Friday, March 31, 2006
It's party time!! VOTE..Bale, Clooney, Kilmar, Keaton?
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
4:56 PM ::
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Thursday, March 30, 2006
My turn!
Wow! I'm in awe of Kate, Emma, and Cat! I just loved reading their thoughts about writing, authors, and Buffy. Of course, most people who know me know I have a special affinity for Angel. I never missed one episode of that show the entire time it was on television. Tried Bones. Not really impressed.
Anyhoo, moving right along. I think every author at one time has seen a movie and thought, "geesh, I wish I'd written that" or "if only I could write like that". Those are what I call "wishIcoulda" moments. And for me, those are the moments I allow myself to wallow in self-doubt, wondering if I'm actually on the right career path. I mean, we never know, do we?
I don't remember wanting to be a writer until I was in my mid-teens. Before that, I was looking toward teaching school, practicing law, or being the first female president. (Okay, a little lofty, but hey, it could happen). So what makes me so sure that a writer is what I'm supposed to be? Did some child miss a better education because I didn't become a teacher? Did some innocent victim get caught up in the tangled web of the judicial system because I wasn't there to be his/her attorney? I'll leave the president part out because, quite frankly, that would require waaaay too much of an investment of time. LOL
Anyway, I'm sure you get where I'm going. None of us really knows what we're meant to do until we're actually doing it, and it just seems to fit who we are. Now, I'm not saying because I write erotica that I'm slutty or anything like that. Well, okay, there was that one night in Vegas, but tequila was involved. I'm digressing.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that each and every one of us has a reason for being here, a job to do of sorts, and sometimes, that job may be the last thing you expected you'd ever be doing. If you would have asked me at twenty if I'd be writing at my age now (nice try), I would have laughed. But that's the fun part of life. We get to do things we never thought we'd be doing.
To sum it up, to me, life is about enjoying each and every day no matter what you're doing, where you're working, or where you live. Writing is how I choose to spend a good portion of my life. I also choose to show the people I love how much they mean to me, to laugh a lot, to cry when I need to cry, and just be me. What do you choose to do? Because, after all, it really is a choice.
Thanks for the invite, Alecia!
And, of course, I couldn't leave without some shameless self-promotion. Hey, you gotta toot your own horn unless you loan it to someone else, and they can toot it for you!!!
Available now in print! www.venuspress.com
Rachel Carrington
www.dawnrachel.com
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
2:52 PM ::
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Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Authors Are People Too
Hi Everyone! It's wonderful and a little scary to be here today. I confess after reading Cat's and Emma Rae's posts that I felt a little intimidated, but you know what? It's no big deal. As Emma Rae said, we're all unique. We all make our own choices and follow our own paths. So here's the rambling path I've chosen to walk for a little while. It's not about writing, it's about living.
It's impossible not to notice that when a person is given a particular title like, actor or writer, or NFL quarterback, lol, that others start to view them in a different light. These people suddenly become more than people. They're suddenly endowed with some superpower that sets them apart from everyone else. Well...I'm here to tell you, as an author, I ain't no superwoman, LOL!
I grew up the youngest of three siblings. My parents weren't rich. My dad worked construction and we moved from place to place for a long time, following the jobs. Until I was in jr. high, we never lived in one place more than two years. We lived mostly in a trailer that we pulled along with us when we moved. We weren't rich by any means, but my parents loved us and my memories are filled with warmth and laughter.
We moved to a little town called Canandaigua, in Upstate NY when I started jr. high. We lived there for ten years. It was the first time I lived in an actual house and not a trailer. My dad worked his construction jobs and my mom ran a motel that was open during the summer months. I worked at the motel in the summer for $1.50 an hour, cleaning rooms, scrubbing toilets etc. What a way to spend the summer! Yuck. LOL! When I was old enough, I got a job at a local plant nursery which I really enjoyed. I'd made a few friends in highschool and a few at work, but I was such a backward thing and even though I longed for them, boys terrified me.
I hated school. Having moved from place to place made it just that much more difficult to fit in each time. By the time I got to high school, I was a total misfit, introvert. Going to college was totally out of the question. Even if I could have afforded it, when I graduated I swore I'd never go back to any school of any kind.
When my parents decided to make the move back home to Indiana, I chose to go with them. Even though I was in my twenties, I wasn't about to leave Mom and Dad. They were my security against the big bad world. I got a job at a place that grew roses in greenhouses. They were the largest producers of cut roses in the country. I worked there for seventeen years and hated it with a passion. I loved the people I was working with, I actually made advances in the company from working on the production line, to transferring into billing and even made it to an office where I had my first encounters with computer work. But the job itself did nothing for me. I was empty and unfulfilled. When the company had to severely downsize due to the foreign import of cut flowers, I was laid off and then found myself working at the local Walmart. Yep, that's right. Walmart. Retail hell. For eight long years.
Through all the years of dead end jobs, reading was my one big joy in life. I devoured books like candy. I also devoured a lot of candy and other things, but that's another story, lol. A little over two and half years ago while reading a book I'd purchased from Ellora's Cave, I suddenly got the wild idea that I could do this, I could write a book. Amazingly enough, I was right. I could, I did, I was published! I was a writer, an author, a person with a career and a title. Did that make me a different person? Did it make me better than anyone else? No. I'm still me. I just did the one thing that only the most fortunate of human beings can do. I found a job that I love.
I believe that actors, authors, football heros, CEOs of large companies, anyone who others believe to be special, are merely those who've discovered themselves. They've found a job that they love. Some people seem to instinctively know what they want in life, where their talents lie and what they can do that will make them happy. Some people, like me, stumble into it by accident. I think the best advice I could give anyone would be that if you have a job you hate, you need to start using your head. Think about yourself. What makes you happy? What do you do well? Get some guidance. Go to a career councilor if you have to. Don't waste your life being miserable. You are as special as anyone else. You may never be famous, but heck, I'll take happy over famous anyday!
I'm being published by Ellora's Cave, Changeling Press and Loose-Id. I'm an author. I'm just me.
Kate
www.katesteele.com
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
11:36 AM ::
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Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Taboo and the Voices in Your Head
Hey all! Thanks, Alecia, for inviting me! I'm really excited about today! And wow, Cat's a tough act to follow, LOLOL! That's is some really terrific advice on writing. And no one could possibly accuse Joss Whedon of doing it poorly!
In that vein, I wanted to tackle a couple of things I get asked about quite a bit. The first is: How do I feel about writing on 'taboo' topics? The second is: Where did I get my 'writer's voice'? The first question has a lot of answers, ROFL, and the second is really a compilation of more than one question.
Okay, so what is taboo? Honestly, just about anything can be taboo, it just depends on your point of view. Everything from politics and religion, to gardening and cleaning house can be taboo (I mean, if your neighbor was using human waste as a fertilizer that'd be pretty taboo, right, LOL?). It all depends on the elements of the situation.
Now, I know what most folks are talking about when they ask me about taboos. They are talking about Heaven and Hell, my series for Changeling Press. Yes, I've had my fair share of "you are going to burn" comments, though those aren't regarding a particular work, but the fact that I write erotica, LOL. Fans of mine, and the series, tease me about Hell, but what they really want to know is why I chose those characters for my stories. After all, I make no effort whatsoever to conceal that the characters in these books are Judeo-Christian beings of note and myth/fact, whichever you choose to believe. I mean, how many Archangels do you know named Gabriel, ROFL?
When people ask where I got the idea for this series, I don't have to think hard, LOL. I was baptized and raised a strict Catholic. And from the time I was about six or seven, I used to dream up stories involving the Archangel Gabriel. I found him fascinating, this Angel who was both light and darkness. The General of God's Army, and also the bearer of the news that the Virgin Mary was carrying the Christ Child. How interesting a being would this man be, if I could meet him? As I grew up, those stories became lusty teenage fantasies, ROFL, and I said more than my fair share of Hail Mary's and Our Father's for those in confession. My point is, long ago I made Gabriel a character of my own creation. He was based on real belief, but I had expanded him, developed him, made him real. And that's how you write about a topic that might be considered taboo.
You take the taboo out of the equation by making the story REAL. By giving the characters faults and tragedies, triumphs and joy. By allowing readers to imagine things through your eyes, you take them to a place above and beyond whatever made the subject taboo in the first place. This applies to erotica as a whole, as well as some of the more left-of-center things you can find between the covers of books in the genre. By taking the explicit sexual content and making the characters experiencing it REAL, a writer can move erotica away from the taboo label of 'porn'. A writer can 'reshelve' erotica in the minds of his/her readers as fiction or some subgenre there of, making it no longer taboo.
So, in short, the way to tackle taboo isn't to shove it down people's throats, or yell at them to stop thinking such 'archaic' things, but to make it REAL for them. To bring them into your story, your characters, your setting, and make them a part of the story. As readers of erotica have proven, it isn't 'porn', it's great tales with real people and real emotions and interactions that's worthy of the time and money spent enjoying it.
Now, question number two: How do you write the way you do? Where did you find your voice? How do you choose a point of view in which to present the story you're writing? LOL, and several other questions.
This one is a bit more difficult for me to answer because in the beginning, I didn't really understand what the question was. I mean, I just write. I don't think about writer's voice or style, or really even POV(point of view) when I settle in to write a story. I just do it, LOL. After a few fumbled attempts at answers, I started asking what those questions meant? I was told, delightfully bluntly by a brilliant lady, that the question was really "How do you make yourself unique?"
Well, THAT I could answer, ROFL! I make myself unique simply by virtue of the fact that I am unique. No two writer's are alike, LOL, much as no two snowflakes are alike. You could give two writers the exact same plot outline and you'll get two very different stories. Each author has their own unique style, flare, and voice.
Take the way I write third person POV. I don't use scene breaks and iteration, which is a standard. I write a scene from all perspectives available for it: both characters, or more, if that's who's starring in it. I change POV from one paragraph to the next. I do this because I'm not a big fan of 'standard' third person. I don't like to re-read the same scene I just absorbed from the heroine's POV, from the hero's POV. I already know what happened, I don't need to 'see' it again , LOL. I want the scenes in my books to flow, seemlessly, from one character to the next. I want the reader to REALLY feel like they can see all, feel all, and react to everything that happens as if they were the characters, and a voyeuristic, invisible watcher, as well.
Aspiring authors seem to be the biggest worriers about this kind of thing. My advice is to RELAX, LOL. You aren't going to be the next Steven King, Angela Knight, or Nora Roberts. You just aren't. And the reason is because you are going to be the next YOU! Much like writing taboo, you can try to emulate someone else's style, but in the end the only way to convince people of your work is to MAKE YOURSELF REAL. Believe in yourself, enjoy what you do, and breathe, LOL! You don't have to be anyone else, or write just like a NYT bestselling author. You have to write like you. Let your 'voice' shine on the pages. Let your imagination sweep the reader away into a world that only YOU can create, because only YOU could write it just that way.
Don't get me wrong, emulating the style of your favorite author is the highest compliment and it can be a very useful learning tool. Following an established authors book presentation, in regards to the parts of story not the content (ie, plot formation, action sequences, etc.) is a great way to learn the how-to's of writing a story to completion. However, you'll soon find that the writer you are will take you places you might not have expected. You might decide that you need that fight scene much earlier than expected, or the sex scene really has to wait until later. And that's just the beginning of, not 'finding' your voice, but unleashing it!
Simply put, be YOU! You are the most important part of the writing process. You are the one who creates the world, the story, and the characters. YOU ARE UNIQUE, and as such your work is unique. The sooner you believe in yourself, and let the author in you take control, the sooner you'll find that your stories can write themselves. No book on the writing process, or advice, can make you a writer. You have to believe and accept that, in your heart. Once you do, the sky is the limit!!
Emma Ray Garrett
www.freewebs.com/emma_ray_garrett
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
10:19 AM ::
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Monday, March 27, 2006
The Brilliance of Buffy
…and other Joss Whedon creations.
Hey everyone. I'm Cat Marsters, and I'm thrilled to be the first guest blogger this week! I'm going to have a little chat with you about one of my favourite subjects: Buffy, and the work of Joss Whedon. Not only is Buffy a great show to watch, I've also learned a lot about writing, plotting, characterisation, and dialogue from it.
Excuse my spelling, I'm English.
I’m going to assume that everyone in the Western Hemisphere has by now heard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Little old men in the Himalayas who haven’t seen a TV since the moon landings have heard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But I’m going to introduce her anyway.
Buffy is the creation of Joss Whedon. She first appeared in a movie, which I liked, mostly because it had Luke Perry in it, but which sadly flopped. Undeterred, Joss came back a few years later with a primetime TV series, starring a blond Californian teenager endowed with the superpowers necessary to fight evil, especially vampires.
So: Lesson the First. Never give up. If you want to write about a teenager with superpowers, then do it. No one (not even the Buffy characters) can see into the future and tell you what’s actually going to sell. Somewhere out there, there’s a market for your story. When I first started trying to sell my sexy fantasy chicklit mysteries, I got told that no one writes fantasy in that voice. I reworked the idea, brought in some new characters, made it sexier still, and sold the first story to Ellora’s Cave. It came out in February.
Lesson the Second: Kill the darlings. No, I don’t mean kill off your favourite characters (although Joss has been known to do that too, repeatedly), but taking out your favourite bits. Just because you—or someone else—thinks they’re great, doesn’t mean you should rely on them.
There are a couple of things about Joss’s writing that really stand out as hallmarks. Firstly, his brilliant dialogue. Here’s an example, from the Season Four episode Something Blue.
Giles: Look, look, Spike—we have no intention of killing a harmless.. uh, creature.. but we have to know what's been done to you. We can't let you go until we're sure that you're…impotent—
Spike: Hey!
Giles: Sorry, poor choice of words. Until we're sure you're, you're..
Buffy: Flaccid?
Spike: You are one step away, missy.
Buffy: Giles, help! He's going to scold me.
Joss acknowledged the praise, thought about it, then wrote an episode with no dialogue (Well, not entirely. But the characters all become mute halfway through, and it’s well-known as one of the best eposides there is), called Hush, in Season Four.
So people went away and thought about this. Aha, they said. What makes Joss so brilliant is his plotting!
So he wrote Restless. Which is a dream sequence, and has no plot at all.
Well, then, said his critics. Must be the humour. He can’t write an eposide that’s not funny.
He wrote The Body in Season Five, where Buffy’s mother dies. It doesn’t have a single joke.
What I’m getting at here is that Joss’s writing evolves because he never relies on one strength. He develops them all the time. Hush was an exercise in making the show stronger visually. Restless explored characterisation. The Body was simply very true.
Don’t be a one-trick pony. Learn lots of tricks!
Lesson the Third: Love your fans. Because they love you, and you’d be nowhere without them. After Buffy ended, Joss wrote a sci-fi western series called Firefly. It was actually brilliant, but got axed after ten episodes. Possibly because the studio execs all had lobotomies.
But in that short space of time, Firefly gained a massive fan base. And it grew. Google it: look at all the websites. The DVDs sold like hotcakes. Fans took out a full-page ad in Variety, thanking Joss and his team for giving them the show in the first place. They petitioned the studio. They petitioned everybody.
And lo, Serenity was born.
Serenity, of course, is the movie, released last year, about the Firefly crew. As soon as it was announced—as soon as it was rumoured—the fans went wild, and even more websites were set up. Conventions were arranged. Money and publicity were both raised.
And the film was great (thank God, because how embarrassing would that have been otherwise?). And it had a great opening weekend. And the DVDs sold like even hotter cakes.
And Joss thanked the fans on the DVD.
There are more lessons to be learned from Joss. Stuff like: It’s do or die: hey, I’ve died twice; Don’t be afraid to make a main character a lesbian; If they sing, there’d better be a damn good reason; Vampire stories don’t have to be sombre and serious; British characters aren’t always evil; If you want your characters to talk like a mixture of Californian teenagers, Shakespearean actors and Wild West gunslingers, then let them; and Just because something’s set in space doesn’t mean there have to be aliens.
Oh: and the most important one. Don’t forget about the importance of hot men. Although I’m sure you knew that one already.
Thank you for your time.
Cat
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
9:57 AM ::
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Sunday, March 26, 2006
Mmmmm, Gerard
Just sharing the GB love with y'all...could he be any hotter?
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
10:34 PM ::
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Guest Bloggers Arrive Tomorrow!
An entire week of guest blogging begins tomorrow. Here's the lineup:
Monday: Cat Marsters
Tuesday: Emma Ray Garrett
Wednesday: Kate Steele
Thursday: Rachel Carrington
Friday: Lisa Renee Jones
Come see what your favorite authors have to say!
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
10:17 PM ::
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Thursday, March 23, 2006
Fight For Your Right To Parrrrrrrrrrrtay!
Yes, I do love the Beastie Boys, indeed I do.
We had a rockin' good time at my chat party tonight, with an ice cream sundae contest, eye candy contest, party favors, and just good chatting. I hope to make it a monthly event! Thanks to all of you who came out to play and made it such a fun evening!
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
10:33 PM ::
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Chat Party Tonight!
Join me on my e-loop for a chat party tonight at 8:00 PM eastern/7:00 PM central. Free books, coupons, and more!
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
10:06 AM ::
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Tuesday, March 21, 2006
You Put The Lime In The Coconut...
Ok, so the tamale pie was an unqualified success. One tip, though: it needs time to stand for 10 or 15 minutes before slicing, so the crust can firm up. I cut into it too soon and it turned to goo.
You can find the recipe here.
To make it vegetarian (as I did), simply substitute ground beef style recipe "crumbles" such as Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles or Quorn Mince. Delicious!
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
8:41 PM ::
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Mermaids And Casseroles And Contests, Oh My!
Jennifer, please email me! You're the latest coupon code winner!
Now, onward to casseroles. I'm going to attemplt a tamale pie tonight, which is a spicy ground beef type filling (I'll use Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Recipe Crumbles instead) kicked up with tomato, green pepper, corn, and olives, topped with cheese and baked beneath a cornmeal crust. It sounded strangely wonderful to me, so I'm going to give it a shot.
I'm really hoping this mermaid proposal gets accepted. I'm longing to dive (pun fully intended) into an undersea fantasy world.
Cathie, I've never heard of erotic horror. Which publishers are doing that? Sounds interesting!
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
2:46 PM ::
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Monday, March 20, 2006
Winner du Jour
Caffey, can you email me? You're the last coupon code winner!
In other news, it's already spring here in Houston, and I'm sweltering. And having violent pollen allergies.
If anyone out there enjoys mermaid stories, keep your fingers crossed for me. I pitched one and am waiting to hear about it.
Finally, look for some guest bloggers here next week!
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
1:50 PM ::
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Sunday, March 19, 2006
Casserole Obsessed
I am obsessed...with casseroles.
I can't help it. Maybe it's because I'm a native southerner, but I love the damn things. I'm also a vegetarian, and I like one-dish meals that require minimal cleanup. Since casseroles tend to be more friendly to the meatless life than a traditional meat 'n taters meal, I find myself endlessly seeking new combinations to try in my trusty casserole dish.
In other news, Kiss Of The Fairy had a good debut weekend. Thanks to all of you who picked up a copy. I'm going to hammer away at "Forbidden Fruit" this week, which will be coming at y'all from Changeling sometime in the future, along with "Hyacinth In Bloom" from Loose ID.
Don't forget to post in the comments to win a discount coupon for Changeling Press!
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
11:16 PM ::
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Day One Winner
PamK, please send me an email to aleciamonaco at aol dot com -- you'e my first coupon code winner!
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
11:19 AM ::
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Saturday, March 18, 2006
Contest!
I'm holding a contest! From March 18th through March 24th, I will pick one winner daily from the comments of my blog for that day. The winner will get a coupon good for 5% off her total order at Changeling! This offer will expire on the morning of March 25th, so let's get the ball rolling now. Post in the comments to win, and be sure to check back daily to see if your name was drawn! If you are my winner, you'll need to email me so I can send you the coupon code.
How was your St. Patrick's Day/Purim? I celebrated both, and it was great.
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
6:19 PM ::
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Thursday, March 16, 2006
Kiss Of The Fairy is available NOW!
Kiss of the Fairy
by Alecia Monaco
cover art by Karen Fox
ISBN (10): 1-59596-423-1 ISBN (13): 978-1-59596-423-6
Genre(s): Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Theme(s): St. Patrick's Day, Witches, Wizards & Magic
Length: Interludes (8k - 12k words)
Siobhan is the Irish Love Fairy, making matches for Irish people
everywhere. But when Patrick O'Neil, the hottest in a family of
brothers she's successfully paired off, turns out to be matchless,
Siobhan must assume human form and investigate. Can she find out the
reason why Patrick seems destined to be single, or is there more to
the story than Ireland's mythical matchmaker ever imagined?
Interested? Check it out at
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=313
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
12:58 PM ::
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Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Achoo.
I've been out of the loop the past few days with the worst.cold.ever. I feel slightly better today for the first time in a while, so I'm cautiously optimistic that I will be able to return to regular blogging soon.
Anyone alive out there? Give me a shout out.
Posted by Alecia Monaco ::
7:06 AM ::
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