I finished my fourth novel at the beginning of June.  Yes it's finally done!  My cold readers have it right now (one is already done with it and apparently she loved it!), then it's time to edit, edit, edit before it's released to the masses.  I'm so happy to be done with it since the story arc started in Prophecy is done with Resurrection and I get to expand my writing skills by starting the next, much darker story arc that will finish with the end of the series.

While finishing Resurrection, I decided I would do something crazy and rewrite Prophecy for Camp Nanowrimo this month.  This has been an epic fail.

I still have half of the month left to work on it and I'm planning on jumping back on the horse next week.  There's been entirely too much personal stuff going on in this house lately to get as much done on it as I wanted to.

The other thing making it harder for me to finish this task is the post-novel wrap up hangover I always find myself in.

I finish a novel and I can't make myself write anything for weeks afterward.  It's like I've tapped out my muse and I have to wait until it regenerates.  It's not writer's block.  I can deal with writer's block.  I have music, books, and movies especially set aside to break through writer's block.  This is simply a lack of motivation.

I thought it was a lack of discipline.  It's not.  I simply sit at my computer, look at the blank page, know what I want to put there, but just can't seem to get it on the page.  I think it's partially distraction.

So next week, I've told myself that I'm going to get back on schedule and get things going.  I'm going to work on Prophecy, take notes for my August and November novels, and start the planning for Scandal (the fifth novel in the Chronicles) before I start editing Resurrection.

Hopefully I'll be able to get out of this hangover.

The plan had been that I would query Prophecy to agents in February.  I was prepared for this goal and fully intended to achieve it.  As I prepared to send the first three chapters of Prophecy to the first prospective agent, I realized I had a problem.

The book is good.  It's just not quite good enough.

When Prophecy was originally written, it was to be a stand alone novel.  I packed it full of information that wasn't really important to the actual story line, but necessary to understand the world it was taking place in.  Characters weren't developed as well as they should have been because...well they were only hanging around for one novel.  If they were two dimensional it was okay.

Then I wrote Forbidden, a much better book all the way around, and I wrote Awakening.  Suddenly that one stand alone book had become a series of books.  All the information in Prophecy that wasn't relevant to the story line suddenly didn't need to be there.  Those two dimensional characters need to be filled out so they jump off the page.

So now I have a new goal.  After Resurrection is written (because to delay the release of Resurrection would, I think, lead to someone jumping me in a parking lot somewhere :)), I'm going to rewrite Prophecy.

I'm throwing out the original book (well I'm keeping it on the computer) and starting anew.  The story line will be the same, but it will be so much better.

I'm actually looking forward to the new book.  I'm looking forward to making it better and digging into that first novel again.  After I'm done, Prophecy will be so much more of what it should be.  When it's done, I think you'll like it.

It's been a VERY long time since I posted anything here at Fang Marked.  I'm sorry for the lapse in posts.

Awakening was released last summer to very good reviews.  Prophecy has been re-edited and right now is only available on the Kindle.  The new edits are going to the publisher sometime in the next few weeks so the new version of the book will be available on paperback as well.  It has a new cover too.

Resurrection is going well.  Slowly, but well.  I don't want to rush this book into publication, but at the same time I know that I need to stick to my deadline at the end of June.  Right now I'm about a fourth of the way through it.  The wait is going to be worth it.

All three novels are available on the Kindle for $.99 and as of today, there have been over two thousand copies sold when the sales for all three books are added together.  That is amazing to me!  Thank you to all the new readers who are enjoying these stories for the first time and I hope to hear back from you all!

More updates to come!

I had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine yesterday. He just finished reading Prophecy for the first time. Then, he started dreaming about the movie.

What movie? The one that hasn't been made yet. Prophecy isn't in the mass market yet, but Tyler was already dreaming about the movie. It was very inspiring and ego boosting for me.

Has that ever happened to you? You're reading a good book and you can see it being made into a movie?

I got that way with the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and Ransom by Julie Garwood to name only two. The only disappointing thing is that when they actually do make those books into movies, they just aren't as good. It's definitely something to think about.

So it took me a little longer to get the shot I wanted for the cover of Forbidden. It's still not done completely yet, but now I'm happy. I apologize for my extended absence, but if it's not done right, then it's not done yet.

NP over at Coffee Stained Writer (www.coffee-stainedwriter.blogspot.com) posted about stealing other people's ideas last week (I think it was Saturday? I read the post on Saturday) and I wanted to clear the air a little bit because I felt the post was inadvertently directed over here to me. Consider this the only time I'm going to rant on this blog. Most of my rants are saved for my personal blog, but I digress.

Today is all about style. Some people have it, some people don't. But whatever it is, normally it's unique.

With the help of my adorable husband, who never gets sick of editing, I was able to determine what my actual writing style is. It's good to know how you write so you can adapt it to what you write about.

I'm a very sarcastic writer. I like a lot of dry humor. I also tend to drag conversations on and on without saying anything about what a character is doing while talking (because seriously, who talks to someone else standing perfectly still?) and I have issues with facial expressions. I also tend to focus on a character's eyes entirely too much. But I have been told by my readers that I have an eye for details (like the Daitenshi Club in Prophecy. Everyone has loved that one) and endings that mess with your head. I never said writing styles were summed up in two or three words. We're writers, like that's going to happen.

Once you finish a first draft, you'll be able to tell what your writing style is. Some people focus on humor and tension to help move their plot along. I do sometimes. Others focus on historical accuracy and realism to bring a reader right into the story (Diana Gabaldon with the Outlander Series). There's a different writing style out there for every single writer.

The point is that you need to find your own unique voice. Maybe you like to tell stories from first person perspective with biting humor and wit intermingled in the story. Good for you, go with it. Maybe the thought of doing something like that scares the crap out of you. That's fine too. Just find it. Once you do, you'll be able to cultivate it into something real, something huge. Once you find your voice, you'll be able to find a character's true voice and that is what we're all here for isn't it?

I'm closed for the day, yes I know. I always say I'm closed and then here I am. It's pathetic that I can't stay away isn't it?

Recently I discovered something truly cool and I want to share. Coming soon to krwnovels.com is the Prophecy playlist!! Isn't that something?

Everyone knows I have an addiction to music and vampires. Ever since Prophecy came out, I've wanted to share some of the music I was listening to when I wrote it and hopefully get people in the mood to read it (or read it again if you prefer). I've been working on the playlist all day today and it should be coming up soon. Once Forbidden comes out, I'll make one for that too.

At least this way you won't be bombarded with music on my blog anymore. That's not bad right?

This post is entirely for the romantic writer in you. If you write gory war novels, you might not like this post. But ultimately, just about every genre has a love story of some kind.

I didn't set out to write a love story. I mean, sure I did, but that wasn't the main point. Prophecy wasn't supposed to be a love story. It was supposed to be a hero's story. Most of my research at the beginning was in the hero myth (if you're looking into heroes, check out The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Thanks NP for that recommendation last year). I read classic mythology and Norse mythology, chasing down the classic hero myth. Then I realized that no one would care about Seven like I did if he didn't have someone to fight for.

John Eldredge, in Wild At Heart, says that a man has to have a beauty to fight for. Think about Romeo and Juliet. Romeo literally died for Juliet. Think about King Arthur and Guinevere. Or how about Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton or Acheron Parthenopaeus (yes that's spelled right) and Soteria Kafieri from Acheron. A lot of heroes are redeemed by the love of a woman.

A love story doesn't have to be a book filled with ripping clothes and graphic sex scenes. It's not always filled with the most beautiful people (unless you're dealing with vampires, then it almost always is because of the nature of the vampire) or the most ideal circumstances. A hero has a beauty to fight for. That's it. She doesn't even have to be the classic beauty. As long as he finds her beautiful, that's all it requires.

I don't want you to believe that a romance is always the trashy purple prose monstrosities in the historical romance section (some are actually pretty good though). A truly wonderful romance draws you in because you want to see these two characters redeem each other. It's truly amazing.

For good romance, check out Ransom by Julie Garwood (the best sarcasm is present in this novel) or A Knight In Shining Armor by Jude Devereaux (the best example of what happens when the ending isn't what you think it should be). Is there sex? Yes. Is it necessary? I've already said before that it isn't.

Don't be afraid to let a hero fall in love. Sometimes it's the best characteristic he has.

I loved a recent post on Coffee Stained Writer (http://coffee-stainedwriter.blogspot.com/) about when a work is finished. Since my internet connection is not allowing me to put what I really think as a comment on her blog, I'm throwing it on here.

How do you really know when a work is finished? It's a long process.

Since I've only published the one novel, I'll talk about my experience with that one. Prophecy was hard to let go of. It was my first novel ever and I felt there was so much more to add. I even wrote 10 pages of useless scene at the end because I couldn't let it go. But finally, I'd told the story and it felt done. Then the edits began.

Before I did my first edit, I finished Forbidden and participated in Nano for the first time. I didn't go back to Prophecy until late December/early January. I couldn't believe the disaster that was my first novel. I pulled about 30 pages out, wrote another 30-40 to replace what was cut, moved scenes around, added new characters, and rewrote the ending. Twice. It was finally done with the first round of edits when my husband said to me "is there anything of the original novel left?". That's when I knew it was time to stop and take a step back.

The last round of edits before publication were done in late April/early May. That was a lot quicker because I just had to make sure it was flowing and the new stuff went with the old stuff. But even when I was sure it was the novel it is today, I didn't want to let it go. The only way I stopped picking at it was the deadline I was under. But I'm glad I didn't pick it apart again because so far, the feedback has been fantastic.

So how do you know when it's really done? I can't describe it academically, but I can tell you that Prophecy was done because it felt done. It was ready. It's like cooking or what I imagine pregnancy would be. When it's done, it's done. The turkey comes out of the oven, the baby is born. There's no more you can do to it.

Forbidden has been editted three times because of computer malfunction. It's getting one more combing out before it's completely ready to go. It just hasn't required as much in the way of revision. Now the prequel, Legacy, I'm scared I'm going to have to rewrite that book from the beginning all over again.

But when it's done, it's done.

Imagine this: You walk into a place you frequent often, whether that's a coffee house or the library or a bar, it's not a big deal. Put yourself there and think about what's going on around you. Do you see it? There's one thing I'm sure you're forgetting and it's not your fault that you don't notice it. More often than not, you aren't supposed to notice it.

I'm talking about the background noise. The music playing in the coffee house or the sound of people typing on computers in the library. If you're in a bar, well that changes from night to night and hopefully you aren't too drunk to notice it. Why don't you notice it? Because it's there to influence your mood.

When writing a scene like this in a novel, you have to remember that background noise is there and use it to your advantage. I put a couple bar and club scenes in Prophecy and I actually name the song I'm thinking of playing in the background. When Seven walks into the bar the first time he sees Rhoswen, he enters to Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole". All of a sudden, you get a picture of what is really going on. When Seven and Rhoswen go out for their first date, I describe the song playing on the dance floor of the club (because it's in Japanese and I honestly didn't have the title with me, but you understand where I'm coming from here).

This adds realism to your writing. No one walks around in a bubble of silence. We all have our favorite bands and we all sing along in the car (well, most of us). If you have a character driving around without music playing in the background, he's probably talking to the other character sitting right next to him or reflecting on the aliens that just abducted his dog.

Make sure you remember what should be there and take the opportunity to show off some of your own personality if you want to. Lincoln listens to Linkin Park in Forbidden because it's A: Funny (you'll get it in a minute. If you don't, leave a comment and I'll explain), B: A personal favorite of mine, and C: He's an angry teenage boy. But if he's driving around listening to the sounds of silence (that isn't really a band is it?), then it's no longer believable.

Here's how crazy this month is already. And it's only the first.

-I need to finish research for nanowrimo. That means many trips to the library and a lot of time on the internet at Fireworks.
-It's time to finish transcribing a novel for a friend of mine. He wants to be able to release it to family and friends by Christmas and if I don't finish it this month, it won't be ready.
-I have to get ready for the book club meeting October 3rd. I need to go through Prophecy and be prepared to hit various parts of the novel and I have to go through Forbidden and pick out what part is going to be previewed at the meeting.
-I need to finish the revisions on Forbidden and do one more real time edit of it to make sure that the new stuff flows with the rest of the story and clear up any formatting mistakes.
-Hubby and I have to go out and take the pictures for the cover of Forbidden. I want a lot to choose from.
-Awakening needs to start winding down. Deadline to finish it is November 1st so it isn't hanging over my head for nanowrimo.
-Shipping out books to family and friends who wanted copies of Prophecy. I'm so behind!
-I have to get with Hubby and design the logo for Fank Marked since we're using that as my office now and we want to make t-shirts. Yeah, we're weird.

Whatever doesn't get done this month will get crammed into next month. Argh.

After a much needed day off to breathe, I was thinking about the differences between writing a book that stands alone and writing a book that will have more story following after it. There are differences you know.

When I wrote Prophecy about a year ago, I planned on it standing alone. There was no more story to tell. I believed that Seven and Rhoswen were finished. Let the reader imagine what happened to them after that. I had no reason to keep going. Then I started writing Forbidden and I found myself bringing those characters back again. I just couldn't let them go.

With all the plans I have for Seven and Rhoswen and everyone in that universe, I don't think I'll be letting them go for a long time. But that doesn't mean that everything I write is going to involve them.

It's different to think that I'm going to have to finish a story in one volume instead of being able to stretch it out. I'm getting into the last half of Awakening and I'm thankful that I don't have to cram everything I'm thinking about into these last seventy or so pages. With a stand alone novel, you're done when you hit that last page. That means you have to have enough story to get to that last page.

My advice to anyone writing the first novel is to not plan for a series right from the get go unless you have so much going on in your plot mapping that it would require more than one book. I didn't plan on a series, and now I'm in the middle of one. But at least Prophecy can stand on it's own two feet. Now I can surprise readers with cliffhanger endings and driving plot lines that make you wish I'd written the whole thing before I released the first one.

But even a stand alone novel can make readers want more from you. That's not such a bad thing either. You just get to create new characters every single time. In reality, that's probably harder.

My husband and I were having a very interesting discussion today. He said this would make a great post and I agree.

Have you ever tried to force yourself to be creative? Isn't that the worst thing you can do? I know some of my worst work has been done under the pressure to perform as it were. Then I go back in edits and ask myself how something so awful wound up in one of my works and I have to write the scene over again.

The whole point of being a writer is to be able to tap into something inside yourself that other people, normal people as it were, can't get into. We keep strange hours and think of bizarre things and make the librarians question our sanity when we check out various reading materials (I just checked out books on depression, infertility, and suicide along with the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel. The librarian looked at me like I needed help until I told her I'm a writer, then she seemed much more comfortable). It's not like writing fiction is a job with set hours (nonfiction might be different, but I don't know about that). That's the whole point.

Last night I got home from my part time job and wrote until after midnight. Then I got up this morning at 7 and wrote two more pages. I'll probably go home tonight and write two more. But that's only if I feel the need to write. If I don't feel it, I won't do it until tomorrow. And that's what this post is about.

I know I harp on writing three pages a day. Three pages a day, five days a week. That equals fifteen pages a week. You do that for ten weeks and you have 150 pages. If that's single spaced pages, you have a book right there. Prophecy was 152 pages single spaced before chaptering, and it's 440 now. After editing and formatting, you'd be surprised how long a book can be.

The biggest thing you can do for yourself is keep writing. Just keep writing. If you don't feel inspired, step back for a little bit. Listen to some music, watch a movie, read a book, take a walk. Then come back refreshed and ready to take on the world. But don't force it. Stifling your creativity is a bad idea.

First of all, I want to apologize for my absence this week. No, I don't have a note from my mother. We have had some internet issues this past weekend and since I post in advance (and no one is surprised by this because I have no internet at home), my posts were postponed. I'm sorry.

Last week we talked about characters. Knowing who your characters are is extremely important. But what good is it to know him inside and out but not have a name for him? It might not seem important to have a good name, but you should never underestimate the importance of what you call him.

I never really thought names were important. It's a name, what's the big deal? It's not like it's a child or a dog or something right? Wrong!

If you have this romantic hero and you name him Herbert, it ruins the image of the character. Is Herbert even a name that's used anymore? However, this same hero could be named something like Leif or Justin or Marcus. Suddenly, he has a whole different look right? Just the change of the name changed your perception. That's why it's important.

In Prophecy, I named my vampire king Seven. Why? Everyone's been asking me why lately. It's easy. Sometimes a character will tell you what his name is. I know, crazy right? The look I got said something like this: "Okay Kell, now I'm going to back away slowly. Please don't like knock me unconscious and drink my blood." But I'm completely serious. Seven told me that was what his name was. When I tried to change it, I could see him rolling his eyes and smiling at me like I'm an idiot.

Naming villains and secondary characters are just as important as naming a hero and heroine. Seven wouldn't be complete without his Guard, Ulrich and Chocon (that's pronounced SHO-coan for those of you who wonder). Ulrich is in homage to the late Heath Ledger's character in A Knight's Tale. But Ulrich agreed with me on it. Chocon on the other hand wouldn't let me call him anything else. The story wouldn't be the same with the Guard being called Rufus and Edgar.

Speaking of villains, I got Varick's name from a baby name finder. His name literally means conqueror I believe. It was picked off of a list and it suits him. His name originally was going to be Vincent. It wouldn't have worked out very well. For my villain in Legacy, my husband found the name Nathail, which means snake. It was too good to pass up.

Now that I've put you to sleep thinking about character names, please take note of one thing. The more unique a name is, the more questions you'll have about it. Chocon's name is hard for people to pronounce. I get a lot of questions about it. Rhoswen's name is another one people are having trouble with (pronounced RHOS-when). It's gaelic for white rose and there's a double meaning in that.

Remember that a character won't be able to change his or her name later on. When you're character mapping, take into consideration what that character's name is going to be. And remember, you wouldn't like getting beaten up on the playground in school right? Neither would a character. Until tomorrow!

Have you ever been in the middle of a good book and find it completely destroyed by a horrible villain? Or the opposite happens and you can hardly stand reading the book but the villain is wonderful? That doesn't happen very often.

There are two big mistakes that most people make when writing a villain. The first is that he's completely impotent. He's not a bad guy, he's an angry character that doesn't do anything. You know those horrible movie villains? It's like that only worse. "I'll get you Austin Powers. But first I'm going to hide over here and plot until the writer finds something better for me to do." It's so disappointing to see it happen.

The second is that the bad guy is so bad it's impossible to believe. You'll see a villain that's a sexual deviant and a psychopath and at the same time shoots lightning bolts out of his butt. He's a genius and yet he blends in with the background so the hero somehow doesn't notice that the bad guy is going to kill him in the end. Please spare us. A sexually deviant villain isn't believable and may offend some of your target audience. Just because the villain has a fancy for chains and a ball gag, that doesn't make him a bad guy. If he's a psychopath, give a reason for him to be like that. If he has special powers, make it possible (or as possible as you can with supernatural characters).

I will admit that I made the sexual deviant mistake. But I was called out on it so many times that I had to change it (NP, you'll be happy about that. Prophecy doesn't have a sexually deviant villain in the published version). Now I have a villain that's insane, but he's insane and bent on revenge. That doesn't even really do him justice.

I guess the point you need to remember is that a villain is a character, just like your hero. Map him or her out and make him or her believable. Give them purpose and make people either hate them or fear them or whatever you feel like doing. But for the sake of anyone who will read your novel, remember to make the villain believable. And please stay away from lightning bolts coming from his butt.

I don't know about you, but I hate novels that have anticlimatic fight scenes. My husband says it's like having the foreplay but no climax. For example, did anyone else hate the fight scene at the end of Twilight (the novel, not the movie) when she doesn't give any details about the fight? It really bothered me.

For lack of a better example (because I have only one example published) I'm going back to Prophecy. Sorry if this bothers anyone else, but when Forbidden and Legacy are published, I'll have more to go from without giving stuff away. In Prophecy, my hero and my villain meet up twice. I wanted big blowup fight scenes for both with the second being the biggest of the two. To make this more believable, I got out wooden spoons and a fly swatter (I'm not kidding either. Just picture it in your mind) and I played both sides of the fight. I wanted to see what the body would actually look like in battle. It was so much fun.

It was like choreographing a dance. Every movement had to be planned out, each counter movement slid into place alongside it. I wanted to know how the body looked when a wrist was bent with a sword (spoon, fly swatter, whatever) or how someone would stand when counterattacking. By making my body move like that (or as close to that as I could manage) I could describe it accurately.

What would you do to make a fight scene believable? How would you prepare for it? Would you just write it out and then edit later? Or would you choreograph it to make sure it all fit together?

Yesterday I talked about character mapping. Today, I want to continue on that path. It's important to change your character map with each book you write about that character. Seems simple right? Well I forgot about it. I'm sure other people forget about it too.

Currently I'm writing a series (unless you live under a rock or don't read the other posts, you know about that) and I have the same characters revolving through each novel. But they aren't really the same characters. Seven, my vampire king, isn't the same guy in Awakening that he was in Prophecy. If he was, I would stop writing. So when I map out characters for each novel, I have to remap him.

When you think about it, are you the same person you were yesterday or last year? Absolutely not (well maybe from yesterday, but definitely not from last year). Your characters are the same. Things happen to them in each novel. They lose people or have major life changing events. Those kinds of things change people. Your characters aren't any different.

I made this mistake when I went from Prophecy to Forbidden. I thought Seven was Seven and he wouldn't change. What a mistake. It took awhile to change that in Forbidden when I went through the editting process. If I had done my homework when I started, I would've saved myself some time.

However, if you aren't using the same characters, then you're not in the same boat. But the more lifelike a character, the better the story. At least, as lifelike as you can make them. Since vampires don't really exist (or do they? I'm not going there) I have to do the best I can.

Hopefully this is helpful for someone. I hate making big mistakes.

I'm in a love/hate relationship with plot mapping. Now I realize that might not be the technical term for it, but that's what I call it for lack of something better.

Plot mapping is when you write out the points you want to hit in your novel. For instance, if I want to make sure that certain characters fall in love, I put that in the plot map along with the journey they have towards falling in love. If my hero is going to fight the villain three times, those scenes are in the plot map. You get my point right?

I have written books with a plot map (Prophecy, Forbidden, Legacy, the third version of Awakening) and I've written one without it (the first in the spinoff series) and I really hate plot mapping. After writing without it, I thought I didn't need it to do it anymore. I was so wrong.

Now that I have to rewrite the first novel in the spinoff series, I wish I had a plot map. I wish I had something to guide me in putting characters in the right places without leaving something out. I'm on page seventeen and I know I'm doing stuff that didn't happen until page twenty before. What's missing in those three pages? It's driving me crazy.

The moral of this post is this: just because you can doesn't mean you should (thank you Acheron). I will never again write without doing the tedious plot map, even if I hate it and just want to get going already. Thank goodness I have the plot map for Awakening saved after my computer fiasco last week. After writing that twice, I really feel better looking at a third rewrite with some kind of guidance.

Sorry for the few days of nothing. As I'm sure everyone and their grandmother is aware by now, my computer was trashed last week. Drama, drama, drama. Add this to the fact that I currently don't have internet at home, and you get the three (sometimes more) posts a week. Last weekend was a mental health weekend and I didn't leave my apartment. So, today starts a new day.

I have a new fang marked computer, or at least a temporary one until I get the real new computer. So for the last three days, I've been rewriting the book that I lost last week and I'm finding new things to inspire me to keep going. I'm dependant on music to write. Since most of my new music was lost on the hard drive, I'm using what I had saved from a LONG time ago on the external hard drive. While going through this music I realized two things: I need to get new music and I really love the Japanese rock music I saved.

Anyone whose read Prophecy knows about the Daitenshi Club which has a rock song in Japanese being played when Rhoswen walks in. I forgot all about that song until I found it on Monday. I also found the theme song to the first couple seasons of Inuyasha. That's a good song too. I might not know what the words mean (there are some English words in there, but that doesn't help much), but the music is great.

This got me to thinking today about inspiration. What helps put you in the writing mode? What do you do to make sure that you get those 3 pages a day everyone in the business says we should write? Are you a musicphile (if that's not a word, I created one) or do you need to read a lot or do you like to look at nature?

I need the music, that's true, but I also read constantly. This week's been a slow week since I'm only on my second book of the week. Normally I knock out about four. Granted, I did finish about seven volumes of manga over the weekend, but still. Since I'm a vampire writer, I read a LOT of vampire stuff. I'm currently into the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I'm in love with True Blood. Next I'll be back in the Twilight zone (yes that's Stephenie Meyer. I'm making bad jokes) again after the latest Sherrilyn Kenyon comes out next month.

Tell me what inspires you. I'm curious to know what works for other people. Maybe I'll find something new for myself.