New Year's Eve.

It's New Years Eve so you can guess I won't be writing. I'm going to stay up with the fam all night, watch way too many movies and countdown at midnight. Not to mention that New years Eve will be a blue moon, so this moon fanatic will be standing outside wishing she had a telescope.
And I'll probably watch the Rose Parade if I managed to peel myself out of bed sometime before noon :D



Just thought before I start the movie marathon I'd share with you one of my new favorite songs, All American Rejects-Mona Lisa

Cheers to the New Year
Xoxo

Devil's Helmet in greater detail.

Since I got so much positive feedback on my last post about Devil's Helmet I decided to hold the Millvalley train for a one post longer and explain a bit more about Devil's Helmet.


Believe it or not Devil's Helmet is based almost word for word on a dream I had. My dream like most was confusing and made little to no sense, nor did it stick to one point, but the main point of it was I was going to save my dad.
In the dream Stratagus was an old bitter artist with no really good reason for hating my dad, so naturally I had to change the story a lot to make it more interesting. And for my own sake I added two morals and made Stratagus younger :D



(here is a picture I drew of Kat, the main character, I ran her through Photoshop to make her look 3-D)
When I first had the dream I thought it was fun and all, would probably make a cool story but I didn't actually start writing Devil's Helmet until a month later; after I read 'The Singing' by Alison Croggon. Her Tolkien-ish writing style inspired me to write my own story with a whole lot of Tolkien-ish traveling. Then Devil's Helmet was put on paper and that's when I realized I just couldn't keep myself awake while writing like J.R.R. Tolkien*shrug* So no long journey just an intriguing plot and lots of hard decisions.

Lower left is a head shot from the picture I drew of Kat. top right is a model from a Nordstrom advertisement that I thought looked a lot like Kat. Lower right and top left are pictures of Devil's Helmet, draft one and the second chapter of draft two. I would've put the first chapter of the second draft but I lent it to my cus and he hasn't returned it. I guess that means he likes it.

One of the people who commented on my last post asked me if I was going to try and get Devil's Helmet published. The answer is 'yes' like my profile says I'm going to try for the NYTBS so everyone can read it and love it; and destruction via Hollywood so my fans can see it and hate it LOL that seems to be how it works.

I'll try to sneak in an expert soon...'maybe' says the jealous sister who refuses to share her goodies with ANYONE!!!
My sis typed that :D

Xoxo

Welcome to Devil's Helmet.

I was originally saving this blog for Millvalley and I wasn't going to tell you about all my other stories until I'd finally finished Millvalley; you know keep this blog to a minimum of confusion.

Rnona ~ ı

But I can't help it I'm so happy right now, exploding with happiness I can scarcely type, just dance in place and tap keys. Whoppie!!! 'Sides it's my blog :D double Yay!
Why? The Whoop you ask? Good question.

I just finished the first draft to my second novel,(first YA novel) It's a Dark fantasy, really intense, 'its got a beginning that catches you off guard and doesn't let you go'...so I've been told.
Daniel Suarez

It's a dark twisting tale about a young girl haunted by the past of her parents (they're still alive if anyone was wondering) which is now coming to claim them after twenty peaceful years. The daughter, Kat, is determined to save her fathers life.

So down-right, head-bent on doing it she is going to enter a place so rotting and terribly, slimy and gruesome there is no one word to describe it's horrors.
If you want to speak in metaphors (I think that's the way to go) It's the home of Satan's little brother, a terrible tyrant of a man named Stratagus (sounds like it's spelled Strata-gus). I misspelled Sagittarius and liked it (way off, I know) .


Because Kat is a " lucky little girl" and the story would be boring and lacking without it, Stratagus is her fathers vowed enemy and is aching to see her father crumble from pain and die!!
So a lot of juicy, intriguing, frightening stuff happens in 170 intense pages before I gave it a kick-ass ending (if I may say so myself). Wow!!

just.K

Moral of the story; when someone wrongs you let it drop, holding onto it only hurts you more and(there are two morals, how wholesome?!) do what you gotta do (i.e the right thing) no matter how hard it is.
Tell you more about Devil's Helmet later (really soon)...


Feeling smug and accomplished i.e dancing to no music
Xoxo

Times are A-changing.

Things were meant to be broken, all things were meant change. 'In with the old and out with the new' as they say. It's never too late to get a fresh start; a fresh start to an old story, a new outlook through old eyes.

...In other words, I've written a new beginning for Millvalley; actually added a new beginning. The old one still applies and it's still there, it's just been pushed to Chapter two. The new first Chapter, I think, is far more exciting, and right to the point. Within the first few pages you know that trouble is stirring in Millvalley and more importantly you know whose stirring it!
Before Millvalley started with a simple vampire bite, but now it starts with a dangerous, intriguing curse and a couple of unwitting robbers who don't believe in curses...they should.

So just imagine that you open a book for the first time and right off the bat; Cursed jewelry, Vampire bites and Conspiring parents. Intriguing, eh?
Just felt like sharing before I went back to writing my brains out, I'm pretty close to the end of Millvalley, I'd say the begining of the end...or the end of the middle *shrug* whatever.

Back to writing.
Xoxo

So what are you doing for the holidays?...besides eating?

Christmas isn't coming for at least another three weeks, so I wasn't really going to do anything Christmas-y tonight. One reason, its too early and once you start with the holiday cheer you can't stop!!
Take Christmas music for example after you, or the place that you work at starts to play that Christmas music you can't turn it off!! Not even if it makes you go mad inside!!

But tonight I just have to be a little Christmas-y, by that I mean at 8:30 I'm plopping down in front of my TV and watching 'Prep and Landing' with a big bowl of popcorn. I saw a preview for it and I just couldn't resist...can you?

Xoxo

Researching the world.

So lately I've been doing more research than writing.
What do I need to research when the story I'm writing is based on nothing but what I imagine? Well there is a lot of stuff to research.


1. Ireland. My leading man, the villain, so to speak is from Ireland; he is an exchange student part of this hands across the world thing (I'll get into that later).


He was a runner, nigh close to being in the 2008 Olympics but he went splashing through a waterfall and shattered his knee cap. Trust me its more dramatic when he tells the story. (Not quite sure where in Ireland he is from)
Lovely Irish photos taken by Edward Dullard



2. The Island of Millvalley is cross between CA and Greece (gotta love that). Since Greek Mythology (which I absolutely adore) plays a key part in my story, I had to "force" my self to research some of the old stories.


Just an annoyingly tiny hint, Medusa and Cupid were researched. What could this mean? I'll tell you....sometime :P
So now that I have all that behind me I can get back to writing and doing homework...but first I have to enjoy my weekend.

Meet you on the equinox :D
Xoxo.

Linger!

After reading the book 'Lament' (about evil fairies) I've been hooked on Maggie Stiefvater's writing and after devouring another one of her novels about werewolves 'Shiver' I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the sequels to both books.
Ballad (Evil Fairies #2)
Linger (werewolves #2)


Now I have the chance to win Linger on this lovely book blog called Karin's Book Nook.
Hope I win.

Fingers crossed.
Xoxo