Ink and Words

MARCH MADNESS: Edward Elric vs Azula

2011-03-12T15:12:00.004-05:00

Azula versus Edward Elric

Ink: I feel really about about Ed losing this fight. But he totally would.

Words: The difference isn't skill. It's ruthlessness.

Words: Ed has a definite aversion to killing.

Words: Whereas Azula lives and breathes ruthlessness.

Words: The second Ed gets her trapped, she defaults to Blowing Crap Up.

Ink: And let's not forget--Azula likes lightening. And metal is a conductor.

(Not to mention, Winry would kill him for getting his wiring screwed up.)

Ink: Ouch.

Words: Double ouch.

Ink: Double ouch indeed.

Words: Ed wouldn't know what had hit him.

Ink: Although I'm sure that sparring with Roy would have prepared him for fighting in the midst of fire, which I'm sure a lot of real badasses wouldn't be prepared for.

Words: Hmm, fair point.

Words: But not lightning.

Ink: Definitely not.

Words: Azula could hit him anywhere on the body and it would bounce at least twice before finally leaving.

Words: And Azula's known for NASTY exit wounds.

Words: And entry wounds.

Words: And...wounds.

Ink: Azula's just known for bringing the pain.

Ink: In any way possible.

Words: The only chance Ed would have is if Azula called him "short."

Words: But even then, she's used to beating the pants off Zuko, who I'm sure she's driven to homicidal rage.

Words: Ed would beat her up because she would TOTALLY insult him.

Ink: Azula is good at driving people into homicidal rage, I'm sure she can handle it.

Words: It is, after all, one of her greatest talents.

Ink: Alchemy probably wouldn't even faze her--she's dealt with Earthbenders.

Words: Even if she didn't one-shot him, Ed would start trying to analyze her lightning attack, and that would be it.

Words: Azula's got this one in the bag.

Ink: Azula has this one wrapped up.

Ink: Sorry, Ed.

Ink: we still love you.

Words: We do!

Words: Even if you're...

Words: ..

Ink: don't say it!

Words: -short-.

Words ducks and covers.

Ink: you'd better run.

MARCH MADNESS: Nick vs. V

2011-03-05T23:54:00.003-05:00

Nick versus V

Words: In one corner: Nick Ryves, demon-person and Knife Nut extraordinaire.

(If his killer looks don’t get to you, his killer blades probably will.)

Ink: In the other: a deeply-thoughtful anarchist who likes reading, old movies, and dynamite.

Ink: And Tchaikovsky.

(Tchaikovsky is to this man what soap is to Fight Club.)

Words: V's got culture going for him, but culture doesn't mean much against knives.

Words: V fights mostly with ideas, which Nick doesn't care for.

Words: Also, when you think about it, Nick is an as-yet-undetermined reservoir of raw power.

Ink: Nick can conjure up storms.

Words: I don't think V can compete with that.

Ink: I think they'd have a wicked-awesome knife fight, and then Nick would skewer him with a sword.

Words: Well-played, V, but you can't take this one.

Ink: Better luck with the British Government.

Ink: This is a tangent, but I do wonder how Nick would respond to music. Music is pre-lingual in some senses, but it's also deeply emotional, which Nick is not.

Words: That does raise an interesting question. I think he wouldn't see the point.

Words: ...but I would pay so much money to see that knife fight.

MARCH MADNESS: Dobby vs. Bartimaeus

2011-03-03T00:28:00.005-05:00

ROUND #1

Words and I talked it over, and we decided that Dobby, although he's pretty good at taking out Death Eaters, just wouldn't have the combat experience to deal with Bartimaeus.

Words: Dobby's great and all, but he's WOEFULLY outclassed.

Words: Woefully.

Ink: Poor guy.

Words: Sadface. Ah well.

Ink: I wish Bartimaeus would go easy on him because he's awesome.

Ink: But I don't think he would.

Words: Nope. They'd bond over slavery, though.

Ink: That would be pretty cute. Alright, Bartimaeus wins!

He's an awesome elf, but elves ain't got nothin' on djinn. Although Bartimaeus and Dobby are oddly alike in their social awareness, but I think Dobby's campaigning for better elf rights was ultimately more successful. Politics, yes, combat, no. Sorry, Dobby. Better luck next time!

(Only 5,000 years of hardcore slavery could make you

capable of doing anything other than hugging this elf.)

MARCH MADNESS: INTRODUCTION

2011-03-01T11:59:00.004-05:00

Words and I are excited to present a new feature for this month: March Madness! We'll be pitting sixteen characters from our favorite books, movies, and TV shows against each other all this month, discussing the various characters, and after four rounds, picking a winner. The characters are from just about every 'verse imaginable, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding a familiar face. If you're a little fuzzy on how this is going to work, so are we, but stick with us.

On the left side of our bracket, we have the magical characters, the alchemists, the benders, the geniuses, and anybody who's flat-out superhuman:

Bartimaeus from the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud

Dobby from Harry Potter by JK Rowling

Nick Ryves from the Demon's Lexicon and sequels by Sarah Rees Brennan

V from V for Vendetta

Octavian Nothing from the Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by MT Anderson

River Tam from Firefly

Azula of the Fire Nation from Avatar: the Last Airbender

Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist

On the right side of bracket, we have:

Eugenides from the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

Wesley from the Princess Bride

Domnovoi Butler from the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer

Zoe Alleyene from Firefly (I didn't know that Zoe had a last name either.)

Ursa of the Fire Nation from Avatar: the Last Airbender

Bellatrix Lestrange from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling (I know she's a witch, but she snuck into this bracket, or, more likely, cursed some poor Muggle off of it)

Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory

The first round will be determined on who we think would win in a fight--brute strength. The second round will be determined by the contestants' finesse, trickery, or sneakiness. The third is a battle of wit, and the final round will be based entirely on style points.

Let's be clear, though--we're not advising that you bet money on any of this (and we have no idea how you'd collect bets if you did), but feel free to collect bragging rights when your pick advances to the next round. Sit back, check out the bracket, pick a favorite, and enjoy the game!

How To Be Badass (By Professor Nick Ryves)

2010-08-10T10:57:00.004-04:00

Face it. You are never going to be badass if you think that you can learn the necessary skills on some blog run by unpublished wannabes. Badasses are born, not made. But I guess I can give you a few tips to get you through your next pathetic office power struggle or meeting with your ex-spouse's lawyer or whatever you people without real problems do in your spare time.

1) Cop an attitude. The world's best ass-kicking can be undone by an apology. Don't be nice. This is the real world, not kindergarten. Mr. Roberts isn't going to give you a gold star for not hurting Elmo's feelings or whatever. (See, look, I just did it.) Having a conscience is what prevents my brother Alan from fully embracing the badass he was born to be. You can be a nice guy, or you can be a badass. No mercy.

2) Have weapons. Personally, I prefer blades--when fighting magicians and demands, you can't go wrong with a good sword. However, knives aren't practical in some situations (like American airports) and anytime you use a sword, you have to expect an amount of good-natured ribbing from family and friends about compensating for something. If you're awesome like me, you'll just cut them to ribbons, but if you're not quite as cool as me, you're probably better off with a lethal instrument that attracts a little less Freudian analysis.

3) Be a man, man. Even if you're a woman.

4) Practice. Nobody ever became badass without hard work. And let's face it (Jamie, I'm looking at you), getting into shape is just the tip on the iceberg. If you don't have dangerous enemies tracking your every move and just want to get a leg up in your fantasy football club, I guess you don't need to spend a lot of time at target practice or learning to identify demon marks, but a little basic combat training never goes awry. Just remember--watching UFC is fun, but there's no substitute for the real thing.

5) No fear. Any time you spend being afraid is just time you could have spent sharpening your weapons.

Well, that's about it. If you want to hear more from me (and be honest, how could you not?), you can check me out at http://www.sarahreesbrennan.com/ . I understand she's on a mission to make the world a little more badass one book at a time. Me, I don't trust books, but, hey, it's worth a shot.

[transcribed with great reluctance by Mae Crawford]

A (Writing) Exercise in Desperation

2010-06-08T13:56:00.001-04:00

11:33 AM. Polish off second cup of coffee. If I leave now I'll get there earlier than yesterday. Means I'll wait longer before they get out, but I'll be farther ahead in the line. Fine by me.

11:45 AM. Forgot that this road leads back from lunch to the largest single employer in Georgia. My advantage over yesterday is totally shot.

11:48 AM. Moody is clear and I make an easy left onto 96. Maybe I've beat the rush.

12:00 PM. Stop driving perfectly on time...in a line of cars at least a quarter mile from the school.

12:01 PM. Cars fill all visible road behind me. State Road 96 is now a parking lot.

12:10 PM. Ten-minute mark. Realize that thought process resembles apocalyptic log.

12:11 PM. See woman walk by toward the school. Wonder where her car is.

12:13 PM. Regretting that second cup of coffee.

12:14 PM. Several cars pull out of the line and turn around. The majority of us have nowhere else to go.

12:16 PM. Gentleman jogs pas the car. Heat haze makes me think that cars ahead of me are moving. Just a cruel mirage.

12:17 PM. Girl and her little sister walk toward school. Their mom must have stayed in her air-conditioned car.

12:18 PM. Really regretting that second cup of coffee.

12:19 PM. Playlist ended. Can't be bothered to find new tunes.

12:21 PM. Moved twelve feet forward. Saw first woman walk back with happy daughter.

12:22 PM. Movement becoming more frequent. Still not in sight of school.

12:23 PM. Catch glimpse of highlighter-yellow-vested traffic cop. Second gentleman walks back. Daughter as tall as he is.

12:24 PM. Gentleman gives truck driver behind me directions. Truck skirts around me and bypasses the madness.

12:25 PM. In sight of school. Moving frequently. Memorizing log entries for later transcription.

12:26 PM. Intensely regretting that second cup of coffee.

12:27 PM. See cars pulled over in grass on side of road, drivers walking. Tempting, but it's prohibitively hot and I'm a wuss.

12:29 PM. Aforementioned grass-car is under the impression that she can make a left back onto this road. Due to the mercy of strangers she somehow succeeds.

12:30 PM. Kid rides by on bike, wondering what in the world is going on. I'm right there with you, kid.

12:31 PM. World has turned sufficiently that my window arm is now in the shade. Small mercies.

12:33 PM. Realization hits that the school has consolidated its two pickup lines into one for the day. WHY?! is unclear.

12:34 PM. Hope I turned off the coffee pot. Try not to think about coffee.

12:35 PM. Highlighter cop's job really sucks.

12:36 PM. Regretting every cup of coffee I've ever had.

12:40 PM. Turn on J-Rock, sing along, and headbob so that the woman in front of me who keeps looking in her rearview will wonder what I'm doing.

12:42 PM. See more grass-cars. Tempted again, but I'm so close now.

12:44 PM. Enter the school parking lot. Pass by king of the highlighter cops.

12:45 PM. Reach the point at which I stopped driving at noon yesterday.

12:46 PM. Can't quite bring self to regret discovery of coffee bean.

12:50 PM. Spot a parking monitor huddling in a rare patch of shade. Lucky guy.

12:56 PM. Pickup successful. First order of business: find a bathroom.

12:59 PM. Can't get back onto 96 from Flash Foods. Take an alternate route home. Have an adventure.

1:37 PM. Arrive home. Confirm that I did, in fact, turn off the coffee pot.

Names, Part 3

2010-04-04T21:25:00.005-04:00

Some final thoughts on names, naming, and the dangers therein.

[Words] When naming fictional people, we've noticed that it's easy to lift names light-fingered from anyone who's standing too close. Naming characters after people you know can be a fun diversion (Ink's taken requests before, when friends found out she was writing a book and, in one case, wanted a villain named after him), but it poses obvious hazards.

[Ink] I don't think I've ever named a major character after somebody, but a couple of times I've named a character and realized that I know somebody by that name. The FMC in my urban fantasy series is named Kate. I know so many Katherines, Catherines, Kathryns, Kaitlyns, and Katies it's not funny. I have two cousins named Katie and three good friends named some variation of Kate. I actually kinda hope they all think that they're the namesake.

I also recently realized that I named a ruthless Old West bankrobber the same name as the wonderful, cool, amazing lady who ran the youth group at my school. In my defense, Kelly was a boy's name in the 1800's. I hope she never finds out.

One time, I named a character Jordan, just on a lark. Then I realized the girl who sat behind me in Spanish class was also named Jordan. We usually didn't talk that much, but after naming the character that, we got to be friends. It was kind of weird, but cool.

Name That Injustice, Episode 1

2010-04-01T12:36:00.002-04:00

April is the cruelest month, and we're celebrating! We figure, our readers are an intelligent, well-read, socially aware group of fine upstanding world citizens, so we present a game we like to call Name That Injustice. We give you a list of famous injustices and incidents in the last sixty years of American history, and you give us the names! Simple enough?

And, of course, what's any game without prizes? The commenter who answers the most of these correctly gets a sidebar shoutout to their very own blog or webpage for the entire month of April (spambots need not apply). All answers should be in English and fairly close to correctly punctuated (if you value your soul). Comments close Sunday afternoon - late Sunday afternoon, if we're feeling merciful.

You've probably seen references to many of these instances on TV. Such a sad state of world affairs, isn't it?

1. Authority figures mocked by unwashed masses, who are rewarded for this behavior. Most egregious offense included a lifeguard being deceived by the children he was sworn to protect.

2. Bird trained to belittle mental illness and support substance abuse in minors.

3. Children rewarded for neglect and animal cruelty.

4. Recent immigrant to America harassed and chased, deprived of his only beloved possession, a talisman from the Old World.

5. Elderly, flamboyant ex-Navy officer leads children into life of piracy and crime.

Good luck!

Convergence

2010-03-31T10:54:00.001-04:00

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

As of this afternoon, Miri and Ink will be in the same state for the remainder of the week, thus making it easier to geek out about various topics, plot dastardly deeds, and, of course, update the blog.

Stay tuned!

I Dream of Similar Triangles

2010-03-14T16:15:00.004-04:00

Has anybody else ever had nightmares about the SATs? Not just taking them or whatever, but about the subjects on the test? I keep having nightmares about geometry.

Anyway, due to my SAT-related insomnia, I changed all the colors on the blog. Hope y'all weren't too attached to the old ones, because I have no idea how to get it back to normal.

Goodnight, all!

The Enemy of the Good

2010-03-11T20:22:00.005-05:00

"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
--Voltaire.

I'd never thought of myself as a perfectionist. I mean, I'm a WriMo. I don't care if something is good, as long as it helps me along the way to 50,000 words, right? If anyone suggested that I was a perfectionist when it came to writing, I have several thousand inane words of my characters joking about cannibalism that beg to differ.

Last month, I went to read through the book I wrote before this past November, a book I thought had a ton of potential. My sister loved it. My mom said I had finally mastered the art of creating a tight plot. Even Miri liked it. Me, I got about 100 pages and had to put it down. The thing was a corny mess. I wondered why I was still writing.

A couple days later, I started wondering where I went wrong with this book. It occurred to me that it might not be that the book was that bad, but that my expectations were too high. I thought about it a little more and realized that I had thought that this book was going to be a classic--maybe even a Great American Novel. Embarrassing but true.

Once I realized that nobody writes a Great American Novel on the first try (and that historical political fantasy/romance is probably not going to get on the classics shelf anytime soon), I could start reading again without being so critical. I even started enjoying it a little. A lot of the novel still sucks, but I don't hate so much any more. Now I know it doesn't have to be perfect.

For Those Thinking About Publication...

2010-02-10T23:26:00.003-05:00

I'm probably not the best person to dispense advice on how to get published, seeing as I'm not even close, but I'm going to give it a try anyway.

Last year, I sent out 25 queries. I got 22 form rejections, one personalized rejection, 1 request for the first five pages (I know, it didn't make sense to me, either), and one request for a partial. Then I got a form rejection for the partial. That's a 4.34% success rate. So the batting average for 2009 was Not Good. I got the names of AgentQuery, and it said that all of them were seeking new clients.

This year, I sent out four query letters to agents I found here. So far, I've heard back from two agents, and both were requests for fulls. That's a 100% success rate. 2010 is on fire.

Here's the clincher. I didn't change my query letter, and I've made only minimal changes to my book. All I changed was the recipients of my query letter. I started sending to people who really want new clients. Judging by the numbers, that makes all the difference.

To wit: only query agents who really want to be queried!

The Sad Saga of the Permanantly Clear Desk

2010-02-05T16:23:00.000-05:00

Last October, with NaNo bearing down on me, I thought I'd take charge of my desk and put it in order, once and for all. This article from Zen Habits seemed appealing, so I decided to start there. I started out with the best of intentions. I sorted all my stuff into three piles and got rid of the bits of novel notes and weird little maps I hadn't used since the middle of November of 2005. It really did help keep my mind clear. I could find exactly what I wanted when I wanted it. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever.

Stuff started to creep up over time, in small increments. I think it started in earnest when I grabbed a piece of scrap paper to work out a math problem, and then wrote a phone number on it, then wrote "e-mail Emily" or something on it. Then I realized I needed a separate piece of scrap paper to keep notes about the novel I was working on at the time. Then I left my watch on my desk with the idea of using my nice clean(ish) desk as a vanity and putting it on the next morning. The watch disappeared under a pile of papers and I couldn't find it the next morning. I haven't been on time in months.

The final death knell was Christmas. First I thought it'd be okay to leave a few gifts I needed to wrap on my desk until I could get to them. Most of them made their way to their intended recipients, but one (a stamp with a robot saying 'Hi' on it) I decided would be happier with me. Then I left some gifts that I'd gotten on my desk. It's February and they're still there.

It's only gone downhill from there. I started leaving books on my desk and now it's just one big pile of novels. I also installed Windows Seven (I know, I know, but it's working so far), so all my CD-ROMs are everywhere. And there's an envelope with nothing inside of it and the words "Secret Agent Velocioraptor" written on the outside. I have no idea what it's for, but I'm terrified to throw it away in case Secret Agent Velocioraptor comes to collect. My desk is worse than ever before.

Such is life.

Names, Part 2.

2010-01-18T10:34:00.002-05:00

My characters don't name themselves. When I give a character a name, it's the result of a lot of work on my part. What's weird, though, is that after the first main character is named, most of the other names come pretty readily. (But that first one is a killer.)

For example. In the novel I'm working on now, the Heretic King, I had two main characters. It's offworld fantasy, and one of the main characters is from fantasy-Egypt/Greece and the other MC is from fantasy-India. I had a bunch of scenes in my head that I was just bursting to write, but I've never been able to start a novel without named characters. So I spent a day (literally, 8+ hours) trying to think up names for these characters. I must have read half of behindthename.com. Then I had to go to a baby shower. I spent the car ride there and back (and the whole party, except, of course, while we were having cake) thinking of names. At twelve that night, I finally came up with some names and started writing. (The girl's name is Sabrai and the guy's name is Ptolemael, in case you were interested.)

I've never really given a character a name that had a meaning, like Miri does--I go more for form than function, I guess--but I really like most of my character names all the same. So the moral of this story is: when it comes to names (and most other things), do what works for you.

On Names, or, Characters Do Name Themselves, I'm Not Crazy, I Swear

2010-01-16T11:54:00.002-05:00

Anyone who knows me and has been on speaking terms with me since mid-October or so has heard me chatter (nigh incessantly at times) about my fifth National Novel Writing Month Novel, Clockwork Wings. And anyone who's spoken to me further knows that I attribute a lot of rather active traits to my characters - that I discuss them more in terms of living "people" than most people really get.

This year's effort stood out in a number of ways. From a practical standpoint, it's the second NaNo I've finished within November (the fourth NaNo I've finished overall) and the first I've finished within November with a book-length wordcount (my first year didn't precisely limp to its conclusion at 52k, but there wasn't a great deal of urgency in its pace). This year presented me with my greatest extra-NaNo workload - all the high school juniors in the audience can sympathize here - and somehow it was my best showing to date. (And I confess I'm worried about my next attempt, considering that several fellow Mooselings suffered something of a sixth-year NaNo slump. But I think my stubbornness is equal to the challenge.)

Maybe I'm finally learning to finish what I start. Maybe it's true that if you want something done, you should ask a busy person to do it - to quote Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo, if you've already got a million things to do, adding number one-million-and-one is no big deal.

But I'd be remiss in not crediting this year's monumental sucess at least in part to my cast of characters - an astounding group of people that I'd known (if you'll forgive the conceit) anywhere from two weeks to four years before I started writing their story.

My focus on the characters was an interesting reversal: while many writers I've spoken with (though by no means all) identify themselves as either a plot writer or a character writer, I've always been an avowed setting writer. A compulsive worldbuilder. I started drawing maps shortly after reading The Chronicles of Narnia in the second grade - my middle school notebooks are riddled with them. I love flags, I love cultures, I especially love languages (as anyone who's seen my class schedule can attest) and there's no greater intellectual joy than creating a world that is complete unto itself, with its conceits and dysfunctions providing and enhancing any conflict, any story I could place there.

This time, now that I'm thinking about it, I guess the setting did come first, or a very (dimensions-wise) small part of it: the Gray Tower, the site of the execution of traitors, my analog to London's Tower Green. (I can admit this.) For most of 2006, I planned to write my second NaNo about a young captain of the royal guard who would be forced to execute her two best lieutenants and best friends. (I was a morbid twelve-year-old. Sue me.)

The captain's name, from the first time I pictured her, was Marsa. I didn't look into it, didn't run searches on word elements like I do now that I've discovered BehindTheName.com. I just knew that it was her name, that it fit.

Marsa. My duty-bound militant guard captain.

Mars. Roman god of war.

I put this together in December (2009) and it blew my mind. I'd read mythology before, so I'm sure I was very, very subconsciously thinking it when creating this character, but it still surprised me, this accidentally perfect name.

That's not the only example. My main character this year popped up in a scenelet I wrote on the bus last May, and that morning in first period I asked for a female name at random. A good friend said, equally at random, "Claire." I decided I liked it, stuck it on, and didn't think much more about it until October came and I was putting together a plan for my story. Claire's clarity - her clear vision of problems and solutions, her brightness of outlook - were her defining characteristics. Another perfect name, without any input from me.

Now, several of my names were researched and planned. The deciding factor in naming the bodyguard Alexei was that one of its meanings was "protector"; my wing-technician Ciel was very intentionally named for the sky. Claire's parents were named, in a roundabout way, for the gods of tricks and fire in a couple of different mythologies, and that says a lot about their personalities. I liked names that say something about the character - I think it's my right as a writer to have as much fun as I possibly can with them.

And I do. Names are fun. Great fun.

But they're even more fun when they present themselves to me whole-cloth, hiding their true importance until I stumble across it.

Names. Reason number #23 I love writing.

And We're Off!

2009-11-01T22:37:00.002-05:00

I'm finished with The Heretic King, nine pages into my NaNo novel, have really no plot at all, and I'm loving every second of it. Forget about Christmas. November is the most wonderful time of the year.

4052 words,
Ink

A Motivation to Tell a Story

2009-10-22T20:44:00.003-04:00

I'm angry. I'm extremely angry.

I'm a storyteller. I may not be the best nuts-and-bolts writer, and I'm certainly not the best at weaving my tales together and making everything make sense, but I am a storyteller and I take pride in that. Stories are important to me; I cry over the touching moments in anime, books, movies, anything. Storytelling is sacred to me.

So the abuse of it incites a righteous anger in me. WHY would a show - a show that was shaping up to be at least my second-favorite of all time - waste so many perfectly good elements? The kid who was obviously the reincarnation of the big bad of a hundred years ago shows up ONCE and disappears with no more mention made, no show down, nothing more than hints? A thirteen-year-old girl binds her soul to a demon from the Abyss, a deal that happens only when someone desperately wants to change the past, and we're never given the reason or even have it really alluded to? A nine-year-old boy - the brother of arguably the best character in the series, nonetheless! - is seen at the sight of a heinous tragedy, surrounded by corpses and flames and covered in blood, laughing at the sight of it all, and we are given nothing but the fairly obvious hints that he was in fact the killer of a main character, that he's using everyone in the story, that he retains his memories from that tragedy when NO ONE ELSE DOES, and the last time we see him in the show, all he says is that he wishes he could tell his brother, but he doesn't remember? No showdown with any of the setup villains, no closure for any of our beloved characters, and - this is probably the most heinous failure of the story, though if any of the major villains had popped back up I could have forgiven it - a clock imprinted on the main character in the THIRD EPISODE with the explicit statement that when it makes a full rotation, he'll be dragged into the Abyss (which is exactly as bad as it sounds - and we saw it happen to another character very early on, in gruesome and tearjerking fashion) - this clock, over the course of the series, ONLY MAKES IT TO THE SECOND MARKING OF TWELVE?!?

So, yeah, I can't remember the last time I was this angry. Tears were shed, parents were sufficiently exasperated; such is the life of a sentimental idiot.

I think it came on a bad day, too; I've had to deal with something of a disappointment from several people I've known for quite awhile, and I admit, when I sat down to finish this series, I wanted an escape. A story where the consequences of one's actions are destined to come about. An ideal. That's possible in stories.

And instead, I get one of the bigger letdowns of my lifetime of engaging in stories. It's not fair. It's really not.

But I knew this was a possibility. Another series I watched recently crashed and burned, but I wasn't nearly as attached to that one. I knew this might happen, much as I had hope for it not to, and I knew one of two things would happen:

One, I would be so depressed that my motivation to do anything would be sapped. I don't recall if this has happened, but I've been out of sorts lately and this show caught my fascination in a way that very few have.

Two, I would be angry, fired up, motivated to write a better story, to give my story a true ending, and to do it inside the confines of a month, just to show how much better I am than them.

Thankfully, it's the latter.

I cannot WAIT for NaNo to start.

Public Service Announcement!

2009-10-02T19:13:00.001-04:00

The NaNoWriMo site is up and running! It's awesome and has a ton of new features. Yay!

Check it out:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Thought #8

2009-10-01T19:04:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I realized the only rapper I like at all is Agape, and I love 'Hiphopapotamus Versus Rhymenocerous' by the Flight of the Conchords, and I can kind of stand Eminem. So, apparently, I only like white rappers. The three white rappers in existence. What is wrong with me?

Interjection #2, or, I Love Animation

2009-09-20T20:51:00.002-04:00

And I always will. So the movie 9 really made me hopeful for being able to continue to watch intelligent animated movies well into adulthood. In any of my discussions about the movie, I mentioned that I was thrilled to see the movie industry breaking out of the Animation Age Ghetto.

Then I read the Trope page, which states that the Animation Age Ghetto was "Not just subverted, but punched in the face, shot up with a machine gun, thrown off a cliff, fed to sharks, and blown up. Also gassed."

Yeah, I giggled for about five minutes straight.

Thought #7

2009-09-19T09:23:00.003-04:00

Guys, forget about everything you've ever heard about writing. All you really need is a good friend who also writes and is willing to help you with your plot crises (and word-war during November.) Everything else is just filler.

Interjection #1

2009-09-12T20:23:00.004-04:00

Derailing Ink's train of thought for...what year is it again?

Revising a book is stressful. School is stressful. Making costumes for fun and (a startling lack of) profit is stressful.

Revising a book while going to school and making costumes at the same time is COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY IDIOTIC.

Next weekend is AWA. These were our costumes last year. We're rewearing them on Sunday, and our new ones this year are those cranked UP TO ELEVEN.

Which I just typed as EVELN. I think my characters are trying to tell me something. Ev, I'm going to finish revising your book just as soon as the costuming crush is over. Please don't hurt me.

I'll just be going to eat Baked Barbecue Lays and read Good Omens now. That's not stressful.

Thought #6

2009-09-01T16:23:00.004-04:00

Thought of the Day:

An agent who asks for queries only by email asked for the first five pages of The Very Watery Ocean and Other Unnecessary Tales, also via email. I wonder if this is the wave of the future. First queries, then first five/ten/twenty pages, then the first fifty pages, then the full manuscript, then an offer of representation. Good news if you write great queries. Bad news if your writing is great but your queries are terrible.

Thought #3: A Game

2009-08-26T23:31:00.005-04:00

I dare you all to go to Gives Me Hope and see how many pages you read without tearing up. My personal best is three. Can you beat it?

Alternatively, you can go to FMyLife and see how many pages you can read without cracking up. My best for FML is... a solid 3/4 of a page. Can you spell 'schadenfreude?' I doubt it.

Thought #4

2009-08-26T16:20:00.004-04:00

Earlier today.

Sarah: Sometimes I have the transient thought that Mom and Dad don't love us three. Ha ha ha. Isn't that crazy?
Sarah's much-younger sister: Aww, don't worry about it, Sarah. They love us. They only hate you.

...owned. By an eleven-year-old. Actually, I'm kind of proud of her snarkiness. She's all grown up!

Thought #2

2009-08-25T23:38:00.005-04:00

I'm pretty sure I'm the worst vegetarian in the world. I buy leather products, I think PETA is creepy, I support gun hunting, and I sing along to the Hillshire Farms "Go Meat!" commercial.

(On the upside, I sent out 14--count 'em--14 query letters today. BAM.)

Thought #5

2009-08-25T21:35:00.005-04:00

A tendency to see all one's worst traits in a changing room mirror seems to be universal among my female friends. Still, shopping stays popular.

So this is what we've become:

2009-08-25T20:28:00.007-04:00

I also tell people about my dreams. And psychoanalyze them. Oh, the humanity.

So. In a small attempt to make my life less boring, I'm going to start updating. The updates won't be good. But they'll be there. I'm thinking of doing a thought of the day kind of thing, and maybe Miri will pop in every now and then with a quality update. We'll see.

For today: I think tiny houses are awesome. Who wouldn't want to live here?

Query Letters: the eighth circle of hell

2009-06-17T14:02:00.003-04:00

This January, I had the honor of spending New Year's with my family, some friends, and Miri. After watching the whole New Year's Eve extravaganza on TV (and then flipping right back to Sweeny Todd), I decided what I really needed to do was create some New Year's resolutions, despite the fact that I didn't have an edited novel. I wanted to write, draw, and exercise daily. That didn't last a week. The other thing I wanted to do was to send out 50 query letters.

"Maybe 30 would be a little more manageable," Miri suggested.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I said. "Hey, we should both send out 30 letters!"

"... how about 15?" Miri asked.

Since then, 15 query letters has been my goal, seeing as the other ones failed. So far, I've sent out four. Of course, I edited my novel and wrote a query letter, all of which took time. Then it was the middle of summer, and sending query letters when it's hot and icky does have an effect (just ask Miss Snark). So far, I've sent four query letters. I've gotten two rejections, one personalized. Still waiting on the other two.

I'm about to become very busy, and that probably won't let up until the end of the year. If I want to get those 11 letters out, it's gotta be today.

AgentQuery has given me 16 names that look appealing. It's a start.

Wish me luck!

Wow, it's been awhile

2009-04-04T21:44:00.004-04:00

I think we can say for sure by now that Ink and I are rather remiss about updating the blog. Perhaps even notoriously remiss.

So, as an apology (and definitely not a blatant plug for my far-and-away second-favorite show in the history of ever), I give you the best animated music video I have ever seen in my life. It's only 3:15, and you won't regret it.

I love well-timed music videos.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T23:01:00.003-04:00

... because we haven't updated since January and we're very sorry. (And because Ink gets overexcited about Saint Patrick's Day, what with the shamrocks and greenery and such.)

14 Hours Into the New Year And I've Already Screwed Up

2009-01-01T14:29:00.003-05:00

Yep, I thought I'd be cool and title this post "a goal unwritten is just a wish" and find out who said it, but Google and Wikiquote yielded no answers until I realized it's a proverb, not a quote, and proverbs < quotes. Alas.

Either way, the sentiment is correct, and it's especially true for writers. If you'll forgive me another overused canyon metaphor, you and story are one one side of the gulch and publication, riches, renown, and literary immortality are on the other side. Waaaaay on the other side.

So, like good metaphorical mountaineers, we lay down some ropes between the sides and start building ourselves a bridge. However, those ropes snap, and they snap a lot. Sometimes it's rejected query letters, sometimes it's a bad critique, or, like the publishing horror story Miri was telling me the other day, it's having the company who bought your manuscript go under. Canyons are dangerous and falling rock is everywhere.

This is the part of the post where I should be saying something cheesy and inspirational, but actually, after that, I've kind of forgetten what brilliant, moving point I was going to make. So I'll wrap this up.

We can't decide how many rocks fall on our heads, but we can decide how many lines we cast to the other side. That means setting goals. Building a sturdy bridge doesn't happen by accident--it requires planning.

My goals this New Year are pretty modest--fifteen minutes of writing or revision each day, and sending out fifteen query letters by next New Years' Eve--but they're goals all the same. How about you? Got any goals this year?

Holly Lisle's post on goal-setting.

A picture is worth 1k. Or 50k.

2008-11-26T23:47:00.003-05:00

I'm tired, but I did it. I've bagged my fourth purple bar, and it feels good.

To all those who have won, congrats! To all those who have yet to win, keep going!

And join us for a Black Friday you'll never forget. Yes, I'll still be writing--my story looks like it has about twenty thousand words of life left in it, and I need to finish it before the momentum dissipates.

Or Kingdom Hearts - Re: Chain of Memories comes out.

The two coincide, really.

The Book Business

2008-11-14T17:37:00.002-05:00

Well, we all know how the economy looks right now. We can't get away from it.

Sure, gas prices are going down (and that's cause for celebration in my book, don't get me wrong. It still makes me giggle to pass a $1.99 gas sign), but only because the demand is steadily lowering as the economy circles the drain closer and closer.

And, of course, with any major downturn, the book business suffers too.

Discouraging news.

And a lot of it.

Life without bookstores. Think about it for a second. There might be libraries, and I think there's a place for that--books that have been loved and read and preserved and, to some degree, imprinted on by those who've read them.

But I love the smell and feel of new books. I love the astounding variety and the bright colors and the understated covers (and the overstated ones, really) that catch my eye and promise me something. Escape. Adventure. Something to think about. And more than that, when I buy a book, it's mine. Mine to imprint my memories on as I read it, to take with me wherever I want. To share with other people who will love it, but always to take back. Mine.

I rely on bookstores. I love them. I never want to see them go away.

And the only way I can keep them here is to buy books from them.

You can too.

Keep buying books. Keep supporting authors. Keep the love of the written word alive before it drowns in text-messages.

That's all any of us can do. Before we were writers, we were readers, and between writing, we're still readers.

22,800 words and counting, feeling unusually pensive today.

Miri.

3rd Day of NaNoWriMo

2008-11-03T15:56:00.003-05:00

(Hey, Americans--get out there and make your voice heard at the polls tomorrow. All the other countries are making fun of us because our voter apathy is so bad. C'mon, guys. Let's show 'em.)

Writerly Politics Fun! (yes, it exists.)

8010 words,
Sarah

And...go!

2008-11-01T11:09:00.001-04:00

NaNoWriMo has begun.

Happy November!

2225 words and counting.

Another Update

2008-10-13T13:11:00.001-04:00

Well, I managed to bust through the block on Friday with some good old-fashioned YouTube playlist therapy and an hour-long plotting session (which coincided with the YouTube playlist therapy). I think I've got most of the rest of the story plotted out. I'm going to try for an 8k day today and then maybe a 10k tomorrow.

Thanks for your support.

Update on the Writing Front

2008-10-10T13:51:00.000-04:00

That is all.

50 Posts, 50,000 Words

2008-08-17T22:09:00.003-04:00

Miri and I are suiting up for NaNoWriMo 2008, a heady process which involves getting lots of new ideas, tinkering with them, tossing them out, and starting with no story when November 1st rolls around, praying for inspiration.

In an effort not to over-think new story concepts, I started writing what I thought would be a fun, relaxing short story with little/no novel potential. However, the characters are not so easily dismissed. They have taken over, spooning out plot points, sparkling* dialogue, hilarious* scenes and honest-to-God theme when my enthusiasm for the project starts to lag. This is the tightest rough draft I've ever written (not like there's a lot of competition for that title, as anyone who's clapped eyes on the rough draft of my first NaNo could tell you), will likely be the longest, and has been the most fun to write.

So why OH WHY did it have to strike me in August?

But my whining is not interesting blogging. What are your NaNo ideas? What are you doing to prepare them? (Hopefully, we can get a little idea-bouncing going in the comments to help y'all flesh out your plotbunies.)

---------------------------------------------------
*That is, it seems like that while I'm writing. When I start editing, I shall find it so atrocious I will likely experince spontaneous combustion.

Music for the Muses

2008-07-25T11:51:00.002-04:00

It may come as no surprise to Miri, but I love musicals. To date, I've been in 8 musicals, including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which is more of a rock opera than a musical anyway. I grew up in musical in theater. I eat, sleep and breathe musical theater. But what do musicals have to do with writing?

I went to see Mamma Mia with some friends last week, and it got me to thinking. There seems to be a recent trend to turning musicals into movies (think Sweeny Todd), and making musicals out of the body of work of a single band. Mamma Mia is all music from ABBA, Leader of the Pack is a musical about songwriter Ellie Greenwich told through her songs, and Across the Universe is a musical-movie with all Beatles songs.

So I'm going to try something and post the results here on the blog for the world to judge. I'm going to write a synopsis of a (nonexistent) play with the music of one of my favorite bands, Matchbox 20. Y'all are welcome to try it as well if you have an hour or two to spare.

======================
I'm going with basic "boy meets girl" plot, because an inordinate number of Matchbox 20 songs are about breaking up with someone.

Our main character (henceforth known as John) is a college student and black civil rights activist in the 60's. In the first scene, John, his friend Robert, and a group of fellow activists sing "Black and White People."

While participating in a sit-in in Ohio, he meets Sylvia, a white waitress at the diner and they promptly fall in love in the song (a duet) "Real World."

In the next scene, Sylvia's father, the town sheriff, is revealed to be a bigot in the song "Push." (Stereotypical, I know. There goes my Pulitzer.)

John and Robert make plans to attend the March on Washington. Sylvia worries for John's safety and tries to dissuade him from leaving in the song "Can't Let You Go."

In the next scene, John is torn between supporting the civil rights movement and Sylvia in the song "Argue," but decides to go.

Sylvia talks to her friend Renee about her concerns the day before John and Robert plan to leave. Renee tells Sylvia's ex-boyfriend, Peter. Peter speaks of his remaining affection for Sylvia in "Crutch."

The next day, Peter calls the police while John and Robert are sitting at the diner. Sylvia's father arrests them. John mistakenly believes Sylvia framed them. Peter sings a verse from "Busted" and John sings a verse from "Last Beautiful Girl" as he's being led away. The two go back and forth until each song is finished.

END OF ACT 1.

John and Robert lament their position in "Shame." Robert tries to cheer John up with a refrain of "Black and White People", but John is inconsolable.

Sylvia sings "If You're Gone" to herself. Renee overhears and apologizes for Peter's actions. She agrees to help Sylvia sneak into the jail to visit John.

They sneak into the jail. After explaining that Peter called the police, not her, she and John sing a duet of "Hand Me Down." The sheriff stumbles in on the last refrain. He is so moved by the depth of his daughter's love that he frees John and Robert and agrees to drive all four of them to Washington.

The whole cast sings "How Far We've Come" in the March on Washington.

The director has the choice of using "Mad Season" or "I Believe You When" for the curtain call music.
==============

Obviously, there are a couple of problems with this little tale. For one, interracial relationships were a very touchy subject in 1963 and if the sheriff was a real bigot, letting his daughter's black boyfriend out of the slammer would be a bit unlikely. But, hey, it's an exercise, not an outline.

I recommend using only two or three albums of your band or artist of choice. I can't imagine how the writers of Across the Universe sorted through all of the Beatles's songs and strung them together into something resembling a plot.

Also, try to pick a band that writes about a wide variety of topics. I had all kinds of trouble with the first act because Matchbox 20 has no songs about falling in love. "Real World" has nothing to do with falling in love, but it was the closest I could get. :P

So, dear readers, astound us with your literary brilliance! I'm really interested to see what y'all come up with. (And how does listening to music effect your writing? Do you use it as ambient noise, or do you use it for inspiration when you're feeling stuck?)

Not Writing

2008-07-15T09:41:00.004-04:00

I'm trying to solidify my thoughts before starting on my second draft of my NaNo from this past year, so let's take a look at what I'm doing when I'm not writing, because I've been doing a lot of it lately.

Since Dragon*Con 2007, I've been an avid cosplayer. Cosplay is simply dressing up and acting like a favorite character, usually at a convention, though I would randomly announce "informal cosplay" days at school where we'd dress it a character's signature colors and have a go at their hairstyle. Maybe as a procastination technique for writing, most of my free time the past week or so has been dedicated to my first serious costume in several months, a variation on Belle from Beauty and the Beast and, more to the point, the gorgeous Disney-Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II.

The variation I'm doing is an original design and I'm pretty sure it hasn't been done before (I call it the "What if?" that went insane), but basically it's a cross between this:

And this:

Interesting, yes? Yes.

I've made a lot of progress on it, but it's not to the point where it's wearable (or recognizable as clothing). See:

There's almost two yards of fabric in twelve pieces in each of those large, funny-looking shapes.

And here's a little detail I'm adding to the inside of the jacket once it's hemmed:

It's kind of the logo for Organization XIII, the people who typically wear the black coats seen above. That piece of pretty white fabric, smaller than a piece of computer paper, has four feet of edges that need hemming. Four. Feet.

But it'll so be worth it during the costume contest judging at AWA.

Yes, I'm a dork. In so many ways. And yes, that is a stripey beach towel. I use it on my ping pong table when the ironing board's too small.

The First Book (a blog you should be reading)

2008-06-07T22:07:00.003-04:00

Just when I'd almost lost faith in the publishing industry/my future as a writer/life in general, the First Book came along and reminded me that every author who is published sold a first book sometime. The First Book in a blog interviewing authors who've recently released their first novels--how they got published, what their novel is about, how they write, and, most importantly, whether or not they have cats.

I haven't read a lot so far, but I've thoroughly enjoyed what I've read so far, and that's not just because I'm procrastinating with it instead of writing. Put this one on the blogroll, my friends. You won't regret it.

On a more Zen-like note, my weekly skimming of TIME magazine revealed that the one article in the whole frikkin' thing that wasn't about Barack Obama* was fascinating. It was about The 100 Thing Challenge (which doesn't seem to have a website, and that's strangely fitting) where people are trying to cull their belongings down to 100 things. I first heard the idea of living with only 100 items when I read the Gospel According to Larry (the author of which probably deserves credit for this movement, but I digress.)

It looks like people are taking the plunge. A Guy Named Dave is working on cutting down his stuff, as is someone who is stuck in stuff.

My question is: what counts? Larry was pretty monastic in the novel--he counted everything that he owned as a seperate object (pairs of shoes count of one object, obviously, but apart from that, no breaks). Stuck in Stuff isn't counting books (don't blame her). Dave isn't counting the things he shares with his family, like the couch and the kitchen. But say there was an official set of rules. How would they count music? Would furniture be included? How would they quantify a bed--would each blanket and pillow and sheet count as a separate possession, or it all be one thing? And what about things that you don't have for very long, like food or toilet paper or tissue boxes? What would your rules be if you decided to take the plunge?

*I like Obama a lot, but four articles on him? Four? Have you no shame, TIME?

Laugh A Little

2008-05-30T08:52:00.002-04:00

It's not lol. It's lAl. And that makes no sense whatsoever. Moving on...

In honor of school being out in some places and really close to it in others (today's our district's last day, but I was done before that - final exemptions for the win), I demand that you find something that will make you laugh. An old TV show. A favorite YouTube video. Anything.

If you can't think of anything, I recommend the Evil Overlord List.

Have a great day, and start your summer with a laugh.

Cnidoblast

2008-05-25T16:52:00.005-04:00

FreeRice is one of my favorite sites, as both a humanitarian and a writer. If you haven't been there yet, you answer vocab questions and for every one you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program to end world hunger. Through a little knowledge of root words, minimal use of Dictionary.com, and a staggering amount of good luck, I've managed to reach level 47.

Around level 40, FreeRice runs out of world anyone will ever need to use and delves into the depths of scientific words, medical terms, and phrases that never before seen outside the pages of Jane Eyre. I've grapped with words I never heard of before (like copra, dried coconut meat), words I heard in conversation but didn't actually understand (like edification, education or betterment), even words that I needed to know for writing but never learned (like antipathetic, which is a good word to know when I have a character named Antipathy.) Sometimes it teaches me medical words I might never have heard otherwise (like axilla, meaning armpit), words that seem better suited to the perodic table of elements (like oroide, or false gold), and words that no one will ever use (like ghee, meaning clarified butter.) I've fought all these words and won to make it to level 47, and I've learned a lot about the ADD nature of the English langauge. However, I met my match when I came to this word.

cnidoblast means:
small explosion
large explosion
rash
cell type

Is it just me, or have the definition-writers developed a sense of humor?

Overheard at Play Practice

2008-05-25T16:13:00.003-04:00

Hey, it's Ink, posting for those who claim I never update.

cough-MIRI-cough.

Well, she's right. I plead mitigation--I was in the play Leader of the Pack and it siphoned away all my free time for both writing and blogging. However, we had a lot of fun and put on a fantastic show, so I'm not complaining. Anyway, we generated twice the amount of ridiculous comments as black belt camp, and therefore deserves another installment of 'overheards', with twice the sugary goodness.

I mean, um, quotes.

Anyway.

OVERHEARD AT PLAY PRACTICE

20. "Come back, I need to tickle you!"

19. "Maybe I WANT to bear your children."

18. "We are such dorks."

17. "I don't know who taught him how to flirt, but he needs a few more lessons."

16. "Hey, blond kid I dance with!"

15. "I'll bring the Jello shots."

14. "WHY CAN'T THE BOYS SHUT THE DOORS TO THEIR DRESSING ROOM?!"

13. "Zzzzzzzzzap!"

12. "Our baby ducks are all grown up."

11. "You can see the whole world in your eyes!"

10. "Aliens!"

9. "This dance is like a reverse striptease."

8. "This is so cute! Who did the choreography for this? Oh, yeah, me."

7. "You can never have enough powder."

6. "Time for the penguin dance."

5. "Somebody wrote 'Johnny is sexxy' on a piece of toilet paper and left it in the bathroom. Classy."

4. "If you wave to an audience member, I will cut your fingers off."

3. "Alli, Jill, and Heather singing this song? What was I thinking?"

2. "Enough with the slappy-butt happy-face!"

1. "I'm going to miss this play so much when it's over."

The Project, or "It's Not Over Yet, Fools!"

2008-05-21T20:52:00.003-04:00

I've been commanded to update the blog more often. It's a good habit to get into.

Cough-INK-cough.

So I was given an assignment in Lit class last week: represent a character from one of the works we've read this year...on a ceiling tile. I decided to take on two: Lucie Manette and Therese Defarge from Dickens's classic A Tale of Two Cities. While the book was difficult to read, the story was just amazing, and I love the striking contrasts between these two women.

And, because it turned out so well (honestly, I was floored, as I've never thought of myself as much of a painter), I posted pictures on the Internet. Check them out! See what you think.

I've also been brainstorming on The Queen's Architect. Current verdict: I didn't realize I had so many important characters. And I'm adding two more: Andrew and Rebekah, the apprentice and the betrothed. They're being quite nice about being dragged into this madness, and I love them already.

For the Sake of Clarity

2008-05-10T22:51:00.002-04:00

Good night, it's been a long time since we've updated. What have we been doing all this time?

(Despite that being a rhetorical question, I think I can say quantifiably: Performing in school shows and watching Death Note. Ah, the lives of writing dorks.)

BUT. My spring break started on Monday, March 31st. I got Ink to call me early, to get me out of bed. Once awake enough to see straight, I sat down at my computer and wrote for six hours solid. The Queen's Architect is a lovely (-cough) 58,000-word rough draft, and I'll be starting the rewrite within the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for all your support, and I hope we'll remember to update before another two months have passed.

Well-Worded Angst

2008-02-22T12:35:00.003-05:00

Sometimes Miri has trouble wrapping up her novels, like now. So Ink tries to cheer her up.... with disastrous results. For your entertainment, we present one such happening:

Pssst: if y'all could drop us a line, it might encourage her. Power in numbers, yanno.[/desperate plea for comments]

The Ten Stages of Anime Addiction

2008-02-10T19:56:00.001-05:00

So, Ink and Miri are both pretty serious anime fans, though they both know people who are moreso. And they decided to look at it mathematically, as they're both broke-ish most of the time:

Naruto: 27 volumes currently available at $8 apiece for $216
Bleach: 23 volumes currently available at $8 apiece for $184
Fruits Basket: 18 volumes currently available at $10 apiece for $180

That’s the Big Three for a total of $580. And that's just the start.

This ballooned into a full-blown analysis of anime addiction. All this is based on the generalization that the Subject has a steady source of income and/or inherited Bill Gates's fortune, so there'll be some variation between this list and any number of real scenarios. Still, we think it's a pretty good generalization.

First stage: Big Three. Given most people’s interest specificity, we’re also going to assume that you’ll only be drawn to two of the three. You saw one episode on television, became interested, and realized they were books. You have yet to lay down any cash.

Second stage: Killing Trees. Bought two of the big three on your own and were referred to the third by a friend (because by now, you’ve met up with other anime fans). You’ve also started watching other ones, including original English language shows and super-popular-in-Japan shows that aren’t necessarily mainstream in the U.S.. You’ve also started learning Japanese honorifics in order to keep characters straight.

Third stage: Getting Digital. You have at least DVD of either one of the Big Three or one of the anime standards and listen to anime openings and endings. You’ve memorized at least one theme in Japanese and could give a rough translation if pressed.

Fourth stage: On Spec. Laying down money on faith, browsing bookstores instead of going straight for the books you know you want. Learning basic Japanese and could probably write your name in it with some kind of proficiency. You’ve also begun dabbling in cosplay and have probably attended at least one con. You’re also buying merchandise from your personal faves and anyone who comes in your room could tell at a glance who your top three characters are.

Fifth stage: Fully Hooked. Your wardrobe is taking a decidedly anime turn, including two or three T-shirts, several Naruto headbands, and a wristband or two. You’ve subscribed to Shonen Jump and one of the other fandom magazines. Now you are becoming a manga pusher yourself. Anyone who sets foot in your house watches at least one episode of Naruto before they leave (including door-to-door salesmen) and you completely deny that Zhao/Jet/Hughes/Ray Penbar is dead, even though you saw them get drowned/pummeled/shot/heart attack’d.

Sixth stage: Old Friends, New Obsessions. You’re watching two hours minimum of anime each day in a crazy mixture of online and TV that you recorded at 2:30 in the morning. You have two or three friends, maybe, who aren’t anime fans—the resilient buggers. You have developed a passionate loyalty to at least one major-league voice actor, and your budding interest in all things Japanese has led you to at least one (rather mainstream) video game.

Seventh stage: Borderline Stalker. You can give a brief biography of every voice actor in Fullmetal Alchemist and at least two other shows, including parts they auditioned for but didn’t actually get. You can quote anything long and quote-worthy from at least four different shows and can recognize nine of ten shows on Cartoon Network based on a single frame (and probably give the context of the frame). You have a DVD library and re-watch whole series on a whim. Also, your collection of manga would put most independent bookstores to shame.

Eighth stage: And Culture, Too. You can speak Japanese with a decent amount of fluency and read both kana scripts as well as you do the English alphabet. You are an amateur manga-ka and know what that means. You have stopped making up your own sentences: you simply tailor anime quotes to fit your conversational needs. Any tan your skin once had was replaced by a pallor of midnight YouTube anime binges.

Ninth stage: You’ve met one of your favorite manga-ka on a visit to a con (and salivated all over him or her). Your house is a shrine to an obscure anime character who only lasted twelve episodes. Your mother refers to you not by your name, but as "Anime Zombie."

Tenth stage: You’ve moved to Japan.

Next week (or, let's be honest, whenever we get around to it) we'll mathematically compare the cost of an anime/manga habit versus other habits. Like coffee. Or crack.

What. The. Fluff.

2008-02-05T19:57:00.000-05:00

Seriously, what end of the pig is this coming out of? IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE.

I know I'm a bit slow on the uptake and that this kerfuffle's been going on for a couple days now, and Ink and I had The Ten Stages of Anime Addiction all ready to post, but...

I'm just a wee bit upset, if you can't tell.

You know what? I'm a YA. I am the audience that "those books" are aimed at. And yet I do not consider myself to be any less of a critical reader in search of a great story than the glaring majority of adult readers. In fact, ask Ink or the crit group - I'm a nitpicker to the umpteenth degree.

And yes, I want to write YA, but that's not even why I'm upset here. My favorite books - all of them - are YA. Some of the books on my shelf are mediocre, but a huge number are amazing, the kind of books I read ten or twelve times for sheer awe of the story and love of the characters.

I'm a pretty easygoing person about insults. Country? Fine. Region? Fine, y'all. Religion? Used to it by now.

But don't you dare mess with the books I love.

I'd like to see you write one.

Popping From the Ground, or, Friends In Low Places

2008-01-27T17:43:00.000-05:00

Hey, guys, Ink here. First of all: I got finished with the 2^nd draft, and it's mostly because of Dwight's amazing pep talk. Thank you so much--words can't even express my gratitude, and if you know me, I'm rarely at a loss for words.

-----------

As most writers know, some characters have a disconcerting habit of materializing out of nowhere and hopelessly confusing our beta readers. You know the one I mean. The ones that show up halfway through the story and throw the climax out of whack in ways you never imagined possible. Those little mavericks who never quite follow the plan. And probably the most interesting and fun characters in your book.

I don't have any brilliant tips for taming them. I pretty much let them do what they want and sort the rest out later. They usually seem to know what they're doing, even when I don't. So I trust them. They make things interesting. Especially during the rewrite stage.

Anyway, I have more fun with these guys than with all the other characters in the book. So how do you have one of these oddballs as your main character? I know it can be done. The Bartimaeus Trilogy is living proof. It's time to bring the smart-mouth sidekick type into the spotlight. Any suggestions as to how?

(Of course, there ARE the characters who pop out of the ground not because they weren't planned as part of the plot, but because you skipped their introductory scene. I know that all too well... O, November, month of highest triumphs... and forgetting to write the scene where the MC meets the love interest.)

Blogs: Are We Having Fun Yet?

2008-01-26T19:14:00.000-05:00

Miri is procrastinating. So what else is new, right? But for once, Miri is not procrastinating on writing her NaNo (which is careening toward its conclusion with the speed of a striking snail!).

No, Miri is procrastinating on the actually rather obscene amounts of homework she has due Monday and Wednesday.

Therefore: Agent blogs Miri and/or Ink find helpful and/or entertaining. Because we care.

Seriously, Miri didn't read nearly enough blogs at first, and Ink still doesn't read all that many. But there's a lot of good information out there, and we'd hate for anyone to miss out.

Pub Rants - Run by Kristin Nelson, a very nice agent from Somewhere-That-Isn't-New York (ahem, I mean Denver). Filled with very solid advice on all stages of the publishing process and usually funny to boot. You really can't go wrong with this one.

Nathan Bransford - Another one from S-T-I-NY, this time to the tune of San Francisco, CA. "This Week in Publishing" segments, fun and torturous (for us and him, respectively) contests (in fact, the next one is coming up soon!), and an astonishing number of insights on space monkeys.

The Rejecter - She doesn't hate you, she just hates your query letter. An assistant at a literary agency, Rejecter is full of insight, tips, and examples of career suicide to be avoided at all costs. Oh, and she's got a nice post up about certain e-readers.

Agent in the Middle - Reading this blog in its online form makes Miri's eyes bleed (sorry, Agent in the Middle, but pink text on a black background just isn't all that easy to take) but the content itself merits the extra five seconds to copy-paste it into the word processor of your choice.

Lit Agent X - She hasn't updated in awhile, but we certainly can't fault her for that. -innocent whistling- In any case, her archives are worth a look - she's hosted several query pitch contests on the blog and gives examples of problems with queries she's received through normal means. Informative, funny, occasionally headdesk-inducing. Miri, at least, hope she comes back soon.

And a bonus: this has nothing to do with agents, but Miri thinks that writers are the only people who can truly understand the lethality of a term paper written with no punctuation or spaces.

The Other Kind of Home Stretch

2008-01-14T16:33:00.000-05:00

This is Miri, and may I be the first to commend Ink for being SO. DANG. CLOSE. to finishing her rewrite!

*round of applause*

Great job. Now finish.

(Like I can even talk. Ink, readers, please smack me over the head via comments.)

As a status report from my end, I am inching nearer and nearer to the end of the rough draft of my NaNoWriMo novel from this year. I'm probably 7-10k out. That's not that much. I put that much away in six days during NaNo. Thus illustrating another way the real world should be like NaNo, but for still-developing-discipline cases like myself, it's hard to make it happen.

Once again, commentary headsmacks are greatly appreciated.

The Home Stretch

2008-01-12T13:05:00.000-05:00

Hey, y'all, it's Ink, and she's not happy.

I'm roughly two chapters from being done editing my first novel. This edit was highly productive: I got rid of (most of) the crap and filler, added more fun stuff, cleaned up the prose, and had a blast doing it. But now that I'm 30 pages away from the end, I can't seem to let go.

Yeah, I've been crazy-busy. I've been writing other stuff. I've had the end-of-quarter bedlam. But should that be an excuse?

Really, I'm a bit lost. So what do you guys do when you lose some of your writing discipline?

Editing: Are We Having Fun Yet?

2007-12-27T23:34:00.000-05:00

Ink is currently editing her first novel, and she is, indeed, having fun. However, not everyone seems to be enjoying the process of ripping apart their literary babies so thoroughly as her, so here are a collection of links to ease the process:

Holly Lisle's One-Pass Revision: the Holy Grail of editing writers-first draft to last in one revision? Is that possible? Maybe for Holly Lisle. Ink didn't do so well, but Ink also wasn't anywhere near as ruthless as she should have been on the first pass, necessitating a second, more productive one. It's definitely worth a look, and an excellent method.

Paperback Writer's notes on editing: It looks good to Ink, although this article more of a description of how she does it versus how to do it yourself. PBW has a step-by-step here, which Ink found helpful and entertaining.

Sara McGrath's Editing and Polishing Suite: a nice article on how to edit a novel. Ink is also intrigued by the other articles in the suites, with titles like "Advance Techniques," "Theme," and "Marketing and Selling." A nice jumping-off point, and also worth a look if you want to write and sell a book with friendly guidelines from start to finish.

Self-Editing by Lori Handeland: This is a great prose checklist-follow it and Ink thinks your writing will not suck. However, if you're a NaNo novelist like her, you'll want to make sure your plot is coherent before you get down to the paragraph level.

NaNoWriMo.org's 'I Wrote A Novel, Now What?' Page: a good resource for those of us who stomach the notion of looking back over the fruits of our caffeine-induced labors. It will also help you if you're not so certain about your plot, as will One-Pass Revision.

Here's Ink's suggestion for NaNo'ers, ripped off Chris Baty's advice in No Plot? No Problem!: write out the events in the story scene-by-scene. Do this with the novel in front of you. See if they lead to the next one, well, like dominoes in a row, each event leading inexorably to the next. If not, delete the bad ones and put in new ones. Switch 'em around and see if that does anything for you. Once you've got that down, then, and only then, do you begin to work on your prose.

Good luck, guys! Anchors away!

Sisters Twice Removed

2007-12-18T21:26:00.000-05:00

Hey, guys, I'm happy to inform you that Miri of http://miri-grace.blogspot.com/ is now a partner in crime (the boring Blogspot drones say "admin") of Ink and Words!

We plan to update weekly, alternating between whining about wordcounts and editing and doing silly things like helping others with Japanese lessons and harcore grammar beatings. Pfft. Charity is silly. Anyway, check in often, because those week-long (okay, month-long) gaps in updates are about to become a thing of the past.

You may know her well from her own blog (in fact, you probably know me from her blog), but I'll shut up so she can introduce herself now.

~*~

Well, hello again! As most of you probably know, I'm Miri, young aspiring writer, partner-in-crime of Ink, also a young aspiring writer. (The blogosphere's just littered with our type, isn't it?)

As Ink mentioned, we're going to attempt something new and groundbreaking: content! Well, our kind of content. Look to Ink for the aforementioned hardcore grammar beatings; I'll be making posts about Japanese, interesting historical snippets, and suchlike. So, I guess not much has changed. Except that we'll be updating more often. And eventually have all kinds of fun and useful resources for your perusal.

The nice little two-squigglies-surrounding-a-star symbol henceforward will mean that there has been a change of author within a post. We'll try to keep it to a minimum, because interrupting is rude. Usually. :)

I'm very grateful to Ink for the opportunity to join forces. Let the fun begin!

Hey, if she's Ink, that makes me Words...

The Big Braggy Post

2007-12-01T14:26:00.000-05:00

You knew this was coming, didn't you?

I'm an official NaNoWriMo 2007 winner! Sure, I still have to finish the book, but it went a whole lot better than last year, so I'm just happy all over. Pfft, and they say sophomore year is hardest. (Watch, next year I'll get hammered. Karma does not rest.)

My novel's called 'Disenchantment' and, in summary, America has launched a War on Magic and sends vampires, werewolves, and all degree of magical creatures into rehab. My protagonist, Jordan Allaway, is a 17-year-old human girl trying to have a normal senior year. Unfortunately for her, 'normal' is the last thing on her roommates' minds.

Sounds like a decent pitch, just have to send out the queries for my first NaNoWriMo novel and edit this one before I get to use it again.

On this business side of things, find out with how much your blog is worth here: http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/

I'd tell you how much mine is, but the Intrawebz aren't cooperating, and it's pitiful anyway.

(And, yes, perceptive readers, I snagged this from Holly Lisle. If she comes by and asks me to take it down, well, hey, that alone would probably double my blog worth anyway.)

NaNoWriMo '07

2007-11-29T19:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I was planning to write a big braggy post about my finished novel, complete with link to my winner's page. I've written 50,000 words. But, because I stupidly went on vacation to Jamaica in the middle of the month, I have to email the file to myself from my sister's computer, receive it, muck through my inbox o' spam to find it (while avoiding tempting offers of updated fanfics and learning conversational Spanish with just 138 words), jack up the wordcount a little to compensate for the word-eating NaNoWriMo validator, and link it to here.

And it was getting really annoying. I was feeling more and more frustrated until I called my cousin Elijah, who I don't get to see nearly enough and whom I miss dearly. We talked for maybe ten minutes, but it reminded me of what was really important in life.

Hint: it's not updating your blog.

Hint: it's not wrestling with Comcast to brag on your blog, either.

:)

The braggy post will come, my friends, but not tonight. I'll be updating more frequently now that I have a little more time on my hands and actual writing stuff (like editing and querying) to talk about.

...and if I want to make it as a writer, I should stop ending sentences with prepostions.

Freudian Slips

2007-08-28T22:45:00.000-04:00

Hey, I'm back! (Briefly. With 1 observation)

One of the fun things about Dvorak is that you can make typos that look real, but aren't. In this last sentence, I got rean, thot, and oen. And my conlanging senses, long dormant, are tingling. (Tinglingt, even.)

So, while I was writing something about a rather raw but highly amusing guy, I wanted to type (tyle) the word "all." In interests of taste (tatse), I wound (worg) up with another (antor, anthore) 3-letter word that began with A.

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS STRIKES AGAIN.

14 Days- The End

2007-08-27T18:07:00.000-04:00

Goals:

Clean living space.
Write subplot to novel.
Finish Dragon*Con costume.
Read mother's novel.
Master the Office Theme, Into the West and Sonatina on piano.
Holly Lisle fast plotting for 07 NaNoWriMo.
Switch to Dvorak keyboard layout.

I didn't finish my mom's NaNo, or my costume or learn the piano pieces. But guess what? I have a clean house, a completed 2nd draft, a plot for my next novel, a Dvorak keyboard, a costume missing only trim, half a book read and 1 1/2 songs learned. I'd call that a success.

I'm going to take a short blogging break after this (and by short, I mean 3 weeks or so) and come back new & improved. Maybe even with weekly segments.

Eee!

14 Days- Day 10

2007-08-22T21:09:00.000-04:00

Ugh, only 4 days left. My tasks are reassessed:

Finish subplot and work into novel.
Add white trim to costume.
Master pieces.
Read mother's book.

I've written 6k of subplot (yay!) in total. I'll write a little tonight and knock the rest out of the park tomorrow. And then my 2nd draft will be done... whoa.

14 Days- Day 9

2007-08-21T22:52:00.000-04:00

My constant whining was even boring me, so I'm posting now that I have something good to report- 4k of subplot. I'm also typing quite well with Dvorak now, excepting a few letters (like K, L, Y, P and F. And S and O, and Z, Q and W if you want to get picky. But other than that, major progress.)

I'm going to try Chris Baty's 6k day tomorrow. If I could finish this, the biggest challenge, I'd fly through the rest and be able to relax a little even. (But now I've jinxed it and I'll never know. Teehee.)

My aunt got my costume back to me, saint that she is. I'll do the edging just as soon as I get the fabric.

Knowing me, that'll be three days before the con.

Ah, well. Life is good.

14 Days- Day 6

2007-08-18T23:45:00.000-04:00

Computer troubles have overtaken me, so days 3-6 are all going up today. Come to think of it, I've misplaced 4. Weird.

Guess what I did today! NOTHING. That's right, absolutely beans. Well, I could give you the old "houseguest and 2-hour long friend's ordination" but it doesn't change my productivity.

On the other hand, in 6 days, I've

Tidied and kept tidy my living space.
Passed outfit off on kind aunt.
Went above and beyond with Holly Lisle notecarding.
Switched to Dvorak to the point that QWERTY deeply confuses me.

Trouble is, those were the easy ones. I still have 2 piano pieces to perfect, a subplot to write, a NaNo to read, and High School Musical 2 to avoid like freaking plague. Stupid Zac Effron obsessed cousins! WHY on earth are we meeting them the week the Whitest Show On Earth comes out?

14 Days- Day 5

2007-08-18T23:39:00.000-04:00

Pretty much a toss-up. I read the 1st six pages of Mom's novel and wrote about a thousand words of my subplot (and considering that I expect my subplot to be 10k, that's noteable.) Luckily, I got an awesome idea for another scene involving Deception and a female assassian (I can hear the spittake from here, Miri!) that I'll write tomorrow.

14 Days- Day 3

2007-08-18T23:38:00.000-04:00

I didn't accomplish too much. *sigh* I now have 20 notecards out of the 25-30, but that wasn't all today. My Dvorak (or my patience) is improving. I also bought ballroom dance shoes! And I did a cool freewrite thing for my upcoming NaNo. All is well.

14 Days- Day 2

2007-08-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

Dvorak-ing here, so this will be brief.

Finished a poem (10 whole stanzas!), sorted photos with grandmom, pulled hamstring line-dancing (laugh, it's funny), limped around a bit, made a nice breakthrough notecarding plot... and typing this has only taken 7 minutes. Progress. :D

14 Days- Day 1

2007-08-13T22:10:00.000-04:00

Okay, explanation is due. I have two weeks of vacation starting today and 7 things to accomplish within them. The idea is to do one every two days, but seeing their varying degrees of bigness, some make take more time and some, less.

Clean living space.
Write subplot to novel.
Finish Dragon*Con cosplay costume. *DORK ALERT*
Read mother's novel.
Master the Office Theme, Into the West and Sonatina on piano.
Holly Lisle fast plotting for 07 NaNoWriMo.
Switch to Dvorak keyboard layout.

Two of them are completed- my house is now tidy (and already slipping) and my aunt VERY generously offered to finish my outfit. I can't read my mom's novel until she finishes editing it, and I needed notecards to do #6. Wanting to delay any piano-playing for as long as possible and trying to break my QWERTY bonds, I went after the layout switch today, before I work on my subplot.

I didn't get a chance to work on it until, say, 5 PM. I slept in until 2 (an all-time low. I'm on vacation, people!) and, called Miri and watched some TV. (What was I thinking? Gah.) At any rate, I've been using KP Typing Tutor and learning all kinds of new letter placements since then. I only have a few letters left to learn, too, and I typed a short paragraph with little/no pain. Not bad, I suppose... but it needs to be better.

"But, Ink, you have two days, and keyboard changes take weeks to get used to!" you say. As for the former, no, I don't- tomorrow I'm helping my grandmother. (Just what I want to do on vacation. No, really. She's cool.) And the latter... well, I feel special like that. It's coming along well, I might get off easy.

So, I'll learn a few more letters and switch the keys to finalize the transaction when I'm done writing this. No looking back- just dread for the future. Yay!

Straight Outta Arrakis

2007-08-13T01:32:00.000-04:00

This isn't an offical part of 14 Days of Freedom (which I feel prentenious about captilizing, by the way). Although I am talking about one of my goals, it's not the end-of-the-day report.

Hmm. So, when I volunteered to Photoshop a missing black belt in our group picture at camp, I figured it'd be a piece of cake for someone whose been messing around with the program for a year. A little Magnetic Lasso here, a little Copy&Pasting there, and I'd be set. Not so, my friends. This was a challenge to test the very limits of my patience, ingenuity, and mastery of Ctrl + anything.

My first problem was that of getting the bugger out of his indivual photo in the first place. The picture they took of him was in a gymnasium, lit from the top, with those shinily-painted gym cinderblocks in the background. It was a NIGHTMARE. The light was glinting every which way, screwing up my cheat-y Magnetic Lasso tool and forcing me to put back areas I'd already deleted, just to make sure I hadn't taken a big chunk of his leg with me.

Then, I had to find a spot for him. When we took the picture, we had to fit 45+ people in the view of a home digital camera. Before it started to rain. We were packed together so close, sardines felt roomy. I tried tacking him on the end of the line, but the fact that he had no feet kinda screwed that one over. So I plopped him in the only place I could fit his whole face and an acceptable amount of shoulder, and nearly called it a day.

Then I looked at him. He looked like a Jedi ghost. He was bright and blue while everyone around him was this dingy yellow-pink. Now, this errant black belt is, in fact, a pastor, but his is not Jesus. And I didn't think he ought to glow like him.

I won't even get IN to the details on the long, tedious, long, painful, long, eyedrying, long, tear-inducing, and long process that was correcting the color. I used every Photoshop trick I knew, and it didn't come close to looking right. So, I thought, maybe the shadows are the root of all evil. His light came from the dank and dead-fly-spotted fluresant brillance of the gym, whereas his fellows bathed in the spotty glamour of a rainclouded sky. I tried to paint in some shadows. It didn't just fail- it phailed. Hard.

I gotta get this right, I thought. If not for the sake of my teacher, at least the sake of my pride. And with that, I noticed he didn't have any shadows around his eyes from the above lighting. Volia, problem solve.

Or not- my attempts to darken his eyes resulted in a disappointing descent from looking like Jesus to looking like Satan. The hour was midnight, and it was time for a miracle.

I had been guiding off this man's neighbor the entire time, for color, shoulder angle, height. Mayhap, I thought, I could borrow his eyes.

So borrow his eyes I did. With Copy&Paste, soft-edged erasers, the Rotate tool, and more Dune-inspired trepidation since I gave a stock-photo baby the eyes of the Ibad, I duplicated one guy's eyes and smacked them on another. Will I have creepy blind nightmares forever now? Yes. Did it look as cool as beans when it was done? Yes.

Bottom line: I'm in ur photographs, stealing ur eyez. Watch out, world.

No Pressure, Though.

2007-08-12T20:58:00.000-04:00

We're only two months away now, and I'd like to do it a little differently than I did last year- starting on November 8th with only the faintest glimmerings of an opening scene. I have two plotbunnies begging to be written (or three, if you count the one with a premise and no characters.) I honestly can't decide which one to use, so, dear readers, I'm asking for your input.
Option #1: An idea of a setting, conflict and problem, but with few characters. I'm more enthusiastic about this one right now, but I don't know if it could reach 50k. (Not to mention, it's basically Twilight by Stephenie Meyer in a different country.)

Option #2: A setting, a bunch of characters, a conflict and a couple of scenes, but no clue in the plot department. I used to be wild about this one, but I stopped fleshing it out for a week or two and lost my entire train of thought on it. I do have a bizarre confidence that it'll be novel-length, however.

(Lame bonus option #3: A premise, but no characters and a lot of research required. Fun.)

I've heard some rave reviews about Holly Lisle's fast plotting, so I'll try that for plotless Option #2 and hope to regain some of it's momentum then. Other than that, the choice is yours.

Coming up: 14 Days of Freedom series coming tomorrow, which I plan to update every day. CAN YOU TAKE 2 STRAIGHT WEEKS OF BLOGGING?

Nope, me neither.

10 Phrases Overheard At Black Belt Camp

2007-07-29T23:30:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I'm a brown belt, but we were allowed to tag along. (I think they wanted someone to beat the snot out of.) It went like this- wake up at 5:30, do a workout consisting of basics, forms, two-on-one sparring (no contact, but I still got kicked in the face twice) , and tree kicking, shower, change clothes, eat, and sleep until next workout. Rinse & repeat. 3 days of this, interspersed with a karaoke party that lasted until midnight. Flat-out awesome.

"Those girls are always last because they have to put on their tae kwon do mascara."

"See, I don't bruise easily-"
"Oh, a challenge."

"Don't make fun of our bathroom!"

"We can Photoshop Ted in. He's only the grandmaster of the whole camp."

*screech* "Well, the brakes work."

"How many black belts does it take to set up a karaoke machine?"

"What's up?""My blood pressure, my heart rate, my bruise-to-skin quotient... everything but oxygen levels."

"There's a bug in my bra!"

"New friggen' York, New friggen' York!"

"My neck hurts, my arms ache, my shins are covered in bruises..."
"Welcome to black belt camp."

So, what did you do this weekend?

When Scripture Strikes

2007-07-23T18:40:00.000-04:00

When I was a wee little lass in Ireland (or Maryland... sigh) my mom used to play vacation Bible School songs in the car, seeing as she usually organized them. The catchiest of which was the "Ask and You Shall Receive" one, which had the tinkley melody of the J-pop opening of a Cartoon Network anime. It's followed closely by the Great Commission song ("Matthew 28: 19 and 20, that's the Great Commission! Matthew 28: 19 and 20 says to go soul fishin'!")

I mention this because I've been asking for a subplot to my novel for awhile now- a couple of days, but it felt like a lot more. I've been asking pretty fervently. Not from God, necessarily (whom, I understand, has bigger fish to fry). No, I've been appealing to the novel itself. "I gave you life, novel! I poured sweat and blood* into you! You owe me one measly subplot!"

Well, I'm being a bit unfair to my novel here. On coughing up ideas owed, it's got a credit rate of 800. But, being the paranoid writer I am, I've been harassing it with all the tender sensitivity of a loan shark. And it's paid up. With interest. I get to flesh out my worldbuilding, make my climax realistic, give weight and a POV to my most neglected (and doomed) main character... I even get to do that cool thing where you switch between storylines between chapters! It's great!
So persevere, guys. This feels so good- writer's high, and I wouldn't want you to miss it.

Anyway, my faith reaffirmed, I'm off to write about wars, murderers and magic.

Laura Mallory will be proud.

*Literally, in some cases. I tend to have painful accidents while thinking about my novel and multitasking (ie: cooking, shaving, walking near sharp-cornered furniture.)

Harry Potter Mania

2007-07-19T14:51:00.000-04:00

50 Ways to Annoy Dolores Umbridge

Guaranteed to get you detention with the Quill of Evil

1. Don't follow her regulations.
2. ... and when she punishes you, tell her that discrimination against people under Imperious is against aforementioned regulation.
3. Graffiti "Dumbledore rules, Fudge drools" in every bathroom stall in the school.
4. ... including the one in her own personal bathroom.
5. Write her soppy love letters and insist they're from Fudge.
6. Later, write her creepy letters and insist they're from a stalker/Death Eater.
7. Say how nice it is that she made the Inquisitorial Squad for "the socially and academically challenged."
8. Tell her that you think meeting new people would do wonders for her personal life.
9. Whenever she says Voldemort is dead, cluck your tongue, wobble your head, snap and say "uh uh uh, girlfriend! Whateva!"
10. Tell her what a lovely, balanced, stable child Harry Potter is and giggle fangirlishly.
11. Start a Harry Potter fanclub. Insist that she, Malfoy, Ginny, Colin and Dennis attend.
12. Act mortally offended when they don't come and cry during her class.
13. Burst out laughing in her class. When she demands to know why, say in a falsely ecstatic voice, "I'm just so happy to be here!"
14. Ask her to join S.P.E.W.
15. ...give her a S.P.E.W. button and announce her as "just another proud spewer!" at dinner in the Great Hall.
16. Give all the teachers hugs.
17. ... in front of her.
18. ... except for her.
19. Answer all her questions, written or verbal, in a foreign language. Claim you are an exchange student, and tell her "I do not speak the Engleesh very excellent, please."
20. When you get detention for not speaking English, talk about her under your breath in a foreign language the whole time, and say, "My visit to the Britteen is not so nice."
21. Do this in the second semester, after you have been speaking English fluently for whole first term.
22. Read her the Miranda Rights.
23. Dress up as a centaur.
24. Impersonate Slim Shady.
25. Threaten to call your lawyer.
26. Tell her 'yo momma' jokes constantly.
27. Doodle all over the Educational Degrees.
28. Whenever you address her, say "Yessir, um, ma'am... uh, Pooba!" and bow repeatedly.
29. Offer to tell her bedtime stories.
30. When she refuses, tell her, "That's okay. I'll just write it down at the end of my next homework."
31. Make sure the story is about an ugly toad who tries to defeat a handsome king and a gifted apprentice. The toad should die at the end.
32. When she asks you, "What exactly are those metaphors supposed to mean?" respond, "Wasn't that what the chapter we read was about?"
33. Tell her that you don't understand and would like redimal Defense Against the Dark Arts because you "really care about your grade and want to bring it up."
34. Smirk because she can't refuse such a sincere plea.
35. Use this time to further your torture of her. For instance, grin cheesily when you arrive and say, "Now we get to spend even more time together!"
36. Send her email address to every spammer known to man.
37. Offer to help her get rid of the spam, and use the time on her computer to send her address to every spammer known to monkeys.
38. If you are about to graduate, ask if you can get a job at Hogwarts because you'll miss her too much to leave.
39. If you are a first year, tell her how glad you are that you get to be around her for six more whole years!!!!
40. Confuse her with your alternation between evident hatred and cheesy, idiotic love for her.
41. The first time you meet her, look petrified, stand up and scream, "YOU'RE ONE OF THEM!" Look around frantically towards the exits and dive out the most unlikely one, like the trash can or window.
42. Tell her you have paranoia problems and have been too afraid of adults to tell them about it. Ask if she could recommend a good psychiatrist.
43. When she informs you haughtily that she wouldn't know, nod pityingly and say "There's no shame in therapy."
44. Invite a ton of Death Eaters, including Voldemort, to Hogwarts. Say there's a block party in her office.
45. Write a 1000 page thesis of "Dumbledore's Top 317.4 Greatest Qualities." End it with, "I wish I could go on, but with such a great human being, this could never end."
46. Distribute copies of it all over the school. Use her paper, and ask if you can turn it in for extra credit.
47. Cough on her a lot. Insist that "weak health runs in the Riddle family."
48. Tell her that you "haven't been the same since I had that gosh-darned Ring of Power."
49. Ask her which Ring messed her up. When she won't tell you, drop to all fours and begin to talk to yourself. Use the term "my Precious." Straighten, and say, "Sorry, I reverted there. Won't happen again, Precious."
50. Talk at length about what nice, well-raised boys those Fred and George Weasley are.

Moby-Dick

2007-07-17T23:49:00.000-04:00

As I write this, I'm involved in a friggin' battle.

There is a fly buzzing around my desk, landing on my possessions, any exposed skin, and generally irritating me beyond all compare.

Now, if I wasn't supposed to be doing something else, this might be fine. But I'm supposed to be typing up a bit of dialouge to pump my ailing word count.

Forget that. It's me vs. fly.

Oh, I don't want to kill it. I'm not a fan of killing animals. I just want it the heck out of my room. So I'm trying to trap it. At first, I had a little candy jar made of glass, with one of those hinged lids. That didn't work out so well. The top kept flopping down before I could pin the fly against an available surface. My current harpoon is a plastic cup. Lidless, but wide.

I've come close, but this thing's impossible to catch. It's a friggin' white whale. But I'll get it in the end. I have the power of procrastination on my side. No task is too trival to devote ungodly amount of time to.

Here's the moral of this story: Don't waste time and try to keep your work space tolerable.

See ya, guys, I'm going to get some Sevin to hose down my keyboard. That should work.

Aw, crap...

2007-07-17T20:43:00.000-04:00

I just completed editing my 2006 NaNo.

I'm quite happy with the final product, except for one thing. The novel is now at 46,500 words. This does not fly.

So... how do YOU add 3,500 sellable words to a novel?

Seems almost lyrical at 11:30...

2007-07-05T23:20:00.000-04:00

Cruelly ripped off of Paperback Writer's writing links comes the the Bonsai Story Generator. I put in snippets from my novel, my novellette, and a report on suicide bombers in WWII, and it came out as a strange, sad sort of poem. (the scene from the novel was discussing swordplay, the novellette, very bad first dates, and the report, fatality statistics. Bit depressing, really.) Try it out, it's neat.

“I think I have been worst first date?” He then asked trying not really romantic, but I took me a pocket Jarrin had not to laugh.
“Obviously, yes,” he seemed to change his students to boning fish.
He turned and looked me square in 1940’s Japan now.
Several factors began the comment and was strangely shaped and told me when I was so immediately.
He had a walk?
There’s a legendary typhoon that destroyed an eyebrow.
“The transcendent worst first date?” He nodded.
“Isn’t it is force to as such in Japanese.
The word ‘kamikaze’ originally referred to as such in a full-out melee with a snort.
He ignored the army or ‘divine wind’ in Japanese.
The word ‘kamikaze’ originally referred to a snort.
He doubted that time period.
The first kamikaze literally means ‘god wind’ or air attacks.
Shinpu tokubetsu kōgeki tai.
They focused on this mission later.
He then asked twenty-three of a ship, however- he asked.
“Maybe, if it is still called ‘kamikaze.’ Suicide pilots I am not going because I knew what the stone really romantic, but she should have a more “Probably not to laugh.
“Obviously, yes,” he said.
“Will you never, ever be referred to a kamikaze, but they would rarely, if it was anger- I was using an incorrect dialect.
This term gained universal acceptance in the eyes.
“Arenya, if you never, ever mention that was about it some prior experience dealing with me when I close my now-fragile feet.
Furious, I think the beginning of them raised their hands to use a walk?
There’s a knife.
No lies- one day they would rarely, if ever, be referred to learn how to use of kamikaze attacks.
First, the only ones who really practice with me when I left the Emperor… I raised an American translator and then translated using and grabbed a sweater and checked my now-fragile feet.
Furious, I asked, trying not to laugh.
“Obviously, yes,” he said.
“I don’t care,” she might have surpassed them.
Japan’s overextended war budget couldn’t fund designing another plane.
Many of a ship, however- he seemed to hand combat to use it.
And that was intended for the first date?” He ignored the other, he had to tokkaotai.
Stormer, Japan Visitor.
So, how to use of kamikaze literally means ‘god wind’ or the other, he said.
“I don’t care,” she might have one, so sophisticated.
A ring.
I ever received on this mission for the I shrugged.
“I’d like to think I have some prior experience but she replied.
“It’s a short sword.
I raised an attack called Operation Kikusui floating chrysanthemums.
They embargoed items like a six year old.
“Even now, many students are gone.” -Saubro Sakai, Imperial Japanese The word ‘kamikaze’ literally means ‘god wind’ or the Emperor… I headed back to the army lacked.
He ignored the HMAS Australia, killing at least thirty crewmen.
On April 6th, 1945, hundreds of the head, the knife.
“No, nothing quite so careful to use a patriotic Japanese homeland.
Commander Asaiki Tami asked Lieutenant Yukio Suki to lead the Japanese armed forces.
He doubted that he said.
“I don’t care,” she said with a snort.
He gave me “I think I have bombed the torso.” “If you’re the training I think the tokubetsu kōgeki tai.
They focused on October 21st, 1944.
The word ‘kamikaze’ literally means ‘god wind’ or the navy.
Since he asked, suspecting she should have been worst first date?” He gave me when I thought about all the sword.
Can’t you like to use a kodachi?” he considered the sides of how it was intended for the first kamikaze mission.
All of them You’d likely call a kodachi?” he considered the sword like a six kamikazes hit seven carriers, sunk five ships, badly damaged twenty-one more.
On October 25th 1944, fours days later, six kamikazes hit them wherever you marry me?” “I think the Alquimista Guardia wants to Japan after World War II a sheathed knife from a kamikaze, but possible.” “All right, what if we met, for example.” He turned and then there are several different strikes to learn sword Can’t you hit them raised their industrial progress.
They embargoed items like aircraft fuel, scrap metal and caught the Alquimista Guardia wants to kill it’s best pilots.
I took one only to be the top of weaponry,” she might have been worst first dates,” I close my doorway.
“So,” he asked, suspecting she might have to learn sword forms instead of them raised an eyebrow.
“The transcendent worst first dates,” I only have to learn sword forms instead of a patriotic Japanese lost Saipan on the subject of his students come up when I headed back to Japan before the sides of how it is force to keep gravel away from a pocket Jarrin “And you’ve been carrying this whole time?” He nodded once more.
“Nice one,” she said with conviction.
“Would you want?” Kalika interrupted, sounding very much like a six kamikazes hit seven carriers, sunk five ships, badly damaged twenty-one more.
On October 25th 1944, fours days later, six kamikazes hit them wherever you never, ever mention that However, he asked.
“Maybe, if we discuss the United States slowed trade with a simple dagger.
He nodded.
“Isn’t it And that time period.
The word ‘kamikaze’ originally referred to as if it mattered.
“Oh, good, then.
All of them Japan’s overextended war started, slowing their hands to learn sword forms instead of them raised an eyebrow.
“The transcendent worst first dates,” I ever received on July 15th, 1944.
The word shinpu was so careful to use it.
And that was strangely shaped and steel.
Encyclopedia Americana 836.
In English, this whole time?” He nodded once more.
“Nice one,” she said with a snort.
He nodded once more.
“Nice one,” she said with the navy: it though.” She drew a full moon.” I was ordered to.” Wikipedia.
The Americans gained universal acceptance in World War II a second, then translated using an incorrect dialect.
This could refer to Japan after words in the eyes.
“Arenya, if it was about all around use- from my now-fragile feet.
Furious, I knew what it was,” she might have been worst first dates,” I close my students come up when I grabbed the other, he asked, suspecting she said, incomprehensive of my students to volunteer for the Empire or air attacks.
Shinpu tokubetsu kōgki tai, or ‘divine wind in Japanese.
The initial attack took place on the I have some prior experience but she said with Japan before saying, “Please let me a heart-melting look.
I thought about all the navy: it was,” she said, incomprehensive of Okinawa in astonishment to Wikipedia.
The word shinpu was so careful to boning fish.
He wrote, “Japan’s future is force to do so you’ll have some prior experience but she replied.
“It’s a tanto?” he seemed to be the tokubetsu kōgeki tai.
They focused on this mission for the sides of his students are gone.” -Saubro Sakai, Imperial Japanese The word ‘kamikaze’ originally referred ...

Most of it, I suppose, is pretty self-evident, but, just to clear up one source of weird combonations, the word "kamikaze" orignally meant "god wind" and referred to a legendary typhoon that drove away an invading fleet in the 1300's. And, um, the think about now-fragile feet- the MC got her feet burned.

Oh, the sane, normal things I write.

Way of the Cheetah- Review

2007-06-24T16:30:00.000-04:00

Heh. Well, I'm not quite sure how to start this puppy off, so, to put it succinctly, Way of the Cheetah by Lynn Viehl is 72 pages of solid advice on how to manage the trade-off of making writing work for you and making you work hard writing.

Pros: She has something on just about every controllable thing that could stop you from writing: how to remain focused, how not to let other people discourage you, how not to discourage yourself, how to set up good writing spaces, how to keep your computer clean, even how to stay healthy. Then she's got a nice bit devoted to the actual writing writing, and editing. She includes examples from her own life and at least five tips at the end of each chapter on how to apply each concept. To top it off, she doesn't demand that you follow every single one of her methods with the devotion of a secondary religion- she even has suggestions on how to gently implement individual techniques into your life.

Cons: It's 72 double-spaced pages. While the wisdom imparted is valuable, it's not a long book. And a lot of that is cheetah metaphors, which, I suppose, are only to be expected.

Buy it if: you need a good guide on how to write, if you don't have a set writing work ethic, or want a better writing work ethic. This is a fabulous manual for you don't have a productive writing schedule. I did before I read this, and now it's better, but it's really geared towards inventing (or reinventing) a writing workday.

I highly recommend this to beginning or frustrated writers, and if you don't fall in this category- it's ten bucks, and I'm positive you'll find some worthwhile advice in there. Probably a lot of worthwhile advice.

Final word: It's not indispensible, but it's darn helpful. It's ten bucks. Splurge.

Second opinion: Another review and here.

Go for it, guys.

Cheatah?

2007-06-16T21:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't edited for two days and I'm in need of some serious motivation. Since I've had trouble with procrastination before, I decided to get the Way of the Cheetah by Lynn Viehl and see if reading (and applying) that doesn't help.

(I'll admit, though, the first time I saw that title, I thought it was a bad pun of "cheater"- like, this makes writing so easy it's cheating. Man, am I glad that's not it...)

So, one of the inital reccomendations is to implement changes one at a time and keep a record of which ones work and which don't. She even reccomends you write them down in your "weblog."

Weblog. *snickers*

*tries not to think of the ways her "weblog" owns mine*

Aww...

2007-06-14T20:36:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know how to do the regular [ u r l = http . website . com ] here [ / u r l ], but it doesn't seem to work in either the 'compose' tab or the 'edit html' tab. What gives?

Anyway, I ask because Miri, (http://miri-grace.blogspot.com/2007/06/introducing.html) was kind to the point of untruthfulness, and I'm really touched. Thanks.

(and, hopefully, maybe next time I'll manage to write an entry that doesn't have to do with Miri/a contest Miri introduced me to. Independence calls!)

Eight Things Meme

2007-06-14T13:46:00.000-04:00

'Kay, I got tagged by Miri, so here goes.

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

I don't actually know 8 blogggers, so if you read this and haven't done this meme, you're tagged.

1. I procrastinate terribly when it comes to editing. Today alone, I've watched Powerthirst, tried to figure out why people like Maxium Ride, eaten candy, listened to music, petted my dog, made my bed (for the first time in months), wrote this and editted a whole 143 words. It's a big ol' kidnapping scene, but still. 2 hours here.

2. I write on mirrors with dry-erase markers. Right now, I have a list of things to bear in mind while editing.

3. I have a ballroom dancing class later on today. Never been before, but a bunch of my friends do and they really enjoy it, so...

4. I play French horn, which, in all honesty, is one of the harder orchestra instruments.

5. Every wall in my room is painted a different color. It's practically a redneck truck.

6. I never put two spaces after a period. I suppose I'll have to when I get around to submitting, but until then....

7. My handwriting is really messy, but by my approximation, looks kind of cool.

8. I should be working... which shows you how much I care about my readers, right?

100 things about me

2007-06-10T19:05:00.000-04:00

Saw this on Mother Reader's blog (http://motherreader.blogspot.com/) and thought it would be a nice way to anyone reading this to get to know me more than "Dang, that girl reads a LOT."

1. Miri (http://miri-grace.blogspot.com/) got me into this.

2. Miri gets me into lots of things, like word wars on NaNoWriMo and the Spork Room. So far, I've ended up loving everything she's gotten me into.

3. I heart NaNoWriMo.

4. It takes me about an hour to straighten my hair, which I usually do three or four times a week.

5. It's a great time to think over plot points.

6. I like to write- have you gotten that?

7. I'm an anime fan and I proudly admit it. My favorites are FullMetal Alchemist, Bleach and Avatar.

8. Yes, Avatar is a kid's show.

9. I also love the Office.

10. Jam FOREVER. Whoever said you shouldn't get involved in office romances was dead wrong. I'm serious.

11. Embarrassingly enough, my dream guy is pretty much Jim.

12. My father finds this hiliarous.

13. I wear a biteguard at night to keep me from clenching my teeth.

14. I sound like a total idiot with it in.

15. I have never, nor will I, have braces.

15. Sometimes I regret this fact. There's a kind of fraternity of suffering associated with orthidoncia.

16. I pick at hangnails when I'm anxious.

17. I want to live on the beach.

18. Altar calls make me really awkward.

19. I discuss teen fiction with my grandmom.

20. I find character development in Beatles songs.

21. I harbor a deep and abiding hate of all things Macintosh.

22. Even iPods.

23. They're lame.

24. My nickname in 5th grade was 'Panda Girl.'

25. Because I got $25 in some kind of essay contest and gave it to some enviromental agency.

26. I was a weird kid.

27. I think I still am.

28. I've been in theater since I was like, five.

29. I went to see Wicked last summer.

30. Jealous?

31. I really like showtunes. :)

32. I like cats.

33. I like dogs, too.

34. I have some of both. They both get fur all over my clothes.

35. My favorite kind of candy is Reeses Peanutbutter Cups.

36. I'm eating one right now.

37. My dad makes horrible puns.

38. I'm a vegetarian.

39. Nothing to do with religion, or family, or culture or anything. It's just better this way, for me.

40. I really like flipflops.

41. Although I only have one pair.

42. I repair things with duct tape.

43. I've tried to make flipflops out duct tape.

44. It didn't work.

45. I have contacts. (Lenses, I mean.)

46. I only like the first first hour of a shopping trip.

47. My characters develop political views opposite from my own, and it freaks me out.

48. Even the protaganists.

49. I love the Colbert Report.

50. I'm delighted to have made it halfway through the list.

51. I'm running out of things to say.

52. I've read the entire Harry Potter series (to date) at least 4 times each. Usually more.

53. I go to a movie at midnight about 3 times a year.

54. Sleeping is unimportant to me.

55. I don't like taking naps.

56. I wake up feeling sick.

57. I have awesome (and sometimes terrifying) dreams.

58. My tolerance for ignorance is extremely low.

59. That's probably not great when you live in Hicktown, USA.

60. I take Tae Kwon Do.

61. I'm a brown belt. My black belt test is in November.

62. Yes, the same month as NaNoWriMo. I'm already worried.

63. My TKD teacher is aweseome.

64. He usually stands around and talks to people while we do basics (warmups) and tells antecdotes.

65. I have a long career of listening into these antecdotes.

66. And I put one of them into my April Fool's novellette. 'Twas sweet.

67. I can't tell left from right without making an L with my left hand.

68. I helped coach a peewee soccer team one year.

69. One of the parents said I could be a teacher.

70. *cracks up laughing*

71. I only know four phone numbers.

72. One of which I've forgotten.

73. I'm good at Scrabble.

74. But not great.

75. I shower at night. Always.

76. I have short fingers.

77. I will watch films for the English accents.

78. If 'Love, Actually' had been made with American actors, I never would have sat through it.

79. I have a deep enemity with my alarm clock.

80. My alarm clock knows this.

81. And persists in ringing as horribly as possible.

82. I think I learned the word 'plausible' from Mythbusters.

83. I get a cold once every three months.

84. I have a mold of my teeth.

85. I snap them in my sisters' faces just to annoy them.

86. I love my family more than anything else on Earth.

87. Although my friends are pretty far up on that list, too.

88. I cried when I finished Lord of the Rings.

89. I still watch Star Wars.

90. If I had a week left to live, I'd probably finish editing my last novel, then hang out with my peeps.

91. The prospect of death doesn't really freak me out that much.

92. Then again, I have quite awhile to go.

93. I love popcorn.

94. I take spiders outside instead of killing them.

95. I once biked 120 miles in 3 days, carrying all my food and shelter.

96. It was a blast.

97. I'm related to one of my best friends, and I've never technically "met" the other one. Go figure.

98. I listen to This American Life nearly compulsively.

99. I haven't drank Sprite since I saw that Lymon commerical.

100. To me, the finest poetry of our day is Dr. Seuss's "Oh! the Places You'll Go."

Readathon- Final Stats

2007-06-10T18:02:00.000-04:00

Approximate overall time: 16 hours.
Total books: 4.
Total pages: 1457.

This was a blast and all, but I really wish I hadn't gone to Relay for Life, swimming, or had my cousin over. Next year, methinks, I'll plan ahead and bulldozer all distractions. *cue evil laughter*

Readathon- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2007-06-10T17:52:00.000-04:00

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

Honestly, if you don't know what's said about Harry Potter by now, I'm amazed that you're operating a computer. The only people I can think of who wouldn't know/read Harry Potter would be (1 shut-ins without computers, (2 people deathly sick for the last nine years, and (3 citizens of third-world countries. And if you qualify and you're on the Internet now, congradulations are in order. :)

Really, though, reading this made me remember why I was a diehard Potterhead back in the day (not that I'm not anymore, but my fevor for all things Rowling has slacked off to the point where it no longer jepordizes my health.) I liked them so much because they're really good. I've found books that I like more since then, but it doesn't diminsh HP any. I should have remembered that.

And if it says anything, I read this 700+ page book in two days and plan to start Order of the Phoenix tomorrow.

Readathon- The Pigman

2007-06-10T17:48:00.000-04:00

The Pigman by Paul Zindel

Wow. I'd never read the Pigman before, and I really missed out. I'm not going to say too much about it, because I'd like y'all to read it for yourself. It's that good.

(Non-spoilery comments- the characters' voices are so clear it's absolutely mindblowing. The whole story really has you feeling for them to an extraordinary degree. It's the only book I've read recently where I came close to crying at the end. High praise, indeed.)

Readathon- Howl's Moving Castle

2007-06-10T17:37:00.000-04:00

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

This is another one I've read before, and it rivals the movie, if that tells you anything. The plot is far easier to follow on the second read-through, and rather gave me a different perspective on the Witch of the Waste. (I pretty much pictured her as she was in the Miyazaki version before, and I think I like the new way better.)

For those of you who aren't familiar, a hatter's daughter named Sophie is the oldest of three in the land of Ingray, where that particular birth placement is horribly bad luck. She ticks off the Witch of the Waste, who turns her into an old woman. So, freaked out, Sophie leaves the hat shop and gets work in Wizard Howl's castle. Naturally, where Howl is involved, things get a bit crazy, and soon, she's caught up in a battle to save Howl, her family, and the country from the Witch of the Waste. Cool, huh?

Readathon- Avalon High

2007-06-10T17:30:00.000-04:00

Avalon High by Meg Cabot

I've read this book before and enjoyed it, so, naturally, read it again. The premise is great- a junior's Arthurian-legend-professors parents go on sabbatical and move to Maryland for a year, and she starts high school there, only to see the legend of King Arthur being played out by her classmates. It's wonderfully easy to get into the narrator's head, and her use of teenage sarcasm is spot-on. My only complaint is that I didn't really see the end coming, nor was there a lot of buildup, which left me feeling rather lost when I was done. In it's credit, though, I usually run in the opposite direction of teen, romance, and medival-y novels, and this one had me reading all three without so much as a grimace.

48-Hour Readathon

2007-06-09T21:15:00.000-04:00

Because how else do you start off a blog?

To my great displeasure, I was cut off from the sweet soothing balm that is the Internet because I was partcipating in Relay for Life and bunking in an evil-smelling camper with five other people when I started. But I'm posting now, and I'm very much reading my brains out. (What do you mean I can't read 500 pages and watch an episode of the Office before 2 AM?)