Jennifer Bray-Weber's Blog, page 35

Hump Day Kick Start – Lethal Leather Edition

Hump Day Kick Start – for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or ju st a visual treat.

 

 

In honor of International Talk Like A Pirate Day this past Monday, I give you today’s prompt.

If you know who this is, I raise my mug o’ rum to ya. But putting that aside, tell me about him. Who is he (in your world)? What or who is he looking at? Is that his desk his boots are propped upon or someone else’s? Has he come home, surprising the father that threw him out ten years ago? Maybe making a deal with someone far more dangerous than himself? Did the person he plans to kill just walk into the room? Could he be waiting for a certain blonde author to finish her next pirate novel, come to give her a little persuasion?

What’s your take? Tell a tale or caption the pic.

Link Of The Week-An Easy Book Trailer

They claim they are the world’s simplest video maker! I poked around a bit and took a look at some author’s who have used them for their book trailers. Looks pretty good! Check it out and let me know what you think.

 

https://biteable.com/

Hump Day Kick Start – The Forbidden Book Edition

Hump Day Kick Start – for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or ju st a visual treat.

Ooh. The intrigue! Tell me about this book. Who does it belong to? A mad scientist from the future? A missing child? A jaded lover? What’s inside? Is it a spell book with instructions to unleash evil upon us? Information on the day the world ends?  A detailed confession? Evidence that vampires exist? My juicy diary?

Give it a shot. Tell a tale or caption the pic.

Link Of The Week-Sex

Let’s face it, writing good love scenes are hard. Notice I say “GOOD” love scenes. So many of them out there are filled with purple prose and enough cheese to fill Holland. I decided to put together a few sites to help you out!

This book has a great example of a super hot scene without actually having sex.

https://laurelclarke.wordpress.com/2014/08/18/sexy-thesaurus-romance-erotica-words/

http://home.epix.net/~jlferri/sexrom.htmlhttp://www.utne.com/arts/how-to-write-a-sex-scene.aspx

Great examples of well written love scenes!

500 Great Words for Writing Love Scenes

 

Hump Day Kick Start – El Camino Joy Ride Edition

Hump Day Kick Start – for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or ju st a visual treat.

I have a love/hate thing about El Caminos. I used to think they were ugly cars good only for picking up a keg or two. Now I see their classic car potential.

Today’s prompt has found another use for the vehicle. Who is she and what is she doing? Could she and her boyfriend be making a run for the border after a terrible misunderstanding? Is she target practicing for the upcoming county fair? What if she and the driver are trying to escape a zombie invasion? Maybe she’s so hungry (just look at how skinny she is!) that she is robbing someone of their hamburger.

Love to hear your take. Or just caption the pic.

Friday Fun Facts- Voodoo

Ahhhh Hollywood. We have it to thank for voodoo being one of the most misunderstood religions around. It focused on the dark underbelly and mysticism associated with this belief system and messed up what little it did try to portray correctly. That doesn’t mean voodoo isn’t interesting and might not have a few things that will make you shiver.

There is no single founder of voodoo.
There are 3 main types of voodoo, West African, Louisiana, and Haitian voodoo.
There are strong parallels between it and Christianity. In fact, Pope John II participated in a voodoo ceremony cementing the peaceful coexistence the two churches have.
The dolls are more complicated than what we think. They don’t represent the person they were made for- a picture, a lock of hair, or something personal must be attached to the doll to link it to the person. It was used mostly for good, but like most things, it depends on the darkness of the practitioner with how dark the purpose is.
Marie Laveau’s name is synonymous with voodoo. But what you might not know is that she worked tirelessly for her community. She gave assistance to the homeless, the hungry and the sick.  In fact, people still leave offerings at her supposed grave asking for help.
Voodoo priests and priestesses undergo a long period of training before performing any ritual that opens themselves up to spiritual possession. During these rituals, one of the two spirits that inhabit the body—the ti bon ange—leaves the body so the spirit of a loa can possess it. The ti bon ange is the portion of the spirit that contains the individual, and must be protected when the individual is hosting a loa. The other part, the gros bon ange, is a spirit that is shared among all the living.
Animal sacrifice is a part of voodoo. It is not so much about the icky morbid as it is about elevating the life force of the loa spirit. The meat is also then cooked and eaten as part of the celebration.
There is a voodoo serpent god called Danballa.They believe he is the creator of the world and also carries the souls of the dead to the afterlife. When practitioners are possessed by this god, they don’t talk, they hiss.
There are no distinctions of black and white voodoo. In fact, when an evil spirit is called forth, it is called Red magic because the person’s eyes turn red when they are possessed by evil.
The voodoo pantheon has 3 levels. The highest is a single god, the second is the loa, those that interact with humans, and their ancestors, and finally there is us.
The Kingdom of Oyotunji is a traditional West African voodoo village near Sheldon, South Carolina. It is technically not part of the United States.

Hump Day Kick Start – Down with Gold Edition

Hump Day Kick Start – for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or ju st a visual treat.

Just seemed like a good time for some man candy.

Brownie points if you know who he really is. But for the sake of today’s prompt, who is our guy? What is he looking at? A door? A body? His next orders? What is his expression? Could he be at a point of no return? Is he a futuristic mercenary? Good, moral detective about to cross a line? Regular Joe who was blackmailed and now hunting his wife’s killer? Male representation of a reluctant drone bee forced to be at the queen bee’s beck and call?

Tell me a tale or caption the pic.

Link Of The Week-An Editor Extraordinnaire

We all know and love Jennifer Bray Weber! She’s a talented author who has won many awards and is multi-published. I’m one of her biggest fans!

But, did you know she’s also an amazing editor? Jennifer has worked with best selling authors and those just beginning. Here’s what one author has to say about her services:

“Jennifer Bray-Weber has an excellent eye for details, story telling and the mechanics of writing. She offers a comprehensive line edit as well as a thorough look into the nitty-gritty details of your story to make sure that it is cohesive. I enjoy her style and approach. Her feedback was spot on and truly helped me enhance my story, drawing out my voice, without losing any of the creativity and uniqueness of the story. Additionally, she helped me immensely with historical wording (etymology). I can’t recommend her enough!”

Eliza Knight, award-winning author.

We all need tools in our belt to produce the manuscripts possible- this is one tool you don’t want to miss!

 

http://www.jbrayweber.com/editing–critiquing-services.html

Hump Day Kick Start – Throwing Knives Edition

Hump Day Kick Start – for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or ju st a visual treat.

Let’s slice up another prompt, shall we?

Who is today’s subject and what is she about to do? Assassin arming herself before she seduces her next hit? Carnie practicing for tonight’s show? Surgeon by day, pyscho by night terrorizing her victim? Could she be flashing her new boyfriend who happens to be a blade enthusiast? Maybe she’s a manicurist with a hangnail and wicked arsenal of unorthodox tools.

Love to hear your take or just caption the pic.

Link Of The Week- Pronoun

I discovered this company at the annual conference of RWA in San Diego. They offer many services and looks like it may be a great place to do further investigation.

https://pronoun.com/

 

Pronoun is a publishing platform created expressly to empower authors.

Create gorgeous ebooks and sell on Amazon, iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and Google
Take the mystery out of metadata and optimize your keywords, price, and more
Always know how your book is doing with daily sales and performance updates
Get a custom marketing page to promote your book and connect with readers

 

All for free.