Crystal Jordan :: Blog

So much building for me lately. Website building (it looks great so far). Name building (get my name out and the message that someday you really wanna read my stuff). World building for my four (count ‘em, four) works in progress. They all have completely different worlds, so it’s good (originality) and bad (must keep details straight)

Here’s the line up:

Every Witch Way- contemporary action-adventure paranormal with a chick-lit flavor

The Misadventures of Supersize Girl- contemporary young adult chick-lit fantasy

Untitled Fantasy- traditional fantasy with a romantic sub-element (I’m aiming it toward Harlequin’s Luna line)

Untitled Dark Paranormal- slightly futuristic dark paranormal about girl sucked into the underground world of assassins (aiming it towards either Harlequin or Dorchester’s new Dark Paranormal lines–apparently dark is the wave of the future)

I’m currently in the process of designing a website for my writing (I’ll even have excerpts, so you can decide if my writing sucks right up front!). Luckily, they taught me html coding in library school, so the actual building of the site won’t be a problem. Easy peasy then, right? Not! Now, I have to consider a few things. Should I make it match my blog? Or should I change my blog to match my site? Do they even need to match? Should the site be modern, flirty, sexy, racy, simple/elegant, graphic-loaded, etc? I have to think about these things! I want it to be appealing to a wide range of audiences, of course, but there’s a lot of thought going into this. Ugh!

I’ll let you know when I launch this sucker into cyberspace. Wish me luck!

I love to do this, I really do. Hey, she does it to me all the time! So we’re even! There!

Anyway, the latest way that I’ve freaked M out is to start writing a fantasy (with a romantic sub-element, naturally) where the main character is a faun. Yes, I mean like a girl version of Mr. Tumnus from The Chronicles of Narnia. And not just any girl faun. No, the queen of the fauns. Yes, it sounds cheesy, but it’s not. It’s actually a huge departure from my normal writing. It’s very medieval fantasy world and while I do have a degree in history, I don’t usually write historical. I do chick-lit contemporary type stuff. But, here’s where M starts to degenerate into freak-out mode. I call her, we chat, and then it goes something like this:

Me: So, I started a new book.

Mad Madam M: Hey, you interrupted. We were talking about my new job selling bovine vaccines. (Read about M’s first day)

Me: You’re afraid of farm animals.

Mad Madam M: Welcome to the sad irony of my life.

Me: Okay, so about my new book–

Mad Madam M: Wait. Don’t you already have, like, two books you’re already writing?

Me: Yeeeeeah, what’s your point?

Mad Madam M: Me? I don’t have a point. I sell bovine vaccines.

Me: (Laughing too hard to comment)

Mad Madam M: Okay, I’ll bite. What’s this latest shame spiral into madness about?

Me: Hey, you read bad romance with men in kilts! And you like it!

Mad Madam M: Yeeeeeah, what’s your point? (This is why M and I are friends)

Me: Anyway, the book is a fantasy and the main character is a faun.

Mad Madam M: (long pause) Aren’t fauns, like, half-goat?

Me: Yeah.

Mad Madam M: Wait. You write romance. (Starts to hyperventilate) You’re not going to have her…you know…are you? Because I just could not handle that. You know how I feel about farm animals. If you publish it, I’ll have to read it and I’ll be traumatized for life!

Me: I’m not! Besides, she’s only half farm animal.

Mad Madam M: It’s the same frickin’ thing!

Me: It’s a fantasy, not a romance…sorta! Anyway, who are you to talk? You turned my great idea for a mermaid romance into weird fish sex and then vampire-pigs-in-space sex. I’ll never be able to write that story now! Never!

Mad Madam M: It was freaky! You’ll thank me someday!

(Long pause)

Me: Wait. What were we talking about?

Mad Madam M: I don’t know, I was too engrossed in watching half-naked men on Battlestar Gallatica. I’ve had it on mute this whole time.

Me: Nice. I’ve been watching the muted Olympics.

Mad Madam M: Oh, yeah. How’re we doing with that?

Me: Not bad. Hang on, the snowboarding half-pipe stuff is coming on next. I’ll call you back.

Mad Madam M: Bye!

Hey all!

My latest review just got posted on the Romance Divas site! I read Michelle Pillows’ new e-book, The Realm Immortal: King of the Unblessed. I really loved this book, it’s a medieval dark fantasy that takes the heroine to an alternate world (with her brothers hot on her heels). The best part? This is the first book in the new Realm Immortal series! Nice.

Read my review of King of the Unblessed

Also:

Check out Michelle Pillow’s website (must be 18 or older to enter) (Hey, I said it was dark fantasy, sheesh!)

Buy the e-book here

Okay, so here’s the deal. I got honorable mention in the Ultimate Proposal Contest by Harlequin. They posted the results on their website today. There’s a little sentence about my scene at the bottom, which is pretty cool. Check it out.

For the most part, I hate V-Day, so the contest thing is a nice treat today. I wish I could say I hate Valentine’s because it a sugar-coated materialistic holiday invented by conspiracy between Hallmark, De Beers Diamonds, and 1-800-Flowers, but that’s a lie. I hate the V-Day because I have no Valentine. In fact, I’ve never had a Valentine on this obnoxious, thorn-in-my-side day. Meh.

Today, I’m going to an Anti-Valentine’s party. I told everybody we can go overboard on it. If anyone brings/wear anything in pink, red, purple, or pastel they have to drink until they can’t see straight. Then they have to do both an impression of the Jamaican bobsled team on the coffee table and a Russian ice dancing pair.

However, I might celebrate if I had one of these. (Every girl has her price!)

Karen made me do this! Mean woman!

Currently…
current clothing: (Snow day!) Flannel pjs with snowflakes on them and soft sleeper socks (gifts from grams)
current hair: auburn, shoulder length, very curl
current mood: happy (because it’s a snow day and I’m still in pjs at 8am!)
current refreshment: hot apple cider
current annoyance: that I’ll possibly have to go to work later
current avoidance: dishes
current smell: Sunset by Annie Oakley perfume
current thing you ought to be doing: grading papers
current thing or things on your wall: calendar, old fashioned advertisements for French wine
current IM/person you’re talking to: the stepmom
current jewelry: teeny silver loop earrings and a gold half-loop in my tragus (not sure I spelled it right, but it’s the triangle bit that sticks out of your ear.
current book: The Royal Pain by MaryJanice Davidson
current worry: (see annoyance)
current favorite celebrity: Michelle Kwan (grace under fire, you go girl!)
current obsession: none.
current love: The Olympics! (Mad Madam M calls me an Olympics whore)
current longing: to not have to go into work today
current disappointment: My RWA membership is stuck in backlog hell
current lyric in your head: “I’m Supergirl and I’m here to save the world” (can’t help it, I’m writing Supersize Girl)
current music: Evanescence
current favorite book: HeartMate by Robin D. Owens (if I have the rest of the day off, I’m rereading it)
current favorite movie: Underworld Evolution
current wish: (see longing)
current happy thing: snuggly flannel pjs
current undergarments: Uh…I don’t wear undies to bed (Do you wear undies to bed?)
current desktop picture: Serenity movie poster (from Australia, theirs was cooler than the US one!)
current plans for tonight/weekend: none!

So what are you currently doing?

Today’s quiz is…. Which Fantasy/Sci-Fi character are you?

Yoda I am. (Not bad is being short, wrinkled, and green. Hehehehehe.)

A venerated sage with vast power and knowledge, you gently guide forces around you while serving as a champion of the light.

Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not - for my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us. Luminescent beings are we, not this crude matter! You must feel the Force around you, everywhere.

I’m in eastern Tennessee and the bad snow/sleet/ice has hit. It managed to take out my internet service, so I was unable to post for most of Friday and the weekend. Bummer. Coming to you a bit late. I’m working Sunday, so you’ll get two posts today as no one is here (all snowed in) and I’m worried about making it home…we don’t close until 11pm. Hope the weather doesn’t get heinously bad again tonight! You should have seen Californian me trying to unbury my car this morning so I could get to work. At least I didn’t fall on my butt in the snow (though it was a close call a couple of times). Wheeee….

So, I write my work out by hand. If you’ve read some of this blog, you already know that. Review for the newbies. Unfortunately, now that I’m double-teaming the manuscripts with MSG and EWW, my hand is killing me. Typing today at work is a total bear. I think I might invest in one of those big, fat pens with a mondo-grippy thing. I think they’re refillable, but I’m not sure if they come in the gel-type ink. I’ll have to look into this. Maybe I can find one that covers all the bases. Has all the bells and whistles. Get the best of both worlds. Research, research, research…

However, a fantastically lovely woman, Lesli, just gave me some toasty warm fleece wrist warmers. She trained me with some new library technology. Shout out to Lesli!

I entered a writing contest (won’t say which one just yet) with a scene from EWW and I got an honorable mention! On my first try! Omigod! Yeah, yeah, beginner’s luck and all that, but how awesome is this? I literally jumped up and down with glee when I read the letter. Yeay!!!

Okay, I’m back now. When I find out more information, I’ll let you all know. For now, though. I won! I won! I. Won.

Also, my stepmom has started the graphic art for my Supersize Girl character. Those of you who’ve read my blog have heard my whine about how there’s no plus-sized teen actors to model her on and NO plus-sized superheroes in the comic book world. I need a visual when I write so I enlisted the uber-talented stepmom to create one for me. She started and I like it so far. Woo-hoo!