Busy couple of days..

I went from 'not working on anything creative' to 'finishing one story, starting another and making jewelry.'

Yep, I popped out several new pieces of jewelry, finished my Women in Practical Armor story AND started a Pirate piece for another possible anthology.

Here's a small blurb from that piece, and below it are the images from my new designs.

Hanging low in the sky, The Lusty Nymph awaited her new captain. When the news had come down that their captain had chosen to retire and try a hand at living in one of the newly built sky cities, the crew had thought their first mate would take over. He'd been with them for some years now and even the captain had commented on how sure he was of the young man achieving every officers true goal.  Their own ship. 

But as the days rolled by, it became apparent that this was not the case. Jefferson didn't have the money, and the former captain was staunch on his desire to have what the Nymph was worth, and not a penny less. 

Days turned into weeks as the ship had been all but grounded since then, with potential captains looking over the ship and discussing prices with the polished older man. Sitting in a nearby tavern, their home away from home, the crew was beginning to grow worried that new births were in their future. 

"You see who's looking over the thing now?" Came the hushed voice of one of the men. 

"Who cares, the capt'n won't accept their offer either. Mans set a price in his head and won't go below." 

"An most of the ones who want the ship can't even come close to that price." 

"This one might. Man was dressed in foppery, arrived in a personal coach and everything. Could see the drool on the Cap's lips at the sight of it." The first told them, causing silence to fall on the crew. 

"I won't work for no fop." One of the others murmured. "I don't care how much money he's got." 

"You'll work for whoever pays you." Another said, "Works hard to find right now, unless you wanna take up a land job." 

It was a well known problem among the shrinking sky ships. Once you'd taken to the sky, it was hard to stay too long on earth. Each one would rather die, then be forced to ground before their time. But with the cities moving into the air, their space was falling away and more captains were forced into simple transport services, between the cities. 

"Alright boys, sale has gone through." Came a commanding voice from the doorway. "Your new captain will be here in three days time to take possession and start your new life." He smiled at them, "I'll miss ya, and I hope you honor Captain Hayford like ya do me." With a mock glare, he looked at each of the men in his former crew. "If I hear ya'll been anything else, I'll be back to kick you off the plank myself!" 

He waved over Jefferson, "Come on boy, I'll give you all the details you need to know." 

So here she sat, waiting an unknown future.  The old captain hoped the crew accepted the changes coming their way. Not the least of them, Captain L. Hayford. 

---- 

Jefferson looked at the officers and nodded his head at their shocked expressions. He couldn't wait until the rest of them found out. 

"He refused to sell to you, a man who knows how to captain a ship, but to one with no training beyond her father being a captain?" 

"Matthew Hayford is one of the finest captains to fly. If his daughters half as skilled as he was, we'll be in good hands." The navigator stood and looked at them, "My worry is this foolhardy desire to be pirates. The Lusty Nymph has a long standing history dating back three captains. She's been cared for and isn't built to take on this new life." 

"That's why I've given each of you the chance to leave, with several months 'pay' to cover your down time." Came a voice from the doorway. 

Heads turned to look at the newcomer. The woman before them stood tall, her broad shoulders taking up much of her captains coat. Of all that she conveyed, it was her age that surprised Jefferson the most. 

"I'm untested, by the normal standards. But for the last thirty years, I've been at my fathers side on every ship under his command. This isn't the some whim of a child looking for adventure. Our skies are changing, and we have to change with them." 

She strode into the room, taking note of each mans face as she walked. "This is the finest ship, and crew, the world has to offer. I want you with me on this journey, which isn't to follow the pirates of old." Her smile was broad, with a cunning that drew in each of the men. "If you'll see fit to follow me, we'll make history. No one will remember the fine history of The Lusty Nymph, but rather the shocking discovery of The Siren's Song."

Kristy C

Day 4 of NaNo

First, I'm feeling a heck of a lot better.  :D  So, that's a big YAY!!

Second, I seem to have started to 'catch up' to all my friends who are writing like mad men this month.  Mostly, I do this by writing in WW's for a good 2-4 hours.  These sprints give me a chance to make up words and get myself moving.  My numbers go from 300-600, depending on how much thinking vs just writing I can do.

Dictating is AWESOME!!!  Not gonna joke.  Sure, its not perfect.  But I'm hoping if I can get Dragon, it'll get better.

WC: 11,439.  Still about 2 days ahead.  :D  If I can keep that up, I'll be golden.  The idea is to NOT need them for days when I do squat.  At the very least, I need to write 1667 a day.  Doing that will make me happy.

I don't really have a snidbit for you today.  The set up for the story is different and not easy for random writing, except that I'm not sure how you'd really plot it all out without over plotting.  Both the characters, and the ones they play in the game are growing and coming to life before.. Well, all our eyes.

Still not sure how Soul Strippers works into the game, but I'm getting a better idea... Ok, I have no clue.  But, I'm sure there is a reason.

Are you taking part? I'd love to know how many words you've written so far.  Share with me.

Kristy C

Review: Excelsior by George Sirois

Excelsior

I joined a FB group and took part in an event online with them, where we got to meet George online and ask him about his other series of books. As a bonus, he gave us a chance to pick this book up for free. I did, and once I'd finished my other current read I went out and started this one.

From the start, the story pulled me in. The idea of it was amazing and the way you learn of Matthew and how the dreams of a comic could be something so much more, was one that you don't see too often. My only critique is that the ending seemed a little too fast. While I don't mind fast stories, it pulled me out a few times to catch up on what the heck was going on.

In the end, that didn't stop me from loving what this book had to offer and I would happily recommend it to just about anyone who enjoys this genre.

More about the Author:

George Sirois self-published his first novel "From Parts Unknown" in November of 2002, which he is re-working as a five-part eBook serial and paperback release. When he self-published his Young Adult/Science-Fiction novel "Excelsior" in July of 2010, it was named "Top Pick" by Night Owl Reviews and a quarter-finalist in the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. George's writing has also been seen on 411Mania.com and Booktrib.com as a featured columnist. After living in New York City for most of his life, George and his wife and their two dogs now happily call St. Louis, MO their home. In his spare time, George is an avid cinephile, a collector of film scores, a lifelong fan of the New York Giants, and enjoys West Coast Swing dancing.

Word Sprints, NaNoWriMo and a WIP

So, a few weeks ago I started doing some sprints with a group on Fb.  The best part about the sprints, I think, is the themes they give us.  We're supposed to incorporate the theme, or the word, into the story.

We meet up online when someone posts a 'Wanna sprint?' to the group.  Its often with a good 20-30 minutes before we'll actually sprint, enough time to get something to drink, set the mood and lock out the family.  Or whatever you have to do to get ready.

Then, its a 30 min 'write' sprint.

Ideally, you're not supposed to edit while you sprint.  Its about getting the words out, not the quality of the words.  Some people dislike that, as they have to go back and edit over everything later.  Personally, I've found the more often you do the sprints, the better you get at self editing on the fly.  But, that could also be just me.

Once the 30 min is up, we return to post our word count, plus either the best bit, or the bit with the prompt.  :D

Sometimes I look through a book of prompts, and add in another one to 'sweeten' the inspiration.  This is just for myself.  Other times, the song playing on my Spotify playlist will spark what I need to start something.

Then, my muse struck without me looking.

Our theme was Garbage Can and my theme was four sealed boxes.  Add to that, Familiar Taste of Poison and you get the start of something interesting.


In fact, that something was so interesting, its just over 9k in words and I think about half done.  Not to mention that I've gotta plot out sme things and needed a world map, and a mind map program.

Yeah, something that simple became much more.

From what I can tell, the story [The Fairy Tale Murders] is a novella of sorts, most likely a little too weird to be a Cozy Mystery, but something for me to explore.  My brains been in a dark place lately, and this story might be what I need to move through it.  I hope to have it finished by the end of the month, so I can start NaNoWriMo with something new.

I don't wanna share too much of the story, but I'm going to show the small start below.  Not too many words, just a hint of what its about.  And remember, this is first draft only.  So its kinda Raw.  If you listen to the song at the same time, could be cool.

Kristy C

He looked down at the body before him, eyes staring blankly back.  Even in death, she was stunning.  Black hair splayed out around her head in a sort of halo.  The kind you can’t get without someone’s carefully combing it out.  Hands had been crossed over her chest, with an apple resting above them. 

Cause of death hadn’t yet been determined, but he’d have bet money it was poison.  A glass lay next to the body, tipped over with what had been left of the wine only a few drips in the glass, and a puddle on the floor. 

It fit with the other killings they’d had lately.   Three others, each killed by poison and each laid out to represent a fairy tale princess.  His analysts were having a field day working out a profile, as well as who would be next.  Best they could tell, before this one, only Snow White and Cinderella were left.  Although he’d pointed out the others had been princesses, while she’d only married a prince. 

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the rest of the room.  Four sealed boxes had been arranged around an old metal garbage can.  X-Ray machines were being brought in to see if they could figure out what was in each, before they opened them. 

Each one had a marking on it, and he had a feeling to what was in the last one.  It bothered him to no end, because it meant the reasons would never be known.  Killers like this didn’t tend to leave notebooks laying around with their reasons. 

He just hoped, it wasn’t who he suspected.  Stepping toward them, he saw the markings more clearly.  A rose, a wave, a braid and a swan. 

“They called her Cinderella, because they made her sleep in the ashes by the fireplace and she was always covered in the cinders.”  He mumbled, opening the lid as others yelled at him to stop. 

Staring up with a blank face was a lovely woman with golden hair.  Her body had been bent and twisted to fit into the can, before the ashes had been dumped in.  Looking back at the woman on the floor, he swore. 

They had an accomplice to look for.

Character Creation... Making a Normal Person and Character Study

I had someone tell me once that they didn't understand how to create a 'boring' or normal person.

The best stories are about the boring and normal people who save the world, because they're not all that boring, if you give them the right chance.

Here's an example...

Everyone adores Harry Potter... But aside from the whole 'Living when he shouldn't have', he wasn't good in school, had a few friends and sure excelled at Quiddich, but that's not enough to make you super amazing.  

Neville was just as boring and yet given a chance, did amazing things.

The characters that draw you in, aren't the ones who start out amazing. They're the ones that become amazing.  They aren't seeking it, many don't even want it, but when the moment happens, they step up and do what's needed.

So how do you go about 'creating' a real character, who's not a Mary Sue?

You can start anywhere, a photo, a name, an idea, any of it.  From there, you think of a back story.  I have a character names Ezio Kaito Kelly.  Yes, his name is weird, but I explain it as his parents looking up names and liking the meanings of Ezio, Eagle and Kaito, Soaring Over the Ocean.  Which is why my little Irish/English kid from Canada has such a weird name.

If you can make it seem normal, go for it.  I know someone who named their son Sequoia Ocean and another friend who named their daughter Serenity Rain.  So strange names by normal people isn't unusually.  So long as you can explain it in a reasonable way.

Ezio's heritage is English and Irish.  But his family at some point moved to Vancouver, B.C. and that's where he grew up.  While his parents were loaded, he's a fairly simple guy.  He lived a normal, boring life with his parents and 2 adopted sisters, and best friend from age 12 on.  Compared to the others in the world he's from, he's short at 5'6", he's young at 22 [when it started, he's now 26] and he's not covered in tattoos or piercings [weird for an outlaw biker].

He wasn't abused, which can be normal, destitute, which can also be normal, or sickly.  His best friend, Chloe Faith Moretti however had a different life.

Her older sister is a good 15 years older than she is, her mother died when she was a teen and she never met her father.  She grew up around bikers and was often babysat by little old ladies who barely spoke english.  It was there that she learned to cool.  They didn't have money growing up and so much of her life was spent barely getting by. Her mother bought a house on the outskirts of the good part of town to get her into the best school she could.

Both are normal people.  Sure, they've got issues over the years.  She's insecure about plenty and its taken time to get past that.  He's broken and twisted in the head, but is also skilled at art and is a loving person.

Not gonna say the broken parts don't come out.  They do.  Ezio has a love of a good fight and often needs to release something pent up inside of him.  His good friend Mal will go out bar hopping with him, looking for a jerk in need of being beaten.  And yes, he is picky about who he fights.  It needs to be someone who can defend themselves and has been acting like an ass.

And then, Ezio will beat them up and most likely win.  He is skilled, but I was able to explain that as well.  Years of Martial Arts training, mixed in with Brawling and you have a scary fighter.  He's also taken lessons from friends who were in the military or on the force.  At 26 he's good with a handgun, throwing knives and big knives for hand to hand.  But given a choice, he'd rather just use his body.  Why?  That's the one thing that's always creeped me out about the twerp.

You can't hear the bones breaking when you use a gun or knife, and he likes to hear that sound.

Didn't mean to get side tracked, but an author should have a love of their characters that leads them to this place of exploration.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna talk about Character Creation - The Center of the Character

Kristy C

Writing.. Character Creation, Character Understanding and Character Background

I'm working on the backstory and research of my characters for 'I've Always Known'.  A few months ago, I got Erik Tesar, The Mage, mostly figured out.  May not know everything about him, but I've got some good ideas on who he is and how his powers work.

Up until recently, he was the only character with a name.  I had general ideas on what the others were supposed to be like, but actually building them?  Nope, nothing.

Then I did CTC29 and started putting some more thought into who the heck they were.  Each one got a name and an idea picture or two.  A few of the prompts I worked on, dealt with them and gave me a chance to understand each one a bit more.

But there's still a lot I don't know.  I have ages for three of them, but dates are off when you look at the recent backstory and the previous timeline I've built.  Meaning, more detail is needed.

Now, my goal is to better understand them so when I start writing, its not blind.  Normally my stories have 1-3 characters, this one has 6 PLUS the Antagonists.

I've worked enough on I've Always Known to get the plot line and even a good chunk of the way it'll play out.  Which is weird for me, since I'm what's called a 'panster'.  I don't do this whole 'plot' thing.  I also don't write out to order.

But as another author was editing her story commented, each one has a voice and a path all its own.

So, what did I do for character creation, understanding and background?

1, I searched the web and found several creation guides I liked.  Some are a bit over the top in detail, but I figure its better to have too much than have too little.

Here's a list of the ones I've used so far...
Writers Write: How to Create a Character Profile
Jody Hedlund: Character Worksheet
The EPIGUIDE.COM Character Chart for Fiction Writers
TheChugsBoson: Blank Sheet 1 of 2 TheChugsBoson: Blank Sheet 2 of 2 [1 has descriptions of what he feels should be one each question, while 2 has a downloadable version to preserve formatting.]

2, More research to find 1-3 visual images for the characters.  If at all possible, look up actors or human images, as well as search Deviant Art or other sites.  These are GUIDES! Don't ever ask someone to 'redraw' art, so you can claim its yours.  I use them to get an idea, before I edit and create around that.  As the character expands and becomes its own person, those images will actually start to not work.  Trust me, I've seen it happen more than once.

3, The last thing I did was write simple stories with them.  Find prompts and jump into their world.  You'll never know or understand them, if you don't write.

I know 2 of the characters very well, without having worked on creation or stories.  But through the stories, two others have become more formed and now I want to badly work on those guides to turn them into something more substantial.

No matter how much time I spend with a character, I seldom know every detail and facet of their life.  Erik's never shown an interest in romance, so I have no clue if he's gay, straight, bi or just.. Not interested.

Do I think that's a bad thing?  While its just my opinion, no. Characters aren't 2 dimensional, they have more going on and I don't even know every facet of myself, why would I know it about a stranger taking up space in my head?  That's how I see them when you have a name and an image.

Its the same as walking up to a stranger at a bar and saying 'Hi, I'm so and so.'  They give you their name.  As right then, unless you're Sherlock Holmes, you know a few things.  Their name, what they look like right now and perhaps a drink and/or food preference.  Yes, from that initial stage you could learn more.  If they're wearing a sports jersey, you might assume they like that team and sport.  But they could also have been drug along and put in the shirt to 'get out of the house'.

Here's why I loved the random prompts.

It got me out of a comfort zone, and into their heads.  I started one, and the story took a turn I didn't think of.  Why? Because the characters opened up and shared.  And it was actually a pretty bad moment they shared.  But it gave me insight into who they were, what they wanted and what subplot there might be in the full story.

Not bad for a story barely 2 pages long based off a simple prompt.

I should have started off with this, but maybe putting it here's better.

3 years ago at a writing workshop, one of the author said '90%of what I'm about to tell you, won't work for you.  And that's fine.'

Advice is a dime a dozen.  And advice on writing, seems to be even more than that at times.  Some of them make me feel as if I'm not a writer, because I don't live how they tell me I should live.  And that's bad.

Yes, I've thought a few people were what I call 'playing at writing', but that's because they never seem to write.  They talk about it, they plot and worry about the more minute details, but they never actually write.

But I'd never tell them to give up.  In fact, I encouraged one and offered her help as best I could.

What does all this have to do with the theme of the day?  This is how I create characters.  It works for me.  It may work for you.  If so, wooo!!  If not, s'all good.  Keep searching and find something that does.

Kristy C