An update

Hi everyone! I'm just popping in to post briefly (or that's the plan...sometimes my plans go awry and I post non-briefly!) so that I can still say I've written one blog post per week for 2011. Yep, one of my writing-related goals this year was to post at least once a week in this blog. I have other goals, but I'm not yet ready to do an assessment of all of them, because I haven't yet achieved all of them.

The Chrysalis Experiment, for example. We have our final prompt (#52) up, and I have yet to write that story. Won't take me long, but I have other stuff I'm concentrating on first and foremost. Namely the fact that I have to revise 4.5 chapters of NAUSICAA, then all 5 appendices (yes, the novel has appendices), in 2.5 days. I've been a real slacker on this so far, but I'm getting there in these last few days of the month. I will achieve my goals, but it will be another case of staggering over the finish line, as I did with this year's NaNoWriMo.

So yes, it will be a busy few days to end off the month for me. And then I'll be in 2012, and will have a bunch of new goals to start working on! I think I will have to do my "2011 wrap-up" on December 31st, or possibly in the new year. Meanwhile, I hope you all had a great Christmas, and that your New Year's Eves are lots of fun! I'm going to be hanging out on a friend's couch in the beautiful Perth hills instead of braving the evil drunken hoards out on the town. I'm way too old for that crap!

Unless I post sooner, see you in 2012!!!

49 short stories

I caught up on those Chrysalis stories! Now I'm just three short stories away from having written 52 short stories in a year (one per week), and from truly earning that sparkly button! Last time I did a Chrysalis stats update, I had written 40 stories. Now I've written 49. Some are finished, some are not. Some are utter crap, and some are not. They're certainly all rough drafts, to go with all the other 'rough draft' material I've written this year. And you know what that means, right? Editing in my future. But not yet. Ohhhh no, not yet.

To be honest, I'm looking forward to Chrysalis being over. I know my fellow participants will understand wholeheartedly. My co-hosts Jenn, Winter and I haven't actually finalised any plans for next year yet, but I do have something planned myself, regardless of what others will be doing. I do hope to have some fellow participants, but I know firsthand what a huge commitment it is, so I won't blame my fellows if they're desperate for a rest.

Here I am, talking like we're finished. We aren't. But we're not far off. Only three weeks, three prompts, and three stories to go. Craaaazy! Just for the record, Scrivener tells me I've written 106,360 words so far. But I'll leave the in-depth reflection on stats and so on for once we're actually done.

Jenni Merritt's debut novel...PRISON NATION!

My blogger friend Jenni Merritt has just released her debut novel, PRISON NATION. You can read all about it here. I haven't bought my copy yet, 'cause I'm waiting for information on autographed copies. heh heh. I've been following Jenni's blog for a while now, and I'm so excited for her about this release! And just look at that cover...which is a DIY cover, by the way! Special, huh? Anyway, congratulations Jenni and I can't wait to get my hands on a print copy! Yes, I like my books physical, what can I say? ;)

I will finish this post by mentioning that I did actually do some...revision... gasp! Not last night, but the night before. And now we have all our prompts up to date for Chrysalis, so I have no excuse for further procrastination there! I better get a move on with December's goals!

Some scribbles for day...16 of NaBloWriMo

Chrysalis wordcount for the year to date: 93,917

Number of stories written: 41

That is all I'll say for now, as I will be doing a proper statistical analysis when the year is over.

Paper edit progress: up to page 84 (start of chapter 17) in the transfer!

Current Scrivener word count: 98,535 (goal is 95k)

And I'm completely serious when I say: that's all, folks!

Except I am a liar, because I must compulsively add a P.S. to mention that I'm currently reading EPIC FAIL by Claire LaZebnik, and enjoying the heck out of it!

Oh, and P.P.S. (didn't you love doing heaps of P.S.s as a teen? i.e. right up into the P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S.s? Or was it just me?) Go NaBloWriMo!

The Chrysalis Experiment - 85,000 words

This year, some friends and I started the Chrysalis Experiment, which I referred to as a year-long foray into the art and science of short story writing. We've posted 36 prompts so far this year, and so far I've written 36 short stories to go along with those prompts. We've had a steady core of participants who have continued to produce stories. Some have fallen behind but have not yet given up. We've got 16 prompts to go (16 weeks), and then we'll earn that sparkly shiny badge up there. But for now, a reflection on how the year has gone for me so far.

I did a word count yesterday, and I had about 86,000 words worth of Chrysalis stories. Yes, some of them blew out beyond 'short story' territory - one story is currently 22k, and not finished - but still, all of them started as a 1k-10k Chrysalis story. My latest story, titled "Case o' the Crazies", is posted on the Chrysalis blog for the world to read.

One of the things I've noticed so far this year is that I tend to write a lot of short stories that feel more like 'beginnings' of larger works. My co-hosts have said the same thing quite often. We've even got a few drafts of novels out of this whole thing. One participant has told us she thinks she's doomed to write flash fiction because she often doesn't make it to the 1k mark. I've discovered a tendency in myself to write post-apocalyptic scenes. I've written a few stories that could potentially belong in the same world.

At the end of this year when I've got 52 stories written, I'm going to take a closer look at all the things I've written about and report on the stats. Genre, word count, number of stories finished as opposed to those begging for more to be added. That kind of thing. I look forward to comparing notes with my fellow Experimenters at that time.

All in all, it's been fascinating, challenging and rather exhilarating.

Paper edit, music, Chrysalis

The paper edit is well underway. I'm finding that the above picture is what happens on a better page, and on most pages there is way more scrawled handwriting, crossing out and rewriting, and sometimes when I'm too exasperated to do better, just a note that says something like "Rewrite", or "summarise?" or "too sudden". I'm up to page 53, and there are 188 pages all in all. So I'm a fair way in, but the prospect of getting through the rest is a wee bit daunting sometimes. Not that I'm letting it freak me out - not at all! I'm just plugging away. Not even doing a bit each day, I have to say. But I've been doing other stuff.

For instance, these are MY SONGS but the music is performed by a guy called Billy Bedard, who I've been collaborating with. The lyrics, music and vocals are by me, but he's added his own touches here and there, i.e. adding a bridge where there wasn't one previously. Sometimes it means I have to rearrange how I sing things, but that's okay. I've also recorded vocals for his songs too, but the tunes are not available anywhere online yet. He intends to wait until he has all 30 of his songs recorded before releasing anything. There isn't any money in this, but I'm doing it for the fun, and the passion for music. Collaborating is fun, if you do it with the right person!

I've also written this week's Chrysalis story, which I am really quite happy with. I'm currently revising it, but it was nice to be able to prove to myself that all my Chrysalis stories from now on weren't going to be post-apocalyptic tales of lonely woe. Hehe.

My FIRE proof (no pun intended) arrived

It arrived!! And before anyone gets the wrong idea (again) (like last time), I'm not being published. This was a free proof copy that I got as a result of participating in ABNA this year. I highly recommend that everyone participate in ABNA every year, so you can get your free proof copy too! I don't know that they do this every year, of course, but it's worth the shot! It's also worth participating in NaNoWriMo, as they usually give you a free proof copy too. For more information, you can check out this post I did a while back answering people's questions.




FYI, this was the last proof copy I got. You may notice that I stuck with the same cover design template. Both pieces of art are mine, but the template was a free one available from CreateSpace. I was pretty excited when I realised you could change the colour scheme. I figure I'll get all of the SUNDOWN novels proofed up, and all with the same template...just in different colours. And then they shall all sit on my shelf and they shall all look pretty together!

In other news...I've been kind of slack with the blogging, and that is probably because I've been kind of very slack with everything else writing-related. I'm supposed to be posting my Chrysalis story this week over at the Chrysalis blog, but I haven't quite finished it yet. I only started it last night. One excuse is that the prompt went up late. The main excuse though is no excuse at all - just a slacker's pathetic reason for why she didn't get her act together sooner. However, I have to say I'm quite enjoying my life right now, so I guess I'm okay with slacking just a little.

Still, there are two major goals I have yet to meet this year: Preparing SUNDOWN for beta readers (including actually sending it out to them), and completing a preliminary read-through/edit of NAUSICAA. I know I've got 5 months to get those two things done in, and that's plenty of time. But I do feel the days ticking away, slowly but surely. ;)

I just finished reading L.K. Madigan's FLASH BURNOUT, and absolutely adored it. You can read my review at GoodReads.

And in other news, I have a rooster in my back yard. I'm not sure if I mentioned him before, but my cat likes to chase him. Even at risk to himself (roosters have sharp beaks!).

Upcoming blogfests...I know of 2

They both look like heaps of fun to me! If you haven't signed up and are interested, do it now!!

So I thought I'd do an update on how my goals are going. I started out the year with a list of goals I would achieve this year. Since 2011 began, some of the goals have been altered/added to. Others have been crossed out already, once I've achieved them. I love being able to cross things off my list! It's a very satisfying feeling. Anyway, let's recap (in blue is stuff I've finished, and red is what I'm still working on):

1. I finished an edit of SUNDOWN and ordered my proof copy (it has been sitting on my shelf for a while now)
2. I finished another edit of SUNDOWN
3. I started another round, which would leave me with draft #...I think it's draft #5?? Honestly, I've kind of lost track. But this is the revision I'm still working on (and I have two chapters to go, people!! That's all)
4. Next, I'm printing out SUNDOWN to do a paper edit. I was going to wait on ElitistCritiques crits, but I've decided I'm too impatient for that! So paper edit, coming right up.
5. Once I'm done with the paper edit, I'm going to look for some beta readers!
6. I won NaNoEdMo 2011 - after chopping & changing my plans for what I'd edit so many times, I wound up working on SUNDOWN
7. Write 52 short stories in 2011 for the Chrysalis Experiment - this is something I cannot possibly win until the end of the year...but so far so good, with 27 stories written in 27 weeks...and the 28th brewing somewhere in my subconscious where I can't see even a glimmer of it yet. hehe
8. Write once a week in this blog - again, I cannot achieve this till the end of the year! But as of today I'm well on track!
9. Win NaNoWriMo 2011 - yep, another goal I can't achieve till November comes and goes. This year I have some especially lofty goals for NaNo, as mentioned in this blog post a while back...
10. I completed the first draft of STORM, and while the novel is an ugly best-ignored mess right now, that doesn't matter to me! What matters is I finished a draft, at least.
11. Complete a preliminary read-through/edit of NAUSICAA - um, yeah, no. Not done yet. But I've got plenty of time!
12. Read more than 21 (amended to at least 25!) books in 2011 - yes, I achieved this! I'm currently reading my 26th book of the year.
13. Participate in (and win) BuNoWriMo 2011 - achieved! I wrote over 50k, even if I didn't stick to just one story, and didn't complete any new novels. I did complete a novella!
14. Participate in A'vron Ayende's Classics Book Club - so far we have done 4 months of this, and I've participated in each one. I have a feeling it may be on hold for a while...but we'll see where it goes! Can't really call this an achievement till the year is over.

So, there you go. Latest goals update! To date I'm pretty happy with how the year has gone, but it can only get better from here!

How are you going with your goals this year? Anything you're proud of? Things you want to improve on for the second half of the year?

BuNoWriMo update

So yeah. Been mildly slack lately with the BuNo writing, but I am DETERMINED that I will win! So have no fear on that. Still, there have been some nights when I've written nothing at all, and other nights where I've written 400 odd words.

Still, I've got a total word count (I opted not to include those 're-write' chapters I was cheating by including for a while there. hehe) of 36,456, which since I'm at June 19th right now averages out to 1,918 or so words per day. Not my greatest effort, for sure, but not doing too badly. The thing is I'm writing on all SORTS of projects. I haven't just stuck to one.

I finished the first one, titled LOST, MISSING, GONE, which weighed in at about 22k, and then was scrambling around for other stuff to write. The original plan, which was to work on THE NEW WORLD, sort of died early on, and yet I have done a little bit of work on that. This is going to sound funny coming from me, a renowned pantser, but I'm finding that one hard to write on when I don't have a plan... Anyway, I've also done work on this week's Chrysalis story, very temporarily titled JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE, which has blown out to 5,089 words so far. I've probably done about 3,000 extra on another Chrysalis story, titled "Sanctuary" (the start of which was my winning entry for the Power of Tension Blogfest). And I'm counting all Chrysalis stories written during June towards my word count. So I guess it's adding up. I just need to keep on top of it!

Usually with WriMos I like to be really ahead of the curve, and usually I am - by a long way too. I mean, some years with NaNo I've hit 50k by day 6, other years by day 11 or 12. Stuff like that. So this is slow going for me. But I'm still enjoying working on all the stories!

I want to say congrats to Donna Hole who got a short story accepted in the Open Heart Publishing anthology titled An Honest Lie. Congrats Donna!! And I want to say a big thanks to Susan Fields who apparently thinks I'm irresistibly sweet, and gave me an award to go with that! Yay me!! Hehe. Finally, hi to everyone who's a follower, and THANK YOU for following. :)

The Power of Tension blogfest

It's time for the Power of Tension Blogfest, and here's what's required:

"Give us an excerpt (up to 300 words) from your manuscript or recently completed work (or just a random scene) that just drips with tension and will tie us up in knots wanting to know more. It doesn’t matter what the piece is about, as long as it screams tension." - Rachel Morgan & Cally Jackson

I'm going to share an excerpt from one of my Chrysalis stories. I'm sorry to say it's 12 words over the 300-word limit. I snipped what I could but I think I left the essentials. I could be wrong of course. :D Feedback is of course welcome!

The story was originally in past tense, but I switched this excerpt to present because I felt that would increase the "immediacy". I think I caught all the "need to switch that from past to present" moments.

Anyway, here goes:

I make it to the corner store with minutes to spare.

Rushing down the kitchen and bathroom aisle, I dart around the corner and see the storeroom door. Suppressing a yell of triumph and relief, I fly at the door and rattle the handle—it turns. I fall on it, push, slip inside. My breaths are harsh in my ears, but at least they’re still coming.

Time, time, so little time.

I begin to whimper as I lock myself in and throw my dusty backpack on the grimy white tiles. Sometimes I can’t help making those sounds. It’s been so long since I spoke to another human being. Talking to myself is a substitute. And when the words won’t come I just make sounds.

Human sounds, I think.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember.

Silent tears make tracks through the dust on my face as I kneel and rummage through my pack. Compulsively I check my stopwatch and nearly cry out.

Less than a minute to go.

The syringe is in my hand, but I can’t find the scarf. I curse and dig deeper, fingers scrabbling. Where the hell IS it?

I look around in mounting desperation, and see a bungee cord. I don’t even stop to wonder what that might have been used for originally. I snatch it up and wrap it around my arm, breath tearing in and out of my throat. My veins pop out under my skin, and I quickly fill the syringe with sleep syrup. Then I stick myself.

When it’s over and a tiny speck of blood is all the sign that I’ve made it in time, I pack away my materials and lean back against the door, eyes closed. Tears continue to bubble over, making my eyes sting even more. But I’ve made it in time. I’m sure I have.

Reality fades, and I play dead.

Inanimation Blogfest

Today is the Inanimation Blogfest, hosted by The Red Angel in celebration of her 100 followers (now 118 :D). The guidelines are as follows:

The idea is to write an entry of NO MORE THAN 1000 words that somehow incorporates the personification of inanimate objects. It can be a poem, a short short, a letter (perhaps to your favorite childhood toy?), a fairytale, a scene from a dream, or even a song--anything you want! It can be something you've written in the past or it could be totally brand new...it's all up to you! - The Red Angel

I decided to post an excerpt from a Chrysalis story I wrote wayyyy back when. I have posted another excerpt from this in the past, which can be found here. There was another Chrysalis story I could've posted which was actually about inanimate objects, but it was too difficult to choose an excerpt, as it was one 1000+ word piece that flowed quickly from start to finish.

So here's my entry for the Blogfest:

By far, the house's worst feature is the painting.

It hangs on the living room wall, opposite the room's gaping entrance. A grotesque face stares out of it. Twisted and leering, it is a face out of nightmare. It has yellow-white teeth, haphazardly placed between mottled, cracked lips. Those teeth dominate the scene.

Then there are the eyes. Cold, flat eyes that used to follow me all around the living room. They usually followed me out of that room, too. Floated in the air behind me as I headed for the kitchen. In childhood, they'd tracked me as I left by the front door for school each morning. Followed me as I crossed the lawn and stepped onto the footpath. I'd always had to round the nearest corner before the 'watched' feeling finally left me.

I've long believed in ghosts. Returning to that house each day after school, my belief gradually cemented itself. I shouldn't give the house all the credit, I guess. I could blame my little sister. Or my parents with their haunted eyes. But really, I hold the painting responsible.

Today is a bad day. Today is a worse day than I've had in a long time. Because I've got to go back into that house. And I know that painting's still there, waiting on the wall.

I've got to pack up the house.

But what to do with that blasted painting?

Maybe I'll burn it.

A-Z blogging challenge "E" - Experiment (Chrysalis)

For the letter E I'm going to talk about the little experiment my critiquing buddies and I have taken on this year. I guess this can double as that Chrysalis shout-out I was planning on doing at some point on this blog! The Chrysalis Experiment is a year-long foray into the art (and science, and other things too) of short-story writing. This is how it all began:

In 2011, I'm going to attempt to write 25-50 short stories (that's one story a week or one story every other week). Not to sell. Not to publish. Not to torment other people with. Simply for the purpose of trying to grow as a writer. And I was wondering if anyone else would like to play too. - Jenn

And Winter summed up our feelings on the matter when she said:

Heck. Yes. I'm so in.

So we started plotting and planning, and I added the Experiment to my Goals 2011 page. We opted for Blogger as our platform. Then we devised our blog design. Hard on the eyes but oh so pretty, our blog looked like THIS except with an entirely black text background. Eventually we changed it slightly so it was a little easier to read. We came up with a crazy schedule (you should see the tables we refer to each week to remind ourselves who's doing what!), and put out the call for participants.

The Chrysalis Experiment kicked off in late 2010 with our "preparatory" post. The first prompt went up on January 3. At that time, we had about seven participants (5 of these original 7 have written stories so far, that we know of). But now we're on prompt 14, and we have fifteen participants, who I affectionately refer to as the test rats (hey, I'm a test rat too!). We also have some visits from non-participants which we welcome as well.

Since the beginning of this Experiment, I've read about angels and demon mermaids, totally creepy hampers, magic spells that turn grown women into babies, zombie penguins, forced smiles, mourning fathers, jaded cyborgs, confrontations with the Devil, and some very tough love...to name just a few. I've written about murderous paintings, the consequences of bullying (basically, you die by poisoning), bad relationships, post-apocalyptic worlds and what happens when you're a tiny person stuck in a bottle on a beach. For a start.

What I love about the experiment is that I never know what I'm going to get next - either from the other participants or from myself.

We've just completed March's stories:


And for those who have written at least a story, there's a shiny up for grabs too!



In closing, here is a shoutout to my fellow Experimenters!

Gillian

Madeline

Michael

Brooke

Isabella

Eygló

Sheery

Virginia

Charlotte

Valerie

Jes

JesiMarie

Michelle Wallace

Anna

Caitrin (Literary DePENdent)

Crusader Challenge TWO!

Okay, so I'm finally getting around to posting my entry for the 2nd Crusader challenge (click on the picture above for more info!). The instructions were:

"Write a flash fiction story (in any format) in 100 words or less, excluding the title. Begin the story with the words, “The goldfish bowl teetered” These four words will be included in the word count." - Rachael Harrie

And here is my entry, which Word tells me is exactly 100 words!

The goldfish bowl teetered in Ashley’s mind, and she drew a sharp breath and waited.

“What’s with you?” Don frowned, leaning close to peer into her face.

“My life’s about to shatter,” she whispered. “The goldfish bowl is gonna fall, and the goldfish will flop around on the floor. I don’t know if I’ll get to it in time.”

Donald’s eyes widened. “What goldfish bowl?”

“The goldfish bowl of my life.”

After a brief hesitation, Donald got to his feet, backing slowly away. “Hey...on second thoughts, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea...”

And he walked out, ending the date.

Hone Your Skills Blogfest!

Another blogfest?! Why yes, since you asked. Today it's time for the Hone Your Skills Blogfest, hosted by RosieC and Charity Bradford (click the picture above to find out more)!

The blogfests requires the following of participants:

1. On March 16, post a short story around 750 words, no more than 1000, in any genre you like.
2. Read and give a critique for the person before and after you in the Linky List (and as many others as you can/want to). When you critique: a) find at least two things that really work, and b) at least two suggestions for how it can be tightened or improved.
3. (Optional) When you post on March 16, list one or two (online) journals where you plan to submit your piece after making revisions. - RosieC
   

For my story's genre, I'm really not sure - maybe you can be the judge! I don't think I will ever seek publication for this. I just consider it another writing exercise. And I do love to practice accepting horribly brutal critique with good grace. :D So have at it!

Oh, and the word count is 761, according to Word (p.s. It was originally posted here on my FictionPress account).

Newsreaders' Blues

Asynja Dharmo tried not to grind her teeth, but her efforts were in vain for the most part. She had been trying for the entire morning since her alarm went off in her ear to keep her cool, yet it seemed the early mornings, the lack of pay raise, the snooty attitudes of her co-workers and her lack of a photocopy girl to bring her coffee in the studio were all adding up against her. She had had it up to here.

"Synje, you're on in ten," Mark called from his spot beside Carlotta – oh, he thought he was so damn important. He was trying to get in her good graces after last week's debacle. Asynja thought snidely – and happily – that he wasn't making much progress at all. I hope he rots in the back of her paddy wagon, she thought as she purposefully ignored his comment. As if I didn't know I was on in ten, you fucking moron.

The last few minutes always went by slowly, and also as usual they brought Asynja's stress levels through the roof. At least she had her welcoming smile firmly plastered on – and from their seats on the couches in their living rooms, viewers wouldn't notice the sheen of sweat that coated her forehead. They wouldn't notice what she was not telling them either – they were all as stupid as the next person, if the nightly opinion polls could be believed.

"Seven minutes," Abigail called from her little corner of the room, causing Asynja to begin fiddling with her pen again. She slammed it a little too firmly down onto the desk's surface and tried not to look directly at the cameras – yet. Doing that before the time came to start speaking always freaked her out. She focused instead on what she'd buy for dinner tonight – not only what kind of wine would go with it. Eating alone could be a bummer but when it was really great food and a quality drop, Asynja found herself easily comforted.

Tonight's list of items to be reported included a vicious rape, a cowardly attack, a grotesque act of terrorism, a valiant shower of counter terrorism, and a small kitten rescued from a drainpipe. The cowardly attack came first, then the grotesque act of terrorism – which would of course be followed by the valiant shower of counter terrorism. The kitten story, of course, came second-to-last. She had to watch how she switched from sombre-faced to cheerfully amused – sometimes, she'd been told, she left it a little too late, so that she was looking almost happy while delivering the tail end of the latest tale of death and destruction. It was really a tough job she had – tough but satisfactorily challenging. She wouldn't have it any other way, except for a large raise and better air-conditioning – oh, and more vacation time.

"Three minutes and counting!" Mark yelled, and Asynja was startled back to reality realising that he had moved positions. Either he had moved or Carlotta had moved him. Either way he was glancing importantly at his watch and glancing this way and that, acting as if he actually knew what was going on, or what should be going on, and was the grand overseer of the entire production.

Production might seem an odd word to use for the evening news program, but since beginning her first stint as an amateur newsreader Asynja had learned that production it was indeed. The make-up on her face wasn't the only part of the show that aimed at concealing and distorting reality. But that wasn't her concern – her only concern was to do her job and do it well, better, to secure that raise. Bloody Mark Davenport had stolen her last one, and she'd sooner stab him in the back than let him do it again.

"Thirty seconds," Anabella cried, and several people looked at her in surprise – since when had she earned the right to call times? Asynja supposed even Anabella was wondering that now that everybody had begun giving her the evil eye. It didn't matter anyway. There were more important things to think about right now.

"Eight seconds," Brodie yelled, and then began counting down on his fingers for Asynja's and other crewmembers' benefit. If one could call it a benefit: it was more distracting than anything.

Asynja cleared her throat as she always did and at the precise moment, looked right at the cameras, saying, "And I'm Asynja Dharmo. Welcome to Channel Eight News Tonight." She donned her serious look and leaned closer to the camera.

Delusional Gloom Blogfest - Ides of March

I've waited a fair while for this, and yet when the day finally arrived I had no idea what I was going to post! Finally I wrote something, which addresses the 5th option we were given:

Plot a murder of someone sorely asking for it, step by step

(Click on the image above for details of the blogfest in general)

My entry is inspired by my Chrysalis story, entitled, “I Pronounce You...Dead”, which you can read HERE. Incidentally, we at Chrysalis have a little in-joke about annoying/evil characters called Susan - we kept writing about them for a while there! :D

But without further ado, here is the entry!

Dear Susan Marie Walker,

How it begins:

I will date you, because I have not yet discovered who you really are.

How it progresses:

The whole ‘dating’ thing will teach me. It will teach me many important lessons, the foremost in my mind being that you are a monster of most heinous evil. And I will form a plan, lay out the steps with special care—these steps will take me ever t’ward your glorious demise.

Sorry, got a bit carried away with the dramatic speech. Still, the point remains—you’re going to die, and this is why.

-You’re the most arrogant person I’ve ever encountered

-You’re uglier on the inside than I knew it was possible to be

-You are cruel beyond measure to those less fortunate than yourself, and to those more fortunate, you’re even worse

-Your parents made you this way, I have no doubt, but you refuse to better yourself—you already think you’re perfect as is

-You make me so bored I want to cry

-Your favourite song is ‘The Macarena’

And finally... How it ends:

-I will go to that stupid “magic spell” party, the one all our friends are attending

-I will stand in the kitchen and dial triple zero

-I will tell the person who answers what address I’m at, and I will say, “I’m about to murder Susan Marie Walker, okay, bye!”

-I will hang up and walk out into the party, where you will be up to your usual tricks—making somebody’s life miserable

-I will stride up to you and flash you my smile, the one I know you can’t resist

-I will make you think maybe there’s a chance for us to get back together; I will convince you there is no other girl in the room for me

-I will cast a spell on you—it’s a stupid ‘spell’ party after all

-You will simper and sigh and gladly agree to play along

-I will hand you this shot of Curaçao

-You will drink it

-Then you will die, and the world will rejoice

-The cops will rock up.

And it doesn’t really matter what comes after that, because the important work will be done.

Right, I’m off to the bottle-o. They better have that blue shit in stock.

Race to 200 Blogfest - I'm a finalist :)

I'm very honoured to have been chosen as one of the finalists in J.C. Martin's Race to 200 Blogfest. The other finalists all wrote great stories too - you can vote for your choice HERE.

J.C. was assisted in deciding the finalists by Genna Sarnak @ Reading, Writing, & the World of Words, and I wanted to share what Genna had to say about my entry for the contest:

“Trisha manages to not only create a likeable character in 649 words, she’s written a short-short story that’s able to stand alone! I am very impressed with the ease and naturalness of her dialogue, and the slang certainly contributes to this. The story hits very close to home to me on a personal level, as I, like John, have known many a ‘dickhead’ in my lifetime. The action was very exciting, and the writing is strong in that each detail adds to the progression of the race.”

So I just wanted to thank Genna for her kind words, and J.C. Martin for hosting this awesome blogfest! :D

Race to 200 Blogfest!

Before I get onto the actual blogfest, I want to mention that my query for NAUSICAA was featured in Evil Editor's blog, HERE...and by "featured", I of course mean put through the Evil Editor and cronies blender. ;)

I also want to mention this great recap of the latest WriteOnCon chat, written up by L.J. Boldyrev at Sisters in Scribe!

Okay, now onto the actual point of this entry!

It's time for the Race to 200 Blogfest (click on the image to find out more), and here is what's required:

"Write a story/excerpt (no more than 750 words long) about a race of some sort. It could be an actual race. Or a race for survival. Even a race against time. Be creative!" - J.C. Martin

And without further ado, here is my entry! :D According to Word, it's 649 words!

Pansy

Brendan was a dick. Everybody knew it, but it seemed he wasn't satisfied with everybody knowing—he wanted to show them.

Not that he hadn’t done so plenty of times before. But this time was different.

John was sitting in his car in the left lane, staring fixedly at the glowing red traffic light. It cast its warm light across the intersection. He saw the faint hue of the green light for the crossing street, but he saw no more than that. It didn’t have much impact on the red. Beyond the lights was a t-junction.

He was trying his best to ignore Brendan and his absolutely dicky friends in the next lane, their lime green Ford Falcon chugging away like a race car. But it was hard to ignore their booming voices. And their stinking exhaust. They’d turned their music down, presumably so they could hear themselves better. Or maybe so John could hear them. How considerate. Usually John would have turned his music way up, to drown it all out. But his speakers were messed up and silence was preferable to the painful buzz-crackle they emitted.

Usually, it was preferable.

He was wondering if time to embrace it, just so he could drown in noise and pretend Brendan didn’t exist. It was always nice when he could pretend that.

“Oy, pansy, what’s it gonna be?!”

Brendan’s voice rang through the night. John clenched his jaw and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, willing that red traffic light to turn eerie green. The red seemed to mock him, saying, Nah, we’re gonna sit on this a while, see how much you can take.

“I think he’s deaf, ay!” Brendan’s cousin Larry hooted. “Or wait, I know what it is—he’s got a crush on you mate!” And the laughter was deafening.

John swore to himself he was getting his stereo fixed first thing in the morning. He’d been putting it off, saving for a new car, but he wouldn’t be ready for that for months—and he couldn’t stand another night like this. The kind of night you couldn’t drown out in music.

“PANSY, PANSY, PANSY...!” The chant wore on, and John daydreamed of running the red light.

And then that red light was green. Both cars sat in their lanes, not moving.

John had been here before. It was better to let Brendan tear off, so you weren’t in danger of getting in his way. Getting in his way could mean being run off the road. John had been here before. But Brendan wasn’t moving.

“What, you don’t wanna race me?!”

John gave no answer.

“Hey dude,” Brendan said to somebody else in his car, “why don’t you get out and hop in the pansy’s car? He can show you a good time!”

Much more hooting laughter, and John imagined that maybe Brendan’s car was rocking with it. Then one of the doors opened, and John knew it was time to act. The light was still green, but it could turn amber at any moment. He pressed his foot down on the accelerator, hearing a door slam and a bunch of dicks shouting. He was rounding the corner, resisting the urge to start speeding. Then he heard squealing tyres and the lime green beast flashed past, cutting in front of him.

He leaped on the brakes and his car shuddered to a stop, giving himself mini-whiplash. Then he looked up, through the windscreen, and saw Brendan’s car half stuck into the embankment of the t-junction. Steam rose from the bonnet, hissing in the night.

With zombie-like motions John took out his mobile phone and dialled triple zero.

“Emergency, how may I direct your call?”

“Um... Yeah. Some dicks just had a car crash.”

“All right then. What is your location?”

Apparently I write like Stephen King

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

Which is ironic, since I pasted the first scene in my contemporary romance novel in to find out who I wrote like. ;) Oh well. Maybe there's something new in Stephen King's future. :D My critiquing buddy and I did have a bit of a running joke about my Jared turning out to be a zombie, so maybe I have more in common with King than I thought. And that reminds me of this b-grade horror movie I saw once, about a metal band that was made up of zombies. Or maybe the lead singer guy was the only zombie. I can't remember.

Speaking of Jared and co., though - today's word count is 109,183. Woo! So close to the 108,000s. Hehe.

Oh, I should update on ABNA - I am not a winner. Well, I am, but just not in ABNA's eyes. In my own eyes I am very full of win. :D

For Chrysalis this week, I wrote about a few characters, but one in particular I absolutely hated with every fibre of my being. Have you written characters that you really just want to reach out and strangle? I did this week.

P.S.

SUNDOWN
109,183 / 100,000
(109.2%)

One-sentence mission statements, and Chrysalis

With the Chrysalis Experiment, this week was my turn to post a story for the Friday feature (link here). Before the time came to post my story, I had already written most of it, except the last section. But I already had the ending planned, and as I was comparing notes with other participants, this is what I told them they could expect:

unrequited love, false sympathy, and a stalled execution leading to a suicide

Technically though, we don't actually see that ending happen. It's simply implied.

We also have a running joke about villains called Susan - a few of us have written stories with evil characters named Susan. So this week one of the participants asked me if my villain this time was called Susan too (I didn't name her in the story). My answer was that I don't know her name, but I know it's not Susan. ;)

Anyway...at AW this week I've been getting help with my SUNDOWN synopsis, and I was advised to come up with a one-sentence summary of my novel - a "mission statement" of sorts. I didn't think I could do it easily, and apparently the person who suggested it didn't think I could either. Haha. But here is my first attempt (which actually is the result of many other attempts made prior to posting):

A rocker chick determined never to love again meets her muso kindred spirit, and must choose between risking her heart in the future and staying safely hidden in the past.

So there you go. That about sums up SUNDOWN.

I'm sure I can make it more sparkly and pretty in future, but it's good to at least have a line I can return to when trying to hone my query/synopsis, and even the novel itself, to make sure I'm sticking to the point.

P.S. I want to mention the SECOND WRITERS' PLATFORM-BUILDING CRUSADE, which I am signing up for and which looks pretty cool! If you are interested in getting more active in the writers' blogging community, networking more and having fun, looks like you and I have something in common. And you should sign up too! Hurry though, the deadline is fast approaching! Oh, and Rachael Harrie is the one who came up with this. Cool idea, eh?!