Thursday, March 15, 2012

Just a quick little update

I've updated the photo gallery to show more pictures from the book trailer my sister Katie made for me. There's more pictures of my cousin Wendy (Echo), pictures of my sister Kelly helping with make up, and pictures of the actors who played Pan and Narcissus Alex Jenkins and Tamatoa Rima! Thanks for letting me use your pictures on my blog, guys! :)

I've also added a page with links to places Echoes in the Wind can be purchased. I'll be up dating that list as more sites pick up the book. I'll also be adding a page for reviews once they start coming in. And I'll be posting the actual book trailer onto the blog once I get my own copy of it.

In the mean time it is available for viewing on my sister Katie's YouTube page.

I'll like to post a link to another video Katie made that I like. She made it for a university assignment. Wendy is in it. They filmed it on the same day they filmed the trailer. Wendy is not being Echo in the film. She looked like Echo though. So, naturally, it made me think of my character. It could almost be a second trailer! The short film is very well done in my opinion.

Check it out!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

An Ode to Forest Wind - The Origins of Echo

When I was in high school I did not have a lot of friends and was bullied a lot so I buried myself into writing. Each day I would go into the library at lunch time and pull out a cheap little notebook from my bag and a pen and sit down at one of the tables to furiously scribble down my stories. I would also sneakily write in class. I got away with it, too! The teacher usually assumed I was writing notes or something. It was harder to try and read romance novels under my desk or the latest Star Wars book though. That took some craftiness.

It was around that time that I also discovered how much the internet could help me with my writing. I discovered my first writing message board - Inkspot! Ah, Inkspot. How I loved it. It was like an internet tree house for me. I found friends on there and mentors and learned so much about writing and publishing.

One of my first novels was called The Secret World. I didn't realize it at the time but I was writing about myself. When I think back on SW now I find it hilarious and at the same time incredibly sad the symbolism in it. It was about a brown haired, shy, bookish young girl who was unpopular at school but against all odds catches the eye of the popular, but down to earth, handsome guy!

The girl, Claudia, is a writer of course and had bedroom is covered in posters (like someone else I knew) and was writing a book! She had no friends so would write at lunch time at school. Her book comes alive and she and Michael, the boy, get sucked inside and become her characters. They get stuck in a medieval world full of characters that know they are fictional and that their very existence depends on Claudia continuing to write about them so they try to keep her there!

When I look between the lines I see a story about me. Claudia is lonely, artistic and lacking in friends. She is a writer like me. She does what I never did and finds a boyfriend at school and through her writing becomes special and needed and important and the center of attention.

There was one character in the Secret World that I loved to death and that was Forest Wind. She was the original Echo. She was beautiful, strong, and tall with black skin and long, bright green hair and matching green eyes. I was entranced with the idea of a black woman with green hair. I thought it sounded beautiful and exotic. Forest Wind was called that because she could run as fast as the wind. Her feet would pound against the ground so lightly, so swiftly, you could not hear her footsteps. Her hair would whip in the air around her head and shoulders like a lick of green flame and her body would be a blurred streak she was so fast when she ran!

Forest Wind was apart of a tribe of beautiful female warriors who lived in the very creatively titled "Golden Forest" that was a walled forest of tall, wide trees with gold leaves and thick, entangled branches that made up a network that Forest Wind's people built their houses on and jumped and ran across to get around.

Echo is the new Forest Wind. The two characters are very similar. They are both beautiful black women with green hair and eyes who climb and jump from trees. There is a lot of Forest Wind in Echo. She is beauty to me. She is strength. She is mystery. I love it that she is on the front cover of Echoes in the Wind. In a way it has brought Forest Wind alive as well.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The Mysterious Muse

I haven't written much in the past month. Some of it was on purpose. I went on my honeymoon last month and stopped writing about a week or so before after finishing chapter four. There were other things happening in my life as well. Sometimes life is like a washing machine. It is clogged up and full and churning and rumbling and sometimes you just can't fit anything more in there. You have to wait until the cycle stops, you can unload some things, and then maybe you can fit some more stuff onto your plate. That's been me. I have been home from my honeymoon for a month and have been forgetting to write. The few times I have remembered to write I have either not been motivated at all, feeling lazy, or guilty and wondering why I did not want to write.

I was waiting for the urge to come back. The longing. The craving. The lust. My muse is a mysterious, flighty thing. It visits me at the most irritating times sometimes. I could be on a bus, a train, in the pool, in the cinema or at work. Usually, far away from my writing, and unable to do anything but wait until I get home.

In this situations when I get hit by that precious, wonderful lightning bolt of inspiration, not having access to a computer or a pen or the time to write something down is the most irritating, painful sensation. It's like being hit with an urge to take a powerful drug. You crave it. You want it. And you'll burst through a wall, incredible Hulk style, and anything else in your path to try and get it.

Why does my muse come at the most irritating times? I am sitting here, at a quarter to nine at night, and I know I should be in bed because my husband will be getting up at a quarter to four in the morning to go to work. But I am sitting here riding the wave of my muse because this is the first time in a month that it has come to visit.

Most days I force myself to write. It's a chore. Riding the muse is like a theme park ride. It makes it fun again. It gives me a rush.

Also, it reminds me something important. I am a writer. Even if I take a month long break and sometimes forget to write. I need to listen to myself. Maybe I forget because I need to relax and just read a book. When my body and mind is ready to write again it tells me. Because it becomes all I can think about.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

JK Rowling to release adult book

Author JK Rowling is set to release a new adult book through her new publisher Little, Brown. See link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/new-jk-rowling-book_n_1296367.html?ref=books#comments

This has got many people asking if JK Rowling can "pull off" an adult book which has me scratching my head. Why are people doubting this woman? She is the author behind the most successful book series of all time. She never let fame or fortune go to her head and somehow shouldered the pressure to not only finish the HP series (a massive feat in itself) but she also wrote damn good books.

I read once that when she was writing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that she got so blocked with one chapter she almost thought about breaking her arm to get out of writing the rest of it.

What does that say about the amount of pressure the poor woman was under? She had millions of fans on her back, a publisher and agent to please, and at that point a growing movie franchise depending on her finishing the books as well. There is even a Harry Potter theme park in America.

Somehow this woman did the impossible and finished her remarkable books. She managed to please her fans, her publishers, and help bring an end to one of the most successful movie franchises ever.

And now people are wondering if she can, I say in sarcastic quote marks, "pull off an adult book?"

She wrote the Harry Potter series! One of the remarkable things about her books, aside from her wonderful writing and imagination, was how she was able to draw in readers of all ages. I am still a rabid fan of the HP universe and would give anything to be able to visit the Harry Potter Theme Park in America!

This woman has sold millions of books to people aged from 5 to 90. Why are people asking if she can pull off an adult book? She has proven that she can write under extreme stress and attract a large fan base of all ages. I have no doubt that her new book will be full of the same killer sharp writing, great characters, hilarious wit, and an addictive plot.

Echoes in the Wind is available for purchase!

Echoes in the Wind is now available for purchase! You can find it firstly at the Champagne Books website:

http://www.champagnebooks.com/

It got published on the 5th of March so it is slowly popping up all over the internet. I have spotted it for sale on two more sites:

http://www.bookstrand.com/
http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-echoesinthewind-740375-140.html

I will update this blog with more as I find them. In addition I have figured out how to add pages to this blog! You can see the links on the right hand side.

It is great to see Echoes in the Wind for sale. I hope lots and lots of people enjoy it!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Echoes in the Wind book trailer photos!

Echoes in the Wind comes out this month!! How exciting!! My talented sister Katie has been making a book trailer for me to help promote the book. My cousin Wendy is playing Echo, my sister Kelly helped out with make up, my husband is doing the music and a whole bunch of other young talented people helped out as well! Throughout this whole thing I've been so impressed with Katie writing a script, finding places to shoot, getting permission from her university to borrow equipment, and convincing people to give up their free time to chip in and help.

Here are some first photos of my cousin Wendy as Echo. I love the hair and the clothes and Wendy is a real good model and actress! I just know that the final film is going to be great.