Addiction

Okay, so I admit it. I have a problem. It is the only thing that I am truly addicted to and when the feeling overcomes me, I thank God that it is related to this and not something totally mind rotting.

I love to read.

When a story grips me—and I can usually tell by the first page—then I can't put it down. I must finish the read. I must get to the end. The world be damn until I find out how this it going to end. (In fact, I didn't even read the ending of this one, which is a first.) I shirk all my responsibilities. Stay up way later than reasonable. And, worse, I put aside my writing, which I had planned to do this weekend. I had a whole weekend free and what did I do??? Spend most of it reading Julia Quinn's On the Way to the Wedding.

Damn her for writing so well!! Argh!

For a Regency, it was fast paced, witty, and moved at a break neck speed that whipped my emotions around and around. I love stories where the hero and heroine don't realize that they love each other until mid-way through the book. Of course, the reader uncovers their attraction to one another first through a series of small awakenings in a character. They notice the pleasant way the other one laughs. The cute freckles on their nose. The color of their eyes. Their speech pattern and familiar way of walking. Slowly their friendship builds and slowly their love grows until they both can't deny their feelings any longer. Of course, it doesn't end there, somehow the hero has to stop the heroine from making a terrible mistake and marrying the wrong man.

Ah, love. I so love it!

Now if I can only get my work done today ...

GoodSearch

My friend's daughter and son-in-law are volunteering with a local charity: Let Us Consider Adopting Strays (LUCAS). LUCAS is trying to build a no-kill animal shelter in Prince William County, VA. LUCAS is registered on www.goodsearch.com, which is a search engine that will donate one penny for every search you do to the charity you choose. What a great concept! And it can really add up, especially when I think of the amount of searches I do in a day. GoodSearch has a lot of charities which they sponsor and for which you can donate your search. However, if maybe a few times a week you could consider donating a search to LUCAS that will help exponentially in them raising money to build this shelter.

"Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms." (George Eliot)

Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

When I was a kid, my Aunt Marney used to read all those tabloid magazines and True Romances and sometimes she'd leave them at my house. The tabloids were those of the more extra-special sort like Elvis spotted using a Port O'Pot in Pittsburg, mutant pigman treated in NY hospital, or dog digs up bones of prehistoric catwoman. Now you know the seeds of my crazy ideas! It really made an impression on a 10-year-old, especially when I didn't realize that those newspapers were totally fake. Well, the World Wide News is stopping its presses for good and I was reading the article about their farewell and their interesting stories. Though none is stranger than a percentage of their readers who actually believed what the WWN published, as evident by one reader who responded to a picture of Hillary Clinton holding an alien baby. The headline said that Hillary has adopted an alien baby. The reader wrote in and complained that the photograph had to be doctored—Hillary was too cold hearted to adopt an alien baby, so they must've superimposed her head on someone's body.

I kid you not. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Got some more writing done this morning. I'm introducing the other characters and considering how I spent a year in one character's head in Dark Earth, it's been really fun to jump from different characters' POVs. Let's hope this continues ... fingers crossed, knock on wood, and a good luck kiss from the mutant pigman.

What's That Horrible Smell?

A friend and fellow writer lamented to me how she doesn't like reading historical romances because she couldn't get pass the fact that everyone was probably stinky back then—no regular bathing, no teeth brushing, no deodorant, etc.—so she couldn't accept the heroine making it with the hero considering how dirty he (and probably she as well) was. I thought this was pretty funny, especially since I've never considered what anyone smelled like when I read historical romances or even watched historical movies. Everyone always seemed so formal, so delicate and wearing haute couture with the high-brow attitude to match that I couldn't imagine their poop even stinking. Then I read in my recent Discover Magazine (Lentini, Liza and Mouzon, David, September 2007, page 80) the following:

• "King Henry IV required his knights to bathe at least once in their lives—during their ritual knighthood ceremonies." (Yes, the same knight riding on the white horse to save the damsel. The horse was probably cleaner.)
• The Chinese invented the first real toothbrush in 1498. However, it wasn't until WWII when the U.S. enforced teeth brushing on their soldiers that the act became routine. (Ummm ... that wasn't that long ago. It took over 400 years for it to catch on! Did no one smile back then or even kiss?)
• Urea in urine can kill fungi and bacteria, so ancient Egyptians and Aztecs used urine to treat cuts and burns by rubbing it onto their skin. (Can you say Eau de PeePee? It definitely gives Eau de Toilette a new definition.)

Oh, I'll still read historicals because I love history and the fantasy that the past affords. I'm sure there were a lot of people, and different cultures, through the ages that were into hygiene but it's so funny that it's taken us so long to come this far with the general idea of hygiene and especially how it relates to health. Keeping your mouth healthy can help you live longer. Many people died in the last century in the U.S. because of bad gums. Crazy!

Enough of the history lessons. My characters now are in the present and smell very pleasant, thank you very much. Though if I ever write a historical I'll have to make the hero a compulsive bather or something. :P

Brick Wall

Yes, I'm hitting a brick wall with my writing. Well, it's actually the size the Berlin wall used to be. I'm blanking on where my characters are heading next. I need to do some serious world building and I'm not sure whether I should just write and develop the characters first or figure out my world. What I've been doing ... and what I've noticed some of my writing friends doing as well ... is leaving blank spots with "TK" where I may need to research historical information or gather more information on what the setting or background will be. This has been helping and I was able to write about 1K more words because of this. I think my goal is going to be small. Get the first three chapters written and polished. (I've gotten great feedback from Karm on the first chapter.) And then continue on with the rest. That way when I get to the mid-point I can start sending out the first chapters. Yes, I know you're supposed to send it out when it is all finished. But dammit, it takes so long to get feedback from editors that I can finish the whole kit and caboodle before they respond in the 3-month span. I need to resign myself as well that not all my finished stories may get published. I just read Karmela's blog and she references Stephanie Feagan's blog and how this multi-published author had written two manuscripts last year that she couldn't sell and had to set aside. (Check out a year in the life of a writer.) It was very eye opening and reminded me how the journey doesn't end with publishing your first book or second or third. You have to deal with disappointment's and rejections at all levels of your writing career. A friend of mine recently got a not-so-nice review of her book on Amazon, though a very positive one on B&N. (Which goes to show how subjective everything is) You really need a passion for the craft and a tough skin to make it in this industry. How bad do you want it? My husband always asks. What are you willing to sacrifice to make it? Because everything that is worthwhile requires a certain sacrifice whether it be time, money, emotional freak outs, pride, work ... whatever. I know that I'm not sacrificing enough and I need to up the ante if I'm going to make my dream come true.

Identity versus Essence

At the RWA National convention, I attended a Michael Hauge workshop and it really opened my eyes to the intricacies of character arc in a story. Hauge, author of many books such as Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds and The Hero's 2 Journeys, dissected major movies and showed the main character's journey to self discovery. In the beginning of the story, your character is living in what Hauge refers to as their "Identity." This is how the outside world perceives them and the face they put on for the outside world. It is who they believe they have to be in order to survive in their world. Hague calls their inner dreams, who they really desire to be, their "Essence." In a story which ends happily, the hero is able to step out of their Identity, the mask they're wearing to survive in the world, and live fully in their Essence, who they truly want to be. It is the basic, universal character arc. In situations involving love triangles, one competing lover represents the hero's Essence while the other the hero's Identity. I thought this was brilliant and I've been dissecting movies this past week to see how this concept holds up. Here are some movies I've found to hold true. The first is Titanic which is the example Hauge gave during his workshop:

Titanic
Rose is a high-class woman who is supposed to marry the rich, society man (identity). She falls in love with Jack who is fun-loving, adventure-seeking, and lives by the seat of his pants (essence) but is poor. In the end, she gives up her identity of the wealthy heiress to live a life full of adventure and fun like Jack lived his life.

Chasing Amy
Alyssa is a lesbian (identity) who falls in love with a man. She gives up her identity (lesbian) when she admits that she has fallen in love with a man (essence—her reason for being a lesbian was that she didn't want to limit to field to just men to find her true love, so her dream was finding one person to love). Unfortunately, Holden, the man she has fallen in love with, can't let his identity (not that sexually experienced) go and live in his essence (loving someone despite their past).

Kill Bill
The Bride is a contract killer (identity) and when she becomes pregnant she decides to live a "normal" life and become a mom, providing a safe environment to raise her child (essence). Unfortunately, before she can fully live in her essence (giving up her life as a killer), she must use her identity to seek revenge and eventually get back her daughter in order to live in her essence.

Hairspray
Tracy Turnblad does not look like the other girls who dance on the Corny Collins Show—she's pleasantly plump, slightly nerdy, and from a lower class white neighborhood with a pair of odd parents (identity). However, that doesn't stop her from making others overcome their prejudices (against her weight and against her black dance partners and friends) and to become a favorite dancer on the show and pave the way for integration in 1960s Baltimore (essence).

Now I'm applying it to my recent story and since I'm in the beginning of my WIP, it has been really helpful to plan out my characters' development. See if it works for your story!

Unreality of Reality TV

Okay, so I got the scoop on what it's like being on a gameshow from my friends and what can I say? Call me totally naive but EVERYTHING is staged. Down to the friendly banter between contestant and host. Even the reaction of the spouse sitting in the audience is directed by the show. They say "we need more jumping, more excitement in the way you shout your joy" or "we need you to tell your significant other that you're disappointed in his performance." I kid you not! They were feeding my friend lines during the show. Also, when asked (before the show began) what they'd do if they won the big bucks, they replied that they would donate a portion to their church and charities. The producers told them that they couldn't say that because it was not good TV. Didn't they want to do something more fun, like take the family on a yearlong vacation? WTF???? I can understand keeping some things scripted because you don't want the host to have too many surprises and ruin the take. But come on people??? It's a freakin' gameshow. Why can't someone say what they really want to do with the money? And why can't it be something positive? I know as sure as I'm sitting here typing this that if my friend said she was getting a boob job, it would've been kept in. Hell, it would've been in all the TV trailers. I can't even imagine how much is staged on the "so-called" reality TV show. Ugh!!!