Some Inspiration for Supernatural Female Characters

I thought I'd just keep it nice and pretty today and give you all some hot supernatural women to inspire you as you write your fantasy or sci-fi or magical realism or whatever it may be that might have an element that's a bit, shall we say, out of this world.

So, which of these is your favorite? Any story ideas springing from these lovely ladies? Check out my Pinterest board for more ideas.

Sarah Allen

How Lists Might Be Enabling Procrastination

I've come to a helpful but uncomfortable realization.

I love lists. Huge list fan. I make them all the time, and in all sorts of places. I love consolidating lists of things I need to do, and I can't function unless all my ideas and to-do's are organized in neat little lists. I keep lists of projects I'm working on, possible projects to work on, daily social media goals, all sorts of things.

And I'm realizing that my list-making might be enabling my tendency to procrastinate.

This realization only happened the other night, actually. It happened because I was sitting at my computer (as I do. Frequently.) and an idea came to my head for possible collaborative work. I thought to myself, this could end up working out very cool, I should get in touch with these people and see if this idea could work. Then my next thought was, I'll put that on my list.

That's where the problem is. There was literally nothing stopping me from finalizing ideas and sending off emails right that second, but my mind is so "list-centric" that my natural tendency was to mentally file the idea away in the appropriate cabinet. Whereupon it would most likely stay, becoming covered in dust and cobwebs.

So instead, I got off my lazy butt (metaphorically, not physically. I was still sitting on the couch) and took care of the idea immediately, instead of procrastinating it till later. And you know what? I have not one, but two possible projects resulting from the communication. (More on that to come).

Lists are still my favorite thing, and of course, they are still incredibly useful. My point is that, like, say, the internet, they can be an incredibly useful tool or nothing more than a distraction. I'm seeing how I've occasionally let lists enable my bad habits, and now that I'm aware of it, I'm going to do my best to avoid letting that happen.

So here's to lists, may we use them wisely!

Sarah Allen

[img url]

For my birthday I met Ian McKellen and Zachary Quinto

It's been a whirlwind couple weeks. I was lucky enough to be able to spend the holidays with my family in D.C. We've never been as spread out as we were this year. I've got two siblings out serving missions for the LDS Church and another sibling starting a family elsewhere in the country, so the nest was emptier than its ever been. But it was still incredible to be able to be with most of my family for Christmas and New Year.

The cool thing about being in D.C. (one of many cool things) is that the MegaBuses take you to New York for between $15-20. Isn't that insane? I bet a lot of people feel this way, but I often find myself almost feeling sorry for people who aren't in my family, because my family is so amazing, and I always feel that way around Christmas. This year, we got New York. With a big polka-dot bow atop the Empire State Building and a ribbon around the statue of liberty. Just kidding. But we did get a trip. A kinda freaking amazing one.

My parents are smart about trips. They found somewhere online (I'm too lazy to look up where) that lets you find people who are renting out their apartments or houses for a week. It's a much cheaper way to go than hotels, so we ended up staying in this adorable apartment in Greenwhich Village, renting from a young opera singer who was gone for the week. It was fun to feel a bit like a true New Yorker.

Among all the fun things we did, we walked down Mulberry Street

Found 30 Rock

Visited the LDS Manhattan Temple

Braved the wind and snow to get some quick shots of Lady Liberty

Realized Central Park planners have NOT seen Doctor Who

And of course, played in Times Square and ate at Grand Central Station (best burgers and curry EVER.)

All this was incredible. I was already brimming with excitement and feeling the Billy Joel song about New York running in my blood. And then.

And then.

And.

Then.

Sir Ian McKellen and Zachary Quinto. That's right. GANDALF AND SPOCK EVERYBODY.

I am a fan-girl in a family of fan-girls, so whenever we go to a show we definitely stake ourselves by the stage door afterward and wait for the stars to shine. Man, I'm getting giddy just thinking about it. Who cares that its two degrees (it was.) Who cares that I nearly stepped in human feces on the subway (I did.) ITS FRIGGIN GANDALF AND SPOCK GUYS.

Obviously there was too much of a crowd for a picture with Sir Ian, and we barely got his autograph as it is (thanks to my moms insanely long arms). We saw No Man's Land with him and Patrick Stewart, and it was SO GOOD. I did technically see Patrick Stewart with my own eyes, but he hurried through, motioning to his throat that he was ill and had no voice, and didn't stop for pictures or autographs. It made me feel really sorry for him, and that we were making these seventy year old men stand out in literally freezing whether in sopping wet rain. But they were amazing and wonderful nonetheless. We saw Zachary Quinto in The Glass Menagerie, and he was fantastic. He was also very kind and gracious in talking to fans.

We also met Dule Hill, who plays Gus in the show Psych, and he was perhaps one of the funnest celebrity encounters I've ever had. My nine-year-old sister is a huge, huge fan of the show (when she got her tonsils out, she watched Psych straight for a week. I'm not exaggerating.) He came over and talked with us for a good four or give solid minutes, and answered questions about the show. It was awesome.

Well, I've gone on too long already, but I just wanted to share a bit of the fun and joy of the past few weeks. I'm back home in Vegas now, and its good to get normal life going again. But its also fun to be refreshed and reminded at how beautifully messy and chaotic and exciting and bright and weird and awe-inspiring our world is, and to bring a bit of that magic back to our everyday lives. That's why we have trips to New York, and pictures with Spock, and why we have books.

Keep the magic, everybody.

Sarah Allen

p.s. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook or Google+ (or other places) you may have seen some of these shots already, and for that, I apologize. But yeah, for others, follow me at those places and you can be part of the adventures as they happen :)

10 Questions for YOU

It seems I have a lot of, you could say, survey type questions to ask you guys. Numerous and varied, actually. I am fascinated by behavioral trends and opinions. So I'm just going to go ahead and ask them, if that's alright by you.

No rules, just answer as many as you feel like answering.

1. Top 3 (or more) favorite blogs?
2. Are there any YouTube channels you watch regularly?
3. Are there any Facebook Fan pages you visit regularly?
4. On which social media site do you spend most of your time? What specifically do you use that site for?
5. HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW SHERLOCK EPISODES BECAUSE I CAN'T EVEN
6. Do you generally prefer more personal or business oriented blog posts?
7. Which magazines do you subscribe to, if any?
8. Do you use Instagram or Vine?
9. What book are you currently reading and where did you hear about it?
10. Friends or Seinfeld?

Don't be shy. I love hearing from you, and would love every visitor to leave me as many answers as they feel comfortable with. Looking forward to seeing what you all have to say!

Sarah Allen

[img src]

Dealing with Change in 2014

January 2nd. Kinda the day when life starts going back to normal, isn't it? January's always been the most depressing month to me, except maybe for February, but its good to get back in the swing of things.

I already talked a bit about goals and resolutions last time, but I want to sort of continue in that vein. There has been a lot of talk around the blogosphere the last week or so about the potential changes coming in the publishing industry in 2014. Chip MacGregor, Jo Konrath and Dean Wesley Smith have all put in their predictions and thoughts for what they think is likely to happen to publishing in the coming year.

There are a few common thoughts going around. Many are predicting some major changes for Barnes and Noble, though opinions on what and how those changes might be vary widely. There is a lot of talk about publishing house mergers and more ebook content in libraries and more brick-and-mortar support for indie-books. These things all seem to make sense to me, from my very n00b perspective. I can see it happening, and happily so. (Happily if the changes at Barnes and Noble are productive ones, not destructive).

It's all really interesting to read and think about, and I enjoy it. I hope to be increasingly informed about the publishing industry and the trends and changes happening in it. I am most definitely in favor of being aware of new developments and taking advantage of every possible opportunity as authors.

But I guess my two cents would be this: I think we tend to look at these oncoming changes as traumatic and life-changing, when really, I think our day-to-day lives and duties as writers don't really change at all. In short, we don't need to worry. The one thing we writers need to worry about is and always will be to write, and write a lot, and write as well as we can. The changes in all the rest will come, but they don't need to be disruptive.

I believe this because success as a writer comes through endurance plus a dash of luck, not through clever trickery and manipulation of some kind of fancy system. It's really a very simple process. We write the most and best we can and put it in front of as many people as we can. And we keep doing that. Keeping ourselves updated and aware of all the latest developments and changes will hopefully make things a bit easier for us, but we never need to be afraid that we're missing some kind of magic switch to instant fame and glory. That doesn't happen. It's an endurance race, and taking advantage of everything that comes along just helps us on the way.

It comes down to--always has and always will--telling a good story. Yes, being business-savvy helps. We're all trying to do the best we can in every area. But if we tell good stories, I think we'll be okay.

Sarah Allen