AFB: Mystic Cooking

Welcome to the final installment of April’s Featured Blog, something I’ve posted here on Lit and Scribbles most of the month to introduce all of you to perhaps some new future friends and get to know a little more about your blogging community.

You’re in for a treat on this last day of April. Today we get to hear from Kati and Heidi, co-writers of the blog Mystic Cooking and a WIP of the same name. Often they co-write blog posts, which are among my favorites, and fortunately today will be no exception. Tell us about yourselves girls!

KATI & HEIDI: We are a writing team of sisters currently working on a YA fantasy, “Mystic Cooking,” which is set in a world where steampunk scientists feud with elven gangsters, and a chef who specializes in cuisine made from mystical creatures is just trying to pay back her loan shark, beat her old school rival, and keep herself out of trouble. If you want to know more about it, check out our Next Big Thing post here.

J: When did you first start blogging and what is your blog about?

HEIDI: Technically we started it in May, just before the Backspace writing conference.

KATI: It was a total panic last-minute thing, though. I think we might have posted maybe three times until a certain friend of ours <cough Jae cough> gave us a kick in the pants in September.

HEIDI: Kati really took it to heart—she decided we’d do 31 posts in October. Didn’t tell me about it, of course…I had to read we were doing this on the blog at the same time as everyone else.

KATI: Just keeping you on your toes. 😛

HEIDI: Hate to admit it, but it ended up being a good idea—

KATI: Is this being recorded somewhere?

HEIDI: Anyways…after that we’ve mostly kept up a fairly regularish schedule. Oh, and our blog’s about writing, reading (mostly YA), and then the occasional random post about whatever.

J: Hey, just helping you get going on your blogging. So which of your posts was the most fun to write and why?

KATI: Definitely the Next Big Thing post. We had a blast coming up with different actors to play our characters.

HEIDI: A close second would be our “Co-Writing a Book” series, just because it was fun to think back over our process and share it with everyone.

J: What type of stories do you write?

KATI: Mostly YA fantasy, but I’m starting to break into MG fantasy, and I would like to write a YA historical fiction someday.  🙂

HEIDI: I write the same things as Kati, plus I write the occasional short story. Most of those are horror.

J: Protagonist excluded, which of your characters is your favorite?

KATI: I really like Hannah, our main character’s best friend. She seems like this super flaky person, but really she’s a lot smarter and a lot more sharp than she lets on. It’s fun to write a character who acts one way, and then underneath it there are just these little glimpses into a completely different person. Plus she tries to be a good friend, even if she ends up causing more trouble.

HEIDI: My favorite is definitely Vahn, the man our main character thinks is her one true love. He always gets her name wrong, constantly hits on her best friend, and clearly believes the sun shines out of his, well, you get the idea. He’s a total jerk, but an amusing one, and I’ve really enjoyed writing him.

AFB: Daphne Shadows

Welcome to April’s Featured Blog, something I’ll be posting here on Lit and Scribbles most of the month to introduce all of you to perhaps some new future friends and get to know a little more about your blogging community.

Today we talk with Daphne, writer of the blog Daphne Shadows and among the first of blogger friends I made on WordPress. Daphne’s tough, inspirational, and just fun to know. Tell everyone who you are:

DS: I wrote a semi-psychotic book in the second grade and was instantly a writing-obsessed crazy person (though that first book went missing under suspicious circumstances long ago). I grew up surrounded by everything fantasy – from TV shows to books to strange music to crazy relatives – and that’s what I love to write to this day. Vampires and werewolves were my first guides through the paranormal, horror infested corridors of my mind. Things only got stranger from there.

J: When did you first start blogging and what is your blog about?

DS: I began blogging in May 2012; May 9th to be exact. It’s like my mini bio says… “My blog will reflect me. Simply put: what inspires and/or ignites raw emotion within me will find its way here.”

J: Which of your posts was the most fun to write and why?

DS: As a rule, I only write posts which are fun for me to write. So I don’t really have a complete answer for this one. My “hotel hell” posts have been really fun writing, however. I love being able to string so many pictures in and it’s given me a better idea of narrative in a series of posts.

J: What type of stories do you write?

DS: I write fiction; fantasy (paranormal) and horror.

J: Protagonist excluded, which of your characters is your favorite?

DS: This is a hard one. I’d have to say Nathaniel. He’s Hidden (as opposed to being human), just has a way about him and you know he’s hiding something. You just don’t know why.

AFB: Picture Me Reading

Welcome to April’s Featured Blog, something I’ll be posting here on Lit and Scribbles most of the month to introduce all of you to perhaps some new future friends and get to know a little more about your blogging community.

Let’s chat it up today with Alisa, author of the blog Picture Me Reading and avid book reader. It’s likely if you want a review on it, Alisa has probably read it.

J: So, Alisa, when did you first start blogging and what is your blog about?

A: I started my blog, Picture Me Reading, about nine months ago. I had never really considered blogging until I helped my husband out with drawing the banners for his Doctor Who blog and realized that he was having all sorts of fun without me! 😉

Knowing that I am an avid reader, Aidan suggested that I might want to do a book blog and that I could draw cartoons about how books made me feel. The idea just started there and in the last few months we’ve started reviewing audiobooks, film adaptations, graphic novels and we’re about to start reviewing board games based on books too!

J: Which of your posts was the most fun to write and why?

A: It’s hard to pick just one but I think my review of Death of a Schoolgirl was definitely a highlight for me. It was the first audio discussion we had posted and I was super-nervous to see how people would respond. I ended up getting some wonderful feedback including a note from the author asking if she could repost the discussion on her own website!

J: What are your favorite genres to read?

A: I tend to read young adult novels, particularly fantasy, dystopian and stories based on fairy tales. I also love classic novels and my all-time favorite book is Jane Eyre!

J: Protagonists excluded, which characters would you say were your favorite? Why?

A: I really enjoy characters whose motivations are initially hard to define. The Darkling in Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone is a recent favorite as is Brimstone from Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

AFB: Writing Whims

Welcome to April’s Featured Blog, something I’ll be posting here on Lit and Scribbles most of the month to introduce all of you to perhaps some new future friends and get to know a little more about your blogging community.

Today we talk with P.C. (Patricia) Zick, writer of the blogs Writing Whims and Living Lightly, and published author of several books, the most recent being Trails in the Sand. P.C. and I trade comments back and forth and I’ve really appreciated getting to know her better. It’s always good to get advice from those who’ve already trod down the writing and publishing paths. Tell us about yourself, P.C.:

PC: My career as a writer began in 1998 with the publication of her first column in a local paper. By day, I was a high school English teacher, but at night and on vacations, I began writing novels and working as a freelance journalist. In 2001, I left teaching and began pursuing a full-time gig as a writer. I describe myself as a “storyteller” no matter the genre.

Currently, I write two blogs. Trails in the Sand is my fifth novel and the second one I self-published. I published Live from the Road in May 2012.

My blog and novels contain the elements most dear to my heart, ranging from love to the environment. I believe in living lightly upon this earth with love, laughter, and passion. My husband Robert and I live in Pennsylvania.

J: When did you first start blogging and what is your blog about?

PC: I began Living Lightly in March 2012. The blog covers topics from gardening and recipes to the environment and climate change. I starting Writing Whims on April 20, 2012, which I just realized is the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, one of the threads running through my new novel, Trails in the Sand. I really didn’t know that until right now.

J: Which of your posts was the most fun to write and why?

PC: I wrote a post recently for Living Lightly about my husband smuggling tomato seeds into my luggage for a trip to Florida. I love writing humor that also imparts knowledge.

J: What type of stories do you write?

PC: I write contemporary novels with environmental themes used to parallel messed up families.

J: Protagonist excluded, which of your characters is your favorite?

PC: In Trails in the Sand my favorite character is the mother, Gladys or Gladdy. She’s a true southern belle who was abused as a child. She’s almost a caricature until the veneer of her persona is cracked.

AFB: Phillip M McCollum

Welcome to April’s Featured Blog, something I’ll be posting here on Lit and Scribbles most of the month to introduce all of you to perhaps some new future friends and get to know a little more about your blogging community.

Time to get to know Phil, writer of the blog Phillip M. McCollum (once known as Beatbox32). He’s another fellow aspiring writer who frequently features great writing advice. Why don’t you introduce yourself, Phil.

PM: I was hatched from the sleepy, but always interesting Mojave desert in Southern California. I currently live in Orange County and spend the majority of my day looking at network packets and plugging in cables. When I’m not working the day job, I divide my time between writing fiction, composing electronic music, playing video games and spending time with my patient and lovely wife.

J: When did you first start blogging and what is your blog about?

PM: I’ve been blogging on and off (mostly off) for about ten years. My first couple of blogs where technical in nature, mainly talking about my work in the IT field. I’ve long since abandoned those and after the urging of a good friend, started my currently blog back in November of 2011. I had been talking about wanting to write and he suggested I use a blog as a platform. Nearly one-and-a-half years later, I’m still going at. I love writing fiction, talking about writing fiction, and just meeting so many wonderful people in the process.

J: Which of your stories was the most fun to write and why?

PM: I recently wrote about a true story from my youth, Lanes Lane, and found it to be very cathartic. It was also fun to write because the story was already formulated. I just needed to make it interesting and focus on using the right words to convey my feelings at the time.

J: What type of stories do you write?

PM: I typically write high-action epic fantasy, which some people say is YA, but others say there’s too much sexual innuendo and violence for it.  I’ve been experimenting with other genres, such as horror and drama, by writing novellas.

J: Protagonist excluded, which of your characters is your favorite?

PM: On one of my aborted novels attempts, I had a character named Elio Cleft. He played a sort of sidekick role to the protagonist. They were both prisoners in a labor camp. What I liked about him was he was a big, strong guy but a gentle soul. I always enjoy characters that have some sort of opposing characteristics.