I love poetry (if you know me in real life, this is nothing new to you). What I love most is how in a few words the author can evoke an image that us painters of prose take pages to express. I also love how, like songs, they compliment a memory or story within your head. This poem in particular made me think so strongly of Kiki and James. Thanks, Beth!
Author rambles
Just an update…
I have a deadline to get these Second of All revisions out before Thanksgiving. SO, I will post the Liebster questions and nominations on Turkey Day probably. I haven’t forgotten, but if I want to get this book out by January, I have to be Good Gennie and focus.
And that’s what you guys want too, right? I’m very excited about this book. I hope you enjoy it in all its introspective yet passionate glory.
*smooches*
Gen.
Liebster mien cupcake
I was nominated for this Liebster blog award thingy by Penelope Jones, aka Bad Penny, aka Sweet P, aka Maude (what I am now calling her in my mind now that I know her name isn’t actually Penelope but have no real name to call her. I will also picture her vacuuming her carpets wearing pearls, high heels, and a martini in her free hand. *shrug* It’s a free country.)
Anyhoo, I answer eleven questions, tell eleven random facts about myself then nominate eleven blogs to do the same. Trouble is, I am not sure I know eleven bloggers who would like to participate.
BEHOLD, a post in which I warn you, I may nominate unwilling people unless some of you bravely throw yourself under the bus and take one for the team. You can do it! It only hurts the first time…..running out of aphorisms here……
Let me know if you want to be nominated and I will direct traffic to your blog. 🙂
Soylent Green is PEOPLE!
Today, due entirely to my own…let’s call it hubris…I received a lot of advice. Sadly, it felt like moralizing and lecturing. Well, some of it felt like advice. And that was nice, the advice-feeling advice. All of it was even solicited advice, and let’s face it no one likes the askhole: the person who asks for advice then ignores it, so I asked for it. The irritation I am now feeling, that is. Oh, I should probably start at the beginning.
Finnigan begin again
So, I made the error of following several links today from people whose opinions I usually respect only to find myself strangely offended by their words. I think they were well-intended ruminations, designed to caution and guide newbie authors like myself but had the exact opposite effect. I backed out of the articles feeling lectured at, chastised, judged. It colored everything I did today and had me feeling off-balance and hyper-critical.
It was the equivalent of leaving your bedroom feeling slightly fabulous only to hear: “Are you going to wear that?”
Now all of a sudden you see every pimple, every wrinkle, every frayed edge, every flaw. Instead of all that was right all you see is what’s wrong, even if the ratio of right to wrong never actually changed. There was never actually any problem to begin with, but all of a sudden I started looking for some, just in case. Suddenly the decisions I had made, while I was feeling perfectly happy and fine with them a moment before now I was feeling like, clearly, since this person’s opinion is somehow more valuable than my own, I am in the wrong. And that was when I started actually actively looking for advice instead of just stumbling upon it. I got some really useful advice and some not-so useful advice and when I realized that both were giving me the same sensation of panic-inducing inadequacy, and everything and anything I did was just wrong wrong wrong wrong, I stepped away from the computer and consulted with my Fan Club.
All three of them agreed that these truths remain unchanged:
1. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
2. If the advice comes from someone who stands to gain something from your compliance, feel free to ignore it (see #1).
3. If you are confident/happy in a decision ask yourself why someone is trying to destroy that confidence/happiness before you follow their advice.
4. Do you really want to know what is in that food?
Just some things to think about while you might be writing, editing, proof reading, blogging. Words have power. Intentions are also powerful things but in the end be mindful what you say, how you say it, and how it may affect others.
I suspect I could stand to follow that advice as well.
Third Time’s The Charm
So I wrote the first words for the third book in The Downey Trilogy today called Third Time’s The Charm.
YES, I know I should be editing, revising, and proofreading Second of All, and I swear I am, but this morning on my walk it was like I could hear Mickey’s gravelly baritone laugh in my head and I just had to put it down on paper. Or the digital equivalent as it were.
I also thought the title might be a wee bit of comfort to my poor long-suffering beta readers to remind them and you faithful fans and friends of my deep and abiding love of the happy ending, and *spoiler?* the importance of the bittersweet chaotic Act II.
How can you properly appreciate the sunshine without having experienced the darkness first?
As always…just my rambling opinion. 😉 But as I was reminded by my fellow author (and I rather think, friend) Penelope when we write we put out a portion of our hearts, minds, and souls and simply have to hope that you understand what it was we were trying to “say”.
Wishing you all a fantastic and blessed day!
❤ 🙂 ❤
Cross-blogination
It’s so maddening this social media thing. Everyone has their favorite site. ‘Oh have you followed me here?’ Gah! It’s exhausting! I get these requests all the time, add me here, add me there, and I try and comply but to be honest if it’s not on Twitter and Facebook, I probably only check it about once a week! But i’m probably on it … somewhere. I’ve got WAY too many internet timesuckers as it is.
For instance, there are a few sites that I periodically can just get lost for hours at.
www.FBI.gov is one of them. I’m not kidding. It’s really a great site for information gathering fiends like myself. Conspiracy theorists everywhere are cringing! Gen! Don’t you realize they’re tracking you?
Darlings, don’t delude yourself, there is NO WHERE private on the webbernets.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, blogs and websites I love to follow and want to share with you that aren’t currently hosted by WordPress and thus not easily re-blogged. (Or that was what I was about to say before I got sidetracked.)
Cosa Nostra News is one such place I’ll be sharing with you. It’s a little gem. I encourage you to check it out and show Ed Scarpo (that’s an ‘o’, not an ‘a’!) some love by officially following it instead of being one of the half a million lurkers waiting to peep some mobwatcher gossip from both sides of the fence.
http://cosa-nostra-news.blogspot.com/
Welp, that’s all for today, been writing and editing like a maniac. I keep teasing that I’ll post the first chapter of “Second of All” if I hit 200 likes on my FB author page, so people, if you want to see that happen ya gonna hafta show mama some sugar and scare me up some likes.
*smooches*
Holy …. *blush*
Ha! Yeah I went there.
Anyhoo, I have decided whoever invented Pinterest is made out of pure EVIL. Eviiiiiiil. As if I need any more timesuckers in my life! As. IF!
I find myself endlessly window shopping thinking about what would make good background shots for cover art or if I could just find a guy who is the perfect Tommy Gates. I mean that one I posted the other day is really very much how I picture James Hoffman (only of course James would have slightly darker skin tone).
Oh Hell, let’s just look at it again shall we?
Mmmmmn…
But anyway, in addition to the lovely pictures of shoes, and dresses, and food, and architecture, you get little gems like this:
Lord…
I suppose there’s things for straight males to look at as well… perhaps tools or … something.
Is that a Honduran cigar? Cuz I got a guy … No really… I do.
😉
/Random Over
I read everything he writes inside my head with a Scottish accent. #JustSoYouKnow
One of the strangest foibles of human nature is the lunacy of doing the same actions over and over again and expecting different results as a consequence…part of the discovery trail that I’ve been trudging so happily recently involves getting out of my comfort zone, changing my routine, doing what my betters exhort me to do, not just listening to them and nodding like the five-dollar plastic puppy on the car back window… I’ve been told, instructed, advised, …nay… ordered… to get out and about as an author and tell the world about my work as a writer…Now, most scribblers that I’ve met, both online and face-to-face (yes, that still happens), will aver that they write… plain and simply, write… The original wordsmith-y deal didn’t come packaged with the duties of marketing, spouting in public places, book signings, launches, local newspaper and magazine pieces and all of that…
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Been writing…
And that’s a good thing. I think. Or so a small but loyal group of people tell me. 😉 I’ve also read two books in the last week, been to a couple community events, survived family drama, and balanced my checkbook (immensely easy as 0-0 always = 0).
And now, I rather think, I’d like some feedback.
Would you like another excerpt from Second of All or more character background facts? A little of both?
Yes, I’ll keep writing either way.
Oh, and also, plus, too, in addition, I’m thinking of dusting off an almost completed short story I abandoned about Thanksgiving. Might just put that up for free if I can make the time. How about them baked apples?
As always, remember my motto:
Never settle for less than the best in booze, shoes, and men!
I *HEART* the HEA
No seriously, I am very, extremely, completely, (insert adverb here), fond of the Happily Ever After. Just love it! Won’t even read or watch a movie that won’t guarantee me a HEA. Well … except for Gangster flicks. Every rule has to have an exception.
This may lead you to wonder… if Gen loves the Happily Ever After, but also loves writing about gangsters, how on earth can she reconcile the two? Well, given the theme of the Downey Trilogy is about a very moral cop who loves his gangster father, I think you should probably brace yourself for my even greater love of figuring out how two opposing ideas can live in harmony.
The truth is, it’s not about the HEA, it’s that I love a JUSTIFIED ending. And the HEA is justified in most plot lines when it’s been earned, just as the nonHEA is justified in certain endings, which in a way, if you think about it makes it a HEA ending for certain characters. If you give a HEA out when there was never any conflict to begin with isn’t it a bit anti-climactic? Likewise, making an unhappy ending for some characters while giving others one and not really explaining why just shows you have a love for the random and not necessarily a well deserved ending. See what I’m saying? No?
I know, I know … What the Hell is Gen rambling about now?
(I lobtser HATE Godfather III, but simply adore to the point of having it nearly memorized Godfather I & II, if that gives you a clue.)
Anyway, I love it when characters go through Hell. I think every author owes it to their audience to make their characters — whether these are dark characters or Mary Sue perfect characters — suffer a bit, actually quite a bit, before giving them their HEA. And similarly, I feel if you are going to write an UNhappy ending give me a damn good reason why that guy had to die alone next to a stray dog and not the OTHER ‘bad’ guy who died surrounded by his beloved tomatoes and grandchild. Bittersweet endings have their place, like the first in a series or an actual recounting of history, but not after you’ve already made the character suffer in other ways. I’m. Just. Sayin.
Similarly, I’ve always really hated Romeo and Juliet. No, it’s true. It’s not really because of the unhappy ending, it’s because of the inherent stupidity of the two main protagonists. I mean come ON! I’ve been fourteen. All passionately in luuuuurve. But faking your death, then not taking two seconds to doubt the veracity of what you’re seeing and offing yourself for real? I was never that dim-witted when I was fourteen. That’s taking hyperbole and a flair for dramatics to the extreme. No?
See, even as a teenager when first reading it I remember thinking, if I had written Romeo & Juliet it would go something like this:
Romeo gets his priest (who I think everyone realizes was on the take the whole time, right?) to secure passage out of town. Juliet sews a bunch of family jewels into their clothes to pay for the journey. If they have to do the whole over-the-top faking death thing they can stage an explosion/accident (ala Count of Monte Cristo) and they both fake out not only their families but the priest himself (no witnesses!) then they go hide out in a town in Sicily and create their own Mafia family and then decades later they come back to Verona and literally take over the town, round up their surviving ‘loved’ ones, all fuck you bitches, bet you wish you’d just let us get married now huh? See, then all the unreasonable warmongering ones got their just deserts and the ones who just wanted to get the hibbity on got to be together, but only after they worked hard for it. Not to mention your two main characters are no longer written as simpering morons but badass take charge entrepreneurs.
But … that’s probably just me.
I’m weird like that.
Romeo: Corleone’s that way, baby. I got a crib there and everything.
Juliet: Oh, Romeo, I lurve it when you strap your gangster on…
Genevieve Dewey 