Nicole Zoltack's Blog, page 57

Wishes

We celebrate hubby's grandmother's birthday this weekend. When it came time for her to make a wish, she paused for awhile before blowing out her candles. And during that pause it made me think about wishes.





Credit for picture


If I had three wishes, what would I wish for?



1. A castle. Completely paid for. Would be so nice to not have to pay a mortgage. I've wanted to live in a castle (or a mansion) ever since I was 4 or 5.)



2. A friendly contract with a huge advance from a large publishing house.



3. To earn out the advance.



Getting an agent is one thing. Getting a contract is a whole other animal. And if you do get an advance, you better earn it out or else you run the risk of the publishing house be less likely to publish more of your works.



So those are 3 of my wishes. I could definitely list more but I'll stop there. What would you wish for?

Time to Cut the Fat

This weekend, I signed up for a weight loss group especially for mom writers. I'm still carrying some extra weight from son #1 plus I was 10 pounds heavier than I would like to have been before I became pregnant with him. So roughly 25 pounds. I'm hoping the encouragement of the group will provide enough motivation that I can make the numbers on the scale inch downward.





In between exercise and not snacking, I'm working hard on Champion of Valor, finishing it up and editing it. So I not only want to cut the fat from my diet, but also from my manuscript.





Repetitive words, phrases, sayings.... gone.



Abuse of adverbs... deleted.



Passive voice... made active.



Long descriptions... tightened and pruned.



Adjectives... pared down.



I'm cutting the fat from my MS. When you edit your stories, what do you keep an eye out for?

Inspiring Mondays

I love the coloring of this. That is one kick-ass sword.



And thanks so much to everyone that responded on Friday's post about what you like and don't like about my blog. I'm going to play around with the layout and maybe remove a few things and see if that helps to make the page load faster.

What Do You Like?

Feedback request time. What do you like about my blog? Anything you don't care for? Anything you would like to see or see more of? Any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated! I want to keep all of my blog followers happy so this is your turn to talk and tell me anything and everything.

Creating Monsters with N. R. Williams

I want to thank Nicole for being a host on my blog book tour. It means a lot to me.
Why create a new monster instead of using a mythical creature? It's fun. I can develop the monster in anyway I like. I don't have to use existing mythology to guide me in their behavior. I can have the animals be good or evil. My monsters, the symberveen, are animals with an uncertain past. But because of their inherent abilities, they can be used as evil pawns by my villain, Renwyk.
When I began the process of writing "The Treasures of Carmelidrium," I knew I wanted a new monster, something that hadn't been done before, but something that would be believable. The first criterion for me was to think in terms of what the role would be for my monsters. I knew they had to be big. I also knew that they would be beast, so for the monsters themselves, they would just act out as normal animals following their own behavior patterns.
Enter the antagonist (villain). He is a man who is born with the ability to communicate with my monsters that I named "symberveen."
Why did I name them symberveen? I thought about anger. Renwyk is angry, he has issues. Anger brought me to fire, which is often a symbol of anger. Fire brought me to simmer, as over the stove and that gave me the name. Symberveen.
The symberveen were roughly modeled after Big Foot. Over seven feet tall, hairy, they live in family groups in the northern area of Gil-Lael, the alternate world I created. That is where the similarities end. The symberveen have almost human arms and fingers with claws. They have a bear like muzzle and poison in their saliva, under their claws and in their black blood. They project psychic nightmares so their prey becomes disorientated and easily caught. The male symberveen fight among themselves, so it is a rare event that they hunt together.
My villain, Renwyk, can control the symberveen and communicate with them mentally. Thus he is able to turn these monsters into a powerful force to do his bidding.
The people in Gil-Lael have developed a psychic shield that automatically comes up when they are in close proximity to the symberveen. This protects their minds from the nightmares that the symberveen project. Our American heroine, Missie, doesn't have this shield. She is in grave danger from the symberveen.
Do you have questions about creating a monster that I haven't covered? I'll be stopping by all day to answer in the comments.

I will be giving away 3 e-books to 3 winners. Just follow the tour, leave a comment and include your e-mail address with each comment. On Feb. 1, 2011, I will draw the winners, announce the winners on my blog and email the winners. The more you comment, the better your chances.

Jan. 7…Friday, Author interview: Deirdra Eden Coppel at A Story Book World
Jan 10…Monday, Interview with the Protagonist (heroine), Missie: Michael De Gesu at In time…
Jan 11…Tuesday, Mythical Creatures: Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough blogs
Jan 12…Wednesday, World Building for Fantasy & Sci Fi: Marian Allen at Marian Allen
5. Jan. 13…Thursday, Creating Monsters: Nicole Zoltack at Where Fantasy and Love Take Flight
Jan. 14…Friday, Tension & Humor, a balancing act: Jean Henry Mead at Make Mine Mystery
Jan. 17…Monday, What are the Treasures of Carmelidrium? Summer Ross at My Inner Fairy
Jan. 18…Tuesday. Interview with an elf: Patricia Stoltey at Chiseled in Rock,
Jan. 19…Wednesday, Jan. 19, Interview with the antagonist (villain), Renwyk, Lord of the Symberveen: Colene Murphy at The Journey
Jan. 20…Thursday, Interview with Galen, Scout of Gil-Lael: The Golden Eagle at The Eagles Aerial Perspective
Jan 21…Friday, Plot vs Character Driven in Genre Writing: Mason Canyon at Thoughts in Progress
Jan. 24…Monday, Character Driven vs World Driven in Fantasy & Sci Fi:
Helen Ginger at Straight From Hel
Jan 25…Tuesday, Playing the "What If" Game: Dominic de Mattos at Writes of Passage
Jan 26…Wednesday, …What inspired me to write about music as a power and why the flute: Clarissa Draper at Listen To The Voices
Jan 27…Thursday. What Elements are in the Story? (Romance, Suspense, Mystery?) Denise at L'Aussie Writing
Jan 28…Friday, Why I Write Fantasy: Jeffrey Beesler at Jeffrey Beesler's World of the Scribe
Jan. 31…Monday, Why You Should Hire an Editor & Professional Illustrator: (Sherry Wachter illustrated by book so there should be some interesting discussion between us.)
Sherry Wachter who writes as Bodie Parkhurst at Magic Dog Press 
About N. R. Williams

N. R. Williams lives in Colorado, U.S.A. with her husband. She is delighted to have two three year old grandchildren, cousins. She's a long time member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and has been privileged to attend conferences and workshops. Since her formative years, she's been inventing fantastical stories and since she could spell she's been writing them down. While she majored in art in college, she didn't make a living at it. Now, she uses her skills of observation to create fantastical worlds, interesting characters and stories that touch the heart. 

Goodreads

I love Goodreads. If you want to add me as a friend, here's my link. It's a great way to find books, read reviews, to find other readers with similar tastes in books.

Are you on Goodreads? What do you use it for? I think it's a great way to social network.

Lately, my book sales have been really well. In fact, last month, my books were some of my publisher's best sellers for the month. I'm not positive why my books have been selling so well recently but I have been a lot more active on Goodreads lately. Coincide? I'm not sure.

Also, Preditors and Editors (P&E) are having their annual awards. Knight of Glory is up for Best Fantasy Novel for 2010. Woman of Honor finished 5th last year!
I, personally, don't read many reviews on Goodreads. I am more likely to look at the number of stars a book as and based my wanting to read a book on that and the blurb. If I can't decide whether or not I would like the book, then I'll read the reviews.

What do you think of Goodreads?

How The Vampire Diaries can Make Our Writing Better

I love the show The Vampire Diaries. Human Elena falls for the hunky new boy at school - who just so happens to be a vampire. Enter sexy older vampire brother, a best witch best friend, darkness, blood, drama, and love - that's the gist of The Vampire Dairies.

Yes, both brothers like Elena, but this is definitely not Twilight. The vampires are mean, often downright cruel in TVD. It's so much darker.

One thing I loved most about TVD, especially the first season, was the last few seconds of each episode.

The writers left you hanging. A twist, something you never saw coming. A hint at a new revalation. Danger, intrigue. It always left me yearning for more. I couldn't wait for the next episode!

And that's what we should do at the end of each chapter with our stories. We don't want our readers to reach the end of a chapter, to put our book down and forget to pick it back up. No, we want them to read the end of a chapter and practically rip the page getting to the next chapter. (or press the arrow on an ereader or scroll down.)

Watching/writing about gorgeous characters doesn't hurt.

The trials and tribulations of teenagers are well portrayed in the show. Elena and Jeremy's parents died before the first episode. To cope, Jeremy has started down a dark path into drugs. So what can we take from this? If you're writing for teens, know teens. Know how they talk, act, react. Understand their thought process, their grief. This will make for realistic characters and dialogue.


Do you watch TVD? What shows do you take tips from for your writing? What tips do you take away from your favorite shows?

Inspiring Mondays and other Pics

I think this is too awesome - a castle in a cave! Wonder who lives there, why they're underground, if they have any magic...

And some other pictures from my life:

 My pumpkins at Halloween (I know, it takes me forever to upload my pictures onto the hard drive!)

The boys all dressed up in Christmas-y type clothes to see Santa at the mall.

My new haircut - sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. It looks nice here but it doesn't always. It had been a couple inches from my elbows so I had a ton cut off.
 Son #1 loves to wear hats - especially mine. We both got DeSean Jackson jerseys for Christmas.
 And a few wedding pics:
 Me with the lovely bride, my oldest friend (since the 1st grade)
 Me and the Turner girls
My family with the happy bride and groom The wedding party

Whatcha reading?

I love to read. I'm the queen of reading. And I sometimes read more than one book at a time. Currently, I'm reading The Lightning Thief, The Hunger Games, and Dead Until Dark.


I won a contest - a B&N gift card! I'm so stoked that I'm already picking which books to buy: Personal Demons, Firelight, and Paranormalcy. But, depending on the price, I might be able to get 3 more.

So, any of you reading a good book you think I might like? What was your favorite book of 2010?

I Wear Emotions on my Face

Like all little girls, I wanted to be a model when I grew up. Considering that I stopped growing in the eighth grade, (I'm just a smidge under five foot), I knew that wasn't going to happen.

So then I wanted to an actress.

The lights, the cameras, the fame and fortune... who doesn't want all that?

Well, there's just one slight problem.

I can't act.

Well, I haven't really tried. Never audition for a part or a role. I have sung in choirs and sung solos but that isn't the same thing.

Naw, the reason why I think I can't act is because of my face. I wear my emotions on my face.

If you say something that rubs me the wrong way, you'll see it.

If you embarrass me, I blush.

Any emotion - happy, sad, furious, annoyed - I can't hide them.

Hubby has asked me to put on a face before. I tried. And failed.

Son #1 is starting to learn this. I have perfected the stern glare that all moms have - the LOOK.

Can you act? Can you cover up your emotions?