Princess Jones's Blog, page 6

Asked and Answered: Why Can’t Red Read?

Ok so I guess this is one of those spoilers that the Internet is always so worried about. So if you haven’t read Red, stop here and go read it.

Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Are you back? Ok here’s the answer:

So why can’t Red read? When she was younger it was obvious that her talents were in riding, hunting, and trapping. Her parents didn’t have any other plans for her future. And, also it probably had a little to do with Red reminding them about unpleasantness and messiness in their pasts. So it was easier to just send little Roui out into the woods and get her out of sight and out of mind.

Red is obviously a badass. That was the first thing I wrote on her character development sheet. But what’s interesting is why she’s a badass. Survival has always been her main motivation. She’s not the type to go take some reading lessons when it’s not something that will get her through the night if she needs food and shelter. Even when Red is not fighting for the basic necessities for survival, she cares more about the bounty hunting that will put money in her pocket than she does about reading a good book.

Will, Red’s business partner with benefits, provides many services in her life. One of them is that he is far more educated than she is. He has received formal education at some point in his life. He’s the brains behind this operation and Red is the muscle. How they found each other and how they realized they’d be perfect partners is something I think of often. I’m considering exploring it as a short story for my newsletter subscribers.

I often answer reader questions here on my blog. If you have a question, just shoot me an email and maybe I’ll choose yours next time.

Photo Credit: Some Books by Ben O’Bryan

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Things I Do When I’m Supposed to Be Writing

I recently read a book where a woman went from writing about 2K words a day to about 10K words a day. My reaction was this:

That’s a lot of fucking words, man! She made some good points in the book that I think will help me write faster for my first drafts. Apparently one of the first steps is to avoid distractions. And that makes sense, considering the amount of distractions lurking just beyond my desk. For some reason, every time I’m supposed to be writing, I end up doing something else.

Something with The Kid

This summer, my husband and I have my three year old niece staying with us this summer. It’s been an amazing learning experience for us. I never really thought about how I would work if I had a kid. Now, I know I wouldn’t work very much because that kid would be a HUGE source of distraction. She’s always falling down. She needs me to change from Nick Jr to Disney Jr. She wants me to watch Doc Mcstuffins with her. She needs to tell me a secret that is never really a secret.

Stalk Facebook

Social media is huge on the distraction list and for me it’s usually Facebook that leaves me wondering where the last few hours have gone. Besides my friends’ interesting lives, I’m also a member of some really interesting womens groups that have me debating, laughing, and commiserating with people all around the world. It’s so interesting that my wordcount usually suffers.

Gossip on Gchat

For my close friends, I often connect via Google Chat. (They call it Hangouts now but it will always been Google Chat or Gchat to me.) It’s reassuring to know that all I have to do to connect to a friend in North Carolina or Colorado is start typing. And now that it has the option to draw little doodles as well as chat, I find myself spending more and more of my time laughing with my friends over the ridiculousness of the day.

Check The Mail

Since my mailbox is at the front of my apartment complex and I live on the back side of the apartment complex, I have the longest walk to the mailbox I’ve ever had. It’s about three minutes. But I have to be suitably dressed. Then I have to find my keys. Then I have to walk over there. Then I have to stop into the rental office for something. And half of the time there isn’t any mail so the whole thing was for no reason at all.

Eat Food I Don’t Really Want

So let’s say I’m having trouble with a character, I have some M&Ms. And then I’m still having trouble with the character because food doesn’t solve your problems. But I try again and have some Swedish Fish. And that doesn’t help. So I eat a sandwich, and some cookies, and a milkshake. And then I’m tired and need to take a nap. And still, no words coming out.

Video Games

My husband and I have three Xbox 360s, two PS3s, a Playstation 4, an Xbox One, and a Wii, along with about four million games that I need to start or want to play again. Just getting dressed every day is a struggle. Any time I write more than 2 words a day is a triumph.

Random Dancing

Sometimes I just dance. It looks a lot like this:

Write Blog Posts About How I Procrastinate Writing My Fiction

That was very meta of me, huh? Back to work I go.

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Connections

I think life is really all about connections. I’m both a reader and a writer, and I like to connect with other readers and writers. My goals are swapping books, talking about my work, and just being among other word nerds.

Below are a few ways we can connect:

Facebook

I recently started a Facebook page for my fiction work. I share updates about my work. I post funny stuff I find around the Internet about writing and books. And I get to interact directly with people who follow my stuff.

Twitter

My Twitter handle is @imprincessjones. This is a general Twitter handle for me. It combines things I do with my copywriting business, my freelance stuff, and my fiction work. So if you’re more interested in who I am as writer as opposed to just the stories I tell, this might be a good way for us to connect. If you want to start a conversation, Twitter’s probably the quickest way to do so.

Goodreads

Goodreads is a reader’s haven. I’ve been a member since before I started writing fiction because I love to talk about what I’m reading. Goodreads is also great for organizing your books and creating lists of books to read. As a writer, I have an author page set up on the site. You can follow my blog posts, my reviews, or write your own reviews of work there.

Mailing List

And finally, consider signing up for the mailing list. This is a medium that really lets me offer the most to my readers. You get updates about the work but you also get freebies and things I won’t share through other mediums. And I won’t sell your information. Ever. Pinky swear.

Photo Credit: 32/52 – Connection by Matt

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What I Read This Month

I read a lot of books. Each month I spotlight a bit of what I read here on this blog. If you have any suggestions for books I should read, send me an email and I’ll take a look.

Watson and Holmes by Karl Bollers and Rick Leonardi

There are so many takes on the Sherlock cannon but this one is a nice twist. Set in Harlem, it follows an eccentric PI and his accidentally partner, ex-special forces doctor Watson. The characters are black and the stories have an urban appeal. If you have any kind of knowledge of the cannon, you’ll recognize every familiar beat. And if you’re not a Sherlock Holmes fan, this might be a nice way to introduce you to it.

The art is great. No complaints there. However, there were quite a few typos in the text and because it’s a graphic novel, there aren’t THAT many words to begin with. So it stood out even more than it would have in a traditional novel.

Overall, I’d recommend this for anyone who can’t wait until there are new episodes of BBC’s Sherlock or CBS’s Elementary.

A Belle in Brooklyn: Advice for Living Your Single Life and Enjoying Mr. Right Now by Demetria L. Lucas

I was introduced to Demetria Lucas through her blog and her TV show. She also has an AskFM channel where she answers relationship questions that I like to read sometimes. Reading this book was like having meeting someone your friends have all told you about but you’ve never met yourself.

There is a knack to writing about your life to be sold to others. You have to write about the interesting stuff while drawing a line at what is private to you. And personally, I just don’t think that telling a bunch of stories where you are almost always in the right is storytelling. It seems more like cherry picking. I want to hear about when she was crazy and wrong and how she got from there to here. There wasn’t much of that in this book.

Also, I didn’t really find a lot of advice in this book. Although I am not single and not in need of dating advice, I thought there would be sections of actionable dating advice. There weren’t any and I’m actually glad for that because I really just preferred reading the essays.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

These are the facts: Alice wakes up on the floor of gym thinking it’s 1998 when it’s really 2008. She has forgotten her three children, her life, and the fact that she is in the midst of an ugly divorce. For some reason, it takes Alice a long, long time to realize that no one is playing a practical joke on her and she really has lost her memory. I’d like to believe that if any of this had happened to me, I would have grasped the concept on the second time someone told me. Yeah, I’d be freaked out but I still wouldn’t be saying “Oh this must be a joke.”

This book could have been about 100 to 150 pages shorter. There was a lot of establishing the amnesia early in the book and just how Alice realizes that she has forgotten 10 years of her life. And that dragged a bit, I thought. If I had been less patient, I would have given up on the book.

There were great bits of insight and emotion about marriage, relationships, and infertility in this book. Great stuff that is so true that you can’t help but believe in the characterizations that follow them. From about page 200 or so, it moved fast.

In the end, we reached the ending you expect within the first 70 pages or so, but not the way you expect. And that’s always a welcome surprise.

Unbreak My Heart by Toni Braxton

I’ll admit it: I’m nosy.

Or rather, I’m the type of person who enjoys knowing what goes on behind closed doors and why. Celebrity biographies can answer all the small questions you’ve always had or they can be fluff machines where the author–ok, the ghostwriter–two steps over anything that might make them look bad.

This was a combination. It really does spend a lot of time talking about her upbringing. There were a lot of questions about how she started out that she answered. She goes over the two bankruptcies and how she got there. She also discusses her complicated relationship with LA Reid and Babyface, which lead to her suing them yet still working with them for a long time.

The title is cheesy. I know she chose it because it’s the name of her most famous song. But in relation to this book, it doesn’t really fit. I think the most interesting parts were about her son and understanding his autism. I also enjoyed that she spent some time talking about her sisters and their reality tv show but didn’t focus too much on them.

This is a good (quick) read for anyone who is a fan of Toni, her music, or her reality show with her sisters.

The post What I Read This Month appeared first on Princess Jones.

Asked and Answered: What Are You Currently Working On?

I’m currently working on Super, which follows a young woman living in NYC with a secret.

I’ve always had a thing for super heroes. I love people who put on a cape and say “Not on my watch, buddy!” But I’ve also always thought that superheroes must have a hard time fitting in. Even if you have some alter ego, you’re probably late all of the time and can’t tell anyone where you’ve been. You probably break stuff or get hurt unexpectedly and everyone wonders what happens to you. A superhero is probably the worst employee in the world. She never finishes her TPS reports because she’s gotta fly off to save the world. And of course, she has nothing to say for herself when she gets back.

The more I thought about this, the more I was sure that I needed to write about a superhero may save the world one step at a time but she wasn’t so good at saving herself. And voila! That’s how we got Audrey Hart, the main character of Super. Hopefully her adventures will be in stores by the end of the year and you guys can tell me what you think about her.

I often answer reader questions here on my blog. If you have a question, just shoot me an email and maybe I’ll choose yours next time.

The post Asked and Answered: What Are You Currently Working On? appeared first on Princess Jones.

What I Read This Month

I read a lot of books and each month I choose a few of them to spotlight here on my blog. If you have any suggestions for books I should read, send me an email and I’ll take a look.

The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George

I have read this book over and over again since I was a teenager. It is my go-to book when I have nothing to read. Sometimes I start in the middle and go from there. Margaret George is heavy on the descriptions and that can be tiresome sometimes. But this is an amazing story and well written. I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in Egypt, Cleopatra, or on a very, very long trip.

And maybe I’ll read it on a very long trip to Egypt someday. Stay tuned for that one.

Chasing the Sun by Natalia Sylvester

I just finished this book and I am very angry with the characters. Like I wish they had phone numbers so that I could call them up and tell them off for their behavior and choices. For me, this is the sign of a good read.

When you are angry with the author, you feel the story was lacking or the book written poorly. But when you are angry with the characters they have become fully realized people who you love, hate, root for, or can’t wait to see fail. Basically, the fact that I am so mad at these characters means the author has done her job beautifully. Life isn’t black and white and neither is the world these characters live in.

Please note that this book is set in Lima, Peru during a turbulent time that I like to call “Oh somebody blew something up and we’re kinda mad but it happens too often for us to be too mad about it.” This is the extent of my knowledge of Peruvian history and/or current events. What I’m saying here is that even though Peru is such a big part of this story, you don’t have to be familiar to get sucked into it.

Overall, I thought the writing was tight and the story unique. There were a lot of surprises and it did not end the way I thought it would. I’d recommend it to almost anyone.

(Full disclosure: Natalia Sylvester is a friend of mine. But that did not guarantee I would like her book and the fact that I did has only made me like her more.)

Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture by Andy Cohen

I’m not gonna lie about being a Real Housewives fan. Deal with it.

So that’s the reason I picked up this book. I always kinda wondered who exactly Andy is and this book answered that question. It’s a typical celebrity memoir. There was some funny stuff about his childhood and adolescence. He gave some interesting stuff about how he got where he is today. I had no idea about his decade long career as a producer with the morning show at CBS and that was good to read. He gave some tidbits about our favorite reality TV stars.

Overall, it wasn’t anything life changing or more than I thought it would be: a nice easy beach read for those of us who love our NeNes and Bethennys.

The Heist by Janet Evanovich

I absolutely can’t knock Janet Evanovich’s hustle. She knows exactly what her brand is and keeps giving it to us every single book. But it’s hard to enjoy reading about a not quite Stephanie Plum clone. O’Hare is enough like Plum for me to notice and be annoyed about it. But she’s not enough like Plum to play on the familiarity of that character to make me care what happens to her.

(Also, I’m kinda tired of reading about all these chick lit and romance heroines who eat terribly, don’t exercise, and are super skim. Why is that everywhere? What’s that about?)

That said, I love a heist story. For me, the story dragged until about 30% into it. (Sorry but I don’t know the pages. I was using the Kindle app.) I will admit to skipping some of the story that boring. . . like any prolonged supposed banter between Fox and O’Hare.

I’m a glutton for punishment so I might read The Chase. But I’m not expecting much from it.

These are just a few of the books I read this month.

I’m also an active member of the Goodreads community and I’d love to connect with you there.

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A Writer in Paris

My stepdad was in the Navy and we spent many years living on bases all over the Southeastern part of the United States. One of our posts was in Dahlgren, Virginia, a small weapons base just outside of the Maryland. There I went to Dahlgren Elementary, which is a very small DOD (Department of Defense) school on base. It was so small that I had maybe 8 kids in my eighth grade class and I was one of the maybe two or three black kids in the entire school during my several years there.

When I was in the sixth grade, the school introduced a French class that I’m assuming was optional. Not everyone went to the class. The school was so small that the class was held in a trailer across the street. It was always hot as hell in that trailer. The teacher’s name was Madame Bouchane. And it was there that I first dreamed of Paris.

I’m not a romantic by any means. I’m not “mushy.” But Paris has always lived in the back of my mind as a great adventure that I may never have. Just the idea of traveling internationally always seemed like something I would love to do but that I may never do because I’m too busy doing practical things like organizing my pantry or saving for a new washer and dryer.

I took this picture when the Eiffel Tower appeared out of nowhere on my walk. I put it in black and white because it seemed more “Parisian” somehow.

A few weeks ago, I went to Paris.

Honestly, it was the day before I left that it got very real for me. I had decided to go the year before without knowing how I would pay for it or what I would do when I got there. I saved some money and stalked the airline sites for a good deal. One night at 3am, I found a flight from JFK to CDG for $700. It was a bonafide steal. It was also the most money I’d ever spent on a non-necessity.

Even then, it didn’t seem real. In the four months between I hit “Buy” on the ticket and the day Hubs dropped me off at the airport, so many things changed. I left a job and a life in NYC to move to Austin, TX and write full-time. Hubs and I took on the responsibility of my three year old niece and became de facto parents. I still didn’t have any idea of where I would stay in Paris, what I would do in Paris, and who I would do it with in Paris.

What I did know was that I was going to write in Paris. I would sit at cafes and write. I would sit in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and write. I brought my Chromebook and several paper notebooks in anticipation of the characters, storylines, and plot twists I would come up with along the Seine.

I wrote NOTHING in Paris. Not even in the airports during my many layovers. Not even in my hotel room at night.

In retrospect, I don’t know what I expected. Maybe I was thinking that a writer in Paris would have no choice but be inspired by all the literary greats that walked those same streets. Maybe I was falling into the trap of the idea of writing instead of what writing actually is. What I had imagined was a lot more like writer porn than writer reality.

I know that for me writing is about zoning out and just getting it done. I get ideas from interacting with the world and new experiences are great for geting the creative juices flowing. But, the writing happens when I get somewhere comfortable and familiar enough to do the work it takes to create.

Still, I had a wonderful and eye-opening trip to the City of Lights. I hope to go back. And I’m sure that it will show up somewhere in my future writing.

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Asked and Answered: What’s the Story Behind Your Name?

Princess is such an interesting name. Where did you get it?

My parents. Although I am sometimes known by other names–PJ, P.S. Jones, etc–my legal name is Princess.

To make a long, sad story short, my dad’s mother died when he was young and he named me after her. It’s an unusual name that I have both loved and hated with equal intensity throughout my life. When it was difficult, it was because I’m not a princess-y kind of person and it’s hard to be called a title that you feel is quite the opposite of who you are. It got easy when I realized that although I may not be the one you expected, I am most definitely my own special kind of princess.

Fun fact: I can tell when people don’t think my name is really Princess–that either they’ve misheard, that they have misunderstood, or that I am lying–when they call me immediately call me Miss Jones even in casual settings.

Every so often, I answer a burning question here on my blog. If you have a question, just shoot me an email and maybe I’ll choose yours next time.

Tentative Publishing Dates for Red, Getting to Grandma, and What Big Teeth You Have

I just wanted to pop by and give you guys an update on when the Red Series will be available.

Red will be available in late December 2012. Getting to Grandma will be out next in February 2013 and then the final installment, What Big Teeth You Have, will be available April 2013.

Of course these dates are tentative and subject to change. As we get closer, I’ll have the exact dates available. Stay tuned.

photo by:


Joe Lanman

My Name and Its Connection to Fairy Tales

The moment I had a rough idea of Red, the questions about my name and its connection to my interest and fairy tales came up. The truth is the story behind my name is boring. It’s my grandmother’s name and my father wanted to remember her through me. If her name had been Eunice or Jennifer, my name would have been Eunice or Jennifer and we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.

My interest in fairy tales is driven by my interest in the stories we tell ourselves over and over again as a people. There are all of these tales that we recognize instantly in just the first few lines. I just wonder what would happen if we told these stories from a different perspective.

What if the princess was the monster?

What if the prince was a trap?

What if “happily ever after” meant something you never thought you wanted?

Those are the questions that interest me and those are the reasons I started down this path that starts with Red and ends only God knows where.

photo by:


ell brown