Sunday, October 2, 2011

More Reviews and a Very Windy Day

Two more links to reviews of my erotic romance tale, "Bordello Secrets," are now posted in the link list to the right. I would like to thank Heather's Musings and TwoLips Reviews for taking the time to read and review my story. I greatly appreciate it.

In other news, the great winds of the Mat-Su Valley are back. I kept waking up during the night when major gusts made the house creak and groan. At least the dogs are getting used to the sound and didn't bark. But the wind blew one of the dog kennels off the porch and halfway across the front lawn. This is the kind of wind that sucks your breath away and suffocates you on occasion. Looking on the bright side, at least it isn't icy cold.

Yet.

The snow is creeping down the mountains, getting a little closer to us every day. The temps get no higher than the forties at my house, and dips to the mid-thirties at night. Not quite cold enough to snow, but getting there.

I'm sitting here at my computer trying to get back into the rhythm of writing. I'm wondering how I'm going to get through Nanowrimo this year when I can't seem to keep a consistent schedule. I have two new classes added to my list (that's seven hours, plus a karate class, in one week.) And I'm practicing new routines for this month as well. Group Power's new release is this Saturday, and even though I don't teach a class regularly, I'm subbing for someone that day. So I'm frantically making sure I learn these routines before I embarrass myself in public.

In other words, I'm physically drained most of the time. Makes it hard to concentrate for long.

I'm attempting to formulate a story with a vampire theme. The problem I'm having is that it seems a very tired, overdone genre. My research keeps turning up the same old information, not lending itself to any new ideas. Everything I come up with has already been played out. The good side of this is that I'm clearly not the only one running into this issue. Hollywood seems obsessed with remaking 80s movies. The most original movie we've watched and actually enjoyed this year is "The Warrior's Way." I cringe when I think about "Footloose." I just hope they didn't ruin it.

Anyway, I'm also debating on what to tackle for Nanowrimo. I have a couple of ideas. One is a brand new idea my husband gave me, but I'm not sure I want to tackle a new idea in full length novel form when I'm also still pounding along with Write 1 Sub 1. Another idea: Pick a theme and write a series of short stories for it (how the heck do I pick a theme?!)

Also, I'm considering rewriting the first novel I ever wrote, and the only one I've completed and revised: "Sparkless." Why? Because the story is ten years old, and because I'm interested to see how differently it would turn out written in first person as opposed to third person omniscient. A lot of people seem to have a problem with third person when it's omniscient, I've noticed. I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems to have something to do with shifting points of view. I've known many writers who pull this off without a problem, but perhaps it's just not working for this particular story.

I became aware of this during last year's Nanowrimo. I wrote "Zombies Don't Eat Blondes" in third person, and it clearly was not working. It screamed to be written in first person. (I'm considering rewriting this one for Nanowrimo as well.)

I know for sure I don't type fast enough, nor have enough time to spend trying to accomplish Nanowrimo and Write 1 Sub 1 separately, so I think the only way I'll be able to pull it off is the short story collection route. I've never attempted anything like that before. (Well, this is my first year writing short stories, so I guess that makes sense, eh?)

Ah, well. Enough debate for now. Back to my vampire story.

2 comments:

Matthew said...

Here's an idea, one that I've only seen done twice, but both times, I really liked it. A series of short stories, all in the same setting, over a period of time. Each story is about a different character, but as you proceed, you also get clues to the fates of other characters from previous stories, as well as a sense of how the world is developing. (One story's political upstart is mentioned in a later story as a revered elder statesman. That sort of thing.) It's hard to describe, but very effective.

Anonymous said...

How about a ghost story that isn't really a ghost story. An over lap in time. Mom