Peacocks and Other Thoughts

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I am an aspiring writer and dedicated mommy who hopes to leave the world a little better than I found it. Of course, from what I can tell, as long as I don't drop-kick the world into a giant vat of sewage, I will have accomplished that goal.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Nano 2009 - This is the Year!

This is the year I will finish my novel. I know - I know - some of you have heard me say that before - but if I say it loud enough, and long enough, it will come true - and I hereby put all of my friends in charge of flogging me if it looks like my motivation tapers off and I turn back into a slacker.

Because I'm close. Very close. I have over 300 pages already - and I'm at the point in my novel when all hell breaks loose, and then all that remains is wrapping up the aftermath. Then I plan on giving myself a year (maximum) for editing - and its onwards and downwards to finding a publisher. The good news is, Fantasy has traditionally been the easiest genre to break into.

So I continue to trudge forward, nano-ing in my spare time and trying to force 50,000 words from my fingertips. (I did debate cutting and pasting some of my blog posts over, since these are essentially wasted word-count, but it just didn't fit the true spirit of Nano. I'm not trying to write 50,000 words. I'm tryig to write 50,000 ON-TOPIC words! YAY. )

This month coffee is my friend.

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Excerpt 1: Nano 2009


“At the very least, I think he will send a selection of dresses with the Lady Arisa tomorrow. With any luck, one of them will fit.”

Gwen’s cheeks flushed. “Is the entire court privy to issues involving my wardrobe?”

Arin chuckled. “The Prince was astute enough to ask about your injury – and it seemed safest to ply one of your tricks and turn the conversation to clothing. My other option was to discuss Lefyre and his unruly riding beast.”

“I find I rather prefer blue dresses,” Gwen blurted, her eyes sparkling.

Arin arched an eyebrow. “By which, I take it, you’d rather not discuss Lefyre,” he said, his lips twitching into a wry smile. He shrugged. “Aside from my conversation with Prince Naev, the rest of the evening was quite uneventful – save that Father Sideo stopped by the table and invited the both of us to join him for a picnic on the morrow. It appears that he feels Fenriod and Naev have had an unfair opportunity to spend candlemarks in your company – an imbalance which he means to rectify.”

Gwen drummed her fingers on the cover of the book. “On the surface, it all sounds reasonable,” she said, “but don’t you find it odd that all three candidates seem to be seeking out my company? Don’t you think they should be more interested in you, as the official representative of the crown?”

Arin started. “So much for a good night’s sleep,” he grumbled.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

FuLlMeTaL aLcHeMiSt- BrOtHeRhOoD

Somewhere along the way, I turned into a complete Full Metal Alchemist fan-girl. LOL! I never thought that would happen. On a more serious note - this series really deserves a serious look (and I've heard it has won numerous awards - though I still need to look up the information on that for myself). It took me a while to appreciate the characters - but the overall story ends up being breathtaking. And it has a lot of interesting themes about Life, Death, Hatred, War, and the Importance of Drinking Milk.

A note on the song . . . I don't usually like songs that are "screamers" - but this fit the tempo of te series so well that I found I liked it. I really really liked it!

Sharing my new found Full Metal Fan Girl-ness . . . and trying to figure out how to scrape $150-$200 to purchase the manga (in its original Japanese!!!) Christmas anyone? Takers? Anyone? Heh!

Monday, November 02, 2009

Nano 2009

Yep. It's that time of year again. Time to blow the dust off the novel, make myself a pot of coffee (or better yet - find a coffee house where someone else will make my pot of coffee), and type my little fingers off.

So far, so good. I'm doing well for 2,000 words a day and all the events are falling into place. My main character finally got to be sniffly - and even better, she got to be sniffly all over the guy she likes! All is well (or not well) depending on how you look at it!

If I seem spaced out and/or hard to get this month, it's because I'm burning the candle at both ends, trying to keep up with my bento blog, trying to indulge my anime obsession, planning a trip to Vegas for Thanksgiving, and trying to keep up with my frantic Life per usual - in addition to typing 50,000 words. YAY crazy psycho me!!

Nano Nano.