Happy Monday peeps! I'm blogging today to share my latest obsession. Most obsessions can be bad, but for a writer this one is stellar!!!
I've heard about polyvore.com before. I was aware that you could create outfits and I just hadn't made it to the site yet to tinker...well Saturday night I did. I started at 9:00pm...I WAS THERE UNTIL 4:00am!
You can create entire wardrobes for your characters and not only that, but storyboards, too!!!! As in scenes in your book if you fancy. Well, let me tell you I had too much fun. I'll share a few of my favorite wardrobe boards.
Ariel Richmond
My heroine's outfit when she first meets her hero!
Ariel is a total hipster and here's the proof above :D Up next...
Ariel's party outfit!
As you can see, you can also add makeup and more accessories. For any gal that loved paper dolls growing up, you can see my fascination with this!!! It's stellar. Up next...
Piper Lovelace
Ariel's Bestie
Piper is a little bit rockstar, a little bit supermodel, and a little bit Japanese anime. Too fun!
So those were examples of outfit creation. I had one more I tinkered with and it was too fun. Storyboards!!!!
As you can see, you can add text! I put lines fromThe Crimson Huntand added some themes from the book. Super fun!!!
There you have it writers, an excellent tool to get those characters clothes out of your head and on screen and readers use this to just have some fun or coordinate your own outfits or storyboards!!!
Happy creating, peeps!!!
One more thing! The cover for The Crimson Hunt comes out in a few short weeks!!! Watch the blog for updates and if you're a book blogger or just want to help me out ;) email me to participate in the reveal!
My email - victoria (dot) smith775 (at) gmail (dot) com
Today, I have a cover reveal for you! I've read both Taking Shots and Trying to Score by Toni Aleo, so I jumped at the chance to reveal the new cover for her newest book in the Assasins' Series, Empty Net! Without further ado, here we go!
(Oh, and by the way, the cover was created my critique partner Jaycee Delorenzo ;D)
Empty Net (Assassins #3)
by Toni Aleo
Expected release date: September 11, 2012 self published. Synopsis:
Definition of an Empty Net: When a team pulls the goalie for an extra attacker, desperately seeking a goal.
Audrey Parker was in a horrible place.
She hated her job, her sister was getting married and moving out, but worst of all, she was in love with a total jerk. No matter what she did, every guy she met hurt her. All she wanted was her happily ever after. Her Prince Charming. Her Lucas Brooks! She didn’t know how to change her life but she knew she needed too.
Feeling like she was about to hit rock bottom, Audrey wakes up next to Tate Odder.
Tate Odder had lost everything.
After being brought up from the Assassins’ farm team, the Florida Rays to the Nashville Assassins, Tate hopes he’ll forget everything he has lost. He doesn’t. Each day gets harder to live in a place he doesn’t know. Even being the first rookie goalie to shut out an opposing team three times during the Lord Stanly Cup Finals, he still felt empty. With the loss of his parents and sister still heavy on his heart, Tate isn’t sure how to live like everything is okay.
But when he wakes up beside Audrey Parker, things start to change. She turns his life upside down with her kooky sense of humor and her bright clothing. She is intelligent and beautiful, and for once, he doesn’t feel empty.
Will Audrey be the person to fill the holes in Tate’s heart, making him whole again?
Or will another player ruin everything, leaving him feeling forever like an empty net?
I have been told I have anger issues, but I think it’s cause of my intense love for hockey!
I am the biggest Shea Weber fan ever, and can be found during hockey season with my nose pressed against the Bridgestone Arena’s glass, watching my Nashville Predators play!
When my nose isn’t pressed against the glass, I enjoy going to my husband and son’s hockey games, my daughters dance competition, hanging with my best friends, taking pictures, and reading the latest romance novel.
I love things that sparkle, I love the color pink, and did I mention I love hockey?" ~ Toni Aleo
So I made a little announcement a few weeks ago about being PUBLISHED!, and now there's so many things to do to get my new adult science fiction romance, THE CRIMSON HUNT, ready for publication. I have to edit the book, discuss cover art, and...
Give out Swag!
That's right, peeps! Another giveaway has made its appearance. See, I have this problem. I created an author page, but all you cool peeps are following my Twenty Something Fiction Writer page. Well, to ease into the transition from writer to author, I'm throwing a giveaway!
I will give away an indie book (because I just love New Adult indies) when I get 50 likes on my author page...
That's not all!
I will giveaway another book when I get 100 likes...
Still not all!
I will giveaway yet another when I hit 150 likes...
Are you seeing a trend here?
For every 50 Facebook "likes" another book will be thrown into the mix. I will stop giving out new ones at the 500 "like" mark. So what does that mean??? Awesomeness for you! Indie books are CHEAP my friends. So much so, that it should be illegal because these books are stellar! Here is the kitty that's up for grabs:
One person will get to pick from this trove of New Adult goodies. You will get a book for every 50 "likes" of my author page. The giveaway ends in 30 days! So you don't have long, but if you work really hard at spreading the word, you could end up with a whole trunk (well not a trunk), but a crapload of awesome reads!
Help me support these indie authors and help me get some "likes," my friends. The only requirement to enter is to "like" my Facebook author page. Everything else is extra entries. Winner will receive Amazon Kindle eBook copies.
Have fun peeps! Giveaway ends 8/6/12.
Oh, and if you do "like" my page, I promise you'll love it. I'm pretty fun ;D
Shiloh Ravenwolf thought she was getting used to the strange events in Whispering Pines, until the full moon brings another surge of supernatural threats to her coastal town. Ferocious wolves, deadly necromancers, and shambling zombies have descended upon the neighborhood, so Shiloh needs to gain control of her magical abilities—fast!
It sucks that she has a crippling fear of the dark, which for a demon hunter can be an epic problem.
When her classmates are attacked by a mysterious creature and her father is murdered, Shiloh vows vengeance. Forcing her phobias aside, she forms an unlikely coven of supernaturally gifted teens to help her eradicate this menace. Except that's not all Shiloh has to worry about. She’s battling a different monster within herself and struggling not to become the very thing she fights: evil.
But with demon blood inside her—anything can happen…
Hey, All! I'm an official stop of the Sherry Soule blog tour for her new book Moonlight Mayhem! Check out the trailer and visit Sherry's links for more info about her and her book :D
About the Author:
Sherry Soule is a writer blessed with a vivid imagination and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She loves writing supernatural tales with kickass heroines for teens and adults. Sherry has a morbid fascination with haunted houses. She adores cats. Loves to watch scary movies. And she's a total bookaholic. Aside from writing, she enjoys reading poetry, online shopping, digging through flea markets, and exploring old cemeteries and Victorian mansions.
Hey, all! Today I have a special treat because Jaycee and I are annoucing the winners of our blog hop!
Thanks to all that participated and to all that stopped by. Jaycee and I had a blast hopping around the other blogs and reading about your stellar heroines, in fact, we liked SO many that we eached picked two winners *grins*
This two ladies had me almost falling off my chair I was laughing so hard at their banter. And thank you for the "disco stick" reference Clare it was a riot!
These two warmed my heart. Emily's description of her hero and the quant rainy day afternoon interview made me feel like I was really there... Oh and I listened to Jennifer's song like a dozen times ;)
Clare and Jennifer you both win your choice of:
An Amazon ebook download or up to a $15 Book from the Book Depository
Ladies, please email me for details!
Thank you everyone who participated and don't get too comfy... You never know when Jaycee and I will throw another blog hop your way ;)
Hey, everyone! Today is the day to meet some heroines from our novels and WIPs. I didn't have a hard time deciding who to feature here today, part of it had to do with the fact that I only had two heroines at the time of writing this, haha, but the other part was that these ladies are just stellar. I had a blast writing them and I can't wait to share them with you.
Now without further ado, here are my ladies:
Featured Heroine being Interviewed:
Ariel Richmond from The Crimson Hunt
Interviewer:
Rae Evans from Story World
Ariel's Theme Song from The Crimson Hunt:
"Little Bit" by Lykke Li
This song is perfect for Ariel because she plays quite hard to get with my hero Luca Grinaldi at one point in the novel! And Ariel is a bit of a "hipster" and Ms. Li is quite popular with the hipster crowd ;)
Enjoy the interview...there may be some surprises in store here ;)
Interview of Ariel Richmond as told from the Point of View of Rae Evans:
“I promise to stay away from you,
Rae, if you do this interview for me,” CK told me.
Yeah, right. “Stay away” from me. Of course there was a freakin’ loophole in
his shoddy agreement and because of it, I ended up seeing him yesterday, less than twenty-four hours
after his “so called” agreement. And to
top the cherry off on this spectacular arrangement, I was still stuck doing the
blasted interview for him!
Life freakin’ sucks. Hopefully I could get this thing over with
soon so I could go home and game. Mr. Christopher
“CK” Kincaid was going to hear it from me after this.
I took a seat at the first table I
saw and arranged my interview materials.
I waited and waited, yet no one was coming.
Throwing my head back, I
groaned. CK set me up, dammit!
The redhead sat the girl with black hair down at my table,
then took a seat herself with a self-assured smile. “Sorry, we’re late,” she said. “I’m Piper Lovelace.” She shook my hand. “And this is your interviewee, Ariel
Richmond.” She gestured to the black
haired girl.
I held out my hand to Ariel. “Hi, I’m Rae Evans.”
She shook my hand. “Nice to meet you, Rae. And yes, sorry we’re late.”
Ariel said this last bit through
clenched teeth, shooting a murderous look at Piper.
This is really going
to be fun. “No problem.” I grabbed the interview paper. “Let’s get started, huh?”
“Yeah, sure thing,” Ariel said with
a smile, but it faded as quickly as it appeared. “Wait.”
She turned to Piper. “And where
is your picture. I see mine and Rae’s here, but where’s yours?”
Piper raised her hands. “Uh-uh, this is your interview. I’m just along for the ride.”
Ariel crossed her arms over her
chest. “Yeah, so not going to fly. Hand it over.
You’re here. You need a picture
just like me and Rae.”
Piper huffed. “Fine.”
She handed me the picture.
8/22/12 Picture has been removed.
“Give me a frickin’ break, Pipe!”
Ariel said.
Piper shrugged. “What?”
I could see Ariel was fighting
herself not to cuff this girl upside the head.
“That so doesn’t count. It’s your Facebook picture and it’s of your
eye,” Ariel said.
Piper glanced away, tipping up her
chin. “Like I said, it’s not my
interview. That’s all you get.”
Trying to break the tension, I
lifted my paper. “Okay, Ariel, I have my
first question here. How would you
describe your hero…” I scanned my notes
for the name. “Luca Grinaldi.”
Ariel opened her mouth to speak, but
Piper took my attention. She cupped the
side of her mouth, pointed to Ariel, and mouthed, “She’s in love with him.”
I bit my lip, fighting a smile
Ariel pursed her lips and narrowed her
eyes. “What did she just say, Rae?”
Piper raised her hands in
defense. “I didn’t say anything.”
Piper arched an eyebrow, then
widened her eyes as she got what Ariel was getting at. “Oh, yeah, right. I’m sooo thirsty.” She fanned herself. “It’s like a frickin’ Sahara Desert in
here. I’m starting to see oases and crap,
I’m so hot and thirsty. I’ll be right
back.” Piper stood and went to the drink
counter.
Ariel sighed. “I apologize for my friend, Rae.”
I shrugged. “No problem.
She seems cool.”
“Yeah, if Piper Lovelace is one
thing, it’s cool. And I’m sorry about
how I acted when I arrived. It’s not
that I don’t want to be here, it’s just that I’m an artist and I was in a huge
development with my work when Piper dropped the interview-bomb on me.”
She’s
an artist? That’s pretty cool. “That’s awesome, Ariel. And I’m sorry if I’m giving off strange vibes,
too. I was tricked into being here.”
Ariel raised her brows. “Tricked?”
“Yeah, by a stuck-up pretty boy
named CK.”
Ariel nodded with a smile. “Ah…”
“Yeah, he’s a douche.” Understatement
of the year. “Anyway, I was in the
middle of some heavy gaming when he—” Crap.
She’d probably think I was a complete nerd now that I said that.
Ariel’s eyes lit up. “You game?
Ever play The Sims?”
Uh,
where has this girl been all my life?
“It’s only one of my faves!”
“Sweet.” She pounded my fist. “You and I are like kindred.”
Maybe this interview wouldn’t be so
bad after all. “That’s stellar,
Ariel. We totally are.” I laughed.
“Okay, now, since we both have things to do, let’s get this interview
underway.”
“Sounds good.”
“So back to my last question about
Luca…”
Ariel bit her lip and her cheeks
went a little pink. “Luca is…sweet. He was kind of weird around me at first, but
I think that was just because he was shy.
It’s so strange that he was that way when I first met him though, because
he gives off this…” She raised her
hands, looking up to the air as she sought the word. “Power.
It’s the only way I can describe it.
He just has this huge presence about him. Just so…
I don’t know, powerful. And the
way he looks at the world is just so beautiful.
He took me to this garden once and I got chills by how he connected to
his environment. He’s just… I don’t know.
I still have so much to learn about him, but I can’t wait to see more.”
Wow, her answer was passionate. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Piper
was right about Ariel’s feelings for Luca.
“He sounds great, Ariel. Okay,
next question. Your biggest date horror
story?”
She leaned back and laughed. “Oh, I have a date fail of epic proportions
for you. I swear to god this guy could
have gotten the award for suckiest date on the planet.”
Oh,
this is going to be good.
“He took me to the Taco Bell for
starters.”
“No he didn’t!”
She nodded. “Oh, he totally did, and not only that, but
he met me there. Didn’t even offer to
pick me up. And, oh, oh, get this, he
asked to go dutch!”
I almost fell to the floor in a fit
of laugher.
“And the douchebaggery doesn’t even
stop there. He asked me to drive him to
a bar after the date, because he wanted to go get drunk with his friends and
they were going to take him to pick up his car tomorrow.”
I was almost in tears at this
point. “That’s pretty bad.” I wiped my eyes and scanned my paper for the
next question.
Boxers
or briefs on your guy?
Really??? Who the hell wrote this interview? Scanning down the
page, I saw the names.
Interview
questions created by Victoria Smith and Jaycee Delorenzo.
I smirked. These
women must be out to get me, like CK.
Shrugging it off, I dove in.
Ariel seemed pretty cool. I
didn’t think she’d be bothered by answering this. “So, Ariel, next question. Do you prefer boxers or briefs on your guy?”
Just as I thought, Ariel didn’t look
at all put off and actually smiled before she answered. “It actually doesn’t really matter to me which
my guy chooses. If he can rock what he’s
wearing with confidence, then whatever he’s in is okay by me.”
I nodded.
“But would I mind seeing Luca in a pair of briefs…” She tilted her head from side to side and
eyed me.
“Gotcha.” I winked.
Suddenly, an image of CK in briefs took over my brain and I shook my
head to rid it of it. What the hell was
wrong with me? I shouldn’t be imaging
that tool in briefs… Even if he did have
a six pack that made my girly bits go crazy…
I closed my mouth and wiped at the side of my lip. Good god, I was drooling! Hopefully Ariel hadn’t noticed. I quickly moved on to the next question. “Okay, last question, Ariel. What attracts you to a guy the most?”
“Well, there’s the confidence thing
I spoke of earlier, but really, it’s how observant he is. Like Luca.
I feel like when I talk, he’s actually really listening to me. I
like that I feel like, whenever I speak to him, I’m his whole world for just that
minute, you know? I know that may sound
really smug of me, but really, it just makes me feel so special.”
Good god this guy sounded like
Prince Charming. Maybe I should give CK
his number for some tips.
Just then, Piper sat down with her
drink. “Did she give you a hard time,
Rae?” She eyed Ariel.
Ariel stuck her tongue out at her.
Jeez these two reminded me so much
of me and my friends. “Nope, she was a gem
and thanks for making this painless for me, Ariel. Now we both can go back to our original plans
today. It was so great meeting you.” I held out my hand for her to shake.
She eyed my hand. “What’s with this handshake?” She grabbed me in a hug and blew the wind out
of me. “I’m a hugger.”
I giggled. This girl was a rockstar.
She pulled back, holding me out at
arms-length. “And I agree, it was
great. Thanks for the interview.”
I gathered my stuff and started to
walk away.
“Rae?” Ariel questioned.
I turned.
“Give CK a chance. He might not be as bad as you think. If my experience with Luca has taught me anything,
it’s that you should always have an open mind.” She nodded with an encouraging
smile.
Thanks everyone for stopping by and if you want to know more about Ariel's counterpart, Luca Grinaldi, and a preview of Rae's counterpart, Christopher "CK" Kincaid, check out the interview I did of them for the "Oh, My Hero!" Blog Hop.
Hey, all, it's Christmas in June because I just finished writing my newest story Holiday Fling, an anthology about another snarky heroine and a hot redhead!
This story ended about being about 12,000 words and boy were the two leads a riot to write. I'll post a few lines for you below as well as the theme song for the story. I listened to literally nothing, but Christmas tunage circa 1950 - 2008 for the three straight days it took to write this story. Now, you may be saying "Ugh!" but I loved it. Heck, I listen to Christmas tunes all year round anyway!
Just a quick reminder to stop back here on Friday for the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!" Blog Hop! where you will get to meet two, yes, TWO of the heroines from my other stories.
"Mistletoe" by Colbie Caillat
A short excerpt from Holiday Fling
“Ugh,
this is terrible.” Chase’s face
contorted as he glanced up to the break room speakers. “Christmas music can be so cheesy when it
isn’t the classics.”
Tarrah crossed her arms. “I happen to like N*Sync.”
He smirked. “Why am I not surprised? You and about every other twenty-something
girl living in the continental U.S. You sound like my cousin. She was obsessed with them.”
“She sounds like a smart girl. My roommate and I adore them. In fact, we have one of their framed posters
up on the wall.”
His brows shot up. “Now you really sound like my cousin. I happened to be keen to Britney Spears
during that time. The girl couldn’t sing
worth a damn, but she sure was nice to look at.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
She shook her head. “Such a guy thing to say.”
His jaw dropped opened. “Well, what about you Ms. ‘Bye, Bye, Bye’?”
“The fact that you know those lyrics
tells me you followed them too.” She
winked.
Hey, all! Today for Blog Me MAYbe I'm supposed to tell you about someone else. Well, it is my honor to talk about Jaycee Delorenzo of Sweet N' Spicy Designs.
Now some of you may have heard me talk about Jaycee quite a bit on my blog and we happen to be hosting yet another blog hop together featuring heroines from novels. Check it out here. But the reason you ALWAYS hear so much about her is because she's my critque partner and my amazingly awesome best buddy :D *Grins*
She helps me get rid of all those words I use too much. Some examples: "Consume," "Intense," and "Eyes" to name a few. Without her, you'd be seeing those words WAY more than you would have without her, lol.
She helps me with my stories and makes them oodles better! And her own novel called, The Truths about Dating and Mating, is coming out later this year so look out for it. Check out the blurb here.
Today I'm going to talk about another super thing she does. Besides being an awesome crique partner and super mommy, she's also designs websites and book covers for novels. And this isn't just any design work...IT'S AWESOMELY STELLARIFFIC BOOMTASTIC WORK.
She's so stellar and she's having a sale right now on her design work. Here's the ad:
So head on over to Sweet N' Spicy Designs today to grab up a cover or blog header before it's gone!
Jaycee's amazing and I'm glad I got to share her work and a little bit about her with you today! Hearts you Jaycee :D
Hey, all! This is the last week of Blog Me MAYbe. I loved it, but posting everyday has been brutal, lol. I'm happy to be finishing up and I'm happy to have given you all something to read everyday of the month :D Thanks for sticking with me!
So for today I'm supposed to share with you something about writing. Well, here it goes:
Writing Fiction for Dummies
Meet my writing bible, haha! No, but seriously it is. Last year, I had a little concept for a book, (Which later became The Crimson Hunt by the way, tehe) but I had never written a book before. So what did I do? Went on a road trip to Barnes and Noble where I picked up this little baby! From this book, I discovered there were several ways to write a book and out of all the ways I saw "The Snowflake Method" stuck out to me the most as the most efficient, yet un-creativity-stiffling way for me to write a novel with my type of personality.
He and his co-author, Peter Economy, authored Writing Fiction for Dummies, but Randy himself is the one that came up with "The Snowflake Method" of writing.
What is "The Snowflake Method"? Well, it's a style of writing just like Seat of Your Pants Writing or Outlining. "Snowflake" actually combines both of these techniques.
Story World and Characters/ Story Line
You start by creating the "Story World," or setting, of your novel, then creating your characters and giving them backstories and goals/motivations that go with those backstories. From there, you create a storyline such as:
"A lonely, outcasted young woman falls for a fiery CIA agent."
(I just came up with that on the fly and you can probably tell, haha)
Three-Act Structure
After you get your storyline, you flesh it out into what is called a three-act structure. Books and film usually occur in three "acts" and in between each "act" is what is called a "disaster" that keeps the reader engaged and continuing with the story. Each disaster has to be worse than the one previous to keep your reader on the edge of their seat.
Here's an example from the novel, The Hunger Games. (If you haven't read this and don't want spoilers scroll down.) These are my guesses at what the disasters are by the way. I read the book and believe these to be it.
Disasters of The Hunger Games:
1. Katniss is doing rather well in the "games" and the Gamemakers are pissed because she's staying off the radar of the other contestants, so the Gamemakers send a fire storm down on her to make her intercept the other game players.
2. Katniss makes friends with a young girl, but the young girl ends up being killed, thereby crushing Katniss' spirit and setting her back mentally in the games.
3. Katniss' friend, Peeta, gets sick, which forces Katniss to go to a central location to get him medicine. This action makes her interact with the remaining contests and therefore vulnerable to being killed.
Every disaster has to set back the main character and make it hard for them to complete there story goal at the end of the novel. Katniss' story goal is to survive the games and not just that, but to beat the Capitol at their own game.
Synopsis
After writing the three-act structure, you flesh it out and make a two-page single spaced synopsis of the entire novel. The synopsis tells the story from front to back, spoilers and all, but only focuses on the main characters and the main storyline.
Scene List
After you have your synopsis, you make a scene list, which breaks up your synopsis into scenes like a movie. Your scene list is a play-by-play of what is in the novel. In the scene list, you write a one sentence summary of what will happen in the book. Most books have anywhere from 60 - 100 scenes.
Now you can write!
You have your scene list and now you can use that as a road map of what to write in your book. Start from the first scene and go! By using this method, I can write 90,000 word novels in about 3 weeks and I get quicker every time!
This method was a godsend for me because I need structure, but I also want some surprise and creativity. This method allowed me both. I know my story will work out in the end, but I don't know specifics on how my characters will get there in each scene. I just have a general idea and I love that surprise!
So there you have it, my friends. If you have any questions comment below or just email me by finding my email under the contact tab. I don't consider myself an expert on "Snowflake," but I have been able to write 4 novels in 9 months from it, so I it worked for me! :D
Back by popular demand, myself and my critique partner, Jaycee Delorenzo, are hosting the:
"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! Blog Hop!
"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper
For those who don't know, Jaycee and I hosted a hop last month called the "Oh! My Hero!" Blog Hop, which featured heroes from your manuscript, novels, or WIPs, well, this time we are doing the opposite. HEROINES will be featured this time!
Here are the details:
Interview a heroine of your manuscript, novel, or WIP by a fellow female counterpart also from your written work. Your featured heroine can be interviewed by her best friend, a heroine from another one of your written works, a sister, the opportunities are endless!
Have your heroine answer at least 3 of the questions recommended below or make up your own!
Post a picture of your heroine, the interviewer, or both!
Post a song for the theme of the interview or a song that reflects your featured heroine's personality
Post our hop button! (Though not required, feel free to repost on your blog about the hop!)
Post your entries on June 22, 2012 and hop around the other blogs through the linky!
For this hop, the interview will have more of a "girls chatting" type feel because after all, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! So feel free to write it like a short scene in a book!
Here are the recommended questions for it:
1. How would you describe your hero?
2. What's your biggest date horror story?
3. What turns you off from a guy the most?
4. What's the best date you ever had?
5. Kiss on the first date?
6. What gets a guy a second date?
7. Boxers or briefs on your guy?
8. What is one thing you believe can tell a lot about a person?
9. What attracts you to a guy the most?
Prizes:
Jaycee and I will each pick one winner of the heroine who snagged our attention the most with her creative answers!
From Me: An ebook download or up to $15 Book from Book Depository From Jaycee: An ebook of your choice up to $10 from Amazon OR a Custom Blogger/WordPress Header. Your choice.
