In My (Glorious, Fabulous, Unasked for, Annoying) Opinion...

Who asked for my opinion? Well sometimes people ask.And I am more than happy to give my opinion--unless the book stinks. I can share it with my close writer friends, but am leery about telling others who might not feel the same and could be offended that I didn't LOVE whatever book they're raving about. (It happens...)

Once I made a comment about Bella in Twilight. She's not a strong female lead (until the very end, when she's fighting to save her child). It bothers me that she has no thought of what college to go to, or what she wants to study, or what she wants from life other than her boyfriend, and then she goes comatose when he breaks up with her. And she reads the same book, over and over! The person to whom I made this comment to said, "Well, you're no Stephenie Meyer!"

Nope, and I don't want to be, I have my own stories, thank you very much. Would I like Stephenie Meyers's success? You betcha. In a nano-second. Now, please. It may not happen, but I'm no less a writer because I don't have mega success, and neither are the other million writers out there in my shoes.

But success does NOT guarantee that everyone will love your book. (We've had some pretty harsh critics for Sirenz, ouch!) and it's part of the business. Even nicely put, rejection hurts but when the same critics turn around and like your next book (shameless plug- Blonde OPS), then their opinion counts, right?

When there's a book I didn't like and someone asks me about it, I say, "I read that book! I love the part about..." and bluff my way through. There's always at least one nice thing you can say.

But that's just my opinion.

Char

Name Calling

Some names just stick with us: Katniss, Lestat, Tris, Cleopatra, Han Solo.

I like my characters to have an uncommon name. My current main character in my solo work, Lethal Dose, is Dalen Steele. For Blonde OPS, our editors chose the name Bec Jackson. Other names I've used: Kara, Sun Yi, Kendra, Myca. I'll never use names like Heather, Mary, Elizabeth, John, Dave, Michael. Sure, in terms of the general population these names show up a lot. I hate alliterative names (you find a lot of that in comic books- Peter Parker [Spiderman] for example). Names have to speak to me.

How do I get names for my characters? I used to use a baby naming book, because not only did it have a wide variety of names from many cultures, but it would have the same name in various languages and the meaning. But it would take sooo much time trying to choose the name that seemed to fit.

So I cheat.

I watch the credits at the end of movies (the best: The Lord Of The Rings series because what, half a million people worked on the movies and they credited everyone...?) The right names just seem to jump out at me.

Some authors count syllables (I just listen to how the name rolls off my tongue, does it sound 'balanced?'). Others go by etymology (root of the name), and some have long complicated processes. Yet others use names of family and friends (a bit dangerous in my mind...). And there are some who even go to great lengths to make up names, especially in sci fi or fantasy novels.

What do you think are the best names of characters?

Char

Sorry to Interrupt....

But today I'm featuring another author...yes, my co-author Natalie Zaman as a bunch of us blog hop around the internet.

Natalie and I have been writing together and separately for...years! Our third book, Blonde OPS is coming out (we're sneaking it out earlier than the 'official' date of May 6th to appear at YA Fest at the Palmer Library in Easton, PA.).

We live in the same town, our kids went to the same schools, and we know a lot of the same people--we share a love of cats, too!

She's working on some individual projects and I know she'll share them with you when she can, so stay tuned!

Nat usually likes to keep things short and sweet. She writes and works her magic from central New Jersey where she lives with her family, two cats, a pair of rescue rabbits, and usually, several fine looking chickens (alas, brother fox decided to pay a visit to her flock and do take out...). Visit Nat on twitter, @Natalie_Zaman or at her blog at http://nataliezaman.blogspot.com


Here are Nat's questions to me:

What are you working on?

 How much time do you have? I'm working on a number of projects: revising a sci fi that was last year's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) project, revising a ghost story that's been around for over XX years (don't ask...), just started edits on my 2013 NaNoWriMo project (I've got to stop doing these challenges!) and writing down more ideas than I know I can write in my lifetime. We'll be busy with Blonde OPS coming out soon, and who knows, there may be a sequel...

How does your work differ from others in its genre?

I have my brand of humor, my perspective on the world. If I took a famous idea, like Dracula, and wrote a story, it wouldn't be like Bram Stoker's and it wouldn't be like Stephanie Meyers' Twilight. I like to think I'm uniquely twisted. 

Why do you write what you do?

Because I can't help myself. The characters, a storyline, a twist--grab my attention and my muse whispers: "What if..." I don't like to stick to one genre or one age level because there are too many interesting possibilities out there for wonderful stories. I have to go where my creativity leads me. 

How does your writing process work?

I laugh now- but I used to be a 'pantster;' a person who sat down and wrote whatever came into her head. It lead to too many lost story threads, time inconsistencies, disappearing characters and changing points of view, so once I started working with Natalie on the Sirenz series (Sirenz, Sirenz Back In Fashion), we had to sit down and plot out, chapter by chapter, what would happen to whom and why. I've since adopted that process, and it's been especially helpful when doing the NaNoWriMo challenges. Every day, I can look at an outline and know what comes next. That way, I never suffer from writer's block. It's the editing that I dislike (two, three times, okay; after that, I'm bored and want to move on). 

The next author in line is our friend (and part of our gal writers group, The Writing Wenches), Yvonne Ventresca, whose debut YA novel, Pandemic, releases the same day as Blonde OPS. I'm looking forward to doing signings together as she is also a part of KidLit Authors Club. 

Before becoming a children’s writer, Yvonne Ventresca wrote computer programs and taught others how to use technology. Now she happily spends her days writing stories instead of code and sharing technology tips with other writers. Yvonne’s the author of the young adult novel Pandemic, available in May 2014 from Sky Pony Press. Yvonne’s other writing credits include two nonfiction books for kids, Avril Lavigne (a biography of the singer) and Publishing (about careers in the field) along with various articles for teens and adults. You can visit her website atwww.YvonneVentresca.com.

It's Greek To Me-

Or Roman. Or Egyptian. Or Sumarian. Or Native American.

It's MYTHOLOGY.

There are so many cultural mythologies; some have similar tales/gods, some vastly different. While Natalie and I stayed true to the Greek mythology in our Sirenz series giving it a modern twist, there are so many wonderful novels out there that step out of the known mythologies and take the reader into new, lesser known ones.

Don't be shy. Go check out what the gods are doing. Betcha they're up to no good!

Char

Literally Speaking...

"L" is for literary.  The Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes for fiction literature always go to 'literary' books- and I hate to sound like a snob, but I can count on one hand how many I could read to the end.

I find them unappealing.


Call them classics, but some of the 'greatest literary works of our time" (according to the 'experts') I hate. Like:

Great Expectations
The Great Gatsby
Anything by D.H. Lawrence
Anything by William Faulkner
Most of the Nobel/Pulitzer winners in the last 10 years

I'm an English/journalism major, so how can this be??

Here are some classics that I love:

Anything by William Shakespeare
Anything by J.R.R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
A lot by Charles Dickens

My middle grade novel, Evolution Revolution, about the intellectual dawning of a squirrel who learns to use simple machines, has been rejected more times than I'll admit, and has been labeled 'too literary' for middle graders. I don't get how editors and agents can say that when there is a lot of action, science, and adventure.

Don't let the term 'literary' scare you; it's not all angst/inner thoughts/internal drama.

It's just another label, and who listens to labels anyway?

Char

What Goes Around...

Do you believe in Karma, that universal force that evens scores, 'you'll get yours' and 'what you send out comes back to you' and 'as you sow so shall you reap'?

We all like to think that people who hurt us, or those who seem to have suffered more than their fair share, get what they deserve--either in this world or the next. And that can help us deal with difficult situations, because unlike novels, we can't see the happy ending, or at least where everything is resolved.

Does it exist? You can look at the world, at individuals, and answer both yes and no, but we can't see beyond this moment, this place, this world.

As for me, I believe that eventually, everything balances.

Char

Can You Juggle?

I never did learn to juggle three oranges because I didn't start off the right way, learning slowly.

How can you juggle slowly? Isn't there a law of physics that all objects fall at the same rate?

Like English, there are exceptions to every rule.

Would-be jugglers learn with scarves which float and descend slowly through the air, giving the student time to learn the movements necessary to keep the scarves alternating in perfect motion. The student then moves on to larger and larger objects.

It's like that with writing--juggling different storylines or entire novels. Or reading--when you have several half read novels on your nightstand; you have to start slowly and build.

Characters should juggle--no one's life is a series of issues, one after the other in a nice, neat orderly progression, making it easy for them to deal with each situation as it arises. Sometimes things happen all at once, or are a series of events with a break in between.

In literature or real life, we're all jugglers.

Char