Casting Characters...

Time for a fun post I've been wanting to do for awhile. One that has nothing to do with sewing, or babies on the way, or crazy cats! Casting characters!

I don't know if this is the same for all authors, but when I write, or think about my stories, I can see scenes playing out in my head on my own personal movie screen. As a result, almost all of the characters in my stories have people 'casted' to play them.

Sometimes they resemble a friend or someone I know. Atiya, who recently popped up in Between Two Worlds, is very strongly based on an amazing Belly Dancer I know from Halloween Haunt and the Southern California Renaissance Faire. Harris, another character from Between Two Worlds, is based, at least in looks, on a gentleman who used to work Faire.

Sometimes they resemble an actor that I'm fond of. Vivian, from the Descendants, is definitely based (at least in looks) on Jennifer Lawrence (LOVE HER!) and her best friend Audra resembles Ellen Page. Maya (the adult version of her that is) is Amanda Seyfried.

And then, sometimes how I picture them changes over time. For example; Gwalchmei, who Vivian runs into in Book 2 of The Descendants, was originally Bedwyr, a complete and utter misogynist jerk, and had black hair and blue eyes. Back then, I totally pictured him as Joe Manganiello. Now, that Bedwyr has turned into Gwalchmei, is much kinder, and has red hair and blue eyes, I often picture him as a bearded, long haired Tom Hardy - though I have to admit, Michiel Huisman comes in as a close second (I blame this entirely on his portrayal of Daario in Game of Thrones)

Hello gorgeous...

There are exceptions though - I have not cast Mattie, from The Undying Ones. Since she wears a mask for a majority of her story, I don't know what her real features look like just yet. The same goes for Rordan and Talesin - who are so scarred it would require several hours of make up for anyone to look anything like the picture in my head I have of them! Domick from Between Two Worlds is another tough one. While there is a portrait of him in the People of Pern, it looks nothing like anyone I know, or any celebrity I may have heard of.

Who do you see playing your characters in your stories?

Your weekly dose of writing news:
Amanda Hocking talks about words she gets mixed up when writing (I confess I have this problem sometimes too.)
LJ Smith is taking back her series, The Vampire Diaries, through Fanfic

And now for WIPpet Wednesday!

Since today's date is May 7th, here are 12 lines (5+7=12) from the chapter of The Undying Ones I'm working on cleaning up. When last we checked in on chapter 10, the King had left his tower for the first time in ages and had joined his people in the Great Hall. Needless to say, they were all a bit surprised! However, the King seems to be in a bit of a foul mood, and some of his men think they know who can help:

Finally, as if the guards had reached a silent agreement, one of them stepped away from the dais. He sighed in relief when he found Mattie hiding in the shadows at the edge of theroom. “Go talk with him. He likes you. Maybe you can cheer him up.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“None of your business. Go do your friends and family a favor and speak to the King. Make him smile.” He shoved her away from the wall, into the middle of the room.

Mattie could feel everyone’s eyes on her and hear their conversations fade away to whispers as she approached the King’s throne.

To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.

A Very Important WIPpet...

So it's been about a month since I last updated this blog. I am really very sorry for staying away for so long, but I have a really good excuse...

You ready for it?

You sure?

It turns out I'm pregnant.

(I took three different tests to make sure it wasn't a fluke)

My husband and I are overjoyed but still very much in shock. We had been told we couldn't get pregnant until after my medical issues were fixed, but, apparently, God and Mother Nature had another plan.

So that's why I haven't been blogging lately; I haven't had any energy, the morning sickness has been oh so lovely, and there's been other annoying first trimester symptoms that like to pop up now and then. Like Pregnancy Brain for example; I asked my husband the same question three different times the other day, and I still don't remember what the answer was. I finally gave up because he kept giving me this amused look that was annoying the crap out of me.

But in the end it'll all be worth it :)

Anywho, today is one of those days were I feel a little more with it (for now) so I decided to take advantage of that and blog while I can!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to keep up with my writing goals for this round of ROW 80, but I have  been able to write here and there.

The Undying Ones is still stuck in a rut. I can see where I need to go, I just can't see how to get there, and I don't want to pull another one of those 'a few days later' tricks. It occurred to me that I could switch to Liam's viewpoint, but I think it may be too soon to do that. We just visited him last chapter, and I'm trying to keep him to every couple of chapters for right now.

I've made some progress on the serial, believe it or not. Just as I was ready to abandon it, an idea for the ending popped into my head so I ran with it. Now I just have to figure out how to fill in the rest of the story.

The Descendants is progressing quickly, but I know I'm going to be in trouble soon. I had an idea about how I wanted the first book to play out, but then I saw a movie about Pompeii is coming out and now I'm not so sure I want to go there any more. I'm tempted to send the characters to a different world instead since book two takes place in a world similar to ours that's also different (if that makes any sense... I'm afraid of saying more and giving too much away). It's funny how this story started off being about time travel and has now turned into world hopping. I think I've been reading too much The Dark Tower...

And now for WIPpet Wednesday!

WIPpet Wednesday is ran by KL Schwengel. To participate just post a part of the project that you are working on that some how correlates with the date, and then share the link to your blog on the linkie thingee over here.

Since today is 2/12 I'll be sharing 14 paragraphs from Chapter 2 of Descendants (2+12=14... I'm keeping it simple to give my poor brain a break!) Vivian sees her boyfriend shortly after entering the party, and immediately panics and takes refuge in a bathroom upstairs:

Before Vivian was aware of what she was doing, she had crossed the bathroom and hopped up on the toilet to peer out of the window. Yes, just like she had thought, it would be big enough for her to crawl through! She eased it open only to be faced with a new obstacle - a thin mesh screen separated her from her freedom.

Behind her the door handle rattled. 

“Somebody’s in here!” She called out, but however it was was persistent. The door knob continued to rattle until it finally swung open and bounced against the wall. “Look I said someone was in...” She turned, glaring at the person who wouldn’t take no for an answer only to freeze when she found Matthew staring at her. “Who invited you?”

He ignored her question. Instead he raised his eyebrows as he took in her precarious position on top of the toilet. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” She lied.

“Are you trying to escape?”

“No.” Beyond him she could see movement down at the end of the hall. She held her breath, praying it washing Josh or her best friend. “Get out and shut the door.”

“You are, aren’t you?” The short burst of laughter that escaped his lips was oddly bitter. “Why am I not surprised?”

Thankfully the ominous shadow turned out to be just another guest who had apparently been told to use the bathroom upstairs by Audra. Still, the last thing she needed was them interrupting. Vivian jumped down from the toilet and grabbed Matthew’s arm, pulling him inside the bathroom. As soon as he was clear of the door jamb, she swung the door shut and locked it once more. 

“Sorry!” She apologized to the disappointed party goer on the other side. “There’s another bathroom in the master suite!”

Once more she sagged against the door and rubbed at her eyes. So much for her plan to escape! She sighed feeling frustrated and trapped. But then, if she was honest with herself, it had been a horrible idea anyways; both Josh and Audra would have been pissed at her, and, seeing as her luck was running today, she probably would’ve ended up breaking a leg or an arm if she had attempted it. She opened her eyes to find Matthew staring at her, his long legs stretched out in front of him, and his arms crossed over his chest. 

“What?”

He shrugged. “I’m just amazed that you were so desperate to get out of here that you were actually going to climb out of a bathroom window.”

“I just needed a breath of fresh air.” She lied again. 

To see more ROW 80 updates, go here
To see more WIPpet Wednesday updates, go here

A New Year, A New Round...

Between the holidays, work, and our vacation, it's been a very busy couple of weeks. So busy that I just gave up on posting any WIPpets, or anything else really. 

Now the holiday's are over, work has calmed down a bit, and we're back from our vacation (though we didn't want to leave...) It's a new year, and a new round of ROW 80, so it's time for some new goals!

This round I want to:

• Write either 100 or 1000 words a day. 100 if I'm jotting them down in a notebook, 1000 if I'm using a computer. 
• Keep plugging away at The Undying Ones and The Descendants
• Try to figure out what to do about the serial. 
• Add more stuff to the Etsy store

In addition to that I also want to get healthy. I don't plan on dieting, but I do plan on eating better. Also, a Planet Fitness is supposed to be opening up near us soon, so I plan on signing up as soon as I can and working out more. In addition to that, I want to get my health issues resolved. I was diagnosed with PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome) and fibroids last May, but the first doctor I saw wouldn't help. My new doctor is amazing though, and we've already started the process of getting these two issues taken care of. 

And now on to the fun stuff! WIPpet Wednesday!

WIPpet Wednesday is run by KL Schwengel. To participate, just share a portion of what you are working on that some how relates to the date and add it to the linkie thing below. For example, since today is 1/8/14, I'll be sharing 8 sentences from The Undying Ones. This is from a flashback from a character that may or may not have been introduced in previous snippets. 

Her wish to die was not to be: she woke to a room bathed in firelight, still struggling to breath and burning up with fever.

Her room was strangely quiet for once. She looked around with bleary eyes, expecting someone to be sitting with her, but no priests or physicians or maids lurked in the shadows and the incense that had irritated her so much was finally gone. Had they fallen victim to the plague as well? No, there were still people nearby; she could hear boots ringing on the stone courtyard outside her window and hear voices speaking on the other side of her door.

“We found her hiding in the old miller’s house. She tried to make a run for it.” A man said, and there was a thump as something was tossed or fell to the ground.

To see more ROW 80 updates, go here. 

To see more WIPpet Wednesdays, go here. 

And be sure to check back here later this week for pictures (and possibly some video!) from our vacation to Washington!!!

Another Round of 80 words has come to a close...

Earlier this week I thought of something to discuss in this blog, but, yet again, I have since completely forgotten what said thing was. Was it casting characters in your head? Was it music that you listen to when you write? Was it a blog I stumbled across?

I dunno. 

I think I may have to begin writing down blog topics as soon as they occur to me. 

Despite that it's been a very good week and a good end to this round of ROW 80. 

I was able to do some writing over the weekend. Most of the work was done on the Descendants and one of the fanfics, though I did chip away at chapter 9 of TUO some more. I also finished up a Christmas short story that takes place in one of the fanfics. I had started it last year, and the story has changed since then, so the events that happen in the short story will never come to pass in the fanfic. A friend and I were discussing this, and her response was to blink at me, and say 'So, you basically wrote a fanfic for your fanfic?'

Yes, I heard you like fanfic, so I decided to put a fanfic in your fanfic.

But I'm happy that I finished it, because it proves to me that I can write something short, sweet, and wrap it up in a few thousand words. Since all my projects tend to explode and become ginormous monsters, I was beginning to think I couldn't write a short story or novella.

Maybe I'll share it when it gets a little closer to Christmas.

In addition to that, my husband's birthday was last week so we went and saw a taping of Hollywood Babble-on at the Hollywood Improv. It's podcast that's done by Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman that's pretty freaking hilarious. Seeing it in person is even better, because then you can see what Kevin and Ralph are talking about. 

I finally saw a new doctor to get a second opinion on my PCOS and Fibroids. The appointment went really really well, but I'll share more on that in a later post.

Oh, and I finished up a couple of books: The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson and Bared To You by Sylvia Day. 

The Madness Underneath was... interesting. I really enjoyed the first book in the series, The Name of the Star, and this picks up a few months later. Rory has left Wexford Academy and is living with her parents in Bristol while she recovers from the events of the first book. Her therapist decides that it's best for her if she goes back to school, so Rory heads back to London. She soon learns that her return to Wexford was something that the Shades, people who have the ability to see ghosts like she can, have set up. And even though Stephen, the head of the Shades, is adamant that she complete schooling, she soon finds herself skipping class to help them investigate a new series of murders that aren't what they appear to be. 

This book actually came out a few months ago, and readers who are fans of the series immediately freaked out. There were people cursing Maureen Johnson and comparing her to GRR Martin on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr - so even if I wanted to avoid spoilers I couldn't. As a result I knew going in that the book ends on a cliffhanger and that one of the characters doesn't make it. However, even though I was forewarned I was so not prepared for what happened. A character does pass away. It is the result of events that happen at the climax of the book, but it's not in the way I was expecting at all. 

God damn you Maureen Johnson. God damn you.

Other than that, it's a good second book that sets up the rest of the series, and I can't wait to see what happens next. Only problem is that the book comes out next spring so I have a while to wait. 

Now as for Bared To You. I was hesitant about reading this book because it seemed like another 50 Shades of Grey knock off, and I didn't really like 50 Shades of Grey that much. It is very similar, but it's also very different. Eva has a backbone. She stands up to Gideon repeatedly, denying him multiple times before she finally gives in and accepts the fact that they're supposed to be together. However, she quickly becomes annoying. She has a troubled past, and her answer to any problem is to run away from it. So Gideon does something to upset her, she runs away, he runs after her, reassures her that he is hers - rinse and repeat every other chapter. Regardless, it's still a fun read to pass the time.

In addition to that Sleepy Hollow premiered on Fox. I'm a history nut, and a sucker for 'fish out of water' stories - especially 'fish out of temporal' water ones - so the moment I heard about this show and saw the previews, I was all about it. It wasn't what I was expecting as the TV spots for it were a bit misleading, but holy crap was it fun. And WAY spookier than I was expecting. Seriously. I jumped a few times (Something I have a feeling my husband will not let me forget anytime soon) I'm looking forward to seeing how the show plays out, and I'm hoping that Fox gives it a chance instead of canceling it way too soon like they did with Firefly and Dollhouse. 

And now on to the WIPpet!

WIPpet Wednesday is run by KL Schwengel. To join in, all you have to do is share a piece of something that you are working on that somehow relates to the date. It could be 9 lines from chapter 18, or 27 words as 9 + 18 = 27. The more creative the math, the better! Then, once you've posted what you're sharing in your own blog, you go here and share the link. See? Easy peasy.

My own WIPpet Math is pretty simple today: 9-18=9, so I'll be sharing 9 sentences from Chapter 9 (I was tempted to do 18/9=2... but nothing I had available really fit that length.). This scene takes place after Mattie has returned to her rooms after leaving the King's garden. She's afraid that he might send his men after her because she upset him, so she's pushed several pieces of furniture in front of the door to barricade it.

Mattie spent the rest of that night, and the next huddled in her room. She flinched every time she heard boots in the corridor outside her door, convinced that it was the King’s guard finally coming to drag her away.

But they never came.

On the third day her stomach growled and cramped, reminding her that she had not eaten since she imprisoned herself. While the thought of trying to stomach more of the thin grey gruel available in the great hall was unappealing, she knew that if she didn’t want to become gaunt like some of the ghouls that wandered about the castle, she would need to eat soon.

Sighing, she pulled herself away from the wall, her joints creaking and her muscles protesting after sitting for so long in one place. She groaned in pain as she started dragging the furniture and rocks away from the door, but her body quickly loosened up with the exertion.

Once she was able to open the door, she peered into the corridor outside. She glanced up and down it, looking for men wearing red uniforms and chain mail, but it was empty.

To see more WIPpet Wednesday post, please click here.
To see more ROW 80 updates, please go here. 

WIPpet Wednesday and ROW 80 Update

This past week has been a good writing week, so far I've:

• Finished my chapter for Collaborating Chaos. 
• I was actually a few words short on the chapter. The minimum is 2500, and I think I came in at 2460. I probably could have added some to it here and there, but the others agreed that the chapter was fine the way it was, and it was added to the website on Sunday. You can read it here.
• I finished and posted the next chapter in one of my fanfics. 
• Sadly the other one may not be done until August unfortunately. 
• I worked on TUO
• A lot of Chapter 7 is already written. In the second draft (or that may be third... I've lost count) it was actually a much later chapter. All I'm doing is going through and editing out the parts that no longer fit in with this version of the story. I'm also adding some dialogue here and there (which is turning out to be far more cryptic than I was expecting). It feels a bit like cheating since there's very little writing actually going on. 
• I also worked on The Descendants
• Chapter 1 has been a bit of a plague in my side. One beta reader said it was fine. Another said I spent too much time going over accounting details and falling into the 'As you know, Bob' trap (More details on this type of info dump can be found here and here). She also suggested I start off in an action scene, like a party that's supposed to happen in the next chapter, but I was worried that doing that would result in another infodump. Plus not every story starts off in the middle, sometimes you have to build up to what's happening. I think I finally found a perfect balance. 

Getting the etsy store started is proving to be a little harder. I had to clean up one more picture, and then I thought I would be done. However, I read somewhere online that you should have more than one product available in your store when you launch, and they should be related to each other. Since the first product was going to be a Turkish or Belly Dance bodice, I think I'll also offer cowrie falls and belly dance belts. They're both pretty easy to make, and I already have a few floating around our home so I can take pictures of them for examples. Finding them to take said pictures however is proving to be another matter. In addition to that I've also come up with an idea for paper fans that I can sell as well! When I told my husband though, he suggested that I do it, but include them as a thank you gift for everyone who orders. I don't know how I feel about that. I may include fans in the orders, but not the fancy ones I want to make. We'll see. 

And now for the WIPpet!

KL Schwengel shared a post today that explains where WIPpet Wednesday all began. Basically the rules are that you mush share a piece of what you are currently working on (or a new project that you create for WIPpet Wednesday) that is somehow related to the date. So since today is 7/24/2013 you can share 24 words/lines/paragraphs from page seven or chapter seven. Or seven paragraphs from whatever chapter you want. Or you can add all the numbers in the date up, or add some of the numbers up and subtract others or... anything really. People get really creative with Math when it comes to WIPpet Wednesday posts!

Today I'm going to share 6 paragraphs from chapter 7 of TUO (2+4=6) Mattie is speaking with someone, but I'm going to be cruel and I won't say who:

“No! Of course not.” Mattie said quickly, lest she anger him again. “It’s just, we’re very close, sir. Very close. I don’t know why they wouldn’t tell me something like that.”

“Because I asked them not to. They’ve proven to be quite good at helping me keep my secrets.” He smiled. He stepped around her, still studying her, like one might do to an insect under a magnifying glass. “Don’t be too upset with them; they seem to have a fair share of their own secrets that they refuse to tell even me.”

She nodded, unsure of what to say next.

Apparently done with his inspection, he came to stand in front of her. “Do you have any secrets?”

She shook her head. “No, sir. Not that I can remember.”

“Mm.” He stepped close, and leaned down so his lips were next to her ear. “Can you keep one?” Goosebumps broke over her skin for the second time that evening and her heart seemed to pound even louder than before. However, this time it was not out of fear, but out because of a completely different emotion that was terrifying in and of itself.

Be sure to wander over here to check out more ROW 80 updates, and check out this link for more WIPpet Wednesday posts!

Stretching the Mind...

I mentioned a few posts ago about how a friend, Kella, talked me into participating on this new project she had come up with called Collaborating Chaos. She, some other authors, and I would work together to create a story by writing round robin style. Each week one of us would write a new chapter and post it, and then, eventually, after we felt the story had run its course and all the loose ends were tied up, we would go ahead and end the story. Then we would take a break, wait for our readers to vote on what we should write next, and the chaos would begin again.

This week is my week to update the story, and it's been quite a shock. Not only am I writing in a genre I'm not familiar with, Sci Fi, but I'm also learning to let go.

I'm slowly getting used to writing Sci Fi. I actually read a lot of Star Wars in High School and the earlier Dragonriders of Pern novels have some Sci Fi elements in them. Plus the previous authors for this round have set up just enough bread crumbs for me to use in my chapter.

Learning to let go of what I've done and the characters I have created for this chapter is proving to be harder than I expected. When you create a character, you know who they are, what their backstory is, and you know where they are going (unless they decide to take control of their own story and completely surprise you). When you write in a round though, you only get to play with these characters that you create for a chapter and then you have to pass them on to someone else. They could have a completely different idea of who the characters are, where they come from and where they're going - and you have no say in what they do to them or where they take them. All you can do is pray that they can follow the bread crumbs you left for them - and that they don't turn your babies into ax murderers.

Kella, the girl who came up with this madness and started off the story, agrees with me that it's quite the learning experience. The story has changed drastically from where she saw it going when she wrote the first chapter - and we're only two chapters in!

My chapter should be up on Saturday. I highly recommend you head on over there and check it and the rest of the story out.

As for my other projects...

I haven't been able to write 1000 words a day like I wanted - but I'm getting pretty damn close!

I plugged away on one of my fanfics, and should be posting that over on FF.net next week (pending beta approval).

I went back through The Undying Ones on Monday and make some minor edits to it. I had an idea that occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that helps solve some problems I didn't even know where there until I thought of said idea. As a result I had to go through and make some very minor tweaks to the dialogue here and there. In addition to that I am almost done with Chapter Six.

In other exciting news, the artist I commissioned to draw two of my characters from The Descendants finally finished her piece...

By Frizz-Of-Fury on Deviant Art

I may have squeaked when I saw it. Co-workers may have stared/glared at me because I interrupted their work with said squeaking...

The girl on the left be Vivian, from the prologue I shared here and here, all grown up and ready to take on the world. The gentleman to her right is Gwalchmei/Gawain. He doesn't show up until the second book, but he is probably one of my favorite characters in the series.  

And now it's time for WIPpet Wednesday!

Unfortunately I don't have any more of Chapter 7 to share, so I'm going back to a previous chapter that I have not shared yet. Today is 7/17/13, I am going to share 26 paragraphs from chapter four (7+17 = 24-1=23+3=26... which has to be some of my most creative WIPpet math yet). 

This piece features Liam, a character we haven't met in The Undying Ones yet. He's a young man who lives in a village that's about a mile or so away from the castle that Mattie and her friends inhabit. While the village was hit by the plague at the same time that the castle was - it was not affected by the curse that afflicts the castle. People around Liam's village tend to go missing though, and his sister is the most recent one to disappear. However he refuses to believe that the woods are haunted by ghouls like the rest of the villagers - he thinks she's out there, somewhere, hiding from the marriage his father has arranged for her. He's spent the last few weeks looking for her, and is returning after having some weird experiences at the old bridge that leads to the castle...

“Young Liam, what are you doing out and about?” A gravely old voice called to him as he passed. Liam turned to find old Marley watching him from the porch of his house. Ancient, with tan wrinkled skin and white wispy hair that was almost translucent, the man worked a pile of straw by his feet into fantastic shapes and designs with his gnarled fingers. “Everyone is usually in their bed by now.”

Liam could ask the man the same question, but Marley was nearly a hundred years old and Liam’s mother would have his hide if she learned that he had been rude to a town elder. “Good evening, sir.”

“Have you been looking for your sister again?”

“Yes sir.”

“By the old bridge?”

“How did you…”

Marley pointed a crooked finger down the road. “Nothing that way except for the bridge and the castle on the other side, so where else would you be coming from?” He returned to knotting the straw. “You don’t think she’s hiding up there do you?”

“I don’t know, sir. She might be.”

“Bad place, that.”

“Letty’s a smart girl. She knows how to survive…” Liam leapt to his sisters defense but Marley shook his head.

“Your grandfather was a great hunter. I know he taught you both well, just like his father taught him, but there are things there and in these woods that aren’t human. Things your skills can’t protect you from.”

“I know about the Ghosts, sir.” After the King had killed his wife and his subjects, supposedly their spirits had lingered and still roamed the castle walls to this day. Letty had always shivered with delight when their grandfather had reached that part of the story. “But that’s just an old wives tale - they aren’t real.”

“I wasn’t talking about the ghosts, boy. There are darker things about. You’ve heard the stories about the things that go missing. How grain and other crops that disappear in the middle of the night?”

“It’s just rats and other pests...”

“Do you think rats made off with that barrel of dried fish that went missing from your father’s store last spring?”

“No, sir, but there had been that group of gypsies camping nearby.”

“Feh! Fine. Blame it on the gypsies... they always do... They said they locked them up over there...”

“Who? The gypsies?”

“No, the undying ones you daft fool! My father said his father and the others trapped them there, but I’ve seen things creeping about at night.”

Liam sighed.

“Still don’t believe me, eh? Do you remember, about five winters ago, when two of our men went hunting up that way and never returned?” Marley reached down to pull up another strand of straw and add it to his creation.

“Yes.”  In the spring another group of hunters had found their mangled and half eaten bodies. Liam’s mother had refused to let them leave the town until the bear that had attacked the men had been tracked down and killed. It’s hide now hung on the wall in the Two Stags. “They caught the animal...”

“If you believe that tale, you’re dimmer than I thought. A bear didn’t attack those men, something else did. I saw the teeth marks - they were human. If your sister did go out that way, then I guarantee that thing and it’s friends have gotten her.” He made one final knot in the straw and turned the intricate design around in his hands, ignoring how his young friend’s expression grew darker with every word he said.

“Letty is not dead.” Liam growled. “There was a girl out there, and if she could survive, then Letty can too.”

“What?” Marley looked up, his normally rheumy eyes suddenly clear and bright. “What did you say, boy?”

“There was a girl at the ravine. She had dark hair and a white face...”

And that's all for now! Be sure to come back this weekend - I'll have an update about my friend's wedding dress on Friday, and I'll be sharing some pictures from our trip to Red Rock in Las Vegas!

As always, you can check out more ROW 80 updates here, and WIPpet Wednesday posts can be found here!

Of Nook Press, ROW 80 Round 3, and other things...

Today, Barnes and Noble's PubIt! service shut down and was replaced by Nook Press.

Honestly not a lot has changed other than the website but they did add a cool new feature that piqued my interest...

You can write and publish your novel using the Nook Press website!

I use Google Docs to write most of the time. I do, however, have Scrivener at home, which I use to manage it all, and Sigil, which is what I will use to put it all together when it's time to format my novel into an epub file. However, other than those two programs I am completely devoted to Google Docs

But I may not need Google Docs or Sigil much longer thanks to Barnes and Noble! With Nook Press's Manuscript Editor, authors can now write, edit, share their novel with others, add a cover and a table of contents, format and publish the book when they're ready. It's a one stop shop for self publishing ebooks!

I've only played around with it so far, but it's really simple and easy to use... and I'm in love. So very in love. I am very tempted to move The Dancer over to it and try writing it, editing it, and publishing it through there just to see what it's like.

Have you checked it out yet? What are your thoughts on it?

Round 3 of ROW 80 started up last week. Between celebrating my birthday, the holiday, going out of town, and continuing our constant battle against fleas, there simply was not enough time to post my goals for this round or do any writing at all. As always I plan to continue working on my projects. I also plan to write at least 1000 words a day on my original projects (yup, I'm bringing back the word goal again) and I plan to update my two fanfics once a month (which will make those readers very happy).

And, this part is not writing related, but I plan to get my Etsy shop stocked and open by the end of the month. The Northern California Renaissance Faire isn't too far away, plus there's a Faire in Vegas in October, and a friend who runs a Belly Dance studio and I were talking about the possibility of her selling some of my items on consignment. We've even discussed going in together on a booth at the next big event. Anywho, I'll be sure to share the link here as soon as it's up!

Now it's time for what you've all really been waiting for - WIPpet Wednesday!

WIPpet Wednesday (or Wednesday WIPpet... either works!) is where you share a piece of a project you are working on that some how correlates to the date. So, since today is July 10th 2013, you could share 10 words from chapter 7, or you could add all the numbers together and share 40 lines ( 7+10+20+13=40 ) or you could just add some of the numbers together and share 17 lines from chapter 13 ( 7+10=17... and chapter 13 because it's 2013). There are a lot of ways you can work the math.

Since today is July 10th, I'm going to go with the first option and share 10 lines from Chapter 7 of The Undying ones. This picks up where the last bit I shared from The Undying Ones (which you can find here) left off:

Mortified at being caught intruding on his private sanctum, Mattie dropped to her knees and bowed until her forehead almost touched the ground, “Your Highness! I’m sorry, I was following someone …”

He stopped in front of her, the tips of his boots bumping against her fingers. She pulled her hands away from him. 

“This girl in the cape?” He asked.

She grimaced behind her mask. Here she had gone and told him the one thing she had not wanted him or the guards to find about. But there was still hope; he didn’t know who the red headed girl was or where she had come from. “Yes. I’m sorry, sir. I was following her and I didn’t realize where I was.”

“Mm. I see.” The King’s voice was growing softer, gentler, but Mattie knew that that did not mean she was out of danger yet.

You can find more ROW 80 updates over here, and you can see more WIPpet Wednesday updates over here!

Of Collaborating Chaos and other things...

It's been a busy week filled with vacation plans, car problems, and other exciting things happening in the great wide yonder. Things like marriage equality in California, and an epic filibuster to stop an anti abortion bill from passing in the Texas State Senate.

ROW80 is on it's hiatus for right now. I believe it picks up again in another week or so. However, even though, ROW 80 may be on a break, I am not. I'm still plugging away at my various projects: The Undying ones is flowing along, I've updated my two fanfics, and I've started re-writing The Dancer.

It killed me to start rewriting it after I had made so much progress - but here were just some things in the original that were bugging me even though my beta's loved them. Namely the profession of the hero. I felt like a relationship between someone like that and the heroine was just too far out there, and probably would not attract many readers. I feel bad for saying that because I've been encouraging another writer friend that she should write what she wants, and not worry about if it's popular or not - however, what she's writing is way more popular than what I was trying to do, so she'll have a much easier time finding an audience. I am consoling myself with the idea that I can always go back to the original idea if this rewrite does't work out.

A friend has talked me into joining a writing group she came up with in a moment of brilliance. It's a round robin - one author writes one chapter, and then the next author picks up the next chapter where the other author left off, and so on and so forth. Currently we are still looking for more authors, and we also have a poll going on that will decide what we're going to write (sci-fi is  in the lead at the moment!) You can wander over here to Collaborating Chaos to check it out!

And now, it's time for what you've all been waiting for! WIPpet Wednesday! Since today is June 26th, I'll be sharing 26 more lines from the Prologue of The Descendants (the blog formatting actually makes it 27, but I swear it's 26 in the original document!) This bit picks up a few paragraphs after last week's WIPpet:

“Well,” Adam sighed, breaking the silence. “Since story time is over with, we should let this one go to sleep.  Goodnight Kiddo, I’ll see you in the morning.” He leaned over to give Vivian another kiss on the cheek, and then left the room quickly.

Vivian twisted so that she was curled up on her side, her hand still wrapped around the necklace her mother had given her. An idea occurred to her and she turned to the woman still sitting on her bed, “Bree, d’you think that maybe, if the girls were still around, they could bring my Mom back?”

“There are stories that they could do wonderful things; they say that they could bring the rain during a drought, and make crops grow, and, yes, even bring back life... but they’re just stories, baby girl.” The smile she gave Vivian was small and sad.

“I know, but Uncle Mike says that the girls are older than the Bible.”

“Okay...”

“And Mrs Flora says the Bible is real - so if it's real then maybe the girls are real.”

“Sometimes stories are just stories, kiddo.” Bree shook her head and tweaked the girl’s nose. “Goodnight, Vivian.”

“Goodnight.” She sighed and closed her eyes, but as soon as she heard Bree’s footsteps fade away down the hallway, she opened them and crawled out of bed to her window. Even though her room was on the second floor, she had discovered that if she pressed her face against the glass just so she could see the porch.

There she could see her dad sat on the porch swing, a spot her mother had always enjoyed, while Uncle Mike leaned against the railing nearby. Bree stepped into view and Vivian could see her lips move as she said or asked something. Her dad looked up, replied, and then buried his face in his hands, his shoulders slumping. Bree sat next to him and rubbed his back, as if to soothe him, like Vivian’s Mom had sometimes done to her when she wasn’t feeling well, and Uncle Mike laid a hand on his shoulder.

Vivian had suspected that he had left today because he had found another lead, but, apparently, it had not panned out.

None of them ever did.

She took a breath, trying to ignore the lump in her throat; she was so tired of crying.

She returned to her bed before the adults could see her watching and hugged her stuffed dragon to her again.

And as an added bonus, here's 6 sentences from the end of Chapter 6 of The Undying Ones:

“I said that you and I are the only ones here!” He walked towards her confidently, his head held high as if he believed he owned the castle and everything in it. “Now tell me what you are doing here before I have my men throw you back in the ruins where you belong!” Now that he was so close Mattie could see he had a scar poking up above the scarf he had tied around his neck and tucked into his shirt... there was only one Undying One she knew of that had a scar like that. One man who had had his throat slit and lived.

The King.

Be sure to check out more WIPpet Wednesday posts over here.

The Secret Garden...

It's been another long week. It had it's ups (New couch! Clean living room!) and it had it's downs (totally useless doctors appointment) but it's almost over with.

I wasn't able to write as much as I wanted - we were still testing for the mid month website update up until yesterday (the update was due to be released tonight) but I was taken off of testing and reassigned to doing triage on stuck orders yesterday. I was annoyed at first (one always feels as if they've done something wrong or are being punished when they're removed from a project) but at the same time it was a little bit of a relief - people were getting frustrated and not communicating. My stress levels are already high enough due to this PCOS and fibroids stuff, so it's nice to take a step back, and work by myself.

My only complaint is that I've run out of music to listen to while I work. Any suggestions?

While I wasn't able to write as much as I wanted, I was able to chip away some more at Chapter 5. It's really quite sad that I've been struggling with this damn chapter ever since this round of ROW80 started. But I'm almost there. I swear. Girl Scout honor and all that.

Patricia Wrede posted a blog about writing crowd scenes today - which was appropriate because I'm in the middle of a crowd scene in one of my fanfics.

For this weeks WIPpet Wednesday, I have decided to share another part of Chapter 6. Since today's the 12th, here's 12 sentences for you to enjoy. This picks up a little bit after last week's WIPpet -Mattie has followed the footsteps, and has stumbled across a strange garden.

The continuous maze of hallways and rooms suddenly emptied out into a garden. Mattie skidded to a stop and stared at her new surroundings in shock. Despite the disrepair of the rest of the castle, this garden was surprisingly well kept; the plants and flowers had been recently trimmed and and far off she could hear the burble of water in a fountain. She followed the trail of stepping stones that stretched out in front of her, her head turning from side to side as she tried to take it all in.

Even though she had never seen it before - any of it - the well-worn paths between roses and other flowers seemed familiar.  Only... no... that wasn't right... The garden felt more than just familiar; the longer she stood there, the more she realized that she knew it by heart... like one of Rordan’s stories. She knew, though she didn’t know how to explain how she knew it, but she knew that if she continued straight ahead there would be a marble fountain. Beyond that, down a smaller side path, there was a grassy circle which was the perfect place to have a picnic during the summertime, or to watch the stars pass overhead during the night.

Her heart continued to race as if she was still running and the little hairs on the back of her neck stood up as if she had just walked into a cold room. It was one thing to not remember that you could read if it had been centuries since you had had a reason or the opportunity to read, but it was another thing entirely to recognize someplace one had never been. Was this more proof that she was losing control of her mind?

Or was she simply seeing things again?

Poor Mattie...

Anywho, WIPpet Wednesday was started by K. L. Schwengel of My Random Muse. The rules are simple, all you have to do is post part of a work in progress that some how relates to the date, or if you don't have a WIP, you can always start something new.

Be sure to check out more WIPpet Wednesday posts over here, you can also find more ROW 80 updates over here.

Always Tweaking Things...

I'm one of those writers who, even though she knows better, will often find herself going back and editing scenes in previous chapters even though the novel isn't done yet. I'm trying very hard to break this habit, but, last week I found myself going through The Undying Ones once again and making changes to the story.

This time around I didn't do anything that made a full rewrite of the story necessary. I just took the flash back scenes and cut them out with the intent of adding them in later. I did this because it made no sense to me to have Mattie remembering things in bits and pieces, and yet having full blown detailed dreams about her past. Instead I plan to build up to the more detailed dreams over the next couple of chapters. It seems to flow better.

I also had to cut some dialogue from the infamous chapter 5 of TUO. It was just holding the chapter back, and I wonder if it was contributing to my writers block for that chapter.

No more progress has been made on either The Dancer or The Descendents. Though I did post a new chapter of one of my fanfics over on FF.net - however it didn't generate much of a response.

Jezebel posted an interesting article on How To Write a Feminist Young Adult Novel on Sunday. Then, when I was on Tumblr the other day I saw this comic - which seemed oddly appropriate:

Lindsay Buroker (author of the Emporer's Edge) posted this interview by Sue London yesterday. It discusses how her self published novel became a best seller and how she got there. 

Patricia Wrede discusses world building in her post Icebergs and Soap Bubbles and finding time to write in Building In The Time.

And now on to the WIPpet Wednesday portion of the post. Since today is June 5th, I'll post five paragraphs from Chapter 6 of The Undying Ones (I almost wrote 5 chapters from book 6 there! That would've been a doozy!). To give a bit of a background on the book and the scene: Mattie lives in a castle where no one dies thanks to a curse that was cast ages ago, the queen is missing, and no one has seen the King in years - though his men say he still lives. There have been some disturbing things happening around the castle recently, things that have started jogging memories that Mattie shouldn't have. This scene takes place after Mattie has had an argument with her friends, and is wandering the castle by herself:

She wandered aimlessly about the empty hallways and rooms, straying far from the common areas that she was familiar with. Here was a room that had completed collapsed in on itself. There was one that was marked by flooding. Another had been reclaimed by the garden it butted up against; vines wound through the broken glass and up across the ceiling and a carpet of grass and moss covered the floor.

She found a nursery filled with toys that had probably been made by her father during the good times. However they, along with the furniture in the room, had all been destroyed long ago - not by time, but by human hand. Did the King and Queen have a child that was lost to the plague or the curse? Or had they been hoping for one? The feelings of anger and the sadness that haunted the room were overpowering, and so Mattie left, shutting the door behind her to hide the carnage.

Next she ended up in a library, where shelves filled with books stretched towards the fading murals that decorated the ceilings overhead. The books were tinted with age and stained by mold, but the titles on the covers were still legible. She ran her fingers along the bindings, selected one that looked promising, and sat down on the ground before opening it.

She was surprised to realize that she was able to understand the words on the page in front of her. When she considered it, it made sense to her that she would know how to read since she was the daughter of the toymaker - surely she had helped him keep his books when times had been better. However she could not remember learning, just like she could not remember how old she was when the curse had struck. Since there were not many books to be found in the common areas, she had never bothered to try before. Wouldn't her friends be surprised!

It was a lovely story about a girl who had been cursed to sleep forever when she pricked her finger on a spindle. Mattie had just reached the part where the hero and heroine had met and realized they were attracted to each other when she heard the footsteps.

You can find more ROW 80 updates over here, and more WIPpet Wednesday posts here.

A.D....Oooh, Shiny!

It's been one of those weeks where I've been able to write a lot more, but I haven't been able to focus on any project for very long. I'll start plugging away at TUO, and then an hour or so later I'll be working on The Dancer, then, eventually, my brain will get an idea for The Descendants, so I'll move on to that. Rinse and repeat.

I am so close to being done with Chapter Five in TUO that I can almost taste it. I still don't understand why this chapter has been such a struggle for me, but it just has not wanted to cooperate at all. I'm hoping that chapter 6 will be kinder.

The Dancer has been moving along quickly, and, if this pace keeps up, I'll probably have it finished before TUO. I'm thinking of changing the profession of the hero though. I originally had him being one thing because it tied into another series I planned to write in the future, but trying to stick with that may make things a little too complicated and far stretched. I'll keep writing it as it is though, and make changes in the edits if necessary.

The Descendants is a different beast entirely. This is a story idea that I've been playing around with since High School which was initially written to amuse me and my friends during boring classes and lunch. It's matured a lot since then (I've overhauled it at least three different times) and I'm very happy with the current incarnation that I see play out in my head sometimes. However, I wasn't going to start working on it until either TUO or The Dancer was finished.

Well, it had other plans. So far I've cleaned up the prologue, and started on chapter one. I also started writing an alternate chapter one based on one friend's suggestions - which can always be used later in the book if I decide to stick with the initial chapter one. TUO and The Dancer still take priority though.

And now for something different;

Last week, while going through some of the other ROW80 blogs, I stumbled across Kymele's check in where she had posted a snippet of her story for WIPpet Wednesday. From what I can gather, this was originally started by K. L. Schwengel, and the rules are that you must share something that you've written that somehow corresponds to the date. So for 5/29 you could share 29 lines or paragraphs from chapter 5, or 5 lines or paragraphs from chapter 29. Or you could share 34 lines or paragraphs because 5 plus 29 equals 34.

I've often thought about sharing parts of what I'm working with the readers of this blog - but I've always chickened out at the last moment. Well, no more! Here are 29 sentences from the oh so troublesome chapter 5 of TUO.

There, just ahead, stood the rest of the castle denizens. They gathered in groups, their faces paler than normal with shock and fear while guards watched from the parapets that surrounded them.

Mattie drifted close to one of the groups in hopes of overhearing what had happened. She caught snatches of conversations as they spoke in hushed voices.

“...tied him up earlier today...”

“...torn apart...”

“... his head just hangs there, chomping at nothing - can’t even speak the poor thing...”

“.... well he never spoke much to begin with anyways... Always babbling about this or that...”

Mattie felt her heart begin to pound against her chest. Had her fears been realized? Had the guards discovered the body and punished her father for it? Or had they learned that she and the others had antagonized the villager and torn her friends apart? “Who was tied up?” She asked them. “Who did the guards get?”

The group of men and women just stared at her, their eyes suspicious and their expressions unwelcome. Stunned by their animosity, Mattie backed up.

“It was her fault... I saw her go down there with those friends of hers...” One of them whispered to another as she turned away.

“Troublemaker, just like her father.”

“Haven’t seen him in awhile though...”

“Good riddance.”

Mattie approached another group and to glean more information from their conversation, but they all fell silent when she drew near. “Has anyone seen Talesin? Or Rordan?”

Just like the others they did not answer.

She left them and half walked half ran towards the front of the keep. In the past, the King had stuck the heads of his enemies on pikes overlooking the castle gates for all to see. If the guards had kept up with that tradition, then the head of whoever they had punished would be hanging there as well.

You can check out more ROW 80 updates over here, and more Wednesday WIPpet posts over here!