Posts Tagged ‘Twilight’

What’s on my iPod : All I Need by Within Temptation

Only One Week Left in the Contest!

It’s a Twitter follower contest! @briaquinlan, @catehart, @mgbuehrlen and I (@dyromance) were talking about unrealistic goals. We decided to set an unrealistic goal for Twitter followers and then see if we could get it. So now it is up to you all to help us meet our #unrealisticgoals! Don’t forget to tweet about the contest to earn an extra entry each week!

Last week’s winners to be announced soon!

Rules:

• Winners will be chosen from new and existing followers. For each person followed, you will earn additional entries. So if you follow one person = 1 entry. If you follow all 4 of us = 4 entries.
• One additional entry per week will be added for retweeting the contest information. Use the #unrelisticgoals hash tag and be sure to post a link to your tweet in your comments each week.
• You must post on one of our blogs what your Twitter name is, which prize you want for that week, and provide a link to that week’s tweet about the contest. That means you will need to post in one of our blogs each week of the contest to get your first choice of prize.
• Winner’s names will be drawn and they will be contacted via direct message on Twitter.

Prizes:

Week 1 Giveaway (2 Winners)

1 Custom Tshirt (this is the approximate image, but since it is custom on my hoodie, it may vary)

The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff

Week 2 Giveaway (2 Winners)

1 critique of a query Cate Hart

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Week 3 Giveaway (5 Winners – 1 winner of 3 books, 1 winner of 2 YA books, and 3 winner of one critique)

Mistress by Mistake by Maggie Robinson  

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Dead by Midnight by Beverly Barton

Party by Tom Leveen (YA)

Stolen by Lucy Christopher (ARC) (YA)

1 10 page critique by Cate Hart (will critique whatever you like, but experience is in YA)

1 10 page critique by MG (no erotic romance, please)

1 10 page critique by Bria Quinlan (no erotic romance, please)

Note: The critique winners will need to coordinate with Cate, MG, and Bria to coordinate with their schedules.

Time frame:
June 14th and to July 2nd = 3 weeks

Our Blogs:

Cate Hart http://catehart.com/ – you’ll want to leave a comment below on my page, too!

MG Buehrlen CONTEST PAGE HERE Official home page – (http://www.mgbuehrlen.com/Home.html)

Bria Quinlan CONTEST PAGE HERE Officail home page – (http://briaspage.wordpress.com/)

Danielle Yockman CONTEST PAGE HERE Official home page – (http://dyockman.wordpress.com/)

Info on each of the books:

Mistress by Mistake by Maggie Robinson (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6954705-mistress-by-mistake)

Scandal Is Only The Beginning…

Charlotte Fallon let her guarded virtue fall once–and she’s paid dearly for it ever since. She swore she’d never succumb to men’s desires again. But even a village spinster’s life miles from temptation can’t save her from a sister with no shame whatsoever. Or a heart that longs for more, whatever the cost…

Sir Michael Bayard found more than he expected in his bed when he finally joined his new mistress. He’d fantasized about her dewy skin and luscious curves, assured her understanding that what passed between them was mere dalliance. But he didn’t expect the innocence and heat of her response in his arms. Nor her surprisingly sharp tongue once she was out of them…

A few days of abandon cannot undo the hard-learned lessons of a lifetime. Nor can an honest passion burn away the restraints of society’s judgments. Unless, of course, one believes in nonsense like true love…

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6696602-infinity)

At fourteen, Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything about the world around him. Streetwise, tough and savvy, his quick sarcasm is the stuff of legends. . .until the night when his best friends try to kill him. Saved by a mysterious warrior who has more fighting skills than Chuck Norris, Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity.

Nick quickly learns that the human world is only a veil for a much larger and more dangerous one: a world where the captain of the football team is a werewolf and the girl he has a crush on goes out at night to stake the undead.

But before he can even learn the rules of this new world, his fellow students are turning into flesh eating zombies. And he’s next on the menu.

As if starting high school isn’t hard enough. . .now Nick has to hide his new friends from his mom, his chainsaw from the principal, and keep the zombies and the demon Simi from eating his brains, all without getting grounded or suspended. How in the world is he supposed to do that?

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1137215.Boneshaker)

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

Dead by Midnight by Beverly Barton (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6712415-dead-by-midnight)

IN MURDER

The last sounds Dean Wilson hears are a clock striking twelve and a killer’s taunting words. And his death is just the first. One by one, victims are stalked and shot at close range. Only the killer knows their sins, and who will be the next to die at midnight…

AND IN LIFE

In the ten years since her Hollywood career imploded, Lorie Hammonds has built a good life in her Alabama hometown. When the first death threat arrives, she assumes it’s a joke. Then she gets a second note. Sheriff Mike Birkett, her high-school sweetheart, has avoided Lorie since she returned to Dunmore, but when investigators uncover her connection to a string of recent murders, he’s drawn into a case that’s terrifyingly personal.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

With every murder, the killer edges closer. Soon Lorie’s will be the last name left on his list. Her only hope is to unearth a deadly secret-before the clock runs out for good…

The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff (ARC) (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6013847-the-bride-s-farewell)

On the morning of her wedding, Pell Ridley creeps out of bed in the dark, kisses her sisters goodbye and flees. She takes the only thing that truly belongs to her: Jack, a white horse. The road ahead is rich with longing, silence and secrets, and each encounter leads her closer to the untold story of her past.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6408862-stolen)

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don’t exist – almost.

Party by Tom Leveen (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6251198-party)

It’s saturday night in Santa Barbara and school is done for the year. Everyone is headed to the same party. Or at least it seems that way. The place is packed. The beer is flowing. Simple, right? But for 11 different people the motives are way more complicated. As each character takes a turn and tells his or her story, the eleven individuals intersect, and reconnect, collide, and combine in ways that none of them ever saw coming.

 

What’s on my iPod : Everybody by Autovaughn

My post is up today on Victoria Janssen’s blog. This week she is talking about vampires : why we love them and why we write them. In a word I love them, and right now, my favorite fictional vampire is Damon Salvatore.

 

Check out Victoria’s blog HERE.

Having Fun With Building Your Characters’ Paranormal World.

What’s on my iPad (that’s right I got one!) : Everlong by the Foo Fighters

          I’ve been so busy the past month with revisions on my requested manuscript that I haven’t been able to post. So today, I thought I would throw up my experience with world building since I’ve done quite a bit for BROKEN and REDD and because there’s a boon in paranormal both romance and young adult.

          When I decided that my first YA novel would involve a hero that was an angel, my mind went to work recollecting all the mythos, movies, and books I’d read. And the majority of what I pulled from came from movies, perhaps because the characteristics were more secular and that’s what I wanted.

          So when you first set out to create your own characters’ world, pull from what you already know. I think it’s easier to start there for two reasons : you’re already familiar with it, and more than likely it’s ingrained in your chosen markets’ heads (the readers of paranormal)

          When I started writing BROKEN, there were very few novels with angels as protagonists (now it’s a growing trend). And as writer, I wanted to steer clear of those novels as not to be influenced in my own world building. With say vampires, the lore is pretty much well established – it’s hard to escape it. But that’s not to say that as a writer you can’t get creative. In fact, agents and editors are looking for the more ingenious worlds because, sad to say, they are seeing TONS of vampire stories.

          As you sit down to put to your world on paper, write down those preconceived myths. For instance, with BROKEN, I knew a little about The Fallen (angels that fell when Lucifer did, ect) and the general assumption is that Fallen angels have been stripped of their wings. But my hero, Caleb, had his wings. The second scene I ever wrote was the hero revealing those wings to the heroine. And I also knew how he kept those wings hidden (no spoilers :>) So with that idea I had the first part of my world created, and had to come up with a reason that an angel would be in hiding on earth if he wasn’t one of the Fallen. So I created a new distinction among the angels called Renegades. They are hunted, and most likely if they are caught by Heaven they’ll be stripped of their wings, and if caught by Hell, they’ll burn in eternal damnation. <— more world building there. 

        So, the next step is write down a list of what is all ready out there. Then take those ingrained concepts and twist them to your benefit. The first prime example, from two VERY popular vampire series TWILIGHT and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, is the sunlight myth. Both Smith and Myer had to creatively get around the traditional myth of sunlight burning a vampire/ staying out of the sunlight/ only coming out at night but still get their high school age vampires in to high school. I actually prefer LJ Smith’s version. She uses rings with a special gemstone that Damon and Stefan wear. And on the TV show I love looking for new characters to see if they are wearing some piece of jewelry to give them away. Of course, Myer went out in left field, creating an anomaly where vampires sparkled in the sunlight. Still what a creative way to twist around a well conceived vampire myth and make it her own. It sold – gazillions! Another myth that both authors twisted to fit their worlds was the blood drinking. This is one of those myths that just can’t be fooled with too much. The whole point of a vampire is that is what he does – drinks human blood. The idea of vegetarian vampires, hillarious, actually worked – first for Smith because Stefan feeds only on animals while his brother Damon is more the monster and feeds on humans. And Myer took this concept and expanded it, making the Cullen family outcasts among all vampires for their odd eating practice. Even Charlaine Harris took a spin, her vampires drink synthetic blood that just like the real thing.

         Enough about vampires. But once you have plucked the myths and concepts to create your world, twisted them, used them, abused them for your benefit. Now it’s time to test those new theories.

         What I discovered while revising BROKEN is that my world kept shifting slightly. As I learned more about my characters, I found that they revealed things to me that had to be fit together a little bit differently. And then I had to create the other half of the spectrum, the world of demons. In essence, I was still adding to my world up until the day I sent my revised manuscript off.

          Finally, several thoughts. Always remember no matter what, this is your world that you created. If your vampires live off syrup, so be it. Just remember that part of creating your world is providing the back up evidence to support the why and how. Second, take notes, lots of notes. And research. You’d be amazed if I told you that a large chunk of my world, some of the terms and how the heirarchy works, came from a Role Playing Game. I was lucky I found it, but I learned a lesson. Always bookmark, jot down, copy and paste the info to a Word doc, because you may not find the site again. But you can find some very interesting ideas in the most random places. Never rule out anything.

So to summarize :

1) start a list of what you already know about your world, the myths, legends you already know

2) research those myths, legends, ect and take notes. Be sure to keep a hard copy or favorite the sites you visit for later reference.

3) take those theories and twist them for your benefit to create a new and exciting world

4) write and listen to what your characters tell you, as they will reveal things you had no idea about

 

What’s on my iPod : Final Moment by Veer Union.

 

Happy Turkey Day everyone in the US. I thought I just might participate in Thursday Thirteen with thirteen things I’m thankful for related to writing and my MS BROKEN. And so in no particular order, just how they pop in my head :

 

 

 

1.) Awesome beta readers and critique partners. Without you, I would have never gotten my rough draft in shape.

2.) The Foo Fighters and Evanescence. Without their music, writing BROKEN would have been a lot different. And because the Muse insists that “The Pretender” is his theme song.

3.) Romance Divas Forum. Because you Divas rock with support, knowledge, and humor.

4.) My kids and parents for understanding (some of the time) how crazy this undertaking is.

5.) My friends for reading the MS and liking it. I know you guys were just saying that, but hey, thanks anyway.

6.) #askagent and #yalitchat for connecting unpublished writers with agents, publishers and published authors and getting invaluable information to us.

 

7.) Twilight (I know) because if I hadn’t read the book at a time in my life that made the book have more meaning to me, I would have never realized there was a market for young adult and written BROKEN.

 

8.) My laptop. Where would I be without you. I can’t function without you.

9.) Diana Gabaldon for writing Outlander. If I had never read that book and the others that followed, I would never had decided I wanted to be a published writer in the first place.

10.) Coffee. OMG. I need you, I want you, I dedicate an entire Madonna song to you – Justify My Love. And Starbucks because of the special little place I hold for you in my heart. I am thankful for White Chocolate Mocha Latte, Peppermint Mocha Latte, and Pumpkin Spice Latte. And for the quiet moments I sat and worked on BROKEN in your store.

 

11.) The Muse incarnate. With your physical pictures I try to develop a more well-rounded characters. And you’re just too sexy to look at or ignore.

 

 12.) Sticky notes. You are a godsend. So many used on my plotboard. In fact, I had the widget on my old laptop and for over 6 months it said on there “Angels a new story.” Yep, that was the seed that got water and grew and flowered into BROKEN.

13.) For the patience and the ability to write stories that people enjoy.

That’s All……

What’s on my iPod – Glycerine by Bush

I caught a thread on Romance Divas that was talking about fan fiction. After I noticed my seven year old had take a piece of paper and written his own story using Anakin and the Jedis, it got me thinking. I’ve written my fair share of fan fiction.  I just realized that the first thing I wrote as fan fiction used the characters from The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. But when the intial wave of renewed interest in the original Star Wars film hit, I found myself writing an entire new story that revolved around the beloved characters. I’d devoured Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy and wanted to create my own characters in his post-Palpatine universe. Actually, I just wanted Luke to have a romantic leading lady. I never considered what I wrote in my free time between classes as anything more than strictly for my enjoyment. Community boards and forums were just taking off back in those days. But those online communities, that’s where the fan fiction was brewing.

I am willing to admit that it was writing fan fiction for myself that sparked my desire to join this crazy writer’s life. In college, I read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, and of course, fell in love with her hero, Jamie Fraser. I have entire notebooks filled with fan fiction devoted to that red-headed Scotsman. In waiting for the next book in the series and failing to find anything that came close to the love story, I decided to write my own historical romance – which is still sitting in about four notebooks and few computer files to be rewritten and finished. But it was the start. The little light switched flipped on, and I’ve been writing and working toward publication ever since. Basically, I went from writing just for me to wanting to write something to share with everyone. 

Today, there are hundreds of sites devoted to fan fiction – Twilight probably having the largest. And I will again admit I have a few pages of my own Edward fantasy. Someone on Romance Divas said that fan fic was a great way to get the juices flowing because you don’t have to worry about developing a character or a setting. I agree with her. And I think it is a great way to work on the fundamentals of story crafting - plot, theme, conflict, arcs, ect.

So, what do you think about the huge mass of fan fiction out there today? Did you start writing fan fiction? What did you cut your writing teeth on?

You can check out Star Wars fan fic here – http://www.theforce.net/fanfiction/

Here is a great place for Outsiders fan fiction – http://www.fanfiction.net/book/Outsiders/

And of course, one of a gazillion Twilight devoted fan fiction sites – http://www.twilighted.net/

Or you can just got to www.fanfiction.net and type in what you’re looking for.

I personally haven’t reviewed all the posts on the sites, and some may contain more mature content.