Author Celise Downs » Road Trip Wednesday http://celisedowns.com Highschool has never been more mysterious... Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:00:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 RTW #65: The roof is on fire! http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/06/22/rtw-65-the-roof-is-on-fire/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/06/22/rtw-65-the-roof-is-on-fire/#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:41:21 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2803 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.

This week’s question: The house is on fire and you’ve only got time to grab five things. What are they?

1. My version 2 Nook
2. My iPod
3. My laptop
4. My sweater (because I get cold so damned easily)
5. My cat

Some probably would’ve put their spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend/whatev on the list. I did not, because that’s a given. For the purpose of this exercise, I’m assuming he’s grabbing his own 5 things. And hopefully it’s something more significant than the closetful of Kobe’s and Jordan’s.

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]]> http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/06/22/rtw-65-the-roof-is-on-fire/feed/ 0 RTW #64: Plotter or Pantser? http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/06/08/rtw-64-plotter-or-pantser/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/06/08/rtw-64-plotter-or-pantser/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 01:29:56 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2792 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.

This week’s question: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

LOL. Boy howdy, do I love answering this question. I am such a pantser, they’re slipping off my hips. On the two times I tried participating in NaNoWriMo, I tried plotting ahead of time.

Yeah, didn’t work too well.

I have a title, character names, and an idea. Then I just start writing. That’s basically how I roll.

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]]> http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/06/08/rtw-64-plotter-or-pantser/feed/ 0 RTW #63: In the Name of Research http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/06/01/rtw-63/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/06/01/rtw-63/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:02:00 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2774 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.

It really has been a long time since I participated, so I thought I might jump in this time.

This week’s question: What’s the weirdest/strangest thing you have ever researched?

I’m going to start off by saying that next week’s question should be “what’s the coolest/most interesting thing you’ve ever researched”? I’ve got a better answer for that one than this one. I have yet to research anything weird and/or strange, but I plan to for one of the books in the DA series: human cloning. Don’t know if there’s anything out there on it right now, but hopefully there will be by the time I get around to writing it. LOL.

]]> http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/06/01/rtw-63/feed/ 0 RTW #62: Manuscript Music http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/04/27/rtw-62-manuscript-music/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/04/27/rtw-62-manuscript-music/#comments Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:06:51 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2770 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.

This week’s question: If your WIP or favorite book were music, what song(s) would it be?

My WIP will be the Draven series for a while, so if that series had a theme song, it would be the 80′s hit by Rockwell: “Somebody’s Watching Me.” LOL. For obvious reasons.

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]]> http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/04/27/rtw-62-manuscript-music/feed/ 0 RTW #61: First Kiss http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/04/20/rtw-61-first-kiss/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/04/20/rtw-61-first-kiss/#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:38:27 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2764 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.

This week’s question: Compare your first kiss with your favorite characters first kiss

Well, my favorite character is Draven, and seeing as how she hasn’t had her first kiss yet, that’s not gonna help for this post. Ironically, or not, my first kiss was much like Skylar’s in my first book, SECRETS AND KISSES. Granted, I didn’t check out a how-to book from the library like she did, but I sure as hell wanted to. LOL. If the special moment ever came around, I was afraid I wouldn’t know how to do it. I crushed on so many guys during high school, but never dated. African Americans were the minority at my school, and while I was all down with the whole interracial thing, not too many guys at my high school were. At least, I don’t think they were.

My first kiss was with my first boyfriend, whom I didn’t meet until I started community college. He was white and kinda had the whole free-spirit-Brad-Pitt-in-Legends-of-The-Fall thing goin’ on. It must’ve not been that memorable because I don’t remember when it first happened or my reaction.

]]> http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/04/20/rtw-61-first-kiss/feed/ 0 RTW #60: When I was young… http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/03/30/rtw-60-when-i-was-young/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/03/30/rtw-60-when-i-was-young/#comments Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:08:54 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2745 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 #60: What books were you obsessed with as a kid?

I’ve been reading forever and don’t really remember all of them, but I distinctly remember loving to read about the precocious Ramona Quimby. LOL.

In my search on BN.com for a book cover, I discovered that Beverly Cleary is still writing about Ramona. I read about Ramona when she was very young, but a book was released in 2009 with Ramona in the 4th grade! Can you imagine this girl in high school? I would so read that. LOL

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]]> http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/03/30/rtw-60-when-i-was-young/feed/ 0 RTW #59: Love Thy Neighbor http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/03/23/rtw-59-heyyyyy-yaaaaa/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/03/23/rtw-59-heyyyyy-yaaaaa/#comments Thu, 24 Mar 2011 03:43:46 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2731 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 #59: Which book character would you like most as a next door neighbor?

To be honest, I would love to have Tykota Black Hawk, Draven’s handler/guardian, as a next door neighbor. Not only is he drop-dead gorgeous, but he protects children for a living. Wouldn’t you want a hunky, ex-Navy SEAL who protects children living next door to you? If anything bad happened, he would be the go-to guy and you know you’d be safe.

]]> http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/03/23/rtw-59-heyyyyy-yaaaaa/feed/ 2 RTW #57: This inquiring mind wants to know… http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/02/23/rtw-57-this-inquiring-mind-wants-to-know/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/02/23/rtw-57-this-inquiring-mind-wants-to-know/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:36:46 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2693 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 #57:What do you want to know about writing and getting published? Post one question on your blog, then visit other RTW blogs and offer up your advice to their question. Hopefully, all RTW participants will get a handful or more answers to their question.

In light of this post, I want to know two things: 1) How do I go about finding an illustrator? and 2) What is the best way to publish a graphic novel?

]]> http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/02/23/rtw-57-this-inquiring-mind-wants-to-know/feed/ 3 RTW (more like Friday) #56: TITLE GOES HERE http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/02/18/rtw-more-like-friday-56-title-goes-here/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/02/18/rtw-more-like-friday-56-title-goes-here/#comments Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:36:27 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2672 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 #56:How do you pick our titles?

When I write books, I normally have a title and character names chosen. Titles always come to me first and then I write around that. Kinda weird, but it seems to work for me.

Simplistic as it is, if you read SECRETS AND KISSES and DANCE JAM PRODUCTIONS, you really will be reading about secrets, kissing lessons and a dance show. LOL. My stories tend to be like that. Now, the DA series is a little bit different. Kate Hart mentioned that her titles tend to have more than one meaning. I’m finding that the titles in the DA series are going to be like that. Book One, A ROYALE PAIN, refers to Draven’s first case involving a spa called The Royale Treatment Day Spa. But it also refers to what happens if you end up using a particular product from there. Book Two, THE FAMILY JEWELS, sounds like a porn movie—or an erotica novel—about male genitalia, doesn’t it? Yeah, no. In this case it’s just about a family of jewel thieves.

I think one of the best things about being writer is coming up with a title. What’s funny is that I have a list—somewhere—of book titles! They’re either a song title, a song lyric or a phrase I overheard that just stuck with me. But they all resonated with me somehow, so I wrote them down to use for later.

Now, if writing the actual story came just as easily, I’d be golden.

]]> http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/02/18/rtw-more-like-friday-56-title-goes-here/feed/ 0 RTW #55: Living in another universe http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/01/26/rtw-55-living-in-another-universe/ http://celisedowns.com/blog/2011/01/26/rtw-55-living-in-another-universe/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:19:20 +0000 Celise http://celisedowns.com/?p=2648 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 #55:If you could live within the universe of one book, which would you choose?

I would love to live in Georgia Nicolson’s universe. I wouldn’t want to be her, mind you, but maybe in her small circle of friends. Actually, I think Jas is her only close friend (unless she gains others during the course of the series). I have yet to finish reading this series—I think I stopped at Book Two, ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I’M NOW THE GIRLFRIEND OF A SEX GOD—but it wasn’t because of lack of interest. I don’t remember why I didn’t continue (probably school), but what I read had me laughing out loud in some parts.

From what I can remember, Georgia tries too hard and is rushing the whole teenage experience, and her friend, Jas, is like the voice of reason or something. Not sure how I would fit into their little group, but it would be interesting to see, up close and personal, how Georgia deals with the Robbie Sex God, Masimo the Italian-American Luuurve God and Dave the Laugh. LOL. I’ve never been to England and would love to visit sometime. Truly, it’s on my Bucket List. Reading these books gives me a little glimpse into what it would be like. I don’t know about you all, but I tend to read aloud—in my head. Do you do that? It’s like reading silently. With these books, the silent reading voice in my head has an English accent. LOL. Seriously. I can’t help it. And thank God for the glossary of words, or I wouldn’t know that a fag is a cigarette not a gay person or that snogging is the act of kissing and not the act of, well, you know.

Your turn to share: what book universe would you live in?

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