Courtney Wendleton's Blog, page 143
January 20, 2015
There are no Write-By-Numbers kits …
Color outside the lines!
Originally posted on Books: Publishing, Reading, Writing:
When I was a kid, we spent our summers at the family cottage, north of Toronto. Two entire months to amuse ourselves ��� preferably, according to my mother, out-of-doors. But there were often rainy days we���d be forced to spend inside, and one of the ���hobbies��� I got into was Paint-By-Numbers. My parents would buy a kit and I���d create a work of art (in my mother���s eyes only, of course) that would then be framed to hang on a nail. But eventually, over the years, that painting would either fall behind the furniture, or be replaced by a genuine work of art. I prided myself on those ���paintings��� because I managed to keep inside the lines and always used the recommended colours of paint.
So much for encouraging any creativity or originality.
Now that I���m writing and publishing, I���m very glad that no one has ever come up with���
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January 18, 2015
Author Spotlight Interview: Marla Monroe
Where are you from? A little Delta Town in Mississippi called Greenwood That sounds so nice. I’ve always wanted to checkout Mississippi.
How many books have you written? Between all my author names over 76 books published. 70 of them are under Marla Monroe with Siren Publishing at Bookstrand. I also have 10 short stories out under Mary Alice Pritchard Wow! That’s a lot.
Which is your favorite? You know better than to ask an author that. It���s like asking which is your favorite cat, um I mean kid. The protector series holds a special place in my heart. I put a lot of heart into those books. My first book, See How They Die under Mary Alice Pritchard was the first book I ever wrote, so it���s special to me, too. See, it maybe a little hard to admit but secretly we we do have a favorite kid…I mean cat. lol.
What does your writing process look like? I write on Thursdays through Sundays when I���m off work around chores, errands, and taking care of my parents who live with me. I don���t plot out my books. I usually have these characters yelling at me what they want, and I write it down. After the first chapter, I make a Character Sheet and describe what they look like to me and add things like their favorite food or something they hate. Once I have them down, I���ll write a little summary about the setting, like the name of the town or city and what time of year it is. After that, I write. When I sit down to write, I read over the last chapter I wrote and edit as I go then when I get to where I need to start writing again, I���m in my zone and just keep going.
Do you have any strange writing habits (like standing on your head or writing in the shower)? I normally don���t have any music or TV going on. My parents keep the TVs in the house all on and loud, so I close my door and put my phone where they can call me if they need me. I like quiet when I���m writing so I can hear the voices without them screaming at me. ��� Sometimes, if I���m not in a dark mood for writing a dark scene, I���ll turn on Pandora to some classical music that is dark sounding for that scene. Then I turn it off again.
How important are names to you in your books? Very important. If they aren���t given to me when I���m writing, I research what I think the book needs so that the names are memorable for something in the book.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing? Just not enough time to write everything screaming at me and narrowing what to write down so I can get it on paper.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing? Read! Lots of reading or listening to audiobooks when I can���t read. I love my cats and spend time with them and I love to travel, but am grounded for now.
What inspired you to write your first book? I���ve always written short stories or what I called books back then, but they were just for me. Then I went to an RT Booklover���s Convention to see Laurell K. Hamilton and everything changed with an encouraging word from an editor there at one of the panels. She said I had talent and should seriously pursue writing. I promptly returned home with a fire in my blood and wrote a 90,000 word romantic paranormal suspense in one month. I eventually had it published, too.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? All of my books have different themes, but the one thing that I hope rings through in all of them is that no matter what life sends you, you can get through it and there is a happy ending at the end for those who truly look for it. I can already hear someone out there scoffing at that, but I���m living proof. I���ve had to start completely from scratch in my life twice and may have to again one day, but I���ve lived a wonderful life so far. You make your life what it is through choices. Choose wisely. That and happiness takes different forms. What is happiness to one person may be tragic to someone else.
What books have most influenced your life most? Again, I���d have to say Laurell K Hamilton and Christeen Feehan���s books. They inspired me and taught me that voice is one of the most important parts of a book. Lora Leigh���s books taught me that erotic romance doesn���t have to be smutty or pornographic. It can tell a story and depict love just as much as a non erotic romance.
What book are you reading now? I���m actually re-reading Lora Leigh���s Elite Ops books in order. I���m on Wild Card now. I love those books.
What are your current projects? I���m presently working on the second Wounded Warriors book and a special super-duper secret project that I���m giving hints about in the forum on my website. It���s different than what I normally write under Marla Monroe. Oohh! Juicy, I’m going to have to run over there and find out what’s going on!
Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? I loved to read and as a child there weren���t a lot of books at the local library that I was allowed to read. By the time I was ten, I���d read everything there that I could manage to check out. I started writing my own stories to keep me company and found that I loved doing that almost as much as I loved reading.
What was the hardest part of writing your book? Actually there are two of these that are equal in my mind. One is having the time to write like I want to, and the other is narrowing down what I want to write to only two books at once. The voices in my head are always screaming in my head to get out and it makes it hard to concentrate on the book I���m working on. I suppose you could look at it as imagination on steroids. I know the feeling.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
The first and most important advice is to write. Write all the time, and write even when you don���t feel like it. Make it such a habit that if you don���t do it when you usually do it makes you feel bad. The second piece of advice is to write first for yourself. Don���t let anyone tell you what or how to write. It will only discourage you and knock you off your habit from above. Once you���ve written your first book or books, then you seek help on how to clean it up and polish it.
Do you ever experience writer’s block? No. I���ve never had it. I have a slightly similar problem of too many voices (or stories to make me sound a little more sane) crowding me to get out. It may take me a day or two to narrow them down, but I usually am still writing by getting down all the pieces parts of my characters��� personalities. Once I���ve done this, I can focus on one set and start writing their story.
What is one random thing about you? When I���m being me, my normal self, outside of writing, I���m painfully shy and reclusive. When I���m one of my writer personas like Marla, I���m very outgoing, a little naughty and a whole lot of crazy.
What is your preferred medium of writing? I only use a computer and word. I would never be able to read my writing otherwise. I can���t read my grocery lists half the time. I can write anywhere if I have my laptop.
Did you make any marketing mistakes or is there anything you would avoid in future? Oh boy, did I ever! Don���t put out a lot of money on anything paper to send to conferences. They usually don���t accept paper anyway and everyone tosses it before they even head home for the most part. Stick to useful things that will last and might end up in other people���s hands like pens, rulers, those Band-Aid holders and things like that. Pens are wonderful! My pens have ended up in the strangest of places like highway patrol officers��� hands who stole a unit clerk���s pen off her desk. I give them to waitresses and store clerks because they never have one. The only thing paper that I do are book postcards where the cover is on the front and the blurb is on the back. I don���t do a lot but use them to hand to people who want to know more about what I write. The other thing I do that I���ve been told is wonderful is a long rack card with a background image that represents my books and a listing of all my websites and social media sights. On the back is a list of all my books by series and in order. Readers love to be able to check off what they already have so they know what to get next.
What is your favorite motivational phrase? ���Ass in chair, hands on keyboard.��� Or ���Write the damn book!��� LOL That���s about all I can think of.
What is your favorite positive saying? ���Nothing is impossible.���
What is your favorite book and why? That���s a hard one. It���s between the first book in Christen Feehan���s Dark series and Laurell K. Hamilton���s first book in the Vampire Slayer series. Both of them compelled me to read more so that I was devastated when I finished one and there wasn���t another out to read next. Christine���s Carpathians ruined me on men. I will never find one to measure up now.
What is your favorite quote? ���Bite me.��� From J. D. Robb���s Eve Dallas and from Laurell���s Vampire Slayer books. I use it all the time much to my friends��� dismay.
What is your favorite film and why? Another hard one. I honestly don���t watch a lot of movies or TV. Really none. I buy the DVDs and watch only what would help with my writing. I think my favorite was Silence of the Lambs. Prior to writing for publication, my favorites were the Dirty Harry movies and the Die Hard movies. Oh! That brings to mind another favorite saying. ���Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!��� from Die Hard. Sorry for the curse, you can always change it to trucker which is what most people do. Wouldn’t dream of changing a word of anything John McClane says! I just learned that there is a book, which the first movie is based on.
If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why? Thomas Harris��� Silence of the Lambs. It was brilliantly put together with clues throughout the book and twists and turns with enough horror to have you shaking and enough emotion to have you on the edge of your seat debating on whether to turn the page or not.
Do you read your reviews? Not unless they are the ones on Bookstrand. Otherwise, I never look at them. A review is just one person���s opinion at a particular time of day on a particular day of the week in a good or bad month of their lives. They could have just gotten bad news or had a flat tire or won the lottery. Honestly, I don���t have time to read them. I need to be writing. I make time to answer emails from people and check Facebook in case someone has a question, but otherwise, writing is what is important to me. My avid readers tell me when they think I need to hear something.
Do you respond to them, good or bad? I don���t respond to them at all. I would feel as if I were singling out some when I just don���t have time to respond to all of them.
Do you have any advice on how to deal with the bad? I ignore them unless they all say the same general things, like the characters are too one dimensional or it���s all too wordy. Then I stand back and take a look and maybe ask a fellow author what they think. If you try to please everyone, you���ll never get anything done. Only take a second look when you have more than two or three saying the same general thing. Otherwise, it is all just the opinion of one person who may have had a bad day, a headache, or any number of things. I only worry about them when my readers mention something to me that they think I need to know.
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
Probably from my website http://www.marlamonroe.com I keep it updated with all my books, when they are on pre-order, available at Bookstrand, and on Amazon. My forum has free reads, information about what I���m doing, and I have a Discover a ���new to you��� author forum post where I showcase two authors a month with what they write and where you can see them. There are blurbs, excerpts and much more there.
I write as Marla Monroe but I also write under Anna Riviera and Mary Alice Pritchard You can google me under those names or look at my Amazon Author pages for more on them.
The below links are all my Marla Monroe links.
Bookstrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/marla-monroe
Website: http://www.marlamonroe.com
Blog: http://www.themarlamonroe.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marla.monroe.7
Twitter: @MarlaMonroe1 or https://twitter.com/MarlaMonroe1
Google: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+marlamonroe7/posts
Lnkedin: http://linkd.in/1xHL9fH
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/marlamonroe/
Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/1wwEyFT OR the long one http://www.amazon.com/Marla-Monroe/e/B004YCG25W/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1420690453&sr=8-2-ent
Book Links: Too many to list so go to my Amazon Author Page or My Bookstrand Author Page above.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4562866.Marla_Monroe
January 17, 2015
How to Feel Like Writing Again
A How-To guide on combating Writer’s Block
Originally posted on A Writer's Path:
We���ve all felt it at one time or another. The story loses its shine and you���re left with a half-completed story. Why does this happen, and how do you continue?
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Knowing the Difference Between Actual Reality and Personal Reality
Ever watch a tv show called “Taboo?” Each episode is focused on a different subject matter that is considered taboo in some societies. There was one episode where we learn about “Objectum Sexual” which is an orientation to love objects.�� For instance there was a woman who was in love with the Berlin Wall. She was granted special pass in order to actually sleep in one of the remaining guard stations during the filming. I think at one point she even married it. In Actual Reality, it seems odd but in her Personal reality it is perfectly normal. There many others that are attracted objects, and prefer them to humans.
There are also eccentric people who are in love with their animals. I am not meaning those who participate in Bestiality, I mean those who love their pets as if they were their own children. As in the case of Objectum Sexuals, those who seem a little too attached to their pets are viewed as “odd” in Actual Reality. I live with a grandmother who treats our two dogs as if they were kids…actually it alternates between kids and grand kids. Talks to them and yells at them as if they understand. So I found the article on a woman who “married” her two tabby cats interesting. I know out there somewhere in the world there are people who are so in love with their pets that they have found a way to marry them, even if it’s not legal, and accept that as their Personal Reality. Then there are people like this lady, who knows, understands, and freely admits that it is just for fun. While in her Personal Reality she has a deep spiritual relationship with her two cats (like every loving pet owner) she has a piece of paper saying they are married. Actual Reality views her as odd or eccentric but are more ok with it then others because she is not…how do I put this delicately…delusional(?) in thinking she is truly married to them.
I’m not trying to put anyone down or anything I’m just saying something that has become sort of an untested fact.
http://www.objectum-sexuality.org/
January 16, 2015
#CLTBRCHALLENGE15 Book Review: Highland Blessings by Jennifer Hudson Taylor 4/5 Stars
Overview: Two clans hate each other but have struck a peace treaty. Sadly before the deal can be completed in marriage the chieftain of one clan dies at the hands of it’s new ally. Years later the new chieftain is set to wed the daughter but rejects her. His brother steals her away and falls in love. Bryce’s brother, the new chieftain, is also killed making Bryce the head of the family. To keep the peace and honor his father’s dying wish, he marries Akira, daughter of the other clan. All seems well until people start dying or almost dying. In the end all is well.
Opinion: Pretty good. I haven’t read a really good Scottish Past book in awhile. At one point I thought it to be a bit predictable, following the same pattern as others but it surprised me when it kept going. I will admit that the killer and conspirators were easy to spot because they pushed too hard but other than that it was full of laughter, some action, love and loss.
Recommend: Yes.
#Friday Love!
Have you hugged your Indie Author today?
IT’S HERE! IT’S LIVE! “How to Kill Your Senator” is available through Kindle via Amazon!
Originally posted on The Dystopian Nation of City-State:
Need a quick read? ��It���s LIVE! ��Jinn is here ��� watching and lurking over naive voters in City-State���s Senate Chamber. ��James and I have released a new City-State short story entitled ���How to Kill Your Senator��� today, Friday, January 16th.
This short story is around 3,000 words, it is available��through Amazon via Kindle and the Kindle app, and it priced at $.99. ��Kindle Unlimited members read for free. ��Follow the link to purchase your copy today:
http://www.amazon.com/Dystopian-Nation-City-State-Kill-Senator-ebook/dp/B00S37N67G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420981694&sr=8-2&keywords=The+Dystopian+Nation+of+City-StateOn Amazon, search The Dystopian Nation of City-State ��� ���How to Kill Your Senator���.
In this short narrative, Jackson Cartwright encounters a little imp-like creature named Jinn (see the cover art above) after he murders the entire Senate body��within City-State���s Capitol.
Jinn tries to explain the source of Jackson���s ignorance regarding politics, but Jinn soon gets the upper hand.
If you need a quick read and you enjoy elements of horror, dystopia, and government���
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#NaBloPoMo Pick a Movie for 10 Years
Assuming that I could watch other movies inside of the 10 years, just as long as I watch a certain movie once or more a month, I would have to go with Cry Baby. Lovely movie, similar to Grease but with Johnny Depp. Now if I couldn’t watch another movie for ten years, and it was only this movie I could watch, I would go with Rocky Horror Picture Show. I love Tim Curry, musicals and dark eeriness. RHPS is all that rolled into one, plus Tim Curry singing and dressed in drag. Either of these movies I already watch more than is probably thought to be acceptable but hey they are great movie choices. :) Though I could honestly seeing myself getting a lot of more reading and writing done if those were the only movies I could watch for 10 years. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
January 15, 2015
“Good For You, Not for Me”
Originally posted on Live to Write - Write to Live:
Image courtesy ofChris Potter
In today���s writing market, if writing were my only source of income, I���d have to get creative to generate enough income to support my family. Recently, one YA author opted to start a KickStarter campaign to fund the second book in a series. ��Stacy Jay Released Princess of Thorns via Delacorte Press (an imprint of Random House) on December 9, 2014. Initial sales did not meet expectations so the publisher declined to pick up the second book in the series. As an aside, initial sales? The book isn���t even a month old! Sorry, now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.�� Stacy harbors no ill will towards the publisher, it was a business decision, nothing more, nothing less. Still, she had readers clamoring for the second book, so she launched a KickStarter Campaign to fund the creation of book two.
���I���
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