Heather Arundel

The Diva of Darkness

Salton Sea Sunset Photo by Ron Niebrugge

Salton Sea Sunset Photo by Ron Niebrugge
The Beauty of Hell...

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - also known as my personal life motto!

All Human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Who I am...

I am a wife. I am a mother. I am a survivor.
My family has made me who I am...my past family with past hurts...my current family with current joy.
Family is something you are born into and cannot choose,
family is also what you choose it to be once you are old enough to start anew...

Followers

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Writer's Campaign - 1st Challenge Questions

Well, it looks like the 12 finalists will be announced shortly.  I was honored to be asked to judge a group of entries and pick my favorite from a list of four - the one I chose becomes one of the 12 finalists and wins a prize! :)

There were so many great entries, and so many entries with 20 "likes" or more, not to mention over 50 comments on their post...I dream of that...I dream of getting there.  Thank you to all of you sweet souls that took the time to read my flash fiction piece, comment to me, offer a critique - I truly appreciate it! :)

As it is, I just plug along - writing, trying to make it interesting and hoping it is good.  And so I wait for the next Challenge, I wait and wonder...will I be better next time?

Let me ask you...my MC cursed in my story - is that a "No-No"?  I write Adult Fiction and I didn't think strong language was against the rules (I didn't see that posted anyway), but if I'm making a fatal error; someone please fill me in! ;)  After reading about 40 of the other entries, I realized no one else seemed to have cursing and I don't want to break any blogger laws.  Once again, thank you for your time - your interest - and your continued support!

Have a rockin' day!

6 comments:

  1. The campaign is awash with YA authors who don't like cursing for the most part and want to write for innocent children and for some reason also extend that "innocence" to teenagers probably because a lot of them are religious (Christian of some kind). Nothing wrong with that but all of these stay-at-home mom types really seem to shy away from violence and anything that mentions sex and/or anatomy.

    I'm with you...I write adult fiction. I read Neil Gaiman, I read George R.R. Martin. These authors are who I emulate...not J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, and Stephenie Meyer.

    I like it when people drop the f-bomb. I like reading some racy sex and I like some violence. Horrible things happening to good characters makes me want to hug them but I keep reading. Safe is boring in my opinion. But make no mistake...there are more YA authors online by probably 10:1 than any other.

    This is because YA is awash AWASH in money. The authors are making big bucks and getting movie deals and the market is huge. With money come all the people clamoring to get it.

    And yes...those writers all want money. They say "I just have a story to tell" but the truth comes out in the editing. They land an agent and they have to change huge parts of the story and they do so in order to MAKE MONEY. It's not about the story. It never was.

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  2. I write adult fiction too. Cursing is fine, at least in my opinion. I usually have cursing in my stories. I didn't have any in my campaign entry because it's a public blog and people of any age can read it.

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  3. I didn't have any cursing in mine because the story didn't warrant it, but there's quite a bit in my wip :-)

    You really don't need to worry Heather, you already have an adult warning on your blog.

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  4. I write YA and swear when it's called for. My current protag is an eighteen year old male. He curses on the second page. I tried to avoid language in my first two stories, but sometimes it's what's real. I had to get over that.

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  5. Oh, Heather, I honestly wouldn't worry about it! Check out my latest Sisterhood episode, for heaven's sake! If you write adult fiction, cursing is NOT a big deal (well... as long as it's not Christian adult fiction and as long as, like everything else you put in your story, it's warranted either because of character or situation).

    In summary: Didn't bug me ONE bit, and if I'd been a judge, I certainly wouldn't disqualify you because of "language."

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  6. I wouldn't worry about the language. It was a good story. I got 29 comments on the entry that had the campaign challenge. Not 50, but it's a record for me, and the comments were all positive. What a fun challenge!

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