A Writer’s Pursuit…
January 12, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as A Writer's PursuitOf Research and Character Development
The Travel Channel. Discovery Channel. The Learning Channel.
I never realized how many times I draw inspiration for character development while watching some of the programs on these channels. No, seriously. This isn’t an excuse for me to sit in front of the TV and wish I had Samantha Brown’s job of traveling around the world…Or for me to think for the hundredth time that the French fry lovin’, clown fearin’ Anthony Bourdain just couldn’t be any cooler.
Well, okay. It is a little bit about Samantha Brown, but mostly it’s about what I learned about my characters after watching her show, “Passport to Europe.â€
In one of my favorite episodes, she visits Prague and eats in an absolutely stunning Art Nouveau café as she tells the story of a plate full of stale jelly donuts that sit on the counter and wait for someone to buy them for about $60 American. If a customer were willing to pay that much for the entire plateful, then that person has the right to take those donuts and throw them AT the other customers!
Where did this custom of the donut battles start?
Apparently, it was taken from a 1942 novel by a Czech author, Zdenek Jirotka, who wrote Saturnin, which is a humorous story that categorizes people into three different groups: 1) those who would just look at a plate of donuts 2) those who would think about throwing the donuts at people in the café and 3) those who wouldn’t think twice and would actually throw them at people in the café.
Now, from what I understand, the Café Imperial ended the tradition of the Battle of the Donuts in 2006, so don’t log on to Expedia and purchase your flight to Prague just yet! But, when I hear stories like this story, I always wonder…what other fun traditions have been started because of something written in a book or a poem?
So, tell me…In what category would your hero or heroine fall when looking at the plate of donuts? And what about you?
One, two, or three?
Can’t wait to read your answers… 🙂
Michele
Michele Cwiertny writes dark paranormal and historical romance. To find out more about her please visit, www.michelecwiertny.com
Jina does Dallas RWA
January 11, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Confessions of a Podcast GoddessPart 1: Going to Dallas
by Jina Bacarr
Are you going to the RWA Conference in San Francisco this summer? Not sure? It’s a fabulous way to get together with your fellow romance writers, meet editors and agents, and those parties…
Well, what happened in Dallas at the last year’s convention doesn’t stay in Dallas because I’ve got it all on video.
So for the next few months I’m going to put up my video blog with podcasts from last year’s RWA convention at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dallas, Texas, including several with your favorite authors and OCC members!!
First up is Going to Dallas with the OCC gang. I shot this video blog on the Super Shuttle going to the airport than later at the terminal while we were waiting for our flight to Dallas.
What is video blogging, you ask? Video blogging is an interesting, spontaneous, and fun way to capture those memories when you’re “in the moment.” You don’t have to shoot a long, continuous stream of video. You can edit several scenes and/or photos together to create your video blog. Short videos work best. Going to Dallas is just over a minute and a half long including credits.
How do I get started? you want to know. It easy. You can put all your video and your photos into a free program like Windows Movie Maker (included with Windows), split the clips where you want to cut them, delete, then add fun transitions and/or fade in/fade outs. Adding music can be trickier and we’ll discuss that next month.
If you want a program that chooses the shots for you and adds the special effects you specify from their “styles” packages, then I recommend Muvee. This is an expensive program ($129.95), but you can download it for 21 days and try it for free to see if it works for you.
So sit back and enjoy Going to Dallas RWA.
Best,
Jina
Jina Bacarr is the author of The Blonde Geisha , Naughty Paris, Tokyo Rendezvous, a Spice Brief, and Spies, Lies and Naked Thighs, an erotic spy thriller, March 2008.
Jina writes erotic adventure for Spice Books.
“Get Caught in the Act!”
3 0 Read moreTHINGS THAT MAKE ME GO MMMRUH!
January 10, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Things That Make Me Go Mmmruh
Everyone Says So – But So What?
by Geralyn Ruane
Just because everyone says so doesn’t mean you have to believe it.
That’s right. You don’t have to believe it. Do your own research, make your own decisions and stick to your guns, even if it seems that everyone else in the room, the state, the world disagrees with you.
These days everyone is a spin doctor. And those who aren’t hire them. Information gets so manipulated that distillation of the truth becomes a Byzantine challenge. Listening to the hype is so much easier. But don’t let yourself be swayed or suckered.
I believe that The New England Patriots are cheaters undeserving of accolades, regardless of what sportswriters have decided. No matter how many people love rodeo, I still think paying and making money to watch terrified animals defend themselves is sick and should be illegalized. To hell with the FDA, I’m convinced that cold medicines are a bad idea, and so are any medicines that prevent the body from getting rid of the stuff it needs to get rid of. I’ve examined the facts and made my decisions.
Don’t agree with me? That’s okay. I don’t need mass approval in order to feel comfortable with the decisions I make. You shouldn’t either. Nobody should.
As America surges into Primary Season, my greatest hope is that voters make their own decisions. Don’t pay attention to labels and tag lines; instead, find out what the candidates are actually saying and doing. Don’t get swayed by the polls and predictions of political pundits; in the end, only the votes matter. Yesterday, the day after the surprising New Hampshire results, even NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson advised, “Throw out the polls and just pay attention to the candidates.â€
Who will run for president in 2008 is still up in the air, and we get to decide. I do, you do. We’ve got the power and that makes me go Mmmruh! So don’t let your decision get swept away by all the hype and hullabaloo. Instead, keep your decision safe, make it count and make sure it’s yours.
Geralyn Ruane co-hosts the radio show Better Times After 50 on AdviceRadio.com. She also drinks chocolate milk straight from the spoon and writes humorous women’s fiction. Last year her short story “Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants†was published in the New York Times Bestselling anthology The Right Words at the Right Time Volume 2.
2 0 Read more
It’s Worth It
January 10, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as It's Worth ItROUND TWO
by Kitty Bucholtz
Okay, this has never happened before – three months in a row of writing on the same topic! Shows you how passionate I am, I guess!
So here’s the thing. People are talking about resolutions every January, and that’s fine, but I don’t need any new ones. I just want to keep up with the great writing habits I’ve been forming over 2007. Christmas vacation hampered my efforts, so I was quite willing when a friend said, “Why don’t we do that NaNo thing again in January?â€
Within days, fourteen of our friends showed interest in creating a “challenge†group that posted goals and daily accomplishments. I created a new Yahoo Group and an Excel spreadsheet with a graph, and we were off and running.
The main hurdle was that while many were at a place where they were ready to start a new book January 1, many others were brainstorming or editing. So we came up with a point system. For instance, for every scene fully edited, you get 1000 points. For each blog posted on your neglected author web site, you get 200 points. For brainstorming out an entire novel’s premise, you get 1500 points. And of course, you get 1 point for every “new†word written as well.
It’s subjective, and each author gets to decide their goals and the points they believe they should earn. That’s fine because we aren’t competing against each other, but against our January 2007 selves. The goal is to do more than you did last month or last year. And boy, is it working!
One friend whose first book will be published soon, and is contracted for five more, made his goal to be 15,000 new words for the month. In the first three days, he wrote 4267 words! He said he’d never written so many words in three days before!
Many have posted to the group things like, “I only wrote 343 words today. I didn’t ‘have time’ to write at all, but knowing you all were writing spurred me on to do at least something.â€
I personally replied to one of those emails saying, “Thank goodness someone wrote only a few words! It’s 5:15pm and I haven’t written anything today, but I know I can write 344 words! Thanks for ‘challenging’ me!â€
Today is January 9th, and we should be 29% of the way to our goal. I’m less than 10% of the way there, but call me Seabiscuit. Apparently, I have to see that people are “beating†me in order to come up from behind! I’ve spent many hours creating and managing the group, hours that I could’ve spent writing. But I’m still getting more writing done than I otherwise would have. And I’m encouraging – and being encouraged by – my writing friends to kick off our new year of writing with a big bang. I say, it’s worth it!
Kitty Bucholtz writes romantic comedies because, well, she lives one! She wrote her first book in the NBC cafeteria, the second snowed in at a Reno hotel, and the third from a tiny apartment in Sydney. Even though she loves talking about, writing about, and teaching about writing, she’s pretty sure she knows at least three people who aren’t writers.
Thoughts on January 5, 2008
January 5, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category ArchivesThoughts on January 5, 2008
by Diane Pershing
First of all, of course, happy new year to all. There really is something rather magical about beginnings, isn’t there. And as I write that sentence the cynic in me replies, yeah, and the magic fades real fast as reality sets in. So yes, there’s magic and yes there’s reality. Both. It’s one of those Life is Messy Get Over It things.
What I really want to talk about is my new beginning as concerns my life as a writer. But first, let’s say good-bye. I’m pretty sure that this month’s release from Silhouette Romantic Suspense, ONE TOUGH AVENGER, will be my last category book. “Pretty sure†I say because there is always the possibility that an idea will come (or an offer of tons of money) that will change my mind. But what I’m noticing is that another book is calling me and it’s most definitely not a category romance. Yes, it has romance in it, but it is more about a rather eccentric and troubled young woman with a horrific past trying to get through her days in relative mental peace. Sounds like a romance, right? Except not. It’s grittier, edgier and much more boundary-pushing than anything I’ve ever written for categories. Plus it’s longer and lots more complicated, with several different points of view. The book is screaming at me to write it, so I am.
But, you say, lots of authors write both category and mainstream books. Why can’t you? Because as the years march on, I’m (gulp) aging and I find myself with a little less energy than before. Fact of life; wish it were not so, but there it is. There are no longer enough hours in the day to do all I want and need to do, so my writing time must be condensed, especially as various other areas of my private life need me more and more.
By the way, the quote that opens my blog today is attributed to a revered ancient rabbi, Hillel, who lived in Jerusalem at the time of Herod. It is justly famous, as it deals succinctly with why we are on this earth: to be our own biggest supporters, to give generously to others, and to be an active rather than a passive participant in our own lives. It is the last part, “If not now, when?†that is governing my actions now. I have this book in me, have had it for years, and if I don’t get to it soon, I am concerned that my mental and physical functions will no longer be up to the task.
Now this is not to say I’m doddering; I’m pretty sure that those who know me will attest to that. But time actually does pass, you know, whether we like it or not, and if we’ve been putting off dreams as something we’ll “get to†sometime in the future, we just may be fooling ourselves.
In 2007 I put in a whole new kitchen—the one I’ve wanted my whole life; I ran for President-Elect of Romance Writers of America; I gave my mother a stellar 90th birthday party and my son and his fiancée a lovely engagement party; I began this book I’m talking about. In 2008, I plan to continue doing the things I want to do in my life that I’ve been putting off.
What are your plans? And if not now, when?
Love to you and yours,
Diane Pershing
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