Goddess in Training
It's up! One of the things an agent said that writers must do if they're to get anywhere in this business is read. I can't imagine not devouring tons of stories every chance I can get. I just finished judging the 7 books I received for the RITA contest, and I have two more contests! Woohoo! No books yet.
But no matter what form they come in--ebook, audiobook, paperback, or some other I'm not thinking of--stories make the world go around. Can you imagine how dull life would be without reading?
Yet, for a time, I didn't read--at least not for pure enjoyment. I can't even imagine that now. But when I was working on my bachelor's at West Texas A & M and master's at Monmouth University, I didn't read anything but school work. And when I was working on my basic and advanced Army personnel courses and Command General Staff College, I didn't read. And when I was raising two little kids and teaching them to read, I didn't read. Okay, so I did. But I didn't read for me. I read for them. When I began to write, I found the pleasure of reading again.
What the agent also said was you have to read to see what is selling in the market.
Well, I had a lovely conversation with an author who sold 9,000 books last month for titles that she wasn't being paid for with an epub. Where? She uploaded them herself at Smashwords. This is not to say this is the only way to go. I'm happily published with my other publishers, but it's a way to sell stories that have either been published before and the publisher is now defunct and the author has the rights back, or for authors who have the rights back to earlier works that never had a chance to be turned into ebooks because back then they didn't exist.
It's also a chance for works that don't fit into a NY publishing house's mold to find an audience. Of course the cautionary word here is to make sure that it's been proofed a million times, have a critique partner go over it, really revise and revise and revise. Because if you're going to self publish, they should be just as good as anything that readers have to pay their hard earned money for.
Even if the books are offered at a much lower price--as an incentive. Check out my books, my voice, but it won't cost a fortune. :)
So Goddess in Training is up!
From an early age, I loved reading Greek and Roman mythology. I loved watching Hercules and so many other movies that had to do with the gods. I wrote this short story, way before I was a librarian.
Disclaimer:
This is a hot sexy short read and is not about any librarians I know. :)
$0.99 Rating: Not yet rated.
Published: Feb. 19, 2011
Category: Fiction » Anthologies » Short stories - single author
Words: 9089 (approximate)
Language: English
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Ebook Short Description In a game of the gods, librarian Lisandra, who has never been loved, is chosen to be the goddess of fertility.
Tags romance, sexy, greek mythology, librarian, greek gods, zeus, sexy books, sexy love story, sexy contemporary romance, hera
Have you ever stopped reading for a good long while?
Have a lovely Sunday!!!
Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com
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♡ Sassy ~ Amy ♡
(last edited Feb 20, 2011 05:03PM)
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Feb 20, 2011 05:01PM
I love your writing! You are in my top 3 favorites! Anyway, I thought I would ask, because I am always curious... When you write your stories, besides your character building, do you think about, or plan depth to the story; a deeper aura to your characters and story? I am wondering if it comes natural to your story, or if it's planned. Some people who rate books look for more, and say books are flat blah blah blah. (I have not seen that with yours!!) How do you look at it when writing? Some books I read are meant to take as they are written, not as logical or really too rational; like the stupid naked girl walking outside alone to see what bumped in the night. You reminded me about the tests you take in college and have to know how a professor asks an exam question. Is it as they are asked, or the pathophysiology of what they are asking? I know I got way to wordy for my question, but... maybe I made sense??
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I LOVED your questions, Sassy! Oh, and first, THANKS so much for loving my stories!!! I first start with a very vague idea with what the main character goals are, but I don't have an indepth idea of the characterizations or anything. But as I work on the story, one scene will help to give me fodder for a later one. For instance, in the opening of The Highland Wolf in Paradise, the hero, Duncan MacNeill is thinking about how his cousin had told him he should take a swimsuit as nude bathing isn't allowed in the Grand Cayman Islands. As you can imagine, I've had a ball with that. He's thinking, of course, he's only there for business, and he hasn't any plan to go swimming. I don't plan these things and certainly when I wrote that in the opening, I had no idea how I might use it later, but...later there's a scene where he needs to get a swimsuit, and I had a blast with it. Also with the scenes requiring him to wear it.
You notice, that one thought about the swimsuit and the fact he doesn't have one ends up being important later in the story. Everything we bring up should have some importance. Otherwise why should it be there? Also, I really, really try to give good motivation why someone does whatever they're doing. Good motivation can make something that seems crazy in most circumstances, reasonable in another.
I read one of those stories (or several...lol) where the girl goes out in the scary, dark, stormy night to check on something that moved or made a noise. No good motivation, right? Just plain dumb. When the hero or heroine does something that is just plain dumb, we don't want to be them. And really, we become them, or at least the author hopes that readers will feel what the character does and become then in the situation.
So, now how can we make the girl go out into the stormy, dark, dangerous night for a good reason that will make us scared to go with her but knowing we have to go too? She hears her puppy/kitten whimpering/mewling for her in the cold, dark, scary night. And we've got to rescue the poor defenseless animal. If it's a horror story, we're still saying, "DO NOT GO OUT TO GET THE puppy/kitten AS IT'S A TRAP!" Maybe it isn't. But we sure think so. :)
But also, when I write, I go back and add more emotion. Or like I have a character who you think is going in one direction, and all of a sudden I'm like, ohmigod, he's not going that way at all.:) That's when unexpected twists and turns end up in the story...I love it when that happens!
About professors and exams? Who knows what they are thinking? I liked the ones who were interested in seeing if you learned the material and so they asked questions that truly were geared to getting the correct answers. Not the ones who want to trick you into getting the answers wrong so they look smart and you look dumb. My daughter and her classmates took a professor to task, explaining how her answer was wrong and theirs was right, showed her in the textbook even and she refused to give them the points. I was proud of my daughter and the other students for them to know the material that well that they could argue the point, and disappointed the professor couldn't graciously concede.
I think I was wordier than you! :)
