Maria Hammarblad's Blog, page 63
November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving
Just a couple of years ago, I had a very dim idea of what Thanksgiving really was. If someone had asked me, I would probably have said, eloquently (hahaha), "Umm, something American that has... ummm... something to do with Turkeys...?"
When my boyfriend first explained the concept to me, and the history behind it all, I asked spontaneously, "So, the country is celebrating that the Indians saved the first settlers, and then you killed them?" He rolled his eyes and looked exasperated.
Once I decided to stop thinking so much about it and just enjoy it, I discovered that I love Thanksgiving. It's much more relaxed than some of the other holidays, and doesn't have quite the hysteria of decorations and gifts. I like to watch the parades on TV, and I love the food. Even the pumpkin pie, even though I was skeptical the first time I saw one. This year, I’ve been anticipating it for weeks!
It’s also a welcome break from work, work, work, and last night I started to read a new book. It is “Fitting in” by Linda Ann Rentschler. I have high hopes for it since I truly loved her book “State of Disgrace.” Apart from being funny, her books tend to be set in a world very far from my own, and it fascinates me. I feel like I’m getting a peek into another culture, another way of living, and even if I wouldn’t want to BE there, it’s interesting to imagine.
Black Friday shopping also intrigues me. We do something similar back home, during the days between Christmas and New Years, and it’s called, “Mellandagsrea,” but it’s nowhere near the size of Black Friday. I mean, I doubt that people would camp for days outside a store to get in at four in the morning… If I hadn’t seen it, I would think that it was a good story someone made up!
I heard someone say that it’s called Black Friday because the stores show red numbers all year until that day, when everyone’s out shopping, spending billions of dollars, and they start to get a real income making the numbers turn from red to black. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, it’s amazing!
I was going to say something about books, but I think I’ll save that until another day. Maybe tomorrow… Until then…
Happy Thanksgiving!
When my boyfriend first explained the concept to me, and the history behind it all, I asked spontaneously, "So, the country is celebrating that the Indians saved the first settlers, and then you killed them?" He rolled his eyes and looked exasperated.
Once I decided to stop thinking so much about it and just enjoy it, I discovered that I love Thanksgiving. It's much more relaxed than some of the other holidays, and doesn't have quite the hysteria of decorations and gifts. I like to watch the parades on TV, and I love the food. Even the pumpkin pie, even though I was skeptical the first time I saw one. This year, I’ve been anticipating it for weeks!
It’s also a welcome break from work, work, work, and last night I started to read a new book. It is “Fitting in” by Linda Ann Rentschler. I have high hopes for it since I truly loved her book “State of Disgrace.” Apart from being funny, her books tend to be set in a world very far from my own, and it fascinates me. I feel like I’m getting a peek into another culture, another way of living, and even if I wouldn’t want to BE there, it’s interesting to imagine.
Black Friday shopping also intrigues me. We do something similar back home, during the days between Christmas and New Years, and it’s called, “Mellandagsrea,” but it’s nowhere near the size of Black Friday. I mean, I doubt that people would camp for days outside a store to get in at four in the morning… If I hadn’t seen it, I would think that it was a good story someone made up!
I heard someone say that it’s called Black Friday because the stores show red numbers all year until that day, when everyone’s out shopping, spending billions of dollars, and they start to get a real income making the numbers turn from red to black. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, it’s amazing!
I was going to say something about books, but I think I’ll save that until another day. Maybe tomorrow… Until then…
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 13, 2010
Brrr, cold today!
I know that this is a little pathetic and that winter in Florida shouldn’t even faze a Swede, but it has been a little cold. Not like back home where they have piles of snow already, but anyway… On the plus side, any thoughts I might have had about longing to go home, at least for a visit, are efficiently cured; how could I survive there if I think that it’s cold here? Also on the plus side: I spend more time indoors, and I’ve actually gotten some work done. Nothing that’s quite ready to publish yet, but it’s getting there.
Last month, I had a giveaway of my book “Undercover” on the Goodreads website, and now reviews are starting to drip in. It’s fascinating; people seem to either love the book or hate it with a passion. Either way I take it as a compliment; I was able to pull them enough into the fictional world to make them feel something. It would be worse if people read it and remained indifferent.
I have to admit that my original intention might not have been to make people feel ill, like one reviewer claimed to. If anything, I was going for romance with a hint of horror, but it’s far better than no response at all. The parts this reviewer mentions as the most horrible are also the ones that I'm most proud of; I wasn't sure that I was good enough to pull it off. I definitely didn't think I was a good enough writer to make people feel ill... It might not be normal to get a confidence boost out of people hating something you did, but I'm sort of thinking that maybe I should just skip the romance part and start to write thrillers or horror instead, mwuahahahaha! XD
I don’t know why, but most things I write have a dark side to it, and if one doesn’t expect that, it’s probably an unpleasant surprise. To me, a story just isn’t interesting without something happening in it! Also, to me, things are never strictly black or white; people are complicated, get caught up in circumstances, and have a number of reasons for acting like they do. It doesn’t have to be in the way of Jenny in “Undercover,” one can go to everyday life and find things much more bizarre. Seriously, if it seems realistic or not depends on your own point of view, how protected you have been throughout your life, on your own interests, and so on. Still, I didn’t anticipate people reacting this intensely to it. It’s just a book!
On a completely different matter, I recently got the assignment for the final in my Creative Writing class, and it made the little girl inside of me jump up and down with joy. For the final, we’re supposed to put the best things we’ve written during the semester together in a book of some form, and that’s just so much fun! The poetry part isn’t exactly firm ground under my feet, but I’ve had a lot of fun with some of the other assignments. We did American sentences; a westernized form of haiku, where you try to write a poem in exactly 17 syllables. It doesn’t have to contain the reference to a season or anything like the Haiku does, but it’s still really difficult. We also did six word stories. Like… “Got book, need new glasses,” or, “Abducted by alien, lost in space.” I’ve written a couple of short stories too, and when I’m done with all this, I’ll probably put it on my website, if anyone’s interested. I’ll let you know! =D
Last month, I had a giveaway of my book “Undercover” on the Goodreads website, and now reviews are starting to drip in. It’s fascinating; people seem to either love the book or hate it with a passion. Either way I take it as a compliment; I was able to pull them enough into the fictional world to make them feel something. It would be worse if people read it and remained indifferent.
I have to admit that my original intention might not have been to make people feel ill, like one reviewer claimed to. If anything, I was going for romance with a hint of horror, but it’s far better than no response at all. The parts this reviewer mentions as the most horrible are also the ones that I'm most proud of; I wasn't sure that I was good enough to pull it off. I definitely didn't think I was a good enough writer to make people feel ill... It might not be normal to get a confidence boost out of people hating something you did, but I'm sort of thinking that maybe I should just skip the romance part and start to write thrillers or horror instead, mwuahahahaha! XD
I don’t know why, but most things I write have a dark side to it, and if one doesn’t expect that, it’s probably an unpleasant surprise. To me, a story just isn’t interesting without something happening in it! Also, to me, things are never strictly black or white; people are complicated, get caught up in circumstances, and have a number of reasons for acting like they do. It doesn’t have to be in the way of Jenny in “Undercover,” one can go to everyday life and find things much more bizarre. Seriously, if it seems realistic or not depends on your own point of view, how protected you have been throughout your life, on your own interests, and so on. Still, I didn’t anticipate people reacting this intensely to it. It’s just a book!
On a completely different matter, I recently got the assignment for the final in my Creative Writing class, and it made the little girl inside of me jump up and down with joy. For the final, we’re supposed to put the best things we’ve written during the semester together in a book of some form, and that’s just so much fun! The poetry part isn’t exactly firm ground under my feet, but I’ve had a lot of fun with some of the other assignments. We did American sentences; a westernized form of haiku, where you try to write a poem in exactly 17 syllables. It doesn’t have to contain the reference to a season or anything like the Haiku does, but it’s still really difficult. We also did six word stories. Like… “Got book, need new glasses,” or, “Abducted by alien, lost in space.” I’ve written a couple of short stories too, and when I’m done with all this, I’ll probably put it on my website, if anyone’s interested. I’ll let you know! =D
November 6, 2010
Rockers and books
Once upon a time, I played bass in a rock band. Or, well, in three. Two of them played covers and the third mostly our own material. When talking to people about the cover bands, slumping my shoulders, hanging my head, and looking slightly embarrassed came almost automatically. No matter how much pleasure the music brings the audience and no matter how much people want to hear songs they recognize, there’s something shameful about “only” playing covers. No matter how well you do it, it is taking a ride on someone else’s skill and creativity.
When playing original material, however, it’s easy to straighten ones back a little extra and look proud. The songs might be good or terrible, it doesn’t matter; it still gives a sense of accomplishment. Lacking a record deal isn’t necessarily a bad thing; a crappy recording made in someone’s basement, or anything made independently, is COOL! Real rockers are supposed to be on small labels, and real rockers don’t need the establishment; they’re supposed to rebel against it. Right?
The same is true for other forms of art. Independent movies, for example, are high culture, and get their own film festivals. Especially if they’re hard to understand and made in black and white. I'm not even able to visualize an independent movie maker looking down at the floor, shuffling their feet, fidgeting, and mumbling, “Yeah, I made a movie, sort of... It’s not from one of the big labels, but I made it anyway... You can see it over there...”
Funny enough, when it comes to literature, all these things turn upside down. In spite of the fact that both the language and the acceptable ways of writing are always evolving, you’re supposed to follow the norms and walk in the footsteps of people that came before you, or your writing is bad. As a musician, I was proud to be independent, but as a writer, the same thing is a little embarrassing. Still, the worst pieces of prose I’ve read during the last year or so has come from the big publishing houses, and some of the best things I’ve ever read have been by self published authors, mysteriously denied by both agents and publishers. Isn’t that fascinating?
Am I going somewhere with all this? Not really, as usual I'm mostly thinking out loud. The subject just intrigues me.
:-) Maria
When playing original material, however, it’s easy to straighten ones back a little extra and look proud. The songs might be good or terrible, it doesn’t matter; it still gives a sense of accomplishment. Lacking a record deal isn’t necessarily a bad thing; a crappy recording made in someone’s basement, or anything made independently, is COOL! Real rockers are supposed to be on small labels, and real rockers don’t need the establishment; they’re supposed to rebel against it. Right?
The same is true for other forms of art. Independent movies, for example, are high culture, and get their own film festivals. Especially if they’re hard to understand and made in black and white. I'm not even able to visualize an independent movie maker looking down at the floor, shuffling their feet, fidgeting, and mumbling, “Yeah, I made a movie, sort of... It’s not from one of the big labels, but I made it anyway... You can see it over there...”
Funny enough, when it comes to literature, all these things turn upside down. In spite of the fact that both the language and the acceptable ways of writing are always evolving, you’re supposed to follow the norms and walk in the footsteps of people that came before you, or your writing is bad. As a musician, I was proud to be independent, but as a writer, the same thing is a little embarrassing. Still, the worst pieces of prose I’ve read during the last year or so has come from the big publishing houses, and some of the best things I’ve ever read have been by self published authors, mysteriously denied by both agents and publishers. Isn’t that fascinating?
Am I going somewhere with all this? Not really, as usual I'm mostly thinking out loud. The subject just intrigues me.
:-) Maria
October 29, 2010
Funny thing about reviews...
I have noted earlier that a review I got for my book "Touch of the Goddess" started to show up all over the Internet under different names. I think I even wrote about it in a blog; it fascinates me that people would pretend to have read a book and plagiarize a review to fill up their pages. It's just an observation of a funny phenomenon; I mean, I get more publicity, so I'm quite happy with it! (At least as long as they're writing good things, hahaha!)
Now, I just noticed another funny thing that's not exactly the same, but on the same theme. Yesterday I got a new review for my book "Undercover" from a book review website. Good reviews make me a happy little Swede jumping up and down with joy, especially when they come with many stars. This one wasn't an exception: I started bouncing happily. However, when I stopped jumping and started thinking, it seemed oddly familiar.
After doing a little digging around, I found what I was looking for on the Barnes and Noble website. It's not word for word the same as the new one, but they follow the same format, and mention the same things in the same order in a fashion similar enough to make me notice.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining. I love both reviews since they make me sound awsome. It would just be interesting to know if it's just a coincidence, if certain things really do stand out that much, or if one reviewer took a little peek at the other... LOL!
Now, I just noticed another funny thing that's not exactly the same, but on the same theme. Yesterday I got a new review for my book "Undercover" from a book review website. Good reviews make me a happy little Swede jumping up and down with joy, especially when they come with many stars. This one wasn't an exception: I started bouncing happily. However, when I stopped jumping and started thinking, it seemed oddly familiar.
After doing a little digging around, I found what I was looking for on the Barnes and Noble website. It's not word for word the same as the new one, but they follow the same format, and mention the same things in the same order in a fashion similar enough to make me notice.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining. I love both reviews since they make me sound awsome. It would just be interesting to know if it's just a coincidence, if certain things really do stand out that much, or if one reviewer took a little peek at the other... LOL!
October 25, 2010
A couple of good reads and Farmville
I haven’t accomplished much lately, and I’d like to think that time is the problem. (Blaming schoolwork usually sounds feasible.) It’s not true though; I have time to play “Farmville” for hours on end just fine.
I have read a couple books that were really good. “State of Disgrace” by Linda Ann Rentschler was awesome, and I find myself thinking back on it and chuckling from time to time. The main character spent her youth in a strict environment - she was even sent to catholic school - and once she reached adulthood and met the world, adolescence sort of caught up with her. Now in her twenties, she bounces from job to job (a thing that I myself have excelled at), falls for the wrong guys, and gets into a number of impossible situations.
At first, I didn’t think I’d be able to relate to it since Catholicism is very far from my own world, but after the first page, Rentschler’s vividly painted world had me completely pulled in. Amongst other things, the main character impersonates a dead nun to try to save a former hooker from jail, and it’s priceless!
My second find made me realize how much the title really does for a book. I had seen it mentioned for quite some time in the Amazon discussion forums, and the fact that the novel was called, “Good Vibrations,” was in my mind completely overshadowed by the name of the series; HaChii conca-something that my mind insisted on reading as “Concentration.” (It’s supposed to be HaChii Concatenation.) I didn’t understand the words, and I got the mental image of something very ambitious that would either bore me to tears or go right over my head.
When I got the opportunity to read the book and actually make up my own mind, I found it both funny and fantastic. It is well written and researched, parts of it are hilarious, making me chuckle loud enough to catch people’s attention, and now I’m almost through book two in the series!
Besides enjoying these books and playing Farmville, I have been doing some homework too... I know that I’m smart enough to figure out how things work fairly easily, so I usually don’t bother with remembering anything. Thus, the world along with every Calculus and Statistics problem in it are new to me every day. This method has worked well for me through college up until now; my grades couldn’t be better. I ran into a little bump though with the latest task for Creative Writing: memorizing a Shakespeare Sonnet. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it. The words just fell off my non-stick coated memory, but I squeezed by and got all the points.
Spelling doesn’t usually fall out of my head in the way math does, or, at least that’s what I used to think. A few days ago, I got a mail from a friendly person pointing out that a car brakes to stop. It doesn’t break, like I had written in the prologue to “Kidnapped.” Oooooops, that's an embarrassing mistake! (Especially since I paid an editor to make sure I didn't do things like that... Shame on both of us!)
Okay, gotta go, my farm is calling. It’s decorated for Halloween now, and my haunted house is making candy that really must be harvested. =D
State of Disgrace
Good Vibrations -- Book 1 of the HaChii Concatenation
I have read a couple books that were really good. “State of Disgrace” by Linda Ann Rentschler was awesome, and I find myself thinking back on it and chuckling from time to time. The main character spent her youth in a strict environment - she was even sent to catholic school - and once she reached adulthood and met the world, adolescence sort of caught up with her. Now in her twenties, she bounces from job to job (a thing that I myself have excelled at), falls for the wrong guys, and gets into a number of impossible situations.
At first, I didn’t think I’d be able to relate to it since Catholicism is very far from my own world, but after the first page, Rentschler’s vividly painted world had me completely pulled in. Amongst other things, the main character impersonates a dead nun to try to save a former hooker from jail, and it’s priceless!
My second find made me realize how much the title really does for a book. I had seen it mentioned for quite some time in the Amazon discussion forums, and the fact that the novel was called, “Good Vibrations,” was in my mind completely overshadowed by the name of the series; HaChii conca-something that my mind insisted on reading as “Concentration.” (It’s supposed to be HaChii Concatenation.) I didn’t understand the words, and I got the mental image of something very ambitious that would either bore me to tears or go right over my head.
When I got the opportunity to read the book and actually make up my own mind, I found it both funny and fantastic. It is well written and researched, parts of it are hilarious, making me chuckle loud enough to catch people’s attention, and now I’m almost through book two in the series!
Besides enjoying these books and playing Farmville, I have been doing some homework too... I know that I’m smart enough to figure out how things work fairly easily, so I usually don’t bother with remembering anything. Thus, the world along with every Calculus and Statistics problem in it are new to me every day. This method has worked well for me through college up until now; my grades couldn’t be better. I ran into a little bump though with the latest task for Creative Writing: memorizing a Shakespeare Sonnet. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it. The words just fell off my non-stick coated memory, but I squeezed by and got all the points.
Spelling doesn’t usually fall out of my head in the way math does, or, at least that’s what I used to think. A few days ago, I got a mail from a friendly person pointing out that a car brakes to stop. It doesn’t break, like I had written in the prologue to “Kidnapped.” Oooooops, that's an embarrassing mistake! (Especially since I paid an editor to make sure I didn't do things like that... Shame on both of us!)
Okay, gotta go, my farm is calling. It’s decorated for Halloween now, and my haunted house is making candy that really must be harvested. =D
State of Disgrace
Good Vibrations -- Book 1 of the HaChii Concatenation
September 30, 2010
Random musings
A couple of months ago, I made my way to the Goodreads website for the first time. I quickly realized that they had giveaways, where one could win books, and I thought that it would be fun to create one for “Kidnapped.” I ordered five books and created the giveaway, and started to worry that no one would enter. When peeking at other giveaways, some had hundreds of entries, some even thousands, and I looked at the screen, wide-eyed, thinking that it would be so cool if I could get that many people interested too. Today, I got the result and the addresses to send books out to the winners, and I almost fell off my chair. 1210 people had entered to win! 1210 people had looked at the cover, probably read at least some of the blurb, and deemed it interesting enough to go through the steps of entering the competition. That’s awesome! If I’d had the money, I would have sent a book to each and every one of them!
I’ll be running another giveaway during October, for “Undercover.” It will be really interesting to see if that will do as well as "Kidnapped" did, or if people will be more or less interested in it.
On a completely different matter, work on my new books is proceeding slowly. School has taken over, with statistics and calculus, and I find the former so boring that I actually look forward to going to the latter. Back home, in school way back when, I remember my math teacher standing by the board, mumbling incomprehensibly about, “As x approaches infinity, blah, blah, blah, derivative, blah, blah, will give the area under this curve, blah, blah, blah.” I barely passed, and I feared starting school here because of all the math I would have to take. To my surprise, I’m really good at it, and it’s fun! (Of course, the teacher from my younger days also failed me in physics because I wanted to discuss Einstein and the theory of relativity instead of just learning E=MC^2. I guess we didn’t think alike, LOL.)
A couple of blogs ago I promised to say something about my newest project. It’s called “Embarkment 2577” in my head, and I’m still wondering if Embarkment is a real word or not. Word (the software) says it’s not, Google says it is. I’m putting my money on Google! “Embarkment” will look sooooo good on the cover!
The book is about Alexandra who wakes up in a strange environment where everything seems just a bit off. This “just a bit” increases when she finds herself in a room with a woman looking like a cat and a hologram of a rock star. They claim that she was killed in her own time and brought to the future, but her memory of all this is completely gone. It doesn’t get any better when people tell her that she’s on a spaceship; she draws the conclusion that she’s probably hallucinating it all. Maybe, she thinks, she’s in a coma and it’s all happening in her mind.
The beginning of the story has turned out to be quite bizarre. It gets a little more serious further in, but not much, and I’m debating whether it’s too silly or not. I’ve also written it in first person, a thing I don’t usually do, and I can’t decide whether to rewrite it in third person or not. While I’m discussing these matters with myself, the poor book is gathering virtual dust in the computer. The computer itself never has time to get dusty. I’ve had it for a few years now, and I bet that it was sitting on the shelf in the store waiting for someone to pick it up for a comfortable life filled with solitaire and maybe writing a letter or two. It never knew what hit it when I came and swept it with me, demanding that it edit videos and photos, and handle word-documents with hundreds of pages… Poor thing, I’ve typed so much on its little keyboard that some of the keys have fallen off. I love it dearly, and I hope it will keep working forever!
:-)
I’ll be running another giveaway during October, for “Undercover.” It will be really interesting to see if that will do as well as "Kidnapped" did, or if people will be more or less interested in it.
On a completely different matter, work on my new books is proceeding slowly. School has taken over, with statistics and calculus, and I find the former so boring that I actually look forward to going to the latter. Back home, in school way back when, I remember my math teacher standing by the board, mumbling incomprehensibly about, “As x approaches infinity, blah, blah, blah, derivative, blah, blah, will give the area under this curve, blah, blah, blah.” I barely passed, and I feared starting school here because of all the math I would have to take. To my surprise, I’m really good at it, and it’s fun! (Of course, the teacher from my younger days also failed me in physics because I wanted to discuss Einstein and the theory of relativity instead of just learning E=MC^2. I guess we didn’t think alike, LOL.)
A couple of blogs ago I promised to say something about my newest project. It’s called “Embarkment 2577” in my head, and I’m still wondering if Embarkment is a real word or not. Word (the software) says it’s not, Google says it is. I’m putting my money on Google! “Embarkment” will look sooooo good on the cover!
The book is about Alexandra who wakes up in a strange environment where everything seems just a bit off. This “just a bit” increases when she finds herself in a room with a woman looking like a cat and a hologram of a rock star. They claim that she was killed in her own time and brought to the future, but her memory of all this is completely gone. It doesn’t get any better when people tell her that she’s on a spaceship; she draws the conclusion that she’s probably hallucinating it all. Maybe, she thinks, she’s in a coma and it’s all happening in her mind.
The beginning of the story has turned out to be quite bizarre. It gets a little more serious further in, but not much, and I’m debating whether it’s too silly or not. I’ve also written it in first person, a thing I don’t usually do, and I can’t decide whether to rewrite it in third person or not. While I’m discussing these matters with myself, the poor book is gathering virtual dust in the computer. The computer itself never has time to get dusty. I’ve had it for a few years now, and I bet that it was sitting on the shelf in the store waiting for someone to pick it up for a comfortable life filled with solitaire and maybe writing a letter or two. It never knew what hit it when I came and swept it with me, demanding that it edit videos and photos, and handle word-documents with hundreds of pages… Poor thing, I’ve typed so much on its little keyboard that some of the keys have fallen off. I love it dearly, and I hope it will keep working forever!
:-)
September 6, 2010
Contest!
Right now, the website Untamed Book Reviews have a contest where you can win signed copies of "Kidnapped" and "Undercover." The contest runs until September 19th.
Check this page out for more information on how to enter: http://untamedbookreviews.com/news.html
Good luck! =D
Check this page out for more information on how to enter: http://untamedbookreviews.com/news.html
Good luck! =D
September 1, 2010
Characters
As some of you might now, I recently enrolled in a class in creative writing, reasoning that one can always get better. I did not count on the class having a poetry portion, which has been a source of amusement to people around me lately... Anyway, the class yesterday was about creating characters, and how the character is pivotal to the story. Even though I agree, my storytelling usually starts at the other end. I sometimes do get an idea for a character from something around me, but more often, I get an idea for a storyline, and then the characters start to grow from there. Once I start to write about them, their personalities and quirks form. Maria Callaway is one exception; she grew into a person of her own before the stories about her came to life, but that is because she has existed in other forums for years. I don’t know if I’m going about it backwards, it would be interesting to know how other writers do it. I’ve never thought about this before.
Someone also suggested using people you know for characters. I try not to do that; there’s a pretty big risk of upsetting friends and family. Though, sometimes it just happens. Mark in “Undercover” has a strong resemblance to a friend of mine in real life. I can’t help it; when I started to visualize the environment, it was just the way Mark had to be. My friend is truly hilarious; he’s funny in a way I would never be able to make up, and I don’t think he’ll mind all that much. That also set the scene for how other people in the book would react to him.
I’m terrible with thinking of names, and thus I tend to borrow them from people around me. That’s probably a really bad habit that will come back and bite me some day. Hahaha.
Ok, enough with looking in the rear view mirror; what’s next? I should be writing on “Wrath of the Goddess,” but I’m not. I’m working on a completely different little thing, and for some reason, I started to write in first person. I usually never do that; third person is much easier. I find it difficult to get all the nuances and emotions needed to make the narrator believable. The book is almost ready, and I’m still debating whether to change it or not. I just don’t know… What it’s about? I’ll tell you that in my next blog. This one has gotten long enough as it is. =)
//Maria
Someone also suggested using people you know for characters. I try not to do that; there’s a pretty big risk of upsetting friends and family. Though, sometimes it just happens. Mark in “Undercover” has a strong resemblance to a friend of mine in real life. I can’t help it; when I started to visualize the environment, it was just the way Mark had to be. My friend is truly hilarious; he’s funny in a way I would never be able to make up, and I don’t think he’ll mind all that much. That also set the scene for how other people in the book would react to him.
I’m terrible with thinking of names, and thus I tend to borrow them from people around me. That’s probably a really bad habit that will come back and bite me some day. Hahaha.
Ok, enough with looking in the rear view mirror; what’s next? I should be writing on “Wrath of the Goddess,” but I’m not. I’m working on a completely different little thing, and for some reason, I started to write in first person. I usually never do that; third person is much easier. I find it difficult to get all the nuances and emotions needed to make the narrator believable. The book is almost ready, and I’m still debating whether to change it or not. I just don’t know… What it’s about? I’ll tell you that in my next blog. This one has gotten long enough as it is. =)
//Maria
August 26, 2010
A little bit of this and a little bit of that...
It's been a while since I blogged. The summer has been busy; I've moved, taken summer classes, and tried to promote my books. Now everything is falling into place, and there seems to be some time left over to do things I actually enjoy. Like, talking to myself in writing...
As some of you might already know, I'm in college. It's mostly for practical reasons, but it's fun too. Anyway, I've signed up for a class in Creative Writing, and the first assignment was to start a journal. The goal is to get people used to writing regularly, and the teacher wants us to write a little something every day. She recommended about twelve pages in a four week period. That seemed easy enough. I mean, I already babble constantly in blogs and books, and spend my nights doodling ideas and thoughts down in my iPod. When I got home and told my boyfriend about the journal he nearly rolled on the floor laughing, and hollered, "Did she give you an upper limit, like a notebook a day?" He knows that the problem with me usually isn't to make me write. It's to make me shut up! LOL!
Today, the class assignment was about poetry. I really hadn't counted on having to write poems. Not my strong side. The teacher handed out little notecards and everyone got to write five words each. Then, the notecards were collected and scrambled up, and everyone ended up with new words. The assignment was to write a poem in twenty minutes containing all the words you got, and a minimum of fourty words. It also had to make sense. Owww! Hahaha!
I looked at my cards and scratched my head, thinking, "I could easily write a STORY about this..." Rearranging the cards on the desk didn't do much. I mean, the words turtle and gourmet might have a connection if one is into eating the cutesie little animals, and the step from there to information, exercise, and future might not have been as far as it seemed at the time, but nothing came to mind. My head has never been that blank.
I ended up scribbling something down, and it was the worst piece of s...t I've written in my life. I wasn't too worried about it, until it dawned on me that we were supposed to read the poems to the class. I didn't think I had much of a comfort zone; I'm not afraid to do a lot of things that normal people dread. Things like public speaking, attempting to pilot a plane or facing large and angry dogs don't faze me. Reading this utterly terrible figment of my imagination loud to the group did. I couldn't get out of it, I tried to look confident and not apologize for it, and it was a really good experience for me. I think I learned more from that than I've done from the past two years in school!
Ok, enough of babbling about things I can't write. Let's talk about books instead! There is currently a giveaway of my book "Kidnapped" on Goodreads, and during fall there will be chances to win copies of "Undercover" and "Touch of the Goddess." Soon there will also be a giveaway of my books on the site untamedbookreviews.com. Might be worth checking out!
:-)
To my great joy, a couple of people have asked if there might be another book about the characters in “Kidnapped.” The answer, at the moment, is “Yes and No.” I have started working on a little something, but it's a prequel telling the story of how the rebels get together, and giving the background story of Travis and Veronica. Thus, most of the characters from “Kidnapped” would be in it, except for Tricia. This project is still at an early stage. I write on it every now and then, but it won’t be ready this year.
Another figment of my imagination that’s almost ready takes place in the future. It will be a romantic story with a more humorous twist than the other books. Alexandra wakes up in an unfamiliar environment, and finds herself in a strange room together with one woman that seems to be half cat, and one that looks and sounds exactly like a musician Alex saw in a concert a few months earlier. Or, what she thinks is a few months earlier. It turns out that she has amnesia, that she died while saving someone, and that said someone brought her into the future to save her life. It’s really the year 2577. If all goes well, and if I can think of a name for it, hahaha, this book will be released this autumn. Funny thing with names; I have no problem writing 300 pages about something, but making up a name for it makes me want to pull my hair out!
Besides this, I keep trying to finish “Wrath of the Goddess.” My plans for “Wrath” is to have it out around Christmas, but I might have to push that a little into 2011. We’ll see what happens!
Oooh, I almost forgot a funny thing that I just have to share! I’m a real “curious George,” and I subscribe to Google Alerts. That way, I get a nice little mail every time Google discovers something written about me. The other day I got an alert for a review of “Touch,” and today I got three more alerts for the same book. When I peeked at it, I thought that it seemed familiar. Turns out that people have snatched the first review someone wrote and re-posted it on other websites under their own names. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining. To me, publicity is good, and I’m delighted if people spread a positive review for something I wrote. I’m just fascinated with a review being plagiarized. Intriguing!
Ok, that's more than enough babble from me for one night. Over and out!
//Maria
As some of you might already know, I'm in college. It's mostly for practical reasons, but it's fun too. Anyway, I've signed up for a class in Creative Writing, and the first assignment was to start a journal. The goal is to get people used to writing regularly, and the teacher wants us to write a little something every day. She recommended about twelve pages in a four week period. That seemed easy enough. I mean, I already babble constantly in blogs and books, and spend my nights doodling ideas and thoughts down in my iPod. When I got home and told my boyfriend about the journal he nearly rolled on the floor laughing, and hollered, "Did she give you an upper limit, like a notebook a day?" He knows that the problem with me usually isn't to make me write. It's to make me shut up! LOL!
Today, the class assignment was about poetry. I really hadn't counted on having to write poems. Not my strong side. The teacher handed out little notecards and everyone got to write five words each. Then, the notecards were collected and scrambled up, and everyone ended up with new words. The assignment was to write a poem in twenty minutes containing all the words you got, and a minimum of fourty words. It also had to make sense. Owww! Hahaha!
I looked at my cards and scratched my head, thinking, "I could easily write a STORY about this..." Rearranging the cards on the desk didn't do much. I mean, the words turtle and gourmet might have a connection if one is into eating the cutesie little animals, and the step from there to information, exercise, and future might not have been as far as it seemed at the time, but nothing came to mind. My head has never been that blank.
I ended up scribbling something down, and it was the worst piece of s...t I've written in my life. I wasn't too worried about it, until it dawned on me that we were supposed to read the poems to the class. I didn't think I had much of a comfort zone; I'm not afraid to do a lot of things that normal people dread. Things like public speaking, attempting to pilot a plane or facing large and angry dogs don't faze me. Reading this utterly terrible figment of my imagination loud to the group did. I couldn't get out of it, I tried to look confident and not apologize for it, and it was a really good experience for me. I think I learned more from that than I've done from the past two years in school!
Ok, enough of babbling about things I can't write. Let's talk about books instead! There is currently a giveaway of my book "Kidnapped" on Goodreads, and during fall there will be chances to win copies of "Undercover" and "Touch of the Goddess." Soon there will also be a giveaway of my books on the site untamedbookreviews.com. Might be worth checking out!
:-)
To my great joy, a couple of people have asked if there might be another book about the characters in “Kidnapped.” The answer, at the moment, is “Yes and No.” I have started working on a little something, but it's a prequel telling the story of how the rebels get together, and giving the background story of Travis and Veronica. Thus, most of the characters from “Kidnapped” would be in it, except for Tricia. This project is still at an early stage. I write on it every now and then, but it won’t be ready this year.
Another figment of my imagination that’s almost ready takes place in the future. It will be a romantic story with a more humorous twist than the other books. Alexandra wakes up in an unfamiliar environment, and finds herself in a strange room together with one woman that seems to be half cat, and one that looks and sounds exactly like a musician Alex saw in a concert a few months earlier. Or, what she thinks is a few months earlier. It turns out that she has amnesia, that she died while saving someone, and that said someone brought her into the future to save her life. It’s really the year 2577. If all goes well, and if I can think of a name for it, hahaha, this book will be released this autumn. Funny thing with names; I have no problem writing 300 pages about something, but making up a name for it makes me want to pull my hair out!
Besides this, I keep trying to finish “Wrath of the Goddess.” My plans for “Wrath” is to have it out around Christmas, but I might have to push that a little into 2011. We’ll see what happens!
Oooh, I almost forgot a funny thing that I just have to share! I’m a real “curious George,” and I subscribe to Google Alerts. That way, I get a nice little mail every time Google discovers something written about me. The other day I got an alert for a review of “Touch,” and today I got three more alerts for the same book. When I peeked at it, I thought that it seemed familiar. Turns out that people have snatched the first review someone wrote and re-posted it on other websites under their own names. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining. To me, publicity is good, and I’m delighted if people spread a positive review for something I wrote. I’m just fascinated with a review being plagiarized. Intriguing!
Ok, that's more than enough babble from me for one night. Over and out!
//Maria
