Toronto, CANADA
Joined May 13th 2007
Recent PostsMoved!January 10th 2011 14:15
My time here at Orble is at an end. I hope you will follow me to my new home at Dianna's Writing Den . I will continue to be writing about writing there for many months to come. Thank you to everyone who has made my time here at Orble amazing. I will check in periodically to stop by my favourite Orble blogs. Sayonara and a good 2011 to all of you 
 Writing Goals: Focusing On What You're Doing Rather than What You Should DoJanuary 7th 2011 12:22
I am always working on writing more, on devoting more time to my craft. I am not the best at self discipline. I do love my craft. I also love my friends, of which I have many, most of whom live quite a distance from me. It is very easy to get dristracted by friends or by one of a million other things. It is hard to balance school, writing, and all of my friendships.
I have tried many times to create a writing schedule. I have tried to designate three or four hours of my day to writing. I have tried just saying that I would spend an hour every day writing. I have tried all kinds of things; most of them have failed. This year, instead of spending my time focusing on when and what I should be writing, I am going to focus on when and what I do write. Each day I am going to put down on my calendar how much of that day I spent writing, editing, or marketing. You might have the same problems with self discipline. You might find it incredibly hard to spend an hour every day writing, even though you should, even though it is your passion. Instead of thinking about when you should be writing, and yelling at yourself when you don't, try just writing it down every time you sit down to write. The idea here is positive reenforcement: seeing that you wrote the day before on your calendar should help to inspire you to write today, and then seeing that you wrote today should help you write tomorrow. Make the effort to write a little bit each day, and record all the time you spend writing. In a month's time, you'll be able to analyze how much time you spend writing, what keeps you from writing, and how you can make more time for your writing. Today when you've finished writing, make sure to note on your calendar how much time you spent at your writing desk. We'll talk more about this record in a month or so. Do you spend too much time getting mad at yourself for not writing? Try instead to feel good about the time you do spend writing.
Author Interview: Isabo KellyJanuary 5th 2011 12:01
Today's author is Isabo Kelly from Crescent Moon Press:
Award winning author Isabo Kelly has a gypsy soul, which she’s indulged wholeheartedly over the last sixteen years, living in Las Vegas, Hawaii, Germany, Ireland and New York. There’s no telling were she might end up next (though Italy keeps coming up in conversation). After finishing her Ph.D. in Zoology in Ireland, Isabo buckled down to concentrate on writing. She’s published numerous science fiction, fantasy and paranormal romance novels, short stories and novellas. To learn more about Isabo's books, visit her at www.isabokelly.com. 1. Can you tell us a bit about your most recent work? My most recently published story is a short paranormal romance call Mate Run published in the FANG BANGERS anthology from Ravenous Romance. The story is about two were-tiger lovers trying to make their relationship permanent despite the laws of their community and the objection of another male were-tiger. It’s a pretty erotic story, but also very romantic. I’m also working on a full length novel about the were-tigers and a paranormal romance about a group of monster hunters—they hunt the kind of horror story monsters that humans think only exist in nightmares (not vampires and werewolves, we’re talking really gross things with tentacles and sharp teeth <g>  . My monster hunters have some unique adaptations of their own too. That’s been fun <G> Finally I’m rewriting a science fiction romance that’s the sequel to my novel THE PROMISE OF KIERNA’RHOAN, published with Samhain Publishing.2. You ran multiple one-day forum workshops during the Muse Online Writer's Conference. How did you find out about the conference? Actually, I found out about the Conference through one of my publishers, Crescent Moon Press. They organized the week of sessions and asked their authors to offer up workshops. This is the second year we’ve participated and it’s been great fun and very successful for Crescent Moon Press and its authors and editors. 3. What was running the workshop on the Muse Forum like for you? Oh it was a lot of fun. I love discussing world-building topics with fellow writers. I end up learning as much as I teach. And sharing ideas and different techniques with other writers is always exciting. 4. You ran a workshop on worldbuilding. What is your favourite aspect of worldbuilding and why? I think my favorite part of worldbuilding is the initial exploration. After having that spark for a new world, I love being able to travel through this new place in my head, learning how everything works and uncovering all the interesting little quirks and ticks. I do research to fully develop my worlds and that’s fun too. But the best part is letting my imagination go and coming up with the unique aspects of the world that will bring a story to life. 5. When and how did you decide to become a writer? I’ve been telling stories my entire life, and I always wrote pretty good fiction even as a kid—not necessarily good craft-wise, but I could spin a good yarn. Unfortunately, high school English convinced me I wasn’t a good enough technician to be a real writer. That didn’t stop me from writing, I still did. But I didn’t believe I could actually publish anything until my first year in college when a particularly helpful English teacher said just the right things to make me believe in myself. From that point on, I thought of myself as both a writer and a scientist (which was what I actually studied in college—zoology/animal behavior). A few years later, I learned how to submit short stories to magazines and started collecting my rejection letters. 6. What do you think is the most important thing for new writers to keep in mind? This is a long road to travel, a marathon rather than a sprint to use the old cliché. To stick with it, I think it’s very important to have fun and to keep reading a lot. The “read a lot” part seems pretty self-evident but I’ve encountered a few discussions lately where the topic of new writers not doing much reading has come up. These newbies claim to be too focused on their writing to have time to read. I can actually understand this. I fall into a bad habit of going for months without reading new fiction because I’m busy working on a book. But this is really really bad for my writing. So all you new writers out there, READ! Read anything and everything you can get your hands on. It will help. It really will. Plus it adds to the fun. 7. What does your writing process look like, in a nutshell? In a nutshell? Chaos <g> Never the same twice. The most consistent thing I do is write very organic first drafts that then require a lot of editing to make them work. But the process of each book—beyond the free flowing 1st draft—changes and depends on what I’m working on, what’s going on in my life, deadlines, family responsibilities, etc… I tend to fit writing in around my life rather than my life around the writing and because of that, I can never seem to keep up any consistency in the process. Oh, but I do tend to get my best ideas in the shower. I’m convinced my muse lives in the bathroom. 8. How do you balance your writing time and your marketing time? Unfortunately, not very well. I wish I was better at that balance. Over the years, I’ve had to decide what I can and cannot do marketing-wise and just concentrate on doing the few things I can do consistently rather than trying to do everything. If I try to pursue all available marketing paths, I don’t get any writing done. And my writing and marketing time is pretty limited. Ultimately, if I don’t write, I don’t have anything to market so the writing itself has to take precedence. 9. What are you reading right now? For fiction, I just finished The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook (brilliant fun, I loved this book) and Patricia Brigg’s Hunting Ground (the second Alpha and Omega novel and also brilliant). I’m also reading The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass (non-fiction craft) and Your Hate Mail Will be Graded by John Scalzi (a collection of posts from his brilliant blog, Whatever). Next up for my fiction reading is Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch. 10. What do readers have to look forward to from you? Well hopefully a short/novella length fantasy romance (I’m waiting on word), the sequel to THE PROMISE OF KIERNA’RHOAN (when I’ve finished the rewrites), and with luck the were-tigers and monster hunters will find a home. I have an urban fantasy romance with my agent at the moment as well. (Okay, yes, I have a little of everything going on right now—I wasn’t kidding when I said my process was chaos. <G> Thanks for all the great questions, Dianna. This was fun! Did you enjoy this interview?
Prompt of the Week: The New YearJanuary 3rd 2011 12:35
New Years: Writing GoalsDecember 31st 2010 12:57
Today is the last day of 2010, and what a year it has been. I started the year full of hope, with many many goals. Some of these goals have been accomplished, but I will admit that the majority of these goals remain elusive. Some have changed; some projects have been abandoned; and others are just a few short steps away now.
In 2011 I would like to see my dreams start taking form and shape. I would like to begin to make my future my present
MovingDecember 17th 2010 12:54
I am beginning an intense project that will take up most of my time over the next few weeks: moving Fictional Worlds. For the time being I will only be posting the regular scheduled prompts and interviews.
I have chosen to leave Orble for several reasons. This is a very sad decision for me to make and with it comes the end of an era (at least as far as my writing journey is concerned
Author Interview: Amanda McIntyreDecember 15th 2010 12:25
Today's interview is with Crescent Moon Press author Amanda McIntyre, author of romance in the historical, paranormal, and contemporary genres.
Prompt of the WeekDecember 13th 2010 12:33
New Schedule and Short PromptDecember 6th 2010 12:05
Now that November is over, the weekly prompts here at Fictional Worlds will start up again. I'm quite excited to start these and I hope that you're excited too.
With the end of Nanowrimo and November comes a new schedule here at Fictional Worlds. Take a look
We Interrupt This Program to Say...December 1st 2010 12:25
Congratulations to everyone who attempted, and especially to those who won, Nanowrimo this year. You might have already seen this, but I've got a present from Christ Baty and the OLL to you.
Here ya go
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I may or may not have Celiac, which is a gluten problem. I'm not going to get tested anytime soon-I still hate doctors-but just in case, I figure I should eat less gluten. It's going to be very hard for me to do that since I love wheat products of all kinds, and those contain gluten.
I'll admit I don't know much about Australian Aboriginals' mythology, but I do have a slight obsession with mythology of all kinds. I'd love to read it someday, once you've landed with a publisher. I wish you lots of luck on that front.
Comment by Dianna G
on Writing Goals: Focusing On What You're Doing Rather than What You Should Do
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
I will have officially moved tomorrow
Elgin's is a beautiful, sad story. I really appreciate his voice and his style in all sorts of ways, and I can practically feel his pain. Thanks for sharing.
~Dianna