So I have been postponing things for awhile... this year has been one procrastination after another. I think the year was so full of different things happening (work, weddings, etc.) that I needed a mental break from getting everything done on time.
I mean I haven't even finished my Thank You notes. Mrs. Manners would be so disappointed.
But anyways, I plan on doing some more posts the next few days.
Well anyways, my brain isn't working... so this will end here and I will go ahead and write up the review... which will probably end up being posted tomorrow since I just started getting a splitting headache.
Wow.
Procrastination and excuses.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Hiatus
Since most of you know this already, I am getting married in August of this year. Because of the fact that planning a wedding takes so much time, I will be taking a hiatus until after the wedding. I will post what I can here and there, but because of this planning and life, writing is going to be something more of a private activity for a bit of time.
I will see you guys soon, married and happy!
I will see you guys soon, married and happy!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Wednesday Review 2/3/10
So this weeks review is on the first book of a series of books I like to read. I'll probably end up doing review on each of the books, but I really wanted to start with book one. Mostly because her most recent installment of the series just came out. The series is called the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series by a lovely woman names Laurell K. Hamilton.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="I love this cover out of all of the different ones that have come out"]
[/caption]
So, this book itself came out in 1993. I probably started reading this series... well there were quite a few of the books out by the time I picked up the series, so lets say maybe 2003 or so. So by the time I came into the series there were several books already out so I got to work through the books pretty steadily at first, then had to be a patient little reader waiting for the next set of books to come out. All in all wasn't too bad of a way to start off the series.
I quickly got addicted to the characters and the story line that followed the series, so about seven years of being an avid reader of hers (including diving into her other series as well, which I will talk about later) I thought I would do a little review on the series. So... here we go.
Guilty Pleasures is a series of books that follows a woman named Anita Blake. Anita starts off the series as a full time Animator (someone who raises zombies) and Vampire Hunter as well as a part time helper of a police squad called RPIT, and goes through this first book introducing us to the world that she lives in where those monsters under your bed and in your closet are real. Here is a good snippet on what happens in the book brought to you by Wikipedia:
So that wraps up what the basis of the first book is about and it sets it up for things to come. That is one thing I like about Laurell. She has a habit, of when writing, that its like life (even though our idea of a life doesn't include what Anita's does) and she writes her books like she's telling a story, like someone retelling an event that has happened. Instead of it being a definitive ending like a lot of stories, where you asking what comes next for these people? and then are left hanging when there is nothing that follows about them. When these stories are written you get the feeling that that story has been told and you know that there will be a new adventure and story with her.
Really that's why I like series books because you get to know characters a lot more then you would in a single book story. You get to get more into the world and the characters in the stories. Things get so rushed in single books, in series you get a chance to explore people and worlds better.
Anyways, to wrap it up, I give this book a 5 out of 5 for books.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="I love this cover out of all of the different ones that have come out"]
[/caption]So, this book itself came out in 1993. I probably started reading this series... well there were quite a few of the books out by the time I picked up the series, so lets say maybe 2003 or so. So by the time I came into the series there were several books already out so I got to work through the books pretty steadily at first, then had to be a patient little reader waiting for the next set of books to come out. All in all wasn't too bad of a way to start off the series.
I quickly got addicted to the characters and the story line that followed the series, so about seven years of being an avid reader of hers (including diving into her other series as well, which I will talk about later) I thought I would do a little review on the series. So... here we go.
Guilty Pleasures is a series of books that follows a woman named Anita Blake. Anita starts off the series as a full time Animator (someone who raises zombies) and Vampire Hunter as well as a part time helper of a police squad called RPIT, and goes through this first book introducing us to the world that she lives in where those monsters under your bed and in your closet are real. Here is a good snippet on what happens in the book brought to you by Wikipedia:
Anita Blake lives in St. Louis, Missouri, in a world where magic, vampires, werewolves, and the like are, and have always been, "out of the closet" and, in some cases, even legal. Anita is an "animator," with the ability to raise or inter zombies. She uses this ability in employ at "Animators, Incorporated," where she raises the dead for various purposes including murder investigations, will explanations, and other legal services. Anita also works as a "vampire executioner," killing vampires (by court order) and advising the police on supernatural crimes. This first book takes place in July when Anita is 24.
In Guilty Pleasures, Anita is blackmailed by Nikolaos, the vampire master of the city, into investigating a series of vampire murders. During the course of this investigation, Anita begins her relationship with Jean-Claude, another master vampire, and receives two of the four marks necessary to make her Jean-Claude's "human servant." Ultimately, Anita identifies the murderer, but by that point has sufficiently antagonized Nikolaos and her underlings that she is forced to confront them. Ultimately, with help from Jean-Claude and Edward, a human associate who specializes in assassinating supernatural targets, Anita kills Nikolaos and many of her followers, making Jean-Claude master of the city.
So that wraps up what the basis of the first book is about and it sets it up for things to come. That is one thing I like about Laurell. She has a habit, of when writing, that its like life (even though our idea of a life doesn't include what Anita's does) and she writes her books like she's telling a story, like someone retelling an event that has happened. Instead of it being a definitive ending like a lot of stories, where you asking what comes next for these people? and then are left hanging when there is nothing that follows about them. When these stories are written you get the feeling that that story has been told and you know that there will be a new adventure and story with her.
Really that's why I like series books because you get to know characters a lot more then you would in a single book story. You get to get more into the world and the characters in the stories. Things get so rushed in single books, in series you get a chance to explore people and worlds better.
Anyways, to wrap it up, I give this book a 5 out of 5 for books.
Cara Mia Amore
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Tuesday Random Post 2/2/10
So... I had yesterdays and today's posts all written up and... poof! they disappeared into the abyss of my work computer as we lost power at work. Which brings me to the wonderful new, and different, topic for this random topic of Tuesday. THE SAVE BUTTON.
I am usually a very anal person when it comes to constantly saving when I am working on projects, especially on word or some system I know has the potential of crashing at any point. I learned that lesson many years ago when I was first starting to write and lost an ENTIRE beginning of a manuscript I had written because I forgot to save and word crashed and was unable to recover the document.
What sucks about work is that our computer systems are on a shared server (as are most companies), so if power goes out or your system goes down for any reason you lose what you were working on and very rarely can recover documents that were unsaved to your system. And because I was getting busy at work and only periodically working on my mock ups of my posts for this week, I had overlooked saving as I usually do when the system went out I knew that I was screwed.
As a writer, most of you understand the importance of saving constantly as well as keeping backups, especially when we are a writer who's livelihood is based on making sure that their work is not lost to evil computers. And those of use who don't base our livelihood on writing, but wish we do, still would die if we lost our works. So I tell you all this:
USE THE SAVE BUTTON!!!!!
I am usually a very anal person when it comes to constantly saving when I am working on projects, especially on word or some system I know has the potential of crashing at any point. I learned that lesson many years ago when I was first starting to write and lost an ENTIRE beginning of a manuscript I had written because I forgot to save and word crashed and was unable to recover the document.
What sucks about work is that our computer systems are on a shared server (as are most companies), so if power goes out or your system goes down for any reason you lose what you were working on and very rarely can recover documents that were unsaved to your system. And because I was getting busy at work and only periodically working on my mock ups of my posts for this week, I had overlooked saving as I usually do when the system went out I knew that I was screwed.
As a writer, most of you understand the importance of saving constantly as well as keeping backups, especially when we are a writer who's livelihood is based on making sure that their work is not lost to evil computers. And those of use who don't base our livelihood on writing, but wish we do, still would die if we lost our works. So I tell you all this:
USE THE SAVE BUTTON!!!!!
Cara Mia Amore
Monday, February 1, 2010
Monday Character Development 2/1/10
**This is actually a delayed posting, I apologize for the lack of post on scheduled day**
With this first Character Development post I want to also introduce you to the form I use in keeping track of my characters, that way everything is uniform in how I keep things filed. With that being said, I am going to do this first character development on a character that is a character in one of my shorter stories in my world.
Name of character: Neasa.
Main novel: God's Story.
Role in novel: Major character.
Physical description, distinguishing marks: She is short, right around five feet tall, she has chesnut brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. She is a bit over weight compared to the standards of what you would see. Her hair is to the floor and is normally in three braids and then wrapped around her head to “crown” her. Her form is ever changing and never settling. She takes the form of whatever child is in front of her or needing her. Because all of her Children have a variety of different forms that is why her form never truly settles around them. When she is just around her husband, who is the same way, her from goes through the different stages of life: maid, mother and crone. She also bears a scar that goes across her abdomen from the birth of her children.
Birthdate: Unknown, the only ones who would have any idea of her age or birthdate would be the fates, but because there is no sense of time or a way of tracking it on Calypto.
Place of birth: Calypto
Spouse: Asher
Children: Alastar, Keeva, Leander, Naida, Drake, Draca, Lupus, Phoebe, Raven, Phoenix, Marius, Deirdre, Jorun, Marah, Alvar, Fae, Micah, Ceri, Caden and Tristan. These are her children but not in a traditional sense. She did not carry them individually but all at once and they burst into being from her abdomen, hence the scar, but they come out in full adult form with all their powers and gifts.
Mother: Technically she has no biological parents. She and Asher were brought into being by the Fates to start a world that they foresee.
Father: See above.
Siblings: None.
Occupation: She's a god.
Residence: Calypto.
Age (separated by story): Unknown.
Godshape: Anything and everything.
Powers and affinities: Basically Neasa and Asher have all the powers that are even possible to have. Their magic is what allows their children and their children's children to have magic. There is no magic that exists outside of the magic that Neasa has. She has an affinity with death and chaos. She can cause death or mayhem with a thought and is only balance out by Asher.
Race: God.
Notes: The Fates lived alone on Calypto with no true purpose. A vision is had of a world of gods and world of non-gods. To make this future and to give them a purpose, the three fates create a man and a woman. They are opposites of each other. Neasa short where Asher is tall. Neasa dark where Asher is fair. Life and death. Creation and destruction. Peace and war. Yes, they have all the powers out there, but Neasa has more strength with the darker powers focused around death. Asher is focused around lighter magic. Neasa and Asher are by themselves on Calypto for quite a bit of time similar to Adam and Eve in Eden.
Cara Mia Amore
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday Background and World Building 1/31/10
So this Sunday's World Building and Background is going to be just a generic introduction into my world.
The world that my stories revolve around is called Torrest Reyenne. It was created by some very bored gods who were bugging their parents. Mommy and Daddy dearest (more about these two on a later date) decided to make a contest for their children. They would join together and create a world. They would then have to populate the world with their children. Basically what the contest does is get the whiny bored gods out of Mommy and Daddy's hair.
Torrest Reyenne is a world of magic, there are magical powers, the ability to switch shapes.
Its a world very similar to our own. Their technology is as advanced as our as well as in some places being slightly more advanced (working on the specifics of that)
There is a lot that I am trying to work out right now, but that is the gist of it for now.
The world that my stories revolve around is called Torrest Reyenne. It was created by some very bored gods who were bugging their parents. Mommy and Daddy dearest (more about these two on a later date) decided to make a contest for their children. They would join together and create a world. They would then have to populate the world with their children. Basically what the contest does is get the whiny bored gods out of Mommy and Daddy's hair.
Torrest Reyenne is a world of magic, there are magical powers, the ability to switch shapes.
Its a world very similar to our own. Their technology is as advanced as our as well as in some places being slightly more advanced (working on the specifics of that)
There is a lot that I am trying to work out right now, but that is the gist of it for now.
Cara Mia Amore
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Saturday Plans, Rants and Reflections 1/30/10
Plans
Rants
Reflections
So this week my plans are relatively simply. This week I want to really push at actually writing and not just planning on the writing. I've been distracting myself a lot with the outlining and background building lately and not actually getting any where on any on my stories. So, here is my goal: I want to try and get 100 words a day on each of the three main stories. This is relatively simple way to start, because I can't guarantee when and how much I get to write a day, so I figure 100 X 3 = 300 words a day. Not hard at all.
I also want to finish a few of the planning items that I have been working on for awhile to get nailed down and finished up. Mostly the outlines right now. I have them pretty much done for now besides Aislynn's. Then I want to move on to the generic outlines for the three shorter stories.
Rants
This weeks rant is brought to you by the Rocky Mountain Bridal Show. I went to one today, and I need to stop going to them. I have pretty much everything I need nailed down besides a baker. But finding a baker is becoming increasingly difficult because we don't want a traditional cake because neither the groom to be or myself really like cake. I really like the idea of doing a desert bar type situation with a collection of deserts, but we'll have to see how that goes. My mom really wants us to do the "cutting the cake" situation so we'll have to see what we can do with that. Maybe we'll do a "cutting the cheesecake".
Along the same lines, since I decided to go to one that was quite a bit of ways out from where I actually live, I decided to stay for the majority of the show. Including the fashion show at the end. I usually don't like to stay for those because I've already got my dress and the dresses for a majority of the party, but I wanted to see what kind of things have come into popularity (not that I go by popular standards) since the last time I checked. So I go into the conference room where they were holding the fashion show and sat next to a mother and her daughter. We waited until the lame music started, then we heard a sad story about a woman who won this competition to plan and have a wedding in one week -- it was sad because apparently this woman met the man of her dreams a few weeks after her daughter died, dude, I wanted to cry -- then they started filing out. First off, I've seen better fashion shows put on by middle school children who have never see a fashion magazine in their life. The models they got had obviously never done a show before (which would have been fine) and had no emotions or expressions in the show (which was lame beyond belief).
God, it was nearly unbearable. Not to mention the outfits sucked major cookies. And then choked on them. Then tried to eat them again.
Reflections
I don't really have any major reflections besides to say that I love that my lovely fiance is bearing with me through all of the craziness of this wedding planning and would stick beside me through anything. I love him completely.
Cara Mia Amore
So, I've already been slacking...
So I just wanted to come here and get this updated. I am going to start up a post schedule for different things I plan to do on each day of the week. This way I'm hoping if I get something scheduled then I'll be able to push myself to writing daily on the topic of that given day. I'm going to do the schedule as a backbone to random-every day postings as well. Oh, and since I am trying to focus this blog on my writing, a lot of the daily themes are going to be focused around my writing and trying to make it better. Here is rough draft number one for the weekly schedule:
So that's where I'm at now. I'll try and get this schedule going as soon as I can.
- Sundays: Background and world building.
- Mondays: Character development.
- Tuesdays: Random.
- Wednesdays: Review days.
- Thursdays: Free writing
- Fridays: Random.
- Saturdays: Weekly rant, next weeks goals, reflections.
So that's where I'm at now. I'll try and get this schedule going as soon as I can.
Cara Mia Amore
Sunday, January 3, 2010
A brand new home
So, my lovely world press world, I have come to join your numbers. I have come to enjoy this world. I have a blogger blog out there that I use as well, and depending on which one of these sites I like more will decide how I was to proceed and who I will continue to post to. For now, this is me saying welcome. Expect an actual post before too long.
Cara Mia Amore
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