In my spare time when I'm bored I hang out on a writing message board that would probably be one of the largest on the net. Its filled with very serious writers. Posting something for critique there is like chucking a bit of meat into a pit filled with tigers. They rip you apart. I've posted things there about five times and with the exception of the last time I did it (I only got one terrible review instead of five or six! yay!) I would get so many incredibly nasty responses it would be like being pelted with rocks. I'll come away, dazed and confused, and ask myself "WHY THE HELL DO I DO THAT TO MYSELF?" I guess on some deep down level I want to impress this group of snobby writers. Most of them are in their 30s and above. And alot of them are published. The thing I hate about that website is there are a couple of people there who are just flat out MEAN to younger, less experienced writers, and it bugs the shit out of me. For example, a young girl posted on the site recently asking about e-books. Of course, she got a million responses telling her how bad they are, which is enough to irritate me, then this other little shit started critiquing her POSTS and pointing out all her spelling errors and told her that "If your writing in your posts is any example I do not think your novel would benefit from further critiques" so just because she was a bad speller apparently that makes her a terrible writer and incapable of improving. I was SO TEMPTED to post a snotty reply but I didn't. I would just alientate another person on that board. I've gotten into a few arguments there. LOL. That person's reply disgusted me. Writers are supposed to SUPPORT other writers. Not shoot them down because they're young or might have a problem with spelling. Just because a writer has a problem with spelling DOES NOT mean that they are incapable of writing a good story. With practise their spelling will improve. Sometimes I wonder why I go to that site. So I've opened my own writing forms called Writing Realm:
http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/index.php?mforum=atlantis&sid=992416359c2094440f00365571afc8f8
At the moment its just me rattling around there. LOL. I'm hopeful others will come soon.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
You Know You're A Writer When...
1. You can't sit in the bath without being struck with ideas for your current project (This happens to me all the time)
2. You write lines of dialogue on your hands at work because you do not have a notebook in your bag or can't leave the room
3. In school when the teacher was not looking you pull out a notebook from under your pencil case and continue writing your stories
4. You spend your lunch break at work/school writing stories
5. You're talking to a real, living, breathing person and suddenly stop and listen because one of your characters interrupted you.
6. Your novels are backed up on your laptop, your husband's laptop, two thumb drives, and you're seriously toying with the idea of getting a safe deposit box.
7. You scribble your characters names all over your school work
8. When your computer crashes you burst into tears at the thought of loosing your work (I've done this)
9. You have a favorite pen. Uniball Signo 207 in medium with the comfi-grip in black ink. Excellent ink coverage.
10. You get caught up in plotting your next scene and put the cereal in the fridge, and the milk in the pantry.
11. The stacks of your old manuscripts and rejection letters officially constitutes a fire hazard.
12. You desperately want Crayola tub markers so you can write down all that great dialog that comes to you in the shower.
13. You love restaurants that put a big sheet of paper over the table cloth and leave you with a handful of crayons.
14. You spend time "casting" the future movie production of your novel
15. You create "sound tracks" for your novels
16. You have dreams of getting the "call" from an agent/editor
17. You practise writing dedications on your computer
18. You plan how to break the news you're getting published to your friends and family even though you're not yet.
19. You start drooling at the thought at looking at your front cover for the first time
20. You're on hoilday and you start looking forward going home so you can continue writing (This happened to me in Rome)
21. You frame your first acceptance letter
22. You pin all of your rejection letters to the walls in your room
23. You make excuses to get out of social events so you can write at home in wonderful silence while everyone is out
24. You bitch and complain about the cost of Microsoft Office
25. You can excited when the "Back To School Sales" come out because you can pick up pens and notebooks for ten cents each. Ten frigging cents!!
25. You create posters and banners of your characters in photoshop to display on message boards
26. You sketch pictures of your characters, their clothing, their magical items, weapons, houses, cities, maps, etc....
27. You spend your weekends doing research on irritating, hard to find out subjects, like if the ancient Greeks had last names (I never did find out)
28. You hang on writers message boards
29. You get irritated when you give something you've written to a family member to critique and all they say is "Its good"
30.And finally, you know your a writer if you look at yourself and see a writer. Everyone else looks at you and sees an obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive insomniac with a pen fetish
2. You write lines of dialogue on your hands at work because you do not have a notebook in your bag or can't leave the room
3. In school when the teacher was not looking you pull out a notebook from under your pencil case and continue writing your stories
4. You spend your lunch break at work/school writing stories
5. You're talking to a real, living, breathing person and suddenly stop and listen because one of your characters interrupted you.
6. Your novels are backed up on your laptop, your husband's laptop, two thumb drives, and you're seriously toying with the idea of getting a safe deposit box.
7. You scribble your characters names all over your school work
8. When your computer crashes you burst into tears at the thought of loosing your work (I've done this)
9. You have a favorite pen. Uniball Signo 207 in medium with the comfi-grip in black ink. Excellent ink coverage.
10. You get caught up in plotting your next scene and put the cereal in the fridge, and the milk in the pantry.
11. The stacks of your old manuscripts and rejection letters officially constitutes a fire hazard.
12. You desperately want Crayola tub markers so you can write down all that great dialog that comes to you in the shower.
13. You love restaurants that put a big sheet of paper over the table cloth and leave you with a handful of crayons.
14. You spend time "casting" the future movie production of your novel
15. You create "sound tracks" for your novels
16. You have dreams of getting the "call" from an agent/editor
17. You practise writing dedications on your computer
18. You plan how to break the news you're getting published to your friends and family even though you're not yet.
19. You start drooling at the thought at looking at your front cover for the first time
20. You're on hoilday and you start looking forward going home so you can continue writing (This happened to me in Rome)
21. You frame your first acceptance letter
22. You pin all of your rejection letters to the walls in your room
23. You make excuses to get out of social events so you can write at home in wonderful silence while everyone is out
24. You bitch and complain about the cost of Microsoft Office
25. You can excited when the "Back To School Sales" come out because you can pick up pens and notebooks for ten cents each. Ten frigging cents!!
25. You create posters and banners of your characters in photoshop to display on message boards
26. You sketch pictures of your characters, their clothing, their magical items, weapons, houses, cities, maps, etc....
27. You spend your weekends doing research on irritating, hard to find out subjects, like if the ancient Greeks had last names (I never did find out)
28. You hang on writers message boards
29. You get irritated when you give something you've written to a family member to critique and all they say is "Its good"
30.And finally, you know your a writer if you look at yourself and see a writer. Everyone else looks at you and sees an obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive insomniac with a pen fetish
Friday, January 23, 2009
Whispers in the Dark release date!
I found out the release date for Whispers in the Dark today! Its coming out in May 2009! That's much quicker then I thought it would be released. I was expecting it to come out much later in the year. I'm so happy. I should be getting the front cover soon. I'll post it here once I get it. It will be May before I know it and my story will be for sale on the internet! whoop!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Marisa's Website of the Month is...Encyclopedia Mythica
Encyclopedia Mythica is a wonderful resource for fantasy writers. It is an online encycolopedia of mythologly, legends, and deities from all over the world. I don't know where I would be if it wasn't for this website. I copied and pasted their articles on all of the major gods and goddesses from Greek mythologly and put them on my laptop so if I needed to double check something about a particular god I can just bring up their bio. So if you're thinking about adding a few satyrs, mermaids, or hamadrayds to your story and want to learn more about them then this is the website to go: http://www.pantheon.org/
Mild Panic Attack
The Eternal Press website server crashed yesterday. I've made a habit of checking the website at least once a day. When I clicked on the lick and a page came up saying it was broken I started worrying that they had gone out of business, but luckily, I was wrong, their server had just gone down. The webpage is back up now. I'm impressed with the front covers for the books coming out next month. The quality is improving. I'm waiting with baited breath to see my front cover. I'm hoping it will be soon. It'd be cool if I get it next month near my birthday. I'm planning on printing it on a large peice of paper, framing it and hanging it on my bedroom wall. It's my first ever cover! It deserves a place of pride. My brother Ryan finally came home. I got woken up at a quarter to eleven last night by the sound of hysterical screaming coming from the living room. He'd let himself into the house and put a Kylie Mingoue CD on then hid behind the couch. Its nice to have him home. I still don't know when Whispers in the Dark is going to come out. I saw a book trailer for a book being done by Eternal Press coming out in June. I think Whispers in the Dark might be coming out towards the end of the year. I have a feeling about October.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Waiting...waiting...
I still haven't heard back from the editing department at Eternal Press. I asked around and got told to wait at least 6 weeks before emailing for an update. I don't know how many other things they have to edit. In the mean time, I've been constructing a playlist of songs to help inspire me to write. I find music a great way to get me into the mood to write. The right song is almost like a drug to me. I'll sit on my bed with my laptop on my arm waving my arounds around, lost in the beat, my brain swimming with images from my stories, like a music video. Since I write dark fantasy/paranormal romance, alot of the music I listen to has either a dark edge to it or an epic opera feel. I listened to the soundtrack of the Dark Knight for the first time today. The track "Why so serious" is an edgy, dark piece, that feels insane, perfect for the Joker. When I listen to it I am bombarded with images of some of my darker, more rebellious characters, like Hades, Pan and Zeus. Its an awesome track. Very rock and roll. Then there's X-Ray Dog "Dark Empire" which sounds like the themesong to a hollywood epic fantasy movie. Its hard to describe. But it fits my stories perfectly. Very epic. Lots of ups and downs. I also listen to "Destiny" by Vanessea Mae (jazz techno song that fits my story Deep Embrace perfectly), Whispers in the Dark by Skillet (which is a perfect match to all my stories including my own version of Whispers in the Dark), Phantom of the Opera (the lyrics match my concept of soul mates. I imagine Poseidon and Cleito singing the song), and the overtures to Phantom of the Opera and Jesus Christ Super Star which both conjour images of the Greek Gods dancing in Mount Olympus in my mind.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Brother Watch
My brother Ryan is coming home from London any day now for a two week hoilday. The little buggar has decided not to tell us when he's arriving. He sent us an email a week ago telling us "Goodbye" and that he will not be answering his phone or going online until he came home. He's going to try and sneak in the house and hide in his bedroom so he can surprise us in the morning. I was so convinced he was going to come home last night I kept waking up every couple of hours and glancing at the clock. I was so exhausted today my head felt like a balloon that was going to pop. I hate it when I wake up sleepy. It makes writing so hard. I sit in my room and stare at my laptop bleary eyed trying to ignore the pounding pain inside my head. Occasionally I will grumble and collaspe face first into my pillow in an attempt to have a sleep. The sun hits my side of the house which means my room is hot and bright during the day. So sleeping for me is hard if its not dark. Its damn irritating when my body wants to sleep but my brain won't turn off the lights because its too bright in my room. I end up lying in a heap on my bed with one eye cracked open wishing I was dead. So if you're reading this Ryan, this is all your fault! I hope you're having fun messing with our brains.
I still haven't heard back from the editing department of Eternal Press. They've released the line of books coming out this month and posted the front covers of the ones due out next month. I'm very happy to say the front covers are improving. I'm hoping I will hear back from the editing department soon. As for when Whispers is due out, I'm going to hazard a guess and say April.
I still haven't heard back from the editing department of Eternal Press. They've released the line of books coming out this month and posted the front covers of the ones due out next month. I'm very happy to say the front covers are improving. I'm hoping I will hear back from the editing department soon. As for when Whispers is due out, I'm going to hazard a guess and say April.
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