Author: Joely

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I’ve been trying to give my Rhaekhar-model long (well past his shoulders) hair for two days. I’ve aggrevated my bad right wrist with too much mouse work. I’ve got bald patches on my own head from yanking my hair out.

On the bright side, I am learning more about brushes and smudging. Lots of smudging. And erasers. Cause you know I can’t draw a straight line to save my life.

From the very first moment I saw the Drollerie Press website I was attracted by Deena’s artwork. Every cover she creates is a work of art. (Except for the bobble-headed plastic Barbie one but whoa, that one led to the current The Fire Within cover, and it’s smoking HAWT.) Now that I know exactly what a nightmare…I mean challenge…it is to give characters life, I am in awe.

I bow to her masterful creative genius.

I mean, she put FIRE in Chanda’s EYES in the Survive My Fire cover. I tried to give Rhaekhar’s eyes a golden tint and he either looked like a werewolf with weird greenish glowing eyes (I mean, with that crazy hair I gave him, anything’s possible) or like he’d drunk some of that Dragon Piss from The Fire Within and it did really bad things to him.

*raising one hand–my left because my right arm’s in a sling–solemnly*

I hereby promise not to give any more characters weird hair or eyes.

*grinds teeth*

Um. Well, not too weird. I mean, Ruin is a werejaguar, so his eyes really will have to glow….

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I’m taking an incredible PhotoShop class (in which I’m woefully behind thanks to finishing Road and getting NSR out to the American Title contest) and I could really use a dunce cap.

I SUCK at graphics! It just doesn’t make sense to me. I must take even the most basic of instructions and dissect and study each component, and then try it a dozen times until it makes sense. I think I’ve finally figured out layers. A little. I played with the magic wand last night and just about turned myself into a frog. I wept over the hero’s nose. Okay, not really, but Zahak’s nose was definitely a challenge. A huge thank you to Deena for helping me! Hopefully her list of how she did it will make sense once I get a bit caught up with the class.

To give myself a break, I switched to reading Cindy Speer’s The Chocolatier’s Wife. Ohhhh, what a lovely read. I ended up staying up later than I planned so I could finish it. Absolutely sweet and touching romance, and I loved the letters back and forth between William and Tasmin. Watch for more on this book — Cindy and I are planning some kind of chat/interview to celebrate the releases of our stories on June 20th.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

The Beautiful Death blog giveaway winner is

PAULA!

Paula, please e-mail me (joely AT joelysueburkhart DOT com) your snail mail addy and which book (and format, e.g. pdf) you’d like from my backlist.

A huge thank you to everyone who entered!

Stay tuned for the chat giveaway which will be later this month!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

[Today’s the last day of the Giveaway.]

Why do I call my daughters monsters?

A few years ago, I bought an AlphaSmart off eBay for $30. Then I underwent a grand search to find a cord that would work with my stupid laptop and spent way more than the original $30 trying to get a cord that would work. After weeks, I finally succeeded, but quite honestly, never used the Alphie that much. I much prefer my laptop.

Of course, the monsters loved it. They loved typing like mom. So I let them play with it. The Alphie was incredibly durable: they dropped it, carried it around to the car, and I think I even saw Middle Monster standing on it once.

Yesterday, they found my AlphaSmart outside. It’d been left outside several days ago. And it rained.

Little Alphie ain’t that durable.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Dude, the finished pdf of Beautiful Death is absolutely GORGEOUS. Dies.

It’ll be available here on June 20, 2008.

Soleil at Beyond the Invisible was kind enough to provide the first review:

Joely weaves her worlds, characters, and creatures with such mastry you

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

So I’m reading a book right now that I was saving as a reward for finishing Road, and it’s a pretty good book. Not so great that I feel the need to carry it around with me wherever I go (like in the car) so I can finish it, the real test of STORY, but a good read.

Imagine my surprise when the author CHEATED half way through the book.

While I don’t exactly adore the heroine, I was interested in the story and her voice. When suddenly, in a little paragraph at the end of a scene, the author stepped into the story (never a good thing to remind me of the author while I’m reading) and inserted someone else’s POV. This person had no other POV scenes in the story. The only purpose of adding this ONE paragraph was to drop a hint for me, the reader, who’s obviously going to be too stupid to pick up on it when this shoe will supposedly drop.

I hate story cheats.

Another author who’s very popular once cheated me and to this day, I haven’t read anything else of hers. One little lie hidden from the reader, only to make the climax “pop” when in fact, it was fireworks of anger going off in my head. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if the entire story hadn’t been written in first person. But if I’m supposed to trust the narrator and fall in love with her voice, and then find out in the last chapter that she supposedly “noticed” something as soon as the car pulled up yet never gave any clue in her thoughts? I just don’t buy it. It’s a cheat, and it ticks me off.

Or how about a romantic suspense with a serial killer, and a token little scene is thrown in half way through the story, in some nobody, innocuous character’s POV, all to send off alarm bells in my head that they’re talking to the KILLER. *dun dun dun!!* Stuff like that drives me nuts!

Give me clues, absolutely. I love red herrings and deliberate Sixth Sense clues, but don’t trick me. Don’t lie to me. Don’t cheat me.

What about you: have you been cheated by a story?

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

[Don’t forget this week’s Giveaway]

Since Beautiful Death releases from Drollerie Press this month, I thought I’d post one last snippet. This story was three years in the making. It took me over a year to finish the first draft, and during that time, I finished no other story. Finishing this story fixed something inside me, as surely as Isabella and Hades fix each other, too.

Chapter One excerpt

Set up for this snippet: Isabella Thanatos, the famous First Marshal of Athens, is very sick, now. After hating and fearing Hades for five years, she’s becoming a monster just like him. It’s the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to her, and she has nowhere else to go but to him for help. After the little interlude in Chapter One, this is the first time Hades and Isabella have been on page together in BD, so this isn’t a very traditional “romance” exactly (this is nearly 100 pages into the book). Anyone who knows me, isn’t surprised that this story isn’t “traditional.” We also get a small appearance by Charon, my sister’s favorite character in this story.

Silver drove the blackness back, blinding her. She knew that glow; the warm, sparking energy was as familiar to her as Hades

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I already posted that I was frantic today. It took *all day* to write the synopsis. Four pages. ALL DAY. Other than when I was running errands, of course.

The problem: it’d been long enough since I wrote the first draft (Nov.) that I couldn’t remember all the details. So I had to read the story and write the synopsis at the same time. It actually sucked me in pretty well, so instead of skimming to put the plot back in my head, I found myself going, Damn, I don’t remember writing that! Cool!

😉

Cool, yeah, but it made for slow synopsis writing. I’d just taken Jo Leigh’s core decision class, so there’s a ton of great emotional development for both characters. Hard to summarize in a 4-5 page synopsis. Sigh. I really don’t think the synopsis came out good at all, but it was all I could do to get the thing written. I printed it out, made a few changes, and that’s all I had time for. Literally, the family was waiting for me in the car, practially honking the horn, and I was still printing out the pages. Then I realized I had a “blurb” but hadn’t actually WRITTEN the query!

That Man was getting irritated because we had to get to Red Lobster (LM’s choice for dinner) early so we could hit Kung Fu Panda at 6:30. Finally, I jumped in the car about 15 minutes late, the ink still wet on my partial. We rushed across town to the UPS Store, where OF COURSE, the computers were down! They guesstimated my fee and I wrote a check for it, since the electronics were all down. He *swore* it would go out today and make it to NY by 10:30 tomorrow.

They e-mailed me the tracking number so I guess I’m good.

Gah. I forgot what a basketcase it makes me to mail a package to NY. *cue spooky music*

I have no expectations. My main goal of meeting this deadline was to polish the partial. Now I have incentive to finish the polish on the whole ms and begin the query process.

Kung Fu Panda was terrific. Talk about a static trait! Hero’s journey! Awesome story. I was actually cheering for the big bad tiger for most of the story, so my only slight complaint is his end. I was hoping for a more creative redemption for him than *poof* he’s gone. Excellent movie and the kids loved it!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

[See today’s All-Time Favorites post below, but this entry qualifies for the Giveaway as well.]

I’m in a frantic tizzy today. Not only is today Littlest Monster’s 5th birthday, but I’m also trying to polish last year’s NaNoWriMo novel enough to send it off to the American Title contest (to be received by the deadline, I have to overnight it to NY this afternoon). I entered back in 2004 with a very early version of Letters (nothing at all like what it morphed into today) with no luck, and rightfully so. That was a pretty immature piece of work. But this is the last year they’re holding the contest, and so I’m sorely tempted.

Enough that I took a day of vacation and I’m whipping up a synopsis and query as well as polishing the first three chapters of Night Sun Rising. I’ve got a million errands to run today, too, for LM’s birthday, so the vacation day is serving a dual purpose.

Of the two finished drafts I have eating their heads off in my story stable, NSR seems to be the best structured and closest to final story (although it needs some elbow grease). It’s an odd mix of contemporary, fantasy, and romance. Not quite urban fantasy, exactly, unless a made up Mayan ruin in Guatemala counts for urban. Not as romance as some of my other stuff has been–I think there’s only one love scene. The emphasis is NOT on the relationship at all, but saving the world. Tons and tons of Mayan mythology, which I adore.

And of course my usual mix of blood and death. Hey, it’s the Maya after all: blood sacrifice was huge!

Remember, though, that the American Title contest has several phases. One of the most crucial (IMO) is the first line portion. It must have a unique voice and hook, as well as setting up what kind of story this is. First lines are HARD for me. I sat down earlier this week and tore apart the draft, shuffled things around, and came up with the following as an opening line. What do you think? Is it hooky enough?

If men were as easy to decipher as Mayan glyphs, then perhaps Jaid would have been able to translate

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Sometimes it seems as though the blogosphere is simmering, waiting for the next big blow up. Everything from personal wars to slams on various genres to political disagreements: sometimes I just want to shut down the computer and never brave the internet again.

Let’s be honest. Sometimes we read those sites, rubbernecking the latest turmoil with horrified fascination, even though we feel the poison sinking into us. I don’t know about you, but if I let myself get sucked in too much, I definitely feel my writing and my spirit taking a hit.

Instead of linking to any of the perhaps infamous blogs or sites that love to stir the pot, I thought I’d encourage links to those sites that move you in a positive way. When all else is falling apart or in an uproar, where would you go to find inspiration? Is there a blog that you can count on to always be positive, beautiful, or inspiring in some way? Or a artist’s site that never fails to touch your heart with a project? It doesn’t have to be a blog or about writing at all–just an online site that makes you feel good in some way.

For me, I’d recommend Nancy Bond. With her poetry and lovely photography, I can count on finding soothing inspiration and peace instead of turmoil or nastiness.