Day Seven

Day seven: Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?

 

I have to listen to something while I am writing. I can’t focus if I don’t. Type of music doesn’t really matter but I have to have some sort of audio going on.

 

My mind has a habit of wandering when I am focusing too hard for some reason. Having it consciously focusing on more then one thing really tends to help me focus. So, having music going while writing lets me divide my mind to both things going on so that I can be more productive.

 

As for assigning songs/music to characters, I don’t really do that. I’ve seen authors spend time putting together play list for their books and characters and I honestly think it’s kind of silly. Now don’t get me wrong, playing certain things to get the juices pumping is understandable. But making one kind of playlist just specifically for a character is taking it a little far in my mind.

 

Past Entries:


Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six

 

Cara Mia Amore

Day Six

Day six: Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?

 

When it comes to writing and comfort, I can really write anywhere. Nothing puts me off writing in the sense of comfort, what has a habit of putting me off would be how easy it will be for me to get distracted. Like if I am at work, I’ll write on breaks and such, but I usually get interrupted with … you know work. Or if I am trying to write on my main laptop, since I can use Netflix or such on it I usually get distracted. But if I am using my netbook I tend to get more accomplished.

Time of day really has no effect on me or my writing. If I get an idea, I write it. Or try to get it down when I can.

As for the medium I write in, it really depends on some other situations: what do I have with me, where am I at, what’s more convenient at the time? I am a fan of writing the old fashion way, with a pen a paper (no pencils!) but in honesty if I have my laptop or netbook I will usually gravitate towards that so I can avoid the transferring from paper to digital format. But I still enjoy the tactile feel of a pen in my hand and it brushing against paper.

Oh and when I do write on paper I don’t use notebooks or free leaf paper, I uses legal tabs. I don’t know why, but that seems to be the only way I can write. It’s weird. Pens, well those will go through different stages, I used to be picky with what kind of pen I was using, but that has pretty much gone away. I tend to prefer ball points compared to a gel type pen because they tend to last longer.

Past Entries:

Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five

 

Cara Mia Amore

Day Five

Day five: By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about your “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?

My oldest character in my stories would have to be The Voice. She’s immortal and a goddess and has been around for about 4,000 years. Give or take a century. But she really doesn’t look that old. Har har.

My youngest characters… well several of my characters have children. So I have had several newborns. But if we are talking more along the lines of characters that actually play more a part then a “prop” (I know that sounds like a cruel way to describe a baby…but seriously that’s what some of them become in my stories. Maybe I should develop my babies more, give them some personality) then the youngest character I’ve written has been ten, and that was Noah in his prologue when he got his powers.

My oldest in terms of who has been around the longest would be Selene. Though she has had many changes of names, she was my first serious attempt at a story (at least the first attempt that I kept) and so she has been with me for about a dozen years and has grown and changed as she tries to tell me her story.

The newest character to really enter the world of my characters would have to be Micah. Which is funny because he is actually Selene’s love interest/husband/father of her children and him as a character and who he is is the newest person to really enter my writing. I have plans for certain other characters but I haven’t written anything on them past an outline and I don’t count them.

Past Entries:

Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four

 

Cara Mia Amore

Day Four

Day four: Tell us about one of your first stories/characters?

The first story I remember writing was about a pair of twins that were separated at birth. One went to a rich family and one to a poor family. I think I wrote it when I was 10 or so. I really don’t remember anything on it other then that… I do remember that I wrote it on an old computer that my parents had and that computer received a blue screen of death and I lost it forever, so I don’t even have any record of that story. I just remember that I wrote something along those lines.

 

The first character that I really stuck with and still have physical proof of (at least of her story) was a girl named Selene. She was actually an introduction into the world that my characters now live in. Selene is a Cat, she has the ability to use magic (specifically premonitions) and can change into a tiger – or has to on the full moons.

 

Her story has been evolving through the years and has actually gone through many changes: names, places, plots, themes. Everything. With her story came the stories of others, stories of her family members and other people who populate her world.

 

She is actually, at this point, a girl who is oath-bound to a goddess. A very cruel goddess. That goddess has a hatred for the different magical creatures because of some past wrong doings and because of that she tortures Selene.

 

Selene’s journey shows her fears, her loves, her conquests and her failures. It’s a fun story to write and she’s a fun character to write about.


Past Entries:

Day One
Day Two
Day Three

 

Cara Mia Amore

Day Three

Day three: How do you come up with names, for characters and places if you’re writing about fictional places?

 

I am actually terrible at coming up with names. You think it would be easy, but I actually stress over this constantly. But usually I will pick one name and let my character try it on first and then it either will stick or not and if it doesn’t I end up changing it. Sometimes randomly.

 

I usually will use things like Behind the Name and other name generators to help the creative process and see if I come up with anything myself or even use some of the names there.

 

For places, that’s even harder. Names for places aren’t like names for people, or at least rarely are they. Since I decided to make my stories in my own world I have been trying to make up names ever since. I’ve gotten some but I’ll need more to use in my world.

 

Past Entries:

Day One
Day Two

 

Cara Mia Amore

Day Two

Day two: How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?

I have had several characters show up in my stories. Each has their own collection of characters that play a part, whether minor or major. Depending on how the story is going and which one I am currently writing, I can have as many as 20 characters who keep reappearing at various points in the story and as little as 10. Now that includes all characters good and bad, major or minor.

When it comes to the sex of my characters, it varies. I definitely feel more comfortable writing the female perspective but that’s because I am one myself. I try and sometimes succeed in writing the male perspective but it a lot more difficult then you would think.

With each of my three stories that I am working on the most I have one main protagonist and one or two antagonists.

• Noah vs. Madoc and the Dallions


• Selene vs. The Voice/Ezra


• Aislynn vs. Cadeyrn and the Voice

Each of my protagonists have the support and family through out the novels as minor characters, and depending on which one you are looking at they are going to have few supporting members up to several.

Past Entries:

Day One

Cara Mia Amore

Review: Paranormalcy

Description: Paranormalcy is the debut novel of writer Kiersten White and was published at the end of August 2010. It falls into the category of young-adult urban fantasy and is about a girl named Evie who works for a secret police force (International Paranormal Containment Agency or IPCA). Evie has been working for IPCA for years because of her own special ability to see through the glamors of other paranormal creatures. Her job is to contain any trouble and make sure all paranormal creatures are tagged and known to IPCA.

The story itself follows Evie in discovering herself and what IPCA is really up to. She is supported by various comic characters (she’s one herself!) including a mermaid with a foul mouth, a shape-shifter that catches her eye, and a fairy that wants more then she wants to give.

This is the first in what will be a trilogy of books. The second is due to come out in August of this year and the third is to be announced.

Reaction: I loved this book. I actually stumbled across the blog of the author well before her book was actually released and enjoyed her writing style there. And since I enjoy supporting those authors that are new to the field, I just had to pick up this book. It was fun and made me fall in love with all the characters.

Kiersten White definitely takes you on the journey very well and the writing flows in a way that keeps you gripped to the book and not wanting to put it down. It was exciting to see where it was go and it made me laugh, cry and want to kill those who dared to hurt her. It was awesome and I love when authors put that much emotion into their writing and make me react that way.

I got a kick of Kiersten White’s lack of cursing in her novel, instead filling the spaces with Beeps, not only just writing them in without explanation, but actually builds it into the story line.

I also enjoyed the romantic tension between Lend and Evie. It’s lots of fun watching teens build with tension and finally give in to it in the end.

Rating: I give this book 5 stars out of 5. It hit everything that makes me enjoy reading.

Cara Mia Amore

Day One

Day one: Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why?




For as long as I can remember, my writing has focused around one “universe”/world. Granted I’ve had many different stories told in that world of mine and the characters that star in those stories have grown and evolved along side that world.

The name of the world is Torrest Reyenne and it is a magical world. It is similar to our world in the sense of the creatures that inhabit the world but it was one created by some bored gods playing a game. This world was created out of magic and is full of it. The gods created their children in their image and gave them magic. As the years passed, some of these children abused what magic they had and since they there are only some that keep the full magic of the gods.

Now we are currently left with humans (those with no magic who have, with time, forgotten/don’t believe in the existence of magic), Cats (those who have full range of powers including the ability to change their shape to a large cat), and Dallions (those who have active magic on a limited level and no god shape). We have a few other exceptions and peoples that I plan to introduce, but those are the ones that I focus on right now.

My stories themselves are centered on two main, warring countries. The first is Hycintha which is the home to the Cats and some humans. The second is Lolia which is the home to the Dallions. These two countries have been at war for several years on and off, and currently the reigning monarchs are at a tentative peace. There has not been any actual fighting because of the friendship between the current monarchs. This war is truly being held because of magic, all the humans know is that its fights for land.

And that, my dears, is a basic overlook into my world and how some of the going-ons.

 

Cara Mia Amore

So... lets try this again.

Alrighty ... so I tried on the last entry. And pretty much failed. So this time I found a way to try and focus myself with getting back into the "blogging everyday" attitude. Awhile ago I found a writing meme that has thirty questions to answer over 30 days. So I think I'm going to use that to go ahead and try getting back in to blogging.

Here are the questions:

1. Tell us about your favorite writ­ing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
2. How many char­ac­ters do you have? Do you pre­fer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for char­ac­ters (and for places if you’re writ­ing about fic­tional places)?
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
5. By age, who is your youngest char­ac­ter? Old­est? How about “youngest” and “old­est” in terms of when you cre­ated them?
6. Where are you most com­fort­able writ­ing? At what time of day? Com­puter or good ol’ pen and paper?
7. Do you lis­ten to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your char­ac­ters?
8. What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
9. How do you get ideas for your char­ac­ters? Describe the process of cre­at­ing them.
10. What are some really weird sit­u­a­tions your char­ac­ters have been in? Every­thing from seri­ous canon scenes to meme ques­tions counts!
11. Who is your favorite char­ac­ter to write? Least favorite?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of world­build­ing? Any side-notes on it you’d like to share?
13. What’s your favorite cul­ture to write, fic­tional or not?
14. How do you map out loca­tions, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
15. Mid­way ques­tion! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether pro­fes­sional or not!
16. Do you write roman­tic rela­tion­ships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you will­ing to go in your writ­ing? ;)
17. Favorite pro­tag­o­nist and why!
18. Favorite antag­o­nist and why!
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove him­self into the spot­light and why!
20. What are your favorite char­ac­ter inter­ac­tions to write?
21. Do any of your char­ac­ters have chil­dren? How well do you write them?
22. Tell us about one scene between your char­ac­ters that you’ve never writ­ten or told any­one about before! Seri­ous or not.
23. How long does it usu­ally take you to com­plete an entire story—from plan­ning to writ­ing to post­ing (if you post your work)?
24. How will­ing are you to kill your char­ac­ters if the plot so demands it? What’s the most inter­est­ing way you’ve killed some­one?
25. Do any of your char­ac­ters have pets? Tell us about them.
26. Let’s talk art! Do you draw your char­ac­ters? Do oth­ers draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite pic­ture of him!
27. Along sim­i­lar lines, do appear­ances play a big role in your sto­ries? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about design­ing your char­ac­ters.
28. Have you ever writ­ten a char­ac­ter with phys­i­cal or men­tal dis­abil­i­ties? Describe them, and if there’s noth­ing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writ­ing? Ever come across some­thing in real life that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final ques­tion! Tag some­one! And tell us what you like about that per­son as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!

 

Cara Mia Amore