Finally!

After days of being gone only to come home to find that my internet and all of my devices hate me, I am finally back online!  The good news to that sad tale, is that I was able to continue on my rewrite of Dead Awakening.  I am now only sixty pages from the conclusion of the book and that much closer to looking for Beta readers and an editor. Yahoo!  I still have a lot of work to do on the book, but I am closer than I have been in a year to finishing it for good.

Along the way I have been trying to find a synopsis for the back cover of the book, without giving too much away.  So I have come up with a very rough draft of a back cover synopsis.  Let me know if this is something you would want to read or not.

When Evaine Michaels wakes strapped to a rusty hospital bed with no memory of who she was, she knows she's in trouble, and things are only going to get worse for Evaine.

Unable to control her new emotional or physical appetites Evaine is torn between unending hunger and unfathomable rages. But it's the undeniably attracted to the beautiful and illusive Luca that has her in even worse shape.

Luca is a greek god of a man who wants nothing to do newborn Evaine, but hard as he tries, neither of them can deny the electric connection when they touch. Or why it is that they can feel each others emotions.

And what will happen when Evaine finally remembers who she was before, and finds out that her high school sweetheart hasn't give up on finding her. Tristan is a millionaire playboy will stop at nothing to get Evaine back, but the journey may lead him to finding out things, that were better left unknown.

As Evaine, Luca and even Tristan try to discover who is experimenting on humans and why, Evaine is forced to choose between the man who makes her feel safe, and the man who's touch ignites her soul.

The Time has Come!

You stare into what must be done and suddenly your heart begins to pound just a little bit harder.  You think, I can do this, it's no big deal, but then you feel nauseated, like you just ate week old fish for lunch.  Over and over you go through the motions of preparing.  Trying to convince yourself that it really doesn't matter what anyone thinks, but before you know it your vision is blurring and your head begins to play the theme of Jaws.

Yes, this is the dreaded moment, when, like standing naked in front of a crowd of strangers, you have decided to finally let your writer's group read the first chapter of your book.  This is it, make it or break it time in your emotional journey.  Will they love it?  Will they hate it?  But the bigger question, would they want to read more of it?  That is the real question.

And so it is, with much trepidation and profuse sweating, that I print out ten copies of my novel Dead Awakening and pack up my bag prepared to leave.

I think I will take a relaxing walk down the isles of Barnes and Noble first.  The smell of freshly printed books is so rejuvenating to the senses.  And much easier on the brain when driving than Valium.

Wish me luck.  For better or worse, my only hope, is that they will want to read more!

The First Cut is the Deepest!

Well, I did it.  I didn't think I would, but I have.  I have made my first real, big, deep cut into my book Dead Awakenings.  It was painful, and nauseating, just think the first incision of surgery can make me queasy.  But, I think, that just like when I watch medical dramas, or real operations on television, the second, third and fourth cuts will be easier.

I cut a full five pages from my book today.  It seemed to be very needed at that point in the book.  It had been too long since any real action had taken place, and since the information was essentially told twice, I cut.

I am not a big fan of telling a whole bunch of information at once, in movies or books.  If you need to give information, break it up.  Push it around.  Let it come out of a conversation naturally and over time if possible.  Don't just have someone sit down and say "Okay here's what's going on."  Which is basically what I did.  And of course since I myself hate that, I had to cut it out, like the little cancerous growth that it was.

I know that there will be more cuts, more cancers to weed out, and I can only hope that they will be just as painless as this one was.

Dead Awakenings - Death is just the beginning

How over used is that phrase?  "Death is just the beginning"  Very, overused IMO.  However, it does seem to fit my book Dead Awakenings pretty well.  I am currently over half way through the fifth draft and I am hoping to get to page 300 today in the edit. 

I am also gearing up to take my first chapter to my writers group on Thursday.  That alone is nerve wracking!  I am not yet nervous about it, but give it a day.  By tomorrow I will be a slobbering pile of drool on the floor kicking and screaming and loudly questioning my husband as to why he thought me going to a writers group was such a great idea.

He is correct though, it is a good thing to do.  To get others opinions on my work and what is good and what is mind numbingly stupid.  Hopefully, since it is the fifth draft there won't be too much of the latter.

I am currently working on the synopsis for the back of the book jacket for my book Dead Awakenings.  If I am lucky, I will get that done today as well.  However, all of this sitting and writing is giving me sore wrists, so I am off to relax and enjoy a swim before beginning.

My Never Ending Story - A Rewriting Tale

 I am hoping that the fact that my brain is tired of reading my book Dead Awakening, and my eyes burn from scanning for grammatical errors, means that I am close to finishing with my editing.  But I am terrified that it is just my brain and eyes resigning themselves to the fact that they are closer to the starting line, than the finish line.

I am currently working on revision number five and number six simultaneously.  I know, I know, that sounds completely improbable and totally insane, but if I don't do it this way, I may never finish draft six.

So draft five is for minor grammatical problems, plot problems, character development and all other small fixes.  Where as the sixth revision is for strictly grammatical fine tuning.  The sixth revision is  so tedious, especially since I am going chapter by chapter and we working, that I have to have some fun along the way.  So on draft five, I am currently half way through the book, and on the sixth, I have just finished chapter three.

I feel like I am right now stuck in the never ending story.  But I know, that after these two drafts, I will be finally ready to bring in beta readers to help me with new sets of eyes.

So now I just need to fill up on twizzlers and crystal light to get through it.

Change is Good!

It is official!  The Changling has finished taking root in my brain.  Yesterday morning, it was simply a thought.  Then it became a tangible baby seed that rooted and rolled around in my brain all day waiting to find a soft spot that it could root into.  By midnight last night, it found it's soft spot and ever so gently, knowing that I was in a weakened mental state of fatigue, wormed it's way it and took root.

Now the seed has changed from a embryo into a seedling, and soon threatens to become a full fledged teenager!  Which is exactly what this one wants so badly to be.  A  Young Adult novel.  I have no choice in the matter, the same way I have no choice but to sit back and watch in horror as my beautiful children grow a bit taller each day, a bit more independent, a step closer to leaving my large and fantastical nest.

So now I will finish the screenplay the way that it is, with the father being the main character, because I believe the movie would work much better that way.  But the books will be about the daughter and will be seen through her eyes.  I think it will be quite interesting to write two completely different stories based around the same events.

Now I am off to finish my fifth draft of my book Dead Awakening, so that I can let this new seedling out of my head and onto the page!

The Changling Part 2

So here is a very rough teaser that I came up with this evening for the Screenplay Changling into a YA fantasy novel.  Enjoy!

Skye harbors a secret, one that her mother told her to keep hidden from everyone around her.

She was just a fifteen year old girl, out for a night with friends, when she came home to find that her mother had been murdered and her father is the only suspect. But Skye knows that her father would never be capable of doing the horrible things the police say were done to her mother, even though he too has a tortured past.

With the opening of a mysterious safety deposit box, Skye finds that her mother was not who anyone thought she was. That the man who killed her mother, is now after her as well, for reasons Skye can only imagine.

To stay alive Skye must find out who she really is, who wants her dead, and why she has had to hide her identity a secret. On the run and with the help of people she doesn't even know Skye must decide to flee or fight. And when the mysteriously handsome Taranus shows up and pledges to keep her safe, Skye must decide whether she dares to trust again.

From the small town of Nowhere Massachusetts, to a town that doesn't exist on a map in France, Skye journeys to across the globe to find out that blood isn't always thicker than water.

The Changling

So, I got a totally crazy idea today as I was driving in the car in Los Angeles traffic.  I have a screenplay that I have been writing for about a year on and off.  Mostly off.  And in the beginning I had the main character as a twelve to fourteen year old girl.  However, due to the dynamics of the script and the way it needed to play out, I decided to change the main character half way through to the girl's father instead.  He seemed like a better choice.

But now I am thinking about taking the screenplay and instead turn it into a series of books with the girl being the main character and the books being geared towards YA. 

I have never really wanted or felt I had the mental capability of writing an entire series of three to six books for one character. Mostly due to the fact that I have Adult ADD and like to move from thing to thing quickly and I have so many stories in my head that I want to get out on paper.  But as I drove mindlessly down the same stretch of freeway that I inevitably drive at least three times a week, due to auditions, my mind began to wander to that story and whether or not I could write a series about this girl.  To watch her grow and blossom and love as I am currently watching my own twelve year old daughter do.

So there it is...can it be done effectively... I am not yet sure.  But I am now willing to find out! 

Vampires & Werewolves & Zombies!

So, why did I choose that title?  Because that is what I like to read and what I like to write about.  I have currently got three finished novels that are in various drafts of being edited.  A zombie book and two completely different vampire books.  I also have two books that I am halfway finished with one inspired by Lewis Carrol and the other a fantasy book on angels and demons. 

Aside from my adult fiction I have also written five children's picture books that I am currently looking for an illustrator for so I can publish those as well.  My five children's books were inspired by my four beautiful children.

 Soon I will be putting the first chapters of my three finished books on my blog here, so stay tuned.

There once was a girl

There once was a girl, who loved to live in her own world.  In the beginning her world was made up of animals and unicorns, dragons and wizards.  But as the girl grew, soon her world was filled with people she'd never met, places she'd never been, and acceptance she rarely saw.  The girl eventually found her way back to dragons and wizards, paladins and rogues.  Those friends took her to new worlds, other than the ones she had created for herself, and allowed her to experience things beyond her imagination.

As the girl grew into a woman she found solace and love, adventure and great horrors in the worlds of others.  Then one day, when she wasn't looking for it, she found her world again, only this time, her world was filled with Vampires and Werewolves and Zombies.  Angels and Demons, Steampunk and Fantasy.  And from the moment she rediscovered her own  world, she began to create anew.  All the stories that flew around in her head.  Old friends and new.  Villains and heroes.  Strong independent women, and even stronger protective males. 

This is the world in my head, and this is my blog with which to share it in.  Welcome!  And thank you for stopping by.