Let It Go

I recently saw Disney's Frozen.  What a wonderful sister movie!  If you have a sister, take her!  Which sister do you identify with the most?  I am more like Anna.  I am the younger sister, therefore I understood what it was like when my sister outgrew the things we once enjoyed doing together.  In my youth, I used to be more impulsive in matters of the heart; where I'd mistake infatuation for something more.  I know my sister would have said the same as Elsa did if I had made a rash decision about a man.  Though Elsa reminded me more of my sister, there was a little part of me that could identify with Elsa, especially during the Let It Go scene where she builds her castle.  I am like Elsa, where I hide my talent, yet in solitude, I create.  First, I begin by creating a character like Elsa created Olaf.  Next, she found a place to build her castle, which is the setting.  The ice castle represents the story that I'm writing; the ice walls are the structure of the plot and it grows and branches out.  If only writing went that quickly and smoothly!  My heroine in my novel The Whisperer of Storms could identify with Elsa as well.  She has kept a secret about herself, but will get the opportunity to let it go as Elsa did.  

In addition to the holidays, this month also had a Friday the 13th.  Not only that, but it was also the 13th year of this century.  Some members of my family believe in unlucky number 13!  It reminds me of researching the Romany (Gypsies) because they are very superstitious.  They believe certain objects are either good luck or bad luck.  It makes me sometimes wonder if we might have some Romany someplace in our family tree, especially with those of us who have dark hair/eyes and an intuitive nature!

Since the holiday season will soon come to pass, I am looking forward to having more time to read and write.  My New Year's resolution is to finish my novel in 2014 and hopefully get it published the same year.  Stay tuned for updates!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Veronica

The Holidays and Goodreads

The holidays are upon us!  I hope you are enjoying this holiday weekend with friends and family.  It got me thinking about holiday decorating and shopping.  My autumn/harvest decorations will most likely stay up through this weekend.  I do not believe in shopping on Thanksgiving day.  I have never gone out shopping on Black Friday, but I do shop online if I find good deals that are on the shopping list.  I haven't started my Christmas shopping yet.  I normally start on Black Friday, but didn't find a thing that I wanted nor needed this year.  I try to send out Christmas cards around the second week in December.  I usually start putting up Christmas decorations in early December, but the tree doesn't go up until mid-December and stays up through January 6th.  We celebrate the 12 days of Christmas that way.  When do you like to do your shopping and decorating?  Are you an early bird or do you wait until the last minute?

As you can see by the new gadget I've added that I've recently joined Goodreads. I have spent some time building up my book list.  It's difficult to remember all the books that I've read in my life.  If I can't remember much about a book, I'll mark it as read, but I don't rate it.  I plan to review some of my favorite books when I find time.  Check out my page.  Can you tell what my favorite genre is? 

Enjoy the rest of this holiday weekend!

Veronica  

The Stranger

Just when I thought chivalry was dead, a younger man held the door for me at a restaurant today.  He really took me by surprise and I need to learn not to judge by appearances.  He was clad in a leather Harley jacket, complete with a bandana, sunglasses and stubble.  I guessed him to be in his early thirties.  He was just shy of 6 feet in height.  He had dark hair.  I am left to wonder what color his eyes were since he was wearing sunglasses.  He was in front of me and I remember thinking as he opened the door, that he'd only hold it for himself.  Not only did he hold it open, but he held it for my daughter and I to walk through.  She was lagging behind, but he held that door open for her.  I smiled back at him and thanked him.  He seemed the quiet type and replied unsmiling with a "Yep."  As I got on the road again, I kept thinking about that courteous stranger in the leather jacket.  I wondered what his story was.  I wondered where he came from and who taught him his manners.  He really intrigued me and I'm thinking he could be an inspiration for a potential character.  Isn't it funny where inspiration can strike?

What I love about driving in the country on a nice day is being allowed time to think.  I thought about a scene that I need to change in my work in progress.  It doesn't work the way I have it right now, so I have to ax a scene and revise another one!  The discarded scene will go in my delete scenes file, since I don't like to completely delete anything.  Hopefully, I can stay awake long enough tonight after the kids go to bed to work on it without falling asleep in front of the computer!  If I didn't need sleep, I'd have more time to read and write!

Veronica

The Never-Ending Dream

I've decided to give you a sample of my writing.  I found this under "Your Weekly Writing Prompt" from Writer's Digest Week in Review Sept. 28, 2013.  I normally don't participate in the writing prompts but this one interested me.  

At an old bookstore, you find a book that helps you interpret your dreams. But something is strange about it. You fall asleep reading the book, and find yourself in a dream that you cannot wake up from. What is it? And how will you snap back to reality?

Strange enough, I had a dream like this once when I was a child.  I was able to wake up, but I kept falling back to sleep and right back into the dream.  I knew it was a dream, but I couldn't wake up!  I remember trying to open my eyes, but I couldn't.  I do not remember how I finally got myself to wake up, but I'll let my imagination take over with the retelling from an adult POV:

Autumn leaves crunched under my feet as I entered an old bookstore.  A bell on the door announced my arrival.  The scent of old books and a couple of gray cats greeted me before the wizened shopkeeper did.  He directed me to a miscellaneous section of used books.  In perusing the selection, I was able to find what I had been looking for:  A Guide to Interpret Dreams.  The book was an old, brown hardcover with black embossed lettering on the spine and yellowed pages. I paid for my purchase and gave a farewell pat to the cats before I left.   
When I got home, I changed into my pajamas and sat down in my favorite reading chair.  I held the book in my hands, studying the cover.  I had been having a reoccurring dream as of late, where I am alone on a dark night.  The only thing I could remember about the place was a courtyard with a stone fountain.  As I opened the book, I wondered if it would provide me with answers.  After reading a few pages about symbolism, I began to feel drowsy . . .   

I find myself in the dark of night, in the courtyard of my dream, wearing only a white gown.  I suddenly sense that I am no longer alone.  I am frightened because I know a man is looking for me and what he wants from me.  His seductive lure beckons me.  I cannot escape him.  Out of the darkness, he emerges.  His pale skin is a sharp contrast to his midnight black hair and cloak.  He takes a step towards me.  I back away into a hard stone surface.  I look behind me to discover it is the fountain.  I look into the water and I suddenly see myself asleep in my home with the dream book.   
It's only a dream! I tell myself.  
I attempt to open my eyes, but they feel as though they are glued shut!  I look back at my pursuer who is closing in faster than humanly possible.  Was he not just ten feet away?  He is right in front of me!  I will not run.  That will only entice the hunter in him.  Besides, I have nowhere to go.  He will catch me before I can take one step.  If flight is out of the question, the other option is to confront him.  
"Why are you keeping me here?!"  I demand.
He smiles and I can see the hint of a fang glinting in the moonlight.
I attempt to open my eyes again, but I cannot.  No, there’s another way.
He reaches out to touch me.  I tumble backwards into the fountain.

I woke up in my chair, with the dream book in my hands.  I went to the bathroom to splash water on my face.  As I stood in front of the mirror, I discovered two small puncture wounds on my neck!  
       

Just in time for Halloween and the Dracula series premiere!  I wanted to give you an idea of how I can spin a tale.  As I mentioned above, my inspiration was from a childhood nightmare.  The most challenging part for me was figuring out how to wake from the dream.  After a few days of sitting on it, I figured out that a body of water was the key, something that would show her that she was dreaming and showed the way out, thus I created the fountain.  I decided to use past tense for her conscious parts and present tense for the dream.  I would love to describe the bookstore with more detail, but we were only allowed a maximum of 500 words.

Happy Halloween!

Veronica

More Than One Baby

In a recent post from Writer's Digest, they talked about not limiting yourself to just one story and how many authors hit it big with their second and third novels.  I plan to have more than one baby, that is, I plan to write more novels after I complete my first.  These are a couple that I've been dreaming up:

Contemporary Suspense - A young homicide detective with strong instincts is assigned a high profile case.  Contains paranormal activity.

Paranormal Contemporary - This is a Twilight-inspired tale that I tentatively titled Nightfall.  It begins with the heroine crashing a funeral.  (No, I did not get the idea from Wedding Crashers.)

With working in the library recently, I had a girl ask for help finding a book for Accelerated Reader.  She said she wasn't allowed to read anything with magic in it.  This surprised me.  It's good that parents monitor what their children are reading, but to limit them that much.  I kept thinking, "No Harry Potter?  No Lord of the Rings?"  I couldn't imagine my parents putting limitations like that on me!  I wouldn't have been able to read anything that sparked my interest!  How depressing!  The only limit I put on my own children is mature content.  I guess that means I will have to hide all my romance novels when they get into their teens!  ;o)  I think it's fine to monitor what your child reads, but be reasonable!  You could be limiting them in their future endeavors!  Let their imaginations soar!

With the start of October, I've been busy harvesting the garden and working on Halloween costumes.  I am also working on a little piece from the WD weekly writing prompt called The Never-Ending Dream.  Keep watching for it.

Veronica

The Digital Upgrade and the Little Guy

Following Twitter, I got an update that Hugh Jackman was in small-town Iowa this past weekend!  What in the world was Hugh Jackman doing in a little town in the middle of Iowa???  I have to admit that I am familiar with Iowa, but I had to consult a map to find out where in the world Iowa Falls was!  With reading up on it, I discovered it was the hometown of Jackman's agent, who purchased his hometown theater and reopened it the opening weekend of Hugh's new movie, Prisoners.  Unfortunately, I found out about this the day after, which was much too late to hop in the car for a road trip.  That's typical!

The whole thing got me thinking, though.  With the dawn of digital, some of the small theaters here in the Midwest are struggling to come up with the money to purchase the digital equipment required for showing current films.  That is the case for two drive-in theaters near me.  One of the theaters has thrown in the towel and will be closing at the end of this season.  Why?  I think Hollywood should take a page from Hugh Jackman's book, and support these theaters.  A celebrity endorsement would save all of them.  You see many celebrities supporting charities because they are financially capable of doing so.  They could easily sponsor a struggling theater.  Wouldn't it be only right to give back to their fans and keep the small town cinemas open?  I am so grateful to have a local theater in our town, which has fortunately been able to upgrade to digital.  It is very convenient.  I couldn't imagine having to drive 20 miles to the closest theater.  I think I would miss seeing many movies if that was the case.  In addition to a higher priced movie ticket, I would also be paying for gas, and it would take extra time for driving.  With my local theater, I can go to the 7 PM showing and be back in time to put my kids to bed.  I think if more stars realized this, they would gladly contribute.

I recommend that if you live by or know of one of these "endangered" theaters, to write to your favorite stars and bring it to their attention.  Who better to help than the people who sell the popcorn?
Edited to add:  Better yet, write to a representative, like an agent.  That way, your letter doesn't get buried under a ton of fan mail, and they usually have several clients, so you would be reaching more celebrities with one letter. 

Autumn days are on the horizon.  It's time to start decorating!

Veronica
   

The Wolverine

What a busy summer it has been!  At least I can say we've had plenty of family time in the past month with short trips and family gatherings.  Now that school is starting, I hope I will have more time to read and write.

One place I haven't been to very much this summer is the movies.  I took the kids to a couple of family movies, but I hadn't been out to one by myself until this weekend when I saw The Wolverine.  From what I saw from the previews, it didn't look like it would interest me, except for Logan's nightmares about Jean.  Since Wolverine is my favorite character from X-Men, I wanted to see this movie.  It was in fact, the only movie I really wanted to see this summer that wasn't in the family genre.  I am happy to say that it exceeded my expectations.  The first scene of the movie starts off with Logan witnessing the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.  It was a horrible part of history, but it was amazing how they recreated it.  That was the hook for me.  Knowing that Logan had a past in Japan snagged my interest and I was ready to journey back there with him.  In addition, he had to resolve his inner conflict with destroying the woman that he loved.  Ah, the tormented hero!

One of my college roommate's biggest complaint about me was how I analyzed movies.  I now believe it was because I was thinking like a writer.  I am now going to analyze this movie (sorry, my old roomie!)  In the last movie, which was the Wolverine prequel, Logan lost all his memories.  Since he dreamed about Nagasaki, apparently his memory of it returned.   I didn't understand how he could remember Yashida but not his first love, Kayla.  Did it mean that his memories were gradually returning through dreams since the subconscious never forgets, or that the writers made a HUGE error?  I am thinking that it's the former since he dreamt about Japan in the beginning.  Regardless, it really caused the gears in my head to turn. 

People might think that I got some ideas for my novel from this Wolverine movie, but I will say here and now that it was already written (my manuscript is currently over 62,500 words) when I watched the movie.  I may get a little inspiration from Logan's dreams, but that's it!

I see that X-Men's next movie Days of Future Past is in post-production and that Anna Paquin returns to play Rogue.  I've always secretly hoped that when she came of age that she and Logan would get together!  It's probably wishful thinking, but hey, he's immortal!  He's been robbing the cradle through the whole series!  Why stop now?

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Veronica