Breaking the Rules by Danica Avet

If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have got anywhere. Marilyn Monroe

I love that quote. I’m not a big fan of being told what I can and cannot do, which is why I adore writing so much. In my world, I have final say and can write about anything I want to. That doesn’t mean, however, that other people don’t question me. I get questioned all the time! Two of the most common questions I’m asked by non-writers are: Why do I write paranormal, and where do I get all of my ideas from?

I’ll answer the why question first since that’s the one I get most frequently. Paranormal, like fantasy, is only limited by your imagination. I’m not saying the other genres don’t allow you the same freedom, but when you’re dealing with contemporaries and historicals, you have to deal mainly in fact; otherwise you tempt your readers to say “This is complete B.S.”

With paranormal and fantasy and even some sci-fi, you’re dealing with the world you build. It’s your rules and you can bend them anyway you like. Since I really don’t like rules to begin with (can anyone say oppositional-defiant?), I frequently bend them until they’re on the verge of breaking. Sure, you can change some aspects of real life to suit your needs if you’re writing fiction, but when you step outside of the “real” and into the “supernatural”…well, it’s all lagniappe. You can choose how close to real life you want your world to be. It’s wonderfully freeing!

The next question was about ideas. I don’t know where I get my ideas from; they just show up. Kind of like unwelcome houseguests, ideas show up on my mental doorstep with their bags packed and expressions of hope on their faces. With the typical southern hospitality, I let them in and quietly pray they go away again. The only way I’ve managed to remove some of them has been to write about them.

In the case of my most recent release, Succubus-in-Waiting, Piper Foxgrove showed up in my head and wouldn’t leave. She was reading all of my romance novels and eating all of my chocolate, so I had to get rid of her—and not in a mafia kind of way either. I took a good look at her, realized she was a succubus-weretiger Halfling and knew she needed to hook up with a man who didn’t like succubi. When Connor arrived, looking all Gerard Butler-y and hot…well, I knew they were perfect for each other. It wasn’t easy getting them to actually cooperate with me, but with the world-building I’d already established and the histories I made up for them, it worked out. I’d like to think it was for the better, but considering everything they went through, they might not agree that the ends justified the means.

Again, we come back to rules. For Piper and Connor, because they’re such different species, I had to read through my Veil rule book…then I threw it out the window. I didn’t want to follow those structured ideas I’d developed when I wrote up this world. I wanted them to defy all odds. If I had played by the book, Connor would’ve never met Piper and fallen in love with her. She would’ve stayed in her mother’s Pleasure House and fed off the male lust she and her sisters inspired. When I met Piper, I knew she deserved more than what the rules said she was supposed to have.

As writers, we’re buried under an avalanche of rules and do’s and don’ts, but that doesn’t mean we have to live by them. Sure, guidelines are good, but when you’re dealing with a story that defies all odds, you sometimes have to pick and choose which ones you follow. So take the rule book and bend it in half!

C’mon fellow rebels! What are some of your favorite writing rules that you love to break? I’ll be choosing a winner (or two) to win a mask that looks like the below sample. U.S. residents only.

Danica Avet was born and raised in the wilds of South Louisiana (that would be somewhere around Houma) where mosquitoes are big enough to carry off small children and there are only two seasons: hot and hotter. With a BA in History, she figured there were enough fry cooks in the world and decided to try her hand at writing. For eight years she played at writing, but in 2008, she decided to get serious and began down the rocky road to publication.

You can find Danica at the following spots on the interwebz:

Website: www.danicaavet.com Blog: www.danicaavet.wordpress.com
Group blog: www.fourfoxesonehound.com
Twitter: @danicaavet
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Danica-Avet-Writer/108148517161

“Breaking the Rules” used with Creative Commons by ed.ward.

The Real Being Human

Oh, with the almost decent doppelganger airing on SyFy, we are so truly thrilled to see the original Being Human kicking off its third season this Sunday. Is it just me or is it time for a marathon? BBC loves you! Check out a 5 min sneak peak of the premiere!

Vampire Diaries–Season 2 “The Dinner Party”

Here’s a sneak peak at this week’s episode!

No Ordinary Family

One of the sweetest supernatural shows to hit primetime! We love “No Ordinary Family”, and can’t wait for the upcoming episode. Here’s a sneak peak.

I Am Number Four

If you watch any of the teen shows on TV you most certainly have run across a preview for the newest YA goes Hollywood Adaptation I Am Number Four. Here is the extended trailer. YA Sci-Fi, who could go wrong….

Red Riding Hood

Another highly anticipated fairy tale retelling, this all-star cast looks to take a bite out of the werewolf mythos with classic story of Little Red Riding Hood. I hope it delivers all that is promised. Take a look at the trailer and let us know what you think.

Beastly: A Modern Fairy Tale

This has got to be one of the underdog movies we are anticipating the most! Check out this modern day retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Because fairy tales are so in right now.

Paranormal TV

Paranormal TV Shows

If you like ghosts and things that go bump in the night, there are a lot of great shows out to fill your cravings of unnatural things. In honor of Halloween, here are a couple popular shows fans of the supernatural should definitely check out.

Paranormal State:

Ryan Buell founded Paranormal Research Society in 2001.  The show “Paranormal State” follows the PRS team as they investigate unexplained stories of ghost sightings, demons, and other dark things that go bump in the night. Though some fans enjoy the show for pure entertainment, others recognize Ryan and his team as a real Paranormal Society. They record and document everything in an effort to scientifically prove whether a paranormal event is real or fake.

On October 31^st they will air two new shows, the first, Supernatural Seduction, a case where an innkeeper and his guests are having problems with a spirit that likes to get intimate, and Return of the Dead: Glove II, where a single mom is being assaulted in her Kentucky home.

Ghost Hunters:

If you like paranormal State you should also check out Ghost Hunters. After all, what better time for a Ghost Hunters Marathon than Halloween? Ghost Hunters is world famous. Plumbers by day, but hunters by night the group known as TAPS attempts to get to the truth of the unexplained.

This Halloween the show is doing their first ever live event. On the Syfy Channel they are having a six hour live event at Buffalo Central Terminal. There will be live feeds throughout the terminal to catch the scary action. The Terminal has full bodied apparitions, women screaming, and so much more. We hear that viewers will be able to tune in live online and ask questions, and help them catch irregularities with the click of a button. They even tease that major guest stars will help on the hunt.

There are several more great shows out there in the paranormal world, but these are two of the best that should be on everyone’s must see list. Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all of our readers out there! Hope you have a delightfully wicked day!

Author Spotlight: Lucy Snyder

Today’s guest author is a local friend and fantastic author Lucy Snyder! Lucy A. Snyder is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novels Spellbent and Shotgun Sorceress and the collections Sparks and Shadows, Chimeric Machines, and Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. Her writing has appeared in Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, Hellbound Hearts, Masques V, Doctor Who Short Trips: Destination Prague, Chiaroscuro, GUD, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She was born in South Carolina but grew up in San Angelo, Texas. She currently lives in Worthington, Ohio with her husband and occasional co-author Gary A. Braunbeck.

We are excited to have her interview on Wicked Jungle and know all you urban fantasy readers out there are going to love her! Keep reading for your chance to win a signed copy of Spellbent!!

Author Spotlight

Name: Lucy Snyder

Porn Star Name: King Thursday Charlotte.

Which sounds like a combination butch lesbian porn star and indie rocker! I feel compelled to explain this one: my first pet (I was 2 or 3) was a king snake I named King Thursday. Thursday, for reasons that are obscure to me now, was apparently my favorite day of the week when I was little.

Website Address: www.lucysnyder.com

Writing Age:

I’d say that content-wise my Spellbent series is for adults, which essentially means well-read middle teens and up. One romance blog gave Spellbent an “R” rating, whereas I’d put it at a PG-13 … I know of several 14-year-olds who’ve read it and they don’t appear to be corrupted/traumatized by it.

My humor collection Installing Linux on a Dead Badger is probably 15 and up, not due to sex or cussing, but because of geeky references that people who aren’t familiar with computers won’t get.  A friend of mine has a computer-loving teenaged son with Asperger’s, and my friend had a hard time getting the boy to read much fiction, but he said his son loved ILDB and it’s sort of been a “gateway” book to other fiction, and that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

First Published Work:

My first novel is Spellbent, which was released by Del Rey in late December 2009.  My first book was Sparks and Shadows, a story collection that HW Press published in 2007.  And my first paid story sale was “Thirteen’s Revolution”, which came out waaaay back in a little magazine called Midnight Zoo … the managing editor, Bob Fleck, moved up in the publishing world and we encountered each other again last year when he became my literary agent.

Current Release:

My second novel, Shotgun Sorceress, will be released in October.  It’s a direct sequel to Spellbent and chronicles the adventures of Jessie, Cooper, the Warlock, and Pal as they get trapped in an isolated West Texas town that is being decimated by a soul harvester named Miko. As they battle Miko and her zombie minions, Jessie discovers a darkness within herself that she must overcome to save the town, her friends, and her own soul.

INSPIRATION AND MUSE

If you could live in any fictional universe/world what would it be?

Wow. This is a tough one, because there are so many intriguing choices! How do you choose between post-Jadis Narnia and the 23rd Century as portrayed in Star Trek? I can safely say, though, that I do not want to live in Gary Braunbeck’s Cedar Hill, Ohio.  Do. Not. Want.

If you could have lunch with any author dead or alive whom would it be and why?

I want to have lunch with author Nalo Hopkinson. She’s a super-cool person, but we haven’t seen each other in ages. And she’s been blogging her lunches lately, and every time she does, I think, “Damn, that sounds really good.”

If you were locked in a room for 48 hours and forced to watch one TV show the entire time, which television series would you choose?

Doctor Who, no question.  48 hours might let me catch up on the new series and put a slight dent in what I haven’t seen of the classic series.

What is the most outrageous or bizarre thing you have done in the name of “research”?

I was a goth for three years. No really, it was research, I’m telling you! I got stories out of it and everything.

What is your latest release?

My latest release is a short story called “Miz Ruthie Pays Her Respects” that appears in Dark Faith, an anthology from Apex Books that came out in May.

What inspired you to write said story/book?

I … can’t talk about that in public. If anyone reads it, and is curious to know the story behind the story, buy me a drink at a convention and I’ll tell you. I will tell you that I was absolutely furious when I wrote it, which you would probably never guess from reading the finished piece.

Fab Five

• Coffee or Tea? I CAN HAZ CAFFEINE YES?
• Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate.
• Vampire or Werewolf? Neither: devils rule!
• Meatie or Veggie? Mostly veggie.
• Salty or Sweet? Both!

Last but not Least–three words that describe you: sly, inscrutable, amused

Win a signed copy of Spellbent!

Once again, a big thanks to Lucy Snyder for joining us at Wicked Jungle. Ask Lucy a question and you are  automatically entered into drawing for a free signed copy of her latest novel Spellbent! And yes, international contestants are eligible.

To get you started, here is a free excerpt of Shotgun Sorceress

The Warlock pulled off the highway onto a dirt road running between two cornfields.

“This should be it,” he said, glancing down at the magic compass he’d brought along. “Karen, you got Riviera’s token?”

“Right here,” she replied, patting the small white beaded purse in her lap. She was wearing a long-sleeved sea-green silk gown and long strings of pearls; the outfit must have dated back to the 1930s, and it looked good on her.

We got out of the Land Rover. The ground was soft and damp, so I was glad I wasn’t in high heels. The weird calliope music of my familiar Pal’s flying spell was loud overhead. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and began to follow Mother Karen and The Warlock down a corn row.

Cooper nudged my backpack. “You could leave that in the car, you know.”

“If something happens, it’s not going to do me a lot of good if it’s locked in the car a mile away.”

“The Seelies are probably just going to make you check it at the door.”

I shrugged. “Checked at the door is still closer than locked in the car.”

We came to a clearing where a battered old scarecrow hung crucified on a couple of rake handles. A cloud of dust rose as Pal touched down, and Cooper spoke an ancient word to turn off his invisibility.

A tin cup had been tied to the straw fingers of the scarecrow’s left hand.  When we got within ten feet of the scarecrow, my stone ocularis started to itch in my skull. I blinked through to the gemview that had shown me the invisible door in Karen’s back yard. I saw an odd double-image of the scarecrow and a set of bronze-reinforced oak doors big enough to admit an elephant.

Read More Here

ENTER THE CONTEST

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You can get an additional entries by doing the following (note these are in addition to posting a comment. You must comment first to be qualified).

• Option A: Tweet about the contest on Twitter (you must include @wickedjungle for your tweet to qualify each tweet will get you an additional entry).
• Option B: Become a follower of our blog (only new followers joining between the time of the contest will be counted).
• Option C: Promote the contest on your blog (you must include a link below to your blog post to be counted as an official entry).

Contest Ends Friday July 23 at  Midnight (Eastern) !!!

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