Category Archives: Books

Teen fiction – My daughter’s first book

25 Tuesday Apr 2017

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There she was, a little shy (public speaking) and determined (achieved NaNoWriMo challenge 2016 and turned it into a full book) at the same time, ready to sign the piles of books neatly stacked before her on the table.

Last Saturday, we hosted a book signing party in a cultural center for my daughter, for her to present her first book. She had finished it before her 14th birthday.

All our friends and her friends and families gathered around her to celebrate her achievement, teachers, colleagues, close friends, dear friends  too.

I am so happy for her.

I remember how at her exact same age, I had decided I wanted to be a writer and a playwright (the latter in order to act in my own plays). Unfortunately, my parents were not as supportive of my talent / dream as I chose (even before her birth) to be for my child.

Sure I wrote things, marketing strategies or communication campaigns in corporate jobs, and texts and poetry for me on the side. I think things would have been quite different if I had received support and encouragement, not jut the odd “whoa, you write so well” from friends, classmates, teachers and weirdly too, my parents.

I think I was born in a time when people around me had this strange idea that you have to get a “proper” job and were oblivious that one can work a “proper” ( as in decent money and occupation I gather) AND still set time aside to write, and be supported to give a try at publishers or poetry magazines. Not once did my family tell me I should continue to write on a larger scale, and finally put that book of poetry together (for starters). Don’t get me wrong, I am not angered or bitter , because I eventually went on to write and publish 4 books (5th novel in the pipes and a book of poetry  about World War 1 on its way).

I am extremely happy that I created such an opportunity for my daughter, first by encouraging her to sign up for the literary challenge, that I did and finished myself, too.

I am so happy that she could experience at such a young age what it is like to see one’s dream come true, an experience she can reap the spiritual and personal benefices on long after the event has taken place.

I bought a giant 2017 grad card and asked every visitor to put a word in it for her. So that she can carry this reminder as a keepsake for the rest of her life, and at any given time draw from it strength, pride, self-esteem and the assurance that she can achieve anything, if need be.

Friends told me ” you must be proud of her’, well, I cannot be proud for something I did not do, can I? But I can be super happy for her and rejoice in her success, and bask in the fact that she is happy, knowing that she put efforts to achieve it. I salute her determination, and her success, and THAT makes me feeling happy for her.

SHE can be proud of herself, yeah, that is hers totally.

 

Ok, now, I must finish to polish my sci-fi book written during NaNoWriMo 2016…

 

Wishing you a great success folks in all your endeavours,

love,

Floreva

“The Hidden Hero”. by HM Storm  on amazon.

Not everyone wants to be a superhero, and not everyone is meant to be one. But sometimes, you don’t have much of a choice, especially if you are the world’s last hope… For four young teenagers, having that kind of responsibility is much harder than they expected it to be, particularly when one of them ends up having more power than anyone could ever imagine. 12 years old Nicolas Hunter doesn’t know how special he is until he accidentally meets four superheroes. Nicolas never wanted the power, but when his only friends get captured by those they tried to stop, what other choice does he have but to save them and everyone else? When the whole world rests on your shoulders, what choice do you have but to save it

Hiddden Hero_

 

My book : final phase

13 Friday Dec 2013

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Hello everyone!

It’s Xmas already in every shop and store and I grow tired of “Rudolf” and Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole singing oldies goldies non stop.

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(Picture : pinterest)

 

It’s been pretty hectic here those past 2 weeks, I have been editing the short stories in the final draft of the book.

The publisher had sent me the final lay out for approval , along with the covers. It was the final review.

Minor changes here and there, one typo to correct  and off we go!

The 1rst copy is currently being printed (yeeeeah) and once received by the publisher for final review, it’s a GO!

So I haven’t been musing around the blogosphere much, plus it’s Xmas time, so everyone is pretty much busy and social life is bursting with events of all kind.

Nevertheless, I have laid out the marketing plan, played with various ideas that I hope to be creative (how about a signing in a French café? ), friends have been supportive and already eager to order their copy and everything is about to set sail. I have planned a session with a professional photographer (ooooh), to stock some pictures in various locations (mainly in my study).

I’ve been speed reading 1001 ways to market your book, got a huge headache and have swallowed unreasonable amount of dark chocolate lately to fuel my energy.

Soon I ‘ll share with you a bit more about my “bundle of joy”.

Keep you posted, folks.

F.

Deck the halls….falalalalala…

 

 

 

On being a writer who learns and writes.

06 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by in Books, Entertainemt, Movies, TV Series, Writing

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Time for reflection about being a writer.

When I was 14, I wrote a novel, not very long.  And then, I destroyed it. It was too personal, too raw, too me and I was too vulnerable, or so I thought…I wrote dozens and dozens of poems and texts. I wanted  two things : to be a writer AND to play on stage. I was an amateur theater actress and wrote in the school newspapers.

At 16, I wrote down a list of titles for the books I would wrote and a corresponding list of names, the character’s names.This list I still have with me, by my side as I write all that now, for your eyes. I kept on writing, although I had to change my professional choices. Eventually, deeply buried in those marketing jobs, I forgot about my self essential and my real life . Then one night, in August 2010, around 3 in the morning…

…I woke up. I mean, I WOKE UP to my past aspirations.  I was in the kitchen, sleep escaping me. My mind is racing.  For various reasons, over various subjects. And a thin fragile thread, long forgotten, attached to the very essential part of my soul is hit by a light I thought I had lost years ago. It was given back to me.

The energy of the writing spirit.

Now, at this hour of night, that day, I wanted to fight for that. This was the fighting spirit meeting the writing spirit. Good! Let’s go on!

So, in the heart of the night, I let the sun rise. I wrote  for 4 hours on my laptop. Characters knocked on the door of my mind, allowing themselves in, story unfolding neatly and energy increasingly awaking my creativity and my imagination…

Since then I have kept writing.

Now, I feel that I need to write more, to publish frenetically. I feel miserable taht I have not been able to give complete work to my publisher. I am affected by the virus of perfectionism. I rewrite, again and again, and again.  I got stuck on sentences for days, to achieve the ultimate construction. Letting go is difficult, and reaching a satisfying level is complexly hard. Sometimes, I think I have not done much in those past months. So I decided to summarize it.

What have I done in those past months, then? (Apart from my daily duties, of course). I did my homework and my work. And I ‘m still on it.

Firstly, I have prepared myself to properly tackle the writing of a script (because I am also a film lover since an early age) so I have :

  • read about 15/ + books on the subject ( The little red writing book, The golden book on writing –what’s this fantasy about colours??-, How to write a damn good thriller, How to write a damn good mystery, The art & craft of storytelling, A writer’s guide to fiction, The Bible of screenwriting, Crafty screenwriting, Writing screenplays that sell, Writing is a verb –oh?, The writer’s book of wisdom, See Jane write : a girl’s guide to writing chick lit, How not to write a screenplay –appealing/disturbing title, hence brilliant,  How to write what you want & sell what you write – long title, didn’t like the book, and 2 or 3 others.
  • shelled, analysed and studied about 40 scripts (and I am far from those 2/week I need to read!), among which  Eve (Mankiewicz), Body Heat (for that subtext), The big easy, Ocean’s 11 & Ocean’s 12, The electric Horseman, Howards End, Being John Malkovich, 3 Days of the Condor, Sherlock TV ep, Luther TV ep, The Prisoner TV ep, The Mentalist 4 TV ep, Scrubs  TV ep, West Wing 2 TV ep,   Amadeus, The Godfather, Donnie Brasco, Maltese Falcon, Pulp Fiction, Heat, Barton Fink, Sleepy Hollow, O Brother, Stagecoach, Night of the Hunter, The big Lebowski, The Big Sleep,  When Harry met Sally (yeah, for THAT scene, and see how it’s written), Some like it hot, etc…
  • read 7 modern plays (The Odd Couple  -his and hers- , Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf, The importance of being earnest, Ginger ale boy and Electric ballroom by Enda Walsh, one Shakespeeare…)
  •   read 6 novels , including the wonderful War Horse,  to relax

Secondly, I have written for myself (all)  and my publisher (a very small part) and you, -soon to be mine agent  (some):

  •  a 433p techno-thriller , with 2nd and 3rd  (same hero) in the synopsis -ripening room)
  • a 2x 150p drama novel (considering compiling to make one 300p book)
  • 2 short-stories
  • a long-feature radioplay (53min)
  • a short film screenplay
  • another short film screenplay
  • a synopsis for another short film
  • an article about a painting exhibition
  • 10 songs out of 12 for a musical project (with a music composer)
  • 20 poems (some are 2 or 3p long)
  • 4 detailed synopses for novels
  • 2 detailed synopses for short-story
  • 9 detailed synopses for a TV series
  • a synopsis for a noir feature film
  • 1 fan fiction TV ep
  • a 1st draft for a 3-act play in need of rewriting, editing, finishing and trimming
  • bits and pieces to be assembled into projects
  • 10 loglines /ideas for novel/Shortstory/script.
  • posts in a blog & tweets in a twitter account

I have relaxed in watching :

  •  300 ( or more) films and TV Series episodes, of various genres. (Next thing, I must try Doctor Who) [I can watch Sherlock AND read the script in the same time while sipping coffee. I’m like Windows, I am multitask) [[Sometimes, I watch the entire series in a row until it’s über-too late]]

In the meantime, when I have an insomnia, I also have observed & studied my targets (thanks Writer’s Market and magazines and blogs and news) and prepared my business and marketing plans, established the communication plan, established a list of other  contests I want to participate to. I have a new idea for a short…

I need a coffee, now. Strong, black, ultra caffeinated. Maybe I can just chew some coffee beans… It’s faster and a lot less fussier than brewing a mug ‘o joe…

It’s going to be a short night.

So long, Folks.

Coffee and films, what could go wrong?

What if…?

05 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Books, Entertainemt, Movies, Writing

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The oddjobbers (writers, screenwriters and the kind) know that some of the best stories (apart from adaptations of literature pieces, remakes, documentaries, mockumentaries, historic and period dramas) started with a  seemingly übersimple child’s game : “let’s make believe that…. (I am a princess in a pea pod shaped mattress; I am a dragon slayer; Ramses, King of Egyptian people;  this mud is our chocolate pie and Mum is the Big laundrymatic Chief Lady;  I have a hammer, I am a pop singer and I smash all my toys; MY name is Han Solo and  YOU are Chewbacca; etc).”

The only difference is in the formulation : What if….?

And starting with this “what if…” postulate can lead you pretty far and produce some of the finest stories, provided your ideas are decently fueled with a good imagination. Forget narrow-minded or clichés  things, unless you twist them enough to turn them into an interesting pattern.

 

Results can be good or… not so good.

Let’s have a closer look: (remember I  talk fiction here, not historical facts nor period dramas).

Sometimes the results are just astonishing and we are being provided with great literature and films. (I leave the scientific or engineering part of this aside, its not my field).

For instance :

  • What if …a scientist wanted so bad to compete with God and created his own creature? Results : Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818) and James Whale (1931) [+ numerous adaptations TV, films, theater and countless spoofs & cartoons.]
  • What if…an evil man, feeding only on human blood, could transform into a bat and contaminate each person he bites? Results : Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) and Tod Browning (1931) [+ numerous adaptations TV, films, theater and countless spoofs & cartoons.]
  • What if…aliens invaded the Earth? Results : The War of the worlds by HG Wells (1898), radioplay by Orson Welles (*wink*) 1938 and all the Alien Invasion literature & films influenced/induced by those geniuses [from The day the Earth stood still (1951) to Mars Attacks (1996) & Men in Black 3 (2012)]
  • What if …a priest wanted to protect his religious community from persecution and created an protector which later turns destructive? Results : The Golem (first writtten by Rabbi Eliyahu of Chelm (16th Century), then by Rabbi Yaakov Emden (1748), by  Franz Klutschak (1841) and film by Paul Wegener (1921)
  • What if…a school director’s wife and his mistress teamed up to murder him to get rid of him? What if he DID not actually dies and sought revenge? Result : Les Diaboliques  (The devils) by HG Clouzot (1955), (forget the remake w. Sharon Stone , it’s pathetic)
  • What if…pets and animals could talk and tell their adventures to a young Victorian aquarelist woman? Results : all Beatrix Potter’s books and Miss Potter (2006)?
  • What if…a zillionaire paid paleontologists to revive some defunct Dinosaurs species on an island, the team escaping a funest fate just in time? Results: Jurassic Park by M. Crichton (1990) and by S. Spielberg (1993) [and sequels, and spoofs and various others Jurassic monsters]
  • What if…a rejected secretary decided to turn love down, wrote a best-selling book about it- thus allowing other women to take control over their feelings, love and ensuing pain- to finally win the object of her thoughts turned true love? Result : Down with love (2003).
  • What if…a widowed woman who discovered that her husband left her broke, had an affair, eventually befriended the lover while developing a marijuana business to erase her debts and found love? Result : Saving Grace (2000).
  • What if…There was a secret passage to enter a famous actor’s mind for some minutes, allowing to control his mind and body? Result :  Being John Malkovich (1999)
  • So many others.

Yet, sometimes the results are, well, you know…so so, to put it kindly.

For instance :

  • What if…we followed the life of several teenagers on their campus and recorded their  abyssal stupidity and their gastric problems? (American pie*)
  • What if…we stuffed in so much SFX on screen, everyone will think it’s a GREAT movie? (Matrix, Thor, Iron Man 2, Spider man, Star Wars the Phantom Menace and the updated episodes, Titanic)
  • What if…we made any sequel of a any Blockbuster in the attempt to make as much money, based on the notoriety of the 1st film, hey? (Bad, bad, baaaaad idea, seldom good sequels, Jaws, Highlander, Rocky, Rambo…)
  • What if…we had NO viable idea but tried ANYWAY?  The March of the Yellow giant Raspberry (it’s a joke), Sex lives of the Potato men* (it’s not a joke), Gigli (now really, a lesbian who sleeps with men?),  Jersey girl (now really, again, a music rep in a BIG company who does not how to change his daughter’s diapers, chooses to lose his temper and trash his client Will Smith, ending in solo pleasures and a crazy Liv Tyler?), Cowboys and Aliens* –no comment- (2011).
  • What if…Abraham Lincoln was (secretly) a VAMPIRE HUNTER?….(Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter * 2012)
  • And, what if…. IN THE SAME TIME, Abe Lincoln chased Zombies*?  (2012)(I think he might have had a seizure, if not already dead, and certainly had turned in his tumb)
  • What if…there is no proper script or plotholes or unsatisfying endings? 2001 : space odyssey (yeah, I know, you hate when I say that, but have a second look), Indy and the last Crusade( I know, I know, yet, plotholes around), Barton  Fink (sorry, ending’s weak)

* Oh God, someone REALLY greenlighted that, you know, and put MONEY into it, and INFLICTED it to the world!

So long, folks, I have to find a greenlighter for my 15 min-script in which :

the protagonist gets a tip from a spaceship alien commander that his mother is the reincarnation of the American Pie (eaten by Lincoln in a theater) made of Potato slices found in the Tumb of Bigfoot, rescued by Indy while en route to the dentist for his pet Shark JAWSY the 6th, and that’s disturbing fact, because he tries to to fight his growing inner apetite (haha) for fame  in participating in the “Yukon contest of the tough guys of the Woods” :  being able to eat 999 fries in one mouthful (haha, again). Being connected with/to a potato mother presumably still alive in the stomach of someone (brought back to life per thunderstorm), the stakes are high and the obstacles, numerous. Will he burn out? (hahaha) .Good idea, hu?

Floreva

PS : For science cum-what if… : http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/ (ANSWERING YOUR HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS WITH PHYSICS, EVERY TUESDAY)

 

 

 

Nowadays it’s difficult to make a breakthrough in the Industry if you’re a shark, a rat, or a sheep…

10 Friday Aug 2012

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The Animal Kingdom seems to be an endless source of inspiration to fuel buoyant imaginations and savagely creative brains.

So far, it has cared for award-winning movies, and provided an extensive literature and comics or cartoons.

Among the most prominent actors of the Deuterostomes, Ecdysozoa, Metazoa, Fauna, that flow spontaneously in mind, we have : 

Category “Water-based”:

Sharks, fish (clown fish notably), otters, crabs, sponge (yeah, but trimmed and square), octopus, crocodiles, alligators, caimans, piranhas, penguins, the Creature of the Black Lagoon

Category “I run faster than you humans”:

Horses, huskies, dogs (namely dalmatians -and I mean 101 of ’em-, colley and various shepherd’s) , lions and lionesses, wolves, mice, unicorns, zebras, tigers, foxes, cats

Category “Phobia-inspired” and “terr-horrific”:

Spiders (ALL of ’em) , flies,  bugs, mantis, scorpions, snakes (boas, pythons, vipers, etc…ALL of ’em too), bees, wasps, ants, rats…

Category “Dead but reborn”:

T-Rex, Pterodactyls, Triceratops, Velociraptor, Aurochs, Dodo, Brachiosaurs, Dilophausaurs, Phoenix, werewolves,  were-rabbits…

Category “We are cousins, according to Darwin”: 

Apes, Chimpanzees, Gorillas, monkeys, Tarzan and Greystoke (ooops…)

Category “The rest that needs a category each, so I put them all together”:

Fawns, elks, mooses, unicorns, goldfish, birds, pigs, rats, mules, seals, elephants, hamsters, pandas, turtles, owls, bats, rhinoceros, lamas, camels,  brown bears, sheep…

What insects/bugs/animals did not have their 1/4h or fame so far?

Let’s see….erm…Think of what it may give as movie/series/book title :

Lice? (“Invasion of the lice” = already an award-winning entertainment event every fall in every school districts)

Unio Crassus? (“My so-called life as an extinct mussel in Netherlands”)

Were-Butterflies? (“Muffy , Were-Butterflies slayer”, huhu)

Tenia? (“It’s a long road to Tipperary’s loo”, “Independence Week”)

Dragonflies? (“US Airforce Once”)

Alpaga? (“My friend Alpaga”,”White tooth”,”Harry and the giant Alpaga”,)

Goat? (“Something new on the western front”= good meal ahead, haha)

Horseshoe crabs? (“Invasion of the horseshoe crabs”, see pix above, taken by yours faithfully or “2012 : A martian  odyssey” featuring horseshoe crabs invading the dust people of Mars with the landing of the Rover “Opportuniy” on the Red planet)

A mad bull? (“Mad bull and his brothers”, )

A strange animal, result of the crossing of an eagle and a jellyfish by a crazy-rejected-by-the -academy scientist, brought to life by a thunder in a windmill? (“The big sleet”, “Some like it undercooked”)

What would be your choice of an animal for a would-be hit story?

 

PS : thanks a bunch to the animal/bugs/insects/others/animated or plastic things featured in  : Jaws, Planet of the Apes, Starship troopers, the Fly, Arachnophobia, Crocodile Dundee, King Scorpion, Rintintin, Lassie, My Friend Flicka, Stuart Little, Moby Dick, A close shave, Gorillas in the mist, Dumbo, Jungle book, the Birds, Free Willy,Oliver and Co, Basil, Babe, march of the Penguins,Happy feet, Bedtime for Bonzo, Monkey Business, Bringing up Baby,  Wallace and Gromit, Beethoven (and all dog movies you can remember), The Creature of the Black Lagoon,King Kong, Benji, The Black stallion, Seabiscuit, Lassie come home, Cats, The Whale, The Lion, The Bear, The Fly, the Spider, Jurassic Park I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII …hum, sorry, one too many ;-  etc, etc… you name them… 

So long, folks.

Floreva in the Mist too ( here, in Cape Cod today)

 

 

 

Writer’s Block

22 Tuesday May 2012

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Aha. The writer’s block…

The BIG bad wolf of everyone dealing with writing, be it screenplay, novella, novel, poem, article for a specific field, PhD thesis, internship report, memoir, fiction contest (250 words), plays….

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Different prominent masters on the subject of writing have settled down their opinion and the clivage is very easy, as black and white, cold and hot, rain and sun…

For  half of them, writer’s block is just a view of mind, namely a concept created by those suffering from it, and they erase the struggle to arrive to the idea that one can easily overcome that state of mind : just sit down and write. Discipline as the strongest fighter, and you, the writer, as the general in charge of organizing and winning the battle… not bad an idea.

The will to write seems to be just the perfect answer.

And, on the other hand, we are offered a more psychological explanation and an emotional meditative approach : writer’s block really exists. And you have to wait until it’s over, and deal with it gently.

You can try to fight it, put yourself at war against it, the best thing will always to let go of that ugly anxiety creeping in your mind that you are not able to produce a single meaningful and/or satisfying sentence. Then… leave it, turn to something else, refresh your mind, do something else, maybe write something else. Find help. Read books on the subjects. Or just do something that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject you are sweating on.

Like many fellow authors, I have experienced THE writer’s block. It is a dark corner where you do not want to be stuck after sun has set or dawned, because it will eat you rest away, make your night all white and your day crappy, burn down the self-confidence you have so patiently pieced together -from various positive comments and solid bricks that construct your path to become an acknowledged author- and that inner feeling in your guts that you must write, because you are born to do so.

As I urged myself on the mindset of sitting behind the white sheet, my fountain pen point resting still on the paper, making a larger stain of black ink, I thought there was no way I could draw a single line nor write more than a sentence.

It lasted for weeks. And it was utterly self deprecating.

First, I thought I should fight it. Again and again, and more, and stronger, and sit there day after day after day, slightly breathing as time escaped me coupled with the fact that I had not done any other thing than waiting for the dark veil to be carried away by my patience. But since I am not a person who likes to waste time and waits for the silence to murmur the words of the Muse’s inspiration, I embraced another conviction.  I was willing to write, but  not like it was an obligation, and I did not want to let it aside.

So I moved on and did other things and wrote other things. I watched movies and series, to nurture my mind, jog my ability to shell the screenplays of the films I was examining, and exercise the skills I had learned regarding screenwriting and writing.

I wrote poetry and a novella, instead of returning to the main task. But the core of my work remained untouched. In the same time, I stuck on a discipline, although not as harsh nor as iron-willed as advocated in some manuals.

In those moments, I came to think that no one is entitled to allow my writingself to be tucked in a box or another. Between the white idea of fighting like a warrior of the Writing Light and the black pool of letting the block eating one up untiI one would emerge pure and strong again, there is a infinity of greys. (Yeah very cliché, I know, but common sense and clichés are so often easily forgotten in favour of brighter new half-empty concepts, that sometimes one loses touch with what is obvious ..)

And one has to deal with their subtle nuances until one frees oneself from the block.

Writer’s blocks do exist, no need to pretend it is something one chooses to escape their duties, and that the will solely can break it down. It can be highly destructive, creativity-speaking . But writer’s block needs also to be fueled with fresh ideas and dealt with humourously.

Some white and some black, to create one’s very own shade of grey-ish writer’s block.

And being able to overcome it.

Best of luck to you, if you are stuck with that unpleasant companion. Take courage, the journey may be long, but there is always an end station…

Floreva, Writer’sblockfighter, too…