tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50430546032327126542024-02-18T22:56:47.238-08:00My Own Little WorldIce Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-53663509622159573802014-12-18T11:15:00.001-08:002014-12-18T11:15:34.239-08:00A New DirectionHello, my friends<br />
<br />
Once again I have let you down with my blog and I really do not blame you if you've given up on me. I am still without home internet and am currently sitting in a coffee shop using the WiFi here.<br />
<br />
<br />
As I've mentioned before, I've decided to go a new direction with <i>My Own Little World</i>. When I get the chance to use the WiFi, I will start talking about my characters and worlds.<br />
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<br />
But I need your help.<br />
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<br />
Tell me what you want to hear about. Those of you that have followed this blog (or me on Facebook) know I have several projects going and several more finished projects. So I want to hear from you. What do you want me to talk about? Is there a character you're dying to know about? Is there a novel you want to know about?<br />
<br />
<br />
I am going to try my hardest to keep this blog up to date<br />
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<br />
PatriciaIce Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-86849260435130359772014-01-16T11:08:00.000-08:002014-01-16T11:08:31.551-08:00UpdateHello, my friends<br />
<br />
<br />
My apologies once again for failing to post in this blog. Unfortunately, my computer had a fight with gravity back in late December. It lost. Thus I wasn't able to update my blog.<br />
<br />
I now have a new computer, but I am having to use public WiFi to post this at the moment until I can update my internet modem. :(<br />
<br />
<br />
As I mentioned last time, I have started back to work on <i>The Asagai of Mitera</i>, which will include a newer, better and rewritten version of <i>Asagai</i>, along with a new title.<br />
<br />
I will also be taking this blog in a new direction. I have realized, with the help of a few friends, that I seem to be directing this blog towards <i>Writers</i> not <i>Readers</i>. For that, I apologize. I will be posting now about characters and places and maybe here and there talk about the writing process.<br />
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Thank you all for being so patient with me :)<br />
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<br />
Until next time, my friends<br />
<br />
PatriciaIce Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-64440321969386659142013-11-30T19:52:00.001-08:002013-11-30T19:52:54.741-08:00ApologiesI fear I have been neglecting you, my friends<br />
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<br />
I've had so much going on this year that I have failed to make posts since May.<br />
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<br />
Where to start?<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, I guess the most important update is the Anthology my short story, Beyond the Grave, is featured in was published back in Aug. Dawn of the Living Dead is a collection of paranormal stories by some of the most talented young writers I'm honored to share a book with.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Living-Dead-Melissa-Somoza-ebook/dp/B00EUM9ANM/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385869666&sr=1-1&keywords=dawn+of+the+living+dead">http://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Living-Dead-Melissa-Somoza-ebook/dp/B00EUM9ANM/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385869666&sr=1-1&keywords=dawn+of+the+living+dead</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Living-Dead-Melissa-Somoza/dp/1492120928/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385869666&sr=1-1&keywords=dawn+of+the+living+dead">http://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Living-Dead-Melissa-Somoza/dp/1492120928/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385869666&sr=1-1&keywords=dawn+of+the+living+dead</a><br />
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<br />
I just finished my second NaNoWriMo (Yay!) Met some awesome new friends :)<br />
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<br />
I'll be working on my fantasy series The Asagai of Mitera next and hopefully I'll keep yall more informed.<br />
<br />
Until next time, my friendsIce Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-49278969164511566592013-05-19T11:48:00.002-07:002013-05-19T12:10:21.000-07:00Fan FictionToday I want to talk about fan fiction.<br />
<br />
For those of you who don't know what that is, fan fiction, also known as fanfic or just fic, is where writers take established works like the Twilight Saga, the Star Trek franchise and the Dragon Age franchise and create their own works using the world of the work they are fans of. Many times the writer will create their own character from that universe, called an Original Character or OC, and take events from either a film, book, or video game and stick that character in it. The Copyright laws generally overlook fan fiction as long as you put a disclaimer that you do not own the original work.<br />
<br />
For example:<br />
<br />
<i>Jethro Gibbs, Ziva David, Tony DiNozzo and NCIS in general belongs to CBS.</i><br />
<i>Agent Jessica Jackson belongs to me.</i><br />
<br />
The first have lets people know that the Chacters of Gibbs, Ziva and Tony and the TV show they appear on, NCIS, are copyrighted to CBS Television and do not belong to you in anyway. The second line tells the reader that Agent Jackson is your OC.<br />
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Now this doesn't mean you can go and publish your NCIS fanfic and make royalties off of it. Then you will end up in court being sued by CBS and NCIS' creators for copyright infringement.<br />
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<br />
Personally, as a writer, I think writing a fan fiction is great practice and a great way to pass the time when you either have writer's block or you're just stuck on what comes next in your original story. I have a whole series of stories based on Bioware's Dragon Age franchise: One very long novel length one with its sequel in the works and several shorter ones.<br />
<br />
And for those of you who don't know, Dragon Age is a role play game video game where you take a character that the creators give you and personalize him or her. The player has the choice of choosing the gender, race, class and origin of the protagonist (referred to as Personal Character or PC here). The surnames are given but you have the choice of either going with the first name the game offers or create your own.<br />
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Now in the case of Dragon Age fanfic, many fans will write tales about their PC and their adventures in the games. I have seen a few that will create their own characters and stick them in there.<br />
<br />
Now, yall know I am one of those fanfic writers. When I first started writing, I broke in with fanfics. My first being based of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film. As the film had been open ended, I wrote a "sequel". Looking back on it now, it was horrible. I also did one for Hellboy (which was never finished) and, don't laugh, a Twilight fic (It was never published and only one person other person read it)<br />
<br />
Wait. You said you couldn't publish fanfic...<br />
<br />
You can't publish it where you'll get paid for it. There are plenty of sites out there where fanfiction can be read by others. <a href="http://fanfiction.net/">fanfiction.net</a> is the most popular, but other sites like deviantART and Archive of our Own (AO3) host fanfic, the former has art to go along with it.<br />
<br />
Now, not all authors like fanfiction are there are some who do not want their works to be made into fanfiction and will take steps to prevent it. Anne Rice (<i>The Vampire Chronicles</i>) Anne McCaffrey (<i>Dragonriders of Pern</i>) and Raymond Feist (<i>The Riftwar Cycle</i>) do not allow fanfic to be written with any of their characters. George R. R. Martin (<i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i>) is strongly opposed to fanfic and believes it's copyright infringment and not something aspiring authors should do<br />
<br />
But there are some authors who love the fanfic based off their works. J.K Rawling (<i>The Harry Potter Series</i>) has been noted as saying she is "flattered" by people writing harry Potter fics. Stephenie Meyer (<i>The Twilight Saga, The Host</i>) even posts links on her website to her favorite fics.<br />
<br />
In fact, the popular <i>Fifty Shades</i> trilogy was born as a Twilight fanfiction originally titl<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">ed <i>Master of the Universe.</i> E.L James renamed the characters and obviously did some heavy edits before publishing them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">But don't get me started on that series...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">But the whole point of this week's ramble was to talk about the little known "genre" of fan fiction. What do you think?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">Until next time, Friends</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">Happy Writing</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"><br /></span></span>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction</a><br />
<a href="http://deviantart.com/">deviantart.com</a><br />
<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/">http://archiveofourown.org/</a><br />
<a href="http://stepheniemeyer.com/ts_fansites.html">http://stepheniemeyer.com/ts_fansites.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Patricia-Lane/206475586037926">Like me on Facebook</a><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/patriciaglane">Follow me on Twitter</a>Ice Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-3155738621229474842013-02-24T07:35:00.000-08:002013-02-24T07:35:27.428-08:00PlagiarismYou spends countless hours, days, weeks, months even years fleshing out your story. You share it with folks. You get feedback and rave reviews. And then someone takes that which you have shed ink, sweat and tears over and passes it off as their own.<br />
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Plagiarism isn't new. It's been around as long as the written word. It's a fight that we writers, artists etc. deal with.<br />
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What inspired this topic today?<br />
<br />
About 2-3 years ago now, I started playing the first game in the Dragon Age franchise. I loved the story so much I recommended it to one of my sisters. I made the offhand comment that my character's story would make a great book. She then asked if I would write one for her. Of course I agreed, since I didn't have any active writing projects at the time. A year later I gave her the finished project. Since then, I've written several short stories based on the Dragon Age universe and connected with the fan fiction community. After playing the second game of the franchise, I was inspired to write a short story from one of the character's point of view. The character, Fenris, is a romance option for the player character and let me tell you, it's one complected romance. The story, <i>Broken</i>, also inspired by a song of the same name, turned out to be one of my best ones and told Fenris' version of his relationship with Alexandria, what I named my character, from their first meeting to the final battle and beyond.<br />
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I finally had the courage to post it on deviantART in January. On Friday, a wonderful young woman on the site informed me that <i>Broken</i> was on Bioware Social being passed off as being written by a girl calling herself Emma Shepard. It had been posted 10 days after I published it. Of course, I was livid and immediately asked her to remove it before I reported the plagiarism to the administrator. Within 24 hours the post, along with every other story she'd stolen, was taken down<br />
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Of course I was mad. I had spent the good part of the previous month fleshing it out. Only to have Emma Shepard take less than 5 minutes to copy and paste it to another site and claim that she wrote it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPS1DYeKDHwb9ph0mmYCWvGq2totErHEELhuxjeiBJ9tzY0SOCipZxyKNXulkNy4VAjRWhkRl3vijVmtrIMt4bG0h7mR6xa3EUilSGcBzRxdib0B0_LON8WG0b-DbrQLRKbDXj3jHQDpID/s1600/Plagiarism_vs_Copyright_Infringement.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPS1DYeKDHwb9ph0mmYCWvGq2totErHEELhuxjeiBJ9tzY0SOCipZxyKNXulkNy4VAjRWhkRl3vijVmtrIMt4bG0h7mR6xa3EUilSGcBzRxdib0B0_LON8WG0b-DbrQLRKbDXj3jHQDpID/s320/Plagiarism_vs_Copyright_Infringement.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Photo by MLauba</div>
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I think what pissed me off the most was the fact that she didn't credit me as the author. Yes, I was mad that she didn't ask first. I may have even allowed it then as long as she credited me. But to pass it off as her own. That is intolerable.</div>
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I hope and pray that any of you writers out there that read this never have to deal with the stress of being plagiarized. Trust me, it's no fun</div>
Ice Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-9203208211953243472013-02-19T16:05:00.000-08:002013-02-19T16:05:29.557-08:00Holy Mother of Pearl!I have disappoint you guys, I'm afraid. My weekly blog seemed to have died for 5 months... I'm a horrible blogger apparently<br />
<br />
Well to give you some up dates:<br />
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October: I prepared for National Novel Writing Month and did a lot of drawing.<br />
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November: I participated in my first NaNoWriMo and not only made the "50,000 words in 30 days" goal, I did an extra 18,000 words. I also made a ton of friends locally who are writers as well.<br />
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December: Christmas. 'nuff said. And I had to recover from the writing binge lol<br />
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January: I focused a lot on a fan fiction and wrote a lot of fan fiction stories :/ Although I did gather some ideas on how to add more drama into a love triangle in <i>The Rangers of Aleera.</i><br />
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Febuary: More edits on both the Fanfiction and <i>The Rangers of Aleera</i><br />
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And here we are again. I will do my best to update once a week.<br />
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Until next time, friends<br />
<br />
Happy Writing<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Patricia-Lane/206475586037926">Like me on Facebook</a><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/patriciaglane">Follow me on Twitter</a>Ice Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-20401262152134188122012-09-09T09:10:00.000-07:002012-09-09T09:14:37.562-07:00InspirationWhat inspires your stories?<br />
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This is a question I get asked a lot. And the answer isn't a simple one. Some times the story will just pop into my head, like <i>The Rangers of Aleera</i>. Or a English assignment involving writing a ballad plants the seed, like <i>Asagai</i>. And I do have one inspired by a video game that is currently title less. But many more are inspired by dreams. And I have the craziest dreams. My first novel attempt, <i>The Cause</i>, was born after I had a dream that I was in the Revolutionary War, fighting side by side with a couple of people I had never seen in my life. I started the outline the next morning. While I replaced myself with a male character, the story followed the dream. While it's only half finished and in desperate need of a re write to make the four different writing styles in it as one, it may eventually see the light of day. Of course that was back when I still used outlines.<br />
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Inspiration can come from anything. Your friends may start spouting off some random crap and you have an idea for a character. Your co worker may be talking about a movie and get the lead character's name wrong and now you have a name for a character of your own. You may be doing a random writing exercise and it turns into a full blown novel.<br />
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What inspires my stories?<br />
<br />
Life itself.<br />
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Until next time, friends<br />
<br />
Happy WritingIce Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-48922662848996982342012-08-26T10:32:00.001-07:002012-08-26T10:37:04.492-07:00Snacking and WritingI don't know about you, but when I'm writing a lot of times I'll get the munchies. I have have certain elements around me when I write, snacks are one of them.<br />
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When I write, I always have my MP3 player (I either have it hooked to a speaker or I have my headphones) and a Dr. Pepper. Now I don't go overboard when it comes to snacks. Just a candy or granola bar or a cracker pack and I've even had string cheese and grapes nearby.<br />
<br />
Why not eat a big meal before you start?<br />
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Because then I'll want to take a nap instead of writing. Now don't skip a meal in favor of writing, but you really can't do your story justice if your stomach is saying "feed me" and sounding like a dying whale. It's annoying even with headphones in.<br />
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Now, I have also wrote as I am eating a meal. The second and third books of the Asagai of Mitera trilogy were written during my lunch break when I worked for a retailer. The Rangers of Aleera was writen while I was eating breakfast at McDonald's and during my lunch at my current job.<br />
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How can you eat around your computer?<br />
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I don't really. Everything I write, I write "old school". I have a wonderful collection of spiral notebooks (A little trivia for you: It took me three regular ruled one subject notebooks before I completed the rough draft of The Rangers of Aleera.)<br />
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Now when I'm typing it up, I do some snacking but I don't eat my meals around my computer. Are you crazy? As I write this I have a bunch of grapes sitting next to me on one side and a Dr. Pepper on the other.<br />
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Now, if you do snack while writing, I don't suggest a juicy fruit or a messy snack (learned my lesson with Pringles). Something light will keep the dying whale at bay.<br />
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Until next time, Friends<br />
<br />
Thanks to Varun G for suggesting this weeks topic<br />
<br />
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Patricia-Lane/206475586037926">http://www.facebook.com/pages/Patricia-Lane/206475586037926</a>
<br />
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Ice Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-1087254239343754832012-08-19T12:16:00.000-07:002012-08-19T12:16:20.431-07:00Writer's BlockOr as I like to call it, My Muse went on vacation<br />
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Now I've had a few times where my Muse went on vacation and I'm not blaming fully the event of not writing on the dreaded Writer's Block. Sometimes you just need a break. But what if you really don't know what to write next and your characters or muse aren't talking?<br />
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The following is what I do personally:<br />
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<b>1. Draw</b><br />
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Yes, I do draw sometimes. I have a deviantART account just for that. (I also post fan fiction on there. Which is actually most of my posting there. Go figure.) What do I draw? Sometimes I draw scenes I've already written. Other times, I draw portraits of my characters. Other times I draw random doodles that end up in the trash. Ok most of my drawings to see the light of day, but I digress.<br />
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<b>2. Music</b><br />
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No, I don't play music. I listen to music. Usually, if the people crammed into my head aren't making a peep, I head over to YouTube and start listening to "Epic Music" This is what I call it, if there's an official name let me know. My go to's are Two Steps From Hell, Immediate, X-Ray Dog, BrunuhVille and Adrian von Ziegler, just to name a few. Since I write fantasy with an epic vein, these companies and composers really help me out. Just listening to their music can trigger a scene to play out in my head. Or a "Oooo that would be perfect for this scene or this character" And then I get to writing again, inspired by their music.<br />
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Now these are just my personal techniques to combat Writer's Block. At least I no longer start another project when I get stuck. As they say, so many books so little time.<br />
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Got any tips on how to combat the monster called Writer's Block? Just leave a comment.<br />
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Until next week, Friends.<br />
<br />
Happy WritingIce Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-76480491967724114772012-05-01T19:13:00.000-07:002012-05-01T19:13:35.284-07:00Kicking a Publisher to the CurbThose that know me know I've had an issue with my publisher in the form of royalties. I had been contemplating hiring a lawyer to help me legally get out of my contract, but my publisher handled that for me. As of last month I am no longer with PublishAmerica. Which frees me up to do a revamp on <i>Asagai</i> and republish it with someone who will pay me royalties. Which I will do as soon as I finish my current project, <i>The Rangers of Aleera.</i><br />
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Which I am very excited about. <i>Rangers</i> is perhaps my longest project to date. And I've had a ton of fun writing it. I'm in the home stretch on finishing it so I maybe in the near future detailing my editing and the publishing process.<br />
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Yes I know this blog is shorter than usual but hey, I haven't much to say right now.<br />
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Until next time<br />
<br />
Happy Writing!Ice Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043054603232712654.post-43003658694295063262012-03-10T18:30:00.000-08:002012-03-10T18:30:51.191-08:00Welcome to my WorldI have finally decided to make an official Author's Blog. Since I haven't gotten a webpage up. I know. I know. Get your butt to work on a webpage.<br />
<br />
Allow me to introduce myself.<br />
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I'm Patricia Lane. And yes I will be running my own blog. I'm an unknown at the moment but I am working on getting my name out there.<br />
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A little bit about me:<br />
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I've been writing since I was in about the 4th or 5th grade. It was in the 5th grade that I realized that I had a talent for writing after the teacher for the Gifted and Talented program at Chicot Elementary had me read a myth I'd written for a project in that class. The class I read for a, 1st grade class who's teacher I cannot remember for the life of me, loved it and I ended up reading it for them three times. I've written various genres since then.<br />
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Despite writing from everything ranging from historical fiction to western to modern action adventure, I found my niche in the world of fantasy. It came easy for me. There's more you can do with fantasy than with the other genres, I think. Now, mind you I don't go overboard with kidnapped princesses and dragon's lairs and harried heroes. Over the years, my characters have become more believable and ones you root for or hope they get what they deserve.<br />
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Writing's not an overnight talent. It takes years to develop, like any talent. It took years for the word of Mitera, the world <em>Asagai</em> takes place in, to go from my mind to the paper to the publisher. I cannot even begin to tell you how it feels to get that phone call that they want to publish your book.<br />
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I have a group of close family that always gives me feedback on my stuff. They tell me I have a natural talent. And their feedback has boosted my confidence in my writing and talent.<br />
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Do I have any advice for budding authors?<br />
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Keep writing and don't give up. And do some research into publishers before you choose...Ice Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02551408806497466138noreply@blogger.com0