Kalayna Price

[X-posted over at the Tri Mu Blog .] The first time is always memorable. No, not THAT first time (get your head out of the gutter.) I'm talking about the first manuscript. The first time a writer decides she is going write a book, and she does. Day after day she returns to the keyboard to pound out the next word, the next scene, the next chapter, until she hits those two magical words 'the end.' For some writers, this process may take only a few weeks, but for others it takes years. Some will attempt it many times, but for various reasons, not reach those two words on a novel length project. For me, the journey took years, and during that time I acquired a graveyard full of false starts and half finished stories that never went anywhere. Some of these stories were worked on only a short amount of time before being abandoned, others were labored over for three or more years before I finally gave up on them. After years and years, the first book I finished took only three m...

[Be warned, this turned into a very long post.] If there is one benefit to being unpublished, it is the lack of a deadline. This frees a writer to experiment a little--to take chances she might not have time to take later in her career. (Not that time is ever overly abundant.) This year (all five months of it thus far) has been full of exploration for me. The Tri Mu has had writing challenges most months which have ranged from writing in different genres to including very specific elements in scenes/short stories. Besides these short challenges, I've been working off and on a literary YA, but I haven't managed to really sink my teeth into the story for an extended amount of time. This project is an interesting one, and a big stretch for be because the story includes neither fantasy nor mystery elements, the two genres I'm most familiar and comfortable with. But, I was urged to write it by a non-writer who is very important to me, so I gave it a shot, and it will probably c...

I read a lot of series in several genres, and many have hit double digits in number of books. I love series--particularly ones with the same main character in each book--because every time I pick one up it's like seeing old friends again. That said, I'm starting to wonder if series should end at a point. Several of the series I read today, I first picked up when I was a teenager. Over the years, some have changed drastically, some not so much. Both these extremes have their own issues. The series that change drastically tend to push character growth and as the character reaches a peek, something new has to level them back out (lets not talk about paranormal sides where the MC ends up godlike because s/he keeps gaining new powers each book.) The series that don't change much, have much less character growth, and you can usually pick up the later ones in any order and and only miss some minor references. The middle ground is a little fuzzy and harder to find as each new book ...

Admit it. You've been there. I can has cheezburger or a Caterday site. You've looked at the cute little animals with clever little captions because well, they make you laugh. (And if you haven't looked, you should, laughing is good for you.) The problem becomes apparent when you think about the fact most people know grammar intrinsically, not factually. Things sound right to the ear. But if enough people use words/phrases incorrectly, they start sounding 'right' and are eventually adopted as slang , and after enough time, slang is adopted as an evolution of the English language. That's what a living language does--it evolves. Since the advent of instant messenger, English teachers around the states have reported a rapid degradation of proper grammar. I occasionally have to remind myself that smiley faces ^_^ and *emotes* have no place in professional correspondences. That doesn't mean I don't receive them from other 'professionals' at work so...

I have a very special announcement, the Modern Myth Makers blog has now officially launched. *pulls out the launch party-hats* We are just doing introductions right now, but please stop over and learn about the other girls in my writing group. In the future we plan to do lots of writing related posts as well pass the plot challenges (where one writes a section of a story and then another has to pick up where she left off) and other fun little things. So, go on, visit , and don't forget to bookmark us. ^_^