Author: Nicole E Woolaston

I'm a writer, artist and guitarist from NY. I love punk rock, anime and manga. I'm the author of the "Fortune's Wing" and "Valentine" series, & "Our Lady of Righteous Rage".Green Day and Jack White are my inspiration. Check out my blog and feel free to ask me questions about my books!

Monday Blog: The Ladies of Fortune’s Wing

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haverdy

 

 

Fortune’s Wing was the first book I ever published, and it was the first book I had ever written which used human characters. The first edition was published in 2009, while the original handwritten edition was completed in 2002. I made a few changes before submitting it for publication, some of which I will briefly discuss towards the end of this blog entry. But first, let’s talk about the ladies of the Fortune’s Wing series.

There are “heroes” and there are “villains” in this series. Fortune sets out on a journey to either save or destroy the world, and he is accompanied by his sister, Haverdy, his girlfriend Esrieve, and his psychic friend, Narumi, along with his other friends Tony and Ringo. The group frequently finds themselves in a confrontation of some sort with members of the Winged Seven: powerful sorcerers who want control of Fortune’s Wings. They are led by Demetri, their strongest member and the one who is hell bent on gaining control of the wings, no matter what the cost.

Haverdy Oyama: Fortune’s brave tomboy of a younger sister. She’s not afraid to run head-first into a battle, and is even prepared to give her life for her brother. She believes in him, and is the first to volunteer when he sets out on his first journey.  She wears her hair stylishly short and prefers to dress in boys’ clothing, much to the dismay of her mother.

Esrieve Fullerton: Fortune’s girlfriend. She’s in the same grade as Haverdy, and while she would like to be equally as brave, she’s very afraid of all the dangers that lay ahead during the journey. Still, she stands by Fortune’s side. Esrieve can be a tad air-headed at times, but she always means well.

Narumi Hime: One of Fortune’s best friends. Narumi is half Japanese, and has a psychic ability, which proves to be very useful while she and the others search for The Wings. She’s very quiet, but feels things very deeply, and is often concerned for her friends’ safety.

Verdonna Onnashari, Oracle of Light: The one who chose Fortune to bear the Wings. Verdonna is a member of a very old clan of people who are fully aware of the Prophecy of The Wings. She lives in the woods with her people, in seclusion. She’s young, around Fortune’s age (BTW: Fortune is eighteen), but she is wise beyond her years.

Emery Holt: She’s a little girl who carries a special light, which reminds Fortune what he’s fighting for. She was the only survivor of an attack on her town by the Oracle of Darkness. She’s playful and sweet, as a child should be, and usually clings to Haverdy.

Kazumi Ogata: Haverdy’s childhood friend who moves back to the neighborhood after being away for a few years. She unwittingly becomes a part of The Winged Seven’s plan to defeat Fortune when she is abducted and used to lure Fortune and company into a trap.

Seynoma: One of the Winged Seven. Her power is the ability to creature fierce monsters from nature. It’s an ability she has had since she was younger. When Demetri found her, he convinced her to help him by making her believe they could create a better world.

Isabelle: Another member of the Winged Seven. Truthfully, Isabelle doesn’t want to be part of the fight. She’s a bit of an outcast: she’s a Goth girl who has never been about to fit in. She has the ability to manipulate people by using their fears against them.

There is a character missing from this list: Russia Proust. In my very first version of the story, Kazumi returns to visit Haverdy, and as the two of them begin to catch up, Haverdy asks Kazumi if she is seeing anyone. It is later revealed, Kazumi does have someone special in her life, and that someone is a girl named Russia, who looks suspiciously like Haverdy. When I made the decision to publish this book, I wanted it to be appropriate for middle school age readers, so I left Russia out of the story. I have thought about publishing the original version in its entirety, which would include Russia, and would be for the 17 and older crowd.

I also made a change to Narumi. Her original name was Nirogetai, and her friends called her Niro for short. I thought it would be silly for to have a made-up Japanese name, so I gave her a real one instead. Loosely translated, her current name means “roaring sea princess”.

I wrote a spin-off series featuring Haverdy, titled “Haverdy O”, which follows her as she begins attending college with Esrieve, Kazumi and Russia, and begins to explore her Japanese heritage and discover who she truly is. I’m planning to publish it, in the future.

Next week, the ladies of The Witch of Fulton Lane.

 

Monday Blog: The Ladies of Valentine and Valentine Apart

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ValVerLola

 

This week, it’s Valentine’s turn! While there are many female characters in the Valentine and Valentine Apart series, I’m going to focus on the most important characters.

Val Entienne, aka Valentine: The first time you meet her, she starts out as a wild nineteen-year-old girl, who only wants to drive from Chicago to L.A., to save or father. Over the course of the series, she becomes so much more. She becomes a hero, best friend, and a fighter. Val doesn’t take any crap, and certainly will never play the role of “damsel in distress”. She’ll do anything to protect her family, including putting herself in harm’s way.

Veronica Entienne: Val’s cousin, best friend, and the voice of reason, when she needs someone to pull her back. She’s against violence, but slowly learns that sometimes, it’s the only solution. She lost her parents at a young age, and has lived with Val and her father Vincent ever since. Veronica is a caring person, and always stands by Val’s side.

Melinda St. James: She was waiting for a train to Tulsa, when Val saved her from a group of boys who were harassing her. Melinda sees Val as the ultimate hero: she’s brave and unafraid. Melinda is sweet and can be a bit naive at times, but she has a good heart.

Victoria Entienne: She’s the half-sister Veronica never knew existed. Victoria loves her sister, but she idolizes her cousin Val.  She has trouble trusting people, and it often takes her a while to open up.

Lola Vencent: She was John Rafferty’s Valkyrie, a hit woman who knows how to handle a gun. Lola has been a member of the Syndicate for years, and she knows it like the back of her hand. She lost her father, Luther Vencent, a prominent NY Attorney, when she was a child, and his death shaped the woman she later became. She and Val start out as enemies, but quickly become very good friends.

Mac Avery: People think she’s a little crazy, but the truth is, she’s just protective of the people she cares about. Mac and her brother Allan are hitmen and members of the Syndicate, but their loyalty is to each other and the people they care about. Mac’s methods of carrying out each hit may seem unorthodox, but she always gets the job done.

Jo Fuentes: Jo is a Marine who survived an explosion that killed all but two members of her unit: herself and Patrick “Sully” Sullivan. When she returns to the United States, a member of the Syndicate reaches out to her in hopes of using her skillset. Jo is tall, sarcastic, but very passionate about the people and things that matter to her. She takes a liking to Val the very first time she meets her.

Kelly McCormick: The highest-ranking woman in the Syndicate. Her father and uncle were members of the Irish mob when she was younger, so she’s no stranger to danger. Jo works for her, and while Kelly may be the only female sitting at the Syndicate’s table of leadership, she has no trouble making her presence known.

The importance of Val Entienne:

You seldom find a female character doing the things Val does in the series. She drives a classic Mustang. She knows how to handle a gun. She’s not afraid to fight someone, even if that someone is a man. I could have easily made Valentine a male character, but let’s face it: it would have been clichéd. I liked the idea of the “badass” in the story, being a young woman instead of a young man.

The importance of Jo Fuentes:

Jo is not the first LGBTQ character I have created, but she is the first to appear in a published W.E. book. She wants to be in a relationship, however, she begins to understand how dangerous her work is, and she doesn’t want to endanger anyone she loves. She’s one of the best hitmen in the Syndicate: she earns the nickname “Black Queen” after being the first to pass a weapons test with a perfect score and record timing. She’s also a Marine: she still reports to a commander on a routine basis. What makes Jo stand out from the rest of the hitmen, is her skillset: she can kill anyone, using anything , from guns and knives, to her bare hands.

Next week: The Ladies of Fortune’s Wing

 

Preview for “Biologicals”

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I recently released my 21st published book, Righteous, which is the fourth book in the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. This book follows the band on their tour across America, as they go from city to city, state to state, playing shows and meeting new fans…and narrowly avoiding fights with Mick, David, and the rest of the band, Stereotype. When I wrote the final few chapters, I developed an idea for yet another book.  This time, I decided to focus on Jon, Amy’s son. During the story in Righteous, Jon’s birth parents contact him, much to his alarm. He doesn’t want anything to do with, but he decides to be diplomatic and try to spend time with them. My next book, Biologicals, will focus on Jon’s attempt to reestablish a relationship with his birth parents, aka his “biologicals”. Here’s a sneak peak from the first chapter:

  1. The Delivery Room, The Couch, and Onward

            “It’s a boy!”

            I imagine that’s what the doctor said in the delivery room, on the day I entered the world. I can picture myself, tiny and naked, and silent, until that first smack on the ass, which caused my lungs to open up, giving me the opportunity to take my first breath. I’m sure I must have started crying. Then I guess the doctor or the nurse handed me to my mother, so she could count my fingers and toes, and give me a once-over, just to make sure she hadn’t given birth to some freak show kid.

            But, like I said, I can only imagine all of this. I don’t remember any of it, because I was just too young. The memories I do have of my birth parents, aren’t the most pleasant memories I have. To put it frankly, my birth parents—or biologicals, as I prefer to call them—are assholes.

            Yep. I just did that. I called my biologicals assholes. That’s what they are. You’re probably wondering why I feel that way. Sure: most teenagers hate their parents. Most of their reasons for hating their parents are completely unfounded: not being allowed to go to parties, drink, stay out past curfew, etc. My reasons for feeling the way I do, are totally legitimate.

            When I lived with my biologicals, I didn’t have my own room. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters to compete with; I just didn’t have a room. My room was the living room, and my bed was the couch. I lived with Michael and Leora, my biologicals, in a one bedroom apartment. So, naturally, the one room went to them. This was interesting, especially when they had company. They would quickly clean up the area known as “Jon’s space”, and pretend we were a normal family. Bullshit artists.

            They managed to pull this off, until my uncle told them, he was going to take steps to have me taken from them. I was eventually sent to live with my cousin David, and his girlfriend (later, wife) Amy. I had been spending time with David ever since I was two. He would babysit me whenever my biologicals went out (which was often). Amy was the best. She was the only one outside of my family who was allowed to pick me up. When I was really little, David started seeing this girl named Gina, before he and Amy were dating. I hated Gina. She smelled like she had soaked herself in an entire bottle of perfume, and not even a good fragrance. And, she was a bitch. To this day, I have no idea what David saw in her.

            But, Amy and David got married, and adopted me. I wasn’t sure of what to call them: Mom and Dad, or Amy and Cousin David. David went out of the country when I was younger, and left me and Amy alone for the first time. I came down with a case of pneumonia. I was a little nervous, but Amy kept it together. She was barely eighteen, and acting just like a mother. She took me to the emergency room, got my medicine, and took care of me. From that day forward, she wasn’t Amy. She was Mom.

            But, David, on the other hand, couldn’t handle the whole Dad-thing. Mom can sing and play the guitar, and she and her friends were in a band. David was jealous from the very beginning.  He started criticizing Mom and her friends, saying she needed to focus on being a wife and a mother instead of a rock star. But I was watching her juggle both with no problem! At no point did I ever feel like she was neglecting me.  I was sad when they got a divorce…I was even sadder when I had to go and live with David. We’re biologically related, so the judge gave him custody of me…asshole. Mom is a fighter, though. She went back to court, and got custody of me. So, I got to go and live with the one person in this world who truly loves me.

Monday Blog: The Ladies of “Our Lady”

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Amy
Dee
Nyda
Vanessa
Carmen
Erin
Olivia

 

Hello! Welcome to the first official blog post of the month of May! To kick off one of the two themes of the month, Female Character Month, I decided to start with the ladies of the Our Lady series. Her we go….

The Ladies of Our Lady of Righteous Rage

While there is a pretty long list of female characters in the Our Lady series, I’m going to focus on the most important ladies, who appear across nearly every book.

Amy Edwards: Amy is the lead character of the series, and she handles most of the narration.  She grew up in a single-parent home, with her two brothers and her sister. Raised in Bayside, in New York, Amy falls in love with Punk Rock when she receives a copy Green Day’s Dookie album. From there, she decides to learn to play the guitar. She and her friends start playing, and eventually form a band, Our Lady of Righteous Rage, named after a poem Amy wrote. She’s also a mother: she and ex-husband David Sarconi adopted his cousin Jon when he was little, and despite the divorce Amy and Jon are still extremely close.

Dee Seybrook: Amy’s best friend, and the wife of Our Lady’s bassist, Aidan Sirci. Dee is petite, but she has no problem standing up for herself, and refuses to be pushed around. She’s a singer, and a drummer; she discovers she has a natural talent for drumming and develops it very quickly.

Nyda Summit: Dee’s cousin, and Nick Lianetti’s wife. Nyda is soft-spoken and tall, and an artist. Photography is her passion, and she has even taken pictures of the members of Our Lady for their album covers.

Vanessa Vance: The woman with the plan. Vanessa comes up with the idea of running a business with her friends in high school. She’s the co-founder of the Urban Collective: the store she and her friends created in order to sell their books, music and artwork. Vanessa is ambitious and a handworker, and will do anything to help her business and her friends succeed.

Carmen Portez: Carmen went to school with Amy, Dee and Vanessa. She’s a talented painter, and she began selling her artwork while she was still in high school. She eventually opened her very own art studio, Portez Art Studio, where she shows her artwork, and the work of other local artists.

Erin Michaels: Erin goes from quiet girl who likes to read, to a Punk Rock/Emo chick with a passion for music. She meets the band, and begins to work for them, after a tragic experience with her family brings her and her mother to New York. She later becomes the band’s social media expert. She’s particularly fond of Amy, and thinks of her as a big sister.

Olivia Midkiff: One of Jon’s friends and a really talented drummer.  Olivia is upbeat and generally in a good mood. When Dee takes her under her wing, the two form a big sister-little sister relationship. Olivia is sometimes unsure of herself, but she’s learning to be more confident. 

 

I created all of these characters years before I wrote this series. I used bits and pieces of my personality, and my mother’s personality, when I developed them for the Our Lady series. There’s a lot of Mom in Dee and Nyda (especially Dee). Amy and Erin represent my punk rock side. One of the reasons Our Lady is written using stream of consciousness, is because I wanted to give watch character an opportunity to grow and change. You meet Amy, Dee, Nyda, Vanessa and Erin, as teens, and you get to watch them “grow up”, so to speak. And, it was important to have a female character in the lead role. Amy’s talents as a guitarist, song writer, and artist, reflect my personal belief that girls can do anything. She’s a challenge to the status quo.

If you haven’t read Our Lady of Righteous Rage, I hope you decided to pick it up and see what its all about. I think you’ll enjoy it. 

Monday Blog: May Promotions!

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EnosCivilianPosterValVerLola

 

It’s April 30, but to me, it’s MAY!!!! The weather is finally warming up, Spring is in full swing, and I have wonderful news to share with you! This month, W.E. will have a dual theme: Female Character Month and Our Lady Month. I’ll explain why.

Female Characters Month

In honor of Mother’s Day, I decided to focus on the female characters in my books. Mother’s Day isn’t just about honoring mothers; it’s about honoring all of the special women in our lives.  Sisters, aunts, cousins, grandmothers, etc, should be celebrated during this holiday. My characters are mothers, daughters, and more, so each week, I’ll pick a series, and discuss the importance of some of the female characters from that series.

Righteous Cover

 

Our Lady Month

I can’t tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to this! I began working on the manuscript for Righteous in June of 2017. Then, I put it on hold, because I just wasn’t sure of where the story was going, and I did have other projects to work on. When I resumed working on it, I had a direction, and I found myself working on it nearly every day. I finished the draft earlier in April, and revised it and the final edition will be available to the public within the next few days, in May. I’m looking forward to introducing readers to this arc of the story: Amy, Nick, Rob and Aidan hit the road and go on tour, meet new fans, play a ton of gigs and may get into a fight or two.

In honor of this new release, I wanted to give my readers an opportunity to catch up on the rest of the series, if they haven’t already read the other books. Ebook editions of Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored and Your Fame Will Destroy You, will be on sale on Amazon, from May 1-8. The ebook version of Rowdy will be on sale May 17-24. The sale price is 99 cents! So, if you haven’t read the Our Lady series, May will be a great time to start!

 

Get Off Your Phone And Talk To Me

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I completely agree!

ebunnygirl's avatarebunnygirl

I don’t have many pet peeves, but the few that I do have, have validity (at least, I  think so). One of them, is people who don’t know how to hold a conversation without their phone in hand. I work a desk job, which requires verbal communication skills, and the ability to look people in the eye and speak to them. I can do this, with no problem at all. But, the people I need to communicate with, can’t seem to do it. At least seven out of every ten people I see, will walk up to my desk, and ask a question, without ever looking up from their cell phone. Don’t get me wrong, I love my phone too. I’m constantly talking and texting on it. But, I know how to put it away and have a face-to-face conversation with my fellow humans. It’s rude behavior, to be on…

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Monday Blog: Words of Wisdom

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We’ve arrived at the final Monday Blog for the month of April. Yes, I know: April 30th is a Monday, but it’s also the last day of the month, and I didn’t think it was necessary to discuss April any further. Next week, I will begin posting about all of the wonderful things I have planned for May.

This month’s theme was Inspiration. I wanted to end the month, with some words of wisdom.

 

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” —Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Did you ever run into a particular person, who ended up helping you with a job or a project you were working on? Or, maybe you walked by a place you had never noticed before? Some people will say, it was by accident or by chance. I don’t believe in chance. I believe everything happens for a reason. For example, in 2014, I went to see Green Day in concert, in Brooklyn. While I would have loved to wait around after the show in hope of meeting the band, I figured it was a long shot, so instead, I went home. The following day, I went into NYC to meet my mother for lunch. For some strange reason, I took a train I normally don’t take, and would up near the Flatiron building. Tre Cool, Green Day’s drummer, walked past me. I caught up to him, said hello, and took a picture with him. Now, you could say that happened by chance. I happened to get on the wrong train, and I happened to get off at a stop that put me on the street at the same time as Tre Cool. It’s all coincidence. Or, maybe the universe was simply acting on my behalf.

 

“No need to fear screwing up a lot, as we learn more from mercy towards failure than we do from commendation for success.” —Julien Baker

 

“To do something that you feel in your heart that’s great, you need to make a lot of mistakes. Anything that’s successful is a series of mistakes.” —Billie Joe Armstrong

Fear used to hold me back from doing so many things. Fear is the reason I took so long to publish my first book. When I was going through that process, I thought, “I like what I wrote, but what if no one else does?” Later, I decided to let fear become my motivation. Sure, other people may not like what I write, but who cares? I’m going to do this for me.  When you’re working to achieve your goal, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes. But, mistakes are a GOOD THING. You can learn from them. Mistakes teach us to know the difference between what works, and what doesn’t. Once you learn from your mistakes (hopefully) you don’t repeat them. I worked with two publishers who ultimately failed me, before I made the decision to publish on my own. I’ve had to go back through some of the books I have published, and correct errors I found after they were made available for sale. But, it was all worth it.

Next month, I’m having a special promotion for the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series, so please continue to visit this blog for more info! Until next week…

First Editions For Sale!

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old edition sale

Long long ago, back in 2009, I published my first book, Fortune’s Wing, with a POD (print-on-demand) company called Xlibris. Then, I published Valentine.  I published a third book, and would have happily contiuned to work with them, until I went to an ALA convention. My books, along with the books of several other Xlibris authors, was on display, with the hope that libraries and schools would order copies. I was given the impression, the someone would be  on hand to offer info about the books. Instead, the books were placed on a large bookshelf, and the representative from Xlibris simply sat at the table in silence. Top notch marketing…

Fast forward to 2015. I republished on my own, via Create Space, Amazon’s self-publishing platform. Needless to say, I’m much happier with Create Space, and KDP. However, I still have copies of the editions I published with Xlibris, and I’d like to sell what I have left. 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Fortune’s Wing or Valentine, they are available on my website, woolastonentertainment.com, for $3 each, with $1 shipping. I’ll even sign them for you!

http://www.woolastonentertainment.com/-books.html

Opening Lines of “Novocaine”

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AnotherShot_KDP
Novocaine

 

In case you’ve never read my book, Novocaine, here’s a little sample from Chapter One:

 

“Doug, are you still there? Doug, please answer me…”

            Silence.  No answer from Doug.  Personally, I was waiting for the clichéd heavy breathing, followed by the sudden emotional breakdown: intense sobbing, sniffling, etc.  And Doug did not disappoint.  A  few seconds after the silence, he came back onto the line, crying and doing his best to snort what I can only imagine must be a little river of mucus running from his nose.  “I’m just so tired of it all, man,” he said.  “I just don’t know what to do.”

            “It’s okay Doug,” the radio therapist said.  “We all have moments where we don’t know what to do.  It’s perfectly normal…”

            It was late, and their conversation was getting boring.  Who am I kidding? It wasn’t getting boring—it had been boring from the very beginning.  I only tuned in because every now and then, there was a caller with a real problem.  I’m talking, lost-their-whole-family-in-a-fire type of shit.  People like that need help.  I only listen, though.  I never call in.  My problems weren’t big enough for a talk radio audience.  Dr. Kenny Lazaro was on the air between one and three in the morning.  He offers comfort and advice for the suicidal and broken-hearted.  He had been on the line with a caller named Doug for about twenty minutes.  Doug didn’t have any family or friends who cared about him.  He recently lost his job (a barista at Starbucks) and his girlfriend was trying to break up with him.  He claimed he wanted to kill himself, which is bullshit, because if he really wanted to die, he’d be dead.  So, I guess what Doug really needed was cuddling.  Someone to hold his hand and massage his feelings, and tell him everything was going to be okay.  Someone to take his world filled with darkness, and fill it with sunshine and unicorns and rainbows.   What Doug really needs, is for someone to kick him in his balls (if he even has any) and tell him to man up.  Stop being such a pussy, and realize that bad shit happens to everyone.  It’s called life. 

            I turned my radio off, and rolled over in my bed.  I figured it was time for me to get some sleep. After all, we teenagers need plenty of sleep in order to function in school.  I’d hate to fall asleep during math class…that would be a terrible shame. 

 

END OF SAMPLE

Monday Blog: Reading Changed My Life (Guest Blogger Ebunnygirl)

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Great news, everyone! Today I have a guest blogger! Ebunnygirl will be posting today’s edition of the Monday Blog. Please enjoy!

I had a revelation the other day. While there weren’t any sparks or canons blasting, it was still an important moment for me. I realized, reading changed my life.    Discovering books and the places they could take me, literally changed everything for me. Yes, I know: I sound like a corny afterschool special. But it’s the truth! I learned just how big the world really was, and the variety of characters I read about, showed me how diverse people are. Girls don’t always have to be princesses and damsels in distress. Boys can be strong, or they can show some emotion. And as for nonfiction and fiction, I learned to appreciate both: facts about things in the world I was unaware of, and worlds created from the minds of creative authors.

Nowadays, I see people reading books on e-readers and tablets, but it’s always nice to see people reading physical books. I’m thankful for that. I’m considering writing a book of my own, I’m just not sure of what to write about. I have received a lot of encouragement from Nicole Woolaston, for whom I am blogging today. Reading opened so many doors for me, and made me feel as though anything is possible.

(thank you to Ebunnygirl for this blog post! You can find her WordPress page here: https://ebunnygirl.wordpress.com/)