"I do not cough for my own amusement," replied Kitty fretfully.

My best thinking time is when I'm taking a shower. I don't know why, but my best ideas come when I'm in the shower. As a result, I tend to take 30-45 minute showers because I'm so absorbed in my own thoughts, I wash veeeeerrryy slowly.

This morning I had quite a few "aha!" moments in the shower.

One was another how-Sherlock-survived-the-fall theory. Maybe Kitty, the reporter ("You repel me" girl), had something to do with it! I mean, she had access to Moriarty and Sherlock both. What if Sherlock hired her to spy on Moriarty? That way, he would know Moriarty's plans.
I promise, no more Sherlock theorys... I just can't help it. They started filming season three two days ago. The first episode is called The Empty Hearse which I think is SO hilarious because the book where Sherlock comes back after being "dead" for three years is called The Empty House.

As well as coming up with that theory, I came up with a background and a motive for a character. Perhaps I shall someday elaborate on him because he is quite interesting.

I also did some brainstorming that I have been putting off. I had to figure out a bunch of different ways for people to do stuff. Now I have that figured out and I can go on with the planning of the third novel in my spy series (which I'm writing second because I thought it would be second... but it turns out it fits better as third).
Have I mentioned that I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo next month? You can set your word count goal for anything that you choose (within the peramiters of 10,000 and 999,999 words I think... I don't remember). I'm going to try and do another 50,000 word novel. The third book in my spy series starring Daniel and Varina. More info on that as it comes.

Yesterday I read a little bit in each book that I'm currently reading. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pride and Prejudice, The Princess Bride, and even a few pages of The Two Towers!
My library finally got in a copy of Agatha Christie's first mystery starring the detective Poirot. I'll probably start that soon too..... I can never read just one book at a time.

Tomorrow I'm going to Canada for a few days to play board games and Nintendo with my cousin. It shall be fun. But it also means I'll disappear for a few days, which is fine.

I thought I'd do something special to tide you over until whenever I do my next blog post (please note my sarchasm).
Some snippets from various works of mine! Now, since I'm still quite new to the novel-writing sphere, there won't be too many snippets from different novels.... Mostly just After the Twelfth Night and the first spy novel (which I am dreading opening... because it is so rough. I'm afraid).
Enjoy:

   "I would like to go ashore as soon as possible," said Sebastian. "Seeing that the island is large and we all have families we want to get back to-"
   "I don't!" Dogberry piped up. "I have my family here with me!" He patted Jamie on the shoulder; Matthias was under guard in his room.
   ".....Most of us have families we want to get back to-"
   "I don't! I have my Sebastian right here!" Olivia said. "I'm SO glad I came on this little journey!"
   "As I was saying," Sebastian continued loudly, "most of us have families we want to get back to so the sooner we start searching the ialdn for the treasure, the sooner we can get back to our families."
- After the Twelfth Night Part 2.

   "Those beslubbering fat-kidneyed hugger muggers!"
- After the Twelfth Night Part 2.

   In the background the second voice piped up, "Give me that!" and evidently snatched the phone away. "Who are you and what have you done with my sister?" demanded the younger voice which was totally unlike Caroline's sweet tones. Instead, of sweet and quiet, this girl was loud and fiery.
   "I've done nothing with your sister," Daniel replied.
   "What are you? A creeper? A stalker? A murderer? I could have the police there in five minutes! Or the army! How would you like the army? My sister is in the army! She could probably beat you up and kill you! Although that would probably land her in jail....."
   "I-" Daniel attempted to say.
   Just then Varina emerged from her room down the hall.
   "Marines? No! You don't have to call in the marines!" Daniel was saying when Varina rescued him by taking the phone.
- 3rd Spy book (I admit, I wrote the first chapter back in December.)

   "Please, Sebastian, introduce us to your friends and then sit down!" said the fat man.
   "Of course, Uncle," Sebastian replied. He turned and gestured to Antony. "This is Antony. His father saved me from drowning in a ship wreck."
   "Son of a sailor are you?" Sebastian's uncle asked.
   "Yes, sir. Actually, Father was a pirat....." Jamie elbowed Antony in the ribs and he coughed. "Yes, sir."
- After the Twelfth Night part 2.

   Inside the bustling airport, Daniel and Varina got their tickets and headed to their gate to wait for the plane.
   "Let's stop and get something to eat first, please?" Daniel asked.
   "We just had breakfast! Surely you aren't hungry again?" Varina said.
   Daniel shrugged and pointed to a cafe cozily situated between the Hudson News store and a place to buy luggage.
   "I think everyone has luggage here...." Daniel muttered as they past the luggage store.
   "I hope so!" giggled Varina.
- You Don't Find Them, They Find You.

   "Whoa!" said Antony, spotting the sword in Antonio's raised hand. "Are you planning on killing me?" he joked.
   "No," replied Antonio, scowling. He started to walk away from the boy, hoping to lose him.
   "Where are you going? Can I come?" asked Antony, matching Antonio's stride.
   "I'm going to find a friend. And no, you can't."
- After the Twelfth Night Part 1.

   The passengers grabbed their seat rests to keep from jerking about. The wind and rain played tug of war with the plane, jostling it this way and that.
   "I can't believe it!" Varina yelled.
   "What?" Daniel asked in a panicked voice.
   "We met on a plane and now we're going to die together on one!"
   "No one said anything about dying!" Daniel said in the best reassuring voice he could muster. Suddenly the plane went into a nose dive. Everyone screamed and the last thing Varina remembered before she blacked out was Daniel's hand reaching back and grabbing her's.
- You Don't Find Them, They Find You.

So what did you think? Are you interested? I'm still toying with the idea of publishing.... But people have to be interested in my writing in order for me to publish it. Finishing the books would also help. xD

Live long and prosper! Have a good weekend.

Writing news.

I'm stuck. I haven't even gotten past the prologue, and I'm already stuck with my Defenders of the Realm story. I'm not sure if I like the prologue which I wrote. I might scrap it and re-write it.
I've also been mulling over the fantasy genre - mostly the magic part of the fantasy genre.
That, and the stuckness issue, are forcing me to put Defenders of the Realm to the side for the time being. Hopefully it won't be too long.

On another note... I had the most brilliant idea for a plot. Actually, the core idea came two summers ago. I have been thinking about it on and off for two years and I think I may finally have a good enough plot to start coming up with characters - then I can maybe start writing.

Now I shall talk about After the Twelfth Night.
For those who don't know, I played Antonio in Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night in 2009. I was upset because we never find out what happens to Antonio after the play - does he go to jail or does Sebastian come to his rescue?
In 2011 I decided to write a book about what happened to my beloved character for a novel writing class my friend's mom taught. The subsequent months consisted of much writing, re-writing, editing, and formatting.
Finally, sometime in the early fall, we ordered five copies of my book from Blurb.com (a site which I do not recommend - too difficult to format).

The experience was like no other. I had never written something so long before - I had actually written a novel!
Shortly after I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for the first time - taking my writing to new levels entirely.
During NaNoWriMo 2011 I wrote the sequel to After the Twelfth Night.

I have been working on re-writing and editing The Sequel for about a year, now. The end is nigh... My mom and I are currently going through it fixing discrepancies, spelling and grammar mistakes, making sentences better, and taking out information that doesn't need to be in there.

Now I am debating publishing....
I have already decided to combine the first and second books into one book, separated into Part 1 and Part 2.
This not only eliminates the trouble of having to come up with another title and another cover, it allows me to edit Part/Book 1 and make it better (and maybe longer! It's only about 16,000 words. Either that or 26,000 words... I can't remember since the document was deleted off my computer). I also don't have to go through the trouble of explaining what happens in Book/Part 1 in Book/Part 2.

Back to the publishing thing....
Part 1 isn't long enough to be it's own novel - and truthfully, I don't think it's up to par with other writings out there (which is why I am glad to be editing it some more). Much of it is somewhat fantastical and historically inaccurate (it's set in 1604).
Because I didn't want to publish Book/Part 1, I hadn't planned on publishing Book/Part 2 either.
Now, though, since I am combining them, I am reconsidering.
Part 2 easily takes care of the length problem. The book (both Parts) is still somewhat fantastical and historically inaccurate... But I didn't write it to be a historical novel. It is an adventure. It focuses on the plot and the adventure and the characters. I don't want it to become a historical novel, either. It is meant to be a fun read - it isn't meant to teach about how things used to be.
Besides, who said the worlds in Shakespeare's plays were accurate? I mean, he had fairies in A Midsummer's Night Dream. And wasn't there a giant in The Tempest?

I would be self-publishing. I would probably use Lulu.com since I've heard good things about it from various sources.
If I finish editing both Parts before June, however, I might consider using the Createspace code from NaNoWriMo (given to the winners). I heard it's pretty hard to figure out, though.
Also, I heard somewhere that as well as sending you five free copies, it publishes your work on Amazon for all to see? I have no clue if that is true or not. If someone out there knows, please tell me!

Anyway, there are all my authorly plans out in the open.

Would you like to read the prologue of Defenders of the Realm even though it isn't very good? Should I self-publish? What about the possible historical inaccuracies (I know so little about Shakespeare's time, I don't even know if there are any huge inaccuracies)? Also, would you like to hear more about After the Twelfth Night? Perhaps meet some of the characters?
Answer away! I would love to hear your thoughts.

Live long and prosper!