At the Climax Portion of the Book

pinical in Garden of the Gods, Colorado

I've worked up to this point in the book--the climax! The pinical! Finally, I'm there. But then as I wrote out the scene, something wasn't working. I had to let it rest. And I sort of mulled around through the weekend, waiting for the answer to come. Why wasn't this exciting me suddenly?

Then, I was reading one of my favorite authors, Kim Harrison, her Black Magic Sanction (and it's as good as I'd expect from her). I had inspriation from something inside the pages (for an earlier scene that takes place), but something about the way in which she creates problems for her Rachel character, made me realize I had not done this in this scene. I needed there to be a real challenge for my characters to find the little girl before the man does. (If I say more, I'll spoil this). They are in Cave of the Winds in Manitou Springs, Co. I have three buses drop off children at the cave. The man is after the little girl, and Sabrina knows what the little girl looks like and why the man wants to find her.

But I have another problem lurking for her: The Albino, who is a true Undead, and he desires to take souls to feed on and that's one of the reasons he is there, but he would like nothing better than to feast on Sabrina's soul because she is a sibyl. (Yummy!)

What I had failed to do was make her search a little more complicated, put up obstacles, problems. I had Sabrina, Chris, and Bill get there just as the children get there. WRONG! I had to have them be delayed by traffic, plus a long drive down a mountain road. Also, I needed to have them realize the man who holds danger for the little girl in Sabrina's vision is already there. He drives a very destictive car--a '59 Caddilac with the big fins, and I thought I'd better have them find it there in the parking lot. At first I didn't.

So, I fixed all this. They find the man's car first. They get inside and there are more than one tour and so Sabrina makes up a little white lie about being late for the school tour, and once they get inside the cave, they are not with the group which has the little girl.

And while they discuss things off to the side, Dante showes up (because he is an Undead too, but is very VERY devoted to Sabrina), tells her that The Albino is there with them. She now has Bill, who is a Nephilm, a werewolf (Chris), and now Dante (Undead). I'm setting the thing up. I'm moving slowly, as though I'm walking through this cave too.

This is where I am:

"The Albino is very near," Dante said. "He is here, in fact. Waiting."

I looked from him to Bill and then to Chris.

Bill stepped in front of me. "Then we must all guard her." The two other men fell in beside me and behind me and we all moved along the cave's uneven floor.

"This is crazy," I complained mildly. "The only one of you who would have any chance against another astral vampire is Dante."

"It is true," Bill said. "But there is one soul that the Albino would crave more than yours."

"Whose?" I asked, incredulous.

"Mine."

Monday Musings . . . Vasyl and Sabrina

Hey, there. I've been sharing brief bits from my WIP. just thought I might share a brief one from a scene between Vasyl and Sabrina. Again, this is the 4th book. The second one is to come out eventually--I have to get the edits first and after I get them (and a book cover), I will announce its debut here and at my other blogs.

Set up: after Niki was sent away from Lonny Pennyweather's (vampire) house--this scene can be viewed HERE--Sabrina has been recovering from her night. Let's peek in and see what Vasyl and Sabrina are doing now . . .

His hand clutched mine once more and kissed it. “I am not angry, Sabrina. Not at you, at any rate. You were a victim. And what he got was what he deserved. You need not feel regret over anything that happened.” He moved closer and gently kissed me on the lips. I'd forgotten what his kisses did to me; they made me feel wonderful, and at the same time safe, and absolutely loved. “Are you feeling better?”

I nodded. “Yeah. My ribs don't hurt any more.”

“I am happy to hear this.” He shifted so that he was up against me, and kissed me again, one hand feather-light against my jaw. The kiss helped me forget whatever it was we'd been talking about. “Take off your gloves,” he whispered. “I want that you should be able to resist me, should you want to.”

I blinked at him, not exactly surprised by his request, but at the realization of what he meant to do. I felt my stomach tumble hard. This was it. I was unprepared for his attentions, knowing full well he had waited all this time. I pulled off my gloves and set them aside. I knew no matter what, I wouldn't resist him; I had looked forward to his love-making since he began overtures toward me.

He kissed my wrists, and then dropped my right hand and took my left arm in both hands and kissed eagerly—as though my arm were corn on the cob—up to the bend in my elbow and kissed his old bite. I was stunned as I instantly went into an orgasm so strong I gasped and arched my back. Shit, what's going to happen when we finally do it? Will I instantaneously combust?

His one arm curled around me, catching me from falling back onto the bed; the other hand went to my crotch pressing and massaging me, helping turn the orgasm into an even stronger one. His lips were on my throat, whispering in French, “Magnifique, mon amour . . . magnifique . . .” as though encouraging me through the gratification. Whatever he'd said, it was marvelous and seemed to go with the throes of ecstasy I was experiencing.

The knock at the door interrupted us. It was a good thing I was pretty much done, or I'd have killed them about then.

Vasyl looked toward the door. “What is it?” he asked almost languidly.

“Your food, my lord,” the voice was familiar. It was Chris. I was certain of it. I was glad that he had somehow made it back here, and was—for all that I could tell—alright.

Vasyl launched himself off the bed and answered the door. I heard the low tone of a male voice out in the hall. It sounded like Chris, but now I wasn't sure. I would know once I touched the tray who had brought it. Vasyl spoke quickly to whoever it was, assuring them that I was fine. “Much improved,” he said and edged back through the door.

all writing herein is copyrighted 

The Short & Sweet

I remember when I had plenty of time to write, oh, so long ago.

Wow. That sounds a little like a poem's beginnings. But I'm not going in that direction. A number of people have been showing up here at Lorelei's Writing Journal. I'm glad to have you, all 9 of you! Some of you have left comments, and know I can't see my follower's list (I can't see anyone's list, actually), and you've been kind enough to leave me at least one comment so that I know who you are.

I've also joined the third Writer's Building Campaign, and so I've been working on getting around to people, but it's rather slow because I've only so much time in the day. Gotta sleep sometime. Gotta work to. And write. Since this is what I love to do.

Today my characters Sabrina Strong and Vasyl will meet the "Underwear Challenge" over on my sister blog,
Something Nebulous Within. I was tagged by Shelly of The Life of a Novice Writer. And I've tagged two men, for a change, so that should be interesting.

I'm on page 146 of my WIP and over 55,000 words! I began this in July. Hey! Got half a book done in 30 days! Not bad, considering I don't get to work on it more than a few hours at night, and maybe 3-5 hours/day on the weekend.

I'm not into a NaNoWri challenge only because I know it would only frustrate me. I've got too many things that frustrate me already.I have to make time to write at the end of the day, but I also have to network, and do my blogs.

But I can make my own challenges, and when the words come, they come. When they don't then I know I have to allow my mind to work on it and not try to put down so many words in a day. Usually it only takes me a night to come up with something to happen next. I consider where the book is going, or needs to go. If it sags too much in the middle, I need to pop something in there that gets things going again.

And that's what I like about fantasy. I just had a demon try to attack Sabrina in a woman's rest room. I thought it would be a little funny placing the whole incident in a lady's room in a restaurant, and when Sabrina's dagger kills it, it goes up in flames. Then she and the guy she's with have to get out of there quickly before someone finds the smoldering remains.

And now to go back to it all. 

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.

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!

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!

Monday Musings ~ Castles on the Brain

Hey, I thought I saw Harry Potter flying over the left tower . . . Oy! The last movie is coming out soon!!!!

This is Glamis Castle of Scotland. Gorgeous at night, isn't it? It's pretty old as castles go.

I've gotten into the beginning of my climax on my WIP, and further along by a few pages. So far, I've gotten Sabrina through the ball at the castle, have had her drugged, and then woke up in a bedroom with a vampire licking her foot, and then biting her at the ankle. I may post something from this later this week. Just a peek, mind you.

I've now got her creeping down a hallway that creaks as she goes--enough to wake up a vampire or two! She is still determined to find her cousin Lindee.

Oh, boy do I have some surprises in store for her!

I've got the week off. However, I'm going to be busy doing other things besides writing, blogging and taking care of the house. My passion has become my beautiful new kitchen. I'll have to get film or something to take pictures and post them. We just bought some rugs for in front of the stove and sink, plus a new waste basket. Sounds silly. New waste basket, I know, but hey, we've had the same blue one for 20+ years. Sick of that old one, needed a new one and got a nice black one, with a swinging top. Nice. Don't have to lift the top in order to put the garbage in, and the lid stays put, doesn't drop on the floor. Can't believe we never thought to buy a new one, but hey, we didn't have a spanking new kitchen before.

So, I've put this picture of this castle up on my desktop to gaze at. Since I get terribly distracted by such things, I just thought I'd put the picture into this post, and you all can snag it if you want.

Oh! I think Sabrina hears someone coming down the hall. She has to hide. . .