Sage Collins's Blog, page 7

Love Sucks Cover!

I'm very excited to announce the cover for Love Sucks!

Also, I'm four weeks out from my release date.  So my life is pretty full of nervous excitement these days.  I'm trying to fill it with massive bouts of writing.  But… I think I might end Taylor-Made tomorrow…  What will I do then?  (Potential answers: Edit?  Write a sequel?  Write a sequel to H/V?  Write a sequel to LS? (my editor suggested one) Watch Buffy for the billionth time?)

But for now, the cover!

Expect to see this cover basically everywhere I am online

So, what do you think?

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Hot Kiss

So here's a fun little teaser.  I've written so many different types of things in this novel this week that it's hard to believe that this was one of them, but once I went back that far I wanted to share with you.

Previously on Taylor-Made: Taylor found out he was a Simulant/BOIS-friend–an android programmed to be the perfect boyfriend.  He is the one and only Simulant recycled from another one, who was named Justin and belonged to Malinda.  Taylor has been having dreams of Justin's life with Malinda.  Taylor is actually programmed for Rosie.

"Taylor?" Malinda says softly. She's looking at me now, and her eyes sparkle in the flickering of the TV's light. She's closer too, and she folds her knees under her on the couch, leaning in towards me. "This is so stupid, and I know it's going to ruin everything…"

"No it won't. Just say it." My mouth feels dry. I don't know what I think she's going to say.

She says nothing at all. She sits up on her knees, putting her face just higher than mine. She pushes my hair back and leans in to kiss my forehead, but before she can, I tip my face up and meet her lips with mine. Her eyes widen in surprise, but she clenches her hands in my hair and practically melts into me. I wrap my arms around her waist, like I've been wanting to do all night, to be honest, and I pull her tight against me. Her body against mine, I can't stop thinking about it that night, her naked body in the moonlight.

She lets out a soft moan, but I push her away. My face is on fire, and my body's warming up quickly. I push myself off the couch and run to the kitchen for some water. Oh, god, is my body punishing me for kissing someone other than Rosie?

I find a glass exactly where I know it is and pour some water from the faucet. I take a great swig from the glass. It's not cold enough.

"Taylor?" Malinda hugs the doorway, watching me.

"Malinda, I can't. I physically can't. I– God, I'm burning up."

"Oh," she says softly. She enters the room and puts her hand against my cheek. Her fingers are cold. "No, Justin did the same thing. It's okay. You're okay."

Justin? I look at her like she's crazy. There's no way he kissed another woman. "The same…"

She hesitates and looks around. "Maybe I'm wrong. What… what were you thinking in there?"

I flash back to her body and feel another wave of heat. I get some ice from the freezer and put a cube against my forehead. "I don't really feel comfortable telling you what I was thinking." Right now the flush in my cheeks might be unrelated to the rest of the heat in my body.

"O-Oh. No, I mean, that's right. That's what happens when you're not programmed for…for making love." She twists her hands together and looks down at them, blushing. "When Justin and I– But he was okay after he got some sleep. His system needed to recharge. You don't want to hear about this, I know, but that's what he needed. Anyway, that's what's happening. I think. I mean, right?" Her eyes flick up to my face.

Sex. Holy smokes, it's sex.

Hope you enjoyed

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Simulant

Oh, hey, it's Teaser Tuesday and I nearly forgot.  Which would be tragic since I love everything I wrote this week.  But here I am, and here you go.

This excerpt is in no way spoilery, though in most novels you would expect it to be.  But, hopefully, the revelation Taylor makes in this scene has already been figured out by the reader.

Context: In a dream Taylor's been having of Austin, a soldier Simulant, Austin's arm was cut deeply, exposing his electronic bits inside.  Right before this scene, Taylor was told that the only Simulant to be recycled was Justin, who he also has been dreaming of.

I pace back and forth, trying to talk some reason into the jumbled craziness in my head. I just keep seeing Malinda over and over, calling me Justin, and the five seconds it took me to remember that I was Taylor.

"I'm Taylor!" I scream and punch the wall between my bedroom and bathroom. I lean my forehead against it and pound it a few more times with the heel of my hand.

I can't be a Simulant. Because it would mean that Rosie ordered me, and Rosie doesn't even like BOIS-friends. And she didn't want me. She made me chase her for months. I can't be her BOIS-friend. I can't be a Simulant.

I look up and right above my head is the poster that she defaced ages ago. The pimply faced girl was supposed to be her apology to me. Saying, "look at how I defaced myself." The girl is hand-in-hand with a Simulant.

It's supposed to be me. I'm the Simulant in the picture.

"No." I rip the poster out of its pushpins and tear it up. "No."

I run into the kitchen and search the drawers for a knife. I'm not a Simulant, and I'll prove it. I find my sharpest knife in the drawer near the fridge. I cut along the tip of my left pinkie finger, not deep enough to do a lot of damage, but deep enough that it should bleed. I squeeze my eyes shut at the pain, but force them open to look at the blood.

And wait.

It doesn't come.

I'm practically hyperventilating now. I take the knife to the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. "Is that you, Justin?" I whisper. I shake my head. But I remember him getting ready in the mirror. Same wild blond hair, same blue-gray eyes. Who has gray eyes?

I bite my lip and put the knife against my left arm. I know about how deep to cut if I have to, but if I see blood, I'll stop. That's all. I'm about to pass out at the mere pressure of the blade against my skin, but I force myself to press down. I hope for blood, but there's nothing. I press harder and cry out at the pain. I clench my teeth and keep going, but there's no blood, just a clear liquid starting to dribbled down my arm. I stop when I see a flash of silver that isn't the knife. I stop when I can see a spark of electricity under my skin. My right arm falls limply to my side as my left arm exposes me for what I am.

I'm a Simulant.

Lots of love,

Sage

Come on, Lucky Seven

Carissa Taylor tagged me to participate in the Lucky 7 Meme.  So here I go!

Here's how it works:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they're written. No cheating

4. Tag 7 authors

5. Let them know

Pretty easy, huh?  Here's seven lines (I did literal lines on the page) from Taylor-Made.

"I'm having trouble getting the connections in the forum to link up properly," Alex says. "Everything else is ready for you to take over, but I want to get this done right the first time. Do it right, and you won't every need to see programmer mode again."

"Thank goodness," I say.

She laughs. "Thought you'd say that."

I glance at her as she works. Her eyes get so intense, which is accented by the contact lenses she wears to make them red. Some girls call her the "computer demon" because of this. I think it's kind of cool.

Let's see.  Who to tag?  Who to tag?

Cat Hellisen

Elissa Janine Hoole

Gracetopia

Hannah Moskowitz

Rae Mariz

Ryan Gebhart

Suzanne Young

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Electives

Quite  a lot has happened in the novel since we last saw Taylor.  Like, now he's dating Rosie.  What?  I know.  Here's one of their few happy scenes before I send the world crashing down on them again.

Context: When they finally got together Taylor promised Rosie he wouldn't kiss her until she's ready and that meant that she could initiate all the kisses.  Oh, and Rosie told Taylor about her current ideal guy, basically describing her ex. BOIS are android boyfriends and soldiers.

I'm lying on my stomach in the grass outside the auditorium, trying to fill out this form. "What classes are you signing up for?" I ask Rosie, peeking at the form she's filling out on top of a textbook.

"None of your business, nosy," she says, pulling it away from me.

"Hmm." I flip through the elective book. Most of this form is easy. We fill out the classes that come next, no problem. But now that I've finished my gym requirement, I get an elective next fall.

"Senior year's soooo hard," Kara says. Only last week did she start hanging out with Rosie and me at lunch again. Rosie had been spending time with her after school, but she refused to see the two of us together. She still won't come to PET-BOIS. I don't think she liked it much anyway.

"Yeah. It's all about our future," Rosie says. "As if we don't have enough to worry about with applying to college and stuff." I know she's thinking about her scholarship speech. It's coming up, and she's been worrying about it a lot.

"What do you want to do in the future?" I can't believe I've never asked her this before, actually.

"Fight for BOIS rights, of course. So, let's see. Maybe something social science-y."

I make a face. I definitely prefer real science to social science. "I hope I get Craig in advanced chemistry. Science won't be the same without him."

"He probably wishes the same thing," Kara says. "He's always talking about how grateful he is that you're his partner on dissection days."

"Not much dissection in chemistry." But I grin at her because it's a compliment and because she and Craig are talking even though they don't share a club anymore.

Then it's back to business. I stop at the industrial arts section of the booklet, remembering how Rosie wished for a guy who was good with cars. Even though I know she was just listing Graham's qualities, I still want to become the guy she always wanted. There's an auto shop class listed, and it's during a period I have free.

Of course, maybe I should learn to drive first.

"I should join drama," Kara says.

Rosie grins. "You'd be great at that."

"You think?"

I let their conversation slip to the background as I continue flipping through the book, slipping in a mental bookmark for that industrial arts page. I don't find anything else that interests me until I get to the computer science section. "Hey," I say, lifting myself up on my elbows.

"What?" Rosie asks.

"Computer science. I want to take that."

"Really?" She wrinkles her nose.

"Yeah. I love our website, and I'd really like to know more about how to make something like it. It's really interesting the way Alex can make all those numbers and symbols mean something."

"Oh. Alex." She snaps her booklet closed.

"What?"

"Nothing. You just seem to like her company a lot."

"Yeah, she's nice."

Rosie glares at me. Oh. "Aw, Rosie, are you jealous?"

"As if."

"You know there's nobody for me but you." I push myself up to kiss her. I know this is okay now because last week she totally told me that if I didn't pick up the slack and stop making her do all the work kissing, she was going to punch me in the gut. I kind of believe her.

Hope you enjoyed the only happy romance scene I'll probably ever post.

Lots of love,

Sage

 

Whose Story is it? (Or why do I like writing Justin/Malinda scenes so much?)

It's been said that when a character takes over a story or is more fun to write than your MCs, you're probably focusing on the wrong character's story.  But I don't think that's necessarily true.  The idea, I suppose, comes from an assumption that your MC is doing boring stuff while this secondary character is being really exciting, so you find the secondary character more interesting, as would most people.

But you can't forget about the writer brain.  We like to procrastinate.  You know what I'm talking about: that thing where we sit down to write and end up reorganizing our CDs (or in my case, playing around with the soundtrack on iTunes).  So we have this great story going along, but suddenly it just seems so haaaaarrrrd.  The character is doing exactly what we need him to, but we planned that weeks ago.  Or, worse, we planned the next scene, and we have to get MC to it, but that seems like a chore because the current scene isn't as exciting as that one.

This is why lots of authors drop projects and begin shiny new ideas instead.  They're shiny!  And new!  Of course they're exciting.

It's also why some novels take detours from the plot.  Why trudge on to point B when your character could have all these subplot adventures over here?  (You can't see me, but I'm waving my hand over there, far away from the plot which is clearly right here.  See it now?  Doesn't over there look more fun than right here?)

And sometimes we have secondary characters that seem to have all the fun while the MC has to do the work of carrying the plot.  One good example for my stuff is when I added Dean to DownLoad.  Here Kristie and DL had done their part and gotten me 35K through the novel without help, but, man, it was getting hard to have them just keep interacting with each other.  I already knew them and how they react to everything.  Suddenly, here's Dean, silly and flirty and unpredictable, and the complete opposite of DL who I had spent so much of my book on.  Of course he was fun to write about.  He was new and different!  But trust me when I tell you that writing a novel about Dean was not as fun as I had expected it to be.  When he had to drive the plot, all the fun drained away.

To take a more better-known example, in Doctor Who, Captain Jack Harkness was a lot of fun.  I adored him and still do.  And so do many other people, which is probably why they gave him his own series.  But the Captain Jack of Doctor Who is not the Captain Jack of Torchwood.  When he became the hero, he became less fun.  Yes, he still has his fun moments.  The problem is that he could be sexy comic relief on DW, but once he has to drive the story, especially a story that was more serious and darker, he also had to become more serious and darker.

(And at this point you lost me to a ton of DW Jack Harkness clips on YouTube, so I thought I might share one)

Oh, hey, I'm back.  So in Taylor-made, Taylor is haunted by two other BOIS.  One is Austin, a soldier Simulant still fighting in the war.  The other is Justin, the BOIS-friend who was returned and recycled into Taylor.  I enjoy writing scenes for both of them, although Austin's getting harder.  But it's Justin (and Malinda) that I most enjoy writing.  Yet, I would never consider making him the MC.  Why is that?

Well, there'd be no plot, really.  The plot of the book is driven by Taylor's love for Rosie (who is hard to win over), distress at finding out he's a Simulant, and confusion when Malinda shows up.  The plot of Justin's story is his love for Malinda, which is easy to come by.  Yes, there is conflict there, but Justin is mostly ignorant of it.  And then he's shut off.  End of story.  This is not a very compelling story… until you add it to Taylor figuring out about himself and to the Rosie-Taylor-Malinda love triangle.  Only then does Justin's story have a point.

So why do I enjoy writing Justin?  No lie, part of it is he's so innocent and it's cute   But most of it is that it's a romance that starts off easy.  It's an interesting twist to me to have the love at first sight, because that's not what I write.  Now Taylor's in love at first sight too, but Rosie's so vehemently against their romance to start off with that there's nothing easy about it.  The whole way he's fighting his way into this romance and he has to win her over.   And it's exhausting.  So sometimes it's nice to take a little break and slip into Justin (or Austin)'s POV

But I think what really makes me love Justin is that he's like a secret.  Okay, a very loud secret that I shared with all of you, but in the novel he's like a secret.  (BTW, this is the time for me to shout "Simile!" because my writer friends and I are doing that every time we write one this week).  Even assuming that not all the readers I will ever have read this blog, in TM the reader has a pretty good idea that Taylor is a Simulant.  They even have a good idea that Justin was recycled into Taylor.  But Taylor doesn't know that.  He doesn't know why he's being haunted by these Justin scenes.  Justin's whispering, "Pssst, I'm giving you insight into me.  It's important, but you don't know why yet."  And I just love the knowledge that eventually it does all tie together.

So, yeah, totally love writing Justin scenes.

But, no, would never want to make this his novel.

So, assuming I didn't lose you to a defabricated Jack Harkness, have you ever had a secondary character that you preferred writing instead of your MC(s)?  And what convinced you that it was still the MC's story?

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – A Little Bit Broken (Justin and Malinda)

This week I did another 10K Saturday challenge, and this time I actually made it!  But with the 10K I typed up that day, it's another day's work this week that I really love.  Yesterday I pulled out my notebook and wrote all the Justin and Malinda scenes (and one Taylor and Malinda scene) that I know about.  I love these two so much.  Probably because the book isn't about them, so they serve as a building block for Taylor and Rosie's story.  If the book was about Justin and Malinda, I'd probably find them boring

Since I wrote in my notebook, I'm typing this up from scratch, so I apologize for the roughness that comes with typing this up right this second. (I had to type the first four words three times to get them right, sigh)

Context: Justin is a BOIS, a boyfriend android created specifically according to his girlfriend's wishes.  Malinda's dad, who was paying for college (Taylor and Rosie are in high school, don't worry), lost his job, and she's been working to help pay for it.

"It's just a little thing.  Nothing to worry about."  Malinda walks her fingers up my arm to my shoulder as we lay in bed.

"I'm broken? I don't feel broken," I say quickly.  I don't want to spend any more seconds away from her. She's working at the ice cream parlor and doing school.  I only get to see her a little, and now I have to spend that time at the factory?

"It's one tiny part.  They say we can bring you in for a quick fix, and we'll be out in less than an hour."

She's watching her fingers instead of my face.  I wish she'd look at me.  I wish she'd promise me it will be okay.  I'd believe her.

I believe her.

"An hour's a long time.  But we'll be together forever.  And that's longer."

"Yes," she whispers.  "Forever's a lot longer."  She turns over and lies her head against the pillow.  It's my cue to press myself against her back and wrap my arms around her.  We've fallen asleep cuddled like this ever since that first night she came to me.

But tonight she turns in my arms so she's facing me. "Let's make tonight last forever."

I don't know what that means, but we both stay awake watching each other for a long time.

#

I think I fall asleep first.  But she's asleep now, wrapped in sunlight and the blankets and me.  I stroke her hair.  She sighs and opens her eyes.

"Good morning."

She tucks the blankets up to her chin. "Hi."

"It's time to fix me forever."

She squeezes her eyes shut and nods.  "Let's get dressed, and we'll go." She gets up and walks to the door.

"I love you," I say before she leaves.

"I know," she says.  But she forgot the most important part.

Someone reading this in the novel knows exactly what's coming, but I wonder if you can guess from this little excerpt.  Or remember past posts that clue you in (hint: a little birdie could tell you).

Hope you enjoyed it!

Lots of love,

Sage

Anatomy of a Soundtrack – Coin-Operated Boy

This is the Taylor-Made theme song, and the first song on the playlist, but it wasn't the first song to be added to the playlist.  That song, "Tailor Made" by Colbie Caillat was the inspiration for the novel.  But this came right as soon as I had a plot for the novel and not just a glittery hint of idea floating around in the ether.

So no story about the process as I tried to decide the perfect song for this role.  "Coin-Operated Boy" by The Dresden Dolls was the clear choice.  I first heard this song on the alternative station several years ago, but I didn't really fall in love with it until I saw a fan music video using the song and scenes from the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (my first love in television, you should know).  In the video, Riley is the coin-operated boy, Angel is the boy Buffy's turned to the COB after, and Spike is the boy in the bridge that she swears she will never go to.  The music video worked so well that I bought the full song so I could remember it every time it played.

But here I am writing a novel about androids (BOIS) that are created to act the part of the perfect boyfriend for each girl.  The entire novel focuses around these BOIS, first while Taylor and Rosie fight for the BOIS' right to freewill, then when Taylor discovers that he's one of them, created for Rosie (Although his POV doesn't know this for a long time, it should be pretty clear to any reader from chapter 1, so I'm not spoiling anything, I promise).

Anyway, here's the song (no lyrics, because I couldn't find a good one with lyrics, sorry)

Perfect song for TM, right?

Lots of love,

Sage

Anatomy of a Soundtrack – Bluebird

So since you all know how much I love soundtracks to my novels, I thought I'd do some posts about the songs I choose as I choose them.  And instead of starting with something obvious for Taylor-made (like "Coin-Operated Boy" or "Tailor Made"), I thought I'd start with a Malinda song.  Probably 'cuz I want to write some scenes for her, but she's not around yet.

So here's the background on Malinda.  She bought a Simulant named Justin to be her boyfriend, then was unable to keep him (for financial reasons, though this might change) so she returned him, even though she was utterly in love with him.  Justin was recycled into Taylor, who is programed to love Rosie and to be Rosie's ideal boyfriend.  And then Malinda sees him one day….

Malinda had some songs early on in the making of the soundtrack.  Her first songs were shared with Rosie–jealous girls in a love triangle.  I was so psyched to consider Beyonce and Shakira's "Beautiful Liar" because I love the sound of that song, but while it worked okay from Rosie's POV (she considers Taylor a liar at that point), it didn't for Malinda, and besides, there's that awkward name-dropping in the song.  The next logical choice is "The Boy is Mine" by Monica and Brandi, but while I always like this song once it gets going, there's something about the beginning that makes me want to skip ahead.  In the end, I decided to give Malinda her own song instead of sharing a love triangle song.

Big surprise, there were a couple of Glee candidates (actually, I don't use a lot of Glee songs in soundtracks, tbh, because I associate them too much to the plot of the Glee episode to think about them subjectively, most of the time).  I pictured Taylor singing "Take Care of Yourself" to Malinda.  And as I was listening to "Rumors/Someone Like You" for about the thousandth time, I realized it could be Malinda singing it.

Except, I don't see Malinda singing that spiritedly about stealing a boy away ("rumor has it I'm the one you're leaving her for").  I see her as the girl who gave up the boy she loved and completely regrets it.  In her case, the boy doesn't even exist anymore, except as a locked-away memory in Taylor's head that keeps leaking out.  And while she's hopeful that he'll dump Rosie and come back to her, she's not about to brag about it to Rosie, the way "Rumors/Someone Like You" does in the end.  And I see her as a more quiet character who needs a quieter song.

Originally, the song Malinda ended up with was being auditioned for Rosie (whose ex-boyfriend really did die), but the more I listened to it, the more I realized it was Malinda's.  A lot of time I'll audition songs for a soundtrack that I don't know the lyrics to, but that I have a sense might fit the character or scene.  Most of these end up not making it, but I'm amazed how often I'll find the perfect song based on the slightest hint of a line I caught at some point while listening to it.  While I'm not a huge fan of "Jar of Hearts," Christina Perri's "Bluebird" was a free download on iTunes, and I downloaded it and forgot about it.  For some reason I saw it on my music list and had this feeling it belonged on this soundtrack, so I stuck it with the Rosie songs to audition (most of which have been discarded since).

Since moving it to Malinda's songs, I'm 99% convinced that Malinda's theme will be Christina Perri's "Bluebird."  Give it a listen and tell me what you think.

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Awkward date

I know, I haven't updated the blog since last Tuesday, but I do have two more days before my blogging week ends (I go Thursday to Thursday) so I promise at least one more post in the next two days. Maybe I'll do a Workout Wednesday or a Lots of Love Thursday.  Ooh, I think the latter.  I have some things to love this week

It's Teaser Tuesday.  This weekend I was challenged to write 10K on Saturday.  I didn't make it because Roomie's parents came down and distracted me for half the day, but I did get over 8K written in just that day.  So lots of new scenes to choose from this week.  I was considering always teasing with non-Taylor scenes.  Taylor's been having dreams of two Simulants, one built to be a boyfriend and one built to be a soldier.  I seem to hit one per week, at least, and I think they're my favorite scenes, but I decided on another scene this week, even though I wrote at least three of those scenes this week.

So instead you get part of Taylor's date with a girl who's not Rosie.

She leads me inside. The restaurant is packed and loud. At first I think this is good because she won't expect us to talk, but then I realize she probably will and we're going to have to yell at each other to be heard. Not really pleasant.

I give it a try. "People like to come here on dates?"

"Yeah. It's great, isn't it?"

I shrug. A hostess seats us at a booth, and we knock our knees together trying to get in the booth. "Sorry," I say.

"No big." She turns to the waitress and says, "I want a raspberry Long Island ice tea."

The waitress writes that down, and I'm too busy figuring out that she's okay with a seventeen-year-old ordering alcohol to realize that she wants me to give her a drink order next. After a second or two of being stared at, I say, "Oh, I just want a water."

After she leaves, Kara grabs my hand and grins at me. "You're so vanilla. It's cute. I think you might have actually blushed if I had ordered 'sex on the beach.'"

"She didn't even card you. Did you see that?"

"And that's why everyone comes here."

Oh. It seems like a dumb reason to choose a restaurant. It made more sense when I thought it was because it was medium-level expensive and quality.

"I, uh, need to look at the menu." I take my hand away to open the menu. It's true. I have no clue what they serve here. The answer: everything. "What do you usually get?"

"Oh, a salad, usually."

I look at their salads, but they have so much stuff on them and no guarantee of the quality of produce that I decide against them. There's sandwiches and entrees that would look like a three course meal to some people. I end up ordering a burger because it's advertised as grass-fed beef. It does give me hope for the rest of the restaurant's food.

"What do you usually eat?" Kara asks. "You're a mystery because you do some healthy stuff like Rosie, but you also make cookies with Hershey's kisses."

"I eat all sorts of stuff. I do like to be natural or organic when I can, but sometimes it's hard, and sometimes it's good to treat yourself to something a little sugary."

She smiles at me as she sips her drink through the straw. "Everyone needs a little sugar sometimes."

I'm reminded of Rosie's words about the BOIS. All sugar, no substance. That's what this date is.

"Some people like it better than others," I say.

"But you like it sometimes. You're open to trying things out. Not just sticking to your one narrow way of thinking." She twirls the straw between her fingers, then passes the drink across the table. "Go ahead. Try something new."

I look down and chuckle. "No, that's okay. Really."

"If you say so. But you're missing out." She licks her lips, making her lipstick shine rather than weakening it.

I push the glass back to her side of the table, but it taps against the empty bread plate and tips over, liquor spilling all over her half of the table and running into her lap. She screams and jumps out from the booth.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Lots of love,

Sage