What's Up Wednesdays

[jana_denardo]

WHAT I'M READING Just finished Firelight by Kristen Callihan. It’s a paranormal romance that I thought was a paranormal mystery with a side of romance. Oopps. I’m so not into romances. This one actually is well written but in many places it didn’t work for me. Part of that was me and my disinterest in romance and part of it was some of the scenes like him getting mad, tossing her against the wall and fingering her to climax as ‘punishment’. Um…(also it’s 1890-1900)
I’m still working on Chuck Wendig’s (the author of the Terrible Minds blog) Blackbirds. I love his blog. However, this book isn’t for me and I like dark fiction. This, however is so unrelentingly dark it’s a struggle to finish.

WHAT I'M WRITING I’m STILL editing Soldiers of the Sun my 1930s demon hunter story. I swear to you I will get this done some day and you can stop hearing about it! But that day is not today. I ended up finding errors in it that need addressing but I’m hoping by next week it’s out the door.

I wrote more on my spook_me’s Halloween challenge. It’s set in the world of my novel Kept Tears. I finally introduced the prompt character who refuses to be spooky and in fact wants to be the one in danger.

And I'm giving away a copy of my novel here

What Works for Me This question is going around a lot lately with Nanowrimo looming. Music. I have to say I cannot write to silence and having lyrics doesn’t bother me in the least. I love writing to music. I know not everyone can do it or others need instrumental only but for me, what works best is to have music that fits the story.
I admit it, I make sound tracks for my stories and often play them again and again. For Soldiers of the Sun I do listen to period music (or at least modern imitations like Big Bad Voo Doo Daddy). Here’s a little sample sound track

(this one is actually in the story)

Rudy Vallee was mentioned in the novella The Darkest Midnight in December You can find the novella here.

Temple, one of the Soldiers of the Sun, whistles this in the novel.

As for the Spook Me story, Rhys and Aaron are steampunk cosplayers and its set at a Steampunk Halloween party. For them, I’d listen to things like Abney Park and Steam Powered Giraffee

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO
I had my family here for the Bob Evans Farm Festival. We had a pretty good time in spite of the fact it had rained for a week and was muddier than was reasonable. I didn’t take any photos but I did get myself a huge amethyst pendant that I love. And yes for those familiar with the Bob Evans restaurants, the university I teach at is butted up against that farm. It’s an enormous craftshow.

And now I’m making exam after exam. I’d rather be writing

You can find the rest of the WUW blog hop here