Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 152
April 14, 2013
April 11, 2013
Another Season Starts
I'm a huge baseball fan and I like to write with a game on, the sound muted. In the winter when there's no baseball, I run into trouble trying to find something I can watch without sound.
Anyway, every year for like the last five or six years, I've ordered the baseball package from my cable company so I can watch whatever game I want. It's called MLB Extra Innings. They've always been the same price as MLB TV, and since it's easier to simply flip on the TV, I've always just gone that route.
Until this year.
This year, MLB TV was $60 cheaper than MLB Extra Innings. Not only that, but MLB TV lets me choose either the home or away broadcast, so if I actually do want to listen to the sound as well as watch the game, I can listen to a good broadcast team. There are some really bad baseball announcers out there. (I'm looking at you Hawk Harrelson.)
I'm not sure yet how well I like streaming the games rather than just watching through cable. I guess I'll decide after I've done it a while longer.
I think I'm going to end up getting some kind of box to stream instead of hooking my computer up to the TV. I'm not wild about Roku since the one box I bought a few years ago crapped out the second time I used it and their customer service pretty much sucked. It also had fits and starts while it streamed, but I could stream the same thing on my computer without any problems at all. But they're about the only game in town if you want to stream more than a few channels.
So maybe this saving $60 thing will end up costing me more money because I would prefer to have a box to stream to rather than hooking and unhooking up the laptop or iPad. I just hope the additional features on MLB TV are worth this.
Anyway, every year for like the last five or six years, I've ordered the baseball package from my cable company so I can watch whatever game I want. It's called MLB Extra Innings. They've always been the same price as MLB TV, and since it's easier to simply flip on the TV, I've always just gone that route.
Until this year.
This year, MLB TV was $60 cheaper than MLB Extra Innings. Not only that, but MLB TV lets me choose either the home or away broadcast, so if I actually do want to listen to the sound as well as watch the game, I can listen to a good broadcast team. There are some really bad baseball announcers out there. (I'm looking at you Hawk Harrelson.)
I'm not sure yet how well I like streaming the games rather than just watching through cable. I guess I'll decide after I've done it a while longer.
I think I'm going to end up getting some kind of box to stream instead of hooking my computer up to the TV. I'm not wild about Roku since the one box I bought a few years ago crapped out the second time I used it and their customer service pretty much sucked. It also had fits and starts while it streamed, but I could stream the same thing on my computer without any problems at all. But they're about the only game in town if you want to stream more than a few channels.
So maybe this saving $60 thing will end up costing me more money because I would prefer to have a box to stream to rather than hooking and unhooking up the laptop or iPad. I just hope the additional features on MLB TV are worth this.
April 9, 2013
What Is the Future of Books?
As I was shamelessly begging for blog ideas, one of the suggestions was that I talk about the future of storytelling. This would be the format aspect of the future rather than content and reference was made to my geeky heart. :-) Hey, I am a geek, I can admit it.
I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer the question, but I've read about what other people see for books in the future. One of the predominant predictions is that books would become multimedia. There'd be music, video, or whatever technology comes in the future. I've also seen a bunch of readers say they don't want their reading interrupted by music or video. Part of the reading experience is using imagination and video would detract from that experience, IMO. Of course, five years ago, a lot of people were saying they didn't want to read their books in electronic format, so who knows if minds will change? Still, movies are a form of storytelling and if books become more like movies, why would we need the book? I've also heard a lot of speculation that there will be more reader input into which direction a story goes and the author will write it to what the group wants. Do I think this will happen? I don't know. To be honest, I hope not because I can't write to committee. I've said it before, but my characters are the ones in control, and if I try to do something they don't like, they lock me up so I can't write anything until I go back and fix what they don't like. My concern is that books are falling by the wayside because people just aren't reading. I also read an article that said more people want to write books than read them. I'm not sure how anyone can write a book who doesn't read—I learned so much from reading about how to write—but I believe the article because I've met so many people who've said the same thing to me. There's a quote from Ray Bradbury that's appropriate here: You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture, just get people to stop reading them.
I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer the question, but I've read about what other people see for books in the future. One of the predominant predictions is that books would become multimedia. There'd be music, video, or whatever technology comes in the future. I've also seen a bunch of readers say they don't want their reading interrupted by music or video. Part of the reading experience is using imagination and video would detract from that experience, IMO. Of course, five years ago, a lot of people were saying they didn't want to read their books in electronic format, so who knows if minds will change? Still, movies are a form of storytelling and if books become more like movies, why would we need the book? I've also heard a lot of speculation that there will be more reader input into which direction a story goes and the author will write it to what the group wants. Do I think this will happen? I don't know. To be honest, I hope not because I can't write to committee. I've said it before, but my characters are the ones in control, and if I try to do something they don't like, they lock me up so I can't write anything until I go back and fix what they don't like. My concern is that books are falling by the wayside because people just aren't reading. I also read an article that said more people want to write books than read them. I'm not sure how anyone can write a book who doesn't read—I learned so much from reading about how to write—but I believe the article because I've met so many people who've said the same thing to me. There's a quote from Ray Bradbury that's appropriate here: You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture, just get people to stop reading them.
April 7, 2013
April 4, 2013
The Blood Feud Universe
The Blood Feud world has a back story and a lot of history going on there, but then it's full of all kinds of different peoples. The first story, BLOOD FEUD, featured a vampire heroine and a demon hero, and since that time, I've introduced the human contingent—demon slayers, the vampire hunters and the wizards. And one of the proposals I have under submission introduces another species (not a shifter).
As an intro to the world that I've been spending quite a bit of time in, vampires and demons fought a war that ended eight hundred years ago. They are still largely enemies and BLOOD FEUD is the beginning of trying to heal that breach. The demon slayers come in with the second story, DEMON KISSED. The slayers recruit specific people to their ranks, and while there's not outward tie, they are run by the same group that gives orders to the vampire hunters. They make their first appearance in SHADOW'S CARESS. Each of the stories can have a hero or heroine from any group. Same thing with the villains—they can be anyone or anything. I like the ambiguity because real life has plenty of it. ENEMY EMBRACE introduces the wizards and not necessarily in a good way. In this story, we find out that the wizards are out for themselves first, last, and always. They're not the villain in this piece, but it introduces another group with ambiguous aims. The story I'm writing now in the world? The h/h are both wizards. Also, two of the other stories I have under submission involve wizards as well, but it's really the story I'm working on now that gets into the problems in their world. One of the other things I like about the ambiguity in bad and good is that each hero and heroine, depending on which group they belong to, has their own viewpoint about the other groups. It also shows the characters by spotlighting what interests them or what they observe in the world. What I mean by this is that different h/h don't think about or even mention some of the groups because they're just not a blip on their radar screen. In BLOOD FEUD, the slayers and hunters aren't part of the equation that the h/h are dealing with so they don't worry about them. Their focus is on the demon who's killing the vampires and preventing another war from erupting. Same with the other books. The h/h's voice and viewpoint drives what comes out and who they think about and that's the way it should be if a writer is being true to who their characters are, IMO.
Characters don't think things like: Hey, I'm hunting the evil murdering demon, but let me wax poetic about the wizards even though they're not in this story and have no bearing on it. That's totally cheating character viewpoint. Again, this is IMO and I'm sure there are writers that disagree with me, but if Point of View is being done correctly, the writer shouldn't be interjecting herself or what she thinks the readers need to know about the world. It should flow naturally from the characters.
As an intro to the world that I've been spending quite a bit of time in, vampires and demons fought a war that ended eight hundred years ago. They are still largely enemies and BLOOD FEUD is the beginning of trying to heal that breach. The demon slayers come in with the second story, DEMON KISSED. The slayers recruit specific people to their ranks, and while there's not outward tie, they are run by the same group that gives orders to the vampire hunters. They make their first appearance in SHADOW'S CARESS. Each of the stories can have a hero or heroine from any group. Same thing with the villains—they can be anyone or anything. I like the ambiguity because real life has plenty of it. ENEMY EMBRACE introduces the wizards and not necessarily in a good way. In this story, we find out that the wizards are out for themselves first, last, and always. They're not the villain in this piece, but it introduces another group with ambiguous aims. The story I'm writing now in the world? The h/h are both wizards. Also, two of the other stories I have under submission involve wizards as well, but it's really the story I'm working on now that gets into the problems in their world. One of the other things I like about the ambiguity in bad and good is that each hero and heroine, depending on which group they belong to, has their own viewpoint about the other groups. It also shows the characters by spotlighting what interests them or what they observe in the world. What I mean by this is that different h/h don't think about or even mention some of the groups because they're just not a blip on their radar screen. In BLOOD FEUD, the slayers and hunters aren't part of the equation that the h/h are dealing with so they don't worry about them. Their focus is on the demon who's killing the vampires and preventing another war from erupting. Same with the other books. The h/h's voice and viewpoint drives what comes out and who they think about and that's the way it should be if a writer is being true to who their characters are, IMO.
Characters don't think things like: Hey, I'm hunting the evil murdering demon, but let me wax poetic about the wizards even though they're not in this story and have no bearing on it. That's totally cheating character viewpoint. Again, this is IMO and I'm sure there are writers that disagree with me, but if Point of View is being done correctly, the writer shouldn't be interjecting herself or what she thinks the readers need to know about the world. It should flow naturally from the characters.
April 2, 2013
What I Am Working on Now
My current Work In Progress (WIP) is set in the Blood Feud World. This is actually a trilogy idea that I've had for a while, but didn't get going on for a few reasons.
The first delay came because I didn't have a third couple for a trilogy idea. I thought about just doing two couples, but it made the arc unbalanced. It really needed that third story. Then one day as I was looking back on past work that hadn't gone anywhere, I saw one of my old couples and I realized I still wanted to write them. It was a new experience, bringing a couple from a previous world into different one. The characters changed because their life experiences had changed who they were. We are a sum of our experiences after all. And the hero's name also changed, which was also interesting to me. Those of you who follow this blog know that I don't get to pick my characters' names. They tell me who they are. The project's second delay came in because the other two couples—the ones who were in the story for a while and waiting for the third couple—weren't working. Oh, I tried to make them work, but there was no chemistry between them. So I swapped them. That was another new experience for me and I was afraid they'd balk, but they didn't. The new pairings work much better and there's actually heat now. The final big delay came in with book order. I put together a series overview and I struggled with the arc. It wasn't coming together in a logical way and it felt off. I also had a great deal of trouble getting my h/h to kick off the series. Then one Saturday, I had an epiphany—switch the books around. I debated, though. I hadn't needed to do this before either, but when my writing buddies suggested the same thing, I decided to do it. First, I rewrote the series overview and switching the stories around eliminated some of the big issues I wash having with the arc. Then I started working on the new opening story and it's actually going fairly well. I was hoping to have a draft done by the end of the month, but I'm not going to make it.
It's okay, though, because I figured out a few things as time passed and I think it's improving the story. Sometimes time for things to percolate in the subconscious is good.
The first delay came because I didn't have a third couple for a trilogy idea. I thought about just doing two couples, but it made the arc unbalanced. It really needed that third story. Then one day as I was looking back on past work that hadn't gone anywhere, I saw one of my old couples and I realized I still wanted to write them. It was a new experience, bringing a couple from a previous world into different one. The characters changed because their life experiences had changed who they were. We are a sum of our experiences after all. And the hero's name also changed, which was also interesting to me. Those of you who follow this blog know that I don't get to pick my characters' names. They tell me who they are. The project's second delay came in because the other two couples—the ones who were in the story for a while and waiting for the third couple—weren't working. Oh, I tried to make them work, but there was no chemistry between them. So I swapped them. That was another new experience for me and I was afraid they'd balk, but they didn't. The new pairings work much better and there's actually heat now. The final big delay came in with book order. I put together a series overview and I struggled with the arc. It wasn't coming together in a logical way and it felt off. I also had a great deal of trouble getting my h/h to kick off the series. Then one Saturday, I had an epiphany—switch the books around. I debated, though. I hadn't needed to do this before either, but when my writing buddies suggested the same thing, I decided to do it. First, I rewrote the series overview and switching the stories around eliminated some of the big issues I wash having with the arc. Then I started working on the new opening story and it's actually going fairly well. I was hoping to have a draft done by the end of the month, but I'm not going to make it.
It's okay, though, because I figured out a few things as time passed and I think it's improving the story. Sometimes time for things to percolate in the subconscious is good.
March 31, 2013
Three Things
This is a short video. The speaker is a man who was on the plane that landed in the Hudson River and he talks about the three things he learned because of that experience.
March 28, 2013
Flare and the Guys
I promised I'd talk a little bit more about some of the stories I have for the Jarved Nine world. Please remember that these stories would be side projects that I wrote between my other books and that I can't make any promises about when I'll get to them. I hesitated to mention anything, but an impromptu survey on Twitter agreed that it was okay, so here I am, blogging them.
When I went home to Minnesota for Christmas, the Jarved Nine world exploded in my head. I spent a lot of time hammering out overviews of the stories. Some ideas are more complete than others and some are missing elements that I'd need to figure out, but I was compelled to get this information down. I guess it's not wholly surprising as I've had these characters in my head--most of them anyway--since 2005, when I wrote Eternal Nights. They've never gone away. I'm not going to go into too much detail about the actual plots because the overviews are mostly about characters anyway.
The first story would belong to Zachary "Z-Man" Chen. Zach grew up in Hawaii and California and he's of European, Chinese, and Hawaiian descent. One of the first things Zach told me was that he's the team sniper. Another thing he told me was that in his job, it's critical he have his head screwed on straight. He's one of the most laid back members on the team--only Troll is more easygoing--but when he needs to fire up the intensity, it's like flipping a switch. It's actually kind of interesting to see how fast he can go from 0 to Mach 2.
Zach's heroine is a scientist assigned to J9 and she's brilliant at her job. She's also brilliant at pissing people off. I don't believe it's intentional, although she hasn't said that much yet. I just think she doesn't realize how abrupt she can be or how others take what she says. She also always runs at a high level of intensity, and because she doesn't see Zach in warrior mode right away, she is under the impression that he's always laid back. She is way wrong, which she'll find out. Heh!
Story two belongs to Gravedigger, he's the team medic. His real name is Cutter Wainwright and his heroine is stationed on Jarved Nine, too. Y'all actually would have heard about her in Eternal Nights except that my editor cut that conversation between Wyatt and Flare. (She was right to do it. It slowed down the story and was a distraction from Wyatt and Kendall.) Cutter comes from a family with a pedigree a mile long, but the family money disappeared long before he was born. He joined the army to pay for college, but ended up deciding to stay in.
His heroine is Nadia. She knows most of Cutter's team doesn't think she's good enough for him, which had her trying to keep her distance from him. After all, if his team doesn't like her, she can't be more than a fling to him and Nadia isn't going there. Not even if he is the hottest guy she's ever met.
The final story in the arc would belong to Francisco "Flare" Cantore. Flare is the team's chief warrant officer. I actually thought Flare would be first, but no matter how I envisioned the arc, he didn't fit anywhere except third. Although, the way I've seen things, there'd be some scenes in his point of view in both Zach and Cutter's books. Flare has never quite gotten over his ex-wife (something else that was (correctly) cut from Eternal Nights) and he's not even a little happy to return from a mission to discover she's inside the Old City on J9.
Sasha Cantore (who you met in The Troll Bridge) isn't any happier to run into Flare. She's put the past behind her--or so she thought until she keeps running into her ex. There are only about 600 troops on J9. Avoiding someone is nearly impossible. Flare and Sasha set out to accomplish this impossible task. And fail.
I'm still torn about having blogged about my plans since, like I said, this would be a side project. Please don't be disappointed if it takes a long while for anything to get accomplished. Next week, I think I'll talk a little about what I am officially working on now and share my thoughts on that world.
When I went home to Minnesota for Christmas, the Jarved Nine world exploded in my head. I spent a lot of time hammering out overviews of the stories. Some ideas are more complete than others and some are missing elements that I'd need to figure out, but I was compelled to get this information down. I guess it's not wholly surprising as I've had these characters in my head--most of them anyway--since 2005, when I wrote Eternal Nights. They've never gone away. I'm not going to go into too much detail about the actual plots because the overviews are mostly about characters anyway.
The first story would belong to Zachary "Z-Man" Chen. Zach grew up in Hawaii and California and he's of European, Chinese, and Hawaiian descent. One of the first things Zach told me was that he's the team sniper. Another thing he told me was that in his job, it's critical he have his head screwed on straight. He's one of the most laid back members on the team--only Troll is more easygoing--but when he needs to fire up the intensity, it's like flipping a switch. It's actually kind of interesting to see how fast he can go from 0 to Mach 2.
Zach's heroine is a scientist assigned to J9 and she's brilliant at her job. She's also brilliant at pissing people off. I don't believe it's intentional, although she hasn't said that much yet. I just think she doesn't realize how abrupt she can be or how others take what she says. She also always runs at a high level of intensity, and because she doesn't see Zach in warrior mode right away, she is under the impression that he's always laid back. She is way wrong, which she'll find out. Heh!
Story two belongs to Gravedigger, he's the team medic. His real name is Cutter Wainwright and his heroine is stationed on Jarved Nine, too. Y'all actually would have heard about her in Eternal Nights except that my editor cut that conversation between Wyatt and Flare. (She was right to do it. It slowed down the story and was a distraction from Wyatt and Kendall.) Cutter comes from a family with a pedigree a mile long, but the family money disappeared long before he was born. He joined the army to pay for college, but ended up deciding to stay in.
His heroine is Nadia. She knows most of Cutter's team doesn't think she's good enough for him, which had her trying to keep her distance from him. After all, if his team doesn't like her, she can't be more than a fling to him and Nadia isn't going there. Not even if he is the hottest guy she's ever met.
The final story in the arc would belong to Francisco "Flare" Cantore. Flare is the team's chief warrant officer. I actually thought Flare would be first, but no matter how I envisioned the arc, he didn't fit anywhere except third. Although, the way I've seen things, there'd be some scenes in his point of view in both Zach and Cutter's books. Flare has never quite gotten over his ex-wife (something else that was (correctly) cut from Eternal Nights) and he's not even a little happy to return from a mission to discover she's inside the Old City on J9.
Sasha Cantore (who you met in The Troll Bridge) isn't any happier to run into Flare. She's put the past behind her--or so she thought until she keeps running into her ex. There are only about 600 troops on J9. Avoiding someone is nearly impossible. Flare and Sasha set out to accomplish this impossible task. And fail.
I'm still torn about having blogged about my plans since, like I said, this would be a side project. Please don't be disappointed if it takes a long while for anything to get accomplished. Next week, I think I'll talk a little about what I am officially working on now and share my thoughts on that world.
March 26, 2013
FAQ on J9
I still get a lot of email and questions about my Jarved Nine world and books, so I thought I'd answer some of them here.
Are you going to release RAVYN'S FLIGHT and ETERNAL NIGHTS in ebook format? Yes, I am going to release RAVYN'S FLIGHT and ETERNAL NIGHTS on ebook. There's a delay right now as my agent and I have submitted them to a publisher to see if they'd be willing to reissue them. If that doesn't come to pass, I'll work on getting them out, but please bear with me. Are you going to write more books set in this world? I do want to write more stories in this world, but because they'd have to be self-published, they're a side project, something I can only work on between my other stories. Because of this, I can't give any timelines or promises. Do you have stories for J9? Who are the characters? Yes, I do. As I wrote THE TROLL BRIDGE, I knew it could be expanded to a full-length book and I plan to do that, but I also have six new story ideas (2 trilogies) that I'd like to get to first because of the timeline. Troll's story takes place in 2050 and all the other stories play out before that. Also, if I manage to get all this done in my spare time, I have to write Cam Brody's story (Ravyn and Damon's son) because my mom keeps asking me for it. I do know who Cam's heroine is, but I don't have a story for them yet.
Most of the stories revolve around members of Wyatt's team (Eternal Nights). The first set of books I want to do have Z Man, Gravedigger, and Flare as the heroes. They were mentioned in Eternal Nights or The Troll Bridge or both. If you read Troll's story, you met Flare's heroine there.
I'll talk a little more about the stories on Thursday.
Are you going to release RAVYN'S FLIGHT and ETERNAL NIGHTS in ebook format? Yes, I am going to release RAVYN'S FLIGHT and ETERNAL NIGHTS on ebook. There's a delay right now as my agent and I have submitted them to a publisher to see if they'd be willing to reissue them. If that doesn't come to pass, I'll work on getting them out, but please bear with me. Are you going to write more books set in this world? I do want to write more stories in this world, but because they'd have to be self-published, they're a side project, something I can only work on between my other stories. Because of this, I can't give any timelines or promises. Do you have stories for J9? Who are the characters? Yes, I do. As I wrote THE TROLL BRIDGE, I knew it could be expanded to a full-length book and I plan to do that, but I also have six new story ideas (2 trilogies) that I'd like to get to first because of the timeline. Troll's story takes place in 2050 and all the other stories play out before that. Also, if I manage to get all this done in my spare time, I have to write Cam Brody's story (Ravyn and Damon's son) because my mom keeps asking me for it. I do know who Cam's heroine is, but I don't have a story for them yet.
Most of the stories revolve around members of Wyatt's team (Eternal Nights). The first set of books I want to do have Z Man, Gravedigger, and Flare as the heroes. They were mentioned in Eternal Nights or The Troll Bridge or both. If you read Troll's story, you met Flare's heroine there.
I'll talk a little more about the stories on Thursday.
