Internet Exile is Over!

Okay, it wasn't exactly exile, but it sure felt like it. Did I say that moving sucked? Because it does. And more! I had to turn off my internet service at my old apartment last Wednesday, and so I've been surviving off my 4G phone since then. I thought I'd have internet on Friday, but that was when I thought I'd be moved in before nine in the morning and have a few minutes before we went off to the Oval Nationals. The best laid plans, right? But the super nice guy from Time Warner came out today and set it all up, and I'm proud to say that I set up my wireless all by myself! (Well, with a little help from my boyfriend and YouTube) I should have written this earlier, but I may have been a tad overexcited at having internet again and went nuts until I had to leave for work. Better late than never!

NaNo started on Friday! I'd love to say that I have my plot all laid out and that my characters are behaving wonderfully. I'm only about 6,000 words into it, and I'm kind of proud to say that I have no idea what I'm doing. This story is kind of a mess, but a beautiful one. I have an idea of where I'd like to go, and the bits and pieces are there, but I really have no clue on how to meat it out. And isn't that the point of NaNo, really? To get something down and make it to 50,000 words? This is the first year that I didn't spend hours on my plot holes, my characters' personalities, the fabulous settings. I'm completely winging it this year, with only the barest outline to go by. It's kind of terrifying, kind of exciting, and kind of awesome. I'm really feeling like a true NaNo-er right now, and it's about time, too!

Ah. Obviously, with all this moving and no internet nonsense, that means AYLB has not been updated. Yes, I'm a terrible book parent, but I'm getting there! Let me enjoy the silence of my new apartment and the fact that I can do whatever I please here. That means I can watch stupid dramas at high volumes without the worry of being judged by anyone. Like I worried about that before, really.  But now I get to laugh and cry with the rest of the characters and not have my dad look at my like I've gone insane.

But I do have some more writing to get done, so I better hop to it. I started late this year, because moving takes a lot out of a person. So I have to catch up and get ahead, so that I can do what I do every year: take a few days off and not have to worry about making the quota (especially around the 22nd and 23rd...Really, who decided that Catching Fire and Doctor Who should happen on the same weekend?). I'll put a new and improved NaNo writing bar up in the next few days, and I'd love to hear about anyone else doing NaNo, too! NaNo buddies!

And not the ones that I already have, because they don't talk to me. Rude.

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.