Miscellaneous

The Next Big Thing: A Sneak Peek at Unmoving

KWhipkey 4 Comments

No, I’m not delusional, thinking my little, (as yet unfinished), project is going to rival the likes of The Twilight Saga, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games or 50 Shades of Grey. (At least, I’m not that delusional publicly.) I was tagged in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop by Jon over at Jumping From Cliffs. Normally, I’m not one to participate in chain-letter-esque things, preferring to walk the dangerous line of deleting/chucking them in spite of their explicit warnings of death and dismemberment should you do so. What can I say? I’m a daredevil like that. But this one seems benign enough, and offers a chance to show love to some of the bloggers I follow regularly. So I’ll participate. This time. (Plus, I must admit to feeling like a giddy school-girl whenever someone links back to my work, so I felt I had to pay that forward. Earn some Karma points, make someone’s day and all that jazz.)

What’s in it for you guys? Well, before I send you bouncing to some of the awesome blogs I’ve found over the past year, I have to answer ten interview questions about my latest work. Which means, you’re about to get a rare sneak peek at Unmoving, my nemesis of a manuscript that will probably never be finished. Seriously, they’ll bury it with me under a headstone that reads, “Here lies Kisa, the girl who needed two lifetimes to finish one book.” But enough cynicism. On to the questions! 🙂

What is the working title of your book? 

This story has had three titles over the course of it’s life, which is extremely rare for me. The first, and I can’t believe I’m about to admit it to the world, was Sleeping Handsome. Awful, I know. That’s why it never made it to the light of day. It was supposed to be a pun on Sleeping Beauty, which is what it’s loosely modeled after, but still. That’s no excuse. I’m blushing from embarrassment now. Great.

The second title was, The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, back when I thought it was just going to be another short story. After my normal brilliance at title selection failed me, I took the easy way out, naming it after the song that inspired it. But it always felt wrong to essentially steal the title, even though, technically, titles can’t be copyrighted. So when I realized that I couldn’t tell the story the way it needed to be told in 6000 words, I re-examined the themes I wanted to explore, searching for something that resembled the song title while still encompassing the darker tones of my version. Unmoving seemed to do just that. Similar in feel to the song, but vague enough to reference multiple themes in the text, it seemed like the perfect fit. So Unmoving it is. Officially. For now.

What genre does your book fall under?

Contemporary/Urban Fantasy.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Loosely based on Sleeping Beauty, Unmoving is a tale about what happens when you choose wrong at defining life moments.

Where did you get the idea for your book? 

From a song. “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved,” by The Script, to be exact. Don’t ask how I managed to get something so dark and emotionally complex out of such a sweet song, because I really don’t know. I just did. It would take me far too long to explain my strange creative process, so instead, I’ll just refer you to the post where I rambled on about it for days. If you really want to know more, it’ll all be explained there.

Who or what inspired you to write this book? 

I have to give credit to my husband for this one. And not because Derek is in any way, shape or form modeled after him. Just to set that record straight right now. I do have characters that contain elements of him, but Derek isn’t one of them.

We’re both big Script fans, (well, I’m a huge fan; he just indulges me to avoid the fight over the stereo), but I was never that fond of “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved.” It’s a good song, but it just never held my attention the way “Breakeven” and some of their newer ones do. He loved it though. (He’s totally going to hate me for admitting that to world, too. Love you, babe!) I think it’s still one of his favorites by them. So if it weren’t for him forcing me to listen to it over and over again when I probably would have rather skipped it, I’m not sure Unmoving would ever have been born. Although, it was pretty much everywhere for a while there, so knowing me, it would have spawned eventually anyway. He just helped it along.

I hope he likes what came out of it, though. He’s always surprised and kind of horrified, I think, by how badly I can mangle some of his favorite songs when they decide to become Spawners.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? 

I’ll let you know when I’ve completed it. 😉

Currently, I’ve invested about 3 years and am maybe a third of the way through. To be fair, though, I did take some significant chunks of time off to work on other projects, and had to rewrite the opening scene about a hundred times. It’s incredibly hard to find the perfect balance of jackass and sympathetic hero. But once I found Derek’s groove, things smoothed out. Some. If I’m lucky, I might have it finished by the time I’m 50.

What other books would you compare this story with in your genre? 

Hmmm…I’m not sure I’ve really read too many that are similar. Honestly! I’m not trying to be pretentious and think that I stumbled on something original. I just haven’t crossed paths with titles that are like this one yet. But if I had to, I guess I could compare it to the following:

  • Sleeping Beauty: For the obvious reason that the core premise of Unmoving is a modernized version of the fairytale with a gender twist.
  • Beauty and the Beast: Fans of this fable will recognize the idea behind the confrontation with the witch, and a few other elements. I started out aiming for Sleeping Beauty, but apparently I had to throw my favorite fairytale in for good measure.
  • A Christmas Carol: Odd comparison maybe, but when you read it, you’ll see. There are definite echoes of the whole Ghosts of Christmas thing.
  • Inception: Yeah, I know, not a book. But I loved how complicated and layered that movie was, and while you see that style of storytelling a lot in film, I’m not sure I’ve ever run across it in literature. Maybe that’s because you can’t really do it with words, but I’m going to try. It’s good to have aspirations right? Even if they are slightly delusional.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? 

I don’t tend to think of my characters like this. Partly because I’m a freak and I see them in animation rather than live-action, and partly because I feel like it would potentially color the way I write them. I don’t want other people’s traits and quirks bleeding into my characters from those played by the actor I’ve chosen. But, I suppose, just this once, I’ll play along. If only because it will give you, the readers, a visual frame of reference for the way I picture the characters.

Ian Somerhalder, from “The Vampire Diaries”, has the right broody snarkiness to play Derek, the main character. Plus, he’s pretty pleasant on the eyes, right ladies? 😉 Elaine, (the love interest), is supposed to be the exact opposite of Derek. She’s fair and bubbly and everything positive that he isn’t. So we need a blonde, I think. Someone like Katherine Heigl or Candace Accola (also from “The Vampie Diaries”) would be in the right vein. (Yeah, obviously I’m a big Vampire Diaries fan, what of it?)

As for the witch, she’s a chameleon, appearing in several different versions throughout the story, so we’d need several different actresses to play her. And some bright green contacts. But I think I’ll leave that decision up to the casting director, if and when, it ever comes to that.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? 

My current plan is that the Synchronicity Series, of which Unmoving is Book 1, will be self-published. My reason is that this series is very intricately tied together. Each book contains scenes pointing to the next one where the seemingly separate stories cross for a brief moment. Like Easter Eggs on a DVD, readers will be able to figure out which set of characters will be featured in the next book and see scenes from the previous one from a different perspective. Which is why I don’t want to risk the uncertainty of traditional publishing, where they may only ever take the one book, or take them out of order. Since the series depends on it’s sequence, that really wouldn’t work out so well.

Also, it’s Urban Fantasy. And the rest of my millions of plot bunnies are not. So while I’m currently working in this genre, I don’t want to be pigeon-holed into it. I feel I have some potentially awesome ideas in other genres that deserve to be heard too. So my grand scheme is this: self-publish the Synchronicity Series, and pursue traditional publishing with everything else. I hear this kind of hybrid approach to publishing is becoming popular, so we’ll see if it works. I just can’t quite give up my dream of walking through the aisles of Barnes & Noble and seeing my book on its shelves, you know?

What else about your book might pique your reader’s interest? 

How about the blurb? Since that one line synopsis is pretty vague and I’ve never really divulged details before, here’s an added bonus– the blurb that would potentially grace the back cover. (Disclaimer: It’s still a work in progress and I kind of just pulled it out of thin air, so read it with a forgiving eye please. I’m sure the final version will be much much better.)

After a horrific car accident cost him the woman he loved, Derek Richards checked out of humanity, turning off all emotion except callous disregard. But when a confrontation with a homeless woman leaves him literally turned to stone on a park bench, he is forced to relive every defining moment in his life, every decision he made for the wrong reasons. Had Karma been watching him all along? And is it too late to change his ways?

Now it’s time to play tag. Below are 5 blogs that I follow on a regular basis, some because they’re informative, some because they’re inspiring, and some because they’re just plain entertaining. Why 5? I’m only allowed 5. Those are the rules. But I feel like bending them, so I’ll also point you to the handy widget on the bottom right of the page.  (If you’re reading with an RSS, email, or some other feed system, you won’t see it, I’m afraid.) There, you’ll find a list of 19 blogs I happen to think are pretty awesome.

And don’t forget to check out Jumping From Cliffs, the person who sponsored this lovely sneak peek of Unmoving. If I hadn’t already linked back to him, twice, he would have been included in the list below. His sarcastic wit has me laughing on a regular basis. Have fun blog hopping!

  1. Catherine Howard: Catherine, Caffeinated (Superb resource on all things self-publishing, with a bit of sarcasm on the side.)
  2. Katie Jennings: She Writes With Love (Some good posts about marketing for indie authors.)
  3. Publishing Crawl: (A collection of authors, agents & editors that write about everything from writing, to new book releases, to publishing.)
  4. Robert Watson: An Orthogonal Universe Blog (Still kind of new, with only a few posts, but I happen to know that he has a fantastic novel releasing soon that you should all check out. This is called The Next Big Thing right? 😉 )
  5. Jay Kristoff: Jay Kristoff– Literary Giant (I love his sarcastic sense of humor, but be warned, his blog’s not really intended for those with sensitive ears. If you don’t mind a little profanity in your snark, then enjoy!)

A Writer’s Resolutions

KWhipkey 2 Comments

It’s that time of year again. The well-meaning crowd into gyms, flocking like vultures on a carcass for a few weeks, until the lure of their previous lives becomes too strong, rendering those automatic, monthly gym membership debits an obsolete waste of money. Loose change and random dollars find themselves stuffed into jars like nuts stashed by a squirrel, where they’ll remain unspent until about March. The Goodwill sees a sudden influx of clothing, electronics and random crap as Purge-fever strikes across the land. Yep, it’s resolution time.

But “resolution” doesn’t have to be a word that elicits a groan of agonized dread, or instantly calls up geeky visions of pixels on a screen. Believe it or not, resolutions can actually be your friend. They don’t have to be some grand creature of good intention. In fact, they shouldn’t be if you want any hope of actually keeping them. After all, they’re really just goals disguised in a longer, more pretentious-sounding word for intimidation factor. Goals aren’t scary, are they?

Personally, I find them highly motivating. When I meet them, that is. They give me a clear-cut mission, something to work towards, a path through the aimless. The trick is making them specific. And New Year’s Resolutions are no different. Everyone has the standard “lose weight/get in shape,” “get out of debt,” “fall in love,” “spend time with family,” resolutions. But those are also the ones we never keep. Why? Because they’re a vague description of some ideal we’d maybe kind of like to get to. They don’t give us any direction. No instructions. No plan. Of course we can’t keep them!

We’ll try valiantly for a few months, until we decide that we just don’t like sweating as much as we like donuts; that the mountain of debt isn’t going anywhere until we win the lottery; that love is a fickle bastard who likes to play practical jokes; and that there was a reason we didn’t hang out with the relatives.

Instead of focusing on unattainable, murky-type goals, narrow the playing field to one specific region– say, writing. Think about what you’d like to achieve over the next year. And don’t just throw out things like, “I want to write more,” “I want to get published,” “I want to stalk Stephenie Meyer.” (Ok, maybe not the last one, but you get the idea.) These are no different than the goals I listed before. Instead, break those vague resolutions down to their individualized steps. Like a to-do list on steroids.

You want to write more? Great. How much? Define it by word count, pages or chapters, but define it. You want to be published? Awesome! What do you need to do to get there? Write a query letter? A synopsis? Both? Figure out the small steps that will ultimately lead you to your goal and make each one its own resolution. You want to stalk Stephenie Meyer? I’d suggest investing in some psychiatric help instead. But that’s cool. I’m pretty sure you can still read this from the computer lab in jail. 😉

The point of a New Year’s Resolution isn’t to put so much pressure on yourself that you fail the second you write it down. It’s more about defining the larger tasks you want to accomplish within a year’s worth of time, rather than on a day to day basis. So don’t make them so specific that you’ve gone through the whole list within 5 minutes on Jan 1st. But don’t let them be so broad that you’re left without a sense of direction either. That perfect balance in between is the key to a successful resolution.

Let’s give it a try, shall we? Below are my personal writing resolutions for 2013. Notice how each goal is specific enough to give me a plan of action, but not so specific that I can accomplish it quickly. Chances are, I won’t meet most of them, (because let’s face it, I’m better at planning and organization than I am at follow-through), but at least I defined them into plausible chunks I could attain if I applied myself. And that’s the first step.

Writing Resolutions 2013

  • Finish the rough draft of Unmoving
  • Upload Chapters of Unmoving every two weeks to Wattpad & Authonomy
  • Revise and Re-publish The Bardach, Spinning & Confessions via Createspace/Amazon KDP
  • Compile brief synopses of all plot bunnies
  • Write, Edit & Publish one new short story

Now it’s your turn. What are your writing resolutions for 2013? Share them in the comments below! 🙂

(P.S. A big Thank You to everyone who entered the Holiday Giveaway. The winners have been chosen and notifications will be going out via email. Congratulations to those who won; keep your eyes on your inbox to find out if it was you. 😉 )

Holiday Giveaway 2012

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Holiday-Giveaway_2012

The holiday season is upon us. Christmas lights glitter everywhere like tiny rainbow stars. The smell of pine trees and gingerbread mingles with that of wood smoke and the crisp bite of snow. Cheesy Christmas music haunts us through any place even remotely retail, and the mystique of presents and Santa breathes anticipation into these last few days.

It’s my favorite holiday. So, in the spirit of celebration and to thank all of you for reading my random, sarcastic musings over the past months, I’ve decided to run a little giveaway while I’m on a brief hiatus. (Yes, I’m actually chaining my workaholic side in a dark corner somewhere so I can spend time with friends and family.) I will be returning with new content on Jan. 4th, providing the Mayans weren’t correct and everything doesn’t go down the crapper tonight. 😉

But on to the free stuff. Everyone loves free stuff, right? As some of you may have noticed, I offer autographed versions of my published short stories, one of which is no longer in print at all. I only have a select number of each left, but a few lucky people are about to win a bundled set of all three issues. That’s right, I’m giving away signed copies of Shelter of Daylight Issue 1, 3 & 4, featuring “The Bardach,” “Spinning,” and “Confessions.” All you have to do is click on the link, Holiday Giveaway 2012, and follow the instructions to enter.

For those unfamiliar with my works, (Shame on you! Their info is conveniently posted on the sidebar), here’s a little history on each, including links to the excerpts.

This was my first successful foray into the magazine market, and graced the cover of Shelter of Daylight, Issue 1. Inspired by Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life,” Nightwish’s “Nemo,” and “Main Theme” by Christophe Beck from the Elektra Soundtrack, The Bardach actually started as an assignment about the origin of creativity for a college humanities class. It soon became the foundational tale for many of my flagship characters, including Nameless and the Nightwolf, and is the precursor to a much longer version.

Featured in Issue 3 of Shelter of Daylight, this is my personal favorite of the three shorts. Inspired by The Script’s “Breakeven” and “Spinning” by Jack’s Mannequin, Spinning is a tragic tale of love cut short, and introduces readers to the world of the Spinners– an elite group of bards with the ability to morph time.

Arguably the most popular of the three, Confessions was featured in Issue 4 of Shelter of Daylight and was the last story to be published under my maiden name of Kisa Rupp.  (I got married in October, 2010.) Inspired by Within Temptation’s “The Truth Beneath the Rose,” Confessions is a story about losing faith, told in an unconventional format more frequently seen in film. The action-oriented pacing of this piece was one of the more challenging ones I’ve done, and I’m pretty proud of the outcome. Shelter of Daylight, Issue 4, is no longer available, making the few copies I have left rare treasures indeed.

The giveaway will run until 12 am on Jan. 2nd, 2013, at which time, I will randomly select three winners. Until then, I wish all of you a safe and joy-filled holiday season. See you next year!

Happy Holidays!!

Channels of Distribution

KWhipkey Leave a comment

Over the past week, I’ve been involved in several conversations about the changes to the way we find and consume media. And it got me thinking. Over the past 5-10 years, there really has been a dramatic shift in the way consumers find and purchase entertainment. Gone are the CD store dinosaurs where I got my first job, except for a couple that refuse to face the music. (Yes, horrible pun intended. 😉 ) Gone are the days of browsing genre aisles of shiny new books in Borders (now just depressing, vacant buildings scattered across America like the remnants of a zombie apocalypse). Even the way we watch TV has changed, our schedules no longer dictated by the networks. But is that a bad thing?

Most articles you read talk about this shift from the perspective of the artists, the people creating the products. But what about the impact it’s had on the consumers, on the way people buy? That’s what caught my interest and made me realize just how much my own buying habits have altered over the past few years. Yours probably have too.

Until the digital era began, entertainment industries, whether music, literature, or film, were all dominated by the same business model– large companies that acted as gatekeepers, filtering the creative content the public received. Record labels told us which artists were worthy, the “Big 6” publishing houses defined what “good” literature was, and large film/TV studios determined which movies and shows made the cut and when we were supposed to watch them. But then suddenly, consumers were given choices. Upstarts like iTunes, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix challenged the traditional, declaring that there shouldn’t be a middle man between artists and consumers. And we liked it.

This shift has taken the vast majority of power away from the gatekeeper companies, resulting in larger royalties for artists, a broader spectrum of content and an overall increase in interaction between artists and their fans. But it’s also created a mess of the shopping landscape. From an artist’s standpoint, yes, having to get through the gatekeepers made things more difficult. It sometimes seemed unfair to be forced to bow to their rules and standards, to compromise artistic vision in the name of profit. But the one thing they did was make it easy on consumers. They placed content where it could be easily found, creating focused avenues that shopper’s knew to go to when they were looking for that type of entertainment.

All that has changed. The majority of entertainment consumption seems to happen over the internet now, thanks to the advent of iPods, eReaders and Tablet Computers. And we all know how vast the internet is. So how do people find things? How do they discover new artists, new authors, or TV shows from around the world? How do they wade through an unfiltered swamp of products without the direction the gatekeepers always provided?

I think there are only a handful of strategies:

  1. Personal Recommendations from friends, family or professional reviewers.
  2. Website Algorithms that recommend based off previous purchases — think Amazon’s recommendations, iTunes Genius, or Pandora Internet Radio type services.
  3. Random browsing.

Things like bestseller lists, or recommendations based on your previous purchases and what other people bought after viewing the same product have become far more important in a shopping environment overwhelmed by billions of titles. But while this approach to filtering content can give the illusion of a more personalized shopping experience, there’s one flaw– the lack of a vetting process.

With self-publishing becoming such an easy option for every type of media, the markets are being flooded with products that are released prematurely, leaving consumers to wade through the bog, looking for the gems among the crap. Which, I think, gives rise to the stereotype that self-published equals bad as customers become more and more frustrated with the lack of quality. The gatekeepers might have controlled what the public received, but they also had a built-in quality assurance system. Regardless of personal taste, people could trust that the products they were getting were something of quality that would be worth their hard-earned money. Now that those gatekeepers are being sidestepped, that expectation of professional-grade work is often disappointed.

So we can’t have it both ways apparently. At least not yet. On the one side, we enjoy the wider diversity of content, supporting indie artists in all genres with enthusiasm. But on the other, we complain about the lack of quality in a majority of products, feeling that we’re wasting our time and money on rubbish. Where’s the happy medium?

I expect that the next few years will continue to see a significant shift in the way consumers approach entertainment as both artists and customers adjust to these new shopping strategies. I think that eventually the customers themselves will become the gatekeepers, and that the quality products will rise to the top because they deserve to, not because they’re backed by a large company. But it does beg the question of what purpose the traditional avenues of distribution, the record labels, publishing houses and film studios, will serve in the future. Will they adjust to the changing times, taking on a different role, or will they eventually go the way of Borders, disappearing into nostalgia? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.