NO VACANCY & WIP(s)

My brain is chock full. Really. If I were a scientist I'd be dangerous. I'd have long ago split the atom, and figured out how to use ley lines to, I don't know, suck one of those pesky countries with tyrants into oblivion. (hey, don't laugh. Ever hear of the Bermuda Triangle? Huh? It's supposed that these black holes are connected to these lines and this is how UFO's travel from one galaxy to the next. And what do you think happen to Atlantis? Huh?) But I'm not a scientist, I only play one in the movies—snort!

Okay, so, yeah. No vacancy sign is up. Why? Because if my brain could hold any more, I'd do the above. Really. Right now I have so many WIPs!

#1: Working on fourth book in the Sabrina Strong series so that you all won't want to shoot me when it isn't out, like tomorrow or the day after because you can't stand to wait a minute more to know what happens to her next. Right? (I love my fans... all five or six of them—double snort.)

#2: Working on the ebook of “Spell of the Black Unicorn”, a very delightful, much enjoyed by those who read it (again, all six of you), in my own brand of paranormal/mystery/romance. (more to come on that soon).

#3: Working on 7^th novel—rrrrrt! Wait a minute dawlink. Really?

Yep. The seventh one is upstairs in a dark room—just under the stairs that goes to the attic. I like to think of my brain like a house with many rooms. Sort of like the one I live in. The rooms upstairs have things in it I store. And let me see... yup. There's the 5^th book, the 6^th book, and the 7^th book, all up there, each in their own little rooms waiting.

The fourth one is downstairs, as is my Black Unicorn book. Up in the attic is a bunch of little things I might get to someday but not right now. No. Not until I have sun-up to sun-down to work on my writing.

Every now and then a bit of dialogue seeps through the cracks from upstairs and even though I told brain “Look, I'm not writing another one until I've got something done downstairs here.”

Brain just looks at me snidely and thumbs nose at me.

Stupid brain.

So, I've gotta write the dialogue—sometimes its a snippit to a whole scene—or some bit of idea to throw into the works.

Looks like I'll be doing the note card thing again. You ever hear of it? It works if you have all these unrelated scenes, and you aren't sure where they're going to go. But at some point you will have to make sense of it and need to put it all into order. Somehow. (I found this tip in a Writer's Digest, or one of those writer's magazines that promised you'd be published THIS YEAR!)

This helps only when you  have a lot of  dis-jointed scenes—as you've got them written out somewhere (up in that one dark room). You write down  some brief description on the note card. Like: STEFAN COMES INTO THE HOSPTIAL ROOM AND GIVES SABRINA FAST FOOD.

You make all these little cards up and you can rearrange them to decide where this scene goes and that scene...

And by using a plot guide you know that something has to happen in the first chapter that keeps everyone on the edge of their seat, and that's what I call a mini-climax. At this stage of the game (for #7) I'm only allowing scenes to come to me and I write them down, no plotting at all. Sort of the free will or seat of the pants writing. But it will come. Believe me. And the ideas will come like gang busters and I won't be able to hold back that thing up in the dark room, it will come clattering down those stairs and demand attention like a deformed beast.

So, yeah. No Vacancy. I've had to shut it down until I have time for it. But, like this blog post, which came to me last night as I got into bed, I had to write it or go nuts.

And then I took a sleeping pill so I could sleep. Zzzzz.....

Black Holes and Ley Lines

Hello, my pretties. Well, as you may recall, I've been sick with the flu, these past few days and have not been able to do much but rest--which is what you should do when down with the flu. But today I'm able to sit at the computer--and my eyes aren't burning any more, thank goodness!--so I though I'd bring you a little something about this third book.

I liked the idea of using ley lines in my stories. "Leys is used to indicate ancient straight lines that connect natural points of power in the earth. They were discovered by Alfred Watkins (1855-1935) He believed that the leys indicated the course of subtle earth energies. Where two or more leys cross is a power point that has, in the past , naturally drawn people to assemble or build structers such as standing stones, barrows, tembles and churches." - The Witch Book.

I've had interest in this for years. I don't know how many other authors use ley lines but Kim Harrison uses ley lines for her Rachel Morgan series for her witch and demons to cross from one world to another.

When I began work on my Sabrina Strong Series, I felt that the ley line could be used to make things more interesting, give the main character strange new worlds to explore, and give greater depth in her fantasy world. I other words, she wouldn't always be stuck on Earth, or in the same place book after book.

In the second book, Vampire's Trill, Sabrina travels via ley line to Dark World--a not so nice place--filled with lots of strange creatures, demons and so forth. I don't remember when I decided that the third book, Vampire Nocturne, would mostly take place in a completely different world (BEyond the Black Veil), but it was early on. That was when I began looking into "black holes" and the theories surrounding them.

Carl Sagan (scientist), thought that black holes might be considered a "rapid-transit system" between galaxies. A network of black holes (small black circles within larger violet circles are connected by violet lines), might permit objects to travel through time and space. Scientist have been trying to unravel this, and find an explanation of the possible existence of UFOs--and thus explaining Micheal Jordan (who everyone knows is really an alien, right?)

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, time would pass more slowly for those on board a spacecraft if they were to travel at the speed of light--which is 186,000 miles per second. The idea of slowing down time interested me, and I wanted to show it through Sabrina's watch--which stops, or dies, and becomes useless to her the more she uses the ley lines.

(Spoiler alert!)

In Vampire Nocturne, Sabrina, more or less, learns quickly (out of desperation), how to tap a ley line in a scene where she has been taken to a room to await a visit by Drakulya. A visit whhich she wants no part of, and so she thinks about going home and eventually does. She finds her trips back and forth from one world to the other is becoming easier. In fact, she decides to make a visit to one of her favorite haunts, Tom's Tavern, where she meets up with Rick (leprchaun), Morkel (elf), and the quiet, bu7t psychic Tom the bar keeper, who always knows what you want to drink, and you never have to pay a dime. (Hey, it's my fantasy, deal).

The idea of a portal that opens up to take anyone and anything to this planet was another idea that I used, so that knowledge of our world exists in Beyond the Black Veil. I love to use portals in my fantasises as well. I tied this in with the ley lines and black hole idea to place Sabrina on Beyond the Black Veil--the world that is stuck in Victorian times, and is ruled by vampires who out-number humans ten to one.

When I write, I don't like to put restrictions and rules as to what I can and cannot put into my story. The wilder the better. If my urban fantasy has a little science fiction or fact in it, so be it. This one happens to be a bit of a steam punk, for those of you who like that sort of thing.

Well, until next time, happy reading. I'm just glad to be feeling better, have my appetite back, and hope to get back to work tomorrow.