Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 180
July 28, 2011
It's All a Matter of Perspective
I'm working on a story set in the Blood Feud universe right now and one of things I really enjoy about the world is that there is no single bad guy. The vampire hunters are evil to vampires, but I've done a couple of vampire hunter heroines. The demons are evil to the demon slayers, but I've paired up a slayer with a demon. The vampires and demons fought a war with each other, yet now they're trying to forge an alliance. Someone from any group could be the hero or heroine and someone from any group can be the villain.
I really love this!
It's given me a chance to play with perspective. Isobel and Seere from Blood Feud don't understand the animosity lingering between their peoples (She's a vampire, he's a demon) because they weren't alive during the wars and they fell in love with each other.
On the other hand, Andras from Demon Kissed makes some throwaway comment about vampires being bastards. He's too young to have fought in the wars, too, but the prejudice against vamps has made into his world view.
I'm working on the fourth story set in this universe now. Enemy Embrace introduces one of the rogue vampires as a villain, but in another story I have planned, a rogue vampire is the heroine. :-) This story also introduces the fact that there are wizards. Dak, the hero of Enemy Embrace, hates wizards. He finds them self-serving and untrustworthy. Do I need to mention I have a story planned with a wizard hero?
There are all kinds of different groups with different agendas, groups with different factions, and groups filled with people who hold different viewpoints. In some ways, it might be easier to just make one group always be evil and the rest always be good, but that's not nearly as fun and it's not realistic.
I have three more stories that I know of right now and my plan is to deepen the alliance between the vampires and demons. Things are afoot that they aren't aware of quite yet, but they're going to need to work together--whether they like it or not.
I really love this!
It's given me a chance to play with perspective. Isobel and Seere from Blood Feud don't understand the animosity lingering between their peoples (She's a vampire, he's a demon) because they weren't alive during the wars and they fell in love with each other.
On the other hand, Andras from Demon Kissed makes some throwaway comment about vampires being bastards. He's too young to have fought in the wars, too, but the prejudice against vamps has made into his world view.
I'm working on the fourth story set in this universe now. Enemy Embrace introduces one of the rogue vampires as a villain, but in another story I have planned, a rogue vampire is the heroine. :-) This story also introduces the fact that there are wizards. Dak, the hero of Enemy Embrace, hates wizards. He finds them self-serving and untrustworthy. Do I need to mention I have a story planned with a wizard hero?
There are all kinds of different groups with different agendas, groups with different factions, and groups filled with people who hold different viewpoints. In some ways, it might be easier to just make one group always be evil and the rest always be good, but that's not nearly as fun and it's not realistic.
I have three more stories that I know of right now and my plan is to deepen the alliance between the vampires and demons. Things are afoot that they aren't aware of quite yet, but they're going to need to work together--whether they like it or not.
July 26, 2011
On the Inside
I used to slip inside jokes into my books all the time. Some of them were specific to one person, some of them were specific to a group of people. To use some examples, in Through a Crimson Veil The Crimson Jim bar was named for a guy I worked with. He's also the one that asked me to use Evil Twin Brewery in the story. That's the brand of beer Conor was drinking the night he found out the truth about Mika.
The inside joke in Eternal Nights was out there for any baseball fan. All the one-off secondary characters, the ones that were basically walk-ons, but who needed a name for clarity's sake, got the name of baseball players. Wyatt's friend in the prologue is Jim "Catfish" Hunter who is like a totally famous pitcher from a few decades ago. All the bad guys got names of players on teams I was rooting against in the playoffs that year. (I was writing the book during the playoffs.) Only one person ever let me know they got the joke and this kind of made me sad. I was hoping a lot of people would get it and laugh with me.
But EN was the last book that I did anything sort of under the radar. Kind of. If you read Shadow's Caress, you'll remember it opened with a couple of 80s songs and it also closed with the title of an 80s song. But stuck in the middle is a little tip of the cap to another 80s song. I originally was actually going to name the song, but it didn't work out with the flow of the story.
I did make a reference to it, though. When Malachi has Cass pull over and tells her they're going to walk the rest of the way to Laurent's home, Cass is like: What? Walk? In LA?
Maybe no one else gets it because Missing Persons was never a huge name group, but they have a song titled Walking In L.A. and the whole thing is about how nobody walks in the city. Since Cass works in an 80s boutique, I thought it was kind of fun to slip in something like that. I just wish I could have managed a few more songs.
The inside joke in Eternal Nights was out there for any baseball fan. All the one-off secondary characters, the ones that were basically walk-ons, but who needed a name for clarity's sake, got the name of baseball players. Wyatt's friend in the prologue is Jim "Catfish" Hunter who is like a totally famous pitcher from a few decades ago. All the bad guys got names of players on teams I was rooting against in the playoffs that year. (I was writing the book during the playoffs.) Only one person ever let me know they got the joke and this kind of made me sad. I was hoping a lot of people would get it and laugh with me.
But EN was the last book that I did anything sort of under the radar. Kind of. If you read Shadow's Caress, you'll remember it opened with a couple of 80s songs and it also closed with the title of an 80s song. But stuck in the middle is a little tip of the cap to another 80s song. I originally was actually going to name the song, but it didn't work out with the flow of the story.
I did make a reference to it, though. When Malachi has Cass pull over and tells her they're going to walk the rest of the way to Laurent's home, Cass is like: What? Walk? In LA?
Maybe no one else gets it because Missing Persons was never a huge name group, but they have a song titled Walking In L.A. and the whole thing is about how nobody walks in the city. Since Cass works in an 80s boutique, I thought it was kind of fun to slip in something like that. I just wish I could have managed a few more songs.
July 24, 2011
Battle Los Angeles
When Battle Los Angeles first came out, I was tempted by the television ads to watch it in the theater. I'm just not much for going out to movies. Not only is it expensive, but I'm so picky about storyline, that I have a hard time with a lot of films. Recently, however, the movie came out on DVD/Pay Per View and I was seeing all those ads again that made me think I really want to see this. There were some mediocre reviews and I hesitated, but I finally decided to stream it on Friday night.
[image error] The storyline is pretty simple. Aliens invade Earth and are technologically superior to us. (Of course they are. They traveled light years through space to get here and we've gone to our moon.) They're here to wipe out all sentient life on our planet in order to take our resources. An expert on one of the inserted news clips in the movie says it's a standard ploy to eradicate life on the planet you want to strip. I'm not too sure about that, but it doesn't matter. Later, in another pseudo news clip, we hear that they've come for our water and that our planet is the only one in our solar system that has it on the surface.
Okay, alien invasion with multiple mother ships filled with flying drones and armored alien warriors inserting near large population centers around the world. Our hero is Staff Sergeant Nantz of the US Marines. He's served in the Middle East and is the only survivor of his squad. He feels responsible for the deaths of the other men and is dealing with some issues. He's assigned to a new unit under a brand new lieutenant. He's informed by other men in his unit not to trust Nantz.
It turns out the military is in over their heads against the superior forces and technology of the aliens. Our group of US Marines immediately takes losses. As they try to reach a central point to regroup, they pick up some civilians hiding in the police station and soldiers from other branches of the service, including a US Air Force sergeant who ends up playing a significant role as the story goes on.
I love action/adventure movies where there's a lot of suspense and tension. This one certainly fit that category. The tension starts early and it just intensifies throughout the entire film. There was pretty much no downtime from the suspense. Even when the group found somewhere that seemed secure to treat their wounded, we knew it wouldn't last long. Those aliens could find them wherever they were. TBH, the unrelenting tension almost became too much. I would have liked a breather now and then and I just didn't get one.
There was no romance of any sort in this movie, which you maybe guessed since I said there was no downtime from the suspense. I thought there might be one brewing between Nantz and one of the civilians, but if the writers planned to use that, it was dropped. I'm not sure they could have squeezed it in with everything else that was going on, but I did miss it.
There were a couple of things I thought were plot holes. For example, the aliens are here for our water, yet their ships and other modes of transportation run on water. My thought was that if a resource was scarce, wouldn't they create ships that ran on some other fuel? Now that we've dealt with the high-cost of oil on Earth, I keep reading about biofuels. We're looking for alternative sources, so it seemed to me the aliens would have done this as well. It's much more cost effective to create a new source of power than to travel light years and invade another planet.
But this was a minor quibble--all the plot issues I had were minor--and didn't subtract from my enjoyment of the film. This isn't meant to be taken a serious movie, IMO; it's meant to be pure entertainment/fun. And I was happy to go right along with this and not nitpick as I watched.
Some of the movie left me thinking of Independence Day--how the alien invasion was staged, how we were overwhelmed and beaten, how a small group of men make a difference, the general look of the aliens and their ships--to name a few. It's hard to compare the two movies, though, despite this because Battle Los Angeles wasn't trying for any of the humor that filled Independence Day. This movie also didn't focus on more than one storyline. Everything revolves around this single group of marines.
Battle Los Angeles also gave me a few moments where I teared up and I'm not a crybaby when it comes to entertainment--not movies or books. While ID tried for a few emotional moments, I never got felt them while I watched that movie. I think maybe this could be attributable to the focus put on the hero, SSgt Nantz and some of the others on the team. I really grew to like Nantz and Lieutenant Martinez and the USAF sergeant--the only military woman in the film.
A quick comment about our lone military woman, Sgt. Elena Santos. (Yes, I had to pop over to IMDB and look that name up.) I really liked her role in this movie. She might have been shot down and lost the rest of her team, but she's nobody's pushover. She fights beside the marines with as much fervor as they do and she is instrumental throughout Battle LA. I don't want to give any spoilers away, but nothing good happens without her. I hope that's vague enough. Also, the other female character, the one I thought might have a relationship brewing with Nantz, was also strong. She's a veterinarian and she's the one who helps them learn how to kill the aliens. She also doesn't act like a victim and given how Hollywood tends to portray women in general, I was happy that this film avoided making the women weak.
I also liked the ending of the movie. A lot. I won't say more because of spoilers, but it left me feeling good.
If you're looking for a couple of hours of mindless, fun-filled suspense, I can recommend Battle Los Angeles. It's not going to be nominated for an Oscar, that's a given, but it was an enjoyable way to spend the evening and I give it a thumbs up.
[image error] The storyline is pretty simple. Aliens invade Earth and are technologically superior to us. (Of course they are. They traveled light years through space to get here and we've gone to our moon.) They're here to wipe out all sentient life on our planet in order to take our resources. An expert on one of the inserted news clips in the movie says it's a standard ploy to eradicate life on the planet you want to strip. I'm not too sure about that, but it doesn't matter. Later, in another pseudo news clip, we hear that they've come for our water and that our planet is the only one in our solar system that has it on the surface.
Okay, alien invasion with multiple mother ships filled with flying drones and armored alien warriors inserting near large population centers around the world. Our hero is Staff Sergeant Nantz of the US Marines. He's served in the Middle East and is the only survivor of his squad. He feels responsible for the deaths of the other men and is dealing with some issues. He's assigned to a new unit under a brand new lieutenant. He's informed by other men in his unit not to trust Nantz.
It turns out the military is in over their heads against the superior forces and technology of the aliens. Our group of US Marines immediately takes losses. As they try to reach a central point to regroup, they pick up some civilians hiding in the police station and soldiers from other branches of the service, including a US Air Force sergeant who ends up playing a significant role as the story goes on.
I love action/adventure movies where there's a lot of suspense and tension. This one certainly fit that category. The tension starts early and it just intensifies throughout the entire film. There was pretty much no downtime from the suspense. Even when the group found somewhere that seemed secure to treat their wounded, we knew it wouldn't last long. Those aliens could find them wherever they were. TBH, the unrelenting tension almost became too much. I would have liked a breather now and then and I just didn't get one.
There was no romance of any sort in this movie, which you maybe guessed since I said there was no downtime from the suspense. I thought there might be one brewing between Nantz and one of the civilians, but if the writers planned to use that, it was dropped. I'm not sure they could have squeezed it in with everything else that was going on, but I did miss it.
There were a couple of things I thought were plot holes. For example, the aliens are here for our water, yet their ships and other modes of transportation run on water. My thought was that if a resource was scarce, wouldn't they create ships that ran on some other fuel? Now that we've dealt with the high-cost of oil on Earth, I keep reading about biofuels. We're looking for alternative sources, so it seemed to me the aliens would have done this as well. It's much more cost effective to create a new source of power than to travel light years and invade another planet.
But this was a minor quibble--all the plot issues I had were minor--and didn't subtract from my enjoyment of the film. This isn't meant to be taken a serious movie, IMO; it's meant to be pure entertainment/fun. And I was happy to go right along with this and not nitpick as I watched.
Some of the movie left me thinking of Independence Day--how the alien invasion was staged, how we were overwhelmed and beaten, how a small group of men make a difference, the general look of the aliens and their ships--to name a few. It's hard to compare the two movies, though, despite this because Battle Los Angeles wasn't trying for any of the humor that filled Independence Day. This movie also didn't focus on more than one storyline. Everything revolves around this single group of marines.
Battle Los Angeles also gave me a few moments where I teared up and I'm not a crybaby when it comes to entertainment--not movies or books. While ID tried for a few emotional moments, I never got felt them while I watched that movie. I think maybe this could be attributable to the focus put on the hero, SSgt Nantz and some of the others on the team. I really grew to like Nantz and Lieutenant Martinez and the USAF sergeant--the only military woman in the film.
A quick comment about our lone military woman, Sgt. Elena Santos. (Yes, I had to pop over to IMDB and look that name up.) I really liked her role in this movie. She might have been shot down and lost the rest of her team, but she's nobody's pushover. She fights beside the marines with as much fervor as they do and she is instrumental throughout Battle LA. I don't want to give any spoilers away, but nothing good happens without her. I hope that's vague enough. Also, the other female character, the one I thought might have a relationship brewing with Nantz, was also strong. She's a veterinarian and she's the one who helps them learn how to kill the aliens. She also doesn't act like a victim and given how Hollywood tends to portray women in general, I was happy that this film avoided making the women weak.
I also liked the ending of the movie. A lot. I won't say more because of spoilers, but it left me feeling good.
If you're looking for a couple of hours of mindless, fun-filled suspense, I can recommend Battle Los Angeles. It's not going to be nominated for an Oscar, that's a given, but it was an enjoyable way to spend the evening and I give it a thumbs up.
July 21, 2011
Still A Thrill
Someone said to me the other day that seeing the covers for my books must be old hat and pretty mundane for me. That's not true. My first book came out in 2002 and even now, I anticipate each cover. And if I love it, I become hugely excited.
There are a lot of parts of being an author that are still exciting. OMG, seeing your book on the shelves at the bookstore? Or an airport bookstore? Sheer elation. Author copies being delivered to the doorstep. Opening that box and seeing the story you slaved over for months and months printed and bound and looking so pretty? Completely awesome. And every time someone sends me an email telling me they loved my book? Rapture. Seriously. My favorite part is when readers love my book.
None of this excitement has ever faded for me, no matter how many times I've experienced it. And I think this is a good thing. If a writer loses the wonder (not just with the writing/editing/revision part, but with the little joys like holding your book for the first time), they've lost something intangible that I think affects their work.
Actually, my life philosophy overall is that we have to enjoy moments--big or small. It doesn't matter if it's the first time or the tenth time, we have to savor and embrace the good stuff.
There are a lot of parts of being an author that are still exciting. OMG, seeing your book on the shelves at the bookstore? Or an airport bookstore? Sheer elation. Author copies being delivered to the doorstep. Opening that box and seeing the story you slaved over for months and months printed and bound and looking so pretty? Completely awesome. And every time someone sends me an email telling me they loved my book? Rapture. Seriously. My favorite part is when readers love my book.
None of this excitement has ever faded for me, no matter how many times I've experienced it. And I think this is a good thing. If a writer loses the wonder (not just with the writing/editing/revision part, but with the little joys like holding your book for the first time), they've lost something intangible that I think affects their work.
Actually, my life philosophy overall is that we have to enjoy moments--big or small. It doesn't matter if it's the first time or the tenth time, we have to savor and embrace the good stuff.
July 19, 2011
The Tech Savvy Catch-22
I'm pretty tech savvy. Not at the "hire myself out to fix computers" level, but good enough that I can normally handle just about anything the crops up at home. I think it helps that computers don't intimidate me and I enjoy the problem-solving that sometimes goes along with owning one. Not all the time, mind you. Sometimes I get really frustrated when I can't get an issue figured out, but a lot of the time...yeah, I enjoy it.
The fact that I am tech savvy, though, leads to quandaries. For example, I'd love to set up an author page on FB, but I want more than the standard, minimal page that I could put together now. You see, I know there are ways to put together a very professional, polished, functional page. This is what I want.
My quandary? I hate to pay someone else to put this together for me because I know I can do it myself. If I had the time to read up on how to do it and even more time to play around with it. And because I don't have any extra time, I don't read or tinker and no page goes up. For time efficiencies, I should find someone who can do it and just hire it out. But. But I know I can do it. I know I can. And I hate to pay for something that I can do.
Same thing with the formatting my backlist stories for ebook readers. I can do it myself. In fact, I did do it myself on my short stories. But finding the time is hard.
Then there's the control freak in me. I like things perfect. I know if I do my own FB page that I'll get everything exactly the way I want it. When I pay someone else to do it, there comes a point where I have to settle for good enough because of the costs associated. I hate settling. I want perfection. I can't help it.
The fact that I am tech savvy, though, leads to quandaries. For example, I'd love to set up an author page on FB, but I want more than the standard, minimal page that I could put together now. You see, I know there are ways to put together a very professional, polished, functional page. This is what I want.
My quandary? I hate to pay someone else to put this together for me because I know I can do it myself. If I had the time to read up on how to do it and even more time to play around with it. And because I don't have any extra time, I don't read or tinker and no page goes up. For time efficiencies, I should find someone who can do it and just hire it out. But. But I know I can do it. I know I can. And I hate to pay for something that I can do.
Same thing with the formatting my backlist stories for ebook readers. I can do it myself. In fact, I did do it myself on my short stories. But finding the time is hard.
Then there's the control freak in me. I like things perfect. I know if I do my own FB page that I'll get everything exactly the way I want it. When I pay someone else to do it, there comes a point where I have to settle for good enough because of the costs associated. I hate settling. I want perfection. I can't help it.
July 17, 2011
Born In Fire
Last Sunday I talked about my first Nora Roberts' book, today, I'm going to talk about my favorite. Born In Fire.
Born In Fire is the la Nora book I reread the most. I just love this story. The heroine is a glass artist who has a tempestuous relationship with her mother. The hero is a delicious Irish art dealer who wants the heroine's work for his gallery. After he meets her, he wants her, period.
This book isn't fraught with action. It's much more about relationships and the characters, but I didn't miss the adventure. Maggie is a great heroine and definitely full of fire. Rogan is sexy and I can see him as a precursor to Roarke who is the hero in the JD Robb books. There are similarities, but Rogan is his own person.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the characters and how real they were. I honestly felt that if I hopped on a plane, flew to Ireland, and went to the town that I would actually find Maggie, Rogan, and the rest of the cast. This is three-dimensional characterization at its best. But even better? I wished these people were real because I would have loved to hang out with them. I have to settle for rereading the book over and over.
Born In Fire is the la Nora book I reread the most. I just love this story. The heroine is a glass artist who has a tempestuous relationship with her mother. The hero is a delicious Irish art dealer who wants the heroine's work for his gallery. After he meets her, he wants her, period.
This book isn't fraught with action. It's much more about relationships and the characters, but I didn't miss the adventure. Maggie is a great heroine and definitely full of fire. Rogan is sexy and I can see him as a precursor to Roarke who is the hero in the JD Robb books. There are similarities, but Rogan is his own person.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the characters and how real they were. I honestly felt that if I hopped on a plane, flew to Ireland, and went to the town that I would actually find Maggie, Rogan, and the rest of the cast. This is three-dimensional characterization at its best. But even better? I wished these people were real because I would have loved to hang out with them. I have to settle for rereading the book over and over.
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