Lucky Seven

Okay, a Little More Harlequin Fun 

I felt bad about making fun of those books so I tried to find some that I thought might be good and I came across this

The Lawman

It's sort of a double entedree, you know what they say. . . save a horse ride a-- never mind. 

No, but seriously I thought I would find some books for my coworkers.

Jill - What better for her than to read about a smoking hot publicist in Hot Number

Erik -  How about a nice Amish Christmas

Shawna - A story about the San Fransisco earthquake for our favorite San Franciscan, Mission of Hope  (it's also one of the "Christian"ones to maintain your girl next door image, jk)

Joel - Because they are both doctors, The Doctor's Undoing

Greta - Um, they didn't have anything cats. .

I'm done. I promise.

What is Up with Chapter Six ?

Now that it is over I can't get over how hard chapter 6 was for me to write. I think it may have had something to do with the authenticity I was looking for.  The most important parts of that chapter were strictly in a few of the internal  dialogue and communications so it was hard to  build a story around it. Clearly I could have gone into more details with Ashram teachings but it wasn't completely relevant to the plot.

I kept hoping a mini-story would somehow come out of it but the real intention was to put the character "on a existential bus"so to speak. For him to find peace it was best for him to be a little out of touch with modernity.

I had toyed with the idea of writing the entire chapter in letters between Mr. Fierro and Emile but there was so much missing. At least that is where my mind was.

Kodakianal

This is a real lakeside town. It was settled by missionaries so it is a "westernized" town. I did not realize this until afterward.  The place is based on a place called Turyea they have a website here, where the visuals are based on.

Seven

This chapter as expected leads us back to  Clara and Rosalie in Italy. But more importantly what happens after Clara and Peter's kiss ?

Playlist

This is one of my favorite playlist.

+1+  Andare - Ludovico Einaudi
+2+ I Due Fiumi -Ludovico Einaudi
+3+ I Gornio - Ludovico Einaudi
+4+ - Falling Into You - Celine Dione

Rah rah ah ah ah roma roma ma

What does LiLe feel like making fun of today ?




** Romance Novels **

When I first finished Lost Angels the graphics department was asked  to use romance novels as inspiration to help tone down some of the more serious themes in the series, (Give Greta a break it was her first day). I think I posted about it again once and I while a majority of the novels aren't "LOLZ" worthy there are a few that keep getting to me.

PS. Auto save caused me to delete this post so I re wrote the entire thing ):

Titles

For me coming up with titles is one of the hardest parts but for some of these harlquinn novles all youn eed to to do is use a comma and then describe the characters plot relevance fore example.

Greek Tycoon, Wayward Wife

and the oh so creative

Wicked Captian, Wayward Wife (The guy on this cover is kind of hot, dark hair blue eyes. . . idk)

It probably also helps to sell books if the title pretty much sums up the tension in the plot just so we know what we are getting into.

Prince of Montez, Pregnant Mistress - Okay, see according to the description she is a curator or something why is that not relevant to the title ?

Sensible Housekeeper, Scandalously Pregnant - So, yeah.

Seriously though I think the titles are used for shock value, I'm almost convinced all of the authors have pen names.

Money Money Money

One last thing that always bothers me is that all of these men have money. But to help you  tell the difference most of them are from the Meditternain

The Multi-Millionaire's Virgin Mistress - Yeah he is probably also an italian prince

The Italian Billionaire's Secretary Mistress 
(He is like the guy above but richer)

The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess  (The description kind of makes the title irrelevant. He is like the guy above except from Greece)

Mistress: Pregnant by the Spanish Billionaire (Why is there a colon ? Also he is like a Spanish combination of the men above.)

Of course the Mediterranean vibe is killed in the American series, in those either you are from Texas or the Midwest.

Anyway I thought I would just blog about some of the lolz (:

DSI Updates

Apologies ?

I don't know where I have been, but I promise I will never go away like that again. I can however promise the the next updates will come very quickly. Just in time for the holidays !

Pictures

I took this week off (my other job) and was watching TV with my Sister in Law (she just got home !) I saw an actress who I think would be a great pic-spiration for an older Clara in this story. Her name is Chirshell Stause and while some of you may know her as the guy from Glee's ex-fiance. I saw her on All My Children as Amanda Dillion (you should read her character bio, whew). 

(With black hair though)

I also found another one for Mr. Fierro and Peter. They are Kevin Zegers from Transamerica, he is really good a pulling off vacant expressions, and for Peter I can't help but to picture Tom Welling. He has dark hair, green eyes and a tan that I think is probably fake.

                                                                                             (I think he has been shopped to look younger)

Chapter 5

Chapter five was one of the more interesting chapter its main purpose was to give background on Clara's time in Italy and to give some insight into the epilogue of House of Fierro.

Chapter 6

I have been holding on to this chapter for far to long. I attempted to post it on the 19th of November but it just needed more work, which I will talk about more in the next post. For some reason I found this chapter somewhat (super-vaguely) similar to chapter 8 of Hidden, and it helped me to finish this one off. This is probably one of the longer chapters almost over 5K.

Much with the structure of the story we are  heading back  in time and taking off from Chapter 4, in which Mr. Fierro is going in search of Robert Essex and whatever secrets he is hiding.

Playlist

The playlist  features the kind of "eclectic" music. In order this playlist Features a composer, a danish collective band, Award Winning Iris Singer, A German composer and a  New York musician.

-1- Beyond This Moment - Patrick O' Hearn
-2- Kissing - Bliss
-3- Only Time - Enya
-4- Moon Temple -  Karunesh
-5-  Iris - Goo Goo Dolls (the live version is awesome)
-6- - Drop In The Ocean - Ron Pope

Chapter  6

Working Out The Puzzle

 Yeah, Quick Update

United Light Revisited

One of the things, and I think we can all agree, about United Light that always struck me was the length of the chapters I think it really shows how invested Shawna was in the characters and the story. Even though I know it ends it seems when reading it that it would make a great TV show. I don't know Shawna we are in LA !

Chapter 4

This Chapter was inspired by actual Freighter Cruises. This link was the inspirational voyage for the Maitesse. As you can imagine these cruises are quite expensive but the perfect plot device for this story.

Many of the songs helped to write along their own sections especially Life For Rent the lyrics are point on to where the character is in the story. We have a character who is general an agoraphobic and this chapter served to a be a big turning point in this, the motivation just had to take some time to set in.

Alot of people commented on the emotion in Mr. Fierro's chapters as opposed to Clara's and that is because Clara is constantly lving in the present she has had time to heal and her past is behind her.

Timelines Matter

Once again when re-reading United Light one of the things I paid attention to more was timelines. I do enjoy dabling in telling a story out of order so I thought I would sketch out the timeline as best I could.

Clara's Story is linear. Chapters 1 and 3 are told in order starting from May 2011

Mr. Fierro's Story - Is a bit more complicated. I wanted to tell what happens after the events of HOF from his POV but I didn't want to start things off that way so his first chapter (Chapter 2) takes place in May 2011 too, however he backtracks to December of 2007 and tells the story in a linear fashion from there.

It gets complicated when we try to match up what is happening to one character than another

Chapter 5

I suppose looking back I could have paired this with chapter 4, because this one is so short. I like the music in this chapter but it was more of an afterthought

Playlist

+1+ Good Night Song  - Tammy Hall

+2+ - Nothing Left To Lose - Matt Kearny

Chapter 5

Lot's of Shawna Shout Outs

Oh, Shawna I blame you

After reading about how SH re-read  parts of LA, SA and FS. . . I decided to do the same thing, and I was certainly glad I had one of my mom's famous martinis in hand (read: a regular martini in a 6 oz glass). Working on that series was a great first experince I don't think I realized how much Sofia and Tomas went through. I think starting with Free Spirits there was a lot tension between them and I feel like I can say they got happy ending they deserve.


I kept asking myself "why did I make them do that" and then I would think "oh, that's why".
On a funny note I can't believe I only used "Fuck" once and "Shit" twice in the entirety of Litany Lane and HOF. Both are said by "evil" characters (Roger and the Men whose car hits Clara).

Thinking of Litany Lane

I've always felt that part of Litany Lane is that was  it was very "high concept", but I always felt that the characters would never stay in Nightfall in the end and that bothered me becuase I like to leave room for sequels. Once again while re-reading notes I did remember a meta thing I put into LL to reason for creating sequels and it is when Emile is talking about the book he is writing.

One day when she is set to return she decides to runaway. Upon hearing this Hades sends the underworlds’ notorious inmates out looking for her. It goes on in exciting detail about the wreckage the Titans and Persephone cause on the living world

- Chapter 7, LL

While I did enjoy creating my own fictional world, as I'm sure Shawna knows, it's really hard.
.

Chapter 3

That was one of the easiest chapters for me to write, once again there isn't anything too particular about this chapter except it establishes a pattern I'm surprised no one commented on.  . I realized  what needed to happen was that chapter 4  needed to have a more abstract set up, so we will see how this goes.

Chapte 4

This chapter put me through the ringer, the timeline on my documents tells me that I have been working on this since October and none of the original material is in thier now.

For some reason I think chapters get better the more they "age" but that isn't neccesraily true as I remember from chapters of SA for example the chapter Wildflowers was written the day it was posted and it is one of my favorites

I want to thank Shawna for her advice, I did try writing for myself but I kept saying "wait what happens now ?". This is one of the issues with writing from an outline I have started to connect the dots before I draw them !  Meaning some parts of this chapter were written months ago. It will get easier since every other chapter through 8 (er, except 6) is written.

Playlist

+1+ - My Immortal - Evanescene
+2+ - Broken - Life House

+3+ - Life For Rent - Dido

+4+ - Ascolta- Einaudi

+5+  Ain't No Reason

+6+ - Good Enough - Evansecene
+7+ - Don't Fear The Reaper - Gus (cover)

Chapter 4

Read More !

Oops ! Commenting Is Fixed
P.S. I was so disappointed SH didn't have an update

Joel  Erik

So,  I have this nifty software that tells me some of the ages of people who leave comments on Cobalt blogs. I felt as if I set a bad example by going ALL CAPS on Joel and Erik on Shawna's blog. I overreacted and should have just ignored them because I very quickly realized that their words literally mean nothing to me. We at Cobalt love hearing what great things readers have to say in person and online, I think we have seen a tweet pic of Erik's face when someone admits they have read his books. A nice comment goes along way.

- I swear this isn't a PR stunt (;

Updated Editor

As you can probably tell I updated my blogger editor and it was messing severely with the template so I had to change it.

+++

Twist, Maybe ? Cop-Out, no

Somewhere in the middle of HOF (chapter 4 maybe ?), I had the prologue of DSI stuck in my mind. It was just a fun thought but once I had the plot I had to make it happen. Sure, maybe I originally wanted to kill of Mr. Fierro because it logically made sense as the only way Lucie would stop haunting Clara.

I was adamant about defying my own logic and not killing him off and was one of the reasons I had hard time with HOF. It was never really about him dying it was about him choosing to die choosing to leave Clara that really mattered. In other words having free will and not acting on it.

So, In HOF something happens discretely in the last chapter.

When Clara is in the police station and runs into Emile she notices

I noticed Emile's shoes were covered in dirt and snow and I realized he had been digging.

Clara assumes he was burying Mr. Fierro's body back (*shudder*) in his grave.

She assumes he was burying a body and he was. In the previous Chapter Addison begins to dig up his own grave but stops.


What Emile actually did was take the body of the Reverend (remember him) and buries him in the open grave. Now because Martin is insisting that he met a man who died 50 years ago Sheriff Rainer digs up the grave which leads to this line.

Sheriff Rainer had driven herself mad after where they found the body of a reverend.

Which was one of the reasons I focused on Rainer in the end. She could possible put the pieces together about Roger and Lucie killing Mr. Fierro.

Missed Music Moment of Awesome

I truly loved the choice of Hey Ya for the last chapter of HOF, however the other option was Where You Are by Josh Groban. But I don't entirely like the song. . . It's a little cheesy.

Picture Post

This Irish Abbey is based on  the one described in Chapter 2



What's not there

Anyone notice something. . . strange or missing in chapter 2 ?

Music Trivia, Answered

Grammy Nominated Song - What I Cannot Change
Song From Academy Movie - Any Other Name - American Beauty
Traditional Irish Song - Silui A Run
Song from our favorite TV show SYTYCD - Mad World

Chapter 3

This chapter's playlist is mostly instrumental.

Playlist

The playlist has been loaded to the sidebar, it starts at 10. The new template doesn't support embeds to well  ):


+1+ - By Heart - Jim Brickman
+2+  - Indaco - Ludovico Einaudi


Chapter 3

Words, words and more excuses

Would you believe I have this entry backdated nearly 3 months ? course you would !
(This is the closest to pink this website has)


Writer's Block

So where have I been ? after finishing nearly 10,000 words of Desert Sand Iris, I found myself with writer's block. Maybe I've been distracted by the remodeling on my kitchen (it almost burned down ): but now that it is all done I have had more time to concentrate Although there is nothing more peceful than picking out chrome plated appliance. My SIL and I decided to remodel according Rachel Ray 's kitchen, except we have two ovens. Speaking of remodeling I'm looking for my old template !

Anywho,

The writer's block has dissipated and I'm hoping the rest will flow easily. I took out one paragraph from chapter 2 and the whole story fell apart but it's all better now. I'm also working on getting someone to show me how to put my playlist in the sidebar.

Desert Sand Iris, Let's review

I know it's been a while but The prologue pretty much stands on its own if a refresher is needed. I'm also a big fan of these 'Author Notes' at the end of chapters so look out for those.

I think you will find that once again I want to reach into the dark corner of your itunes and find some ecletic songs !

oh, and did I mention

DOUBLE CHAPTER POST ! !

Today's playlist features (in no particular order) A traditional heritage song, one song from an academy award winning movie, a Grammy nominated song, a song from our favorite reality tv show and one I couldn't really find any information about

Chapter 1

+1+ Any Other Name - Thomas Newman
+2+ What I cannot Change


Chapter 2

+1+ - Siuli A Run - Celtic Woman
+2+ - Coldwater - Damien Rice
+3+ - Mad World - Gary Jules
+4+ - Do You Wanna Joshua Radin

Playlist

Chapter 1 and 2

Loose Ends and A New Adventure

Hey Ya



One of the reasons I pick songs is because of the lyrics and although I was concerned about using the Hey Ya remix, I really loved it on Scrubs (Jordan's my favorite character), I like a few of the lyrics.

If what they say is "nothing is forever" Then what makes love the exception

Numbers



So the Grand Total for House of Fierro was ~35933 making it about 11,000 words shorter than Litany Lane which is roughly four chapters.

Feminist Theory



You know I originally had a paragraph here defending HOF and LL as being feminist, but I'd like to get a little out of Destert Sand Iris before getting into it. Speaking of which here is alittle preview



Desert Sand Iris



This part of the trilogy is very different from the others , I am drawing a lot from something I orginally wanted to explore with S&A. Once again there will be an intersting structure to this, I have a feeling it is going to be much longer that the previous two . . . maybe a bit SH inspired ? but we'll see.



I have the prologue here just to give you an idea of the direction we are going in. I decided to post it because there are no "plot elements" (ie forshadowing, checokv's guns etc).



Also, I really like using Author's Notes at the end of chapters so I'd look for one on almost every chapter, think of them as footnotes.



Who is ready for a tiny preview ? Just to let you now it is Desert Sand Iris I kept getting the syntax mixed up.



Playlist



Today's Playlist features a song from a popular film series and a song from an indie artist.



+1+ Shipwrecked - Shane

+2+ My Love - Sia

Desert Sand Iris, Prologue