Monday, March 15, 2010

Alone . . . at last!

If you are not a writer, it's hard to explain how nice it is to have the house to yourself. When I was younger, in my twenties, it was easier to have the quiet, alone times. Now, it isn't an easy thing to find, with a husband and a job. Now, as I sit here and listen to the quiet house, knowing that no other breathing (human) being is in this house with me to interrupt my thoughts, I feel free and uninhibited. I mean I could raid the cupboards and refrigerator--but I won't. I've just lost 12 pounds, and I'm not about to let myself go backwards.

Don't get me wrong, I love my husband, and hate my bus driving job. We are just coming off of Spring Break here for NIU,and it was nice to just NOT go into the job. But, I have only one more day off, since I have taken Mondays off for rest of the semester (but have had to drive a few).

At least the weather wasn't totally all bad, this week. We had sun a few days, once it did get to 60. We got away to the Peru mall where we visited the puppies, a small bookstore, and had a laugh at one point while looking at a vendor in the hallway, selling sunglasses and gawdy purses that might glow in the dark, I don't know . . . but anyway, the woman who looked Oriental to me, and Spanish to Dennis said something to us as we were looking at the glasses. I heard " . . .ten percent off . . ." My husband just said, "Okay," and we walked away and he said, "What did she say? Something about teeny weeny?"

I told him I'd heard 10% off, how did you get "teeny weeny" out of that?

"I don't know, I thought she said something about a teeny weeny."

I went into hysterics as we walked along, and couldn't walk straight, as I doubled over laughing. People were gaping at me, some woman kept smiling at me as though she wanted in on the joke, because it sounded that funny. It was. My stomach was hurting.

My Time Off/Getting Things Done

Once we stayed home and didn't go anywhwere I worked on my book Vampire Ascending, and got the ending chapters pretty much the way I wanted them, and so forth.

I'm now doing some re-writes of my next book Vampire's Trill. I'd begun this book a few years back, after the first book merely because the story continues. When I thought about killing off a certain character in the end of first one(Nicolas), I saw that I just couldn't do it. He was a stong character, and involved in a lot of scenes in the second book. He added a sort of danger (being that he was a vampire, and although is Sabrina's boss, desires to slake his twin desires (sex and blood lust) with her) to Sabrina's new world of vampires in the city. So, I needed this added bit of danger, sexual tention, and I wanted this very slipery character who seems untrustworthy all the while trusted by the master, to remain and keep Sabrina on her toes.

Sabrina has a couple of new problems. She was bitten by a werewolf in first book and by the opening of the second book we learn what happens to her. She also has a sort of quest--it's more or less pushed on her. She's been marked by a rogue master, Vasyl, who has been waiting for her all his vampire life (over 1,000 years). He has claimed she is "the vessel" and she must gain the mystic ring and the powers that go along with the prophesy which comes from the "other world". Gaining the ring, she will no longer be under the influence of vampire thrall. In other words, no vampire can make her his slave. Because of the prophesy, she has to learn how to use her new skills, and chose the vampire to mate with. And all she ever wanted to do was "date".

Of course at the close of the last book, she has been seeing shiftchanger, Dante Badheart, and things get a bit crazy for the both of them, their relationship becomes rocky because of Vasyl. Sabrina has been in love with Vasyl all her life. and she's confused about her feelings for both men.

I've incorporated the villain/not villain character, Nicolas. He is sort of like the Harry Potter character "Snape", where Harry didn't trust him one moment, while the master did.

The dual love interests have always been around. It seems to work. It worked in "New Moon", but I'm not re-writing a Shakespire novel here.

I've yet to come up with the last half of the book, on the second one, merely because of time. I've had to finish the first one. But that's okay. It's how I write. If you look at my office it would look to another person like someone is actually working in here. (I've seen pictures of other writer's spaces and I know they've cleared off their desks, making it look like Martha Stewart had blown in). A writer has to have the flowcharts, the corkboards, and papers, notebooks strewn all over long tables before I deem that they are worthy of my appreciation. Not every damned thing can be done on a computer. I'm sorry. I'm a visual person. I have a 3 1/2 foot by 4 1/2 foot piece of insulation board which I use as my story board. I write what I want to happen (or what has happened) on 3x5" cards and stick them up there to look at. It's nice and big, and I don't have to turn on a frigging computer to look at it. I can rearrange the cards as I wish. I usually move them around on a table first, then post them when I feel I've got it right.

I'm from the typewriter days. I don't have a laptop--wish I did, but don't. I still use pen and paper. I love to hold a pen in my hand and watch whatever colored ink flow from it and fill a page. I've kept a journal since 1973. I usually have a notebook somewhere I can grab it during the night if I have something I need to put down.

Yesterday I used my time to work on this site. I had fun. I'm a creative person. I was "the artist" before I became "the writer", so I had fun, when I found out all the things I could do on this site, and promise to get here at least once a week to post. I do have a full-time job, after all.

Happy Spring!

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