The Inspiring Blog Award

Posted: December 8, 2012 in Living and Life
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Well, I’ve won two blog awards this evening, so I’m going to write a post for each. The first one is the Inspiring Blog Award, which was bequeathed to me by Emma McCoy (hang on Matt, the award you’ve given me will be in the next post). The rules of this award are this: 1) display the award logo on the blog, which I’ve done; 2) link back to the person who nominated you (http://emmamccoy.wordpress.com/); 3) State 7 things about yourself; 4) Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and then notify them. I only have a few blogs that I plan to nominate for this award, though, so please forgive me if I don’t fill out one of the requirements. Also, I hope nobody minds winning an award twice if you’ve won this award already.

Alright, onto the 7 things about me:

1. I used to have a major crush on Emma Watson. But then again, what teenage fan of Harry Potter who’s a male didn’t? I think some still do, actually.

2. I read more Japanese comic books than regular novels. I know that might be difficult to believe, since I want to be a writer and I’m supposed to read a lot of novels and such, but it’s true, and I really like reading manga; it’s interesting and I sometimes get ideas for stories from it.

3. I’m moving out of the dorms next year. I haven’t exactly made a down payment on a place yet, but I’ll have a small apartment close to campus where I can live and write and cook my own meals. Should be very homey.

4. I used to watch a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My mom introduced my sister and me to Buffy, and let’s just say, we’ve benefitted from it ever since. Thanks Mom!

5. I slept in till 1 in the afternoon today. Doesn’t that just scream typical college student?

6. I had my first ghostly experience around Halloween 2010. Talk about great timing, right?

7. I once won an award for visual arts at my high school. I was just as surprised as anyone. I mean, I went to a high school of 60 people and there were much better artists than me there. And I was a sophomore, too! Talk about crazy.

Well, that’s the 7 facts. Now it’s onto the nominees (and I’m only doing 4):

1. Stories by Williams (http://storiesbywilliams.com/)

2. Pat Bertram (http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/)

3. Cristian Mihai (http://cristianmihai.net/)

4. Broadsie (http://broadsideblog.wordpress.com/)

All for now. Next award when I have the chance.

Snake: Part IV Done

Posted: December 8, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Ladies and gentlemen, I am making progress! I just finished Part IV after finishing my last paper for the semester, and let me tell you, I really enjoyed working on this part. Not only did I get it done much faster than the other parts–about 2 weeks after finishing Part III–but I noticed some fundamental differences between Part IV and previous parts, the most glaring of which is that the chapters in this part were longer and had less action than those of previous parts. This was a part where relationships were forged and explored, and even a few new characters were introduced. Oh, and there was a sex scene as well, that was pretty long too (once again, pun intended).

So, now for the count-up of pages and words, and let me remind you that when I type out drafts, it’s on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, double spaced, and with 12-point Times New Roman font. So in total, the number of pages in Part IV is 86 pages, and the word count is 22,288. Let’s add that to the totals of all the other parts now. For the record, the Prologue is 14 pages and 3,979 words; Part I is 41 pages and 10,177 words; Part II is 96 pages and 23,801 pages; Part III (the longest so far) is 126 pages and 30,733 words. This brings the total now to (drum roll please)…363 pages and 90,978. It’s close to Reborn City‘s length now. And it’ll probably be longer, too.

Wow. Did not expect Snake to exceed RC. That’s something else.

Well, next I’ll be working on Parts V and VI, followed by the Epilogue. The last two Parts will have the climax of the story, and the Epilogue will tie up the loose ends. Looks like I’ll be making my New Year’s deadline with this one, ladies and gentlemen. Wish me luck.

An Update on Frissora

Posted: December 6, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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For those of you who might have been wondering, I went over the chapter wehre I introduced my character Frissora, a hitman from the pits of Hell…or maybe North Africa. I don’t really have a character history for the guy yet, only that he’s a scary bastard with facial scars and he’s going to give the Snake all sorts of trouble.

As I was saying, I went over the chapter where I introduce Frissora and I actually didn’t have to change as much as I thought I would have to change. I just added a few lines and changed how the chapter ended. I still think Frissora is scary as hell, adn I plan to keep that up in later chapters. I may even give some hints as to how Frissora came to be, thsoe sort of obscure hints where the reader gets a small idea of what created Frissora but still has a lot to imagine because those hints are vague and probably only make sense to Frissora…and me.

Well, I’ve made my update. If I have anything else, I’ll let you know.

Onto Chapter 79!

Introducing the Bullseye Character

Posted: December 6, 2012 in Novel, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Careful, there’s a character like him in “Snake”.

In the movie Daredevil, based on the famous Marvel comic book, Bullseye is the character Daredevil has to face before he can go against the Big Boss, the Kingpin. Bullseye is a hired killer, totally psychopathic and deadly as hell. This character totally freaked me out when I was 11 and first saw Daredevil at a friend’s birthday party. To this day I still think that Daredevil, particularly the Bullseye character and the murders he committed, influenced my writing and gave me a taste for killing (fictional) people in all sorts of horrible ways.

So I’m happy to introduce the Bullseye of Snake, Frissora, a brutally scarred man with a past shrouded in darkness and the ability to be suave while carrying out heinous acts. In a way, he’s like Bane as played by Tom Hardy in The Dark Kngiht Rises, intelligent and strong and not someone to be messed with lightly…wait, that’s Bane in nearly every adaptation of Batman he’s been in. But you get the idea, right? Frissora is dangerous, and the Snake will have to face him before he faces the head of the mafia family he’s been hunting.

I created Frissora as a way to weaken the Snake and give him a challenge. I also didn’t want the Snake to have too much of an advantage when he finally fought the mafia boss, who is a dangerous fighter as well, so Frissora was necessary. I’m going to enjoy working with this character as he fights the Snake, but I may have to go over Chapter 78, where Frissora is introduced, to make sure I get his character across like I want to.

I hope I can give Frissora the power and depth I wish to give him, and which I hope the reader will be able to feel. Because honestly, it would suck if he just seemed like another thug in a line-up of thugs.

Presenting My History Project

Posted: December 6, 2012 in Living and Life
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Me next to my project; I'm not wearing my glasses because they were still getting used to the lack of sunlight. How do you like my poster?

Me next to my project; I’m not wearing my glasses because they were still getting used to the lack of sunlight. How do you like my project?

Today, my history class met one last time to show our final projects gallery-style. The subject of my history class was an overview of the Historical Studies discipline, which involves the history of history (yes, that does exist); how history is gathered; how we classify different types of history; and other fun and interesting topics for historians and History majors to talk about. For our final project, each of us had to demonstrate the research and detective skills we were supposed to have developed over the past semester, and create our own poster detailing a subject of our choosing. I chose to do the history of Holocaust awareness in America, since the Holocaust is the focus of my History major, and I used a book by Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life, as my main source of information.

My project went very well; I learned a lot and put it all into an interesting and colorful tri-fold that looked at the Holocaust in America from 1945 to now, and how the Holocaust was at first ignored in the US before gaining prominence in the sixties and becoming a part of our culture in the latter years of the twentieth century. There were also some other projects that were pretty interesting: several posters involved the second World War, including Ohio’s contribution to the war effort, the experiences of soldiers who participated in D-Day, and the US propaganda for the war effort. One guy did the history of the jazz industry here in Columbus (I didn’t know Columbus even had a jazz industry), while one girl looked at the founding of Israel from the perspective of Israeli-Arab relations of the times. One girl looked at the growth of Columbus over the years, and another guy did the history of white-tailed deer in Ohio. Each project though, was well-researched and the student put a lot of effort into their project’s presentation, so they all definitely deserve A’s.

Now, my teacher had us all go around and grade our projects from 1-5, with 5 being a bad grade and 1 being an awesome grade (we also had some guests who helped in the grading). The person(s) with the best grades will recieve a prize or two, so here’s hoping people liked my project. We also have to turn in a 5-page paper on our research subjects. Since I didn’t want to just rehash what I put on my tri-fold, I asked my teacher if I could do the problems associated with teaching the Holocaust in public schools (yes, such problems exist). He said yes, so I’m in the middle of working on a kick-ass paper. I’m about 2 1/2 pages in, so hopefully I’ll be done by Monday, when the report is due.

So to Dr. Kobo and my classmates, thanks for an interesting semester. Let’s do well in the future and make our own history. Good luck to you all.

Writing A Sex Scene

Posted: December 4, 2012 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
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Please use this photo to show people you are not up to anything salacious.

The following blog post may or may not contain sexual elements that are not suitable for younger readers. If you are a younger reader, please consult your parents before reading this blog post. If someone walks in on you reading this, please scroll up to the picture above to make it seem like you’re not some pervert. If you are ready to read this post, please make sure to look left and right with your eyes so as to make sure nobody is watching you read this post. Thank you, and have a nice day.

*      *     *

I just finished writing Chapter 76 of Snake. And as you can guess from the title, it has a sex scene in it.

A long, graphic sex scene. Which takes up about ten pages total and 2775 words, making this chapter the longest (pun totally intended) and most uncomfortable chapter I’ve written for this novel yet.

But you know what the worst part of it was? Not the fact that I’d written a sex scene and wondered what people would think of me once they read it, though that did cross my mind as a close second. No, it was the fear that what I’d written wasn’t well-written. You see, I’m no E.L. James, though I’d learned a thing or two about sex scenes from reading the works of some of those who’d come before her, namely Anne Rice and Jean Auel. Even with this sort of training, it’s not easy: men are visual thinkers who are stimulated by pictures, which is why Hugh Hefner is one of the richest guys in this nation and worldwide. However, women are more stimulated by the written word, which is why E.L. James and those torrid romance novels you see in the supermarkets sell so well. (And if you don’t believe me on this, ask any psychologist, they’ll tell you it’s true.) So with all that in mind, could I write a decent sex scene?

Well, I’m not sure. I wrote one for practice years ago, which I’ve now misplaced, and I wrote one for Reborn City‘s initial draft, but I cut it out during the edits of the second draft because it didn’t fit with the rest of the story (though when I get to the sequel, there will be sex scenes that do fit with the story). With both of those, I never had anyone look at them, never had anyone to critique them or to tell me that I didn’t know how to write erotic scenes or that something in the story was unrealistic. The only time I ever even told anyone I’d written a sex scene was when my mother was passing by while I was writng the RC sex scene and she asked how the writing was going (“Great Mom, but this sex scene is so awkward to write.” “Doesn’t surprise me at all.” I swear the conversation went something like that)!

So how does my sex scene compare with James, Rice, or Auel? Probably doesn’t compare at all.

But is it well-written? I’m probably not the best judge of that, which is why I hope that when I edit Snake, not only will I be a better writer, but I’ll also have someone very knowledgeable about thrillers looking over the chapters with me and giving me feedback. Until then, I’ve got what I’ve got and I’ll leave it at that.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go take a cold shower and then sit down and watch The Dark Knight Rises, which I couldn’t watch after I watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight the other day because TDKR hadn’t been released to DVD yet and because it has hardly any sexual elements whatsoever.

Submitting the Succubus Story

Posted: December 4, 2012 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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So a friend of mine who looks at my short stories as an unbiased third party just got back to me and said he enjoyed reading my succubus story and he thought my writing had improved (thanks, Marc!). So before I started the next chapter of Snake, I went over the story one last time, made some minor adjustments, and now I think I’m ready to send it off. I don’t know any magazines off the top of my head that might publish this sort of story, but hopefully I can find a publication that will be interested and maybe they’ll publish it.

That’s the hope, anyway.

Now that that’s over and done with, I’m going to start working on the next chapter of Snake. It’s a sex scene though, so I have a feeling that my writing will be slowed down my sheer awkwardness and embarassment! Wish me luck.

A Story For The Black Dog

Posted: December 3, 2012 in ideas, Living and Life, short story, Writing
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Peek-a-boo! Woof!

Peek-a-boo! Woof!

Well, I’ve finally come up with an idea for a story that features a black dog spirit, and it came from the most unexpected place. You see, I was writing the latest chapter of Snake while listening to some Native American meditation music on YouTube. I paused to go and take my medication, and while I was taking it, I had epiphany: why not bring together the black dog spirit–normally a harbinger of death and occasionally an emissary of Hell–and meld it somehow with a Native American ceremony? It might require a lot of research, but the payoff would be enormous.

After I took my medication I went and filled out a sticky note, which I then put on my tackboard, bringing the new total to fifteen ideas on that tackboard. As you can tell, I’m going to be extremely busy when I’m done with Snake, but I finally figured out what I’m going to do with that idea for a story and I’m very happy with it.

Now, I know very little about Native American myths involving dogs. I know some of the Plain Indians equate the coyote with evil spirits and sometimes the Devil or King of Darkness. I’ve also heard of something called a “manitou”, but I think that’s some sort of shapeshifter. That’s all I really know, to tell you the truth. However one of my two majors is History, so we’re trained to do research. In addition, I’m at Ohio State, one of the biggest and most diverse schools in the country. More likely than not, we have a department that deals with Native American history and culture, and I’d be more than willing to ask them for help. And if I have to make a trip to our humungous library, all the better; I like to read, and I love that library (if you’ve seen it, you know why).

So before I go, I thought I’d embed the video that inspired me in this post. You should listen to it, and since it’s a long video, you should listen to it when you’re working on something and you need a little background music; you might find yourself inspired, or at the very least you’ll feel relaxed while you work. Enjoy.

Is Going From Indie to Traditional Good or Bad?

Posted: December 3, 2012 in Reflections, Writing
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Yesterday I wrote how I’d read a TIME magazine article and it had given me hope. After I’d posted that and started getting ready for bed, I thought about how some self-publishing writers made enough sales that they were noticed by the traditional publishing houses in New York and signed lucrative contracts for their books. It made me wonder, is starting independent and then signing up with a traditional publishing house once one presents an offer a smart move?

Well, let’s weigh the pros and cons. Some former indie authors  have said that they’re happy they don’t have to manage marketing their books or paying for illustrators/copy editors/advertisers/possible print orders if you make enough money for it. There’s also the security and old prestige that still comes with being associated with a publishing house, and with a publishing house backing you, they can get your books into stores, help negotiate movie/audiobook deals, and the occasional lawsuit where someone says something absolutely ridiculous about your book and what it’s doing to young people or how a single character is a slanderous caricature of them. Your books can read a wider audience, and who like a publishing house can garner you a good review or get you on Ellen?

However, there are some negatives: You have to submit to the publishing house’s rules, aka write what will sell, and the publisher ends up taking a large amount of the royalties from print sales. You lose a lot of control over what you have, and if you decide to break your contract with the compnay over creative differences, not only will the company retain control over most, if not all, of the work you published with them, they’ll badmouth you throughout the industry for being a sore loser. Also, if you’re name’s not J.K. Rowling and you don’t continue to give them amazing work, they can ask for your advance from your previous work back or impose other such penalties or even drop you (or so I’ve heard).

I guess it depends on the writer, his/her circumstances, and how s/he feels about traditional vs. independent publishing. For me, I’d only sign up with a publisher if they gave me a lot of rights and incentives over my work. But of course, I first have to get the work out. Let’s hope that’s soon.

I Can’t Wait To Self-Publish

Posted: December 2, 2012 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Reflections, Writing
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My dad called me last night and told me to get my hands on a copy of the latest issue of TIME magazine, saying there was an article that ran 5-6 pages on the ever-growing industry of self-publishing. I asked a friend of mine in my dorm if I could borrow his copy, and this evening I sat down to read it. What I saw encouraged me; there were so many stories of authors who had found success in the self-publishing industry, and even those who’d sold only a few hundred copies or less were finding ways to increase sales. It made me think: I hope that when Reborn City comes out, it’s a success.

Of course, I’m a bit far away from that at this point. I’ve only gotten three chapters finalized, and I’m waiting for the next one. At this rate I’ll probably be finished sometime between March and June. But I’m already gedtting ready, spreading the word as much as I can. Soon I’ll start up my own Facebook page as a writer, and see about creating a fan page for RC. I’m also getting a lot of work on Snake done and I hope to have that done by the end of the year, God-willing, and then I’ll start planning publishing that (and seeing if there’s someone who can look at it and give me an opinion before I put it out). And if I have the energy, I may just put out a small collection of horror short stories. With the power of e-publishing and the author as the marketer, the possibilites are endless.

So let’s hope I can get RC soon. If I can sell 1000 copies of RC, I’ll consider this all a success.

By the way, question for the other self-publishers who read this blog: how are your books doing? And what’re you doing to increase your sales and exposure (besides blogging a lot, of course).

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