Everyone I Ever Was and Everyone I Ever Will Be

Not too long ago zombres did a Top 5 post, and one of the subjects was Favorite Fiction Tropes. I absolutely could not resist that one, so here are mine:



1) Father/Daughter, No Relation

Favorite Example: Artie and Claudia on Warehouse 13. Their interactions have me in a constant state of Dorky-Clapping-and-Grinning when I watch that show.

Example of Mine: Jaren and Thiare from Karavan's Dawn.


2) Epic Quest

Favorite Example: The Stand. Always and forever The Stand. I remember lugging that enormous book around middle school and not even caring because I *had* to find out what would happen next.

Examples of Mine: Stealing Time; Jia's Charms; Karavan's Dawn; And This is Fate; Atmidos, to an extent. I think Pale Moon is the only project of mine where Epic Quest isn't used. That might change between now and publication. ;-)


3) Enemies Becoming Friends ((or at least starting to grudgingly respect each other))

Favorite Example: Jake Lonergan and Col. Dolarhyde in Cowboys and Aliens. My love for that movie is all-encompassing. I need fanfic and icons. And a chance to morph myself into the movie and pounce on Daniel Craig.

Examples of Mine: Simon and Finn in And This is Fate.


4) "Have you ever been with a warrior woman?"

Favorite Example: Beckett & Castle. Castle definitely has his badass moments, but when it comes right down to it, Beckett's going to be the one drawing a gun while Castle asks if anyone in the room's heard of a little something called diplomacy. I think she's physically braver than he is, but he's emotionally braver. Which is partly why they balance each other out so well. Why isn't Season 3 out yet I need my fix

Examples of Mine: Jaetina & Kynn from the Karavan series; Stace & Finn from And This is Fate; Maia & Xavierre from Stealing Time.


5) Threesomes (no, not that kind**)

Favorite Example: Zoe, Wash, and Mal from Firefly

Examples of Mine: Kynn, Ki'Rana, and Trader from the Karavan series; Finn, Stace, and Simon from And This is Fate; Persephone, Iris, and Hades from Atmidos.

**except when they are-- Maia, Nayara, and Xavierre from Stealing Time

26. Let's talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!

I have tried to draw my characters. Results-- sooooo not pretty. So now I pay other actually talented people to draw them!

Since I refuse to pick just one character portrait, these go below the cut:

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22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.

Well, there is the fun little conversation where Stace and Simon discuss the finer points of attack strategy.

And I've got a scene in mind in the Pale Moon universe where an agoraphobic alien gets into a heated argument with her spaceship.

I don't know; it's easy to think of stuff I haven't written but a lot harder to remember scenes that I haven't discussed with somebody. :-)

18. Favorite antagonist and why!

Probably Emari from the Karavan series-- she's very smart, and works within the system, exploiting it to reach her goals. She's overconfident and condescending and she drives most of my other characters up a wall. Those are some fun interactions to write. :-)

She's my favorite of the pure antagonists; if we got into the antagonist/protagonist category, then it'd definitely be Simon from We Were Strangers.

7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?

We could be here a while. ;-)

I most always listen to music when I write, usually the radio (yay Pandora). There are tons of songs I associate with my characters, either because I was listening to the soundtrack nonstop while working on it-- which is why the Wicked soundtrack will always remind me of Stealing Time-- or because the lyrics fit certain characters, even if I haven't written those characters yet. ((haven't started my Greek Pantheon books yet, for instance, but April March's song "Chick Habit"? Zeus. And Sweetwater's "In a Rainbow" is Iris.)) Lyrics are usually the way I pick songs for characters/books; Kath can confirm that I'm forever sending her lyrics with "How perfect is this for so-and-so" notes. For instance, Emmy Rossum's "Slow Me Down" could've been written for Thiare.

But sometimes the lyrics won't really matter; the tune of the song just seems to fit the character. Can't really explain that one, but it happens a lot: Sixpence None the Richer's "There She Goes" is always going to be Stace's theme to me; Polyphonic Spree's "Light and Day" is Jia; Foo Fighters' "Learn to Fly" is Logan.

Some characters have a ton of songs I associate with them, others have none. I can't really come up with a song to associate with Simon. Few songs seem to have a "Right now I can tolerate you so I might let you live. Maybe." theme. Maybe Voltaire's "When You're Evil".

One of these days I really need to make novel soundtracks/playlists.

We had a book signing at the Carnegie Library last night; it was fantastic! The Arts Council brought together eight local authors-- both self-published and traditionally published-- to talk with people about the process of writing and publishing and to sell their works. It was so much fun. Also, the Council gave each of the authors $100 just for participating, so that was beyond great. :-)

I brought a few copies of each of the trilogy novels, and five copies of In the Darkness Find Me. At the end of the night, I'd made $116 from book sales. Wheeeee

I also talked up Mandy Roberts, EMG Portrait Adoptions, and lulu.com as much as I possibly could.

And today, since I got an unexpected windfall, I bought Devin a mini-fridge to keep in his room since he's been wanting one for a while. :-) All in all, great weekend.

And getting the final version of the cover art for the third book has quite a bit to do with that. *G*

( Take a look! )

The artwork was done by the way-too-talented Mandy Roberts. And the novel itself is submitted to iUniverse, so I'll keep you guys posted about when it'll be available!

I swear if I had enough disposable income I'd be buying portraits every day. lol

Here's the latest batch: Finn, Stace, Simon, and Gen, from the We Were Strangers series. The artist is Sheena Kristen Sy.


Geneva

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My NaNo project has officially gone insane. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the characters opened up Chapter Five by doing a kickline while singing "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine".

Simon and Stace showed up out of nowhere, people. And get this: they're married.

Note: this will only make total sense if you've read We Were Strangers and Unexpected, but if you haven't, just trust me when I say that you cannot get any more AU/wonky than that. At least not without the aforementioned kickline and song. And possibly penguins.

13,326 / 50,000 (26.0%)

Going to go through the saved-email files that I have for Kath and I to see if I can find other notes and ideas (mainly for the WWS series). Try to get things organized, etc. I think I'm going to split it into three files-- the We Were Strangers series, Karavan, and Stealing Time. Maybe four if I decide to make a Misc. file.

It'll take me longer than today, though, since the first email I have is from Sept. 15, 1999. :-D