Grant Morris's Blog, page 3
August 19, 2012
Interview with Ramblings of a Book Junkie
Gooooooooood Morning! It's really early: 4:43 in the AM! My eyes opened at 3:30 and naturally Dennis from The Silver Earth Seed and The Tusks of Odoben was chattering away. He's been repeating the same dialogue, over and over, in my head since yesterday at 5:00 PM when I left the computer to enjoy my nephew Corbin's birthday party. Dennis really wants to make sure I get his dialogue juuuuust right.
So now it's writing time! While the rest of the world is asleep--well, not everyone. It's early afternoon in Europe and in Spain it's always a 24 hour party, so I guess I'm not alone! Oh, but listen to me, I'm rambling....
And that is a perfect segue into announcing a recent interview I did with Kayla at Ramblings of a Book Junkie. Every Sunday Kayla sits down with an author to discuss their books and to get to know them a little better. As an author I enjoy reading these interviews because I get to learn how other authors work and what sort of neuroses they have. Then I don't feel so alone. As a reader I get to solidify my geekdom and satisfy my nerdilicious curiosities about my favorite authors.
So, check out the interview and feel free to leave a comment, because comments are like smiles from a passerby. They make you feel good. Unless they're a creepy passerby, then the smile has a different and less pleasant effect. Ahhh, but I'm rambling again....
Also feel free to browse Kayla's blog and you can even join her site!
Have a greeeeeat Sunday!
Till next time, keep reading and writing (and rambling).
So now it's writing time! While the rest of the world is asleep--well, not everyone. It's early afternoon in Europe and in Spain it's always a 24 hour party, so I guess I'm not alone! Oh, but listen to me, I'm rambling....
And that is a perfect segue into announcing a recent interview I did with Kayla at Ramblings of a Book Junkie. Every Sunday Kayla sits down with an author to discuss their books and to get to know them a little better. As an author I enjoy reading these interviews because I get to learn how other authors work and what sort of neuroses they have. Then I don't feel so alone. As a reader I get to solidify my geekdom and satisfy my nerdilicious curiosities about my favorite authors.
So, check out the interview and feel free to leave a comment, because comments are like smiles from a passerby. They make you feel good. Unless they're a creepy passerby, then the smile has a different and less pleasant effect. Ahhh, but I'm rambling again....
Also feel free to browse Kayla's blog and you can even join her site!
Have a greeeeeat Sunday!
Till next time, keep reading and writing (and rambling).
August 17, 2012
My 2nd Follow Friday
It's Friday! That means another Follow Friday is in order. How it works is you follow my blog and I'll follow yours. But do make sure to say "hello" in the comments so I know you've followed me :)
August 16, 2012
I'm fine, really, it's just how I roll.
I caught myself doing the strangest thing while writing today. I'm sure I've always had this quirky habit but for some reason today I became conscious of it.
So as I was writing dialogue I caught my lips moving. Yes, I was actually mouthing my character's words as I wrote them. I guess you could say my character was speaking through me. Ewww, scary, like I'm a medium at a seance.
I also noticed that whenever I write an action, say something like, "Then he ducked out of the way," I literally duck as I'm writing. As if to test whether it's a true reaction.
When my character squints, I squint first, to be sure it feels right. So, in a way, I'm acting out the scene as I write it.
Let's just hope I don't have to write a drowning scene. I might find myself submerging my head in bath water.
Yikes!
Till next time, keep reading and writing (and behaving strangely).
So as I was writing dialogue I caught my lips moving. Yes, I was actually mouthing my character's words as I wrote them. I guess you could say my character was speaking through me. Ewww, scary, like I'm a medium at a seance.
I also noticed that whenever I write an action, say something like, "Then he ducked out of the way," I literally duck as I'm writing. As if to test whether it's a true reaction.
When my character squints, I squint first, to be sure it feels right. So, in a way, I'm acting out the scene as I write it.
Let's just hope I don't have to write a drowning scene. I might find myself submerging my head in bath water.
Yikes!
Till next time, keep reading and writing (and behaving strangely).
August 15, 2012
Chapter Images #2
So I stopped by Rachel's house on a whim and I was very surprised and thrilled to find another spectacular chapter image is complete for The Tusks of Odoben!
Allow me to introduce one of my favorite characters, Tuffy.
Tuffy is a Basajaun. In Basque folklore Basajauns are extremely hairy creatures that dwell in the Pyrenees mountains in southern France and northern Spain.
But I'm here to tell you that Tuffy is very real. He lives in a small village called Saugiss. He absolutely loves Espelette peppers--the spicier the better.
Tuffy is rarely seen without his satchel, which is often filled with tasty treats, like caramel stuffed Espelette peppers or coconut truth syrup.
You'll find Tuffy's image at the beginning of chapter one in The Tusks of Odoben, due out in November! Or you can discover him now in The Silver Earth Seed.
Till next time, keep reading and writing (and nibbling on Espelette peppers).
Allow me to introduce one of my favorite characters, Tuffy.
Tuffy is a Basajaun. In Basque folklore Basajauns are extremely hairy creatures that dwell in the Pyrenees mountains in southern France and northern Spain.
But I'm here to tell you that Tuffy is very real. He lives in a small village called Saugiss. He absolutely loves Espelette peppers--the spicier the better.
Tuffy is rarely seen without his satchel, which is often filled with tasty treats, like caramel stuffed Espelette peppers or coconut truth syrup.
You'll find Tuffy's image at the beginning of chapter one in The Tusks of Odoben, due out in November! Or you can discover him now in The Silver Earth Seed.
Till next time, keep reading and writing (and nibbling on Espelette peppers).
August 13, 2012
A writer's OCD
I admit, I have a mild case of OCD - Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder. And it affects my writing, and not in a good way. I think it started in childhood, at least according to my father. Apparently while spoon feeding me, a tiny drop of baby food splatted on my t-shirt. I proceeded to cry and scream until my father replaced the soiled shirt with a fresh clean one. Then all was right in the world.
Fast-forward a few decades...ahem, and I still can't stand to be stained. That's one reason while you'll never see a tattoo on this boy. I would scrub my arm with sandpaper until my skin was once again unblemished or reduced to bloody ribbons. So needless to say my teenage years of pimples and blackheads were horrible in so many ways.
But what does all this have to do with writing?
Well, the OCD has mutated. No longer is the disorder restricted to stains and blemishes. Now it's blossomed into a whole new enigmatic disorder that has me staring at the page margins in dismay if they're not perfectly aligned. You see, I use to write with the alignment to the left. But do you see how choppy it looks (observe the paragraphs above)?
Then I discovered the Justify option, where all the words are aligned both on the right and the left. Ahhh, blissful uniformity. No stains. No blemishes. All is right in the world.
Wrong!
That's when I noticed that the spaces between words varied. Some sentences with extraordinarily humongous words would have huge gaps in them even though they were justified. You can see my point in the sentence above.
And I can't help but notice this craziness as I'm writing. I ought to be reserving my creativity for the story and the characters and the dialogue. Instead I find myself changing words around just so the sentences look aesthetically perfect. What a nightmare, right? I'm basically sacrificing good, clean writing for the sake of visual uniformity. When I should be paying attention to rhythm and timing and truth in storytelling.
So, I deal with my writing OCD daily. I still find myself substituting a word for another just so the sentence looks even. Bad, Grant! But I can't help it. And then I convince myself that I really did choose a better word. Or the reason why the sentence is perfectly aligned is because the story is told exactly the way the cosmos planned it.
And Grant said on the seventh word change the story was good.
And it was so.
Till next time, keep reading and writing!
Fast-forward a few decades...ahem, and I still can't stand to be stained. That's one reason while you'll never see a tattoo on this boy. I would scrub my arm with sandpaper until my skin was once again unblemished or reduced to bloody ribbons. So needless to say my teenage years of pimples and blackheads were horrible in so many ways.
But what does all this have to do with writing?
Well, the OCD has mutated. No longer is the disorder restricted to stains and blemishes. Now it's blossomed into a whole new enigmatic disorder that has me staring at the page margins in dismay if they're not perfectly aligned. You see, I use to write with the alignment to the left. But do you see how choppy it looks (observe the paragraphs above)?
Then I discovered the Justify option, where all the words are aligned both on the right and the left. Ahhh, blissful uniformity. No stains. No blemishes. All is right in the world.
Wrong!
That's when I noticed that the spaces between words varied. Some sentences with extraordinarily humongous words would have huge gaps in them even though they were justified. You can see my point in the sentence above.
And I can't help but notice this craziness as I'm writing. I ought to be reserving my creativity for the story and the characters and the dialogue. Instead I find myself changing words around just so the sentences look aesthetically perfect. What a nightmare, right? I'm basically sacrificing good, clean writing for the sake of visual uniformity. When I should be paying attention to rhythm and timing and truth in storytelling.
So, I deal with my writing OCD daily. I still find myself substituting a word for another just so the sentence looks even. Bad, Grant! But I can't help it. And then I convince myself that I really did choose a better word. Or the reason why the sentence is perfectly aligned is because the story is told exactly the way the cosmos planned it.
And Grant said on the seventh word change the story was good.
And it was so.
Till next time, keep reading and writing!
August 12, 2012
Follow Friday
I'm a little late to the party. But we can continue on Sunday what was started on Friday. How it works is you follow my blog and I'll follow yours. But do make sure to say "hello" in the comments so I know you've followed me :)
August 10, 2012
Writer's Block
Don't fret, I don't have it. Whew! But I did for about two months. It's a very frightening and depressing ailment. But for me it doesn't affect all of my writing, only the particular piece I happen to be working on at the time. It happened recently while I was writing the Tusks of Odoben. And, as usual, the affliction struck mid-story. I don't have a problem with beginnings or endings. It's the dreaded middle that gives me guff!
Usually writer's block rears its ugly head when I'm faced with a huge directional decision: the proverbial fork in the road. My main character can go this way or that way. And the way I choose will influence the entire direction of the story. That's the frightening part. Which way do I go? So I mull it over and over. And sometimes the mulling lasts a couple of months.
During this non-writing period I tend to get depressed. I eat a lot more potato chips and watch a lot more TV. I frown at the dishes but never really feel the urge to do them. I play out the directional possibilities over and over in my head....
Until one day the decision is made. POP, just like that. The neurons and synapses have aligned. And I feel good about it. In fact I feel GREAT about it. I toss out the chips and blow a raspberry at the dishes. I run to the office and shut the door behind me. Nothing can stop me now. It's full speed ahead!
Ain't writing grand?!
Till next time, keep reading and writing!
Usually writer's block rears its ugly head when I'm faced with a huge directional decision: the proverbial fork in the road. My main character can go this way or that way. And the way I choose will influence the entire direction of the story. That's the frightening part. Which way do I go? So I mull it over and over. And sometimes the mulling lasts a couple of months.
During this non-writing period I tend to get depressed. I eat a lot more potato chips and watch a lot more TV. I frown at the dishes but never really feel the urge to do them. I play out the directional possibilities over and over in my head....
Until one day the decision is made. POP, just like that. The neurons and synapses have aligned. And I feel good about it. In fact I feel GREAT about it. I toss out the chips and blow a raspberry at the dishes. I run to the office and shut the door behind me. Nothing can stop me now. It's full speed ahead!
Ain't writing grand?!
Till next time, keep reading and writing!
August 8, 2012
I'm rising earlier and earlier
And no that's not a reference to anything vampire related. I have not (and I'm pretty sure I won't be) jumping on the vampire bandwagon anytime soon. But I have been going to sleep earlier and rising earlier, just like a vamp. Why? Because my brain works better in the morning.
Yes, even at the ungodly hour of 3am. I can focus on my writing--I mean, really focus on the characters and the direction of the story. By 4pm I turn into a zombie (and, no, I won't be writing the undead into any of my stories either).
The road is clear for The Tusks of Odoben. I'm really getting excited because I can visualize the scenes leading up to a spectacular climax. If you've read The Silver Earth Seed and/or Deacon Leeds then you know I am a big fan of climactic battle scenes. My goal is for TTOO to build up to a point where it feels like everything is going to explode...and then it does: BOOM!
The clock is ticking...
I better hit the hay.
Till next time, keep reading and writing (and watching less TV).
Yes, even at the ungodly hour of 3am. I can focus on my writing--I mean, really focus on the characters and the direction of the story. By 4pm I turn into a zombie (and, no, I won't be writing the undead into any of my stories either).
The road is clear for The Tusks of Odoben. I'm really getting excited because I can visualize the scenes leading up to a spectacular climax. If you've read The Silver Earth Seed and/or Deacon Leeds then you know I am a big fan of climactic battle scenes. My goal is for TTOO to build up to a point where it feels like everything is going to explode...and then it does: BOOM!
The clock is ticking...
I better hit the hay.
Till next time, keep reading and writing (and watching less TV).
August 5, 2012
Chapter Images
So Rachel (my awesome friend and book cover artist) has been itching to take The Tusks of Odoben to a whole new level, in terms of the artwork she wants to create. We already agreed the goal for the cover is to design something similar in style to the amazing cover art for The Percy Jackson novels. We really want it to pop right off the page with color and flow, as if the book cover were a moving scene, like the Daily Prophet from the Harry Potter novels.
So that's already in the works. But, like I was saying, Rachel decided to take it even further. She offered to paint chapter images for each chapter. Well, of course, I was totally down with that. I absolutely loved the sketches in the HP novels. They really added to the reading experience.
So Rachel's been quite a busy bee lately. She's already painted several chapter images and I'm excited to say that she's given me permission to post one here today! This little guy is called a Viewing Bee and he'll make his debut appearance in Chapter 9, titled Aedes. Which will mean nothing to you since you haven't read the book yet. But it will someday (I hope!).
Pay close attention to the Viewing Bee's binocular eyes. They record everything they see. Notice the bee's special antennas. They allow its keeper to recall the bee back to the hive. The Viewing Bee is easily overlooked, as it looks and behaves like any ordinary bee. But after close inspection you might notice its mechanical legs and wings.
By the way, the Viewing Bee did have a small cameo appearance in The Silver Earth Seed. I'm not saying where exactly. But knowing Viewing Bees the way I do, they always seem to show up during the most climactic moments.
So that's already in the works. But, like I was saying, Rachel decided to take it even further. She offered to paint chapter images for each chapter. Well, of course, I was totally down with that. I absolutely loved the sketches in the HP novels. They really added to the reading experience.
So Rachel's been quite a busy bee lately. She's already painted several chapter images and I'm excited to say that she's given me permission to post one here today! This little guy is called a Viewing Bee and he'll make his debut appearance in Chapter 9, titled Aedes. Which will mean nothing to you since you haven't read the book yet. But it will someday (I hope!).
Pay close attention to the Viewing Bee's binocular eyes. They record everything they see. Notice the bee's special antennas. They allow its keeper to recall the bee back to the hive. The Viewing Bee is easily overlooked, as it looks and behaves like any ordinary bee. But after close inspection you might notice its mechanical legs and wings.By the way, the Viewing Bee did have a small cameo appearance in The Silver Earth Seed. I'm not saying where exactly. But knowing Viewing Bees the way I do, they always seem to show up during the most climactic moments.
August 4, 2012
Interview with Message To Eagle.
This is awesome! I did an interview with MessageToEagle about Deacon Leeds and the Pyramid of Symbols. MessageToEagle.com is a fantastic site for "independent and uncensored news for those who are ready to challenge the hard questions in the controversial science of Xenology."
If you love to read about aliens, past civilizations, lost cities and cutting edge science then you will absolutely love this site. I’m truly addicted to the daily articles. Please read the article and share with your friends!
If you love to read about aliens, past civilizations, lost cities and cutting edge science then you will absolutely love this site. I’m truly addicted to the daily articles. Please read the article and share with your friends!
