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    • Boden Einarsson
    • Bradly Ackerman
    • Christopher Keats
    • Gene
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    • Kaia Skarin
    • Mark Lucas
    • Oliver
    • Phea Celampresian
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~ Just another day in a Broken World

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Tag Archives: process

Authoring & Editing, July Edition

24 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by alishacostanzo in The Writing Process

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So, I’ve been absent from my social media outlets more than I would have liked this month, which means you get an odd post about the busy life of an author and editor.

July is NaNoWriMo Camp, or Writing Boot Camp as I like to call it. I’ve written 32,000 words thus far this month, and I’m still going. I won’t reach my 75,000 word goal by the end of July, but I’m still pushing, which means I’m still absent – mostly.

July also means marketing footwork for my up-coming novel, LOVING RED, which will be published on September 9th.  And after 100 or so review/promo request, I’ve received close to thirty confirmations for my release day efforts. Whoo! Who knew I could be such a marketing fool?

It also means editing. I’ve been hard at work editing the submissions for my new anthology with Transmundane Press, UNDERWATER, co-edited by Anthony S. Buoni. I’m struggling to get through the last three stories – not because they’re bad, but because I’m working so hard at writing 2,000 words a day, self-promotion, and having the kids here for the summer.

But I’m also finalizing my edits for LOVING RED. I’m on my last leg, the proof for my final read through after my editor gets his hands on it. And, well, he makes me laugh my way through it, which makes it such a better experience.

So, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite comments he left me. All highlighted in GREEN! (That’s not a book title; I just like green that much.)

Fun with torture! My poor characters get their fair share of violent treatment when they’re captured by the Celampresians. Apparently, I do some good work with evil dialogue. Woot!

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Sexual Tension… This isn’t the first time the two throw pheromones at each other, but I love when a scene ramps up the heat without any actual sex.

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Heavy Petting Award! What better way to distract characters from their impending doom? Besides, as Sev points out, better to feed the heart than feed the body in dire circumstances.

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Getting Down & Dirty! Finally, the characters get into some nasty business with each other, and not the violent kind. He mentions softening the language because the rest of the novel has a softer tone, but we can have an easy-going perspective and still get real in the bedroom, can’t we?

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BONUS ROUND, the “Penis Size Notes: Chart A.” Do I really need to explain this one? I have a penchant for the word, “cock.”

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Odd Character Alert! My dryad is too likable! I suppose something evil must happen to him. We can’t have him getting away scott free. No. No, we can’t.

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FINSIH LINE! Yes, this is a new series, but it’s also intertwined with Ria’s story line, and I plan to have the two merge at some point. I’m glad he saw the connections I made.

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I hope you can see those connections, too!

Add LOVING RED to your goodreads bookshelves, and check out the other Broken World stories so you don’t miss out on all of those links I’ve made, and you’ll be ready for Ari’s short story, “Untamed,” a fun bonus story at the back of the book.

BLOOD PHOENIX: REBIRTH (Book One)

BLOOD PHOENIX: CLAIMED (Book Two)

DISTORTED (Contains Phea’s Novella, “Maiden of the Underworld”)

Time to hit the keys again. 2,000 words, here I come. Much love, y’all.

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Guest Post: Author Rebecca Lynch talks Apotheosis

26 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by alishacostanzo in Guest Blogs

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apotheosis, asura, author, book, cyclic nature, distorted, fantasy, folklore, horror, humor, myth, mythology, natural paradox, novel, paranormal, process, publishing, reading, rebecca lynch, rome, urban fantasy, writing

Tessa Teaser

Apotheosis literally popped into my head one day while I was in the shower. I’m not normally one to actually get my ideas past the brainstorming sessions. mostly because I don’t have the patience for applying the details to paper. The compulsion I felt with this idea, however, was strong enough for me to take the time to write it out.

Asura Teaser

A large part of my drive to write this story revolved around two factors that I hold to be true in the world around me, and the universe at large: namely, a cyclic nature and natural paradox. Cyclic nature is represented in Apotheosis by the cycle between the characters, and the flow from fiction to truth as each character’s life is revealed. Dom writes fiction about Tessa, who sculpts the fictitious Tristan, who dreams of the long dead Aurelia. There is a bit more to it than that, but in the interest of anticipation and avoiding spoilers, I’ll leave it at that. Natural cycles are found all around us: the food chain, the change in seasons, the change between night and day, the spinning of the planets and solar systems. I could wax rhetoric about cycles all day long, but I’m sure you’d be bored to tears before my next paragraph, so I’ll move on. I felt the need to express my fascination with cycles and symbiotic relationships through the connection of creator and created. That’s how the story wound up with fiction and fact being married. This leads me to my next drive.

Dom teaser

The second pressing urge to write Apotheosis is founded, for me, in natural paradox. Many of the examples I could give are the same as those for cyclic nature. Night and day, winter and summer, etc. But I find so much truth in paradox. You can’t appreciate beauty if nothing is ugly. All sunshine makes a desert. Life without death is meaningless. These form the cornerstones upon which my story is built. I chose to symbolize paradox not just among the characters themselves, but through historical and geographical fact and the fiction. Dom and his wife, Tessa and Olivia, Tristan and Drustan, Aurelia and the twins are all fictional characters of my own design. The layout of Manhattan, however, along with Treasure Island in Austin (my favorite bar), the MacDougall clan and their castle, the Vercovicium, Hadrian’s wall, the last Roman emperor and his family, the desertion of the Wall by the Roman Legion, all of these are fact and as accurate as I could make them to suit the story. I absolutely love fictional with strong roots in fact because it makes the story far richer than when the places, dates, and people are all creations of the writer and his or her imagination. My hope was to bring that richness to my readers, and hey, y’all just might learn something. Happy reading!

Buy DISTORTED here. Visit the press here, here, or here.

Official Distorted Cover

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Tribute and Author Interview with “The Lurker” RP Group Reader.

13 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by alishacostanzo in Interviews

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alisha costanzo, author, blood, blood phoenix, book, Broken World, character development, claimed, editing, fantasy, folklore, horror, humor, interview, leprachaun, Lurker, myth, novel, paranormal, process, publish, publishing, rebirth, Ria, Roleplay, roleplaying, romance, RP, self-publish, sex, spotlight, urban fantasy, vampire, vampires, writing, writing tips

I found that one of my favorite pages is being deleted, and since I had so much fun with this person, I wanted to share our interview.

RPW2PA Interview with Alisha Costanzo Blood Phoenix: Rebirth
March 23, 2014 at 8:47pm

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The Lurker: Alisha welcome. Thank you for joining me today. *smiling brightly* I understand you had a book just recently published. But before you start on that, I was wondering if we can talk about you first. Can you give us a bit about your background, and what started you writing? I mean many know that you were an RP Writer for a long time. Why the change from RP Writer to Published Author? Was the switch hard to do? What experiences of RP writing were you able to bring over to your published writing? Tea? *Smiling still while holding up a hot cup of tea*, and not breaking stride.*

Alisha: Thank you for having me, Erin. This place looks a lot bigger on the inside. Ooo, tea. Thank you. I’m usually a coffee girl, but I like the switch every now and then. Okay, about me. I’ve been writing for a long time. In fact, I’ve been with these characters and this world since I was sixteen, thirteen years ago. But I wrote a ton of fan fics before then with my friends in script format. I had hundreds of them, and a few even made their way onto my computer. I remember disctinctly writing my first scene in prose, and it was a sex scene. I was twelve and oh so proud of my imagination. But I’m asked a lot, as all authors are, about what inspired me to start writing. And I honestly believe that it’s innate-both a product of my environment and my genetics. I was left to my own devices as a child, which left me with my sixty-seven imaginary friends, most of which have never left me. Plus, both of my parents are creative people. My dad is an avid reader, and he is a natural story-teller, as is his mother. He tells great oral stories that I hope to one day collect in writing, using his voice. My mother is a crafter, and she now runs her own stained-glass business. But I grew up with her running craft shows and being surrounded by an enormous amount of creative people. She also instilled in me a deep appreciation for true talent, original thought, and pride in high standards, which is likely why I earned my MFA in Creative Writing to ensure my craft was well developed.

As for my RPing, I LOVE Rping. It’s so completely different than writing stories on my own. The practice is organic and raw, like the writing process itself. I hope to continue with my characters since they drive much of my creative force outside my current main project. I’m actually revising a book based off of original RP characters. As for a switch, I’ve always wanted to publish my writing in a traditional format, and self-publishing seemed like a great option with the ways of the market changing. Plus, I’d love to publish other writers, which I hope to do with an on-going project I am editing with Anthony S. Buoni. Publishing was far easier than I thought it would be, even with all of the grueling revisions. But I don’t really like to think of it as a switch. RPing is as hard and as public as writing a book, if not more so. And my RPing characters have gained their voices again this month, which makes me ecstatic. Overall, RPing has become a staple for my traditional writing. It keeps me true to my characters and their stories.

 

The Lurker: Seems that your education and upbringing does provide anyone with the right ingredients to hone and express their creative side. Why publish this book now after thirteen years? So now that we are talking about your book Blood Phoenix: Rebirth. Can you tell us a bit about it and the characters?

Alisha: There comes a time when an author re-writes a book so many times that publishing is the only way to move on. Don’t get me wrong, I love where Blood Phoenix: Rebirth as it is, but it’s the nature of authors to tinker and tinker and tinker and tinker, and well, we always feel like we can improve something if we don’t let go of it. So I’ve let go of my first novel after thirteen years to focus on other projects-one of which is book two. The series is a melding of several genres: urban fantasy, horror, suspense/action, satire, and a bit of romance.

In book one, Ria, the main character, is thrown into a frightening new world only to find out she’d always been more than human. She struggles through the entire book to come to grips with what she is and how powerful she’s become. But more importantly, she struggles to stay alive. Her maker, James, doesn’t ease her struggle. He’s brisk and unsympathetic, and he can’t seem to reign in her turmoil enough to train her before she’s kidnapped, staked, and summoned to take audience with his queen and lover. Yet, Ria gets a bit of help along the way. When James deserts her on his queen’s orders, he sends an ally to keep her safe. Boden was meant to be just that, her temporary protector, but he turns into an integral part of Ria’s life. But no matter who has her back, no one can seem to protect her from the queen’s clutches.

 

The Lurker: Can you tell us which of the characters are more like you? Which one was the hardest to write for? Can you give any insight into your characters?

Alisha: Sure! Ria is the most like me, which makes her perspective both easy and hard to write. She’s far more of a brat than I am, but a lot of her smaller details are me-the meditation, the vampire myth trivia, the potty mouth, the English and communications background, and the obsession with coffee-although, I’m coming to find that’s a general writer trait.

Boden is the most fun to write because he’s so distinct with his accent and easy personality changes. As I mentioned in my earlier explanation of the story, he wasn’t meant to stick around, which makes the fact that he does organic. I have to get to know him the same way I get to know real people; we interact when I write.
And finally, some insight. I’ve found that James is one of the more misunderstood characters because, quite frankly, he’s an ass in book one. But he’s got a lot of shit going on in the background. He’s a pretty broken man, but he really does want to take care of Ria in his own ways. In their reality, he sacrifices quite a lot for her that the reader doesn’t get to see.

 

The Lurker: Many people are have talked about sex scenes in a book. Being too much or too little. I find that depending on my mood will depend on what I like to read. But then, I am not shy when it comes to sex. However, many people are shy and uncomfortable with this aspect of story telling. Can you tell us what your thoughts are on this type of story telling? When is it too much?

Alisha: I’m a sexual author down to the way my language flows, but I appreciate all types of sexual writing. And the genre determines my view. I have much more sexual tension and play in my novel than most urban fantasies-so much so that it falls borderline with paranormal romance, except the focus isn’t on romance. Most of what I write is graphic without being overly technical. I like real words for genitalia, like cock and pussy, and don’t mind some of the euphemisms for them, but I’d rather hear the descriptive dirty words than have it flowery.

A story can have too much sex and be too descriptive-again, too technical takes away from the romance of it. But there can be too much sex in a story. For example, I wrote a novel for July’s NaNoWriMo boot camp. It’s a paranormal romance/erotica, and currently, two-thirds of it is sex. That’s too much. Some chapters contain two or three sexual encounters, and it muddles the storyline. Balance is key. Sex should be used to give a bit of excitement and down time for the overall plot. And honestly, a little can go a long way in most cases. As a reader, tension, especially sexual tension, keeps me interested in a story.

 

The Lurker: RP Writing is alive, for now. But I am sure you are aware of the continuing issues that face RP Writers. The constant deletion of accounts and groups being devastated by losing large amounts of material. Some people are argue that it is the right of the fan. “Freedom of Speech.” But now that you are an author, do you consider a group of fans writing fan fiction about your stories an act of “Freedom of Speech”? Or maybe you feel it infringes on your copyright rule. How would you feel about it?

Alisha: A balance can exist between the two: freedom of speech and copyright infringement. As long as RP Writers give credit to the author for the world and its characters somewhere in their information, I see it as free advertising and marketing. Fan fiction and mimetics has been around for so long that the transfer to electronic forum seems natural. Writers learn from other writers. We’re trained to learn that way. We’re told that if we want to improve we must do two things: read more and write more. We are obviously influenced by what we read in some way or another.

When I entered the RPing world, I wrote as several of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s characters. It turned into a live writing exercise where I had to take established characters and be true to their forms in situations outside of their world. My writing instructors often suggested this practice. And I could never predict how a fan might respond to my interpretation of any character I play. But authors must realize that once their works have been published, their content is public, and readers are free to their own interpretations. This happens in English class when students have to write papers about stories and novels. In this way, a work grows beyond the author’s intentions, and RPing does the same thing. Essentially, I’m for it. 100%. I would love to see groups made based off of my characters. It’s on my bucket list.

 

The Lurker: *nodding in understanding* That is really good to hear. Lets come back to your book. We have touched on the premise of the book, and we have posted a thread for all to see the interviews with the characters of your book. *leans in and whispers* Which is brilliant by the way. *wink* But can you tell us how hard it was for you to publish your book? What experience and lessons have you learned that you may or may not apply to your second book? *blushing* You are doing a second book, are you not? *pleading look*

Alisha: Thank you, Erin. Now, actually publishing the book wasn’t as difficult as I thought. It was, however, a bit time consuming. Createspace offers templates for print, and several templates exist for Amazon and Smashwords, which can be utilized for the other e-book sites. This go around, I published it everywhere I could think of. For book two, I plan to only publish on the three I mentioned (Createspace, Amazon, and Smashwords). I will also not rush my publication date on the next book. For book one, I published too quickly to meet my deadline, and the first round of books were published with some glaring flaws, which I was able to fix and republish. Now, the overall process of publishing from start to finish is quite time consuming and difficult, and I don’t think a lot of writers are prepared for how in-depth the process is for quality work. I edited Blood Phoenix: Rebirth over a dozen times with various programs and word lists and etc. I hired an editor, Joe Martin of Ragnarok Publications and Nine Worlds, and I still combed through the book four more times after it left his hands. Revision and editing is the longest process for a book, next to the actual writing. And yes, book two, Blood Phoenix: Claimed, should be out later this year. I have two more revisions before it will be ready for my editor, and then a few more after that.

 

The Lurker: You have mentioned that you published your own book and may be looking to help publish other authors as well. Can you tell us how one would go about contacting you and what your requirements would be?

Alisha: I do! I want to give opportunities to other writers I believe in, as I am attempting to do with the anthology I am currently editing with Anthony S. Buoni, entitled Distorted. I also provide freelance work for authors as well, and my services are listed on my website. I hope to open my own small, online press in the next few years; however, if anyone is interested in submitting to me now for help with publication, I am more than happy to work them. I do have a bit of a disclaimer. As my students are well aware, I am a hard ass. I expect high quality writing, proper development, and clean language before I take my editor pen to a project. And although I do help with overall development, a writer must learn to create and edit on their own, which is the hardest lesson I learned in writing my MFA thesis. Now, for overall requirements, I like genre fiction, such as Fantasy, Sci Fi, Romance, Mystery, Horror, YA. and etc. I’m not a fan of pure literary works as I find them boring on most occasions. And I typically prefer works that push boundaries and mix genres. I love to read books that give new life to old ideas and satire, especially. (Satire and social conformity are my geek buttons.) So, in any case, contacting me. The best place to reach me for publishing is my email: transmundanepress@gmail.com

 

The Lurker: *shaking my head* Wow! I am really impressed. You have such a full and exciting life. What is next for the Great and talented Alisha? You mentioned a second book, it will follow up the first one I assume. But can you tell us a bit about it and roughly when do you think your fans should be on the look out for it?

Alisha: Yes, there is a second book coming. I hope to have it out late this year. It picks up where book one leaves off, with Ria struggling under the pressure of vampire life. She gains another mentor, Gene, and a group of varying allies, many of which are human. But vampirism hasn’t gotten any peachier. Ria’s put through her second trial, a renegade fight with a man she’d known as a human. And I think that’s all I can tell without giving away too much.

I also have a novelette about how Phea became the first vampire coming out at the end of this year, hopefully, in the Distorted anthology. I hope to show readers another side of my protagonist, since I don’t know anyone who likes her but me. She wasn’t always such a tremendously evil bitch.

 

The Lurker: What lessons have your learned so far in being not only a published author but also being self published as well? Have you found it has changed the way you write? How is this effecting your family?

Alisha: Self-publishing hasn’t affected the way I write. I will always strive for the best possible product, which means clean writing and engaging characters, etc. I must say that it will be nice to have more eyes on this next project before it goes out to avoid some of the hiccups that I had on the last go around. And I have a very proud and supportive family. They’re all my cheerleaders as are so many of my friends. My husband has been an enormous help. He brought the book to our university to show other students and hands out bookmarks for me. He’s a saint.

 

The Lurker: What can you tell RP Writers whom may have a special story they have squirreled away afraid to share but think it just might be something special, but to afraid to publish? What piece of advice would you tell them that you wish you had known in the beginning?

Alisha: Choose your first readers carefully. Friends will always love to read a friend’s book, but be sure it’s polished for most of them. Very few friends want to read draft after draft after draft. It becomes work. But there is always one friend who will read multiple drafts (I have a few). On that note, I say pull out those squirreled away stories, read them, take notes, revise, revise, revise again, get a reader, revise again, and either submit it or hire an editor and publish the damn thing. Writers don’t grow into their potential if they don’t let finished work go, like I said earlier. And I understand the fear involved with publishing work. Publishing means sharing something so incredibly private with the world without control. And negative reactions or bad reviews hurt, but you’ll be surprised by how many people there are who want to help you succeed. I sure was.

 

The Lurker: *beaming a bright smile* Okay, before we close this interview, I want to thank you for coming today and sharing your book, imagination, and wisdom with us all. However, I do have one more question about your current book. If there is one thing you want readers of your book to take away with them, what would that be?

Alisha: Thank you so much, Erin, for having me today. Everything you do for us authors is simply amazing. You are a saint.

To answer your question, I genuinely want to connect with my readers through a shared love of paranormal creatures and of the place where mythical history and new fiction meet, like Boden as my personification of old meeting new. I’ve really twisted vampire myths with pop culture references and light-hearted satire. More than anything else, I hope to bring readers over to the dark side with a new perspective and a sense of anticipation.

 

As a tribute to this wonderful woman, I want to thank her again for all of her time and love. I’ll miss you!

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Revising Book Two…

21 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by alishacostanzo in The Writing Process

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alisha costanzo, author, blood, blood phoenix, bosex, Broken World, character development, claimed, editing, process, publishing, reverse outlining, revision, Ria, self-published, story arc, synopsis, vampires, writing, writing tips

Reverse Outlining. Sounds like an exciting practice, right? Well, the exciting parts come with a greater understanding of a finished work as a whole.  I recently performed a reverse outline on my second novel, BLOOD PHOENIX: CLAIMED, and was reminded that my overall arc for my story and character development worked.

This process is rather simple but time consuming. I went through and summarized each chapter, hitting each plot point as I would for a synopsis. For example:

Chapter One – Personality differences, catch up, touching issues between the two. Dress. Vision of Logan.

Short, simple, and sweet. Much of my notes only make sense to me, rather like a shorthand for my world.

What I did next was to cut the synopsis into pieces and put them up on my board. (I used the white board my husband set up on my easel.) I pinned them in place with magnets and arranged them part from memory and part from what made sense. I had to move a few to strengthen the plot.

And finally, I stared at it and stared at it and stared at it, taking notes as revisions came to me. This is what the final product looked like:

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I even marked specific satirical remarks on pop culture that I wanted to include in black, and the accumulating scars on my poor main character, Ria, in blue. You can see at the bottom that I have notes for book three in the bottom corner. (And another side note of “Debbeimage” from my husband misreading my handwriting and wanting me to use this word.)

It’s a great way to re-acclimate with a novel, create the bare bones of a synopsis, and to organize revision.

Now, all I have to do is get my hands dirty and implement all those wondrously pesky notes I made. I can’t wait.  Wish me luck!

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Whoa Is Me’s of Revision

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by alishacostanzo in The Writing Process

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alisha costanzo, beta readers, blood phoenix, book, Broken World, editing, editor, fantasy, horror, humor, myth, novel, paranormal, process, publishing, revision, self-publish, urban fantasy, vampires, weres, writing, writing tips

Okay, it’s been a bit of a while, but I’ve been busily editing away at Blood Phoenix. Well, I finished my final round of self-edits today—ahead of schedule mind you, and I felt such a keen sense of joy and accomplishment.

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Here’s the thing most readers and non-readers and would-be writers don’t generally understand, and quite frankly, I didn’t understand for a long time, either. (Until my recently finished and defended thesis this April). Writing is only one small step to the whole process of creating a story that OTHERS want to read.

My husband lectures me about this concept, about writing for myself rather than for others. That’s why it’s still a hobby and not a job. But I don’t see why the two have to be mutually exclusive, as I’m sure most other writers see it.

But the process is far longer than I imagined (minus that I’ve been tinkering with this novel/series for over a decade). Writing seems hard when that’s the step of the process I’m in; however, that’s the step I revel in. I LOVE to write, to create and develop characters and story arcs and tensions, etc. As much as it sucks when I get stuck or something doesn’t come out right, I love every step of marring that blank page to writing that final word. It’s a yogic paradise for me, seriously.

The first draft isn’t the hard part. Not even close. The book isn’t even really finished. After that initial (shitty) first draft comes so many edits it’s unbelievable. Then again, maybe I’m a perfectionist, but I use beta readers and language Nazis and free online software in stages. And I generally have to rewrite chunks of the storyline to keep the pace and the reader intrigued. Maybe this will lessen with more practice. But self-editing is the most daunting task.

Of course working with an editor comes after this, and as I sat on the other side of that table for a while, I want to say this next step will be the easiest—minus actual self-publication. After my MFA program, constructive criticism won’t dent my pride one bit, and the editor I chose (J.M. Martin) seems to run along the same type of thinking, or at least style, that I do. It’s nice to have someone else put in the hard work after so many runs through a draft, especially since at some point, the author grows blind to mistakes, inconsistencies, and gaps.

So, after my tenth time through this novel in the last year and cutting over 2,000 words on this last run through, here I come easy street. Okay, well, easier street. Mark me up, Joe! I can’t wait to get my baby out for public consumption.

Happy reading and writing, y’all.

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The Rattled Nerves of a Vulgar, Hippy Teacher

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by alishacostanzo in Uncategorized

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composition, first day of school, process, school, students, teaching, writing

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Oh, the first day of school looms on the morrow, and my nerves are in a jumble—double knotted as it were.  I am not only a student, going back to my last semester in this degree program, with my thesis in limbo, waiting for edits, but I am also a teacher with forty-eight new students in my very small hands.

How do you introduce yourself to your students properly on the first day? This time last year, students were afraid of me. ME! My hippie-dippy-free-spirit-love-all-self scared them.  Later, they told me so: that I had been intimidating the first few weeks of class. Bah! I shook like a leaf, paced the rooms, and prayed to the Gods that they wouldn’t notice how nervous this first time teacher was.

Well, a year later, I’m still nervous. Nervous that the students will be offended by my potty-mouthed, vulgar, and crude way of communication. That they won’t relate to what I present them with. That they won’t actually learn a damn thing from me.  Granted, I’d seen the progress in many of my students over the last year, the ones who stuck with me straight through, and even some I only had half of the time. I could SEE it.

So, why am I still nervous?  Does it make me a good teacher to care so much? I hope so, but I doubt myself at times, as we all do at one time or another.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to teach; I love to write! So obviously, I love to teach writing, which is exactly what I do.  And tomorrow, I will step back in front of the classroom, learn who my students are, what they need, and how to make them laugh.  And, hopefully, I’ll get this feeling come every August for decades to come, experience several dozens of people every four months, learn something new along the way, change maybe one or two lives, but influencing many, which is exactly as I have always aimed to do.

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Self Topics: A List All Writers Should Have On Hand

29 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by alishacostanzo in The Writing Process

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Tags

process, publishing, writing, writing tips

I received this assignment in one of my graduate classes, one meant to teach us creative writers about publishing, marketing, and editing.  At first, I found my Self-Topics essay to be tedious and frustrating, but boy has it come in handy.

Okay, so the assignment is to create a list of TEN topics you want to write about (this can include topics you currently write about and have written about in the past.  If you feel you have a lot to write about, you can bump that number up to twelve or fifteen, but you MUST list at least TEN.

After you have made a list of these ten topics, you must then create a scene that represents this topic in some way.  More specifically, and more challenging, they must be memories of some kind, i.e. where you have experience with this topic.

And finally, find the market for your topic. This means you should list one or two writers and their works as examples.  You can also, for added preparation list one or two magazines or publishers that would publish an essay, story, or novel about your topics.

Amped yet?

Image

Okay, here’s mine as an example:

Topic One—Jason, my husband:

The day I met my husband was a mere two weeks after he had come home from Afghanistan for the first time.  He was much thinner, not that he is by any means large now.  Our first date was in SUNY Plattsburgh’s organic dining hall.  We sat at the speckled blue and black lunch tables with my two friends Pork and Meurlla.  He easily partook in man-banter with them both.

I stood and rounded the table to get a refill of chocolate milk, purposefully circling around the back of him.  My hand found his short shorn hair, and he turned to look up at me with his large eyes popping wide.  Gentle beats of my heart tattered against my ribs and invaded my lungs as my steps broke the contact.

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990. Print.

Topic Two—Things my mother taught me:

Half shirts and red lipstick attracts boys, even if you’re a chubby eleven-year-old.  I couldn’t give no as an answer.  My mother had bought them for me and told me to go find myself a boyfriend.  The half shirt was beautiful, or it would have been if it covered my belly.  This may have been her way of telling me I was fat and needed to lose weight, but she’d never give me those pills she took to stay skinny.

I hung the flimsy piece of fabric in my closet until my best friend tried it on and took it home to show off to the guy she lost her virginity to.  That night after she went home, when she was likely just dancing around for Mark, I sat at the base of my bed with the small flask of warm liquid my mother hid in her underwear drawer in a man’s sock.

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Random House, 1989.  Print.

Topic Three—Drugged and Delusional Relationships:

At five p.m., I picked up, Rob, the maintenance man from McDonald’s, in my beat up, silver Ford Tempo and we cruised through the neighborhood connecting his house to my father’s until we reached Route 51.  Across the four lanes sat the thirty-year-old McDonald’s where we’d pick up J’dub and Mike and cruise around to smoke some pot.  It was my first time.

We decided to park behind the Taco Bell at the other end of the strip mall.  Mike rolled a blunt in my back seat as Rob turned to me.

“So, what you’re gonna do is hold it like this.”  He held up his large black hand and curled it like a shell so that his thumb and index finger pointed down, parallel to his throat.  “Then you’re gonna take short little pulls on it, like a cigarette, but there’s no filter, so be gentle.”  His over-plumped brown and pink streaked lips pressed against his fingers in small kissing-like movements.

I nodded, and J’dub pulled out his Zippo, the one with the black cracked casing with a lopsided skull.  It was really the only thing cool about him, minus his connections.  He spun the thin cigar-like blunt until the flame produced an even orange circle at the end of it.  The car filled with sweet, stingy smoke as he passed it over the driver’s seat to me.

The blunt sat funny in my hand as I mimed what Rob had done.  My hand twisted funny and ash spilt across my sweatshirt.  We passed it in near silence until they were satisfied.  I didn’t think I felt anything.  I pulled us out of the parking lot and went the back way across the strip mall.  Only, I couldn’t feel my feet or my legs. So I cruised to a stop at Ray Moore and Flannigan’s and shifted the Tempo into park.

“Hey, Rob.  Can you drive? I can’t feel my legs.”

Burgess, Melvin. Smack. New York City: Avon Books Inc., 1999. Print.

Topic Four—New York State/ Syracuse, Watertown, Plattsburgh:

Jackie and I trotted down to Green Lake’s truly green water as her sister trailed behind us.

“Ooo, you see that guy over there?” Jackie started immediately.  I saw him.  He was like something out of a Sears’ catalogue with tight swim trunks on and an oversized upper body.  “Do you know what I would do to him?”

“What would you do?” I asked, but I didn’t think she knew.  He was too old for us and had a tiny brunette hanging on every piece of his body that she could touch.

“Oh, I would do everything to him.  I’d let him do everything to me too.”  She giggled in a high screech.

I wanted to punch her in her swollen face.

She continued to gabber on, but I stopped hearing her until the algae filled water covered my feet up to my ankles.

I was definitely not washing the foam pieces of my headphones in this.

Jackie ran into me suddenly, knocking me into the water.  I landed on all fours as Jackie lay on my back like a sunbathing seal.

Her little sister splashed water at us, basting us.  I pushed her off of my back and sat upright on my knees.  She hit me fast in the ribs with the butt of her palm.

“Bitch.”  She stood, and her face was pinched together around her nose like a magnet had forced them all there.

I slid over onto my butt and went backwards into the water.  Breathing out of my nose, I let the green take over me and stain my blonde hair.

Perrotta, Tom.  Little Children. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004. Print.

Topic Five—The UK/London, Scotland, and Ireland:

Sweat had just been trickling down my neck and back when we were standing at the base of the castle.  It wasn’t really a castle, but the tourists seemed to think so, and I liked the appeal of it.  The winding stone steps were hard on my knees, making me wish I had worn my insoled shoes instead.  The wind whipped at the hair falling from my ponytail and dried the dampness along my shirt.  Should have worn a jacket.  Nearly eighty degrees outside, but climb up a couple hundred feet in this country and someone’s likely to lose a finger from the frostbite.

The couple in front of me was giggling again, and the boy had bad gas.  Every time he moved I would smell the broccoli he had eaten for dinner the previous night.  They shouldn’t subject decent middleclass women to this kind of torture.  It was ungodly.  But I’d already come all this way, and I was going to kiss the Blarney stone so I could go back home and give my husband the piece of my mind that I’d never been able to express properly. (Granted that last line was just for tension’s sake, I love my husband).

Tindall,Gillian The House by the Thames: And the People Who Lived There. London: Pimlico, 2007. Print.

Topic Six—Dysfunctional food service:

She leaned out the drive thru window and into the hot air, smiling at Marshall.  “Five dollar, sucky-sucky.  Ten dollar, I love you long time.”

Pulling the black Dunkin’ Donuts cap from his head, he scratched at his blond hair and grinned.  “You just want me for my package.”  And he grabbed the headset control box and jiggled it around as if he were grabbing himself before he took his broom and dustpan in hand and swept the drive-thru lane.

Laughing, she grabbed the clipboard from the counter and walked back toward her prep table to make some bagels.  On her way, she whacked Steve, the boy she used to sit next to on the bus in high school that wore his hair long like the Beatles, square on the ass.  He was a tiny man and had once fit himself into a women’s size zero but had complained that it crushed his junk.  “Don’t forget I want to see the kids this weekend, baby momma drama.”

Steve pulled the headset down and winked.  “You got it daddy.  Thank you for choosing Dunkin’ Donuts, would you like to try a combo today?”

Kingsolver, Barbara.  Small Wonder. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.  Print.

Topic Seven—Meditation/Yoga:

I couldn’t meditate.  Having everyone else concentrate and expecting me to be able to feel the energy only made me anxious.  Was that it?  The tingling under my knees?  No, that was just my legs falling asleep.  My back groaned with aches of being pulled and held straight.  Clearing my mind never worked for this shit.  I’d have to wait until we went downstairs and did the hatha yoga, then the relaxation exercise.

After a vigorous hour of stretching and poses, we finally laid back on our mats with our arms and legs spread.  The slow buzz filled my body, the kind of feeling I had expected during the group meditation, as I told my body to relax.  My feet are relaxing.  My feet are relaxing.  My toes and heels and arches are relaxing. My feet are completely relaxed.  This process took time, but it worked.  My muscles twitched and settled into a relaxing state.  Once my entire body is vibrating with peace, I count my breaths.  In: one, two, three.  Out: one, two, three.

My brain slowly falls away from the counting, but I cannot clear my mind.  I am ritualistically unable.  No writer ever wants to cut the flow of thoughts completely.  Instead, I imagine myself diving from pure whiteness into a clear blue water, so clear that the top reflects no colors, the a clearness that creates the translucent blue.

Gilbert, Elizabeth.  Eat Pray Love.  New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Topic Eight—Social Awkwardness:

It was her thirteenth birthday, and I was the only one who had agreed to celebrate it with her at the beach.

The only reason I had agreed was because I knew what it was like to celebrate a birthday without any friends.  That wasn’t exactly true, I guess.

My ninth birthday was spent waiting for guests to arrive with a big vanilla birthday cake on the island in my kitchen, balloons scattered across the kitchen ceiling, and a pink cardboard birthday hat with metallic pink floss stapled to the top clamped around my head.

One of my friends arrived.  She was an awkward girl from Girl Scouts that had a photographic memory, and she was sick, so she only stayed for a few minutes.

I didn’t tell Jackie about it.

Jackie was a step under me—the dirtier girl.

Cappello, Mary. Awkward: A Detour.  New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2007. Print.

Topic Nine— PTSD/Bipolar Disorder:

His arm was up again.  His hand precariously balanced on his ear as it swayed back and forth.  Jason only did this when he had flashback dreams.  Once where he could almost wake himself up, but they were too real for him to know any better.  If the arm fell, he’d awaken and not be able to sleep again.

I reached out and took his arm in order to gently place it down along his body without waking him.  Closing my eyes again, I waited, stroking my thumb over his hand until it pulled out of mine and was precariously balance once again on his ear.  We repeated that process three times.  It was always three times.

Kaysen, Susanna.  Girl Interrupted. New York: Random House, 1993. Print.

Topic Ten—Vampires and mythological creatures:

When I was fifteen, I read a six novel series entitled The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike.  After closing the sixth book, I sat on my bathroom floor and cried.  It was over.  It was then I began to jones for a piece of paper and a pen so hard that one might think me an addict; I needed to recreate the character that I had loved so much. Because of this vampire series, I began to write my first novel, my baby, about a girl who is born half-human and half-phoenix before she was changed into a vampire. In my head, all of the worlds others have created swirled.  It was time to do my best and create something that no one else had created, a new world unseen by another’s mind.  I wrote to twist, fold, flip, and change all those things that I have come across before and make it my own, make it something new.

Pike, Christopher. The Last Vampire. New York: Pocket Books, 1994. Print.

(Of course!)

So, there are my ten topics, with scenes, and example authors.  What are yours?

Feel free to share what you discover in the comments below, on my Facebook page or my Twitter!

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The Pickaxe to the Wall Called Writer’s Block!

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by alishacostanzo in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

process, writer's block, writing

Image

What do you do when you find yourself hitting the proverbial wall?  The one that bans you from reaching your characters, hearing or seeing or touching them, let alone the darkness in which you sit because, let’s face it, nothing is coming to you.  Well, the answer to that is simple.  You Write!

Seems impossible, right?  Well, the problem, for me at least, is that I am trying to push my character in a direction that he or she does not want to go, or I have stepped away from that narrator for too long.  Both problems are common reasons for writer’s block.  So how can writing help you and me break down that wall that keeps us from out masterpieces?

First off, pushing the character to do something he or she is not likely to do, usually keeps a character from talking and pulls you into a screeching stop.  It happens to the best of us.  Now, you need to write! In the same direction or not, write something. Put words down on paper that may not be so comfortable feeling.  But keep doing it! The more words you come across, the closer you get to hitting the material you needed to begin with. Delve and write that shitty first draft.  That’s what the first draft is for. To figure out what it is you are writing exactly.

It’s when you go back and hone your craft, pare away what doesn’t fit.  The drafting process is exactly that, a process of inventing, deleting, reorganizing, introducing and taking away. It’s cyclical.  There are no stops, no true beginning and end. But that’s another post.

Sometimes it takes writing in your character’s point of view for a while, even if it has nothing to do with the plot of your current piece, to get them to speak to you again.  So introduce them to another person’s world, give them somewhere new to go, someone new to talk to. Role Playing is excellent for this. You can meet all sorts of characters with their own worlds and stories to bounce your character off of.  This will generate material because you’re writing.  The same is true for simply, opening a blank page and a favorite book and trying your character’s hand at reacting to a beloved published character.  There are many options for thrusting your character into a new world.

Really, what the point is, is to read, re-read your material, read others’ material, and write. WRITE!  That is the one and only step to being a writer. Write.

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Where do you come up with your characters?

02 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by alishacostanzo in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

character development, character sketch, leprachaun, process, vampire, writing

I had never been truly curious how a hybrid vampire and a leprechaun might get along until I put them in the same room at a tense part of my novel. Boden had been a name for me for quite a while, but his only descriptor was that he was a leprechaun. I even originally imagined him as a short redheaded man, although young, that was very typical to the myths and legends that produced our popular views of the species.

But what happened was that I had created this tall, young, redhead to enter Ria’s life just as things were beginning to spiral out of her control–not that she had a real handle on what was happening to her to begin with. I pulled Boden’s name off my very very VERY long list of characters awaiting fleshing out or cameo spots in one of my stories. And he wouldn’t leave. <laughs.>

No, poor Boden knew he was meant to be in this book, and it took me more than seven years from his original creation, one draft of the novel, and a moment of desperation to put him just where he belonged. The second addition to a love triangle, and a great influence in my young narrator’s life.

Sometimes, I wonder where these wonky characters that play around in my head come from. Truth is, I still have no damn clue. But I have figured out, that what was meant to happen will happen, but most importantly, when a character speaks, I’d better damn well listen.

Boden:

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