Why am I writing about General Hospital?

I love General Hospital. Just accept this. And for anyone who writes and doesn’t watch a soap (nighttime, daytime or web) you are missing out. When you watch a soap opera you really learn a lot about building a character and story line up slowly and then punching people in the face with your insanely awesome payoff. It’s a study in patience. Especially this week on General Hospital.

Being a fan of AJ Quartermaine has never been an easy experience. He’s the son of Monica and Alan. When he was born Alan thought he was Rick Webber’s son so he didn’t bond with him right away. In fact he never bonded with AJ until he got a substance abuse problem and suddenly realized his alcoholic son wasn’t as weak as he had always thought. He was raised with his golden boy brother Jason Quartermaine and his cousin ‘holier than thou’ Ned.

His character was blamed for everything bad that ever happened ever. It turned him into a drunk and once fateful night his dumb brother Jason got in the car with him when he was drunk and got brain damage when AJ wrapped the car around a tree. Even though AJ was going to turn himself in and take the blame for it, the family refused to allow him to do that and he spiraled. And damn it if we didn’t have to put up with his now really boring brother Jason Morgan (Quarterbrain.)

No while everyone continued to love Jason even while he hated all of them, AJ pulled his life together and was doing well until he met train wreck Carly. She destroyed him. She got pregnant and lied giving the baby to his brother and then to a mob boss. AJ spent years just trying to be near his son. After dying and coming back from the dead to bond with his son, AJ was tragically murdered by Sonny the man who stole his son.

But today…ah today was glorious.

Franco revealed a video showing Michael that Sonny killed his father in cold blood and Carly helped him cover it up. Oh how brilliant! Oh how emotional! Justice finally! Sonny and Carly are now dead to Michael. The story line from start to inevitable comeuppance took 17 years.

Amazing. Imagine if I could harness an audience and make them wait 17 years for their payoff? I would be a genius and a millionaire maybe.

Spooky & The Ghost Chorus (Available on Amazon.com)

I haven’t written anything on my blog since my disastrous time at the greenhouse in Feasterville (not the popular one.) I’ve been in a crazy whirlwind of inspiration and madness. I put my Doctor Who novel aside because frankly I hated it. The plot was hackneyed and it was going nowhere fast. I will be picking it up again for this year’s National Novel Writer’s Month.

So what have I been doing? Well I got a temp gig at a great company. Met a bunch of brand new weirdo friends who I am incredibly grateful to have. But what am I writing? Glad you asked!

While getting sorted with a day job I also wrote a 40,000 word novella in September. After having it professionally proofread, I decided to self publish it through Amazon. That’s right, I went insane and wrote a novel in a few weeks. Not only one novel but I have mapped out a 13 part series for Halloween Hollow the world where Spooky is the Guardian of Halloween and Halloween themed wacky adventures abound.

Check it out here.

It may look like fluff for kids but we all know I grew up in the 80s. Themes abound. Themes like bullying, racism, being different and self acceptance.

The second book is going to be called: Spooky & The Underground Hollow. I have a chapter written already and a second one started. I started almost immediately after the book went to print. I love these characters so much I actually missed them when I wasn’t writing them for a week.

Next thing I will be doing is trying to figure out how to promote my books. I want to do a Blog Tour ( I read about it today…it’s like a world tour for my book the lazy way since I never leave my Ikea desk chair.)

On the Downeaster Alexa…

I haven’t written in awhile. Sorry. I’m in a precarious position where I am flat broke and scrambling. I have to take odd jobs and take on projects and fix pools. I’ve painted houses, made cards for special occasions and for about 4 weeks I worked at a greenhouse. Then they let me go…

It was mental torture. The pay sucked and basically I hated it. But I went out of my way to be pleasant (was told I was rude,) worked my ass off (and kept getting looks like I wasn’t) and basically tried to be a model citizen. There was no sound in the greenhouse. Sometimes the fans kicked on and the silence was relieved for seconds at a time but honestly it was like being in a sensory deprivation tank. And I couldn’t find my MP3 Player.

I did however, remember all the words to ‘Downester Alexa.’ The song is sad and haunting and all about what it’s like when you’re an obsolete human being. He’s a fisherman in a land of no fish and he can’t do anything but what he knows; fishing. So I spent 4 weeks alone, with no sound, working my ass off and singing a song about loneliness. Ha, if anyone had worked with me, seen me or even heard me that might have been cause to get rid of me. Person A – “Tell her to stop singing that song, it’s sad.” Person B – “Let’s just fire her…” But nope. I saw someone at the beginning of the day and at the end..or if I saw the bosses they gave me looks as if I’d peed in their breakfast cereal. It was rough and frankly a relief to be fired.

On the writing side of things, after being fired, I edited 100 pages of my story ‘Life with Amy’ and only have about 20 pages left until I force one of my friends to read the whole damned thing and tell me if it sucks. Maybe I’ll write a story about a greenhouse employee that kills everyone next, as a way of putting my job in perspective… I know I will be spotty on here until I get regular employ. I should be working on a commission right now (3 gods on a field of blue in acrylics–) but I needed to update my playlist to include ‘Downester Alexa’ to remind me that I cannot work in a vacuum.

Feel free to comment with stories of crap jobs you’ve worked. I love being sympathetic and empathetic.

Did Some Writing This Week…

Been falling a bit behind in the writing. I had a huge bout of ‘no one is going to want to read this crap ever’ with the Doctor Who story. But luckily I got some fiverr gigs for writing. Then you see, I had no choice. Forced to be productive with it.

So this week I wrote a 5000 word modernization/reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s amazing Picture of Dorian Gray set in modern day London to impress a client’s lovely girlfriend. I wrote my heart out for him and assume he got lucky. Because the praise I got for the story made me feel like a writer again. Cheers!

After that I got a gig for a 1000 story about a mermaid. It was like everyone loved me. I had just finished reading Jackson Pearce’s brilliant Fathomless (I highly reccommend it!) Which is about…mermaids! The client loved it. My ego loved that he loved it and that led me to…

I am now rewriting/editing a story I wrote years ago about a grandmother/granddaughter reconnecting involving candles and witchcraft and other stuff… Back to chapter 2 of the Doctor Who book tomorrow.

Really the break in writing stems back to a lack of confidence in my writing. Which is stupid. I know I’m a good writer. But I guess sometimes I forget. There are just loads of sites online that sap confidence with their speeches on how you will never be a famous author. Don’t be like me and read them. Because even if you call BS and move on to another advice page that crap sinks into your subconcious and delays your greatness.

Unless you write ‘your’ when you mean ‘you’re’ because come on!

Creative Procrastination?

You would think this outline is the manuscript by how slowly it is coming together. Tonight I managed to get chapters 5-7 down. I think that this is a cause for jubilation. But it almost didn’t happen.

I wrote out chapter 5 and got stuck by the need to procrastinate. But! I decided to procrastinate by writing a short story. Yep. So does it really count as procrastination if I was in fact writing and being creative? Well yes. Mostly because I was avoiding writing by doing other writing. But it did get me started on a nice science fiction story. Once I finish and polish it, I’ll submit it. If/when it gets accepted, it will build my street cred, right? Then when I go to the BBC with my novel, I will be a recently published author. See how I BS this? See how even now I could be outlining more chapters and resort to blogging to avoid it?

I fear organization. I fear it. But only creatively.

I have some interviews with other writers coming up. I’m excited to suck the writing knowledge from their marrow and make it my own. Mwaha ha ha ha. So there’s that to look forward to. Okay, enough… gotta get the outline done. The dang book is only 13-14 chapters and I’m at 7, the halfway mark.

Outlines Are Boring!

I just got rejected… from a job interview. My story is still sitting in the received bin over at Analog, no worries there. But the job thing was a bummer. I like to eat food when I’m writing. But it’s going to be okay because I have started outlining my Doctor Who novel.

The ideas all came flooding out of me one night when I was bored. I scribbled in red ink all over my sketchbook. There are diagrams and one sentence ideas plus some ridiculous sketches and things that will definitely be used against me when my boyfriend tries to have me committed (oh yeah, that’s happening in my future.) Two hours later, I had triumphantly crafted my five sentence back of the book blurb to show friends. I sent it out to 3 of my friends. 2 were very excited and said they would be honored to read my sample chapters (whenever I got them written, that is.) I asked the third one if he would read it and he said, “I don’t know.” 2 outta 3 ain’t bad.

After that I stalled out for two days. I had some subplots to think about. I wasn’t writing anything but I was busily inventing the planet and the aliens and the ideas and the themes. I just kept rejecting the subplots as too obvious. But after a while I just said, “Let that develop as you write or we’re never going to get anywhere!!!!” My sudden outburst startled my guinea pigs and knocked the crippled one over. (I am so sorry, Screwball.) And subplots were had by all! Plus bananas were also had by all.

Now it was time for the outline. Boy oh boy did I avoid that for a few days. I cleaned a bit. Played with guinea pigs. Did a job interview. Did a follow up job interview. Went drinking, hoping I was celebrating getting the job. Went shopping and got jeans with a gift card. went to another party…and so on. A few days passed and I got to today. Yep: Rejection Day. In an email. Bummer. I frantically applied to a bunch of jobs and panting, decided what the hell? I started the Outline.

So far it is a flimsy thing, filled with only 2 and a half chapters. But it is BEGUN! There’s no turning back now. Only problem is: Oh my God, is it boring to write an outline! I know some people thrive on all this structure but I may as well be an anarchist for how much I abhor organizing a novel. But I researched some templates and I will plug away until this thing is done. Because then I get to write 3 chapters. That will be fun. I can already hear the Doctor’s voice in my head telling me what jokes to add and little bits of scientific data about the planet I’m on… Frankly he’s driving me nuts.

Slowly plugging away…

Published! Finally figured out textbroker. Managed to pick and accept an article. Wrote it (on organic chia seeds, no less) and submitted it. It was a bit annoying because the rules are so specific. Certain number of words, then keywords and then it gets angry if there are too many of the keyword… Can you tell I am a huge lover of rules? Anyhow I did follow all those lovely little instructions and Bob’s your uncle they accepted it.

I was paid $4.50. But here’s the thing: no idea who the client is or was or where my article went or if my name is even attached to it. Funny thing textbroker. But yay! I am a published author again. Even submitted a second article on Uncle Grandpa. (People who are not on drugs: Uncle Grandpa is a cartoon that I imagine will eventually make everyone insane.)

Now it is time to start looking at my nanowrime novel and work it into something useable… Since I am still listed as ‘recieved’ on Analog it may also be time to write another short story and try Asimov. I love a good sci-fi. Plus I owe one of my oldest and best(est! Hee hee) of friends a Christmas story. Yes! So much writing to do.

And with that I am off to find out what a ‘jammy dodger’ is… thanks a lot Doctor Who…

The End of The Red Mirror…

I wrote a story a zillion years ago called, “The Red Mirror.” I have mentioned it before… but anyway I wrote it when I was a kid and it is so heavily 80’s influenced that I love it. So I have been rewriting it for the last couple of months. Now it’s done! Woo! The story is now completely typed up into a neat little file on my computer. So now what?

The best plan is to let it rest for 2 weeks. I need to distance myself from the piece and then start the exhaustive task of updating it into something that might work for now. While transcribing it I found several things that only work pre-cellphone age. Also I needed to make my teens a little edgier. My teens were so…clean. So there’s that. Also my heroine doesn’t kill anyone. I have to fix that in the rewrite. Heroine’s need to kill the big bad. That’s storytelling page one. Also she needs to just do and be more. She’s not the only one thought, most of my characters need more personality. The grains of truth are there, they just need to be nurtured and expanded into real people.

Also I need the plot to be expanded. Need to add at least one subplot. The story is also only 25,000 words. I need at least 80,000 for most of the publishers I want to send it to so there is that too. It makes me wonder if I should self publish as a novella if I can’t get the word count to where it needs to be. But those are Future Me’s problems. Present Day Me is too busy celebrating that she took a story that was in ALL CAPS printed on Dot Matrix printer story and managed to get that sucker typed up and into a modern machine without tossing the whole project in the bin. Yay me! Celebrating the little victories of being a writer!

Tonight is a good night to be a writer.

Learning Curve

I do not know how to use textbroker.com yet. I admit it. I was going to write an article today so I went to the site. They rated me at 3 stars (not bad for a 250 word sample but I can do better) and I can apparently only apply to 3 star jobs…I think. So I clicked on it and it said 11 jobs. I started researching for an article a little bit, clicked back on the article and it was no longer there. After that all the articles were not in my field. Debating on taking one and researching the hell out of it to get on the map at least. But I just do not know anything about corporate nonsense. Hopefully some home and garden articles will turn up.

Also I wonder… Am I supposed to reserve it somehow? Hmm. I will figure this thing out and then I will let you know if it eventually makes me money.

On the fiverr front, I may need to add another gig for writing. I got a great assignment to do 10 illustrations and a cover. Pretty excited. I’ve always been a split major: writing/illustration. So money in either camp makes me a happy girl.

I’m looking for a guest blogger exchange… Let me write for you and I will let you write for me. Let’s expand our clips and audiences. Just let me know what sort of post you are looking for from me. I am looking for some successful tips on breaking into fiction writing. Hit me up and we’ll talk.

Progress!

I’m going to stop putting days on here since I am so random in posting. But progress has been made! Since the last time I’ve posted I got a fiverr gig for writing and did some ghostwriting that was well received. I was told it was so good they had to verify I wrote it. Ha! No I didn’t copy and paste sir, I wrote this. I was late on the gig though, stupid holidays! Now that they’re over I expect to be able to focus more. Maybe get somewhere with the writing. To that effect:

I have gotten my textbroker account working. They have rated me 3 Stars. I’m guessing that means they’ve just proved that I can speak and write in English. Now I have to choose some articles and get some better ratings to open up the pool to better, more interesting assignments. But first I must prove myself. So tomorrow I will be picking and writing my first article for them. I’ll let yo know how that turns out. But unfortunately it means filling in the dreaded tax form. See first ep of Black Books for my exact feelings on taxes and forms and tax forms. But I shall persevere.

On the fictional front: I’ve been working on a vampire novel since I was 14. Well I wrote it when I was 14, then forgot about it for a decade. I found it in a box and read it. I thought: This isn’t that terrible. I should rewrite this. Forgot about it for another decade and have now resurrected it yet again. I’ve mostly finished transcribing/rewriting it back into the computer. Tonight I added another 700+ words. It will probably be done the day before I die but such is life.