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I have to give a HUGE Shout Out to mi amiga and mentor, Caridad Pineiro. She is just a phenomenal woman and author. I had the wonderful privilege to meet her 6 yrs ago at a NJ conference and followed her ever since. It is awesome to see her blow up and all the attention she is getting for her sexy cool Vampire series – THE CALLING.
Check out her interview on Romance Novel TV
There are days I question my intelligence.
This happens to be one of them (among others).
For the life of me I can’t make the stupid snap thingy work. Everyone else’s blog pops up by mine! Fine and dandy but I just spent a good hour following directions just to put it in the HTML. Probably not in the right place. Whatever!
Then I wanted to upload a yummy picture and put it on too. No good. What iswrong with me? I thought WP was supposed to be idiot proof.
Well, it sure is. Because this idiot can’t make anything work! Going to gorge on chocolate and come back later to see if the widget fairies have granted me some wishes.
 It saddens me to announce that this is the end of the Thursday Thirteen. The idea apparently came about as a way to encourage blog readers and writers to visit other sites they may not know about. I had a blast dropping by some of the visitors who found their way here as well as checking out new sites. Though TT ends, I will still be blogging. Stay tuned. I have a few ideas of how to again liven up the place. Please don’t be come a stranger. So for my last list, I’ve decided to focus on authors I follow or have recently discovered. Amusingly enough, the list is very heavily paranormal. Not sure what that means, other than I’d better expand my tastes again. Know any good romantic suspense authors you can suggest? 1. Christine Feehan (the queen of paranormal or at least one of them ) So which authors are you currently reading? Who’s on your must buy list? Let us know. |
There’s a terrific workshop taking place on Romance Divas. It’s Character Torture 101 by multi-published author Linnea Sinclair. Already Linnea’s workshop has reminded me how important it is to make our characters suffer to get to their goal. There are a variety of ways to do this I think.
1. Let your character move towards the goal, only to throw ever bigger obstacles in the way
2. Have them get the goal and realize it’s not what they wanted all along
3. Have your characters face their worst fears in order to achieve the goal
4. Have them reach the goal and then take it away
5. Strip your character of what s/he holds most dear (eg. honor, reputation, respectability).
I don’t have a lot of time to blog today. I would’ve liked to discuss these further and maybe provided more examples. But I will leave them for you to think about. Feel free to comment. How do you make your characters suffer? What books or movies have good examples of characters suffering before reaching their desired goal?
As always, thanks for stopping by and reading.
For chocolate lovers, Valentine’s Day gets those taste buds watering and the palette anticipating that first bite. I admit it. I’m a chocoholic. I adore chocolate because 1…. with wine it’s romantic So what does chocolate do for you? |
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
Commercials for books, what a concept! Good or bad they are definilty something to watch.
More and more authors are getting into the trend. Does it pay to have your book featured on YouTube? I don’t know. Still why not?
Here is a nifty blog to see some of the new books coming out, literally (or would that be visually) — Watch The Book
In the crazy hectic pace of life, I do once in a while get to relax and unwind. Granted it is more like stolen time that I don’t have time to even steal. Still I find the time to read a good book.
Overheard by Maya Banks is a fun, romantic, & erotic romp in 80pgs. The characters popped for me. The sexy, sassy, southern Texas heroine and the hunky Texan Hero made me want to trade places. All in all I have to say it was one of the best pieces of erotica I have read in a long time. I’m not always the biggest fan, I think there are a handful of authors that can capture the genre and make it a worthwhile story to read and enjoy. Maya Banks is definitely one of them and I am looking forward to her next novella. She’s going to be big!
Now only if I could find more time to steal away and read the other books on my TBR pile.
- Surviving Demon Island by Jaci Burton
- Boys Down Under Anthology featuring Maggie Nash
- Talons Anthology
- Dark Heat by Arianna Hart
- Your Planet or Mine? By Susan Grant
- Playing with Fire by Gena Showalter
I found this site, Zokutou, with a word meter that captures your progress on your projects. The writers apparently got together for NanoWriMo, and so a group was born.
I’m always hit and miss with technical stuff as in I keep missing until I finally hit. This progress meter looked cool and I’ve seen some writers include it in their signatures on some writers’ boards, so let’s see how it works.
If this works, you should see a progress chart for my current project, tentatively titled Moonlight and Magic. If you don't see it, well, that's the magic part. Ideally, I'd love to have this meter automatically show up on the blog rather than in the post. I'll figure it out. Eventually. Hmmm....the meter is there but on my screen it shows up slightly broken. I really think there's a conspiracy to make me hate all things computer. But you get the idea. 28% written of a 100k project. Not quite half way there but not bad.
28 / 100
(28.0%)
The other day I went shopping. I made it across the street only to realize I’d forgotten my wallet. A few days later I left my purse at home three times in the same day. I planned everything for a spaghetti and meat sauce dinner. I had the vegetables and meat cooking and discovered I’d forgotten to buy the canned tomatoes. I find myself going to the refrigerator, opening the door and standing there with no idea why I’m there. I either close the door and realize I was heading to the laundry room or try to retrace what I’d been thinking that led me to the fridge. Most times I give up to have the reason pop into my head ten minutes later.
I’ll be doing dishes and one of my kids will talk to me. It’s like watching a foreign language film. Their lips are moving, but none of the words seem to make sense. That’s usually when a very loud and exasperated “Mamma!” snaps me into reality.
Okay, I’m pathetic I know. It’s what I call the blessing and curse of being a writer. My husband would say that’s an excuse. Seriously, though, the more I’ve immersed myself into writing fiction, the more I find my mind inhabited by all kinds of people and stories. It’s really hard to describe to a non-writer how you get caught up in the troubles of your characters, how you spend second, minutes, hours staring into space working out the best way to make life hell for your characters in order to get them to that happy ending.
Even if I wanted to ignore my characters I couldn’t. They’re in my head, telling me what they want and what they think. They demand I listen to them. They demand that their story be told, which is what I do.
Now if only they would remind me that I’m out of canned tomatoes…life would be bliss.
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I LOVE music and it helps me get into the mood for writing. Here are Thirteen songs I’m listening to…. 1….Here With Me — Dido 2…Promiscuous — Nelly Furtado 3…You’re Getting Crazy — Jim Verraros 4…Breathe In Breathe Out — Rachel Stevens 5…Born Too Slow — The Crystal Mathod 6…And She Said — Lucas Prata 7…Good is Good — Sheryl Crow 8…Love Show — Skye 9…Weeping Tree — Perry Blake 10..Just Around The Hill — Sash! 11..There Is No Alternative — Tina Sugandh 12..Bandy Bandy — Zap Mamma (featuring Erykah Badu) 13..In Your Eyes — Kylie Minogue Check out my complete profile with all the music I love. My Pandora’s Box Create your own custom radio stations that play music you’ll love. Send me your songs — gabriellahewitt@hotmail.com |
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
