Interesting Characters Part 1-Gorilla Grodd

Today I will be blogging a series of posts on characters I've come across who are interesting in my opinion. And I start with The Flash villain, Gorilla Grodd.

Grodd made his comics debut in The Flash #106, created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino in 1959. For those not familiar with the character's powers, he possesses abnormal intellect, super strength and telekinetic powers such as mind control telepathy. Grodd was a normal ape until an alien being crashed landed in his home in Africa. Later, he and the rest of his troupe were imbued with great intelligence and psionic abilities, created an advanced civilization called Gorilla City. When a group of explorers discovered their existence, Grodd took control of one them and killed their leader. Then replaced him with plans to conquer the entire world. That put him on a collision course with Barry Allen-The Flash.

What makes Grodd interesting? In an interesting and terrifying way, he can be classy and menacing. With his intellect he can make his own inventions and combat that of his foe, The Flash. In a more scary fashion, his telepathic powers make him dangerous when he's transferring in his consciousness into his victims.

And that's what makes Grodd an interesting character to me.

Casting Call-If my books became Movies.

Like all writers, I've pictured which actors/actresses would play the part of the characters in our stories. I often look at who would be who in my stories but it's the main characters that come to mind. With that being said, here's my idea for who I'd picture as my heroes/heroines.

Lindsey Morgan-I love her work on The CW show The 100. Her character Raven has that toughness and vulnerability which she wears so well. It's something I see in my "first" protagonist, werewolf Rhea Ortiz.
















Ryan Reynolds-In my humble opinion, he can be serious and funny when he pulls it out. His role on Blade: Trinity was a slight influence on my male protagonist. I think Reynolds can do the cop role when it calls for it.

Ciara Renee-For the role of college coed/superheroine, I think of Ciara Renee. Her portrayal of Hawkgirl in The Flash, Arrow, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow is good. The whole "coming-into-your-own" character is the central concept for my superhero comic I have in mind for everyone including young girls and Renee pulls it off.

And that's my dream casting for my characters coming to life on TV or movies. 

How "Consider" opened me up to YA fiction.

Tonight's blog is part book review, part personal account.

I've made it a personal goal to read ten authors this year and on the list is my Writing Challenge tweep Kristy Acevedo and her debut novel Consider (Holo series #1). Recalling my humble opinion how reading makes you curious, I pre-ordered the book on that account. Truth be told it's been a long time since I read a book rated T for teens.

My thoughts on Consider? It won me over. Acevedo created something that's thought provoking with heart about the idea of Holographic messages forewarning the end of the world and facing a critical choice to stay or leave.

For the heart aspect of the book is how the main character is facing a unnatural event as well her own anxiety disorder which touches the humanity of the book, and how it resonates with anyone with mental issues. It's the kind of turmoil delves deeper into the concept Acevedo's debut.

From a reader's standpoint, I didn't just enjoy Consider but I'm touched by how human the story is. This is on par with the earnest honesty that S.E. Hinton addressed in her novel The Outsiders. With that being said, this book has opened me up to the YA genre for the first time in years.


    My overall impression on my writing compatriot's novel is very good debut for teens, adults who read YA fiction, or better yet, all ages.

Now's a good time to "consider" a good read.

#MayWritingChallenge Final Report.

And we're back for the final report of the May edition of Twitter's Monthly Writing Challenge!

I officially wrapped up the month with writing 3 comic book scripts and ready to roll on to #JuneWritingChallenge with a new hashtag leader (check out the website for more). But I made an unexpected turn in my writing. When I was finishing the third (and supposedly the final chapter) of my comic mini-series, it was turning into a four issue story. As mentioned earlier this month, I broke my story down and reworked it from scratch because of it not being what I expected thanks to the input from my writing group. So for next month I'm going to write the conclusion.

And now for the Week 4 results:

Day 22-Finished the second part of the story with the final word count of 3,628.

Day 23-No writing. I had to take the day off so I can come back to the story with a fresh mind.

Day 24-Started strong with 521 words. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Day 25-Written 776 words in fifteen minutes. Slow start but I won't argue with myself on that number.

Day 26-Pushed it with only an hour and thirty minutes (90 minutes) on the keyboard.

Day 27-1 hour of writing.

Day 28-Wrapped up the writing session with 1,537 words after a 30 minute sprint.

Day 29-Another 90 minute session.

Day 30-The finish line at 2,476 words for comic book #3! Boo-yah, baby!

 The whole month has been fun and unexpected. I made a crucial decision for my story and faced a turnout that came out of the blue. What rewriting the whole book has taught me is that you'll be making tough calls for the sake of art, and to not be afraid to change it to something different if it's not working. As a whole, we artists had to tear down a project to make it work after a number of times it feels like it's not working or it needs something different to put it on the right track. That's a given notion.

All right, I got some plotting and words to write. Check out the Twitter Monthly Writing Challenge for details on how to join on their website. It'll be a fun experience, I'll tell ya what.

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#MayWritingChallenge Weekly Report #3

Good morning and we're back with more #MayWritingChallenge progress by none other than, moi.

 Can you believe the month's almost over?

I can honestly say it's been rather a slow progression for me when I came back to Twitter's Monthly Writing Challenge after four in a half months of college courses. But that's the beauty of it. Progression is what you make of it in the work you do, friends.

All right, now. Let's take a look at my Week 3 results.

Day 15-1,336 words in 35 minutes. I wasted five minutes being distracted by social media and made up for it. Slow but I can't argue with what I put down.

Day 16-Took another 30 minute sprint for improvement. The result was 1,543 words.

Day 17-1,788 in 30 minutes.

Day 18-90 minutes of writing Wednesday night.

Day 19-1 hour & 16 minutes of writing.

Day 20-15 minute sprint. A little slow but I plowed through and finished with 2,447 words a little before midnight.

Day 21-2 hours of writing. I can see the finish line for the second issue of my WIP.

What's the takeaway from the past week? Keep trying those writing sprints. I know I can be a slow writer most of the time, but it's important to keep on to not only carve out a word count, but to improve your speed on the keyboard. Distractions are a given, yes. You just have to push through them with whatever the time you take for writing. For this week I'll take another shot at writing 30 minutes to improve my words per minute and move on to the next comic book script.

That's a wrap for my weekly writing challenge report. I'll catch ya'll cats at the end of the month!

Urban Fantasy 101.

Hello, aspiring writers!

    So you're looking to try your hand at creative fiction. Awesomeness! If you're looking to try out urban fantasy, let's get your feet wet. Urban fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy that takes place in contemporary times with supernatural elements. But it can take place in the historical, modern, or futuristic periods. The characteristics of the genre are set in a city and may involve alien races, mythological creatures, co-existence between paranormal beings and humans, etc. Bewarned, true believers. These stories may be set in contemporary times but it's not necessary for this characteristic to be labeled urban fantasy as it takes place in the historic period or in the future, real or imagined. Another characteristic to point out is that characters of urban fantasy have A) self-esteem issues or B) tragic pasts.

    As you may know, there's urban fantasy for grown-ups and teens. The grown-up side of urban fantasy is aimed at an adult audience and is told in first-person narrative to third-person narrative, features mystic beings, and female protagonists who operate in the parameters of vigilantism or law enforcement. Seanan McGuire's October Daye novels follows the adventures of a changeling that's born to a human father and a faerie mother moonlighting as a private investigator and knight errant to San Francisco's faerie. The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher explores a wizard working as an investigator and blends aspects of fantasy with noir themes. Last, but not least, the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs focuses on a shapeshifter working as a VW mechanic and the paranormals living in the Tri-Cities.

Death's Mistress by Karen Chance

     Now we're covering urban fantasy for teens. Teen urban fantasy explores protagonists that are accidentally drawn into the unknown. They find romance, gain allies, and develop or discover preternatural abilities of their own. An example of this subject is the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristen Cast that follows a school for future vampires. Another example is Alyson Noel's The Immortals series which tells the stories of a girl who gains special abilities after an accident and follows a mysterious new boy at school. In addition, love triangles play a prominent part in these and other UF stories.

*Author Jeanine Holmes pointed out the distinction between urban fantasy and paranormal romance in an online commentary saying:

The two share 90% of their genre DNA. However, the main differences are this: Urban fantasy focuses on an issue outside of a romantic relationship between two characters. Paranormal romance focuses on a romantic relationship between two characters and how outside forces affect that relationship. The best litmus test to determine if a story is urban fantasy or paranormal romance is to ask the following question: 'If the romance between Character A and Character B were removed, would the plot still stand as a viable storyline?' If the answer is 'yes,' chances are good it's urban fantasy. If the answer is 'no,' it's most likely paranormal romance.

And that's urban fantasy, friends. So...who's ready to write some UF action?

*Wikipedia-Urban fantasy  

#MayWritingChallenge Weekly Report #2!

Good morning all!

We are back with Week two progress for #MayWritingChallenge! All my peeps are getting it in with their own thing and they are blazin'!

Alright, here is my progress for the week!

Day 8- 1 hour.

Day 9- 90 minutes.

Day 10- Finished my first comic book issue with the final word count of 2,322!

Day 11- 1 hour & 35 minutes on comic book #2.

Day 12- I did my first 30 minute sprint for the first time in weeks. I was kinda slow but I carved out 739 words.

Day 13- No writing.

Day 14- Another 90 minute session.

I can really feel myself getting back in the groove this month. But I'm not rushing it one bit. The key factor in writing, in my opinion, is patience. Right now, I'm just taking my time with my work as I make my way back to my comics.

That's a wrap for week 2 of #MayWritingChallenge! Keep it locked for next week!