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Yearly Archives: 2021

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Trope-tastic Tuesdays: Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl

Posted on July 6, 2021 - 9:00 am by

Trope: Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl

Description: Not necessarily a romance trope, when you have a male character and a female character hanging out and doing whatever in your fictional world, one way to play with expectations and subvert stereotypes is to have the man be the calmer, more pragmatic one while the woman is the zany one who’s bouncing off the walls. Despite the trope name, this can also be used with same-sex relationships as long as the contrast is there. Mileage varies as to whether this counts as an “opposites attract” trope; a lot of times, the characters share the same goals and priorities, they just approach them in different ways.

Examples: Anna and Kristoff from Frozen, Simon and Kaylee from Firefly, a classic example in Lucy and Ricky from I Love Lucy

Pros: If all our characters had the same personalities, that would get pretty boring. As mentioned above, this trope plays around with stereotypes – often it’s the men who get to have all the wacky hijinks while the women get shoved into the “maternal” role to keep everyone grounded. Girls just want to have fun, or so I’ve been told, so let’s let them!

Cons: There’s a fine line between “energetic/perky” and “ditzy,” and I’m not a fan of the latter. The Energetic Girl can also veer into Manic Pixie Dream Girl territory, which is a trope that doesn’t have a spotless history, alas.

Would/Did I Use It?: In reviewing my books, this came up more than I would have expected. In Closing Montage, Abigail is the one who has to convince Edwin to loosen up and have some fun, beginning with the very premise of their virtual date. I’d also apply this to Fire Beyond the Frost despite it being a lesbian romance – here, nurse Sari is the cute, bubbly one, while doctor Catalina just wants to do her job well and barely cracks a smile for at least the first few chapters.

Trope-tastic Tuesdays: (Green-Skinned) Space Babe

Posted on June 15, 2021 - 6:38 pm by

(Parts of this were originally posted on February 21, 2013)

Trope: (Green-Skinned) Space Babe

Description: The attractive alien with mostly human features so having sex with him or her isn’t too squicky. While the fictional aliens of yore were mostly green, blue has been more common in recent years, though they can come in every color of the rainbow. Female space babes are more prevalent than the males, and they will frequently be large-chested and/or scantily clad.

Examples: The Asari from the Mass Effect series (plus, to a lesser extent, the Drell, or even the Quarians, based on that one picture of Tali), the Na’vi from Avatar, the trio of male aliens in Earth Girls Are Easy

Pros: Sometimes we’ve banged all there is to bang on this planet and need to expand our horizons. On a more serious note, an alien romance can add another layer of intrigue and complexity to any sci-fi story. As far as the intimate part of the relationship goes, you can keep it identical to what humans do, or…well, the sky’s the limit here, I suppose. (Pun partially intended.) For maximum bonus points, throw in at least a conversation about how reproduction works.

Cons: Everyone’s got their preferences when it comes to romance, and for many people, interspecies sex is a no-no. Care also has to be taken here when it comes to portraying one of the species (human or alien) as superior to the other as that can mirror real-life issues here on Earth, and you don’t want to inadvertently stumble into something problematic.

Would/Did I Use It?: Once again, years after the original post, I have an entry for this trope! Originally, I was on the “not a fan” train, but I’ve come around. (Blame Mass Effect.) In Out of Orbit, Jasmine crash lands on a planet inhabited by a humanoid species and falls in love with their leader, Aras. I didn’t go too crazy with the aliens here, as they look and behave very similar to humans. I didn’t even pick one of the typical colors of green or blue; they have pearl gray/silvery skin. In the interests of full disclosure, if we’re talking about video game inspiration, I think I’d been playing some Dragon Age: Inquisition before writing this one, and some of the features of my fictional species resemble those of the qunari in DAI (and DA2).

Disintegration Updates

Posted on June 6, 2021 - 10:05 pm by

In addition to writing my blog posts on tropes, I have been plugging away at other things, namely the Disintegration series re-release. For the most part, everything’s been going smoothly, and I think I’m on track to release at the end of the summer as planned. As always, some things come with a learning curve, so I figured I might as well organize all my progress updates in one place and talk about my experiences, as I try to document in this “writing about writing” blog. Let’s organize this into categories!

Covers: First and foremost, I cannot possibly say enough good things about Emily of Emily’s_World_Of_Design. She has been absolutely fantastic to work with and I 100% recommend her to anyone who’s looking for a cover designer. As of right this second, the covers for Disintegration and Disintegration: The Prequels are complete, and The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions is in progress. I’m planning on doing an official reveal for Disintegration in about another month, but in the meantime, here’s a tiny sneak peek to hold us over. (I say “us” because this cover is amazing and I’m so impatient, but I want to wait for a few more things to be finalized before the reveal.)

Keep an eye out for that little scorpion to be showing up on all sorts of things in the weeks to come, and don’t forget—newsletter subscribers will see the full cover first!

Editing: Everything’s fine here. Since the kids are finally back in school full-time, I started getting back to my usual work schedule a couple of weeks ago, so that’s slowed me down a bit on the editing front, but it’ll get done. Again, Disintegration and Disintegration: The Prequels are completely done, and The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions is in progress. The “that” and “just” count for TFotMS did, as predicted, nearly make me sob, but I went through and slashed a lot of them. (“Still” wasn’t awful. “Really” snuck in more than I’d remembered.) Like I said in a previous post, there wasn’t a ton of work to do here (as compared to the Skies series, for example), but I still need to devote time to actually doing it.

Formatting: Aaaaaand here it is, why the statement “everything’s been going smoothly” has the “for the most part” qualifier in front of it. By this point, I’m pretty confident in my abilities to format an e-book. I went back and forth for the longest time over whether to outsource the paperback formatting or do it myself. I finally decided to give it a go on my own, and then if it turned out I was in over my head, I’d pay someone else to deal with it.

I used a combination of Amazon’s official guide plus a couple of other articles/blog posts that explained some steps a little more in-depth. While I know there are various programs out there for book formatting, I stuck with MS Word because that’s what I already own and that’s what I’m familiar with. As I followed (or thought I followed) the step-by-step instructions, it turned into one of those things where everything was going fine…until it wasn’t. For the curious, where I got tripped up was the page numbers and the headers/footers. There’s a difference between “acceptable” and “professional” and I was aiming for the latter, so I turned to Google for help. It took a little time, but I eventually wrapped my head around how to accomplish exactly what I wanted, and I think/hope it worked out. I’m crossing my fingers that I got all the margins and stuff right the first time out and it won’t be rejected, and I’m definitely planning on ordering a proof to double check everything. If, after all that, something’s still not right with the paperback, I’ll turn it over to someone who actually knows what they’re doing.

The e-book and paperback for Disintegration are mostly formatted; I have a placeholder in for the TFotMS cover and blurb, and I figure I should probably write a dedication for this one. Disintegration: The Prequels is only getting an e-book, but I haven’t formatted it yet. I’m hoping once I get to formatting the paperback for The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, I’ll feel pretty comfortable. Maybe.

So that’s where everything stands. I was originally planning for a September 1st release date for Disintegration (and make the prequel set the newsletter freebie starting then; I’ll also make it accessible for free to current subscribers). However! I was recently reminded that the Alanis Morissette concert tickets I got last year were rescheduled for that day, and it looks like the show is going ahead, so even though I think everything will be all set up for the book release, it still feels like a LOT for one day, y’know? Since everything’s going well, I’m now aiming for August 30th. I haven’t decided when I’ll make the preorder available, as I’ve heard conflicting advice about that, but there’s going to be a lot of fun stuff going on leading up to the release, so stay tuned!

Trope-tastic Tuesdays: Raven Hair, Ivory Skin

Posted on June 1, 2021 - 9:00 am by

Trope: Raven Hair, Ivory Skin

Description: Though beauty ideals tend to go in cycles when it comes to what’s popular at any given moment, Raven Hair, Ivory Skin is one of those tropes that’s often used as a shortcut for “this character is physically attractive”. Due to said cycles, these characters can take on all forms, from gothic heroines to 1950s pin-up girls to vampires from all different time periods. However, to qualify for this trope, they have to be good-looking. There can be some overlap with the Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette trope, but that one has more to do with how a character is perceived beyond physical beauty. Both have a tendency to skew female, but attractive raven-haired men with ivory skin are out there in all sorts of media.

Examples: Snow White in every form she’s ever taken, Scarlett O’Hara, Miranda from Mass Effect, Yennefer from The Witcher

Pros: The visual contrast makes this appealing, even when you’re writing and you want the reader to get a certain image in their minds. As stated above, it can also be a quick way to get to “this character is pretty!” without spending a huge amount of time on descriptions and perceptions right away. When it comes to the overlap with other tropes and genres, you can either lean in to the established tropes, or have some fun playing around with them and subverting expectations.

Cons: There’s a fine line between “relying on tropes” and “laziness.” (Let’s not talk about how many times I’ve walked that line.) Also, as with all physical appearance tropes, beauty is highly subjective.

Would/Did I Use It?: Indeed I have! Tabitha from Hunting Astrid qualifies, as her appearance captures Astrid’s attention right away. Alizeira from Flight of the Dragon Queen also fits this trope, and she might also count as an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette, at least at the beginning of the book before we learn more about her. I gave some serious consideration to whether Jasmine from Out of Orbit and Sari from Fire Beyond the Frost qualify, and ultimately decided that they don’t—aside from debating whether or not their brown hair is dark enough, while their love interests are attracted to them, it’s never mentioned if they’re considered objectively beautiful to most of the people around them.

Trope-tastic Tuesdays: Insecure Love Interest

Posted on May 18, 2021 - 9:00 am by

Trope: Insecure Love Interest

Description: Even if one character in a couple thinks their love interest is great, the love interest may not feel that way themselves. This could be one of the obstacles in the way of the pair getting together, or even continue after they’ve officially embarked on a romantic relationship with each other. And if the relationship doesn’t happen right away or there’s major problems to be dealt with, the Insecure Love Interest totally understands. Why would anyone want to be with them anyway, right?

Examples: Every damn romance option in Dragon Age II (though I love them all so hard) and at least half of them in Dragon Age: Inquisition; Chuck toward Sarah in Chuck; Katniss toward Peeta in The Hunger Games; a rare yet excellent music example in Tal Bachman’s She’s So High (shut up, I love my 90s station)

Pros: Man, if this one doesn’t hit close to home for a lot of readers/watchers/players/listeners/whateverers. Who hasn’t felt this way in their relationships, aspiring or established? (If you’re raising your hand right now, I’m not sure if I believe you.) If you want to make a character realistic and relatable, this is definitely a valid option.

Cons: Keep pushing someone away and eventually they’ll stay there. Also, realistic though it may be, if the insecurity doesn’t get resolved or drags out for too long, it’s going to become annoying instead of endearing.

Would/Did I Use It?: This is pretty much the basis for the plot of Hunting Astrid, where Astrid can’t believe Tabitha would want to be with her, to the point where she’s still sitting around questioning her own insecurity while Tabitha is literally fighting through a virtual world in order to win her love. Thankfully, Tabitha manages to talk some sense into her. To a lesser extent, Jasmine from Out of Orbit feels this way toward Aras for a little while, trying to convince herself the ruler of the planet where she crash landed is only being kind to her due to her unfortunate circumstances and would never have any romantic interest in her…or would he?

I do want to point out that I try to be cognizant of that list of cons when writing an Insecure Love Interest and try not to dwell on the insecurity. Even if a couple gets together before the end of a book, conflict can come from plenty of other places, of course.

Trope-tastic Tuesdays: Hot Chick in a Badass Suit

Posted on May 11, 2021 - 9:00 am by

(Parts of this were originally posted on February 7, 2013)

Trope: Hot Chick in a Badass Suit

Description: No link to the trope this time, because apparently in the years since I wrote the original post, TV Tropes has decided a list of women suits isn’t trope-tastic enough. I still think it’s a valid way to convey some information about a character, so good thing I have my description handy:

The Hot Chick in a Badass Suit means business – don’t mess with her, or you will probably regret it. She’s successful and she’s confident in both her profession and the way she carries herself. While short skirts are a possibility, she can look just as good in a long-sleeved pantsuit that covers her chest, because her tailor is just that talented.

Examples: Agent Scully from The X-Files, most of the female lawyers on Law & Order, with special shoutouts going to Abbie Carmichael and Alex Cabot, because damn, those were some enviable suits. (Update: Let’s add Connie Rubirosa to the list of notable ADAs with badass suits on Law & Order)

Pros: Want to instantly make the audience think “strong female character”? Put her in a Badass Suit. If she’s wearing a Badass Suit, we can assume she must be intelligent and have at least some level of personal skills, as she’s advanced in her career enough that the suit is deemed necessary to appear professional. Also, if she cares about her appearance and the way she’s perceived in said career, we know she’s passionate about something.

Cons: As was even covered in at least one episode of Law & Order, to some people, HCiaBS can equal “uptight bitch”. I personally hate that it’s an issue, but this is a list of cons, so I should point it out. One person’s “strong female character” is a misogynist’s “uppity woman who needs to be put in her place”, after all. (*grumble*) I guess this might be a case of making sure you know your audience in order to determine how the HCiaBS is going to land.

Would/Did I Use It?: Years later, I do have some of my own examples to contribute to this trope! (Take that, TV Tropes!) The obvious one is Celeste, the main character of Blazing Justice, which drew a whole lot of inspiration from my love of Law & Order, so we can all see how I wound up there. I won’t tell you in which ending(s) she keeps the Badass Suit on and in which one(s) she trades it in for something else. 😉 I’d also make the case for Astrid from Hunting Astrid – while she’s not in a full suit while at work, she’s wearing a dressy blouse, pencil skirt, and heels when she makes a presentation to applicants to the company she works for, future love interest Tabitha included. Later on, Tabitha even comments on enjoying seeing her out of her straight-laced business attire while on a date, so I’m going to say this one’s close enough to count.

Trope-tastic Tuesdays: (Defrosting) Ice Queen

Posted on May 4, 2021 - 9:00 am by

(Parts of this were originally posted on January 17, 2013)

Trope: Ice Queen (and its sub-trope, the Defrosting Ice Queen)

Description: The Ice Queen is aloof and, well, frigid. She may not want to get emotionally close to anyone, or it may just be men she disdains. There are a few different ways her icy qualities can manifest themselves, ranging from slinging nasty remarks at anyone who crosses her to simply coming across as emotionless and “cold”. In romance, the hero strives to “defrost” her and win her over so they can embark on a relationship.

(While not required, Ice Queens often have blonde hair and blue eyes.)

Examples: Elsa from Frozen, Katherine from The Taming of the Shrew, Hot Lips from M*A*S*H, Miranda from the Mass Effect series

Pros: The Ice Queen is no wet blanket, and she doesn’t sit back and take any bullshit. She won’t swoon over the hero as soon as he walks in the door; he’s going to have to WORK for her affection. Comedic value is bumped up a notch if she’s the type to make snappy comebacks and sends the hero away with his tail between his legs. Even if we think she’s a bit snotty, we frequently can’t help but root for her and want her to find true love.

Cons: If not handled with care, this trope can veer sharply into “she needed a MAN to put her in her place” territory, or imply she was a lesser human being until that man came along to defrost her. Or tame her, in Shakespeare’s case. Another possibility is that there’s some deep, dark, secretive reason for why the Ice Queen is so icy; it can be valid, or overly melodramatic (or both, I suppose). Then again, maybe not. Maybe she’s just not a people person. However, if she comes across as too cold-hearted, it can be difficult for the audience to like and relate to her.

Would/Did I Use It?: I figured I might as well kick off the reboot of this feature with the (defrosting) Ice Queen, because I have such a prime example in my list of publications now. If the title of Fire Beyond the Frost doesn’t clue you in, the main character, Catalina, definitely fits this trope. She’s even got the pale blonde hair, though her eyes are green. I admit some of her attributes are coincidental, but yeah. Ice Queen for sure. Her “frostiness” doesn’t come from any sort of evil or malice, though; she’s just a serious person with some insecurities she tries to conceal.

In thinking it over, the titular character of Hunting Astrid probably also qualifies. Astrid (strawberry blonde hair, eye color not specified) has been hurt in the past and has her guard up, and the whole plot of the book is based on the hoops she makes Tabitha jump through in order to win her heart. To a lesser extent, Jasmine (brown hair, but blue eyes, for those of you keeping track at home) from Out of Orbit and Veronica (brown hair, eye color not specified) from Seductive Suspect also come across as rather aloof at first, and their love interests need to chip away at their icy barriers.

Sweet Escape – Available Now! (plus some other updates)

Posted on April 29, 2021 - 10:24 pm by

My last post was about multitasking, and one would think I already had enough on my plate, but nope! One would be wrong. I decided to add more STUFF to my list. First and foremost, Sweet Escape, my latest short story, is available now. You *could* buy it from Amazon for $0.99, OR! if you subscribe to my monthly-ish newsletter, you can get a copy for free! Let’s have a blurb, shall we?

A deadly disease has swept through Leila’s hometown, followed by the soldiers who unleashed it. When she attempts to escape from them, she’s rescued by Wes, a stranger fleeing a similar situation who shows no hesitation when killing her pursuers to save her life. Wes is a man of few words, though the little he shares and the skills he demonstrates make Leila believe joining him is her best chance at survival.

They travel together, evading their enemies and searching for fellow survivors. Their journey leads them to a deserted town, where Wes chooses an abandoned bakery to rest for the night. To Leila’s surprise, he reveals himself to be an accomplished baker, and prepares a chocolate cake for them to share out of the meager supplies he finds. The unexpected treat brings up wistful memories of the past, but as Wes begins to let his guard down around her, she realizes the future may not be as dismal as she expected…especially after he makes his attraction to her known.

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For the newsletter, I’ll only pop up in your inbox when I have, well, news. To update part of the last post, I have seen the first draft of the new cover for Disintegration, and it’s gonna be AWESOME! That cover reveal (along with other updates and events) will be happening sometime this summer, and newsletter subscribers will get all the good stuff first.

Next addition to my to-do list: To go along with my theme of rebooting older projects, after thinking it over, I’ve decided to reboot Trope-tastic Thursdays. The last post I did for it was eight years ago (WHAT.), and I’ve written a lot since then. I’ll revisit some of the old posts, see if I used any of those tropes in my newer books and if there are any relevant newer pop culture references, and then discuss some different tropes. To differentiate from the older series and achieve better alliteration, the feature will now be Trope-tastic Tuesdays. I’m not going to commit to doing it every week, since life certainly hasn’t gotten any less crazy in the past eight years (EIGHT YEARS. WHAT.), but keep an eye out for those posts to pop up again.

There’s still a lot going on here, but it’s always better than the alternative. Phew!

Multitasking

Posted on April 13, 2021 - 9:37 pm by

I’m pleased to say I’ve reached the home stretch of Surrendering the Skies. I have one more chapter to go, plus an epilogue. And honestly, I’m not crazy about where my word count is right now, so I might wind up going back and adding in a few more things, but we’ll see where I wind up. Still, exciting!

As I started inching closer to the end, I also started thinking about what else I want to accomplish this year writing-wise. Regular readers will remember I have more older books that came back to me following a publisher shutting its doors, and I have to figure out what to do with them. It finally hit me that if I want to re-release any of them on my own, these things take time, and I should probably start making some sort of plan. (I know, it’s obvious. Big derp on my part.) As I’ve been saying this past year or so, now that my kids are a little bit older, some of the brain fog is clearing, and I’ve been feeling more like my writerly self. So, let’s attempt some multitasking!

I revisited my beloved Disintegration series to check out where it is now and how much work it would need. You know what? My love is not misplaced; those books are still fucking awesome, if I do say so myself. Really, some of my best writing is in there. They will need some editing, and I will probably sob to myself as I slash all the “thats” and “justs” and a whole bunch of adverbs, but otherwise, I don’t think it’ll be too painful.

Next, I realized if I want to do right by these books I love so much, I should invest in some kick-ass cover art. I’ve got tax return money coming. I’ve got stimulus money. LET’S STIMULATE THE ECONOMY AND SUPPORT ARTISTS! I put a call out on Twitter, reached out to some artists, and found someone I think will be a great match. Since I wasn’t crazy about the original covers back in the day, I’m super excited about this part.

After/during cover art will come editing, which, again, I don’t think will be too strenuous. And then after that…formatting. I’ve done e-books before, so I’m not too concerned there. It falls under the category of “time-consuming, but not terribly difficult.” But I haven’t done a paperback on my own yet, so I need to start doing research on that. I know there are ways to outsource this work, but since I’m spending money on the covers, I’ll most likely handle the formatting myself.

So far, my plan is to finish up Surrendering the Skies, shop that series around, and then get to work on editing. As of right this second, I’m planning a release date for the first Disintegration book for September 1st of this year. It might be a wild ride, but I think it’s doable. I’m also going to release the set of prequel short stories at the same time, but—BUT!—newsletter subscribers will get those for free, so make sure you’re all signed up for that.

I’m voluntarily putting a lot on my plate, but as of right now, it’s making me happy and motivated and all of that good stuff. Fingers crossed these plans work out (says the pantser)!

A Series of Questions

Posted on March 26, 2021 - 3:11 pm by

I’ve been saying to myself “oh, I really should write a blog post” for about the past week or so. Honestly, I don’t have a whole lot to report. Progress on Surrendering the Skies, Book 3 of the series I’m rebooting, is coming along nicely. I would estimate I’m somewhere between a third and halfway through, and I’ve got a pretty good outline for the whole thing. (As well I should, as this has been floating around in my head for years.)

As I’ve been writing, I’ve been thinking of how this book will fit into the series as a whole, and various issues relating to doing a series in general. First, I should preface this by saying I admit I have not read a series in a long time. Free time for hobbies is limited these days, and I try to spread it around evenly. Due to that, I’ve definitely had a preference for standalone books the past few years. I know, I know, good readers make good writers, blah blah blah. But there are only so many hours in the day, you know.

One big issue I’ve been thinking about whether or not it’s important for each book of a series to be able to stand on its own. As always, there’s no one right answer. I read a lot of the Anita Blake series in high school and college, and I started with Book 9, Obsidian Butterfly, because I got it as a birthday gift from a friend who worked at Barnes & Noble when it came out and he liked the cover. (Hey, there are worse reasons!) Interestingly enough, Obsidian Butterfly is kind of the “side quest” of the series, in which Anita takes a vacation from all the drama in her life. So, that kind of answers the standalone question and actually made it a decent book to start with. I continued on with #10, Narcissus in Chains, liked that too, and then went allllll the way back to the beginning.

(Then I quit after #12, Incubus Dreams, and learned a few years later that I was not alone in stopping at that exact point, but THAT is another topic for another day.)

Then the other full series I’ve read in recent years is The Hunger Games trilogy. (I have not gotten to the new fourth book yet, but that’s a prequel anyway.) I started at the beginning, and I can’t think of a single person who has started anywhere other than with Book 1. I’m sure they exist, but I can’t imagine reading that series out of order. Also, I did read the first Outlander book a few years ago but didn’t continue with the rest of them, and that seems like another one where people tend to start at the beginning.

So, my Skies series. I’ve said before that back when I wrote the first one, I never had any plans for it being a series, which I guess fits in with me being more of a pantser than a plotter anyway. When I wrote Book 2, Defying the Skies, I did make an effort to make it accessible to readers who hadn’t read the first one. Now, with Book 3…eh, not so much. I mean, since it’s not really a complex world, I guess readers could start here and figure out the context quickly, but it’s not a priority for me this time around. And unless someone whose opinion I value tells me otherwise, I’m sure I will be at the point of barely caring at all about this issue by the time I get to #4 out of the planned five.

Which reminds me, I will eventually need a better outline for #5 than I have now, but I don’t need to worry about that yet, right? (Pantsers unite!)

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