Do you have all your stories planned out?

That was Elizabeth's question to me ... two weeks ago, because I've been a bad girl and not blogged for ages :(

The quick answer to that is, no. I have a beginning planned, and I usually have up to three endings planned, and then I have a few key points in the middle planned, and I leave everything else up to chance, and occasionally the things that I have planned will change. But I love writing this way. For me, it gives the characters the best chance possible to grow. The downside is that sometimes the blurb has to change - a total pain when you've already made promo materials! But hey, it makes all the stuff that little bit more exclusive :)

And speaking of characters and stories, I have some awesome stuff happening right now over Halloween:

1. Claim Lawrence as your paranormal book boyfriend here (and win signed stuff) - http://closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/troll-y-yours-speed-date-party-hour-9.html (and check out ALL the authors taking part)
2. Contest for limited edition signed swag for The Spell of Summer here - https://www.facebook.com/events/525653997517504 (The cover and blurb reveal is tomorrow with more chances to win.)
3. A $10 or £10 Amazon gift voucher will be up for grabs from 2nd - 16th November - go to number two's link to keep updated.

Have spooky fun tonight!

Dianna xx

Cover Reveal: Charged & Tainted (Generation Breed)

I have my cover for "Charged" and I have to say I love it as much as the pre-made cover I purchased in March for it's partner, "Tainted." Just look how smexy they are. Elaine Lee did an amazing job!

These two books are the first in a new series, which I have dubbed "Generation Breed."

"Charged" and "Tainted" are two interlocking stories 

(Meaning they are two sides to one big story, both featuring a different hero and heroine. If that makes any sense?)

The idea for these particular books came about due to a anthology submission call for superhero novellas.

Having spent every weekend of my childhood and early teenage years at my fathers with my younger brother, I had to watch what I guess a lot of females would class as "guys" tv. I grew up watching the spiderman, X-men, and fantastic 4 cartoons. My father took us to see every Batman movie that came out at the cinema etc. I used to watch "The New Adventures of Superman" every weekend with them both; it was are weekly programme.

Needless to say I grew up to respect and love comic book figures. I remember wanting to be "Black Cat" and "Bat Girl" at one point. I was completely - and still am - very much in love with Rogue and Gambit from X-men, they are my all time fave superhero couple and they both helped shape my vigilante superheroine.

So, naturally when I saw this submission call I thought "yeah, I want to write and submit something for that." Unfortunately I was unable to. Last year was bad for personal reasons and I didn't get an awful lot written, and because of that I missed the submission deadline.

Nevertheless I continued planning this world, and the story. I can't say it was easy, because it wasn't. I kept throwing ideas away. I wasn't happy with what I was coming up with, or stuff didn't feel right, or didn't fit with the parts and ideas I liked.

Finally by the end of 2011 I had a story, which I soon discovered would be in two parts. I began writing both of these interlocking sides of this story at the beginning of the year, then I hit a block. So, I had to push it to one side - as you do - and then I ended up becoming somewhat distracted by another two ideas, which I wrote. And then they were followed by edits, promotion etc.

Needless to say that I am turning my attention back to this world and these two stories. I hope very much to have them finished before the end of the year so that I can have them ready for publication in 2013. *Fingers crossed* I'm actually planning to self-publish this series, which I'm excited about it. A little nervous, but excited. I'm not a hundred percent sure what anyone will think of these stories, and this world in general. It's got a grunge type of feel to it; dystopian futuristic. I was going for a gotham city/metropolis type feel. Hopefully I have achieved it.

So, I guess the big and most important question is; what the heck is the Generation Breed Series?

Well, you have a city with high crime rate, crooked cops, and vigilantes taking the law in to their own hands because of all of it. Very hero like.

After the most obvious story ingredients we then have to imagine a scientific version of a shapeshifter, but without the actual shifting. Think traits, and features, and senses, because first and foremost this is a world where genetically altered human beings exist. Not only do they exist, but they are segregated despite the fact they live as part of society. They are known as Gene-Breeds; human with animal alterations.

If you're a Gene-Breed you are screwed. You can't get work, unless it is through pro-gene-breed organisations. People fear you, and that is only because you grandparent, or great-grandparent made the idiotic choice of letting some nut job doctor try his new miracle cure out on them.

Life is hard. You've been tagged. You have a life expectancy on your head so people will know when your sanity will start to deteriorate so you can be put down like the animal you are. You either blend in to society and hope for a quite life, or you join a pack and go all out; embrace what you are and revel in the fear that your kind creates.

That is the basics of what the Generation Breed Series is; two types of people living along side each other. People fighting for justice and equality in a fearful and screwed up world, while the rest are out to slit each others throats.

I have to say I do like this world. I like the characters, and I like the possibilities. I expect "Charged" to fall around 40,000 words, and for "Tainted" to be around 30,000, but I have a tendency to go over my set word-count. I guess we shall just have to see what happens.  I just have to get my butt in gear, because I desperately want to finish these first two stories and see what y'all all think.

Wish me luck! :-P

Linear or Circular?

This is going to be quite a quick blog post.

I'm trying to plot / write a story at the moment and I can't quite get there. I have parts of it quite clearly in my head, but they're in the middle of the story, or towards the end, and I just cannot write them without starting at the beginning, and I can't quite get the beginning right.

So this got me thinking about how people write. I'm am, totally, a linear writer (which is ironic, because in some areas of my life I'm circular -- and I don't even know if circular is the correct term in writing, to mean the opposite of linear, but I'm using it). I absolutely have to start at the beginning. If I started in the middle, I can guarantee that by the time I've figured out the beginning, the middle will have to change, so in my head, I'd have wasted time beginning with the middle. (Are you with me so far?)

I kind of wish I was more flexible in the way I wrote. I'd love to write whatever came to mind, then mish-mash it all together as I go and clean it up at the end, but I don't do that. I write from the beginning, and make my way through, stopping every 1000 words to clean it up and edit it.

Sounds so boring, doesn't it? Lol.

So, how do you write? Are you linear, or circular? Or, if you're not a writer, how do you read? Can you start in the middle of a series, or do you have to start at the beginning?

Dianna x