Is it getting hot in here? (bloghop)

When it comes to kissing scenes...well...I don't think I'm exactly where I'd like to be yet, so for this bloghop I'm going to share my Ultimate Favorite Kissing Scene Ever. For those of you who haven't read Catching Fire and wish to remain unspoiled, look away now.

My Ultimate Favorite Kissing Scene Ever is from Chapter 24 of Catching Fire. In case you need a little refreshing: Katniss and Peeta have been thrust into the Hunger Games again. There's no way (or so they think) that both Katniss and Peeta can make it out alive for a second time. Katniss wants Peeta to live, and he wants her to live. They have a conversation where they discuss this dilemma. I'll let Katniss take it from here. :)

"No one really needs me," he says, and there's no self-pity in his voice. It's true his family doesn't need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Haymitch, with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.

"I do," I say. "I need you." He looks upset, takes a deep breath as if to begin a long argument, and that's no good, because he'll start going on about Prim and my mother and everything and I'll just get confused. So before he can talk, I stop his lips with a kiss.

I feel that thing again. The thing I only felt once before. In the cave last year, when I was trying to get Haymitch to send us food. I kissed Peeta about a thousand times during those Games and after. But there was only one kiss that made me feel something stir deep inside. Only one that made me want more. But my head wound started bleeding and he made me lie down.

This time, there is nothing but us to interrupt us. And after a few attempts, Peeta gives up on talking. The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me, the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this is an entirely new kind. 

This is why I think this kiss is The Ultimate Favorite Kissing Scene Ever:

1. This kiss has been having some serious build up. If you read even two pages before this, there is a lot of emotional stuff going on. Namely that they're both convinced only one of them can make it out alive, so they'll never be together again. At least one of them will die.
2. It clearly focuses on their emotions. Katniss doesn't say anything about parting lips or heaving breathing or hands tangling in hair. The physical description is very minimal, but we get a lot about the desire and feelings she has during this kiss.
3. Like Katniss says, there's a lot of kissing between the two of them, but this is the one that means something. For the reader, this is the "YES! YES! YES! SHE GETS IT!" kiss.

I hope you enjoyed this kissing scene, brought to you by Suzanne Collins. And if you so desire, I've rounded up a few of my favorite kissing scenes from movies/TV shows below.

Pretty much all of Snow/Charming kisses are the best, but here's just two, because that's how much I love this couple.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Flash Fiction (blogfest)

Last day of the I'm Hearing Voices blogfest! This time around it's a flash fiction (>251 words). This is Troy again, from my Monday interview.

Today ended the war. Today the mountains became peaceful.
Today she married him.
I thought they would have fought with me, knowing the truth about him. But they told me to let it go, that we'd find another way. Morcant had proofed the castle so I couldn't penetrate it, with or without magic. I couldn't get to her.
Egan found me in Dunthur City.
"Come back," he said. "There's nothing we can do."
She had the necklace, though, as far as I knew. With the necklace, maybe she'd find me. Or maybe she never discovered the truth. Maybe she'd never remember me.
I'd always remember her, with her aspirations and flowers and determination. I remembered the first time I saw her, the first time we kissed, our last moment together.
I'd never know if she did remember. I'd probably never see her again.
Today she became the Queen of Thesland. And I was forgotten.

Fourth Writers' Platform Building Campaign!

Rachael Harrie is having another Platform Building Campaign! For those of you who don't know about it, it's a super awesome way to connect with other writing bloggers, build your followings, and win sweet prizes. Find out more about it here.

Character Dialogue (blogfest)

These two are characters from my current WIP.

F: Ouch.
M: Don't wanna talk about it.
F: She totally just used you.
M: Yeah, well.
F: Do you really like her?
M: Have you seen her? Of course I like her. Every guy at school likes her.
F: So all guys go for the slut look?
M: It's her party outfit. She isn't like that all the time.
F: Mmmhmm. And the fact that she just made out with you to get with that other guy...?
M: Not technically a slut.
F: But still pretty slutty. I saw them leaving together. I guess they thought the party was lame with the whole parental supervision thing.
M: You just met her tonight, you don't even know her.
F: I can't believe you're still defending her. She can't be that pretty.
M: She's Alicia Norman.
F: Oh, right, how stupid of me to forget.
M:...
F: Do you really still like her?
M: Do I still wish we were making out right now? Yeah. Do I like her?...Not really. Not anymore.

Character on the Couch (blogfest)

I know that I usually post Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, but for the I'm Hearing Voices Character Blogfest I'm rearranging my schedule for this week.

For today, I need one character to answer a few questions. It was really hard for me to pick just one character that I wanted to do, because I'm editing one book, writing another, and in the stages of outlining a third.


But I finally decided to interview Troy, the love interest of FORGET ME NOT that is a little mysterious even to me. 


So Troy, take it away.

1. What is your biggest vulnerability? Do others know this or is it a secret? People I love are my greatest vulnerability. I'm scared to love because of everyone I've lost. Not many people know this, because I keep people at a distance.
2. What do people believe about you that is false? When I was in the castle, people underestimated me. They thought that I didn't have an agenda or a reason to be there, at least not anything deeper than what I told them. 
3. What would your best friend say is your fatal flaw? Why? My best friend has forgotten everything about me. But if I asked her before, she'd tell me that I don't trust enough. I didn't trust her until she knew my secrets, and there are only a few more people I have faith in. I've seen too much wrong done to believe in many people.
4. What would the same friend say is your one redeeming quality? Why? To her, my redeeming quality would be the kindness that I feel toward others, how I want to help everyone I can.
5. What do you want most? What will you do to get it? I want Imogen. I've already done all I'm able to do to get her. I'm relying on my faith in her now.

Well...things have popped up in here that I wasn't expecting. I love interviewing characters!


What types of things have you learned about your characters you weren't expecting?

Book Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Title: Everneath

Author: Brodi Ashton

Publisher: HarperCollins

Genre: YA (Paranormal)

Why I read it/how I found it: Read it in part for the 2012 Debut Author Challenge.

Description:

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever. 

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists. 

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen. 

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...

Review:

This book is so emotionally charged. The feelings between Jack and Becks (her name is Nikki, but Jack calls her Becks, so I like that more) are intense. There's so much hurt, love, and longing between them it rips your heart out. I loved the flashbacks to give us an idea of Becks's life before Everneath, and how all of that builds up to see why she decided to go with Cole in the first place. And while the choice Becks made was wrong and weak, it makes her a good character, who has human emotions that make her use bad judgement. Her struggle with her choice was absolutely heartbreaking, but I think had a good parallel with substance abuse. Both only bring in more problems and emotional trauma than dealing with the situations the drug users try to escape from. My one complaint is that it takes a while to understand the world and what's going on exactly with the situation Becks is in. There's enough of a mystery with the Daughters of Persephone and the bracelet that we don't need the mystery of Beck's time in the Everneath.

Other information: This is set to be released as a trilogy. Brodi Ashton's blog is here.

Emotion

In my writing class, we talked about emotion a few class periods ago. How we accomplish making our reader, our characters, even ourselves feel.

I think that emotion can be one of the hardest parts for writers to accomplish, and it's the most important. All of the books that you read over and over again, that leave you anticipating for the sequel, crying when the series is over, it's all from the emotional tie you as a reader have to the book. There's a lot that comes into play with this, characters and plot, mainly, but the actual writing itself can be the most difficult. You don't want to sound too emo or sappy or hateful.

So as I questioned how we as writers can do this, I thought about music. Generally speaking, the lyrics that move us the most aren't overly emo or sappy or hateful (at least, for me they're not). Just look at these lyrics:

From Where You Are by Lifehouse
"I miss the years that were erased
I miss the way the sunshine would light up your face
I miss all the little things
I never thought they'd mean everything to me
Yeah I miss you
And I wish you were here"

This set of lyrics gives us a specific image by saying "I miss the way the sunshine would light up your face." You can see it. You can see a loved one's face tilted up to the sun, a smile, the happy feeling that's now been taken away. The absence of that happy feeling is what makes it hurt the most. These lyrics are so simply stated they make a big impact. There's no great metaphor for how he feels life is a black hole and there's no more joy in his life. It just simply says "I miss you and I wish you were here." How much more powerful is this than a hyperbole of depression?

Now, when I write emotion, I try to think of a great song that makes me feel in a similar way. Getting down to the sentence-level I've found has really helped me.

How do you try to bring out emotion in your reader?