Author Archives: hkrowe

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About hkrowe

A writer living in western suburbs of Chicago.

Ups and Downs

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I have been writing and drawing a LOT. Unfortunately, it’s more exercise and practice stuff. I’m doing a lot of journaling, which is mostly personal.

I spent a two week stint designing proposal templates on oDesk so I was occupied there. Hey, money is money.

A lot of my private journaling comes from thoughts and introspections as I deal with the one-year anniversary of my father’s death, as well as being there for my mom while she goes through it. It’s not pretty stuff. One thing is a hard constant: I still don’t like sharing my feelings. Apparently people think that’s something I need to work on.

I’m musing and outlining my Nanorwrimo novel, thinking of a cohesive plot. I’m trying to get over the strange fear of editing Killer Orange. I wonder if I can get through that. It isn’t a block so much as a feeling of dread, like a dirty chore, and I need to get through that. I’m open to what other writers do when they feel overwhelmed with dread in editing their works.

On the upside, this Saturday was Madison Pagan Pride day, and I met High Priestess and activist Selena Fox. She’s one of my idols, and she’s so charming and full of love and joy. I wish I could be half the woman she is.

Work is going really well, but more is continually expected of me. Such is the game.

More writing progress posted soon!

Cheers!

H.K. Rowe

My Growing Reading List

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Two posts in one day? What the -!

Seriously, you guys are killing me. I got my notice today that one of the books I pre-ordered was ready in my Kindle app library, there was an Alice Hoffman book for sale on Bookbub, and I still have tons of my friends’ stories sitting and waiting for me to read them.

I have a serious problem though. I tend to read 2 to 3 books at once. I don’t know if that’s healthy but it’s how I roll.

This is just a preview of my kindle app. It’s way longer and more stacked than this. Trust me.

Screenshot_2014-10-03-09-36-22

And this doesn’t even count all the books in my house in multiple bookshelves. I think I have a serious problem.

H.K. Rowe

Flash Fiction Friday

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shutterstock_21183613

Maybe this can be a regular thing. I see a lot of people writing Flash Fiction here, and since I love writing short things, I thought hey, maybe I’m missing an opportunity here.

This piece is old by about two years. I wrote this for a small fiction challenge over at Livejournal/Dreamwidth.

Title: Art Show
Word Count: 506
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Warnings: Abuse, murder, torture
Notes: Written for the Summer Mini Challenge for the “berry pink” prompt.

Summary: Some things die before they are truly yet beautiful.

He took a sip of tea, and smiled as the girl continued to scream. Forbes had clicked his tiny knives together, and the youthful squeal of metal against metal filtered throughout the room. In one swift motion he jabbed the woman’s torso an inch above another knife, sticking three inches below her ribs.

“What kind of tea are you drinking, sir?” Forbes asked his master. His master continued to look out the window of their high rise building, listening to the loud hiss of acid rain against the pane of glass.

“Ah,” his master replied, “it’s Jasmine tea. I chose it in celebration.”

Forbes nodded, clicking two fresh knives together. He peered into his magnifying glasses, and jabbed one of the knives into the other side of the girl’s stomach, symmetrical to the one he’d just used before. He watched in fascination as the blood from the knife painted over her curry-colored skin. Breath escaped her berry pink lips less and less as he stuck her, sliced her, and blood started to trickle onto the floor, marring the pristine white carpet into various splattered patterns.

The master turned from the window and stared at them, entranced. His lips pursed. He was thinking – imagining, something terrible and beautiful at the same time.

It was just beyond his reach, and then…

“Sir, this one is starting to dwindle,” Forbes interrupted his thoughts, and he caught his master’s smile turn into a displeased sneer.

“Try to keep her here longer. We’ve just gotten started.”

Forbes picked up another knife, different than the others, with a blade that was pointed and curved in a half-moon shape. This one was his favorite. He smiled and stuck the girl after he had found the right place. Blood poured down her torso, running into the paths of the rest of her blood and then dripping into her navel. He picked up a smaller knife and struck her again, and then a spasm ran through her body. She let out a tired agonized moan, and then her breath was lost.

“This one has expired, sir,” Forbes said, his voice stark and cold. He looked down at the half-finished masterpiece and awaited his master’s reply.

With an exasperated sigh, his master took another sip of his tea and his lip curled with bitterness. “This is a failure.”

Forbes studied the girl, decorated with his custom knives and dressed painterly in her own rich blood. Forbes thought she looked magnificent, even if the piece was unfinished. He certainly didn’t think it was a failure.

“Why?” he asked his master, hovering his finger over a perfect river of blood down her leg, wishing he could touch it without ruining his work.

His master took another sip. “The tea is still hot, Forbes.” He walked over and traced a light, loving finger down the girls’ cheek, twirling her dark hair on his finger.

He spoke with disappointment, “There just wasn’t enough time to enjoy the art.”

 

I hope everyone has a marvelous weekend! Cheers.

HK Rowe

NaNoWriMo Prep

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Well, it looks like I caught the bug too! I always enjoying NaNoWriMo and even though things have been insanely busy, it seems I can’t escape the excitement of NaNo coming around the corner.

The story is still in pieces in my brain, but I started doing character profiles yesterday in my notebook and things are starting to come together! I’m getting excited for it, so let’s see where it goes.

How’s everyone else’s NaNoWriMo plans going so far?

 

Monday Blogs – NaNoWriMo Thoughts

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I admit… I went from not knowing if I would participate in NaNoWriMo this year, to getting inspired for a brand new story that’s not in my “Story Ideas” folder in my Google Drive.

I’m also sort of excited about it, and the character backgrounds are already beginning to formulate and come together, especially the male character – who my brain seems to add layer upon layer already.

The characters aren’t the only exciting thing I want to play with, it’s the relationship – a May-December relationship that I’ve always had a fascination with, with all the stigmas and notions that come from it – I want my characters to explore that, to find love despite odds and their friends and family disapproving of them. I’m already falling in love with the characters myself, so I feel extremely inspired – yet cautious.

They are still, unfortunately, locked away in my head, and I know if I start opening up that file and jotting stuff down, I’ll fully commit myself to NaNoWriMo and then I might freak out from the pressure.

In addition to that, I’m already starting to feel guilty that “new story” is occupying brain space when I should really be working on Killer Orange editing, which has stalled unfortunately thanks to freelance projects and a busy September. October is starting to look just as crazy – at least on the weekends.

Once I chew through all the anxiety (which is another matter altogether), I really feel I should commit myself to Killer Orange. If I can do that in a month’s time and still manage to begin NaNoWriMo, then I’d consider that a huge, productive achievement.

Fingers crossed!

From Grammarly — Who Writes Better: Men or Women?

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Extremely interesting.

Lisa J. Jackson (@lisajjackson)'s avatarLive to Write - Write to Live

Grammarly (www.grammarly.com) conducted a study with 3,000+ participants to settle an existential question that has been plaguing mankind for centuries (or maybe a few years here and there):

“Which gender has the better writers?”

They published the results to the question above in an infographic (below) and I got permission to share it here with you. I thought it would be fun for some discussion.

Grammarly_MenvsWomen_Writers_infographic

The results for characters question splits out equal from both perspectives — I think it’s only natural that we include bits of ourselves in our writing, since that’s a person we know best!

Pronouns & Determiners are pretty evenly split, too.

What do you think about the plot vs character and long vs short sentences? Would you put yourself in the majority in those categories?

I would for the first – I like (try) to develop my characters and have the plot follow. For sentences, I…

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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

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Someone at my Livejournal blog (which I keep specifically for fandom and personal rantings) posted about what characters in fiction share your Myers-Briggs personality. I admit, I had to take the test all over again because I did not remember what I was.

(If you don’t know either, take the test here.)

I’m an INFJ (Introverted, iNtuition, Feeling, Judging) which according to several internet sites is a rare personality type among the 16 types.

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Here is INFJ in a nutshell:

INFJs are creative nurturers with a strong sense of personal integrity and a drive to help others realize their potential. Creative and dedicated, they have a talent for helping others with original solutions to their personal challenges.

The Counselor has a unique ability to intuit others’ emotions and motivations, and will often know how someone else is feeling before that person knows it himself. They trust their insights about others and have strong faith in their ability to read people. Although they are sensitive, they are also reserved; the INFJ is a private sort, and is selective about sharing intimate thoughts and feelings.

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This describes me to a T, and actually it’s a little frustrating to see myself so plainly spelled out, but it made me think that perhaps a lot of my stress and woes really tries into my nature of wanting to be everyone’s counselor and fix everything in life that’s broken. Maybe I do care a bit of a superman complex as well, or at least a person so blindly dedicated to a cause.

And yet when I posted my results on facebook as well, I noticed at least three more INFJs, which makes me wonder if we really are that rare, or that it really is true about INFJs when it comes to friendship, that we’re very particular and like to collect friends with perfectly aligned interests.

I thought it was interesting. Here are the famous people that are also INFJs that I like:

Mohandas Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Emily Bronte, Carl Jung, Florence Nightingale, Shirley MacLaine, Jimmy Carter, and Edward Snowden.

And then of course, here are the fictional characters that I know which are also INFJ:

Yue and Roku from Avatar: The Last Airbender
Paige Matthews from Charmed
Bruce Wayne from The Dark Knight
John and Anna Bates from Downton Abbey
Walternate from Fringe
Peter Petrelli from Heroes
Merlin from Merlin
Anthy Himemiya from Revolutionary Girl Utena
Christine Chapel from Star Trek: The Original Series
Kes from Star Trek: Voyager
Ezri Dax from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Ianto Jones from Torchwood
Jasper Hale from Twilight
Phil Coulson from the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars
Allison Argent from Teen Wolf
Amy Pond Doctor Who

Find your fictional character personality types too HERE.

What personality type are you? Does it fit you?

Have a good weekend!

H.K. Rowe

Writer’s Workspace

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I’m finally getting to this, but I was tagged by Leigh Michaels to show my writer’s workspace. Sometimes I can write pretty much anywhere as long as there’s a good environment, like in my spot on the bed or on the couch. I have a hard time with distractions, so couch-writing doesn’t seem to work out much anymore, especially with the TV on or the husband trying to make conversation. Writing is like reading to me, which means I dive into another world. Only my body is left in the real world after that… You might as well talk to a tree.

My main space is my studio. It’s our second bedroom in the townhome. It was always meant to be mine since hubby took over the basement for his mancave, and that’s fine. The house came with pink carpet in this second bedroom, which really seemed to fit me.

Here are some shots. 🙂

The window, along with stacks of art and writing stuff. What can I say...

The window, along with stacks of art and writing stuff. What can I say…

Being an artist and writer takes up a lot of space, let me tell you, but I guarantee everything is organized!

 

photo 3

 

Surrounded by books, books, and more books. And fannish things. It feels  like home…

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More books and my helpers. Malachy in front, my schnauzer/beagle mutt, and then Whiskey, beagle, on the go.

photo 1

And then the computer where all the writing happens. It’s hard to tell but I have my self-publishing manifesto framed on the right. Marilyn Monroe graces my walls. It’s more of the “Marilyn Room” than my studio, but she was so ahead of her time, so independant and carefree, that she inspires me.

This is where 90% of my writing happens. I can shut the door, put on Spotify, and with sleeping guard dogs at my feet, I can travel into other worlds.

I’d love to tag Aether House for this. And anyone else who wants to do it and follows my blog.

Looks like I caught a virus. I think that it’s finally getting out of my system, but things are slow. At least I can properly formulate thoughts now…

Cheers,

HK Rowe