I'm being productive!!!

So, yeah, I'm writing shifters. And I'm writing them for Nicole. Thus far 26k has been laid and I have myself some sexy bear lovin' going on. (growl) Isn't this wonderful? (clapping hands) Of course it is!!! Keep on the look out for "What A Bear Wants" for it shall be coming to you soon!!!

Choosing our Heroes and Villains...

In dramatic fiction, a key element is to design the right hero and the right villain.

Designing a character is always a complicated process, mapping out his or her back-story, envisioning the hurts and losses and triumphs that shaped him or her.  But, in a larger-than-life sense, the hero is key in what he represents.  He's what the audience needs or aspires to be.  He's what society needs to save it from darkness.  Ditto for the villain, for he embodies that darkness.  But, what faces the hero and villain wear depend entirely on your point of view.

Writers may try to aim for the needs of their target audience in selecting their heroes and villains.  And, the public selects its own heroes and villains from real life.  Whom we choose as hero or villain is a reflection of what defines us, individually and collectively.  How we respond to each defines us, too.  So, who are our real-life heroes and villains?

George Zimmerman.  Hero or Villain?  To the African American community, he's the villain of the piece.  If he was a comic book villain, he'd probably be called "The Profiler" (oh wait...that's taken.)  Maybe, "The Wraith."  That's what he did.  He hovered like a wraith, waiting (maybe hoping) to see someone sufficiently different from himself invading the confines of his sacred space so he could spring into action.  What drove him?  Fear?  Hate?  Or, just a desperate need to feel relevant.  And, heroic.  Yeah, he's the villain to everyone who's ever been stopped, frisked, interrogated or otherwise harassed because he "didn't fit."  (A euphemism for being one of that "other" group we don't want in our neighborhood.)  But, one gets the impression that Zimmerman is someone who desperately (and pathetically) wanted or needed to be a hero.  Society casts the young black male in baggy pants and hoody as today's villain; equivalent to the mustache-twirling top-hat wearing villain of another era.  See a villain, confront a villain.  That was Zimmerman's view.  And, he had on his side the "stand your ground" law which is basically a license for hero wannabes to create situations in which they then have an excuse to shoot somebody.  A law that tries to turn life into an action movie, casting our own selected heroes and villains.  The law seems designed (guess by whom) to allow a George Zimmerman to stand his ground, but not a Trayvon Martin.  Like Rodney King, Bernhard Goetz, and other cases that starkly outlined our society's racial divisions, forcing people to identify their heroes and villains, this grim drama has once again sparked national debate and revealed, as always, that attitudes have not progressed as far as we'd like to think.

Edward Snowden.  Hero or Villain?  Here, society wallows in ambiguity.  On the one hand, we live in an age of fear, of "trust no one" and "always keep your guard up."  In this paranoid age of looking for terrorists in our closets, we have come to vindicate, even idolize as our heroes government agents who invade our privacy, even kidnap, secretly imprison and torture their victims, telling ourselves their atrocities are necessary to keep us all safe. And so, we have no use for whistle-blowers, for wimpy, whiny, idealistic, goody-goody government clerks who tattle on our spy agencies.  To people who think along those lines, Edward Snowden is the villain.  On the other hand, we also live in an age of "don't trust the government."  Given that attitude of seeing Big Brother at every turn, an Edward Snowden, who punches a hole in the veil of government secrecy, revealing the fact that sneaky-peeky Washington agencies are monitoring our phone calls and emails, may be seen by many as the hero of the story.  I have to admit, he reminds me a bit of Winston Smith, the hero of George Orwell's immortal distopian novel 1984; a clerk who worked in an all-powerful government registry that watched everyone.  Smith secretly despised the despotic superstate and was just waiting for his chance to sabotage it from within.  Snowden's on-going story also contains elements of the kind of James Bond-esque international intrigue that makes for a good drama.  Whatever his ultimate fate and whether he lingers in our collective memory as hero or villain, there's no doubt that Edward Snowden has sparked another badly needed national debate on the proper reach and potential abuse of governmental information gathering and the invisible power of intelligence agencies.  (Of course, we all know our perceptions of Snowden are bordered by the fact he's as white as they come.  If he were black, we'd have the Tea Party hanging him in effigy, screaming for his blood and calling him an "Arab out to destroy America.")

Ronald Reagan.  Hero or Villain?  In the closing years of the cold war, he was the chosen hero of white America.  A Hollywood cowboy actor who made us feel good about ourselves again with a simple-minded comic book hero mentality of "stopping the evil empire."  For progressives, he was definitely the villain.  I still vividly remember him apologizing and making excuses for the brutalities of the white-supremacist regime that ruled South Africa then.  And, when the question arose of whether Dr. Martin Luther King should be officially remembered as a national hero, Reagan was one of the thinly disguised voices of opposition, holding out the possibility that Dr. King may in fact have been a communist agitator.

In short, heroism and villainy are pretty much defined in your head by who you are and which window you're looking out of.  Whether we admit it or not, race will always go to the heart of it.  Every society needs heroes, and villains for them to fight, but when a society is divided, it’s hard to choose them.

You Got to Know When to Fold Them...

At least according to Kenny Rogers.

Sorry to be getting so late a start today, but there was a dentist appointment that required my attention.

Getting back to the subject at hand...sometimes, you have to face the facts and say to yourself, "Self, this story is never going to find a home. Bury it."

But when does that time come? When you've been rejected once, twice, three times? When you have tweaked the words to adjust to a new market? When you can't think of a single market you haven't tried?

Yes. And no.

Sometimes, perseverance is all you need. A piece that might seem destined to oblivion might suddenly strike a chord in an editor that you almost didn't send it to.

Sometimes, rewriting it a bit finds that magic spark that was missing and gives it a home.

Sometimes, putting a story away for awhile and then revisiting it shows you a weakness that, when fixed, can make it marketable.

But sometimes...you just have to realize that the baby will never find a place to live on its own. Then you can always publish it yourself...or accept that it is time to let it go. Fold it away into the trunk for your private visits now and then. Someday, maybe it will be just the story someone needs.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I have a story that seems beyond help no matter what I try. But then again, "Never give up...never surrender." Maybe it just hasn't found the right market yet.

Do you ever give up on a story? Or do you keep looking for that magical sweet spot that will see it published? Drop me a comment. I'd love to know.

An Interview with Andre deBeaumanoir, vampire.

Greetings from North Myrtle Beach, SC!  I decided to take a little time out of my vacation to bring you all a new blog post!  I thought it might be fun to interview one of the main characters of my MMP series, Strange Bedfellows.  The first two in that series, "Three to Tango," and "His Phantom Caress" are currently available in the MMP store, Amazon, B&N, and All Romance.  So go check it out and get to know Andre.  He's a snarky, bisexual, French knight with a salacious appetite for blood.  Trust me... you'll like him.  But if you don't believe me...

*******

Andre, thanks for coming with me to the Mocha Memoirs blog. We have a couple questions we’d like you to share with our readers:

1.       It’s a big rumor that vampires don’t like summer.  Is that true?

 

Well as any Goth kid could tell you, wearing all black in the summertime is pretty uncomfortable.  Over the years I’ve learned to cope: linen shirts rather than cotton, midnight skinny dipping in the pool, and of course sunglasses are always most fashionable during the summer months.

2.        Tell us about your most current adventure.

I’m a star of the Strange Bedfellows series written by Alexandra Christian.  In the last adventure, our damsel in distress took us into the afterlife to rescue the spirit of her dead husband.  We ended up contracting the services of a rather dubious necromancer, a Grim Reaper and a golem.  The story ended on quite a cliffhanger, but no worries—the next installment is due out this year.  I’ll be going into Hell to rescue my human lover from the clutches of the afore mentioned sexy necromancer. 

 3.       What is your most favorite thing to do? Or, do you have a super power?

I’m afraid that my favorite thing to do is something I’m not sure I can discuss on a public blog (wiggling eyebrows), but I’m quite certain you could guess.  I suppose that could also be counted among my super powers…

 

4.        Alright, lightning round.  I’m going to ask you some short answer questions and you just give     
         a quick, one or two word answer.  Ready?

I’m always ready.

·          Favorite color:  Maroon.  It goes with everything.

·         Favorite song:  Moondance, Van Morrison

·         Favorite meal:  Busty redheads.

·         Favorite movie:  The Bride of Frankenstein

·         Boxers or briefs?  Neither.  Vampires don’t wear underwear.

·         Mountains or beach?  They both look the same at night.

·         Comedy or tragedy?  Tragedy, of course.  I’m a vampire.

*******

Blurb from "Three to Tango."

“…vampires can be dangerous to your health.”
A truer statement had never been uttered, but when Cali stumbled upon The Oubliette, she began to realize the wisdom in those words. Broken-hearted and bored, Cali’s life had become a string of TV dinners and romance novels. She wondered where her life was going until she followed the mysterious stranger through the red door and entered a world that few would ever know existed. A world of vampires, werewolves and pleasure beyond imagination. Within the walls of The Oubliette, Cali will embark on a dangerous and sensual journey of discovery that will change her life forever.

CLICK ME to get your very own copy of "Three to Tango."

Alright kids, if I've piqued your interest even a little, here's my social media links.  Come join the madness....

Blog:  http://lexxxchristian.wordpress.com/
        
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.christian.12

Facebook Fan Page:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lexxx-Christian-The-Southern-Belle-from-Hell/245839382102904

Twitter:  @LexxxChristian

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4684601.Alexandra_Christian

Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/lexxxchristian/

Movie Quotes

I am an unabashed movie queen.  Let me correct that.  I am an unabashed classic movie queen.  Perhaps I'm

 bit too old to appreciate the newer movies of today, but the movies that really MOVE me are the ones that have juicy, meaty stories that stay with me long after. I am not ashamed that I spend way too much time on the imdb.com message boards.

Certainly, however, I am no movie snob.  I'm not above screening The Expendables 1 AND 2.  I mean, a girl's got to have her fun, right? I couldn't possibly turn down the chance to see most of the major action stars of the 80s and 90s.

But I digress.  Movie quotes.  Let's take a look a look at some of my favorites and add some of your own in the comments, if you've a mind to.  Do it, it'll be fun!


"I am big! It's the pictures that got small." Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) Sunset Boulevard, 1950  (One of the original divas.)

"You're gonna need a bigger boat." Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) Jaws, 1975 (This was an ad-lib, not in the orginal script)

"We rob banks." Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) Bonnie and Clyde, 1967

"Here's Johnny!" Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) The Shining, 1980 (This was an ad-lib, not in the original script.)

"You talkin' to me?"  Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) Taxi Driver, 1976 (This was an ad-lib, not in the original script.)

"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." Margo Channing (Bette Davis) All About Eve, 1950

"They call me Mister Tibbs!" Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) In the Heat of the Night, 1967

"Is it safe?" Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier) Marathon Man, 1976 (This scene can really turn you off dentists.)

"Open the pod bay doors please, HAL." Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

"Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" Mame Dennis (Rosalind Russell) Auntie Mame, 1958 (This is so true!)

"Go ahead, make my day." Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) Sudden Impact, 1983 (Didn't care for the movie, but between the dog and this quote, it's barely tolerable.)


Don't be shy, put yours in the comments.

Dahlia
http:/thesultryscribe.com