Category Archives: Blog

February 23, 2010

Mistress Sniffles

By piaveleno

I’m still in that funk.

Given that, why should I blog? I mean do you, dear Reader, really need to know (or care) that I’ve been down and out with the flu since Sunday? Will it change your day to know that I miss running when I’m sick? Do you take inspiration from my rambling efforts to bring you a list of the random novels I’ve read?

Okay, perhaps the last one, just a little bit.

That and most of you seem to enjoy the party stories. I’m not surprised there since many of you that come here also visit CRANK on a regular basis.

Oh yes, there was a party this weekend, but I’d rather bemoan this cold than compose an intelligent blog entry.

If not my sniffling nose, or my ears that want to pop, or the cough that scares the cat, then I could write about the books I’ve read since last I blogged about reading. I have four more waiting in the pile, but due to this flu crap, I’m not thinking straight enough to remember what I wanted to say about them.

Not that I’m going to bother to use that as an excuse. Morgan and Adam have been quiet. I haven’t been able to summon them even in that in between world as I fall asleep, letting my mind wander over various characters and story ideas. Even Crandall has stayed away from that realm.

I’m not pushing it. I have my rules about saying that B word. I’m not blocked. I’m unfocused and sick. When the physical symptoms pass, then I can work on the rest.

In the meantime, I’ve been reading and, now that I’m behind on my book blog entries, I might play around with creating a new boy or two. Sometimes having a fresh personality to explore can make the lazy ones come back to play. I’d hate to force them after all. I’m not that kind of mistress.

Ciao,
Pia

1 comment | posted in Blog, Excuses, health, Inspiration, Reading

February 18, 2010

Herding the Kittens in my Head

By piaveleno

I’ve been away for a while.

I haven’t been writing at all. It’s not just the blogs, but all of my writing. I was so excited to bridge the gap between current posts and a half-dozen scenes I wrote ahead on for CRANK. I had time to write other stuff with CRANK so far ahead. With the exception of two half-written scenes, each post only needs a quick edit and a title, but otherwise, I’m set for several weeks.

Yet, I haven’t worked on Morgan’s story at all.

Morgan’s story. I don’t like the title I picked for it. I hadn’t consciously decided that until today, but it’s been clear by the way I refer to it as Morgan’s story and not by title. I’ve only done that with one other story, and that one was a conscious decision – the title is so cool that I’m keeping it a secret. Maybe it’s just ‘so cool’ to me, but that’s okay. I’m using it to help me get the story done and submitted.

I ramble. Yes.

Perhaps I’ll run a title contest. Yes. That would be fun. I have an extra copy of DARK LOVERS by JR Ward to giveaway as a prize. I bought it twice because, after reading it, I bought the box set when doing so was cheaper than individual books even if I didn’t count book one.

Rambling, yes.

Writing, no.

Gah! This is killing me. Morgan only wants to talk about Adam. Oh, and fuck Adam. Ever since he told me Adam was a handsome Latino and not a blue-eyed blond, he’s been obsessed with the fun scenes and jumping in front of the other characters, vying for all of the attention.

That happens when I hit on something important. While writing FALLEN, I struggled with the mortal character for so long that I thought the story would have to be scrapped. The man’s name changed three times before he felt right and started talking. Even then, he told me he doesn’t go by his birth name. It doesn’t matter to the story, but he developed his own character once I found who he wanted to be.

So, anyway, sorry Morgan, we have plenty of *ahem* those scenes. We need to write something angst-ridden and painful now.

See what I’m doing? I’m writing about Morgan without writing him. He’s done it again! He’s commandeered the attention!

Actually, I’m doing it intentionally, trying to bring my mind state back into the story. The antagonists need several more scenes before I can pick up where I left off with Morgan and Adam. AND I need a title I can work with!

It’s akin to herding cats.

Morgan has a cat. It was a cute little scene to write. The little hellion ended up splattered with his paints, but it did convince him to clean up his taboret and, of course, made him laugh.

Rambling again. I know. But hey, writing is writing after all, so the blog ends the dry spell. Right? Excuse me while I shackle the Muse.

Ciao,
Pia

1 comment | posted in Blog, Morgan, Writing

January 29, 2010

Racing Myself

By piaveleno

End of month and so much to say. It happens this way quite often. I want to blog daily for two weeks straight, and then I have nothing for a week. I’ve tried saving posts during my wordy times, but during the quiet periods, I do not have the same inspiration for those half-written epiphanies.

Today I have two things to cover, let’s see how much I get done.

First and foremost, the beautiful and energetic Ms. Jo Lynne Valerie has given me a blog award. It’s that pretty thing over there on the right. I even figured out how to link it back to her blog all by myself. If you know me and html, you know this is either a miracle or an accident.

Part of the requirements of accepting Jo’s award is to recommend three other blogs. Done. It wasn’t easy since I blew up Google Reader months ago when I breached the 500 mark on unread posts. I wish I had more time to read blogs, but let’s face it, we all have to make decisions with our time and I have to choose published works over most blogs. It was nothing against the bloggers themselves, or their writing, but all about me. If I’m not reading fiction, my writing suffers. It wasn’t a tough choice.

End of month also brings a resolutions update. Yay for little steps!

Health Goal: Twelve minute mile. Done. Actually, I first hit twelve minutes in the first week of January, but my energy level still ebbs and flows and so I wasn’t confident that this pace was sustainable until well into the month. Currently, my running routine is one mile at a 12-minute pace and then a second starting with a 2 minute fast walk break followed by running ½ mile. Rinse and repeat. Some days I’ve gone up to a total of 2.5 miles running (not including the fast walk breaks), but I’m not there on every run.

Next month, I’d like to be consistently hitting a 5k mark. That’s about 3.2 miles. It can be at the ½-mile intervals because currently I seem to peter out by the end of two and 2.5 is definitely pushing my limit. I think I can stretch my endurance that much farther this month, but I suspect it’ll be tough goal to meet.

Writing Goal: The month isn’t over yet! Ok, I pretty much have this one wrapped up, but I can’t say it’s done. I cut over a thousand words from FALLEN, but when doing a final read-through this week, I found a couple of minor details that needed patching. Those should get typed up Saturday for submission Saturday or Sunday. So long as I can get this done with the CRANK post due Sunday, I’ll have a double success on this month’s resolutions. I think it’s possible, but by no means guaranteed.

For next month, I’m torn. I have Kitty’s story to edit but that’ll take more than a month. At about 40k words, and not having looked at it in over a year, that will be a big project. I also am to the point with CRANK that I need to start nailing down some additional details for the summer months of this story arc. It was designed to run about a year, but since I abhor outlines before I begin writing, I still need to mentally approve of the endgame.

Don’t panic, my dear Readers. While I said that CRANK was intended for a year-long story arc, the boys will not be retiring at the end of that time. It is merely a way for me to measure my progress and to determine story breaks for when I pretty them up in novel format. There will be a second arc, and there are already the vaguest hints of it being laid down in recent posts.

While both of these things will be addressed in some form over the next month, the official resolution will be to read more. I have two novels started that I will finish and I have several new novella-lenth stories on the Kindle, of which I’m shooting for two to three of them this month. When I’m short on time, it is reading that gets forgotten too easily. Yet if I’m not reading my writing gets stale and the Muse fights against me with claws and teeth. I will stop brushing off reading as a frivolous hobby because for any writer, it should be a job requirement.

Ciao,
Pia

1 comment | posted in Blog, Crank, editing, fitness, health, In Response, Publishing, Reading, Resolutions, Writing

November 1, 2009

Fallen, Without Failure

By piaveleno

Hell, yes, I’ve been busy. fallen angel

When I start losing the race with time, this blog flounders like a rowboat with a hole in the hull and only one oar. In reality, when I have time, I blog too much. I ramble on, entertaining myself, but am I really entertaining you, dear Reader?

Just a stray thought, ignore it. I’ve been busy because I can’t help but wait until last minute to finish something. To me, deadline means start busting ass twenty-four hours beforehand.

A month ago, I decided to pull a dead story from the graveyard because an antho call fit it so well. Due November 1st, I spent much of my week off in early October banging out the first draft. Of the week off, I futzed around until Wednesday before I started writing in earnest. Then, I took my time editing. I didn’t get the story to a beta reader until the week before it was due. The morning of the 31st, I crawled out of bed at 9am to edit. At 3pm, we returned home from errands, laptop in tow, and nothing done but moving the script from flash drive to laptop desktop so I wouldn’t bend the drive connection on the move. At a quarter past 10, I finally hit send on the sub.

This is not to say I didn’t work hard on it, nor am I saying it’s not the best I could do with this story.  I did and it was.

With a month to spend, working every day, I’d have done nothing different. I love the pressure of a deadline looming over me. I love the stress of doubting I can get the job done in the time allotted. I excel when I’m freaking out, cranky, and convinced I will fail. I also don’t have time for things like blogging, or carrying on a civil conversation. Such is my way. I accept it. Next time I miss a blog entry, you can place a safe bet that I have something due in the next week, probably sooner.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, dear Readers. FALLEN (formerly Heaven’s Demons) is splayed out and exposed. Let us hope that it is seen as worthy as I believe it is.

Ciao,
Pia

1 comment | posted in Blog, I am, Writing

October 26, 2009

Ask for Answers

By piaveleno

The drive in to work is thinking time. Sometimes the Muse sits in the back seat and chatters away. Other mornings, characters in current WIPs will sit in the passenger seat and talk with me about what they’d like to do.

Today I let my mind wander over a couple of ideas I’ve been percolating for blog entries. That led to consideration of the general voice of this blog compared to others that I read on a semi-regular basis. In turn, led to thoughts of anal sex. Ok, that last part was just to see if you were still paying attention.

Generally speaking, when I blog, I spout off my opinions on whatever matter is at hand, but rarely do I write specifics about myself. You already know that I support the rights of gays to marry, but do you know if I’m straight or bi? You probably have a good guess based on some of my blog entries, but each time I’ve started the entry that actually addresses my orientation, I get bored, wander off, and find myself writing boy-on-boy smut.

It’s not because I’m shy. I am, yes, but I also prefer to talk about anything other than myself, even when I’m being social. I especially enjoy changing the one-track mind of mine to its favorite topic – fiction. Real life is dull compared to the stories I write or read and so why talk about boring little me?

During a recent hot tub party, we played twenty questions. Well, there might not have been twenty and that probably wasn’t the name of the game, so maybe I should explain. It was a simple yes/no game. Each person could ask any person in the tub one yes/no question. Everyone had the right to pass, because it was all for fun and we didn’t want to make anyone upset. I answered every question, not once considering a pass. My trouble was finding a question to ask, but that is another story for another time.

So in an effort to give you, dear Readers, a change of pace, I’m offering up the yes/no game. Ask me anything, as long as it is a yes/no question. I may, if inspiration hits, answer with more than yes or no, but I will answer every question with at least one of those two words. That’s right. No passing.

Challenge me, dear Readers. Put me on the spot. What do you want to know?

Ciao,
Pia

5 comments | posted in Blog, I am

October 6, 2009

Recovering From Myself

By piaveleno

Wow. It’s been a while.

I’d like to say it was intentional. You see, at the end of September, I made a valiant effort to catch up on all the reading in my Google Reader. It took quite a while, and I did “Mark as Read” a lot of stuff that I didn’t actually read. At that point, I did two things. First, I removed several blogs that I’ve done that to over the past couple of months, and second, I promised I’d stop writing in mine every day or every other day despite what The Muse said. The Muse needs to focus on stuff that can be published after all, so it wasn’t a promise not to write, just not to waste my time and the time of those that enjoy following my blog. You don’t, after all, need to be tormented with my weird poetry that strikes only when I’m sick. It’s usually sick itself, so I will spare you. And you don’t need to read my ramblings every day. I don’t honestly think I have that much quality stuff to write about that I should be writing in the blog every day.

I simply enjoy the blogging process. I like talking to myself and sharing it with those who know me (or want to know me). I like to write in almost any form. Almost. I always hated the research papers for school, but that was because I’m a fiction girl, and non-fiction is boring. (Go, figure I don’t consider blogging truly non-fiction. Maybe I’ll explore that at a later date.)

Despite that mini-ramble, that is not why it’s been a few days. I’ve been sick all weekend (yes I include Monday in the weekend so stop questioning me) and I finally started to feel better last night. I slept for 10-12 hours a night, plus there might have been some napping in there. Monday was better, but still a bit off. Today, I’m doing much better. Thank you.

Now I need to catch up again. Really, I should be writing, but I cannot neglect you, my dear Readers, for any longer. I posted a new CRANK last night, and prepared the next one for Thursday or Friday posting. I’m checking in here, and then I’ll make another attempt at Heaven’s Demons.

Ah, Heaven’s Demons. I don’t know why I keep picking at this story. I’m sure there’s a story there, but the words refuse to flow when I start to work on it. It started back in May or June when I saw a call for angel and/or demon stories for an upcoming anthology. I love writing about demons, but had yet to put an angel in one. Ideas started percolating. I scrawled out three different blurbs, kicked out the angel, then the demon, then began writing with both.

Because of the July exam I took, that story got pushed aside in favor of studying. (It was not the kind of exam you’d want to take again at any cost.) After the exam, once CRANK was up and running, I picked up the story again, named it Heaven’s Demons, and started fiddling with it. It didn’t go anywhere. I knew where it should start and I knew how it had to end, but the middle part wallow in the muck of shitty storytelling and I gave up.

Not one to be dictated by my Muse (you can stop laughing at any time), I recently printed out what I had so far, three different files with two different POV styles. I had stumbled over another antho call for demons and angels and I am stubborn as fuck when it comes to certain things. This story, apparently, fell on that list.

Hmm, I appear to be stalling. I want to see this story to its completion, even if it doesn’t go out for submission, but I’ve taken every excuse I can find to not work on it.

Must shut off Twitter… Must write…

Come here, Muse mine. We have work to do!

Ciao,
Pia

PS check this out today – A writer is using Twitter followers to inspire and guide his next novel. Over three days, starting today, he’ll be tweeting questions and using the answers in the chapters. Each chapter will be posted as it’s completed (one an hour). Read more about it (including the chapters completed so far on the right) here: http://3d1d.1889.ca/typhoon/en/d

Leave a comment | posted in Blog, Excuses, health, Writing

August 19, 2009

Do Not

By piaveleno

I had this great idea. I started blog posts when I had the ideas for them, and then marked them private so that I’d have a head start on days when The Muse decides to play in the sprinkler instead of write.

It made sense. It had to work. I saved three ideas, each with a paragraph or two to remind me of the feel of the post. That was three weeks ago.

So here’s the downfall. Yes, it worked. Reading the part I started did remind me of the feel of the entry but – yes, there’s always a ‘but’ with me – I didn’t save the link that inspired the post.

Damn it, Pia, get with the program. Fuck. Oh well. We’re forging ahead with what we have. Onward!

Today’s rambling post is about the Do Nots of writing. Or rather, it was inspired by another blogger (because I forgot to save the link, I sadly can not give proper credit), who ran a contest about them. If you write, or have a curiosity about writing, you’ve probably seen plenty of Do Nots for the writing world.

For example, do not start a story with:
1) The weather
2) Waking up
3) A long look in the mirror

There were many more in the article that inspired the contest, but you get the idea, I’m sure. The contest was something that screamed to my Inner Child. I’ve done this before, so I jumped at it again. Then, promptly, real life interfered and I didn’t have time to enter.

Here it is:

Write an interesting opening line using one of the Do Nots listed in the article.

Oh yeah. Break those rules. See why I wanted to do this?

I’m all for new writing exercises and challenges. Anyone who wants to be read should try new things constantly or expect their writing to grow stale and boring. Give it a try. Leave your opening line in the comments (and, just in case, list your Do Not too). I’ll put my favorite in a #followfriday blog post.

Ciao,
Pia

(Waking up) 

I knew the morning would be interesting, trying to remember how I ended up like this, waking up with the sun shining through the half-open blinds and illuminating the bare flesh of a dead god draped over me.

(Detailed character description) 

Oblivious to the eyes fixed on his narrow waist, broad shoulders, and shining grey eyes, Marcus strode up to the bar, ordered a drink, and then paled until his skin matched his wild white hair in tone and warmth.

(Weather) 

It was a dark and stormy night, except that it was a beautiful sunny day to everyone else, that is, everyone but Joel, who stormed through the city with thunderheads roiling around him and a constant downpour soaking his tailored suit and no-longer shining shoes.

Leave a comment | posted in Blog, Writing Exercises

August 5, 2009

Crank It Up

By piaveleno

StrawberriesWow, I have a dozen things I want to blog about. It happens like this. I’ll have non-stop ideas three times a day for two weeks, then I won’t have a fucking clue as to what to blog about for a month. I used to take notes, jotting down ideas on little yellow Post-It notes, but when the time came to refer to them, I couldn’t find one I liked. It never worked.

This time around, I wrote the first paragraph of several “extra” ideas and stuffed them in the blog as private posts. The hope is that the first paragraph will be enough to remind The Muse why that idea sounded so cool the first time around. Hey, it works when I write a couple of pages of a new character or story idea. Blogs are shorter so a paragraph or two should be enough to re-inspire an entry. Right? Right?

Anyway, the head start on August’s Resolutions definitely helped. After studying for that July exam, the house was in desperate need of a cleaning, so that kept me from the gym. Then, on the first, we had a party, which is always tough on the diet. After the party, I got hit hard with a nasty UTI followed by a premature and very heavy period. Finally, today, I made it to the gym.

I really want to blog about the party, but that deserves an entry all to itself. All I can say here is that Kate was adorable. I want to call her Sexy Librarian, but I don’t know if she’s actually into books.

Anyway, I digress as usual. Despite all the distractions, I have figured out a decent cardio routine for the gym. Last time it was always the elliptical machine because it worked arms and legs. This time I want something that doesn’t move my feet for me, so I’m using the treadmill. Currently I’m doing a run/fast walk interval routine with hopes to get up to a slow jog by the end of the month. I suspect that may be stretching it, so if I can get my intervals longer, I’ll be happy.

For the healthier eating side, I was impressed that the only “bad” thing I had at our party was alcohol. I skipped the cookies and I skipped the brownies. I only took two bites of the best cheesecake in New England. That last one was not easy, in case you were wondering. I’ve slipped at other points – pizza one night, potato puffs at lunch with my Lean Cuisine 3-point meal, but nothing major, and I’ve been eating much more fruit in the meantime.

As I said, not a bad head-start.

While The Muse is still chattering, I’ll jot down one more private blog idea and then shove her at Crandall. If you haven’t seen her latest fascination (Crandall and Mike), check out the fic-blog here: CRANK.

Love you all, Dear Readers! Thanks for dropping in.

Ciao,
Pia

1 comment | posted in Blog, Crandall, Crank, fitness, Gym, Resolutions, The Muse

June 19, 2009

Bribing the Voices in my Head

By piaveleno

Type, type, type. Ctrl-A, delete. Type, type, type. Ctrl-A, delete.

While I was talking to my voices in my head this morning, I had several ideas for my blog. Now that I have time to sit and write, I’m letting outside voices guide my hand. That, Dear Readers, is unacceptable. Before I’m read the wrong way, let me clarify. I like most outside voices. I will be seeking beta readers soon, and I will cherish each and every volunteer I get regardless of writing or reading experience. It’s the reader I want and the voice that accompanies it. What I need to ignore is the outside voices that are snarky. It’s those outside voices that make me censor my own work. I need to learn to stake them at dawn.

Despite the cacophony of voices, I managed to take an entire day off from studying yesterday. I spent the first half of the day laughing on Twitter. Then, in the afternoon, I wrote in my cheap spiral-bound notebook. Finally, the evening was spent killing a demon who, in his death throes, smothered me with his smoking body when he dive-bombed me from a hundred feet in the air. It was kinda cool really. That is, once I regained consciousness.

While the demon was the highlight of the day, it is in the writing that I must take some pride. I’ve been stuck with my story of Nik and Leaf. (Some of you might have read it over on “No Girls Allowed”. I wouldn’t know.) I was at a scene that I just couldn’t seem to write. I thought about making it a transitional scene and tack it on to the next part, but this scene had some important character reveals and couldn’t be faked. It’s action, and action scenes are, by far, my worst skill. Anyway, long story short, I wrote it out yesterday. It was choppy and amateurish, but it’s on paper. It’s out. Now that it is out, I can fiddle with it until I’m satisfied. One block, successfully chopped into several small pieces. Go me.

Today will find me back at the books. I need to get a case study done this weekend and should probably do three of them. Next weekend is the four day review course that I still need to find a way to pay for, because I just can’t risk skipping it. There will be writing time in there somewhere, but as I’ve been promising The Muse, I promise my Readers as well, once this exam is behind me, the floodgates will be released and stories will flow forth. I doubt any of it will be posted on Blogger but those of you that wish to read are welcome as beta readers. Drop me a note and we’ll chat it up. Maybe I’ll even share a teaser with you. Yes, that was a bribe. Would you expect any less of me?

Ciao,
Pia

Leave a comment | posted in Blog, Nik, Writing

June 18, 2009

Pink Stuff

By piaveleno

Do you want to know what I hate about blogging? I hate that sometimes I have something to say and no matter how carefully I word it, it will piss someone off. I should say it so I can clear the air, but I won’t. I’ll sit on it and it’ll churn in my stomach until I can’t drink my coffee without discomfort.

Just say it, you say?

I have. What happens is just what I said. I don’t know which is more annoying. Saying thanks for making me feel like shit or swallowing the Pepto for a couple of days.

Tonight, it’s the Pepto.

Ciao,

Pia

Leave a comment | posted in Blog, pain

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