Fair Game

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE HABITS BLOG.

NO ZOMS IN BOOK ONE

Of all the words I would use to describe myself, blog author would not be one of them.  I do have a 'blog', heavy on the air quotes please and thanks. I am not sure why I am here right now, writing this. I don't run a typical blog. I am not a typical bitch. I do not...not...not...I used to write a blog called Insomniasms. I wasn't sure what that was all about. It was more of a list of complaints and it was fun and time consuming and then ultimately I grew bored of it. The blog hops and the blog visits and...so far away from the point.
Why am I here now? I got an email about story writing and that is what I do. I am a novice writer, unprofessional, unpublished, unadmired and under read. Alas, I don't write for you, the nonexistent reader, I write to keep myself busy during the day and keep from being bored. Plus I had a great idea that I had been tossing around my brain. I thought, why can't I rehash a long dead hobby? That's what I did in November of 2014. It was supposed to be a short story. It was a blog entry. One little blog entry and now, in the early chapters of Book Seven, I am the same sedentary and creative creature I was in my teen years.
Back to the point. Why am I here? An email, that's right, from BlogHer.  Writing Lab 2016. Today is April 5th and the writing prompt is...drum roll...Do you write about other people? Do you think it is fair game to write about others without asking permission if they're part of your story? Oh, I was a little interested in this because I can answer this.  Yes and yes, in short, that's my answer.  My friends find it amusing to be part of the story in name or in character. On the flipside of that answer, I am also not Stephen King, pulling in millions per book and making appearances on Ellen and all the late night talk shows, garnering fame and fortune in their names. I never expected to be and honestly I doubt they expect it as well.  Ahem, cough-cough, an HBO series offer would be nice and me and my friends would never have to work again. Cause that is the ultimate goal, get published, get the slutty little horror blog turned into a series on HBO or AMC or FX, cause I am not choosy, then retire and flee normal human existence and live in a rural cabin with a garden full of gnomes and decent WiFi.
Back to the point...
Rosie finds is amusing that she is a bad ass zombie killer. There was a moment that she was excited to be the public relations liaison to the marine Corps zombie killing division. She believed she was, for a fleeting moment, a gun toting, story spinning, high ranking woman on a top secret mission to prevent the end of the world as we know it. Plus she sleeps with one of the main characters and gets to go on adventures and kill zombies. She has never killed a zombie by the way, in real life or in the make believe version of her life. The essence of my Rosie, my bestie, is in her character, always getting knocked down, but getting back up on her stylish pumps and dusting off her stylish Hillary Clinton pants suits to fight the fight another day. In real life we call her Blondie. In the story, we call her Blondie. She's the sexy little underdog, a scrappy and feisty character who creates the conspiracy and then becomes part of a larger conspiracy. She ate that up!
I have named a slew of my characters after people I know. Julia, the zombie killing, addicted and spunky sarcastic slut, is named after my best friend's daughter. I have also  named a character in my story after my daughter, Zoe. I wrote in my on and off boyfriend into the story and named him Julio. Julio is that guy down to the abs and those tattoos and his obnoxious, womanizing attitude. He's fun and sexy, but not  boyfriend material. A lot of the sexcapades Julia has found herself in have actually happened to either myself or people I know, but have fun guessing which ones.   The whole entire zombie sexfest is based on a true story. In penning this hot mess of shit hitting the fan survival bullshit, I got a little bit off topic on its original theme. Zombies were not the original theme. It was supposed to be a tragic love story a la Romeo and Juliet only with really screwed up parents.
I figure, you know, write what you know about. Truth is stranger than fiction. So there are delinquents, addicts and whores and stalkers and murders and lots of strange sex in addition to normal sex and then some kids and babies, some time travel, add in a few ghosts and a little bit of philosophy and that's what I damn well do all day long. Everything from a catch phrase that a friend will utter or a story they tell me about their past is fair game. As long as I don't go advertising who was the high priced hooker and who shot morphine in their spare time, then all is good. Right?
One might ask, so do you write about your own self like you do everyone else?
Well, I sure do. Absolutely. I am in there right alongside Blondie doing battle with zombies. I am sprinkled through out the book just like everyone else. It's all fair game. The Wawa convenience store on the corner to the places I have visited along the way in life are all there. It's a loose biography and a very loose autobiography.
So this is from the actual blog in regards to Book One.
Author's note:

Habits Book One was originally intended to be a shorty story that unfolded into a chapter book and evolved into a series of books called Habits. Penned late November 2014 to the end of January 2015, Habits Book One was supposed to be a tragic love story. It was also something to do to fill my spare time. It was originally based on a true story in the news media that I became obsessed with and it morphed into the monster that now fills six books on the blogger website. The story on which I based this tragic love story is no where near the one I wound up devoting my life to for the last two years.

The characters names are mostly derived from persons I know in real life, but the characters are not based on the people for which they have been named. The main character's name, Julia, is my best friend's daughter's name. Chess Morgan, another main character, is named after Chester Pennington, the front man for Linkin Park. Rose, Julia's deceased mother, is named after another of my best friends. There are certain catch phrases nestled in the heart of the story from beginning to the eventual end of things my true friends and I would say. The characters live in a small town in Pennsylvania that is located inside the beautiful Lancaster County called Maverick. It is a fictional place and it is nestled off the Pa turnpike around Lancaster, Pa and Hershey, Pa.
Amy Lorde, the Author's name, is not my true name. I am unsure why I chose a surname as opposed to putting my true name all over this hot mess of wayward people and zombie adventure. For one, I guess I didn't want anyone I knew thinking I was responsible for this drug and alcohol fueled slut fest.
Amy Winehouse + Lorde, both female singers=Amy Lorde.
Hint-Listen to the song Habits by Tove Lo.

Based on a true story-have fun figuring out which one. If you're close to me, then you know the headline I became obsessed with and then the loose foundation of this story makes a little sense. I say loose foundation, because I veered so far away from the point, it's laughable.

Blog note from the author: Within the last year I was awed and inspired by my daughter who pens her own literary works, poems and stories. She's also a hella good artist, sketcher and anime fan. So when I read her writing, I felt inspired to rekindle my personal hobby-writing-to create a story world of my very own. The characters express a variety of sexual choices, strengths and weaknesses, issues and addictions, happiness and sadness. I speak through them. Their words speak my voice in a way, yes that's a good way of putting it.

Habits is a series novel that I like to call, ' a zombie-slut book'. As the reader we follow Julia Fry and her friends through their version of normal life. Their ups and downs and their traumas, mental illnesses, depression, addictions, sexuality is gradually revealed. In short, it varies from sweet and loving to weird and extreme. At times I believe, too extreme, and even I as the author, cringe while reading it. Nonetheless, it reveals truths about myself and the people I have known over the years. It's deeply personal and at times has no basis in my personal reality. But it is fun and has consumed my free time over the course of the last year.

If you're into love stories, stalkers, murders, sex, zombies, fear, and the generally strange, then this is for you.

It's been edited, re-edited and updated as of winter 2016-JK

So that is my answer to the question for 4/5/2016.

BLOGHER LINK for April's writing Lab
http://www.blogher.com/blogher-writing-lab-april-2016-prompts