Musings of Two Creative Minds

If you're part of Goodreads, and a member of the Lovers of Paranormal group, there are still 7 slots open for reviewing "THE BRIDGE".  You will receive a free e-copy or PDF of the book that will be yours to keep when you sign up.   Remember, I have Epub, Mobe, PDF versions to cover Kindle, Nook, Sony, Apple, and others. Here's the link: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1183470-r2r-114-the-bridge-open#comment_66775640

Just a quick update from my Vlog today...

Yesterday I made a drastic change to my current novel in progress.   I removed one character and chopped about 10,000 words from the manuscript.  Now I know the question on everyone's mind right now is probably "Why did you do that?" or "Gee I wonder what I should have for dinner tonight?"  If it's the second one, I'm sorry I can't help you there.  As for the first one, that's easy to answer, but it was a hard choice to make in the end. The reason I dropped this character was because she was only a secondary figure, not one of the main ones.  And her storyline, which was going to end in a dramatic and unique death-scene was not pivotal to the overall story.  Also, her storyline was actually bringing the main story to a screeching halt while I dealt with her.  That was unnacceptable to me.  Now as the story's creator I tried to keep her in and work her story to blend with the main one.  But, she was proving too much of a distraction for the ...

Well, we're mostly settled into our new place in the Monterey Bay area, so the dust is slowly settling from all of that.  Still unpacking and organizing where we want things to go and how, but that's just normal after a move. But sometimes figuring out how to organize your story and where you want certain events or revelations to go can also be pretty tricky.  It can even lead to problems I'd never thought about, like Writer's Block.  Or, as it was with me recently,  STEALTH WRITER'S BLOCK! Now what I mean by that is a kind of Writer's Block you aren't even aware of.  To give you an example, this is what happened to me.  I had finished a particular scene in my current novel and had moved way beyond it with the rest of the story.   But for some odd reason, I kept finding myself going back to that scene and wondering about it.  It would happen every so often then I'd get back to where I actually left off writing.  But soon enough I was back...

Hi gang, got a new entry on my Vlog.  This one is about making your characters more real and easy for your readers to relate to.  You'll find how sometimes using experiences from real life (your own or maybe a friend's) can be used to make a character seem more understandable and sympathetic to your readers.  I mean, let's face it.  Readers like to feel that they are reading about someone who, like themselves, has ups and downs that they can relate to.  But sometimes figuring out how to do that can be a problem.  I hope this latest Vlog entry will help. The link is just below, please check it out and I hope you enjoy it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcPkEltTdI

Greetings one and all.  Sorry for the prolonged silence, but college is still swamping me with exams and homework.  I look forward to this semester coming to an end in 6 weeks.  Then maybe I can catch my breath.  In the meantime I wanted to share a link to my other blog.  I've posted a sample from Novel #2 which I've tentatively titled "The Ship".  I hope you'll check in out and enjoy what you see. http://akrummenacker.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/a-scene-from-my-2nd-novel-the-ship/