ABNA, other & Inspiring Sounds #1

ABNA & other

• I entered ABNA with SUNDOWN II (latest revision), but with new title. The story was set during the Sundown Music Festival, a fictional festival, but now the setting has changed, so I need a new title. But a permanent title is a dilemma for another day.
• Next project (decided on a slight whim) = revise DAPHNE II. It's NA, but I'm not sure what else. Not romance, but with romantic elements. Women's fiction? It seems more like...general contemp. "General" though feels like a bit of a cop-out.
• I always struggle with genre labelling. Is this because I don't know my stories well enough? I thought so, but maybe I just don't understand genres. Do I need to attend genre school?
• The is a year of revision (I hope). I'm already committed to BuNo and NaNo for writing new stuff (though possibly I will do rewrites). The ludicrous thought of working on RAGEWATER has occurred to me. But...I dunno. Daunting. But I do love this vast realm of possibility!

Inspiring Sounds

In other news, here is the first bit of music I want to share this year:


Kauan is a band I found on Last.fm. Of unknown origin (except that I'm pretty sure they're from Earth), they are currently Anton Belov (guitar, vocals, keys and programming) and Lyubov Mushnikova (violin). Somebody on Last.fm asked, "Are they Russians that sing Finnish?" You can download "Föhn" for free, courtesy of the band. So what is it that I love about this music? Well, I guess it makes me think of some magical land where all sorts of haunting things are happening. I also saw someone on YouTube mention they were listening to it while watching a snowfall outside (jealous! we never have snow where I live!). It's interesting, too, because I don't understand the lyrics, so I can't dwell on them. Usually for me, meaningful lyrics are a must, so this is a different experience.

Tagged: the 'Be Inspired' meme

My NaNo profile.

Recently I got tagged by Chris over at the Kelworth Files with this "Be Inspired" meme thingy. Thanks, Chris, for thinking of me! Basically how it works is that I answer some questions about "my novel", and then tag 5 lucky bloggers. ;) Since I have many, many novels, I guess I should just close my eyes and throw a dart at a list of them, right? Actually, that's an idea... Seriously, I think I'll talk about the novel I'm going to work on during November this year.

1. What is the name of your book?
The original title was MEET DAPHNE STUART, back in the day, but that was back then. Now it's called simply DAPHNE. Naturally that's just a result of my "can't think of a title so I'll just name it after the MC's first name" habit. Someday, the book will have an actual proper title.

2. Where did the idea for your book come from?
I started this story back in 1999, during my first year of university. I had hardly any friends and hardly any life, so I started writing about a girl whose friends/boyfriend were her life. Somehow, though, this poor girl got lumped with a horrible family. I'm rewriting DAPHNE during November, and the rewrite, though still giving her plenty of crap to deal with, will at least give her some happiness in the end. Largely unlike the original draft.

3. In what genre would you classify your book?
Back then, there was no such thing as "New Adult" fiction, at least not that I'd ever heard of. This story is New Adult, but as for genre? Probably just general fiction. New Adult contemporary fits, too, I guess.

4. If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose?
I used to cut out pictures from magazines to fit my characters, but they were never actors, so...yeah, got no clue. ;) There's also the fact that there will be new characters and possibly a lack of some old ones after my NaNo rewrite.

5. Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book.
As Daphne's life descends steadily into chaos, she clings to one goal: getting through her first year of university.

6. Is your book already published?
Far from it!

7. How long did it take you to write your book?
It took me...*blush*...10 years. But this time around, as I rewrite, it will take me heaps less time than that. I'm a different animal these days. ;)

8. What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy yours?
To be honest, I don't know. I think I've taken inspiration from many different places, for e.g. in my plans for my rewrite I have a character partly inspired by Michael from Roswell (LOVE that show and that character). I also recently read TULLY for the first time, and the main character Tully has a crappy childhood and a frustrating adult life. But unlike Tully, Daphne's got many siblings to worry about, so again, their lives are different. Plus, my story will only focus on a year in a life, not decades.

9. Which authors inspired you to write this book?
Honestly, I can't remember what was inspiring me back in 1999. That was when I still read mostly fantasy, so...yeah. This story is different. Maybe there is a proper answer to this, but if so, I can't conjure it. ;)

10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book.
Don't worry, it won't be totally miserable? hehe. And there will be a hot bad boy in it! Plus some nice lurve.

11. Tag five people!
I think I may be past the era of tagging specific people. From here on in I may have to do the cop-out thing other people do and just say "if you want it, take it!" Better that than inflicting it on people who just aren't interested, I figure.

Alex J. Cavanaugh's GENRE FAVOURITES blogfest

It's time for another of Alex J. Cavanaugh's blogfests, and this time we're talking movies, music and books - our favourite genres in each. Plus we get to nominate a guilty pleasure for one of these categories. ;) Here are my favourite genres:

Movies

• Sci-fi/action combos - We just saw the remake of Total Recall, and although it had its bad sides (no Mars?!? No probe removed by nostril?) it was all in all a great remake. Also, I love the dystopian aspect of a lot of sci-fi, a.k.a. one of my fave movies of all time, Blade Runner.

Music

• Grunge/alt rock - This genre is definitely my main musical passion. When I first heard Nirvana's Nevermind, my life changed forever, and I haven't looked back. I love all sorts of other genres, and I have to say that probably my favourite genre after grunge/alt. rock is metal (particularly inspirational for dark stories, if you're listening to doom or gothic metal anyway), but at the heart of everything is and always will be my absolute love of grunge/alt. rock.

Books

• Fantasy - I guess this still has to be considered my favourite, because it's had such a massive impact on my life. Nowadays I don't read (or write) a whole heap of fantasy, having branched out into all sorts of other genres, but fantasy is still the genre that has had the greatest impact on me.

My Guilty Pleasure

• R&B/pop - I decided to go with a guilty pleasure in music, though honestly I'm not as embarrassed about it as I probably should be. R&B/pop isn't really that embarrassing, I don't think, but let me illustrate what I really mean by naming one artist that I love to pieces - Mariah Carey.

Sticking to your genre

You want me to...ch...choose?

I know they say that aspiring authors should stick to reading within their genres, to really get to know those genres well, to study the successes as well as the failures. But...what about people like me, who write in all sorts of different genres?

Personally I hate the idea of limiting myself to just one genre, or a couple. I guess I want to stay free to do whatever I want, whenever I want to do it. I've written in numerous genres so far, and there is no genre I would ever completely strike off my possibilities list.

Maybe it's because I read many different genres, too, and enjoy them all?

I guess this could be seen as a problem...but I'll admit it's a problem I don't mind having. :)

NaNo - home stretch

I'm anticipating some serenity in December (see above photo), once NaNo is over. That's not the right November spirit, right? But my spirit is tired and needs a nap! Thankfully, we are on the home stretch! Before I give today's word count update, I want to clarify things for Deniz (and anyone else who's confused):

This month I've been writing two novels, both of which were started from scratch as part of NaNo 2011. The first novel, DANNA, is a YA paranormal and will probably be finished a lot more easily than the second, VICTORIOUS, which is sci-fantasy. Not sure on the acceptable word counts for sci-fantasy novels, but considering the 'fantasy' aspect I figure they're expected to at least be longer than 50k? hehe

Now...a word count update: last night's session got me to 94,666 across both novels. 5,334 words to go until I hit 100k. It doesn't feel like a huge deal, because I've done it before, and easily. But this year has felt especially like a hard slog, for reasons I don't quite get. Perhaps the challenge was actually planning on 100k, instead of just 'accidentally' ending up with it? (Remember, I'm a notorious pantser!)

Campaign group(s)... I am in many!

First off, this is me:



I know, crappy excuse for a Michael Jackson white glove, but it was all I had on hand (no pun intended). It was from a Michael Jackson tribute night my mum and I went to. It was so crap we went back to my place, got my MJ CDs, and headed over to mum's to party on in style. Now that was a tribute! I'm not going to show you the moonwalking videos though.

But none of that was the point of this post. The point was for me to share with you a list of which Groups I joined as part of Rachael Harrie's 3rd Campaign. They are:

• Adult Fiction (All Genres) - group 3
• Contemporary/Mainstream Fiction - group 2
• Science Fiction - group 1
• Romance, (all things) - group 1
• Short Stories
  
• Australian/New Zealand writers
  

Think those'll be enough to keep me busy?!

I think the point I'm trying to make is that what you see above is really just the beginning for me. There aren't any genres I've ever sworn off attempting to write. I have interests in many places. My characters are of varying ages, sometimes depending on what age I am myself at a given point. Some of my characters aren't even people. Some of them aren't human. Most of them are. Some are guys, some are gals. Some are dead and some are alive. Some are currently living only in my head, set to be unleashed in the coming months (hello NaNoWriMo 2011!). In short, I never know what's around the corner, and I love it that way!

Hello to all my fellow Campaigners. I'm pleased to meet you. But now it's your turn: what genres do you write?

Yep...still Thursday

I am on holidays as of this evening, and I'm already loving it! Watching episodes of MEDIUM season 5 - love this show big time. And that gets me to thinking about genre, and how I've never really gone much for writing murder mysteries/thrillers. Which is weird, because I really enjoy reading them/watching them.

Out of curiosity - do you guys stick to one particular genre, or are you more adventurous than that?

Anyway...in case I don't post another entry before the big day, happy holidays everyone!! May the silly season not be too stressful, and instead be full of fun and joy!