Melody Writes

These past couple of weeks have definitely been a struggle as far as my Camp goals go.  Current total: 33,375/41,938 - as you can see I'm quite far behind. This number should be a bit higher before I go to bed, but it's still far from where I wanted to be at this stage. However, I think I can still pull this off if I work hard this week and stay focused. One of the things holding me back, other than life and just being busy, was my Murder Mystery Short. I wrestled with the premise for so long until this past Sunday when I wrote close to 5000 words in two sittings. All of it finally came together. The big turning point was when one of my minor characters literally seized a gun, pointed it at the other characters (and me, I guess), then took over the entire story. I don't know if non-writers can understand that even though, yes, we are the ones writing the stories, sometimes we don't feel like we're in control. Characters come alive on the page and make themselves kno...

4/5 stars Cold as Hell by Neen Cohen is an urban fantasy small town murder mystery – all things that I love in a story.   Adie lives in the mysterious town of OpenFields, a place where magic is real. She is an outcast watched by the entire town. She even has cameras watching her sleep each night. When someone is murdered and her boss disappears, a beautiful stranger, Detective Tala, comes to investigate. As they work together to unravel the mystery, they discover the truth of the town and Adie’s past.   I love a small town mystery that uncovers dark secrets and this had plenty of that. Adie was a compelling character. A lot of the tension in the story is based on her internal struggles to control herself and battle her anxiety. This made the character more engaging and unique as often a lot of the struggles in these types of stories are external.   Neen’s writing is solid throughout. It is accessible, but also has poetic moments in the descriptions that I enjoyed....

Here are, 11 days in and I'm already falling behind. There comes a point in every Nanowrimo where I lose the rhythm or miss a couple days and start to wonder if I can finish on time. This week had a lot of low word count days for me, but I haven't reached the point of no return yet. Current word count: 13,058 out of 17,743 words for today. My final total will be a bit higher since I'm still doing some writing tonight. 4,685 words is nothing to sneeze at, but all I need to do is be consistent and I can close the gap. This week I completed my draft retelling of Eurydice and Orpheus from her point of view. This one didn't flow out of me as easily as Alcestis, but I still enjoyed writing it. I am interested in different depictions of the underworld and while I didn't dive too deeply into it for this draft, it was still nice to sketch out some basics of my interpretation of the Greek Underworld. The rest of the week's writing was for my novel, this blog, and my murde...

Are you a fan of short vampire fiction? Black Ink Fiction has a collection of vampire drabbles, featuring five written by me! You can pre-order the book here . Vampires and Me: I'll be honest. Vampires have never been my favourite monster. Though, I have enjoyed several books about vampires. When I was younger, I read Christopher Pike's The Last Vampire series and Bram Stoker's Dracula . I also watched the Dracula movie, Interview with a Vampire , and three seasons of Vampire Diaries . I also enjoy Jim Butcher's take on them in his Dresden Files series. When I saw the submission call from Black Ink, I hesitated. I didn't think I had much to add to the genre. Same thing for their call about zombies, Legends of Night #1: Infection (be sure to check it out even though I didn't end up writing for it). However, after a lengthy brainstorming session, I had a few ideas that eventually became the five drabbles included in this volume. 1. Fire One of the ideas I was ...

End of Day Saturday July 3 Update Current word count: 3,304/4,839 Day 1 was stellar. I rushed right through the draft for my untitled Alcestis retelling. Then, days 2 and 3, I only got a handful of words down because I was busy. Should be back up to date by the end of Sunday. For this update, I want to talk about the myth of Alcestis. I read Euripides' Alcestis back in university and like all of his work, it stayed with me. Alcestis is my third favourite Euripides play, after the Bacchae and Medea. There are different versions of this story, but here is a short summary: When one of Zeus' thunderbolts killed Asclepius, his father, Apollo, murdered the Cyclops who fashioned it. As punishment, Apollo is sentenced to serve as a slave to a mortal, Admetus, for one year. Admetus is so kind to Apollo that he wins the god's favour.  Alcestis was known for her beauty. Suitors came from all over seeking her hand. Her father decreed that only a man who can yoke a boar and lion to a ch...