ROW80 Checking In...Hello?

Okay, so, not an auspicious start.

GONE BLONDE: Looked at some things that I wanted to change...thought about changing things. Set it aside.

BETWIXT: Wrote (and by 'wrote' I mean hacked) almost a page.

See what I mean?

I do have a couple blogs written, long hand in notebook at home.
Sheesh.

Hope everyone else did better. I have high hopes for this evening.

A Round of Words in 80 days!

Hello Jules Verne. Alright, not quite. Yet, still exciting. I'm setting my goals for the next 80 days of writing, and you could too. Here's how: A Round of Words in 80 Days

A challenge that understands I have a life. Thank you!

So, my goals, and I do have them:
Revise GONE BLONDE one hour a day
Write BETWIXT one page a day
Write MY BLOG three days a week (cheating w/ music videos is alowed)

There they are...for now.
I'll post updates and first chapters soon!

Short and Sweeeeeet

So, I'm hanging around not minding my own business, when I learn of a pitch session with Loose Id editors on twitter! Get them interested in your book in 140 characters...could I do this?

http://www.loose-id.com/

Yeeee-ees, I think I could. I have a book -- a little rough maybe, but beginned, middled and ended. Hadn't looked at it in a couple years -- I wasn't writing contemporary hothothot romance any more. But I knew my characters and I knew the basic primal instinct.
(Great blog on that is here: http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/ at Kristen Lamb's blog.

Here's what boiling your plot down to 140 characters does for you -- it gets you to what matters. Okay, so this story could easily fall into: well, first, she'd sad, and then she finds a note and then she's sad. Oh, and then there's this other guy, and he's mad -- and they both need a vacation, and she decides to change her hair...not very interesting. I know.

I love my characters -- and wanted to do them justice, so here it is:

Eva needs vaca from :( self she's GONE BLONDE! Sun, sails, & mystery man sex! Uh-oh, his xwife did her dead hubby. Did he know?

Short story shorter: an editor asked for synopsis and 1st three chapters. I'm thinking positively about this -- because, no matter what it is a positive thing.

Tell me your good, cool news!

PRETEND BOYFRIENDS

http://mydaguerreotypeboyfriend.tumblr.com/

The link at the top will be enjoyable to anyone longing for an old fashioned kind of guy. Or if you need ideas for a hero for your next historical romance, or Steampunk story. I think he's my favorite.

While looking through my mom's pictures, I stumbled on an old photo of a very handsome young man, thinking it may have been an old boyfriend of hers, I asked, "Who's this?" With lot's of inflection on the 'this.'
"It's your grandfather," she said.

Ooh. And d'oh! And uuuuwe.

Hopefully none of these pics are your grandfather, or, er, great grandfather.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

After much consideration, or, at least, a bit of consideration, I have decided to actually have a point to my blog.

I know.

Anyway, instead of me rambling on about my brilliant life or whining about stupid ideas for writing, I'm going to concentrate on the things I find fascinating, besides the myopia of my day to day life.

Here's my list:
Steampunk and Gaslamp -- anything, books, tv, movies, costume, gadgets. And I'm not going to let the fact that I'm not any kind of an expert hold me back. I loved Steampunkish stuff before I ever heard of it. Hello 1960s Wild Wild West.

Paranormal Stuff and Parapsychology -- because I dig it, and I lived in a parapsychology study center from 1968 -- 1971. Seriously. I'll write about that too.

Friday Miscellany -- cool stuff, cool music, cool sites. And maybe ramblings. You didn't really think you were getting away from the ramblings, did you?

And probably some other stuff as I think of it...

Gaslampery, Or, Fooling Around In a Steampunk World

So, it's no secret I am in love with all that is Steampunk. I think it's the word...steampunk. It seems to encompass all the weird corners of imagination. Nothing is off limits. Pirate air-ships? Yes! Difference machines? Yes! Cool smart chicks with spectacles? Yes! Vampire Physicists? Yes! Technology with social graces? Yes! You get the idea.

I worry I might be taking things too far, at least with my characters. I have a Gas lit world with cool/old/new technology, my characters are teens and more than human, a la League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, they attend school together in an old mansion.  Now, here's where I may be in trouble: I started making these characters more than one weird thing, like, a demi-god/Valkyrie or a werewolf/angel.

Can you say monster mash?

I wasn't sure if it was wicked cool or totally lame. And then the thing happened, you know the thing. You think you have this idea that nooooo one has ever done, like a werewolf/angel, and then you find out an author -- whom you admire -- is coming out with a series of books...and some of the characters are...fallen angels and lycan. Seriously.

Can you even imagine how many times I said "D'oh!" Alright, perhaps it was a different expletive. So, I guess it's probably wicked cool.

The question  is: Do I continue with this idea? Because, clearly, my book will not be her book. And if I do -- will I still feel as if I somehow cheated?

To Dream, Perchance to Come Up With a Plausible Flippin' Conflict!

I thought I was set: cool premise, interesting characters, a heroine, a couple of heroes, a villain. Bwahahahaha! I have a story! Then I read Kristen Lamb's post: Little Darlings &; Why They Must Die...For Real. http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/little-darlings-why-they-must-die-for-real-2/

My bright bulb of a brain dimmed a bit. I had lots of cool things, sure, sure I did, but no flipping conflict! Oh, yeah, maybe: gee-I like him-but I also-like him, conflict. Which isn't conflict at all, it's being conflicted, and sure won't carry a story and especially not written like that. I was just like one of the people who, when asked what their story's about, goes on and on about mythology and she knows this but doesn't know that and he thinks this but is really a werewolf and an angel -- see, see how cool that is? No.

So, I went back to the beginning. Of creation. Seriously. The mythology that I'm using for my premise and basing my characters on has many, many conflicts. Reading through the myths, I thought about how I could keep their core, yet turn them on their side. I started asking what-ifs.

I love what-ifs.

What if heroine's attracted to hero (also another guy).
What if they both attend the same extraordinary boarding school -- proximity.
And, what if she finds out he's the one responsible for her parents' death AND the only way to possibly avenge her parents' death, is with a weapon -- an ancient artifact, that only she can wield.
And what if said artifact has been stolen by a Mad Genius.
And what if she has to work with hero to retrieve artifact in order to save the world.

Here you are Madame, your bucket of conflict coming right up.
I don't know that I've ever come up with the conflict before I was finished with the first chapter -- I know! I would write not knowing what would happen. I've left lots open, so I'll still have the freshness as I write -- like how in the hell am I going to get the hero out of this mess.

Thank you muses. And thank you Kristen Lamb.

Have you serendipitously read or saw something that shifted your view point?