Nicole Zoltack's Blog, page 36

Emotion Flash Fiction - I'm Hearing Voices! Character Blogfest

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Emotion Flash Fiction : Emotion is the engine of a story. Pick an emotion and in a flash fiction piece of 250 words MAKE us feel it! We want to connect with your character. This will be a challenge in 250 words.

The moon hung heavy in the sky with an ethereal glow. My heels clacked on the sidewalk. A few more twists and turns and I would be home.

"Excuse me, miss."

The deep voice startled me, and I whirled around.

A tall man gave me a broad smile, the moonlight glittering off his perfect white teeth. "I think you dropped this." He held his hand out.

Frowning, I stepped back. "I didn't drop anything." A sudden wind picked up, and I clenched my jacket closed, my other hand reaching into my purse for the only weapon I had—my keys. I rushed away.

Footsteps followed behind me, and I quickened my pace. So did he, and soon I was all out running. I glanced behind me. He was gaining on me, his dark clothes flapping in the wind like a cloak.

A crack in the sidewalk caused one of my heels to break, and I fell. My purse contents scattered. I grabbed my wallet when the man stepped forward, his right foot on my keys.

I slowly stood. "What do you want from me?" I asked, furious that my voice shook.

"I think you dropped this," he repeated.

I glared at him. "What did I drop?"

He opened his mouth wide. "Your guard."

A long arm snaked around me. I loosed a scream and struggled against him but was no match for his brute strength. His glittery teeth were the last things I saw. No, not teeth. Fangs.

Dialogue Introduction - I'm Hearing Voices! Character Blogfest

Dialogue Introduction : Have two characters introduce each other using only dialogue—no backstory, no internalization, just dialogue between the two. Max 250 words.

Crystal and Vince from Crystal's Magic:

"Vince and I have been friends for a long, long time.""Yep, although she used to drive me nuts. Vince, do this, Vince do that.""When did I ever say that?""When we played house.""Really? I don't remember that.""Trust me, Crystal, ya did. It was humiliating.""Then why did you play with me?""I don't know. Anyhow, you're right, we've always been friends.""Well, not always.""You're gonna bring that up?""You're right, I shouldn't.""You might as well now!""Sorry, Vince. But yeah, after your brother died, you kinda withdrew.""Not just from you.""I know. From everyone. Including God.""How can you believe in him when he allows such horrible things to happen to good people?""Your brother's in a better place now.""Better place? There's no such thing as Heaven, Crystal. We only have one life to live and then it's done. Game over. There are no do overs.""Of course there's a Heaven!""Wonderful, Crystal. I knew you couldn't do it.""Do what?""Not bring up God and try to shove your religious crude on me.""Vince, I haven't asked you to come with me to church in years. How is that shoving my religious crude on you?""Yeah, well…""Look, if I bake some brownies for you, will that make you happy?""I guess so.""Good.""You know…I do like to think that he isn't in pain.""One day you will see him again.""Yeah, ok. I'm ready for brownies now.""Oh, Vince."

Weekly Progress Report - Slowing Down

I did end up finishing Two Princesses, One Prince, and a Dragon last week. Ever since, I haven't written much. I tweaked one of my PBs and sent it to my PB crit group and already received feedback and am thinking of how to edit it some more. Other than that, I haven't done any writing.



I've already edited a story for my editing job. Even so, I'm slowing down and not working as hard as I was before. I am beta reading a story for a friend and editing some short stories for MuseItUp. Oh, and I finished scoring the entries for the contest I'm a judge for and submitted them.



Less than two weeks until my due date and I can honestly say I'm ready. Once baby #3 is born, I plan on taking a break from writing and editing for a month. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll take a break from blogging too. It's gonna feel weird to unplug from the writing/editing world, even if it is only for a month but I'll need it to recover and it's a great chance to get caught up on some reading.



How goes your writing? Your reading? Seen any good movies lately? What have you been up to?



Check out some other great progress reports this week:



http://www.writersally.blogspot.com/

http://jc-martin.com/fighterwriter/

http://waibelworld.blogspot.com

http://susanfieldswriter.blogspot.com

http://skmayhew.blogspot.com/p/tuesday-wip-status.html

http://margoberendsen.blogspot.com

http://www.sherryauger.blogspot.com

http://www.susanoloier.blogspot.com

http://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/

http://lynneawest.blogspot.com 

Creature of the Week- Gremlin

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Gremlins are mischievous creatures, similar to imps. They like to cause havoc and mayhem for no other reason than because they can.



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In more modern times, gremlins are said to be more mechanically oriented creatures. They are said to have haunted and sabotaged aircraft during World War II. A 1942 article in the Royal Air Force Journal mentions gremlins as the cause of accidents that occured during flights. One Air Force crewman swore he saw creatures tinkering with the engine  before a malfunction caused the bomber to lose altitude rapidly, forcing it to return to base.

Guest Blog with Christine Fonseca - The Act of Being Fearless

The Act of Being Fearless

"Creative people, as I see them, are distinguished by the fact that they can live with anxiety, even though a high price may be paid in terms of insecurity, sensitivity, and defenselessness for the gift of the "divine madness" to borrow a term used by the classical Greeks. They do not run away from non-being, but by encountering and wrestling with it, force it to produce being. They knock on silence for an answering music; they pursue meaningless until they can force it to mean."~Rollo May, COURAGE TO CREATE (Ch 4, page 93)



I thought I'd talk about the act of writing fearlessly. When I was planning out this blog tour, I reached out to my closest writerly friends and asked them what I should talk about. Every one of them said I should talk about writing the dark stuff. When I asked for a little more explanation from one of my friends, she said that she felt like I was willing to "go there" in my stories and should write about that.

Hmm, "go there". Yea, I really had no idea what that meant. I just wrote the story that wanted to be written. Nothing more.

And then I started to think about it—really think about it. Think about the process of writing, about why I am willing to "go there" as she mentioned. Think about the ways I torture my characters, forcing them—and myself—to look at the harder, darker sides of humanity. And it clicked…

It's about having the courage to create.

Back in college, I took a lot of philosophy classes. One of them focused on two particular writers, the existential philosopher Paul Tillich, and the existential psychologist Rollo May. Tillich wrote a profound book called the Courage to Be. His student, May, rewrote the same ideals in his Courage to Create, from which the above quote was taken. Both books resonated with me as they explored what it was to face death—not physical death, but the death of stagnant ideas. The death of old ideas. The death of what is most comfortable, in search of what is most true.

Creation.

As writers, we must have courage if we are going to write the story that is meant to be written. Not the story we are being "told" to write, not the story we think will sell—but the story we are meant to write. May believed that creativity came directly from the struggle between death and our push against it. I think that is most certainly true.

But how do we muster up the courage to face down our own death, if you will, and write the story begging to be written? How do we embrace our fear and do what we must?

For me, the answer lies in the act of writing itself. Writing through my conflict, my fear, my tension—it is in that moment that the creative process occurs. Within the limits I inflict on myself is where I find my inspiration and the drive to continue through a difficult project.

When I was writing DIES IRAE , there were many moments of struggle; many times when I wasn't certain I was telling the right story. Countless times when I struggled because of my fear that it wasn't good enough, that the readers will hate it. I didn't have time to wallow with my fear, though. My deadlines were coming fast and I had to get the story written, fear or not. And it was through that angst and struggle, that I found the voice of the story. My creativity sparked to life and I was able to forge something special, something unique. True, readers may not find it as special. But, for me, I had accomplished what I set out to do.

So, the next time you find yourself looking for excuses not to write, wanting to scream or throw your laptop because the words won't come. Stop. Take a breath. And write. Anything. This is the moment of creation. The tension and anxiety, the struggle—that is what will engage your creative mind and bring you to new heights within your writing.

Don't be satisfied with the mundane or "tried and true".

Be daring. Be bold. Embrace chaos, death, anxiety…

And GO THERE!

I leave you with one last quote from Rollo May and The Courage to Create:

"Artists are generally soft-spoken persons who are concerned with their inner visions and images. But that is precisely what makes them feared by any coercive society. For they are the bearers of the human being's age old capacity to be insurgent. They love to immerse themselves in chaos in order to put it into form, just as God created form out of chaos in Genesis. Forever unsatisfied with the mundane, the apathetic, the conventional, they always push on to newer worlds."~Rollo May, Courage to Create, page 32 --- About Christine FonsecaSchool psychologist by day, critically acclaimed YA and nonfiction author by night, Christine Fonseca believes that writing is a great way to explore humanity. Her debut YA Gothic series, The Requiem Series, including DIES IRAE and LACRIMOSA, examines the role of redemption, sacrifice and love. When she's not writing or spending time with her family, she can be sipping too many skinny vanilla lattes at her favorite coffee house or playing around on Facebook and Twitter . Catch her daily thoughts about writing and life on her blog .

  Blurb for DIES IRAE  Some sacrifices should never be made—even for love. 

Mikayel lives by one rule—obey the orders of the angelic Council at all costs. But when he and his friends, Azza and Demi, are sent to Earth as teenagers, following the rules is more difficult than they expected.

Being human isn't the only problem facing the three angels. Unbeknownst to the Council, demonic activity is on the rise, threatening to break a tenuous peace that has existed for a millennia.

Caught in a struggle for power with unseen demonic forces, and fighting against his rising emotional, Mikayel must now decide how many rules he is willing to break to save his friends, a decision that could reignite an ancient war and will threaten the only thing that matters to the angels, the survival of humanity. 

Author Endorcement:"Dies Irae is the perfect introduction to Christine Fonseca's Requiem series. The beauty of the words will tempt you, the tragedy of the story will break you, and the love, woven throughout like music through the trees, will haunt you for days afterward. Dies Irae promises a tale unlike any you've read before."~Ali Cross, Author of BECOMEAvailability:Publisher: COMPASS PRESSISBN:Format: Digital format only - from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other retailers.

Blurb for LACRIMOSA

As if casting out demons isn't hard enough, five-hundred-year-old Nesy has to masquerade as a teenage girl to do it. Nesy is the best of the warrior angels called Sentinals. She never makes mistakes, never hesitates, never gets emotionally involved. Until she meets Aydan.  

He is evil incarnate; a fallen angel that feeds off the souls of others. Everything Nesy is supposed to hate.  But she can't, because he's also the love of her former life as a human girl—a life that ended too soon, tying her to emotions she was never supposed to feel.

Now Nesy must choose between doing her duty—damning Aydan to the fiery depths of hell—or saving him, and condemning herself. 

Author Endorcement:"LACRIMOSA reaches out, grabs readers by the heart, and takes them on an emotional journey from the first page to the last. The last novel you'll need to read to understand true sacrifice."~Elana Johnson, Author of POSSESSIONAvailability:Publisher: COMPASS PRESSISBN: 0984786368 (ISBN 13: 9780984786367)Hardback and Digital formats from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and fine retailers. Links not currently available.

Additional Titles in the series include LIBERA ME (Nov 2012) and REQUIEM (March 2013). The book trailer can be seen by linking to YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwTQoOFKEZg

For more information about Christine Fonseca or the series, visit her website – http://christinefonseca.com or her blog http://christinefonseca.blogspot.com

Question of the Week - Which do you prefer?

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Which do you prefer:Tragedy, Comedy, or Drama?To laugh or to cry?To change the world and be alone or be complacent and be with the one you love?

Me?-Drama-Laugh, although there are times when you just need a good crying jag.-This one's really hard but I'd have to say complacent. Once you find love, you never want to go back.

Weekly Progress Report - Just About Done!

Well, I've been doing a lot more writing this past week and before I go to bed tonight the rough draft of Two Princesses, One Prince, and a Dragon will be completed! It's currently at 76,600 and all I have to write yet is a short epilogue. At the most, it'll be a little less than 80K. It's so nice to know that Nano this past year wasn't a fluke and that I can write a complete rough draft around 80K in one month.



I've always continued to edit and went through the entries from the contest. All I have to do yet is fill out the scorecards.



Hubby and I have been watching a lot of movies lately. Midnight in Paris, Percy Jackson, Double Jeopardy, Runaway Jury, Black Swan. Next up is The Help.



How goes your writing? Your reading? Seen any good movies lately? What have you been up to?



Check out some other great progress reports this week:



http://www.writersally.blogspot.com/

http://jc-martin.com/fighterwriter/

http://waibelworld.blogspot.com

http://susanfieldswriter.blogspot.com

http://skmayhew.blogspot.com/p/tuesday-wip-status.html

http://margoberendsen.blogspot.com

http://www.sherryauger.blogspot.com

http://www.susanoloier.blogspot.com

http://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/

http://lynneawest.blogspot.com

Creature of the Week - Bear Dog

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The bear dog is an extinct prehistoric animal that is believed to be an ancestor of both bears and dogs while being neither bear nor dog. They were carnivorous.



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They were about as tall as the American black bear. Their legs were made for short, sudden bursts of speed so they were most likely ambushers. Bear dogs nested their young in underground burrows.



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In one of my completed but needs to be revised stories, there is an Enchanted Jungle which is home to many unique and fantastic creatures. I included the bear dog because I thought the combination of a bear and a dog was too cool to pass up.

Announcing a Blogfest

No, I'm not hosting one although I probably will eventually.



I wanted to tell you all about the latest blogfest I signed up for. It's gonna be a lot of fun and there are some awesome prizes to be won!



Every great story has great characters! So this blogfest is designed to help us flex our character writing muscles through three separate blog posts.

The Posts : February 6th - Monday :  Characters on the couch : Have one of your characters answer the following questions (to make this work to your benefit, choose a character who is the hardest for you to write :) Max 250 words (Not including the questions—only the answers). What is your biggest vulnerability? Do others know this or is it a secret?
What do people believe about you that is false?
What would your best friend say is your fatal flaw? Why?
What would the same friend say is your one redeeming quality? Why?
What do you want most? What will you do to get it? 
February 8th - Wednesday  -  Dialogue Introduction : Have two characters introduce each other using only dialogue—no backstory, no internalization, just dialogue between the two. Max 250 words. February 10th - Friday  -  Emotion Flash Fiction : Emotion is the engine of a story. Pick an emotion and in a flash fiction piece of 250 words MAKE us feel it! We want to connect with your character. This will be a challenge in 250 words.



The Prizes : Cassie and Angie decided to pick two winners for each day:

Monday's Prize's—From Angie: The Color Code by Taylor Hartman—this book is a fantastic study of personality. It's simple, easy to follow, and will give you tons of insight into how different personalities interact. I use it all the time. I don't normally like non-fiction, but this is one of my favorites. See description here.
From Cassie:  Nightshade  by Andrea Cremer.  You can check out the description from Goodreads here.  This book so far has been the only book to make me fall for both male leads.  The characters' flaws and their strengths kept pulling me in two different directions the entire way through.  


Wednesday's Prize—From Angie : A query critique and first 20 page critique.
From Cassie: A query critique and first 20 page critique. 
Friday's Prize—From Angie : A full manuscript critique.
From Cassie: A full manuscript critique.


To sign up for the blogfest, click here. I'm only going to post on Wednesday and Friday. I would love to win one of the prizes.



Will you sign up? Know of any other great blogfests out there?

Question of the Week - Vampire Zombies

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I shared this photo on FB this week and got a ton of comments so I thought I would share it here as well:

What do you think? Personally, I'm a little distracted by the picture itself since it's a dinosaur.



On a slightly more serious note, why would the vampire bite a zombie in the first place? It would make more sense for the zombie to bite the vampire. And then if a zombie killer kills the zombie, would the zombie come back as some kind of ultimate zombie-vampire hybrid?



Hm... sounds like the making of a horror novel! I actually might think more on this...