Tag: guest post

Categories
Full Moon WIP Updates

Unstuck :D

Ok so, I was stuck for a lot longer than I thought I would be. That eleventh chapter of “It’s Like a Full Moon” was haunting and taunting me for days. I couldn’t figure out what to do to mix up the story and move forward. Finally I had a break through.

I have been reading like a mad woman lately trying to finish stories for enjoyment as well as for review. Plus I’ve been fairly busy interviewing other authors, but think it was the interviews that made the light bulb go off in my head. One of the authors I was interviewing answered a question by providing a very unexpected answer. It was clear that there was a misunderstanding about the nature of the question. Once all things were cleared up, the answer made much or sense.

Later as I sat in front of my laptop, staring into to the abyss of white, while my cursor blinked mockingly at me, the words began to rattle around in brain. I started writing and didn’t stop until chapter 12 was completed and my story was ready to take a whole new exciting direction.

What I think I failed to realize before was that even if I came up with a great angle to spin my story on, I couldn’t just have it happen out of the blue.  That’s when I thought about the funny misunderstanding with that interview.  Well after that, it didn’t take long for me to come up with a great misunderstanding for two of my other characters to get caught up in, which just so happen to pull my heroine, Rebecca, right into the middle of.

So now my little romance is making its slow descent from its climatic plateau towards the conclusion of this tale. Hopefully I’ll be able to fill up another ten or so chapters working out a way for Rebecca, Teddy, Lisa, Paul, and even the quirky parents to all find love or at least lifelong companionship. (see article Stuck! For reference)

****

I’ve been interviewing authors over at the Eternal Curse Series Blog, check it out to see what author Jimi Akanbi has been up to.

Interview: http://ecsuniverse.blogspot.com/2012/12/interview-06.html

Guest Post: http://ecsuniverse.blogspot.com/2012/12/guest-post-03-jimi-akanbi.html

Categories
Full Moon WIP Updates

Stuck!

Well I’ve written two more chapters of my new romance, but now I’m stuck. Excuse the expression if it offends, but praise Jesus I don’t have writer’s block. I’ve been steadily writing and working on this and other stories, but I’ve come to a part in my romance where I’m just not sure which way to take it. In my attempt to take a not so new or original idea and mix it up a bit, I’ve mixed it up so much I can’t seem to settle it down.

Rebecca’s character has evolved in the story, but all the rest of the characters have remained much the same. I guess the problem I’m having is trying to figure out what else I can do to mix things up without turning this into a comedy. I think I’m ready to bring out the other characters to put a spin on things, but I’m afraid I’ll end up making the others more interesting than my main character Rebecca.

So here’s what I’m dealing with. Lisa is Rebecca’s best friend. Teddy is Becca’s brother. Paul is Teddy’s new best friend. Mr. Thornton is Paul’s father. Ms. Rapture is Teddy and Becca’s mother, Lucy is their aunt, and Virgil is Becca’s fiancé. There are a few more minor characters, but I think I’ve got my hands full with these.

Lisa is a mess to begin with so I don’t think it will be hard to stir up her character; all she needs is a fling or the experience of true love and that could be enough to turn the story around entirely. Rebecca could come to her friend’s aid in either getting over her fling or helping her understand how to be in love, while inadvertently answering some of her own tough questions about her relationship.

Teddy and Paul are both young virile men who have no trouble getting the attention of women, but they are opposites in their approaches. Teddy never takes women seriously while Paul is always looking for the one. I know there’s something here, I just have to figure out what.

The parents are hysterical already. Ms. Rapture, Lucy, and Mr. Thornton have been comically supportive up to this point, but I’m thinking of adding some kind of twist involving them. In any case, I have too many options that could work, but I have to choose just one. Or do I?

Next week at the Eternal Curse Series blog, I will be hosting author Bridget Straub. It’s sure to be a good time. Stop by and check it out.

Categories
WIP Updates

Happy I Love to Write Day!

The Path

I always thought that when good people died, they turned into angels and went to Heaven, while bad people became demons and went to Hell. I was wrong. When people die, they don’t become angels or demons, they just become the remnants of what they used to be. They are just the spirits of the humans they once were, but where they go, is an entirely different matter.

Righteous people’s spirits are lifted up to heaven, so far off and high beyond the relativity that humans think of as the sky, that other spirits can’t even see how far they’ve gone…and they definitely can’t see the pearly gates, if they even exist. There is much debate about what makes a person righteous by those of us who weren’t granted the title, but it pretty much boils down to anyone who was a pretty decent person and actually whole heartily believed in something greater than themselves.

Can’t believe I spent all my mortal life making fun of people who “believed” and that I publicly proclaimed on multiple occasions that if Heaven exists, it would probably be open to any good person. I honestly thought that as long as I wasn’t a rapist or serial killer, I’d be ok. I was, at least for the moment, better off than the rapists and killers. They were all dragged, by their bleeding eye sockets that had been gouged out by their soon to be hellish neighbors, straight down into a boiling pit of fire, which I took to be entrance into Hell.

I wish there was a way to keep track of time here. I just want to know how long I’ve been on this path. Everyone who didn’t making it straight into Heaven or Hell, was given a path to follow to decide where they’d spend eternity. Based on the way you lived your life, whether you were good or bad and to what extent, your path was either wide or narrow in varying degrees, smooth or rock, lit or dim, and so on.

My path was relatively wide, dimly lit, and bumpy. I was actually one of the more fortunate ones. Very few people were given wide, smooth, well lit paths with very few obstacles along the way; as far as I could tell. It’s seems like I’ve been traveling this road for ages, but there really is no way to tell. I haven’t encountered any obstacles at the moment other than navigating the bumpy path. A few days ago or weeks, who knows, I stumbled across this journal square in the center of my path. I knew the journal was meant for me and that I should take it and write in it.

It took me a few days or weeks, I don’t really know, before I was ready to start writing. As I continued to walk along the path, I discovered pencils and erasers, and sticky notes, and paper clips. I was very leery of the odd and eerie gifts. I thought for sure I was headed down a path leading me straight to Hell and that these gifts were just tokens of false hope meant to build me up for a huge let down. The more I thought about this horrible possibility the less and less gifts I received and the harsher my path grew.

One day, I think it was early, but really had no way of telling, I grew tired. For however long I had been traveling this path, I’d never needed to stop for rest, eat, drink, or use the bathroom. When I sat down to rest, I finally pulled out my journal and began to write in it…

Well that’s all I have for the moment. This is officially a new WIP. Since today is I Love to Write Day, I decided to just sit down and write whatever came into my head until it stopped coming. This is the result. I will probably leave it like this for a couple of days before going back to what happens next in the story.

I’ve been a busy bee as usual networking, reading, writing, and as always learning. I am eight chapters into my romance now. My adventure has been taking a long nap; maybe I’ll try to wake it up this weekend. Still beta testing the sequel to my currently book before committing it to a professional edit.  

This week over at the Eternal Curse Series, I was visited by author Paula Stiles. She has some really great stories to share and tomorrow I’ll post the lovely interview we conducted. That’s all for now. Have a wonderful rest of the week.