Category Archives: Personal

Personal topics and thoughts on things non-writing related.

Fantasy Fiction Author Finds a New Home

  By Arial Burnz | March 1, 2012 - 10:45 am | , , , ,
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Welcome to My New Fantasy Home!

Ahhh! A warm fire crackles beside me. The cushy chair craddles me as I sit before the hearth and absorb the warmth from the flames. I put my book down upon the table to my right and smile at the faeries flitting around the room, decorating my new home with sparkling dust. My spirit guide and friend, MaeDawn the unicorn, curls before the fire. Raja the dragon swoops by my window and I enjoy the overcast sky. A perfect day for writing. Broderick MacDougal saunters into the room and sits in the adjacent chair, his roguish smile setting my insides to fluttering. Would you like to join us?

I welcome you to my new home. I haven’t moved physically…just in cyberspace and in genres. In realizing my clarified role as a fantasy fiction author instead of a romance novelist, I thought it fitting to surround myself with the images and atmosphere of the genre…the things I love. Unicorns. Mystical places. Dragons. Vampires. Werewolves. *sigh* I believe I’ve finally found my home. Yes. It feels right now.

I struggled with being a romance novelist, as I was told my romance stories were more about the layers and the details I’d woven into the plot versus the romance. The final resolution of my stories was NOT the relationship, but the journey the chacters traveled with each other. No matter what story I penned or planned, romance was not the center of the story even though there were strong romantic elements and I tried to hard to fit into that mold. I felt lost. Homeless, if you will.

As such, I could not live up to the expectations of my audience, which influences my sales and by which I gain more readers. Though the romance community never shunned me, I did feel out of place, like walking into a Regency ball, unsure of how to behave under the social scrutiny. I don’t blame them at all. It wasn’t their fault I went to the wrong party. In directing my attention to the fantasy fiction community, however, I was welcomed with open arms. It was as if I’d walked into the Prancing Pony. A mug of ale was shoved into my hand, I pulled a chair up to a table surrounded by hobbits, dwarves, wizards and elves. We laughed and spun tales and I felt the freedom to be myself. How refreshing! Pass the brew!

Now that I’ve accepted the idea and settled into my new home, I look back on my old place, surprised I thought I belonged there. I write fantasy fiction with strong romantic elements. It’s as simple as that. I welcome you to my new home and invite you to sit awhile and explore. You’ll find, as I did, it’s not that much different. Just a little more magical.

Anne Rice Made Me Do It!

  By Arial Burnz | February 16, 2012 - 1:51 am | , , ,
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Anne Rice - Inspiring me for 30+ years

I just started using Pinterest and was pinning pictures of women who inspire me…one of which is Anne Rice…and it just made me want to post about how she inspired me to start writing.

I was an avid reader as a kid, but nothing moved me as much as her Vampire Chronicles and tales of Lestat De Lioncourt. Whew! The poetry of her prose. The vivid descriptions of the dark settings her stories took place. The emotional torture her characters experienced. The twist she gave an old legend. I felt her stories were so real, she MUST have interviewed a vampire. She MUST have the inside scoop. What a delightful journey she led me through! I enjoyed The Vampire Lestat so much, I’d read it four times.

Now, I’m dating myself here because I read Interview with the Vampire in the 80s a few years after it came out and I was in high school. As such, I was NOT enthralled with her books because of the Twilight craze. My love affair with these creatures of the night started over 30 years ago, so this is not a bandwagon I’ve jumped on. The world is just now catching up to me. ;)

I devoured vampire novels like vampires devoured their victims. I’d read every book of vampire fiction I could get my hands on and, at the time, I didn’t think anything could compare to the genius of Bram Stoker, who was the father (or known as such, at least) of these gothic and tragic beings with his novel Dracula. (Incidentally, if you haven’t read it and you’re a vampire fan…you should or you’re not officially an avid reader of vampire fiction. It is truly and surprisingly enthralling and unique…even compared to modern fiction.) Though I was writing, my stories were about dragons and unicorns and knights in shining armor.


Sting wrote a song called Moon Over Bourbon Street and my sisters and I were intrigued. Being huge Sting and Police fans, we read all the fine print on all their albums, scouring the inserts for bits of information about their personal insight into their music–and so we learned this song was inspired by Anne Rice’s novel Interview with the Vampire. We HAD to get the book just because Sting read it! All three of us–my two younger sisters and myself–became obsessed with Mrs. Rice’s stories and began penning poetry. One day I will compile these poems and publish them. They’re haunting, beautiful and tragic…just like vampires.

I carried this obsession into my twenties–still reading anything related to vampires, both fiction and non-fiction–and eventually wrote my first novel, then known as Bonded By Blood. Through the years, more stories evolved and now I’ve developed a six-book series from the first story and use the original title as the name of the series.

And thus is the reason for my dedication page in my debut novel MIDNIGHT CONQUEST:

A Thank You to Sting
For “Moon Over Bourbon Street”
He fed me the intro
To Anne Rice’s treat
She’s planted the seed
To all that I’ve written
If it wasn’t for her
I’d have never been bitten

I had the wonderful privilege of corresponding with Mrs. Rice, letting her know I dedicated my first book to her and how she has been my inspiration. I could have sworn that I blogged about it, but I can’t seem to find that entry. Oh well. I guess that’s for another post. Thanks for reading!

That’s my two pence…

I HATE TECHNOLOGY!!

  By Arial Burnz | February 15, 2012 - 10:36 pm | ,
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Okay, I’m venting and the truth is I really don’t hate technology. I’m just having major issues with it today. I have this AMAZING program called SWiSHMax 4 that is a 3rd-party Flash program which creates SWFs. Why use this and not Adobe Flash? Because  SWiSHMax 4 is a helluva lot easier to use AND it’s a fraction of the cost. I use this program to create animated banners and book trailers with wonderful effects. Presently, I’m working on a book trailer for my awesome author friend, Brenda Hill and her up-and-coming release of WITH FULL MALICE.

So, what’s my problem, then, if I have this kick-ass program? Unfortunately, I can’t seem to export the audio I’ve added to my movie. I’ve got really neat sound effects and background music…and it won’t export.

The last time I did this, I had to…

  1. Export the file as a silent FLA
  2. Import it into Adobe Flash
  3. Add the sound files manually AGAIN to specific frames
  4. THEN export it as an MPEG
  5. Then YouTube.com didn’t like the MPEG, so…
  6. I had to find a program to convert the MPEG to an AVI.

*Stops to take a breath*

HOLY CRAP, I do NOT want to have to do all that again.

However, trying to find the right driver to capture the audio is turning out to be almost as complicated! If I can’t solve this problem in the next day or so, I will have to resort to that tap-dance approach to get the darned movie in a format Brenda can use. GRRRRR…ARRRRGH!

BLAH! How’s that for venting?

That’s my two pence…

Pseudo Moving

  By Arial Burnz | February 10, 2012 - 11:17 am | ,
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I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to make the move permanently to Blogger. Some friends in the industry have told me I should stick with WordPress because of it’s flexibility and it’s ease in integrating with your web site. I haven’t moved my blog to my web site yet, so that doesn’t really matter to me now. However, I may do that in the future. Hence why I am reluctant to make a complete move.

I will keep this blog, but put my full posts on Blogger for now, linking from this blog to that blog. Confused yet? ;) I will keep you posted.

If you’re interested in seeing the new blog, click here.

If you’d like to argue why I should stay with WordPress or complete my move to Blogger, I’d love to hear your comments.

That’s my two pence…

Catching Up – Sick of Being Sick and Tired!

  By Arial Burnz | February 10, 2012 - 10:57 am |
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I really hate to be one to bitch or complain, because honestly, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. I have my romance-novel-hero husband (pictured right), a roof over my head, a career that I thoroughly enjoy (editing / writing / cover design / recording audio books / creating book trailers) and pets that are adorable and love us. Read more…

Yes, Vampires REALLY Exist!!

  By Arial Burnz | July 12, 2011 - 10:23 am | ,
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I Met A Real Vampire

Because I’ve become an amateur expert on the subject of vampires, people have asked over the years one profound question: Do you believe vampires really exist? The short answer is…YES!

Anne Rice‘s books inspired me to delve deeper into vampire fiction. I’ve written vampire poetry, studied the subject rather extensively, read countless books on the subject–fiction and non-fiction–and have finally released my debut novel…a vampire romance set in the early 1500s of Scotland: MIDNIGHT CONQUEST. So, I definitely wanted to believe in vampires, but never knew one…until this incident.

I was in the military at the time and in my twenties, going to technical school to learn a new skill, so I was in a strange and unfamiliar environment. While sitting in the day room reading, an attractive man came in. Even now, I cannot recall his face. I just remember thinking he was a handsome man and was flattered he sat at the table with me, starting up a conversation.

Forced to put my book down and interact, I became engaged in an interesting chat…but I noticed it was all about me. Normally, I don’t mind talking about myself, but he kept asking questions about who I was, where I came from, where I’d been, etc., so I became suspicious and limited my answers, not wishing to divulge overly-personal tidbits.

I noticed my energy waning. I crossed my legs.

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Making Money With My Writing

  By Arial Burnz | March 10, 2011 - 12:57 pm | ,
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My latest heroine is Amanda Hocking. You may or may not have heard of her, so for those who are unfamiliar with her name and what the hype is all about, I’ll give you a very brief description: She’s making thousands of dollars (close to being a millionaire, if not already) self-publishing her YA (Young Adult) vampire romance novels through Amazon.com for the Kindle. She started last April 2010 with her blog (click on her picture here to visit said blog) and since then she has sold about 900,000 copies of her books (<–In this link, she addresses this fact and others, such as how much she is charging, etc.). She’ll tell you all the details on her blog, but in short, she’s charging anywhere from $0.99-2.99 per eBook (more for the paperback versions). Do the math, she’s making a lot of money.

If you want to know more about her, her point of view and what she’s doing, I highly recommend visiting her blog.

So, on to my post. Why is she my latest heroine? Because… (more…)

Spaghetti Sauce on a Dime – AND IT’S GOOD!

  By Arial Burnz | September 30, 2010 - 6:59 pm | ,
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Times are tough and I love being creative in the kitchen. I look in the cupboard and the refrigerator/freezer at the few ingredients I have here and there and the challenge begins: Can I make a meal out of what appears to be nothing? (Mission Impossible music plays in the background) Frozen mixed veggies…Bisquick…left-over roasted chicken. VOILA! Chicken Pot Pie!!

But sometimes, pulling a recipe out of my backside can get a little taxing if I have to do it everyday. So there are a number of things I like to have on hand in my kitchen (like some of the above) that makes for a meal almost anytime, but perhaps that’s for another blog. One of things I enjoy having on hand that makes a meal real easy to whip up when I don’t feel like being ultra-creative: jarred spaghetti sauce. (more…)

Home Improvement as an Art – Bathroom Decor

  By Arial Burnz | January 26, 2010 - 1:29 pm | , ,
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Art in the home doesn’t have to be expensive! With a little creative painting and garage sales, thrifty shopping and discounted events, you can give your home the flare you want and show your style! Oh! And watching a WHOLE lotta HGTV for inspiration!

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Moving On!

  By Arial Burnz | February 25, 2009 - 10:53 am | ,
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Ok, folks! I’ve had it!

I love my story MIDNIGHT CONQUEST, but since I’ve been working on this story for 17 years, I think I’m ready to puke on it! I understand the editing process and what one needs to do to get a book to publication. I’ve had several technical manuals, marketing materials and web sites published to know that true enough AND I’ve seen friends go through the process. However, in my recent experience with returning my revisions to The Wild Rose Press, I’ve discovered that I have a blind eye to the mistakes I am making. I wrote “passion” or some form of that word at least 10 times in two pages! I did this even though I re-read the pages AT LEAST five times. I’m usually pretty good about something repetative like that, but it’s clear I’m not seeing things like that on this project. I think there are two reasons why… (more…)