Pretty People - Ugly Actions

The beautiful villain.

                               [photo courtesy: Flickr Creative Commons; 28 Misguided souls]

We've all read or watched them on telly. The gorgeous, sexy but inexplicably nasty villain.

In fairy-tales as children nearly all the villains were ugly. The hideous witches, the ugly stepsisters, the revolting trolls and ogres - all domineering and tormenting the beautiful Rapunzel's and Cinderella's of the world. Children tend to relate better to the ugly villain - an individual that evokes revulsion and horror through looks alone. As we grow, the villain's ugliness matters less. As you hit the tweenie age bracket, the villains can become more physically appealing - the Ice Queen in the Narnia Series for example. She is beautiful, but flawed. She is icy and her cruel nature is what the reader finds abhorrent. By the time we are reading as teenagers, we've learned that sometimes the shiny apple is the one with the rotten core.

The beautiful villain is an interesting device used in writing. The beautiful villain exists on the premise that "beauty is only skin deep". This is a notion we are reminded of constantly as self conscious teens - but ignore completely as we rocket into our 30's and beyond.  In a world of  plastic surgery and airbrushing, beauty and what it hides is an intriguing concept. We all know that those perfect A-list celebrities without a single frown line are all screaming primadonna's, manic-depressives or weirdo's in their spare time don't we? Or do we just hope they are - as we sit in front of our computers in our pyjama's googling their images?

As it is human nature to compare oneself to another, I think readers get a little sick of flawless heroines with whom they cannot relate. So, I see the beautiful villain as miniature rebellion of sorts! A rebellion against the commercialised and unattainable image of beauty. The lustrous skin (without any dry patches), the flawless brow and the breasts that never sag are more or less unattainable to the average individual. So using that flawless beauty as a clever veneer to hide what lurks beneath, is automatically engaging.

 The fact that beauty (in the West at least) has become so commercialised, has changed a few things in modern literature. We like our heroines to be pretty, but its perfectly acceptable if they're a little plain or chubby - because it makes them real. This is not to say that all heroines must be ugly and all villains must be beautiful. The trick is to make characters readily believable and accessible to the reader and make them want to read.

Using a beautiful villain is sure to engage readers, but only when written with tact and care. Lets face it as I go to bed with a good book (after smearing my face with wrinkle fighting cream) I get a little kick out of knowing that 'plain jane' eventually gets her guy, and the obnoxious silicone Barbie doll finds that Ken has run off with the Kewpie doll!

Ummm. I think your fly's undone...

The socially awkward moment...

                                                                [photo courtesy - me!]


Well, last night I was out at a function, and a woman - whom I had never met - had her fly undone. It was obviously undone, dreadfully, embarrassingly undone. I noticed it from the other side of the room - kind of undone.

What did I do? Well, I am very ashamed to admit, I did absolutely nothing. I was paralysed by embarrassment for her. Please let  me say that, ordinarily, I am not backwards in coming forwards. Normally, I would tell a lady that her dress is in her knickers, and would always point out that bit of parsley in your teeth - so why on earth couldn't I say something to this woman?

Well, thinking back on it there were three main reasons for my doing nothing.
First and foremost, she was a gruff, rough sort of a woman who might just as easily have twisted off my head and used it as a teething toy for her baby.
Secondly, she was also a very large woman, and drawing attention to her open fly would also have drawn attention to her ample stomach.
Thirdly, she was a newcomer at this function and I didn't want to point out her fly was undone  and socially cripple her in a crowd of strangers.

Really there couldn't have been a more awkward moment. I seriously felt damned if I did - and damned if I didn't - because I really feel I should have said something.
Anyway, this whole situation got me thinking about socially awkward moments, how they are created and how often they are used in writing.

As recent experience has told, the awkward moment doesn't need much to give it rise.
I have created a formula for it.

Social pressure + normal/polite behaviour    =  awkward moment
       potentially embarrassing situation


I am currently reading (for the 100th time) French Relations, by Fiona Walker. I love it, it's a great bit of chic lit. The main character Tash French is a very socially awkward woman - and yesterday's incident would have fitted well with the book.
 French Relations, is filled with some really awkward stares, hairy bikini lines, and women who cry and look ugly.

I really do enjoy the socially awkward scenes in novels and try to put a few in mine. They're funny and just about everyone can relate!

Having said all that, I next time, I won't fold to my socially inhibited embarrassment and will tell them their fly is down!

Fantasy Food

[Image courtesy Flickr Creative Commons,  cuttlefish ]

Whether it be a molding old hamburger or haut cuisine - what your characters eat, or do not eat, is important in world building - well I think so anyway.

In fantasy and paranormal romance, food is sometimes a forgotten entity. I have read entire novels where the characters seem to require no sustenance at all. That's not to say you should harp on about eating all the time - that would be annoying, but the occasional mention of what your characters are eating can be fascinating.

How a someone reacts to food, divulges a great deal about that character and the world in which she/he comes from. For example; you know someone who delicately devours Brussels Sprouts has absolutely no tastebuds and was probably born in the 1940s or 1950's - as we all know anyone with a "modern palate" finds them as tasty as a boiled fart.


Did I really write that?! Haha! If you're the exception, please leave a comment and I may reconsider my opinion!

Anyway, another interesting way to develop characters is not only describe the food they choose to eat, but the way they eat it. Recently I was in Malaysia, and I watched with fascination some locals eating their curry and rice with their fingers. My children however were horrified to see people eating with their hands. I hurried to explain that here it was completely normal to use your hands and mush up your curry with your rice and gently spoon it with your fingers into your mouth. So how a character breaks up her dinner roll, or how she spoons her soup gives that glimmer of insight into her personality that the reader would miss out on if you hadn't mentioned it.

Having said that, I once read a entire page on a character peeling and eating orange - it was mind numbingly dull. I personally didn't find it added to world development, character development or any development other than the author's own sense of literary snobbery. Sometimes you can over do a good thing.

Used in balance, however, food is a great way to show your readers things without telling them. We all need to eat, and it can create common ground for the reader to relate to even the most difficult character.

So if you're looking for a new ingredient to add to your writing recipe - try food!

Boom boom!

:D

Music as a muse.

[Image courtesty FlickrCreativeCommons, takacsi75 ]

As a writer, I have particular songs that evoke characters and scenes. Sometimes I will listen ad nauseum to particular songs that help me write a scene.  For me, the songs I repeat frequently are usually one of two types, the power ballad, or the upbeat feel good song or a blend.

One of the first novels I wrote (at the ripe old age of 15) was a fantasy called Tears of a Warrior,  and you can just imagine the kind of song that was written to! It was "Dreams" by the Cranberries (you can watch it here) Still when I hear that song, it brings back memories of those characters and their amazingly traumatic lives (writing is such a fantastic outlet for teenagers and God Knows I lived vicariously through my characters!) As I listen to the song now, it fills me with the desire to write - it is incredible to me how interlinked music becomes with my writing.

So, as I am now writing about Genies, I am filled with a love of Arabic music. Some of this music is absolutely magic and some of it is absolutely bizaare. I spend hours trawling through Youtube to find songs I love. I am completely obsessed by two particular songs. "Habibit Albi /The love of my heart" by Joe Ashkar is just devine - check it out here. I think the clip is so cheeky and I love this man's voice. This song tells me that my hero and heroine will get their happy ever after!

My second favourite is a female Lebanese singer called Cyrine, with her song "Law bass fi aini /If he looks in my eyes" (here). This song is just gorgeous (and so is they guy in the clip (except his eyebrows could do with a bit of work!)

There are countless other songs that are set to repeat on my listening list whilst I write and they range from Regina Spektor's "Fidelity"  and Chairlift's "Bruises" to any one of Bryan Adams' power ballads "Have you ever really loved a woman?"

I have always been a great lover of music, and have played piano since I was five years old. I think music has the ability to bring joy or sorrow, and using its emotive qualities can enhance what my imagination creates. I couldn't do with out my playlist whilst writing!

Happy listening :)

The Anti-hero and the rise and fall of heroic virtues!

                                        [image courtesy: Flickr Creative Commons;  yosoyjulito]

 My ever faithful Collins Concise Dictionary (2001) defines the antihero as "a central character in a novel/play/etc who lacks the traditional heroic virtues."

Traditional heroic virtues are those that you'd expect a typical hero to possess; prudence, bravery, moral fortitude, and a sense of justice. The antihero therefore, is a character lacking these virtues. Instead of being prudent, he can be rash, instead of being brave, he can be cunning, instead having moral fortitude, he can be amoral and instead of being just can be corrupt. Subsequently the anti-hero can be a lot of fun to write!

I have noticed a rise in the antihero in recent years, characters such as Hellboy, Dexter, Le Stat and many more, are all non-conventional "heroes". Their behaviour ultimately is for good, but aspects of their personality and behaviour are definitely far from the realms of 'heroic virtue'.

Despite all this, the antihero must be redeemable (or if not redeemable at the very least likeable!) He should not do anything so heinous as to be unable to restore the readers faith in him. This is where ulterior motives are important. Those bad things your antihero says/does - need to have a good ulterior motive behind them. A traumatic childhood, a painfully failed relationship that has bittered his personality can be good reasons too. Oftentimes however, the antihero is simply forced to do bad things by someone else - but the reader and other characters are almost always unaware of these reasons. The true reason for the antihero's anti-heroic behaviours is usually revealed at another time. 

Why exactly the antihero has become so popular is a bit of a mystery to me - perhaps it has something to do with the global climate of suspicion and scepticism that has brought rise to these flawed heroes. I don't know. Either way, the Antihero is not only fun to write, but great to read. A good hero with antihero tendencies is intriguing and will keep the reader turning pages, guessing and predicting until the very end!

Magical Gains - the cover!

So, I was seriously nervous about getting my cover-art. Having spent some time really looking at other covers for various books, I realised that a good cover is truly an art form.

Being a book about a Genie, I was envisioning a hairy man in a fez and bolero jacket with a greasy smirk on his face... However, my cover artist Dawne` Dominique has surpassed my greatest expectations. The cover is lovely and I am absolutely thrilled.

I'm feeling energised and excited again - which is how it should be I think. Not a Fez or bolero in sight!

Here it is!

Searching for a HellCat!

[image courtesty: Flickr, Creative Commons, greenmelinda]

So, I've been looking for a new mythical beast to throw into my latest book. I have long toyed with the idea of using the Cockatrice - but the name amongst other things puts me off somewhat. My faithful Collins Concise Dictionary (2001) defines the creature as "a legendary monster part snake and part cock - that could kill with a glance." I just bet it could! Haha! Seriously, it's a wonderful mythological creature but alas, not exactly what I am looking for.

So, what creature? I need something beastly but not with human intelligence. It needs to be animalistic and primal. I also need something that I haven't read in any other paranormal story...  The list of useful beasts is shrinking. I could use some bizarre foreign mythological beasts, but many of those without human intelligence are benevolent and kind and I want something nasty. So...what about a Hellcat?                                                                                                                                                                                           

From what I've read (and it's remarkably little), Hellcats' seem to be  modern mythological creatures, used in Fantasy Gaming and that kind of thing. It's possible that they were created to be the opposite of Hellhounds, (if you've got a hellhound, you've got to have a hellcat, right?)

Hell hounds are generally devilishly large black dogs with glowing red eyes and are an omen of death. If you look up Wikipedia, you'll find that many countries have their own version. I do like the Hellhound as an interesting mythological beast, but some of my favourite authors have already used them. Laurell K. Hamilton in her Merry Gentry Series, and also JK Rowling. Remember Sirius Black from Harry Potter? His animal form was a big black dog, and they all thought he was a Grim or Hell Hound. It's interesting to note that the name Sirius, is actually the name of the Goddess Diana's head hunting dog  (she had a whole pack of them, there is even a constellation with the name) - you've got to love JK Rowlings cleverness!

Anyway, I digress!

I like cats. I even have one. The clash of super soft coat and intensely sharp claws is bizarre and conflicting. They are also intelligent, but without mercy. I love their unpredictability. One minute they are so snuggly and gorgeous and the next they are fuzzed up like a baby stegasaurous and racing round the house, yowling like a demented baboon. (Or maybe that's just my cat!?) The Hellcat in my opinion would personify that insane aspect of the feline personality - its incomprehensibility.

So here's to the re-birth of the Hellcat - (not the Cheerleading group, or the aeroplane), but the real deal. Big mean and nasty, with eyes that reflect the very fires of hell.

Sweet. I'm there. :P

Head, shoulders, knees and toes...

[image courtesy: Flickr Creative Commons, MonkeyMyshkin - these aren't my toes!]

The joy of describing physical attributes.

Every face tells a story, as does every toe, wrist and earlobe.
Describing characters can be a lot of fun, and it's something I personally think you can never be too good at!

Generally speaking, when someone describes a character it's their expression, eyes, lips, cheekbones and hair, then a vague description of height and stature (or something in that order). This is obviously an essential part of character development, but no less important is the the random insertion of one or two 'other' physical traits. The the narrow fragility of a heroine's wrist, for example, might be a nice way to reflect her sensitive nature, or the stretched material over your hero's broad back can similarly reflect his inner strength. Good descriptions of physical traits can also help you develop an unusual aspect of the main character as well. Eyebrows are particularly good for this. For example, your heroine may have strong dark angular eyebrows that arch above hard assessing eyes.

When describing your hero/heroine it is generally the attractive characteristics that are mentioned first (especially in true romance writing - no one wants to read about a hero with stubby fingers, or hairy toes. Nor will they feel affection for a heroine with outrageous eczema or earlobes the size of lamb steaks). Romantic main characters are generally attractive - they may have quirks and oddities, or even be a bit "chubby" or "plain", but rarely are they significantly physically flawed - you can leave that for the subcharacters!

I seriously love an interesting physical flaw thrown around in a book. Whether it be front teeth that overlap like a doll crossing its legs, or square nostrils - these attributes are fascinating and utterly memorable - when in the correct context. Quirky oddities won't suit some styles of writing, unless inserted with great thought and sensitivity.

In my writing, I like to use physical characteristics that enhance the personality of the character. That's not to say just by looking at the physical characteristics of a character you can deduce their personality - because we all know that sometimes the most beautiful person on the outside can be an utter monster inside. Little physical descriptions can hint, or expand, on something you know or do not about the character, and used with care and intelligence help create a character that will live in your memory long after the book has closed.

Hero or Villain? What makes a baddie bad?

(image:curtesy of flickr,Creative Commons,Leo Reynolds)

As much as I love a good hero - I also love a good villain.

A villain by definition is "2.the main evil character and antagonist to the hero (in a novel or play)" [Collins Concise dictionary 2001]. According to the dictionary, the word villain is derived from the latin villanus which means worker / villager on a country estate [villa]. I find this a little ironic because most villains in modern literature are usually quite rich and powerful. Therefore, I think it more likely that the word "villain" is actually derived from the latin word vilicus means "overseer or manager of the estate" - which fits in much better with the modern use of the word.

All villain's share one particular characteristic - they all take unfair advantage of someone - repeatedly and selfishly. The person being taken advantage of is usually (but not always) subordinate in someway to the villain. They may have less money, less Magic, less freedom or less brains. The villain is usually always powerful in some way. In most Fantasy romance, the villain is wealthy and has some kind of hold over the hero or heroine.

I personally do not like truly evil villains - as I've said in previous posts I don't like writing miserable or maudlin tales. Making a villain truly evil means he/she must have done something truly unconscionable, without remorse, and those kinds of acts are not something I particularly want to write about! It seems to me that in today's day and age it's a race to have the most hideous villains and stories. The horror content in some books is absolutely grotesque, and to me - it's unreadable. So my villain's, although horrible and mean, are understandable and are (to some degree) forgivable through a harsh penitential act.

So how can you make a villain bad, if he's not going to do anything extraordinarily heinous? Well, it depends on what your hero and heroine think is heinous. To put it simply, the villain's actions have to be life threatening to the other main characters. They've got to hate and fear him.

Like most of my characters, I like my villains to also be a bit quirky and entertaining. Villains usually are a little delusional with visions of grandeur or world domination and I like them to be interesting too. Ulterior motives need to be woven through the text. Hints as to how they came to be the ubervillain will make your villain believable - if not likable.

Physically, I don't think it really matters what your villain looks like. He could be a black hearted Adonis, or a warty old man with breath to boil your eyeballs. A baddie is bad through actions not looks.

A good villain (how's that for an oxymoron?) which ever way you look at it, should be the stimulus in both breaking your hero and heroine apart and getting them back together. Your villain, whilst reeking havoc and getting his come-uppance, needs to work with the story create something with tension and intrigue - and finally create that happily ever after.

Making your man...

Creating a sexy, appealing man is an integral part of a good romance. Successfully blending character traits to create a man who is desirable to a broad demographic can pose something of a challenge to any author.

One author who I believe has perfected this art, is Karen Marie Moning (my favourite author). All her men (even the baddies) are incredibly sexy. Her character from the Fever Series, Jericho Barrons, however, is the one who takes the cake. He is, (in my eyes - and many other's I suspect) the most desirable male character of all time. It's a good job he's fictional - because my husband would be in real trouble if he weren't!

So, what makes Barrons so delicious? On the face of it, he's dark, controlling, secretive, possessive, and has no sense of humour. How could this character be attractive then? Well, apart from his incredible body and breath-taking beauty, his charm and desirability lies in the subtleties of Ms Moning's writing.
When Jericho Barrons looks at his heroine - Mac - the gesture and its meaning is much more important than what he actually says about her. The way Barrons notices small things about Mac and the way he reacts to them - is charming, beguiling and absorbing. His appeal also grows through the often understated way in which he expresses his care and concern, and the way he protects her even when she doesn't know it. All this makes for magic reading.
Additionally, the reader actually knows very little about Barrons which firmly slots him into the "tall, dark and mysterious" category. Simple questions like where is he from? What exactly is he? What exactly does he want - remain unanswered, and I, like all the other Fever Fans, wait with baited breath for the final installment in the Series.

Basically, choosing your hero's character traits and blending them with your story to create something that is engaging, desirable and believable is an absolute art, and one worth perfecting.

If you want a rollicking good read, I recommend the Fever Series (Dark Fever, Blood Fever, Fae Fever, Dream Fever and Shadow Fever coming January 2010!) by Karen Marie Moning. Also, if you're into the semi clad Scotsmen with broad accents and even broader... whatever... get into Ms Monings Highlander Series, they'll put the wind in your bagpipes for sure! ;)

The Manticore - my favourite mythological beast!

(image:Manticore from The History of Four-footed Beasts (1607)

The manticore (aside from a Genie) is one of my most favourite mythological creatures.

A manticore is of Persian/Indian/ Mediterranean origin and is also called the manticora/mantichora. With the head of a man, the body of an enormous red lion, viciously spiked tail and rows of sharp teeth - it is generally considered to be a malevolent mythological beast. It is sometimes related to Sphynx, but, a Sphynx does not have the spiked tail nor the three rows of teeth and is of Greek / Egyptian origin.

Phil the Manticore is a character I created for my novel "Magical Gains". I created him because I confess, I am a little bored with the abundance of were-creatures that inevitably appear in most paranormal romances. Phil the manticore is the body guard of another character. As you can imagine, a beast with human intelligence and the body of an enormous lion would be a better choice of guard than a puny human with a gun especially when your foes are other magical beings.

To develop Phil's personality I looked at the creature as a whole. A strange, quirky looking thing. Imagine a human face stretched over the skull of a lion - its a bit gross and scary really. How would a person be able understand a manticore? Could you follow their expressions? Would they behave like a person, lion or something in between? Who knows?! So to combat this, I made Phil a slightly comical personality. He is not human, so he doesn't have human manners and this tends to make him rude. He makes inappropriate (but humourous) jibes and states things as he sees them.

As a result, the personality I gave to Phil enlivens a potentially incomprehensible mythological creature and enables the reader to like and understand what is otherwise quite unlikeable.

Yay for Manticores!

[There aren't many images of good manticores available - this one is from wikipedia and I confess, is NOTHING like I envision Phil. If you google manticore images, you'll find a lot of manticores seem to be lions with wings... which isn't a how they were originally described. Mythological and Magical Creatures tend to evolve over time depending on how they are used in literature and cinema, and I think the Manticore's sudden wing development is one of these evolutions.]

The scent of Magic - smells in books

As mentioned in my previous post, I like humour in a book - and a lot of that humour has an organic base. Which leads me to my latest topic - smells in books.

I love a good smell in a book - when an author describes something that is particularly pungent whether pleasantly so - or not, really helps create a world.

I particularly love details on breath and body odour. How good or bad that person smells will significantly dictate how your characters will react to them. So choosing to give a character a bad case of halitosis or body odour like a putrefying onion similarly evokes a reaction from the reader.

Selecting nice smells as well as bad,is also so important. I was told by friends years ago that "hay scented breath" made the hero sound like horse! What a shame! So I tried it out again with my Critique partner and she laughed out loud at the description... It just doesn't work apparently! It's a pity because hay smells so nice. Maybe it has to be a body-odour description alone. Either way, it's a nice descriptor for a Satyr or Centaur!

When choosing a smell for my Genies, I went for spicy smoke. Imran's magic smells like cinnamon and allspice (yum!). The scents are evocative, and used enough to be almost tangible when you're reading.

Odours, perfumes, aroma's and stinks - whether they hang like a rotting miasma, or whisper on a soft breeze are an integral part of story-telling, and should never be overlooked.

Humour in Romance

(image from a toilet advertisement from http://www.reuk.co.ukA/OtherImages/use-rainwater-to-flush-toilet.jpg)

I think humour is a really important part of romance - well at least the kind of romance I write.

I am (it's embarassing to admit) a fan of toilet humour. I find things that smell bad and bodily functions funny - particularly peoples reactions to them! Embarassment (so long as it is not my own) is funny! So it's little suprise that "Magical Gains" has some humour in it. My kind of humour anyway.

I create tend to use humour in my writing to lighten up what may otherwise be an emotionally heavy moment. I don't like romance that is heavy, soggy and maudlin. I think there is far to much serious misery in the world today, and as a writer I think it's my job to find the lighter side of life and share it!

To create a humorous moment, I tend to spot something that is potentially embarassing in the scene and play on it. It may be a bad smell. Imagine it, the man of your dreams is there, being attentive, sweet and charming... and you stink like fish. Oh it's nasty! It's funny! What do you do? Do you explain yourself? Do you pretend it's not you? How a heroine/hero reacts to an embarassing situation is potentially very funny. Sometimes just the passing mention of something embarassing is enough to win a laugh too.

Humour and romance, a winning combination in my eyes!

Good girls don't talk to Satyrs...

(image: British Museum, komos douris,http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/KomosDourisBME768.html)

So, I've just written a short story - something I never do - and it's about Satyr's!
In "Magical Gains" there are a few Satyrs - I love them, I find them shocking but also very amusing. For those of you who do not know, a Satyr is half man with goat like legs - and originally were the followers of Bacchus/Dionysus in Greek/Roman mythology (however some Satyrs in Greek mythology merely had pointed ears and a horses tail - see the image!). In "Magical Gains" as in mythology, the chief Satyr is Silenus, but the focus of my short story is Priapus another Satyr from "Magical Gains" (and mythology).

"Good girls don't talk to Satyrs," is set in the same world as "Magical Gains" and "Magical Creations". In this world, Magical Beings are simply considered minority beings, but sometimes the very nature of that Being is problematic to human society. Enter the Satyr - with an insatiable lust for human women. Generally disliked and mistrusted by humans, they are often blamed for sex crimes... So when Kim Quinn (desperately single and insecure) blows caution to the wind and allows Priapus the Satyr to sit beside her on the bus - things are destined to get messy!

Postscript: I now have plans to make "Good Girls Don't Talk to Satyr's into a full length novel. As I've currently got two other works in progress, it unfortunately will be a while coming. But...watch this space for updates.

Inspiration

I love talking to other writers and particularly discovering how they were inspired to create their stories.

As I've said, "Magical Gains" was inspired by a biscuit advertisement.

I tend to find inspiration in odd places. For example, I have half-finished a story that is based on a second hand furniture shop, because I used to ride past one on the bus every day to work. I like creating a story around something that seems quite innocuous, something rather inane, that you see every day but you never really know what's going on behind those doors or those faces.

I am also planning on writing a short a story, that was inspired by a greasy hand print on a bus window. I imagine that someone was racing to catch the bus, and banged on the window to get it to wait - but the bus takes off anyway.

I hope I always keep finding inspiration in places like these as I think it makes for a great read later.

My writing journey - the ups and the downs

Anyone who knows me well, will be aware I have a vivid imagination. It comes out in lots of things - from horrible nightmares, to painting, or dramatic over-reactions to certain events and of course, my writing.

I have written stories since I could literally write. My father had bought one of those early computers that were a green screen. On that ancient computer I wrote a story about plants who didn't like the gardens they lived in, so they'd get up and leave - leaving bare gardens in their wake. I would have been about six at the time. From then on, I wrote, mostly at school creative writing classes, but in high school, I would write stories for my friends to read.

Since then it has been an up and down battle to get published, if you want to read the whole story - check out my writing journey on Wink Girls Blog in September!

Magical Creations

I am currently deep into writing "Magical Creations" - a follow-on story from "Magical Gains" based on the sub character of Omar. I am loving it, and trying to get as much written before my revisions for "Magical Gains" come in.

As a general rule, I don't like to edit one story whilst working on another - I don't want to risk any character confusion - especially with my heroines.

Primrose (from MG) is a gauche and awkward character - who gets embarrassed easily. She's not one for long and lengthy arguments or conversations. Antigone (from MC) is the opposite. She is blunt and very frank - and will argue quite freely with almost anyone. So when I'm writing Antigone - Primrose is far from my mind and vice verser.

Anyway, enough for now, I'm hitting the writing - I've been chasing these scenes around in my head all night and am desperate to get them onto paper!

nicolasheridan.com - the Website coming soon!

So, after some deliberation, I have bought the domain name nicolasheridan.com and with the help of Kim will begin creating my website soon!

I will keep you posted!

The road to promotion and publication

As any aspiring Author will tell you, the road to publication rarely runs smoothly. So, in September I will be guest blogging on Winkgirls and discussing aspects of writing - feel free to drop by and check it out!

Magical Gains

Well, I am delighted to say, that "Magical Gains" has been contracted to Eternal Press (see the link) and is due for tentative release in March 2011!

More details soon!