J.M. Richards's Blog

“Just then, I noticed a cluster of the noobs ogling me. “What’s up with them?” I asked my friends in an undertone.Alan shrugged. “I think they’re working on a project or something.”“What kind of project?” I asked warily. The intense kid with glasses—I still didn’t know his name—was looking back and forth between me and a large piece of poster board with a bunch of photographs and writing on

Day 04:Your first stories/characters. 

Errrr...like, very first?  Back in childhood?  I'm not sure I can remember back that far...

I do recall that I liked to write about a lot of fairy-tale/fantasy type stuff.
There was a story called "The Crystal Heart" I wrote when I was about eleven, maybe? I don't recall the character's names but the girl was sent to England to stay with her uncle and

Day 03: How do you come up with character names? 

Ooh, this is a good one.
So, I have a few different methods.  
The first is, I like to use the names of people I've known or read about.  For example, in the Dark Lightning Trilogy, I used a lot of my college friends' names kind of mishmashed together.  I think about the kind of people I've known with certain names; sometimes I just need to like

Day 02 :  How many char­ac­ters do you have? Do you pre­fer males or
females? 


Hmm, how many characters?  I have no idea.  I mean...I'd say there's around 20 characters with names and dialogue just in Tall, Dark Streak of Lightning alone.  
As for my preference, I prefer to write from a female perspective (because hello, I am a female!  I can

So I've decided to get back in the habit of using this blog by doing a 30 day questionnaire about my writing.
As a bonus, I get to pretend I'm participating in the world's longest interview. ;)

So anyway, on to question #1:

Day 01: Your favorite writ­ing project/universe that you've worked
with. 

Though this is tough, I'm leaning towards The Dark Lightning Trilogy.  That could partly be

So I'm back on blogger now.I admit, it's been a long while.I was using a few other social networking sites to connect with people, but I think this is the best place to sort house all my more "authorly stuff."But I'd just like to apologize for not updating my reading list in over a year.I still don't know how often I'll be using this; I may try to start posting thoughts regularly again.  

So I'm back on blogger now.
I admit, it's been a long while.

I was using a few other social networking sites to connect with people, but I think this is the best place to sort house all my more "authorly stuff."

But I'd just like to apologize for not updating my reading list in over a year.
I still don't know how often I'll be using this; I may try to start posting thoughts regularly again.  

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Please forgive any impudence or impropriety on my part for writing you.  I realize this letter is terribly late, and will never reach you, but all the same I feel it must be written.

I have just today finished your wonderful novel, "North and South."  I cannot tell you how profoundly moved I am by it.  At first, it was just the romance between Margaret Hale and John Thornton that drew me in;

It's less than two weeks before Switchfoot, my favorite band of all time, releases their new album, Vice Verses. 
From what I've heard, read, and gleaned, I'm pretty sure I'll be playing it non-stop the moment I own it.  And yeah, I'll probably blog about it too.

Over the years, I've made no secret of the fact that their lyrics speak to me and hit me where I am.  I have a whole playlist of songs