{"id":22145,"date":"2014-01-30T07:21:55","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T12:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=22145"},"modified":"2014-01-30T07:21:55","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T12:21:55","slug":"mercedes-yardley-five-things-i-learned-writing-nameless-the-darkness-comes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2014\/01\/30\/mercedes-yardley-five-things-i-learned-writing-nameless-the-darkness-comes\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes Yardley: Five Things I Learned Writing Nameless: The Darkness Comes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

LUNA MASTERSON SEES DEMONS. She has been dealing with the demonic all her life, so when her brother gets tangled up with a demon named Sparkles, \u2018Luna the Lunatic\u2019 rolls in on her motorcycle to save the day. Armed with the ability to harm demons, her scathing sarcasm, and a hefty chip on her shoulder, Luna gathers the most unusual of allies, teaming up with a green-eyed heroin addict and a snarky demon \u2018of some import.\u2019 After all, outcasts of a feather should stick together\u2026even until the end. This is the volume one in The Bone Angel Trilogy by Mercedes M. Yardley, author of the award-winning novella, Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love.<\/em><\/p>\n

Write the Book You Want to Read.<\/h2>\n

You hear it all of the time, but oh, hey! Wow! It\u2019s true!<\/p>\n

I was in a reading rut. I wanted a fast, urban fantasy tale, but I\u2019ve become disenchanted with these amazing, ball-busting woman who are perfect with a knife or gun or katana. They\u2019re born with The Gift, or they\u2019re brought into demon-killing when their parents were murdered. The fire of ungodly revenge stokes their souls.<\/p>\n

I wanted something different. Give me a book about a socially awkward girl who is more of an outcast than a lone wolf. Make her clumsy and give her hair like Siouxsie Sioux.\u00a0 Oh, and maybe she\u2019s tone deaf.<\/p>\n

Such a character doesn\u2019t exist? Well, then. I\u2019ll create her. Then I\u2019ll read the heck out of this book.<\/p>\n

The Recipe for Marmalade.<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s easy. I make it in a bread maker because I\u2019m a writer, and I\u2019m writing Big Important Novels and my brilliant self is strapped for time. Or I\u2019m lazy. That\u2019s more accurate.<\/p>\n

Take three oranges and a lemon. Zest one orange and that lucky little lemon into the bread maker pan. Juice the lemon. Peel the oranges (very important) and cut them up. Add the lemon juice, oranges, 1 \u00bc cup sugar and 2 Tablespoons pectin to the bread pan.<\/p>\n

Start the bread maker. Let everything mix. Stop the bread maker and set it on bake. Let it cook for an hour.<\/p>\n

Voila, you clever, clever thing! You have made marmalade.<\/p>\n

Why You Need a Recipe for Marmalade<\/h2>\n

Writing a book is wonderful and amazing and sometimes all-consuming. Especially if you have other things going on in your life, like a family or work. You can find yourself living on cold soup eaten directly from the can with a spoon. But some soft and gentle touches can make everything happy and homey, and make you feel loved. Warm homemade bread made in that same bread maker with melted butter and marmalade will remind you why you write in the first place. You write because there\u2019s some joy or obsession there. You write because there\u2019s magic in the world. Every writer in the world should have homemade bread and marmalade. It will improve your quality of life, and you\u2019ll want to live again.<\/p>\n

Also, your family will appreciate you more if you ply them with delicious treats.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I Learned How to Ride a Motorcycle.<\/h2>\n

I grew up riding on the back of bikes, but I didn\u2019t know how to drive one. I\u2019m not a backseat type o\u2019 person, and I always wanted my own bike, so I decided it was just time to do it. I was the only woman in the class. I learned how to hop over boards and zip around and accomplished something that was important to me. I now have a motorcycle license, and decided that when Nameless<\/em> come out, I\u2019m buying a motorcycle. Guess what? It\u2019s here!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m scouring the ads for my own bike as we speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the main character in Nameless<\/em> rides a motorcycle!\u201d\u00a0 Yes, she does. It was absolutely directly influenced. I learned that a bike was everything I ever wanted and more. I felt happy and free.<\/p>\n

Writing Can Be Fun.<\/h2>\n

Of course, it\u2019s supposed to be fun. But sometimes we lose that aspect of it. There\u2019s so much pressure to create, to do it fluidly, to add subtleties and nuance and make everything a deep, dark mystery. To have your work kissed by the gods. To stay true to your voice and style and niche and not disappoint the people who expect a certain something out of you. I realized that I was approaching my writing with trepidation and fear.\u00a0 Fear of writing something that I wasn\u2019t proud of, or something nobody understood, or something simply \u201cunworthy\u201d. Nameless<\/em> was written for a dear friend, so I threw all of my apprehension aside and just wrote. The characters were snarky and fun. The demonic entities were creepy. I had a ball writing this book. So much fun! I didn\u2019t ever think it would be my first published novel, and instead of stressing about it, I let it be my playground. This was perhaps the best lesson of all.<\/p>\n

Mercedes Yardley: Website<\/span><\/a> | Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nameless: The Darkness Comes: Amazon<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LUNA MASTERSON SEES DEMONS. She has been dealing with the demonic all her life, so when her brother gets tangled up with a demon named Sparkles, \u2018Luna the Lunatic\u2019 rolls in on her motorcycle to save the day. Armed with the ability to harm demons, her scathing sarcasm, and a hefty chip on her shoulder, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-5Lb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22148,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22145\/revisions\/22148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}