Wattpad Favorites: Mission Macabre by Kevin Gebhard

Time to get your Halloween groove on, folks, and get reading!

Kevin Gebhard's first foray into vampire fiction is a guaranteed hit with Mission Macabre, free to read right now as it's being serialized on Wattpad.  When a vigilante detective teams up with a sexy vampire, it only means a whole new brand of justice to hit the city!

Wattpad Review: The Body by TheAlvarezChronicles

Sometimes there are stories that just grab you and don't let go at all, and The Body by Robert Alvarez or @TheAlvarezChronicles on Wattpad does just that.  From the moment we're introduced to the case, we know that we're in for a wild and bumpy ride.  A girl is missing, and the detectives on the case immediately sense that she's not just missing: she's dead.

The suspect list isn't long, and there aren't exactly any surprises as in, whodunnit?  That's because we're investigating the case along with the detectives.  It's not just about catching the killer, it's about building a strong case against him.

The Body is a non-fiction account of an actual case (as far as I know) and Alvarez knows what he's talking about.  It's a riveting read and one of the best on Wattpad, hands down.  But you don't have to take my word for it.

A Writer Keeps Writing

Though Collateral is currently ranked at #3 under Mystery/Thriller category on Wattpad, it's not among the Top 50 semi-finalists in Harlequin's So You Think You Can Write competition this year.  Sad, I know, but I'm actually glad.  For one, it's not what Harlequin wants in a romance and I knew that already, not when it straddles chick-lit and romance that's set in a mystery.  

Still, while there is some disappointment (about 10%), there's a lot of relief going on inside this noggin (80%, while the last 10% is undecided).  Last night, I transferred the edited story from Word back to Scrivener and am ready to spend the rest of October doing a second round of edits for it, including a full rewrite of its ending.  

And then there's NaNoWriMo.  Loving Ashe was actually my NaNoWriMo novel last year and this year, it's Loving Riley's turn!

So being a writer, I write, right?  Or I'm not a writer.

The Morning After

It's the morning after I finished Collateral, my entry in SYTYCW15 competition and the delirium has finally subsided.  Reality has set in, and as I sit here in front of my laptop with its busted keyboard from too much writing and waiting for the coffee to kick in, I have only one thought in mind.

I'll never do that again.

Next time, instead of writing from scratch, and deliriously editing like crazy during the final days just to get to a decent word count, without even finishing the epilogue or last chapter of the novel, before hitting Complete while still wondering if the ending was right, I'm submitting a finished and edited work.  Not one that just got the NaNoWriMo first month treatment - nothing against NaNoWriMo as I've done it three years in a row but, well, you know what I mean.  I'm usually very attached to my characters but with this one, it feels like Heath and Billie were introduced to me and before I could warm up to them, they were quickly pushed out the door and out into the competition world to be judged.

So next time I hear of a writing competition, I need to go in prepared and just submit something that's already been polished.

Still, I really can't complain. I churned out a 90K+ novel in 88 days, pared down to 85K and after a bit of time away from it, I can return to it and start editing and adding in the bits and pieces that got left out from the rush.  The contest results don't even matter at all, because at the end of the day, I learned two things:

1. I learned how to do a blurb the right way.
2. I learned how to write according to a plot I had written down versus just pants-ing the story all the way. And for a self-admitted pants-er (converted from years of being an overdone plotter), that's a huge thing.  

So, I'm taking it easy the next couple of days, though there's still a lot of writing to do, as well as writing-related stuff.  I'm editing Loving Riley, my sequel to Loving Ashe, which I published in August, and while I finalize some things with the paperback version for Createspace, I'm working on a major change for Loving Ashe which I can't wait to share with you all soon.  

Done and Dusted (Preliminary Thoughts On #sytycw15)

So as of 12:16 pm PST I marked my latest novel, Collateral, as Complete.  That's 88 days of writing and 91.6K words (pared down to 85K words during the weekend) for my entry for Harlequin's annual So You Think You Can Write competition.

It's my first time submitting an entry to Harlequin and my first time writing according to a deadline that's not NaNoWriMo, which I've done for the last three years.  So far, I've come up with a few observations about writing competitions, that probably apply to writing in general.  Given I'm bleary-eyed and hungry and lack sleep, this is my list so far:

1. Keep calm and just write.  The first day I started writing, I honestly had no idea what I was going to write about other than I had a cool cover from Melody Simmons and I had a title.  That was it.  And since I'm usually a pants-er, I just started writing and letting the characters tell their story - within specific guidelines, of course, like location (New York), time period (present), and genre (I started with chicklit and romance and mystery).  Broad, I know, but I had to start somewhere and just pare it down as I went.
2. Find your cheering squad and listen to what they have to say. Don't take everything personally. Given that the platform I'm writing and posting my work is Wattpad, I was hoping that readers from my previous works would warm up to small-town girl Billie and cold businessman Heath, and offer me feedback beyond awesome! cool! or Bae! and luckily I found them.
   Some of them responded to the characters of the identical twins, Billie and Blythe, discussing among themselves and with me about first-hand experiences of being an identical twin, while others let it be known that a certain bathroom scene with Billie by herself wasn't something they expected to see.  As much as sometimes I can't help but feel defensive about my babies, I had to remind myself that this is why I welcome the feedback.  Do I have to tone down the bathroom scene or remove it altogether?  Why is it there in the first place?  Is it something integral to my main character?
   No matter what the end result is, whether the bathroom scene stays or goes, it gave me questions that would eventually strengthen that scene and the character in it. So, don't take comments too personally.
3. Don't get discouraged. Don't give up. I hate to say this but I gave up on the contest halfway through. Even though it was getting a lot of traction with my readers, when I started reading other entries, my story was nothing like any of the entries.  There was no romance going on (although there was a whole lot of romantic and sexual tension) and while some of the entries had sex in the second, third and fourth chapters, mine didn't come till I hit 50K words and Chapter 23.  So I promptly sent out a tweet saying I was bowing out, I didn't know how to write Harlequin stuff and good luck to everyone else.  It was pathetic and I'm still cringing.
   But remember that cheerleading squad in #2? Well, they picked me up and dusted me all up with positive fairy dust and with the surprise of Collateral being picked by RT Book Reviews as one of the top 4 romances to read on Wattpad for July, I was back in the race - though this time, I had to keep it quiet.  So yes, don't get discouraged.
4. Don't compare yourself to others. Why? See #3.  It's easy to forget that we all are different. Even if people say that there are only 7 or 8 plot lines to go by, we all have our own unique voice to relay those plot lines with.  We write with a filter that makes us uniquely us, colored by the way we see the world be it from the way we were raised, our learned beliefs and customs, as part of a culture, or even a race.  We also have our own unique vision of the world we want to see on the page, whether it be dystopian, historical, contemporary, romantic, or horror. So given that, don't compare yourself to others - or your stories to other stories for that matter. Even characters can suffer from identity crises of their own, too.
5. It's a marathon, not a sprint.  So now that I've written the epilogue of Collateral and hit Complete on my manuscript, does that mean I'm done?  Nope, far from it.  There's editing that's yet to be done from here on, and also depending on the outcome of the contest, more editing that has to be done till it's as good as can be.  And even when I'm done done, like really done, there's still more stories to be told. I am, after all, a writer.  And writers keep writing.

That's my list so far on an overly caffeinated but empty stomach.  Maybe I'll think of more stuff as I calm down from the caffeine jitters, but to everyone who entered SYTYCW15, congratulations on finishing that novel and the best of luck to us all!  

Panicking

I'm trying to come up with the final two chapters of my latest novel, Collateral, my entry into Harlequin's SYTYCW15 competition, which you can read on Wattpad.  Honestly, my plot is a bit too convoluted and at 86K words, I still need to get to the final two chapters and make sure the characters go full circle - meaning, get them back into the romance because the romance parts are way too few and far between. But somehow I've let too many days slip past me where I didn't really write (actually more distracted writing than anything - and this thing called kindergarten), namely four days, and I'm paying for it.

Every time I sit and write the next chapter, I feel like I'm writing a completely different story that does not go with the 86K words before it.  Somehow it's taken a twist to darker, more confusing and convoluted territory. I'm bringing in characters who haven't even made any face time in the novel other than being mentioned 14 times into the last chapter and thinking I can get away with it.

But even as I do so, the chapter ends up in the "unused chapters" folder because it just doesn't feel right. I need to finish the novel, and I need to finish it now.  And so I distract myself, hoping I'll get the gist of the story back.

But I think I'm just panicking.  Yep, that would be about it - panicking.

I think my problem is also that even though I already knew who the 'killer' is (no one really dies, as far as the main characters go), I want to throw in that major plot twist, one that will make readers go, wow! never saw that coming!  Unfortunately, neither did I.  So I need to get myself back on tract and get the right killer back on the saddle even if it won't have that kick that good mysteries often have.  And that way I can move on to the three other novels waiting on me to finish editing them!

Date Night - A Short Story Collection

For me, writing short stories is a way to tease out the muses, new characters who come out of the cracks of my psyche. It’s a way to get to know them, to figure out the things they want to say. It’s an exploration of sorts - of new people, ideas, situations and their consequences, even sex (without having to write a full-length novella with sex in every chapter - though there’s nothing wrong with that). It’s a product of sitting too long in airports and standing in line at the coffee shop as a couple argues in the corner in silence, their eyes doing all the talking. Or even the lack of exchanges between peopleIt’s many things, and at the same time not so many.

After all, they say that all stories have been told, with the only differences in the telling. I don’t even know if these stories connect. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But if they have one thing in common, it’s falling in love, being in love, or starting over after falling out of love.

Date Night is my latest collection of short stories (five in this collection) which is now available from Amazon. These are stories between people who are just getting to know each other, or couples who’ve known each other too long, yet there’s something still there - love, passion, trust.