The Connections & Continuation

Working on the 4th book & news.

I've got a lot of friends, and when you are connected--on facebook esp.--you can put a question out there and you will probably get an answer within 24 hours. I asked one person I know from work what old car had big tail fins. He told me the '59 Cadilac. He is to send me some link, later, I guess so I have a visual.

I need the visuals--who doesn't--when working on a book. I've got a lot happening, pretty much all at once. I've discussed here how I keep notes, but also write note cards so as to keep scenes in order when I go to write them.

This book is slightly different in that I'm going with two different POV's. I'm using the 1st person for Sabrina, but everyone else I'm going with 3rd person. This is the first of this series where I'm showing the thoughts of other characters. I think while a 1st person book is good, you are very limited in telling a story. You really have to think about what your story is about, before you begin writing it in any POV. So many people are involved with Sabrina I felt I needed to bring their voices into this story, and let them tell their own background and reasons why they are persuing her.

Meanwhile, my publisher, who is located in Maine, has said that everyone is fine after Irene hit. I'm sure there is a lot of cleaning up going on. But we are discussing the book cover for the second book. That's sort of fun. I didn't complain about the first book's cover at all, since it was so awesome. But this one I want it to capture a little more of what the book is all about, rather than keep it with any theme or whatever. He agreed with me. So, I'm waiting to see what he comes up with next.

Other than that, I've won a contest. Since I chose to have something critiqued, I'm going to send the first 1,000 words of my 3rd novel to Sylvia Ney of Writing In Wonderland. I know that it isn't perfect, and I'm not expecting her to gush with "Oh, this is wonderful! blah-blah". All I want is to have someone look at it, find the dumb mistakes, let me know what I might be able to do better, and go from there.

I once went to some site that said they would "critique" so many words of whatever, about 2 years ago and got insulted six ways to side ways--and on line no less! I thought the person running the thing was rather brutish about it and allowing other people to sling crap at it was not instructive at all. It was almost like being thrown to the lions. I really didn't think that was fair. It took me a long time to get over that.

So, not wanting to go through that again, I know Sylvia is kind hearted and will review my opening of the third book with an editor's eye, so that I can at least find anything I might miss otherwise.

Anyone out there send out for critiques? Have a critique group? It's nice to have good people who will give you honest helpful critiques of your work, I think.

Lorelei's Muse: LORELEI'S BIRTHDAY BASH & GIVE AWAY!!!!

Lorelei's Muse: LORELEI'S BIRTHDAY BASH & GIVE AWAY!!!!: Hello! You made it! Welcome! Join us in the celebration! Here's a party hat and we're about to cut the cake. Mingle and make yourself comfor...

Lorelei's Muse: GIVE AWAY ANNOUNCEMENT!

Lorelei's Muse: GIVE AWAY ANNOUNCEMENT!: Okay, so this girl is turning a year older, and I decided I would have a little party for those of you who follow, and/or are fans of my vam...

HEY, YOU! CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I seem to be gaining popularity here on my writing journal--which was basiclly done on a whim. I now have 4 followers, and getting comments all the time. I love when I get comments. Why? Because I can come and meet you all over on your blogs! Bug you for a change!!!

And since you all are new to me, and me new to you, tell you what. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I've got a birthday coming up. I'm trying to find a way of celebrating it with all of my favorite blogie friends-old and new--and I think I may have come up with a good idea.

My birthday is on Saturday, so you will have time to make plans to come to my main blog Lorelei's Muse. I will post notification of a give away there, on August 27th. But you must come to this post, become a follower and follow the very easy rules of the contest. That's it. You don't have to give blood (just kidding!). Just show up on the 28th, make comment on the post that day, or even there after, and become a follower.

How easy is that?

See you there!

When the Writing Gets Complicated & Plotting Scenes

Hello all two of you! *chuckle*

I'm still working along in the 4th book. And because I will now be working longer days, it will be difficult for me to post most of the time in here, or elsewhere.

However, here is where I'm at in my WIP: 43,227 words. Which I would consider at half-way through, depending upon where I want to end it. I don't try and reach a limited amount of words, but at the same time I don't want an overly long novel. With my publisher, he doesn't limit word count, but the book will merely cost more for the consumer, depending upon the pages. Thus, with the economy as it is, I'm trying to work toward much less than 100,000 words. I try and keep the work within 300 pages, if possible.

My pick for best book on
 Nephilim and fallen angels

So, with that in mind, and knowing that I am working with several character's POV's, I have to limit what each one gets to have in their moments/scenes in the book. Because I've been just working along from the beginning with what I had, I'm now adding the other characters, having their scenes in here, I have to now drop them in as I go along. With one character in particular, Bill Gannon (who is introduced in second book about to come out), I've had to develop his history. He is the off-spring of Nephilim, and I had to develop their history according to what I wanted them to be and so forth. I've read only two novels pertaining to Nephilim, and one was very good, called Angelology, by Danielle Trussoni. I would recommend this book over all. I felt she did the most extensive work on the background and history out of the two I've read so far. The other book was a YA. Not that into YA, but it was an alright book for young adults. This was called Fallen by Lauren Kate. The cover, and the first chapter are a bit deceiving, so I had to read into the center of this book to even become interested. I don't care for young adult, I guess it's because they always have them in some sort of school. Which is fine. I simply hated school, when young. I guess nothing will even touch the Harry Potter series for most interesting schools for me.

Anyway, what I've had to do is think on who Bill is, his history, and come up with some moments from his past. I had to also decide how old he was. Came up with that he's at least 110 years old, but still looks in his 20's. I had to decide--earlier than this book--what his purpose was to finding Sabrina and trying to woo her, in second book. I knew he would have to be brought into another book to address him, his true background, history, and so forth. It only took a few days for me to come up with his history. Now I need to sprinkle it in.

In order to keep him straight--because there are several characters who I will get into their heads and have scenes with--I've taken note cards and briefly written each scene down on a card for Bill. In a separate document, I've written the ideas more fully, to the point in some cases dialogue, or the scene itself. This is easier for me than to try and write it into the main doc. itself. I have ADD, so if I begin reading portions of my writing, I get distracted away from what I want to do.

The note card ploy works with anything you need for plotting your novel. You can briefly describe the scene, lay them out on a flat surface and figure out what goes first. I've addressed numerous advantages of using this method, and the plot planner, etc. over on Lorelei's Muse in my WORDSMITHING 101 series. If you wish to take a look at those, that's the heading for any you wish to take a look at in past posts of mine. One happens to be on my most viewed at the left side bar. It was the first one I'd written, and it must be pretty good, or I wouldn't have that many people looking at it.

Well, I'll leave you two for now. If you have anything to share here, or at Muse, please do. I always like to hear about what you're doing. Also know that I'm unable to see who my followers are here. I don't know why it's blocked for me. So, if you wish to leave me a link in order to find you, do so. I'll be happy to stop by, and follow you as well!

Motivation for Characters

the albino vampire

In my notebook a page is open and on it written in green highlight ink the question is posed:

WHAT IS BILL'S MOTIVATION?
PURPOUS?
~is it to keep her safe?
~ or to kill the Albino?
~BOTH???

You always have to continuously ask yourself these questions when working on the WIP.
Bill Gannon is a character I've introduced in the second book. And since the second book has not yet come out, I won't go into him too much. But he has a secret that is revealed in the second book, but he has a few more secrets that I'm wanting to explore in this fourth book. A little more of this background, too.

The picture above is not Bill. It reminded me so much of another character that is in my fourth book. He is the villain. He is called "the Albino". But he is a type of vampire that I'm introducing in the series in the fourth book, which I can't even talk about here, because it would give too much away.

But, the Albino is pretty nasty. Making him as nasty as I can, includes causing the death of innocents. And one scene I have not quite put together as yet, but I've got a portion of it done.

The fourth book is now at over 31,000 words, and I'm on page 84, a few more since this morning. I've been going to town on this book this past week since I've been off work.  Thank's to my husband for allowing me the time off. I make no vacation pay, thus I'm simply off.

On Monday we are leaving for the North Woods. Wisconsin, to Lake Superior. I'm taking a lot of pictures. We've never been up there before. I can't wait!

Of course I'm bringing notebooks, my little recorder, and whatever else I might need, just in case I have to get some scene down. The break will give me time to mull over what to do about Bill.

Need to Cool Down

Very Hot Out There!!!
Heat Indexes are over 100!

So, here's a picture of butterbeer for you all to cool off with!


I had to put this picture up. I needed to cool down some.
I went for a walk early today, early. Like around 6:30 to beat the heat/sun. The humidity was not kind. Fortunately we well get a cool front coming through tonight and that should bring things back down into a range that is civil.

My walk was productive. I had a scene I was trying to put together in my WIP. I didn't want it to be frivolous, and yet I needed a little action sequence here. I'm delving into my characters. I'm enjoying being able to write in 3rd person/different characters. I felt something different was needed, as I may have said before. The fourth book was in me and I can tell you it is flooding out of me. But I may be on a break/hiatus soon. We're planning on a 3-day trip north into the woods of Wisconsin and up to Lake Superior. I've never been that way before. Might be rather enjoyable and hopefully not hot!