Another Monday

The weekend was spent editing and making bookmarks while DH watched Vin Diesel movies which bled into the XXX series. There was a brief interlude where we went to see The Amateur. (The review for this flick will be Wednesday's post because I'm still thinking about it. Rami Malek is an excellent actor, and I'm reflecting on his performance.)

Anyway, I'm back to writing. It's sad that I have to go to Starbucks and turn off my phone to get any peace and quiet. Do you want to hear something funny? I'm finally not getting hit on by men. It took until the year I turn the big 6-0, but it's a relief.

Of course, it helps that most of the people also going to the neighborhood Starbucks are also women. Plus, the few men I've seen are either with females or keep to themselves. It's one of the few good things in this world today.

Anyway, I'm trying to wrap up an Enchanted Bakery story if you're reading this before 3PM. *fingers crossed* If I do, I start back on A Cup of Conflict later tonight. It's Anthea so I know where the tale is headed. It's a matter of writing it all down.

It's not all work. I've been rewatching Supernatural while I work on the beaded bookmarks. I need to rewake my urban fantasy chops in order to finish The Books of Apep series this summer. The next thing will be to set up the Kickstarter.

I'm getting things accomplished, just slower than I would like.

New Year, New Video, Old Music

Here's the Supernatual folks' antics set to "Shut Up and Dance".

Parodies I Love

Here's Hillywood's second parody of Supernatural. Can you catch all of the cameos?

Parodies I Love

I wanted to post something a little different since August is nearly over. I found this little gem one night in this insane week when I really needed a good laugh.

Sisters and Monsters

I submitted a short story to an editor last night. I don't know why I submitted it.

I had lunch with one of my sorority littles on Saturday. She found me through Facebook shortly before the pandemic started. We hadn't seen each other in thirty-five years and spent a good two hours talking. I made sure to tip our server well for taking up a table for so long.

So what does that have to do with writing and submitting a short story last night?

Little #2 and I didn't like a particular sister. She was a Karen before Karens became a thing. The Particular Sister was constantly trying to get me in trouble with both our sorority advisor and an advisor in another club. She tried to bully the girls in Little #2's pledge class. She was manipulative and passive-aggressive and an all around negative person.

And while I was reminiscing about college yesterday, the perfect revenge story clicked in my head. Or maybe I've watched too many episodes of Supernatural.

Anyway, the story spilled out of me during football yesterday. You know an idea has me in its grip when I pay no attention to a Steelers game.

I finished the story and sent it into the world. If it doesn't sell, I'll post on my author website. Maybe I needed a small break from all my other projects. Maybe I'll write more monster stories and publish a collection.

Either way, the experience helped me deal with some lingering anger at some people who shouldn't matter in my life now. And it felt good.

It's Been a Long, Long Day

I powered through to finish A Twist of Love over the last three days. A friend sent me this meme to cheer me up.

Enforced Rest for the Wicked Writer

I have a minor procedure this morning, so Bella and I will be crashing on my recliner and watching Supernatural on Netflix while I shake off the effects of the anesthesia.

Have a great weekend, everyone! We'll catch you on the other side.

Typos Are Lifeforms...

...and I swear to Cthulu, the little bastards are having crazy bunny sex in my files.

Oh, and I'm trying to battle them while the cold virus from two weeks ago is having a major hot tub party in my sinuses.

So while I edit, I'll leave you with this funny for the day...

No Movies?!

Nope, no new (to me) movie reviews this week. I've been trying to catch up on my summer shows before the fall TV season starts in between writing sessions.

Over the weekend, a friend and I were lamenting over the dearth of movies we like in the fall season. I miss the paranormal action flicks like Underworld. He wondered why no hard science fiction movies were coming out, a la Interstellar or Gravity.

The only thing remotely interesting to me before the holiday blockbuster season launches is The Predator, yet another reboot. My desire to see it stems from the cast. Sterling K. Brown can do no wrong in my opinion. Though most people know him from This Is Us, he will always be Gordon Walker, the misguided, doomed hunter from Supernatural.

Is anybody else feeling like everything is a rehash? Is there some new flick you're looking forward to between now and November?

Adorable Moment

Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins have way too much fun at their job...

DON'T LOOK, ETHEL!

As a character in a total separate franchise would say with a coy look, "Spoilers."


Yes, Jared Padalecki let something slip at a recent con. The reason I love this video is the look Jensen gives him is a TOTAL Dean "Sammy, you fucked the pooch" look.


It still takes Jared another 10 seconds to realize what he'd done. Then comes the adorable attempt to backtrack.


I can understand the problem. I have to be super careful about what I post on www.suzanharden.com because, well, I know all the major plot twists.


In Jared's defense, and if you're a Supernatural fan, you should have already figured this out.


* * *

SPOILER VIDEO


* * *

When a Fan Wants to Mash-up Your Series

A couple of weeks ago, a non-writing reader asked me what would happened if Sam Ridgeway ever met Justice Anthea.

Ummm...

Don't get me wrong. I'll be the first one to admit I love me some fan fiction. Heck, I've posted links to some good stuff here. Fanfic lets you experiment with the story and try new things. In fact, one of my favorite episodes of Supernatural is when the Winchesters find out about Chuck Shurley's novels. Then to Dean's eternal WTF, he discovers fan fiction about himself.

Dean: There's Sam girls and Dean girls. And what's a slash fan? 

Sam: As in... Sam slash Dean. Together.  

Dean: Like... together together?  

Sam: Yeah.  

Dean: They do know we're brothers, right?  

Sam: Doesn't seem to matter.  

Dean: Ah, come on. That... that's just sick.

*sigh* At least my reader wasn't suggesting girl-on-girl or incest action with my heroines because the subject matter doesn't quite mesh with my Suzan books.

But his question did get me thinking. What would happen if for some reason the two met?

I think Anthea would smack Sam upside her head for being a dumbass.

So what do you call it if you write fanfic about your own characters?

The Perfect Death

The Family That Slays Together

Consequences

This picture in the form of a magnet rests on my refrigerator door. There's two reasons for it.

Reason #1: In any career, a person must continue to learn new things. Sometimes though, the lessons become so embedded in the subconscious that you don't realize you've learned it until you use it.

Reason #2: I love the TV show Supernatural. I didn't watch it for the first four seasons because I was afraid I'd jinx it.

On a side note: Every frickin' time I fall in love with a show in it's first season, it gets canceled. Misfits of Science. Cancelled. Quark. Cancelled. Almost Human. Cancelled. Hell, I didn't watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer until the John Ritter episode late in the second season because I didn't want it to get cancelled.

Anyway, back to Supernatural. Once the producers and writers got past creator Eric Kripke's original five-season story arc of stopping the Christian apocalypse, the following season dealt with the ramifications of Sam's last episode of Season 5 decision.  Subsequent seasons create a gigantic pile of decision/consequence until the stack tumbles with the twelfth (current) season back to the variation of the original problem, stopping Lucifer.

Consequences of past decisions has been an occurring theme over the last two seasons of The Walking Dead and in the last several books of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series as well.

As I'm working on the last three books of the Bloodlines series, I already knew they dealt with the consequences of Sam's creation. But I started wondering how to work in the consequences of the other characters' decisions into the last volumes.

And when I was re-reading a section of Ravaged the other night, I realized I had already done so. Specifically, the consequences of Bebe's decision in Blood Magick and Alex's in Blood Sacrifice. I knew these two characters need to be in Ravaged, but I didn't know why until I watched the mid-season finales of both The Walking Dead and Supernatural. And in separate conversations, Logan (who made a very brief appearance in Zombie Love) and Alyson (a new to readers character) come right out and say, "Yeah, it's your fault because of what you did/failed to do, but now, we need to figure out how to clean up the mess."

Wow! Talk about an epiphany.

So, keep studying the things you like, understand why you like them, and it'll improve your writing.

Shows I've Been Watching Lately

Because Jensen Ackles is so fucking adorable!

Why Diaogue Is Important for a Character

Check out the following clip from Supernatural.



If the actors weren't there, if all you had was a script with the character names blacked out, you still be able to tell the difference between Sam, Dean, Castiel, Bobby, Adam/Michael, Crawley, Eve, Charlie, etc.

Why?

Because each character is unique. Three-dimensional. And they each have their own verbal tics and cadence.

Here's an exercise for beginner and advanced writers. Get a partner. Each of you record a show that
the other partner has not seen, or at most, caught three or fewer episodes. (You can cheat and pick out a clip on YouTube like I did.)

Write down the dialogue for one scene, but with altered tags. Example: Dean would Character 1. Castial would be Charater 2. And so on. Or use highlighters, i.e. Dean would be blue, Castiel yellow, etc.

Trade pages and read aloud to each other. Every human (and angel) speaks with a particular rhythm. From the rhythm, word choice, inflection, and so on, write down your impressions of each character. Then trade back and see how close you were. In fact, I suggest watching the entire episode that your example dialogue came from to see the connection.

Study and apply to your characters

Why is this important?

Because you want your readers to feel that you characters are real. And because it's always hysterically funny when an angel mangles a human insult.