Archive for October, 2013

I’m Taking Over Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors

Posted: October 12, 2013 in Living and Life, Writing
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As many of you know, I’ve been writing for the blog Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors since June. I’ve enjoyed the work and the chance to interact with so many authors, giving them advice and receiving advice in turn.

However there’s been a change recently. This week one of my fellow authors on the blog and an administrator said that she and her fellow administrator were stepping down from the roles of administrators, and she wanted to know if I was interested in taking on the job, seeing as the other author/contributors weren’t interested in taking over.

For maybe a second after my surprise wore off I was hesitant about taking the post. But afterwards, I felt that…I don’t know, but I guess it was like I had to take the post once it was offered. So I asked some questions about what I was expected to do in the post, what I could do, what I had to do, and yesterday I took over the position and added it to my resume.

Now, I’ve told a few people about this, and everyone’s been very excited and supportive. My parents have been acting like it’s a career-changing promotion. I however, am a little nervous. Besides being a labor of love, Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, of Self-Pub Authors as I call it, is a very busy blog that gets between 50 and 150 hits on average each day (and that’s on days when posts don’t get published). It’s got a wider range than my own blog, and I’m looking forward to helping it grow, but I also hope I can keep up the momentum and also be helpful and useful to the authors who read our blog.

In any case, I’ll apply my all to it, just as I apply my all to nearly everything else in my life. I’m also looking forward to working with my fellow authors and I may add an author or two later on to the blog to help with the demand.

In the meantime though, I hope to publish my first post as administrator tonight. I’m not decided what the article will be about, but I’m hoping to write a good one, so please wish me luck as I start out with this new endeavor.

Character Interview: Rip from “Reborn City”

Posted: October 11, 2013 in Character Interviews, Novel, Writing
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Reborn City

Last week I did an interview with Zahara Bakur, the protagonist of my novel Reborn City (out November 1st). Now I’m here with a interview with Rip, one of the Hydra leaders and the deuteragonist of RC. I hope he’s as friendly as Zahara was, otherwise I might be in trouble!

Also, if you want to read Zahara’s interview, please click here.

Now without further ado, let’s meet Rip!

Notes and Stats:
Sex:  male
Age: Unknown (believed to be between ages 16-18)
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Birthday: Unknown
Eye Color: Grey
Hair Color: Grey (originally brown)
Religion: Agnostic bordering on atheist.
Affiliation: West Reborn Hydras
Special Powers/Abilities: Able to produce neon-green claws from his knuckles by converting energy from his body into living matter through special glands in his hands. Because they are dependent on energy, the glands will automatically convert the claws back into energy if Rip’s energy levels are dangerously low.
Notes from the Author: In Stephen King’s The Stand, the protagonist Stu Redman was described as a quiet man. For a quiet guy, he talked a lot. That is why when I formulated Rip, I decided I wanted him to be so quiet that he would make it a point to let people know he wasn’t into long conversations. It’s led to some interesting situations, and I think he’s a better character than he might’ve been if he’d been a bit more talkative.

RU: Rip, it’s a pleasure to meet you.

Rip: Where the fuck am I?

RU: Okay, not as friendly as Zahara.

Rip: You know Zahara?

RU: We’ve met once or twice. She’s a nice kid.

Rip: That’s just what she is though. A kid. Doan know a thing ’bout the world. I gotta teach her ’bout ev’rythin’.

RU: Do you like her though?

Rip: I guess so. I doan hate her.

RU: That’s good to hear. So Rip, I hear the Hydras are getting pretty powerful in West Reborn. You must be proud of that.

Rip: It’s cool. Got a lotta hard workers in the Hydras. I should be proud.

RU: I bet you and the other leaders having powers may be a big help to that.

Rip: Ya know ’bout our powers?

RU: I know a lot about the Hydras. But you can trust me. I’m not going to sell you out to anyone, like a certain man I could name who watches Reborn City from a giant rotating skyscraper.

Rip: Ya know ’bout him too? Who the hell are ya?

RU: A friend. Well, we’re almost out of time. I’ll send you back to West Reborn. Tell Zahara the weird blonde guy with the glasses said hi, okay?

Rip: Whatever. Just doan do nothin’ ya shouldn’t, or ya might meet my claws!

RU: Oh wow, they really do glow like neon, don’t they? And they seem really sharp. Well, that’s all the time we have left. Join me next week, when I do another interview, this one with antagonist Jason Price, CEO of the Parthenon Company. That is, if Rip doesn’t gut me first! Reborn City, out November 1st!

Autumn Semester 2013: The Halftime Report

Posted: October 9, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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It is Wednesday of Week 8 of the semester here at Ohio State, putting us squarely halfway through the semester. And as is my custom on this blog, I’m letting people know how I’m doing right now.

Love it at my school!

Right now I’m at work taking my lunch break. Work’s going well, by the way. I work between ten and twelve hours a week, and now that busy season is over, we’ve kind of fallen into a routine that’s quieter than the summer and early fall but stil busy and full of things to do. Actually some of my biggest fans are at work. The head of the Financial Aid department keeps telling me she’s going to buy two print copies of The Quiet Game when she shops on Amazon next, one to read and one for me to sign and keep in pristine condition forever and ever. She just has to find time to shop on Amazon, which is hampered by her very busy schedule. She’s also looking forward to reading Reborn City when it comes out in November, as well as some of my coworkers. I’ve got to love the people who work here!

My classes are also going well. I’m taking five courses right now, and my favorites are without a doubt my Science Fiction and Fantasy literature course and my Holocaust in History course. I learn a lot from my teachers and the discussions are always stimulating and we all have fun, especially in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy course. My one class I’m struggling with is my Biology course, but I’m meeting with my TA a lot to talk about points I’m having trouble with and improve my grades. Hopefully by the next midterm in that class I’ll be Super-Student.

Not likely, but I’ll get as close to it as possible.

I’ve also applied for a Study Abroad trip in May to Europe to see some of the more important sites of World War II Europe. I don’t know if I’ll get in yet (I won’t find out till next week at the earliest), but my GPA is high enough and one of my former teachers wrote me a stunning letter of recommendation, so I’m hopeful. I’ll let you know if I get in.

And at my apartment things are also peachy-keen. My roommate Morgan and I get along very well and we divide up our duties both as housemates and as resident managers for our complex very well. Sometimes I even cook for the both of us, though that doesn’t happen often because Morgan’s studying to be an engineer and has a bigger courseload than I do, so he’s often on his own schedule and I’m on mine. It’s sad that we can’t hang out as often, but I’m okay with it. Besides, there’s something on every night on TV, so I’ve got pleny to occupy my attention.

If I could change one thing about this semester though (besides how much I have to work on my Biology coursework or get a winning lottery ticket), I’d like to attend clubs more often. I attended a couple of club meetings for the English Undergraduate Organization and the Science Fiction club at the beginning of the semester, but somedays my homework load piles up and I just don’t have the time or the energy to go. Especially when some club meetings, like for the sci-fi club, are on the south side of campus and I live north of campus. The only place I can regularly go to that can be considered club-like is OSU Hillel for Friday night services and dinner, but beyond that nothing much. Hopefully for the second half of the semester I might find more time though. Depends on a number of factors, but I’m hopeful.

And finally, some updates on my writing. Video Rage has less than twenty chapters left till it’s completed, so I’m trying to get as much done as possible when I have the time. Laura Horn is still a long way from being completed, but the chapters are shorter than the ones for Video Rage, so I should complete that by midway through the spring semester. The Quiet Game is doing as can be expected for a first-time writer being published, which means it’s close to reaching 50 copies sold. Reborn City is still coming out on time, so that’s something to get excited about. In fact, I plan on doing a bit more advertising for it as the week goes on, so get prepared. Also, Snake is still getting its final draft looked over by author Angela Misri of a Portia Adams adventure, but it should be ready by spring or summer 2014. There’s something to look forward to. And last but certainly not least, I’m already planning what to write after I finish the first drafts of Video Rage and Laura Horn. I’m thinking I’ll do a lot of short-story writing, maybe put out another collection. I also want to write something with a big supernatural influence that is longer than a short story. We’ll see what happens when I finish the WIPs, though.

Well, my lunch break is just about over, so I’m signing off. I’ll let you know if anything happens when it happens, and I hope you have a nice day. Blog on you later!

In media res

Posted: October 8, 2013 in Reflections, Writing
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And…ACTION!

You know, I don’t think I’ve had words begin with lowercase letters since I first started writing this blog. Except for “the”, “a”, “is”, and words like that, but that’s beside the point.

In media res is Latin for “in the midst of things” and it is a literary technique where a story begins in the midst of action rather than beginning with some background or exposition. It also details my semester at the moment, but that’s tomorrow’s post and it’s very beside the point! The point is, I noticed that a lot of stories I write tend to start in media res.

Even if we don’t know it, a lot of books we’ve read and movies we’ve seen begin with in media res (and plenty don’t).  They often use flashbacks to help fill in backstory and background information. A prime example of a book that uses in media res is the first book in the Bartimaeus trilogy, The Amulet of Samarkand. Anyone read that? No? Well, for those of you who haven’t read it, the story is about a world where magicians who summon and bind demons into their service rule over modern England. However we don’t find out all that information at the beginning. Instead we see human protagonist Nathaniel summoning the titular demon Bartimaeus into his service before he’s sent to capture the Amulet of Samarkand, and then through flashbacks (and footnotes) we find out that the magicians rule England and its colonies, and that they use demons to do their bidding.

That’s an example of in media res. A good example of a work that doesn’t begin that way would be Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities, which all of us have probably read in high school or college. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, etc.” Only after we realize how much like our current era the era of the novel is do we find ourselves on a dark road in the middle of the night, and the story begins. And believe it or not, the first few lines of Harry Potter were exposition in nature: “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of Number 4, Private Drive were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” Rowling makes sure we know how absolutely, perfectly, horridly normal the Dursleys are before we realize how weird things are the day before they find Harry on their stoop. That is the exact opposite of in media res.

Now why am I bringing this up, you might be asking. Firstly, I just want to make sure everybody who’s not an author on this page knows what in media res is before I talk about it. And now that I’ve explained it all, I want to get back to what I said previously, which is that a lot of the work I write begins in media res.

This show’s pilot (and several of its episodes) utilize in media res. It is also my most recent TV addiction.

If you’ve read my collection of short stories The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, all but the short story I’m Going To Be The Next James Bond start out in media res. Take The Quiet Game itself: “It was a tranquil Saturday morning at St. Dunstan’s School for Girls as Traci opened her eyes and stretched.” I don’t spend a moment explaining that St. Dunstan’s is a Catholic school in the middle of the country, that it’s girls stay on campus, that it’s run by priests and nuns, or that it has a darkness within it. I let that come out later in the story.

And not just The Quiet Game, but most of my other work is told this way. I could begin Reborn City (out November 1st, by the way) by explaining that several years before the story begins, there was a conflict between Western civilization and several radical Islamic terrorist organizations and some Muslim nations that led to a third world war and the devolving of many nations into independent city-states, and then go into how my protagonist Zahara and her family get caught up in some violence in the West side of Las Vegas-style Reborn City. Instead, this is the first paragraph of RC:

Reborn City, former Nevada
28 Anno Bombus (2056 CE)
June 28

Zahara and her family had decided to eat out at a restaurant in North Reborn that served kosher meat, the closest they could get to halāl. “I know it’s for Jews mostly, but it’s a very nice place and the Jews were very nice to us in New York.” Zahara’s father, Emir Bakur had said when he’d suggested it. “They know they don’t have to fear Muslims anymore. And the Chaplinsky family in 4F was nice enough, right?”

Full action, no exposition or backstory. I leave that to the flashbacks I use throughout the story. And it’s the same with my other novel-in-the-midst-of-getting-published, Snake. The first four chapters are a single scene of the Snake taking his latest victim and then leaving the body out. I use several flashbacks throughout the book to explain why he’s doing this, but I don’t say it all in the beginning. I wait, and reveal it at certain points in the story through flashback and characters telling other characters about past events.

Now why am I saying all this? Because I think it’s an interesting stylistic choice that I decide to start most of my stories in the midst of the story and use flashbacks to get into past events that may have led to the current events of the story. In media res requires readers to put themselves right in the action of the story. No time to catch up, just plunge right in and fill in the details along the way. I think that’s a much more fun way to tell a story.

It also allows me to write in a way that keeps readers from getting bored with my work. Instead of explaining everything slowly at the beginning, I impart a bit of mystery instead and task the reader to play detective, to keep going through the novel to piece together how events of the novel came into being. The readers love it, they love unraveling how we got to where we are by reading and seeing what happened before the story and how those events correlate with what the story in their hands (or on their audiobooks).

So the next time a movie/TV show/book starts out like this, you’ll know what it’s called.

So yeah, I like in media res. And I’ll probably use it in the future. But I’ll be conscious of its use., and when I see other writers using it, I’ll wonder if they’re conscious of why they’re using it. Because the story requires it? Because they find that much exposition boring? Because it’s fun to tell a story that way? It’s almost as intriguing to guess why they use that method as reading the story to find out what happens, even if we might not ever know why that author does it. At least, that’s my opinion.

If you are a writer, do you ever use in media res in your fiction? And if so, why? If not, why

Weekly Exercise #8 (10/7/13)

Posted: October 7, 2013 in Scary Stuff, Weekly Exercises, Writing
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It’s time for my Weekly Exercises again. These flash fiction pieces are part chance to practice my craft, part sounding board so that my readers can tell me what they think works or doesn’t work, and part shameless marketing ploy to get people interested in my published work. Remember, these Weekly Exercises rely on reader feedback, so whether you love it or hate it, please let me know. I love to hear your opinions.

This week’s exercise is a bit longer than the past seven have been. But it needed to be in order to get what I wanted out of it. Tell me, is it better being longer than the others? Or I was better being brief? You decide.

Hope you like it. And if you wish to read more of my Weekly Exercises, you can find them all on their very own page.

~~~

Lacey had been staring at the painting ever since they’d moved into the house. It came with the house, her mother said. It wasn’t very amazing, for a painting. It was a bunch of ladies in big dresses holding parasols on a beach. The plaque on the frame said it was called The Spider’s Web by William Ryan and painted in 1865. Other than the weird title, she didn’t know why she was so obsessed with the painting.

But for some reason Lacey kept staring at it, kept coming to look at the women in the dresses. Sometimes she thought she could hear the sound of waves and seagulls, a snatch of womanly laughter. And she wanted to know what the laughter was about.

Until the little girl appeared in the painting, though. She hadn’t been there before, hadn’t been holding the women’s hands when Lacey first moved here. And for some reason, the little girl looked a lot like Lacey. And she heard her voice giggling with the woman’s laughter and the seagulls and the ocean waves. She wanted to be in the painting too.

Momma was worried about Lacey. “You spend too much time in front of that painting.” she said. “Play with some toys. Watch TV. Go to school and make some friends. Put rocks up your nose.” And Lacey did all those things, went to school and made friends and played with toys and did things kids shouldn’t do. But she still stared at that painting. Stared at it, and the little girl with the women in the painting

And the painting whispered to her. It said that she could come in. They wanted Lacey to come in and be with them. Lacey wished and dreamed to be in the painting with them. And then one day, the women and little girl came out of the painting. But when they did, they became a big spider with a woman’s head. Lacey wasn’t scared though. She wanted this. And the spider lady picked her up in its six arms and brought her into the painting. And then Lacey was with the ladies on the beach, holding their hands and laughing with them.

She never knew what they laughed about, or that Momma cried when she disappeared, or that the spider lady was eating her soul bit by bit. But she laughed anyway, because she got her wish.

The Scariest Chapter I’ve Ever Written So Far

Posted: October 6, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Some of you may be wondering what the scariest chapter I’ve ever written so far must be. I write scary stories, so it must be something gruesome. What could it be? Monsters? Evil spirits? Something not of this world or any other world we know of?

If you guessed pure, human evil, then you were correct.

I’ve written several times on this blog that one of my works-in-progress, Laura Horn, has a teenage girl and a survivor of sexual assault as its protagonist. Naturally, the question came up of whether or not to actually show her sexual assault in the novel. I’m not sure when I decided on that issue, though it was probably when I wrote the outline for the novel. But I decided to show her assault, devoting Chapter 17 of the book to it.

The past few weeks, where I knew it was only a matter of time till I reached that chapter, were not terrifying, nerve-wracking, or exciting as I expected writing a sexual assault would be. Instead, I just felt a sort of…acceptance, I guess. I’d committed to writing that sort of scene, and when I finally got to it, I got to it.

And last night, after finishing Chapter 17 of Video Rage, I took a short break, and then I started writing Chapter 17 of Laura Horn. Today, after finishing up my homework and meditation class, I did the last of it. and now the first draft of that chapter is complete.

I don’t know if what I’ve written will resonate with readers or feel real to them. I wrote this scene based on testimonies and memoirs by rape victims that I’ve read, the articles I’ve read on the statistic and psychology of rape, more Law & Order: SVU episodes than I dare mention, and my own overactive and sometimes unhealthy imagination. (Those last two I’m not sure you can count as credible sources). But if I’ve done my job right, then I will be able to put the reader directly into Laura’s state of mind at the time of her assault, make them understand what she’s been through and how it’s affected her three years after the event when the story takes place. And only then will the readers really understand who Laura Horn is, and truly be able to empathize with her.

And speaking of which, I’ve had trouble at certain points of writing this story getting into Laura’s head and understanding her both as a character and as a person. But having just written the formative event of her young life, I now can truly get into her head, understand her motivations, her thoughts, were obsession with avoiding drawing attention to herself. So hopefully writing the rest of Laura Horn will be a little bit easier.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that this is the scariest chapter I’ve ever written. In fact, it scared me personally, because I was terrified of the fact that I could conceive this scene and then write it down without losing my stomach. Even now, I’m wondering how screwed up I truly am to write such a scene. Considering how many times Stephen King’s written that sort of scene, I can say I’m fairly f***ed up.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever do such a scene again. However I do believe that when Laura Horn makes it to print, whenever that is, if I’ve done my job right, then the readers will feel the fear I wish to convey. And maybe they’ll understand the terror and trauma of rape victims. Maybe the book will help people who’ve experienced sexual assault. Maybe it’ll cause some people to think before they say someone deserves to be raped. I don’t know if any of that’ll happen, but it’s my hope that it will.

And now I’m going to take a break from writing. I’ve done a lot in the past 48 hours, and I’d like a little break before I pick up with Video Rage Ch. 18. I’ll need to recharge my batteries, especially after writing that sexual assault scene.

Until next time.

Losing (And Gaining) An Idea

Posted: October 6, 2013 in ideas, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Had a pretty interesting experience today. This morning as I was getting ready to leave the house for my meditation class when I had an idea for a short story. I wanted to write it down, but I was about to leave the house though, so I couldn’t write it down. Instead I made a promise to write it down as soon as I had the opportunity to do so.

Just one problem: a good percentage of what passes through our five senses and through our thoughts gets forgotten pretty quickly if we don’t really grab onto the details and keep it in the short-term memory. And guess what? I didn’t seize a hold of this idea and now I’ve completely forgotten it! (I have a feeling it has something to do with the movie Pacific Rim, but other than that I cannot remember a single detail). And when I realized that, you know my beat myself up over losing it.

So I spent my meditation class trying to meditate my idea back to myself. I went over my morning, trying to find the moment where I had that spark of inspiration. However, I didn’t catch it. Whatever that idea was, for now it’s been lost to the darker recesses of my memory.

However, the day and the meditation wasn’t a total wash. I did manage to come up with a second idea that was just as good as the first (I think). I remembered a story I read last night, about a man from my state who had chained up his German Shepherd to a tree for four years and had neglected, abused and tortured the poor thing during that time (as hard as it is to read, I urge you to check out here). I thought to myself, what if the police hadn’t intervened and something happened to the dog? I recalled a certain belief from Southeast Asia about what happens when you abuse certain dogs, and I decided to turn that into a short story.

So while I would like to still get that idea back (and maybe someday I will), I think this idea is pretty cool as well. And it gust goes to show how ideas keep bubbling up in a writer’s imagination. It also shows you need to write them down as soon as you get them, but I think I already mentioned that. If I have any other good ideas, I’ll let you all know.

By the way, has anything like this happened to you? How did you feel about it?

Review: Miley Cyrus on Saturday Night Live

Posted: October 6, 2013 in Review
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Just to clarify, this is her turn as host (and musical guest) on the show’s thirty-ninth season.

Based on last week’s episode with Tina Fey, I was afraid that this week’s show would be absolutely terrible. Well apparently they read my review, because they really stepped it up this week! I’m not kidding, they made me forget that they started twenty-seven minutes late due to college football games and gave one of the best shows in a while!

First off, Miley was great. I think she may have actually learned her lesson from the VMAs…especially since they made fun of it throughout the cold open and the monologue. Every skit she just made me laugh so hard I could not help but enjoy myself. The other actors were great as well. Cecily Strong is really coming into her role as a new anchor on Weekend Update, with the right zingers and the perfect smile. Jay Pharaoh is great in any impersonation, making me wonder if it’s him or the actual person he’s doing an impression of. One of these days he shoud do an impression of Dr. Seuss. That would be crazy. And Vanessa Bayer is always hilarious, even when her poetry teacher sounds like her Miley impersonation (and you know she does that in the show). I wonder how she felt about Miley trying to eat her hair?

The sketches were some of the best I’ve ever seen. Each one was different and funny and original all at the same time. Even when I thought a sketch would be dumb, it actually was pretty awesome. I loved the auditions for the Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation and that parody music video on the Republican Party (that should be a single on iTunes). The cheerleading sketch was so goofy but plenty of sci-fi fun, and the poetry sketch was a laughter fest. But probably the best (and most original and quirky sketch) was with featured player Kyle Mooney and Miley trying to have sex in his office. Laugh out loud hysterical.

Great job this weekend, writers of SNL. You really pulled through with some really great sketches. However, I must tell you that Piers Morgan would be totally awesome if he was actually a village idiot from Ohio. After all, our state university’s football team is 18-0 these past two years, and the village idiots often become the breakthrough engineers and doctors of our generations. The only exception is John Boehner, who is still apparently the village idiot.

I’m not a Miley Cyrus fan, so I can’t really comment on her music, but I thought she did very well and that her clothes were tasteful. Definite good points in my book.

For all that I’ve listed above, I give Miley Cyrus’s second turn on SNL a 4.8 out of 5. You go girl! Hope to see more performances like this in the future (and I’m talking to both Miley and the writers/cast of SNL right now. The former, I want you to stop before you go full breakdown and become a real icon and legend that didn’t peak a few years after leaving Disney. To the latter, I hope you continue to write good sketches and keep the show going for at least two more years).

I won’t be doing another SNL review until Lady Gaga’s as yet unscheduled turn as host and musical guest on the show. I will however do a couple of reviews next week with American Horror Story: Coven and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. They both sound interesting, so I’ll review them.

Until then, good night everybody!

An Urge To Write But Barely Any Time For It

Posted: October 3, 2013 in Living and Life, Writing
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The life of a college student can be really crazy sometimes. Some days I just want to sit down and write, to finish the next chapter in one of my works-in-progress, or maybe a blog post or an article, or a short story. But first I have classes to take care of, and the homework that comes with them can’t be put off until the last second, and I work ten hours a week, and I have to cook my dinner and do my laundry, and I like to watch TV and read a book in the evenings, and I finally managed to find time to get a haircut today, which took some time from homework, but I got that done–where the heck is this train of thought going?!

Suffice to say, I’ve been crazy busy lately. And what’s the worse is that I just want to sti down and write. I’ve been hammering away at my computer on a chapter of Video Rage for about three days now, and I’m not halfway from finishing it. And I just WANT TO FINISH IT! And after that, I want to do another chapter of Laura Horn, followed by Video Rage or a Weekly Exercise, I don’t know. It depends on the day.

But you know, I got my priorities, and until those are out of the way, becoming the next HP Lovecraft will have to wait. The good news is I’m used to working on stories while being swamped with work, so I should still be on the usual production schedule (the first draft of a novel being done in six months to a year). So for now, I’ll keep working as hard as I can, when I can, where I can, and hopefully I’ll be able to get everything I want to get out as soon as I can.

At least in theory. I can’t get copyrights right now, thanks to the federal government shutting down here in the United States (thank you Congress! You’d all fail kindergarten if you had to go back there for a day!). And you know me, I like being insured in case of plagiarism or theft.

Well, I’m off to make a simple dinner and settle down for a nice, relaxing evening of writing and watching The Big Bang Theory and Scandal. Hopefully I’ll get this chapter of Video Rage done too!

Character Interview: Zahara Bakur from “Reborn City”

Posted: October 2, 2013 in Character Interviews, Novel, Writing
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Reborn City

Last night I announced that Reborn City, my first published novel and the first novel in the Reborn City series, would be coming out on November 1st. I also said that I would be doing a lot of advertising to get people’s excitement for this book up. Among the advertising, I’m doing interviews with some of the characters from Reborn City, just so you can get to know them before you meet them in the actual book.

So without further ado, I would like to introduce you to Zahara Bakur!

Notes and Stats:
Sex: Female
Age: 15
Race/Ethnicity: Arab
Birthday: August 31
Eye color: Brown
Hair color: Bleached blond (originally brown)
Religion: Sunni Muslim
Affiliation: West Reborn Hydras
Special Powers/Abilities: None
Notes from the Author: When I first created Zahara, she wasn’t the main character and she had a different personality. However as I planned out the story, picking and choosing elements and the events that would happen, she ended up morphing into this powerful character that took center-stage in the story. She’s definitely the protagonist now, and I can’t wait to see how people react to her.

RU: Zahara, welcome. It’s a pleasure to meet you.

ZB: Um, where am I?

RU: That’s not important. Zahara, you’ve been a member of the Hydras, the only interracial gang in West Reborn City, for some time now. How long exactly have you been with them?

ZB: Two weeks.

RU: And how do you like being a gangster?

ZB: Truthfully? I don’t really like it. It’s a pretty dangerous lifestyle and I’m not…very violent.

RU: But if you’re not violent, why are you in a gang? For protection? I know some people join gangs for the protection of a group.

ZB: That’s part of it, I guess. But the big reason is that I owe Rip a debt. Rip’s like one of the big leaders in the Hydras, and he saved my life, so I owe him big-time. And to pay back that debt, I have to be a a gangster and hope that someday I do something as big as saving his life or something.

RU: Jeez, that sounds rough. What does your faith tell you about this?

ZB: My faith? I don’t know. I’m a Muslim, so people think I’m supposed to be dangerous and evil, but I’m not. I just want a quiet life and to follow my faith as best as I can. I’m about as non-violent as you can get.

RU: You say that people think you’re dangerous and evil? Is that a reaction you’ve gotten from other Hydras?

ZB: Oh no! Not at all! Well…a couple of Hydras. But most people are really nice and are cool with me. There’s Bono, he’s in Rip’s Head–that’s like a gang chapter for the Hydras–anyway, he’s in Rip’s Head with me and he’s really cool. And there’s Ilse, she’s in charge of 2-Head, and she’s like a big sister and really nice. And I have friends in other Heads, like Toshi and Tina, who are really funny and nice.

RU: What about Rip?

ZB: Er, Rip? Yeah, we’re friends, I guess. We’re friendly at the very least, which is very different from what we were like when we first met. I hated him then because he said something really mean. But we’ve gotten to know each other better, and I like him more than I did then.

RU: What’s Rip like?

ZB: Kind of quiet. He doesn’t really talk that much. I think he’s just one of those silent but strong types you see in all the teen novels these days.

RU: So if you end up paying your debt to Rip, what will you do?

ZB: Oh, that’s an easy question. I’d like to go back to New York, where I lived before I moved to Reborn City. I mean, I like some of the Hydras, but I really don’t care for the gangster life and all the other gangs are convinced I’m dangerous, so I’d like to be somewhere familiar where I’m a bit safer.

RU: And will you stay in touch with your friends in the Hydras?

ZB: I guess so. I mean, some of them are really cool. And I don’t think some of the them, particularly the leaders, will ever get caught or thrown in jail, so it should be easy to communicate with them when I want to.

RU: Do you think the leaders won’t get caught because of their almost-supernatural powers and abilities?

ZB: How’d you know about that? Nobody outside of West Reborn even believes that’s possible!

RU: That’s a secret. Well thanks for coming Zahara! Head back to the Hydras, I bet they’re starting to miss you. And if you want to know more about Zahara and the Hydras, the book will be available November 1st in paperback and e-book format. In the meantime, check out my next interview when I interview silent-but-strong Rip. Coming soon.

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