Greetings, everyone! Happy National Punctuation Day! The day when we celebrate the period, the comma, the colon, and all of the other punctuation marks. While I hope everyone uses these … Continue reading National Punctuation Day
Category: Writing
Nonfiction?
My brain: “Let’s write a nonfiction book!”
Me: “What about?”
My brain: “I dunno. Let’s just do it!”
Me: “Yeah, let me get back to you on that one…”
What Do Your Characters Sound Like?
When you sit down to create a character, whether it’s for a book, short story, or a graphic novel/comic, what comes to mind? Your character’s appearance? Their behavior? What about their voice? What does your character sound like?
Every chapter is an episode, and I’m just watching them and writing all the details.
I mentioned this on a previous post, but I’ll say it again here. I’m a visual person. When I write, I picture the story taking place in my mind, and basically write what I see, the same as you would if you were watching a TV show or a movie and writing down all the events taking place. For me, Fortune’s Wing and Valentine aren’t just books, they’re TV series. Every chapter is an episode, and I’m just watching them and writing all the details. This means, all of my characters not only have a physical appearance, they have voices, too. So, I’m going to share some of the voices I hear, whenever one of my characters speak. This would serve as a potential cast list, of any of my books ever become animated movies or series.
Fortune Oyama
Valentine
Fortune Oyama of Fortune’s Wing: Leonardo DiCaprio. I dunno why, but each time I sat down to work on FW and I wrote Fortune’s dialogue, that’s the voice I heard.
Demetri of Fortune’s Wing: Orson Welles. Yes, I know he passed away in 1985, but he would have made a perfect Demetri. His voice also would have worked for John Rafferty of the Valentine series. Both characters are large men, and they’re both villains. I first heard Orson Welles’ voice in Transformers: The Movie (the animated one from 1986). He provided the voice for Unicron. I was enamored with how deep and booming his voice was, and he actually inspired both Demetri and Rafferty.
Valentine of Valentine: Charlize Theron’s voice has always been in my head for this character. She’s actually the reason I made Val so tall in the series (she’s between 5 foot 9 and 5 foot 10).
Dee Seybrook of Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Taraji P. Henson would HAVE to be the voice of Dee, if this book series became animated! Hands down! Her voice is perfect for Dee: the voice of a petite female who doesn’t take any crap.
Aidan Sirci of Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Ryan Renolds. Period. Tall, good looking, and sarcastic….pretty much describes Aidan, too!
Of course, your characters’ voices don’t have to belong to celebrities. Mine just happen to. Since I modeled Nyda Summit of Our Lady after my mother, I tend to hear my mother’s voice when Nyda speaks. And Erin Michaels of Our Lady? That’s all me.
The Dark Side of Jo Fuentes — ebunnygirl
Nicole Woolaston, my favorite indie author, is preparing to release the sequel to her 2017 book, Jo Fuentes: The Black Queen. The sequel, titled, Jo Fuentes: Project Sleep, picks up where the Valentine series left off (if you haven’t read the series, I promise I won’t spoil it for you!). Jo is still working for Kelly McCormick, and she’s still wondering […]
School Daze
September is here, and the primary focus of the month seems to be “Back-to-School”. That’s reasonable: while some students attend school all year ’round, and some go back in August, most students return to school in September. I went to school in Hampton, VA, and the first day of school was always the day after Labor Day. This year, Labor Day fell on September 2, so students went back on September 3. This made me feel a bit nostalgic. I’m currently living across the street from the elementary school I attended as a child. On my first day of school, I wore a white shirt, red bowtie, and suspenders—see, I was always a nerd! Still, its a fun memory.
Do you have any fond Back-to-School memories? If so, please share them in the comment section below! I look forward to reading them.
June E. Parris’s Author Pages
I recently updated my mother’s (and fellow author) author pages on Goodreads and Amazon. She just wrote her third book, A New England Serial Killer, and I’m editing it and preparing it for publication. With that being said, I wanted to be sure all of her pages are up to date. You can visit her Amazon Author Page and Goodreads Author Page to check out her books and follow her!
I’ve Had A Sarcastic Advice Book In Me For Years
I keep a list of book ideas on my flash drive (and admitedly, on my phone). I’ve maintained this list for over ten years now. Whenever I manage to write one of the books on the list, I hilight it, and add another idea or two. There’s one book idea that has been on the list from the very begining, but I never got around to writing it. It’s an advice book. It’s a sarcastic advice book.
While I didn’t write the book, I did make notes and write a few drafts of potential chapters. Each time I considered starting the official rough draft, I’d read over my materials, and think, “No, that’s way too mean. People are going to be too deep into their feelings if I publish that.” But, maybe that’s a good thing. Sometimes, people need something that stirs a reaction of some sort. Somethimes, people need a good solid kick in the butt.
So, I’m drafting the manuscript now. I’m pulling out all of my old notes, and making new ones. We’ll see what comes out of it.
How Will “Lucia and the Saints” End?
Earlier this year, I released the first four books of a new series, Lucia and the Saints. This series is a prequel to the Valentine series, and traces the begining of John Rafferty’s entrance into the Syndicate. It also tells the story of the woman who hepled him rise to power, Lucia Milazzo. You could play Six Degrees of Separation with the other characters in the Valentine series, and you would end up at Lucia every time.
So far, Lucia has managed to introduce John to some key people, help him secure a few night clubs, and make some money. Plus, there’s some other important issues at play: the Lady Saints in New Orleans trying to maintain the business they started, and the connection between Lucia Milazzo and Lucia Calderon. With all of this, how is the series going to end?
If you’ve read the Valentine series, then you know, Lucia isn’t mentioned anywhere. No one says her name, no one ever brings her up in a conversation. This can only mean, by the time Val goes on her roadtrip to Cali, Lucia is nolonger a part of John Rafferty’s life. So, how did they part ways? On friendly terms, or not so friendly terms? And where do the Lady Saints fit into all of this? The final book in the Valentine series reveals how Rafferty’s story ends, so one has to wonder, if Lucia will have something to say about that…
The final two books in the Lucia and the Saints series will be available late this Fall.
“Summer Reading” Shouldn’t End With The Summer
We’re all familiar with the phrase, Summer Reading. You probably became acquainted with it while you were in school. The school semester would come to an end as the Summer season began, and you knew you had a few blissful weeks until the Fall semester began. But, you were expected to read. Maybe there was a list of specific books, or maybe you just needed to read something during your Summer break, and be prepared to write a book report about it when school started again. Either way, you knew you needed to read something.
Summer Reading can go one of two ways: either students look forward to it, or they can’t stand it. I have always enjoyes reading, even since childhood, so Summer Reading didn’t bother me. But there are some students who would rather do ANYTHING than spend any part of their Summer vacay reading a book.
I think part of this relates to what students are being asked to read. My generation had The Scarlet Letter and As I Lay Dying. Don’t get me wrong: the classics are still good books. Students shouldn’t be limited to only reading the classics. Nowadays, students need something they can relate to. I’m happy to see books like Wonder and The Fault in Our Stars make the lists. Even books from the Percy Jackson series have been considered.
Summer Reading shouldn’t end when Summer ends. Its already difficult to grab a student’s attention, let alone maintain it. My opinion: we need to keep students interested in reading throughout the year, and not just during the Summer. While I’m all-for teachers choosing books for their class to read during the semester, I think it may help to include the students in the decision. Ask them what they’re interested in reading. Maybe, mix it up a little” use some of the classics along with the modern books. This way, they’ll see that reading doesn’t have to be painful and boring.
Of course, if you’re looking for new titles to add to your reading list, you can always check out Woolaston Entertainment
What Makes a Good Spin-Off?
Spin-off: by definition, it is “a byproduct or incidental result of a larger project” or “a product marketed by its association with a popular television program, movie, personality, etc”. It’s not quite a sequel, but more of an extension of a smaller component of a larger creation. For example, there’s the sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, and its spin-off, Young Sheldon. The Big Bang Theory is the primary show, while Young Sheldon focuses on one character from Big Bang, Sheldon Cooper.
What makes a good spin-off? When it comes to books, I believe it helps to chose one of the most interesting characters or settings from the original book or series. Perhaps, a character the audience didn’t learn very much about in the original story. My Valentine series has led to two spin-offs: Valentine Apart and Lucia and the Saints (and I’m working out the details for a third series, Valentine R). The Apart series focuses on characters other than Valentine; characters the audience didn’t know much about, because the bulk of the series focuses mainly on Valentine herself. I chose the characters that seemed the most interesting, such as Lola Vencent and the Avery siblings. Her Name is Lola Vencent dives into Lola’s background, and her life before she worked for John Rafferty, while Allan and Mac depicts the events that took place before Allan and Mac met Valentine. While each character (or set of characters) received one stand-alone book, Jo Fuentes, another featured character from Valentine , will be the only character to have TWO books: Jo Fuentes The Black Queen and the upcoming Jo Fuentes Project Sleep.
New cover of Valentine
Spin-off’s need to be interesting. If a boring character, or one is just isn’t memorable is chosen, and all the details about them are boring, the audience will most likely lose interest. Readers like interesting backstories.
A good spin-off, should have a little foreshadowing. There need to be clues and events that connect the spin-off to the larger story. Lucia and the Saints is FILLED WITH FORESHADOWING. This series follows John Rafferty as he rises to become the “villain” readers know him to be in Valentine. It also follows the life of another important character, Lucia Milazzo, who ultimately helps Rafferty gain his power and position in the Syndicate.
Allan and Mac
Her Name is Lola Vencent
Young Kelly McCormick
There are other characters in Valentine that I could have chosen to use in Valentine Apart. Veronica, Val’s cousin, may have been a good candidate. However, since she and Val practically grew up together, and you learn more about both of them throughout the series, I felt it would have been a bit redundant. There’s also Melinda, the orphan Val rescues during her road trip to L.A. Melinda provides a brief recount of her life, prior to meeting Val, but since she’s only fourteen, I didn’t think there would be enough to tell about her, to fill a stand-alone book. But, Allan, Mac, Lola and Jo are all hitmen, with tragic backgrounds that make their stories interesting enough to appear in a stand-alone book.
Several characters make appearances in Lucia and the Saints, aside from Rafferty and Lucia. Vincent and Victor Entienne, Jacob Price, and Allan and Mac Avery, all had to start somewhere, and their entrance into the Syndicate is revealed in this series.
Jo Fuentes: Project Sleep is coming soon. The rest is available on Woolaston Entertainment’s site
woolastonentertainment.com 