A.J. Race's Blog, page 29

insert catchy title here

 while ago I wrote a blogpost about titling in which I quoted a Writer’s Digest article entitled Beg, Borrow and Steal. The article itself explained that because for the most part you can’t copyright a title, when it comes to titling a book you can borrow from anywhere. This is perhaps why most episodes titles of Grey’s Anatomy are also song titles. Which got me thinking… I have well over 1,200 songs in my iTunes library and at least as many on Spotify. Which means that of those songs… there has to be at least one that could possibly inspire a title for the third and final novel of the Secrets of Witches trilogy. And not just song titles either… lyrics. And inspire it did.

I now, thanks to a new album I found on Spotify, a working title for book 3 that I will share with you all a little later, once I’m sure it’s more solid, but I’m pretty happy with it.

Titling your novel is probably one of the most difficult aspects of this job, because there are a lot of things to consider. Should it be a literal title or a title that actually makes you think? Bridge of Memories for the record is not a literal title. It’s a metaphor representing the “bridge” between Eric and Elizabeth as he reads over her diary (memories). Goddess of Carnage is, definitely more literal than the first title because it’s largely about the end of the world, but it does have some metaphorical symbology which one could assess while reading the book. Then of course there’s the final title which is like the first not entirely literal. Depending on what your book is about sometimes it’s better that the title not be too literal. Something tells me grapes don’t have a tendency to be particularly wrathful on their own, and there’s nothing particularly casual about a vacancy caused when someone has an aneurysm. And if you couldn’t tell I was trying to be funny… I really don’t know what to say about your sense of humor.

Where do you find your title inspiration? In music? Lyrics? Television? Some obscure quote or does it, as sometimes happens, just come to you?

PS: Sorry about the super late post today and rather late one yesterday.

Hopelessly Hopeful

y parents divorced when I was four, and for about six or so years after it was a nightmare of epic proportions of custody battles and mudslinging. Eventually my parents were able to come to an agreement that I would spent the summers with my father and the rest of the year with my mother. The first summer with my father was fun enough but it had darker moments I’d just as soon not get into, and by the third summer I was pretty much done, this was I believe the same summer that the fifth Harry Potter was released. My father being one who did most of his own “writing” at night, slept during the day as well as my step mother, which left me and my brother pretty much alone during the day and so I’d wake up to the dark room, and afraid to turn on any lights (this being a motel room), I would read under by the sunlight that peaked in from the door. It was through reading that I was able to escape that room and transfer all the way back to Hogwarts where I felt like home. Sure that story was darker than the previous books, but it was better than where I was. The summers ended there, naturally, and occasionally I spent weekends here and there with my father even after his second divorce which if you can believe it was just as traumatic for me as the first, for different reasons.

What I came to learn all those years ago was that there’s a certain freedom in writing. It’s impossible to explain to anybody who isn’t a writer because most people hate writing about as much as they hate math. It’s a chore for them, I remember in high school and even in my English class in college, I was the only one to ever be excited for an essay. See because books are an escape, writing them, reading them. They allow us to transfer ourselves away from all the craziness of our day to day lives and become someone else. Words are incredibly powerful, and a magic in their own right. They have the power to transform one into anything, anywhere, anytime and if I can give one person, teenager, adult, man or woman, gay or straight, the same thing that Harry Potter and J.K.Rowling gave me all those years ago… then it’s worth it.

 

Keep Calm and Carrie On

or various reasons over the last few years Carrie Bradshaw has been one the many female voices of our generation that I happen to look up too. Beyond her love of fashion and great shoes, and the fact that she happens to be a writer, I love Carrie because she like all of us, is flawed. She makes mistakes, like cheating on Aidan with Big, but at the end of it all, she always has a smart bit of advice to give and great style. As a single gay man living in what is supposed to be called Sin City,  but in my life has been more like extremely boring tiresome city trying to bill itself as a family place, it’s almost easy to relate to Carrie’s eternal struggle to find love.

I know I’m getting a bit maudlin and I apologize for that, the point I was trying to make here is that… all of us, have our fictional heroes. The characters in literature, television and film that we look up too, because we understand their pain. We see ourselves in them and maybe we can learn from their mistakes. As of late, I’ve hit that wonderful and all too familiar writer problem of hopelessness. The little demon who likes to whisper despair into your ear and make you question everything you ever do, has been quite noisy the last few days and has even culminated in a slight mental/emotional breakdown this week that included a panic attack and my crying for no apparent reason (something I rarely, if ever do). I am being so candid with you my readers because, for starters, you are as close as I ever wish to get to therapy, but also because I know that in a few days this post will be long forgotten so I don’t worry myself much with what I say.

The truth is, at times, it is next impossible to be hopeful about anything in life. But at the same time, I refuse to give up hope that things will eventually get better and begin to go my way. And in the mean time all I can do, is Keep Calm, and Carrie On.

Feel free to read this post in the voice of Carrie Bradshaw if you know the show ;D

the Almost Epilogues

emember how a few weeks ago I wrote a blogpost about how I had come up with the outlines for 5 different novels, but I’ve kept them pretty hush hush?

The reason for this is, that two of the novels, were the bare bones for what would have been a fourth and a fifth Secrets of Witches novel. Part of the reason I kept this information to myself was the obvious that I wanted it to be a surprise, but also because I needed to make sure I even had the ideas to make two more books. And as it turns out… I did and I didn’t. The truth is, I had the bare bones of an idea that could have encompassed a fourth and a fifth but I didn’t allow myself to explore the storyline enough to figure out what exactly would go into making these last two novels. At first I tried to tell myself it was because I wanted to work on book 3, that I didn’t want to take the time away to make up a whole new storyline for the final two novels, but they both would have effected book 3 significantly. Not to mention the fact that I had already written the outline for the other three books that were (and are) unrelated to Secrets of Witches so why not these two?

I’m not sure what possessed me to think that I would want to do another two books, the storyline that I was going to use and pray would stretch to two books, is still useful, thankfully, but I never wanted to write past three. Don’t get me wrong, I have loved writing these stories, even with as much as I’ve bitched about book 3… but I don’t believe I could have actually made a fourth and a fifth and frankly, I’m glad. I have a thousand and one ideas in my head, and if I don’t put Secrets of Witches to rest eventually, it will do what I always feared it would and consume my soul forever, never letting me rest, and never letting me work on anything new. Needless to say, I’m happy I’ve finally got a solid outline down (color coated and all) and I think I’m happy with where it’s headed. Still hoping for a fall release. Wish me luck there.

Prima donna

n the literary world, it’s pretty much a given that being a diva is a no no; unless of course your already famous.

In yesterday’s post I wrote about how I felt that Stephanie Meyer tends to act like a spoiled brat, and I decided to elaborate on that so I don’t just sound like I’m picking on her for no reason (even if my feelings about her are well documented).

Not long after Twilight the movies began, I heard about a book Stephanie was supposed to be working on titled Midnight Sun. It was… the Twilight story, written from Edward’s point of view. I really can’t imagine why that would be necessary because well… everybody knows the story, but regardless I was told it was much better than Twilight (which to my mind wouldn’t take much, but I thought I’d give it a chance). To my surprise, the book was on her very own website, with a letter expressing her sorrow that the book had been leaked without her permission and that she would not be continuing the book (the literary world weeps with joy), because with how she felt currently, she might change the ending and have the bad guys win.

Really? Really?

Look. I get it, having your book leaked would probably suck (although frankly if people care enough to even WANT to bootleg your book that to me is a good thing because it means people want to read!) but it would change the STORYLINE?! I don’t think so. That’s not how writing works (or at least, it shouldn’t be). Generally when a book is already written and everybody knows how it ends, you can’t just decide that because your pissed off at the world you’re going to rewrite it from somebody else’s point of view and change the ending. That’s ludicrous and frankly… a little childish.

Writers are weird about our books coming out before we’re ready for them too, that I totally get, believe me nothing is scarier than the possibility of putting out a book that isn’t ready, but if you’re that mad why put it on your site at all? Why not quietly take it down from whatever site had it to begin with, write the book and be done with it? I’m pretty sure her legion of followers would have loved it regardless, but instead she chose to bring more attention to it than was necessary and add some little sob story letter. Maybe I just don’t understand because I’ve never been there, but I’m pretty sure plenty of authors have had their book leaked, but I can’t imagine they ever reacted quite this way.

Bottom line, regardless of your opinion on Ms. Meyer, there’s a right way to handle a situation like this and a completely overdramatic diva way to do so. She, chose the latter, and I don’t feel sorry for her one bit.

Mary Who?

nybody who’s a fan of fan fiction has heard the term Mary-Sue before, basically a term used to describe a writer who has basically written themselves into the character. The term has also, often been ascribed to Stephanie Meyer and her character Bella (proof of this can be found in Edward’s version of events because somehow his ‘voice’ sounds like a whiney teenaged girl’).

Generally speaking, being a Mary-Sue is never a good thing, but more often than not art imitates life, meaning that some characters (maybe not necessarily the main characters) will possess some elements of your life or people you know. At what point is having a character with a similar backstory to yours just coincidence or hinderance?

Anybody who knows me probably knows that Eric and I share a pretty similar personality, we’re both high-strung, type-A personalities, perfectionists who work better at night and while you never see him doing it, it’s briefly noted that Eric is also a writer. The similarities, as far as I can tell, pretty much end there.

The problem seems to come when, as in the case of Midnight Sun (don’t ask why I know that name), the characters voice cannot be distinguished from that of the author. It’s one thing in the case of Twilight for the author and the character to share a similar voice (it’s probably not the best thing) but because Bella is a teenaged girl it’s understandable (even if Stephanie is not, but tends to act like one), but the fact that the same exact story, written in a different character’s point of view shares the same voice, that’s a problem.

I think it’s not necessarily bad to write yourself or at least a version of yourself into the story, the problem comes when the entire story is suddenly revolving around you and it’s no longer a novel it’s a fictional memoir like the Kardashian novel Dollhouse. 

What I’m Reading

or anyone who follows this blog pretty religiously, you already know by now that I’m not shy about blogging about my favorite author pretty much of all time J.K.Rowling, so when she came out with a new book earlier this year it was all I could do to get my hands on it. Five long years after the final Harry Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy is J.K.Rowling’s latest book, this time an adult novel about a small town with like most small towns, big secrets. I’m not that far in at the moment, I just bought the book with an iTunes card I got for Christmas, but needless to say I’m beyond excited for her book and I will definitely be writing a review on here once I’m finished.

The second book I’m reading, is called Drift: the Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow. As most of my followers may know by now, I’m a big fan of Rachel Maddow and her show on MSNBC which I watch religiously, so when I learned she wrote a book it was one of the first times in a long time that I decided to break my vow to myself never to read a celebrity’s book (more on that later), and downloaded a sample off the iBookstore. Drift is a political nonfiction about, exactly what it says on the tin. I’m sure it’ll be a bit more complicated for me to review and probably more complicated to explain, so if your at all a fan of political nonfiction I definitely recommend picking it up for yourself.

I still have quite a few other books I purchased a while back that I need to get finished. the Da Vinci Code, Son of a Witch, Tales of the City (which is more of a re-read) and Can’t Live Without by our very own Joanne Phillips, who’s blog I follow.

First things first however… the Casual Vacancy, it’s the one that I’ve technically been waiting the longest on, so I plan to make it the first book I finish and review. I can’t say when I’ll finish it or even when I’ll put the review up but I hope that the review won’t come long after the book.

PS: My pact with myself that I mentioned earlier was more towards the celebrity novels (e.g.: Snooki’s novel, the Kardashian novel, etc, etc.) I can’t really resist autobiographies so there are a few I’ll probably be reading and the only ONLY novels I might make the exception for that was written by a celebrity is Land of Stories by Chris Colfer. And Skinnydipping by Bethany Frankel.

P.P.S: Please don’t ask what the Kardashian novel is or how I even found it, I don’t want to talk about it and I don’t even remember how I found it, only that it depressed me, even more (if possible) than the Snooki novel, or should I say, two novels? Cause yes, A Shore Thing, has a sequel.

Also a note to Ms. Jordanna, thank you for the book recommendation on Goodreads, as you can see I have a lot of books I need to get too, but I do want to check it out, because I am curious.

In a Fog

ou ever have those days where you’re just off your game? It’s not writers block per se, it isn’t that you can’t write, it’s just that your mind feels like it’s in a fog, you have ideas still, but their fuzzy, and writing them down is like pulling teeth. That is currently where I’m at, and it’s not just about my book either, although admittedly I haven’t written anything new in a few days, it’s largely about my blog, hence this post. I don’t think I have days like this often, where the thoughts that make writing possible, that ever present annoying voice that is creativity, that we often wish we could silence if only for a moment feels, silent. Or at the very least muffled. Ironically it is the most terrifying feeling I can imagine because it’s the feeling of possibility. Not good possibility like the possibility of some great event, it’s the possibility that you’ve lost it, forever. The possibility that muse has left and it will never come back. The possibility that every writer dreads.

It’s no coincidence (or at least not to my mind) that my head feels vaguely like it’s in a vice and it is the height of cold and flu season, so there’s a chance that I may be on the verge of a cold (I sincerely hope not) but then it’s better than the alternative. I don’t like this feeling, the hopeless possibility that I won’t be able to write again. It’s overdramatic perhaps, but when you spend as much time as I do working nonstop, doing something you love so much that you could not imagine having to actually do something else… it’s hard not to be dramatic when suddenly you can’t do that thing anymore because something is blocking you.

New Year, New Blog

‘ve learned a lot this year from my blog about what people want to read from me and what for the most part, they don’t, and what I’ve actually come to learn based mostly on likes, is that I’ve pigeonholed myself.

After years of just blogging about whatever I wanted, and getting no where I was so scared of falling into the same patterns that I made sure to keep my posts about writing. Writing and more writing. And now, if I deviate, I generally don’t get the same amount of people interested. The people who pretty much faithfully read this blog and like and hopefully comment (though I’ve been missing those these days), love the writing stuff, but when I deviate occasionally to politics, or graphic design. Everyone’s gone.

I get it, politics and political posts are always dangerous, and if your not a graphic designer, it’s easy to get lost or disinterested. But, because I am all of these things, a political junkie, a graphic designer, a writer, gay, etc etc, I don’t want to deny any of those parts of me on this blog. Even if it means losing followers or not getting the same amount of people reading this blog. It is first and foremost a blog about writing and self publishing… but my goal for 2013, and like TDR radio, is not to be just about the books anymore. I want to expand. And I sincerely hope my followers will expand a long with me. One of the most beautiful comments I have ever received from a reader was that she said my posts always make her think. And that’s all I have ever wanted to do.

So… starting this year, I’m going to write things that I might have shied away from earlier, and if you get offended or have a difference of opinion. By all means, I want to hear it. I love feedback, of any nature, and though I’d like to keep it civil, I know that realistically that isn’t always going to be the case.

Unexpected Inspiration

nspiration is a tricky thing, and there’s always all kinds of advice about it. Don’t wait for inspiration to write, seems to be the most common, yet interestingly one of the first questions people ask is where do you find your inspiration? One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that actually you don’t. Inspiration finds you. Sometimes it finds you in a painting, or a song, or a movie or a novel, or even in real life circumstances. But more often than not when inspiration does find you it is almost always at the worst possible time, and generally when you can’t get to a pen. Sometimes inspiration finds you in the dead of night, when you’re attempting to sleep. Believe me, I’ve been there. Many times. For instance, a few days ago I happened to be surfing one of my favorite websites, Tumblr, as I often do, and came across a piece of fan art, a simple, seemingly innocuous drawing that I liked, but didn’t really ring any bells right then. It was not until a few hours later, as I was in bed attempting to sleep, that the story formulated itself, and before I knew it, I was up like a shot, pulling up my laptop and a text editor (I generally don’t like to start in Scrivener when it’s just an idea or possibly even just a passing thought), but as I continued to write it, I realized that not only was it not going to be for book 3 (as I had sort of hoped) it was the start of what would be the first chapter of one of the books I had intended to start after book 3. The one with the sequel, no less, and the one I had wanted desperately not to write, after book 3. A part of me however, knew that it would be the first thing I wrote, simply because it was so fresh in my mind and I am genuinely excited for the book. I love the idea and the concept and it’s definitely soo much different from what the Secrets of Witches trilogy is, I think the reason that mentally I wanted to hold off on it was because it would come with a sequel which means that I pretty much will have to work on that before I can work on the other project which is taking over my mind. Don’t I?

Is there any kind of rule with sequels that there is with series that say if I know that I’m going to make a sequel that I have to write it before I write anything else? It’s not as if movie directors stop making movies between their sequels, so why should an author?

This is not by any means to say I have control over which book comes next, frankly, the fact that I wrote about 3k words out of the blue for this book could mean nothing. It could just be a passing notion or a jumping off point for me. Maybe I’ll get the inspiration to write the sequel directly after or maybe the other book will jump out at me. Either way, I still have to get the final Secrets of Witches novel done before anything else.