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Archive for August, 2012

I’m Finished With My WIP…Maybe

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2012| 24 Comments »

I have a serious dilemma. Or should I say a series dilemma? Here’s the deal. I just finished the last chapter of Soul of a Vampire. But I think this book might have the potential of being the first in the series. I THINK. If it’s going to be a stand alone, I need to stop it where it is. But if it’s going to be a series, there’s an epilogue I need to write to hint at whose story might come next. I don’t know what to do. Many of you know my story of series writing. I wrote Guardian Vampire and a lot of readers wanted a sequel. But there was no sequel in my brain for it. So I wrote the Vampires’ Curse (Libby Fox) trilogy to please readers who liked series. It just doesn’t sell well. If it weren’t for Guardian Vampire and Haunted Lake, my sales would be TERRIBLE. Those two have always been my best sellers. And they’re stand alones. And they’re getting some age on them, so the momentum is slowing down. The only reason I hesitate to write a sequel to SoaV is because I was going to work on the book my husband thought of next. But I could put it off and write the sequel, then come back to the other one. However, I don’t want to disappoint my husband by putting off “his” book. Oh, what to do!

On the eating situation I was talking about earlier, I found that I can eat fish without the gag reflex taking over. I actually had for supper…sushi (not the raw kind), a few olives, and cheese & crackers. So I won’t have to revert to popcorn for supper again. LOL

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On a Vegetarian Kick?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 30, 2012| 13 Comments »

The title is a little misleading, since I really don’t like most veggies. What I really mean is I’m going through one of my “meat makes me gag” stages. I fixed spaghetti the other day because that’s what hubby wanted. He wanted me to make enough for him to have leftovers for work through the week. I did eat a plate of it, but my mouth and stomach were rebelling a bit. I’ve been through these phases before. Yesterday, for lunch, I got a veggie plate at the grocery store consisting of Mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Did I mention I don’t like veggies? I really tried to eat the green beans. I ate as many as I could before the gag reflex started. I think I’ll go for a salad at lunch today. But I’m trying to think up some good dishes to fix for myself that contain no meat. Keep in mind…I DON’T like most veggies. Did I say that already? LOL.

So, anyone got any ideas? I love onions. I like beans. I’m still going to try Kait Nolan‘s polenta recipe (I already have the yellow cornmeal). But I don’t like most green veggies. I like zucchini, but it has to be exactly the right texture. I LOVE cheese. I’m open to suggestions….

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A Question for Writers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 29, 2012| 18 Comments »

I have a fun question for you all, and I really hope I get some responses on this.

The Question: Do you ever envision certain actors playing the roles of your characters and, if so, who would you cast in the different roles?

I’ve always thought it would be fun to figure out who would play my characters in a movie. I even envision different actors playing roles in other people’s books. The one that I have the most trouble with is Agent Pendergast in the books by Lincoln and Child.I can’t for the life of me pick a good actor to play him.

How about it? Any ideas?

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Twilight vs. The Hunger Games?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 28, 2012| 10 Comments »

Hubby and I finally got around to watching The Hunger Games last night. I really enjoyed it. But I’m scratching my head about something. Why is everyone comparing this movie to Twilight? I’m hearing things like “this movie was so much better than Twilight” or “Katniss is a much better heroine than Bella”. But why are these two particular movies being compared in the first place? Twilight is a movie about vampires and it’s heavy on the romance. The Hunger Games is a movie about fighting to the death in a futuristic world and it’s sort of light on romance. I can only think of one thing that the movies have in common…they are both considered YA. That’s it. So I’m just kind of puzzled as to why they are being compared. I don’t get it.

As to whether or not I liked the movie, the answer would be a definite yes. It was pretty slow starting out, and hubby and I were kind of yawning over it, prepared to write it off as a movie we shouldn’t have spent money renting. But once the action started, it was pretty intense. Really brutal in places. So it’s a definite win for me.

As to whether or not I like it better than Twilight? I can’t really compare the two movies. Well, in the case of Twilight, there’s more than one movie, but I consider them all parts of a whole. If I HAD to pick, it would have to be Twilight. Mostly because it’s more my thing. Yeah, yeah, I know Bella is annoying. And Edward is controlling. But Jacob…now there’s someone that makes the movie worth watching. LOL If only Bella had made the right choice….

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Sunday Update 8/26/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 26, 2012| 12 Comments »

I almost forgot to post today! I never miss posting on Sundays, but last week was so disrupted because of my trip to Chicago. I guess my days got mixed up. Anyway, I had a little progress this week, but not as much as I had hoped. I was sleepy all day Saturday. I just couldn’t get to all the things I wanted to do. I had no energy, and I kept falling asleep every time I started to watch something on TV. I think my body was making up for all the sleep I’m NOT getting lately (for one reason or another).

Here’s the word count: Tuesday-1096, Friday-1500. It was only two days, but the word counts were good on those days, so I’m okay with it. This book only has a few more scenes left before it’s finished. I’m still trying to figure out the love scene for the ending. I don’t think it necessarily needs the characters to have sex, but at the same time I get a little flack in reviews when my characters DON’T have sex. Whatever I decide, I’m certainly not going to tell since there are a few of you who I know will read the book. In fact, I’m not sure there necessarily has to be a steamy love scene at all, given the circumstances. See, now I’m really confusing everyone. LOL. But I’ll write what I feel when I write it.

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Heading Home…Eventually.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 22, 2012| 15 Comments »

I have no idea what my word count is right now. All I know is that I wrote a scene last night.

The person who booked my flight booked it for eight hours after the conference was over. So I’m sitting in an airport right now with my flight hours away.

I won an onion sculpture at the conference (donated by an onion farm). I had a little trouble at the airport. They had to pull me and my backpack aside where they proceeded to test it for SOMETHING, then they pulled out the sculpture and had to do further X-rays. I was very calm, didn’t get upset, and the TSA agent then told me how awesome she thought the sculpture was. The best thing to do in these situations is try not to get upset. Things will usually go better.

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In Chicago

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 20, 2012| 8 Comments »

My posting and commenting may be sporadic the next few days. I’m on a business trip in Chicago. I flew in this morning and took the train to what I THOUGHT was the station closest to my hotel. Blue line Grand and Red line Grand is NOT the same thing. Grand is a really long street. I had to walk for an hour with a heavy backpack on my back to get to my hotel. Then I had to have a shower because I SWEATED. Bleh.

On a funny note. I forgot to turn off the sound on my cell phone. Luckily the speaker of the hour had just dismissed us when I got a text message. I got a few smiles. My message says “Giles, I accidentally killed Spike. That’s okay, right?”

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Sunday Update 8/19/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 19, 2012| 14 Comments »

Writing is going well, I think. I finally got the chapter done where the hero and heroine meet the three challenges. It wasn’t too hard to write once I figured out what I wanted to do with each riddle. I didn’t spend a great amount of time on each one, although there is some action in the scenes, because the REAL challenge is coming up. This is where they will be fighting the creature. And I’m trying to draw a picture of it in my mind. I want it to be a really scary creature. 🙂

Here are my word counts: Mon-435, Tues-1648, Thurs-1001, Sat-847

How are you guys doing? Or, now that most of you know I have a southern accent…how are ya’ll doin’?

P.S. If you didn’t see my post from yesterday, and you want to see a good action-packed movie, check out The Expendables 2!

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The Expendables 2

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 18, 2012| 4 Comments »

I absolutely cannot describe how much I loved this movie. I know it’s not going to be for everyone. It’s very action-packed and quite violent at times, so you have to like that kind of movie. But seeing all those veteran action movie stars together in one movie just made me want to do the fist pump. Stallone, Statham, Schwarzenegger, Norris, Van Damme, Lundgren….and more. Jet Li was in it for a short scene. I had no idea Jean-Claude Van Damme was going to be in this movie. He plays a VERY bad man. And he did it so well!

I kept thinking the young guy that was with them looked SO familiar. He looked like someone, but I couldn’t figure it out. I began to think he looked a little like Chris Hemsworth (Thor). Well, no wonder. It was his brother, Liam! And yes, he’s eye candy just like his brother.

One thing I was really hoping for was a fight scene between Jason Statham and Jean-Claude Van Damme. They are two of my favorite martial artists. I remember the first time I ever saw Statham, the sheer beauty of his fighting style took my breath away. He makes everything so SMOOTH. But, alas, both of them ended up fighting other people. Statham got to fight another martial artist. But Van Damme fought someone who was more of a…brawler. LOL. I won’t say who fought who because that might be a spoiler.

Anyway, some people, I’m sure, will find all kinds of criticisms about the movie. It always happens. Everyone doesn’t like everything. But, I was at the edge of my seat the whole movie. There was so much action! And there were some laugh out loud moments, especially when references to some other movies the stars were in were mentioned. All in all, it was such an entertaining movie for me. This is one time when I liked the sequel better than the original, although I did like the first one. This is one I would watch again in a heartbeat.

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When is a Book Too Long?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 17, 2012| 23 Comments »

The last two books I read were too long. They felt like they went on and on and…. But the question is, what made them too long? I personally don’t like really long books as a general rule. The only time I do is when I’m so involved in the story that I want it to keep going. That’s how I felt when I read 11/22/63. I was so involved with the story and the characters, I felt like I was there. That RARELY happens with most books I read. That doesn’t mean they aren’t good books, they just don’t have what a Stephen King novel has.

The two books I read were too long for different reasons. The first one was too long because it described EVERYTHING. And I mean that literally. I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t want anyone to know the book I’m talking about, but there were times when I had to skim over the details. It was a great story. There was just too much of it. (So Susan, don’t give me too hard of a time about describing food. At least that’s interesting to SOME people. LOL.) But, seriously, this story could have been shorter and would have still been good. I hate it when I’m checking the percentage read on my Kindle constantly to see if I’m almost done with it.

The second story was too long because things kept happening that I didn’t think were necessary. The characters had too much conflict in too many different situations. And the situations were too drawn out. Just when you thought things were coming to a close, something else would happen. And that’s okay for awhile, but it made the book soooo long, much longer than it needed to be.

I do want to mention that both of these books have good reviews. So apparently not everyone feels the way I do. I know a lot of people like long books, but I’m not one of them…unless the book NEEDS to be long to tell the story. I just see too much word padding and scene padding that seems it’s just to make a book longer.

How do you guys feel about this? Have you read books that seemed to go on forever? Do you like long books, short books, or does it depend on how much time you have? I really would love to hear what you think.

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