What Are Your Worlds Like?

Worldbuilding. What an intriguing word. Just the sound of it makes me feel omniscient, all-powering, and well, a bit goddess-like.

When I think of worldbuilding, I tend to think of faraway planets, lost galaxies, and lands lost in a different time. But worldbuilding isn’t restricted to those places. In fact, worldbuilding can exist in the present. It can mean a world built within our own sometimes boring world.

For instance, I write paranormal erotic romance. Most of my books are set in the here and now and based in contemporary time with today’s verbiage and surroundings. But I’m still worldbuilding.

What’s the catch? I take the world and flip it on its side. Is it still happening right now? Yes. But is it worldbuilding? You bet.

Consider a world where shifters walk among us. Although they may bump shoulders with a normal human on the street, they are a part of a subculture, a hidden society, a world all its own. Do they live in our world? Or do they inhabit a world I created for them? The answer is both.

But let me ask you. Don’t all of us build our own worlds for our lives? People join specific groups and, thus, form another world, another reality, within their regular world. My worlds include the worlds that include my life as a wife and a mother. Yet one of my other worlds is the one where my wife-mom world gets put on the backburner, sometimes even forgotten, as I step into the world of writer. The only difference between the worlds everyone creates and the worlds created by writers is that writers get to make all the rules. Of course, that’s the part I enjoy the most!

So, tell me. What are your worlds like?

Beverly Rae

P.S. - Take a moment to visit my world at www.beverlyrae.com

Happy Holidays

It's very cool to be blogging on Christmas Day.

Talk about your cool luck of the draws! :)

Christmas is pretty magical time anyways. I mean a jolly fat man who can squeeze down a chimney and a reindeer whose nose glows, or in the words of Yukon Corneilius "His beak blinks like a blinking beacon."

I'm really looking forward to the New Year. I have a paranormal book releasing sometime in the New Year under my alter ego Amy Ruttan. Remember when we were talking about shifters? I have a bear shifter coming up with EC in 2012, and my bear is a member of the Mounties. *grin* So look for Mounted Release in the new year.

I hope to have some more too.

This year was a great year, even greater given the fact I got to meet up with these lovely authors from Beyond the Veil. They let me join this fantastic group and it's been amazing.

I hope you and yours have a very happy holidays and a wonderful New Year.

Lots of love,

Amy

Merry holidays!

However you celebrate the return of the light, may it be filled with blessings. :)



Dia duit,
Carolan
www.carolanivey.com

Aunt Noony’s Five Tips for Worldbuilding

1. Decide in which world you want to set your story. As Xakara mentioned in her post, ANY world in which we write, be it the “here and now” or the “once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away” has its own rules and customs. Once you’ve decided where you want your story to be set, ask yourself some questions on behalf of your main character:

a. How do they make their money? If they are supported by someone else, how do they make the money that supports your character? Are there taxes? Tributes to pay? What skills do they need to make a living?

b. How do they live? Do they have a house in a residential area? Are they on a ship with hundreds of other individuals? Underground?

c. What do they eat? If it’s not set on earth, how does the food get there? Who produces it, and how is it transported from producer to table?

d. How do they deal with the climate? What is clothing like? What are the buildings like? Human beings are fragile creatures but have many ways of mitigating environmental impacts. Describe how your character deals with them.

2. What rules govern relationships? Is there marriage? How does it work? How do kinship paradigms work? In some cultures, for example, adult siblings of the opposite sex are allowed to be friends with one another but with no other individuals of the opposite sex outside the family. What about rules regarding children? How are children treated in your world?

3. What kinds of organizations have sprung up? Is this a simple society with clan and maybe village government? Is this a megalithic society with governments and complex politics? How do roads get built, taxes levied and collected, money produced and invested?

4. As you develop the answers to these questions, it’s useful to create a document that accompanies your work but that can be used as an encyclopedia of rules for you. You can call it what you like, but make sure it includes lists of characters and their details, relationships, government notes, and notes on anything else that you need to keep in mind. For example, if you are building a werewolf society, then you might have a section in your document called “Werewolves” that details who’s in charge, how succession is handled, what colors the wolves are, etc.

5. Do people swear? This can tell you a lot about a society and culture. For example, if you set your world on a planet that doesn’t have a Euro-American Christian majority as the dominant paradigm, then “God” or “Dammit” probably aren’t common swearwords. If you create an Egyptian society, you might use “By Anubis’s teeth” or something similar. It’s useful to come up with several options, from equivalents to the “F” word all the way down to something minor like “crap” or “darn.”

If you’re still stumped, try answering the questions above using your favorite worlds. Some places to start would be Star Trek or Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series.

Have fun!

A World of Our Own

Greetings, Kittens!

Welcome to the world. Which world would that be exactly? Well, that’s the question isn’t it? We open a book, turn on a show, or sit back as the lights dim in a theater, and wait to find out which world we’ll be transported to next.

It doesn’t matter if it’s 10,000 years in the past, or 10,000 years into the future, we want the storyteller to transport us so thoroughly that we feel we’ve known this place all along. We recognize the elements, and the players, and like the lives we live every day, we wait for the moment of the extraordinary in the ordinary, and the mundane in the fantastic.

We fall in love with shadow governments, interstellar galactic battles, hidden paranormal subcultures, alternate historical records, time traveling archeologist, dimension hopping demons, immortal brooding heroes and prophecy defying heroines, all because someone makes us believe. We care about the people and we see how their world has shaped them, even as our world has shaped us. And there’s the interesting point, our world shapes us, but our world is not the same as the person next to us.

Everything we read and watch, absolutely everything, has built a new version of the world as experienced by the protagonist. A dying and broke chemistry teacher forced to cook meth in the desert, is as foreign, as an amoral vampire choosing a new beloved and changing a child to create an immortal family, is familiar. In the former, the worldbuilding is invisible, but crucial, due to it’s familiarity within the foreign decisions of the protagonist. In the latter, it’s obvious, the fantastical elements setting it apart, but it ultimately relies on its subtleties and familiar human story for its strength.

In a series, the challenge comes not only in building the world, but in showing it as both a constant and evolving concept from the protagonist’s point of view. My TherianWorld faces this challenge on two levels. Each of the paranormal romances deals with a different triad who relates to the shifter dominated world based on their own breeds and experiences. They are lighter and relationship focused, like many of our own lives. The urban fantasy on the other hand is darker, harsher and as they say, there will be blood.

But has the world changed? No, not at all. The perception of it has turned on its side, very much as my view of the world in day to day life is different from a soldier deployed overseas, or a police officer in the inner city of Chicago. We see the world from where we stand in it. As a federal agent specialized in retrieval and assassination, the world has a vastly different filter for Dante, than for any other hero or heroine I’ve written in the romances to date—and it should. But as the relationships in her life move to the forefront, her filter will be altered. The trick is to show that the world is constant and she is changing within it. I look forward to pulling it off. Wish me luck.

~X

Walking into a super-new world...

Continuing the month's theme of world-building, I thought I'd lay out where I got the idea for "Blaze of Glory" and the sequel, coming out in January from Samhain Publishing, "Heroes Without, Monsters Within".

As in, where did I get the idea to write about superheroes? Why superheroes?

Well, why not?

The original concept came to me late one night while watching television and pondering how silly certain reality shows were – basically how many of them were set up by the producers to generate excitement and ratings even if the actual people involved weren't doing certain things of their own volition. I like to point to wrestling as the most obvious example – while I have no doubt that some wrestling is legitimate and darned dangerous, there's no doubt in my mind that plenty of "episodes" are set up with good vs. bad with drama galore.

So my feeble mind wandered over to the stack of comic books my hubby collects. And by collects, I mean "fills every empty shelf in the house". Not that it's a bad thing – I've been a comic fan practically since birth, having learnt how to read from the newspaper comic strips – and marrying a man with the same love of comics was almost mandatory.

The kernel of an idea popped up as I looked over the volumes of comics on our shelves: What if all the battles were set ups? One of the most frustrating things as a fan is to read how this bad guy got put away and two issues later he's back to annoy the heroes with some new world domination plan.

But… what if it was all intentional? The jailbreak, the confrontation – what if it was all fixed from the start and orchestrated for the public?

My wee mind grabbed onto the idea like a bulldog onto a bone and we were off, constructing a world where superheroes and villains brawled without ever having any sort of final resolution, where civilians were never hurt and the bad guys mysteriously escaped almost every time.

Of course I had to find a reason why the supers would fight on cue and so forth – and what would create the crisis that would propel a B-list hero, Jo Tanis, out of her comfortable life as a performer into the front lines of a battle she was never meant to fight.

Toss in a new hot man in her life and his mysterious past and I had the warped new world of "Blaze of Glory". The sequel, "Heroes Without, Monsters Within" expand on that strange reality where the now-for-real heroes have to deal with the consequences of their actions and discover that there are real villains – and people can and will die now that the fights are real.

I'll admit it's a kick to create a new world – but it also comes with the responsibility to create new laws, new rules that must be followed or the reader will walk away. You can't just have things "happen", there's got to be some basis behind it. If you have magic, you need rules. You don't have to necessarily tell the reader the rules but they have to be there for your own use so that you don't end up contradicting yourself somewhere down the line. Same thing with superheroes – if you want them to have special powers you need to limit what they can and can't do otherwise you end up writing yourself into a corner you just can't get out of.

And when you throw in a man whose ability is just to be a walking four-leaf clover, well…

I hope I've accomplished this with the Blaze world and I hope you'll come along for more adventures in the superhero world of "Heroes Without, Monsters Within".

Scrooge and the Art of Worldbuilding

“You know what I like best about the Alastair Sim A Christmas Carol?” Greg asked.

I made a non-committal grunt. As far as I knew, there wasn’t anything my husband didn’t like about the 1951 version of the world’s most famous ghost story.

“They shot it like a horror movie.”

Dang. I never thought about it, but he was right. The 1951 A Christmas Carol doesn’t look like any of the “historical movies” or cinematic recreations of the 19th century preceding it. The framing of its scenes, its expressionistic use of shadows (in particular, check out the shot of Mrs. Dilber and the Undertaker at the top of the stairs as Jacob Marley lies dying) and the score take their inspiration from the great Universal horror movies of the 1930s and point the way to the Hammer films of succeeding decades. It’s a totally different world from the bright, sparkly MGM Dickens extravaganzas. Which is as it should be. Scrooge’s reformation absolutely, positively depends on his being scared spitless.

Contrast that with another beloved holiday fantasy, Miracle on 34th Street. Both films are shot in black and white, but the lighting, the set decoration and the feel of the two films are worlds apart.  Susan and Doris Walker inhabit rooms (and stores) with wide windows and warm light, reflecting their tidy, safe world. Kris Kringle may or may not be the real Santa Claus, but either way, the only risk they face is to their hearts.

The point is worldbuilding isn’t always about codifying a magic system or exercises in social biology. It’s also a matter of the details—the score and set design, if you will. The way you describe the world of your novel or short story determines how your readers will perceive it. For example, if you want to tell a dark urban fantasy, a city setting is a given. But so is darkness, whether in the form of night scenes or the shadows of a condemned warehouse. The sounds your characters hear should be dark and ominous. The smells (and tastes if they come into it) should be unnerving, too. In contrast, a comic fantasy should register as lighter in every sense.

In addition, you can use changes in your characters’ environment to signal changes in their condition or emotional state in the same way Scrooge’s dark night of the soul gives way to a brilliant snow-covered Christmas morning and the flattering, diffuse light of his nephew Fred’s Christmas party. Even his office looks brighter when he returns.

My old literature teachers dismissed this as a variation of “pathetic fallacy”—the notion that natural forces or inanimate objects shared human emotions and intent. But their criticism misses the point. Integrating setting with the other elements of a story reinforces the story’s impact and creates a more consistent, satisfying experience. Maybe, if you’re really lucky, you’ll create a little magic, too. ‘Tis the season, after all.

Wishing you and yours the very best of the holidays, and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

#

Illustration of Marley's ghost by John Leech from the original 1843 edition of A Christmas Carol.

World building inspirations – Moondancer

There are endless resources for ideas, information, and inspiration when it comes to world building. Cultures, science, current and historic events, are some of the core places I know many authors go to for their world building ideas. One of my favorite resources for my own world building has to do with human and nonhuman relationships (people to people, animals to animals, people to animals, as well as differences in social interaction between people of different social classes, regions, cultures, age groups, etc…).

One of the aspects of relationships I find myself thinking about most when I was first building the world of the Guardian Circle has to do with unexpected behavioral changes, for instance a person everyone always thought of as being quiet, nice, kind, suddenly and without warning and a drastic behavioral change that turns him or her into a monster. There a lot of psychological explanations that people come up with in our world, environmental excuses, traumas from the person’s past, and so on, but sometimes, no logical reason can be found for these behavioral changes.

In my world, which in many ways is very similar to our own with twists and turns here and there to allow the reader to feel like they're in a familiar place, but at the same time to give space for the magic, for the paranormal to exist in the shadows and the secret places behind the mundane world. In my world, when a good person suddenly turns monstrous, those that are knowledgeable of the shadow places, of the unspoken magics, they know what is to blame. It is called, the Void.

***

“Tell you what you know about the Void.” I turned my attention fully to Neman. My determination must’ve showed on my face because Neman seemed surprised and took a step back from me.

“The Void?” Neman blinked and glanced toward Aegolius. “Why do you want to know about that? Nasty business. Ancient evil sort of stuff. Not something one talks about in polite company.”

“I wasn’t being polite, and I’m not making small talk. I want to know about the Void, and I mean now.” I deliberately took a step forward, and Neman stepped back again, successfully intimidated. “So you know anything about it, Magi, or are you trying to cover up the fact that you don’t know shit?” Neman frowned, and I suppressed a grin. Best way to stir up the scholarly types and get them yapping was to challenge their knowledge. Just like my brother.

“I know ‘bout the Void. More than most I’d wager,” Neman said. “That doesn’t mean I know half of what needs to be known. Like I said, the Void, it’s ancient. Older than the written word. Some say older that even the Fae themselves. I don’t know. The Clan, you know how the shifters are, so wrapped up in their pockets of war they can’t see the big picture; they don’t even know the Void exists. My people have studied it, but half of our scholars see the Void as just another type of magic, the magic of the shadows, while to others like me the Void is much more. We see it as a force of destruction and chaos, once a part of the balance of the natural order, now threatening to undo all creation.”

“Older than the Fae, could that even the possible?” Aegolius asked, eyes narrowing at Neman. “No. The Fae have always been, a part of the land, the sky, the oceans, the fiery core of the earth, we are part of it all, part of life. Before that? There was nothing.”

“Yes. Nothing. That’s the Void. The nothing before life, before substance. At least that’s the theory.” Neman responded to my brother, but his gaze never wavered from me. I found his unusual level of attention disconcerting, but my obvious discomfort didn’t seem to slow the Magi man down. “Long ago it was simply part of the balance, the negative for the positive, the shadow for the light, but somehow, no one knows why, that changed. The Void began to want, began to desire power, chaos -- who knows what all they’re after. What we do know for certain is the Void is interfering with life, with free will, not just of the humans, but the free will of all of us. They seek out where there is weakness and that becomes the point of infection.”

(excerpt from “Seeking Light in the Shadows” by Moondancer Drake)

***

OMG!

OMG!

I spaced.

Totally.

Completely.

Forgot.

Sorry!

Whatever holiday you celebrate, have happy one! See you next year!

Building My Worlds

Our theme this month is about the worlds we create in our books.

I like what my co-bloggers have said about the difficulties and excitement involved with inventing brand new places. Many times the settings in paranormal, SF and fantasy books can become as rich and unique as the characters themselves.

In my books, I take a different approach. The towns where my stories take place should seem very familiar to you, maybe even too familiar. My characters could be fighting demons, or talking to ghosts in YOUR backyard. It's fun for me to imagine that a demon-killer could be the neighbor who puts his trashcans on the street next to mine.

I've brought with me the opening pages to Soul Stealer.

You can tell me if Main Street sounds anything like your town.

Happy Holidays,

Kimberley Troutte

www.kimberleytroutte.com

Soul Stealer

Copyright © 2009 Kimberley Troutte
All rights reserved — a Samhain Publishing, Ltd. publication

December 23, 2009

He tries to blend in, just another man caught up in the Christmas rush surging down Main Street. Pulling up the collar of his worn bomber jacket, he keeps his chin tucked down. It won’t help matters to be recognized.

He glances through the window of an overstocked toy store. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” blasts from inside. Searching, searching, his eyes rake over the shoppers clamoring for last-minute gifts. Nothing.

The night air sears his lungs, but the icy grip squeezing his heart is not from the cold. He swipes at his watering eyes. He needs to focus, stay alert.

Forcing his legs into a normal gait, neither too fast, nor too slow, he keeps walking. He is almost to the corner with the two-story brick apartment building, the one he walks past every night. The old lady who lives there now refuses to help him. The people down at the shelter are no good to him either. They all say they don’t know where she is.

They lie.

Since his release three weeks ago, he has walked Main Street morning, noon and night, hoping to get lucky. Tonight he wonders if he ever will. The old anger creeps into his chest.

He stops, throws his head back and silently demands of the heavens, How long will I be punished?

There is no answer.

People bump into him as they hurry by, cursing as they go. “Silent Night” blares from the store behind him. Exhaling deeply, he blows white vapor toward the stars. No. He won’t stop searching for her. Not until the day he dies.

And then, for the first time in his long-lived existence, his prayers are answered.

He has the sensation of being shot out of a cannon. His blood explodes through his veins and pounds in his ears. Dizzy, he can’t tell if his feet are still on the ground. The street noises become background static. Colors fuzz.

He sees only her.

Walking at a fast clip on the other side of the street is the flesh-and-body version of the woman in his dreams. Nightmares.

She stops to talk to an old man who lives on the streets. Putting a hand on the man’s shoulder, she points off in the distance toward the homeless shelter. When he balks, she vehemently shakes her head. It’s a cold night and she doesn’t want anyone out in it. Smiling, she watches the old man shuffle off in the direction of the shelter.

He is shocked to see the years on her, especially the curves where she once was athletic-slim. Her long ponytail has been reduced to a short bob cupping her chin. He wonders how different this woman is today, but when she tosses the hair out of her eyes, he sees the confidence of old, and he smiles. She hasn’t changed, at least not in the ways that matter.

Somehow, she senses him. Does she feel the heat from his stare? Slowly, she turns. Across the busy street, her eyes lock onto his. With the golden glow of the lamplight catching like flames in the strands of her blond hair, she is more angelic than he remembered. And when she smiles?

Lord help him, when she smiles, she is even more beautiful than she’d been the night he killed her.

Holiday Traditions

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ♫♪♫♪ Okay, not so much here in Ohio. In fact, the news people just informed us that this year alone Ohio received 69 inches of rain, making it the wettest year ever for us Ohioans. But it's December and my tree is up and so I sing that song.

I know not everyone celebrates Christmas, per se, but I think most people celebrate the holiday season in some way. And I'm betting that most people have some sort of tradition, something they do year in and year out in December that marks the holiday as something special.

For the Cullen Clan, we do a lot of things. There's the Annual Cookie Baking, which always stresses me out because everyone wants their favorite and there's NO WAY we can eat all thosecookies without looking like the Michelin man in January. Then there's the Putting Up of the Tree which entails lots and lots of boxes and lots of trips up and down the basement stairs.

But I think my most favorite tradition is the Buying of the Ornaments. Since we were married, oh so long ago, my husband and I have bought an ornament each year for each other. The ornament entails much thought and planning because it has to be the right ornament. It can't be something plucked off the shelf. It has to have meaning for both of us. As each child came along, the tradition grew and now we have enough ornaments to fill several trees.

Each year we pull out our boxes and we unwrap the ornaments and we reminisce about the past. You won't find a simple red or green ball on our tree. No, our tree is filled with Spongebob Squarepants and Star Wars figurines and Matchbox cars and American Girl Doll replicas. Each and every ornament means something to us.

My husband and I always said that when the kids move out they can take their ornaments with them to start their own trees. But, you know, I'm starting to rethink that. I think I might keep them to remember.

So what is your favorite holiday tradition?

ps - My paranormal romance, Her Dark Knight, released last week. If you like a hunky Knight Templar and a touching love story that spans seven-hundred-years, check it out.

Bouncing Back Better

It took a rejection to teach me about worldbuilding. Well, that wasn’t the only thing this particular rejection taught me, but it was one major thing. I thought that because my books take place in present day and in my home state, what did I need to build? Um, I learned the hard way I was wrong. Yeah, I said it. The good news is that I learned an important lesson: Every story requires worldbuilding. Yes, I said EVERY story. Even a little short about present day. Why? Because the world of characters is different from your world or mine. 

The Rejection took place several years ago, and involved a different twist on vampires. The problem I ran into was that there are certain expectations about vampires that have to be met, no matter how unusual or cool my new twist was. I didn’t fulfill those expectations. No, vampires don’t have to turn to dust in the sun, but they do need a creep factor that I neglected to show my readers. I’d done a lot of research on vampires, then went my own way. I thought I’d nailed the story, but I missed the tangible bits and pieces that grab the reader and make her (or him) feel part of the story. This, my friends, is worldbuilding. It isn’t just making up a new government system, or devising a new set of rules for vampires. It’s figuring out the home where your characters live, the area where they work, the deep areas of their emotions they would never show the world. How creepy—or sweet—your characters are. These are in every work of fiction, and they are important building blocks.

For instance, I am horrible about descriptions. I can write them just fine, I just don’t. Why? I don’t like reading a lot of description. And there’s the make-or-break phrase: “A lot of “. My readers don’t need pages and pages of description either, but they do need enough to ground them in the story. My mistake was not giving them that grounding. I learned the hard way that a writer has to give her readers strong details to allow them to picture of the characters, the surroundings, and even the emotions the characters feel—and not the few crumbs I threw out. Ack! What an eye-opener! 

I went on to learn about advanced writing craft. I found some great teachers and great books and spent a couple of years learning and practicing writing. Has it been worth the effort? I think so. A friend says I write 1,000 times better than I used to. I don’t see how that’s possible. The most anything can improve is 100%, after all. But yeah, sometimes we just have to take the time to learn and grow—and then, hopefully, take the world by storm.

Have you ever taken time out to learn and grow? Is there a time when you should have? Would you like to take time out, but it isn’t feasible? 

Have a great week!

Cheryel

www.cheryelhutton.com

What Are Your Worlds Like?

Worldbuilding. What an intriguing word. Just the sound of it makes me feel omniscient, all-powering, and well, a bit goddess-like. But oh, how wrong I am!

When I think of worldbuilding, I tend to think of faraway planets, lost galaxies and lands lost in a different time. But worldbuilding isn’t restricted to those places. In fact, worldbuilding can exist in the present. A world built within our own sometimes boring world.

For instance, I write paranormal erotic romance. Most of my books are set in the here and now, right under our noses and based in contemporary time with today’s verbiage and surroundings. But I’m still worldbuilding.

There’s a catch, you see. I take the world and flip it on its side. Is it still happening right now? Yes. But is it worldbuilding? You betcha.

Consider a world where shifters walk among us. Although they may bump shoulders with a normal human on the street, they are a part of a subculture, a hidden society all its own. Do they live in our world? Or do they inhabit a world I created for them? The answer is both.

But let me ask you. Don’t all of us build our own worlds, even sub-worlds for our lives? People join specific groups and, thus, form another world, another reality, within their “regular” world. My worlds include the world surrounding my life as a wife and a mother. Yet my other world is the one where my wife-mom world gets put on the backburner, sometimes even forgotten, as I step into the world of writer. The only difference between the worlds everyone creates and the worlds created by writers is that writers get to make all the rules. Of course, that’s the part I enjoy the most!

So, tell me. What are your worlds like?

Beverly - www.beverlyrae.com

Welcome to my world...

Come and sit a spell. ;)

I think that's the thing about paranormal stories that both entices and frustrates me to no end. The whole concept of 'world-building'. It can be a tricky proposition, to say the least.

"But..." the novice might ask. "Why does it matter? Why can't you just make it up as you go along?"

Seriously, that would be great. But if I get something wrong, or change mid-stream, it wouldn't make sense. Yes, I'm talking about my own particular paranormal world where humans live side-by-side with descendants of gods and humans, with demons thrown in for good... uh, bad measure.

I write about characters who can speak to the dead; change into animals; read minds; see the future; and draw crime scenes before the criminal sets a foot out the door. I can pretty much go wherever my slightly bent imagination takes me. Right?

Uh. No.

If my world doesn't make sense to my readers -- yes, setting aside the demons and ancient prophet driving a Hummer -- then they won't keep reading. Every world, no matter how make-believe, has to have it's own set of rules. It's own points of logic and order. I can try to circumvent the rules, but readers would catch it. Fast. And they'd just as quickly write a snippy review and/or refuse to buy any of my stories ever again. If a writer loses their audience, there's not much point to putting it out there. In that case, it's better to resume hide the pages under the bed. ;)

Yes, I make up my own world. My universe co-exists within the sedate, blandness of 'real' life. But I still have to follow certain protocol: Demons are born evil, but can choose otherwise. Shapeshifters are the black sheep -- no pun intended -- of the demigod-like family. Knowing the future does not necessarily ensure a happy life. Things can still suck. Royally.

Luckily, my rules also include the concepts of everlasting love... hot heroes who are completely monogamous.... happy endings... and heroines who can kick ass. ;) It's a fun and slightly scary place, but I love it here. There's so much to learn.

What's your world like?

~~Meg Allison
Indulge your senses...
http://www.megallisonauthor.com

13 Things That Did Not Happen In Claustrophobic Christmas

13 Things That Would Have Made It Even Harder for Darcy and James to Get Their Romance On

My latest Samhain release doesn’t have anything paranormal in it, I'm embarrassed to admit. It's the tale of snow-crossed lovers stuck in a holiday traffic jam on the interstate. I know, I know, how can you make a sexy situation out of a traffic jam?? Well, let's just say it was cold and they needed to cuddle together for body heat.

Anyway, a reader / Meankitty fan emailed me to say the book would have been a lot funnier if one of the protagonists had been travelling with a bad cat. Yes, yes it would have. But would I have been able to make it a sexy romance? I'm not so sure.

So here's a list of 13 things that would have seriously challenged to my ability to make this traffic jam tale romantic. (Meankitty helped make this list.)

1) One of the protagonists was travelling with a bad cat.

2) One of the protagonists was travelling with a bad cat...and the other was travelling with a bad dog.

3) One of the protagonists was travelling with a bad cat...and the other was travelling with a bad dog who had recently been sprayed by a skunk.

4) One of the protagonists was travelling with a bad cat...and the other was travelling with a bad dog who had recently been sprayed by a skunk and also had diarrhea.

5) One of the protagonists was travelling with a cat...and the other was travelling with a bad dog with diarrhea who had recently been sprayed by a skunk and it was not just any dog but a Saint Bernard.

6) One of the protagonists was travelling with a cat...and the other was travelling with a bad dog with diarrhea who had recently been sprayed by a skunk and it was not just any dog but a Saint Bernard. Also, the Saint Bernard was named "Dumb-ass."

7) One of the protagonists was travelling with a cat...and the other was travelling with a bad Saint Bernard with diarrhea, Dumb-ass, who had recently been sprayed by a skunk, and all of a sudden, because the protagonists were being romantic instead of paying attention, Dumb-ass escaped from the car.

8) One of the protagonists was travelling with a cat...and the other was travelling with a bad Saint Bernard with diarrhea, Dumb-ass, who had recently been sprayed by a skunk, and all of a sudden, because the protagonists were being romantic instead of paying attention, Dumb-ass escaped from the car and ran across the road, where he jumped in the open window of a police cruiser.

9) One of the protagonists was travelling with a cat...and the other was travelling with a bad Saint Bernard with diarrhea, Dumb-ass, who had recently been sprayed by a skunk, and all of a sudden, because the protagonists were being romantic instead of paying attention, Dumb-ass escaped from the car and ran across the road, where he jumped in the open window of a police cruiser and started homping the policeman.

10) One of the protagonists was travelling with a wonderful cat...and the other was travelling with a bad Saint Bernard with diarrhea, Dumb-ass, who had recently been sprayed by a skunk, and all of a sudden, because the protagonists were being romantic instead of paying attention, Dumb-ass escaped from the car andran across the road, where he jumped in the open window of a police cruiser and started homping the policeman. When the protagonists went after the dog, the policeman thought it was a set-up and whipped out a gun.

11) One of the protagonists was travelling with a lovely cat...and the other was travelling with a bad Saint Bernard with diarrhea, Dumb-ass, who had recently been sprayed by a skunk, and all of a sudden, because the protagonists were being romantic instead of paying attention, Dumb-ass escaped from the car andran across the road, where he jumped in the open window of a police cruiser and started homping the policeman. When the protagonists went after the dog, the policeman thought it was a set-up and whipped out a gun. He arrested the protagonists for public indecency and arrested the dog for assault and battery and...other stuff.

12) One of the protagonists was travelling with an oh so well behaved cat...and the other was travelling with a bad Saint Bernard with diarrhea, Dumb-ass, who had recently been sprayed by a skunk, and all of a sudden, because the protagonists were being romantic instead of paying attention, Dumb-ass escaped from the car andran across the road, where he jumped in the open window of a police cruiser and started homping the policeman. When the protagonists went after the dog, the policeman thought it was a set-up and whipped out a gun. He arrested the protagonists for public indecency and arrested the dog for assault and battery and...other stuff. Their brief stay in the county lockup fostered great resentment in the protagonists for one another, as each blamed the other for having the great idea to pass the time in the traffic jam with some sexxy sexxy, and they never spoke to each other again.

13) One of the protagonists was travelling with a very smart cat...who cleverly hissed at spat at the dog-owner until the romance was nipped in the bud before any of that crap happened. But it was a pretty good story about a cat and her human, in the end.

If you'd like to see how the story ACTUALLY went, you can check it out at my website, where there are buy links and the first chapter is free. Neither Darcy nor James has a pet :).

So, would you read Meankitty's version of the story? Would it be romantic?

Jody W. (w/a Ellie Marvel)
Claustrophobic Christmas - November 2011. All ice will melt.
www.elliemarvel.com * www.meankitty.com