Zora Stout

The Last Supper – Battlestar Galatica Style

zorastout — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:01:35 +0000

Never even watched the show, but yesterday, I came across a bunch of pictures which, in turn, spurned a new thing I’m starting. Every week, I’ll post some sort of Inspiration/Prompt picture or video or something. If I ever manage to find time, I’m totally turning the story ideas loose.

Here’s this week’s plot turtle (and from this scene alone, I see four possible plot lines). -

The Last Supper -BSG

I am a Student

zorastout — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:40:48 +0000

Late last month, I was joined Romance Diva’s Mentorship program and was assigned to the fabulous Madelynn Ellis.

The mentorship has a specified time period, but from the type of writing workout Madelynn’s been giving me, I think I’ll forever follow Madelynn around like a lost puppy (she’s just too awesome to let go once the three months are up). I just hope I’m not wasting her time (I think I ask far too may odd questions and give far too many roundabout answers – I’m milking my newbie status for all it’s worth, folks).

I did give pause, though, when she mentioned learning how to write a synopsis and stuff about print publication. *cough* I still haven’t completely let go of the idea of writing PW and then happily shoving the manuscript into a box and then under my bed.

I’ll get over the fear of submitting. One day. *g*

Eden Bradley’s Spring Equinox

zorastout — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:17:46 +0000

I <3 Eden Bradley. She’s a fantastic lady and one hell of a writer. Her new story, Spring Equinox released today – check out her message below!

My latest book from Samhain, SPRING EQUINOX, is out today! This is Book Two in my Celestial Seductions series, a four-book seasonal collection of contemporary erotic romance novellas, and each one has a special little twist.You can find Book One, WINTER SOLSTICE, at Samhain, on MBAM and on Amazon.
But back to SPRING EQUINOX. Would you like a little peek?

Once upon a time, two young lovers vowed to reunite…

Celestial Seductions, Book 2

After a bitter divorce, Isabel Asher returns to Isla de Margarita to find the only man she’s ever truly loved. Twelve years ago, on her eighteenth birthday, they made a pact to meet…if they both were free. Now she waits, wondering if Rafael Cruz will be her every fantasy come to life…or just a foolish dream.

Rafael never forgot their summer of love all those years ago. Since then, no other woman has measured up to the memory of Isabel in his arms. Their chemistry is still stunning, the sex is sizzling. The power of their memories is overwhelming. Yet it’s too soon to tell if she wants to be with him as much as he wants her.

As her time on the island grows short, their sensual play heats up, and includes a night with Rafael’s best friend. But they must decide if their passionate reunion is simply a celebration of the past…or a new beginning for lasting love.

* * *

To celebrate my release, I’m running a contest and posting an excerpt over on The Smutketeers blog, so come on by and check it out!

Five Important Questions Zora Gives Her Input

zorastout — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:01:59 +0000

Early Bird or Late Owl? I’m usually up before 6am, so I’m going to go with early bird.

Favorite drink? It’s a tie between chocolate milk and mojitos. I love them both, but, ya know, I wouldn’t advise drinking them together.

Favorite Animal? Koala bears. They’re fascinating.

Place You Most Want to Visit? Australia. Surfing and accents, oh baby.

Apple Juice or Orange Juice? Orange Juice, hands down.

How about you? Do you agree with any of my answers?

Write What Makes You Happy

zorastout — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:28:10 +0000

I spent the last few weeks narrowing my genres, my intended audiences, and my own definitions and terminology of what constitutes different types of romance, and more. Needless to say, fiction writing wise, I wrote zilch. Still, I’m happy. More than pleased, actually. I feel like I have proper direction in my Quest to be Published (capitalization and italics, completely necessary) and can write to my own dictations instead of worrying about what others think or how my work should be branded – I was stressing myself out for no reason, especially since none of my work is ready to even be submitted.

My plan is just to focus on the story, telling it the way I envision it in my head. Sounds simple enough, yet I found myself completely second guessing myself because my current project, PW, isn’t particularly standard romance, it’s darker, more gritty. I mean, the female lead has no qualms about breaking the male lead’s hand because she has a job to do and he’s in her way. Things aren’t always pretty and there’s definitely an overcast of darkness over the story and I’m alright with that – and hopefully, others will be fine with that too.

Forget Jack. This is Zora of All Trades

zorastout — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:41:49 +0000

In my last post, I noted I wanted to work on two novel length works: PW and TF. When I made that post, I was so sure I was going to write two (at one point, four even ) romance heavy, if not up and up romance, this year.

Amazing how quickly I swapped stuff around since my last post.

I modified my game plan as I thought about all the things I need and want to accomplish as a writer and in life. From that, in short, I’ve put TF on the shelf . I’m focusing on writing one full length novel a year and at the moment, my interest for novel lengths all fall under Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Futuristic/Science Fiction labels. I’m putting contemporary novels on hold for the moment (contemporary novellas and short stories on the other hand…well, continue reading).

The thing is, for now, PW is also being shelved/in the process of being shelved for a little bit. I applied to Romance Diva’s Mentor Program and am waiting to see if I’ve been accepted or not. If accepted, I’ll be using PW as my wip and I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself as I want to make myself open and available to anything my mentor, if I get one, wants to share with me.

I’m trying not to think too much about it right now because there’s a lot of interest from possible mentees and only so many mentors/spaces to go around). I’ll be disappointed because just like a child wants shiny, new toys at Christmas or birthdays, I want my very own shiny mentor who’s willing to share their expertise with me (boy, I sound selfish). That said, if I don’t get into the program, it’ll be alright. Worst comes to worst, I’ll apply next year – the good thing about the internet is that there’s always somewhere to go and learn. Maybe, I can even find a mentor on my own. Still…I’m keeping my fingers crossed for good news.

I do plan to write as many novellas and short stories as I can this year while I focus on my one main novel a year approach. I have all these small plot ideas that I think would work better either serialized/two installments/ or just written short. Some have heterosexual pairings, other stories have same sex. Heat levels vary. Some stories feature hard hitting psychic poets, while others have she-pirates in outer space, and others are just about regular people in a contemporary setting meeting and realizing there’s something special between them.

Without going too much into it – I need material for future posts, after all – this romance writer writes what she likes to read, what she has an interest in, and in short, what fuzzy, little ideas makes her say ‘yes! This is a story I want to tell!’

A New Year, a Clean Slate

zorastout — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:51:22 +0000

For those who are still reading, apologies for disappearing – real life issues took precedence. Luckily, all is well and I am ready to jump back into the world of writing. Worry not, at the very least, I will update this blog every other week (and, of course, I’ll be on Twitter). I’ve been thinking about what I want to accomplish, the goals I want to set and hit this year and in the years that follow. Basically, I’m taking names and kicking butt (hiya)!

I have four novel length works (see WIPs above) I’d love to write, but I think if I manage to complete two of them within the year frame (Phenomenal Woman and The Firebird, the latter whose title I may be changing shortly are the projects I really plan to focus on…even enter in a few contests if I can), I’m happy. I’ve done some a little bit of plotting, mainly in my head, so the writing process for these two will be very organic. Currently, I’m quite happy with where the stories are going and I have a good grasp on my main characters – the only negative is that my projected word count for both WIPs fluctuate often and I just find that annoying. Meh, oh well, I’ll deal with word counts later. Right now, I’m all about the story. So, really, it’s not that much of a negative.

Overall, I truly believe 2010 is going to be a good year for me as I develop more as a writer. I’m going to start and finish strong. Here’s to 2010!

Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Waterson)

Upcoming Projects

zorastout — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:25:47 +0000

Due to outside circumstances and falling off the bandwagon, I’m stepping down from NaNo (I’m also giving up the idea of entering RWA’s Golden Heart). I still plan to write what I can (working on a few novellas), but making 50k or 100k isn’t in my plans anymore. Maybe next year, we shall see. I’m somewhat disappointed, but hey.

I’ve been debating my wips, what projects I’d like to continue and write for the upcoming year. I know for the upcoming year, I’m definitely working on -

PW – The snippet I wrote for Excerpt Monday: Halloween edition has been developing a bit more in my mind – enough that I’d like to make a novella trilogy if not a full novel. *sigh* Phenomenal Woman was only to be a random short for EM…it wasn’t supposed to turn into a lengthy project! Dang plot turtles -always crawling up to me when I’m not on the lookout :p. Still, PW is a cute plot turtle. Once I figure out exactly where I’m going with this project, I’ll put up a blurb.

TF – I know is going to be a novel length work. I’m pretty excited about it – in short, the trials and tribulations of a couple unsure if they should pull the plug in their marriage if they aren’t able to reignite the passion they once held for each other. I am uber excited.

For those reading , do you have any upcoming writing projects you’re excited about?

On Hiatus

zorastout — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:00:53 +0000

C’mon, It’s Go Time!

*photo from The Goodbye Girl

Just a note to let you know I’ll be pretty scarce, blogging wise, the month of November due mainly to NaNoWriMo. Why? Because in a moment of insanity, I told myself I’ll be writing 100k by the end of the month. The less distractions I have for the next few weeks, the better.

I’m sure I will pop up from time to time to bemoan or squee about my word count and random things I may come across and want to share with you. If I feel particularly poud of something, I may even post a snippet or two!

Other than that, I’ll see you in December!

Thursday 13: Getting To Know You With 13 Questions

zorastout — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:00:41 +0000

T13: 13 Questions

1	What’s one place in the world you’d like to live?
2	Favorite toy as a child?
3	What fictional character do you most relate to?
4	What makes you feel loved?
5	What would you take with you if stranded in a jungle?
6	If you could rule the world for a day, what’s the first thing you’d change?
7	What foreign languge would you like to learn?
8	Would you rather have chocolate or television?
9	Who is your favorite author?
10	What are you least looking forward to completing this week?
11	If you could be reincarnated as anything, living or not, what would it be?
12	If you owned a store, what would you sell?
13	What are you going to do after you’ve read this blog post?

Your Turn: Answer a question (or however many) in the comments!

also, ignore the background for now – just testing some things out…