by Judi Fennell, guest blogger
Back in 2004 when I joined Romance Writers of America, I had one manuscript (in sore need of craft workshops!) and the dream.
I had nothing else. Not a clue how to do this, not another story idea, no industry knowledge. Nothing. How could I ever expect to get a book published - especially once I got my first contest entry back and saw that I needed a lot of help.
Enter the characters who won't shut up.
And thank God for them. First it was the gypsy who showed up in a re-write of that first story. Then it was Cinda Bella, obviously a Cinderella character but modernized for today's world. Then it was Bella from Beauty and The Best.
And then there was Reel. And Erica. And Chum. And Puffer and Vincent and Chipper and Angel and Harry and the rest of the cast of In Over Her Head. Once those floodgates opened, there was no damming them back up.
In Over Her Head is my debut novel and the easiest story I've ever written - all because of the characters who won't shut up! Even now, as I do the edits on the third book in this Mer series, the characters are all chatting in my head.
Sounds crazy, right?
Crazy keeps me writing. These characters wake me up in the middle of the night. They have parties at 5 am, each one trying to shout the other down. It's insane. I have learned to keep a notebook next to my bed so I can jot down what they're saying - don't want to lose it because they can get a bit stubborn about sharing it with me again. "Not important enough to write down when I'm saying it? Then I'm not going to repeat it."
There's a reason writers call their stories their babies - sometimes they start to act like grouchy teens!
But I love each of them, even the villains. They've given me a lot to work with in the stories and I've been blessed to hear from readers that they love the characters.
Many people have emailed me that they love Reel, laughed at Chum, identified with Erica, but the email I received today was a first.
The reader loved my bubble gum-chewing pelican, Amelia. Amelia only shows up for a bit, but she plays a big part, and the bubble gum just sort of came along with her.
So if you've read In Over Her Head, who's your favorite character? Besides Erica and Reel, who would you most like to hang with? I'd love to know. If you haven't had the chance to read it, please email me once you do (Go to my website for my contact info!).
The characters who won't shut up are taking bets as we speak.
And while you're on my website, (www.JudiFennell.com ) feel free to register to win one of three romantic beach getaway weekends. The Atlantis Inn Bed & Breakfast in Ocean City, NJ (www.AtlantisInn.com) and the Hibiscus House B&B in West Palm Beach Florida, (www.HibiscusHouse.com) have come on board to offer these weekends to celebrate the release of each of the Mer series books.
And the winners can keep an eye out for sexy mermen, or talking fish or even the occasional gum-chewing pelican... Here's an excerpt from In Over Her Head:
Amelia, Ernie's wife, popped by instead, floundering to a pelican's lumbering landing just as they hit the beach.
"Heya, Reel. You are one lucky S-O-M." Amelia was munching on that chewy substance Humans were so fond of. It stuck to everything and they stuck it to everything: the underside of docks, boat hulls, every piece of their refuse. He could always hear her coming from a mile away.
"What's the scoop, Amelia?"
Erica groaned behind him. "Amelia? As in Earhart? Who's next? Captain Nemo?"
"Sorry, chicky, but Nemo's in the Pacific these days. He and Ern had a falling out." Amelia blew a pink solid bubble with that stuff.
That always freaked him out. Bubbles. Solid. Out of water. Pink. Odd, just odd.
"So, what's happening in my luck department, Ame? Krak still chasing the herring?"
The bubble popped all over her beak and she made the mistake of trying to remove it with her wings. Several gooey, fowl-mouthed comments later, the pelican was spun in a web of her own making.
"Oh, for pete's sake!" Erica approached the squawking bird, plunked her cute backside in the sand and started picking the pink gunk off Amelia.
"Thanks, doll," Amelia said when her beak was untied. "I guess I oughta lay off that. If you could do that big feather on the bottom... yeah, that one. It's bending back and pinching a bit... yeah, that's it." The pelican sighed. "So, where was I?"
"About to tell me if we're heading into a trap? You know, just a tiny portion of info that could determine whether we live or die? Nothing too important, Ame," Reel answered.
"Yeah, yeah, keep your scales on-wait. You don't have scales. My bad."
"We're wasting time, Ame. So, did Krak take the bait? Or did his two brain cells rub together enough to generate a spark of intelligence?"
Amelia stretched a freed wing out to its full three-foot width. "I said you're a lucky S-O-M and I meant it. The big, dumb oaf is probably halfway to the Falklands by now."
"Good." Reel pulled Erica to her feet. "Come on, sweetheart, we've got to get moving."
Now more about winning that copy of In Over Her Head
. To enter, leave a relevant comment below about Mers, characters that don't shut up, or ask Judi a question! The winner will be drawn Friday, June 5th, 2009. Open to USA and Canada.
Originally posted 2009-06-03 03:03:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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Slow news day? Well at least it's an update. To learn more about what happened read Breaking News: Midnight Sun Leaked. You can also find a link there to Meyer's website with the version of the novel she released for public consumption.
November 5, 2008 @ EW:
When you returned home after a grueling tour for Breaking Dawn, you discovered that your unfinished manuscript for Midnight Sun had leaked onto the Internet, and you released a statement saying you were permanently shelving the story. Do you still feel the same?
The funny thing about that statement is I didn't actually write the majority of it. I wrote about three single-spaced Word document pages of just real pain — with sort of a laugh on the end so everything was kind of tongue-in-cheek. And there were lawyerly people who thought it just wasn't a good way to do it. I didn't want to feel misrepresented in the letter and other people didn't want me to be too emotionally vulnerable. So in the end only the one or two sentences written by me seem really jarring, and people didn't get that there was sort of a joke in there. For example the part that's me is where I said, ''If I wrote it now everybody would end up dying.'' But that was a joke! And it sounded so serious amidst all the lawyer talk and I think my fans thought, Wow, she's threatening to kill everyone! [Laughing] I felt kind of bad about that. I never felt any anger, actually. Just a lot of sadness. I mean it was a sucker punch — like someone came up behind you and just hammered you in the kidneys and you had no idea it was coming.
January 29, 2009 @ NY Daily News:
“Nothing’s changed,” a rep for the author confirms to us. “Stephenie has no plans to move forward with ‘Midnight Sun’ at this time.”
But Meyer fanatics can anticipate an upcoming novel. “Stephenie is working on something else at the moment,” the flack reveals. “But she hasn’t announced it yet. It isn’t ‘Twilight’-related. When she’s ready to reveal it, she will. This has been an intense three years for her, and currently she’s just focusing on being a writer.”
As for how Meyer plans to protect her works in the future, her spokesperson says, “She’ll just have to be very selective about where she sends her manuscripts.”
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I had never heard of such a thing until recently when I read this article over at the Christian Science Monitor. The article highlights the latest exploits of an 86 year old Buddhist nun and author of a new smash hit in cell phone novels. I know it sounds like a joke but as this article over Reuters shows that it's true. Here the author talks about her translation of an 11th century manuscript and how she came to the decision to write a cell phone novel.
When it comes to the idea of the digital novel, I knew you could download .pdf and other similar formats to your palm pilots and other handheld devices. Seeing that the phone is a handheld device, I don't know why I'm so surprised, especially as they are now being integrated with the technology of one of these palm pilots. Just look at the iPhone by Apple - the larger screen format would certainly lend itself to cell phone novels.
Cell phone novels are a big hit in Asian countries right now - especially China and Japan. The audience of such a novel would be astronomical! I can hardly imagine the number, but sales would be huge. The New York Times in this article, even states that in Japan, of the top 10 bestsellers in the country, 5 started life as a cell phone novel.
Where did the birth of the cell phone novel start?
As I understand, back in 2000 Maho no i-rando found a way to turn blog novels, written and updated on the web in a way similar to penny dreadfuls were serialized in the past, into text that could be downloaded on the phone. It became more popular when cell phone companies offered unlimited text messaging and internet use as part of monthly packages.
How does one write a cell phone novel?
By typing it into your phone! You've got to have some serious thumb action going on to rival the most dedicated Smash Brothers devotee. I can't see these being composed on phones without the keyboard for texting as by the time you clicked and reclicked a key to get the letter you wanted the sentence would be clean out of your head.
Who writes cell phone novels and who reads them?
Most novels read like diaries and are written by first time writers (usually female) and read by first time readers. Generally speaking these novels are after a fashion a love story. The cell phone novel has outdone J.K. Rowling's efforts with Harry Potter to bring the love of reading to those previously untouched by it. How literary the writing is, is an altogether another matter. Think instant messaging speak with emoticons and the like scattered throughout the telling of the story. Sounds painful, right?
So why is this novel format a big success in Asia but not America?
Apparently it all comes down to the commute from home to work and back again. Americans travel less or travel in our own cars which make it impossible to utilize this novel format. ABC News debates on this issue here.
I for one seeing it take off in America if the grammar and writing is better than IM-speak. After all we demand that our fanfiction be excellent - why should cell phone novels be different? I also see college students making use of cell phone novels on the way to and from class. The market for a college targeted audience would be pretty big.
What are your thoughts on cell phone novels?
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