Elizabeth Guizzetti's Blog, page 33

Westercon is coming!

So July 5th – 8th, I am going to be at Westercon and I have received my schedule.

First of all, I’m going to have some drawings in the Art Show including this Sea Serpent along with seven other inked drawings.  I’m not worried about how my artwork will be received and I have done drawing comic classes before, but there all kinds of firsts with Westercon and I can’t even begin to say how nervous I am about this convention.

I will do my first panel discussions as well as my first reading.

So right now I am hoping I don’t forget how to read! I know I am reading from Other Systems. Part of me thinks I should read something from act 1: so maybe Chapter 6. Or maybe Chapter 26 since that is one of my favorite chapters.  (If anyone has an opinion let me know!)

I also am amazed to find that my autograph time is on primetime Saturday. While I have signed plenty of books at my booths, I’ve never had a scheduled autograph time.

Anyway, here is my schedule…. the other names are the folks on the discussions with me.

 

Thu Jul 5 4:00:pm
Thu Jul 5 5:00:pm
Whining vs. Angst: Fine Lines in Characterization


Cascade 3-4
Your contemplative character never seems to stop thinking and do something! Your action hero is coming through as a brainless Neanderthal. How do you round out characters without changing their essential purpose in the story or losing the reader’s sympathy? Creating original characters with interesting quirks walks a fine line between too much and too little. Getting it wrong can prevent the story from breaking into the Sold! category.


Alma Alexander Anna Sheehan Corry L. Lee Elizabeth Guizzetti Stephanie Weippert






Fri Jul 6 1:00:pm
Fri Jul 6 2:00:pm
Introducing Your World


Cascade 5
World building is great fun, but can also burden your reader with the amount of information you need to get across. How does one successfully build a world while weaving the information into the plot?


Brenda Cooper Elizabeth Guizzetti Elton Elliott Rhiannon Held Stephanie Weippert






Fri Jul 6 2:00:pm
Fri Jul 6 3:00:pm
Dark Reflections


Cascade 13
Why do we have a love for some villains and a loathing for those who do evil for evils sake? Do we see our own dark reflections mirrored and amplified? Do these characters do and say the things that we would never dare to?


Elizabeth Guizzetti M Todd Gallowglas Mike Shepherd Moscoe Richard A. Lovett Ted Butler






Fri Jul 6 4:00:pm
Fri Jul 6 5:00:pm
Drawing Comics Workshop: Monsters!


Olympic 2
A Step-by-step guide to design three comic book monsters(protagonist, antagonist, and sidekick) and create a 2-page story layout. Basic drawing, perspective and observation techniques will be covered. Learn how proportion can change a monster from cute to colossal. Materials and supplies are included.


Elizabeth Guizzetti






Fri Jul 6 7:00:pm
Fri Jul 6 8:00:pm
From First Word to Finished Work


Cascade 7-8
A panel for writers, from beginners to more experienced authors. We focus on the writing process, the importance of editing, and the creation of a final product.


Elizabeth Guizzetti Erin Tidwell Gregory A. Wilson James C. Glass Mike Shepherd Moscoe






Sat Jul 7 10:00:am
Sat Jul 7 11:00:am
From First Word to Finished Work


Cascade 3-4
A panel for writers, from beginners to more experienced authors; we focus on the writing process, the importance of editing, and the creation of a final product.


Anna Sheehan Elizabeth Guizzetti Janna Silverstein M Todd Gallowglas Muffy Morrigan






Sat Jul 7 12:00:pm
Sat Jul 7 1:00:pm
So You Want to do Indy Comics?


Cascade 2
The ins and outs of running a webcomic, a small press or independent comic book publications company. Discussion may include setting up a business, choosing a name, the importance of purchasing ISBN’s, doing your first convention, and getting your books into comic book stores.


Elizabeth Guizzetti iMage






Sat Jul 7 1:30:pm
Sat Jul 7 2:00:pm
A Reading by Elizabeth Guizzetti


Olympic 1
A reading of the works of Elizabeth Guizzetti


Elizabeth Guizzetti






Sat Jul 7 4:00:pm
Sat Jul 7 5:00:pm
An Autograph Session With Elizabeth Guizzetti


Autograph 2
Come get your favorite copies of Elizabeth Guizzetti’s works signed


Elizabeth Guizzetti

Three Guilty Pleasures of my 35th Year

I’ve been doing a lot of serious how-to blogging lately, so I’m going to switch focus for a day and write about something else. My thirty-sixth birthday is coming up in a few weeks so I thought I would write about some things that make me happy. Not big things like being married to my husband –though he makes me happy. Or even my dogs. Or spending six weeks in the British Isles. Or getting my first novel published.

Just a few guilty pleasures. Though in all actually I feel no guilt from indulging in these things, actually I just get pleasure.

1) Driving my husband to work just so I can get breakfast at the French bakery on the next block. Now I know what you are thinking… I live in Seattle, I can get a decent cup of coffee anywhere. But you would be wrong. Coffee is only as good as the barista who makes it. Also the French bakery makes a very good quiche.

Then I get to be Dennis’s coffee fairy. I love getting him a cup of coffee and taking it up to his office. There is no reason for this–he is perfectly capable of walking across the street himself,  and I don’t hang out or say hi to one of his co-workers. I drop off the food and go. When I do this little thing for him, I feel like a “good wife,” which is completely idiotic.

2) A not-too-sweet Thai Iced tea. Yes I realize that black tea and sweetened condensed milk is going to be sweet–but if they are mixed in the correct ratios–then they are a cooling dessert drink capable of slicing trough a spicy curry or cashew chicken.

3) This is my new favorite Sandwich.  Take two slices of Boar’s Head turkey breast, two slices of ham, four slices of salami, and a slice of cheddar cheese and stuff into a hoagie roll.(I prefer the ones you get from the bakery at Fred Meyer-best if eaten same day as purchased.)

Spread with an olive tapanade (I prefer the chunky one from Trader Joes)  Stick under the broiler for 2 minutes. Take out and consume?

What are your favorite guilty pleasures?

My completely uneducated opinion on how to write a love scene

Let me start off by saying I am not a romance or a erotica writer. I mainly write science fiction and fantasy. I also generally believe if sex is not part of the story, it has no place in the story. It is amazing how many movies and books are ruined by “sexing up,” however I am an adult, so I also believe that sex is a natural and integral part of adult romantic relationships especially marriage.

Because I believe this, it does come through in my own writing. For example: In Other Systems, Abby sees Brian and Helen were fooling around in the engine room, Abby leaves before she is caught watching them which means all she really saw is Brian kissing Helen’s neck and unzipping the top of her coveralls. Sexing up the book? I don’t think it is.  If the reader is shocked by a happily married couple having sex, there is something wrong with the reader’s ideas about marriage.

The same is true in my comic Out for Souls&Cookies, about the married couple whom take care of Rosie and Tycho (demons disguised as poodles) as you can see below.

However in my next two novels with the working titles, the Martlet and OS: Luna there are major romantic subplots. Now what do I do?

First I figured, hey, I am married and in love with my husband, so I’ll think abut the early years of us together. Hmmm. Dang it that was pretty useless because I am not an assassin or considering the colonial issues of Luna. And while no marriage is perfect, actually we really haven’t had too many problems that we were not given the tools to sort out during pre-marital counseling. Damn it!!!

So admittedly, my first drafts were not very good but now I think I figured out what works for me. I am sure that if you are writing a romance this is not exactly applicable, this is more about writing a fantasy or science fiction book with a romantic element. I also write generally in the context of 3rd person limited or 1st person, so the reader does spend some time in the protagonist’s head.

Since this is a subplot, I have no hard and fast rules over timing, this may happen over the course of a chapter or over several.

 

 

 

Step 1) Be true to the characters. Consider their true selves, how long they have been in the relationship, etc. The first time is different than the fifth time which is different than the hundredth time, etc. What do they want by approaching the person of their desire?

Step 2) With focus on the way the protagonist is feeling and experiencing the event. First glances at the person: I am not a believer of looking deep into my lover’s soulful eyes, but I am a believer of looking at the man or woman and being immediately interested in some part of them.

There should also be self body awareness: The feeling of being aware of the protagonist’s own body. Cold sweats while trying to be sauve, that sort of thing.

Step 3: Speaking to the person, maybe doing them a favor, or otherwise courting them–this goes for both men and women.

The body awareness should continue for awhile. Maybe they had a spicy lunch and now they are afraid of farting. Worse maybe they do try to silently fart, but let out a booming one. Or maybe it’s a silent but deadly, I don’t know it’s your story at this point. Reactions are everything.

Step 4: The touching of hands/arms, Closer touching hands to face or embracing for the first time. The continuation of courting.

Step 5: Kissing the cheek, moving to kissing the mouth

Step 6: Mouth to other body part–I am talking shoulders, chest, etc. Focus more on foreplay then actual sex acts.

Now depending on your writing style you may choose either to black out the scene…

or Step 7: depending on how steamy, you want this to go, hand or mouth to genitals–the warming up of the characters and Step 8: intercourse.

Here is a final tip: since I don’t write erotica, so I am not talking about anything other than sex. Kink would be problematic in these settings as they have their own logistics. If you know about a lifestyle and can write it well, awesome, but if you don’t, it will probably come through in your writing and muddy the subplot.

Good luck intrepid writers! Does anyone else have any pointers they would like to share?

Productive Research Part 2: Favorite research sources

As I said,  directed research is very important in both novel writing and graphic novels so I thought I would list some of my favorite research sources.

Books:

I picked up a copy of the Sears Catalogue circa 1897 when I was working on Lure. Now anytime I am looking for information on wagons, butter churns, etc. I have the perfect place to find a picture of one.

The How to Draw Manga Series. While some of the titles have a bit of drawing instruction, these are mostly design books. They have a book for every general manga subject: Robots, Occult, Ninjas or whatnot. The book on ninjas has information on sword fighting, throwing stars, the correct costuming, etc.  I also like that certain moves are drawn in sequence.

The Big Blue Book of Grammar : this book is a very straight forward grammar rule book.

Websites:

 : This is my favorite site when I’m going to work on naming characters.

Wikipedia

For my current project an epic fantasy novel with the working title of  The Martlet, I am also using these websites.

Castles of Wales

The Medieval Bestiary

Productivity: General versus Directed Research

I have noticed (and blogged before) about how people sometimes allow facts to get in their way when writing a story. So this post is specific to how I use resources to learn about certain subject matter, so I can write about it, because while I believe general research is a waste of time, I do believe directed research is important.

So let’s say I want to write an epic fantasy about a young girl in the faux middle ages who is going to buck tradition and go off and do X.

The non-writer who wants to write will say: we need to know what challenges she will face. Surprise! No you don’t. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING FICTION!

Nothing evolves in a vacuum. Everyone old enough to write a novel should have seen enough television, movies, read other fantasy books to realize that in the middle ages there were jobs based solely on gender and society told women to be subservient to men. Okay, so we all have this idea, it is amazing how often I see people doing YEARS of research in order to verify this fact instead of writing their fantasy epic.

The first pitfall is not knowing what to research. So how do I know what to research?

I have made an outline of my story which includes 

1) The Hook: the main point of the story which will draw the reader in to the world you are creating. Let’s say in this fantasy epic, the protagonist wants her name to live on forever in stone and she imagines herself building castles.

2) The Plot: this sort of adventure will be coming of age story as the protagonist moves from starting point to being a master herself (or at least far enough in her journey that the story ends satisfactorily.) We know she will face:

disapproval from her parents (which will be shrugged off fairly quickly, since she is going to leave them and go build castles)
disapproval from the church establishment. (which may or may not be an issue depending on how large of a church presence you have at the building site.)
disapproval from established masters of Stone Masonry (but at least one person who will train the strange girl who will also be a protector of sorts until she can protect herself.)
Optional: disapproval from the other apprentices of Masonry

Find Your Topic. It’s okay to s tart large, then narrow it down.

For your historical research, you decide you want to write about the European dark ages. Awesome. But that’s over 1000 years, so how about focusing on a when and a where? Now that you’ve picked Wales during the Edwardian Castle Building Era. Why? Because you figure you need her working in a time when there was lots of castles being built.

Make sure your topic relates to back to what you are writing. So check out the Stone mason guilds of the Medieval times is probably a good idea, but looking up a woman’s place is irrelevant. Why?

Because you are supposed to be writing a story about a girl who is not going to stay in her prescribed place! She should leave it within the first few chapters if not the first chapter of her story. 

She might choose to dress like a boy, in fact, it is probably required since gowns would get stuck between the building materials. So once again, you are looking at the stone masons what they wore, how they behaved, etc. Were they cosseted by the gentry because of their skills or were they just educated peasants?

So with this probably won’t take me more than two weeks to do. Now to add a bit of the correct flavor I would do quick internet searches on: Welsh recipes of that era, Peasant houses

With those four topics, I should have enough to get started and even add a few details to my story.

And then if while in the course of writing the story another topic comes up–lets say the duties of a Household Priest–I can just do a search, spend a day or two researching it, and then move back to writing.

How do other people accomplish their research?

My Writing Routine

Slowly over the last five years, I have becoming a full time author and artist. This is my weekday routing. Weekends are quite different as are “business days.”

I get up around 7:30, I try to do exercise first thing every morning. My waistline is proof that some days I do better than others. However now that I am edging towards 36 winters, my shoulders need me to exercise at least 3 or 4 times a week.

Rosie is unimpressed with my writing schedule. She thinks  more time should be spent cuddling.

Once I get my husband out of bed and drive him to work. I generally get a vanilla latte from the French Bakery near his office. Now if I have other errands, than I do those things. Otherwise I go into my closet and work for an hour or two. I love it the days I get those extra few hours–it feels like I get so much done when I have those two hours!

I still walk dogs so then I do that including walking my own dogs, Rosie and Tycho. Afterwards we eat lunch.

If I am in the middle of a graphic novel, I head into my closet and work on comics until 4 ish or my right shoulder gives out. I still draw and ink them by hand. I use a Wacom Cintique to color them with Photoshop or letter them with Illustrator.

If I am in the middle of a written novel, I either go sit on my couch or head in my closet for writing or rewriting.

Then I come out of the closet and work on dinner, then my husband comes home and we have dinner. We spend a bit of time together then he goes to his video games while I go back to writing/drawing for another four to six hours. I go to bed around 11:30.

Then I sleep and get up and do it all again.

What about you?

John Carter Review

So my husband and I just watched John Carter.

When it was out in the theater, I was stuck right in the middle of my convention season when it came out in the theater so I had to wait for it to come out on blu-ray. It got a lot of hate from the reviewers, but some of my convention buddies  (who love science fiction) had told me they loved it–and it did not disappoint. I admit I have not read Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books, but I throughly enjoyed the movie.

It was ultimately satisfying. It had an amusing plot, the sets and costuming was gorgeous. And what was most fun was to see  the visualization of Burroughs ideas and see how they have molded science fiction in the past century.

Other Systems: Deleted Scenes #3: Argent/Dinner on the Discovery

Kipos with her three moons.
The largest one on the right is Argent.

Here is another deleted scene in Harden’s point of view. Maybe three or four important thoughts were added to the chapter previous which was in Abby’s point of view or in the replaced Cole chapter and the rest were simply cut.

As always same warnings:

However even this is a deleted scene and not in the book: it is still part of the Other Systems Universe and is copyrighted along side the book.


Parental Warnings: Other Systems is an adult novel. Harden has a potty mouth.  This scene has only a few curse words, but also touches on the many services available on Argent. 


Spoiler Warning: This scene is about 1/2 the way through the book. So if you haven’t read it and do not want any plot points revealed do not read this scene. For those who have read the novel, you will see exactly where this scene goes…

So if you still want to read it click on the link below and it will bring up a PDF.

Deleted Scene: Argent

My review of Prometheus: interesting… but…

So my husband and I went to see Prometheus.

I am trying not to give spoilers, but this is a review.

Overall I enjoyed it. As a action science fiction movie, I felt it did a good job. It was shot beautifully. The opening scenes in Iceland were especially beautiful. And I loved the alien “Engineer” technology. It was gorgeous and I felt it kept in the same feel as the other movies. My husband saw the movie both in 3D and in 2D and he said some of the 3D effects were spectacular.

One thing I really liked is the crew included a science team as well as a team of people to run the ship, plus Vickers who was management.

However there were a few problems with the film: Mainly it didn’t feel like a prequel. It had almost nothing to do with the Alien series which I know and love.

1) The human technology was all glossy and pretty, yet it was supposed to happen prior to Alien. I would have liked to see more mixing of low/high tech. Yes, I understand it was supposed to be a nicer and better-funded ship than a mining vessel, but that doesn’t explain the more advanced technology.

2) The characters were completely flat except the “villain” characters.  as David,  as Vickers, and  as Peter Weyland were all terrific. I understood why every single “villain” was doing what they were doing. They were awesome.

3) I was glad when bad things happened to the protagonist Charlie Holloway () because he was such a jerk. Was he supposed to be one of those gray characters that science fictions fans love? Well, he did not pull it off. He just seemed like a douche. The other protagonist Elizabeth Shaw () was nicer, but she didn’t seem much smarter. She seemed to have no reason for her belief system.

When the bad things started to come down some of it was completely obvious as they were reminiscent to the other movies, but why are scientists in movies such idiots?  Personally I wanted MORE bad stuff to happen to them because they made such stupid decisions.

So while I liked it, I can only give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

 

Other Systems: Deleted Scene #2: Pancakes

Here is another scene which I think people will enjoy. Once again, these scenes have been self edited and looked at by the good folks in my writing group, but have not been edited by my editors at 48Fourteen as they are not part of the novel.

As I said before even this is a deleted scene and not in the book: it is still part of the Other Systems Universe and is copyrighted along side the book. 


Parental Warnings: Other Systems is an adult novel, however this scene is one that almost anyone can read. In fact, it is one of the few scenes where Harden does not use the f-word– the harshest word is “Crap!” And that is from Abby.

Spoiler Warning: This scene was originally in with Abby’s flight instruction which is about 1/2 the way through the book. So if you haven’t read it and do not want any plot points revealed do not read this scene. In fact quit reading right now!

I cut this scene because it is what is known as a “little darling.” Meaning it really doesn’t add anything to the narrative: it is about the making and eating of pancakes. The reader knows that due to the stresses of flight, Abby is constantly hungry and exhausted. Other issues with it:  1) It changes point of views at the end. 2) It has alliteration issues. 3) It shows Harden and Brian getting attached to Abby too early. Ultimately when this scene was cut, I wrote the “beach scene” in order to have the same idea later in the book when it was more appropiate.

So if you still want to read it click on the link below and it will bring up a PDF.
Deleted Scene_Pancakes