Monthly Archives: April 2011

Oh-heck! Wednesday #ROW80 Check-In

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^^;;; Soooo I totally forgot it was WEDNESDAY. How? Well, my typical writer’s group usually meets on Wednesday…but they’ve changed it to Thursday…so I got confused, hehe. Anyways…pretty bad goal-wise. I’m almost afraid to post it. XDD

Oh well! Drumroll pleeeeease: -badadadadadabum-

Sunday: Squat-diddly. I was lazy. It was Easter.

Monday: Uhh… 450-500 words?

Tuesday: Another 500-600 words.

Wednesday: 1.922 words. Unfortunately, I think I’m gonna scrap the entire scene later because–let’s face it. Suckage. Biggggtime. I don’t even know why I’m writing LOL. Okay, so maybe that’s a lie: I want to eventually get published. And I do love the story, the characters, and the setting. It’s just…getting from Point A to Point B sludging through crap that sucks. XD

OH WELL! Still this brings me to a total offff… 37,022 words. Dang, so close to 40k.

I need to re-outline, I think that’s what I’m doing tonight. I think that’s why I’m so -off- right now. Let’s hope it works! -pulls out the Sticky Notes program with adoration and a fangirl-squeal- Yayyy Sticky Notes! :D

The Release of the New Fairy Tales Anthology

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E is for: Excitement! Eee :D

Today, my copy of Aurora Wolf’s anthology, The New Fairy Tales Anthology, came in the mail :D I was expecting it, but not so soon, so I’m delighted. The book is separated into two parts: One for a younger audience, and one for the older audience. My short-story, Burn, is in the second category.

Burn tells the story of Lumiere, a phoenix-changeling stolen from her nest and locked away in a castle by one of the dark Fae. Grigori is the only one who can make her cry–tears of torment and anguish; tears with healing properties that fetch a pretty penny on the market. She yearns to leave the castle, to spread her fiery wings and fly. And when wolf-man, Sebastian Malloy comes into the picture with the deed to the property and magic of his own, that dream might not be so far off.

My summary sucks: I need to learn how to do them properly! EITHER WAY, that’s what it’s about! It was one of my favorite stories to write–I hope people enjoy reading it. :D

I can’t wait to read the rest of the stories in the anthology, but between getting back “on the writing horse” and being immersed in a novel that’s due back to the library in a few days, I just haven’t had a chance! It’s on my to-do list!

You can buy The New Fairy Tales Anthology direct through CreateSpace, or over on Amazon. The editors at Aurora Wolf are working to put the anthology up in e-book form soon, as well, and I will edit with links when they become available!

If you end up reading and liking the anthology, we’d love if you could put up a review on Amazon!

-stops procrastinating- Back to Wolfsong!

#ROW80 Sunday Check-in

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First #ROW80 check in (well, first that I actually have progress on :) )…and I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. Still! It gives me something to strive for. I’m not beating myself up over 3 days of non-progress: I’ll just aim to have more done next week!

Without further ado:

Wednesday: 3,800 words. They flowed wonderfully.

Thursday: 1,700 words. A little trickier, but I got them done early in the day, planning to do 1-2k more at night, and then I read something that threw me for a loop (read: my brain going “ohgodohgodPANIC!abort, abort!”) aaaand I came to a screeching, rubber-burning halt.

My antagonist in Wolfsong, Kanzi, had no motive beyond the fact that he was the bad-guy. He had no goal…no reason to want my lovely werewolf clan to be destroyed. Just…that’s what he wanted. -sigh- This is what I get for revising a work from when I was younger. LOL.

So I spent Thurs-Saturday pining, whining, moaning, and trying to figure out the issue. My brain sputtered, threatening to keel on me several times. Fiiiinally, I came up with an idea, got excited…and my friend tells me: “Dude, that’s just back story, it doesn’t change anything…” and I’m like -sadface- Oh well.

But between the two of us, I -think- I’ve got it. I think we’ve figured it out. It changes the ending, yeah, but I’d expected that. I’m cutting an entire subplot. And killing off a character who lived in the earlier versions.

Hallelujah.

So then we’ve got:

Friday: Zilch

Saturday: Zilch x2

Sunday: Zilch, but only because I was lazy, not because I was stuck (not that this makes it better, but STILL!) I wanted a nap, darnit! And it was Easter, so I kinda vegged on candy, visited my grandma and then my friend, and now I’m blogging. I may write tonight. I probably won’t. Probably will just continue reading and start anew tomorrow :)

End result? Total words: 5,500 words, bringing me to a total ooooof….34k? Maybe? I’ll double-check when I’m on Seven. Woot :)

Now I feel a little more accomplished!

29k and #ROW80 Check-in

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First off… 7am, brain? REALLY? You want me to write at 7am? You barely function…

I did a total of 2k today, bringing my total to 29k on Wolfsong. I hope to add another 1-2k tonight. I would love to breach 30k. That -should- be the half-way point in the novel. It’s already longer than the original and I feel it’s so much better.

Still, today marks my jumping-in of Round Of Words In 80 Days. This is my first check-in!

So. My goals. Since I am currently unemployed, this shouldn’t be over the limit for me:

-Write 1.5k per day on my YA were-paranormal, Wolfsong.

-Tweet my daily wordcount every day I write.

-Finish Wolfsong by May 20th. This gives me an entire month.

-When I finish: amend my goals to fit my next WIP, Sweet Dreams… Or Mayhem and Never’s supposed Zombie-Rock-Opera-Slash-Romance. -headdesk- Seriously, guys? We are not fighting the undead with the power of rock. This is too weird. I don’t do comedy. Maymay, get thinking about an actual plot.

24.2k and ya gotta love excitement :)

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Hit 24.2k today in Wolfsong, my YA werewolf paranormal WIP. Starting to get into the meat of the original 2005 version of the story. I need to set aside an hour tonight and skim-read and take notes on how the original chapters work/the characters/etc…but I’m writing it from scratch; I hope to finish Wolfsong with not even one line of dialogue from the original!

I got an email from an editor from the anthology my short story, Burn, is going to be in. My copy of The New Fairy Tales Anthology by Aurora Wolf Press will be here within the next few weeks. I’m very excited to read the stories! Burn was one of my favorite shorts to write. Getting that email today made me go: “Man, I wish I had a few more shorts I could send out for this year” but I really don’t have time in the schedule I’d set out to really DO shorts…and then I remembered: I’d written a short for a werewolf anthology that got rejected because it wasn’t in the genre. The Hunter. 

I quickly opened up the file and reread it. It is…not what I remember in the least. I wrote it for the whole Urban Fantasy vein…and it is very… Strange. It’s almost borderline horror. I don’t write horror, but this… This made me grin and cackle at the end. I felt excitement as I read it, making little changes as I went. I’m over the moon. Sure, I remembered I wrote it…I just don’t remember it being so well-written? It pleases me to no end.

So I’m going to spend the next few days looking for a “home” for The Hunter. Until then, I’m going to keep writing Wolfsong. I aim to hit 25k tonight. And 30k by Sunday. I may amend that to 35k by Sunday, though, depending on how the week goes!

21.4k and a hectic week!

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This week’s been kinda hectic.

First, my anxiety has been acting up and being funky. I’ve struggled with anxiety/panic my entire life and for awhile, it ruled my life. I was a hermit at one point in time (though dog obedience in 4-H brought me out of my shell a little). There was a point where I’d somewhat beaten it, thought I was “stronger” than the medication and went off–you guessed it–cold turkey @.@ Stupid idea. I was good for a month, then nosedived. Had to quit my job and it just sucked. I got stable again with the help of my lovely therapist/shrink combo…and now it’s picking up again.

I’m ignoring the Voice Of Reason (ie; my mother) who says my anxiety had been managed back when I was Gluten Free…but I fell off the GF bandwagon. I’m not Celiac, but I am semi gluten-intolerant… My grandma/mom have gone GF and it’s helped them a lot. It also helped me…but the food choices aren’t great on a strict budget and, well…not as tasty because none of us cook really LOL. So. Yeah, yeah, eventually I’ll return GF…but until I’ve got money coming it, ain’t happening. Still, panic attacks in the car suck.

Then my stepdad found a dog on the street, no collar/tags and…of course, being Greg, brought her in to live with us. Take note that we have six dogs and nine cats already; a full house. Still… We called the shelters, visited the vets, I put an ad on Craigslist. The dog was a young, 1-2 year old gorgeous shepherd/boxer mix, brindled gold and black like a freaking tiger. She was very dominant and in the three days we had her, she tried to up her rank in our little pack. We called her Charlee. Fortunately for us, via a shelter volunteer and Craigslist, we found her owner! Yay Charlee!

Then we had my stepsiblings (all girls, ages 5, 10 and 15) for the weekend. They’re…well…they’re kids LOL. The youngest, Brooke, I adore but she talks sooo much. And now that she’s really carrying on convos, she keeps coming into my room and interrupting me. We ended up watching some Wake Up Kitty youtube videos together cuz I may not like kids, but Brooke’s cute :) But they’re all home now. Bad news is, we get them against next weekend because Easter is our holiday.

Once again, I am thanking the Gods (or…my grandma, ILU GRANDMA) that I now have a desk/computer/net set up in the serenity of my ROOM. Not only would I have not been productive all week? But all weekend as well. Instead I gained several thousand words, totaling me in at 21.4k as of 11pm Sunday. Hard to believe I just started the 4th of April. I’m actually getting into the plot, starting to grin and love it…even though this is a rewrite and I basically know what happens already! But still, this is an adventure within itself.

And just gonna give a shout-out to my friends, Janee “Wizzie” and Sadie, for reading it as I go and pointing out errors…this is a wonderfully awesome help. I love my friends <3

Thinking about hopping on the #ROW80 thing while I’m at it :) We’ll see come Wednesday!

12.2k and pregnant fish

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Last night, listening to the storm thunder around outside…I thought of a perfectly awesome blog post. It made a lot of sense in my head. But…again, 4 am…and I’m like: “Do I really wanna get up and write this? Now? When the storm could turn poor Seven off and I could lose it?” Because that would really make me mad haha.

So I did what I normally do: I turned over and fell asleep. Today, when chatting with a few people via AIM, I was like: “Ohyeah! I totally had a blog post to write today… Now, if I could only remember what it was…” So. Yeah. I totally forgot what I was going to post about.

I’ll remember in time, I suppose.

On a good note: I wrote 2+k today, spawned by a “why the heck not” (okay, so maybe I was a little bored as well!) All on Wolfsong. IMHO, this budding new creature is so…different than the original. But it’s not a bad thing. Kia’s not as much of a puss, Arii’s an ornery little imp, and Sikta is…Sikta. -rolls eyes- Some things never change. The total word count is now 12.2k and I’m on a freakin’ roll! I also outlined about half the novel on Sticky Notes, which came to a total of 1.5k. p

Of course, this means I haven’t been working on Sweet Dreams. I’ve come to a stand-still on it, at around 17.5k …but, in my defense, Grimmy is such a vibrant character that I feel if I can -just- get Wolfsong done, I can re-read and jump back into Sweet Dreams‘ world like a fish in a river! (Cuz fish pwn!)

(Speaking of fish, we’ve got a 50-gallon tank…filled with mostly bottom feeders. Either way, we’ve got 4 or 5 little…catfish…thingies… They’re tiny. And, courtesy my sister, they are all named Larry (after a goofy character on the Phoenix Wright games ^_^) . And I’m pretty sure Larry #3 is preggo. Round-catfish-is-round. Too bad the spawn will be eaten by our lovely eels…)

Still! Must keep writing :) Expect Wolfsong to be updated on Fictionpress ASAP. And I’ll probably upload what I have left of Sweet Dreams as well.

Fickle minds

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So I’ve been diligently working on my WIP, Sweet Dreams...got about 17k in and got stuck, outlined the entire thing using the Sticky Notes program (after my friend poked and prodded me; okay, so I procrastinate!) I’d been doing (or attempting to do) 1k a night, more if the scene wasn’t finished or just flowed, and was surprised at how long the piece was going to be with all my plots (I typically write short–50k-65k, YA-lengths; I’ve never been a ‘big’ writer) and I was guessing it to be about 75-85k total. Which both pleased and intimidated me.

And then, one night last week I was laying in bed, unable to sleep. Tossing, turning, my mind whirring along at high-speeds. And all of a sudden my character, Kia, started talking to me. Now Kia is my MMC from a 2005 YA novel, Wolfsong, which has been finished/rewritten several times. But I’ve never been happy with the beginning. It’s never been strong, or hook-y enough for me. And there are so many…not flaws, but places where I could get stronger.I’d pretty much set Wolfsong aside as a ‘book that I finished but would never try publishing’ sorta thing.

He gave me a few opening lines. I jotted them down, returned to bed. He gave a little more. I groaned, got up, turned my computer on and began to write. Finally, 1.2k later, he shut up. I didn’t bother reading what I’d written: it was 5:20 am and I was tired now that my head was shut off. I flopped in bed, curled up with my heart-dog and fell asleep.

Upon waking, I got some breakfast (or rather lunch) and re-read over the chapter. And was surprised. Not only was it muuuuuch better than the original, it had good voice (not exactly the original voice, but I was like 16 when I wrote it) and a hook-y beginning. My MMC was likable, my FMC is a little sassier/edgier than the original, but overall nice. I like it. After sending it off to a couple of friends, who thought it was better than the original and worth pursuing, I’m not 8.5k in and it’s definitely a different being than the original. My characters have matured voice-wise. They’ve changed a little personality wise, but for the better, I’d say.

I guess I just have to keep trying, and see if something good comes of it :) Still, I don’t wanna shove Sweet Dreams to the side, so I plan on doing a couple of chaps on one, then a couple chaps on another.

For those of you who are interested, Wolfsong is also being hosted alongside Sweet Dreams on my Fictionpress and will be updated as I write it.