Moving to Another Dimension.

Hello All,

As I may have mentioned, I'm moving out to Ohio in two weeks to live with my very bestest of friends. My life will be full of boxes and goodbyes, new student orientation, and hopefully some time for writing - but not much for blogging.

I will be going on hiatus for the time-being, until I get settled in my new life. I will keep you posted when I have a firm return date. Please bear in mind that I will be living with two very eager and creative individuals who are ready to help me film my excerpt vlogs - so be prepared for a step up in production!

I'm excited to see what's out in that "middle portion" of America. See you on the other side!

Elena

Excuses for the Everyday Writer.

"Oh gosh, you know what? My antagonist just let all the air out of my tires! I'll have to cancel that awkward business dinner. Thanks, anyway..."

"So sorry to tell you this, but my MC just had a baby. Oh, I know! I was shocked too - she's not even human. We actually don't know if the child is going to breathe fire or not, so it's a real difficult time. I'm sure your vacation photos were really lovely though..."

"Listen, my plot just leaked all over my kitchen. It's going to take me hours to put the climax back on and make sure all the acts are in the right order. Yep, the back-story too. The mechanic says he can't make it until tomorrow. I really did want to babysit."

"Hey, I'm glad I caught you. My love interest has just turned gay, and I really need to break the news to my  protagonist. Oh, I know. She had no idea. I think I'll try e-harmony for a new one. Yeah, for him too. We'll take care of 'em both. All right, then. Have fun at the new Adam Sandler flick."

PURPLE KNOT Blog Tour MOVIE WEDNESDAY EDITION

Purple Knot

by

Raquel Byrnes

YouTube link

A killer strikes. A love rekindled. A life-altering choice.

When her best friend, is murdered, Reyna Cruz doesn't believe the police have the whole story. An investigator by trade, she has the talent to track Summer’s killer, but when clues lead to a family connection and a vicious gang, she suddenly becomes the hunted. At the end of her rope, Reyna must decide to trust the God she believes abandoned her. 

Wanting justice for his sister’s murder, lawyer Jimmy Corbeau agrees to help Reyna—even though she’s his ex-fiancé, and their break-up devastated him. Romance is reawakened, but so are memories of their tragic undoing. Jimmy must decide if he will fight for a future with Reyna or allow their past to derail the investigation and his second chance at love.

When the investigation goes awry and Summer’s infant daughter is kidnapped, Reyna must put her life on the line. Will Jimmy and Reyna survive the desperate measures it takes to recover his niece, catch a killer, and secure a happily-ever-after for them all?

Buy the Book

Blog Tour Link

Trust.

Please note that Movie Monday will be a special "Wednesday edition" this week, featuring Raquel Byrnes and her new novel, Purple Knot!

I'm pleased to say my short story, Trust, has been included in this month's issue of Glasschord, an online arts & culture magazine.

Link to my story is here. Please be warned that it contains language, violence, and some sexual undertones (PG-13 Rating).

Let me know what you think - and please stop by to look at the rest of the magazine, it's a great publication!

Have a happy Monday.

- elena

I've been Tagged. Like a Wild Boar.

The lovely Marsha Sigman (follow her and thank me later) has tagged me. I have to answer a bunch of questions or my blog will blow up or something. I don't know, it seemed very important I respond immediately, so here goes:

Do you think you're hot?


I always check with a digital thermometer but apparently I don't get fevers as often as I imagine I do.

Upload a picture or wallpaper you are using: 

This is a doodle I did in 2008, while on the phone.

Unfortunately, a cup of water had it out for this sketch

and it is now nothing but an ink blot.

When was the last time you ate chicken?

1972. A cold, rainy day somewhere not far from Silver City. There was a man named Ed. I don't remember much else. Next question. 

What were you thinking while doing this? 

I wonder how many Skittles you could eat in a year without changing the pigment of your skin.

How much can a woodchuck chuck? What's chucking, anyway? Is it like chuckling except a shorter version? Like a stunted giggle.

What song(s) have you listened to recently? 

People by AWOLNATION

What the Hell by Avril Lavigne

Walls by Manic Drive

Hey Hey Hey by Michael Franti & Spearhead

Do you have any nicknames? What are they?

I always wanted a nickname, but alas, there were few to be had. I was thinking in the car today of celebrity nicknames a la K-Stew & RPattz. I think they should call Taylor Lautner, T-Laut, and I want to be called E-Dow. (pronounced ee-dough) What do ya think?

Tag 5 Blogger Friends.

(rubs hands together)

Mr. Chris Phillips - He's got a great Music to Make Write To feature, and he's just darn funny. 

My awesomeful crit partner, Steph Loree. 

Jean Davis. Pink hair. Funny anecdotes. Weasels. 

Em-Musing, who's got a very stream-of-consciousness type blogging style. A poetry all its own. 

Steph Schmidt, who gave me the opportunity to read her current WIP. I was sorry to only get 8 chapters of it! 

And there y'all have it. Have a good weekend!

Next week we've got a special Movie Wednesday featuring Raquel Byrnes and her new novel, Purple Knot!

Dear Main Character.

Fill in the blanks, Rongdoers!

Dear Main Character,

Just writing to tell you how much I appreciate what you do. I know it was tough getting past that --------------- last week, but you made it through.

(Just to let you know, there's another one at the climax of the novel. Hope that's all right.)

I know you said ---------------- and I appreciate your feedback. It's always good to hear from your characters, but I really feel ------------------------, okay?

This novel is about --------------------, plain and simple. If you feel it's not right for you, we can part ways now. I know there's a couple secondary characters who would love a promotion.

So for tomorrow's writing session, let's focus on -------------------- and ----------------------. I really love the way you --------------------, but make sure you ----------------------- this time, otherwise you might get killed off a little earlier than expected.

(Oh, no. You don't die in this book. Don't worry.)

(Really, would I lie to you?)

Anyway, MC, thanks again. Always know I'm here for you, except when I have my "sudden inspirations".

Yours always,

Author

Writer Pick-Up Lines.

Warning: ADULT CONTENT & BAD PUNS. 

How about you stop telling me stuff, and let me show you my apartment?

Hey, baby, I'm the antagonist to your protagonist. Let's get together and reach the climax.

I like your outline. What's your number?

I hear you like your drafts rough.

Do you wanna send a query? 'Cause I'm an agent of love.

I'll be your crit partner tonight.

Don't worry, babe, I've got a big word count.

When the Cat's Away.

What your book does while you're on vacation...

Drinks too many adverbs and passes out on the couch watching re-runs of Jersey Shore.

Invites all the other drafts over for a major party, which the grammar police have to break up.

Tries on all your outlines and never washes them.

Spends all your advance money on a signed copy of Hamlet. (The eBay seller promised it was authentic.)

Drunk-dials its ex-literary agents and tells them how much better off it is without them.

Breaks your laptop, then sells its plot twist to fix it.

Downloads a virus, loses itself in cyberspace, then returns again half-missing, translated to Russian.

Strips its pages on YouTube.

Movie Monday: Excerpt Vlog #12

Captive Spirit

by

Liz Fichera

YouTube Link

Buy the eBook

Published by Carina Press:

Description

Sonoran Desert. Dawn of the sixteenth century.

Aiyana isn't like the other girls of the White Ant Clan. Instead of keeping house, she longs to compete on the Ball Court with her best friend Honovi and the other boys. Instead of marriage, she daydreams of traveling beyond the mountains that surround her small village. Only Honovi knows and shares her forbidden wish, though Aiyana doesn't realize her friend has a secret wish of his own...

When Aiyana's father arranges her marriage to a man she hardly knows, she takes the advice of a tribal elder: run! In fleeing, she falls into the hands of Spanish raiders and finds herself being taken over the mountains against her will. Now Aiyana's on a quest to return to the very place she once dreamed of escaping. And she'll do whatever it takes to survive and find her way back to the people she loves.

Book Trailer: 

The Drafts Read.

Final Draft threw the Wall Street Journal down and picked up the phone.

First Draft answered, hung up, then called her back. "What? I was sleeping."

"Call Two and Three. We've got an emergency." Final Draft hung up and paced perfectly back and forth. She was trying not to panic. She was perfect. Everything was fine. She was ready to query. She shouldn't have been reading in the first place. Research was for first or second drafts - not her!

The doorbell rang. First, Second, and Third Drafts entered. First Draft had shaved his head, Second had decided to become a Gothic Murder Mystery, and Third still hadn't replaced his shoelaces.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I was reading the Wall Street Journal..." Final decided to pace herself. This was going to be a blow. "There was an article in there..."

"Yeah?" all three drafts said.

"Our darkness is too visible," Final Draft announced, then collapsed on the floor.

After an hour of fanning and smelling salts, she finally came to, and the drafts gathered around her coffee table for serious discussion. Well, First Draft went out for a smoke first, then decided he liked cigars better, and Second Draft got lost on her way to the bathroom and finally returned wearing a tutu and with a new idea for her ending.

"So what can we do?" Third Draft asked. "I thought we were ready, but if the Wall Street Journal says we're too disturbing then..."

"They are a distinguished literary newspaper...I think," Second Draft said.

Final Draft sighed. "I was about to query. This can't be happening. Third, you never edited out that scene with the clown, and Second, you're going to have to turn your vampire love interest into a lawyer or something. Someone normal. And First!"

First had fallen asleep on the couch.

"I thought we were writing something real," Third Draft said. "I felt like I was finally getting there."

"That's not the point, Third! The point is, we have to be perfect. Like I am. Or, like I was, I guess. I just want to be Light. You know, like a sponge cake. That's what people want. With vanilla frosting."

"Frosting?" First Draft finally woke up.

"I've always liked chocolate," Second Draft said.

Dear Publicist.

Fill in the blanks, Rongdoers!

Dear Publicist,

Well, I've just returned from the ---------- you sent me on. I have to say, I'm not sure that -------- was a good idea. I expected to sell a lot more books than I did, but ------- just don't please people like they used to.

Go figure.

I see that you've scheduled -------- for next week, and I wanted to make sure you ordered --------- before I go. Remember what happened last time? The mayor took away my honorary key to the city!

I really think we should start doing ----------- as well. It's an untapped market. Trust me.

Sincerely,

[Author]

Title Poetry.

You can call me The Book Thief. I'm an Evil Genius, a Fallen Liar, riding the Ink Exchange with Beautiful Creatures until I'm Gone. Gone. Then I Wake next to Artemis Fowl and he tells me I'm late for my first day at Vampire Academy. I tell him I'm out Looking For Alaska. When I get back, we'll cross The Line and Shiver, 'cause there's Thirteen Reasons Why and Strange Angels will lead me to The Body Finder.

I'll watch The Hunger Games until Twilight, then meet Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I'm in a Delirium Across the Universe, and I want to take a Maximum Ride Before I Fall. 

A Princess of Roumania will teach me The Westing Game and tell me about The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. I'll listen, Beastly and Unleashed, sitting in a room full of Glass Houses. It's Life As We Knew It, baby. We're Identical, performing in the Cirque Du Freak right after The Mysterious Benedict Society.

The Host is a Great and Terrible Beauty, a Graceling really. She tells me about Dreaming Anastasia and I keep it Hush, Hush for The Summoning. I follow The Golden Compass to the Uglies and we Shift, seeing Things Not Seen and playing Ender's Game because Midnight Never Comes in Fablehaven.

I stand in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, where the Beautiful Dead dance with The Midnight Twins and Leviathan. They sing a song called The Black Tattoo and Lord Loss watches them, Devoured by his Skin Hunger. The City of Ember fights his Faerie Wars, his Revenge of the Witch, and The Young City burns. The Orphans of Chaos lose their home to The Watcher, The Thief of Always.

When I'm XVI, I'll be Empty on The Brimstone Network, feeling like The Knife of Never Letting Go. It'll be a Shadowed Summer then, playing out in the Shadow Hills where the Ship Breaker welds Perfect Chemistry and chases the Huntress into the City of Fallen Angels.

If I Stay, I'll Need Deception. Past The Humming of Numbers, an Other will trade me the Bones of Faerie for his Runemarks. I'll become The Maze Runner, Fallen once again, Evermore, with The Sight and my Divergent Cryer's Cross. Obernewtyn will read me The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod and I'll become a Guardian of the Dead, The Tear Collector, trapped in Attica and officially -

The Replacement.

All previously-read titles on my YA bookshelf. Thought I'd go for some poetry today. 

Redundancies.

"You know, Ted, you're a smart, intelligent man," she said, conversingly.

He sat down in his chair, which was sitting on the floor, and smiled with his lips. "Why thank you, Dorothy," he thanked Dorothy.

He thought she was pretty dumb. "You're pretty dumb, Dorothy," he said, buttering his toast with butter.

Dorothy slapped him with her hand. His facial cheeks flushed maroon red with shocked surprised amazement.

"How dare you call me dumb!" Dorothy yelled, waving her fist in the air around her with her fingers curled tightly inward and her arm moving back and forth.

"I just think you're very redundant, I think," he thought.

She shook her head, above her shoulders. "Redundant?" she repeated, questioningly.

He nodded, using his neck.

"Well," she said, "I think you're pretty repetitive too as well, Ted, also," she told Ted.

And they continued to fight for the rest of the day, while the sun was still out.

Movie Monday: Excerpt Vlog #11

Quest for the Book

by 

Donna Hole

YouTube link

EXCERPT VLOG LINE-UP

June 12: Liz Fichera

June 22: Raquel Byrnes

June 26: Philip Tucker

I am moving to Ohio in July & starting 

school full-time in August.

Other submissions not listed here will be posted 

as soon as I know my schedule.

To submit, please email esolodow at gmail dot com. 

PG Rating Please!

The more filmable action, the better. 

Thanks for viewing!

Alaska: In Focus. Picture Day #3.

Cordova, Alaska. Eyak River.

Sunset.

From one of my hiking trails.

Mendenhall Glacier.

Helicopters landed on Mendenhall Glacier.

Mountainside from downtown Juneau.

A young bald eagle, before he passes all his challenges and earns a white head.

Creepy tree. They had a lot of those!

Have you seen this yet? 

And that concludes our Alaska excursion!

Thanks for viewing. 

Tomorrow, You're Write. Except when you're Rong. returns at full-force, 

starting with Movie Monday featuring Donna Hole. 

Have a good Sunday, everyone!

Alaska: In Focus. Picture Day #2.

Lighthouse as seen from whale-watching boat. 

Childs Glacier. 

Bullet-ridden sign. 

It was a gorgeous, sunny day below. But at the top of this mountain...

These slugs/leeches were everywhere. Really beautiful color. 

Cordova, Alaska.

Tacos made in an old school bus. Yum.

Bald Eagle on top of a harbor post.

I love the way this tree curved.

More pictures tomorrow. 

Have you seen this yet? 

Be sure to return on Monday for Movie Monday, 

featuring Donna Hole this week!

Alaska: In Focus. Picture Day #1.

Gas is most expensive in Alaska. Go figure. 

I went home on this boat. It took 50 years. 

Red Dog Saloon. All visitors must leave their mark, so: "Steph + Elena '11

Someday you'll know us"

Labyrinth at the Shrine of St. Therese. 

Utter lack of David Bowie, unfortunately. 

Fungus. It's what's for dinner. 

Cruise ship wins in size. Steam boat wins in awesomeness. 

Oh my glacier. 

Also human-proof, as I couldn't quite figure out how to open it. 

My only celebrity sighting. Who knew Sarah Palin was so quiet in real life. 

And so short and stiff! And her fish didn't even stink.

Now I know what I'd look like as a sewer cleaner. 

Have you watched this yet? 

More to come Saturday & Sunday. 

Be sure to return on Monday for Movie Monday, 

featuring Donna Hole!

VIDEO PRESENTATION: Steph & Elena's Alaskan Adventure

Scribber to Scribe & 

You're Write. Except when you're Rong

present: 

Feel free to share, link to, and spread the word. 

Thanks for watching.
Tomorrow I'll have some pictures up,
and make sure to come back on Monday for my next excerpt vlog!

BACK FROM AK.

This is bear poop. 

So is jet-lag. 

Organizing photos & one epic video from my Alaska 

vacation as we speak. 

Hop on over to Steph's blog for some shared pics, which should be up sometime today!

Until then: