Category: Writing

“How the f*ck do you write so fast?”

Published on by Emma Peterson4 Comments

Before I get into the point of this post, I just want to say that Last Summer will be available for download and online reading later tonight. I was going to wait until Sunday, but apparently that day has been designated as Game of Thrones Day in my house, whereupon the entire day will be filled with binge-watching the season in preparation for the season finale. And oh man… just… never mind. I don’t want to start geeking out about it here. Except to say that it’s going to be sooooo gooood.

Speaking of Game of Thrones, I wanted to share this video of GRRM asking Stephen King, point blank, “How the fuck do you write so many books so fast?” As someone who is casually making her way through the ASoIaF books as opposed to being a super hardcore book fan, I’ve been very intrigued by the whole situation with the show catching up to and now surpassing the books. I can’t imagine how GRRM is dealing with a massive fanbase that is screaming at him to hurry the hell up and finish the next book, especially when trying to write a story that is so incredibly complex, even more so than the show.  Continue reading ““How the f*ck do you write so fast?”” →

The Rising Son Excerpt

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In my ongoing efforts to remain a starving artist, I’ve decided that The Rising Son will be free. 😀 Actually, I think I was leaning in that direction for a while, but now that it’s finished, it’s official. The story is being edited right now and the cover art is being done (thanks, G! ❤ ) so now I’ve got some free time to do other things that may or may not include more Diablo 3. I’ll also be wrapping up Last Summer over the next couple of weeks.

I wanted to share a little bit of the story for anyone interested. Timeline-wise, The Rising Son takes place a month after the end of Family Matters and a week after A Halloween Interlude. This was taken from the opening scene. Xan and Michael are in the shower being naked and nerdy because that’s what they do, and they’re adorable doing it: Continue reading “The Rising Son Excerpt” →

TBT: Stephen King

Published on by Emma PetersonLeave a comment

(A day early, even. Go me!)

I don’t remember how I made the leap from Beverly Cleary to Stephen King. It’s not like I walked into the elementary school library and found his stuff. (Holy crap, maybe I did? I mean, look at all the stuff that was rated PG back then. No way that would fly today.) Anyway, it happened, and it changed my life. I had always loved writing, ever since I could hold a pencil to paper. But it wasn’t until I started reading Stephen King that I developed an outright passion for storytelling. I wanted to do what he did, to create characters and worlds that people would remember long after reading. I wanted to weave words together the way he did. Not in that particular genre; I don’t think I could ever pull off proper horror. But in whatever stories I told. I wanted to be Stephen King when I grew up.

Just when I thought I couldn’t love the guy more, he and alter writing ego, Richard Bachman, had to go and blow my mind with Desperation and The Regulators, respectively. Desperation is my favorite King book because it takes two things I like—horror and spirituality—and combines them so perfectly. And The Regulators is the reason I became obsessed with the idea of alternate/parallel universes in fiction, so those of you who have read my fanfiction can thank him for that.

desperationregulators

I still want to be Stephen King when I grow up. It won’t ever happen, but it’s a worthwhile aspiration.

Brain matters

Published on by Emma Peterson4 Comments

I have determined that I am the world’s greatest writer. At least when I go to bed. Because that’s when I think of all of these brilliant stories and ideas. The second my head hits the pillow, I’m creating a multitude of breathtaking characters and worlds in my head. We’re talking Pulitzer level stuff, man. You don’t even know.

Buuuut then I fall asleep and the next day when I sit down at my laptop…

derp

 

*sigh*

The sad part is that I actually do keep a notebook and pen by my bed for these supposed flashes of brilliance. However, more often than not I determine that the amount of effort I’ve put into tossing and turning and pillow manipulation to find that oh-so-comfy position of bodily contortedness isn’t worth sacrificing to jot down some notes. Continue reading “Brain matters” →

I’m baaaack. (Also, free stuff.)

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I’ve been back almost a week now actually, but as I mentioned on FB a few days ago, it’s taken some time for me to get back into my usual routine. Florida was hot. And occasionally rainy. But it was a good trip, and I had a great time hanging out with my dad, which more than made up for the unusually high amount of Donald Trump coverage on the local news. (Seriously, he was all over the place. WTH, Florida?)

I didn’t get as much writing done as I wanted, but I did enough to make me happy. I felt like a teenager again, sitting in my bedroom and secretly handwriting all sorts of illicit stuff. 😀 I also got a fair bit of reading done, making a slight dent in the hundreds of books on my reader.

Now that I’m back, I’m ready to jump back into The Rising Son, the second H.I. book. I think I can have it done in a few weeks, so for now I’m feeling pretty confident about keeping the Father’s Day release date. While I was down there, I came pretty close to finishing the non-vampire short story I mentioned previously, plus I outlined a new story that I want to start as soon as Book 2 is done. So I definitely have plenty of stuff to keep me occupied for the foreseeable future.

The bookmarks I told you guys about are in, so just a reminder, if you want one (or many) let me know. I love how they turned out. Thanks again to Jenny Cotton for making that happen.

Last but not least, A Halloween Interlude is FREE on Smashwords through the end of the month. (I meant to do this before I left but got distracted with pre-trip stuff, sorry.) The coupon code is GE76V. Grab a copy while you can!

That’s it for now. Yes, I know it’s Thursday, so you can expect a TBT post, oh, sometime tomorrow. 😉 Have a nice day!

Some thoughts on HEAs

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Call me weird—because I am—but I don’t always have a resounding preference for romantic stories or arcs with a happy ending. Sure, it’s nice to see a tale come to an end where everything works out perfectly (HEA), or almost perfectly (HFN), and it’s far more preferable not to feel as if part of my soul has been torn apart because a character dies or for whatever other reason is unable or unwilling to be with his beloved. But sometimes I think there are situations in which an ambiguous or unhappy ending is truer to the story. Do those stories make me roll into a ball and cry for hours on end? Yeah, sometimes. However, I can live with that heartbreak as long as it is justified. I think this is the reason why some of my favorite titles don’t end with a happily ever after, because the overall story is better for not having everything tied into a pretty red bow at the end. Not to mention the fact that any feelings of suspense that I might have while reading a story are negated by knowing in advance that everything will work out when all is said and done, where “Oooh, I wonder if they’ll get together” turns into “I wonder how many more pages to go before they get together.” One is not nearly as exciting as the other.

I have no idea if—and I certainly can’t promise—every single one of my stories will end on a pleasant note. My muse has taken me to dark places before, so it’s hard to say. What I can promise is that I will always write an ending that I feel is truest to the story being told. And I hope that counts for something, even if it means that there will be no strolling off into the sunset hand in hand.

And so ends my deep thought for the day, to make up for the fact that I didn’t do a Throwback Thursday post. 😀

E*

Coming up in 2016

Published on by Emma Peterson6 Comments

(Heh, coming—did I ever claim to be mature?)

Anyway, lest anyone think that I’m only capable of writing about vampires, I wanted to share some of the things on my plate for 2016:

  • Um, well, there’s Book 2 of the Harborview Immortals series. And yeah, that’ll have vampires in it, but moving on…
  • A story featuring a different kind of Harborview immortal. The angelic kind. (This will be based on an angel-verse I created years ago. More on that later.)
  • A story about two lifelong friends who end up on opposite sides of the law but manage to put aside their differences for one very special night.
  • A story about two members of a gang, ahem, I mean organization who explore what it really means to be “brothers.”

There are a few more  (shorter) things I’m contemplating right now, but the ones I listed are pretty much set in stone. It’s going to be a busy year.

E*

 

Will write for comments?

Published on by Emma Peterson3 Comments

I’m not referring to myself with that title. I’m referring to something that has intrigued me for many years, and truthfully, I thought it was just a fanfiction thing. Over the past couple of days as I was deciding where to post FM since I never plan to charge a dime for it (I’d publish all my stories for free if I could get away with it because I’m silly like that), I came across a number of instances in which a writer had announced that they were either deleting or no longer continuing a title because they weren’t getting enough comments. And I don’t know, maybe it’s just me (is it?) but I don’t understand that. I absolutely understand wanting and needing to receive recognition from others for the work one puts into creating something to share publicly. We’re giving you a piece of ourselves, and yeah, it would be awesome to get feedback for that. However, I just can’t fathom dropping a project entirely because of the lack of that desired feedback. My stories are my babies, and if I knew that no one else would ever read them except for me, I’d still write them. I really would. Is that weird? Maybe it is. But I’d like to think not.

E*