The YAthenaeum is giving away advance reader copies of The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan and The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon. Whoo hoo! Maybe this will be the day my luck changes, and I can possibly win an ARC of TDL!
Good luck to all who join. The rules of the contest can be found in the link.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Pseudonyms
I was born under the name Amber, and it's done me true all my life, but when I was ten or eleven, I lived in a neighborhood where there were two Daves, two Mikes, and two Ambers. They became Big Mike and Little Mike, Big Dave and Little Dave, and there was no way in a burning eternity I was going to become Little Amber, so I picked up a baby name book from my mum (she'd just found out I was going to have a little brother) and discovered that Amber meant 'Jewel.' This is a load of crap, as amber is actually nothing more than fossilised tree sap. Amy was just above it, and meant 'beloved,' so I chose Amy, and I have been Amy for over ten years now.
I'm not sure how names go when publishing - if I'm going to be forced to write under Amber, or if I can have them print Amy when it's published, and then note in the little author's blurb at the back that my name is actually Amber - but I've decided that since I have plans to write novels in two entirely different genres (Eversong falls under 'fantasy', YA or not, but there's two more that are definitely going to be Historical Romances) I'm going to write my historical roms under a psuedonym.
I'm going to be coy, and use a nickname that I created as an inside joke with some friends, when we were discussing freedom fighters and revolutionaries - Kori de Liberte. (Kori of Liberty, basically. XD) Kori is my internet handle on most websites (or the full version, Koritsimou, but as most people can't even spell that, much less pronounce it, Kori I have become.)
A fantasy trilogy under the name Amy Kinsey, and a set of historical romances under the name Kori Deliberte. I'm going to giggle insanely every time I step foot in a bookstore, and see Kori Deliberte on the shelves, I just know I am.
One of my fondest dreams, in fact, is to walk into a bookstore, and look at Eversong on the shelves, and have someone walk up and start checking it out, and then discreetly sidle over and tell them about it, say that it's very good, and I should know - I wrote it. In those exact words. It's another very fond dream of mine to talk to some of my favourite authors (a dream that's coming true via Twitter, mostly) and I think that would be the most delightful bomb to drop into someone's lap. They're talking to the author.
*sigh* Someday. Someday.
I'm not sure how names go when publishing - if I'm going to be forced to write under Amber, or if I can have them print Amy when it's published, and then note in the little author's blurb at the back that my name is actually Amber - but I've decided that since I have plans to write novels in two entirely different genres (Eversong falls under 'fantasy', YA or not, but there's two more that are definitely going to be Historical Romances) I'm going to write my historical roms under a psuedonym.
I'm going to be coy, and use a nickname that I created as an inside joke with some friends, when we were discussing freedom fighters and revolutionaries - Kori de Liberte. (Kori of Liberty, basically. XD) Kori is my internet handle on most websites (or the full version, Koritsimou, but as most people can't even spell that, much less pronounce it, Kori I have become.)
A fantasy trilogy under the name Amy Kinsey, and a set of historical romances under the name Kori Deliberte. I'm going to giggle insanely every time I step foot in a bookstore, and see Kori Deliberte on the shelves, I just know I am.
One of my fondest dreams, in fact, is to walk into a bookstore, and look at Eversong on the shelves, and have someone walk up and start checking it out, and then discreetly sidle over and tell them about it, say that it's very good, and I should know - I wrote it. In those exact words. It's another very fond dream of mine to talk to some of my favourite authors (a dream that's coming true via Twitter, mostly) and I think that would be the most delightful bomb to drop into someone's lap. They're talking to the author.
*sigh* Someday. Someday.
Self-made icons and a meme!
Currently on the iPod: Caroline Lost - Stars (from the film adaptation of the book The Little White Horse)
Currently doing: Reading The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice.
I was reading Jennifer B. White's blog and she posted the most adorable meme.
Now, the majority of my meme madness goes into my LJ, where I can inflict it upon my poor, unsuspecting friends, but as this concerns the book, I simply had to post it here.
But first, I've created two LJ icons for my own use. (Please don't take them. They make sense to no one else but me, anyway! I just wanted to show them off.)
Jessica Szohr is how I imagine Vicky would look, specifically in the picture I posted in my last entry, and when I realised I had no Eversong icons, I immediately turned her into one. Naturally, she has absolutely nothing to do with Eversong (now, or ever, I'm afraid, but it's nice to dream freely) and I'm only using her face as a reference of sorts.
The next one was born of my attempt to find a good picture for the facebook page I made for the book. (it's never too early to start building a fanbase!) I searched 'free fantasy pictures' on google, and this was one of the results. I played with the colours a bit, because the girl was green, and the background was green, and it was difficult to tell there was anyone there at all, but it's absolutely perfect. I must dig up the full picture and show it off. I adore it so hard.
(dug up the full picture of the second icon. very beautiful!)
And now, onto the meme!
(Hopefully) Twenty five things you didn't know about Eversong!
1. The main character, Victoria Crawford, is named after my best friend, and my favourite character from Weiss Kreuz.
2. The first novel, Eversong, has roughly twenty six chapters in the outline.
3. Vicky's mum, Claire, was named after Claire Redfield of Resident Evil fame.
4. Vicky herself is based unashamedly upon myself. I will endeavor to see that she's not a 'mary sue' despite this fact.
5. Final Fantasy 9 Piano Collections inspired quite a few scenes.
6. The timeline I wrote covers just over a hundred years of backstory, but most of it will never see print.
7. I drew a very crude map (I believe I've mentioned I'm no cartographer) and created an entirely new language and religion.
8. A great deal of Eversong was based off of a four-year RP between a good friend and I.
9. The beginning and all 'earth' scenes take place in my home town of Virginia Beach.
10. The trilogy has no name (I'm open to suggestions with this, though.) Book one is simply Eversong, book two is Return to Eversong, and book three is Eversong: Dark Star Rising.
11. Vicky is not the first of her family to wind up in Eversong.
12. By chapter 12 of book 1, one of the main characters has died a messy, unpleasant death.
13. Book 2's outline is currently up to twenty nine chapters, and still counting.
14. I'm going to have to poll people on whether or not Vicky should suddenly (but plausibly) turn up with magical powers, because I can't decide for myself.
15. Each of the different races have names that are similar. (Dark Elves[NOT the official word for that race, but simply the best way to refer to them for the moment] have harsh sounding names, usually with unwieldy letters like X - Ixtli; The winged folk [again, not their official name] have airy sounding names, Aeryn, Pennelynn)
16. I have approximately fifteen pages of names written down, scattered through various notebooks. Most of these names will likely make it into the books.
17. Danica's married.
18. I can't decide whether or not to include a prologue. I've heard from a very reliable source that prologues aren't really welcomed by agents, because they give too much away in the beginning, and the information contained within them could just as easily be woven into the main threads of story at some other point. But there's absolutely no way to get everything in my current, mock-up prologue, into the rest of the story without halting the flow, so I'm in the middle of a conundrum.
19. Vicky is very much into foreign music.
20. Chapter 1 eludes me, but I have no problems imagining Vicky's descent into Eversong, which doesn't occur until chapter three in the outline. (the outline is a VERY rough draft, and is liable to change without notice.)
21. There's a possibility for romance between Faye and Daemyn, but I'm not sure. They haven't told me yet.
22. Each book is a self-contained story; it's not like some trilogies, which require all three books in order to resolve the conflict. There is a different conflict within each book, and each is resolved before the end. The three novels are for character development and story progression more than the conflict itself.
23. Two characters from B2 are taken directly from my high school RP, and very nearly had a novel of their own, before they incorporated themselves into Eversong.
24. I can't quite decide if this is going to be considered YA or not.
25. This meme was quite possibly harder to think up than the outline itself has been.
Currently doing: Reading The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice.
I was reading Jennifer B. White's blog and she posted the most adorable meme.
Now, the majority of my meme madness goes into my LJ, where I can inflict it upon my poor, unsuspecting friends, but as this concerns the book, I simply had to post it here.
But first, I've created two LJ icons for my own use. (Please don't take them. They make sense to no one else but me, anyway! I just wanted to show them off.)
Jessica Szohr is how I imagine Vicky would look, specifically in the picture I posted in my last entry, and when I realised I had no Eversong icons, I immediately turned her into one. Naturally, she has absolutely nothing to do with Eversong (now, or ever, I'm afraid, but it's nice to dream freely) and I'm only using her face as a reference of sorts.
The next one was born of my attempt to find a good picture for the facebook page I made for the book. (it's never too early to start building a fanbase!) I searched 'free fantasy pictures' on google, and this was one of the results. I played with the colours a bit, because the girl was green, and the background was green, and it was difficult to tell there was anyone there at all, but it's absolutely perfect. I must dig up the full picture and show it off. I adore it so hard.
(dug up the full picture of the second icon. very beautiful!)
And now, onto the meme!
(Hopefully) Twenty five things you didn't know about Eversong!
1. The main character, Victoria Crawford, is named after my best friend, and my favourite character from Weiss Kreuz.
2. The first novel, Eversong, has roughly twenty six chapters in the outline.
3. Vicky's mum, Claire, was named after Claire Redfield of Resident Evil fame.
4. Vicky herself is based unashamedly upon myself. I will endeavor to see that she's not a 'mary sue' despite this fact.
5. Final Fantasy 9 Piano Collections inspired quite a few scenes.
6. The timeline I wrote covers just over a hundred years of backstory, but most of it will never see print.
7. I drew a very crude map (I believe I've mentioned I'm no cartographer) and created an entirely new language and religion.
8. A great deal of Eversong was based off of a four-year RP between a good friend and I.
9. The beginning and all 'earth' scenes take place in my home town of Virginia Beach.
10. The trilogy has no name (I'm open to suggestions with this, though.) Book one is simply Eversong, book two is Return to Eversong, and book three is Eversong: Dark Star Rising.
11. Vicky is not the first of her family to wind up in Eversong.
12. By chapter 12 of book 1, one of the main characters has died a messy, unpleasant death.
13. Book 2's outline is currently up to twenty nine chapters, and still counting.
14. I'm going to have to poll people on whether or not Vicky should suddenly (but plausibly) turn up with magical powers, because I can't decide for myself.
15. Each of the different races have names that are similar. (Dark Elves[NOT the official word for that race, but simply the best way to refer to them for the moment] have harsh sounding names, usually with unwieldy letters like X - Ixtli; The winged folk [again, not their official name] have airy sounding names, Aeryn, Pennelynn)
16. I have approximately fifteen pages of names written down, scattered through various notebooks. Most of these names will likely make it into the books.
17. Danica's married.
18. I can't decide whether or not to include a prologue. I've heard from a very reliable source that prologues aren't really welcomed by agents, because they give too much away in the beginning, and the information contained within them could just as easily be woven into the main threads of story at some other point. But there's absolutely no way to get everything in my current, mock-up prologue, into the rest of the story without halting the flow, so I'm in the middle of a conundrum.
19. Vicky is very much into foreign music.
20. Chapter 1 eludes me, but I have no problems imagining Vicky's descent into Eversong, which doesn't occur until chapter three in the outline. (the outline is a VERY rough draft, and is liable to change without notice.)
21. There's a possibility for romance between Faye and Daemyn, but I'm not sure. They haven't told me yet.
22. Each book is a self-contained story; it's not like some trilogies, which require all three books in order to resolve the conflict. There is a different conflict within each book, and each is resolved before the end. The three novels are for character development and story progression more than the conflict itself.
23. Two characters from B2 are taken directly from my high school RP, and very nearly had a novel of their own, before they incorporated themselves into Eversong.
24. I can't quite decide if this is going to be considered YA or not.
25. This meme was quite possibly harder to think up than the outline itself has been.
Monday, April 20, 2009
An Ideal
Back when Eversong was in it's infancy (I presume that it's in it's toddler years at the moment) I searched various actors and actresses that, if Eversong were being made into a movie tomorrow, I would choose to portray the characters.
(I am in no way affiliated with these people, their names, or their celebrity status. There is no movie of Eversong yet, though I hope that one day it will be, and if it does get filmed, there is no guarantee that these actors and actresses will portray the characters I chose. This is simply an author's silly dream that I wished to share with the world, and an excuse to present how I imagine the characters in my novels to look.)
Major Characters
Victoria Crawford, generally referred to as Vicky:
Jessica Szohr
Jonas Brightblade:
Jim Sturgess
Jesse Flamestar:
Chace Crawford
Fwaip (pronounced 'Faye'):
Annasophia Robb
Daemyn Swift:
Ben Barnes
Danica Skyheart:
Jessica Alba
Minor Characters:
Ember Flamestar (Jesse's Sister):
Amber Tamblyn
Shian (Faye's mum):
Liv Tyler
Mayra Flamestar (Jesse and Ember's mum):
Keira Knightley
Pennelynn Swift (Daemyn's mum):
Jennifer Garner
My choice of Jessica Szohr and Chace Crawford for Vicky and Jesse was compounded when I found this picture of them on the internet:
You can probably deduce from this that Jesse and Vicky are the center 'romantic couple' of the story, but it doesn't revolve around them. This is a fantasy novel, not a romance.
(I am in no way affiliated with these people, their names, or their celebrity status. There is no movie of Eversong yet, though I hope that one day it will be, and if it does get filmed, there is no guarantee that these actors and actresses will portray the characters I chose. This is simply an author's silly dream that I wished to share with the world, and an excuse to present how I imagine the characters in my novels to look.)
Major Characters
Victoria Crawford, generally referred to as Vicky:
Jessica Szohr
Jonas Brightblade:
Jim Sturgess
Jesse Flamestar:
Chace Crawford
Fwaip (pronounced 'Faye'):
Annasophia Robb
Daemyn Swift:
Ben Barnes
Danica Skyheart:
Jessica Alba
Minor Characters:
Ember Flamestar (Jesse's Sister):
Amber Tamblyn
Shian (Faye's mum):
Liv Tyler
Mayra Flamestar (Jesse and Ember's mum):
Keira Knightley
Pennelynn Swift (Daemyn's mum):
Jennifer Garner
My choice of Jessica Szohr and Chace Crawford for Vicky and Jesse was compounded when I found this picture of them on the internet:
You can probably deduce from this that Jesse and Vicky are the center 'romantic couple' of the story, but it doesn't revolve around them. This is a fantasy novel, not a romance.
Trials
By the time I have any sort of publishment (hush, it's a word because I say it is), I'll either have stopped writing fanfiction, or I'll have buried it far underground while I continue, with absolutely no hints to who I am. But at the moment, I wish someone else was writing Eversong, because I find it infinitely easier to write stories that deal with other people's prefabricated characters. I already know how a certain character is going to react to a certain episode, because I have prior experience with reading and/or watching that character.
Having to write my own characters and make them different from one another, but still likeable enough that they would willingly 'hang out' together is tough.
Added to the fact that most of the time, I picture what's going on in my writing while it's in my head. It plays like a movie in my mind, and then I take that movie and translate it to written words, something like a screenplay in reverse. Eversong simply refuses to play. It's like a scratched up DVD that won't work any more.
I said last night on my Twitter that I needed a creative kick in the head.
Do I ever. It is now the end of April, and I still have less than a page written. I'm going to be very busy in the coming months, the moment my inspiration for the novels arises, because there is absolutely no way I'm going to allow the new year to come and go without having at least the first draft written.
Having to write my own characters and make them different from one another, but still likeable enough that they would willingly 'hang out' together is tough.
Added to the fact that most of the time, I picture what's going on in my writing while it's in my head. It plays like a movie in my mind, and then I take that movie and translate it to written words, something like a screenplay in reverse. Eversong simply refuses to play. It's like a scratched up DVD that won't work any more.
I said last night on my Twitter that I needed a creative kick in the head.
Do I ever. It is now the end of April, and I still have less than a page written. I'm going to be very busy in the coming months, the moment my inspiration for the novels arises, because there is absolutely no way I'm going to allow the new year to come and go without having at least the first draft written.
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