Being Sporadic is Not Always Useful

Ergh, it's been much too long since last I posted. At least, it feels like ages have passed. The reason being is because I haven't had anything interesting happen to me at all. No. Seriously. Usually I have weird teacher stories, or evil library stories, or even strange conversations stories. But this last week was Spring Break so I spent the entire time writing and reading and being a bum. I slept a ridiculous amount of time. More than a bear in hibernation taking sleeping pills.

Or sleeping like a bum in a bear costume.

I don't know why, but I keep expecting Little Red Riding Hood

to come bounding along with an ax.

I'm very much a sporadic person. (Hey! Look, a cow!) And so focusing on one book at a time, for more than a month at a time, really stretches my patience. (Although I spent six months on my Massive Book, which is strange...) Also, I'm going to be taking another year off of college, because I'm still unsure what I should even go to college for. Especially because what I really want to be is a full-time author. But you can't just decide to be that one day. It takes work, and sweat, and a crazy insane mind.

Eek! I put in "crazy writer" and this is what came up

Ack! This only means one thing.

Little Red Riding Hood is going to hunt me down and kill me!

Thus, leaving me with two options. Well, two main options. I still have my back-up plan on convincing my parents that I have a split personality, so that I can be sent to a mad house. Ooh! Although, that would be perfect research for one story I've had to put on hold. Hmmm... I wonder if I could get in trouble for pretending to be crazy? Can one be sued for such an action? Anyway, one of the options is to just spend the rest of the year writing whatever I want, because once I am a full-blown author I will never have that chance again. (Good grief, that sounds dramatic.) The other option is to just pick one of my completed manuscripts and stick with editing it and work on querying for it, and not giving up on it until I have an agent, an editor, a publisher, and a bunch of reader people to buy it.

Getting published is like pumpkins

I will find a way to convince you of this later

The second option is probably a lot smarter. Especially since I probably wouldn't write as much as I should on my own. So the question is which one do I query for?

Question Mark?

There is your regular run-of-the-mill fantasy, set in an alternate world (they live on little isles and there's an evil bad guy of doom!). Blackburn's Prisoner.

Now, before you gaze at me in obvious disdain

Realize I only have Paint on my computer

There is your a-little-bit-quirky, urban fantasy with Dwarves (oh, and Pixies too. Uh. Duh.) Pixie Princess.

This isn't exactly how I picture it, but for now...

There is your suspenseful, evil-leg-biting-creatures, thriller (with a cute guy and a lonely old building on a killing spree.) Haunbrinth.

Are you creeped out yet?

Boogy-boogy-boogy

Or I could wait and finish the cinnamon one (which is not about food, but about evil creatures skulking in your woods).

So, I know ultimately it will have to be my decision, but I'm curious. Based on my (very poor) descriptions which book sounds most interesting to you? Which one do you think you would most likely pick up and read? If you have no opinion, that's perfectly acceptable. I promise I won't send any mythologically real creatures after you, nor will I hit you with a fish, or steal your bread.

Me wanting to steal your bread, but resisting.

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?

Another Contest???

Yes. Another Contest.

And I am telling you about it really late, but I blame Sonshine. So race over in a shiny red racecar and enter her contest.

Only, you'll have to shrink yourself first.

And wait til daylight, because it's a solar powered car.

More Contests From Super Cool People

Elana Johnson is having another contest and it is super cool. Good books, people, good books.

Also, Suzette and Bethany are having a contest as well, which includes all sorts of cool things. Go ahead and check them out. :)

Oh, and duh, my amazing sister Sonshine is having a contest too. This one includes those popular owls floating around.

Awwwww...

One day I will figure out something cool that I can give away, and I will have a contest as well. Because I have 12 followers now, and twelve is one of my favorite numbers ever. And 23. I think that when I reach 23 followers I will have a contest.

For now I will run off and write a story, whose title is Shut up, I'm an Alien! At least for now. *sigh* I think I'll have to put off querying agents for a year, and just use this year to write whatever I stinking want. Next year I'll query my face off, but for now I think I just want to write and write, because I'll probably never have this kind of opportunity again. No deadlines, no looming sense of failure.

Cause this is what everyone thinks of when they think of

Looming Failure

Err... Now I will.

Now I'm really creeped out.

I'm going to write, I'm going to write!

*Runs out of room screaming and waving arms*

Oh, that reminds me of Palindrome/Hannah's blog about Sunflowers. Some things need to be run away from, and sometimes when running away it is best to write a very bad poem.

Maybe I Shouldn't Write When in School...

The other day when I was waiting between classes I wrote this little bit. (I was worrying about mid-terms at the time, and stressing about Greek and wondering what a subjunctive infinity was in Akkadian, which actually doesn't exist as far as I know, but I thought it did, and it was only adding to me worrisome state.)

It is not the best in the world, for which I apologize, but I felt like sharing it.

The pressure sat on her like a camel, but instead of chewing cud it was chewing her stomach. "Nom, nom, nom," went the pressure. Jacqueline her down against her desk. "Whack, whack, whack," went her head.
"Stop," hissed her teacher, "you'll break something."
"Already broke," mumbled Jacqueline. "Broke by the camel pressure, broke by the mid-term shoving words down my throat. Words taste bad, Miss Teacher, like rotten tuna-fish sitting under your tongue."
"You're not alright," Miss Teacher said. "There's something wrong, there in your head." Miss Teacher went and grabbed Jacqueline's chair, wheeling her out of the room, through the door.
"Mid-Term sundaes dripped in chocolate, still taste bad as gravel." Jacqueline dragged her feet as the wheel-chair rolled, rolled, down the hall. She drew a giant 'x' atop her paper, circled random words in pen.
"I'm done," said Jcqueline, wavcing a limp hand in the tepid air, paper dripping sideways, flopping like a dead fish. Miss Teacher came and took her work away, while Jacqueline fingered circles on her plastic desk.
"Words like gravel," Jacqueline said, flicking dark grey rocks from her outstretched tongue. "Words like sand," she rolled her head and flapped her hands. "Words that travel, 'cross the land." A hiss, a pop, a shred of paper falling from her shirt pocket as her body rocked sideways, her dead hands trailing to the cool tile floor.

When My Life is Like a Creme Puff

My friend and I are writing a book together. We write letters back and forth from the perspective's of our characters. We got the idea from Sorcery and Cecelia. It is probably the most emotionally draining thing I have ever experienced (because my life is basically a slightly sour creme puff. Nothing really terrible has ever happened to me, which is why, I suppose, I write such depressing stories?) My friend, Emdy, just sent me the next installment to our little story and I was terrified of opening the e-mail. (I know, such a wimp, aren't I?) I didn't know what I would find in there. Anyone could have died, any terrible thing could have happened. I've already killed off a record reaching amount of people. (I mean, I killed off an entire city in one swipe.) Plus, I had an idea about what would happen next in my story, and anything she said could ruin that, so I was also being a little bit selfish with my plot point.

Heaving in a breath, I opened the e-mail, copy and pasted it into Word, and read. Oh. My. Bananas. It is crazy. You see, we do not tell each other anything about the plot. It is all suspense and surprise. It's just a little bit maddening. There is definitely a little adrenaline rush when I see that the next installment is in my inbox. There's this feeling in my stomach of excitement, and dread, and it is fantastic. We are probably almost a third of the way through, and I'm trying to figure out how everything is going to work out. I only have so many more people that I can kill of ;)

Looking Back...

I was digging through old notebooks in search of a school assignment (which I still can't find) and I came across a bunch of emo-quotes I had from when I was younger. Ah, my younger self thought the world was a dismal place, and thought that she was most wise and philosophical. Although, there were a couple of quotes I think I'll have to use in a book sometime.

"Sleep - resting on a bubble - floating in the air -

And I felt like someone was about to pop it."

'Bubbles' is such a fun word to say :)

One thing I wrote made me bust out laughing: "Why is my brain having such a hard time right now? Why can't it work like a normal brain? With simple thoughts, things that make sense." Ahahaha... Normal. To think that I once wanted my brain to be normal. Now I thank God every day for my abnormal brain, or else I would die of boredom.

This is an abnormal brain, according to google. It looks more like ice chips to me.

Or really weird coconut.

There was also this poem I wrote, that I actually kind of like:

"Pitter, patter, hear the noise - listen to them run

Titter, tatter, listen voice - hear them be undone

It's not enough to suck your blood

They want to suck your soul

It's not enough to chew your bones

They want to take you whole."

Zombies? I don't know. I never did the whole Zombie thing, and freaked out when I thought I might do a Vampire-esque book.

Me freaking out. As a cartoon. With two sets of ears.

Or I'm holding up a giant slab of baloney/spam

and getting ready to stuff it in my mouth.