Blog of Author Christine d’Abo
Callum! Thank you to everyone who made your voice heard yesterday. I was leaning toward Jackson, but I liked Callum too. Now that I’ve made up my mind it really seems to suit him. 
I’m basing him on Clive Owen…so I thought I’d add a picture of him.
Happy Saturday!
So I haven’t done a lot of writing this week. I managed to get a few pages done on the next chapter of my Halloween story, and I’m going to try and finish that up tomorrow. Not as much as I’d hoped to complete though. I have been doing a lot of reading. I seem to go through phases where I need to read, and read a lot of books. I find it helps recharge my batteries.
This weekend will be busy on the family end of things. Both my girls have events for Girl Guides and of course they are in opposite directions. What it will do is give me an hour or so of alone time for writing.
My goals for this weekend are to finish the chapter I’m working on for the Halloween story and to name my Duke in my newest story.
Soooooo…I need your help. I want to give my duke a very formal sounding name, but one that my heroine can shorten into a nickname. Her name is Mackenzie. And here are the possibilities for him. Please vote for your favourite!
And no, I won’t tell you which one I’m leaning towards. 
I’ve been tagged by a few people over the past few days (Angela, Red, Leah, Rashenbo, and someone else I think…) to reveal eight things about myself. Here are the rules:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
Well I thought why not make this a Thursday Thirteen! Okay I’m getting sick and couldn’t come up with another topic LOL! So here are my eight things with a few bonus. As far as who else to tag…you’re all tagged. If you choose to do this meme, please leave a comment here so I can come visit your site.
 |
2. I have hazel eyes. They are just like my dad. I have a nasty habit of giving my heroines hazel eyes too. 3. I was in a body cast when I was six. I was trying to help my mom pass out coffee mugs. It tipped and spilled hot coffee all over my chest. I had second degree burns and was put in a chest cast for six weeks. 4. The movie The Prince Of Darkness scared me. I saw it when I was thirteen and couldn’t sleep for two days. For those of you who have seen it, I had a huge mirror in my bedroom. To this day it creeps me out. 5. I’ve always had a pet cat. I can name them all too: Ginger, Fluffy, Samantha, Tigger, Dutchess, Pip. Pip is my baby. 6. I like to meditate. But I don’t do it in the traditional manner. I tend to lie down on my bed, close my eyes, and let me mind wander. I usually feel so much better when I have some time alone like this. 7. I do ergonomic assessments at work. I can take a look at your desk setup and tell you what’s wrong and how to fix it in about ten minutes. 8. I kick ass at the game Scene It. I tend to remember useless trivia about movies and TV shows I watch. I also read IMDB a lot! Bonus Things! 9. I’ve been in a TV movie. I was an extra in a movie called This Matter of Marriage. I was paid $10 an hour to walk across a bridge a few times and to be a part of a cheering crowd. It was fun and the coffee was free. 10. I used to be a competitive swimmer. I did a lot of swimming when I was a teen. I wanted to continue on, but it meant 5am swim times and that didn’t work for my family. I still love the water. 11. I have three university degrees. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I got older LOL. I have a B.A., B.Ed., and a M.Ed. in instructional design. 12. Four members of my family are adopted. My dad, his sister, my grandmother and my cousin. 13. My debut novel is releasing July 20! *does the snoopy dance* |
I’m not sure how I missed this, but Amy awarded me a thinking blog award! I’m very touched that I would even be considered for this.
Here are the rules:
1. If and only if you get tagged write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Display your award proudly. *grin*
There are many people out there who I’ve learned a lot from, but many of them have been tagged already. However, there are many more who deserve this. My choices are:
The Drunk Writers
Julia – A Piece Of My Mind
Margaret Moore
Kelly Boyce
Daisy Dexter Dobbs
Thank you ladies!
I’m bouncing off the walls tonight! I just got word that The Bond That Ties Us has a release date. Set your calendars for July 20th ladies and gentlemen.
In honour of finally getting a date, I’ve decided to post an excerpt for your reading enjoyment. Adult warning in effect!
—-
In the next instant, Kamran felt her lips upon his, shocked by the texture, the smoothness of her skin. His eyes refused to work, but he didn’t need them to know who this woman was.
“It’s you.” His voice was hoarse and painful to use.
“Are you okay?” She said the words against his ear.
“It happens like this…before we…I’m fine.” He licked up the side of her neck, tasting her salty skin. Better than the finest food.
“Before we what?” Haylie gasped and tilted her head back.
“Before we mate. If the female rejects the male, he dies.”
Her lips moved everywhere. Against his cheek. Kissing his jaw line. Making their way to his ear, she circled the ridge. He sighed, clutching her shoulders when she began to suckle the lobe.
“I need you.”
Haylie’s soft words in his ear elicited a dark, almost primal response from him. Kamran pulled her back, her face finally coming into focus. Her long brown hair covered her shoulders and back like a veil. She stared up at him with the most amazing green eyes. They were the color of the Briel countryside after the planting rains.
Her face was flushed, the color traveling down her neck and disappearing under a soft, smooth shirt. He had to know how far down that blush went. Kamran took the tip of his finger and hooked it on her neckline. Tugging her shirt down, he now had access to the tops of her breasts. The blush continued lower, tempting him to continue his exploration. Bending his head down, Kamran placed a single kiss in the top of her cleavage. She smelled like sex, the promise of pleasure.
She pulled his head up and crushed her lips against his again, driving her tongue deep into his mouth, teasing as it went. He lapped at her, tasting her sweetness. His cock tightened and pulsed as her lips demanded more from him. Kamran, in turn, slid his hand under her shirt, brushing his fingers against the side of her breast and across her waist before reaching the smooth hollow of her back.
Her sigh told him she enjoyed the sensation and he fleetingly wondered if all Briel males instinctively knew where their mates liked to be touched. Kamran moved his mouth along her cheek to her neck. His tongue licked as he kissed her. Her heartbeat quickened under his lips and she drove her hands into his hair.
“Please, don’t stop.”
As you know I’m a big fan of 24. Or at least I was a big fan. I don’t know what happened this season, but I find myself not caring. Not caring about the plot, not caring about the characters, not caring if I even watch the last two episodes of the season. I mean, they killed off a main character last night (no I won’t say who for those of you who have it on your PVR) and I didn’t care! I should have cared! I should have been crying, shocked, throwing things at my TV. I wasn’t and I didn’t.
So what happened? This is a show that went from having one of it’s best seasons ever last year, to almost losing it’s audience. In the writing world this is the equivalent of someone getting half way through a book, setting it down and never finishing it. I’ve done that before myself, and it’s not a good thing.
Thinking about it, I have to say I believe it comes down to the fact that I’ve lost my connection to these characters. Yes, their situation is dire. Yes, they’ve suffered. But the characters aren’t overly likeable anymore. That and the fact that the story line seems to be nothing but filler.
As a writer, I take this as a very important lesson in what not to do. I’ve often struggled with some of my plots and have been tempted to add filler just to beef up my word count. But filler just won’t cut it. Instead of giving your reader a steak, they get a hotdog – no where near as satisfying.
I thought I’d give you a little break down of what we did this weekend. Friday night when we arrived we ate and got hard to work on our collages. I didn’t know what story I was going to work on at that time, so I actually did two. On one side I have Out of Time, my duke story, and on the other my WW2 paranormal story. I really was leaning towards the WW2 one, but that was before the brain storming session.
Saturday I was on breakfast duty. This wasn’t difficult as Kelly had done an awesome job buying food and all I had to do was put the mini keish in the oven. After that we started our sessions.
Renee started with a wonderful session on world building. It helped me to break the elements of world building down. Now, I think I do this fairly well, but it was a good reminder and it brought to life some elements that I don’t really pay as much attention to as I should.
I was up next to talk about GMC. I think the presentation went well. I talked a lot about Debra’s book and added my own bits. I talked about using the 5 Whys (route cause analysis) to determine motivations and backstory for the characters. Everyone seemed to get something out of it, so I’m happy.
The third presentation was done by Julia on dialogue. I love writing dialogue, so I really enjoyed all of her exercises. There’s something fun about hearing your character’s voices in your head and then getting it out on paper.
The fourth and final presentation was given by John (brave man – only man with 11 women) on secondary characters. I like the categories he placed them into, and I found that really made sense for me. I’m not a big subplot writer, but I’m going to have to try to expand on this.
On Sunday we had 40 minute brain storming sessions. This was the part I was looking forward to the most and I wasn’t disappointed. We were paired up with people who didn’t write in our subgenre – which was a very smart thing to do. They weren’t tied down by the “rules” or expectations and we all were able to just throw out ideas. I think everyone in my group got a lot out of it. I’m really hoping to be able to ready Kelly and Heidi’s stories at some point.
It wasn’t all work this weekend! We watched The Queen and Casino Royale. The Queen was an amazing movie. My heart went out to her and all she had to deal with that week. We also went out to supper at the lodge close to where we were staying. Fred the waiter proved to be interesting, even though the man had issues. I mean what waiter announces that he’s recently divorced to a table of 11 women??
All in all it was a wonderful weekend. It was wonderful to be able to sit and chat about writing in a relaxed environment with other writers. I’m really happy I went and I’ll definitely be going next year. 
I’m back! Did you miss me?
Well I have to say the retreat was a fabulous time! Major thanks going out to Kelly and the executive for arranging everything. We ate well, laughed hard and got a lot accomplished.
And yes Kelly, we found the big gray bins…
My presentation went well and I think everyone got something out of it. I was a bit scatterbrained as usual, but it worked out in the end. I think next time I present it I’m going to focus more on route cause analysis techniques and how it relates to solving issues with GMC. Now I have to get my presentation for the June meeting pumped up.
I’m brining dip!
We had out brainstorming session this morning. I’m so excited!!! I chose an idea I had about a duke and a 21st century woman. Between the three of us we really flushed it out and now I can’t wait to write it. I also got to talk about the Halloween story I’m writing with Renee. I’m pumped to finish that too. So many things bouncing around my head I need to get everything straight. Which means it’s goal time!
What are your goals for the week?
I’m pumped because tonight I’m going to our retreat! I’m really excited and can’t wait for my presentation on GMC tomorrow. I spent last night getting ready and I’m good to go. The only thing I have left to do is buy some wine.
My goals for this weekend is to walk out of there with enough material to sit down and write another book. I’m still debating which idea I want to work on. What do you guys think:
So if you had to vote, which would you do?
I’m doing a presentation this weekend for our writers retreat on Debra Dixon’s Goal, Motivation & Conflict. If you haven’t read her book, or had a chance to see Debra speak, I highly recommend it. She not only is a lovely woman, but she’s able to help get to the heart of a lot of characterization problems.
For my list today, I thought I’d pull out thirteen important points I’ve learned from Debra’s book.
|
1. Goals must be important and urgent. This is something I think that gets missed by some writers. They set the goal up to be important, but there is no urgency. No urgency means we don’t really care about it. 2. All characters in your book should have a GMC. I found this hard to believe at first, but it makes sense. Your subplots should feed into your main plot. For that to happen and for your secondary characters to seem real, they need their own GMC. 3. Character decisions drive the plot. Of course, Christine. But how often do we see (or write) scenes where this isn’t the care. They choose road A instead of B, but there are no consequences. 4. There is no right or wrong GMC. As long as it works with point #5, then it’s all good. 5. Goals and motivations should match the character’s background. There is nothing worse than seeing a character do or say something that is completely…wrong. Check to make sure it is in line with your character’s backstory. 6. All characters decisions should be driven by motivation. Leave nothing to chance, no random choices. They know what they want and their decisions should reflect it. 7. Characters can be both ally and enemy. This is something used in romance novels quite a bit. The hero and heroine play off each other, sometimes causing more problems for each other than they’d like to admit. 8. Misunderstanding is not conflict. I hate bickering. It’s not conflict, but it can become annoying. 9. Internal conflict is emotional conflict. Again, something that I knew, but couldn’t quite make work. I thought this was a great way of looking at internal conflict. 10. The strength of your book is your conflict. Tension keeps people turning the pages. That’s what every writer aspires to have! 11. Conflict is the obstacle your character must face. Don’t throw up a road block that your characters can avoid. What’s the fun in that! Make them suffer. 12. A scene is action and immediate. If you can keep this in mind, you’ll know when you need to cut backstory. If it isn’t necessary at that particular moment to know something, then chances are you can cut it. 13. GMC can be a guide for revisions. Whenever I think I have a problem with one of my stories, I’ll draw a quick GMC chart and go through the plot. I usually find my issues. |
Recent Comments