Burdened with glorious floor space.

This is my workspace:

It is the fluffy purple rug on my bedroom floor. Unfortunately, it does not get vacuumed – only shaken out. Currently, it is in great need of being shaken out. There are little sticks and strings and pieces of fluff stuck in it from the summer's adventures (and a dog who like to investigate underneath the bushes in the backyard and then come inside and hide under my bed, taking the path via the purple rug, of course).

Today, my goal is to finish making the plot changes (so much for doing five chapters a day)! So far, I've already eliminated two more unneeded chapters, and I'm so happy with the plot changes that I'm making that it hardly seems like work! I think yesterday's changes were the hardest.
Finishing the plot changes today will give me a day (tomorrow) to look over them and make any further changes before I take a week's break. After my break, I can start rewriting! Eeep!
At the beginning of the year, I made an rewriting/editing plan for this novel. I got so horribly off-track that I was afraid I wouldn't get the story rewritten by the end of the year. Now, however, I feel far more optimistic! Huzzah!

Remember what I just typed about yesterday being the hardest? Forget it. It's about 40 minutes later, and I've changed my mind.
I've reached the end of the novel.
Which I didn't even bother writing the first time.
In 2014, when I wrote this book, I had so many plot holes and the story was just dragging on and on and on and I didn't have a clear direction, so I never finished writing the story. Instead, I made a synopsis saying, "And then there was a big battle and it ends happily ever after." (Oops, spoilers!)
So, basically, I have reached the stage of the story where I am making up what happens next.
I've thought a lot about the ending since 2014, and I know exactly how I want to do it. Getting those ideas from my head to the notecards in front of me is a different matter.

~Time Passes~

Let it be known that on August 13, 2015 at about 11:50 AM, Abbey finished the plot revisions to her fantasy novel's outline! Hip hip!

Self-congratulatory selfie with my outline.

In my hand (well, actually, it's on the floor right now), I hold a fully-functioning outline! Yay! And I am SO happy with how it turned out! I can't wait to start rewriting this story!
The original story had 65 chapters before I gave up and decided to do an outline before attempting to rewrite the story with an actual ending. The final chapter count in my sparkling, new outline is 65 chapters! What a cool coincidence!

Now, I can bask in my triumph, and prepare myself for driving alone to voice lessons for the first time ever. And eat lunch. I'm hungry.

Live long and prosper!

Episode Two: Attack of the Notecards

Today, my soundtrack is Natalie Cole's CD Unforgettable.

The second notebook has always been the most boring of the three. The first one has a lot of action and adventure. The third one has a lot of action and adventure. The second one... It sits still—sinking—in a stinking, stagnant marsh of politics and bad characterization on the part of The Author who had no clue what she was doing when she wrote the first draft.
Going through the fifteen chapters that encompass the second notebook makes yesterday's plot work look easy. And I haven't even reached the big issues that I mentioned yesterday.
As I said, the second notebook is boring. Nothing exciting happens. And if I, as the writer, gets bored reading it, then so will the readers. Today, I realized that I can achieve the same plot advances that I currently have in half the amount of chapters. So, that is what I am busy working on: combining events from various chapters into glorious, new chapters (making sure to include a plot change as I go along, of course!). Hopefully, I can keep my audience (and myself!) more entertained by cutting out a lot of unnecessary scenes. 

We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this weather report: Outside, it is thundering ominously. As of 11:57 AM on August 12th, there has been no rain yet. We expect it shortly.

My stormy view. (The rain never did come.)

I have managed to cut out four chapters. And, I have managed the finish the fifteen chapters in the second notebook! Tomorrow I shall tackle Notebook No. 3. (AKA, the one with the biggest revisions).
Stay tuned for more...

It has begun

Today I am beginning plot revisions to my fantasy novel. After writing out a synopsis of each chapter on a notecard, I'm ready to go through them and fix plot holes and add plot changes when necessary. In the end, I shall have a complete and fully-functioning outline! Then, I can start rewriting.

How novel: a novel in notecards!

The very first notecard presented a problem. A huge plot hole. While waiting for my mom to finish what she was doing so I could talk it out with her and do a little brainstorming, I created a "Classic rock" playlist on youtube. This playlist features a nice blend of Paul McCartney, Elton John, Billy Joel, and Queen, with a scattering of Lou Rawls, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Focus, and others.
Ahile later, huzzah! We fixed the plot problem! Onto notecard no. 2.
I'm slightly apprehensive. Out of the whole novel, the beginning needs the least revisions to the plot. If it took an hour of thinking and talking to fix the first chapter; how long is it going to take to fix some of the bigger issues? Then again, I have thought quite a bit about the later issues, and not at all about this first one. Hopefully, I can quickly and easily fix the problems that I've already thought a lot about.

My goal is to go through five chapters a day; it will take me about two weeks.
Although, my progress today has put me significantly ahead of schedule! I got through the first twenty chapters, which are contained in the first notebook (which is really only half a notebook; the other half is filled with random ideas and stories). These first twenty chapters are the easy chapters. The only real difficulties are a few plot holes that need patching, the need for some foreshadowing, and some inconsistencies (goats magically changing into sheep and then back into goats again). The major plot changes happen in the second and—even more so—the third notebooks. I have a feeling that they will take quite a bit longer to get through than the first notebook.

75 plot notes and 20 notecards down; 160 plot notes and 40 more notecards to go!

I'm still alive.

I have successfully survived to the next stage of editing.
We sent off for my trial copy today! Huzzah! Now I get a week break while I wait for the copy to arrive... And I'll use it to (hopefully) write my outline for NaNoWriMo, and get TONS of schoolwork done!

*** 

 

You know what I love? World War I. It's so fascinating.

Guess what?

Paul McCartney has a World War I music video! It's SUPER cool... It's about the Christmas Truce of 1914, when men from both sides got up out of the trenches and met in No Man's Land to play football, exchange chocolate, laugh, talk, and share pictures and letters from loved ones.

 

 

Live long and prosper!



The one where Abbey does math volentarily?!

So the other night I touched on the awfulness of editing... Now I'll mention one of the fun parts.
It's great to go through with mom not only because she's super helpful, but also because we laugh a LOT. We'll come across a funny scene and both burst out laughing... Or we'll come across some horrible sentence that makes absolutely no sense or some bad typo and we'll laugh and laugh and laugh...
There's lots of fun times.

BREAKING NEWS!
Abbey is using math in the real world!
My mom and I did 27 pages of After the Twelfth Night in an hour and a half. I was curious to know how many hours it would take for us to finish editing. We're on kind of a tight schedule because I'm sending for my trial copy on Monday and we have to get through the rest of the book before then...
Well, I did a quick calculation and put my findings into an algebra problem! O_O And I came up with the right answer! I can't believe it! Math is actually helping me in the real world! Before, I was always skeptical about how math (beyond addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division - the easy stuff) would help me in the real world... Now I know.
So here's my equation:

We have 216 pages left to do, and so far today, we've been going at a rate of 27 pages every hour and a half.
Turning that into an actual problem... (I couldn't find a division sign, so pretend that the dash means "division")

216/27 = 1  1/2x
I'll give you a minute to figure it out for yourself, if you are so inclined...








Now here's the process and the answer:
To simplify the above problem, you divide 216 by 27, which comes out to 8. Then you make 1  1/2 into an improper fraction and you're ready to solve. The equation now looks like this:
8 = 3/2x
Next, we have to get x by itself, so we take 3/2 by its reciprocal (2/3). And what you do to one side, you have to do to the other... So you take times 2/3 which comes out to:
16/3.
Finally, divide 16 by 3 and you get...
5.33333333... (and the three's go on forever).

So, it will take my mom and me 5.3 hours to finish this edit, if we continue to do 27 pages per hour and a half (she says it's 18 pages per hour... but I haven't figured out how she got to that).
To make the equation even more complicated, you could add in that we have two days to get these 216 pages done... But I don't want to figure out how that works.

Mind you, I still see most word problems like this:

I haven't completely gone over to the dark side. I'm just happy I could figure this out!

Did you figure out my problem?

Live long and prosper!

Gaarrhaldfjakjlsdgadfkhg

Please remove me from my novel before I hurl it across the room and kill it.
My mom and I have been editing literally all afternoon. We've gotten through Part One, but we still have the other two parts to get through before Monday, when I'll send off for my trial copy.

I'm a bit worried that it won't all get done on time. But with God everything is possible, and I'm relying on him a lot to keep my stress level down. I have a peace that everything will work out.

In other news... I am SO excited for NaNoWriMo! Know why? BECAUSE I GET TO SPEND TIME WITH OTHER CHARACTERS!
I love Antony and Antonio and James and Sebastian and all the other characters in After the Twelfth Night... But I've been with them pretty much all summer. Pretty much for two years. I realize that's what being a writer is all about - spending lots of time with the same characters... But when it gets down to going over the book five times in a row checking for spelling mistakes, formatting errors, and generally just making sentences sound better... it gets a little tough to love your novel.
So I'm very excited to spend some time with Daniel and Varina this November.

Who else is excited for NaNoWriMo?

Live long and prosper.

Editing Saturday

11:22- Got my music.

It makes me feel powerful.
You're probably thinking, now Abbey, didn't you just say you finished editing? Yes, in a way. My mom and I finished editing Part 3 on paper, so now I have to type all our edits in. I have about six chapters to go. I'm hoping I can get it done today!
So here I go!
Listening to: Queen of the Night Aria from Mozart's Magic Flute!

11:48- An interesting tidbit... When I was writing Part One of After the Twelfth Night, I listened to a lot of Sarah Brightman. In particular, I really liked her song 'The Journey Home.' When I was brainstorming titles for the book, The Journey Home was the most prevalent choice for awhile. I don't think I ever admitted that to anyone, though... Somehow it just didn't fit, even though I loved it. Then we came up with After the Twelfth Night, which fits the book perfectly.
Another title option was The Thirteenth Day, because, you know, the book takes place AFTER the TWELFTH Night. But we decided that, though brilliant, The Thirteenth Day sounds too much like a horror story.
Last sentence: SPOILERS! But the last word that I typed was 'plunder.'
Listening too: The Phantom of the Opera by Sarah Brightman and Antonio Banderas (who knew Puss in Boots could sing?)

12:29- Somewhere I saw a quote that said something along the lines of "It's not a good story without a dragon." For some reason I think Tolkien said it but I can't find the quote anywhere... Anyone know which one I'm talking about?
Anyway, I'm taking the person's advice and putting a dragon into After the Twelfth Night.
Last sentence: "It was wood, with a red painted dragon slithering across the lid."
There you go.
Listening to: Song of the Lonely Mountain by Neil Finn.
And now it's over so I'm going to change songs and maybe genres. Hmmm... And also, get some lunch! I'm starving and the food in the Crock Pot for dinner smells AMAZING.

1:24- Woohoo! Just hit 85,000 words! That's exciting. I don't think the book has ever been this long.
Last sentence: After hiding the pendant and undressing, Sebastian blew out the candle and crawled into bed.
Listening to: Haydn's Sonata No. 38 in F major. "And I believe I know which key you will sing in: 'F' Major! Hee hee hee!"

3:00- Easy come easy go... I'm back down to 84,500 words after deleted a huge chunk of plot that doesn't go with the editing plotline.
Last sentence: “Tell us all about it when you get back!” Robert said

Listening to: Paul McCartney's new song New!

3:20- Today has been an interesting day for editing. My dad and my uncle are coming home from a trip to the Grand Canyon so I've been doing a mix of cleaning, editing, and watching videos on youtube. I think I shall stop editing soon... I've almost done four chapters today! Huzzah.
Last sentence: Curtains of cobwebs hung down in tatters, their former occupants dead and gone many years ago.
Listening to: My wake-up call song; I like to go into my mom's room and wake her up with this:

3:27- Well, I finished chapter twelve! And I think I'm done for the day.
Last sentence: “What do we do now?” asked Antony hopelessly.
Listening to: Still listening to the Dvorak Dance.

What did you all do this fine Saturday? Is it fine where you are?

Live long and prosper!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Too late, Vala. I've already gone crazy.

Hee hee hee... mwahaha... hahaha...

MY MOM AND I FINISHED THE FIRST ROUND OF EDITING! AHAHAHAHAHA! YES!

And now we have to start on the second round.

AKA, we'll go back through the entire book fixing things... and then I'll upload it to Lulu and send off for a trial copy. Then we'll go through that and change things... then we'll go back through it AGAIN. And then it will be ready.
Hopefully we can get all that done in the next 28 days.

Live long and prosper!

Books, books, books!

Summer is over! (Technically is doesn't end until September 22, but we're not being technical here.)

I got quite a few books ticked off my summer reading list (though some were added, and some were taken off in the process).

The Future Door by Jason Lethcoe - A good sequel to a good book.

Crater by Homer Hickam - Loved this book!!

A bunch of random Agatha Christie - I read four: Murder at the Vicarage, the first Miss Marple mystery; And Then There Were None, an amazing book that every mystery fan should read! Death on the Nile, which was a great mystery set in Egypt; and Dead Man's Folly, which was a quick read... I enjoyed it because it had Ariadne Oliver, though the rest of the characters (excepting Poirot) were kind of dull, and the plot wasn't as brilliant as some of her other novels.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - Brilliant book, if you can get past the swearing and slang phrases.

Emma by Jane Austin - I loved Emma! It was great.

Sew, It's a Quest and Do You Take This Quest? by Kendra E. Ardnek - Check! These are great books. I especially liked the second one.

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss - We listened to this in the car to and from Minnesota. It was wonderful, as usual... though in some parts it was kind of unrealistic.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - LOVED this one! Great.

Assignment: Eternity by Greg Cox - I didn't get this one done. Haven't even started it yet.

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien - I started RotK about two or three weeks ago... And it's so exciting! I can hardly put it down at night. Sam just rescued Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol. I'm about a half-way through, hoping to finish by the end of the month.

We'll be starting up literature sometime soon, so I will have some nice books to read there... Also, I have some books that I would like to read in general. And I made a decision. This school year, I would like to always be reading one non-fiction book alongside the fiction I normally read.
So here is my list of books I'd like to get done before next summer:

• Crescent by Homer Hickam - This is the sequel to Crater. I read the first chapter a few weeks ago... and never got any farther.
• Finish Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien - Yes!
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - To prepare myself for the second part of the Hobbit movie (which sounds like it will be nothing like the book at all, sadly).
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - Just because.
• Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll - Because I enjoyed Alice in Wonderland so much.
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin - This is the one Jane Austin novel that I don't really know the story of... I saw the movie once a long time ago, but I can't remember much of it. I don't want to see the movie again until I've read the book.
• Persuasion by Jane Austin - Because the movie is so good.
• Kat and Kadet by Jessica Hammond - I've read the first chapter! Kadet has a comfy chair.
• Finding Lily by Jessica Hammond - Because I've only read this one once, when I was editing it. I feel bad about never reading the finished copy. I'm looking forwards to those llamas again!
• The Ankulen by Kendra E. Ardnek - Because it sounds like a really good book!
• Assignment: Eternity by Greg Cox - The Star Trek novel. I read the prologue and first chapter a few days ago.
• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie - Because it's short.

(now the literature books)

• Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney - Because it's literature. And our copy has a super cool cover. And because I think there's a Star Trek Voyager episode where Harry Kim does something Beowulfish in the holodeck. I can't remember exactly.
• Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - An epic poem.
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by J.R.R. Tolkien (and other Arthurian legend) - This will be good, I think. I'm interested to know a little bit more about Arthurian legend.
• King Lear by William Shakespeare - Why couldn't it be Hamlet? Hopefully the play isn't as boring as the movie we watched.
• Paradise Lost by John Milton - I think this is another epic poem (about the Fall of Man).
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin - I'm excited for this one! I love P+P. Also, it will help me with a story idea...
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - I'm excited for this one as well. I've been wanting to read Dickens.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - This one shall be interesting. It seems like people either love this book or hate it. I'm curious to see which I'll be.
• To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - I've heard about her, but I don't know anything about her. I'm interested to see what all the hubbub is about.

(and now the non-fiction)

• Nazi Prisoners of War in America by Arnold Krammer - I already started this one. It was a book our tour guide in Algona recommended, at the P.O.W. museum.
• Various books on church history (mostly bios of important figures in the church - to be read for history).
• George Gershwin: His Life and Works by Howard Pollack - Because I love Gershwin.
• Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter - Because Tolkien is my favorite author and I'd love to know more about who he was as a person. That's what I'm Tolkien about!
• A biography on Beethoven? I've always been fascinated with Beethoven, and would love to learn more about him. I'd need to do some research on a good biography, though.
• Autobiography of Agatha Christie by Agatha Christie? I'd like to read this at some point... I'm not sure when, though.
• A Backwards Glance by Edith Wharton? This is Edith Wharton's autobiography... Again, I'd love to read this, but I'm not sure when.
• A book or two about trains - I love trains. I want to learn about trains. Their history, their impact on society, how they work... Trains. I have to go to the library and find some books on trains, first, though. And do some research on what sort of books I should get.

I'll probably add more to the list(s) as I think of them, or as my interests shift. For now, though, that is what I hope to read before next summer!

How did writing go the month of August?
I didn't quite finish Part Three... But I got a lot of good work done on it, what with writing some new scenes, editing with Mom, and typing in other's edits into the computer.
My goal for this month is to finish editing with my mom and finish typing in the edits that people have sent me. I would really like to get this done sometime before Sunday, the 22nd. Then, I can have a good nine days of so off of editing, so when I go back to editing in October, I'll be new and fresh and ready to go!
Also, I would like to set aside time with my dad to work on a new cover.

Any of you reading any good books?

Live long and prosper.

I can't believe it's July!

This year is moving by too quickly....
Sorry I didn't have a Top Tuesdays up yesterday. I'm under the weather... sort of.  My body can't decide if it's sick or not - or if it has a cold or allergies. So I've been lying on the couch resting and reading. Yesterday I also did a lesson of math which used up all my brain power, leaving none left for a Top Tuesdays.

Hopefully today's post will make up for it... I have a number of things to talk about and June wrap-up updates.
So, without further ado, let's get started!

1. Miss Jack Lewis Baillot over at However Improbable interviewed me! Check it out HERE!

2. Writing update. I had to change my writing plan slightly to accommodate the fact that instead of Two Parts, I now have Three Parts to After the Twelfth Night.
My June goal was to edit Parts Two and Three... But I changed it to just Part Two because Part Three needs some going over before Mom and I attack it.
Which brings me to my July writing goals...
In the near future (like, in the next week) go over Part Three and add scenes that need to be added. Then go over it with Mom. Hopefully finish by the end of the month... But if not, the world won't explode.

3. Reading update.
I finished ten books this past month! Including The Two Towers! Wooohooooo!!!
How am I doing on my summer reading list? I've got a few of them read....

• The Future Door by Jason Lethcoe - finished today!
• Crater by Homer Hickam - hoping to start in the next few weeks!
• A bunch of random Agatha Christie - I got one read! Murder at the Vicarage, the first Miss Marple mystery.
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - Haven't started it yet, but plan to soon.
• Emma by Jane Austin - I'm currently reading this one and loving it!
• Sew, It's a Quest and Do You Take This Quest? by Kendra E. Ardnek - check! These are great books. I especially liked the second one.
• Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - this is one of the questionable ones... I might read this one next month.
• The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss - another questionable one that I might read next month.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll - I'd really like to get this one read soon.... especially since it's so short!
• Assignment: Eternity by Greg Cox - I exchanged A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court for this Star Trek novel.
• The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien - now that I've finished with The Two Towers... I want to take on the final part in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm planning on reading this one next month.

And the other books on the list I took off because I either haven't got them anymore (they went back to the library) or I've lost my interest in them for the present.

4. Nerd Life.

 

Claire at Working Title is doing a nerd marathon this month called Nerd Life. Here is the link. You can go there for the information. I'm going to take part! At least partly. There's two parts to this marathon... During the month of July you challenge yourself to read as many books as you can (that you've never read before). Also, during the month of July, you can post about nerd/geeky things such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, etc. etc....
I'll start off with my goals for the reading quest (which I'm gonna take from my list up above). This month I plan to read and blog about....

• Crater by Homer Hickam.
• And Then There Were None (or, Ten Little Indians) by Agatha Christie.
• Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie.
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
• Emma by Jane Austin (even though I've already started reading it.... I want to finish it this month - that's my goal).
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll.
• And finally... Assignment: Eternity by Greg Cox (the Star Trek novel).

We'll see how far I get!
As for the other part of the Nerd Life... I'm going to use it as an excuse to ramble on and on and on and on about Star Trek! MWAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! *ahem*
Maybe not. But look out for posts about Star Trek, Doctor Who (because I fully intend to do a DW-episode-watching-marathon-thing this month), StarGate... and books, I suppose.
I think it will be fun. If you want to participate, just head over to Claire's blog (links up above) and tell her you'll be participating! And if that's not enough incentive, participants get a picture drawn by Claire at the end of the month (she's a fabulous artist!).

That about wraps up everything I wanted to say...

 

Where Abbey proves she is, indeed, still reading The Two Towers!

Today was a half-couch day because I wasn't feeling all that great this morning. Currently I am reading four books... and I couldn't decide which one to read while I lay on the couch, so I decided to read them all! Not all at the same time, however. First I started with a chapter of.... THE TWO TOWERS!!!

 

The good thing with Lord of the Rings is that, if you know the story very well, you can put the book down for weeks at a time and come back to it knowing just what's happening.
Anyway, I read one whole chapter of The Two Towers and you know what? It was easy! I don't know why I was on such a slump with it this past year. I only have three chapters left and I have made a promise to myself to finish by the Fourth of July. Because I started reading it sometime last July and I really don't want to be the person who reads a book for a year, refusing to put it down.

After my chapter of Two Towers, I read a chapter in the second No Place Like Holmes book. That took about three minutes. It was kind of funny... The Two Towers chapter was, like, 10 pages. And then The Future Door chapter was, like, three pages and larger print!
After that I read a chapter of Do You Take This Quest? (by blogger Kendra E. Ardnek).
I finished off with a chapter of Emma by Jane Austin.

Then guess what? I read ANOTHER chapter of The Two Towers!! Two whole chapter of The Two Towers done today! I'm so happy.
Of course, I had to read another chapter of The Future Door after that... and then another chapter of Do You Take This Quest?
And once again, I finished off with another chapter of Emma.

So, all in all, I read eight chapters of different books today! Actually nine... because I read a chapter of Do You Take This Quest? when I first got up. And after I publish this post I'll read another chapter of one of the aforementioned books.

As well as reading, I've been doing a lot of editing and thinking about editing lately. I had a mini-panic attack a few days ago when I realized that a huge part of the plot is said to happen on October 1st in the novel... But taking into account all the "two weeks passed" and "a month later's" the plot twist would actually happen on November 9th! Oh no! So I changed a bunch of dates around and moved the start of Part Two to a different date.... And everything worked out. I think.
There's a nicely written timeline sitting next to me, but I still have to go through again and make sure all the dates are correct. As I told Jessica (at Authorly Insane),



Maybe sometime this August.

And now I just HAVE to tell you Tintin fans something!
I was looking for this movie that I watched when I was a kid. It was stop motion... and I happened upon a list of stop motion films (provided by the Wikipedia). Though the list didn't have the movie I was looking for... it did have something very interesting on it!
Right at the top of the list was The Crab with the Golden Claws.
The Crab with the Golden Claws??!?!?!?!?!??!!!
This Crab with the Golden Claws?

 

YES! That Crab with the Golden Claws!
In 1947, someone in Belgian made a Claymation movie of the Tintin book! It's 58 minutes long, on youtube, and, unfortunately, all in French. I was watching a bit of it earlier and for those familiar with the book, the French isn't too big a problem. (That's the good thing about Herge and Tintin... they pictures are so full of life, the story kind of tells itself. You hardly need the words! It's the same with this movie.)
From what I've seen of it and read about it, it seems to be pretty much exactly like the book. The Claymation is really very good. You should check it out!

Who knew right?

And now a question.... since I didn't find the movie I was looking for....
When I was young, I remember getting a stop motion movie (not animation) out of the library and it was about some stuffed animals that came alive. They were teddy bears... And I think there was a bunny too. They might have needed to get one of their friends out of the attic. I don't remember.
Anyway, they pack a picnic (for a birthday maybe?). That's all I can remember about it.
Does it ring a bell for any of you? I'd really like to know what it is!

Live long and prosper!

Wayfaring Stranger.

My recital piece.

In other news....
Ah, editing.
I just had an idea to make my bad guy's motive more "real." The only problem? I'm afraid it won't seem very original. Plus it will effect some things that happen later on in the novel... So now I have to decide whether I write it in or not. I think I shall and see how it goes.

One of the things I like about being a writer is all the "mwahahahaaa" moments.

They come (at least for me) when I kill a character or write something really clever.
Example (which I just wrote):

He was deathly pale, as if he had just awoken from a peaceful night’s sleep in his coffin. 

Of course... no one in my book is actually a vampire. And no one has a coffin (like Queequeg from Moby Dick). But... mwahahaha.

 

Well, back to editing.

 

 



A bunch of updates.

First an update on that ancient list of books I hoped to read in the future... This isn't actually my most updated list of 'books to read.' That list is over 100 titles long and I will not  be posting that here 'cause... it's just too long. xD

1. Vancouver Sun books by various authors. (I have a whole bunch of these read now. But a lot of them are still unread to.)
2. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. (I'M SO CLOSE! WHY CAN'T I FINISH IT?!)
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
4. Emma by Jane Austin.
5. Books by Charles Dickens (I read A Christmas Carol at Christmastime!)
6. Books by Jules Verne.
7. Books by H.G. Wells (In the middle of reading The War of the Worlds. I also have The Invisible Man sitting on the shelf waiting to be read....)
8. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.
9. Re-read Watership Down by Richard Adams.
10. Re-read The Freedom Factor by Gerald L. Lund.
11. Re-read The Alliance by same author.
12. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
13. Leviathan by Scott Westerfield.
14. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien.
15. Re-read Robin Hood by Howard Pyle.
16. A biography on J.R.R. Tolkien. (I'm one step closer.... I now own a biography about Tolkien. I just have to find time to read it.)
17. More of the Bible. (I have certainly read more of the Bible since the last time I posted this list! But this one is kind of ongoing...)
18. The Princess Bride by William Goldman. (And I just finished re-reading two nights ago! Review sometime later this week).
19. Books by C.S. Lewis.
20. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (I'm one step closer... I own it now. Hurrah for the thrift store).
Now a writing update....
I finished my April goal which was to finish Camp NaNoWriMo.
To write this blog post, I took a break from my May goal: edit/add stuff to Part One of After the Twelfth Night.
Here's one of my favorite lines near the beginning of the book that I absolutely LOVE!

   I found out later that it had not, in fact, been Sebastian that I ‘rescued’ from that sword fight; it was his twin sister Viola, dressed as a man. I don’t quite understand it all, but in the end Sebastian married Lady Olivia, Viola married Duke Orsino, and I ended up in jail.

As you may know, I love the Beatles.

 

Every few months I discover a song by them that I didn't know about before... Today was one of those days. I discovered "Yes It Is" which is just a beautiful song. John Lennon said that he had been trying to rewrite "This Boy" and it didn't quite work out. But I think "Yes It Is" is just really beautiful... Calming with great harmonies.

As for books... I'm only reading five now, as opposed to the seven I was reading last week.
For literature I'm reading "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (fun fact, his name is Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. He was named partly after a deceased sister and partly for his distant relative Francis Scott Key who wrote The Star Spangle Banner). I'm really enjoying this book. After I finished my chapter today I just wanted to keep reading... It's set in the roarin' twenties. I love that time period anyway, but the way Scott Fitzgerald writes it... His language is beautiful.

I'm also reading "A Hero For WondLa" which I forgot to mention last time... I'm not too far into it but so far really enjoying it! It is the sequel to "The Search for WondLa" which I read in March.

Then, of course, there is the ever present "Two Towers" and also "The War of the Worlds." I'm also reading Jessica's book Kat and Kadet as I edit it. And I suppose I'm reading "After the Twelfth Night" too since I'm editing it.... Argh.

I'm trying to fight the urge to start reading Inkheart again... I love that book. Because it is a book about books. And that makes it cool.

Anyway, back to editing and listening to the Beatles!

Live long and prosper!

P.S. My mom is having surgery tomorrow and we would appreciate prayer. It isn't anything too major.... But it's still kind of scary. =)

What am I currently.....

I've seen these around and since I want to blog about something tonight I thought I would do this. I'm kind of making up my own questions though....

What am I currently:

Reading? I just finished an Agatha Christie novel today. 'Death in the Clouds.'

 

Yup, the one the Agatha Christie Doctor Who episode was sort of based on.... I personally loved that episode (although the shapeshifting bee was a bit much....) and it was what got me interested in Agatha Christie.
I absolutely LOVED Death in the Clouds. It was really good! Although there is a bunch of D-words and H-words throughout the book.... which was really annoying The rest of it was amazing, though. And I even guessed the murderer! It was just a feeling I had when I started the book... and it turned out to be right.
Now I'm going around talking like Poirot: "My estomach."
I'm also reading House of Mirth by Edith Wharton for literature which I am enjoying.... And War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells which is pretty interesting. I'm not too far in it. I think I shall read some more of that tonight.

Listening to? The Only Way to Have a Friend is to Be One by the band AD. They were around in the '80's and I loooove them. I'm also listening to Ken Medema at the moment. He's a blind pianist/singer who is Christian and AMAZING! I think it would be really cool to see him in concert. He's pretty old, though, so I don't think I'll get the chance.

Writing? Camp NaNoWriMo! I reached 21,000 words today.... I'm about 2 1/2 days ahead, which is good. I was DETERMINED to introduce my plot today and I did it! HUZZAH!!! At 20,600 words... my plot was finally introduced.... I'm going to be doing a LOT of editing in those first 20k words. Although who knows, maybe I'll keep a lot of it in. I did want it to be more of character building novel than a mystery novel.
Also, I finished editing Friend's Project and will start on Kat and Kadet by Miss Jessica Hammond tomorrow (or Friday....). She introduced me to a knew way of editing which sounds a lot easier than anything I've done in the past so HUZZAH once again!
Overall, I'm feeling really good writing-wise. Sometime in the next few days I hope to write up a (second) Character Encounters for this month. I say second because I already wrote one... but it contains spoilers so I have to do another to post here, which I don't really mind. It will feature my mysterious character that I mentioned once upon a time.

Studying? I dissected a frog today. It was SO. COOL! I found its brain and saw the different brain lobes.... Also, I cut open its stomach. She GORGED herself before she died! It was amazing how much stuff was in there!

Watching? Well, Mom watched a Star Trek episode tonight. I wasn't really watching it... though I did catch a sentence here or there. It was the episode where they meet Abraham Lincoln and have to fight to the death.

Eating/drinking? Not eating anything currently. I did just have two cups of water, though.

Live long and prosper, image of Serek! (quote from the Star Trek episode).

Too. Much. Writing. *explodes*

Today I think I did too much writing.... As well as writing I am editing a project for a friend. And on Sunday Jessica at Authorly Insane will be sending me Kat and Kadet to pick apart (her words, not mine). Yay! I have been wanting to read it since last November, when it was written! I have a feeling that it will be very entertaining... I mean, come on. Anything with a robotic cat has to be entertaining!

I won't be around at all tomorrow and on Saturday as I have literature, choir, and a youth conference. So I have been trying to get waaay ahead in my word count. I'm about three days ahead right now at 11,700 words. Blah. you know you've done too much writing when you write "...whom was Daniel was assuming was Daniel...." and also when you stop paying attention to editing your friend's work for them and end up creating mistakes instead of fixing them.

I feel pretty accomplished for today, though. I did a good hour and a half of piano practice which made my wrists hurt. I got 2,000+ words written, and I got 40 pages of Friend's-Project edited. Only 29 more pages to go! I'm going to hopefully finish that on Sunday or possibly Monday so I don't have to be editing two things at once as well as writing my own book!

All that aside.... It feels really really good to just write in the evenings. It feels like I'm actually accomplishing something and not just doing nothing on the computer, which is what I usually end up doing in the evenings.

Now I'm watching Doctor Who Confidential.

Have a random picture of David Tennant as Hamlet:

"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio."

That is to serve as a segway into my next random point.
Yesterday I went to see Love's Labour's Lost, a play by Shakespeare (which is also featured in a Doctor Who episode). It was sooooooo good. My city's Shakespeare company is really good. This is, I believe, the third play I have seen put on by them.
They set Love's Labour's Lost in the late 1920's in England. Ahhh it was so good.... I LOVE live plays, especially Shakespeare. We are hoping to go to Much Ado About Nothing in the fall. I'm excited about that because I played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing in 2011!

 

"Tell me, is senior Mountanto returned from the wars, or no?" The only line that I can remember.
Anyway, Love's Labour's Lost was brilliant. Especially the part when they did Iambic Pentameter.
What is Iambic Pentameter? It is what Shakespeare wrote in, mostly. It is a da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM pattern.
Well, in Love's Labour's Lost there is a scene where the four guys are writing poetry to the four girls but they don't want the other guys to know so they are all hiding from each other. The fourth guy comes in (while everyone else was hiding) and starts reading his poem in Iambic Pentameter! It was BRILLIANT!! I wish I had said something about it at the talk-with-the-actors afterwards but I didn't... sigh. Oh well.
My other favorite part was when the four guys dressed up as Russians and went to the four girl's field (where they were staying) and danced Russian-like for them while another guy furiously "played" Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. They were all wearing ridiculous beards and looked rather like Muppets or Cousin It.

 

Farewell. I shall leave now because Elementary is going to come on.

Live long and prosper.

The one where "struggled" became "shruggled."

It is official. After the Twelfth Night and its Untitled Sequel are going to be one book. The first book will be "part 1" and the second book will be "part 2" because it is much easier. Plus, that  means I can edit Part/Book one and make it better. It also means that I don't have to think of another title and cover!
My mom and I have been editing Part/Book 2 and I have busily typing it into the computer.... Only I think I need a break.
So far Jamie has sat down and tried to ear (instead of eat) and poor Verges shruggled to hold Dogberry's weight up.
Know what else I found out? "Two men" is basically the word "woman" except with a "T" at the beginning. I found that out trying to read my hand-edited version of the book. I'm staring at it going, "As they caught up with the fwomen they slowed their pace to remain at a distance. But that makes NO sense! They're following Dogberry and Verges! Not women! What in the world is a fwoman anyway? MOM! Can you read this--- wait a minute.... TWO MEN! That's what it is! HAHA!"
Must... push.... forward....

Also, it has been 84 years since Tintin was first written into existance! Happy Birthday Tintin!!

 

(My cake, from my last birthday.)

On a parting note... I know how Sherlock survived the fall!

Before hitting the ground, Sherlock fell into a portal which led to Narnia. He fell out of the sky and landed in some badly placed dragon treasure... which turned him into a fire breathing beasty (just like Eustace!).
Sherlock the Dragon then wandered - quite by accident - into another portal which led to Middle Earth.
Poor Sherlock then used his massive intellect to reason that if he became a dragon by touching treasure, he should touch MORE treasure to become his regular self again. Sherlock the Dragon wandered into the nearest treasure hoard his dragon nose detected and scared some Dwarves in the process.
Long story short, Sherlock touched the treasure and found himself still a dragon! He also found out that he was too big to fit back OUT the door! (Which is the reason no one saw him a long time.)
After sleeping for hundreds of years, Sherlock woke to find that the walls had crumbled around him and he could escape!
Unknown to him, though, the Dwarves had harbored a grudge and had come to reclaim their home. They took a very familiar looking burglar with them too....

Sherlock the Dragon was then shot unceremoniously from the sky by Bard the Bowman.
Curiously, the only thing that went through the mind of the Dragon as he fell was, "Oh no, not again." Many have speculated that if we knew exactly WHY Sherlock the Dragon had thought that, we should know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.
Since the villagers from Laketown never went near the carcass of Sherlock the Dragon, they did not see him regenerate into his original form... Sherlock Holmes!
Sadly, Sherlock was a bit jumbled from his regeneration and took to calling himself "John Harrison."

He was then beamed up to the Enterprise where he wreaked havoc all the way back to London Town where they dropped him off (and where he saved Mickey Smith's daughter).
After figuring out he wasn't actually John Harrison, Sherlock returned to 221b Baker Street and walked in with a calm, "Well that was tedious."
Whereupon, John fainted.


~A few hours later~
I finished typing in the edited Chapter 2 without much more trouble (unless you call procrastination trouble).

Then, after dinner, I started writing Defenders of the Realm.
I'm listening to the Song of the Lonely Mountain (from The Hobbit) which is really adding to the mood. I may have even felt my heart flutter a bit.
By tomorrow I should have the prologue written and then I shall share it on here in all its unedited glory (to be fair, though, I spend a considerable ammount of time perfecting my prologues for some ood reason. And since this Defenders of the Realm book will be a side project, it will most likely not need as much editing as my NaNoWriMo spit-out-the-50K novels).
Before I go back to writing, I would like to share the first sentence. First sentences are very important, because they need to draw the reader in. I'm not so sure about my first sentence.... What do you guys think?

Doors were locked up tight on the night of the new moon and the people of Monarch City slept soundly.