Angela Cameron

So, I stumbled upon the engenius and entertaining blog of Zombie haiku at Fix It Or Deal and thought this was a great way to get in the Halloween spirit. Since I am a novelist, not a poet, they’re bound to suck…but I figured I might as well go first since this is my blog. To acknowledge FIOD’s influence on today’s post , I turn to my favorite Zombie movie, Shaun of the Dead for a zombie haiku.

Shaun, oh, Shaun. It’s you!
Do what zombie killers do.
Bash ‘em in the head.

Splat. Thunk. Oozing brains.
We’ll meet at the Winchester.
You’ve got red on you.

Then, for my own spin, I thought I’d write another atrocious haiku inspired by True Blood.

Bon Temps is my home.
No other place I’d soon roam,
Except maybe North

To club Fangtasia.
Viking nibbles with Eric
cause TruBlood is bland.

And finally a return to the classics with Nosferatu.

Creeping, gnarled little man,
you desperately need a tan.
A manicure, too!

Okay, so we know that my haiku couldn’t really get any worse. Now it’s your turn. Post one for us to see on the Halloween topic of your choice. Of course, I prefer to see vampire inspired works, but it’s up to you. Let’s just have fun with it.

Haiku format:
first line – Five syllables
second line – Seven syllables
third line – Five syllables

From Lisa Lane’s Facebook page, “Angela Cameron writing tasteful BDSM + my review on her very entertaining vampire erotic romance, BLOOD AND SEX Vol. 1: MICHAEL http://newsensuality.blogspot.com/”

Come on over and chat it up with us!

For some reason, while I’ve been working on the samples for a non-fiction book, I’m suddenly bombarded with ideas for fiction. I generally have a fertile imagination, but this is ridiculous. I’m losing sleep over it because I can’t stop thinking about it. And it’s somewhat frustrating knowing that I can’t work on them and follow these characters where they’re trying to lead me until about July. For now, I’m jotting notes and hoping they stick around long enough for me to come play.

“If you want to write, write it. That’s the first rule.” –Robert Parker

“If you are a genius, you’ll make your own rules, but if not–and the odds are against it–go to your desk, no matter what your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper–write. “–J. B. Priestly

“To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write.” --Gertrude Stein

“The writer’s duty is to keep on writing.”–William Styron

“The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.” — Stephen King

“Good writing is essentially rewriting.” — Roald Dahl

“I can’t write five words but that I change seven.” — Dorothy Parker

“When I say writing, O believe me, it is rewriting that I have chiefly in mind.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

“The best writing is rewriting.” — E. B. White

I’m asked a lot of questions about characterization. That is (apparently) one of my strong points, but I’m not exactly sure how to explain it.  So, I’ll do my best.

It’s a feeling as simple as knowing whether you want chocolate or blueberry ice-cream. Sometimes, you just know the character. For me, I get to know the characters as I write and then they do what they want to. There is some plotting that I do in the beginning. I sit down with a legal pad or Microsoft One Note and sketch out the basics of the main characters as they are in my head. At this point, the story has already begun to form, though the end may not be clear. Or perhaps the beginning and end are defined, but not the middle, depending on the story.

In any case, I don’t learn every detail of the character in the beginning. They come out as the story develops. Most of the time, I’m writing along and suddenly I realize that I just wrote something about a character, whether it’s the way he speaks, a part of his history, or simply a trait that I never knew was there. The characters reveal themselves to me rather than me forcing a life upon them.

Characters have personalities, too!

Some of them are strong, like Jonas. When I wrote Blood & Sex, Vol. 2, he was almost like another person living with me. I’d be working on something else and start hearing his voice in my head or see images of him in my mind, trying to coax me back to writing his story. He was very demanding, and I loved him for it.

Other characters are harder to get to know. In Night’s Fall, James was dark and mysterious. His personality came out slowly, through edits and scenes that I wrote from his point of view simply to get inside his head. The differences between the two processes were as different as the characters themselves.

Confused yet?

If this explanation has been as clear as mud, that’s because it is to me, too. So, let’s look at the process I generally go through.

1. First, write down any basic details on the characters in your mind.
   1. What does he look like?
   2. His name?
   3. How old is he?
2. Focus on one of those characters, think about what he’s like. Is he wild and untamed? Or maybe he’s shy and reclusive? Now go to the net (I prefer YouTube) and start searching out music that fits this guy. What would he listen to? Make a list of five or six songs. That’s your playlist for working with this character.
3. If anything comes to mind while you’re listening to this playlist, whether it’s a scene, wardrobe, or just his mode of transportation, JOT IT DOWN! He’s showing you things about himself.
4. Fill in a little more detail. Imagine that you’re interviewing this guy. Write down the details of where you two are at and your initial impressions. Things you might notice are:
   1. Age
   2. Height
   3. Weight
   4. Hair Color
   5. Color of eyes
   6. What he’s wearing, drinking, eating, etc.
   7. Visible scars, tats, etc
5.  Then, ask him about the following: (keeping in mind that he could be lying, jot down if you think he’s telling you something other than the truth)
   1. Scars, handicaps (physical, mental, emotional)
   2. Sense of humor
   3. Basic nature
   4.  Ambitions
   5.  Philosophy of life
   6.  Hobbies
   7.  Kinds of music, art, reading preferred
   8.  Favorite colors
   9. If it’s a woman, what does she carry in her purse? If it’s a man, what is in his pockets?
   10.  Education
   11. Occupation
   12.  Best friend
   13. Enemies and why
   14.  Parents
   15.  Family background (economic, social, nationality, religious)
   16. Description of home (physical, emotional atmosphere)
6. By now, my characters are usually tired of answering questions unless they’re attention hogs. So, feel free to just watch them interact with other people in your setting. Note the following on your character notes:
   1. What are this character’s strengths. This could be trouble for them. (i.e. If he’s a financial wizard, maybe a jealous supervisor frames him in an embezzlement scheme.)
   2. What are this character’s weaknesses? The biggest weakness may be what changes in him by the story’s end. (i.e. Is he lonely but scared to be vulnerable? Maybe he has to be to win the heroines heart.)
   3.  Sees themselves as.
   4.  Seen by others as.
   5.  Most important thing to know about the character
   6. If it’s a villain, name something good about him. A hero? Name something negative in his character…a flaw.
7. You’ve just met your character. Now, if you need a character photo, cruise the net to find one that you can tuck into your notes and refer to when you need to see him clearly.

That’s it.

If you don’t have all the answers to these questions, don’t worry. Just start writing your story. Sometimes you just have to watch and see what happens. And don’t be surprised if your character lied to you about something. That’s all a part of who they are.

Now, share your tips with me, if you have any. I’d love to hear how you work on characters.

The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins chose to use a common, yet somewhat complicated scheme for writing his poems. These sonnets use the sestet to comment on the octave in a unique way. One excellent example of this is found in “The Starlight Night”.(p 1516) In the octave, Hopkins uses words to paint a beautiful setting in the reader’s mind. “Look at the stars!…/ O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!” he writes, describing a magically starry night.(ln 1-2) Then, he follows it with a silvery moonlit lawn and “Flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare!”(ln 7) This eight-line beginning sets the mood and scene with a mysterious, star filled night with emphasis on the stars and their bountiful beauty.

Then, in the sestet, Hopkins changes the view with his commentary. “Buy then! Bid then!—What?—Prayer, patience, alms, vows,” he writes.(ln 9) This indication that prayers to God bid on the stars, earning them through praise to their creator. He goes on to comment on the plethora of stars and how they are a harvest in the sky. However, he ends with “They are indeed the barn; withindoors houses.”(ln 12) This changes the view of the stars to represent the fence, house, and home of Christ, indicating that the stars are not ours, but the visual edges of heaven.

This use of sonnets for Hopkins writing lulls the reader in with a beautiful picture, then surprises them with an idea that might not have been assumed in the first lines. Through this method, the poet makes a political, religious, or other commentary within a beautiful work of poetry.

Works Cited

Greenblatt, S., & M. H. Abrams, e. a. (Eds.). (2006). The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Eighth ed., Vol. D). New York, NY, USA: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

During the days of Queen Victoria, poets wrote about bohemian ideas and further the imaginings of the romantic poets. According to Professors Carol Christ and Catherine Robson in “The Victorian Age”, “…Victorian poetry shares a number of characteristics…It tends to be pictorial, using detail to construct visual images that represent the emotion or situation the poem concerns.” (p. 997, par 2) While most writers use imagery and the senses to convey scenes, the Victorian writers went further using this imagery and other common elements. The poems, through sensory images, the struggle between religion and science, and sentimentality creates a journey for readers into the minds and hearts of the people of the Victorian age.

Of these themes, perhaps the most obvious is the use of sensory elements. Lord Alfred Tennyson lives up to this expected characteristic in his works. One notable example is the poem “Mariana”, in which Tennyson writes, “The doors upon their hinges creaked; / The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse / Behind the moldering wainscot shrieked.” (p. 1113, ln 62-64) This image of the creaking door, the blue fly singing in the window, and the mouse with the moldy wood paneling all work together to create a very defined image of an active, yet lonely farmhouse in which Shakespeare’s lady waits.

Although the entire poem is lengthy, “In Memoriam” contains Tennyson’s exploration of his feelings of the emerging scientific notions of his day.(p 1138-1188) In stanza fifty-five, Tennyson makes his concerns clear. He writes, “Are God and Nature then at strife, / That Nature lends such evil dreams?”(ln 5-6) Tennyson seems disheartened by the clash of religion and science, and wonders to himself why nature is offering up such strange and seemingly evil ideas through science. This idea that God and nature are at odds epitomizes the struggle.

Another of these common Victorian characteristics in poetry is sentimentality. For Tennyson, this element is readily available. In “Tears, Idle Tears” from “The Princess”, he writes that the tears “Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, / In looking on the happy autumn-fields, / And thinking of the days that are no more.” (p. 1135, ln 3-5) What reader hasn’t seen autumnal fields or some other happy landscape where childhood and innocence were spent, then looked back with longing hearts to times that will never come again?

This use of sensory stimulating terms, sentimentality, and the exposition of the struggle between God and science are typical. There are several other common themes, such as concerns over education, as well. However, to understand the thoughts of the Victorian people, one can look simply at the styles and the largest concerns of their poets.

Works Cited

Greenblatt, S., & M. H. Abrams, e. a. (Eds.). (2006). The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Eighth ed., Vol. D). New York, NY, USA: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Several common themes flow through poetry of the Romantic Period. The poets, either through conscious or unconscious efforts share similar hopes, fears, and concerns. These themes include “melancholy” that is relieved through nature, the frailty of human accomplishments, and intellectual beauty.

As with today’s poets and artists, depression is one of these themes, referred to as melancholy, and the poets found relief through nature. William Wordsworth is an excellent example of this self-medication through nature. His life, like many others, featured moments of pain and the grief of lost loves. Perhaps the most intense grief for him was for that of his daughter, Catherine, who died young.(245) This pain is clear through his works, such as “Lucy Gray”, which takes on a nursery rhyme scheme and focuses on the death of a little girl. It ends with the lines “O’er rough and smooth she trips along,…/ And sings a solitary song / That whistles in the wind.”(277-79, ln 61-64) The haunting idea that the child exists, even in death, as a part of nature, singing through the sound of the wind indicates Wordsworth’s solace in the belief that Catherine lived on in the unseen world around him.

Another of these themes is the frailty of human accomplishments. Byron expresses his belief in several places, but the most predominant in my opinion is in “Darkness”. He writes, “The palaces of crowned kings—the huts, / The habitations of all things which dwell, / Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed.”(pg 615, ln 11-13) This simple image of the burning of all men’s homes represents the mortal existence we all live. Each of us, as we age, can agree with the idea, seeing that most things crumble and fall away.

One of these fading things is beauty. This subjective thing finds a place in the writings of Percy Shelley, where intellectual beauty becomes a theme. Shelley describes it in the appropriately titled “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”, where he writes that it “transforms what is merely potential both within man and Nature into a realized form”.(ln 10) Shelley seems to believe in the bohemian idea that intellect, or imagination and the drive for knowledge, has an inherent beauty that makes man rise above what he is. He insinuates that if humans have an internal beauty, born of the intellect, then they have the potential for great things.

The romantic elements of “melancholy” relieved through nature, the frailty of human accomplishments, and intellectual beauty permeate the works of the period. In a time when the world was changing so dramatically around them, they embraced these ideas and wrote at length about them. These and other themes from the time helped make the way for the poets of the following Victorian period.

Works Cited

Greenblatt, S., & M. H. Abrams, e. a. (Eds.). (2006). The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Eighth ed., Vol. D). New York, NY, USA: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Come on over and see my interview with Cheryl Kaye Tardif , the bestselling author of 4 suspense novels: Whale Song (2003), Divine Intervention, The River, Whale Song (2007). Our chat is up at Criminal Minds at Work, where we discuss crime writing and mysteries.

Criminal Minds at Work: An interview with Angela Cameron, author of Nocturne.

I stumbled upon a great blog today. This wonderful post explains the financial ins and outs of being a bestselling author. It is, unsurprisingly, not nearly as impressive as we new writers would hope. But this sobering information is so needed, and so appreciated.

Here’s a small glimpse…

“To give you a condensed version of what all those figures mean, for the sale period of July through November 30, 2008. my publisher reports sales of 64,925 books, for which my royalties were $40,484.00. I didn’t get credit for all those sales, as 21,140 book credits were held back as a reserve against possible future returns, for which they subtracted $13,512.69 …

My net earnings on this statement was $27,721.31, which was deducted from my advance. My actual earnings from this statement was $0.

My advance for Twilight Fall was $50,000.00, a third of which I did not get paid until the book physically hit the shelf … my agent received $7,500.00 as her 15% (which she earns, believe me) the goverment received roughly $15,000.00, and $1594.27 went to cover my expenses (office supplies, blog giveaways, shipping, promotion, etc.) After expenses and everyone else was paid, I netted about $26K of my $50K advance for this book, which is believe it or not very good — most authors are lucky if they can make 10% profit on any book. This should also shut up everyone who says all bestselling authors make millions — most of us don’t.”

There so much more information on the blog. Please look at Genreality for more http://www.genreality.net/