Vanessa Jaye's Blog, page 2

Best Wishes for the Holidays

This year has been quite the rollercoaster ride with some of the lowest/darkest moments of my life. But in the end, as the year draws to a close and on the eve of this very special holiday, and I can say that what I’m left with is mostly a feeling of being blessed by the opportunities granted, a sense of inner growth,  gratitude, yes, for the material things achieved and held on to, and an abiding quiet joy in the knowledge that there are some truly special people in my life who love me very much.  And a general sense that in the end I laughed more than cried.And so I wish the same for everyone who may see this post, that they too will feel blessed, loved, joy and gratitude on this Christmas Eve and many days of laughter in the coming year.    

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, Everyone! Love,
 Jaye

Son's Bellyachin' and Hurtin' songs

Meanwhile at Casa Jaye this morning....

I changed the channel from the all news station to a country music video show, and son looks up from his laptop and starts bellyaching.

Son--  "Ma! What is this? I think I'm gonna be sick." He waves to TV where  Rascal Flatts video is on. ::2 teenagers are in cab of truck sharing an amazingly sweet moment::  "Why are you watching this?"

Me-- "What? It's fun. I like to see what's going on. Expand my horizons beyond the usual top 40 playing on radio or what I have on my eye-pod."

Son-- "But they're always about this stuff."

He waves to TV again where girl is kneeling over toilet and holding her stomach crying. Then girl runs out of house and races down the road after boy's truck. We get a sort of flashback of truck flipping over and boy's head cracking windshield. Now girl is slowing down and then she drops to her knees at roadside cross.

Me -- "See? There's always a story to tell." I put on a heavy twang: "They're hurtin' song."

Son-- "Well, Brian McKnight [Back At One] did it better."

Me -- "How about that one video, you saw?" And I describe Kenny Chestney's There Goes My Life.

Son -- "Oh man, that one *was* so good." He makes a face and shakes his fist. "Arggh! I don't want to feel that way! All I want to feel is anger, and the avarice and misogyny encouraged by the gangster rappers. I don't want to feel all this sentimental crap!"

Me -- lmao!

He leaves the room, and soon I hear him singing Folsom Prison Blues  #lol.

Generation Gap

Interesting generational thing. I grew up with TV. It was the babysitter and source of excitement. The radio too, but as I shared more of my personal space with family/significant others, the radio/stereo was only on at specific times/situations. But you could always have the tv on as mindless white noise in the background, if nothing else, but something would always end up catching your attention.

My son on the other hand does all his time wasting watching shows, movies, videos, etc, online. He pretty much never has the tv on if he's home alone unless watching he's something specific. In fact he'll ask me to turn the tv off if I'm leaving the room for an extended time (ie to take a shower, etc). Meanwhile I'm guilty of having the tv on while on the computer.

Now we have marathon binge programing--where the network will air a whole season in one weekend or week, streaming services like Netflix, and interactive shows -- like The Talking Dead, where peeps vote online at home, etc.
Interesting times...

Buzzed-off

After yesterday's 10hr sleep-a-thon/end of week exhaustion cash, my day started off great.

Woke up early--cleaned the bathroom, kitchen, washed/deep-conditioned my hair, and did a facial, and started the Bolognese sauce for dinner, all before 9:30am. I had just sat down in font of the computer when I hear some commotion upstairs. Son says there's a wasp in his room.
So I go up, and he's not sure if he got it or not (it's behind the blinds). He also mentions that he killed a wasp in the bathroom earlier in the week and found a dead wasp in his room that same day. All the windows have been shut for the past week because of the temperature dip, and even if they weren't, we have window screens.
Also, kid likes to keep his room door closed (saves my blood-pressure when I don't see the mess) So really don't know how they're getting into his room. So far this morning we've killed(Raid) 4 -5 wasps in his room. I went outside and it *looks* like there are a couple flying around the eavestrough just above his window, but that still doesn't explain how're their getting in.
I've called 3 places so far--either left a message or someone will get back to me. So far no call back and my focus is shot all to hell. *grrr*

Celebrate 10 yrs of Writing with Melissa Blue's Giveaway extravaganza

My fellow Southern Fried Chica' blog-mate, Melissa Blue aka Sofia Harper is celebrating 10 years of writing! And she's holding a 1 week extravaganza of give-aways from a great group of authors-- Sept 7 to Sept 13th. Check it out:




href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/XACZ/~3/JnPydDqqpo4/writing-chica-melissa-blue.htmlhttp://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/a06a00c81/"
rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway

100 in 100

Quick post here before I dash off to work.Work has been Very Demanding.  Last week was all 10-12hr days because I was covering for someone on vacation as well as doing my own work. Prior to that, I had been helping various peeps here and there because they were overwhelmed due to others being on vacation, and I was probably working 9-10hrs per day while dealing with a pesky summer cold.

Anywho, not much writing was happening. Even when I had a small window of time I just wanted to give my brain a rest. But resting isn’t going to get this book written!  So I decided on a new mandate: 100 words a day for 100 days.   Hopefully at some point before the hundred days are up, I’ll be writing well more than 100 words a day, and of course I’ll keep writing beyond the 100 days to get this damn book done.  At some point I’ll take the temperature of the book and get a better idea of how long it’s going to be and how much I have to write per day to get it done by a certain date.
Stay tuned….

OPO, BBO and everything in between

The problem with OPO (Other People's Odors) is that you always think for that split second that it's you. :P 

And no matter how much logic tells you it's *not* you, there's always that 0.01% niggling doubt in the back of your mind.

You could've brushed, flossed, then gargled with unicorn joy juice and chewed on a sprig of mint hand-picked by fairies in the Elysian fields, before you left the house, but just you come within a whiff of some peep with breath bad enough to knock a buzzard off his feed. For a split second you think (after holy mother of god wtf?!?):  Could it...? Naw. but... what if?...could it possibly...Be..Me?!!?  *surreptitiously cups hand over mouth. Breath out. Inhale. Twice.* Nope. Not me. But...  *eats 3 sticks of gum* just in case.

 Ditto for the SUS (stranger underarm stench). Cross paths with a fetor farmer on some humid summer day and you kinda do this move where you turn your head to the side, chin to shoulder, eyes demurely downcast, then take an experimental sniff of your own pit. Nope. Not you.  *phew*. Which you already knew already!!!  ::whispers::--> but you had to be sure. You know. Just in case...

I stopped in a clothing store today on my way to grocers. Just becoz, okay!? Just becoz. Things happen. Universe keeps turning. whatevs. Anywho... I decided to try on this really cute skirt. Went into the change room, lifted the hem of my dress to step into the skirt when....., erm.... how shall I put this delicately?  TUNA!! SALMON!!! 2 day old Trout!! Shrimp and mayonnaise left out in the sun!!  What da hell?!  Not me, though!!! NOT. ME. ugh. But for a brief minute I did want to assume some double-jointed-leg-behind-the ear-sniff-the-yoni-pass-the-Summer'sEve yoga-type pose.

Just to be sure.... lol.

Becoz, that was some classic BBO ish right there and then! (watch the video. lol)



 

That voice

Just had a weird erotic moment where a commercial came on with Sam Elliot doing the voice-over, while Michael McDonald was cooning on the iPod and I had just came across a picture of Benedict Cummerbatch on Pinterest, which immediately made me think of his voice. Holy Smokes. Imagination into overdrive.


*brain & panty-meltdown in 5,4,3,2...*

All I needed was for Vin Diesl to call and leave a voice message at that percise moment for me to stroke out due to intensive aural orgasm. (there is too such a thing!)


*pantpantpant*


So what male voice really does it for you?

My dragons be draggin'

My dragons be draggin’

Verdict on the post title? #lame. lol. Whatevs

So some writing updates for ya, I'm kinda stuck on whether to do a prologue or not with the dragon book. At this point the single scene prologue is turning into a multi-scene/pov 1st chapter that takes place years before the main/current story action. I think this stuff is needed and won't work as flash-back, but maybe that's becuase I'm in the thick of writing it. I may change my mind when I finished the manuscript and decide it's all backstory, or my crit partners/beta-readers may say keep it.

One thing fun thing about this book are some of the names: Balthazar, Vesper, Archimedes. It's a contemporary/alternative world, where dragons, fae, and shapeshifters exist out in the open with humans but be because some of these creatures are ancient, the old-fashioned/archaic names are perfect. :)

I’m going to nip out the gym for a bit and think about the scene I’m stuck on at the moment. If I don’t come up with a solution by the time I get back, I’ll either skip over it and come back later to write the details, or it may become clear that I’m stuck because I’m going in the wrong direction with the scene/story. We’ll see.

Lastly, I know some readers hate when authors refer to certain actor/model as the basis (in looks at least) for their heroes/heroines, but Imma gonna do it anyhow. Lol

Jason Momoa is just about perfect for my dissipated, brooding and almost feral Dragon King, Balthazar,


and Charlize Theron is great as the beautiful, cool as ice but vengeful, Vesper Goode, daughter of the assassinated Grand Wizard of the Greater Toronto Area and his lovely fae wife.

  To be honest, no photograph of any model/actor has ever been exactly as I envision my hero/heroine, but these two come pretty close and serve as visual inspirations. ;)

 pps – I also need to get cracking on Jack Frost’s book so I can have it out in time for Xmas. The Werewolf who Stole Christmas is still getting steady interest and I feel pretty confident peeps who liked that story would check out Jack’s (who is a secondary character in TWWSC)

ppps – It feels good to be posting on my blog again. :D
Later gators.

Old Home Week in My Reading

Series are really big right now. Many readers love them to bits—they’ve invested time, emotion and dollars, and want to revisit the world/setting and cast of characters that the author created.

I’m not really one of those readers. lol.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate series, especially when it comes to TV shows or movies. Then I get just as invested in the cast interaction and growth, and overall story arc as the next fan.

But with books? Not so much. I’m more interested in *this* particular story and what’s at stake for *this* particular hero and heroine.  If it’s a trilogy or series, I can/will get invested in the over-all world-building/setting but my main thing is the main story/romance.  Even then, I rarely stick around beyond book 4 or 5 (if I even get that far) in a series. *shrug*

I accept I’m in the minority this with. Fine, I can deal.  But I’ve come up against something in my reading lately, with certain series that are made up of stand-alone books. What I call Old Home Reunion books.  There are a several authors I’ll buy at full price. They’re worth it. They write well and I like the character types and tropes they use. They also write series, but in a way that you don’t have to read every book (and read them in sequence). It’s more about a familiar world and/or a group of characters. The problem is that for a few of these authors, their writing has become bloated, for want of a better word.  With their recent releases, the story focuses on the current couple for maybe 50% of the book. The rest of the book is stuffed with scenes where ALL the heroes/heroines from the previous 3-7 books show up.
And it kinda feels like this picture. Who is primary couple here? Everyone's vying for attention Usually there’s some justification for them ALL being there: the scene takes place at mutual workplace, an annual fair, or popular hangout (ie bar/club) or someone’s wedding, etc.  Sometimes, though, that justification is paper thin.  The heroes all own a business together? Makes sense you’ll have work scenes with all of them present. It’s the work scenes where you have all of them at work and then the previous heroines show up for an impromptu visit complete with the twins of one couple—and descriptions of how cute/rascally the twins are and what a marshmallow the previous alpha-hero from book 2 is for his kids, etc., while the other heroine, from book 4) is pregnant and what a blessing it was because the couple had trouble conceiving, but they don’t want to find out the sex of the baby, they want it to be a surprise—which is causing the heroine some problems in how to decorate the nursery and…. Where was I?  Exactly! What happens to the plot development between the current hero and heroine while we enjoy (endure) these multiple catch up scenes?

And trust me, these scene do come in multiples. Then author compounds this by throwing in some rampant sequel baiting scenes, and pov scenes between one of the previous couples—including detailed sexxoring—and… where the heck did my romance go? You know the one in the blurb? The one I paid for and was looking forward to reading?

I just read a book that had all the above crap plus two subplots—a subplot to the main romance which included scenes in the pov of the heroine’s ex-boyfriend, and a subplot of the main series arc, which included the pov of the arc villain. Then to make matters worse(!!) we get an epilogue that focuses on one of the previous couples talking about the current couple, *side-eye* before a fade-to-black love scene, followed by more sequel baiting/set-up of the next book from the villain’s pov.  This is the worse Old Home Week read I’ve come across, but I’m coming across too many for my reading enjoyment.Of course authors want to please as significant a sector of their readership as possible,  so absolutely revisit previous couples if it’s going to make the fans go crazy, but please balance that with *primary* needs of the current couple. Don’t sell them, and their story/romance, short.  

I’ve got a litmus test. Not fool-proof, but I think it can pinpoint whether or these types of scenes are superfluous.  Assuming that the big ‘reunion/gathering’ scenes are not just an excuse to catch up on the previous couples but are relevant to the grow in plot, conflict, and character of the current *story*:  If you were to switch all the pervious heroes/heroines with new secondary/tertiary characters, would their presence in the scene still be warranted? Is their dialogue needed? Is there a reason to even note that their presence/demeanor?

Yes? Then you’ve got a strong scene that contributes, enhances and advances your *current* story (or hints at the set-up of the next book without distracting from this one).No? Then what you’ve got there, my friend, is the literary equivalent of Old Home Week.  You’ve got the tail (the readership) wagging the dog (*your* story). 

Please your readers but do justice to the relationship of your current couple and their story foremost.