Tag Archives: FAQ

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: What do you like to discuss with other people?

03 Monday Aug 2020

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I like to discuss difficult or erroneous plotting or character issues. Though discuss might not be the best term for what I like to do when I run into trouble. It’s more of a talking-at someone.

Here’s what I’ll do:

1) Get the person caught up with all the characters and setting and what’s been happening and what might have happened or what kinds of things are going to possibly happen and who the people are and what kinds of things they’re motivated by, and so on and so on… [This is usually answered with confused stares that attempt to look polite.]

2) Answer questions that all my pronoun usage, non-linear narrative babbling has caused.

3) Pitch my problem and all the reasons why it’s a problem. Usually I’ll state somewhere in there that my story is a mess, that it’s unsalvageable, that I’m a horrible writer, etc. All the boring, melodramatic stuff that spills from our mouths when we’ve hit a figurative wall. Continue reading →

Coffee & Conversation: Have you ever had a blessing in disguise?

20 Monday Jul 2020

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I know everyone right now stands at heightened levels of frustration. That we all are exhausted and nervous.

We’re trying to live, to care for ourselves and our loved ones in the best ways we know how. And we’re also trying to keep ourselves afloat among difficulties with jobs, with family, with social-political unrest and change, with finances, with loss. It’s difficult out there right now in most parts of the world.

Yet, I can’t help but feel that now, after many months of this, there are certain parts that are blessings. So this is a post about the positives, not the negatives.

For one, we’re getting to see people we normally might only see in passing. Sure, it can be hard to be cooped up in one place without much time for ourselves, especially for us introverts, but if looked at in another light, we’re getting to talk more, to laugh more, to just sit and be together more. More meals happening together. More learning much more about who these people are who we love. 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: Do you trust your co-workers?

06 Monday Jul 2020

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Not even a little bit.

Especially during coronavirus season. I have so many more co-workers than normal. They always want my attention and yet will inevitably have ulterior motives. Even the cat.

Especially the cat.

In fact, I think the cat might be conspiring against me. There’s this stray I keep finding outside our house. Oh, he runs off whenever I step outside, little coward that he is, but he keeps coming back. Think they’re up to something, the two of them. Talking through the window.

Maybe I should start closing the windows. Keep the blinds down during the day so she can’t stare at the birds and chat with her co-conspirator.

I think I shall to interrogate her next time she climbs onto my lab while I’m working. She’s always trying to see what I’m writing. Little spy. I’ll find out just how much of the plot she knows and then I’ll change it. Make her look the fool when she tells her little friend and he finds out the story’s something entirely different.

If the ending isn’t what you had in mind… Well, blame the cat.

~Emmi

Coffee & Conversation: What’s the most valuable thing you own?

29 Monday Jun 2020

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Many years ago, after I lost a flash drive (one of those incredibly old, barely hold anything but a couple of documents and don’t you dare try to put art or (gasp!) music on it or else it will implode) I requested another for Christmas. I ended up finding the first one again, but that doesn’t matter because I still got a higher storage one from my honey as a present anyway.

It was the cutest turtle, with a keychain attachment and everything.

You’d pop off his little head and stuff his butt in your computer and he’d save all your stories in 1997 word so you wouldn’t have to use the crappy upgraded ribbon bullshit until you were ready for internet access.

I’ve since broken the keychain part. (That didn’t actually take very long to do because I carried my keys around daily.) And then went ahead and lost the head part a few years later. So now all that’s left is the butt. The cute turtle butt that sticks out of my computers, his invisible little head somewhere inside eating my stories up and storing them in his belly.

If I had to rescue one (writing-related) thing from a burning fire, that would be the thing I grab. A little turtle butt that stores all my completed stories. (And if I’m being honest, I’d probably make it one of a top three things I’d grab if we headed into an all things situation and not just writing-related things.)

Since, I’ve also been gifted a panda bear and an elephant and though they get their time occasionally in the sun, they’re probably put-out that an old, dirty turtle butt gets more use and love.

~Emmi

Coffee & Conversation: What’s your favorite saying?

22 Monday Jun 2020

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“Everything’s okay in the end. If it’s not okay, then it’s not the end.”

I think, not only does this give insight into me as a person, it does an honestly great job at describing the vast majority (if not all of) the stories I write.

Because, let’s face it, even if I do awful, horrible things to my characters, I want them to be happy at the end. I like seeing them accomplish their goals, discover how to be better versions of themselves. I don’t like killing people off. Even when I try to kill people off I tend to immediately write up an outline as to how they still get their happy ending (remember Wes from Haunt of the Wilds…heh. How he got those fiery abilities comes back to haunt him.) I just can’t help it.

On the other hand, I do all those awful, horrible things to my characters… And sometimes people don’t like that. They’d prefer a much cleaner, safer zone, and I understand that. But I don’t want to write clean and safe; I want to write dragons eating people and secret assassin guilds…but have it all end up with some sort of happy/hopeful finale.

It gives me hope whenever I’m done in real life too. That hey, it might be the hellish middle chapters at any given point, but there’s always a point when the try/fail cycle becomes a try/succeed. As long as you don’t give up.

~Emmi

Coffee & Conversation: What is your favorite nursery rhyme?

15 Monday Jun 2020

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There’s a ton of nursery rhymes about boys, right. And even a few about men. But no, my favorite one is about a lady:

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes

I want to write a story using this as my base inspiration. I’ve even brainstormed it a bit, things like gender-bending the lady, altering her actual importance in the rhyme, etc., yet I haven’t quite come up with something I like yet. Nothing that really hits on the music theme and the ability to get it all into a story without it being too far on the side of corny.

And magic. There needs to be a magical element and though I have ideas, not a one of them are any good thus far. This is one of those ‘one-day-maybe’ ideas that might never get priority.
~Emmi

Coffee & Conversation: What scares you the most about getting older?

08 Monday Jun 2020

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When I was young I’d get these debilitating fears over the fact that I’d never get to read everything I wanted before I die. I’d spend whole summers cooped up inside, damn near reading a book a day. And if I thought about it for too long, this sharp fear would grasp my heart and turn me all cold. Because all those books I might never get to!

I’m happy to say that this fear has become far more demure and will never be listed ever again as a problem. Rather, it’s quite nice to think that there’s always so much more out there to discover.

Nope, I’ve just transferred this fear into its counterpart. Now I’m afraid I’m going to die before I get to write all the stories I want to tell. What’s worse, is that there are new story ideas for miles every year. I don’t even work on most of the damn things; they just sit in saved files or notebooks or bookmarks online so I can refind something cool that would be neat to write about.

It’s awful. I wish I wrote ten thousand words a day. Then maybe I’d make a dent on the list and not get these dreadful fears that I’ll die without having finished the hundred books I want to write. 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