amazon to read some reviews. The majority of the reviewers hate the main character. They think she starts off the book strong, but as soon as the love interest comes along she becomes this weak, stupid girl. I don't want to judge it before I read it, but it seemed to fit with today's post, so I wanted to include it.

Moving on, Nora is the one that falls in love with Patch. I have a real problem with Nora as a character. Throughout the book, Patch makes her uncomfortable, she thinks he's going to rape her at one point and she fears for her life when she's around him. But, she tells herself it was all just sexual tension and falls in love, convinced he's her soulmate. I don't know what kind of message Becca Fitzpatrick is trying to send here.

Just to be clear, I don't think that all books need to have a message -- the author can just tell a story. It's not up to the author to teach some profound life lessons to the millions of people out their reading their work, but they do need to be aware of them. Also, it's their job to deliver strong, believable characters and a good story. I'm probably one of the only ones that didn't really have a problem with Bella, but she did make some stupid choices and jump into things without reason -- this made her a weak character and unbelievable at points. Nora wasn't a good character at all and completely unbelievable. Grace, from SHIVER, is also unbelievable. She's not in love with a jerk, but she falls in love with a wolf and keeps going near them when they've already attacked her and killed someone else. Jacinda, from FIRELIGHT, knows that Will could be dangerous, but keeps going near him anyway. Evie, in PARANORMALCY, knows that Lend broke into their command center place, but still keeps going near him. These last three relationships all work out alright -- and the guys aren't jerks -- but the girls do make some stupid choices.

Too often, the main characters of YA books make stupid, irrational choices. Who knows, maybe we're judging these characters too harshly. I mean, we've all been there, we've all made stupid choices and acted irrationally.

What's your opinion? Should the main characters be blamed for getting with the jerk love interest? Or, are we taking this all too seriously?

On a different note, I wanted to ask all of you something. You know that I'm going to be using Quinn as part of my pen name and that it comes from the Batman villain Harley Quinn. What do you think of me using Quinn Harley as my full pen name -- just completely flipping the character's name? Just an idea, but I'd love to hear what you think.

A Crocodile Sings Me Happy Birthday!

2010-10-18T12:49:00.000+09:00

A special treat for all of you on my 26th birthday ... Crocodile Gena singing the Russian happy birthday song!

We had to memorize this song when I took Russian in university. I love it! Here's a rough translation:

Let the passers-by run through puddles. Let the water run along the asphalt like a river. And it's unclear to them why, on this day of bad weather, I'm so happy. I am playing my harmonica in the passers'-by view. Unfortunately, a birthday only comes once a year. Then suddenly a wizard will arrive in a light blue helicopter. He will show a free movie, wish me happy birthday and will probably give me a present of 500 ice cream sandwiches. I am playing my harmonica in the passers'-by view. Unfortunately, a birthday only comes once a year.

And that's all for today ... I'm going to keep it short for once. Hope you all have a great day!

Bad Romance

2010-10-17T16:09:00.000+09:00

First of all, I was given the "Happy 101" or "Sweet Friends" Award from Rachel Morgan. I just did a post earlier this week passing it along, so I'm not going to subject you all to that again. Anyway, I just wanted to thank Rachel, who was my first real blogging buddy. You should all check out her blog, Rachel Morgan Writes.

Second order of business, I was tagged last week to do a handwriting tag. I haven't had the time to actually do it cause it's been a busy week. I will put it up ... maybe sometime later this week.

Third order of business ... today's post.

We're getting to the end of my love and pain series. Today's post will be about me. I'm going to tell you how everything I've been talking about for the past week inspired my book. Then, I have something special planned for tomorrow (ok, it's not really special, but ... you'll see). On Tuesday, I will be posting what I think is the last post in my love and pain series; although, the focus of this post will shift slightly -- I won't be focusing on the love interests, but rather on the main characters who fall in love. I hope that you'll like it.

Earlier this year (around February/ March), there were a lot of blog posts criticizing HUSH HUSH by Becca Fitzpatrick. These posts all focused on Patch's suitability as a love interest. They claimed he went far beyond the typical bad boy love interest. They were right.

Those blog posts made me curious, so when I got my Kindle, HUSH HUSH was my first purchase. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I read it pretty quickly and liked the story. But liking the story doesn't mean I liked the book. I've shyed away from discussing HUSH HUSH before when I see reviews asking for readers' opinions or just when I've seen anyone discussing the book online. At one point, I even posted my own thoughts in the comments of someone's review, but then went back to delete them. As writers, we're not supposed to trash another author ... we could be burning bridges. So, I'm not going to trash the book or discuss all the things I think are wrong with it, but I am going to discuss Patch because he inspired me.

Patch spends the book trying to murder the MC. He sexually harrasses her. He gets close to raping her at one point. In my post on him, someone commented that they thought Patch did these things to push Nora away. But, that doesn't change the fact that he did them. Patch and Nora's relationship seems to mirror a woman who gets abused, but keeps going back to the guy. Sure, maybe Patch didn't mean what he did, but he still did those things. He's not just a typical bad boy; Patch is the exact type of guy that women should be reporting to the police and leaving, not falling in love with.

After reading HUSH HUSH, I kind of felt sick. That's what love is supposed to be? This is what women think devotion and love are -- I'll try to kill you because I love you so much; I want you to stay away from me because I'm bad for you, but I love you, so I'll sexually harrass you to push you away; I'll try to rape you because I just have to have you? It just seemed so wrong to me.

Around the same time, I had come up with an idea for a new book. Originally, I had no plans for a love interest. SEEING was originally intended as a YA paranormal horror/ psychological thriller. That all changed after reading those blog posts and reading HUSH HUSH. I decided that I wanted to make my own commentary on these relationships. So, I put my MC (a guy) into a love triangle. On one side was an incredibly beautiful girl. She appears myseteriously and immediately seduces the MC. Throughout the novel, their relationship grows as she tempts him sexually and with power, all the while being pretty much a bitch. She's the female Patch. She represents the bad romance found in so many YA books today. But I needed someone to contrast her with, so on the other side of the triangle, was a sweet, caring guy (did I mention my MC is bi?). There is attraction there between them, but they don't declare their love immediately. They talk, they spend time together, they get to know each other and still they're not together. They don't become the only reason either has for living; although they do care for each other. They disagree about things and have a fight, but they talk it through. Their relationship devolps naturally.

Part of the climax involves the MC deciding what relationship to choose -- what path to go down. As the story progresses, he has to decide what he wants -- does he want lust (that so many YA MCs choose) or does he want real love?

What would you choose? I'm guessing most of you would say real love, but is it that easy? When you have that initial attraction, when you have sparks, when you have someone offering you everything, can you really say you'd chose the harder path, the relationship you had to work at? Could you even recognize a bad romance?

Love at First Sight

2010-10-16T13:35:00.000+09:00

Love at first sight is a wonderful, romantic idea. How great would it be to meet eyes with a person and both of you just know immediately that you're meant for each other? I want to believe -- I'm a romantic -- but it just doesn't seem possible.

The thing is, I think love at first sight could've worked ... in a simpler time; in today's world ... not so much. I mean, love at first sight is such an innocent idea. Do any of you realistically think it's possible today?

So, if it's not possible, why are we seeing it so much in YA?

Bella and Edward fall irrevocably in love within a day or so of meeting each other in TWILIGHT. Jacinda literally feels a spark when she's around Will in FIRELIGHT. Jacinda is also dealing with the fact that her draki is dying from living in the desert. But when she's around Will, it suddenly comes alive. In SHIVER, Grace is in love with Sam long before she ever knows he's a werewolf ... she falls in love with a wolf at first sight*.

*As an aside, I just realized, reading SHIVER felt like I was reading about Renesmee and Jacob. I mean, the whole "my Jacob," "my wolf" thing. If only Sam were more of an ass, it could be an unofficial spin-off to the TWILIGHT series.

Also -- and I'm quite tired of this -- characters in YA often feel a literal spark or something close to it when they touch their love interest. I'm sorry, but that just doesn't happen. I may feel butterflies. I may feel nervous, excited, anxious. I may be incredibly happy. But I have never felt a literal spark when I've touched someone (unless they've just drug their sock clad feet across a carpet).

Anyway, I think the reason why we see this in YA so much is simple ... and it's the same reason we see so many jerk love interests ... it's wish fulfillment. A lot of people have accused Stephenie Meyer of writing herself into her books. I'll admit, if you look at the physical descriptions given of Bella, they do also describe Meyer. Anyway, I think a lot of why we see jerk love interests and love at first sight is because that's what people want in real life. They want the bad boy to change for them. They want to meet that perfect person and have both just know. Novels are a way to experience that. As for the sparks, I think that's a way for writers to justify the relationship. They know that love at first sight is corny and unbelievable, but if the MC feels a spark, there must be something more.

There was a quote I wanted to use, but, of course since I want to use it, I can't find it now. Most of you have probably actually read it by now cause I've seen it on a lot of blogs. It's from Ursula something, I think. The gist of the quote is that fiction has to be true to reality or something like that -- I agree.

*If you know the quote I'm talking about, could you leave it in the comments.

I'm not saying that love at first sight never happens -- I actually want to believe that it can -- but, if it does happen, it's the exception. So, it seems to me that if fiction is to mirror reality, then main characters everywhere shouldn't all be falling in love at first sight.

Personally, I love it when the author takes time to build the relationship -- to show how they come to like, care for and then love each other. I mentioned the perfect example yesterday. In PARANORMALCY, Evie and Lend take time getting to know each other. There's attraction from the beginning, but not out and out love. So, they get to know each other, They become friends and then it turns into something more. I'd really like to see more relationships done this way.

What about you? Do you believe in love at first sight? Have you ever felt a literal spark when touching your own personal love interest? Does it bother you when every YA character experiences it? Do you believe fiction should reflect truth? Would you like to see more realistic relationships portrayed in YA?

Nice Guys

2010-10-15T17:38:00.000+09:00

While the majority of YA books are populated with jerk love interests, there are some genuinely nice guys out there.

Sam Roth - Sam is the werewolf love interest in SHIVER by Maggie Steifvater. I think he's a great example of how to write a sweet, but still interesting love interest. Yes, he has a troubled past, is messed up and has some issues, but they don't affect his attitude or his interactions with Grace (the MC). I actually just finished reading SHIVER yesterday -- it took me nearly two weeks to finish. Part of that was that Grace as a MC was so damn hard to relate to. She's attacked by wolves as a kid (and thankfully Steifvater didn't make Sam one of the ones who attacked her), but then spends her entire childhood and teen years in love with the wolves. She's not interested in boys; she's interested in running her hands through her wolf's fur -- if Sam wasn't a werewolf, I'm entirely convinced the relationship in the book would have been Grace with just an ordinary wolf. Anyway, the only thing that kept me reading was Sam. Sam's emotions and thoughts are entirely believable and relatable throughout the whole book*. The tension and conflict in the story didn't come from him being an ass ... they came from the story.

*I just had a thought. In SHIVER, we're told that werewolves don't think like humans do. They don't have "thoughts." So, how was Sam able to narrate the earlier chapters when he was in wolf form?

Lend - Lend is the love interest from PARANORMALCY by Kiersten White. I really liked how this relationship was portrayed because Lend and Evie (the MC) actually took time to get to know each other; it wasn't love at first sight. I don't want to go into too much about Lend because the book did just come out recently, but I can tell you that he's sweet, interesting and not a jerk. White did tempt us though, making us think that he could be something more than what he claimed to be. However, I think a nice guy love interest is kind of exactly what the story called for. Evie wants a normal teenage experience and life, so she kinda needed to have a normal love interest. Plus, PARANORMALCY isn't really a romance. At it's heart, there's a mystery going on, so the romance aspect doesn't need to be complicated.

Will - Will is the dragon hunter in love with a dragon in FIRELIGHT by Sophie Jordan. I don't wanna get into Will too much either since FIRELIGHT just came out. But, in the book, it's what Will's family does that makes conflict in the relationship. Will is a potential danger and that keeps him interesting, but he's a likeable guy. Just like PARANORMALCY, this book's storyline doesn't call for a complicated romance; it's Jacinda (the MC) that gives the book it's conflict.

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Alright, so that's all for the likeable guys. Honesty, I can't think of that many; all the ones I've encountered have been in recent releases. I know Rachel Morgan mentioned Jace from the MORTAL INSTRUMENTS series in yesterday's comments. I've only read the first book though (like 2 years ago) and it didn't particularly hook me, so I don't feel qualified to discuss him.

And now for my conclusions ... I think nice guys are typically featured in YA when the story doesn't call for any additional complications. With SHIVER, the main story was about keeping Sam human. In PARANORMALCY, it was the murders going on. In FIRELIGHT, it was keeping Jacinda's draki alive.Additionally, I think that nice guys are only used when the female MC is strong enough on her own.

Make sure to check back tomorrow to read the next post in my love and pain series.

In the meantime, can you think of any more nice guy love interests? Do you agree with my conclusions?

Unusual

2010-10-14T16:46:00.001+09:00

Alright, so today I'm supposed to be looking at some YA love interests. I'm actually going to be breaking this up into two parts. Today, I will be talking about the jerk love interest. Tomorrow, I will talk about the nice guy love interest. Obviously, I can't talk about all of them, so I'll be focusing on the most popular/ the most recent (that I've read). I don't think it'll come as any surprise who I start with.

Edward Cullen - The funny thing is, the first time I read the TWILIGHT books, I didn't see anything wrong with Edward. He was completely in love, sweet, protective, caring and a nice guy. But then I started reading blogs and visited different forums and saw a different side to him. Edward is pretty much a creep. I mean, he breaks into Bella's house to watch her sleep, he dismantles her truck so she can't visit a friend, he effectively has her kidnapped so she can't visit that friend, he's possessive and I'm sure there are some other things I'm forgetting. I'm actually going to forgive him for his actions in ECLIPSE (dismantling the truck and the kidnapping) because I hated Bella throughout that whole book. She's supposed to be marrying this guy, but she wants to keep running off with another guy who she knows is in love with her. Then, she even kisses the other guy. She was a bitch in ECLIPSE, but ... we're not talking about her. Even discounting his actions in ECLIPSE, Edward is still, at best, a stalker.

Jacob Black - I liked Jacob in NEW MOON, but that's where it stopped. I hated how Stephenie Meyer kept telling us that Jacob was the natural, normal choice for Bella and that Jacob was natural and normal. He wasn't (and I'm not talking about the werewolf part). Jacob was immature, reckless, played games and was more of a jerk than Edward. Edward was a creep, but he was a sweet creep. At points, Jacob was just an ass. I even felt like he only wanted to be with Bella sometimes to piss Edward off -- it was just one big pissing contest to him. I don't see how that's supposed to be a natural and normal relationship.

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When I was thinking about this post, I was listening to a Britney Spear's song and it sounded very appropriate. These lyrics are from the song "Unusual."

Baby, you're so unusual
Didn't anyone tell you, you're supposed to
Break my heart?
I expect you to, so why haven't you?
Maybe you're not even human 'cause,
Only an angel could be so unusual
Sweet surprise, I could get used to
Unusual you

So, guys are supposed to break your heart? That's what a typical, normal relationship is these days. Britney finds a guy who treats her right and thinks that he's unusual and can't possibly be human -- he has to be an angel. But, if you've read HUSH HUSH, you know that not even angels are like the man Britney describes.

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Patch Cipriano - Patch is the fallen angel love interest in HUSH HUSH* by Becca Fitzpatrick. He is single-handedly the worst love interest I have ever read. Ever. I actually read HUSH HUSH because I had read so many blog posts criticizing the relationship between the MC, Nora, and Patch. Anyway, for the majority of the book, Patch is trying to kill Nora. When he's not trying to kill her, he's sexually harrassing her (to the point were she feels uncomfortable). Several reviews (and even Nora herself at the end of the book) describe the uncomfort she feels around Patch as great sexual tension. Since when is feeling harassed sexual tension? Then there's the scene were she thinks he's going to rape her. Since when is fear sexual tension? I had so many problems with this book, but Patch as a love interest was the biggest.

*HUSH HUSH will be featured again in a later post as it played a part in inspiring my novel, SEEING.

Well, those are the love interests that I wanted to focus on today. I do realize that these three only come from a grand total of two books, but they seemed, to me, to be the most popular, swooned-after love interests in YA.

Normally, I'd write more, but I'm exhausted. I had to go to the Korean immigration office this morning before work to get my visa extended. Turns out my school forgot they had to do something and the whole trip was a waste (it takes over 2 hours to get there, then another 2 back, not to mention the waiting) and I have to go back tomorrow.

So, your turn. What do you think of these three love interests? Do the things they do bother you? Did you interpret HUSH HUSH differently? Or do you think Patch goes way beyond the typical bad boy into the realm of homicidal sexual predator? Is Jacob's immature game playing endearing? Does he represent a normal, healthy relationship as Stephenie Meyer claims? Or is he just an ass who's trying to best Edward? Is it sweet that Edward watches Bella sleep? Is he the perfect man? Or is he just a creep?

Blog Awards

2010-10-13T15:44:00.004+09:00

I was going to be posting about love interests in YA today, but I've gotten awarded three different awards this week. So, I wanted to get this post up before I forget someone or before the list grows any longer.

First, I got the "One Lovely Blog" Award from Jessica Stanford at Girl, Unpublished. This is my fourth time receiving this award. I really appreciate it and it means just as much as that first time. So, thanks Jessica! I won't be passing this award along though because I already did that maybe two weeks ago.

The second award comes from Tessa Quin at The Quest for a Literary Agent. She gave me the "Cherry on Top" Award. Thanks Tessa! I love it!

The rules for this award require me to thank the person who gave it to me. Already did that, but ... thanks, Tessa! Next, I need to answser a question: If I had the chance to go back and change one thing in my life, would I, and what would it be?

My answer: I'm not sure about this. Everything that's happened in my life has served some purpose in making me who I am now and/or taught me something. But I'm not one to turn down a free anything. So, I would go back and break up with my ex sooner (I wasted too much time).

And the last thing is to pass the award on to six people. The "Cherry on Top" Award goes to (in no particular order) ...

1. Scott @ Slice of diction pie
2. Pk Hrezo @ PK HREZO
3. The Golden Eagle @ The Eagle's Aerial Perspective
4. Colene Murphy @ The Journey - she likes Hocus Pocus!!!
5. N. R. Williams @ N. R. Williams, Fantasy Author
6. RaShelle Workman @ A No. 2 pencil stat!

And the third award comes from Jeffrey Beesler at Jeffrey Beesler's World of the Scribe. He had two awards up for grabs and allowed the participants to choose which one they wanted. I already had the "One Lovely Blog" Award, so I decided to take the other one; although, I'm not sure what it's called -- the "Happy 101" Award or maybe the "Sweet Friends" Award. I think it's the "Happy 101" Award, but I like "Sweet Friends" better. Anyway, thanks Jeffrey!

The rules of this award require me to thank the person who gave me the award (thanks Jeffrey!). The next step is to list ten things that I love.

1. I love my Galaxy S Android phone.
2. I love asparagus.
3. I love dressing up for Halloween. I'd dress up in costume every day of the year if it was socially acceptable.
4. I love wearing arm warmers (they're not just for girls).
5. I love wearing long socks -- I guess that's what you call them. Point is, I love socks that come up to my knees and if they're some crazy color, even better.
6. I love to buy art supplies even though I probably never use half of what I buy.
7. Damn, this is starting to get hard now. I love getting blog awards.
8. I love drinking coffee, but kinda hate making my own. This is because I don't have a huge, expensive espresso machine at home -- just a normal, stupid coffee maker.
9. I love eating American Chinese food. Korean Chinese food is really just Korean food and it sucks. I just want orange chicken and egg drop soup ... is that so hard?
10. I love changing my look by either dying my hair, cutting my hair in some weird way, getting a piercing or tattoo, wearing funky colored contacts or completely changing my style. I get bored easily.

And the last step is to pass the award along to six people (well, up to six). So, in no particular order, the "Sweet Friends" Award goes to ...

1. Patricia A. Timms @ Simplicity in Volumes
2. Rachel Morgan @ Rachel Morgan Writes
3. Rachael Harrie @ Rach Writes ...
4. Elena Solodow @ You're Write. Except when you're Rong
5. Tessa Quin @ The Quest for a Literary Agent
6. Misha @ My First Book

It was really hard who to pick to get the awards ... I'm following a huge number of great blogs. Anyway, thanks Jessica, Tessa and Jeffrey for my awards!

Make sure to check out all the blogs I've listed as they're pretty awesome. And make sure to check back tomorrow for my next post in the love and pain series.

Effortless

2010-10-12T14:21:00.000+09:00

I don't know how many of you watch SEX AND THE CITY, but one episode, combined with the whole "no pain, no gain" idea, inspired the first of my love posts.

Anyway, the episode I'm talking about (season 3, episode 38) is when Carrie and Aiden have been dating for a while and everything is going along smoothly (not the episode the pic on the left is actually from). They literally have no problems in their relationship. Aiden even asks her in this episode to meet his parents (something Big had not done and which pissed her off).

However, throughout the episode, Carrie keeps bolting awake at night in terror. She can't figure out why ... that is, until she talks to the girls and realizes it's her relationship that's bothering her. She's used to playing games. She's used to fighting. Here's how the conversation goes ...

Carrie: It's just smooth sailing, nothing but calm seas and blue horizons, as far as the eye can see. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Miranda: Absolutely! There's not a cloud in sight.
Carrie: We adore each other, we have fun together, we mesh.
Charlotte: And that is a problem?
Carrie: No, it's just, well, it's just, it feels odd. You know, I'm used to the hunt, and this is effortless. It's, just, it's freaking me out.
Samantha: I totally understand, you're not getting the stomach flip.
Miranda: Which is really just a fear of losing the guy.
Carrie: Maybe I'm just not used to someone who doesn't do the ever seductive withholding dance.

Carrie actually spends this entire episode making problems between her and Aiden. At the end of the episode, they make up and Carrie gets to pretend like she learned something when really all she did was create drama so that she could feel better when she solved it.

Now to relate this back to writing and books ... why are practically all of the love interests in YA jerks and assholes (or homicidal angels or sweet, but creepy stalker vampires)? I think it goes back to what Carrie says ("[we're] used to the hunt") and to what I said on Saturday. We've been conditioned as a society to think that unless there is pain, what we're getting probably isn't any good; if we don't have to work at something, it's not worth it.

I understand that we need conflict in our books, but surely there are other ways to do it. Tomorrow, I'm going to be looking at various love interests from YA and exploring this idea more in-depth.

But in the meantime, what do you think? Can't there actually be a healthy, normal relationship in a YA book? Can't there be a nice guy as a love interest -- a nice guy who actually gets the girl in the end? Or does the love interest have to be a bad boy? Why? Is a relationship that's effortless somehow seem less real?

I'm a Zombie AKA The First Novel That Moved Me

2010-10-11T14:33:00.001+09:00

My mom read to me at night when I was a kid. When I got a little older, we would make weekly visits to the library -- I didn't even limit myself to the kids section; I loved mythology and would raid the adult section. But then, I grew up and stopped reading.

I think when I was in sixth grade, my mom convinced me to read THE HOBBIT. I loved it and moved on to THE LORD OF THE RINGS. The first two books, I loved. Then I got to RETURN OF THE KING and ... I don't know what happened. I have tried several times to read that book and I just can't make myself finish it.

Then in high school, I had to read all the novels that students normally read. I was already getting tired of reading because of my experience with RETURN OF THE KING, when I was assigned JUDE THE OBSCURE by Thomas Hardy. That book killed reading for me. Killed it, nailed the coffin shut and buried it deep, deep in the ground.* Seriously, I hated that book so much. If that was supposed to be a classic, that didn't say much for anything else.

* I think IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS by Tim O'Brien and HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad may have been there helping toss dirt over the corpse of my reading self.

See, I came to think that all reading was like JUDE THE OBSCURE. And if all reading was like that ... then I was done.

That all changed after I saw HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE. I had thought that the books looked childish, so I hadn't even thought of reading them, but then the trailers for the movie looked good. I went and saw it, loved it and wanted to know what happened next. It took a movie to make me want to read!

That weekend I went out and bought all the books (only the first four were out). I didn't even have to finish SORCERER'S STONE before I was hooked on reading again. My reading self came back to life (see, I'm a zombie).

Now, don't get me wrong, I read some good books before I got to HARRY POTTER, but none of them really had any impact on me. HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE was the first novel to really move me and to have a lasting effect on me.

After reading that first book and the next three, I was in love with reading and wanted more (ORDER OF THE PHOENIX was still two years away). I went on Harry Potter forums and message boards and looked for recommendations. That's how I found my love for middle grade and YA. That's how, when I started writing, I knew I wanted to write YA.

I know we credit HARRY POTTER with getting kids to start reading again, but in my case, it got an adult to start reading again.

If you'd like to participate or read the other participants' posts, head over to Brad Jaeger's blog. But, before you do that, share your thoughts here ...

Do you like JUDE THE OBSCURE? Can you tell me why? Has there been any book you've read that's had a particularly negative or positive impact on you?

And the Winner is ...

2010-10-10T14:52:00.000+09:00

First thing, Misha at My First Book has given me a blog award. True, it's the third time I've recieved it, but it still feels great! Thanks Misha! And, if you guys haven't checked out her blog yet .... do so now.

Second thing, I made a mistake yesterday. I said that my love posts would begin tomorrow (Monday), totally forgeting that I'm participating in Brad Jaeger's blog hop tomorrow. So, tomorrow check in to see the first novel that moved me (click here if you'd like to participate) and then come back on Tuesday for the first post in my love series.

Third thing, I never thought my giveaway would bring 64 new followers to my blog. It's amazing! I want to thank all of you for following (new and old followers alike)! Getting to know you guys has really been the best thing about doing this blog.

Fourth thing ... alright there is no fourth thing.

The winner of my 100 Follower Giveaway is .... Tessa Quin!

The winner was selected using randomizer.org

Tessa, send over your query or first chapter to seeingdreamingwriting (at) gmail (dot) com and let me know which email you'd like your $40 Amazon gift card sent to.

Have a great Sunday everyone! And thanks for participating in my giveaway!

No Pain, No Gain

2010-10-09T12:57:00.001+09:00

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

You will not learn much about life if you are always comfortable.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

I teach TOEFL writing and speaking to middle school students in Korea. Yesterday, in one of my writing classes, we did the above prompt. While brainstorming, one of my students said that it was kinda like the expression "no pain, no gain."

You're probably still wondering which direction I'm going to go with this post. Well, first I just want to say that "no pain, no gain" goes perfectly with the topic of yesterday's post -- putting your characters through hell. Without conflict and pain, the story can't move forward; in fact, there wouldn't be much of a story at all. But why?

We as a society have been programed to think that if we don't have to work for something, if we don't have to overcome any challenges or problems, then whatever the thing is can't be worth it. We're supposed to fight for what we want. We're supposed to fight for what we believe in. We're supposed to fight. And if we can't ... well, then it wasn't worth it.

Does that sound right to you? Sure, it has a positive message and all, but it teaches us to be wary of getting something for nothing. It teaches us to fear and distrust good things in our lives.

There are so many different ways I can take this, but I'm going to be focusing on this in relation to love. By now, I think you should have realized that I like doing series of posts -- looking at things from different angles. So, that's what I'll be doing with this.

Tomorrow, I'll be announcing the winner of my giveaway and then, on Monday, I'll be beginning a new series of posts focused on love and how "no pain, no gain" fits into that. In the meantime (and your answer doesn't have to be love related) ...

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

No pain, no gain.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Kick Em When They're Down!

2010-10-08T14:27:00.000+09:00

I sat down to write the other day and felt a kind of camaraderie with J.K. Rowling.

I've put the main character of SEEING (Eden) through so much hell. Seriously, he doesn't get a moments peace. Anyway, I had just finished dealing him another blow when I realized the way I was feeling must have been the way J.K. Rowling felt when she wrote THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX.

That was a seriously bad year for Harry. Let's do a recap of what Harry went through ...

First, no one believes his story about Voldemort coming back.

Then, he suspects he's being possessed after he witnesses Mr. Weasley being attacked and almost killed.

Through all of this, Dumbledore refuses to talk to him.

Then, when he's plotting Mars (at least I think it was Mars) on his star chart, Hagrid and McGonigall are attacked. McGonigall is taken to St. Mungo's and Hagrid flees.

But that wasn't enough for Rowling and she had Umbridge ban Harry from playing quidditch -- the one thing that brought Harry any joy -- and take away his broom.

She still wasn't done though. To top it all off, she killed Sirius, Harry's godfather and the only family he had left. Oh, but there's more. Sirius died because Harry -- quite unlike an elephant who never forgets -- forgot Snape was in the Order and could help.

Harry had one rough year, but let's get back to me. So, I was feeling this great camaraderie with J.K. Rowling and wanted to share that with my fellow bloggers. When I went to Rachael Harrie's blog, I saw that she had posted the first challenge for the crusaders. You see, Rachael started this Writers' Platform-Building Crusade. Anyone can sign up; all they have to do is follow Rachael and comment on her original post. The point of the crusade is to help each other build an online platform and to just generally help each other out with this whole blogging thing.

And here we are. See, I figured that Rachael's first challenge would be the perfect opportunity to share how I felt when I put my character through all that pain and how I felt this sense of camaraderie with a truly great author. All I had to do was write a post starting with "I sat down to write the other day and;" include the completely random words quidditch, elephant and Mars; follow all the other Crusaders; post the other Crusaders' blogs in my sidebar and then link back to the challenge post. And now that I've shared my story, it's your turn ...

Do you enjoy putting your characters through hell? Do you like to kick em when they're down? Or is that too cruel?

It's a Boo-Fest!

2010-10-07T14:32:00.003+09:00

So, that shiny new button on my sidebar (or the pic to the left) ... well it's time to find out what it's all about.

Have you ever seen a ghost or know anyone who has?

Join Patricia A. Timms and I for a Boo-Fest and share your story.

Patrica and I have been relating over our own ghost experiences and that got us wondering how many of you have experiences of your own. Well, we want to hear what you've seen, heard and witnessed (or what your friends have witnessed if you don't have a story of your own).

To join, all you have to do is sign up using our linky tool below (anytime between now and October 28th), grab the button from my sidebar (or Patricia's) and write. The only requirement is that it has to be a TRUE story.

On Thursday, October 28th, post your real life haunting story and visit the other participants to read theirs -- just in time for Halloween!

Sign up here or over at Simplicity in Volumes and join in on the fun!

Why I Hate Superman

2010-10-06T14:36:00.000+09:00

First order of business ... Serena has awarded me a blog award. I just want to say thanks to her and that I really appreciate it! If you haven't checked out Serena's blog, I see you see, you should definitely head over now (well, not right now -- read my post first) and follow. Thanks Serena!

Second order of business ... You may have noticed that shiny new button on the sidebar of my blog. Or perhaps you noticed the same shiny new button over at Patricia A. Timms' blog, Simplicity in Volumes. What is it, you may be wondering. Well, Patricia and I will be co-hosting a blogfest. Full details will be provided tomorrow -- check back here or at Patricia's blog (preferably both).

Now ... on to the Man of Steel.

At some point or another, I have been into just about every superhero there is ... with one exception. I hate Superman. Hate him. Why? Simple ... he's too good!

Zack Snyder has just been confirmed to direct the upcoming Superman reboot, but he was actually offered the job for Superman Returns a few years back. He turned them down for the exact reason I just mentioned. Superman is kinda the king of superheroes, but he's just too damn perfect. Alright, so his exact words were he wasn't sure he could sell Superman's earnestness to a sophisticated audience. But that goes along with the perfect thing I'm talking about. Superman is so good and focused and serious about being good. There's nothing else to him.

Yesterday, j.leigh.bailey had up a great post (The Baddest of Good Guys). You should definitely read it (again, after you finish reading my post ... and after you visit Serena's). But basically, she talked about good guys who are bad and how bad is too bad. I had already had the idea for today's post which goes to show that good minds think alike. Anyway, I want to talk about good guys who are too good.

During The Great Blogging Experiment (and for many days after), a lot of people blogged about flaws and how characters needed them to be real. This is so important because it's just impossible to relate to a perfect character.

But you're probably saying, "Superman does have flaws -- he has those glasses and he's clumsy." The thing is, those are flaws that he's taken on to appear more like us. They're not real flaws. When he's not acting human, Superman is literally a boy scout and perfect.

I've tried to like Superman, but I just can't relate. On the other hand, I love Smallville, which features a young Superman. The difference is, on Smallville he's not Superman yet -- he's just a guy learning about his powers, making mistakes and being stupid (seriously, the guy never never listens to his friends or will admit that he's wrong). I can relate to that version of Superman.

Now ... to get away from the Man of Steel.

When we read, we're not watching a real person up on the screen. Therefore, the writer needs to work harder to make their characters come alive and seem real. Part of this is making the character relatable. I can't think of anyone who can relate to a perfect person.

There is such a thing as too good. Your characters need to have flaws. They need to have darkness inside them. They need to have doubts, to make mistakes. They need to live.

Do you like Superman? Can you relate to him? Do you think there's such a thing as too good?

Originality and Perfection

2010-10-05T15:17:00.000+09:00

Wow! I expected to get some new followers as a result of my giveaway, but I never imagined it would be 27!

I just want to thank all of my new followers! I hope you enjoy the blog. And I want to thank my old followers -- you guys are AMAZING and it's been great getting to know all of you! Also, thanks to everyone who's been blogging, tweeting, facebooking or otherwise getting the word out about my giveaway! I really appreciate it.

There was a great response yesterday to my superpower/ telekinesis rant; so, I wanted to devote a whole post to it.

I've always been fascinated with superpowers. I grew up watching X-Men -- I would watch the cartoon every day after school. I've read some of the comics too; although, I'm don't really keep up with the comics. I've also watched the cartoon that came out a few years ago (X-Men Evolution -- that's the cartoon the pic on the right is from) ... in addition to all the movies. I loved HEROES when it was on (even though it kinda went downhill after season one) -- I even have 2 tattoos inspired by it. PUSH wasn't a great movie, but I liked it. Sarah Cross's DULL BOY was really good. At some point in the near future, I'll be reading THE RISE OF RENEGADE X by Chelsea Campbell. The point is, anything superpower related, I'm into.

My first book, THE GATEWAY, features superpowers. I come up with an origin for my powers that's original. But when I was assigning characters powers, I had some trouble.

There have been so many books, comics, TV shows and movies featuring superpowers. I felt like there was nothing new. I know that writers always say that there's no such thing as an original idea; we're supposed to just put a new spin on things. But that wasn't good enough for me -- I knew I couldn't realistically give every character a completely unique power, but I could give some of them unique powers.

So, I have most of the traditional powers. A guy from Iran can create fire. An Indian girl has telekinesis. A girl from Korea can see the future. An Australian guy can control electricity and technology. The MC's best friend is a telepath. A British guy can fly. A Russian guy is like a human GPS. A French girl can see ghosts. An American guy can heal.

I wasn't happy with traditional though. Each of these characters has a unique spin on their power. For example, the British guy who can fly is able to do this because he can control air (it's called aerokinesis) -- flying isn't his only power. The Indian girl with telekinesis has an incredibly advanced level of control over it and has given herself telekinetic plastic surgery so that she's incredibly beautiful.

Actually, as an aside, the Indian girl was inspired by Ivanka Trump. I think that Ivanka is incredibly beautiful, but there's something about her that's just not ... right. Each aspect of her face is perfect when taken alone, but just looking at her, something's off. That's how I imagined the Indian girl. She's made every aspect of herself perfect, so she's beautiful. But ... she's too perfect and something just looks off.

But in addition to these powers, I have four powers that I feel are entirely original and they've been given to some pretty important characters -- my MC, the antagonist of book one, the antagonist of book two and the antagonist of book three. I won't go into all of them cause that will spoil the book (when's it's published and you can all actually read it, I mean) and it took me a long time to think them up.

_____________________________________________________

So, what I want to ask you today, do you think there are any original ideas left? Do you ever get discouraged and think that everything's been done? Or, does that just inspire you to push that much harder?

My Theory on Superpowers ... and Other Things

2010-10-04T14:00:00.004+09:00

So, I first saw this a few days ago on Renae Mercado's blog. She tagged everyone who read her post. I didn't feel like doing it at the time because I was in the middle of my evil posts; so, I snuck away and pretended I had never seen it. Then yesterday, I saw it again on The Golden Eagle's blog and Rashelle Workman's blog. It's getting harder and harder to avoid this thing; so, I'm caving.

1. If you could have a superpower, what would it be? Why?
Telekinesis. If you've ever talked to me, you'll have heard my theory on telekinesis. Basically, telekinesis is the basis for every other power. Think about it. Flying is just moving yourself off the ground (just look at Jean Grey from X-Men). Creating fire is just speeding up -- moving -- molecules. Freezing is just slowing down -- moving -- molecules. Shapeshifting is just rearranging -- moving -- your own molecules. Every power can be broken down into telekinesis. Sure, it would take an immense level of control, but with telekinesis you could theoretically have every other power -- except maybe telepathy (I haven't figured out a way to explain that in terms of telekinesis ... yet).

2. Who is your style icon?
Umm ... I'm not sure I have one. Saying Lady Gaga would be weird, but hear me out -- she dresses how she wants, she dresses creatively and she's not afraid to do her own thing. I still don't know what she was thinking with the "meat dress," but I respect her.

3. What is your favorite quote?
КТО НЕ РИСКУЕТ, РИСКУЕТ БОЛШЬЕ ВСЕХ

It means: The one who doesn't risk, risks most of all. It's the tagline to the movie PROOF -- an American movie, but I saw it when I was living in Russia.

4. What is the best compliment you've ever received?
I think gaining close to 80 followers in the span of a week is a pretty big compliment!

5. What playlist/cd is on your ipod/cd player right now?
I don't have a cd player and I don't use my ipod anymore. So, I'll tell you what's on my Galaxy S -- smart phone from Samsung and major competitor for the iphone if you don't know. Anyway, Lady Gaga ... always lots of Lady Gaga. Plus, Ke$ha ... I like her, too.

6. Are you a night owl or a morning person?
Night. I HATE waking up in the morning.

7. Do you prefer dogs or cats?
I like the way cats look -- I think there's something evil looking about them (especially black cats). But, I prefer dogs.

8. What is the meaning behind your blog name?
I see things, I dream and then I write what I've seen and dreamt. As for the tagline ("save a cheerleader, write a novel"), check my about page for an explanation of that, but basically it's cause an episode of HEROES inspired a dream which inspired my first book.

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I'm not going to tag anyone. If you want to answer the questions, feel free. But ... I am going to add a question to the list and I'd like you all to answer in the comments.

9. Do you prefer coffee or tea?

Alright, so the question's kinda stupid, but it's all I got. I'll go first ... coffee.

100 Follower Giveaway!

2010-10-03T14:26:00.001+09:00

I was a little worried I'd be stuck on 99 followers forever, but it happened. Today, I have reached 100 followers!

I want to thank all of you for following! Please refer to the left -- I hope your language made it on there.

Anyway, I'm so glad you came and keep coming back! I've really enjoyed meeting all of you and getting to know you. This whole blogging community is great and you guys are the best.

Alright, enough with that (you guys are great though), I said that when I reached 100 followers, I would have a giveaway.

I've been thinking about what I should give away for the past week. I don't have any signed books. I don't have any signed anything. I don't have a lot of books -- I read most of my books on my Kindle because it's hard to get them here in Korea. So ... what should I give away?

Well, most of us are writers and ... readers. So, books, or rather, money for books seems appropriate.

I will be giving away a $40 gift card to Amazon! PLUS I will offer a critique of a query or first chapter (let's say, under 15 pages)!

To enter, you just have to leave a comment below. Old followers (Follower #100 and before) will receive +2 entries. New followers will get +1.

You can also gain extra entries as follows:

+5 for blogging about this giveaway (leave a link to the post with your comment).
+2 for tweeting or mentioning the giveaway on facebook or myspace (just leave a link with your comment).

And that's it! Just comment and let me know how many entries you have. The giveaway will close next Saturday at midnight EDT (That's 1PM Sunday my time -- I just wanted to add that so I don't get mixed up). So, once again, thanks to all of you for following!

Something Unexpected

2010-10-02T12:52:00.000+09:00

So, why do I have a pumpkin in my sidebar? Well, the pumpkin is for NaBloWriMo which is a writing challenge: blog each and every day. Since I was already doing that, I figured I'd sign up.

Anyway, I wasn't sure what to write about today. I was checking all the comments and love the response I got to both of my villain/ evil posts; so, I've decided to continue that.

____________________ Evil, Part Three ____________________

I love evil kids! Love them. Everybody knows the OMEN movies -- the first three and then the remake featuring a little boy as the villain and the fourth movie featuring a little girl. Then, there was Macaulay Culkin in THE GOOD SON. AnnaSophia Robb in THE REAPING. I don't know the name of the actress, but there was Gabrielle's daughter, Hope, in XENA. And ... Isabelle Fuhrman in ORPHAN. ORPHAN was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. It made me not EVER want to adopt (and adoption was something that I've always considered).

So those were all movies. What about books? I actually haven't seen many evil kids in books. I mean, you have Draco Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins in HARRY POTTER, but they're more bullies than they are villains. And I think the same can be said for most bad kids in books -- they're bullies, not out and out evil.

I think we need to see more evil kids.

In the comments to my last post, Scott posted a quote from THE USUAL SUSPECTS:

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that, poof. He's gone."

Then, went on to say: I think females pull that off much easier.

Well, I think a kid can pull it off even easier than a woman can. Don't get me wrong, I still love and prefer female villains, but seeing a kid being evil ... it's just on a different level.

The thing with kids is they're supposed to be innocent; so, putting them in an evil role is the last thing we'd expect. We also tend to gloss over anything bad a kid might do -- they were just playing or it was an accident, etc. This is especially true if it's our kid who's the wrongdoer. Because of this, kids can get away with a lot more and operate in the shadows for even longer.

Plus, there's something extra disturbing about seeing a kid performing whatever evil deeds they're doing. That disturbing aspect adds something to the evil; it's not just normal evil anymore, it's somehow more. I suspect this may be even more disturbing for a lot of you because I know a lot of my followers have kids.

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Do you like books or movies that feature a child as the antagonist/ villain? Do you think a child makes a good villain? Or is it just too disturbing?

On a slightly different note, do you think a child villain is believable or even plausible?