Music
Tie Dye of the Day
Music
I’ve always found it amazing how much the music I listen to effects the mood of the story I’m writing and my character’s personalities. It’s really difficult to describe how the music makes you feel. Putting it into words is nearly impossible, but the music always seemed to be the lynch pin that pushes my creativity forward and brings me to all different emotional heights, heights that force me to run as fast as I can to find my notebook and get to work immediately. So, I thought I’d share just a few musical pieces that helped me to shape my novel, The God Machine.
First off, I’d like to explain the way I use music in my novels. The songs I use are my characters. Every time that character’s song plays, I brain goes to that character and I, in a sense, become that character. My mind will reset, and all my thoughts will go to that character, how they feel, who they are, how that song describes them perfectly. The song will put me in a mindset that helps me to see how that one person will react to certain situations. In my mind, it keeps their personalities separate because no one wants to read a book where every character is a cookie cutter of the last. That would be no fun.
So, what songs did I pick to represent my characters? Sometimes the song picks the character. For me, it happens when I’m walking along listening to my IPod. All the sudden it hits me. I gasp, and then I realize… This song is Salamander! Holy Crap!
I’ll start off with Salamander’s song. It’s “The Voice” by The Moody Blues. I also was quite fond of Steppin’ in a Slide Zone. Those two songs came to me when I was trying to write the Gauntlet of Fire scene. The great thing about fantasy writing is that you get to make things up completely, world build, but that is also the bad thing about it. I had no clue what the Gauntlet of Fire looked like until that song, The Voice, sneaked its way onto my IPod. When that song played I went from knowing absolutely nothing to absolutely everything about the Gauntlet in a matter of hours. When I heard the music, I saw Salamander get up off the ground and he was running. I could see his wand broken in half and each piece was in his hand. Like Spider Man, he flew into the air and attached himself to this terrible machine, and he had to climb up it by sinking the pointy ends of his wand into it and pulling himself up. Then I realized the machine was alive and evil and it bled acid blood, but Salamander was determined to get inside and defeat the monster. This song is so full of determination, and heart. It speaks of the future and the past and love and finding your dreams. This song is such a beautiful masterpiece, and it’s all Salamander.
Zolton’s song had been a favorite of mine when I was a teen and I hadn’t listened to it for over ten years when I found it again. It is called “The Everlasting Gaze” by The Smashing Pumpkins. It was also where I came up with the title The God Machine. This song spoke to me because when I listened to it, I heard a tale of lost love, and of a man who wanted his love to know that he was still here, still waiting for a chance to get her back, “forever waiting on the ways of your desire.” He still had his duty, yet he was still in love.
Ferret has two songs, but I say that’s okay. The first one is “The Changeling” by the Doors. You’ll know why if you read the book. The second one is “Like a Stone” by Audio Slave. Before I had to slash and burn song lyrics from my book for copyright reasons, this is one song out of many that Ferret would sing to Amanda to get her to remember him(for the sake of not giving the plot away I’m just going to say that Amanda has amnesia). There was a beautiful scene where Ferret and Amanda were on the beach and he’d been trying to get her to forget about Zolton for a century and he finally wooed her by singing this song to her. “In your house I long to be, room by room patiently. I’ll wait for you there like a stone. I’ll wait for you there alone.” Sadly, I didn’t want to get sued so I had to cut it, but that song does very well to describe Ferret’s heartache, and desperation of chasing after this woman who doesn’t remember the lifetime of love they shared, and she is now in love with another man.
Merlin’s song is really more prominent in the next book because the next book is going to be all about Merlin. His song is “Snow (Hey Oh)” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This just happens to be one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, and It’s difficult to explain exactly how this became Merlin’s song. Well, here goes, I heard lyrics that were not the real lyrics to the song and it gave me the book idea. I can’t go into too much detail because it’s a storyline I’ve never seen done before, but for the sake of the song, Merlin is referred to as “The Perfect Wonder” and his love interest is the “Soul White as Snow.” The real lyrics are “SO white as snow,” but the damage is done.
Bernie’s song is “Once Upon a Time in your Wildest Dreams” by the Moody Blues, but only the intro.
As you can see, I am back from the dead! Yea! After two and a half months of migraines and last week with the Austrailian Norovirus, you can bet that I’m soooo ready to get back to my writing. Actually, today is the first time I’ve actually felt GOOD since the beginning of November. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking while I’ve been incapacitated, and I’ve decided that I would like to put The God Machine on my blog for free for all my WordPress friends. I noticed that my book is exactly 28 chapters long and tomorrow is the first day of February, so starting tomorrow, I will be presenting 28 days of The God Machine! I’ve been enjoying The Redemption of Erath by my blog friend Satis for a long time, and think he might be onto something. Also I don’t really care if I make money on my books. I just want to entertain people, so be prepared!!!! Here comes the entertainment!!! Tomorrow I will be putting up chapter 1 of The God Machine!
It’s just me…
As I expected, November and December were bad migraine months. In the two month span, I think I might have had one week total without any pain at all, and those days were spread out.
I had been editing and eventually published my novel, The God Machine, in between migraine attacks. I have a new rule. Keep your hand away from the red publish button whilst in the middle of a month of Migraines! Thank God I didn’t sell much, cause it needed more work.
The way I’m doing it is probably not the best, but I’ve been editing a section of my book a day and republishing the better edits.
Also, I really need to rework my blurb for The God Machine. I knew for months it needed to be done because the current one looked more YA appealing than romance, but I think I have it now.
It’s really quite miraculous how these things happen. Yesterday morning, after a long night of tryptophan induced dreams, I popped up, and the first thing that popped into my head was a great first line for my TGM blurb….and then I wrote the rest of the blurb in five minutes. That brings letting things percolate to a whole new level. I hate migraines, but I love being a writer!
So I will re-re-edit The God Machine, Re-re-edit The Fall and hope to have it out by the end of January, Finish my alien series, etc….
There is no end!!!!!
Negative Reviews Aren’t Stopping People
Well everyone, I am having a heck of a time in my life right now. I’ve helped move the Heath food store in which I am currently employed, I’m about to be between jobs, I’ve started my own Etsy store for my tie dye, and I’m editing two novels that I have written. Looking at it all written down I am realizing just how busy I’ve been this last month. Yikes!
But there is another yikes I would like to discuss in this post, and it is the topic of book reviews on Amazon and Smashwords. What an insane source of confusion I have stumbled upon. I have received several bad, stinky, terrible, reviews for To Love a Beast, stuff that has made me question myself as a writer, stuff that has made me cringe. Then, on the other hand, I’ve gotten several nice emails from a few ladies wanting to get on an email list for when I finish the second book in my series. Another thing, my sales are up!?!? I don’t get it. Talk about mixed signals! The bad reviews aren’t stopping anyone from buying my crappy novel. Looking forward to more disappointed people I guess, but I’d like to think they were content with their purchase. I hope. I hope. Oh well, just gotta keep moving down the road and hope to keep improving.
The tie dye of the day for today is one of the first shirts I’ve ever done. I still have it and it’s still gorgeous at three years old.
Come Look at my Etsy Shop!
Hey bloggers, Butterfly Tie Dye is up and running on Etsy! http://www.etsy.com/shop/ButterflyTyeDye. I’ve currently only have eight shirts in stock, but it’s a good start for me. If you like my tie dye of the day and would like to have one or two for yourselves, you can purchase some of my tie dyes from me Etsy store Butterfly Tie Dye.
Tie Dye of the Day is currently available at the Butterfly Tie Dye Etsy store. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ButterflyTyeDye
As for my writing career…I’ve been damn busy moving the health food store for the last two weeks so editing of The God Machine has been few and far between. I have found little snitches of time here and there to iron out a few major woopsies in my MS, but not much. I’ve been seven to nineing it, as I like to call it. I have been working most days from 9-7, and then I get home at about 7:15 and I crank up the computer and I edit as fast as I can before nine o’clock. I know I should probably keep going after nine, but I don’t function the next day unless I go to bed at nine and get up at eight thirty the next morning. What can I say, I’m a wimp!
Was I crazy to think that I could be finished editing two of my own books by the end of September? Probably, yes, but I gave it my best shot. Since I shot that goal, I suppose I should make another one. Maybe I’ll just have to get done when I get done. You can’t rush genius you know…(Yes that was too much. Wyle E Coyote…super genius!)
So you lovely people have hopefully read my chapter one of The God Machine. Hope you liked it. Well, I’m going to try something different for me. I’m going to ask if any of you would like to be a beta reader. I’ve never had anyone other than myself, Aric, and Sheree look at my first book before I unleashed it upon the world. I think it might be helpful for a few more eyes to oogle my baby before I send her out. If you’d like to be a beta reader, please comment.
Finally, I would like to thank M.S. Fowle for working so diligently and professionally to get my cover for The God Machine ready to roll. She was a delight to work with and her creations are stellar. If you need a cover done you can visit http://melchelledesigns.com/tag/ebook-cover/ . I will reveal the cover a little bit later, but I absolutely love it.
Happy writing!
Nothing Left to do But Edit
The typing phase is done. The pages of my notebooks have run empty. I’ve been typing feverishly for the past month trying to get that second draft (typing draft) of my wip into my computer, and now it has come to pass. The God Machine has been digitized!
I noticed how light my back pack was this morning. Yes, I had my computer in it, but it just felt wrong. Those two think notebooks that I would drag around with me everywhere I went, they were gone. Full of life and beauty, full of blue pen and red pen and folded down pages, chapter notes, wizard’s names, apprentice names, magic… now they are just piles of dead tree. How quickly the magic goes away from one medium and is transferred to another. A new phase begins today…Real, hard, destructive editing. This should be fun.
Construction to Destruction
Going from the creative writing part of being a writer (construction) to the editing part (destruction) is hard!
I just finished writing The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (working title) and I am now ready to start chopping that sucker up and making it readable. I also have another finished novel that I should have been editing, but instead I indulged my muse and finished The Sorcerer’s Apprentice letting The Fall fall by the wayside.
My predicament is I’m still feeling creative and am just itching to keep going with more fun writing. The only problem with that is I have two books here waiting to be edited and if I don’t get them finished they won’t ever be seen and I won’t make any money to support myself, my cat, and my muse…
Yikes! I don’t want to shut down the creative center, but on the other hand I do like to eat every now and then.
Time to put on the big girl pants and start editing and revising. I’ll write a little bit to keep the nasty monster away, but that other work must be done, too. A good balance of work and play makes the Teri a happy writer.
I am also thinking about putting my whole wizard book up on its own blog, a chapter or two a week. I heard from some sources that it is a good idea, but some that it’s not. I know a few of my followers have done this in the past and i was wondering if any of you wanted to give me any pointers or opinions about this. Any opinions will be appreciated.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Ack! I Just Learned Something Important!
Well, I knew it was coming. I got my first bad review for my book, but you know what? I’m not disappointed. The person was really helpful telling me things that I should work on and things I didn’t even know I should work on. Thank God for Smashwords. I can change things!
Okay, so there were a lot of things that she said that were nit picky and I fixed them in five minutes. I’ve been on the Google and I found out that I am having trouble with Homophones. What’s a Homophone? No, it’s not a pink cell phone that has the hots for another pink cell phone. A Homophone is a word that sounds like the same word but has a different spelling and different meaning, like wench and winch. Sorry guys and gals, I am not an English major. Mom sent me to school for business. I can only go off of what my mid-west high school English teachers told me, or what I look up, and if I don’t know to look it up, well, you know the rest. I will definitely be looking into those Homophones in the future. (P.S. I don’t blame my teachers for this. I was not the best student. OOPS!)
Another thing, and I’m a little embarrassed because I had NO CLUE, is head hopping. I had to surf two or three or ten web pages before I knew what the heck people were talking about, and it is a bit disconcerting for me. I knew that you weren’t supposed to do it, but I really wasn’t sure what it was. I assumed if you were writing omnisciently (red line is telling me it’s not a word) that you knew what everybody was thinking all the time. Not really, if you’re the little gnome riding inside one person’s brain, you apparently are supposed to stay there till the end of the scene just to keep the reader from freaking out. I’m not sure. I’m going to look into this further and see what I can do for my jumping gnome. If anyone has any opinions or a better way to explain this I would appreciate a comment or two.
Happy writing!
Get to Work!
Hello bloggers, damn it’s good to be back in the land of the healthy. I am officially on my fourth day post root canal, and I have to say I feel great. Getting back into the writing groove has been a little bit rocky especially because I’ve had 2 infections over the past month. It’s definitely hard to get back into the game after you’ve been sick so long, but today the words seem to be flowing, so it’s time to get back to it!
This post should be fun. I dreamed it up while I was hopped up on pain meds…haven’t needed them in 3 days mind you. A lot of people wonder about the lives of writers and what they do and where they work all day. I can’t say anything about anyone else, but I think my story is pretty interesting. I thought I’d share.
Here’s where the magic happens for me. Behind the Aura Cacia at ye ole health food store. I think I’m pretty blessed to have the place all to myself for 40 hours a week with the occasional customer coming to shmooze with me, and hopefully buy some supplements. You’ll see my second biz, the tie dye down below. If there is one thing you can count on, I always have some tie dye with me somewhere. I keep it in the store so it doesn’t get that car sitting in the sun smell.
On closer inspection, I’ve got my current editing project, The Fall, on my computer. I’ve got the aliens in my notebook next to me just in case I lose my mind and can’t edit anymore. I’ve got my Ipod music set to Dr. Jeffery Thompson’s Creative mind system. If you’re in a non writing lurch this will get your creative juices flowing again. ( I recommend the 2.0 system. It’s just better).
The very first time I used the system was when I wrote the first chapter of To Love a Beast (available on Smashwords). I wrote for 24 hours straight. That whole first 50 pages were pretty damn racy for me (it’s 36 now if you were counting. Editing), and I just kept going and going and going. It was like a writing cleanse/detox. Got it all out , baby!
Also, speaking of creative juices, I have a nice bottle of Aura Cacia Creative Juice always in hand. It doesn’t work quite as well as the theta waves in my Creative Mind System, but it works pretty well on its own.
Other good creative remedies I like to use are Phosphatitlesterine and think O2 tea. All these things get the blood rushing to your brain and your brain thinking faster. That’s one of the great things about working in a health food store. You’ve got access! And lots and lots and lots of spare time for your writing.
Just in case you were wondering, here is a picture of my little slice of Heaven. I will never ever ever ever ever leave this place.
Have a great day and buy a tie dye.
The Naked Duchess
I’ve been working feverishly on my next novel To Love One’s Husband (Battle Royal) The sequel to To Love a Beast available on Smashwords etc.. A little snag called a week full of migraines has temporarily slowed my progress and hindered my blog. My mind is finally beginning to clear, so I thought I’d share a scene I’ve been working on. I hope you enjoy.
The Naked Duchess
By Teri Butterfly Harvey
Maddie relaxed in the warmth and comfort of her giant copper tub. It was exactly the thing she needed after a long morning of taunting her husband, and Charles, she’d discovered, was much too easy. Denying him his baser needs was quite possibly the cruelest thing she could do to him, especially after he’d so adamantly admitted his desire for offspring. Of course, he’d been much crueler to her in the past.
“EEP!” she heard Gabby squeak from the other side of the room divider. Maddie sat up as she heard the door to her closets slam shut.
“Charles…” she grumbled. Of course it was him, and of course he waited until she was wet and vulnerable to come take his revenge, to come take her. He’d become so predictable lately. Even with guests in the house, Charles was determined to get exactly what he wanted. Even with guests in the house he would not be shy about making her scream. He knew her voice echoing through the massive townhouse and into the guests ears would embarrass her more than she could bear, and he would take pleasure in it.
Maddie sat up bracing herself for whatever onslaught he’d prepared for her. It had been four days after all, and she supposed four days was enough to make him suffer. She wasn’t that cruel, and his relief would also be hers. She lay back in her tub disappointed when Gabby slipped back passed the dressing screen.
“Damn, I thought you were my husband,” Maddie said evenly.
Gabby said nothing as she stared back at her mistress. When Maddie’s eyes lifted back to her lady’s maid Gabby’s face was ashen with shock.
“What ever is the matter?” Maddie asked worried.
“They’re gone!” Gabby shrieked. “Every stitch is gone, just gone!”
“What is gone?” Maddie asked.
“Your clothing! All your morning dresses, riding habits, chemises, evening gowns, they’re all gone!”
Maddie gasped and sat up. “What about the dress I wore this morning?”
“I sent it down for mending. The only things left in the closet are your hats.”
“Of course he left the hats…” Maddie sighed cursing him under her breath. Charles knew her extreme dislike for hats, and he never failed to tease her about it. She angrily hit the top of the water with her fist splashing it onto the floor. Then she crossed her arms.
She’d remembered his words from the night before. She’d never seen him so enraged, but she stood her ground.
He said, “Madison, if you do not make an appearance in your bedchamber this very eve, I will burn every stitch of clothing you have and force you to walk around naked and cold until you give me what I want.”
Her response, “Just you try it!”
Maddie, of course, slept once again in one of the guest suites, supposedly to be near her dear friend the Viscountess Candace. That was the story for propriety sake anyway. She hardly even knew Candace who was only here because she followed the Viscount and made the excuse that she’s wanted to see Maddie. Now they were even. Truly, she’d vacated the duchess’s suite for the soul reason of rousing her husband’s wrath, but it seemed her rousing may have worked too well. Charles had done nothing short of making good on his word.
Maddie stood quickly letting all the water flow off her. Gabby hurried to her with the towel wrapping her up in it.
“At least he didn’t get this!” Maddie said running across the room to her closets. She had to see it for herself. Gabby ran behind her trailing her mistress. Maddie flung the door open and stared at the empty space. Of course, she never doubted that Gabby was telling the truth.
Maddie’s heart pounded and her whole body turned red with anger. She was so angry that she could hardly breathe.
“Oh, I told you you should not tease his grace this way. He was vexed something awful last night,” Gabby piped frustrated. “Now what are we going to do? How are you going to entertain your guests with no dress?”
Maddie sighed, and then she smiled. Her smile only grew wider after the closed the closet door behind her. “Gabby, my dear, you are genius.”
“Oh, dear lord, I know that look in your eyes. What have I done?”
“Charles took all of my clothing. That’s just fine,” Maddie said slowly calming as her mind formulated a plan. “Perhaps the old Maddie would stay hidden in this room pouting until Charles returns for his prize, but not this Maddie. I am a duchess now, and as duchess, I believe much more is expected of me. Wouldn’t you say?”
“What are you going to do?” Gabby breathes fearfully.
“I am not just going to sit up here while he entertains our guests laughing at what a cake he’s made out of me. No, I’ll make him eat his words. Then we’ll see just who the cake is.”
“You don’t mean what I think you mean…”
Maddie whipped the towel off her naked body and left it in a heap at her feet. All Gabby could do was gasp and stand back.
“Oh yes, I do. I am going for a walk!”
An Insane Marketing Sceme from Bflyzone…
Hello fellow Word Press bloggers, especially bloggers with books out. While I was out buying shoes today, my brain sprouted a miraculous marketing scheme to sell more copies of my novel. It would also help other authors who blog and currently have a book they are wanting to sell. I’m not sure if anyone else has done this sort of thing before, but a little experimentation never hurt anyone. Plus, I have a marketing degree, and marketing strategies are always bouncing around my head. I’ll tell you all my plan and then I will welcome any suggestions, comments, anger that may arise.
Here is my plan:
First, everybody who has a book to sell use a blog post to promote your book. I want to see a picture of the cover, links to where you can buy it, if you’re bold, maybe a sample chapter, the meaning of life, your sample query, basically any metadata that you have and are willing to share of your book. Then post it to your blog.
Then, this is where the rest of us come in, when I receive someones marketing blog, I will push the re-blog button on your page…and like…and possibly comment.
When I re-blog, your post will be shown to all my friends at Facebook, all my twitter friends, and all the Word Press subscribers who don’t know you exist yet. I don’t know about you guys, but my friends are readers and someone out there may end up buying your book. Hell, I might end up buying your book. It could be cool. The best part is, it’s free!
I suggest doing this on the first day of every month just so our inboxes don’t explode. We also don’t have to make a new one every month. We can just re-blog the old one again later. I think it would be a great opportunity for free marketing and for platform growing. We all know how important those platforms are. Cause if we didn’t have a platform, we’d either be standing in alligator infested water…or getting naked for peanut butter. (Sorry for the OLD Survivor joke. Hope it didn’t go over your heads.)
What say you?
bflyzone 