Posts By Lindsey Loucks
Vote For My MC’s Roommate’s Name
By RRZEicons via Wikimedia Commons
Yes, I know many of you voted in last week’s election, but I’m asking you to vote just one more time! See the poll to the right? Below the search feature? I’d like to know your thoughts on my MC’s roommate’s name.
Here is a little information about the roommate and the story: this girl is, um… Let’s just say she… Well, she gets around. A lot. She has glossy black hair. The happy and sad theather masks are etched into her irises. She’s a college student. She’s tough and can take people down quickly. The story takes place in the future in space. It’s a ghost story, but the roommate has never encounted any.
So, is the name Moon Dragon too cheesy? Or does it work?
Make Nice With Your Muse
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
No no NaNoWriMo. I won’t participate in you this year or next year or never but I will cheer for participants from the sidelines.
Why? I’m a slow writer, like 1000 words in three hours slow. I try not to stress about making things look pretty in a first draft, but I do anyway. Plus, I have to stop and picture what’s happening in my head. It’s like watching a movie in painfully slow motion.
But I’m using NaNoWriMo as inspiration to learn how to not worry so much and speed up the pictures. I’m also using it to get inspired to write after I get home from school. I used to think a sleepy brain tells sleepy stories, but a sleepy brain is the norm now, and sleepy brains still have stories to tell.
The story I should be telling is the sequel to The Grave Winner, but it’s still coming together in my head. So my muse has hammered another story into my brain (ow!) while I let the sequel percolate. That’s the story I’m working on now, and I feel like I should make nice with my muse in case it flips me the bird and abandons me.
This new story has ghosts in space, in case you’re wondering. It also has some sexy times in it because it’s not YA. The title is A Boy and Her Scratch.
The sequel to The Grave Winner is coming, I promise! Please don’t hate me, Fabulous Editor Melissa and my Must Have Critique Partners and my Totally Tubular beta reader and everyone else who has made it this far through my ramblings!
Anyone else have a muse? Anyone else pet it and feed it cookies so it won’t flip you the bird?
P.S. I voted today!
Dead of Eve
Halloween is almost here, and I have the perfect book for you to read to scare yourself senseless. It’s called Dead of Eve, and it’s written by Pam Godwin, who is one of my critique partners. Believe me when I say it’s a well-written thrill ride!
Here’s the cover and blurb:
The Stars Fell Sideways Giveaway!
People! This is the last stop for The Stars Fell Sideways blog tour! It’s a YA steampunkish fantasy written by author and freelance editor, Cassandra Marshall.
First of all, check out that cover! Cassandra has granted permission to pet it. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Now, here’s the blurb:
Alison Arroway takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’. She has to, or she won’t get paid. Alison is a stunt double for pampered teen actress Pomegranate and when the director takes the shoot to Portugal, Alison is anything but thrilled to be rooming with Pom. But getting to hang around teen hearthrob Erik? Now that’s a plus.
Erik invites both girls on a sunset boat trip and Alison manages to have a decent time. Until the storm hits and the boat is shipwrecked on a small island, leaving Erik missing and the boat captain dead.
In the morning light, Alison and Pom find themselves on the lost island of Atlantis. Only one problem: now that the girls know the secret of the island, the Atlanteans don’t want them to leave. They’re stuck with corsets, full-skirted dresses, and the strange steam-driven contraptions that are just a way of life for the islanders.
When a plot by the ruthless army Captain to take over the island and declare himself General over all emerges, an underground group promises to return the girls to the mainland if they can help stop him. They’ll go through a mountain, literally, to find the Book of Blue, a book that will explain how to make ‘the stars fall sideways’ in order to save the day and earn their freedom.
It’s available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.
Because Cassandra is made of awesome, she’s donating a free ebook to one lucky commenter. All you have to do is leave a comment and you’ll be entered to win!
Testing, Testing… 1, 2, 3!
Don’t mind me! Trying to connect my new blog to Triberr has been challenging, so I’m seeing if this new plugin works. *crosses fingers*
The LOOK Challenge
My poor, neglected blog. Between work, the nonsense that is my immune system, and my overall laziness, I’ve been away far too long. *wags finger and give self a stern look*
Anyway, back in August, my Crescent Moon sister, Jennifer Wells, tagged me in the Look Challenge. Here are the rules:
- Find the first usage of the word “look” in your work in progress and paste the surrounding paragraph(s) into your blog.
- Invite as many people as you want to take part in the challenge with you.
So, here are a couple paragraphs of my romantic horror novella, Salt In the Cupboard:
As I take a step forward, the door bursts open. My heart leaps into my throat. I cry out. My cheeks heat at the surprised face of Ian Reese, my chemistry lab partner from last year. His hair has been shaved into a buzz cut, accentuating his sharp cheekbones and those blue eyes that shoot static to where my heart should be. A black t-shirt hugs every dip and curve of his muscles, and his jeans hang from his hips in a sexy peel-me-off kind of way. Holy. Cow.
“Alexis,” he says with a smile that could melt the sun. “How are you?”
“Ian.” I look away to mentally fan myself. “I’m great. You live here, too?”
“As of yesterday.” He juts his chin to his right. “Apartment twelve.”
“Twenty-six.”
He nods. We stand in awkward silence because I can’t think of anything else to say. Our date that never happened mixes through the cool air and hangs heavy with the clouds.
Not many people have seen this story, not even my beloved critique partners! I’ll explain why in an upcoming post, along with some BIG news!
I’m inviting everyone who sees this to participate in the Look Challenge. I’ll be LoOkInG for your post!
A Subscribe Button!
If you look to the right, you’ll see a brand new subscribe by email feature. Do you see it? I double dare you to type in your email address. You know you want to! That way you’ll hear all the Grave Winner news as soon as I announce it!
My Editing Cave Has Chocolate
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| photo by FotoosVanRobin on Flickr |
If it seems like I’ve vanished, I haven’t. I’m still here, hunkered over my keyboard editing The Grave Winner until it’s all sparkly. Actually, I’m done editing. Now I’m just reading through it for the millionth time to see if everything flows and makes some kind of sense. This might be the last time it’s in my hands before it grows up to be a real book. *sniff, sniff*
I’ve read this story so many times now that it’s hard to know if the setting is described perfectly, if character actions and reactions are realistic, or if the plot stemmed from the brain of a crazy person. Oh, wait – it did come from a crazy person! So yeah, that writer self-doubt is creeping in big time.
My solution? Chocolate. That stuff can cure anything. Do you have a papercut? Smear some chocolate sauce on it. Headache? Take two doses of chocolate chip cookies and chase it with chocolate-flavored coffee.
I did crawl out of my editing cave long enough to pitch a novella to three editors from three different publishing companies. Two requested to read it. I’ll let you know how everything pans out with that.
Okie-doke. I’m heading back now. Peace out.
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