Molly Ringle's Blog, page 27
October 16, 2011
My books at ARE, and an awesome SumHarry
If you're tired of giving Amazon all your ebook revenues, do stop by All Romance Ebooks, which conveniently carries nearly all my titles in many e-formats, and sends out a fun and spicy newsletter too. One of those titles is...
...Of Ghosts and Geeks, silly comedic paranormal novella for your Halloween reading pleasure.
Also, its sister site, OmniLit, carries non-romance, including my one title that isn't on ARE (What Scotland Taught Me). Good site to know.
Now, in other news, I continue reading Prisoner of Azkaban for parodying and enjoying purposes, but dudes! I don't really need to, for someone has summarized the entire Harry Potter series in comic-strip form in one huge condensed-parody poster. Awesome. Still, I suppose I'll do my humble written version eventually.
...Of Ghosts and Geeks, silly comedic paranormal novella for your Halloween reading pleasure.
Also, its sister site, OmniLit, carries non-romance, including my one title that isn't on ARE (What Scotland Taught Me). Good site to know.
Now, in other news, I continue reading Prisoner of Azkaban for parodying and enjoying purposes, but dudes! I don't really need to, for someone has summarized the entire Harry Potter series in comic-strip form in one huge condensed-parody poster. Awesome. Still, I suppose I'll do my humble written version eventually.
October 1, 2011
Mischief managed, but too often offstage
In re-reading Prisoner of Azkaban, I've just gotten to Fred and George presenting Harry with the Marauder's Map*--a big moment disguised as a small scene. And I can't help daydreaming, as I do most times Fred and George pop up, about how different the series might have been if they were the center of things instead of Harry. It probably wouldn't have the same darkness and poignant-tragic overtones, and I can appreciate the value of that brooding atmosphere. But I'm also a person who places comedy above nearly all else, so I suppose it's natural that my affections are settling in the long term on the twins.
Imagine it: getting to see all that managed mischief firsthand instead of from the sidelines or in dialogue summary afterward! Would one of them be the Chosen One in my scenario? I don't know; perhaps. If they were the focus of the series, that might be inevitable. Maybe it would also be good to turn one into a girl, to balance things out, while not losing any of the mischievous cheer.
This would of course make a certain event in book 7 all the more heartbreaking if it still took place as written. Then again, if it were up to me and my comedic bent, I probably wouldn't allow that. Dumbledore and the swirly dream-state between life and death would send that troublemaker right back again to the living.
* I kind of wanted to write " Marauders' " rather than "Marauder's," because it was originally created and used by four marauders. But it does say "Marauder's," and I guess the singular works, in the sense of "any interested and qualified marauder."
Imagine it: getting to see all that managed mischief firsthand instead of from the sidelines or in dialogue summary afterward! Would one of them be the Chosen One in my scenario? I don't know; perhaps. If they were the focus of the series, that might be inevitable. Maybe it would also be good to turn one into a girl, to balance things out, while not losing any of the mischievous cheer.
This would of course make a certain event in book 7 all the more heartbreaking if it still took place as written. Then again, if it were up to me and my comedic bent, I probably wouldn't allow that. Dumbledore and the swirly dream-state between life and death would send that troublemaker right back again to the living.
* I kind of wanted to write " Marauders' " rather than "Marauder's," because it was originally created and used by four marauders. But it does say "Marauder's," and I guess the singular works, in the sense of "any interested and qualified marauder."
September 29, 2011
What did Ginny catch Percy doing? People want to know!
Sweet! I've apparently nailed down my own little corner of Harry Potter searches on Google.
One of the most common search terms that land people on my webpage is "what did ginny catch percy doing." In case you don't recall, this question references Chamber of Secrets, in which Ginny giggles secretively about something or other she walked in on Percy doing. At the end, it's revealed that all he was doing was snogging Penelope Clearwater. Yawn.
But! Not until today did I run that Google search myself ("what did ginny catch percy doing"), and my parody of Chamber of Secrets comes up as the very first result--at least when I run it. To the tiny degree I understand Google, I gather results may vary based upon the user's location, browsing history, and who knows what else.
Still, kind of amusing and cool. And I suppose it means I need to pick up Prisoner of Azkaban again and get back on that parodying horse. I apologize for the long delay on that. It actually takes longer to compose the parodies than to read the books, is the reason. That and having novels of my own to write and market. I know; excuses, excuses.
One of the most common search terms that land people on my webpage is "what did ginny catch percy doing." In case you don't recall, this question references Chamber of Secrets, in which Ginny giggles secretively about something or other she walked in on Percy doing. At the end, it's revealed that all he was doing was snogging Penelope Clearwater. Yawn.
But! Not until today did I run that Google search myself ("what did ginny catch percy doing"), and my parody of Chamber of Secrets comes up as the very first result--at least when I run it. To the tiny degree I understand Google, I gather results may vary based upon the user's location, browsing history, and who knows what else.
Still, kind of amusing and cool. And I suppose it means I need to pick up Prisoner of Azkaban again and get back on that parodying horse. I apologize for the long delay on that. It actually takes longer to compose the parodies than to read the books, is the reason. That and having novels of my own to write and market. I know; excuses, excuses.
September 19, 2011
This blog's first cryptanalyst award goes to...
So, in my novel The Ghost Downstairs, there's a part where a character discovers a journal written in code. It's just a basic letter-substitution code, nothing fancy; A becomes G, B becomes H, and so forth. [You can tell I was reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon when I wrote this piece of the plot.]
Well, despite many careful edits of the manuscript, and hundreds of readers since the book's publication two years ago, no one (including me) has noticed that I messed up the coded bit in a couple of places. Until now!
The delightful and clever Pam Stucky, herself a novelist and apparently a fan of deciphering codes, recently read The Ghost Downstairs and set herself the task of decoding the journal excerpts before the narrative did so for her. (You don't need to do this to enjoy the novel--I give you the answers, so to speak, after a few pages. Homework not required.) And she found that in my transcription of the coded text, I inserted the wrong letter in at least two instances. Oops.
It also occurs to me that I listed the decoded alphabet in the wrong order if we're doing it from the point of view of the cryptanalyst (the one breaking the code) and not the cryptographer (the one creating the code). Ah, well. Again, doesn't affect the story much.
Still, for being so diligent and for catching out my editors and me, Pam gets a free book of her choice (of the ones written by me, that is). Plus I recommend you check out her debut novel, Letters from Wishing Rock, a charming epistolary story (composed of emails, not paper letters, this being the modern era), peopled with an armful of likable characters, and set in the Pacific Northwest, Scotland, and other beautiful places. It has a "Northern Exposure" feel to it that I really enjoyed.
Keep being smart, o friends o' mine!
Well, despite many careful edits of the manuscript, and hundreds of readers since the book's publication two years ago, no one (including me) has noticed that I messed up the coded bit in a couple of places. Until now!
The delightful and clever Pam Stucky, herself a novelist and apparently a fan of deciphering codes, recently read The Ghost Downstairs and set herself the task of decoding the journal excerpts before the narrative did so for her. (You don't need to do this to enjoy the novel--I give you the answers, so to speak, after a few pages. Homework not required.) And she found that in my transcription of the coded text, I inserted the wrong letter in at least two instances. Oops.
It also occurs to me that I listed the decoded alphabet in the wrong order if we're doing it from the point of view of the cryptanalyst (the one breaking the code) and not the cryptographer (the one creating the code). Ah, well. Again, doesn't affect the story much.
Still, for being so diligent and for catching out my editors and me, Pam gets a free book of her choice (of the ones written by me, that is). Plus I recommend you check out her debut novel, Letters from Wishing Rock, a charming epistolary story (composed of emails, not paper letters, this being the modern era), peopled with an armful of likable characters, and set in the Pacific Northwest, Scotland, and other beautiful places. It has a "Northern Exposure" feel to it that I really enjoyed.
Keep being smart, o friends o' mine!
September 18, 2011
Rule breaker! Cheating, romance, and me. (In fiction, that is.)
When you write for certain genres, there are rules you have to follow, or you'll likely get rejected. And the rules for romance include a couple of--if you ask me--unrealistic and silly ones that I simply cannot always follow if I'm going to write an interesting story.
The big one is about cheating. Infidelity on the part of the hero or heroine is an absolute big-time no-no in the romance genre. Now, I understand it's a sensitive topic, and that cheating has hurt lots of actual people, who therefore don't want to read about it. However...yeah, it does happen to lots of actual people. Therefore it's a pertinent issue. And while infidelity is usually not the *best* idea, I wouldn't qualify it as pure evil in most cases either. And, more to the point when we're talking about writing, it usually makes for juicy plot twists. Therefore, though I don't want to include it in all my stories, I do sometimes explore the sticky and interesting issue of being not 100% faithful to one's significant other.
Mind you, in both the published books where I've gone into that territory--What Scotland Taught Me and Relatively Honest--I was dealing with teenagers, not married adults. Age 18 is a time when plenty of us make questionable decisions, and learn from them. I was going more for realistic coming-of-age than strictly for romance. Nonetheless, I think a love story benefits from a dose of reality--and a dose of juicy gossip.
Also: how come we modern romance novelists have to stick to this no-cheaters rule when some of the most acclaimed love stories on film--and on paper--had infidelity in spades? A couple of whopping examples off the top of my head:
Gone with the Wind: All right, it's more like historical fiction masquerading as a bodice-ripper, but it's still considered to have set many a standard for romance. And, dude! Scarlett marries two other guys before giving Rhett a chance--stringing him along all the while--and, in the meantime, does her best to seduce Ashley, a (mostly) happily married man. This would never fly with a modern romance editor. But it's a great book, and Scarlett's ruthless, clueless flirtations make for a ripping good read.
Sleepless in Seattle: Again, held up as a contemporary classic of the romantic film genre. But Meg Ryan's character, throughout, has a fiance, a nice guy, who she's sleeping with throughout most of the film, and lying to about her crush on this stranger in Seattle. Again, romance editors would send this a tidy rejection letter. But if she didn't have the fiance, she'd have no particular reason to be so conflicted about checking out Tom Hanks, and you'd have no story.
Can you think of other examples? Do you have non-negotiable rules for the love stories you read? Or are there no deal-breakers as long as the story is well written?
The big one is about cheating. Infidelity on the part of the hero or heroine is an absolute big-time no-no in the romance genre. Now, I understand it's a sensitive topic, and that cheating has hurt lots of actual people, who therefore don't want to read about it. However...yeah, it does happen to lots of actual people. Therefore it's a pertinent issue. And while infidelity is usually not the *best* idea, I wouldn't qualify it as pure evil in most cases either. And, more to the point when we're talking about writing, it usually makes for juicy plot twists. Therefore, though I don't want to include it in all my stories, I do sometimes explore the sticky and interesting issue of being not 100% faithful to one's significant other.
Mind you, in both the published books where I've gone into that territory--What Scotland Taught Me and Relatively Honest--I was dealing with teenagers, not married adults. Age 18 is a time when plenty of us make questionable decisions, and learn from them. I was going more for realistic coming-of-age than strictly for romance. Nonetheless, I think a love story benefits from a dose of reality--and a dose of juicy gossip.
Also: how come we modern romance novelists have to stick to this no-cheaters rule when some of the most acclaimed love stories on film--and on paper--had infidelity in spades? A couple of whopping examples off the top of my head:
Gone with the Wind: All right, it's more like historical fiction masquerading as a bodice-ripper, but it's still considered to have set many a standard for romance. And, dude! Scarlett marries two other guys before giving Rhett a chance--stringing him along all the while--and, in the meantime, does her best to seduce Ashley, a (mostly) happily married man. This would never fly with a modern romance editor. But it's a great book, and Scarlett's ruthless, clueless flirtations make for a ripping good read.
Sleepless in Seattle: Again, held up as a contemporary classic of the romantic film genre. But Meg Ryan's character, throughout, has a fiance, a nice guy, who she's sleeping with throughout most of the film, and lying to about her crush on this stranger in Seattle. Again, romance editors would send this a tidy rejection letter. But if she didn't have the fiance, she'd have no particular reason to be so conflicted about checking out Tom Hanks, and you'd have no story.
Can you think of other examples? Do you have non-negotiable rules for the love stories you read? Or are there no deal-breakers as long as the story is well written?
September 7, 2011
Relatively Honest: ode to my imaginary Don Juan. With giveaway!
What was I thinking? Writing from a male, British, 18-year-old point of view, when I'm completely not any of those things?
Well, in my defense, I was once 18, and that's when I dreamed up Daniel Revelstoke and began writing about him. I stole his last name from the swashbuckling-sounding name of a small town in British Columbia, which we drove through once on a family vacation. I made him English, because then his accent and tousled Cambridge-student-ish hair would make him instantly hot. I gave him a zeal (and a talent) for attracting and seducing girls. And, of course, I made him fall in love and change his ways--while dealing him some payback for those broken hearts and white lies in the past.
Nearly all women, young and old, are soft on the Don Juan character--or the Casanova, or ladies' man, or whichever label you prefer. Why? Because they're good at charming us females, of course! Naturally we can't hate them altogether when they're so good at buttering us up. But we also want to be the one who changes the Casanova, the exception to his rule. It's a common romance trope, actually. But, darn it, it's huge fun to write and read, if you ask me.
I've lived with Daniel, and his co-stars Julie and Sinter, for half my life now, so the publication of this novel at long last is a momentous personal occasion, even if the book itself is still mostly a lightweight, if twisted, romantic comedy. Oh, it's not the same manuscript I scrawled when I was 18, not by any means. I weeded out the pointless, meandering scenes and the excessive girliness, and gave Daniel's voice a chance to sound at least halfway masculine. Upon the advice of actual English people, I upgraded his dialect so he sounded modern and not like a character from a 1940s movie. (I used "bloody" instead of "damned," for example.) I cranked up the tension throughout, as well as the comedy, and toned down the soppiness. And I ended up loving my Don Juan more than ever in the process. I hope you do too. (And his roommate Sinter--oh, some days I love Sinter even more. He'll get his own novel before long. I just have to go in and revise *that* one from basement to ceiling.)
RELATIVELY HONEST is due out as an ebook on September 15--one more week. Comment here and you'll be entered to win a signed ebook, your choice of format. I'll be giving away three of them. Good luck!
August 29, 2011
Translator needed
Some linguist I am. I have *no* idea what this says. Anyone help?
It's on a pretty mug I was just given. Here, for your trouble, enjoy the other side, with the lovely painting:
Thank you!
It's on a pretty mug I was just given. Here, for your trouble, enjoy the other side, with the lovely painting:
Thank you!
Vacation chillage and when it finally happens.
Open question for those with kids:
How old did your kids have to be before your family vacations actually felt like vacations? Rather than feeling like variations on the usual stress, that is?
Maybe this comes down to the question: At what age does a person learn to relax quietly for an extended period of time, and respect the relaxation of others? When I put it that way, it occurs to me that some people are just born with that ability, while others never learn it their whole lives. But I assume most are somewhere in between, antsy as kids but learning to relax and chill as adults. And I'm wondering when that happens.
Yep. I only come to you for the tough questions, o random internet people.
How old did your kids have to be before your family vacations actually felt like vacations? Rather than feeling like variations on the usual stress, that is?
Maybe this comes down to the question: At what age does a person learn to relax quietly for an extended period of time, and respect the relaxation of others? When I put it that way, it occurs to me that some people are just born with that ability, while others never learn it their whole lives. But I assume most are somewhere in between, antsy as kids but learning to relax and chill as adults. And I'm wondering when that happens.
Yep. I only come to you for the tough questions, o random internet people.
August 17, 2011
Mix CD
I made a CD of pop songs I suspected my wee kids would like. Given the following playlist, evidently I think my kids will enjoy a lot of '80s synthesizer. (And some occasional catchy '60s guitar.) Because, hey, that's what *I* like.
And track 15 is by The Monkees, of course. Silly iTunes and its failure to shrink long titles so they're readable.
The kids *love* a couple of Vampire Weekend tracks from a previous mix CD, and I attribute that to the bouncy strings riff, so I'm hoping they can relate to a similar sound in keyboards.
And let me know if you need a copy of this CD too. ;)
And track 15 is by The Monkees, of course. Silly iTunes and its failure to shrink long titles so they're readable.
The kids *love* a couple of Vampire Weekend tracks from a previous mix CD, and I attribute that to the bouncy strings riff, so I'm hoping they can relate to a similar sound in keyboards.
And let me know if you need a copy of this CD too. ;)
August 10, 2011
Come read an interview and win a book...
Doralynn Kennedy interviewed me! Come read, and comment to enter to win a signed copy of one of my books.
Doralynn runs a very cool blog about authors and writing, and is worth adding to your "blogs I follow" list. She's also a great author herself, and I highly recommend you check out Sleeping with Skeletons if you like romantic suspense.
Doralynn runs a very cool blog about authors and writing, and is worth adding to your "blogs I follow" list. She's also a great author herself, and I highly recommend you check out Sleeping with Skeletons if you like romantic suspense.
