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Thanks to the lovely Candilynn Fite:
http://cfitewrite.blogspot.com/2012/09/im-back-nano-news-gutgaa.htmlI heard of the GEARING UP TO GET AN AGENT BLOGFEST!
It is hosted by the equally lovely Deana Barnhart:
http://deanabarnhart.blogspot.com/Here are the questions we are to answer to break the ice with one another:
Where do you write?
I write in the kitchen where all the necessities are to be found: hot tea, cold coke, and dark chocolate!
-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?
I see the stuffed German Shepherd puppy in his fluffy bed, his battery-operated side going up and down as if he were sleeping. Little Buddy never makes a mess and relaxes me as I write!
-Favorite time to write?
No favorite time. As a harried rare blood courier, I write whenever I can squeeze some pages in. I try to write at least one page per sitting.
-Drink of choice while writing?
Hot tea. Captain Picard, Jayne of THE MENTALIST, and I love hot tea. :-)
-When writing , do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?
I listen to soundtracks mostly: Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, John Williams, James Horner, etc. Like Candilynn Fite, I also listen to PANDORA.
-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?
THREE SPIRIT KNIGHT was inspired in a sense by THE HUNGER GAMES and my desire to have my scamp of a hero right the wrongs in my END OF DAYS.
-What's your most valuable writing tip?
The best tip I've found is from Ernest Hemingway (whose ghost often visits this blog) who said the key to success was NOT writing. It was RE-WRITING.
D. G. Hudson thought the teaser cover blurb to this image was best. What do you think?
And thanks to the second person who has bought THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH. Right now, after the hospital, it means more than I can say! :-)
Victor Quote of the Day:
"Don’t let your mind wander. It’s too little to be let out alone."
On Amazon's Best Selling Haunted New Orleans list, my books (BURNT OFFERINGS, THE RIVAL, CREOLE KNIGHTS & THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH)
are #7, 8, 10, ll respectively! Odd in that only LEGEND has sold a mere 3 copies! Does anyone understand Amazon's math?
*Ghost of Ernest Hemingway here.
I and some friends at Meilori's
were talking about Ms. Fite's complaint about no support from those who had dangled its promise to her.
Now, all of you here already know how underwhelmed I am by these monthly word races:
the rush for word count blunts your ability to produce words that count.
Charlie’s (Scribner’s) ridiculing of my daily word count was because he did not understand me or writing well
nor could he know how happy one felt to have put down properly 422 words as you wanted them to be.
And days of 1200 or 2700 were something that made you happier than you could believe. Since I found that 400 to 600 well done was a pace I could hold much better, I was always happy with that number. But if I only had 320 I felt good.
Candy, my dear, listen to an old ghost:
Writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge and it is more difficult than anything else that I have ever done.
There’s no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly. Sometimes it is like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.
I think you should learn about writing from everybody who has ever written that has anything to teach you.
You must set a regular routine. Believe it or not, Candy, I had one:
Ordinarily I never read anything before I wrote in the morning to try and bite on the old nail with no help, no influence and no one giving me a wonderful example or sitting looking over my shoulder.
So, you see, those who refrain from giving you support or chiding you for lack of production are actually doing you a very real favor.
Zelda Fitzgerald has urged me to do what your computer friends seem reluctant to do. So as a gentleman ghost, I will give you a few hints on how to write each day:
1.) You have to look at your words as if seeing them for the first time.
What is on the page is all your readers are going to see :
not what you meant to say, not the images that were in your mind while you wrote them ... just your words.
What emotions do your WRITTEN words leave you with? Yes, I ended that sentence that way on purpose. See how I did that? Don't do it.
2.) If you want to succeed, you must have talent like Coleridge had.
More important, you must have the discipline of Michaelangelo. Coleridge wasted his talent in drugs.
Leonardo wasted his talent in doing party favors for princes.
As my friend, Samuel Clemens, once wrote:
Each day is a coin. You can spend it any way you want. But you can only spend it once. Make each day count.
3.) Leave out the non-essentials.
You know what I mean. Pick up a book in the store at random. Slip into the middle and start to read. What do you see?
Enormous, bloated eye-boring paragraphs. Plaster paris descriptions of places I have no wish to be. Slides of cousin Merle's trip to Idaho. (If you have seen one pair of potato eyes, you've seen them all.)
Blah-blah-blah.
The dialogue should be short, funny, something to bring up your eyes from the page and make you reflect on something that hit you like the memory of your first mistake in public.
There should be danger, love, or laughter ... on every page. Because it may be the only page the considering buyer will ever read.
4.) The most important gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.
Sitting at Meilori's the other night, I read a few entries in a computer-journal first paragraph contest of all things
There was this one where a woman lay in a pit of dead bodies, looking up at a ton of rock and more human corpses about to drop on her. Did she curse and get the hell out of the way?
No, she lay there like Hamlet contemplating the state of the world where such a thing could happen.
Excuse me, lady?
I understand depressed. After all I did commit suicide. But if tons of rock and rotting bodies are about to crush me, I scramble the hell out of the way.
5.) Your scenes must read true ... fake we can have by listening to the State of the Union address.
You living read to live outside of yourselves ... in adventures where life makes sense, where you find fun, acceptance, and love.
Life is only life ...
when it is real ... or seems real.
When characters are flat, prose puppets, made to do what you want them to do, not what real flesh-and-blood humans would do or say ...
the story seems flat like coke left out on the table a day, no fizz, no sparkle ... no readers.
6.) Good writing is true writing:
If a writer is making up a story, it will be true in proportion to the amount of knowledge of life he has and how disciplined he is. So that when he makes something up, it is as it would truly be.
The more a writer learns of life, the better he or she will be able to imagine what a set of circumstances would feel or seem. Do it well enough, and the readers will get a feeling as if what they are reading actually happened.
7.) I learned never to empty the well of my writing.
I learned to always stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.
Last Bit of Wisdom:
Writers should work alone.
They should see each other only after their work is done,
and not too often then.
Write for yourself. As you type your manuscript, write for a person you know, living or dead, to make that person smile or be caught up in the wonder.
There!
What are you doing still staring at the screen? Put the seat of your pants in the seat of your chair and WRITE!
* {This photgraphic image is from the Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (JFK Library).
This image was originally created and/or owned by Ernest Hemingway and/or his wife Mary Hemingway.
After Ernest Hemingway's death, his widow Mary donated many of his papers, photographs and other items to the JFK Library,
and transferred the copyright for images she owned to the JFK Library.
The JFK Library is part of the National Archives, an agency of the United States Federal Government, and has released the photos into the public domain.
This photo is marked "Public Domain" on its web page at the JFK Library.}
On this day in 1816, the Shelleys, Lord Byron and entourage gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva
to tell the ghost stories that would trigger Frankenstein.
This most legendary of storm-tossed evenings was a literary lightning bolt.
Want to become part of another event of legendary import?
Join Candilynn Fite:
http://cfitewrite.blogspot.com/2012/06/1st-ever-follow-my-lead-flash-fiction.html?showComment=1340036392350
and enter her FOLLOW MY LEAD FLASH FICTION CONTEST!
It will be safer than the one hosted by Mary Shelly.
When word circulated that the infamous Byron had taken up residence at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva,
one enterprising hotelier installed a telescope in order that his guests might get a close-up of the "League of Incest" --
Byron, Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont (half-sister to Mary, pregnant with Byron's child), John Polidori (Byron's physician) -- in action.
One gossipy note sent back to England from a nearby villa testified to Byron cavorting with "another family of very suspicious appearance,"
though the communicant admitted, "How many he has at his disposal out of the whole set I know not. . . ."
Meow!
{For more details check out:http://www.todayinliterature.com/today.asp?Search_Date=06/19/2012 }
Now, check out Candilynn's deets! (Rules):
~ Entries must be original work of the writer.
~ Only one entry per contestant.
~ 300 words or less.
~ The piece must follow the prompt provided, but may sway in any direction.**See note below
~ The contest piece should be written about the image, in some form or fashion.
~ The prompt should be used in the story and included in word ct.
The contest piece may be merely a Sketch Story . Sketch Stories may contain little or no plot.
Have a blast & be creative. :))
**Please copy and paste your entries directly into the comment section of HER post.
Sfumato!
Candilynn Fite is holding a UNIQUE BLOGFEST:
http://cfitewrite.blogspot.com/2012/06/1st-ever-follow-my-lead-flash-fiction.htmlFOLLOW MY LEAD FLASH FICTION blogfest:
The contestant's entries will be judged on his or her ability to follow the prompt provided, and the writer's overall creative expression. Excited yet??
The contest piece may be merely a Sketch Story . Sketch Stories may contain little or no plot. Click on link to discover more about Sketch Stories and famous authors who wrote them.
Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Check out the deets! (Rules):
~ Entries must be original work of the writer.
~ Only one entry per contestant.
~ 300 words or less.
~ The piece must follow the prompt provided, but may sway in any direction.**See note below
~ The contest piece should be written about the image, in some form or fashion.
~ The prompt should be used in the story and included in word ct.
Have a blast & be creative. :))
**Please copy and paste your entries directly into HER comment section of the post.
To get into the spirit of her contest, here is my take on it (Just as an example):
(250 words)
The streets of this city never slept. Not for the living. Not for the undead. Nor for me. I stand halfway between the two.
I am Captain Samuel McCord, cursed with the blood of the Angel of Death in my veins.
New Orleans has been called a Twilight City, for it rises from civilized slumber to bustling life at night.
Performers often line the streets, pushers sell their brands of death, prostitutes promise sex as if it were love, dancers weave through the partiers on the street, and music throbs through the veins of the French Quarter.
The undead walk lazily down streets in front of buildings dating back hundreds of years. In that sense, they are at home. It is you, the living, that are intruders here.
An odd feeling came over me as I looked at the people, living and undead, strolling the dark streets in search of ... entertainment. For a fleeting moment, I saw the overgrown square of trees and brush it once had been.
I remembered when I had been young, when every moment had been crisp and fresh, where happiness and heartache had quickly changed positions, and life was full of hope and promise. Now, things were crowded, ugly, and the only hope was for a good death.
What had Elu, my Apache blood brother, once told me? "When you were born, you cried and those around you rejoiced. Live your life, Dyami, so that when you die, those around you will cry, and you will rejoice."
Candilynn Fite has nominated me for the Kreativ Award
http://cfitewrite.blogspot.com/Here's how the award works:
1. Thank and link back to the person who presented you with the award.
2. Answer the ten questions below.
3. Share ten random facts/thoughts about yourself.
4. Nominate seven worthy blogs for the Kreativ Blogger Award. (I know many hate awards so I will skip this one to be kind.)
What is your favorite song?
Currently, COWS ON THE HILL by Jay Ungar
(A lovely waltz that I have Victor Standish dance with Alice as they are surrounded by deadly Sidhe just waiting for the tune to end to kill them -- It is from the chapter of BEST OF ENEMIES entitled LAST DANCE.)
What is your favorite dessert?
Devil's Food Cake with white icing -- because I'm such an angelic guy. You know: opposites attract! :))
What ticks you off?
People who are cruel to children.
When you're upset, what do you do?
When I am angry I speak very low, very distinctly. When I lose a loved one, I go away by myself to cry.
Which is/was your favorite pet?
They were all favorites of mine.
Gypsy was the most loving, intelligent cat I have ever owned. For the lessons she taught me, go here:
http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2011/04/g-is-for-gypsyonly-happy-wordspromise.htmlWhich do you prefer, black or white?
Black. Sandra calls me Paladin a nickname I only understand because I watched the DVD's when they came out!
What is your biggest fear?
Hurting someone unintentionally who has had all she or he can take from a terrible day. Everyone is having a harder time than they appear so I try to measure my words with care as I live each day.
What is your attitude mostly?
Thoughtful curiosity about life and people. And a quiet humor at myself and my quirks.
What is perfection?
It is an absolute. Something I can chart the course of my life, dreams, and actions by. Like the North Star, I know I will never reach it -- but I can cross the ocean of my life by aiming for it.
What is your guilty pleasure?
GALAXY QUEST!
Ten random things about me...
1. I sound just wonderful when I sing in the shower. Gypsy did not agree!
2. I am in the Witness Protection Program. Naw. Just checking if you were reading.
3. I was born in Detroit, Michigan.
4. I've been everything but a pirate. No, wait. I worked at H & R Block. Oops.
5. I believe in happy marriages. Like albinos and ghosts, I haven't seen any, mind you. But I believe in them.
6. I drive 4,000 miles a month.
7. I believe Olivia Wilde would be wild about me. With the proper head trauma ... and if she squinted ... a lot.
8. Hibbs, the bear with 2 shadows, was the creation of my half-Lakota Mother.
9. Growing up, I wanted to be Bond, James Bond. Actually the Sean Connery one. Hey, I still want to be Sean Connery. Does that mean I haven't grown up?
10. I stay up way too late reading and writing.
Posts
Thanks to the lovely Candilynn Fite:
