Tag Archives: writing life

Tag I’m It! 7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me

12 May

I want to first thank Kat Morrisey for tagging me on her blog. Sorry it took me so long to post a response. I’ve been so busy writing I’ve had very little time for blogging. All of my posts this month will be part of the Blog Me Maybe Fest created by Tracey NeitherCott. This is my first time ever participating in a blogfest so… here we go, seven things you probably don’t know about me:

Photo by Jeltovski

1. I’m vegetarian. I’ve been vegetarian for over 15 years. I still eat eggs and cheese and I don’t plan on giving it up anytime soon. While I’m vegetarian I have yet to create a character that didn’t eat meat. A matter of fact, Sunni Brown, the protagonist in my book “The Shelter” absolutely loves chicken, especially the fried variety.

Photo by Calrita

2. I’m an avid roleplayer.  That basically means I create fictional stories in a communal fashion with some wonderful folks in Second Life and I’ve been doing that for the past two years. I have met some the most talented writers in my Second Life roleplay community.

3. SunHi Mistwalker is a pseudonym, as in pen name.  Nope I wasn’t born SunHi Mistwalker; but I think it’s an absolutely cool name so I’m sticking with it for now. SunHi means “one who brings happiness and good into the lives of others.” Mistwalker? Well, I don’t think Mistwalker has any specific meaning so I’m just going to say that it means “one who performs extraordinary feats” :p .

Photo by Jppi

4. I also write satire and historical fiction. My screenplay set during the early 19th century won two awards; but was never produced. While it’s true that some of my most recent work is quite gritty, I can also write comedy — and I’m good at it.

5. I make my living writing nonfiction. I work as a ghostwriter full-time writing blogs, articles, books and just about anything else that other people don’t have the skill or time to write. People hire me because I can write just about anything — really anything.  I’ve written for attorneys, real estate gurus, fashionistas, dating experts, motivational speakers and academics. I’m really good at mimicry and can copy anyone’s writing voice.

6. I’ve been writing professionally since I was fourteen years old. I first discovered I wanted to write when I was eight years old; but I didn’t enter into my first official writing apprenticeship until I was fourteen.  The first time I realized the true power of words was when I was running for Class Treasurer of my eighth grade class. The girl running against me was popular and everyone vowed to vote for her. My campaign posters were defaced by my opponent’s supporters and I was even threatened by classmates who thought I should drop out of the race. The day of the election all of the candidates were required to give a speech. When I stepped before the class to speak I was booed and mocked. But by the time I was halfway through my speech people were cheering. My speech won me the election and left my opponent in tears.  Side Note: If this kiddie election sounds harsh, try to put it into context. I grew up in Chicago, a place where politics kill…literally.

Photo by Aconant

7. I speak French. I’ve been studying French for the past eight years. While I don’t speak fluently (like a native speaker), I speak well enough to carry on long rambling conversations about just about any subject. I spent a year living in Paris where I made a lot of progress in my French language skills.

Well, that’s it about me. If you want to join my mailing list to find out about my upcoming books, events and free giveaways, please join my mailing list.  Also, check out my books:

The Shelter (A Short Story)

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Amazon FR

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Amazon FR

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The Darker Side Of Childhood

19 Apr

When I wrote “The Shelter” I was terrified of writing something that would offend a lot of people.  But then my old writing mentor’s words rang in my ear, “Bleed on the page!”  Bleeding on the page is when a writer creates something without censoring themselves. And it is in this spirit of non-censorship that I wrote “The Shelter.”  Why was I initially afraid of my own words? Well the truth is that  so much of today’s dystopian fiction chooses to avoid tough issues around growing up, especially when it comes to issues concerning girls. Issues like poverty, sexism and sexual exploitation are often avoided or treated in such a way that the end result can only be compared to magical thinking. Because of this I knew that my story might be viewed as extreme.

Last Spring I was reading a YA novel that’s been compared to Hunger Games, while the book was well written I found myself unable to continue reading. Why? Well, some of the storyline just did not ring true for me. How can you have a dystopian story about a teen girl living in an oppressive society who is jailed by a brutal ruling class; but she doesn’t even face the threat of sexual assault? I know that it’s YA literature and you don’t want to depict graphic upsetting images; but come on let’s be real here.  I’m not saying that every dystopian story about a young girl in an oppressive society has to have some type of sexual assault issues, all I’m saying is that oppression and rape usually go hand and hand in the real world.  And if you try to completely avoid even the slightest innuendo about how sexual assault is often used as a weapon in an oppressive society, I think that you’re cheating your reader, especially young readers.

Sometimes Childhood Is Hell

Sometimes childhood really is hell. There isn’t a week that goes by that we don’t hear about some tragic story about a young girl being killed or exploited, especially in undeveloped countries.  A matter of fact, some people in this world have so much hatred of girls that they try to kill them for doing something as wonderful as going to school. Look at the recent story about Afghan schoolgirls being poisoned. How terrible!  Are these men who did this just naturally spiteful and sexist? No, I don’t think so. But I do know that when a society has collapsed the worse in some people is bound to come out.  But the hell of childhood is not confined to some far off lands. We can look right here in the United States to find children facing challenges most of us can’t imagine.  Right now, we have cities and towns in this country that have collapsed. Municipalities are returning roads to gravel, cutting back on public services and many citizens are finding themselves unable to survive financially. Some of those people turn to illegal means to survive, many of those people are children.  Did you know that there are millions of underage girls (and some boys) trafficked in America’s booming sex industry and that the number is growing?  Girls are especially vulnerable in collapsed societies because there is no rule of law that will wield it’s mighty force to protect them. If you add poverty into the mix, girls have even fewer rights in societies that are in the process of imploding.

Why The Dark Side?

For the past few years I’ve had a very strong desire to tell stories about young girls living in dying societies. How do they survive? How do they cope? Who will become their allies?  I didn’t want to tell these stories in a milquetoast way. I wanted to write it honestly and authentically. It feels good to know that I achieved that authenticity with “The Shelter ” and I hope that I’ve also reached my goal with my new novel New Hope City which continues Sunni Brown’s story when she’s 14 years old. If you want to receive updates about the about sales, new fiction and other things related to my work please sign up for my mailing list.

If you haven’t purchased your copy of New Hope City please purchase it on Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo | Smashwords | iBookstore | Paperback Version

 

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I Finally Did It!

28 Feb

I’ve been working full-time as a writer for over six years now. But for even longer than that I’ve wanted to make my living from fiction. Well, my short story “The Shelter” is the first step to accomplishing that goal. On this blog I will talk about my upcoming work, my writing journey and general issues that I’m passionate about.

After roleplaying for nearly two years, the character Sunni Brown (known to players in CD as SunHi Gavilan) I found myself with a fully developed character. It was amazing because I had absolutely no idea that this would happen. My friend Nicole had prodded me for years about signing up for Second Life because we were both lovers of the Sims game. I was resistant initially; but after discovering other writers in SL’s roleplaying sims I was hooked. It was supposed to be just for fun. Something to do after a long day of writing for other people; but it ended up morphing into so much more. If someone had asked me if a character I created for a game would somehow inspire me to write a short story and a novel, I would have thought they were crazy. Really!

Speaking of novels, I have 118 pages done and I’m currently in the rewrite phase. I really want to get this novel published this summer; but I’m giving myself until the Fall because you just never know what changes will be needed. Writing a novel has been one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced in terms of writing. I use to think that writing screenplays was difficult; but I now think novels top the list of difficult forms.

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