2) The New Normal has released!!!
3) Laurel Garver is hosting me today at Laurel's Leaves.
Showing posts with label blog guest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog guest. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Three Things
2) The New Normal has released!!!
3) Laurel Garver is hosting me today at Laurel's Leaves.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Naked Cheese! With Crystal Collier
Halo, fine friends!!! I know you don't normally see me on the weekends, but I have a special reason to be here! I am a stop on Crystal Colliers Moonless book release tour! And she is talking about two things we LOVE!!!! NAKED and CHEESE!!! (is there anything better?)
So without further ado, welcome Crystal!
What's that you say? Cheese is always naked? Not necessarily. Sometimes it's covered in rind, sometimes dressed up by side dishes or merely a tasty ingredient. But what we're getting at today is the naked cheese.
What is it that makes a piece of art really shine--be it the written word, a painting, sculpture, etc?
Any piece of art creates a mood and invokes an emotional response. That's what you find at its core, the artist's passion. And where do we find that passion?
IN REAL LIFE.
If you want to make your art more powerful, isolate experiences in life where you've felt extreme passions and channel that emotion into what you're creating.
In Moonless, Alexia has a moment of truth next to
a death bed, and although what takes place there is very different, the scene
draws heavily on a reality I lived through. It’s these experiences that ground
a work of art and really ring true to the reader. It's these experiences that help us come together in an understanding of the human condition.
Now you ask, so what's with the cheese?
Cheese is the best food. Cheese makes the world go round. Cheese equals happiness. (And if you responded to that by scoffing and referencing chocolate, you need to read my post where cheese and chocolate go toe to toe.)
Now get out and do some living, eh?
Alexia’s nightmares become reality: a dead baron, red-eyed wraiths, and forbidden love with a man hunted by these creatures. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protect her family she must either be sold into a loveless marriage, or escape with her beloved and risk becoming one of the Soulless.
MOONLESS is Jane Eyre meets Supernatural.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
So without further ado, welcome Crystal!
THE NAKED CHEESE
What's that you say? Cheese is always naked? Not necessarily. Sometimes it's covered in rind, sometimes dressed up by side dishes or merely a tasty ingredient. But what we're getting at today is the naked cheese. What is it that makes a piece of art really shine--be it the written word, a painting, sculpture, etc?
Any piece of art creates a mood and invokes an emotional response. That's what you find at its core, the artist's passion. And where do we find that passion?
IN REAL LIFE.
If you want to make your art more powerful, isolate experiences in life where you've felt extreme passions and channel that emotion into what you're creating.
While I was revising MOONLESS, my father was diagnosed with
stage four cancer. Being close to home, I helped with his care, and sat
with him through the last night of his life. It was my responsibility to administer relief through drugs or not, to try and wet his dry throat, to comfort him through his last hours.
stage four cancer. Being close to home, I helped with his care, and sat
with him through the last night of his life. It was my responsibility to administer relief through drugs or not, to try and wet his dry throat, to comfort him through his last hours.
a death bed, and although what takes place there is very different, the scene
draws heavily on a reality I lived through. It’s these experiences that ground
a work of art and really ring true to the reader. It's these experiences that help us come together in an understanding of the human condition.
Now you ask, so what's with the cheese?
Cheese is the best food. Cheese makes the world go round. Cheese equals happiness. (And if you responded to that by scoffing and referencing chocolate, you need to read my post where cheese and chocolate go toe to toe.)
Now get out and do some living, eh?
Alexia’s nightmares become reality: a dead baron, red-eyed wraiths, and forbidden love with a man hunted by these creatures. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protect her family she must either be sold into a loveless marriage, or escape with her beloved and risk becoming one of the Soulless. MOONLESS is Jane Eyre meets Supernatural.
"MOONLESS is powerful, compelling, and packed with soul." --Bethany Kaczmarek, editor at A Little Red, Inc.
"I fell head over heels for the characters." --TC Mckee, BookFish Books
"Power-packed action, heart stopping mystery, unpredictable twists and turns..." --I Am a Reader Not a Writer
And Crystal has a rafflecopter giveaway going on, too... if you'd like to join...
Buy MOONLESS HERE or add it on Goodreads.
Crystal Collier, author of MOONLESS, is a former composer/writer for Black Diamond Productions. She can be found practicing her brother-induced ninja skills while teaching children or madly typing about fantastic and impossible creatures. She has lived from coast to coast and now calls Florida home with her creative husband, three littles, and “friend” (a.k.a. the zombie locked in her closet). Secretly, she dreams of world domination and a bottomless supply of cheese.
Crystal Collier, author of MOONLESS, is a former composer/writer for Black Diamond Productions. She can be found practicing her brother-induced ninja skills while teaching children or madly typing about fantastic and impossible creatures. She has lived from coast to coast and now calls Florida home with her creative husband, three littles, and “friend” (a.k.a. the zombie locked in her closet). Secretly, she dreams of world domination and a bottomless supply of cheese. a Rafflecopter giveaway
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Define Hawt… with Stacy Gail
So my buddy Stacy writes some of the hawtest characters I know, and I thought, here on the release of her latest novel, WOUNDED ANGEL, it would be fun to explore inside her brain a little to see what she likes, what inspires her and how exactly she goes about infusing hawtness…
Tart: So tell us about the first CELEBRITY you fell in love with and how he defined hawtness for you… or… was it foxiness back then?
Stacy: BACK THEN?!? What do you mean, BACK THEN??? *desperately covers gray hair* Though, yeah, I guess since Rob Lowe was the first dude to trip my girlish trigger (and he’s now looking like a mile of bad road), I think that’s a fair cop. ^_^ What about you, Your Tartness? Who was first to rev your motor, and does he fall into the hawtness era, or the foxiness era?
Tart: Erm... Shaun Cassidy. And no comments from the peanut gallery. But in my defense, he made a mighty fine Joe Hardy...
Say... were there early book heroes you fell for, too?
Stacy: Omigosh, I have SO MANY book-boyfriends! I think my first one ever was one of the main characters in the Trixie Belden series. Jim Frayne was a bad-boy-turned-good hero that made my grade-school heart melt. Strangely enough, though, the one that always stuck with me was Stu Redman, a hero in Stephen King’s “The Stand.” I know that Stephen King’s name doesn’t usually pop up when talking about book-boyfriends, but Stu was something else again. At least I didn’t say Tom Cullen. M-O-O-N, that spells Tom Cullen ;)
Tart: Stu, huh? I wouldn't have pegged you for a Stu sort... or maybe that is me who he didn't quite work for. Probably because I had an actual Stu, or rather Stew, and I confounded the two... So have you analyzed a little? What are those special qualities that make your heart patter and your knees go weak?
Stacy: *snort* It’s funny how you expect me to analyze things. How long have you known me again??? But back to the question… The hottest thing in the world HAS to be the brain, since both Jim Frayne and Stu Redman used their wits when the heat was on. Sapiosexual – that’s me.
Stacy: *struggles to keep straight face* Um… “tap that”, Your Tartness? Did you really just say… tap that???
Okay, okay, I’ll behave. :P
Before I officially start writing any book, I do character outlines, including names that almost always have a hidden meaning, to hair color (which has no meaning whatsoever *snort*), to multi-layered backstories. Example: the book that’s releasing this week, WOUNDED ANGEL, is the third in a four-book miniseries called The Earth Angels (published by Carina Press). Before I wrote one word of any of these books, I spent an entire night outlining the four sets of characters that would populate these books, as well as mapping out the story arc and what would happen in each book. If memory serves, I wrote over four-thousand words that night, but ultimately I had these wily, multi-faceted characters who have vital roles to play and mysteries to solve. At least in part, their collective intellect will help bring the world back from the brink of an apocalypse.
Annnnnd now you don’t have to read the series since I just let the cat out of the bag. *facepalm*
Tart: Okay, I walked into that... At least it's a llama... Who’s your favorite character you’ve written and why?
Stacy: *moons The Tart* Which of your children is your favorite?
Tart: The one that loves me most, so there. But that changes regularly... So you're a visual person and I know you've kept a pinterest file of images for the last several books you've written. Would you mind sharing these images for your latest book and giving a little explainer as to how the images inspired you while you were writing?
Stacy: Sure! When I put together a storyboard, I scour Teh Interwebz for the right look/feel of the characters. In WOUNDED ANGEL this was kind of tricky, since the heroine, Ella, had once been Gabriella Littlefield, with blonde hair, blue eyes and a naïve, "soft" look. Ella had not only changed her looks after enduring a life-changing traumatic event, she also changed her name, location and even her attitude and aspects of her personality. Eventually I stumbled upon some great Charlize Theron photos that best depicted this profound change. These photos proved to me anew that if given enough time and motivation, a person can change their appearance to the point where they're almost unrecognizable, and that helped me define Ella.
Tart: Oh, nice--same woman, different look.
Stacy: Now, if you want to talk about the photo depicting how Nate and Ella get to cooking in the kitchen... well, you know what they say--one picture is worth a thousand words. :D
Tart: *snort*
Wounded Angel Blurb:
Book three of The Earth Angels
A descendant of the Angel of Vengeance, Nate da Luca was gifted with an uncanny ability to find things. It made his job as a detective a breeze—until he learned the hard way that some things should remain hidden. After that, his powers vanished, along with his belief in himself. Which is going to make tracking down Gabriella Littlefield for his latest client a challenge.
Personal trainer
Ella Little paid a hefty price for her life—now all she wants is to
live it in peace. Then a sexy hulk of a man turns up in her gym,
reigniting desires she thought she'd left behind along with her real
name and hair color.
Desires she can't deny even after she discovers Nate's no stranger to her dark past.
Before he can convince her the attraction is mutual, Nate's going to have to earn Ella's trust. But a demon is playing for keeps in the world of humans, using Ella as bait, and the last thing they have is time…
Tart: So tell us about the first CELEBRITY you fell in love with and how he defined hawtness for you… or… was it foxiness back then?
Stacy: BACK THEN?!? What do you mean, BACK THEN??? *desperately covers gray hair* Though, yeah, I guess since Rob Lowe was the first dude to trip my girlish trigger (and he’s now looking like a mile of bad road), I think that’s a fair cop. ^_^ What about you, Your Tartness? Who was first to rev your motor, and does he fall into the hawtness era, or the foxiness era?
Tart: Erm... Shaun Cassidy. And no comments from the peanut gallery. But in my defense, he made a mighty fine Joe Hardy...
Say... were there early book heroes you fell for, too?
Stacy: Omigosh, I have SO MANY book-boyfriends! I think my first one ever was one of the main characters in the Trixie Belden series. Jim Frayne was a bad-boy-turned-good hero that made my grade-school heart melt. Strangely enough, though, the one that always stuck with me was Stu Redman, a hero in Stephen King’s “The Stand.” I know that Stephen King’s name doesn’t usually pop up when talking about book-boyfriends, but Stu was something else again. At least I didn’t say Tom Cullen. M-O-O-N, that spells Tom Cullen ;)
Tart: Stu, huh? I wouldn't have pegged you for a Stu sort... or maybe that is me who he didn't quite work for. Probably because I had an actual Stu, or rather Stew, and I confounded the two... So have you analyzed a little? What are those special qualities that make your heart patter and your knees go weak?
Mmmmmmmmmm, brainsssss. AMIRITE??? Sexiest organ the human body has. *nods*
Tart: Ah, yes... sexy brainy boys... I can go along with that... And how do you tap that when you’re writing characters?
Before I officially start writing any book, I do character outlines, including names that almost always have a hidden meaning, to hair color (which has no meaning whatsoever *snort*), to multi-layered backstories. Example: the book that’s releasing this week, WOUNDED ANGEL, is the third in a four-book miniseries called The Earth Angels (published by Carina Press). Before I wrote one word of any of these books, I spent an entire night outlining the four sets of characters that would populate these books, as well as mapping out the story arc and what would happen in each book. If memory serves, I wrote over four-thousand words that night, but ultimately I had these wily, multi-faceted characters who have vital roles to play and mysteries to solve. At least in part, their collective intellect will help bring the world back from the brink of an apocalypse.
Annnnnd now you don’t have to read the series since I just let the cat out of the bag. *facepalm*
Tart: Okay, I walked into that... At least it's a llama... Who’s your favorite character you’ve written and why?
Stacy: *moons The Tart* Which of your children is your favorite?
Tart: The one that loves me most, so there. But that changes regularly... So you're a visual person and I know you've kept a pinterest file of images for the last several books you've written. Would you mind sharing these images for your latest book and giving a little explainer as to how the images inspired you while you were writing?
Stacy: Sure! When I put together a storyboard, I scour Teh Interwebz for the right look/feel of the characters. In WOUNDED ANGEL this was kind of tricky, since the heroine, Ella, had once been Gabriella Littlefield, with blonde hair, blue eyes and a naïve, "soft" look. Ella had not only changed her looks after enduring a life-changing traumatic event, she also changed her name, location and even her attitude and aspects of her personality. Eventually I stumbled upon some great Charlize Theron photos that best depicted this profound change. These photos proved to me anew that if given enough time and motivation, a person can change their appearance to the point where they're almost unrecognizable, and that helped me define Ella.
Tart: Oh, nice--same woman, different look.
Stacy: Now, if you want to talk about the photo depicting how Nate and Ella get to cooking in the kitchen... well, you know what they say--one picture is worth a thousand words. :D
Will
that do? Also, here's the link to my Wounded Angel Pinterest
board:
Tart: *snort*
Book three of The Earth Angels
A descendant of the Angel of Vengeance, Nate da Luca was gifted with an uncanny ability to find things. It made his job as a detective a breeze—until he learned the hard way that some things should remain hidden. After that, his powers vanished, along with his belief in himself. Which is going to make tracking down Gabriella Littlefield for his latest client a challenge.
Desires she can't deny even after she discovers Nate's no stranger to her dark past.
Before he can convince her the attraction is mutual, Nate's going to have to earn Ella's trust. But a demon is playing for keeps in the world of humans, using Ella as bait, and the last thing they have is time…
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