IN SUMMMEEERRRRRR

My mom and I are in Minnesota with the grandparents. Those who are familiar with Midwest summers may find it strange to hear that it's nice to escape the heat in the Pacific Northwest to the coolness of Minnesota! It's been about 70 degrees with a cold wind the past few days. At home on the west coast it's been in the 80s and 90s the past few days!
So what have I been up to?

Writing:
I've been getting a lot of writing-relating things done in the past month! In June, I wrote a Sleeping Beauty retelling. My motivation for this was for this story was Rooglewood Press' writing contest, but I don't know if I'll end up submitting it. I'm not sure it's Sleeping Beauty-ish enough. However, I fully plan on editing it in July (and perhaps sending it to a beta reader or two?) and, if I decide not to enter it in the contest, share it via installments on my blog. 
I've also just finished a whirlwind week of editing/beta-ing a book for a friend. Now that I'm finished, I have more time to work on my own projects. Not only will I be editing my Sleeping Beauty story this month, but I will also be working on my fantasy story. Remember that mysteriously hinted-at story that I wrote last year? Probably not, because I'm far too secretive about my writing and don't tell you anything.
Back in March I did a post proposing my editing plan for my fantasy story. I started Step Two—"Go through story again, this time writing down each scene on a separate note card. Also, note (in the notebooks) all character traits and quirks with sticky notes"—and got through the first notebook (of three) and then realized my plan wasn't working. I had written out, scene-by-scene, the first twenty or so (out of sixty-some) chapters and I already had fifty or sixty note cards! That was too many! So, I cut up all the note cards that I had already written out (because I'm that paranoid that someone will steal my ideas. That's why I don't talk much about my writing on my blog, too) and decided to write out a synopsis of each chapter on separate note card instead.

The cut-up note cards.

I began writing out the chapter synopsis' the other day and it's going so much quicker than it was when I was writing out each scene! I've already gotten through one notebook and am hoping to get through the second one by tomorrow night. After I finish writing out each scene, I am planning on going through them all and changing the ones that need changing (filling in plot holes and such).

Then I will rewrite it and it will be so great that I will feel confidant enough to share it with a few select people. And then, taking their suggestions in mind, will continue editing until the book is finished. And then, I will publish it and it will become the next New York bestseller. And then, I will take over the publishing world and make millions of dollars and then it will be turned into a movie and then the next best seller will come along and I will be all alone in my New York apartment rocking back and forth on my knees wondering what went wrong while surrounded by ten cheap, knock-off sequels to the first book that I wrote to try and reclaim some of my former fame.

...I may be a tad overconfident.

Reading: 

I am currently reading...
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas. However, I fear that this one may have to be put on hold until August. This month, I have too many other things to read! I'm really enjoying it thus far, though. Alexander Dumas is funny!
Mistborn: The final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. This was my June fantasy read for my 2015 reading challenge. Oh, dear, I'm falling behind. Anyway... Mistborn is FANTASTIC! Any fan of fantasy should pick up this book. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a really long time. (I especially think one of my cousins would enjoy this book... once he finishes with Wheel of Time, of course. :D).
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This is one of my favorite books. I'm rereading it before the sequel comes out (ONE MORE WEEK!!!). We are planning on going to Sioux Falls to pick it up and I'm so excited!
The Gershwins by Robert Kimball. This is my nonfiction for the month. It is a book all about my favorite person and his brother: George and Ira Gershwin! I love this book because it has SO many pictures of George Gershwin that you wouldn't normally see, including pictures of his paintings.

"Self-portrait in an Opera Hat" by George Gershwin. Did you know that he was a painter as well as a brilliant composer? And he never had an art lesson in his life.

What I will be reading soon...
Homecoming by Christie Golden. This is a Star Trek novel that tells what happens after Voyager returns to earth (because the TV series ends as they enter earth's orbit). This one has to go back to the library in the next two or three weeks so I need to start it soon!
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn, book 2.
From the Earth to the Moon (& Around the Moon) by Jules Verne. This is my reading challenge book for July. I haven't started it yet. Whoops. Since August's book is Cinder by Marissa Meyer (I changed it from an Isaac Asimov book, which I still plan to read this year), I think I will survive if this month's book trickles into August, like June's book has trickled into July.

Playing: 
I was SO happy to stop playing my senior recital songs! After playing solely the same songs for six-nine months, I was desperate for new music. Now, I'm playing a boogie woogie version of "Awesome God" by Rich Mullins; "The Russian Rag," which is a ragtime version of Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# Minor" (which I played for my recital); and another Claude Debussy song: Arabesque no. 1.

So, what have YOU been up to this summer?

Live long and prosper.

Writing update: March 2015

In December I "finished" the fantasy novel I wrote in 2014 (I say "finished" because I got nearly to the end battle and then gave up, because I desperately needed to get my plot, characters, and world developed before I could continue writing).
Then, I posted my plan for planning, re-writing, and editing that novel. I finished the first step on Thursday night!

Step 1- Read through book, writing down inconsistencies, plot holes, and disappearing details. Also, taking note of changing scenes by separating them by a line.
Step 2- Go through story again, this time writing down each scene on a separate note card. Also, note (in the notebooks) all character traits and quirks with sticky notes.
Step 3- Arrange, rearrange, add, and subtract note card scenes. Eventually, come up with a detailed outline, complete with places for theme and character and plot development (via sticky notes attached to the note cards). Do world building on this step as well.
Step 4- Rewrite.
Step 5- Analyze. (Send to beta readers?)
Step 6- Rewrite and analyze some more.
Step 7- Edit. Copiously.
Step 8- Decide what to do with brilliant, finished manuscript.

Overall, the novel is much better than I anticipated, as far as the actual writing goes. The plot, however, is another subject. It could—and does—go so many ways! I think I've figured out which way is best, though, which makes me excited! My next step is to write out a summary of that plot and then start going through the book again, writing down scenes and looking for character traits (as step #2 says). I'm hoping to have this step done by June (July at the latest). Then, over the summer, I can work on an outline and world building. After that, I can rewrite! I'm hoping to have the second draft done by the end of the year. Then I can send it out to beta readers and get their opinions on the story and characters.

Meanwhile, I have some other writing projects looming on the horizon. First: Camp NaNoWriMo in April!

This is 2013's banner, because I don't think they've issued 2015 ones yet.

I'm going to be writing the fourth book in that one spyish series that I've mentioned millions of times. I don't know what to call it, because Daniel and Varina aren't spies, but they aren't secret agents either. They aren't detectives and they aren't really investigators. Mostly, they do paperwork, and undertake missions for a super secret government agency which specializes in finding important information.
Although this series lacks in plot (for the most part), it makes up for it in the characters. Daniel and Varina are the characters that I hold closest to my heart (sorry After the Twelfth Night and 2014 Fantasy Story and unwritten Steampunk Novel casts). They are probably the most developed of any of my characters and I love exploring their friendship and their dynamics with their families.
One of the characters—Andrew—is the first character I ever created. He's jumped from series to series, always staying relatively the same, and he ended up paired with Daniel and Varina. 
I have three Daniel and Varina novels written already, with the help of NaNoWriMo's of yesteryear. This fourth one follows Daniel and Varina as they go to London, to help Daniel's snobby, rich family with some sort of plot problem that I haven't come up with yet. To make matters worse, Varina has fallen and broken her leg, and her sister Beatrice has invited herself to come along to London to be Varina's caretaker.

From our trip.

Are any of you working on any exciting projects? 

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...

 

A post about a whole bunch of random stuff.

Books first.
I finished seven books this month, although two of them were the same book.... (I read The Great Gatsby twice, as I mentioned before). Three of the books I finished yesterday! The Old Man And The Sea, which I did not particularly care for.... Kailey (and American Girl Doll book. It wasn't all that long. Neither was Old Man and the Sea). Also, A Hero for WondLa, the second book in the WondLa trilogy. I didn't like it as much as the first one. I think it was because of the weird Mother thing in the middle of the Wandering Forest. That was just weird. And Loroc is so creepy! But cool. He makes a cool villain.
Finishing all those books meant that I was only reading two books - and we can't have that! So I started two more. Fever Crumb, by the VERY talented Mr. Philip Reeve. I just finished chapter 5 and I'm really enjoying it! I also started A Year Down Yonder, which is the sequel to A Long Way From Chicago (both by Richard Peck). They are AMAZING books! Super funny... with a trigger-happy grama and illegal cat-fishing and small town charm... go read them.

Now onto writing:
My goal for this month was to edit Part One of After the Twelfth Night.
Done! Yay! I actually finished ten or twelve days ago, so I decided to read through it again, just in case I caught anything else.... and BOY I'm so glad I did. Here's a few of the typos I found....

Pirates are attacking and Matthias says: "Quick! We need a plant!" Instead of 'plan.' I guess a plant could work too... FIGHT THE PIRATE SHIP WITH THE RUMOR WEED! MWAHAHAHAHA. *ahem*
Then, possibly the worst typo EVER! "I'm going to accompany her to Illyria because I don't want her to go alive." Instead of 'alone.'

 

Anyway, Part One is now done for now. I also decided to make the book three parts, instead of two. Because otherwise, Part Two would be TONS longer than Part One. Plus, each part has its own set of characters and its own different location. Now I'm hoping that the parts will be more even in terms of word count/pages.
ALSO I emailed my editors. You know who you are. Some of you have replied... but some of you haven't. I would really like a reply as soon as possible. If you didn't get my email, tell me in a comment and I'll send it again.
Basically I was asking how you like to edit and if you wanted me to send each part separately (so it doesn't look like you have so much work to do :P).
A couple of you said yes, send it in parts. So if the rest of you want me to send it in parts... great! Part One is finished, as I keep on saying; and I wouldn't mind getting it sent off sometime in June, while I'm busy at work with Part Two and Three.

Which brings it to my June writing goals:
Edit Parts Two and Three with my mom and get them sent off to editors by July 14 (when we go camping). This is going to be a bit hard... Because several parts in Part Two need re-writing (aka, just expanding on the idea... showing, not telling the reader). It probably won't be that hard... but I really don't want to do it. I just need to sit down a GET TO IT! But I'm also a bit worried that I won't get Parts Two and Three done by July 14. After all, I took a month to do Part One... Of course, I wasn't editing every day.... procrastination. Heh heh. I also have to change some plot stuff so it corresponds with Part One.
To clear up some trouble: I haven't really made it clear what After the Twelfth Night is. It is basically the continuation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Maybe I'll do a post on that later... But yes, it can be seen as a sequel of sorts with Shakespeare's characters and my own characters mixed together.

In other news... Jack tagged all her followers! It's that elevensies tag again... where you have to do 11 random things about yourself, then answer 11 questions, then make up 11 questions, then tag 11 people.
I'm not going to do it that way.
Instead I'm going to do one fact. I got a new bookshelf today! Which is good because my other one was overflowing:

 

Things were stacked on top of each other, on the floor, and behind each other (which I personally HATE!)
My new bookshelf is much wider and taller (six shelves instead of five!) and nearly fits all my books.....

 



At the top is the Vancouver Sun classics, and some other classics (like The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, some Robert Louis Stevenson, Robin Hood, Pride and Prejudice and Swiss Family Robinson).
Second shelf is Tolkien, then C.S. Lewis, then books I enjoyed when I was younger (and still enjoy!), then my mini E. Nesbit collection, and some more classics (Uncle Tom's Cabin, To Kill A Mockingbird, and The Great Gatsby).
Third shelf is mysteries (Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, and the No Place Like Holmes books) then some dystopian-ish stuff (The Alliance and The Freedom Factor by Gerald N. Lund and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury) and then some random stuff (Inkheart, Princess Bride, Watership Down....) then my Steampunk (Miss Jack Lewis Baillot, Behemoth and Goliath, and Larklight which I found at the thrift store the other day!).
Fourth shelf is comics (Tintin, Calvin and Hobbes, and Garfield) then some Christian books (Do Hard Things, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Crater) and finally, my collection of Shakespeare stuff.
Fifth shelf has all my Warriors books in chronological order (yay! I'm happy about that). There's also Varjak Paw on the fifth shelf, which is also a book about cats that live in gangs as opposed to the Warriors who live in the woods.
The last shelf is my American Girl books.
Whew!
My Grama commented once, "Our school librarian once said.. you always have a friend if you have a book. My, you have a lot of friends. And keep getting more!"
Books really are my friends! And if I can continue to get them cheap at the thrift store, I'll continue buying them. =)

Sometime in the near future we're going to move my desk (erm, my thing to stack other things on top of) out my room, and move my other bookshelf back in. I'll have to do some more rearranging then.

 

For Jack's 11 questions, she did something different. She did 11 movie quotes. The people tagged have to guess which movie they came from!

Here I go... wish me luck....

1. "Whew! I thought you were dead!"
I have absolutely no clue. I feel like I should know, though. It isn't Star Trek, is it?

 

 2. "Look! I've found a place where you can put things! It's called a cupboard!"

Is this from Merlin? I haven't seen Merlin... but I think I remember once that you put this quote up your blog and said it was from Merlin. Either that or a saw it online as a picture. My guess is Merlin. Or Psych. Those are my two guesses. Psych and Merlin. I feel like the Spanish Inquisition.

 

 

 3. "Helloooo! I can hear you!"

TINTIN!

I don't know if that's right or not... But in the Castafiore Emerald, Captain Haddock (I think), Iago the parrot, AND Castafiore herself says it.

Whenever I see/hear "hellooooo! I can hear you!" Tintin is the one I think of.

 

 4. "If you had killed Watson you would not have left this room alive."

This one is easy. Sherlock Holmes! The Three Garridebs.

 5. "You're saying I look like a toad?" "Yes. Maybe you will be magically turned into a handsome prince. But since magic is banned it probably won't happen."

I don't know this one either... I'm just gonna randomly guess the new Princess/Frog Disney movie... or Enchanted.

 

 6. "I told you, it will keep and keep and keep and keep!"

Nor this one.

 

 7. "Here's your pan, here's your frog."

Tangled? I think it's from Tangled.

 

 8. "Dishonour on you! Dishonour on your cow!"

Another easy one. Mulan!

 

 

 9. "Should we be hysterical?!" "YES!" "NO!" "Maybe!"

This is another one I feel I should know.

 

 10. "Your mother was a computer and your father an encyclopedia!"

And another one! This one wouldn't happen to be from Arthur would it? Fern's Slumber Party? The scene where she "invents" a supercomputer...

 11. "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes."

This sounds superhero-ish. But since the only super hero movie I've ever seen is The Incredibles, I don't know.

 

I'm not tagging anyone.

 

How about you guys? How do you store your books? Nicely on shelves? In boxes? Do you have your own bookshelf? Does it bug you when you have to stack your books one on top of the other on the shelf when there isn't any room left? Does it bug you when you have to put them one in front of the other to make them fit (like, double rows)?

And editors: don't forget to answer my email!

 

 

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. =)

My writing plan.

I've been sitting here in the living room writing.... A rain shower just passed through and I was watching it. The trees were dancing and the ferns were rattling. The rain was coming down hard and sideways, pounding against the windows, begging to come in and get everything soggy.
Now the shower has passed and the sun is setting..... The world is a pinky-reddish color out the front window. In the back everything is standing out sharply against a backdrop of dark grayish-purple skies.
It's quite pretty.

A few days ago I mentioned a writing plan I had come up with.... I shall now present you with it so you guys can keep me accountable (and that I can keep myself accountable too!). I'll do this month by month (and just by the way... during all my own writing stuff, I will most definitely keep up the editing that my friend's give me to read! It really is an honor.):

April: Finish Camp NaNoWriMo.

May: Start work on Part One of After the Twelfth Night. Most of the stuff in here it just fine.... I just need to broaden it and make it a little bit longer - add some more character development.... that sort of thing.

June: Work with Mom on Part Two of After the Twelfth Night.

July: Finish up work on Part One and Part Two if needed.... And send off to those who have offered to edit/go through it for me (THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU GUYS!!!!) before July 14.

August: Wait for editors to send it back... lalalala... Once I receive the edited stuff, I shall start implementing the changes.

September: Go through, changing the things my editors think need to be changed (if I agree with them, hee hee :P). Then go through it one or two more times with my mom (and maybe have Daddy read through it once too).

October: See the above.

November: Hopefully publish on November 1 - the day that NaNoWriMo starts! Also, do NaNoWriMo.

December: Take a well deserved break from writing.

So there is my plan.

And just something random... I got the CUTEST socks at Wal-Mart today!