What I Want to Watch

There's a lot of junk on TV today. 
A lot of poorly conceived plots, shallow characters, shoddy dialogue. This is particularly true for television aimed at the YA/NA crowd. 
We won't even get into The Vampire Diaries and Secret Circle. It's painful for me as I have been a fan since the books first came out. Beyond that, most shows aimed at this age group center around the paranormal or superbly conniving, backstabbing elitists. It's okay to watch for awhile but eventually it gets tired. 
Lately I have found myself flipping channels and finding nothing that I really want to sink my teeth into. What is it that I'm looking for? What would engage my brain without enraging it? I find myself wanting to watch something like Dacie Mae. 
Dacie Mae is a strong, stubborn young woman trying to take care of her mama while still working toward her goal of becoming a reporter for a major newspaper. This is not an easy task when you're from Nowhere, Missouri and you have people who depend on you. She's smart and scrappy but still vulnerable, especially when it comes to romance. There is a dark secret that burdens her. And US Deputy Marshal Hank McClain adores her in the most infuriating sort of way, leaving Dacie Mae unsure if he views her as a kid sister or a potential girlfriend. 
This is what I would like to watch. This young girl fighting for her dreams, battling romantic notions that may or may not exist, caring for her mama, scrapping with redneck drug dealers....something real and encouraging but still sexy and thrilling. 
I love working on Dacie Mae and plan for it to be a long series as we watch her struggle her way to the city and realization of her goals. I am behind schedule and apologize for that. My only excuse is an awful first trimester. Not too much longer and the final installment of Dacie Mae: Midnight Under the Magnolia will be available. KINDLE NOOK

Writing: Not the posh job you imagine

I am your typical self-defeating writer.
My career began when I penned my first poem in kindergarten. Maybe I didn't start making money then but that's when it began, when the gnawing need to create and weave stories wormed it's way into my marrow. Writing is what I do and who I am but most of the time I suppose that I do not do it very well.
My Eeyore attitude is only painted in deeper shades of gloom when you consider that no one around me understands what it is to be a writer. I live in a very normal sphere. Housework. Homework. Toilets to scrub. Socks to match (really, why bother?). Dishes to clean. Take the kids to school. Pick them up from school and so on. Normal. White picket fence normal but inside I'm all Johnny Depp in Twisted Window.

Okay. Maybe not THAT crazy but still not white-picket-fence normal, either. But who has time to be the flaky writer when there is so much practical crap that needs tending to? And nobody comprehends how consuming being a writer is?
It's an especially difficult thing to be a writer just starting out and not have flesh and blood people around you who really get it. I'm not one for writers' groups, being anti-social as I am, but the need to be surrounded by and inspired by professionals with war stories and scars is definitely growing.
This video came across my Twitter feed today. It is immensely helpful and comforting, one that I will probably come back to many times. John Truby gets it and articulates quite wonderfully what it is to be a writer. If you need some drive put back into your work watch this.

Adapting The von Strassenbergs

My favorite book is being made into a series on Starz. And it's killing me. Not just because I can't wait to watch it but because I would give anything to be a part of the process. The art of crafting a story into a visual reality is just thrilling to me. Making fictional characters take on physical form...gah! I love it!
You see, I have always been a nerd. Not even a tech-savvy geek. I was a flat out nerd. In elementary, middle and high school I spent most of my time reading and writing. Alone. Holed up with fictional friends. 
At some point, probably middle school, I began writing what is known today as fan fiction. This was back when email was still a really big deal and websites were all in basic html. I was, as many people could tell you, obsessed with MacGyver. Something about a really competent man is very alluring. So I started writing my own episodes of MacGyver. And then I started writing episodes of my other favorite shows. I abandoned the novel I was working on to focus primarily on writing scripts. 

Evidence of my early nerdom. All those binders? Filled with teleplays.

Screenshot from Filter's adaptation

Fast forward a decade. Somehow I've wound up a stay-at-home mom and I only have half a college degree. Restless and disappointed in myself I take up writing again. But prose just doesn't flow easily through this brain. It's still wired for action and dialogue. So I write a screenplay. It takes me a year but I manage to finish a first draft of a 120 page script. It's a romantic drama. I put it up on American Zoetrope and get some good feedback. And it pretty much died there. I never worked up the courage to enter it into their annual contest. This year I want to change that. 
My one main goal for this year is to adapt my first novel, Filter, into a screenplay. I've been working on it off and on but this year I mean to complete it and to have it ready to enter for early submission into the annual American Zoetrope screenwriting contest. 
So here's hoping to a very productive year!

Short & Sweet: The Reason for my "Dan Brown" Chapters

Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and The Lost Symbol, among others, is known for his very, very short chapters. Sometimes a Dan Brown chapter can last all of two paragraphs. 


When I first set out to write The von Strassenberg Saga it wasn't my intent to copy the style of Dan Brown. I didn't even realize I was writing "Dan Brown chapters" until someone else (my sister), pointed it out. 


As with everything in my writing, I let the story dictate the telling. If that makes sense. Yes. Conventional chapters are at least ten pages long, usually longer. Do I care? Not at all. I'm not going to drag out a scene and slow things down just to meet the standard idea of what a chapter should be. For me, it is all about the pacing, about the natural break in a story, about leaving the reader with just enough to drive them through the next chapter so they can find out what happens next. (You have to keep in mind, Filter follows two storylines. Chapters often switch between the historical and the contemporary heroines, each fighting their own battles.)


The structure of Filter probably has a lot to do with my training in college. I studied video (filming and editing) and we are trained to never let a scene or a shot go on for too long. Otherwise you will diminish the emotional impact. It probably also has something to do with the fact that for the ten years I wasn't writing novels I was writing screenplays. Mostly just for fun but also because it was the only way my creative brain would function for a long time. I wrote Filter as I saw played out in my head. It wasn't about the words, necessarily, it was about how the scene played out in my head (it was often like a music video in my head! lol Fire and swooshing skirts and the flash of firelight on the muzzle of a revolver, that kind of thing). I am a very visual writer and don't see the necessity of getting bogged down in words just because they sound cool.


It's all about the pacing, the action, the hills and the valleys. When I make a video, even if it's only two minutes long, I want to warm people's hearts and then move them to tears and fits of anger. 


So yes. As my cousin and her friends have said, I write chapters perfect for the ADHD crowd. It wasn't really planned that way, it was just the natural progression of the story.


UPDATE! 
So. I just spent an insane amount of money that I don't have so that I could have my ear infection confirmed and get some antibiotics for it. This is not a good time of year for such things. The holidays are tough as it is. For this reason, I have lowered the price of Filter: Book One of The von Strassenberg, for Kindle and Nook (and Amazon lowered the paperback price to $11.11 to match B&N's price!). Through December 31st you can buy the Nook or Kindle version for only 99 cents! So get it cheap while you can!