If it's Thursday, it's the EXERCISE!

Riddle us this! Go to The Angellove Society and leave your answer in a comment! Share the riddle with your friends!

RIDDLE US THIS:


There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer.


... When asked to define "Great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"

He got his wish.

QUESTION (and we expect you Cruxians to give the answer in a comment on the Page):

WHAT DOES HE WRITE NOW?

And now, the results!

Hello darlings!

Just wanted to keep you updated with The Angellove Exercise

The winner is... Renee! Closely followed by our new friend LA Jones, who told us that Harry Potter was rejected "only" 20 times!

Yes, Stephen King's "Carrie" was rejected 30 times before it was published!

And now the bonus:

"If it hadn't been for Stephen King's wife, Tabitha, the iconic image of a young girl in a prom dress covered in pig's blood would not exist. King received 30 rejections for his story of a tormented girl with telekinetic powers, and then he threw it in the trash. Tabitha fished it out. King sent his story around again and, eventually, Carrie was published. The novel became a classic in the horror genre and has enjoyed film and TV adaptations as well. Sometimes all it takes is a little encouragement from someone who believes in you."

Isn't that a lovely moral?

Thank you and good Sunday! Next week we'll raise the stakes a little, so stay tuned!

The second Angellove literary exercise

Don't forget about the exercise!

Hello dear Cruxians! You didn't forget about the weekly exercise, did you?

Check our Facebook page

The Angellove Society

The question is

"How many times did Stephen King's novel Carrie has been rejected by publishers before it was finally accepted and sent to print?"

Please leave the correct answer in your comments! The first 10 who get it right will receive (as an extra bonus) a short story about how "Carrie" got to see the light of day :)

The first Angellove Exercise Finale

With no further introduction, this week’s winners are (in order of appearance)

Andrea Heltai

Andrea is a young and dedicated PR specialist, gifted with wits, creativity and a lot of humor. Great friend and one of my personal supporters (and a professional whom I love to work with), she has always been one of my favorite humans in the world.

Cristian "Sickbrush" Chihaia

Well, in this case, words become useless when you get to see Sickbrush’s art work. I didn’t meet him personally yet, but I can tell you that besides being a great artist, he is a great and essential part of the “Crux” Project. I won’t disclose anything else until the time is right.

So that’s it, ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be waiting for you to join the Exercises next Thursday!

*Taking a bow

Yours, Deea

Work review 1.0

Dearly beloved,

It’s been a weird week, but it turned out ok eventually.

Thanks to LinkedIn, which slowly becomes my new favorite network, I had the opportunity to connect to great people, make some new friends and get some good information. Thank you all!

Reading stuff over the net, I particularly enjoyed this guy.

Samuel Bonner.

And this looks like a great resource, recommended to me by another writer.

www.writersmarket.com

Very good reviews and they say it’s the Holy Grail for anybody in the writing business. Too bad I don’t have the budget to actually pay for my subscription. Just a bump in the road. Until I get in there, can any of you lovely people tell me if you used this resource or actually got some benefits from it? I need multiple-source checking.

So this week was about sending e-mails, receiving e-mails, sorting through information, put aside what’s interesting, make a list of priorities and try to keep up with the reviewing of “Crux”. Nothing spectacular, just plain routine office work. Well, waking up in the morning with over 100 e-mails was kind of challenging… That, and the fact that I proudly offered myself a notebook to write down everything I must not forget to do, see, check, answer to or at least read.

At some point, following trails and digging the Internet, like the nice pit-bull that I am, I stumbled upon this:

Fiction500

And then I got sad. They keep a monthly writing contest, apparently with money prizes included. So I was two seconds away from sending the link to Andrei, with a very short and clear message: “Start writing!” when the words ONLY FOR US RESIDENTS  stroke me and made me abandon this route. But I want him to write there! He’d rock that place!

Oh well, there will be another contests…

But to finish in a positive note, the big announcement!

Starting tomorrow, as a token of appreciation to our friends, fans and followers, we’ll let the dice roll and introduce you to

THE ANGELLOVE EXERCISES!

For rules and awards, check our Facebook page! We’re waiting for you there!

The Angellove Society

That’s all folks! Sweet dreams and don’t forget, In Angellove We Trust!

I have a confession to make

Sorry I didn’t post anything in quite a while. Too busy chasing unicorns. Andrei is right though. Again. I do expand on so many levels and I do get myself involved in so many tasks at once, I finally end up lost in the woods. In the past days, I just left behind the stardust trails of my surreal passing through priorities, ideas and actions. In a less metaphorical sense, I actually left some details behind for him to deal with. Happened with the Facebook page.

Yes! We have THE FACEBOOK PAGE! I repeat: WE HAVE THE FACEBOOK PAGE!

Check it out:

The Angellove Society

And yes, we would love you guys to be our friends and fans. Like us, share us, talk to us, introduce us to your friends! We answer back, we share back, we comment and digress on any subject related to literature, good writing and great fun!

The Page is new born. After only 24 hours of life, it already has 65 likes and counting. Thank you all beautiful people out there!

Oh, and I have to tell you about a new friend we have

Bill Blume

He’s a very talented artist and a lovely human being.

But I started making a confession here so let’s NOT get distracted again. As I was saying, I started to build the page. Then I suddenly fled to another dimension following a lead, in the obsessive manner of my dear Sherlock and I ended up ignoring a simple fact: the looks of the page.

So Andrei is behind the great cover photo, the profile picture and the many many other cool stuff you can find on the page. I’m still ashamed of myself but to be honest, I could have chosen a thousand photos and I still couldn't have done a better job than he did.

This being said, my dear fans and followers, I am back. My mind still looks like mixed – up puzzle pieces but each and every one of them will fall into place eventually.

*Taking a bow: Good night to you all!

By my powers combined...

No, I’m not Captain Planet, but I just as well may be. Kidding.

I just did what the French would say a “tour de force” and finished up reviewing / correcting / making suggestions and sided comments to the book, while still enjoying reading it. TWICE! Well, not all at once. The first marathon took a week, and the last one, 14 hours, give or take lunch and a quick run to the store for provisions. Impressive amounts of coffee and chocolate needed. Easy job, they said… Entertaining job, they said…

Well, I’m waiting for Andrei to have the final word on his novel, pun intended. Meaning he has to mouse-browse every red-word he finds and accept the changes. Or not.

But if you ask me, the book is ready to receive its blessed copyright. Then, the fun part starts!

FYI. If you, by any chance, happen to suddenly wake up  in the middle of the night with a voice screaming in your head “Somebody get me a publisher!”, it’s not you. It will probably be me. Just in case, check the blog. If it’s written there, you’re safe.  

But to be fair, the fun already started, but it skipped me. Tortured by shame, I must admit that, even if I knew since this morning that Andrei finished the other web-site page and already posted a back-story for one of the characters in Crux, I didn’t have time to read it. Nor promote it as I should. Bad, bad agent!

Well, I’ll make my amends now. Here we go! Let’s see what this genius of mine prepared for all of us!

The Angellove Society

All being said and done, I wish you a great week-end. I personally had a great Saturday! And Sunday looks pretty bad-ass too…

Beautiful words about beautiful people

Andrei received today a great review of his writing from Dana Dorian, Romanian composer, music critic and published author, who closely followed his work over the years.

"Some write down memories, others what they imagine. Some put their pain into every word, while others put in just words. Andrei is part of that preciously rare brand of writers who imagine memories. He doesn’t speak to his readers with words, but images. He doesn’t just describe a moment, but lives it passionately by your side, as you follow his story. He takes you by the hand, but doesn’t lead you to a quiet spot in the library; instead, you suddenly find yourself transported inside a live cinema, where the movie projector is powered by his imagination. In truth, Andrei is more of an avant-garde director who makes use of words instead of a camera, capturing shapes and colors, details and feelings, thoughts and shades. Andrei burns intensely, passionately, with suicidal honesty. That’s probably why I love him."

For our Romanian followers, I'll also post the original text.

"Unii scriu amintiri, altii ce-si imagineaza. Unii scriu dureri, altii doar cuvinte. Andrei face parte din categoria aceea rarisima de scriitori care isi imagineaza amintiri. Poate suna rau, daca nu ai apucat sa-i citesti scrierile. El nu scrie cuvinte, ci imagini. El nu descrie o actiune, ci o traieste, o data cu tine, cititorul. Te ia de mana si, in loc sa te instaleze comod pentru lectura, te trezesti aruncat in mijlocul unei sali de cinema, unde imaginatia este aparatul de proiectie. De fapt, Andrei e mai degraba un regizor avangardist care, in loc de camera, surprinde prin cuvinte imagini si culori, detalii si stari, ganduri si nuante. Andrei arde mult, puternic si sinucigas de sincer. Probabil ca de aceea il si iubesc."

There's really nothing more to add. We feel honored by Dana's words and now, more than ever, we're confident in our success. Thank you!

The Diary of a freelance agent. The Diary stroke back

Dear Diary,

While I wrote and sent a book-presentation to a good friend in the USA, Andrei gathered all the strength he has left to offer the world another on-line project related to Crux.

What do you mean “What’s gonna have in it?” Basically, short teasing stories regarding each character you will find in the novel, duuuuh!

Yes, I know he’s smart. Although… He says this was somehow my idea, but I’ll give him the credit for the whole concept since he’s the one who’s actually building the web-page. Can’t wait for it!

Yes, Diary, of course people can find more info about this on his blog!

What? The link? Seriously? Ok, ok, here you go… FYI, his blog updates are quite visible on my page, but have it your way!

Andrei Mazilu

What happened next? As in today? Are you kidding me? What do you expect from me, perform miracles? But just because you asked, my hyperactive friend, today happened that I wrote a book-presentation also in Romanian that’s eager to see the light of Internet… Aaaand! I joined other interesting groups on LinkedIn. Brilliant network! I’ll start making noise there too.

Still correcting the novel. I think I’m falling a little for one of the characters. Should keep my objectivity, should keep my objectivity…

Well, enough for now. Hope you’re happy. Oh, don’t crumple your pages looking at me all offended! I shall fulfill your desire to be covered in news, I promise J