Friday, October 19, 2012

HELP! I Need a New Laptop!!!

No, I didn’t punch my laptop, but I really, really, really, want to. It’s been twitching when it first comes on, like it’s having a seizure and it will only stop when I position the lid in exactly the right way. Bad luck for me is that the position is not at all comfortable for me so I spend a lot of time hunched so I can see the screen. It’s not pretty, people. A few more months like this and I’ll have a hump on my back. But if it’s a millimeter off, the screen blinks so rapidly that I know it’s communicating with the devil or something, and I wait for the face of a killer to appear to tell me to turn around, cause he's standing behind me waiting to behead me.


Okay, so clearly I’m loosing my mind. Not to mention I’m a little too attached to my laptop and the fact that it’s leaving me for some cyber hussy is too much for me to handle. But that’s okay, I’m doing a preemptive strike. I’m leaving it before I can be dumped!

But I need help. What laptop do you recommend? I have a Compac Pesario and would probably not get another one, but it was a gift. I can tell you what I really want, A Mac Book Pro, but um…I don’t have $3000 just lying around. Not until I sell my book for billions of dollars, the movie rights for trillions and open my theme park for ga-zillions! Until then, I have to budget and I don’t want to go over $1000.

Help me! You all know what I mainly need it for, writing. So tell me how much you love your laptop and maybe I can find a new one! Otherwise, I’m heading quickly to a padded cell and no one wants to see that.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Establishing Rules for Your Paranormal Character


One of the things my agent asked me to clarify was the rules to my characters abilities. She has psychic dreams and while I never though it needed to be defined more than that, I can now clearly see why it is oh so important.

The more I began to think about all the paranormal, fantasy or sci-fi stories I’ve read over the years, the more I began to realize they all had rules. Some rules are inherent, such as vampires being unable to go out into the sun, or werewolves changing with the full moon. Others are more mandates, like in Harry Potter, underage wizards aren’t allow to perform magic away from Hogwarts. They are physically capable of performing magic, however they face expulsion.

Rules in speculative fiction create conflict and raise stakes: the vampire who needs to go out in the daylight to save his one true love; the werewolf locked in a room with his family minutes away from the full moon; Harry Potter performing magic away from school while still underage is brought before an inquisition.

But on the flip side, establishing rules means exploring what happens when the rules are thrown out. The day-walking vampire or the werewolf who can change at will.

I thought about all of this while establishing the rules for my psychic dreaming mc. I needed rules for her actual dreams, how they come to her, how she sees them and how she can control them. Then I needed to establish the rules for her interference or lack there of. There has to consequences to just about every action taken, otherwise, why do it? I’m still thinking and tweaking. Hopefully, I’ll get it together.

How important are rules to you? Have you established rules for your speculative characters? Have you taken well known rules, such as no sunlight for vamps and turned them on their ear?

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

My Pandora Bracelet

Back in August I celebrated a birthday. A friend of mine gave me a Pandora bracelet. If you aren’t familiar with Pandora, check out their website if you are a fan of charm bracelets. Most of the women I work with have them and I’d decided that I didn’t want/need one. But now that I have one—which I truly appreciate—I’m happy about it, but I’m having the hardest time finding charms that resonate with me. That is the purpose of a charm bracelet, isn’t is?

While I was on vacation the cruise ship had a sale on charms. The best one I found was an owl to represent my love of Harry Potter-lol. So I began to wonder if I’m having such trouble finding something that speaks to me—as I watched other women snatch up charms like they were platinum M&Ms—because I’m not passionate about things.

I don’t have a favorite song, book, movie, or color. I love too many to narrow it down. Favorite songs change with my mood. Favorite books and movies change with the genre and favorite color changes based on what it is. I think I look nice in red, pale blues and pink, but I wouldn’t decorate my house in those colors. My mother, on the other hand, loves yellow. She likes to wear it, have her appliances in that color and paint her walls that color.

These are the things I’d love to have on my Pandora bracelet if I could…some I think I can pull off, but others might prove to be tricky.

A computer

A Book

Music

A quill or some other writing instrument

The Big Bang Theory

Pride & Prejudice

The Walking Dead

So tell me, I can take it. I’m not normal. I know. What would that bracelet look like? A computer, a book, a music note, a quill, an atom, a petticoat and a zombie. Yeah, disturbing.