Cordelia Kingsbridge's Blog, page 13

Hey Cordelia, you studied in Pittsburgh, right? I’m going to be there all by myself for a couple of days, can you suggest me something nice to see or do? Thanks! P.s. I’m re reading can’t hide from me on the flight and I totally miss Angel and Charles (nev

Yes, I went to the University of Pittsburgh for both undergrad and my master’s! I lived in Pittsburgh for seven years, and I loved it - I would have liked to stay, actually, except it was too far from my family.

I haven’t been back since 2013, so I’ll only suggest things that I know would still be open. On a hunch, I looked up a cafe I used to love in Little Italy, and it was closed. :-(

First off, if you’re not afraid of heights, definitely take the Duquesne Incline up Mt. Washington and walk along Grandview Ave for the most amazing view of Downtown Pittsburgh you’ll ever see. (OMG, I just got the name of the street. *headdesk*) It’s particularly great at night, when everything’s lit up.

In fact, I’m pretty sure the lower station of the Incline is near Station Square, which is this eating/shopping area along the river that I’d also recommend at night. I go to the Melting Pot for my birthday every year, no matter where I’m living, and this is the one I went to for all 7 Pittsburgh birthdays. Of course, they have less expensive restaurants as well!

During the day, check out the Carnegie Science Museum. I get bored in any kind of museum except these types of interactive learning ones, and I remember this one being really fun. I don’t know what exhibits they’re running these days, but they have a real decommissioned submarine that you can go inside, and I’m sure that’s still there.

The Strip is also great during the day - this is a literal strip that used to be an industrial area, but now it’s a shopping and dining district that’s particularly great if you’re a foodie.

I’m jealous, because when I lived in Pittsburgh, services like Uber and Lyft weren’t a thing yet. Pittsburgh is really spread out, so if you didn’t have a car, you had to either take an expensive cab or rely on the bus system, which is… not the best. But these days, I’m sure you can get around the city no problem and not too expensively. Pretty much anywhere you go, you’ll find interesting things to do. I hope you have fun!

And yes, I can certainly plan some future Patreon Bonus Features for CHFM! ;-)

omg your voice is so nice! that might sound weird lol but I really like listening to people's voices and yours is very nice to just listen to the flow of. it's very full of life and energetic and I enjoyed how sometimes you'd laugh during speaking. I'd lis

Ahhh, that’s so sweet! Thank you very much. I was quite self-conscious about recording my voice, mostly because your voice never sounds the same way you hear it in your own head. It ended up being really fun to do, though, and I’m thrilled that people are enjoying it. I’d definitely be up for doing more commentaries in the future.

Again, thank you so much for your lovely message, and for your support as well!

Bonus Feature

This month’s Patreon Bonus Feature is a Boston ‘Verse audio commentary! Topics include character motivation, opposites-attract pairings, situational ethics, and more. Check it out here!

Hi i love the SOS series and I'm really happy to have found your blog. I'm interested in becoming a writer and my question is, how do you keep going with writing? There are somedays I feel like I'm doing great with it, it's so interesting and I like doing

This is going to sound cheeky, but it’s sincere: Write anyway.

The motivation and inspiration for writing ebbs and flows, and like any other part of the creative process, that rhythm can seem to have no predictable pattern. One day, you’re brimming with ideas and bang out two thousand words in a couple of hours; the next day, it’s like drawing blood from a stone to squeeze out two hundred.

When you’ve been going strong for a while and you’re starting to feel burned out, it’s actually a good idea to take a break, maybe for a few days. But when you get into a true, long-term motivation drought, you have to just grit your teeth and write through it, no matter how boring and arduous it feels.

There’s a tip that personal trainers give their clients: If you really don’t want to work out, commit to working out for just five minutes. If you still want to stop after five minutes, you can do so guilt-free. 

Oftentimes, it’s the motivation to start an activity that people are actually struggling with. Once they get into the activity - whether it’s exercising or writing or whatever - it’s not unusual for them to genuinely want to continue.

You can bring this tip into your writing by setting yourself some kind of small daily minimum that you have to meet. Maybe it’s five to ten minutes of writing. Or if you’re like me, and there’s no way you can focus on only one thing at a time, a word count goal will probably work better - even something as low as 200. 

You commit to your minimum, and if you get there and you still feel bleh about it, you stop and try again tomorrow. But you’ll often find that, by the time you reach your minimum threshold, you want to keep going! The most important thing is that you don’t just stop writing altogether.

Throughout a motivation drought, remember that the wheel always comes back around. You’ll feel that awesome creative spark again - but if you’re serious about writing, you can’t sit around and wait for it. Write through the drought, and you’ll reach the other side much faster.

I hope this is helpful, and thank you so much for your kind words!

I keep forgetting to post this - for the anon who sent me the ask about physical mail, I’m going to...

I keep forgetting to post this - for the anon who sent me the ask about physical mail, I’m going to be getting a private mailbox soon! My editor pointed out that I’d also need one to use as a return address if I send out paperback copies of my books, which I’ll be doing in the near future since it’s my top-tier Patreon reward. So give me a few days to get my act together, and I’ll post the address here when I have it. :-)

As someone who has written some dub-con/non-con scenes, I wonder if you've encountered this. I'm writing a story for the first time in years for NaNoWriMo thanks to your many tips on writing. However, the story I'm writing has two scenes of non-con involvi

I just wonder if it’s weird, especially since I actually experienced a similar situation in real life a few years ago (my then-boyfriend tried to force me to have sex when I didn’t want to and only stopped after I said no a few times and pushed him away; he never retaliated with violence and apologized afterward). Maybe I’m just unpacking some mental baggage in my writing. *shrugs* 2/2

Here’s the short, succinct answer: No, it’s not weird at all. In fact, it’s completely normal, very common, and nothing to ever feel guilty or ashamed about!

I have a longer and more detailed exploration of this topic here. It all boils down to the fact that a healthy human brain has no problem differentiating between fantasy and reality, which allows us to enjoy things happening in a fictional context that we’d have a very different reaction to in real life. To paraphrase a point from that linked post - you’re enjoying the scenes you’re writing because they’re not real, and because no real people are being hurt.

Could your feelings about the scenes be influenced by your own real-world experiences? It’s certainly possible. But then again, there could be absolutely no connection. Either way, there’s nothing weird about it. Dub-con/non-con fantasies are incredibly common.

NaNoWriMo is a hell of a challenge to take on, and I really admire you for going after it! Best of luck. :-)

Hi Cordelia. Just finished reading the latest installment of Assistant Verse. When You describe Vaughn perfect body through Desi view; do you have any reference of how Vaughn body looks like? any real-life actor body reference?

I don’t, I’m sorry! My imagination doesn’t really work like that - I rarely use real-world references for character design. That being said, you could probably do a Google Image search for something like “gladiator body” and get some good ideas. ;-)

hi! do you have a PO box or something set up for people to send you fanmail? if i have a letter or something i'd like to send you, and i sent it to riptide attn: cordelia kingsbridge would they be able to forward it to you? cheers <3

Wow, that’s so sweet! I’ve honestly never considered this possibility before, so I don’t have an answer at the moment. I’ll check with my editor at Riptide to see if she can tell me how other authors have handled this. Thanks for asking!

hello!!! i first discovered ur writing all the way back when you were writing blood red yrs ago & im so happy to have found u again!! i can't wait to check out ur new projects, i still remember loving blood red & aedan! if u don't mind me asking (feel free

Thank you so much! I’m thrilled that you found me again, and I hope you enjoy the new books. :D

If Aedan had accepted Kimon’s offer, the end result would have been the same: Lorcan would still have shown up and threatened the village until Aedan sacrificed himself. As for what would have happened after that, I really have no idea! But I do love that you’ve thought about it.

If Rhiannon hadn’t been able to find Aedan, it would have taken him many years to build the strength to kill Lorcan (as well as to lull Lorcan into a false sense of security). He would have pulled it off eventually, though! And I think after that, he’d go looking for Rhiannon himself, if only because he wouldn’t know where else to go.

I realize you may not like getting this kind of question, but why did you remove your older, unpublished books?

Honestly, the only reason I don’t like getting this question is because I’ve answered it so many times. I 100% understand the curiosity behind it, and I’m genuinely flattered that so many people are interested enough to ask. But I’m sure you can appreciate that it gets frustrating to answer the same question over and over! If you meander back through my Tumblr posts, you’ll find several in-depth explanations.