Ocean Reflection

No fret ye waves
Crashing in fury
The moon is your mistress
Heeding her call
You wreck havoc
On The earth below

© Rebecca Lenore Brown 2010

Tick-tock

At a little over 21,000 word count, I'm almost at 100 pages now.

Sometimes it's hard to stay motivated, and continue writing at a constant pace (Higher-Power knows I've taken more than a week at a time off - shame on me! shame!).
Often times I get that Gwen Stefani song stuck in my head (whatcha waitin for)...


Tick - Tock

Tick - Tock
Tick - Tock

Tick - Tock
Tick - Tock

Tick - Tock
Tick - Tock

Tick - Tock

What you waiting for?

Take a chance you stupid hoe!

Update

An update on the book front, I have almost completed the Masquerade Ball scene, where Olive dances with Declan.
It's very tasty!
She wears one of her mothers old gowns and masks, and reluctantly escorts the much younger Raven to the Ball...
I would like to tell you more, but I don't want to give away too much of the story.
I've also pinned down the title, I should say my husband pinned down the title, because he came up with the wonderful idea.
This is the first time I'm releasing the books title, so you heard it here first. Are you ready?

The Improbable Tale of Olivia Rose Miller

Catchy, right? And classic and stylish and all that, right?

Stay tuned for more!

It's true you can find characters everywhere and anywhere

For Valentine's day my husband and I went to our favorite local pub to enjoy some beer on tap.
Once we were seated we could see one of the bartender/waitress ladies wearing a latex glove on her left hand.
We could see one finger was wrapped in bandages. It was kind of hard to miss, and not surprisingly the lady next to us at the bar asked "What did you do to your finger?" The bartender lady was more than eager to share, "I axed it off last night!"
We all gasped in horror, but she went on as if it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, "I was chopping wood and chopped right through my finger tip, clear through my nail."
"That's not real!" I exclaimed, but she assured me it was real and went on to say; "My boyfriend went out to look for the piece but he couldn't find it. So, I just cleaned it and wrapped it up." The lady next to us looked on in horror and asked;"Didn't you go to the hospital?"
"No, there aint nothin the doctors can do for me."
"Ok, stop, I believe you!" Said the lady, not wanting to hear more.
I had had my ear's full myself and after that my french fries didn't seem so appetizing.
This just goes to show, that it's true, you can find characters anywhere you go. These are the kind of things we can draw on as fiction writers.

The word count is on

You see it out of the corner of your eye and can't help looking at it every few minutes, that's right it's the word count!
"What does this word count mean?" you ask.
So lets break it down:

(This given to us by: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America)

7,500 words is a short story
7,500 to 17,500 word is a Novelette
17,500 to 40,000 words is a Novella
and over 40,000 words is considered a Novel

So now we both know!

Researching location

As a fiction writer, or most any writer for that matter, research is usually a large part of the process.
In this case I had to research San Fransisco CA and New Era OR in the 1800's.
Here's some interesting info on New Era, found at this website. It's interesting stuff. And as a fiction writer you can add your own twist on history too.
"The New Era Spiritual Society, a religious group settled on a hill above Parrott Creek flowing into the Willamette River above the falls, was the source of the name for the settlement beginning to form a short distance away. As the town began to grow, so did the name New Era as an appropriate name for the town. The rich soil was ideal for farming and potato was the crop of choice. Shipments were made by wagon to Oregon City, transferred to boats below the falls and on to Portland. After a system of locks was built, boats could put in at New Era and after the arrival of the railroad, the produce was shipped by train. There are structures still intact in New Era. SUBMITTED BY: Henry Chenoweth

UPDATE: The origin of the name of New Era is incorrect. Although more research is needed to verify the history, the Spiritualist Camp was founded after the name “New Era” was used. Taken from Clackamas County Historic Survey records regarding the Spiritualist Camp:

“Communities sprang up along streams where water power allowed industrial development. A post office was established in the early 1850s (original name unknown at this time), at the confluence of Beaver and Parrot creeks, now known as New Era. The New Era Rolling Mill was established in 1868, continuing operation until 1935. The origin of the name New Era is unclear, however, some inaccurately relate it to the Spiritualist Camp, founded in 1873, located near the mill site. James Washington Offield, a child when his family arrived via the Barlow Road in 1850, stated that he named "New Era" when he built a commission warehouse circa 1860 at the same site where his mother's oxen died en-route to their Donation Land Claim in the Macksburg area years earlier.” Submitted by: Peggy Sigler"

The search for an editor

If you're lucky your manuscript looks amazing, and an agent readily takes it on and pitches it to a publisher who then in turn edits and publishes your book. However, writing an amazing manuscript isn't so easy, and hiring your own editor at that stage is ideal. Some charge by the hour, some by the page. They also offer other services such as proofreading. I found a page of local Seattle editors that do freelance work by doing a search on a site called Biznik Click here, and got in contact with a local editor Lori Zue, hopefully to be my future editor, if all works out.

Olive

I'm currently working on my newest project, "Olive". I hope to turn it into a novel of around 300 pages. Hopefully I'll be finished in about 6months. My ideal situation would be to have a publishing house publish the book, but if that doesn't happen I will be self publishing.

Olive is 22 in 1890, she struggles with her opium addicted mother in San Fransisco and is sent off to care for her grandmother in New Era Oregon.
She learns about her heritage, encounters ghosts and falls in love for the first time and is faced with a mystery to solve all while meeting a cast of interesting characters.