Character Pics

Here are some pictures that I said I would share.  I’ll just make this quick since I’m writing this kinda late.  This first one is how I imagine 16-year-old Mint to look, the hair and the style of clothing especially.

 

This second one is a look I could imagine on Mint’s face when she’s just irritated with the general immaturity of the people around her (mainly her mom!).  Side note:  Wait till you meet her mom, Trixie.  She is a piece of work and does everything to make Mint’s life miserable, but she is one of my favorite characters.  She’s so...noticeable...as a character.  Definitely not a boring woman.

Aside from the expression, nothing else resembles Mint, though.  Lol.

This pic makes me think of Ben, a guy Mint will eventually meet in her high school--a-a-actually a bit sooner than her first day of school.  But I can’t tell you the particulars.  You’ll have to wait till that chapter is released.  Don’t worry, it’s near the beginning of the book.  I will hint that this guy’s half-hidden face is a clue as to what their first glimpse of each other is like.

In finding these pictures I just looked up random images.  Some writers use celebrity pics, but those always seem like I’m looking at Barbies or something and not real people.  So I like anonymous pictures.  Funny enough, I didn’t realize until later that the pic for Ben is actually some character on the CW (a local TV channel around here).  Some of you probably recognized him right away.  Oh well, he serves my purpose with the half-hidden face.  That’s all I wanted him for.

Well, that’s it for now.  Chapter 1 of Innocence will be released tomorrow on Wattpad, a website where you can read my work for free!.  I’m trying to have a purchase link available for next Friday so you can download the entire book immediately instead of waiting to read it one chapter per week.  So stay tuned for that.

If you want to get updates on the story to your inbox, follow my blog via email in the right hand panel.  I will post an update tomorrow once I have uploaded the chapter tomorrow.

Follow me on:

Facebook

Twitter @EdinanRoman

Wattpad

Tablo

Goodreads

Stepping Into Your Role

Good morning, everyone!  It’s been a while since I have gotten to my blog posting.  Dang this sickness.  But I’m about over the sinus pressure so I've crawled back on the blog horse today.  

Today we are on Day 22 with 38 days to go until March 1, 2014--publication day!  The numbers sound more than scary to me, but I can’t think about that.  I must get this book done.  That is my only choice.  When I think of my characters, Daisy and Dell (the nickname that has grown on me for my heroine’s best guy friend), they take me to another world where that scary type of pressure caused by time doesn't exist.

Two things I want to tell you today about my journey to my first book:  1.) I finally have the feeling back that I used to get when I would sneak off to a secluded spot to write when I was 12; thought I’d never get to have this feeling of excitement about writing again.  2.) I found great power in stepping into the role of who I’m meant to be in life.

Number one is self-explanatory, but let me talk about number two.  Most of my adult life I have followed people’s suggestions on how to live my life, even though their suggestions did not follow what I wanted to do with my life.  Part of it was due to me not seeing writing as a profession but rather a hobby, something to do on the side of real life.  But the older I got, the more I realized I hated everything I was doing in my life.  No job satisfied me.  I thought I was just a lazy bum who hated to work.  The truth was I was waiting for “some day” to get to my writing.  I didn’t think people would approve of my stepping into the writing profession, especially since it doesn’t make any immediate money, or so they tell me.  I listened to them for two years longer.  But something happened to me at the start of 2014.  I was saved by God’s view of my life.  He created me to be a writer.  How long was I going to keep playing around, investigating other people’s suggestions of what I should do with my time instead of pouring my energy into writing a novel?  I took control of my thoughts, told myself “I am a WRITER, a NOVELIST, and that’s what I want to do with my life.”  Ever since that point, the drive, the motivation, the energy, excitement, and inspiration I needed for a project as intimidating as publishing an entire novel, came to me.  

Every time I begin meditating on my characters, I start feeling excited.  My novel calls to me, pulls me toward itself, to write, to work, to find out what’s going to happen next in the story.  I never felt this way when I was half “noveling”, as my cousin George calls it, and half investigating other options of work for my life.  The drive I needed came only when I completely accepted who I was.

So I push forward with everything I have, on a time scale that’s far too short; excited, persistent, almost in tears at the relief I feel to finally be doing what I want, what I was made to do from the day I was born.

Follow my progress on Facebook and Twitter @EdinanRoman as I reach my goal day by day.

Scritch Scratch

So I woke up in the middle of the night with a throat so scratchy I could barely swallow.  I stumbled to the kitchen to get that tasty cherry-something-flavored medicated throat spray.  I turned the light on to make sure I had the nozzle pointed in the right direction.  Relief!  I was able to sleep until the morning light came in my window.

My robe and I are still best friends even though it is nearing noon.  But there is nothing like the comfort of a robe to draw the characters out of my head and onto the page, at least that’s what I tell myself.

Last night a new hero developed in my mind.  And I’m not talking about a hero in CastleVille (which, by the way is progressing very well; I have completed the second part of the Yuletide quest and now have a magical berry patch growing).  My new hero is a guy.  I’m withholding the name for now because I’m only 99% sure about it.  Maybe after today I’ll be 100%.  He will be a friend to Daisy Mosse, my heroine.  But that’s all you get to know for now.

No progress made on chapters, however, the development of said hero greatly progressed my story line.

Thanks for stopping in again.  This is Day 5 with 55 days to go until publish date March 1st.  Check out my Facebook page and click Like for the magical experience of becoming a fan.  Also, follow me on Twitter @EdinanRoman.

See you tomorrow!