Bree Wolf's Blog, page 4

Or a Slight Variation Thereof

The Regency Era is a fascinating time period and represents a most advantageous setting for my novels. While I’ve always been intrigued by times gone by, I’ve never seen myself as a history buff. I am in awe of writers who know theses eras by heart, providing all these little details that make up the world we live in. Therefore, I do not claim my novels to be historically correct. My characters generally live in a slight variation of our reality, which, to be honest, gives me free rein when it comes to the trials I put them through (which is the very reason I started writing to begin with).

I generally focus on the human experience and am curious to see how people behave in certain situations. At this point I want to apologize to my characters for using them as lab rats in my experiments!

The key element of life is love, is it not? But what if society dictates different rules? What if love is not a primary concern? A primary goal? How do you deal with a life that is not yours to choose? Today, we are all so used to choosing our own paths that we cannot imagine what it would be like to find ourselves in a position where choices are made for us. It’s just an awful thought! And when it comes to matters of the heart, it’s even worse! Can you imagine marrying someone you don’t know? Someone you may not even like? Someone you might even hate on sight? And yet, you have no choice. The date is set. You have to say ‘I do’, no matter how you feel. How do you deal with that? How does your heart deal with that? How do you get through the day?

These questions are what motivated me to write the Love’s Second Chance Series. Of course, in romance writing you need a happy ending. Who would want to read a book about misery and heartache if it does not ultimately lead to something worth living for? Aren’t we all idealists when it comes to love? Do we not all dream of the perfect match?

Nonetheless, in the beginning of my novels these couples find themselves wed not to their ideal match but to a stranger instead, and for reasons that never include love. Each of them facing different trials. Each of them with a unique mix of character traits and emotional back stories. They all have to find their way, and I enjoy nothing more than to accompany them on their journey.

Do Freebies deserve a Review?

Any day a review for your book pops up on the screen is a good day! What writer doesn’t know the agonizing wait for a review? Do readers like it? Will they recommend it? Am I a good writer? Questions and fears soon march onto existential territory. In short: a review is like a pat on the back for a job well done. And who doesn’t like that?

The sad thing is, comparatively very few people write reviews. Most readers who buy a book never comment on it (not in writing). And since we are a long way from communicating telepathically, lots and lots of authors out there have no idea what readers think of their books. Sure, it’s a business. Books for money. Both sides get something out of this deal. A review (I’m not talking essay-length, but merely a few words) might be considered a generous benefit…the cherry on top!

But what about freebies? Again the reader walks away with a book in hand (or on their kindle), whereas the author can only hope that their generosity in giving away their hard work for free will reap some benefits after all; that the reader will like the story and feel compelled to write a review. So why do so few readers write a review after ‘buying’ a book for free?

Writing a review takes little time (a star-rating alone gives the author an idea of how readers feel about their book). For all those you feel daunted by the 20-word requirement on Amazon, here is a little help:

“In my opinion, the book ‘enter title here’ written by ‘enter author name here’ is a wonderful/ great/ nice/ story about …. I enjoyed it thoroughly because it made me laugh/ cry/ chew my nails. I’d recommend it to a friend any day.”

Believe me, a simple, short review only takes a minute, but it means the world to the writer who receives it!

Have vampires been done to death? (No pun intended)

These days vampires are everywhere, and we’ve come a long way from the early days of Dracula and his aversion to garlic.

In a way, yes, the paranormal genre is flooded with vampire books and yet it is quite diverse. There are so many different kinds of vampires (new species spring up every day) that I expect it to turn into a science before long (yes, you read that right! No fiction, just science!).

Equipped with a great imagination (not that I want to flatter myself), authors reinvent vampires on a daily basis. Some vampires can stick their heads out the window at mid-day without the need for life insurance while others can’t. Some have to drink human blood while others are content with our four-legged friends. Some die from a stake to the heart, while others can just pull it out and go on their merry ways. The list goes on and on.

So I guess from a strictly ‘scientific’ point of view, vampires have never been this unique. YET…and here comes the big BUT…from a personality point of view, vampires appear quite uniform. In a few simple words, vampires these days are mostly the dark, brooding, yet sensitive and utterly modest type riddled by guilt.

Back in the 90s, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer was a major hit because it switched things around. The blonde girl was the strong heroine, sending evil vampires to their (second) grave without breaking a sweat. Vampires were not people (well, undead people), but demons. The only exception came in the form of Angel, the first dark, brooding, yet sensitive and utterly modest vampire riddled by guilt. Today, he has multiple clones, and that’s about as much as I’m going to say about this topic.

Personally, I always preferred Spike, and for a very simple reason. He made me laugh. Man, that guy was funny!

Putting Pen to Paper – but why?

I never set out to become a writer. It kind of happened by accident. How? Well, it’s actually quite simple. Frustration!

Need more than that? Okay, let’s cut to the chase. I became a writer to ensure the quality of my own entertainment. Basically I got fed up with book, movie or TV show endings I didn’t like. And it’s not simply about things not turning out the way I, for one, would have wanted them to. It’s about writers completely ignoring or maybe rather forgetting about hooks they threw out into the water in the very beginning of the story and then at the end, there is still no fish in sight.

What really set me going was watching the scifi show Roswell that started to air shortly before the millennium. Gosh, I feel old! Okay, let’s move past personal issues! On that show four teenage alien/human hybrids were sent from their home planet Antar to Earth in order to be saved from annihilation. Their directive was to one day return home and reclaim the throne (oh yes, they were royalty!) for their people. Let’s just say, none of that ever happened and when the show ended with season three it wasn’t even with the intention of going home eventually. That whole storyline was just dropped into oblivion, never to return.

Okay, maybe I’m a bit picky, but that bothered me. So, over time I just thought, why not write the books I want to read myself? This way I can at least guarantee that storylines do not vanish into thin air.

So far, things are going well. I’ve actually made myself cry! Never really set out to do that, but I’ll take it. Maybe I’m not as emotionally handicapped as I thought I was. There is still hope.

What makes a hero?

Typical heroes have a magical superpower and save the world from an evil mastermind, or don't they?

Considering middle-grade fiction, largely omitting any supernatural abilities, what makes a hero a hero? What role models (children, not adults) should there be? What is a heroic deed?

In my middle-grade novel FIREFLIES I tried to find an answer to that question, which I've been asking myself for quite some time now.

But what do you think?