Figuring it Out Ahead of Time

Last week I talked about when characters run amok and do something unexpected, and you're left trying to figure out what to about it. If it isn't something you thought of when you originally planned out your book, it may be difficult to figure out where this change can happen. How does it affect the rest of the story? Do you have to completely overhaul the whole book or can you just sneak it in?

If your characters are nice enough, maybe they'll make these random decisions ahead of time so that you don't have to completely change the events of the book. Or maybe it won't be such a life changing event and you can just sneak it in somewhere. The best possible scenario would be to figure it out before you even start writing. If you've got just an outline or even a rough idea in your head of what will happen in the story, it will be pretty easy (or at least not as hard) than having to completely change something you've already written.

Luckily my rogue character was nice enough to throw this curve ball at me before I even outlined the book. When I first thought of the moment when he reveals a secret to the MC, my initial reaction was, "So???" This was a character who was never meant to be important. If you've got an unimportant character suddenly trying to become important, it's going to seem strange. And no one is going to care.

I always had the rough outline in my head of what would happen in the second book. And this particular character was going to have two, maybe three lines. But apparently that wasn't good enough for him. The thing that really changed, though, was having this moment inspire a third book, where said character would be extremely important. But I thought, is anyone going to care? If he was basically a background character in the second book, how believable is it to upgrade him to love interest by the third?

The answer wasn't that hard to figure out. He can't be this cardboard cutout in the second book that I originally planned on. I need to figure out a way to make him more important so that the reader will actually care about him, and also find the third book believable. I don't want to shove him in the reader's face too much because that would drastically change the plot of the second book, but I think there are more subtle ways to sneak him in.

It's just really great that I'm figuring this out now instead of after writing the second book. I'd hate to have to go back and change everything. Imagine if the second book was already published! It would be impossible to change it. So sometimes your characters may do something that throws you off, but if they're nice enough, maybe they'll let you know while it's still early enough to change things.

Chrys Fey's Witch of Death AND The Blood, Boobs & Carnage Blogfest

Today you get a two for one special! Mostly because I can't say no to a blogfest, especially when one of my favorite movies comes to mind for it. But first up is the awesome Chrys Fey here to interview the main character from her new book, Witch of Death. Take it away!!!

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Chrys Fey here. I stole a spot on Sarah’s blog. I hope you don’t mind. And I honestly don’t think you will because I am interviewing the heroine from Witch of Death, Liberty Sawyer. She’s a witch!

Hey, Libby, it’s been a while. I brewed some chamomile tea and have some ginger cookies waiting for us on the porch. Shall we?

Lead the way, Chrys. It’s a beautiful day.

Yes, it is and our readers want to know some things about you. I hope you don’t mind if I ask you a few questions.

Not at all. I’m an open book. Literally.

1. When did you find out you were a witch?

When I was born, my mother held me in her arms and whispered, “Welcome to the world, my darling witch. Happy birthday and blessed be.” So I have known I was a witch from the time I was born, but Mom made sure to pass on the witchy gene way before then. While pregnant with me, she made sure to include my presence whenever casting a circle or spell. I guess you could say I’ve been doing magick since I was an embryo.

2. How did you get the name Liberty?

My parents are both witches and they believe a name is a powerful affirmation. They wanted to give me a name that was strong and could offer me realms of possibilities in life. Thus, I became Liberty, but people call me Libby.

3. What was it like growing up as a witch?

At times, it was lovely. The Wiccan religion, which focuses on nature and Earth, is beautiful. I enjoyed learning everything my parents taught me. But other times, it was tough. I’ve always had black hair and pale skin, and for some reason everyone took that as a sign that I was an evil witch. I didn’t have many friends growing up because of that.

4. Does being a witch count as a pro or a con for being a detective?

I think it’s both. It’s a pro because I often get visions of murders, which helps me greatly with my cases. But it’s also a con when other detectives look at you down their noses and refuse to work with a psychic.

5. Can you tell us about the case you’re working on now?

This case is strange. The victim is a male witch and not only was he killed with magick, he was killed by another witch. I don’t know why and I don’t know who, but I’ll find out if it’s the last thing I do! Except, Reid is an obstacle I did not anticipate.

6. Who’s Reid?

Detective Reid Sanders is a pain in my Wiccan behind! He’s a close-minded Muggle (Thanks, J.K. Rowling!) who can’t see magick when it’s smacking him in the face. We have to work together to catch this witch of death, but he’s being an idiot and thinks I’m a suspect.

7. Why in the world would he think you’re a suspect?

Because I’m a witch and he doesn’t trust me. I could understand his suspicion if I wasn’t a detective, but I am and I take my job very seriously. I could hate him if only he wasn’t so damn sexy.

8. What’s a common misconception about witches?

That we’re evil. Witches believe in harming none. We never do spells that’ll negatively impact another person or take away their free will. Well, we usually don’t but this witch of death is the exception. Unfortunately, there are some bag eggs just like there are for every religion. Witches also believe in the Law of Three, which states whatever we do comes back to us threefold. Any good witch is cautious of what they do because of this, and also because we all think life on Earth is sacred.

Thanks for chatting with me today, Libby.

No problem, Goddess Chrys. Blessed be!

Goddess? Hey, now! I like that! *wink*

Title: Witch of Death

Author: Chrys Fey

Genre: Supernatural/Suspense

Format: eBook Only
Page Count: 45 (short story)

Release Date: May 20th, 2015

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Blurb:

Detective Reid Sanders doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but when he’s faced with a crime scene that defies the laws of nature, he has no other choice but to start believing. And solving a magical murder involves working with a witch.

Liberty Sawyer embodies the look of your classic evil witch, so, it’s no surprise when she uncovers the murderer is a witch that she becomes Reid’s number one suspect. If she can’t convince him otherwise, more people could lose their lives to dark magic, including her.

Available for PRE ORDER:

Amazon US / Amazon UK

Excerpt:

Liberty Sawyer glided swiftly through the horde of police officers, reporters, and on- lookers. Black hair fell from a rigid part in the middle of her scalp to her hips. Her eyes were a soul-stabbing blue and her lips were blood-red. She towered over the other officers on the scene, and wore all black, which set off the pallor of her skin.

Showing her badge to the officer, she slipped under the crime scene tape. A few paces away, she spotted Detective Corbin talking to his new partner, a man she knew by name but hadn’t had the privilege of meeting yet.

“I cannot believe you called her,” the new man was saying when she came up behind them. “We don’t need a damn psychic!”

“Actually, I’m a witch.” She smiled when Reid jolted and turned to face her. “I’m Detective Liberty Sawyer." She stuck out her hand.

“Detective Reid Sanders,” he grunted back and took her hand.

The feel of his palm against hers sent tingles of lust from the tips of her fingers to her shoulder blade, and she knew he felt it too by the way he jerked his hand back. She winked at him playfully, hoping it would unnerve him even more.

ALSO AVAILABLE:

Blurb:

Jolie Montgomery, a twenty-one-year-old woman, wakes up in an alley next to her corpse. She has no memories of her murder or the night she died. She didn’t even see the killer’s face before he or she took her life. Wanting justice, Jolie seeks answers in the only way a ghost can...by stalking the lead detective on the case.

Avrianna Heavenborn is determined to find the person responsible for a young woman’s death. She gets closer to the killer’s identity with every clue she uncovers, and Jolie is with her every step of the way.

But if they don’t solve her murder soon, Jolie will be an earth-bound spirit forever.

Book Links:

 Amazon US / Amazon UK / The Wild Rose Press / NOOK / KOBO

BIO:

Chrys Fey is the author of Hurricane Crimes and 30 Seconds. She is currently working on the sequel to Hurricane Crimes that’ll serve as book two in the Disaster Crimes series.

When Fey was six years old, she realized her dream of being a writer by watching her mother pursue publication. At the age of twelve, she started writing her first novel, which flourished into a series she later rewrote at seventeen. Fey lives in Florida where she is waiting for the next hurricane to come her way. 

You can connect with her on Facebook and her blog, Write with Fey. She loves to get to know her readers! 

Author Links: 

Facebook / Blog / Website / Goodreads 

Thank you all for visiting and hopefully commenting. ;)

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All right, I'm back! Today is also the day for The Blood, Boobs & Carnage Blogfest, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh and Heather M. Gardner! We’re supposed to share a movie, TV show, or book that falls into those three categories. While I couldn’t think of anything at first, I eventually realized that one of my favorite movies fits this perfectly! Plus...it’s a musical!!! Bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you? 

Blood? Most definitely. 

Boobs? I’d say there’s a decent amount of cleavage, at least. 

Carnage? Well, lots of people die and get ground up and baked into meat pies. Does that count???? 

I’m usually quite squeamish but there’s just something about this movie that makes me able to handle it. It’s probably the singing…

Have you checked out Chrys' new books? Anyone else love Sweeney Todd? Don't forget to sign up for The Muse Party Blogfest! It's happening next Monday!

Rambling Time

Ok, I know I said I got an idea for a blog post. And I did. A good one! But I just don't feel like writing it today. Maybe sometime next week. I'm a bit stressed out so I thought I would just ramble for a bit instead.

So I'm still working on all of those things from my last blog post. I've almost finished the first guest post, just need to tidy it up a bit. I keep procrastinating but having it hanging over my head just stresses me out more because I feel really bad about not having it done. Then once that's done I'll start the second one. I still don't know the what the wifi situation will be in Florida, so I'd like to get all this stuff done and some extra blog posts before I leave.

I really don't think those drawings I talked about are going to happen. Maybe if I get a free moment to just sit down and not feel like I should be doing a million other things instead...

My freaking cat is sick again! This time with some kind of stomach bug, I think. I'll spare you the gross details but I will say it usually involves me having to clean his tail or paws after he gets out of the litter box. I thought it was just because of the heat because he got better for a day or two but now he's sick again. I don't know what to do. I can't afford to take him back to the vet since I spent so much the last time he was sick. But if he doesn't get better before we leave, I don't think I can go to Florida. It's just stressing me out worrying about the cat all of the time and not knowing what I should do about it.

Don't even get me started on life stuff! My fiance and I have been talking about moving to LA instead of New York (which would have been my first choice, but anything is better than staying here). I'm stressed out about money and wondering if I'll have enough to make it to when we move. I've got a one day NY trip next month and then my dad's 60th birthday is in July so I wanted to wait until after those because if we move all the way across the country, it's gonna be way too hard to come back for them. But I don't know if my money is going to last that long. My fiance filled out a form to get his student loans forgiven since he works for a hospital and has already made over 5 years of payments, so I'm really hoping he'll qualify because that would really help us out.

Uhh...anything good to share...hmm. Last night my niece had her first dance recital! I used to dance when I was around her age, too, so it was really fun to see.

That's about it. I'm just gonna try not to have a nervous breakdown over here. Have a nice weekend, everyone!!

Oh Right, I Was Supposed to Blog Today...

I woke up this morning blissfully unaware that I needed to write a blog post. Then I turned on my computer and went through the usual routine: email, Twitter, Blogger....ohhhhh. Right. It's Wednesday. I'm supposed to blog on Wednesdays. All I could do was whine, "But I don't want to!"

I think my blogging momentum has finally come to a screeching halt. It's probably equal parts A to Z burnout and just running out of ideas. I've been blogging three days a week all year and it's hard to keep up and come up with ideas. I do have a list of blog ideas, but I feel like I've already picked through all the good ones. If I talk about my writing progress, I feel like I'm just repeating the same stuff over and over again. I'm sure I've already blogged about running out of ideas before, too.

So what am I blogging about today? Nothing, really. Sometimes the ideas just don't come to you. Maybe on Friday I'll have a better idea. That's usually the way it goes. Maybe something will happen with my writing that will inspire a post (Monday's post was kind of like that).

For now I've got sooooooo much stuff to work on. I'm trying to set up for The Muse Party Blogfest. I need to write my post and a "prep" post for the Friday before that (which should be amusing). I also wanted to draw some pictures for it and I'm really not that great of an artist so it'll probably take me a while. I've got TWO posts for other bloggers that I'm working on (one that I should have written months ago). I'm reading a book from my CP (I think I can call her my CP now since I'm actually reading her stuff, lol). AND let's not forget I'm trying to write/outline/brainstorm THREE books. I can't pick which one to work on so I just work on all three.

Aw crap thinking about that just gave me an idea for a blog post!!!!! Oh well.

UGH. All right. I need to get out of here so I can work on all of those aforementioned things. And maybe write a blog post for Friday...

When Characters Run Amok

Most of the time (if you're like me, anyway), your characters dictate what happens in a story. You may not know what's going to happen next, but if you give your characters a bit of freedom, they may lead the way and figure it out for you. Which is usually great. You want your characters to feel like real people and to do realistic things and make choices that feel natural and not crafted by some supreme overlord...I mean, author. But is it possible to give your characters too much freedom? If you let them get too far away from you, will they do something that makes no sense? And then you're left trying to figure out where to go next or to even use this moment at all.

Think about all of the characters in your story like you're keeping them in a giant pen. You have to constantly make sure the gate is locked and no one gets out. You may let one out once in a while but never let them get too far and eventually you have to herd them back in with the others. And if one gets loose on you, all hell could break loose.

I know it sounds silly, because we created our stories and our characters, so they should be following our ideas, right? Well, not always. If you're really stuck trying to figure out what should happen next, sometimes your characters will figure it out for you. Maybe you just think of every possible scenario and whichever one feels right is the one you end up using. Or maybe an idea just randomly pops into your head and even though you never considered it, it feels perfect. So giving your characters a little freedom can be a good thing if it helps you figure something out.

But there is a very good possibility that your characters could take it too far. Maybe you're too busy paying attention to your main characters and one of the minor ones gets loose and does something silly. I'm dealing with the aftermath of this right now, actually. So I have my main WIP and I've been on the fence about writing a sequel for it for a while, but I did have a second book idea in mind. And I had a character who I imagined being basically just some cardboard cutout in the background. At some point where I wasn't paying attention, he snuck out of the pen.

Suddenly I imagined this character revealing something about himself that made zero sense. He wasn't an important character, so why would I need to know anything about him? If I included this information, the reader would probably be left scratching their head saying, "So?" But the more I thought about it, the more ideas came to me, and eventually I had a complete idea for a third book. Sounds crazy, right? It all happened so fast I didn't even know what to do about it. All because I lost control of one insignificant character. Now I'm stuck not only with another book to right, but with the task of making this character more important than I initially planned. It's not really a bad thing, in the end, but I did not see this coming at all.

So watch out for those stray characters. They may get away from you and do something you never imagined could happen.

A to Z Reflections

Well, I suppose it's time to officially wrap up this year's A to Z Challenge. It's been a blast and I will miss all the fun but's it's also a relief to get back to regular blogging and *gasp* maybe working on my novel! But first, reflections!!!

This was my second year doing the Challenge, and I feel as though each year I'll get a little better at it. Last year, I didn't have a theme and wrote every post on the day it went up. This year I planned a little bit more. I did have a theme (The Name Game!!) and before April began I had a list of topics for every letter (except 2 that needed to be figured out). I didn't write anything until the last day of March. I thought this would be the end of the world because I initially wanted every post written before April even began. 

It wasn't a disaster, though. What really saved me was having those ideas already figured out. My theme was sort of complicated in regards to putting topics with letters. I was able to rename topics so they could fit different letters, and so I was able to fit in every idea I wanted to write about. If I was figuring this out day to day, it would have been impossible. Actually writing the posts was not as hard as just figuring out where they would go. I thought I would eventually get ahead, but the best I ever did was writing posts the day before. A few I even wrote on the day they were posted, depending on how much I had procrastinated the day before (usually to the point where I was too tired to write the posts). 

I really liked my topic. I had fun with it. Some ideas came to me right away, others took a bit. I did feel like my enthusiasm wore out as the Challenge went on, and that my earlier posts were better quality than the later ones. I also kind of gave up on finding pictures or gifs to go with the posts. It was a hard topic to find pics for, so after a certain amount of searching and not finding anything, it was easier just to forget about it. 

Where I was really disappointed in myself was in visiting other blogs. I did not get around to a lot of new blogs. I would usually start the day by just going through my blog feed, but since a lot (A LOT.) of blogs I already follow were doing the Challenge, it was a lot to get through. A few times I did try to pick at the list, usually looking at the WR blogs, but I didn't do this as much as I wanted. I was also a minion/sidekick for the first time this year, so I did get to check out a lot of new blogs that way. 

All right, I'm rambling again so I'll wrap this up! Having a theme was super helpful, as well as planning out all of my ideas. I think if I do the Challenge next year, I'd like to actually write the posts ahead of time so that I'll have the month of April just to look at blogs. 

Don't forget to sign up for The Muse Party Blogfest!!! I've already gotten more signups than I thought I'd ever get (you guys are awesome!), but there's still room for more! It should be lots of fun! 

Another Crazy Month

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's the posting day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Click the link to learn more and sign up!

So it's finally May and the A to Z Challenge is over. Most bloggers would want to take a second to breathe. Well, not me, apparently. I feel as though this month is going to be just as psychotic as the last, only with less focus. I've got so much going on and so much I need to do and I feel like it's impossible.

First of all, I'd really like to keep the blogging momentum going, which is great in theory, but can be exhausting. It's mostly because I haven't missed or skipped a day at all this year (I've posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, except of course for April where I posted every day except Sundays!). I'd really just like to keep that going. There are two major problems I see, however: running out of ideas and just burning out.

Then, of course, like the crazy person that I am, I decided to host a blogfest at the end of the month (see shameless plug below). It's not like it was a spur of the moment idea. I've been thinking about it for months. But it's still a big thing to take on.

I also really really really want to finish rewriting/editing Uneven Lines by next month so I can do Pitmad. I don't think it's going to happen but I'm probably not going to officially give up until that day comes. It's the rewriting that drives me nuts. You'd think after four years and writing it three times already, I would have figured out how to properly end this book. Nope!

And then there's life stuff. My fiance and I are trying to figure out what to do with our lives, where we want to move to, when we want to get married, yada yada. My money is close to gone so I have to figure out what to do about that and I spend pretty much every second of every day doing crowdsource work just because it's something. And we're also going to Florida at the end of the month for his grandfather's 80th birthday, and I'm all in a panic wondering if they have wifi because if they don't that means I can't blog or work or pay my bills and I will just be a nervous wreck.

*deep breath* All right, I'll wrap this up before it turns into a novel. Maybe I just need to take a little time each day to relax. Drink tea or do yoga or something. Or try to schedule myself. Oh, who am I kidding? That never works! I'll probably just continue to live life like a chicken with its head cut off!

SHAMELESS PLUG!!!!

For my fourth blogging anniversary, I'm hosting a blogfest! It's a party where you can come and bring your muse or a character from one of your books. Click the picture to get all of the info and sign up! It's happening on May 25 and all you have to do is answer some questions about you and your muse, some of the things you like, and how much fun you'd have at my virtual party! So join in!!! :D