#wintersj

[sagejwinter-blog]

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Whew! Traveling is fun. The anticipation of going somewhere, new or familiar, gives me a thrill. I can't wait to experience new things, food, sensation, sights and sounds. My phone and my camera are crammed with photos and videos. Some of them would be deleted or just stored in the cloud, never to be seen again. This trip, I struggled a bit with the time difference and wi-fi connectivity. I know. First world problems. Still, they were legitimate concerns since I signed up for a writing workshop and the video calls were scheduled at 1.00 AM in my timezone. That seriously messed up my already jet-lagged body. Now, I'm back home. Though I enjoyed my trip, nothing beats coming home.

[sagejwinter-blog]

Positive Thoughts Help Shape Reality

I've never read "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne but I do agree with the principle that a person attracts the energy that he / she releases into the universe. When I started writing, I've always said that experience is the best way to learn something. I read books to get inspiration but I prefer to experience things. Traveling afforded me those experiences. I'm a mid-level traveler. I don't normally go for 5 star hotels. I don't book first class seats. I can (now) comfortably stay at Airbnb. I can eat at little hole in the wall restaurants. I would be lying, though, if I say that I don't dream of traveling in Business Class or First Class or to stay at a 4 or 5 star hotel. Aside from the selfish reason of wanting to try it, I also know that I won't be able to write about the high life in my romance novels. Then it happened. I got upgraded without having to ask. First, it was from Premium Economy to Business Class on Cathay Pacific in my Hong Kong to Boston leg. That was 15 hours of relative comfort in the air. Flight crew who address you by your last name and the bliss of a flat bed. I tooks tons of photos since I thought it would never happen again but I kept hoping. Then it did! This time Boston to Hong Kong. Not only that, I also got upgraded from the lowest price one-bedroom to the most expensive 3-bedroom suite. Did I take videos? Hell, yeah. Thanks universe!

[sagejwinter-blog]

Having Fun in Harlem Heights

Sometimes not doing your routine results in unexpectedly delightful results. I decided to go to New York this week because the plane tickets and hotels in Austin were too expensive. I wanted to attend the 2017 SXSW Conference and Festival to check out all the hype. Alas! My budget said no. To console myself, I decided to go to the exciting, bustling and ever-charming Big Apple. I always stayed in hotels whenever I visited but this time, I wanted to try Airbnb. No, I'm not being sponsored. I compared hotel prices, read reviews and said, "Heck! Why not try Airbnb? It couldn't be that bad." I've already tried renting out apartments in Europe and Asia. It usually takes me awhile to make a decision because I check out the locations, I read the reviews, and I exchange emails with the owners. In this instance, however, I only exchanged one email with the host, didn't check out the location and just skimmed the reviews. I booked the place because it was cheap and it was close to The Cloisters. A day before my departure, I double-checked the listing location. My heart stuttered when I saw Harlem Heights. Oh, crap! I googled Harlem Heights safety, crime statistics in Harlem Heights and variations of the same. Trulia.com didn't allay my fears when it pinpointed exact street corners and the number of crimes committed in each of those streets. Then my host sent me a text with the address. It was a different address from what was in the confirmation email. By then, my anxiety level peaked. What had I gotten myself into? The host texted back explaining the listing address was incorrect but the apartment was still in the same block. After some back and forth, I decided to brave it out. And here I am, blogging underneath the warm quilt, listening to the occassional stomping feet of a resident going up the stairs, cars driving past outside the window, and voices filtering up from the street below. The apartment is wonderful in its shabby chic condition. All amenities are provided, including normal-sized toiletries (the host was so much more generous than hotels), six fluffy towels, mix of pots and pans and cutleries, fresh 1 litre bottles of water and orange juice and 8 tiny tubes of yogurt. Oh! And there's even a yoga mat. I feel very comfortable. I get the sense that this is how some New Yorkers live. The surrounding areas aren't bad either. The place is vibrant especially around Amsterdam and Broadway. Not a bad result. This experience will be showing up in one of my future stories. Have you ever done something outside of your routine with unexpected results?

[sagejwinter-blog]

Learning from the Masters

Read as much from those that you admire and learn from them.

This is a paraphrase I read somewhere. The article talked about how some famous writers in the 20th century had similar descriptions of their female protagonists. It wasn’t zeitgeist but a deliberate action by the fan-authors as tribute to the more famous author. Similar to celebrity fans. I don’t remember the authors mentioned but that got me thinking. Copying, someone said, is the best form of flattery. Many would disagree.

I grew up reading romance books among others. My first book was a Mills and Boon paperback lent to me by my Aunt who got annoyed when I kept bugging her to give me something to read. From Mills and Boon, I moved on to Harlequin before venturing to Sweet Valley High teen romance. Yeah, my romance reading books went backwards. I interspersed that with Stephen King, Robert Ludlum and John Grisham. 

Since I was a voracious reader of romance books, I noticed similar themes among the books. Mills and Boon seemed to prefer openly hostile first meetings between the protagonists before they fall in live or the heroine gets pregnant and hides it from the hero or the heroine was the secretary/assistant/is of a lower station in society and the guy is this domineering boss/lord of the manor/millionaire (before billionaires became popular). The plots were so predictable, I needed to read Vale of the Vole by Piers Anthony and stumbled across the Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander to give my reading a bit of spice.

Years later, I realized these similarities were called tropes or hooks and writers use them because readers expect them. The most common tropes according to Tahra Seplowin (@calixofcoffe) in her article http://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/2015/06/plot-102-romance-tropes-fab-or-drab/  were: girl next door, virgin heroine, marriage of convenience, alpha male.

There were romance writers who were able to write original and compelling stories using those hooks. And there were those who simply wrote without originality. Rumors and accusation of plagiarism emerged, the one I was most surprised to find was the accusation that Janet Dailey plagiarized Nora Roberts . I was surprised because Janet Dailey was - is - popular in her own rights; however, this is an illustration that even great writers suffer from lack of inspiration. 

With the rise of self-publishing and the ease with which readers and writers can download e-books, it has become relatively easy to just copy off from others. I don’t mean “be inspired by”, rather literal copying of someone’s work. Read about the Becky McGraw vs Laura Harner case.

In my case, I am inspired by the works of Kresley Cole, Larissa Ione, AW Exley, Ilona Andrews, Nalini Singh, specifically the romance fantasy series. As a first time novelist, I am dissecting their works and trying to figure out what makes their books engaging, exciting, and enjoyable. One commonality among these authors is their ability to make their characters relatable and memorable. Their protagonists and their supporting characters are not one-dimensional. They have their own voices and their own personalities. That’s what I’m trying to incorporate in my novel.

If only other writers would take the time to study the techniques of the Masters instead of just copying and passing off other writer’s work as theirs, there wouldn’t be plagiarism cases. 

[sagejwinter-blog]

Stories from Daily Travels

An old man bends over, picking up the change and bills passengers dropped in his guitar case. Salt and pepper hair peaks out from his black beanie. He stands for awhile. His eyes squints as he picks up coin after coin from his palm. He drags one leg over until he gets to his usual spot on the bench. His gnarled hands picks up the battered guitar. A sad haunting melody fills the air just as the train roars to a stop

[sagejwinter-blog]

After the Snow Storm

When the media announced the snow storm, I was giddy with excitement. While others hunkered down, I watched avidly for the snow storm to hit. At the height of the storm, I went up to the roof to stomp through the snow and took a video of the grey sky. It was fantastic!

Today, I got dressed, pulled on my snow boots and went off to see what the snow wrought. I wondered what story I can come up with. Whoah! Piles of snow were dumped on the sidewalk, some as high as a meter. While I found them charming, it created the problem of crossing the street and even waiting for the bus. I gave a virtual thanks to those who braved the day before I did because they created these little paths for me to walk on. I didn’t mind sinking into the snow; I quite enjoyed it. 

What I did notice was that the drivers seemed to have become selectively blind. They saw the bus stop but they kept on driving as if the pile of white snow blinded them to the people waiting. I had to tell the driver he missed a large group of kids but he just kept on driving. Fortunately, there were 2 buses that arrived immediately thereafter, but I’m not sure if they missed the kids again.