From the Fairy Garden: Still in Planning Mode

May 31, 2012 by

We had planned to begin construction on the pond for the backyard, which was going to be the center of my fairy garden. Unfortunately, extreme heat and a busy schedule over the holiday, mixed with a new, bigger plan has put us two weeks behind.

Which isn’t all bad. It gives me more time to shop — both online and in brick and mortar stores.

It gives me time to think of what elements I want to incorporate into the garden.

I’ve also used this time to nurture my miniature garden. Surprisingly, the plants have grown by leaps and bounds. An amazing amount for two weeks. In another week, I may have to thin the plants or do some transplanting.

Look for some pictures here next week as well as the before  pictures of the area that is going to be used for the large garden.

Filed Under: fairy gardens, Life, Writing Life Tagged With: , , ,

Character Playlist: Sasha Summer’s Medusa, a Love Story

May 30, 2012 by

Today on Character Playlist, I’m so pleased to have Sasha Summers sharing the playlist she listened to while writing her novel: Medusa, A Love Story. I met Sasha shortly after signing with Crescent Moon Press and quickly learned how supportive she is and what a cool person.

First, let me say what an AWESOME idea this is Constance. Honestly, I have a very hard time writing without mood and tone set firmly in place, sucking me in to my pages. Best thing in the world for that: music!

For my debut novel, I knew how I wanted to ‘feel’ when I was writing it. So I collected a list of… emotional and moody tunes. (My kids would call them depressing – sigh.) I admit, I pulled most of my songs from movies – just so you know.

Here’s Medusa’s tagline:

It’s said that love can change a person. Medusa wasn’t always a monster.

Yes, Medusa is a love story. But it’s a non-traditional love story. Why? Well, we all know what happened to Medusa, don’t we? If you don’t – I’m not going to spill the beans. I’ll encourage you to read my book instead ;)

This song (from a movie I adore) helped nail the sense of desperation Medusa and Ariston were feeling as they parted. He’s heading off to war against a terrible adversary. Neither will admit how terrified they feel.

“No Life Without You” – Spartacus – Blood and Sand

This one was when Ariston goes to Hades realm to beg for mercy, and again when Medusa is waiting to sabotage the Persians on the beach.

“Farewells, The Storm” – Rome 

This is Ariston going to war.

“There Is A God In You” (2010) – Clash of the Titans

And this is Medusa after Ariston has found her.

Harry Gregson-Williams – “The End Music” From the Movie Man on Fire

And when they’re reunited at the end.

Lisa Gerrard – “Elysium”

So, yea, I guess a little depressing. But each song, listening to them as I put this list together, takes me back to a specific scene. It’s intense and vivid in my mind, still.

Finally – this song helped turn the flash of a dream into the story: “Cosmic Love” by Florence and the Machine. The lyrics helped, just as much as the song itself.

 Florence + The Machine – “Cosmic Love”

Here are all my links to all my ‘places’ [on the web] – if you’d like to visit my Pinterest Boards – they also give a glimpse into my stories as well!

Website/Blog | Twitter | Facebook Author Page | Goodreads | Pintrest | Amazon Page

About Sasha Summers:

Sasha is part gypsy. Her passions have always been storytelling, history, and travel. It’s no surprise that her books visit times past, set in places rich with legends and myth. Her first play, ‘Greek Gods and Goddesses’ (original title, right?), was written for her Girl Scout troupe. She’s been writing ever since. She loves getting lost in the worlds and characters she creates; even if she frequently forgets to run the dishwasher or wash socks when she’s doing so. Luckily, her four brilliant children and hero-inspiring hubby are super understanding and supportive.

 

 

Filed Under: Books, Crescent Moon Press, Fiction, Music, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , , ,

On Resting, and Rusting

May 29, 2012 by

If you rest, you rust ~~ Helen Hayes

I’m sure you’ve heard that Helen Hayes quote before. In fact, I’m somewhat sure that I’ve used it on this blog before.

It’s a valid idea, when you think about. Taking a break from something is a good way to let your skill set get rusty. It also causes you to lose momentum.

But we can’t be expected to push forward hour after hour, day after day, without a rest. Don’t we need time to kick back and just rest. Or enjoy what it is we love. Fill the creative well.  You can’t give and give and give without taking. Can you?

No. Sometimes you need to stop.

I hit one of those walls then of last week. My well was empty and my soul was tired. When I sat down at looked at the blank page, I was inspired to write a to-do list of everything that had to be done.I knew it was time to refill and recuperate.

So on Friday my husband and I went to a movie. On Saturday, we watched another movie from Video-On-Demand. On Monday (the holiday) I took up residence in my comfy chair and had Netflix on most of the day.

On each and every “nurture” day, however, I also worked. I critiqued, I revised and I wrote. Was this by choice? Yes, to a degree. But yesterday, it was more about a need.  There came a point that keeping my feet kicked up was making me restless.

My mind wouldn’t shut off. I was getting fidgety. I was fighting rust.

So…is the Hayes quote true? Do we need to keep pushing forward, never-resting?

I think, as with most things, it’s important to find a balance. I do believe as a writer, writing every day is important.  I do believe, that those who succeed at a goal, work that goal with a plan. But I also believe — especially for creative people — that we need to take time to feed our soul.

How do you fill your creative well?

 

Filed Under: Life, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Cover Reveal: Ciara Knight’s Weighted

May 25, 2012 by

I’m so pleased to be part of Ciara Knight’s cover reveal for her  upcoming novel, Weighted.

Weighted is a young adult post-apocalyptic with paranormal elements. It is a prequel novelette to The Neumarian Chronicles, and will be released August 2012. Book I, Escapement, will be released in 2013.

The Great War of 2185 is over, but my nightmare has just begun. I am being held captive in the Queen’s ship awaiting interrogation. My only possible ally is the princess, but I’m unsure if she is really my friend or a trap set by the Queen to fool me into sharing the secret of my gift. A gift I keep hidden even from myself.  It swirls inside my body begging for release, but it is the one thing the Queen can never discover. Will I have the strength to keep the secret? I’ll know the answer soon. If the stories are true about the interrogators, I’ll either be dead or a traitor to my people by morning.

Go ahead and add Weighted to your Goodread’s to-be-read bookshelf. (I know you want to!) I already have.

Filed Under: Books, Fiction Tagged With: , , , , ,

From the Fairy Garden: The Tiny Details

May 24, 2012 by

As I talked about here last week, I was introduced to the not-so-new idea of fairy gardens on Mother’s Day.  Since then my husband and I have been talking about adding one to the pond he’s been planning to build in our back yard for several years now. We hope to start basic construction on the larger version over the coming weekend (watch progress on these pages on Thursday) but in the meantime, my impatience got the best of me.

We’ve had this container for a while now, but hadn’t had any plants in it for quite some time. As I started looking at pictures of miniature fairy gardens, this came to mind as a perfect setting for a garden.

Most nurseries will carry the smaller plants and the stones as these can be used in any terrarium or small container garden, but for the arbor, meditation bench and mushroom tree we had to go to a nursery that carries fairy garden supplies.  While we were checking out, the cashier and I were talking about fairy lore, and she said she thought a garden made with all borrowed from the real world items would be cool. For example a gazing ball made from a marble and a golf tee.

I was immediately reminded of a children’s book that spoke of fairies borrowing items from the human counterparts, and have been trying to find it online since. My searches yield The Borrowers, a great book, but I’m remembering one specifically about fairies. If you remember this book, please let me know in the comments.

The fairies I added to this garden I found at another local nursery. And I borrowed that idea of a golf tee and a marble for a gazing ball.

You can’t see it as well as I hoped, but I couldn’t resist the “fairy” bulldogge.

I don’t think the garden is quite complete. The fun is going to be in adding things here and there to round it out and make this a home for the teeny fairies that have taken up residence (and their little dog too!)

Because, as when we write a story, the devil is in the details. I’ve already discovered that the most enjoyable part of these gardens is studying them for all the little things.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Character Playlist: The Music Behind Fairyproof

May 23, 2012 by

Today on Character Playlist, I’m going to talk about one very special song that been near-and-dear to my upcoming novel Fairyproof.

It will surprise none of you that it’s a Rick Springfield song.

I was already deep in the revising (read: fourth or fifth draft) of Fairyproof when the album Venus in Overdrive came out, but the first time I heard the song “What’s Victoria’s Secret” I felt it was a perfect representation of Daniel’s feelings in this story.

Rick Springfield – “What’s Victoria’s Secret”

My heroine may not be named Victoria, but she’s hiding a lot from Daniel in the beginning the book, including her name. And even though, my fairies don’t have wings, pre se, he’s still quite concerned that she will “fly away” from him.

This song is even a little more special, because I was at a Rick Springfield concert just a few weeks before I received a publishing contract for this book. When he sang this song, I just got a feeling that good things were around the corner.

Prophetic? Probably not. But the song is still special.

Filed Under: Crescent Moon Press, Fairyproof, Music Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Adjusting My Energy

May 22, 2012 by

For quite a few years now I’ve been having some problems with pain in my hips and lower back. I’ve been told by several doctors it’s part of getting older — the diagnosis is arthritis — but accepting the pain and succumbing to it isn’t really my style.

After the doctor prescribed treatments failed to give me much relief, I turned to a better diet and joined a gym. I also hired a trainer in hopes of strengthening.  As with a lot of journeys, this hasn’t been a straight road, there’s been some twists and turns and ups and downs.  A few months ago one of those twists led to me starting to work with the Pilates instructor.

I wasn’t too far into my first session when it became crystal clear this was going to help me gain strength and flexibility. But there was a piece of the core principle that took me some time to really come to understand and that was the connection between mind, body and energy.

When I was told to access my energy or work my energy, I didn’t quite know how to do that. I wasn’t sure where to dig for that. It wasn’t tangible in the same way “access your abdominal is.

In today’s session began to click. On the reformer, we were working through some ab exercises when my hands and arms began to tremble. I pointed it out and asked why I was feeling the stress there, when they weren’t the muscles I was working.

“That’s your energy!” was the response I got.

I’m still having a hard time pinpointing how to access that, but in a strange way it gave me some perspective on how to write how the fairies in Fairyproof relate to their power.

That is something that is mystical, and hard to identify, but for them anyway, it is real. It is there. And it’s something that affects them because it is a part of them. So in future sessions, I hope to not only be strengthening my core or learning to access my energy, but discovering a new way to write my characters.

Filed Under: Life, Road to Fitness, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Cover Reveal: Kinley Baker’s Denied

May 21, 2012 by

I’m so pleased to be a part of the Denied cover reveal. Denied is the latest release from fellow Crescent Moon Press author, Kinley Baker.

Denied
Shadowed Love, Book Two 
By Kinley Baker
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Publisher: Crescent Moon Press

When invaders brutally massacred the women and children of the Varner, Caleb witnessed loss and destruction on a scale few can comprehend. As the leader of a race on the brink of extinction, his only hope for survival is gaining acceptance into the Shadow Shifter Kingdom. Struggling with new customs, he meets Tabitha, a woman who challenges his limits.

Refused the right to join the king’s guard because of her gender, Tabitha must be stronger than the men to prove she deserves to be the first accepted female Warrior in the kingdom. She believes Caleb will help improve her abilities, until she learns her goals conflict with the foundation of his culture.

When the realm is attacked, Tabitha and Caleb must come together not only to fight, but to find the strength to win against an evil with the potential to destroy everything they revere most–including each other.

Add Denied as To-Read on GoodReads! I already have!

To celebrate the cover-reveal, Kinley is giving away a special gift to one lucky person today. For a chance to win a $10 Amazon card, all you have to do is fill out the form below.

There will be one winner chosen, from all entries collected from all the blogs participating in today’s cover reveal.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Filed Under: Books, Crescent Moon Press, Fiction Tagged With: , , , , ,

Where Fairies Live…

May 17, 2012 by

Last weekend my husband and I visited a few nurseries looking for some landscaping ideas and plants for our yard.  We were about to leave the last store, when I noticed a display with some garden fairies and stepping-stones, one of which said “I believe in fairies.”

Well, given the subject of my upcoming Crescent Moon Press release, Fairyproof, I do believe.  I fell in love with two of the fairies, and my husband purchased them for me for Mother’s Day. The next day, I was telling a friend of mine about how much I loved them and how serendipitous I thought it was to find them at a time while I’m working to get my book about my kind of fairies ready for publication.

The next morning, that same friend emailed me a few pictures of fairy gardens that her sister had taken at another local nursery that I hadn’t visited with the subject line “Fairy Gardens are In.”  Of course, this sent me on my own internet and pinterest search.

Wow.  I never knew. See what you miss when you live in a writing cave.

Over the next few weeks, I’m planning to build a fairy garden in my yard. No, this isn’t the type of world that Monique, Keiran and the other fairies in Fairyproof come from, but in my Thursday posts highlighting the gardens, I will be sharing tidbits and news about my upcoming release.

If you have a fairy garden, I’d love to see pictures. Please post a link in the comments or email pictures to phillips (dot) connie (at) gmail (dot) com.

Filed Under: Books, Fairyproof, Life Tagged With: , , , , ,

Character Playlist: Wendy Russo’s January Black

May 16, 2012 by

Featured in today’s Character Playlist, is my fellow Crescent Moon Press author Wendy Russo.  Since becoming a part of the CMP family in March, I’ve discovered that Wendy is a wiz on the internet and social media as well as a supportive peer.  I’m so pleased she agreed to be here.

Welcome, Wendy!

January Black Playlist

Hi everyone! And thank you, Constance, for inviting me to share my playlist. January Black will be released by Crescent Moon Press, and I hope that you will all check it out.

I began writing January Black during November 2009. (Yes, it was a NaNoWriMo project. I fell short of 50k.) Anyhow, at the time, I had a single image in my head…a boy in an overgrown garden. And, I was listening to Dream Theater’s new album, Black Clouds and Silver Linings. I have been a huge fan of the Knights Templar since reading Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. Anything regarding them, the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, etc., immediately catches my attention.

A Rite of Passage (Official Video) (Warning: Obligatory commercial followed by corny video.)

A key and a forbidden door play key roles in January Black. They were sparked by this line: Turn the key, walk through the gate…

Also at the time, Taylor Swift’s Love Story was getting overplay on the radio. Couldn’t drive around the block without hearing it. When I gave Matty a girl to obsess over, I used Taylor as a model…hair, eyes, and personality. But, while “Love Story” was on my playlist, it was “You’re Not Sorry” that influenced the tone and direction of middle of the book.

“You’re Not Sorry” (Live)

Apocalyptica’s Faraway vol.2 has been on most of my playlists since I first heard it. It is one of my favorite songs of all time. After Matty does something reckless, Iris begs him, “Don’t slip away from me.” The line is from that song. (Embedding has been disabled by YouTube. The video was shot in a desert. The band dresses up as Bedouin to play their cellos in a desert. And there’s a blond chick singing.)

I finished January Black in April 2010, but during my first major edit, I was listening to Christian Kane. I’m a Leverage fan; Elliot is my favorite of the crew. This song was featured in Season 3, and I played it to death while editing the last third of the book.

Christian Kane: “Thinking of You”

While I was writing January Black, my son turned 2. Songs that he wanted to listen to ended up on my playlist, and got more play than mine, to be honest. They didn’t influence the story much (or maybe they did), but they are a part the story’s creation so I’ve included the videos. I have added what he calls these songs before the titles.

(Baba Riley) The Who: “Baba O’Riley”

(The Guy Ra-Ra) Sam Tsui: “Lady Gaga Medley”

(The Friends Ra-Ra) Glee Cast: “Bad Romance”

Yes…these were my son’s favorite songs for more than a year. (If that seems unusual, try his fear of Disney films. The only one he’ll watch is Cars, but not on a screen larger than an iPhone.) He’s four now. His favorite song is Adele’s “Rollin’ in the Deep,” although “Rumor Has It” recently made a big impression. I think it’s all the hand clapping.

So…I gave you Dream Theater, Taylor Swift, Apocalyptica, Christian Kane, Glee and Sam Tsui. What else? Oh yeah…King Hadrian has a habit of changing subjects mid-conversation. This might have had some influence on that….

Rock Sugar: Don’t Stop the Sandman

January Black blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Matty Ducayn is a disappointment to everyone who knows him. As the son of The Hill’s commandant, he is expected conform to a strict, unspoken code of conduct. Small acts of defiance over years—like playing in the dirt and walking on the grass—have earned him a reputation for being unruly, but it’s his sarcastic test answers that finally get him expelled from school. Instead of punishing him, King Hadrian offers Matty a diploma, with a catch. He must answer a question: What was January Black?

 

With the help of Iris, a gardener on his father’s staff, Matty takes his quest beyond The Hill’s walls and tightly controlled media. But trying to solve the puzzle puts him on a collision course with the Janus Law, a royal decree mandating death to those who trespass in a forbidden garden. Has Hadrian set him up from the beginning to lose?

 Wendy’s Bio

Wendy Russo got her start writing in the sixth grade. That story involved a talisman with crystals that had to be found and assembled before bad things happened, and dialog that read like a homeroom’s morning roll call. Since then, she’s majored in journalism (for one semester), published poetry, taken a course on short novels, and watched most everything ever filmed by Quentin Tarantino. It’s possible to see his influence in her work if you look.

After spending her formidable years in Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin, Wendy moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she now works for LSU as an IT analyst. She’s a wife, a mom, a Tiger, a Who Dat, and she falls asleep on her couch at 8:30 on weeknights.

Filed Under: Books, Crescent Moon Press, Life, Music, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , , ,
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