Monday Blog: A Vigilante, A Witch, and An Update

 

Greetings, everyone! Monday Blog time! This week, I wanted to discuss Valentine 5: The Queen’s Fold, The Witch of Fulton Lane, and provide an update about Righteous.

Valentine 5: The Queen’s Fold

If you’ve been keeping up with the previous blog entries, you may have been wondering, “Is that all she’s going to say about Valentine 5?” Fear not! I’m going to talk more about it, right here. When I first introduced Val Entienne, she was on a road trip to save her father. She wanted to find him alive, but if he was dead, she was going to avenge his death. Val ended up helping Melinda St James, a fourteen-year-old girl whose parents had died, and was on her way to live with her grandparents. Instead, she joins Val on her trip to L.A., and ends up living with her afterwards. This is where Val’s real adventure begins: she gets into a fight with a mob boss, shoots a few people, and puts her life on the line to keep her friends and family safe. She even travels to Italy, and learns about the history of the Entienne family. So, after all of the fighting and shooting and killing, between meeting and befriending hitmen and accepting her place in the Syndicate, how does the story of Valentine end?  It ends the only way it can end: with a bang. There’s a difference between reputation and action; a legend and the truth. The final book, brings everything full circle.

The Witch of Fulton Lane

I had been wanting to write this book for a very long time, but other books stood in the way, and I wasn’t even sure of where or how to start. Finally, I figured, time’s a-wasting, so I needed to get started. I’ve been into astrology, the paranormal, and psychic powers for years. I’ve had many readings done, and I also read tarot cards. So, there’s a little bit of me in the main character, Dylan Maycriss.  Dylan is a witch, and I’m not just name-calling here. She is a Wiccan, is a believer in the occult, and, as you will read when the book comes out, she does have supernatural powers. But what Dylan can do, won’t be the heart of the story. Of course, you’ll have to wait until the book is available to see what I mean.

Update on Righteous

I don’t want any of you to think I’m shelving this book forever. Between Righteous, The Witch of Fulton Lane, and Valentine 5, I was stretching myself way too thin. Plus, I have a few side projects I’ve been working on for other people. In order to give Righteous the attention it deserves, I thought it would be best to postpone working on it until January 2018. This way, I’ll be able to give you the best version of the book I can possibly give, instead of rushing through it.

Until next week folks…

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Monday Blog: Mike and Vanessa; Fiverr.com

Welcome to yet another exciting post on the Monday Blog! Okay…that might be overdoing it, but hey, whatever! This week’s post will be brief: a little bit about one of W.E.’s earliest comics, and my gig on Fiverr.com.

 

Mike and Vanessa

Mike Murnsen and Vanessa Vance of the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series once appeared in their very own comic strip. “Mike and Vanessa”, was one of W.E.’s earliest comics, and it first appeared in the Toonville 1999 Calendar (btw: W.E. has had a few calendars, too!). Toonville was W.E.’s old name, before I changed it to my last name.  The comics were single frame scenes, and mainly concerned jokes about parenting and married life (as I saw it). The sketches were crudely drawn, but the point got across.

 

Fiverr.com

I recently posted a gig on Fiverr.com, and I have been receiving requests left and right. So many, in fact, I had to place my account on Vacation Mode, until August 24, so I could fill my current orders! If you’ve never used Fiverr, it’s a great place for people to share whatever talents or skills they have, and it’s also great for anyone who is in need of said talents. My gig, is book reviews. I will post a book review for authors on Amazon, B&N, and Goodreads.com. My starting price is only $5. If you post a gig there, you can set your own price. If you need a book review, check me out! Here’s a link to my page: https://www.fiverr.com/woolent .

 

I’m in the process of editing Valentine 5: The Queen’s Fold. It should be ready to be released by the end of next month. Anyone who won a book through my Goodreads giveaways, should receive their books in the mail next week. Until then, keep reading!

 

 

Monday Blog: Enos and Degenerate R

Scene from Enos.        Degenerate R

 

Hello, everyone! Welcome to blog entry number two for the month of August. This month’s theme is Comics and Graphic Novels, so, naturally, this post will be related to that. I wanted to share some more info about two W.E. comics, “Enos” and “Degenerate R”. Both started out as comics, but later became books (because as I have mentioned in the past, I can write a book faster than I can draw a comic).

The Enos Series

After appearing in several of my fiction books, I corralled Amy, Dee, Vanessa, Yvonne, Nyda, Carmen and Erin from Our Lady, into a Sailor Moon inspired sci-fi series I named “Enos”. In this story, on Natca, a planet far away, five young alien girls train to become Natcan Cadets. Four are named after precious stones (Diamond, Emerald, Topaz, and Sapphire). The fifth and most headstrong of the group, is named Enos (because I thought it sounded cool). Donya, their teacher, is preparing them to go up against the mighty Herron Empire: the alien race who invaded and took over their planet. However, Donya is summoned to the palace for an impromptu trip to Earth, before her Cadets complete their training. Her Cadets sneak on board the Herron shuttle bound for Earth, and lose their lives in a battle. Their powers are imprisoned inside the Natcan Cadet Crystal, which Donya steals upon arriving on Earth. She passes the Cadet’s powers on to five new girls (Amy, Vanessa, Dee, Carmen and Yvonne). They use separate pieces of the crystal to transform, and become the new Natcan Cadets. As the story continues, new Cadets join the team (Nyda and Erin) and new enemies arrive to challenge Earth. One note about this series: it is FEMALE dominated. The heroes are female. Most of the villains are female. It’s chick lit, so to speak. Which brings us to…

 

The Degenerate R Series

If you’re into anime or manga, you probably know about all of those wonderful shojo magical girl series. Female characters transform and use special powers to fight evil. If “Enos” is a magical girl series, then “Degenerate R” is a “magical boy” series. I’ve always thought of Degenerate R as the male answer to “Enos”. Rob from my Our Lady series, is the main character. He’s a college student, in the town of St. Moral, just trying to go to school and live his life. All of that normalcy is interrupted by the arrival of Mischievous A, a female “Militant Warrior”, clad in a pleated denim skirt and a camouflage jacket. She fights the monster that attacks Rob’s campus on the day he’s trying to register for classes. Rob becomes so impressed by her, he ends up becoming a Militant Warrior himself. Like Mischievous A, he transforms via a ring, and becomes Degenerate R. As the series develops, other Militant Warriors join the team, and fight an enemy known as the Blue Shadow Clan.

 

I haven’t published the books from either series, because I didn’t want to create a conflict for the Our Lady series. I figured, it would confuse the reader. But, someday, I may publish some of the work, and it will be similar to Punk and Whiskers.  These books would be unrelated to the Our Lady series, and meant to be light-hearted reading.

 

Until next week…

Monday Blog: 1995: The Obsession Begins

The first “Enos” comic, 1996

Sample pages from the “Enos” comic

 

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to the first Monday Blog for August 2017. This month’s theme concerns WE comics. Today, I’d like to take you on a little trip, all the way back to 1995….

 

WE was only seven months old or so. During the summer of 1995, I started watching a lot of anime, and my interest in manga (graphic novels) was beginning to stir. I woke up early every weekday morning to watch Sailor Moon on UPN (or My9, or whatever it’s called now). I rented a ton of VHS tapes from Blockbuster Video, since their anime section was fairly decent. I was able to see Slayers and Akira. This led me to create a comic of my own: the Enos series I’ve mentioned in previous blogs.  I drew the first of what was going to be a series of comics, in 1996, but decided I could write the book faster than draw a comic, so Enos became a series of books instead.

Every time I rented an anime video from Blockbuster, I made a list of all of the previews which aired before the feature. Then I’d look for those other titles. In high school, I discovered Animerica Magazine, which exposed me to a whole new world of anime and manga titles to explore. I read Galaxy Express 999, which led me to Queen Emeraldas and Captain Harlock. But, I wasn’t only interested in shojo (girl’s) material; I later discovered Kohta Hirano’s Hellsing manga, and watched both versions of the anime that followed. Blue Seed, El Hazard, Dirty Pair, Cutie Honey, Bubblegum Crisis, Bastard!, Sorcerer Hunters, The Devil Lady, Neon Genesis Evangelion…I could keep going and going. All of these titles and more, inspired the WE comics, which later inspired the WE books.

 

Apart from Enos, I drew humorous comics, and used some of the characters you’ve met in the Our Lady books.  Dee had her own series, titled Seybrook, while Amy and David were featured in Sarconi. Mike and Vanessa, were featured in Mike and Vanessa. These three comics became part of a calendar I created in 1998.

Who would have thought, all those years of watching anime and reading manga, would lead to this point? It just goes to show you: your hobbies may not necessarily be a complete waste of time.

 

Until next week…

Monday Blog: The Fortune’s Wing Series

Fortune’s Wing

Fortune’s Wing: Second Flight

Fortune’s Wing: Flies Again

Hello, again, everyone. Welcome back to the Monday Blog. This month’s theme is When A Series Ends, so every Monday Blog post will be devoted to a W.E. series. This week, I want to discuss Fortune’s Wing.

I wrote the original Fortune’s Wing books between 2001 and 2002. The first book in the series wasn’t published until 2009, through Xlibris. The second book, Fortune’s Wing: Second Flight, was published in 2011, and the third, Fortune’s Wing: Flies Again was published earlier this year. There are revised editions of the first two books available through Amazon’s Create Space.

The series follows Fortune Oyama and his friends, as he learns about and tries to fulfill his destiny: to save or destroy the world. On his eighteenth birthday, Fortune grows a Left Wing, and must set out on a journey to claim the Right Wing and complete the set. Whomever has possession of the Wings, shall control the fate of the world. However, Fortune’s journey is not without opposition: The Winged Seven, other people who were born with a Left Wing, are also in search of the Right Wing. Their leader, Demetri, will stop at nothing to control the world’s fate. He sends the other members of the Winged Seven after Fortune and his friends, one by one. Spoiler alert: Fortune manages to retrieve the Right Wing. With the set complete, he must go on one more journey, the one that will decide the world’s fate.

The decision to save the world should be simple, right? In Fortune’s case, it isn’t. As Fortune continues his journey, his view of the world begins to change. He finds himself wondering what kind of world he’s really fighting for. In the end, he has to do a lot of soul-searching in order to make his final decision.

When I originally wrote this series, I a) never intended for anyone to actually READ it and b) didn’t write it with a particular audience in mind. When I made the decision to publish the book, I made a few changes, in order to make the story appropriate for middle school-age readers. I figured, since it was a fantasy story involving teen characters, and the story didn’t contain any graphic violence, nudity, sex or coarse language, middle school was a safe age to market to. Narumi’s name was changed from Nirogetai or Niro for short, and a character was eliminated from the story. In book three, when Kazumi comes to visit Haverdy, the old friends catch up on one another’s lives. Haverdy asks Kazumi if she’s dating anyone, and Kazumi’s girlfriend Russia is later introduced. In the original story, Russia accompanies Fortune and has friends on his final journey. Since the series was being marketed to middle school readers, I made the decision to eliminate Russia as a character, and Kazumi’s sexuality is never explored.

I came up with the concept for Fortune’s Wing: Revamp, several years ago, and I’m considering publishing it. This would be a new, grown-up version of the story, with Russia included and Kazumi’s sexuality becoming part of the story once again. The idea is still on the table.

This was the first W.E. series I had ever written which featured human characters. It was also my shortest series (the Enos series has over 15 books).  It opened the door for Valentine and Valentine Apart, and the upcoming books I’m working on for W.E.. It was also the first W.E. series I had written which entertained the idea of the world coming to an end. Even though it’s meant for younger readers, I’ve had readers of various ages tell me they enjoyed the story. I also wrote Haverdy 0, which was a spin-off from the Fortune’s Wing series. I may publish it, somewhere down the road. We’ll see.

 

Next week: The Valentine Series

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Melinda’s Summer Plans (a snippet from Valentine 5)

Melinda St.James, one of the younger (and more innocent) characters from the Valentine series, has decided on what she wants to do, when summer arrives. Here’s a snippet from the upcoming Valentine 5, which features a conversation between Melinda and Jo Fuentes. Enjoy!

 

 

“Hey, I know what I want to do this summer,” Melinda said. “I heard someone at school talking about the Pride Parade in June. I wanna go!”

Veronica, Val and Jo all turned to her in surprise. “The Pride Parade?” Val asked.

Melinda set her bowl on the coffee table and nodded enthusiastically. “Yes!” she said. “Can we go this year?”

“Uh, sweetie, do you know what the Pride Parade is for?” Jo asked.

“Sure,” Melinda said. “It’s about celebrating who you are, and being proud of yourself and your friends.”

Jo turned to Val and Victoria and smiled. “She’s so innocent, it’s too adorable,” she said. She turned back to Melinda, and said, “Well, you’re not wrong. Pride celebrates the LGBTQ community. It reminds people to be tolerant and open-minded, and embrace everyone’s differences. It helps the community be more aware of people like me.”

Melinda blinked at her in surprise. “What, do you mean, like, other Marines?”

Jo raised her eyebrows. “You’re really adorable, do you know that?”

Melinda beamed, and picked up her bowl of cereal. “Thank you.” Victoria leaned over and whispered something into Melinda’s ear.

Jo smiled at Val and Veronica. “This year, she should lead the Pride Parade.”

 

Monday Blog: Novocaine

Novocaine

 

Happy Monday, everyone! From now on, I will repost the Monday Blog from woolastonentertainment.com, on this WordPress site. This week, I wanted to talk about Novocaine.  This book is part of the Our Lady of Righteous Rage franchise, but it’s not a numbered book in the series. It’s more of a companion book. Even if you haven’t read the rest of the series, you can read Novocaine without getting totally lost.

Novocaine follows Erin, one of the characters in the Our Lady series, as she and her mother make a decision to move to Georgia to be closer to their extended family. This is shortly after Erin graduates from High School. She’s excited by the idea, at first, until everything goes to hell. Her uncle (her mother’s brother) made a faulty investment, and it may cost him his house. Erin and her mother find themselves without a place to live, and manage to make it from Georgia to New York. There, Erin eventually gets a job working at the Urban Collective, where she meets the members of the band Our Lady of Righteous Rage.

One of the most interesting aspects of Novocaine, is Erin’s transformation over the course of the story. She goes from bookish-nerd, to scared teenager, to bad-ass Goth/Emo chick. Many of the events that transform her, transformed me as well. That is to say, while this is a work of fiction, there’s a lot of truth weaved into this story. A great example, is how Erin is introduced to the music of Green Day. Her experience mirrors my own: using the power of music to get through a difficult time.

I don’t want to give the impression that Erin is just some brooding teenager. She’s dealt a pretty rough hand in this story, but she handles it the best way she knows how. In the upcoming sequel, Another Shot of Novocaine, Erin is a little older, a little wiser, and not afraid to speak her mind.

Next week: Your Fame Will Destroy You

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Lola, Jo, and the Badass Girls of “Valentine”

Val, Veronica & Lola

The other day, someone asked me if I considered my self to be a feminist writer. I hadn’t thought about that, until that moment. I considered my style of writing, and the characters and stories I’ve created over the years, and realized, YES, I suppose I am a feminist writer. The majority of my characters a female, and they’re not the “damsel in distress” type. Take the “Valentine” series, for example. The first book starts out with 19-year-old Val Entienne (aka, Valentine) driving from Chicago to L.A. to find her father. She’s a young woman, armed with a pair of handguns, and a serious “can-do-will-do” attitude. She knows the trip is dangerous, but she’s willing to risk her safety to find her father. Throughout the rest of the series, Val does several things that art generally not associated with her gender. Aside from knowing how to shoot (and being a very good shot, I may add) she knows a lot about cars and how to fix them. She has no problem stepping into the role of “leader” of her family. She’ll do anything to protect the people she cares about. All in all, Val is a badass.

But she’s not the only one. The “Valentine” series is full of strong female characters. Two of them, just appeared in their own books. Lola Vencent, John Rafferty’s former valkyrie, and Jo Fuentes, have their own back-stories.  Both Lola and Jo are hit-women, and both are extremely skilled and good at their jobs. Aside from being a hit-woman, Jo is also a United States Marine (extra street credit there).

Val’s cousin Veronica is another force to be reckoned with. If Val needs someone to back her up, Veronica is right there. She comes off as the voice of reason in the Entienne family, but she can be tough when she needs to be. At one point, she even pulls a gun on Rafferty.

I’ve been inspired by strong women most of my life. My primary source of inspiration, is my mother.  She raised me single-handedly, and she has always been my rock. There’s a little bit of her, in all of my female characters.

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The Dark Side of Valentine

“I’ll kill you myself. I’ll kill you in the most violent way I can think of.”

 

If you’ve read the books in the Valentine series, you may have noticed, the story started out with mild violence, which progressed as the story continued. Yes, bullets have been fired and people have been shot. In fact, a few people have died. In a story involving a girl who carries a pair of handguns and is friends with a lot of hit men and hit women, there has to be some sort of body count.

The Val Entienne you have come to know in the previous books in the series, is going to change in book 4. She’s a little darker; she has to be. Now more than ever, Val wants to protect her family, and this time, the threat isn’t an assumed one. This time, the threat is very, very real. Rafferty has made it clear, he wants Val dead.  So, it’s kill or be killed.

You can expect a few deaths in this part of the story. Not to include any spoilers, but keep an eye on Val’s demeanor, from here on, because it’s going to change.

 

Feminism in W.E. Books

                         Haverdy  Oyama , Val Entienne &   Amy Edwards

 

Thinking about W.E.’s 22 anniversary, I can’t help but think about the primary part of W.E., which is the books. Thinking about the books, led me to think about the characters in them. When I was a child, I gravitated towards books with stories about female characters who weren’t afraid to do whatever the male characters did. I was never a big fan of stories about princesses. I was a bit of a tomboy, so stories about ultra-girly characters didn’t interest me.  When I started writing, my female characters were bold, brave, and they weren’t afraid to do any of the things the male characters would do.  The definition of feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men.  I didn’t want to create female characters who were “damsels in distress”.

 

Take Haverdy Oyama of Fortune’s Wing, for example. Haverdy is a tomboy, through and through.  She wears her hair short, like a boy, and she even wears the boy’s uniform to school. When her brother and his friends find themselves fighting monsters created by the Winged Seven, Haverdy has no problem picking up a sword and running head-first into danger.

Val Entienne of Valentine is equally as brave.  Despite her pink hair, when her father needs help, she’s a regular “ride or die” kind of girl. She arms herself with a pair of handguns and drives all the way to California to rescue him. She gets caught in a gunfight on more than one occasion, but she doesn’t run and hide.

Even when some of the guys in her life doubt her abilities and her talent, Amy of Our Lady of Righteous Rage learns to play the guitar and become a rock star.  She’s also a firm believer in the idea that girls can do anything boys can do.  And the person behind the concept for the retail store in the series, the “Urban Collective”, is Vanessa, another female character.

Should the sword-wielding hero always be a boy? Certainly not.  What about the gun-toting Patron Saint? The badass guitarist? I enjoy creating female characters who succeed in male-dominated situations. In Fortune’s Wing, all of the girls are ready to stand with Fortune and fight. In Valentine, it’s Val the members of the Syndicate are afraid of.  The female characters in the W.E. books have demonstrated the meaning of feminism and redefined what it means to be in a “woman’s place”.

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