Author Archives: CrissyMoss

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About CrissyMoss

I've been writing as long as I can remember.

When does it stop?

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I got onto Twitter tonight to be faced with yet another shooting. I don’t know if I should be happy these things are finally being publicized instead of shoved under the rug, or pissed off because of how they are being publicized. I’m seeing tweets about news reporters being afraid “black folks will act out”, and my friend being afraid. And honestly I can’t blame her. Not after everything I’ve seen in the news the last year or two.

What frustrates me is that this is yet another news item that will be turned into a “black vs white” thing by news casters, and some people in our communities. And yes, it might have been a hate crime (the police seem to think it was). But that’s not all it was.

These are our friends, our co-workers, are neighbors, our school mates. They are the people we sit beside on the bus, or play games with online. We talk to them, and enjoy their company, and work beside them. When this happens to them it is happening to us too, because they are part of our community!

This isn’t a black vs white thing. This isn’t just about race. This is about the safety of our children, EVERYONE’S children, in a country that perpetuates violence, jail, stigmas of being born poor, or ethnic, or anything other than a middle class white male.

When people take to the streets and demand justice it should be everyone in the community because this effects us all. If your neighbor doesn’t feel safe, if they don’t feel like they can trust the police, and their fellow neighbors, then that means you shouldn’t feel safe either. Not because they are going to get you, but because THAT’S YOUR NEIGHBOR! Treat them like it.

And I get that this is coming from a “privileged” white girl. I haven’t had to deal with a lot of the prejudice that others in our communities have. I have seen racism against me, but it is nothing on par to what some of my friends have seen. But women’s suffrage did not succeed because only women fought for it. They needed the help of their husbands, brothers, uncles and friends. Gay rights did not happen because only the LGBT community fought for them. They needed a community to stand beside them and help them.

So why aren’t we a community when it comes to race? Why are we white, black, latino, or whatever? Why can’t we just be one group, the american group, and stand up and say NO MORE! This is wrong. Treating anyone as less for any reason is wrong and we, as a community, won’t stand for it anymore.

You want to see the hate stop? You want to see the tension ease? You want to see the shootings, and extra jail time, and everything else stop? Stand up with your friends and co-workers. Stop making it “their problem” and realize that it’s yours too.

What happens to a society when 13% of your population has a 1-in-3 chance of going to prison? How is that helpful for the population as a whole? How does that grow the economy, or create jobs, or encourage the “american dream”? How does it make ANYONE feel safe if their friends and neighbors have a 1-in-3 shot of going to jail just because they are a little darker? How can anyone live with the fact that a black man is 21 times more likely to be shot be a police officer?

This is not okay! This needs to change. And the only way it will ever change is if we stop being black and white, and start being friends and neighbors.

My impressions of “Mad Max: Fury Road”

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MM-Main-PosterJust got home from watching Mad Max Fury Road. I only remember fleeting parts of the original Mad Max. I do remember watching “Thunder Dome” as a teenager. Tina Turner was amazing in that. What I remember of both movies was fantastic, dark, gritty, and filled with action.

The new Mad Max carries a lot of those same qualities. Dark and gritty, filled with action. And it was amazing. A true action movie filled with all sorts of explosions, phenomenal chase sequence, and moments where you are just trying to figure out who is a good guy.

The story was more then just action though. There was a lot of great characterization (though little of it had to do with Max, himself.) But to talk about that, which I have to because I’m also a story teller, I’ll take you behind a cut since there are going to be spoilers.

(Click ‘read more’ to risk spoilers.)

Continue reading →

Confession

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I have a confession to make. It’s been a long couple of months, and I’ve been working at finishing “Witch’s Curse” but I’ve been struggling a lot more lately.

I put up “Witch’s Sacrifice” a little over a month ago. I hoped that over the course of May, and maybe June, I’d finish the second novel. I have been working on it, but I am not putting nearly enough on paper to finish it by the end of June like I wanted it to be.

The edits struck a little harder then I thought they would. Not in a bad way! It’s just that now when I start writing I hear that nagging voice a lot louder in the back of my head… not that word again. Don’t do that. What are you writing? It’s obnoxious and I hate it.

Before those edits I wrote what needed to be written knowing that they would be fixed in post. That’s how you’re suppose to write. Do one draft, read through it and clean up the little things, or the glaring issues, then send it to an editor to have the grammar, spelling, and consistency examined. That’s the way I did it before, and what allowed me to finished NaNoWriMo several times. It’s what got me through the original book, writing every day and knowing that even if I wrote down crap at least it was written and I could go back later and fix it.

So why do I hesitate so much now? It’s my own brain, that internal editor that keeps asking “how should we say this thing now?” And he’s so insistent, so zealous that he is making it tough to write some days. I will sit down, read the last paragraph, and know that I need to write the next scene. I know that character 1 is going to talk to character 2, they are going to get into an argument, and then they are going to fight. Easy, right? I have all the pieces, now just right it.

Then I get stuck on the minutia. How do they walk into the room? What are they doing? Who is all there? Things that I need to know, but things I usually discovered as I was writing instead of before. I’m not sure which is better. I’m not sure if there is a better. I do know it’s slowing me down right now.

I do know one thing that is helping: “Take Off Your Pants” by Libbie Hawker. A few chapters of this each day seems to be get past the internal editor, and right back on track.

Today I practiced breaking out of that internal editor, giving myself permission to suck again. I wrote another 1500 words, and I’m going to try and do another 500 before bed. The goal is to get to 3k a day by the end of next week. That’s what I need to do to feel like I’m actually making progress on the stack of books I want to write.

The struggles will continue, I’m sure, but they are worth it. The end goal, finishing another novel, is worth every frustrated moment.

Around the Web

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It’s been a while, but here are some interesting (and sometimes terrifying) articles I’ve found for you.

John Green was threatened, as was his son, because of casting in the new movie based on his book. Is this the price of fame? I know this is why certain celebrities get walled off compounds and body guards. People are such dicks.

Patrick Rothfuss did and AMA on Reddit, which was interesting.

How libraries in Germany are fighting extinction, and winning.

Loss of life in WW2 visualized. This is a beautifully poignant, and shocking.

Author Earnings report for May 2015.

The new tricks publishers are using to make their book covers stand out.

Why you should keep writing by hand!

And that is this week… or at least part of it.

Posting Frenzy!

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Tonight I posted a few clips of Gregg and I just having fun. This one I think is especially funny. But it got me thinking… what the heck, Crissy?! Since when are you a youtuber?

And the answer is; I’m not. Well, I suppose I am in the fact that I do post videos on my youtube, but I’m not as serious about it as other youtubers. I don’t post regular content. I don’t have a weekly list of things I do. I don’t even know when I will have a chance to record since I live in a small house with a large family, and no one is going to be quiet for me to record most of the time.

But I do love recording. I love gaming. I love talking about the things I’ve done. So it seems natural to vlog, and record the games I play. To have discussions around it. And to share it online.

I don’t claim to be good at it. In fact just the opposite, though I am getting better. Gregg and I have a lot of little funny moments that I think are great to share. My gaming… Now that has been an interesting exercise in self discovery.

As I said, i love to game. I love building things in Minecraft, hunting dragons in Skyrim, and in general exploring and seeing new worlds. I think some of this stems from the fact that I love traveling in real life too, but it isn’t really possible very often. Travel takes money,but exploration of a new shore in the world of Skyrim, or building an epic castle in Minecraft isn’t that expensive and can be done over and over again.

I think I’ll keep doing the youtube and twitch channels. I hope I even make some new friends thorugh both mediums. For now it’s more for myself then anything. If you’d like to view them then please, stop by. Say hi. Tell me where I could be more entertaining. I’d love that.

New Serial? YES PLEASE!

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If you haven’t listened to “Serial” yet then you should. You can find it here. It’s full of nail biting cliff hangers, and amazing plot twists that make any “who-done-it” worth watching.

There were some moral dilemmas also. this wasn’t a random “who-done-it. This was an actual murder case, with an actual man still behind bars, and an actual conclusion as to what the host thinks was and was not done correctly, and what she concluded about his innocence and/or guilt.

Can you make a podcast about a living, breathing person? Can you put his life and crimes on trial in front of millions of people? Clearly the answer is yes, because they did. And they are coming back with two more seasons!

I learned about Serial through, of all things, a tweet.

Two girls walked by me today, deep in conversation. “There’s no way Adnan did it,” one of them said, and my world got that much smaller. – Wil Wheaton

This intrigued me. Who was this Adnon and why wasn’t I in on the know? So I looked him up, and then I found the podcast. Once I started listening I couldn’t stop.

After listening to several episodes I started searching the internet for more information about the case, and who was involved. I found forums, and sub-reddits, and podcasts about the podcast. People were obsessed about this story, and kept coming back for more.

The outpouring reminded me of the days, long ago, when people would talk about the latest episode of some TV show EVERYONE was watching. We rarely have things, like Serial, that fascinate a majority of our population anymore. The only other thing I can think of is “Game of Thrones”, and sports. Maybe things like the Avengers, and LOTR movies. There is so much media out there, and so many different ways to get it, that unless you are in that group you don’t know anything about it.

Serial was also the first hit in podcasting. They had more listeners every week then any other show in the history of podcasting. This opened the doors for other podcasters to be recognized. I think two more seasons can only help the rest of us.

Slowing… down…

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Ever feel like you’re slowing down? The world keeps chugging along around your, but you seem to be going at a glacial pace. You have all these ideas and plans. Things you want to accomplish. A bucket list a mile long. But you didn’t do any of those things this week, or maybe this month.

And it isn’t even that you’re necessarily doing anything against your dreams. You’re just doing your job. Your day job, of course. You’re taking care of your family, and paying the bills. You go to little league with your kids, and bake cookies every Christmas. And the world keeps chugging along.

Some days, for me, it feels like I’m just trying to blow bubbles into the wind. All the bubbles are racing off behind me, forgotten, and the new ones have no chance of catching hold.

When I feel like I’m not making any progress, that time is standing still, I take a moment to review my accomplishments. I remind myself how far I’ve come. Yes, there’s a lot more to do, but I’ve already come this far. I’m that much closer to where I need to be. And so are you.

It may feel like we are stagnant and going no where, but sometimes when it feels like that you just have to dig up those past moments when you were working to your goal and remind yourself how much closer you are.

And if you aren’t closer, if you haven’t done anything…then take a small step closer to that dream. Go buy that guitar and start taking lessons. Go sign up for a class on yogo or thia chi. Practice painting. Write a story. Buy a ticket to Mali. Travel, and live, and love. Because the world isn’t going to wait for you to get in gear.

Geek Speak

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I’m a bit of a geek. I know, you didn’t know that, but it’s true 😉

So I thought why not chat about the geeky stuff on my vlog instead of just trying to talk about whatever comes to mind. I’m constantly reading about interesting geeky tech, games, movies, or reading some interesting comic or book. Why not talk about that?

There are two episodes up. It will probably be a weekly thing after a bit, I’m just trying to get a few episodes up for now.

Book two of the Witch’s Trilogy is coming along nicely. It is currently 61k long (about 200 pages). I split the first chapter in two and posted it here and here if you’d like to read it. I’ll be posting little bits of it on G+ from here till it’s published. Then I have the third one to do.

prophec3yAlso, I started getting my books in audio format. The first one, Prophecy by Barlight, is available now! It’s only $3.46.

The next one out will be “Footprints”. I just approved the recording today and it will take about a week for it to go through the system. I’ll be adding a few more of my books to their system. I love listening to them in audio, I hope others will too.

My love/hate affair with reviews

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“As an author…” Don’t you just hate it when someone starts the conversation as “As X I believe Y.” It sets them apart, says “I’m X and you aren’t therefore you don’t understand in the same way I do.”

Except that we all have those moments. Because I am a mother I see things in certain ways. Because I am an author I see another faucet of the world. A girlfriend, a divorcee, a survivor of abuse, a high school graduate. All of those things are things that I have done, as have many thousands of other people. So as one of them I do have a different perspective then someone who isn’t.

It’s still a bothersome way to start a conversation. And yet I almost did here.

Anyway, back on subject. I’ve been thinking about reviews a lot lately. NOT reviews of my book, as you might have guessed, but reviews from my day job. Some of you might know that I am a manager at a little store. Our corporation has “asked” us to get reviews from the customers. This means we hand out cards that say “give us a review on Google or Yelp to let others know how you like us,” or something to that effect.

For every fifty cards you give out you might get one review. This causes problems in a little store like mine where I only see two to three people a day. I ask, I hand out cards, and I just barely manage to get their quota of two reviews a month most months.

Then I have to go through the whole conversation of “Why aren’t you doing better?” Sigh.

So when I come home and I deal with my writing and it comes time to ask for reviews…there is a love/hate struggle of epic proportions going on inside of me.

First of all, I LOVE reviews on my books. I’ve only gotten a couple of bad ones, and so many great ones. I’ve read every single one and they just make me happy. Happy that someone took the time to read it. Happy that someone bothered to write a review. Happy that people ACTUALLY LIKED my book.

But the asking…the asking for reviews sucks and I hate it. I hate to feel like I’m imposing myself on others.

“Reviews are the life blood of authors” as the email I just got this morning from another author friend reminded me.

Then you go to Target, or the local boutique, or the car wash and are bombarded by people asking for reviews. Then you get these postcards of “review us please” filling up your pockets.

reviewAs an author I love reviews. As a consumer I am slightly annoyed with every store asking for them. And as a manager at a little shop I feel guilty asking for them, and frustrated that I can’t make the quota.

I still do it. I do my job, put a smile on my face, hand them the card and say “Please give us a review to let others know how helpful we’ve been.” Then I ask the next person, and the next, rarely expecting a review because so few people actually do.

And that’s the crux of the problem. The new internet revolves around reviews, but only a small fraction of us actually do them. I know I don’t do them very often. I just added a ton of books to my Goodreads library and only reviewed a handful of them.

Your book reading choices are being influenced by a fraction of the reading population. Did you know that? If 1000 people download the book, and 100 people read it, but only only ten actually give it a review that is a really small portion of the people who own it actually saying anything about it. That means if you care about reviews only a small portion of people, those who review everything, or those who had significant interaction with (good or bad) are influencing your decision on which product to buy.

And there are good reasons to review, and good reasons not to. For me, I prefer to review books that I really ABSOLUTELY loved so that others will know how much I loved it and might also read it. But I’ve read a lot of books and reviewing them all would take a very long time.

I don’t know if there is a point to any of this. Review my book? Yes, I’d love to hear from anyone who’s read my book. But I don’t want to seem pushy either. So read it, enjoy it, and if you want to then let me know about it. I’d love to hear from you, even if you hated it.

Weird things

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Etsy is one of my favorite places to shop. I try to get at least a couple presents there every Christmas. It actually makes shipping for Gregg easier since his Christmas list includes “dead things.”

Our first Christmas together I bought him three skulls from etsy. He was thrilled! I’ve since gotten him a palmistry hand, and a two inch human skull carved from a nut. (It looks like ivory, but no elephants were harmed for this carving.)

It always amazes me what you can find in etsy. So today starts my “weird things on etsy” pinterest board. I will also be doing a new blog post about these wonderful things once a week.

So today….

partsEver wanted to add a torture chamber to your doll house? parts2Well have I got the body parts for you. Your very own bloody body parts for your doll house torture chamber. Put it right next to your doll house black magic set. (I really want the doll house black magic set actually, it looks awesome.)