NaNoWriMo Day 3: The Issue Of Race

My first novel, The Edge of Darkness, had a heroine of Filipino descent. She was the daughter of immigrants to Australia. I’m hyper aware of the issue of race. In my writing, the race issue if often softened because above being Filipino, Max was Australian. Australia is a very diverse country. At least 20% of the population are second generation immigrants and at least 25% of Australian residents are born overseas.

In NaNoNovel 2011 (still untitled as yet) my heroine is white. I can’t do anything to change that, and quite frankly I don’t want to. I’m happy with her being white. I’m not trying to change the world by having a white girl write every book with a lead from a different race. But I’m not happy with my entire book being filled with white characters, expecially in a culture as diverse as Australia.

So I made one of the hot love interest guys Polynesian (because oh my gosh have you seen Polynesian hotties? I love my Englishman but still). I wanted the guy that ended up winning Tina to be a skinny ginger nerd (because a skinny ginger nerd dating a Goth girl who could kill him with her pinky? Totally awesome). But I couldn’t reconcile the fact that the Polynesian guy (Lachlan) was going to come off second best to a white guy (Connor) while trying to win the affection of a white girl.

Sure, I’m more than capable of writing Lachlan as a decent guy but quite frankly, he’s not. He’s modelled on the Edward/Patch/Daniels of the world. I didn’t want the hot guy to win against the nerd. I wanted the nerd to win because quite frankly, nerds are hot. And nerds deserve more of a voice in young adult literature.

I couldn’t bring a reconcilliation into the whole white-girl-chooses-white-guy-over-racial-minority no matter how humanely I portray Lachlan. Even if I don’t focus on his race (they’re all Australian) there’s always going to be at least one person screaming RACIST at me.

So Connor the ginger nerd has been demoted and Tina’s love interest is now someone else. Someone of another racial minority. Someone whom her parents would kill if they found out she was dating.

Why?

Because he’s a demon.

NaNoWriMo Day 2: Strange Subconcious

After achieving my word count yesterday hubs and I had cuddles while watching Heroes and Firefly. I wanted to do some more writing but as hubs is fond of saying, there’s a fine line between cuddling someone and holding them down so they can’t escape. So I gave up on writing anything more yesterday (I’d already done the bare minimum) and enjoyed my cuddles.

Then last night I dreamed about my NaNoNovel.

It wasn’t completely accurate – there were skeletons trying to break into the house I used to live in before I moved to England. All my ‘safe at home’ dreams take place there, despite the fact that I haven’t lived there in well over two years now, but it was the house I grew up in. The skeletons were like the stone weeping angels from Doctor Who: they only moved when you weren’t looking at them. Luckily for me, they also moved very slowly, on account of only being bones. And there was some guy playing the role of the big bad, even though I’ve planned all my antagonists to be female in this novel. In the dream, I was playing the role of Tina (even though she’s nothing like me) and I wasn’t particularly frightened of the skeletons.

It makes me wonder if I should add scary weeping angel-like skeletons to my novel.

I can’t even add a gif because the Doctor Who stone angels legitimately scare me.

ANYWAY. It’s Day Two today and I managed to not only give an awesome example of what happens in Tina’s day-to-day life (including getting punched in the face, which, IMO, is a very strong opening), but also set up the beginning of the inciting incident.

NaNoWriMo Begins! The Soundtrack Edition

nanowrimoHey kittens.

Today marks the beginning of NaNoWriMo 2011 and as such, I’m sharing my playlist for the month.

Normally when I write, I can only listen to instrumental music, and it has to be something relatively new so I don’t recognise melodies and get distracted by the familiarity and start singing along. Which has been known to happen. Songs I know just distract me. So while I do have more music that just this, this is the playlist that is most unfamiliar to me.

  • Escala (self-titled string quartet)
  • Wild: Time (string, piano band)
  • The Planets: Classical Graffiti (classical instrumental band)
  • Secret Garden: Dawn of a New Century
  • Secret Garden: Dreamcatcher
  • Secret Garden: Earthsongs
  • Secret Garden: Once in a Red Moon
  • Secret Garden: Songs from a Secret Garden
  • Secret Garden: White Stones
  • Murray Gold: Doctor Who Season 1
  • The BBC National Orchestra of Wales: Doctor Who Season 3
  • Murray Gold & The BBC National Orchestra of Wales: Doctor Who Season 5
  • Danny Elfman: Wanted film score
  • David Hirschfelder: Legend of the Guardians film score
  • The Red Dead Redemption Original Soundtrack (video game)
  • Klaus Badelt: The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  • Hans Zimmer: The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
  • Hans Zimmer: The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
  • Alexandre Desplat: Twilight: New Moon (The Score, not the soundtrack)
  • Mozart’s Requiem
  • The Best Classical Album In The World… Ever! (that is the actual name)
  • Two classical compilations I’ve had since I was a teenager: Swooning and Rapture.

Also included are some random instrumental versions of songs by classical crossover artists, for distracting me when I need a break.

It’s 473 songs, 1 day’s worth according to my Ipod, and 2.88 GB of music.

I think I’m prepared.

Free Tina Storm Urban Fantasy Short Story Exclusive on Smashwords (4)

 

 

 

Hi lovelies.

As promised, the fourth Tina Storm short story, Lost in the Storm (see what I did there? LOL) is available for the rest of October exclusively on Smashwords.

Also, look at this PRETTY PRETTY cover!

This story is 3000 words long. Make sure you read the first three stories beforehand, though.

Also – I’ve decided to complete the series and put up the final Tina Storm short story while I’m at it next Friday. While I’m concentrating on NaNoWriMo in November, the stories will definitely stay up only on Smashwords for free until I decide to compile and release them into a short story collection with a few other short paranormal stories I’ve done as well. I want that to go on sale in December, so tell all your friends about the free stories before they have to pay to read them.

Enjoy!

 

Foreign Cover Friday: Destined for an Early Grave (Night Huntress 4) by Jeaniene Frost

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Foreign Cover Friday is a weekly meme hosted by The Reading Fever, where foreign covers of the books we know and love are spotlighted and discussed. To join, either pick your favourite foreign cover, or pick many foreign covers, and start discussing!

Continuing on with my Night Huntress theme, this week we’re looking at book 4 in the series, Destined for an Early Grave.

Since half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her undead lover Bones met six years ago, they’ve fought against the rogue undead, battled a vengeful Master vampire, and pledged their devotion with a blood bond. Now it’s time for a vacation. But their hopes for a perfect Paris holiday are dashed when Cat awakes one night in terror. She’s having visions of a vampire named Gregor who’s more powerful than Bones and has ties to her past that even Cat herself didn’t know about.

Gregor believes Cat is his and he won’t stop until he has her. As the battle begins between the vamp who haunts her nightmares and the one who holds her heart, only Cat can break Gregor’s hold over her. She’ll need all the power she can summon in order to bring down the baddest bloodsucker she’s ever faced . . . even if getting that power will result in an early grave.

Destined for an Early Grave (Night Huntress, #4)

English language cover. Those boots, those boots! Again! I love them! Not a huge fan of the whole bare-midriff-plus-jacket look. If you’re too cold, zip the jacket off: take it off if not. Anyway, that’s not the point. It’s sexy. She’s in a sexy pose. That downwards gaze makes her look aloof.

Creuser sa tombe (Chasseuse de la nuit, #4)

Der sanfte Hauch der Finsternis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This the French, German and Italian covers. I think all of them are gorgeous – except that the hair colour is so drastically wrong for the German and Italian. The French consistently create beautiful covers with their contrasting colours and text choices and placements. It’s a beautiful cover, and the pose is the same as the English-language step-back (that’s the page after the cover page). Clearly the two covers were provided and there was some hard decisions made. I love it. The German cover is overwhelmingly green and urban fantasy-looking. It’s pretty generic, with the girl’s face and the city with the clouds, but it’s attractive. I don’t think I’d pick it up. The Italian cover is gorgeous. It has lovely colour contrasts, and although the model looks more human than vampire I think she’s very pretty as well.

Translation
French: Dig/Excavate the Grave
German: The Gentle Breath of Darkness
Italian: The Scent of the Night

Destined for an Early Grave (Night Huntress #4)

This is the English audiobook version and I like it. Cat’s skin looks way fake, not luminescent, but I like the pose, the text colour and placement choices and the background. It’s pretty, and I’d pick it up if I saw it in a bookstore.

What are your thoughts?

Which covers do you like? Which do you hate?

Check back at The Reading Fever for her Foreign Cover Friday!