Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sneak peak at WIP : Silver Moon

Hello all,

Here's a sneak peak at my other work in progress, Silver Moon. In it, Sabra is a werewolf and it's time for her to choose a mate. She meets Azhar when he comes to her office for emergency dental work. The fireworks begin but he has a different suggestion in mind for her...

When (Azhar) loped toward her, (Sabra) knew that he was all wolf. Her nostrils flared. He was an Alpha? She glanced at his empty ring finger when he rested his hands on the counter. A single alpha? Her heart raced. She didn’t know there were any left in her grandfather’s territory. She looked up into his eyes and regretted the decision. His hazel irises danced with flecks of gold and she immediately became lost in them. She quickly looked down at her file folder, needing to do something to distract her from the lust that was quickly rising within her.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

What's in a name? Plenty...

As with naming your kids, naming your character is very important to the success of your story. You want to pick a name that fits your hero or heronie's personality and is cool at the same time. I've read plenty of stories where the name just doesn't fit the heroine and I spend the rest of my time wondering why he's named "x" not "y"  instead of enjoying the story. Keeping a list of names you like or using one of the baby naming sites is fine, but how do you choose the right name from thousands of choices? I have come up with a few guidelines:
  • Make sure that its easy to pronounce - There's nothing worse than stumbling over the hero's name every time he makes and appearence. It's also fine to take a popular name and give it an unusual spelling, but make sure you tell us how to say it or else we won't.
  • Take ethnicity, background into account - If your hero is hispanic, why are you going to give him the name Ken? The same goes for naming all of your ethnic characters the same ones that other authors have already used like Carlos. Please pick something else.
  • Meaning vs Substance - Sometimes it's necessary to name the character something that has a meaning to it. That's fine, but make sure that we are clear on what that meaning is. Don't just mention it once and never again in the story. Make sure the meaning becomes and underlying theme or back story.
  • Tough guy, wimpy name - If your character is strong, make sure the name is too. There's nothing worse reading about a rugged, cowboy who doesn't have a name to match. The same goes for your heroine. If she's strong, don't pick Jennifer because it's the first one that came up on the baby name list. Pick one that is strong and feminine at the same time.
If you follow these guideline, you will be sure to pick a name for your character that is as unique and exciting as your story.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Bitten ( A work in progress)

Alright, here's six sentences from my work in progress, Bitten. It's still very rough around the edges and I went over six sentences to capture the mood of the scene. In my story, Mario is a new vampire in Aurora, the vampire queen's, territory. While she tries to decide what to do with this newbie, a mystery unfolds that could claim her life and upset the balance of the vampire race...

Aurora took a step toward him. Her guards flinched at the expression of rage that was etched on her face but Mario didn’t. They released his arms. Mario crossed them over his chest as he watched her with amusement. She swallowed but wasn’t about to back down.
“Right now, I don’t give a damn what your name is. You took a human in her throat and almost drained her! If a slayer saw that, you wouldn’t be standing here right now. And who do you think you are, opening up a channel so that I could watch such an atrocity!”
“It made you wet, didn’t it?”

Please comment to let me know what you think of it so far.

Six Sentance Sunday

I've decided to participate in the six sentance sunday. Tonight at midnight, I will post six sentances from a work in progress called Bitten.

The story is about a vampire queen that falls in love with a new turn, but the new turn isn't what he seems.

In the meantime, you can catch some full length free reads of mine on interracialerotica.net.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Case for Writer's Block

You’ve been working on you novel or story for weeks. It’s coming along nicely. Ideas are flowing faster than you can type them.  You know today will be another productive day, but when you sit down at the keyboard or notebook, nothing comes out.  For what feels like hours, you stare at the blank page, hoping something, anything will come out, but you draw a blank. Finally, after an hour, you give up and go watch television.
Every writer has faced a bout of “writer’s block.” The experts will tell you that the best way to overcome it is to write your way through it. Even if it’s a bunch of dung, you can always go back and fix it later on. We’ve all cursed the fact that it happens at the most inopportune time; usually right in the middle of creating one of the  best scene that you’ve ever written.  We hope that we will never run into this brick wall during our careers, but this lapse in creativity is necessary for the following reasons.
1)      You need a break – even God rested on the seventh day. You need time to recharge the imagination station so that you won’t be so fatigued while you finish your body of work.
2)      Something’s not write - I’m a big believer in intuitive writing. There’s a reason that your mind is forcing you to stop at this point. Go back and take a look at what you’ve written so far. Maybe something needs to be edited before you can move on.
3)      Is this the end? –I know that you’ve got five thousand words left to write before you can hand it into the publisher, but maybe, your mind has reached the natural end to the idea. Take a look. Maybe you can add more to what you’ve written so far. If this isn’t the end, you’ll continue on.
4)      Are we still on the same page – Is your story still moving in the direction that you planned or has it taken a detour that has caused your brain to slow down to make sure the new pieces of the puzzle still fit.
5)      Gut check time – Are you still excited about the idea? Are you excited about what you’ve written so far? If so, great! Keep going. If not, maybe you need to rework the idea or scrap it and start over.

The bottom line is don’t panic when you suddenly can’t write another word. There’s probably a good reason that your brain had to stop where it did. Just relax, take a breath and find out why before you continue with your piece.

Next week: A few ideas on how to overcome writer’s block.