Random Musings of an Aspiring Author

University and Shiny Contests

2010-05-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm sorry, guys. It seems that me and regular blogging just do not get along. I blame my mountains of calculus work (onlythreemoreunits onlythreemoreunits) which, sadly, I must actually do so I don't fall below the minimum admissions average for my uni program and wind up trying to sell sewer rats on a street corner. I hear the benefits in that profession are rather lousy.

It's official, by the way! I accepted my offer of admission to Software Engineering. Life savings to be forked over in a couple weeks. Closet-sized dorm room and unidentified species of shower-fungus, here I come!

Oh, I try so hard not to think about those communal bathrooms. *cowers*

But anyhoo, speaking of post-secondary education and thereby dancing around the issue of rampant sexual escapades...Okay, no, that segue's not going to work. Even though Race's awesome book is called The Virginity Thief, it's not about wild nymphomaniacs. It is much, much cooler than that, as is apparent in the summary on her website.

And speaking of Race and the awesomeness she spreads around the interwebs (segue attempt #2), she is holding a massive contest over on Creare! Only three followers away from the next goodies bracket!!! (And only 38 away from the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card, three novels, and an armful of pretty reading-related paraphernalia. HECK YAH!)

So y'all should scuttle on over there and have a look at that while I trudge off to work on more calculus. :)

Happy Fuzziness

2010-05-15T06:27:00.000-07:00

The fabulous Caitlin has given me a reason to do another blog post! Yesterday, she bestowed upon me this shiny award:

I do love getting these things. They make for such warm and fuzzy feelings. Especially when there are pictures of yummy cupcakes on them. :) *huggles Caitlin*

Anyhoo, apparently I'm supposed to list a few things that make me happy. So here it goes!

Chocolate. Especially when it comes in the form of mousse cake. *drools*
Good music. The sort that wants to make me get my butt off my chair and dance around like a nut. It's even better when it comes on the radio after I've left my ipod at home.
Laughing so hard I cry. Because endorphins are fun. And healthy!
Swings. Like the sort found in a playground. The bigger the better. I could swing for hours when I was little, daydreaming about my characters, and secretly I still can.
And last, most obviously, and certainly not least in any way: writing! And all the sweet, funny, and delightfully crazy people it has let me meet.

Speaking of whom (I probably just committed a grammatical crime), I would like to pass this award on to a few of those lovely people.

Vee, Race, Sumayyah, and Vero.

Because one more thing that makes me happy is beta-reading books and pieces of books that I absolutely love and knowing I won't have to wait too long (by the publishing world's standards, anyway) to see these books on store shelves. :)

The Abyss

2010-05-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers of Becca's Blog,

While revising, Becca slipped and fell into The Deep Dark Writerly Abyss. Hence her recent absence.

Be warned: the edges of the Abyss, so often necessary to traverse while traveling through Revision Land, are very slippery. This is due to an abundant growth of misplaced commas and overused emdashes.

Conditions inside the Abyss are fittingly abysmal. Survivors report secretions of noxious fumes, said to lead to Writer's Block, insanity, and impulsive use of the delete key. Some claim to have seen horrific carvings in the walls -- the words from their manuscript's revisions!

The Abyss walls are sheer and in some vast chasms impossible to find. Hope of climbing out is minimal. Experts advise that fallen Revisers re-read warm fuzzy comments left on snippets, eat large quantities of chocolate, and write only when suitable amounts of sleep deprivation have knocked out their Inner Editors. Such measures increase one's ability to resist the effects of noxious fumes, and as such increase one's chances of finding a path out of the Abyss.

The following message was delivered earlier today from the depths of the Abyss via carrion bird.

Dear Blogosphere,

Am still alive. Hope to be back soon. Would very much appreciate if someone tossed down essentials. (ie. mousse cake, marshmallows, ice cream, toilet paper.)

Thnx.

Becca

A Word About Revisions

2010-04-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

In case anyone didn't hear me banging my head against the wall when I finished my WIP and tallied up the word counts from the six (count 'em, SIX) documents I had broken it into...the thing turned out to be 244K.

*glances around*

Hmm. With so many agents prowling the blogosphere, maybe I shouldn't be admitting that aloud.

(DISCLAIMER: This 244K mutant was a complete fluke! I do not usually produce books that are so monstrously long! And I am fixing this one! Honest! Hence the reason for this blog post! *stops abusing exclamation points*)

Anyhow, as I'm sure you can imagine, ~~trimming~~ hacking and slashing a 244K novel down to size involves some pretty massive plot changes. Subplots must be amputated. A crowd of minor characters must be evicted. Entire chunks of plot are being tossed to the curb and the jagged ends of what remains are being smoothed and soldered together.

Or so I hope.

All I have right now are pages of notebook paper covered in doodles and word webs and notes that say THIS CHARACTER HAS NO PURPOSE! CUT HIM! But soon (today possibly) I'm going to have to actually start the writing part of rewriting, and it's a strange feeling.

My book-world seems to be existing in two parallel universes. In one universe - the bigger universe - my MC spends several months and four chapters at her grandparents', safe and sound. She also has a best friend named Rory who helps her and comforts her when two lesser antagonists start antagonizing her and life generally starts going to hell in a hand basket.

In the second universe - the new, sleeker, shinier universe - my MC does not get any time to be safe and warm and well-fed at her grandparents'. Instead I'm chucking her into the midst of misery straight off, my two lesser antagonists have been replaced by one bigger, meaner, scarier antagonist, and Rory is sulking in a corner of my brain because he was taking up too much page space and preventing me from completely overturning my MC's mental state.

Now, this all sounds well and good, right? (Right? Right?! Someone tell me I'm doing the right thing here! Because Rory is sweet and sensible and I love him and I just about had to use the jaws of life to get him out of that plot line!)

Ahem. And that brings me to the point of this post: sometimes revisions can be painful.

I've never made so many changes, or such drastic ones - but that's because I've never spewed out such a gigantic book. But these changes (I hope) are for the better. Even if I have to cut characters, subplots, and dialogue that I loved. Even if I'm madly juggling right now to keep stakes where I want them and mash timelines into shape so that everyone is where I need them to be when I need them to be there. Eventually, it will all come together into one shiny novel, that is better and sparklier and yummier than the old one. (Right?)

And then I shall send it out to betas and revise some more!

Flashback Friday

2010-04-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

The lovely ladies over at GotYA are talking about the books they grew up with, so I thought I'd join in!

The Harry Potter books were some of the first proper novels I read by myself. They had me looking out the window on my 11th birthday, hoping for an owl.

I've been a Lord of the Rings fangirl since I was about 7. I started reading the series for myself when I was 11 - after I didn't get that letter from Hogwarts. ;)

And then there's A Series of Unfortunate Events. My mom read these books to my sister and me before bed, so I'm quite fond of these books. We only made it to the sixth, but I think I'm going to have to read the rest!

I'd also like to mention some of the picture books that preceded the chapter books.

The Berenstain Bears,

Amelia Bedelia,

and The Mitten. Lovely illustrations in this book!

And that's it for me! *scuttles off to see what books everyone else remembers*

Oh! One more thing! Check out In Which a Girl Reads! She's giving away awesome books! :)

Wordy Wednesday

2010-03-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but last week I came across a word that I already knew, but had forgotten about. Poor forgotten words! They're usually such fun words, and grievously underused, in my opinion.

For example:

fusty |ˈfəstē|adjective ( fustier , fustiest )smelling stale, damp, or stuffy : the fusty odor of decay.• old-fashioned in attitude or style : grammar in the classroom became a fusty notion.

As in fusty old grandparents, which is the context I heard it in last week. ;) Or:

tallyho |ˈtalēˈhō| (also tally-ho)exclamationa huntsman's cry to the hounds on sighting a fox.

I actually didn't know the exact use of that word until just now. I thought it was some sort of greeting. Silly me!

My friend and I used to listen to the Slumdog Millionaire version of Jai Ho and think they were saying "tallyho". We were ever so disappointed when we found out we were wrong. (Although one would have expected us to clue in sooner, given the name of the song. XD)

Anyhow, this concludes my blathering for today. Ta, lovelies!

Just Another Little Update

2010-03-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

To tell you that the universe must apparently remain in balance. When something goes up, it must come down. After a bout of bad luck comes a bout of good. After you get accepted into your first and second choice universities, you are going to be burned by boiling oil and then your desk lamp will go kaplooey.

Which is to say, YESS! MY FUTURE IS NOT DOOMED! I got two acceptance letters yesterday from my top two choices of uni programs. *dances around*

Mind you, my top choice program has astronomical tuition fees and no scholarships, whereas the my second choice is $5000 less in tuition and is offering me at least $4000 more in scholarships, so now I actually have to put some thought into where to go, but who really cares because I GOT IN!!! *gloats*

I gloat because the number of pasty white females who get accepted to this program is remarkably small.

But anyway, yes, long story short: educational future not doomed. Financial future obscure. WIP still not finished. It just goes to show how much of a mutant this thing is when I've been saying for a week, "I'm almost done, I'm almost done!" But I suppose the ending must be proportional in size to the rest of the book. ;)

Anyhow, that's all I've got to say! Ta for now!

Random Update on my Uneventful Life

2010-03-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

So, I realized I haven't blogged in two weeks. I blame this on three things, first and foremost the never-ending supply of calculus work that perpetually hounds me. Secondly, I spent March Break at my aunt's and my cousins tend to keep me away from the internet. And thirdly, I've found myself with very little to talk about.

I considered blogging about the alarming trends in some YA love interests, and I might yet formulate some coherent thoughts on the matter, but for now, everyone should go see what Para has to say. She's much more eloquent about it than I am. ;)

In other news, I drove a standard for the first time while I was down at my aunt's! (A standard car, that is. With a clutch and a stick shift and all that nonsense.) Now I can properly appreciate the convenience of automatic transmission. Seriously. I was only driving around a parking lot (with one poor unsuspecting car parked in the middle) and I thought I had too many things to think about. Clutch in, car on, shift to first, clutch off, gas on, stall out, fml, car not starting, wtf, oh right forgot about the clutch...and so on and so forth.

And oh, the poor puppies in the backseat! Or on the back floor, I should say, after I stalled out for the first time. Heheh.

I am in awe of those people who can drive a standard car an actual traffic-filled road and not die.

And on a more writing related note, my mutant WIP is SO CLOSE to being finished. Monstrous word count to be announced.

I think I'm going to ignore my Calculus and go work on it now.

The Trouble with Multiple Characters

2010-03-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

I'm reading this zombie book right now, and it's one of those books that shifts focus amongst several characters. Sort of like split POVs but in third person. (I hesitate to say there are several MCs because there are so many and the focus is evenly distributed.) In any case, I've come to the conclusion that this style is very difficult to pull off well.

And I have to say I've tried it. When I was 13 I wrote a multi-MC book. It didn't really work out for plenty of reasons -- lack of character development, total angst-fests on every other page, plain old bad writing, and, I think, the whole multi-character thing, to name a few.

I had five "main characters" to begin with, but a few chapters in it became clear that I was developing a favourite, and this favourite was dominating the page-space. Eventually one character disappeared almost completely when his plot sputtered out and I got bored.

Obviously, the author of the book I'm reading now is not thirteen, and as such did a much better job of planning out the plot distribution. But the problem of favouritism remains, not from the author, but from the reader. I've started to like some characters better than others. I can relate to Character A better than Character B and Character L's problems are way more interesting than Character M's. As such, I want to read about Character A and L. When Character B and M show up for their respective scenes, I find myself skimming, waiting for the story to get back to something I care about, which isn't all that great.

This brings me to another problem. With so many characters to cover, there's not a whole lot of time for character development. There's a lot of telling rather than showing, and I'm not interested in Characters B and M because the author doesn't have time to make me interested. If Character A didn't happen to be in a situation I can relate to, I probably wouldn't care much about her either. If I hadn't been told that Character B had political views that were the complete opposite of mine (or if there had been time for him to show me he had some redeeming qualities), I might actually be sad when his brain got eaten. In other words, the reader suffers a certain lack of emotional investment in the characters and their lives.

These are all bad things. It makes it too easy for me to put the book down. In fact, at times, when I look at the number of pages there are left, I think I might not even want to finish it. Anf of course, the absolute lastlastLAST thing an author wants a reader to do is put the book down and never pick it up again.

So to sum this all up, the trouble I run into with multi-MC books is as follows:

1) Readers (and sometimes authors) develop favourites.

2) Readers (and sometimes authors) have some characters that are definitely less than favourites, and must suffer through scenes that involve those characters and no others.

3) Chronic amounts of telling are often present in an attempt to quickly develop characters and relationships in the limited amount of page-space.

4) Readers have a lack of emotional investment. In other words, they don't really care what happens to any of the characters - even their favourites - because they never had time to really get to know any of them.

5) Zombies jumping out of shadows, chasing after the protags, and eating their friends' brains gets old quick, and never comes across in a book as well as it would in a movie. (Because movies have soundtracks and can have various stringed instruments screech at deafening pitches when the zombie jumps out, thereby giving the viewer a heart attack. Authors do not have the luxury of sound effects.*)

That last point is obviously specific to the book I'm reading it, and I only added it because I felt like 5 was a nice, round number. But on that note, my lukewarm response to this book is probably based on a number of factors, many of which may stem from the above multi-MC-based problems, but none of which are unavoidable. That is to say, I'm sure some people can pull off these sorts of books without having these problems.

Just not this author. Or me. Or the author of that other book I read when I was ten and got so, so confused by the fact that I was reading about a different character in every chapter.

Ahem. Anyhow, there's my rambly two cents on the matter.

* Stay tuned for next week's blog post, entitled Why Books Should Have Soundtracks. ;)

Lovely contests!

2010-03-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

Hello, my lovelies!

I am blogging for the sole purpose of trying to win a shiny free book from Choco, over on In Which a Girl Reads. The contest ends at 11 (EST) tonight!

Me? Leave things to the last minute? Never!

Okay, seriously, I delayed because I was hoping to find a slightly less obnoxious way to post about this. But my blogging muse is on vacation, so this will have to do.

So, um, yes, that's about all I have to say. Go check out Choco's awesomeness!

And if you're bored you can listen to this song, because it makes me want to break into weird, empowered dancing when I hear it. For what reason, I do not know.

Shiny Awards for Shiny People

2010-03-03T20:02:00.000-08:00

Well! Sumayyah's got perfect timing! I haven't been able to think of anything to post about for days and days. Now she has given me warm and fuzzy and shiny awards! *huggles Sumayyah*

The first is the Creative Writer Award.

Upon receiving this award, I am told I must list 10 things that brighten my day. So, here we go!

1) Writing. (Figured I ought to start with the obvious.) It gives me such a happy buzz and my characters are always so entertaining and if not for writing, I never would have met...

2) The twifties! Who are all such amazing and wonderful people and shall live in a twiftie castle after they have taken over the world with their awesome books. Mark my words! It shall happen! :)

3) Music. Good music can get me out of any foul mood and motivates my muse.

4) Yummy food. I love yummy food. Gruyere cheese, and salmon wellington, and that creamy salmon thing with gherkins, and tuna melts, and chocolate chip pancakes with peaches and a hotdog/sausage...Om nom nom nom!

5) Nice weather. The kind that isn't too hot and isn't too cold and makes the air smell sweet and fresh and inspires me to actually leave my hermit-hole!

6) M*A*S*H. I don't know why exactly, but this show always leaves me with a happy, fuzzy feeling. I luuuurves it.

7) Humming one note of an entirely random song (i.e. that song the captured pirates sing at the beginning of the third Pirates movie) and having my little sister join in with me.

8) Swinging. Like, on a swing set. I used to swing for hours when I was little, daydreaming about my characters (then total LOTR rip-offs). I still love it. I just can't always find a convenient swing set.

9) Not having anything that I have to do. It's a lovely feeling, to be able to write without a little voice in the back of my head telling me I really should be doing something else.

10) Spending time with my aunt and cousins. They're gonna give me laugh lines by the time I'm 20, I swear. My face is stuck that way the entire time I'm down there.

And there we have it!

The second award is the Sunshine Award which is bright and happy and prettiful:

The rules for the Sunshine Award are as follows:

1) Put the logo within your post or on your sidebar.

2) Share the love and pass the award to 12 other bloggers.

3) Link the nominees inside of your post.

4) Comment on the nominees' blogs to let them know you've just given them props. :)

5) Give a shout-out to the person who nominated, and post a ling to his/her blog as well.

Now, I'm going to do what Sumayyah did and pass both these awards out to the following 12 people -- some of whom have already gotten them, but they're so awesome they deserve doubles. ;)

In no particular order:

1) Caitlin because she writes with such a beautiful voice and comments on so much of my rambling.

2) Amna (whose blog I all of a sudden cannot find to link! o.O) because she makes me giggle so frequently.

3) Choco because she makes shiny literary magazines and posts so much awesomeness on her blog.

4) Vero because she understands what I'm complaining about when I say it's freezing up here, she's going to send lovely chocolatey care packages to our deprived southern neighbours, and because everyone should go look at her shiny new blog layout!

5) B because she just recently started an amazing blog and already has a big ol' following (as she should!)

6) Race because she snared an agent with her awesomeness and has a shiny new website that must be shown off!

7) Margo because she's part of an amazing crit group and she writes awesome books about kelpies!

8) Bee because she made me feel all warm and fuzzy about my attempt at a plot summary ~~and she must be encouraged to start blogging again!~~ *facepalm* She is blogging! With much more regularity than me! XD I somehow managed to misread the date of her last post as May 3, rather than March 3. Oooops.

9) Emilia because she SINGS!

10) Leasie because she recently completed the first draft of her WIP, Mortal Affairs and the snippets I've read are awesome!

11) Krista because I just stumbled across her blog (YAY! She blogs!) when I was Googling around for Amna's and cannot leave such an awesome Opwifter out.

12) Dystophil because I also just found HER blog and she's been sticking with the same (awesome) WIP for YEARS! I is awed.

And now I really must be off to bed because 12:22 has somehow crept up on me and I actually have to get out of bed at a reasonable time tomorrow.

*scuttles off*

The Product of Procrastination (With Summaries and Cover Art)

2010-02-21T15:30:00.000-08:00

In the name of being completely unproductive and not getting a word closer to wrapping up my sad excuse of an ending, I've spent most of the last 24 hours scouring Google and fiddling with Photoshop in an attempt to create a book cover for my WIP. After all, procrastination is the key to success in whatever goal you're pursuing for the express purpose of not doing something else. In other words, I wound up with two pretty pictures that I'm momentarily happy with.

And to go along with my pretty pictures I've spewed out a summary, which is really quite overdue. I've been yammering for months about this mysterious WIP, commonly known as The 200K Monstrosity. This summary is a tad misrepresentative, as it leaves out rather large parts of the plot and makes things sound cooler than they actually are (which may not be saying much). Anyhow, any attempt to explain my WIP accurately resulted in an obscenely long synop, so I settled for this. I'm beginning to think I might have the right idea with the synopsis - as in, maybe I should cut the parts I'm not mentioning and tweak things to be more like they appear to be in the summary. But I digress!

Without further ado, I introduce you to my big-boned WIP, FIRE AND ICE (working title).

Fifteen year-old Mina Iglacious has lived a sheltered life. She has never felt the effects of war, even though her country has been warring against its neighbours for the past twelve years. Isolated on the northern tip of the Peninsula, her village has been safe from the bombs, famine, and draft notices that destroy the people living inland.

But all good things must come to an end.

When their enemies ally with an adjacent nation and launch a fleet of warships to attack the country's unprotected northern front, Mina's home becomes a battleground and her own country's military become a threat. After over a decade of savage warfare, the army is desperate for new recruits. They will take anyone - elderly men, women, children. Mina.

Flung into the frontline fighting, Mina's only chance for survival rests in the hands of a young captain with a catching smile and knack for dodging bullets. But he also has a tendency to say things that shouldn't be said - things that could get him shot for treason if the wrong people heard. His officers say it's only talk; he's been in the fighting for a long time, he's lost a lot of people, his head isn't on quite straight anymore.

But eventually it begins to look like more than just talk and Mina has to figure out which side everyone is really on - and which side she's on.

Duh duh dummm! And there it is. A summary that is almost as flawed as the book itself. And my first cover seems to have lost its bluish tinge. But c'est la vie! I'm still quite fond of it. And writing this summary has given my muse an energy boost! I had best run off and write before it gets lazy again!

The ILYCYAAYB Award

2010-02-14T08:15:00.000-08:00

After reading Sumayyah's blog post and completely agreeing to the point of wanting to amass a non-angry-but-rather-enlightened-and-empowered mob to march through the streets shouting the message, I started to get a vague little idea.

Valentine's Day, for all its misleading marketing schemes, is not a bad thing. I mean, it causes stores to be flooded with very yummy chocolate, which, theoretically, will all be discounted by Monday. Who can complain about cheap chocolate?

Also, it's a time to tell people how much you love and care about them. These people should not be and are not limited to one's significant other, but also include siblings and BFFs and parents and grandparents and so on and so forth -- all those people who have been with you through thick and thin, who have taken care of you through sickness and in health, who have given you pocket money and let you mooch off them when you had none.

Go give those people a hug and, if you haven't eaten it already, maybe some chocolate. They deserve it. :)

And that brings me to the point of this post. By combining these two parts of Valentine's Day (the yummy chocolate and the idea of telling someone they're appreciated), I have come up with this:

The ILYCYAAYB Award! (Which stands for the I Love You 'Cause You're Awesome and You Blog Award.)

Now, I have no idea if I'm allowed to do this -- make up my own random awards, that is. But I'm darn well going to try!

I hereby declare it shall be awarded to 5 people who I love 'cause they're awesome and they blog. And then, ideally, those 5 people are free to and encouraged to give it to 5 people they each love 'cause they're awesome and they blog, and so on and so forth, forming a big web of luvvles and fuzziness in the blogosphere.

And so, without further ado and in no particular order, I hereby force the ILYCYAAYB award upon the following 6 people (because I just invented a new rule that says you can give it to SIX people on Valentine's Day, 'cause I kinda couldn't narrow it down to five. *shifty eyes*):

Sumayyah! Because, you know, her post gave me this idea and she makes really pretty banners and cover art for other people's awesome blogs and books.

Amna! Because she writes awesomely hilarious books about really smexy Huldus and leaves so much warm fuzziness on my babbling blog posts.

Parametric! Because she is the madly-skilled all-knowing TWFT ninja, and she writes such delightfully dark teasers.

Race! Because she posts awesome videos on Random Day and writes about guys who are not only hawwwt but genuinely sweet and oh-so-lovable.

Emilia! Because she writes awesome books and actually comments on my mindless babbling and she makes really awesome cartoons.

Choco! Because she makes such awesomely shiny e-magazines filled with awesome twiftie writing and she read seven books in a week, some of which were really long.

New Rule: you must explain why you love each person and that explanation should, if at all possible, contain some variation of the word 'awesome'.

And there we have it!

Happy Heart Day, everyone!!

Characters Who Lie

2010-02-10T07:29:00.000-08:00

Are such a pain!!!

(This refers to the secondary characters and love interests who lie to the MC, not the MCs with dishonest streaks, since the latter can be a great deal of fun.)

Anyhow, when writing a first person POV, facts presented by other characters typically have to be taken at face value. Unless the MC/reader has already seen/heard something that contradicts what the other character is saying, or unless that character is a notorious liar, the things they say are pretty much accepted as truths.

On the one hand, this can be used to create some shocking plot twists. On the other hand, if you knock the reader's feet out from under them too many times, they're going to get annoyed. Even if you only do it once, if a shocking plot twist had no foreshadowing - a couple of events/bits of dialogue the reader can look back on and think, "Oh, now I get it!" - I think we run the risk of jarring readers out of the story and perhaps into closing the book.

And yet, if the foreshadowing spells out that Character B was lying to Character A, to the point where the reader is banging their head against the wall, shouting, "Why haven't you clued in, Character A!?!?" that's not good either.

Surely the possibility of a happy medium exists, but I find it can be very hard to achieve. We, as the authors, know everything. Sometimes it's hard to gauge what a clue or bit of foreshadowing will tell the reader. Is it enough? Is it too much? And then there's always the problem: would this actually happen?

Would Character B actually slip up and say something to make Character A suspicious? Would they leave the mysterious note lying around where Character A could find it? Would they be creeping around, going about their mysterious business outside Character A's window late at night?

In plenty of cases, yes, they might.

But personally, I've found myself having to say no a lot of the time. This is because, in my WIP, I'm dealing with not one but two very good liars. I've got one ex-Intel agent who was trained in the art of deception, and one military captain who's been lying to people like my ex-Intel agent almost constantly for the past seven years. Furthermore, both their lives are on the line, so they're going to be darn careful about what they say and do.

It's had me really quite stuck for a while, and it doesn't help that my MC isn't the brightest crayon in the box, so she doesn't question things too much. Which might drive my future betas insane - I really can't tell -- but anyway!

There was a point to all that ranting and babbling. Honestly, there was!

I want to know what you think of all this. What sort of hints do you give your readers about the things other characters are hiding? What sort of hints do you want as a reader? How clear/obscure do you like things to be, how long can you tolerate mysteriousness dragging on, and/or how badly annoyed are you when an author rips a plot line out from beneath you and turns it around in the opposite direction?

Let me know! I'm curious. :)

Stories We Never Hear

2010-01-21T11:24:00.000-08:00

Eek. There's been a bit of a lull in my blogging. See, I was busy waging war against a cold that was trying its very hardest to sink its claws into me. I think it's safe to say I won. With the help of several gallons of orange juice, the cold has been vanquished!

Speaking of wars, while I was guzzling OJ I watched a lot of documentaries on the history channel. Keep in mind I was probably slightly inebriated due to mass amounts of citrus and a crazy-busy immune system, but I saw this show on Vimy Ridge and it kind of struck a chord with me.

Under Vimy Ridge, there are a series of tunnels. In the days and weeks preceding the battle, they served as living space for thousands of soldiers - soldiers who were my age - many of whom would never make it home.

The tunnel walls are made of chalk-based rock, and are easy to carve into. Thousands of soldiers chiseled their names, hometowns, girlfriends', wives', and children's names into the walls, along with intricate designs. (Almost none of which I can find on google! Grr!!)

Three thousand five hundred ninety-eight of these people died.

In the documentary, they traced some of these names and found old letters and military records, and in some cases were able to talk to family members, and it gave a little glimpse at who these people had been and what they had done - what adventures they had, what they cared about, what they achieved. And it got me thinking about the stories we lose when people die.

My great-grandpa was a sniper in WWI. On one mission or another, he was creeping around behind a barn, and ran into a German sniper. They sat down and had tea together.

If my great-grandpa had died, there's a very real chance that no one ever would have heard that story. As it is, I can retell it in three lines. I'm sure there was more to it when he first told it. But I'll never know what that 'more' consisted of. I'll never know what they talked about, or why exactly they sat down and had tea together - two soldiers on opposite sides of the war. It's gone. (Unless maybe there's a German teen somewhere whose family does a better job of preserving stories than mine.)

When I look at old photographs, I find myself wondering about these sorts of little stories. Who are the people? What are their names? What did they do? What stories did they have to tell? I'll never know.

Luckily, I'm a writer, and I can make some pretty imaginative guesses. ;)

This hereby concludes today's gloomy blog post.

Yay for Blog Posts that Don't Involve Thinking!

2010-01-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Because I can't think of a word beginning with F that would somehow relate to contests and therefore create some nice alliteration when paired with Friday.

But there are lots of contests going on right now!

Sumayyah's giving away prettiful banners and cover art at The Raven Desk. Only two days left!

Also, Race is giving away a copy of The Secret Year over on Creare.

I think one day when I have a job/some other nefarious money-acquiring scheme, I shall host a contest. They look like such fun. :)

This Thing Called Writing

2010-01-13T07:41:00.000-08:00

It started in Grade 1. (or grad 1, as I so thoughtfully wrote at the top of the page)

My writing is nearly illegible, but I seem to have been writing about some made-up adventure with my friends and...The Three Musketeers?

at ferst reses Dartanyen [D'Artagnan, I assume] was missing from the rok we mett at evry reses

And then sadly my writing gets too messy to tell what sort of misfortune befell poor D'Artagnan. (Rest assured it was something awful and probably involved the Evil Vice Principal.)

But this unreadable passage marks the beginning of my career as a burgeoning story teller. From the garbled writing in my Barbie and Secret Garden notebooks, to the wild tales I told in my Daily Journal at school, to the maybe-almost-publishable wordage I spew out now, I've never been able to stop writing.

Sadly, as is clearly evident by the above passage, no one is born with the ability to write like [insert amazing author of your choice here]. We have to write and write and write and write and commit an obscene number of writing faux pas before we get anywhere.

I've been reading a lot of awesome blog posts about the ~~mortifying excrement~~ stuff writers came up with when they were younger, and it got me looking at some of my old notebooks and Word documents. It was rather amusing to say in the least. I had no idea what sort of atrocities I was committing.

Behold...

Shameless self-insertion Harry Potter fanfiction! (Age 7 or 8)

"Wake up." I heard my mom say softly. "I'm up." I said sleepily only half awake. I heard my mom walk out and down the stairs. I yawned, stretched and sat up. I crawled down the bed and took my white T-shirt with the gold star on the sleeve off the bottem of my bed. Then I reached under my bed and felt around until I found my jeans. I got dressed and went down stairs.

As I went downstairs I could smell my dad making pancakes and toast. I sat down at the table and started to eat the 3 chocolate-chip pancakes and apple juice I just got.

The table was realy crouded. In-fact there were 16 of us at the table! There was: me and Harrys friend Hermoine, me (Rebecca) [in case there was any hope left that this wasn't a shameless self-insert], my brother Harry, my dad (James), my mom (Lily), and my cousins [insert Weasley family here]...

*headwall*

Shameless self-insertion LOTR fanfic! (Age 9-11) (At least I had the decency to give my author surrogate her own name this time.)

I seem to have left the resulting document on another computer. Suffice to say I dragged the Fellowship and my elf-self through all sorts of revamped LOTR plot lines and also plot lines from almost every other book I read over the course of these 2 years. *facepalm* I should also tell you it was 100+ pages written in size 10 Comic Sans font, and I thought it was cool to have huge blocks of text rather than use paragraphs.

Evil Plan Prologues (Age 12)

Lord Lavince looked out into the blackness of the night. Not even a hint of breeze touched the leaves. Nothing stirred. His guards were silent as they assembled behind him. The time had come to put the first stage of his plan into motion.

The plot was seamless, a thing of true perfection. A malevolent sneer darkened his face as again he thought it through. Although dealing with hunters, Sitka’s group in particular, was risky, he had no doubt that they would join him eagerly. They would not turn down the chance to see King Alistar dead, even if it meant allying with a vampire to do it. The werewolves were getting restless. It would not take much to make them forget the old peace treaty, and then a war like no other would erupt, and it would not end in the vampires’ favour. Not when he applied the potion, which that twisted mage, Shauvier, had provided for him. The poor fool. The werewolves would be totally obedient, completely under his command. They would follow his orders, and his orders alone. The potion would strengthen them greatly. The vampires would not stand a chance.

This was my first real book, spewed out during sixth grade. It was called The Undead Prince and it was about (can you guess?) a vampire prince. This Vampire Prince was was kidnapped by an evil vampire lord. Evil Vampire Lord (hence forth known as EVL Hehe that almost spells evil) planned to take the vampire throne for himself, and wanted to keep Vampire Prince alive for some nefarious purpose while he did it.

So Vampire Prince was given an amnestic drug and thrown into the human world, where, of course, he wound up in a grade 8 class (because high school was far outside my range of experiences at this point) and met my inexplicably curious MC.

I later explained this curiosity by revealing that...

My MC was the great-great-great granddaughter of the magical world's most powerful sorceress, but didn't know it until she got stuck in a plot corner and needed to blast her way out of a mountain dungeon.

So anyhoo, let the Epic Quest to Save the Vampire Kingdom commence!

Once it was all said and done, The Undead Prince was a whopping 155K, with a rather decent ending, if I do say so myself. In fact, I think 13 yr old me was much better at endings than 18 yr old me. It all tied together nicely, at any rate.

My mom read it, assured me it was brilliant, and (horrifyingly enough) helped me get my sticky little paws on an agent's email address. We somehow convinced her to read the thing, and she was really quite nice in the sense that she read the first fifty pages and made several helpful comments about character development and so on.

I got as far as several chapters into a third book before realizing the aforementioned agent was not crazy and these books were crap.

After that, I decided to try my hand at contemporary.

Hello, Teen Angst! (Age 13)

Tangled was a story about ~~six~~ five teenagers with extremely angsty lives - Damian, Jake, Amanda, Renae (not Renee! No, no, no!), and Daniel (who I completely forgot about by the middle of the book). Originally there was supposed to be a third girl, Isabelle, but she was rich and had a rather happy home life, so I got bored with her and cut her out.

Damian, judging from the amount of page time he got, was secretly my favourite. He was also the token bad-boy who was supposed to really not be that bad. Suuure, he was a drug dealer, but he really needed the money and secretly encouraged people to stop buying the drugs. And yah, he was involved with some creepy organized crime guy, but again, he really needed the money and just in case you were thinking he could get a regular job I'm sure the bad guy would totally hunt him down if he tried to quit. AND his little brother has CANCER so HA! You HAVE to sympathize with him!! MUAHAHA!

*headwall*

In all its 125+K glory, this book also made a few tremulous steps into the world of publishing. I actually convinced an e-book publisher to look at it, but they weren’t too happy with the 179 instances of the F-bomb.

The Big Move (Age 15/16)

I actually had two of these books. One was about a girl who moved from BC to Texas (watch me walk all over every Canadian and American stereotype ever invented), which I wrote during grade nine and never finished.

Then there was this one.

I am about to die.

Huddled in my mother's old Chrysler Concorde, looking up at my new school, I was dead sure of that fact.

There were too many kids, too many windows with cardboard taped over them, and too many security guards standing by the doorway for me to feel even faintly hopeful that I might make it through the day alive.

I wanted my mother to turn around and drive back to the house. I wanted her to look at the school and say that there was no way she would let me set foot inside a place like that. I wanted her to tell me we were moving back to Riverglen before we all got shot.

But she didn't.

In fact, she was already getting out of the car.

I actually finished this one (YAY!), and at approximately 95K it was my first almost-normal-length book (YAY!). I called it Life is only Ugly until you find its Beauty. (I’m sure that was supposed to have some deep metaphorical meaning.)

Sadly, it has no chance of ever being published. It’s about a girl who does the Big Move from a small town to the rough end of a big city and she struggles to adjust and meets this cute guy in her art class. But I'm from a predominantly upper-middle-class suburban neighbourhood. I can’t really pull off drugs and gang violence and randomly crooked cops all that well.

I did zero research, pulled the ending out of my rear, and my MC and Cute Art Guy don’t even get together in the end! (Because there’s something weird about Cute Art Guy. He’s an extremely gifted artist, but he’s sort of in La-La Land all the time. As the author, you would think I’d know why, but I never really dug around for an explanation. :P)

After this, I moved onto...

CPCS - Chronically Passive Character Syndrome (Age 16/17)

And I still haven't gotten over this one.

Snippet here.

The Boy Who Stole My ~~Heart~~ Car came in at 54K! It doesn't send agents running for the hills! In fact, they seem to like the premise, because I queried a few (read: 4) and most of them (read: 3) requested a partial.

But none of those partials did very well, because my MC is passive to the extreme and I wind up totally glazing over the whole LI-is-a-car-thief thing. *headdesk*

I have plans to fix this one up, though. I think it's salvageable.

Next came...

The Mutation also known as my WIP

It's going to wind up being about 200K. 'Nuff said.

But really, I should have seen this one coming. Look at the word counts that have preceded it. 175K at age 12, 125K at age 13, and there was secretly a 139K attempt at contemporary during my grade ten year that never even got near finished!

I think it's been proven: I have a disease called Longbookitis, I'm still committing plenty of writing faux pas, and the road to being a published author has a very loooong learning curve.

Wow, that turned out long.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-01-12T08:28:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to post for the last two days! But Summary Sunday didn't work out so well. I tried to write a summary of my WIP. Really, I did. But it kept mutating into this monstrously long thing. Sort of like the WIP did.

It also revealed some potentially chronic plot problems and the only borderline-almost-decent summary I cam up with completely misrepresented the story. In other words, I made the plot sound way cooler than it actually is. Which makes me think some massive overhauling might be in order during the editing process. Maybe I have the right idea with the summary. It would probably shorten the 200+K mutation into something that won't send agents running for the hills.

But until then, I shall tease. It's a bit rough, since I spewed it out between the hours of 3 and 5am. Hope it's still enjoyable! :)

Context: The military is camped out in my MC's hometown, and everyone has been freezing to death for the last few nights because they don't have proper winter gear. It just occurred to my MC that her family has tons of warm clothes, so she went scuttling off to her old house, assuming her father (who she has seen around camp) still lives there.

My parents' room was still lived in. My father hadn’t made the bed and there were socks on the floor. I went to the closet. My mother had always hidden our birthday presents in there, up on the top shelf.

My father’s military uniforms were hanging nearest the front. I brushed them aside and grabbed an armful of sweaters, scouring the corners, floor, and shelves for the missing jackets.

Downstairs, I heard the door open, and the sound of feet on the hardwood floor.

If my father was off shift, we were late for ours.

Then, “Ay!”

My heart missed a beat. That voice was not my father’s.

“Mina!” Rory’s voice was pure panic and in the instant before I bolted my eyes landed on the insignia on one of the dark green jackets I had thought belonged to my father.

Three inverted chevrons with a line over top – a colonel’s rank symbol.

I ran.

I flew out of the room and raced for the stairs, snagging the clothes hamper as I passed.

Below me there was a bang and a thud – Rory hitting the wall and then the floor. I leapt out of the stairwell swinging. The hamper smashed against something solid and a man in an SO’s uniform – a major – toppled, his baton skittering out of his hand and across the floor.

I clutched at Rory’s jacket, but he was already on his feet and hurtling towards the door – towards the man standing in front of it. The man – the colonel – could only gape as Rory and the box of mittens slammed into him and sent him crashing into the wall. Then Rory and I were past him, out the door, leaping off the porch and tearing up the street.

The hamper was big – awkward – heavy. It slowed me down. Rory got further ahead.

Then something caught my arm and wrenched me around. The hamper slipped from my hands, spilling onto the road. I was nose to nose with the major I had just knocked over. I had a brief glimpse of his snarling red face, saw his arm move out of the corner of my eye, and then my head was snapping to the side and fire was spreading across my cheek and over my eyebrow, up to my temple.

There was a crunching thud and I was sure it was the sound of every bone in my face shattering.

The grip on my arm loosened and slipped away.

My head spun and all I could see were colourless splotches. I threw my arms out, not knowing which way the ground was coming at me.

“Mina.”

A hand caught my wrist, steadying me instead of making bruises.

My vision cleared and I found Sade. The look on his face was as horror-stricken as I had ever seen it. My gaze sunk to the major, sprawled on the ground between our feet.

“Halt!” The colonel stumbled outside, revolver drawn and pointed at us.

“Go!” Sade shoved me forward.

BANG!

I threw my arms over my head and ran.

Flaws and Poll Summary

2010-01-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's time to get that poll out of my sidebar, since people can't vote anymore and it doesn't fit nicely at all. :P

The poll results were as follows:

What makes you swoon over the boys in books?

Their gorgeousness 4 (50%)

Their complete devotion to the MC 4 (50%)

The romantic things they do/say 5 (62%)

Their ability/willingness to protect/stand up for the MC 5 (62%)

The badass-ness 5 (62%)

Their sensitive side 5 (62%)

Their wit 6 (75%)

The fact that they sparkle 0 (0%)

Number of votes: 8

(Edit: I apologize for the fugliness of the poll. *headdesk* It refused to line up nicely justified the other way.)

All in all, it looks like things were pretty close to tied (with sparkly-ness being the obvious exception. No Edward groupies here, apparently. ;D).

This seems to suggest that the love interest in books can either a) have one of a million possible personalities and still have a fair shot at making someone fall in love with them or b) be a mash-up of all the characteristics mentioned in the poll and be named Gary Stu.

And so my point is, as wonderfully gorgeous and romantic and funny and tough-yet-sensitive we can make the LIs in our books, they must have a flaw!

Okay, so I'm kind of stating the obvious, but I needed to give people something to comment on. Tell me: what kind of flaw(s) does the LI in your WIP have?

(Interesting how it seems safe to assume that everyone has a love interest in their book. I suppose because we're all writing YA? If it was MG, it might be a different story... But I digress! Tell me about the flaws! ^_^)

Teaser Tuesday

2010-01-05T11:49:00.000-08:00

Second post of the year! New Years resolution to blog regularly going well! :)

Slightly longer snip this week, from my good old monster of a WIP. *suspects she really ought to get around to posting a summary of this thing* Hmm. Maybe I'll have a Summary Sunday?

Anyhoo, here it is! Hope you enjoy!

Sade looked around. “You know I haven’t actually got a clue where I’m going.”

“Where are you trying to get?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Away.”

So I lead the way down to the shoreline, and when we weren’t allowed past the makeshift blast walls, we wandered towards the arm of land that encircled the westward side of the bay. Technically we weren’t allowed out there either, but Drake was watching that strip of wall and he ignored us.

There was nothing but rocks and a few sparse tufts of grass out there. A cold wind blew inland, whipping my hair around. I could hear waves crashing on the seaward rocks. Errant drops of spray spattered my face. A haze hung over the bay, greying out the islands. Baltic was nothing but the faintest outline in the fog. It was hard to imagine that it was garrisoned by five thousand enemy soldiers – that there were walls, cannons, and long range guns built into its shores and mines beneath the ice.

Sade was looking out to the sea. I followed his gaze, and after a moment I made out the grey blurs of battleships, lurking on the horizon. We could only see the foremost ones, but I had no doubt there were as many here as there had been on the east coast – maybe more.

I glanced at Sade, thinking of his reaction when we had seen warships before.

He caught my eye, and he must have spotted the anxious look on my face, because he smirked and said, “I’m fine, love.” He looked back towards the horizon. “Just caught me by surprise last time.”

“Oh.” I eyed the ships' shadowy outlines. One of them was moving, ploughing southward through the ice. The ice would be thick out there. The sound of it cracking and groaning and shattering rolled across the water and into our ears. “At least they’re not very close.”

“They don’t have to be close,” he said, turning and heading for the land’s tip.

I followed.

Morose Monday

2010-01-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

Look! Look! I'm keeping up with my New Years resolutions! I'm blogging! (Even if, in this post, blogging has become synonymous with whining. :P)

So anyhoo, this Monday is morose, of course, because Christmas holidays are over and even though I don't have to go back to school thanks to that whole I-graduated-last-June thing, I do have to get my rear in gear and finish these online courses I'm taking. I also have to acquire a bulldozer and do something about the piles of mess that have accumulated in my room. o.O

Furthermore, I'm back home after being at my aunt's for two weeks. My aunt typically has 2-12 people in her house at any given time. My house typically has one person: me. And my dog. Whose gastrointestinal system is not as, er, fresh, as it was when she was a younger dog... Anyway, it's all rather lonely in comparison.

But! On the upside, being alone in a house means I don't have to listen to my music through headphones. I can blast it as LOUD AS I WANT!!! Er, as loud as my speakers will let me before they asplode, that is.

And so on that note, I shall scamper off to clean.

Ta!

Last post of '09

2009-12-31T09:36:00.000-08:00

Man, I really wish I'd known we had class shirts when I graduated. They said, "The last class to make you say, 'Oh!'" Or something along those lines. I was amused, at any rate. But I totally missed the memo on grad shirts.

Anyways, that was completely off-topic. I just couldn't help but think of it when I titled this post.

To get back on topic...

Stuff That Happened This Year:

1) I turned 18 and became legally old enough to vote, go to big-people jail, and go into the adult section of video stores. Mind you, I haven't actually done any of these things yet.

2) I joined AW after lurking for several months and met all sorts of wonderful people. :D

3) I graduated high school, technically (*is still taking three online courses to get a total of 38 credits*).

4) I worked in a university bookstore, which was painful as heck.

5) I worked on a movie/TV set which was, at the very least, an interesting experience. :)

New Year's Resolutions:

1) Blog on at least a semi-consistent basis. (These random unannounced 3-6 week lulls will stop! Honest, they will. *shifty eyes*)

2) Finish my WIP. (It's almost finished! Almost! In all it's 200K+ glory.)

3) Solve the whole 200K+ problem. XD

4) Overhaul and re-query The Boy Who Stole My ~~Heart~~ Car, because chronically passive characters are baaaad.

5) Get into some sort of physical activity so my muscles don't atrophy by the time I'm 20. (Gotta have one health-related resolution, right?)

And that's about all I have to say. What's everyone else looking forward to doing in 2010?

Eek! Bad Blogger! That is to say, My First Blog Post In Three Weeks.

2009-11-29T10:51:00.000-08:00

I know! I'm an awful blogger!!

I kept meaning to post. Honestly, I did. I don't know how many blog posts I half started, but I did start them. I just never actually finished them. :x

So now I will post something! Even if it isn't of a literary nature.

Yesterday was my first day volunteering for a local film company.

I got to do the clicky thing at the beginning of takes!

<-- You know, that thing. Which is in fact called a slate. And I only messed it up twice! XD

I also met and had lunch with Michael Ironside. No one seems to know who he is (I had to IMDb him) but he's been in a lot of stuff. I actually recognized his voice more than his face.

But anyway! He told me film business was like elephant excrement, give or take a word, and I should run while I could before the stink got stuck. I'm pretty sure he was kidding. :P

The good news is I'm a smidge more certain that I'm doing the right thing by planning to apply to film production programs in uni. Since I've only got a month left to make up my mind, any minute increase in certainty is a very, very good thing.

Oh! There was also uber delicious chicken for lunch! Point 2 for the film industry! They feed you!

So anyhoo, there we have it. My awful, tiny, un-writing related blog post.

Epiphanies and Christmas Lists (Wow. I just failed miserably trying to type epiphany the first time. XD)

2009-11-12T09:19:00.000-08:00

Today, people started asking me what I wanted for Christmas. My obvious answer was, "BOOKS!" But of course they needed me to be more specific than that, so I went and browsed book listings to hunt out titles and authors.

While doing this, I realized three things.

1) Amazon is much cheaper than bookstores. I like this. I should start using Amazon.

2) There are a lot of bad book covers out there. Interestingly enough, the three books I want for Christmas are three of the few with decent covers, but that's besides the point! I was scrolling through the top seller lists on Amazon and was seriously repulsed by a lot of the covers.

3) I want a lot of books that I can't have. Why can't I have them, you ask? Because they aren't published yet. XD One of them is on its way!! (*cough*The DUFF*cough*) And another is soon to be on its way! (*cough*CoS*cough*) But sadly a lot of books I want to read have not even been finished yet (*cough*HURRYUP*cough*), let alone found agents and publishers. *tear*

Hmm. I think I know what I want for Christmas. ARCs and beta rights!!

Anyway, that's about all I have to say today. Now I must scuttle off and work on my physics so that I've actually accomplished something by the time my physics tutor gets here.

Ta! :)

ETA: OH! About that Christmas list. It currently includes Living Dead Girl, Break, and Hush Hush. Any other ideas?

Teaser Tuesday

2009-11-10T07:29:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in over a week. Bad blogger! Bad!

I can't even blame NaNo madness, since I gave up on that. You know those characters who just won't. Shut. Up? Well, those are the sort of characters I've got in my WIP. They wouldn't let me leave them. Not even for a couple hours. They kidnapped me and duct taped me to a chair, I swear.

So I followed the advice of everyone who commented on my last post and surrendered. :)

The good news is I have now slashed 48 386 words from my WIP!! In fact, I have probably slashed more than that, but I replaced some of them with shiny new words so they didn't really count.

*scuttles off to find shiny new words to tease with*

Mmkayy. Found something. Anyone else tweak their teasers incessantly before posting and become completely unsatisfied with them? XD It's a smidge on the long side, and also a smidge on the dark side. And um, yes, that is all.

*posts*

I hesitated, chewing on my lip. Finally I said, “Maybe I should come then.”
Sade was shaking his head before I had finished talking. “No. No, love. You don’t want to see that.”
"You just said it wouldn’t be that bad.”
“Compared to seeing someone get riddled with shrapnel, it isn't.”
“Then maybe I should get used to it, if it’s worse on the lines.”
He glared at me. “You’re not going to be on the lines.”
“Yes, I will.”
"No, you won't.”
"Yes, I will!”
He lit his cigarette, biting back a retort. “I’m not going to argue with you.”
“You already are,” I muttered.
“I-” He stopped, and blew out a stream of smoke. “I’m going to be late. Someone will come get you when it’s over, alright?” He started to walk away.
I went after him. “I want to come.”
He stopped, looking skyward, and turned back toward me. “Mina, please.”
I had the faint sense that I was being ridiculous because I really did not want to go. But my going to Dez’s execution – I shivered just thinking the words – had somehow become tied to me going out to the lines with them. “I want to come,” I said again, “If Miko’s going, I should go too.”
"Go inside.”
"No.”
"Please.”
"I want to come.”
"You don't.”
"I do.”
"You shouldn't.”
"But I do!”
"Why?”
"Why not?”
“Because I’m the one who has to shoot him!"
"I – what?"
He looked away. "I don’t want you seeing that.”
I stood, unable to do anything but stare for a long moment. “Why you?” I asked finally.
"Because I'm the bleeding CO.”
"Oh,” I said softly.
He looked at the ground. “Please, Mina. Go inside.” And he turned and walked away.

NaNoWriMo

2009-11-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

Right. So. Day 1 of NaNoWriMo has begun.

I went to the local write-in today and met some highly entertaining people. However, the vague semblance of an idea I had sort of crashed and burned. Maybe it was the venue. I'm bad about writing with other people around. And by bad I mean I can't do it. Especially when I can't see my screen due to the angle at which the sun is coming through the window.

I did manage to write about 2K, but it was an uphill battle, and I have very little (read: no) desire to continue. These characters have a story, but they're being darn quiet about it at the moment, while the characters from my WIP are shouting at the top of their lungs.

I suspect my WIP characters may have sent goons to threaten my NaNo characters.

Anyway, at this point, I'm considering changing NaNoWriMo into NaNoSlashMo (National Novel Slashing Month). Let's see if I can axe 50K from my mutated WIP in a month.

Decisions, decisions.

Anyhoo, I'm off to write a bit of my WIP, in the hopes that Sade and Mina might shut up long enough to let me write a bit more in my NaNo book.

How's everyone else doing with NaNo? Or non-Nano?

Menial Monday

2009-10-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

I'm really only blogging because I feel like I should, not because I have anything momentous to say. XD

I was informed I won't be getting any hours at work until January, by which point I probably will have found another job. With any luck I might be able to get a job at a real bookstore for the Christmas season. *crosses fingers*

In other news, I'm the only person in the house who isn't sick with a cold. *dons germ mask and hides in closet* Apparently one of the local high schools is four cases away from being closed for H1N1. This is the high school my little sister attends. *hopes little sister doesn't have H1N1*

Umm. Let's see. I also had some very yummy cake today, stuck a cookie on the end of an umbrella, and had a NaNo idea begin to niggle at my brain. We'll see how it goes.

And! I have a poll. Because I'm still stuck trying to figure out what makes Love Interests like Gale/Peeta, Edward/Jacob, Mr. Darcy/Mr. Bingham (did I spell that right?) so infatuating.

It should be over in the sidebar momentarily. =D

Just Finished Hunger Games

2009-10-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

Wow. Just...wow.

That's about all I can say at the moment.

17 First Lines

2009-10-16T11:48:00.000-07:00

When I'm at work and I have nothing to do/don't want to go find something to do, I hide in the English section and sneak-read bits of the good books. The other day I decided to make a study of the opening lines of all the fictional ones.

I discovered the following:

Of the 17 books...

1 forced me to read the rest of the paragraph.

3 were good, but I did manage to put the book back on the shelf.

2 were so long that they ran onto the next page.

7 described something (2 people, 5 weather), often with lots and lots of fluffy adjectives.

4 (5 actually, if we count the one that ran onto the second page) were the beginning of a backstory-dump. (1 of these dumps was interesting.)

0 began with dialogue.

0 began with an immediately evident high-conflict (or moderate-conflict) situation. (Although Golden Compass and Execution did come out with it pretty quick.)

0 began with any sort of interaction between characters.

Am I the only one who likes to open with the latter? Or are these statistics inevitable and purely resultant of the fact that I found these book in the English section of a university bookstore?

Thoughts, anyone?

I'd continue to ramble but I may be able to hash this out into a TWFT post for Sunday, so I'll stop now. :)

Me + Hunger Games = <3<3<3

2009-10-15T16:17:00.001-07:00

The other day I scurried off to the bookstore and bought The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

Just finished rereading Hunger Games. Am in love. Can't start reading Catching Fire because I actually have to sleep tonight, seeing how it's only Thursday and I have to go to work tomorrow.

*considers phoning in sick and staying up all night to read*

Alas, I need the money.

But anyway, loveloveloveLOVE Hunger Games, to the point where Catching Fire is in danger of being chucked across the room if it doesn't go the way I want. Ah, the perils of being a good book.

*basks in warm loving feelings and tries to stop slipping into present tense in her WIP*

The Long Arm of Campus Security

2009-10-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry. No Teaser Tuesday today. All the writing I did over the weekend was a touch morbid. I shan't subject you to it.

BUT! I got my first parking ticket today. Which I don't plan to pay. =D

I'm really quite proud of myself. It took them two and a half weeks to catch me. Now I shall have to start playing musical parking spaces. Parking in a new lot every day, nestling into a tight little spot where they'll be hard pressed to reach my windshield, hanging a lot of things from my rear view mirror so they have to squint for a long time to figure out whether or not I have a parking pass.

Assuming they'll threaten to tow my car after the third ticket, I should be able to keep my job for another nine weeks or so, before I can no longer safely park in the parking lot. Then I shall have to find a new employer -- ooo, look at that! Assistant Curator at the military museum. $13/hr. That sounds promising! =D

The Sea of Staples

2009-10-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

Step 1) Remove staple.

Step 2) Move receipt to other side of paper. Re-staple.

Step 3) Place paper in correct alphabetical spot in mammoth binder.

Step 4) Repeat.

That's what I did for eight hours straight today. XD I went through three stapler-fulls of staples and created a very impressive mountain of used staples.

It wasn't so bad, though. It meant I got to sit in a non-boiling room and listen to my ipod all day while daydreaming about my characters.

Hehe.

Tomorrow, I suspect I will get the pleasure of photocopying the alphabetized OSAP forms. =D

Oops. =D

2009-09-30T17:19:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to let everyone know that if you're setting up a phone system, it's a bad idea to make people dial 9 to get to an outside line.

Hehe.

I was phoning people about their book orders today at work. We have to dial 9 to get out. I was making a long distance phone call, and I accidentally double-clicked the 1.

Campus security promptly arrived.

I rolled my chair away from the phone.

Minimum Wage

2009-09-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

Warning: The following post contains a rant.

Working for minimum wage ($9.50 here) is lousy.

Working for minimum wage means you get paid $76 for a full (eight hour) day. When those eight hours are spent on your feet doing menial work (let's say, oh, straightening books on a bookshelf), $76 seems like a major rip off!

It seems to imply that a day of your life (24 hours) is therefore worth $228.

If someone came up to you and offered you $228 for a day of your life (as in, you would have one less day to live) would you agree?

I wouldn't.

*stops grumbling*

We shipped some books to someone in Jamaica the other day. (Or was it only one book? Can't remember.) Her name was Donna and the shipping cost $75 - an entire day's salary for me. Probably more than an entire day's salary when you take taxes off.

Have you ever considered what kind of a percentage the government gets of your salary between income taxes, sales taxes, parking meters, road test fees...Okay, I'd better not get going on that can of worms. =P

Anyway, I'm off to enjoy my free time! Ta-ta!

Word Wednesday (and other stuff)

2009-09-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

I got a job! *prances around*

I mean, it's minimum wage and sounds like brutal hours, but heck, it's MONEY!! *is broke*

I'm going to be working in the college bookstore, which, sadly, seems to mostly sell text books, but again, IT'S MONEY! Also, I get the impression I'll be doing less book-selling and more coffee-fetching/loose-paper-sorting. It sounds like I'll be some sort of manager's assistant, or something of that nature.

Goodbye, free time! Hello, money I can use to pay off that library fine!!

Okay. Now, onto Wordy Wednesday!

triage |trēˈä zh; ˈtrēˌä zh |noun1 the action of sorting according to quality.2 (in medical use) the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.

Because they use it on M*A*S*H all the time and I wasn't 100% sure what it meant. And:

fyke |fīk| (also fyke net)

nouna bag net for catching fish.

Because I hit the F key at random and when I realized that only gave me words that started with 'fa' I added a Y. And I might actually have the opportunity to use this word in my WIP, since my MC's family spends a lot of time on fishing-ish boats.

Oh, also, I have a longwinded, convoluted post over on the TWFT blog. Which you should go look at if you haven't already. =D

Teaser Tuesday

2009-09-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

Snippet from THE BOY WHO STOLE MY ~~HEART~~ CAR.

Rachel was back, and she looked peeved. Presumably Samuel hadn’t been visible through any of the windows she could get at. But instead of giving up and heading back to the car, she was gearing up for round two, which seemed to involve climbing Samuel’s tree to scope out the upper story.

As we watched, she leaped for one of the lower branches, caught hold, and started scrabbling up the trunk so she could hook her legs over the branch as well. A minute later, she was hidden from sight by the foliage. All we could see were shaking leaves as she clambered from one branch to the next. Finally, near the top where the leaves and branches thinned, we saw her. She hung onto the trunk and perched on a branch that was as good a vantage point as she was going to get.

“Can she even see inside?” Jay asked.

The answer, apparently, was no, because he had no sooner voiced the question than she started edging away from the trunk and towards the house. It was slow going, and a good thing she and I had not traded clothes again because scooting along a branch like that would likely have been very unpleasant in a skirt. As she made her way outwards, the branch started to droop under her weight, and wiggle, and wobble. When she had to lie down and cling with both her arms and legs I started to worry that the tree was better suited for kindling than climbing.

“Does that look safe to you?” I asked.

Before he could answer, there was a resounding snap and Rachel’s branch parted company with the rest of the tree.

Rachel screamed, Jay and I launched ourselves out of the car, and when I tried to go bounding across the road, I discovered I had shut my skirt in the car door. And, better yet, the door was locked, the keys were still in the ignition, and Jay was already on Samuel’s front lawn and really too busy trying to prevent Rachel from breaking her neck to be bothered with something as trivial as detaching me from a car.

Dangling from another lower, but thinner branch, Rachel got her senses back and started screaming, “Help! Help! Curse you, Isaac Newton! Why couldn’t we live on the moon? He-e-e-elp!”

Speaking of this book, I should really be sending out more queries...

Creepy Government Buildings

2009-09-14T09:29:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to a government building to get my name changed on a piece of ID. There was nobody in it. There were merely two phones sitting on two little tables in front of two lists of phone numbers.

After checking the sign on the door a few dozen times to make sure I was in the right place, I sat down and started calling those phone numbers. They put me on hold. For a long time.

Then sketchy janitorial staff started walking by in the hall, looking at me like those cannibals in that movie looked at that tasty castaway.

I left.

Angst-Fests and War Updates

2009-09-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

My battle with the library rages on. My fine has somehow amounted to $76 now, which means I'll be skulking about in the corners of bookstores, sneakily reading their books for some time yet. Furthermore, I apparently still have a book out. But it's a book I have neither seen nor hear of, so I retain the theory that I do not have it.

Now, onto angst-fests.

They run rampant in YA books. Teenaged hormones, coupled with alcohol, and Dark Pasts are just the perfect recipe. Sometimes they're fine - justified, understandable, a prime opportunity for Character X to show off his/her vulnerable side. Other times, however, they are annoying as all heck! They make the reader (and occasionally the writer) want to strangle the character just to make them stop whining about their Problems.

For the majority of the past week I have been re-writing a scene in my WIP. The re-write started mainly because I needed to change a reference to a preceding event that had been remodeled. Then I saw it: the Angst-Fest!!

My darling Love Interest (that is, my MC's Love Interest, who I also adore to the point of it being a touch unhealthy) was spewing angst and misery all over the page!

I thought to myself, "Well! That can't stay!" and immediately scrapped it and began re-writing. I assumed the Angst-Fest was a product of my not knowing Love Interest very well when I first wrote the scene (it's way back near the beginning of the book) since he is quite the anti-angster in all subsequent scenes. That is, he doesn't talk, sulk, or angst about his Dark Past, nor wallow in Guilt and Self-Pity about it. (Sorry, but I couldn't actually resist giving him a Dark Past.)

Anyway, after 514 rewrites, a few handfuls of cold pills, and several boxes of Kleenex (necessary because of aforementioned cold, not because I was having hysterical fits about not being able to come up with a decent rewrite)...we came full circle.

I went from Angst-Fest, to Anti-Angst-Fest, through all the shades of grey, and now I'm sitting back in Angst Land. Or right on its border. Sighhh.

I assume this means that Angst-Fest is the right way to go. I mean, I have toned it down and directed the Angst at something that he would, in fact, maybe, possibly Angst about a little bit when he's as intoxicated as he is, but still I worry. I don't want people getting irritated.

And so I ask you, dear readers, at what point do Angst-Fests become annoying? What makes them torturous and eye-roll-inducing rather than an acceptable plot point? Do your beloved characters have Angst-Fests? When have other author's done it right, or done it wrong?

I'd love to know!

Wordy Wednesday

2009-09-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

It's that time again! Time for me to go scrolling through my Mac dictionary to find an appealing word.

schnitzel |ˈ sh nitsəl|nouna thin slice of veal or other light meat, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

I love this word, but I've actually never known what it was. Now I just have to find a place to try one (like the Schnitzel House I always pass on my way to Toronto!!).

Next word:

ubiquitous |yoōˈbikwətəs|adjectivepresent, appearing, or found everywhere : his ubiquitous influence was felt byall the family | cowboy hats are ubiquitous among the male singers.

I've heard that one too, but when I scrolled by it in the dictionary I couldn't quite come up with the definition. So, for future reference, there it is!

You may now consider your vocabular horizons expanded! Yes, I just made up the word vocabular. ;)

ETA: I found another word!!

While reading this lovely blog, I came across I word I had not seen before. While able to glean the definition from the context in which it was used, I thought it still deserved to be added to the post.

imbibe |imˈbīb|verb [ trans. ] formal often humorousdrink (alcohol) : they were imbibing far too many pitchers of beer | [ intrans. ]having imbibed too freely, he fell over.• figurative absorb or assimilate (ideas or knowledge) : the Bolshevistpropaganda that you imbibed in your youth.• chiefly Botany (esp. of seeds) absorb (water) into ultramicroscopic spaces or pores.• Botany place (seeds) in water in order to absorb it.

Teaser Tuesday

2009-09-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

Three days of alliteration in a row! Yay!!

I'd fluff this post up a bit more, but I've done absolutely nothing since last Friday (all that productiveness wore me out) and unlike some people *cough*Kody*cough* I can't think of awesome literary topics to blog about. (That's code for "Go check out her awesome post about modern adaptations." I've been mulling it over since I read it.)

And now, onto the snippet.

I'm going over my WIP, re-writing chunks of it, so this snippet is from near the beginning.

“It’s so cold,” I said, in what I hoped was a pitiable tone. It was my and Layla’s favourite line, when we were vying for boys’ attention. It hadn’t failed yet. At the least they offered to walk us home. At best they put their arms around us.
It didn’t work so well with Sade. “Put your coat back on then,” he said.
“I’m already wearing my coat,” I replied, trying to find it in the dark and put it on without him hearing the rustle of fabric. “And I’m freezing.” I decided to be a little more direct. “I need something to warm me up.”
I heard him move, and for a brief moment I thought my ingenious plan had worked, but then a blanket landed over my head.
“You really should be careful what you say, Mina,” Sade said lightly, “Anyone else might have thought you were trying to flirt.”
I was glad it was so dark inside, because I was sure my face turned bright red. I choked for a moment before managing to say, “Why in the world would someone think that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Sometimes people just seem to get the strangest ideas.”

Hmm. I have a feeling I've posted this somewhere before. Apologies if you've already seen this! (Especially since I don't think I've changed this at all in my editing. :P)

Frivolous Friday

2009-09-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not actually planning a series of Frivolous Fridays. I just liked the alliteration. As a matter of fact, this Friday has been surprisingly non-frivolous. I've actually done a lot.

Things I have done today:

1. Applied for job at motel (front desk lady looked happy to see me - good sign? Or is she supposed to look that happy to see everyone?)

2. Applied for job at library (decided I don't actually want to work there, since the librarians looked very not happy to see me. Maybe they know about the size of my fine...>_>)

3. Filled out and delivered that form the doctor's office has been wanting.

4. Spat and cursed at the book I'm querying, because I have a partial request and I can't decide what, if anything, to tweak before sending it.

This has been my most productive day this week, by far.

Oh!

5. Sat outside and admired the wildlife (a loon) for a while, thereby getting required Vitamin D and keeping pet dog happy.

I've also developed a fondness for Reba McEntire, particularly the songs Maggie Creek Road, Fancy, Somebody, and Love Needs a Holiday. *headbangs to Maggie Creek Road*

Wordy Wednesday

2009-09-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

I doth declare this day to be...Wordy Wednesday!! Bow down before it! For without words we would all be stuck grunting and gesticulating to communicate. Books would be replaced by interpretive dance and there would be no discrete way to ask someone where the bathroom was.

On Wordy Wednesdays I shall post a random word that I like for whatever reason, and then I shall ramble on like I usually do.

In fact, today, since it's the first ever Wordy Wednesday, I shall post two words! And now, without further ado, here they are!

hirsute |ˈhərˌsoōt; hərˈsoōt; ˈhi(ə)rˌsoōt|adjectivehairy : their hirsute chests.

I liked this word because it came up when I was playing Cranium with my aunt and cousins, and I was really excited when I knew what it meant. I happened to know what it meant because I had looked it up in a thesaurus when in need of an adjective with which to insult someone. Insulting people with words they don't understand is always such fun.

gadabout |ˈgadəˌbout|nouna habitual pleasure-seeker.

This one I got by scrolling through my Mac Dictionary until I saw a word I liked the sound of. ^_^
And there we have it. Two lovely word for Wordy Wednesday.
In other news, I've deciphered the first eight bars of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I'm quite proud of myself, since I have very minimal amounts of musical skill.
I am also trying very hard to find a job. Jobs are sorely lacking up here, especially for high school graduates with sketchy amounts of work experience. But I shall persist! Because I desperately, DESPERATELY want to run to the store and buy CATCHING FIRE, and I can't do that until I get some sort of pay check.
Anyway, that's all! Got any particularly enthralling words? Post 'em! :)

Rejections and Rock Climbing

2009-08-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hey, guys!

NB wasn't in love with the partial. *sigh* Ah, well. He's got nice rejection letters. They don't make you feel like decaying excrement.

*continues to shoot off queries to unsuspecting agents*

In other news, I went rock climbing this morning. My atrophied muscles are not used to such activities. They are now going into shock. Seriously, I can barely type. =P My forearm muscles are Dead. With a capital and everything.

And, um, yes. That was pretty much it. This is a short blog post. =D

ETA: Also! The Bee Killing Spray is giving me a headache, which I suspect is a bad sign. *waves goodbye to brain cells*

Round and Round the Query-Go-Round

2009-08-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

Look at me, blogging almost every day this week! I'm quite proud of myself. ^_^

I sent out 2 more queries today. I want to send a couple more, but it's not working out so well.

One agent wants to know when/if a query is a multiple submission. This is fine. I threw in a line telling her it was. However, she also says she would like to be informed of other agents' interest. NB's got a partial (*seat bouncing*) but she can't want to know that...can she? My sensible side says no. My egotistical side says maybe/if I mentioned that she might get a touch more interested.

Another is to an agency who only lets you submit ONE query to ONE agent. No shooting a second query off to another agent at the agency if the first one rejects you. So I'm biting my nails and wondering if I should elaborate on the flattery or if one of the other agents would be a better fit.

And then ANOTHER agent is one I pulled off the list of Most Queried Agents, but she doesn't respond to non-personalized letters. I'd love to personalize it. Really, I would. But I don't know what to say. She gives very little information about herself and her preferences and I don't really want to say, "I'm querying you 'cause you were on the list of Most Queried Agents..."

And then yet two MORE agents want synopses included, and since I've been silly and haven't written one yet, I can't query them until I come up with a halfway decent synopsis.

So, yes, it's slow going.

In other news, the bees around here are going nutty. I went to McDonald's with my cousin and the kid she's babysitting this morning and they were dive-bombing us the whole way back. It was scary! Running with a two-year-old is also a touch exhausting, so I'm totally being a couch potato for the rest of the day. :)

Query Letter Hell

2009-08-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

I just have to get this out of my system really quick.

I HATE YOU, STEVE JOBS!!!!!!

I just sent my first query (to NB, so I'm just waiting for the form rejection to pop up) and this miserable piece of technology known as a Mac (which is obviously in cahoots with the evil Hotmail goons) decided to put HUGE spaces between everything.

It looked like this while I was typing it out:

Dear Mr. Bransford:

Standardized tests say that Abby is a mathematical genius...

THEN, after it sent and I went and checked it out in the Sent folder (afraid I had done something stupid like forgot the sample pages, or something) I realized it looked like THIS:

Dear Mr. Bransford:

Standardized tests say that Abby is a mathematical genius...

And it did that ALL through the query and the sample pages.

I can't even send another email really quick saying GARRR, sorrysorrysorry!! because I'm not 100% if it will show up that way to him, and I don't know how to send him a fixed copy. Seriously, I don't know what I did. I just put one space between the paragraphs. Probably had something to do with copying and pasting from Mac Word (another stunning display of craptastic-ness)...

Anyway, excuse me while I go beat my head against the wall...

ETA: Oh, yes, I should add this. I GOT A PARTIAL REQUEST!!! SQUEEE!!! All those head dents in the wall were unnecessary!!

Teaser Tuesday

2009-08-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

Yay for the first ever Teaser Tuesday!

And an even bigger yay: I have a title for my finished book! (The one I'm going to start querying as soon as I finish fiddling with the first 10 pages.)

It is, THE BOY WHO STOLE MY ~~HEART~~ CAR. It comes courtesy of a friend of mine. She's brilliant. ^_^

The following is a snippet from aforementioned book - or a potential snippet, anyway. I'm thinking of adding it (or something like it) since it seems to address the previously unaddressed issue of why my MC didn't phone the police. (I needed a better reason than her phone being coincidentally dead.)

And so, without further ado:

“What did the police say?”

“The police?”

“When you told them someone tried to steal your car.”

“I didn’t tell them.”

“You didn’t?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Well, he didn’t actually steal it,” I said quickly, “So I assumed they couldn’t really do anything. And even if they could, I’m sure they wouldn’t have found him. And if they had, he would have known it was me who ratted him out, and he knows where I work, so that would have been dangerous. And he had very nice manners.”

Rachel blinked at me. “Nice manners?”

“Yes. Aside from the attempted car theft, I mean.”

No Sleep

2009-08-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, so yesterday's post didn't grow, but I'm posting again today, and two post two days in a row is odd for me, so it's pretty much like I expanded on yesterday's post.

You'll have to excuse my badly worded sentences, though. I haven't slept in over 24 hours, which means I'm very fuzzy-headed.

I call it research. I've been making my characters pull a lot of sleepless nights lately. Now I know first-hand what the symptoms of No Sleep are. Brain fuzz, clumsy fingers, giddiness, slowed reaction time, general stupidity...Fun times, fun times.

This lack of sleep is due to a retirement party I was hosting last night. It was nearly a disaster. It was supposed to be a surprise and the guest of honour wound up at the wrong place because the person who was supposed to be luring him to the party didn't get the message the location had changed. It was all very exciting.

Now I can't decide whether or not to go to sleep. I'm afraid if I do, I'll wake up feeling like sludge. *ponders*

Okay, so this was a rather useless post. I promise, next time I'll talk about something literary! (OH! Like how one of the old members of my drama troupe somehow got a SF publishing contract with Random House - lucky little duck.)

Shortest Blog Post Yet! (It's temporary. Promise.)

2009-08-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

Ahem.

TWFT is giving away a copy of Hannah Moskowitz's book, BREAK. Go check it out!!

(I swear I'll add more to this post later. Promise, promise, promise!)

Must. Blog. (About Queries and Trailers and Movies-based-on-books, oh my!)

2009-08-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Bad blogger. Bad.

Blogging once a week is not good.

What can I blog about today?

Uhm, I've compiled a list of agents to query. Yes, let's talk about that! QueryTracker only lists 4 Canadian agents. Only two of those agents accept email queries. *headdesk* And the government complains about a lack of Canadian art/media.

Before I actually send these queries, I have to think of a title. Since I've been saying this for the past 3 months, I have a feeling I'm not going to come up with anything brilliant without some help. *goes to pester betas*

Oh! Here's something semi-literary. They're making Lovely Bones into a movie. It's got an awesome trailer. '

*loves Peter Jackson*

He directed Lord of the Rings.

*is secretly a massive LOTR fangirl*

I had the first two movies memorized, once upon a time. And my goal in life was to become fluent in Elvish.

Yah. I was one of THOSE fans.

People always say the movies aren't as good as the books. (In general - I'm not specifically referring to LOTR.) Sometimes, I'd say it's quite obviously true. Other times, I would have to say you're comparing apples and oranges.

LOTR, for example. I think the movies are phenomenal. On some days I would say they were better than the books. These are the days when I'm feeling ADD and couldn't possibly read 12 pages of description about a forest. But on other days I'll say nothing can compare to Tolkein's writing. (Speaking of which, if that man tried to publish LOTR now, I think the agents he submitted to would have simultaneous heart attacks at the sight of his word count -- Oh, wait. Someone did a post on this already! Almost, anyway.)

Most of the times, however, I stick with saying movies and books are two completely different art forms and should not be compared as they frequently are.

That being said, when movies are based on books, there is a certain onus on the production crew to stay true to the author's vision.

So! I ask you, which movies-from-books were amazing? Which would you say just cannot be compared? And which would you say butchered the story so horrendously that you can no longer look at the book without cringing?

Wow. That was a really all-over-the-place-post. This is what happens when I stay up until the wee hours of the morning writing... ^_^

Strawberry Shortcake

2009-08-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

Strawberry shortcake, huckleberry pie, who's gonna be my lucky guy...

Anyone remember that jumprope game? And then you'd go through the alphabet and when the rope got caught on your feet you had to pick a boy whose name started with the letter you were at and he'd be your future husband, or whatever?

It was like, the most awesome-est game ever when I was 7. But unfortunately the guy I had a crush on was named Adam, which meant I had to purposely trip right at the beginning so I would be able to say his name. That or make it all the way through the alphabet once and then trip when we restarted at A. Things improved when I met Sean.

Anyway, the real reason I was talking about strawberry shortcake was because I made some yesterday. It's the first thing I've ever baked unsupervised and I didn't burn the house down! It even turned out to be edible. *dances around*

On a more literary note, the library sent me an angry letter about my $33 fine. I'm supposed to pay is "as promptly as possible". Heh. Heh. Heh.

I miss being able to go to the library.

Writing-wise, I'm still slogging away on my WIP and trying to come up with a title for the book I'm about to start querying. I'm also trying to learn how to use Dreamweaver so I can make myself a pretty website and look all marketable and such. Which reminds me - I have to buy a domain before someone else nicks my name.

Anywhooo, enough babbling for one day. I have Calculus, and Physics, and Computer Programming assignments to do. *grumbles*

What Was Supposed to be a Post About YA Word Counts, But Turned Into a Post About the Book I'm Querying

2009-08-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

I should start blogging more consistently. Should, but probably won't, despite my best efforts.

I went and handed in a resume at the local Staples yesterday. Apparently they're hiring like mad this week, so hopefully I'll get an interview.

Ugh, I've just spent the last 20 minutes writing a brilliant post about the length of YA books today, and then I realized it would probably be put to better use posted on the TWFT blog, which means I can't post it here, now.

So instead! I shall post the synopsis for the book I'm hoping to start querying with, as soon as I can write NB a query without sounding like a squealing fangirl.

Standardized tests say that Abby is a mathematical genius. In her world, things are black and white. One plus one always equals two. The sky is blue, the grass is green, and car thieves are bad people who wear balaclavas and haven’t shaved or showered in several days. Or so she thinks, until she leaves work one day and stumbles across Jay.

Jay is a car thief. In fact, he’s in the midst of stealing her car – with the coffee she just served him perched on the roof. But Jay doesn’t wear a balaclava, he smells quite nice, and claims he doesn’t want to be stealing cars.

Black and white bleeds into grey when Jay is sent on a potentially fatal car thieving expedition and Abby realizes she does not want him skipping town. This leaves her with only one option. She has to help him. Somehow.

This book reeeeally needs a title. And possibly a different last paragraph in the synopsis. Hmmm. What do you think?

How I Fund the Local Library

2009-07-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

$33 and something cents. That's how much of a fine I have on my library card thanks to my darling little sister. Grrrrrrr.

In other news, I went to the orthodontist today and they made impressions of my lovely teeth. The top set went just fine, but the bottom set decided to get stuck. There was a minute during which I was sure I was going to be walking around with teeth-impression putty stuck in my mouth for all eternity.

Dental Technician: It never gets stuck. *pulls harder* Sometimes it just needs a little coercion. *pulls even harder* We'll get it off. *starts to sound panicked* Really, these things never get stuck!

No worries, though! It did eventually come loose.

I'm really feeling for the Americans right now - those who have to pay for all their own medical bills anyway. This twenty minute appointment cost $300!! (Luckily, I ain't the one paying for it. ^_^)

On that note, I reeeeally need a job, because this whole make-a-million-on-a-best-selling-book-within-the-next-month thing isn't working out as well as I'd hoped. So I'm going to be productive and go stare at my resumé until it magically looks good.

Babbling

2009-07-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

$#!&(*@&$!!

I literally, just this instant, realized I have overdue library books. Or, more accurately, my darling little sister does. But it's on my card, because she doesn't have one, so it's really all the same. BUGGER! I swear, I single-handedly provide funding with my fines.

Deep breath. I'm okay.

In other news, roofers are wanna-be murderers. I was staying with my aunt this week and she was getting her roof redone. After waking me up at 7 in the morning by demolishing the roof above my head (or so it sounded like) these roofers proceeded to hurl shingles and chunks of metal down on anyone who dared to venture out of the house. We had to sneak out the backdoor and around the side of the house to avoid brain damage. *cowers*

My WIP is now over 200K. Yep. That's right. Any and all future agents who might've been interested are now running away from me as fast as they can. That's okay though. I'm going to do major editing before I start querying. *revs up chainsaw*

Well, before I do that - editing, I mean - I suppose I should really finish the book.

Speaking of querying, though, I have a semi-decent summary for my Untitled YA (needatitleneedatitleneedaTITLE). Now I just have to weave some subtle, personalized flattery in and I'll be set. Yay!

TWFT

2009-07-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

OMG! I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet.

TWFT = Teens Writing For Teens

We have a blog, we have a Facebook group, and maybe Twitter. (can't remember)

Anyways, I posted an article on the twiftie blog back on Thursday, so it's a bit down the page now, but it's here. With all the other awesome twiftie posts.

Okay. That's all. I just realized I hadn't mentioned that yet.

Query Letters

2009-06-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

It had to happen sooner or later. I mean, what aspiring writer doesn't put a post about query letters on their blog at some point?

This post has, of course, been prompted by the fact that I am currently drafting the first-ever query letter for my still-untitled YA novel. (Yes, I'm going to have to think of a title before I send the queries off.) Since there are a bazillion websites and blog posts on how to write a query letter (believe me, I know; I've been looking at them all) and because I am by no stretch of the imagination good at writing query letters, I'm not going to talk about how to write one. Rather, I'm going to rant about - er, point out what I think are some of the most common difficulties when it comes to writing query letters.

1. Finding an Agent to Query

Again, there are a bazillion sites to help with this. But it does take some time, and often you have to do some specific research on particular agents to see what books they've repped, maybe even read those books, and find a way to personalize your query to them. All of this = time consuming, but necessary.

2. Writing a Synopsis

It's hard to sum up months of work, with all of its remarkable characters and brilliant subplots, in a paragraph. It's even harder to make it sound good. I can't offer any pointers here. When I figure out how to mash thousands of words into about a hundred, I'll patent it and let you know!

3. Tone

It's always safer to air on the side of professionalism. But sometimes it can be tempting to try to be funny/glib/cute/otherwise more appealing than a boring old professional. It can be especially difficult to resist when the agent you're querying has a witty blog, the tone of which is so captivating that you just HAVE to match it. (i.e. Nathan Bransford *flatteryflatteryflatteryjustincaseIlinkmyblogintheemailandheclicksit*) As of right now, I'm still leaning towards DON'T DO IT! (Try to be clever and witty, that is.) It's too risky. No agent (presumably) is going to reject you because your query letter was too polite and professional. They might, however, reject it because you were too unprofessional. Even if you are hilarious.

Alright. I'm pretty much done ~~complaining about~~ discussing the hard parts of query-writing. Now I should get back to actually writing them. *procrastinates*

The Sun Was Coming Up...

2009-06-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

After watching the first twenty minutes of The Hitcher last night, and getting totally freaked out, and then Googling the ending and deciding I didn't want to watch anymore, I wrote 7.1K words in my WIP! *is proud of self* For any of you who don't regularly count the number of words found per page of a word document, that's approximately 13 pages. (For me with all my one-liner dialogue, anyway.)

To accomplish this, I had to stay up until 5:30 in the morning! (I was getting such a rush writing, I wasn't even tired.) The sun was on it's way UP when I went to bed. I contemplated getting breakfast before going to bed. It amuses me.

Anyway, those 7000 words were the product of a decision to start re-writing the last 170-ish pages of my WIP. I realized I'd spent the whole half of the book talking about how horrible it would be if X happened. Then X happened and...it really wasn't such a big deal. So, now it is a big deal! I'm making my characters' lives more difficult and it's FUN! Muahaha!

That's about all I have to say - although I did feel oddly inspired to do one of my Calculus assignments yesterday. It's all done now. All I have to do is submit it to the drop box.

Then I really must get on with editing my Untitled YA (or trying) to edit it, so that I can send it to my wonderfully marvelous betas. I might just send it to them as is. I've been looking at it for so long I don't know what to do with it anymore. To change the ending, or not to change the ending. To water down the MC's clumsiness, or to leave her as a practically lethal weapon...Questions, questions, questions.

Alright. Now for real, that's all I have to say.

Ta!

FREEEEEDOM!!!

2009-06-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

*sounds like she's quoting Braveheart* (Did not enjoy that movie, btw. We Were Soldiers was good, though.)

But I'm not quoting Mel Gibson. I'm merely rejoicing because I wrote my Chem exam and I am DONE SCHOOL! (At least, in-school school. I've still got three online courses to finish, but I'm determined to ignore those at least for today. Especially because my online teachers ignore me so diligently. *bitter grumbling*)

Now I can WRITE! (And look for a job.) But mostly WRITE!

Except I'm worrying my WIP is having problems. Which I will list here, both because I'm procrastinating and because it's all I can think about right now and therefore all I can blog about.

1) It sounds like I'm preaching about the health risks of smoking. (Which I'm not trying to do!)

2) One of the major characters is probably using too big of a vocabulary, given his lack of formal education. But I'm not sure.

3) The relationship - or "relationship" - between my MC and her love interest (the same troublesome character mentioned in #2, actually) might bother some feminists. But I can't help it that my MC is a slow learner and is at the bottom of the metaphorical ladder, while the LI (love interest) is nearer the top and might occasionally come across as controlling because she'd get herself blown up/shot/arrested/involuntarily pregnant if left to her own devices. *wishes her MC was more aware of her surroundings/not so sheltered*

Anyway, I'm off to mull this over a bit more and then WRITE! (Or revise, perhaps. Shrink LI's vocabulary, make the conversations about emphysema and lung cancer less preachy and more snarky...)

Tootaloo! :)

<3 Historical Fiction

2009-06-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

Instead of studying my Chem review like I should be, I'm on here, writing Blog Post #4!

I just finished reading REMEMBRANCE by Theresa Breslin. It's an historical YA fiction set in WWI. Without going into too much detail, because I really should at least glance at my Chem before I go into class for the review, it has made me develop a liking for historical fiction.

It also made me remember my grade 10 history classes, because when you're reading along and Soldier Character #1 writes a letter saying something along the lines of, "We're heading for battle around Passchendael..." you have to stop and think, "Passchendael? That gives me a bad feeling for some reason." Then it dawns on you and you think, "Oh, bugger. There goes Soldier Character #1. Man, I liked him, too." (Not that he necessarily dies. Not spoiling anything here. That's just what I thought when they were at the Somme, or Passchendael, or Ypres.)

Okay, well, maybe I'll add some more/make this slightly less incoherent later, but I really must go and do something productive now.

5 Days Later...

2009-06-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

It's definite: I'm going to be a horrible, inconsistent blogger.

But the sad thing is, nothing much has happened in the past 5 days. Hmmm. Let's see...

News Update

Good News:

- I didn't fail my Chem test! Hallelujah!

- I got a perfect on the evil titration lab we did a few days ago

- I found someone to beta read my book*

- The bee is out from under my windshield**

Bad/Mediocre News:

- I have to go back to school at 6:30 to do the sound and lights for a dance recital. Wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't already had to sit through the show at an obscenely early hour this morning. (Obscenely early = 9 am)

- We're almost out of fish food for the fish

- I'm coming to the conclusion that the MC in the Book* is static, rather than dynamic, and therefore lacks a decent character arc

- And, um...I didn't win the lottery. Not that I bought a ticket, but it would've been great if a winning ticket had magically materialized on my doorstep.

* This book is the one I entered in the Delacorte Press Contest. It had a title, but I'm beginning to get embarrassed by the title - which was only really good when paired with a sequel, which might not happen now - so I think I'm changing it. When I get around to querying, after my lovely beta finishes with it, maybe I'll post a synopsis.

** The bee news could've gone under either heading, really - good news, or mediocre - but I decided to be positive and put it under good news. Because it is good. In the sense that it's now gone. The bad news is that it's gone because I forgot about it this morning and turned on my windshield wipers. (It was raining. It had to be done.) But the bee carcass ended up flying up and getting stuck on the windshield for a minute, until the wipers swiped it away again (possibly mashing it onto my hood - I haven't looked). It scared me, and I nearly drove into a ditch. But I didn't actually. So that's good.

Dead Bees and Writing Crises

2009-06-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

I should really be studying for my Chem exam right now, but...

I was just reading Nathan Bransford (the literary agent)'s blog, and he had a post today about how the economic crisis is basically making it a heck of a lot harder to get published. Which is great news for me! (Yes, I'm being sarcastic.)

So, in an effort to step up my game (also in Mr. Bransford's post), I went and took another look at the book I'm getting ready to query with. And now I'm thinking the hook may not be hooky enough (even though I chopped off the mundane beginning in the hopes of digging the hook in quicker), my MC is lacking a character arc, and the ending is funny (not in a good way). Part of the problem, I think, is that I wrote this book to submit to the Delacorte Press Contest and it had to be between 100 and 224 pages. I took this to be the page count after it was formatted, so, single-spaced, it had to be under 112 pages, approximately. This may have led to a rather abrupt 'I've only got twenty pages left to wrap things up in! AH! *throws climax at readers*' sort of ending. And it didn't leave a lot of room for my MC to arc.

Anyway, the point of that all is I'm having a complete panic attack and I really need a beta reader and the obvious option is my little sister, but when I asked her to read it she said, "Sure! For $23." ... Money gouger. So now I need to look elsewhere.

And my WIP is alarmingly long. Over 167k now. Apparently agents get nervous about things over 120K and downright terrified when they see anything over 140K. Oops. So, I either have to get out the editing sheers or split it into two books. Especially 'cause it ain't even finished yet!

*shrivels up*

In other news: there's a dead bumble bee stuck under my windshield wiper. How it got there, I do not know. I drove to school yesterday and when I came out to drive back home, there it was with one leg stuck under the wiper, wiggling around and generally distracting me from things like oncoming traffic.

I tried to let it out when I got home, but I've never actually tried to lift a windshield wiper before and it didn't work out too well. I think I lifted it off the windshield, but I didn't have a great vantage point (was trying to stay as far away from the bumble bee and its stinger as was possible). But for whatever reason, it didn't move, so either it was slightly smooshed and stuck there, or I didn't lift the wiper enough. Anyway, I had a minor girlish freak out at the grossness of the situation and I accidentally dropped the wiper so that it snapped back onto the windshield.

Oops.

It's possible that the bee got killed then. Or it died overnight. (I'm sorry, bee!) But for whatever reason, it's dead now, and still stuck under my wiper. I'm not sure how to get rid of it. Most of my plans involve long sticks and biohazard suits, neither of which are readily available. (You think I'd be able to find a stick somewhere, considering the number of trees around here.)

Anyway, I really should be getting to work on that Chem review... (We watched Captain Kirk fight the Gorn today in class. There were redox reactions involved somehow. It was very entertaining. *loves the progress we've made with special effects*)

But seriously. I should go...

The First Post EVER

2009-06-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

On a whim, and because I procrastinate far too much, I decided to create a blog.

However, I was by no means intending to post something instantaneously. So, for now, this pathetic excuse for a first-ever blog entry will have to do, while I muck about with settings and features and all that fun stuff that lets me avoid my Physics homework.

Later:

Okay. So. This blog was intended to be partially used as a tool to increase my marketability, and so on and so forth. This gives birth to some problems, such as: what background do I use? I have to look somewhat professional, so I think all the gothic, glittering, swirling backgrounds are probably out, no matter how alluring I find them. Also, for readability, I think it has to be somewhat light-coloured, but not neon bright, and not too distracting on the sides...

Sheesh. Blogging takes up almost as much brain power as Physics.

Even later:

*does a happy dance* I made the pretty banner work. You wouldn't believe how difficult that was to do. Way more trouble than it should have been.

Anyway, I've decided to do a halfway decent post now. I really ought to focus on more literary subjects, maybe, but I can't think of anything at the moment (probably because it's 10:18 pm) so I'll tell you about the Beef Broth Incident.

My sister has a cold.

So, when she said she was hungry, I offered to make her some chicken noodle soup. Trouble only arose when I went out to the kitchen, raided the cupboards, and discovered that there was onion soup, mushroom soup, cream of celery soup...but no chicken noodle.

Feeling very clever, I thought to myself, I'll just boil some pasta in chicken broth and voila!

I saw a can with the word 'broth' on it (chicken broth is the only kind of broth I have ever seen in our cupboards until today), grabbed it, opened it, and poured it into a pot. However, as I was adding water, it dawned on me that the alleged chicken broth was a rather odd shade of dark brown.

I looked at the can again...and discovered it was beef broth. No chicken broth to be found anywhere in the cupboard. (Nothing much to be found at all, actually, in the cupboard or the fridge, because it had been a while since anyone had been to the grocery store.)

I glanced around. My sister was safely in her room. She hadn't seen the can. So I chucked it and kept cooking, since I had nothing else to make her and I figured she might be feverish enough to not notice the colour.

Ten mintues later:

Sister: What's wrong with it?

Me: Nothing.

Sister: Why's it black?

Me: It's not black.

Sister: Yes it is.

Me: It's brown.

Sister: It's black. You burned the soup!

Me: I did not! That's just...what it looks like.

Sister: Is not! What's wrong with it?

Me: Nothings wrong with it. Just try a bit.

Sister: No! It's black! It's probably old!

Me: It's not old. There's a perfectly good reason why it's that colour. Just try it.

Sister: What's the reason? Tell me the reason!

Me: ...You'll like it.

Sister: Why is it black?

Me: Well...it's not exactly the regular chicken broth, per se.

Sister: Then what is it?

Me: (from behind my anti-germ mask) Beef broth.

Sister: Beets?! I hate beets!

Me: No, no. Not beets. (wait for her to look relieved) It's beef.

Sister: BEEF?! YOU'RE TRYING TO FEED ME BEEF?! I'M A VEGETARIAN!

Me: You eat chicken broth. Chicken is meat.

Sister: But that's chicken. Beef is like, the meatiest meat of all!

Me: Ugh.

And the moral of the story is: Don't try to fool vegetarians who eat chicken broth into eating beef broth.

But anyway, I really should get to bed. Have to get up bright and early in the morning!

Nighty-night!