An End and a Beginning

Have I mentioned how much I hate construction? Not the whole profession, of course, mainly just construction that's being done on my apartment for the last freaking week. As I'm typing this, I'm watching some guy tape up my window so they can start painting. I have no idea what they've done to this building, but I swear, they weren't working on the other buildings this long. Or maybe I'm just being a huge baby and miss the quiet of this place. Ha! Quiet. Who am I kidding? This complex is never quiet (seriously: right now, there's a gardener, trash truck, and construction happening all at once).

Anyway, in case you didn't notice up the in the corner there, I finished NaNo this weekend. I had a little time on Saturday and decided to bang out the rest (in between reading and playing games, of course). It's not the best thing I've written - obviously - but, like I've said before, it kept me writing. It kept me excited for writing more and (to a point) editing. Which should begin soon. Even though I complain about it a lot, I do want to get this done and I do enjoy rereading everything I wrote. Still, this was always the part I hated after writing essays. Not because I have to see my words over and over again, but because I begin doubting myself and changing everything. Halfway through my high school career, I smartened up and kept the original, copied it, and then edited that. Not everything I write is terrible (I hope), but I used to throw away everything because that's how it felt.

For example, I found my very first attempt at Amory and there were some passages that I absolutely adored, but I cut them out because, back then, I thought they were stupid and silly. But now I wish that I had kept some of them, because they were pretty good. But sometimes it's such a pain going through everything and changing things, but then also trying to keep things, and then blending those passages and words together so they make a coherent story. I sometimes reach a point where I just want it all to be over and then sloppiness happens. Sigh. Hopefully I won't make that same mistake this time around.

But now I have to get all those little domestic chores done so I can get my life going. I used to laugh at my mom and sister when they would complain about grocery shopping or doing laundry, because I used to love those things, but now that I have to do them on a regular basis (aka, "being an adult"), it's not so fun. Especially watching money fly out my wallet. I'm sure that's the worst part for everyone, though. It better be. I'm not going to be alone in feeling this. I think this is the moment where I start a support group for those that hate spending money on food and laundry. I'll put it on my list.

Anyone Up For The OC Marathon?

Would you like to sit down once more for story time? Good. Once upon a time, construction men came to my apartment building and woke me up at 7:30 a.m. every morning this week. I'm not happy. The end.

Why, yes, I'd like to be a professional writer. Why do you ask?

Being woken up - as opposed to waking up on my own - throws me off. Even though I've complained about schedules before, I found this week that I actually have one and when it gets interrupted, I'm confused for the rest of the day. I write after watching Stewart and Colbert, but if I can't watch them because of the noise outside, my writing seriously goes all over the place. I've managed to get more than 18,000 words down, though, so I guess I've done pretty well! I forgot the exact number I have left, but I'll update the word count widget after publishing this, and hopefully I can finish by Monday or maybe even this weekend if I'm not too busy being absolutely lazy.

Honestly, I almost forgot about NaNo, not because I wasn't interested in the story anymore, but because I was involved in Lego The Hobbit and reading two books (PS, by the way, in case any of you want reviews on these books, click on my Goodreads button on the side. I try to post as many reviews as I can, but some books only get stars...Sorry!). I think I'm at the point where I want to fit in as much relaxation activities before I have to actually buckle down and start editing. And you know what that means! More posts about editing and how much I want to throw myself off my balcony! Yay!

Seriously, though.

I'm preemptively being lazy. When I opened up my manuscript files, immediately I thought, You know what would be a good idea right now? If I rewatch all The OC episodes. Right now. Even watching my cat eat sounds better than editing (really: she sniffs her food, the same food that she's been eating for the last two months, and stares at it, confused, before she starts eating). The one good part of editing is that I have a new idea for this book. It means a lot more adding and writing, but I think that it'll be good for the story. I think that it will help make sense of most things and a few characters. It popped into my head the other day and while I initially groaned, I've been writing little notes posted around my apartment and the more I look at them, the more I like the idea.

Five more days. And then weeks of editing and rewriting. Then more weeks of promotion. And years of crippling self-doubt. Oh the fun.

Comic Books and Other Words

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, my boyfriend and I went to a comic book convention. We spent an hour and a half wandering around a rather hot area-like place, surrounded by comic books, comic book inspired clothing, and enough skin and tight clothing to make me wonder if we hadn't stumbled into an adult convention on mistake (it would have been a lot less dorky). We bought some comic books, I bought a pair of TARDIS slippers (all so I could get a TARDIS bag that I could have bought alone, but the lovely cashier didn't tell me that until I had already paid for the slippers), and we saw a man dressed as Easter Bunny Wolverine (carrots for the blades, bunny ears on the head). It was the weirdest, dorkiest experience of my entire life. It takes a special type of person to attend one of those things, and I am not that kind of special.

Not that those conventions (or the people who attend) are bad. It was pretty fun, when we found the things that we wanted. But it was kind of a mess of people and things and sweat and cosplaying. Just a mess, really. Let's just say that I'm never again going to wish to attend Comic Con.

Other than the healthy dose of nerdiness this weekend, I spent a lot of time doing a whole lot of nothing. We had a few plans set up, but we scraped all those once we sat down on the couch. It's always rather nice doing nothing on weekends, and I managed to not only catch up to the word count goal for NaNo, but I'm ahead now. I tend to fall behind for awhile and then go a little nuts one day. Now I only have about 5,000 words left. I could most likely finish this week, and then I'd be done with NaNo and not have to do anything with writing forever!

Oh, wait. Editing.

Siiiiiiigh. Yeah, I know. I'm getting to it. When I posted the little preview on my birthday, that was the first time in weeks that I had looked at that manuscript. I have to admit, I felt a little wistful looking at my words. I want to get back to Amory and to get her story going, but I know that there's going to be so much more to this editing process than the previous one. In order to finish this manuscript, I wrote the bare bones of what I wanted. I know there's a million things I want to add, meaning this isn't just about grammar and spelling anymore. Editing on the computer first and then print it out at Staples second.

Oh my god, why can't my cat read? She would be a fine editor.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a final manuscript in about June, maybe closer to July. It still won't be out until the end of summer, because then there's the aesthetics of it all: the cover, the making it look like a real book.

Geez, who decided that I wanted to write?

Comic Books Took Over This Post

I prepared myself to start writing about how this is the middle of April and that there's so much time left for Camp Nano...and then I looked at a calendar. Sure, this is the middle of April, but I noticed that the end of April is less than two weeks away. As you can tell from the nifty word count bar that I've been trying to update daily, I'm staying a bit ahead of the game. I've fallen behind quite a few times, but I've been trying to discipline myself and write every morning. It's a bit exciting to know that I'm going to finish another story, even if nothing will come of it. I think I mentioned that I have a million stories piled up somewhere in my computer. It's true, and it sometimes upsets me that I don't get to finish them. I try to save them for Camp sessions or just for when I need a break from writing an actual book, but most of them steamroll to an exciting moment and then...Pffffft. Nothing. It's done. I'm over it.

This is why I don't dye my hair often. I get so bored so quickly.

But I have found something new to keep my interest in little half hour increments: comic books. Yes, I realize that I'm not the first person to have discovered these little gems of awesomeness, but this is the first time that I've been pretty excited about reading them. About two years ago, my boyfriend made me read Watchmen so that we could watch the movie (which we still haven't...sigh). It took me about a month to get through, but I really loved it. Of course my favorite character (which, I'll admit, my boyfriend did tell me not to get too attached to) died, but the story was amazing and the art was beautiful. I took a little break and then Joe Hill decided to come out with The Wraith, a super creepy comic that's kind of a companion to his novel NOS4A2 (seriously, go look at all of that). I finally found a place to read them on my Kindle (because I've been a total dork about going to a comic book store) and rushed through them last week. Then another amazing girl, Noelle Stevenson (who writes the comic Nimona....go check that out, too!) came out with her own comic book Lumberjanes. I've been freaking out about it for months and now it's out and I've read it and I'm going to WonderCon this Sunday to get another copy and meet her and I'm fangirling right now like you wouldn't believe.

You may remember this post awhile back and how I gushed about a certain wrestler-turned-comic book artist Scott Lost. He's also supposed to be at WonderCon with his second comic. Honestly, last link, but his series is pretty awesome.

Now that I feel like a complete nerd (I'm also watching Bates Motel, playing Lego The Hobbit, and wrapped up in my TARDIS blanket, so take that, nerds!), I should probably get my day going. My long, eventful day of...nothing.

I wonder if JK Rowling ever has this problem.

Writing Breaks

You know what I should be doing right now? I should be at the car wash, watching some guys clean the junk out of my car and making it look super nice. But, instead, I turned off my alarm and woke up late, so I figured that I could wait on the car wash until a little later. Well, that and my laundry is heaped in an alarmingly high pile right now, so clothes come before the car (sorry car). There's also several thousand other things I would like/have to do this morning, and I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't some brilliance in those schedule things.

If any of you visited this blog this weekend, you may have noticed that my word count didn't move. Well, it was my birthday this weekend and things got a little crazy. We were shopping and going to car races and sleeping and eating and potting plants and...You get the idea. When we did have the time for me to pull out my laptop, I didn't want to. I just wanted to sit on the couch and stare at the wall. I was so tired from moving. Needless to say, I have a bit of catching up to do, and hopefully I can finish that this morning, as well. I have a video game to get to tonight, so I want a little free time!

And now I just took an hour long break from this thing to catch up on writing. Well, and laundry, but that's beside the point. Now I'm all caught up and even a little ahead! This story seems so amazingly simple to me, and that's kind of scary. I feel like I'm going to go back and read over what I read after April, and then wonder what the heck I was writing. Oh well. For now, at least, I'm writing, and that's the important part. I guess that's the real reason I do these camp sessions. Not because I know I'm going to be writing my next book, but because I'm writing (almost) every day. It helps keep me in the swing of things, so when I go back during the summer to writing, I'm not crying on the keyboard and massaging my hands every two seconds. Although, I guess I do that anyway, but only because I'm rather dramatic.

Oh, yeah, I hope you all enjoyed the little snippet last Friday. I wasn't sure what to pick, so I closed my eyes and scrolled to whatever chapter my mouse landed on. I'm very professional like that. But I think that this was the best one I could have picked, because everything else is rather spoilery. This one gives just enough taste for everyone to wonder what's going to happen next, right? I know it does for me, because I can't remember what happens after this scene. Remember: professional!

But now I have to go update the website with my new word count and get ready for the day. I don't know what's going to happen to me when I actually have a real job where I have to wake up in the morning and take a shower then. I might die. That's good enough for me not to get a real job. I guess I'll just be independently wealthy for the rest of my life.

A (Early) Birthday Gift

Have I complained yet about the stupid temperature in southern California? I'm sure I have, but you're going to hear it again. It's been in the low 90s/high 80s this whole week, and now my weather app is telling me that it's going to rain tomorrow. Oh. My. Gosh. Can we just have a week of normal temperature? I know everyone here loves the warm weather and how there's absolutely no seasons, but really? I grew up with spring, summer, fall, and (sort of) winter, and this warm weather is not my friend. I don't like being gross and sweaty, and I don't like sitting around my apartment wondering if I could fry an egg on my head. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but really.

Now that that's out of the way, I can go on with the most important thing right now: my birthday.

Ha! I bet you thought I was going to say writing!

Really, though, they're going hand in hand this year. Since I changed stories, I've been writing like a crazy person. Since Monday, I've written about 8,600 words (the word count widget on the side should tell you my exact number). I don't know what it was about this story, but it took off. Of course, it had about 16,000 words in it already, so now I'm just finishing it up.

I'm also ahead of schedule because I wanted plenty of time on Saturday to eat breakfast, get a macaron ice cream sandwich, buy a comic book, and open presents! Because I'm turning nine years old tomorrow, apparently.

Okay, but let's get to the real reason we're all here today: I think I made a promise last week. And I'm going to fulfill that promise! So, here's a little taste of the second book in the Guardian Trilogy. Little set up: Amory, Fintan, and Oskar are meeting with a leader in one of the many camps around North America. This one happens to be a changeling, with his own little army of changelings. (Please remember, this is unedited, so it most like will change in the final draft)

Enjoy! Have a happy weekend everyone!

Fintan and I take a seat across from Donald, but Oskar remains standing behind us, his hand hovering near my shoulder blades.

“You have such a loyal following, Amory,” Donald remarks with a sly glance at my brother.

“Not a following,” I correct him gently. “Just really good friends.”

“Hmmm.” Donald winks at me, letting me know that he doesn’t truly believe that these people don’t want anything from me.

Fintan leans on the table, his arms crossed in front of him. “Listen, Donald, Jane said that you would be most likely to align with us. She said that the eastern part of this country is somewhat of a mess.”

Donald nods gravely. “Yes. I’m not sure what happened, but once the war hit, everyone went bananas. Some went west, others went south, more went north, but the most walked right into the ocean. They couldn’t handle it, you know. They knew that a new world order was coming along and they didn’t want to think that they would be at the bottom. Not when they had lived their entire lives at the top.”

“So, how did you come here?” I ask. “With the...changelings?”

He smiles at the word. “Ah, yes, me and my little darlings. We thought that we would throw our hat in this mess, so to speak. But we didn’t want to bring attention to ourselves. We didn’t want to pick the wrong side at the get go, of course. So we made a little camp, took in the people who wanted to come with us, decide to bide our time. We knew that once one side came up on top, we would be able to work our way in there.” His face falls a bit. “Imagine my surprise when we heard that it wasn’t going to be so easy.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“Well, my dear, we thought that the two sides would fight it out, a good old fashioned boxing match. But we never thought that they would be fighting over a boy.”

“You’ve heard of Rick,” Oskar says.

Donald snorts. “Heard of him? Of course I have, my boy! There’s not a supernatural creature on this planet that hasn’t heard of him. But none of us thought that he would end up being the catalyst.”

“The catalyst?” Fintan repeats. “What do you mean?”

The air around us changes, sparks into a gaseous fire slamming into our backs. I’m not sure if everyone can feel it, but the subtle movements Fintan makes, Oskar’s fingers pressing harder into my shoulders, tells me all I need to know.

Donald’s shrewd eyes watch me. “You mean your dear angel girl hasn’t told you about the prophecy?”

The voices of the Council swell in my ears.

It was only the prediction that saved you from your true home in Hell!

The prediction did not say that you would unite the two realms. It only said that you would help unite the two.

Truthfully, I had forgotten about those silly words until now. I had bee far too preoccupied with falling from Heaven, fighting for the world, and watching my best friend cut my wings off.

My plate was pretty full.

I swallow slowly, ignoring the question on Fintan’s face. “I saw no reason to tell anyone. It has nothing to do with any of us.”

“Nothing to do...?” Donald’s jaw slacks, his expression aghast. Then he suddenly leans back, slams his hand on the table, and lets out the loudest guffaw I’ve ever heard. When he straightens, he points at Fintan, shaking his head. “My boy, the gall of this girl! Nothing to do with any of you! Why, the prophecy only does everything but name Amory as the uniter!”

A chilly silence follows the flaming air, and yet I still don’t turn to my companions. Oskar’s fingers have danced slowly away from me, and even Fintan beings to sway closer to Donald.

I never hid this from them, but now it sounds like a secret.

“What’s a uniter?” Oskar asks quietly. He sounds a thousand years away from me.

“Something of a diplomat,” Donald says, leaning back, getting comfortable in the spotlight. “The uniter - Amory, in this case - is supposed to help the realms of Heaven and Hell combine, but the exact way was supposedly lost in the mumbo-jumbo of that ridiculous book humans worship.”

I smile, confidence surging through my veins. “If it was lost, then why does everyone think it’s me?”

Donald sighs heavily, his prize pupil letting him down once more. “Oh, Amory. Most of it is written in the Book. Isn’t that required reading for the angels?”

Shame burns my cheeks. “I suppose I never got around to reading the whole thing. It’s like a piece of Russian literature, that enormous thing.”

“Well, in section fourteen of chapter eight, it states,” Donald says, clearing his throat with a flourish, “that the burning soul that is neither quite of Heaven nor quite of Hell shall find the savor of the world and assist him in the bringing together of the two realms.” He ends by grinning wickedly at me, as if daring me to argue.

Fintan comes closer, but only by an inch. “That sounds more like Rick than Amory. He’s the one that’s not quite of Heaven and not quite of Hell, is he not?”

“That’s right!” I say, quick to agree with anything that will end this ridiculous conversation. “Rick’s the hauflin. I’m just a regular angel.”

“A fallen one, if I’m not mistaken,” Donald replies.

The words taste like sludge in my mouth. “That’s correct.”

“So...not quite of Heaven and not quite of Hell...right?” The changeling’s sly tone makes me teeth clamp together. He continues quickly, building on his steam. “You also missed the most important part of the prophecy. It says the burning soul. Sometimes, when someone writes about a burning person, they do not mean literally. That would can also describe someone with passion or, perhaps, an incurable temper.”

As if being called, the edge of my vision tinges red, the familiar roiling fire in my belly exploding until it fills me with anger, and it takes every fiber of my being to rein it back. But Donald’s already seen what his words have done to me, and his gaze widens in triumph.

I stand, almost shoving Oskar on the ground. “We just need to know if you’re with us or against us, Mr. Grace. We don’t need a history lesson.”

He chuckles quietly, suddenly reminding me a little child. “Oh, I always pick the winning team, Amory. My group and I are with you. We would be stupid not to choose you.”

It’s obvious that he wants me to ask what he means by that, but I don’t grab the bait. Instead, I offer a tight smile and turn on my heels, stalking away from this little man and his inane theories.

“Amory,” he calls, bringing my traitorous legs to a stop.

I turn back to him. “Yes?”

Even with his short legs, he covers the ground between us quickly. Oskar and Fintan move to keep up, but he leaves them behind quickly.

Once he’s within a hand’s breadth of me, his gaze moves to my shoulders. “I heard your wings were cut off.”

“Oh really?” My smile turns to a snarl. “Who’s been talking about me?”

He shakes his head smoothly, not in the least ruffled by my attitude. “My dear, who hasn't been talking about you?”

I remain silent, my best option.

He leans closer, and Fintan’s at my side in a second. Donald ignores him, as he’s been doing most of this meeting. “But that’s not the hot gossip. No, it’s all about the mythical blade that creatures are talking about.”

“Letalis,” I breath.

Just saying the name throws me back in time, back to the beach where Drystan heaved the glowing green blade above his head, preparing to cut Fintan’s head from his body. The name brings back the memory of hot pain slicing through my wings, of the thud of massive feathers hitting the ground, of Drystan’s final insult of flying away from the damage he caused. It brings back the sensation of Fintan’s hand on the bloodied stumps, of him trying his best to burn away what remained of my feathered friends, of him leaving me with two awkward humps of flesh.

It brings back the anger that I had stored away so well during this mission.

Donald’s eyes widen and his smile disappears. “So it’s real. The fabled blade that can kill any immortal creature.”

“It didn’t kill me.” The pride is evident in my tone.

His gaze sparkles mischievously. “Yet.”

Story Gnomes

You want to know the best thing about NaNo time? The unpredictability. Anything can happen during this time, and it usually comes out in the story. You know what else is the best thing? When you're almost a week into NaNo and decide that you don't like the way that your story is going so you decide to abandon it and start another one.

Sigh.

Yes, that's what I decided to do late last night. I opened up Scrivener and read over what I had read. The prologue is pretty good, but the first chapter wanders aimlessly. I have no idea what's going on there and I don't think any of my characters know, as well. I have other stories that are waiting on the back burner, stories that are just kind of there, and so I'm going to start one of those. But I'm not completely abandoning the first story. I guess I want more time to actually plan it out, because, like I said before, I like this idea. It makes me a bit sad reading over what I wrote because I want it to be good, and this is not my best. I guess I'm just not the type to wing it. I've tried before, and I keep getting frazzled or don't like anything that I've done. I'm a planner. I need to stop fighting that.

Needless to say, I spent my weekend actively avoiding my computer. I just couldn't think of a thing to write about. Well, for my former NaNo story. I have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but I have nothing in between those. I'm like the underpants gnomes.

I have a phase one and three, but phase two is kind of murky. Not that it's a bad thing. I'll find that phase eventually, but it's not going to happen if I'm stumbling my way through it.

Besides that, I've made the terrible decision of trying to watch Game of Thrones during this month, too. I'm only on the fifth episode of the first season, so doing well! I also need to stop referring to Cersei as Galadriel and wondering when Arya is going to kill everyone and become queen. Yes, I've read the books, so I (vaguely) know what happens, but still. I can dream.

For now, however, I have to stop dreaming and finish stupid chores like laundry and grocery shopping. Where's the part where I start being rich from writing and can hire someone to do these things?

100!

Wow, I'm already at 100 posts. That didn't take as long as I thought it would. Of course, I've never been good with numbers, so I'm sure I thought it would be years before I reached 100 posts. Math is not my friend.

Oh, this week. This week has been beautiful. Let's start with NaNo. Since I started participating in this program in 2009, I've been a terrible cheater. I always plan ahead, storyboard for at least a month, and then have no worries when it comes to November (or, in the camp cases, April) 1st. But this year. This year! I've done nothing. I have an idea for a story, I know my characters, I know what the story is (basically) about. But do I know where I'm going, chapter to chapter? Nope. Do I know how one character is supposed to get from A to B? Nuh-uh. I'm just writing. I'm only one the first chapter and setting things up. This is interesting, trying something new. Am I stressed over it? Surprisingly, no. I'm having a good time, just writing and seeing where the characters want to go. Am I going to reach 20,000 words this way? Who knows. But I do know that I'm having a good time trying.

Another good thing to come out of this month is that I'm already thinking about editing for Amory. It's been more than a week since I finished and stepped away from it, and I already miss it. Usually that takes a few weeks, maybe even a month or two. But this was a quick turn around. I find myself looking at the file folder more than I should. If what the Camp NaNo page tells me is true, I could finish this current story around the middle of April (if I stop at 20,000 words), and then I could get to editing faster than I thought. Which means I could get it out faster than I thought. Which means I could cry over the fact that I hate promotion...faster than I thought. Seriously. Who invented promoting yourself? It's awkward and strange and I hate it. Let me tell you a quick story: My dad called me a few weeks ago because we had an issue with my rental insurance. I could talk with him about that for days. But then he changed the subject and started talking about my book and how much he liked it. I just sat there, hmmming and mumbling my thanks. If you want to talk about books I've read or movies I've seen or places I've been, awesome. I'll gab your ear off. Wait, what? You want to talk about something I created? Nope. I'm going to sit here and stare at you uncomfortably until you shut up and start up about Harry Potter again.

I'm a terrible author, huh? Don't I know it.

Oh, quick note, though: My birthday is coming up in a week. Well, it's on a Saturday, but, really, I celebrate my birthday all month. Because I'm seven years old (wouldn't that be a twist?). So, next week, I may share a little from the new manuscript for Amory. Please remember, it'll be unedited and it may be completely different once the book comes out, but at least it'll give you a little taste of what this book is about. It's on my calendar now, so I won't forget! Promise!

PS - Thanks to everyone who reads this and has stayed for 100 posts. You're all the best.