Messes Are...Messy

Can I just say that weekends are far too short? I always plan these fabulously lazy weekends, where I have plenty of time to read and write and edit and hang out with my boyfriend and clean and watch movies and TV shows and...Well, you get the idea. But then reality hits and suddenly...it's Sunday night and I've done nothing more than play The Sims 3 and marveled at my boyfriend's new Wii U. But I guess that's something, right? I didn't just lay around in my pajamas and stare at the ceiling. Although, given that option, I probably would have.

Even right now, I have a thousand and one things to be doing, and I'm sitting here, typing this out. Sure, those thousand and one things will most likely end up being fifty and one things, but the meaning is still the same.

I hate moving. I don't really know anyone who enjoys moving, but I loathe it. I especially hate that I'm moving literally around the corner and I have to do all sorts of things for it still. This is the time when I wish Hogwarts was real and I was a witch, so all I'd have to do is flick my wand and everything would move. Get to work on that, world.

All of this leads up to a very non-surprising announcement: I have not worked on my book as much as I should have. Not at all, really. I've changed a few mistakes I've caught, but it's really just the same. I'm trying. I am. I swear. But catching up on things and making sure everything is in it's place...It's exhausting. Hopefully, I'll set aside a few hours tonight and go through it, but that means that nothing will get uploaded to Amazon until at least Friday. And that's if I have internet at my new place. (Side note: Can you believe that more internet companies don't offer month to month purchasing? I mean, really, that would be brilliant instead of having me sign a contract. Not for them, I'm sure, but for me, that would help tons!)

Next weekend looks like a mess, too, but I promise to let you all know when I post the changes. Also, seventeen more days until my review post for Mine by Katy Evans. I'm about halfway through it right now, and I'm getting giggly just thinking about what I'm going to write for this thing. Be warned: this book is not for the fainthearted. But you'll just have to wait and find out what I really think about it. Don't worry, I'll be as graphic as possible.

Now, onto thing one. Only one thousand more things to go.

First Week...Done?

Not really. Thanks to my sharp-eyed boyfriend, there are plenty of mistakes that I passed over while editing. In my defense, I did this all myself and read this book eight times in a week, trying to find everything that I could. Yes, I'm an idiot and I apparently replace "he's" for "his", because I hold an English Literature degree. I was super discouraged for a few days, even thinking about just pulling the book down and never worrying about it again.

But that wouldn't be me.

Nope, instead, I'm going to fix the little mistakes as I go along. I'm hoping that everything will be updated by Tuesday or sometime next week, but I move on Halloween (because that's the most logical time to move, right?), so sorry if I don't exactly get to it on time. But I am trying. I've been fixing little things I've noticed here and there, and I don't want to keep updating it each time I find a mistake. So I'm going to read through it this weekend (YET A-FREAKING-GAIN) and make sure that everything makes sense. I'm beginning to feel incredibly jealous of famous authors, and not for the money and fame anymore. Nope, for the editors and team of people around them who get paid to check for mistakes. If only my cat could read, I'd be set.

Besides the book, other things have been rolling along. I've got the general idea of my next story up, and I think it makes sense. I'm going to bounce it off my boyfriend this weekend, see if I'm not a complete idiot, and then I'll start it for Nano. But this one is going to be different. I'm not worried about the 50,000 words or winning. I actually want to write this for real. It's a dream I had a few nights ago and it turned into something really interesting, but, like I said, I have to tell someone about it. Do you ever have dreams where you wake up and think, Holy crap, that was awesome! I need to share that with people! And then you do, and people are like, What.

Still, even if my boyfriend says it sounds dumb, I'm still writing it.

But then, hopefully by the New Year, I'll start the sequel to AYLB. I thought about doing it for Nano, but I don't know if I'm ready to go back to those characters yet. I'm not in that mind set right now, probably because it's Halloween and I'm moving and stress is beginning to way down on me. All of that combined works well for this story I want to write, but not so much for the sequel I want to write. I want to get this Nano story out and then I can concentrate on the sequel. Not that my Nano story will be ready by the New Year, but at least it'll be written down and then I can take a break before editing.

I work so strangely. No wonder my works are riddled with mistakes.

Quick Quick Quick Note!

So, it's way too early for me (I started writing this at 7:10, so give me a break if I don't post it until 9), but I figured it's an important day and I should get going, right? Well, there's more space to write here than on Twitter, so I can give you the lowdown on the whole book deal.

1. I put it up for review for Kindle, which I didn't really know I had to do, so I would have done it last night if I had known. Anyway, it'll take about 12 to 48 hours before it's officially published on Amazon. I know you're all chomping at the bit, right? Ha! I'll let you know the moment it goes on sale.

2. It's up for $6.99. I would have done it for $1,000,000, but there's apparently a limit. Gah. If you think $6.99 is too expensive for a new author (as someone so kindly pointed out on Goodreads), sorry. I've been working my butt off on this book for five years now, and I want to get it out there. I want as many people to read it as possible, because I want to share my joy with others, so perhaps a sale will be in order soon. Black Friday! (Ha, can you imagine? My book up there on sale with PS4 and XBox One?)

3. I believe, for right now, it's only going to be available on Kindle. I have to look at the other places, like iTunes, so I'm sticking with what I feel comfortable with.

4. I feel that I haven't adequately prepared you people for my book. Look, I'll be honest: there's some stuff in here that may cause controversy among people. Sorry. Kind of. This is what I wanted to write.

5. This post is far too long, so I'll wrap it up. Watch my Twitter for when All You Left Behind becomes a real book!


6. Oh, thanks guys who read this. Again. Forever. Always.

Less Than Fifteen Hours!

Yep, you read that right. In less than fifteen hours, I'll be putting my book up on Amazon and it'll be out of my hair. I've read through it, I've made sense of it, I'm happy with it. I've spent so many months - years, really - on this story, so it'll be a relief to get it out of my hair. That's a terrible way to think of a book you wrote, but that's how it feels at the moment. Anyway, let's get this post on the road so I can get through all that I need to say before I sequester myself away for a few hours before work.

PS - I forgot how to count last week, so there's going to be four new characters today, even though one of them is a group and it shouldn't take more than two sentences to describe them.

Let's start off with Luciana. She started off as a total nothing character, a flirting post for Gunnar. But with every revision, she became a little something more. She's a palace maid for Donal Toussaint in Heaven, but she has ties to both Toussaint and Gloriana Wales. Although she is an angel, she is determined to fight for what she thinks is right, even if that means going against all of Heaven. She only appears once in this book, but she does play a strong role throughout, because she is a strong personality and she won't lay down until she gets what she wants.

If two of those names confused you, let's unconfuse you! Gloriana Wales is a queen of Hell, as she was a queen of a foreign land that does not exist anymore on Earth. Donal Toussaint is a king of Heaven, as he was a king of the same foreign land as Gloriana. Toussaint is a thorn in Amory's side, since he constantly tries to tear her down and convince the Council that she is not what they need. I wish I could tell you more about these characters, but I've already said too much!

The Council. Sigh. They started out with the best intentions, but then, somewhere along the line, they became absolute jerks. The Council, made up of the twelve Archangels, is the governing body of Heaven. They are the leaders that every angel looks to, the ones who make the decisions and hands them down to the kings and queens of the sectors so they can hand them down to their citizens. The Council makes all the rules and also knows all the secrets of Heaven. They are terrifying and sometimes unfair.

This was the hardest post I've ever written. These four characters have so many secrets that I can't reveal yet. Sorry! But I figured I'd at least introduce them because they play such a major part in my book, and I wanted you guys to have at least a basic understanding of who they are.

Is that it, then, Bree? Is that all you wanted to say?

Of course not. If you've read any of my posts, then you'd know this isn't it.

On November 14th, I have the lucky, lucky task of promoting Katy Evans' new books Mine and Remy. I think I may have mentioned before how much I adored Real, her first book, but if I haven't, now you know! It's not typically the type of book I read, but I devoured it in a day, sneaking in readings during work, too! So come back on November 14th for a fun post about these awesome books!

Speaking of November, it's right around the corner. My calendar is telling me that it's only eleven days away, and that means the beginning of National Novel Writing Month is eleven days away. We all saw how my last attempt at a story went (I'm nearly 25,000 words into it now, after days of working on my book). Well, thanks to whoever invented dreams (ha, I made a funny), I now have my story. The good news is that I know what it's about. The bad news is that I know nothing about the subjects I'm dealing with. But I can't let it go. You know when you have dreams and then wake up, and they're gone? But some stick with you? That's how it was with Amory's story, and that's how it is with Val's. Yeah, I have a name and characters and setting and reasons and all that. I just don't know if they make sense or why or what's going to happen. But that stuff totally doesn't matter, right?

Like I said, I have eleven days to figure that junk out. Here's hoping that I can finish Allegiant before I go to work tomorrow and then I'll have all the time in the world to find out as much as I can about my story.

Oh, yeah, and make sure to watch for my book on Amazon. All You Left Behind by Bree Garcia. Had to fit that in somewhere, right?

Sleeping and Editing

Here's a well-known secret of mine: I love to sleep. Since I was a kid, I've been able to fall asleep at any moment, wherever I am. It's a gift, really. But some people don't enjoy my beautiful present to this world. My boyfriend, forever a night owl, always complains on the weekends when I crawl into bed before midnight. I sometimes wish I could tell him why I get so tired or why I don't stay up late at night. But how does one explain something like that? Wednesday night, however, seems like the perfect example to give for why I shouldn't stay up late.

As some of you might know, October 22nd is an awesome day for two reasons (well, I'm sure there's more reasons, like birthdays or anniversaries or whatever): one, I'm going to publish my book that day, and two, Allegiant, by Veronica Roth, is being published that day, as well. Now, those two things should not even have anything to do with each other, but they do. I read Divergent when it came out, way back in 2011, and then Insurgent when it came out a year later. And then I read every other book under the sun. Kidding, but that's what it feels like. I made a plan to reread both those books this month, before Allegiant came out, but then it was suddenly October 14th and I hadn't picked up either one. So I started reading them, staying up a little later each night to finish. Well, on Wednesday, I had 72% done of Divergent, and I wasn't going to bed until I finished. When 2 a.m. rolled around, and I was finally done, my brain kicked into overdrive. And it started thinking about my novel.

Of course.

There's one part of my book that's bothered me since I wrote it. Honestly, I didn't quite like it, but I couldn't see another way of writing it. It's made me uncomfortable, because it's the only part that I read and shake my head at. Well, Wednesday night solved that problem. I thought of a way to fix it, and then I realized that it was six days before I was going to publish my book.

Six days? That's plenty of time to fix an entire book!

Because, you see, this one part plays a big role in the plot. There's characters, backstory, reasons and motives. But, like a fool, I changed it anyway. I took all Thursday morning and rewrote one chapter, and then going through it all and making sure that everything fit. Now this weekend I have to reread the entire book and make sure everything makes sense before Tuesday. Thank goodness I don't have concerts to go to or an apartment to clean or another apartment to move into or work.

You see, this is why I don't stay up late.

But I really wouldn't change anything for the world right now. Well, except for that part in my book. Bazing! Give me a break. I'm still waking up, an hour and a half after I really woke up. It takes me awhile. Like all day, and then I just go back to sleep when I start waking up. It seems to make the most sense.

I Need a Calendar

I almost turned off my computer and started turning on a Korean drama (because I'm weird and Hulu kept pushing it in my face) before I remembered what day it was. It's Monday! And not just any Monday, but eight days away from my book's release. I swear, I'm going to be the only person in history who's going to miss her own release date. I won't, I promise! I'll set eight thousand alarms before that happens.

But let's get down to why we're really here, shall we? Little note: I'm only doing two today, because the last three I want to be grouped into one. Spoiler maybe?

First up is Oskar Ambrose. As you can tell by that last name, he's Amory's older brother (fun trivia: when I started writing this, he was the second of four children, but the Ambrose family has been trimmed down considerably since). Never one to follow the rules, he is led by his heart, chasing after women he believes are the One. He eventually does find his happily ever after, and chases her to England, bringing his little sister with him. The fact that he brought Amory into the sickness that was running rampant on the boat they traveled on haunts him until the day he dies. When he's finally reunited with her, he promises himself to be a better brother, to make sure her life from that point on is filled with happiness and love. A tall order at the end of the world, but Oskar is not just any kind of man.

That reason is because of Gertrude Ambrose, his mother. Strong-willed and outspoken, she was never content just being a housewife. She made sure her children were strong and well-cared for, especially after her husband left. An immigrant from Germany, Gertrude keeps her traditions and morals firmly intact, and passes them down to her children. She is reunited with Amory in Heaven, much to Amory's chagrin. Not that the Ambrose siblings don't love their mother, but she is overbearing and needs control. Amory, slowly, realizes that her strength comes from her mother and that there are worse people out there that she could be like. Gertrude is loosely based on my own mother, in those moments where everything would fall to pieces and she would be the one gluing them back together as quickly as she could.

Short and to the point, right? Well, it's not only the Korean drama that's got me excited. Remember the Nano story I foolishly started? Now I'm at almost 20,000 words and I want more. The completely silly thing is that I can only write it during the day or when someone else is in the house with me (someone I know...creep), because I'm scaring myself. I don't know if that's a good thing or what, but I have to stop writing when the sun goes down. Meaning...I shouldn't even be writing this. I shouldn't be on Hulu or reading (Red Hill by Jamie McGuire...Go pick it up if you like zombies) or listening to music (Tim Kasher's Adult Film...Go pick it up if you like being utterly depressed and somewhat happy at the same time). But now that I've written so much and it's halfway through October...I have to start freaking out about what I should write for Nano. Lovely.

Oh, and if any of you reading this do Nano, look me up. My name on there is Amoryrose. More fun trivia: I put that in as my password, and I put it in the wrong place. Yay for being so absolutely brilliant that it's almost stupid sometimes.

Taking A Little Time-Out

This week hasn't been great. I've been in one of those moods that can be best described as PMS mixed with my cat dying. I don't know where it came from (PMS is not in the picture at the moment, and my cat is alive, albeit sleeping a million hours a day), but it's been destroying my entire week. Although, I guess I've kind of let it. You know when you get in a funk and then you do nothing to stop it, so it kind of invades all aspects of your life? Yeah, that's what's happened to my this week. And I'm tired of it. I've already baked a thousand cookies (because whenever my mom was stressed, she would bake, and she passed that onto me, apparently), but that doesn't seem to be enough. So I thought that I might as well break out of it today and take some time to think about what I'm grateful for. Like a pre-Thanksgiving. Without the delicious food. Or loud family. Or football. But I do have pasta and Supernatural, so I guess that counts, right?

Since I'm moving and trying to save a little money, I figured I would get rid of cable and just stick with Netflix and the internet. That's when I remembered I had a Hulu Plus account, made months ago because I wanted to catch up on Once Upon a Time. I didn't actually pay for it after the trial was done, because I thought the ads were lame and some of the shows I liked weren't up there. Now that I've rediscovered it and looked through it all, I'm so glad I renewed it. Hulu is freaking awesome and the ads are, like, 30 seconds at the most. So, thanks Hulu. You made it so much easier to walk away from stupid AT&T U-Verse (oh my god, don't ever get that service! If you do, you will be so sorry and you can't say that I didn't warn you).

Besides my boyfriend (who I will always be grateful for, because he puts up with my moods and attitudes and loves me no matter what), books get me through terrible times. It's nice to read, anywhere, anytime, with any media, and just forget that you have problems or you hate the way the person next to you is breathing. I super appreciate when shows invite authors on to talk about their books, and not argue with them about a little piece of their work. Jon Stewart had on Malala Yousafzai and Brian Jay Jones this week. First off, I am in awe of Malala. After everything she has been through, she's still fighting, still talking, still pushing even though she knows there's people out there who don't want her anywhere. This girl is sixteen, and she's braver, stronger, and more compassionate than anyone I've ever known. Can I look up to a teenager? Because I do. Her words and actions make me want to be a better person. And then Brian Jay Jones! Sure, he only wrote a book, but not any book. A biography about Jim Henson. Jim freaking Henson. The man who shaped my childhood, who taught me when I decided I didn't want to go to preschool anymore (I cried every day for a week until my mom took me out permanently). I still get the giggles when I watch old videos of the Martians (goodness, go search the Martians discovering a phone) or see Beaker hide his face in his collar. I've been so excited to read their books, and that excitement pulled me a little bit more out of my funk.

Finally, I'm thankful that, even if it's just the same one person, someone is reading this. I'm glad that there's people (a person?) out there who are willing to give a new voice a chance, willing to sit through the crap and constant talking to get to the real heart of things. So, thank you, whoever reads this. Thank you for giving me a reason to write biweekly. It's fun for me, because I love to write, and I hope I make it fun for you. It's the Month o' Fun! How can it not be fun, right?

But seriously. Thank you. You're the best.

PS - Obviously I'm grateful for my family. I just thought that went without saying. Sorry!

It's A Boy! Three Of Them, Actually...

Week two of the Month O' Fun has begun! With that comes all the exciting adventures of organizing, editing, cleaning, fixing a super lame cable box, telling my city that I don't own a business, and freaking out about moving in a few weeks! Yay adventures!
But seriously. This is one day closer to the release of my book, and I couldn't be more excited.So I'm trying to look at the positive side of all this and now throw myself over a cliff because it's been ten hours and my cable box won't restart. Thank god for Hulu.

Okay, now to the real reason of this post: Rick, Stephen, and Gunnar.

Richard Piedmont has had a difficult life. He's the only child of two royals, born in the wilderness of a country that no longer exists. Heaven has deemed him dangerous, but the only angel that can save the world. Calm, patient, and cunning, Richard, or Rick to his friends, has been on the run most of his life, and he won't stop for anyone. (I felt that I would write a paragraph about Rick, but there's so many secrets surrounding him that I can't give away! Really, though, he's one of the central characters of the novel, mainly because without him, Amory and Drystan would never be sent to Earth.)

For years, Rick's only companion has been Stephen Viceroy, a man with as shady a history as they come. He considers Rick to be his best friend, and he tries his best to repay the debt. No matter what Rick chooses in life, Stephen supports him and goes along with his plans, even if he thinks it'll get them in more trouble. I guess I can say that Stephen worked for Richard's mother, but not in the place you'd think.

And the last, Sigurd Gunnarsen. Oh, Gunnar. What can one possibly say about Gunnar? He started off as an antagonist for Amory, a complete opposite who questioned her every move, but then I slowly fell in love with him. He's flirty and manly and a pain in the butt for Amory, but I wanted to write him forever. He's a World War II vet who was killed in action. When he ascends to Heaven, he immediately becomes one of the best Warriors they have, and he knows it. While Amory considers him to be a complete jerk, he secretly believes that he is acting like a big brother to her. He wants the best for her, but he doesn't exactly know how to show it, being the youngest of three. In the end, he redeems himself in her eyes, and I'm hoping she'll understand that he loves her in his own way.

But it wouldn't be a me post without a little rambling, right? This is for a good cause, though. For the last month, I've been a bit down and I don't know why. Something happened last night that brought my mood up, so it finally hit me. About a month ago, my boyfriend and I went to Night of Destruction out in Perris, because sometimes we need to watch car smash into each other. It's usually fun, with no serious injuries, but the last one was different. There's this kid, Kyle, who raced a huge, old RV among small, compact cars. He was awesome in the first race, and everyone cheered him on. In the second night, someone hit the back of his RV, causing it to flip over and then literally burst into flames. He escaped after a few seconds, but the fire caused horrible burns all over his body.

It hurt my heart thinking about this kid, who wanted nothing more than to race in his crappy RV and make everyone happy, sitting in a hospital. Luckily, his twin brother put up constant updates and even started a fundraiser to help pay for hospital bills. Last night, my boyfriend told me that Perris Auto Speedway, the place where Night of Destruction takes place, had their own fundraiser and so did the fair that has nothing to do with the speedway. The drivers have been coming out into the crowd the last few weeks to talk with people and take money for donations.

Sometimes the world gets a little too selfish for me. Sometimes I wonder why people are out for themselves and not others. But that one conversation with my boyfriend made me happy, made me realize that not all people are rude little jerks. It's what I needed after this month. And, so, I'm putting up a link for those of you who want to donate money. Even if it's just a little, whatever you can give, would be fantastic. I'm not shaming you into doing it, either: if you can't, you can't. I totally get it. Money's tight, but if you could spare that Starbucks fund, then that would be wonderful.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fundraiser-for-kyle?mobile=1

Sorry. Sometimes these things need to be said, and explaining it to my cat doesn't exactly have the same impact for me.

Three Groups And A Little Tangent

If you understand the reference in my title, I promise to love you forever.

Let's jump into it. I have stuff on my mind and I need to get it off as quickly as possible before I have another break down.

So, there's three main groups in the hierarchy of Heaven. I didn't want people to die and just loll around on clouds, strumming on harps. So I made Heaven into a second Earth of sorts, with shops and parks and houses and all that junk we're accustomed to. There's just no currency (not to mention night). But there is a government of sorts, with the twelve Archangels at the head. The various kings and queens of Earth that have ascended are given figurehead positions in different counties of Heaven. They have no real power, but are just the mouth of the Archangels.

I think that's the basic gist of it.

Now, the three groups. These are government groups, meaning they work directly for the government. The lowest is the Psychologists. These angels have the special ability to listen to humans' thoughts, to hear what they're not saying aloud. They use this ability to help the two other groups, for when they have a mission that involves a human. Most Psychologists venture onto Earth with one of the other groups, but then are sent directly back to Heaven because they have no further use once they hear the intended human. This does not apply for Drystan, who always remains in Heaven, because he can hear both humans and angels, and the Council considers him to be a precious commodity.

The second group would have to be the Warriors. These are the toughest angels Heaven has to offer, mostly made up of former soldiers. They're dispatched to Earth when a war is happening, so that they can fight alongside the humans and keep their world safe. Warriors are often sensitive about their position, because they understand that they are only the muscle, and angels look at them as such. Although there is no real leader among the Warriors, Gunnar's name comes up more than most, but only because he is such a versatile soldier.

The last group, and the most important, is the Guardians. They are not the stereotypical Guardian angel watching over one human assigned to them. Instead, Guardians are sent to Earth when the Council finds a human they see fit on keeping alive. When sent down, a Guardian must do all he or she can to keep that human alive through any situation and for any amount of time. There are levels to the Guardian hierarchy, a level ten the highest one can achieve. There has never been a level ten in history, and Amory is the closest to getting it.

So there's the basic idea of the hierarchy. These groups often come together to work, but that doesn't mean they get along. And it certainly doesn't mean that they enjoy their positions.

Now to the little tangent. I started planning my NaNo story last week, and the jerk clubbed me over the head and demanded that I start working on it right now! Of course I had to comply because my head is very sensitive. Really, it's a story that's been in my mind since last Halloween. My boyfriend and I went to Knotts Scary Farm last year and tried one of their new things called Trapped. It was amazing, and I went home with this story percolating in my brain, but it wouldn't come because it was too much like Trapped and nothing was going to be better than it. Skip to this year, when we went back to Knotts and tried their second attempt at Trapped. Let's just say that we left more pissed than scared. I hate theme parks that give you so much goodness for so long and then yank it out from underneath you without caring because they have your money, so tough luck! But it brought this story back to me, and my anger made it a thousand times more interesting, mainly because I kept thinking, I could totally make this better than that piece of crap Trapped. So. Here I am. 6,000 words into a story I was supposed to save for November and rapidly falling more and more in love with it as the word count grows.

I had a billion more words to say about theme parks, but now is not the time nor place. I'll save that for another post.