Monthly Archives: January 2011

Stolen Lives

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This book definitely makes my top 24 books.  It’s by Malika Oufkir. 

I first read it in high school, and reread it a couple years ago.  It’s about Malika’s time as a companion to Princess Amina (the daughter of a Moroccan king), and her time at the palace.  It also covers 20 years in different prisons, getting shuttled from prison to prison, and her escape from prison, a house arrest after escaping from prison, and ends with a final escape to freedom. 

It’s definitely a good read and I couldn’t put it down.  It’s amazing what she and her family went through.  The fact that she and her family were political prisoners for so long…I can’t even wrap my brain around the fact that they saved up their rations to make cakes and made toys out of cardboard.  That even though they were in prison, they celebrated holidays and their birthdays.  That Malika considered herself to be a member of the royal family, and that she was the daughter of the kings closest aide, and then to spend 20 in prison because her father led a coup against the king…It couldn’t have been easy for her.  To have to choose between her biological father and her adoptive father…

It’s definitely in my top 15- I’m not sure where in the top 15 but that’s definitely where it is, if I had to put them in order.

The Colors of Happiness

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Writing Prompt: What colour makes you think of happiness?

It’s a toss-up between yellow and blue.

I know yellow is such a cliche, but it’s such a happy color.  It makes me think of summer and rollerblading up and down the street, and hanging upside on the bar that we had in the backyard. 

As for blue…let’s see.  It’s definitely a very calming color, and when I’m calm, I’m pretty happy.  Plus, blue makes me think of the sky, and the beach.  Not that I really go to the beach, because I’m way too self-conscious to actually wear a bathing suit, and wearing a t-shirt and shorts at the beach is just silly.  Plus, I’m too lazy to drive to the beach. 

Anyway, blue.  And yellow.  Together, they make me think of sunny days, and sunny days make me happy.  Seriously.  I feel a lot more depressed when it’s raining and cloudy.

There isn’t anything else to report as far as writing or reading goes.

Birthdays

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Writing Prompt: How do you feel when it’s your birthday? Why?

I’m pretty ambivalent about my birthday.  It was cool when I was a kid (which really wasn’t that long ago) because of birthday parties and cake and everything.  Now I’m like, meh.  Like my 21st birthday was…pretty abnormal, from the way I’ve heard some friends talk about it.  My reaction was, “I can drink?  Big deal.”  But then again, my grandpa didn’t drink anything, and my mom and my grandma did very rarely, like only at birthdays or other special occasions. 

But back to celebrating my birthday.  I’m not sure why I’m not big on celebrating my birthday, but it’s seriously not a big deal to me.  My idea of a fun birthday is watching a movie and going to the bookstore.  Or something like that.  I really have an odd idea of fun.

In Other News:

I added about 200 words or so to Turning Point yesterday, and it was pretty exciting.  I think it may have been the spark I needed to get back on the novel-writing train, because I’m more excited about getting back to work on everything than I have been in a while. 

And I’ve already done my once-a-month baked good resolution: yet another chocolate chip cookie.  It’s a lot different than any other chocolate chip cookie I’ve made- I really love chocolate chip cookies.  They tend to be my default thing I bring to parties.  And I make everything from scratch.  Or I try to anyway.  Stuff made from scratch just seems to taste better than the boxed stuff from the store.    

Dustin Ellis Sullivan

Posted in Character Spotlight, Turning Point by

So, Dustin is one of Kiora’s secret service agents.  I don’t have an exact age for him, but he’s in his late 20’s (at the youngest).  Estimating his age was such a pain that I gave up, especially since there were a lot of different variables that frustrated me. 

So Dustin is around 6’4″ making him pretty tall (at least, compared to my height, which is 4’10).  His hometown is Austin, Texas, and has a degree is psychology.  His major is something that I definitely want to change, as psychology is a little too cliche for my tastes.  He tends to be pretty extroverted, and is pretty judgemental of others.  He can be pretty emotional but he also tends to be stoic- it just depends on what’s going on.  He’s really self-confident. 

His favorite colors are blue and brown, he likes Italian food, dogs, darts and Christmas.  He hats cats, board games, apple cider, hair products, and pudding.  He’s scared of needles and heights.  And according to my notes, minored in math, which is weird because I distinctly remember him making some comment about how Kiora’s weird because she likes math.

Chloe Douglas

Posted in Character Spotlight, Wildflower by

Chloe is definitely one of my favorite characters, and one that is very near and dear to my heart.  She was the main character in my 2006 (and very first!) NaNo. 

She definitely has a lot in common with me, and she was partly based off me.  I made up a lot of stuff about her life, but there are also a lot of things that happened to me that I ended up writing in.

So she’s an only child, lived with her grandparents and mom until they died, and never knew her dad.  She tends to bottle things up, tends to cry a lot, and avoids dealing with things.  She hates conflict, and only deals with it when she has to. 

Her deepest, darkest secret is that by the time she’s no longer taking of anyone, and is fully on her own, she’ll be too old to care that she can finally live her own life.  She’s definitely motivated by fear, and is scared of change and being alone.  She has more family issues than she knows what to do with.

I never did a fun facts sheet for her, mostly because I didn’t have time, but she is a writer and wants to be a best-selling author.

Random Stuff!

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I have a general idea of when I want to work on everything- Monday/Wednesday/Friday for already written novels, Tuesday/Thursday for planning/writing prompts and Saturday/Sunday, I’ll either take a break or work on whatever I feel like working on.  I need some kind of structure, and I figure it’ll be easier to focus my attention on each project if I have specific days to work on everything.  It really makes me glad I have my binder, because it’ll be a great way to keep everything organized. 

My writing “schedule” isn’t etched in stone or anything, so I’ll change it when I feel like I need to but I definitely need to get working on everything because I feel weird not working on my NaNo novels and my long-forgotten fanfics. 

Part of it is definitely my inner editor.  It’s like there’s this voice telling me that my projects aren’t worth working on (even though they are!) because they’re crap.  I’ve never finished anything I’ve started, but I am determined this time, because I like some of what I’m written, and I really want to see these projects to the end of the 1st draft.

I do have another fanfic idea.  It’s really more of an inkling, than an actual idea, so I might work on it, I might not.  At the rate I’m racking up these plot bunnies, I might have to do my own version of NaNo in some other month.  Or…I could use script frenzy as my way of getting started on these ideas.  But instead of doing a script, I could write a novel or two.

Socks!

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Today is another writing prompt day!

Today’s Prompt: What would you do if your new shoes felt fine in the store but now they are hurting?

I’ve lost track of how many times that has happened to me!  It’s pretty much been when I’ve tried to break in new flats at work.  Usually it takes a couple days to break them in because I’d stand and walk around a lot, but then I was fine.  Band-aids helped, as did those liner sock things.  The ones that go over your feet and are no-show?  Those were definitely a lifesaver, and saved me a lot of band-aids and time trying to find new pairs of shoes.  Not that having a lot of shoes is a problem, but it frustrating breaking in new shoes at work. 

And speaking of socks, I’ve taken to wearing patterned socks lately.  And mismatching them!  Not that I wear socks often, since I pretty much wear flip-flops all the time, but if I’m going to wear socks at home, why not mismatch?  It’s not like anyone is going to see.  And I like to think that I’m honoring Dobby’s memory by doing so. 

In other news, I’ve expanded my top ten book list to 24, which I’ll post at some point.  I was aiming for 25 books, but I failed to come up with a 25th book, so I’ll leave it at 24 for now. 

I’ve settled on a schedule for all my novels and projects, but I have yet to stick to it.  I have been writing in my journal, and I’ve been updating my blog (obviously, right?), so I have been writing, it just hasn’t been anything super creative.  The main problem I have is actually sitting down and doing it- I have no problem during November, so it shouldn’t be a problem the rest of the year.  I think it’s a mental thing. 

I also haven’t read any of November’s novels, which is weird because usually I’ve read them by now.  They should be pretty entertaining once I get around to it- anytime I need a good laugh, I try to re-read my NaNo novels because the stuff that I end up writing is always a surprise.

Why I Write

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Today’s post is devoted completely to why I love writing and reading.  No blog about writing is complete without me talking about why I write.

I’ve written in journals since I was about 12, and in high school, I started (but never finished) a couple harry potter fanfics and a couple original stories, plus I wrote a lot of poetry. 

I was diagnosed with depression when I was 17, but looking through my old journals, it’s definitely been there since I was 12.  And when my grandpa was sick when I was in college, I was the main caregiver for him.

Writing was my best (and at the time, only) way of dealing with everything going on around me, and my way of getting the ideas floating around my head out onto paper.  

Since I felt like I couldn’t talk about what was going on (semi-long story, but it boils down to family issues), I turned to writing, since it’s my way of expressing myself, and working out what I was feeling and writing about everything going on around me, even when I didn’t understand what was going on.

It’s definitely an important part of my life, and November reminded me how much I love writing, and that I do need to write on a regular basis.  Even if I don’t write everyday, it’s still something that I need to do.  One of my earliest memories is of my grandpa taking me to the library every week.  He loved reading, and my love of learning and reading definitely came from him.  Writing definitely became an offshoot of that, mainly because I’d finish reading a boook, and wonder what happen to the characters after the book ended.  Or I’d wonder what would have happened if event B happened instead of event A. 

So that’s why I started writing, and where I got my love of reading.  And you got to learn a little more about me, which I hope gives some insight into my writing, and the ideas that pop into my head.

Writing Prompt!

Posted in Writing Prompts by

I’ve done a couple writing prompts this year, and they really are fun.  Just writing about the topic kind of de-clutters my brain, and I’m starting to find that it gets my mind going. 

Today’s prompt is: what do you think about while you exercise?

Mostly how long I’ve been there, and much longer I have to go, which is why I try to cover up the timer with my towel, so I don’t think about it.  Not that it stops me from looking every few minutes, because it really doesn’t.  I spend a lot of time thinking about what song I should listen to next.  Or if I happen to be looking at one of the tv screens, whatever I happen to be watching.  Sometimes random stuff that I don’t remember.  Other times it’s stuff I need to do.  It really does depend on what’s going on.

So I’ll be doing different prompts this month, but whether they’ll be continued throughout the year depends on how it goes this month, so we’ll see.

When Plot Bunnies Attack, Part 3

Posted in Other Projects, Post-NaNo Wrap Up by

Today’s edition is about some of the plot bunnies I have just floating around.

  • some variation of a girl who is trying to get away from a terrible home situation; she gets out of it by either leaving in the middle of the night or is saved by someone that she’ll eventually fall in love with
  • one plot bunny I found was about a girl who moves to Starville for school and falls in love with an EMT

I also have a few plot bunnies that came from the most fabulous group of people that I spend my Saturday mornings with, so I didn’t actually come up with these ideas myself.

  • fictional autobiography of someone- using a real person, but making up their life story
  • someone who gets dragged into something (I have accidental spy written down); they’re incompetent but get the job done
  • an amateur detective solving something small (like who stole their wallet) but instead solve something big (like a homicide) 
  • a teen comedy

I definitely will not be working on any of the above ideas for the next year, as I have 6 different novels and 3 potential novels.  Plus, the first couple ideas, I’ve completely lost interest in because it’s something that I’ve gotten out of my system by now.  The ones from the brainstorming thing with my saturday morning grow don’t interest me at the moment, but I’ll just leave them in case they ever grab my attention.