Archive for the 'Draven Atreides' Category

February 13, 2010 | "Whoa whoa I gotta go...back to schoooool...again", 2nd Semester, Book Stuff, DA Series, Dance Jam Productions, Draven Atreides, LAS, Life in General, Nonprofit Explorations, Prescott College, Random Thoughts, School Daze, Secrets and Kisses, Spring 2010, The 4-1-1 on Me

If it seems like I’ve been MIA from the blogosphere and only posting a couple of times a week, it’s because I’ve been up to my hairline in school stuff. I realize it’s been a while since I’ve done a Weekend Wrap-Up. For a while it’s because there wasn’t much going on on the weekends. I should get back to that, seeing as how this weekend should be blog-worthy. Although, New Years was blog-worthy, too, and I didn’t blog about that, either. Go figure. So, let me catch you up on what’s been going on.

I was taking three classes, but then dropped the Modern Fiction course at Rio Salado. I guess I wasn’t into is as I thought I’d be. I figure I’ll take up a Creative Writing course at a later date. I’ve also been working on a community project for one of my other courses (which I’ll officially announce on Monday) and that’s overshadowed just about everything. That assignment involved a powwow with my BF and grew into something worth “squeeing” about.

I knocked out one of my New Years Resolutions last month by joining a gym: 24 Hour Fitness. I’m currently taking 2 dance fitness classes a week and let me tell you: that first class was. A. Killer. The 24Dance is on Monday nights at 530, so I basically go there straight from work. It’s all different types of dance—salsa, jive, hip-hop, bellydancing, etc. Seeing as how it was my first time, I didn’t stretch out. And paid for it two days later. By the time the Zumba class rolled around on Thursday evening, I was no longer sore. Of course, that comforting thought ended after an hr in that class. I could barely walk the next few days. Everything hurt and my body was saying things like “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Stop. Moving.” But I was sleeping good. Sleeping like the dead. And I had more energy. Now, a month later, I think my body’s gotten used to the high-intensity-heart-pumping classes and I’m no longer sore. Ar least, not as much as I used to be. I think I may be even losing some weight.

In the midst of all this, I tried to join a writing accountability group. “Tried” being the key word because I only did it for 2 weeks. This group was going to help me balance my writing life with my real life. We posted daily goals each week, but by the second week, I was already starting to see a pattern: 1) I would forget was I was supposed to be doing each day and 2) When I was supposed to be concentrating on writing DA3, I would think about something I had to do for school. During this 2 week period, I was feeling a little depressed and was carrying around this…raging anger. I was holding all this in and it was affecting my interactions with my manager at work.

The group itself wasn’t making me feel this, by no means. Part of it, I’m sure, was because of Auntie Flow’s Monthly Visit. The main thing was that I had inserted something new into my life and it wasn’t working. Once again, I was getting overwhelmed. My writing felt forced. I needed to take stock. Even though I was excited and hopeful about being a part of this group, it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time.

(more…)

Technorati Tags: 24 Hour Fitness

February 9, 2010 | A Whole Latte Trouble, Book Stuff, Book Two, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Sunday Scribblings, Writer Moment

Today’s word of the day is brought to you by Sunday Scribblings: Message

This is an excerpt from DA 2: A Whole Latte Trouble. It’s the first draft, has yet to be revised, so it’s a safe bet this journal entry by Draven will be taken out. Enjoy the snip while it still exists.

from the moment i agreed to work for The Company, i knew it would be the most best kept secret of my entire life. even when Chief went over the details of my new job at our first meeting, he told me it would have to be kept a secret. several times. in the form of a subliminal message.

“all of your living expenses will be paid for by The Company dont tell anyone and you will be given a monthly allowance of five hundred dollars dont tell anyone for your incidentals.”

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings

January 10, 2010 | A Whole Latte Trouble, Book Two, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Sunday Scribblings, Writer Moment

Today’s word of the day is brought to you by Sunday Scribblings: EXTREME

I’m having fun using bits and pieces of my novels for this thing. I rifled through DA Two: A Whole Latte Trouble for this one. Enjoy.

“And my grande Caramel Latte Cick? I’ll die without it,” he adds.

My eyebrows shoot up. Okay, that’s a bit extreme. And something Poe would probably say. Go figure. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that Marcus Jackson has screwed himself over. The last thing he needs is police crawling all over this place, digging into his business. Especially if they discover he’s doing more than just laundering money.

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings

November 18, 2009 | A Whole Latte Trouble, Book Three, Book Two, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Road Trip Wednesday, The Family Jewels, Writer Moment

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival”, where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading-related question and answer it in on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

You’re more than welcome to participate! Just answer the question on your own blog, and leave a link to it in their comments.

Topic #7:

What songs represent/influence your WIP?

I wish I could say that I have a really cool playlist for my books. Or that I hear a song and think, “Wow, I can picture my character kicking someone’s ass right now.” If only it worked like that for me.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

I have to write in complete silence. This probably stems from the fact that my parents made my older sister and I do our homework in silence: no T.V., no radio, etc. When I started writing in the 7th grade, it just carried over. I’ve even tried playing soft music like Enya or Vangelis. And, yeah, that’s a no-go, Mission Control.

Funny: when I’m listening to music, and it’s my favorite song or a song I like, I picture myself singing it. Like at karaoke, in a video, or live in a front of an audience. And I sing it like it’s my song, y’know? It’s funny. This is what happens when you have an overactive imagination. LOL.

HOWEVER, starting in Book 2, Draven will pick up this odd habit of humming/singing while she’s, um, concentrating on something. She loves Motown–which is different from what her friends listen to (R&B)–but the type of music that helps her, um, concentrate, is a little outside what both her and her friends normally listen to. Something she’d never admit to, so this should be fun. And no, I’m not going to tell you. You’ll just have to listen in when I start doing podcasts.

So, in that way, I guess songs do influence my WIP.

Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway, Enya, Vangelis

November 4, 2009 | Book Stuff, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Road Trip Wednesday, The 4-1-1 on Me, Writer Moment

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival”, where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading-related question and answer it in on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

You’re more than welcome to participate! Just answer the question on your own blog, and leave a link to it in their comments.

Topic #5

How do you choose your genre?

Well, that’s simple. Hello, my name is Celise and I’m a romanceaholic. And no, I don’t plan to get help for it. Let me start off by saying that I am addicted to adult romance books. Let me repeat that. I am Ad.Dic.Ted to adult romance books. For some people it’s sex, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, chocolate, or a 32 oz Thirstbuster of Mountain Dew at 7am. For me, it’s adult romance books. Specifically, adult series romance books like Harlequin Blaze. 6 new titles, from 6 different authors, come out every month. Every month! It’s an adult series romance bookworm’s dream, I tell you. But I’ve been known to read outside the series, too—you can see a few of my fav authors in the blogroll over there (Alison, Jill, Crystal). And, like any typical addict, I go through withdrawals.

Seriously.

If I’m not reading, or know that I don’t have a stack to read, I’ll get antsy. Bored. Whiny. You don’t want to see me when I’m going through book withdrawal. It’s so. Not. Pretty. But Mr. Maul knows that I can easily be appeased—and bribed—with 5 simple words: “I’ll buy you a book.” I’m also easy when it comes to gift-giving times like Valentine’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas: a BN gift card. I started reading adult romance books in high school (don’t remember exactly when). I read them so much, I barely graduated from high school.

Seriously.

I was at the public library nearly every weekend. It got to the point where they greeted me by name.

Seriously.

Those Blaze books are small—a little over 200 pages. I can get through two of those in one day. The bigger books by Alison, Jill and so forth take me an extra few days. All that to say (yes, there really is a point to the rambling), it’s no surprise that my genre of choice is romance. Actually, it’s romance/mystery. Through an online workshop, I learned about taglines, branding, etc, and one of the exercises asked about the running theme in all your novels. For me, it seemed to be romance with an element of mystery. When I had my site re-designed, I decided on the main page tagline: “High school has never been so mysterious.” That’s because there’s a slavery ring mentioned in Secrets and Kisses, body organs being sold on the black market in Dance Jam Productions (it’s not as heavy as it sounds, really) and a teenager recruited by the FBI as an informant in the Draven Atreides series.

My first two books are definitely romance/mystery, but the first 4 books in the series are all mystery. The 5th book will have an element of romance and then the romance will grow in the final installment.

Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway, Harlequin Blaze, Secrets and Kisses, Dance Jam Productions, Draven Atreides