Insistent Characters

Along with being a reader, I fancy myself a pretty good fantasy fiction writer. In junior high and high school, I got straight As. I was so bored with school that while the teachers lectured and in between homework and having no interest in sports or boys, I wrote a book. I wrote it straight through, with absolutely no outline planned out. I just let it flow, let the characters talk to me and tell me what they wanted to say, what they would do, and they became so ingrained in my mind that they feel like old friends.

Well, my main character, a rogue named Viper, decided that some day, he deserved a quartet. It was going to be just a three-book series, but somewhere after deciding the end to the third book, he wanted a chance to reflect back on everything that happened. So the idea for a fourth book appeared.

That's the back story.

My main point is this: somewhere in the middle of my extremely stressful dead week at college, Viper demanded to be heard. He had a scene he wanted in the fourth book and without permission, he carried on a complete conversation with a minor character.

How very frustrating for me, lacking pen, paper, or time, to acknowledge his request. So, while studying for my worst final this semester, I took out a piece of paper, a pen, and wrote an entire page without stopping once. It could have been more, but I didn't have the patience to expand with details. I merely wrote the grit of it and set it aside.

But I felt better afterward. Maybe, in a different life, I could've been a successful author. However, much as I like Viper, I am not too proud to think he could compete with the likes of Harry Potter or Edward for the affection of the nation. I can humbly acknowledge that they are better authors than me, just for the mere fact that they are published, and I am not. However, my dream of getting my book published, if only for the satisfaction of seeing it bound as a real book before me, is still there. I enjoy my characters very much, and they are alive and very vocal inside of me, no matter what anyone else thinks :)

Sometimes, you just need to listen to them, and write.

Dead (ish)

by Naomi Kramer.

 *Warning: explicit words used in reference to direct quotes in the book*

My first post is, ironically enough, on a book of the type I don't normally read. I was bored at school, waiting for my next class to start, so I was looking through the Amazon Kindle app on my smartphone. I did a search on "free" and came up with a variety of different books, including a few "free" short stories.

The first thing that attracted me to the book was the cover. I know you're not supposed to judge the story based on some different artist's work, but the cute female skull and cross bones made me think of my sister, who tends to like the emo things. After reading the reviews, I decided to check it out.

It's about a girl ghost who is haunting her ex-boyfriend, who killed her, "accidentally". All she wants is to find her body so she can move on to the afterlife. She can appear to people, and so she hires a PI to investigate the case and find her body. He poses as an exorcist to the still-living boyfriend, and finds himself in the middle of a crazy story.

In the beginning I felt bad for the guy, she seems like a real bitch. His side of the story is she cheated on him and during their argument he slapped her and she fell over on her high heels and cracked her head on something, dying in her sleep later that night. As far as I was concerned, she halfway had it coming to her.

But then you find out what he did with her body and....all those pitying feelings went away. No spoilers!

My favorite quote from the book is probably this: Arty-farty doesn't just equal freaky in the sack, it also equals nasty genius revenge.

I would recommend this book for anyone who likes paranormal things, and only for mature readers. They say Fuck alot, although I never did understand why they'd say that, but then only say arsehole. I don't know any real person who uses that world. If you're going to say arsehole, then fuck should turn into frick, or something. They also reference a threesome, which I wasn't exactly expecting. But, you've been warned, lol.

I'll give it a two/five stars for the books I've read, but a three/four stars for a short story.