Now Showing . . .

Celluloid is up and available! Woo hoo! Head on over to my e-store and check it out, and if you like the preview, pick yourself up a copy! And, if you like what you read, drop me a note; I love feedback:)

FYI: Yes, the image above is the cover I spent days working on. Needless to say, it is copyrighted, so don't steal it unless you attribute it to me. Thanks!

The Road Goes Ever On . . .

Here it is, dear readers: the first trailer for "The Hobbit". I just finished reading the book for the first time last week, and I am terribly excited for this film. Enjoy;)

A Voice . . .

Principal recording for the "Outcast" audiobook was finished yesterday. You can't hear it, but that was a big sigh of relief I just let loose;)

Now that I'm on the other side of the experience, I can finally look back and reflect on what an undertaking it was. I'm not a professional VO artist, and while I had a good time recording my book, I'm not sure I would necessarily want to add VO to my repetoire. Even with the relative ease of reading my own words, which often eliminated potential errors in pronunciation and inflection, I still made numerous mistakes and did a lot of rerecording. If the chapter was particularly long or I decided, for schedule reasons, to record more than one chapter at a time, fatigue brought out even more errors. I can't even tell you the number of times I would simply stutter over a phrase, ruining a passage, or just plain read a sentence incorrectly so that it made no sense at all to the ear. Stop, cut section, rerecord. Each chapter took at least 45 minutes to record, sometimes much longer before I was satisfied. With 36 chapters, that represents more than a day's worth of recording.

A note about voices and dialects: good god, I did some questionable dialect work on this recording. Dialects are one of my specialties, and I'm usually pretty good at getting an accent to sound passably authentic. But, recording "Outcast" required me to snap very rapidly into and out of a lot of different accents, from Cockney to Deep South, to French to the twang of the West. And, in between, I had to snap back into my own voice, to read the narration. There were times I did this relatively well; Benjamin usually stays where he ought to be. There were other passages I struggled with, and overall I'm not terribly pleased with a lot of my dialect work on this recording. Poubelle in particular ranges all over the frigging map, her Cockney making it all the way to Australia by way of the South Bronx, stopping off in Canada a few times just for kicks. There was one day when I was particularly tired and feeling strung out, and I started to feel like all the characters were sounding like Jessie from "Toy Story". But, as much as I beat myself up for imprecision, I know my audience, made up of friends and family, probably won't wince too often, and will be far more forgiving than I.

All that being said, I'm still incredibly glad I decided to undertake this project. I started writing when I was in grade school, and one of my favorite teachers encouraged me not just to write, but let me read my stories aloud. I was already a burgeoning actor, and reading my own characters was exciting and incredibly fun. Now, years later, I remember that experience. The characters in "Outcast" are some of my favorite creations; I know I shouldn't show it, I should love all my characters equally, but damn if Jack, Ben, Jonah, Poubelle, Doc, and Jeremiah aren't some fantastic people I wouldn't mind hanging out with. And, there is something emotionally cathartic about taking characters I already care about deply and giving them a voice; they leap off the page now in a way they never did before. I could already hear them speak their words inside my head; it's kind of like letting everyone else inside my brain to hear what I hear when I'm writing something.

Now, I get to start burning CDs and putting together packaging. Next step: Holiday presents! I'm going to try to have a prototype done for when my sister visits at the end of the month, so I can send her home with hers. I'll take pics and post when I have them;)

The Ears Have It . . .

I started work on recording the audiobook for Outcast, and though I'm just a sliver of the way through--just four chapters recorded out of thirty-six--I have already learned a few things:

1. I swear I'm forgetting how to do accents, something I'm generally particularly good at.

2. Ten pages of text equals around thirty-five minutes of recording.

3. This project is going to eat up a lot of time, and a lot of CD's.

I'm breaking each chapter into sections, recording and then checking and then recording. It helps my voice not get too strained, and it's easier than taking long stretches of text. I don't have anything like profesional equipment and I'm not in a studio, so every loud sound gets picked up and means I have to stop and record over it. Then, there's the simple misreads or stutters; every once in a while, my brain just sees a word or phrase wrong and I have to rerecord that dialogue. It can get pretty exhausting, and I've got a long way to go.

Still, there's something really satisfying about setting my words down in my voice. I'm not a professional voiceover artist; I don't have the voice for that, my own being a little too high and nasal. but, it feels a little like having your own radio show, like telling your friends your story around a campfire. I became an actor to tell stories, because I liked performing my own work for an audience, and this feels a bit like that (even though right now it's just an audience of one).

If things progress, I should be able to have the audiobook ready for Christmas, and several of my friends will get a copy in their stockings. Yes, it's not the highest quality recording, but I still hope they like it.

On to the next chapter . . .

I Will Sigh . . .

I listen to music often while I'm writing, and the last few books have been scored by Pandora Radio. It means I've made some interesting new discoveries, music I probably wouldn't have found through other means. The song above struck me so strongly I had to share it. You will sometimes hear writers say that a particular song describes a character or situation so perfectly, it is as if the songwriter crawled inside their head. Well, the "CS Lewis Song" is one of my characters. Lyrics by the incomparable author, sung and scored by Brooke Fraser.

May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor . . .

If you haven't read "The Hunger Games" Trilogy yet, just do it. Yes, it is YA. But, you won't find any sparkly vampires or moony teenage girls. Instead, there is a bleakly dystopic future, ruled by a totalitarian government that demands its citizens sacrifice their children each year in brutal sport, to remind everyone who is in control . . . and what happens to rebels. The children fight each other to the death. It is bloody and terrible, and definitely worth a read.

Mainstay Pro have been making Hunger Games videos for quite a while, and they are pretty astounding. They're an honest-to-goodness production company, and these videos show it; if you've read the books, these videos definitely capture the scenes they portray. there is an impresive one above, but check out the others on their YouTube page. I hope the Lionsgate film is as good as this.

Thanks; Have to Scream Now . . .

Nobody screams like Natalie Portman. Did you see Black Swan?

So, the book I'm writing right now has me SO INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATED at the moment. I'm not sure what's gone wrong, but the train jumped the track somewhere and it's just careening through the dirt and tearing up the grass right now. I know where it ultimately needs to go, but I've created a situation that is like a ridiculous mobius strip and I can't seem to solve it.

I do this sometimes in my writing; create impossible situations that I force my characters to find a way out of. They always do; they are way more resourceful than I am, even on my best day. But this is one of those times when I just KNOW I've done something crititcally wrong somewhere along the way, and the narrative is grinding to a halt. The characters, usually quick and intelligent, are quacking at each other. Nothing is happening; it is all just standing still, and I'm not sure how far back I have to go in the writing to fix this. It's pretty clear I can't move forward.

Grrrrrrrr. What plot point do I give up? What dramatic moment needs to go away? Where did this crazy yarn-tangle start? Why can't I stop posing questions to myself???

In the realm of world-pressing matters, this ranks pretty low. But, it kept me up last night, and it promises to do the same tonight until I get that crucial "aha!" moment I've been searching for.

Let's hope it hits me in the shower tonight, or something . . . .

West of the Moon, and East of the Sun . . .

I finally picked up a copy of all the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and I know how I'll be spending my weekend. It's been a few years since I watched the films (and longer still since I've watched them back to back) and with The Hobbit filming now, it's gotten me to thinking about them again. They really are extraordinary films, epic on a scale that is not often seen onscreen and yet strangely personal too. That is the beauty of Tolkien's prose and Jackson's interpretation of it; we get ethereal and magical and grand in huge battles and ageless elves, but we also get simple and humble in characters like Frodo and Samwise. Even Aragorn seems like a regular guy thrust into an incredible situation.

Maybe I'm just a geek (I am), but I'm actually looking forward to staying in and watching almost twelve hours worth of movie;)

Breadcrumbs . . .

In the interim between writing the first draft of Sins of the Father and going back to editing Outcast, I'm spending a little time on my first YA novel, a retelling of the Hansel and Gretel story. Mine is dark, of course, and my Hansel and Gretel are sixteen. The witch in the woods isn't the villain; there are far scarier things waiting in the dark. I'm enjoying it so far; we'll see where it goes . . . .

The Joys of Parenthood . . .

So, I heard about this book a few weeks back, and thought it was a brilliant idea. Now I listen to the genius pairing of Samuel L Jackson with this book, and I am laughing so hard, I may pee a little. Very NSFW language; stick some earbuds in, and play this shit.

Drafted . . .

It's been around a year since I started the sequel to Outcast; I think it usually takes me at least six months to ruminate on ideas before they start to coalesce in my head. Then, another few months of research on various plot points (this time around: Victorian mad houses and advanced technology), and then another few months to write the damn thing. I finished the first draft this weekend and designed the cover, and overall I'm pretty happy with both. The book needs to go through several drafts before being ready for the CreateSpace treatment, but it was extremely cathartic to reach the end of the story. I figure this one will be ready by September (hopefully). In the meantime, I get to start the painful process of getting Outcast edited so I can actually consider submitting it to agents. Oy.

Naturally, I'm already starting to think about Book 3 . . . .

BTW: the image above is copywrited by me, so please don't reproduce it or steal it or anything uncool like that. Thanks;)

Don't Forget . . .

Happy Towel Day, everyone!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, stop reading this blog. Right now. Go out and buy, or steal, or take out of the library, a copy of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The first time I read it, I was in an emergency room, waiting for my roomate (I can't remember why she was there, but it couldn't have been that serious). I laughed out loud, and felt like a complete ass, but I couldn't help it. Such is the power of Adams' dry, ironic prose; always in on the joke, never entirely serious, and pretty damned insightful when it comes to how foolish we can be. Look up satire in the dictionary, and if there isn't a picture of him next to the entry, then there's something seriously amiss.

Have a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster on me, and please, whatever you do, don't forget your towel.

Next Comes the Lunch-Money . . .

via here

I want to state three things up-front:

1) I hate bullies. I had to deal with plenty of them growing up, being a weird kid who read Asimov and Heinlein at lunch and was closer to teachers than fellow students. Bullying is a very touchy subject for me, wherever it appears.

2) I love Neil Gaiman. He has written what is probably my favorite book in the world (Stardust) and is the writer of another book in my list of Top Five (Neverwhere).

3) I am a liberal Democrat. Unashamed of that, though I do sometimes hang my head when Democrats do stupid things.

So, this is not an un-biased rant. You would have to be pretty new to this blog to expect one of those.

Neil Gaiman recently blogged about a bout of school-yard name-calling that took place on the floor of the Minnesota House this week. Apparently the Minnesota GOP is still sore about this incident, where Gaiman was paid what some saw as an exhorbitant amount to speak for the Minnesota Library System last year. Minnesota Republican Matt Dean, during an argument where the legislature was considering cutting funding for the arts, said Gaiman, who he apparently hates, was a pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.

Gaiman, who has a worldwide fanbase and readership that no doubt makes Matt Dean's fan club look like som,ebody three years late to the prom, decided not to stay silent. When someone you don't even know decides to call you a ridiculous name, calls you a thief, and does it all in the name of supporting a measure that would cut funding for public radio, the Minnesota Zoo, and the arts, it probably warrants a tweet. Or two. Or five. And possibly crashing that Republican's website (though Gaiman apologized for that).

Gaiman also sets the story straight: he was, in fact, paid under $34,000 for the contentious speaking engagement, which is a perfectly reasonable market rate for public speakers. This is a guy who's won 3 Hugos, 2 Nebulas, 1 World Fantasy Award, 4 Bram Stoker Awards, 6 Locus Awards, 2 British SF Awards, 1 British Fantasy Award, 3 Geffens, 1 International Horror Guild Award and 1 Mythopoeic. For a little perspective on this, Sarah Palin, who's major claim to fame was not finishing her term as Governor of Alaska and not becoming the Vice-President, commands $100,000 or more per speaking engagement. Gaiman also donated the entire fee to charity. I'm pretty sure Palin doesn't do this.

What's most distressing about this incident, though, is that it highlights what seems to be a growing issue within American politics: an absolutely stupifying bent towards childish school-yard name-calling. We are electing people who are going on to make unfounded statements so baffling in their sheer ass-facedness that we cannot even understand how some of these people get their pants on straight without help. We get outraged, the politician in question quickly retreads to say that the comments were taken "out of context" or "that was a staffer, not me", and then a month or so later, they do it all over again. I sometimes wonder if we really are too stupid to govern ourselves, as the Founding Fathers originally feared when framing the government of a new nation. It reminded me of this ridiculous story from earlier this year about a Michigan Republican's obsessive hatred of a college student, merely because the boy was gay and part of student government. Or, practically anything Michelle Bachman has said.

People, let's collectively, as a nation, grow the fuck up. Bullies do what they do because they get away with it. Idiots serve in government because we elect them. Let's not give any more of these asshats our support, because next they come for the lunch money.

Hitting the Trail . . .

via We Heart It

I'm going back to Outcast.

For those of you who are relatively new to the blog, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. If you check out the left-hand side of this blog, you'll find a little square called "On My Shelves", with two images in it. Those are two of the books I've written, and two of the three I've published. I'm not going to get all whine-y and ask you to buy them; they're not for everyone. If you like sci-fi, historical fiction, steampunk, or similar genres, you might like them. If you don't, that's cool. I like them, but I'm pretty biased.

"Outcast" is my most recent effort, currently in beta-phase. This was, by far, one of the most enjoyable writing experiences I've had so far: the characters were particularly vivid for me, and the story seemed to write itself. I often outline my books extensively ahead of time, but every once in a while I just get a single concept and jump headlong into it, and that's what happened with "Outcast". It went places I didn't expect and took on a life of its own, and by the end I didn't want to leave. Which is why, of course, I'm going back;)

Sequels are tricky beasts; they can be little more than vanity projects if you're not careful, just a way for an author to say, "Look! You remember them! Here they are again!" If you don't have something new to say with your characters, there's little point in picking them up again and trying to get people interested in them. It's taken a few months for me to really figure out a good enough reason to go back to my little Nevada town, but I think it's starting to take shape. I look forward to throwing Benjamin, Jack, Jonah, Poubelle, Jeremiah, Doc, and all the rest of them into a new adventure. This one is all about family: the one we're born into and the one we create, about fathers and children. For those of you who've read the first, I hope you're looking forward to the second. I know I am.

Cowboys and Aliens . . .

I'm not gonna lie: this might be awesome. As someone who happens to like the idea of cowboys and aliens inhabiting the same story, I'm intrigued.

The Next Big Thing . . .

Sorry for the quiet the last few days, but I've been a busy bee finishing up polishing details on the next book. Outcast is finished and ready to start submitting to agents for their rejections;) Seriously, though, this book has been a real labor of love: I've researched my butt off, typed my fingers to the bone, laughed, cried, and generally had a wonderful time writing it. I know it's an uphill battle getting anything represented by an agent much less published, but this is the first book in years that I've felt is strong enough to even make the attempt. I'm currently at work polishing my query letter, and I'll keep y'all posted once the rejections start to come in;)

Here's a short synopsis:

In the spring of 1877, Benjamin Foster is living a perfectly bland, unassuming life in London as a bookkeeper—until the day he receives the news that his sister has been viciously murdered. A trip to America to settle her estate leads to encounters with menacing yellow-eyed assassins, henchmen who could break his neck like a twig, and a very unexpected bequest: his sister’s son, Jonah.

Benjamin changes from a simple accountant to a hunted man who leaps from moving locomotives, shoots bizarre electrical guns, negotiates with Indian chiefs, and ends up in the last place he would have ever expected: Outcast, Nevada.

The folks in Outcast, especially the strangely compelling Sheriff Jack Warner, are the only ones who can protect Benjamin and Jonah from those hunting them . . . but they aren’t the Wild West frontiersmen they seem to be, and Outcast isn’t just a little border town. The Lakota call them the Ancient Ones of Golden Light, and their secret is so strange that it will tear Benjamin from his bland, unassuming life forever.

*BTW: That cover art is by me, and it's copyrighted. Don't use it without my permission, or I will have to spank you;)

Edgy Lovely . . .

The 666 Photography book is out! I am terribly impressed with their work, and I'm so excited to have the book in hand: inspirational! Pick up their new book, check out their blog, and take a look at their amazing portfolio!

Community Reading . . .

Image courtesy Thorsten Becker for decor8

I mosied over to Decor8, one of the blogs I read regularly, and found this lovely post. You should read it yourself, but I'll summarize for you lazy-bones out there: Over in Germany they have these bookcases that sit out on the road, full of books. You go up, take out a few books, and go on your merry way. It's only asked that you contribute a few books of your own, to replenish the shelves. That's it. No library cards, overdue fees, receipts, nothing. Just a community bookshelf. How great is that? I love the idea of free books, and I always have a bunch of books lying around my apartment that I know I'll never read again. Can you imagine the little treasure hunt you could go on? And it would really give you an interesting insight into what your neighbors are reading just by what books show up on the shelves. I think this is a marvelous idea.

What about you, dear readers? Would you like to see these bookshelves showing up around the US?

Master Your Metabolism: A Review

For the past five months I've been working my butt off to lose weight and get healthier; more than just a bid to fit into a size 6, this has turned into a complete lifestyle change, encompassing much more than I at first expected. I have considered and discarded things like the Skinny Bitch Diet, Vegetarianism, the Zone, Atkins, and South Beach. If you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say these things, feel grateful; for the most part, all the above ideas are missing critical pieces of the puzzle. By denying your body specific things and replacing them with the latest fat-free, carb-free, meat-less, sugarless, low-everything product, you can throw things badly, sometimes dangerously out of whack.

This is what is at the heart of Jillian Michael's new book, Master Your Metabolism. To boil down the essential ideas in this nearly 300-page book, Jillian wants you to: Remove toxic, processed, fake foods and dangerous chemicals around your house; Restore whole foods, organic whenever you can get them, to your diet; and Rebalance your eating habits by abiding by the 40-30-30 ratio of carbs to protein to fat, and eating every four hours.

Basically, the book states that we have effectively wrecked our metabolisms by eating cheap, processed foods that are full of chemicals that mess with our hormone levels and make us fatter, exhausted, and older than we deserve to be. Our ancestors didn't ingest crap like polysorbate and hydro-tripta-whatsamacallit; they ate fruits and vegetables and meats that had not been treated with pesticides and growth hormones; they ate whole grains and got plenty of sun. They were, for the most part, far less obese than we are now; in just the last 20 years the obesity rate has gone up to 30%, when it was only about half that in the '70's.

Jillian uses her own story to illustrate what these chemicals can do even to someone who seems "healthy": though Jillian is a famous trainer, in spite of restricting her foods and counting every calorie, in spite of working out for hours and hours, she still saw her weight go up with almost no provocation; she could eat one heavy meal and end up gaining three pounds! After going to an endocrinologist, she learned that not only was she suffering from a metabolic disease (in her case, hypothyroidism), but most of her hormone levels were severely out of whack. After a serious life-reevaluation where she cut out the daily diet cokes and protein bars, she now can work out half as much and eat twice the amounts she used to (of real food), and she can maintain a healthy weight.

This all sounds like common sense, but it was quite a revelation to me. You mean, the 100 Calorie packs and the low-calorie yogurt is actually still hurting me? Eating like a bird is actually wiring me to hold on to fat? As someone who hit a plateau two months ago and has watched her weight go up two pounds after just one KFC meal, this rings a true, but uncomfortable bell. Jillian isn't telling you to become a vegan or go on some radical food-replacement crash-diet; this is just about eating real food, that either had a mother or came from the ground.

I know, you're probably thinking, "But, eating organic is expensive! I just want to get this package of cheddar-flavored rice cakes and then wash it down with my diet coke; isn't that just as good? It's low-calorie!" But, those rice cakes have more chemicals than rice; just try looking at the ingredients sometime. If you can pronounce them all, you are more hooked on phonics than I am. And, doctors have been saying for years that diet sodas are much worse for you than even regular ones, though both are pretty bad. Jillian has no sympathy for the average lazy American who only wants to eat what the Big Food Corporations have made so much money training us to crave; why should she hold our hands and be easy on us, when this crap is loaded with carcinogens and toxic chemicals that can kill us? Did you know that some baby formula is so full of estrogen that babies are developing breasts? The things that make our food so cheap are making us fat, diabetic, and giving us everything from metabolic diseases to cancer.

Do I sound like a convert? Well, it's hard to completely change your diet when you aren't the one buying the groceries, but I hope to start switching my eating habits gradually over the summer, until I'm not eating very much that contains anything with fourteen syllables. If you're serious about getting healthy, and especially if you're already diabetic or suffer from any kind of thyroid disease, you need to read this book.

There; 'nuff said.

Anna of Winter Hollow is published!

My second self-published novel is finally available today! Yay!!!! My first, A Real Boy, is available here (plug,plug;)

This was actually written back in 2005, and was the first novel I started shopping to agents. After numerous rejections and vast rewrites, I decided to go through CreateSpace once again and self-publish it. There is something to be said of the experience of holding your book, printed and bound, and reading it somewhere other than a computer-screen. A pretty powerful experience, I gotta say.

CreateSpace does make you do all the legwork, however. As opposed to a publisher, who will format your manuscript, design your cover, and sometimes even take your author photo, self-publishing means you need to do all that middle-man stuff, and it can be pretty time-consuming. It's nice, though, to have complete control over the appearance of the finished producct, and know that you made it look that way.

Now, for a little description (in case you might be interested in reading it!):

It is Anna’s sixteenth birthday, and she is just beginning to realize that her world is not as it seems. First there is the shocking discovery that the man she loved and mourned as her father was not, in fact, her father at all. Then there is her uncle’s butler Jeffries: quiet, pale, and rather frightening, Anna has always kept her distance from him. But after increasingly odd occurrences surrounding him, she forces him to reveal that he is not an average English servant, staid and retiring, but something much stranger and more exotic: a creature named Anselem who has been guarding Anna and her family for her entire life. In a brutal and terrifying moment her entire world is turned upside down and she is thrust into the Realms of Faery with Anselem and her brother and sister, fleeing from assassins and trying to avoid capture by her real father: none other than the Ruler of the Unseelie Court, King Oberon himself.
Plunged into a frightening world and beginning to realize powers she never knew she had, guided by the unpredictable but strangely compelling warrior Anselem, Anna begins to transform from a girl at home in corsets and crinolines to a Princess fighting for her life and the future of those she loves. On a chessboard ruled by the dark Oberon and the dangerous Titania, will Anna be able to survive the struggle for power and succession in a dark court boiling with lies and deadly intrigues? When the chrysalis opens, who will she find inside: a Victorian girl, a half-fae Princess, or someone she has not even begun to imagine?

Please take a look, and if it sounds interesting, give it a read. Then, let me know what you think; I love feedback, even if you hated it (but, you'd better tell me why!)