Crystal Jordan :: Blog

I picked up Every Witch Way again! Woo-hoo! See? I just needed a little breather. I’m in deep editing mode with my critique partner. Where do I need to add? What needs improvement? How can I get those last 25K words? I think if I expand where I need to, I’ll be okay, but I have to decide what needs expansion and what can stay as is. Part of my problem is that I have a whole lot of dialogue and not enough description. But, the dialogue doesn’t flow as well when I break it up. Must ponder on this issue a bit more.

I’m taking an online workshop with Sylvia Day about showing and not telling while writing. It’s offered over at Romance Divas and she’s even helping us with bits of our individual manuscripts each day. If you’re interested, you can still join in. Go check it out!

A lovely writer, Shawn Monique, asked me to be the first in a series of interviews about the journey of “pre-published” authors. I don’t think I came across as too boring/weird/sanctimonious, but you can go over and judge for yourself. There’s also an excerpt from Every Witch Way, so you can judge for yourself if the hype is worth it. You should know that my heroine is a potty mouth (so don’t read the excerpt if you’re easily offended by such things). My first interview! How exciting!

Go check it out!
My interview at The Journey

Plus, check out the new web buttons available from Romance Divas. Here’s the one I’m sticking in the footer of my blog:

In honor of the end of the Torino Winter Olympics, I give you today’s quiz, “What Winter Sport are You?”

I am almost ashamed to post what I got, but I know the Mad Madam M will get a massively huge kick out of it. And wasn’t it in Pride and Prejudice that Mr. Bennett said “We made sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn.” Well, it’s M’s turn. (Ha! Now, I prove my dorkiness. I have no athletic ability and I quote Jane Austen!)

Here it is:

You Are Curling

What you lack in athleticism, you make up for in concentration. And while curling isn’t much more of a sport than bowling, you *can* win a gold medal for it!

I actually managed to work a kilt into the futuristic story (it’s a costume ball–no, people on space ships do not run around the air shafts with man-skirts billowing). The Mad Madam M was thoroughly disturbed, I could tell. I had to warn her though — that’s what friends are for! Just like she informed me that the font on my original site sucked. Yeah, yeah…I’m working on it! Of course, the font she recommended was just ugly, so the drawing board call-eth.

Okay, so I had some people over at Romance Divas say that they had trouble reading the font on my new website. So, I did a mock-up of the site with a different font. What do you think? Feel free to comment or email me and let me know which you like better!

Current site

New version

I’m taking a wee break from Every Witch Way. Honestly, I’ve been working on this for SO long and it’s frustrating that I can’t seem to get the darn thing done. So, I’m going to step back and let it marinate for a few minutes. This often helped my writing when I was cranking out college papers, so it might work here. In the meantime, I’ll be working on one or two of my other 50 million works in progress. I want to get the ideas out on paper before they go away (because we know I’ll never get them back!)

Wish me luck!

I finished building my website! This is the official launch! I’m so excited (and why would I hide it?) Go check it out!

www.crystaljordan.com

I have to give special mention to an amazingly talented artist from Italy, Sara Lazzeroni, who was kind enough to let me use her work on my website. You rock, Sara!

I wanted to go with a look where you could believe I wrote in all the crazy genres that I write. Futuristic, fantasy, chick lit, comedy, action-adventure, romance. So, it couldn’t be too cartoony chick-lit or too hard-core space ship. I think it works…

So, I told Mad Madam M last night that I’m thinking about trying my hand at some risque short stories. (Under a different name, of course) I assured her that she did not have to read these stories and that I understood her never wanting to read a story with uber-graphic sex scenes written by her best friend. Disturbing, much? (At least it doesn’t have farm animals!) I also told her these weren’t her kind of stories anyway. Futuristic and nary a kilt-wearing man in sight. Basically, everything she doesn’t want in a romance. That’s fine–that’s why there are 80 different romance sub-genres. (We all win!) Then I thought about throwing a kilt-wearing man into my futuristic, just to mess with her. (I am such a good friend! Hey, don’t forget the vampire-mermaid-pigs-in-space!) Mwah-ha-ha-ha!

Sandy Oakes wrote a coupla weeks ago over on Romancing the Blog about The Alpha Male’s Heroine and I got to thinking, “Who doesn’t love an alpha hero?” I think she made a good point when she said they’re hard to write in modern romance. The hero can be angst-ridden and dark, very he-man alpha, but how does the heroine match him? Especially if she’s new to his dark, dangerous, action-filled world? She shouldn’t be dumb and go rushing into danger expecting the alpha-dude to come running, shouting “I’ll save you!” However, you don’t want her to be a wimp quivering and crying in the corner (like I would be). The balance is hard to reach in contemporary books.

Take my two favorite suspense authors, Suzanne Brockmann and Linda Howard. Suzanne, now she can rock a tough-guy/inexperienced girl story. Her guys are also not afraid to cry, which is cool. Linda Howard on the other hand, her men are uber-alpha. Sometimes she goes over the top with the heroes and her heroines really don’t measure up. Or the guy will be so alpha you wonder what the heroine sees in him because you just want to kick him in his fat head throughout the entire book. But, man, when Linda is on her game, those are some of the best stories ever. See? And you guys thought I only read paranormal stuff. Ha!

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com