Ellie Di Julio's Blog, page 15

Paranormal romance vs urban fantasy: Why are we afraid of kissing?

When I sent Eddy Webb a review copy of The Transmigration of Cora Riley, his initial pull quote labelled the book as “paranormal romance”. I immediately bristled. I didn’t/don’t see the story that way. In my mind, it’s always been firmly in the urban fantasy genre. Yes, there is a romantic storyline, but that’s not the whole point of the book. Not even half of the point.

So I (with great nervousness) emailed Eddy back to ask if he’d mind changing the quote to say “urban fantasy” instead. He di...

Stop pigeonholing female characters

This exchange came across my Twitter feed (last summer – I know I’m a little late to the game on this one):

@(Person 1): If there’s one thing I find most fascinating about Pacific Rim it’s how strongly the views diverge regarding the character of Mako Mori.

@(Person 2): What divergence is there?

@(Person 1) Re: Mako, whether she’s strong compelling character or damsel in distress.

Now, I don’t often get involved in ‘ism’ discussions because I’ve got (what I’ve been told is) a bizarre set of ideal...

Jamming about fiction, self-publishing, and crowdfunding with Dave Ursillo

A bit of a treat here for you today, folks!

Several months ago, whenThe Transmigration of Cora Rileywas going to be published in December 2013, I recorded an interview with Dave Ursillo of the Literati Writers where we jammed about fiction writing, self-publishing, crowdfunding, and, of course,Cora Riley. But because the Literati is in transition at the moment (reopening bigger and badder in May), the 30-minute interview never aired.

Until now!

Blahblahblah warning about f-bombs and something ab...

Cycles of crying, excitement, and ice cream: 4 questions about my writing process

Remember back in the day (by which I mean the 80s and 90s, for all you whippersnappers out there) when you’d get a carefully-folded piece of notebook paper in your locker and you immediately knew you were screwed? Chances were that the contents said something like, “If you don’t pass this on to 10 people, you’ll never have sex and you’ll be run over by a Mack Truck by the end of the year.” And you dutifully passed it along because youreallyreallyreallywanted to bang that hot tennis player who...

Want a sexy short story? I thought so.

Remember how, back during the crowdfunding campaign for Cora Riley,I promised to write a short story based on young Jack Alexander’s adventures? I didn’t forget! I just had to put it off until a goodly amount of time after the book’s publication so people had time to get to know Jack, and, you know, so it’d make sense.

And I did it! ”Ambrosia Makes Fools of Us All” is 14 pages ofJack Alexander in his wild college days, mixing it up in an abandoned mansion in New Orleans with a sourcerer and a...

Exercise your powers of deduction: A view of my workspace

I’m not sure what it is that makes us so curious about the working spaces of creative people. Maybe we’re hoping that by seeing how they arrange their environment, something in our own artistic psyche will click magically into place, releasing our pent-up potential once we see exactly the right combination of form and function. Maybe if we could just see how the greats* do it, we could be great, too.

That’s how I imagine most people think about it. For me, though, I’m just nosy.

Combine that wi...

A completely self-indulgent post about my kitty who passed away yesterday

Yesterday, I had to make the hard call to our vet and arrange for my beloved kitty, Doctor Bones (yes, named after the Star Trek character), to be put to sleep after a shockingly swift decline from happy and playing to confused and stumbling over the course of a week.

Her remaining kidney failed after seven years of great health, registering blood toxin levels so high they literally broke the vet’s machine. She refused to eat and drink. When they tried to insert the tube for the final injectio...

How I tripled my writing productivity

First off, lest you think I’m going to divulge some Ultimate Secret of Writing, a pair of caveats. They are: your mileage may vary and this is just my experience.If that dissuades you, I’ll redirect you to the actual Ultimate Secret of Writing. If you’re still with me, carry on.

After writing three books, I discovered that my writing speed averaged 500 words an hour when slogging through that dreaded first draft. Not too shabby. But watching Leigh Ann Kopans post her Write Or Die counts (1,000...

The three sweetest words anyone can say

I’m sitting across from a dear friend whom I’m meeting for the first time in person. We giggle and gossip for the first couple of hours, but as those initial butterflies dissipate, more serious topics drift to the surface, and my anxiety rises.

Sharing the intimate details of my life isn’t something I shy away from. But I find it monumentally hard to share if it’s been more than a couple weeks between updates (which is why you haven’t seen any further inverted walkabout posts). There’s a lot g...

State of the Ellie: March 2014

I won’t lie: It’s been a hard month. I spent nearly all of March in New Mexico, staying in the house next door to my mother, where I saw out the rest of my inverted walkabout. That in itself was great. The steady decline in my emotional state was not. I might make a whole separate post about the walkabout when I have a better grip on it, but for right now, let’s just say two months away, plus several blows to my ego (career-wise and relationship-wise) made this leg of the trip harder than I e...