Eragon. The book was absolutely amazing, but the movie fell short in so many ways. The actor who played Eragon did a fine job, and I loved that they cast Jeremy Irons to play Brom. They even did a great job with the CGI work on the dragon. There were so many things they changed unnecessarily I'm not sure where to begin. The dragon's voice was not at all what you imagine when you read the book. They also took some of the magic away from the story by eliminating the elves and dwarves. It was clear there were no plans to make the other books into movies since some of the changes they made in the first movie would have made that impossible.

As a writer, it saddens me to see such a beautiful and well written story destroyed on the screen in this way. The film could have been epic. Unfortunately, I don't see anyone deciding to give it a second try.

 Yesterday morning I rolled out of bed and found a wonderful surprise awaiting me on my phone. Ronnel had sent me the cover for "Blood and Guitars" and it is amazing. It was totally worth the wait.

Looking back at all of my attempts at creating a self-made cover using stock photos and Photoshop, I'm so grateful that I was willing to go out on a limb and hire someone else to create the image that will represent my book in the world.

I'll be posting the image of the cover soon but for now just know that it looks fantastic and I can't wait to share it with you all.

Matchbox 20's Real World. How can you beat a camel in a bowling alley and the pink zebra in the elevator? The 90's resulted in some really awesome, really weird videos back when MTV used to actually play some music.

 So I'm not new to Twitter, but I've only recently begun to enjoy all the neat things you can do with it. For instance, I like searching for hashtags now. Hashtags are keywords you can search and see all the posts that have that word in them. You just have to put a pound sign in front of the term you're searching for. There are great hashtags that writers can search to get amazing advice from other writers.

The two I check most often are #pubtip (great tips from agents, editors, publishers) and #writetip (advice about writing). It's best to check these before the end of the day. The reason for this is that a lot of people will re-tweet the same articles or blogs around and before the end of the day you'll see the same two or three things posted a BUNCH of times. There is always great advice, though. 

I also love to see Donald Maass's writing prompts on twitter. I've used his Writing The Breakout Novel workbook a lot and I've really enjoyed getting new ideas from his tweets.

Twitter isn't just for social butterflies and celebrities after all. Try the hashtags, you might be surprised at what you can learn. There's a wealth of information out there and writers are more often than not willing to share their knowledge with others.

I would give my best friend the ability to fly so she could visit more often! :)

I'd have to say spring or fall. That's why I live in Saint George. We may have some major heat in the summer but we have almost perfect weather practically nine months out of the year. No shoveling snow for this girl!

I remember having a Duck Tales game when I was a kid. Our computer back then had a track ball instead of a mouse and you had to tear the perforated, pre-punched edges of the printer paper off after printing something. It was a good game, though. I remember it vividly. I can still hear the terrible analog music now. Also, we had a math game called Alf Math. Another classic. Then we eventually moved up in the world when my Dad brought home the original Prince of Persia game and Wolfenstein. Good times.

P.S. I really am getting offline this time. I swear.

 Okay, so I was skeptical when I read this piece of advice the other day. I think it was on twitter under the #writetips hashtag. Anyway, I've been pondering this for a few days now and I've decided this is very good advice.

Often times I sit down to write, I get my playlist of music that I use when I need to get in vampire mode, and then I pull up my story. I re-read the latest piece that I've written and then I remember that I haven't checked facebook yet. Or I decide to check my email, even thought my email comes through my Droid and I really don't need to check it.

Maybe it's because I've been looking forward to the scene I'm currently working on, but now that I'm there, I can't quite get it to work the way I want. It doesn't help that I have a holiday weekend coming up and I'm looking forward to a trip to visit family. I haven't been back home since Christmas so a visit is definitely due.

Whatever the reason, I think I may try to follow this advice from here on out. I'm going to limit my facebook and email time to the Droid so I'm not tempted when I'm trying to write. Also, I might need to start using my netbook to write more. I say this not because it doesn't have internet access, but because it is not as much fun to browse the web on a screen that small.

Vampires! I think most of the appeal comes from the fact that they are immortal. I was twelve or thirteen when I fell in love with vampires and at that age most kids feel like they will live forever. That was part of the appeal for me, at least. Plus there's the added element of danger that vampires have, and that's alluring for some reason, logical or not.

 Sample the first chapter of "Blood and Guitars" now on Createspace. I created a preview today that includes the entire first chapter. Take a sneak peek at the book before it is released.

Visit https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1081215 to see the preview now.

Also, there's a few quick questions at the bottom of the preview. I'd love your feedback!

Heather