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Back in September, I blogged (again) about those "oh, shit" moments I've had when realizing something I've written is very, very similar to something that already exists. It's happened to me a couple times, but I've reassured myself that there's always enough differences for it not to be a big deal. To recap that particular post, I'd just sent in the manuscript for The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, had played through Dragon Age: Origins, and to my surprise/dismay, one scene in the former bore a striking similarity to one in the latter.
Sometimes the reverse happens, and I fully acknowledge what has influenced me in writing. In a very old post, I freely admitted that the setting for the interlude between Parts 2 and 3 in The Edge of the Sphere came right out of one of the games in the Myst series. It wasn't an exact replica, and I did make some changes; even if someone who was familiar with the game read that scene (or vice versa), I doubt he/she would think, "Hey, that seems an awful lot like ______!"
Then there's a third situation that sometimes occurs, and it's where I find myself now: starting to write something and not realizing until the project is underway what, precisely, were the influences that shaped the ideas. My current WIP, about two-thirds of the way done, mostly takes place in a fantasy setting. There are dragons. From this post alone, it's not too hard to tell what helped inspire me. (I think my thought process was actually something along the lines of "Man, I really love Dragon Age, and there are some kick-ass women in that series. I should write something with dragons and kick-ass women!)
I planned, I outlined, I sat down to write. It wasn't until recently that I started pinpointing the other influences that snuck in. Granted, generic "fantasy" has a lot of common elements, but I noticed some more specific similarities sneaking in. The biggest one (that I laughed at) was when I went back to do some revising, I finally noticed that my heroine bears a striking resemblance to Princess Cassima from King's Quest VI, one of THE games of my childhood.
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| Minus the pointy hat/head scarf thingabob |
I know, I know. At first glance, the "damsel in distress" thing has been done to death. But while both Cassima and my female lead are imprisoned and technically need to be rescued, don't underestimate them. In fact, the only way to win KQVI is to sneak Cassima a dagger before triggering the final sequence so she can bail your ass out in the final battle. (Didn't give her the dagger? Game over. Hope you have an earlier save state.) As for my character...well, I can't give away everything here. ;)
I can pinpoint the influence of other books/games/movies not only in this story, but in just about everything I've written. I don't consider it a bad thing - we all have the books/games/movies we love, and as long as it's not a blatant ripoff (and who's to judge what is or isn't), it's fun to pay homage to the fiction that's shaped us. After all, no one ever sets out to emulate crap, right?
And I am completely in love with it. Still waiting on a release date (maybe March?), but for now, the cover is enough to make me squee like a little girl.
A funny thing happened as I worked on the final edits for Elysium - I got my writing mojo back. Don't get me wrong, there's still a ton of stuff to distract me as I realize I'm going to have two newborns before summer rolls around, but as I spent time polishing this novella which just might be the best thing I've ever written, that spark came to life again. I wouldn't say I'm churning out thousands of words a week, but I'm getting back into better habits and not feeling any sort of disinterest or guilt when I open up a document.
And enjoying the process of writing usually results in me spending more time in my own blogspace as well. ;) Win!
(*scampers off to update the Books tab with the latest addition*)
I know, I know, it's January, but 1) I love the Christmas season and am fine with extending it a little bit, 2) even though we didn't get hit nearly as bad as was predicted, there is snow on the ground so we need to stay warm, 3) who needs an excuse to promote sexy menage stories?, and 4) I like numbered lists and could go on forever, but I'll stop here.
Today I'm thrilled to help Clare Dargin promote her latest release, Merry "Chris"mas. Like me, Ms. Dargin is a fan of reading and writing sci-fi romance, but it's good to expand our horizons every now and then, right? So if you're still missing the holidays (or you just want to enjoy a steamy read), check out the book!
Excerpt:
Jilly Reimers wants love but can't find it. Chris Spinell is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who suffers from PTSD and a haunting feeling that something is missing in his life. Chris Poole is also an Afghanistan war veteran is ready to break out of his shell but is unsure how.
With Christmas just around the corner, they decide not to spend it alone. Believing The Love Play Matchmaking Service to be just what they need for a night of fun and passion, they sign up. But when the guys show up and see that they've been set up on a menage, the only one happy about it is Jilly.
Their consultant, called an Eros, assures Jilly that the service has a perfect track record but she's certain they'll be the first ones to get their money back. Will they have a very merry Christmas? Or will the three spend yet another one alone?
Excerpt:
Jilly idly twirled a lock of her hair as she gazed at the fire. The meal was good, a bit awkward, but all right. Now with Chris S. in the shower, she and Chris P., who’d freshened up after her, sat beside her. She hoped she’d get a chance to know him a little better, now that they were alone.
Unlike Chris S., Chris P. was quiet, more reserved. His warm smile could melt ice. They’d spoken a bit about his life in Australia and how he met the other Chris when they were on Diego Garcia, a tiny atoll in the Pacific. It was there he garnered a better perspective on life, friendships and love. She reasoned that war tended to do that to a person.
She looked at him again, admiring what she saw. He was gorgeous. If only she were a femme fatale like her friends. She pictured grabbing him by the scruff of his collar and planting a long seductive kiss on his pouty lips. Anything to ease the tension between her legs and the moisture dripping from her swollen pussy.
Golden and sun-kissed like a surfer, he had a look impossible to have around this time of year in Michigan, unless he spent countless hours in a tanning booth. But at the same time he didn’t look like the type who’d go to one. He seemed too rugged. She glanced at his short, flaxen hair, which he wore pulled back in a stubby tail. It accentuated his keen facial features. His physique, like that of a gladiator, made her want to whimper. Built like a brick wall without being too thick, he was three words—supple, etched, steel. And his Australian accent added to his raw sexiness.
Whereas Chris S. was the perfect picture type of the all-American, boy-next-door type, with light brown hair and sandy-colored tips and eyes so blue they looked like the color of tropical water. He reminded her of the high school captain of the football team who’d gone into the military and become a man, except he had a sensitive edge that permeated his being. While Chris P., who looked like he could take on a few guys at once, was more lighthearted and outgoing.
Either way, she knew she hit the jackpot because both guys were like something out of a magazine called Hot Guys “R” Us. They were a perfect ten. It was best Christmas gift anyone could have ever given her. She hoped a Chris Sandwich was definitely on the menu for the night. But how to get past the talking stage, she had no clue. She wondered if all of her Love Play’s match ups started like this.
Wearing some leggings and a cami, and he a T-shirt and shorts, she suddenly felt overdressed. The art of seduction was not something they taught in any of the schools she’d attended, and she sure as hell never picked up any pointers from her so-called “friends.” And her exes never gave her any encouragement in that department either.
This date should have come with instructions. I think I’m in trouble.
She let out a long sigh.
“Did you say something?” Chris P. asked, stirring from his long silence.
“I was just thinking how beautiful this place is,” she lied. What? How lame is that?
“It is. I’ve never been to a place quite like this.”
“Love Play has quite a reputation.”
“You’ve used it before?” He perked up, facing her.
Heat burned her cheeks. “No. It’s what I heard from some of their clients.”
“So have you been married?” he asked.
“No.”
“Neither have I. Never found anyone to get serious with,” he said, shrugging. “I don’t know. Maybe cupid’s arrow doesn’t work on me.”
“For me they’re defective. Or maybe his aim is bad,” she said, trying to suppress the memory of her ex-boyfriend.
“What do you mean?”
“My relationships, they never work out.” She shrugged her shoulders. “For whatever reason, they seem to choose my friends over me. Or it ends up that way once we get together.”
He shook his head. “Nah. They were bad blokes from the start. Believe me. I know. I’ve been around those types my entire life. The randier they are, the worse they will be. If a man wants you, he’ll stay.” His tone was soft, almost vulnerable.
“Maybe.”
“So tell me,” he said, turning to face her, “you ordered this hook up?”
Again, her face flushed. She imagined it turning its characteristic red when the blood rushed to her cheeks.
“Yes. But according to the guidelines, you would have either had to be open to it or requested it too. Right?”
He chuckled. “I see he also got the smart I asked for. Yes, I am open to a ménage.” His expression became serious. “Do you think me odd?”
“No. I’m glad we share that desire.”
Author Bio:
Clare Dargin is an author of Science Fiction and Romance and has been writing stories all of her life before being published in 2007. She’s a great fan of the two genres and loves promoting them.
An educator by profession, she possesses a Bachelor’s Degree in English from a major mid-western university. She presently resides in the Midwest and she hopes to expand her writings to include non-fiction, historical romance, and contemporary novels.
Links:
http://www.bookstrand.com/merry-chris-mas
http://claresblog2thehaven.blogspot.com
http://theembraced.blogspot.com
I'm nearing the end of my second playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition. This time, obviously, I've been taking my time and not blazing through to get to the end, letting the game consume every moment of my free time. Also (and I'll elaborate on this throughout), I was able to almost halve the number of hours spent on this playthrough, and not all of that was due to efficiency.
First, I need to preface this with my overall, general feelings: The game is excellent. I feel like the designers took the best parts of the two previous games without necessarily favoring one over the other. Perhaps most importantly for a game, it's fun, and I look forward to replaying it. HOWEVER (we all knew that was coming), there were definitely aspects that could have been better. A lot better. I'm not going to say I was disappointed, because I wasn't, and paying for the pre-order and immersing myself in the game as soon as possible was worthwhile. But it's not perfect.
Boobulon, who hasn't played yet, summed up my feelings perfectly when I told him of my impressions after I first beat the game. It's a short game, but very wide. Now at first, that statement may sound a little ridiculous - I spent over 100 hours (111 to be exact) just playing through the game once. How can that possibly be a short game?
Without going into too much detail about the mechanics, there are certain mandatory plot points you have to hit. While there's an order to them (except for two which are available simultaneously), you can pretty much do them whenever you want. As is typical for Bioware games, there are a crapload of side quests and companion quests available, along with many areas to explore. (For those of you familiar with the first Mass Effect, it's structured similarly.)
Ultimately, I think it's that lack of set pacing that drags the game down a little. And unfortunately, most of those little side quests did nothing to enhance the overall plot, in my opinion. Also unfortunately, it made me feel like a lot of the game was filler and the designers were having fun playing around with the new game engine while not focusing enough on tying all the elements together.
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| Gorgeous, right? I didn't even bother coming here the second time through, because it was unnecessary. |
The actual plot stuff? EXCELLENT. FANTASTIC. LOVED. Like, "shit, it's 1:00 in the morning but I have to know what happens next but it's 1:00 in the morning but I have to know what happens next!" There just wasn't enough of it, and I was left wanting more. So for me, that's my biggest qualm. Yes, the world was incredibly detailed and amazing and expansive, but some of the storytelling was lacking.
So I'm going to use that to segue into talking about writing. (Smooth, right?) We all know by now that style is subjective and readers are often picky about the prose they enjoy. There are writers out there who use their words to paint pictures and spend pages and pages describing scenes in achingly beautiful detail. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But it's not me. I don't like to write that way, and I don't particularly like reading that style either. I prefer well-developed characters who do and feel, which again, isn't everyone's cup of tea. There's no one method of telling a story that's better than the others, and it really does just come down to personal preference. And I personally would have preferred more characters doing and feeling in those initial 111 hours, but hey, you can't make everyone happy all the time.
I could probably write another novel about my feelings on the game, but I'll leave off here. Also on the topic of my own writing, I just miiiiight have a cover to reveal soon-ish, so stay tuned!
So last month I wrote one of those really annoying vague posts about how I had a lot of stuff going on in my non-blogging life, but then didn't go into any detail. However, I looked, and I did say I'd write about it eventually, so maybe I'll break even with this post.
Upon my return from my family reunion in the fall, I found out I'm pregnant. This was a very much planned-for thing, so we were excited, but then all of a sudden, there's that feeling of being overwhelmed and wanting to RESEARCH ALL THE THINGS and otherwise being distracted, and so on. I made an appointment for my first ultrasound, and all my husband and I wanted out of it was to see a healthy baby growing in there.
And we did. And then we saw the second baby growing right next to him/her. Surprise!
There were a few days of shock, of course, but then more excitement. RESEARCH ALL THE THINGS mode involved even more things to research. Writing absolutely took a backseat, but I can't say I feel any guilt about it.
Now that I've RESEARCHED ALL THE THINGS (well, a lot of them, anyway) and otherwise adjusted to the idea that we are going to have two babies in June (as much as one can adjust right now, anyway), I'm starting to settle down a bit. Obviously, I'm never going to give up writing, but I'm trying to figure out what my best course of action is. Do I try to finish up at least one of my WIPs and get it ready for submission before June, knowing that if I have to revise something, it wouldn't get done for a while? Do I give up any hope of getting something ready for publication until we figure out our new schedule? Is there some sort of middle ground in there?
There aren't any right answers. Luckily, it's not a life or death situation we're dealing with here. For now, the plan is to maybe get a solid first draft done of a WIP, but then hold off on submitting. I might also have some fun with some fanfic (especially since I finished my first playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition, more on that in a future post), and see if any good anthology calls come up where I can knock out a one-shot thing. As I said, I'm not giving up writing forever, but there are definitely some big changes coming up on the horizon!
Dragon Age: Inquisition arrived at my house almost two weeks ago, and I've been playing it non-stop since then. (The game is MASSIVE, and I know I still have a ways to go. At least I'm getting my money's worth! Writing can wait.) I'll reserve my final judgment for when I finish my first playthrough, but so far, the game is living up to the high expectations and the massive amounts of hype, and I'm having fun.
The reason I wanted to blog about it before finishing, though, is to note that so far I've been really impressed with the character of Cassandra. I was "meh" on her in DA2 (not that she was anything more than a narration device), and I never watched her side movie thing, or whatever it was (though I might check it out once I'm done with the game). She's the first companion you get, and she drives a lot of the plot in the beginning.
What stood out to me from the get-go was that it would have been so, so easy for her character to have been male. In other series or forms of media, she very well may have been. And then it saddened me to realize I was even thinking that. She's strong, she's tough, and she's passionate about her cause, which has nothing to do with landing a man. Her armor actually looks like armor and covers everything that should be covered when you're fighting many violent battles. As the game progresses, she does have her moments when she shows a little bit of a vulnerable or a light-hearted side, and those just make me appreciate her more. Not a single thing she says or does has had "even though she's a woman/because she's a woman" attached to it, which is the way it should be.
Even if I weren't playing a female Inquisitor, thanks to her and the other female characters, the game easily passes the Bechdel test, many times over. Bioware doesn't always get it exactly perfectly right, but their batting average is pretty good, and from what I've heard and read, they do a pretty good job of listening to all their fans, male and female alike. They try, and a lot of times they succeed. No matter what happens later on in the game (fingers crossed that there won't be a colossal flop of an ending like the original end to Mass Effect 3), I'm sure the good will outweigh the bad, and they've already won favor with me for continuing to include female characters such as Cassandra.
This is just a quick check-in so I can stop feeling guilty about the "last post" date whenever I sign in to Blogger. Writing has totally taken a backseat to other life goings-on...actually, not even a backseat. Writing isn't even in the same vehicle. Everything's fine, there's just a lot of STUFF going on in the House of Landen right now (some of which I'll actually write about at a later date).
I keep saying I'm going to set aside some time to write, and then it doesn't happen, and truth be told, I'm not feeling terribly guilty about that. I obviously don't have plans to give up writing forever, it's just not a priority right now. I'm hoping some of the aforementioned STUFF will settle down soon-ish and I can actually write something useful, but until then, I'm just going to try and relax.
See you in a couple weeks or so!
