Four Kinds of People

With the end of the first half of 2010 rapidly approaching, I've decided to change my mindset for the remainder of the year. So first of all, I'm setting new goals for the next 6 months. Second, I'm pulling out the inspirational books to give myself a much needed pep talk. The first book I pulled off the shelf is Miracles Happen by Mary Kay Ash. No I'm not a Mary Kay Lady. I had used their products for years until my soy and gluten allergies got worse. Enough said. Anyways, the first thing you read in chapter 1 is this:

There are four kinds of people in the world:

• those who make things happen

• those who watch things happen

• those who wonder what happened

• those who don't know that anything happened!

For this later half of the year, I will be one of those people who makes things happen.

How Do You Spend Time Relaxing?

Relax? Who has time to relax? Who needs to relax? Me, that's who.

Today I'm blogging all for myself as a reminded to relax. Like exercise and diet, it's something I seem to fall off the wagon about doing every now and then. So I already know what I should be doing. Here are five on my list:

YOGA: I plan to do an hour of yoga after I finish this post. I woke up in pain this morning, and that's my #1 indication I need to relax a bit. Yoga is amazing for releasing the tension from the muscles.

MASSAGE: The yoga reminded me of another amazing release for tension, massage therapy. Hot stone therapy. Sea salt scrub. AHHHHHH!!! I just realized I haven't gotten a massage in over a year. I'm adding make an appointment to get felt up to my to do list. ;-)

BEAGLE TIME: I walk the boys daily, and between the three of us we get over twenty miles a week. And we don't even have to travel far to do it. Highlands Ranch did some amazing planning on trails, so we're really close to paths that get us into the park and chasing rabbits. I could sit and pet the dogs for hours too. Nothing better for the soul than cuddling up with our pack.

MEDITATION: This is one I need regularly but is the first to get put aside. When I meditate I clean my Chakras and my 5th and 6th are all backed up and nothing new is coming through the 7th. I can physically feel it from my chest up. This always happens when I haven't been writing enough. No room for anything new from the "Great and Powerful Universe."

COMEDY: Laughing really is the best medicine. When my illnesses got out of control, I forced myself to sit and watch comedy on television for hours. It did wonders for my health. I think this is why dark comedy started to show up in my writing.

What do you do to relax? I need to add to my list.

What is Your Definition of a “bad writing day”?

Okay, I'm seriously behind today, and I totally forgot to post my weekly question. OOPS!

This week's question is from me to me and inspired by missing the entry date for the Gold Contest and joining the Creative Everyday Blog Hop this week. The theme this month is bliss. What do I do to achieve a state of bliss? Well, I miss deadlines for contests...hee, hee, hee. If you remember from my confession Monday, I felt a sense of relief not entering that contest and I still don't regret it.

There is also bliss in a bad writing day. Really? Yesterday is a perfect example. It was a stressful day with repair people in and out of the house. The landscapers are back again today, ARGH!! Trying to write a story part for The Courier or discuss Bloodleggers with R.J. is painful when I can't concentrate. So I worked on one of my distractions, a book review blog hop for Blood Reads. Yeah, I'm kinda getting carried away with the whole blog hop thing, but they're so much fun!

Now I've been a bit down on myself about my little distractions, but yesterday I realized something about them. They are related to my past lives in the software industry and business networking. I can't let them go because I still love working in these areas. It's bliss! I've just done a flip flop to writing fiction professionally.

So the distractions are okay. And I'm not going to beat myself up about them anymore.

Why Write a Vampire Novel?

I've had a miserably anemic week, so I'm reposting our Ask the Author post on Bloodleggers.

W.J. here.  Every Friday, R.J. Robyn and I will answer your questions in this Ask the Author segment.  If you have a question for us, submit it via our question form.

This week we're answering the question, why write a vampire novel when the market is so saturated with them already?

First off, we're nuts. 

For me, I had no intentions of ever writing a vampire novel until I answered a forum question on Vamplit Writers.  One of our members asked what we all might enjoy in a vampire television series.  My answer...something similar to the Underworld or Blade series.  Then the idea of gangster vampires during a modern day prohibition on blood came to me.  Doesn't it sound cool!  Well, the idea kinda stuck with me like peanut butter on the roof of your mouth.  So I told R.J. about it.

For R.J., "the idea seemed like a good concept. The time of prohibition brought out the worst in a lot of people, and showed the failure of trying to legislate morality. I thought it would be a fascinating study of the culture to look at how the same sort of authoritative pressure put onto a different group for whom freedom is an even more basic instinct, would result in a revealing of an even darker side of an already dark and bloody culture. Prohibiton only made things worse in human culture, but we already consider the culture of vampires as a pretty dark existence (survival through murder) so how bad can "worse" be?"

And so, Bloodleggers was born.  I suppose it doesn't matter if the market is saturated with a certain subject or theme.  Heck, look at the number of detective novels out there.  We hope that our story will provide something different to vampire literature.  You be the judge.

Also want to mention that our official announcement for Bloodleggers is up on Blood Reads today.

What the *bleep* is up with The Courier?

I know, I know. On Monday I mentioned I'd talk about the new project with R.J. Robyn today. Well, we won't be ready for our official announcement until next Friday, so you'll have to wait until then. If you don't want to wait, you can peek in on us at http://bloodlegger.blogspot.com. We finished a short pitch so you can get a general idea of what the story is about.

So instead I thought I'd provide an update on The Courier. First of all it has a new website at http://thecouriernovel.blogspot.com. Why did I move it? I never could find a template I liked on Wordpress, and I'm too cheap to purchase access to the CSS. I LOVE THE NEW SITE!!

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I'm entering it in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold Contest, and I'll be shipping it off by Monday.

I'm still wrapping up the first novel on the new website, and there are new parts released a couple days a week while I concentrate on editing. Work has slowed on the next novel though. I got a little burned out on the story, but the new project has provided a renewed incentive to continue on.

That's about it for now. Hope you'll drop by and check out the new site.

What are your reading habits?

If I don't get a question from one of my readers, I look for questions on other people's blogs. This week I found a list of questions on Candace's Book Blog, a new blog I added to my read list a couple weeks ago. Click here for Candace's answers.

Here are my answers to the questions. Leave a comment if you decide to share in the fun so I can read your answers.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack:
I don't eat while I read. I guess I'm not coordinated to chew and read at the same time.

What is your favorite drink while reading?
Whatever I happen to have, which is likely coffee, water or ice tea since that's about all I drink..

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
Depends on what I'm reading. I like to keep fiction books pristine, so I'll use a tab sticky if I want to mark a passage. I believe nonfiction books are meant for marking and remarking. Maybe it's a left over feeling from college.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
Bookmark, primarily. If I'm just getting up for a few minutes and returning to read, I lay the book open flat.

Fiction, non-fiction, or both?
Fiction & non-fiction. I've got at least one of each going at any given time.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?
I can stop anywhere, but prefer to stop at the end of a chapter.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
I've thrown many a books across the room. I do try to give all books I read at least a 100 page read, so sometimes, forcing myself to read on can really piss me off.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
Look it up and write it down so I can use it later in my own writing. Been doing this for as long as I can remember. I don't go back to what I've written down for words though. Writing it down just seems to make it easier to remember the word.

What are you currently reading?

• White Plague by Frank Herbert
• Fallen Angels and the Origins of Evil: Why Church Fathers Suppressed the Book of Enoch and Its Startling Revelations by Elizabeth Clare Prophet
• To Your Scattered Bodies Go (Riverworld 1) by Philip José Farmer AWESOME READ!!

You can check out what I'm reading on Goodreads at any time. I'm pretty annal about keeping it up to date.

What is the last book you bought?
Blood Vice: The Nightfall Syndicate, Book 1 by Keith Melton

Are you the type of person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one?
I've usually got 3 or more books going at once. I get bored while reading only one book, no matter how good the book may be.

Do you have a favorite time/place to read?
I start reading every night between 6:00 P.M and 7:00 P.M. When I'm doing research for a book, I read for an hour before, during and/or after lunch.

Do you prefer series books or stand alones?
I don't really have a preference, but come to think of it, the only series' I've really gotten into are Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Dune.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
Bradley Denton, Christopher Moore & Scott Sigler are three authors I regularly recommend.

How do you organize your books? (by genre, title, author's last name, etc.)
LOL!! Lately it's been mass chaos. My 'to read' book shelf of paper books I own is a mess. Thanks Amazon for the Kindle! It's much easier to organize your eBooks. If I'm looking for a paper book I own, I usually have some idea where it is. Books from the library are all in one pile with the next book I'll read on top.

True Lies or Creative Writing?

Well, it finally came round to me, the Creative Writer Blogger Award by my buddy C.J. Ellison. Thanks C.J.! I've seen this on a lot of other blogs and I have to admit I've been dreading it coming to me. This is an award, but it seems more like one of those chain emails I usually trash. Yes, I admit it. I'm a chain breaker. I've decided to go ahead with this one though, since I needed a question for Friday's blog post anyways.

Okay, so I have to provide 7 facts about myself that may or may not be truths, six outrageous truths and one outrageous lie, or vice versa. This could be kinda fun, considering I get to lie. But then I have to nominate seven other bloggers for award. Not fun because I know this has already been posted by most of the bloggers I know. ARGH!!

Remember I am a horror writer while you read these.

1. While I was in the Air Force, I was put on extra duty to search for body parts after the Ramstein Air Disaster.

2. While in kindergarten I was a bully to the point I could have killed another child. Bashing heads into walls was one of my favorite ways to torture other kids.

3. The poem I wrote about capturing a toad, driving a nail into its head and killing it with a vice grip is really a true story.

4. When I was 17 my boyfriend was 32. He was married and screwing his wife's best friend as well. Ten years later I saw him confessing his misdeeds on a daytime talk show.

5. I can see and converse with dead people, and more often attract nasty souls that have killed and tortured other people as well as the spirits they've hurt.

6. I've had multiple OBEs throughout my life, but have managed to stay in my body for the past eight years.

7. Blood makes me queasy to the point I nearly pass out.

I'm nominating:

• Andrea Heiland at Fools and Sages
• Brock Henning at Lifesummit
• Nancy Overbury at Overbury Ink
• Carole Gill at Demon Vampire Horror
• 3 more to go

How do you name your characters?

I use a trick I learned from Stephen King in his book, On Writing.  At least that's where I think I found the idea.  I use the old paper version of the phone book.  It's the only use I have for it anymore.  If I need an actual telephone number, the first place I look is on the Internet.

It's not as easy as you might think to pick a character's name out of the phone book.  When I'm looking to name a new character, I open to a random page and browse the names.  If a full name jumps out at me, I use it.  Or, I might choose just a last name, in which case I then have to find a first name that I prefer.  Sometimes I have to flip to a few random pages before I settle on a character's name.

I also use a baby name book if I'm looking for a more ethnic name.  This option isn't 100% helpful though.  If I need a last name, and the character happens to be Chinese, I have to search the Internet for it.

The name of a protagonist usually comes to me with the story idea, like Barry's name in The Courier.  His last name didn't come to me until about six months ago when I decided his mother's character would be the type to name him after the music artists she was listening to while he was conceived.  So his name is Barry White.

Note that this is a new weekly feature I'm posting every Friday.  If you have a question for me, leave a comment and I'll add it to my list.  Authors who drop by to read, I'd love to hear your answer to these questions as well.