Naming books after my daughters

Blair with my iPad version of ebook

St. Blair: Children of the Night

Marquel with my first novel

Print Version of Marquel

 

   When I was 15, I started coming up with names for my future children. At the same time I was also reading romance novels. It seemed that most of what I read then were gothic or historical romances. I was also enchanted by the show Dark Shadows and it's Victorian vampire lead, Barnabas Collins. I don't know why, by I liked older men, then. You wouldn't believe it, but I had a major crush on Cesar Romero. Back then gray was distinguished, now it's just a reminder of the aging process and I'm no longer a fan of gray temples or gray. Sorry gray-haired people. 

 

   Anyway, I thought I would likely have nine children and I went from rhyming names to romantic names. The rhyming names were totally silly. Bunny, Kitty, Penny, Sunny and so on. Then I started taking names apart and combining them and also changing the first letter.

 

  I would take a name and go through the whole alphabet listening to how the new name would sound. So drop the R from Raquel and try it as Baquel, Caquel, Faquel... you get the idea.  Marquel is a variation of Raquel. When I hit Marquel I was totally amazed at the beauty of this French sounding name. I had never heard of it and I was sure I invented it.

 

  I figured at the very least I could accomplish having a daughter and naming her Marquel and writing a novel titled Marquel. I had no idea what her story would be, just that it would be a romance. Funny, I had no clue what I'd do if I had a boy?

 

   Now the books aren't about my daughters, but I was determined that now I would write and title my books with my kids' names.

 

   The intro to Marquel has more info about my working with my mentor Harry Whittington. However, it doesn't contain the moment at which I thought up the storyline for Marquel. I had been working with Harry Whittington and trying to get my writing mojo back years after having our daughter Marquel. She was just four at the time and we'd closed our children's store and I felt like a total failure. The business lost money and I, several years trying to build it. I was also in the thick of "trying" to help a very sick pulp legend complete a novel and  feeling totally inept.

 

   I was sad.

 

   I was more than sad, I was in a total funk. I remember walking into our bedroom, my husband was still up watching t.v. and Marquel was asleep. I was in the process of lying down, my back had not even touched the mattress when the basis of the novel flashed through my mind at lightning speed. It was like watching a movie in hyper-fast-forward. 

 

  As my head reached the pillow I was in a further state of sadness for the characters in the story, but also in absolute amazement by their story. I couldn't tell my husband Tom. He wouldn't understand. It's a relational thing I have with my characters. It's their secret to tell. I could not contain myself. I wanted to sleep but I had to jot some notes. I was afraid I would forget something, but I wouldn't.

 

   It was as though the character Marquel had been born that night and stayed close to me, awaiting a chance to be heard.

 

---

 

   The year before I was pregnant with Blair, I started working 2nd shift overtime as a proofreader. I had never been in a situation where I lived the opposite shift of my husband and child. A mental storyline began. I saw my co-workers more than my family. I spent long nights getting home at 3 a.m. and unwinding til 6 am and then going to bed. While I slept, my husband and Marquel were beginning their day. It's almost like being in a coma. You just sleep and wake up and everyone is gone. When we were in "rush" as it was called, there were weeks of overtime with no days off.

 

   Blair was my 2nd shift child. I was pregnant with her and working overtime the months I carried her and continued to work nights after I had a month maternity leave. It was my plan to become a stay-at-home Mom and write when Tom lost his job and became Mr. Mom.

 

   St. Blair: Children of the Night was cooking in my head for a long time. The overtime and demands of family squashed my writing drive. So I started a zine Bohemian Chronicle to publish other writers and get my hand back into the creative process.

 

  Bohemian Chronicle was soon receiving manuscripts from all over the world. We printed on a dot matrix printer and saddle-stapled the publication from our kitchen table. I wrote the publisher's letter each issue, but all the while, I was still working nights with plenty of overtime desperately trying to become a dayshift employee to be with the kids more.  I eventually moved into a sales job at the same company and found the dayshift a better fit with a set of new challenges. I had to learn how to sell and manage a book of business.

 

   The long departure from writing made me wonder if I was ever meant to be a full time or established writer. It wasn't until our daughters were grown and working in the film business that my novel Marquel was made into a booktrailer and their contacts interested in making a film. I finished the script for Marquel late 2013.

 

   As I wrote St. Blair, I was really obsessed with telling a story that would honor Blair. I couldn't produce something substandard with my kid's name on it.

 

  I prayed a lot while writing this novel and when I finally finished the final rewrite, a calm came over me that reassured me it was good enough. I published the ebook it on Nov 1, 2013 All Saint's Day. The print version and marketing materials are hopefully going to be ready early March 2014. The next books by the end of the year.

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

Films about authors

We saw Saving Mr. Banks a few days ago and Salinger last night on Netflix. The common denominator in both was the authors' protective nature with respect to their protagonist.
Mary Poppins and Holden Caulfield were real people to their creators, P.L. Travers and J. D. Salinger, not characters to be sold to the highest bidder and converted into anything Hollywood imaged.
I loved their possessiveness.
Authors today are often an afterthought once a film is adapted. It's the magic of the filmmaker or director not the originator of the story who is lauded. Now I realize that bestsellers are the exception, as their publicists and agents protect the client's brand. But let's face it, even the screenwriter is unknown in original works. Name your favorite screenwriter.
It was so refreshing to see both of these two films in close proximity. It made me realize my journey with my own characters is not so different. I do believe it is hard for readers to understand how much a character haunts your thoughts during the writing process.
My characters tell me their story and appear when they feel the need to enter a scene. I will be in a coffee shop writing and audibly said, "what?" Just as a new character will stroll into a chapter. I'm caught off guard, yet intrigued. I keep writing to see what will happen next. My own plot will take new twists and turns that I hadn't anticipated.
I wonder about our relationships with our characters. Are they actual our multiple personalities? I would like to think they are otherworld beings who channel authors.
Regardless, writing can be lonely, joyful, or frightening depending on the characters you surround yourself with.
I have a tough time being alone with my character Marquel for long stretches, but St. Blair I could spend hours with, if only she'd hang around. She keeps a crazy schedule of short appearances. Guess you'll have to read the books to understand.
Until next time...

St. Blair: Children of the Night set for All Saints Day release

Sybille Malone lives in an overpopulated Manhattan, Region One, of Global Good 2202. Their society is the fulfillment of utopian ideals developed by the surviving masses of 2100. Seventeen-year-old Sybille is a resident of Dayshift and longs for a Nightshift boy known only as Mark.
Distraught by Global Good's restrictive culture, Sybille is desperate until she finds a relic of a past civilization. The discovery of Blair's diary sets off a chain of supernatural events that not only effects Sybille's close relationships, but has Global Good scrambling to find the culprit.

________________________________________________

   After 3 years of writing, I've finally uploaded this novel to be appropriately released on All Saints Day, tomorrow. I sure hope the upload goes well, I'll check in a few hours.

This novel is named after my youngest daughter, Blair. My first novel was named after her sister, Marquel.

Why did I decide to name books after my daughters? I don't know. It seemed like a good idea when I was younger, but it really adds pressure to the writing process.

Anyway, there are 2 more books scheduled in the St. Blair series and a sequel to Marquel. Both are underway and should be released in 2014.

Film Festivals are Exhausting!

Film festivals are like sales conventions, you spend 3 or 4 intense days at nonstop workshops and in the case of festivals, screenings, without eating or eating junk, because you don't want to stop and miss anything. Plus there are late night networking events and parties, so sleep is sometimes left to an occasion nap during a screening. That is such a bummer. Because I will fall asleep in a great film to discover the end without the middle. But thankfully, my naps are few.

I'm glad I only do a few a year, but I would definitely change a few things if I did a circuit.

First, there needs to be a stand, like they have for runners, where water is distributed for people going to multiple events. Maybe even spritz our face? Not to mention we need chocolate and coffee here and there. I really wouldn't mind a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for a pick-me-up or low salt trail mix.  Afterall, I am supporting the filmmakers and sharing my honest feedback or sincere appreciation through social media and Q&A. A little nutrition makes for more intelligent questions.

Next I would make sure facilitators remind the filmmakers to repeat questions asked by the audience, and then answer by actually speaking into the microphone. Most often the microphone is somewhere between the navel or folded arms and we audience members get remanent sound. Meaning whatever that mic MIGHT capture as the filmmaker gestures during the reply.

More to come...

Book-signing at Barnes & Noble Manhattan Beach, Ca

I am signing copies of "Marquel"
Saturday Oct 12th 9:30 to noon
1800 Rosecrans Ave.
Manhattan Beach, Ca

Please stop by and say hi!

I Wanna Be A New Yorker

 I am not a fashionista, but I love the creativity that it takes to design and display garments. I rarely purchase anything remotely expensive, in fact my wedding gown was $69 in a 1982 JC Penney catalogue. But I did make it to Mood when we were in NY this summer. I  picked up some fabrics for a project to be determined.
 I'm a "Project Runway" fan, big time! And I would be happy to sweep the floor during any challenge, just to watch the designers create. Hint, hint Tim and Heidi!
Tom and I honeymooned in NY and naturally, we wanted to return for our milestone 30th anniversary.
Not only did we catch The Divine Miss M in the final weeks of her Sue Mengers one-woman show "I'll Eat You Last," but  we got to see "Motown The Musical," Tom Hanks in his Broadway debut in Nora Ephron's  "Lucky Guy" and Judith Light in "The Assembled Parties."
I also took time to embrace the setting of my soon to be released Young Adult Paranormal, "St. Blair: Children of the Night. " This novel is named for our youngest daughter and it's a story that has been brewing in my mind since 1989 and the story behind the story is for another post.
Anyway I want to be a New Yorker, at least one week a year.
Gotta run.

The GREAT Gatsby! Love it!!

I waited to see this film with my mentor's son Howard Whittington and his wife, Lot.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was pulp legend, Harry Whittington's favorite author and "The Great Gatsby" his favorite Fitzgerald novel. Before we became friends and later mentor/protege, I asked Harry about his inspiration and without missing a beat he said, "Scott Fitzgerald." Harry was so enthralled with "The Great Gatsby" that his wife Kathryn purchased him a first edition leather-bound copy in the early years of their marriage. If you got Harry on the subject, he left you and was transported into the novel with his eyes glazed over looking off in the distance and you knew he was in West Egg. 

There is a triangle between these 2 authors and the story's lead, Jay Gatsby. All 3 dreamed large, made his mark, though seemed unsatisfied with his position in life and were largely forgotten by those they entertained in their expiring years. Harry was disciplined and wrote more than Fitzgerald and Harry's work is highly collectible today. Fitzgerald dreamed of being disciplined and regretted he didn't write more and it seems his family felt okay with selling all rights to "The Great Gatsby" to the filmmakers (this is what we learned from the docent of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, Alabama).

Would Fitzgerald or Whittington appreciate the Baz Luhrmann film, The Great Gatsby? Hell yes!

Luhrmann gave us a beautifully stylized, modern view of a classic and took nothing away from the original work. He actually enhanced it.

Yes, I said enhanced.

Luhrmann made Gatsby's insecurities vivid and painful. He wove all the backstory in without distracting us and made Daisy every bit the lovely selfish flake that she is. His graphic novel 3D approach seems very appropriate for younger audiences who might be more likely to read or reread a classic having seen the movie.

I have a great deal of respect for the story, every costume, set, hairstyle, score, production value and performance in this film. I engaged with this vivid spectacular world that is the roaring 20s and I'm hopeful that more classics will hit the big screen in the coming years.

Luhrmann is a gutsy director/storyteller to take on an iconic piece of literature and each person who touched this film was craftsman who has my profound appreciation.

But most especially, I enjoyed seeing it with my husband Tom, and Howard and Lot Whittington. They indulge me and understand how much I cherish the memories of Harry, another true literary classic.

-Emily a.k.a. thefilmmom