I am Going to Travel Everywhere All of the Time

Okay. Well. Not right away because of college, and then debt after college, but after all that nonsense I will rock the world to pieces.

I had to do this Travel Plan to Campania for this classics class I'm taking. I'm taking a Classics class because *gasp!* I'm a Classics major and that's what we do.

ANYWAY.

So I was given 3500 imaginary US Dollars. And I used about 65% of it. It is awesome.

All I need is between 2200 - 3000 USD and I can go travel. Which. Once I have debt under control and have a job I will totally do.

I WANT TO GO EVERYWHERE.

And I will.

Watch out people, I'm going to travel to all the places. ALL THE PLACES!

*passes out from excitement*

SO. If you could travel anywhere RIGHT THIS MINUTE where would you go?

And Then the World Exploded...

My friend 'Rosie' and I write stories together.

It is because of her that Spakes exist and I have a series of novels based on mythologically real creatures.

ALSO... We and another friend 'Stasi' are writing a book together about Elves, and Fairies, and Pixies.

ALSO... Rosie and I are writing a story about Twins.

AND... The more we spend time together the more we realize we have REALLY WEIRD connections between our stories.

Like... My character being the mother of one of her characters.

Like... Her character being the daughter of one of my mythological creatures.

Like... The fact that our stories are becoming more and more complex and connected.

There is a part of my brain that says YOU CAN'T DO THAT because - normally - authors aren't allowed to write worlds together with a second author while still keeping both authors autonomous. BUT... Then there is another part of my brain, the rebellious part, that says I can do whatever I want as long as I write stories that other people (preferably LOTS of people because that would be totes cool) will want to read.

Do you want to be CONFUSED? I will attempt to draw a diagram...

YOU SEE... There is a reality sideways from ours and there are three worlds, Earth (also known as Jezkana), Gorsonian, and Galsha (which is Rosie's and I'm probably spelling it wrong). They look like this:

The Universe is Purple...

And They are all connected in a way that is hard to explain. It looks like this:

Underneath all of these worlds is a second world known as the Land of Faerie.

Think of it as like a parfait, with layers of worlds that go beyond space and time...

And connected to Faerie are three sub-worlds, home of Fairies, Pixies, and Elves...

There is one more thing you should know: Connected to the earth (as well as the other worlds) are hundreds of thousands of realities spreading out like a fan or like ripples in a pond...

The Spake reality is the closest one.

Not that it matters a whole lot...

And if ANY thread of reality should malfunction or get torn apart, because everything is connected, it will all circle out and destroy stinking EVERYTHING...

And that just makes my brain HURT. ALSO... It gives me an Insane number of ideas and makes me want to make giant posters to try and understand it better. Woo. So hard.

NOW... Hopefully I haven't CONFUSED YOU ENTIRELY. But I probably have. ALSO... Hopefully I haven't given too much away. BUT... I trust you guys and needed to tell SOMEONE. And you guys are someones.

SO.... Have you ever had a story idea EXPLODE and give you more story info then you really thought you needed to know?

Whoops... I Was Supposed to Blog About This Months Ago

SOOOOOO... Something exciting happened to me last... November? I think it was. You see, I was at a birthday party talking to a friend when she asked if I could come and talk about Publishing at her Book Club.

I said something along the lines of: "Omgoodness... YES!" And looked something like this:

Only... I look a bit less Asian, because I am not really of that lovely ethnicity.

ANYWAY... So my friend said to bring the first chapter of the book I was telling her about (WhiteWashed) so I did. I showed up at her school and walked in to the Visitor booth thing and...

No one knew what I was talking about. What book club? What person are you talking about? We have no library? (Okay, that last one is a lie...)

AND I WAS FREAKING MY FACE OFF... Very quietly inside. Like a possum.

Possum!

But finally I was able to get where I needed to go and I answered some questions about publishing and writing and stuff and then I got to read the first bit of the first chapter of my book.

And...

It was insane. Because although some people obviously didn't care and were just like, whatever, it's some weird chick in an ugly shirt reading some boring story... BUT... There were others that were leaning forward and were listening and omgoodness... they LAUGHED at my jokes and actually thought I could be humorous. AND, some even looked disappointed when I stopped. It was crazy. The feeling was like DRUGS only worse and better and FREE and not illegal.

And I knew without a doubt that I want to do this FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

And then, apparently, I will grow wings and become a bug.

BUT... I will be reading my stories to people who actually Like them and that is SO exciting it makes me want to go query RIGHT NOW.

8 on the Excite-O-Meter!! and Some Impossibilities

Oh, wow :D I have fifteen followers now. I was so excited at twelve, because that's one of my favorite numbers, and now I have fifteen! Fifteen is a bigger number than twelve!

Okay, sorry, had to spaz out a little there.

I have been being terrible and not blogging as much as I'd like, but as my sister pointed out I'm in school right now, so that's bound to happen. And I should be working on my story right now, but, shh! if you don't say anything it might not notice.

The other day I went to this fancy-schmancy library that was HUGE-a-mongous. [Oh, btw Shelli is having this library exciting thing that is super cool. Wow. §That was descriptive.]

Anyway, I just love libraries. They are amazing, and most of the librarians I know are just swell. This library was a little daunting. It had sliding glass doors in the front, and there was a fancy card you could get so that you could check your books out YOURSELF. *GASP* What is the world coming to? And I know there was probably a good reason for it, but the lady who helped me at the front counter had gloves on.

Germs, germs, everywhere!

It was a little bit creepy. But before that creepy-happenstance I was down in the young adult section, because that is where I usually peruse around for books. It was cool, because they had little write-ups over each section explaining what the type of books were. (Though, if a group of books is labeled 'Humor' I would hope the kids could figure out what that meant.) Over the fantasy section there was this little sign:

Fancy-Schmancy labels

Note the word impossible. Why? It made me mad. Now, I know fantasy elements aren't "real" blah, blah, blah. But it seemed somehow harsh to have it pointed out, right there in front of my face. (Actually it was above my face, but that is hardly relevant.) I write fantasy. I enjoy writing fantasy. A huge part of me believes that it IS real, no matter what library placards say.

"Stories that could not happen" just made me lurch inside. Especially because I am writing a story about a girl who is a fantasy writer who ends up having a "mythologically-real" (as she calls it) creature stalk her. To think that such a thing is impossible and cannot happen... Well, it just sucks the magic out of life.

Which is why I think I write fantasy. Because I do believe it's possible. Because I like to think that "impossible" things can happen. Don't you?

Unicorn's and Feedback

So the other day for the first time in my life (kinda') someone other than family members read one of my stories and gave detailed feedback. It was actually kinda' funny, because he was so worried about offending me. I kept saying "it's okay, this is helpful, you're not being harsh, stop worrying or I'll slap you with a fish."

Fish slapped!

Most of the time when I give someone something I've mine to read they look at it, smile, and give it back saying "this is good." This is not helpful and will NOT help me become a better writer. In fact, it will just make me think I am a terrible writer, because I can only elicit that tiny amount of a response to you. It is #-5 on the excite-o-meter. For reals.

So when I gave my short story, Unicorn, to my friend I was expecting the same ol' "This is good" tripe. So I told him repeatedly: "Make marks! Tell me what's wrong! Please, please, please." And hallelujah, he did. I could have kissed a spork.

Mwah!

Even an evil spork with glowing blue eyes eating cookies.

Okay, so there's no cookies, but it wasn't my fault

Anyway, so it was really my first experience having someone tear apart my work line by line, showing me where I had succeeded, where I had completely failed, and where I could do better. I think that was the most interesting comment: "I know you can do better," and probably the most encouraging. Because this dude doesn't know me that well, but he could tell enough from my good part of the story that I could do better. Win! Hurrah! Hoorah! Huzzah!

And can I just say what a rush that was? I mean, afterwards when I actually had to start editing wasn't the greatest of excitement (#), but it wasn't the worst in the world. It kinda' gave me hope, because one of the things I worry about the most is having an editor tear my work apart, but there's a strange rush I got from having that done to my work. Knowing that before I was "uh, this is good" to "Man! My socks were knocked right off I think I'm going to pass out from sheer exhaustion of its super amazingness." Ahem. Or something along those lines.

Woo! Slap my foot, that's a good idea!

Very, Very, QUICK

Okay: I should be doing schoolness related stuff, but I just wanted to give a quick update:

1) I am STILL at 10,000 words and it STILL makes me very happy

2) Tomorrow I MUST write a query letter to this agent dude, or else anyone who reads this has permission to hunt me down and kill me. (Except for my sis Sonshine, because... We have really sharp knives in my house. And my brother Dave has a machette. That's just way too scary for me to handle.)

3) LOST starts tonight. Season 6! Oh my stars I cannot wait. Oh my garland. Sweet muffins, it is amazing. I am just dying because I have to wait a super long time until it begins. Argh! Gah! How can I endure this waiting? (And LOST may seem like it has nothing to do with writing, but it is very... um... Inspiring? And stuff. IT BLOWS YOUR MIND! Almost an 8 on the excite-o-meter. Okay. End of LOST rant.)

And that is everything. Oh! Except for this:

And:

Everything Will Be Okay
In The End

If It’s Not Okay
Then It’s Not The End

Which isn't necessarily ALWAYS true, but it's by some anonymous person, and I just think it's a nice saying.

Exciting Stuff

Today is an exciting day. And not just because Carrie Jones is on the NYT bestseller list twice! Although, that is very exciting, and probably much more exciting than my news, but my news is exciting to me because... Well, I suppose because it's my news. Or something. Anyway, before I start creating an exciting-o-meter I will get right down to it.

Okay. I admit. I tried making an Excite-o-Meter, but I am so bad at Computer techie stuff that this is what it looks like:

8 - You Are Now Dead Because You Are So Excited

7 - The End of the World as We Know it Exciting

6 - Can’t Even Breathe Exciting

5 - Way Beyond Super Mad Exciting

4 - Super Mad Exciting

3 - Super Exciting

2 - Realy Exciting

1 - Real Exciting

0 - Exciting

-1- Pretty Exciting

-2- Kinda’ Exciting

-3- Possibly Exciting

-4- Maybe Exciting

-5- Not That Exciting

-6- Not Exciting

-7- Not At All Exciting

-8- So Not Exciting That You Are Bored and Dead

Yup. A list. Lame, I know. I was having difficulties even putting it in a box. Ah well, what can I say? Anyway, back tot he exciting matter at hand: I have reached 10,000 words in Blackburn's Prisoner's sequel! I know. It still has no name. It is driving me nuts, because usually by page eight, at least by page 14, I know the approximate name for a manuscript. Here I am at 21, 21!, pages and I still have no name. I know, I know. i have time. But it's like having a baby. You can have it for 8 months without naming it, maybe even 14 depending on the state (I don't know, i'm making that up) BUT after 21 months, you better have a name for that puppy. Baby. I meant baby.

This is a puppy:

This is a baby:

Now that everything is clear, we can get to the reason why it is exciting that I have 10,000 words done. 1) I am a fifth of the (approximate) way to being done. 2) I wasn't even suppose to start writing this until tomorrow, so I am way ahead. 3) I am 10,000 words closer to knowing what happens.

Yes. I don't write outlines, remember? This means that I have no idea what's going to happen. I mysterious ship just arrived manned by some dude named Braeden. I don't even know what Braeden looks like yet! But I promise you he does not look like this:

I have no mouth!

And today I found out this HUGE thing about Revlin. Yes, Revlin. Not Revlon.

And I was gasping and unable to breathe! That's a 6 on the Excite-o-meter. I cannot wait until Wednesday, my writing day, because then I will know even more of what is gonig to happen. Squee! And I am going to take another shot at writing a stupid query letter for Blackburn's Prisoner. *sigh* It's just so... #-8.