From Twitter 06-27-2010

• 08:37:11: The strange cat we fed cheese last week has found his way into the house and is on the bed. This confirms that all cats have several...
  
• 08:38:10: ... families. Except Fergus, who hates people too much to be bothered with another family
  
• 10:22:02: @cherose228 And of course, that cats don't have owners, they have staff
  
• 13:11:03: @TezMillerOz He only comes for cheese, and as soon as he's had any/realises he won't get any, he leave
  
• 13:11:17: http://upstartcrowliterary.com/blog/?p=1527 Very interesting article for writers
  
• 13:11:27: I need to cut my nails; typing is getting tricky
  
• 13:57:00: #amwriting a short story about vampires in Tudor England. This is surely a slippery slope
  
• 14:04:28: @Scarimonious More to do with the Sekrit Projekt, but the research is helping
  
• 15:17:32: So glad someone else is here to watch the football with Kyle. I don't have to feign interest now
  
• 15:20:15: Ha! The psychic octopus was right!
  
• 15:37:23: Tudor vampire thing finished. Much shouting ensues, but I suspect that's more to do with football than my creative achievements
  
• 15:38:10: I think I've gone partially deaf
  
• 15:40:07: @TrishaTelep You can't fight fate, Trisha. Paul the Psychic Octopus predicted doom!
  
• 15:43:41: @TrishaTelep And serve him up with bratwurst?
  
• 15:45:23: @TrishaTelep That's a bbq I want to be part of!
  
• 16:11:08: This match is making the internet so angry! *cries*
  
• 16:14:04: I can't take it anymore; I'm going to read about the various interpretations of Little Red Riding Hood instead
  
• 16:17:36: @Scarimonious People are blaming the octopus! He's a misunderstood freak, and should join the X Men
  
• 16:24:50: Bow down to Paul the Psychic Octopus's power!
  
• 16:34:38: So... anyone for tennis?
  
• 16:39:50: @Scarimonious Let's ask Paul the Psychic Octopus what he thinks we should do!
  
• 17:03:51: Well, since everyone's in pain anyway, I'm going to read some more Bullet
  
• 17:04:28: And five seconds of reading later, Anita doesn't understand something. Shock!
  
• 17:05:45: Either she's the dumbest woman on the planet or she has Aspergers, I'm not sure which
  
• 17:07:00: And Richard has officially been replaced with a podperson
  
• 17:11:48: @Scarimonious There's so much "as you know, Bob" dialogue it's almost a parody of itself
  
• 17:12:41: Nearly thirty-year-old women saying "I so don't want to eat" does not convince me of their maturity
  
• 17:13:49: Especially when said woman has had it reiterated to her hundreds of times that not eating = everyone metaphysically linked to her dies!
  
• 17:14:05: Maybe that's Anita's secret plan? She wants to kill her harem and not eating is the easiest way?
  
• 17:17:38: Micah goes on business trips? Micah has a job?
  
• 17:23:30: Lost track of the number of times Anita has said "I don't understand" or "what does that mean?" in the past two chapters alone
  
• 17:26:42: Using the word "sweet" four times in two sentences is at least three times too many
  
• 17:28:37: The whole Nicky the werelion thing is just creepy
  
• 19:37:24: Too hot to even go blargh...
  
• 22:09:36: Watching Bad Boys 2. Don't know if I can cope with Will Smith swearing. It's ... changed me
  

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Writing Meme Day 26 - Artistic Vision

26. Let’s talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!

This is a pretty simple one to answer. My artistic skillz are limited to stickmen and sheep. Luckily, I have some very artistic friends who have drawn pictures of my characters for me. chaostheory  drew me a gorgeous pencil picture of Scarlett and Ash many years ago, which I still keep framed in my bedroom. She's also drawn Christian and Isaac and Blade's theoretical son.

dwg  was kind enough to draw me an awesome picture of Ayla and Shannon for my birthday this year (as well as write me a cool little fanfic to go with it, and I'm sure she won't mind me posting said picture here, so:

 

Pretty! And so much better than my stickman efforts.

( Questions under the cut )

Romantic Overtures

You know what, LJ? Sometimes I just want to write a great big epic pulpy sparkly paranormal romance series with over-the-top, ridiculously passionate couples saving the world from Evil and falling in love at the same time.

I just can't think of anything that hasn't already been done. And when I think about the paranormal romance series I've read or read, I realise I get bored of them pretty quickly. I read Dark Lover and laughed so hard at the "abs like smuggled paint rollers" line that there was no possible way for me to continue with the series. I loved the first three Lords of the Underworld series by Gena Showalter (especially The Darkest Pleasure - awesome book), but had no interest in following it after that. Not sure why; maybe because the two characters I liked the most already had their stories dealt with in books 2 and 3? Likewise, I enjoyed her first two Atlantis books, but didn't enjoy The Nymph King and had no interest in the vampire's book.

I liked the first of Jacqueline Frank's Nightwalkers books, but found the second to be very much the same but with different names. I've read and loved the first of Anna Windsor's Dark Crescent Sisterhood books, and have the next two on my shelf, but keep bypassing them in favour of other books. I've read a handful of Harlequin's Nocturne line and liked them all, but never bothered to follow up if there's more than one book in the series. I'd make an exception for Stephanie Draven, because her two Bite novellas were magnificent. But I've no idea when her full-length Nocturne novel is due out.

I think part of the problem for me is the repetitve nature of these sagas. You can dress them up with in-depth worldbuilding, throw in plenty of mystery, murder, mayhem, and myth, but at the heart, it's always a love story. Now, don't get me wrong, I like a good love story as much as the next person, especially if werecreatures are involved, but essentially, once you've read one novel in a PR series, you've read them all. I know that's partly down to genre convention, and I shouldn't bash genre conventions because they're important and they're why genre fiction works. And I certainly shouldn't complain about the love story being at the heart of a Paranormal Romance novel because... duh.

But there you go. One story of an angst-ridden vampire/demon/werecreature with a stupid name falling in love with a pretty girl is pretty much the same as another unless the execution is particularly special. And that's what puts me off trying to write a great big epic pulpy sparkly paranormal romance series with over-the-top, ridiculously passionate couples saving the world from Evil and falling in love at the same time of my own. That and I don't think my voice lends itself particularly well to love stories. My big passion is, of course, Urban Fantasy, and in the past whenever I've tried to write something romancey, I've always ended up accidentally turning it into a UF novel.

Anyway. That's how I feel.