...And what fuels me to finish my fantasy series sooner...

...Is the idea of a new series.

The other day I had the audacity to consider the end of the series when one or two of my heroines could possibly admit to being pregnant. What the hell am I doing to myself? What does this all mean??

It means that I spent a good amount of--i.e. "too much"--thought the few days following on a NEW series focusing on the offspring of the original five couples from the fantasy quinary. I drew out family trees. I contemplated villains and plot points. I settled on genders and names...names!!

And not only that, but I had already started writing a bit about one of the children, the only daughter of Sebastyan and Kailyynn--golden-haired, golden-skinned Luciana. She's tied to her Italian roots, and she just so happened to have stepped into her daddy's old role.

I'm so bad. I'm so in trouble. This world will consume me, and the only thing I can do to control it is write everything down and leave it be.

So, anyway, I look to JNoWriMo with hope that I can finish my first book and move on to the second. Slowly and surely I will find my way to the end, and then planning out the series of 10+ children would make sense.

JLH

JNoWriMo coming up.

As NaNoWriMo was a success (sorry I forgot to post... At 11:59 p.m. on November 30, I succeeded in realizing the 50,000 word goal, but without actually finishing the story), JNoWriMo is set to commence at midnight on January 1st.

What could easily be considered "January" Novel Writing Month is actually "Jen's" Novel Writing Month, and my goals are the same as the standard NaNoWriMo competition--50,000 words and/or finishing a novel. Only this time I will finish my novel. And I intend to have a JNoWriMo every two or three months each year. I can afford to be antisocial for 3-6 months out of the year, can't I? If it means I can realize my dream one finished novel at a time?

Book 1 of the fantasy romance quinary I had started went very well, but I am trying hard to NOT to write in any story besides Book 1 in order to finish it and move on.

So I need to finish Book 1 and move on.

My head is swollen with new ideas for new or existing stories, and while I write them down, I can't very well expound upon them without having another finished tome under my belt. NO GODDAMN EXCUSES.

JLH

NaNoWriMo--Day 1.

As my husband is working on NaNoWriMo as well, he's alerted me to a few things I was not aware of. First of all, I did not know there were some actual specifics or guidelines to follow when completing this task. Naturally, gauging your writing is up to the individual based on their time and commitment level; I figure writing 1-5 pages a day is pretty darn good.

Apparently, the goal is to write at least 50,000 words...~1,667 words a day. That's about three pages.

I can't remember my daily/weekly goes last year, if I had any. I just have one goal: finish a novel by December 1. We'll see if I set and stick to any smaller goals within that one.

JLH

The Month of November, 2011.

Well, it’s been awhile since my last post, all thanks to Twitter for keeping me from posting 140-character-max drivel on individual blog postings.

Does anybody know what tomorrow is? Yes, tomorrow is the day after Halloween, which makes me quite sad that the holiday is over and the “big” holidays are upon us. If you said Dia de los Muertos, you’d also be correct, but as I am not Hispanic or Catholic, this means little to me. No, tomorrow marks the beginning of NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month.

Last year was the first year I discovered and partook in the movement, the final product being my first ever completed novel at ~8:36 a.m. on November 30, 2010. The feeling of holding a finished tome at 136,000+ words is exhilarating, and my interest in maintaining this high is bloated and piqued…so we’re going to do it again!

I believe some of you are familiar and involved—ahem…some of you intimately—with a fantasy erotica romance quinary I have been developing for quite some time. In the last 12 months specifically the stories have developed in and around themselves, and every day I’m tending to the stories with new plot points, characters and what I hope is scintillating dialogue. These stories have occupied my thoughts day and night for several years; it is these stories that have curbed my appetite from any other stories I have in the works, including the very one I (barely) finished last November, the one I’m struggling through (for the same reasons) to draft #2. It is this keen interest that will hopefully propel me into finishing at least one of the five books…maybe even two.

The difficult thing about this is that it’s not one solitary story that has only itself to rely on for a conclusive story. My quinary, which has yet to have a title, is much like any serial out there; each book has the same set of characters, the end of each book encompassing a climax that together build into a larger one at the end of the series. Consider Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Because each separate tale relies on each other to make a complete story, consistency is key… It weighs heavily on my mind and worries me incessantly.

Also, much like the aforementioned titles, this is a fantasy series. So while I do not have to worry so much about researching actual events or places to avoid anachronisms, I have to make a ton of shit up. I look forward to this with relish (really, that’s a lot of the appeal of being a wordsmith), but it’s a lot of pressure to take on to make the stories both interesting and believable.

Not to mention the fact that this is a romance series, which means the principle plot points revolve around the budding relationship of a different couple in each story. Writing about sex and love is my passion (no pun…), but I don’t want these stories to be all sex and emotion; I want action, fighting and anger; I want intellect, deception and espionage; I want death, destruction and war.

This is a HELLUVA project to take on, and it will take an EXORBITANT amount of organization, patience and research to complete. If publication is the final goal (and it is), then I must wait for the full five-book story to be complete, consistent and whole before even contemplating contests, agents and publishers (and consequential directors, actors and Oscar acceptance speeches…I dream big).

One month; one novel. I can do it—I’ve done it before.

The writing community on Twitter is aflutter at the starting gates, and I’m psyched to start another typing marathon. I am also excited to say that my enthusiasm has bubbled over, and some of my friends, coworkers and loved ones have also decided to take on the challenge of finishing a novel this month as well. Huzzah!

So wish me a hearty good luck as I embark on another writing journey!

JLH

I'm writing erotica; thoughts on orgies.

As I'm getting more and more excited about my five-sisters quinary, I've realized over the months that it has turned into a story that isn't exactly romance quality. As a romance novel typically runs as the story of two characters finding love--with a few sex scenes interspersed--mine, it seems, is fashioned the other way around. Not only do I tend to write a lot of sex scenes, but after a couple f-bombs and some choice synonyms for "vagina", I've found myself waking up in the technicolor world of erotica.

Holy cajones, is that a load off my mind!

I'm going to play ignoramus when it comes to the business and feasibility of selling a romance novel over erotica (something tells me it's drastically different and maybe even harder to do), but writing no bars, no censored sex is so beautifully liberating.

How frustrating is it to read a sex scene and just know the author is deliberately tip-toeing around a word or phrase? Dammit, just call it what it is! Would your hero really be whispering, "I want to make love to you" if, in the heat of passion, with his eyes dark with hunger, his words would more likely be on a more vulgar path?

Certain rules must be followed when writing a romance. Well, they should be followed, and I've seen isolated cases where those rules are broken. Like rape, for example. The heroine should never be raped in the story, because that makes for a broken heroine. Broken women are weak, emotionally raw and destitute, and it's hard to see her happily sexified by a hardened male when she really doesn't want sex (and who would after that??)

Incest is another one, and I'm not a fan of it, so I won't even go there.

In romances, the couples need to end up together. It can't be vague--they need to spend the rest of their lives together. My erotica is no different.

The wonderful thing about writing is that your stories evolve, your characters develop, and things just change before your eyes--really! It was just by accident that Dagibyr Holst of Brekken, my strong, silent type in book #3, became a total fiend in the bedroom, becoming utterly relentless not only in taking his pleasure but delivering pleasure to his mate--and always with a sound orgasm. It's gritty, it's sweaty, and I absolutely love it when he's cock-deep inside her and he bellows to the heavens, "Gods, how I love to fuck you."

Graphic? Yes. Appropriate? Definitely! Why would I want my character to shy away from his true feelings of physical appeasement by saying something lame and just plain ol' romantic?

So then I had a thought today: would my future readers enjoy reading about my characters in an orgy?

Each of the five books in this series focus on one sister and her quest for her mate. Shit happens along the way, there's strife, treason, jealousy and heartache. There's dancing, swordplay, war and love. Quite unsurprisingly, all my characters are beautiful and handsome and perfect in every way. (Well... not every way. That would make for very boring characters...) And these characters are all loyal to their spouses, so there's no chance of any cheating taking place.

Some of my characters show up in the other books. The other sisters, for example, make appearances in nearly all the books. But two of my heroes--Rowan (book two) and Sebastyan (book four)--were friends for years before the stories take place, and they each end up with a sister.

So, here's my question to you: is there any repulsion incited by having Rowan and Sebastyan and their two sister-wives having sex together?

And let's break that down further into specific instances, just to avoid confusion--1) having sex together as a group; 2) wife swapping; 3) having sex with their own spouse in the same room at the same time, and 4) taking turns while the other couple watches.

I really want to hear your thoughts!

JLH

The final lineup for my Five Sisters Fantasy Heroes.

For Kray's Roderick, I chose Henry Cavill and Dougray Scott:





For Kayt's Rowan, Josh Duhamel:





For Kayla's Lucien, it's a toss-up between Brandon Routh and James Marsden (I also have Tom Wellington in the mix...see a Superman pattern??):








For Kailyynn's Sebastyan, Rodrigo Santoro and Mark Fisher:





For Karyi's Dagibyr, Josh Holloway (with dark hair):



Let's start planning the blockbustin' franchise NOW!

JLH

A Transporter update.

So, since I've finished my story last November I've done very little to update it or push it closer to publication. Mike asked me about it recently, and I felt ashamed to admit to my laziness. Although, I don't think it's laziness. Apathy is more like it. I still look at the story as one of acute rawness. And I have second thoughts about it being too boring.

The story stands at 151,830 words...234 pages. A decent size for a novel, and with enough wiggle room to remove extraneous exposition. I've asked many people if they would read my novel when I was ready for critiques, and I'm wondering if I should just print it out and distribute it for that step. Getting feedback now, instead of trying to push through the damn thing myself, will help me focus on my weak points to make my story no longer seem boring in my head. It will help energize my desire to write and finally finish--truly and completely finish--my first novel. Then, publication.

JLH

Why write Westerns?

Here's an article written by Larry Sweazy about why he writes Westerns.

Why I Write Westerns, by Larry Sweazy.

Why do I write novels? The simple, more guttural answer is that I love cowboys. Something about that image makes my knees weak. On a more poetic front, the Wild West to me was a time of simplicity. The Civil War came to pass, bringing with it change...people were making the switch from rustic living to using more contemporary fixes in their lives. The guns and the horses and the sheriffs and outlaws have me enamored, totally and completely.

That, and I like cowboys.

JLH

Writing dialogue in your character's native tongue--what is appropriate?

I am in the very, very early stages of a five-book fantasy romance series, as you've read. My five ladies scatter across the universe on various journeys in the hopes of discovering their respective mates as chosen for them by the gods. It just so happens that a couple of these men are native to certain countries.

The entire population of the universe in my series speaks one universal language--let's say Esperanto for now--but the people who inhabit the varying planets have all descended from Earth in some way...they all still practice, or at least possess traces of the languages their ancestors spoke way back when.

My books are written in English, obviously, with the strong implication that it's Esperanto they're really speaking. But, at times, there is an interchange of a different language by the heroes with the heroines or other characters in the books.

So, here's my question: do I actually, physically, type out that bit of dialogue in that language? And, if so, does it matter how long the passage really is?

Example 1: Sebastyan

Sebastyan Adonis Ruiz is my hero in Book 4, born to a Spanish merchant and an Italian opera singer. He takes pride in his ability to speak many languages fluently, the few he uses almost exclusively in the series being Spanish, Italian and English (Esperanto). As I know how to write in Spanish, choosing a few phrases, verbs, exclamations and terms of endearments are not difficult to me, and as the Spanish and English alphabets are the same, this is no challenge.

That brings me to Example 2: "Nik"

Nik ("Nik" is his placement name. I have yet to form this character completely), is a Russian descendant, a bold move by me as I do NOT speak any Russian. Looking up phrases and terms of endearment are a simple Google search away, which would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that the Russian alphabet is much unlike the English one. A lot more people would be able to recognize Spanish over Russian.

Now, again, Sebastyan's mutterings of "mi amor" and "nena" are simple and they flow well with the text, even when italicized. I have no idea what to do with the Russian sweet nothings of, "Милая моя", "Ангел мой", or "Ты красивая". Do I use the Russian letters, or do I include the phonetic spellings instead? Or neither, as saying "MIlaya Moyna", "Angel moy" or "Ti krasIvaya" is just as disruptive to a reader as their authentic counterparts?

What should I do? What do you do?

JLH

Casting my characters.

I did something last night so exciting and helpful that I had to share. While struggling through editing of my latest novel, I'm working on bits and pieces of my fantasy series. Over the week I had compiled a list of actors that remind me of the heroes. Last night, I looked up images of them and saved them under each hero's folder for safekeeping...as if I was casting for that story's movie.

For some of these, it was rough, and as I perused many Google Images pages it became quite clear--and I don't know why I didn't think of it before--that I need to consider the character that actor played, and not necessarily that actor himself. The same actor could look so different in a few different movies, so much that he would fit the archetype and appearance of different heroes.

Here are a few choices I have:

For Kray's "Rok", here's Dougray Scott ("Ever After" is what I like him in. This picture is not from that, but damn hot):


For Kayt's "Rowan", I chose Josh Duhamel (also playing with Timothy Olyphant and Ryan Reynolds):


For Kailyynn's "Sebastyan", here's Alexis Georgoulis ("My Life in Ruins"), and Jake Gyllenhaal ("Prince of Persia"):



For Karyi's "Dagibyr", here's Josh Holloway, but I want him with darker hair and lighter skin. I'm also interested in Colin Farrell and Gerard Butler, in the right movies:




The middle child, Kayla, has a story that has barely been started. I don't know what her hero looks like, so that's going to have to wait. Also, I don't know what the girls themselves look like. Next step is finding some actresses to fit my heroine archetypes.

J

Editing is a bitch.

Is it common for a writer to feel unenthusiastic about the work he or she just completed?

On November 30th of last year I finished my first novel. My self-imposed deadline for editing completion is January 31st. Like, done done. Finished. Ready for peer critiques followed by manuscript submission. I feel like I have postpartum depression.

My husband told me that he has read in many books that a writer often feels anything from disinterest to total dissatisfaction for the novel he or she just wrote. That's why editing sucks so much. Sometimes it's best to put your novel away for six months before you even consider editing.

This makes me feel better, and it explains why I'm turned off to my completed work and am turning my attention to the development of a new fantasy/erotica series. Of course, who wouldn't be excited about erotica?

Although, I have to say that I'm being obstinate. Editing requires reading my novel from start to finish, and running it through a fine-tooth comb. Why wouldn't I want to read through the stuff I wrote? It's something of a bad habit of mine, for when I should be writing I end up sitting down with my favorite passage and reading that over and over...

J