Devorah Fox's Blog, page 47

Phling away the last vestiges of winter

Seems like only yesterday we were griping about how cold it was in Port Aransas and now Spring Break 2013 is just around the corner.
Kids on vacation from school will be flocking to our beaches March 9th through the 17th. Temporary signal lights will be set up on the Island Road to control traffic and the intersection of Park Road 22 and Highway 361 will be a snarl. Local law enforcement will be beefing up their forces, doing their best to keep driving on the beach orderly and rowdiness and public intoxication under control. The beach will be lined end to end with pickup trucks, canopies, boom boxes, and scantily-clad sunbathers working on third degree burns. It’ll be madness, but it’s been an annual rite for decades.

The Parrot Heads of Port Aransas are also making a Spring Break celebration an annual rite. Its inaugural Spring Phling having been such a success last year, the club is putting on Spring Phling 2013 on March 9. Spring Phling is “Spring Break for the rest of us.” Definitely a notch or two below the mania that Spring Break sometimes seems to be, the PHOPA Spring Phling nevertheless offers plenty of food, drink, games, partying and music, an all-around good time.

The Phling will be held in the pavilion at Roberts Point Park from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. with the popular PA Rockers playing from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 each in advance until March 2, 2013, and there’s a limit of 300. After March 2, if any tickets remain unsold, Spring Phlingers can pay $15 at the door.

The Parrot Head Club of Port Aransas is one of 200-plus clubs in Parrot Heads In Paradise, Inc. “Parrot Heads” are fans of the singer/songwriter/author Jimmy Buffett and the tropical lifestyle.

As is always the case with the Parrot Head club, the party has a serious side. The Parrot Head club’s motto is “party with a purpose.” Spring Phling will be a fundraiser for the Animal Friends of Port Aransas. The AFPA provides care and humane treatment for shelter animals and promotes finding permanent homes for them. I recently adopted a kitten from AFPA’s beneficiary, the Port Aransas Animal Shelter, and he is darling. Credit goes to the volunteers who put so much time and effort into taking care of and socializing the shelter animals. The funds raised by Spring Phling will help defray the cost of spay, neuter and vet services.

Phlingers will have lots of fun opportunities to help the PHOPA’s fundraising goals. There will be raffles, a silent auction, a boutique, a 50/50 raffle and Limbo (start stretching those quadriceps now!) There will also be a dance contest with prizes. Couples may enter the contest for $5.

To help Phlingers keep up their strength, the club will be offering plenty of food: Chips with homemade salsa, Frito pies and brisket sliders are on the menu. The brisket is being smoked by none other than Bob Pettit of Beaches Restaurant fame.

To wash that down, there will be soft drinks for sale. Phlingers are welcome to bring their own alcoholic beverages.

For more information, visit the group’s Web site at www.portaransasparrotheads.com or follow the group on Facebook and Twitter. Tickets are available at Gratitude and Fish on the Line and you can send an email to the club president, Luann Ferguson, at luann@portaransasparrotheads.com. Or, just show up at the Spring Phling. I’ll see you there. — http://devorahfox.com

Texas Island Style

Where can you

stay awhile at the Hotel Ritz in New Orleans
experience a time lapse trip along the Oregon Trail
spend a day in a one-room rural school house
experience a night with timid inter-galactic visitors
enjoy a beach camp-out followed by a day at the circus

all tied together by poetic interludes?
The answer is: in the newly released, Texas Island Style.

This anthology of short stories, poems and even songs was compiled by members of the Port A Pens writing group and the youth writer members of the Port A Pencils. This imaginative group of people not only wrote everything in the anthology, they also edited and published the book, even created the cover. Richard Mueller, Ruby Peru Stell and Gary James Moeller get credit for the compilation.

The book’s official “launch” is being marked with readings, music and munchies at a Book Release Jubilee, Sunday, Feb. 24 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Third Coast Music at 502 E Avenue G in Port Aransas. Contributors to the anthology will read stories and poems, and yours truly will read a selection from The Lost King. The public is invited to what promises to be a lively party. I’ll see you there.

To market, to market

The Lost King is going to market. Saturday, Feb. 23, The Lost King will be sharing a booth at the Island Moon Market. The market is held the fourth Saturday of the month at the sea wall near the Holiday Inn on North Padre Island from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Jan Dineen of Island Made Art will be there selling her handmade Island-themed art, crafts and decor items and invited King Bewilliam and I to join her. It’ll be our first Island Moon Market. There are over 30 vendors signed up and the weather is forecast to be great so come check it out.

Talking about books

I’ll be talking about books—I mean really talking—Monday, Feb. 18, from 7 p.m. CST until we run out of questions and answers. I’m the featured guest on ReaderRadio. 
I’ll be talking about the experience of writing and publishing The Lost King but also about my nonfiction writing and the whole crazy business of wordmongering in general.
The program includes current news and events that affect readers and an exploration of technologies within the reading, writing and publishing fields, as well as book reviews. We’ll also be holding a book giveaway so be sure to enter for a chance to win.

Comfort food

Are you watching Downton Abbey, that PBS show about an upper crust British family and the servants and staff who help run the gorgeous mansion? I get such a kick out of the meal scenes…more

Free! Yes, free!

[image error] As a Valentines Day gift to readers everywhere, on Feb. 14, 2013, Samantha LaFantasie is offering  her book Heart Song for free on Kindle.

We have a winner!

Actually, that’s WINNERS plural since there were two winners for The Lost King in the big Addicted to Heroines Blog Tour giveaway and one winner in the Name Your Dragon sweepstakes. Thanks to all who entered. Winners will receive an email notification. Enjoy your prize!

Character Goals: Why they have to change

Welcome to Day Seven of the Addicted to Heroines Blog Tour.
Today we’re delighted to share with you a guest post by author Samantha LaFantasie, who has some cogent remarks about what makes fictional characters, and maybe even real people, do what they do. Samantha writes:

Imagine, if you will, a story where the protagonist has only one goal in mind. It can be any goal. Your goal, perhaps…it really makes no difference how big or small that goal is.

Now imagine that this goal never changes. No matter what, it remains the same.

Would you find this story a bit dull? Would you think the character was cardboard and not 3-D? What other issues with the character would you have?

First off, you would want the protagonist of any story to be relatable. For that to happen, they need to change. When a person changes in everyday life, so do their goals. Whether that main goal has become a minor goal or shifted to a completely different goal altogether, it still changed. It’s forever altered by the experience of you or the character and the environment you or the character is placed in.

That is a short and sweet way of explaining why character goals have to change. Especially if authors want the story to have any impact or keep their readers interested and invested in their characters.

Take Heart Song for instance: Relena’s goal at the very beginning of the story was escape. She wanted to escape the Balai, the town, her father, and even her life as she knew it.

When Marren came, she felt her desires and goals change. Suddenly, they involved him. And when they crossed into the immortal realm, it became freeing the immortal races, and so on and so forth.

Relena’s goals changed repetitively throughout the story. They changed as she changed. She changed as she experienced her environment and events around her.

Now, imagine what her story would be like if she only wanted to continue running away? Although it could be an interesting concept to write up now that her story is told, but I’m thinking it wouldn’t be much of a story at all. Not to mention, I don’t think anyone would be interested in reading it.

Readers want to see character motivation, growth, and most of all, they want relatable. In order to do that, characters have to change and that means so do their goals.

Check out other posts in our Guest Post Round Robin, like

this one from Alesha Escobar on the weaponization of heroines on  Cecelia Robert’s blog ,
or this interview with Francene Stanley on Samantha LaFantasies’s blog
and mine, “The Thick Plottens” on Alesha Escobar’s blog

Name Your Dragon

The authors of the Addicted to Heroines Blog Tour are conducting contests and sweepstakes.
“Name Your Dragon” is one way to enter the sweepstakes sponsored by The Lost King. You could win a $25 amazon.com gift certificate. Follow the link for all the instructions and all the chances to enter the Name Your Dragon sweepstakes. It’s free to enter this sweepstakes which is void where prohibited.

As always, comments to this blog are subject to review by the administrator and once published are public. There are other ways to enter The Lost King Name Your Dragon sweepstakes besides leaving a blog comment. Follow the link for details and terms and conditions.

If you tried to enter before and found the link was broken, please try again with this new link. If you try to enter and have difficulties, please let me know by leaving a comment. Thanks!

Then follow these links to enter other events on the Tour:

Addicted to Heroines Blog Tour Giveaway http://bit.ly/WIShCX
Samantha LaFantasie’s Favorite Heroine contest https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.589129871101430.147157.196389220375499&type=1&comment_id=7425395&notif_t=photo_album_comment

 

Does history matter?

Today on the Addicted to Heroines Blog Tour we’re joining author Alesha Escobar in a discussion about her book, The Tower’s Alchemist. Alesha asks,

Do you want to know what pieces of real history I used and what’s fantasy?

If you do, join the discussion.

I got nervous about changing history in The Lost King so I ended up doing a ton of research but maybe strict historical accuracy isn’t all that important in a fantasy novel. What do you think?