Tagged: the 'Be Inspired' meme

My NaNo profile.

Recently I got tagged by Chris over at the Kelworth Files with this "Be Inspired" meme thingy. Thanks, Chris, for thinking of me! Basically how it works is that I answer some questions about "my novel", and then tag 5 lucky bloggers. ;) Since I have many, many novels, I guess I should just close my eyes and throw a dart at a list of them, right? Actually, that's an idea... Seriously, I think I'll talk about the novel I'm going to work on during November this year.

1. What is the name of your book?
The original title was MEET DAPHNE STUART, back in the day, but that was back then. Now it's called simply DAPHNE. Naturally that's just a result of my "can't think of a title so I'll just name it after the MC's first name" habit. Someday, the book will have an actual proper title.

2. Where did the idea for your book come from?
I started this story back in 1999, during my first year of university. I had hardly any friends and hardly any life, so I started writing about a girl whose friends/boyfriend were her life. Somehow, though, this poor girl got lumped with a horrible family. I'm rewriting DAPHNE during November, and the rewrite, though still giving her plenty of crap to deal with, will at least give her some happiness in the end. Largely unlike the original draft.

3. In what genre would you classify your book?
Back then, there was no such thing as "New Adult" fiction, at least not that I'd ever heard of. This story is New Adult, but as for genre? Probably just general fiction. New Adult contemporary fits, too, I guess.

4. If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose?
I used to cut out pictures from magazines to fit my characters, but they were never actors, so...yeah, got no clue. ;) There's also the fact that there will be new characters and possibly a lack of some old ones after my NaNo rewrite.

5. Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book.
As Daphne's life descends steadily into chaos, she clings to one goal: getting through her first year of university.

6. Is your book already published?
Far from it!

7. How long did it take you to write your book?
It took me...*blush*...10 years. But this time around, as I rewrite, it will take me heaps less time than that. I'm a different animal these days. ;)

8. What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy yours?
To be honest, I don't know. I think I've taken inspiration from many different places, for e.g. in my plans for my rewrite I have a character partly inspired by Michael from Roswell (LOVE that show and that character). I also recently read TULLY for the first time, and the main character Tully has a crappy childhood and a frustrating adult life. But unlike Tully, Daphne's got many siblings to worry about, so again, their lives are different. Plus, my story will only focus on a year in a life, not decades.

9. Which authors inspired you to write this book?
Honestly, I can't remember what was inspiring me back in 1999. That was when I still read mostly fantasy, so...yeah. This story is different. Maybe there is a proper answer to this, but if so, I can't conjure it. ;)

10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book.
Don't worry, it won't be totally miserable? hehe. And there will be a hot bad boy in it! Plus some nice lurve.

11. Tag five people!
I think I may be past the era of tagging specific people. From here on in I may have to do the cop-out thing other people do and just say "if you want it, take it!" Better that than inflicting it on people who just aren't interested, I figure.

Review : IF I LET YOU GO (Kyra Lennon)

I was one of the lucky folks who won an ARC of Kyra Lennon’s debut novella, IF I LET YOU GO. I finished reading it about a week ago, and loved it!

In my book (pun intended) this story had everything a girl could want: romance, humour and a steamy love scene. I loved the way the ‘accident’ between Madison and Dominic happened, and the immediate awkwardness of the aftermath. Kyra writes awkwardness really well, but she also does a mean job of writing steaminess. ;) I enjoyed her use of British slang throughout the novel. I also really appreciated that none of the characters were perfect, in fact far from it!

This is definitely a story with a happily ever after ending, but more one that I think of has “happily ever after for now at least”. Personally, I’m a big fan of those kinds of endings, which are far less cheesy than the other kind. I guess you could say I’m not really into the whole “every single little end was tied up and they got married and she was preggers by the last line” endings. I like a more realistic (yet still romantic) ending.

All in all, I thought this was a good great read! Kyra’s writing style is highly entertaining, and I really love her characters. I’ll leave you with some of my personal favourite quotes from this novella, which yes, I have already added to GoodReads:

“Erica had asked me a million times. Madison, are you sure you’re just the child minder? He pays you a lot of money for doing hardly anything. Pushing aside the blatant insinuation that I was his weekend whore, I’d always told her the absolute truth. He’d never so much as looked at me inappropriately, let alone anything more.”

“I focused, rather embarrassingly, on his chest which was rising and falling slowly.
I left teeth marks!”

“His jaw was set, telling me I should back off. Unfortunately, being a gobby cow meant I couldn’t.”

NaNoWriMo 2012 - gulp, I've committed

My NaNo profile.

As usual, I've signed up for NaNoWriMo in November. Not quite as usual, I'm feeling a bit nervous about this year's challenge. I'm going to rewrite a novel I refer to simply as DAPHNE, or at least that's what I tell myself...and everyone else on the NaNoWriMo website. But I'm not all that familiar with doing rewrites. It's not my usual "thing".

This year, I did complete a rewrite and was very happy with the result. I am also currently working on a partial rewrite of that rewrite. So I know I can do it. I'm just nervous that I will start on this year's NaNo and lose my way.

Despite my decent track record with NaNoWriMo, I have been known to fail in the past. Twice. There was a third year when I didn't even participate at all, knowing that if I tried, I would fail miserably. But other than that, I've succeeded with NaNo every year since 2002. It's a tradition I fully intend to keep up, if I can help it.

Why am I nervous? Well, the first time I wrote DAPHNE, it took me 10 years!! I started it back in 1999, during my first year of university, and only finished it at the start of 2009, after a whole lot of years had passed and my life had changed drastically. I was a different person by the time I finally got it done.

Luckily, I do have a good, meaty general plan for my character Daphne. I'm just not sure how successful I'm going to be at writing out her revamped story. But I'll sure be giving it a good shot!

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this November?

What's in a name?

Two things.

1. I've said it before (elsewhere, probably not here) and I shall say it again: I find it interesting that I can introduce myself as "Trisha" to a perfect stranger, and the very next thing they say to me includes some shortening or alteration of my name that they've taken it upon themselves to give me. In one great example, I was out at a pub one night and met some guy, and here was our very first conversation:

This is what I do when you call me Pat.

Me: I'm Trisha.
Him: Trish.
Me: Trisha.
Him. Trish.

Yes, that is what he said to me. And while he was saying that last line, he was smiling like I was being the dick head.

Have any of you gone through this sort of thing?

Don't get me wrong - most people in my life do call me Trish, and I'm perfectly fine with it if I actually at least know these people from a bar of soap. But I like to think they'll at least wait a whole day (maybe even a whole ten minutes) after meeting me before having their way with my name.

2. I just call myself Trisha on this blog, but I do in fact have a surname (fancy that!). I haven't got it plastered all over this thing, because for some reason I would feel weird about announcing myself that openly to the world. I think it's all part of the whole "I'm not an author, I'm just a writer" thing, and how I'm not really sure whether I will ever rely on pen names or just go with my real name. It's something I think about a hell of a lot, but I haven't come up with any good solutions to the conundrum yet. And just for the record, the idea of using a pen name doesn't sit too well with me either. I'd feel almost presumptuous, like I'm trying to be more important than I am. And yet when my fellow blogger writer people do it, it's totally fine and normal in my opinion!

So my friends... have you any thoughts? feelings? observations? on the above points?