Fantastic Friday - For Many Reasons!

Today is another edition of Fantastic Friday Writers! I invite your to check out my Fantastic Friday Writers partners - Elizabeth Mueller, Anastasia V. Pergakis, J. D. Brown, and Deirdra Eden Coppel - for their take on this subject. And I’m sure they will all be delighted I came up with more than one paragraph this time!

How do you connect with your MC on a personal level?

The easiest thing would be to create a character similar to me. I think I know myself fairly well! Instead, I created Byron, and while he shares a couple of my traits, he’s very different. Yeah, smart move! Now, how do I relate to this guy?

Connecting with a character implies you have to know them – well. I liken it to making a new friend. We start with facts, then opinions, and then feelings. We take it in layers, like an onion. Guess Shrek was right!

With Byron, I had to discover and embrace his background. What led him to where the story begins? Everything that happened in his past had an impact on his life. I watched him develop as a person. It helped me to understand who he was and why he chose his path. I began to see things from his point of view.

I think that’s where I connected. Byron became real. No, not like the Velveteen Rabbit or anything! He gained dimension. I could feel his frustrations, struggles, and drive to succeed. I respected his desire for privacy and often annoying attitude. I knew that as I wrote the story, I’d be able to properly portray his behavior, thought process, and desires. He was difficult sometimes, but I discovered I really liked Byron.

Which is good, because I’m almost done writing the sequel to CassaStar!

How do you connect with your characters?

In other news…

I won second place in Jessica’s 400 Followers giveaway! A $40 Amazon gift certificate. Thanks, Jessica!

Don’t forget - I’ve been nominated for the Best Sci-Fi Blog Award at The Movie 411! Never thought I’d be so excited about an award, but I’m currently in the lead! If you haven’t voted, please do so now. (And don’t vote twice, or both are eliminated.)

And for those of you following me on Twitter, I’m doing Stardate Christmas updates every day until Christmas! Yes, I will repost them here next week.

Top Ten Films They Should Have Made Blogfest

First, a big congratulations to Jessica at The Alliterative Allomorph - she landed a publisher!

Today’s fest is hosted by Ellie Garratt - Top Ten Films They Should Have Made Blogfest. We were to name some of our favorite actors and actresses and the roles they should’ve landed.

I decided to have some fun with this one. My list isn’t my necessarily favorite actors, just some interesting role twists, starting with the serious and degenerating into the hilarious. Enjoy!

1 – Alec Baldwin should’ve been in all of the Jack Ryan roles.
(Because the switch to Harrison Ford sucked.)

2 – Chris Pine would’ve made a far better Perseus in the Clash of the Titans remake. Actually, dead wood couldn’t done a better job than Sam Worthington.

3 – Kate Beckinsale should’ve been in any role that required nudity. Period!

4 – Claire Danes and Nick Stahl should’ve reprised their roles from T3 for Terminator Salvation. John Conner is NOT Batman!


5 – Ryan Reynolds should’ve had Shia LaBeouf’s role in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Not that it would’ve helped the movie any…

6 – Schwarzenegger and Stallone should’ve been in Room with a View. It would’ve been a whole different film…

7 – Mel Gibson should’ve been in Schindler’s List. (As a Jew of course.)


8 – Will Ferrell should’ve been in Hamlet.
(Shakespeare might’ve come back from the grave for that one!)

9 – Charlie Sheen should’ve been in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He could’ve phoned in that performance.

10 – Lindsay Lohan should’ve played Ghandi.
“I’m drunk – look at my boobs!”
(With an Indian accent of course.)

There you have it! Any roles you’d like to see differently? Be sure to visit Ellie Garratt’s site for other blogfest participants.

"Fantastic Fridays," News, and My Star Trek NaNo Experience

I was asked to join a group called the Fantastic Friday Writers. Rather than taking turns posting on our group blog, we are posting every other Friday starting today! The five of us will blog on a topic pertaining to fantasy and science fiction, with links to one anther’s blogs.

I invite your to check out my Fantastic Friday Writers partners - Elizabeth Mueller, Anastasia V. Pergakis, J. D. Brown, and Deirdra Eden Coppel.

And if you’re visiting from one of these ladies’ blogs, welcome! I’m a movie lover, tech geek, and author of the just released CassaStar. I’m Alex the Blogging Ninja!

NEWS

Ellie Garratt is hosting a blogfest - Top Ten Films They Should Have Made! On the 9th November tell us all about your top ten alternate actors and actresses, and the films you wanted to see them in and why.
You know I can’t pass up a movie blogfest!

Jessica at The Alliterative Allimorph is holding a 400 Followers Giveaway – Amazon gift cards! Visit her site to enter and tell her congratulations.

NANO

And I’ve been keeping track of my NaNo progress on Twitter. Since I’ve apparently amused a few of you with my updates, here’s the week so far:

Stardate #nanowrimo Day 2 One page in 1 &1/2 hours. 2168 words now. Damn I type slow. The crew's going to lose faith and revolt...

Stardate #nanowrimo Day 2.5 - 3179 words achieved, just shy of the mark. Worf has restored order - no mutiny of the crew in sight...

Stardate #nanowrimo Day 3.3 - 4003 words, but I've been captured by Romulans and forced to endure meetings. Word count stalled until rescued

Stardate #nanowrimo 3.7 - Escaped Romulan torture meetings unscathed. Okay, a few minor boredom scars. Able to write once more!

Stardate #nanowrimo 4.2 Evil Romulan boss wants me to do real work. Where's Spock? Someone put the Vulcan grip on this guy!

Stardate #nanowrimo 4.5 Klingons demanded head of evil Romulan boss. The decision was not difficult. Permission to write again!

Stardate #nanowrimo 4.7 Have achieved warp speed - 5783 and still writing! Number One, you have the Bridge.

Oh, and I finished last night at 6428 words - close to target. Of course, one of my buddies is almost to 50,000. Overachiever.