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MLV WritesMonica Valentinelli: Author, Game Designer and Consultant

Posted on August 30, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

Tribes and Our Role as a Writer

Writing

If you’ve been following my blog lately, you’ve probably read more about me than you have in a long time. While there’s a lot of reasons why I wanted to open up more, some of which will relate to my upcoming publications, there’s another one that I wanted to explain to you.
You see, even though [...]

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Posted on August 18, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

Pendants, Pentacles and Inspiration

Writing

One of the things that I like to collect are different pendants. This habit started when I was in college because I have a challenge wearing cheap jewelry due to metal allergies. So, to save money and change my look, I have a jewelry box full of pendants in different shapes, sizes and symbols. Some of these hail from the furthest corners of the world, and each one of them usually has a story behind it. Often, I will wear different pendants because they inspire me to write for different reasons.

The pendant I’m wearing today is one that I usually wear under my shirt, because I have a tangible fear associated with wearing it out in public. The intricate design is of a pentacle intertwined with a crow and, as you might imagine, there is a story associated with how this pendant came to be in my possession.

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Posted on August 14, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

Politics, Gaming, Feminism and Persona

Blogging

When I first started my blogging presence, I knew I wanted to take a more professional tack on it because of my career goals. I had been using LiveJournal for years, but didn’t really start thinking about a persona until I landed a job at an SEO consulting firm. It seems like it was just [...]

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Posted on July 12, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

Top 10 Misconceptions about Writers

Writing

Like many artistic professions, writers often encounter challenges as we pursue our careers. It seems as if every time I touch base with another writer we all seem to be facing the same, exact issues at one point or another in our lives. One of my friends joked that we should all have punch cards [...]

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Posted on July 6, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

Dare I say that I wrote Fan Fiction for a Charity Contest? Read it here.

Writing

Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi Fanfic Contest PaintingI had first heard about the contest that authors John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton were sponsoring through Twitter. Dubbed the “Wil Wheaton/John Scalzi Fan Fiction Contest to Benefit the Lupus Alliance of America,” writers were asked to provide a short story about a particularly odd painting. The winners of this contest would then be pooled together into a charity anthology that would be published through Subterranean Press. After seeing the painting, I just had to enter. For your enjoyment, I’m posting a picture of the painting by artist Jeff Zugale and my contribution entitled THE CONTRACT.

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Posted on June 23, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

You Don’t Have to “Do” Anything…Other Than Write

Writing

One of the things that I find so frustrating with advice for writers, is the sheer volume of task lists, buzzwords, and blog posts that infiltrate every corner of the space telling writers what they “should” be doing. You need to have a writer’s platform. You need to offer your work for free. You need [...]

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Posted on May 31, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

Inside VioletWar.com

Blogging My Work

One of the things that I’m always conscientious about is providing an image that is both professional and creative at the same time. While I enjoy writing and sharing posts with you on my blog, it’s not the same as what I write for VioletWar.com. There, I can be more personal because people are investing [...]

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Posted on May 25, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

A Noise Detox

My Life Writing

If you’ve been following my blog, you may have read some of my posts about writing and depression. One of the things I talk about there, is that writing is a solitary activity that is part and parcel to a writer’s ability to focus on what they’re doing. As you know, depression can be caused [...]

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Posted on May 17, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

Don’t Give Up

Writing

The following message is dedicated to any writer who has ever felt discouraged and depressed.
Hey, you! Listen up. Yeah, you. Why the long face? Oh, I get it. You’re depressed because either:
a) you don’t have any readers
b) your book isn’t selling
c) you haven’t been published
d) your peers are surpassing you
e) you have no idea how [...]

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Posted on April 20, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

My Guest Post at SFWA: An Overview of Writing for Print vs. the Web

Writing

As a writer, I’m often asked to describe the difference between writing for a print publication and writing for the web. This month, I had the chance to write an in-depth article for SFWA.org that provides you with some insight as to why writing for an online publication is so different from writing for print.
Here’s [...]

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Posted on April 15, 2010 - by Monica Valentinelli

Guest Post: Why Mixing Content is a Bad Idea

Guests Writing

For today’s post, I’d like to turn my blog over to Jonathan Bailey, a copyright and plagiarism consultant and CEO of CopyByte. Be sure to read is bio after the post below.
In the music or video world, remixing can often be a very good thing. People take short samples of music or short clips of [...]

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Emotional Connection and Writing
by Monica Valentinelli on March 30, 2010
Is Blogging and Social Media Affecting Your Ability to Write What You Want?
by Monica Valentinelli on March 17, 2010
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I Recommend... Publishing Business

Are You Overestimating Your Value as a Writer?

If you’re a writer and you want to get published, you often have to deal with with other people’s expectations about your work. There’s another layer of expectations, too, because you probably have personal assumptions about how you value yourself and your work. The two spheres, while similar, are very distinct. You see, when you [...]

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Career Planning

Providing a Service Versus Offering an Asset

For any creative professional who is providing a service, the difference between making money now and making money over the long-term can be pretty frightening. On the one hand, we all have the tendency to make decisions based on the power of a dollar. How many jobs have we taken that we were over-qualified for? [...]

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Publishing Business

Ask Yourself the Tough Questions

Years ago, when I first started writing, I was more worried about seeing my name in print than I was about getting paid for my work. So, like many other “new” authors, I threw just about everything against the wall while I fulfilled my real life obligations. Would a part-time job pay my rent while [...]

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Guests

My Guest Post: Aliens, Naming and Naming Conventions

Hi, Just wanted to drop a brief note that this month’s post over at Apex Book Company continues my series on How To Create an Alien Language with names and naming conventions. In this post, a talk about how names and naming conventions are often a reflection of culture rather than a mechanical permutation of letters. Here’s [...]

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Guests

My Guest Article at Innsmouth Free Press

Hi everyone, Thought you’d be interested to find out that I wrote an article about the appeal of Cthulhu in gaming for Innsmouth Free Press, a Lovecraft-inspired webzine. Written with the casual gamer in mind, I list some horror games that I enjoy and talk about why the Cthulhu mythos is a great backdrop for a [...]

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I Recommend...

Win a Copy of Cthulhu 101 at FlamesRising.com

Hi everyone, As you know, one of the roles I have is Project Manager at the horror and dark fantasy webzine FlamesRising.com. This week we have launched a theme week to honor H.P. Lovecraft, whose birthday is on Friday. Lovecraft is considered to be one of the most influential horror authors on the genre from the [...]

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My Appearances

My Schedule at Geek*Kon

Hi everyone, I have invited to be a guest at Geek*Kon in Madison, Wisconsin. I’ve posted my schedule below for those of you who are interested in dropping by. Here’s my schedule: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3rd 2:00pm-3:00pm – Opening Ceremonies SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th 12:00pm-1:00pm – Game Publishing 2:00pm-3:00pm – Writing Panel 4:30pm-5:30pm – World Building SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th 12:00pm-1:00pm - Being an [...]

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My Life

Love My Nintendo DS and Square Enix

Many of you probably know that I’m a game designer in addition to being a writer. I haven’t designed any PC or console games yet. So far, I’ve worked on a lot of setting design for several games by Abstract Nova Entertainment in addition to various other assignments for the hobby games industry. As you [...]

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My Work

Hack/Slash Card Game and my Role as a Developer

Hi everyone, I am excited to announce that I am one of the developers of a card game based on the horror comic HACK/SLASH by Tim Seeley! Produced by Eden Studios, the game was designed by Matt Papa and the development team includes M. Alexander Jurkat, James Lowder, who is also the current editor for the HACK/SLASH [...]

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Resources

My New Guest Series at Apex: Creating an Alien Language

Blogging for Apex Book Company has been a lot of fun, in part because I get to talk about things that interest me and loosely relate to things that I’m working on as well. I decided to write a series of posts about creating your own alien language, in part because I have to do [...]

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Tools

Reading a Novel on the iPad

Last weekend we headed down to Chicago for a road trip and I had the chance to sit back and read a full-length novel on the iPad. The experience was pretty interesting, because this was a case where I was simply reading for pleasure. What I Liked I enjoyed being able to make the font larger and [...]

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Tools

My Thoughts on the iPad

I have never been an early adopter of new technology. In fact, I just went through the excruciating process of upgrading some of our hardware to fit the times. So, when I had the opportunity to check out my SO’s new iPad to see what the fuss was all about, I couldn’t pass up the [...]

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