Writing erotica is perhaps a way to feed my alter-ego because in real life I'm quite shy and conservative even. But the writing is different- you can hide behind your characters; experiment with new ones and even step into the shoes of a character that is the complete opposite of yourself!
The characterization for TLAW is, in my opinion, better than The Hunters. They are stronger and more distinct (i hope). Truth is, writing is really difficult. You can churn out a piece of work within a few hours with the right dose of drive but the actual process of writing a novel or essay takes much longer than that.
That's why, each time I go to my LitE site and see people putting up comments, I get butterflies in my stomach. I get scared of people's comments and criticisms but I've learned to deal with them... I suppose that's what authors do...
Anyway, I'm having difficulties writing out the sex scenes for TLAW chapter 8. Mostly coz I'm tired- getting little sleep and pushing my body too hard at the gym. So I guess Chapter 8's gonna take a while.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
delay for TLAW chapter 5
It seems I keep making mistakes with my submissions. Tsk. A little annoying maybe but I'll live with it.
I just resubmitted Chapter 5... so that'll take another 3-4 days for them to approve. Which is good because I'm still waiting to look through my Chapter 6 then brush up a little on Chapter 7 and finish off chapter 8 and 9.
I just resubmitted Chapter 5... so that'll take another 3-4 days for them to approve. Which is good because I'm still waiting to look through my Chapter 6 then brush up a little on Chapter 7 and finish off chapter 8 and 9.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Chateau de Fleur, TLAW chapter 8
Castle of Flowers [if my french doesn't fail me- am I right?]
So in Chapter 8 which I'm writing at the moment, we are introduced to Eian's chateau; his real home. So I was searching the web for some inspiration as to how to describe his home and as always pictures always make up for the words. I got them from this website: http://www.dreamhomedesignusa.com/interiors.htm
and http://www.dreamhomedesignusa.com/Castles.htm
When I saw them, I was like holy shit that's -melts-
Upon entering, this is the view that one would see.
So let's have a walkthrough of the place!
And for my two favourite rooms:
Study
And Bedroom
Okay someone's going to make love on that bed =) No prizes for guessing!
Anyway, in this chapter, I mapped out Eian's history and his relationship with Aramis Culzean. It made me cry a bit just writing it because it's quite sad, in my opinion. So do stay tune for that.
In the meantime, I'm going to also plan out drafts for my new stories- I'm wondering if I should continue with Alaron's story perhaps? Or start on a new one? Well, we'll see where my muse takes me then.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
TLAW Chapter 7
Often in the morning when I wake up and intend to start on a new chapter, I end up forgetting what I wrote previously. So I go back and read everything all over again.
So today I did some revisions on Chapter 7. This one did not employ any dual strands of plots so it flowed in from one part to the other. In my other chapters, they mostly shift about on purpose, to jar readers not to forget the other concurrent plot. I learned that from Shakespeare.
The stories are progressing and I'm kinda stuck with how to end the series. I'll think more about it but in the meantime, here's a song that I used in Chapter 7 that I really want to share with the readers.
It's a Korean song; doesn't matter if you don't understand the language for neither did I. It is the piano piece and the voice that captivated me. Songs are universal in that way.
Park Hyo Shin has a really nice voice and I'd shag him if he wasn't so far away in Korea and inaccessible to the lay woman. LOL. But yeah, I have a weakness for long haired guys, regardless of their ethnicity. I think this partiality shows up in my writings; men always have long hair, be it shoulder length or longer. Maybe that's a kind of fetish?
I think it's the influence of all the Japanese manga and anime... you see all these male characters having long hair and feminine features and to me- that's kinda hot.
Oh a random note: The inspiration for Eian and Fiona were based on two of my favourite characters:
I know Sesshoumaru is a dog demon... but dogs and wolves are still the same thing to me. They're both cuddly and lovable. I did work as a zookeeper once during my school holidays and perhaps it was fate for I was assigned to the Maned Wolf exhibit. Sure I cleaned shit and all that but it was nice to be really up close and personal to the animal. The head keeper had the privilege of raising a puma cub till she was about 2-3 years old and that huge animal allows her to cuddle it like it was some kitten!
Right... so back to the characters. So Rin, the human girl, was sort of adopted by Sesshoumaru here. She doesn't grow up though in the anime but it would be nice to see that she does because of how she managed to melt his really cold heart.
Anyway, for any of you wondering how intense Eian's eyes are, here's a picture I used to imagine it.
I doubt if anybody actually has eyes of this colour but that's all in the charm of writing fiction =)
Alright, a last note before I go back to writing:
Someone commented that I use awkward phrases and unnatural sentences as though I am a non-native speaker writing the stories. Well... that's a very interesting observation. I must say I am insulted seeing that English is my first language and I am writing at a graduate level. However, I do agree that I need an editor. I've sent out some requests so hopefully someone will get back to me.
I re-read some of my works and realise that because of my forays into foreign languages, I do carry forward sentence structures and phrasing from one language to another unconsciously.
I do sincerely apologize for that. Hopefully my editor can help me sniff out these structural problems.
Cheers!
So today I did some revisions on Chapter 7. This one did not employ any dual strands of plots so it flowed in from one part to the other. In my other chapters, they mostly shift about on purpose, to jar readers not to forget the other concurrent plot. I learned that from Shakespeare.
The stories are progressing and I'm kinda stuck with how to end the series. I'll think more about it but in the meantime, here's a song that I used in Chapter 7 that I really want to share with the readers.
It's a Korean song; doesn't matter if you don't understand the language for neither did I. It is the piano piece and the voice that captivated me. Songs are universal in that way.
Park Hyo Shin has a really nice voice and I'd shag him if he wasn't so far away in Korea and inaccessible to the lay woman. LOL. But yeah, I have a weakness for long haired guys, regardless of their ethnicity. I think this partiality shows up in my writings; men always have long hair, be it shoulder length or longer. Maybe that's a kind of fetish?
I think it's the influence of all the Japanese manga and anime... you see all these male characters having long hair and feminine features and to me- that's kinda hot.
Oh a random note: The inspiration for Eian and Fiona were based on two of my favourite characters:
I know Sesshoumaru is a dog demon... but dogs and wolves are still the same thing to me. They're both cuddly and lovable. I did work as a zookeeper once during my school holidays and perhaps it was fate for I was assigned to the Maned Wolf exhibit. Sure I cleaned shit and all that but it was nice to be really up close and personal to the animal. The head keeper had the privilege of raising a puma cub till she was about 2-3 years old and that huge animal allows her to cuddle it like it was some kitten!
Right... so back to the characters. So Rin, the human girl, was sort of adopted by Sesshoumaru here. She doesn't grow up though in the anime but it would be nice to see that she does because of how she managed to melt his really cold heart.
Anyway, for any of you wondering how intense Eian's eyes are, here's a picture I used to imagine it.
I doubt if anybody actually has eyes of this colour but that's all in the charm of writing fiction =)
Alright, a last note before I go back to writing:
Someone commented that I use awkward phrases and unnatural sentences as though I am a non-native speaker writing the stories. Well... that's a very interesting observation. I must say I am insulted seeing that English is my first language and I am writing at a graduate level. However, I do agree that I need an editor. I've sent out some requests so hopefully someone will get back to me.
I re-read some of my works and realise that because of my forays into foreign languages, I do carry forward sentence structures and phrasing from one language to another unconsciously.
I do sincerely apologize for that. Hopefully my editor can help me sniff out these structural problems.
Cheers!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
To Love a Were- Characters
As of now, I've already completed up to Chapter 9 so I'm slowly posting them up on LitE every 3-4 days or 1 week max.
To Love a Were was quite a challenge because unlike The Hunters, I felt that I had to focus on more male protagonists and imbibe them with characteristics that would set them apart. A problem I found about women writing from a male's perspective is an unconscious effort to emote them according to how women would want their men to feel. This was something I picked up from Nora Roberts especially in her initial writings.
Yet writing fiction is something amazing because of how one as an author is given liberty to create a world from scratch; infuse characters with whatever qualities they like and to mould them respectively.
So in our story we have the following characters:
Keiran/Eian MacFarlane: The Alpha of the pack and the main protagonist. He has a nobility status of a Duke but prefers to live simply. In later chapters you'll find out why but basically if you've lived for centuries and witnessed so much war and death, you'd probably want a quiet life eventually.
Fiona Culzean/MacFarlane: I'd say she's the main female protagonist and I absolutely love her character. I had thought a lot, albeit writing 3 drafts on how I should move the story from her current age to an older age. The initial [unwritten] story was to age her naturally and have her move away to study and come back but by doing so, I'd literally throw her out of the plot line and end up writing solely on the concurrent romance of the supporting characters.
So I chose to 'help' her grow up with the Awakening process. Because this is fiction, anything is possible... and being a Vampire, it doubles the possibility as well. I found this a better way of keeping her within the story without fast-forwarding real time too much.
Dominic MacFarlane: Dominic's the top Beta in the pack and he is a total flirt and drama king. As Eian would say, Dominic would answer the call of any bitch in heat. Dominic would fall sick in the initial period of courting Sydney because he has never faced rejection before and like I said, he's dramatic so he'd rather fall sick than admit she's his mate. But eventually, he does and his character gets tamed slightly.
Sydney Sandilands: She's a young marketing director who is very intelligent, sharp and efficient. She's used to having men around her but eventually succumbs to Dominic when she realised that he wasn't really out to use her or play around with her. She will also become a useful and close friend for Fiona as the latter tries to get used to being a woman.
Pearl MacFarlane: Pearl is Dominic's sister. In the initial chapters, we see Pearl as a pregnant woman. She can change her emotions without warning and very dramatic just like her brother. She nags at him a lot and I suppose she's like Dominic's surrogate mother. She will later have three babies- 2 girls and a boy.
Micheal MacFarlane/Big Mike: Mike is Pearl's husband and Dominic's brother-in-law. If any of you have ever listened to Ahmir on Youtube, you'll see the real Big Mike whom I modeled this character on. He's a really nice teddy-bear like person who puts his dramatic wife in line. He's first introduced as being on an assignment set by Eian and later he picks Sydney up from her house to bring her to the compound. I know I haven't really explained his job but I suppose he's kinda like the guy who handles matters relating to human exposure to werewolves.
Amber MacFarlane: She's the Head Doctor at the medical centre that specializes in the care of Weres. It's a pity that I haven't had much chance to develop her character yet but we'll see. She's mostly seen as initially wanting to mate with Eian but he refused her at every turn.
The Culzean: Culzean is pronounced as Cullen. The Culzeans hold the title of Lord and therefore, Fiona is granted the title of Lady when she was adopted into the family. I've explained in Chapter 4 about the peerage system that I'm using. Wiki's a good basic search engine if you want to know more. =)
Aramis Culzean: He's the ancient Pureblood who takes Fiona in and decides to Awaken her, against Eian's wishes. It is later revealed that he desires for a female in his bloodline and takes this opportunity to do so. At the same time, he recognizes that Fiona is special to Eian and he does not wish for his friend to wait any longer for a companion. I will talk about the history of Aramis and Eian in later chapters but for now, it is enough to know that they are very good friends although Aramis is very much older than Eian.
Alaron Culzean: Alaron is Fiona's Sire by accident. Initially, I did not want to give him much of a plot line but afterwards, I found it useful to have him a love rival. Heh heh. Alaron is very hot headed and has no respect for authority but somehow Fiona seems to be his weakness. He's not remorseful for what he did to her family even though he knew that it hurt her a lot. I suppose Alaron went berserk when he found his human mother killed and raped by some human men and sought out revenge over them. Still in bloodlust, he seemed to attack the next available human within his range and that happened to be Fiona's family.
Draven Culzean: Draven is a Vampire that is always deep in thoughts and prefers to keep to himself. He has an uncanny ability to read minds of those within a few feet of him and has the ability to erase memories as well. He is also an intelligent researcher who tries to come up with a way to make blood more portable for Vampires in later chapters.
Did I leave anyone out? So that's a gist of the characters.Do let me know if you think that I should proceed with a new thread with any of the characters or if there's any improvement that you'd like to see in any one of them. =)
Cheers!
To Love a Were was quite a challenge because unlike The Hunters, I felt that I had to focus on more male protagonists and imbibe them with characteristics that would set them apart. A problem I found about women writing from a male's perspective is an unconscious effort to emote them according to how women would want their men to feel. This was something I picked up from Nora Roberts especially in her initial writings.
Yet writing fiction is something amazing because of how one as an author is given liberty to create a world from scratch; infuse characters with whatever qualities they like and to mould them respectively.
So in our story we have the following characters:
Keiran/Eian MacFarlane: The Alpha of the pack and the main protagonist. He has a nobility status of a Duke but prefers to live simply. In later chapters you'll find out why but basically if you've lived for centuries and witnessed so much war and death, you'd probably want a quiet life eventually.
Fiona Culzean/MacFarlane: I'd say she's the main female protagonist and I absolutely love her character. I had thought a lot, albeit writing 3 drafts on how I should move the story from her current age to an older age. The initial [unwritten] story was to age her naturally and have her move away to study and come back but by doing so, I'd literally throw her out of the plot line and end up writing solely on the concurrent romance of the supporting characters.
So I chose to 'help' her grow up with the Awakening process. Because this is fiction, anything is possible... and being a Vampire, it doubles the possibility as well. I found this a better way of keeping her within the story without fast-forwarding real time too much.
Dominic MacFarlane: Dominic's the top Beta in the pack and he is a total flirt and drama king. As Eian would say, Dominic would answer the call of any bitch in heat. Dominic would fall sick in the initial period of courting Sydney because he has never faced rejection before and like I said, he's dramatic so he'd rather fall sick than admit she's his mate. But eventually, he does and his character gets tamed slightly.
Sydney Sandilands: She's a young marketing director who is very intelligent, sharp and efficient. She's used to having men around her but eventually succumbs to Dominic when she realised that he wasn't really out to use her or play around with her. She will also become a useful and close friend for Fiona as the latter tries to get used to being a woman.
Pearl MacFarlane: Pearl is Dominic's sister. In the initial chapters, we see Pearl as a pregnant woman. She can change her emotions without warning and very dramatic just like her brother. She nags at him a lot and I suppose she's like Dominic's surrogate mother. She will later have three babies- 2 girls and a boy.
Micheal MacFarlane/Big Mike: Mike is Pearl's husband and Dominic's brother-in-law. If any of you have ever listened to Ahmir on Youtube, you'll see the real Big Mike whom I modeled this character on. He's a really nice teddy-bear like person who puts his dramatic wife in line. He's first introduced as being on an assignment set by Eian and later he picks Sydney up from her house to bring her to the compound. I know I haven't really explained his job but I suppose he's kinda like the guy who handles matters relating to human exposure to werewolves.
Amber MacFarlane: She's the Head Doctor at the medical centre that specializes in the care of Weres. It's a pity that I haven't had much chance to develop her character yet but we'll see. She's mostly seen as initially wanting to mate with Eian but he refused her at every turn.
The Culzean: Culzean is pronounced as Cullen. The Culzeans hold the title of Lord and therefore, Fiona is granted the title of Lady when she was adopted into the family. I've explained in Chapter 4 about the peerage system that I'm using. Wiki's a good basic search engine if you want to know more. =)
Aramis Culzean: He's the ancient Pureblood who takes Fiona in and decides to Awaken her, against Eian's wishes. It is later revealed that he desires for a female in his bloodline and takes this opportunity to do so. At the same time, he recognizes that Fiona is special to Eian and he does not wish for his friend to wait any longer for a companion. I will talk about the history of Aramis and Eian in later chapters but for now, it is enough to know that they are very good friends although Aramis is very much older than Eian.
Alaron Culzean: Alaron is Fiona's Sire by accident. Initially, I did not want to give him much of a plot line but afterwards, I found it useful to have him a love rival. Heh heh. Alaron is very hot headed and has no respect for authority but somehow Fiona seems to be his weakness. He's not remorseful for what he did to her family even though he knew that it hurt her a lot. I suppose Alaron went berserk when he found his human mother killed and raped by some human men and sought out revenge over them. Still in bloodlust, he seemed to attack the next available human within his range and that happened to be Fiona's family.
Draven Culzean: Draven is a Vampire that is always deep in thoughts and prefers to keep to himself. He has an uncanny ability to read minds of those within a few feet of him and has the ability to erase memories as well. He is also an intelligent researcher who tries to come up with a way to make blood more portable for Vampires in later chapters.
Did I leave anyone out? So that's a gist of the characters.Do let me know if you think that I should proceed with a new thread with any of the characters or if there's any improvement that you'd like to see in any one of them. =)
Cheers!
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