Tag Archives: answers

Coffee & Conversation: Do you believe characters should kiss on the first date?

25 Monday Jan 2021

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For starters, most of my characters don’t generally have anything resembling a “first date.” I tend to put them in harrowing or stressful situations first that force them into working together. (Sorry, my beloved characters, for the many layers of hell I put you through!) (Not sorry!)

Which means a part of this question is a little more abstract for many of my stories. Maybe it should be “Do my characters kiss within the first day?” or “Do my characters kiss the first chance they get alone?” or “Do my characters think more about kissing than they do about whatever dangerous situation I’ve put them in?”

I actually had an editor once tell me that I needed more sexy thoughts in one of my novels. Like, there’s a WHOLE FEW CHAPTERS HE DOESN’T THINK ABOUT SEX! Must change that… In my defense, the poor guy was beat-up and suffering from a poisoning, so I didn’t think it was fair to ask me to put more sexy in that part of the story. [I did my best though.]

In general though, during my romances, I will often look at the story and find where and when makes sense for my characters to get together, which usually puts them needing to do all their kissing before and after the climactic scenes. Since my longer stories tend to have a strong adventure, action or mystery arc, that means that the resolution to those arcs happen first using a fast-paced climax.

It’s about opening and closing arcs in the proper order. For example:

{open romance arc [open mystery arc (open/close action arc) close mystery arc] close romance arc}

Or: Continue reading →

Coffee & Conversation: Have you ever written fan fiction?

18 Monday Jan 2021

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When I was a child I absolutely loved Brian Jacques’ Redwall books. For those of you who don’t know what those are, his books detail action adventure stories featuring small European animals, many of whom live in a large abbey called, you guessed it, Redwall.

So there are animals such as mice and badgers and squirrels on the good side and others such as rats and weasels and snakes on the bad side. (Some people talk about how awful it is that there isn’t more distinction, that how dare Jacques divide creatures into “good” and “bad” [even though there are many exceptions to this rule] but I find that obnoxious because it’s a CHILDREN’S SERIES—you want adult-level discussion and nuance, then READ ADULT FICTION. [I would also like to point out that many adult books, including ones touted as being transcendent in some fashion, are incredibly simplistic in their definitions of good and evil as well.]

With that tangent out of the way, my very first forays into writing were fan fiction based on Jacque’s books. Particularly poetry. I would craft snippets about the bits of story that didn’t get full accounting in the books. I would wonder about what happened after the adventure or war ended. I would draw pictures of my favorite characters and sob over the ones who died.

One particular couple in the stories I fell in love with was a mouse pair who, after their story, go out adventuring and exploring rather than settle into a quiet life at Redwall. I LOVED this. I wanted to be like them, specifically the female mouse who used a rope like a whip and took down creatures twice her size.

But we never got a story about them on their adventures after they left, so their future was left ambiguous. So I wrote a poem about them :) Talked about how they were out there, fighting and having adventures together. And, of course, had fallen even more completely in love with one another, because even when I was in elementary school that was part of my happily ever after.

I feel as if we all have those things that we grasped at during our youngest years, even if we didn’t know or understand them then. Things that come back and show us who we were meant to be, what we were meant to do. For me, those old, yellowing pages of mice and their poems are one of mine.

~Emmi

Coffee & Conversation: What is the main thing you like to do on vacations?

21 Monday Sep 2020

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It’s probably a cliche, but having uninterrupted time to read is one of my main loves on vacations.

Normally I’ll get a little time each evening to read. Sometimes I’ll get a bunch more hours on the weekend. I admit I try to squeeze in reading time in many other places: dragging a book with me wherever I go, listening to an audiobook while I walk or do menial tasks, having something open while I’m eating lunch. Yet during vacations–real vacations–I’ll get a chance to just sit and read unashamedly for giant lengths of time.

I like to do other things as well, of course. I love the beach, the ocean, floating down rivers, kayaking… Really anything to do with water I enjoy. I also like hiking (short hikes–I haven’t graduated to anything more than a few miles) and museums (I’m the person who reads all the plaques–that’s why I’m there, to learn). I will do some crafting–crochet and cross-stitch. Also will bake sweet things (cooking isn’t quite as fun as muffin and cookie baking).

And, of course, write. Can’t escape that one!

But mostly read. Possibly because I like to live vicariously through the adventures of other people since I can’t very well experience most of what I read about :)

~Emmi

Coffee & Conversation: What profession do you think is the most undervalued today?

31 Monday Aug 2020

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This has been discussed by a lot of people, many of whom are more intelligent and knowledgeable than I am, but I think it still needs to be said: teachers, especially those of younger children, are incredibly undervalued.

Professors teaching at a higher level are given a great deal of respect, but the lower one looks, the less respect teachers receive. Glance at a few pre-school teachers and no one thinks anything of them, which drives me crazy because the younger a child is the more capable they are of learning and the faster they learn. With each passing year, children mature, gain experiences, and their brains becomes more firm and less versatile. Most people accept that it’s easier to learn a second or third language when quite young vs as an adult, and yet, for some hapless reason, we still completely dismiss and disregard all the people responsible for those young minds.

Those first few years at school (and the time before, of course) are some of the best times to help children advance, to encourage them to go beyond simple rubrics. They are far more capable than the school systems in the U.S. allow them to be and this is demonstrated by the low salaries, low appreciation and dismissive behavior concerning teachers.

Teachers put in a lot of themselves, much of their own time and money outside their typical hours are spent on their classroom, their students and even correspondence with parents. The good ones put their students first and are obvious by how those kids will continue to stop by long after they no longer have those teachers. Continue reading →

Coffee & Conversation: Would you rather be hated or forgotten?

10 Monday Aug 2020

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The Book That Was Forgotten

There was this book once that I read and thought, meh. Didn’t go back and touch the author’s other stories and instead moved on.

About a year later, I saw a book that interested me. I bought it, read it, and thought, it’s okay. Not amazing, but definitely good enough to read through a couple more of the author’s books.

I later discovered that I’d already read one of this author’s books because it had been saved in my ebook.

I don’t remember this author’s name, only a few vague details about the books.

The Book That Was Hated

Then there was this other book I once read that I thought, wow, this author is a sexist, bigoted asshat.

Never bought a book from that author again.

I do remember that author’s name.

The Books That Are In Question

Now, obviously, if I had a choice my books would be remembered and liked (can I say loved?). That would be the best outcome. But in the decision between Hated or Forgotten, I’m torn. Continue reading →

Coffee & Conversation: Do you ever talk to yourself?

13 Monday Jul 2020

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All the damn time.

I think this question can be considered in two different ways. Firstly, just at face value: I do the typical talking to myself. The arguments in the showers (that I always win), the walking myself through a process (this goes here and that’s what I do next), and the mumbling to myself whenever some horrible memory rears its head and I just want to sink into the ground never to be seen again.

You probably do something similar (and if you don’t, what is your secret?)

Secondly, I could read this as a writer would, because let’s face it, us writers are ALWAYS talking to ourselves.

Our characters are literally just figments of our imagination, dreamt up and put down on paper. So whenever those characters argue, it’s like I’m having an argument with myself. I’m literally standing on both sides of that argument, documenting the conflicted emotions from one perspective and then swapping sides to do the same for the other perspective.

It’s like Quicksilver playing ping pong with himself, running back and forth before the ball bounces.

Only each side of the table needs to have a completely different personality, a completely honest and real reason for everything they believe and every action they make. Because of this complexity, it’s not rare to read stories where the characters fall into a couple different traps. Continue reading →

Coffee & Conversation: What is your #1 priority in the morning?

01 Monday Jun 2020

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Coffee.

I could probably leave things there and be pretty freaking accurate. Reality is, I have a love/hate relationship with this liquid. It’s delicious and wonderful and perfect and yet hateful and traitorous. Caffeine is awful. Caffeine is glorious. Sometimes decaf is necessary. Why must something so bad for you taste so good? I’ll just leave this here: Ode to Coffee.

Okay, as for the rest of my morning priorities: feed the cat (so she doesn’t kill me), water and turn the plants, open the window blinds (again, so the cat doesn’t kill me), check my phone (so I can think about answering…maybe later), pick up and love on the cat (until she wants to kill me).

I’m so normally boring it hurts.

~Emmi

Coffee & Conversation: What do you think should be censored?

18 Monday May 2020

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Personally, I’m in the camp that any and all adult fiction or non-fiction should not be censored at all for the adult population.

But you’re probably aware I purposefully said the word “adult.”

I think most people (or at least I hope most people) would agree that children’s fiction should not have high (or perhaps any) levels of gratuitous violence, sexual activity, swearing, hate, etc. And that’s simple enough to say when the child in question is reading board books, picture books, chapter books, etc.

But things begin to get slightly dicey when we reach middle grade, where certain levels of violence or difficult situations may, in fact, be favorable to show coming-of-age story lines or excite children who want to read about dragon-riding or dinosaurs or space battles where the heroes come out on top.

Then there’s YA, strictly in a camp all its own. And that camp is a complete and utter mess, if you ask me (which you weren’t, but I’m answering anyway).

YA, despite its moniker of young adult, is generally considered aimed at children between the ages of 12/13-18. Which, again, if you ask me, is a pretty huge disparity. Children at age 12 might not even have begun puberty, where at 18, you’re not only considered an adult in most countries, but you’ve probably been faced with many adult decisions concerning your own health, sexual activity, future, life choices, relationships, etc. One would hope that at 18 you’d have enough past experiences, enough common sense, enough knowledge to think analytically. Sure, you’ll still make mistakes, but we all do at any age.

However, I have a distinct problem with YA authors aiming their books solely at that higher range audience and forgetting that children as young as 12-13 will also be picking up and reading their work. No, I’m not going to say that all violence and sexual situations should be removed. However, I do adamantly believe authors of YA have just as much responsibility as any other children’s fiction author.

LET’S TAKE AN EXAMPLE: Continue reading →

Coffee & Conversation: What is something you continually procrastinate on?

04 Monday May 2020

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Okay, I thought this a suitable question.

When it comes to writing, the writing part is actually the easiest. It’s just you and the blank page. No one watches. No one sees the mess-ups. No one sees the tangential paragraphs where you go on for two, three, four hundred words about how you have no idea what the next plot point is or repeatedly asking yourself why this character is even in this story. It’s a private affair. Where doubts intermix with excitement.

On the other hand…

Edits require you to dull the creative part of your brain. Force it into a little box with air holes that it might leak out, but only at appropriate times.

Formatting requires you to completely lock the creative side of you away. Forget it exists. Staunch it until it’s just a murmur begging to be let free.

Social Media requires you to plant your feet firmly in the here and the now, in a place where the date matters and the story is just a story and never an overactive part of your mind where you just want to linger forever.

Synopsis writing requires you to take your entire story, every living, breathing part of it, and turn it into something bland, dry, and dull that fits on two pages.

These are the things I procrastinate on the most. They are antithetical to everything writers tend to love. The clean-up at the end of the party.

Oh, we know we shouldn‘t procrastinate on them. The longer they sit needing to be done, the larger they loom. The more stories you complete in the meantime, the more end work accumulates. Yet, they sit out there still, demanding to be done by you and only you because someone else might do it all very wrong and you know it.

~Emmi

Coffee & Conversation: What was your biggest “Ah-ha!” moment?

06 Monday Apr 2020

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I’m going to think about this question as pertaining to my writing journey because I think we all have plenty of Ah-ha! moments in our lives that it would be difficult to talk about just one in particular as being the biggest.

When I first sat down to get serious about my writing, I made all the mistakes every newbie makes: no understanding of point-of-view, lack of consistency in tense, white-walling, stilted dialogue, as-you-know situations, purposeless prose, rambling scenes, tangents galore, zero conflict/tension, inability to differentiate character voices, etc., etc.,

Some of these mistakes are naturally solved merely by the writing of the stories. For instance, you cringe when you read your dialogue out loud, you can’t imagine the world when reading back the scene, your head-hopping becomes confusing even to yourself. However, one problem in particular kept eluding me because I couldn’t understand it: Hooking.

A hook, like in fishing, is that barbed piece that claws into the reader and doesn’t let go. It makes sure the reader turns the page, scrolls down, doesn’t get distracted. And for a long time I thought ‘hook’ was synonymous with ‘interesting.’

You might be thinking, “but shouldn’t a hook be interesting? Wouldn’t I want the story I’m about to read be interesting? Why wouldn’t I keep reading if the story isn’t interesting?” And those are all the questions that I harbored that made me continue to not comprehend hooking for an obscene amount of time. Continue reading →