Rowen Aether's Blog: The Realms of Fantasy

There's life!

So, I'm not dead. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I've just kinda been bleh lately. Haven't gotten any writing done. I want to write but then I'm like ugh, do I have to? Hopefully I'll get out of this funk soon and start working on those two novels I was writing. I'm gonna read back through them, try and get back into the characters. I've been told they're really good.

Here's an excerpt from the vampire one. Don't know if it's mentioned, cant remember :P but Melissa is a werecat, just FYI. Didn't really read through it, just skimmed, and thought 'this is a good place to start, and this is a good place to end.' Figured I should give the minuscule amount of people who read my blog something after my long ass absence. Enjoy!

{When they pull up to the house, a nondescript single story, human officers swarm the yard, the crime scene already taped off. Calypso is the first out of the car, closely followed by Melissa. Valerian ambles from the back seat, yawning and stretching, letting out a satisfied sigh at the pop from his spine.

The trio slip under some yellow caution tape only to be cut off by a human police officer. He holds up his hand in a halt gesture. “This is a crime scene, what do you think you’re doing? Civilians are not authorized here.”

Calypso bats her eyes and immediately has the young man’s full attention, complete with wide eyes and a slack jaw. She slips her badge from her breasts, the human watching each movement intensely. Her badge drops open. “Special forces, sweetheart.”

He nods, his Adam’s apple bobbing when he swallows.

Valerian rolls his eyes, the human’s heart pounding quick and erratic. He wrinkles his nose at the sharp scent of arousal.

The human steps aside. “M-my apologies, ma’am. Please, go right ahead.”

“She’s really good at this,” Melissa whispers, her tone impressed. “Hardly needed any convincing.”

“She’s a succubus, her breasts are the only thing occupying his focus right now,” Valerian responds, moving to follow Calypso. His ears catch Melissa’s quiet, drawn out, “Oh.”

Valerian steps up to the open door, his nose picking out the scent of at least half a dozen humans and some really cheap cologne.

Calypso’s voice comes from over his left shoulder. “How are we going to do this? The grounds are swarmed with mortals.”

“I haven’t decided yet,” he answers.

“Well hurry up and decide.” A sharp jab in his spine from Calypso’s nails gets him moving.

He steps through the door, the sharp, metallic aroma of blood mingling with the scent of humans. Makes him wish he actually fed before coming here. His ears pick up a crescendo of heartbeats, a soft cacophony of thumps concealed by tender flash. Definitely wishes he fed.

His eyes are trained on the crime scene as he picks his way through what looks like a living room to a larger room with a chandelier. His skin prickles, the feeling of eyes watching him. He flashes his badge at a human trying to intercept them, not even sparing the kid a glance.

“Special forces, sweetheart,” Calypso’s accented voice picks up, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor, following him.

“I’m a junior detective!” Melissa inputs, her tone high with excitement. Her steps are light, dancing along the floor.

Valerian’s eyes trail along the room: three bodies, blood splattered on nearly every surface. His hunger spikes and he clenches his jaw. Years of this have taught him control though.

“Oh crap, it’s everywhere,” Melissa breathes.

Calypso whistles beside him. “It’s even on the roof. This took skill.”

“Newbs. Who let them in?”

Valerian curls his lip at the soft-spoken insult.

“I’ll handle them,” another, deeper male voice replies.

Soles click against the hardwood floor until a man stops beside Valerian. The sheep is taller than he by almost a head. Damn his French ancestry for making him so short. The man has black hair and blue eyes. His skin is tanned from sun exposure, soft flesh shielded by a cotton shirt and jeans.

A long, beige overcoat rests on his shoulders and a gold badge dangles around his neck on a silver chain. “I’m Detective Michael Pierson.” He lifts the badge before letting it fall back to his chest. “Who are you guys with? Is this some training course where they let a bunch of kids dress detective and study crime scenes?”

Valerian holds up his badge, his voice hard, “Drop the patronizing act, we’re not children.”

The human grasps his badge, and he lets it go, his focus going back to the scene. Two of the bodies, the women, are whole, the third, a man, shredded. One body, her throat ripped, is close to where they stand in the open archway. The other two are closer together, further in the room, half on a rug draped over another wooden floor.

“Valerian DelaCrouix? Is that your real name? Senior Agent, huh? S.E.C.R.E.T., Precinct 12. Cool acronym. If you’re from a precinct I can guess it’s some kind of detective agency, but what does secret stand for?”

Valerian glances at the mortal for a second before snapping his gaze back, realizing the human still has his badge. He snatches it back. “Give me that. And get out of here.”

The human chuckles. “All right, big shot. Is this your first scene?”

“It’s my first scene!” Melissa replies. She thrusts out her badge. “I’m Junior Detective!”

“I can tell,” the human answers, his tone humored, perhaps a bit fond.

Valerian glares at her, her leopard print tail swishing out from under her skirt.

Calypso huffs. “Hardly darling.” She dips her head, her tone falling into a seductive drawl, “I’ve been doing this since Jack the Ripper.”

The mortal frowns, his eyebrows drawing together. “I beg your pardon? You mean the guy from England like a hundred years ago? Or are you referring to some copycat killer I haven’t heard about?”

Calypso blinks at the human before giving Valerian a helpless look.

Considering the man’s paying actual attention to what she’s saying and his eyes didn’t immediately go to Calypso’s breasts, he must be gay. Great, her only weakness. Which means now would probably be a good time to cut in. Valerian tugs on Melissa’s tail, and she yelps but tucks it back, offering a sheepish grin at the human’s confused glance.

“What do you want?” he asks the human. “If you have nothing productive to add to the case you can leave.”

“Well considering this is my crime scene—”

“Not for long, handsome.” Calypso drags a hand down his chest, and he steps back, his expression tightening. “As soon as our Chief calls yours, this becomes our jurisdiction.”

Someone yells the mortal’s name and gestures for him.

Calypso places her hands on her hips, jutting one out. “That’s probably her now.” She smirks at the human’s glare.

His gaze shifts to Valerian, the scowl falling away to make room for… some kind of look. The human’s eyes are a beautiful shade of cobalt, reminding him of the shimmering surface of Lake Ouachita in Arkansas. It probably helps in the human’s favor that his favorite color is blue. The odd look only lasts a few seconds before the human’s expression morphs again, promising more questioning upon his return. Valerian huffs, as if the sheep will receive answers. No matter how pretty his eyes are.

Without his presence they now have privacy. Valerian crouches before the two corpses further in the room, the woman’s throat shredded on one side. Blood soaks the rug, squishing under his weight, too much and too fresh to have congealed completely yet.

Odd, he can’t pick it out in the air which is extremely peculiar because he could smell it in the entrance way. A putrid scent of rotting flesh hangs over this room, overpowering the metallic aroma. “What do you think?”

Calypso crouches next to him, using a pen to prod at the wound. “The teeth marks don’t add up to a werewolf. A harpy maybe? It looks like the guy was clawed pretty good. What else eats humans?”

He stands, turning to Melissa and crossing his arms. Now’s a good time to see if she’s as good as her file says. “All right, Melissa.”

She perks up at the sound of her name, her full attention zeroing in on him.

“What can you tell me about the scene?” Valerian’s gaze shifts to his left, the human, Marcus? Michael? Mitchell? the sheep leans against the door frame, watching him. So much for privacy.

“Um.” Melissa drags her eyes around the room. “Judging from the blood splatters he was hit from behind?”

Valerian narrows his eyes at the human, receiving a smirk in reply, before turning his gaze back to Melissa. “Good, anything else?”

“I think he likes you,” Calypso draws, her voice louder than need be while her breath ruffles the hair at the nape of his neck. Considering Calypso can practically sniff out sexual desire he doesn’t doubt her.

Melissa snickers and the sheep’s smirk widens.

He elbows Calypso. “Anything else productive,” he retorts.

Calypso snorts in humor, moving to examine the corpse off by itself.

“It was personal?” Melissa says.

“Personal?” Valerian echoes. “How so?”

“You see these two corpses?” She gestures to the women. “Their throats were ripped out, quick and clean, but this third one? The wounds on his back aren’t deep enough to be fatal but there isn’t enough blood for him to bleed to death.”

She circles the corpse. “The claw marks on his legs and arms are jagged,” she swipes her hands through the air like she’s clawing something, “like they were done in quick succession, no finesse just anger.”

“Huh,” Valerian huffs, “Good eye.”

“Claw marks?” The human steps further into the room. “You make it sound like the guy was impersonating Wolverine or something.”

Melissa hums. “I’m thinking more along the line of Freddy Krueger.”

The cattle smiles. “So were they having a sleepover in here?”

Melissa snickers, opening her mouth to reply.

“All right, don’t encourage him,” Valerian snaps.

The werecat puffs out her cheeks, spinning around to study the wall behind her.

“And you,”­ Valerian flicks a hand at the human, “why haven’t you left yet?”

“Maybe we can make something out of this.” Calypso holds up a small plastic bag where she placed a tooth.

“Shouldn’t you guys be wearing gloves for this?” the human says.

Valerian ignores him, taking the bag from Calypso and turning it over in his hand. The tooth is small, about the size of a human canine but jagged with a curved hook towards the center meant for tearing. That would explain the state of the bite wounds. He hands it off and Melissa takes it. “I swear by Hecate, if we are dealing with something teething—”

“Teething?! What the hell are you guys talking about?”

Valerian snaps his gaze to the human, his eyes narrowing in a glare. The tiny bag is held in the sheep’s hand. Didn’t Melissa take it? He glances at Melissa who stands a few feet away doing what looks like a trajectory reading on the blood splatters compared to where the body lays. Great, he practically handed it off to the human.

He snatches it back. “Didn’t I tell you to leave? I’m pretty sure I did. Twice.” He tosses the tooth to Calypso, not looking to see if she catches it. The paper bag sounds like it comes into contact with flesh, so he assumes she did. Or he just hit her with it.

“Yeah, well, this investigation hasn’t been yanked out from under us just yet.”

“Oh really? Let me fix that.”

“Oh let him stay on, Val.” Calypso places her arms atop his shoulder, leaning against him. “He wouldn’t be the first.”

“That’s not the point.” Valerian steps away, slipping out from under her.

“Do you hide everything in your breasts?”

At the human’s inquiry, Valerian looks to Calypso, the succubus slipping the plastic bag down her shirt.

She winks at the mortal. “Best place there is.” She swats Valerian's shoulder. “Let him stay, I kind of like him.”

Valerian glares at her. What game is she playing? She offers a smirk in response, twirling around and heading for Melissa.

Valerian grabs the human’s arm, just above his elbow, muscle firm under his grip, and drags him back towards the living room. The other humans are already packing up their equipment so he can assume Chief Euryale made the call.

He releases the mortal, spinning to face him. “What do I have to do to get rid of you?” he snarls, very tempted to bare fangs. That usually scares them off.

“How about a date?”

Valerian blinks. If he had a heartbeat it might have just skipped. Sure, the human’s cute, kind of like a puppy you see in the window of a pet store, but a date? “How is seeing more of you in conjunction with getting rid of you?”

The human, Mitchell, he’s pretty sure it was Mitchell, steps in closer. “You mean permanently or from this crime scene?”

Valerian glares. “Both.”

“Mm, yeah, can’t have both.” The sheep takes another step and Valerian is startled when his back hits a wall. He didn’t even realize he was stepping back.

The human leans closer, placing an arm against the wall and crowding his space. What the actual fuck, how the hell did he get cornered? And by his main food source, to boot?! He’s supposed to be the predator, not the other way around!

The mortal’s body is warm, almost hot compared to how cool he is. His senses are assaulted with the sweet aroma of the mortal’s blood, the sound of it pumping through his veins with each heartbeat. The sudden urge to sink fangs into the tender flesh of the human’s neck passes over him, and he clenches his jaw. This is the last time he deals with humans while hungry.

The human slips something into his breast pocket, dragging a hand across his chest in a completely unnecessary manner. “Call me. And wear warmer clothing next time, you’re freezing.”

The sheep steps away, heading for the other mortals. He turns a smirk to Valerian, offering a wave. Valerian's eyes track his progress until the human slips out the front door, disappearing from his sight. What just happened? He no longer feels on top of the food chain.

“He’s sweet, you should call.”

He looks over, meeting Calypso’s gaze.

The succubus starts cackling, startling him. “You should see your face! You look like someone just told you men could get pregnant!”

Valerian tries to school his expression, having no idea what exactly he looks like.

Calypso chuckles, wiping tears from her eyes. “I’ve never seen horror and surprise meld so well together. It’s a good look for you.” Her laughter starts up again before he can even form a response.

He gives her three seconds. “I’m not calling, now focus.”

She sucks in a sharp breath, her grin still present, but keeps her composure.

“The body was moved!”

At the exclamation, Valerian and Calypso give Melissa their attention. She stops in the open doorway, gesturing for them to come over and leads them to the mangled corpse.

“The blood splatters don’t add up with the position of the body.” Melissa gestures to some blood trails leading from the corpse’s legs. “At first I thought these were just from the wounds on his legs but—” she jumps to her feet, scurrying to the head of the corpse.

Crouching down she drags her hand along the edge of the rug, where it meets the wooden floor. “There are marks in the wood, from fingernails. This guy was alive, and I think he tried to get away.”

Calypso hums. “That supports your theory about this being personal.”


“Whoever did this wanted him to suffer.” Valerian crouches next to the corpse, draping his arms across his knees. “They didn’t kill him immediately.” He glances at the other two. “So what about them?”

He lifts a part of the man’s tattered shirt, examining the wounds. “This man was hit from behind. The depth of his wounds are even all along his back, so he wasn’t running, he was caught by surprise.” The clothing slips from his fingers. “Were the other two present, or did they show up afterward?”

Calypso twists around, studying them. “One is facing him, she might have witnessed it, but the younger woman looks like she was trying to get away.”

Valerian moves to the corpse off on its own, kneeling by her shoulder. He brushes her dirty blond hair from her face. “She looks young, I can’t tell by scent, the whole room just smells like decay. His daughter maybe?”

“These corpses aren’t old enough to be giving your nose a runaround.”

Valerian offers Calypso a shrug, having no explanation. The scent of death and decay hangs heavy in the air. The heady scent of blood is even overpowered. What creature could be so malodorous as to mask blood from a vampire?

“I noticed that too,” Melissa states. “It’s like someone stuffed the walls with years old corpses.”

“But only in this room,” Valerian adds and the werecat nods in agreement.

“We can search the house for clues,” Calypso states.

Valerian nods, standing. “Spread out, see what we can find.”}

Michael ran away from me... :\ Haven't quite decided on a name for the book yet, still tossing ideas around. Hopefully I'll come up with something BEFORE I finish the book. We'll see. :D

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!

Rowen

Two books in the making

I’m supposed to be doing these every Sunday, but I keep forgetting. :P

So I just went on Smashwords and found out that they uploaded the wrong document for one of my books. And no, I’m not just blaming them because I was an idiot. I actually looked the book over after it was done converting to make sure none of the formatting got messed up so I know it was the right book.

I don’t know how or when it happened, or why, but if anyone downloaded a 20K book and got a 118K book, it’s been fixed now so you can go download it again (It’s free). And if anyone actually read all of the 118K, leave me feedback! XD

And yes, I checked the formatting again so it is the right book.

Anyway, I’m writing a romance, two actually. This, after I said, vehemently, how I dislike romances. But I was talking it over with my mom and I decided: I’m going to write a romance and break all the romance tropes! Just because I can! (This is why I have to self publish. XD)

One is a gay romance, which needs a massive name change, but I can’t come up with anything.
:’< The character interactions just didn’t work, or feel right, when one of the characters was a girl, so I said F it; I’ll make them gay. Well, one of them is gay, the other is demisexual. There’s no lust at first sight, at least not for both characters.

Michael, the human, finds himself almost instantly attracted, though he’s in denial at first. It starts out with; ‘Oh wow; he’s cute.’ Then moves into heavier attraction the more time they spend together until Michael actually starts becoming attached and liking Valerian.

Valerian, the vampire, has no attraction until around the middle of the book, then he moves into denial, then he realizes he enjoys Michael’s company, then it moves into physical attraction. Look at that character development.

LIKE REAL LIFE!!!!!

If you can’t tell, Val’s the demisexual and Mike’s the gay. In case it wasn’t obvious. But this book is probably gonna remain PG13, and there will be no sheet warming within three days of knowing each other. No ‘Oh my God; I have to have them, right now! Even though I’ve only known them for 3.5 seconds.’ That’s so unrealistic. Unless you’re Calypso; she’s a succubus. But sex is kind of her food supply, so.

Well, it’s a fantasy. (Obviously.) I don’t like reading books that are set in reality with no fantasy, or supernatural, or sci-fi elements. Just average people doing average things. Reality blows, and it’s boring. Why write about it?

So Val is part of a secret society, they call themselves zelan, but we usually refer to them as monsters. Like vampires, werewolves, a succubus who likes to meddle in love lives, I have a banshee who’s a detective, a harpy, also a detective, a ghoul who plays medical examiner/crime scene investigator, a werecat; she’s a leopard, who’s a crime scene investigator/detective, a selkie playing IT guy, and a gorgon as the Precinct Chief. It’s an exciting group.

Before humans started developing technology like photography or fingerprinting, when it was harder to solve crimes but easier to remain hidden, Val was actually what was referred to as a hunter. Meaning he hunted down the creatures who broke zelan law, their main one being no feeding on humans. His team played judge, jury, and executioner. Of course, being able to sniff out the culprit made IDing them easier.

But once humans started evolving and began being able to document them much easier; no more ‘I saw this’ now it’s ‘Look at this photo!’ they had to adapt. So the council created Precincts modeled after the human law enforcement agencies, which let them blend while still keeping their own society in check.

They investigate supernatural crimes, meaning crimes committed by supernatural creatures. Humans don’t know about them so they try to keep interactions to a minimum. Until a lawyer is murdered by some kind of supernatural creature, and one of the detectives, Michael, that gets called to the scene, ends up getting involved.

So Michael and Valerian’s romance slowly buds while they try to solve the case and keep deaths to a minimum.

My second book I’m working on is a straight suspenseful erotica with romantic elements, though there’s no happy ending. It’s set in the 1980s and Wendy meets a mysterious, handsome man at an orchestra that she can only see once a month, and at night, on the dark moon, that eventually whisks her off her feet to go live in a remote castle. Can’t say too much without giving the story away.

This one will have the ‘Take me, now! Even though we’ve only known each other for 2.8 seconds!’ But without it the story wouldn’t move along. So I’ll have to suck it up and write it. And it fits my character because she’s lonely and desperate and it’s 1980; if you don’t have a man it’s because there’s something wrong with you. Or is that meant for present day?

I certainly have more than enough people telling me there’s something wrong with me because I choose to be and remain single. Well, if they don’t like it maybe they should quit bringing it up. :P I’m definitely not changing who I am to fit someone else’s or society’s mold. How about society mold around me for a change.

Moving past my rant; this one is going to need a sequel, the ending is a cliffhanger. I can’t decide if I should put it up or wait until the sequel is written. Or just put a warning label: ENDING WILL LEAVE YOU UNSATISFIED, IF NOT YOUR THING WAIT FOR SEQUEL!!

This is why I’ve been neglecting Goodreads, besides video games; video games got me too. And I had an injury in the family and a death, so that pulled me away. Things have calmed now, though, so I should be more interactive. For, like, the very small amount of people who actually read this.

My wise, inspiring words are for you.

Why the f*ck are my names taken?!

Just found this yesterday.

So, has anyone ever come up with a name, and thought; wow, this name’s pretty good! Then you go and Google it only to find out someone else has already used it? Granted, I didn’t come up with this name, but I thought no one else would have used it.

So I’m writing a new book, separate from Apocalyptic Tendencies, and I have a character I named Valerian, after the herb that’s used for insomnia, but if taken too much or for too long it can be poisonous. My character is a vampire so it was kind of an inside joke.

Well, my writing program kept telling me I was spelling it wrong. I was pretty sure I wasn’t but I decided to Google it anyway. I spelled it correctly. Unfortunately, I found a movie, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, or something, based off some old French play, or something. I don’t remember and I don’t feel like looking it up again.

Anyway, I thought; fu*ck, someone already made a movie with this name. I did some digging, read the summary, and found out; it wasn’t the movie but one of the main characters. Well, my initial reaction was: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck! But I’ve been working on this book for four months, so I’m not changing his name. Besides, Skullcap and Mugwort don’t have the same ring to them.

I hate when this happens. Luckily, most of my names are so unique I don’t have this problem very often, unless I’m naming normal characters like humans, who happen to have normal names.

Ugh, this still blows.

This website still exists?

So I haven’t been on here for a while; I actually kinda forgot about this website. Anyway, I’ve been working on two new short stories, well novellas really, at least they’re turning out longer than I planned. Also, video games distracted me, but now I’m--

A door is thrown open so hard it slams against the wall, chunks of plaster crumbling. I purse my lips, my eyes widening. A man stands in the doorway, seething. He’s pale, with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and pointed ears. Valerian curls his lip, baring fangs.

Oh boy; death by vampire is not how I thought I would go. I thought there would be more explosions.

He holds up a stack of paper. “We need to discuss my contract.” His voice is a deep rumble as he stalks towards me.

“Just be glad it’s not an erotica,” Rayorian says. The angel is lounging on a couch, playing something on his phone, and not protecting me. What a douche.

Valerian’s gaze cuts to Rayorian, and I try to take the opening, slinking by him. “So that’s supposed to make me feel better?” he snarls.

Rayorian offers the vampire a disinterested glance, “Just stating it could be worse.”

“Wow,” Lucipher chimes in, “imagine the mayhem if we got him and Leondra in the same room.”

“Everything would burn,” Rayorian replies.

“Hey!” At Valerian’s bark, I jerk to a stop, inches from the door. “We’re not through yet; what do you think you’re doing, pairing me with this human?!” He flaps the paper back and forth, “Do I look like I want to have any kind of relationship with a sheep?”

“A male, no less. I get the feeling you’re going to be submissive,” Rayorian states. So not helping. Neither is Lucipher’s snickering.

Valerian spouts off something in French which I don’t understand. Maybe I should have made him Italian; thanks to Ezio and Assassin’s Creed 2 I could at least understand the curse words.

I stand up straight, thrusting a finger at him, “I invented you, I can write you however I please!” I argue.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have written us so well,” Rayorian adds.

“I like being written well.” Lucipher places his hands on his hips, posing. “Means I’ve got personality.”

Valerian holds up the stack of paper in both hands and tears it down the middle. Wow, that was a big stack. Maybe I can still make it to the door.

“No one asked you for your input, pigeon!” Valerian snaps at Ray. Rayorian actually puts his phone down. This might turn into a fight. I take a small step towards the door.

“Did you just call me a pigeon?” Rayorian’s tone is flat; uh oh, he’s pissed.

“I thought you angels were eternal, I didn’t realize you suffered from hearing loss.” You better stop while you’re ahead, Val. I love all my characters (except Pete) but Ray will kick your ass.

Rayorian stands form the couch, his expression blank, “Let us test that healing factor of yours, shall we?”

Lucipher grabs the back of Ray’s coat and tugs him away from Valerian. He stumbles, turning a glare to Lucipher. “All right, kiddos,” the Archangel interjects, “let’s keep it friendly, or at least hands-free.”

Wow, never thought Lucipher would be the one to be responsible.

"It's called character development," Rayorian states.

"Get out of my head."

The angel looks at me with a confused expression before it turns into incredulity until finally he just looks at me like I'm stupid.

Lucipher makes shooing motions at me and Valerian growls, clearly not in agreement with my leaving.

The Archangel rolls his eyes, "She's heard your complaint and will take it into consideration." He looks at me with an eyebrow raised, "Right?"

"I'm not changing the story."

His expression falls, morphing into something displeased.

I sigh, trying to use Valerian's distraction to get the door open. Judging by his deepening scowl, he wasn't falling for it. "I'll keep the romance to a minimum but I can't do anything about Michael's flirting."

I don't wait for a response, slipping out the door and slamming it behind me, locking all 13 deadbolts. Hah! Joke's on him. "Just for this, I'm writing you and Michael into a porn scene!" I yell through the door.

"Oh come on; will you stop provoking him!" Rayorian grumbles.

There's the sound of a short scuffle before Valerian yells back, "You've never even spread your legs for anyone; what would you know about writing porn?!"

"It's called the internet!" I cackle, sprinting down the hall, Valerian's angry protests growing softer the further away I get.

I round a corner and almost run right into a tall man leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. He has black hair and ocean blue eyes with lightly tanned skin.

He smirks at me, "So about this scene you're gonna write with me and Valerian..."

I flick out my index finger, "First of all, it's Valerian and I," my middle finger follows suit, "and second of all, I'm not writing any porn."

"Wha--?" His arms drop and his shoulders sag, "Awe man."

I sigh; I need a vacation.

(Aug 17: Fixed my typos :D)

Origins

So this is my first blog, I’ve never done this before. Naturally, beforehand I did research. I looked up blogs, read what other authors were writing about and discussing, and you know what I found? ‘Go buy my book; it’s amazing! Let me tell you about my dogs! This is what I had for dinner!’ Boring stuff.

I’ve decided I’m not going to do that. Of course I never planned to anyway, but I assumed authors would at least talk about their books. Which is what I’m going to do. I’m going to pick scenes, talk about what’s going on, explain why some characters made the choices they did. Or maybe I’ll take you all the way back to the beginning when this 200K novel was just a fleeting idea. You can see how the book has changed.

When I first planned this book there were supposed to only be three main characters: Leondra and Audron, two demons, and Rayorian, a fallen angel. Lucipher was supposed to be the main antagonist, because let’s face it; he always is. But I had a different idea as to why he wanted to start the apocalypse, why he hated humanity. (It’s been so long, I don’t even remember what it was now)

I think I was only about ten chapters in when I was writing the rough draft for Lucipher. I was going to explain to the reader from Lucy’s POV why he was doing what he was doing but then the character ran away from me, literally. He grabbed my pen and my paper and took off. There was nothing I could do. I struggled to come up with a new villian.

Now in the first chapter, which has been completely rewritten at this point, I mentioned the nephlihem, children born from angels and humans, but only in passing and my mom asked me ‘What about these nephlihem? You mentioned them but where are they?’ And thus, Cassandra crawled out of the woodwork.

I’m not quite sure where Darian came from. Unlike Lucy and Cassie it took several rough drafts to get his character fleshed out. I created Shimarune and Valiana around the same time, though Shimarune practically fell right into place with minimal tweaking. I think I still struggle with Valiana sometimes.

Now Cerberus, they were a planned character and their mini adventure before they rendezvous with the others was planned out, to an extent. Well, up until Lucy shoved his way in and took over. He does that a lot.

Norman and Dresseme came into existence around the time Cassie had to go off on her own. I needed someone to show her where to find what she needed, thus Norman materialized from the New York City smog.

Norman and Cassandra were struggling to sep everything up and I couldn’t figure out how to make it work, thus Dresseme appeared in a shower of sparkles and glitter.

Now, I can’t even imagine how this book would be without any of these characters.
Has that ever happened to other authors, I wonder? If a story or a character ran off cackling and wrote themselves regardless of the writer’s frustration or annoyance?

Anyway, I feel like I’m forgetting someone. Which leads me to another question; has anyone ever written a scene only to forget a character and write them out? I can admit, I’m guilty.

Valiana huffs, flipping her long, golden hair.

I said I was sorry! You wouldn’t have fit in that scene anyway!

Afterwards, did you struggle to rewrite the scene to fit them in or did the rewrite just flow or did you do like what I did and just come up with a reason they weren’t present and leave the scene the way it is?
Check out my group, I’ll add a post and we can discuss it. And now, I think I’ve reached the end of this blog, which seems to have run away from me.
Tune in next week!

Look! Words!

For decades we have always tried to fit inside of a mold. Well I never fit, my boobs always got in the way. Naturally, neither does my writing. So I set fire to the mold and roasted marshmallows.

Some books are like old friends. You pick up a book in a particular genre because you know what you're going to get. I've picked up books only to stop midway, already knowing what's going to happen because they all follow a pattern. It takes the fun out of reading.

Some books are like new friends. Sometimes you just want something different; I'm your new friend. :D

A red headed woman comes marching into the room, waving my manuscript over her head.
"Have you read this?!" she asks me, "There are zombies!"

I offer her my most dead pan of expressions, "I wrote it."

A dark skinned man in a NYPD uniform with bright blue eyes pokes his head into the room. "Don't forget the aliens."

Cassandra, the red head, whips around to stare at him. "Seriously?!"

Rayorian struts into the room, his snow white jacket melodramatically flapping behind him and brushes his brown locks from his eyes. He's so theatrical; what was I thinking when I wrote him?

He turns his focus to the cop, holding up a finger, "We had one job, Vince, one fu**ing job."

The cop snorts, "I think we blew it, man."

Ray turns a sharp gaze to me, "Did you just asterisk me?"

"Yes, yes I did." I throw the stack of papers I'm holding into the air. "You guys are going completely off script!" I yell.

A man with black and red hair sticks his head into the room. "Were we suppose to read that? I just made little origami animals."

"Lucipher, no; that's not what those were for!" I reply. I snatch the nearest object, a Pepsi bottle, and throw it at him.

He ducks out of the room, my ears catching his "I don't get hazard pay!" retort.

I point to the door, addressing the other three still in the room. "Out! Everyone out! This blog's over!"

*Note to reader: Don't be fooled, Author does not appear in books.