Writing #11: Of Titles and Covers

This is a pretty quick update. A couple of weeks ago I posted my timeline for my first novel coming out (whoop whoop), for those of you who haven't read that post, my first deadline is October the 1st. Because of this I spent a week scheduling blog posts to go up throughout the month of September, on top of my deadline my birthday and my sister's birthday happen during this month so I'm pretty busy.

I'm still working tirelessly to finish my first draft and choose a title. Finishing the book has been far easier than the latter decision. I'm not usually great with titles, my ideas are pretty basic, which isn't great since a title is so eye catching when choosing a book to read. I finally picked a title recently, although I'm keeping it quiet, until I can do a reveal.

I've been thinking about my cover too, because I'm an indie author I don't have endless money to spend on covers. I think I found someone who I'm going to ask to create my cover, she charges a super reasonable price, and is willing to work with me. I have a cover model I'd like to use, as I mentioned in a previous post, so I'm not too far from having a cover reveal.

My current word count is 51,765, and I have a couple more chapters to complete. I will take a break once the first draft is complete, to give myself fresh eyes, and make some decisions. I will do my own edits, and then Beta reading will begin. In the midst of that, I will put up a pre-order.

I think I'm going to choose a pre-order date in the next few days, I'm currently thinking late November, early December. It's getting close to time for beta readers, so if you're interested shoot me a message or leave me a comment so I can put you on my team. I haven't decided if I'll be doing advanced reader copies yet, just because I want the book to go up fairly soon. I'll be making that decision in my final edits. If you've dealt with ARC's before let me know what you think.

I know this is an incredibly short update, but I'm crazy busy.

Taila Out.

Poetry #4: Memory

I've been queuing these, because I have so many. Hope you guys are actually enjoying them.

***
There are so many things left to say. To much time wasted. So many things forgotten, left behind. Never to be examined again. 

Is it fair? Well, life isn't fair. It takes everything from us. Love, Time, Trust. At least it never deprives us death. And yet, it gives us all of those things first. 

Forgetting is the tragedy of being human. I pray everyday that I do not forget anything. That I remember every heartbreak, horror, laugh, tear, celebration. I don't want to forget the way your hair shines in the sunlight, the way she smiles as if she doesn't have a care in the world. The way my heart faces in anticipation. 

I want to remember everything, so no one can ever tell me I haven't loved, lost, and loved again. 

***
Trapped

I am trapped in a garden, surrounded by beautiful flowers, but trapped none the less. Stuck between thorns and stinging branches. No one leaves this garden, but then again all enter willingly. Or at least that's what we're told. 

I don't believe them, why would I come here willingly.

I have known freedom, I would not want to be trapped once again. No, my will had nothing to do with this. Laughter echoes. I should not remember,  but I will not escape. 

Did I sacrifice myself for someone else? 

Who did I love enough to lose my freedom for? I have forgotten their face. Did they love me? 

Do they know I am in this garden. 

Trapped. Trapped. Trapped. 

***

Remember

Please do not forget, because one day I will have no choice. You have to remember for their sake, someday they will need you. 

They mustn't lose us both.

Please forgive my absence. Do not let your heart begin to hate me. Do not lose yourself because I am gone. I will miss you with every shred of my being. Even if I have forgotten your face I will remember your soul. 

I'm begging you. 

I hate to beg. 

Remember

***

Master

They have forgotten who their master is. I am at fault, I did not leave any of myself behind for them. They suffer because of me. They should not be punished for my inaction. 

I am here now. It is time for them to put away their childish qualms. I have come for them. I will fight to regain their trust. Their place is at my side. 

You will not take them from me. They are not yours to have. They are my angels, created for me. 

'Come home.' I beg them. The time nears. I do not wish to replace you, but I will if I must. 

(inspired by the Third Throne series by Tabitha Barrett)

***
Stranger

Recently I remembered what it was like to be me. I woke up, and suddenly I was back in my body, sitting up in bed, all the ghosts had left.

I know I left for a while, let another part of myself take over so I could cope with it all. I worked to remember, I went back to the very roots of my person, and found who I was.

I've aged since the last time I was here. Not much, but I can feel that my soul has been through more, seen more, done more. It's harder settling back into myself, but it was worth it.

Worth it to remember who I am, who I was, who I will be. Getting back to basics was everything I needed.
***

That's it for this one!

Taila Out. 

Get To Know Me

Happy Birthday To Me! Since I'm apparently a narcissist, enjoy a birthday blog post all about me.

Long ago (late June this year) I started up this blog to talk about writing and other random stuff. Since it's now September I thought I would do a bit of a getting to know me post. Feel free to tell me about yourself in the comments!

1. I'm 19
2. I graduated high school at 17. I'm currently taking a break from college, but I plan to go back in the next year or so. 
3. When I go back to college I plan to major in English or Psychology. 
4. I started writing my first book when I was 14. It's still in the works, but I hope it will be out in the next couple of years. 
5. If you hadn't already figured this out I am a huge nerd (an inherited trait I assure you). Some of my favorite things are comic books (and their movies) and research. 
6. My favorite book is Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon. It holds a very special place in my heart, and while I have lots of other books I love, I give it the sole favorite title. 
7. I read eight to ten books a week. It's an addiction, but since they don't consider it criminal I get off Scot free. 
8. I live in Tennessee, and I don't intend to move out of the state. 
9. I lived in Germany for two years when I was a kid. I'd like to go back and visit sometime. 
10. I love to travel, my current list includes Ireland, Greece, and Italy. 
11. I have a two year old sister, whose birthday is two days after mine. She's an amazing little creature. 
12. I have 11 dogs, and I LOVE all animals. Except for sharks. 
13. My favorite colors are red, dark purple, and black. 
14. I'm single. I'm probably going to be an old maid.
15. I enjoy weirdly vintage things, quills, typewriters, and wax seals are some examples. As an example for my birthday this year, my grandparents bought me a vintage secretary desk. 
16. I have two best friends, outside of my family and family friends they are the only people I talk to that don't live on the internet. 
17. I'm a Virgo. 
18. My Meyers-Briggs personality type is INFP.
19. I consider myself pan-sexual, but I often use to term bisexual because they're interchangeable to me. 
20. I suffer from ADHD, PTSD, an anxiety disorder, and depression. I haven't had a depressive episode in over a year, so I'm very proud. 
21. I am a night owl. 
22. My favorite holiday is Halloween. 
23. I love lists. 
24. I consider myself pretty boring. 
25. I'm 5'8 ish. 
26. My hair is super curly. 
27. Werewolves are my all time favorite supernatural creature. 
28. Magic users are a close second. 
29. One of my favorite movies is Alice starring Andrew Lee Potts. Or Captain America: Winter Soldier.
30. A few of my favorite TV shows include; Rick and Morty, Bob's Burgers, Avatar: The last Airbender, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Gravity Falls, Criminal Minds, and a few others.  
31. I love to play board and card games. 
32. I've never broken a bone. 
33. I love Pizza and Tacos. 
34. My favorite band is Papa Roach, and my favorite solo artist is Halsey. Although I love all types of music (except for country).
35. I still play Pokemon Go sometimes. 
36. I don't really like contemporary romance, although I do read it on occasion. 
37. I'm a very open minded person. 
38. I love lipstick. I'm not the biggest makeup person, but I love to wear lipstick. 
39. My top five favorite quotes: 1.) You may not interested in war, but war is interested in you. -Leon Trotsky. 2.) They've promised that dreams can come true. But forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.- Oscar Wilde. 3.) With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?- Oscar Wilde. 4.) These violent delights have violent ends.-Shakespeare. 5.) The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.- Robert Frost.
40. If I have children, I want to have twins. 
41. I feel like I'm running out of things to share. 
42. Coconut, Lavender, and Vanilla are my favorite scents. 
43. My favorite fruit is probably pineapple. 
44. I'm super unorganized. 
45. I love to drive, it's so relaxing to me. 
46. Rain and thunderstorms are peaceful in my opinion. 
47. My favorite season is Autumn, because I hate to be hot. 
48. I love Hamilton, something about it just gets me so hype. 
49. I don't like to type things if I've written them down on paper. I can't make my brain focus on them. 
50. I don't consider myself particularly feminine or masculine, I just am. Though I am a cis woman. 
51. While I keep the majority of my political opinions to myself, I have pretty strong ones. 
52. I want knowledge above most everything else. Being informed is important to me. 
53. I am horrible at most math, although I do enjoy algebra. 
54. Even though I grew up in the internet age, I'm not very internet informed most of the time. I only recently learned how to link things. I'm working on setting up my website, but it's slow going because I'm having to teach myself lots of new things. 
55. Random Bonus: I used to run a different blog, where I reviewed books and ranted about stuff. I deleted everything that was on it, so you can't embarrass me with it. 

I think I'm going to stop there guys. If you made it through all of those good for you! 

Taila Out. 

Writing #10: Death

I was recently have a conversation with my Dad about TV shows and books, so you can thank him for this slightly morbid post. As you can tell from the title, we'll be talking about death in fiction today. Like sex, death is a common theme in fiction, more than likely if you're reading, death is going to come into the picture at some point.

Before we get to far into this post, I have something to admit. I hate to kill characters, it's a bit like killing my family members. Thus I commit a cardinal writing sin, I sometimes create certain characters just to kill them off. I know, I know, I'm horrible, the mob will be coming for me. Several of my books are set in a time of war or fighting. People die when there's a war, it's inevitable. Who wants to read a book in which no one dies. Would Game of Thrones be as good without all the gruesome death (for the record I'm not a big GOT fan so don't come for me.)? Probably not. When I discussed tropes, one of my biggest pet peeves is the lack of realistic situations in fiction. Death motivates, it changes the game, makes things more serious, changes the way a characters feels, and ultimately manipulates the reader. I am here to manipulate the reader, my only goal is to make you feel things, if I'm not making you cry, laugh, and throw the book/phone across the room am I really doing my job?

There is a catch to all of this though. If a character dies, who the readers have no emotional feelings for who cares? Why even kill them? Death has to mean something to work, if it doesn't serve a purpose you probably shouldn't do it. Another problem in fiction is comic book mortality, you know what I'm talking about. A character dies, usually tragically, and then is immediately brought back to life by some amazing coincidence. A good example of this (and a major spoiler for those who haven't read it) is Sarah J Maas' A Court of Wings and Ruin. I'm not going to give anymore away for those of you who may be reading this series, but she commits the sin of comic book mortality pretty badly. Bringing a character back to life is fine, but their death should have affected them in some way. It could be a good change or a bad one, but there has to be some kind of change.

Killing a villain shouldn't be easy, if you've been building up an antagonist as being uber powerful, the heroes need to have trouble killing them. Genuine sacrifice should be made. Even if that sacrifice is a healthy emotional state. Killing someone, unless you're literally a psychopath, affects the way you think and feel. This should be made obvious in novels. Trauma affects your brain, war, death, and tragedy should cause nightmares, anxiety, depression, etc. This is severely lacking in fiction, probably because most people deal with some level of trauma, reading is so often used as an escape from real life, happily ever after is nice to experience on occasion.

I'm going to end this post here. What are your thoughts on death in fiction? Let me know in the comments or shoot me a message.

Taila Out.

Genre Discussion #2: Paranormal Romance

I can hear you sighing, I know, I know, you're tired of hearing about it. I don't have too much to say, but I did want to give some quick recommendations.

Listen, I love Paranormal Romance, it's probably in my top three favorite genres. I had to make a blog post about it. I think PNR gets a bad rap, because people hate to hear about romance, but let's be honest who doesn't enjoy some hot werewolves and sweet, sweet love.

Let's just skip right to my recommendations!

• Firebolt by Adrienne Woods- Dragons and Romance, what more do you in life.
• Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon- Yes I know how often I mention this book, no I'm not going to stop. The entire Dark Hunter series is great paranormal romance. Check it out. 
• Runes by Ednah Walters- This is really good, just, go read this series. 
• Vernal by Randi Cooley Wilson- Good, slightly angsty paranormal romance. 
• Justice Calling by Annie Bellet- These books are hella nerdy, the title of the series is The Twenty One Sided Sorceress, the main characters owns a comic shop. It kind of crosses between Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance, but it's good. 
• Switched by Amanda Hocking- I love this series, I recently reread them, and even five years of growing up doesn't change the fact that this is a good story. 
• Inception by Bianca Scardoni- I've been keeping on top of this series, because I can't figure what's going to happen next. 

I'm going to list some more authors to check out if you're interested in reading some good Paranormal Romance. 

• Helen Harper
• Shannon Mayer
• Jessica Sorenson
• Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Leia Stone
• Jaymin Eve (She also writes RH!)
• S.T Bende
• Richelle Mead
• Linsey Hall

I feel like this is a good point to end it. I'm sure you noticed that I tried to give a range of different things within the genre. Hope you found something great to read.

Taila Out. 

Poetry #3: Survival

Back again, man oh man, I've been doing a lot of these lately. Hope you guys are enjoying them. Let's get into it. 

***
Iron

I think they forgot that our very blood is metal. Iron straight into our hearts. They may think they'll win, but we know they will have to bleed us to do so. 

We aren't afraid to die. 

We will bleed to save our families from the horror. We are forged from a fire they will never understand. Steel beaten until it can hold up against anything. 

***

Guilt

There were days I did not think we would make it. Days filled with the screams of the damned. Now those screams only haunt our dreams. Blood dripping in guilt conscious's. It does not matter who we did to survive. We're still alive, and they aren't. 

At least that's what we tell ourselves in the dark. 

No one asks, and we don't tell. Would it be easier to just forget? We pretend we don't hear each other screaming at night. Sometimes I wish I was back there, at least the evil made sense. We had each other then, now we're truly alone. 

This seems too much like limbo. Neither living nor dead. We avoid each other, pray that we don't have to notice how deep the bags under our eyes are. I know they notice. Sometimes I still can feel the cold steel, and my own warm blood. I pretend I don't. 

It was easier when we could pretend we were innocent. That we did nothing wrong in escaping. But who did we leave behind?

***
Survival

They do not know how much we listen to our primal instincts. They cannot figure out why the run from us, why they cannot meet our eyes. They don't know how much we love it when they flee. Like prey. 

I've heard them claim we are not animals, but I think they forget how basic our instinct to survive is. We are predators. Begging to sink our teeth into things. To fight and fuck. To eat and sleep. We wish for nothing more. They try to make us forget who we are.

We are the top of the food chain, and they have forgotten how to roar. 

***

Come Back Soon!

Taila Out

Genre Discussion #1: Reverse Harem

Man, I'm just coming up with new things to talk about left and right. I don't know how often I will actually post in this segment, but when a thought strikes me I'll let you know. As you can tell from the title we're going to be talking about different genres. Up first: Reverse Harem. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the idea of a harem. You probably think of  some Sultan in the middle east with either multiple wives or concubines, RH is quite a bit different from this preconception. Let's get into it.

First let's talk definition: A Reverse Harem is a woman in a relationship with three or more people. I know some reader's only consider RH as a woman and men, however I would consider it an RH if another woman was included. Basically it is polyandry (one woman with multiple husbands). Some readers of the genre may disagree, and that's fine, but this is my opinion. Some Reverse Harem's are Adult, some New Adult, and others Young Adult, this isn't a small genre with only one type of book. It's wide and many, many people enjoy reading and writing it.

Now if you've ever watched Kamigami No Asobi, Ouran High School Host Club, or Yona of the Dawn; you have some idea about this genre. For the record all three of these anime's are great, and you should definitely go check them out. If you've ever read Laurell K Hamilton's novels (I have not), her Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series are, to my understanding, Reverse Harem. They've received negative reviews from readers due to the books turning erotic later in the series obviously I do not have an opinion here as I haven't read the books. Now that you have some understanding, allow me to delve into my feelings about this genre, and as a writer if you'll be seeing this from me.

Allow me to say this, I always keep an open mind when I can. Some will have rude things to say after reading this post, and I respect their right to have an opinion, I can't help that they cannot see love in many different ways (wow, Taila, not passive aggressive at all.). Shaming anyone for what type of fiction they read, or even the types of relationships they have is wrong. I do not consider myself particularly monogamous, I am not going to tie myself to one way of life, if something else would be better for me. Love is love, whether it's between two people of the same gender, four people who want to build a family together, or two straight people who want to live the American dream. As long as you aren't harming anyone, be who you are.  I do have several Reverse Harem novels planned, the first coming out in December or January of. I hope you will enjoy them, and give them a fair chance to amuse you.

I have read MANY Reverse Harem novels, some good, some mediocre, some bad. I could not recommend picking up this genre, at least once, anymore than I do. It's a freeing experience to read a book that is different from the way you live your life, this is true of all books. If after listening to my tirade you find yourself interested in reading a Reverse Harem novel you can find some my favorites below!

Recommendations!

• Make Me A Wish by K.B Ladnier and Anita Maxwell- Jinn, hot men, and more. Plus it's set in Tennessee so I'm totally on board. Book one ended to a cliffhanger, and I can't wait to get my hands on book two. 
• Just Her Luck by Jeanette Lynn- I read this entire book in one sitting, and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. Standalone, Contemporary.
• Trickery by Jane Washington and Jaymin Eve- Willa makes me laugh, her men make me scream, there's nothing more I could ask for. Both of these ladies have other books (Reverse Harem and otherwise), that are also amazing. 
• The Third Throne Series by Tabitha Barrett- Love this series, so much so I don't have more words for it. 
• Her Mates by Tamara White- As many of you know by now, I am a huge freak for some werewolves, Tamara does it so well. And she has more than one RH series. 
• Groupie by CM Stunich- This trilogy is one of my all time favorite Reverse Harem series, so much so I'm rereading it. I almost never reread books. For those of you who are not sexy time readers, this has quite a bit of sexy times. 
• A Demon's Blade by C.C English-Rose- I seriously can't wait for book two, so fabulous. Fun read, without being silly. 
• Bloodlust by Auryn Hadley- This entire series is the best. I cried so hard at one point I had to stop reading. The author has built a world I am entranced by. I will say these book deal with some heavy subject matter, quite of war and prejudice, so be prepared. Six books so far, with number seven coming out soon. 

Honestly I'm going to stop naming specific series here, because I don't want this blog post to be a novel all it's own. If you want to check out some more I'll list some more authors, and leave a link to the Facebook Group page so you can check them out. l. 

• Lyn Forester
• LA Kirk
• Rebecca Royce
• Lane Whitt
• TL Reeve
• RM Walker
• Eve Langlais
• And too many more to list! 

Find more out here:  Reverse Harem Reader FB Group

As a reminder: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. 

Taila Out.