Sunday, December 23, 2018

Furbabies

Music, coffee, tea… everyone has something by their side while they write, helping them push through the idle fog blocking the creative process and keep them sane. For some of us, it’s pets. Sweet, troublesome creatures that they are, they comfort us when we’re frustrated, and annoy us when we’re in the zone. Cats, dogs, fish, birds, reptiles, and everything else.


Lauren shares her writing bubble with her fur baby boy, Jasper. He’s a 4 ½ year old mutt found as a puppy behind a Waffle House. After a few days of fostering, the decision was made not to adopt him out. We’ve been told that he is likely either a Springer, Brittany, or Aussie mix, but definitely some sort of good ol’ fashion Labrador mix. He’s an anxious doofus who is only happy if he has his mom near, but likes the freedom to go lay in the hallway when he’s tired of trying to lay on top of her Chromebook when she’s trying to work. He also likes to lay on top of Xbox controllers and TV remotes so you can’t find them. When he’s not silently providing moral support (or, sleeping adorably, as it were) he will sit as close to the computer chair as he can, often getting his chin on the armchest, and whine insistently to be given attention, because clearly he is far more important than the development of your novel.


Jasper
When in Georgia, Anna divides her attention between her two cocker spaniels, Tiana and Jasmine. They are seven and six years old, respectively, and playful as they are cuddly. Both are rescues, and both are as different as their coats. Where Tiana, the cute blonde, loves people of all types and will nosily demand attention by crawling into stranger’s laps and bumping their hands for pets, Jasmine, with her curly black coat, is the introvert dog, who finds meeting new people a little nerve wracking, and much prefers to lay by your legs of her own choosing, to be close without being smothered. Things are quite the opposite when it comes to the dread vacuum, though, and Jasmine bravely tried to murder the noisome machine, while Tiana cowers. The true struggle, though, comes when both are attempting to garner attention from Anna at the same time, and often leads to dramatic, snarling dog fights. Such is the woe of being so fiercely loved by two adorable dogs.

Tiana

Jasmine
What kind of pets do you guys have? What sort of kinship do you hold with them? What do you find them doing when you’re working on your writing? If you don’t have any writing companions, what kind do you see yourself one day having? Do you have any characters that own interesting pets, mundane or fantastical? Leave us a comment and let us know!


-Lauren & Anna

Sunday, December 16, 2018

It's The End of The Year As We Know It

Howdy Folks,

At last, we are drawing close to the end of the year. I apologize for the radio silence. Not only was there Nano to contend with, but the rapidly approaching holidays have just about eaten all of our free time (mostly due to extra working hours). But soon, soon the blissful freedom of January shall be here.

Just as an update, Lauren and I are currently working on giving Forstfire one last revision before tweaking our submission packet and hitting the streets again to sell our novel to agents. If nothing percolates from this round, we have discussed possibly looking at other publshing routes, but we really want to give this another good round before we move on.

Our novel we worked on during Nano is about half-finished, and put on a backburner at the moment as we realized it was not developing quite as we envisioned. We have promised to return to it soon with a stronger gameplan once the new revisions are done on Frostfire and our attention is free to focus on it. We started in on another novel idea, but it is admittedly progressing slowly due to the large amount of focus Frosty is taking.

All in all, the end of this year is proving busy beyond measure, but hopefully with excellent things to show for it come 2019.

Til Next Time,
Anna Harpe

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Twas The Night Before Nano...

Howdy Folks,

So it is, at this moment, the very best day of the year (in my own opinion) -- Halloween! But it is more than simple the greatest celebration of all that is ookie and spooky, but also the eve of the most rewarding and most stressful time of year for writers everywhere -- Nanowrimo. Naturally, Lauren and I will be participating. We are planning to try to use this hectic month to try and finish our small side project (as much as an entire novel can be considered a side project or small) before we get back on the road to editing Frostfire. 

Progress on publishing Frostfire has slowed. We have received many rejections now, which, while not dampening our spirits one whit, has given us pause in considering if we might need to break the story into smaller parts to make it more attractive to publish. Smaller books are cheaper to make, after all. Considering how the story would be broken, we are exploring changing up a few parts to add a bit more action to the shorter story, and really pump up the audience's investment in our two handsome men before we break them -- a little more literally than you might think within the context of the story.

We would both like to extend once again our sincerest and most heartfelt thanks to our alpha readers for all of their help. It has been quite a journey, and one that would have been much, much more arduous without our alpha humans' encouragement and endless enthusiasm in answering our questions. 

As to our Nano project, since it is soon to be finished, I will offer those few of you following this blog as of yet more information on this mysterious book titled Fateful: The Doe and The Wolf. It is a young adult novel featuring Vasille and Linryl, two young women struggling to resist -- or fulfill -- their fates within our new and enchanting world of a fantastical Italian city. To further tease your senses, below are the current reference pictures for the two main characters -- though you know my and Lauren's track record with sticking to our reference photos.

Linryl -- Anna's character
Vasille -- Lauren's character


There will be more little tidbits as we progress on this work, so stay tuned to hear more. Until then, stay safe, and don't burn the house down.

-- Anna Harpe

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

The Most Wonderful Time

Howdy folks,

Well, it is getting to be that season again -- and I do not simply mean Autumn. Halloween is right around the corner, bringing its eerie, wonderful flavor to the year.


Banana Bread Oats and Pumpkin Spiced Latte from ROOTED

Caprese Sandwich and Cinnamon White Mocha from ROOTED

And with it, we bring news. Progress on finding an agent for Frostfire has been slow. As such, we have chosen to use this year's Nanowrimo to work on another, shorter, more easily marketable project. We promise to tease you as soon and as often as we can with what it might be. Though, perhaps, we may just leave you a single hint.



Until next time,
Anna

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Quoteable Quotes

"Leonie Barrow looked at him with a strange expression, her pale skin blue and shadowed by the falling light, her eyes dark and bottomless. ‘Cabal…’ she whispered.
'Yes?’ he replied.
'How…’ she paused, searching for the words. Her gaze fell, and then rose again, and she looked deep into his eyes. 'How did you ever become so very fucked up?’"

-- Johannes Cabal the Detective, Jonathan L Howard

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Love Is Love

Howdy Folks,

So, those of you that have read Frostfire (or listened to Lauren and myself natter endlessly about it), are likely aware that it is a story involving the long  development of intimacy and trust between two men. A common question we receive after explaining this fact to someone asking about the story is "why" we wrote a story about two men, and we have two parts to that answer.

My answer comes from what I have seen of the fiction available featuring Male x Male couples. I have a long history of reading yaoi and gay fiction. It is not my sole source of fiction, but I do enjoy it as much, if not more, than the standard Male x Female fiction, especially if it includes elements such as the struggle to be accepted. But I also found that far too many of the fiction pieces featured relationships built on abuse and even rape. I wanted to write a story -- well, let's be honest -- stories featuring complex, but healthy relationships between non-hetero couples.

Additionally, in Lauren's words, we want to normalize. We want to keep writing queer fiction to help create a space where no one feels compelled to ask us why anymore. It is just normal -- in all genres. We hope, in the future, to publish not just stories featuring two men, but many other types of relationships in other genres. 

Until Next Time,
Anna

Sunday, August 12, 2018

The Characters, They Are A Changin'!

Howdy Strangers!

So, admittedly, when Lauren and I start in on a story or a roleplay, there is a bit of a method to it. We usually have an idea first -- a pair of characters we'd like to write, a setting we would like to explore, etc. Then, we usually go and find pictures roughly representing the two main characters we propose to use. So, for your amusement, I present the two images we originally based Barrett and Kyran -- the main characters of our novel FROSTFIRE.


First up is Barrett. 






His image in the novel is virtually unchanged. This is pretty much what Barrett looks like -- in our imaginations -- in FROSTFIRE. He has a few odd scars, and some thicker facial hair, but our hunter hobo looks pretty much the same as he began.

Next is Kyran.




Now, if you have seen the special post on our author page on Facebook, or been one of the lucky few to be our beta readers (at the time of making this blog post, FROSTFIRE was not yet accepted for publishing), you know very well that Kyran does not look almost anything like this. Not only is he younger, but is incapable of growing body hair, has much more delicate features, has green eyes, paler skin, has copper instead of red hair, and might be possessed if he ever made an expression like this. The only surviving feature is really the hairstyle in this image. But this was where he started once upon a roleplay sometime in the very early 2000's.


But their appearances are not the only things that have changed. Kyran and Barrett's personalities have gone through some changes as well before their final drafts. Barrett used to be much meaner than he is now. He used to bully Kyran -- they even got into a fistfight in one of the very early drafts of the story! Kyran was originally a little older, but his personality was about the same except he used to look down on Barrett. He considered him dull-witted and rude. Lauren and I always wanted to write a slow-burn romance between the two of them, but initially, it seemed like it would be impossible for the two of them to reconcile their differences, they were so volatile towards one another. Several drafts later, though, and...well, you'll just have to read the book to see the changes.


I do promise to continue to reveal little inside tidbits about the process of making this book become a reality -- the inside jokes that made it into the final draft that make me and Lauren peer over the tops of our laptops at one another and giggle. So stay tuned!


Until next time

--Anna

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Character Spine -- Lauren

>Basic<
Name: Lauren Williams
Nickname(s): Piperita
Age: 28
Birthday: Jan 30
Gender: Female
Orientation: Bi
Nationality: American
Occupation: Barista and aspiring novelist
Family: Mother, father, 4 brothers, Anna
Pets: Jasper (lab mix)
>Appearance<
Hair: Naturally brown, often red, currently blue-black and mid-back length
Eyes: Brown
Weight: 150-170 lbs.
Height: 5’5”
Scars: Fading
Tattoos: None
Clothes: Tanktop/blouse, flowy skirt, leggings, boots (color theme either cream and brown or red and black)
Accessories: Hairstick, Chromebook, smart phone, mug of coffee piled high with whipped cream, lipstain
Piercings: Nine, all ears
>Personality<
Habits: Drinks all the coffee, rolls dice, streams on Twitch, cuddles bf and doggo, searches for lost words, picks at fingers, chews on lips
Description: “Sweet and shy"
Myers-Briggs: INFP
>Backstory notes<
Born and raised in the Augusta/Evans area, doesn't have an accent. Graduated from ASU with a BA in Creative Writing, minor in Psych. Used to write nonstop. Something happened, struggling to write at all. Got an unintentional career as a barista. Enjoyed it. Tired of it. Ready to move on. Ready to get back to what writing means to me.

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

You're What Now?

Howdy Strangers!

So, if you've been keeping up with the author page on facebook, or even my character spine here on Backstory Blurbs, or are somehow tangentially involved with me in real life, you have come to know that I am a wildland firefighter. "But Anna," you may say, "I am from the East Coast, and I have no idea what a wildland firefighter is!" Well my friend, as I put it so eloquently on the Facebook page, I hike to the tops of mountains to beat wildfires into submission with a chainsaw and a shovel, and in the off-seasons, I am a government liscensed arsonist.


Lolo Peak Fire, MT 2017


"But Anna," you cry, "what is your actual job beneath that thick layer of sarcasm you have spackled over your words?"


Fall Creek Fire, OR 2018


Well, in plain words, I work long, grueling hours doing dangerous, incredibly demanding work no one else wants to do. It's either 110 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit out, everything is on fire, you very often eat mres for three meals a day, sleep on the ground, don't see a shower for two weeks, and, should the living wage law pass, would make less than a McDonalds employee. It's hard, dirty, and very capable of killing you at any moment in a thousand different ways -- and incredibly satisfying. I like my job. I get to be outside, learn lots of new skills, see cool places, and, best of all, I feel proud to tell people, "Yeah. I'm a wildland firefighter," when they ask me what I do for a living. It is a good feeling to be proud of something I do, to be part of something great.


Anna, on Lolo Peak Fire, MT 2018
The fire community is small, and our organizations still have room to improve, but, at the end of the day, we are a giant extended family of people that give a shit and are willing to work ourselves to death to help protect you and your homes -- sometimes, too often, literally. But we could never do anything less.

Until Next Time,
Anna

Friday, July 27, 2018

The Bones of a Story

Howdy Strangers,

So, in the last year, I discovered a simply magical technique for planning the plots of novels -- the outline. It is something that I never would have dreamed of when first starting to write. How would I know where the story was going that early? But honestly, using a few simple techniques to map the plot, my story telling has vastly improved.


I prefer to read and write character driven stories, so my style may be vastly different from yours or others, but I generally do as follows.


After I design my characters and world, I sit down and map out my character arcs. Where are my characters at the beginning, and how are they going to change by the end of the novel? Does Kyran have trust issues and run away from his problems, leaving others to handle them for him? Well, how can I change him by the end of the novel so that he faces his problems and, just maybe, at least partially overcome his trust issues? With more than one protagonist, Frostfire has the bonus added that both characters bring issues to the table that complicate each other's issues and help enrich the plot.


So, with character arcs laid out, and knowing the sorts of things I need to make these changes come about, I can get to what I call the Christmas tree, the thing I can "hang" these arcs off of. The plot vehicle if you will. It is usually something action orientated, something stressful for the characters. A demon that is hunting the characters, a crazy baddie with a vengeance streak, etc. This supplies a much of the momentum to take the characters forward and creates opportunities for them to change in response -- for better or worse.


Then, there is the last little touch -- the overarching plot goal. It is usually something like "Kyran and Barrett improve their relationship", some broadly arching goal that the plot and characters are striving to reach.


I then take all of those elements and start roughing out a chapter by chapter outline for the novel. Even if things start changing as I start writing the novel, as I come up with better ways of tackling issues, I find it immensely easier to have a rough direction I am working towards than starting with a blank slate, especially when I am writing with a second person. It let's Lauren know what I am thinking and where we are trying to steer the ship of our narrative. 


Have a different method? Share it with us. We would love to hear other ways writers accomplish their craft.


Until next time,

Anna

Thursday, July 26, 2018

But How do you Write "Together?"

Hey folks, Lauren here.

As most people do when exciting things happen, I talk about my and Anna's publishing journey to a lot of folks around me. Since Anna is off in the wilderness defending the states from wildfires, there is maybe one person (le boyfriend) who serves as an outlet for my gushiness. So, to spare him being the sole outlet, I gush at work to my coworkers and bosses, who are all very excited, and love hearing about the process.

The biggest question I get is usually, "How do the two of you write together?" A large majority of folks are intimidated by writing by themselves, so imagining two people writing together is just crazy talk.

I started role playing when I was eleven. It was introduced to me on a forum for the anime Inuyasha, and had a "round robin" format to it. It was awkward with so many people on the platform, but I made a few online friends, many of whom wanted to write one-on-one with other people. Some of them wrote segments of the story before handing it off to another person. But my favorite was writing your own character. You write what's going on, what happens, what the character is thinking about, then you tag out. Anna and I work on Google Docs, and to indicate we are finished with our section, we end the paragraph with "(tag)."

Anna writes Kyran. I write Barrett. She writes other characters, I write some. Sometimes she writes my characters better than me, and I will hand them over, or have her advise me on their reactions. Sometimes we share characters, small tertiaries and the like. But even then, you're meshing two separate authors styles together. To keep it from sounding too ragged, we then edit it into a single, uniform style. Anna does this. She has phenomenal editing and work ethic. She polishes it together, then I go back behind her and buff out grammatical stuff, typos, awkward phrasings and the like. Then we do it again. And again. And again. And then something happens in the later chapters that needs to be referenced earlier, so we write a new section. Then we edit it again. Eventually, by the third or fourth time, is when we are ready to start writing queries.

And that's where we are today. Since the grind has begun, the story has never truly been shelved, though. Even as we send out queries, we're still editing, polishing, adjusting, smoothing everything out, trying to make it the best it can be for an agent's eyes to see.

We'll get there! And you'll be here to watch our journey. :) We appreciate you guys.

-Lauren

Sunday, July 22, 2018

The Road to Becoming Published

Howdy Strangers,

So I found out after making the commitment to finishing Frostfire and getting it published that writing a book is only the first hill of many on the mountain to seeing a story you create in print. After you finish the book, there is, of course, the editing -- something I find I have a knack for. But then...there is the matter of hooking an agent, and let me tell you, there is an unexpected labor in that. There are query letters to be written, pitches, synopses, cover letters, and every single agent you dig out of the vast world will have a different requirement of what they want. Some want just a query letter. Some want all of the above written to specific formats, fifty pages of your manuscript, and a signed contract for your first born. There is also the self-marketing that has to be considered -- the facebook page, the blog, the author website. It is a little daunting and, at times, frustrating, to have gone through the work of writing a novel only to find out there is more work to be done. 

But the effort is worth it. Frostfire is worth it, and soon enough, you guys are all going to hear about how it finally made it onto a shelf somewhere, and I'll already be on to the next project, one foot out the door, ready to climb the next mountain. That's the mindset you have to have to get out there -- you have to grab onto your dream with both hands and refuse to let go for anything. Be stubborn, because your novel is WORTH IT. Know, in your stubborn little heart that your story deserves to be read, that there are people out there that NEED to read it, and keep after it. Only you can make this happen.

Until Next Time -- Anna

Friday, July 20, 2018

Que?

So WHAT IS Frostfire?

Well, it is a story Lauren and I have been working on since high school. For those of you unaware, that makes the original inception of this story over TEN YEARS AGO. It started as a roleplay literally around the idea of a mage and a demon hunter finding themselves working together. End scene. 

But as the roleplay got longer, and the characters more intriguing, I found myself madly in love with the story that was emerging. Unfortunately, the roleplay ended up getting shelved for a long time for many reasons, but I held onto it. We touched on the idea of rewriting it into a novel more than a few times, and even attempted to do so, but things always seemed to get in the way. That is until last November.

I had not let go of the idea of making Frostfire a full length novel. Underneath all the  rough edges and unfinished ideas, there was something I felt that was really good. My love affair with Kyran and Barrett had still not ended. So I pulled up the rough documents, and started working on them with the intent of finishing it myself. But as I worked, I realized that Lauren may be harboring the same want. I approached her, stating my intent to make a novel out of our characters, and offering to work on the project with her or take it solo while giving her artistic credit for character design. She all but JUMPED at the chance to finally see Frostfire as a finish novel, insisting she was as raring to go to get a novel on the table.

We worked tirelessly for almost a year, writing, editing, changing ideas, rewriting, and so on, until we FINALLY did it. We had a finished novel, and one we were immensely proud of. 

But just WHAT is the novel about? Well, you'll have to wait until next time to hear more.

Until then -- Anna

Monday, July 16, 2018

Quoteable Quotes

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Friday, July 13, 2018

Character Spine -- Anna

>Basic<
Name: Anna Harpe
Nickname(s): Nthurligon, Tefira
Age: ~
Birthday: Feb 24
Gender: Female
Orientation: Ace
Nationality: American
Occupation: Wildland firefighter and aspiring novelist
Family: Mother, father, brother
Pets: Tiana and Jasmine (cocker spaniels)
>Appearance<
Hair: Honey blond, mid-back length
Eyes: Blue
Weight: ~
Height: 5’5”
Scars: Left elbow from broken arm set with pins (broken falling out of a tree),
first two knuckles of right hand from second degree burn,
many other small scars from outdoor work and general clumsiness
Tattoos: None
Clothes:
At work -- green nomex pants, navy t-shirt, leather boots
At home -- varies widely from prim with heels, to butt stomping goth
Accessories:
At work -- leatherman multitool and seal pup knife on belt,
pocket full of pens, sharpies, flagging, and gum,
leather work gloves, extra carabineers, sharp handtool,
and 362 Stihl chainsaw
At home -- laptop/nook, bluetooth keyboard, always full tentacle mug of coffee
Both -- Sass and gratuitous cheer
Piercings: 6 in right ear, 2 in left ear
>Personality<
Habits: doesn’t sleep, drinks “too much” coffee, spends all free time working
on or talking about stories and playing tabletop games, clicks her teeth,
taps her feet, or taps her nail against her mug when thinking.
Description: “Sweet as sugar, but salty as f**k”
Myers-Briggs: INTJ
>Backstory notes<
Navy brat. Has spent all of youth moving around country. Graduated from
Augusta State with a BS in Biology. Plans to get a doctorate. Has worked
in fire since 2013 and traveled around the country for it. Cosplays with friends
and family at conventions in the southeast. Has an obsessive love of Hannibal,
Lovecraft, Tokyo Ghoul, and the webcomic KS.

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Greetings!

Hello everyone! This is going to be a platform for Anna and I to share and talk about things that inspire our stories and how the writing in general is going! It could be anything from art or movies to get our muses ticking or a fantastic trip filled with literary ramblings! There might also be the infrequent inside look as to how far along our stories are for interested parties. You all know who you are ^_~

Stay tuned for future updates! Most likely, we'll be introducing ourselves to those who aren't as familiar with us!

-Lauren