A Story By Any Other Means...

Hey y'all! I was just over on Twitter (when am I ever NOT on Twitter?) and the topic of The Walking Dead came up. Specifically, it was the discussion of whether the graphic novels or television show was better. Boy, isn't that the age old question... which is better: the book or the movie?

I'm sure LOADS of you will be all "Ohhh, Harry Potter books are WAY better than the movies." And the same probably goes for Lord of the Rings, and on... and on... and on.... but then I thought about WHY?

I've never been one of those purists, one who believes the movie should be like the book word for word, scene for scene. That kind of stuff just doesn't bother me unless they go WAY overboard and get COMPLETELY ridiculous *cough* True Blood. But even then, veering so far from the plot is not my issue with that show. Also, I enjoyed The Princess Diaries WAY better as the movies, but that's a WHOLE OTHER BLOG.

I realized that the thing about books vs movies vs graphic novels, and any other kind of storytelling is that each medium conveys the story in a different way. Not just in the obvious visual way or whatever. I mean that when you've got words on a page, it's the writer's job to paint a picture with nothing but the 26 letters of the alphabet (assuming you're using English of course). However, no matter how well they paint it, each reader's visual interpretation is going to come out differently. It's up to the reader to "see" the story. The writer has control over pacing and how the story reveals itself. With a novel, it's entirely up to the writer how to develop the characters, setting, and plot.

Graphic novels are similar, but there's less imagination involved on the reader's part because the pictures are drawn out for them. The visuals are there already, and the writer and illustrator need to work together in order to tell the story the way they want it to be told. There's still room for plot and character development, but now you've got the added medium of visual art to help convey emotion and conflict.

One step further and you've got films. This is where more people than just the storytellers get involved. There are budget concerns. Timelines. Visual FX. Release dates. Publicity tours. An actor might be PERFECT for a character, but may not be available when filming needs to take place, so someone not quite as perfect might be cast for the role instead. This is where so many outside influences affect the outcome. It's less about telling the story, more about the visuals, and even more depressingly, about the box office numbers.

In films, however, a good screenwriter and director will still be able to convey the heart of the book, keep with the pacing, and know which parts to include and which to change or leave out completely. I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan, but I appreciate the books and the movies as two separate ways of telling a story. The message is still there. The characters don't change because one scene takes place in a boat house rather than the Shrieking Shack (yep, you know which one I mean). ALL THE FEELS are still there!

Then you've got TV, which heaps up everything I said about films and then adds even MORE restraints. Because television is filmed week-to-week over a period of months and then years, there's even more to factor in. Will the show be renewed for another season? If it is, how do we plan out the next part of the story? How do we add enough to the characters to make them interesting, but not bore the audience over X amount of episodes? Where can we cut the episode off to keep people coming back for next week's installment? What if real-life things interfere with show things, i.e. pregnancy, previous contracts, publicity tours, an unexpected drug-overdose (God forbid). The time that passes in real-life is not the same time that passes in the imaginary world of the show. By necessity, the story must be twisted and adapted to actual events. Real-life has serious consequences on the storytelling.

When it comes down to it, there's no right way to tell a story, and there's certainly not ONE way to tell a story. It all depends on what the best way to tell YOUR story is. How do you want things to develop? How do you want to reveal your characters? What about pacing and structure? What's the best way to present your work to your audience?

I know there has to have been a time when you felt a story worked well in one medium, and not so well in another. I'd love to hear about it, and more importantly what made you feel like one way worked better than the other... *sits back, puts feet up, and sips on some iced tea*

Pitch Live!

Hey y'all! I'm doing yet another contest. I know, I know, contest fatigue and all that... but this was TOO FUN TO PASS UP! It's called Pitch Live! and the fabulous Brenda Drake is throwing it for us.

I had such a great time pitching THE SHIFTING DARKNESS at the Writer's Digest Pitch Slam back in January that I just had to get in on this. Making the video was just as fun as pitching in person, but a lot less nerve-wracking because I could edit out all the mistakes and throw them in a gag reel at the end for fun :o)

Without further ado... here's my video for Pitch Live! filmed right on my porch...

Title: THE SHIFTING DARKNESS
Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy/Thriller
Word Count: 67K

P.S. Monsieur Behbeh is in the video because he was being a melancholy Frenchman and insisting on being held. 

P.P.S. I want to say a special thanks to my bestie Ms. Kelli for being my Director. She's awesome, go follow her!

A Baby Story

I know it's pretty pathetic that most of my blog posts start off with how I'm ashamed that it's been so long since I posted anything. You'd think I'd remedy that by posting more often, but the fact is I'm pretty lazy. Well, I was lazy before. Now I'm super busy taking care of my 5 week old baby. The only reason I'm able to sit down and type this up is because my sweet hubby is sitting next to me bouncing our little Peanut in his bouncy chair.

It's truly amazing how such a small thing could require SO much attention. I mean, it's worse than a puppy. And you can put puppies in a crate and go to a movie if you want. You can't do that with a baby. Or at least it's frowned upon in most places.

So anyway, I noticed that a bunch of my pregger pals over on Twitter had given birth a few weeks after me and already posted their birth stories. I am greatly shamed for taking so long to sit down and write this. For those interested... here it is...

The Story of Peanut and How He Came To Be In The World

After about three weeks of Braxton Hicks contractions and false-starts and wondering "Is this it? How about now? These contractions hurt, but do they hurt ENOUGH? How about now?!" I finally got the can't move, can't breathe contractions the doctor had mentioned. It was Sunday, August 19th, 2012 and we took our time about getting to the hospital because the contractions were close together, but not in a set pattern yet. Just as soon as they would get regular, they would start to fade and become irregular again. Having never experienced birth before, I had no clue whether or not anything was happening for real or not. We'd already been in to the hospital once and nothing was going on, but I also didn't want to give birth on the kitchen floor at home either.

Around lunchtime we made our way over toward El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA. We ate at Erik's Deli and I had a turkey sandwich with butternut squash soup. It was delicious and I enjoyed it because I didn't know when my next meal would be coming. Instead of fading like they had before, the contractions were still going pretty strong, so I was beginning to think this might finally, FINALLY be the real thing.

Instead of rushing to the hospital in a flurry of activity we went to the grocery store. By this time, the contractions were getting pretty intense, and my hubby was shopping for cheese crackers. And booze. Yes. He bought a bottle of Scotch to take the edge off. Not for me. For him.

So after we perused the aisles for a good half an hour (for you ladies out there who have given birth, you know this sucks because of the whole not being able to stand up or breathe thing whenever a contraction comes). I was especially relieved when we went to check out. But then we had to wait while he went to get some water.

THEN as we were walking out the door he says, "I need a coffee. You want anything?"

I gotta say, we almost ended up having to go to the hospital for his broken nose. However, I have the Self-Control of super hero proportions and refrained from punching him in the face like I really wanted to. It's a good thing I love my hand more than I love his nose. Plus, I was already in pain enough as it was. I didn't need any fractured knuckles to go on top of it.

Finally, after lunch... and a booze run... and a coffee stop, we managed to make our way over to the hospital and get checked in. I was nervous they would send me home again, but after hanging out for about 2 1/2 hours, they decided my blood pressure was on the high side and it was better to keep me there even though I was only at 2 cm dilated. YAY!

Some time around 7pm it was declared that my contractions had evened out and I was officially in full-labor. WOO HOO!

You guys, I was so, so, so, SOOOOO ready to not be pregnant anymore. Even though my pregnancy had pretty much been a breeze compared to a lot of other women, I was pretty miserable. For the life of me, I can't understand those perky girls who are all like "I LOOOOVE being pregnant. Having a human inside of me is the BEST. I would be pregnant ALL THE TIME if I could."

I just want to gag every time I hear that. I'm really glad they had such a great time with it, because I thought it sucked. Let those girls keep up the world's population, because I sure won't be doing it. I had over 25 weeks of morning-sickness (and that was only where I quit keeping count. It was actually longer, but I couldn't bear to keep up with it anymore). Anyone who's had morning-sickness knows that you don't only feel sick in the morning. It's 24/7. That's non-stop puketastic porcelain princess time.  During that time, my husband and I decided to move across the country. I know, right? I made friends with every toilet, trash can, tree, and bush in between Georgia and California. Who's a complete Nutter? I am.

Back to the actual Birth Story...

I was not one of those girls who goes in with a specific birth plan that MUST HAPPEN. I've seen enough episodes of baby birth stories on The Learning Channel to know better. Every birth is different, just like every baby is different. So I had zero expectations, other than to get the baby OUT.

That being said, in our childbirth class it was mentioned that most women only make it to 3cm before asking for an epidural. Me being me, my goal was to make it to at least 4cm. And I did. First, I asked for the drug cocktail that they called the Margarita, because it made you feel like you'd had three Margaritas like, instantly. It was totally awesome for about five minutes, but after about two more contractions I was done. I was all, THANKS I WILL TAKE THE EPIDURAL NOOOOWWW PLEASE!

Au Natural? Ha! No way. Was NOT gonna happen. Even when the nurse said, "You know, after a certain point it doesn't get any worse. If you can tolerate this, you can probably tolerate going all the way."

And I was like, THANKS I WILL TAKE THE EPIDURAL NOWWWWW PLEASE!

So the nurse said, "Okay."

And I got the epidural.

And it was AWESOOOOME.

Fast forward from about midnight to somewhere around 6am or so. (At this point it's all super foggy because I was half asleep)

Apparently the little booger was turned face-up instead of face-down and there was much rocking and things happening to try to get him to roll over, but he never did. So it was time to push regardless.

It took me two pushes to get his head down where he was crowning. Which is totally awesome. However, it took THREE AND A HALF HOURS to get the rest of him out. Which was totally NOT awesome.

Luckily, I'm really bad at telling time when I'm well-rested and not drugged and not trying to push a human out of my vadge. So, I didn't know that it took THREE AND A HALF HOURS until after he was already out. I was thinking I'd done it in one hour, maybe about an hour and ten minutes at the MOST.

BWAHAHAHA.

All I remember about pushing is my sweet, amazing, wonderful (he'd redeemed himself by then) Husband standing next to me, chawing his gum, holding my leg and counting in sets of ten, about 20 gajillion times in a row. At one point the doctor mentioned the baby had hair, and I got REALLY EXCITED. At another point I started falling asleep between contractions. It was probably about the strangest dream I've ever had. Except that it was all real. It still doesn't feel real.

Finally... FINALLY at 7:18am I was able to push him all the way out. It was the best feeling EVAR. Relief, happiness, more relief... it was the best! All I could see when they put him up on my chest was the side of his head and his little arm reaching up in silhouette. He was warm and wet and it was simply amazing.

The doctor was saying things like "full-knot" and "triple-rope" and I had no idea what she was talking about, but I didn't care. I was so glad he was OUT. Later on, I discovered that "full-knot" meant that the umbilical cord was actually tied in a full knot. Not only that, but the cord was then wrapped around my little Peanut's neck THREE times, which is what the "triple-rope" meant. I knew this was a definite possibility because the child was so dang active when he was inside my belly (another reason I couldn't wait to evict him).

After all that, I had a little 7lb 11oz, 20 1/2 inch baby boy with a full head of beautiful dark hair.

The next few weeks were a blur of sleep-deprivation (there's a reason it's outlawed by the Geneva Convention, and if it's not, it SHOULD be) and excitement. Now things are starting to settle down and I'm able to sleep at night without waking up and thinking every cough and whimper that comes from the co-sleeper is the little guy in the throes of death.

He graduated to a bigger diaper earlier this week and I cried. I'm sure it will only be the first of many, many times he will break my heart. At the same time, he makes my heart smile more than it ever has before. All in all, I can say it's been worth it.

Except maybe for the stretch marks...

Another Vlog! or Query Karaoke

As it turns out, this vlogging thing is kind of addictive. Who knew? This is the one where I discuss a few random facts about myself and tell a story about my first query and singing karaoke in front of the cast and crew of the film Hall Pass

My First Vlog a.k.a. I'm a Dork

Okay, y'all you're going to love this... My FIRST vlog. *hides under desk*

Gangsta Style!

Well, you know you've made it to the Big Time when someone writes a rap song about you! I'm sure you all are quite anxious to see what the awesomesauce Kels came up with...

I LOVE IT!!!! *Squishes Gangsta Kels*

All right... go follow her! NOW!!!

It's Mascot Time!

Okay, for those of you who have been hiding under a theater seat in order to watch Avengers repeatedly without having to break your budget, or have stopped following me because of how obnoxious my Tweeting has become since The Writers Voice Competition began, the gracious writers who made it into the next round (I alas, was not chosen *sniffle*) have decided to adopt me as a mascot.

The past couple of days I have been bribed, coerced, and flattered by the teams because they all want  me for their mascot. Apparently I may have exhibited some form of hilarity and/or enthusiasm that they recognized and decided would be good to have going for them? I dunno, but THIS IS HAPPENING.

So without further ado...

THIRD RUNNER UP-- TEAM BRENDA

BID: One can of WHOOP-ASS!

While I appreciate the camaraderie Brenda has shown me throughout this competition (more than she knows), I feel that the rest of her team was lacking enthusiasm in the whole mascot thing. They left it up to her to come up with the bid and beg for my representation. I'm going to assume that it's because she's a slave driver and has them all hard at work on their entries for the next round, because I can respect that. I'd hate to think that it was because of sheer laziness or lack of interest in me representing their team that did it. Still, as a mascot, if y'all don't show enthusiasm for me, I can't show enthusiasm for you. It's a give-and-take sort of thing, you see? I hope you understand, Brenda.

SECOND RUNNER UP-- TEAM KRISTA

BID: Aladdin's Flying Carpet

I owe a lot to this team, because without them, the idea of me being team mascot might not have happened. I was completely flattered that they enjoyed my Tweets so much and were compassionate enough to want to adopt me for mascot. They came out strong with their bids of showering me with cheese and cake, and a clone of a pretty good looking Portugese soccer player I'd never heard of. However, their lack of research skills proved disappointing (If they'd read my blog about Regis, they'd have known to offer me an Australian hottie instead of a Portugese one). But, y'all rock. Don't forget that!

FIRST RUNNER UP-- TEAM MONICA FTW

BID: A zombie pony that will not eat me and give me crime fighting powers, and a Time Machine.

This is where the bids got totally serious. I mean, really... Team Monica completely brought the Thunder with their bid. Not only that, but they also made it official in the comments section of my entry which let me know that they'd been paying attention to the criteria I'd set forth and mentioned several times throughout the bidding process. Also, Monica herself left the nicest note on my blog explaining why I didn't quite make the cut (For reals, it's good to know!) I'm a preschool teacher. I appreciate Good Listeners. Team Monica, seriously, y'all did NOT make this easy... I think if you'd offered me a Zombie Pony that actually WAS a Time Machine, it would have tipped the scales in your favor, because that would have blown my mind!

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER-- TEAM CUPIDS LC

Bid: A Personalized rap video by Kels Not Chels HERSELF Posted on YouTube for all the world to see.

I was really worried that Team Cupid wasn't even interested at all, because they'd been so quiet about bidding. But, now I see it wasn't because of lack of interest, but because they were busy coming up with the COOLEST IDEA EVAR. Honestly, you guys... you KNOW you want to see this video! 

Because of the competition, and because I want everyone to do a great job, I've decided to let Kels focus on making her writing awesome first. So, I am taking this offer on GOOD FAITH and hope that I can come back and post the debut of Kels' own rap video featuring MOI no later than:

SATURDAY MAY 19th 2012

It's out there, Kels. Don't let us down! You do NOT want to disappoint a Pregnant Aries. Just sayin'. 

Doing this mascot bidding thing was a lot of fun and I got a little bit of a glimpse into how difficult it was for the judges to choose their teams. We're all good people here, working toward the common goal of getting published. We all think OUR idea is the BEST idea, and that is how it SHOULD be. If we weren't in love with our story and our characters, there would be no passion in our writing and the readers would notice. 

That being said, though I choose to be mascot for TEAM CUPIDS LC and cheer my enthusiastic little booty off for them, I firmly reserve the right to cheer for any and all AWESOMENESS that I see, because Awesomeness deserves to be recognized when Awesomeness happens!

I'd also like to say thank you to all the really cool new friends I've made through this experience. It's turned into a great community that I'm terribly excited to be a part of. If anyone needs an extra eye for their work, or a shoulder to cry on, or a hand to HIGH FIVE, I'll be right here for ya ;o)

Love,

Sarey