Author: Sydney Aaliyah Michelle

Contemporary Romance writer, voracious reader, movie watcher, tattoo lover & enthusiastic traveler.

JuNoWriMo Particpant Interview Felicia Wetzig

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle2 Comments

I am so excited to feature one of my favorite bloggers on the net and JuNoWriMo Winner, Felicia Wetzig. 

Tell me a little about what you are writing for Junowrimo. 

It’s a paranormal story, loosely based on a dream I had about a tiger with green eyes. A few weeks after the dream, the image was still vivid in my mind and I began to think about a person whose spirit could leave his/her body and become an animal. There are a lot of spirit based entities in my story (not in a religious sense), I’m using various shape-shifter legends and some Faerie legends.

Chloe’s a normal country girl who’s spent most of her life in the forest, but when a strange energy in the forest draws dangerous creatures to the area, her safe haven begins to fall apart. The only person who seems to be able to help her, a new student at her college named Keegan, shares the exact appearance of the ‘man’ who brutally attacked her. 

Is this your first time doing this type of challenge? 

Yep. 

How has it meet your expectations so far? 

It has been quite a ride. I was hesitant about getting involved. I wasn’t sure how it would really help or hinder the writing process, but in the end I’m glad I did. I would have never written 50,000 words in one month. My first project ended at about 100,000 and that took me more than 6 months. It’s been great having other people to push me along; the camaraderie was the best part.  It has also been a lesson in not thinking so much about every little thing and, instead, letting the words flow unedited. 

What was your writing schedule like this past week; time of day, # of words per day.

Oh boy…  I had a lot of catching up to do this week. The first week of the challenge I was ahead, but things (work mostly) got in the way. As of last Sunday, I was 16549 away from the finish line.  I wish I could say I have a consistent writing schedule but…

Sunday 4013

Monday 1600

Tuesday 854

Wednesday 715

Thursday 0

Friday 3190

Saturday 6349 (my biggest day for the month)

I crossed the finish line about 15 minutes before midnight. 

Did you do any planning for Junowrimo?  If so what type of planning and how are your plans working out so far? 

Not really. I’m not a big planner. I knew my two main characters, and I had a basic understanding of the paranormal rules I’d be following. Beyond that I don’t plot or create formal outlines. I just let the scenes happen and then I fill in missing points later. 

What is your word count as of June 30th?

At midnight I had 50,172 words, and still more work to do before it’s finished. 

For more information and to connect with Felicia visit her on her website,The Peasants Revolt, Twitter and Facebook.
Website: The Peasant Revolt – http://scotzig.com   Twitter: @Scotzig      Facebook:  Felicia Wetzig

My Weekly Update – Lovely, Loving, Love

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle10 Comments

Lovely

Last week I was beautiful.  Apparently, this week I am Lovely.  I have received the One Lovely Blog Award from not one but two of my favorite blogsperts (my made up word for blog experts).

Thank you so much to Vikki from The View Outside.  Vikki posts everyday and it is always interesting and entertaining.  I just love quality combined with quantity.

I also want to thank  Nicole from the The Madlab Post.  Nicole host the Monday Movie Meme.  I can’t wait to see what theme she comes up with each week to link movies.

The rules suggest that I share 7 items of interest about myself.  I am going to share 7 interesting facts about my JuNoWriMo WIP.

  1. The book takes place in China, New Orleans, New Jersey, New York, China, Texas & New Jersey again. 
  2. It is most definitely chick lit.
  3. It is funny.
  4. There is some very hot, seductive, spicy, rated PG-13 sex scenes in it an I blushed when I wrote it. 
  5. It is over 75,000 words long.
  6. There is an evil boss in the story.
  7. It has an ironic ending.

I have decided to give the award to my oh so Lovely JuNoWriMo Hosts:

Becca Campbell

A. E. Howard

And, my 13 Lovely New Followers below.

Loving

I am in a Loving kind of mood today.  I am loving that JuNoWriMo is done (I promise, I will stop talking about it after next Friday). I am loving the friends that I made through participating in this great challenge. I am loving that the first draft of my first novel is done and there is a lot of good content in there. I am really loving that I am not going to look at it again until September. I am loving that I have another novel idea in my head; can you say Camp Nanowrimo in August.

And, I am loving that I now feel like a writer.

For me, it was a Lovely Month!  How was yours? 

Love My New Followers

Next Week’s Schedule

Monday – JuNoWriMo participant Interview Felicia Wetzig
Tuesday – Insecure Writers Support Group Post
Thursday – JuNoWriMo participant Interview Becca Campbell
Friday – A Note to My Pre-JuNoWriMo Self
Sunday – My Weekly Update

Camp NaNoWriMo Participant Interview Morgan Hyde

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle4 Comments
Tell me a little about what you are writing for Junowrimo.
Err… is this a bad time to admit I’m actually writing this for Camp NaNoWriMo? Which just happens to also be in June (and August!)? I hope not. I think both Camp NaNo and JuNoWriMo are awesome. Anything that gets people writing is!
Anyways, for my unspecified June novel writing challenge, I’m doing a rewrite of a YA fantasy story that began life during NaNoWriMo 2010. It’s called We Who Are About To Die (WWAATD), and I’m on my fourth full draft. This June, I’m making some of the biggest changes so far, re-focusing the story on my protagonist, and her personal growth. WWAATD is set in a world similar to ancient Rome, in a land with an insane king who has established blood sacrifice as the state religion. The story follows Renata, a wealthy farmer’s daughter, who tries to rescue her cousin from the High Priest, and ends up convicted of treason and sentenced as a gladiator. She must then learn to fight and face the loss of friends in the arena, eventually gaining the strength and skill to figure out how to save her cousin.
Is this your first time doing this type of challenge?
Nope. I’ve done NaNoWriMo three times in November, and this is my third Camp NaNoWriMo. Plus I’ve done Script Frenzy three times (once doing a movie version of WWAATD), and FAWM (February Album Writing Month) for the past three years as well. As a procrastinator, and someone who works well in high pressure situations, these challenges are an amazing resource to give me the motivation and community support that helps me finish projects. I’ve kind of become addicted!
What did you learn from the last challenge that is helping you with Junowrimo?
The biggest lesson I’ve learned from all my ‘creativity with a deadline’ challenges is that the quality of my writing & storytelling drops as I speed up. But I’ve also learned that I can mitigate this loss of quality by having a rough plan in mind. For example, despite huge plot changes since draft #3 of WWAATD, I knew what a lot of the key story points would be ahead of time for this draft. I’m filling the time between the key points very differently, but (spoiler alert) I’m still killing off her boyfriend, and she’s still going to successfully rescue her cousin.
As well, albeit indirectly, participating in NaNoWriMo 2011 helped me figure out what needed to happen for this draft. In December, I posted in the forums, opening up WWAATD for critique, and to my surprise and delight, plenty of people were interested in reading it. The feedback I received from them was invaluable in shaping the changes I decided to make for this draft. Truly, one of the best things about NaNoWriMo-style events is the community. 
What was your writing schedule like this past week; time of day, # of words per day?
My last exam (I’m a graduating senior in high school) was last Friday, so I’ve been writing 2000 to 3000 words per day since then in an effort to catch up. But I was extremely far behind before that, and I’ve been lazier than I should have (sleeping in, relaxing, enjoying NOT studying), so I’m still WAY behind. I’ve generally been writing in two separate sessions: one immediately after breakfast (around 11am) and one in the evening, sometime after 10pm.
Did you do any planning for Junowrimo? If so what type of planning and how are your plans working out so far?
I didn’t do any planning specifically for this challenge, but I had accumulated plenty of notes and ideas for this draft, since I originally planned on finishing it this spring, not starting it in June! I basically had the existing drafts, a few specific major changes I knew needed to happen, and a general idea that the story needed to centre more on my protagonist. In writing this draft, as I make all sorts of changes (including a POV change to first person), I can feel the story becoming so much better than before, and that’s incredibly rewarding.
Although I didn’t have a detailed plan before June started, I’ve ended up with one since then, mostly by accident. Because this is June, and I was in school for most of the month, I wrote a lot during my spare, and so I decided to keep my novel in an Evernote note, accessible from my computer and online at school. This is a big change from my past habits of handwriting and later writing in Scrivener. As it turned out, having my entire novel in one document really helped me plan. When I wrote something that I wanted to reference later, I just added a line about it further down the page. When I got an idea for more plot, same thing. In this way, a novel plan now nearly 500 words long grew organically just below the text of my novel. It’s easy to change, easy to reference, and really helping me stay on track.
What is your word count as of June 28th?
32 000 words. I’ve never been this far behind so close to the end; I’m generally one of those annoying people who writes roughly 1667 words a day without fail and wins a day or two early. This month, I will be lucky to reach 50k. I’m still aiming to finish, but whether I win or not, I’ll be proud of what I’ve accomplished and happy to have a lot more novel than I did on June 1st.
We will forgive Morgan for not being a part of JuNoWriMo.  Any of us who take on the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month are all on the same side of crazy.  
Good luck with the rest of the challenge, Morgan!
For more information about Morgan, please visit her blog and follower her on twitter.  
Blog: onelifeglory.blogspot.ca
Twitter: @Amethystars

Would you give up a year of your life to . . .

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle10 Comments

I recently read an article in the July 2012 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine.  The title of of the article was Would you give up a Year of Your Life to Sleep With Ryan Gosling?

The article proceed to pose several opposing scenarios and it got me thinking how would I answer these questions?  I decided to give myself a little quiz.

Would I give up a year of my life to sleep with Ryan Gosling?

Maybe, but for Johnny Depp, Ben Foster, Troy Aikman, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chef Michael Votaggio, or Orlando Bloom – absolutely.  Just as long as I got to tell people and I got to leverage the encounter in order to gain either tabloid magazine money, a book deal or become the host of my own talk show.

MAYBE
DEFINITELY

WITHOUT HESITATION

But, if there was potential for a long lasting relationship with any of the above, disregard the previous sentence.  For the sake of love and all that.

Would you adopt Rosey Perez’s speaking voice if it meant you could sing like Adele?

No, but if I was given the ability to create a unique and distinct voice that produced the amount of accolades and recognition that Adele received, then I would.  There will never be another Adele.

I would just sing everything.  You ever see Whitney Houston’s reality show, she sang all the time.

Would you sleep with a rat in your bed every night for a month to have the ability to fly?

No, I don’t do rats under any circumstance.  And, who would want the ability to fly?  Do you realize how dangerous it would be?  You would have to compete with planes and birds and the occasional pterodactyl.  It could happen.  If humans can fly, dinosaurs can return.  Having an effective communication system would be your biggest concern.  You don’t want the Air Force thinking you are an enemy bogey and shooting you down every day.  That could get annoying.

See How Much Trouble Ironman Had

Would you vajazzle your frenemy’s hoo-ha to have anything you want from Tiffany? 

This one was hard for me.  I can’t think of any circumstance where I would want to be near anyone’s hoo-ha except my own, but I do love Tiffany.  Now if we are talk sterling silver infinity charm, no.  If we are talking white gold channel set 4 carat diamond ring, I won’t lie, I would consider it.  I love diamonds.

Pretty, but . . .
Diamonds – Enough Said.

Would you give up sex to be able to eat everything you wanted yet magically be thin?

No way in hell. And, why the hell would you want to?

Would you give up your sense of taste for the ability to read peoples minds?

This one is easy for me.  Like all of the super power questions, I don’t want that kind of pressure, or responsibility.  Just think of the all the crazy stuff that goes on in your own mind.  Then, compare that to the stuff you actually put out in the word.  Yeah, there are some things I just don’ t need to know.

And, if I slept with Chef Voltaggio and gave up a year of my life, I would at least want to taste the breakfast he would prepare for me the next day.

Would you get a face tattoo for five million?

I would get a face tattoo for 100,000 dollars.  Anyone want to start a collection?

Maybe I need to rethink this one.

Would you give up your memory of the last five years if you knew the next five would rock?

This questions was the most interesting to me because I have been in China for 5 years.  While I have had some good experiences, it hasn’t been the best time of my life.  It hasn’t been the life I wanted to live.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to give up the lessons I have learned over the last 5 years.  The biggest lesson is that I will never put myself in a situation where I would even consider this type of choice.

The goal going forward is to create a life that I want to live.

So, would you give up a year of your life to sleep with Ryan Gosling or Jennifer Aniston?  Is there any time in your life you would consider giving up?  

Photos courtesy of Tiffany.com, Food & Wine Magazine.com & IMDb.com.

JuNoWriMo Participant Interview A.M. Schultz

Published on by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle3 Comments

Here is the next installment of my JuNoWriMo Participant Inteviews.  Please welcome A.M. Schultz.

Tell me a little about what you are writing for Junowrimo.

I had been toggling ideas for three different WIPs prior to JuNoWriMo. The one I choice to focus primarily on for JuNoWriMo has been a fantasy piece. Choosing Fantasy over the other two has had some advantages, but there is so much world building required that much of my “word count”  has been used to outline characters, nations, etc. I’m not sure I’d have made nearly as much progress without the challenge aspect, though.

Is this your first time doing this type of challenge?

Something this formal, yes. I used to write fiction pieces on weekly deadlines here-and-there, but this is my first time taking a multi-writer challenge of this magnitude.

How has it meet your expectations so far?

It’s been “different,” in the sense that I won’t have 50,000 pages of a manuscript completed at the end, but I will have a much more developed world at my disposal by the time the month is done. I started 7 days into the challenge, and intentionally took on a project that I knew would need tons of polishing either way.

What was your writing schedule like this past week; time of day, # of words per day.

My schedule has been pretty bonkers. I am a full-time student through the year and actually took the Summer off, so I assumed I’d have tons of time to just write. I still hold a full-time job, too, and between setting up a better platform for my website, redoing the graphic work, etc, and then working on book cover graphics, blog posts,  I’ve just had to squeeze writing in when I can.

I carry a pocket Moleskine notebook about with me everywhere, though, and sketch an idea down, expand it in one of my larger notebooks, then type out the ideas later. For the fantasy world, I actually used the PC game “Civilization IV” by Sid Meier to create the map (which crashed on me after about six hours of plotting the world the first time), and it has been incredibly helpful.

All-in-all, JuNoWriMo work and miscellaneous stuff, I’m logging a good 60-70 hours a week, so hopefully this all pans out eventually.

Did you do any planning for Junowrimo?  If so what type of planning and how are your plans working out so far?

I actually found out about JuNoWriMo on the 7th of the month after seeing a few friends on my Twitter feed using the #JuNoWriMo hashtag, so no planning. I was aware of NaNoWriMo, and had told myself I would consider taking that challenge later in the year. If anything, I think I realized that this isn’t the type of challenge you can complete successfully without some type of gameplan.

What is your word count as of June 22th?

I’ve got about 8,500 words, which is WAAAAAY off the mark. But, I have a better idea of where I want the story to go than had I just started writing aimlessly, so I’ll take it. I’m hoping to be sitting around the 15,000 mark by the end of the challenge.

To learn more about AM Schultz, please be sure to visit his site and following him on Twitter.

Website: amschultz.com and Twitter:  @am_sch