Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 188
February 27, 2011
I Haz a Bug
Sorry, no blog today. I've been under the weather all weekend. I didn't even do any writing which puts me behind schedule on my proposal.
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
I hope to be back to normal by Tuesday.
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
I hope to be back to normal by Tuesday.
February 24, 2011
Better Be Precise
On Tuesday I blogged about this new voice that had come in and started talking to me. I figured out which world he belongs to and it is one I know about. I asked him if I knew his world and he said no. The thing is that he wasn't really lying--my question wasn't precise enough.
I asked if I knew his world and he's right, I don't know it. I have almost zero details about any piece of it. I should have asked something more along the lines of: do I have a wisp of a clue about the world in which your story will take place. Or something else convoluted and lawyer-like. Instead, I figured no was no.
This really shouldn't surprise me. I've had characters who've done this precision thing with my questions before. I don't know why they can't answer simple questions when they know what I'm asking. This is usually a hint that they're not going to be real cooperative to work with either.
Not that any of my heroes and heroines generally are. They always make my life miserable. And yet I still hope with every new set of characters that this time will be different. It never is.
So this character came in and what I heard him say was so dark that I wasn't sure if he was a hero or a villain. Then he gives me an answer that was not helpful to me because I didn't ask the question precisely right. Awesome. He's just going to be so much fun to work with. Sigh. Maybe it's a good thing that his story is a little way off yet. (I don't have enough information yet to even reach a percolation stage.)
I asked if I knew his world and he's right, I don't know it. I have almost zero details about any piece of it. I should have asked something more along the lines of: do I have a wisp of a clue about the world in which your story will take place. Or something else convoluted and lawyer-like. Instead, I figured no was no.
This really shouldn't surprise me. I've had characters who've done this precision thing with my questions before. I don't know why they can't answer simple questions when they know what I'm asking. This is usually a hint that they're not going to be real cooperative to work with either.
Not that any of my heroes and heroines generally are. They always make my life miserable. And yet I still hope with every new set of characters that this time will be different. It never is.
So this character came in and what I heard him say was so dark that I wasn't sure if he was a hero or a villain. Then he gives me an answer that was not helpful to me because I didn't ask the question precisely right. Awesome. He's just going to be so much fun to work with. Sigh. Maybe it's a good thing that his story is a little way off yet. (I don't have enough information yet to even reach a percolation stage.)
February 22, 2011
Always Room For One More
There I was, minding my own business on Sunday, when this voice starts talking to me. I know, I've probably scared the normal people, but writers do hear voices. It's okay. We're mostly harmless.
This happens fairly frequently, so I kind of have this mental checklist I run through. Who are you? What story do you belong to? So what world do you belong to? The last question comes in because usually they're from a new story and then I need to know which world they're part of. This character didn't have an answer for the world question either.
I started guessing, running through all the worlds I have for all the ideas I'm either working on or planning to work on. No to all of them. I sighed. Great, another new world when I have ideas backed up so far, I'm making lists to keep track of the ones I want to work on.
The voice was male, but what he said was pretty cynical, so it begged the question if this was a hero or a villain. He wasn't particularly helpful in answering this question either. I hate it when they aren't helpful. But I reached the conclusion he was a hero.
A really dark hero.
And once I figured that out, he went away! I needed him to leave because I'm finishing up another proposal and would like it done. I also have another idea for a short story that's waiting in the wings and I definitely want to get to it soon. But good grief, the least he could do was give me more information before pulling the vanishing act! I'm really curious about what's going on with him and what kind of world he lives in. It's so frustrating to be teased and then given nothing.
Sigh. I guess I wait and see if he comes back.
This happens fairly frequently, so I kind of have this mental checklist I run through. Who are you? What story do you belong to? So what world do you belong to? The last question comes in because usually they're from a new story and then I need to know which world they're part of. This character didn't have an answer for the world question either.
I started guessing, running through all the worlds I have for all the ideas I'm either working on or planning to work on. No to all of them. I sighed. Great, another new world when I have ideas backed up so far, I'm making lists to keep track of the ones I want to work on.
The voice was male, but what he said was pretty cynical, so it begged the question if this was a hero or a villain. He wasn't particularly helpful in answering this question either. I hate it when they aren't helpful. But I reached the conclusion he was a hero.
A really dark hero.
And once I figured that out, he went away! I needed him to leave because I'm finishing up another proposal and would like it done. I also have another idea for a short story that's waiting in the wings and I definitely want to get to it soon. But good grief, the least he could do was give me more information before pulling the vanishing act! I'm really curious about what's going on with him and what kind of world he lives in. It's so frustrating to be teased and then given nothing.
Sigh. I guess I wait and see if he comes back.
February 20, 2011
Adventures In Streaming
I've had bad luck trying to stream Netflix. My Wii does it really well, but it's in the basement and I have one lawn chair down there to sit on. Not exactly the most comfortable thing in the world. Since I want the Wii to stay in the basement, I bought a Roku player next. This was supposed to stream Netflix and a bunch of other stuff, but it stopped working in the middle of a movie and Roku support was a huge joke. But that's another story.
I've tried streaming on my laptop, but I didn't like that. I also researched Blu-Ray players, but my head started spinning and I gave up on that idea. My last ditch effort was to buy an HDMI cable.
I chose the 25 foot cable. Don't ask me why I did that because my TV is certainly not that far away from the laptop, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Last night, as I looked at the curling cable and the weight of it against the connection to the laptop, I thought, oy! Not the best idea ever.
But I'm jumping ahead slightly. So last night I decided it was a good time to use the HDMI cable and stream a movie. I found instructions online and it seemed easy enough. I plugged the cable into the TV and into the laptop and tried to switch the TV's input. Only the menu didn't have any options for this. I flipped through all the items, clicked and arrowed my way around, but nada. That means I need the instruction book for the television. I found it in the third place I looked. Not too bad.
Armed with the instructions, I found the input button on the remote. I clicked down to HDMI 1 and hit enter.
No signal.
Hmm. Maybe I need to do something with the laptop. The online site I found said something about toggling the laptop between its own display and the television.
This is where the fun began.
Sony didn't include an instruction manual with the Vaio, so I tried different key combinations. One of them put the laptop into sleep mode, although I didn't realize that was what had happened at first. Not knowing what happened meant I didn't know how to fix it. Hitting the same keys didn't help. Neither did the escape button. Finally, though, I figured out what had happened and brought the laptop back to life.
I tried setting up so that the sole display was the external monitor (TV). That was a scary place to be because the TV had no signal and now the laptop display is gone! Rebooting didn't bring it back up and I was sweating (and slightly panicked) until--somehow--I got the laptop screen working again.
I visited the Sony website, opened the PDF instruction book. It says to put the laptop into TV Configuration mode, but they didn't say how to do this. Searching the manual for this phrase netted me nothing.
For more than an hour, I tried to stream a movie. I was about to concede defeat and resign myself to never streaming Netflix, when I had a sudden thought. What if the plug-in on the TV wasn't HDMI 1?
This seemed like a long shot. After all, it was the top HDMI port, how could it not be 1? But maybe I accidentally slotted it in 2 and thought it was in 1. I clicked to 2.
Nothing.
I clicked to HDMI 3.
Nothing.
HDMI 4.
Nothing.
HDMI 5.
There was my laptop display! The Netflix site, the streaming instructions, Twitter! Woot! They'd numbered the ports backward (to my way of thinking) labeling the lowest HDMI port as 1 and the upper most port as 5. I could watch Netflix!
I didn't start my viewing with 2012. I picked some other movie in my queue whose name I've forgotten already. It involved dragons causing an apocalypse on Earth and had Christian Bale who is hot. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes into the movie, I knew I couldn't sit through it, not even for hot men. That's when I tried the 2012 movie, which was watchable, but was a science disaster from beginning to end.
There was only one problem with the streaming--my good laptop was tied up for the length of the movie. It's the only laptop I have that has an HDMI port.
I've tried streaming on my laptop, but I didn't like that. I also researched Blu-Ray players, but my head started spinning and I gave up on that idea. My last ditch effort was to buy an HDMI cable.
I chose the 25 foot cable. Don't ask me why I did that because my TV is certainly not that far away from the laptop, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Last night, as I looked at the curling cable and the weight of it against the connection to the laptop, I thought, oy! Not the best idea ever.
But I'm jumping ahead slightly. So last night I decided it was a good time to use the HDMI cable and stream a movie. I found instructions online and it seemed easy enough. I plugged the cable into the TV and into the laptop and tried to switch the TV's input. Only the menu didn't have any options for this. I flipped through all the items, clicked and arrowed my way around, but nada. That means I need the instruction book for the television. I found it in the third place I looked. Not too bad.
Armed with the instructions, I found the input button on the remote. I clicked down to HDMI 1 and hit enter.
No signal.
Hmm. Maybe I need to do something with the laptop. The online site I found said something about toggling the laptop between its own display and the television.
This is where the fun began.
Sony didn't include an instruction manual with the Vaio, so I tried different key combinations. One of them put the laptop into sleep mode, although I didn't realize that was what had happened at first. Not knowing what happened meant I didn't know how to fix it. Hitting the same keys didn't help. Neither did the escape button. Finally, though, I figured out what had happened and brought the laptop back to life.
I tried setting up so that the sole display was the external monitor (TV). That was a scary place to be because the TV had no signal and now the laptop display is gone! Rebooting didn't bring it back up and I was sweating (and slightly panicked) until--somehow--I got the laptop screen working again.
I visited the Sony website, opened the PDF instruction book. It says to put the laptop into TV Configuration mode, but they didn't say how to do this. Searching the manual for this phrase netted me nothing.
For more than an hour, I tried to stream a movie. I was about to concede defeat and resign myself to never streaming Netflix, when I had a sudden thought. What if the plug-in on the TV wasn't HDMI 1?
This seemed like a long shot. After all, it was the top HDMI port, how could it not be 1? But maybe I accidentally slotted it in 2 and thought it was in 1. I clicked to 2.
Nothing.
I clicked to HDMI 3.
Nothing.
HDMI 4.
Nothing.
HDMI 5.
There was my laptop display! The Netflix site, the streaming instructions, Twitter! Woot! They'd numbered the ports backward (to my way of thinking) labeling the lowest HDMI port as 1 and the upper most port as 5. I could watch Netflix!
I didn't start my viewing with 2012. I picked some other movie in my queue whose name I've forgotten already. It involved dragons causing an apocalypse on Earth and had Christian Bale who is hot. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes into the movie, I knew I couldn't sit through it, not even for hot men. That's when I tried the 2012 movie, which was watchable, but was a science disaster from beginning to end.
There was only one problem with the streaming--my good laptop was tied up for the length of the movie. It's the only laptop I have that has an HDMI port.
February 17, 2011
FAQ: Multi-Cultural Characters
FAQ: Have you written any multi-cultural characters?
Answer: Yes, I have! My view of the future is one where people being multi-cultural is ordinary and so I've written a number of characters with diverse backgrounds, especially in my future-set stories. In order from newest story to oldest:
-Bree Molina (Demon Kissed) Latina
Bree's a demon slayer. Her hero is a demon.
-Troll Maglaya (The Troll Bridge) Filipino, African-Caribbean, and European
Troll is multi, multi, multi cultural and what I listed are just the major parts of his heritage.
-Kimi Noguchi (Dark Awakening in Shards of Crimson) Japanese-American
Kimi is Mika's younger cousin.
-Mika Noguchi (Through a Crimson Veil) 1/2 Japanese-American
Mika is half demon and it was the demon/human part that was an issue in her story. She was fairly well adjusted, but her hero who was also half demon/half human had some major problems with being a demon and with falling for another demon. :-)
-Cai Randolph (The Power of Two) - 1/4 Vietnamese-American
Her ethnicity became a bit more of a story issue than I'd planned, but she's carrying around some guilt over things she said to her mother.
If I write more Jarved Nine stories, there will be more multi-cultural characters to add to the list. Gravedigger's heroine, Nadia, will be in the group, although I'm not 100% sure what her background is yet. She hasn't talked to me yet and neither has Gravedigger. I figure they will when it's time to write them.
Also in the J9 world is Z-Man. Zach is part Japanese-American and Hawaiian. He has talked to me a little, but I don't have a heroine for him yet. The character I thought was his heroine turned out not to be. I've got time on this because his story comes later in the sequence.
The stories, though, if I write them would fall like this: Ravyn's Flight, Eternal Nights, Sasha and Flare's book (unwritten), Gravedigger and Nadia's book (unwritten), Z-Man's story (unwritten), and The Troll Bridge. Yes, I wrote out of order, but since Troll's story is a time travel, I figured it would work out okay. And I do want to do the other three guys some day. The question is going to be when I can squeeze them in.
Answer: Yes, I have! My view of the future is one where people being multi-cultural is ordinary and so I've written a number of characters with diverse backgrounds, especially in my future-set stories. In order from newest story to oldest:
-Bree Molina (Demon Kissed) Latina
Bree's a demon slayer. Her hero is a demon.
-Troll Maglaya (The Troll Bridge) Filipino, African-Caribbean, and European
Troll is multi, multi, multi cultural and what I listed are just the major parts of his heritage.
-Kimi Noguchi (Dark Awakening in Shards of Crimson) Japanese-American
Kimi is Mika's younger cousin.
-Mika Noguchi (Through a Crimson Veil) 1/2 Japanese-American
Mika is half demon and it was the demon/human part that was an issue in her story. She was fairly well adjusted, but her hero who was also half demon/half human had some major problems with being a demon and with falling for another demon. :-)
-Cai Randolph (The Power of Two) - 1/4 Vietnamese-American
Her ethnicity became a bit more of a story issue than I'd planned, but she's carrying around some guilt over things she said to her mother.
If I write more Jarved Nine stories, there will be more multi-cultural characters to add to the list. Gravedigger's heroine, Nadia, will be in the group, although I'm not 100% sure what her background is yet. She hasn't talked to me yet and neither has Gravedigger. I figure they will when it's time to write them.
Also in the J9 world is Z-Man. Zach is part Japanese-American and Hawaiian. He has talked to me a little, but I don't have a heroine for him yet. The character I thought was his heroine turned out not to be. I've got time on this because his story comes later in the sequence.
The stories, though, if I write them would fall like this: Ravyn's Flight, Eternal Nights, Sasha and Flare's book (unwritten), Gravedigger and Nadia's book (unwritten), Z-Man's story (unwritten), and The Troll Bridge. Yes, I wrote out of order, but since Troll's story is a time travel, I figured it would work out okay. And I do want to do the other three guys some day. The question is going to be when I can squeeze them in.
February 15, 2011
Pantsing Versus Plotting
One thing I always find interesting is how often pantsers (those writers who fly into the mist without an outline) try to learn how to outline. When I was a teenager and first realized I wanted to write, I read how-to books--all of them written by plotters. I turned myself inside out trying to follow the process these plotters said was The Way. I ended up hating to write and I nearly quit. I finally decided I'd have to just do it my way or I wouldn't write at all. To this day 3x5 cards bring back nightmares.
But has anyone ever heard of a plotter who's set out to fly into the mist? (T, you didn't mean to become a pantser, so that doesn't count!)
I've heard of pantser after pantser tie themselves in knots trying to learn to be plotters, but I can't think of even one story of a plotter tying his or herself in knots to learn to be more seat of the pants. Why not?
There's nothing wrong with pantsing, and while I do like having some structure before I get too far with the story, I'd hate to sacrifice the surprises. I honestly heard a plotter say that her characters never surprise her, that they follow her outline 100% of the time, and that was about the saddest thing I think I've ever heard. Why write the story if there's no surprises? That's the best part. The OMG Moment!
Like when I was writing In the Darkest Night and I finally learned what bothered Kel so much about his time held captive. The OMG moment energized me and I couldn't write fast enough to see that scene play out when he told Farran about it.
No, I wouldn't sacrifice the OMG Moment for an awesome outline. It's just too much fun when it hits. Maybe some books don't have huge OMG Moments, but they all have them. It's one of my favorite things about writing.
But has anyone ever heard of a plotter who's set out to fly into the mist? (T, you didn't mean to become a pantser, so that doesn't count!)
I've heard of pantser after pantser tie themselves in knots trying to learn to be plotters, but I can't think of even one story of a plotter tying his or herself in knots to learn to be more seat of the pants. Why not?
There's nothing wrong with pantsing, and while I do like having some structure before I get too far with the story, I'd hate to sacrifice the surprises. I honestly heard a plotter say that her characters never surprise her, that they follow her outline 100% of the time, and that was about the saddest thing I think I've ever heard. Why write the story if there's no surprises? That's the best part. The OMG Moment!
Like when I was writing In the Darkest Night and I finally learned what bothered Kel so much about his time held captive. The OMG moment energized me and I couldn't write fast enough to see that scene play out when he told Farran about it.
No, I wouldn't sacrifice the OMG Moment for an awesome outline. It's just too much fun when it hits. Maybe some books don't have huge OMG Moments, but they all have them. It's one of my favorite things about writing.
February 14, 2011
Not Quite Undead
Come over and visit the Harlequin Paranormal Romance blog today! I'm a guest over there talking about how a Ghostly Vampire Gets a Happy Ending. I talk about Cass and Malachi--Malachi being the vampire who's not quite undead anymore--from Shadow's Caress.
February 13, 2011
It's Hard Work!
I was asked to guest blog for the Harlequin Paranormal Romance blog because Shadow's Caress was released from Bites on Feb 1st. (It's a fun story with fun characters and suspense! Check it out.) Of course I said yes! I love talking about my characters and their stories, but guest blogging is hard for me.
Theoretically, you wouldn't think guest blogging would be any harder than blogging here, right? It's not the case, at least not for me. Here, I just riff about whatever I feel like talking about, but when I guest blog, I need a topic and need to stay on topic. I tend to digress. Often.
Plus, on a guest blog, I'm trying extra hard to be interesting, and yet because I have to stay on topic, I often sound as if I were writing an academic paper rather than blogging. That's how stilted and formal my language ends up being. I ran into this same problem with this guest blog.
I had a topic--How to make a ghost sexy--and that's normally really hard to come up with, so I figured I was one ahead. I started making notes because let's face it, y'all know I was just writing down what the characters were saying, internal monologue as well as external dialogue. It's not a question I actually asked myself at any point while I was in Pre-Book or writing the story.
As I notebooked, though, I realized that I had put some thought into a few areas and I'd made decisions on how I was going to handle things. I decided to focus on that for the blog. Knowing I have a problem with formality in guest blogs, I decided to try writing it in ink on paper rather than using Word. Maybe that would avoid it.
Nope. I ended up with a boring academic treatise. I had another thought: What if I wrote it in an email? I tend to be really chatty in email unless I'm sending a note to my agent or an editor. Then my mind goes blank on chatty stuff and I'm overly businesslike. Anyway, it was worth a try, right? It worked! I got my chatty tone back and that's how I like to blog because I am chatting with y'all.
One small problem. I got a little too chatty and I hit 200+ words before reaching my topic. Um, yeah. Editing, cutting, and revising were necessary.
I'll post the link to the guest blog tomorrow--stop by then to check it out!
Theoretically, you wouldn't think guest blogging would be any harder than blogging here, right? It's not the case, at least not for me. Here, I just riff about whatever I feel like talking about, but when I guest blog, I need a topic and need to stay on topic. I tend to digress. Often.
Plus, on a guest blog, I'm trying extra hard to be interesting, and yet because I have to stay on topic, I often sound as if I were writing an academic paper rather than blogging. That's how stilted and formal my language ends up being. I ran into this same problem with this guest blog.
I had a topic--How to make a ghost sexy--and that's normally really hard to come up with, so I figured I was one ahead. I started making notes because let's face it, y'all know I was just writing down what the characters were saying, internal monologue as well as external dialogue. It's not a question I actually asked myself at any point while I was in Pre-Book or writing the story.
As I notebooked, though, I realized that I had put some thought into a few areas and I'd made decisions on how I was going to handle things. I decided to focus on that for the blog. Knowing I have a problem with formality in guest blogs, I decided to try writing it in ink on paper rather than using Word. Maybe that would avoid it.
Nope. I ended up with a boring academic treatise. I had another thought: What if I wrote it in an email? I tend to be really chatty in email unless I'm sending a note to my agent or an editor. Then my mind goes blank on chatty stuff and I'm overly businesslike. Anyway, it was worth a try, right? It worked! I got my chatty tone back and that's how I like to blog because I am chatting with y'all.
One small problem. I got a little too chatty and I hit 200+ words before reaching my topic. Um, yeah. Editing, cutting, and revising were necessary.
I'll post the link to the guest blog tomorrow--stop by then to check it out!
February 10, 2011
Writer's High
I'm working on a proposal right now that's been sheer fun. Even when the writing was hard, I was still having fun. And believe me, writing the synopsis for this was pure and utter misery. Maybe because I wanted to be working with the characters, not trying to sum up what might happen in the book.
This pleasure I'm finding is why I write and it's making me want to spend more and more of my time working on the story. I'm getting writer's high, which is like the best thing ever. :-) The thing that makes it so cool is that it's happening as I'm revising the first three chapters. Normally, I don't reach that place until I'm in the last hundred pages or so of the book. I'm just loving this story.
My desire to keep writing, though, is leading to a few problems, like mostly staying up too late at night working. Last night was another one of those. I was still making progress, still having fun, and although I knew I should go to bed, I didn't want to stop.
The problem part comes in the next day. I have trouble getting up for the Evil Day Job (EDJ), and the writing becomes harder when I'm really tired. Everything looks like crap then even if it's not.
But wow, even knowing this is going to be something I have to be careful of today, I wish I was writing right now. I had a logic flaw a friend pointed out--not a huge one, but enough to trip things up--and I hit the spot in revisions last night. This morning, I figured out how to fix it. I want to fix it now. The idea of having to wait is making me antsy.
BTW, if this blog is a little disjointed, blame it on my late night of writing. Please. :-)
So as soon as I can manage it, I will fix my flaw. It's going to require a tweak in chapter 2, which I thought I'd finished revising, and an even smaller tweak in chapter 3. Today needs to fly by at the EDJ. Please!
This pleasure I'm finding is why I write and it's making me want to spend more and more of my time working on the story. I'm getting writer's high, which is like the best thing ever. :-) The thing that makes it so cool is that it's happening as I'm revising the first three chapters. Normally, I don't reach that place until I'm in the last hundred pages or so of the book. I'm just loving this story.
My desire to keep writing, though, is leading to a few problems, like mostly staying up too late at night working. Last night was another one of those. I was still making progress, still having fun, and although I knew I should go to bed, I didn't want to stop.
The problem part comes in the next day. I have trouble getting up for the Evil Day Job (EDJ), and the writing becomes harder when I'm really tired. Everything looks like crap then even if it's not.
But wow, even knowing this is going to be something I have to be careful of today, I wish I was writing right now. I had a logic flaw a friend pointed out--not a huge one, but enough to trip things up--and I hit the spot in revisions last night. This morning, I figured out how to fix it. I want to fix it now. The idea of having to wait is making me antsy.
BTW, if this blog is a little disjointed, blame it on my late night of writing. Please. :-)
So as soon as I can manage it, I will fix my flaw. It's going to require a tweak in chapter 2, which I thought I'd finished revising, and an even smaller tweak in chapter 3. Today needs to fly by at the EDJ. Please!
February 8, 2011
Hughie Award Nominee!
In the Darkest Night is a Hughie Award nominee for Best Unique Paranormal! Also in my category are Christine Feehan and Emma Holly, both writers I read and love, so I am in very awesome company!
There are a lot of awards out there, but being mentioned for a Hughie Award is really cool because it comes from readers. When I say it's an honor just to be nominated, I mean it. Truly, it is an honor to be nominated especially when I look at the other two authors in my category. Talk about a whoa moment. :-) So thank you to the ReBeLs!
I've been lucky to be able to write more than one book of my heart. In the Darkest Night is the third that falls into this category for me. Kel, the hero, was broken and he's withdrawn from the world and that includes his family. I knew as soon as he showed up while I was writing his brother's story that Kel would have a book. He fascinated me, and while I knew pretty early on that he'd been tortured, I didn't know why or what, exactly, had happened. I wanted to find out.
I saw comments online from a couple of readers who said matching Kel up with Farran was predictable, but I guess I'm slow because I didn't know who his heroine was. I think I still have the email I sent to one of my writing buddies telling her that I'd just learned it was Kel and Farran and expressing my shock.
In every book, one character changes more than the other and I call it their book. This one belonged to Kel. Yes, Farran changed and grew, too, but Kel did the heavy duty changing. He needed to.
There were actually a lot of surprises for me with Darkest Night. First surprise was who his heroine was. The other big shock was what--specifically--about his time held captive caused him the biggest problem. I think I learned this big secret a couple of scenes before I had to write the part where he reveals it to Farran. The rest of the surprises were smaller, things like Kel being afraid of the dark or being branded, but they interested me nearly as much as the big ones.
Anyway, I loved this h/h and writing their story was an intense experience for me. Receiving this nomination means a lot. Thanks!
There are a lot of awards out there, but being mentioned for a Hughie Award is really cool because it comes from readers. When I say it's an honor just to be nominated, I mean it. Truly, it is an honor to be nominated especially when I look at the other two authors in my category. Talk about a whoa moment. :-) So thank you to the ReBeLs!
I've been lucky to be able to write more than one book of my heart. In the Darkest Night is the third that falls into this category for me. Kel, the hero, was broken and he's withdrawn from the world and that includes his family. I knew as soon as he showed up while I was writing his brother's story that Kel would have a book. He fascinated me, and while I knew pretty early on that he'd been tortured, I didn't know why or what, exactly, had happened. I wanted to find out.
I saw comments online from a couple of readers who said matching Kel up with Farran was predictable, but I guess I'm slow because I didn't know who his heroine was. I think I still have the email I sent to one of my writing buddies telling her that I'd just learned it was Kel and Farran and expressing my shock.
In every book, one character changes more than the other and I call it their book. This one belonged to Kel. Yes, Farran changed and grew, too, but Kel did the heavy duty changing. He needed to.
There were actually a lot of surprises for me with Darkest Night. First surprise was who his heroine was. The other big shock was what--specifically--about his time held captive caused him the biggest problem. I think I learned this big secret a couple of scenes before I had to write the part where he reveals it to Farran. The rest of the surprises were smaller, things like Kel being afraid of the dark or being branded, but they interested me nearly as much as the big ones.
Anyway, I loved this h/h and writing their story was an intense experience for me. Receiving this nomination means a lot. Thanks!
