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.

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!

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.

Author disgraces themselves over inappropriate use of the word rape

I visit a message board for writers. I came across a thread that had been locked yesterday. Locked threads always arouse my interest because it means that someone has lost their temper and embarrassed themselves about something. It always makes for interesting reading and as a reminder to myself to always be professional on the internet.

The thread had started off about book covers. The original poster use the word rape inappropriately to describe their dislike for characters that appear on book covers. "It rapes my imagination of the characters," they said.

One person complained and said they found their choice of words offensive. Soon more and more people chimed in and politely requested that the poster be more mindful of their words in the future because there were rape survivors on the board and it is very distasteful to make fun of the word rape.

The OP responded and completely lost their mind and whatever professionalism they might have had. They said it was just a word, they didn't mean it that way, and that people should not be so offended. They refused to apologize.

Well things just snow balled from there. People tried to get the OP to understand and reminded them that one of the rules of the board was to respect your fellow writer. A couple of members who were rape survivors joined the conversation and tried to explain how using the word rape had upset them.

This was when the OP went from distasteful to disgusting. The OP began attacking the rape survivors and telling them, all in caps, that they were not going to get an apology out of them, called them pathetic, and a failure at life.

Who does that? I mean, really? Who talks like that to a rape survivor? As anyone who has read my blog knows, I dislike people who are up tight about swearing. I've been in situations where people have politely asked me not to swear after I've dropped the f-bomb without thinking about it. While their attitude does irritate me, I always nod and try not to do it again, because that is showing respect.

How is this author going to react if they find a publisher and their editor dares to criticize their work? Are they going to demand their rights to use whatever word they want then? And damn all who might be offended? Censorship is bad, I agree. But there is a difference between censorship in a book and censorship when talking to someone.

If someone does not like a book they can choose to put it down. When you socialize with a group of people, either online or in person, you must always be respectful of other people and their opinions. Otherwise you'll come across as rude, insensitive and unprofessional, like this person has done.

Another thing to remember when posting on the internet is you never know how many people are going to read your words and once it is out there its like engraving it in stone. That web board is one of the biggest for writing and publishing on the internet. It has around 30,000 members across the world I think. A lot of those are published authors and editors and agents and publishers.

Who can all now read this author's horrible, insensitive remarks about rape.

Another career down the toilet.

Over using description

I'm in the middle of editing/rewriting Deep Embrace at the moment. I hate reading original drafts. You see it with new eyes. Suddenly all of the flaws that you did not seen months ago are dancing in front of you naked. One thing that has jumped out to me about the first draft of Deep Embrace is how much I can overuse description and my characters showing over the top and unreaslitc emotions. It's really quite embarrassing. I have characters shoving fists into their mouths, sobbing all the time and "slashing" their gaze across someone else. It feels really good to rewrite these chapters and tone them down alot. I am always telling other writers that description is a good tool to be used. And it is. I like to read "visual" stories that show character's expressions, their body language, etc. I think it helps to bring them and the book alive. But too much description can ruin it.

Half the time I'm not even aware that I'm over using description. I find writing first drafts real hard. I'm creating everything from scratch. So sometimes I just let myself go. I'll write down whatever comes to me. If I spend too much time agonising over each sentence I know that I'll never finish. So that means sometimes writing pure crap. Which means when I read back over it during rewrites I end up cringing and wondering if I have any talent at all.

What is clear to me is that I am continuing to grow and develop as a writer. My style is changing. I'm trying to avoid doing things like head hopping. I made an effort right from the beginning to always be inside Perse's head in Deep Embrace. And in the rewrites I've made an effort to avoid describing body parts as if they are acting on their own (Her eyes moved around the room) and I've also been making an effort to not spend too much time describing character's phsyical appearances and to always stay in present tense.

I would like to cut down on description too. Do I really need to say something like "Her eyes cut across his face" when I could put it in a much more simpler way like "She threw him an angry look." While the above sentence is okay once in a while the problem with my original draft is I have used that sort of writing too much.

It feels really good to finally be fixing those problems.

Evil shall with...wait, what? That doesn't make sense

I saw the US remake of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on Thursday night and I loved it. It was one of the most faithful Hollywood adaptions of any book I have seen. I loved the two main actors in the role. Rooney was in my mind a better Lisbeth then the original was. She was scary and awesome. And her accent was actually good! I hate actors who don't even bother to do accents in films that need them (looking at you Tom Cruise in Valkyrie). I thought Rooney was much more beautiful than the Swedish actress who played Lisbeth. I really hope Rooney gets nominated for an award.

And Daniel Craig (despite not doing an accent) was an adorable Mikel. He fit the role perfectly and looked like how I imagined the character did. The only thing I did not like about the movie was the stupid tagline on the posters!

Evil shall with evil be expelled? Who the hell wrote that? It doesn't make sense as a proper sentence. It should be evil shall be expelled with evil. Who made that stupid mistake? Did they not try to read it out loud before agreeing it should be on the poster? Also what are they trying to say? Are they calling Lisbeth evil? Lisbeth is not evil. She is not a traditional hero. She is flawed (very much so) and violent and does not care for the rules. But that does not make her evil. It makes her realistic and believable.

The old fashioned heroes of fiction who are honorable, brave, and never make a mistake are not realistic. There is darkness and light in everyone. Lisbeth does horrible things to some people, that's true, but it does not make her evil. It make her an anti-hero. She does good and bad things. She is neither black or white. She is grey. She is intriguing as hell because she is so unpredictable the reader never knows what she is going to do less. Is she going to break the law for her own benefit....or is she going to stop a murder?

I read that the director doesn't think that Lisbeth is a hero and doesn't like people calling her one which is probably why that tagline ended up on the poster. Lisbeth is not a traditional hero, that's true, but does that mean we have to jump straight to calling her evil? She's not that either. She's a victim of sexual and physical violence who learnt at a young age that the only one she can depend on is herself. She lives by her own rules and will not hesitate to defend herself and to dish out her own special form of revenge on people.

Her actions are morally wrong and questionable...but understandable.