An observation at 9,000 words into The Amber Son:

In my head, The Bone Queen feels like a tale and The Amber Son is a novel about the effects of tales. This is a world where the magic is driven by story. The Amber Son shows much more of what this can lead to: the worship of story-figures, their involvement in politics, some physical limitations of stories' power*, the possibility of someone not believing in stories' power, how stories of a place can alter that place, how someone can be born with a power. Additionally, The Amber Son includes issues like language barriers (two of the main characters, who soon join forces, can barely communicate until one of them starts trying to learn the other's language) - which the The Bone Queen, not being set in a city full of immigrants, didn't encounter. It all leads to The Amber Son feeling more real, and The Bone Queen is an extended version of a story one of my characters would know.

(Stories and actual history: not mutually exclusive, mind.)

I like this difference, but I wonder at its consequences in context of advice that a second book in a series should be "the same, but different": the same kind of story, without repeating the first book. Probably it's too soon to tell.

Also, The Amber Son needs more action. Time to get on with that.



* One character is said to have eleven heads and a thousand arms. This just isn't possible. When he's using his power, regular people perceive him that way; it's merely illusion, alas.

 This is an unfinished story that I've been working on for months and months. I don't know if I should finish it to so I'm posting it here to see if people want to see how it ends or not... or if it's worth finishing. Do tell me. Comment on it as well if you want to. Thanks :)

 

     Not all Saturday mornings are like this, with sunlight streaming through the tattered bedroom blinds, and into my room. I keep my eyes closed, seemingly enveloped in the unusually inviting warmth of light-blue floral bed sheets. Outside, the world seems to have come to a temporary halt. The sound of over-speeding cars, the whirring of truck engines, and the ear-splitting urgency of the daily ambulance siren are absent today.  No distant cries of street children, just silence.

     I could hear myself think for the very first time in long time. As I open my eyes, the same old wall of chaos greets me. The wall doesn’t really make much sense anymore, what with the overlapping handwriting and random emoticons (all of which are written in blue permanent marker ink. I know, I should have used multi-colored hi-liters). However, above that plethora of nonsense is a quote that says: A poet wakes up in lines. I don’t think there are any lines today though, just the sun, silence, and warm-hugging bed sheets. There are no lines, though all these things remind me of him. Yes, Jacob. He loves everything about suns, silences, and warm hugs. Or at least he used to.

      I dismiss that last statement, I do not like thinking about him that way, in the concept of “used to”. With a sigh, I pull the blanket over my head again. Today, there will be no room in my mind for negativity. I reckon that’d be a waste.

                                                  ***
( Read more... )

  

Rage

I didn’t say anything about your mother
But you would pop me in the mouth anyways.
If that were that I could walk away
With my rage tucked in one of my pockets
Saving it for another day when it matters more than now.
But that’s not enough for you, is it?
You won’t stop until I’m bloody or scarred – or both.
You won’t stop until I’m on the ground
Choking because you’ve kicked the wind out of me – kicked the wind back into me.
Perhaps you’ll stop after you exhaust the rage that you’ve tucked away
From when your father beat you several times a week for years,
Or when your babysitter would force you to play doctor.
Perhaps when I can only see out of one eye and have to breathe through my nose,
Perhaps then will you have exhausted your rage.
But perhaps not.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be enough for you now, to see me writhing on the ground
Inching my way across the sidewalk, hoping you will leave this worm alone,
This human being that you’ve somehow reduced to the grasshopper
You used to rip the wings and legs off when you were little.
Maybe it’s because I still have all of my teeth
That you would grab me, move me over to the edge of the sidewalk
And ever so delicately place my open mouth on the curb
And kick me one final time.


But perhaps instead, I pull out my knife
And tell you that I will NEVER let you
FUCKING do that to me again.

It took them long enough to get it in, but look what I saw on the New Titles shelves of my favourite shop in London:


(Click the photo to enlarge)

It's kind of surreal to have my writing on the shelves of a store I've frequented since I was a child. And how cool is it that The Eternal Kiss is shelved right in between the latest releases from some of the other Deadline Dames?


(Click for bigger version)
From left to right, Keri Arthur's New York Times bestselling Bound to Shadows, Lili St. Crow's Betrayals, and on the other side of TEK we have the Immortal anthology, which includes a new story by the lovely Rachel Vincent.

Oh, and here's the book I actually bought (only one, because I am broke). I've been waiting for this ever since I first heard about it months ago:



Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica. Here's the blurb:

Indigo Springs is a sleepy town where things seem pretty normal... until Astrid’s father dies and she moves into his house. She discovers that for many years her father had been accessing the magic that flowed, literally, in a blue stream beneath the earth, leaking into his house. When she starts to use the liquid "vitagua" to enchant everyday items, the results seem innocent enough: a “'chanted” watch becomes a charm that means you're always in the right place at the right time; a “’chanted” pendant enables the wearer to convince anyone of anything.

But as events in Indigo Springs unfold and the true potential of vitagua is revealed, Astrid and her friends unwittingly embark on a journey fraught with power, change, and a future too devastating to contemplate. Friends become enemies and enemies become friends as Astrid discovers secrets from her shrouded childhood that will lead her to a destiny stranger than she could have imagined...

Sounds wonderful and filled with magic!

Just so you know, sblmnldrknss knows that "comic books aren't challenging."

Reading should only ever be at age level or above and though she claims to read EVERYTHING in one comment, she is quick to later inform us that, in fact, she never reads children's fiction for fun because it is beneath her.

Apparently "if you're over, I don't know, 12, reading Harry Potter doesn't 'count' as reading anymore than reading People magazine 'counts' as reading." An interesting judgment from someone who has never read the books at all.

In that same vein, one doesn't have to actually KNOW about something in order to deem it unworthy in her world. she has never seen an episode of the Simpsons, but can claim with all confidence that it is juvenile because it involves animation. Also, all video games are childish.

And yes, this is the same person who would let a teenage daughter die after a botched abortion because abortion is wrong and getting her child medical help would make her morally culpable for the abortion.

I am the enormous man who eats & eats.
I am the boy who pushed himself down the stairs.
I am the girl who compromised her beliefs.
I am so funny I laugh at my own jokes.
I am my own best friend.
I am the young man who can’t say no.

I am your melted ice.
I am the one-woman show.
I am as powerful as Medusa.
I am the mortician & you look beautiful.
I am the cat with five lives left.
I am a deflated scarecrow.

It is the Fifth of November.
Consume: Bonfire toffee & parkin,
fireworks shot into the
midnight sky,
and we hear:
“A desperate disease requires
a dangerous remedy”
in the quiet, quiet, quiet.
I am Guy Fawkes! Let the canons fly.

This makes me laugh so much... It's probably funny whatever, but if you're a writer it's even better. *g*

Title: Making Clay
Genre: Writers on Writing
Summary: "...a great man once told me that writers write. Raw material won't come to you in a flash of inspiration and no-one will make it for you."

Down the Rabbit Hole, Alice

Good morning, everyone!

brian_ohio and I will be here writing today--starting now, so if you'd like to join us just comment below.

Don't forget the next check in is next Wednesday (the 11th).

Good luck and have a great day.

:-)

1. Today I am taking the boy to the Museum of Science in Boston. He knows this. What he doesn't know is that there is a Harry Potter special exhibit and we have tickets!! I can't wait to see the look on his face! :-)

2. I finished my draft of my work-in-progress yesterday!!!! FINALLY. Now to print it out and start back at the beginning for another pass before I share it with my writing buds. I'm getting closer... SOOO hoping I meet my jonowrimo goal.

3. I saw an old friend yesterday and it was so nice to reconnect.

4. My son now consistently gets up on his own in the morning, gets dressed, makes his own breakfast, and brushes his teeth without being asked. It is quite remarkable.

5. We're reading Harriet The Spy together. I forgot how truly nasty Harriet starts out. But I do love the Janie and the explosives chapter. We were both laughing out loud. I'm very afraid of that Janie.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

:-)

p.s. Oh, and I forgot one more great thing! slayground named JUMPING OFF SWINGS a Best Book of October! Yay!

I haven't been doing very well with my JoNo goals lately, and although I feel pathetic blaming things like illness and Other Life Stuff... um... that's what I'm going to do. ;P

But I'm back into things now. However, due to certain changes of priority, I have actually amended my third and final goal - I still think I can achieve it, although I'm setting a pretty big one:

1) Read through the entire ms of TIW; I haven't read it for almost a year. Make notes for things I'd like to change now that I'm a better writer, then I can see if any of my thoughts match up to my editorial notes (when I get them). Done!

2) Read through my 4-page synopsis for the sequel, TWQ. See what I still like about it, or if there's a different direction I could go in. Done!

3) Write (up to 12K) short story due for inclusion in a YA paranormal anthology. Changing this to: Revise BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS (60K YA on-spec novel) so I can send it to my agent for feedback.

So I have just over 3 weeks to revise this manuscript... I hope everyone else is getting on well!

Right now I am not working on my revisions for THE IRON WITCH. I am, in fact, working on revising BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS. There are reasons for this, which include the fact that my editorial notes for TIW are now arriving next week - this is what happens when you have a fabulous editor who is super-busy (*waves to fabulous editor*). But it's totally fine as it gives me a chance to do some surgery on the rough draft of Moth's novel. Which I still haven't sent to Agent M. Hmm...

The thing is... *has shifty eyes* Okay, I'll come out and say it (and I have permission to say it, so it's all good): Moth is really too 'big' a character to be a supporting character. She started out having a small role in TIW, but that role grew and Moth began to take over her scenes a little. To the point that when I had the chance to contribute a vampire story to THE ETERNAL KISS, Moth was the obvious choice. Now she has become popular in her own right - already! Who knew? I had no idea that I would be getting emails and PMs and notes on Goodreads and all sorts of things... about Moth! My Moth. *beams with pride* I'm very happy about it, but of course this leaves something of a dilemma: Can she really just be a supporting player in THE IRON WITCH, a book that is all about Dona Underwood and her iron tattoos, her best friend Navin, a hot half-fey guy called Xan, the Alchemists and the Wood Elves?

The answer to this, after my editor's phone call last week, appears to be: Not really, no. And that's so cool because it means I can cut Moth loose from TIW and give her a book of her own. Let me just say Right Now before anyone gets too excited on my behalf, this doesn't mean I've sold the Moth novel. I haven't. Truly. But now I can get back to work on BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS with renewed energy and try to find a home for it some time in the future. Not to mention the fact that Moth is getting a second anthology story next summer in (the tentatively-titled) KISS ME DEADLY, which will again be published by Running Press. And... honestly? THE IRON WITCH is a better book without her, much as I love her. She is wasted in a minor role and this gives her a chance to develop in a big way. (I hope.)

So that's what's going on over here; big changes for TIW, but they are brilliant changes because I have a brilliant editor. (He might read my blog, so I have to say that! *g*) And a new lease of life for my teen vampire, Moth, who may now have the chance to make her own way in the world of publishing. I'm very excited by all this, so we'll see what happens! :)

Title: The Streets
Author: Elyse LaCroix
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: References to Narcotics in this chapter
Critique: Yes, I love comments and critique
Summary: Alexis is a young woman living in New York City and her world gets turned completely upside down
( The Streets - Chapter One )

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

Hey y'all...I'm Nazarea (N for short) and my debut, Faith's Friendship is set to be released January 5th. I adore YA fiction, and look forward to getting to know y'all.


01.) When writing, does the idea come to you or do you search for it?
Muse usually dumps it in my lap--by way of song or writing exercises--and then runs away giggling like mad.

02.) Do you research ideas thoroughly?
Hell no. For my debut, a historical family saga, I did maybe an hour's worth of research. I hate it, actually.

03.) Do you write while listening to music or do you prefer complete silence?
Music...The Weepies are a current favorite.

04.) Does the majority of your writing take place during the day or throughout the night?
Eh...depends on many factors: am I under a deadline, do I have a babysitter for the girlies, how insistant is Muse being? Do we have clean clothes?....for the most part, at night, if I have a choice.

05.) Do you prefer to critique your own work or leave the duty up to others?
I am awful at critiquing my own stuff. It's why I have friends, right? Actually, I'd be lost without my CP...she's a lifesaver. 

06.) What category does the majority of your writing fall into?
YA urban fantasy, and epic fantasy.

07.) Do you have any pen names, or are you rooting for the name out of the womb still?
Nope. With a name like mine, pen names seem a bit redundant. .

08.) What project are you currently hard at work with at the moment?
Forbidden, a novel in the interrelated series I'm writing.

09.) How do you deal with reviews, both positive and negative?
It depends. Most of the good reviews I blush and brush off. The bad ones can make me cry, but usually I dry my tears and look at what's been said and fix things in the story.  

10.) Do you read other novels in addition to writing your own during the process?
Constantly. :) I'm a book addict

11.) Are you open to the thought of collaborating with another author on a project?
I adore collaboration! My critique partner and I are working on a story now.

12.) Who is the first person aside from agents and publishers you let read your work?
My critique partner and writer's group.

13.) Are your characters generally based on someone in the flesh, or simply a figment of your imagination?
Pure imagination. (I only wish Lance was real.)

14.) Which part of your stories do you find the most challenging to write?
Hm..that depends. It varies with each book, I'd say.

15.) Do you get the dreadful "writers block," and if so, what are your remedies?
Sometimes. Cleaning, reading, music and playing with the babies usually cures it. (Actually it's something of a joke...if I mention I'm cleaning, my writer's group gets all excited about new stories. hehe.)

Fuck Formalities
Your whiskey breath denies my own,
The smoke tears at my eyes.
Back and forth it makes me sick,
Here there are no lies.

The friction of our skin connecting,
Creates an awful heat.
Up and down and side to side,
Our eyes refuse to meet.

Drowning in this sticky -sweet,
Reaching for the air.
You hold me down you push me down,
You grip me by the hair.

Climax reached-quickly passed,
You slide off of my flesh.
Your sideways glance says it all-
My God she is a mess.

Your heavy breathing fills the room,
So loud I cannot think.
The smells of our bodies become one,
It creates an awful stink.

Half in half out of brown stained sheets,
We share a cigarette.
This final scene seems fitting,
To the sordid way we met.

hey all. i return with something completely different - high fantasy!

this is not starting from the beginning as the story is told, but it's one of my favourite bits of what i have jotted down so far. lemme know if you think this has potential!

( his name was Aeon, sixth son of Old Baron Ae'llewyn. )