The Internet

As you can see, I've been diligently cleaning house and redecorating this blog. I've also been designing an official website and Pinterest page that I plan to launch in the near future. After all of that work plus tweaking profiles on five different social networks I couldn't help but ask myself: Why do all of this?

When chatters jokingly call the internet "the interwebs," I think they are actually hitting on a clearer version of the truth. A net is typically orderly and sequenced. A web is artful, complex, and circuitous. It takes positioning yourself into every level of the internet--from social networks to blogs to official sites--to ensure that you have the widest reach possible. Every action links to every other action either directly or indirectly. This can potentially lead your product, brand, or thoughts to every corner of the globe with an internet connection.

The answer to my question: YOU. My goal is to connect and share my stories with as many people as possible. I'm willing to take all the necessary steps to make that happen.

See you around the web!

2012

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I, for one, have enjoyed stepping away from my fiction for a time and spending time with friends and family that I put on the back burner while pursuing publication.

As 2011 comes to end, I cannot help but reflect on the year as a whole. A lot has happened to me both inside and out. I took the effort to make this blog a priority. I helped start a writer’s group with two amazing and talented individuals that has become a cornerstone of my writing progress. I drummed up all the moxie I had and began seriously writing my first novel. I participated in National Novel Writing Month and discovered a potential that I never knew existed inside of me. I have released that little goblin living inside my head that whispered doubts in my ear and infused me with fear of failure.

I will reap all the benefits of these actions in 2012. By mid to late summer, my first book, The Bloodsong Swords, will arrive. My fiction baby will have been birthed, reared, and grown prepared to face the world on its own two feet. I know that not everyone will like it. I just hope that more people like it than not. 

It is an exciting story full of colorful characters and places that span over 1,900 years.  There are gangsters—a lot of gangsters—vying to fulfill an ancient prophecy and they all have supernatural powers. If I had a gun to my head, I would call it science fiction, but really, it is so much more than that. It is in essence an urban science fiction historical action thriller. Obviously, genre bending is going on in all directions. 

I dedicated December to my day job. Retail work takes on a completely new level of insanity during the holidays and I have had little free time to write. January will be a very important month. I still need to finish my first draft. Then the editing and rewriting begins. I am going to make a bold statement and say that 2012 will likely be the most important and pivotal year of my life. By the time 2013 rolls in, I will have transformed from an aspiring writer to a self-published author and life will never be the same again.

I want to thank everyone who has followed my journey thus far. I wish everyone an exciting and safe New Year’s celebration. Cheers to 2012!

Preparations

Its a cool and gloomy day here in Chicago. I'm off of work and attempting to self motivate. 

I've not been writing much as I've been fighting off a nasty cold virus and a mysterious painful pulled neck muscle (mysterious because it happened out of nowhere. Perhaps it's the Universe's way of telling me to slow down, relax, and stop letting things get under my skin). I have a short story in progress and the ladies of my writer's group (Moxie!) are expecting more pages of that very soon.  And of course the omnious shadow of NaNoWriMo looms over me. November 1st is only five short days away and I'll begin my crash course in speed writing.

For those of you unfamiliar, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) is a not-for-profit endeavor by the Office of Letters and Light: "A fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing." The goal is to write 50,000 new words in just 30 days.

I don't like to fly blind. I'd rather be prepared. I research and read into almost everything I attempt. Based on my findings I've created a few simple plans of action to cross that 50,000 word finish line. It's a three prong plan, "pacing, structure, and caffeine."

The first is to stick to a strict day to day word count of 1700. That way I have a small and attainable daily goal that will keep me on pace.

The next part is to write out on index cards all of the scenes I need for the novel and arrange them in some kind of preliminary order. This way if the white page begins to threaten me, I can pick up the next scene card and continue rolling. That's what I'm putting together today. Some bones.

And lastly, I plan to stock the pantry with lots of coffee. 

Well, lots to do, lots to do!  I better get to it.

National Novel Writing Month

I've done it! I am an official participant in NaNoWriMo 2011!  While I am both excited and terrified about the prospect of compiling a 50,000 word novel during the month of November, I know it's the right thing to do. This endeavor will force me to complete my work in progress and rid me of my bad habit of editing as I go. My strategy is to pace myself at 1700 words per day to make things more manageable.

If you're already a member, please feel free to add me as a writing buddy. You can find my profile here.

I will definitely keep you updated on my process during November. Wish me luck and cheers to shitty first drafts.

It's All Inside

The above image is the last page of an autobiography I wrote for a final project in Eighth Grade English. It appears that my thirteen-year-old self knew her destiny even if my adult self spent loads of time denying it.

I opened every door I came across during my young adult life. I searched for something new or better--something that clicked. I went to four different colleges. I majored in Law Enforcement, English, and Interior Design before coming full circle and receiving a BA in Fiction Writing. What I've learned is that the answers are inside me. If I search deep enough and honestly enough, I can't go wrong. 

I'm glad that I saved this autobiography. It serves to underscore my desire to share stories with whoever is willing to read them. I wish I could go back in time, hug that thirteen-year-old girl and tell her to seize her dream and never look back. She was wiser than she gave herself credit for.

Enjoying The Season

I notice I haven’t posted in quite a few weeks. There’s a simple reason for that. I’ve been enjoying the season!  Summers in Chicago are far too short and too easily allowed to slip by. I’ve spent a lot of time relaxing with books and movies, listening to bird song outside my window, watching the neighborhood ignite into a fervor of human activity and feeling the moist caress of Summer’s kiss on my skin.

I hate Winter. I know what you’re thinking: “You live in Chicago! Winter should be in your blood.” And perhaps it is. Furthermore, that is most likely the reason for my despise.  Winter is dark, sullen, heavy, depressing, and above all COLD. Not at all good for the spirit. Perhaps one day I’ll move to a warmer climate where I can enjoy temperance on a regular basis. Preferably, somewhere that nature lives in better harmony with civilization. But for now I’m going to focus on making the most of what little bright, tangy, uplifting Summer that I can. 

We’ve come upon on the threshold of August and I can already feel Earth’s orbit once again transporting me toward that desolate of seasons.The days have noticeably shortened. Summer’s swan song string of 90-degree temperatures has arrived, heralding the coming Autumn.

And with the coming of Autumn so close at hand, I am grateful for one very important thing: the emergence of a potentially fruitful collaboration with two wonderfully positive and talented ladies with equal desire to carve a niche in the world of fiction. That’s right, a writer’s group. It has all the makings of success and through the end of glorious Summer and the calming luxury of colorful Autumn we’re sure to come upon a rhythm that aids us all in beating back the breath of big, bad Winter. We have goals (my personal goal being to complete a first draft before the new year), we have enthusiasm, and most important of all we have moxie!
 

Parallel Earth (Alternate History)

Alternate history fiction (also known as alternative history, allohistory, or uchronie) is a subgenre of fiction that takes place in our world, yet has strayed from our actual history. This subgenre usually has a science fiction, literary fiction, or historical fiction emphasis and has been in use since as early as the 4^th century. Considering my personal science fiction bent, I prefer to call this subgenre Parallel Earth—the story takes place on Earth, but Earth of a parallel Universe where things are not quite like the Earth we live on. 

As a massive fan and writer of Magical Realism (the most popular current form of which is Urban Fantasy)—fiction that takes place in our real world but contains fantastical or magical elements—using a parallel Earth as a setting loosens up the boundaries and provides a wider range of fantasy elements for use. I have in fact created an entirely fictional Midwestern city so that I am not shackled by actual geography.

Working on a novel with characters that are centuries old has depended almost entirely on strategic divergence from the actual history of civilization in small ways. With 10 protagonists, 5 antagonists and 19 secondary characters that fill out my story, it makes for a lot of research. I have been very conscious of having these changes make sense and in many cases logically link up with actual developments in Earth’s history. I’ve done quite a bit of brushing up on ancient Roman history and culture and will have plenty more to do with several isolated times and places as referenced by the origins of my large cast of characters.

How do you readers out there feel about stories that take place on a parallel Earth?  Are you distracted by historical inconsistencies? Or do you welcome a view into what might be rather than what is?