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Thursday, August 4, 2011

BORN OF WINTER: Roots of a Character

At just past midnight on August 1st, summer quietly packed its bags and fled the state. We had a nice summer, especially compared to last year (record-setting rainy spell, not-FTW), but now it is done. Over. Finito.

It's been raining and windy, with warnings of gusts up to 80 mph. As I write this I'm watching our mature may trees being tossed by the wind, and hearing them scraping against the second story deck. Inside, the ficus looks peeved.

The rumors about Alaskans hibernating aren't untrue. It's time to retreat. To books, both reading and writing. To art, little crafts and attempts at projects far beyond my talent and expertise. I will clean obsessively. (When trapped in a small space, it's best if you maximize that space by storing every mobile item and removing every room-taking-up mote of dust.)

I will spend hours at the computer, engineering elaborate vacations (to destinations exotic, warm or both) that I will never take. That's actually how my novella releasing in January from Carina Press came about. I'd written a few scenes for my own amusement, then closed the file. Winter arrived on cold, hard feet, and I wanted to go to Hawaii. I wanted sweet, humid air and warm, lapping waves. My main character decided that sounded pretty damn good. Only, where all I had to do was buy a plane ticket, she had to escape bombs, fangs, and a brewing street war.

She might not be able to make the perfect escape, but she'll take you for a hell of a ride.

Don't Bite the Messenger - Carina Press - 1.16.12

4 comments:

  1. Where are imagination goes, so too can our characters. :) Good for you for putting it into a story and selling it! Yeah for release "soon"! :)

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  2. I found your blog from the thread on Nathan Bransfords forums, and am now your newest follower, so:

    Nice ta meet ya!

    As to your post, I live in Georgia, and I hate it. I would love to live somewhere as wild and pristine as Alaska. I'm from Seattle, so I know a little bit what it's like.

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  3. Your MC sounds like fun! And how bad can it be if you're in Hawaii? It's weird to think of your summer being over already. Ours gets hotter, usually, in August. though so far, August has been cooler than July was. I look forward to your book release, though! Is it coming out in print or electronic? I seem to miss out on a lot of writer's books these days because I don't have an electronic reader (and don't really want one).

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  4. Thanks, Aimee!

    Hi, Matthew! So nice to meet you. Yeah, Georgia is seriously different from here. But, if it makes you feel better, we'll likely have the first mountain snow within the next couple of weeks.

    April, we have a three-month summer, if we're lucky. Closer to two months this year, unfortunately. (So much for global warming)

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