Reboot

Sorry for my absence on the blogosphere this week. This cold attacked my head last Tuesday and it just doesn't seem to get the hint that I want it to go away! Usually I can kick a cold in a couple days, but ... this one is particularly stubborn.

But you didn't come over here to listen to me moan about my nose.

No! You came for some writerly stuff!

The critique last week went really well. I got a lot of super helpful feedback. And it was completely overwhelming.

I came home, stowed away the written responses, and proceeded to hide from my WIP for the rest of the week. Which meant that I basically didn't write anything, breaking my 100WAD pledge, which made me feel bad, but didn't keep me from making excuses.

Then, on Friday, I got a lovely e-mail from my CP. It's kind of creepy how Lindsey knew that I needed a kick in the pants. She totally didn't even mention the fact that I wasn't writing, but it was in the subtext (or maybe that was just me) and she oh-so-subtly reminded me that FEBRUARY ENDS ON MONDAY!

Which means it's time for us to exchange stuff again.

Oops.

Now here's where it gets creepy cool and where I realized, once again, that Lindsey and I were practically designed to be CPs.

Lindsey told me that, based on comments she'd received from me and her sisters and on thinking and pondering she had done, she realized that the best thing to do would be to rework the beginning before she moves on.

At the SAME TIME I was realizing that, based on the fiction workshop critique and thinking and pondering I had done, I needed to rework the beginning before I move on much further.

Spooky, right?!

The biggest comment I received was that no one knew how old my main character was and that based on the first 2 pages, everyone thought they talked like middle school kids (I totally don't see that, but SO many people agreed. Which is the point of writer's groups, I guess - to see what you don't) but then thought the characters acted like they were in high school or college. So I need to establish their ages and characters first to show why they goof around and sometimes talk like middle schoolers.

I jump straight into the fantasy world, but the suggestion was made to establish the real world first, which would help to frame the characters and their lives, before we get to the castle and the faeries and the vampires.

so I've spent the last few days researching Germany and youth hostels and culinary schools and stuff.

Lesson: don't try to short cut. It doesn't work. I jumped right into fantasy world so I wouldn't have to do all this research. That was effective.

But the good thing is that I'm learning this NOW and now after I've rewritten the whole thing, so I can whack and fix and add and delete before I carry on and the story will be much better for it.

How about you? Ever had to change the beginning when you really wanted to just keep plugging away at the middle?

And Then Came the Critique

Rewriting a book is HARD.

Okay, so maybe that's kind of an obvious statement.

I thought I got all the pantsing out of the way during NaNoWriMo. Um, yeah. Apparently not.

The event that was supposed to be the climax of the novel has suddenly become the conflict and turning point, which means that all the stuff that was supposed to happen in the sequel has to be reworked and reconsidered, because it has to happen now.

Don't even ask me how that happened. Because I have no idea.

But it's kind of exciting, because I feel like the story is going to be much better now!

In other crazy exciting news, I got my first official critique back a couple of weeks ago. Having a Crit Partner is pretty much the best thing ever. Especially a CP that you can e-mail with any and everything, be honest with, make Clue jokes with, and keep discovering that you have more and more in common with.

Lindsey and I kind of fell into this together, both thinking that it would be fun/ challenging/ good/ encouraging/ incentive to take the journey of writing a novel together. We set a deadline of the end of the month for exchanging sections and did our first critique at the end of January/beginning of February.

As Lindsey said in her post, critiquing someone is HARD WORK. You're trying to balance suggestions, grammar stuff, and positive comments (which was pretty easy, because I loved her turns of phrase and the concept behind the story). You're trying to be helpful, but not too critical, but not too nice, because she asked me to whack it apart if I needed to. Talk about a brain twister.

But I think (hope) that I was helpful and I found her comments so helpful in doing revisions on my own story. I feel like we get each other and that we understand each other's stories and I'm really excited to think about how much better we'll get at supporting, encouraging, and critiquing each other.

In more terrifying news, tonight my first three chapters get workshopped in my Fiction Writing grad class. Getting comments from one person is one thing. Having your work hashed out in class by some strangers (and some friends) while you have to sit there silently is something completely different.

Eek.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

But I want this story to be the best it can be so I say... bring it on.

Even though tonight I'll probably be hiding under my covers avoiding my WIP.

CPs, Goals, and Vampires

So today is my day to talk about reading or writing or to do a review. So I wanted to give a little update on my current WIP.

But first I just wanted to say how AMAZING all my bloggy friends are and how much y'all have helped me grow as a writer this last year or so.

Second I wanted to say that I can't believe that it's not even the end of January and I already have a fantastic Critique Partner (Lindsey, I <3 you!!!!!), but also a possibility of a second one. Last year at this time I was seriously doubting my commitment to writing. I had pretty much given up on myself as a writer.

Now I have a WIP I love, 1 (maybe 2) crit partners, and a burning desire to take this thing the whole way.

And it is ALL BECAUSE OF YOU.

Your contests, your comments, your blogfests, your blogs, your spirit, your encouragement.

Like REALLY, REALLY big

So far, I've stuck to the 100 words a day pledge that I made. Sometimes it's just barely 100 words, but I'm writing something each and every day which is a total win for me. I haven't written this much in the last 2 years. I'm up to 6500 words!

I'm falling in love with my FMC (Layla) and beginning to see how my MMC (Tavares) is going to work.

I'm finding myself VERY influenced by Mercedes Lackey's 500 kingdoms series and by Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I am rewatching for the amazing rewatch over at Nikki Stafford's blog)

I am basically doing a blind rewrite - I know where the story is going and if I want to review a word choice or something I look at my NaNo document. But for the majority of the time I'm just writing it for the first time all over again. And it is SO much better. I did a dangerous thing on Saturday. I reread the 12 pages I've written since the beginning of January and guess what?

I still loved it. I love the changes, I love the tighter scenes. I love the way the characters are moving already. Is it perfect? No. Will I have to edit and revise and cut and rewrite? Most definitely. But that's okay, because I still love it.

Even if it does have a vampire. And no title (yet).

And just to make things interesting I thought I would post a tiny teaser.

            Erandell almost fell over the balcony. She couldn’t have heard that right.

            “Let Moira go and I will stay,” the girl said. Her voice was quiet, but firm.

            Tavares was silent and Erandell held her breath waiting to see what he would do. This whole situation was completely unprecedented. She couldn’t interfere; she could feel the enchantment holding her back and she gritted her teeth in frustration.

            “You would stay in her place?” Tavares asked.

            “She has a family that needs her.”

            “And you don’t?”

            “Are you taking my offer or not?”

            There was definitely something special about this girl with her pale green eyes. Not only had she somehow resisted the impellment charm, but she had spunk. Erandell wondered if Tavares had ever been slapped before.

So how about you? Super excited about any writing projects? Stuck in the doldrums? Cheating on your WIP with an SNI? Do tell!

NaNoWriMo Update: Day 6

6th day of writing

3rd day of completing word goal

1st day of breaking 2,000

2nd day of word sprinting with Twitter friends. I am telling you, that seems to be the ONLY way I can get my juices flowing!

Totals:
Today - 2539
Total - 9274
Should be at - 10002
Behind by - 728

Not bad at all :D Actually a whole lot better than I expected!

Tomorrow will be rough, since I'm visiting my sister, but I hope to squeak out a couple hundred somewhere in there.

and I have it on good authority* that Lindsey is going to send me a picture of her NaNo cheerleading costume if I hit 50,000 words this month. Isn't she generous ;)

*that would be my ridiculous brain moving after midnight and inventing facts that are in no way representative of reality.

We Have A Winner! 3rd Place!

Yeah! Thank you to everybody that entered our

Also thank you for your patience. I had originally scheduled this to end before school started, but with my vacation and everyone else being away I extended it and then oops extended it again, because life ate my face off.

Anyhoodle (as Mia would say)

All of the entries were great fun to read and we enjoyed hosting this contest so much!

People actually entered so we don't feel like lame-sauce because you all are awesomesauce!

All right, enough corniness...

Naomi and I have chosen the winners and we decided to roll them out (like Sarah/Falen did on hers) so each winner gets the recognition they deserve!

So third place, with the wonderful prizes of:

Plus an OWL and a SEKRIT SURPRISE (which is sekrit, because I kind of haven't figured out what it will be yet)

Is the story I am calling (since the author left it untitled) -

"Shady Acres"

by Lindsey aka Dangerous With a Pen

WOOT! (you finally got your owl :)

Different palates appeal to different people. It’s only natural. Some people don’t like anchovies. Some people love to mix peanut butter and chocolate. Some people are vegetarians. I guess you could call me a humanitarian.

Evil tastes good. Oh come on, it may be crass, but it’s just so spicy. Tangy. Tasty. Good people just taste bland. Back when my tastes moved toward people, I started with homeless, runaways… people who wouldn’t be missed. When I became more skilled, I told myself it was only right to consume those who brought darkness to the world. Yeah, it was my way of rationalizing a bad habit, like an alcoholic. But when the glossy Shady Acres mailing arrived yesterday… oh, it was just too easy. So much evil. Old, slow evil that has marinated for so long… Acres and acres of shady folks with their guards down…

Cru

Living here has been good for me. Shady Acres is… an “active adult community” (chuckle) not exactly the type of place you’d expect to find someone like me, but I guess that’s part of its draw. There comes a point in life, when you get to my age, where the legacy that you have worked a lifetime to build becomes too heavy a mantle. When you no longer have the energy or the desire to dye your hair or trudge around in fur coats, but after creating that persona, you can’t exactly throw it all away by showing up at the local SafeWay in sweatpants. Excuse the dramatics, but if you haven’t walked in my shoes, I can only compare the weight of carrying a legacy to the burden of Atlas. At some point, you just want to let the gray hair grow and sit around in slippers drinking tea rather than chasing fool puppies.

The best thing about Shady Acres is that once you’re in, you’re in. If you can get your application past this board, you are certified, bona fide evil. Your place is permanently etched in villainry, which means that you don’t have to go proving yourself to anyone else in here. We’ve got that hag with the poisoned apple, the fella who rode round Sleepy Hollow waving his head around, you name it. And none of us traipses around in our old fool villainous getups or puts on a show. We look more like early bird time at your local diner. And no one cares. Like I said. We’ve all made it. Nothing to prove, and no energy left to prove anything, anyway.

I remember you, you’re that crazy dalmation lady. With the name – De Mille? De Ville? The director or the car, I forget. Doesn’t matter. Anyone who skins puppies has to have the spice I’m looking for. This real estate lady here, showing me around, is pointing to each house and telling me who lives there, but what I’m hearing is each brand of evil and what I’m seeing is a buffet – but instead of veal, lamb, chicken, it’s theft, murder, and… whatever you’d call skinned puppies. I wonder for a moment if she notices the crazed look in my eye when she moves on to each tender new morsel, tempting my taste buds with one depravity after the other. But no, crazy eyes are the norm around here. I almost squeal with glee! There are a few empty houses, but they are going fast. Which perversion would you like to live next to, sir?

Mal

A week after I got the Shady Acres brochure in the mail, I put my dilapidated old castle on the market and my plan in motion. I’d only been hanging onto that place for sentimental reasons, anyway, you know? It was way too big for one person. Besides, we’re in a recession, don’t you know? The heating bills alone were ruining me. It’s not like I cared about that stupid princess anymore, but I had to keep putting on the show with the raven and the blasted horned headpiece. Did anyone really think that after 16 years, I was still hung up on not getting invited to her christening? Yes, they probably did. You cannot possibly underestimate the conceit of royalty.

It was so easy, the whole spindle thing got the princess out of the way. I have to admit, it was fun becoming the dragon after all those years of creating that image in my head for my final bow, but have they really stopped teaching princes to actually check to make sure that dragons are dead when they fall over a cliff? I mean, really. It was almost too easy to slink away while he basked in his perfectly coiffed glory and ran off to kiss her. So here I am, finally able to relax, at last.

Mmm, lobster bisque…

Prompt: Be Happy That Your New Neighbors Aren’t Cannibals

Which, by the way, was a very popular prompt :) I guess you just can't beat cannibals for short fiction, huh? Almost as good as zombies...

What did we love about this piece? Well, the concept is hilarious - that there is this retirement home for all the evil people?! Ha! Cru cracked us up. Then the narrator - this horrid cannibal person eating evil people to assuage his/her conscience for being a cannibal! Ha again!

I particularly loved the line:

I guess you could call me a humanitarian.

Naomi liked the section where the cannibal is drooling over each "flavor" of evil as he/she is being shown around Shady Acres.

It made us smile, had great characterization and was well written.

Congrats Lindsey! I think I have your address somewhere, but e-mail me with it again so I have it for sure. I will (hopefully) finish up the owls this weekend :) If any of you haven't checked out Lindsey's blog, do so - she's Dangerous With a Pen (it says so right on her blog) and quite witty as well :)

It's the ATTACK OF THE BLOGGY SNATCHER'S blogfest!

First the bad news - no Retail Wednesday today.

But that's because it's time for the:

*loud cheering and applause*

Well,

since I set this up, we have decided to go on vacation, but I should be able to get on and visit all of you. There's only a handful of us, so it shouldn't be too hard. But I AM excited to see what everyone has come up with! Click HERE to go to the link that has the list of people! Check them all out, it's sure to be fun!

here's my entry:

Lightning sizzled through the sky, thunder chasing just behind it. I shivered as I approached the mansion. No, make that the enormous mansion. Fat raindrops began to pound the ground just as I stepped under the protection of the entryway. Fingering the stiff, formal invitation that had led me to this lonely place I pressed the doorbell.

A deep gong sounded, echoing through the house beyond the closed double doors. Within moments the door opened and a tall, thin butler eyed me coldly.

"Yes?" he said.

I held up the invitation. "I got this in the mail. It said I was supposed to come here tonight?" I didn't mean to say it as a question, it just came out that way.

"You are early," the butler said, looking at me with disdain. "Very well. Please step this way, SonshineMusic."

"No, that's..."

"That is what you will be called while you are here. You will call me, The Butler."

I could hear it just like that, capitals and all, in his voice as stiff as the paper. I narrowed my eyes at his back as we went inside.

"You will wait in the library," he said, showing me into a vast warm room and then immediately leaving.

It was like I had stepped into a dream. Every wall was floor to ceiling books. I wandered over to the closest wall and brushed my fingers against the spines.

The doorbell sounded again and I turned around to face the door. The butler passed it on his way to the foyer. I heard a bit of a commotion, some swearing, some loud voices and The Butler's cold tones.

"You need to see a doctor," The Butler said and I stepped toward the hall just as a man and woman, supporting each other burst through the door. I stumbled back to get out of their way.

"My good sir, I am perfectly fine," the man said. "Merc will fix me up here. Fetch me some vodka and leave us alone." Blood dripped onto the carpet from a gash in his side and I gaped at him and the woman.

She was wearing stilettos so high I wondered how she didn't fall off them. They looked sharp. And painful.

"Simon, you idiot," she said.

The Butler had stalked away and was just returning with a bottle of vodka and some glasses on a tray when the doorbell gong sounded again.

"I'll get it," I said and all but ran from the room. What on earth was going on here?

I opened the door and a girl leapt inside. "#HI!" she said, then turned around and waved her hand at five lurching figures that were trying to get up the stairs. "#honestly," she said, bouncing back out and pulling them up and through the doors. "I tried to get them to stay home, #butWOULDtheylisten #No #IamMIAbyTHEway" She gave me a hug and then pirouetted into the middle of the foyer. "#DOyoulikeMYshoes?"

"I DO," said another female voice and I jumped, because I hadn't seen anyone else out there. I spun back around, but all I could see was a pair of stylish shoes, the rest of the girl was hidden in the shadows, but somehow I knew she was smiling. "I'M TAHEREH! LET'S BE BESTIES!" she said and danced through the foyer so quickly I just caught the flash of her shoes and her big, bright grin.

Mia herded her zombies into the library and I was about to close the door when three more figures appeared on the path, scurrying through the rain.

They hopped up the stairs and skidded through the door, breathless and laughing. A small white dog I hadn't noticed at first ran in circles around the one girl. They all shook the raindrops from their clothes.

"I'm telling you, those weren't sunflowers!" The tallest of the three said.

"Yes, they were!" the other two girls exclaimed in unison.

The first girl rolled her eyes. "Okay, so they looked a little creepy, but honestly Han..."

"Her name is Palindrome," The Butler broke in, marching into the hall. "And you are Falen and she," gesturing strictly to the third, "is Dangerous With A Pen."

"I certainly am," Dangerous with a Pen said, her eyebrows furrowing as she reached into her pocket and whipped out a ballpoint pen. She slashed it through the air like a sword. Then the three of them burst into laughter again.

"You will wait in the library," The Butler commanded, glaring at me. Apparently I had broken some sort of rule by answering the door.

The little white dog barked and Falen scratched the top of its head.

"Come on, Yvie," she chuckled.

"Oh sure, leave me to park the car by myself."

This time it was a male voice that surprised me. I spun back to face the door. Man, was I jumpy. Palindrome waved her hand. "You found the house just fine," and she stuck her tongue out as she and the other two girls left the foyer.

The man shut the door and then brushed at the shoulders of the brown jumpsuit he was wearing, sending raindrops scattering to the floor. I recognized the octagonal symbol and smiled.

"That's a Dharma suit!" I said.

"Ah, a fellow Lost afficionado," the man said, holding out his hand. "I'm..."

"Teebore," The Butler cut in. "And you can both wait in the library." He was glaring at me again.

I threw up my hands in a sign of surrender. "I was just trying to help," I said and I followed him and Teebore back to the library.

We had just stepped into the now somewhat crowded room, when the door gong sounded once again.

"How many people do you think were invited?" I wondered aloud. Then I looked around the room.

Mia's zombies were on the far side of the room, sprawled on the floor. It looked like they were coloring. Mia was chatting animatedly with Tahereh, but she must have seen me watching her zombies, because she gestured to them. "#iALWAYSbringsomethingFORthemtoDO #itKEEPSthemfromBEINGbored."

I nodded, not really sure what to say.

"Here, have an Oreo," Tahereh offered, pulling a bag of them out of her purse.

I smiled and took one. Nothing like cookies to break down an awkward silence.

There was a curse from the other side of the room and I turned my head. Simon was sprawled on a low reading couch, one hand on his face and the other outstretched with a glass of vodka clutched in it. Merc, if that was her name, bent over the wound on his torso.

"Quit being such a baby," she smirked and he snarled something inaudible back at her, which only made her laugh.

Palindrome, Falen and Dangerous With a Pen were perusing the bookshelves, talking in low, but animated voices. Teebore moved to join them. I continued to stare around the room.

Why on earth had we all been called here?

The Butler reappeared, leading two more people into the room. There was a man with dark hair and a woman next to him. There were two things I noticed immediately. One was that the woman seemed fascinated with a dimple on the man's cheek and kept poking it with her index finger. The second was that the woman didn't have a cheek. The lower half of her face was rotting away.

Mia's zombies also seemed to have noticed and one of them lurched to its feet and staggered over to peer up at her.

"This is Blam," The Butler gestured at the man, "and this is Joan Crawford," he pointed at the woman.

"Not that one," Joan clarified and I had to grin.

It looked like The Butler was going to say something else, but the doorbell rang. Again. And he disappeared.

There was the sound of loud giggling and then a small shriek, followed by more giggling. Two girls stumbled in, tripping over each other's feet and nearly tumbling to the ground. One of them was my sister and I rolled my eyes. She might look drunk, but she had probably just had coffee. Either that or sugar.

"I swear, I saw something move out there," the other girl said, clutching my sister's arm. "This is the perfect place for spakes."

"Maybe, but..." my sister started to say, but The Butler cut her off.

He seemed to do that an awful lot. "This is..."

Now it was my sister that cut him off.

"...AchingHope," she finished.

"And I'm BlackRoseofLight94!" the other girl said, waving her arms and stretching the words out like a grand announcement. Then the two of them dissolved into giggles again. They tried to move out of the doorway, but this time actually did fall to the ground where they stayed in a laughing heap.

The Butler ignored them and announced loudly, "I believe you have all arrived now. Dinner will be served in ten minutes." Then The Butler left and we all stared at each other, uncertainty clear in each gaze.

I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one that seemed mystified by this strange meeting in this creepy house with all of these people that I had never met before. Well, except my sister of course.

What on earth was going on?

Oh my werd, but I had way too much fun with that. I might actually do a 2nd part to it at some point, because it took a lot longer just to get everyone into the house than I anticipated.

Hope you all enjoyed! and those are all links to everyone's blogs, which you should definitely check out, because they are all amazing!

and go read everyone else's posts! they're sure to be a blast!