Hooray, it is finally release day for Nacreous! Thanks for stopping by the fabulous Release Day Blitz, organized by b00k r3vi3w Tours. To kick off the blitz, here are a couple of “Fun Facts” about my writing process… I hope you enjoy!
Writing Playlist:
So…Music. Some authors swear by it. They have their playlist set in the background while they pen their latest manuscript. Me? Not exactly. Music is very important to me. I believe in dance parties, and by dance parties I mean cranking up my I-pod to the music fitting my mood, be this salsa, classic rock, blues, country, classical, whatever, and dancing alone in my room or kitchen. (Yes, I said classical and country in the same list). My kids may or may not be in attendance. They like to watch and laugh. Sometimes, they join in. But as far as my writing process goes, the music is sort of my warm up. So I might turn on some music that fits my mood for parts of the story and listen to it in my car or at my desk before I write, but not while I am actually writing. I need it to be quiet in the room, so I can tell the story…(Ahem, hear what my characters are trying to tell me). 😉 While I wrote Nacreous, and the other books in the Harmony Run Series, my favorite music warm-up to set the mood was Lorde. Specifically, the songs Team and A World Alone. In fact, if any of the books from my series could be made for film, I would beg producers to include one of those songs in the movies.
My Writing Process:
I can’t sit down and force myself to write everyday because it begins to feel too mechanical, but I am definitely one of those people who thinks about writing, story ideas, characters, scenarios all of the time, awake or asleep. I love using my dreams in my writing and have written a few of them into scenes in the Harmony Run Series. Back in college, the good ol’ stone ages, I had one of the most terrifying dreams of my life about a man with a triangular-shaped eye chasing me down a corridor, one door after the other, with this woman’s voice echoing all around us, telling him to kill me. When I got to the end of the corridor, I opened the last door, and he was standing there facing me. I woke up sobbing…About a year later, a psychology professor at my university asked some of us to share dreams with him so he could demonstrate dream analysis. I bravely raised my hand, (this was huge for me, since I am very shy in person), and shared my dream in vivid detail. After I finished talking, the entire class got eerily quiet and the professor told me I was dealing with issues beyond his realm of help, and went on to the next student’s dream. That student shared a dream about not being able to make a goal in a soccer match, and the professor dissected his dream in depth for fifteen minutes. Years later, I incorporated that dream, adding on some twists and turns of course, into book one from the Harmony Run Series, Prismatic.
I also come up with ideas when I’m looking out of the kitchen window, when I’m walking, driving, cooking, gardening, taking my kids to martial arts, helping with their homework, basically, every waking moment. I take heaps of notes. I jot notes down for days. And when I’m ready, I sit down and type everything I can. I woke up the other night, and grabbed the notebook and pen beside my bed and wrote down an idea for another story. So my writing process is sort of a twenty-four hour thing. Oh, and probably the most important part of the process…How could I forget? My dog, Shorty, has to harass me to sit in my lap throughout the day. She eventually gives up and sleeps at my feet or nearby. She spares me the occasional glance or sighs every so often when I talk too much. Yes, I like to talk aloud to myself more often than not. If that dog could talk…Well, thankfully that’s not an issue. Here’s a photo of my writing pal…
Isn’t she cute? I hope you stick around to read about Nacreous. I’m going to look up that old psychology professor to see if he wants to read my latest book… 😉
Previous Books in the Series:
Sarah Elle Emm is the author of the HARMONY RUN SERIES, a young-adult fantasy and dystopian series, released in May 2012 by Winter Goose Publishing. (PRISMATIC, May 2012, OPALESCENT, February 2013, CHATOYANT, September 2014, NACREOUS, August 2015) Her debut fiction novel, MARRYING MISSY, was published by Bird Brain Publishing in October 2011. Sarah is a graduate of The University of Evansville, she has lived and worked in Mexico, Germany, England, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and has traveled extensively beyond. Sarah lives in Naples, Florida with her family. When she’s not walking the plank of her daughters’ imaginary pirate ship or snapping photos of Southwest Florida scenery, she is writing.
Stalk the Author:
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I will Breathe by Regina Puckett-my review
I gave it five stars on Amazon today. Even though it is meant for a younger audience, I found I really enjoyed it. Regina has a way of presenting a story that is well written and a delight to read. The main character, Liberty finds herself all alone after the man she called father died in an airship that travels here and there in a world destroyed in a great war. Love is not part of her vocabulary, she doesn’t have time for it until a robot called “boy” is forced into her life after the man that created the robot has died. Boy thinks Liberty is his sister and sets out to teach her what love is. Regina introduces a fine cast of characters in the story as she shows that no one can live life alone forever, humans crave contact and interactions with other humans even when they won’t admit it. The boy, keeper of knowledge teaches Liberty love is all that is missing. Good short story winning several awards.
Regina Puckett is a 2014 Readers’ Favorite Award winning author for her sweet romance, Concealed in My Heart. Her steampunk book, I Will Breathe, and her children’s picture book, Borrowed Wings, both received the Children’s Literary Classic Seal of Approval. “I Will Breathe” was selected as a Science Fiction Finalist in the 2015 IAN Book of the Year Awards.
Just a day when I don’t feel like writing.
No, I don’t have writer’s block or anything like it. It is just my mood. Hell, I have the next scene in Lightning Rages rolling around in my head but I just don’t feel like writing. Do you ever have one of those days? Normally, I would go to my neighbors and sit around bullshitting or talking about the problems of the nation, local city problems or whatever comes to mind. I seen him drive by so I know there is no reason to go there. I guess I could go down to my volunteer organization and see if they need help of any kind. I could go outside and finish up my man cave up in the barn loft but I am still sore from cutting up a tree that we removed and it is hot out there. So, I will write this blog and find something to do after I get dressed. I know the day is half over and I’m still in my pj’s. What else should a writer wear while doing nothing? LOL I have dropped by on GoodReads, LinkedIn, wordpress, Facebook and other social media so I guess I better get out of this chair, put some clothes on and find something to do. What are you doing today?
Talk back, I’m listening and have a great day!
You Are Not Alone
Sometimes you feel alone even when your not. I am never alone for long since my wife is my biggest supporter. Who is yours?
By Sherry Peters
A few months ago my teen-aged niece decided she wanted to write a novel. Being the auntie I am, I encouraged her to explore her creativity. It didn’t take long before she asked me how to speed up the writing process. I laughed and told my niece there wasn’t one, that if I lived in the land of Harry Potter, I would invent a quill that would take the story from my mind and write it on its own while I go off and do other things. She was disappointed.
My niece had a point. I don’t know any writer who, at some point or other, hasn’t wished the words would magically appear on the page. The truth is, writing takes time. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you are at it, it still takes time. And the time it takes is usually away from our…
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Why I love this cover
Not only because it was the cover of my first book but it was done exactly as I wanted. The cover tells a story in itself. Brad shown in the middle is at a party with his wife, Vicki that Michele attended. What started as an innocent night became a nightmare for Brad when he gave Michele a “Christmas party kiss. Little would they know that in less than twenty-four hours their lives would be forever intertwined because of the nuclear explosion seen in the background. The burning buildings signify the destruction of their world forcing all of the main characters to change forever.
Yes, I did pay extra to get the exact cover I wanted. That was back when I held a full time job. Now that I am retired, no such expenditure could be made for my other books. LOL plus my publisher selected the cover for some of the books.
Well, I finally finished writing “Dangerous Rescue” and now it goes to editing. I still don’t have a cover for it. What I would like is a scene of a jumbo jet crashed in the desert. I feel that would be the most appropriate for this book but don’t know if I can afford this one.
My wife asked me after I finished “Dangerous Rescue” what am I going to do with my free time now. Between the Cherish blogfest tour, volunteer work and writing she hasn’t had much of my time. I think she was hinting it was time to spend a little more time with her. My answer that I had several other books to finish cleaned the smile from her face knowing she was still a writer’s widow. Back to my first book, some of you may have read the dedication where I stated “my wife put on her boots, spurs and held her whip to get me to finish this book” I was asked by many readers how I could get anything done with her standing there naked with just boots, spurs and with a whip? LOL it was not easy but I enjoyed it.
Talk back and have a good day, I’m listening.
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