Tag: the abandoned edge of avalon

February 7, 2011

need a new title.

By  blogs, book cover, rambling, websites  0 Comments

since i’m done with the first leg of my journey … writing a novel and becoming published, i figure it’s time to figure out where this blog’s headed and what to call it. (not the web address … just the title and description)

also, i’ll have an actual, real website up soon. the weebly one was just for fun to see what it’d do as far as stats.
so, i need to decide how that will figure in with all of this.

basically, i’m just confused as hell.
i’ve no clue where to go from here. i feel like luigi in super mario 2 — jumping up high, flailing around and kicking my legs, but not really moving too far forward. at least not at this exact moment.

i do, though, have my book cover finished, or rather, my friend does. well, except for the text on the back.
i hate all my pitches and need to decide what to put back there. and i need to do it soon b/c we’re both DYING to show off the awesomeness that is this cover. seriously…

i have a lot to blog about and have a few posts started that i’m hoping to finish and publish soon.

i must admit, the grass is a bit greener but i think i left my glasses on the other side of the fence because it’s all kinda fuzzy….

now that i have no clue what i said, i’m off to sleep because i’ve been fighting it for 4 1/2 hrs with no real reason.
maybe a title will come to me in a dream ;)
soon,

January 21, 2011

Meet Alexis Hodge (coming to you in paperback and ebook this spring!)

By  after the book is finished, alexis hodge, character, eden tyler, editing, fun:), urban fantasy  0 Comments

So, in the past, I’ve put pics up of characters. Usually, I don’t use pics of real people or anything. My characters just pop in my head and look, well, how they look… I have a friend who looks on the internet for character ideas, but that doesn’t work for me. I did see that one pic for NaNo in ’09 and said, ‘there’s a character in that girl. she definitely has a story to tell.’ But that’s the only time.

I’ve been working on The Abandoned Edge of Avalon (which I realized I’ve announced that it’s being published just about everywhere But here … except for the sidebar, but that doesn’t count.. but it WILL tell you who’s publishing it!) for almost a full two years now — (*read note about this fact at the end*). It’ll probably be released within weeks of the two year *anniversary* of when it was first created. Wait … so wouldn’t that be birthday?? Eh, doesn’t matter..

My point is, I’ve never come across anyone or anything that reminded me of Alexis. I just know her in my mind.
That is, until I was in Walgreens last week waiting on a Rx…
And I saw her. So I took a picture. Actually, I took a few. Good thing she’s inanimate, but even if she hadn’t been, I still probably would have taken one!
My friend, Kim, saw her MC, Megan, at the bus stop or train station or somewhere like that in London (she lives there..) and she didn’t get a pic. Her book, The Border Lord (which I’ve read in its entirety and better get published soon b/c it’s That Good!), is an urban fantasy about a kickass teenager who falls into a crazy adventure (sounds generic, like it’s like all UF, but I promise it’s not!). Anyway, Kim saw Megan  once and probably won’t ever see her again. :( I would have either snuck in a pic or, if she was leaving/moving, I would have asked for one. (I don’t care much about bothering people lol j/k … sorta..)

So anyway, here’s Alexis::

alexispic#1alexispic#3alexispic#2

Yes, she’s a Moxie Girl, aptly named Lexa lol
Alexis isn’t exactly trendy … in fact, she just kind of does her own thing, but I saw this doll and I saw my girl.

My next post about Alexis will list some of her traits of the poster board I made from her character sheet Forever ago when I started the book.

After seeing these pics and reading about her a bit, you might be surprised at the fact that I lied earlier … I have seen Alexis once before. A couple months ago, I saw her in Target — and THIS is what she looked like (but not a vampire!) — so it kind of shows she might go through a bit of a transformation over the course of the novel… ;) But I promise she’ll still always be sweet and ditzy — most of the time….

alexiswithbloodonlip

her eyes are green, though, not blue…

**oh yeah, about it taking 2 yrs to finish my first novel. I read A LOT about how agents hate seeing that because it looks like it’s been out there forever.
Now how is that fair to assume that?
People do have lives that prevent them from writing. They have writer’s block. They have other projects they’d rather work on. And on and on…

for me, there are a lot of reasons it took 2 yrs.
a) i rearranged my chapters and then had to put them all back how they were — that took about 6 wks, at least … probably more.
b) i’ve mentioned this before … i didn’t write for a LONG time because i wasn’t allowed to. so, rather than make my life miserable, i chose not to write.
c) i learned TONS during those years and built up my platform. if i hadn’t learned different things about writing and spent the time researching that i did, there’s NO WAY my book would have had offers on it. not a chance. people liked it at first, but probably only because the story was good and i don’t make many grammatical errors because i’m ocd :P but it needed to be tightened and written right
d) revisions — editing — beta readers — this stuff takes time!!! so yeah, if someone has your book for a month and gives you a ton of feedback and then you correct what you will based on that feedback, then another reader, then another, um. that’s a long time…
ALL I KNOW is that when it boils down to it, most likely if the book’s been “out there” for 2 yrs, that doesn’t mean it took 2 yrs to write or that it’s been on sub for that long or even that one has been querying that long.
for me, when i figure it all out, i think i *maybe* worked approximately 6 mos on the book. which one friend told me was “wayyyy too early” to be querying at that point. but it wasn’t because the learning experience of the other year and a half made a world of difference.

so that’s my two cents (or fifty…) ;)

September 21, 2009

My New Pitch.

By  15 words., Progress  0 Comments

the hook::
Visions of another dimension usher a young woman through an adventure of immorality, virtue, and self-discovery.

* * *

the pitch::
Alexis has always experienced intense dreams. They used to be all sunshine and rainbows, but lately they’ve entered a much darker, depraved realm.

The dreams are actually visions, intended to prepare her for the truth. The reason she’s felt so different since she was a child…
Avalon, an other-world where faeries live, is her real home. Brought into the human realm when she was born, she’s lived that life for twenty-four years.
But now it’s time to venture back with her kind.

A horrible evil has been brewing — waiting just for her.
Something is killing humans and she’s the only one who can stop it.

While attempting to do so, and learn her new place in the universe, she meets up with other, helpful fae. But one shows her that their true nature is to test the limits and mess with the balance.
Will she be able to stay strong and save the humans?
And what will she do when she finds the way to protect them means subjecting some of her own to a horrible death?
She must choose between her two worlds. Which is the right choice?

June 25, 2009

Been Writing. Here’s An Excerpt.

By  excerpts, Help!, if you give a girl a pen, Progress  0 Comments

So I’m working on my blog for give a girl a pen that I have to post tomorrow, plus reviewing some things for people, and trying to write Avalon, so I’ve not the time to blog today.

Instead, I’ll leave you with a super short excerpt from a day in the life of Alexis Hodge =)

*************

Alexis slammed the back door of her ‘parents’’ house, and made a beeline for her car. At least Roxie would make her feel somewhat normal. Her 1967 VW Beetle was in pristine condition, and Alexis could not imagine any other car suiting her so well.

She grabbed the door handle, and quickly drew her hand back.

“Damn it!” That frackin’ hurt! What the hell?

Once again, she attempted to open the car door. Her hand was met with the same response—searing pain.

Can something please be normal in my life for one freaking second today? Just one thing?!

Dropping down to her knees, holding her useless right hand at her waist, Alexis shuffled around in her purse for her phone. Her left hand was fairly incapable of doing anything helpful, but she was able to scroll to Hollie’s number and hit send.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Hols. Can you come help me?” Alexis started to sniffle, and tears once again welled up. She let them fall. And fall.

“What’s going on, sweets? Why are you crying? Where are you?” Hollie sounded frantic.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I just need to leave and I can’t. My parents aren’t my parents and my car just burned me….” She was sobbing so hard at this point that her words were all jumbled together and made no sense.

“Alexis—calm down. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll get over to you. You at home?”

“Yeah,” Alexis managed to blubber out.

Hollie reassured Alexis she’d be right there, and Alexis just let the phone drop back into her purse. She curled up into a ball, her forehead on her knees, tears spilling freely.

When it seemed she no longer had anything left to cry, Alexis felt a reassuring hand on her back. She slowly sat up, wiped her nose with her palm like a little kid, and looked to see who was there.

*************

Most likely, I’ll take a look at this tonight or tomorrow morning and revise a bit. Then I’ll post a revision.
If anyone feels like critiquing, go for it!!
=)