Do not pass go, do not collect $200

I entered a little contest in which 12 submissions for each of three hosts would be selected to be featured on their blogs for a few agents to peruse and request partials or fulls based on what they like.  My submission did not make it.  One of the hosts has been encouraging submitters to not be discouraged at not being chosen.

Honestly I am not bothered in the slightest.  This industry is entirely subjective.  This contest is three fellow (but agented) authors picking their own favorites.  How many authors are selected their very first try?  None that I know of. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of agents out there.  You win some, you lose some.  I am convinced that if an author has a half-way decent book and is willing to query enough agents, eventually one will make an offer.  Look at Stephenie Meyer.  Horrible story glorifying abuse and justifying it as love, terrible writing, the most blatant Mary Sue I’ve ever has the non-pleasure of reading (and I’m not the only one who feels this way – feel free to check out Mark Reads Twilight for an in-depth review of each chapter and the major problems in these books) , and she got an agent and publisher.  And someone posted that terrible Twilight fan fiction called 50 Shades of Gray.  Yes, it was fan fiction, originally even using the names of Edward and Bella.

The next step for me is to have more betas read and make more revisions, as well as spending the month of November beta reading for others.  

Final Chapter

Once this chapter is finished, the first draft will be done.  My “day job,” which often ends up happening at night, the only time there’s any peace and quiet around here, demanded much of my time.  

Now I’m nursing a sore throat and headache with coffee and soy milk, trying to ignore some housecleaning that’s calling me.  When I feel like this, or like anything, I try to mentally “write” how I feel, what I’m doing, what I feel, and so on, and add it to my “writer’s toolbox.”  I have one word: BLAH

Come hell or hight water, this chapter will be finished tomorrow night, at the latest.

Hop hop hop hop hippity Blog Hop

Envision the woman singing in the parlor in the classic film about a pooka named Harvey.

Since WordPress and Javascript aren’t friend, I can’t share the list here.  However if you click on the image below, you’ll go to the originating blog and find the list.  Enjoy some new blogs from other writers!

Les Miserables

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Recommended Classics

When I was 19, my beloved aunt Sandra suggested this book to me.  Rather than be turned off by the extreme length of it, I gave it a try.  Over a decade later and my heart is still in this book.  

A film adaptation came out shortly before that, and it was bland.  The lack of chemistry between the characters made it difficult for me to care about them.  So when I heard a new version, based on the musical, is coming out in December, I wasn’t so excited.

But then I saw the trailer, and wow.  WOW.  I shared it in the post before this one.  I don’t know how to add it to a post.  The sining, rather than being prerecorded with lip syncing later, which is typical, it was all live.  There is fire and passion between the characters.  There is heart and soul in Anne Hathaway’s version of “I Dreamed a Dream.”

The release of this film seemed to have ignited a renewed interest in classics, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.  I’ve got friends who’ve never cared much for reading who are embarking on the journey in Jean Valjean’s world prior to seeing it.  I am so excited about this that it literally brings tears to my eyes.  

For those who think 1400-1550 pages, depending on the translation, is long, look at it as five books.  It was written as five.  No one thinks twice about reading seven Harry Potter books even though those books altogether are longer.  If you search for antique books, you can easily find them in five volumes, though you need deep pockets to pay for them.  However even within the single version each section is broken down by book.  The time is worth it.

Les Misérables Trailer Starring Hugh Jackman & Anne Hathaway

HD trailer

If I were to cast my book as a movie

Inspired by this post on my favorite online forum, and because I like to have a visual in my head of characters, I decided to “cast” my book as if it was a movie.

Britt Robertson was chosen as Juliette due to her similar appearance to a painting that is in the book.  The character’s eye color is green, but that’s what contacts are for.

I chose Aaron Tveit as Tristan.  He’d need dark hair with curls though, and bluer eyes. I know he can pull the curls.  Not all guys can.  But I’m a sucker for curls, so this in non-negotiable.

I came by Leighton Meester when looking for who’d play Emma, but she’d be a good Gabrielle.  She can pass for the right age, but also has a calm, motherly look which is vital to this character.

Emma Watson’s hair color changes, sometimes brown, sometimes blonde, sometimes reddish.  In this shot, it’s almost perfect.  The character Emma has dirty blonde hair.

For the role of Emma’s husband Sunil, I knew without searching that Kunal Nayyar would be perfect.  He’s better know as Raj on The Big Bang Theory (one of the best shows to grace television in years).

Then we’ve got Chris Pine as Jesse.  I needed someone who could both look like a jerk without trying to be one as well as look thoughtful and kind without trying.  Jesse’s got a lot of internal conflict going on.

For William, I bounced back and forth between Robbie Ammel and Taylor Lautner.  Taylor without a shirt is too distracting, plus…well, crud.  The other reason makes a casting choice above just plain funny.  Well, Robbie won out. Looks jock-like, fun, like a playful big brother.  I don’t quite think that Taylor’s got the carefree look to him that William needs.  He’s more brooding, which can be sexy, but that’s not the point for this role.

Tom Felton was picked as Ash.  Yes, I know, he and Emma Watson were already in eight movies together, but this casting is a just-for-fun thing.

For Juliette’s best friend I chose Coco Jones.  I spent some time angry last night when looking for a young black actress.  For this woman, photos of her were photoshopped taking her skin tone very pale.  What is wrong with black skin being dark?  It really irks me that women with darker skin have less of a chance of making it in Hollywood (and the business world in general) than lighter-skinned black women.  There is nothing wrong with darker skin, and Hollywood and the world in general needs to realize that skin tone doesn’t indicate intelligence, morality, ability, or anything else.  Trying to find women to play her sisters was even more difficult.  As you can see on Coco’s head, her hair still has its natural texture.  I don’t want to participate in the promotion that African hair has to be relaxed and made to look like a white person’s, or that skin must be lightened.  Variation is beautiful, and it’s a travesty that fitting in often means trying to appear as a different race.  Coco isn’t white, but she’s no less beautiful than anyone else.

Alex Pettyfur is perfect in every way for Robert.  It’s just too easy for him to look like an uncaring jerk, an intimidating SOB.

Landon Liboiron was cast in my mental movie for the same reason as Alex Pettyfur.  These are bad buys.

Home stretch

Well, Seting Sun is it its home stretch, and I have yet to come up with a better title.  I’m also planning to start a weekly author interview.  I know this blog is new, but what author doesn’t like to share what they’re doing?  It also doesn’t hurt authors to have their names on more pages when it comes to google rankings!  I’ll probably get that started officially in November.  I need to get the Halloween rush here at home finished!  

I feel like I’m eating, breathing, sleeping, this book right now.  It’s difficult for me to walk through the store without thinking about ways to describe the lighting, the atmosphere, the sounds, etc., and to think about whether or not I should try to fit in such things as a trip to pick up groceries into this novel.  It would add realism, but I also do not want to have scenes just for the sake of it.  Perhaps in the sequel I will work this in.

To connect with my characters

This may be really odd, but to make my characters seem more real for me, I try to connect in tangible ways with my characters and their lives.  The reader of a finished novel gets to submerse themselves in a world someone else already created, but when writing that world, even if basing it in the real world as we know it, it can be tricky to feel that the characters are real when they’re still being fleshed out.

Some characters have pieces of jewelry that are mentioned.  Rather than fabricating something entirely out of my head, I searched for vintage pieces.  Then I buy them.  They become the pieces in the books.  They are my way of connecting with characters who are still being created and who are evolving constantly.  These two pieces of jewelry both have a place.

 

At one point, a gown is described in detail, a silk charmeuse gown with gold chain and genuine sapphire briolettes.  This gown does not exist yet.  However by next February it will.    

A single setting in the second “act” is also described in detail.  The location, while not mentioned by name, is a real location in the town of Ojai.  If you can figure it out, you can go to the website and take an interactive tour.  

The beaches are real, as well as the activities on them.  The restaurants are real.  If at any time specific details are given, it’s a real location.  

If the details are sparse, there’s a chance it’s not real.  Robert’s home, for instance, is described only in the most abstract of details, as is Tristan’s home.  These are not based on real locations, though they are set i general areas that I use for figuring out distances to locations that are real.  However some settings without much detail are real.  Just don’t count on it unless there’s a lot of detail.

If I wanted to and had the time and money right now, I could go down and watch the trapeze classes at the Santa Monica pier.  I could go to the restaurant The Palms in Carpinteria.  I could go be a part of their world, and I can hold the jewelry.

Though my husband does not yet know it, he will own the pocket watch Tristan carries, though the time period is wrong.  I can not afford one from the correct era that is in working condition.  In fact, this one, which is 132 years old, has been priced remarkably low, and I’m hoping the seller doesn’t realize its full value before our meeting on Friday.  Tack on another 70 years and try to find one that works 

For actors, using various methods to channel their characters is common.  Nicholas Cage had two teeth pulled without anesthesia so he could compare the pain of that to something his character in Birdy (1984) went through.  I’d rather buy antique jewelry than to go through something like that.  Sorry, but I’m dedicated to nothing enough to go through that.

I’ll have the ring and pendant by the end of this week, and the pocket watch hopefully Friday.  Until then, I’ll look at photos of the areas my characters are in to feel their situations.