Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Writer's Block

It happens. The moment in your writing career when you hit a wall with your work in progress. The manuscript you have been dreaming about for months.  The characters that come to your mind at all times of day or night. The ideas that started as a wrecking ball in your brain somehow take a wrong turn and get lost.  Feelings of complete frustration take a front seat.  You stare at the screen on your computer and watch as your cursor blinks at you, over and over again, begging you to just type.  However, your fingers seem to have frozen, and the thoughts are empty.
It's a very lonely feeling. If you are like me, the characters become a part of your daily ritual, always there to keep you company. When they are gone, all you have left are visions of a blank white screen. 
If you haven't already concluded from my topic, this is exactly where I'm at. My white screen of death stares at me day in and day out, begging for me to return, only to be left disappointed. My current manuscript has been written, deleted, revised, renamed, and screamed at so many times in the last couple of months I decided to take a step back and try something new. I decided I would back off for a while and maybe do some more research, talk with my "muse", read, work on marketing for my other two books, or just take some time for myself. 
I found the perfect quote for my situation and thought I would share:

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
- Douglas Adams

This simple quote helped me realize that it happens to everyone, and soon my characters will be back, begging to be brought back to life. Until then, I think I may try my hand at a new bit of writing, maybe a short story. Or maybe it's time to step out and enjoy the much needed sunshine of a beautiful spring day. 

To my fellow writers, what have you done to overcome writers block?

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Author Interview

Thank you to Cheryl Carpinello from Carpinello's Writing Pages for the wonderful author interview.  You can check it out by clicking HERE.

Happy Reading!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

A little Teaser....

For the last few months I have been crazy busy with life.  I was excited for the beginning of a new year, so I could set aside some time to write again.  Today was the first time I have been able to get back to my new manuscript. It is currently without a title as it is a work in progress. I have decided to post a little teaser from Chapter one.  I want to know what you think? So after you have read the teaser, make sure you post a comment letting me know your feelings on this new story!

My heart beat wildly in my chest, I could feel the air around me go stale.  The taste of metal on my tongue alerted me to a static charge in the air.  A burst of lighting shot through the dark, followed by a thunderous boom.  I didn’t move.  Death stared at me, his dark skin matching his black cloak in the shadows.
            “Why are you here?” I asked bravely.
            His eyes grew even darker as he stared at me. “You already know why I am here.”  He walked closer, the air growing colder with his every step.
            I could see my breath in the air now.  The lighting streaked the sky above me, lighting the darkness, outlining the figure of the dark man.  He reached for me, his cold fingers traced down the bare skin on my arm.  The icy touch froze my blood, and my breathing became labored.  He was going to kill me. 
©Alicia Rivoli 2014

What are your thoughts?  Any idea's for a title?  :)

Thursday, December 12, 2013

I'm Still Here!

I must sincerely apologize for my prolonged absence on my blog.  Between school breaks, snow days, book signings and birthday's my life has been a roller coaster.  I really have had another good excuse for being absent...meet Oscar
Oscar is now a 14 week old Havanese puppy, (with a permanent case of bed head) and he has been keeping me very very busy!  Now that he is "mostly" housebroken, I might be able to get some writing in. (knock on wood)

My newest novel is coming along quite nicely, although I'm struggling with a title, I plan on hopefully posting a little sneak peak when I've traveled a little more into the life of Amelia! ;)

In case I don't have the opportunity to write again before the holiday's, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Tween the Weekends Author Interview!

This post is brought to you by www.emblazon.com!

This author interview is with Charity Bradford

Welcome Charity thanks for talking to us today and letting us have a little insight into you and your books.

Q: Tell us about your books, Magic Wakes and Stellar Cloud.
The Magic Wakes is a mix of light science fiction, fantasy, and adventure with a touch of romance. Talia continually dreams of the invasion of her planet and her death at the hands of a species of half human half dragons. As the nightmares increase in frequency, she knows the annihilation of her world is drawing near. On her planet Sendek, magic is dead and science rules, forcing Talia to keep another secret, one that could cost her everything if it were known. Now, in order to save her planet, Talia must awaken the powers within her and rely at last on the magic that is her true inheritance.

Stellar Cloud is a collection of short stories. A soldier struggles with the emptiness left behind by amnesia until he learns he is more than the world would have him remember. The earth is desolate, and only one ship of humans remains. An assassin plays god, dealing out justice and mercy as he sees fit. Explore the outer reaches of the imagination through these and other short stories. From brainwashed clones to winged aliens of destruction, the stories in Stellar Cloud will pull in any lover of science fiction and fantasy.

Q: What’s your genre and why did you choose it?
I’ve always loved science fiction and fantasy so when I started writing I naturally drifted that way. The ability to lose myself in fictional worlds makes me happy, and I hope to share that with others.

Q: What’s the biggest obstacle you faced with your writing journey?
Time. It’s hard to balance the time needed to write with everything else in my life. My muse rarely shows up at convenient times and sometimes I fear my family suffered for it. Now I’m trying harder to keep a better balance.

Q: Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?
Most of my ideas come from crazy dreams. The others come from everyday events around me. I’m always asking, “what if...”

Q: Who or what are your influences?
This is a hard one. I believe that all my life experiences, as well as every book I’ve ever read, combine to influence my imagination and thus my writing. Growing up I read a lot of the classic science fiction authors—Asimov, Bova, Card, Nivens, Nagata...

Q: Are you self-published, legacy or a combination?
The Magic Wakes was with a small publisher, but I self-published Stellar Wakes. It has been interesting to see how things work on both of those fronts.

Q: What was the hardest part of your self-pub / publishing journey?
I have a list for this one!
  • I didn’t realize how important it would be for me to learn to be patient with myself.
  • Allowing myself to write horrible first drafts so I have something to revise.
  • Learning that not every idea is worth a full length novel.
  • Learning to trust my instincts in spite of what others were saying.

Q: What format are your books available in?
The Magic Wakes is available in print and for Kindle. Stellar Cloud is currently just kindle, but I’m working on the print formatting now.

Q: How many books have you published so far?
These are the only two so far.

Q: What things did you outsource, if any at all?
With Stellar Cloud I was lucky enough to have my brother-in-law do the cover art. He did an AMAZING job! I did everything else.

Q: What’s the best bit of advice you received when starting out?
We’ve all heard it—write what you know. I took this to mean write about the emotions and internal conflicts that I understand. Obviously I’ve never drank the sunsrise to heal myself, but I love sitting in my back yard with the sun warming my face. It offers a little emotional medicine to my soul. I took that and ran with it in The Magic Wakes.

Q: What advice would you offer to the future Authors out there?
Don’t give up! Put in the time to get better and better, learn to use criticism to your advantage, and keep dreaming.

Q: What’s next for you? Any projects in the pipeline for us to look forward to?
I’m nearing the end of a YA Fantasy as well as digging into the sequel for The Magic Wakes.

Q: Give us one of your favourite quotes……………….
It's easy to believe in magic when you're young. Anything you couldn't explain was magic then. It didn't matter if it was science or a fairy tale. Electricity and elves were both infinitely mysterious and equally possible - elves probably more so.” 
 Charles de Lint

Q: And finally tell us something random about yourself to make us chuckle………………………….
This one is hard! I don’t think I do many funny things, but I do a lot of stupid things. Because my head is so full of other worlds and strange characters, I often have a hard time paying attention to the real world. One time I placed a pot of chilli on top of my car while loading my kids to go to a church pot luck. I forgot about that chilli until I pulled onto the street and it went flying across the road. Another time we were at a neighbourhood picnic and I left my husband and baby sitting on a blanket to run inside for a minute. When I came back I sat down and snuggled up really close to who/what should have been my husband. Unfortunately, my hubby had gotten up as well and a neighbour had sat down with his baby. So embarrassing! I couldn’t look at the poor man for a week!

Click the Links below to purchase the books, or learn more about Charity.

Goodreads Page-- https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6542670.Charity_Bradford
Read the First Chapter of The Magic Wakes for free-- http://charitybradford.com/books-2/original-first-chapter/


Reading and Signing Event!


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

IBD Award!

Mere Enchantment has won the IBD Award! Get your copy today!

 http://indiebookoftheday.com/mere-enchantment-by-alicia-rivoli/