Happy Birthday Christopher Walken

http://www.funnyhub.com/videos/pages/snl-more-cowbell.html

most efficient time waster EVER!

or so it would seem. my daughter is at her dad's house this week and I had big plans for getting things done but so far I haven't been so lucky. not so much with my writing. I'm at 11k words with my WIP so that is good. but the other things on my list haven't been as lucky. yes, I even made a list. the problem is that I am easily distracted. I see something else I'd rather do and I do it. I can't stay focused. I've had this problem a long time. it's one of the reasons I never studied in the library at UF. there was too much other stuff to do. just the periodical floor was enough to do me in. now Library West, the main library, at UF has a Starbucks in it so I'd waste even more time if I was still a student there.and the art and architecture library was just as big of an attractive nuisance. I'd walk around and read all the interesting books that had nothing to do with what I was there to research. it got so bad that I had to have someone come with me to the library to keep me on task. maybe I need someone like that for my list of things to do.or maybe I just need someone to do the things on my list. that would be better. then I could do more writing! I 'll put it on my list.
hey! don't forget about the giveaway!! leave a comment under the Big Bag of Crazy post and you'll be entered!

Dark Shadows News Page: Movie to Feature Young Barnabas

Dark Shadows News Page: Movie to Feature Young Barnabas: "Deadline New York reports that Thomas McDonell has been cast to play a young Barnabas Collins in the new Dark Shadows movie. The actor is so..."

Bad reviews and what not to do. And a GIVEAWAY!

I thought I'd say something about this because of the uproar over on Big Al's Books and Pals blog http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/search/label/2%20star check it out for yourself. anyway, I went to check it out when I saw tons of tweets about how an author was going ballistic about a review that she didn't agree with. apparently the author dropped the f bomb many many times and called the reviewer a bunch of names, most of which were misspelled.
as an author, it's hard to hear criticism. but if you want to grow as a writer and improve your writing you take it to heart and learn from it, not hurl f bombs and insults to the reviewer and the forum. now, I'm a bit of a scrapper and also a fan of the f bomb but I know there is a time and place for it. it isn't the site where your book is reviewed. in fact, you generally don't respond to negative reviews other than saying thank you for taking the time to read my work. not everyone likes my work. I respect that. when I get critiques, sure it stings but after it stops stinging, I go back and evaluate my work in relationship to the criticism. often times, we don't see things that objective eyes do and that is a good thing. that is how we grow as a writer. we improve on flaws sometimes pointed out in uncomfortable ways. as writers, we already have tough skins. a bad review shouldn't spin us off into a rampage.
I hate that this author self destructed in front of the world. I picked up on the hoopla from twitter from retweets from agents and book reviewers and headed over to Big Al's (I'm not missing out on anything on a site called Big Al's) now it's everywhere including Amazon, where her book is for sale. I hope she takes some time and takes the advice she got to heart and fixes what was pointed out. in addition, I hope she develops some  professional skills because even if she does write a book that is magnificent she is going to have to do a lot of damage control on this. in her case even bad press is press isn't going to to benefit her. it might even blackball her. but I hope not.
and now in honor of the lesson we learned on what NOT to do when your work gets a bad review...a giveaway!! I'm giving away the bag in the picture above. Yes, it's a big bag of crazy bag. all you need to do it comment on the post or your take on what went on over at Big Al's and you will be entered. I'll draw and announce the winner after the Happy Vladurday post this Saturday.

everyone get excited!

I'm just giving y'all a heads up because over the next few weeks, I'll be having an author guest post, some book reviews and an interview or two. maybe I'll even throw in a few other goodies as well but I haven't figured that out. I'm very excited about this, like the cat in the picture so I'm hoping you will be too!

Happy Vladurday!

and then what happened? the pantster rides again!

I'm a pantster. I've said it before on here but I'll say it again. and I'm a big one. I never do outlines or character sketches or anything organized like that. usually, I have an idea and then I sit down and write. the characters drive it. most of times they drive the story like they stole it and right now I'm having to do a lot of research on things that I didn't foresee. I had a character show up who is a brilliant hematologist. yeah. so guess what? I had to do quite a bit of research on diseases of the blood and then I had to figure out how to tweak them so they would effect vampires. if I had made an outline, I would have known all that and prepared ahead of time but no, I let the character spring it on me. that's not to say that I just write what comes to me. I don't do stream of consciousness writing. I save that for here.lol. no, really. being a pantster doesn't mean that I don't steer the book. I do. sometimes. but since the characters are in the action, I let them do it. I just serve as a traffic cop and referee when necessary.
funny thing about being a pantster writer is I don't do everything like that. you can't be a pantster nurse. you have to be organized and have a plan. the plan can have wiggle room but you still have to have a plan. I have a dear friend who is a dedicated plotter. he is awesome like that. but, he is working on his 5th novel. so it works for him. I don't think he could be a pantster. he'd never get anything written because he wouldn't have an outline to follow. hmm.
pantster or plotter, however you get the words on the page. that is all that matters. and hopefully, my characters will give me hint on how this WIP is going to end. I think I know where they're going but we'll see where it goes!

so you're a writer? oh.

so yesterday was our family reunion. I live in rural north Florida and have an old rural style family. farm people. not to say that we don't have our eclectic members. one cousin owns a yoga studio, one cousin is the tax collector in our county and a lot of people work at the post office, so they know more about the people of this town than anyone. anyway, I was talking to one of my out of town cousins and she told me that my mother told her that I  had written some books. I said yes, I was waiting to hear from some publishers but they were indeed going to be published. she then wanted to know what kind of books I wrote and I told her paranormal romance and urban fantasy. she looked at me with a puzzled look so I clarified by saying it was a series about vampires. right away she assumed I wrote young adult and said, oh like Twilight. I smiled and said no not like Twilight. my vampires cuss and have sex frequently. these are adult vampires who have adult social problems,they're just vampires on top of it. oh and they have people trying to kill them. my cousin nodded and changed the subject.
I often get reactions like that when people hear that I write. it's either an Oh kind of expression or when they find out what I write, they assume it's another Twilight. which is fine. I think the world of writing is mysterious to the outside population. they have no clue what's involved. they think you bang out a story in a few days and poof, it's pubbed. they have no idea about writer's block, revisions, queries, more revisions, revising your query, getting a pub interested in it and landing a contract. then the fun begins and the time passes at a snail's pace. when you announce that your book sell's they expect to snag it off the shelf or download it in a few days. HAHAHAHA! publishing moves at a crawl. more revisions, edits, cover designs, proofing and then a year or so later(maybe) your book launches. then you are so excited and some smart ass says, your book is just now coming out? what took so long?
who deserves a facepalm/faceslap more?

Happy Vladurday!

it's a bad time right now. can you come back later?

yesterday I managed to write about 4k words in my WIP. at first they were awkward and it was like pulling out my own teeth to get them to come. around 10pm, I fell back into the groove. of course by this time I was sleepy and ready for bed. then, the deluge hit. I had chunks of dialog whirring in my brain along with scenes and characters showing up non stop. none of them would settle down and be quiet. I almost had to get up and write. however, I knew if I did, I would be up all night and never get up this morning. I'm relieved though. I was beginning to think that this manuscript would be hard fought. that each time I sat down, I'd need a drink or two to loosen me up to get going. whew! am I ever relieved!! once my brain believed that this was a first draft, the thoughts just spilled out.so, when I sit down to write later, I hope these great ideas come back. I was so determined to shut them up to go to sleep, I hope I didn't chase them away forever.

Happy St Patrick's Day! here's some history!

Happy St Patrick's Day! I hope everyone is enjoying their day celebrating being Irish or pretending that they're Irish if they aren't. as I dressed my daughter for school this morning, I got to wondering where the custom of pinching people who aren't wearing green came from. nowadays, it seems to be a suit worthy action but I wondered where it came from. I found a lot of different explanations but some good info came from the American Greetings website. yeah the card site. http://www.americangreetings.com/events/st-patricks-day.pd you can click here to find out but...if you are too busy drinking green beer, I'll give you the quick version. the pinching thing came from America, go figure. apparently, wearing green is an American tradition because green is considered UNLUCKY in Ireland. it goes back to when Ireland was not free and their flag was all green. (HISTORY!!!LA!!!!!) anyway, American's started wearing green and schoolchildren, acting like leprechauns, pinched those who weren't wearing green. apparently the pinch was to remind the fashion unfortunates that you couldn't be protected from the mischief of leprechauns if you weren't wearing green. that bit of info wasn't on the American Greetings site. I read it somewhere else. probably a wiki site so it might be sketchy. anyway, that's where the pinching came from. actually, most of the traditions we embrace to celebrate St Patrick's Day are American, including the beer part. oh well, it's a fun day and you get to learn a bit about history, even if we made it up.

doing other stuff not related to reading or writing

lol I love this. it's on Zazzle. I wish they had a t shirt. anyway, today I am cooking for my aunt's birthday. again, it's southern food or food that is seasoned with pork hocks, butter and whatever else unhealthy I can throw in there. mmmm. and for dessert...it's extreme chocolate cake. no I didn't name it but it's a good name for it it's a majorly chocolatey overload. I love cooking. it gives me so much joy and it's very relaxing. although when I have other things to do, not so much. I need to be working on the third installment of the Primigenio Tales or fleshing out the short story I dreamed up(literally) last night. my WIP queue is growing. but my free time isn't hahaha. so I'm squishing in things like this and other reading and writing in between the feast I'm whipping up. wish y'all could come over and eat! we're eating around six.

Happy Vladurday!

SQUEE! Dear Reader... It's Jane Eyre!

that's right everyone! Jane Eyre comes out today! and as a MAJOR Janiac, I'm thrilled. I've read the book eleventy hundred times and seen many different productions of it. I also read the super awesome Jane Slayre 

this was an AWESOME version with all the passion of the original with some kick ass paranormal slaying action. LOVED it!
I plan on going to see this newest version. I hope Michael Fassbender lives up to my high expectations of how Mr. Rochester should be portrayed. I keep picturing him in Inglourious Basterds and that might work against me. I love two productions of the film. they run neck and neck in their awesomeness. the first is the version with Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. he was awesome and she was soo beautiful.and Mr Brocklehurst was creepy. he was played by contract bad guy player Henry Daniell. Agnes Morehead (Endora on Bewitched) play Aunt Reed. but Orson Welles' plaintive "Jane" when she is wandering the moors just clenches it for me. man, more people need to wander the moors.

but my all time fave(an I've even mentioned it before) is the A and E version with the uber sexy Ciaran Hinds. basically it's a yum fest. he is a perfect Mr Rochester. and the super cool Samantha Morton is Jane. it's an all around win.

so take advantage of another incarnation of this timeless story of Jane and Mr. Rochester. I know I will and I'll  be rereading Jane Eyre. and I'm gonna find my damn copy of JE with Ciaran Hinds.

bad guys and their labels...not always visible

it would be awesome if bad guy characters had labels like this so you would know them but they don't. in my latest manuscript, I have a character who has a label of being evil. he is a historical figure that earned the label himself,thank you but I've discovered that sometimes evil is attractive and not always cut and dry. and this is creepy for me. in my novel, he is a bad guy but mainly he is an opportunist, just like he was in life. when you fictionalize a real person, you can add to their personality. I didn't take away any of this person's personality or deeds because why would I? his character was already developed. I just spun it a bit differently because I had to make him a vampire. the interesting thing about doing the research for this character is that there is very little known of his personal life. there are many books about him with contemporary reports of him but the only true info about him is from his wife and she seemed to be in denial about how and who he was. funny how everyone except her saw him as how the world sees him now. she says he wasn't a monster and his life's work says something different. interesting. when BLOOD OF NEW BEGINNINGS is released, you all will have to let me know how you feel about how I characterized this person. the sad thing is most people now don't know who he is. he died very young in real life but his legacy lived on.

Dark Shadows News Page: Coming Soon...

Dark Shadows News Page: Coming Soon...: "Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins. This isn't an official design, just an imagined poster image I created based on the new Dark Shadows movie..."

Happy Vladurday!

I guess it's better than biting on a stick

I'm sick with an epic sore throat so I've resorted to drinking lemon juice, honey and whisky. not just any whisky, I had to have to good stuff like the kind my MC Eamon drinks. well, not that good but still. anyway, it is butt awful. and my throat doesn't feel any better. I'm convinced that it is an acquired taste, one that I will never acquire. however, dudes may feel free to continue to drink expensive single malt scotch whisky because that's what dudes drink.
I do see how people used to use it for anesthesia though. I imagine that if you drank enough slugs of this you wouldn't feel much. it would have to be better than biting a stick. hopefully my sore throat will let up and drinking this heinous concoction will not be in vain. I'd hate to think nothing good came from this torture.