The Birth of a Story

A few years ago, as I sat in the car outside of a convenience store, an old payphone on the side of the building started to ring.  I’d been to this store a million times and hadn’t even realized a payphone was still there.

No one was around eagerly waiting for a call, and everyone walked by it, not even giving it a second glance.  No one answered it.  As it rang on, I wondered who would be calling a payphone in this day and age when everyone has a cell phone?  How would they have the number? Should I answer it?  If so, what would they say?

 Too late…the ringing stopped, unable to deliver the message it intended to deliver.  

As I mulled over this, my character introduced her story by saying, “It was about a month ago I stopped being a redhead.”

Thus, birthed my story, DESTINY CALLING. 

My story process

           

            I’m always curious where stories begin.  Wondering how the mind works, as I’ve noticed that often the writers mind appears to be wired just a little different.  Such as my immediate assumption, as I struggled to open the sticking door to our garage was that… this was how I was going to die. A murderer would break into the house and as I fumbled with my weak grip to flee from death…and failed. 

When I told my husband this he said, “It’s probably from the change in temperature.”

            True, but still a possibility that I may perish as this opportunity awaits the mass murderers that are lurking in my imagination. 

            Or when the neighbors were building the house next door and I was pretty darn sure there was a body buried in that pile of dirt and putting the house up was merely a guise to hide the corpse…

I’d like to share the 80,000-word story that was birthed from a ringing payphone.  Here’s a taste of what grew into DESTINY CALLING.

Vengeance lures 21-year-old Hope Hallows back to the outskirts of Pittsburgh, not just to the family who abandoned her, but also to the breeding ground for malevolent beings, which feed off despair. Gifted with the ability to infuse euphoria or utter desperation with her touch, Hope must face both her inner demons and the ones walking the earth. Struggling with forgiving her family, and resisting the man enticing her with the power of the Underworld, she discovers she's a pawn in a bigger game played by a merciless ruler who doesn't lose.

I don’t have a beautiful cover to post with it, yet.  It only exists in my mind right now, and you don’t want to go there.  It can be a dark, scary place. 

If you’re a reader, what interests you about the stories you read or the authors that create them?  If you’re a writer, how are your stories conceived?  Thanks for stopping by.

Now That's an Interesting Name... With Wendi Zwaduk

A lot of the time people will ask me about my name. Wendi. "Now that's an odd name." I don't think it is, but then it's mine and I've had it for over 30 years, so I would be used to it. The question I get the most is, "How did you get that name?"

Part of me wants to answer, the same way you did. My folks gave it to me. But I refrain. I'm honestly not sure how they came to that particular spelling or that name. I just know my name is Wendi.

I like to say it came from Peter Pan. They never said no, so that's a good start. And the name Wendy is mentioned in Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run". Who wouldn't want their name mentioned by the Boss? I know I would. So that works, too.

But this post really wasn't supposed to be about MY name. Nope. I had a moment. Yep, THAT moment. The moment when I said, "now that's a neat name" to someone else. Thankfully he didn't laugh at me or roll his eyes, although he could've/should've. Wasn't really my business to comment on his name.

But I did.

So you're probably wondering, what exactly were the circumstances in this situation...oh and what was his name? I was at the home store getting paint. He worked the paint counter. Nice looking guy, too. Would serve well as one of my heroes. Anyway, I noticed his name tag. Krieg. Hmm. Neat. So I said, that's a cool name. (Actually I think I used the word neat... being cool under pressure is SOOO not my strong point).

He smiled and said, "What, Kreig? It's nothing." (Pronounced Craig - like Daniel Craig)

"It's unique. I like it." (Again, I am NOT smooth under pressure.)

He smiled again and blushed, then handed me my incredibly boring pale blue paint.

I left the store and wrote down his name. Not to make a connection with him. Nope. Because I wanted to use his name for a character and I knew just which one. Turns out he's wolf shifter. Grin. Megan's going to have so much fun with him.

Have you ever met anyone with a unique name? What was it? How did you react? Or do YOU have a unique name? I'd love to know. :-)

~~

Want to know more about Wendi Zwaduk? Here you go:

I always dreamt of writing the stories in my head. Tall, dark, and handsome heroes are my favorites, as long as he has an independent woman keeping him in line. I earned a BA in education at Kent State University and currently hold a Masters in Education with Nova Southeastern University.

I love NASCAR, romance, books in general, Ohio farmland, dirt racing, and my menagerie of animals. I also write under the pen name of Megan Slayer. I’m published with Total-E-Bound, Changeling Press, Liquid Silver Books, Turquoise Morning Press, Decadent Publishing and The Wild Rose Press. Come join me for this fantastic journey!

If you like my work, tell your friends and email me. I love hearing from readers!

Site, Blog, Twitter, Facebook Fan Page, Amazon 

~

Now here's a little bit more about my take on The Phantom of the Opera: The Phantom of the Opera

Gaston Leroux and Wendi Zwaduk
Total-E-Bound
Novel
historical
m/f, bdsm, spanking, multiple partners
Available here!

The Classics Exposed…

A chance sighting at the Opera, fated love, and three lives in turmoil.

One man pledges to own her, while another wants her heart. The Opera sets the stage for romance and intrigue. In the catacombs below the building lives a man rife with sorrow and passion. The Phantom. But he’s not content to live alone. He wants to possess the one woman who can set him free.

His Christine.

Viscount Raoul de Chagny doesn’t believe the rumours of a Ghost living below the Opera. He only has eyes for Christine, his childhood friend and first love. Together they embark on a sensual journey of discovery and fiery desire.

But she can only have one man. Will love raise her up or tear their world apart?

I'm going with awesome

There's a time in everyone's life when they decide if they are going to live life or if they are going to be rocking awesome.

I've decided on awesome.

Why have I decided to make this monumental decision in my life? The turning point came around Christmas. I was stressed, life was changing and though there were soooo many wonderful things in my life, all I saw were the things making me bonkers. My husband took me aside and pointed out the great things and really made me look at my life and I realized, I was living an awesome life...just didn't have the attitude to match.

So, I changed my thinking--and if you think that was easy, you're not completely wrong. Taking a turn for awesome isn't necessarily difficult, but it does take diligence. A few 'being awesome' tips I've found that really work for me.

Don't Dwell: Can you fix it today? Will replaying the conversation over and over in your head change the way the encounter went down? If the answer is no, let it go. There's value in planning and retrospect, but not a whole lot.

Do Something Spontaneous--for someone else: Did your friend have a baby eight months ago? Pick up a pack of diapers for them and drop them off with a cup of coffee and listen to them, don't puke up your own problems (if they have a newborn, they're at capacity for vomit). Are you price matching at the store and the person in front of you has a similar item? Offer to share! It doesn't take a lot to do this one. It's little things that give you human interaction and human smiles. Making other people smile adds glitter to your own life.

Be Willing to be a new Best Friend: This one is tricky, especially because people can be so darn crazy, but give it a go. It's easy to close off in times of stress. Open up, but don't make it about you! That mom you walk to school with on occasion? Invite her and her kiddos over for pizza one night! Nice family at church? Invite them over for dinner and get to know them. You might hit it off and have a fantastic new friendship. Or not. Either way, you opened up that shell and when that happens, you let awesome in and out.

It doesn't take too much to be awesome. When you do get to that point when you're seeing life as great, share the view and invite others to jump up too. Some things really are meant to be shared.

All the best!!

Stephanie Beck
www.stephaniebeck.net

I'm so lucky: First Dimension and Yes, Captain.

I’m the luckiest of all authors this week because I have…Two books released! Last week, I was so pleased to see First Dimension become published by Liquid Silver Books and now this week, my short story Yes, Captain has released.

Both of these books hold dear places in my heart as they were steps away from the ‘norm’ also known as the Westervelt Wolves and the Outsiders for me. Sometimes, my muse simply demands that I go live in other worlds for a while before she will consent to go back to the trials of the Wolves and the near death heartaches of the Outsiders.

Having said that, I think I must really never be able to let anything go, as First Dimension has become a series called Safe Haven and the back of my mind is twittering away with the idea that Acton and Lizbeth could once again romp around the galaxy together.

Maybe it was that I didn’t have a lot of friends as a child. I’m serious. It’s kind of hard for a person to make friends when they basically want to stick their noses in a book all of the time. LOL. But if the characters in my head live with me for a period of time while I am writing the books, it could be that my muse is just not willing to say goodbye to her friends. Ever. LOL.

My poor critique partner is desperate for me to write single titles but clearly I am needy and too hard on my characters in that I never give them a rest and keep dragging them out to play whenever I have the need for them. Or maybe it’s the opposite, maybe they keep dragging me out to play whenever they have a story to tell.

I sometimes wonder how I will explain this to my children. “Well sons” (I have three) “Mommy has to go live in different worlds for a while and write them down so that she can fulfill a need to be creative.” Maybe they’ll just ‘get it.’ They are, after all, my children.

So this week, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who come here and comment and a huge shout of gratitude to all of who have read and continue to read my books. My muse and I are so unbelievably grateful.

Enough rambling, I promise. Next week: Marriage proposals written up in a coherent way.

Cheers.

RR