First Draft Complete

Dear world,

Today I finished the first draft of my novel. I am now going to take a six-week break from it before I begin the long editing process.

I'm free! I think I'll read some books, maybe write something else, find a new show to watch, and find my sanity again. For the past month I've been breathing, eating, and sleeping this book. It feels so great to finally finish it.

That is all!

Until next time I hope you find joy in your writing :)

Banned Book Week!

Hey everyone in case you didn't already know it's Banned Book Week. Here's a post on real reasons people wanted these books banned. You won't believe some of them because they're so ridiculous. So in honor of Banned Book Week I'm asking you to go out and read a banned book.

Some of my favorites include Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. What's your favorite banned book?

Here's another site for your viewing pleasure on what authors have to say about censorship.

Until next time I hope you find joy reading your banned book!

Writing woes

Have you ever felt numb and just couldn't bring yourself to do something, no matter how much your mind is telling you to do it? That's how writing has been for me lately. Every day I tell myself today is the day I will write again, but I don't. I will read or take a nap instead. I have been working a lot, but that's no excuse for not writing. I could write, I just don't.

Even though I write for myself sometimes I just feel like I need a break to recharge my batteries or something. The ideas haven't stopped flowing, it's me. I've stopped. My roommate told me he believes creative people have on and off switches. The switch can be on for months, but eventually we need a break, so our minds will just switch off. That's exactly how I feel, like my mind has just switched off.

Not writing hasn't been a bad experience. I've been spending time with new friends, making time to exercise, reading some good books, watching some good movies. I'm going home to meet my new niece or nephew in a month. So am I a bad person for not writing? No, my mind just needs a break and in the mean time I'm going to gain memories and probably more writing ideas.

I know I will find my way back to writing. I always do. It just might take some time. So I apologize for not having any new material for Short Story Sunday, but when I do I will post it here. There's a writing competition I'm thinking about entering, so I will need to start writing again sometime soon. Until then please be patient with me and I hope some of you can relate to what I'm going through.

ROAK Completed

It's been over a week since my last post and for that I apologize. I hate to say it, but writing took a back seat while I took a break to do some reading. Then there was that whole just jump in the car and drive to Vegas thing. That was  a fun and interesting trip. Now I'm back to reality, which means back to work and hopefully back to writing.

I also wanted to say as promised for my ROAK I told Nova Ren Suma I would buy each of her books. I purchased them all yesterday and they should be here in a week. I can't wait to read them!

I'm not sure if I will have a new post for Short Story Sunday this week, but I promise to have something next week.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

It's not so black and white

Sorry I haven't written a post in a few days. I told you before a lot of good books came out in May, so I might disappear. I went into my reading cave while I read City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare. As always, I loved it!

Cassandra does a great job reaching into the darkest parts of our psyche. I love books that make you question what is good and what is bad because I don't believe everything is black or white. There are many shades of gray, which I hope to show in my own writing. I want to show that even the "good" characters have the capacity to be "bad." I also want to show how far some people are willing to go to protect the ones they love. I've been rewriting my novel and these are some of the points that I hope show through.

In other news:

I have a special post scheduled for Monday. You will not want to miss it! I can't say anything else about it, but you should definitely stop by to check it out.

My mom arrives tomorrow and she will be here for a week, so I will probably be absent for the next week. I want to spend as much time with her as possible since I don't know when I will see her again. I wish all you mothers a Happy Mother's Day!  

Writing, waiting, and reading

I haven’t written in a few days because I haven’t had anything to say. I’m still editing, which is slowly coming. But at least I am making progress. I have deleted a total of 3,000 words or more. I’m also making progress on my hooks. I have a couple I like. My querying is still on hold until I finish this edit.

In other news:

Cassandra’s Clare’s City of Lost Souls book trailer is out! I can’t wait for the book. May 8, I will be locked in my room with this book in my hands. Actually, May is going to be a busy reading month for me. With Insurgent, Destined, Endure, and Last Rite, all coming out. I may just go on a hiatus the month of May.

Are there any books you’re excited to read next month?

Don't lose yourself as a writer

I am back in my groove of writing and listening to music. I must say it’s about time. Yesterday I wrote the beginning and ending for the second book in the series. I am starting to feel like myself again. For a moment there I was so caught up in writing the perfect query letter that I lost sight of my actual writing.

I am still working on my querying, but I am no longer letting it get in the way of my writing. I write because I love to write and while I would love to see my work published, if it doesn’t happen I am not going to stop writing. I wrote for me before I started this publishing road and I will continue to write for me whether I fail or succeed. Writing keeps me sane; besides reading it is the only way I can check out into another world. At least when I write I control the outcome and the lives of my characters. I can’t do that when I read.

So to all my fellow writers. I wish you the best with all your writing, whether you want to see it published or it’s a way to keep you sane like me. I hope you always keep writing and never lose sight of yourself as a writer. If you do then I hope you find your way back like I did. I’m sure I will lose myself many more times as the self doubt and fear kick in again, but as long as I fight I know I will always find my way back.

Reading instead of writing

I’m back in that reading mood. All I want to do is read. I read Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi.

For those who don’t know it’s a dystopian novel about a girl, Aria who grows up in a world that is cut off from the outside, known as pods. Everything she wants or needs is provided by the eye piece that lets her live in an alternate reality. But when something goes wrong she is exiled and left for dead in the outside world. All Aria wants to do is find her mother who was working on another pod.

Enter Perry, an outsider whose nephew was kidnapped by Aria’s people. He thinks he can use Aria to get his nephew back. They soon find out that they will need each other, so they make a pact to help each other. Does Aria find her mother? Does Perry get his nephew back? You will have to read the book to find out.

This book was an interesting read. I love reading books from different times and places. It’s so exciting to see the worlds other people create. Whenever I read a book, I wonder what was their journey to publishing like? How many rejections did they get before someone took a chance on them? How many times along this bumpy road did they think about giving up or start to doubt everything? Now I am just rambling. I can only relate to my own feelings and thoughts, so it would be nice to know that I am not alone. That struggling is a rite of passage. How do you feel?

You must read The Fault in our Stars

I apologize for the lateness of this post. I had some technical difficulties. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to talk about for this blog post. In between the Internet deciding to work and now. I read an amazing book. The Fault in our Stars by John Green.

If you have not read this book I recommend that you do so immediately. It is about a girl dying of cancer who meets a boy. Inevitably they fall in love. A book like this can have no happy ending, but it does have some lessons to be learned. For instance, how strong is love? Does true love exist? These are questions that are asked in this book. I don’t think the questions are necessarily answered, but the way he goes about describing the sentiment of love is interesting.

I am not going to lie to you; this book made me cry. I don’t think I have cried so hard in a long time. Let me just quote a passage from this book and you can decide for yourselves what you think of his writing:
“I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I’m in love with you.”

If you don’t love this paragraph then this book isn’t for you, but if it spoke to your heart the way it did mine, then please check out this book. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Sherlock and Watson: The first bromance?

I was reading Sherlock Holmes on my nook when I realized it only had the first twelve adventures. I went to the book store today and I found a complete Sherlock Holmes edition with the original illustrations!

I know Sherlock Holmes is a classic, but I had never read any of the stories before. I have seen both of the movies, which were great in my opinion. The more I read about Sherlock Holmes, the more I can see Robert Downy Jr. He really makes a perfect Sherlock Holmes. He portrayed his cynicism and arrogant personality really well.

I love figuring out the relationship between Sherlock and Watson. Arthur Conan Doyle created two characters who will do anything for the other one. Watson always comes with Sherlock even when he knows it’s dangerous and I think Sherlock finds comfort in Watson coming with him. He always warns Watson of the possible danger, but I think he knows Watson will still come along. It’s refreshing to read a friendship that doesn’t get destroyed by a female, at least I don’t think it does. Sherlock and Watson might have possibly been the first “bromance” in history.

The details in his characters mostly come to life through their actions and dialogue. And the creativity that goes into these mysteries, amazes me. For example, a woman being killed by a snake, which has been trained to climb through a vent and down a rope…I can’t stop reading, wondering what the next mystery and solution will be. So if you’re in the mood to read a classic with a mystery, then I highly recommend you take a look at Sherlock Holmes.

Perfect endings

I finished the Hunger Games and…Wow! It was messy and I knew not everyone could get a happy ending, but it was a satisfying one. Some people think the ending is all that matters. I happen to be one of those people. An ending can define if the series was worth your time reading. Audiences will usually feel cheated if questions are left unanswered and conflicts are left unresolved. I don’t agree that everything has to end perfectly happy, but it does have to have it’s own perfect ending. For Mockingjay it was about Katniss learning how to survive and of course choosing which guy she’d end up with.

I read that Suzanne Collins wanted to show the affects war has on children. I feel that she accomplished this in The Hunger Games Trilogy very well. This book was about a war and in war people die. No one is considered safe or off limits, which is also true in any finale of a series. I was very surprised by Mockingjay’s ending and I wasn’t disappointed. However, I did end up crying, but if you haven’t read the books yet I won’t spoil it for you.

I am a fan of the tragic open endings myself. This means important people die, but there is still hope for the main character at the end. These are the books that will make you cry and want to rip up the pages, but at the same time love every minute of that pain. I love writer’s who aren’t afraid to kill their characters. It takes a lot of guts to get rid of these people you spent months or even years creating. The characters become like your children and now that I have been writing I can understand this sentiment. You want to see your characters happy because you fall in love with them and you want everyone to love them too. The hard truth is some characters serve their purpose better by dying. I have always known how I would end my novel, but I have been playing with it more and more recently. There are things I want to do, but I’m not sure if I will have the courage to pull them off in the end. What type of endings do you like to read?

Good Distractions

I edited my third chapter yesterday. This editing has taken a lot longer than I thought it would. It’s taking longer to edit the chapters than it did to write them in the first place. I can’t exactly say I’m blameless for the process taking so long. I keep getting distracted by books.

First Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer, the third and final book in the Nightshade trilogy came out, so of course I couldn’t do anything else until I read the entire book. I have to say I loved it. If you haven’t read it yet I recommend you do so immediately. It’s definitely a book that pulls on your heartstrings.

I have also gotten into the dystopian genre recently. I must say I was a little iffy on these books at first, but now I can’t stop reading them. I read Delirium by Lauren Oliver. It’s about a society that believes love is a disease. Everyone gets the “cure” for the disease when they turn 18. Each person is evaluated, which then determines her entire life. This includes career path, marriage partner, and how many kids. If you don’t get the “cure” or fight against it you will be marked as an “empathizer” which guarantees you a life of solitary confinement or a public execution. Delirium starts with a girl who can’t wait to be “cured” when she meets a boy who shows her there is nothing wrong with love in fact the idea that it needs to be cured is the problem with society. One of my favorite quotes in the book says, “Hate is not the worst thing indifference is.” The second installment in the series, Pandemonium comes out later this year. I can’t wait to read it.

I am still in the process of reading the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I just finished the first book and I can’t put the second one down. I was excited to see the movie before and after reading the books I can’t wait! Katniss is a badass and I wish I had her archery skills. Not to mention her ability to survive in the wild. I couldn’t imagine growing up in a world where the government can take your kids and place them in a fight-for-the-death competition for its entertainment.

So as you can see I have been very busy reading. I really need to get back on track and edit my own stuff if I ever want to see it published. What books have you been distracted by recently?

Imaginary literary boyfriends

I read a blog where someone listed their 2011 literary boyfriends, so I have decided to make my own list. I honestly don’t think I could put them in order because they are all great and hot in their own ways. I will list them and then you can feel free to order them in any way you would like.

1. Patch from Hush, Hush series


2. Jace from Immortal Instrument series


3. Riley from Intertwined series


4. Will from Infernal Devices series


5. Jem from Infernal Devices series


6. Ren from Nightshade series


7. Luc from Personal Demons


8. Gabriel from Personal Demons


9. Ash from Iron Knight


10. Damon from Vampire Diaries


11. Cole from Wolves of Mercy Falls series


12. Stark from House of Night series


13. Rephaim from House of Night series


14. Tamani from Wings series


15. Akiva from Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Wow that was harder than I thought it would be. There are so many great literary guys to choose from. I’m sorry if I have left anyone off it probably means I haven’t had a chance to read that book yet. Please let me know your 2011 literary boyfriends.

Learning by reading

I have been in my hometown for a little over a week now and I know I should be reading and editing my book, but I have been absorbed in rereading an old favorite book of mine, The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop.

I must mention that Anne Bishop was one of the first adult novels I ever read. I love how she can transport her readers into a world surrounded by empowering women, even the evil ones. Her detail is rich, which is the reason I wanted to reread it in the first place. I thought reading a book by a favorite author would help me with my descriptions. Like Anne I am trying to create a world that doesn’t exist, so I wanted to get an idea on how to pull a reader into an imaginary world.

Things I have come to find:
The characters have to be lovable, which is true for any book. If you can’t relate to or find any character that you care about then you will be less likely to finish the book.

The dialogue would be another important aspect to the book. A story is told a lot of times through dialogue. That’s where the humor and relationships come along. Dialogue is also the chance to let your character’s personality shine. Also dialogue moves the plot in the story.

Description really helps the reader envision the world being created. Whether its explaining the rules of that world or describing the color of a tree, description can and will help your story feel more real.

I am at the end of the third book now, so hopefully I will be able to get back to my editing soon. However, I did go on a book buying binge a few days ago so… maybe some more research is needed to strengthen my fictional world. Any body have any advice on how to make an imaginary world seem real?

Stuck in the middle

Today’s blog post is going to be about motivation/inspiration, which happens to be something I am struggling with at the moment. I had today off work and I know that I should be writing all day, but instead I find myself reading a book that I have read a handful of times because my motivation has momentarily disappeared.

I was able to write a little bit, but not as much as I should have. I even now as I should be working on my next chapter I find myself writing this blog post about how unmotivated I am. At midnight Clockwork Prince comes out and I know I will be reading it all day tomorrow, so I should be working on my novel right now.

I hear everyone hits a point in their writing where the motivation/inspiration disappears. I think I have hit that road block. I am pushing forward because that is the only thing I can do to get out of this hole I feel like I am in, but it’s not easy.

I love to write and I am more than halfway through my novel, which is huge for me. When I first started writing I would write only when I was feeling inspired, which is not the correct way to do things I have learned. It is probably the reason why it has taken me so long to reach this point in my writing. Now that I have been writing every day, even if it’s just a little bit, I feel like my story makes sense. As I write new ideas come to me. When I am not writing I am constantly thinking about how to add to the plot or keep the reader in suspense. Even though I am in this slump I feel guilty when I am not writing, however I tell myself reading and writing go hand in hand, so it’s okay to take a break as long as I am doing something productive for my writing. Has anyone else had this problem staying motivated? What keeps you persevering?

Can't wait for Clockwork Prince

Today it is cold outside and it has been hard to force myself to write. All I want to do is curl up under a comfortable, warm blanket and read a good book. I guess winter is finally here. I finished another chapter yesterday, so I feel like the book is coming along.

I need to get more writing completed because Tuesday one of my favorite authors has a new book coming out; Cassandra Clare Clockwork Prince. If you have not read any of Cassandra Clare’s books. I recommend that you do so. They are highly entertaining and she knows how to pull on your heartstrings. I hope one day I can be as great a writer as her.

I have pre ordered my book. I know as soon as it comes in I will not get any writing accomplished until I have read the entire book. Her books keep me reading until the very last page. Even knowing I will not get to read the final book in the series for a good long time, I still can’t wait for this book. I have been eagerly awaiting for the second installment in the series. I feel like a kid that has snuck downstairs to see the presents under the Christmas tree and I can’t open anything until Mom and Dad wake up. Only two more days until I get to open my present!