WISHFUL THINKING

So I couldn't help myself and wrote just a bit of Shahnoi even though I was supposed to be devoting myself to finishing Shaded Grey! It's all you guys and the support you give! Shaded Grey has now crossed 50 followers! To celebrate, I will be announcing my plans for a new kinda award soon... For now, this is the new book I'm planning on writing. I'm repeating the little blurb I gave that day- just so anyone who missed it can catch up-  Ru Rennan came to the Shahnoi Valley with the carnival that only comes once in every twenty years. He has no past, no present and no foreseeable future. He is a young man with only his name for comfort, and a way of arresting everyone who speaks to him. He is the carnival’s freak- predicting easily what’s in everyone’s pockets, reading minds, reading feelings. He is the only one who stayed behind as the town’s newest permanent resident in one hundred years. He is the only one who knows that the ghost who haunts Shahnoi, the Dark Nevvie...

The hero of Shaded Grey . K. Not to sound stereotypical- but he's gorgeous (the character is, and so of course he's never completely well-representable) .   (Really, I'm a girl, and every girl wants the guy in her book to be gorgeous- agree?)   Now, this model is from the stock of a wonderful stock provider on DeviantArt (deadsoldier stock) and I just loved the pose and the picture's clarity.   Again, the model sort of met my requirements of K- he's in that stage between big and small in size, and stylish and completely photogenic. This is the best I can do for K.   I did some brushing to make it look like a painting (because the guy had brown hair- unacceptable for K) and then used some brushes (the Euphoria brush set) and some stock background (Angelia61) for making this image. This image comes in a lot of colors- I put the brightest (and my fave) here. The other images can be found on Facebook ( I have a Facebook badge on the sidebar- did you guys see? If you...

So I was thinking that I should do a new header, since the one that's on the site was made for a time when the site was just for my novel Shaded . In the recent poll I did, as to if I should post reviews and other posts or not, all 22 votes said YES . It was a very unanimous decision, and I will humor that. This new header is done with the help of all the stock providers from  Deviant-Art  whom I owe a million and whom I will credit in the new and upcoming ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page on the blog. I sort of like this- and I want to know if you do! If a lot of people do, I will put it as the new Header on the blog and change the layout! (Looks a little smushed because it is smaller than the original size. Click to see the original size!)

The purpose of this artwork is double! One is participating in a competition for amateur art designers by a new and upcoming digital art magazine. The theme of it is Digital Haunting, and I thought I would do something like this! Truth be told, it’s a little inspired by the cover of Anna Dressed in Blood, but of course, it’s a different picture altogether, and I did spend a considerable amount of time cutting the house and the model from their backgrounds! Again, I may use this for my new story in progress (mind-progress, I’m writing Shaded by hand and also typing it) which I will call- for now- “ SHAHNOI” after the town in the story. It’s a paranormal fiction , but I’ve steered far from vampires, demons, angels and werewolves. SHAHNOI description: Ru Rennan came to the Shahnoi Valley with the carnival that only comes once in every twenty years. He has no past, no present and no foreseeable future. He is a young man with only his name for comfort, and a way of arresting everyo...

Ok, someone please explain how i can buy this and then sleep. IF anyone’s taken a peek at the gallery or the sidebars, they’ll know that I’m crazy in love with digital art, photo manipulation and stock photography. Beyond Twilight and its gorgeous covers- which I really think is what started pushing publishers into recognizing the importance of good cover-art- we’ve had a lot of good, beautifully done covers coming in. Basically in the Paranormal genre, these covers give a real pick-me-up-now scream. But sometimes- some awful times- the cover designs are so terrible that I just had to post about what they should never be like! (okay, this is my personal opinion as a cover designer and artist. If you guys disagree with me…good! It means I’m eliciting a response. I’m a glass half full kind of person) 1)       This Bloody Book:  Yes, this seems to be the most popular choice with publishers right now. Seriously, I think I can recognize a book for being ab...

Written by  Stephen King Hodder & Stoughton  hardback Release date  10 November 2009 When the Dome falls over the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine, everyone’s shocked – but they don’t expect it to be there for long. As time progresses, though, and the struggle for power inside the Dome escalates, it becomes a matter of survival for all those involved............ WHY I BOTHERED I bought this book solely because I just knew Stephen King wouldn’t disappoint. I’ve read a lot of his books, so when I saw Under The Dome, copies stacked one over the other, with the various different covers I just jumped and bought it! The back jacket proclaims various little blurbs like “staggeringly addictive” and “expert ratcheting of tension”. Looking at this book- this HUMUNGOUS book, mind you- you wonder how it can be true. Especially since the print is teeny-weeny. But you know what? This is ONE book where the back blurbs are right. Like, totally right. This book, people, is just...

Since I'm a new blogger, I'm celebrating everything I do on the blogosphere the first time. SO I've started the polls for this site, and please vote, guys! Plus there's a slideshow of all my photoshop artworks on the left sidebar. Please give me comments on it! If you post my button and leave me a comment, I will post yours on my site too. Thanks!

Yay, I always wanted a button for Shaded, and I finally got it done! You can grab my button right off the sidebar  to display on your blog and add to your bloglist (please do!!!) and let the world know about this story going on here in this blog! Just copy paste the html in the box onto your blog's HTML gadget... I would like to say thanks to Kimberly at All About Kimberly for her tutorial on how to make these buttons (I'm no good at HTML), and also to my regular stock providers from the awesome DeviantArt whom I've credited at the bottom! Enjoy your weekend!! NOTE PLEASE I am currently accepting requests for blog header artworks as well as button making artworks. It's for free, all you have to do is put my blog on your bloglist. Please feel free to contact me at fictionflaire(at)gmail(dot)com or leave a comment here. Artworks will resemble the ones in my gallery in terms of quality (it's really quite good quality, I hope)

SO I love horror...as everyone well knows. I've been reading Stephen King like his books are holy ones I can totally learn from, and this reading challenge from Book Chick City is just PERFECT for me. And I found the perfect book to start with too! Under The Dome, released in 2009 is so impossibly awesome...In 2011 I'm going to read a lot of Stephen King- his Dark Tower series maybe, From A Buick's, Bag of Bones, IT, Misery, Just After Sunset, Cell....I'll add a lot more!! Everyone who loves this challenge check out Book Chick City

Yayy!Continuing the story...  Installment 4: Where a Race is Run STORY SO FAR:   Ani Raye has been asked to appear for an appointment at her principal's office. This  is a strange request and she finds herself wondering what could possibly await her behind his orange door. In the school cafe, she meets with her best friend Khyran (K) and her trainer Stratten. K and her mother substitute Willa is also introduced. Leaving the c afe, she meets a servant girl Jina, who tells her to give a note  to K. In the note is written the words If I talk to you, and they catch me, They won’t sack me or tell me to go home. They will kill me as a lesson to others like me. Spooked, Ani runs into two of her Trainers who ask her to run a race. My feet crunched against hot concrete. I was barefoot enough that I could feel the heat lick at my soles. Dusk was falling but the heat hadn’t broken yet. Pale sunlight still shone stubbornly through fragments in the multi-hued sky, gold s...

Okay, the new installment is long overdue, and I know it is. Groan, groan, groan. I had an issue with the manuscript and then another long and nasty one with the plot. Finally things seem to be a little settled between me and all the issues, and I guess I can post again pretty soon. Maybe tonight if no other issues crop up. I've been busy reading Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME, a terrific book with terrific plot twists, and have just about finished that high-octane read so I can soon begin my next one- a book by Helen Grant, called THE GLASS DEMON. I'll be putting up reviews soon of both, although I don't think any review can do justice to King's book- which should be read!!!  More on SHADED coming soon! The lovely and wonderful Misha has agreed to promote this book, and you can read what she had to say about it here I also did a new and very  surreal photomanipulation I call The Memory Lane (um, literally)

Let me start off with a Happy New Year to all you guys out there! It was so awfully kind of Janette to drop a comment on my blog, and pass me the Stylish Blogger Award. I'm totally thrilled because this blog is still in its thumb-sucking, helpless infancy! I checked out her site immediately, and her blog is simply captivating (don't you just LOVE that header? It's so drool-worthy) Janette is the (surely proud) owner of the site The Story Realm, and you guys should check out her site... http://thestoryrealm.blogspot.com There are 4 duties to perform to receive this award:   1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award 2. Share 7 things about yourself 3. Award 10 recently discovered great bloggers 4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award! So, a random 7  things about myself 1) I am an obsessive writer- once I start I don't stop until my fingers threaten they'll fall off 2) I prefer pen to keyboard, and rather hate typing stori...

Ani Raye has been asked to appear for an appointment at her principal's office. This is a strange request and she finds herself wondering what could possibly await her behind his orange door. In the school cafe, she meets with her best friend Khyran (K) and her trainer Stratten. K and her mother substitute Willa is also introduced.  I pushed myself into moving out of the chair as the Lowers tittered nervously and gazed at my table. The rest of the Mess Hall shone while my table looked like an aerial view of the Great Massacre. I walked to the front of the Hall and paused with my hand on the handle of the pull-open door. Someone had whispered my name. I glanced from one gleaming surface to the next, squinting against the stark fluorescence of tube-light against steel, and heard it again. ‘Ani!’ ‘What?!’ I asked, too loudly, voice echoing in the stillness of the empty hall. Strange, how I thought of it as empty even with all the Lowers in it. Those blue-robed servants never seemed...