Monthly Archives: January 2011

January 31, 2011 · 5:00 am

Caveat to “What I’m Reading”

Just a quick addition to my earlier post. I just received the fourth and final book in Tad Williams’ “Otherland” series. It is an older series and took me awhile to get my hands on this last installment. I got it at www.half.com great site for getting older stuff really cheap!

This series is really a good and interesting look at where our technology might lead, and based on the health care changes and other political and economic crisis we’ve been having lately, it is once again “timely,” not to mention a good read! Highly recommended!

So…. what are YOU reading?

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Filed under authors, characters, Uncategorized, writing

January 28, 2011 · 8:53 am

who I’m reading

Thought I’d take some time to jot down a bit about some of the authors I’ve been reading lately. I think it is important because I’m often inspired by other authors. We write what we read?!?

Kim Harrison – WOW! She puts the para in para-normal romance. Her Hollows series really keeps you interested. It deals with deep conflicted feelings side by side with action packed butt kicking. Oh yeah, her main character wears cool-ass boots too. Rachel Morgan is someone you like and can relate to. She is far from perfect, but you always root for her. That’s the kind of characters I want to write. http://kimharrison.net/index.html

I’ve been reading a lot of para-normal romance lately and Diana Pharaoh Francis has an awesome series started. The Horngate Witches series starts out strong with “Bitter Night,” and I’m dying to read the second book, “Crimson Wind.” I’ll probably be downloading it to my Kindle later this month. What I really like is the same things that I see in Harrison’s novels; interesting, real characters doing exciting things. http://www.dianapfrancis.com/horngate-witches-books/

I read “I Am Number Four” in two days. The movie is coming out and I’m excited to see how well they did at capturing this neat story. The author is actually one of the characters in the book – very original! http://findnumberfour.com/

I’ve recently downloaded some classics to my Kindle. I’m about to start reading “The Portrait of Dorian Gray.” I’ll post what I think after I read it. The interesting thing that makes me want to post is that I feel like I don’t have enough first hand knowledge of the classics. How better to learn about the craft of writing, than to read the classics. For me, that means Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and the off-the-wall influences. I’ve read a lot; Animal Farm, Dune. But, I still have a long way to go.

I really like fast paced exciting stories that reflect life and emotions. That is what I try to write. In my upcoming e-book, I have several short stories that are action packed and touch on real life emotion, in a twisted para-normal way. One of the stories, Crystal Cage, deals with heart-break and finding ones inner strength, yeah and dealing with a crazy sorcerer. I’m hoping readers will love it.

Inspiration

I’m working on a story about a girl that races hovercrafts. It was inspired by driving on the expressway. I commute everyday on the Cross-town Expressway from Brandon to St. Petersburg, and there is a new section now that has a lot of sharp turns. I was driving home one day and the traffic was light, so I went a little faster than I probably should have, but it was fun. Taking sharp curves a bit too fast is just fun. I wanted to put that fun into a story. So, my story starts out with a hover-craft race. The girl, Geddy, is as fast and funky as her Blade model hover-craft. I’m getting her into some trouble and watching how she gets out of it.

The inspiration was more than just the story. It got me thinking about life. My life sometimes feels just like riding that road. One minute I’m just driving along, and the next, I’m swooping around the curve, heart pounding, wheels clinging to the black top. Then it is over, and just a straight line home. We enjoy the curves in the road some times, and some times we avoid them or they scare the crap out of us. Some times the straight line is boring and some times it is comforting. It is just life. It is all mixed up but that is how it goes. We wouldn’t enjoy the curves so much without the straight aways, and vice versa.

Other things are inspiring to writing as well like music. I have one character in a story that likes country music. Not the old fashioned country, but the new country that has been more popular the last ten years or so, the stuff made popular by the Zack Brown Band and Tim McGraw and others. Now, when I hear anything that Sierra would like, I think about her and what she is going to be doing. I’ve also created characters that are pure rock n roll. I think it is fun to hear a sound track when I’m writing these guys. It is fun to see them develop on paper and not just in my head.

I’m thinking a lot lately about these inspirations and how they show in my writing. I hope my readers will enjoy how they show in my writing as well.

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Filed under inspiration, Uncategorized, writing

January 23, 2011 · 10:35 pm

Let’s get it started

Just testing this out. I’m brand spanking new to this blogging thing, but I plan to use this to chronical my journey into the rubicon of writing – thus the title! I hope I will have some followers soon, and I hope I will grow from the experience. Welcome.