Death by Chocolate

Death by Chocolate Tour Complete

2012-02-24T11:22:00.003-08:00

And congratulations to the winners of each tour stop contest, hope you enjoy your free copies of Death by Chocolate. For those who didn't win, remember the anthology is only $2.99 and available on Amazon and Smashwords for download in any format of your choice.

Thanks to everyone who joined us on the Valentine Tour and happy reading all!

Anthology Tour Guest Posts with Lucy Swing

2012-02-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

The Bewitching Book Tours portion of the Death by Chocolate anthology tour concludes today with author Lucy Swing. But don't worry! The tour continues, so visit the links below throughout February!

Today's guest posts:

Fiction Fascination

I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read!

Cindy's Love of Books

ReaderGirls

Tana Rae Reads

Beverly @ The Wormhole

Feb 19th - Emma at Emma's Ramblings on Supernatural Fiction

Feb 20th - Zakiya at Butterfly Feet

Feb 21st - Maggie at Reading Diva

Feb 22nd - Linda at Mission to Read
Feb 23rd - Marylin Almodovar at Writing on the sunny side of the street

The Death by Chocolate Tour Continues!

2012-02-17T04:13:00.000-08:00

Today we have guest posts by Kira Saito, so stop by the following blogs to check them out!

Snowdrop Dreams of Books

Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf

Death by Chocolate Tour for 16th Feb

2012-02-16T02:16:00.000-08:00

Be sure to join Stacey Wallace Benefiel on the following blogs for today's stops on the Death by Chocolate Book Tour!

Lissette E. Manning

Chapter by Chapter

Babs Book Bistro

The Death by Chocolate Tour Continues!

2012-02-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

Nikki Jefford's guest post on her story Spellbound is up today on The Dark Phantom Review! Also, the anthology tour continues tomorrow with Stacey Wallace Benefiel about her Death by Chocolate story Back in Time!

Take That Chance--And a Free Giveaway!

2012-02-14T06:12:00.001-08:00

Ahhh, Valentine's Day, the one day a year we think about love. Or about not having it. Or about how we hate Valentine's Day.

I understand, I really do. Love is hard. It's work, and it often doesn't work out. I've been really lucky, though. Twenty-two years ago (sheesh, but I'm old), the hubby and I had just started dating (Jan. 19th was our first day, if you remember, the Eve of St. Agnes). Nearly a month later, we were going to a party together at a friend's house, and I spent a panicked week trying to figure out what to give him.

Flowers? I didn't know at that point that he liked flowers. Chocolates? What kind of chocolates did he prefer? I didn't know him well enough to know that, either. A stuffed animal? Surely not. (I was totally right about this one--stuffed animals are totally not his thing).

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So I gave him the only gift I could think of: a poem. Yup, I less than a month after we'd started dating, I wrote him a love sonnet. And not just any old sonnet. A sonnet that said I wanted to grow old with him, spend the rest of my life with him. You know the kind--the stalking sonnet that would scare any sane guy away in a heartbeat (or a quick read-thru, anyway).

I wrote it on parchment, using my calligraphy pens, rolled it up and tied it with a red ribbon. And, yes, I gave it to him.

"Woah!" you might exclaim, "and he married you?" Yup. He thought the poem was fantastic, and he showed it to everybody at the party. And some people were actually jealous. Nobody ran away. Pretty weird, huh? And AWESOME, too!

Now, before you say, with that sarcasm in your voice, "Oh, sure, we're just supposed to take that chance--but what if we get hurt?" don't think for a moment that I don't know the risk I took. In fact, before there was the hubby, I wrote several sonnets--more tentative ones, mind you--to another guy at college. Yup, that's right. This was already my MO.

That interaction didn't go so well. In December, the guy wrote me a nice card saying he was flattered by the poems, and he wished me the best, but please don't write again. I was crushed, but I respected his request and didn't write another poem for him. I took the chance, and I failed at it.

But so what? Love doesn't always work out. But I still have those sonnets--all of them--the ones I wrote the first guy, the MANY sonnets I wrote to the hubby. And, even better, I have the hubby. And it all started with that little Valentine's Day love sonnet, which he still keeps framed right next to his bed after 22 years.

So, in honor of Valentine's Day, I'm giving away a copy of the anthology Death by Chocolate, which contains 6 stories of love and chocolate, along with a box of chocolates for your enjoyment. You need to live in the U.S., since I don't want to pay through the nose to send this little package out (sorry!).

To enter, all you have to do is chime in below, telling me your own thoughts on love and taking chances. I'll draw a name out of a hat and announce the winner by FRIDAY (so comment before then!). Also, today I'm posting in THREE other places as part of the Death by Chocolate blog tour, and each post is different, so check 'em all out:

Patricia's Particularity

Authors by Authors

Ink Spot and Roses

All three give you another opportunity to win the book (and some chocolates), so feel free to comment everywhere. Remember to comment for your chance to win! And happy Valentine's Day!

YA Stands 100th Blog Post

2012-02-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

YA Stands has chosen to commemorate their 100^th blog post with – Wait For It – a tribute to Death by Chocolate. It’s going to be legendary!

Thank you, Nicole Steinhaus.

And today kicks off six days of the Chocolatiers guest posting extravaganza, brought to you by Bewitching Book Tours.

Check out Suz Korb today at:

Mama Knows Books

JeanzBookReadNReview

Grave Tells

2012-02-11T22:23:00.000-08:00

Today we've got another great Death by Chocolate review from Jennifer at Fictitious Musings! I highly recommend everyone follow her blog - she and her husband read a ton and their site is simply awesome.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for three new reviews, all featuring guest posts from Suz Korb!

Suz will be at: Mama Knows Books
JeanzBookReadNReview
Grave Tells

What You Love May Kill You

2012-02-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

Don't trust chocolate. Oh, sure, it's delicious--especially when it's surrounding some creamy, scrumptious mess of coconut, caramel, and nuts--but keep your eye on it, just the same. The very thing you love most might be out to kill you.

I don't mean the slow death, the I-eat-too-much-candy-until-I-blow-up-and-my-heart-stops kind of death. No, chocolate is too insidious for that.

First, it will make you wonder if you are going mad. You'll be filing old papers in the filing cabinet, and suddenly you wonder who spoke to you, who whispered, "Cheryl, I'm over here, next to the brown sugar in the pantry." Following the directions, you trace a path to the pantry--oh no, it's the chocolate chips! And the old Halloween candy! And the bag of pink and red Kisses you just bought for your husband!

Chocolate. You grab a few of the chocolate chips--okay, a handful. They taste so good, melty and yummy. Wait, what are you doing? You just had lunch!!!

You panic for a moment, then bag it all up, including the chocolate chips, and shove it into the fridge. No, the freezer! Cold chocolate is good chocolate. It'll keep still, keep quiet. You go back to the filing cabinet to finish, then settle in front of the television.

But then it calls again. "We're here, Cheryl, between the leftover enchiladas and the jar of pickles. Come, come to us, and eat us!" Their cry is coaxing, intoxicating. You have no choice but to obey. You return to the fridge and open its doors wide, doing all you can to ignore the pickles (pickles and chocolate? Yecchh!). The bag isn't even closed, and if you tear just a small hole in the Kisses, your hubby won't probably even notice. Two should do it... no, five... okay, make it eleven. Does the bag still look full? You could dump the rest in a tiny gift bag. Yes, that's it!

You re-bag the Kisses, then take the whole lot out to the garage, to the deep freeze. You run off to get the kids from the bus stop, then return, without thinking of those awful chocolates once.

But they have been thinking of you this whole time. And feeling neglected. They are waiting for you...

What happens next? Do the chocolates do me in? Are they waiting to attack the moment I get out of my car? Do I collapse in the middle of the dirty garage floor, covered with swarming chocolates like Gulliver and the Lilliputians? Is there any hope?

You make the call. And make it good. Or at least make it chocolaty.

The Death by Chocolate Anthology - Available Now!

2012-02-06T08:08:00.000-08:00

The Death by Chocolate Anthology is now available for purchase on Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble.

Product Description

Death by Chocolate is the paranormal young adult romance anthology. Six authors, Stacey Wallace Benefiel, Cheryl J. Carvajal, Nikki Jefford, Lucy Swing, Kira Saito and Suz Korb, bring you supernatural adventure stories, each with a cocoa twist. The stories are: Back in Time by Stacey Wallace Benefiel, Sweet Witchery by Cheryl J. Carvajal, Spellbound by Nikki Jefford, Bloody Valentine by Lucy Swing, Sweet Torture by Kira Saito and The Girl with Three Heads by Suz Korb. Time travel, witchcraft, terror, agony and light hearted comedy too. Combined with more than just a hint of enchantment, these stories are the ingredients for the Death by Chocolate recipe of romance.

And the Valentine's Blog Tour starts tomorrow at Gothic Angel Book Reviews!

New Year’s Read-olutions

2012-02-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

When I told my husband I wanted to make a goal to read at least 50 books in 2012 he said, “Why don’t you make a goal to make a living at writing?”

Hello! I’m a woman. It’s called multi-tasking.

Not to mention Rule #1: Writers Read!

I’m so stoked about all this reading I came up with YeBoReGo (Yearly Book Reading Goal), a spin-off on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It turns out Goodreads was 10 steps ahead of me with their 2012 Reading Challenge Widget that tracks your progress. Once you have an account (newbie Goodreads girl here!) it’s under the tab “My Books”, at the top of the page, then in tools “widgets” on the left hand menu. You can add your 2012 Reading Challenge widget to your blog or website.

The 3 Best Books I’ve Read so far This Year:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

3. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

(And they all have sequels. Life is good and my progress bar's expanding!)

Why Fairytales Need More Chocolate - Guest Post by Author Emily Casey

2012-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Most of us grew up with fairy tales, but there’s something missing from most of them. Chocolate.

Of course, if you’re reading this then you probably already know that chocolate makes everything better. If Cinderella had made her stepsisters a chocolate cake every now and then, maybe they would have been nicer to her. If Beauty had asked her father to bring back a piece of chocolate (instead of a rose), he could have easily just plucked a bonbon from the platter of food and avoided the whole death threat thing. And maybe if the evil queen had used poisoned chocolate instead of a poisoned apple, they could have avoided that long scene where the queen tries to convince Snow White to take a bite, because who’s going to say no to free chocolate?

Unfortunately for the poor fairy tale princesses, they didn’t know about chocolate until well after their happily ever afters (as if such a thing were possible without chocolate). But if the brothers Grimm had somehow conjured a few helpings of Russel Stovers into their stories, I think they would have been a lot more popular. The big, bad wolf would have been more interested in eating the chocolate in Little Red’s basket than her stringy old grandmother. Sleeping Beauty’s prince could have given her a heart-shaped box with “From: the prince” written on it and everyone could have avoided a lot of confusion. And the little mermaid could have mended her broken heart with a pint of rocky road, instead of throwing her life away by jumping into the sea.

So sure, fairy tales are great. But now that I think about it, I may have missed a very important element in my book…

Emily is a writer from Tallahassee who chases two crazy kids around the house all day before collapsing in front of her computer. She writes everything from fairy tales to zombies, whatever's exciting to her, and just hopes someone else out there likes it. You can find her on her blog, Twitter, and Facebook. Her book, The Fairytale Trap, is a young adult fantasy novel about a sarcastic and spunky teen who becomes trapped in a classic fairytale. One lucky reader will win a free copy of The Fairytale Trap. To enter this contest simply comment below on your own chocolate fairytale dreams.

Be sure to visit Emily's next stop on her blog tour at Amanda Rudd’s blog: http://amandarudd.wordpress.com/

Chocolate = Love

2012-01-31T04:11:00.000-08:00

Imagine it: A sharp sweetness hits your nostrils first--intoxicating, stirring dreams and fantasies, the anticipation of what is to come. You pick one up--just one, you promise yourself, though you've lied like this before--and it's soft between your fingers, ready to melt if you wait too long. Thankfully, you can't wait. You take one of two paths--sever the chocolate in half and enjoy it twice over, or pop the whole thing in your mouth at once--and either way you find the concoction melts in your mouth, mixing the chocolate and caramel and other creamy goodness along your tongue.

Feels fantastic, doesn't it? You aren't alone. According to the Chocolate website, "Some 50% of women reportedly claim to prefer chocolate to sex." I can't say I would go that far, but that is mainly because I understand all too well the disastrous (and inflammatory) effects of chocolate on my already substantial hips.

Now, I won't go into all the chemistry of it, like how phenylethylamine (PEA) resembles the feelings of "first love" (see the above website if you have that scientific inkling), but chocolate is like love in less scientific ways. It affects us like a romance novel, like a new hot guy entering our field of vision and taking an interest in us, like a the building of a love relationship, step by step.

1. Anticipation. Nothing is more fantastic than that moment of anticipation, when you face the object of desire, and he faces you, and a kiss seems to be stirring in his eyes for the very first time. Will he taste the way you have imagined? Will he wrap his arms around you, lift you up and carry you off on a horse, or tenderly caress your jawline because he is too frightened to do more? You can't know until the kiss begins, but the feeling in your hips already vibrates to the rhythms you hope for.

2. Heightening of the senses. Most of the time we move around our lives without really using our senses. We miss smells, don't see anything but the road in front of our cars, don't listen when people tell us things (the hubby does this all the time), and even ignore the feel of clothing, our feet, or the wind in our hair. But with chocolate--and love--we suddenly find ourselves focusing on our experience with every available sense. Chocolates--and men--are made beautifully (oh, WHY do guys get the long eyelashes?!), and yet we do more than stare. Their aftershave makes us giddy, their fingers even more so, their warmth is a comfort we absorb like lotion. And their skin tastes... well, you get the idea. Every sense is engaged.

3. Forgetting the rest of the world. With that focus comes a release from the drudgery of the typical work day. Do we think of how the kitchen floor needs sweeping? The plants need watering? The trash can smells? Nope. We think about mushy stuff--the first moment we knew we were in love, the first kiss, snuggling, our soft conversations filled with code words so that no one else can understand what is going on between us, the walks along the beach (or in the woods, at the park, along Main Street, down the hall--okay, everywhere). For a little while, we can leave all the junk of the world outside, concentrating on this lucky sunbeam, this moment of extra special happiness.

Sure love doesn't always go well. Sometimes the piece of chocolate tastes awful, too, and isn't anything we expected. Sometimes it tastes better. But we'll never know until we take that first bite.

The Death by Chocolate Valentine's Tour Schedule

2012-01-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

Time to get your sweetheart excitement on! Thanks to one of our amazingly talented anthology authors, Lucy Swing, for creating this blog tour schedule. It all begins February 7th and the anthology is available now! Don't miss out on any of the tour stops as there will be freebies, anthology contests and chocolatey giveaways galore!

Feb 7th - Keren at Gothic Angel Book Reviews
Feb 8th - Jo Cattell at Dreams are what make writing happen
Feb 9th - Dani at The Book Finder
Feb 10th - Lindsay at Turning the Pages
Feb 11th - Nikki at Vamps and Stuff
Feb 12th - Jennifer at Fictitious Musings
Feb 13th- Suz Korb will be blog posting at the following blogs:

Mama Knows Books

JeanzBookReadNReview

Grave Tells

Feb 14th - Cheryl Carvajal will be blog posting at the following blogs:

Patricia's Particularity

Authors By Authors

Ink Spot and Roses

Feb 15th- Nikki Jefford will be blog posting at the following blogs:

A Chick Who Reads

The Dark Phantom

Lisa’s World of Books

Feb 16th- Stacey Wallace Benefiel will be blog posting at the following blogs:

Lissette E. Manning

Chapter by Chapter

Babs Book Bistro

Feb 17th- Kira Saito will be blog posting at the following blogs:

Snowdrop Dreams of Books

Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf

Feb 18th- Lucy Swing will be blog posting at the following blogs:

Fiction Fascination

I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read!

Cindy's Love of Books

ReaderGirls

Tana Rae Reads

Beverly @ The Wormhole

Feb 19th - Emma at Emma's Ramblings on Supernatural Fiction

Feb 20th - Zakiya at Butterfly Feet

Feb 21st - Maggie at Reading Diva

Feb 22nd - Linda at Mission to Read
Feb 23rd - Marylin Almodovar at Writing on the sunny side of the street

The Silver Bowl and the Chocolate Spell

2012-01-18T02:09:00.000-08:00

When I was a teenager I fancied myself a witch. One night on a full moon I went out into my back yard to do a spell. I'd had a crush on this one guy at school for ages. He was a skater boy with a bowl cut hairdo. I don't know what was wrong with me and picking guys with diabolical hair when I was a teen.

Anyway, I was there in my garden on that fateful night. I had all my witchcraft supplies spread across the grass that I was sitting on. Taking my silver bowl full of creek water, I placed it in front of me and dropped three coins into it. I situated the silver bowl so that the light from the moon shone down onto the water inside the dish. Moonbeams were apparently very important for this spell to work correctly. It was a love spell I was creating, and I certainly didn't want anything to go wrong.

So, the next ingredient I added was pink rose petals. After that I placed both of my hands into the water and said these magic words, "Mihi divitiae sic fiat semper."

The cool, clear water inside the bowl shone under the moonlight. A few petals escaped from under my palms and floated to the surface of the dark, yet sparkling, water. I removed my hands and let the rose water dry naturally from my skin. It was time for the final ingredient. Chocolate.

I scooped up a spoonfull of melted chocolate that had been percolating nicely on the top of my oil burner. You know? Those ceramic deals with the candle in the bottom?

Dripping a blob of melted chocolate carefully into the cool water, it plopped into the bowl with a tiny splash. The chocolate hardened and I had my love potion. The piece of chocolate containing the love spell that I'd give to my crush at school the next day.

Indeed, at school the following morning I took a bunch of chocolates into home room and pretended like I'd hand made every single one. Truth was, I'd only made the one chocolate piece, the one I handed straight to the hot boy. He popped it straight into his mouth. I watched him, waiting with anticipation. His eyes lit up and he smiled at me. "That was good," he said. "You should open a chocolate restaurant when you're older, Suzy." He slapped me on the back, real chummy like, after saying that. I mean seriously, a chocolate restaurant? There's no such thing. Hot Boy reached into his pocket, pulled out a five dollar bill and stuck it on my tray of chocolates. The rest of the class did the same. One by one all my chocolates got eaten and I ended up with like forty bucks by the time the bell rang.

Sadly, I was without love. Rich. But loveless. Poor me. I ran home that day and checked over the love spell to see what went wrong. Apparently I'd mixed things up and had done a money spell. Oops. Oh well, I still don't know to this day if the money spell had worked or not, after all, I didn't actually make the chocolate myself. lol

When I was a teen I probably thought my crush was as hot as this guy, even with a bowl cut.

Chocolate: It's Not What It Is, but What It Goes With, Part 2

2012-01-17T02:47:00.000-08:00

After inexplicably making people hungry with my last post, I feel it is only fair to liven your taste buds again, this time with chocolates actually worth eating. If you will recall, I do not tend to adore chocolate all on its own, but when it is mixed with the appropriate ingredients, it is worth both the calories and the... well... rounder edges one gets as a result of all the calories.

But what can one add to chocolate to make it worth the love handles? I salivate just contemplating these concoctions, and by the end of this post even my husband should understand what half of the Valentine's Day box of chocolates will be eaten. My favorite ingredients:

Coconut

I am well aware that many people hate coconut. They have no taste. Simple as that. I can fill my Halloween bowl with Kit Kats and Hersheys minis without taking a single bite, but Almond Joys and Mounds never reach a single trick-or-treater. Okay, sometimes I grab one without realizing it, and I almost sob as I place it into a young vampire's pumpkin basket.

Courtesy of WookieCookie on YouTube

I'll intentionally put them under the other candies just so I don't have to share a single one. Of course, the little jingle above runs through my head as I'm eating these decadent yummies, and I admit I do have a preference: I pretty much always feel like a nut. Which leads me to my next ingredient:

Nuts

I could get particular about which nuts work best in chocolate, but I've never met one I didn't like.

Yes, even the standard Mr. Goodbar is delicious. Take out the nuts, though, and you've lost me. Then again, I often get a little sick of the chocolate part and peel it off in favor of the nut itself.
One Christmas the hubby and I received a box of chocolate-covered Macadamia nuts, and after the first few we split the pieces apart--he took the chocolate coating, I the nut. Does that make me healthier than my husband? Um, that really isn't too hard. The most important element with nuts in chocolate, though, is that they need to be roasted and salted. Salt also leads to my final delicious ingredient:

Caramel

This ingredient is simply fantastic on its own, without chocolate. It's ooey-gooey sweetness sticks to my teeth in extremely satisfying (if unhealthy) ways, and if I receive a box of caramels for Valentine's Day (hint, hint!) I will eat every single morsel, and even sniff the box for a week before I manage pry myself from it.

And the caramel family includes toffee. Mix toffee with nuts, and you really have me.

Want to make caramels even better? Add a little sea salt.

I discovered this pleasure at Ferguson's Flowers and Gifts, a cute little store in Shelton, WA. The savvy business owner offered me samples of their salted caramels, and she knew what she was doing. Within five minutes I had purchased over $30 of chocolates. Heck, I was inventing relatives to give the various caramels to, although I promptly forgot their names as soon as I left the shop with my savory bag of chocolates. I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I don't believe I gave a single chocolate away.

For a recipe, visit this page.

These chocolates, in particular, became pure romantic magic in one of my story's scenes, a mixture of chocolate, caramel, salt, and kissing. I suggest reading it with a little box of chocolates, biting into the caramel just at the moment when my main character Catalena tastes her chocolate, too.

You won't regret it.

Now that I've shared my faves, what do you think?

Young Adult (a non-review, review)

2012-01-14T08:26:00.000-08:00

So, I went to see Young Adult yesterday. (Pardon the segway, I was up very late last night with my wheezing daughter…and I had a hard time putting down the book I’m reading . Bad combo!) I wanted to see this movie the second I discovered it existed because it’s written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman- the Juno team. I totally loved Juno and could care less if it’s not cool to like Juno anymore.

Besides that, I had a few other reasons for wanting to see it. I really dig Patton Oswalt – he’s so funny and truthful – I just think he needs to be in all movies. He did not disappoint in Young Adult. I also, obviously, wanted to see it because it’s about a YA author. Lastly, I’ll admit there was a bit of a nostalgia thing going for me – the characters are my age and I wanted to see if they knew what they were doing yet. Like going to a high school reunion at someone else’s school.

In a nutshell, Young Adult is about Mavis Gary, an author who ghost writes a Sweet Valley High-type series. Mavis’ life is in the crapper and she goes home to Mercury, Minnesota after being gone for a long time to win back her high school sweetheart, Buddy – who happens to be married and has a new daughter.

We’re supposed to hate Mavis, she’s in Charlize Theron’s body after all. She’s also an alcoholic and her emotions are in arrested development. She’s that popular girl who said hi to you once in the girls bathroom and asked for a stick of gum. You’ll always remember it and she forgot it while it was happening. Mavis disses her hometown, disses her parents and generally doesn’t care how her actions affect anyone around her.

Like I said, we’re supposed to hate her. We’re supposed to think, “Ha ha popular chick, welcome to the real world.”

But I didn’t. I actually had a lot of empathy for her. I got that juxtaposition between having high school be your glory days and having those glory days take place in a town you couldn’t wait to get out of. I understood why she would dwell on the past. For me, as a young adult writer, your head is in that space more than most people. You can’t help but have a hard time adjusting to adulthood because you spend a lot of time “pretending” you’re still seventeen.

You’re also used to rewriting your history a little bit in your books, so I found it believable that Mavis thought she could go back home and rewrite the ending to her teenage love affair.

Anyway, I don’t have much more to say about it. It’s a good movie and I recommend you all see it, but it’s not sunshine and rainbows. It depressed me in a weird, self-reflective way that I’m sure is not a normal reaction.

The strangest thing, after I went to see Young Adult, I picked my kids up at my parents house and they’d gotten into a box of my stuff in their garage. My son handed me a scrap of cloth, which turned out to be the front of this guy’s skateboarding t-shirt I’d had up on my bulletin board since the 8th grade.

I don’t know what to do with it. I can’t throw it away.

For a real review of Young Adult go here.

This blog is cross-posted to my personal blog: http://staceywallacebenefiel.com

Chocolate Cereal, My First Boyfriend & Exorcisms

2012-01-10T06:35:00.000-08:00

When I was fifteen years old I was a wild child. I ate cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner as long as said cereal was of the chocolate variety. That's not how I rebelled though. Oh no. I was a juvenile delinquent who hung out with the "bad kids" at High School.

Or was it me who turned all my good friends bad? lol

I don't know, but I do know that one day during the summer of '90 things got a little bit out of control. One night I ended up witnessing an actual exorcism taking place. You know? That thing a priest does where he banishes demons out of a persons body?

Maybe I should backtrack a little.

It all started when I saw this boy. He was fifteen, like me, and he sported a blonde mullet haircut that could put the best glam-rock band members to shame.

I loved the way only the tail end of his hair was grown out long. His blonde locks almost reached the middle of his back.

Anyhoo, I kept asking around about this boy and then one day while I was at the skate-park with some friends, I saw him. He was an expert skater. I could tell he knew I was watching him because occasionally he'd glance in my direction and then he'd do some kind of expert flip with his skate-board.

What a show-off. lol

After a while my friends got bored and left. I noticed his friends had also stopped skating too and had gone home. I walked over to him. The closer I got the more I could see he was smiling at me. His blue eyes sparkled, his blonde mullet sang to my hands, urging me to run my fingers through the tail end of those long strands. I sashayed even closer to him. I think I was getting butterflies in my stomach by this point. I remember playing coy and I might have even batted my eyelashes a little. Ug.

When I was about five feet away from him, something incredible happened...

He stomped on the end of his skate-board flipping it up and into his hand with expert ease. He held tight to his board, turned around and ran out of that skate-park like his butt was on fire.

I was shocked. I was dismayed. I was angry and I called out after him saying, "you have stupid hair!"

I found out the next day that he was a painfully shy boy. I took back what I said about his hair and over time we got to know each other. We soon became THEE couple amongst our close circle of friends. We stayed together for 9 months. That's a long time for teens. After we broke up I went to a friend's house one day and he was there with some other kids. When I walked into the room I saw a girl lying on the floor, writhing around as though she was in agony. I shouted, "someone call an ambulance," because I thought she was having a heart-attack or something. My mulleted ex-boyfriend yelled, "someone get me a bible! She's possessed and I know what to do." At this point I'd backed slowly away. I could see matters were out of my control. Also, I knew they were all pretending, either that or every teenager in that room had lost their marbles and I was glad I wasn't dating such a freak any longer.

I walked home, poured myself a bowl of chocolatey cereal and then probably had another one after that. To this day I still love cereal, just not the kind that's chocolatey as I'm on a choc-sabatical.

Oh and I also hate mullets now. I really, really hate them.

Chocolate: It's Not What It Is, but What It Goes With, Part 1

2012-01-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

Unlike so many of my friends, chocolate is not my sweet of choice (though you wouldn't know it from my story, since within that frame of reference chocolate inspires nothing short of orgasm). My students know that I'm far more fond of jelly beans and licorice than chocolate. Chocolate on its own is, well, sort of boring. And not as tasty as I would like.

But chocolate mixed with stuff... that's another matter.

The traditional box of chocolates is well-intentioned, but it doesn't come close for me. Chocolate creams? Unless they are filled with coconut, they revolt me. Consider the traditional (and far too large) Cadbury Cream Egg.

If you want to have your eyes roll back in your head from sugar coma, go ahead. Mostly it just makes me want to toss up lunch. This is evidence that what is mixed with chocolate does matter. Spain sells some traditional chocolates with eggish centers. Thank God my box of them was molding, so I didn't actually have to try them. (Feeling hungry yet? I bet not.)

Only slightly better is plain chocolate. Hershey bars, Godiva bars... okay, so there are a lot.

None of them are great, though the pricier ones do tend to taste smoother. (Hint: not Hershey's.) Add a bit of something, though, these chocolate geniuses thought, and the bars might work better. How about crispy pieces of rice air?

Yuck. Not even a good choice for Halloween candy. Try again! Oooh, how about chocolate poured over puffed up chocolate whippy stuff?

Ack! Gag! Not even when I'm on a diet! No, these additions do nothing for poor old plain chocolate. If these were the only tempters, I'd be as bony as my son (who hates sweets entirely and thinks dessert is a bag of chips or a small bowl of cottage cheese). However, such is not the case--I have found chocolates I like, and they have definitely helped enlarge my waistline--and in my next installment, I'll tackle the chocolaticious additions that truly call to me.

In the meantime, before next Tuesday (when I'll post again), what do you think? Are pictures of my most despised chocolate treats sending you to the grocery store to buy in bulk? Or are you reminded of your own distaste, and would you like to share your personal un-favorites?

Share away. I'd love to know what gags you. No, really, I mean it. Just this once.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T09:07:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, I thought I'd do a quick sale. If you'd like to get the Zellie Wells trilogy (normally $7.99) for 99 cents, you've got until January 2nd to download it from Smashwords.

The coupon code is HR96U.

Easy Chocolate Baking for Teens

2011-12-29T08:24:00.000-08:00

Not to be confused with the Easy Bake Oven for kids, which is way rad and cooks little cakes excellently! What I am talking about is the next age up. I'm not a teen myself, but I sure wish I'd had this mini cupcake maker when I was a teen.

This was a Christmas gift that we tried out today. The mini cupcakes baked in 3 minutes! This is my new form of baking, my only baking method. If I try to bake anything from scratch it goes horribly wrong. Now, I'm not saying that all teens need to use this thing because otherwise they are lousy cooks. I'm just saying that my own baking skills never surpassed 8th grade cooking class levels. A class I abysmally failed.

Anyway, here's the mini muffin result:

They look quite dark, but that's because I took these pics with my poxy netbook webcam. Whatever, they're lovely chocolatey mini cupcakes. I'm not eating any of them though, because I'm denying myself chocolate at the moment. I will be making these though:

YUM

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-24T11:32:00.000-08:00

I love hot chocolate. I love cookies. I'm a horrible baker, though, as I prefer to make up my own recipes and that just doesn't fly when you're baking!

So, who do I turn to when I want something chocolaty and cookielicious?

Martha, of course!

Click here to check out Martha's recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies. Perfect for nibbling on while curling up and enjoying a good book.

Nikki’s Chocolate Factory

2011-12-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

Usually it’s the Cookie Factory this time of year, but I’m attempting to keep holiday calories to a minimum and make sure I have enough energy to pack boxes in the shipping department at work and get writing done at home.

Thus:

“Health By Chocolate” by Victoria Laine

That’s my kind of cookbook!

I want to put together a chocolate variety tray for my co-workers so I’m busy producing homemade truffles, cookies, bars, balls and chocolate drops.

My favorite recipe so far is the Triple Omega Energy Balls – orbs of energy made with flax seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, apricots, raisins, cocoa powder and cinnamon (ground up in the food processor) then rolled into balls and coated with dark chocolate then sprinkled in sesame seeds. They gave us gals a good boost during our 10-hour pack-a-thons.

Now things are settling down and I’m enjoying the days leading up to Christmas by dirtying up all my kitchen pots and pans.

(Sorry, Suz.)

Death by NO Chocolate

2011-12-14T14:50:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows you can die from chocolate overdose, right? Just kidding, I'm sure that's never happened. Seriously though, have you ever wondered what would happen to someone who could never eat chocolate? I know what you're thinking: everyone can eat chocolate and everyone DOES eat chocolate!

Not I.

That's right, I don't eat chocolate and I'm one of the authors for this chocolate infested anthology. It's okay though, I know what I'm doing. I only stopped eating chocolate this year for health reasons, before that, I was an admitted chocaholic. I used to eat chocolate everythings daily. My favorite dessert of choice was chocolate cake. I remember the flavor of it well, the succulent texture of the cake sponge.

I'm drooling now and I'll never again be able to sate my chocolatey desires. This is why the DBC anthology is good for me. It allows me to express my chocolate self. As I pen (type) my chocolatey story, the words on the page (computer screen) are dripping with melty mocha madness and romantic themes abound.

No chocolate plus dead-to-chocolate-Suz equals chocolatey dream stories.

THE END is near

2011-12-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

As a self-published author, I don't have many deadlines that I'm beholden to that I haven't created myself.

On one hand, this is great, because I'm also a SAHM to a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old and they need a lot of attention, which I can give them. I've gotten used to writing when I can, squeezing in word count ten minutes at a time and learning how to focus when Yo Gabba Gabba is on in the background.

On the other hand, it sucks. I'm a major procrastinator and really good at talking myself out of my self-imposed deadlines. The more books I write, the more readers I have that are hungry for the next one. This is awesome and also guilt-inducing. If I miss a deadline, I'm not only letting myself down, I'm letting down my hard-won readers.

The trick for me is to involve myself in projects where I'm in constant contact with other writers, like ROW80 or, like Death By Chocolate. Now, our deadlines are pretty loose, but knowing myself like I do, I tell myself that the world will end if I don't meet them. :)

My story for the anthology, Back in Time, is due on the 14th and I've got 3K left to write on it. It was 5K two days ago, so my personal scare tactics are working. I'm fifteen minutes away from dropping the kids off at my mom's and getting three blessed hours to myself to write. This is basically the last day I'll have a time chunk to work on the story before it's due, so game on!

I'd love to hear how other authors threaten, trick or reward themselves to meet a deadline.

Happiness

2011-12-08T07:07:00.001-08:00

They say chocolate releases certain endorphins or chemicals that make us feel good. So basically, chocolate is a happiness drug.

Whenever I eat chocolate I feel well happy, but also a bit guilty afterwards. It's fine though cause it's well worth the sacrifice. So that got me thinking about our general idea of happiness.

As kids, we are taught that happiness comes in the form of Prince Charming or a soul mate. I guess that is why so much YA literature is so focused on romance, right?

As we get older, we begin to realize that happiness involves more than Prince Charming and popping pieces of chocolate in our mouths.

For me, happiness means dreaming the wildest dreams I can imagine and working hard so that they actually come true.

Writing makes me happy and finding an audience that enjoys my work makes me even happier. I'll be even HAPPIER when let's say a major Hollywood studio realizes that they just so happen to want my books as their newest franchise. Like I said, dream, dream, dream.

Anyways, what makes you guys happy? What dreams do you have for yourselves?

Progress

2011-12-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

No "Deep Thoughts By Stacey" post for me today. I've been writing and scheduling blog posts all week for the different holiday promotions I'm involved in and I'm burnt out on baring my soul. :)

I would like to report that after not doing any actual work on any of my stories since Thanksgiving, I did manage to squeeze in 600 words on Back in Time yesterday and a whopping 87 on my pen name story. I thought I'd left off both stories at a place where I could jump back in a be on a roll like I was prior to turkey day, but alas, I did not. No, I left off in both stories at places where I hadn't decided what was going to happen next!

Silly me.

Now I've got a plan for the next scene in BiT and I will *finally* start writing the YA portion of this supposed YA story. Ha!

All that's left to figure out is if my main character's adult brain will wake up in her teenage body only OR if her teenage brain will wake up in her adult body as well. I think switching them both could be a lot of fun, but then I'm pretty sure I'd need to end up turning this story into a novel.

Others that are excerpting - how are you doing this and can you just tell me what to do? lol

Have a fine Saturday, I hope everyone gets some writing in.

A very merry Death by Chocolate holiday

2011-11-29T09:20:00.001-08:00

Happy National Chocolates day!!!!

Even I, a huge chocolate addict, wasn't aware of such day. But as always, I will take any excuse to delve into some delicious chocolaty treats. It seems there are not one, but two dates dedicated to chocolates:

October 28 - National Chocolate Day

November 29- National Chocolates Day

Oh, and how can we forget VALENTINE'S DAY!!

I haven't been blogging much lately, but it being a chocolate day I found it imperative I do, especially when "Death by Chocolate" is almost here! Well, we are still a few months away, but February 14th 2012 will be here before we know it!

I am still working on revising and re-writing my story which has almost reached the 17k mark and i am only halfway done. Will it ever stop? Will i ever be happy with it and stop fussing over stupid little things? I think not!

Anyway, Hope you all have a delicious day!

Xoxo

Reviews and the self-published author

2011-11-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

I'm in a strange mood today - we've just come back from a trip to the mountains and as we got lower in elevation and the more the snow melted away, the weirder I felt. Like our vacation didn't happen. Also, I've been eating nothing but sweets for three days. :)

I felt like writing something about reviews and when I logged on to Twitter this morning, I saw this tweet from The Story Siren:

"sending me an email lecturing me for not reading/accepting self pubbed books, makes me want to read them even less."

Let's talk about etiquette.

Most of the book bloggers that write thoughtful reviews and don't trash or over enthusiastically praise (in other words, the ones you want to read your book) have a review policy. Take the time to read it, folks. If they say they don't read self-pubbed books and you are the author of a self-pubbed book, don't query them for a review. If they say they don't read e-books, don't send them a PDF and complain that you're too poor to send them a hard copy. Follow the rules.

Your book will not be the one to change their mind. People have to come to things in their own time and the best way to slow down that process is tell them that they're wrong about something and need to change to suit you. Move on to the next book blogger, there are literally hundreds of them. The indie book collective has lists by genre of book bloggers that read self-pubbed and accept e-copies. That's a great place to start.

I can't state this next bit enough - if you receive a bad review, don't engage the reviewer. This applies to both book bloggers and customer reviews on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, etc. If the review is inflammatory or doesn't say anything critical about the actual book (I've just received a one-star review on Glimpse that only said, "how many pages are in this book?") then you can ask Amazon or Barnes and Noble to remove it. Otherwise, just let it be.

Readers are smart enough to make their own decisions about whether or not they want to read a book. They will read the good and bad reviews and come to their own conclusions. Rest assured, some people will love your book and some people will think it's awful.

The work you have to do on yourself as a writer is to get to the point where you don't care about either. Not all good reviews are going to be, uh, good. Sometimes they're three word, exclamation point-ridden silliness. Sometimes they say: OMG!! Luv it!! Not all bad reviews are going to be bad. Reviewers that give you low end stars, but write a thoughtful review outlining what they didn't like about the book - these reviews are not a detriment. Also, I find that most of the time these reviewers will include a line or two about how your book was "not their cup of tea." Fair enough.

I'm not going to pretend that I had a thick skin about reviews when I first started out, I definitely did not. I do now, because I've realized that while reviews are important for getting your name out there and attracting people to take a look at your book, they're not that important otherwise. No need to stay up at night worrying about them. The people that like your book and review it positively will stick around to read your others, the people that don't like your book and review it negatively will move on to someone else.

Our job is to entertain the people that want to read our books and to not waste time trying to win over the rest.

The Best Laid Plans

2011-11-22T11:53:00.001-08:00

I tend to be VERY easy going. It's the Piscean in me, willing to flow along with what everyone is doing, as long as it's not attending a live football game with a bunch of rabid football fans. Okay, so I've been to my share of live football games with rabid fans, too.

I do, however, make plans, and even with my easygoing nature, a falter in plans often makes me irritated. I had planned a trip to a museum in Tallahassee for weeks--and it was to happen today. My kids were out of school, I wasn't teaching a zumba class anywhere, and the Titanic exhibit was still there. We'd have breakfast, take off for the museum district, and have a grand time.

Only it didn't work out. First, my poor kitty has a swelled lip--I'm not sure the cause, nor is the vet, but he's given us antibiotics to treat it, and now kitty should be fine. But it also means I spent the morning at the vet. I also had to call animal control, for when I looked up in the attic for the cat carrier, I instead found a glowing pair of eyes waiting for me. That took up the rest of the morning... and we still haven't found what was up there.

My poor kitty has been battling fleas, too--so I called my bug service. The only time they can come in and do a flea treatment? Today, in the early afternoon. I still held out hope, though. If they came right at one, we could leave shortly afterwards... and we'd still have a good 2 1/2 hours to explore the museum before it closed.

Only the pest control still hasn't come.

So now I wait, NOT going to this museum, NOT getting anything done that I actually WISH to do. (Okay, so I do like blogging... but it's not the same thing, not today). My kids are trying to make the best of it, but they are also disappointed. And not I'm in the last minute of the hour range the pest control person is supposed to arrive... but no one has come. I'll have to call again and see why they aren't here. And if they can't come, the hubby will have to spend another night picking the cat's fleas off his own ankles.

The next time I can go will be winter break--but Titanic will be long gone. I am utterly devastated thinking about it.

What should I do now? What do you do when your plans are thwarted?

Grab Your Reader! And Keep ’em Reading

2011-11-20T22:08:00.000-08:00

While it’s true that you learn to write best by writing and reading, I also like to toss in a book on the craft now and then.

Some are inspirational and some could be summed up in a few pages or even paragraphs. Noah Lukeman’s The First Five Pages is filled with what seems like a bunch of “duh, obviously” advice. I can only cringe and well believe that agents and editors are plagued by authors lacking rudimentary self-editing skills.

(I commit snafus all the time, by the way. I just like to believe my rewriting skills have improved by leaps and bounds over the years.)

What this text enforced in my mind is the importance of the opening pages. Not only are they key to grabbing an agent’s attention (if you’re going the traditional route of publishing), but, more importantly, it’s how the reader decides whether to purchase your novel or continue reading your story.

In the Mood

2011-11-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

Some days, I don't want to write. I know I should try to, that's part of the reason I join anthologies like this one or writing challenges like ROW80, to have people hold me accountable, to get my butt in the chair day after day and put some words down.

But, some days, I'm just not in the mood. On those occasions, here's what I do to get myself motivated or to, at the very least, keep my head in the game.

1. Music - Dissent, the 5th Day of Sacrifice story, is stuck at about 1,200 words right now. I haven't worked on it in weeks because I've been writing my anthology story and because I don't know what I want to happen next. This is a story I need to have out by the first of the year, so yesterday in order to get my brain thinking about it, I listened to my DoS playlist in the car while I was driving everyone to work and school.
It's amazing how music can get you in the right frame of mind when you associate it with writing a similar story or a previous story in this case. I had Halo and Bleeding Love on repeat all day. Just thinking about my characters in a video montage sort of way (does anyone else do that or am I a weirdo?) I jump started my enthusiasm for the series and came up with ideas for the end of the scene I've been stalled on.

2. Sexy New Ideas notebook - Again, I may be a weirdo, but I never have more new ideas for other stories than when I'm trying to complete the one I'm supposed to be focused on. I combat this by keeping an Idea Notebook. If I can get the idea down on paper, my mind can let it go. It's like a promise to myself that I will come back to it later. Of course, there are always more ideas than there is time to write them, but I've also found that sometimes the ideas can be combined together - genre mixing at its finest!

3. More than one project - I've tried only working on one story at a time. It's not my style. I find that if I have multiple projects to work on - I usually have 3-4 going at once - and can add a new paragraph to one that is not my main focus, that it does two things: Like with the SNI's I can get nagging conversations, scenes and descriptions out of my head and it gives me a confidence boost. Nothing makes me feel better about myself than writing does, so it stands to reason that if I'm feeling crappy and distracted with my main WIP, getting some words down on something else I'm working on makes me feel like I've done something, made some progress in my own little world.

4. Read/watch TV - Sometimes when I'm supposed to be writing, doing either of these things can feel decadent and like I'm wasting time. Really, though, they can help - if you stay on genre. I have a particularly hard time writing action/fight scenes - with the Zellie books, I often turned to reading the Vampire Academy books and to watching teen shows like Roswell, The Nine Lives of Chloe King and Kyle XY - books and TV shows that are aimed at the same audience as the Zellie books are and contain both a paranormal romance aspect and a lot of action. With the DoS stories, I can't tell you how much Supernatural and Nikita have helped me come up with ideas for both characters and new ways to write fights. So, yes, I'm being entertained and slacking off a bit, but I'm also consciously studying the ways other writers do what I'm trying to do.

What sort of things do you do to get in the mood to write?

This blog is cross-posted to my personal blog and to the PacNWYA blog.

ARGH I'm Going Insane!!!!

2011-11-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

Guys!!! I hear you all, life is crazy right now. Like insane. My day job is a freelance writer/manager for an online writing service. Clients are vicious during this time of year, they want their papers ASAP. NOW!!

Plus it's been two and a half weeks since I published Bound! Everyday, I WAKE UP IN A STATE OF TERROR. LIKE SUZ EXPERIENCED PEOPLE CAN BE NASTY. SALES CAN STOP AND ARGH what if I'm just not good enough???

What keeps me going??? Well, you ladies of course and chocolate and the fact that no matter what, I know that being a fiction writer is what I was born to do. So if you guys are having moments of self-doubt and fear. First, take liberal doses of chocolate with an ginormous dash of faith and unwavering belief that you are good enough.

Just look how dedicated Christian was to his writing career :P . You ladies also have "huge talent!"

Busy much?

2011-11-16T08:52:00.001-08:00

Welcome! I am the incredible juggler!

No. Seriously. It is exactly how I feel right now.

The hubby has been away since last week and I have been in charge of everything (which is the way it normally is, but sucks not having help on the little things.)
Below is a list of all of the things I am doing currently:

I am working on the first round of edits for my anthology story: I have only edited the first chapter (18 pages) and I have a few more chapters and close to another 30 pages to go. As I edit, the story keeps morphing and getting better and better!

Blogging for DBC: Sometimes it is hard to find the time or a topic to blog about. We all want it to be cool, interesting.. unlike this one today. Sorry people!

I am blogging on my Writing Antics: Although I didn't blog much for a period of two weeks, I am now trying to make up for all that lost time. Many things to do, which brings me to my next one:

Book Reviewing: I have many books lined up to be read and my free time seems to shrink more and more! I am known for eating a whole book in a day or two, but things have drastically changed and, as said before, I am grasping for air trying to do it all at the same time.

My Author Page on Facebook: It really sucks that I can only post on it through the laptop and not my phone. I could be posting all day long, but no, facebook wants to be difficult with me!

I created a Fan Page for my friend and actor, Tim Phillipps: I am managing that, although I only created it last night, so not a lot of work put in yet. But I am emailing back and forth with some of his fans. It is very cool! His first US appearance was this past Sunday on "Once upon a time" and so now there are girls coming out of all places wanting to talk to him, so what better way than to do a Fan Page, right?

Trying to stay in touch with my Twitter people: It is more of an addiction than anything else. I am sure people are surprised at how quick I respond. My phone is always by my side and the notifications are loud enough, so i just HAVE to be on twitter all the time. Right?

Morgan: That should be enough. Morgan is my 3 month old American Pitbull pup that LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to pee just about everywhere in the house. The hardwood floors are no match for her apparently.. Ugh.

(much larger now)

And last but never least, The House and the Kiddies: breakfasts, lunches for school, brushing teeth, getting dressed, bathing, feeding etc. You name it and it obviously gets done. But don't forget the most fun of all!!! The bickering between the two of them, the messes in the rooms, the rolling of eyes, the demanding requests.. ahh.. motherhood!

Well, enough of me babbling on and on about this! What does your day entail?

Xoxo

Death by No Chocolate

2011-11-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

I can't eat chocolate. I'm one of the authors for this chocolatey anthology, and I myself cannot enjoy the chocolicious stuff.

I know what you're thinking: how can she who does not ingest the luscious stuff write about said cocoa madness?

It's simple really. Because I can't partake of chocolate and all it's gloriousness, I covet it all the more. As I pen my Death by Chocolate story, I go back to the days of yore. The days when I could eat choco this and that and everything chocolatey under the sun. Oh believe me, I know the flavor, I remember the melty sweetness upon my tastebuds.

If anything, I can weave chocolate indulgence into my story better now, than when I was allowed to consume the ambrosia that is mocha. Seriously, I can still sniff chocolate. Memories of how yummy it is come flooding back when I smell it.

Now I know what you're REALLY asking yourself: she doesn't eat chocolate, she snorts it?

No I don't, sillyhead. Correction; I'm the dufus head here. It's late and I'm tired and delirious and craving chocolate. My point is, I won't let you down on the chocorific element of my story. Now, the paranormal aspect? Time for a bit of remembering my witchcraft days. Oh yes! ;)

The Witch Who Couldn't Eat Chocolate. Was a very sad witch indeed.

P.S. I miss chocolate as much as I miss rootbeer. Can't get any here in the United Kingdom. Someone send me some foamy topped rootbeer stat! Please?

Pantser 4-ever

2011-11-12T09:42:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday a few of us PacNWYA authors gave two talks at a middle school in Portland. Lisa Nowak spoke about writing rules, left brain vs. right brain and how to turn off your internal editor and let creativity come through. (Expect a lot more 8th graders to be participating in NaNoWriMo next year.) Then Angela Carlie and I led a writing exercise that involved writing dialogue and coming up with ideas on the fly. Finally, we did a Q & A.

It's been my experience that the first question people ask is, "How long did it take for you to get published?" This is when we all share that our first books took years. We explain that most of us went the traditional route at first, why we got fed up with it and how we made the decision to self-publish.

The second question we get is, "Do you outline?" Some of us do and some of us don't and we each speak a little bit about our writing process.

What I find most interesting about these two questions - that have been asked of us by kids, teens, teachers, other writers and book bloggers - is that they don't hear what we say past "My first book took five years to finish and another two to publish" and "Yes, I meticulously outline before I write."

I feel like the general consensus is that folks want authors to have suffered for their art. That the books we outlined for a year and took five years to write are somehow better because we worked harder on them.

So, as you can imagine, people stop listening to me when I tell them that after I published Glimpse, Glimmer was out eight months later and Glow was out eight months after that. They definitely stop hearing me when I explain that I have no use for outlines because I won't follow them.

Now, there are a ton of writers and readers to defend the self-published, to rally behind those that put books out on their own schedule.

But who, I ask you, stands for the pantser?

Uh, I guess it will be me.

No one wants to admit to being a pantser, they will say they're "reformed" or a "hybrid." I've used the hybrid term to describe myself, but I'll come clean and admit that scribbling a page full of half sentences and characters names is not an outline. Writing down Epic Battle or Showdown or Then they get it on are not decisive plot points. I've been known to say that I "know what's going to happen next" or "I have a solid beginning and ending."

Nope. I don't.

In fact, if I write down a plan I can almost guarantee that none of the things listed in the plan will end up in the manuscript.

The only thing that works for my pantserin' self is to write a sentence, read it, and write another sentence. As far as I can tell, this method still requires creativity and perseverance. I am still, a really real writer.

This method may be your writerly version of hell. I can respect that. Everyone works differently. My method isn't better than yours and yours isn't better than mine. We're all in the business of making stuff up for a living; we've all had our characters "speak" to us. We've all had those weird moments of inspiration that derailed and then bettered our books.

Those things happen because we're writers, not because we're pantsers or plotters. If the end product is awesome, who cares how we got there or who properly suffered more?

One final thought: Pantser is a weird name, but I think we should own it. Let's not be embarrassed anymore. It's like the whole indie/self-published thing. Yeah, indie sounds cooler and it will make for a better tattoo, but there's nothing wrong with saying you're self-published either. I'm kind of over being embarrassed about how I write and publish.

Self-published pantser.

Cool.

Why Me?

2011-11-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

See, this is why I hate the internet sometimes. I'm an aspiring writer, I don't need haters already! There's an anonymous commenter on my blog who keeps saying how shite they think my cover and blurb is. I was going to write a chocolate / paranormal related blog post here on DBC today, because I wanted to mark the date being 11/11/11. Now I just feel like poo, and I don't dare to try and be a novelist any more.

Mean people are so weird. Why do they take the time to hurt people?

Done

2011-11-09T05:30:00.000-08:00

I was pondering what I could possibly have to say on today’sblog when..

TA DAAAA

I finished the first draft for “My Bloody Valentine,” my storyfor Death by Chocolate. I feel 100% accomplished for actually finishing withenough time to edit and revise it a few times before sending it off to my bycrit partner. I am so excited, I cannot wait to read everyone else’s storiesand see how it all comes together.

I had expected to let my draft simmer for a couple of daysand then go back to it and start the edits, but I don’t think I can hold off. Iam eager to get back into it and start all over again. So far it is 12,500words but I am guesstimating it will probably end up being between 14k-16k. Iadd a whole lot when I edit.

Usually, from what I hear and read, authors write about anextra 20% that can be trimmed off. Me on the other hand, add, add, add and addsome more. How do you do it? Do you have any special techniques you could sharewith us all?

The Revision Spectrum

2011-11-08T06:43:00.000-08:00

I've always loved comparing two particular novelists: Thomas Mann and Gustave Flaubert.

One, Thomas Mann, thought up every part of this novel in his head, wrote it down pretty much the way he wanted it, and sold tons of copies of all of his novels.

The other, Gustave Flaubert, revised his novels for years, stressing over every word, sometimes spending a month on a single sentence or paragraph, paying attention to the nuance to be found in every syntactical change.

Interestingly, I've read novels by both. And even though both novelists wrote in languages other than English, so I read them in translation, I had a definite favorite: Gustave Flaubert. In fact, though the whole premise of Madame Bovary when summarized, made me assume I would detest the book, I absolutely adored reading it. I dare say it's one of the best books I have ever read, primarily because it's flawlessly written.

Thomas Mann's works, on the other hand, well... not the same response. I find his work wordy, and I often finish complete novels wondering what he was getting at. No emotional response at all, for the works, to me, aren't focused enough. There is too much irregular and unnecessary junk mixed in.

You would probably guess by now that I'm in favor of revision. And I am. In fact, I reworked my college writing classes so that my students were forced to revise. Yes, forced. This tendency stems from my own writing, though. My first drafts are TERRIBLE, and yet as I revise, they get better and better and better. Do they ever get perfect? Nope. Gustave Flaubert never found perfection, either, and the more I develop as a writer the more perfection seems to be an elusive goal. But they are better, and that's what I most need. If it takes 25 drafts to get a project there, then that's what it takes. If it means sitting on a manuscript for five years, then that's what it takes.

What about you? How much do all of you revise? What do you revise most when you rework a draft?

2011-11-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

This is a re-post from my personal blog. I thought it was appropriate for all the Choclatiers too.

This week has sucked so far, as I’ve got a cold and my washer and dryer crapped out just when I really needed them. Off to Best Buy we went and procured ourselves a new set.

They were delivered yesterday, but the outlet in my laundry room was designed for a range instead of a dryer. My poor house. I love it. It’s orange, has a tree growing in the center of it and has lots and lots of windows, but it was built in 1964 and has apparently had nothing but DIYers (including me) habitate under its skylights. Something always has to be updated or redone because it was slapped together with hillbilly carpentry.

Many thanks to Ben, an electrician, for coming out and putting a new outlet in on such short notice. Also, thank you for being hot and having an accent. I can’t really remember anything you said to me, but the washer and dryer are all hooked up and I’ve got on clean underwear for the first time this week.

Yeah, so when that’s a highlight you can bet I’m ready for a weekend away with my girlfriends.

We go to my friend’s family cabin at the beach every November – In fact, I think this will be my 9th year. The only time I’ve missed it was when I was, like, two days away from giving birth to my son. We all lounge about and read US and People magazine, drink Bud Light, eat junk food and just generally have a grown-up slumber party. On Saturday we hit the outlet mall and get started on our Christmas shopping. We play card games and make up dance routines and try on each others’ clothes. There is some hair braiding, I won’t lie. We, without fail, burn our dinner on the first night and have something fried with ranch dressing on it at the bar the second night.

The best part is we get to be how we used to be for a weekend. Before husbands and kids and jobs and mortgages and all the have-to’s that come with getting older. I get called by my first name and no one asks me to get them anything besides maybe another beer. I can forget that I’m on my second set of washer and dryers in my adult life.

The next best part is on Sunday when we go home and get to see our husbands and kids and we offer to get them anything they want and it’s good to be called Honey and Mommy again.

No matter how successful I want to be as a mother and writer, how driven I am, how much I sacrifice “who I used to be,” it can’t all be about getting ahead. Sometimes you have to relax, do some 8-counts, play Apples to Apples and not worry about word count or deadlines or if your kids have clean jammies.

My point: Acting like a jackass 18-year-old can be good for you.

Book of The Dead

2011-11-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

As I was writing my blurb for this anthology, it struck me that just about all my YA and historical romances have centered on death lately.

Looking back I noticed these projects were all started or written within the last three years, which is about the time I became hyper aware that our time here is limited.

It’s not a morbid obsession, but one that’s made me more productive and appreciative of life. (I’ve got things I want to accomplish, dang it!)

I also find myself more aware that the people around me are on the same countdown and that’s been the hardest part to accept.

So, while writing is my passion, it’s never more important than spending time with my husband, dog, family and friends. I do have to remind myself of this from time to time even if it means taking out 10 minutes to play with my dog when I’m in the middle of NaNo time (and have already taken him on a walk).

I do my best brainstorming when I’m out walking. And playing with my dog – that’s just fun time. We all need time to recharge.

Hope Springs Eternal

2011-11-02T06:37:00.000-07:00

This is just gonna be a short post, but an important one. It seems like we are all so busy getting our stories out there, meeting professional and personal obligations that we don't have time to stop and appreciate what we already have going for us.

We are all capable ladies who will eventually meet whatever writing goals we set for ourselves because we're actually working for them. Personally, I know lots of people who have big dreams, but never take the small steps to achieve those dreams. It doesn't matter if you write 2000 words a day or 200, what matters is that you are writing and you'll see progress.

I was terrified last week just thinking about publishing my first book. It's done though and it feels awesome, now I can get over it and move forward. Write the next one and so on.

So my fellow DBC authors, I command you to take a deep breath and be grateful for where you are and where you're going. Like the cliche goes, the journey is the most important part. So, when we're all billionaire authors, we'll be like, "damn, I should have enjoyed myself more!"

Now a clip for some writing inspiration!

Scarier Than Halloween

2011-11-01T03:38:00.000-07:00

Sure, it's not dressed as a zombie, with gaping holes in is face, arms about to fall off, rotting bones showing through torn clothing. It's not pounding at my door, moaning and screaming, or bashing in a window and grabbing at me.

But it's scary nonetheless. I'm so frightened I wonder if I'll wet myself today, scared like a deer caught on a rainy highway staring into the headlights of a speeding semi, overwhelmed by the urge to run but unable to move, for I know it will just come and chase me down.

What is it that's so scary? Not Halloween. No, the only fear I have for that holiday is the enormous mound of candy remaining this morning (darn it!). Some of you know what it is.

It's NaNoWriMo.

Granted, it should be exciting. I should have woken this morning with a grin on my face, ready to tackle my first 1,667 words for the month, messaged all my NaNo buddies something inspiring, and set off on my writing frenzy...

Only I can't. I'm not ready. All my pre-NaNoWriMo goals are still unmet. Okay, so I did get my first novel's revision done. And I did send it out to the first few agents on my list. And I did write the rough draft of my children's story.

I have a bunch of didn'ts, though, too. I still haven't finished my Death by Chocolate story, I didn't even start revising my novel #3, and, worst of all, I didn't write an outline for my NaNoWriMo novel. That is the worst part. Like I said on my Not Writing blog, I can't write stuff without an outline. I even wrote an outline for my children's book, which doesn't approach 1,000 words. If I start writing my novel without a plan, a whole month of writing will be wasted.

What to do? I see three steps (oh, look, another outline!):

1. Finish my chocolate story
2. Outline my novel
3. Begin writing

Yup, I'll be behind for the first week, but hopefully at some point I'll catch up (I hope). If I don't complete these tasks first, though, I'll be wasting my time trying to write a whole novel.

What about you? Are you doing National Novel Writing Month? Are you ready?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2011-10-31T05:35:00.001-07:00

It's finally here! It's finally here!! The one day of the one day of the year where you can be anyone or anything you like without being classified as crazy. I would like to dedicate this Halloween to Joe. I know you're asking who the hell is Joe?

Well you see, Joe is our local "crazy person". Every city has one of those. You know the person who is considered crazy because he/she doesn't give a crap about what anyone thinks about them. Well, anyways, every couple of months, Joe goes on these trips where he gets obsessed with one thing or another. He used to carry a boombox around with him and march up and down the streets , yeah, like a real old school boombox, no iPod for him. Other random things like wearing a pink shirt every single day for six months straight, carrying a fishing rod everywhere complete with a dead fish on the end, giving out ice cream cones to old people and refusing to wear shoes for months on end.

Anyways, I hadn't seen Joe in a long time mostly because I'm a writer and therefore a virtual recluse (haha just kidding, kind of). Last night, hubby and I went on our usual Sunday night, pre-movie, junk food/pizza run and I saw Joe. He was dressed in a Batman costume. Because I live in Brazil at the moment, I was SOOO happy to see someone wearing a Halloween costume. I went up to him and said HAPPY HALLOWEEN, he smiled. People in the store started snickering and pointing. I was confused. Hubby looked uncomfortable. Anyways, after Joe walked away, hubby kindly informed me that Joe's latest kick is superheroes. For the past few months, he's been dressing in Batman/Superman/Spiderman costumes. It wasn't a Halloween costume, it was just Joe being Joe.

At first, I was horrified that I may have embarrassed him, but then I thought about it. I thought about the evil villagers snickering at him and how vapid they really are. I mean from my perspective, Joe has courage. He doesn't give a crap about what people think about him every day of the year. He doesn't need Halloween as an excuse to express himself. He's not afraid of being different and showing how he feels. I think that we can all learn from Joe and add a little Halloween to our day to day lives.

So this Halloween, I raise my glass of witch's brew in the air and toast Joe. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Back In Time

2011-10-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

I love reading and writing about time travel and parallel dimensions. Giving my characters the ability to right past wrongs is especially appealing as a YA author.

I'm maybe one of the few people I know who enjoyed high school, but that doesn't mean there aren't things I wish I could go back and change, no matter what the consequences in my current timeline would be.

Because, it's those game changing moments that happened in high school that tend to stick with us. For a lot of people, it's the first time you had your heart broken or had to make a decision about your own future. College or no? Which college?? Boyfriend or friend? Which boy??

The short story I'm writing for the DBC anthology is about a woman, Aurelia Lemon, who gets the chance to ask herself those questions again, and choose better this time around.

Did the guy who dumped her in high school ever really care about her, or was he just using her for her mother's recipes? Was going away to business school, which ultimately made her miserable, the right thing for her, or should she have stayed behind and gained hands-on business experience helping to run her parents bakery?

I'm less than 1K into my story and I'm already anticipating the moment where Aurelia's 26-year-old mind wakes up in her 18-year-old body.

It's going to be delish.

Book Covers

2011-10-28T02:37:00.000-07:00

I created the Death by Chocolate cover using Photoshop Elements 6 and my teenage daughter wearing her prom dress as the chocolate eating model. I have an undying passion for paranormal teen book covers, because they are usually absolutely stunning. Below are some upcoming YA novels with covers that blow my mind. Some are more simple than others, but all are incredibly gorgeous.

Is it all worth it???

2011-10-27T07:55:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, I'm kind of in a strange place right now. I'm questioning if it's all worth it. I can't speak for anyone else, but when I write, I just don't write for myself. I want to write for other people too. I want readers to fall in love with my characters, hate them, laugh with them, be mad at them, and question their motives. I want readers to invite these people into their lives and impact them in some way or another.

I'm kind of wondering if writing something that most people never read is worth it? I know, at this point I can't say if anyone will read my work or not. I'm always second guessing myself and comparing myself to other writers. I think, wow that book is so awesome, but my stuff is nothing like that, so no one is going to like it. However, deep down, I know that what I have to offer is different and not so bad.

My whole Arelia LaRue series is about voodoo in New Orleans. My DBC story is also about a girl who resorts to voodoo for revenge. I think it's different, but is it too different? Do people actually care about voodoo queens? I mean people love witches, right? So anyways, my dream is to make voodoo queens the new vampires. Let's see how close I get.

Almost there!!!

Am I built wrong?

2011-10-26T03:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys, Lucy here :)

I have always read, and been told by various writers to write as much as I can, even when it well exceeds the final word count. “Don’t think about if it makes sense or it is written correctly,” an author friend told me. Apparently, when said writers edit, they tend to erase about a 20 percent of their manuscript. For example, writing 100,000 word manuscripts to then shorten it down to 80,000.

Well, it is painfully obvious I work backwards and/or I am doing something very, very wrong.

As I have been writing my story for “Death by Chocolate” and other WIP, I have been gathering the words. Every time I pick up the story back up to write some more and read it all over again, I end up adding between 500 to a 1,000 words. To what I have already written! Yes, it is true that they are *new* words, but the story didn’t move forward.

I know we all work differently and we get to the finish line in a million different ways. For me, at least with this story, I just started writing. I didn’t think of a story, I didn’t make an outline, I just began writing and all of the sudden- what do you know? I have a story that I love writing! As I go, it keeps evolving and getting cooler, creepier and more twisted. It is going to be great!
As Cheryl, Shakespeare, said yesterday, titles are not my forte. For now I am happy calling my short “Bloody Valentine,” which was upgraded from the previous Deadly Valentine.

I cannot wait to share this with you all! It is going to be EPIC!

Xoxo,
Lucy

Death by Titles

2011-10-25T03:58:00.000-07:00

The writing is going pretty well so far. I have a good 2-page outline with the major characters and major events, and the first few pages are already making me very happy.

What isn't making me so happy is the title.

The story is about a little village in Romania ruled over my Domn Marius (Domn is Romanian for Lord), and it follows several of the lives of the poorer inhabitants, who all come across a new confectioner's shop in the square, run by Ramnusia, who is a witch. They discover the benefits of her chocolates, especially Catalena, who both tells the story and figures in its major romantic theme.

Like I said, though, the story makes me happy. But the TITLE. Why do the titles always sink me?

My current title is "Under the Spell of the Witch's Confections." And it is TERRIBLE. It's not nearly as bad as the other titles I've tried:

Just Desserts (Gag! Ack! Choke!)

Getting One's Just Desserts

Getting His Just Desserts (at this point I realized the "Just Desserts" part simply gagged me)

Ramnusia’s Chocolate Witchery (okay, so this might come back)

Ramnusia’s Sweet Shop

Ramnusia’s Chocolate Shoppe (my 7-year-old informed me that "shoppe" is spelled wrong)

The Witch Ramnusia’s Chocolates

And these are just the ones I wrote down. I also thought of even stupider ones, like "The Tiny Romanian Chocolate Shop" and "Ramnusia, Witch of Chocolate." Yikes!

I think I'll just have to forget about the title for now and write the story. I'll save the hardest part for last.

What about you? Do titles flow easily, or do you find yourself stymied by lame ones? How do you decide on a title?

A Visit to Twilight Country

2011-10-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

At the risk of getting staked by diehard fans, I confess I’m not a fan of Twilight – the books or movies – and can now say neither am I wild about Twilight country (Forks and surrounding area). Don’t get me wrong, it’s gorgeous and I’m a nature loving gal. The setting just didn’t fit my mood.

This probably had a lot to do with the weather, as Stephenie Meyer so eloquently wrote (yes, I can appreciate her writing even if I’m a Team Spike kind of groupie) in her opening chapter:

In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United States of America.

As expected , it was gray. It was rainy.

But what really got me grumbling were all the ‘No Dogs Allowed’ signs posted at every national park trailhead. Now werewolves I can understand, but dogs? Come on! I never once ran into a no dog sign in Alaska or Central Oregon.

Saturday we drove four hours RT to get to LaPush (“Land of Jacob” where Bella went cliff diving) so we could hike to Second Beach. Alltrails.com indicated dogs were allowed. The sign at the head of the trail claimed otherwise. After chugging through torrential rain behind motorhomes who don’t know how to use pull offs despite a 10 car lineup, I was beyond peeved (and ready to dive off a cliff, myself).

We did locate a tsunami escape route that said nothing about dogs, made our way down a narrow slippery path to a small beach being thrashed by big angry waves and noticed the only other brave souls out had dogs. (Our shared patch of consolation beach.)

By then, it was getting so late and I was so fed up (we’d already had to forgo another great hike the day before and the hot springs, again, as dog vacationers) that I said F@#& driving to Forks, which would have added an extra 30 minutes, give or take, to our drive.

When we reached Port Angeles, I was hungry and wanted to eat at Bella Italia, which my Twilight points of interest brochure claimed was the place where Bella and Edward had their first date. Never mind Bella and Edward, I just wanted some warm minestrone soup, bruschetta and spaghetti marinara.

But again, our dog, Cosmo, was also hungry so we pushed onto Sequim where we’d rented a cottage, fed Coz, then got to work preparing spaghetti with sauce from a jar. Boo.

Given that we have to take a ferry off our island to get anywhere to begin with, I wonder that I chose the Olympic Peninsula for an impromptu four day getaway when it takes yet another ferry just to get over, not to mention it’s right across the ocean from us.

Great planning as always. I suck. And not in the heart pounding, get your blood flowing vampire sense of the word.

Next trip I’m choosing Sunnydale.

Death by Chocolate

2011-10-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome!

Death by Chocolate is a collection of lipsmackingly romantic paranormal young adult stories, written by six talented authors; Suzanne Korb, Cheryl Carvajal, Nikki Jefford, Kira Saito, Stacey Wallace Benefiel & Lucy Swing.

Tales of love and the supernatural. Adventurous stories that will melt your heart with a dark chocolate twist! Check back here for chocolatey contests, book giveaways, writing competitions, and more!

FREE Anthology! Released on Valentine's Day 2012. Available at Amazon/Kindle & in all eBook formats.