V.P. Ortiz's Blog, page 2

BOOK REVIEW: “Origin” by Dan Brown

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Years ago, I fell in love with the Robert Langdon stories. The Da Vinci Code was one of my favorite books – so good that I read it twice (did you know there’s an illustrated version?). Since then, I’ve managed to pick up every Robert Langdon story that Dan Brown wrote. Some were instant favorites (Angels & Demons) and others, well, I managed to finish them (The Lost Symbol). When I heard that Origin was coming out, I vowed to buy it. When I saw the price on Kindle, I vowed to buy...

The October Update on V.P. Ortiz

I just returned from Write or Die in Seattle last weekend and if you haven’t heard of Write or Die, then my Instagram posts last week made zero sense to you. Haha! Write or Die was a writer’s retreat hosted by Tarryn Fisher and company in Seattle, Washington. A group of 130 aspiring and published writers got together for a number of different workshops to learn how to take our craft to the next level. It was a great experience and  if you’re interested in seeing pictures, check out my Instag...

To My Readers: THANK YOU!

Now that the holidays are over and I’m settling back into my routine of writing, I wanted to take the time to do something that is LONG overdue:

THANK YOU! Yes, you! My readers. My reason for turning on my computer and typing away new stories every day. My followers and retweeters,bookworms and bibliophiles. THANK YOU!

When I decided almost a year ago to embark on this journey to publish a novel, I had no clue what I was in for. Naively, I thought, It can’t be that hard. Just write, publish,...

Confessions of a New Author: The Inevitable Brain Fart

This is the eighth post in the Confessions of a New Author series. This series chronicles my adventures of becoming a self-published author, from the very moment I woke up and decided to be an author to when I finally published my debut novel and beyond.

Brain fart. Blank space. Writer’s block. Whatever you call it, it’s the same thing: the moment you get stuck in writing your novel. For whatever reason, you can’t figure out where to go from here. It happens to pretty much all writers, even...

Confessions of a New Author: Can You Hear Me Now?

This is the seventh post in the Confessions of a New Author series. This series chronicles my adventures of becoming a self-published author, from the very moment I woke up and decided to be an author to when I finally published my debut novel and beyond.

Every novel is different. Not only because the plot and the characters are different, but because every writer is as well. If you gather a handful of authors in one room and ask them to write about the sunset, you will end up with a handful...

Confessions of a New Author: Take Me Away

This is the sixth post in the Confessions of a New Author series. This series chronicles my adventures of becoming a self-published author, from the very moment I woke up and decided to be an author to when I finally published my debut novel and beyond.

An earlier post in this series focused on creating your characters from the ground up (if you missed that blog, you can find it here). But what’s the point in creating compelling characters if you don’t know exactly what scene they’re going t...

The Adventure of NaNoWriMo & Writing a Novel in 30 Days

National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo, is a month-long contest/event in November challenging writers around the world to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. If you do the math, that averages out to about 1,667 words per day. This paragraph alone is only 59 words. Imagine repeating that 29 times every day for 30 days.

Sound crazy? I suppose it kind of does. But then again: no one ever said writers were the sane ones.

I first heard about NaNoWriMo through Pinterest back in M...

Confessions of a New Author: Ready, Set, WRITE!

This is the fifth post in the Confessions of a New Author series. This series chronicles my adventures of becoming a self-published author, from the very moment I woke up and decided to be an author to when I finally published my debut novel and beyond.

The time has come at last! You’ve done your careful planning, figured out the bits and pieces of your plot, and researched your heart out. You’re finally ready to write that coveted/dreaded first draft! Congratulations!

The first draft of Fin...

Confessions of a New Author: IDK, Google It

This is the fourth post in the Confessions of a New Author series. This series chronicles my adventures of becoming a self-published author, from the very moment I woke up and decided to be an author to when I finally published my debut novel and beyond.

The last post in this series focused on creating your characters from the group up (if you missed that blog, you can find it HERE). So now you have your plot and your characters. Time to start writing, right? Sure, if you want… But chances a...

Finding Paradise – Photo Tour Guide

Finding Paradise takes place on the beautiful island of Oahu, Hawaii. Many of the locations visited by Mila and Gage are actual places that I, myself, have visited multiple times. I’ve been asked several times since Finding Paradise was published if I could posts photos of those tourist spots. Most of the photos in this virtual photo tour guide of Finding Paradise are my own personal photos (hence, the watermark). (I have noted which photos were were found on Google;I do not own the rights to...