Mmmm.... Shower

I think the shower is the best thing ever created.

Like, seriously.

During November, (I think just about everyone here knows what NaNo is) I failed. The story wasn't coming the way it should have been, it sucked, it was lame.

I've been fighting with the plot. I have the end. The end fuggin ROCKS! I want to write the end sooooo bad! But I don't write out of sequence.

Anyways, I have almost 5,000 words of my story and like... 4,800 words are going to go POOF. Cause they're no longer needed.

But that's okay! (kind of. There is one scene I love but it no longer fits :( ) I have my plot! Kind of! But that's okay! I know it is!

So happy!!

Tomorrow, I'm going to have a lovely post about stuff, that I was going to post today. But this was more important!!

Off to dance now!

Laters!

I know I shouldn't be laughing but...

I find it highly ironic that the Stop Censoring thing I have up, is blocking a picture of a gay couple. So I'm going to laugh my ass off, cause it's funny.

Anyways, that thing is there to do more than block my two Angels. If you haven't heard, Congress went in to vote on censoring the internet today. A lot of places have been protesting it, including Tumblr. If this passes, placed like blogger, wordpress, Tumblr, livejournal, Facebook, and other sites that allow free posting will be shut down.

Go here to sign the petition and here will give you a little bit of information on it. Or you can click the Stop Censoring banner up there to go to another site to sign the petition and such.

And here I thought I lived in America...

Lost

LOST

NaNoJo

Last seen November 30, 2009

My NaNoJo was last seen slamming away at a NaNo Novel

Any tips leading towards the finding of my NaNoJo will be rewarded with lots and lots of words

Please, I miss my NaNoJo

I don't know if the term 'NaNoJo' has ever been used, but to me, it means NaNo MoJo, just cutely put together, lol

They Died Before They Got a Chance to Live

I'm working on my NaNo plot.

When I started, I had my MC and her two best friends. Her two best friends wouldn't stick around much until maybe the end, but they were there.

They had lives, they had stories, they had personalities. They were real. They were loved. They were pretty awesome. One of them was a hipster chick. They were there to make the MC look like a likable character and expose her personality more.

Well, as I've been working on the plot... They've been nicked. Tossed to the side. Picked up and displaced. No more does the hipster-alien-enthusiast exist. No more does the confused-but-awesome boy remain. They may be mentioned in thought, but that's all.

It makes me kind of sad. They lived in my head for a few weeks, having arguments with my MC about whether aliens existed, if Big Foot was real, and whether or not the aliens on the moon killed JFK.

They've died before they even  had a real chance to live.

I mentioned them like, once.

RIP Marchelle then alien enthusiast and Bradley, the confused one who tries so hard.

In other news, NaNo is going slowly. And it sucks :(

Why won't this one pour out like my Camp NaNo novel?

All right, I'm going off to cry and write.

Good luck to all those doing NaNo!!


Laters!

Skipping Steps

Have you ever been in a rush to get somewhere and started skipping the steps to get up them faster?

I've done it. Steps are annoying, the faster up them, the fast I'm done with them.

But there are some things were you can't skip steps. Not successfully. Like the steps towards getting published. 

Write the manuscript.

Edit it.

Edit it some more.

And some more.

Find some agents.

Write some queries.

Now it gets a little fork in the road. Either you get an agent and get published or you go back and edit some more or you give up on that story. For now.

This is what I've done:

Write the manuscript

Start editing it

Find some agents

Write some query letters

Write the next manuscript

Go back to editing.

Wait--what? How the heck did I do that? Rather, why?

Heh, I know why. I get bored and jump around. I'm not going to send it out though! That would be very, very stupid. 

Anyone else ever skip steps?

Laters!

Don't Turn On The Lights

So, this didn't turn out exactly as I planned. Or even close, really. 300 word limit is sucky, but doable. Hopefully the story came out all right.

This is for the third campaigner event. It's called Don't Turn On The Lights. 

Here are the parameters of the story:

Write a blog post in 300 words or less, excluding the title. The post can be in any format, whether flash fiction, non-fiction, humorous blog musings, poem, etc. The blog post shouldshow:

• that it’s morning, 

• that a man or a woman (or both) is at the beach

• that the MC (main character) is bored

• that something stinks behind where he/she is sitting

• that something surprising happens.

Just for fun, see if you can involve all five senses AND include these random words: "synbatec," "wastopaneer," and "tacise."   (NB. these words are completely made up and are not intended to have any meaning other than the one you give them).

I got tacise and wastopaneer in there, but not the synbatec and I got exactly 300 words, according to my Word document

Vacations were for sleeping in. That was some kind of rule of thumb, wasn’t it? Obviously, someone didn’t tell Veronica that. The sun hadn’t even come over the horizon and she was already walking out of the front doors of her hotel, the Hotel Tacise. She’d picked it because it sounded French. But what did she know? She failed language in high school. 

The sky turned a faint shade of pink over the water as the sand crunched under her feet. She spread her towel out and plopped down, wiggling to make a comfortable hole for her butt. 

The shades of pink and orange kept her entertained for a few minutes. And then the treasure hunters, or wastopaneers as she called them, began to break up the horizon and the silence. 

She blew air through her lips. What the hell was she going to do now? She looked like a moron sitting there at six in the morning in her bikini. Oh well. After this week, no one would see her again. 

As the sun rose higher and got hotter, something new tickled her nose. It reminded her of the day the freezers at the supermarket stopped working and all the meat went bad. 

Her schedule was just open enough that she could search for the offender and move it away from her. The sand burned her soles as she stepped off the safety of her towel. 

She walked aimlessly for a few minutes before a collection of buzzing caught her ear. She changed her path, doubling back the way she had come hours before. 

Then she saw it. 

The scream left her throat before she even registered the empty eyes and melting skin. 

Maybe next time she’d go to the Alps. Maybe next time she’d remember to sleep in. 

I'm not too happy with it, but it will do.

Enjoy?

Laters!

Holy Sheez!

Look at this. It's something I'm sure quite a few of you have seen already, But holy sheez! That low? Already??

11 days?? I am so not ready! It doesn't feel like it's almost NaNo yet! I--I don't know what to say! I don't know what to do!

I was just looking at the NaNo page and happened to see that and it took me by surprise. It was shocking. I mean, I have a story somewhat ready to be told and I have my homework planned out so that I'll be done with it all before November even starts so I don't have to worry about it. But... 11 days? 

I'm kind of... fearful of this.

I failed last years NaNo, made it to like 8,000 words or something like that. Maybe a little more, but no where NEAR where it should have been. But this year I think I can do it.

But 11 days? I need more time!

Is anyone else ready for NaNo? How many of you are doing NaNo?

Laters!

A Second Post

But I HAD to post this

Source 

Today is my Birthday

My party, while I didn't mean it to, had a theme. The theme was pirates. I had pirates on my cake, pirate cupcake paper things (you know, the paper cup things), pirate flags in the cupcakes, the party favors were hand made pirate themed necklaces, and I was wearing a red and white tie with skull and crossbones on it.

But I did not mean for this to happen. I decided last night to buy some pirate figurines to put on my cake and the cupcake liner things I had seen at work for weeks and just wanted them. I decided on the tie this morning when I found it tucked amongst my stuffed animals on my bed. The necklaces were decided on a week ago. I just picked the different things and threw them together for my birthday. My friends were all like "Why didn't you say there was a theme to the party? We would have worn something piratey!" And I was like "There is no theme..." And they were like "There's pirate themed stuff everywhere. It's a pirate themed party!"

I do the exact same thing with my stories. (You thought this was going to be a post about my birthday, didn't you?) I never mean to have a theme or a message or symbolism. I take some characters, I put them in a situation, I make them do certain things. Normal things. And I normally come up with these things at different times. Like I'll think of a situation that would be interesting to explore (like my delicious cheese cake). Then some time later, I'll think of characters (pirate figures FTW!) for that situation. And sometimes, I'll have a basic plot in mind already (cupcake thingies) and just need to use it. Then I put it all together in a story and BAM! Awesomeness (sometimes, lol).

Then I send it along to my betas and they come back and they're like, "Jesi, you have a theme here! You  have a message!" And I'm just like "Huh?"

I didn't put that there. I didn't even think of that!

Sometimes, I'll even get to a scene and be like "Wait! That links with with something that happened/is going to happen!' And I didn't even think of it that way til I wrote it. Then me and my characters are just like 

Like, my latest manuscript, I had originally thought it was about peer pressure. At least when I first thought it up (it changed so drastically since then). I scraped that thought quickly and just typed away. I sent it to my dad and he comes back and tells me I've got a theme going on here. I don't recall what he said it was (he told me on the phone rather than writing it into my critique or something, so I can't recall what he said in my somewhat tired and burnt out state. But I'll edit later when I have the chance to ask him) but I totally didn't do it on purpose! It just... happened. (Sadly, the theme in my story was not pirate themed).

Does this ever happen to you? How do you react to it? 

Here are some pics from my bday!

The party favors sitting in the cupcake thingies

Cupcakes!

Pirate cake. That's a dead guy laying down right there

Me and the cake

Me and my best friend trying to get all the candles lit(there's only 23 but it looks like a bonfire!)

Blowin' out all that hard work

That guy that's blurry, his face caught on fire. Looks like his face got shot off by that cannon

Laters!

Don't you just love?

(There's going to be no Friday Fave today. I don't have anything for it )

Don't you just love when you get an idea for a post (or anything, actually) and it's so awesome and you know everything you want to write, but you don't write the idea down and when you go to write/do it, you can't remember it.

I had this awesome idea last night for a blog post. It was so awesome, and I know it was. But I was in bed, trying to fall asleep, and I was like 'I'll remember this, it's too obvious to forget.' So I didn't write it down.

And now I don't remember.

But it was such a great idea! I'm so sad!

Anyways, I wanted to say something so I didn't seem completely dead. Been really busy with work. Working at a fabric and crafts store during Halloween season is INSANE. But I love my job.

I'll get something real posted soon.

Laters!

Friday Faves!

I'm on time! Woot!

1.  I think I may start a rant post once a month. Maybe once every few months. Or once every so often when I feel the need to rant. I have a rant lined up, I'm just a bit... apprehensive about posting it. So we shall see.

2. This is an awesome video. Like seriously. I can't post the video itself here, cause I can't find the permalink for it, but here's a link to it on my tumblr
http://jesimarie.tumblr.com/post/10870541240/skin-against-the-steel-leafuckingsarfati-my
seriously, this video is awesome and I dare you to not laugh. I double dare you. Hell, I double dog dare you. And if you don't laugh then...

I suck at these things cause I can never think of stuff to post! Bad me, very bad me!

Anyhow...

Who agrees Johnny Depp is hot? No matter how creepy he looks? LOL


Laters!

Sometimes I just wanna..

Sometimes I just wanna start an opinions blog where I can just sling out my unpopular opinions and different take on things while not bogging this blog down.

Maybe I will.

Who knows.

Just saying.

Real blog post at some point. Damn all this homework.

Friday Faves (a day late!)

Yesterday was a busy day! I'll use some of that business for my Friday Faves (a day late!).

1. Yesterday was my mom's birthday, and I had to work, and I went out with friends. But happy birthday to my Mom! I won't tell you her age, but I have a young mom :D

2. Last night, I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World at midnight. I know, the movie came out like last year, but there's a theater that's going to be showing it monthly and doing similar to the Rocky Horror Picture Show showings. Since last night was the first night, they had tons of special guests, including the director, the guy who wrote the original comic, and quite a few of the actors from the movie. Amongst them were Chris Evans (oh god I love him...) and Jason Schwartzman. I got to see them in person! Didn't get any pictures with them, but I did get video footage of the Q&A that I may post at a later date.

3. Beth Revis posted about this site on her tumblr. It's called Query Tracker and it helps you organize where you've sent your queries to and such. The guy who created yWriter (I don't have the link to his page right now) has something similar you can download to your computer called Sonar. I have that downloaded, but since I haven't sent any queries, I haven't used it yet, so I can't tell you about it.

That's about all I got for this week. Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Laters!

A turn for the weird and a change in POV

Sometimes I wish I could just like, pour a thought in there and have everyone understand it. Like the memory wisp things in Harry Potter. That would be cool. But I can't do that, so I'll have to find a place to start.

I'll start with my opinion of first person.

Now this opinion of mine will be very contradictory and people will disagree with me and possibly tell me I'm stupid. But I almost hate first person, which is funny because most of my favorite books are written in first person. I find first person to be a cop out (remember here that my favorite books are written in first person) and I can give you a specific reason as to why I almost hate first person. And this opinion has gotten me the "you shouldn't let a book decide how you feel about something" (or something like that) comments before. But my reason for hating first person is.... the Twilight "Saga" (it's not a saga, dammit.) I read all four of them, went to the midnight release of the fourth book, stole (read: asked for and was given) balloons from Barnes 'n' Nobel when they lied about having a midnight release party just so that Borders, who was having a party, looked cooler, and I've also been to the midnight release of all the movies, just to troll. I read the first book twice, started the second book a second time, got to the part (SPOILER ALERT) where Bella goes towards the guys who may have been her rapists just so she can have a schizophrenic attack and see Edward. I got so damn pissed that I threw the book down and never touched it again.

Thus my hate for first person began. After that, for about six months, I would not read a first person novel. Then I started reading them again, because, as I mentioned, some of my favorite books are in first person. But I'm still a little... skeptical on first person novels. Go figure.

But that's not the point of this post! The point of this post is this:

I have to write a story for my creative writing class. I had NO idea what to write about so I went to tumblr and searched for writing prompts. One that I found was The Unicorn Apocalypse

Source

I scrolled on past that one, because it just sounded silly. But I had come up with an opening sentence or two for it. "A group of unicorns is called a blessing. At least that's what I'd heard." Now, that first part is a fun fact from a game called Camping. I was at my bff's house the other day and we played this with her little cousin and that was one of the fun facts in this nature based game.

But as I said, I kept scrolling, found a few I liked but my mind kept wandering back to this unicorn apocalypse, coming up with ideas and sentences and... Well... I've decided that this is the prompt I'm using for my story.

Now... Did you notice something odd in that opening?

Did you see that little 'I' in there?

Why yes, I, the person who does not like first person and finds it a cheap shot, am writing a story in first person.

I haven't written a story in first person since... Since... Um... I have no clue, actually. I think I was a little kid when I did it though, though all the stories I recall and have come across from my younger days were all in third person. Lord knows.

In short, I wanted to share this weird prompt I'm using and how I have somehow come to write a story in first person.

Also, my dog is acting weird as hell and has been for the last thirty minutes. Maybe there's an earthquake building. Or he's just weird.

What do you think of the different POVs? What's your favorite? Do you dislike one of the POVs, like I've taken to?


Laters!

It's Here! It's Here! It's Here! Oh Em Gee It's Here!

So, it seemed like my week was going to suck, save for the VERY end when I hang out with my bff. I got stuck working 6 days this week, getting asked to come in on my day off (I know, I coulda said no, but I need the money). It was shaping up to be a blah week for the most part.

And then... And then I check my email today. And I see this email from my dad. He normally sends me an email every week.

But this one... This one got this kind of a reaction

Then this:

Wanna know why? I think you can guess why. But I'm gunna tell you anyhows!

I GOT MY EDITS BACK!

So, there is a critique, which is 7 pages long, ad all the comments on the manuscript itself, which comes out to a grand total of 1524 comments. That's a lot of friggin comments for something only 226 pages, 12 pt font, double spaced. Damn, that got super long. When I typed it in 1.5 space 7.5pt font, it was only like, 120 pages. Wow. Damn. Anyways! That's not the point. The point is...

I don't even know what the point is any more. I'm just excited!

But I can't get to edits yet cause I have to do homework! Dammit. I wanna do edits!

Oh well, I'm still excited to have them back.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bed to be bouncin' on.

How do you guys normally react to getting edits back from a beta, or even your agent, if you've got one?


Laters!

Remember Me - 9/11

Just a warning: Some of my opinions listed here may be offensive to some readers. Read with caution. And don't say I didn't warn you.

I was in 8th grade when 9/11 happened, just barely two weeks in or so. I like on the West Coast, so it was early in the morning, I had gotten up for school, dressed, and come downstairs. Rounding the bottom of the stairs, I could see the TV. Now, I was used to my mom watching the news in the morning before school, but as I see this footage on the TV of planes crashing into a building, I can't help but wonder why my mom's watching a movie before school. I asked, "What movie are you watching?"

She says, without looking away from the TV, "It's not a movie, it's the news."

I remember thinking "Holy shit."

We watched the news until we had to leave, then in class, during the morning announcements, the principle comes on and we had a moment of silence then she told us that school was the safest place we could be at that time, even if some parents didn't think so. Then we watched the news in our class room.

I remember going home later and emailing my friend who lived in New York at the time, asking if her and her family were okay. She kind of laughed at me and said everyone was fine.

That's about all I remember from that day.

After that, I stopped really giving a shit. It was a bad thing to have happened, horrible really. I knew it was horrible, but I  never claimed to be the nicest person out there. I thought -and still think to an extent- that it was something we should never forget but move on from. We can't let something heal if we keep picking at it. And it seemed, as the years went by, that everyone else forgot about it too. The extent of remembrance went towards a moment of silence, some talk about, rewatch the footage on the anniversary, and that was it. Still is, basically.

Here's another warning: SPOILERS if you haven't seen Remember Me (and it's such a good movie, that if you haven't you need to now!)

My feelings changed some when I saw the movie, Remember Me with Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin. It's an adorable love movie that ends with Robert Pattinson's life coming back together and then... He dies in the World Trade Centers.

When the movie ended after the first time I saw it, I thought it was the shittiest ending ever. It felt like a cop out, not to mention, they killed him when his life was just getting back to being good! His dad was paying more attention to his sister, he was getting back together with the girl he loved, everything was just pulling back together so perfectly...

And then he dies. WTF movie people, wtf? And then, to top it off, they used Sept. 11 as the way he died. They showed him all happy in his dad's office, looking out the window, and then the camera moves back and shows he's at the top of one of the towers. Now, throughout the movie, it never really hints as to the date the whole move takes place, where the dad's office is. All you know is it's in New York.

To say the least, I felt slighted.

But then I started to think about it. The movie brings you back to how you felt the day 9/11 happened. And not only that, but it made you feel so deeply for someone, then felt the pain of losing them in the tragedy that marks this day.

Before seeing this movie, I was just a west coast girl who knew no one lost in the attack. Oh, I knew from pictures and video footage, and hearing second hand about all of the pain it caused, but it didn't affect me in that kind of way.

After seeing the movie, I have a new... appreciation? acceptance?... some kind of feeling I can't think the name of. But I feel differently about 9/11 now. It wasn't just a some buildings, but people's loved ones. Their friends, their families. People who may have just started getting their lives back on track, people who were going through a hard time, people who woke up and said to themselves "Today is going to be a good day."

I think that's part of the problem. We see it as "The World Trade Center" and always so pictures of the buildings, or the lights shooting into the sky to mimic the towers. But what about all those people? We should have slide shows talking about the people. Buildings can be rebuilt, but those people are gone forever.

All right, I'm done. I'm sorry to anyone who I offended in this post, but I'm not a saint, never claimed to be. I have bad thoughts just like anyone else, but I own up to them.

And now, a moment of silence in memory of the people who died in the attack on the World Trade Center.


































Laters.

It's Time for Friday...

We have a winner from the poll last Friday! (Jeez, it's been a week already?)

The new title of Friday Five is Friday Faves! Woohoo! Thanks to those of you who voted :D

Now, onto the Friday Faves

1. I had this dream last night that I started sending out query letters to agents for the manuscript that I recently finished writing before my dad even returned the first round of his edits. Two agents wanted to see more and I was all like "Crap, what am I going to tell them? I don't have the manuscript!" I think I was going to tell them that it was going to take a week or so to get it to them cause my computer had just crashed. I woke up with a serious "wtf?" feeling.

2. This song, right here, is like, complete awesome *swoons over Adam Levine*

Not only is it an awesome song, but it's full of word play which is like, super awesome. I LOVE word play like there ain't no tomorrow. Adam Levine's voice makes it that much more great. God, I swear, one day I will hug him!

3. I think I may have found someone to do my new banner. Yey! More news on that soon!

That's all I can think of for this week! I need to start posting more. I'm working on it! I swear!

Expectations and Reality

Here's my entry for the first campaign challenge, titled Expectations and Reality.

The door swung open. Olivia had been expecting some grand ballroom with shelves upon shelves of books. When Greg had said “I want to show you something,” and taken her by the hand, she had expected something beautiful, something more than this. 

“It’s a broom closet,” she said with a frown, pulling her hand out of his stony grasp. She couldn’t even bare to look him in his gargoyle face. Oh, she’d gotten used to the look since she’d been here, but she just couldn’t… This had to be a joke. 

“It’s not a broom closet. It’s my library,” Greg said, his voice rough. 

“There aren’t any shelves,” she pointed out. In fact, there was nothing in this room but a table, chair, and a small grey thing. 

“I have a ton of book shelves.” He picked up the grey thing. “Olivia, I want to share my library with you.” He held the thing out to her. She slowly took it from him. 

“An… e-reader?” Her voice fell flat. 

He nodded, his disfigured face looking bright and eager. 

She shoved the device back at him and turned out of the small room. “Call me when you get a real book.”

Other titles for this story could be "How Modern Technology Ruins Romantic Moments" and "The Problems with Modern Technology". Feel free to make up your own! Leave 'em in the comments so I can see! I do love to see!

Anyhow, this story is obviously a parody of Beauty and the Beast. The Beast (aka Greg) isn't a big hairy monster, but instead a bat-like gargoyle. The title is based on a tumblr meme. For anyone that has a tumblr, you probably know this meme. Basically, a statement is made, like "Walking past a crush" then you get "Expectations" and the picture is of a hot chick walking sexily down the hall. Then "Reality" is a picture of someone walking really weirdly, or falling down, or something. See here for an example. (no, that's not my tumblr).

I like my story :D And according to my Word, it's 200 words exactly. It was originally around 220 words, and I have to take stuff out. Obviously.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed!!

Hello fellow campaigners!

I wanted to take  a quick moment and say hello to you all and let you all in on a little something (ooo scandalous *insert Damn You Look Good and I'm Drunk(Scandalous) by Cobra Starship here*).

I'm slowly working on getting around to all my groups and introducing myself and adding all of the blogs to my google reader. I joined four groups so it's taking a little time. I also have to get my first assignment in all three of my college classes done before next Monday or I get dropped from my classes, and I'm trying to balance all this with my new job.

But it will get done! I swear!

Until then, hello to you all! And welcome!

Friday... Something!

I am changing the title of the Friday Five because I was always having a hard time coming up with 5 things to share. I'm going to let you guys vote on the few I've come up with! If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments!


Now, on to the post!

1. I got a job! Yey! After a year of seriously searching, and 4 years of being jobless, I have finally obtained a job! It's only a seasonal job right now, but if I work awesomely enough, then I might be able to be hired as a regular worker. Fingers crossed for me! If I get to keep this job, so many doors will be opened for me!

2. One of my dad's short stories has been accepted to be printed in an anthology! Congrats Gilbert! Check it out here for  more info: http://gilmiller.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/breaking-news/

3. My best friend and I made a video not long ago and I want to share it, cause I think it's fun! We might start doing one monthly. Not sure.

4. I'm looking for some new art for my header up there *points at the current picture* to fit more into the YA theme I'm taking. I know what I want, I just need someone to do it. I don't have any real money right now to pay for it, but if you know someone who would be willing to do some art for me and has a similar style to the art above, please let me know. Credit will of course be posted to my blog so people can find the person. Kinda one of those you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours kind of deals.

I think that's all for now. I'll try to have cooler things for next week!

Now, I must off to follow the lovely people in my groups for the campaign, make my introduction rounds, and do my homework. And read. Ah, there are not enough hours in the day for the procrastinator.

Laters!

I'm all like... Whoa. Or maybe 'woohoo' is better

So, for all you lovely new people (and maybe the old ones. I can't remember if I mentioned this recently), for Camp Nano, I wrote my first YA novel. I know I recently mentioned that I think YA is my real niche, etcetc (check it here).

I finished it a few days ago and sent it to my dad for him to edit.

He finished it in three days. He said he didn't want to put it down. (Now I know that parents are supposed to do this, but my dad is a writer as well (find him here) and he doesn't believe in telling someone that something is good when it's not. He admits that he's bias because I am his daughter, but I trust his opinion completely.)

I am in love with this novel, but because it was my first YA novel, I was afraid it wasn't that great. So when he said this, this was my reaction:

There are some problems with it, of course. What first draft doesn't have problems? But he liked it! I figured it would take him a few weeks to get through it. Three days, though? Three days?

Obviously, I am very excited about this. I was all tense waiting for his opinion, wanting to call and ask him like every other moment to find out what he thought about it. I am so in love with this manuscript that I think it may have actually hurt to hear that it sucked.

I told him to go through it again and give it another look over and make sure that he caught and commented on everything that needed to be. i also want some more time away from the manuscript so when I go back to it, it's like looking at it with fresh eyes.

I can't wait! GAAAHH!!!

I wanted to share with my writerly people. Because it makes me feel AWESOME!

Ok, I think I'm done.

Laters!

Platform Building Campaign!

Woot! I'm going to be a campaigner this coming session over at Rach Writes...

You should go check it out :D

EDIT: I will be going around following and introducing myself once the groups are solidified. Otherwise I'll get confused, lol. I look forward to meeting you all!

Drop it like it's hot

That's right. I won. It's awesome.

And not only did I win, but I finished by story at a whopping 64,129 words. I was afraid that I wouldn't make it far past 50,000. Well look at that! I kicked my own worries in the bum with 14, 129 words!

Now it's time to edit, edit, edit. And hope it's good. I think it's good. I like it. I'm happy with it. It needs some work, but it'll get polished then queried out!

Now to think about either writing part two in November (if I do November, it depends on if I get a job and school and all that) or writing the other idea I have. Both of which are int he works as far as plot.

Any how, good luck to all of those who are still working!! YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Laters!

Party Tiem!!

I spelt that wrong on purpose. Yes, yes I did.

I am going to party hardy now!

I have breached the 50,000 word line and still have tons to write! Or at least another 10,000 words or so. Or maybe 5,000, I don't know.

All I know is, I am going to party. Right now.

This is my party music

*dances*

How's everyone else doing? Going strong I hope?

Laters!

It's like a snow day

Sometimes writing comes easy as pie. It flows like water through a stream, just pouring from your brain to your fingers and onto the (digital)paper. At times, you can hack out five thousand words in a day (or more if you're just that awesome) and still want to write more but you're so tired that you have to close up and go to bed.

Other times, it's like a snow day. And not like those good snow days when you find out school is cancelled and you get to stay home and veg on the couch with a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows. No, it's more like those snow days when the snow is up to your hip and still coming down and you still have to go to work.

Sometimes, writing is like sloughing through that long expanse of space from your front door to your car. Then you have to dig a space large enough for your door to open so you can slip through and into the car. But it's freezing in the car and your engine doesn't want to start because it's so damn cold out, so you're shivering inside your own car, trying, begging, crying, pleading for the car to start so you can turn the heater on. But that all comes after you fight your way through all that snow.

Now, I don't live in an area that actually gets snows, so I don't know if places of work actually make their employees come in to work with snow that high, but I'm going to say your boss is a dick and making you come in. Cause I can. I have an artists license to do that kind of thing.

Right now I'm sloughing through that snow. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to remedy it. My brain is so scattered that I'm lucky to have the few hundred words I have down.

There's a lot of reason I could be stuck here in all this snow.

• I'm restless, though that could be the ADHD. 
• My semester technically started yesterday, though because I'm doing school online, I don't have to worry about that yet. 
• I got my itouch in the mail the other day and I'm still learning all the ins and outs and having a grand old time with it.
• I went out with my bff yesterday to an old western movie set and we made a little movie type thing and I need to edit the pieces together. And I really want to do that.
• I don't know what's going to be happening in my story. Like seriously, I've come to that spot where it's like, I know what's going to happen down the road, but I can't just jump into it. They have to plan, Lauren needs to talk to Bernie in the hospital. I'm thinking of introducing the MC for part two at one point, though she's just going to be making a cameo in this. And she's only going to be like, ten.
• My brain keeps trying to sway over to the two other ideas I have placed on the back burner until after this month is done. Or at least until after this story is done.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure you guys don't want to read that. It'll probably get kind of boring.

So what do you guys do to get through all that snow and get rolling again? I really want to know. maybe it'll give me a shovel through all this.

Until then, I will push on and find my way to work, where hopefully they have hot water, cocoa packets, and the heater is on.

Laters!

Whistle while you work

Hitler was a jerk
Mussolini bit his weenie
Now it doesn't work!

*clears throat*

I can't whistle. What does this have to do with writing? Well... nothing. I just wanted to use the title. But yes, I cannot whistle. Thusly, I will be singing and humming while I work! Or spewing off rhymes about Hitler to the tune of Disney songs, lol.

Week two of Camp Nano went great! I am now two days ahead of myself. It's amazing, really. I've never shot through NaNo this quickly.

But like I said before (at least I'm sure I've said it before), I'm really loving this story. I love finding out what's going to happen.

I started today stuck, though. So I did a little art project, stared at a blank sheet of paper in my note book, and came up with what was supposed to happen.

And I will say that I am in LOVE with the scene. It turns out that I'm being more violent towards my MC than I ever thought the plot was going to be, but it can't be helped. The plot calls for it.

I am at 38,571 words and I will say... I'm afraid of how much longer (or lack there of) this story is going to be. I want to get past the 50,000 mark. I'd love to get way past the 50,000 mark. I don't care if it reaches 75,000 (though that would be nice) I'm afraid it's going to fall short and no one is going to want it because it's a piddly little book.

I know, 50,000 words isn't piddly. It's a very good word count. I just want mine to be longer than that. Maybe it's because I've never really written a book longer than just above 50,000 words. I don't know.

All I know is, I love this story.

Love.

Hope all is going well with everyone else!

Laters!

PS - I wrote 5,003 words today :D

Halfway to NaNo goal, Third of the way to my goal!

I hit the 25,000 mark today! Yeey!

I'm feeling pretty good. I keep fearing that I'm going to rush through the rest of my plot, but I know if I just take it a day at a time, it'll all work out fine.

But I am so proud of myself!

I ended up bombing out of last years NaNo. Didn't even make it close to winning. I just couldn't get that story to work out like it should have.

But I am so in to this story! I love it! I'm having so much fun with it!

I'm back on track for the most part with my word goal (I had been a day ahead). I'm looking forward to writing more tomorrow and the day after and every day after that until it's done! Then I have to edit, but... I'm actually kind of looking forward to that.

My dad explained something the other day. I don't really know how to explain what he said cause, well, I'm not good at respitting out peoples words, lol, but it had something to do with really finding what you were meant to write. Like he had been trying to write Sci-fi and Fantasy and he had written a few manuscripts, but it wasn't anything he was overly excited about. Then he started getting into crime and he's really been gnawing at the bit to get to writing each day and looking forward to editing it and making it the best it can be. He says he's found what he really wants to write and what he's supposed to be writing.

I think I've found my place in YA. I was writing M/M romance and I still love to read and write romance, but I think it'll be in a YA stance from now on. Unless I can find my feet in adult romance, then maybe I'll dabble in that, but who knows.

For now, I am a proud YA writer.

Yeey!!

Laters!

End of week 1

I am very proud of myself. I wrote 4,111 words today. I was really in to the scene and having fun with it. Even more proud that I wrote all that after sitting here fearing that my main character is boring. Maybe she's not boring. Maybe she's just different. Things are really going to pick up now, though. I'm moving into the main part of the story. Fingers crossed that I have enough to fit in!

I think I do though. I keep trying to look at the plot as the few plot points I have firmly decided on and thinking "omg there isn't enough there! I'll never make it long enough!" but then I look at the 18,595 words that I've written so far, and all that just to get to the main part of the story line? Almost half way through 50,000 words and I'm only just not getting to the main point of the plot. If I can bull my way through that many words, I can so make the rest of the story last!

And I don't like putting in things that don't move the plot along. If it doesn't have something to do with the plot (or in this part of the story, showing what their life is like right now) then it doesn't go in. And if I need fluff, I'll make some random scene work.

Like in my first NaNo novel, there was a dare in the dare thread that was to send your characters to a theme park. So I did, I sent them to the theme park, and had one of the MCs get kidnapped, because it needed to happen anyways. So I got words AND moved the plot along.

Anyways, first week of Camp NaNo is over and I am doing great! Woohoo! I'm actually only like, 700 words off from my goal for tomorrow, which is good. I may be going out with a friend for her birthday tomorrow, which will, of course, take up writing time. But friends are important!

How's everyone else doing?

Laters!

Attack of the plot bunnies!

Though this little plot bunny is more like the nice little tomato in the Attack of the Tomatoes cartoon, or Gizmo from Gremlins.

This cute little plot bunny has brought to me an idea for a sequel to the story I am working on.

Not sure if that's a yey or not, but I will be putting him in a little cage to wait until I need him.

In other words, word count is going great! I'm not so over whelmed about the thought of not having enough to stretch into the word count, because I have found that I can bullshit my way pretty damn well. And it's not even bullshit that'll have to be cut later.

How's everyone else doing?

Laters!

All it took was a dream

I wrote 2767 words today for a total of 7548 words. That's just under 400 words over my goal word count for today. Yey!

I won' be writing tomorrow 'cause I'm going to Six Flags, but on Thursday I will be writing another 2422 words towards a goal of 9602 words. According to the Camp NaNo site, I will have 50000 words done by August 13, though my calculations says I won't have 50000 words until the 21st. And I'm writing more than the 1612 words recommended to be written a day. So odd.

I had gotten stuck though. I had to move around my time line for the story, because I didn't have anything for them to do for about 4 weeks and I didn't have a reason for what the guy who's using the kids to do what he was doing when it was against his own rules. I also got stuck with 1000 words left to write, unsure where to go. So what did I do? I put in a dream sequence. A very odd, kind of bloody dream that's actually kind of foreshadowing towards what's supposed to happen later in the book. I don't know how she had the dream, other than the fact that her brain took things that were said that day and found the hidden meaning. Hey, I'm sure it happens. She's not psychic or anything, she's just a normal girl, putting things together subconsciously.

All in all, things are going good. I didn't want to get started because I didn't know what to do (I do that a lot) but once I got in to it, I did pretty well, save for that one area. But it was good! I'm proud of it and the kids.

Though, I can't tell if two of the guys in the group of kids are just super awesome bffs or if they're gay for each other. I'm not sure. I will have to explore them closer.

Good luck to all of you doing Camp NaNo! I hope everything is going well!!

Laters!

Day one was slow but... Awesome

Woohoo!! I finish today with 4781 words!

Now, before you guys go "oh em gee, you wrote THAT many words in one day?!" No, I didn't write that many words in one day. I wrote just over 2,422 words today. I started with 2,336 words that I wrote about a month ago or so. So I wrote 2445 words in total. I am counting the 2336 into my final total for the month BUT I am planning on writing 75000 words this month and I DID do the math for how many words I have to write to get to that total not including the original 2336 words. I'm also going to be missing a day of writing because I will be out at Six Flags on the 3rd for my brother's birthday.

I have also basically figured out my plot in little points on a piece of paper. I just don't really know how to get from where I am right now to the first real plot point. There's nothing for them to do. I am so excited!

I also realized today how weird I am. I figured out how to put in that my kids are bank robbers without making it completely obvious that I needed to explain that. I made it work! Yeeey!

Now, in other news that is not writing related at all: My great grandma was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago. I forget which kind but it was on her spine and was wrapped around her heart and liver (or kidney, I never got confirmed truth on which one). It was impossible to remove surgically, so she started either radiation or chemo for it (I think it was radiation). As of today, my great grandma is cancer free! Yey!!! And of course, through her treatment and such, she was spending 6-8 hours in her garden, volunteering, and never once changing her life around for the cancer. She's a real trooper.

All right, that is all for today.

Laters!

It's amazing

I just read a book and a half in one day.

And I just wanted to share that.

Here seemed the best place to do it.

Go me!

We're going camping!

Nope, not actually going camping (I think just about everyone says that). I wanted to go to Burning Man, but damn those tickets are expensive! So I didn't go. This year. Maybe next year.

No, I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo! Yeeeeeey!

I have my story already in my head, and I've been wanting to write it for a few months now and god, I am so glad Camp Nano opened this year! It makes me so happy! *see above gif* No having to wait for Nano in November for this baby!

The past few weeks, more of the story has been breaking out in my head and it sounds like it's going to work out real well.

I also have become more comfortable with word count. I was all like "oh sh*t! I have to get a big ol' amount of words to be able to get this published! 50,000 isn't enough to make a sell-able story!" So I did a little research and found one author say that a YA novel is typically 75,000 - 100,000 words long, so I was like "I will aim for 75,000 words. Oh yeah."

Then I got a FWD from my dad. I guess he gets emails with articles from Writer's Digest and he forwards some of them to me. This one had a link to a series on the WD website called Successful Queries where they actually have agents who post successful queries they're gotten. I found both The Iron Witch and The Liar Society's queries on there. When the query was sent out for The Liar Society, it was only 53,000 words. That's only 3,000 words above 50,000 words. That relaxed me a lot. I am not not as stressed for word count (as being the key word here). I'll let the story unfold into the length it needs to be to tell the whole story correctly.

Still worried about how to keep things going, but I know it'll work out. Always did in the past!

Good luck to all other campers out there! You can do it!

Laters!

What do you think?

I have a question for the readers and writers amongst my followers.

Do you think it would date my book to have two characters bond over a book that is kind of obviously going to be a best seller for a while?


A little explanation. I'm thinking of having a background character and his deceased best friend have bonded over the Harry Potter books, because one of them is named George and the other is Fred. Now I know people bond over names (me and my best friend bonded at first because we have the same name, save for one letter in the spelling), and people can bond over books. BUT would it date my book if this happened to be mentioned? I don't know if it'll be mentioned or not, since I think the guy will only show up once, maybe twice.

I feel... Stiff.

I feel... Cold.

I feel stiff. Not from the gym, not from spending four hours on my feet at a birthday party, not from sleeping on a mattress that was a little too firm for my tastes two nights in a row, not even from carrying around my heavy ass over night bag.

That kind of stiffness wouldn't fit in with the whole theme of this blog, seeing as this isn't a blog of my every day life. It's a writing blog.

So no, it's not my muscles that are giving me trouble. It's my writing.

As I said in my last post, I've been working on a new story. I love the plot, I love the characters, I love writing it... for the most part. It just feels so stiff. My dad says I have a nice informal voice when I write (which I like being informal in my writing. I prefer to be like the story teller in the movie 101 Arabian Nights (I pretty sure that's what it's called)). And I love my style of writing, don't get me wrong. But I also rp, a lot. I don't know if that's affecting it (I think it is) but while I'm writing this story it feels very... stiff. Like I can't remember how to write and make it sound right. The kicker is, while I was trying to fall asleep last night, I got up to write a paragraph that had dawned on me, and it sounded perfectly fine.

Maybe I'm nervous. I mean, it is going to be novel length and I don't know a lot of what's going to happen and I'm afraid it won't make word count. Maybe that is it. I don't feel it's long enough, that there isn't enough padding to make the whole story as long as it needs to be. But I don't like unneeded padding.

I know the whole thing is to just write it and edit it later, but I don't like doing that. I like it to sound right the first time. Yeah, I'll edit it later, obviously, but right now it just feels weird.

Anyone else have this issue? How do you deal with it?

I got a pickle! I got a pickle! I got a pickle, hey, hey, hey, hey!

Don't ask about the title of this post. I have no clue. Seriously.

So I'm still coughing my lungs up but I'm alive! And I'm here! And I'm writing! I've got a few things I need to get planned out before I can really get roaring into the story, but I am writing what I can.

I'm using a site I got off of Qzie's blog (yes, I get a lot of stuff from her. Can I help that she has awesome stuff?) called 750words.com. It's a pretty cool little site. I like the incentive to get badges by doing different things with the writing, like writing 3 days in a row (or is it 5?). You guys should check it out.

Anyhow, I've got 1,828 words so far. I am so proud of myself! I'm working on something I have never worked on before. I typically write (homosexual) romance (yey slash!). But not this time! This story I'm working on is YA, and it's crime. Yes, a crime novel. Is there such thing as YA Crime? I'm not even totally sure that what I'm writing is crime. I'm pretty sure it is, my dad said it was crime and I gave him a barely basic plot.

I'd tell you guys about it, but if I do that, I'll lose my interest in it and won't write it, and I love this idea! It's been in my head for... um... a little while now. (Can't tell you how long, lol)

Hmm... that's all I've got to say for now. I think.

So...

Laters!

It's become a burning, aching, need...

There's a story in my head.

It's been there for... quite a few months now. And I've slowly been building up on to it, making it a fuller story, rounding out the characters, making them more real, more their own, but making them all a group.

And today it started burning in my head and in my chest (not the heart burn kind of burn, but the passionate burn). This story needs to come out. There characters need to be born in more then just my head and the occasional short bit. It needs to live! Breath! Exist!

I think I have found the push to birth this baby and raise it into a full grown story.

Off I go to get this thing out of me and into the world in which it belongs!

Hehe,

Laters!

Just my luck...

... to get sick just after coming back to my blog.

I've got an upper respiratory infection. Sucks majorly. Doesn't give well to doing much of anything but coughing up my lungs.

More awesome blogging soon.

:(

What do you do with a BA in English?

I just wanted to make a blog post with this title.

But I can make news that has to do with the title.

So, as I mentioned before, my school went douche-y and dropped my major (which was Professional Writing). They then combined my second choice of major in with English. So I am now majoring in English and Creative Writing. That's one major. I got my list of classes yesterday and the classes are actually rather awesome. I'm also going to be minoring in Journalism. I decided to add the minor in because with all the elective classes I wanted to take, I was basically getting a degree in Journalism anyways. So why not?

Lessee now...

I'll probably get back into about the same schedule I was posting in before. Or something similar. We shall see, we shall see.

Until then,

Laters!

Sometimes I feel so smart...

So, I sat down and wrote a story, which I will be posting in a minute. But this story was supposed to be for my writers group (which I'm going back to on Tuesday) and for this week's Chrysalis prompt, but I didn't something stupid. When I went through on the 1st to get all the prompts that I missed from the Chrysalis Experiment, I read this weeks wrong. I thought the prompt was 'In honor of Memorial Day...' instead of the poem-like thing it actually was. This is what I get for not reading the whole thing.

I am so smart, right? So, besides the fact that this is too late to go for this weeks prompt, because it's the wrong prompt (or rather, not even the prompt) it's just going to be for the writers group prompts.

Those prompts are:

• Dark window
• Shatter
• Wondrous
• Derangement
• Riparian

And now, without further ado:

Bryan sighed as he looked up at the dark window. She was mad at him and he hated that. But he’d had to walk off, he’d had to leave her behind. It was for her own good, even if she didn’t believe him. He’d just turned away from her house, about to walk off and leave her alone like he should be when a voice caught him in his tracks. 

“She’s worried about you, you know.” 

Bryan turned back around, brown hair flopping into his eyes. Standing by the front porch, bathed in the light from the little lamp by the door, was Mrs. Taylor, Lauren’s adopted mom. Her graying hair was pulled away from her face that hid her age very well. 

“What’re you talking about?” he asked, trying to sound nonchalant, as if pretending he didn’t care about Lauren any more didn’t shatter his soul and break his heart. 

Mrs. Taylor gave him a small smile, one that Bryan knew well from his childhood, the smile the grownups at the adoption agency used to give him when a family visited him but didn’t want him. It was kind of sad, kind of knowing, and it hurt his heart. “Don’t pretend you don’t know, Bryan.” She looked up towards Lauren’s window then back at Bryan. She held his gaze for a moment, then turned and opened the screen door. “Her windows unlocked, if you want to go up,” she said then disappeared into the house. The porch light flipped off and left Bryan in darkness again.

He stared at the spot Mrs. Taylor had been standing in for what seemed like forever. There was something she wasn’t telling him, something she expected him to already know. But he had no clue, and it just left his brain in a state of derangement. He startled when he heard a car coming up the long road behind him. He turned and saw the headlights bouncing his way. There was only one person it could be, and only one way he could go: up the tree. He shouldered his bag, making sure it wouldn’t flop as he quickly climbed. 

Bryan watched from inside the window as the car pulled up next to the house and the lights went out. Lauren’s blonde head emerged and headed inside. He heard the muffled voices down stairs through the floorboards then the soft thud of someone coming up the stairs. He held his breath as he waited for the door to open. There were two ways this could go, good or bad. He knew Lauren well enough to know that this was going to go badly. 

The door opened and the lights flicked on with a small click. Lauren started as she saw him sitting in the middle of her floor. She opened her mouth to speak then quickly closed it. She shut the door, walked across the room and set her bag on the bed before she decided to give him her attention again. 

“What’re you doing here, Bryan? You made it clear you wanted nothing to do with me anymore.” She put her hands on her hips and Bryan couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t smile at me, this isn’t funny.” He quickly dropped his smile. 

“It’s your favorite holiday,” he said and reached for his bag. 

“So what?” 

He paused, then grabbed it and opened it. He pulled out a bottle and sparkling grape cider and two orange juice cups. “Can we just pretend everything is all right, for one last night? We’ll celebrate everything we’ve been through up till now, then I’ll leave you alone and we’ll forget each other.” He was relieved to hear that he sounded normal despite the pain tearing him apart in the inside. 

Lauren studied him, the seconds beating on like hours. “It’s not much of a celebration without the others here.” 

Bryan gave a small laugh. “They didn’t think they could do this,” he said sadly, eyes on the ground. “So we’ll drink in their stead. Think of it this way: it’s more drink for us.”

Lauren nodded softly. “All right.” She took a seat on the floor across from him, leaning back against the side of her bed. 

He poured the bubbly purple liquid into the two glasses and handed her one. Once she took it, he held his up, clearing his throat. “In honor of Memorial Day.” 

Lauren lifted her glass. “In memory of everything we’ve been through together as a group of friends, the only family we’ll ever know or need.” 

They clinked glasses then sipped. 

They were quiet for a while, sitting on their opposite sides of the rooms, the feeling of their lost friendship weighing heavily on Bryan. Their Memorial Day celebrations used to be such wondrous things. Though it was all his fault that they weren’t together with the rest of the group in some dank warehouse with a few stolen bottles of cider. He’d told her to leave, to get lost, that she was no good for their operation anymore. 

“I’m going to miss this,” Lauren finally said softly, tracing the lip of her glass with her finger. 

Bryan smiled sadly. “Aren’t we supposed to be remembering the past tonight?” 

“Remembering the past and looking forward to the future.” She nodded. “But it’s like we’re two riparian people, on opposite sides on the river, travelling in opposite directions now.” 

They lapsed back into silence, Bryan not sure what to say to her and Lauren unable to speak as she fought back tears. 

Finally, Bryan couldn’t take the silence any more. It was eating away at his conviction. He had to get out of there. He stuffed both cups into his bag and stood. “I’ve got to get going,” he said, not looking at her. He couldn’t. He didn’t want his last memory to be of her curled up in a sad little ball; he wanted to remember her smile and at least pretend that she was happier now. He pushed the window open and slipped out onto the tree limb. He was about to move down to the next limb when he paused then stuck his head back into her room. “Things are better on your side of the river, Lauren. I promise.” 

Lauren looked up, eyes shining with tears, but he was gone already. She stood and crossed the room in just enough time to watch him darting off into the darkness. “I’ll make your side better, Bryan, no matter what I have to do.” She pulled the glass down and got ready for bed.

 It's a touch sad, I know. The characters are from a YA I'm working on. The YA itself is supposed to be from Lauren's POV, but this story is to help me understand the characters and other pieces of the story better. So what'dya think?


Hmm... can't think of anything else to report.


Laters!