Hey guys.
This will be my last post on this site.
I’ve decided that it will be more beneficial for me to switch from WordPress and will be blogging two to three times per week at: www.rilzywrites.com.
I would love it if you would join me there!
I will not be deleting this site as there are many, many writings here which I will not migrate over to my new site!
The last five years have been amazing.
Goodbye for now! See you on the other side.
Tschuss,
Rilzy
It has been a while since I just had to write a short story but in the middle of listening to this song and regretting hurting exes I never even had it became necessary. Thank you Adele! I hope you guys like it!
HELLO
“Hello from the outside. At least I can say that I’ve tried to tell you I’m sorry for breaking your heart.” – Adele
A short story inspired by Adele’s new single. Listen to it HERE.
She looked beautiful in lace.
He watched her look at herself in the massive mirror and wondered if she saw what he did. The creamy, off-white material kissed her mahogany skin in ways he used to kiss her goodnight. He admired the dress that skimmed her curves before falling straight to the carpeted floor. He wanted to be the carpet. He wanted to worship the very ground she walked on. He wanted a chance to take the last ten years back… to be given a chance to claim the gift she’d once offered him so willingly.
She reached over to the small table and picked up a diamond necklace between shaking fingers. He wanted to think that they shook with regret. He wanted to believe they shook because in less than half an hour this woman he’d taken for granted would walk down the aisle to someone else. Brady took two steps towards her but stopped. He could have grown roots in the carpet for just how hard it was for him to move forward. He wanted too much. But, then again, this wasn’t about what he wanted. He was here because he needed to be. He needed to tell her that he saw… he finally saw what she’d begged him to see.
He cleared his throat and she spun around. White lace swayed around her legs like ocean forth against the shoreline.
“Brady…”
He heard everything he thought he would’ve in her voice from the shock to the panic, hurt and anger but he also heard the one thing he thought disappeared when he walked out on her all those nights ago, fondness.
“Steph,” he started but the words wouldn’t come. The words seemed stuck, as he did, in that cold night when he’d stumbled from her flat into the pouring rain while she screamed at him to come back.
You’re my first choice, my last choice, my every other choice.
She’d screamed those words over and over again while she begged him to stop – to turn around – to dare to fight for them. He didn’t, he wouldn’t and he hadn’t wanted to. But now he wished he had. It wasn’t easy to see what he was giving up when he walked away to his… freedom, his choice. But it was easy to see just what he’d lost in the dead of night with shadows dancing on his wall and Johnny Walker for company. It was easier still to see when Stephanie stood before him, dressed in white for another man, with more emotions flitting across her face than he’d allowed himself to feel in a lifetime.
“How did you get here?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
In the movies he’d tell her he still loved her… that he never realized just how much he did until after he let her go and she’d come running into his arms.
“I tried to call,” he said.
With his tongue bitter with whiskey and regret he’d tried calling her on every number he could remember. She never responded and he never left a message.
“I didn’t want to talk to you.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “When I broke your heart I didn’t realize I was destroying mine.”
“You hurt me so damn much,” she whispered. “You never looked back.”
He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. Each passing second reminded him that he was running out of time.
“What do you want?” she asked. Her voice was thick with emotion he didn’t want to place.
“You,” he said.
She started moving towards him then. When she was close enough to hold him, Stephanie wrapped her arms around him and rose on the balls of her feet so that she could whisper in his ear.
“You were my first choice, my last choice and my every other choice,” she said slowly. “But not anymore.”
She stepped away from him and Brady watched her go.
People, he realized, had to be careful with their goodbyes.
Sometimes there would never be another chance to say hello.
© Rilzy Adams, 2015
I am a Romance author. When persons ask me what I write I no longer struggle with it. It rolls off my tongue – simply and easily, “I write Romance novels.”
Lately I’ve been wondering if I’m boxing myself into a cage. I didn’t start off with romance. I started off writing good old Epic Fantasy but eventually tapered off to Urban Fantasy. I ended up with Romance when I realized just how much I loved reading romance novels. Over the past couple weeks I’ve been doing some writing exercises using Urban Fantasy and it hit me that I love writing Urban Fantasy. Not to mention my catalogue of novels that never were in that particular genre. But as I was about to delve into my plot notes I stopped myself and decided to focus on my contemporary romance plots instead. After all, it would be silly to jump ship to another genre. Though strictly speaking if I were to jump ship this would probably be the best time. I don’t have a large following and I’m not well known in that niche market (yet!!). What happens in the next three to four years when I am (hopefully) known in that niche? Can you imagine putting out ten romance novels and then suddenly a Fantasy novel? That is one way to definitely confuse loyal readers. It hits me as I type this that I’ve possibly started realizing that at this stage writing is more than something I do for the love of it. It is a business I desperately want to break into. And, sometimes business decisions and creative lust clash. The obvious solution to this is to utilize another pseudonym but then I ask myself if it would be worth the effort of building the brand of “another writer”.
I’m Rilzy Adams and I am a romance author. I now wonder if I’ve locked myself in a box that may be hard to escape from.
Readers, what do you think about authors who write multiple genres? Writers, do you think writing across genres is every a good idea?
Tschuss,
Rilzy
I’ve made a pact with myself to never refuse to help someone who tells me they are hungry. If someone asks for money it will largely depend on whether I have spare change. However if someone asks for food I will do whatever I can to help them out. If it means that I’d have to buy something with money I had for my own lunch, dinner, snack or whatever – I’d do it. You see I know that even if I go hungry for a couple hours I’ll always return home to a house with food. Not everyone has that luxury.
Last Sunday I stood by a flower kiosk at Victoria Station trying to decide which of the flower arrangements I wanted to buy for the wonderful family hosting me this week. It was a dead set competition between white and understated, colorful and vibrant and green and earthy. While I was lost in my thoughts a man walked directly to me. I’m not sure why he chose to approach me but a bit of me believes that it was because I was quite possibly the only person standing still in his immediate vicinity. I figured he was going to ask me for money and I started saying no before he could ask. I will confess that it wasn’t even because I didn’t have spare change. I was doing the judgmental thing. I was sizing him up, wondering if he would take the money and purchase liquor or drugs. I’d decided that he was and I thought that I wouldn’t waste my already limited spending money financing a drug habit. I feel shamed just typing that but in the spirit of frankness I had to put it in.
He stopped me as I started saying I had no change and said he didn’t want money but was asking for something to eat. I realized that there was something more important to be done than selecting the perfect bouquet so I told the woman at the kiosk I would be right back. I asked him to point out what he wanted and he took me to a stall and requested a sandwich and hot chocolate but when I asked him if he wanted anything else he politely declined. In those moments it was obvious he was afraid of asking for too much. Eventually he agreed to a chocolate muffin and a bottle of water as well. I paid and instinctively handed him the change. I don’t know what he will do with it. He may have used it for lunch or for dinner or for what I first suspected. In those moments it didn’t matter to me because for money I’d have probably used for something frivolous I was able to help someone in a less than ideal situation. And we’ve all been there. We’ve all had situations when we desperately needed someone to help us out. I may not have gone hungry but there have been moments when someone took time and effort to help me out of a tough spot. He tried to thank me but I told him I didn’t need it. We shouldn’t be patted on our backs or congratulated for being decent human beings. When I finally returned to the flower kiosk I chose the colorful and vibrant bouquet knowing that our world could be colorful and vibrant if we were all more compassionate.
I challenge you to try to perform at least three kind deeds per day. It need not cost us a thing. The kind deed may be a smile, a hug or a listening ear. Come on… pay it forward. There really isn’t much separating those who need help from those in the position to give it. Desperation is always one life turn away.
Tschuss,
Rilzy
I’m a realist.
Many persons say that is code for: I’m a pessimist. And, you know what… maybe I am. I flirt with romanticism, though. When I say romanticism here I’m not talking about romanticism in a love, relationship sense but rather in ideology. A bit of me (small bit) believes in the romantic notions of things like: it will all work out, what is meant to be will and all that jazz. At times I wish that this bit of me was more than a tiny bit. If I trusted the timing of my life more I’d probably suffer from less anxiety, less frustration and less stress.
In the last couple days I’ve got to thinking about how sometimes life gives you just what you need, when you need it. I have my LLM graduation in just a few days. I’d decided that since I was going back to London for the ceremony anyway it was best for me to just take some of my vacation days at the same time. Many work issues later (which I can’t get into) made it impossible for me to actually access my days and a very frustrated, very weepy me called Virgin Atlantic last week to have my dates changed so that I’d return home the day after the graduation. It would cost me about $500 XCD (damn you GBP to XCD conversion) to change the ticket but I sucked it up and began to give the way-too-bubbly-for-my-current-mood customer service rep my credit card details when Virgin Atlantic’s systems crashed. I kid you not. The woman tried everything in her power to change my dates but nothing worked. So, after a while she advised me to call back the next day at a particular time to get it done. Pessimistic Rilzy had the first go at analysing the situation and she fumed. She thought, ‘So nothing insists on going right today huh?’ After the initial feelings of frustration and anxiety passed, Romantic Rilzy decided that this was a sign from the Universe. What were the odds that the system (which the Customer Service representative insisted worked just fine a minute ago) would crash after she inputted my details? I decided to work a bit harder at trying to resolve the issue. A couple days later I received confirmation that I didn’t need to change my dates after all! I’m down for three weeks of Starbucks-drinking, sushi-eating, novel-writing and waking up late (like 7:00 AM) and I love it!
Now that everything has settled down and I have some quiet moments to reflect (who am I kidding? I’m just trying to avoid sorting out packing) I realize that sometimes you just have to trust the message your Life is trying to give you. Trust the timing of your Life. Trust the ramblings of your heart. Is every conceivable sign pointing to finding another job? Then maybe you should do it. How about ditching the relationship that’s slowing poisoning you? Maybe you should find an antidote. We are never as alone in our decision making as we think we are. We have the total of our past experiences, knowledge, intuition and soul. Sometimes Life insists on sending us small but firm messages.
I can’t help but wonder how many things would’ve gone better if I’d listened to the cues Life tried to send me. I’m making a promise to myself that from now I will listen more carefully. There may be great things in store!
Tschuss,
Rilzy
Yes, I am that girl. I blame it on the insane amount of time I spend on Instagram and Twitter but hashtags are a way of life for me now.
My new blog organization venture has harnessed the power of the hashtag. I have incorporated #shortstorySundays, #writingconfessionWednesdays and a third which this blog post will introduce.
You may (or not) have noticed that I’ve changed the name of my blog. The blog was called: Rilzy but now it is the much longer, much more time consuming: Adventures of a Caribbean Girl… who writes. The blog originally contained posts surrounding my life. I even created a category: The Daily Java: My Life and Other Things to distinguish these posts from writing posts. However, over the past couple months I have been less willing to write anything on this blog which didn’t speak about my writing career. I read on some self-help webpage or another that I needed a strict separation of my writing life and other aspects of my life if I hoped to be taken seriously. A red flag went up immediately and I decided I ought to follow the advice. A couple days ago I remembered why I chose to self-publish in the first place, I wanted to be able to do things on my terms – mistakes and all. It became clear to me that I cannot leave myself out of my writing. I am a writer, yes, but I am also a coffee, Prosecco and sushi-addicted, food obsessed, pink loving, gym procrastinating, teddy bear collecting, corny, quirky, Sims addicted, criminal attorney living in the Caribbean surrounded by oceans, sunshine and frustration.
Simply put, I think I have a lot to say in spheres other than my writing and I’ve decided to reserve a blog post per week to do just that. I’ve dubbed Fridays #friendlybanterfridays and I’ve decided that I will talk about anything I want to on that day.
I think that by trying to compartmentalize my life I’ve done my writing itself a disservice. This writing journey has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The good thing is that I’m learning every day and one of the most important things I’ve learned is that it is important to know when to adjust the sails. So here we go…
Rilzy
For the rest of tonight and all day tomorrow ‘Love Bites‘ and ‘Sail With Me‘ are free on Amazon!! If you haven’t picked up either of these yet, now is a great time to do so!
A couple months ago I finally got possession of the cover for my book “The Gift” which is the first book in my “Falling like a Johnson” series. The Gift is now slated for release on Amazon on the 1st October 2015.
Today makes four months since I’ve posted to this blog. This is the exact opposite of what I hoped to achieve when I did my blogging schedule in February. I sort of fell into work, working on the novel which is now due out in October (after a fifth date push back) but mostly I fell into weariness. The kind of bone deep, soul crushing weariness that makes me wonder why I’m doing this in the first place. I could spend paragraphs on top of paragraphs trying to capture how I’ve been feeling but I won’t. You see, I’ve done that many, many times before on this blog, to my friends, in angry cursive strokes in my diary and to my bathroom mirror but one thing remains the same… it changes nothing. You see if you’re feet don’t get tired when you are chasing your dreams, it is likely that you aren’t chasing them hard enough.
I didn’t wake up today saying, “Hell, it’s been four months maybe I should post on my blog.” The decision was impulsive. This weekend is Carnival weekend in Antigua. Whilst a lot of persons are partying their souls out during the masquerade parade through the streets of our city I’ve gone on to my third sequestered day. I’ve not been out of the house since the early hours of Saturday morning. This was meant to be a writing weekend but I found that I was too tired to do it… too drained to try. I allowed myself that and instead chose to binge on Youtube and ice-cream.
When my automated Youtube playlist spluttered out Sam Smith’s ‘I’m Not the Only One’ I thought, “This would make a good short story.” Then I remembered I’d done one already. So I came meandering to my blog hoping to find it and share it on my equally inactive Facebook page. There in my own words I found the inspiration I needed to dive back into it. I remembered why I’ve been running to begin with. My feet are tired, yes. But I’m not done chasing yet.
Tscuss,
Rilzy
On the 4th of February 2015, I attained a major milestone. I am still useless at twerking but I am a published author who is useless at twerking. If you were wondering if the previous sentence was facetious – well, it was.
Late last year I promised myself I would publish before my 25th birthday and I was so happy to be able to make that promise a reality. My friends have been, and are, the most amazingly supportive people. They all gathered around me and purchased a copy of the book. Then, after a free promotion I was able to get the book out to several hundred people. However, after the initial hustle and bustle passed and I got over being a proud mama to my creation, reality set in.
It will not be enough to have the book on Amazon. It will not be enough to continue writing so as to bring up my catalogue. At some point in time I will have to market so that I can sell the damn book. Yet, I don’t have the first clue about how to go around achieving that. Thankfully we live in an age where information is at the tips of our fingers. I decided that ahead of the release of my second book, ‘The Gift’ I would commit to researching how to market. All the reading and researching has led me to the conclusion that the most effective way to market a novel (or anything for that matter) is word of mouth. Every technique honed and used must be with the aim of not only getting someone to buy your book but also to encourage those who have read the book to talk about it. In this day and age word of mouth is more powerful than ever before. This is because it now consists of more than a friend whispering to another, “Have you read ‘Sail With Me”, you know the book with the hot sex scenes?” (To see if that was an accurate assessment of the sex scenes – buy the book here.) Word of mouth includes tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram snaps. One person has the potential to influence a host of other people with just one recommendation.
Below are my top five recommendations on how to take ‘baby steps’ into the crazy world of novel promotion. In a couple weeks I will do a follow up blog detailing how effective each of these were and speaking about new marketing tips I would have (hopefully) picked up by then.
This doesn’t need a lot of explanation. It is a lot easier to recommend an engaging book to another person than a crap book. Focus on creating realistic characters and an interesting plot. In order to this, it will be necessary to know your audience. The advice that a writer should write what they read isn’t without cause. I eventually started writing romance novels because I realized, despite my determination to write Fantasy and Literary novels, whenever I was in a bookstore I was always browsing the romance section.
This is definitely easier said than done. When I first realized I needed to market one of the first things I did was try to send copies of Sail With Me to bloggers asking them to review it. As it happened, I only managed to secure a review from one blogger. She was very helpful and thorough. I am gearing up to do a second round of soliciting reviews.
While we are on the topic of reviews, reader reviews are very, very important on sites like Amazon.
I am currently working my way up to offering a giveaway to persons who purchase and review my books. It helps to give readers an incentive. So far I am currently trying to position myself to be able to use a big incentive in the form of maybe an iPad or a Kindle Fire. Hopefully, I will have this up and running in time for the publication of “The Gift.”
Are there any other newbie marketing advice tips you want to share? Leave them in the comment box. I am interested in reading them.
Tschuss,
Rilzy
Adventures of a Caribbean Girl... who writes! 