N.R. Wick's Blog, page 9

Researching the Post-Apocalyptic World

How is it possible to research and write about a world where there is no electricity, every day pleasantries such as new cloths, easy transportation, and easy meals are no longer an option? One of the most fascinating and fun things about writing a world with so much technology but no way to use it, is trying to figure out alternatives that are not too far outside the realm of possibility. Sure, the world of Land of No Angels has earthly magic, but that doesn't mean people can just magically fix things like lack of electricity or lack of food.

When I wrote Land of No Angels (and am currently writing its sequel), I had to do a lot of research about what the world would be like if there was an apocalypse and a lot of people were gone. I remember finding this fantastic page that gave a general timeline of how long electricity could stay on without human interaction depending on how their electricity was gotten. It also had a timeline of how plant life would overgrow and what the buildings would do. It was really interesting stuff.

Some excellent questions crop up when writing about a post-apocalyptic world. My favourite one was: How would an average girl survive on her own? And that's half of what sparked the book(s) idea. Other things I grew very interested in were small things like: What sort of foods would be eaten? Sure, for a while canned goods would work out, but what about when those were gone? Would people have to revert back to the ways of hunting and gathering? In the Land of No Angels universe, many of the typical animals like deer, horses, dogs, cats, bears, birds, etc. have disappeared. How long will it take before this fact royally screws up the ecosystem?

I had to do some interesting research for the second book. How to make a cake-like food for a celebration without things like chicken eggs, milk, baking powder, flour, an oven etc. Even though it's never explained how it was done in the book, it was important for me to understand whether or not it could even be done and if so, how would one go about producing such a thing. I'm sure they made such things when ovens were not invented, even if they were different than they are now.

One of the fun things I had to research in the first book was how to feed an infant without breast milk and without formula. The Ashford girls end up using cans of evaporated milk and water they had stored in their tornado bunker, which is far from good for the baby. But in my research, I discovered that 40+ years ago, it was actually used for babies. It was an interesting way to solve this problem.

Even though it's impossible to know how things would work in a post-apocalyptic world, it's so fun to make conjecture based on things we know, or can guess, or by using research from things that happened a long time ago.

Happy New Years!

Wow, it's amazing that today starts the first of a new year. This means, reflection and goal-setting time. If you are into that sort of thing. Which, I'm great at the setting part, but not so great at the following through part. All in all, 2011 had some real bad times and some really great times.

I moved twice this year, was pretty much homeless for a while, couldn't find work, etc etc. But I also wrote and published a novel. That in its self was epically amazing. I also earned my MFA in Creative Writing and wrote and published four more short stories. So, those things were great. One of the best things, though, was that my Husband and I finally made it back out to Kansas and are doing better. We have a place to live, we make enough money to survive, and I have a job that is part time but makes enough money to help support us so that I can have time to write as well. Pretty good year in the end, despite the bad.

For 2012, I imagine it's going to be great. Hopefully, anyway. My number one biggest goal for the new year is to learn to focus and maximise my productivity. I have issues with following through on things, even if they are important, unless it's for something like school or a job with foreseeable negative impacts like getting a B or losing your job. I started an exercise in productivity a week or so ago, and I will work on it some more to see if I can retrain myself to stay focused and work my ass off to do the things I want and love. Since all of those horrible, negative things that happened last year should not effect me any more, I will be able to get writing things done without feeling guilty too.

My second goal is to write three (3) novels next year. It's a huge stretch for me, but if I can get myself focused and productive, it really shouldn't be too hard. Ideally, I'd like to also publish those three. It would be great to write and publish a short story every other month too, but I don't want to push it to the point of no getting anything done.

I want to make 2012 a great year, not only for my writing and my business, but for me to have some fun too. There was so much stress last year that 2012 should be the year of awesome. I'm going to try my damnedest to make everything I want come true.

Also, there had better be snow in 2012, or so help me... *shakes fist*

I wish for the best 2012 for everyone and hope you all had a great 2011! Let me know if you have any cool 2012 goals or plans too!

N.R. Wick's Top Ten PG-13 Horror Movies

I love horror movies. Shocking, right? B-horror, teen horror, slasher movies, 80s horror. I love them all. Some of you might be wondering why I chose to list the top five best PG-13 horror movies rather than just any old horror movie. We all know the R rated ones can show the most boob and the most spilling guts, but there's something to be said about those that have been rated PG-13. Besides, I write books primarily for teens and young adults, so I wanted to make a top five that they could see without using a fake ID.
So, here we have it. N.R. Wick's top Ten PG-13 horror movies.
10. Prom Night - I know, I totally went here. While this movie is completely filled with cliches, it's a pretty good slasher film for teens. Also, there is some surprisingly fantastic cinematography in a couple scenes... if you're into that sort of thing.
9. The Haunting in Connecticut - Kyle Gallner is amazing. Also, Casey Jones Elias Koteas is in it. Half of the appeal of this movie is the two of them, but there are some other great things about it like spewing ectoplasm.
8. One Missed Call - Shannyn Sossamon has the emotional range of a rock, but this one's creepy. Who wouldn't be scared by getting a phone call from a dead friend and a message of themselves being killed?
7. White Noise - Great movie with Batman Michael Keaton obsessing over EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena). Have to admit that I love stories like this one, but I won't say much about it because I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it.
6. People Under the Stairs - This one's kind of older. Hopefully I'm not dating myself, but excellent movie. Psychopaths and people in the walls. Creepy.
5.The Mothman Prophecies - This is another one of my favorite types of stories. Some may or may not classify this as straight out horror, but it's a great movie.
4. Lady in White - Kind of old, but I love this one.
3. Last Exorcism - Not your typical exorcism movie, and it's shot in a documentary style.
2. Insidious - This one is a pretty recent one and it was not only creepy, but it's got a few fresh tropes in. Also, the paranormal investigators are darkly hilarious.
1. 1408 - Probably one of my favorites movies in general. How can you go wrong with a Stephen King story and JOHN CUSACK? You just can't. This one reminds me a little of the Silent Hill games (NOT movie).
There we have it. Trust me, it was hard to decide on only ten since there are many other awesome PG-13 horror movies.
[READER RESPONSE: What's your favourite PG-13 (or lower rating) horror movie?]

I Refuse to "Dumb Down" My Writing

A very interesting topic on vocabulary popped up on an writer's discussion board I participate in where someone questioned why an author would choose a "fancy" word over a more commonly known word. First, I wonder what a "fancy" word is. Is it just a word out of the reader's known vocabulary? Or is it a word that is rarely used in general public during this time period? Is it a word that is way too formal for the story/narrative? And really, is it a big deal if the author uses a word you don't know? Sure, you had to pull yourself out of the story to look it up, but now you know a new word. Education is always good, even while entertaining yourself.

As a writer, I refuse to "dumb down" my words, especially when I know it's the appropriate word. It's insulting to my readers. And I'll be honest, I don't have a huge or "fancy" vocabulary, but I DO write for children, teens, and young adults. Because of this, I have to be aware of what words I choose. For example, I had several fantastic beta readers for Land of No Angels, but had one mention that I should consider changing a word because it may be too advanced for the YA audience. The word was "equidistant", which I don't think is a very "fancy" or advanced word, but I considered the comment before ultimately keeping the word.

Had the book been a Middle Grade I may have changed it, but because it's a Young Adult book and my target audience is between 15-20, I felt that if they didn't already know this word, then they should. Don't YAs learn this word in high school math? I'm pretty sure they do. If they don't, then it's a great way to introduce them to the word. Why use two or more words to describe something that one word can? I trust that my readers are smart enough to either know the word, guess what the word means, or to educate themselves and look up its meaning.

Now, if the "fancy" words are used arbitrarily for no other reason other than to abuse the thesaurus and try to make the writing sound smart, that's where I draw the line. It tends to be easier to point out these instances since the vocabulary tends to be awkward when read with the rest of the story.

In the end, as long as the vocabulary is appropriate to the style, time period, narrator, and the audience, I don't see a reason to "dumb it down".

Writing The Opposite Gender

So, today's a writing day and because the task ahead of me is so daunting, I'm here procrastinating instead of doing my work. Due to some news and business advice, I decided that instead of working on my Middle Grade novel, I was going to bang out this Young Adult novel that was next on my list. One of the biggest struggles I've come across in writing this story is that the main character is the opposite gender that I am.

I've written male leads before, and I'm by no means a girly girl, but I have to consider my audience, my limited knowledge of the male mind, and the story of this novel when I'm writing. For example, I believe more females read YA than males do, so my book having a male lead could be harmful if not done well. I noticed that of my two published short stories and my novel, the one with a male lead character and male on the cover does not sell as well as my other two. Could it be that the cover is just not as strong as the others? Perhaps, but when I consider how many YA books out there have a male lead, it makes me wonder.

This book I'm working on will have a much stronger romantic element to it than anything else I've written/published thus far, so to help attract the most people, I intend for the cover to show both an attractive male AND an attractive female. Doing so should keep it more neutral. I don't want to give anyone the impression that it's a paranormal romance, because it's a paranormal mystery of sorts, but I think highlighting the romance will help me reach my target audience, which is young adults between 13 and 19.

All that aside, the actual writing can be a challenge at times. In a good way, of course. But how much teenage boy do I want to include in the story before I start losing girl readers? I've been thinking about good YA I've read with male lead characters, and most of them were written by women. For example, Beautiful Creatures is a great book and has a male lead, and while the characters voice was there, I don't recall him feeling very manly. Teenage boys think about boobs and girls and nice legs, don't they? But I don't recall much of these things happening in the YA books with male leads written by women. I'm not saying that they have to overpower the story with the character talking about sex or boobs, but if a girl's blouse is too low or skirt too high and all the character does is mention this like an asexual third party observer, then what does that mean?

It's possible that I'm just over-generalizing teenage boys and that the majority of them don't sneak an (un)intentional glance at an attractive girl's chest when she leans over in her low cut top, or they don't notice long sexy legs in a short skirt. Maybe all of the guys in the books are too effeminate or too much of gentlemen to do such things. Or maybe the women writing the stories don't think it's important enough to mention, and maybe it isn't. I'm not sure, but I always found it strange that the point of view male characters were never as teenage boy-like as they should be. Again, it could just be me not knowing what I'm talking about.

So, how can I convey that this main character is in fact a teenage boy and not a woman trying to write a teenage boy? Voice and characterization are key, but how do I do this without making assumptions or stereotyping the character? An idea I had was in the way they notice things. Generally, I would say men are more visual and women are more intuitive. This is not to say that every single case is exactly the same or that both genders can't be both visual and intuitive. I know this happens and that's fine, but I'm speaking in general terms for the sake of this example. If both a man and a woman were to walk into a restaurant scene, how would their narratives differ? Would their narratives still differ if they were written in 3rd person rather than 1st? As a writer, I would tackle them differently, even in 3rd because the things they notice and the way they notice them would be different between them, not just because they are different people, but because they are different genders too.


[READER INTERACTION]: What are your thoughts on the subject? If you write, how do you tackle this challenge? Know any great examples of an author writing a lead/POV character of the opposite gender?

In Defense of the Thesaurus

The thesaurus is one of those things that can either be beneficial, or it can be the key to your undoing. General consensus deems that the thesaurus is a troublemaker for professional and amateur writers alike. Stephen King has even gone on record to say, "Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule."* While I adore him and his writing, maybe I'm just too naive or too inexperienced to agree completely. Another source of my sudden need to defend the thesaurus was in a book I am currently reading, Robert's Rules of Writing. Even though I'm enjoying the book and there are some wonderful little snippets of advice, I can't help but slightly disagree. For example, "Thesaurus words are words you would never use on your own; the fact you had to resort to the thesaurus just to find them proves it." (Masello, 293-98) I don't disagree with this statement completely, but I do have to come to the thesaurus' aid.

I have a confession: I use the thesaurus. Often. All the time, really. My desktop dictionary/thesaurus is open almost the entire time I write or am on my computer at all. Why? Because I don't have a vast vocabulary, nor do I remember the exact meaning of every word I (or anyone else) have ever used. This doesn't mean I lack skill, or that I'm an amateur, or worse: just and idiot. It means that I have a zillion other things going on in my head at one time and I can't always remember things, even when I really do use them on a daily basis.

Let's do a quick scenario. I'm looking for a different word for a colour. It's red, but not the typical cadmium red, or tomato red. Crimson's not quite right either. Also, who wants to use those couple of words over and over again in their writing? Not me. I'm thinking of a dark reddish colour with maybe a hint of purple, but I can't think of the word. I know there's a word for it, but for some reason I can't remember what it's called. It's a word I use plenty in my vocabulary, and, hell, I can even tell you exactly how to mix the paint that will make that exact colour. But for some reason, the word escapes me. Should I put "He wrapped a dark, reddish-purple colored shawl over her shoulders and sat down next to her." and use so many words? Or should I take the two seconds out of my "organic flow" of writing to type in 'red', click enter in my dictionary/thesaurus program, and find BURGUNDY sitting in there among the other different types of red? Heh, which do you think I picked?

This happens to me plenty of times with other things too. Completely common words that I can't think of during my focused writing time. Sometimes I'll just go back and edit, but my brain doesn't work that way. If I'm writing about an imp and it's fleeing from someone, shouldn't I use a better word than 'run'? Maybe that word doesn't reflect how he's actually moving. So let's work through some words I could use: dart, bolt. Okay, sure, those are pretty good. It implies quick movement, which works for an imp. Scamper or scurry would be better, though. Sometimes I can't remember the meanings of words, so I will check the thesaurus and the dictionary to be sure the words mean exactly what I'm visualizing in my head. I don't want to use the word 'run' when I meant the word 'scamper'. Run is NOT the right word. Scamper is. No matter what any other author tries to say. Should I leave it as run because I had to use the thesaurus to remind me of the word scamper?

There are so many different and commonly used words for many things that sometimes, to make the writing clearer and less wordy, it would be better to use one of those words. Maybe I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, or maybe I'm just not as awesome as those who hate on the thesaurus. And I can understand. Some people... even extremely famous authors *cough* abuse the thesaurus with inane synonyms that people haven't used since who knows when. Funny, though, that this same author uses a few other words so many times in the same page that it becomes ridiculous. At any rate, when used well and not mistreated, the thesaurus can be a useful tool. And I'll continue to use it without shame.

[READER RESPONSE] How do you feel about the thesaurus? Do you ever use it? Why or why not?


*Quote found on http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/...

Dragon Dictate and No Hands Writing

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time working with a dictation software called Dragon Dictate (Formerly known as MacSpeech), and thought I would share my experience and how using such software will optimize my writing experience. First, I'll preface this by saying that Dragon Dictate is the mac version of Dragon Naturally Speaking, only it's more expensive and doesn't work as well. From what I've read, anyway. However, I've found Dictate to be an amazing and fun way to dictate my handwritten work to the computer, and I'm even trying to dictate directly, skipping the handwriting process.

Beginning with the training. When you first get the program, you will have to train it to recognize your voice. The training doesn't take long, though, and you're on your way. You can dictate to a lot of different programs, but I chose to just dictate in the Dragon window, then copy/paste it into my normal program (Scrivener), because it's less buggy in the dragon window. Sometimes in Scrivener it was adding random letters for no reason I could understand or find.

I began officially dictating with chapter two of my next novel project, which is the sequel to Land of No Angels. So, there are a lot of little word quirks, such demon names. Often times if the name sounds like something else, I will have to retrain it almost every time. For example, the demon name Halpas is impossible for the software to understand no matter how many times I retrain or correct it. Often times it won't even show up in the list of words to choose from when trying to correct it. Luckily, the name hasn't come up much, yet, but when it does, I'm going to lose my mind.

There was another name, one that is a normal name and was actually already in the program's vocabulary, that I had trouble with: Nadia. No matter how many times I tried to get it right, the program always changed it to Nokia. In the end, I deleted Nokia from the vocabulary and I haven't had another problem since. This can't be done with Halpas, though, because the words that pop up for that name are words like "help us" or "helpless". Basically, words I will need at some point. Even if I emphasized the 'ah' (as in autumn) and 'a' (as in at), the program changes it to 'hall pass', which, I suppose, is closer than the others, but still not right.

Strangely enough, it immediately had no issues with the name Errol the first time I spoke the name. Though, at times it will now change it to Carol. For the most part, though, it recognizes my words just fine. I enunciate pretty well to begin with, and it does worse when I'm slurring some, but it's not so bad. I correct as I go and am still doing pretty well with productivity. Reading from my two handwritten chapters took a lot less time than typing them. Usually it would take me an entire week to write them out, but this took three days.

Today I decided to try dictating straight from my brain, to my mouth, to the computer for chapter four. This was amazingly difficult to begin with because I like to write things down. Seeing the words makes them more understandable for me. At first, straight dictating felt awkward and I struggled a little, but after a while, I was much better at it. In the end, it was just as fast to dictate than it was to write by hand, and much faster than typing myself. Normally I only write for 30 minutes in an hour because I get distracted and I suffer pain in my hands and wrists. But with dictating, my hands hurt less and I was more focused and interested in what I was doing. Somehow it made me focus more. I'm not sure how, but it did. Perhaps I was more focused because it took a lot more brain power to translate the narrative into speech rather than the silent translation of narrative to my fingers.

A couple awesome things I noticed while straight dictating:
-Dialogue was a lot easier to dictate than narrative and went a lot faster.
-My dialogue felt more real because I was actually having the conversations out loud.

[READER RESPONSE] If you've ever used dictation software, how did/do you like it? Did you find it more or less useful? If you haven't ever used dictation software, would you like to? What problems could come with using such a software?

Themes: Siblings and Family

One of my most favourite themes has to do with family, and particularly siblings. It pops up in my writing a lot and I enjoy writing about brothers and sisters looking out for one another. I'm the eldest of four, and my sister is 7 years younger while my twin brothers are about 8 years younger. It's a pretty big responsibility to be the head sibling. This was especially the case for my family, but despite everything, having siblings is great.

Land of No Angels has a strong theme around family because the main character, Rebecca, only has her sister left. She's the eldest of the Ashford sisters and looks after Errol, who can be a trouble maker at times. In the setting of the book, there is constant danger because of the demons and the idea developed from some of my own fears.

When I was younger, and even now on rare occasions, I would have nightmares about my own siblings and about how I couldn't save them from some horrible monster. Whether it be the evil leprechaun from that terrible (but hilarious) horror movie trying to boil them alive, or a car with no driver trying to run them down in the street, the dreams were a compilation of Eldest Sibling Fears. The fear that you won't be strong enough to look out for them, or the fear that you will be helpless to stop horrible things from happening to them. It doesn't even have to be supernatural like in my books. It can be real things like "Are they making the right decisions?"

These may be more the sort of things parents should worry about for their children rather than the head sibling. However, I love my sister and brothers very much and when I hear about my sister's friends getting into deadly car accidents or my brothers' friends doing stupid things and getting into trouble, I can't help but worry about them. I know that my siblings are smarter than that, but it's still something on my mind. It must be the nature of being the big sister.

[READER RESPONSE:] Are you the "Head Sibling"? Or are you the middle or youngest child? What's it like for you? How do you feel about the theme of family in books?

Two Weeks of Awesome!

So, in case you haven't heard: Land of No Angels is on Sale for a super awesome BIRTHDAY price! Why? Well, because August is the month for birthdays in my family. Mine is on the 19th, my husband on the 27th, and my dad and HIS dad are also in August. So, to honour so many birthdays, I thought it'd be fun to have a sale. It's only going to last through the 14th, so don't miss the chance.

Also, I'm finally able to show off the book trailer for Land of No Angels. It was super fun to create, and if you missed the blog post where I talked about my process for creating the trailer, you can check it out here!



The cool thing about the two weeks of awesome is that at the end of it, my young adult short story will be available for your reading pleasure. So, yeaaaay!

[READER RESPONSE] This reader response is going to be a bit different. If you were stuck in the demon apocalypse, would you hide, fight, or die? If you would fight, what would be your weapon of choice? Also, name one person you would fight to the death to protect from demons and why?

Special Guest Author: Jerry Hanel

Today we have an excellent guest, Jerry Hanel, author of Death Has a Name, for the release of the second book in his Brodie Wade series, Thaloc Has a Body, and it's very exciting! I'm going to hand this post over to Jerry so he can talk about his awesome new book.

My name is Jerry Hanel, and the book I've written is a paranormal mystery/thriller called Thaloc Has a Body. It is the second book in the Brodie Wade series.


What is a "Thaloc"?
Thaloc was an Egyptian creature that was believed to take the form of anyone. I've embellished the legend of Thaloc slightly, adding a few points from "experts" in order to explain how the villain is connected to the murders, but I tried to stay as true to the original legend as I could.

As far as how Thaloc relates to the paranormal world, thus how he would relate to Brodie's ability, Thaloc was a spirit being, very similar to the western concept of the Grim Reaper. Using that template, you can see that it's not a far cry from the first book, with with an Egyptian twist, and a plot twist that I think will leave the reader stunned and amazed. Time will tell, I suppose.

So, how do you pronounce 'Thaloc'?
I'm not sure, to be honest. I've actually had several differing opinions given to me on that. Some say Thay-lock, others say Thahl-lock. I even had one person quote it gangsta-style; The-lock. For me, I refer to it as Thahl-lock. I guess that's part of the mystery, but also part of the history of this creature. He is an unknown. A black hole. Since he can become so many different things, having a single pronounciation of his name seems almost too rigid. Pronounce it however it is comfortable to you in hour head. I guess that's the best way of all.

How did you come up with the idea for the book?
In the first book, Death Has a Name, Brodie had to confront the Angel of Death and his apprentice. While, I have a personal belief about humans and alternate realms, and such, I always want my characters to battle other humans, not necessarily non-human entities. It just makes for a much more dramatic story, in my mind. In Death Has a Name, I pushed even my own boundaries on that personal rule. Brodie still had to battle the apprentice, but there were a few plot twists that I really struggled with, internally.

For Thaloc Has a Body, I wanted Brodie to have to confront actual flesh-and-blood people, without any gray areas and I thought that a shape-shifter would be the perfect medium to make those encounters much more interesting, while remaining true to the themes started in Death Has a Name.

What do you think readers will enjoy most about your book?
Two words; Jamie Stanford. She is the love interest that was briefly introduced in the first novel. Brodie was so freaked out (as he normally is) by the case at hand, he missed the signs of her trying to flirt with him. In this book, she takes matters into her own hands and invites herself on a date. Through that character, we get to see so much more about Brodie and get past his angst-riddled brain into his heart. He really is a caring man, and Jamie brings out so many facets in Brodie that we've never seen before.

Who is your favourite character?
Picking a favorite is hard. All of my characters are reflections of some aspect of me. Even the villains are the darker side of my past, expounded a thousand times, of course. I mean, I wouldn't want to actually kill someone, much less do it in the way that they do. But I can see how someone could be drawn down those dark paths and deluded into doing the things they do. And even those dark characters have a soul somewhere deep in there that I guess my soul can identify with.

If I absolutely had to choose a character, and my life depended on it, I would say Brodie. He's the unsure, scared little boy inside me that has never really grown up. There are so many qualities to Brodie that make him socially awkward that I can relate. But when you get past those awkward moments, he's probably the nicest, most caring man on the planet.

Do you listen to music while you write, and if so what music for this book or in general?
When I write, I generally have my headphones on, listening to whatever music will set the mood for the scene I'm working on. My favorite bands are "The Letter Black", "Red" and "Thousand Foot Krutch." They all seem to have themes dealing with dark, painful issues, but they all have this brilliant, bright, shining thread of hope, grace and redemption that inspire me, despite their dark themes. I guess I can relate to the music, reflect on my past choices, and apply those to the scene I want to create to come up with the story in my head.

Tell us where to find you online and buy your book.
This series is all over the internet right now; Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc. But I really think Amazon has it down to a science. They give my readers the best price and they are really good to me as an author in the process, so it's a win-win situation.

You can reach me directly on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/JerryHanel

Or on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/Jerry-Hanel-Author

I also have a blog:
http://www.jerryhanel.com

Thank you for taking the time today to interview me. I've really enjoyed it.

-Jerry

Thanks a lot Jerry for being a guest here at nrwick.com and good luck with Thaloc Has a Body!

Readers, if you are interested in reading Death Has a Name or Thaloc Has a Body, I've provided links below.