Category Archives: Alethea Kontis

Zoraida Cordova Swims with the Mermaids

Zoraida, Queen of the MermaidsGood morning, everyone!

I hope you’ve all had as remarkable a month as I have. (And gods willing, a more relaxing one.) Are you ready for summer?

I thought I’d honor this fabulously scorching-hot day by sharing with you a really fun interview I did with my dear friend Zoraida Cordova. You’ll love her–not only because she is INCREDIBLY GORGEOUS, but because she also WRITES BOOKS ABOUT MERMAIDS.

That’s right — you heard me! Zoraida’s debut novel The Vicious Deep and its follow up, the recently-released The Savage Blue, are young adult novels that follow the adventures of Tristan: a young lifeguard on Coney Island who discovers that his father is…well…the Sea King.

I’ll let Zoraida tell you more in her own words! She and I recorded this interview while having a blast at MISTI-Con, a fantastic Harry Potter themed convention held in Laconia, New Hampshire just a few weeks ago.

Enjoy!

To find out more about Zoraida and her work, please visit her official website at: http://www.zoraidacordova.com/

The Savage Blue by Zoraida Cordova

 

Happy Blogoversary to Us!

by Alethea and Kerri Mermaid

Alethea Mermaid

Alethea Mermaid

Alethea: This week, the Waterworld Mermaids celebrate our SECOND ANNIVERSARY of blogging! Can you believe we’ve made it this far? I mean…without killing each other?

Kerri: No!!! It seriously seems like just yesterday we met at the Washington Romance Writers’ Retreat in Leesburg, VA. Fun fact: we met the same day as the royal wedding. So a lot of us (me! me!) were tired from getting up at 4 in the morning.

Kerri Mermaid

Alethea: Some of the Mermaids asked that I talk a little bit about our origin and how we came to be. You can still read my first Mermaid post about it here…but I think what they really wanted me to mention was The FBI List.

Kerri: I told you not to tell people about me being on the FBI’s list!

Alethea: Bwahahaha! Okay, seriously: Back in 2011, before the retreat happened, the WRW released a list of attendees. Now, I’ve been to conferences the size of Dragon*Con, so I can appreciate what a pleasure it is to have your attendance cutoff down around 160. With a list that size, why, a person could easily Google everyone on it and make some notes, so that when they introduced themselves to, say, Aix Rickloff, they would know a little bit about her and her work. I mean, if I had a personal assistant, it’s exactly the kind of thing I would have her do, so she could whisper this vital information in my ear at parties, a-la The Devil Wears Prada.

Kerri: I LOVE The Devil Wears Prada! But the book is so much better than the movie.

Alethea: Gah! Another book for my TBR pile! So what I didn’t take into account was that at an intimate convention like this, they might not be prepared for a princess in possession of information that only the FBI might know. It looked a little something like this:

Princess Alethea's FBI List

So, while *I* was fully prepared, others weren’t. Like Denny Mermaid, for example, who I apparently scared the crap out of, right off the bat. THAT’S a first impression a girl likes to have when trying to make new friends. For sure.

Kerri: Plus, when you bombarded Denny, you totally interrupted our Buffy the Vampire Slayer conversation!

Alethea: I should have been part of that conversation ANYWAY. *pppffft* Happily, Dana and Carlene were *not* scared out of their fins. In fact, Carlene and I had met previously at a Sherrilyn Kenyon signing…and I was so glad she brought that up, because it was killing me trying to figure out where I knew her from.

Kerri: Time to off-road-topic now.

Alethea: ::SCREEEECH::

Kerri: Let’s tell them about how we got the name “Waterworld Mermaids”

Alethea: Heehee…okay, you start.

Kerri: One of the highlights of Retreat is Romance Jeopardy. Trust me, that game gets crazy-sauce real fast (and it’s “not fair“). That year, one of the questions was something about a Kevin Costner movie. Someone shot their hand up and guessed Waterworld. Wrong!

Alethea: The answer was actually “What is The Postman“, which I knew, but I wasn’t on anyone’s team.  Which was probably a good thing, ’cause I’m one of those idiots who actually likes to PLAY games. *snicker* So I was sitting way in the back, next to an editor who was knitting furiously and only half paying attention, and we were heckling.

Kerri: The next person threw their hand up. “What is Waterworld?” Still wrong!

Alethea: I don’t even know if anyone actually got the answer to that question (or, rather, the question to that answer). It started to devolve pretty quickly after that.

Kerri: The next person tries. “Um, is it Waterworld?” Nope, besides being wrong, we are all very bad listeners!

Alethea: I think that last one was Karen Johnston and she was SO CUTE when she did it, we all cried we laughed so hard. At which point, the answer to EVERY CLUE became “What is Waterworld?” It was hilarious. I remember the Romance Jeopardy hosts throwing a LOT of candy at the audience that night.

Kerri: They didn’t throw as much stuff this year. I know this because I like to pick up the candy and throw it at our lovely Avery Flynn, which I’m pretty sure she enjoys as much as me. Ummmm. Maybe?

Alethea: This year it would have gotten stuck in her beard.

Kerri: Anyhoo, the night we got home from Retreat (which would be two days after the Royal Wedding) guess what was on TV? Sadly, not The Devil Wears Prada. WHAT IS WATERWORLD! Alethea and I started tweeting back and forth about it and out of that conversation, we thought it would make a fun blog name. But it needed… something.

Alethea: I just had that feeling. That “almost there” kind of feeling.

Kerri: What goes in the water? Beautiful mermaids. And what are we? Beautiful, talented Mermaids in different stages of publishing, supporting one another and returning each year to Retreat so we can throw candy at Avery Flynn learn to be the best Mermaids ever!

Alethea & Kerri at the 2013 WRW Retreat

Alethea & Kerri at the 2013 WRW Retreat

Alethea: Huzzah!  *glitterbomb*

Kerri: Whether you stop by the lagoon on a daily basis, or just when the fancy strikes your fin, a huge thank you for joining us over the last two years!

Alethea: And a very happy Mermaid Blogoversary to us all!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mermaid Anniversary Prize Pack

The Prize Pack! Books, A Nightie, $25 Amazon Giftcard and a WWM Bottle!

 

Stranger Than Fiction

Princess Alethea Mermaid

Princess Alethea Mermaid

Raise your hand if you’re a fan of Jude Deveraux.

*raises hand vigorously*

I am a HUGE fan of Miss Jude, having fallen in love with A Knight in Shining Armor when my mother brought it home in a bag of books she’d bought for me from the local Friends of the Library book sale when I was in my teens. (Those book sales saved my life, and if I could be a member of every Friends of the Library branch in the world, I would…but that’s another story.)

Right now, Jude Deveraux is making a rare appearance at the Romantic Times convention in Kansas City this weekend. Lamentably I am not at RT right now–because I am doing 4 conventions and multiple events across the US in the next 6 weeks and my stamina and wallet couldn’t take it–but I really wish I could be.

Happily, in this day and age of social media, I enjoy staying in touch with Miss Jude via her Facebook Fan Page, to which she posts regularly, usually daily, and usually very early in the morning. She posts a lot about what she’s working on, what changes her editor has asked her to make, what side projects she loves working on…it’s so awesome for me as a writer AND a fan to see all this go through her head.

One of the more recent projects has her writing about a girl who is treated very badly by her family, and she’s asked a lot of us if we’d had similar experiences and what our reactions were. At the end of several weeks’ discussion, she’s decided to make the horrible mother and sister step-relatives, more because of the rules of some inheritance plot she’s including than the stereotype of The Evil Stepfamily.

As a student of fairy tales, the whole stepfamily dynamic (and its reputation) has always fascinated me. There’s a GORGEOUS fiction book by Lisa Goldstein called The Uncertain Places (if you’re a fan of Grimm — the TV show or the tales, you must check this out). In the book, Goldstein mentions that the Grimm Brothers wrote about Evil Stepmothers so much because no one would believe that mothers could treat their biological children so cruelly.

I can’t find the academia to back this up (and if you happen to know, that would be awesome), but it makes sense to me. Some truths are just too far beyond the suspension of disbelief a reader allows when opening the cover of a book.

YA author (and fabulous curmudgeon) Richard Peck mentioned this once in a talk he did about a historical novel he was writing, and a French girl he had interviewed for authenticity. Essentially, he could not include all of her story, because no one would have believed it.

From this perspective I can see the fascination of true crime novels (I’m looking at you, Avery Mermaid), because the author is expected to shock the reader with events that are, indeed, stranger than fiction.

It seems a shame that in this world, there are things a fiction writer can’t include in her writing because “no one would believe it.”

Have you ever come across something in a book you just couldn’t believe?

Or have you had something happen to you that you know you could never write about…because no one would believe it?

 

A Tale of Four Covers

(Crossposted from Alethea Kontis)

Sometimes you’re the bug, and sometimes you’re the windshield. Yes, folks, HERO really is getting yet another cover. This is the way of publishing, and I am so glad I have you all along for the ride.

When I was but a wee lass attending the Ingram Publisher’s Showcase (may it rest in peace), Harlan Coben once gave a hilarious talk–with slides–about the progression of his book covers. One of these days, maybe I’ll be able to give a similar talk. It may go a little something like this:

Once upon a time, I was approached by Harcourt and asked about a cover concept for HERO. I was sent various pictures of various models holding various swords, from which my editor and I picked the one we felt most resembled Saturday Woodcutter. Here’s what we chose

image009

…and here’s what we got.

Hero First Pass Cover

Now, I really couldn’t complain — Girls With Foofy Dresses on the Cover have been proven to sell more copies by the Marketing Powers That Be. Plus, it more closely resembled ENCHANTED, which I was told to believe was a good thing, since ENCHANTED actually did pretty well.

And hey: it’s gorgeous. If Saturday had to be wearing a dress, she should be wearing the only dress she’s worn in her life, right? The one from the first ball in ENCHANTED. It actually *does* factor into the novel…in a sideways sort of fashion.

I only made a few nitpicky comments, just to be a Good Author and earn the “cover consult” we so painstakingly negotiated into the contract. One of those points was “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was someway to have dragons in the filigree?”

So they came up with this:

Hero (2) filigree

Which was AWESOME! I made tons of swag with this cover. The ARC has this cover. I made tons of swag with this cover.
I am now trying to give away all my swag with this cover, because a Professional Calligrapher happened to be in the neighborhood and did this:

HERO (3) filigree

…and again, I can’t complain because it’s just MORE GORGEOUS. Subtle and intricate and beautiful.

And then a Beatific Cover Angel descended from the sky and said, “Behold! Harken ye unto my words and your book will be adored by bookstores the world over.

So more tweaks were made. Some roses were added to the filigree, like ENCHANTED. A tagline was added to the top, not like ENCHANTED. Lo and behold, we once again had a new cover, blessed by the angels and now–once again–officially signed off on as the new-new-new-reallysupernew cover of HERO.

HeroAprilFools

ISN’T IT GORGEOUS?!?

Your thoughts are welcome in the comments below. And, as always, sharing is encouraged.

 

Our Valentine Gift to you…A Collection of Heroes

 

Hero Collection

To celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, the Mermaids have assembled a hearty and handsome collection of heroes for all our fishy friends. Here at the lagoon, we celebrate diversity in writing, living and loving, something I was so pleased to see come through in this real life and fictional collection.  We hope you enjoy.

From Alethea

Alethea Valentine

In high school, I had a poster from the movie Sidekicks on my ceiling (among many others). I used to dream that Jonathan Brandis and I were great friends. When he committed suicide in 2003, I was wracked with irrational guilt. Maybe if I had written to him, or even attempted to reach out…maybe nothing. Maybe not. I’ll never know.

But as authors, we have the power to make people live forever.

Recently, our Man Wars Mermaids started posting pictures of their schoolgirl crushes, so I hunted down this picture of Jonathan. I was just starting notes for Beloved–I needed a different kind of hero for Friday Woodcutter, someone a little lost and a little angry and a little dark despite his fair coloring. In that moment, Tristan Swan sprang to life.

 

From Avery

Avery Valentine

Treasure hunter Jax Taylor is a Southern charmer with enough sex appeal to melt the polar ice caps. Brought together with ex-fiance Veronica Kwon by their dying mentor, the two agree to an uneasy partnership. Together they’ll climb a magic beanstalk to the cloud kingdom where they’ll find riches, zombies and passion. Meet Jax for yourself in Jax and the Beanstalk Zombies by Avery Flynn coming soon from Lyrical Press.

 

From Carlene

Carlene Valentine

Ever wonder what it is in those great big heroic hearts of firefighters that sends them in to the station each day?  Marcus is not only family but he’s a real-life hero and I’m so tickled he answered this for us.  “I’ve always been one to jump at the chance to help people. Knowing I get to do what I love for a living with my Brothers and Sisters from my second family is a blessing!”  He’s not just a hero, he’s a sweetie too. His beautiful wife, Erica, (sorry ladies, Marcus is taken) shared that Marcus once told her to take off for a week, no explanations given.  I guess when your honey asks you to do this, you just nod your head yes.  Good thing she did because it was a sweet Tenth Anniversary surprise vacation.  Sigh….

 

From Dana

Dana Valentine

There is a lot of hero inspiration available in the world of romance writing but for this Valentine’s Day I’m celebrating the heroes of the armed forces. These men and women are real heroes. They spend months away from their loved ones when they deploy, often live in less than ideal conditions and have no choice where they spend their holidays. To me a real hero is someone willing to stand between the innocent and danger, and these folks definitely fit the bill. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice. Happy Valentine’s Day!

From Denny

jesse williams 4

Actor Jesse Williams inspires:)…good looks, sure, but those eyes, those eyes, even in black and white, his eyes shine through. He is the inspiration for my antagonist (hero) in my paranormal romantic thriller…the log-line…In post-apocalyptic Washington, DC, a vampire hunter ‘on-the-edge’, seeking revenge for her partner’s death, and a hot-headed homicide detective, looking for answers about his past, team up to investigate the murder of a high profile politician and discover a cult of assassins in a dark and twisty tale of lust, addiction, sacrifice and love. Happy Valentine’s Day.

From Diana

Diana Valentine

What may you ask is my husband’s feet doing in the midst of all these jaw-droppingly gorgeous guys.  Well, the call to action was a half-dressed man, wasn’t it?  My DH is my hero for so many reasons, but last year when my feet ached so badly I couldn’t walk another step in my heels, he took off his shoes in the metro (subway for you non-DC people) and gave them to me!  For me that’s the most romantic thing in the world and I’ll love him forever for that … and so much more.  Happy Valentine’s everyone!

 

From Susan

alex

    Alex Geerman is from Aruba, graduated from my hometown’s high school and worked as a trainer in a local gym until his mother sent his photo to a New York modeling agency.   Now he travels world-wide on photo shoots, and has been featured on several romance covers.  Do you want him on your next book?  I do!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE WATERWORLD MERMAIDS

 

 

Healing Hands

Princess Alethea MermaidAs I mentioned last month, among my resolutions for 2013 were a few “Internal” goals. One of these goals I actually cheated and started before the New Year, mostly because I was in ghastly amounts of pain.

That’s right — I booked a massage.

Right now you’re thinking, “Oh, Alethea. What is wrong with you? It’s not terrible to book a massage, you selfish thing!” Part of me thinks that too. In fact, I thought that for so long, I never actually GOT a massage, because I was worried that I would fall in love with it and then never be able to afford it again. All I knew about massages I read in books and saw in movies. They looked like wonderful, magical things…especially for a writer with chronic neck & shoulder stiffness.

A few years ago, I tried a 30-minute chair massage.
I was in severe pain for the next three days.

I tried chair massages twice after that, thinking that it was ood for me, working out these muscles. Now, I’ve had whiplash from riding Outer Limits (now Flight of Fear) at King’s Island. The pain I felt after every chair massage was ten times worse than whiplash.

I did a lot last year — driving myself 2500 miles around the southeast for my own book tour, then sitting down to write an entire novel, all the while still attending conventions and Comic Cons every other week. I saw a chiropractor and hated every minute of it. By Halloween, I’d lost feeling in my right armpit. I bought a coupon for a local Yoga studio online…and then promptly got sick. By Christmas, I decided to make the call. I was prepared for the pain.

A month and three massages later, I’m here to tell you: I have found a new way of life. I’m sleeping better and have fewer headaches. Luis, my masseuse, is my new favorite person. This is one resolution I mean to keep.

If you have never had a table massage before, here are some helpful things to know:

1.) A chair massage and a table massage are totally different. A chair massage can be done in a mall. A table massage is done in a private room, with low lighting and soothing music. It’s amazing what a difference ambiance makes. The more relaxed you are, the better your massage will go. My massages were performed on a heated table, and were a million times less painful than my experience in The Chair.

2.) Get naked. This is really the perfect opportunity to get over all those hang-ups you might have with your body. What the masseuse needs you to be is a lump of dead weight on the table–he or she will move your arms and legs and head as needed. You are under layers of bedsheets, and the masseuse reveals only what he/she needs to, folding and tucking the ends under your body so nothing comes loose. It’s  very professional and discreet.

On my first visit, I kept envisioning myself as a big fat mob boss with a cigar, like in the comic books. THEY don’t care what they look like, and those guys get massages ALL THE TIME. (Plus, when your masseuse finds that magical pressure point in your size-14 butt that clenches around your sciatic nerve after sitting in a chair for 9 hours, you will be so happy you won’t even care.)

3.) Communication is key. Be sure to let your masseuse know up front that this is your first time. He or she will help guide you through things (like when it’s time to flip over). Ask any questions you like and bring up any concerns you might have before it all starts. No need to overshare–just tell them if you have areas you’d like them to concentrate on. They’ll find the rough spots, even the ones you don’t know about.

Then it’s time to shut up and relax. Relaxing is difficult for me, so it requires concentration. Similarly, your masseuse is doing the equivalent of seeing inside your body with their hands. They need to concentrate as well. Of course, if you are feeling unbearable pain, let your masseuse know immediately. It’s okay to feel uncomfortable as they work on those rough patches, but pain is not the goal.

4.) There are different types of massage. Books and movies teach us to be scared of “deep tissue” and anything that involves someone walking on your back. Massages can range from 1-10, 1 being Relaxation Massage and 10 being Deep Tissue. The massages I get are “Therapeutic Massages,” which are at about a 7 or 8. In Therapeutic Massage, there is a lot of work done with thumbs and forearms. With Deep Tissue, it’s all elbows. Communicate to your masseuse about the level of massage you desire.

5.) Tip well. Yes, massages are expensive, and I balked when I realized that I was expected to fork over an additional $15-20 to the masseuse when my hour was up. But consider: this person has just spent an hour intimately touching your naked body with the express purpose of you feeling better. And at the end of that hour, when you DO feel better, you will wish you’d brought more than a $20 with you to give this person. Trust me.

This doesn’t cover everything, but hopefully this post will help some writers who might be on the fence make the decision to treat themselves better and spring for a therapeutic massage. If exercise and chiropractomancy hasn’t worked for you and you’re leaning toward physical therapy or–heaven forbid–surgery, give massage a try. Personally, I am SO glad I did.

And maybe one day in the future I’ll get Luis to have a Guy Day with us… *grin*

Swimming with the Mermaids: Carlene Love Flores

If you have never experienced in person the gorgeous and amazingly pure sweetness that is Carlene Love Flores, then I suggest you check your calendar and make an appointment to do so at your earliest convenience. If I could convey the effervescent loveliness with which Carlene so subtly reminded me to get my coughing, virus-ridden duff out of its funk and post the interview I did with her last month about her fabulous debut release, Sidewalk Flower, you, too, would wish you had such majestic and judicious grace.

I am as blessed and honored to have her as a Mermaid Sister as I am proud of her release…which just so happened to launch on my birthday. How’s that for awesome karma?

*************************

Alethea Mermaid: Tennessee, California, Australia — what special meaning (if any) do each of these places have for you?

Carlene Mermaid: Let’s start at the end and work our way back (which fits since this is how I wrote Sidewalk Flower-Trista and Lucky’s story.) When I think of Australia, I see brave people with gorgeous voices and a tenacious, fighting spirit. I can’t imagine Jaxon James (Trista’s best friend) being from any other place.

The first time I drove through Tennessee was years ago in the fall. I fell in love with the state that day and when fictional native son, Lucky Mason, stepped up to the plate to be Trista’s hero in Sidewalk Flower, I fell in love with him too.

Southern California is everything I know about being young at heart and free but also a place you have to leave sometimes to find yourself. I was honored to have made this trip with the heroine of the story, Trista Hart.

Alethea: Music is very important to you and your work. Do you listen while writing? Was there a “Sidewalk Flower” playlist?

Carlene: I do love music with all my heart! I listen to it most hours of the day & night and leading up to every scene I write. But during the actual writing, I prefer to be alone with those thoughts. Here is Sidewalk Flower’s playlist:
“Why I’m Feeling Blue” by Casey James (Lucky’s song)
“Blown Away” by Carrie Underwood (Trista’s song)
“Better Than Me” by Hinder (Jaxon’s song)
“The Dead of Night” by Depeche Mode (Sin Pointe’s song)
“Talk About Suffering” by Debra James (Gramma Grace’s song)

Alethea: What is it about a man in a cowboy hat?

Carlene: Intriguing, isn’t it? I’m a big fan of men in hats. Also men without hats. Hey, everybody look at your hands! Now let’s safety dance. Sorry, I just had to go there in the name of 80’s music. Hmm…I also like Men in Trees. I miss that show…

Alethea: Have you ever driven cross-country?

Carlene: Oh yes! Road trips are my favorite and so when I had the chance to hop in the truck and drive from Virginia to California and back, I was in heaven. Where else can you listen to music, ride with the windows down and watch the sun setting in the rear view mirror? Here are a few pics from that trip: http://carlenelove.com/2012/08/08/my-favorite-cross-country-road-trip-pictures/

Alethea: Who are some of your favorite fictional heroes?

Carlene: Gosh, I am hands down the biggest broken record when it comes to talking about my favorite fictional hero, but since you asked…Valerius Magnus. ☺ Swoon. I am very jealous that you are Facebook friends with him. But can I just geek out a little here and say how excited I am to be officially sharing Lucky Mason with the world?

Alethea: Who inspires you — in both fiction and real life?

Carlene: There is so much I appreciate about life and the people living it. I’m inspired by the weak and the brave. The hurt and the whole. People with unshakable faith and those on the brink of losing it. I’m inspired when people don’t give up.

Alethea: What’s the coolest thing about being a Mermaid?

Carlene: I can think of many cool things about being a Mermaid, but the coolest by far, is calling the ocean home.

Alethea: What would you say are your Mermaid super powers?

Carlene: Well, whatever you do, don’t Google Mermaid Super Powers! The results are full of unimaginative fluff. Of course we exist, and of course we are super and powerful 😉 My super power is that I believe in make believe.
[Edited to add: I believe Carlene’s Mermaid Super Power is her beautiful purity of spirit. Am I right? Mermaids, feel free to chime in with your opinions below!]

Alethea: What’s next for you?

Carlene: Now that Trista and Lucky’s book is out, I’m spending time convincing Jaxon James it’s a good idea to tell the world his story next. This is where that Aussie tenacity I mentioned earlier comes in to play. But underneath it all, he’s a good guy. It’s really not his fault he can’t stop thinking about Trista’s long lost baby sister…

*************************

Thank you, Carlene!

If you have any other questions for Carlene, feel free to add them to the Comments below. And if you haven’t yet picked up your copy of Sidewalk Flower, now’s your chance!

Got Books?

Princess Alethea MermaidHello, all–

My lovely fellow mermaids have let me take the lagoon today to spread the word about a project I’m working on.

I belong to quite a few national writers organizations, among them is the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). Our Mid-Atlantic region is working on a book drive for Sandy Hook Elementary School, and I am working to spread the word in an effort to collect book donations on their behalf.

If you’re in the middle of your post-Christmas clean up and are thinking about purging some gently used (or even new!) picture books, please drop me a line and I will send you the address of our regional coordinator. She is collecting all the books to send on to the school.

As Sandy Hook only encompassed grades 1-4, we are only collecting picture books. Yes, I, too, was reading at an advanced level by the age of eight, but according to our regional director, we’re sticking to picture books. I suspect this actually has more to do with the fact that a hardcover picture book often costs more than a middle grade series novel, and I know from past experience that picture books as donations are some of the most difficult items to come by.

Also, I appreciate that some folks would like to donate money, but we are not set up to accept monetary donations. I would suggest you consider using the money to purchase some books off Amazon and have them shipped directly to the Mid Atlantic SCBWI regional coordinator.

If you are interested in taking part in this effort, however large or small, please send an email to me: akontis at gmail. You can also reach me through my website at www.aletheakontis.com (Please don’t ask me via Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, etc, because those mailboxes are not reliable.)

Thank you all for your time — I hope you continue having a wonderful and happy new year. xox

 

Class, Please Hand In Your Self-Evaluations.

It’s 2013! Congratulations: you’ve made it to another year!

While every morning or hourly call of the cuckoo is enough to start a new project, exercise, or 1000 words, the tick of the clock from one calendar to another is traditionally when we all get down to the nitty gritty and make The Big Life Plans We Hope To Not Lose Sight of In a Month.

We all make New Year’s Resolutions, whether we write them down or say them outloud or wish them on stars. What I am challenging all writers to do this year is to make GOALS instead of Resolutions.

Think about yourself as one of those annoying corporations with bad coffee and worse management, the kind that asks you to turn in one of those ghastly self-evaluations every year and forces you to set your own lofty goals, goals that may or may not have anything to do with the actual direction of the company, but paperwork that can be submitted on behalf of the pointy-haired boss who can’t be bothered to actually work for the space where his company car is parked.

Please place your goals into these five categories:

External Goals

These are the kinds of goals most of us typically make. Decide how many books you want to write this year, how many contests you want to enter, how many essays you want to write, and how many stories you want to submit. Write those down and start marking them off.

Internal Goals

These goals are not as difficult to make, but almost impossible to follow through with, since the general public often sees these goals as selfish pampering — so much so that you’re not even allowed to write them off on your taxes. But why not? If maintenance has to be done to that horrible corporation’s building, that’s typically a write-off. As writers, our bodies are our buildings. We need to take care of them, or they will fall apart and trap our minds inside them.

Regardless of what the IRS thinks, I challenge you to set a personal pampering goal for yourself. Establish a relationship with a local masseuse or farmer’s market. Look into gym memberships and personal training sessions. Check out yoga and barre classes in your area. And if you’ve been putting it off (like I have), get your tucus to a doctor and/or physical therapist. We may not be able to write off our bubble baths and candles and reiki meditation CD, but they are as vital to our survival as those words on the page.

Research Goals

You’ve wanted to try something new, so this is your year to do that. Video blogging? Podcasting? E-publishing? Comic book conventions? Local book clubs? Art? Hiring publicists or book tour companies? Choose something this year that you have been considering but haven’t tried — something that teaches you a new skill and will leave you with valuable information. Even if that information is DEAR GOD, REMEMBER TO NEVER DO THIS AGAIN, that’s a valuable lesson you wouldn’t have learned if you didn’t try.

Altruistic Goals

‘Tis better to give than receive. Put out in the world what you expect to get in return. Whenever I am feeling blue, I go online and do something for someone else, even if it’s as simple as voting for a cover, “like”ing a book on Amazon, rating a book on Goodreads, or sharing a friend’s new book on Facebook. Challenge yourself to do some of these little things every week — every day, if you want — along with a bigger goal. Talk at your kid’s school. Volunteer at the library. Answer your fan mail. Bring snacks to the next meeting. Be sure to put some love out there into the universe.

Family First

All these goals are great, but you need to remember to not lose sight of the people who believed in you in the first place. Do something nice for your significant other. Call your mother. Buy your kids silly presents on Valentine’s Day. Make gingerbread houses in June. Decide to go somewhere touristy in your area once a month. Go see a play. Start a Popcorn and Bad Movie night. Turn off the phone and turn your attention back to your friends and family for a significant time every single day. It makes a difference.

Do you have some good ideas? Please feel free to share them! I’ll be posting my own goals for 2013 on my website later today…or later this week. (Obviously, an emphasis on regular daily blogging isn’t on there this year.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!

xox Alethea

Guy Day: Interview with Santa Claus

Yes, it’s that time of the month again here in the Mermaid lagoon: Guy Day!

I would like to welcome an incredibly unique and special guest to our site today. I caught him during the off-season and used all my magical princess mermaid powers to persuade him to answer a few questions for this special day.

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy your milk and cookies while you read this EXCLUSIVE interview with the one…the only…SANTA CLAUS.  Continue reading