As the Plot Thickens

The Power of Headphones

2012-01-28T13:26:00.002-06:00

A lot of people, myself included, like to listen to music while they write. Be it classical or modern, wordless or with lyrics, a lot of writers I've talked to say they prefer music to silence. Some are the opposite, of course, but many people like the atmosphere and mood that the music sets up.

My one problem is that listening to background music doesn't quite get me in the writing mood, since I usually have background music on no matter what I'm doing. What I've started doing again is using my big headphones my parents got me for Christmas a couple years back. They're not noise-cancelling, but they do cut out a lot of distractions, so they do a damn fine job of keeping me focused on the document in front of me.

In short, headphones rock. I sometimes have an incredibly short attention span, so anything that forces me to concentrate is a plus. Give me a good, high-energy playlist that sucks me into my own little world and a solid chunk of time to write and I'm good to go.

Silence can also be really beneficial if I'm working on something difficult, but I still like having my headphones. They cut out a lot of background noise, and being cut off from that can do wonders for my productivity. But what about you guys? Music, no music, headphones or not? Any other methods you use to get yourself "in the zone?"

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

--J.

Appreciate Your Talents

2012-01-24T21:56:00.000-06:00

One thing that I always have a hard time with, in my writing and otherwise, is being overcritical. We are our own worst critics, as they say, and I think it tends to be doubled in writers. Every word has to be perfect. Every comma has to be perfectly placed and every sentence has to shine.

And, of course, there's no way in hell that we're actually decent. Oh no. Everyone is better than us. Really, we kind of suck. Thoughts like this fill my head more often than I'd like to admit, and I confess to being entirely too dumbstruck when people complement my work. I'm always terrified that people are just humoring me. It's been less severe in recent months, now that my overall self-esteem has improved and I'm beginning to actually appreciate...well, myself.

But it's still there, that self-depreciation. It's kind of stupid, really. Appreciate your talents, people! You're not J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, but damn it, you've got talent of your own. And if it takes you twenty drafts to get something you like...well, hey, guess what? There aren't a lot of people in this world that will stick with something that long. Determination is a valuable trait, and if you've got it, you're on it. You're in the game and you'll go far.

Appreciate your skills and talents and don't be so hard on yourselves. That's my advice for the week, and I hope we can all overcome those blocks and really see how fantastic we are. Because we are a fantastic bunch, we writers. A little nuts, a little insecure, but a whole lotta fun.

I hope you all have a great evening and that your writing goes well and that, if you don't already, you can learn to appreciate your talents. Hell, I hope I can appreciate mine more often. There's a difference between egotism and recognizing your strong suits, after all, and if you don't recognize your inner awesomeness...well, that's no fun, is it?

--J.

The Zone

2012-01-19T09:00:00.000-06:00

I've long been one of those people that advocates the "ass in chair" method of writing, wherein, no matter what, you plonk your ass in the chair and get some work done every single day. It's really, really easy to be an advocate of that method, until you hit a rough patch. I'm prone to these cyclical bouts of...well, not quite depression, but what I've affectionately nicknamed "the blahs."

I'm not in one of those cycles now, but it's something I've been thinking of after such a horribly long bout of said blahs. During the blahs, writing just isn't quite as important somehow. Sometimes I just plain don't. freaking. want to. Sometimes I am legitimately busy, and sometimes things happen that push writing to the bottom of the "important things to do list."

I am still one of those ass in chair people, and I kick myself all through those cycles where I pussyfoot around and find excuses where I don't feel like writing. At the end of the last cycle, I broke myself out of it by sitting down and reading the few chapters before the one I'd been working on. It got me back into the story and put me in that mindset. It made actually working a LOT easier to do, and now...well, look where I am now, right?

I think everybody's different, and some work best only writing when they feel inspired. Some people need daily structure. Some people, like me, move in cycles. I think advocating any one method is kind of dumb, because, again, everybody's different. I generally prefer a regular routine, but some people are more random and sporadic, and some people are just plain busy.

I do wonder, though, if the blah cycles sort of happen because I get tired of the structure after awhile. If it's not always the story or problems with ideas as it is I'm ready to be a bit random and sporadic. I don't know, really, but if there's one thing I can count on it's that I move in cycles if I don't have a set deadline, and even within that deadline I'll move in cycles of "workworkwork" and "just do the bare minimum" from day to day and week to week.

What about you guys? Any thoughts to share regarding my late-night* ponderings?

(Yeah, I typed this last night. I had a feeling today would be rather long and I'd get distracted, so I did it in a bit of spare time. Anyway. Hope you liked.)

Thoughts on Queries

2012-01-18T19:21:00.001-06:00

Those of you that have known me or who have read this blog for any length of time remember that I've sent out queries before, on an earlier project. Those that do remember will also remember my horrific naivete. I've resisted the urge to delete all those old posts (I started this blog in 2008...oh, how I long to delete the old, egotistical, naive, angsty posts!), because I think there's been an obvious learning curve there. But I digress. The point is, I've gone through the query thing before. It ended poorly for an alarming number of reasons, but at this point I like to think I'm a bit...well, less stupid.

I'm doing the read-through of Pixiehunter this week, and then I'm going to give myself a bit of time before I actually start working on submitting. I feel like I have a solid framework for a query, but I'm not stupid enough to think I can just pop one off and get any sort of decent results. It's a process. I do feel like I'm better equipped and able to write a decent one now, but we'll see how it goes.

I feel really good about this project. I really, really do. Life's good, the writing's good, the story's good, and it just feels...solid. Like I've actually got something that will catch a publisher's eye and sell. Something that people will read.

Ah well. I suppose we'll see what happens, yeah?

--J.

What Are These Feels?

2012-01-16T17:32:00.001-06:00

So, hey, remember that whole "I'll have the final revisions done by my birthday" post that I just did a couple days ago? Remember it? That one? Where I said I didn't think finishing by the time classes started tomorrow was quite feasible?

Remember?

Yeah?

Well guess what I just did. Go on, guess.

That's right.

I proved myself completely wrong and, about, say, ten minutes ago as of writing this...I finished. Revisions. The final ones. Before line edits. Which won't take very long at all.

I don't quite know what all these feels are. I feel very surreal and kind of lightheaded, but I think that's partially due to the fact that I haven't eaten very much today.

BUT I'M DONE.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO---------

*Ahem.* I'm going to go eat now, before I pass out. Have a good evening.

--J.

When Shit Hits the Fan

2012-01-14T12:05:00.000-06:00

Yet another load of shit has hit the fan in my personal life. It's nothing I can't deal with and nothing quite earth-shattering, but it still sucks. This year just hasn't gotten off to a very good start, and it's disheartening. But despite everything, I'm still going. Still writing and revising, and still keeping my shit mostly together. The way I see it, change happens. Change of plans, change of state, change of schedule and structure and just change in general. You either try to fight it and lose horribly, or you roll with the punches, adjust what you need to adjust, and keep going as strong as you can. Or, as I often put it, you just keep on keeping on.

And that's what I'm doing.

The new semester starts on Tuesday, and with this semester's schedule I have class every day. Three on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and one on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I've said before that I work well on a good schedule, and I do. I'm hoping that if I'm on a solid daily schedule like this, I'll have better luck fitting more things into said schedule instead of sitting around and playing Minecraft and Skyrim and Pokemon and the Sims 2 and watching old Pokemon episodes and the Yogscast on YouTube. I'll have an easier time with revisions, I'll probably read more, and I'll get more shit done. It's usually how these things go.

Thanks to shit hitting the fan, I can't possibly meet my goal of being done with major revisions by the time classes start back up, so I'm going to reset it. Barring any more unforeseen circumstances, I hope to be done with major revisions and rewrites by my birthday, February 17th. That gives me just over a month. I know I can do this, if I work every day and get that hour of writing time in. I'm making headway. After that point, if I've met the goal, I'll go through for tidying and line edits. I'll run final spell and grammar checks for the round and then start working on query letters.

I want this to be my year of writing successes. I want to get this project ready to go and start sending it out. This is my year. I intend to shine.

Topsy Turvy

2012-01-07T22:50:00.001-06:00

I've said before that I don't like writing or editing out of order because I have a hard time keeping everything straight and in order, and I've said before that I don't quite know how people do it. But with all the work that needs to be done on the final few chapters on Pixiehunter (and the few chapters leading up to them), I'm beginning to see the value. Some things just sort of fall into place once you get the big things down, and right now, the big things are a couple chapters ahead of where I'm currently working.

So, using my personal favorite editing method of separating chapters from the main doc and pasting them into their own, I'm going to work on the chapters with the big scenes and get those in order. From there I think I'll have a better handle on how I need to work the little bits to better support the bigger bits. I hope, anyway.

The biggest problem with the last few chapters is that I need to seriously rework and add a few scenes to better wrap the story. The way it is now is fine, but it could be SO much better, and of course I want it to reach that level of awesome. I did get some done today--mainly the breaking up of the final chapters into their own documents and some touch-ups on the chapter I was working on last week--and I'm planning to make tomorrow a Major Day of Writing and Revising. Like I said yesterday, Nana would kick my ass if she thought I wasn't working on my writing.

And, of course, I'll kick my own ass if I let myself sit around like a lump. In any case, tomorrow is a writing day, and since my classes don't start back until the 17th, I have some time. Nate should be home in late February/early March (unless things change), so I kinda want to get most of this done before then. I will, ahem, be otherwise occupied for a good chunk of time once he's home.

Anywho, writing tomorrow. I hope everyone's having a good weekend so far. Ciao for now and all that.

--J.

What Nana Wanted

2012-01-06T17:11:00.000-06:00

For those of you who haven't heard yet, my nana died last week. I have not been handling it well. The first words out of my mouth when Mom told me were "Why are you lying?", shortly followed by, "What do I do?"

So, yeah. I haven't been up to much. The past week has been a blur. We got back from Florida late last night, after the memorial on Wednesday. We were there about a week.

Worst week of my life. Worst start to a new year I could possibly imagine.

I've been through several stages. Things have been surreal. I've been angry. I've been sad. I've curled up in the fetal position and stared at the wall when my only thoughts consisted of loud internal screaming.

I have not written. I have not made art. I have not done anything productive. I have sat on my ass and Minecrafted away all thoughts and feelings until now, when I'm away from family and those who want to hug and console and talk. I haven't been able to handle it. I want to be alone.

Today I've been doing some thinking. I still have a good chunk of time until my classes start back up, and Nana would not want me to sit on my ass. She would tell me to write, and write well. She was--and, I suppose, always will be--my biggest supporter and the one who believed in me most. She and I were closer than anyone, I think.

So, for Nana, I'm going to try and keep going. I'm going to try and fulfill that promise I made myself and write until The Pixiehunter is perfect and ready to be submitted.

Because that's what Nana wanted.

I'll give it to her.

FUS RO DAH

2011-12-27T15:09:00.001-06:00

Well, I did something both stupid and awesome: I bought Skyrim. It's a fantastic game and I'm totally in love with it, but now I'm really, really going to have to push myself to get the writing done. Add in the fact that Mom got me a new DS and N64 so I can play all my other favorite games and then add in Minecraft, and I've got a lot of distractions of the gaming variety to contend with.

Video games, man. They're distracting. Awesome, but distracting.

I have finished edits for issue two of Blood and Lullabies eZine, however, and now it's just a matter of getting things back from my authors, popping off an article in the vein of my "fantasy follies" post from awhile back, and getting it all to Ceri. Not too bad, and the next issue should be out next month. If you haven't subscribed, you can do so at bloodandlullabies.wordpress.com. ;)

It's already three in the afternoon and I've played a lot of Skyrim and Sims today, so I'm going to *try* and dedicate the rest of today to writing and, perhaps, a little bit of cleaning.

This plan will likely fail horribly. But points for trying, right?

Anyway, I hope everybody's having a great week. Ta!

--J.

Editor Mode

2011-12-20T15:30:00.001-06:00

So, now that Mires is home and things have settled down, it's time for me to get into Editor Mode and knock out the stuff for issue two of Blood and Lullabies eZine. No word on when it'll be out yet, but it should be before the end of the month. I've got to talk to Ceri and Mires and see if we can get everything together. Everybody's been busy and things have been hectic, so keeping organized has been sort of difficult. I am hoping we can pull things together and get issue two out fairly soon, though.

Speaking of the eZine, if you haven't already, you can like us on Facebook here. I'm about to start trying to post interesting/helpful writing-related links, and I think if we get some more people on the page we can make it something awesome. I enjoy being the high fantasy editor and working on the 'zine, so give us a like and show your support. Invite your friends as well. :)

Since it's five days 'til Christmas (oy), I also have a lot of wrapping and cleaning and babysitting while Mom does her own wrapping and cleaning, so things might be a little slow until after the 26th. If I'm not around before then, I hope you all have a very good holiday (whichever one, since there are lots). Happy writing, too! :)

--Jenna.

Sluggish Wednesday

2011-12-14T18:36:00.005-06:00

I haven't exactly gotten a lot done today. Or yesterday. Or Monday. But I *am* getting things done, slowly but surely. I'm in that weird "piecing things back together" stage, and once I can make it through the current chapter, it's going to be interesting, considering I know there's at least half a chapter that has been hardly touched since draft one. I'm not dreading it, it'll just be interesting to see how many things I need to tweak.

I actually woke up really early today, thanks to a text from my friend Charles, but I really haven't done much but Minecraft and Tumblr and read books. And sorta-kinda-not-really-because-it's-easy-material study for my government final tomorrow.

So...I should probably go write, yeah? Mires'll be over tomorrow afternoon, so I dunno how much I'll be getting done over the next few days. I dunno how much I'll be able to post, either, so if I don't see you guys--have a great weekend! :)

--J.

Regular Tuesday

2011-12-13T18:09:00.004-06:00

Well, I'm suspending Teaser Tuesday again. I wanted to try and get back into it, but, well, I'm always so hard-pressed to find good teasers that haven't been shared before and don't give away too much. So I suppose, for now, Tuesday is just regular Tuesday.

I don't have too terribly much to say today. This week is sort of bleh since it's finals week, but I only have one left, so I'm trying to get some editing for the eZine in, as well as my own work. I have a full month off for Christmas break, so here's hoping it'll be fairly productive. Mires is spending the weekend here, and I might actually be going to a small Yule get-together, but we'll see.

I'm horribly boring. Derp.

I'm pleased with myself overall, blogging-wise. I've at least been able to keep a semi-regular thing going, here, and now that I'm back with the writing, I'm coming up with more things to say that are actually maybe kind of sort of interesting. I hope.

In any case, there are things to be done, so I'm off for now. Hope everyone's having a great week.

--J.

Bits and Pieces

2011-12-12T17:36:00.003-06:00

I went and lost track of the days again, what with the busy weekend and it being finals week. Derp. In any case, I've been trying to get things done, and today I thought I'd share the method that keeps me sane through revisions.

When I'm heavy into revisions and it starts to get daunting, I, personally, run the risk of falling off the wagon. It gets overwhelming sometimes, especially if there's a lot of work to be done, and I just can't always handle the sheer amount. So what do I do? I break it up. If it's really bad, I'll copy-paste each chapter into its own document as I work on it and then copy-paste it back into the main doc when I'm done. Sometimes I'll do it in chapter chunks, or half a chapter at a time.

I've got multiple "editing files" for different projects, and as of right now, I think Pixiehunter is in three, with one being the main doc, one being the chapter I'm working on, and one being everything from the current chapter until the end. It works for me, and usually when a friend says they're getting nothing done revisions-wise, I suggest trying that.

What about you guys? Any revision tricks or methods you'd like to share?

Hope everyone had at least a halfway-decent Monday. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to ~~Minecraft~~ write.

I Have No Idea What Day It Is

2011-12-09T11:06:00.001-06:00

I thought yesterday was Wednesday and Wednesday felt like Tuesday and I only just now realized it's Friday. It *is* Friday, right? I think it is. I'm pretty sure it is.

In any case, as far as the WiP Wednesday updates, there were few, and even fewer since. I'm smacked into a chapter that needs a new scene added and a good deal chopped, thanks to a plot point that's no longer as important, and then it's back into the section that needs a few revisions and a new scene or two but not much else. It'll be a bit difficult, but if I work at it, I'm good. My goal is to have revisions wrapped by the time my Christmas break ends (and since it hasn't quite started yet, I'll have plenty of time), and after that, it'll be a read-through for line edits and touch-ups and I'll be done.

I have finals next week, save the one I had yesterday (don't ask me how that went. Just don't.), so I dunno how active I'll be here on the blog. They're for the classes I'm not worried about, though, so I'm sure I'll be fine.

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to re-read The Hunger Games. Because the Girl on Fire is my hero.

Catch you folks later.
-J.

Oh. Hey. It's Tuesday.

2011-12-06T22:59:00.001-06:00

I forgot. Oops. But before Nate calls and I wind down for the evening, here's a bit of a teaser for you lovely readers, from chapter three (The Maid):

Eleanor Nerys woke beneathher mother’s house, curled in the dirt and tucked away in a corner no daylightcould reach. Though the scent of the earth greeted her upon waking, it wasn’tthe familiar, vibrant smell of home—it was cold dirt, rancid decay, and despair.

Why? Why had she come back here? Of all the hiding placesin the city, she had to pick the one that could drive her insane. The one placethat held memories with the power to cripple her.

But it had been so long that everything, from Market Streetto the neighborhood where she’d grown up, had changed. The house was the onlyplace she still knew; the only thing that stayed the same—bleak, dank, lonely.

She wiped the sleep from her eyes, smearing dirt acrossher face. She had to get out. She’d hidden beneath piles of trash in a backalley during the Pixiehunters’ attack, and it was a damned miracle they hadn’talready found her. It was another miracle her friends had escaped withoutgetting themselves killed.

And Now Back to the Rewrites

2011-12-04T15:58:00.001-06:00

I've done a hell of a lot over the past few days. I've gone back through and completely wrapped chapters one through fourteen of The Pixiehunter, and I'm now better set on the rewrites that need to be done over the next few chapters. There are a couple chapters that almost seemed rushed, but now the flow is much better and I feel like everything's coming together quite nicely. Thanks to writing a bit of the hypothetical sequel and going back through the first chapters, I know what I need to add and how I need to change the ending, and all's well thus far.

I'm not a fan of doing rewrites, but they're shaping up to much easier than I'd hoped. So far, that is. I think chapter fifteen is the one that needs the heaviest amount of work, and I'm working on that now. I think I'm doing pretty well. I'm going to try and get back with my crit pals and see if they'll go over everything with me, and then once I'm finished I'll do a final read-through just to make sure it, y'know, actually reads like a good book.

I'm happy. My finals start next week, and my last day of classes is coming up. I'll have a month off before the next semester starts, and in that time I plan to have this thing completely wrapped and ready for my crit pals to read, if they're up for it.

It's good to have plans, yes? :)

Hope everyone has had a great weekend.

--J.

Paragraph Numero Uno

2011-12-02T10:08:00.001-06:00

So now that NaNoWriMo is finished for another year, I'm back to working on revisions for The Pixiehunter. I'm giving chapter one a pass-through, because it's one of the chapters that I'm just not sure about. It's almost spot-on, but...well, it's the first paragraph.

First paragraphs are hard, and everybody seems to have their own rules. You're not supposed to start with dialogue, they say, or somebody waking up from a deep sleep (or any sleep at all). They tell you to always put your main character's name in the first sentence, or they tell you not to. Somebody gives one "rule," somebody else gives one that contradicts it. It kind of sucks. Which is why I ignore all the rules and do what I want.

Still. The first paragraph of The Pixiehunter breaks one of the major "rules," and I'm kind of worried that, even though I feel it's done well, others might think it's sloppy. It's bugging me. I can't really think of another way to do it, though, so I'm trying not to worry too much. I've been told it's good and it sets the story off on the right foot, so I suppose if readers like it, it's fine the way it is.

Why are first paragraphs so difficult? Because it's the first thing people will read. They tell you it has to be grabbing and interesting and exciting. It has to make a random guy in the bookstore want to take it home (me, though, I read a random paragraph in the middle of the book).

So, yes. First paragraphs. Hate 'em, love 'em, they're always a pain in the ass. Do you guys have any sort of "rules" you follow for paragraph numero uno?

Hope you all have a fantastic Friday. :)

--J.

Thoughts on Freelancing

2011-12-01T11:27:00.001-06:00

Being almost eighteen, and being a broke college freshman, money and jobs have been on my mind lately. A lot. I need to start saving to move out, to buy my own food, to pay for my car insurance and gas money, to pay off my library fees, to etc. etc. etc. The problem is, as we all know, that the economy...well, it's kind of crappy right now. And that's probably an understatement.

I live in an area where, at the moment, most jobs hiring are either looking for people over eighteen or looking for people with more experience than I have, so my options are a bit limited at the moment. Once my birthday hits, I'll be applying for more jobs, but until then, I've been trying to do some more writing for Associated Content. For those of you who are my friends on Facebook, you may have seen my status about getting my first payment.

It was awesome.

That brings me to my topic today: freelancing and making money from writing online. Once I'm 18, I can get paid per article on AC in addition to page views, and once I'm 18 I can also monetize this blog and make some money from ads. I hate ads as much as the next person, but I'm going to need every bit of money I can get, so it's an option I really want to consider. Also, once I'm 18, I can hopefully expand and write for more online markets. I'm also debating trying to write for magazines, but, honestly, I'm not quite sure where to start.

So I turn to you, my readers: do you have any advice, tips, tricks, or general knowledge about freelance writing, for magazines or the Internet? And would you consider unfollowing this blog should I turn on ads?

Thanks in advance to everyone who comments. I hope you're all having a good day. :)

--J.

A Short WiP Wednesday

2011-11-30T23:26:00.001-06:00

I finished NaNoWriMo, finally.

Also, today sucked balls.

That is all.

--J.

Teaser Tuesday: From The Pixiehunter, Chapter Four

2011-11-29T19:20:00.001-06:00

Sheesh, boring title. But I'm busy and feeling uncreative, so this is what you get.

I wanted to give you guys a teaser from the Pixiehunter sequel this week, but then I realized: There's no way in hell I can do that without completely spoiling the second half of the first book. I wouldn't want to do that, especially since I'm hoping to get Pixiehunter published. I wouldn't want you guys to know everything that happens before the book's even out. I mean, that would kind of suck.

So I suppose, since I did say I'd start doing Teaser Tuesday again, I'll give you a bit from the first book, from chapter four. It's not a particularly exciting scene, though later on the chapter is fairly action-y, but it's a scene that took me forever to write, and I'm pleased with how it's coming together. I cut it a bit short because there's really no good stopping place, so hopefully this is a somewhat enjoyable read. :)

By noon, Deacon hadorganized a conference. Hendricks advised him that it would be best held atCity Hall, but he’d disagreed. This was his case, his conference, hisauthority. He would conduct it his way, in his own territory.

The Hunters, before Deacon sent them out of his way,helped him rearrange the main room. The long table now held just enough chairsfor Deacon, Hendricks, and the squad leaders, the rest having been shoved inanother room. The smaller table was laid out for the conference attendees, withnameplates declaring who would sit where.

White cloths werespread over the tables, the room cleared of debris, and the Pixiehunter bannerhung alongside the Cairn Province flag, just behind where Deacon, Hendricks,and the five squad leaders now sat.

The province’s governor, Edward Lewis, sat between MayorGladsdale and the Bureau’s head biologist, Mark Keegan. A small scattering ofreporters surrounded them, armed with notebooks, pencils, and cameras whoseflashbulbs lit the room every few minutes.

Deacon kept his face carefully blank, though inside hesmiled. Professional, no-nonsense, and calm—this was his conference. Hecontrolled what would be said. If he spun it right, he could placate the citylong enough to do his job.

Review: INHERITANCE, by Christopher Paolini

2011-11-28T10:16:00.001-06:00

(To those that haven't read it: this is spoiler free, save a few minor points, as long as you've read the previous books.)

Yesterday afternoon, I finished the final installment in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle. I've been a fan of this series since I was a kid (I believe I was in the fourth grade when I first discovered ERAGON), and I'd been dying to read this book since I finished BRISINGR. The wait was well worth it, because INHERITANCE was everything I'd hoped.

We got chapters from the POV of Eragon, Roran, Nasuada, and Saphira, which I enjoyed. I would have liked more from Saphira, because I love the way she describes things, but what we did get, I think, was sufficient. I enjoyed the chapters from Roran much more than the ones in previous books, and the chapters from Nasuada not only got us into Nasuada's head, but Murtagh's and Galbatorix's as well.

The loose threads from the previous books, most notably Angela's predictions from ERAGON and Solembum's cryptic message, were tied up perfectly. I was not left wanting. This book wrapped up the series quite nicely, though I long for more and hope Paolini does more with the world he's created, as he hinted in the acknowledgements.

A lot happens in this book, though it all ties together well. There's plenty of action and magic, not to mention an epic final battle, and I can't imagine a better way to have wrapped up the series. I'll admit that I expected more deaths of important secondary characters, and from the one we did get, I expected a bit more...well, buildup, I suppose. It seemed rather quick, though not rushed. The battle that caused the death was fast-paced and a whirl of confusion for the characters, so I suppose the quickness of the death was to be expected.

One little Easter egg Paolini snuck in was from none other than Angela (my personal favorite), and it'll definitely please the Doctor Who nerds (like me). Paolini's snuck a few in before, though this one is much more obvious. Non Doctor Who fans might actually be confused, though coming from Angela...well, haven't we all come to expect strangeness from Angela?

All in all, an excellent read and a well-written conclusion to one of my favorite epic fantasies. If you haven't read it yet, it's worth buying, and is also available as an eBook. If you haven't read the series at all, I recommend it, though the first book, being Paolini's first, is a bit sloppy in some places.

Final review: Four of five stars, taking off only because some of my least-favorite fantasy screw-ups showed up from time to time (namely the stew and mead follies from yesterday's post).

Horns of Mead and Other Fantasy Things

2011-11-27T18:47:00.001-06:00

As a fantasy reader, writer, and editor, I'm immersed in the world of the fantastic a good chunk of the time. And as a person who also likes to research history, weaponry, and all that fun stuff, I'm constantly seeing really ignorant mistakes. What follows is a list of things for all you high fantasy writers out there to remember:

* If you're going to write about somebody drinking mead out of a horn, you should probably first drink mead out of a horn. There's a trick to holding a horn and drinking without spilling everywhere--believe me. I know. I do it on a regular basis.

* Stew takes a ridiculously long time to cook. It's not practical for a quick meal, or a meal on the road.

* Horses are delicate creatures. They need food, water, rest, and they can only be pushed so hard before they drop dead.

* As much as I like the whole women in armor thing, if the poor girl hasn’t been training for most of her life, she’s not going to be able to wear full plate armor. Plate armor is heavy.

* If your entire story revolves around an epic quest to destroy a magical object…just stop. It’s been done way too many times. You’re not Tolkien.

* If you have a peasant girl, she’d better not be a princess in disguise.

* If you have magical creatures, don’t puke up cliches. Make them interesting or don’t bother.

* For the love of the gods, you’d better have some actual grasp of linguistics if you want to create a new language.

* If any name in your story can’t be pronounced without stopping and thinking about it for five minutes, change it. Similarly, if it has an apostrophe, find a new one.

* If I can predict the ending of your story just by reading the description, it’s time to start over with a new plot.

* Not all swords are created equal.
* Similarly, horses.
* Similarly, armor.
* Similarly, bows, axes, maces, and any other sort of weaponry.

* When I hear “wise old mentor,” I think Gandalf, Dumbledore, Brom, Obi-Wan, and a whole slew of other names. It’s been done. If you must do it, make it new. That goes for pretty much every character type.

* Long blocks of text make my eyes hurt. Break ‘em up.

I could go on (and on, and on, and on) but these are the ones that immediately spring to mind. Happy writing, fellow fantasy fans! :)

--J.

In Which I Pimp Out Blood and Lullabies eZine

2011-11-25T20:09:00.001-06:00

Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile (or who've actually read my bio on the sidebar) know that I'm the high fantasy editor for the Blood and Lullabies eZine. Our second issue, the December double issue, is coming up, but the problem here is this: I only have two accepted stories. I kinda need some more.

So, dear readers, this is what I want you to do: Go to our website, read the submission guidelines, and consider sending me a story. Tell your friends. Tell the Internet. Help me spread the word and get submissions, if you wouldn't mind. Email me or comment if you have any questions or comments, and be sure to check out our Twitter profile (@blood_lullabies) and our Facebook page. We're still new, but with the help of our readers and our writers, we can make this something great.

I hope everybody (well, my fellow Americans, anyway) had a great Thanksgiving yesterday, and that everyone has a fantastic weekend. Ciao for now! :)

--J.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

2011-11-23T20:27:00.001-06:00

Things have been a little hectic lately, what with relatives in town for Thanksgiving and all that. Even getting my writing in has been a challenge, and for the past couple days, I've had to throw in the towel. But after tomorrow, I do believe things should be back to normal and I can get back on track.

Anyway, here's a bit of a teaser (since I missed Teaser Tuesday yesterday), from my original NaNo project for this year that I abandoned. This is, for you long-time readers, from the story inspired by seeing a homeless man in Hattiesburg cross the street, carrying a cat on his shoulder. It just sort of struck me, and so this happened:

Drifter waited patiently on the sidewalk, humming pleasantly to himself and waiting for the “don’t walk” signal to switch. Ibis, the battered Siamese cat he called his friend, had fallen asleep on his shoulder again, and both of them suffered for it—balancing a cat on one’s shoulder wasn’t the simplest of tasks.

When the red hand turned to a white figure of indeterminate gender, Drifter picked up his tattered, floral-print suitcase and stepped off the curb. He smiled at two bewildered-looking women in a purple minivan as he ambled his way through the crosswalk, chuckling to himself. Folk like him weren’t a common sight in the small seaside town of Ashbury, he assumed. In a town where everything was polished for the waves of tourists that descended in the summer, all impurities were weeded out and eradicated. Scruffy drifters were not common, nor, he’d gathered, were they welcome.

But drifting suited him. It was why he’d taken the name Drifter in the first place.

A horn sounded when he was halfway through the crosswalk—the light had changed again, and the impatient motorists couldn’t stand to have Drifter in their way for another second. He ignored the cacophony, though he did pause to straighten Ibis when the honks startled the dozing cat awake.

Drifter continued humming to himself and, once he’d reached the curb, simply ignored the sleek, streamlined cars that roared past. Though their drivers seemed to be in such a hurry, he, Drifter, had learned the value of patience.

Ibis had fallen asleep again. Drifter frowned slightly, but let the cat sleep. He had dragged the poor chap across Hell and back over the past few days in his rush to answer Swimmer’s call. He kept walking, still humming to himself in no particular tune, until he couldn’t allow the cat to sleep any longer. He was lost, and he needed Ibis’ expertise to get him where he was needed.

“Wake up, you,” he said, prodding the cat and shaking his own shoulder. “Time to work. Go on, wake up.”

Ibis let out a meow of protest, but Drifter shook his head. “Oh, no you don’t. No more sleeping. Swimmer wouldn’t have called us in if it weren’t important. Wake up, do your job, and help me figure out where we’re needed. I lost the trail once we passed through downtown.”

Drifter ignored Ibis’ further protests, simply shaking the cat from his shoulder and allowing the hissing thing to find its footing on the sidewalk. He glared up at Drifter, irritation in his eyes, but Drifter had no sympathy.

“Look, I told you last week this was going to be a big job. You’ve been too lazy for too long. Now come on, show me where we’re going. Track.”

The cat’s eyes narrowed, but he obliged, lifting his nose to the air and searching. His ears flicked and his crooked tail twitched, waving back and forth in the air for several long minutes. Finally the cat nodded and shot off, speeding toward what Drifter hoped was their target.

Wacky Saturday

2011-11-19T17:45:00.001-06:00

Well, my grandmothers are in town for the week. They just got here maybe an hour or so ago, and now that the car's unpacked and phone calls home have been made, things are kind of settling down.

I'm going to keep posting every other day and doing my writing, though I don't know how interesting my posts are going to be, since I'll be busy with family things. I hope you're all having a great weekend so far!

--J.

Seat of the Pants

2011-11-17T18:26:00.001-06:00

I'm a plotter a good 99% of the time. I don't always make uber-meticulous outlines and notes, but I like to know where I'm starting, where I'm ending, and a general framework of how I'm getting there. I like to get my story down as fast as I can, then muck around with it during revisions (which is why it takes me so long to actually get through the things).

With my current project, I'm not doing that. I'm still writing at a pretty good pace, of course, but I came into things with no idea of how the story was going to end or how it was going to get there. I had only one scene in my head, and everything else I'm essentially making up as I go along. It's an interesting new approach for me. I think it's also why it's like pulling teeth to sit down every day and write--I'm finding it difficult to keep going when I'm not sure where I'm going. When I plot, I know how long I need to make each chapter, how each needs to end, and how I need to pace everything. Writing by the seat of the pants makes it harder for me to do all these things. It's definitely an experience. I'm not quite sure if I like it.

I'm glad I'm trying it, though. The way I see it, trying new approaches to writing is always a good thing. It helps you learn what works and what doesn't, and it makes you a better writer. And speaking of writing, I still have words to take care of--catch you folks later! :)

--J.

WiP Wednesday: Back in the Saddle

2011-11-16T10:46:00.001-06:00

Well, it's WiP Wednesday again, folks. A said yesterday that I would start back with Teaser Tuesday and WiP Wednesday, and here I am, good as gold.

I'm in the campus library at the moment and I won't get back home until after two this afternoon, so I haven't exactly had time to do any writing-related things yet today, at least as far as actual sit down and write/revise/plot. I've been turning over a few ideas in my head as to how I want to change the ending of Pixiehunter to wrap it up a little better, and I've been working through a new scene I have to write coming up in the next few chapters of revision. I've also, though to a lesser extent, been working on some ideas for the next few chapters of the sequel, which still has no title, which is what I'm working on for NaNoWriMo. I don't know how much farther I'll take it after I meet the NaNo goal (I know, I know, it's shocking that I still haven't--but I've been sick/lazy/busy), but it has helped me line up things I need to revise in Pixiehunter.

In any case, to inject a bit of interest into today's post, here's a mini WiP-in-Pics teaser for the as-of-the-moment-unnamed Pixiehunter sequel (note on the second one: this one actually works for both books, though in the sequel it's not necessarily how you might think):

Source


Source

I Do So Solemnly Swear

2011-11-15T22:20:00.001-06:00

I've been shit at writing lately. Not quality-wise, but actual getting-things-done wise. I've neglected my writing, neglected my blog and Twitter, neglected the writing community, and I've neglected my writing buddies. Considering my ultimate goal of publication and the fact that I am, deep-down where it counts, a storyteller, this isn't just a shame--it's a disgrace.

I need to do more. I have no excuse not to. I sit on my fat ass and screw around on Tumblr and Facebook all day. I've barely read anything in weeks. I screw around and do nothing productive. That ends now.

Oaths are not something I take lightly. Oaths are serious, and to arbitrarily make one is a flat-out stupid thing to do. I tell you this so you, my readers, understand how serious I am about needing to get back into the writing swing. So, without further ado, here goes:

From today forward, I will work on my writing for a minimum of one hour per day. I will set aside all distractions, clear away what I don't need for my work, and work. Whether I am writing, revising, or plotting, at least one hour each day will be devoted to my own personal fiction writing. I will work hard toward achieving my ultimate goal of publication, and I will work to not only spend more time writing, but simultaneously improve the quality of my writing overall. I will not let trivial distractions interfere with this work, nor will, should it become a problem, allow my writing to interfere with my other obligations. I will re-integrate this passion into my life, and I will no longer allow myself to sit in stagnation.

In addition, I will try to improve the quality of this, my writing blog, by posting more often about more topics than "I suck at blogging." I will return to Teaser Tuesday and Work in Progress Wednesday updates, and I will do my best to blog about a writing-related topic at least every other day. Should this become too overwhelming, I will recognize it and reduce the amount of posts to a more manageable amount, while still blogging on a regular basis.

I can do this. So I will.

I hope you're all having good evenings. Do me a favor and ride my ass if it looks like I'm slipping, would you?

--J.

November Sniffles

2011-11-13T15:57:00.001-06:00

So I haven't written anything for NaNoWriMo in about a week. Why? Because I've been a combination of busy, lay, and sick. Mostly I've been keeping away from the writing because of being sick--because we all remember what happened last year. And if you don't know what happened last year, I pushed myself to the brink, wrote 50k in four days, and because I was already sick, pushing myself like that landed me in the emergency room with a temp of 106.3. Not fun. Not fun at all.

In any case, I think I'm about over that cold I've had going on, and even though I haven't hit 50k yet, Nate threw in the towel so I haven't really had to worry about it. I have about 9k to go, and then after that I'll probably take my time finishing the book. I wound up fizzling out on the project I was working on and started the sequel to The Pixiehunter. My plan after I hit 50k and thus win NaNo is to go back and finish revisions on Pixiehunter, so I don't know when/if I'll actually finish the sequel. I like it, though, so I definitely intend to, when I tweak the ending of Pixiehunter, leave it slightly more open for a sequel, though still have it able to stand alone.

I've also been doing a lot of cleaning lately, and my room is the cleanest it's been since the first week of May. About the second week of May, I decided to completely move everything in my room around (I was restless--Nate was at Basic and I didn't have anything to do, really). Ever since then, it's been a warzone in here. I've finally got things in better control, so that's good.

I just wrote a paragraph about cleaning my room. I'm going to end this post now before I get really boring and start talking about what's on my to-do list...

TTFN, everybody. Happy writing! :)

--J.

It's Stupid to Challenge Me to Writing Contests, Really

2011-11-02T15:24:00.002-05:00

I may not have won NaNo just yet, but I sure as shit won the bet I had going with Nate. Be sure to subscribe--I've been doing this since NaNo started, and I'll continue doing so. I'll also be vlogging about non-writing related things, too. :)

It's the NaNoWriMo Song!

2011-10-31T21:11:00.003-05:00

Let's get down to business

to win

NaNoWriMo.

Did they send me Mary-Sues

when I asked for heroines?

You're the saddest plot I ever met

but you can bet before we're through

story, I'll

make a novel

out of youuuuuu.

Tranquil as a library

but epic within

once you are written

you are sure

to win

you're a spineless and unpublished book

and you haven't been revised

somehow I'll

make a novel

out of YOOUUUUUUU.

I'm never gonna stop writing

Say goodbye to my sanity

Boy was I a fool for cutting chapter three.

NaNo's got me scared to death

Hope it doesn't eat right through me

Now I really wish that I knew how to sleep.

(To write a novel)

You must be swift with rising word counts

(To write a novel)

With all the force of a great dead poet

(To write a novel)

With all the strength of a pot of coffee

Mysterious as the process of publishing.

Time is racing toward us

til the deadline

arrives

Heed my every order

and you might

survive

You're unsuited for the rage of writing

So pack up, give up, you're through.

How could I

make a novel

out of youuuuuu?

(To write a novel)

You must be swift with rising word counts

(To write a novel)

With all the force of a great dead poet

(To write a novel)

With all the strength of a pot of coffee

Mysterious as the process of publishing.

(To write a novel)

You must be swift with rising word counts

(To write a novel)

With all the force of a great dead poet

(To write a novel)

With all the strength of a pot of coffee

Mysterious as the process of publishing.

NaNoWriMo, We Have a Problem

2011-10-23T11:18:00.001-05:00

I have a problem. The more I think about NaNoWriMo, the less I want to do it this year. I've done it the past three years, and I've always had a lot of success with it. My problem this year is that if I do something new, it'll get shoved to the side in December in favor of Pixiehunter, and I doubt I'll ever really make it back to it, because all the ideas I have are just...fillers. They'd be designed to get me through NaNo and nothing less.

I don't like that. I also don't really like the idea of writing a sequel to Pixiehunter before Pixiehunter itself is completely finished, and I don't want to use my "fallback" ideas, which are the two or three ideas I had awhile back but never really worked on. I don't want to use these because if I never had the enthusiasm to work on them before, I doubt I could really dedicate myself to them.

Now, if it weren't for that lovely little bet with Nate, I'd just say "screw it" and take this year off. But I have a bet to honor, with stakes that compel me to really want to win. If I don't do NaNo after I've accepted the bet, then I automatically lose. And I really, really don't want to lose.

I could pull out one of the "fallback" ideas and just go until I hit 50K, so I can claim my winnings, but I'm just not sure. I suppose it's kind of stupid to force myself to NaNo if I don't really want to, but I have my pride, here. I really, really, really don't want to lose.

I'm a mess, aren't I? Sheesh. I suppose I'll just have to sit down and brainstorm something. Maybe I can do a sort of prequel to Pixiehunter, just for myself, where I can sit down and flesh out the backstories I've crafted. Or maybe I'll cave and do that sequel. I think, though, if I do anything, it's going to somehow be related to Pixiehunter. I want to keep myself in the mindset so once I'm done with NaNo, I can immediately pop back to Pixiehunter and plow through it.

Thoughts, readers?

Here's One For Cassandra

2011-10-14T19:11:00.004-05:00

Do any of you guys have secondary characters that are just so fascinating you wish you could give them a bigger part? I do. I usually have lots of fun with secondaries, especially antagonistic secondaries, and my current secondary character fascination lies with my character Ella's mother, Cassandra Nerys.

It's always the tragic or bitter or angry secondaries I fall in love with, it seems. But poor Cassandra...well, she gets the short end of the stick, really. She's a broken woman. Her daughter ran away to live with humanity's greatest enemies (that would be the pixies), and her husband was killed by the same. She resents a lot of what's happened to her, she's never been happy with her lot in life, and she feels disgraced by her past. She's sad, angry, broken, and...well, she's afraid of facing her own demons.

She's really not a nice woman. She's downright cruel because of her own feelings of inadequacy, and thanks to her drinking problem, she's verbally and sometimes physically abusive to those closest to her. She's beaten down, she's broken, and she's been damaged on a deep, profound level.

But beneath it all, all she ever wanted was to have a fulfilling life, a respectable family, and...well, to be happy. She felt betrayed by everyone around her and she withdrew until she became the cruel woman she is.

Cassandra's fascinating to me. I would include pages and pages and pages of her if I could get away with it. I don't normally think of actors for my characters, because, frankly, I don't actually know very many, but when I was working with Cassandra, an actress sprang immediately to mind: Helen McCrory. You guys might know her as Narcissa Malfoy.

Seriously, she looks exactly like I picture Cassandra, and her acting makes me really see her as this character. She's freaking perfect. After I told Mires (who has read the chapter entitled "Cassandra's Tale") about my casting choice, she totally agreed. Makes me all happy-like. :)

Give her longer hair and this is totally Cassandra in chapter two, right down to her posture and the look on her face. Seriously, Helen is perfect and I love her.

So, Cassandra, this one's for you. You're a real piece of work and some of the shittiest situations Ella winds up in are entirely your fault, but I love you anyway. Maybe I'll write a short story or two with you as the main character when I have some spare time.

To Sequel or Not to Sequel?

2011-10-12T10:54:00.002-05:00

I need some help, lovely readers. I'm in the middle of a serious thought process: to sequel or not to sequel? See, after a lovely little conversation with teh Mires and teh Frankie (who is the epic awesomesauce and whose book you should ALL pre-order--I COMMAND YOU!), I've been thinking about a sequel to Pixiehunter.

See, it started with this one scene. I thought it up while pondering Deacon's (that's my MC for you new readers) backstory, and I wondered what would happen if, after the events of Pixiehunter and after all that he's learned, he went back to his hometown. That's where everything started for him, and after all the changes he goes through, I just get this feeling that it would be a nearly traumatic experience for him. If not traumatic, at least deeply upsetting.

Being evil, of course, I sat down and thought through the scene. It's such a damn good scene (in my head, anyway) that I could rationalize writing an entire second book just to get that scene done. It's that awesome.

My problem here is this: there's absolutely no guarantee that I can even sell Pixiehunter. I think it's a good story, and several folks I met at the conference agree, but there's still absolutely no guarantee. And if I can't sell the first one, there's no point in a second one. I generally follow the mindset of "no sequel until you know it'll sell," and no matter how awesome I think Pixiehunter 2 would be, I just don't know if it's a good idea.

Mires is all for it, of course, because she's Mires, but...I dunno. I think it would be a good story (I've been brooding on it for AGES, even before the epic scene popped into my head), and the ending of Pixiehunter is totally open for it, but I just don't know if I want to tackle it now.

And I'm not one for sequels for NaNo anyway. Hm. What do you guys think?

It's That Time of Year Again

2011-10-11T19:59:00.001-05:00

Ah, October. An excellent month, and one of my favorites. There's Halloween to look forward to, that excellent fall-type weather, delicious scents from the kitchens and bakeries, and that feeling of contentment that comes with knowing the Big Three holidays are on the way.

But that's not what I'm talking about in this post. No, it's nearly NaNoWriMo time again. I debated not doing it this year for a good while, but now that I've got a bet on with Nate, it's on. My competitive streak really shows during NaNo, and now that I have an actual bet with deliciously delightful stakes (really, if you lose, you win), I'm all gung-ho.

As per usual, I've yet to form my idea. Nate has his, but no matter how early I start planning, I always wind up coming up with something better about a week beforehand. I have my "default" project for if I can't come up with something I like more, but for the next couple weeks, I'll be brooding and hunting for a solid NaNo-worthy plot. We'll see what happens. :)

I didn't get anything writing-related done today, sadly, because Tumblr attacked again. I really need to work on that. Though I did get some other things done--chores and laundry, mostly. But it's a start toward that productivity thing.

It's just about eight now, and I still have some things I want to do before I take a shower and wrap everything up, so I'll be off now. Toodles and such. :)

Any of you folks doing NaNo this year?

This is a post, and it is pathetic.

2011-10-10T13:37:00.003-05:00

School...well, it kinda sucks. It's to the point where, when I'm not at school, I'm on Tumblr, because I just don't want to think about anything else. Writing? Forget it. As always seems to happen, just as soon as I start feeling good about writing, I fall back off the wagon and get stuck in a rut. I don't want to write, I don't want to revise, and I sure as hell don't want to interact with writing people that are actually being productive and making me look like an idiot by comparison.

So...yep. That's the state of my personal writing world at the moment. I could very well be getting work done on my days with no class. I just haven't felt like it, because I'm a big fat lazy lump. My brain doesn't want to think about all the things going on or that I have to take care of, so it defaults to "shiny Tumblr is shiny" and everything else is forgotten.

If it weren't Tumblr, it would be something else. I've hit that horrible, sucktastic point where I can't bring myself to care about the things I should be caring about. It's hurting me, but I can't seem to break out of this cycle. I'm trying, but the way things look now, even if I can get back to being productive, writing is still low on the totem pole. I'm not doing well in my classes, and I'm starting to hit blind panic mode.

Sigh...I don't even know. All I know is that I'm feeling like a giant idiot.

And that's...pretty much it. So...yeah. I suppose now I hang around in the campus library and try and get stuff done while I wait for my mother to come pick me up, and then I go home, eat, and try not to break myself studying the Latin I don't understand. Then it's Latin class at 6:30, getting home late, and lurking around, eating dinner, and, hopefully, getting in a phone call with Nate. Then bed. Mondays generally suck for me. At least I have tomorrow off. I can study math and Latin and attempt to get other stuff done, if I don't feel like my head's about to implode.

I've got to get out of this rut.

*Headdesk.*

I Think I'll Keep Him

2011-09-27T20:15:00.002-05:00

Okay, y'all, I've got a bit of a sappy post for you today. I apologize in advance. :P

I seriously love Nate. I really, really do. He's awesome. What's better, he's a writer. We actually have a bet going for NaNoWriMo this year in regards to who's going to hit 50k first. He insists it'll be him, I insist it'll be me. I mean, we all remember how I did it in four days last year, right? That fool's going down.

Interesting note: We actually met during a write-in during last year's NaNo, though we didn't realize it at first when we met again (and got together) back in May. Funny how things happen, isn't it?

Anyway, the point of this post: Since we're both writers, we kind of keep each other going. He actually gets irked at me when I go too long without working, because he knows it's important to me and I've told him how much I really love this project. Yesterday he texted me a little while before I had to leave for Latin class, and we chatted a bit. He asked me what I'd been doing and what I was up to, and I told him I was pretty much just screwing around on Tumblr.

He promptly responded with a single word: "Write."

So I opened up my Word doc and got a little bit of revising done before I had to leave. It made me happy. There are plenty of writers out there involved with folks that just don't get it and that don't encourage them--hell, I know a couple writers whose SOs actively encourage them to do "more productive things." I think I'm pretty damn lucky to have a guy who not only gets the whole writing thing, but gets on to me when I sit on my ass and do no writing for a week and a half.

Of course, I have some really awesome friends (HI MIRES!) who yell at me for not writing, but they are my writing friends that I met through writing avenues. I love them to bits and totally appreciate how much they yell at me to write, but I just had to do a special shout-out and a bit of bragging about the fact that not only do I have a guy who gets me, but who gets my writing self, too.

Okay, I'm done. :)

The Bitchy Editor

2011-09-22T13:06:00.000-05:00

As you guys probably know, not only do I write fantasy, I edit the high fantasy section of the Blood and Lullabies eZine (which you should totally submit to, btw). Normally it's pretty great--even if the stories I get aren't that good, it's awesome to read work from fellow fantasy freaks and see what's being written by my peers. I love doing it. Even if I get the worst story imaginable, I'm just fine. After all, we're not all awesome writers, and fantasy is sometimes hard to handle.

No, it's not less-than-good writing that gets to me. It's the people that don't follow my submission guidelines (which can be found here) or the general guidelines (which can be found here), or who don't bother to write a decent sub. I get poorly-written emails with screwy attachments, submissions that only state the title of the story and the word count, and, once, even one from a writer that said something along the lines of, "based on what you've published before, I think you'll enjoy my story." For the record, that one came before we'd published a single issue.

This next sentence is for everyone, whether you're submitting to me or another 'zine or an agent or a publisher:

Follow the guidelines.

I really shouldn't have to say this, but enough people suck at following this simple rule that I felt it needed to be said. I know I definitely auto-reject submissions that don't follow my guidelines, and I know most, if not all, agents do, too. Often I won't even read the story before sending a form rejection. After all, if you can't read and follow my simple guidelines, why should I believe you are capable of writing a good story? Why should I believe you're somebody I can work with?

Your submission is your first impression. I have likely never met you before (though even if I have, unless you've already pitched to me and I've told you to send me your story, don't you dare just send me something that only tells me the title, word count, and "here you go!"). If you can't spell or if you use poor grammar, why should I believe your story should be any better?

Polish your sub. Follow the guidelines. Research who you're submitting to. You'll thank yourself later.

Jenna out.

School Trumps Writing

2011-09-18T12:32:00.002-05:00

I do so love it when I'm productive. Unfortunately, today's productivity lies less in the region of writing and more in the regions of schoolwork and cleaning. Yes, yes, those things are necessary, but, damn. I really should have gotten on this as soon as I got back, but, no, I'm a dirty rotten procrastinator. I didn't even take yesterday to get some writing work done, because I just wasn't feeling well.

On the plus side, I got a three-hour phone conversation with my guy yesterday, so the day wasn't a total loss. If I can get all the stuff done I need to do before tonight, we're going to try and talk again. Maybe I'll convince him to Skype with me. I do so love Skype.

Off-topic, sorry. Point of the post is, I'm busy. I have three more chapters of Latin stuff to do, I need to read up on the things I missed in both history and government, and I want to try and get a little bit of math in if I can. I also need to do laundry, get some cleaning done, write an article, and bake a birthday cake. If I can get all that done (and I'm optimistic), I might--MIGHT--be able to work on some revisions before Nate calls.

Wish me luck, all. Tomorrow I'm stuck on campus all day (from 9 to 9--oh, gods help me), so I don't know if I'll have a post for you. Though I did download the Blogger app for my iPod, and I will be in the library for a spell, so we'll see. Maybe I'll actually have something interesting to talk about for once.

That's it for now, I s'pose. Back to work!

-J.

Help a Girl Out?

2011-09-17T17:31:00.000-05:00

Somehow, even though it's Saturday (it IS Saturday, right?), I feel very...bleh. I haven't slept well lately, so I'm kind of tired, but I'm going to attempt to plow through and wrap chapter fourteen by the end of today. I also want to get a teaser posted for my RMFW peeps that think the story sounds awesome, though that'll probably be on Facebook so I can tag them and make sure they see it. Feel free to friend me!

I have a request for you guys. I write for Associated Content (part of the Yahoo! Contributors Network) and I'm trying to raise my clout as high as I can before my birthday. After my birthday, I'll start getting paid for each new article and for page views on previous articles, and the higher my clout, the more I get paid. If you could pop over to my profile here and read a few of the articles, or just click through and give me page views, I would be much obliged. Bonus star if you favorite me or give me some comments. I tried to put a widget on the blog's sidebar, but it acted up, and AC seems to have disabled the auto-posts to Twitter, which is upsetting. I really want to get my page views up before February, so help a girl out, will ya? Thanks in advance!

Also, if you have any topics you'd like to read my thoughts on, either here or in an article, please drop me a comment! I sometimes have a hard time coming up with ideas, so suggestions on topics I know folks want to read about are always awesome.

I was going to try and post something clever today, but, as I said, I'm kind of wiped. I suspect I have some sort of crazy hormonal imbalance going on, or maybe a touch of my mom's borderline bipolar got passed on to me, or whatever, but my mood swings have been out of control lately. I'm TRYING to work through it, but some days kind of suck. So we'll save the clever for tomorrow after I've had a (hopefully) good rest, shall we?

Thanks again in advance to all you guys who read my articles! Here's hoping you all have a good weekend and get some quality writing in.

XO, TTFN, and all those other acronyms,

Review: NEW YORK TO DALLAS, by JD Robb

2011-09-16T12:00:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge fan of JD Robb's (aka Nora Roberts') In Death series. This is book...oh, hell, thirty-something. I lost track. The great thing about this series, though, is that you really don't have to read it in order (though you'd probably want to read a few of the earlier ones before you read this one).

I got mad-excited when I first heard the title of this one. After all, all the others are [Something] in Death. The change in title seriously intrigued me, and when I found it at the airport gift shop on Tuesday, I HAD TO HAVE IT NAO. I sped through it, eager to find out what happened to Eve and Roarke and all the other characters I've grown to love.

(Warning: Here it gets kind of spoilery.)

I went into it hoping we would find out more about Eve's mother, and that hope was granted. I won't give anything away, but I seriously can't wait for the next book after what we've learned. I enjoyed how Robb/Roberts handled Eve going back to Dallas, and I loved how much deeper we got into Eve's head, courtesy of Mira and Robb's excellent writing. Since this one took place away from New York and Cop Central, we didn't see as much of the regular secondaries as we usually do, but in my opinion, that was a good thing. This was very much Eve's book.

I think this one had one of my favorite baddies, because of what he represented to Eve and just how plain depraved he was. I love the creepy fucks. This guy was right up there with the ten-year-old serial killer from a few books back, though I'm not sure anyone could top that. Kudos to you, Robb, for creating yet another villain that leaves me thoroughly creeped out.

All-in-all, I'm glad I bought the book, even though I REALLY shouldn't have, because it was everything I'd hoped it would be. I'm thinking that with the title change, we're getting close to the end, though I hope we're not too close, because there are several things I'd really like to see happen before we have to say goodbye to Eve and Co.

Final review: Four out of five. I only take off because Some of the twists and turns, I think, could have been done a little differently, and Roarke seemed somehow different than he has in previous books. Not bad, just...written a little differently. At least, that's how it seemed to me. I'm hoping that, as the series winds down (if it is), Robb goes out with a bang instead of a whimper.

Enjoy reading it, guys! :)

RMFW Wrap-Up

2011-09-15T15:55:00.003-05:00

I'm tired. A week of high-speed conference-ing, a smidge of jet lag, and staying up on Skype with my guy until one in the morning last night, only to have to get up early and go take a math test? Yeah, I'm about to fall asleep at my computer.

But this, of course, is why the gods invented coffee. I'm going to brew myself a cup of the good stuff and get to work. I've got two articles and a short story to write by the end of the week, and I want to knock out the scene I'm adding to le WiP, hopefully by the end of today so I can move on.

The conference was frickin' amazing, and to all the folks I met in Denver: you guys rock! Big shout-outs to Ariana Richards, S M Blooding (AKA the wonderful Frankie, who made us dinner and let us sleep at her place Monday night, and then drove us to the airport--THANK YOU, FRANKIE!), Eve Morton, Veronica Roland, and Aaron Ritchey. Those guys rock. And, of course, to everyone else who made the conference as awesome as it was. I don't think I'll be able to afford to go next year, but I promise, I'm totally going back as soon as I can.

Mires and I made several vlogs over the course of the trip (which you can view by clicking the little YouTube icon in the sidebar), which are both ridiculous and slightly amusing. I get smacked routinely, and Mires gets hyperactive. Good times all around!

I think that's it for now. I'd to a day-by-day recap, but, honestly, if I delay brewing that coffee any longer, I'll fall asleep right here at the keyboard. And none of us want that, do we?

TTFN. Check back soon for a signed book giveaway! ;)

--J.

Commence the Epic!

2011-09-09T07:58:00.002-05:00

Day one is done, and day two is just begun. Unfortunately, our airport vlog is giving me a huge-ass issue uploading (I've attempted it at least six times by now), so I'm not sure if you guys will ever get to see it. I'll keep trying and post it if it ever goes through.

Things got off to a bit of a bumpy start, thanks to an issue with the hotel, but I'm going to go with the optimistic "it could always be worse." We're here, we're set for the conference, and I got a shit-ton of writing done last night after Mires went to bed. We got up at 3:30 in the morning, and once we made it to Denver we went walking around. We ate, I bought a book, and by the time we got back, Mires was exhausted. She left me downstairs, and I plowed through several chapters of revisions as well as getting an article written. Clearly being around awesome writerly types has re-infected me with the writing bug. Always a good thing, yes?

Right now it's just before seven, I'm debating getting coffee, and Mires and I are waiting for the conference people to get things set up. I'm going to try and get a few more revisions in before then, and I hope to get another article written before I go to bed tonight. I write for the Yahoo! Contributor's Network, and though I won't get paid until my birthday hits, the more clout I have, the better payments I'll get once I can get paid. And if I remember correctly, I'll also get paid for back page views, and extra money is going to be much needed after I turn 18.

I'm hoping to make some connections over the next few days, be it agents or other writers, and my goal--which I'm actually going to stick to this time--is to get this damn WiP finished, polished, and ready to go by the end of this month. It's doable, certainly if I stick to the pace I was working at last night, and my intention is to start querying before the year is out (though if December rolls around before I've gotten to it, I'll be waiting until February, both because of the holidays and because the NaNoWriMo query explosion starts in December, and I really don't want to be lumped in with that. Again.).

Well, I think things are starting to get set up, so I'm going to disappear now. If you're at the conference, come find me! I'll be around. If you're not, I hope your weekend is absolutely awesome. :)

TTFN and all that stuff,
J.

In Which Jenna Doesn't Trust the Laws of Physics

2011-09-08T07:58:00.000-05:00

So le Mires and I are at the airport in NOLA. We got up at some unholy hour and we've been here for awhile. Our plane's been delayed (gack), though it did give us time to record our first vlog of the trip. We intend to vlog the whole thing, you see. The vid's taking forever to upload, though, so it'll be awhile before I can post it here. Ah, well. Fear not, my minions, I shall upload it when I get the chance.

If you're wondering about the title of this post...well, yeah, I don't fly well. My ears don't ever pop (last time I could hear practically nothing for two days), and I don't care how many times somebody explains the physics to me, I just don't think planes should be able to stay in the air. It just seems impossible.

It also doesn't help that it's September. I can trace my fear of planes back to a certain September day ten years ago, and, yeah. But let's not talk about that now.

Anyway, it's a two-hour flight (or thereabouts), so we should be there about twelve as according to le Mires. Whether that's in our time or Denver time, I don't even know. I hate time zones. They irk me.

I'm rambling, aren't I? It's probably thanks to that whole unholy hour thing. And that boredom thing. And suchforth. S'pose I'll end it here and catch y'all again tomorrow (if I have the time).

TTFN and all that stuff,
J.

Cutting Back

2011-09-04T17:13:00.004-05:00

The Internet is a wonderful, horrible thing. I have a not-so-mild obsession with it. I spend entirely too much time online, and that's why, after much deliberation, I said "screw it" and deleted or removed myself from all the blogs I was part of except for this one. My personal blog I didn't delete, but I did set it to invite-only so nobody can access it. One day I might go back to it, though I doubt it, because all the stuff I would post there now gets posted on my Tumblr. Or Twitter.

I've deleted the various little side things I had going on, so now it's just this blog, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and the Blood and Lullabies eZine. Granted, the holy trinity of Twitter, FB, and Tumblr still eats up a lot of my time, but I now don't have to worry about having posts up on time for the group blogs (not that I was, anyway), and I'm not bogged down by all that mess.

I've been wasting too much time screwing around on teh Internets, and it's time to stop. It's time to be productive. I have school, hopefully I'll soon have work, I have writing. I have life. I'm desperately trying to both reduce the time I spend wasting time on the time-wasting sites, while at the same time bring back my presence on Twitter and this blog. I think, now that things have settled, I'll be able to handle it.

So, yeah, that's my goal: to spend less time doing nothing meaningful and more time doing what's important. One of the values I try to live by is industriousness, and playing on Tumblr isn't industrious at all.

I have to cook dinner tonight, and I have a Skype date with my love later this evening, but between all that I'm working on polishing up the first few chapters of Pixiehunter for the conference, which Mires and I leave for on Thursday. I intend to be done with that by tomorrow afternoon, and then I'll start working on the heavy revisions on the final third. Again.

Plans. I has them. Wish me luck! :)

--J.

Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

2011-09-03T13:12:00.005-05:00

From the jacket flap:

"A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive."

My review:

I'd been hearing about this book for months, and I'd seen the epic book trailer numerous times. I finally got my hands on a copy (after begging my parents when I found it in Walmart), and I set right to reading. Toward the middle I drifted off for a bit, because I thought I'd figured out the big twist and I wasn't thrilled with it, but when I actually read the next few chapters, my mind was completely blown. I was so wrong--this book went in a direction I didn't see coming, and it was fantastic.

The story is very good, and strange--downright peculiar, you could say. The characters are very well-written, though I had very little patience for Jacob's parents, who I found extremely annoying. The twists and turns were well done, and, as I said, I totally didn't see the twist at the end coming. The photographs were amazing (though kind of creepy), and they enhanced the story rather than distracting from it, like I thought they might. I absolutely cannot wait for the next book.

If you're a fan of things that are kind of creepy, and you enjoy a bit of a mystery, you should totally read this book. Though if you're easily freaked out, I recommend not reading it at night. ;D

Final review: four out of five stars.

Check it out on Goodreads!

In Which Lots of Shit Happens And Jenna is Lazy

2011-08-30T15:03:00.002-05:00

Aw, hell, why is it that every time I think I'm going to finally get shit done, more shit comes along and hits the fan? The past couple of weeks have been pretty frustrating, and I just haven't felt like doing anything. Plus I was going through a few of my problem chapters and all I wanted to do was kill the whole project with fire. It's hit that point; that point where I usually abandon my projects because I hate them, I'm tired of them, and I want to move on and write "bigger and better things."

I refuse to let that happen this time. I'm sick of the cycle of suck: staring something, loving it, spending so much time avoiding it that when I come back, I detest it with every fiber of my being. I'm never going to get published if I keep that shit up, and I know that. Today I have several assignments to finish for my classes, and they'll take me awhile since two are for on-line classes and I have to actually go through the lessons, too, but hopefully I can squeeze in a little bit of writing time before my guy finishes his stuff for the day and we have our Skype date for the night. Those things last forever. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

So...yeah, I suppose this is another one of those "I need to get shit done and it probably won't happen" posts. At least I have the writing conference to look forward to next week. Though I really hate plane travel. It freaks me out.

Anywho, I've got stuff to finish. Catch y'all later.

*Poofs.*

In Which Jenna Gets Shit Together

2011-08-15T17:40:00.002-05:00

Well, my WiP is officially back in one piece instead of broken up into two different documents. Chapter twelve needs tweaks so it better meshes into thirteen, and thirteen needs more emphasis on the impending mental breakdown of a certain character, and everything after that needs to be revised to fit previous changes in the first two-thirds, but I can at least say that everything is now back in one document.

Which it hasn't been since, like, March. So this is a big thing. I don't know if I'm going to make that September deadline, since I keep cleaning things in an attempt to avoid the work I need to do, but I'm going to try.

I've also pulled myself together in several other areas and I think I've got things squared away again. All the school crap is figured out, I have more information about what my guy is up to so it's not as frustrating (friggin' Army, being all confusing as all hell), and my brother is back in school, so our house is back on some form of schedule. I get my class schedule Thursday and my classes start next Wednesday, and soon I'll be applying for jobs, so things are really coming together.

I work better in all areas when I have structure. When I have unlimited time, I slack off and never get shit done. With a definite schedule and time slots, I'm more efficient. So, honestly, I'm damn glad the summer is almost over and done.

I'm also, since I have tons of books to read, going to try and bring back the book reviews here on the blog. I'm almost done with Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, so I'll be reviewing that in the next few days. I also put my name on an ARC request list for Beth Revis' A MILLION SUNS, so here's hoping I get it! :)

I think that's about it for now, honestly. Hoping you're all well.

--J.

Let's Get This Party Started

2011-08-08T13:32:00.004-05:00

This has been one hell of a summer. And I don't mean that in a good way. I've been stuck at home for most of it, and it's just been very bleh. Not much to do except hang around the house and write, and, as you guys know, I've had one of my notoriously epic lazy spells. It happens from time to time. More than I'd like, honestly. I burned out back in the first couple weeks of April, and I've had little to spur me back into action.

I'm done with that, though. I'm determined to have The Pixiehunter done, polished, and ready to go by the end of the month. I still have a couple weeks until my classes start, and the majority of the work that needs to be done is on the final third. It's not really that much, if I sit down and do it.

I'm not going to pitch when I go to RMFW with Mires, because this is, after all, my first conference, so I'm going to take it easy. I do want to have this done and ready to go, though, because this is something I feel others would read, and I want to start querying soon. Once I get back up to the chapter I was at before, I'm going to send the new stuff to my CPs (and, erm, start ponying up and being a good CP to them, too), and I'll see what they think.

I'm also back in the game with the blogging, since the writing and the writing blog kind of go hand in hand. I'm going to *try* and start making the rounds and checking out y'all's stuff, too, though I can't promise I'll be too good at that until I whittle down my blog list. I follow WAY too many blogs, and it's overwhelming.

Anywho, I guess that's it for now. I want to knock out as many chapters as possible today and get back to where I was last time. I want to be back in the middle of the heavier rewrites by Wednesday, so it's time to get to work.

Ta! :)

Pixies Are Scary

2011-08-03T11:45:00.004-05:00

Oh hai thar. It's me. I promise, I am still alive. It's just that, once I got back from Nate's graduation (which was awesome, by the way), I had my down time, and then I just got sidetracked by books and Internet and games and such. So the writing thing kind of got neglected.

Also, pixies are scary.

Seriously, after so much time away, I was literally terrified to sit down, open that Word doc, and get back to work on The Pixiehunter. I was about to start rewriting a particularly difficult (and important) chapter when I fizzled out, and I was scared to jump back in and get back to work. Because if I did, I'd have to face the part of the book that needed the most work, and, shit, that's just...well, you know.

So I started over.

Not the whole thing. No, I just started back at the words "Chapter One" and I'm reading my way through, fixing any little things I catch, and easing myself back into the story so I can hit the ground running when I get back to the problem chapters. Yesterday I fucked around on Tumblr all day, which wasn't productive AT ALL, so today I'm sitting my happy ass down to finish stuff for B&L and then knock out a couple more chapters of le WiP.

Also, just as an aside, I figure I pretty much no longer have an excuse not to write. Nate's a writer. He got his computer back yesterday and already he's back to work. I figure if he's in the damn Army and still finding time to write, I damn sure can't say "I'm busy" or "there's no time."

Anywho, I'm off to work now, I suppose. After breakfast/lunch, that is. I could eat a horse.

TTFN and such forth,

--J.

Business and Busyness

2011-07-11T15:03:00.005-05:00

At the moment, I'm at my boyfriend's house in Vicksburg. Been here since Friday, hanging out with his parents and getting ready to go to his graduation. We're leaving tomorrow, and I can't wait! My step it up plan has kind of worked--I've at least been getting stuff done for Blood and Lullabies--and once I get back home, I'm going to plant my ass in the chair and be productive. Get a job. Devote more time to writing. Stay on top of shit. I start school next month, too, so I've got to get back into my routine.

Today my boyfriend's mother took me to the bookstore, since I ran out of books to read yesterday afternoon, and I successfully nabbed eight books for only forty dollars. I'm through the roof. Technically I wasn't supposed to use the money I have for books, but my nana *did* tell me to use it to buy what I needed on the trip. And I was OUT. OF. BOOKS. Considering I'm looking at two nine-hour car rides, I needed something to read. And because the books were so cheap, I went for it. I almost got another, the second in a series, but I figured I'd wait until I finished the first book to see if I wanted the next.

To my B&L authors, if you read this--I'm SO SORRY I haven't responded with your edits yet, but I ran out of time before I came up here, and I've been busy. As soon as I get home, I'm on it. I will have your editing notes to you ASAP. Just bear with me. Also, the first issue should be out relatively soon, just as soon as I get the rest of Mires' stories and author bios, so go ahead and subscribe at our website if you haven't already. We've got some great stories, so it's totally worth it! :)

I do believe that's it for now...I won't be around until at least next week, since I'm not getting home until probably Saturday, and then I'm getting my ass to the Harry Potter movie (only for my boyfriend's graduation or the end of the world would I miss the premiere--he SO TOTALLY OWES ME). Hope everyone's well!

Toodles for now, I s'pose.

--J.

Time To Step It Up

2011-06-16T14:00:00.004-05:00

I have not done anything writing-wise, beyond a few paragraphs on a short story and editing one line of Pixiehunter, since the third week of April. It's halfway through June now. I fail at writing. Ack. And, really, I have no excuse beyond "I just haven't felt like it."

But I haven't, though. I go through periods of the writing blahs every now and then, where I just don't want to do anything. It's not that I can't. It's not that I'm stuck or don't know what to do. I just hit bottom and am apathetic toward everything related to writing. I just don't care. And then, when I try to start up again, I hit the danger zone and start hating everything I've ever produced.

The story is stupid. The characters don't make sense. The worldbuilding is half-assed. All these thoughts and more start swirling through my head, and I get stuck in a bad spiral of not writing. Anything. I sit around, do nothing, and waste time on the Internet. Tumblr is probably the worst time-suck since I discovered Twitter. As of right now, I have Facebook and Tumblr open in tabs, and TweetDeck ready to pop up at a single click.

The Internet is such a damn time-waster. Though I have done some reading, at least, and a bit of cleaning. That's only in the past week or so, though. Most of this time has been spent sitting in my chair, spinning around and seeing what all you people are up to in your much-more-interesting-than-mine lives.

That stops now. I'm scared to go back to my WiP, so I'll start slow. I'll get the things done I need to do for Blood and Lullabies. I'll get out my Tarot For Writers book and do a few poems and bits of flash fiction based on the cards I pull. Then, maybe, once I've gotten back into the swing of things, I can bring myself to get back on the horse and tackle the WiP.

I'm going to have this damn manuscript ready by RMFW. That's my goal--my deadline. But for the rest of this month, it's baby steps. I know how I am, and I know that I can't just jump back in like nothing's happened.

So. It's time to step it up, mes amis. I'm back in action, one step at a time, and I WILL have this WiP ready by September.

I hope all's well with you crazy folks. A very happy Thursday to you! May your words be shiny and your days filled with awesome. ;)

--J.

Happy Hump Day

2011-04-27T09:04:00.003-05:00

Today is Wednesday. It's halfway through my second to last week of high school EVER (thank everything), and I now officially don't have to do feck-all. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have to take my finals (my school has this weird exemption policy), and pretty soon I find out if I won any of the Petal Education Foundation scholarships.

As soon as school's out, it's time to amp up the job search, and, hopefully, seriously amp up the writing. I'm officially on chapter thirteen out of twenty, and I'm moving pretty quickly. Chapter thirteen sucks, unfortunately, and since I cut one of the plot points I've had to cut a lot of words. It's an important chapter overall, and so it needs a lot of work, but it won't take too terribly long once I sit down and actually work on it. I intend to do just that as soon as I finish this blog post.

Things are going pretty freakin' sweet this week, and I might actually have PLANS for the weekend. I love plans. We'll see how it works out, so, for now, I hope everybody's having a great Wednesday and a fantastic week!

TTFN and all that jazz,

J.

A List For Mia

2011-04-26T18:21:00.008-05:00

Blogging daily is hard. Coming up with topics is hard. Being interesting is also hard. Now, before somebody drops a "that's what she said" joke, I'm going to stop listing things that are hard and just say that this post is dedicated to the very awesome Mia Hayson, who saw my desperate Twitter plea and gave me today's blog topic. She also likes jam and zombies, so, y'know, she just rocks.

This one's for you, Mia.

10 Ways To Get Rid of a Character

Characters frustrate me to no end sometimes. Characterization, as I've said before, is one of my favorite parts of writing. But damned if my story pawns don't make me want to change the storyline and creatively get them the feck off the stage. Here are ten ways I've fantasized about doing it (and, in some cases, have actually done it):

1. Straight-Up Kill the Dude

Just do it. Boom, dead. Heart attack, gas explosion, wayward velociraptors, what have you. Kill the irritating jerk before he ruins everything.

2. Call in the Party Lights

Call the cops on him. Can't come up with a good reason? Pfft. You're the writer--you don't need one. Who needs plausibility? Random arrests totally happen all the time. And if that's not true...nobody needs to know.

3. Sudden Wormhole

Wormholes are volatile phenomena. You just don't know when they'll strike. Or who they'll take with them. Bye-bye, annoying guy, I hope you enjoy outer space--say hello to the Rexicoricophaliphitorians* for me!

*Yeah, I'm a Whovian.

4. Who Are You?

Maybe the government did it; maybe it was aliens. All you know is that something made everybody forget the problem character, no questions asked.

5. He's Mulder's Problem Now

The truth is out there, as they say. Let ET worry about what to do with Mr. Irritating Character Guy. Don't let Torchwood interfere, though, or you'll never get rid of the guy.

6. Nothing to See Here

There was never a character. What makes you think there was a character? No, he wasn't on page one! I don't care if you just checked--he's not here and that's all that matters!

7. The Mob Takes Care of its Own

Fahgedaboutit.

8. Is That a Gypsy Belt?

Why yes, yes it is. I got it in a trade last time the Gypsies were in town. What did I trade, you ask? Uh...nothing important...

9. Don't Piss Off the Gods. They Have Lightning Bolts.

Shame nobody told that guy...

10. You Tell Me

What's your most ridiculous, outrageous, or just plain stupid way to get rid of a character? What's the most creative one that you've actually used?

TTFN, mes amis! I'm off to work on chapter thirteen.

J.

What I Do All Day

2011-04-25T10:09:00.006-05:00

What follows is my typical day. Right now we're up to second period.

(And, yes, this is all completely true--including the boredom. Definitely including the boredom.)

5:45: Meh. I have to wake up. *Swipes snooze bar.*

6:00: *Swipes snooze bar.*

6:15: *Swipes snooze bar.*

6:20: "SHIT!" *Ninja jumps out of bed. Throws on clothes. Puts on makeup, etc. Runs to the coffeemaker.*

6:55: "Sorry, Mom, I overslept again..."

7:05: "Bye, B! Have a good day at school!" *Watches B head into school.*

7:20: *Climbs out of van, stomp to zero period in a frustrated huff--stoopid school.*

7:25-8:20: *Zero period: Tweet, pay very little attention, gossip, tweet, @ Mires b/c I'm bored.*

8:20-8:30: *Tweet, be bored, wait for first period.*

8:30-9:25: *First period. TA. Grade papers for French teacher, deliver notes, tweet, write, tweet, write, tweet, screw around.*

9:25-11:05: *Second period. Same as first, with more tweeting and more boredom.*

11:05-12:05: *Third period, part one. Unable to use laptop, as this is an actual class. Boredom. Stare at watch. Pretend to pay attention. Screw around. Joke around with the peanut gallery.*

12:05-whenever lunch ends: *Lunch. Chat with friends. Eat. Glare at lunch ladies. Glare at freshman at the other end of the table. Bitch about the food. Tell bad jokes. Get told to stfu already.*

Whenever lunch ends-1:16: *The rest of third period. More of the same.*

1:17: *FREEEEEEEEEEEEEDOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!*

After school: *Watching brothers, chores, writing, tweeting, FB, Internet in general, screwing around, writing a little more, complaining about chapter [insert number], @ing Mires and the Crew, blogging, reading blogs, watching TV, reading, etc, etc.*

Approx 10:30: "Hmm...I should sleep.*

Approx. 11:00: "Yeah, I'm tired."

Approx 12:00: "F*CK. I'M TIRED." *Can't sleep.*

Too damn early: "BUZZ BEEP HI I'M AN ALARM GTFO OF BED!!!"

Still too damn early: "STFU, ALARM! AAAAH!"

*Repeat.*

Fantasy Child

2011-04-24T15:06:00.003-05:00

The little girl loved to play pretend. She dressed up in sparkling costumes and made swords out of twigs; she explored lost civilizations in the backyard; she got lost in the clouds and never wanted to come back. Blessed with imagination, she did what all good children do: she used it.

Playtime never ended, not really. Even when it was time to be serious, behind her eyes everyone could catch glimpses of worlds only the girl knew. She belonged to wondrous lands and people far more interesting than the ones outside her mind, as surely as they belonged to her.

One night the girl sat in her room, staring at the glowing stars on the ceiling. They weren't as good as the real ones, but they were okay. Just like the backyard--it wasn't really an exotic land, but it worked just fine.

She lay there in the dark, drifting off into sleep. It was then, in the murky depths of half-sleep, her mind began to wander. She was older now. Fewer and fewer of her friends wanted to play fantasy with her, and now she frequented the wonderlands of books more often than the other ones; the ones she made herself and explored with imaginary friends at her side.

Tears wet her eyes--was this what it meant to grow up? Did it mean no more wonderlands and imaginary friends? Did it mean being boring and dull? Would she only be allowed to play fantasy in private, hiding the wondrous worlds away where no one could see?

Her book collection grew. The fantasy lands of others beckoned to her and she spent hours with Harry Potter and Peter Pan and Bilbo Baggins. If only she could go to Hogwarts or fly away to Never Never Land or Middle Earth...maybe then she could keep her fantasy lands and the friends she'd made up--friends, she might add, that were always better and less irritating than the ones she knew from school.

Laying there that night, though, the books didn't seem like enough anymore. They were already worn to pieces and they just weren't working. She needed more than what the writers could provide. She needed her fantasy lands and imaginary friends. She couldn't let them go.

"Don't leave me," she whispered as she finally fell into dreamland--just another beautiful world she never wanted to leave. "I need you."

When she woke up the next day, she found a piece of paper and a pencil. If she couldn't keep her wonderland, she would write it down. It was like a picture she could keep, but with words instead of images. Words were just as pretty as paint strokes and clay sculptures, and they were better because they were hers--telling of her worlds, her people, her loves.

"I love you," she whispered to the paper, folding it up and hiding it away. "I need you."

She waited for the wonderlands and fake people to fade away into nothingness; to leave her like they'd done her friends. But, if anything, they grew. They grew so big she couldn't keep them to herself, and she had to keep writing them down. From quick paragraphs on pages stolen from the printer to entire notebooks, they grew and grew until she thought she might burst. Scribbling them on scraps wasn't enough anymore.

The stories poured from her fingertips, pounded on the keyboard, and danced their way into documents saved on the computer. They printed themselves, filed themselves away, and entertained the girl long after she thought they would have gone.

It still wasn't enough. She wasn't enough for them--they needed to grow larger than just one girl could handle. They needed to be known by others that could see them as she did; loved by others who knew their worth.

The documents grew larger and larger, and the phrases grew more complex. The characters evolved and the worlds developed. The girl was a writer now, and the ones she shared her stories with didn't mock her. They didn't tell her she was a dumb kid and that fantasy had no place in the real world. This was her real world, and she'd finally found others who called it home, too.

She thought back to that day she'd tucked the first scribblings away. The paper was long gone now, but the story was there still--the towering castle and magical inhabitants she'd called friends were still there, tucked safely away. She could let them out now, after all these long years. She could play again and not fear what the rest would think--they knew what fantasy was like; they knew it was beautiful. After all this time, she could finally go back.

What she didn't realize was that she'd never really left.

WiP in Songs: The Pixiehunter

2011-04-22T18:31:00.003-05:00

This post is dedicated to Laina and KT. Because they said so.

I've done two of the "wip in pics" posts (and they can be found here and here), but I've never done a post about the music of The Pixiehunter. Which is a shame, really, because music really has been a driving force in my revisions process.

I said once before that there were only a few songs on my PH playlist that had anything to do with the story, but during revisions, that's changed. Every chapter (or, well, almost every chapter) has a song, my main characters have songs, and the story has an overall "theme song."

So! Here we go!

My two main characters are Deacon Poole and Eleanor Nerys, and these are their respective theme songs:

This next song is what I consider the overall theme, and it works for both characters:

And this is kind of a "secondary theme." It fits several characters and a couple of the character groups, as well, and it's a good song in general:

There are tons more (my playlist is 85 songs and growing), but these are the highlights. Whatcha think? :)

Have a fab weekend and watch out for zombie bunnies!

J.

King of the Lab

2011-04-21T17:06:00.006-05:00

(Here be Bones spoilers. If you haven't gotten up to season four yet, beware.)

I mentioned yesterday that Bones has been one of my major distractions as of late. I started with season five, and a couple weeks ago I went back and started on season one. I'm at the end of season three, and I just finished the episode they find out Zack was Gormogon's apprentice.

It was highly upsetting. Because Zack is my most favoritest and I luffs him. And he will always be the King of the Lab, so sayeth I. But I digress.

The whole Zack incident kind of got me thinking--writers are evil bastards that rip apart their characters' lives and sometimes seriously piss off their audience, whether it be viewers or readers. Sometimes they even make their audiences cry. Not that I did. Because that would be silly. And such.

...

*Kicks tissues under desk. Moves on.*

What compels us to be such asshats? Don't our characters deserve to have happy lives, free of evil cannibal serial killers that convince them to do bad things that make people sad?

Heh. Of course not. That's BORING. So be evil to your characters, my lovelies. Gods know I am. I'm fairly sure my CPs are never going to forgive me when they finish reading Pixiehunter. But, hey, sometimes you just have to take your King of the Lab and put him in cahoots with a cannibal.

No matter how much it pisses me your audience off.

*Goes back to the Bones marathon. Continues cursing out the writers, because dammit, man.*

Q: How evil are you when it comes to writing? Would YOU be a total asshat and take my Zack away?????? GAH. STOOPID BONES. *Eyetwitch.*

The End is Near!

2011-04-20T14:08:00.005-05:00

I'm officially halfway through with revisions/rewrites, and I'm mostly out of the section that needed the most work. From here on in, I just have a few things to extend and one or two more scenes to write, and then I start the line edits.

Mires, because she's awesome, is taking me to the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference in September, where we can not only attend awesome workshops, but we can pitch to agents. We've both agreed that we have to have something ready--and, because Mires is Mires, she's urging me to have The Pixiehunter done BEFORE then.

I totally think I can do it. If I work at even half the pace I've been going these past three days, I'll be done in two months, tops, and ready to start querying. I've got a damn good feeling about this story, and I have votes of confidence from everybody that's read chapters. Heck, *I* even like it! It's insane and awesome, and, man, I kind of can't wait to finish. Not that I'm going to rush it, mind you.

Chapter twelve requires heavy revising, but this is the last chapter that needs as much work as it does. If I can just get past this one, I'm doing good. I'm *hoping* to finish it by the end of today, if I don't get distracted by Bones again (unrelated: Zack is my teddy bear and I hate that he's not on the show anymore...*super frowny face.*). So here's to that!

I'm not done yet, but I can see the finish line, and I just want to extend uber-huge thanks to everybody who's told me they like this WiP and pushed me into working on it. Also, mondo awesome points to Ashy, whose comment on yesterday's post totally made my life.

Now. To chapter twelve! *Bounces.*

(Oh, and a bonus--here's one of the songs from the WiP playlist. This one is pretty much the theme song for the entire thing. Enjoy!)

(UPDATE: Yeah, I got distracted by Bones again...)

A Victory Dance is in Order

2011-04-19T18:53:00.007-05:00

I finished chapter ten today! That means my awesome-tastic critique buddies got chapters six through ten, which I've been saying they would have "sometime over the weekend" for the past two months. My newest crit buddy got the first ten chapters.

God, I love when people read my stuff and like it, but sending stuff out makes me nauseous. Especially these chapters, affectionately nicknamed The Bastard Chapters. We all remember that post dedicated to how much I hated chapter seven, right? And this one, made up of pictures illustrating how much I hated chapter seven?

Stoopid chapter seven, I do believe, turned out pretty okay. Here's hoping my crit buddies enjoy it and all the rest.

I also wrote a new chapter eleven today, taking place between chapter ten and what was once the second part of ten but is now twelve. I've had to split several chapters into two, and eleven was just the short little interlude I needed. If I don't add and/or split any more, I'll finish up with twenty-one chapters. Hopefully twenty-one chapters of awesome.

To celebrate this huge (and, believe me, it's huge for me) success, I think I'll treat myself to more writing. Heh.

Oh, and here's a couple of meme comics revolving around a Twitter convo Mires and I had, just to spice things up:

Awesomesauce is today's bill of fare, mes amis. Isn't it just grand? Happy Tuesday!

J.

Happy 500 Posts!

2011-04-07T21:02:00.003-05:00

THIS IS MY 500TH POST! WOOOO! And now, without further ado, I present to you...well, I'm not sure, but it worked. :D (Sadly, the image decided to blur. Clicky clicky.)

Blurring the Edges

2011-03-30T16:12:00.004-05:00

WiP Update: Still fighting chapter eight, but I'm close to done...

***
I've been thinking about sub-genres lately. Namely, fantasy sub-genres. Just to name a few, there's high fantasy, urban fantasy, steampunk, paranormal (which some people classify as fantasy and some don't), historical fantasy, and various mish-mashes and sub-sub-genres.

I like most of them, if not all of them. Fantasy is my "thing." I read it, I watch it, I play RPGs, and I, erm, even live it sometimes (but my obsession with ren faires and costumes is beside the point).

And, of course, I write it. But that's the thing--I don't know quite how to classify the fantasy I write. There are several people I know that very obviously fall firmly into their categories, but I like to dance around the edges, blur the lines, write whatever I damn well please, and classify it later.

I think it's less the "type" of fantasy and more the themes of the story. I like the dark, the emotional, the internal. I revel in overwhelming situations, grey areas, and unclassifiable problems. It's more fun that way.

I've written high fantasy. I've written urban. I've played around with steampunk and historical. God knows I've done paranormal--to death and back again (you should see my dead stories file...). My favorite stories of my own are the ones that are some mix of two or more. Historical paranormal. Contemp fantasy with epic elements. It's just fun to shake things up.

Dare to screw with people, that's what I always say. Any of you guys blur fantasy edges, or am I the lone ranger, here?

-J.

Send Me Your Fantasy

2011-03-26T10:29:00.003-05:00

I died, y'all. But I came back, conquered my zombie nature, and now here I am. Now that most of the crap of late has been resolved and I'm back in "zomg, writing!" mode, I'll hopefully be building the blog back up, commenting again (after god-doesn't-even-know-how-long of not), and taking care of my various online interests.

Speaking of various online interests, there's another one that's just been born. My pals Mireyah Wolfe and Ceridwen Swift offered me the position of high fantasy editor with Blood and Lullabies, the eZine they created. Of course, I took it, and now we're open for submissions!

Mires accepts urban fantasy and paranormal romance, Ceri accepts horror, and I accept high fantasy. Our individual guidelines and the overall guidelines can be found here, and I highly encourage you to check 'em out! We've already got three submissions (two for Ceri, one for me), and we could use plenty more. :)

Currently we can't offer any payment, since we've just started up, but we're hoping to change that in the future. It is another publication credit for your resume, however, and we're going to try and build it up as we go along. We can't do that without submissions, though, so please, please, please consider sending in a short story!

That's all for now, I suppose. I'm hoping to do some writing of my own this afternoon, and I'm going to try and be finished with chapters eight through ten by Wednesday. Here's hoping!

Happy Saturday, all--
Jenna.

Feck, Man

2011-03-21T20:10:00.004-05:00

Hai. I'm back. Kind of. My head hurts, I'm dead-tired, and I've been avoiding my WiP for weeks on end, but I'm at least kind of not dead maybe sort of alive. Maybe.

Chapter seven has been conquered, chapter eight is sort-of-kind-of on the way there, and I just spent a week at Mires' house, kicking her in the ass so she'd write something. I think I need somebody to do that for me. Sigh.

There's been a lot of crap going on lately, and It was an unholy hour last night before I finally fell asleep--lots to think about in the quiet before the subconscious pelts me with dreams. I was planning to write today, but I'm fecking tired, and somehow it's already fecking 8:00 at night. Wut.

I've done some reading over the past week, at least. And kicking Mires into wordly action is a point of personal pride. I just need to relocate my motivation and I'll be good. Spring break was so. not. long enough. Now I've got some senior project crap to do (*groan*), but I have several hours of absolutely nothing to do at school, so I'm going to try and print my current draft of chapter eight so I can work on it tomorrow. Yay, two TA periods, a do-absolutely-nothing English class, and a fluff elective class that I was forced to take and yet requires pretty much nothing other than showing up and breathing!

I'm going to try--and notice the keyword try, here--to get back on some sort of schedule with the blogging and the writing and the doing-things-other-than-screwing-around-on-Facebook, even if it's a thin one. Because, damn, I need some structure. These apathy days are going to kill me.

But, feck, man, I'm tired. I'm thinking I'll print chapter eight, nom a bowl of ice cream, take a hot shower, and hit the sack.

Yeah. That sounds like a good plan. A demain, mes amis.

The Many Faces of Chapter Seven

2011-02-28T12:32:00.004-06:00

I'm home today and tomorrow. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment, but for most of the day I'll pretty much be hanging out at home. Since I told le Mires (and my crit partners at large) that they can punish me if I don't have the next few chapters to them by Saturday, they can hurt me...well, I'm going to take these two days to write.

Because Mires can actually make good on the whole "if I don't have them, you can hit me" thing. I'll be at her house on Saturday, and her house has shiny, sharp, pointy weapons. And she hits hard.

I've got about two thousand words left to go until chapter seven is done, and then I can go back to chapter six and do the read-through of six through ten, doing touch-ups and edits until I hit chapters eight through ten, which will involve some heavier revision in one or two places. It shouldn't take too long, since I've got everything figured out. I just need to, y'know, get it done. Or, as Tim Gunn would say, "make it work!"

To end my chapter seven procrastination, here's a round up of screencaps and memes I've made in my agony. Enjoy! :P

A Taste of Hell Chapter Seven

2011-02-22T20:31:00.004-06:00

I'm still not done with chapter seven. Between creative anguish (WHY, DEAR GODS IN ASGARD, WILL THESE CHARACTERS NOT COOPERATE?!), events (my brother's head lice/cold/pinkeye, my cold, my birthday, etc.), and general laziness, I'm still only half done. With the writing. I still have to revise and edit after that.

But, because I suspect Mires and Ashy might physically injure me if I don't (Mires on behalf of Ashy, since Ashy lives to far away to do it herself), here's a small taste, completely unedited, of the nightmare that is chapter seven:

“Deacon,” Hendricks said, voice even. “You can’t rush in and provoke the pixies. When they strike back, they strike back hard. They’ll wipe us out. You don’t want another child to lose his family. You don’t want this to become another Mirren Slaughter.”

For an old man, Hendricks was fast. He ducked and, instead of meeting Hendricks’ jaw, Deacon’s fist passed through empty air. He spun, raising his arm to meet his mark on the second swing. Hendricks, calm as ever, seized Deacon’s fist and twisted, spinning Deacon into a hold that strained his joints and then dropped him to the ground.

“You can’t live for revenge,” Hendricks said, offering Deacon a hand. Deacon ignored it. “You’re going to get yourself killed. I’ll help you bring her in, only because I don’t want you going into that forest by yourself.”

Deacon, scowling so deep his face ached, dragged himself to his feet. “You had no right to say that. You don’t know what happened that day.”

“I have every right,” Hendricks said. “You’re the one obsessed with duty; you should know my duty is to keep you informed and the lieutenants together. I can’t do either one if you’re a screaming wreck.”

“Get out.”

“No. You can’t hole up in your office and hide like a little girl. You’re a leader, so lead. You assembled the lieutenants, so get to work. Piss and moan later, if we’re not dead by then.”

Kindergarten Taught Us Well

2011-02-15T13:58:00.003-06:00

I was an only child for almost twelve years, and, as a result, I guess you could say I was spoiled. It probably didn't help that my mother and I lived with my nana until I was nine--after all, nanas do what nanas do, and it was pretty much a given that I got a toy every time we went to Walmart together.

Since I was a spoiled only child, I had many toys and nobody I was forced to share them with. Yes, I frequently played with my cousins and a few friends, but before I got to school, sharing things with other kids wasn't something I did on a regular basis. My mother taught me well, mind you, but being told to share and being forced to actually share, in real life, are two different things.

When I got to school, I learned to share. Toys, books, pencils, germs...shoot, in kindergarten (and, in my case, Head Start, too) you share everything. Sharing is a lifelong fact of life, and it's best to learn it young.

Thing is, I didn't learn to share manuscripts until I met my very good Twitter pals, who have since become my very good critique partners. And, man, I wish I'd learned to share earlier. I'm still nervous about sharing work, but I've got some fantastic crit partners and friends, and they've been a real help, even if it's just being rabid about getting new chapters.

So, I guess what I'm saying is this--don't be afraid to share. Remember kindergarten: Sharing is caring. :)

--Jenna.

Romance? Feh.

2011-02-14T17:19:00.005-06:00

Valentine's Day has many fans, some of them rabid. I am most certainly not one of them. It's not that I'm sour because I don't have anybody to spend it with, and it's not that I've been burned in relationships and think the whole idea is stupid--both of which are theories people have given as to why I hate good ol' V-Day. No, it's a simple dislike of the concept.

A surefire way to make me laugh at you.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good romance--when it's not a fluffy, boy-meets-girl-and-they-immediately-fall-in-love-oh-gosh-isn't-it-romantic sort of romance. I actually can't stand those most of the time. My preferred brand of romance is an Eve Dallas and Roarke brand romance: they grew to love each other, are still kind of uncomfortable with the concept even after 31 books, they fight, they argue, they piss each other off, but they care for each other on a level a lot of people never really reach.

I also hate codependent morons. Bella Swan pisses me off on so many different levels because she's apparently incapable of functioning without a man at her side. She also doesn't really bring much to the relationship.

Call me a cynic--[you're a cynic!]--but romances really aren't my thing. It's why, more often than not, any characters I have that are in a relationship are already in said relationship. I don't like going through the process of getting them there. With my characters, I have the same philosophy as I have with my friends at school--"Good for you, you're in a relationship. Get mushy around me or tell me details of how you met and get a boot up your backside."

Yeah, I'm a hopeless romantic, I know.

Question for you folks:

What's your take on romances--love 'em, hate 'em, or just don't care?

Review: ANNABEL, by Kathleen Winter

2011-02-12T17:10:00.004-06:00

A little while ago, Brent of the Naughty Book Kitties (@NaughtyBlogging on Twitter) put out the word that he had a copy of Kathleen Winter's ANNABEL for any bloggers who wanted to read and review it. I, not being one to turn down a free book, jumped at the chance.

I finished reading it this afternoon, and I've got to say that I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

This book is about Wayne, who was born both a girl and a boy--a hermaphrodite--and raised in the hypermasculine world of his father, who made the decision to raise Wayne as a boy. Wayne's mother and a woman named Thomasina, who was present at his birth, continue to nurture Wayne's feminine side, and throughout the book he is torn between Wayne and his "shadow-self" he calls Annabel.

It's more literary, with long passages and relatively little dialogue to break it up, but the story is solid and the characters are very real. The description is amazing, and, even though I've never been to Canada, I can see the landscape in my head. The internal conflicts are well executed, and the actions in the story suit the characters that take them.

I think my favorite character is Treadway, Wayne's father. I didn't like him at first, but by the end of the book I was able to understand why he did everything he did, and I feel like his internal struggle was just as difficult as Wayne's, just in a different way.

Wayne was a phenomenal character. I felt for him, and I cared about everything that happened to him. I obviously can't empathize with him, as I'm not a hermaphrodite (all my friends' joking accusations aside--God, don't you just love high school?), but Wayne is such a well-written character that I'm right there with him. His confusion and conflicting thoughts make him easy to sympathize and even identify with, because beneath it all there's the same struggle we all go through: "who the hell am I?"

My overall rating is five of five stars. It took me maybe a chapter to really get into it, but the story is great and it wouldn't surprise me if the characters were really walking around somewhere. It's not a book for everybody, but it's definitely a fantastic read.

Happy Sunday, all! :D

The Pixiehunter: 10 Random Facts

2011-02-10T16:46:00.005-06:00

I did a random facts post for tSotD AGES ago, and it was pretty popular--plus I loved doing it. I thought I'd do one for The Pixiehunter as well, since I'm in the thick of rewrites and could use a fun post about le WiP. ;)

So, here we go! 10 random facts about my current WiP, The Pixiehunter:

1. There's no magic in this story, though originally there were a number of "magical" things, like spirits and dragons--this was back when the story had different characters and a different premise. In fact, I think the only thing that stuck was the title...

2. I've had to actually research things for this project, including guns, military structure, Victorian and Edwardian fashion, the dates of invention for fountain pens, cameras, radios, cars, and electricity, and types of injuries that can kill within minutes. My personal favorite topic was whether, if you take venom from a snake and inject it into the bloodstream of the same snake, said snake will die. I've yet to look that one up, because I only just today realized that I need to know that.

3. The main character, Deacon, was going to have brown eyes until I listened to Limp Bizkit's Behind Blue Eyes and decided it fit him so well his eyes absolutely had to be blue.

4. I borrowed last names of 5 people I know and assigned them to secondary and minor characters--these names are, in no particular order, Hagin, Garrette, Lewis, Young, and Kitchens. Hagin in the book is a very, very bad man, but the real Hagin is a guy I met at camp several years ago. He's freaking hilarious, and I still have most of the pictures he took when he "borrowed" my camera when I was in archery two years ago.

5. I very loosely based the appearance of my other main character, Ella, on my friend Megan. They're both really short. One of the only reasons I used Megan as a model is so I could make a really long, extended short joke in the form of asking for permission to borrow Megan's looks. It was in response to Megan's open challenge to come up with a short joke she hadn't yet heard.

6. The scene I thought would be hardest to write was actually the easiest. It's also the most traumatic scene in the book, and it's most definitely going to piss off my crit pals when they get to it.

7. The scene from number 6 is always referred to as "The Scene" in my notes. It's pretty...erm...well, it's violent, extremely psychologically and physically damaging to one of my characters, its events are horrible, and I cried writing it. It's not as bad as some scenes I've read in other people's WiPs, but it's one of those ones that makes me go, "damn, that's evil even for me!" But it had to be written--it's integral to the ending of the story.

8. If I ever get this published, Mires is getting the dedication. I don't think I'd have had the guts to write a story involving a scene like The Scene if she hadn't corrupted me.

9. My pixies aren't magic, and they're not all that friendly. They have a toxin on their claws and they can KEEL YOU DEAD. Which they will not hesitate to do. That's their only special "power." Like I said, there's no magic.

10. In regards to the playlist, I have three songs that are story-specific, while the rest are just songs I like to write to. Behind Blue Eyes by Limp Bizkit is Deacon's theme. The Firefly theme is Ella's theme. The overall theme song for the story is Three Days Grace's Animal I Have Become. Cutting Crew's (I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight is on the playlist because it doesn't fit at all--the actual lyrics have absolutely nothing to do with the story, but there is a character that literally dies in somebody's arms. I thought putting it on the playlist would be funny.

I could list a few more, but this post's getting a bit long, and I do still have a to-do list to complete. So TTFN, lovelies--have a good evening!

--Jenna.

Done Been WiPped

2011-02-09T13:31:00.002-06:00

On Sunday I shared those three extremely productive (/sarcasm) screencaps of chapter seven, with hopes that I would get some actual work done before today.

Erm. Monday morning the heater died, and I spent pretty much all of Monday afternoon bundled up in the living room, too cold to think, with the space heater and my blanket. Yesterday I had my epic doctor's appointment of doom, followed by more of that "too cold to think" stage, mixed with a Bones marathon with Mumsie and Dad-of-Mine. I even forgot about #FLitChat (for which I apologize immensely--next week we'll discuss worldbuilding, I promise!).

Today, however, I had free time in my lovely little TA period, and so I sat down to put the fear of god into chapter seven. Once I got past that first paragraph, it started practically writing itself. Heck yeah. I have a math test to study for tonight (I WILL PASS THAT TEST, DAMMIT!), so I don't know how much more writing I can do this evening, but I at least have my beginning down-pat.

God, you don't know how happy that makes me. Chapter seven has been whipped into action, and The Pixiehunter is on its way to completion. MUWAHAHA!

So, this afternoon, my schedule involves chores, studying, and spit-shining chapter four so I can send the next few chapters to my crit partners...including Mires, whose blog post today complemented me, made me feel all happy, and, just as a bonus, kicked me in the aft-end (I promise, Mires, it's going to be ON THE WAY as soon as I get finished with chores! I promise!! No more aft-end-kicking!).

Toodles for now and such things,
Jenna.

Monday's Muse: Do What You Want to Do

2011-02-07T16:55:00.004-06:00

Happy Monday, all! Despite missing two days of school days last week (oy), today wasn't that bad. I'm not going to school tomorrow, because of a doctor's appointment, so I'm going to try and get as much writing done tomorrow as possible, including a flash fic/short story based on today's Muse. I'm thinking something dystopian.

Now, for the muses!

"I don't think about risks much. I just do what I want to do. If you gotta go, you gotta go."

Lillian Carter

Under Pressure--David Bowie and Queen (video link)

What about you guys--what kind of story would you write from these muses?

...And Then Stuff Happened

2011-02-06T10:37:00.005-06:00

Last week, due to weather, my mother kept me home Thursday and Friday (even though there was, in fact, school). I took advantage of these extra days off to finish chapter four, plow through chapter five, agonize over chapter six, and outline the new chapter seven, which I plan on writing today.

So, yes. Four, five, and six are (in some places) rewritten, revised, and edited. I feel so powerful. While they all gave me some problems, I just had to sit down and work and they resolved themselves. Chapter seven, however, is being horrible, as witnessed by this series of screencaps I posted on Facebook last night:

"Chapter Seven
The Hunt Begins
'Obsession will kill you. Focus on everything, not one facet.' -- Leonard Hendricks"

"Chapter Seven
Has yet to be written
'Chapter six is now my bitch. Chapter seven is giving me trouble.' -- Jenna White"

"Chapter Seven
Involves stuff and things and the people it happens to
'Nananananananana, BATMAN!'"

I know, I'm sad. But I do, as of right now, know what needs to be written. That's a plus. And I promise it's not "and then stuff happened." While something does indeed happen, I have a bit more detail than that. ;)

This week promises to be busy, so I'm going to try and get as much work done today as I can. I'll check in with WiP updates on Wednesday, so we'll see how far I can get...

Happy Sunday, all! I've heard mutters of something sports-related going on today, so enjoy the game.* :D

[* Yes, I know it's Superbowl Sunday. I just happened to stop caring after the Saints were out of the running. I'm not a sports fan, but I'm connected to people who might keelhaul me if I ever rooted for somebody NOT the Saints. So.]

Review: ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, by Beth Revis

2011-02-05T13:56:00.002-06:00

This past week I read Beth Revis' ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, and not only did I fall in love with it, I learned something quite valuable: if anybody ever tries to stick me in cryo, they're getting knifed. Repeatedly.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is about Amy, who, alongside her parents, has been cryogenically frozen on the ship Godspeed. They are scheduled to wake up in 300 years to help colonize a new planet, but somehow Amy's cryo chamber is unplugged and she wakes up 50 years early. Somebody tried to murder her. She makes it her mission to uncover the secrets Godspeed holds, alongside Elder, the heir of the ship's tyrannical ruler, Eldest. But she doesn't know who she can trust--all she knows is that she has to find out what's going on before whoever unplugged her kills again.

I only had one problem with this book, and that is the fact that it ended. I would have happily gone on reading it forever, despite the fact that chapter one made me squirm (Beth's descriptions of being frozen were not kind to my fear of needles and IVs). It made me think, and it was one of those stories that I can't stop daydreaming about, even after I put it back on my shelf.

Amy and Elder, the main characters, are incredible. The characterization is dead on, and the motivations and goals are very real. The technology is perfectly incorporated into the story, and the culture onboard the ship is very well thought out, right down to the slang. I. Frexing. Love it.

There was a level to the story that could almost be described as philosophical--what it takes to run a society, how people react to turmoil, and the sources of discord are all driving themes. Thought, emotion, and difference play a huge role, as well, and the discussions between Elder and Eldest about discord were definite thought-provokers.

The story is amazing, the themes are deep (but not in a distracting, pretentious way), and the characters--all the characters--are so real they could step off the page. I immediately identified with both Amy and Elder, and I can't frexing wait for the next book.

This book has landed a spot on my to-be-RE-read shelf, and I give it five of five stars. Go. Read it. Love it.

(And to Beth Revis, if you ever read this, I say this: you rock so hard. Write more awesome things so I can read them.)

Monday's Muse: A Grave Thought

2011-01-31T15:19:00.004-06:00

Maybe it's because it's Monday. Maybe it's because I finally caved and started writing the serial killer story that my dad suggested. Maybe it's because I just finished Indulgence in Death (which was damn good, especially considering it's book 31 in the series). Maybe, maybe, maybe--point is, today's Monday Musings are all, in some way, about that little thing called death.

Personally, I find great inspiration in the morbid and somewhat-morbid. Of course, I am a bit twisted...in any case, make of these what you will. Happy Monday!

“Death is terrifying because it is so ordinary. It happens all the time.”

Susan Cheever

Frozen--Within Temptation (video link)

Interview With Marni Mann!

2011-01-28T18:03:00.003-06:00

Hey, readers! Tonight we've got an interview with aspiring author Marni Mann. Okay, Marni, tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a twenty-something-year-old who loves good books, dogs, anything chocolate, consumes way too much coffee, and hopes to be a published author one day.

When did you start writing?

I’ve been writing since I was able to hold a pen and could produce something that didn’t resemble a bunch of squiggles. English trumped every other subject in school. And if I could have written papers in all my math classes instead of ‘working out the problems’ than I would have been an honors student. I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism and I work as a technical writer when I’m not writing fiction.

What are you currently working on?

I’ve just completed my first novel, Memoirs Aren’t Fairytales. It’s classified under mainstream fiction and it’s about addiction. Addiction is a disease that affects millions and I hope just as many people buy my book.

Are you an addict, recovered addict, or personally affected by an addict?

No, no, and yes. I know several addicts/recovered addicts and when this book started, I was being affected personally. My pain, hurt, and disappointment came out in the form of a novel. The book isn’t based on their story. It’s a story I created to show the power of addiction. And because I don’t have any experience being an addict, I spent a lot of time researching, interviewing addicts, and recovered addicts to get a sense of their disease, their desperation, and hope.

What have you learned?

What have I learned about addiction? You’ll have to read the book to find out J What I’ve learned about writing and publishing is it isn’t as easy as it seems. That sounds so cliché, but it’s true. This book took two years and three months, and four re-writes to get here – a finished manuscript that’s ready to submit to agents. I’ve also learned what a rewarding process this is. Whether I get published or not, I have a manuscript that I’m really proud of.

Traditional publishing or self-publishing?

I’d like to start with traditional publishing. If that doesn’t work out, I may pursue self-publishing. I’m currently gathering a list of agents and will start submitting in the upcoming weeks.

What else are you working on?

The sequel, of course! J The characters have so much more to say and do, I feel their story isn’t ready to come to an end yet. A thriller/mystery has also been floating around in my head. Once the sequel is done, I’ll be putting that on paper, too.

Advice to aspiring authors?

Keep writing and don’t ever stop. Get a reader (or several) to critique your work. If a professional editor is within your budget, hire one. A pair of seasoned eyes to point out flaws, repetition, and weak points, is so helpful. I had both (readers and an editor) and without them, my manuscript would never have reached its full potential.

If everything in the world had to be one color, which one and why?

I love this question. Even though pink is my favorite color, I don’t think I’d be attracted to a man if he was pink or wearing all pink – although a dash of pink is fine. Yellow and orange are happy colors. But yellow is too bright and orange reminds me of fake tans (e.g. Snooki). Final answer = baby blue. Both men and women can rock baby blue. As for blue chocolate (because everything reverts back to chocolate) the blue M&M’s are my favorite out of the bunch.

How can we contact you and keep up-to-date with your writing?

My Blog: http://marnimann.wordpress.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/MarniMann

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marni-Mann-Author/179652112055650?ref=ts

Thanks, Marni! I'll be keeping up with you. I'm sure my readers will, too. And if there's anybody else out there who has something to say in a guest post or would like to be interviewed about their writing, drop me a comment or send me an email at jenniferwhite13(at)ymail(dot)com. Happy weekend, all!

--Jenna.

Initiative: Take Some

2011-01-27T17:27:00.003-06:00

We all remember the infamous Kirby, right? If you're new to this blog, he was my English teacher for tenth and eleventh grade, and my creative writing teacher for eleventh grade, as well. I begged (and, folks, I mean BEGGED) the counselors to let me take his creative writing class again but, sadly, it didn't work out.

Many of my friends, however, are in the class. Which makes me insanely jealous--after all, Kirby's my favorite teacher. The guy even has his own freaking tag on my blog. That says something, I think. He's totally getting the dedication in tSotD, if the damn thing ever gets published (I WILL go back and rewrite the second half one day! I WILL!).

Anyway, my point is that a lot of my friends are in his class, and they had a short story due today. For days they've all been talking about it on Facebook, which has made me even more jealous. For days my constant refrain has been, "man, I wish I could write a short story, too!"

And then I stopped to think: DUH. I kind of CAN write a short story. I'm a freaking WRITER, for Odin's sake. Since when do I need a teacher to tell me to write? I've had teachers forced to tell me to stop writing, but never have I needed a teacher to get me to write. Somebody says write, I keep writing, because I was already doing that in the first place.

If I want to write a damn short story, I can write a damn short story. I can take that initiative and crank something out.

Because, assignments? We don't need no freaking assignments. Writer power, rah rah!

Happy Thursday, all!

--Jenna.

(PS: Check out tomorrow's guest post--an interview with fellow aspiring author Marni Mann! If you're a writer and would like to be interviewed and/or share a guest post, please shoot me an email at jenniferwhite13(at)ymail(dot)com. Thanks!)

Monday's Muse: Monday Can Be Good

2011-01-24T15:00:00.001-06:00

Hey, everybody! Happy Monday! Please don't shoot me for that last comment! Mondays can be happy, I promise. Just look--I've got week two of Monday's Muse all ready to go for you. I'm going to use this week's inspiration bits to write my weekly short story. How about it--you game?

Here goes nothing:

"Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed." -- Winston Churchill

Finally, if you can't find inspiration in this awesome-as-heck video, there's no hope for you. So buck up, have a good Monday (I COMMAND YOU!) and get some writing done! ;D

--Jenna.

Much in the Way of Awesome: A Sunday Link Round-Up

2011-01-23T10:08:00.003-06:00

I hoard links. My favorites are organized into many different categories, including one giant one labeled "random writing pages," and it is here I stash all the awesome, cute, useful, inspiring, or just plain cool writing-related links that I find. I also, thanks to my awesome network of writing friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger, come across some fab links that I otherwise never would have found.

And, today, I'm sharing a few of my favorites, both from the past few days and from the random writing pages folder. Enjoy!

First off, a blog post by CA Marshall, all about formatting a manuscript. This actually helped me out a lot, and I imagine it'll help a lot of you guys, too.

Next, another blog post, this one by James Scott Bell over at the Kill Zone (which is a great blog that you should all follow--there's tons of great advice from pubbed authors). This post is all about "opening no-nos" and things agents hate to see when opening a manuscript.

For the final blog post of today's link round-up, a phenomenal post over at A Gypsy Writer, the blog of Ashelynn Sanford, who is a great friend of mine. If you're a teenage writer, you need to read this. If you're a writer at all, you still need to read it. It's just that awesome. I salute you, Ashy. Thanks for the great post.

Speaking of Ashy, she linked me to this great site, called EditMinion. It's like Write or Die for editing, and I've used it to great effect. Try it out!

The next two links are the Universal Mary-Sue Litmus test and the Writer's Mary Sue Test, which are awesome little quizzes/forms that calculate your characters' "Mary Sue" levels. I love both of them, and they're a lot of fun.

Another fun one is the Lulu Titlescorer, which made the rounds awhile back but I just re-stumbled across. It scores your WiP titles and calculates the possibility of said titles becoming bestsellers. Fun, if not entirely accurate.

To round it off with some humor, I have a page of grammar jokes (and who doesn't love those?), and an awesome, awesome, awesome video that Michelle Davidson Argyle (love her) posted on Facebook:

[ETA: Okay, I posted the video in the post, but the player was huge and screwed up the post formatting. Here's the link instead.]

Love it.

Hope you guys enjoyed all these links as much as I did, and got as much out of them as possible. Have a happy Sunday and a great week.

--Jenna.

Treadmill Magic

2011-01-22T16:12:00.003-06:00

I got home from the YMCA just a little while ago, but while there, I discovered something: Treadmills are fully capable of making literary magic. Especially when coupled with an iPod, a solid color wall with nothing on it just in front of you, and the playlist from your current WiP.

I went in hoping I could figure out how to wrap up a new scene in chapter three and what needed to go into the scene I need to write for chapter four, both of which are fairly important scenes, as they set things up for later. They've been irritating the hell out of me for days.

Lo and behold, the magic treadmill had the answers. Half an hour staring at a blank wall, with no distractions but the music that goes along with the WiP really helps jog some ideas out of you, no pun intended. It also doesn't hurt that it burns calories and helps you get to that "yay, I don't look like a marshmallow anymore!" stage.

So...yes, magic treadmills. I love them. As an added bonus, this particular magic treadmill (with help from Abney Park's song Airship Pirate) helped me come up with an idea for a new story. I won't be able to get to it for awhile, but the idea's there and has since been typed up and filed away.

Yay, magic treadmills!

Friday Review: PERSONAL DEMONS, by Lisa Desrochers

2011-01-21T17:29:00.003-06:00

Today in zero period English, after wrapping up a test on the Iliad, I finished reading one of the best books I've read in the past several months. It's called PERSONAL DEMONS, it's by a fantastic writer named Lisa Desrochers, and if you haven't read it...read it. Go get yourself a copy, sit down in a comfy chair, and let yourself fall into the story of Frannie, Luc, and Gabe.

The story centers around Frannie Cavanaugh, who is smack in the middle of a struggle between the forces of Heaven and Hell, who desperately want to control her and the skill that makes her more unique than any other human in history. Luc, the demon assigned to collect her soul, and Gabe, the angel trying to protect her, both fall for her and...well, a kickass story ensues.

I'm not going to lie, I'm normally not one for stories that feature romances or angels/demons/Christian archetypes. However, the story is so well written and the characters are so amazing that it didn't matter. Frannie is a well-developed character with loves and hates and that good ol' Catholic guilt (ah, Catholic guilt...I know thee well...). Luc is a demon who, oh my god, I wish were real, and MINE, because not only is he hot, he's smart and he's got faults that make him...well, human. Gabe is a smartass angel who honest-to-God snarks.

Snarky. Angel. I LOVE IT.

Ahem.

Like I said, the characters are fantastic. The story is great, and not overdone at all. Yes, we've seen angels v. demons battles fought over humans before, but this story doesn't let itself fall into that trap of "same ol', same ol'." All the layers of the story are woven together to form one complete, cohesive tale, and I was pissed yesterday because personal finance class got in the way of my being able to read it. And so did chores. And my own writing. And my shower. Everything that didn't involve me reading this book was irritating as hell.

Total rating: five out of five stars. Ms. Desrochers, I have only one thing to say to you: GIMMEH MOAR.

(Wait, two things. The second one is...how the heck do you pronounce your last name?)

Happy weekend, everybody! ;)

--Jenna.

Viking Warrior

2011-01-20T18:53:00.003-06:00

Mires' pep-talks are always so inspirational. Since we all know (or should know) by now that I'm in the middle of rewrites and hating it, Mires stepped in with the most inspiring, uplifting speech yet:

"You're a VIKING! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRR!"

Or something close to that. There was much in the way of viking yells. Heh. Oh, Mires. She went on to give me this advice:

"Kill it with fire and HACKING and SLASHING and CUTTING and other BATTLE AXE ACTION WORDS."

She always knows just what to say! Unfortunately, my viking helmet failed me and I got zip done yesterday, and, so far, nothing today. But nobody tell Mires; she might hurt me. I keep getting sidetracked, and because my laptop battery is a piece of crap, I can't take my computer with me to school to work on rewrites during my TA period or up to the library for some quiet.

However, as Mires pointed out, I am a VIKING! I shall get these rewrites DONE! They shall COWER BEFORE ME! As soon as I finish eating DINNER and posting on BLOGS! YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

Heh.

So here's to rewrites and being a viking warrior. Happy Thursday, folks. ;)

-Jenna.

WiP Wed.: Edition "Damn Rewrites!"

2011-01-19T13:37:00.003-06:00

DAMN REWRITES. They're a special kind of hell, just for writers. They suck, I hate doing them, and I wish they were over and done with. I have a lot of them to do with Pixiehunter (thanks to my bare-bones first draft that I finished in four days), and I've just hit the first major patch this past week.

But, to quote my dad, "Quit bitching about your rewrites and just do 'em!"

Oh, Daddy-Person. You always know just what to say. *Rolls eyes.*

Honestly, though, this is a damn fine piece of advice, and one that I shared last week: Just do it. I've got to do them if I want to take this WiP anywhere, I enjoy the story, and I at least know what and how I need to rewrite everything. It could be worse, and there's nothing preventing me from tackling them.

Still hate 'em, though. Grr.

In non-novel-rewriting news, I'm waiting to hear back from the magazine I submitted my poem to, I've written a few more flash fiction pieces, and today in first period (my TA period) I wrote two articles, which I will be editing and posting (hopefully) later today. I've outlined more articles, gotten a few ideas jotted down (including one particularly awesome idea I got in the shower the other day--hot showers=epic win when it comes to dislodging ideas), and had a fairly good week writing-wise. Or, at least, better than usual. Which, naturally, makes me happy.

Yesterday I bought two new books (which completely shattered my promise to myself that I wouldn't buy any more new books until I get my Kindle, which I will be able to take to my dorm and not worry about bookshelf space). I'm looking forward to plowing through my TBR pile, now that I'm not as busy, and hopefully I'm going to finish the books Mires loaned me sometime soon. Heh.

Oh, wow, longish post for a WiP Wednesday. Guess I'll sign off now--after all, there's writing afoot! ;D

--Jenna.

Teaser Tuesday: Edition "Taunting Ashy"

2011-01-18T18:36:00.004-06:00

Hey, all. For today's teaser, I have a bit from chapter two (Cassandra's Tale). Enjoy!

(And Ashy? You'll get the rest of chapter two as soon as I finish some touch-ups. I promise!)

Hendricks just behind him, Deacon walked up the porch steps. Cassandra Nerys’ home was large and dignified, with sweet-smelling flowers bursting out of the window boxes. But, despite the cheery colors, the house oozed foreboding—the windows were heavily curtained, the brickwork was in need of a scrub, and the door was nearly the same color as the wall, as if it were trying hide.

Undeterred, Deacon clasped the brass knocker and rapped it against the door three times. After a few minutes he heard a chain slide back and the door opened, revealing an austere-looking middle-aged man with a deep frown.

“Mrs. Nerys is not expecting visitors,” he said, surveying Deacon and Hendricks, eyes coming to a rest on their gleaming badges. “Ah. Official business, then. I warn you, Mrs. Nerys does not take kindly to the Hunters. I expect she’ll turn you away.”

Deacon matched the butler’s frown. “If you would go get her.”

“If you will wait here.”

Deacon and the butler nodded at each other, and then the door closed in Deacon’s face. His frown turned into a scowl

“Patience, Deacon,” Hendricks muttered. “It’s—”

“Yes, I know it’s a virtue! Be quiet, Hendricks. Let me do the talking.”

“I will, unless you go and say something stupid. Be patient with her. I’m sure as far as she’s concerned, her daughter is dead. I’m amazed he didn’t just turn us away.”

“I’d have arrested him for hindering an investigation.”

“You can’t arrest him; you don’t have that power. Our jurisdiction is only over pixies.”

“Shut up, Hendricks. I’ll find a way.”

“You really haven’t slept lately, have you?”

Deacon ignored him and fixed his eyes on the door. He stopped himself from tapping his foot and forced himself to smile politely when Cassandra Nerys opened it.

“Yes?” she said. Her voice was hoarse, though any weakness it betrayed was combated by her commanding air. Though she was short and near emaciated, she held herself with poise and strength so that not even the dirty blonde hair fighting to escape her long braids looked out of line. But for all her strong posture, she couldn’t hide the exhaustion in her hard brown eyes, nor the dark circles beneath them.

“Mrs. Nerys,” Deacon said, keeping his polite smile in place. “May we come in?”

“Not until I know what this is about.” She crossed her arms, rumpling her undoubtedly expensive-as-hell dress. “Maxwell says you’re with the Hunters. I want nothing to do with Hunters. Say what you need to say and get out.”

“Mrs. Nerys, it’s about…it’s about your daughter. If we could—”

The door slammed in his face before he could get out another word. He turned to Hendricks.

Hendricks shook his head and said, “Let me.”

“Be my guest!”

Hendricks nudged Deacon to the side and stepped forward, rapping his knuckles smartly on the door.

“Leave me be!” Cassandra’s voice said.

“Ma’am,” Hendricks said. “Ma’am, I understand that this is upsetting, and I promise we’ll take as little time as humanly possible, but we have a few questions that require your answers. I promise you, we’ll be on our way before you know it.”

The door opened. “I doubt that. Say what you need to say, ask what you need to ask. But I’m not letting you in my house.”

Hendricks nodded. “I understand. Deacon?”

Cassandra’s eyes flicked to Deacon. “What?”

“We need to know about your daughter, Mrs. Nerys.”

“Why?” she snapped.

“We have reports of a woman sighted with pixies in the raid yesterday, and your daughter’s name was mentioned. I need to pursue every avenue of investigation, and it will help all of us if we can clear your daughter’s name out of this mess as soon as possible.”

“Probably was her,” Cassandra said. She sighed. “All right, fine. Come inside. Don’t expect drinks—I’m not wasting my brandy.”

“We understand,” Hendricks said. “After you, Deacon.”

The Pixiehunters filed inside after Cassandra and she led them to her sitting room, gesturing at a floral-patterned sofa. They sat, though she walked to the other side of the room and poured herself a drink.

“Ask your damn questions,” she said, finally perching on the sofa’s matching armchair.

“What happened to your daughter?” Deacon said. “Just tell us the whole story, if you would, from start to finish.”

Cassandra scowled. “Little bitch.”

Monday's Muse

2011-01-17T20:09:00.003-06:00

Inspiration is a fickle thing, and waiting for it is like...it's just kind of dumb, really. And so, to get the week started, here is some inspiration that I've gone and tracked down. I present to you my first Monday's Muse post, which will hopefully be just the first in a long line. Each week I'll post one piece of art, one photograph, one quote, and then round it off with a video. Sound good? :D

Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
George Dana Boardman

Have a good week, everybody!

--Jenna.

Sunday Flash

2011-01-16T18:48:00.003-06:00

Here's a quick piece of flash fiction, with no editing, written in response to a prompt from The Creative Block, by Lou Harry (sequel/companion to Jason Rekulak's infamous The Writer's Block):

Spark quote: "Now there's something you don't see every day."

I turned to Lucy and thumbed over my shoulder, gesturing at the girl with the dyed lime-green hair. "Now there's something you don't see every day."

Instantly I regretted my words. Lucy's mom had just lost her hair from all the chemo and Lucy was a wreck. All those feet of beautiful mahogany locks, gone. Every last one of them. It was just another sign that things were Wrong with a capital "W" and Lucy couldn't ignore them anymore.

"Sorry," I muttered.

"Whatever." She focused her attention on her burger and crossed her ankles beneath the cafe table, turning slightly away from me in the classic "shut up and leave me alone" Lucy pose. I'd upset her again. Dammit, I was no good at this cheering up and distracting thing. World's Most Rotten Friend, that was me. I should have gotten a trophy.

"I'm sorry, Lucy," I pressed. I shouldn't upset her more, I knew that, but...well, god, how much longer could she refuse to talk to me? I'd barely seen her over the past three months and when I did see her, it was impossible to cheer her up. Maybe a better friend could have done it, but I'd never been good at that kind of thing.

"I heard you," she said. She crumpled up her burger wrapper and pitched it at the nearby trashcan. She missed.

"I've got it."

"Just leave it," she said, staring down at the table.

I got up anyway. That was it; I'd had enough. I'd tried my best to snap her out of her melancholy and nothing had worked, but damned if I was going to let her sit there and wallow another second. She was going to run herself into the ground and then her dad and brothers would have even more to deal with.

"Get up," I said. "We're going to a movie."

"I have to get home."

"No you damn well don't," I snapped. "Get up, get your bag, and let's go. What do you want to see? No, wait, scratch that--we're going to see the worst b-movie comedy that's showing. If I'm going to drop twenty bucks on tickets, we're going to see something we can heckle."

She stood and followed me to my car. She still wasn't smiling, but it was a start.

"You're right," Lucy muttered once we were on our way to the theater.

"What?" I asked. "That for twenty bucks we should be able to heckle?"

"No. That really wasn't something you see every day. She should have gone with a different color--the green made her look like she'd been in the pool too long."

There she was. There was my Lucy. I smiled. Score one for the best friend.

Nike Knows Best

2011-01-13T13:54:00.003-06:00

There's something I say all the time, and it's something I try to live by, too. It's something that really helps me when I feel overwhelmed, and it's something that helps me muddle through revisions, synopses, submissions, outlines, and every single less-than-fun part of the writing process.

What is it? Why, that old chestnut from Nike: Just do it.

The way I see it, it's worse if you put it off and put it off and put it off (unless it's putting away dishes--in that case, put it off as long as possible, because, geez). If you have revisions to do, putting it off just makes you more and more reluctant to actually sit down and start reading through your WiP. Likewise with everything else.

My to-do list for today is epic and horrible and evil and probably given to me by the devil himself. But I'm going to try not to dwell on that and just do it. I'm going to get everything done in a timely manner, finish what I have to do, and then sit back and enjoy the fact that I did it and it's over with.

So, folks, take a page from Nike's book: Just do it.

Cracking the WiP

2011-01-12T13:50:00.004-06:00

I feel so accomplished in the writing world...really, I do. This week has thus far seen me writing several flash fiction pieces, a poem that doesn't suck, revising a short story that I intend to submit, revising another short story that I also intend to submit, revising said non-sucky poem, submitting said non-sucky poem to a magazine, making a list of article ideas, and scrolling through chapter four of my WiP only to decide to get back to that later in the week. Heh.

(Seriously, though. Chapter four? One big hot evil mess.)

This afternoon I intend to wade through the first scene of chapter four (and all its big hot evil messiness), research some more magazines to submit to, revise a short-short, complete a short fiction piece, and, if I can squeak out enough time between applying for scholarships and cleaning my room, write a new article for AC (or whatever it is AC is called now).

Since I've got time to do my blog posts in fourth period (yay, short lessons in the online class!), I don't have to worry about that later today. Which is awesome. My to-do list just got a lot shorter.

One of my goals for this year was to start submitting at least one short story or poem a week, and it seems like I'll be able to do it. Another goal was to try and write at least one new AC article a week, which, hopefully, I'll remember to do (which will be helpful, as I can start stacking up page views now so that when I turn 18, I can have a high clout level, which results in MONEY). My other writing goal, the biggie, is to have at least the first go-around of revisions on the Pixiehunter done by May.

It's a good year for me so far, and I intend to keep it that way. Like I said yesterday, my goal is to make money writing some day (and some day in the near future, at that). This is my year to kick-start it and crack the hell out of the whip (or WiP, as the case may be).

Wish me luck, everybody! Here's to a continued year of writing.

Jenna.

Teaser Tuesday--Edition "Invisible Teaser"

2011-01-11T14:01:00.002-06:00

I wrote a great poem today. I know, I'm shocked, too. I didn't know I was capable. But write it I did, and I've been planning since first period to post it as today's Teaser Tuesday. Then I stopped to think--it's not a part of something larger. It just is. It's good enough that I want to submit it, along with a couple others, to some poetry magazines, and if I post it, that counts as previously published.

So, today's teaser is invisible. Here you go:

...

Okay, okay, fine. I'll do an actual post.

I mentioned last week (or whenever it was) that I've started writing short stories. My ultimate goal with this is to submit to magazines in the hopes that I can both earn some publishing credits and get my name out there a little farther. I also plan to make money from my writing after graduation/college, and you kind of can't make money without submitting things. If I start writing and submitting over the next few months, I might be able to start earning money and start crafting my career.

Which, you know, is what I'm going for with the whole creative writing major thing. Heh.

Today's a bit busy (why is it always Tuesdays?), but I'm hoping to revise some of my WiP and get one of my short stories looked over. I'm also starting to research magazines for submission, so if anybody has any to recommend, let me know!

Oh, and #FLitChat is tonight at 6pm CST--topic is prophecies, quests, and fantasy "regulars." Pop on over this evening and join in!

TTFN and such,
Jenna.

Allegory of the Rewrite

2011-01-10T19:45:00.004-06:00

My goal for this year was to try and post every day, but Wednesday and Thursday were absolutely horrible days for me full of great mental and emotional crises. Seriously, last week sucked. Then I was out of town from Friday afternoon to Sunday night, and by the time I got home I didn't really have time to blog. So...ah, well. Back now, though, and hoping to pick up the resolution of every-day blogging where I left off.

On Friday in English we got our nine weeks' test papers back. We were supposed to write something about the Allegory of the Cave--what it was about, what it meant, et cetera. I asked Mrs. Abadie if I could rewrite it as a short story, and she practically bounced up and down with excitement, saying that she's been waiting for somebody to do that for years. So, what the hell, I did. And got a 100. I wrote it in 30 minutes and didn't revise it, and I've never read the original. Heh. Pretty damn good, eh?

Seriously, though, the only things I know about the Allegory come from Jackson Pearce's SISTERS RED (which rocked, by the way). I either missed or wasn't paying attention on the day we talked about it in class. Since Jackson Pearce included a recurring bit about the Allegory (for which I will forever love her), I knew the basic outline and was able to land myself a perfect score for my term test.

I love you, Jackson Pearce. You rock.

That's all for now, I suppose. I hope everybody had a great weekend and is having a great week so far!

Jenna.

(Oh! PS--I'm looking to make Friday a guest post day, so if anybody would like to write a guest post, please, please, please let me know! I'm looking for any topic related to writing, specifically along the lines of worldbuilding, fantasy/science fiction, characterization, and stories with dark/adult themes. Email me via the email on the contact tab if interested. Thanks!)

Who's Writing Short Shorts?

2011-01-04T20:19:00.003-06:00

I'm writing short shorts! Or, rather, regular shorts--namely, short stories. Something I want to start doing this year is submitting to magazines, and in order to do that, I kind of have to have short stories to submit.

I've got a great new method of coming up with ideas, which I will elaborate on tomorrow. For now, it's almost 8:30 and I've got a to-do list that I haven't even started to tackle, thanks to Mires and an epic Facebook comment war that has, as of this minute, reached 100 comments. We're nuts that way.

So, yes. New year, plenty of goals, and, so far, a blog post every day in 2011. Woot woot!

Crucio Your Darlings

2011-01-03T12:28:00.004-06:00

*Stands up.* Hi, I'm Jenna, and I'm addicted to torturing fictional characters.

Okay, maybe not addicted. But I do seem to do it a lot. It's just...fun, y'know? It's intense. There's drama and there's action and making fictional lives hell is a lot nicer than making real lives hell. And besides, without some good mental and/or physical trauma, or at least some suffering and internal argumentation, it's just not a story. There's got to be something that my characters will hate me for.

Right? Right.

Okay, so I write stories with dark twists and violent characters. Okay, so I kill off some people. Yeah, I subject them to emotional traumas. Heck, in my current WiP, there's even some torture. But I don't do it unless I have to, okay? If it doesn't move the story forward, I live and let live. I don't go around casting Crucio all willy-nilly. If shooting a character and letting her bleed to death doesn't serve the story, it won't happen. I promise.

So I'm not really addicted to torturing characters. I just jump at the chance and include it if the story is served by it. I promise, I'm not an evil serial killer in training.

Question for you:

How horrible are you to your characters? If there's a chance to work in some mental/physical/emotional trauma and have it serve the story, do you take it?

Synopsis of Doom: The Prequel

2011-01-02T20:06:00.003-06:00

I do something a little crazy when it comes to revisions. Something that most people put off to the very last second, when it is completely unavoidable and they have to do it or face the wrath of the publishing industry.

Synopses.

Yes, I know it's nuts. I know it makes me practically certifiable. But you know what? Writing the synopsis before (or during) revisions really does help me out. A lot. As I said on Twitter earlier, it helps me keep my mind on the big picture while I rip up the little ones. If I have a synopses to refer back to while I'm revising, I know what I need to emphasize, what needs to be pared down, and, occasionally, what direction I need to pursue when it comes to any major rewrites.

The "prequel synopsis" isn't the one I would send with a query. It's simply one that I use for reference whilst revising. While I hate writing synopses as much as the next person, the prequel synopsis isn't nearly as bad--there's no need to polish it and make it "agent friendly," since it's only for me. It can help with later synopses, though, which is nice.

Does anybody else write "prequel synopses?" Has it helped you? What are your thoughts? Am I just crazy?

Happy 2011, everybody. Here's to a year of writing!

Yeah, It's Pretty Dark: Pixiehunter Pics 2

2011-01-01T19:56:00.005-06:00

Well, since both Mires and Ashy have done WiP in pics posts, I'm going to play copycat and do another one for The Pixiehunter. And, yes, before you ask--it's pretty dark. I can get pretty dark in my writing, but this one...there's a lot of psychological issues, mental instability, and dangerous, dangerous obsession. And, man, is it fun to write!

Experiences--Or, Why I Took Anatomy Class

2010-12-27T12:00:00.004-06:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again--writers should experience as much as possible. Everybody should, really, but especially those folks that want to (or do) make a living out of writing. If you've never ridden a horse, ride a horse. If you've never been to Mass at a Catholic church, go at least once. If you've never been on a plane, find an excuse to do so. And so forth.

Everybody, it seems, stresses the word believability. Make your story believable, they say. Make it so that the reader really believes that they're there with your characters. While the proverbial "they" often sound like broken records, "they" really do have a point. Believability is key. If you've never been on an airplane, you're likely to mess up your plane ride scene. You don't know it until you've been through it--for an example, and continuing with the plane ride scenario, I had no idea that airplanes were so loud until about a week ago. But now I know, and can write an airplane scene with accuracy and believability.

Another personal example would be this past semester's anatomy class. I did not need a science credit for this year and I have no desire to go into the medical field, and yet I took human anatomy and physiology, anyway. It was partially for the teacher (who rocks), but mostly it was because I have a great love of writing fight and battle scenes (I'm a fantasy writer--goes with the territory), and I wanted to make sure I knew a little something-something about the human body so I could be accurate when hacking people up with swords (in FICTION).

Heh. Really, though, I figured an anatomy class could only help me. And it did! Last month, Bullard (my teacher) went off on a tangent about how those old Westerns never accurately portray what would happen if a cowboy actually got shot in the chest. He would definitely not walk it off. Bullard, crazy guy that he is, then proceeded to act out what would really happen if you got shot in the chest--and the lung.

Not three days later, I got to the scene in my WiP where one of my characters gets shot in the lung. If I ever get said WiP published, Bullard is getting an acknowledgment, because his stunt really did help me out a lot.

So, writers, get some experience. Take some classes. Go try new things, try out new situations, and apply all that you learn to your writing. File each new experience away and pull from it when you're writing that scene where a character goes to Mass, gets on an airplane, or gets shot in the lung.

After all, you never really know when you're going to use something in your writing.

Happy Monday,
Jenna.

Home Again, Home Again

2010-12-24T11:57:00.004-06:00

I'm back home, safe and sound. We made it in yesterday afternoon, and all is well. Traffic SUCKED, but, hey, what can you expect? It's a holiday.

Anyway, I've got a bunch of crap to take care of, and, of course, there's family in town, so I doubt I'll be back around until Monday or Tuesday. I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas!

Jenna.

Catch-Up

2010-12-18T18:58:00.002-06:00

Uh. Did I mention I was flying into Florida for a week of vacation? No? Well, I did that yesterday. So I'm in Florida now, after my very first plane ride. Which was vewy scawwy and bumpy and, oh my GOD, ATLANTA IS TOO FREAKING BIG.

Ahem.

I didn't bring my laptop with me, and I didn't bring a jump drive OR a printout with my WiP. So I can't work on revisions. Which sucks. So, instead of working on the Pixiehunter, I'm going to attempt to bang out some grimoire/outline work on the Enigma. I haven't gotten very far on that, since I've been...er...busy, but since I'm on vacation, I'm hoping I can get some work done. Which sounds kind of pathetic until you consider the fact that I've been jonesing for writing time.

Anyway, this is just a quick check-in, I suppose. I've got the big camp party tomorrow (which is the entire reason I flew into town), and I got a brand-spanking-new camera courtesy of my awesome Nana with which to take pictures. Can't wait!

TTFN, Internet pals!

Jenna.

WiP Wednesday: Edition "I Done Fell Behind"

2010-12-08T15:41:00.004-06:00

As I mentioned in the Slingshot post, I've been getting back in the game with my schedules, blog outlines, time management, etc. However, my WiP Wednesday update this week is kind of sad. Monday and Tuesday were supposed to be days of revising on the Pixiehunter, but...nothing. Nada.

Yeah, yeah, I suck. Have I had a single WiP Wed with an update that isn't something like this? Today is an outline day, as according to my handy little schedule (I love it so much, that schedule), and since I have most of the outline down, no homework to do, and ample time (if I don't spend it all on Facebook), I'm going to try and catch up.

See, I was supposed to do once scene Monday and one yesterday, so I can easily knock those both out today, if I set to work. At the worst, I'll just have to finish up scene two tomorrow and take some extra time Friday to get myself back on schedule. That isn't a problem at all, and I'm totally fine with it.

My goal is to have the first, major round of revisions/rewrites done by May. That seems like a long time, yeah, but you've got to consider the fact that most of my time is supposed to be being taken up by scholarship applications, senior project crap, and going through my stuff and getting myself ready to move out. Even though I won't be starting college until mid-August, I'm moving back to Florida in May. The plan is that Nana is going to take me (and my stuff) to Florida after she comes up for my graduation. I'll do all my summer stuff as per usual, and then the fam will come down in August to help me move into my dorm.

So, really, I've got four months--December, January, February, March. April and May are crappy months for me, time-wise, as everything is taken up by studying for finals, taking AP tests (AUGH!), and, this year, readying my speech, portfolio, project board, and final report for my senior project. Thus, my utilization of time-management skills. I needz them.

That's the state of my writing lately. Not bad at all, considering the past year. I've got to leave you now, so I can actually get all this crap done (long to-do list today, and I'm determined to finish it for once...). But, before I go, I'd like to direct you to my friend Ashelynn Sanford's blog, A Gypsy Writer, where I have a guest post entitled "Don't Do it This Way."

TTFN, Internet pals!

Jenna.