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Elle Clouse

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10 Sites I Use as an Author

Sites for Authors

As part of my Writer’s Life series, I thought I’d share links that I use either during the writing process or when I’m editing or searching for services.  There are in no particular order.

Continue reading “10 Sites I Use as an Author” →

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Day One

Today marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month.  Although I know some people have already been writing since midnight, their time, I am not one of those folks.  I have a day job and kids.  I’ll be writing this evening and hope to get about two thousand words.  Like most people in the beginning of this craziness, I’m going to try to write as much as possible so that when mid month hits and I get the blahs I have a cushion.  I’m also hoping my outline helps me.

Good luck to all my fellow participants!  Keep track of my progress by checking out my NaNoWriMo page or just glancing at the word widget on the right.  🙂

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Countdown to NaNoWriMo!

2013-Participant-Square-Button It’s October so the countdown to NaNoWriMo has officially begun!  The NaNoWriMo website has been revamped, the new web badges are out, and people are flooding  back to the WriMo forums.

This year, I will be writing a contemporary sci-fi romance novel called “Sweet Justice”.  I’ve had the idea for a while now and I’ve been working on outlining it mentally for over a year.  Now, I’m working on outlining in a more fixed form, I’ve got myself a bullet point list of events.  Start to finish.  I feel all organized…

Since I’ve been writing nothing but fantasy romance, I decided to mix things up a bit with modern day super heroes, arch villains, and a damsel capable of fending for herself.  No distress here.  Should be fun to see my heroine struggle between THREE love interests!  Mwa ha ha!

And behold, I have written a blurb!

Between secretly spying on her employer, heavy office flirtations with the mail clerk, and an unhealthy obsession with super hero news, Justice thought that things were finally going her way. As the ChemPharm research facility exploded and demolished months of undercover work, Justice took some comfort in the arms of Ultraman as he whisked her away from the blast.

When a drunken midnight calling card meant for Ultraman attracted Blaze instead, Justice has the chance to tell off the lab saboteur. Only instead of searing jibes and insults, sparks start to fly between Blaze and Justice and his abrupt departure leaves her confused and angry.

Will Justice be able to pick up the pieces of her destroyed project? Will Justice have to choose between the super hero and his arch nemesis? And what about the mail clerk who fills out his dress shirts just right?

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Tell Me My Fortune

IMG_0794[1]My husband and I enjoy Thai take out almost every Friday night.  They always throw in fortune cookies along side the napkins and forks.  I very rarely eat fortune cookies.  The few that I even bothered to crack open normally have some silly phrase that we jokingly add ‘in bed’ to the end.  Now I suppose that could be said about the fortunes I have pictured to the left but they mean a tad more to me.

The fortune on the top reads ‘You will obtain your goal if you maintain your course’ and I received this right about the time I decided to seriously consider publication for my novel.  I was in full edit mode and getting frustrated and questioning everything I was doing. This came at just the right time to seal my conviction.  I thought that it was very fitting so I kept it at my desk and I refer to it when I’m frustrated.

Just this past weekend, I cracked open another cookie and received the fortune on the bottom which reads ‘Your fondest dream will come true within the year’.  That’s rather specific and again right on target with what I am trying to do.  I am trying to get my novel published and I guess you could categorize it as my fondest dream.  I used to think that I was a patient person but I’ve never had to wait to hear from publishers before.  It’s almost torture.  So this fortune came at just the right time to soothe my nerves and reassure me.  It now keeps my first fortune company at my desk.

I hope that it’s true, although I know that they are random.  They arrived right when I needed them, lets hope that they are correct.  I look forward to seeing my novel in print.

Or winning big in the lottery.  That’s my fondest dream too.

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One Outlining Method

A friend of mine found a method for plot outlining a novel called The Snowflake Method.  You basically take one concept and expand upon it until you have a whole novel charted out.  It’s a concept that I never thought of before and I thought to myself, that’s nice but I don’t think I can use that based on my current creative process.  There is no one method that works for everyone and that is just fine.

I found myself with some downtime and decided to nail down certain things in Northam, the fantasy world my current works take place.  Things are getting too long and complicated to rely on going back and looking so I started an outline of how magic worked in my setting.  I started with the broadest concept of magic and started to break it down into its many points, adding types of caster, types of magic, sub types of magic, etc.  I’m not going to tell you what I devised, you will have to read my novels to figure that out, but when it was done I realized that I had used the Snowflake Method.

I guess without even realizing it, something I had read about maybe a month ago was still rolling around in my brain and I found a practical application for it.  Since most of my story ideas originate from dreams I’ve had, I am not certain it will work for plotting but it has other application.  I’m sure that I can use the technique for outlining other things in the setting.

So I thought that I’d share the article I found in hopes that you can find use for it.  Like I said, not every method works for everyone but knowing your options will help you devise the method that works best for you.

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My Pinterest

I’ve purposely avoided Pinterest since all I heard about it was how it sucked hours of people’s lived away.  By that description, it’s a very scary thing and I didn’t need to risk my time.  A good friend of mine, Renea Mason, who has a very smexy new book out right now that I highly recommend, pointed out that one might be able to use Pinterest as an inspiration board.  

So I’ve done just that, I’ve created boards for every story I plan to write.  Some are finished and seeking publication, some are nothing more than a vague idea I dreamed up.  (Literally.)  Feel free to check out my boards, 😉  I don’t have boards for every idea , just the ones that I found images for.  The boards will expand as I find more appropriate pictures.  

I hope I don’t get sucked into some time vacuum and wake up decades later…

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My 3 All Time Favorite Books

So I need to bolster my online presence and someone suggested blogging more.  Well, duh.  The problem is that I am not the best at coming up with topics.  So I Googled it.  It’s what I do, when in doubt, Google.  It suggest some things and I decided to share with you my three most favorite books and why.

  • “Alanna: The First Adventure” by Tamera Pierce.  I’d actually recommend the entire quartet but I said book so we’ll go with the first one.  This book was the first fantasy novel I ever picked up and finished.  It’s young adult with magic and action, a little bit of mystery…  It’s about a young woman who wants to be a knight but society says she can’t, so she does it anyway.  A woman after my own heart.  I view this novel as one of the big reasons I write now.  I want to write a story so compelling that the reader can’t put the book down until it’s done.
  • “The Last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle.  This book is beautiful.  And it has unicorns.  I LOVE unicorns.  I actually saw the movie first in the 80’s but I loved it so much I eventually got a copy of the book.  I like to consider it the last great fairy tale ever written.  It’s the story of a unicorn who searches for the other unicorns that disappeared.  I loved this book so much that I wrote a paper about it in college.  I aspire for my fantasy fiction to have such lovely imagery, like watching a tapestry tell a tale.
  • “A Hunger Like No Other” by Kresley Cole.  This was the first paranormal romance novel that I picked up and the cover, of all things, kept drawing me back to it in the book store.  Once I finally had the balls to buy it I was hooked on all of Kresley’s books.  Her prose actually helped me with my POV usage and gave me ideas on how to handle sequels in romance novels.  This book follows a werewolf clan leader who finally finds his fated mate but she is a vampire and his enemy.

Now this is a very short list.  There are a lot of books that I loved and liked and recommend to others.  These three, however, have somehow changed my life.

What are some books that you hold dear to your heart and why?

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December is for Reading

I’ve decided that December will be a month for reading. I have a stack of books purchased but neglected in favor of getting something written or edited. I’ve been so hyper focused on my writing that I can’t think of anything else to talk about with my friends. So I’ve banned myself from looking at any of my stories this month. I need some time to clear my mind; I need some mental floss if you will.
Reading is good for writing anyway. The best writers in the business tell you that it’s important to read as well. You can keep up on market trends, relax, see what is selling, etc. Consider it more research than recreation. I’ll be able to post up a couple of reviews, too, which I hope that you enjoy.
I will also be able to work on some knitting this month…
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