karriezai. Entries tagged with writing

Got an email from Suzanne (my supervisor at my internship) saying some things came up at the supervisor's meeting that she needs to touch base with Alice and me on. Seeing as it's just the two of us, I'm thinking it has to do with me being a slacker and Tracy (lead supervisor or whatever) knowing it. I don't think she likes me much because last semester I skipped one of her classes without emailing an excuse, and this semester I skipped the first after school seminar again without an excuse, and Monday she caught me getting to school late. It's the only time I've been late this semester, but of course that's the time she catches me. I have a valid excuse: I was sick all last week (still have the cough) and even had to miss Friday, though I emailed her for that, so I can just blame being sick. I did email Alice to let her know I'd be late, I just didn't email Tracy or Suzanne.

If that's the case, at least we'll be talking to Suzanne and not Tracy. I'm not fond of that woman, and Suzanne is much nicer and more reasonable. Blah.

Other than that, the internship is going well. I've had less trouble with getting up early all the time than I anticipated, though I do always push it until the last possible second before getting out of bed. I've taken over reading, and am in the process of fully taking over science and math. Need to do some planning for that after this, actually. We're starting cells and heredity in science, and math is statistics. I'm going to borrow one of Danny's tape measures and have the kids graph the class heights and find the measures of central tendency for the data.

Have not been writing. Finished a chapter of a Zelda fanfic, but nothing other than that. Rargh. But I mean, I'm busy. A lot. So I guess it's not so bad an idea to not force writing where it doesn't want to come.

I wish my cough would go away...

Tags:

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day :D Danny and I celebrated Saturday. Just stayed in with alcohol, video games, Magic: the Gathering, and movies.

I've made lame money the last few shifts at work. Here's hoping the weekend will be better, because we'll need the money. Haven't heard back from Baka, our real estate agent, in a few days. Last we heard, the bank's figuring out the amount left due on the loan for the place so they can come back with a counter offer. I hope they get to it very soon. We need to get the heck out of this place.

School is hectic. Well, life in general. Internship 8-4 Monday through Friday, with an hour-long commute--though I do tend to leave around 3 fairly often to get to work/uni class/mandatory seminars. Three days a week at Hard Times--generally Monday and Friday evening, plus either Saturday or Sunday. Tuesday evening class at the university. Tutoring Shane on Wednesday. And a seminar about every other week on Thursday in a random location.

Teaching is good. I vastly prefer math and reading to science or social studies. I look at science and I'm just kind of like... "What am I going to do, exactly?" There's so much to choose from, but so little time to teach it. I'm taking over science now (slowly), so it's... blah. But reading is really good. It's so freeform you can do almost anything. And the kids are really taking to their writing journals. They love getting feedback.

I had to leave early today for my IUD appointment. I am the proud owner of a Mirena IUD that cramped like a bitch for the first couple hours. It wasn't super painful, just like really heavy duty menstrual cramps. But really gross since they had me come in and get it done on my period; apparently it hurts less then. I guess it's nice of them to consider my pain over their probable preference to not have to stick their hands in a bleeding vagina. For the next week I have to use backup protection, but then I'm good for five years. What what.

Also, I'm getting published. Alt Hist picked up Death in Theatre for its second issue. It's a new magazine, but it's been reviewed by Locus, among others, so it's getting good press. So that's looking up. Not that I've been writing. I'm really busy lately and feel pretty drained, and I'd rather not write unless I really feel like it because forcing myself to in the midst of all my other crap would just not be pleasant.

And I thought I did terribly on my Praxis II tests for Middle School Math and English, but I passed with flying colors. So I'll be qualified to teach middle school, either math or English--in theory at least. I'll be applying everywhere in Montgomery County (and possibly Howard too... or maybe Anne Arundel... depends on where we're living and such...) and then weeding through my options to figure out what I want to do. Because I really don't have any desire to teach science or social studies, but I want to teach math AND reading, so... blah. Makes a choice between middle and elementary school complicated.

Guess that's it for now? I mean, I've been reading--the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld and now I'm working on the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare--but eh. That's it. Overall life's good, just hectic and somewhat stressful.

Oh wait! Mirage Games accepted my response to the first work order they sent me and sent me confirmation of the credits earned, but I haven't heard about anything else forthcoming. So that's kind of sad.

Tags:

Finished rereading the Hunger Games series last night. God, but it's epic. For all that I think the author's something of a bitch, she's still a genius. Spent a while looking for good quote icons from the books and found some really cute ones.

But I really miss having friends to talk to who have read and adored the same books I have. I don't think it's really happened since Harry Potter. I mean, Danny read the first two Hunger Games books and I'm trying to pressure him into getting around to the third. But it's not even close to the same. He doesn't like to really, deeply think about stories the way I do, and he gets annoyed when I "overanalyze."

I'll put up a thread at SynTru basically begging for discussion of some of my favorite books, see how that goes.

I need to write. -sigh- I determined that, at the moment, I don't really care about Grey and Kayden the way I do about Peeta and Katniss and some other characters I've truly loved from my favorite stories, which may contribute to why I've been feeling so uninspired about them. I think I need to get to know them better.

And my Secret Santa present is due soon. Blah.

Tags:

I learned today at my GYN appointment that a colposcopy involves putting vinegar... up there... and watching how the body reacts. Talk about strangely gross. However, my exam turned up normal, so I just have to come back in a year and get a direct HPV exam instead of a normal PAP. Assuming that comes back negative, I'll be all clear. If not, it'll just mean another colposcopy.

I'm going to smell like vinegar all day D:

I submitted a query for "Unjoined" to Rebel Tales. I'm planning on submitting "Control" to Realms of Fantasy next time I go out. (It's snowing now. Yeah, little early for that. Craziness.) And I found a historical fiction magazine to submit "Death in Theatre" to and did that as well. I wish all submissions could be electronic now.

I need to type up a resume for Tracy and sign up for the middle school Praxis II exams for math and language arts. Deadline for both is today. So... I guess I'll work on that next, and then possibly revise Unjoined. And then... I'm considering revisiting the dead twin realistic story I got two pages into a while back... or maybe working on The Evil Realm... or something.

ETA: Done with the essentials mentioned above. Off to shovel the driveway... assuming I can find a snow shovel... yay exercise?

Tags:

I just ordered my NaNo shirt for the year and put in my donation. I had a (very brief) moment of "Why would I do this when I secretly suspect I won't make it this year with everything going on?" but I squashed that feeling. This year will be perfect. Reasoning why? If I can do it this year, I can do it any year. And YES, I CAN do it this year.

I'll give myself this one, tiny bit of leeway: since this year is hard, I'll allow myself to write whatever the heck I want. In other words, it doesn't just have to be on one story. If I get stuck but feel the itch to work on my Zelda fanfic, so be it--as long as I get that day's 1,667 words, that's what's important, right? Right. I give myself this leeway because I feel so uncertain about Homesake at the moment. I'm finding it very difficult to settle on a POV. First-present or third-past are my typical fallbacks, but I'm thinking I might try first-past. Usually it feels so artificial to me because who remembers in so much detail that it feels like it's happening now? But I've loved plenty of books in first person past, so I know it's doable. Once I get into it, it might feel easier than first-present, even.

But anyway, that's my main concern: I don't 100% feel Homesake. But I sure as hell will try my best to steam my way through it. I plan to use my fifth graders ruthlessly to do so. I'm going to post daily/weekly updates (varying based on what days I'm actually at the internship, since a full week falls in the middle of November) and tell my kids to harass me if I don't meet my goals, basically. :) It'll work, right? I think having them asking me questions might help motivate me to keep working on Homesake so that I can tell them what has happened since last time I saw them. That's the goal, anyway.

I'm behind at homework. I'm going to have to super BS my next big LA assignment because I forgot to get all the writing samples I need. I'll have to use what I have plus some I filch off the internet. Blah. And this weekend isn't going to help. I did a bit of homework this morning, but I still have Math Module 6 (I started that by posting a question in the YWP teacher's lounge so I can use teacher experiences with math teaching as my research), the drafts of the first three parts of my Social Studies ATA, the actual response to LA Case 7 (though at least I read the case), and the previously mentioned writing instruction assignment for LA. The first two are due Monday. The second two are due Tuesday. Oh, and mustn't forget Classroom Management, which I think we have Tuesday this week--have assignments there too D: Damn.

Tags:

As much as I'm not mad at Danny or Morgan over the thing last week, it still changes the way I see their conversations/texting/going to see a movie with friends yesterday/etc. I hate being a stupid irrational girl. (Not that boys aren't irrational. So maybe a stupid, irrational human being.)

School is blah. Putting off an assignment until during my classes tomorrow. Probably not the best strategy, but it's happening. I will have an extended lunch because it's the midterm in science methods, though.

STILL NOT WRITING. D: Thinking about writing out all my random little plot ideas. Again. Including fanfiction. (You little bastards always come back around again, don't you?)

House hunting is moving forward at turtle pace, but it is moving. I have managed to save a good amount of money despite "wasting" money on drinking Wednesday, RennFest today, and various food-type-things over the last month. I think we'll be okay.

Tags:

I'm thinking I should rewrite "Unjoined" and try submitting it to WotF again. I believe I've heard of revised entries winning in subsequent years... but it would have to be notably different, I'm sure. Well, of course I can't find anything about it now. But it's worth trying. The worst they can do is reject it, and then I can try it elsewhere.

I'm really excited about Rebel Tales, Holly Lisle's new writing ezine project. It sounds really great--she's building it from the ground up on her own money so it'll be debt-free once it opens for submissions. It'll have six-month "seasons," of which the first issue will be free and subsequent issues will cost money. There will be a regular pass and a Back Stage Pass, the latter allowing access to just about everything you could ever want to know about the process that goes into writing, submitting, and accepting the stories in the zine--great for aspiring writers to see. Seasons stay "in print" until they stop being profitable, and writers keep making money as long as their season is "in print." There's no advance, just a percentage of sales the whole way through. It goes based on the six-month season; there are 60 "credits" in a season, and submitting one story for one issue earns you one point, but that's 1/60th of the total gross profit of the ezine over the six-month season. If you write a six-episode serial for the season, that's 1/10th of the gross profit. Even the editors and publisher (Lisle herself) only make 1/10th of the profit each starting out, although Lisle has admitted that she will increase it if she needs to because her share goes toward funding things like author interviews and cover art, and she has to meet costs.

Anyway, it sounds like a truly worthwhile project, and I'll definitely be subscribing when it opens and spreading it by word of mouth. And if a revised Unjoined doesn't place in WotF, then I'll try it at Rebel Tales once it opens its doors to submissions. Waiting on a response from WotF would give plenty of time for RT to open up and maybe even get some steam behind it before I try submitting.

Umm. Uni classes are annoying as ever. But tomorrow is the internship, so yay. ALSO. Danny got approved for a home loan with zero down. Well, technically closing costs aren't covered, but apparently it's not uncommon practice to make an agreement with the seller that they increase the cost of the home by the amount of the closing costs so that your loan covers the costs over time, but the seller pays the immediate costs knowing that they'll be paid back for it. So. We're looking at a home in Columbia. There was a nice one pretty nearby, but it went into contract very recently, and anyway apparently it turned out as having some sort of mold problem. (Yes, we will check out any house and have it inspected before we buy.) Cousin Justin and his girlfriend are down for moving in and paying rent (which is the only way we'll be able to afford the place this early since I don't have a full-time job yet).

Erm, I guess that's it for now.

Tags:

( Sometimes I just want to kick Danny somewhere unpleasant. )

In other news, one of the hostesses at work tonight had a seizure. Apparently she's epileptic, so it's not entirely unusual for her, but it freaked the hell out of everyone else, especially since she fell and hit her head pretty hard. (ETA: She's fine, just embarrassed--not that she should feel embarrassed, but you know how it is. I swear I'm not a callous excuse for a human being, but I already knew she was alright so concern didn't make its way into my entry when I wrote this. It was, after all, one in the morning.) It was a long night, but I made $129, and I needed it. We're looking at houses now because Dennis' brother is raising the rent to $700 plus the $200 we pay in electric for this craphole we live in, which just isn't worth it for a house with no central air or heat and with a leaky ceiling.

Also. Synopsis for Homesake:

"In Somnion, men don't have magic anymore. Legends say that they displeased the gods, and that their magical gifts were taken away as punishment--but the gods left magic in nature as a reminder of what mankind lost. This world is home to Grey, a deserted soldier from the King's Steel in Lumina, and to Kayden, who defies legend with the dragon blood that runs in his veins and gives him the ability to control fire. When these two men come together, Kayden's need for protection on his journey north provides the perfect cover for Grey to hide from any who might try to track him down after his desertion--but what starts mostly as convenience turns into a cause that Grey is deeply entrenched in. Together, these young men will awaken the lost dragons, and along the way discover disturbing truths about the king Grey deserted and the kingdom where his loyalty still lies."

I went to a writing meetup in Columbia yesterday evening, and it was fantastic. It's for writers of YA fiction, which Homesake is even if I don't always write YA. The people are great, and atmosphere really fit for me, and I'm excited to go back. I don't think I'll even bother with trying the Silver Spring group again now that I've found a group with such great chemistry.

Tags:

Ooh. Pretty LJ header.

I'm currently watching Ever After and avoiding things I should actually be doing, as per usual. Such as: I should be scanning in my driver's license to complete my egg donor application. ($10,000 for my eggs if I'm accepted and matched to a recipient!) I should also be piecing together materials/plans/crap/etc. for the upcoming assignments in my methods classes that I need to translate into class with my fifth graders. I was going to try using the first chapter of The Hunger Games for my reading DRA, but I think I'll change it to a short story from one of my two collections. Which I'll need to bring with me tomorrow to plan with Alice.

For my reference, I need to get the following done by the end of this week (my full week at Whetstone): collect two writing samples each from the two students I chose for profiles in Language Arts; complete my DRA for Reading with a small group of kids; pick at least two kids for Math (at least one with a recorded disability of some kind) to assess for understanding in a concept area and plan steps toward addressing any gaps in understanding; conduct Social Studies interview with students; complete midsemester PBA; get photocopy of Language Arts packet from one of the other interns.

ALSO. Print contract for Mirage Games, as if I haven't let that sit long enough. And finish up this egg donor application process. Sooner that's done, the better.

I waver in confidence with the development of Homesake as a young adult novel. I have a name now for all three of Grey's swords (and thus all three of the novels). I'm unsure about this "Grey" thing now because he will start the book as Roan now that I'm starting with his acceptance into the King's Steel. He will still want an alias, but will he be honest with Kayden? Or will he think it's best to just introduce himself as Grey so they aren't overheard in private using his real name?

Also. Stuff going down with roommates making life more interesting/stressful. Dennis' brother and sister-in-law decided to raise the rent. Dennis doesn't have to pay anything (he never has, but at first he made it sound like he did), but Danny, Justin, and I are each expected to pay $350. For Danny and Justin, that's a $100 bump. For me, $200. For Danny and me, it's not worth it. Rent plus electric will be $900 for the two of us. So we're looking very seriously into moving out, even have cousin Justin on board to rent a room with his girlfriend so we can afford a better place. It's the down payment that worries me at the moment. Egg donation could really help, but only if by some miracle I get the fastest process possible. (I really should scan my license in.) There are some nice houses for sale in a really decent area for around $150,000. Alone, we couldn't afford it, but with roomies... definitely.

And if you're wondering why $900/month isn't worth it to live in a house, let me explain: it's a house with no central air or heat, with a roof that leaks, with a driveway that never gets plowed in the winter when it snows, and with various other defects. (They still won't give us a key to the garage. Where do you get off charging that much for this shithole and not letting us use the garage?)

Blah.

Tags:

I got an email from a guy saying he's the lead developer at a company working on a new MMORPG, and that they were looking for writers to design the story. He hoped that I would put out his opportunity at SynTru in case any members might be interested.

I'm naturally cynical of this, of course, but it sounds very professional and there's an attached website that looks pretty legit. I searched for any similar hoaxes or scams and found none. If anything, I expect he might be looking for cheap labor, but I guess I don't really mind that if I get real credit. It could be a way to break out, if it works out. Of course there's no guarantee, but hey, it'd be fun enough that I don't think I'd consider it wasted effort or anything like that. So I'm pursuing it for the moment, but I'm being cautious. Sending things that I can prove are mine (Honorable Mentions from WotF) or things I don't terribly mind losing.

School is going well, internship-wise. I'm not looking forward to the uni workload, though. My mentor is the best lady ever, and we match so well. She loves me just as much as I love her. She's super lenient, but I'm really serious about this so I'm not slacking. I'm going when I'm not required and everything. And I'm taking over as many lessons as I can even though it's early on. It's fun, plus it's practice. And the kids need to see me as a teacher before takeover in the spring.

Roommates are being a pain in the ass. We made a list of shit they do that pisses us off. It's pretty long. We've been ignoring it for too long, and we're going to have to talk it out.

I'll leave it there for now.

Tags:

Oh where, oh where has she gone?

-pokes self-

I feel like... it would be an awful shame to stop writing altogether until November, even if I did get through Homesake during/after the month. But I don't feel motivated right now, even to sit down and put together plot events or character profiles... even though these are things I need to do now that I've changed the story around so much.

Maybe I should write something else. Or maybe the break would be good. It seems so horribly long, a month and a half, but...

At least I've done homework.

I went to a writers' meetup in Silver Spring yesterday morning. It was alright. I'll probably try it again, but I'm not sure if it's quite what I'm looking for. I have next Saturday off again, so it's not as if I have anything better to do.

I went to Brandon Sanderson's book signing at the Bailey's Crossroads Borders in Virginia Wednesday night. I picked up a copy of The Way of Kings. I also got Danny something called The Ninja Handbook but I think I'm going to return it since he hasn't touched it despite me reminding him, so obviously he doesn't care and it'd be better to get my $15 back. And yesterday after my writers' meetup I got this young adult fantasy, Eon, which I'm almost tempted to read before The Way of Kings but probably won't.

Did I post already that Mockingjay made me bawl? I think so. Suzanne Collins will be in the Arundel Mills Books-A-Million on Thursday, September 23rd, and I am so going. Shane is reading The Hunger Games. If he likes it and his parents let him come, I'll take him. If they won't let him come, I'll get him his own signed copy. I would think it'd be a good, educational-type field trip, but it's also his Back to School Night, so that might take precedence.

Erm. Yeah.

Tags:

I am in such a slump. I just have no desire to write. Or at least zero motivation. Or, well, I'm not sure how you describe it--all I mean is that no writing is getting done, and I'm super stuck.

I took my final yesterday in MATH111. I skipped SO MUCH class--honestly, out of 28 days I only went for around seven or eight, including exam days. I took two quizzes (got a 10/10 on each) and got some form of participation points for one day, so I'm optimistically hoping that I have 25 quiz/participation points. I got a 95 on the first exam, and I'm not sure about the second exam but I know I got one question set wrong so I'm estimating an 85. IF that is correct, given that I need 360 points to get a B in the class and the final is worth 150... oh crap. Okay, so I'm pretty much guaranteed a C. Bah. That'll be my first C... ever. D: I mean, it's possible I got higher on the second exam, but even still I'd have to ace the final and I know for a fact that I made a silly little rounding mistake that will probably lose me at least some credit on a couple questions.

Blah. Oh well, I guess.

Back to writing... I'm changing Blood and Heat around, putting more focus on Grey and changing the locale to Duos instead of the west. But that involves, well, a lot of change. And development of Duos that I hadn't gotten around to yet. And my phobia: making a realistic kingdom. It's hard for me to figure out how to make a king evil when he still has enough respect to BE king. -headdesk- Plus, I'm thinking about starting earlier, maybe even back when Grey was accepted into the king's guard, but I'm afraid of putting that much of a gap between the beginning of the book and introducing Kayden. Grey's becoming more of the main character, which is cool, but Kayden is still supposed to share the spotlight.

And then there's how in the hell to introduce Kella. I want Grey to meet Kayden first, and Kella could complicate things. Unless I did something really out there, like making Kella a friend of Grey's to start with--which would introduce its own problems but could be a lot of fun if I worked it out right... It would make Kella even less trustworthy. It would be very difficult to do well though. -headdeskheaddesk-

Danny and I are going to Ocean City tonight. It keeps getting shorter; bad timing all around, and as mad as I am at his work, it would have been easier to work out if I didn't have summer classes to limit my own time. But at least my limitations were solid, they didn't move around or appear out of nowhere. We originally scheduled a vacation for this Tuesday-Thursday and paid for a hotel by the beach, which would have been amazing, until his work decided to announce that his inventory would be on Thursday. So we moved it to this weekend, but then his FIFA tournament was moved to this weekend. It was supposed to be Sunday, so we were going to leave yesterday after my final. Leaving around noon, we would have gotten there with PLENTY of time yesterday and then all day today. But then he realized, no, his FIFA thing was today, so we have to wait for him to get home so we can go to Ocean City, so we'll be lucky if we get there while it's still light out... We can stay tomorrow, but it's still less time, and it pisses me off. D:

Eh. We're watching True Blood, and I'm really enjoying it. I really like Eric now and I'm basically rooting for Bill to disappear or die and for Sookie and Eric to end up together... lol.

Tags:

Okay so.

I submitted Unjoined to Clarkesworld Magazine. The queue moves quickly; when I submitted a few days ago I my submission was listed somewhere above 100, and at the moment it's at 15. But the magazine has limited space. Only two stories a month, and of these only one is from new talent/the submissions system. Sooo, I'm hoping.

I'm rereading Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, and it's giving me a lot of food for thought. Right now I'm struggling with the MICE quotient--the idea that your story is either a Milieu, Idea, Character, or Event story. Obviously any one story can have components of more than one of these, but the beginning and end of the story is determined by which one of these ultimately fits your story. If it's a Milieu story, it starts with an outsider arriving in a novel land, and ends with him either leaving or choosing to stay. If it's an Idea story, it starts with a question or problems that needs to be solved, and ends with it being answered. If it's a Character story, it starts with a character beginning to change and grow from the place they are now, and ends when they've completed the change/found an acceptable place for themselves. If it's an Event story, it begins with the main character in a world that's been disturbed/wronged in some way, and ends with this character fixing the disturbance and setting the world to rights.

Soooo, I'm having trouble not just determining which one of these I need for my story, but also which one some other stories fit into. Like I suppose... Mistborn is an Event story. That's easy enough, I think; Vin and the other characters are the crew that will finally "fix" the world from the way the Lord Ruler and Ruin left it. But the one I just read, The Dead-Tossed Waves (which was really good by the way)? I'm not so sure. It starts with Gabry's world changing, being placed into upheaval, when she's finally convinced to leave the safety of her town and it goes all wrong when she and her friends are attacked by a Breaker--a super-fast zombie. But it doesn't end with her righting her world. There are still zombies, and she leaves the safety of home behind, probably permanently. She certainly grows up, though... so perhaps it's a Character story, except she doesn't precisely choose the change she goes through. It's kind of forced on her.

I'm being hopeless and rethinking Blood and Heat again. Kind of... seeing what would change if I focused on making it an Event or Idea or Character story. (It's definitely not Milieu.) Hm. It's in a state of flux right now. We'll see how it settles. Maybe nothing will change. No idea yet.

Blah.

Tags:

Still not writing.

I reread Graceling and it was perhaps even more wonderful the second time through, but the amazing characterization gave me a huge inferiority complex.

I tried to express to Danny how much it sucks that writing is such a big part of me but it's only a frustration to him. He didn't respond. He did tell me, when I tried to express the fact that I wrote way more stories to completion when I had real life friends reading them consistently and caring about my writing, that if I blame him for me not writing a book then we will end up breaking up. Nice stretch there.

I've been thinking about the fact that he doesn't care about my writing though, and how hard that is, and wondering... if I met someone who really did care... what would happen?

D:

Tags:

I am full of epic fail. I haven't been writing much. I skipped my third class of a summer class with only 12 meetings and I have the final on Thursday and haven't been paying attention in class anyway. I should have gone if only so I could get my midterm and paper grades back. I guess I don't really care that much. I mean, I hope I get at least a B since I've never gotten a C before. And I seriously doubt I could get less than a C, so I'm not worried about that. It wasn't a very interesting class. Unless I bomb the final, I guess. I should find some way to study. Blah.

It's very hot in this stupid room. Stupid summer.

I'm failing at SynTru. It's not really that much work, but I just haven't felt like pulling the points together for last week, and tomorrow I'm supposed to pull the points together for THIS week... and stuff... blah.

Work's been okay. I've been making good money. I'm still a little slow at side work but I'm doing fine. Occasionally have a dream about being super weeded and not being able to help all my tables. Hate those.

I've been talking to Devon, my cousin, about writing. It's a lot of fun. His writing style is way different from mine, not what I'd ordinarily read. Very rough right now, but with editing could be something someone else would really like to read--it's very descriptive though, where I like writing that keeps moving.

Gotta go meet Danny to eat.

Tags:

Posted at SynTru:

OKAYSO. Two major events on Kher's writing front today.

The YAY, as several of you already heard me gush about in the chatbox, is that I met Brandon Sanderson today. He signed my hardcovers of his Mistborn trilogy and also my Writers of the Future certificate. It's the same exact award he won the year immediately before his first novel was published.

I've developed a new goal to publish my own novel within a year and send him a copy with a huge THANK YOU.

On that note, in my rush to get to my appointment to have my computer looked at this morning, I was an idiot and accidentally erased 2,000 words of my book instead of backing it up D: I'm just that much of a moron. Fortunately, that's not a huge deal. I'm hoping to rewrite it and use it as a slingshot to get me through the slow part I was struggling with anyway.

Yes. Brandon Sanderson is basically amazing.

Danny is away for the weekend on a motorcycle trip with his dad. I kinda miss him but I could really use this time for writing. (I should do that now.)

Also, went to see Sex and the City 2 with Sue and Peggy. We had drinks beforehand, it was a fun outing. But there was one point in the movie when the audience reaction made me despair for the state of the modern relationship D: I won't say what in case anyone cares about spoilers, but yes.

Tags:

Everything is breaking around me. The washing machine has been spazzing out, stopping during spin cycle and displaying "dc," whatever that means... plus if there's even the smallest scrap in the sink where it drains, it'll flood the whole kitchen. The refrigerator is going... the fridge is hardly even colder than the room (which is saying something since we don't have central AC) and the freezer feels normal fridge temp. The sink in the bathroom isn't actually clogged, but if you let it fill with more than like two inches of water, it refuses to drain for days... And worst of all, my mac keeps claiming that is has run out of memory for applications even if I only have Safari open, and one window at that! I have 22 gigs left of regular memory, and I can't imagine what could be eating up my RAM... I mean, maybe it's Dropbox? But it wasn't uploading or downloading... so I don't get it. But it's killer frustrating.

On the other hand, I have been writing a bit. Not enough. I'm still behind. But a bit. In fact, I should do that now, since Danny (who said he would be home half an hour ago) is mysteriously absent.

Tags:

crap,
writing

I had the most vivid dream last night. [I also slept until almost two. Think the dream makes up for it?]

( Crazy dream )

Unfortunately, I haven't been writing like I should for my Completion Challenge. I keep feeling like I want to make myself a webpage for my portfolio and make these detailed world and character scraps for the elements of Blood and Heat before I actually continue. But I don't need to. I should just write. -pokes self- Fortunately since I dropped my goal to 80,000 in three months because of the change to a trilogy, it won't be TOO difficult to make up.

Also I have the worst luck on RPG-D. I swear there will be days when no one posts anything new in the Non-RPG ad directory, but the moment I post my monthly update, someone ALWAYS posts something new which removes my post as the Latest Post link. I swear, I bet a week spent as the Latest Post link really helps attract members...

Tags:

So I begged Danny to help me figure out my Blood and Heat plot, and he actually gave me some really amazing ideas. It resulted in having to turn what was a duet into a trilogy, and I mean that may be a little cliche, but I think it'll be worth it because the overall plot makes more sense now, is more moving, and actually has a natural conclusion that isn't just "Let's get the hell out of this place so we can't be used anymore."

Unfortunately, it probably means I'll be changing the title. For now I'll leave it, but later on... not so sure. Blood and Heat as a whole with the two parts or books (Dragonsbane and Dragonsblood) was great symmetry, but I don't know what to call the third one if I stick to this pattern. I'm thinking about maybe naming them after the swords in Grey's life, though, because there are three... I actually just named the second of them (technically third in his life) accidentally when writing the opening scene again. I realized that he's not the sort to have "my sword." It would have a name. So I named it, and the name came to me immediately and felt perfect, so I went with it. Backstory and everything, though for that I had a bit of help from Danny again.

So. Three books. I have the opening and climax for each, plus 8 other major plot events for book one (going off the ten-event plot outline).

I'm waiting on a validation email from Ally's Creative Muse Society. I totally joined just to respond to a single conversation about protagonist gender. Haha. -headdesk- Still need to email her about the random Chatango email I got from her site.... gah.

Tags:

Working on the Summer of Writing at SynTru. We have some great ideas and it's starting to come together... I just hope we can pull it together by Friday-ish so I can open the forum up a few days early. I want our members to have time to plan before the month actually takes off so they don't feel overwhelmed on that first day.

We'll have lots of different challenges to participate in, though personally I think I'll be working on the Completion Challenge to finish Blood and Heat almost exclusively.

Was going to write more, but it's time to watch our shows...

ETA: The other thing I was going to say is that I came up with an idea for the second leg of the Writing Triathlon, so I may not be dropping out despite my hectic work schedule. It's supposed to be a genre I'm not used to writing, and I'm thinking a femmeslash tragedy might do the trick. I've only written one story with lesbians in it--Moonfall--and it was very mild to the point that less observant readers might even miss it. And I'll do mean things to my characters, but never before a real tragedy. I even have an idea for the third part of the triathlon--a stepping stone between this idea and the first one I already wrote. The whole thing deals with the concept of my mirrorkin picking up "tattoos" to represent the loved ones in their lives, so this would have to cement that idea in some way. But I have an inkling of an idea....

Tags:

Profile

karriezai

Facebook

March 2011

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Page generated 6/7/25 04:53

Style Credit

Style: Too Much Wine for Summertime by ninetydegrees
Resources: Texture by Design Shard and Icons by Romeo Barreto, John Caserta, Denis Chenu, Pedro Lalli, Marcus Michaels, P.J. Onori, Laurent Patain and Cor Tiemens from The Noun Project

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

i will

a history of dreams

Entries tagged with writing

oh crap

good (busy) times

i miss thoughtful conversation

ew.

nano anti-blues

sharing is stinky

insert witty title?

bleargh.

lalala

cynical and optimistic simultaneously?

where oh where has my little muse gone

epic fail part deux!

epic fail!

D:

junk...

eventfulness!

;_;

gah

sometimes danny is a genius

blargh

Profile

March 2011

Links

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags