Wake Me Up When September Ends

Yikes, I don't know how it's been so long since the last post! Shameful.

Updates!!

• Nearly finished with Chapter 12 of The Whale and the Tree, and am nearing the end of the second draft. Just two chapters and an epilogue left to go!! There's a lot of new material in Chapter 13, but with any luck it won't give me too much grief. I am determined to finish this thing by September 30, because heaven knows I need at least a month to sort out my novel idea for NaNoWriMo. Plus, I'm not letting myself buy any NaNo goodies until I get done, and I'm anxious for a spiffy new t-shirt and noveling mug! :-)
  

• I've adopted a handful of new students, and am now driving all over the COUNTRY. Henry is performing admirably, of course, and I have lots more time to crank up the tunes, so it's working out fairly well.

• Speaking of cranking up the tunes, have I mentioned how much I adore The Fratellis' album Here We Stand? 'Cause I do. Their songs are ridiculously catchy, and what with clever lyrics and a sort of classic 60s rock feel coupled with the bleeding through of fabulous Scottish accents, I really don't know how a CD could be any better. :-) These songs go around in my head for days.

• I have fabulous new purple shoes. Just saying.

• Watched the movie Wit the other night, starring Emma Thompson, and... holy gut wrenching, Batman! Amazing movie, flawless screenplay, and Emma T. acted her socks off, but yikes, not for the faint of heart. Needless to say, I bawled.

I do believe that's about it for now... More updates as soon as I FINISH the second draft! WOOT!!

Gamwyn

Once Upon a September

Well, ladies and chaps, we are now nine whole days into September. No excessively interesting news to report, I fear, but I will do my best to fill up a little space so's I don't lose my readership. :-)

Editing:
I figured out I needed to do two chapters a week of Whale and the Tree to have the second draft finished by the end of September, and at the moment am two and a half chapters behind. :-( Currently in Chapter Seven, and prose is being difficult. One forgets that small changes in behavior/plot/characterization affect everything and sometimes requires scenes one intended to remain unaltered having to be entirely rewritten. Argh. Working on the Wen/Talia thread and nearly ready to dump Talia in the ocean. Well, in two more chapters anyway. Then there will be a number of new scenes with the Whale of the title, and after all is said and done some expansion at the end and an added Epilogue to tie everything together. So. Lots left to do.

Other:
Watched Under the Greenwood Tree last night, starring Keeley Hawes. A charming movie, if bordering on the slightly ridiculous, but I enjoyed it immensely. Only question on my mind is, has there ever, in the history of real life, been three men in love with/proposing marriage to one girl at the same time? Good grief.

*remembers being guilty of once planning out a scene where a female main character gets three marriage proposals one after another the same evening and shuts up*

Went ice-skating on Saturday with all the lovely folks from the College & Career group at me church. Fun was had by all, despite loud, obnoxious music (the general public should really let me pick their music for them, as they have no taste and I do and therefore am quallified to help them), dizzying lights, and a rather over-crowded rink. One of my aspirations in life is to go ice-skating outdoors in the winter time. Obviously that will involve a move at some point. At any rate, it was nice to wear jeans and a sweatshirt again. In two more months I'll be able to wear pants and long sleeves for real. Maybe.

LESS THAN TWO MONTHS TILL NANOWRIMO!! Ackkk!

Worth a Thousand Words

And now I give you... THINGS I DID THIS WEEK (in pictures):

• Bought a notebook for nanowrimo (I start a new one for each successive novel; it's an excellent excuse to buy notebooks):

• Made a Masque (which exudes coolness):
  

• Watched Spirited Away (random and bizarre but gorgeous and strangely touching at the same time):
  

• and Kung Fu Panda (ha. FUNNY.):

• Read Austenland (amusing):

• and Forever in Blue, aka Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 4 (I actually liked the movie better, but at least now I know how they compare):

• Worked on the novel. I'm now finished with Chapter 5 of Part Two--nine chapters left to go! I'll definitely finish by the end of September, but the hoped for middle-of-the-month completion is not looking very likely at this point. Boo.

Edits, Pants, and Vampire Rants

So at some point I'll figure out how to make my header image the correct size. In the meantime, I apologize for making all of you tech-savy people out there cringe. :-)

But that's not the reason for this blog. The reason is... **duh duh DUHHHH** I finished editing Part One of The Whale and the Tree last night! Hip hip hooray!! I've gone back and read bits of it, and I'm quite happy with the changes I've made so far. It definitely feels like a stronger novel so far, with 50% less saltwater and 74% less melodrama (did you know that 83.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot?). Hacked through the first chapter of Part Two this morning, so there's only thirteen chapters left. *groan* I'm expecting everything to go pretty smoothly until I hit Chapter Five, when my adding/rearranging will kick in full force. Current word count is: 111,052, which is about 7k longer than the original draft. I'm thinking there will be somewhere around 9-10k added in Part Two, so hopefully this thing won't end up any longer than circa 120k. Hmm. We'll see I guess.

In other news...

I saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 this weekend, and I must admit it made me cry. *sniffles* I never read the fourth book and now I kinda want to, just to see how it relates to the movie; there were bits from books two and three in there, and I'm curious if the rest was from book four or if it was invented for the movie.

What is the big deal with the Twilight books, I mean seriously? Anything vampire makes me roll my eyes anyway, but man, has the public in general lost their minds? I read the first couple of pages and was immediately put off by the MC, a girl from Phoenix, who was moaning and groaning that she had to move to Washington state because she loved Arizona and especially the "blistering heat." Um I'm sorry, but no. I understand that there are people who don't mind the summers as much as I do, but no one actually adores blistering heat. If they tell you that, they're lying. Phoenix hate aside, everything I hear about these books makes me want to barf. Edward whatever-his-name-is sounds like a rather abusive boyfriend, and the whole scenario seems overly melodramatic. Yesterday Jenny told me the content of the latest addition to the saga, Breaking Dawn (not that she's read it; she was reading about it online) and wow. I really don't understand what people see in these books.

I often peruse the shelves of the Young Adult Fantasy sections at my local bookstore. I adore YA fantasy, which is why I write it. But let's face it. Sometimes it sucks. I don't know if this bodes well for my chances of getting published or not. In comparison to current YA fantasy, The Whale and the Tree has:

• No vampires
• No werewolves
• No fairies
• No elves
• No wizards
  
• No telepathic dragons
• No quests for lost objects
• No secret identities
• No epic bloody battles.

And yes. It is possible to write a fantasy novel without including any of the above.

Anyways, enough ranting. Gotta brush my teeth and head off to piano lessons.

Offended by crappy fiction,

Gamwyn

January Twenty the Seventh

So here's a fun game for all of you Wikipedia lovers out there (thanks to Jenny, who tagged me). Look up your birthdate (month and year), then choose four events, three births, two deaths, and one holiday amongst the ones listed and post them on your own blog. You might learn some fascinating things. :-) So, without further ado, I give you in all its glory the illustrious

January Twenty the Seventh:

Events:

1. 1142 - Wrongful execution of noted Song Dynasty General Yue Fei.
2. 1186 - Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, weds Constance of Sicily.
3. 1825 - U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears."
4. 1967 - Apollo program: Apollo 1 - Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger ChaffeeKennedy Space Center are killed in a fire during a test of the spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center.

(there's a lot of death and horribleness in here. Sad. :-( One wedding, at least.)

Births:

1. 1756 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (d. 1791)
2. 1832 - Lewis Carroll, English author (d. 1898)
3. 1948 - Jean-Philippe Collard, French pianist

(I didn't know I shared a birthday with Lewis Carroll. Cool. I think there's music/writing in my blood. Or something.)

Deaths:

1. 1901 - Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (b. 1813)
2. 1595 - Sir Francis Drake, European explorer (b. c.1540)

(More music. And I knew I was destined to travel the world!)

Holidays:

In the UK, Germany, Poland, Italy, and Denmark, January 27th is Holocaust Remembrance/Memorial Day. I did not know this either.

Anyways, kudos to Jenny for the tag!

Almost finished with the next-to-last-chapter in Part One,

Gamwyn

Book of a Thousand Days/Editing Update

I just finished Shannon Hale's Book of a Thousand Days this evening and I LOVED it. Don't know what else to say really, except go pick up a copy right now!! The prose is beautiful and rhythmic, the plot fascinating--and surprising!--and the characters well-drawn. Such a rich work of prose, Shannon Hale completely draws you in, her histories and background compelling, her world believable. It starts out when lady's maid Dashti and Lady Saren get shut up in a tower for seven years because Saren refuses to marry the suitor chosen for her. Dashti keeps an account of their adventures in her journal, and the imprisonment in the tower turns out to be just the beginning...

That's all I'm going to say. Don't want to spoil anything. :-)

On the editing front, I started Chapter Eleven today. Sadly didn't get very far, partly because I'm slightly stuck, but mostly because I got super interested in the aforementioned Book of a Thousand Days and had to sit down and read the remaining three-quarters of it before I could think about anything else. :-) But. Only two chapters to go before the end of Part One. I really want to make it by this weekend, but that would involve seriously getting my butt in gear. So we'll see.

Discovered this site about literary agents a couple of days ago. Quite helpful, but rather overwhelming, too. I'm realizing that this is not exactly going to be an easy process. BUT I know it's possible and I'm determined to do it just the same. The Whale and the Tree will be hitting bookstores within the next couple of years. *gets out her determined eyes*

Other than that not too much to report, I fear. Still enjoying Imrahil. I have my first piano lesson since May tomorrow, and am getting slightly nervous. Hopefully it'll go well, I've been practicing Chopin and Beethoven quite furiously!

It rained tonight, a little. The sky was glorious and dark, with bits of setting sun peeping through and I went for a walk and got almost-but-not-quite soaked. It was quite refreshing. I don't think anything is as beautiful as rain in the desert. Regrettably, it didn't last more than fifteen or twenty minutes, but you gotta take what you can get I guess.

And I think that about wraps it up.

Rainy thoughts to you and yours,

Gamwyn

When all else fails, just use cloth

So I've been stuck in the same scene in The Whale and the Tree since Saturday. This is not good, as I'm really really hoping to have part one finished by August 15th, and I still have almost five whole chapters to rewrite. Eek.

It was a brand new scene, and I was quite excited about it initially (it all sounded quite brilliant in my head), but I couldn't seem to get my characters where they needed to be in the conversation. I wrote the beginning, I wrote the end, but I couldn't for the life of me find a middle. So I did what anybody would do in my situation. I asked Jenny for help.

She had a very sensible solution: Just use cloth.

This sounded excellent, but even then I was having trouble with the execution* of the cloth, and she had another sensible suggestion: write a Teen Girl Squad version of the scene. So I did. And it worked. And I am now unstuck. Below is the silly version, for your enlightenment, er, amusement.

*No actual cloth was harmed in the writing of this scene.

The Scene

Talia (the heroine), Caiden (she loves him), Wen (she's betrothed to him), and the Countess (her mother) are having tea.

Wen: “I think you should treat your daughter better.”

Countess: “I’m going to be your mother-in-law. I’m scary, manipulative and demanding. Watch what you say around me.”

Wen: “Sorry.”

Countess: “Speaking of weddings, do you have cloth?”

Wen: “Why yes, I do have cloth. Funny you should mention that. I certainly haven’t forgotten this long-standing tradition, but I have felt much too awkward and shy around Talia to actually present her with the cloth. See, I love her, but she loves my brother, and that doesn’t really work out for me.”

Countess: “I don’t care. Get her the cloth.”

Wen: “Okay.”

*Sends servant for cloth*

*Servant brings cloth*

*Wen gives Talia cloth*

Talia: “Um I don’t really want this.”

Countess: “Too bad. Don’t forget, you were contracted to marry him by the Empress who really would have no way of knowing if you didn’t marry him, so you’d better do it.”

Caiden: “I feel awkward.”

Talia: “I feel awkward.”

Wen: “I feel awkward.”

Countess: “I feel powerful. I like controlling people’s lives.”

Talia: “I can’t stand this awkward conversation anymore. I’m going to pretend I’m tired and gracefully excuse myself.”

Countess: “Kiss Wen.”

Talia: “Um, no.”

Countess: “Do it.”

*Talia kisses Wen*

Talia: “That was awkward.”

Wen: “That was awkward.”

Caiden: “That was awkward.”

Talia: “I’m leaving now.”

*Talia runs away, tears cascading liberally down her cheeks as her heart feels like it’s being splintered into a thousand pieces, dashed to the floor, ground into paste, forged into glass, and shattered eleven or twelve times after that*

The End

So that is that. Didn't really turn out all that Teen Girl Squad-ish, but it certainly got the job done. Props to Jenny. Rest of Chapter Eight... Prepare to die!!

More peculiar than usual tonight,

Gamwyn