The post I could get sued for

New Covers

So, I finally felt inspired enough to make some new 'covers' for my serials. They were all inspired by  other YA books but, mostly Sarah Dessen. I've posted some of them and their original  inspirations here.

     

You can see the rest of the cover redesgins on  shawnaharrison.yolasite.com

Role Call 

So, the characters are give or take 5 years older. I never really had picspirations for them, I just couldn't find any but, I have finally found some who are similar. I am only doing characters who have appeared so far.

Juliana Clark : Mix between young Anna Paquin & Amanda Seyfried 

 

Rhett Clark : I never had an inspiration for him but, the moment I saw Ian Harding I was like he looks just as I imagine Rhett. I always new Rhett would have wavy or curly hair  but, I was afraid that would make him to much like Sawyer.

Jocelyn Sullivan-Clark : Andie McDowell, I think I said Minnie Driver at some point as well.

Savannah Clark : Elizabeth Gilles

Cody : Am  I allowed to use Jamie Campbell twice ? His look in The AMC series the Prisoner is almost exactly how I imagined Cody in RGGS .

Genre Maltov

I did want to clarify some of the genres I am using. I say Christian fiction when I should have said religious fiction. There will be some religious undertones (and overtones) in this work but, what can I say . . .  I can't resist the occasional NSFW scene.

As for the women's fiction part, I meant it would also deal with themes more related to women

Ah, those trenches

  I hate that I invinted this phrase, it sounds so depressing but, I am in the trenches with this story constantly re-tweaking it. I am in no rush to finish it because I have nothing else in my head right now and I have to say . . . it's a little lonely. I think I'll be sad if I don't have anymore plots to work out

On Higher Ground

It is is a few days after Christmas, Rhett and Juliana have their first kiss as Rhett boards a bus from Union Hill, Mississippi to the Coast Guard Training School in Elizabethtown, North Carolina . . .

OHG2

Playlist

So, yes I used mixpod because there were some songs that werent on playlist.com. (scroll down to see the playlist)

-1-  Dreaming with a Broken Heart by John Mayer

-2-Little Victories by Mat Nathanson

-3- Little House by Amanda Seyfried

-4- Walking in Memphis by Lonestar

-5- What I've Done (cover) by Marie Digby

-6- Say it Again by Marie Digby.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Drink the Tap Water (Again)

Sundays

I want to use pictures more in OHG so, I have been scouring on DeviantArt for artistic ones. Sometimes for inspiration in general I will just scroll through there most popular images  on the site. After you filter through the fanart you have some really great finds.

Anyway, I saw this image and from what I can tell this is an original artwork. It was posted yesterday and it reminded me of Haley from Sundays almost immediately, it was very creepy. From the hair and eye color to the earrings and black clothes. It is digitally drawn  with an airbrushing and the art work in amazing. The person who drew this (username *f-wd) calls the character Fynn and I believe it used in some kind of online role playing game, I'm really not sure. I may become obsessed with this artist.

The artist made a character profile for him and it made me kind of sad this character is in fact nothing like Haley.

Let's Get Dirty

So, TD and the prolouge have just been sort of introductions to OHG and don't really tell  you anything about this serial. OHG is going to be a mix of women's writing, a bit of Christian fiction and a dash of Kmart Realism.

Ever since Lile introduced me to that term, I have become literally (lol ! writer jokes !) obsessed with it. When I realized I could turn TD into a much larger piece I knew Kmart Realism ( or Dirty Realism or Minimalism as it is often called) was the way to go. It is also a bit of American Realism because it takes place in a specific region and culture.

As always, I did my research and found most of these kmart realism stories are short ones and hard to find because the style died out in the '80s. I settled for reading some old NY Times reviews of kmart realism short story compilations and a few articles in The New Yorker.

In 2001 the NY Times had a review called Up From Kmart. It is a review of the short story collection Zigzagged Down by Bobbie Ann Mason.  I thinks she was trying to bring back the dirty realism style. Anyway in describig a character named Wendy the reviewer said :

"  Wendy has tasted excitement and spit it out -- she'd rather drink the tap water of normalcy --"


I thought that was a great way of describing the unexceptionalness that is characterisitc of dirty realism stories. The characters are normal and very ordinary like tap water. No frills.

How if fits in

With that in mind, I want to point out the reason OHG is a companion to UL and not a trilogy is because this will not really be a continuation of United Light and have much to do with United Light events.

Also, a large part of this will be retrospective so, be prepared for that.

On Higher Ground 

Chapter 1

Playlist

Some of you will hate this music but, I am setting a scene. Some of the music is mood and some of it is music I imagine playing in the background.

-1-A Little Bit Stronger by Sara Evans

-2-I Never Told You by Colbie Callait

-3-Harder To Breathe by Maroon 5

-4- Take Me There by The Rascal Flatts

-5- I Hope You Dance by Leanne Womack

-6- Wait For You by Eliot Yamin

The One With The Inspirations

I have been trying not to cop out with titles. Let's make that my new years resolution. I really wanted this post up for 1/11/11 but, I guess I missed it.

Cover Art

I finally have a piece of cover art that I actually love. It was inspired by the covers of Sarah Dessen novels more specifically What Happened to Goodbye. I didn't have any cover bling to add like #1 bestseller. I am considering re-doing all of the covers to mimic this style. Except maybe Veritas.

Lile Shout-Out

I have to say a lot of what I write has been inspired by Lile. A large part of Veritas was inspired by the cut Spirits--the whole gangs thing. In some ways OHG will be my tribute to S&A.

Oh, the trenches

I have never deviated from written plots much. Once I write something I hardly ever scrap it but, I had to do that several times with OHG. I had an idea for a plot but, decided to make it a sub-plot and then finally decided there was no story there and scraped it completely.

The story is getting carved out and I am doing a mix between outline and spontaneous writing.

Let's Try Something

Okay, I don't have much to blog about. Let's face it, I just want to get to showing you some of OHG.

On Higher Ground Prologue

Playlist ( in the sidebar)

 Fidelity by Regina Spektor

Think of Me by Rosie Golan

No Need to Rush

This is a backlogged post and I am having a hard time adding some special notes to Lile so, I will be blogging at her next time.

Themes


So, I will be changing my theme soon. I was going to make it LL themed but, I may go in a more playful direction.


 I tried turning this post into a fun FAQ but, maybe next time.










So Long Veritas !

So, the real reason I was hesitant about posting Mimic was because that would pretty much end a series that was the most inspired thing I ever wrote (that sounds corny). I put a lot of research and reading into it and it was really an experience for me. I just want to blog a few notes then I am done with it.

It's Gone  . . . Right ?

I talked about ideas for Veritas coming at me like bats and one that comes back occasionally has to do with a line in the first part of Mimic. I wanted to illustrate Luce talking in kind of a robotic way, jumping from topic to topic so, I needed things for him to say. I offhand threw in a comment about a Mjollner girl named Aspen who liked him.

Then I thought about how cool it would be to write a story about a Romeo and Juliet type romance between Luce and this girl--and I love the name Aspen. But, I knew it wouldn't be entirely plausible and  writing a whole story about Luce would be a challenge. I considered making it about Twyla and some Mjollner boy but, in the end it just wasn't there. Of course that is not a never.

Speaking of Luce

So, his character will always have some mysteries. It was very hard to write someone who was supposed to be socially dysfunctional. Also he talks in contradictions and when he says I'm sorry he is correcting the contradiction.

Anyway, I wanted to show this social dysfunction with Luce and Twyla's relationship. She is 12 and 16 years younger than him and he doesn't know whether to treat her like a baby or adult so he switches between. That is why he talks about her playing with toys and puts her in the car but, later he just gives her a gun.

Minnow and Alan

I am guilty of never writing much romance so, the section with Alan and Minnow was supposed to be that. I'm glad many of you picked up on the loving relationship.

With something I was told at the talk in Denver in mind, I do want to say I see Minnow--especially the older version, as a strong female character. She has control in her sexual relationships and when it comes to Alan, he somewhat worships her, because she means that much to him. He will do anything for her and treats her as something beloved.

I was also originally going to make Minnow a madame but, changed my mind. I wanted her character to be mostly "normal."




Oh, the Drugs.

I mentioned all of the drugs used in Veritas are from other works of science fiction.

The drug Spice Melange (aka Spice but, pending current events I decided no to call it that) is from the popular Dune series. It is a drug that keeps people young and is the main conflict in all of the versions of it.

Vellocet is from A Clockwork Orange, it is what is in the milk they drink that puts them in the ultra violet mood.

I never knew the fictional drugs section of wikipedia could be so interesting . . .

One More Thing

It was literally (erm . . . figuratively) turning in my head what would happen to Alex in 20 years. He is one of my favorite characters I've created so, as I worked on Mimic and read comments I kept thinking about it and then it came to me.

So . . . and this is terrible but, Alex died in a car accident on the military base a few weeks after the war. His death is what drove Maxwell to want to become more successful.

I just couldn't imagine Alex as older, he was a character who was supposed to stay young.

Writing Style 

I pretty much gave up on the cyberpunk elements of Veritas pretty quickly and just started writing. One  element of cyberpunk I have been trying to include is minimalism writing, mostly be eliminating the 'I said' and 'he asked'. I noticed Lile has been getting rid of them too.

Teenage Dream

So, as I was riding the inspiration high that created Sundays, another story poked it's way into my head. I wrote it in the middle of  the 2 day writing spree that became Sundays and have been editing it for the last month or so.

This is a stand alone story and it is only one part. It was originally only 600 words but, I decided to I was just punishing myself to much and made it longer. Because it was written during Sundays, I will admit it shares some similarities.

Teenage Dream

Drink the Tap Water

*Sigh* *Head desk*

There is an episode of Seinfield where Jerry writes a joke in the middle of the night and can't remember what it is in the mornig. I am having that moment with the blog title. I created this entry with that title weeks ago and I have no  idea what the joke about it was.

I know it is a turn of the phrase Drink the Kool-Aid. . . . I have no idea what it means , maybe if I blog it will come to me.

Julianne Moore 

I am sort of in love with Julianne Moore as Sara  because she tends to play off the wall characters ( and  lesbians). Anyway, somewhere along the line I was watching trailers of movies with my character inspirations in them and I came across the trailer for Chloe with Moore and Daydream Nation with Josh Lucas (Older Alan's inspirtation).

This is so random but, they reminded me of UL a little bit, especially Daydream Nation.





But, in my head Sara is more of the Julianne Moore in The Kids Are Alright mixed with her in Children of Men.

Thoughts ?

Okay, I may have figured out the title.

I was going to blog about how  the names of any drugs in Veritas are not made up. The names and function of the drugs are from science fiction books and movies. Maybe that has to do with the title ?

No, you know what I think I know what the title refers to-- I will put it as an A/N because it has to do with the chapter.

Part 3 & 4

So, for some reason I have been feeling self-consious about posting, it is really strange and I am not asking for pity I just want to be honest. I have been holding on to these parts for quite a while and at this point they are what they are.

As I re-read and try to edit these, I find I imagine Veritas more like a comic book that exists around characters. I have such a hard time writing visuals because of that, I wish they could just be there. Any artist in the house ?

Anyway, Part 3 is really short at about 2,000 words so I put it together with Part 4. It's a little long all together so feel free to take breaks.

I am still working on the website's links so use these :

Part 3

Part 4

Playlist (in the sidebar !)

Part 3

-1- So Flows The Current by Patrick O'Hearn

-2- Say it's Possible by Jay Brennan

-3- Beautiful by Bethany Dillion (Holding on to this one since UL2)

-4- My Hearts by The Perishers

Part 4

-1- Trilogy by ATB

-2- The Light Before We Land by The Delgados

-3- Woke From Dreaming by The Delgado

-4-Bright Lights by Matchbox 20